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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/4097-h.zip b/4097-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ad86b2a --- /dev/null +++ b/4097-h.zip diff --git a/4097-h/4097-h.htm b/4097-h/4097-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ad90f16 --- /dev/null +++ b/4097-h/4097-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,17295 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<HTML> +<HEAD> + +<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> + +<TITLE> +The Project Gutenberg E-text of Alice of Old Vincennes, by Maurice Thompson +</TITLE> + +<STYLE TYPE="text/css"> +BODY { color: Black; + background: White; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; + text-align: justify } + +P {text-indent: 4% } + +P.noindent {text-indent: 0% } + +P.poem {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-size: small } + +P.letter {text-indent: 0%; + font-size: small ; + margin-left: 10% ; + margin-right: 10% } + +P.footnote {font-size: small ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +P.finis { font-size: larger ; + text-align: center ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +</STYLE> + +</HEAD> + +<BODY> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Alice of Old Vincennes, by Maurice Thompson + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Alice of Old Vincennes + +Author: Maurice Thompson + +Posting Date: July 4, 2009 [EBook #4097] +Release Date: May, 2003 +First Posted: November 27, 2001 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ALICE OF OLD VINCENNES *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Franks, Robert Rowe and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. HTML version by Al Haines. + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<BR><BR> + +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +Alice of Old Vincennes +</H1> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +by +</H3> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +Maurice Thompson +</H2> + +<BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +PREFACE +</H3> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +To M. PLACIDE VALCOUR<BR> + M. D., Ph D., LL. D.<BR> +</P> + +<P> +MY DEAR DR. VALCOUR: You gave me the Inspiration which made this story +haunt me until I wrote it. Gaspard Roussillon's letter, a mildewed +relic of the year 1788, which you so kindly permitted me to copy, as +far as it remained legible, was the point from which my imagination, +accompanied by my curiosity, set out upon a long and delightful quest. +You laughed at me when I became enthusiastic regarding the possible +historical importance at that ancient find, alas! fragmentary epistle; +but the old saying about the beatitude of him whose cachinations are +latest comes handy to me just now, and I must remind you that "I told +you so." True enough, it was history pure and simple that I had in mind +while enjoying the large hospitality of your gulf-side home. Gaspard +Roussillon's letter then appealed to my greed for materials which would +help along the making of my little book "The Story of Louisiana." +Later, however, as my frequent calls upon you for both documents and +suggestions have informed you, I fell to strumming a different guitar. +And now to you I dedicate this historical romance of old Vincennes, as +a very appropriate, however slight, recognition of your scholarly +attainments, your distinguished career in a noble profession, and your +descent from one of the earliest French families (if not the very +earliest) long resident at that strange little post on the Wabash, now +one of the most beautiful cities between the greet river and the ocean. +</P> + +<P> +Following, with ever tantalized expectancy, the broken and breezy hints +in the Roussillon letter, I pursued a will-o'-the-wisp, here, there, +yonder, until by slowly arriving increments I gathered up a large +amount of valuable facts, which when I came to compare them with the +history of Clark's conquest of the Wabash Valley, fitted amazingly well +into certain spaces heretofore left open in that important yet sadly +imperfect record. +</P> + +<P> +You will find that I was not so wrong in suspecting that Emile Jazon, +mentioned in the Roussillon letter, was a brother of Jean Jazon and a +famous scout in the time of Boone and Clark. He was, therefore, a +kinsman of yours on the maternal side, and I congratulate you. Another +thing may please you, the success which attended my long and patient +research with a view to clearing up the connection between Alice +Roussillon's romantic life, as brokenly sketched in M. Roussillon's +letter, and the capture of Vincennes by Colonel George Rogers Clark. +</P> + +<P> +Accept, then, this book, which to those who care only for history will +seem but an idle romance, while to the lovers of romance it may look +strangely like the mustiest history. In my mind, and in yours I hope, +it will always be connected with a breezy summer-house on a headland of +the Louisiana gulf coast, the rustling of palmetto leaves, the fine +flash of roses, a tumult of mocking-bird voices, the soft lilt of +Creole patois, and the endless dash and roar of a fragrant sea over +which the gulls and pelicans never ceased their flight, and beside +which you smoked while I dreamed. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +MAURICE THOMPSON.<BR> + JULY, 1900.<BR> +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +Contents +</H2> + +<TABLE ALIGN="center" WIDTH="80%"> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">I. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap01">Under the Cherry Tree</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">II. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap02">A Letter from Afar</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">III. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap03">The Rape of the Demijohn</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">IV. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap04">The First Mayor of Vincennes</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">V. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap05">Father Gibault</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VI. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap06">A Fencing Bout</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap07">The Mayor's Party</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VIII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap08">The Dilemma of Captain Helm</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">IX. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap09">The Honors of War</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">X. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap10">M. Roussillon Entertains Colonel Hamilton</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XI. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap11">A Sword and a Horse Pistol</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap12">Manon Lescaut, and a Rapier-Thrust</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XIII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap13">A Meeting in the Wilderness</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XIV. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap14">A Prisoner of Love</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XV. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap15">Virtue in a Locket</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XVI. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap16">Father Beret's Old Battle</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XVII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap17">A March through Cold Water</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XVIII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap18">A Duel by Moonlight</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XIX. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap19">The Attack</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XX. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap20">Alice's Flag</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXI. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap21">Some Transactions in Scalps</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap22">Clark Advises Alice</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXIII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap23">And So It Ended</A></TD> +</TR> + +</TABLE> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +Alice of Old Vincennes +</H1> + +<BR> + +<A NAME="chap01"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER I +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +UNDER THE CHERRY TREE +</H3> + +<P> +Up to the days of Indiana's early statehood, probably as late as 1825, +there stood, in what is now the beautiful little city of Vincennes on +the Wabash, the decaying remnant of an old and curiously gnarled cherry +tree, known as the Roussillon tree, le cerisier de Monsieur Roussillon, +as the French inhabitants called it, which as long as it lived bore +fruit remarkable for richness of flavor and peculiar dark ruby depth of +color. The exact spot where this noble old seedling from la belle +France flourished, declined, and died cannot be certainly pointed out; +for in the rapid and happy growth of Vincennes many land-marks once +notable, among them le cerisier de Monsieur Roussillon, have been +destroyed and the spots where they stood, once familiar to every eye in +old Vincennes, are now lost in the pleasant confusion of the new town. +</P> + +<P> +The security of certain land titles may have largely depended upon the +disappearance of old, fixed objects here and there. Early records were +loosely kept, indeed, scarcely kept at all; many were destroyed by +designing land speculators, while those most carefully preserved often +failed to give even a shadowy trace of the actual boundaries of the +estates held thereby; so that the position of a house or tree not +infrequently settled an important question of property rights left open +by a primitive deed. At all events the Roussillon cherry tree +disappeared long ago, nobody living knows how, and with it also +vanished, quite as mysteriously, all traces of the once important +Roussillon estate. Not a record of the name even can be found, it is +said, in church or county books. +</P> + +<P> +The old, twisted, gum-embossed cherry tree survived every other +distinguishing feature of what was once the most picturesque and +romantic place in Vincennes. Just north of it stood, in the early +French days, a low, rambling cabin surrounded by rude verandas +overgrown with grapevines. This was the Roussillon place, the most +pretentious home in all the Wabash country. Its owner was Gaspard +Roussillon, a successful trader with the Indians. He was rich, for the +time and the place, influential to a degree, a man of some education, +who had brought with him to the wilderness a bundle of books and a +taste for reading. +</P> + +<P> +From faded letters and dimly remembered talk of those who once clung +fondly to the legends and traditions of old Vincennes, it is drawn that +the Roussillon cherry tree stood not very far away from the present +site of the Catholic church, on a slight swell of ground overlooking a +wide marshy flat and the silver current of the Wabash. If the tree grew +there, then there too stood the Roussillon house with its cosy log +rooms, its clay-daubed chimneys and its grapevine-mantled verandas, +while some distance away and nearer the river the rude fort with its +huddled officers' quarters seemed to fling out over the wild landscape, +through its squinting and lopsided port-holes, a gaze of stubborn +defiance. +</P> + +<P> +Not far off was the little log church, where one good Father Beret, or +as named by the Indians, who all loved him, Father Blackrobe, performed +the services of his sacred calling; and scattered all around were the +cabins of traders, soldiers and woodsmen forming a queer little town, +the like of which cannot now be seen anywhere on the earth. +</P> + +<P> +It is not known just when Vincennes was first founded; but most +historians make the probable date very early in the eighteenth century, +somewhere between 1710 and 1730. In 1810 the Roussillon cherry tree was +thought by a distinguished botanical letter-writer to be at least fifty +years old, which would make the date of its planting about 1760. +Certainly as shown by the time-stained family records upon which this +story of ours is based, it was a flourishing and wide-topped tree in +early summer of 1778, its branches loaded to drooping with luscious +fruit. So low did the dark red clusters hang at one point that a tall +young girl standing on the ground easily reached the best ones and made +her lips purple with their juice while she ate them. +</P> + +<P> +That was long ago, measured by what has come to pass on the gentle +swell of rich country from which Vincennes overlooks the Wabash. The +new town flourishes notably and its appearance marks the latest limit +of progress. Electric cars in its streets, electric lights in its +beautiful homes, the roar of railway trains coming and going in all +directions, bicycles whirling hither and thither, the most fashionable +styles of equipages, from brougham to pony-phaeton, make the days of +flint-lock guns and buckskin trousers seem ages down the past; and yet +we are looking back over but a little more than a hundred and twenty +years to see Alice Roussillon standing under the cherry tree and +holding high a tempting cluster of fruit, while a very short, +hump-backed youth looks up with longing eyes and vainly reaches for it. +The tableau is not merely rustic, it is primitive. "Jump!" the girl is +saying in French, "jump, Jean; jump high!" +</P> + +<P> +Yes, that was very long ago, in the days when women lightly braved what +the strongest men would shrink from now. +</P> + +<P> +Alice Roussillon was tall, lithe, strongly knit, with an almost perfect +figure, judging by what the master sculptors carved for the form of +Venus, and her face was comely and winning, if not absolutely +beautiful; but the time and the place were vigorously indicated by her +dress, which was of coarse stuff and simply designed. Plainly she was a +child of the American wilderness, a daughter of old Vincennes on the +Wabash in the time that tried men's souls. +</P> + +<P> +"Jump, Jean!" she cried, her face laughing with a show of +cheek-dimples, an arching of finely sketched brows and the twinkling of +large blue-gray eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"Jump high and get them!" +</P> + +<P> +While she waved her sun-browned hand holding the cherries aloft, the +breeze blowing fresh from the southwest tossed her hair so that some +loose strands shone like rimpled flames. The sturdy little hunchback +did leap with surprising activity; but the treacherous brown hand went +higher, so high that the combined altitude of his jump and the reach of +his unnaturally long arms was overcome. Again and again he sprang +vainly into the air comically, like a long-legged, squat-bodied frog. +</P> + +<P> +"And you brag of your agility and strength, Jean," she laughingly +remarked; "but you can't take cherries when they are offered to you. +What a clumsy bungler you are." +</P> + +<P> +"I can climb and get some," he said with a hideously happy grin, and +immediately embraced the bole of the tree, up which he began scrambling +almost as fast as a squirrel. +</P> + +<P> +When he had mounted high enough to be extending a hand for a hold on a +crotch, Alice grasped his leg near the foot and pulled him down, +despite his clinging and struggling, until his hands clawed in the soft +earth at the tree's root, while she held his captive leg almost +vertically erect. +</P> + +<P> +It was a show of great strength; but Alice looked quite unconscious of +it, laughing merrily, the dimples deepening in her plump cheeks, her +forearm, now bared to the elbow, gleaming white and shapely while its +muscles rippled on account of the jerking and kicking of Jean. +</P> + +<P> +All the time she was holding the cherries high in her other hand, +shaking them by the twig to which their slender stems attached them, +and saying in a sweetly tantalizing tone: +</P> + +<P> +"What makes you climb downward after cherries. Jean? What a foolish +fellow you are, indeed, trying to grabble cherries out of the ground, +as you do potatoes! I'm sure I didn't suppose that you knew so little +as that." +</P> + +<P> +Her French was colloquial, but quite good, showing here and there what +we often notice in the speech of those who have been educated in +isolated places far from that babel of polite energies which we call +the world; something that may be described as a bookish cast appearing +oddly in the midst of phrasing distinctly rustic and local,—a +peculiarity not easy to transfer from one language to another. +</P> + +<P> +Jean the hunchback was a muscular little deformity and a wonder of good +nature. His head looked unnaturally large, nestling grotesquely between +the points of his lifted and distorted shoulders, like a shaggy black +animal in the fork of a broken tree. He was bellicose in his amiable +way and never knew just when to acknowledge defeat. How long he might +have kept up the hopeless struggle with the girl's invincible grip +would be hard to guess. His release was caused by the approach of a +third person, who wore the robe of a Catholic priest and the +countenance of a man who had lived and suffered a long time without +much loss of physical strength and endurance. +</P> + +<P> +This was Pere Beret, grizzly, short, compact, his face deeply lined, +his mouth decidedly aslant on account of some lost teeth, and his eyes +set deep under gray, shaggy brows. Looking at him when his features +were in repose a first impression might not have been favorable; but +seeing him smile or hearing him speak changed everything. His voice was +sweetness itself and his smile won you on the instant. Something like a +pervading sorrow always seemed to be close behind his eyes and under +his speech; yet he was a genial, sometimes almost jolly, man, very +prone to join in the lighter amusements of his people. +</P> + +<P> +"Children, children, my children," he called out as he approached along +a little pathway leading up from the direction of the church, "what are +you doing now? Bah there, Alice, will you pull Jean's leg off?" +</P> + +<P> +At first they did not hear him, they were so nearly deafened by their +own vocal discords. +</P> + +<P> +"Why are you standing on your head with your feet so high in air, +Jean?" he added. "It's not a polite attitude in the presence of a young +lady. Are you a pig, that you poke your nose in the dirt?" +</P> + +<P> +Alice now turned her bright head and gave Pere Beret a look of frank +welcome, which at the same time shot a beam of willful self-assertion. +</P> + +<P> +"My daughter, are you trying to help Jean up the tree feet foremost?" +the priest added, standing where he had halted just outside of the +straggling yard fence. +</P> + +<P> +He had his hands on his hips and was quietly chuckling at the scene +before him, as one who, although old, sympathized with the natural and +harmless sportiveness of young people and would as lief as not join in +a prank or two. +</P> + +<P> +"You see what I'm doing, Father Beret," said Alice, "I am preventing a +great damage to you. You will maybe lose a good many cherry pies and +dumplings if I let Jean go. He was climbing the tree to pilfer the +fruit; so I pulled him down, you understand." +</P> + +<P> +"Ta, ta!" exclaimed the good man, shaking his gray head; "we must +reason with the child. Let go his leg, daughter, I will vouch for him; +eh, Jean?" +</P> + +<P> +Alice released the hunchback, then laughed gayly and tossed the cluster +of cherries into his hand, whereupon he began munching them voraciously +and talking at the same time. +</P> + +<P> +"I knew I could get them," he boasted; "and see, I have them now." He +hopped around, looking like a species of ill-formed monkey. +</P> + +<P> +Pere Beret came and leaned on the low fence close to Alice. She was +almost as tall as he. +</P> + +<P> +"The sun scorches to-day," he said, beginning to mop his furrowed face +with a red-flowered cotton handkerchief; "and from the look of the sky +yonder," pointing southward, "it is going to bring on a storm. How is +Madame Roussillon to-day?" +</P> + +<P> +"She is complaining as she usually does when she feels extremely well," +said Alice; "that's why I had to take her place at the oven and bake +pies. I got hot and came out to catch a bit of this breeze. Oh, but you +needn't smile and look greedy, Pere Beret, the pies are not for your +teeth!" +</P> + +<P> +"My daughter, I am not a glutton, I hope; I had meat not two hours +since—some broiled young squirrels with cress, sent me by Rene de +Ronville. He never forgets his old father." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I never forget you either, mon pere; I thought of you to-day every +time I spread a crust and filled it with cherries; and when I took out +a pie all brown and hot, the red juice bubbling out of it so good +smelling and tempting, do you know what I said to myself?" +</P> + +<P> +"How could I know, my child?" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I thought this: 'Not a single bite of that pie does Father Beret +get.'" +</P> + +<P> +"Why so, daughter?" +</P> + +<P> +"Because you said it was bad of me to read novels and told Mother +Roussillon to hide them from me. I've had any amount of trouble about +it." +</P> + +<P> +"Ta, ta! read the good books that I gave you. They will soon kill the +taste for these silly romances." +</P> + +<P> +"I tried," said Alice; "I tried very hard, and it's no use; your books +are dull and stupidly heavy. What do I care about something that a +queer lot of saints did hundreds of years ago in times of plague and +famine? Saints must have been poky people, and it is poky people who +care to read about them, I think. I like reading about brave, heroic +men and beautiful women, and war and love." +</P> + +<P> +Pere Beret looked away with a curious expression in his face, his eyes +half closed. +</P> + +<P> +"And I'll tell you now, Father Beret," Alice went on after a pause, "no +more claret and pies do you get until I can have my own sort of books +back again to read as I please." She stamped her moccasin-shod foot +with decided energy. +</P> + +<P> +The good priest broke into a hearty laugh, and taking off his cap of +grass-straw mechanically scratched his bald head. He looked at the +tall, strong girl before him for a moment or two, and it would have +been hard for the best physiognomist to decide just how much of +approval and how much of disapproval that look really signified. +</P> + +<P> +Although, as Father Beret had said, the sun's heat was violent, causing +that gentle soul to pass his bundled handkerchief with a wiping +circular motion over his bald and bedewed pate, the wind was momently +freshening, while up from behind the trees on the horizon beyond the +river, a cloud was rising blue-black, tumbled, and grim against the sky. +</P> + +<P> +"Well," said the priest, evidently trying hard to exchange his laugh +for a look of regretful resignation, "you will have your own way, my +child, and—" +</P> + +<P> +"Then you will have pies galore and no end of claret!" she interrupted, +at the same time stepping to the withe-tied and peg-latched gate of the +yard and opening it. "Come in, you dear, good Father, before the rain +shall begin, and sit with me on the gallery" (the creole word for +veranda) "till the storm is over." +</P> + +<P> +Father Beret seemed not loath to enter, albeit he offered a weak +protest against delaying some task he had in hand. Alice reached forth +and pulled him in, then reclosed the queer little gate and pegged it. +She caressingly passed her arm through his and looked into his +weather-stained old face with childlike affection. +</P> + +<P> +There was not a photographer's camera to be had in those days; but what +if a tourist with one in hand could have been there to take a snapshot +at the priest and the maiden as they walked arm in arm to that squat +little veranda! The picture to-day would be worth its weight in a +first-water diamond. It would include the cabin, the cherry-tree, a +glimpse of the raw, wild background and a sharp portrait-group of Pere +Beret, Alice, and Jean the hunchback. To compare it with a photograph +of the same spot now would give a perfect impression of the historic +atmosphere, color and conditions which cannot be set in words. But we +must not belittle the power of verbal description. What if a thoroughly +trained newspaper reporter had been given the freedom of old Vincennes +on the Wabash during the first week of June, 1778, and we now had his +printed story! What a supplement to the photographer's pictures! Well, +we have neither photographs nor graphic report; yet there they are +before us, the gowned and straw-capped priest, the fresh-faced, +coarsely-clad and vigorous girl, the grotesque little hunchback, all +just as real as life itself. Each of us can see them, even with closed +eyes. Led by that wonderful guide, Imagination, we step back a century +and more to look over a scene at once strangely attractive and +unspeakably forlorn. +</P> + +<P> +What was it that drew people away from the old countries, from the +cities, the villages and the vineyards of beautiful France, for +example, to dwell in the wilderness, amid wild beasts and wilder savage +Indians, with a rude cabin for a home and the exposures and hardships +of pioneer life for their daily experience? +</P> + +<P> +Men like Gaspard Roussillon are of a distinct stamp. Take him as he +was. Born in France, on the banks of the Rhone near Avignon, he came as +a youth to Canada, whence he drifted on the tide of adventure this way +and that, until at last he found himself, with a wife, at Post +Vincennes, that lonely picket of religion and trade, which was to +become the center of civilizing energy for the great Northwestern +Territory. M. Roussillon had no children of his own; so his kind heart +opened freely to two fatherless and motherless waifs. These were Alice, +now called Alice Roussillon, and the hunchback, Jean. The former was +twelve years old, when he adopted her, a child of Protestant parents, +while Jean had been taken, when a mere babe, after his parents had been +killed and scalped by Indians. Madame Roussillon, a professed invalid, +whose appetite never failed and whose motherly kindness expressed +itself most often through strains of monotonous falsetto scolding, was +a woman of little education and no refinement; while her husband clung +tenaciously to his love of books, especially to the romances most in +vogue when he took leave of France. +</P> + +<P> +M. Roussillon had been, in a way, Alice's teacher, though not greatly +inclined to abet Father Beret in his kindly efforts to make a Catholic +of the girl, and most treacherously disposed toward the good priest in +the matter of his well-meant attempts to prevent her from reading and +re-reading the aforesaid romances. But for many weeks past Gaspard +Roussillon had been absent from home, looking after his trading schemes +with the Indians; and Pere Beret acting on the suggestion of the +proverb about the absent cat and the playing mouse, had formed an +alliance offensive and defensive with Madame Roussillon, in which it +was strictly stipulated that all novels and romances were to be +forcibly taken and securely hidden away from Mademoiselle Alice; which, +to the best of Madame Roussillon's ability, had accordingly been done. +</P> + +<P> +Now, while the wind strengthened and the softly booming summer shower +came on apace, the heavy cloud lifting as it advanced and showing under +it the dark gray sheet of the rain, Pere Beret and Alice sat under the +clapboard roof behind the vines of the veranda and discussed, what was +generally uppermost in the priest's mind upon such occasions, the good +of Alice's immortal soul,—a subject not absorbingly interesting to her +at any time. +</P> + +<P> +It was a standing grief to the good old priest, this strange perversity +of the girl in the matter of religious duty, as he saw it. True she had +a faithful guardian in Gaspard Roussillon; but, much as he had done to +aid the church's work in general, for he was always vigorous and +liberal, he could not be looked upon as a very good Catholic; and of +course his influence was not effective in the right direction. But then +Pere Beret saw no reason why, in due time and with patient work, aided +by Madame Roussillon and notwithstanding Gaspard's treachery, he might +not safely lead Alice, whom he loved as a dear child, into the arms of +the Holy Church, to serve which faithfully, at all hazards and in all +places, was his highest aim. +</P> + +<P> +"Ah, my child," he was saying, "you are a sweet, good girl, after all, +much better than you make yourself out to be. Your duty will control +you; you do it nobly at last, my child." +</P> + +<P> +"True enough, Father Beret, true enough!" she responded, laughing, +"your perception is most excellent, which I will prove to you +immediately." +</P> + +<P> +She rose while speaking and went into the house. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll return in a minute or two," she called back from a region which +Pere Beret well knew was that of the pantry; "don't get impatient and +go away!" +</P> + +<P> +Pere Beret laughed softly at the preposterous suggestion that he would +even dream of going out in the rain, which was now roaring heavily on +the loose board roof, and miss a cut of cherry pie—a cherry pie of +Alice's making! And the Roussillon claret, too, was always excellent. +"Ah, child," he thought, "your old Father is not going away." +</P> + +<P> +She presently returned, bearing on a wooden tray a ruby-stained pie and +a short, stout bottle flanked by two glasses. +</P> + +<P> +"Of course I'm better than I sometimes appear to be," she said, almost +humbly, but with mischief still in her voice and eyes, "and I shall get +to be very good when I have grown old. The sweetness of my present +nature is in this pie." +</P> + +<P> +She set the tray on a three-legged stool which she pushed close to him. +</P> + +<P> +"There now," she said, "let the rain come, you'll be happy, rain or +shine, while the pie and wine last, I'll be bound." +</P> + +<P> +Pere Beret fell to eating right heartily, meantime handing Jean a +liberal piece of the luscious pie. +</P> + +<P> +"It is good, my daughter, very good, indeed," the priest remarked with +his mouth full. "Madame Roussillon has not neglected your culinary +education." Alice filled a glass for him. It was Bordeaux and very +fragrant. The bouquet reminded him of his sunny boyhood in France, of +his journey up to Paris and of his careless, joy-brimmed youth in the +gay city. How far away, how misty, yet how thrillingly sweet it all +was! He sat with half closed eyes awhile, sipping and dreaming. +</P> + +<P> +The rain lasted nearly two hours; but the sun was out again when Pere +Beret took leave of his young friend. They had been having another +good-natured quarrel over the novels, and Madame Roussillon had come +out on the veranda to join in. +</P> + +<P> +"I've hidden every book of them," said Madame, a stout and swarthy +woman whose pearl-white teeth were her only mark of beauty. Her voice +indicated great stubbornness. +</P> + +<P> +"Good, good, you have done your very duty, Madame," said Pere Beret, +with immense approval in his charming voice. +</P> + +<P> +"But, Father, you said awhile ago that I should have my own way about +this," Alice spoke up with spirit; "and on the strength of that remark +of yours I gave you the pie and wine. You've eaten my pie and swigged +the wine, and now—" +</P> + +<P> +Pere Beret put on his straw cap, adjusting it carefully over the +shining dome out of which had come so many thoughts of wisdom, kindness +and human sympathy. This done, he gently laid a hand on Alice's bright +crown of hair and said: +</P> + +<P> +"Bless you, my child. I will pray to the Prince of Peace for you as +long as I live, and I will never cease to beg the Holy Virgin to +intercede for you and lead you to the Holy Church." +</P> + +<P> +He turned and went away; but when he was no farther than the gate, +Alice called out: +</P> + +<P> +"O Father Beret, I forgot to show you something!" +</P> + +<P> +She ran forth to him and added in a low tone: +</P> + +<P> +"You know that Madame Roussillon has hidden all the novels from me." +</P> + +<P> +She was fumbling to get something out of the loose front of her dress. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, just take a glance at this, will you?" and she showed him a +little leather bound volume, much cracked along the hinges of the back. +</P> + +<P> +It was Manon Lescaut, that dreadful romance by the famous Abbe Prevost. +</P> + +<P> +Pere Beret frowned and went his way shaking his head; but before he +reached his little hut near the church he was laughing in spite of +himself. +</P> + +<P> +"She's not so bad, not so bad," he thought aloud, "it's only her young, +independent spirit taking the bit for a wild run. In her sweet soul she +is as good as she is pure." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap02"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER II +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +A LETTER FROM AFAR +</H3> + +<P> +Although Father Beret was for many years a missionary on the Wabash, +most of the time at Vincennes, the fact that no mention of him can be +found in the records is not stranger than many other things connected +with the old town's history. He was, like nearly all the men of his +calling in that day, a self-effacing and modest hero, apparently quite +unaware that he deserved attention. He and Father Gibault, whose name +is so beautifully and nobly connected with the stirring achievements of +Colonel George Rogers Clark, were close friends and often companions. +Probably Father Gibault himself, whose fame will never fade, would have +been to-day as obscure as Father Beret, but for the opportunity given +him by Clark to fix his name in the list of heroic patriots who +assisted in winning the great Northwest from the English. +</P> + +<P> +Vincennes, even in the earliest days of its history, somehow kept up +communication and, considering the circumstances, close relations with +New Orleans. It was much nearer Detroit; but the Louisiana colony stood +next to France in the imagination and longing of priests, voyageurs, +coureurs de bois and reckless adventurers who had Latin blood in their +veins. Father Beret first came to Vincennes from New Orleans, the +voyage up the Mississippi, Ohio, and Wabash, in a pirogue, lasting +through a whole summer and far into the autumn. Since his arrival the +post had experienced many vicissitudes, and at the time in which our +story opens the British government claimed right of dominion over the +great territory drained by the Wabash, and, indeed, over a large, +indefinitely outlined part of the North American continent lying above +Mexico; a claim just then being vigorously questioned, flintlock in +hand, by the Anglo-American colonies. +</P> + +<P> +Of course the handful of French people at Vincennes, so far away from +every center of information, and wholly occupied with their trading, +trapping and missionary work, were late finding out that war existed +between England and her colonies. Nor did it really matter much with +them, one way or another. They felt secure in their lonely situation, +and so went on selling their trinkets, weapons, domestic implements, +blankets and intoxicating liquors to the Indians, whom they held bound +to them with a power never possessed by any other white dwellers in the +wilderness. Father Beret was probably subordinate to Father Gibault. At +all events the latter appears to have had nominal charge of Vincennes, +and it can scarcely be doubted that he left Father Beret on the Wabash, +while he went to live and labor for a time at Kaskaskia beyond the +plains of Illinois. +</P> + +<P> +It is a curious fact that religion and the power of rum and brandy +worked together successfully for a long time in giving the French posts +almost absolute influence over the wild and savage men by whom they +were always surrounded. The good priests deprecated the traffic in +liquors and tried hard to control it, but soldiers of fortune and +reckless traders were in the majority, their interests taking +precedence of all spiritual demands and carrying everything along. What +could the brave missionaries do but make the very best of a perilous +situation? +</P> + +<P> +In those days wine was drunk by almost everybody, its use at table and +as an article of incidental refreshment and social pleasure being +practically universal; wherefore the steps of reform in the matter of +intemperance were but rudimentary and in all places beset by well-nigh +insurmountable difficulties. In fact the exigencies of frontier life +demanded, perhaps, the very stimulus which, when over indulged in, +caused so much evil. Malaria loaded the air, and the most efficacious +drugs now at command were then undiscovered or could not be had. +Intoxicants were the only popular specific. Men drank to prevent +contracting ague, drank again, between rigors, to cure it, and yet +again to brace themselves during convalescence. +</P> + +<P> +But if the effect of rum as a beverage had strong allurement for the +white man, it made an absolute slave of the Indian, who never hesitated +for a moment to undertake any task, no matter how hard, bear any +privation, even the most terrible, or brave any danger, although it +might demand reckless desperation, if in in the end a well filled +bottle or jug appeared as his reward. +</P> + +<P> +Of course the traders did not overlook such a source of power. +Alcoholic liquor became their implement of almost magical work in +controlling the lives, labors, and resources of the Indians. The +priests with their captivating story of the Cross had a large influence +in softening savage natures and averting many an awful danger; but when +everything else failed, rum always came to the rescue of a threatened +French post. +</P> + +<P> +We need not wonder, then, when we are told that Father Beret made no +sign of distress or disapproval upon being informed of the arrival of a +boat loaded with rum, brandy or gin. It was Rene de Ronville who +brought the news, the same Rene already mentioned as having given the +priest a plate of squirrels. He was sitting on the doorsill of Father +Beret's hut, when the old man reached it after his visit at the +Roussillon home, and held in his hand a letter which he appeared proud +to deliver. +</P> + +<P> +"A batteau and seven men, with a cargo of liquor, came during the +rain," he said, rising and taking off his curious cap, which, made of +an animal's skin, had a tail jauntily dangling from its crown-tip; "and +here is a letter for you, Father. The batteau is from New Orleans. +Eight men started with it; but one went ashore to hunt and was killed +by an Indian." +</P> + +<P> +Father Beret took the letter without apparent interest and said: +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you, my son, sit down again; the door-log is not wetter than the +stools inside; I will sit by you." +</P> + +<P> +The wind had driven a flood of rain into the cabin through the open +door, and water twinkled in puddles here and there on the floor's +puncheons. They sat down side by side, Father Beret fingering the +letter in an absent-minded way. +</P> + +<P> +"There'll be a jolly time of it to-night," Rene de Ronville remarked, +"a roaring time." +</P> + +<P> +"Why do you say that, my son?" the priest demanded. +</P> + +<P> +"The wine and the liquor," was the reply; "much drinking will be done. +The men have all been dry here for some time, you know, and are as +thirsty as sand. They are making ready to enjoy themselves down at the +river house." +</P> + +<P> +"Ah, the poor souls!" sighed Father Beret, speaking as one whose +thoughts were wandering far away. +</P> + +<P> +"Why don't you read your letter, Father?" Rene added. +</P> + +<P> +The priest started, turned the soiled square of paper over in his hand, +then thrust it inside his robe. +</P> + +<P> +"It can wait," he said. Then, changing his voice; "the squirrels you +gave me were excellent, my son. It was good of you to think of me," he +added, laying his hand on Rene's arm. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I'm glad if I have pleased you, Father Beret, for you are so kind +to me always, and to everybody. When I killed the squirrels I said to +myself: 'These are young, juicy and tender, Father Beret must have +these,' so I brought them along." +</P> + +<P> +The young man rose to go; for he was somehow impressed that Father +Beret must wish opportunity to read his letter, and would prefer to be +left alone with it. But the priest pulled him down again. +</P> + +<P> +"Stay a while," he said, "I have not had a talk with you for some time." +</P> + +<P> +Rene looked a trifle uneasy. +</P> + +<P> +"You will not drink any to-night, my son," Father Beret added. "You +must not; do you hear?" +</P> + +<P> +The young man's eyes and mouth at once began to have a sullen +expression; evidently he was not pleased and felt rebellious; but it +was hard for him to resist Father Beret, whom he loved, as did every +soul in the post. The priest's voice was sweet and gentle, yet positive +to a degree. Rene did not say a word. +</P> + +<P> +"Promise me that you will not taste liquor this night," Father Beret +went on, grasping the young man's arm more firmly; "promise me, my son, +promise me." +</P> + +<P> +Still Rene was silent. The men did not look at each other, but gazed +away across the country beyond the Wabash to where a glory from the +western sun flamed on the upper rim of a great cloud fragment creeping +along the horizon. Warm as the day had been, a delicious coolness now +began to temper the air; for the wind had shifted into the northwest. A +meadowlark sang dreamingly in the wild grass of the low lands hard by, +over which two or three prairie hawks hovered with wings that beat +rapidly. +</P> + +<P> +"Eh bien, I must go," said Rene presently, getting to his feet nimbly +and evading Father Beret's hand which would have held him. +</P> + +<P> +"Not to the river house, my son?" said the priest appealingly. +</P> + +<P> +"No, not there; I have another letter; one for M'sieu' Roussillon; it +came by the boat too. I go to give it to Madame Roussillon." +</P> + +<P> +Rene de Ronville was a dark, weather-stained young fellow, neither tall +nor short, wearing buckskin moccasins, trousers and tunic. His eyes +were dark brown, keen, quick-moving, set well under heavy brows. A +razor had probably never touched his face, and his thin, curly beard +crinkled over his strongly turned cheeks and chin, while his moustaches +sprang out quite fiercely above his full-lipped, almost sensual mouth. +He looked wiry and active, a man not to be lightly reckoned with in a +trial of bodily strength and will power. +</P> + +<P> +Father Beret's face and voice changed on the instant. He laughed dryly +and said, with a sly gleam in his eyes: +</P> + +<P> +"You could spend the evening pleasantly with Madame Roussillon and +Jean. Jean, you know, is a very amusing fellow." +</P> + +<P> +Rene brought forth the letter of which he had spoken and held it up +before Father Beret's face. +</P> + +<P> +"Maybe you think I haven't any letter for M'sieu' Roussillon," he +blurted; "and maybe you are quite certain that I am not going to the +house to take the letter." +</P> + +<P> +"Monsieur Roussillon is absent, you know," Father Beret suggested. "But +cherry pies are just as good while he's gone as when he's at home, and +I happen to know that there are some particularly delicious ones in the +pantry of Madame Roussillon. Mademoiselle Alice gave me a juicy sample; +but then I dare say you do not care to have your pie served by her +hand. It would interfere with your appetite; eh, my son?" +</P> + +<P> +Rene turned short about wagging his head and laughing, and so with his +back to the priest he strode away along the wet path leading to the +Roussillon place. +</P> + +<P> +Father Beret gazed after him, his face relaxing to a serious expression +in which a trace of sadness and gloom spread like an elusive twilight. +He took out his letter, but did not glance at it, simply holding it +tightly gripped in his sinewy right hand. Then his old eyes stared +vacantly, as eyes do when their sight is cast back many, many years +into the past. The missive was from beyond the sea—he knew the +handwriting—a waft of the flowers of Avignon seemed to rise out of it, +as if by the pressure of his grasp. +</P> + +<P> +A stoop-shouldered, burly man went by, leading a pair of goats, a kid +following. He was making haste excitedly, keeping the goats at a lively +trot. +</P> + +<P> +"Bon jour, Pere Beret," he flung out breezily, and walked rapidly on. +</P> + +<P> +"Ah, ah; his mind is busy with the newly arrived cargo," thought the +old priest, returning the salutation; "his throat aches for the +liquor,—the poor man." +</P> + +<P> +Then he read again the letter's superscription and made a faltering +move, as if to break the seal. His hands trembled violently, his face +looked gray and drawn. +</P> + +<P> +"Come on, you brutes," cried the receding man, jerking the thongs of +skin by which he led the goats. +</P> + +<P> +Father Beret rose and turned into his damp little hut, where the light +was dim on the crucifix hanging opposite the door against the +clay-daubed wall. It was a bare, unsightly, clammy room; a rude bed on +one side, a shelf for table and two or three wooden stools constituting +the furniture, while the uneven puncheons of the floor wabbled and +clattered under the priest's feet. +</P> + +<P> +An unopened letter is always a mysterious thing. We who receive three +or four mails every day, scan each little paper square with a +speculative eye. Most of us know what sweet uncertainty hangs on the +opening of envelopes whose contents may be almost anything except +something important, and what a vague yet delicious thrill comes with +the snip of the paper knife; but if we be in a foreign land and long +years absent from home, then is a letter subtly powerful to move us, +even more before it is opened than after it is read. +</P> + +<P> +It had been many years since a letter from home had come to Father +Beret. The last, before the one now in his hand, had made him ill of +nostalgia, fairly shaking his iron determination never to quit for a +moment his life work as a missionary. Ever since that day he had found +it harder to meet the many and stern demands of a most difficult and +exacting duty. Now the mere touch of the paper in his hand gave him a +sense of returning weakness, dissatisfaction, and longing. The home of +his boyhood, the rushing of the Rhone, a seat in a shady nook of the +garden, Madeline, his sister, prattling beside him, and his mother +singing somewhere about the house—it all came back and went over him +and through him, making his heart sink strangely, while another voice, +the sweetest ever heard—but she was ineffable and her memory a +forbidden fragrance. +</P> + +<P> +Father Beret tottered across the forlorn little room and knelt before +the crucifix holding his clasped hands high, the letter pressed between +them. His lips moved in prayer, but made no sound; his whole frame +shook violently. +</P> + +<P> +It would be unpardonable desecration to enter the chamber of Father +Beret's soul and look upon his sacred and secret trouble; nor must we +even speculate as to its particulars. The good old man writhed and +wrestled before the cross for a long time, until at last he seemed to +receive the calmness and strength he prayed for so fervently; then he +rose, tore the letter into pieces so small that not a word remained +whole, and squeezed them so firmly together that they were compressed +into a tiny, solid ball, which he let fall through a crack between the +floor puncheons. After waiting twenty years for that letter, hungry as +his heart was, he did not even open it when at last it arrived. He +would never know what message it bore. The link between him and the old +sweet days was broken forever. Now with God's help he could do his work +to the end. +</P> + +<P> +He went and stood in his doorway, leaning against the side. Was it a +mere coincidence that the meadowlark flew up just then from its +grass-tuft, and came to the roof's comb overhead, where it lit with a +light yet audible stroke of its feet and began fluting its tender, +lonesome-sounding strain? If Father Beret heard it he gave no sign of +recognition; very likely he was thinking about the cargo of liquor and +how he could best counteract its baleful influence. He looked toward +the "river house," as the inhabitants had named a large shanty, which +stood on a bluff of the Wabash not far from where the road-bridge at +present crosses, and saw men gathering there. +</P> + +<P> +Meantime Rene de Ronville had delivered Madame Roussillon's letter with +due promptness. Of course such a service demanded pie and claret. What +still better pleased him, Alice chose to be more amiable than was +usually her custom when he called. They sat together in the main room +of the house where M. Roussillon kept his books, his curiosities of +Indian manufacture collected here and there, and his surplus firearms, +swords, pistols, and knives, ranged not unpleasingly around the walls. +</P> + +<P> +Of course, along with the letter, Rene bore the news, so interesting to +himself, of the boat's tempting cargo just discharged at the river +house. Alice understood her friend's danger—felt it in the intense +enthusiasm of his voice and manner. She had once seen the men carousing +on a similar occasion when she was but a child, and the impression then +made still remained in her memory. Instinctively she resolved to hold +Rene by one means or another away from the river house if possible. So +she managed to keep him occupied eating pie, sipping watered claret and +chatting until night came on and Madame Roussillon brought in a lamp. +Then he hurriedly snatched his cap from the floor beside him and got up +to go. +</P> + +<P> +"Come and look at my handiwork," Alice quickly said; "my shelf of pies, +I mean." She led him to the pantry, where a dozen or more of the cherry +pates were ranged in order. "I made every one of them this morning and +baked them; had them all out of the oven before the rain came up. Don't +you think me a wonder of cleverness and industry? Father Beret was +polite enough to flatter me; but you—you just eat what you want and +say nothing! You are not polite, Monsieur Rene de Ronville." +</P> + +<P> +"I've been showing you what I thought of your goodies," said Rene; +"eating's better than talking, you know; so I'll just take one more," +and he helped himself. "Isn't that compliment enough?" +</P> + +<P> +"A few such would make me another hot day's work," she replied, +laughing. "Pretty talk would be cheaper and more satisfactory in the +long run. Even the flour in these pates I ground with my own hand in an +Indian mortar. That was hard work too." +</P> + +<P> +By this time Rene had forgotten the river house and the liquor. With +softening eyes he gazed at Alice's rounded cheeks and sheeny hair over +which the light from the curious earthen lamp she bore in her hand +flickered most effectively. He loved her madly; but his fear of her was +more powerful than his love. She gave him no opportunity to speak what +he felt, having ever ready a quick, bright change of mood and manner +when she saw him plucking up courage to address her in a sentimental +way. Their relations had long been somewhat familiar, which was but +natural, considering their youth and the circumstances of their daily +life; but Alice somehow had kept a certain distance open between them, +so that very warm friendship could not suddenly resolve itself into a +troublesome passion on Rene's part. +</P> + +<P> +We need not attempt to analyze a young girl's feeling and motives in +such a case; what she does and what she thinks are mysteries even to +her own understanding. The influence most potent in shaping the +rudimentary character of Alice Tarleton (called Roussillon) had been +only such as a lonely frontier post could generate. Her associations +with men and women had, with few exceptions, been unprofitable in an +educational way, while her reading in M. Roussillon's little library +could not have given her any practical knowledge of manners and life. +</P> + +<P> +She was fond of Rene de Ronville, and it would have been quite in +accordance with the law of ordinary human forces, indeed almost the +inevitable thing, for her to love and marry him in the fullness of +time; but her imagination was outgrowing her surroundings. Books had +given her a world of romance wherein she moved at will, meeting a class +of people far different from those who actually shared her experiences. +Her day-dreams and her night-dreams partook much more of what she had +read and imagined than of what she had seen and heard in the raw little +world around her. +</P> + +<P> +Her affection for Rene was interfered with by her large admiration for +the heroic, masterful and magnetic knights who charged through the +romances of the Roussillon collection. For although Rene was +unquestionably brave and more than passably handsome, he had no armor, +no war-horse, no shining lance and embossed shield—the difference, +indeed, was great. +</P> + +<P> +Those who love to contend against the fatal drift of our age toward +over-education could find in Alice Tarleton, foster daughter of Gaspard +Roussillon, a primitive example, an elementary case in point. What +could her book education do but set up stumbling blocks in the path of +happiness? She was learning to prefer the ideal to the real. Her soul +was developing itself as best it could for the enjoyment of conditions +and things absolutely foreign to the possibilities of her lot in life. +</P> + +<P> +Perhaps it was the light and heat of imagination, shining out through +Alice's face, which gave her beauty such a fascinating power. Rene saw +it and felt its electrical stroke send a sweet shiver through his +heart, while he stood before her. +</P> + +<P> +"You are very beautiful to-night Alice," he presently said, with a +suddenness which took even her alertness by surprise. A flush rose to +his dark face and immediately gave way to a grayish pallor. His heart +came near stopping on the instant, he was so shocked by his own daring; +but he laid a hand on her hair, stroking it softly. +</P> + +<P> +Just a moment she was at a loss, looking a trifle embarrassed, then +with a merry laugh she stepped aside and said: +</P> + +<P> +"That sounds better, Monsieur Rene de Ronville much better; you will be +as polite as Father Beret after a little more training." +</P> + +<P> +She slipped past him while speaking and made her way back again to the +main room, whence she called to him: +</P> + +<P> +"Come here, I've something to show you." +</P> + +<P> +He obeyed, a sheepish trace on his countenance betraying his +self-consciousness. +</P> + +<P> +When he came near Alice she was taking from its buckhorn hook on the +wall a rapier, one of a beautiful pair hanging side by side. +</P> + +<P> +"Papa Roussillon gave me these," she said with great animation. "He +bought them of an Indian who had kept them a long time; where he came +across them he would not tell; but look how beautiful! Did you ever see +anything so fine?" +</P> + +<P> +Guard and hilt were of silver; the blade, although somewhat corroded, +still showed the fine wavy lines of Damascus steel and traces of +delicate engraving, while in the end of the hilt was set a large oval +turquoise. +</P> + +<P> +"A very queer present to give a girl," said Rene; "what can you do with +them?" +</P> + +<P> +A captivating flash of playfulness came into her face and she sprang +backward, giving the sword a semicircular turn with her wrist. The +blade sent forth a keen hiss as it cut the air close, very close to +Rene's nose. He jerked his head and flung up his hand. +</P> + +<P> +She laughed merrily, standing beautifully poised before him, the +rapier's point slightly elevated. Her short skirt left her feet and +ankles free to show their graceful proportions and the perfect pose in +which they held her supple body. +</P> + +<P> +"You see what I can do with the colechemarde, eh, Monsieur Rene de +Ronville!" she exclaimed, giving him a smile which fairly blinded him. +"Notice how very near to your neck I can thrust and yet not touch it. +Now!" +</P> + +<P> +She darted the keen point under his chin and drew it away so quickly +that the stroke was like a glint of sunlight. +</P> + +<P> +"What do you think of that as a nice and accurate piece of skill?" +</P> + +<P> +She again resumed her pose, the right foot advanced, the left arm well +back, her lissome, finely developed body leaning slightly forward. +</P> + +<P> +Rene's hands were up before his face in a defensive position, palms +outward. +</P> + +<P> +Just then a chorus of men's voices sounded in the distance. The river +house was beginning its carousal with a song. Alice let fall her +sword's point and listened. +</P> + +<P> +Rene looked about for his cap. +</P> + +<P> +"I must be going," he said. +</P> + +<P> +Another and louder swish of the rapier made him pirouette and dodge +again with great energy. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't," he cried, "that's dangerous; you'll put out my eyes; I never +saw such a girl!" +</P> + +<P> +She laughed at him and kept on whipping the air dangerously near his +eyes, until she had driven him backward as far as he could squeeze +himself into a comer of the room. +</P> + +<P> +Madame Roussillon came to the door from the kitchen and stood looking +in and laughing, with her hands on her hips. By this time the rapier +was making a criss-cross pattern of flashing lines close to the young +man's head while Alice, in the enjoyment of her exercise, seemed to +concentrate all the glowing rays of her beauty in her face, her eyes +dancing merrily. +</P> + +<P> +"Quit, now, Alice," he begged, half in fun and half in abject fear; +"please quit—I surrender!" +</P> + +<P> +She thrust to the wall on either side of him, then springing lightly +backward a pace, stood at guard. Her thick yellow hair had fallen over +her neck and shoulders in a loose wavy mass, out of which her face +beamed with a bewitching effect upon her captive. +</P> + +<P> +Rene, glad enough to have a cessation of his peril, stood laughing +dryly; but the singing down at the river house was swelling louder and +he made another movement to go. +</P> + +<P> +"You surrendered, you remember," cried Alice, renewing the sword-play; +"sit down on the chair there and make yourself comfortable. You are not +going down yonder to-night; you are going to stay here and talk with me +and Mother Roussillon; we are lonesome and you are good company." +</P> + +<P> +A shot rang out keen and clear; there was a sudden tumult that broke up +the distant singing; and presently more firing at varying intervals cut +the night air from the direction of the river. +</P> + +<P> +Jean, the hunchback, came in to say that there was a row of some sort; +he had seen men running across the common as if in pursuit of a +fugitive; but the moonlight was so dim that he could not be sure what +it all meant. +</P> + +<P> +Rene picked up his cap and bolted out of the house. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap03"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER III +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE RAPE OF THE DEMIJOHN +</H3> + +<P> +The row down at the river house was more noise than fight, so far as +results seemed to indicate. It was all about a small dame jeanne of +fine brandy, which an Indian by the name of Long-Hair had seized and +run off with at the height of the carousal. He must have been soberer +than his pursuers, or naturally fleeter; for not one of them could +catch him, or even keep long in sight of him. Some pistols were emptied +while the race was on, and two or three of the men swore roundly to +having seen Long-Hair jump sidewise and stagger, as if one of the shots +had taken effect. But, although the moon was shining, he someway +disappeared, they could not understand just how, far down beside the +river below the fort and the church. +</P> + +<P> +It was not a very uncommon thing for an Indian to steal what he wanted, +and in most cases light punishment followed conviction; but it was felt +to be a capital offense for an Indian or anybody else to rape a +demijohn of fine brandy, especially one sent as a present, by a friend +in New Orleans, to Lieutenant Governor Abbott, who had until recently +been the commandant of the post. Every man at the river house +recognized and resented the enormity of Long-Hair's crime and each was, +for the moment, ready to be his judge and his executioner. He had +broken at once every rule of frontier etiquette and every bond of +sympathy. Nor was Long-Hair ignorant of the danger involved in his +daring enterprise. He had beforehand carefully and stolidly weighed all +the conditions, and true to his Indian nature, had concluded that a +little wicker covered bottle of brandy was well worth the risk of his +life. So he had put himself in condition for a great race by slipping +out and getting rid of his weapons and all surplus weight of clothes. +</P> + +<P> +This incident brought the drinking bout at the river house to a sudden +end; but nothing further came of it that night, and no record of it +would be found in these pages, but for the fact that Long-Hair +afterwards became an important character in the stirring historical +drama which had old Vincennes for its center of energy. +</P> + +<P> +Rene de Ronville probably felt himself in bad luck when he arrived at +the river house just too late to share in the liquor or to join in +chasing the bold thief. He listened with interest, however, to the +story of Long-Hair's capture of the commandant's demijohn and could not +refrain from saying that if he had been present there would have been a +quite different result. +</P> + +<P> +"I would have shot him before he got to that door," he said, drawing +his heavy flint-lock pistol and going through the motions of one aiming +quickly and firing. Indeed, so vigorously in earnest was he with the +pantomime, that he actually did fire, unintentionally of course,—the +ball burying itself in the door-jamb. +</P> + +<P> +He was laughed at by those present for being more excited than they who +witnessed the whole thing. One of them, a leathery-faced and grizzled +old sinner, leered at him contemptuously and said in queer French, with +a curious accent caught from long use of backwoods English: +</P> + +<P> +"Listen how the boy brags! Ye might think, to hear Rene talk, that he +actually amounted to a big pile." +</P> + +<P> +This personage was known to every soul in Vincennes as Oncle Jazon, and +when Oncle Jazon spoke the whole town felt bound to listen. +</P> + +<P> +"An' how well he shoots, too," he added with an intolerable wink; +"aimed at the door and hit the post. Certainly Long-Hair would have +been in great danger! O yes, he'd 'ave killed Long-Hair at the first +shot, wouldn't he though!" +</P> + +<P> +Oncle Jazon had the air of a large man, but the stature of a small one; +in fact he was shriveled bodily to a degree which suggested comparison +with a sun-dried wisp of hickory bark; and when he chuckled, as he was +now doing, his mouth puckered itself until it looked like a scar on his +face. From cap to moccasins he had every mark significant of a +desperate character; and yet there was about him something that +instantly commanded the confidence of rough men,—the look of +self-sufficiency and superior capability always to be found in +connection with immense will power. His sixty years of exposure, +hardship, and danger seemed to have but toughened his physique and +strengthened his vitality. Out of his small hazel eyes gleamed a light +as keen as ice. +</P> + +<P> +"All right, Oncle Jazon," said Rene laughing and blowing the smoke out +of his pistol; "'twas you all the same who let Long-Hair trot off with +the Governor's brandy, not I. If you could have hit even a door-post it +might have been better." +</P> + +<P> +Oncle Jazon took off his cap and looked down into it in a way he had +when about to say something final. +</P> + +<P> +"Ventrebleu! I did not shoot at Long-Hair at all," he said, speaking +slowly, "because the scoundrel was unarmed. He didn't have on even a +knife, and he was havin' enough to do dodgin' the bullets that the rest +of 'em were plumpin' at 'im without any compliments from me to bother +'im more." +</P> + +<P> +"Well," Rene replied, turning away with a laugh, "if I'd been scalped +by the Indians, as you have, I don't think there would be any +particular reason why I should wait for an Indian thief to go and arm +himself before I accepted him as a target." +</P> + +<P> +Oncle Jazon lifted a hand involuntarily and rubbed his scalpless crown; +then he chuckled with a grotesque grimace as if the recollection of +having his head skinned were the funniest thing imaginable. +</P> + +<P> +"When you've killed as many of 'em as Oncle Jazon has," remarked a +bystander to Rene, "you'll not be so hungry for blood, maybe." +</P> + +<P> +"Especially after ye've took fifty-nine scalps to pay for yer one," +added Oncle Jazon, replacing his cap over the hairless area of his +crown. +</P> + +<P> +The men who had been chasing Long-Hair, presently came straggling back +with their stories—each had a distinct one—of how the fugitive +escaped. They were wild looking fellows, most of them somewhat +intoxicated, all profusely liberal with their stock of picturesque +profanity. They represented the roughest element of the well-nigh +lawless post. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm positive that he's wounded," said one. "Jacques and I shot at him +together, so that our pistols sounded just as if only one had been +fired—bang! that way—and he leaped sideways for all the world like a +bird with a broken leg. I thought he'd fall; but ve! he ran faster'n +ever, and all at once he was gone; just disappeared." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, to-morrow we'll get him," said another. "You and I and Jacques, +we'll take up his trail, the thief, and follow him till we find him. He +can't get off so easy." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know so well about that," said another; "it's Long-Hair, you +must remember, and Long-Hair is no common buck that just anybody can +find asleep. You know what Long-Hair is. Nobody's ever got even with +'im yet. That's so, ain't it? Just ask Oncle Jazon, if you don't +believe it!" +</P> + +<P> +The next morning Long-Hair was tracked to the edge. He had been +wounded, but whether seriously or not could only be conjectured. A +sprinkle of blood, here and there quite a dash of it, reddened the +grass and clumps of weeds he had run through, and ended close to the +water into which it looked as if he had plunged with a view to baffling +pursuit. Indeed pursuit was baffled. No further trace could be found, +by which to follow the cunning fugitive. Some of the men consoled +themselves by saying, without believing, that Long-Hair was probably +lying drowned at the bottom of the river. +</P> + +<P> +"Pas du tout," observed Oncle Jazon, his short pipe askew far over in +the corner of his mouth, "not a bit of it is that Indian drowned. He's +jes' as live as a fat cat this minute, and as drunk as the devil. He'll +get some o' yer scalps yet after he's guzzled all that brandy and slep' +a week." +</P> + +<P> +It finally transpired that Oncle Jazon was partly right and partly +wrong. Long-Hair was alive, even as a fat cat, perhaps; but not drunk, +for in trying to swim with the rotund little dame jeanne under his arm +he lost hold of it and it went to the bottom of the Wabash, where it +may be lying at this moment patiently waiting for some one to fish it +out of its bed deep in the sand and mud, and break the ancient wax from +its neck! +</P> + +<P> +Rene de Ronville, after the chase of Long-Hair had been given over, +went to tell Father Beret what had happened, and finding the priest's +hut empty turned into the path leading to the Roussillon place, which +was at the head of a narrow street laid out in a direction at right +angles to the river's course. He passed two or three diminutive cabins, +all as much alike as bee-hives. Each had its squat veranda and thatched +or clapboarded roof held in place by weight-poles ranged in roughly +parallel rows, and each had the face of the wall under its veranda +neatly daubed with a grayish stucco made of mud and lime. You may see +such houses today in some remote parts of the creole country of +Louisiana. +</P> + +<P> +As Rene passed along he spoke with a gay French freedom to the dames +and lasses who chanced to be visible. His air would be regarded as +violently brigandish in our day; we might even go so far as to think +his whole appearance comical. His jaunty cap with a tail that wagged as +he walked, his short trousers and leggins of buckskin, and his loose +shirt-like tunic, drawn in at the waist with a broad belt, gave his +strong figure just the dash of wildness suited to the armament with +which it was weighted. A heavy gun lay in the hollow of his shoulder +under which hung an otter-skin bullet-pouch with its clear powder-horn +and white bone charger. In his belt were two huge flint-lock pistols +and a long case-knife. +</P> + +<P> +"Bon jour, Ma'm'selle Adrienne," he cheerily called, waving his free +hand in greeting to a small, dark lass standing on the step of a +veranda and indolently swinging a broom. "Comment allez-vous auj +ourd'hui?" +</P> + +<P> +"J'm'porte tres bien, merci, Mo'sieu Rene," was the quick response; "et +vous?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I'm as lively as a cricket." +</P> + +<P> +"Going a hunting?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, just up here a little way—just on business—up to Mo'sieu +Roussillon's for a moment." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," the girl responded in a tone indicative of something very like +spleen, "yes, undoubtedly, Mo'sieu de Ronville; your business there +seems quite pressing of late. I have noticed your industrious +application to that business." +</P> + +<P> +"Ta-ta, little one," he wheedled, lowering his voice; "you mustn't go +to making bug-bears out of nothing." +</P> + +<P> +"Bug-bears!" she retorted, "you go on about your business and I'll +attend to mine," and she flirted into the house. +</P> + +<P> +Rene laughed under his breath, standing a moment as if expecting her to +come out again; but she did not, and he resumed his walk singing +softly— +</P> + +<P> +"Elle a les joues vermeilles, vermeilles, Ma belle, ma belle petite." +</P> + +<P> +But ten to one he was not thinking of Madamoiselle Adrienne Bourcier. +His mind, however, must have been absorbingly occupied; for in the +straight, open way he met Father Beret and did not see him until he +came near bumping against the old man, who stepped aside with +astonishing agility and said— +</P> + +<P> +"Dieu vous benisse, mon fils; but what is your great hurry—where can +you be going in such happy haste?" Rene did not stop to parley with the +priest. He flung some phrase of pleasant greeting back over his +shoulder as he trudged on, his heart beginning a tattoo against his +ribs when the Roussillon place came in sight, and he took hold of his +mustache to pull it, as some men must do in moments of nervousness and +bashfulness. If sounds ever have color, the humming in his ears was of +a rosy hue; if thoughts ever exhale fragrance, his brain overflowed +with the sweets of violet and heliotrope. +</P> + +<P> +He had in mind what he was going to say when Alice and he should be +alone together. It was a pretty speech, he thought; indeed a very +thrilling little speech, by the way it stirred his own nerve-centers as +he conned it over. +</P> + +<P> +Madame Roussillon met him at the door in not a very good humor. +</P> + +<P> +"Is Mademoiselle Alice here?" he ventured to demand. +</P> + +<P> +"Alice? no, she's not here; she's never here just when I want her most. +V'la le picbois et la grive—see the woodpecker and the robin—eating +the cherries, eating every one of them, and that girl running off +somewhere instead of staying here and picking them," she railed in +answer to the young man's polite inquiry. "I haven't seen her these +four hours, neither her nor that rascally hunchback, Jean. They're up +to some mischief, I'll be bound!" +</P> + +<P> +Madame Roussillon puffed audibly between phrases; but she suddenly +became very mild when relieved of her tirade. +</P> + +<P> +"Mais entrez," she added in a pleasant tone, "come in and tell me the +news." +</P> + +<P> +Rene's disappointment rushed into his face, but he managed to laugh it +aside. +</P> + +<P> +"Father Beret has just been telling me," said Madame Roussillon, "that +our friend Long-Hair made some trouble last night. How about it?" +</P> + +<P> +Rene told her what he knew and added that Long-Hair would probably +never be seen again. +</P> + +<P> +"He was shot, no doubt of it," he went on, "and is now being nibbled by +fish and turtles. We tracked him by his blood to where he jumped into +the Wabash. He never came out." +</P> + +<P> +Strangely enough it happened that, at the very time of this chat +between Madame Roussillon and Rene Alice was bandaging Long-Hair's +wounded leg with strips of her apron. It was under some willows which +overhung the bank of a narrow and shallow lagoon or slough, which in +those days extended a mile or two back into the country on the farther +side of the river. Alice and Jean went over in a pirogue to see if the +water lilies, haunting a pond there, were yet beginning to bloom. They +landed at a convenient spot some distance up the little lagoon, made +the boat fast by dragging its prow high ashore, and were on the point +of setting out across a neck of wet, grassy land to the pond, when a +deep grunt, not unlike that of a self-satisfied pig, attracted them to +the willows, where they discovered Long-Hair, badly wounded, weltering +in some black mud. +</P> + +<P> +His hiding-place was cunningly chosen, save that the mire troubled him, +letting him down by slow degrees, and threatening to engulf him bodily; +and he was now too weak to extricate himself. He lifted his head and +glared. His face was grimy, his hair matted with mud. Alice, although +brave enough and quite accustomed to startling experiences, uttered a +cry when she saw those snaky eyes glistening so savagely amid the +shadows. But Jean was quick to recognize Long-Hair; he had often seen +him about town, a figure not to be forgotten. +</P> + +<P> +"They've been hunting him everywhere," he said in a half whisper to +Alice, clutching the skirt of her dress. "It's Long-Hair, the Indian +who stole the brandy; I know him." +</P> + +<P> +Alice recoiled a pace or two. +</P> + +<P> +"Let's go back and tell 'em," Jean added, still whispering, "they want +to kill him; Oncle Jazon said so. Come on!" +</P> + +<P> +He gave her dress a jerk; but she did not move any farther back; she +was looking at the blood oozing from a wound in the Indian's leg. +</P> + +<P> +"He is shot, he is hurt, Jean, we must help him," she presently said, +recovering her self-control, yet still pale. "We must get him out of +that bad place." +</P> + +<P> +Jean caught Alice's merciful spirit with sympathetic readiness, and +showed immediate willingness to aid her. +</P> + +<P> +It was a difficult thing to do; but there was a will and of course a +way. They had knives with which they cut willows to make a standing +place on the mud. While they were doing this they spoke friendly words +to Long-Hair, who understood French a little, and at last they got hold +of his arms, tugged, rested, tugged again, and finally managed to help +him to a dry place, still under the willows, where he could lie more at +ease. Jean carried water in his cap with which they washed the wound +and the stolid savage face. Then Alice tore up her cotton apron, in +which she had hoped to bear home a load of lilies, and with the strips +bound the wound very neatly. It took a long time, during which the +Indian remained silent and apparently quite indifferent. +</P> + +<P> +Long-Hair was a man of superior physique, tall, straight, with the +muscles of a Vulcan; and while he lay stretched on the ground half clad +and motionless, he would have been a grand model for an heroic figure +in bronze. Yet from every lineament there came a strange repelling +influence, like that from a snake. Alice felt almost unbearable disgust +while doing her merciful task; but she bravely persevered until it was +finished. +</P> + +<P> +It was now late in the afternoon, and the sun would be setting before +they could reach home. +</P> + +<P> +"We must hurry back, Jean," Alice said, turning to depart. "It will be +all we can do to reach the other side in daylight. I'm thinking that +they'll be out hunting for us too, if we don't move right lively. Come." +</P> + +<P> +She gave the Indian another glance when she had taken but a step. He +grunted and held up something in his hand—something that shone with a +dull yellow light. It was a small, oval, gold locket which she had +always worn in her bosom. She sprang and snatched it from his palm. +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you," she exclaimed, smiling gratefully. "I am so glad you found +it." +</P> + +<P> +The chain by which the locket had hung was broken, doubtless by some +movement while dragging Long-Hair out of the mud, and the lid had +sprung open, exposing a miniature portrait of Alice, painted when she +was a little child, probably not two years old. It was a sweet baby +face, archly bright, almost surrounded with a fluff of golden hair. The +neck and the upper line of the plump shoulders, with a trace of richly +delicate lace and a string of pearls, gave somehow a suggestion of +patrician daintiness. +</P> + +<P> +Long-Hair looked keenly into Alice's eyes, when she stooped to take the +locket from his hand, but said nothing. +</P> + +<P> +She and Jean now hurried away, and, so vigorously did they paddle the +pirogue, that the sky was yet red in the west when they reached home +and duly received their expected scolding from Madame Roussillon. +</P> + +<P> +Alice sealed Jean's lips as to their adventure; for she had made up her +mind to save Long-Hair if possible, and she felt sure that the only way +to do it would be to trust no one but Father Beret. +</P> + +<P> +It turned out that Long-Hair's wound was neither a broken bone nor a +cut artery. The flesh of his leg, midway between the hip and the knee, +was pierced; the bullet had bored a neat hole clean through. Father +Beret took the case in hand, and with no little surgical skill +proceeded to set the big Indian upon his feet again. The affair had to +be cleverly managed. Food, medicines and clothing were surreptitiously +borne across the river; a bed of grass was kept fresh under Long-Hair's +back; his wound was regularly dressed; and finally his weapons—a +tomahawk, a knife, a strong bow and a quiver of arrows—which he had +hidden on the night of his bold theft, were brought to him. +</P> + +<P> +"Now go and sin no more," said good Father Beret; but he well knew that +his words were mere puffs of articulate wind in the ear of the grim and +silent savage, who limped away with an air of stately dignity into the +wilderness. +</P> + +<P> +A load fell from Alice's mind when Father Beret informed her of +Long-Hair's recovery and departure. Day and night the dread lest some +of the men should find out his hiding-place and kill him had depressed +and worried her. And now, when it was all over, there still hovered +like an elusive shadow in her consciousness a vague haunting impression +of the incident's immense significance as an influence in her life. To +feel that she had saved a man from death was a new sensation of itself; +but the man and the circumstances were picturesque; they invited +imagination; they furnished an atmosphere of romance dear to all young +and healthy natures, and somehow stirred her soul with a strange appeal. +</P> + +<P> +Long-Hair's imperturbable calmness, his stolid, immobile countenance, +the mysterious reptilian gleam of his shifty black eyes, and the +soulless expression always lurking in them, kept a fascinating hold on +the girl's memory. They blended curiously with the impressions left by +the romances she had read in M. Roussillon's mildewed books. +</P> + +<P> +Long-Hair was not a young man; but it would have been impossible to +guess near his age. His form and face simply showed long experience and +immeasurable vigor. Alice remembered with a shuddering sensation the +look he gave her when she took the locket from his hand. It was of but +a second's duration, yet it seemed to search every nook of her being +with its subtle power. +</P> + +<P> +Romancers have made much of their Indian heroes, picturing them as +models of manly beauty and nobility; but all fiction must be taken with +liberal pinches of salt. The plain truth is that dark savages of the +pure blood often do possess the magnetism of perfect physical +development and unfathomable mental strangeness; but real beauty they +never have. Their innate repulsiveness is so great that, like the +snake's charm, it may fascinate; yet an indescribable, haunting disgust +goes with it. And, after all, if Alice had been asked to tell just how +she felt toward the Indian she had labored so hard to save, she would +promptly have said: +</P> + +<P> +"I loathe him as I do a toad!" +</P> + +<P> +Nor would Father Beret, put to the same test, have made a substantially +different confession. His work, to do which his life went as fuel to +fire, was training the souls of Indians for the reception of divine +grace; but experience had not changed his first impression of savage +character. When he traveled in the wilderness he carried the Word and +the Cross; but he was also armed with a gun and two good pistols, not +to mention a dangerous knife. The rumor prevailed that Father Beret +could drive a nail at sixty yards with his rifle, and at twenty snuff a +candle with either one of his pistols. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap04"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER IV +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE FIRST MAYOR OF VINCENNES +</H3> + +<P> +Governor Abbott probably never so much as heard of the dame jeanne of +French brandy sent to him by his creole friend in New Orleans. He had +been gone from Vincennes several months when the batteau arrived, +having been recalled to Detroit by the British authorities; and he +never returned. Meantime the little post with its quaint cabins and its +dilapidated block-house, called Fort Sackville, lay sunning drowsily by +the river in a blissful state of helplessness from the military point +of view. There was no garrison; the two or three pieces of artillery, +abandoned and exposed, gathered rust and cobwebs, while the pickets of +the stockade, decaying and loosened in the ground by winter freezes and +summer rains, leaned in all directions, a picture of decay and +inefficiency. +</P> + +<P> +The inhabitants of the town, numbering about six hundred, lived very +much as pleased them, without any regular municipal government, each +family its own tribe, each man a law unto himself; yet for mutual +protection, they all kept in touch and had certain common rights which +were religiously respected and defended faithfully. A large pasturing +ground was fenced in where the goats and little black cows of the +villagers browsed as one herd, while the patches of wheat, corn and +vegetables were not inclosed at all. A few of the thriftier and more +important citizens, however, had separate estates of some magnitude, +surrounding their residences, kept up with care and, if the time and +place be taken into account, with considerable show of taste. +</P> + +<P> +Monsieur Gaspard Roussillon was looked upon as the aristocrat par +excellence of Vincennes, notwithstanding the fact that his name bore no +suggestion of noble or titled ancestry. He was rich and in a measure +educated; moreover the successful man's patent of leadership, a +commanding figure and a suave manner, came always to his assistance +when a crisis presented itself. He traded shrewdly, much to his own +profit, but invariably with the excellent result that the man, white or +Indian, with whom he did business felt himself especially favored in +the transaction. By the exercise of firmness, prudence, vast +assumption, florid eloquence and a kindly liberality he had greatly +endeared himself to the people; so that in the absence of a military +commander he came naturally to be regarded as the chief of the town, +Mo'sieu' le maire. +</P> + +<P> +He returned from his extended trading expedition about the middle of +July, bringing, as was his invariable rule, a gift for Alice. This time +it was a small, thin disc of white flint, with a hole in the center +through which a beaded cord of sinew was looped. The edge of the disc +was beautifully notched and the whole surface polished so that it shone +like glass, while the beads, made of very small segments of porcupine +quills, were variously dyed, making a curiously gaudy show of bright +colors. +</P> + +<P> +"There now, ma cherie, is something worth fifty times its weight in +gold," said M. Roussillon when he presented the necklace to his foster +daughter with pardonable self-satisfaction. "It is a sacred +charm-string given me by an old heathen who would sell his soul for a +pint of cheap rum. He solemnly informed me that whoever wore it could +not by any possibility be killed by an enemy." +</P> + +<P> +Alice kissed M. Roussillon. +</P> + +<P> +"It's so curious and beautiful," she said, holding it up and drawing +the variegated string through her fingers. Then, with her mischievous +laugh, she added; "and I'm glad it is so powerful against one's enemy; +I'll wear it whenever I go where Adrienne Bourcier is, see if I don't!" +</P> + +<P> +"Is she your enemy? What's up between you and la petite Adrienne, eh?" +M. Roussillon lightly demanded. "You were always the best of good +friends, I thought. What's happened?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, we are good friends," said Alice, quickly, "very good friends, +indeed; I was but chaffing." +</P> + +<P> +"Good friends, but enemies; that's how it is with women. Who's the +young man that's caused the coolness? I could guess, maybe!" He laughed +and winked knowingly. "May I be so bold as to name him at a venture?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, if you'll be sure to mention Monsieur Rene de Ronville," she +gayly answered. "Who but he could work Adrienne up into a perfect green +mist of jealousy?" +</P> + +<P> +"He would need an accomplice, I should imagine; a young lady of some +beauty and a good deal of heartlessness." +</P> + +<P> +"Like whom, for example?" and she tossed her bright head. "Not me, I am +sure." +</P> + +<P> +"Poh! like every pretty maiden in the whole world, ma petite coquette; +they're all alike as peas, cruel as blue jays and as sweet as +apple-blossoms." He stroked her hair clumsily with his large hand, as a +heavy and roughly fond man is apt to do, adding in an almost serious +tone: +</P> + +<P> +"But my little girl is better than most of them, not a foolish +mischief-maker, I hope." +</P> + +<P> +Alice was putting her head through the string of beads and letting the +translucent white disc fall into her bosom. +</P> + +<P> +"It's time to change the subject," she said; "tell me what you have +seen while away. I wish I could go far off and see things. Have you +been to Detroit, Quebec, Montreal?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I've been to all, a long, hard journey, but reasonably +profitable. You shall have a goodly dot when you get married, my child." +</P> + +<P> +"And did you attend any parties and balls?" she inquired quickly, +ignoring his concluding remark. "Tell me about them. How do the fine +ladies dress, and do they wear their hair high with great big combs? Do +they have long skirts and—" +</P> + +<P> +"Hold up, you double-tongued chatterbox!" he interrupted; "I can't +answer forty questions at once. Yes, I danced till my legs ached with +women old and girls young; but how could I remember how they were +dressed and what their style of coiffure was? I know that silk rustled +and there was a perfume of eau de Cologne and mignonette and my heart +expanded and blazed while I whirled like a top with a sweet lady in my +arms." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, you must have cut a ravishing figure!" interpolated Madame +Roussillon with emphatic disapproval, her eyes snapping. "A bull in a +lace shop. How delighted the ladies must have been!" +</P> + +<P> +"Never saw such blushing faces and burning glances—such fluttering +breasts, such—" +</P> + +<P> +"Big braggart," Madame Roussillon broke in contemptuously, "it's a +piastre to a sou that you stood gawping in through a window while +gentlemen and ladies did the dancing. I can imagine how you looked—I +can!" and with this she took her prodigious bulk at a waddling gait out +of the room. "I remember how you danced even when you were not clumsy +as a pig on ice!" she shrieked back over her shoulder. +</P> + +<P> +"Parbleu! true enough, my dear," he called after her, "I should think +you could—you mind how we used trip it together. You were the +prettiest dancer them all, and the young fellows all went to the swords +about you!" +</P> + +<P> +"But tell me more," Alice insisted; "I want to know about what you saw +in the great towns—in the fine houses—how the ladies looked, how they +acted—what they said—the dresses they wore—how—" +</P> + +<P> +"Ciel! you will split my ears, child; can't you fill my pipe and bring +it to me with a coal on it? Then I'll try to tell you what I can," he +cried, assuming a humorously resigned air. "Perhaps if I smoke I can +remember everything." +</P> + +<P> +Alice gladly ran to do what he asked. Meantime Jean was out on the +gallery blowing a flute that M. Roussillon had brought him from Quebec. +</P> + +<P> +The pipe well filled and lighted apparently did have the effect to +steady and encourage M. Roussillon's memory; or if not his memory, then +his imagination, which was of that fervid and liberal sort common to +natives of the Midi, and which has been exquisitely depicted by the +late Alphonse Daudet in Tartarin and Bompard. He leaned far back in a +strong chair, with his massive legs stretched at full length, and gazed +at the roof-poles while he talked. +</P> + +<P> +He sympathized fully, in his crude way, with Alice's lively curiosity, +and his affection for her made him anxious to appease her longing after +news from the great outside world. If the sheer truth must come out, +however, he knew precious little about that world, especially the +polite part of it in which thrived those femininities so dear to the +heart of an isolated and imaginative girl. Still, as he, too, lived in +Arcadia, there was no great effort involved when he undertook to blow a +dreamer's flute. +</P> + +<P> +In the first place he had not been in Quebec or Montreal during his +absence from home. Most of the time he had spent disposing of pelts and +furs at Detroit and in extending his trading relations with other +posts; but what mattered a trifling want of facts when his meridional +fancy once began to warm up? A smattering of social knowledge gained at +first hand in his youthful days in France while he was a student whose +parents fondly expected him to conquer the world, came to his aid, and +besides he had saturated himself all his life with poetry and romance. +Scudery, Scarron, Prevost, Madame La Fayette and Calprenede were the +chief sources of his information touching the life and manners, morals +and gayeties of people who, as he supposed, stirred the surface of that +resplendent and far-off ocean called society. Nothing suited him better +than to smoke a pipe and talk about what he had seen and done; and the +less he had really seen and done the more he had to tell. +</P> + +<P> +His broad, almost over-virile, kindly and contented face beamed with +the warmth of wholly imaginary recollections while he recounted with +minute circumstantiality to the delighted Alice his gallant adventures +in the crowded and brilliant ball-rooms of the French-Canadian towns. +The rolling burr of his bass voice, deep and resonant, gave force to +the improvised descriptions. +</P> + +<P> +Madame Roussillon heard the heavy booming and presently came softly +back into the door from the kitchen to listen. She leaned against the +facing in an attitude of ponderous attention, a hand, on her bulging +hip. She could not suppress her unbounded admiration of her liege +lord's manly physique, and jealous to fierceness as she was of his +experiences so eloquently and picturesquely related, her woman's nature +took fire with enjoyment of the scenes described. +</P> + +<P> +This is the mission of the poet and the romancer—to sponge out of +existence, for a time, the stiff, refractory, and unlovely realities +and give in their place a scene of ideal mobility and charm. The two +women reveled in Gaspard Roussillon's revelations. They saw the +brilliant companies, the luxurious surroundings, heard the rustle of +brocade and the fine flutter of laces, the hum of sweet voices, +breathed in the wafts of costly perfumeries, looked on while the +dancers whirled and flickered in the confusion of lights; and over all +and through all poured and vibrated such ravishing music as only the +southern imagination could have conjured up out of nothing. +</P> + +<P> +Alice was absolutely charmed. She sat on a low wooden stool and gazed +into Gaspard Roussillon's face with dilating eyes in which burned that +rich and radiant something we call a passionate soul. She drank in his +flamboyant stream of words with a thirst which nothing but experience +could ever quench. He felt her silent applause and the admiring +involuntary absorption that possessed his wife; the consciousness of +his elementary magnetism augmented the flow of his fine descriptions, +and he went on and on, until the arrival of Father Beret put an end to +it all. +</P> + +<P> +The priest, hearing of M. Roussillon's return, had come to inquire +about some friends living at Detroit. He took luncheon with the family, +enjoying the downright refreshing collation of broiled birds, onions, +meal-cakes and claret, ending with a dish of blackberries and cream. +</P> + +<P> +M. Roussillon seized the first opportunity to resume his successful +romancing, and presently in the midst of the meal began to tell Father +Beret about what he had seen in Quebec. +</P> + +<P> +"By the way," he said, with expansive casualness in his voice, "I +called upon your old-time friend and co-adjutor, Father Sebastien, +while up there. A noble old man. He sent you a thousand good messages. +Was mightily delighted when I told him how happy and hale you have +always been here. Ah, you should have seen his dear old eyes full of +loving tears. He would walk a hundred miles to see you, he said, but +never expected to in this world. Blessings, blessings upon dear Father +Beret, was what he murmured in my ear when we were parting. He says +that he will never leave Quebec until he goes to his home above—ah!" +</P> + +<P> +The way in which M. Roussillon closed his little speech, his large eyes +upturned, his huge hands clasped in front of him, was very effective. +</P> + +<P> +"I am under many obligations, my son," said Father Beret, "for what you +tell me. It was good of you to remember my dear old friend and go to +him for his loving messages to me. I am very, very thankful. Help me to +another drop of wine, please." +</P> + +<P> +Now the extraordinary feature of the situation was that Father Beret +had known positively for nearly five years that Father Sebastien was +dead and buried. +</P> + +<P> +"Ah, yes," M. Roussillon continued, pouring the claret with one hand +and making a pious gesture with the other; "the dear old man loves you +and prays for you; his voice quavers whenever he speaks of you." +</P> + +<P> +"Doubtless he made his old joke to you about the birth-mark on my +shoulder," said Father Beret after a moment of apparently thoughtful +silence. "He may have said something about it in a playful way, eh?" +</P> + +<P> +"True, true, why yes, he surely mentioned the same," assented M. +Roussillon, his face assuming an expression of confused memory; "it was +something sly and humorous, I mind; but it just escapes my +recollection. A right jolly old boy is Father Sebastien; indeed very +amusing at times." +</P> + +<P> +"At times, yes," said Father Beret, who had no birth-mark on his +shoulder, and had never had one there, or on any other part of his +person. +</P> + +<P> +"How strange!" Alice remarked, "I, too, have a mark on my shoulder—a +pink spot, just like a small, five-petaled flower. We must be of kin to +each other, Father Beret." +</P> + +<P> +The priest laughed. +</P> + +<P> +"If our marks are alike, that would be some evidence of kinship," he +said. +</P> + +<P> +"But what shape is yours, Father?" +</P> + +<P> +"I've never seen it," he responded. +</P> + +<P> +"Never seen it! Why?" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, it's absolutely invisible," and he chuckled heartily, meantime +glancing shrewdly at M. Roussillon out of the tail of his eye. +</P> + +<P> +"It's on the back part of his shoulder," quickly spoke up M. +Roussillon, "and you know priests never use looking-glasses. The mark +is quite invisible therefore, so far as Father Beret is concerned!" +</P> + +<P> +"You never told me of your birth-mark before, my daughter," said Father +Beret, turning to Alice with sudden interest. "It may some day be good +fortune to you." +</P> + +<P> +"Why so, Father?" +</P> + +<P> +"If your family name is really Tarleton, as you suppose from the +inscription on your locket, the birth-mark, being of such singular +shape, would probably identify you. It is said that these marks run +regularly in families. With the miniature and the distinguishing +birth-mark you have enough to make a strong case should you once find +the right Tarleton family." +</P> + +<P> +"You talk as they write in novels," said Alice. "I've read about just +such things in them. Wouldn't it be grand if I should turn out to be +some great personage in disguise!" +</P> + +<P> +The mention of novels reminded Father Beret of that terrible book, +Manon Lescaut, which he last saw in Alice's possession, and he could +not refrain from mentioning it in a voice that shuddered. +</P> + +<P> +"Rest easy, Father Beret," said Alice; "that is one novel I have found +wholly distasteful to me. I tried to read it, but could not do it, I +flung it aside in utter disgust. You and mother Roussillon are welcome +to hide it deep as a well, for all I care. I don't enjoy reading about +low, vile people and hopeless unfortunates; I like sweet and lovely +heroines and strong, high-souled, brave heroes." +</P> + +<P> +"Read about the blessed saints, then, my daughter; you will find in +them the true heroes and heroines of this world," said Father Beret. +</P> + +<P> +M. Roussillon changed the subject, for he always somehow dreaded to +have the good priest fall into the strain of argument he was about to +begin. A stray sheep, no matter how refractory, feels a touch of +longing when it hears the shepherd's voice. M. Roussillon was a +Catholic, but a straying one, who avoided the confessional and often +forgot mass. Still, with all his reckless independence, and with all +his outward show of large and breezy self-sufficiency, he was not +altogether free from the hold that the church had laid upon him in +childhood and youth. Moreover, he was fond of Father Beret and had done +a great deal for the little church of St. Xavier and the mission it +represented; but he distinctly desired to be let alone while he pursued +his own course; and he had promised the dying woman who gave Alice to +him that the child should be left as she was, a Protestant, without +undue influence to change her from the faith of her parents. This +promise he had kept with stubborn persistence and he meant to keep it +as long as he lived. Perhaps the very fact that his innermost +conscience smote him with vague yet telling blows at times for this +departure from the strict religion of his fathers, may have intensified +his resistance of the influence constantly exerted upon Alice by Father +Beret and Madame Roussillon, to bring her gently but surely to the +church. Perverseness is a force to be reckoned with in all original +characters. +</P> + +<P> +A few weeks had passed after M. Roussillon's return, when that +big-hearted man took it into his head to celebrate his successful +trading ventures with a moonlight dance given without reserve to all +the inhabitants of Vincennes. It was certainly a democratic function +that he contemplated, and motley to a most picturesque extent. +</P> + +<P> +Rene de Ronville called upon Alice a day or two previous to the +occasion and duly engaged her as his partenaire; but she insisted upon +having the engagement guarded in her behalf by a condition so obviously +fanciful that he accepted it without argument. +</P> + +<P> +"If my wandering knight should arrive during the dance, you promise to +stand aside and give place to him," she stipulated. "You promise that? +You see I'm expecting him all the time. I dreamed last night that he +came on a great bay horse and, stooping, whirled me up behind the +saddle, and away we went!" +</P> + +<P> +There was a childish, half bantering air in her look; but her voice +sounded earnest and serious, notwithstanding its delicious timbre of +suppressed playfulness. +</P> + +<P> +"You promise me?" she insisted. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I promise to slink away into a corner and chew my thumb, the +moment he comes," Rene eagerly assented. "Of course I'm taking a great +risk, I know; for lords and barons and knights are very apt to appear +Suddenly in a place like this." +</P> + +<P> +"You may banter and make light if you want to," she said, pouting +admirably. "I don't care. All the same the laugh will jump to the other +corner of your mouth, see if it doesn't. They say that what a person +dreams about and wishes for and waits for and believes in, will come +true sooner or later." +</P> + +<P> +"If that's so," said Rene, "you and I will get married; for I've +dreamed it every night of the year, wished for it, waited for it and +believed in it, and—" +</P> + +<P> +It was a madly sudden rush. He made it on an impulse quite +irresistible, as hypnotized persons are said to do in response to the +suggestion of the hypnotist, and his heart was choking his throat +before he could end his speech. Alice interrupted him with a hearty +burst of laughter. +</P> + +<P> +"A very pretty twist you give to my words, I must declare," she said; +"but not new by any means. Little Adrienne Bourcier could tell you +that. She says that you have vowed to her over and over that you dream +about her, and wish for her, and wait for her, precisely as you have +just said to me." +</P> + +<P> +Rene's brown face flushed to the temples, partly with anger, partly +with the shock of mingled surprise and fear. He was guilty, and the +guilt showed in his eyes and paralyzed his tongue, so that he sat there +before Alice with his under jaw sagging ludicrously. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't you rather think, Monsieur Rene de Ronville," she presently +added in a calmly advisory tone, "that you had better quit trying to +say such foolish things to me, and just be my very good friend? If you +don't, I do, which comes to the same thing. What's more, I won't be +your partenaire at the dance unless you promise me on your word of +honor that you will dance two dances with Adrienne to every one that +you have with me. Do you promise?" +</P> + +<P> +He dared not oppose her outwardly, although in his heart resistance +amounted to furious revolt and riot. +</P> + +<P> +"I promise anything you ask me to," he said resignedly, almost +sullenly; "anything for you." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I ask nothing whatever on my own account," Alice quickly +replied; "but I do tell you firmly that you shall not maltreat little +Adrienne Bourcier and remain a friend of mine. She loves you, Rene de +Ronville, and you have told her that you love her. If you are a man +worthy of respect you will not desert her. Don't you think I am right?" +</P> + +<P> +Like a singed and crippled moth vainly trying to rise once again to the +alluring yet deadly flame, Rene de Ronville essayed to break out of his +embarrassment and resume equal footing with the girl so suddenly become +his commanding superior; but the effort disclosed to him as well as to +her that he had fallen to rise no more. In his abject defeat he +accepted the terms dictated by Alice and was glad when she adroitly +changed her manner and tone in going on to discuss the approaching +dance. +</P> + +<P> +"Now let me make one request of you," he demanded after a while. "It's +a small favor; may I ask it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, but I don't grant it in advance." +</P> + +<P> +"I want you to wear, for my sake, the buff gown which they say was your +grandmother's." +</P> + +<P> +"No, I won't wear it." +</P> + +<P> +"But why, Alice?" +</P> + +<P> +"None of the other girls have anything like such a dress; it would not +be right for me to put it on and make them all feel that I had taken +the advantage of them, just because I could; that's why." +</P> + +<P> +"But then none of them is beautiful and educated like you," he said; +"you'll outshine them anyway." +</P> + +<P> +"Save your compliments for poor pretty little Adrienne," she firmly +responded, "I positively do not wish to hear them. I have agreed to be +your partenaire at this dance of Papa Roussillon's, but it is +understood between us that Adrienne is your sweet-heart. I am not, and +I'm not going to be, either. So for your sake and Adrienne's, as well +as out of consideration for the rest of the girls who have no fine +dresses, I am not going to wear the buff brocade gown that belonged to +Papa Roussillon's mother long ago. I shall dress just as the rest do." +</P> + +<P> +It is safe to say that Rene de Ronville went home with a troublesome +bee in his bonnet. He was not a bad-hearted fellow. Many a right good +young man, before him and since, has loved an Adrienne and been dazzled +by an Alice. A violet is sweet, but a rose is the garden's queen. The +poor youthful frontiersman ought to have been stronger; but he was not, +and what have we to say? +</P> + +<P> +As for Alice, since having a confidential talk with Adrienne Bourcier +recently, she had come to realize what M. Roussillon meant when he +said; "But my little girl is better than most of them, not a foolish +mischief-maker, I hope." She saw through the situation with a quick +understanding of what Adrienne might suffer should Rene prove +permanently fickle. The thought of it aroused all her natural honesty +and serious nobleness of character, which lay deep under the almost +hoydenish levity usually observable in her manner. Crude as her sense +of life's larger significance was, and meager as had been her +experience in the things which count for most in the sum of a young +girl's existence under fair circumstances, she grasped intuitively the +gist of it all. +</P> + +<P> +The dance did not come off; it had to be postponed indefinitely on +account of a grave change in the political relations of the little +post. A day or two before the time set for that function a rumor ran +through the town that something of importance was about to happen. +Father Gibault, at the head of a small party, had arrived from +Kaskaskia, far away on the Mississippi, with the news that France and +the American Colonies had made common cause against the English in the +great war of which the people of Vincennes neither knew the cause nor +cared a straw about the outcome. +</P> + +<P> +It was Oncle Jazon who came to the Roussillon place to tell M. +Roussillon that he was wanted at the river house. Alice met him at the +door. +</P> + +<P> +"Come in, Oncle Jazon," she cheerily said, "you are getting to be a +stranger at our house lately. Come in; what news do you bring? Take off +your cap and rest your hair, Oncle Jazon." +</P> + +<P> +The scalpless old fighter chuckled raucously and bowed to the best of +his ability. He not only took off his queer cap, but looked into it +with a startled gaze, as if he expected something infinitely dangerous +to jump out and seize his nose. +</P> + +<P> +"A thousand thanks, Ma'm'selle," he presently said, "will ye please +tell Mo'sieu' Roussillon that I would wish to see 'im?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, Oncle Jazon; but first be seated, and let me offer you just a +drop of eau de vie; some that Papa Roussillon brought back with him +from Quebec. He says it's old and fine." +</P> + +<P> +She poured him a full glass, then setting the bottle on a little stand, +went to find M. Roussillon. While she was absent Oncle Jazon improved +his opportunity to the fullest extent. At least three additional +glasses of the brandy went the way of the first. He grinned atrociously +and smacked his corrugated lips; but when Gaspard Roussillon came in, +the old man was sitting at some distance from the bottle and glass +gazing indifferently out across the veranda. He told his story curtly. +Father Gibault, he said, had sent him to ask M. Roussillon to come to +the river house, as he had news of great importance to communicate. +</P> + +<P> +"Ah, well, Oncle Jazon, we'll have a nip of brandy together before we +go," said the host. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, yes, jes' one agin' the broilin' weather," assented Oncle Jazon; +"I don't mind jes' one." +</P> + +<P> +"A very rich friend of mine in Quebec gave me this brandy, Oncle +Jazon," said M. Roussillon, pouring the liquor with a grand flourish; +"and I thought of you as soon as I got it. Now, says I to myself, if +any man knows good brandy when he tastes it, it's Oncle Jazon, and I'll +give him a good chance at this bottle just the first of all my friends." +</P> + +<P> +"It surely is delicious," said Oncle Jazon, "very delicious." He spoke +French with a curious accent, having spent long years with +English-speaking frontiersmen in the Carolinas and Kentucky, so that +their lingo had become his own. +</P> + +<P> +As they walked side by side down the way to the river house they looked +like typical extremes of rough, sun-burned and weather-tanned manhood; +Oncle Jazon a wizened, diminutive scrap, wrinkled and odd in every +respect; Gaspard Roussillon towering six feet two, wide shouldered, +massive, lumbering, muscular, a giant with long curling hair and a +superb beard. They did not know that they were going down to help +dedicate the great Northwest to freedom. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap05"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER V +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +FATHER GIBAULT +</H3> + +<P> +Great movements in the affairs of men are like tides of the seas which +reach and affect the remotest and quietest nooks and inlets, imparting +a thrill and a swell of the general motion. Father Gibault brought the +wave of the American Revolution to Vincennes. He was a simple +missionary; but he was, besides, a man of great worldly knowledge and +personal force. Colonel George Rogers Clark made Father Gibault's +acquaintance at Kaskaskia, when the fort and its garrison surrendered +to his command, and, quickly discerning the fine qualities of the +priest's character, sent him to the post on the Wabash to win over its +people to the cause of freedom and independence. Nor was the task +assumed a hard one, as Father Gibault probably well knew before he +undertook it. +</P> + +<P> +A few of the leading men of Vincennes, presided over by Gaspard +Roussillon, held a consultation at the river house, and it was agreed +that a mass meeting should be called bringing all of the inhabitants +together in the church for the purpose of considering the course to be +taken under the circumstances made known by Father Gibault. Oncle Jazon +constituted himself an executive committee of one to stir up a noise +for the occasion. +</P> + +<P> +It was a great day for Vincennes. The volatile temperament of the +French frontiersmen bubbled over with enthusiasm at the first hint of +something new, and revolutionary in which they might be expected to +take part. Without knowing in the least what it was that Father Gibault +and Oncle Jazon wanted of them, they were all in favor of it at a +venture. +</P> + +<P> +Rene de Ronville, being an active and intelligent young man, was sent +about through the town to let everybody know of the meeting. In passing +he stepped into the cabin of Father Beret, who was sitting on the loose +puncheon floor, with his back turned toward the entrance and so +absorbed in trying to put together a great number of small paper +fragments that he did not hear or look up. +</P> + +<P> +"Are you not going to the meeting, Father?" Rene bluntly demanded. In +the hurry that was on him he did not remember to be formally polite, as +was his habit. +</P> + +<P> +The old priest looked up with a startled face. At the same time he +swept the fragments of paper together and clutched them hard in his +right hand. "Yes, yes, my son—yes I am going, but the time has not yet +come for it, has it?" he stammered. "Is it late?" +</P> + +<P> +He sprang to his feet and appeared confused, as if caught in doing +something very improper. +</P> + +<P> +Rene wondered at this unusual behavior, but merely said: +</P> + +<P> +"I beg pardon, Father Beret, I did not mean to disturb you," and went +his way. +</P> + +<P> +Father Beret stood for some minutes as if dazed, then squeezed the +paper fragments into a tight ball, just as they were when he took them +from under the floor some time before Rene came in, and put it in his +pocket. A little later he was kneeling, as we have seen him once +before, in silent yet fervent prayer, his clasped hands lifted toward +the crucifix on the wall. +</P> + +<P> +"Jesus, give me strength to hold on and do my work," he murmured +beseechingly, "and oh, free thy poor servant from bitter temptation." +</P> + +<P> +Father Gibault had come prepared to use his eloquence upon the +excitable Creoles, and with considerable cunning he addressed a motley +audience at the church, telling them that an American force had taken +Kaskaskia and would henceforth hold it; that France had joined hands +with the Americans against the British, and that it was the duty of all +Frenchmen to help uphold the cause of freedom and independence. +</P> + +<P> +"I come," said he, "directly from Colonel George Rogers Clark, a noble +and brave officer of the American army, who told me the news that I +have brought to you. He sent me here to say to you that if you will +give allegiance to his government you shall be protected against all +enemies and have the full freedom of citizens. I think you should do +this without a moment's hesitation, as I and my people at Kaskaskia +have already done. But perhaps you would like to have a word from your +distinguished fellow-citizen, Monsieur Gaspard Roussillon. Speak to +your friends, my son, they will be glad to take counsel of your wisdom." +</P> + +<P> +There was a stir and a craning of necks. M. Roussillon presently +appeared near the little chancel, his great form towering majestically. +He bowed and waved his hand with the air of one who accepts distinction +as a matter of course; then he took his big silver watch and looked at +it. He was the only man in Vincennes who owned a watch, and so the +incident was impressive. Father Gibault looked pleased, and already a +murmur of applause went through the audience. M. Roussillon stroked the +bulging crystal of the time-piece with a circular motion of his thumb +and bowed again, clearing his throat resonantly, his face growing +purplish above his beard. +</P> + +<P> +"Good friends," he said, "what France does all high-class Frenchmen +applaud." He paused for a shout of approbation, and was not +disappointed. "The other name for France is glory," he added, "and all +true Frenchmen love both names. I am a true Frenchman!" and he struck +his breast a resounding blow with the hand that still held the watch. A +huge horn button on his buckskin jerkin came in contact with the +crystal, and there was a smash, followed by a scattered tinkling of +glass fragments. +</P> + +<P> +All Vincennes stood breathless, contemplating the irreparable accident. +M. Roussillon had lost the effect of a great period in his speech, but +he was quick. Lifting the watch to his ear, he listened a moment with +superb dignity, then slowly elevating his head and spreading his free +hand over his heart he said: +</P> + +<P> +"The faithful time-piece still tells off the seconds, and the loyal +heart of its owner still throbs with patriotism." +</P> + +<P> +Oncle Jazon, who stood in front of the speaker, swung his shapeless cap +as high as he could and yelled like a savage. Then the crowd went wild +for a time. +</P> + +<P> +"Vive la France! A bas l' Angleterre!" Everybody shouted at the top of +his voice. +</P> + +<P> +"What France does we all do," continued M. Roussillon, when the noise +subsided. "France has clasped hands with George Washington and his +brave compatriots; so do we." +</P> + +<P> +"Vive Zhorzh Vasinton!" shrieked Oncle Jazon in a piercing treble, +tiptoeing and shaking his cap recklessly under M. Roussillon's nose. +</P> + +<P> +The orator winced and jerked his head back, but nobody saw it, save +perhaps Father Gibault, who laughed heartily. +</P> + +<P> +Great sayings come suddenly, unannounced and unexpected. They have the +mysterious force of prophetic accident combined with happy economy of +phrasing. The southern blood in M. Roussillon's veins was effervescing +upon his brain; his tongue had caught the fine freedom and abandon of +inspired oratory. He towered and glowed; words fell melodiously from +his lips; his gestures were compelling, his visage magnetic. In +conclusion he said: +</P> + +<P> +"Frenchmen, America is the garden-spot of the world and will one day +rule it, as did Rome of old. Where freedom makes her home, there is the +centre of power!" +</P> + +<P> +It was in a little log church on the verge of a hummock overlooking a +marshy wild meadow. Westward for two thousand miles stretched the +unbroken prairies, woods, mountains, deserts reaching to the Pacific; +southward for a thousand miles rolled the green billows of the +wilderness to the warm Gulf shore; northward to the pole and eastward +to the thin fringe of settlements beyond the mountains, all was +houseless solitude. +</P> + +<P> +If the reader should go to Vincennes to-day and walk southward along +Second Street to its intersection with Church Street, the spot then +under foot would be probably very near where M. Roussillon stood while +uttering his great sentence. Mind you, the present writer does not +pretend to know the exact site of old Saint Xavier church. If it could +be fixed beyond doubt the spot should have an imperishable monument of +Indiana stone. +</P> + +<P> +When M, Roussillon ceased speaking the audience again exhausted its +vocal resources; and then Father Gibault called upon each man to come +forward and solemnly pledge his loyalty to the American cause. Not one +of them hesitated. +</P> + +<P> +Meantime a woman was doing her part in the transformation of Post +Vincennes from a French-English picket to a full-fledged American fort +and town. Madame Godere, finding out what was about to happen, fell to +work making a flag in imitation of that under which George Washington +was fighting. Alice chanced to be in the Godere home at the time and +joined enthusiastically in the sewing. It was an exciting task. Their +fingers trembled while they worked, and the thread, heavily coated with +beeswax, squeaked as they drew it through the cloth. +</P> + +<P> +"We shall not be in time," said Madame Godere; "I know we shall not. +Everything hinders me. My thread breaks or gets tangled and my needle's +so rusty I can hardly stick it through the cloth. O dear!" +</P> + +<P> +Alice encouraged her with both words and work, and they had almost +finished when Rene came with a staff which he had brought from the fort. +</P> + +<P> +"Mon dieu, but we have had a great meeting!" he cried. He was +perspiring with excitement and fast walking; leaning on the staff he +mopped his face with a blue handkerchief. +</P> + +<P> +"We heard much shouting and noise," said Madame Godere, "M. +Roussillon's voice rose loud above the rest. He roared like a lion." +</P> + +<P> +"Ah, he was speaking to us; he was very eloquent," Rene replied. "But +now they are waiting at the fort for the new flag. I have come for it." +</P> + +<P> +"It is ready," said Madame Godere. +</P> + +<P> +With flying fingers Alice sewed it to the staff. +</P> + +<P> +"Voici!" she cried, "vive la republique Americaine!" She lifted the +staff and let the flag droop over her from head to foot. +</P> + +<P> +"Give it to me," said Rene, holding forth a hand for it, "and I'll run +to the fort with it." +</P> + +<P> +"No," said Alice, her face suddenly lighting up with resolve. "No, I am +going to take it myself," and without a moment's delay off she went. +</P> + +<P> +Rene was so caught by surprise that he stood gazing after her until she +passed behind a house, where the way turned, the shining flag rippling +around her, and her moccasins twinkling as she ran. +</P> + +<P> +At the blockhouse, awaiting the moment when the symbol of freedom +should rise like a star over old Vincennes the crowd had picturesquely +broken into scattered groups. Alice entered through a rent in the +stockade, as that happened to be a shorter route than through the gate, +and appeared suddenly almost in their midst. +</P> + +<P> +It was a happy surprise, a pretty and catching spectacular apparition +of a sort to be thoroughly appreciated by the lively French fancy of +the audience. The caught the girl's spirit, or it caught them, and they +made haste to be noisy. +</P> + +<P> +"V'la! V'la! l'p'tite Alice et la bannlere de Zhorzh Vasinton! (Look, +look, little Alice and George Washington's flag!)" shouted Oncle Jazon. +He put his wiry little legs through a sort of pas de zephyr and winked +at himself with concentrated approval. +</P> + +<P> +All the men danced around and yelled till they were hoarse. +</P> + +<P> +By this time Rene had reached Alice's side; but she did not see him; +she ran into the blockhouse and climbed up a rude ladder-way; then she +appeared on the roof, still accompanied by Rene, and planted the staff +in a crack of the slabs, where it stood bravely up, the colors floating +free. +</P> + +<P> +She looked down and saw M. Roussillon, Father Gibault and Father Beret +grouped in the centre of the area. They were waving their hands aloft +at her, while a bedlam of voices sent up applause which went through +her blood like strong wine. She smiled radiantly, and a sweet flush +glowed in her cheeks. +</P> + +<P> +No one of all that wild crowd could ever forget the picture sketched so +boldly at that moment when, after planting the staff, Alice stepped +back a space and stood strong and beautiful against the soft blue sky. +She glanced down first, then looked up, her arms folded across her +bosom. It was a pose as unconsciously taken as that of a bird, and the +grace of it went straight to the hearts of those below. +</P> + +<P> +She turned about to descend, and for the first time saw that Rene had +followed her. His face was beaming. +</P> + +<P> +"What a girl you are!" he exclaimed, in a tone of exultant admiration. +"Never was there another like you!" +</P> + +<P> +Alice walked quickly past him without speaking; for down in the space +where some women were huddled aside from the crowd, looking on, she had +seen little Adrienne Bourcier. She made haste to descend. Now that her +impulsively chosen enterprise was completed her boldness deserted her +and she slipped out through a dilapidated postern opposite the crowd. +On her right was the river, while southward before her lay a great flat +plain, beyond which rose some hillocks covered with forest. The sun +blazed between masses of slowly drifting clouds that trailed creeping +fantastic shadows across the marshy waste. +</P> + +<P> +Alice walked along under cover of the slight landswell which then, more +plainly marked than it is now, formed the contour line of hummock upon +which the fort and village stood. A watery swale grown full of tall +aquatic weeds meandered parallel with the bluff, so to call it, and +there was a soft melancholy whispering of wind among the long blades +and stems. She passed the church and Father Beret's hut and continued +for some distance in the direction of that pretty knoll upon which the +cemetery is at present so tastefully kept. She felt shy now, as if to +run away and hide would be a great relief. Indeed, so relaxed were her +nerves that a slight movement in the grass and cat-tail flags near by +startled her painfully, making her jump like a fawn. +</P> + +<P> +"Little friend not be 'fraid," said a guttural voice in broken French. +"Little friend not make noise." +</P> + +<P> +At a glance she recognized Long-Hair, the Indian, rising out of the +matted marsh growth. It was a hideous vision of embodied cunning, +soullessness and murderous cruelty. +</P> + +<P> +"Not tell white man you see me?" he grunted interrogatively, stepping +close to her. He looked so wicked that she recoiled and lifted her +hands defensively. +</P> + +<P> +She trembled from head to foot, and her voice failed her; but she made +a negative sign and smiled at him, turning as white as her tanned face +could become. +</P> + +<P> +In his left hand he held his bow, while in his right he half lifted a +murderous looking tomahawk. +</P> + +<P> +"What new flag mean?" he demanded, waving the bow's end toward the fort +and bending his head down close to hers. "Who yonder?" +</P> + +<P> +"The great American Father has taken us under his protection," she +explained. "We are big-knives now." It almost choked her to speak. +</P> + +<P> +"Ugh! heap damn fools," he said with a dark scowl. "Little friend much +damn fool." +</P> + +<P> +He straightened up his tall form and stood leering at her for some +seconds, then added: +</P> + +<P> +"Little friend get killed, scalped, maybe." +</P> + +<P> +The indescribable nobility of animal largeness, symmetry and strength +showed in his form and attitude, but the expression of his countenance +was absolutely repulsive—cold, hard, beastly. +</P> + +<P> +He did not speak again, but turned quickly, and stooping low, +disappeared like a great brownish red serpent in the high grass, which +scarcely stirred as he moved through it. +</P> + +<P> +Somehow that day made itself strangely memorable to Alice. She had been +accustomed to stirring scenes and sudden changes of conditions; but +this was the first time that she had ever joined actively in a public +movement of importance. Then, too, Long-Hair's picturesque and rudely +dramatic reappearance affected her imagination with an indescribable +force. Moreover, the pathetic situation in the love affair between Rene +and Adrienne had taken hold of her conscience with a disturbing grip. +But the shadowy sense of impending events, of which she could form no +idea, was behind it all. She had not heard of Brandywine, or Bunker +Hill, or Lexington, or Concord; but something like a waft of their +significance had blown through her mind. A great change was coming into +her idyllic life. She was indistinctly aware of it, as we sometimes are +of an approaching storm, while yet the sky is sweetly blue and serene. +When she reached home the house was full of people to whom M. +Roussillon, in the gayest of moods, was dispensing wine and brandy. +</P> + +<P> +"Vive Zhorzh Vasinton!" shouted Oncle Jazon as soon as he saw her. +</P> + +<P> +And then they all talked at once, saying flattering things about her. +Madame Roussillon tried to scold as usual; but the lively chattering of +the guests drowned her voice. +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose the American commander will send a garrison here," some one +said to Father Gibault, "and repair the fort." +</P> + +<P> +"Probably," the priest replied, "in a very few weeks. Meantime we will +garrison it ourselves." +</P> + +<P> +"And we will have M. Roussillon for commander," spoke up Rene de +Ronville, who was standing by. +</P> + +<P> +"A good suggestion," assented Father Gibault; "let us organize at once." +</P> + +<P> +Immediately the word was passed that there would be a meeting at the +fort that evening for the purpose of choosing a garrison and a +commander. Everybody went promptly at the hour set. M. Roussillon was +elected Captain by acclamation, with Rene de Ronville as his +Lieutenant. It was observed that Oncle Jazon had resumed his dignity, +and that he looked into his cap several times without speaking. +</P> + +<P> +Meantime certain citizens, who had been in close relations with +Governor Abbott during his stay, quietly slipped out of town, manned a +batteau and went up the river, probably to Ouiatenon first and then to +Detroit. Doubtless they suspected that things might soon grow too warm +for their comfort. +</P> + +<P> +It was thus that Vincennes and Fort Sackville first acknowledged the +American Government and hoisted the flag which, as long as it floated +over the blockhouse, was lightly and lovingly called by everyone la +banniere d'Alice Roussillon. +</P> + +<P> +Father Gibault returned to Fort Kaskaskia and a little later Captain +Leonard Helm, a jovial man, but past the prime of life, arrived at +Vincennes with a commission from Col. Clark authorizing him to +supersede M. Roussillon as commander, and to act as Indian agent for +the American Government in the Department of the Wabash. He was +welcomed by the villagers, and at once made himself very pleasing to +them by adapting himself to their ways and entering heartily into their +social activities. +</P> + +<P> +M. Roussillon was absent when Captain Helm and his party came. Rene de +Ronville, nominally in command of the fort, but actually enjoying some +excellent grouse shooting with a bell-mouthed old fowling piece on a +distant prairie, could not be present to deliver up the post; and as +there was no garrison just then visible, Helm took possession, without +any formalities. +</P> + +<P> +"I think, Lieutenant, that you'd better look around through the village +and see if you can scare up this Captain what's-his-name," said the new +commander to a stalwart young officer who had come with him. "I can't +think of these French names without getting my brain in a twist. Do you +happen to recollect the Captain's name, Lieutenant?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, sir; Gaspard Roussillon it reads in Colonel Clark's order; but I +am told that he's away on a trading tour," said the young man. +</P> + +<P> +"You may be told anything by these hair-tongued parlyvoos," Helm +remarked. "It won't hurt, anyway, to find out where he lives and make a +formal call, just for appearance sake, and to enquire about his health. +I wish you would try it, sir, and let me know the result." +</P> + +<P> +The Lieutenant felt that this was a peremptory order and turned about +to obey promptly. +</P> + +<P> +"And I say, Beverley, come back sober, if you possibly can," Helm added +in his most genial tone, thinking it a great piece of humor to suggest +sobriety to a man whose marked difference from men generally, of that +time, was his total abstinence from intoxicating drinks. +</P> + +<P> +Lieutenant Fitzhugh Beverley was a Virginian of Virginians. His family +had long been prominent in colonial affairs and boasted a record of +great achievements both in peace and in war. He was the only son of his +parents and heir to a fine estate consisting of lands and slaves; but, +like many another of the restless young cavaliers of the Old Dominion, +he had come in search of adventure over into Kentucky, along the path +blazed by Daniel Boone; and when Clark organized his little army, the +young man's patriotic and chivalrous nature leaped at the opportunity +to serve his country under so gallant a commander. +</P> + +<P> +Beverley was not a mere youth, although yet somewhat under thirty. +Educated abroad and naturally of a thoughtful and studious turn, he had +enriched his mind far beyond the usual limit among young Americans of +the very best class in that time; and so he appeared older than he +really was: an effect helped out by his large and powerful form and +grave dignity of bearing. Clark, who found him useful in emergencies, +cool, intrepid, daring to a fault and possessed of excellent judgement, +sent him with Helm, hoping that he would offset with his orderly +attention to details the somewhat go-as-you-please disposition of that +excellent officer. +</P> + +<P> +Beverley set out in search of the French commander's house, impressed +with no particular respect for him or his office. Somehow Americans of +Anglo-Saxon blood were slow to recognize any good qualities whatever in +the Latin Creoles of the West and South. It seemed to them that the +Frenchman and the Spaniard were much too apt to equalize themselves +socially and matrimonially with Indians and negroes. The very fact that +for a century, while Anglo-Americans had been in constant bloody +warfare with savages, Frenchmen had managed to keep on easy and highly +profitable trading terms with them, tended to confirm the worst +implication. "Eat frogs and save your scalp," was a bit of contemptuous +frontier humor indicative of what sober judgement held in reserve on +the subject. +</P> + +<P> +Intent upon his formal mission, Lieutenant Beverley stalked boldly into +the inclosure at Roussillon place and was met on the gallery by Madame +Roussillon in one of her worst moods. She glared at him with her hands +on her hips, her mouth set irritably aslant upward, her eyebrows +gathered into a dark knot over her nose. It would be hard to imagine a +more forbidding countenance; and for supplementary effect out popped +hunchback Jean to stand behind her, with his big head lying back in the +hollow of his shoulders and his long chin elevated, while he gawped +intently up into Beverley's face. +</P> + +<P> +"Bon jour, Madame," said the Lieutenant, lifting his hat and speaking +with a pleasant accent. "Would it be agreeable to Captain Roussillon +for me to see him a moment?" +</P> + +<P> +Despite Beverley's cleverness in using the French language, he had a +decided brusqueness of manner and a curt turn of voice not in the least +Gallic. True, the soft Virginian intonation marked every word, and his +obeisance was as low as if Madame Roussillon had been a queen; but the +light French grace was wholly lacking. +</P> + +<P> +"What do you want of my husband?" Madame Roussillon demanded. +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing unpleasant, I assure you, Madame," said Beverley. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, he's not at home, Mo'sieu; he's up the river for a few days." +</P> + +<P> +She relaxed her stare, untied her eyebrows, and even let fall her hands +from her shelf-like hips. +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you, Madame," said Beverley, bowing again, "I am sorry not to +have seen him." +</P> + +<P> +As he was turning to go a shimmer of brown hair streaked with gold +struck upon his vision from just within the door. He paused, as if in +response to a military command, while a pair of gray eyes met his with +a flash. The cabin room was ill lighted; but the crepuscular dimness +did not seem to hinder his sight. Beyond the girl's figure, a pair of +slender swords hung crossed aslant on the wall opposite the low door. +</P> + +<P> +Beverley had seen, in the old world galleries, pictures in which the +shadowy and somewhat uncertain background thus forced into strongest +projection the main figure, yet without clearly defining it. The rough +frame of the doorway gave just the rustic setting suited to Alice's +costume, the most striking part of which was a grayish short gown +ending just above her fringed buckskin moccasins. Around her head she +had bound a blue kerchief, a wide corner of which lay over her crown +like a loose cap. Her bright hair hung free upon her shoulders in +tumbled half curls. As a picture, the figure and its entourage might +have been artistically effective; but as Beverley saw it in actual life +the first impression was rather embarrassing. Somehow he felt almost +irresistibly invited to laugh, though he had never been much given to +risibility. The blending, or rather the juxtaposition, of extremes—a +face, a form immediately witching, and a costume odd to +grotesquery—had made an assault upon his comprehension at once so +sudden and so direct that his dignity came near being disastrously +broken up. A splendidly beautiful child comically clad would have made +much the same half delightful, half displeasing impression. +</P> + +<P> +Beverley could not stare at the girl, and no sooner had he turned his +back upon her than the picture in his mind changed like a scene in a +kaleidoscope. He now saw a tall, finely developed figure and a face +delicately oval, with a low, wide forehead, arched brows, a straight, +slightly tip-tilted nose, a mouth sweet and full, dimpled cheeks, and a +strong chin set above a faultless throat. His imagination, in casting +off its first impression, was inclined to exaggerate Alice's beauty and +to dwell upon its picturesqueness. He smiled as he walked back to the +fort, and even found himself whistling gayly a snatch from a rollicking +fiddle-tune that he had heard when a boy. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap06"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VI +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +A FENCING BOUT +</H3> + +<P> +A few days after Helm's arrival, M. Roussillon returned to Vincennes, +and if he was sorely touched in his amour propre by seeing his suddenly +acquired military rank and title drop away, he did not let it be known +to his fellow citizens. He promptly called upon the new commander and +made acquaintance with Lieutenant Fitzhugh Beverley, who just then was +superintending the work of cleaning up an old cannon in the fort and +mending some breaks in the stockade. +</P> + +<P> +Helm formed a great liking for the big Frenchman, whose breezy freedom +of manner and expansive good humor struck him favorably from the +beginning. M. Roussillon's ability to speak English with considerable +ease helped the friendship along, no doubt; at all events their first +interview ended with a hearty show of good fellowship, and as time +passed they became almost inseparable companions during M. Roussillon's +periods of rest from his trading excursions among the Indians. They +played cards and brewed hot drinks over which they told marvelous +stories, the latest one invariably surpassing all its predecessors. +</P> + +<P> +Helm had an eye to business, and turned M. Roussillon's knowledge of +the Indians to valuable account, so that he soon had very pleasant +relations with most of the tribes within reach of his agents. This gave +a feeling of great security to the people of Vincennes. They pursued +their narrow agricultural activities with excellent results and +redoubled those social gayeties which, even in hut and cabin under all +the adverse conditions of extreme frontier life, were dear to the +volatile and genial French temperament. +</P> + +<P> +Lieutenant Beverley found much to interest him in the quaint town; but +the piece de resistance was Oncle Jazon, who proved to be both +fascinating and unmanageable; a hard nut to crack, yet possessing a +kernel absolutely original in flavor. Beverley visited him one evening +in his hut—it might better be called den—a curiously built thing, +with walls of vertical poles set in a quadrangular trench dug in the +ground, and roofed with grass. Inside and out it was plastered with +clay, and the floor of dried mud was as smooth and hard as concrete +paving. In one end there was a wide fireplace grimy with soot, in the +other a mere peep-hole for a window: a wooden bench, a bed of skins and +two or three stools were barely visible in the gloom. In the doorway +Oncle Jazon sat whittling a slender billet of hickory into a ramrod for +his long flint-lock American rifle. +</P> + +<P> +"Maybe ye know Simon Kenton," said the old man, after he and Beverley +had conversed for a while, "seeing that you are from Kentucky—eh?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I do know him well; he's a warm personal friend of mine," said +Beverley with quick interest, for it surprised him that Oncle Jazon +should know anything about Kenton. "Do you know him, Monsieur Jazon?" +</P> + +<P> +Oncle Jazon winked conceitedly and sighted along his rudimentary ramrod +to see if it was straight; then puckering his lips, as if on the point +of whistling, made an affirmative noise quite impossible to spell. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I'm glad you are acquainted with Kenton," said Beverley. "Where +did you and he come together?" +</P> + +<P> +Oncle Jazon chuckled reminiscently and scratched the skinless, +cicatrized spot where his scalp had once flourished. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, several places," he answered. "Ye see thet hair a hangin' there on +the wall?" He pointed at a dry wisp dangling under a peg in a log +barely visible by the bad light. "Well, thet's my scalp, he! he! he!" +He snickered as if the fact were a most enjoyable joke. "Simon Kenton +can tell ye about thet little affair! The Indians thought I was dead, +and they took my hair; but I wasn't dead; I was just a givin' 'em a +'possum act. When they was gone I got up from where I was a layin' and +trotted off. My head was sore and ventrebleu! but I was mad, he! he! +he!" +</P> + +<P> +All this time he spoke in French, and the English but poorly +paraphrases his odd turns of expression. His grimaces and grunts cannot +even be hinted. +</P> + +<P> +It was a long story, as Beverley received it, told scrappily, but with +certain rude art. In the end Oncle Jazon said with unctuous +self-satisfaction: +</P> + +<P> +"Accidents will happen. I got my chance at that damned Indian who +skinned my head, and I jes took a bead on 'im with my old rifle. I +can't shoot much, never could, but I happened to hit 'im square in the +lef' eye, what I shot at, and it was a hundred yards. Down he tumbles, +and I runs to 'im and finds my same old scalp a hangin' to his belt. +Well, I lifted off his hair with my knife, and untied mine from the +belt, and then I had both scalps, he! he! he! You ask Simon Kenton when +ye see 'im. He was along at the same time, and they made 'im run the +ga'ntlet and pretty nigh beat the life out o' 'im. Ventrebleu!" +</P> + +<P> +Beverley now recollected hearing Kenton tell the same grim story by a +camp-fire in the hills of Kentucky. Somehow it had caught a new spirit +in the French rendering, which linked it with the old tales of +adventure that he had read in his boyhood, and it suddenly endeared +Oncle Jazon to him. The rough old scrap of a man and the powerful youth +chatted together until sundown, smoking their pipes, each feeling for +what was best in the other, half aware that in the future they would be +tested together in the fire of wild adventure. Every man is more or +less a prophet at certain points in his life. +</P> + +<P> +Twilight and moonlight were blending softly when Beverley, on his way +back to the fort, departing from a direct course, went along the +river's side southward to have a few moments of reflective strolling +within reach of the water's pleasant murmur and the town's indefinite +evening stir. Rich sweetness, the gift of early autumn, was on the air +blowing softly out of a lilac west and singing in the willow fringe +that hung here and there over the bank. +</P> + +<P> +On the farther side of the river's wide flow, swollen by recent heavy +rains, Beverley saw a pirogue, in one end of which a dark figure swayed +to the strokes of a paddle. The slender and shallow little craft was +bobbing on the choppy waves and taking a zig-zag course among floating +logs and masses of lighter driftwood, while making slow but certain +headway toward the hither bank. +</P> + +<P> +Beverley took a bit of punk and a flint and steel from his pocket, +relit his pipe and stood watching the skilful boatman conduct his +somewhat dangerous voyage diagonally against the rolling current. It +was a shifting, hide-and-seek scene, its features appearing and +disappearing with the action of the waves and the doubtful light +reflected from fading clouds and sky. Now and again the man stood up in +his skittish pirogue, balancing himself with care, to use a short pole +in shoving driftwood out of his way; and more than once he looked to +Beverley as if he had plunged head-long into the dark water. +</P> + +<P> +The spot, as nearly as it can be fixed, was about two hundred yards +below where the public road-bridge at present spans the Wabash. The +bluff was then far different from what it is now, steeper and higher, +with less silt and sand between it and the water's edge. Indeed, +swollen as the current was, a man could stand on the top of the bank +and easily leap into the deep water. At a point near the middle of the +river a great mass of drift-logs and sand had long ago formed a barrier +which split the stream so that one current came heavily shoreward on +the side next the town and swashed with its muddy foam, making a swirl +and eddy just below where Beverley stood. +</P> + +<P> +The pirogue rounded the upper angle of this obstruction, not without +difficulty to its crew of one, and swung into the rapid shoreward rush, +as was evidently planned for by the steersman, who now paddled against +the tide with all his might to keep from being borne too far down +stream for a safe landing place. +</P> + +<P> +Beverley stood at ease idly and half dreamily looking on, when suddenly +something caused a catastrophe, which for a moment he did not +comprehend. In fact the man in the pirogue came to grief, as a man in a +pirogue is very apt to do, and fairly somersaulted overboard into the +water. Nothing serious would have threatened (for the man could swim +like an otter) had not a floating, half submerged log thrust up some +short, stiff stumps of boughs, upon the points of which the man struck +heavily and was not only hurt, but had his clothes impaled securely by +one of the ugly spears, so that he hung in a helpless position, while +the water's motion alternately lifted and submerged him, his arms +beating about wildly. +</P> + +<P> +When Beverley heard a strangling cry for help, he pulled himself +promptly together, flung off his coat, as if by a single motion, and +leaped down the bank into the water. He was a swimmer whose strokes +counted for all that prodigious strength and excellent training could +afford; he rushed through the water with long sweeps, making a +semicircle, rounding against the current, so as to swing down upon the +drowning man. +</P> + +<P> +Less than a half-hour later a rumor by some means spread throughout the +town that Father Beret and Lieutenant Beverley were drowned in the +Wabash. But when a crowd gathered to verify the terrible news it turned +out to be untrue. Gaspard Roussillon had once more distinguished +himself by an exhibition of heroic nerve and muscle. +</P> + +<P> +"Ventrebleu! Quel homme!" exclaimed Oncle Jazon, when told that M. +Roussillon had come up the bank of the Wabash with Lieutenant Beverley +under one arm and Father Beret under the other, both men apparently +dead. +</P> + +<P> +"Bring them to my house immediately," M. Roussillon ordered, as soon as +they were restored to consciousness; and he shook himself, as a big wet +animal sometimes does, covering everybody near him with muddy water. +Then he led the way with melodramatic strides. +</P> + +<P> +In justice to historical accuracy there must be a trifling reform of +what appeared on the face of things to be grandly true. Gaspard +Roussillon actually dragged Father Beret and Lieutenant Beverley one at +a time out of the eddy water and up the steep river bank. That was +truly a great feat; but the hero never explained. When men arrived he +was standing between the collapsed forms, panting and dripping. +Doubtless he looked just as if he had dropped them from under his arms, +and why shouldn't he have the benefit of a great implication? +</P> + +<P> +"I've saved them both," he roared; from which, of course, the ready +creole imagination inferred the extreme of possible heroic performance. +</P> + +<P> +"Bring them to my house immediately," and it was accordingly done. +</P> + +<P> +The procession, headed by M. Roussillon, moved noisily, for the French +tongue must shake off what comes to it on the thrill of every exciting +moment. The only silent Frenchman is the dead one. +</P> + +<P> +Father Beret was not only well-nigh drowned, but seriously hurt. He lay +for a week on a bed in M. Roussillon's house before he could sit up. +Alice hung over him night and day, scarcely sleeping or eating until he +was past all danger. As for Beverley, he shook off all the effects of +his struggle in a little while. Next day he was out, as well and strong +as ever, busy with the affairs of his office. Nor was he less happy on +account of what the little adventure had cast into his experience. It +is good to feel that one has done an unselfish deed, and no young man's +heart repels the freshness of what comes to him when a beautiful girl +first enters his life. +</P> + +<P> +Naturally enough Alice had some thoughts of Beverley while she was so +attentively caring for Father Beret. She had never before seen a man +like him, nor had she read of one. Compared with Rene de Ronville, the +best youth of her acquaintance, he was in every way superior; this was +too evident for analysis; but referred to the romantic standard taken +out of the novels she had read, he somehow failed; and yet he loomed +bravely in her vision, not exactly a knight of the class she had most +admired, still unquestionably a hero of large proportions. +</P> + +<P> +Beverley stepped in for a few minutes every day to see Father Beret, +involuntarily lengthening his visit by a sliding ratio as he became +better acquainted. He began to enjoy the priest's conversation, with +its sly worldly wisdom cropping up through fervid religious sentiments +and quaint humor. Alice must have interested him more than he was fully +aware of; for his eyes followed her, as she came and went, with a +curious criticism of her half-savage costume and her springy, +Dryad-like suppleness, which reminded him of the shyest and gracefulest +wild birds; and yet a touch of refinement, the subtlest and best, +showed in all her ways. He studied her, as he would have studied a +strange, showy and originally fragrant flower, or a bird of oddly +attractive plumage. While she said little to him or to anyone else in +his presence, he became aware of the willfulness and joyous lightness +which played on her nature's changeable surface. He wondered at her +influence over Father Beret, whom she controlled apparently without +effort. But in due time he began to feel a deeper character, a broader +intelligence, behind her superficial sauvagerie; and he found that she +really had no mean smattering of books in the lighter vein. +</P> + +<P> +A little thing happened which further opened his eyes and increased the +interest that her beauty and elementary charm of style aroused in him +gradually, apace with their advancing acquaintanceship. +</P> + +<P> +Father Beret had got well and returned to his hut and his round of +spiritual duties; but Beverley came to Roussillon place every day all +the same. For a wonder Madame Roussillon liked him, and at most times +held the scolding side of her tongue when he was present. Jean, too, +made friendly advances whenever opportunity afforded. Of course Alice +gave him just the frank cordiality of hospitable welcome demanded by +frontier conditions. She scarcely knew whether she liked him or not; +but he had a treasury of information from which he was enriching her +with liberal carelessness day by day. The hungriest part of her mind +was being sumptuously banqueted at his expense. Mere intellectual +greediness drew her to him. +</P> + +<P> +Naturally they soon threw off such troubling formalities as at first +rose between them, and began to disclose to each other their true +characteristics. Alice found in Beverley a large target for the +missiles of her clever and tantalizing perversity. He in turn practiced +a native dignity and an acquired superiority of manner to excellent +effect. It was a meeting of Greek with Greek in a new Arcadia. To him +here was Diana, strong, strange, simple, even crude almost to +naturalness, yet admirably pure in spirit and imbued with highest +womanly aspirations. To her Beverley represented the great outside area +of life. He came to her from wonderland, beyond the wide circle of +houseless woods and prairies. He represented gorgeous cities, teeming +parks of fashion, boulevards, salons, halls of social splendor, the +theater, the world of woman's dreams. +</P> + +<P> +Now, there is an antagonism, vague yet powerful, generated between +natures thus cast together from the opposite poles of experience and +education: an antagonism practically equivalent to the most vigorous +attraction. What one knows the other is but half aware of; neither +knowledge nor ignorance being mutual, there is a scintillation of +exchange, from opposing vantage grounds, followed by harmless snaps of +thunder. Culture and refinement take on airs—it is the deepest +artificial instinct of enlightenment to pose—in the presence of +naturalness; and there is a certain style of ignorance which +attitudinizes before the gate of knowledge. The return to nature has +always been the dream of the conventionalized soul, while the simple +Arcadian is forever longing for the maddening honey of sophistication. +</P> + +<P> +Innate jealousies strike together like flint and steel dashing off +sparks by which nearly everything that life can warm its core withal is +kindled and kept burning. What I envy in my friend I store for my best +use. I thrust and parry, not to kill, but to learn my adversary's +superior feints and guards. And this hint of sword play leads back to +what so greatly surprised and puzzled Beverley one day when he chanced +to be examining the pair of colechemardes on the wall. +</P> + +<P> +He took one down, and handling it with the indescribable facility +possible to none save a practical swordsman, remarked: +</P> + +<P> +"There's a world of fascination in these things; I like nothing better +than a bout at fencing. Does your father practice the art?" +</P> + +<P> +"I have no father, no mother," she quickly said; "but good Papa +Roussillon does like a little exercise with the colechemarde." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I'm glad to hear it, I shall ask to teach him a trick or two," +Beverley responded in the lightest mood. "When will he return from the +woods?" +</P> + +<P> +"I can't tell you; he's very irregular in such matters," she said. +Then, with a smile half banter and half challenge, she added; "if you +are really dying for some exercise, you shall not have to wait for him +to come home, I assure you, Monsieur Beverley." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, it's Monsieur de Ronville, perhaps, that you will offer up as a +victim to my skill and address," he slyly returned; for he was +suspecting that a love affair in some stage of progress lay between her +and Rene. +</P> + +<P> +She blushed violently, but quickly overcoming a combined rush of +surprise and anger, added with an emphasis as charming as it was +unexpected. +</P> + +<P> +"I myself am, perhaps, swordsman enough to satisfy the impudence and +vanity of Monsieur Beverley, Lieutenant in the American army." +</P> + +<P> +"Pardon me, Mademoiselle; forgive me, I beg of you," he exclaimed, +earnestly modulating his voice to sincerest beseechment; "I really did +not mean to be impudent, nor—" +</P> + +<P> +Her vivacity cleared with a merry laugh. +</P> + +<P> +"No apologies, I command you," she interposed. "We will have them after +I have taught you a fencing lesson." +</P> + +<P> +From a shelf she drew down a pair of foils and presenting the hilts, +bade him take his choice. +</P> + +<P> +"There isn't any difference between them that I know of," she said, and +then added archly; "but you will feel better at last, when all is over +and the sting of defeat tingles through you, if you are conscious of +having used every sensible precaution." +</P> + +<P> +He looked straight into her eyes, trying to catch what was in her mind, +but there was a bewildering glamour playing across those gray, +opal-tinted wells of mystery, from which he could draw only a +mischievous smile-glint, direct, daring, irresistible. +</P> + +<P> +"Well," he said, taking one of the foils, "what do you really mean? Is +it a challenge without room for honorable retreat?" +</P> + +<P> +"The time for parley is past," she replied, "follow me to the +battle-ground." +</P> + +<P> +She led the way to a pleasant little court in the rear of the cabin's +yard, a space between two wings and a vine-covered trellis, beyond +which lay a well kept vineyard and vegetable garden. Here she turned +about and faced him, poising her foil with a fine grace. +</P> + +<P> +"Are you ready?" she inquired. +</P> + +<P> +He tried again to force a way into the depths of her eyes with his; but +he might as well have attacked the sun; so he stood in a confusion of +not very well defined feelings, undecided, hesitating, half expecting +that there would be some laughable turn to end the affair. +</P> + +<P> +"Are you afraid, Monsieur Beverley?" she demanded after a short waiting +in silence. +</P> + +<P> +He laughed now and whipped the air with his foil. +</P> + +<P> +"You certainly are not in earnest?" he said interrogatively. "Do you +really mean that you want to fence with me?" +</P> + +<P> +"If you think because I'm only a girl you can easily beat me, try it," +she tauntingly replied making a level thrust toward his breast. +</P> + +<P> +Quick as a flash he parried, and then a merry clinking and twinkling of +steel blades kept time to their swift movements. Instantly, by the sure +sense which is half sight, half feeling—the sense that guides the +expert fencer's hand and wrist—Beverley knew that he had probably more +than his match, and in ten seconds his attack was met by a time thrust +in opposition which touched him sharply. +</P> + +<P> +Alice sprang far back, lowered her point and laughed. +</P> + +<P> +"Je vous salue, Monsieur Beverley!" she cried, with childlike show of +delight. "Did you feel the button?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I felt it," he said with frank acknowledgment in his voice, "it +was cleverly done. Now give me a chance to redeem myself." +</P> + +<P> +He began more carefully and found that she, too, was on her best +mettle; but it was a short bout, as before. Alice seemed to give him an +easy opening and he accepted it with a thrust; then something happened +that he did not understand. The point of his foil was somehow caught +under his opponent's hilt-guard while her blade seemed to twist around +his; at the same time there was a wring and a jerk, the like of which +he had never before felt, and he was disarmed, his wrist and fingers +aching with the wrench they had received. +</P> + +<P> +Of course the thing was not new; he had been disarmed before; but her +trick of doing it was quite a mystery to him, altogether different from +any that he had ever seen. +</P> + +<P> +"Vous me pardonnerez, Monsieur," she mockingly exclaimed, picking up +his weapon and offering the hilt to him. "Here is your sword!" +</P> + +<P> +"Keep it," he said, folding his arms and trying to look unconcerned, +"you have captured it fairly. I am at your mercy; be kind to me." +</P> + +<P> +Madame Roussillon and Jean, the hunchback, hearing the racket of the +foils had come out to see and were standing agape. +</P> + +<P> +"You ought to be ashamed, Alice," said the dame in scolding approval of +what she had done; "girls do not fence with gentlemen." +</P> + +<P> +"This girl does," said Alice. +</P> + +<P> +"And with extreme disaster to this gentleman," said Beverley, laughing +in a tone of discomfiture and resignation. +</P> + +<P> +"Ah, Mo'sieu', there's nothing but disaster where she goes," complained +Madame Roussillon, "she is a destroyer of everything. Only yesterday +she dropped my pink bowl and broke it, the only one I had." +</P> + +<P> +"And just to think," said Beverley, "what would have been the condition +of my heart had we been using rapiers instead of leather-buttoned +foils! She would have spitted it through the very center." +</P> + +<P> +"Like enough," replied the dame indifferently. "She wouldn't wince, +either,—not she." +</P> + +<P> +Alice ran into the house with the foils and Beverley followed. +</P> + +<P> +"We must try it over again some day soon," he said; "I find that you +can show me a few points. Where did you learn to fence so admirably? Is +Monsieur Roussillon your master?" +</P> + +<P> +"Indeed he isn't," she quickly replied, "he is but a bungling +swordsman. My master—but I am not at liberty to tell you who has +taught me the little I know." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, whoever he is I should be glad to have lessons from him." +</P> + +<P> +"But you'll never get them." +</P> + +<P> +"Why?" +</P> + +<P> +"Because." +</P> + +<P> +"A woman's ultimatum." +</P> + +<P> +"As good as a man's!" she bridled prettily; "and sometimes better—at +the foils for example. Vous—comprenez, n'est ce pas?" +</P> + +<P> +He laughed heartily. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, your point reaches me," he said, "but sperat et in saeva victus +gladiatur arena, as the old Latin poet wisely remarks." The quotation +was meant to tease her. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, Montaigne translated that or something in his book," she +commented with prompt erudition. "I understand it." +</P> + +<P> +Beverley looked amazed. +</P> + +<P> +"What do you know about Montaigne?" he demanded with a blunt brevity +amounting to something like gruffness. +</P> + +<P> +"Sh', Monsieur, not too loud," she softly protested, looking around to +see that neither Madame Roussillon nor Jean had followed them into the +main room. "It is not permitted that I read that old book; but they do +not hide it from me, because they think I can't make out its dreadful +spelling." +</P> + +<P> +She smiled so that her cheeks drew their dimples deep into the +delicately tinted pink-and-brown, where wind and sun and wholesome +exercise had set the seal of absolute health, and took from a niche in +the logs of the wall a stained and dog-eared volume. He looked, and it +was, indeed, the old saint and sinner, Montaigne. +</P> + +<P> +Involuntarily he ran his eyes over the girl from head to foot, +comparing her show of knowledge with the outward badges of abject +rusticity, and even wildness, with which she was covered. +</P> + +<P> +"Well," he said, "you are a mystery." +</P> + +<P> +"You think it surprising that I can read a book! Frankly I can't +understand half of this one. I read it because—well just because they +want me to read about nothing but sickly old saints and woe-begone +penitents. I like something lively. What do I care for all that +uninteresting religious stuff?" +</P> + +<P> +"Montaigne IS decidedly lively in spots," Beverley remarked. "I +shouldn't think a girl—I shouldn't think you'd particularly enjoy his +humors." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't care for the book at all," she said, flushing quickly, "only I +seem to learn about the world from it. Sometimes it seems as if it +lifted me up high above all this wild, lonely and tiresome country, so +that I can see far off where things are different and beautiful. It is +the same with the novels; and they don't permit me to read them either; +but all the same I do." +</P> + +<P> +When Beverley, taking his leave, passed through the gate at Roussillon +place, he met Rene de Ronville going in. It was a notable coincidence +that each young man felt something troublesome rise in his throat as he +looked into the other's eyes. +</P> + +<P> +A week of dreamy autumn weather came on, during which Beverley managed +to be with Alice a great deal, mostly sitting on the Roussillon +gallery, where the fading vine leaves made fairy whispering, and where +the tempered breeze blew deliciously cool from over the distant +multi-colored woods. The men of Vincennes were gathering their Indian +corn early to dry it on the cob for grating into winter meal. Many +women made wine from the native grapes and from the sweeter and richer +fruit of imported vines. Madame Roussillon and Alice stained their +hands a deep purple during the pressing season, and Beverley found +himself engaged in helping them handle the juicy crop, while around the +overflowing earthen pots the wild bees, wasps and hornets hummed with +an incessant, jarring monotony. +</P> + +<P> +Jean, the hunchback, gathered ample stores of hickory nuts, walnuts, +hazel-nuts and pin-oak acorns. Indeed, the whole population of the +village made a great spurt of industry just before the falling of +winter; and presently, when every preparation had been completed for +the dreaded cold season, M. Roussillon carried out his long-cherished +plan, and gave a great party at the river house. After the most +successful trading experience of all his life he felt irrepressibly +liberal. +</P> + +<P> +"Let's have one more roaring good time," he said, "that's what life is +for." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap07"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE MAYOR'S PARTY +</H3> + +<P> +Beverley was so surprised and confused in his mind by the ease with +which he had been mastered at swordplay by a mere girl, that he felt as +if just coming out of a dream. In fact the whole affair seemed unreal, +yet so vivid and impressive in all its main features, that he could not +emerge from it and look it calmly over from without. His experience +with women had not prepared him for a ready understanding and +acceptance of a girl like Alice. While he was fully aware of her +beauty, freshness, vivacity and grace, this Amazonian strength of hers, +this boldness of spirit, this curious mixture of frontier crudeness and +a certain adumbration—so to call it—of patrician sensibilities and +aspirations, affected him both pleasantly and unpleasantly. He did not +sympathize promptly with her semi-barbaric costume; she seemed not +gently feminine, as compared with the girls of Virginia and Maryland. +He resented her muscular development and her independent disposition. +She was far from coarseness, however, and, indeed, a trace of subtle +refinement, although not conventional, imbued her whole character. +</P> + +<P> +But why was he thinking so critically about her? Had his selfishness +received an incurable shock from the button of her foil? A healthy +young man of the right sort is apt to be jealous of his physical +prowess—touch him there and he will turn the world over to right +himself in, his own admiration and yours. But to be beaten on his +highest ground of virility by a dimple-faced maiden just leaving her +teens could not offer Beverley any open way to recoupment of damages. +</P> + +<P> +He tried to shake her out of his mind, as a bit of pretty and +troublesome rubbish, what time he pursued his not very exacting +military duties. But the more he shook the tighter she clung, and the +oftener he went to see her. +</P> + +<P> +Helm was a good officer in many respects, and his patriotism was of the +best; but he liked jolly company, a glass of something strong and a +large share of ease. Detroit lay many miles northeastward across the +wilderness, and the English, he thought, would scarcely come so far to +attack his little post, especially now that most of the Indians in the +intervening country had declared in favor of the Americans. Recently, +too, the weather had been favoring him by changing from wet to dry, so +that the upper Wabash and its tributaries were falling low and would +soon be very difficult to navigate with large batteaux. +</P> + +<P> +Very little was done to repair the stockade and dilapidated remnant of +a blockhouse. There were no sufficient barracks, a mere shed in one +angle serving for quarters, and the old cannon could not have been used +to any effect in case of attack. As for the garrison, it was a nominal +quantity, made up mostly of men who preferred hunting and fishing to +the merest pretense of military duty. +</P> + +<P> +Gaspard Roussillon assumed to know everything about Indian affairs and +the condition of the English at Detroit. His optimistic eloquence +lulled Helm to a very pleasant sense of security. Beverley was not so +easy to satisfy; but his suggestions regarding military discipline and +a vigorous prosecution of repairs to the blockhouse and stockade were +treated with dilatory geniality by his superior officer. The soft +wonder of a perfect Indian summer glorified land, river and sky. Why +not dream and bask? Why not drink exhilarating toddies? +</P> + +<P> +Meantime the entertainment to be given by Gaspard Roussillon occupied +everybody's imagination to an unusual extent. Rene de Ronville, +remembering but not heeding the doubtful success of his former attempt, +went long beforehand to claim Alice as his partenaire; but she flatly +refused him, once more reminding him of his obligations to little +Adrienne Bourcier. He would not be convinced. +</P> + +<P> +"You are bound to me," he said, "you promised before, you know, and the +party was but put off. I hold you to it; you are my partenaire, and I +am yours, you can't deny that." +</P> + +<P> +"No you are not my partenaire," she firmly said; then added lightly, +"Feu mon partenaire, you are dead and buried as my partner at that +dance." +</P> + +<P> +He glowered in silence for a few moments, then said: +</P> + +<P> +"It is Lieutenant Beverley, I suppose." +</P> + +<P> +She gave him a quick contemptuous look, but turned it instantly into +one of her tantalising smiles. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you imagine that?" she demanded. +</P> + +<P> +"Imagine it! I know it," he said with a hot flush. "Have I no sense?" +</P> + +<P> +"Precious little," she replied with a merry laugh. +</P> + +<P> +"You think so." +</P> + +<P> +"Go to Father Beret, tell him everything, and then ask him what he +thinks," she said in a calm, even tone, her face growing serious. +</P> + +<P> +There was an awkward silence. +</P> + +<P> +She had touched Rene's vulnerable spot; he was nothing if not a devout +Catholic, and his conscience rooted itself in what good Father Beret +had taught him. +</P> + +<P> +The church, no matter by what name it goes, Catholic or Protestant, has +a saving hold on the deepest inner being of its adherents. No grip is +so hard to shake off as that of early religious convictions. The still, +small voice coming down from the times "When shepherds watched their +flocks by night," in old Judea, passes through the priest, the +minister, the preacher; it echoes in cathedral, church, open-air +meeting; it gently and mysteriously imparts to human life the +distinctive quality which is the exponent of Christian civilization. +Upon the receptive nature of children it makes an impress that forever +afterward exhales a fragrance and irradiates a glory for the saving of +the nations. +</P> + +<P> +Father Beret was the humble, self-effacing, never-tiring agent of good +in his community. He preached in a tender sing-song voice the sweet +monotonies of his creed and the sublime truths of Christ's code. He was +indeed the spiritual father of his people. No wonder Rene's scowling +expression changed to one of abject self-concern when the priest's name +was suddenly connected with his mood. The confessional loomed up before +the eyes of his conscience, and his knees smote together, spiritually +if not physically. +</P> + +<P> +"Now," said Alice, brusquely, but with sweet and gentle firmness, "go +to your fiancee, go to pretty and good Adrienne, and ask her to be your +partenaire. Refresh your conscience with a noble draught of duty and +make that dear little girl overflow with joy. Go, Rene de Ronville." +</P> + +<P> +In making over what she said into English, the translation turns out to +be but a sonorous paraphrase. Her French was of that mixed creole sort, +a blending of linguistic elegance and patois, impossible to imitate. +Like herself it was beautiful, crude, fascinating, and something in it +impressed itself as unimpeachable, despite the broken and incongruous +diction. Rene felt his soul cowering, even slinking; but he fairly +maintained a good face, and went away without saying another word. +</P> + +<P> +"Ciel, ciel, how beautiful she is!" he thought, as he walked along the +narrow street in the dreamy sunshine. "But she is not for me, not for +me." +</P> + +<P> +He shook himself and tried to be cheerful. In fact he hummed a Creole +ditty, something about +</P> + +<P> + "La belle Jeanette, qu' a brise mon coeur."<BR> +</P> + +<P> +Days passed, and at last the time of the great event arrived. It was a +frosty night, clear, sparkling with stars, a keen breath cutting down +from the northwest. M. Roussillon, Madame Roussillon, Alice and +Lieutenant Beverley went together to the river house, whither they had +been preceded by almost the entire population of Vincennes. Some fires +had been built outside; the crowd proving too great for the building's +capacity, as there had to be ample space for the dancers. Merry groups +hovered around the flaming logs, while within the house a fiddle sang +its simple and ravishing tunes. Everybody talked and laughed; it was a +lively racket of clashing voices and rhythmical feet. +</P> + +<P> +You would have been surprised to find that Oncle Jazon was the fiddler; +but there he sat, perched on a high stool in one corner of the large +room, sawing away as if for dear life, his head wagging, his elbow +leaping back and forth, while his scalpless crown shone like the side +of a peeled onion and his puckered mouth wagged grotesquely from side +to side keeping time to his tuneful scraping. +</P> + +<P> +When the Roussillon party arrived it attracted condensed attention. Its +importance, naturally of the greatest in the assembled popular mind, +was enhanced—as mathematicians would say, to the nth power—by the +gown of Alice. It was resplendent indeed in the simple, unaccustomed +eyes upon which it flashed with a buff silken glory. Matrons stared at +it; maidens gazed with fascinated and jealous vision; men young and old +let their eyes take full liberty. It was as if a queen, arrayed in a +robe of state, had entered that dingy log edifice, an apparition of +dazzling and awe-inspiring beauty. Oncle Jazon caught sight of her, and +snapped his tune short off. The dancers swung together and stopped in +confusion. But she, fortified by a woman's strongest bulwark, the sense +of resplendency, appeared quite unconscious of herself. +</P> + +<P> +Little Adrienne, hanging in blissful delight upon Rene's strong arm, +felt the stir of excitement and wondered what was the matter, being too +short to see over the heads of those around her. +</P> + +<P> +"What is it? what is it?" she cried, tiptoeing and tugging at her +companion's sleeve. "Tell me, Rene, tell me, I say." +</P> + +<P> +Rene was gazing in dumb admiration into which there swept a powerful +anger, like a breath of flame. He recollected how Alice had refused to +wear that dress when he had asked her, and now she had it on. Moreover, +there she stood beside Lieutenant Beverley, holding his arm, looking up +into his face, smiling, speaking to him. +</P> + +<P> +"I think you might tell me what has happened," said Adrienne, pouting +and still plucking at his arm. "I can't see a thing, and you won't tell +me." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, it's nothing," he presently answered, rather fretfully. Then he +stooped, lowered his voice and added; "it's Mademoiselle Roussillon all +dressed up like a bride or something. She's got on a buff silk dress +that Mo'sieu' Roussillon's mother had in France." +</P> + +<P> +"How beautiful she must look!" cried the girl. "I wish I could see her." +</P> + +<P> +Rene put a hand on each side of her slender waist and lifted her high, +so that her pretty head rose above the crowding people. Alice chanced +to turn her face that way just then and saw the unconventional +performance. Her eyes met those of Adrienne and she gave a nod of +smiling recognition. It was a rose beaming upon a gilliflower. +</P> + +<P> +M. Roussillon naturally understood that all this stir and crowding to +see was but another demonstration of his personal popularity. He bowed +and waved a vast hand. +</P> + +<P> +But the master of ceremonies called loudly for the dancers to take +their places. Oncle Jazon attacked his fiddle again with startling +energy. Those who were not to dance formed a compact double line around +the wall, the shorter ones in front, the taller in the rear. And what a +scene it was! but no person present regarded it as in any way strange +or especially picturesque, save as to the gown of Alice, which was now +floating and whirling in time to Oncle Jazon's mad music. The people +outside the house cheerfully awaited their turn to go in while an equal +number went forth to chat and sing around the fires. +</P> + +<P> +Beverley was in a young man's seventh heaven. The angels formed a choir +circling around his heart, and their song brimmed his universe from +horizon to horizon. +</P> + +<P> +When he called at Roussillon place, and Alice appeared so beautifully +and becomingly robed, it was another memorable surprise. She flashed a +new and subtly stimulating light upon him. The old gown, rich in +subdued splendor of lace and brocade, was ornamented at the throat with +a heavy band of pearls, just above which could be seen a trace of the +gold chain that supported her portrait locket. There, too, with a not +unbecoming gleam of barbaric colors, shone the string of porcupine +beads to which the Indian charmstone hidden in her bosom was attached. +It all harmonized with the time, the place, the atmosphere. Anywhere +else it would have been preposterous as a decorative presentment, but +here, in this little nook where the coureurs de bois, the half-breeds, +the traders and the missionaries had founded a centre of assembly, it +was the best possible expression in the life so formed at hap-hazard, +and so controlled by the coarsest and narrowest influences. To Fitzhugh +Beverley, of Beverley Hall, the picture conveyed immediately a sweet +and pervading influence. +</P> + +<P> +Alice looked superbly tall, stately and self-possessed in her +transforming costume, a woman of full stature, her countenance gravely +demure yet reserving near the surface the playful dimples and +mischievous smiles so characteristic of her more usual manner. A sudden +mood of the varium et mutabile semper femina had led her to wear the +dress, and the mood still illuminated her. +</P> + +<P> +Beverley stood before her frankly looking and admiring. The underglow +in her cheeks deepened and spread over her perfect throat; her eyes met +his a second, then shyly avoided him. He hardly could have been sure +which was master, her serenity or her girlish delight in being +attractively dressed; but there could be no doubt as to her +self-possession; for, saving the pretty blush under his almost rude +gaze of admiration, she bore herself as firmly as any fine lady he +remembered. +</P> + +<P> +They walked together to the river house, she daintily holding up her +skirts, under the insistent verbal direction of Madame Roussillon, and +at the same time keeping a light, strangely satisfying touch on his +arm. When they entered the room there was no way for Beverley to escape +full consciousness of the excitement they aroused; but M. Roussillon's +assumption broke the force of what would have otherwise been extremely +embarrassing. +</P> + +<P> +"It is encouraging, very encouraging," murmured the big man to Beverley +in the midst of the staring and scrambling and craning of necks, "to +have my people admire and love me so; it goes to the middle of my +heart." And again he bowed and waved his hand with an all-including +gesture, while he swept his eyes over the crowd. +</P> + +<P> +Alice and Beverley were soon in the whirl of the dance, forgetful of +everything but an exhilaration stirred to its utmost by Oncle Jazon's +music. +</P> + +<P> +A side remark here may be of interest to those readers who enjoy the +dream that on some fortunate day they will invade a lonely nook, where +amid dust and cobwebs, neglected because unrecognized, reposes a +masterpiece of Stradivari or some other great fiddle-maker. Oncle Jazon +knew nothing whatever about old violins. He was a natural musician, +that was all, and flung himself upon his fiddle with the same +passionate abandon that characterizes a healthy boy's assault when a +plum pudding is at his mercy. But his fiddle was a Carlo Bergonzi; and +now let the search be renewed, for the precious instrument was +certainly still in Vincennes as late as 1819, and there is a vague +tradition that Governor Whitcomb played on it not long before he died. +The mark by which it may be identified is the single word "Jazon" cut +in the back of its neck by Oncle Jazon himself. +</P> + +<P> +When their dance was ended Alice and Beverley followed the others of +their set out into the open air while a fresh stream of eager dancers +poured in. Beverley insisted upon wrapping Alice in her mantle of +unlined beaver skin against the searching winter breath. They did not +go to the fire, but walked back and forth, chatting until their turn to +dance should come again, pausing frequently to exchange pleasantries +with some of the people. Curiously enough both of them had forgotten +the fact that other young men would be sure to ask Alice for a dance, +and that more than one pretty creole lass was rightfully expecting a +giddy turn with the stalwart and handsome Lieutenant Beverley. +</P> + +<P> +Rene de Ronville before long broke rudely into their selfish dream and +led Alice into the house. This reminded Beverley of his social duty, +wherefore seeing little Adrienne Bourcier he made a rush and secured +her at a swoop from the midst of a scrambling circle of mutually +hindered young men. +</P> + +<P> +"Allons, ma petite!" he cried, quite in the gay tone of the occasion, +and swung her lightly along with him. +</P> + +<P> +It was like an eagle dancing with a linnet, or a giant with a fairy, +when the big Lieutenant led out la petite Adrienne, as everybody called +her. The honor of Beverley's attention sat unappreciated on Adrienne's +mind, for all her thoughts went with her eyes toward Rene and Alice. +Nor was Beverley so absorbed in his partner's behalf that he ever for a +moment willingly lost sight of the floating buff gown, the shining +brown hair and the beautiful face, which formed, indeed, the center of +attraction for all eyes. +</P> + +<P> +Father Beret was present, sharing heartily in the merriment of his +flock. Voices greeted him on all sides with intonations of tender +respect. The rudest man there was loyal to the kind-hearted priest, and +would as soon have thought of shooting him as of giving him any but the +most reverent attention. It is to be noted, however, that their +understanding of reverence included great freedom and levity not +especially ecclesiastical in its nature. Father Beret understood the +conditions around him and had the genius to know what not to hear, what +not to see; but he never failed when a good word or a fatherly touch +with his hand seemed worth trying on a sheep that appeared to be +straying dangerously far from the fold. Upon an occasion like this +dance at the river house, he was no less the faithful priest because of +his genial sympathy with the happiness of the young people who looked +to him for spiritual guidance. +</P> + +<P> +It was some time before Beverley could again secure Alice for a dance, +and he found it annoying him atrociously to see her smile sweetly on +some buckskin-clad lout who looked like an Indian and danced like a +Parisian. He did not greatly enjoy most of his partners; they could not +appeal to any side of his nature just then. Not that he at all times +stood too much on his aristocratic traditions, or lacked the virile +traits common to vigorous and worldly-minded men; but the contrast +between Alice and the other girls present was somehow an absolute bar +to a democratic freedom of the sort demanded by the occasion. He met +Father Beret and passed a few pleasant words with him. +</P> + +<P> +"They have honored your flag, my son, I am glad to see," the priest +said, pointing with a smile to where, in one corner, the banner that +bore Alice's name was effectively draped. +</P> + +<P> +Beverley had not noticed it before, and when he presently got +possession of Alice he asked her to tell him the story of how she +planted it on the fort, although he had heard it to the last detail +from Father Beret just a moment ago. They stood together under its +folds while she naively sketched the scene for him, even down to her +picturesquely disagreeable interview with Long-Hair, mention of whom +led up to the story of the Indian's race with the stolen dame jeanne of +brandy under his arm on that memorable night, and the subsequent +services performed for him by Father Beret and her, after she and Jean +had found him in the mud beyond the river. +</P> + +<P> +The dancing went on at a furious pace while they stood there. Now and +again a youth came to claim her, but she said she was tired and begged +to rest awhile, smiling so graciously upon each one that his rebuff +thrilled him as if it had been the most flattering gift of tender +partiality, while at the same time he suspected that it was all for +Beverley. +</P> + +<P> +Helm in his most jovial mood was circulating freely among those who +formed the periphery of the dancing-area; he even ventured a few clumsy +capers in a cotillion with Madame Godere for partner. She danced well; +but he, as someone remarked, stumbled all over himself. +</P> + +<P> +There was but one thing to mar the evening's pleasure: some of the men +drank too much and grew boisterous. A quarrel ended in a noisy but +harmless fight near one of the fires. M. Roussillon rushed to the spot, +seized the combatants, tousled them playfully, as if they had been +children, rubbed their heads together, laughed stormily and so restored +the equilibrium of temper. +</P> + +<P> +It was late when fathers and mothers in the company began to suggest +adjournment. Oncle Jazon's elbow was tired and the enthusiasm generated +by his unrecognized Bergonzi became fitful, while the relaxing crowd +rapidly encroached upon the space set apart for the dancers. In the +open lamps suspended here and there the oil was running low, and the +rag wicks sputtered and winked with their yellow flames. +</P> + +<P> +"Well," said M. Roussillon, coming to where Alice and Beverley stood +insulated and isolated by their great delight in each other's company, +"it's time to go home." +</P> + +<P> +Beverley looked at his watch; it was a quarter to three! +</P> + +<P> +Alice also looked at the watch, and saw engraved and enameled on its +massive case the Beverley crest, but she did not know what it meant. +There was something of the sort in the back of her locket, she +remembered with satisfaction. +</P> + +<P> +Just then there was a peculiar stir in the flagging crowd. Someone had +arrived, a coureur de bois from the north. Where was the commandant? +the coureur had something important for him. +</P> + +<P> +Beverley heard a remark in a startled voice about the English getting +ready for a descent upon the Wabash valley. This broke the charm which +thralled him and sent through his nerves the bracing shock that only a +soldier can feel when a hint of coming battle reaches him. +</P> + +<P> +Alice saw the flash in his face. +</P> + +<P> +"Where is Captain Helm? I must see him immediately. Excuse me," he +said, abruptly turning away and looking over the heads of the people; +"yonder he is, I must go to him." +</P> + +<P> +The coureur de bois, Adolphe Dutremble by name, was just from the head +waters of the Wabash. He was speaking to Helm when Beverley came up. M. +Roussillon followed close upon the Lieutenant's heels, as eager as he +to know what the message amounted to; but Helm took the coureur aside, +motioning Beverley to join them. M. Roussillon included himself in the +conference. +</P> + +<P> +After all it was but the gossip of savages that Dutremble communicated; +still the purport was startling in the extreme. Governor Hamilton, so +the story ran, had been organizing a large force; he was probably now +on his way to the portage of the Wabash with a flotilla of batteaux, +some companies of disciplined soldiers, artillery and a strong body of +Indians. +</P> + +<P> +Helm listened attentively to Dutremble's lively sketch, then +cross-questioned him with laconic directness. +</P> + +<P> +"Send Mr. Jazon to me," he said to M. Roussillon, as if speaking to a +servant. +</P> + +<P> +The master Frenchman went promptly, recognizing Captain Helm's right to +command, and sympathizing With his unpleasant military predicament if +the news should prove true. +</P> + +<P> +Oncle Jazon came in a minute, his fiddle and bow clamped under his arm, +to receive a verbal commission, which sent him with some scouts of his +own choosing forthwith to the Wabash portage, or far enough to +ascertain what the English commander was doing. +</P> + +<P> +After the conference Beverley made haste to join Alice; but he found +that she had gone home. +</P> + +<P> +"One hell of a fix we'll be in if Hamilton comes down here with a good +force," said Helm. +</P> + +<P> +Beverley felt like retorting that a little forethought, zeal and +preparation might have lessened the prospective gloom. He had been +troubled all the time about Helm's utter lack of military precaution. +True, there was very little material out of which that optimistic +officer could have formed a body of resistance against the army +probably at Hamilton's command; but Beverley was young, energetic, +bellicose, and to him everything seemed possible; he believed in +vigilance, discipline, activity, dash; he had a great faith in the +efficacy of enthusiasm. +</P> + +<P> +"We must organize these Frenchmen," he said; "they will make good +fighters if we can once get them to act as a body. There's no time to +be lost; but we have time enough in which to do a great deal before +Hamilton can arrive, if we go at it in earnest." +</P> + +<P> +"Your theory is excellent, Lieutenant, but the practice of it won't be +worth a damn," Helm replied with perfect good nature. "I'd like to see +you organize these parly-voos. There ain't a dozen of 'em that wouldn't +accept the English with open arms. I know 'em. They're good hearted, +polite and all that; they'll hurrah for the flag; that's easy enough; +but put 'em to the test and they'll join in with the strongest side, +see if they don't. Of course there are a few exceptions. There's Jazon, +he's all right, and I have faith in Bosseron, and Legrace, and young +Ronville." +</P> + +<P> +"Roussillon—" Beverley began. +</P> + +<P> +"Is much of a blow-hard," Helm interrupted with a laugh. "Barks loud, +but his biting disposition is probably not vicious." +</P> + +<P> +"He and Father Beret control the whole population at all events," said +Beverley. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, and such a population!" +</P> + +<P> +While joining in Captain Helm's laugh at the expense of Vincennes, +Beverley took leave to indulge a mental reservation in favor of Alice. +He could not bear to class her with the crowd of noisy, thoughtless, +mercurial beings whom he heard still singing gay snatches and calling +to one another from distance to distance, as they strolled homeward in +groups and pairs. Nor could the impending danger of an enforced +surrender to the English and Indians drive from his mind her beautiful +image, while he lay for the rest of the night between sleeping and +waking on his primitive bed, alternately hearing over again her every +phrase and laugh, and striving to formulate some definite plan for +defending the town and fort. His heart was full of her. She had +surprised his nature and filled it, as with a wonderful, haunting song. +His youth, his imagination, all that was fresh and spontaneously gentle +and natural in him, was flooded with the magnetic splendor of her +beauty. And yet, in his pride (and it was not a false pride, but rather +a noble regard for his birthright) he vaguely realized how far she was +from him, how impossible. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap08"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VIII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE DILEMMA OF CAPTAIN HELM +</H3> + +<P> +Oncle Jazon, feeling like a fish returned to the water after a long and +torturing captivity in the open air, plunged into the forest with +anticipations of lively adventure and made his way toward the Wea +plains. It was his purpose to get a boat at the village of Ouiatenon +and pull thence up the Wabash until he could find out what the English +were doing. He chose for his companions on this dangerous expedition +two expert coureurs de bois, Dutremble and Jacques Bailoup. Fifty miles +up the river they fell in with some friendly Indians, well known to +them all, who were returning from the portage. +</P> + +<P> +The savages informed them that there were no signs of an English +advance in that quarter. Some of them had been as far as the St. Joseph +river and to within a short distance of Detroit without seeing a white +man or hearing of any suspicious movements on the part of Hamilton. So +back came Oncle Jazon with his pleasing report, much disappointed that +he had not been able to stir up some sort of trouble. +</P> + +<P> +It was Helm's turn to laugh. +</P> + +<P> +"What did I tell you?" he cried, in a jolly mood, slapping Beverley on +the shoulder. "I knew mighty well that it was all a big story with +nothing in it. What on earth would the English be thinking about to +march an army away off down here only to capture a rotten stockade and +a lot of gabbling parly-voos?" +</P> + +<P> +Beverley, while he did not feel quite as confident as his chief, was +not sorry that things looked a little brighter than he had feared they +would turn out to be. Secretly, and without acknowledging it to +himself, he was delighted with the life he was living. The Arcadian +atmosphere of Vincennes clothed him in its mists and dreams. No matter +what way the weather blew its breath, cold or warm, cloudy or fair, +rain or snow, the peace in his soul changed not. His nature seemed to +hold all of its sterner and fiercer traits in abeyance while he +domiciled himself absolutely within his narrow and monotonous +environment. Since the dance at the river house a new content, like a +soft and diffused sweetness, had crept through his blood with a vague, +tingling sense of joy. +</P> + +<P> +He began to like walking about rather aimlessly in the town's narrow +streets, with the mud-daubed cabins on either hand. This simple life +under low, thatched roofs had a charm. When a door was opened he could +see a fire of logs on the ample hearth shooting its yellow tongues up +the sooty chimney-throat. Soft creole voices murmured and sang, or +jangled their petty domestic discords. Women in scant petticoats, +leggings and moccasins swept snow from the squat verandas, or fed the +pigs in little sties behind the cabins. Everybody cried cheerily: "Bon +jour, Monsieur, comment allez-vous?" as he went by, always accompanying +the verbal salute with a graceful wave of the hand. +</P> + +<P> +When he walked early in the morning a waft of broiling game and +browning corn scones was abroad. Pots and kettles occupied the hearths +with glowing coals heaped around and under. Shaggy dogs whined at the +doors until the mensal remnants were tossed out to them in the front +yard. +</P> + +<P> +But it was always a glimpse of Alice that must count for everything in +Beverley's reckonings, albeit he would have strenuously denied it. True +he went to Roussillon place almost every day, it being a fixed part of +his well ordered habit, and had a talk with her. Sometimes, when Dame +Roussillon was very busy and so quite off her guard, they read together +in a novel, or in certain parts of the odd volume of Montaigne. This +was done more for the sweetness of disobedience than to enjoy the +already familiar pages. +</P> + +<P> +Now and again they repeated their fencing bout; but never with the +result which followed the first. Beverley soon mastered Alice's tricks +and showed her that, after all, masculine muscle is not to be +discounted at its own game by even the most wonderful womanly strength +and suppleness. She struggled bravely to hold her vantage ground once +gained so easily, but the inevitable was not to be avoided. At last, +one howling winter day, he disarmed her by the very trick that she had +shown him. That ended the play and they ran shivering into the house. +</P> + +<P> +"Ah," she cried, "it isn't fair. You are so much bigger than I; you +have so much longer arms; so much more weight and power. It all counts +against me! You ought to be ashamed of yourself!" She was rosy with the +exhilarating exercise and the biting of the frosty breeze. Her beauty +gave forth a new ray. +</P> + +<P> +Deep in her heart she was pleased to have him master her so superbly; +but as the days passed she never said so, never gave over trying to +make him feel the touch of her foil. She did not know that her eyes +were getting through his guard, that her dimples were stabbing his +heart to its middle. +</P> + +<P> +"You have other advantages," he replied, "which far overbalance my +greater stature and stronger muscles." Then after a pause he added: +"After all a girl must be a girl." +</P> + +<P> +Something in his face, something in her heart, startled her so that she +made a quick little move like that of a restless bird. +</P> + +<P> +"You are beautiful and that makes my eyes and my hand uncertain," he +went on. "Were I fencing with a man there would be no glamour." +</P> + +<P> +He spoke in English, which he did not often do in conversation with +her. It was a sign that he was somewhat wrought upon. She followed his +rapid words with difficulty; but she caught from them a new note of +feeling. He saw a little pale flare shoot across her face and thought +she was angry. +</P> + +<P> +"You should not use your dimples to distract my vision," he quickly +added, with a light laugh. "It would be no worse for me to throw my hat +in your face!" +</P> + +<P> +His attempt at levity was obviously weak; she looked straight into his +eyes, with the steady gaze of a simple, earnest nature shocked by a +current quite strange to it. She did not understand him, and she did. +Her fine intuition gathered swiftly together a hundred shreds of +impression received from him during their recent growing intimacy. He +was a patrician, as she vaguely made him out, a man of wealth, whose +family was great. He belonged among people of gentle birth and high +attainments. She magnified him so that he was diffused in her +imagination, as difficult to comprehend as a mist in the morning +air—and as beautiful. +</P> + +<P> +"You make fun of me," she said, very deliberately, letting her eyes +droop; then she looked up again suddenly and continued, with a certain +naive expression of disappointment gathering in her face. "I have been +too free with you. Father Beret told me not to forget my dignity when +in your company. He told me you might misunderstand me. I don't care; I +shall not fence with you again." She laughed, but there was no joyous +freedom in the sound. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, Alice—my dear Miss Roussillon, you do me a wrong; I beg a +thousand pardons if I've hurt you," he cried, stepping nearer to her, +"and I can never forgive myself. You have somehow misunderstood me, I +know you have!" +</P> + +<P> +On his part it was exaggerating a mere contact of mutual feelings into +a dangerous collision. He was as much self-deceived as was she, and he +made more noise about it. +</P> + +<P> +"It is you who have misunderstood me," she replied, smiling brightly +now, but with just a faint, pitiful touch of regret, or self-blame +lingering in her voice. "Father Beret said you would. I did not believe +him; but—" +</P> + +<P> +"And you shall not believe him," said Beverley. "I have not +misunderstood you. There has been nothing. You have treated me kindly +and with beautiful friendliness. You have not done or said a thing that +Father Beret or anybody else could criticise. And if I have said or +done the least thing to trouble you I repudiate it—I did not mean it. +Now you believe me, don't you, Miss Roussillon?" +</P> + +<P> +He seemed to be falling into the habit of speaking to her in English. +She understood it somewhat imperfectly, especially when in an earnest +moment he rushed his words together as if they had been soldiers he was +leading at the charge-step against an enemy. His manner convinced her, +even though his diction fell short. +</P> + +<P> +"Then we'll talk about something else," she said, laughing naturally +now, and retreating to a chair by the hearthside. "I want you to tell +me all about yourself and your family, your home and everything." +</P> + +<P> +She seated herself with an air of conscious aplomb and motioned him to +take a distant stool. +</P> + +<P> +There was a great heap of dry logs in the fireplace, with pointed +flames shooting out of its crevices and leaping into the gloomy, +cave-like throat of the flue. Outside a wind passed heavily across the +roof and bellowed in the chimney-top. +</P> + +<P> +Beverley drew the stool near Alice, who, with a charred stick, used as +a poker, was thrusting at the glowing crevices and sending showers of +sparks aloft. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, there wouldn't be much to tell," he said, glad to feel secure +again. "Our home is a big old mansion named Beverley Hall on a hill +among trees, and half surrounded with slave cabins. It overlooks the +plantation in the valley where a little river goes wandering on its +way." He was speaking French and she followed him easily now, her eyes +beginning to fling out again their natural sunny beams of interest. "I +was born there twenty-six years ago and haven't done much of anything +since. You see before you, Mademoiselle, a very undistinguished young +man, who has signally failed to accomplish the dream of his boyhood, +which was to be a great artist like Raphael or Angelo. Instead of being +famous I am but a poor Lieutenant in the forces of Virginia." +</P> + +<P> +"You have a mother, father, brothers and sisters?" she interrogated. +She did not understand his allusion to the great artists of whom she +knew nothing. She had never before heard of them. She leaned the poker +against the chimney jamb and turned her face toward him. +</P> + +<P> +"Mother, father, and one sister," he said, "no brothers. We were a +happy little group. But my sister married and lives in Baltimore. I am +here. Father and mother are alone in the old house. Sometimes I am +terribly homesick." He was silent a moment, then added: "But you are +selfish, you make me do all the telling. Now I want you to give me a +little of your story, Mademoiselle, beginning as I did, at the first." +</P> + +<P> +"But I can't," she replied with childlike frankness, "for I don't know +where I was born, nor my parents' names, nor who I am. You see how +different it is with me. I am called Alice Roussillon, but I suppose +that my name is Alice Tarleton; it is not certain, however. There is +very little to help out the theory. Here is all the proof there is. I +don't know that it is worth anything." +</P> + +<P> +She took off her locket and handed it to him. +</P> + +<P> +He handled it rather indifferently, for he was just then studying the +fine lines of her face. But in a moment he was interested. +</P> + +<P> +"Tarleton, Tarleton," he repeated. Then he turned the little disc of +gold over and saw the enameled drawing on the back,—a crest clearly +outlined. +</P> + +<P> +He started. The crest was quite familiar. +</P> + +<P> +"Where did you get this?" he demanded in English, and with such blunt +suddenness that she was startled. "Where did it come from?" +</P> + +<P> +"I have always had it." +</P> + +<P> +"Always? It's the Tarleton crest. Do you belong to that family?" +</P> + +<P> +"Indeed I do not know. Papa Roussillon says he thinks I do." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, this is strange and interesting," said Beverley, rather to +himself than addressing her. He looked from the miniature to the crest +and back to the miniature again, then at Alice. "I tell you this is +strange," he repeated with emphasis. "It is exceedingly strange." +</P> + +<P> +Her cheeks flushed quickly under their soft brown and her eyes flashed +with excitement. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I know." Her voice fluttered; her hands were clasped in her lap. +She leaned toward him eagerly. "It is strange. I've thought about it a +great deal." +</P> + +<P> +"Alice Tarleton; that is right; Alice is a name of the family. Lady +Alice Tarleton was the mother of the first Sir Garnett Tarleton who +came over in the time of Yardley. It's a great family. One of the +oldest and best in Virginia." He looked at her now with a gaze of +concentrated interest, under which her eyes fell. "Why, this is +romantic!" he exclaimed, "absolutely romantic. And you don't know how +you came by this locket? You don't know who was your father, your +mother?" +</P> + +<P> +"I do not know anything." +</P> + +<P> +"And what does Monsieur Roussillon know?" +</P> + +<P> +"Just as little." +</P> + +<P> +"But how came he to be taking you and caring for you? He must know how +he got you, where he got you, of whom he got you? Surely he knows—" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I know all that. I was twelve years old when Papa Roussillon took +me, eight years ago. I had been having a hard life, and but for him I +must have died. I was a captive among the Indians. He took me and has +cared for me and taught me. He has been very, very good to me. I love +him dearly." +</P> + +<P> +"And don't you remember anything at all about when, where, how the +Indians got you?" +</P> + +<P> +"No." She shook her head and seemed to be trying to recollect +something. "No, I just can't remember; and yet there has always been +something like a dream in my mind, which I could not quite get hold of. +I know that I am not a Catholic. I vaguely remember a sweet woman who +taught me to pray like this: 'Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be +Thy name.'" +</P> + +<P> +And Alice went on through the beautiful and perfect prayer, which she +repeated in English with infinite sweetness and solemnity, her eyes +uplifted, her hands clasped before her. Beverley could have sworn that +she was a shining saint, and that he saw an aureole. +</P> + +<P> +"I know," she continued, "that sometime, somewhere, to a very dear +person I promised that I never, never, never would pray any prayer but +that. And I remember almost nothing else about that other life, which +is far off back yonder in the past, I don't know where,—sweet, +peaceful, shadowy; a dream that I have all but lost from my mind." +</P> + +<P> +Beverley's sympathy was deeply moved. He sat for some minutes looking +at her without speaking. She, too, was pensive and silent, while the +fire sputtered and sang, the great logs slowly melting, the flames +tossing wisps of smoke into the chimney still booming to the wind. +</P> + +<P> +"I know, too, that I am not French," she presently resumed, "but I +don't know just how I know it. My first words must have been English, +for I have always dreamed of talking in that language, and my dimmest +half recollections of the old days are of a large, white house, and a +soft-voiced black woman, who sang to me in that language the very +sweetest songs in the world." +</P> + +<P> +It must be borne in mind that all this was told by Alice in her creole +French, half bookish, half patois, of which no translation can give any +fair impression. +</P> + +<P> +Beverley listened, as one who hears a clever reader intoning a strange +and captivating poem. He was charmed. His imagination welcomed the +story and furnished it with all that it lacked of picturesque +completeness. In those days it was no uncommon thing for a white child +to be found among the Indians with not a trace left by which to restore +it to its people. He had often heard of such a case. But here was Alice +right before him, the most beautiful girl that he had ever seen, +telling him the strangest story of all. To his mind it was clear that +she belonged to the Tarleton family of Virginia. Youth always concludes +a matter at once. He knew some of the Tarletons; but it was a widely +scattered family, its members living in almost every colony in America. +The crest he recognized at a glance by the dragon on the helmet with +three stars. It was not for a woman to bear; but doubtless it had been +enameled on the locket merely as a family mark, as was often done in +America. +</P> + +<P> +"The black woman was your nurse, your mammy," he said. "I know by that +and by your prayer in English, as well as by your locket, that you are +of a good old family." +</P> + +<P> +Like most Southerners, he had strong faith in genealogy, and he held at +his tongue's tip the names of all the old families. The Carters, the +Blairs, the Fitzhughs, the Hansons, the Randolphs, the Lees, the +Ludwells, the Joneses, the Beverleys, the Tarletons—a whole catalogue +of them stretched back in his memory. He knew the coat of arms +displayed by each house. He could repeat their legends. +</P> + +<P> +"I wish you could tell me more," he went on. "Can't you recollect +anything further about your early childhood, your first +impressions—the house, the woman who taught you to pray, the old black +mammy? Any little thing might be of priceless value as evidence." +</P> + +<P> +Alice shrugged her shoulders after the creole fashion with something of +her habitual levity of manner, and laughed. His earnestness seemed +disproportioned to the subject, as she fancied he must view it, +although to her it had always been something to dream over. It was +impossible for her to realize, as he did, the importance of details in +solving a problem like that involved in her past history. Nor could she +feel the pathos and almost tragic fascination with which her story had +touched him. +</P> + +<P> +"There is absolutely nothing more to tell," she said. "All my life I +have tried to remember more, but it's impossible; I can't get any +further back or call up another thing. There's no use trying. It's all +like a dream—probably it is one. I do have such dreams. In my sleep I +can lift myself into the air, just as easy, and fly back to the same +big white house that I seem to remember. When you told me about your +home it was like something that I had often seen before. I shall be +dreaming about it next!" +</P> + +<P> +Beverley cross-questioned her from every possible point of view; he was +fascinated with the mystery; but she gave him nothing out of which the +least further light could be drawn. A half-breed woman, it seemed, had +been her Indian foster-mother; a silent, grave, watchful guardian from +whom not a hint of disclosure ever fell. She was, moreover, a Christian +woman, had received her conversion from an English-speaking Protestant +missionary. She prayed with Alice, thus keeping in the child's mind a +perfect memory of the Lord's prayer. +</P> + +<P> +"Well," said Beverley at last, "you are more of a mystery to me, the +longer I know you." +</P> + +<P> +"Then I must grow every day more distasteful to you." +</P> + +<P> +"No, I love mystery." +</P> + +<P> +He went away feeling a new web of interest binding him to this +inscrutable maiden whose life seemed to him at once so full of idyllic +happiness and so enshrouded in tantalizing doubt. At the first +opportunity he frankly questioned M. Roussillon, with no helpful +result. The big Frenchman told the same meager story. The woman was +dying in the time of a great epidemic, which killed most of her tribe. +She gave Alice to M. Roussillon, but told him not a word about her +ancestry or previous life. That was all. +</P> + +<P> +A wise old man, when he finds himself in a blind alley, no sooner +touches the terminal wall than he faces about and goes back the way he +came. Under like circumstances a young man must needs try to batter the +wall down with his head. Beverley endeavored to break through the web +of mystery by sheer force. It seemed to him that a vigorous attempt +could not fail to succeed; but, like the fly in the spider's lines, he +became more hopelessly bound at every move he made. Moreover against +his will he was realizing that he could no longer deceive himself about +Alice. He loved her, and the love was mastering him body and soul. Such +a confession carries with it into an honest masculine heart a sense of +contending responsibilities. In Beverley's case the clash was +profoundly disturbing. And now he clutched the thought that Alice was +not a mere child of the woods, but a daughter of an old family of +cavaliers! +</P> + +<P> +With coat buttoned close against the driving wind, he strode toward the +fort in one of those melodramatic moods to which youth in all climes +and times is subject. It was like a slap in the face when Captain Helm +met him at the stockade gate and said: +</P> + +<P> +"Well, sir, you are good at hiding." +</P> + +<P> +"Hiding! what do you mean, Captain Helm?" he demanded, not in the +mildest tone. +</P> + +<P> +"I mean, sir, that I've been hunting you for an hour and more, over the +whole of this damned town. The English and Indians are upon us, and +there's no time for fooling. Where are all the men?" +</P> + +<P> +Beverley comprehended the situation in a second. Helm's face was +congested with excitement. Some scouts had come in with the news that +Governor Hamilton, at the head of five or six hundred soldiers and +Indians, was only three or four miles up the river. +</P> + +<P> +"Where are all the men?" Helm repeated. +</P> + +<P> +"Buffalo hunting, most of them," said Beverley. +</P> + +<P> +"What in hell are they off hunting buffaloes for?" raged the excited +captain. +</P> + +<P> +"You might go to hell and see," Beverley suggested, and they both +laughed in sheer masculine contempt of a predicament too grave for +anything but grim mirth. +</P> + +<P> +What could they do? Even Oncle Jazon and Rene de Ronville were off with +the hunters. Helm sent for M. Roussillon in the desperate hope that he +could suggest something; but he lost his head and hustled off to hide +his money and valuables. Indeed the French people all felt that, so far +as they were concerned, the chief thing was to save what they had. They +well knew that it mattered little which of the two masters held over +them—they must shift for themselves. In their hearts they were true to +France and America; but France and America could not now protect them +against Hamilton; therefore it would be like suicide to magnify +patriotism or any other sentiment objectionable to the English. So they +acted upon M. Roussillon's advice and offered no resistance when the +new army approached. +</P> + +<P> +"My poor people are not disloyal to your flag and your cause," said +good Father Beret next morning to Captain Helm, "but they are +powerless. Winter is upon us. What would you have us do? This rickety +fort is not available for defense; the men are nearly all far away on +the plains. Isn't it the part of prudence and common sense to make the +best of a desperate situation? Should we resist, the British and their +savage allies would destroy the town and commit outrages too horrible +to think about. In this case diplomacy promises much more than a +hopeless fight against an overwhelming force." +</P> + +<P> +"I'll fight 'em," Helm ground out between his teeth, "if I have to do +it single-handed and alone! I'll fight 'em till hell freezes over!" +</P> + +<P> +Father Beret smiled grimly, as if he, too, would enjoy a lively +skirmish on the ice of Tophet, and said: +</P> + +<P> +"I admire your courage, my son. Fighting is perfectly proper upon fair +occasion. But think of the poor women and children. These old eyes of +mine have seen some terrible things done by enraged savages. Men can +die fighting; but their poor wives and daughters—ah, I have seen, I +have seen!" +</P> + +<P> +Beverley felt a pang of terror shoot through his heart as Father +Beret's simple words made him think of Alice in connection with an +Indian massacre. +</P> + +<P> +"Of course, of course it's horrible to think of," said Helm; "but my +duty is clear, and that flag," he pointed to where la banniere d'Alice +Roussillon was almost blowing away in the cold wind, "that flag shall +not come down save in full honor." +</P> + +<P> +His speech sounded preposterously boastful and hollow; but he was +manfully in earnest; every word came from his brave heart. +</P> + +<P> +Father Beret's grim smile returned, lighting up his strongly marked +face with the strangest expression imaginable. +</P> + +<P> +"We will get all the women inside the fort," Helm began to say. +</P> + +<P> +"Where the Indians will find them ready penned up and at their mercy," +quickly interpolated the priest "That will not do." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, then, what can be done?" Beverley demanded, turning with a +fierce stare upon Father Beret. "Don't stand there objecting to +everything, with not a suggestion of your own to offer." +</P> + +<P> +"I know what is best for my people," the old man replied softly, still +smiling, "I have advised them to stay inside their houses and take no +part in the military event. It is the only hope of averting an +indiscriminate massacre, and things worse." +</P> + +<P> +The curt phrase, "things worse," went like a bullet-stroke through +Beverley's heart. It flashed an awful picture upon his vision. Father +Beret saw his face whiten and his lips set themselves to resist a great +emotion. +</P> + +<P> +"Do not be angry with me, my son," he said, laying a hand on the young +man's arm. "I may be wrong, but I act upon long and convincing +experience." +</P> + +<P> +"Experience or no experience," Helm exclaimed with an oath, "this fort +must be manned and defended. I am commanding here!" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I recognize your authority," responded the priest in a firm yet +deferential tone, "and I heartily wish you had a garrison; but where is +your command, Captain Helm?" Then it was that the doughty Captain let +loose the accumulated profanity with which he had been for some time +well-nigh bursting. He tiptoed in order to curse with extremest +violence. His gestures were threatening. He shook his fists at Father +Beret, without really meaning offence. +</P> + +<P> +"Where is my garrison, you ask! Yes, and I can tell you. It's where you +might expect a gang of dad blasted jabbering French good-for-nothings +to be, off high-gannicking around shooting buffaloes instead of staying +here and defending their wives, children, homes and country, damn their +everlasting souls! The few I have in the fort will sneak off, I +suppose." +</P> + +<P> +"The French gave you this post on easy terms, Captain," blandly +retorted Father Beret. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, and they'll hand it over to Hamilton, you think, on the same +basis," cried Helm, "but I'll show you! I'll show you, Mr. Priest!" +</P> + +<P> +"Pardon me, Captain, the French are loyal to you and to the flag +yonder. They have sworn it. Time will prove it. But in the present +desperate dilemma we must choose the safer horn." +</P> + +<P> +Saying this Father Beret turned about and went his way. He was +chuckling heartily as he passed out of the gate. +</P> + +<P> +"He is right," said Beverley after a few moments of reflection, during +which he was wholly occupied with Alice, whose terrified face in his +anticipation appealed to him from the midst of howling savages, smoking +cabins and mangled victims of lust and massacre. His imagination +painted the scene with a merciless realism that chilled his blood. All +the sweet romance fell away from Vincennes. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, sir, right or wrong, your, duty is to obey orders," said Helm +with brutal severity. +</P> + +<P> +"We had better not quarrel, Captain," Beverley replied. "I have not +signified any unwillingness to obey your commands. Give them, and you +will have no cause to grumble." +</P> + +<P> +"Forgive me, old fellow," cried the impulsive commander. "I know you +are true as steel. I s'pose I'm wound up too tight to be polite. But +the time is come to do something. Here we are with but five or six +men—" +</P> + +<P> +He was interrupted by the arrival of two more half-breed scouts. +</P> + +<P> +Only three miles away was a large flotilla of boats and canoes with +cannon, a force of Indians on land and the British flag flying,—that +was the report. +</P> + +<P> +"They are moving rapidly," said the spokesman, "and will be here very +soon. They are at least six hundred strong, all well armed." +</P> + +<P> +"Push that gun to the gate, and load it to the muzzle, Lieutenant +Beverley," Helm ordered with admirable firmness, the purple flush in +his face giving way to a grayish pallor. "We are going to die right +here, or have the honors of war." +</P> + +<P> +Beverley obeyed without a word. He even loaded two guns instead of +one—charging each so heavily that the last wad looked as if ready to +leap from the grimy mouth. +</P> + +<P> +Helm had already begun, on receiving the first report, a hasty letter +to Colonel Clark at Kaskaskia. He now added a few words and at the last +moment sent it out by a trusted man, who was promptly captured by +Hamilton's advance guard. The missive, evidently written in +installments during the slow approach of the British, is still in the +Canadian archives, and runs thus: +</P> + +<P> +"Dear Sir—At this time there is an army within three miles of this +place; I heard of their coming several days beforehand. I sent spies to +find the certainty—the spies being taken prisoner I never got +intelligence till they got within three miles of town. As I had called +the militia and had all assurances of their integrity I ordered at the +firing of a cannon every man to appear, but I saw but few. Captain +Buseron behaved much to his honor and credit, but I doubt the conduct +of a certain gent. Excuse haste, as the army is in sight. My +determination is to defend the garrison, (sic) though I have but +twenty-one men but what has left me. I refer you to Mr. Wmes (sic) for +the rest. The army is within three hundred yards of the village. You +must think how I feel; not four men that I really depend upon; but am +determined to act brave—think of my condition. I know it is out of my +power to defend the town, as not one of the militia will take arms, +though before sight of the army no braver men. There is a flag at a +small distance, I must conclude. +</P> + +<P> +"Your humble servant, +</P> + +<P> +"Leo'd Helm. Must stop." +</P> + +<P> +"To Colonel Clark." +</P> + +<P> +Having completed this task, the letter shows under what a nervous +strain, Helm turned to his lieutenant and said: +</P> + +<P> +"Fire a swivel with a blank charge. We'll give these weak-kneed +parly-voos one more call to duty. Of course not a frog-eater of them +all will come. But I said that a gun should be the signal. Possibly +they didn't hear the first one, the damned, deaf, cowardly hounds!" +</P> + +<P> +Beverley wheeled forth the swivel and rammed a charge of powder home. +But when he fired it, the effect was far from what it should have been. +Instead of calling in a fresh body of militia, it actually drove out +the few who up to that moment had remained as a garrison; so that +Captain Helm and his Lieutenant found themselves quite alone in the +fort, while out before the gate, deployed in fine open order, a strong +line of British soldiers approached with sturdy steps, led by a tall, +erect, ruddy-faced young officer. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap09"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER IX +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE HONORS OF WAR +</H3> + +<P> +Gaspard Roussillon was thoroughly acquainted with savage warfare, and +he knew all the pacific means so successfully and so long used by +French missionaries and traders to control savage character; but the +emergency now upon him was startling. It confused him. The fact that he +had taken a solemn oath of allegiance to the American government could +have been pushed aside lightly enough upon pressing occasion, but he +knew that certain confidential agents left in Vincennes by Governor +Abbott had, upon the arrival of Helm, gone to Detroit, and of course +they had carried thither a full report of all that happened in the +church of St. Xavier, when Father Gibault called the people together, +and at the fort, when the British flag was hauled down and la banniere +d'Alice Roussillon run up in its place. His expansive imagination did +full credit to itself in exaggerating the importance of his part in +handing the post over to the rebels. And what would Hamilton think of +this? Would he consider it treason? The question certainly bore a +tragic suggestion. +</P> + +<P> +M. Roussillon lacked everything of being a coward, and treachery had no +rightful place in his nature. He was, however, so in the habit of +fighting windmills and making mountains of molehills that he could not +at first glance see any sudden presentment with a normal vision. He had +no love for Englishmen and he did like Americans, but he naturally +thought that Helm's talk of fighting Hamilton was, as his own would +have been in a like case, talk and nothing more. The fort could not +hold out an hour, he well knew. Then what? Ah, he but too well realized +the result. +</P> + +<P> +Resistance would inflame the English soldiers and madden the Indians. +There would be a massacre, and the belts of savages would sag with +bloody scalps. He shrugged his shoulders and felt a chill creep up his +back. +</P> + +<P> +The first thing M. Roussillon did was to see Father Beret and take +counsel of him; then he hurried home to dig a great pit under his +kitchen floor in which he buried many bales of fur and all his most +valuable things. He worked like a giant beaver all night long. Meantime +Father Beret went about over the town quietly notifying the inhabitants +to remain in their houses until after the fort should surrender, which +he was sure would happen the next day. +</P> + +<P> +"You will be perfectly safe, my children," he said to them. "No harm +can come to you if you follow my directions." +</P> + +<P> +Relying implicitly upon him, they scrupulously obeyed in every +particular. +</P> + +<P> +He did not think it necessary to call at Roussillon place, having +already given M. Roussillon the best advice he could command. +</P> + +<P> +Just at the earliest break of day, while yet the gloom of night +scarcely felt the sun's approach, a huge figure made haste along the +narrow streets in the northern part of the town. If any person had been +looking out through the little holes, called windows, in those silent +and rayless huts, it would have been easy to recognize M. Roussillon by +his stature and his gait, dimly outlined as he was. A thought, which +seemed to him an inspiration of genius, had taken possession of him and +was leading him, as if by the nose, straight away to Hamilton's lines. +He was freighted with eloquence for the ear of that commander, and as +he strode along facing the crisp morning air he was rehearsing under +his breath, emphasizing his periods in tragic whispers with sweeping +gestures and liberal facial contortions. So absorbed was he in his +oratorical soliloquy that he forgot due military precaution and ran +plump into the face of a savage picket guard who, without respect for +the great M. Roussillon's dignity, sprang up before him, grunted +cavernously, flourished a tomahawk and spoke in excellent and +exceedingly guttural Indian: +</P> + +<P> +"Wah, surrender!" +</P> + +<P> +It is probable that no man ever complied with a modest request in a +more docile spirit than did M. Roussillon upon that occasion. In fact +his promptness must have been admirable, for the savage grunted +approval and straightway conducted him to Hamilton's headquarters on a +batteau in the river. +</P> + +<P> +The British commander, a hale man of sandy complexion and probably +under middle age, was in no very pleasant humor. Some of his orders had +been misunderstood by the chief of his Indian allies, so that a +premature exposure of his approach had been made to the enemy. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, sir, who are you?" he gruffly demanded, when M. Roussillon +loomed before him. +</P> + +<P> +"I am Gaspard Roussillon, the Mayor of Vincennes," was the lofty reply. +"I have come to announce to you officially that my people greet you +loyally and that my town is freely at your command." He felt as +important as if his statements had been true. +</P> + +<P> +"Humph, that's it, is it? Well, Mr. Mayor, you have my congratulations, +but I should prefer seeing the military commander and accepting his +surrender. What account can you give me of the American forces, their +numbers and condition?" +</P> + +<P> +M. Roussillon winced, inwardly at least, under Hamilton's very +undeferential air and style of address. It piqued him cruelly to be +treated as a person without the slightest claim to respect. He somehow +forgot the rolling and rhythmical eloquence prepared for the occasion. +</P> + +<P> +"The American commander naturally would not confide in me, Monsieur le +Gouverneur, not at all; we are not very friendly; he ousted me from +office, he offended me—" he was coughing and stammering. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, the devil! what do I care? Answer my question, sir," Hamilton +gruffly interrupted. "Tell me the number of American troops at the +fort, sir." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know exactly. I have not had admittance to the fort. I might +be deceived as to numbers; but they're strong, I believe, Monsieur le +Gouverneur, at least they make a great show and much noise." +</P> + +<P> +Hamilton eyed the huge bulk before him for a moment, then turning to a +subaltern said: +</P> + +<P> +"Place this fellow under guard and see that he doesn't get away. Send +word immediately to Captain Farnsworth that I wish to see him at once." +</P> + +<P> +The interview thereupon closed abruptly. Hamilton's emissaries had +given him a detailed account of M. Roussillon's share in submitting +Vincennes to rebel dominion, and he was not in the least inclined +toward treating him graciously. +</P> + +<P> +"I would suggest to you, Monsieur le Gouverneur, that my official +position demands—" M. Roussillon began; but he was fastened upon by +two guards, who roughly hustled him aft and bound him so rigidly that +he could scarcely move finger or toe. +</P> + +<P> +Hamilton smiled coldly and turned to give some orders to a stalwart, +ruddy young officer who in a canoe had just rowed alongside the batteau. +</P> + +<P> +"Captain Farnsworth," he said, acknowledging the military salute, "you +will take fifty men and make everything ready for a reconnaissance in +the direction of the fort. We will move down the river immediately and +choose a place to land. Move lively, we have no time to lose." +</P> + +<P> +In the meantime Beverley slipped away from the fort and made a hurried +call upon Alice at Roussillon place. There was not much they could say +to each other during the few moments at command. Alice showed very +little excitement; her past experience had fortified her against the +alarms of frontier life; but she understood and perfectly appreciated +the situation. +</P> + +<P> +"What are you going to do?" Beverley demanded in sheer despair. He was +not able to see any gleam of hope out of the blackness which had fallen +around him and into his soul. +</P> + +<P> +"What shall you do?" he repeated. +</P> + +<P> +"Take the chances of war," she said, smiling gravely. "It will all come +out well, no doubt." +</P> + +<P> +"I hope so, but—but I fear not." +</P> + +<P> +His face was gray with trouble. "Helm is determined to fight, and that +means—" +</P> + +<P> +"Good!" she interrupted with spirit. "I am so glad of that. I wish I +could go to help him! If I were a man I'd love to fight! I think it's +just delightful." +</P> + +<P> +"But it is reckless bravado; it is worse than foolishness," said +Beverley, not feeling her mood. "What can two or three men do against +an army?" +</P> + +<P> +"Fight and die like men," she replied, her whole countenance lighting +up. "Be heroic!" +</P> + +<P> +"We will do that, of course; we—I do not fear death; but you—you—" +His voice choked him. +</P> + +<P> +A gun shot rang out clear in the distance, and he did not finish +speaking. +</P> + +<P> +"That's probably the beginning," he added in a moment, extending both +hands to her. "Good bye. I must hurry to the fort. Good bye." +</P> + +<P> +She drew a quick breath and turned so white that her look struck him +like a sudden and hard blow. He stood for a second, his arms at full +reach, then: +</P> + +<P> +"My God, Alice, I cannot, cannot leave you!" he cried, his voice again +breaking huskily. +</P> + +<P> +She made a little movement, as if to take hold of his hands: but in an +instant she stepped back a pace and said: +</P> + +<P> +"Don't fear about me. I can take care of myself. I'm all right. You'd +better return to the fort as quickly as you can. It is your country, +your flag, not me, that you must think of now." +</P> + +<P> +She folded her arms and stood boldly erect. +</P> + +<P> +Never before, in all his life, had he felt such a rebuke. He gave her a +straight, strong look in the eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"You are right, Alice." he cried, and rushed from the house to the fort. +</P> + +<P> +She held her rigid attitude for a little while after she heard him shut +the front gate of the yard so forcibly that it broke in pieces, then +she flung her arms wide, as if to clasp something, and ran to the door; +but Beverley was out of sight. She turned and dropped into a chair. +Jean came to her out of the next room. His queer little face was pale +and pinched; but his jaw was set with the expression of one who has +known danger and can meet it somehow. +</P> + +<P> +"Are they going to scalp us?" he half whispered presently, with a +shuddering lift of his distorted shoulders. +</P> + +<P> +Her face was buried in her hands and she did not answer. Childlike he +turned from one question to another inconsequently. +</P> + +<P> +"Where did Papa Roussillon go to?" he next inquired. "Is he going to +fight?" +</P> + +<P> +She shook her head. +</P> + +<P> +"They'll tear down the fort, won't they?" +</P> + +<P> +If she heard him she did not make any sign. +</P> + +<P> +"They'll kill the Captain and Lieutenant and get the fine flag that you +set so high on the fort, won't they, Alice?" +</P> + +<P> +She lifted her head and gave the cowering hunchback such a stare that +he shut his eyes and put up a hand, as if afraid of her. Then she +impulsively took his little misshapen form in her arms and hugged it +passionately. Her bright hair fell all over him, almost hiding him. +Madame Roussillon was lying on a bed in an adjoining room moaning +diligently, at intervals handling her rosary and repeating a prayer. +The whole town was silent outside. +</P> + +<P> +"Why don't you go get the pretty flag down and hide it before they +come?" Jean murmured from within the silken meshes of Alice's hair. +</P> + +<P> +In his small mind the gaudy banner was the most beautiful of all +things. Every day since it was set up he had gone to gaze at it as it +fluttered against the sky. The men had frequently said in his presence +that the enemy would take it down if they captured the fort. +</P> + +<P> +Alice heard his inquisitive voice; but it seemed to come from far off; +his words were a part of the strange, wild swirl in her bosom. +Beverley's look, as he turned and left her, now shook every chord of +her being. He had gone to his death at her command. How strong and true +and brave he was! In her imagination she saw the flag above him, saw +him die like a panther at bay, saw the gay rag snatched down and torn +to shreds by savage hands. It was the tragedy of a single moment, +enacted in a flashlight of anticipation. +</P> + +<P> +She released Jean so suddenly that he fell to the floor. She remembered +what she had said to Beverley on the night of the dance when they were +standing under the flag. +</P> + +<P> +"You made it and set it up," he lightly remarked; "you must see that no +enemy ever gets possession of it, especially the English." +</P> + +<P> +"I'll take it down and hide it when there's danger of that," she said +in the same spirit. +</P> + +<P> +And now she stood there looking at Jean, without seeing him, and +repeated the words under her breath. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll take it down and hide it. They shan't have it." +</P> + +<P> +Madame Roussillon began to call from the other room in a loud, +complaining voice; but Alice gave no heed to her querulous demands. +</P> + +<P> +"Stay here, Jean, and take care of Mama Roussillon," she presently said +to the hunchback. "I am going out; I'll be back soon; don't you dare +leave the house while I'm gone; do you hear?" +</P> + +<P> +She did not wait for his answer; but snatching a hood-like fur cap from +a peg on the wall, she put it on and hastily left the house. +</P> + +<P> +Down at the fort Helm and Beverley were making ready to resist +Hamilton's attack, which they knew would not be long deferred. The two +heavily charged cannon were planted so as to cover the space in front +of the gate, and some loaded muskets were ranged near by ready for use. +</P> + +<P> +"We'll give them one hell of a blast," growled the Captain, "before +they overpower us." +</P> + +<P> +Beverley made no response in words; but he was preparing a bit of +tinder on the end of a stick with which to fire the cannon. Not far +away a little heap of logs was burning in the fort's area. +</P> + +<P> +The British officer, already mentioned as at the head of the line +advancing diagonally from the river's bank, halted his men at a +distance of three hundred yards from the fort, and seemed to be taking +a deliberately careful survey of what was before him. +</P> + +<P> +"Let 'em come a little nearer, Lieutenant," said Helm, his jaw setting +itself like a lion's. "When we shoot we want to hit." +</P> + +<P> +He stooped and squinted along his gun. +</P> + +<P> +"When they get to that weedy spot out yonder," he added, "just opposite +the little rise in the river bank, we'll turn loose on 'em." +</P> + +<P> +Beverley had arranged his primitive match to suit his fancy, and for +probably the twentieth time looked critically to the powder in the +beveled touch-hole of his old cannon. He and Helm were facing the +enemy, with their backs to the main area of the stockade, when a well +known voice attracted their attention to the rear. +</P> + +<P> +"Any room for a feller o' my size in this here crowded place?" it +demanded in a cracked but cheerful tenor. "I'm kind o' outen breath a +runnin' to git here." +</P> + +<P> +They turned about. It was Oncle Jazon with his long rifle on his +shoulder and wearing a very important air. He spoke in English, using +the backwoods lingo with the ease of long practice. +</P> + +<P> +"As I's a comin' in f'om a huntin' I tuck notice 'at somepin' was up. I +see a lot o' boats on the river an' some fellers wi' guns a scootin' +around, so I jes' slipped by 'em all an' come in the back way. They's +plenty of 'em, I tell you what! I can't shoot much, but I tuck one +chance at a buck Indian out yander and jes' happened to hit 'im in the +lef' eye. He was one of the gang 'at scalped me down yander in +Kaintuck." +</P> + +<P> +The greasy old sinner looked as if he had not been washed since he was +born. He glanced about with furtive, shifty eyes, grimaced and winked, +after the manner of an animal just waking from a lazy nap. +</P> + +<P> +"Where's the rest o' the fighters?" he demanded quizzically, lolling +out his tongue and peeping past Helm so as to get a glimpse of the +English line. "Where's yer garrison? Have they all gone to breakfas'?" +</P> + +<P> +The last question set Helm off again cursing and swearing in the most +melodramatic rage. +</P> + +<P> +Oncle Jazon turned to Beverley and said in rapid French: "Surely the +man's not going to fight those fellows yonder?" +</P> + +<P> +Beverley nodded rather gloomily. +</P> + +<P> +"Well," added the old man, fingering his rifle's stock and taking +another glance through the gate, "I can't shoot wo'th a cent, bein' +sort o' nervous like; but I'll stan' by ye awhile, jes' for luck. I +might accidentally hit one of 'em." +</P> + +<P> +When a man is truly brave himself there is nothing that touches him +like an exhibition of absolutely unselfish gameness in another. A rush +of admiration for Oncle Jazon made Beverley feel like hugging him. +</P> + +<P> +Meantime the young British officer showed a flag of truce, and, with a +file of men, separated himself from the line, now stationary, and +approached the stockade. At a hundred yards he halted the file and came +on alone, waving the white clout. He boldly advanced to within easy +speaking distance and shouted: +</P> + +<P> +"I demand the surrender of this fort." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, you'll not get it, young man," roared Helm, his profanity well +mixed in with the words, "not while there's a man of us left!" +</P> + +<P> +"Ye'd better use sof' soap on 'im, Cap'n," said Oncle Jazon in English, +"cussin' won't do no good." While he spoke he rubbed the doughty +Captain's arm and then patted it gently. +</P> + +<P> +Helm, who was not half as excited as he pretended to be, knew that +Oncle Jazon's remark was the very essence of wisdom; but he was not yet +ready for the diplomatic language which the old trooper called "soft +soap." +</P> + +<P> +"Are you the British commander?" he demanded. +</P> + +<P> +"No," said the officer, "but I speak for him." +</P> + +<P> +"Not to me by a damned sight, sir. Tell your commander that I will hear +what he has to say from his own mouth. No understrapper will be +recognized by me." +</P> + +<P> +That ended the conference. The young officer, evidently indignant, +strode back to his line, and an hour later Hamilton himself demanded +the unconditional surrender of the fort and garrison. +</P> + +<P> +"Fight for it," Helm stormed forth. "We are soldiers." +</P> + +<P> +Hamilton held a confab with his officers, while his forces, under cover +of the town's cabins, were deploying so as to form a half circle about +the stockade. Some artillery appeared and was planted directly opposite +the gate, not three hundred yards distant. One blast of that battery +would, as Helm well knew, level a large part of the stockade. +</P> + +<P> +"S'posin' I hev' a cannon, too, seein' it's the fashion," said Oncle +Jazon. "I can't shoot much, but I might skeer 'em. This little one'll +do me." +</P> + +<P> +He set his rifle against the wall and with Beverley's help rolled one +of the swivels alongside the guns already in position. +</P> + +<P> +In a few minutes Hamilton returned under the white flag and shouted: +</P> + +<P> +"Upon what terms will you surrender?" +</P> + +<P> +"All the honors of war," Helm firmly replied. "It's that or fight, and +I don't care a damn which!" +</P> + +<P> +Hamilton half turned away, as if done with the parley, then facing the +fort again, said: +</P> + +<P> +"Very well, sir, haul down your flag." +</P> + +<P> +Helm was dumfounded at this prompt acceptance of his terms. Indeed the +incident is unique in history. +</P> + +<P> +As Hamilton spoke he very naturally glanced up to where la banniere +d'Alice Roussillon waved brilliantly. Someone stood beside it on the +dilapidated roof of the old blockhouse, and was already taking it from +its place. His aid, Captain Farnsworth, saw this, and the vision made +his heart draw in a strong, hot flood It was a girl in short skirts and +moccasins, with a fur hood on her head, her face, thrillingly +beautiful, set around with fluffs of wind-blown brown-gold hair. +Farnsworth was too young to be critical and too old to let his eyes +deceive him. Every detail of the fine sketch, with its steel-blue +background of sky, flashed into his mind, sharp-cut as a cameo. +Involuntarily he took off his hat. +</P> + +<P> +Alice had come in by way of the postern. She mounted to the roof +unobserved, and made her way to the flag, just at the moment when Helm, +glad at heart to accept the easiest way out of a tight place, asked +Oncle Jazon to lower it. +</P> + +<P> +Beverley was thinking of Alice, and when he looked up he could scarcely +realize that he saw her; but the whole situation was plain the instant +she snatched the staff from its place; for he, too, recollected what +she had said at the river house. The memory and the present scene +blended perfectly during the fleeting instant that she was visible. He +saw that Alice was smiling somewhat as in her most mischievous moods, +and when she jerked the staff from its fastening she lifted it high and +waved it once, twice, thrice defiantly toward the British lines, then +fled down the ragged roof-slope with it and disappeared. The vision +remained in Beverley's eyes forever afterward. The English troops, +thinking that the flag was taken down in token of surrender, broke into +a wild tumult of shouting. +</P> + +<P> +Oncle Jazon intuitively understood just what Alice was doing, for he +knew her nature and could read her face. His blood effervesced in an +instant. +</P> + +<P> +"Vive Zhorzh Vasinton! Vive la banniere d'Alice Roussillon!" he +screamed, waving his disreputable cap round his scalpless head. "Hurrah +for George Washington! Hurrah for Alice Roussillon's flag!" +</P> + +<P> +It was all over soon. Helm surrendered himself and Beverley with full +honors. As for Oncle Jazon, he disappeared at the critical moment. It +was not just to his mind to be a prisoner of war, especially under +existing conditions; for Hamilton's Indian allies had some old warpath +scores to settle with him dating back to the days when he and Simon +Kenton were comrades in Kentucky. +</P> + +<P> +When Alice snatched the banner and descended with it to the ground, she +ran swiftly out through the postern, as she had once before done, and +sped along under cover of the low bluff or swell, which, terrace-like, +bounded the flat "bottom" lands southward of the stockade. She kept on +until she reached a point opposite Father Beret's hut, to which she +then ran, the flag streaming bravely behind her in the wind, her heart +beating time to her steps. +</P> + +<P> +It was plainly a great surprise to Father Beret, who looked up from his +prayer when she rushed in, making a startling clatter, the loose +puncheons shaking together under her reckless feet. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Father, here it is! Hide it, hide it, quick!" +</P> + +<P> +She thrust the flag toward him. +</P> + +<P> +"They shall not have it! They shall never have it!" +</P> + +<P> +He opened wide his shrewd, kindly eyes; but did not fairly comprehend +her meaning. +</P> + +<P> +She was panting, half laughing, half crying. Her hair, wildly +disheveled, hung in glorious masses over her shoulders. Her face beamed +triumphantly. +</P> + +<P> +"They are taking the fort," she breathlessly added, again urging the +flag upon him, "they're going in, but I got this and ran away with it. +Hide it, Father, hide it, quick, quick, before they come!" +</P> + +<P> +The daring light in her eyes, the witching play of her dimples, the +madcap air intensified by her attitude and the excitement of the +violent exercise just ended—something compounded of all these and +more—affected the good priest strangely. Involuntarily he crossed +himself, as if against a dangerous charm. +</P> + +<P> +"Mon Dieu, Father Beret," she exclaimed with impatience, "haven't you a +grain of sense left? Take this flag and hide it, I tell you! Don't stay +there gazing and blinking. Here, quick! They saw me take it, they may +be following me. Hurry, hide it somewhere!" +</P> + +<P> +He comprehended now, rising from his knees with a queer smile +broadening on his face. She put the banner into his hands and gave him +a gentle push. +</P> + +<P> +"Hide it, I tell you, hide it, you dear old goose!" +</P> + +<P> +Without sneaking he turned the staff over and over in his hand, until +the flag was closely wrapped around it, then stooping he lifted a +puncheon and with it covered the gay roll from sight. +</P> + +<P> +Alice caught him in her arms and kissed him vigorously on the cheek. +Her warm lips made the spot tingle. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't you dare to let any person have it! It's the flag of George +Washington." +</P> + +<P> +She gave him a strong squeeze. +</P> + +<P> +He pushed her from him with both hands and hastily crossed himself; but +his eyes were laughing. +</P> + +<P> +"You ought to have seen me; I waved the flag at them—at the +English—and one young officer took off his hat to me! Oh, Father +Beret, it was like what is in a novel. They'll get the fort, but not +the banner! Not the banner! I've saved it, I've saved it!" +</P> + +<P> +Her enthusiasm gave a splendor to her countenance, heightening its +riches of color and somehow adding to its natural girlish expression an +audacious sweetness. The triumphant success of her undertaking lent the +dignity of conscious power to her look, a dignity which always sits +well upon a young and somewhat immaturely beautiful face. +</P> + +<P> +Father Beret could not resist her fervid eloquence, and he could not +run away from her or stop up his ears while she went on. So he had to +laugh when she said: +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, if you had seen it all you would have enjoyed it. There was Oncle +Jazon squatting behind the little swivel, and there were Captain Helm +and Lieutenant Beverley holding their burning sticks over the big +cannon ready to shoot—all of them so intent that they didn't see +me—and yonder came the English officer and his army against the three. +When they got close to the gate the officer called out: 'Surrender!' +and then Captain Helm yelled back: 'Damned if I do! Come another step +and I'll blow you all to hell in a second!' I was mightily in hopes +that they'd come on; I wanted to see a cannon ball hit that English +commander right in the face; he looked so arrogant." +</P> + +<P> +Father Beret shook his head and tried to look disapproving and solemn. +</P> + +<P> +Meantime down at the fort Hamilton was demanding the flag. He had seen +Alice take it down, and supposed that it was lowered officially and +would be turned over to him. Now he wanted to handle it as the best +token of his bloodless but important victory. +</P> + +<P> +"I didn't order the flag down until after I had accepted your terms," +said Helm, "and when my man started to obey, we saw a young lady snatch +it and run away with it." +</P> + +<P> +"Who was the girl?" +</P> + +<P> +"I do not inform on women," said Helm. +</P> + +<P> +Hamilton smiled grimly, with a vexed look in his eyes, then turned to +Captain Farnsworth and ordered him to bring up M. Roussillon, who, when +he appeared, still had his hands tied together. +</P> + +<P> +"Tell me the name of the young woman who carried away the flag from the +fort. You saw her, you know every soul in this town. Who was it, sir?" +</P> + +<P> +It was a hard question for M. Roussillon to answer. Although his +humiliating captivity had somewhat cowed him, still his love for Alice +made it impossible for him to give the information demanded by +Hamilton. He choked and stammered, but finally managed to say: +</P> + +<P> +"I assure you that I don't know—I didn't look—I didn't see—It was +too far off for me to—I was some-what excited—I—" +</P> + +<P> +"Take him away. Keep him securely bound," said Hamilton. "Confine him. +We'll see how long it will take to refresh his mind. We'll puncture the +big windbag." +</P> + +<P> +While this curt scene was passing, the flag of Great Britain rose over +the fort to the lusty cheering of the victorious soldiers. +</P> + +<P> +Hamilton treated Helm and Beverley with extreme courtesy. He was a +soldier, gruff, unscrupulous and cruel to a degree; but he could not +help admiring the daring behavior of these two officers who had wrung +from him the best terms of surrender. He gave them full liberty, on +parole of honor not to attempt escape or to aid in any way an enemy +against him while they were prisoners. +</P> + +<P> +Nor was it long before Helm's genial and sociable disposition won the +Englishman's respect and confidence to such an extent that the two +became almost inseparable companions, playing cards, brewing toddies, +telling stories, and even shooting deer in the woods together, as if +they had always been the best of friends. +</P> + +<P> +Hamilton did not permit his savage allies to enter the town, and he +immediately required the French inhabitants to swear allegiance to +Great Britain, which they did with apparent heartiness, all save M. +Roussillon, who was kept in close confinement and bound like a felon, +chafing lugubriously and wearing the air of a martyr. His prison was a +little log pen in one corner of the stockade, much open to the weather, +its gaping cracks giving him a dreary view of the frozen landscape +through which the Wabash flowed in a broad steel-gray current. Helm, +who really liked him, tried in vain to procure his release; but +Hamilton was inexorable on account of what he regarded as duplicity in +M. Roussillon's conduct. +</P> + +<P> +"No, I'll let him reflect," he said; "there's nothing like a little +tyranny to break up a bad case of self-importance. He'll soon find out +that he has over-rated himself!" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap10"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER X +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +M. ROUSSILLON ENTERTAINS COLONEL HAMILTON +</H3> + +<P> +A day or two after the arrival of Hamilton the absent garrison of +buffalo hunters straggled back to Vincennes and were duly sworn to +demean themselves as lawful subjects of Great Britain. Rene de Ronville +was among the first to take the oath, and it promptly followed that +Hamilton ordered him pressed into service as a wood-chopper and +log-hauler during the erection of a new blockhouse, large barracks and +the making of some extensive repairs of the stockade. Nothing could +have been more humiliating to the proud young Frenchman. Every day he +had to report bright and early to a burly Irish Corporal and be ordered +about, as if he had been a slave, cursed at, threatened and forced to +work until his hands were blistered and his muscles sore. The bitterest +part of it all was that he had to trudge past both Roussillon place and +the Bourcier cabin with the eyes of Alice and Adrienne upon him. +</P> + +<P> +Hamilton did not forget M. Roussillon in this connection. The giant +orator soon found himself face to face with a greater trial even than +Rene's. He was calmly told by the English commander that he could +choose between death and telling who it was that stole the flag. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll have you shot, sir, to-morrow morning if you prevaricate about +this thing any longer," said Hamilton, with a right deadly strain in +his voice. "You told me that you knew every man, woman and child in +Vincennes at sight. I know that you saw that girl take the flag—lying +does not serve your turn. I give you until this evening to tell me who +she is; if you fail, you die at sunrise to-morrow." +</P> + +<P> +In fact, it may be that Hamilton did not really purpose to carry out +this blood-thirsty threat; most probably he relied upon M. Roussillon's +imagination to torture him successfully; but the effect, as time +proved, could not be accurately foreseen. +</P> + +<P> +Captain Farnsworth had energy enough for a dozen ordinary men. Before +he had been in Vincennes twelve hours he had seen every nook and corner +of its surface. Nor was his activity due altogether to military ardor, +although he never let pass an opportunity to serve the best interests +of his commander; all the while his mind was on the strikingly +beautiful girl whose saucy countenance had so dazzled him from the +roof-top of the fort, what time she wrenched away the rebel flag. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll find her, high or low," he thought, "for I never could fail to +recognize that face. She's a trump." +</P> + +<P> +It was not in Alice's nature to hide from the English. They had held +the town and fort before Helm came, and she had not found them +troublesome under Abbott. She did not know that M. Roussillon was a +prisoner, the family taking it for granted that he had gone away to +avoid the English. Nor was she aware that Hamilton felt so keenly the +disappearance of the flag. What she did know, and it gladdened her +greatly, was that Beverley had been well treated by his captor. With +this in her heart she went about Roussillon place singing merry +snatches of Creole songs; and when at the gate, which still hung +lop-sided on account of Beverley's force in shutting it, she came +unexpectedly face to face with Captain Farnsworth, there was no great +surprise on her part. +</P> + +<P> +He lifted his hat and bowed very politely; but a bold smile broke over +his somewhat ruddy face. He spoke in French, but in a drawling tone and +with a bad accent: +</P> + +<P> +"How do you do, Mademoiselle; I am right glad to see you again." +</P> + +<P> +Alice drew back a pace or two. She was quick to understand his +allusion, and she shrank from him, fearing that he was going to inquire +about the flag. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't be afraid," he laughed. "I am not so dangerous. I never did hurt +a girl in all my life. In fact, I am fond of them when they're nice." +</P> + +<P> +"I am not in the least afraid," she replied, assuming an air of +absolute dismissal, "and you don't look a bit ferocious, Monsieur. You +may pass on, if you please." +</P> + +<P> +He flushed and bit his lip, probably to keep back some hasty retort, +and thought rapidly for a moment. She looked straight at him with eyes +that stirred and dazzled him. He was handsome in a coarse way, like a +fine young animal, well groomed, well fed, magnetic, forceful; but his +boldness, being of a sort to which she had not been accustomed, +disturbed her vaguely and strangely. +</P> + +<P> +"Suppose that I don't pass on?" he presently ventured, with just a +suspicion of insolence in his attitude, but laughing until he showed +teeth of remarkable beauty and whiteness. "Suppose that I should wish +to have a little chat with you, Mademoiselle?" +</P> + +<P> +"I have been told that there are men in the world who think themselves +handsome, and clever, and brilliant, when in fact they are but +conceited simpletons," she remarked, rather indifferently, muffling +herself in her fur wrap. "You certainly would be a fairly good +hitching-post for our horses if you never moved." Then she laughed out +of the depth of her hood, a perfectly merry laugh, but not in the least +flattering to Captain Farnsworth's vanity. He felt the scorn that it +conveyed. +</P> + +<P> +His face grew redder, while a flash from hers made him wish that he had +been more gracious in his deportment. Here, to his surprise, was not a +mere creole girl of the wild frontier. +</P> + +<P> +Her superiority struck him with the force of a captivating revelation, +under the light of which he blinked and winced. +</P> + +<P> +She laid a shapely hand on the broken gate and pushed it open. +</P> + +<P> +"I beg your pardon, Mademoiselle;" his manner softened as he spoke; "I +beg your pardon; but I came to speak to you about the flag—the flag +you took away from the fort." +</P> + +<P> +She had been half expecting this; but she was quite unprepared, and in +spite of all she could do showed embarrassment. +</P> + +<P> +"I have come to get the flag; if you will kindly bring it to me, or +tell me where it is I—" +</P> + +<P> +She quickly found words to interrupt him with, and at the same time by +a great effort pulled herself together. +</P> + +<P> +"You have come to the wrong place," she flung in. "I assure you that I +haven't the flag." +</P> + +<P> +"You took it down, Mademoiselle." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, did I?" +</P> + +<P> +"With bewitching grace you did, Mademoiselle. I saw and admired. Will +you fetch it, please?" +</P> + +<P> +"Indeed I won't." +</P> + +<P> +The finality in her voice belied her face, which beamed without a ray +of stubbornness or perversity. He did not know how to interpret her; +but he felt that he had begun wrong. He half regretted that he had +begun at all. +</P> + +<P> +"More depends upon returning that flag than you are probably aware of," +he presently said in a more serious tone. "In fact, the life of one of +your townsmen, and a person of some importance here I believe, will +surely be saved by it. You'd better consider, Mademoiselle. You +wouldn't like to cause the death of a man." +</P> + +<P> +She did not fairly grasp the purport of his words; yet the change in +his manner, and the fact that he turned from French to English in +making the statement, aroused a sudden feeling of dread or dark +apprehension in her breast. The first distinct thought was of +Beverley—that some deadly danger threatened him. +</P> + +<P> +"Who is it?" she frankly demanded. +</P> + +<P> +"It's the Mayor, the big man of your town, Monsieur Roussillon, I think +he calls himself. He's got himself into a tight place. He'll be shot +to-morrow morning if that flag is not produced. Governor Hamilton has +so ordered, and what he orders is done." +</P> + +<P> +"You jest, Monsieur." +</P> + +<P> +"I assure you that I speak the plain truth." +</P> + +<P> +"You will probably catch Monsieur Roussillon before you shoot him." She +tossed her head. +</P> + +<P> +"He is already a prisoner in the fort." +</P> + +<P> +Alice turned pale. +</P> + +<P> +"Monsieur, is this true?" Her voice had lost its happy tone. "Are you +telling me that to—" +</P> + +<P> +"You can verify it, Mademoiselle, by calling upon the commander at the +fort. I am sorry that you doubt my veracity. If you will go with me I +will show you M. Roussillon a tightly bound prisoner." +</P> + +<P> +Jean had crept out of the gate and was standing just behind Alice with +his feet wide apart, his long chin elevated, his head resting far back +between his upthrust shoulders, his hands in his pockets, his uncanny +eyes gazing steadily at Farnsworth. He looked like a deformed frog +ready to jump. +</P> + +<P> +Alice unmistakably saw truth in the Captain's countenance and felt it +in his voice. The reality came to her with unhindered effect. M. +Roussillon's life depended upon the return of the flag. She put her +hands together and for a moment covered her eyes with them. +</P> + +<P> +"I will go now, Mademoiselle," said Farnsworth; "but I hope you will be +in great haste about returning the flag." +</P> + +<P> +He stood looking at her. He was profoundly touched and felt that to say +more would be too brutal even for his coarse nature; so he simply +lifted his hat and went away. +</P> + +<P> +Jean took hold of Alice's dress as she turned to go back into the house. +</P> + +<P> +"Is he going to take the flag? Can he find it? What does he want with +it? What did you do with the flag, Alice?" he whined, in his peculiar, +quavering voice. "Where is it?" +</P> + +<P> +Her skirt dragged him along as she walked. +</P> + +<P> +"Where did you put it, Alice?" +</P> + +<P> +"Father Beret hid it under his floor," she answered, involuntarily, and +almost unconsciously. "I shall have to take it back and give it up." +</P> + +<P> +"No—no—I wouldn't," he quavered, dancing across the veranda as she +quickened her pace and fairly spun him along. "I wouldn't let 'em have +it at all." +</P> + +<P> +Alice's mind was working with lightning speed. Her imagination took +strong grip on the situation so briefly and effectively sketched by +Captain Farnsworth. Her decision formed itself quickly. +</P> + +<P> +"Stay here, Jean. I am going to the fort. Don't tell Mama Roussillon a +thing. Be a good boy." +</P> + +<P> +She was gone before Jean could say a word. She meant to face Hamilton +at once and be sure what danger menaced M. Roussillon. Of course, the +flag must be given up if that would save her foster father any pain; +and if his life were in question there could not be too great haste on +her part. +</P> + +<P> +She ran directly to the stockade gate and breathlessly informed a +sentinel that she must see Governor Hamilton, into whose presence she +was soon led. Captain Farnsworth had preceded her but a minute or two, +and was present when she entered the miserable shed room where the +commander was having another talk with M. Roussillon. +</P> + +<P> +The meeting was a tableau which would have been comical but for the +pressure of its tragic possibilities. Hamilton, stern and sententious, +stood frowning upon M. Roussillon, who sat upon the ground, his feet +and hands tightly bound, a colossal statue of injured innocence. +</P> + +<P> +Alice, as soon as she saw M. Roussillon, uttered a cry of sympathetic +endearment and flung herself toward him with open arms. She could not +reach around his great shoulders; but she did her best to include the +whole bulk. +</P> + +<P> +"Papa! Papa Roussillon!" she chirruped between the kisses that she +showered upon his weather-beaten face. +</P> + +<P> +Hamilton and Farnsworth regarded the scene with curious and surprised +interest. M. Roussillon began speaking rapidly; but being a Frenchman +he could not get on well with his tongue while his hands were tied. He +could shrug his shoulders; that helped him some. +</P> + +<P> +"I am to be shot, MA PETITE," he pathetically growled in his deep bass +voice; "shot like a dog at sunrise to-morrow." +</P> + +<P> +Alice kissed M. Roussillon's rough cheek once more and sprang to her +feet facing Hamilton. +</P> + +<P> +"You are not such a fiend and brute as to kill Papa Roussillon," she +cried. "Why do you want to injure my poor, good papa?" +</P> + +<P> +"I believe you are the young lady that stole the flag?" Hamilton +remarked, smiling contemptuously. +</P> + +<P> +She looked at him with a swift flash of indignation as he uttered these +words. +</P> + +<P> +"I am not a thief. I could not steal what was my own. I helped to make +that flag. It was named after me. I took it because it was mine. You +understand me, Monsieur." +</P> + +<P> +"Tell where it is and your father's life will be spared." +</P> + +<P> +She glanced at M. Roussillon. +</P> + +<P> +"No, Alice," said he, with a pathetically futile effort to make a fine +gesture, "don't do it. I am brave enough to die. You would not have me +act the coward." +</P> + +<P> +No onlooker would have even remotely suspected the fact that M. +Roussillon had chanced to overhear a conversation between Hamilton and +Farnsworth, in which Hamilton stated that he really did not intend to +hurt M. Roussillon in any event; he merely purposed to humiliate the +"big wind-bag!" +</P> + +<P> +"Ah, no; let me die bravely for honor's sake—I fear death far less +than dishonor! They can shoot me, my little one, but they cannot break +my proud spirit." He tried to strike his breast over his heart. +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps it would be just as well to let him be shot," said Hamilton +gruffly, and with dry indifference. "I don't fancy that he's of much +value to the community at best. He'll make a good target for a squad, +and we need an example." +</P> + +<P> +"Do you mean it?—you ugly English brute—would you murder him?" she +stamped her foot. +</P> + +<P> +"Not if I get that flag between now and sundown. Otherwise I shall +certainly have him shot. It is all in your hands, Mademoiselle. You can +tell me where the flag is." Hamilton smiled again with exquisite +cruelty. +</P> + +<P> +Farnsworth stood by gazing upon Alice in open admiration. Her presence +had power in it, to which he was very susceptible. +</P> + +<P> +"You look like a low, dishonorable, soulless tyrant," she said to +Hamilton, "and if you get my flag, how shall I know that you will keep +your promise and let Papa Roussillon go free?" +</P> + +<P> +"I am sorry to say that you will have to trust me, unless you'll take +Captain Farnsworth for security. The Captain is a gentleman, I assure +you. Will you stand good for my veracity and sincerity, Captain +Farnsworth?" +</P> + +<P> +The young man smiled and bowed. +</P> + +<P> +Alice felt the irony; and her perfectly frank nature preferred to trust +rather than distrust the sincerity of others. She looked at Farnsworth, +who smiled encouragingly. +</P> + +<P> +"The flag is under Father Beret's floor," she said. +</P> + +<P> +"Under the church floor?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, under the floor of his house." +</P> + +<P> +"Where is his house?" +</P> + +<P> +She gave full directions how to reach it. +</P> + +<P> +"Untie the prisoner," Hamilton ordered, and it was quickly done. +"Monsieur Roussillon, I congratulate you upon your narrow escape. Go to +the priest's house, Monsieur, and bring me that flag. It would be well, +I assure you, not to be very long about it. Captain Farnsworth, you +will send a guard with Monsieur Roussillon, a guard of honor, fitting +his official dignity, a Corporal and two men. The honorable Mayor of +this important city should not go alone upon so important an errand. He +must have his attendants." +</P> + +<P> +"Permit me to go myself and get it," said Alice, "I can do it quickly. +May I, please, Monsieur?" +</P> + +<P> +Hamilton looked sharply at her. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, certainly, Mademoiselle, certainly. Captain Farnsworth, you will +escort the young lady." +</P> + +<P> +"It is not necessary, Monsieur." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, yes, it is necessary, my dear young lady, very necessary; so let's +not have further words. I'll try to entertain his honor, the Mayor, +while you go and get the flag. I feel sure, Mademoiselle, that you'll +return with it in a few minutes. But you must not go alone." +</P> + +<P> +Alice set forth immediately, and Farnsworth, try as hard as he would, +could never reach her side, so swift was her gait. +</P> + +<P> +When they arrived at Father Beret's cabin, she turned and said with +imperious severity: +</P> + +<P> +"Don't you come in; you stay out here: I'll get it in a minute." +</P> + +<P> +Farnsworth obeyed her command. +</P> + +<P> +The door was wide open, but Father Beret was not inside; he had gone to +see a sick child in the outskirts of the village. Alice looked about +and hesitated. She knew the very puncheon that covered the flag; but +she shrank from lifting it. There seemed nothing else to do, however; +so, after some trouble with herself, she knelt upon the floor and +turned the heavy slab over with a great thump. The flag did not appear. +She peeped under the other puncheons. It was not there. The only thing +visible was a little ball of paper fragments not larger than an egg. +</P> + +<P> +Farnsworth heard her utter a low cry of surprise or dismay, and was on +the point of going in when Father Beret, coming around the corner of +the cabin, confronted him. The meeting was so sudden and unexpected +that both men recoiled slightly, and then, with a mutual stare, saluted. +</P> + +<P> +"I came with a young lady to get the flag," said Farnsworth. "She is +inside. I hope there is no serious intrusion. She says the flag is +hidden under your floor." +</P> + +<P> +Father Beret said nothing, but frowning as if much annoyed, stepped +through the doorway to Alice's side, and stooping where she knelt, laid +a hand on her shoulder as she glanced up and recognized him. +</P> + +<P> +"What are you doing, my child?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Father, where is the flag?" It was all that she could say. "Where +is the flag?" +</P> + +<P> +"Why, isn't it there?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, you see it isn't there! Where is it?" +</P> + +<P> +The priest stood as if dumfounded, gazing into the vacant space +uncovered by the puncheon. +</P> + +<P> +"Is it gone? Has some one taken it away?" +</P> + +<P> +They turned up all the floor to no avail. La banniere d'Alice +Roussillon had disappeared, and Captain Farnsworth went forthwith to +report the fact to his commander. When he reached the shed at the angle +of the fort he found Governor Hamilton sitting stupid and dazed on the +ground. One jaw was inflamed and swollen and an eye was half closed and +bloodshot. He turned his head with a painful, irregular motion and his +chin sagged. +</P> + +<P> +Farnsworth sprang to him and lifted him to his feet; but he could +scarcely stand. He licked his lips clumsily. +</P> + +<P> +"What is the matter? What hurt you?" +</P> + +<P> +The Governor rubbed his forehead trying to recollect. +</P> + +<P> +"He struck me," he presently said with difficulty. "He hit me with his +fist Where—where is he?" +</P> + +<P> +"Who?" +</P> + +<P> +"That big French idiot—that Roussillon—go after him, take him, shoot +him—quick! I have been stunned; I don't know how long he's been gone. +Give the alarm—do something!" +</P> + +<P> +Hamilton, as he gathered his wits together, began to foam with rage, +and his passion gave his bruised and swollen face a terrible look. +</P> + +<P> +The story was short, and may be quickly told. M. Roussillon had taken +advantage of the first moment when he and Hamilton were left alone. One +herculean buffet, a swinging smash of his enormous fist on the point of +the Governors jaw, and then he walked out of the fort unchallenged, +doubtless on account of his lordly and masterful air. +</P> + +<P> +"Ziff!" he exclaimed, shaking himself and lifting his shoulders, when +he had passed beyond hearing of the sentinel at the gate, "ziff! I can +punch a good stiff stroke yet, Monsieur le Gouverneur. Ah, ziff!" and +he blew like a porpoise. +</P> + +<P> +Every effort was promptly made to recapture M. Roussillon; but his +disappearance was absolute; even the reward offered for his scalp by +Hamilton only gave the Indians great trouble—they could not find the +man. +</P> + +<P> +Such a beginning of his administration of affairs at Vincennes did not +put Hamilton into a good humor. He was overbearing and irascible at +best, and under the irritation of small but exceedingly unpleasant +experiences he made life well-nigh unendurable to those upon whom his +dislike chanced to fall. Beverley quickly felt that it was going to be +very difficult for him and Hamilton to get along agreeably. With Helm +it was quite different; smoking, drinking, playing cards, telling good +stories—in a word, rude and not unfrequently boisterous conviviality +drew him and the commandant together. +</P> + +<P> +Under Captain Farnsworth's immediate supervision the fort was soon in +excellent repair and a large blockhouse and comfortable quarters for +the men were built. Every day added to the strength of the works and to +the importance of the post as a strategic position for the advance +guard of the British army. +</P> + +<P> +Hamilton was ambitious to prove himself conspicuously valuable to his +country. He was dreaming vast dreams and laying large plans. The +Indians were soon anxious to gain his favor; and to bind them securely +to him he offered liberal pay in rum and firearms, blankets, trinkets +and ammunition for the scalps of rebels. He kept this as secret as +possible from his prisoners; but Beverley soon suspected that a +"traffic in hair," as the terrible business had been named, was going +on. Savages came in from far away with scalps yet scarcely dry dangling +at their belts. It made the young Virginian's blood chill in his heart, +and he regretted that he had given Hamilton his parole of honor not to +attempt to escape. +</P> + +<P> +Among the Indians occasionally reporting to Hamilton with their ghastly +but valuable trophies was Long-Hair, who slipped into the fort and out +again rather warily, not having much confidence in those Frenchmen who +had once upon a time given him a memorable run for his life. +</P> + +<P> +Winter shut down, not cold, but damp, changeable, raw. The work on the +fort was nearly completed, and Rene de Ronville would have soon been +relieved of his servile and exasperating employment under the Irish +Corporal; but just at the point of time when only a few days' work +remained for him, he became furious, on account of an insulting remark, +and struck the Corporal over the head with a handspike. This happened +in a wood some miles from town, where he was loading logs upon a sled. +There chanced to be no third person present when the deed was done, and +some hours passed before they found the officer quite cold and stiff +beside the sled. His head was crushed to a pulp. +</P> + +<P> +Hamilton, now thoroughly exasperated, began to look upon the French +inhabitants of Vincennes as all like M. Roussillon and Rene, but +waiting for an opportunity to strike him unawares. He increased his +military vigilance, ordered the town patrolled day and night, and +forbade public gatherings of the citizens, while at the same time he +forced them to furnish him a large amount of provisions. +</P> + +<P> +When little Adrienne Bourcier heard of Renews terrible act, followed by +his successful escape to the woods, and of the tempting reward offered +by Hamilton for his scalp, she ran to Roussillon place well-nigh crazed +with excitement. She had always depended upon Alice for advice, +encouragement and comfort in her troubles; but in the present case +there was not much that her friend could do to cheer her. With M. +Roussillon and Rene both fugitives, tracked by wily savages, a price on +their heads, while every day added new dangers to the French +inhabitants of Vincennes, no rosy view could possibly be taken of the +situation. Alice did her best, however, to strengthen her little +friend's faith in a happy outcome. She quoted what she considered +unimpeachable authority to support her optimistic argument. +</P> + +<P> +"Lieutenant Beverley says that the Americans will be sure to drive +Hamilton out of Vincennes, or capture him. Probably they are not so +very far away now, and Rene may join them and come back to help punish +these brutal Englishmen. Don't you wish he would, Adrienne? Wouldn't it +be romantic?" +</P> + +<P> +"He's armed, I know that," said Adrienne, brightening a little, "and +he's brave, Alice, brave as can be. He came right back into town the +other night and got his gun and pistols. He was at our house, too, and, +oh!—" +</P> + +<P> +She burst out crying again. "O Alice! It breaks my heart to think that +the Indians will kill him. Do you think they will kill him, Alice?" +</P> + +<P> +"He'll come nearer killing them," said Alice confidently, with her +strong, warm arms around the tiny lass; "he's a good woodsman, a fine +shot—he's not so easy to kill, my dear. If he and Papa Roussillon +should get together by chance they would be a match for all the Indians +in the country. Anyway, I feel that it's much better for them to take +their chances in the woods than to be in the hands of Governor +Hamilton. If I were a man I'd do just as Papa Roussillon and Rene did; +I'd break the bigoted head of every Englishman that mistreated me, I'll +do it, girl as I am, if they annoy me, see if I don't!" +</P> + +<P> +She was thinking of Captain Farnsworth, who had been from the first +untiring in his efforts to gain something more than a passing +acquaintance. As yet he had not made himself unbearable; but Alice's +fine intuition led her to the conclusion that she must guard against +him from the outset. +</P> + +<P> +Adrienne's simple heart could not grasp the romantic criterion with +which Alice was wont to measure action. Her mind was single, impulsive, +narrow and direct in all its movements. She loved, hated, desired, +caressed, repulsed, not for any assignable reason more solid or more +luminous than "because." She adored Rene and wanted him near her. He +was a hero in her imagination, no matter what he did. Little difference +was it to her whether he hauled logs for the English or smoked his pipe +in idleness by the winter fire—what could it matter which flag he +served under, so that he was true to her? Or whom he served if she +could always have him coming to see her and calling her his little pet? +He might crush an Irish Corporal's head every day, if he would but +stroke her hair and say: "My sweet little one." +</P> + +<P> +"Why couldn't he be quiet and do as your man, Lieutenant Beverley, +did?" she cried in a sudden change of mood, the tears streaming down +her cheeks. "Lieutenant Beverley surrendered and took the consequences. +He didn't kill somebody and run off to be hunted like a bear. No wonder +you're happy, Alice; I'd be happy, too, if Rene were here and came to +spend half of every day with me. I—" +</P> + +<P> +"Why, what a silly girl you are!" Alice exclaimed, her face reddening +prettily. "How foolishly you prattle! I'm sure I don't trouble myself +about Lieutenant Beverley—what put such absurd nonsense into your +head, Adrienne?" +</P> + +<P> +"Because, that's what, and you know it's so, too. You love him just as +much as I love Rene, and that's just all the love in the world, and you +needn't deny it, Alice Roussillon!" +</P> + +<P> +Alice laughed and hugged the wee, brown-faced mite of a girl until she +almost smothered her. +</P> + +<P> +It was growing dusk when Adrienne left Roussillon place to go home. The +wind cut icily across the commons and moaned as it whirled around the +cabins and cattle-sheds. She ran briskly, muffled in a wrap, partly +through fear and partly to keep warm, and had gone two-thirds of her +way when she was brought to an abrupt stop by the arms of a man. She +screamed sharply, and Father Beret, who was coming out of a cabin not +far away, heard and knew the voice. +</P> + +<P> +"Ho-ho, my little lady!" cried Adrienne's captor in a breezy, jocund +tone, "you wouldn't run over a fellow, would you?" The words were +French, but the voice was that of Captain Farnsworth, who laughed while +he spoke. "You jump like a rabbit, my darling! Why, what a lively +little chick of a girl it is!" +</P> + +<P> +Adrienne screamed and struggled recklessly. +</P> + +<P> +"Now don't rouse up the town," coaxed the Captain. He was just drunk +enough to be quite a fool, yet sufficiently sober to imagine himself +the most proper person in the world. "I don't mean you any harm, +Mademoiselle; I'll just see you safe home, you know; 'scort you to your +residence; come on, now—that's a good girl." +</P> + +<P> +Father Beret hurried to the spot, and when in the deepening gloom he +saw Adrienne flinging herself violently this way and that, helplessly +trying to escape from the clasp of a man, he did to perfection what a +priest is supposed to be the least fitted to do. Indeed, considering +his age and leaving his vocation out of the reckoning, his performance +was amazing. It is not certain that the blow dealt upon Governor +Hamilton's jaw by M. Roussillon was a stiffer one than that sent +straight from the priest's shoulder right into the short ribs of +Captain Farnsworth, who there-upon released a mighty grunt and doubled +himself up. +</P> + +<P> +Adrienne recognized her assailant at the first and used his name freely +during the struggle. When Father Beret appeared she cried out to him— +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Father—Father Beret! help me! help me!" +</P> + +<P> +When Farnsworth recovered from the breath-expelling shock of the jab in +his side and got himself once more in a vertical position, both girl +and priest were gone. He looked this way and that, rapidly becoming +sober, and beginning to wonder how the thing could have happened so +easily. His ribs felt as if they had been hit with a heavy hammer. +</P> + +<P> +"By Jove!" he muttered all to himself, "the old prayer-singing heathen! +By Jove!" And with this very brilliant and relevant observation he +rubbed his sore side and went his way to the fort. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap11"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XI +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +A SWORD AND A HORSE PISTOL +</H3> + +<P> +We hear much about the "days that tried men's souls"; but what about +the souls of women in those same days? Sitting in the liberal geniality +of the nineteenth century's sunset glow, we insist upon having our +grumble at the times and the manners of our generation; but if we had +to exchange places, periods and experiences with the people who lived +in America through the last quarter of the eighteenth century, there +would be good ground for despairing ululations. And if our men could +not bear it, if it would try their souls too poignantly, let us imagine +the effect upon our women. No, let us not imagine it; but rather let us +give full credit to the heroic souls of the mothers and the maidens who +did actually bear up in the center of that terrible struggle and +unflinchingly help win for us not only freedom, but the vast empire +which at this moment is at once the master of the world and the model +toward which all the nations of the earth are slowly but surely tending. +</P> + +<P> +If Alice was an extraordinary girl, she was not aware of it; nor had +she ever understood that her life was being shaped by extraordinary +conditions. Of course it could not but be plain to her that she knew +more and felt more than the girls of her narrow acquaintance; that her +accomplishments were greater; that she nursed splendid dreams of which +they could have no proper comprehension, but until now she had never +even dimly realized that she was probably capable of being something +more than a mere creole lass, the foster daughter of Gaspard +Roussillon, trader in pelts and furs. Even her most romantic visions +had never taken the form of personal desire, or ambition in its most +nebulous stage; they had simply pleased her fresh and natural fancy and +served to gild the hardness and crudeness of her life,—that was all. +</P> + +<P> +Her experiences had been almost too terrible for belief, viewed at our +distance from them; she had passed through scenes of incredible horror +and suffering, but her nature had not been chilled, stunted or +hardened. In body and in temper her development had been sound and +beautiful. It was even thus that our great-grandmothers triumphed over +adversity, hardship, indescribable danger. We cannot say that the +strong, lithe, happy-hearted Alice of old Vincennes was the only one of +her kind. Few of us who have inherited the faded portraits of our +revolutionary forbears can doubt that beauty, wit and great lovableness +flourished in the cabins of pioneers all the way from the Edisto to the +Licking, from the Connecticut to the Wabash. +</P> + +<P> +Beverley's advent could not fail to mean a great deal in the life of a +girl like Alice; a new era, as it were, would naturally begin for her +the moment that his personal influence touched her imagination; but it +is well not to measure her too strictly by the standard of our present +taste and the specialized forms of our social and moral code. She was a +true child of the wilderness, a girl who grew, as the wild prairie rose +grew, not on account of innumerable exigencies, accidents and +hardships, but in spite of them. She had blushed unseen, and had wasted +divine sweets upon a more than desert air. But when Beverley came near +her, at first carelessly droning his masculine monotonies, as the +wandering bee to the lonely and lovely rose, and presently striking her +soul as with the wings of Love, there fell a change into her heart of +hearts, and lo! her haunting and elusive dreams began to condense and +take on forms that startled her with their wonderful splendor and +beauty. These she saw all the time, sleeping or waking; they made +bright summer of the frozen stream and snapping gale, the snowdrifts +and the sleet. In her brave young heart, swelled the ineffable +song—the music never yet caught by syrinx or flute or violin, the +words no tongue can speak. +</P> + +<P> +Ah, here may be the secret of that vigorous, brave, sweet life of our +pioneer maids, wives, and mothers. It was love that gave those tender +hearts the iron strength and heroic persistence at which the world must +forever wonder. And do we appreciate those women? Let the Old World +boast its crowned kings, its mailed knights, its ladies of the court +and castle; but we of the New World, we of the powerful West, let us +brim our cups with the wine of undying devotion, and drink to the +memory of the Women of the Revolution,—to the humble but good and +marvelously brave and faithful women like those of old Vincennes. +</P> + +<P> +But if Alice was being radically influenced by Beverley, he in turn +found a new light suffusing his nature, and he was not unaware that it +came out of her eyes, her face, her smiles, her voice, her soul. It was +the old, well-known, inexplicable, mutual magnetism, which from the +first has been the same on the highest mountain-top and in the lowest +valley. The queen and the milkmaid, the king and the hind may come +together only to find the king walking off with the lowly beauty and +her fragrant pail, while away stalks the lusty rustic, to be lord and +master of the queen. Love is love, and it thrives in all climes, under +all conditions. +</P> + +<P> +There is an inevitable and curious protest that comes up unbidden +between lovers; it takes many forms in accordance with particular +circumstances. It is the demand for equality and perfection. Love +itself is without degrees—it is perfect—but when shall it see the +perfect object? It does see it, and it does not see it, in every +beloved being. Beverley found his mind turning, as on a pivot, round +and round upon the thought that Alice might be impossible to him. The +mystery of her life seemed to force her below the line of his +aristocratic vision, so that he could not fairly consider her, and yet +with all his heart he loved her. Alice, on the other hand, had her +bookish ideal to reckon with, despite the fact that she daily dashed it +contemptuously down. She was different from Adrienne Bourcier, who +bewailed the absence of her un-tamable lover; she wished that Beverley +had not, as she somehow viewed it, weakly surrendered to Hamilton. His +apparently complacent acceptance of idle captivity did not comport with +her dream of knighthood and heroism. She had been all the time half +expecting him to do something that would stamp him a hero. +</P> + +<P> +Counter protests of this sort are never sufficiently vigorous to take a +fall out of Love; they merely serve to worry his temper by lightly +hindering his feet. And it is surprising how Love does delight himself +with being entangled. +</P> + +<P> +Both Beverley and Alice day by day felt the cord tightening which drew +their hearts together—each acknowledged it secretly, but strove not to +evince it openly. Meantime both were as happy and as restlessly +dissatisfied as love and uncertainty could make them. +</P> + +<P> +Amid the activities in which Hamilton was engaged—his dealings with +the Indians and the work of reconstructing the fort—he found time to +worry his temper about the purloined flag. Like every other man in the +world, he was superstitious, and it had come into his head that to +insure himself and his plans against disaster, he must have the banner +of his captives as a badge of his victory. It was a small matter; but +it magnified itself as he dwelt upon it. He suspected that Alice had +deceived him. He sharply questioned Father Beret, only to be half +convinced that the good priest told the truth when he said that he knew +nothing whatever on the subject beyond the fact that the banner had +mysteriously disappeared from under his floor. +</P> + +<P> +Captain Farnsworth scarcely sympathized with his chief about the flag, +but he was nothing if not anxious to gain Hamilton's highest +confidence. His military zeal knew no bounds, and he never let pass +even the slightest opportunity to show it. Hence his persistent search +for a clue to the missing banner. He was no respecter of persons. He +frankly suspected both Alice and Father Beret of lying. He would +himself have lied under the existing circumstances, and he considered +himself as truthful and trustworthy as priest or maiden. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll get that flag for you," he said to Hamilton, "if I have to put +every man, woman and child in this town on the rack. It lies, I think, +between Miss Roussillon and the priest, although both insistently deny +it. I've thought it over in every way, and I can't see how they can +both be ignorant of where it is, or at least who got it." +</P> + +<P> +Hamilton, since being treated to that wonderful blow on the jaw, was +apt to fall into a spasm of anger whenever the name Roussillon was +spoken in his hearing. Involuntarily he would put his hand to his +cheek, and grimace reminiscently. +</P> + +<P> +"If it's that girl, make her tell," he savagely commanded. "Let's have +no trifling about it. If it's the priest, then make him tell, or tie +him up by the thumbs. Get that flag, or show some good reason for your +failure. I'm not going to be baffled." +</P> + +<P> +The Captain's adventure with Father Beret came just in time to make it +count against that courageous and bellicose missionary in more ways +than one. Farnsworth did not tell Hamilton or any other person about +what the priest had done to him, but nursed his sore ribs and his +wrath, waiting patiently for the revenge that he meant soon to take. +</P> + +<P> +Alice heard from Adrienne the story of Farnsworth's conduct and his +humiliating discomfiture at the hands of Father Beret. She was both +indignant and delighted, sympathizing with Adrienne and glorying in the +priest's vigorous pugilistic achievement. +</P> + +<P> +"Well," she remarked, with one of her infectious trills of laughter, +"so far the French have the best of it, anyway! Papa Roussillon knocked +the Governor's cheek nearly off, then Rene cracked the Irish Corporal's +head, and now Father Beret has taught Captain Farnsworth a lesson in +fisticuffs that he'll not soon forget! If the good work can only go on +a little longer we shall see every English soldier in Vincennes wearing +the mark of a Frenchman's blow." Then her mood suddenly changed from +smiling lightness to almost fierce gravity, and she added: +</P> + +<P> +"Adrienne Bourcier, if Captain Farnsworth ever offers to treat me as he +did you, mark my words, I'll kill him—kill him, indeed I will! You +ought to see me!" +</P> + +<P> +"But he won't dare touch you," said Adrienne, looking at her friend +with round, admiring eyes. "He knows very well that you are not little +and timid like me. He'd be afraid of you." +</P> + +<P> +"I wish he would try it. How I would love to shoot him into pieces, the +hateful wretch! I wish he would." +</P> + +<P> +The French inhabitants all, or nearly all, felt as Alice did; but at +present they were helpless and dared not say or do anything against the +English. Nor was this feeling confined to the Creoles of Vincennes; it +had spread to most of the points where trading posts existed. Hamilton +found this out too late to mend some of his mistakes; but he set +himself on the alert and organized scouting bodies of Indians under +white officers to keep him informed as to the American movements in +Kentucky and along the Ohio. One of these bands brought in as captive +Colonel Francis Vigo, of St. Louis, a Spaniard by birth, an American by +adoption, a patriot to the core, who had large influence over both +Indians and Creoles in the Illinois country. +</P> + +<P> +Colonel Vigo was not long held a prisoner. Hamilton dared not +exasperate the Creoles beyond their endurance, for he knew that the +savages would closely sympathize with their friends of long standing, +and this might lead to revolt and coalition against him,—a very +dangerous possibility. Indeed, at least one of the great Indian +chieftains had already frankly informed him that he and his tribe were +loyal to the Americans. Here was a dilemma requiring consummate +diplomacy. Hamilton saw it, but he was not of a diplomatic temper or +character. With the Indians he used a demoralizing system of bribery, +while toward the whites he was too often gruff, imperious, repellant. +Helm understood the whole situation and was quick to take advantage of +it. His personal relations with Hamilton were easy and familiar, so +that he did not hesitate to give advice upon all occasions. Here his +jovial disposition helped him. +</P> + +<P> +"You'd better let Vigo return to St. Louis," he said. They had a bowl +of something hot steaming between them. "I know him. He's harmless if +you don't rub him too hard the wrong way. He'll go back, if you treat +him well, and tell Clark how strong you are here and how foolish it +would be to think of attacking you. Clark has but a handful of men, +poorly supplied and tired with long, hard marches. If you'll think a +moment you cannot fail to understand that you'd better be friends with +this man Vigo. He and Father Gibault and this old priest here, Beret, +carry these Frenchmen in their pockets. I'm not on your side, +understand, I'm an American, and I'd blow the whole of you to kingdom +come in a minute, if I could; but common sense is common sense all the +same. There's no good to you and no harm to Clark in mistreating, or +even holding this prisoner. What harm can he do you by going back to +Clark and telling him the whole truth? Clark knew everything long +before Vigo reached here. Old Jazon, my best scout, left here the day +you took possession, and you may bet he got to Kaskaskia in short +order. He never fails. But he'll tell Clark to stay where he is, and +Vigo can do no more." +</P> + +<P> +What effect Helm's bold and apparently artless talk had upon Hamilton's +mind is not recorded; but the meager historical facts at command show +that Vigo was released and permitted to return under promise that he +would give no information to the enemy ON HIS WAY to Kaskaskia. +</P> + +<P> +Doubtless this bit of careless diplomacy on the Governor's part did +have a somewhat soothing effect upon a large class of Frenchmen at +Vincennes; but Farnsworth quickly neutralized it to a serious extent by +a foolish act while slightly under the influence of liquor. +</P> + +<P> +He met Father Beret near Roussillon place, and feeling his ribs squirm +at sight of the priest, he accosted him insolently, demanding +information as to the whereabouts of the missing flag. +</P> + +<P> +A priest may be good and true—Father Beret certainly was—and yet have +the strongest characteristics of a worldly man. This thing of being +bullied day after day, as had recently been the rule, generated nothing +to aid in removing a refractory desire from the priest's heart—the +worldly desire to repeat with great increment of force the punch +against Famsworth's lower ribs. +</P> + +<P> +"I order you, sir, to produce that rebel flag," said Farnsworth. "You +will obey forthwith or take the consequences. I am no longer in the +humor to be trifled with. Do you understand?" +</P> + +<P> +"I might be forced to obey you, if I could," said the priest, drawing +his robe about him; "but, as I have often told you, my son, I do not +know where the flag is or who took it. I do not even suspect any person +of taking it. All that I know about it is the simple fact that it is +gone." +</P> + +<P> +Father Beret's manner and voice were very mild, but there must have +been a hint of sturdy defiance somewhere in them. At all events +Farnsworth was exasperated and fell into a white rage. Perhaps it was +the liquor he had been drinking that made him suddenly desperate. +</P> + +<P> +"You canting old fool!" he cried, "don't lie to me any longer; I won't +have it. Don't stand there grinning at me. Get that flag, or I'll make +you." +</P> + +<P> +"What is impossible, my son, is possible to God alone. Apud homines hoc +impossible est, apud Deum autem omnia possibilia sunt." +</P> + +<P> +"None of your Jesuit Latin or logic to me—I am not here to argue, but +to command. Get that flag. Be in a hurry about it, sir." +</P> + +<P> +He whipped out his sword, and in his half drunken eyes there gathered +the dull film of murderous passion. +</P> + +<P> +"Put up your weapon, Captain; you will not attack an unarmed priest. +You are a soldier, and will not dare strike an old, defenceless man." +</P> + +<P> +"But I will strike a black-robed and black-hearted French rebel. Get +that flag, you grinning fool!" +</P> + +<P> +The two men stood facing each other. Father Beret's eyes did not stir +from their direct, fearless gaze. What Farnsworth had called a grin was +a peculiar smile, not of merriment, a grayish flicker and a slight +backward wrinkling of the cheeks. The old man's arms were loosely +crossed upon his sturdy breast. +</P> + +<P> +"Strike if you must," he said very gently, very firmly. "I never yet +have seen the man that could make me afraid." His speech was slightly +sing-song in tone, as it would have been during a prayer or a blessing. +</P> + +<P> +"Get the flag then!" raged Farnsworth, in whose veins the heat of +liquor was aided by an unreasoning choler. +</P> + +<P> +"I cannot," said Father Beret. +</P> + +<P> +"Then take the consequences!" +</P> + +<P> +Farnsworth lifted his sword, not to thrust, but to strike with its flat +side, and down it flashed with a noisy whack. Father Beret flung out an +arm and deftly turned the blow aside. It was done so easily that +Farnsworth sprang back glaring and surprised. +</P> + +<P> +"You old fool!" he cried, leveling his weapon for a direct lunge. "You +devilish hypocrite!" +</P> + +<P> +It was then that Father Beret turned deadly pale and swiftly crossed +himself. His face looked as if he saw something startling just beyond +his adversary. Possibly this sudden change of expression caused +Farnsworth to hesitate for a mere point of time. Then there was the +swish of a woman's skirts; a light step pattered on the frozen ground, +and Alice sprang between the men, facing Farnsworth. As she did this +something small and yellow,—the locket at her throat,—fell and rolled +under her feet. Nobody saw it. +</P> + +<P> +In her hand she held an immense horse pistol, which she leveled in the +Captain's face, its flaring, bugle-shaped muzzle gaping not a yard from +his nose. The heavy tube was as steady as if in a vise. +</P> + +<P> +"Drop that sword!" +</P> + +<P> +That was all she said; but her finger was pressing the trigger, and the +flint in the backward slanting hammer was ready to click against the +steel. The leaden slugs were on the point of leaping forth. +</P> + +<P> +"Drop that sword!" +</P> + +<P> +The repetition seemed to close the opportunity for delay. +</P> + +<P> +Farnsworth was on his guard in a twinkling. He set his jaw and uttered +an ugly oath; then quick as lightning he struck sidewise at the pistol +with his blade. It was a move which might have taken a less alert +person than Alice unawares; but her training in sword-play was ready in +her wrist and hand. An involuntary turn, the slightest imaginable, set +the heavy barrel of her weapon strongly against the blow, partly +stopping it, and then the gaping muzzle spat its load of balls and +slugs with a bellow that awoke the drowsy old village. +</P> + +<P> +Farnsworth staggered backward, letting fall his sword. There was a rent +in the clothing of his left shoulder. He reeled; the blood spun out; +but he did not fall, although he grew white. +</P> + +<P> +Alice stood gazing at him with a look on her face he would never +forget. It was a look that changed by wonderful swift gradations from +terrible hate to something like sweet pity. The instant she saw him +hurt and bleeding, his countenance relaxing and pale, her heart failed +her. She took a step toward him, her hand opened, and with a thud the +heavy old pistol fell upon the ground beside her. +</P> + +<P> +Father Beret sprang nimbly to sustain Farnsworth, snatching up the +pistol as he passed around Alice. +</P> + +<P> +"You are hurt, my son," he gently said, "let me help you." He passed +his arm firmly under that of Farnsworth, seeing that the Captain was +unsteady on his feet. +</P> + +<P> +"Lean upon me. Come with me, Alice, my child, I will take him into the +house." +</P> + +<P> +Alice picked up the Captain's sword and led the way. +</P> + +<P> +It was all done so quickly that Farnsworth, in his half dazed +condition, scarcely realized what was going on until he found himself +on a couch in the Roussillon home, his wound (a jagged furrow plowed +out by slugs that the sword's blade had first intercepted) neatly +dressed and bandaged, while Alice and the priest hovered over him busy +with their careful ministrations. +</P> + +<P> +Hamilton and Helm were, as usual, playing cards at the former's +quarters when a guard announced that Mademoiselle Roussillon wished an +audience with the Governor. +</P> + +<P> +"Bring the girl in," said Hamilton, throwing down his cards and +scowling darkly. +</P> + +<P> +"Now you'd better be wise as a serpent and gentle as a dove," remarked +Helm. "There is something up, and that gun-shot we heard awhile ago may +have a good deal to do with it. At any rate, you'll find kindness your +best card to play with Alice Roussillon just at the present stage of +the game." +</P> + +<P> +Of course they knew nothing of what had happened to Farnsworth; but +they had been discussing the strained relations between the garrison +and the French inhabitants when the roar of Alice's big-mouthed pistol +startled them. Helm was slyly beating about to try to make Hamilton +lose sight of the danger from Clark's direction. To do this he artfully +magnified the insidious work that might be done by the French and their +Indian friends should they be driven to desperation by oppressive or +exasperating action on the part of the English. +</P> + +<P> +Hamilton felt the dangerous uncertainty upon which the situation +rested; but, like many another vigorously self-reliant man, he could +not subordinate his passions to the dictates of policy. When Alice was +conducted into his presence he instantly swelled with anger. It was her +father who had struck him and escaped, it was she who had carried off +the rebel flag at the moment of victory. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, Miss, to what do I owe the honor of this visit?" he demanded +with a supercilious air, bending a card between his thumb and finger on +the rude table. +</P> + +<P> +She stood before him tall and straight, well bundled in furs. She was +not pale; her blood was too rich and brilliant for that; but despite a +half-smile and the inextinguishable dimples, there was a touch of +something appealingly pathetic in the lines of her mouth. She did not +waver or hesitate, however, but spoke promptly and distinctly. +</P> + +<P> +"I have come, Monsieur, to tell you that I have hurt Captain +Farnsworth. He was about to kill Father Beret, and I shot him. He is in +our house and well cared for. I don't think his wound is bad. And—" +here she hesitated at last and let her gaze fall,—"so here I am." Then +she lifted her eyes again and made an inimitable French gesture with +her shoulders and arms. "You will do as you please, Monsieur, I am at +your mercy." +</P> + +<P> +Hamilton was astounded. Helm sat staring phlegmatically. Meantime +Beverley entered the room and stopped hat in hand behind Alice. He was +flushed and evidently excited; in fact, he had heard of the trouble +with Farnsworth, and seeing Alice enter the floor of Hamilton's +quarters he followed her in, his heart stirred by no slight emotion. He +met the Governor's glare and parried it with one of equal haughtiness. +The veins on his forehead swelled and turned dark. He was in a mood to +do whatever desperate act should suggest itself. +</P> + +<P> +When Hamilton fairly comprehended the message so graphically presented +by Alice, he rose from his seat by the fire. +</P> + +<P> +"What's this you tell me?" he blurted. "You say you've shot Captain +Farnsworth?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oui, Monsieur." +</P> + +<P> +He stared a moment, then his features beamed with hate. +</P> + +<P> +"And I'll have you shot for it, Miss, as sure as you stand there in +your silly impudence ogling me so brazenly!" +</P> + +<P> +He leaned toward her as he spoke and sent with the words a shock of +coarse, passionate energy from which she recoiled as if expecting a +blow to follow it. +</P> + +<P> +An irresistible impulse swept Beverley to Alice's side, and his +attitude was that of a protector. Helm sprang up. +</P> + +<P> +A Lieutenant came in and respectfully, but with evident over-haste, +reported that Captain Farnsworth had been shot and was at Roussillon +place in care of the surgeon. +</P> + +<P> +"Take this girl into custody. Confine her and put a strong guard over +her." +</P> + +<P> +In giving the order Hamilton jerked his thumb contemptuously toward +Alice, and at the same time gave Beverley a look of supreme defiance +and hatred. When Helm began to speak he turned fiercely upon him and +stopped him with: +</P> + +<P> +"None of your advice, sir. I have had all I want of it. Keep your place +or I'll make you." +</P> + +<P> +Then to Beverley: +</P> + +<P> +"Retire, sir. When I wish to see you I'll send for you. At present you +are not needed here." +</P> + +<P> +The English Lieutenant saluted his commander, bowed respectfully to +Alice and said: +</P> + +<P> +"Come with me, Miss, please." +</P> + +<P> +Helm and Beverley exchanged a look of helpless and enquiring rage. It +was as if they had said: "What can we do? Must we bear it?" Certainly +they could do nothing. Any interference on their part would be sure to +increase Alice's danger, and at the same time add to the weight of +their own humiliation. +</P> + +<P> +Alice silently followed the officer out of the room. She did not even +glance toward Beverley, who moved as if to interfere and was promptly +motioned back by the guard. His better judgement returning held him +from a rash and futile act, until Hamilton spoke again, saying loudly +as Alice passed through the door: +</P> + +<P> +"I'll see who's master of this town if I have to shoot every French +hoyden in it!" +</P> + +<P> +"Women and children may well fear you, Colonel Hamilton," said +Beverley. "That young lady is your superior." +</P> + +<P> +"You say that to me, sir!" +</P> + +<P> +"It is the best I could possibly say of you." +</P> + +<P> +"I will send you along with the wench if you do not guard your +language. A prisoner on parole has no license to be a blackguard." +</P> + +<P> +"I return you my parole, sir, I shall no longer regard it as binding," +said Beverley, by a great effort, holding back a blow; "I will not keep +faith with a scoundrel who does not know how to be decent in the +presence of a young girl. You had better have me arrested and confined. +I will escape at the first opportunity and bring a force here to reckon +with you for your villainy. And if you dare hurt Alice Roussillon I +will have you hanged like a dog!" +</P> + +<P> +Hamilton looked at him scornfully, smiling as one who feels safe in his +authority and means to have his own way with his victim. Naturally he +regarded Beverley's words as the merest vaporings of a helpless and +exasperated young man. He saw very clearly that love was having a hand +in the affair, and he chuckled inwardly, thinking what a fool Beverley +was. +</P> + +<P> +"I thought I ordered you to leave this room," he said with an air and +tone of lofty superiority, "and I certainly mean to be obeyed. Go, sir, +and if you attempt to escape, or in any way break your parole, I'll +have you shot." +</P> + +<P> +"I have already broken it. From this moment I shall not regard it. You +have heard my statement. I shall not repeat it. Govern yourself +accordingly." +</P> + +<P> +With these words Beverley turned and strode out of the house, quite +beside himself, his whole frame quivering. +</P> + +<P> +Hamilton laughed derisively, then looked at Helm and said: +</P> + +<P> +"Helm, I like you; I don't wish to be unkind to you; but positively you +must quit breaking in upon my affairs with your ready-made advice. I've +given you and Lieutenant Beverley too much latitude, perhaps. If that +young fool don't look sharp he'll get himself into a beastly lot of +trouble. You'd better give him a talk. He's in a way to need it just +now." +</P> + +<P> +"I think so myself," said Helm, glad to get back upon fair footing with +the irascible Governor. "I'll wait until he cools off somewhat, and +then I can manage him. Leave him to me." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, come walk with me to see what has really happened to Farnsworth. +He's probably not much hurt, and deserves what he's got. That girl has +turned his head. I think I understand the whole affair. A little love, +a little wine, some foolishness, and the wench shot him." +</P> + +<P> +Helm genially assented; but they were delayed for some time by an +officer who came in to consult with Hamilton on some pressing Indian +affairs. When they reached Roussillon place they met Beverley coming +out; but he did not look at them. He was scarcely aware of them. A +little way outside the gate, on going in, he had picked up Alice's +locket and broken chain, which he mechanically put into his pocket. It +was all like a dream to him, and yet he had a clear purpose. He was +going away from Vincennes, or at least he would try, and woe be to +Hamilton on his coming back. It was so easy for an excited young mind +to plan great things and to expect success under apparently impossible +conditions. Beverley gave Jean a note for Alice; it was this that took +him to Roussillon place; and no sooner fell the night than he +shouldered a gun furnished him by Madame Godere, and guided by the +woodsman's fine craft, stole away southward, thinking to swim the icy +Wabash some miles below, and then strike across the plains of Illinois +to Kaskaskia. +</P> + +<P> +It was a desperate undertaking; but in those days desperate +undertakings were rather the rule than the exception. Moreover, love +was the leader and Beverley the blind follower. Nothing could daunt him +or turn him back, until he found an army to lead against Hamilton. It +seems but a romantic burst of indignation, as we look back at it, +hopelessly foolish, with no possible end but death in the wilderness. +Still there was a method in love's madness, and Beverley, with his +superb physique, his knowledge of the wilderness and his indomitable +self-reliance, was by no means without his fighting chance for success. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap12"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +MANON LESCAUT. AND A RAPIER-THRUST +</H3> + +<P> +Beverley's absence was not noticed by Hamilton until late on the +following day, and even then he scouted Helm's suggestion that the +young man was possibly carrying out his threat to disregard his parole. +</P> + +<P> +"He would be quite justified in doing it; you know that very well," +said Helm with a laugh, "and he's just the man to undertake what is +impossible. Of course, however, he'll get scalped for his trouble, and +that will cost you something, I'm happy to say." +</P> + +<P> +"It's a matter of small importance," Hamilton replied; "but I'll wager +you the next toddy that he's not at the present moment a half-mile from +this spot. He may be a fool, I readily grant that he is, but even a +fool is not going to set out alone in this kind of weather to go to +where your rebel friends are probably toasting their shins by a fire of +green logs and half starving over yonder on the Mississippi." +</P> + +<P> +"Joking aside, you are doubtless right. Beverley is hot-headed, and if +he could he'd get even with you devilish quick; but he hasn't left +Vincennes, I think. Miss Roussillon would keep him here if the place +were on fire!" +</P> + +<P> +Hamilton laughed dryly. He had thought just what Helm was saying. +Beverley's attentions to Alice had not escaped his notice. +</P> + +<P> +"Speaking of that girl," he remarked after a moment's silence, "what am +I do to do with her? There's no place to keep her, and Farnsworth +insists that she wasn't to blame." He chuckled again and added: +</P> + +<P> +"It's true as gospel. He's in love with her, too. Seems to be glad she +shot him. Says he's ashamed of himself for ever suspecting her of +anything but being a genuine angel. Why, he's got as flabby as a rabbit +and mumbles like a fool!" +</P> + +<P> +"Same as you or I at his age," said Helm, taking a chew of tobacco. +"She IS a pretty thing. Beverley don't know his foot from his +shoulder-blade when she's anywhere near him. Boys are boys. I'm a sort +of a boy myself." +</P> + +<P> +"If she'd give up that flag he'd let her go," said Hamilton. "I hate +like the devil to confine her; it looks brutal, and makes me feel like +a tyrant." +</P> + +<P> +"Have you ever happened to notice the obvious fact, Governor Hamilton, +that Alice Roussillon and Father Beret are not all the French in +Vincennes?" +</P> + +<P> +"What do you mean?" +</P> + +<P> +"I mean that I don't for a moment believe that either the girl or the +priest knows a thing about where that flag is. They are both as +truthful and honorable as people ever get to be. I know them. Somebody +else got that flag from under the priest's floor. You may depend upon +that. If Miss Roussillon knew where it is she'd say so, and then dare +you to make her tell where it's hidden." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, the whole devilish town is rotten with treason; that's very clear. +There's not a loyal soul in it outside of my forces." +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you for not including me among the loyalists." +</P> + +<P> +"Humph, I spoke of these French people; they pretend to be true; but I +believe they are all traitors." +</P> + +<P> +"You can manage them if you try. A little jolly kindness goes a long +way with 'em. <I>I</I> had no trouble while <I>I</I> held the town." +</P> + +<P> +Hamilton bit his lip and was silent. Helm was exasperatingly good +tempered, and his jocularity was irresistible. While he was yet +speaking a guard came up followed by Jean, the hunchback, and saluting +said to Hamilton: +</P> + +<P> +"The lad wants to see the young lady, sir." +</P> + +<P> +Hamilton gazed quizzically at Jean, who planted himself in his habitual +attitude before him and stared up into his face with the grotesque +expression which seems to be characteristic of hunchbacks and unfledged +birds—the look of an embodied and hideous joke. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, sir, what will you have?" the Governor demanded. +</P> + +<P> +"I want to see Alice, if you please." +</P> + +<P> +"What for?" +</P> + +<P> +"I want to give her a book to read." +</P> + +<P> +"Ah, indeed. Where is it? Let me see it." +</P> + +<P> +Jean took from the breast of his loose jerkin a small volume, dog-eared +and mildewed, and handed it to Hamilton. Meantime he stood first on one +foot, then the other, gnawing his thumb-nail and blinking rapidly. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, Helm, just look here!" +</P> + +<P> +"What?" +</P> + +<P> +"Manon Lescaut." +</P> + +<P> +"And what's that?" +</P> + +<P> +"Haven't you ever read it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Read what?" +</P> + +<P> +"This novel—Manon Lescaut." +</P> + +<P> +"Never read a novel in my life. Never expect to." +</P> + +<P> +Hamilton laughed freely at Helm's expense, then turned to Jean and gave +him back the book. +</P> + +<P> +It would have been quite military, had he taken the precaution to +examine between the pages for something hidden there, but he did not. +</P> + +<P> +"Go, give it to her," he said, "and tell her I send my compliments, +with great admiration of her taste in literature." He motioned the +soldier to show Jean to Alice. "It's a beastly French story," he added, +addressing Helm; "immoral enough to make a pirate blush. That's the +sort of girl Mademoiselle Roussillon is!" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't care what kind of a book she reads," blurted Helm, "she's a +fine, pure, good girl. Everybody likes her. She's the good angel of +this miserable frog-hole of a town. You'd like her yourself, if you'd +straighten up and quit burning tow in your brain all the time. You're +always so furious about something that you never have a chance to be +just to yourself, or pleasant to anybody else." +</P> + +<P> +Hamilton turned fiercely on Helm, but a glimpse of the Captain's broad +good-humored face heartily smiling, dispelled his anger. There was no +ground upon which to maintain a quarrel with a person so persistently +genial and so absurdly frank. And in fact Hamilton was not half so bad +as his choleric manifestations seemed to make him out. Besides, Helm +knew just how far to go, just when to stop. +</P> + +<P> +"If I had got furious at you every time there was overwhelming +provocation for it," Hamilton said, "you'd have been long since hanged +or shot. I fancy that I have shown angelic forbearance. I've given you +somewhat more than a prisoner's freedom." +</P> + +<P> +"So you have, so you have," assented Helm. "I've often been surprised +at your generous partiality in my case. Let's have some hot water with +something else in it, what do you say? I won't give you any more advice +for five minutes by your watch." +</P> + +<P> +"But I want some advice at once." +</P> + +<P> +"What about?" +</P> + +<P> +"That girl." +</P> + +<P> +"Turn her loose. That's easy and reputable." +</P> + +<P> +"I'll have to, I presume; but she ought to be punished." +</P> + +<P> +"If you'll think less about punishment, revenge and getting even with +everybody and everything, you'll soon begin to prosper." +</P> + +<P> +Hamilton winced, but smiled as one quite sure of himself. +</P> + +<P> +Jean followed the soldier to a rickety log pen on the farther side of +the stockade, where he found the prisoner restlessly moving about like +a bird in a rustic cage. It had no comforts, that gloomy little room. +There was no fireplace, the roof leaked, and the only furniture +consisted of a bench to sit on and a pile of skins for bed. Alice +looked charmingly forlorn peeping out of the wraps in which she was +bundled against the cold, her hair fluffed and rimpled in shining +disorder around her face. +</P> + +<P> +The guard let Jean in and closed the door, himself staying outside. +</P> + +<P> +Alice was as glad to see the poor lad as if they had been parted for a +year. She hugged him and kissed his drawn little face. +</P> + +<P> +"You dear, good Jean!" she murmured, "you did not forget me." +</P> + +<P> +"I brought you something," he whispered, producing the book. +</P> + +<P> +Alice snatched it, looked at it, and then at Jean. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, what did you bring this for? you silly Jean! I didn't want this. +I don't like this book at all. It's hateful. I despise it. Take it +back." +</P> + +<P> +"There's something in it for you, a paper with writing on it; +Lieutenant Beverley wrote it on there. It's shut up between the leaves +about the middle." +</P> + +<P> +"Sh-s-sh! not so loud, the guard'll hear you," Alice breathlessly +whispered, her whole manner changing instantly. She was trembling, and +the color had been whisked from her face, as the flame from a candle in +a sudden draught. +</P> + +<P> +She found the note and read it a dozen times without a pause, her eyes +leaping along the lines back and forth with pathetic eagerness and +concentration. Presently she sat down on the bench and covered her face +with her hands. A tremor first, then a convulsive sobbing, shook her +collapsed form. Jean regarded her with a drolly sympathetic grimace, +elevating his long chin and letting his head settle back between his +shoulders. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Jean, Jean!" she cried at last, looking up and reaching out her +arms; "O Jean, he is gone, gone, gone!" +</P> + +<P> +Jean stepped closer to her while she sobbed again like a little child. +</P> + +<P> +She pulled him to her and held him tightly against her breast while she +once more read the note through blinding tears. The words were few, but +to her they bore the message of desolation and despair. A great, +haunting, hollow voice in her heart repeated them until they echoed +from vague distance to distance. +</P> + +<P> +It was written with a bit of lead on the half of a mildewed fly-leaf +torn from the book: +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"Dear Alice: +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"I am going away. When you read this, think of me as hurrying through +the wilderness to reach our army and bring it here. Be brave, as you +always have been; be good, as you cannot help being; wait and watch for +me; love me, as I love you. I will come. Do not doubt it, I will come, +and I will crush Hamilton and his command. Courage, Alice dear; +courage, and wait for me. +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"Faithfully ever,<BR> + "Beverley."<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +She kissed the paper with passionate fervor, pouring her tears upon it +in April showers between which the light of her eyes played almost +fiercely, so poignant was her sense of a despair which bordered upon +desperation. "Gone, gone!" It was all she could think or say. "Gone, +gone." +</P> + +<P> +Jean took the offending novel back home with him, hidden under his +jerkin; but Beverley's note lay upon Alice's heart, a sweet comfort and +a crushing weight, when an hour later Hamilton sent for her and she was +taken before him. Her face was stained with tears and she looked +pitifully distressed and disheveled; yet despite all this her beauty +asserted itself with subtle force. +</P> + +<P> +Hamilton felt ashamed looking at her, but put on sternness and spoke +without apparent sympathy: +</P> + +<P> +"Miss Roussillon, you came near committing a great crime. As it is, you +have done badly enough; but I wish not to be unreasonably severe. I +hope you are sorry for your act, and feel like doing better hereafter." +</P> + +<P> +She was trembling, but her eyes looked steadily straight into his. They +were eyes of baby innocence, yet they irradiated a strong womanly +spirit just touched with the old perverse, mischievous light which she +could neither banish nor control. When she did not make reply, Hamilton +continued: +</P> + +<P> +"You may go home now, and I shall expect to have no more trouble on +your account." He made a gesture indicative of dismissal; then, as she +turned from him, he added, somewhat raising his voice: +</P> + +<P> +"And further, Miss Roussillon, that flag you took from here must +positively be returned. See that it is done." +</P> + +<P> +She lifted her head high and walked away, not deigning to give him a +word. +</P> + +<P> +"Humph! what do you think now of your fine young lady?" he demanded, +turning to Helm with a sneering curl of his mouth. "She gives thanks +copiously for a kindness, don't you think?" +</P> + +<P> +"Poor girl, she was scared nearly out of her life," said Helm. "She got +away from you, like a wounded bird from a snare. I never saw a face +more pitiful than hers." +</P> + +<P> +"Much pity she needs, and greatly like a wounded bird she acts, I must +say; but good riddance if she'll keep her place hereafter. I despise +myself when I have to be hard with a woman, especially a pretty one. +That girl's a saucy and fascinating minx, and as dangerous as twenty +men. I'll keep a watch on her movements from this on, and if she gets +into mischief again I'll transport her to Detroit, or give her away to +the Indians, She must stop her high-handed foolishness." +</P> + +<P> +Helm saw that Hamilton was talking mere wind, VOX ET PRAETEREA NIHIL, +and he furthermore felt that his babbling signified no harm to Alice; +but Hamilton surprised him presently by saying: +</P> + +<P> +"I have just learned that Lieutenant Beverley is actually gone. Did you +know of his departure?" +</P> + +<P> +"What are you saying, sir?" +</P> + +<P> +Helm jumped to his feet, not angry, but excited. +</P> + +<P> +"Keep cool, you need not answer if you prefer silence or evasion. You +may want to go yourself soon." +</P> + +<P> +Helm burst out laughing, but quickly growing serious said: +</P> + +<P> +"Has Beverley been such a driveling fool as that? Are you in earnest?" +</P> + +<P> +"He killed two of my scouts, wounded another, and crossed the Wabash in +their canoe. He is going straight towards Kaskaskia." +</P> + +<P> +"The idiot! Hurrah for him! If you catch your hare you may roast him, +but catch him first, Governor!" +</P> + +<P> +"You'll joke out of the other corner of your mouth, Captain Helm, if I +find out that you gave him aid or countenance in breaking his parole." +</P> + +<P> +"Aid or countenance! I never saw him after he walked out of this room. +You gave him a devil of a sight more aid and countenance than I did. +What are you talking about! Broke his parole! He did no such thing. He +returned it to you fairly, as you well know. He told you he was going." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I've sent twenty of my swiftest Indians after him to bring him +back. I'll let you see him shot. That ought to please you." +</P> + +<P> +"They'll never get him, Governor. I'll bet high on him against your +twenty scalp-lifters any day. Fitzhugh Beverley is the best Indian +fighter, Daniel Boone and Simon Kenton excepted, in the American +colonies." +</P> + +<P> +On her way home Alice met Father Beret, who turned and walked beside +her. He was so overjoyed at her release that he could scarcely speak; +but held her hand and stroked it gently while she told him her story. +It was beginning to rain, a steady, cold shower, when they reached the +house, and for many days and nights thereafter the downfall continued +almost incessantly. +</P> + +<P> +"Dear child," said Father Beret, stopping at the gate and looking +beseechingly into Alice's face, "you must stay at home now—stay in the +house—it will be horribly dangerous for you to pass about in the +village after your—after what has happened." +</P> + +<P> +"Do not fear, Father, I will be careful. Aren't you coming in? I'll +find you a cake and a glass of wine." +</P> + +<P> +"No, child, not now." +</P> + +<P> +"Then good-bye, good-bye," she said, turning from him to run into the +house. "Come soon, I shall be so lonesome." +</P> + +<P> +On the veranda she suddenly stopped, running her fingers about her neck +and into her bosom. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Father, Father Beret, I've lost my locket!" she cried. "See if I +dropped it there." +</P> + +<P> +She went back to the gate, searching the ground with her eyes. Of +course she did not find the locket. It was miles and miles away close +to the heart of her lover. If she could but have known this, it would +have comforted her. Beverley had intended to leave it with Jean, but in +his haste and excitement he forgot; writing the note distracted his +attention; and so he bore Alice's picture on his breast and in his +heart while pursuing his long and perilous journey. +</P> + +<P> +Four of Hamilton's scouts came upon Beverley twenty miles south of +Vincennes, but having the advantage of them, he killed two almost +immediately, and after a running fight, the other two attempted escape +in a canoe on the Wabash. Here, firing from a bluff, he wounded a +third. Both then plunged head-foremost into the water, and by keeping +below the surface, got away. The adventure gave Beverley new spirit and +self-reliance; he felt that he could accomplish anything necessary to +his undertaking. In the captured pirogue he crossed the river, and, to +make his trail hard to find, sent the little craft adrift down the +current. +</P> + +<P> +Then alone, in the dead of winter, he took his bearings and struck +across the dreary, houseless plain toward St. Louis. +</P> + +<P> +As soon as Hamilton's discomfited scouts reported to him, he sent +Long-Hair with twenty picked savages, armed and supplied for continuous +and rapid marching, in pursuit of Beverley. There was a large reward +for bringing him in alive, a smaller one for his scalp. +</P> + +<P> +When Alice heard of all this, her buoyant and happy nature seemed +entirely to desert her for a time. She was proud to find out that +Beverley had shown himself brave and capable; it touched her love of +heroism; but she knew too much about Indian warfare to hope that he +could hold his own against Long-Hair, the wiliest and boldest of +scalp-hunters, and twenty of the most experienced braves in Hamilton's +forces. He would almost certainly be killed and scalped, or captured +and brought back to be shot or hanged in Vincennes. The thought chilled +and curdled her blood. +</P> + +<P> +Both Helm and Father Beret tried to encourage and comfort her by +representing the probabilities in the fairest light. +</P> + +<P> +"It's like hunting for a needle in a haystack, going out to find a man +in that wilderness," said Helm with optimistic cheerfulness; "and +besides Beverley is no easy dose for twenty red niggers to take. I've +seen him tried at worse odds than that, and he got out with a whole +skin, too. Don't you fret about him, Miss Roussillon." +</P> + +<P> +Little help came to her from attempts of this sort. She might brighten +up for a while, but the dark dread, and the terrible gnawing at her +heart, the sinking and despairing in her soul, could not be cured. +</P> + +<P> +What added immeasurably to her distress was the attention of +Farnsworth, whose wound troubled him but a short time. He seemed to +have had a revelation and a change of spirit since the unfortunate +rencounter and the subsequent nursing at Alice's hands. He was grave, +earnest, kindly, evidently striving to play a gentle and honorable +part. She could feel that he carried a load of regret, that he wanted +to pay a full price in good for the evil that he had done; his sturdy +English heart was righting itself nobly, yet she but half understood +him, until his actions and words began to betray his love; and then she +hated him unreasonably. Realizing this, Farnsworth bore himself more +like a faithful dog than in the manner hitherto habitual to him. He +simply shadowed Alice and would not be rebuffed. +</P> + +<P> +There can be nothing more painful to a finely sympathetic nature than +regret for having done a kindness. Alice experienced this to the +fullest degree. She had nursed Farnsworth but a little while, yet it +was a while of sweet influence. Her tender woman nature felt the +blessedness of doing good to her enemy lying helpless in her house and +hurt by her own hand. But now she hated the man, and with all her soul +she was sorry that she had been kind to him; for out of her kindness he +had drawn the spell of a love under which he lived a new life, and all +for her. Yet deep down in her consciousness the pity and the pathos of +the thing hovered gloomily and would not be driven out. +</P> + +<P> +The rain in mid-winter gave every prospect a sad, cold, sodden gray +appearance. The ground was soaked, little rills ran in the narrow +streets, the small streams became great rivers, the Wabash overflowed +its banks and made a sea of all the lowlands on either side. It was +hard on the poor dwellers in the thatched and mostly floorless cabins, +for the grass roofs gradually let the water through and puddles formed +on the ground inside. Fuel was distant and had to be hauled in the +pouring rain; provisions were scarce and hunting almost impossible. +Many people, especially children, were taken ill with colds and fever. +Alice found some relief from her trouble in going from cabin to cabin +and waiting upon the sufferers; but even here Farnsworth could not be +got rid of; he followed her night and day. Never was a good soldier, +for he was that from head to foot, more lovelorn and love-docile. The +maiden had completely subdued the man. +</P> + +<P> +About this time, deep in a rainy and pitch-black night, Gaspard +Roussillon came home. He tapped on the door again and again. Alice +heard, but she hesitated to speak or move. Was she growing cowardly? +Her heart beat like a drum. There was but one person in all the world +that she could think of—it was not M. Roussillon. Ah, no, she had +well-nigh forgotten her gigantic foster father. +</P> + +<P> +"It is I, ma cherie, it is Gaspard, my love, open the door," came in a +booming half-whisper from without. "Alice, Jean, it is your Papa +Roussillon, my dears. Let me in." +</P> + +<P> +Alice was at the door in a minute, unbarring it. M. Roussillon entered, +armed to the teeth, the water dribbling from his buckskin clothes. +</P> + +<P> +"Pouf!" he exclaimed, "my throat is like dust." His thoughts were +diving into the stores under the floor. "I am famished. Dear children, +dear little ones! They are glad to see papa! Where is your mama?" +</P> + +<P> +He had Alice in his arms and Jean clung to his legs. Madame Roussillon, +to be sure of no mistake, lighted a lamp with a brand that smoldered on +the hearth and held it up, then, satisfied as to her husband's +identity, set it on a shelf and flung herself into the affectionate +group with clumsy abandon, making a great noise. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, my dear Gaspard!" she cried as she lunged forward. "Gaspard, +Gaspard!" Her voice fairly lifted the roof; her great weight, hurled +with such force, overturned everybody, and all of them tumbled in a +heap, the rotund and solid dame sitting on top. +</P> + +<P> +"Ouf! not so impetuous, my dear," puffed M. Roussillon, freeing himself +from her unpleasant pressure and scrambling to his feet. "Really you +must have fared well in my absence, Madame, you are much heavier." He +laughed and lifted her up as if she had been a child, kissing her +resonantly. +</P> + +<P> +His gun had fallen with a great clatter. He took it from the floor and +examined it to see if it had been injured, then set it in a corner. +</P> + +<P> +"I am afraid we have been making too much noise," said Alice, speaking +very low. "There is a patrol guard every night now. If they should hear +you—" +</P> + +<P> +"Shh!" whispered M. Roussillon, "we will be very still. Alice, is there +something to eat and a drop of wine handy? I have come many miles; I am +tired, hungry, thirsty,—ziff!" +</P> + +<P> +Alice brought some cold roast venison, a loaf, and a bottle of claret. +These she set before him on a little table. +</P> + +<P> +"Ah, this is comfort," he said after he had gulped a full cup. "Have +you all been well?" +</P> + +<P> +Then he began to tell where he had been, what he had seen, and the many +things he had done. A Frenchman must babble while he eats and drinks. A +little wine makes him eloquent. He talks with his hands, shoulders, +eyes. Madame Roussillon, Alice and Jean, wrapped in furs, huddled +around him to hear. He was very entertaining, and they forgot the +patrol until a noise startled them. It was the low of a cow. They +laughed and the master of the house softened his voice. +</P> + +<P> +M. Roussillon had been the guest of a great Indian chieftain, who was +called the "Gate of the Wabash," because he controlled the river. The +chief was an old acquaintance and treated him well. +</P> + +<P> +"But I wanted to see you all," Gaspard said. "I was afraid something +might have happened to you. So I came back just to peep in. I can't +stay, of course; Hamilton would kill me as if I were a wolf. I can +remain but an hour and then slip out of town again before daylight +conies. The rain and darkness are my friends." +</P> + +<P> +He had seen Simon Kenton, who said he had been in the neighborhood of +Vincennes acting as a scout and spy for Clark. Presently and quite +casually he added: +</P> + +<P> +"And I saw Lieutenant Beverley, too. I suppose you know that he has +escaped from Hamilton, and—" Here a big mouthful of venison interfered. +</P> + +<P> +Alice leaned toward him white and breathless, her heart standing still. +</P> + +<P> +Then the door, which had been left unbarred, was flung open and, along +with a great rush of wind and rain, the patrol guard, five in number, +sprang in. +</P> + +<P> +M. Roussillon reached his gun with one hand, with the other swung a +tremendous blow as he leaped against the intruders. Madame Roussillon +blew out the light. No cave in the depth of earth was ever darker than +that room. The patrolmen could not see one another or know what to do; +but M. Roussillon laid about him with the strength of a giant. His +blows sounded as if they smashed bones. Men fell heavily thumping on +the floor where he rushed along. Some one fired a pistol and by its +flash they all saw him; but instantly the darkness closed again, and +before they could get their bearings he was out and gone, his great +hulking form making its way easily over familiar ground where his +would-be captors could have proceeded but slowly, even with a light to +guide them. There was furious cursing among the patrolmen as they +tumbled about in the room, the unhurt ones trampling their prostrate +companions and striking wildly at each other in their blindness and +confusion. At last one of them bethought him to open a dark lantern +with which the night guards were furnished. Its flame was fluttering +and gave forth a pale red light that danced weirdly on the floors and +walls. +</P> + +<P> +Alice had snatched down one of her rapiers when the guards first +entered. They now saw her facing them with her slender blade leveled, +her back to the wall, her eyes shining dangerously. Madame Roussillon +had fled into the adjoining room. Jean had also disappeared. The +officer, a subaltern, in charge of the guard, seeing Alice, and not +quickly able to make out that it was a woman thus defying him, crossed +swords with her. There was small space for action; moreover the officer +being not in the least a swordsman, played awkwardly, and quick as a +flash his point was down. The rapier entered just below his thread with +a dull chucking stab. He leaped backward, feeling at the same time a +pair of arms clasp his legs. It was Jean, and the Lieutenant, thus +unexpectedly tangled, fell to the floor, breaking but not extinguishing +the guard's lantern as he went down. The little remaining oil spread +and flamed up brilliantly, as if eager for conflagration, sputtering +along the uneven boards. +</P> + +<P> +"Kill that devil!" cried the Lieutenant, in a strangling voice, while +trying to regain his feet. "Shoot! Bayonet!" +</P> + +<P> +In his pain, rage and haste, he inadvertently set his hand in the midst +of the blazing oil, which clung to the flesh with a seething grip. +</P> + +<P> +"Hell!" he screamed, "fire, fire!" +</P> + +<P> +Two or three bayonets were leveled upon Alice. Some one kicked Jean +clean across the room, and he lay there curled up in his hairy +night-wrap looking like an enormous porcupine. +</P> + +<P> +At this point a new performer came upon the stage, a dark-robed thing, +so active that its outlines changed elusively, giving it no +recognizable features. It might have been the devil himself, or some +terrible unknown wild animal clad somewhat to resemble a man, so far as +the startled guards could make out. It clawed right and left, hurled +one of them against the wall, dashed another through the door into +Madame Roussillon's room, where the good woman was wailing at the top +of her voice, and felled a third with a stroke like that of a bear's +paw. +</P> + +<P> +Consternation was at high tide when Farnsworth, who always slept with +an ear open, reached Roussillon place and quickly quieted things. He +was troubled beyond expression when he found out the true state of the +affair, for there was nothing that he could do but arrest Alice and +take her to Hamilton. It made his heart sink. He would have thought +little of ordering a file of soldiers to shoot a man under the same +conditions; but to subject her again to the Governor's stern +cruelty—how could he do it? This time there would be no hope for her. +</P> + +<P> +Alice stood before him flushed, disheveled, defiant, sword in hand, +beautiful and terrible as an angel. The black figure, man or devil, had +disappeared as strangely as it had come. The sub-Lieutenant was having +his slight wound bandaged. Men were raging and cursing under their +breath, rubbing their bruised heads and limbs. +</P> + +<P> +"Alice—Mademoiselle Roussillon, I am so sorry for this," said Captain +Farnsworth. "It is painful, terrible—" +</P> + +<P> +He could not go on, but stood before her unmanned. In the feeble light +his face was wan and his hurt shoulder, still in bandages, drooped +perceptibly. +</P> + +<P> +"I surrender to you," she presently said in French, extending the hilt +of her rapier to him. "I had to defend myself when attacked by your +Lieutenant there. If an officer finds it necessary to set upon a girl +with his sword, may not the girl guard her life if she can?" +</P> + +<P> +She was short of breath, so that her voice palpitated with a touching +plangency that shook the man's heart. +</P> + +<P> +Farnsworth accepted the sword; he could do nothing less. His duty +admitted of no doubtful consideration; yet he hesitated, feeling around +in his mind for a phrase with which to evade the inevitable. +</P> + +<P> +"It will be safer for you at the fort, Mademoiselle; let me take you +there." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap13"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XIII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +A MEETING IN THE WILDERNESS +</H3> + +<P> +Beverley set out on his mid-winter journey to Kaskaskia with a tempest +in his heart, and it was, perhaps, the storm's energy that gave him the +courage to face undaunted and undoubting what his experience must have +told him lay in his path. He was young and strong; that meant a great +deal; he had taken the desperate chances of Indian warfare many times +before this, and the danger counted as nothing, save that it offered +the possibility of preventing him from doing the one thing in life he +now cared to do. What meant suffering to him, if he could but rescue +Alice? And what were life should he fail to rescue her? The old, old +song hummed in his heart, every phrase of it distinct above the tumult +of the storm. Could cold and hunger, swollen streams, ravenous wild +beasts and scalp-hunting savages baffle him? No, there is no barrier +that can hinder love. He said this over and over to himself after his +rencounter with the four Indian scouts on the Wabash. He repeated it +with every heart-beat until he fell in with some friendly red men, who +took him to their camp, where to his great surprise he met M. +Roussillon. It was his song when again he strode off toward the west on +his lonely way. +</P> + +<P> +We need not follow him step by step; the monotony of the woods and +prairies, the cold rains, alternating with northerly winds and blinding +snow, the constant watchfulness necessary to guard against a meeting +with hostile savages, the tiresome tramping, wading and swimming, the +hunger, the broken and wretched sleep in frozen and scant wraps,—why +detail it all? +</P> + +<P> +There was but one beautiful thing about it—the beauty of Alice as she +seemed to walk beside him and hover near him in his dreams. He did not +know that Long-Hair and his band were fast on his track; but the +knowledge could not have urged him to greater haste. He strained every +muscle to its utmost, kept every nerve to the highest tension. Yonder +towards the west was help for Alice; that was all he cared for. +</P> + +<P> +But if Long-Hair was pursuing him with relentless greed for the reward +offered by Hamilton, there were friendly footsteps still nearer behind +him; and one day at high noon, while he was bending over a little fire, +broiling some liberal cuts of venison, a finger tapped him on the +shoulder. He sprang up and grappled Oncle Jazon; at the same time, +standing near by, he saw Simon Kenton, his old-time Kentucky friend. +The pungled features of one and the fine, rugged face of the other swam +as in a mist before Beverley's eyes. Kenton was laughing quietly, his +strong, upright form shaking to the force of his pleasure. He was in +the early prime of a vigorous life, not handsome, but strikingly +attractive by reason of a certain glow in his face and a kindly flash +in his deep-set eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, well, my boy!" he exclaimed, laying his left hand on Beverley's +shoulder, while in the other he held a long, heavy rifle. "I'm glad to +see ye, glad to see ye." +</P> + +<P> +"Thought we was Injuns, eh?" said Oncle Jazon. "An' ef we had 'a' been +we'd 'a' been shore o' your scalp!" The wizzened old creole cackled +gleefully. +</P> + +<P> +"And where are ye goin'?" demanded Kenton. "Ye're making what lacks a +heap o' bein' a bee-line for some place or other." +</P> + +<P> +Beverley was dazed and vacant-minded; things seemed wavering and dim. +He pushed the two men from him and gazed at them without speaking. +Their presence and voices did not convince him. +</P> + +<P> +"Yer meat's a burnin'," said Oncle Jazon, stooping to turn it on the +smouldering coals. "Ye must be hungry. Cookin' enough for a regiment." +</P> + +<P> +Kenton shook Beverley with rough familiarity, as if to rouse his +faculties. +</P> + +<P> +"What's the matter? Fitz, my lad, don't ye know Si Kenton? It's not so +long since we were like brothers, and now ye don't speak to me! Ye've +not forgot me, Fitz!" +</P> + +<P> +"Mebby he don't like ye as well as ye thought he did," drawled Oncle +Jazon. "I HEV known o' fellers a bein' mistaken jes' thet way." +</P> + +<P> +Beverley got his wits together as best he could, taking in the +situation by such degrees as seemed at the time unduly slow, but which +were really mere momentary falterings. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, Kenton! Jazon!" he presently exclaimed, a cordial gladness +blending with his surprise. "How did you get here? Where did you come +from?" +</P> + +<P> +He looked from one to the other back and forth with a wondering smile +breaking over his bronzed and determined face. +</P> + +<P> +"We've been hot on yer trail for thirty hours," said Kenton. +"Roussillon put us on it back yonder. But what are ye up to? Where are +ye goin'?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'm going to Clark at Kaskaskia to bring him yonder." He waved his +hand eastward. "I am going to take Vincennes and kill Hamilton." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, ye're taking a mighty queer course, my boy, if ye ever expect to +find Kaskaskia. Ye're already twenty miles too far south." +</P> + +<P> +"Carryin' his gun on the same shoulder all the time," said Oncle Jazon, +"has made 'im kind o' swing in a curve like. 'Tain't good luck no how +to carry yer gun on yer lef' shoulder. When you do it meks yer take a +longer step with yer right foot than ye do with yer lef' an' ye can't +walk a straight line to save yer liver. Ventreblue! La venaison brule +encore! Look at that dasted meat burnin' agin!" +</P> + +<P> +He jumped back to the fire to turn the scorching cuts. +</P> + +<P> +Beverley wrung Kenton's hand and looked into his eyes, as a man does +when an old friend comes suddenly out of the past, so to say, and +brings the freshness and comfort of a strong, true soul to brace him in +his hour of greatest need. +</P> + +<P> +"Of all men in the world, Simon Kenton, you were the least expected; +but how glad I am! How thankful! Now I know I shall succeed. We are +going to capture Vincennes, Kenton, are we not? We shall, sha'n't we, +Jazon? Nothing, nothing can prevent us, can it?" +</P> + +<P> +Kenton heartily returned the pressure of the young man's hand, while +Oncle Jazon looked up quizzically and said: +</P> + +<P> +"We're a tol'ble 'spectable lot to prevent; but then we might git +pervented. I've seed better men an' us purty consid'ble pervented lots +o' times in my life." +</P> + +<P> +In speaking the colloquial dialect of the American backwoodsmen, Oncle +Jazon, despite years of practice among them, gave to it a creole lisp +and some turns of pronunciation not to be indicated by any form of +spelling. It added to his talk a peculiar soft drollery. When he spoke +French it was mostly that of the COUREURS DE BOIS, a PATOIS which still +lingers in out-of-the-way nooks of Louisiana. +</P> + +<P> +"For my part," said Kenton, "I am with ye, old boy, in anything ye want +to do. But now ye've got to tell me everything. I see that ye're +keeping something back. What is it?" He glanced sidewise slyly at Oncle +Jazon. +</P> + +<P> +Beverley was frank to a fault; but somehow his heart tried to keep +Alice all to itself. He hesitated; then— +</P> + +<P> +"I broke my parole with Governor Hamilton," he said. "He forced me to +do it. I feel altogether justified. I told him beforehand that I should +certainly leave Vincennes and go get a force to capture and kill him; +and I'll do it, Simon Kenton, I'll do it!" +</P> + +<P> +"I see, I see," Kenton assented, "but what was the row about? What did +he do to excite ye—to make ye feel justified in breakin' over yer +parole in that high-handed way? Fitz, I know ye too well to be fooled +by ye—you've got somethin' in mind that ye don't want to tell. Well, +then don't tell it. Oncle Jazon and I will go it blind, won't we, +Jazon?" +</P> + +<P> +"Blind as two moles," said the old man; "but as for thet secret," he +added, winking both eyes at once, "I don't know as it's so mighty hard +to guess. It's always safe to 'magine a woman in the case. It's mostly +women 'at sends men a trottin' off 'bout nothin', sort o' crazy like." +</P> + +<P> +Beverley looked guilty and Oncle Jazon continued: "They's a poo'ty gal +at Vincennes, an' I see the young man a steppin' into her house about +fifteen times a day 'fore I lef' the place. Mebbe she's tuck up wi' one +o' them English officers. Gals is slippery an' onsartin'." +</P> + +<P> +"Jazon!" cried Beverley, "stop that instantly, or I'll wring your old +neck." His anger was real and he meant what he said. He clenched his +hands and glowered. +</P> + +<P> +Oncle Jazon, who was still squatting by the little fire, tumbled over +backwards, as if Beverley had kicked him; and there he lay on the +ground with his slender legs quivering akimbo in the air, while he +laughed in a strained treble that sounded like the whining of a +screech-owl. +</P> + +<P> +The old scamp did not know all the facts in Beverley's case, nor did he +even suspect what had happened; but he was aware of the young man's +tender feeling for Alice, and he did shrewdly conjecture that she was a +factor in the problem. +</P> + +<P> +The rude jest at her expense did not seem to his withered and toughened +taste in the least out of the way. Indeed it was a delectable bit of +humor from Oncle Jazon's point of view. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't get mad at the old man," said Kenton, plucking Beverley aside. +"He's yer friend from his heels to his old scalped crown. Let him have +his fun." Then lowering his voice almost to a whisper he continued: +</P> + +<P> +"I was in Vincennes for two days and nights spyin' around. Madame +Godere hid me in her house when there was need of it. I know how it is +with ye; I got all the gossip about ye and the young lady, as well as +all the information about Hamilton and his forces that Colonel Clark +wants. I'm goin' to Kaskaskia; but I think it quite possible that Clark +will be on his march to Vincennes before we get there; for Vigo has +taken him full particulars as to the fort and its garrison, and I know +that he's determined to capture the whole thing or die tryin'." +</P> + +<P> +Beverley felt his heart swell and his blood leap strong in his veins at +these words. +</P> + +<P> +"I saw ye while I was in Vincennes," Kenton added, "but I never let ye +see me. Ye were a prisoner, and I had no business with ye while your +parole held. I felt that it was best not to tempt ye to give me aid, or +to let ye have knowledge of me while I was a spy. I left two days +before ye did, and should have been at Kaskaskia by this time if I +hadn't run across Jazon, who detained me. He wanted to go with me, and +I waited for him to repair the stock of his old gun. He tinkered at it +'tween meals and showers for half a week at the Indian village back +yonder before he got it just to suit him. But I tell ye he's wo'th +waiting for any length of time, and I was glad to let him have his way." +</P> + +<P> +Kenton, who was still a young man in his early thirties, respected +Beverley's reticence on the subject uppermost in his mind. Madame +Godere had told the whole story with flamboyant embellishments; Kenton +tiad seen Alice, and, inspired with the gossip and a surreptitious +glimpse of her beauty, he felt perfectly familiar with Beverley's +condition. He was himself a victim of the tender passion to the extent +of being an exile from his Virginia home, which he had left on account +of dangerously wounding a rival. But he was well touched with the +backwoodsman's taste for joke and banter. He and Oncle Jazon, +therefore, knowing the main feature of Beverley's predicament, enjoyed +making the most of their opportunity in their rude but perfectly +generous and kindly way. +</P> + +<P> +By indirection and impersonal details, as regarded his feelings toward +Alice, Beverley in due time made his friends understand that his whole +ambition was centered in rescuing her. Nor did the motive fail to +enlist their sympathy to the utmost. If all the world loves a lover, +all men having the best virile instinct will fight for a lover's cause. +Both Kenton and Oncle Jazon were enthusiastic; they wanted nothing +better than an opportunity to aid in rescuing any girl who had shown so +much patriotism and pluck. But Oncle Jazon was fond of Alice, and +Beverley's story affected him peculiarly on her account. +</P> + +<P> +"They's one question I'm a goin' to put to ye, young man," he said, +after he had heard everything and they had talked it all over, "an' I +want ye to answer it straight as a bullet f'om yer gun." +</P> + +<P> +"Of course, Jazon, go ahead," said Beverley. "I shall be glad to +answer." But his mind was far away with the gold-haired maiden in +Hamilton's prison. He scarcely knew what he was saying. +</P> + +<P> +"Air ye expectin' to marry Alice Roussillon?" +</P> + +<P> +The three men were at the moment eating the well broiled venison. Oncle +Jazon's puckered lips and chin were dripping with the fragrant grease +and juice, which also flowed down his sinewy, claw-like fingers. +Overhead in the bare tops of the scrub oaks that covered the prairie +oasis, the February wind sang a shrill and doleful song. +</P> + +<P> +Beverley started as if a blow had been aimed at him. Oncle Jazon's +question, indeed, was a blow as unexpected as it was direct and +powerful. +</P> + +<P> +"I know it's poo'ty p'inted," the old man added after a short pause, +"an' ye may think 'at I ain't got no business askin' it; but I have. +That leetle gal's a pet o' mine, an' I'm a lookin' after her, an' +expectin' to see 'at she's not bothered by nobody who's not goin' to do +right by her. Marryin' is a mighty good thing, but—" +</P> + +<P> +"What do ye know about matrimony, ye old raw-headed bachelor?" demanded +Kenton, who felt impelled to relieve Beverley of the embarrassment of +an answer. "Ye wouldn't know a wife from a sack o' meal!" +</P> + +<P> +"Now don't git too peart an' fast, Si Kenton," cried Oncle Jazon, +glaring truculently at his friend, but at the same time showing a dry +smile that seemed to be hopelessly entangled in criss-cross wrinkles. +"Who told ye I was a bach'lor? Not by a big jump. I've been married +mighty nigh on to twenty times in my day. Mos'ly Injuns, o' course; but +a squaw's a wife w'en ye marries her, an' I know how it hurts a gal to +be dis'p'inted in sich a matter. That's w'y I put the question I did. +I'm not goin' to let no man give sorry to that little Roussillon gal; +an' so ye've got my say. Ye seed her raise thet flag on the fort, +Lieutenant Beverley, an' ye seed her take it down an' git away wi' it. +You know 'at she deserves nothin' but the best; an' by the Holy Virgin, +she's got to have it, or I'm a goin' to know several reasons why. +Thet's what made me put the question straight to ye, young man, an' I +expects a straight answer." +</P> + +<P> +Beverley's face paled; but not with anger. He grasped one of Oncle +Jazon's greasy hands and gave it such a squeeze that the old fellow +grimaced painfully. +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you, Oncle Jazon, thank you!" he said, with a peculiar husky +burr in his voice. "Alice will never suffer if I can help it. Let the +subject drop now, my friend, until we have saved her from the hands of +Hamilton." In the power of his emotion he continued to grip the old +man's hand with increasing severity of pressure. +</P> + +<P> +"Ventrebleu! let go! Needn't smash a feller's fingers 'bout it!" +screeched Oncle Jazon. "I can't shoot wo'th a cent, nohow, an' ef ye +cripple up my trigger-finger—" +</P> + +<P> +Kenton had been peeping under the low-hanging scrub-oak boughs while +Oncle Jazon was speaking these last words; and now he suddenly +interrupted: +</P> + +<P> +"The devil! look yonder!" he growled out in startling tone. "Injuns!" +</P> + +<P> +It was a sharp snap of the conversation's thread, and at the same time +our three friends realized that they had been careless in not keeping a +better look-out. They let fall the meat they had not yet finished +eating and seized their guns. +</P> + +<P> +Five or six dark forms were moving toward them across a little point of +the prairie that cut into the wood a quarter of a mile distant. +</P> + +<P> +"Yander's more of 'em," said Oncle Jazon, as if not in the least +concerned, wagging his head in an opposite direction, from which +another squad was approaching. +</P> + +<P> +That he duly appreciated the situation appeared only in the celerity +with which he acted. +</P> + +<P> +Kenton at once assumed command, and his companions felt his perfect +fitness. There was no doubt from the first as to what the Indians +meant; but even if there had been it would have soon vanished; for in +less than three minutes twenty-one savages were swiftly and silently +forming a circle inclosing the spot where the three white men, who had +covered themselves as best they could with trees, waited in grim +steadiness for the worst. +</P> + +<P> +Quite beyond gunshot range, but near enough for Oncle Jazon to +recognize Long-Hair as their leader, the Indians halted and began +making signs to one another all round the line. Evidently they dreaded +to test the marksmanship of such riflemen as they knew most border men +to be. Indeed, Long-Hair had personal knowledge of what might certainly +be expected from both Kenton and Oncle Jazon; they were terrible when +out for fight; the red warriors from Georgia to the great lakes had +heard of them; their names smacked of tragedy. Nor was Beverley without +fame among Long-Hair's followers, who had listened to the story of his +fighting qualities, brought to Vincennes by the two survivors of the +scouting party so cleverly defeated by him. +</P> + +<P> +"The liver-colored cowards," said Kenton, "are afeared of us in a +shootin'-match; they know that a lot of 'em would have to die if they +should undertake an open fight with us. It's some sort of a sneakin' +game they are studyin' about just now." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm a gittin' mos' too ole to shoot wo'th a cent," said Oncle Jazon, +"but I'd give half o' my scalp ef thet Long-Hair would come clost +enough fo' me to git a bead onto his lef' eye. It's tol'ble plain 'at +we're gone goslins this time, I'm thinkin'; still it'd be mighty +satisfyin' if I could plug out a lef' eye or two 'fore I go." +</P> + +<P> +Beverley was silent; the words of his companions were heard by him, but +not noticed. Nothing interested him save the thought of escaping and +making his way to Clark. To fail meant infinitely more than death, of +which he had as small fear as most brave men, and to succeed meant +everything that life could offer. So, in the unlimited selfishness of +love, he did not take his companions into account. +</P> + +<P> +The three stood in a close-set clump of four or five scrub oaks at the +highest point of a thinly wooded knoll that sloped down in all +directions to the prairie. Their view was wide, but in places +obstructed by the trees. +</P> + +<P> +"Men," said Kenton, after a thoughtful and watchful silence, "the thing +looks kind o' squally for us. I don't see much of a chance to get out +of this alive; but we've got to try." +</P> + +<P> +He showed by the density of his voice and a certain gray film in his +face that he felt the awful gravity of the situation; but he was calm +and not a muscle quivered. +</P> + +<P> +"They's jes' two chances for us," said Oncle Jazon, "an' them's as slim +as a broom straw. We've got to stan' here an' fight it out, or wait +till night an' sneak through atween 'em an' run for it." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't see any hope o' sneakin' through the line," observed Kenton. +"It's not goin' to be dark tonight." +</P> + +<P> +"Wa-a-l," Oncle Jazon drawled nonchalantly while he took in a quid of +tobacco, "I've been into tighter squeezes 'an this, many a time, an' I +got out, too." +</P> + +<P> +"Likely enough," said Kenton, still reflecting while his eyes roamed +around the circle of savages. +</P> + +<P> +"I fit the skunks in Ferginny 'fore you's thought of, Si Kenton, an' +down in Car'lina in them hills. If ye think I'm a goin' to be scalped +where they ain't no scalp, 'ithout tryin' a few dodges, yer a dad +dasteder fool an' I used to think ye was, an' that's makin' a big +compliment to ye." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, we don't have to argy this question, Oncle Jazon; they're a +gittin' ready to run in upon us, and we've got to fight. I say, +Beverley, are ye ready for fast shootin'? Have ye got a plenty of +bullets?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, Roussillon gave me a hundred. Do you think—" +</P> + +<P> +He was interrupted by a yell that leaped from savage mouth to mouth all +round the circle, and then the charge began. +</P> + +<P> +"Steady, now," growled Kenton, "let's not be in a hurry. Wait till they +come nigh enough to hit 'em before we shoot." +</P> + +<P> +The time was short; for the Indians came on at almost race-horse speed. +</P> + +<P> +Oncle Jazon fired first, the long, keen crack of his small-bore rifle +splitting the air with a suggestion of vicious energy, and a lithe +young warrior, who was outstripping all his fellows, leaped high and +fell paralyzed. +</P> + +<P> +"Can't shoot wo'th a cent," muttered the old man, deftly beginning to +reload his gun the while; "but I jes' happened to hit that buck. He'll +never git my scalp, thet's sartin an' sure." +</P> + +<P> +Beverley and Kenton each likewise dropped an Indian; but the shots did +not even check the rush. Long-Hair had planned to capture his prey, not +kill it. Every savage had his orders to take the white men alive; +Hamilton's larger reward depended on this. +</P> + +<P> +Right on they came, as fast as their nimble legs could carry them, +yelling like demons; and they reached the grove before the three white +men could reload their guns. Then every warrior took cover behind a +tree and began scrambling forward from bole to bole, thus approaching +rapidly without much exposure. +</P> + +<P> +"Our 'taters is roasted brown," muttered Oncle Jazon. He crossed +himself. Possibly he prayed; but he was priming his old gun the next +instant. +</P> + +<P> +Kenton fired again, making a hurried and ineffectual attempt to stop +the nearest warrior, who saved himself by quickly skipping behind a +tree. Beverley's gun snapped, the flint failing to make fire; but Oncle +Jazon bored a little hole through the head of the Indian nearest him; +and then the final rush was made from every direction. +</P> + +<P> +A struggle ensued, which for desperate energy has probably never been +surpassed. Like three lions at bay, the white men met the shock, and +lion-like they fought in the midst of seventeen stalwart and determined +savages. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't kill them, take them alive; throw them down and hold them!" was +Long-Hair's order loudly shouted in the tongue of his tribe. +</P> + +<P> +Both Kenton and Jazon understood every word and knew the significance +of such a command from the leader. It naturally came into Kenton's mind +that Hamilton had been informed of his visit to Vincennes and had +offered a reward for his capture. This being true, death as a spy would +be the certain result if he were taken back. He might as well die now. +As for Beverley, he thought only of Alice, yonder as he had left her, a +prisoner in Hamilton's hands, Oncle Jazon, if he thought at all, +probably considered nothing but present escape, though he prayed +audibly to the Blessed Virgin, even while he lay helpless upon the +ground, pinned down by the weight of an enormous Indian. He could not +move any part of himself, save his lips, and these mechanically put +forth the wheezing supplication. +</P> + +<P> +Beverley and Kenton, being young and powerful, were not so easily +mastered. For a while, indeed, they appeared to be more than holding +their own. They time and time again scattered the entire crowd by the +violence of their muscular efforts; and after it had finally closed in +upon them in a solid body they swayed and swung it back and forth and +round and round until the writhing, savage mass looked as if caught in +the vortex of a whirlwind. But such tremendous exertion could not last +long. Eight to one made too great a difference between the contending +parties, and the only possible conclusion of the struggle soon came. +Seized upon by desperate, clinging, wolf-like assailants, the white men +felt their arms, legs and bodies weighted down and their strength fast +going. +</P> + +<P> +Kenton fell next after Oncle Jazon, and was soon tightly bound with +rawhide thongs. He lay on his back panting and utterly exhausted, while +Beverley still kept up the unequal fight. +</P> + +<P> +Long-Hair sprang in at the last moment to make doubly certain the +securing of his most important captive. He flung his long and powerful +arms around Beverley from behind and made a great effort to throw him +upon the ground. The young man, feeling this fresh and vigorous clasp, +turned himself about to put forth one more mighty spurt of power. He +lifted the stalwart Indian bodily and dashed him headlong against the +buttressed root of a tree half a rod distant, breaking the smaller bone +of his left fore-arm and well-nigh knocking him senseless. +</P> + +<P> +It was a fine exhibition of manly strength; but there could be nothing +gained by it. A blow on the back of his head the next instant stretched +Beverley face downward and unconscious on the ground. The savages +turned him over and looked satisfied when they found that he was not +dead. They bound him with even greater care than they had shown in +securing the others, while Long-Hair stood by stolidly looking on, +meantime supporting his broken fore-arm in his hand. +</P> + +<P> +"Ugh! dog!" he grunted, and gave Beverley a kick in the side. Then +turning a fiendish stare upon Oncle Jazon he proceeded to deliver +against his old, dry ribs three or four like contributions with +resounding effect. "Polecat! Little old greasy woman!" he snarled, +"make good fire for warrior to dance by!" Kenton also received his full +share of the kicks and verbal abuse, after which Long-Hair gave orders +for fires to be built. Then he looked to his hurt arm and had the bone +set and bandaged, never so much as wincing the while. +</P> + +<P> +It was soon apparent that the Indians purposed to celebrate their +successful enterprise with a feast. They cooked a large amount of +buffalo steak; then, each with his hands full of the savory meat, they +began to dance around the fires, droning meantime an atrociously +repellant chant. +</P> + +<P> +"They're a 'spectin' to hev a leetle bit o' fun outen us," muttered +Oncle Jazon to Beverley, who lay near him. "I onderstan' what they're +up to, dad dast 'em! More'n forty years ago, in Ca'lina, they put me +an' Jim Hipes through the ga'ntlet, an' arter thet, in Kaintuck, me an' +Si Kenton tuck the run. Hi, there, Si! where air ye?" +</P> + +<P> +"Shut yer fool mouth," Kenton growled under his breath. "Ye'll have +that Injun a kickin' our lights out of us again." +</P> + +<P> +Oncle Jazon winked at the gray sky and puckered his mouth so that it +looked like a nutgall on an old, dry leaf. +</P> + +<P> +"What's the diff'ence?" he demanded. "I'd jest as soon be kicked now as +arter while; it's got to come anyhow." +</P> + +<P> +Kenton made no response. The thongs were torturing his arms and legs. +Beverley was silent, but consciousness had returned, and with it a +sense of despair. All three of the prisoners lay face upward quite +unable to move, knowing full well that a terrible ordeal awaited them. +Oncle Jazon's grim humor could not be quenched, even by the galling +agony of the thongs that buried themselves in the flesh, and the +anticipation of torture beside which death would seem a luxury. +</P> + +<P> +"Yap! Long-Hair, how's yer arm?" he called jeeringly. "Feels pooty +good, hay?" +</P> + +<P> +Long-Hair, who was not joining in the dance and song, turned when he +heard these taunting words, and mistaking whence they came, went to +Beverley's side and kicked him again and again. +</P> + +<P> +Oncle Jazon heard the loud blows, and considered the incident a +remarkably good joke. +</P> + +<P> +"He, he, he!" he snickered, as soon as Long-Hair walked away again. "I +does the talkin' an' somebody else gits the thumpin'! He, he, he! I +always was devilish lucky. Them kicks was good solid jolts, wasn't +they, Lieutenant? Sounded like they was. He, he, he!" +</P> + +<P> +Beverley gave no heed to Oncle Jazon's exasperating pleasantry; but +Kenton, sorely chafing under the pressure of his bonds, could not +refrain from making retort in kind. +</P> + +<P> +"I'd give ye one poundin' that ye'd remember, Emile Jazon, if I could +get to ye, ye old twisted-face, peeled-headed, crooked-mouthed, +aggravatin' scamp!" he exclaimed, not thinking how high his naturally +strong voice was lifted. "I can stand any fool but a damn fool!" +</P> + +<P> +Long-Hair heard the concluding epithet and understood its meaning. +Moreover, he thought himself the target at which it was so +energetically launched. Wherefore he promptly turned back and gave +Kenton a kicking that made his body resound not unlike a drum. +</P> + +<P> +And here it was that Oncle Jazon overreached himself. He was so +delighted at Kenton's luck that he broke forth giggling and thereby +drew against his own ribs a considerable improvement of Long-Hair's +pedal applications. +</P> + +<P> +"Ventrebleu!" whined the old man, when the Indian had gone away again. +"Holy Mary! Jee-ru-sa-lem! They's nary bone o' me left 'at's not +splintered as fine as toothpickers! S'pose yer satisfied now, ain't ye, +Si Kenton? Ef ye ain't I'm shore to satisfy ye the fust time I git a +chance at ye, ye blab-mouthed eejit!" +</P> + +<P> +Before this conversation was ended a rain began to fall, and it rapidly +thickened from a desultory shower to a roaring downpour that +effectually quenched not only the fires around which the savages were +dancing, but the enthusiasm of the dancers as well. During the rest of +the afternoon and all night long the fall was incessant, accompanied by +a cold, panting, wailing southwest wind. +</P> + +<P> +Beverley lay on the ground, face upward, the rawhide strings torturing +his limbs, the chill of cold water searching his bones. He could see +nothing but the dim, strange canopy of flying rain, against which the +bare boughs of the scrub oaks were vaguely outlined; he could hear +nothing but the cry of the wind and the swash of the water which fell +upon him and ran under him, bubbling and gurgling as if fiendishly +exultant. +</P> + +<P> +The night dragged on through its terrible length, dealing out its +indescribable horrors, and at last morning arrived, with a stingy and +uncertain gift of light slowly increasing until the dripping trees +appeared forlornly gray and brown against clouds now breaking into +masses that gave but little rain. +</P> + +<P> +Beverley lived through the awful trial and even had the hardihood to +brighten inwardly with the first flash of sunlight that shot through a +cloud-crack on the eastern horizon. He thought of Alice, as he had done +all night; but now the thought partook somehow of the glow yonder above +old Vincennes, although he could only see its reflection. +</P> + +<P> +There was great stir among the Indians. Long-Hair stalked about +scrutinizing the ground. Beverley saw him come near time and again with +a hideous, inquiring scowl on his face. Grunts and laconic exclamations +passed from mouth to mouth, and presently the import of it all could +not be mistaken. Kenton and Jazon were gone—had escaped during the +night—and the rain had completely obliterated their tracks. +</P> + +<P> +The Indians were furious. Long-Hair sent out picked parties of his best +scouts with orders to scour the country in all directions, keeping with +himself a few of the older warriors. Beverley was fed what he would eat +of venison, and Long-Hair made him understand that he would have to +suffer some terrible punishment on account of the action of his +companions. +</P> + +<P> +Late in the day the scouts straggled back with the report that no track +or sign of the fugitives had been discovered, and immediately a +consultation was held. Most of the warriors, including all of the young +bucks, demanded a torture entertainment as compensation for their +exertions and the unexpected loss of their own prisoners; for it had +been agreed that Beverley belonged exclusively to Long-Hair, who +objected to anything which might deprive him of the great reward +offered by Hamilton for the prisoner if brought to him alive. +</P> + +<P> +In the end it was agreed that Beverley should be made to run the +gauntlet, provided that no deadly weapons were used upon him during the +ordeal. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap14"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XIV +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +A PRISONER OF LOVE +</H3> + +<P> +Alice put on her warmest clothes and followed Captain Farnsworth to the +fort, realizing that no pleasant experience awaited her. The wind and +rain still prevailed when they were ready to set forth, and, although +it was not extremely cold, a searching chill went with every throb that +marked the storm's waves. No lights shone in the village houses. +Overhead a gray gloom covered stars and sky, making the darkness in the +watery streets seem densely black. Farnsworth offered Alice his arm, +but she did not accept it. +</P> + +<P> +"I know the way better than you do," she said. "Come on, and don't be +afraid that I am going to run. I shall not play any trick on you." +</P> + +<P> +"Very well, Mademoiselle, as you like. I trust you." +</P> + +<P> +He followed her from the house. He was so filled with the bitterness of +what he was doing that he carried her sword in his hand all the way to +the fort, quite unaware that its point often touched her dress so that +she plainly felt it. Indeed, she thought he was using that ruffianly +and dangerous means of keeping pace with her. He had sent the patrol on +its rounds, taking upon himself the responsibility of delivering her to +Hamilton. She almost ran, urged by the strange excitement that burned +in her heart, and he followed somewhat awkwardly, stumbling over the +unfamiliar way in the rain and darkness. +</P> + +<P> +At every step he was wishing that she would escape from him. Coarse as +his nature was and distorted by hardening experiences, it was rooted in +good English honesty and imbued with a chivalric spirit. When, as +happened too often, he fell under the influence of liquor, the bad in +him promptly came uppermost; but at all other times his better traits +made him a good fellow to meet, genial, polite, generous, and inclined +to recognize the finer sentiments of manliness. To march into his +commander's presence with Alice as his prisoner lacked everything of +agreeing with his taste; yet he had not been willing to give her over +into the hands of the patrol. If his regard for military obligation had +not been exceptionally strong, even for an English soldier, he would +have given way to the temptation of taking her to some place of hiding +and safety, instead of brutally subjecting her to Hamilton's harsh +judgment. He anticipated a trying experience for her on account of this +new transgression. +</P> + +<P> +They hastened along until a lantern in the fort shot a hazy gleam upon +them. +</P> + +<P> +"Stop a moment, Mademoiselle," Farnsworth called. "I say, Miss +Roussillon, stop a moment, please." +</P> + +<P> +Alice halted and turned facing him so short and so suddenly that the +rapier in his hand pricked through her wraps and slightly scratched her +arm. +</P> + +<P> +"What do you mean, sir?" she demanded, thinking that he had thrust +purposely. "Do I deserve this brutality?" +</P> + +<P> +"You mistake me, Miss Roussillon. I cannot be brutal to you now. Do not +fear me; I only had a word to say." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, you deem it very polite and gentle to jab me with your sword, do +you? If I had one in my hand you would not dare try such a thing, and +you know it very well." +</P> + +<P> +He was amazed, not knowing that the sword-point had touched her. He +could not see her face, but there was a flash in her voice that +startled him with its indignant contempt and resentment. +</P> + +<P> +"What are you saying, Miss Roussillon? I don't understand you. When did +I ever—when did I jab you with my sword? I never thought of such a +thing." +</P> + +<P> +"This moment, sir, you did, and you know you did. My arm is bleeding +now." +</P> + +<P> +She spoke rapidly in French; but he caught her meaning, and for the +first became aware of the rapier in his hand. Even then its point was +toward her and very near her breast. He lowered it instantly while the +truth rushed into his mind. +</P> + +<P> +"Forgive me," he murmured, his words barely audible in the tumult of +wind and rain, but charged with the intensest feeling. +</P> + +<P> +"Forgive me; I did not know—it was an accident—I could not do such a +thing purposely. Believe me, believe me, Miss Roussillon. I did not +mean it." +</P> + +<P> +She stood facing him, trying to look right into his eyes. A quality in +his voice had checked her hot anger. She could only see his dim +outlines in the dull gleam from the fort's lantern. He seemed to be +forlornly wretched. +</P> + +<P> +"I should like to believe you," she presently said, "but I cannot. You +English are all, all despicable, mean, vile!" +</P> + +<P> +She was remembering the young officer who had assaulted her with his +sword in the house a while ago. And (what a strange thing the human +brain is!) she at the same time comforted herself with the further +thought that Beverley would never, never, be guilty of rudeness to a +woman. +</P> + +<P> +"Some time you shall not say that," Farnsworth responded. "I asked you +to stop a moment that I might beg you to believe how wretchedly sorry I +am for what I am doing. But you cannot understand me now. Are you +really hurt, Miss Roussillon? I assure you that it was purely +accidental." +</P> + +<P> +"My hurt is nothing," she said. +</P> + +<P> +"I am very glad." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, then, shall we go on to the fort?" +</P> + +<P> +"You may go where you please, Mademoiselle." +</P> + +<P> +She turned her back upon him and without an answering word walked +straight to the lantern that hung by the gate of the stockade, where a +sentinel tramped to and fro. A few moments later Captain Farnsworth +presented her to Hamilton, who had been called from his bed when the +news of the trouble at Roussillon place reached the fort. +</P> + +<P> +"So you've been raising hell again, have you, Miss?" he growled, with +an ugly frown darkening his face. +</P> + +<P> +"I beg your pardon," said Farnsworth, "Miss Roussillon was not to blame +for—" +</P> + +<P> +"In your eyes she'd not be to blame, sir, if she burned up the fort and +all of us in it," Hamilton gruffly interrupted. "Miss, what have you +been doing? What are you here for? Captain Farnsworth, you will please +state the particulars of the trouble that I have just heard about. And +I may as well notify you that I wish to hear no special lover's +pleading in this girl's behalf." +</P> + +<P> +Farnsworth's face whitened with anger; he bit his lip and a shiver ran +through his frame; but he had to conquer the passion. In a few words, +blunt and direct as musket-balls, he told all the circumstances of what +had taken place, making no concealments to favor Alice, but boldly +blaming the officer of the patrol, Lieutenant Barlow, for losing his +head and attacking a young girl in her own home. +</P> + +<P> +"I will hear from Barlow," said Hamilton, after listening attentively +to the story. "But take this girl and confine her. Show her no favors. +I hold you responsible for her until to-morrow morning. You can retire." +</P> + +<P> +There was no room for discussion. Farnsworth saluted and turned to +Alice. +</P> + +<P> +"Come with me," he gently said. +</P> + +<P> +Hamilton looked after them as they went out of his room, a curious +smile playing around his firmly set lips. +</P> + +<P> +"She's the most beautiful vixen that I ever saw," he thought. "She +doesn't look to be a French girl, either—decidedly English." He +shrugged his shoulders, then laughed dryly. "Farnsworth's as crazy as +can be, the beggar; in love with her so deep that he can't see out. By +Jove, she IS a beauty! Never saw such eyes. And plucky to beat the +devil. I'll bet my head Barlow'll be daft about her next!" +</P> + +<P> +Still, notwithstanding the lightness of his inward comments, Hamilton +regarded the incident as rather serious. He knew that the French +inhabitants were secretly his bitter enemies, yet probably willing, if +he would humor their peculiar social, domestic and commercial +prejudices, to refrain from active hostilities, and even to aid him in +furnishing his garrison with a large amount of needed supplies. The +danger just now was twofold; his Indian allies were deserting him, and +a flotilla loaded with provisions and ammunition from Detroit had +failed to arrive. He might, if the French rose against him and were +joined by the Indians, have great difficulty defending the fort. It was +clear that M. Roussillon had more influence with both creoles and +savages than any other person save Father Beret. Urgent policy dictated +that these two men should somehow be won over. But to do this it would +be necessary to treat Alice in such a way that her arrest would aid, +instead of operating against the desired result,—a thing not easy to +manage. +</P> + +<P> +Hamilton was not a man of fine scruples, but he may have been, probably +was, better than our American historians have made him appear. His +besetting weakness, which, as a matter of course, he regarded as the +highest flower of efficiency, was an uncontrollable temper, a lack of +fine human sympathy and an inability to forgive. In his calmest +moments, when prudence appealed to him, he would resolve to use +diplomatic means; but no sooner was his opinion questioned or his +purpose opposed than anger and the thirst for revenge overpowered every +gentler consideration. He returned to his bed that night fully resolved +upon a pleasant and successful interview with Alice next morning. +</P> + +<P> +Captain Farnsworth took his fair prisoner straight-way from Hamilton's +presence to a small room connected with a considerable structure in a +distant angle of the stockade. Neither he nor Alice spoke on the way. +With a huge wooden key he unlocked the door and stepped aside for her +to enter. A dim lamp was burning within, its yellowish light flickering +over the scant furniture, which consisted of a comfortable bed, a table +with some books on it, three chairs, a small looking-glass on the wall, +a guitar and some articles of men's clothing hanging here and there. A +heap of dull embers smouldered in the fireplace. Alice did not falter +at the threshold, but promptly entered her prison. +</P> + +<P> +"I hope you can be comfortable," said Farnsworth in a low tone. "It's +the best I can give you." +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you," was the answer spoken quite as if he had handed her a +glass of water or picked up her handkerchief. +</P> + +<P> +He held the door a moment, while she stopped, with her back toward him, +in the middle of the room; then she heard him close and lock it. The +air was almost too warm after her exposure to the biting wind and cold +dashes of rain. She cast off her outer wraps and stood by the +fireplace. At a glance she comprehended that the place was not the one +she had formerly occupied as a prisoner, and that it belonged to a man. +A long rifle stood in a corner, a bullet-pouch and powder-horn hanging +on a projecting hickory ramrod; a heavy fur top-coat lay across one of +the chairs. +</P> + +<P> +Alice felt her situation bitterly enough; but she was not of the stuff +that turns to water at the touch of misfortune. Pioneer women took +hardships as a matter of course, and met calamity with admirable +fortitude. There was no wringing of hands, no frantic wailing, no +hollow, despairing groan. While life lasted hope flourished, even in +most tragic surroundings; and not unfrequently succor came, at the last +verge of destruction, as the fitting reward of unconquerable courage. A +girl like Alice must be accepted in the spirit of her time and +surroundings. She was born amid experiences scarcely credible now, and +bred in an area and an atmosphere of incomparable dangers. Naturally +she accepted conditions of terrible import with a sang froid scarcely +possible to a girl of our day. She did not cry, she did not sink down +helpless when she found herself once more imprisoned with some +uncertain trial before her; but simply knelt and repeated the Lord's +prayer, then went to bed and slept; even dreamed the dream of a maid's +first love. +</P> + +<P> +Meantime Farnsworth, who had given Alice his own apartment, took what +rest he could on the cold ground under a leaky shed hard by. His wound, +not yet altogether healed, was not benefited by the exposure. +</P> + +<P> +In due time next morning Hamilton ordered Alice brought to his office, +and when she appeared he was smiling with as near an approach to +affability as his disposition would permit. He rose and bowed like a +courtier. +</P> + +<P> +"I hope you rested well, Mademoiselle," he said in his best French. He +imagined that the use of her language would be agreeable to begin with. +</P> + +<P> +The moment that Alice saw him wearing that shallow veneering of +pleasantness on his never prepossessing visage, she felt a mood of +perversity come over her. She, too, smiled, and he mistook her +expression for one of reciprocal amenity. She noticed that her sword +was on his table. +</P> + +<P> +"I am sorry, Monsieur, that I cannot say as much to you," she glibly +responded. "If you lay upon a bed of needles the whole night through, +your rest was better than you deserved. My own sleep was quite +refreshing, thank you." +</P> + +<P> +Instantly Hamilton's choler rose. He tried to suppress it at first; but +when he saw Alice actually laughing, and Farnsworth (who had brought +her in) biting his lip furiously to keep from adding an uproarious +guffaw, he lost all hold of himself. He unconsciously picked up the +rapier and shook it till its blade swished. +</P> + +<P> +"I might have known better than to expect decency from a wench of your +character," he said. "I hoped to do you a favor; but I see that you are +not capable of accepting kindness politely." +</P> + +<P> +"I am sure, Monsieur, that I have but spoken the truth plainly to you. +You would not have me do otherwise, I hope." +</P> + +<P> +Her voice, absolutely witching in its softness, freshness and suavity, +helped the assault of her eyes, while her dimples twinkled and her hair +shone. Hamilton felt his heart move strangely; but he could not forbear +saying in English: +</P> + +<P> +"If you are so devilish truthful, Miss, you will probably tell me where +the flag is that you stole and hid." +</P> + +<P> +It was always the missing banner that came to mind when he saw her. +</P> + +<P> +"Indeed I will do nothing of the sort," she promptly replied. "When you +see that flag again you will be a prisoner and I will wave it high over +your head." +</P> + +<P> +She lifted a hand as she spoke and made the motion of shaking a banner +above him. It was exasperation sweetened almost to delight that took +hold of the sturdy Briton. He liked pluck, especially in a woman; all +the more if she was beautiful. Yet the very fact that he felt her charm +falling upon him set him hard against her, not as Hamilton the man, but +as Hamilton the commander at Vincennes. +</P> + +<P> +"You think to fling yourself upon me as you have upon Captain +Farnsworth," he said, with an insulting leer and in a tone of prurient +innuendo. "I am not susceptible, my dear." This more for Farnsworth's +benefit than to insult her, albeit he was not in a mood to care. +</P> + +<P> +"You are a coward and a liar!" she exclaimed, her face flushing with +hot shame. "You stand here," she quickly added, turning fiercely upon +Farnsworth, "and quietly listen to such words! You, too, are a coward +if you do not make him retract! Oh, you English are low brutes!" +</P> + +<P> +Hamilton laughed; but Farnsworth looked dark and troubled, his glance +going back and forth from Alice to his commander, as if another word +would cause him to do something terrible. +</P> + +<P> +"I rather think I've heard all that I care to hear from you, Miss," +Hamilton presently said. "Captain Farnsworth, you will see that the +prisoner is confined in the proper place, which, I suggest to you, is +not your sleeping quarters, sir." +</P> + +<P> +"Colonel Hamilton," said Farnsworth in a husky voice, "I slept on the +ground under a shed last night in order that Miss Roussillon might be +somewhat comfortable." +</P> + +<P> +"Humph! Well, see that you do not do it again. This girl is guilty of +harboring a spy and resisting a lawful attempt of my guards to capture +him. Confine her in the place prepared for prisoners and see that she +stays there until I am ready to fix her punishment." +</P> + +<P> +"There is no place fit for a young girl to stay in," Farnsworth +ventured. "She can have no comfort or—" +</P> + +<P> +"Take her along, sir; any place is good enough for her so long as she +behaves like a—" +</P> + +<P> +"Very well," Farnsworth bluntly interrupted, thus saving Alice the +stroke of a vile comparison. "Come with me, please, Miss Roussillon." +</P> + +<P> +He pulled her toward the door, then dropped the arm he had grasped and +murmured an apology. +</P> + +<P> +She followed him out, holding her head high. No one looking on would +have suspected that a sinking sensation in her heart made it difficult +for her to walk, or that her eyes, shining like stars, were so inwardly +clouded with distress that she saw her way but dimly. +</P> + +<P> +It was a relief to Hamilton when Helm a few minutes later entered the +room with something breezy to say. +</P> + +<P> +"What's up now, if I may ask?" the jolly American demanded. "What's +this I hear about trouble with the French women? Have they begun a +revolution?" +</P> + +<P> +"That elephant, Gaspard Roussillon, came back into town last night," +said Hamilton sulkily. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, he went out again, didn't he?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, but—" +</P> + +<P> +"Stepped on somebody's toe first, eh?" +</P> + +<P> +"The guard tried to capture him, and that girl of his wounded +Lieutenant Barlow in the neck with a sword. Roussillon fought like a +tiger and the men swear that the devil himself appeared on the scene to +help the Frenchman out." +</P> + +<P> +"Moral: Be generous in your dealings with Frenchmen and Frenchwomen and +so get the devil on your side." +</P> + +<P> +"I've got the girl a prisoner, and I swear to you that I'll have her +shot this time if—" +</P> + +<P> +"Why not shoot her yourself? You oughtn't to shirk a dirty job like +that and force it upon your men." +</P> + +<P> +Hamilton laughed and elevated his shoulders as if to shake off an +annoying load. Just then a young officer with a white bandage around +his neck entered and saluted. He was a small, soft-haired, blue-eyed +man of reckless bearing, with marks of dissipation sharply cut into his +face. He saluted, smiling self-consciously. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, Barlow," said Hamilton, "the kitten scratched you, did she?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, slightly, and I don't think I've been treated fairly in the +matter, sir." +</P> + +<P> +"How so?" +</P> + +<P> +"I stood the brunt and now Captain Farnsworth gets the prize." He +twisted his mouth in mock expression of maudlin disappointment. "I'm +always cheated out of the sweets. I never get anything for gallant +conduct on the field." +</P> + +<P> +"Poor boy! It is a shame. But I say, Lieutenant, has Roussillon really +escaped, or is he hidden somewhere in town? Have you been careful?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, it's the Indians. They all swear by these Frenchmen. You can't get +any help from them against a fellow like Roussillon. In fact they aid +him; he's among them now." +</P> + +<P> +"Moral again," Helm interposed; "keep on the good side of the French!" +</P> + +<P> +"That's sensible talk, sir," assented Barlow. +</P> + +<P> +"Bah!" exclaimed Hamilton. "You might as well talk of keeping on the +good side of the American traitors—a bloody murrain seize the whole +race!" +</P> + +<P> +"That's what I say," chimed in the Lieutenant, with a sly look at Helm. +</P> + +<P> +"They have been telling me a cock-and-bull story concerning the affair +at the Roussillon cabin," Hamilton said, changing his manner. "What is +this about a disguised and wonderful man who rushed in and upset the +whole of you. I want no romancing; give me the facts." +</P> + +<P> +Barlow's dissolute countenance became troubled. +</P> + +<P> +"The facts," he said, speaking with serious deliberation, "are not +clear. It was like a clap of thunder, the way that man performed. As +you say, he did fling the whole squad all of a heap, and it was done +that quickly," he snapped his thumb and finger demonstratively with a +sharp report; "nobody could understand it." +</P> + +<P> +Hamilton looked at his subaltern with a smile of unlimited contempt and +said: +</P> + +<P> +"A pretty officer of His Majesty's army, you are, Lieutenant Barlow! +First a slip of a girl shows herself your superior with the sword and +wounds you, then a single man wipes up the floor of a house with you +and your guard, depriving you at the same time of both vision and +memory, so that you cannot even describe your assailant!" +</P> + +<P> +"He was dressed like a priest," muttered Barlow, evidently frightened +at his commander's scathing comment. "That was all there was to see." +</P> + +<P> +"A priest! Some of the men say the devil. I wonder—" Hamilton +hesitated and looked at the floor. +</P> + +<P> +"This Father Beret, he is too old for such a thing, isn't he?" +</P> + +<P> +"I have thought of him—it was like him—but he is, as you say, very +old to be so tremendously strong and active. Why, I tell you that men +went from his hands against the walls and floor as if shot out of a +mortar. It was the strangest and most astounding thing I ever heard of." +</P> + +<P> +A little later Barlow seized a favorable opportunity and withdrew. The +conversation was not to his liking. +</P> + +<P> +Hamilton sent for Father Beret and had a long talk with him, but the +old man looked so childishly inoffensive in spirit and so collapsed +physically that it seemed worse than foolishness to accuse him of the +exploit over which the entire garrison was wondering. Farnsworth sat by +during the interview. He looked the good priest curiously and +critically over from head to foot, remembering, but not mentioning, the +most unclerical punch in the side received from that energetic right +arm now lying so flabbily across the old man's lap. +</P> + +<P> +When the talk ended and Father Beret humbly took his leave, Hamilton +turned to Farnsworth and said: +</P> + +<P> +"What do you think of this affair? I have cross-questioned all the men +who took part in it, and every one of them says simply priest or devil. +I think old Beret is both; but plainly he couldn't hurt a chicken, you +can see that at a glance." +</P> + +<P> +Farnsworth smiled, rubbing his side reminiscently; but he shook his +head. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm sure it's puzzling, indeed." +</P> + +<P> +Hamilton sat in thoughtful silence for a while, then abruptly changed +the subject. +</P> + +<P> +"I think, Captain, that you had better send out Lieutenant Barlow and +some of the best woodsmen to kill some game. We need fresh venison, +and, by George! I'm not going to depend upon these French traitors any +longer. I have set my foot down; they've got to do better or take the +consequences." He paused for a breath, then added: "That girl has done +too much to escape severest punishment. The garrison will be +demoralized if this thing goes on without an example of authority +rigidly enforced. I am resolved that there shall be a startling and +effective public display of my power to punish. She shot you; you seem +to be glad of it, but it was a grave offence. She has stabbed Barlow; +that is another serious crime; but worst of all she aided a spy and +resisted arrest. She must be punished." +</P> + +<P> +Farnsworth knew Hamilton's nature, and he now saw that Alice was in +dreadful danger of death or something even worse. Whenever his chief +talked of discipline and the need of maintaining his authority, there +was little hope of softening his decisions. Moreover, the provocation +to apply extreme measures really seemed sufficient, regarded from a +military point of view, and Captain Farnsworth was himself, under +ordinary circumstances, a disciplinarian of the strictest class. The +fascination, however, by which Alice held him overbore every other +influence, and his devotion to her loosened every other tie and +obligation to a most dangerous extent. No sooner had he left +headquarters and given Barlow his instructions touching the hunting +expedition, than his mind began to wander amid visions and schemes by +no means consistent with his military obligations. In order to reflect +undisturbed he went forth into the dreary, lane-like streets of +Vincennes and walked aimlessly here and there until he met Father Beret. +</P> + +<P> +Farnsworth saluted the old man, and was passing him by, when seeing a +sword in his hand, half hidden in the folds of his worn and faded +cassock, he turned and addressed him. +</P> + +<P> +"Why are you armed this morning, Father?" he demanded very pleasantly. +"Who is to suffer now?" +</P> + +<P> +"I am not on the war-path, my son," replied the priest. "It is but a +rapier that I am going to clean of rust spots that are gathering on its +blade." +</P> + +<P> +"Is it yours, Father? Let me see it." He held out his hand. +</P> + +<P> +"No, not mine." +</P> + +<P> +Father Beret seemed not to notice Farnsworth's desire to handle the +weapon, and the young man, instead of repeating his words, reached +farther, nearly grasping the scabbard. +</P> + +<P> +"I cannot let you take it, my son," said Father Beret "You have its +mate, that should satisfy you." +</P> + +<P> +"No, Colonel Hamilton took it," Farnsworth quickly replied. "If I could +I would gladly return it to its owner. I am not a thief, Father, and I +am ashamed of—of—what I did when I was drunk." +</P> + +<P> +The priest looked sharply into Farnsworth's eyes and read there +something that reassured him. His long experience had rendered him +adept at taking a man's value at a glance. He slightly lifted his face +and said: "Ah, but the poor little girl! why do you persecute her? She +really does not deserve it. She is a noble child. Give her back to her +home and her people. Do not soil and spoil her sweet life." +</P> + +<P> +It was the sing-song voice used by Father Beret in his sermons and +prayers; but something went with it indescribably touching. Farnsworth +felt a lump rise in his throat and his eyes were ready to show tears. +"Father," he said, with difficulty making his words distinct, "I would +not harm Miss Roussillon to save my own life, and I would do +anything—" he paused slightly, then added with passionate force; "I +would do anything, no matter what, to save her from the terrible thing +that now threatens her." +</P> + +<P> +Father Beret's countenance changed curiously as he gazed at the young +man and said: +</P> + +<P> +"If you really mean what you say, you can easily save her, my son." +</P> + +<P> +"Father, by all that is holy, I mean just what I say." +</P> + +<P> +"Swear not at all, my son, but give me your hand." +</P> + +<P> +The two men stood with a tight grip between them and exchanged a long, +steady, searching gaze. +</P> + +<P> +A drizzling rain had begun to fall again, with a raw wind creeping from +the west. +</P> + +<P> +"Come with me to my house, my son," Father Beret presently added; and +together they went, the priest covering Alice's sword from the rain +with the folds of his cassock. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap15"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XV +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +VIRTUE IN A LOCKET +</H3> + +<P> +Long-Hair stood not upon ceremony in conveying to Beverley the +information that he was to run the gauntlet, which, otherwise stated, +meant that the Indians would form themselves in two parallel lines +facing each other about six feet apart, and that the prisoner would be +expected to run down the length of the space between, thus affording +the warriors an opportunity, greatly coveted and relished by their +fiendish natures, to beat him cruelly during his flight. This sort of +thing was to the Indians, indeed, an exquisite amusement, as +fascinating to them as the theater is to more enlightened people. No +sooner was it agreed upon that the entertainment should again be +undertaken than all the younger men began to scurry around getting +everything ready for it. Their faces glowed with a droll cruelty +strange to see, and they further expressed their lively expectations by +playful yet curiously solemn antics. +</P> + +<P> +The preparations were simple and quickly made. Each man armed himself +with a stick three feet long and about three-quarters of an inch in +diameter. Rough weapons they were, cut from boughs of scrub-oak, knotty +and tough as horn. Long-Hair unbound Beverley and stripped his clothes +from his body down to the waist. Then the lines formed, the Indians in +each row standing about as far apart as the width of the space in which +the prisoner was to run. This arrangement gave them free use of their +sticks and plenty of room for full swing of their lithe bodies. +</P> + +<P> +In removing Beverley's clothes Long-Hair found Alice's locket hanging +over the young man's heart. He tore it rudely off and grunted, glaring +viciously, first at it, then at Beverley. He seemed to be mightily +wrought upon. +</P> + +<P> +"White man damn thief," he growled deep in his throat; "stole from +little girl!" +</P> + +<P> +He put the locket in his pouch and resumed his stupidly indifferent +expression. +</P> + +<P> +When everything was ready for the delightful entertainment to begin, +Long-Hair waved his tomahawk three times over Beverley's head, and +pointing down between the waiting lines said: +</P> + +<P> +"Ugh, run!" +</P> + +<P> +But Beverley did not budge. He was standing erect, with his arms, +deeply creased where the thongs had sunk, folded across his breast. A +rush of thoughts and feelings had taken tumultuous possession of him +and he could not move or decide what to do. A mad desire to escape +arose in his heart the moment that he saw Long-Hair take the locket. It +was as if Alice had cried to him and bidden him make a dash for liberty. +</P> + +<P> +"Ugh, run!" +</P> + +<P> +The order was accompanied with a push of such violence from Long-Hair's +left elbow that Beverley plunged and fell, for his limbs, after their +long and painful confinement in the raw-hide bonds, were stiff and +almost useless. Long-Hair in no gentle voice bade him get up. The shock +of falling seemed to awaken his dormant forces; a sudden resolve leaped +into his brain. He saw that the Indians had put aside their bows and +guns, most of which were leaning against the boles of trees here and +yonder. What if he could knock Long-Hair down and run away? This might +possibly be easy, considering the Indian's broken arm. His heart jumped +at the possibility. But the shrewd savage was alert and saw the thought +come into his face. +</P> + +<P> +"You try git 'way, kill dead!" he snarled, lifting his tomahawk ready +for a stroke. "Brains out, damn!" +</P> + +<P> +Beverley glanced down the waiting and eager lines. Swiftly he +speculated, wondering what would be his chance for escape were he to +break through. But he did not take his own condition into account. +</P> + +<P> +"Ugh, run!" +</P> + +<P> +Again the elbow of Long-Hair's hurt arm pushed him toward the expectant +rows of Indians, who flourished their clubs and uttered impatient +grunts. +</P> + +<P> +This time he did not fall; but in trying to run he limped stiffly at +first, his legs but slowly and imperfectly regaining their strength and +suppleness from the action. Just before reaching the lines, however, he +stopped short. Long-Hair, who was close behind him, took hold of his +shoulder and led him back to the starting place. The big Indian's arm +must have given him pain when he thus used it, but he did not wince. +"Fool—kill dead!" he repeated two or three times, holding his tomahawk +on high with threatening motions and frequent repetitions of his one +echo from the profanity of civilization. He was beginning to draw his +mouth down at the corners, and his eyes were narrowed to mere slits. +</P> + +<P> +Beverley understood now that he could not longer put off the trial. He +must choose between certain death and the torture of the gauntlet, as +frontiersmen named this savage ordeal. An old man might have preferred +the stroke of the hatchet to such an infliction as the clubs must +afford, considering that, even after all the agony, his captivity and +suffering would be only a little nearer its end. Youth, however, has +faith in the turn of fortune's wheel, and faith in itself, no matter +how dark the prospect. Hope blows her horn just over the horizon, and +the strain bids the young heart take courage and beat strong. Moreover, +men were men, who led the van in those days on the outmost lines of our +march to the summit of the world. Beverley was not more a hero than any +other young, brave, unconquerable patriot of the frontier army. His +situation simply tried him a trifle harder than was common. But it must +be remembered that he had Love with him, and where Love is there can be +no cowardice, no surrender. +</P> + +<P> +Long-Hair once again pushed him and said +</P> + +<P> +"Ugh, run!" +</P> + +<P> +Beverley made a direct dash for the narrow lane between the braced and +watchful lines. Every warrior lifted his club; every copper face +gleamed stolidly, a mask behind which burned a strangely atrocious +spirit. The two savages standing at the end nearest Beverley struck at +him the instant he reached than, but they taken quite by surprise when +he checked himself between them and, leaping this way and that, swung +out two powerful blows, left and right, stretching one of them flat and +sending the other reeling and staggering half a dozen paces backward +with the blood streaming from his nose. +</P> + +<P> +This done, Beverley turned to run away, but his breath was already +short and his strength rapidly going. +</P> + +<P> +Long-Hair, who was at his heels, leaped before him when he had gone but +a few steps and once more flourished the tomahawk. To struggle was +useless, save to insist upon being brained outright, which just then +had no part in Beverley's considerations. Long-Hair kicked his victim +heavily, uttering laconic curses meanwhile, and led him back again to +the starting-point. +</P> + +<P> +A genuine sense of humor seems almost entirely lacking in the mind of +the American Indian. He smiles at things not in the least amusing to us +and when he laughs, which is very seldom, the cause of his merriment +usually lies in something repellantly cruel and inhuman. When Beverley +struck his two assailants, hurting them so that one lay half stunned, +while the other spun away from his fist with a smashed nose, all the +rest of the Indians grunted and laughed raucously in high delight. They +shook their clubs, danced, pointed at their discomfited fellows and +twisted their painted faces into knotted wrinkles, their eyes twinkling +with devilish expression of glee quite indescribable. +</P> + +<P> +"Ugh, damn, run!" said Long-Half, this time adding a hard kick to the +elbow-shove he gave Beverley. +</P> + +<P> +The young man, who had borne all he could, now turned upon him +furiously and struck straight from the shoulder, setting the whole +weight of his body into the blow. Long-Hair stepped out of the way and +quick as a flash brought the flat side of his tomahawk with great force +against Beverley's head. This gave the amusement a sudden and +disappointing end, for the prisoner fell limp and senseless to the +ground. No more running the gauntlet for him that day. Indeed it +required protracted application of the best Indian skill to revive him +so that he could fairly be called a living man. There had been no +dangerous concussion, however, and on the following morning camp was +broken. +</P> + +<P> +Beverley, sore, haggard, forlornly disheveled, had his arms bound again +and was made to march apace with his nimble enemies, who set out +swiftly eastward, their disappointment at having their sport cut short, +although bitter enough, not in the least indicated by any facial +expression or spiteful act. +</P> + +<P> +Was it really a strange thing, or was it not, that Beverley's mind now +busied itself unceasingly with the thought that Long-Hair had Alice's +picture in his pouch? One might find room for discussion of a cerebral +problem like this; but our history cannot be delayed with analyses and +speculations; it must run its direct course unhindered to the end. +Suffice it to record that, while tramping at Long-Hair's side and +growing more and more desirous of seeing the picture again, Beverley +began trying to converse with his taciturn captor. He had a +considerable smattering of several Indian dialects, which he turned +upon Long-Hair to the best of his ability, but apparently without +effect. Nevertheless he babbled at intervals, always upon the same +subject and always endeavoring to influence that huge, stolid, +heartless savage in the direction of letting him see again the child +face of the miniature. +</P> + +<P> +A stone, one of our travel-scarred and mysterious western granite +bowlders brought from the far north by the ancient ice, would show as +much sympathy as did the face of Long-Hair. Once in a while he gave +Beverley a soulless glance and said "damn" with utter indifference. +Nothing, however, could quench or even in the slightest sense allay the +lover's desire. He talked of Alice and the locket with constantly +increasing volubility, saying over and over phrases of endearment in a +half-delirious way, not aware that fever was fermenting his blood and +heating his brain. Probably he would have been very ill but for the +tremendous physical exercise forced upon him. The exertion kept him in +a profuse perspiration and his robust constitution cast off the +malarial poison. Meantime he used every word and phrase, every grunt +and gesture of Indian dialect that he could recall, in the iterated and +reiterated attempt to make Long-Hair understand what he wanted. +</P> + +<P> +When night came on again the band camped under some trees beside a +swollen stream. There was no rain falling, but almost the entire +country lay under a flood of water. Fires of logs were soon burning +brightly on the comparatively dry bluff chosen by the Indians. The +weather was chill, but not cold. Long-Hair took great pains, however, +to dry Beverley's clothes and see that he had warm wraps and plenty to +eat. Hamilton's large reward would not be forthcoming should the +prisoner die, Beverley was good property, well worth careful attention. +To be sure his scalp, in the worst event, would command a sufficient +honorarium, but not the greatest. Beverley thought of all this while +the big Indian was wrapping him snugly in skins and blankets for the +night, and there was no comfort in it, save that possibly if he were +returned to Hamilton he might see Alice again before he died. +</P> + +<P> +A fitful wind cried dolefully in the leafless treetops, the stream hard +by gave forth a rushing sound, and far away some wolves howled like +lost souls. Worn out, sore from head to foot, Beverley, deep buried in +the blankets and skins, soon fell into a profound sleep. The fires +slowly crumbled and faded; no sentinel was posted, for the Indians did +not fear an attack, there being no enemies that they knew of nearer +than Kaskaskia. The camp slumbered as one man. +</P> + +<P> +At about the mid-hour of the night Long-Hair gently awoke his prisoner +by drawing a hand across his face, then whispered in his ear: +</P> + +<P> +"Damn, still!" +</P> + +<P> +Beverley tried to rise, uttering a sleepy ejaculation under his breath. +"No talk," hissed Long-Hair. "Still!" +</P> + +<P> +There was something in his voice that not only swept the last film of +sleep out of Beverley's brain, but made it perfectly clear to him that +a very important bit of craftiness was being performed; just what its +nature was, however, he could not surmise. One thing was obvious, +Long-Hair did not wish the other Indians to know of the move he was +making. Deftly he slipped the blankets from around Beverley, and cut +the thongs at his ankles. +</P> + +<P> +"Still!" he whispered. "Come 'long." +</P> + +<P> +Under such circumstances a competent mind acts with lightning celerity. +Beverley now understood that Long-Hair was stealing him away from the +other savages and that the big villain meant to cheat them out of their +part of the reward. Along with this discovery came a fresh gleam of +hope. It would be far easier to escape from one Indian than from nearly +a score. Ah, he would follow Long-Hair, indeed he would! The needed +courage came with the thought, and so with immense labor he crept at +the heels of that crawling monster. It was a painful process, for his +arms were still fast bound at the wrists with the raw-hide strings; but +what was pain to him? He shivered with joy, thinking of what might +happen. The voice of the wind overhead and the noisy bubbling of the +stream near by were cheerful and cheering sounds to him now. So much +can a mere shadow of hope do for a human soul on the verge of despair! +Already he was planning or trying to plan some way by which he could +kill Long-Hair when they should reach a safe distance from the sleeping +camp. +</P> + +<P> +But how could the thing be done? A man with his hands tied, though they +are in front of him, is in no excellent condition to cope with a free +and stalwart savage armed to the teeth. Still Beverley's spirits rose +with every rod of distance that was added to their slow progress. +</P> + +<P> +Their course was nearly parallel with that of the stream, but slightly +converging toward it, and after they had gone about a furlong they +reached the bank. Here Long-Hair stopped and, without a word, cut the +thongs from Beverley's wrists. This was astounding; the young man could +scarcely realize it, nor was he ready to act. +</P> + +<P> +"Swim water," Long-Hair said in a guttural murmur barely audible. +"Swim, damn!" +</P> + +<P> +Again it was necessary for Beverley's mind to act swiftly and with +prudence. The camp was yet within hailing distance. A false move now +would bring the whole pack howling to the rescue. Something told him to +do as Long-Hair ordered, so with scarcely a perceptible hesitation he +scrambled down the bushy bank and slipped into the water, followed by +Long-Hair, who seized him by one arm when he began to swim, and struck +out with him into the boiling and tumbling current. +</P> + +<P> +Beverley had always thought himself a master swimmer, but Long-Hair +showed him his mistake. The giant Indian, with but one hand free to +use, fairly rushed through that deadly cold and turbulent water, +bearing his prisoner with him despite the wounded arm, as easily as if +towing him at the stern of a pirogue. True, his course was down stream +for a considerable distance, but even when presently he struck out +boldly for the other bank, breasting a current in which few swimmers +could have lived, much less made headway, he still swung forward +rapidly, splitting the waves and scarcely giving Beverley freedom +enough so that he could help in the progress. It was a long, cold +struggle, and when at last they touched the sloping low bank on the +other side, Long-Hair had fairly to lift his chilled and exhausted +prisoner to the top. +</P> + +<P> +"Ugh, cold," he grunted, beginning to pound and rub Beverley's arms, +legs and body. "Make warm, damn heap!" +</P> + +<P> +All this he did with his right hand, holding the tomahawk in his left. +</P> + +<P> +It was a strange, bewildering experience out of which the young man +could not see in any direction far enough to give him a hint upon which +to act. In a few minutes Long-Hair jerked him to his feet and said: +</P> + +<P> +"Go." +</P> + +<P> +It was just light enough to see that the order had a tomahawk to +enforce it withal. Long-Hair indicated the direction and drove Beverley +onward as fast as he could. +</P> + +<P> +"Try run 'way, kill, damn!" he kept repeating, while with his left hand +on the young man's shoulder he guided him from behind dexterously +through the wood for some distance. Then he stopped and grunted, adding +his favorite expletive, which he used with not the least knowledge of +its meaning. To him the syllable "damn" was but a mouthful of forcible +wind. +</P> + +<P> +They had just emerged from a thicket into an open space, where the +ground was comparatively dry. Overhead the stars were shining in great +clusters of silver and gold against a dark, cavernous looking sky, here +and there overrun with careering black clouds. Beverley shivered, not +so much with cold as on account of the stress of excitement which +amounted to nervous rigor. Long-Hair faced him and leaned toward him, +until his breathing was audible and his massive features were dimly +outlined. A dragon of the darkest age could not have been more +repulsive. +</P> + +<P> +"Ugh, friend, damn!" +</P> + +<P> +Beverley started when these words were followed by a sentence in an +Indian dialect somewhat familiar to him, a dialect in which he had +tried to talk with Long-Hair during the day's march. The sentence, +literally translated, was: +</P> + +<P> +"Long-Hair is friendly now." +</P> + +<P> +A blow in the face could not have been so surprising. Beverley not only +started, but recoiled as if from a sudden and deadly apparition. The +step between supreme exhilaration and utter collapse is now and then +infinitesimal. There are times, moreover, when an expression on the +face of Hope makes her look like the twin sister of Despair. The moment +falling just after Long-Hair spoke was a century condensed in a breath. +</P> + +<P> +"Long-Hair is friendly now; will white man be friendly?" +</P> + +<P> +Beverley heard, but the speech seemed to come out of vastness and +hollow distance; he could not realize it fairly. He felt as if in a +dream, far off somewhere in loneliness, with a big, shadowy form +looming before him. He heard the chill wind in the thickets round +about, and beyond Long-Hair rose a wall of giant trees. +</P> + +<P> +"Ugh, not understand?" the savage presently demanded in his broken +English. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, yes," said Beverley, "I understand." +</P> + +<P> +"Is the white man friendly now?" Long-Hair then repeated in his own +tongue, with a certain insistence of manner and voice. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, friendly." +</P> + +<P> +Beverley said this absently in a tone of perfunctory dryness. His +throat was parched, his head seemed to waver. But he was beginning to +comprehend that Long-Hair, for some inscrutable reason of his own, was +desirous of making a friendship between them. The thought was +bewildering. +</P> + +<P> +Long-Hair fumbled in his pouch and took out Alice's locket, which he +handed to Beverley. "White man love little girl?" he inquired in a tone +that bordered upon tenderness, again speaking in Indian. +</P> + +<P> +Beverley clutched the disk as soon as he saw it gleam in the star-light. +</P> + +<P> +"White man going to have little girl for his squaw—eh?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, yes," cried Beverley without hearing his own voice. He was trying +to open the locket but his hands were numb and trembling. When at last +he did open it he could not see the child face within, for now even the +star-light was shut off by a scudding black cloud. +</P> + +<P> +"Little girl saved Long-Hair's life. Long-Hair save white warrior for +little girl." +</P> + +<P> +A dignity which was almost noble accompanied these simple sentences. +Long-Hair stood proudly erect, like a colossal dark statue in the +dimness. +</P> + +<P> +The great truth dawned upon Beverley that here was a characteristic +act. He knew that an Indian rarely failed to repay a kindness or an +injury, stroke for stroke, when opportunity offered. Long-Hair was a +typical Indian. That is to say, a type of inhumanity raised to the last +power; but under his hideous atrocity of nature lay the indestructible +sense of gratitude so fixed and perfect that it did its work almost +automatically. +</P> + +<P> +It must be said, and it may or may not be to the white man's shame, +that Beverley did not respond with absolute promptness and sincerity to +Long-Hair's generosity. He had suffered terribly at the hands of this +savage. His arms and legs were raw from the biting of the thongs; his +body ached from the effect of blows and kicks laid upon him while bound +and helpless. Perhaps he was not a very emotional man. At all events +there was no sudden recognition of the favor he was receiving. And this +pleased Long-Hair, for the taste of the American Indian delights in +immobility of countenance and reserve of feeling under great strain. +</P> + +<P> +"Wait here a little while," Long-Hair presently said, and without +lingering for reply, turned away and disappeared in the wood. Beverley +was free to run if he wished to, and the thought did surge across his +mind; but a restraining something, like a hand laid upon him, would not +let his limbs move. Down deep in his heart a calm voice seemed to be +repeating Long-Hair's Indian sentence—"Wait here a little while." +</P> + +<P> +A few minutes later Long-Hair returned bearing two guns, Beverley's and +his own, the latter, a superb weapon given him by Hamilton. He +afterward explained that he had brought these, with their +bullet-pouches and powder-horns, to a place of concealment near by +before he awoke Beverley. This meant that he had swum the cold river +three times since night-fall; once over with the guns and +accouterments; once back to camp, then over again with Beverley! All +this with a broken arm, and to repay Alice for her kindness to him. +</P> + +<P> +Beverley may have been slow, but at last his appreciation was, perhaps, +all the more profound. As best he could he expressed it to Long-Hair, +who showed no interest whatever in the statement. Instead of responding +in Indian, he said "damn" without emphasis. It was rather as if he had +yawned absently, being bored. +</P> + +<P> +Delay could not be thought of. Long-Hair explained briefly that he +thought. Beverley must go to Kaskaskia. He had come across the stream +in the direction of Vincennes in order to set his warriors at fault. +The stream must be recrossed, he said, farther down, and he would help +Beverley a certain distance on his way, then leave him to shift for +himself. He had a meager amount of parched corn and buffalo meat in his +pouch, which would stay hunger until they could kill some game. Now +they must go. +</P> + +<P> +The resilience of a youthful and powerful physique offers many a +problem to the biologist. Vital force seems to find some mysterious +reservoir of nourishment hidden away in the nerve-centers. Beverley set +out upon that seemingly impossible undertaking with renewed energy. It +could not have been the ounce of parched corn and bit of jerked venison +from which he drew so much strength; but on the other hand, could it +have been the miniature of Alice, which he felt pressing over his heart +once more, that afforded a subtle stimulus to both mind and body? They +flung miles behind them before day-dawn, Long-Hair leading, Beverley +pressing close at his heels. Most of the way led over flat prairies +covered with water, and they therefore left no track by which they +could be followed. +</P> + +<P> +Late in the forenoon Long-Hair killed a deer at the edge of a wood. +Here they made a fire and cooked a supply which would last them for a +day or two, and then on they went again. But we cannot follow them step +by step. When Long-Hair at last took leave of Beverley, the occasion +had no ceremony. It was an abrupt, unemotional parting. The stalwart +Indian simply said in his own dialect, pointing westward: +</P> + +<P> +"Go that way two days. You will find your friends." +</P> + +<P> +Then, without another look or word, he turned about and stalked +eastward at a marvelously rapid gait. In his mind he had a good tale to +tell his warrior companions when he should find them again: how +Beverley escaped that night and how he followed him a long, long chase, +only to lose him at last under the very guns of the fort at Kaskaskia. +But before he reached his band an incident of some importance changed +his story to a considerable degree. It chanced that he came upon +Lieutenant Barlow, who, in pursuit of game, had lost his bearings and, +far from his companions, was beating around quite bewildered in a +watery solitude. Long-Hair promptly murdered the poor fellow and +scalped him with as little compunction as he would have skinned a +rabbit; for he had a clever scheme in his head, a very audacious and +outrageous scheme, by which he purposed to recoup, to some extent, the +damages sustained by letting Beverley go. +</P> + +<P> +Therefore, when he rejoined his somewhat disheartened and demoralized +band he showed them the scalp and gave them an eloquent account of how +he tore it from Beverley's head after a long chase and a bloody hand to +hand fight. They listened, believed, and were satisfied. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap16"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XVI +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +FATHER BERET'S OLD BATTLE +</H3> + +<P> +The room in which Alice was now imprisoned formed part of the upper +story of a building erected by Hamilton in one of the four angles of +the stockade. It had no windows and but two oblong port-holes made to +accommodate a small swivel, which stood darkly scowling near the middle +of the floor. From one of these apertures Alice could see the +straggling roofs and fences of the dreary little town, while from the +other a long reach of watery prairie, almost a lake, lay under view +with the rolling, muddy Wabash gleaming beyond. There seemed to be no +activity of garrison or townspeople. Few sounds broke the silence of +which the cheerless prison room seemed to be the center. +</P> + +<P> +Alice felt all her courage and cheerfulness leaving her. She was alone +in the midst of enemies. No father or mother, no friend—a young girl +at the mercy of soldiers, who could not be expected to regard her with +any sympathy beyond that which is accompanied with repulsive leers and +hints. Day after day her loneliness and helplessness became more +agonizing. Farnsworth, it is true, did all he could to relieve the +strain of her situation; but Hamilton had an eye upon what passed and +soon interfered. He administered a bitter reprimand, under which his +subordinate writhed in speechless anger and resentment. +</P> + +<P> +"Finally, Captain Farnsworth," he said in conclusion, "you will +distinctly understand that this girl is my prisoner, not yours; that I, +not you, will direct how she is to be held and treated, and that +hereafter I will suffer no interference on your part. I hope you fully +understand me, sir, and will govern yourself accordingly." +</P> + +<P> +Smarting, or rather smothering, under the outrageous insult of these +remarks, Farnsworth at first determined to fling his resignation at the +Governor's feet and then do whatever desperate thing seemed most to his +mood. But a soldier's training is apt to call a halt before the worst +befalls in such a case. Moreover, in the present temptation, Farnsworth +had a special check and hindrance. He had had a conference with Father +Beret, in which the good priest had played the part of wisdom in +slippers, and of gentleness more dove-like than the dove's. A very +subtle impression, illuminated with the "hope that withers hope," had +come of that interview; and now Farnsworth felt its restraint. He +therefore saluted Hamilton formally and walked away. +</P> + +<P> +Father Beret's paternal love for Alice,—we cannot characterize it more +nicely than to call it paternal,—was his justification for a certain +mild sort of corruption insinuated by him into the heart of Farnsworth. +He was a crafty priest, but his craft was always used for a good end. +Unquestionably Jesuitic was his mode of circumventing the young man's +military scruples by offering him a puff of fair weather with which to +sail toward what appeared to be the shore of delight. He saw at a +glance that Farnsworth's love for Alice was a consuming passion in a +very ardent yet decidedly weak heart. Here was the worldly lever with +which Father Beret hoped to raze Alice's prison and free her from the +terrible doom with which she was threatened. +</P> + +<P> +The first interview was at Father Beret's cabin, to which, as will be +remembered, the priest and Farnsworth went after their meeting in the +street. It actually came to nothing, save an indirect understanding but +half suggested by Father Beret and never openly sanctioned by Captain +Farnsworth. The talk was insinuating on the part of the former, while +the latter slipped evasively from every proposition, as if not able to +consider it on account of a curious obtuseness of perception. Still, +when they separated they shook hands and exchanged a searching look +perfectly satisfactory to both. +</P> + +<P> +The memory of that interview with the priest was in Farnsworth's mind +when, boiling with rage, he left Hamilton's presence and went forth +into the chill February air. He passed out through the postern and +along the sodden and queachy aedge of the prairie, involuntarily making +his way to Father Beret's cabin. His indignation was so great that he +trembled from head to foot at every step. The door of the place was +open and Father Beret was eating a frugal meal of scones and sour wine +(of his own make, he said), which he hospitably begged to share with +his visitor. A fire smouldered on the hearth, and a flat stone showed, +by the grease smoking over its hot surface, where the cakes had been +baked. +</P> + +<P> +"Come in, my son," said the priest, "and try the fare of a poor old +man. It is plain, very plain, but good." He smacked his lips sincerely +and fingered another scone. "Take some, take some." +</P> + +<P> +Farnsworth was not tempted. The acid bouquet of the wine filled the +room with a smack of vinegar, and the smoke from rank scorching fat and +wheat meal did not suggest an agreeable feast. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, well, if you are not hungry, my son, sit down on the stool there +and tell me the news." +</P> + +<P> +Farnsworth took the low seat without a word, letting his eyes wander +over the walls. Alice's rapier, the mate to that now worn by Hamilton, +hung in its curiously engraved scabbard near one corner. The sight of +it inflamed Farnsworth. +</P> + +<P> +"It's an outrage," he broke forth. "Governor Hamilton sent a man to +Roussillon place with orders to bring him the scabbard of Miss +Roussillon's sword, and he now wears the beautiful weapon as if he had +come by it honestly. Damn him!" +</P> + +<P> +"My dear, dear son, you must not soil your lips with such language!" +Father Beret let fall the half of a well bitten cake and held up both +hands. +</P> + +<P> +"I beg your pardon, Father; I know I ought to be more careful in your +presence; but—but—the beastly, hellish scoundrel—" +</P> + +<P> +"Bah! doucement, mon fils, doucement." The old man shook his head and +his finger while speaking. "Easy, my son, easy. You would be a fine +target for bullets were your words to reach Hamilton's ears. You are +not permitted to revile your commander." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I know; but how can a man restrain himself under such abominable +conditions?" +</P> + +<P> +Father Beret shrewdly guessed that Hamilton had been giving the Captain +fresh reason for bitter resentment. Moreover, he was sure that the +moving cause had been Alice. So, in order to draw out what he wished to +hear, he said very gently: +</P> + +<P> +"How is the little prisoner getting along?" +</P> + +<P> +Farnsworth ground his teeth and swore; but Father Beret appeared not to +hear; he bit deep into a scone, took a liberal sip of the muddy red +wine and added: +</P> + +<P> +"Has she a comfortable place? Do you think Governor Hamilton would let +me visit her?" +</P> + +<P> +"It is horrible!" Farnsworth blurted. "She's penned up as if she were a +dangerous beast, the poor girl. And that damned scoundrel—" +</P> + +<P> +"Son, son!" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, it's no use to try, I can't help it, Father. The whelp—" +</P> + +<P> +"We can converse more safely and intelligently if we avoid profanity, +and undue emotion, my son. Now, if you will quit swearing, I will, and +if you will be calm, so will I." +</P> + +<P> +Farnsworth felt the sly irony of this absurdly vicarious proposition. +Father Beret smiled with a kindly twinkle in his deep-set eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, if you don't use profane language, Father, there's no telling +how much you think in expletives. What is your opinion of a man who +tumbles a poor, defenseless girl into prison and then refuses to let +her be decently cared for? How do you express yourself about him?" +</P> + +<P> +"My son, men often do things of which they ought to be ashamed. I heard +of a young officer once who maltreated a little girl that he met at +night in the street. What evil he would have done, had not a passing +kind-hearted man reminded him of his honor by a friendly punch in the +ribs, I dare not surmise." +</P> + +<P> +"True, and your sarcasm goes home as hard as your fist did, Father. I +know that I've been a sad dog all my life. Miss Roussillon saved you by +shooting me, and I love her for it. Lay on, Father, I deserve more than +you can give me." +</P> + +<P> +"Surely you do, my son, surely you do; but my love for you will not let +me give you pain. Ah, we priests have to carry all men's loads. Our +backs are broad, however, very broad, my son." +</P> + +<P> +"And your fists devilish heavy, Father, devilish heavy." +</P> + +<P> +The gentle smile again flickered over the priest's weather-beaten face +as he glanced sidewise at Farnsworth and said: +</P> + +<P> +"Sometimes, sometimes, my son, a carnal weapon must break the way for a +spiritual one. But we priests rarely have much physical strength; our +dependence is upon—" +</P> + +<P> +"To be sure; certainly," Farnsworth interrupted, rubbing his side, +"your dependence is upon the first thing that offers. I've had many a +blow; but yours was the solidest that ever jarred thy mortal frame, +Father Beret." +</P> + +<P> +The twain began to laugh. There is nothing like a reminiscence to stir +up fresh mutual sympathy. +</P> + +<P> +"If your intercostals were somewhat sore for a time, on account of a +contact with priestly knuckles, doubtless there soon set in a +corresponding uneasiness in the region of your conscience. Such shocks +are often vigorously alterative and tonic—eh, my son?" +</P> + +<P> +"You jolted me sober, Father, and then I was ashamed of myself. But +where does all your tremendous strength lie? You don't look strong." +</P> + +<P> +While speaking Farnsworth leaned near Father Beret and grasped his arm. +The young man started, for his fingers, instead of closing around a +flabby, shrunken old man's limb, spread themselves upon a huge, knotted +mass of iron muscles. With a quick movement Father Beret shook off +Farnsworth's hand, and said: +</P> + +<P> +"I am no Samson, my son. Non sum qualis eram." Then, as if dismissing a +light subject for a graver one, he sighed and added; "I suppose there +is nothing that can be done for little Alice." +</P> + +<P> +He called the tall, strong girl "little Alice," and so she seemed to +him. He could not, without direct effort, think of her as a +magnificently maturing woman. She had always been his spoiled pet +child, perversely set against the Holy Church, but dear to him +nevertheless. +</P> + +<P> +"I came to you to ask that very question, Father," said Farnsworth. +</P> + +<P> +"And what do I know? Surely, my son, you see how utterly helpless an +old priest is against all you British. And besides—" +</P> + +<P> +"Father Beret," Farnsworth huskily interrupted, "is there a place that +you know of anywhere in which Miss Roussillon could be hidden, if—" +</P> + +<P> +"My dear son." +</P> + +<P> +"But, Father, I mean it." +</P> + +<P> +"Mean what? Pardon an old man's slow understanding. What are you +talking about, my son?" +</P> + +<P> +Father Beret glanced furtively about, then quickly stepped through the +doorway, walked entirely around the house and came in again before +Farnsworth could respond. Once more seated on his stool he added +interrogatively: +</P> + +<P> +"Did you think you heard something moving outside?" +</P> + +<P> +"No." +</P> + +<P> +"You were saying something when I went out. Pardon my interruption." +</P> + +<P> +Farnsworth gave the priest a searching and not wholly confiding look. +</P> + +<P> +"You did not interrupt me, Father Beret. I was not speaking. Why are +you so watchful? Are you afraid of eavesdroppers?" +</P> + +<P> +"You were speaking recklessly. Your words were incendiary: ardentia +verba. My son, you were suggesting a dangerous thing. Your life would +scarcely satisfy the law were you convicted of insinuating such +treason. What if one of your prowling guards had overheard you? Your +neck and mine might feel the halter. Quod avertat dominus." He crossed +himself and in a solemn voice added in English: +</P> + +<P> +"May the Lord forbid! Ah, my son, we priests protect those we love." +</P> + +<P> +"And I, who am not fit to tie a priest's shoe, do likewise. Father, I +love Alice Roussillon." +</P> + +<P> +"Love is a holy thing, my son. Amare divinum est et humanum." +</P> + +<P> +"Father Beret, can you help me?" +</P> + +<P> +"Spiritually speaking, my son?" +</P> + +<P> +"I mean, can you hide Mademoiselle Roussillon in some safe place, if I +take her out of the prison yonder? That's just what I mean. Can you do +it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Your question is a remarkable one. Have you thought upon it from all +directions, my son? Think of your position, your duty as an officer." +</P> + +<P> +A shrewd polemical expression beamed from Father Beret's eyes, and a +very expert physiogomist might have suspected duplicity from certain +lines about the old man's mouth. +</P> + +<P> +"I simply know that I cannot stand by and see Alice—Mademoiselle +Roussillon, forced to suffer treatment too beastly for an Indian thief. +That's the only direction there is for me to look at it from, and you +can understand my feelings if you will; you know that very well, Father +Beret. When a man loves a girl, he loves her; that's the whole thing.". +</P> + +<P> +The quiet, inscrutable half-smile flickered once more on Father Beret's +face; but he sat silent some time with a sinewy forefinger lying +alongside his nose. When at last he spoke it was in a tone of voice +indicative of small interest in what he was saying. His words rambled +to their goal with the effect of happy accident. +</P> + +<P> +"There are places in this neighborhood in which a human being would be +as hard to find as the flag that you and Governor Hamilton have so +diligently and unsuccessfully been in quest of for the past month or +two. Really, my son, this is a mysterious little town." +</P> + +<P> +Farnsworth's eyes widened and a flush rose in his swarthy cheeks. +</P> + +<P> +"Damn the flag!" he exclaimed. "Let it lie hidden forever; what do I +care? I tell you, Father Beret, that Alice Roussillon is in extreme +danger. Governor Hamilton means to put some terrible punishment on her. +He has a devil's vindictiveness. He showed it to me clearly awhile ago." +</P> + +<P> +"You showed something of the same sort to me, once upon a time, my son." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I did, Father Beret, and I got a load of slugs in my shoulder for +it from that brave girl's pistol. She saved your life. Now I ask you to +help me save hers; or, if not her life, what is infinitely more, her +honor." +</P> + +<P> +"Her honor!" cried Father Beret, leaping to his feet so suddenly and +with such energy that the cabin shook from base to roof. "What do you +say, Captain Farnsworth? What do you mean?" +</P> + +<P> +The old man was transformed. His face was terrible to see, with its +narrow, burning eyes deep under the shaggy brows, its dark veins +writhing snakelike on the temples and forehead, the projected mouth and +chin, the hard lines of the jaws, the iron-gray gleam from all the +features—he looked like an aged tiger stiffened for a spring. +</P> + +<P> +Farnsworth was made of right soldierly stuff; but he felt a distinct +shiver flit along his back. His past life had not lacked thrilling +adventures and strangely varied experiences with desperate men. Usually +he met sudden emergencies rather calmly, sometimes with phlegmatic +indifference. This passionate outburst on the priest's part, however, +surprised him and awed him, while it stirred his heart with a profound +sympathy unlike anything he had ever felt before. +</P> + +<P> +Father Beret mastered himself in a moment, and passing his hand over +his face, as if to brush away the excitement, sat down again on his +stool. He appeared to collapse inwardly. +</P> + +<P> +"You must excuse the weakness of an old man, my son," he said, in a +voice hoarse and shaking. "But tell me what is going to be done with +Alice. Your words—what you said—I did not understand." +</P> + +<P> +He rubbed his forehead slowly, as one who has difficulty in trying to +collect his thoughts. +</P> + +<P> +"I do not know what Governor Hamilton means to do, Father Beret. It +will be something devilish, however,—something that must not happen," +said Farnsworth. +</P> + +<P> +Then he recounted all that Hamilton had done and said. He described the +dreary and comfortless room in which Alice was confined, the miserable +fare given her, and how she would be exposed to the leers and low +remarks of the soldiers. She had already suffered these things, and now +that she could no longer have any protection, what was to become of +her? He did not attempt to overstate the case; but presented it with a +blunt sincerity which made a powerfully realistic impression. +</P> + +<P> +Father Beret, like most men of strong feeling who have been subjected +to long years of trial, hardship, multitudinous dangers and all sorts +of temptation, and who have learned the lessons of self-control, had an +iron will, and also an abiding distrust of weak men. He saw +Farnsworth's sincerity; but he had no faith in his constancy, although +satisfied that while resentment of Hamilton's imperiousness lasted, he +would doubtless remain firm in his purpose to aid Alice. Let that wear +off, as in a short time it would, and then what? The old man studied +his companion with eyes that slowly resumed their expression of +smouldering and almost timid geniality. His priestly experience with +desperate men was demanding of him a proper regard for that subtlety of +procedure which had so often compassed most difficult ends. +</P> + +<P> +He listened in silence to Farnsworth's story. When it came to an end he +began to offer some but half relevant suggestions in the form of +indirect cross-questions, by means of which he gradually drew out a +minute description of Alice's prison, the best way to reach it, the +nature of its door-fastenings, where the key was kept, and everything, +indeed, likely to be helpful to one contemplating a jail delivery. +Farnsworth was inwardly delighted. He felt Father Beret's cunning +approach to the central object and his crafty method of gathering +details. +</P> + +<P> +The shades of evening thickened in the stuffy cabin room while the +conversation went on. Father Beret presently lifted a puncheon in one +corner of the floor and got out a large bottle, which bore a mildewed +and faded French label, and with it a small iron cup. There was just +light enough left to show a brownish sparkle when, after popping out +the cork, he poured a draught in the fresh cup and in his own. +</P> + +<P> +"We may think more clearly, my son, if we taste this old liquor. I have +kept it a long while to offer upon a proper occasion. The occasion is +here." +</P> + +<P> +A ravishing bouquet quickly imbued the air. It was itself an +intoxication. +</P> + +<P> +"The Brothers of St. Martin distilled this liquor," Father Beret added, +handing the cup to Farnsworth, "not for common social drinking, my son, +but for times when a man needs extraordinary stimulation. It is said to +be surpassingly good, because St. Martin blessed the vine." +</P> + +<P> +The doughty Captain felt a sudden and imperious thirst seize his +throat. The liquor flooded his veins before his lips touched the cup. +He had been abstaining lately; now his besetting appetite rushed upon +him. At one gulp he took in the fiery yet smooth and captivating +draught. Nor did he notice that Father Beret, instead of joining him in +the potation, merely lifted his cup and set it down again, smacking his +lips gusto. +</P> + +<P> +There followed a silence, during which the aromatic breath of the +bottle increased its dangerous fascination. Then Father Beret again +filled Farnsworth's cup and said: +</P> + +<P> +"Ah, the blessed monks, little thought they that their matchless brew +would ever be sipped in a poor missionary's hut on the Wabash! But, +after all, my son, why not here as well as in sunny France? Our object +justifies any impropriety of time and place." +</P> + +<P> +"You are right, Father. I drink to our object. Yes, I say, to our +object." +</P> + +<P> +In fact, the drinking preceded his speech, and his tongue already had a +loop in it The liquor stole through him, a mist of bewildering and +enchanting influence. The third cup broke his sentences into +unintelligible fragments; the fourth made his underjaw sag loosely, the +fifth and sixth, taken in close succession, tumbled him limp on the +floor, where he slept blissfully all night long, snugly covered with +some of Father Beret's bed clothes. +</P> + +<P> +"Per casum obliquum, et per indirectum," muttered the priest, when he +had returned the bottle and cup to their hiding-place." The end +justifies the means. Sleep well, my son. Ah, little Alice, little +Alice, your old Father will try—will try!" +</P> + +<P> +He fumbled along the wall in the dark until he found the rapier, which +he took down; then he went out and sat for some time motionless beside +the door, while the clouds thickened overhead. It was late when he +arose and glided away shadow-like toward the fort, over which the night +hung black, chill and drearily silent. The moon was still some hours +high, smothered by the clouds; a fog slowly drifted from the river. +</P> + +<P> +Meantime Hamilton and Helm had spent a part of the afternoon and +evening, as usual, at cards. Helm broke off the game and went to his +quarters rather early for him, leaving the Governor alone and in a bad +temper, because Farnsworth, when he had sent for him, could not be +found. Three times his orderly returned in as many hours with the same +report; the Captain had not been seen or heard of. Naturally this +sudden and complete disappearance, immediately after the reprimand, +suggested to Hamilton an unpleasant possibility. What if Farnsworth had +deserted him? Down deep in his heart he was conscious that the young +man had good cause for almost any desperate action. To lose Captain +Farnsworth, however, would be just now a calamity. The Indians were +drifting over rapidly to the side of the Americans, and every day +showed that the French could not long be kept quiet. +</P> + +<P> +Hamilton sat for some time after Helm's departure, thinking over what +he now feared was a foolish mistake. Presently he buckled on Alice's +rapier, which he had lately been wearing as his own, and went out into +the main area of the stockade. A sentinel was tramping to and fro at +the gate, where a hazy lantern shone. The night was breathless and +silent. Hamilton approached the soldier on duty and asked him if he had +seen Captain Farnsworth, and receiving a negative reply, turned about +puzzled and thoughtful to walk back and forth in the chill, foggy air. +</P> + +<P> +Presently a faint yellow light attracted his attention. It shone +through a porthole in an upper room of the block-house at the farther +angle of the stockade. In fact, Alice was reading by a sputtering lamp +a book Farnsworth had sent her, a volume of Ronsard that he had picked +up in Canada. Hamilton made his way in that direction, at first merely +curious to know who was burning oil so late; but after a few paces he +recognized where the light came from, and instantly suspected that +Captain Farnsworth was there. Indeed he felt sure of it. Somehow he +could not regard Alice as other than a saucy hoyden, incapable of +womanly virtue. His experience with the worst element of Canadian +French life and his peculiar cast of mind and character colored his +impression of her. He measured her by the women with whom the coureurs +de bois and half-breed trappers consorted in Detroit and at the posts +eastward to Quebec. +</P> + +<P> +Alice, unable to sleep, had sought forgetfulness of her bitter +captivity in the old poet's charming lyrics. She sat on the floor, some +blankets and furs drawn around her, the book on her lap, the stupidly +dull lamp hanging beside her on a part of the swivel. Her hair lay +loose over her neck and shoulders and shimmered around her face with a +cloud-like effect, giving to the features in their repose a setting +that intensified their sweetness and sadness. In a very low but +distinct voice was reading, with a slightly quavering emotion: +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "Mignonne, allons voir si la rose,<BR> + Que ce matin avoit desclose<BR> + Sa robe de pourpe au soleil."<BR> +</P> + +<P> +When Hamilton, after stealthily mounting the rough stairway which led +to her door, peeped in through a space between the slabs and felt a +stroke of disappointment, seeing at a glance that Farnsworth was not +there. He gazed for some time, not without a sense of villainy, while +she continued her sweetly monotonous reading. If his heart had been as +hard as the iron swivel-balls that lay beside Alice, he must still have +felt a thrill of something like tender sympathy. She now showed no +trace of the vivacious sauciness which had heretofore always marked her +features when she was in his presence. A dainty gentleness, touched +with melancholy, gave to her face an appealing look all the more +powerful on account of its unconscious simplicity of expression. +</P> + +<P> +The man felt an impulse pure and noble, which would have borne him back +down the ladder and away from the building, had not a stronger one set +boldly in the opposite direction. There was a short struggle with the +seared remnant of his better nature, and then he tried to open the +door; but it was locked. +</P> + +<P> +Alice heard the slight noise and breaking off her reading turned to +look. Hamilton made another effort to enter before he recollected that +the wooden key, or notched lever, that controlled the cumbrous wooden +lock, hung on a peg beside the door. He felt for it along the wall, and +soon laid his hand on it. Then again he peeped through to see Alice, +who was now standing upright near the swivel. She had thrown her hair +back from her face and neck; the lamp's flickering light seemed +suddenly to have magnified her stature and enhanced her beauty. Her +book lay on the tumbled wraps at her feet, and in either hand she +grasped a swivel-shot. +</P> + +<P> +Hamilton's combative disposition came to the aid of his baser passion +when he saw once more a defiant flash from his prisoner's face. It was +easy for him to be fascinated by opposition. Helm had profited by this +trait as much as others had suffered by it; but, in the case of Alice, +Hamilton's mingled resentment and admiration were but a powerful +irritant to the coarsest and most dangerous side of his nature. +</P> + +<P> +After some fumbling and delay he fitted the key with a steady hand and +moved the wooden bolt creaking and jolting from its slot. Then flinging +the clumsy door wide open, he stepped in. +</P> + +<P> +Alice started when she recognized the midnight intruder, and a second +deeper look into his countenance made her brave heart recoil, while +with a sinking sensation her breath almost stopped. It was but a +momentary weakness, however, followed by vigorous reaction. +</P> + +<P> +"What are you here for, sir?" she demanded. "What do you want?" +</P> + +<P> +"I am neither a burglar nor a murderer, Mademoiselle," he responded, +lifting his hat and bowing, with a smile not in the least reassuring. +</P> + +<P> +"You look like both. Stop where you are!" +</P> + +<P> +"Not so loud, my dear Miss Roussillon; I am not deaf. And besides the +garrison needs to sleep." +</P> + +<P> +"Stop, sir; not another step." +</P> + +<P> +She poised herself, leaning slightly backward, and held the iron ball +in her right hand ready to throw it at him. +</P> + +<P> +He halted, still smiling villainously. +</P> + +<P> +"Mademoiselle, I assure you that your excitement is quite unnecessary. +I am not here to harm you." +</P> + +<P> +"You cannot harm me, you cowardly wretch!" +</P> + +<P> +"Humph! Pride goes before a fall, wench," he retorted, taking a +half-step backward. Then a thought arose in his mind which added a new +shade to the repellent darkness of his countenance. +</P> + +<P> +"Miss Roussillon," he said in English and with a changed voice, which +seemed to grow harder, each word deliberately emphasized, "I have come +to break some bad news to you." +</P> + +<P> +"You would scarcely bring me good news, sir, and I am not curious to +hear the bad." +</P> + +<P> +He was silent for a little while, gazing at her with the sort of +admiration from which a true woman draws away appalled. He saw how she +loathed him, saw how impossible it was for him to get a line nearer to +her by any turn of force or fortune. Brave, high-headed, strong as a +young leopard, pure and sweet as a rose, she stood before him fearless, +even aggressive, showing him by every line of her face and form that +she felt her infinite superiority and meant to maintain it. Her whole +personal expression told him he was defeated; therefore he quickly +seized upon a suggestion caught from a transaction with Long-Hair, who +had returned a few hours before from his pursuit of Beverley. +</P> + +<P> +"It pains me, I assure you, Miss Roussillon, to tell you what will +probably grieve you deeply," he presently added; "but I have not been +unaware of your tender interest in Lieutenant Beverley, and when I had +bad news from him, I thought it my duty to inform you." +</P> + +<P> +He paused, feeling with a devil's satisfaction the point of his +statement go home to the girl's heart. +</P> + +<P> +The wind was beginning to blow outside, shaking open the dark clouds +and letting gleams of moonlight flicker on the thinning fog. A ghostly +ray came through a crack between the logs and lit Alice's face with a +pathetic wanness. She moved her lips as if speaking, but Hamilton heard +no sound. +</P> + +<P> +"The Indian, Long-Hair, whom I sent upon Lieutenant Beverley's trail, +reported to me this afternoon that his pursuit had been quite +successful. He caught his game." +</P> + +<P> +Alice's voice came to her now. She drew in a quivering breath of relief. +</P> + +<P> +"Then he is here—he is—you have him a prisoner again?" +</P> + +<P> +"A part of him, Miss Roussillon. Enough to be quite sure that there is +one traitor who will trouble his king no more. Mr. Long-Hair brought in +the Lieutenant's scalp." +</P> + +<P> +Alice received this horrible statement in silence; but her face +blanched and she stood as if frozen by the shock. The shifty +moon-glimmer and the yellow glow of the lamp showed Hamilton to what an +extent his devilish cruelty hurt her, and somehow it chilled him as if +by reflection; but he could not forego another thrust. +</P> + +<P> +"He deserved hanging, and would have got it had he been brought to me +alive. So after all, you should be satisfied. He escaped my vengeance +and Long-Hair got his pay. You see I am the chief sufferer." +</P> + +<P> +These words, however, fell without effect upon the girl's ears, in +which was booming the awful, storm-like roar of her excitement. She did +not see her persecutor standing there; her vision, unhindered by walls +and distance, went straight away to a place in the wilderness, where +all mangled and disfigured Beverley lay dead. A low cry broke from her +lips; she dropped the heavy swivel-balls; and then, like a bird, +swiftly, with a rustling swoop, she went past Hamilton and down the +stair. +</P> + +<P> +For perhaps a full minute the man stood there motionless, stupefied, +amazed; and when at length he recovered himself, it was with difficulty +that he followed her. Everything seemed to hinder him. When he reached +the open air, however, he quickly regained his activity of both mind +and body, and looked in all directions. The clouds were breaking into +parallel masses with streaks of sky between. The moon hanging aslant +against the blue peeped forth just in time to show him a flying figure +which, even while he looked, reached the postern, opened it and slipped +through. +</P> + +<P> +With but a breath of hesitation between giving the alarm and following +Alice silently and alone, he chose the latter. He was a swift runner +and light footed. With a few bounds he reached the little gate, which +was still oscillating on its hinges, darted through and away, straining +every muscle in desperate pursuit, gaining rapidly in the race, which +bore eastward along the course twice before chosen by Alice in leaving +the stockade. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap17"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XVII. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +A MARCH THROUGH COLD WATER +</H3> + +<P> +On the fifth day of February, 1779, Colonel George Rogers Clark led an +army across the Kaskaskia River and camped. This was the first step in +his march towards the Wabash. An army! Do not smile. Fewer than two +hundred men, it is true, answered the roll-call, when Father Gibault +lifted the Cross and blessed them; but every name told off by the +company sergeants belonged to a hero, and every voice making response +struck a full note in the chorus of freedom's morning song. +</P> + +<P> +It was an army, small indeed, but yet an army; even though so rudely +equipped that, could we now see it before us, we might wonder of what +use it could possibly be in a military way. +</P> + +<P> +We should nevertheless hardly expect that a hundred and seventy of our +best men, even if furnished with the latest and most deadly engines of +destruction, could do what those pioneers cheerfully undertook and +gloriously accomplished in the savage wilderness which was to be the +great central area of the United States of America. +</P> + +<P> +We look back with a shiver of awe at the three hundred Spartans for +whom Simonides composed his matchless epitaph. They wrought and died +gloriously; that was Greek. The one hundred and seventy men, who, led +by the backwoodsman, Clark, made conquest of an empire's area for +freedom in the west, wrought and lived gloriously; that was American. +It is well to bear in mind this distinction by which our civilization +separates itself from that of old times. Our heroism has always been of +life—our heroes have conquered and lived to see the effect of +conquest. We have fought all sorts of wars and have never yet felt +defeat. Washington, Jackson, Taylor, Grant, all lived to enjoy, after +successful war, a triumphant peace. "These Americans," said a witty +Frenchman, "are either enormously lucky, or possessed of miraculous +vitality. You rarely kill them in battle, and if you wound them their +wounds are never mortal. Their history is but a chain of +impossibilities easily accomplished. Their undertakings have been +without preparation, their successes in the nature of stupendous +accidents." Such a statement may appear critically sound from a Gallic +point of view; but it leaves out the dominant element of American +character, namely, heroic efficiency. From the first we have had the +courage to undertake, the practical common sense which overcomes the +lack of technical training, and the vital force which never flags under +the stress of adversity. +</P> + +<P> +Clark knew, when he set out on his march to Vincennes, that he was not +indulging a visionary impulse. The enterprise was one that called for +all that manhood could endure, but not more. With the genius of a born +leader he measured his task by his means. He knew his own courage and +fortitude, and understood the best capacity of his men. He had genius; +that is, he possessed the secret of extracting from himself and from +his followers the last refinement of devotion to purpose. There was a +certainty, from first to last, that effort would not flag at any point +short of the top-most possible strain. +</P> + +<P> +The great star of America was no more than a nebulous splendor on the +horizon in 1779. It was a new world forming by the law of youth. The +men who bore the burdens of its exacting life were mostly stalwart +striplings who, before the down of adolescence fairly sprouted on their +chins, could swing the ax, drive a plow, close with a bear or kill an +Indian. Clark was not yet twenty-seven when he made his famous +campaign. A tall, brawny youth, whose frontier experience had enriched +a native character of the best quality, he marched on foot at the head +of his little column, and was first to test every opposing danger. Was +there a stream to wade or swim? Clark enthusiastically shouted, "Come +on!" and in he plunged. Was there a lack of food? "I'm not hungry," he +cried. "Help yourselves, men!" Had some poor soldier lost his blanket? +"Mine is in my way," said Clark. "Take it, I'm glad to get rid of it!" +His men loved him, and would die rather than fall short of his +expectations. +</P> + +<P> +The march before them lay over a magnificent plain, mostly prairie, +rich as the delta of the Nile, but extremely difficult to traverse. The +distance, as the route led, was about a hundred and seventy miles. On +account of an open and rainy winter all the basins and flat lands were +inundated, often presenting leagues of water ranging in depth from a +few inches to three of four feet. Cold winds blew, sometimes with spits +of snow and dashes of sleet, while thin ice formed on the ponds and +sluggish streams. By day progress meant wading ankle-deep, knee-deep, +breast-deep, with an occasional spurt of swimming. By night the brave +fellows had to sleep, if sleep they could, on the cold ground in soaked +clothing under water-heavy blankets. They flung the leagues behind +them, however, cheerfully stimulating one another by joke and +challenge, defying all the bitterness of weather, all the bitings of +hunger, all the toil, danger and deprivation of a trackless and +houseless wilderness, looking only eastward, following their youthful +and intrepid commander to one of the most valuable victories gained by +American soldiers during the War of the Revolution. +</P> + +<P> +Colonel Clark understood perfectly the strategic importance of +Vincennes as a post commanding the Wabash, and as a base of +communication with the many Indian tribes north of the Ohio and east of +the Mississippi. Francis Vigo (may his name never fade!) had brought +him a comprehensive and accurate report of Hamilton's strength and the +condition of the fort and garrison. This information confirmed his +belief that it would be possible not only to capture Vincennes, but +Detroit as well. +</P> + +<P> +Just seven days after the march began, the little army encamped for a +night's rest at the edge of a wood; and here, just after nightfall, +when the fires were burning merrily and the smell of broiling buffalo +steaks burdened the damp air, a wizzened old man suddenly appeared, how +or from where nobody had observed He was dirty and in every way +disreputable in appearance, looking like an animated mummy, bearing a +long rifle on his shoulder, and walking with the somewhat halting +activity of a very old, yet vivacious and energetic simian. Of course +it was Oncle Jason, "Oncle Jazon sui generis," as Father Beret had +dubbed him. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, here I am!" he cried, approaching the fire by which Colonel +Clark and some of his officers were cooking supper, "but ye can't guess +in a mile o' who I am to save yer livers and lights." +</P> + +<P> +He danced a few stiff steps, which made the water gush out of his +tattered moccasins, then doffed his nondescript cap and nodded his +scalpless head in salutation to the commander. +</P> + +<P> +Clark looked inquiringly at him, while the old fellow grimaced and +rubbed his shrunken chin. +</P> + +<P> +"I smelt yer fat a fryin' somepin like a mile away, an' it set my +in'ards to grumblin' for a snack; so I jes thought I'd drap in on ye +an' chaw wittles wi' ye." +</P> + +<P> +"Your looks are decidedly against you," remarked the Colonel with a dry +smile. He had recognized Oncle Jazon after a little sharp scrutiny. "I +suppose, however, that we can let you gnaw the bones after we've got +off the meat." +</P> + +<P> +"Thank 'ee, thank 'ee, plenty good. A feller 'at's as hongry as I am +kin go through a bone like a feesh through water." +</P> + +<P> +Clark laughed and said: +</P> + +<P> +"I don't see any teeth that you have worth mentioning, but your gums +may be unusually sharp." +</P> + +<P> +"Ya-a-s, 'bout as sharp as yer wit, Colonel Clark, an' sharper'n yer +eyes, a long shot. Ye don't know me, do ye? Take ernother squint at me, +an' see'f ye kin 'member a good lookin' man!" +</P> + +<P> +"You have somewhat the appearance of an old scamp by the name of Jazon +that formerly loafed around with a worthless gun on his shoulder, and +used to run from every Indian he saw down yonder in Kentucky." Clark +held out his hand and added cordially: +</P> + +<P> +"How are you, Jazon, my old friend, and where upon earth have you come +from?" +</P> + +<P> +Oncle Jazon pounced upon the hand and gripped it in his own knotted +fingers, gazing delightedly up into Clark's bronzed and laughing face. +</P> + +<P> +"Where'd I come frum? I come frum ever'wheres. Fust time I ever got +lost in all my born days. Fve been a trompin' 'round in the water seems +like a week, crazy as a pizened rat, not a knowin' north f'om south, +ner my big toe f'om a turnip! Who's got some tobacker?" +</P> + +<P> +Oncle Jazon's story, when presently he told it, interested Clark +deeply. In the first place he was glad to hear that Simon Kenton had +once more escaped from the Indians; and the news from Beverley, +although bad enough, left room for hope. Frontiersmen always regarded +the chances better than even, so long as there was life. Oncle Jazon, +furthermore, had much to tell about the situation at Vincennes, the +true feeling of the French inhabitants, the lukewarm friendship of the +larger part of the Indians for Hamilton, and, indeed, everything that +Clark wished to know regarding the possibilities of success in his +arduous undertaking. The old man's advent cheered the whole camp. He +soon found acquaintances and friends among the French volunteers from +Kaskaskia, with whom he exchanged creole gestures and chatter with a +vivacity apparently inexhaustible. He and Kenton had, with wise +judgement, separated on escaping from the Indian camp, Kenton striking +out for Kentucky, while Oncle Jazon went towards Kaskaskia. +</P> + +<P> +The information that Beverley would be shot as soon as he was returned +to Hamilton, caused Colonel Clark serious worry of mind. Not only the +fact that Beverley, who had been a charming friend and a most gallant +officer, was now in such imminent danger, but the impression (given by +Oncle Jazon's account) that he had broken his parole, was deeply +painful to the brave and scrupulously honorable commander. Still, +friendship rose above regret, and Clark resolved to push his little +column forward all the more rapidly, hoping to arrive in time to +prevent the impending execution. +</P> + +<P> +Next morning the march was resumed at the break of dawn; but a swollen +stream caused some hours of delay, during which Beverley himself +arrived from the rear, a haggard and weirdly unkempt apparition. He had +been for three days following hard on the army's track, which he came +to far westward. Oncle Jazon saw him first in the distance, and his old +but educated eyes made no mistake. +</P> + +<P> +"Yander's that youngster Beverley," he exclaimed. "Ef it ain't I'm a +squaw!" +</P> + +<P> +Nor did he parley further on the subject; but set off at a rickety trot +to meet and assist the fagged and excited young man. +</P> + +<P> +Clark had given Oncle Jazon his flask, which contained a few gills of +whisky. This was the first thing offered to Beverley; who wisely took +but a swallow. Oncle Jazon was so elated that he waved his cap on high, +and unconsciously falling into French, yelled in a piercing voice: +</P> + +<P> +"VIVE ZHORSH VASINTON! VIVE LA BANNIERE D'ALICE ROUSSILLON!" +</P> + +<P> +Seeing Beverley reminded him of Alice and the flag. As for Beverley, +the sentiment braced him, and the beloved name brimmed his heart with +sweetness. +</P> + +<P> +Clark went to meet them as they came in. He hugged the gaunt Lieutenant +with genuine fervor of joy, while Oncle Jazon ran around them making a +series of grotesque capers. The whole command, hearing Oncle Jazon's +patriotic words, set up a wild shouting on the spur of a general +impression that Beverley came as a messenger bearing glorious news from +Washington's army in the east. +</P> + +<P> +It was a great relief to Clark when he found out that his favorite +Lieutenant had not broken his parole; but had instead boldly +resurrendered himself, declaring the obligation no longer binding, and +notifying Hamilton of his intention to go away with the purpose of +returning and destroying him and his command. Clark laughed heartily +when this explanation brought out Beverley's tender interest in Alice; +but he sympathized cordially; for he himself knew what love is. +</P> + +<P> +Although Beverley was half starved and still suffering from the kicks +and blows given him by Long-Hair and his warriors, his exhausting run +on the trail of Clark aad his band had not worked him serious harm. All +of the officers and men did their utmost to serve him. He was feasted +without stint and furnished with everything that the scant supply of +clothing on the pack horses could afford for his comfort. He promptly +asked for an assignment to duty in his company and took his place with +such high enthusiasm that his companions regarded him with admiring +wonder. None of them save Clark and Oncle Jazon suspected that love for +a fair-haired girl yonder in Vincennes was the secret of his amazing +zeal and intrepidity. +</P> + +<P> +In one respect Clark's expedition was sadly lacking in its equipment +for the march. It had absolutely no means of transporting adequate +supplies. The pack-horses were not able to carry more than a little +extra ammunition, a few articles of clothing, some simple cooking +utensils and such tools as were needed in improvising rafts and canoes. +Consequently, although buffalo and deer were sometimes plentiful, they +furnished no lasting supply of meat, because it could not be +transported; and as the army neared Vincennes wild animals became +scarce, so that the men began to suffer from hunger when within but a +few days of their journey's end. +</P> + +<P> +Clark made almost superhuman efforts in urging forward his chilled, +water-soaked, foot-sore command; and when hunger added its torture to +the already disheartening conditions, his courage and energy seemed to +burn stronger and brighter. Beverley was always at his side ready to +undertake any task, accept any risk; his ardor made his face glow, and +he seemed to thrive upon hardships. The two men were a source of +inspiration—their followers could not flag and hesitate while under +the influence of their example. +</P> + +<P> +Toward the end of the long march a decided fall of temperature added +ice to the water through which our dauntless patriots waded and swam +for miles. The wind shifted northwesterly, taking on a searching chill. +Each gust, indeed, seemed to shoot wintry splinters into the very +marrow of the men's bones. The weaker ones began to show the approach +of utter exhaustion just at the time when a final spurt of unflinching +power was needed. True, they struggled heroically; but nature was +nearing the inexorable limit of endurance. Without food, which there +was no prospect of getting, collapse was sure to come. +</P> + +<P> +Standing nearly waist-deep in freezing water and looking out upon the +muddy, sea-like flood that stretched far away to the channel of the +Wabash and beyond, Clark turned to Beverley and said, speaking low, so +as not to be overheard by any other of his officers or men: +</P> + +<P> +"Is it possible, Lieutenant Beverley, that we are to fail, with +Vincennes almost in sight of us?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, sir, it is not possible," was the firm reply. "Nothing must, +nothing can stop us. Look at that brave child! He sets the heroic +example." +</P> + +<P> +Beverley pointed, as he spoke, at a boy but fourteen years old, who was +using his drum as a float to bear him up while he courageously swam +beside the men. +</P> + +<P> +Clark's clouded face cleared once more. "You are right," he said, "come +on! we must win or die." +</P> + +<P> +"Sergeant Dewit," he added, turning to an enormously tall and athletic +man near by, "take that little drummer and his drum on your shoulder +and lead the way. And, sergeant, make him pound that drum like the +devil beating tan-bark!" +</P> + +<P> +The huge man caught the spirit of his commander's order. In a twinkling +he had the boy astride of his neck with the kettle-drum resting on his +head, and then the rattling music began. Clark followed, pointing +onward with his sword. The half frozen and tottering soldiers sent up a +shout that went back to where Captain Bowman was bringing up the rear +under orders to shoot every man that straggled or shrank from duty. +</P> + +<P> +Now came a time when not a mouthful of food was left. A whole day they +floundered on, starving, growing fainter at every step, the temperature +falling, the ice thickening. They camped on high land; and next morning +they heard Hamilton's distant sunrise gun boom over the water. +</P> + +<P> +"One half-ration for the men," said Clark, looking disconsolately in +the direction whence the sound had come. "Just five mouthfuls apiece, +even, and I'll have Hamilton and his fort within forty-eight hours." +</P> + +<P> +"We will have the provisions, Colonel, or I will die trying to get +them," Beverley responded "Depend upon me." +</P> + +<P> +They had constructed some canoes in which to transport the weakest of +the men. +</P> + +<P> +"I will take a dugout and some picked fellows. We will pull to the wood +yonder, and there we shall find some kind of game which has been forced +to shelter from the high water." +</P> + +<P> +It was a cheerful view of a forlorn hope. Clark grasped the hand +extended by Beverley and they looked encouragement into each other's +eyes. +</P> + +<P> +Oncle Jazon volunteered to go in the pirogue. He was ready for +anything, everything. +</P> + +<P> +"I can't shoot wo'th a cent," he whined, as they took their places in +the cranky pirogue; "but I might jes' happen to kill a squir'l or a +elephant or somepin 'nother." +</P> + +<P> +"Very well," shouted Clark in a loud, cheerful voice, when they had +paddled away to a considerable distance, "bring the meat to the woods +on the hill yonder," pointing to a distant island-like ridge far beyond +the creeping flood. "We'll be there ready to eat it!" +</P> + +<P> +He said this for the ears of his men. They heard and answered with a +straggling but determined chorus of approval. They crossed the rolling +current of the Wabash by a tedious process of ferrying, and at last +found themselves once more wading in back-water up to their armpits, +breaking ice an inch thick as they went. It was the closing struggle to +reach the high wooded lands. Many of them fell exhausted; but their +stronger comrades lifted them, holding their heads above water, and +dragged them on. +</P> + +<P> +Clark, always leading, always inspiring, was first to set foot on dry +land. He shouted triumphantly, waved his sword, and then fell to +helping the men out of the freezing flood. This accomplished, he +ordered fires built; but there was not a soldier of them all whose +hands could clasp an ax-handle, so weak and numbed with cold were they. +He was not to be baffled, however. If fire could not be had, exercise +must serve its purpose. Hastily pouring some powder into his hand he +dampened it and blacked his face. "Victory, men, victory!" he shouted, +taking off his hat and beginning to leap and dance. "Come on! We'll +have a war dance and then a feast, as soon as the meat arrives that I +have sent for. Dance! you brave lads, dance! Victory! victory!" +</P> + +<P> +The strong men, understanding their Colonel's purpose, took hold of the +delicate ones; and the leaping, the capering, the tumult of voices and +the stamping of slushy moccasins with which they assaulted that stately +forest must have frightened every wild thing thereabout into a deadly +rigor, dark's irrepressible energy and optimism worked a veritable +charm upon his faithful but almost dying companions in arms. Their +trust in him made them feel sure that food would soon be forthcoming. +The thought afforded a stimulus more potent than wine; it drove them +into an ecstasy of frantic motion and shouting which soon warmed them +thoroughly. +</P> + +<P> +It is said that fortune favors the brave. The larger meaning of the +sentence may be given thus: God guards those who deserve His +protection. History tells us that just when Clark halted his command +almost in sight of Vincennes—just when hunger was about to prevent the +victory so close to his grasp—a party of his scouts brought in the +haunch of a buffalo captured from some Indians. The scouts were +Lieutenant Beverley and Oncle Jazon. And with the meat they brought +Indian kettles in which to cook it. +</P> + +<P> +With consummate forethought Clark arranged to prevent his men doing +themselves injury by bolting their food or eating it half-cooked. Broth +was first made and served hot; then small bits of well broiled steak +were doled out, until by degrees the fine effect of nourishment set in, +and all the command felt the fresh courage of healthy reaction. +</P> + +<P> +"I ain't no gin'ral, nor corp'ral, nor nothin'," remarked Oncle Jazon +to Colonel Clark, "but 'f I's you I'd h'ist up every dad dinged ole +flag in the rig'ment, w'en I got ready to show myself to 'em, an' I'd +make 'em think, over yander at the fort, 'at I had 'bout ninety +thousan' men. Hit'd skeer that sandy faced Gov'nor over there till he'd +think his back-bone was a comin' out'n 'im by the roots." +</P> + +<P> +Clark laughed, but his face showed that the old man's suggestion struck +him forcibly and seriously. +</P> + +<P> +"We'll see about that presently, Oncle Jazon. Wait till we reach the +hill yonder, from which the whole town can observe our manoeuvres, then +we'll try it, maybe." +</P> + +<P> +Once more the men were lined up, the roll-call gone through with +satisfactorily, and the question put: "Are we ready for another plunge +through the mud and water?" +</P> + +<P> +The answer came in the affirmative, with a unanimity not to be +mistaken. The weakest heart of them all beat to the time of the charge +step. Again Clark and Beverley clasped hands and took the lead. +</P> + +<P> +When they reached the next high ground they gazed in silence across a +slushy prairie plot to where, on a slight elevation, old Vincennes and +Fort Sackville lay in full view. +</P> + +<P> +Beverley stood apart. A rush of sensations affected him so that he +shook like one whose strength is gone. His vision was blurred. Fort and +town swimming in a mist were silent and still. Save the British flag +twinkling above Hamilton's headquarters, nothing indicated that the +place was not deserted. And Alice? With the sweet name's echo +Beverley's heart bounded high, then sank fluttering at the recollection +that she was either yonder at the mercy of Hamilton, or already the +victim of an unspeakable cruelty. Was it weakness for him to lift his +clasped hands heavenward and send up a voiceless prayer? +</P> + +<P> +While he stood thus Oncle Jazon came softly to his side and touched his +arm. Beverley started. +</P> + +<P> +"The nex' thing'll be to shoot the everlastin' gizzards outen 'em, +won't it?" the old man inquired. "I'm jes' a eetchin' to git a grip +onto that Gov'nor. Ef I don't scelp 'em I'm a squaw." +</P> + +<P> +Beverley drew a deep breath and came promptly back from his dream. It +was now Oncle Jazon's turn to assume a reflective, reminiscent mood. He +looked about him with an expression of vague half tenderness on his +shriveled features. +</P> + +<P> +"I's jes' a thinkin' how time do run past a feller," he presently +remarked. "Twenty-seven years ago I camped right here wi' my +wife—ninth one, ef I 'member correct—jes' fresh married to 'r; sort +o' honey-moon. 'Twus warm an' sunshiny an' nice. She wus a poorty +squaw, mighty poorty, an' I wus as happy as a tomtit on a sugar-trough. +We b'iled sap yander on them nobs under the maples. It wus glor'us. Had +some several wives 'fore an' lots of 'm sence; but she wus sweetes' of +'m all. Strange how a feller 'members sich things an' feels sort o' +lonesome like!" +</P> + +<P> +The old man's mouth drooped at the corners and he hitched up his +buckskin trousers with a ludicrous suggestion of pathos in every line +of his attitude. Unconsciously he sidled closer to Beverley, remotely +feeling that he was giving the young man very effective sympathy, well +knowing that Alice was the sweet burden of his thoughts. It was thus +Oncle Jazon honestly tried to fortify his friend against what probably +lay in store for him. +</P> + +<P> +But Beverley failed to catch the old man's crude comfort thus flung at +him. The analogy was not apparent. Oncle Jazon probably felt that his +kindness had been ineffectual, for he changed his tone and added: +</P> + +<P> +"But I s'pose a young feller like ye can't onderstan' w'at it is to +love a 'oman an' 'en hev 'er quit ye for 'nother feller, an' him a buck +Injin. Wall, wall, wall, that's the way it do go! Of all the livin' +things upon top o' this yere globe, the mos' onsartin', +crinkety-crankety an' slippery thing is a young 'oman 'at knows she's +poorty an' 'at every other man in the known world is blind stavin' +crazy in love wi' 'er, same as you are. She'll drop ye like a hot tater +'fore ye know it, an' 'en look at ye jes' pine blank like she never +knowed ye afore in her life. It's so, Lieutenant, shore's ye'r born. I +know, for I've tried the odd number of 'em, an' they're all jes' the +same." +</P> + +<P> +By this time Beverley's ears were deaf to Oncle Jazon's querulous, +whining voice, and his thoughts once more followed his wistful gaze +across the watery plain to where the low roofs of the creole town +appeared dimly wavering in the twilight of eventide, which was fast +fading into night. The scene seemed unsubstantial; he felt a strange +lethargy possessing his soul; he could not realize the situation. In +trying to imagine Alice, she eluded him, so that a sort of cloudy void +fell across his vision with the effect of baffling and benumbing it. He +made vain efforts to recall her voice, things that she had said to him, +her face, her smiles; all he could do was to evoke an elusive, +tantalizing, ghostly something which made him shiver inwardly with a +haunting fear that it meant the worst, whatever the worst might be. +Where was she? Could she be dead, and this the shadowy message of her +fate? +</P> + +<P> +Darkness fell, and a thin fog began to drift in wan streaks above the +water. Not a sound, save the suppressed stir of the camp, broke the +wide, dreary silence. Oncle Jazon babbled until satisfied that Beverley +was unappreciative, or at least unresponsive. +</P> + +<P> +"Got to hev some terbacker," he remarked, and shambled away in search +of it among his friends. +</P> + +<P> +A little later Clark approached hastily and said: +</P> + +<P> +"I have been looking for you. The march has begun. Bowman and +Charleville are moving; come, there's no time to lose." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap18"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XVIII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +A DUEL BY MOONLIGHT +</H3> + +<P> +When Hamilton, after running some distance, saw that he was gaining +upon Alice and would soon overtake her, it added fresh energy to his +limbs. He had quickly realized the foolishness of what he had done in +visiting the room of his prisoner at so late an hour in the night. What +would his officers and men think? To let Alice escape would be +extremely embarrassing, and to be seen chasing her would give good +ground for ridicule on the part of his entire command. Therefore his +first thought, after passing through the postern and realizing fully +what sort of predicament threatened him, was to recapture her and +return her to the prison room in the block-house without attracting +attention. This now promised to be an easier task than he had at first +feared; for in the moonlight, which on account of the dispersing +clouds, was fast growing stronger, he saw her seem to falter and +weaken. Certainly her flight was checked and took an eccentric turn, as +if some obstruction had barred her way. He rushed on, not seeing that, +as Alice swerved, a man intervened. Indeed he was within a few strides +of laying his hand on her when he saw her make the strange movement. It +was as if, springing suddenly aside, she had become two persons instead +of one. But instantly the figures coincided again, and in becoming +taller faced about and confronted him. +</P> + +<P> +Hamilton stopped short in his tracks. The dark figure was about five +paces from him. It was not Alice, and a sword flashed dimly but +unmistakably in a ray of the moon. The motion visible was that of an +expert swordsman placing himself firmly on his legs, with his weapon at +guard. +</P> + +<P> +Alice saw the man in her path just in time to avoid running against +him. Lightly as a flying bird, when it whisks itself in a short +semicircle past a tree or a bough, she sprang aside and swung around to +the rear of him, where she could continue her course toward the town. +But in passing she recognized him. It was Father Beret, and how grim he +looked! The discovery was made in the twinkling of an eye, and its +effect was instantaneous, not only checking the force of her flight, +but stopping her and turning her about to gaze before she had gone five +paces farther. +</P> + +<P> +Hamilton's nerve held, startled as he was, when he realized that an +armed man stood before him. Naturally he fell into the error of +thinking that he had been running after this fellow all the way from +the little gate, where, he supposed, Alice had somehow given him the +slip. It was a mere flash of brain-light, so to call it, struck out by +the surprise of this curious discovery. He felt his bellicose temper +leap up furiously at being balked in a way so unexpected and withal so +inexplicable. Of course he did not stand there reasoning it all out. +The rush of impressions came, and at the same time he acted with +promptness. Changing the rapier, which he held in his right hand, over +into his left, he drew a small pistol from the breast of his coat and +fired. The report was sharp and loud; but it caused no uneasiness or +inquiry in the fort, owing to the fact that Indians invariably emptied +their guns when coming into the town. +</P> + +<P> +Hamilton's aim, although hasty, was not bad. The bullet from his weapon +cut through Father Beret's clothes between his left arm and his body, +slightly creasing the flesh on a rib. Beyond him it struck heavily and +audibly. Alice fell limp and motionless to the soft wet ground, where +cold puddles of water were splintered over with ice. She lay pitifully +crumpled, one arm outstretched in the moonlight. Father Beret heard the +bullet hit her, and turned in time to see her stagger backward with a +hand convulsively pressed over her heart. Her face, slightly upturned +as she reeled, gave the moon a pallid target for its strengthening +rays. Sweet, beautiful, its rigid features flashed for a second and +then half turned away from the light and went down. +</P> + +<P> +Father Beret uttered a short, thin cry and moved as if to go to the +fallen girl, but just then he saw Hamilton's sword pass over again into +his right hand, and knew that there was no time for anything but death +or fight. The good priest did not shirk what might have made the +readiest of soldiers nervous. Hamilton was known to be a great +swordsman and proud of the distinction. Father Beret had seen him fence +with Farnsworth in remarkable form, touching him at will, and in +ministering to the men in the fort he had heard them talk of the +Governor's incomparable skill. +</P> + +<P> +A priest is, in perhaps all cases but the last out of a thousand, a man +of peace, not to be forced into a fight; but the exceptional one out of +the ten hundred it is well not to stir up if you are looking for an +easy victim. Hamilton was in the habit of considering every antagonist +immediately conquerable. His domineering spirit could not, when +opposed, reckon with any possibility of disaster. As he sprang toward +Father Beret there was a mutual recognition and, we speak guardedly, +something that sounded exactly like an exchange of furious execrations. +As for Father Beret's words, they may have been a mere priestly formula +of objurgation. +</P> + +<P> +The moon was accommodating. With a beautiful white splendor it entered +a space of cloudless sky, where it seemed to slip along the dusky blue +surface among the stars, far over in the west. +</P> + +<P> +"It's you, is it?" Hamilton exclaimed between teeth that almost crushed +one another. "You prowling hypocrite of hell!" +</P> + +<P> +Father Beret said something. It was not complimentary, and it sounded +sulphurous, if not profane. Remember, however, that a priest can +scarcely hope to be better than Peter, and Peter did actually make the +Simon pure remark when hard pressed. At all events Father Beret said +something with vigorous emphasis, and met Hamilton half way. +</P> + +<P> +Both men, stimulated to the finger-tips by a draught of imperious +passion, fairly plunged to the inevitable conflict. Ah, if Alice could +have seen her beautiful weapons cross, if she could have heard the +fine, far-reaching clink, clink, clink, while sparks leaped forth, +dazzling even in the moonlight; if she could have noted the admirable, +nay, the amazing, play, as the men, regaining coolness to some extent, +gathered their forces and fell cautiously to the deadly work, it would +have been enough to change the cold shimmer of her face to a flash of +warm delight. For she would have understood every feint, longe, parry, +and seen at a glance how Father Beret set the pace and led the race at +the beginning. She would have understood; for Father Beret had taught +her all she knew about the art of fencing. +</P> + +<P> +Hamilton quickly felt, and with a sense of its strangeness, the +priest's masterly command of his weapon. The surprise called up all his +caution and cleverness. Before he could adjust himself to such an +unexpected condition he came near being spitted outright by a pretty +pass under his guard. The narrow escape, while it put him on his best +mettle, sent a wave of superstition through his brain. He recalled what +Barlow had jocularly said about the doings of the devil-priest or +priest-devil at Roussillon place on that night when the patrol guard +attempted to take Gaspard Roussillon. Was this, indeed, Father Beret, +that gentle old man, now before him, or was it an avenging demon from +the shades? +</P> + +<P> +The thought flitted electrically across his mind, while he deftly +parried, feinted, longed, giving his dark antagonist all he could do to +meet the play. Priest or devil, he thought, he cared not which, he +would reach its vitals presently. Yet there lingered with him a +haunting half-fear, or tenuous awe, which may have aided, rather than +hindered his excellent swordsmanship. +</P> + +<P> +Under foot it was slushy with mud, water and ice, the consistency +varying from a somewhat solid crust to puddles that half inundated +Hamilton's boots and quite overflowed Father Beret's moccasins. An +execrable field for the little matter in hand. They gradually shifted +position. Now it was the Governor, then the priest, who had advantage +as to the light. For some time Father Beret seemed quite the shiftier +and surer fighter, but (was it his age telling on him?) he lost +perceptibly in suppleness. Still Hamilton failed to touch him. There +was a baffling something in the old man's escape now and again from +what ought to have been an inevitable stroke. Was it luck? It seemed to +Hamilton more than that—a sort of uncanny evasion. Or was it supreme +mastery, the last and subtlest reach of the fencer's craft? +</P> + +<P> +Youth forced age slowly backward in the struggle, which at times took +on spurts so furious that the slender blades, becoming mere glints of +acicular steel, split the moonlight back and forth, up and down, so +that their meetings, following one another in a well-nigh continuous +stroke, sent a jarring noise through the air. Father Beret lost inch by +inch, until the fighting was almost over the body of Alice; and now for +the first time Hamilton became aware of that motionless something with +the white, luminous face in profile against the ground; but he did not +let even that unsettle his fencing gaze, which followed the sunken and +dusky eyes of his adversary. A perspiration suddenly flooded his body, +however, and began to drip across his face. His arm was tiring. A doubt +crept like a chill into his heart. Then the priest appeared to add a +cubit to his stature and waver strangely in the soft light. Behind him, +low against the sky, a wide winged owl shot noiselessly across just +above the prairie. +</P> + +<P> +The soul of a true priest is double: it is the soul of a saint and the +soul of a worldly man. What is most beautiful in this duality is the +supreme courage with which the saintly spirit attacks the worldly and +so often heroically masters it. In the beginning of the fight Father +Beret let a passion of the earthly body take him by storm. It was well +for Governor Henry Hamilton that the priest was so wrought upon as to +unsettle his nerves, otherwise there would have been an evil heart +impaled midway of Father Beret's rapier. A little later the saintly +spirit began to assert itself, feebly indeed, but surely. Then it was +that Father Beret seemed to be losing agility for a while as he +backstepped away from Hamilton's increasing energy of assault. In his +heart the priest was saying: "I will not murder him. I must not do +that. He deserves death, but vengeance is not mine. I will disarm him." +Step by step he retreated, playing erratically to make an opening for a +trick he meant to use. +</P> + +<P> +It was singularly loose play, a sort of wavering, shifty, +incomprehensible show of carelessness, that caused Hamilton to +entertain a doubt, which was really a fear, as to what was going to +happen; for, notwithstanding all this neglect of due precaution on the +priest's part, to touch him seemed impossible, miraculously so, and +every plan of attack dissolved into futility in the most maddening way. +</P> + +<P> +"Priest, devil or ghost!" raged Hamilton, with a froth gathering around +his mouth; "I'll kill you, or—" +</P> + +<P> +He made a longe, when his adversary left an opening which appeared +absolutely beyond defence. It was a quick, dextrous, vicious thrust. +The blade leaped toward Father Beret's heart with a twinkle like +lightning. +</P> + +<P> +At that moment, although warily alert and hopeful that his opportunity +was at hand, Father Beret came near losing his life; for as he +side-stepped and easily parried Hamilton's thrust, which he had +invited, thinking to entangle his blade and disarm him, he caught his +foot in Alice's skirt and stumbled, nearly falling across her. It would +have been easy for Hamilton to run him through, had he instantly +followed up the advantage. But the moonlight on Alice's face struck his +eyes, and by that indirect ray of vision which is often strangely +effective, he recognized her lying there. It was a disconcerting thing +for him, but he rallied instantly and sprang aside, taking a new +position just in time to face Father Beret again. A chill crept up his +back. The horror which he could not shake off enraged him beyond +measure. Gathering fresh energy, he renewed the assault with desperate +steadiness the highest product of absolutely molten fury. +</P> + +<P> +Father Beret felt the dangerous access of power in his antagonist's +arm, and knew that a crisis had arrived. He could not be careless now. +Here was a swordsman of the best school calling upon him for all the +skill and strength and cunning that he could command. Again the saintly +element was near being thrown aside by the worldly in the old man's +breast. Alice lying there seemed mutely demanding that he avenge her. A +riotous something in his blood clamored for a quick and certain act in +this drama by moonlight—a tragic close by a stroke of terrible yet +perfectly fitting justice. +</P> + +<P> +There was but the space of a breath for the conflict in the priest's +heart, yet during that little time he reasoned the case and quoted +scripture to himself. +</P> + +<P> +"Domine, percutimus in gladio?" rang through his mind. "Lord, shall we +smite with the sword?" +</P> + +<P> +Hamilton seemed to make answer to this with a dazzling display of +skill. The rapiers sang a strange song above the sleeping girl, a +lullaby with coruscations of death in every keen note. +</P> + +<P> +Father Beret was thinking of Alice. His brain, playing double, +calculated with lightning swiftness the chances and movements of that +whirlwind rush of fight, while at the same time it swept through a +retrospect of all the years since Alice came into his life. How he had +watched her grow and bloom; how he had taught her, trained her mind and +soul and body to high things, loved her with a fatherly passion +unbounded, guarded her from the coarse and lawless influences of her +surroundings. Like the tolling of an infinitely melancholy bell, all +this went through his breast and brain, and, blending with a furious +current of whatever passions were deadly dangerous in his nature, swept +as a storm bearing its awful force into his sword-arm. +</P> + +<P> +The Englishman was a lion, the priest a gladiator. The stars aloft in +the vague, dark, yet splendid, amphitheater were the audience. It was a +question. Would the thumbs go down or up? Life and death held the +chances even; but it was at the will of Heaven, not of the stars. "Hoc +habet" must follow the stroke ordered from beyond the astral clusters +and the dusky blue. +</P> + +<P> +Hamilton pressed, nay rushed, the fight with a weight and at a pace +which could not last. But Father Beret withstood him so firmly that he +made no farther headway; he even lost some ground a moment later. +</P> + +<P> +"You damned Jesuit hypocrite!" he snarled; "you lowest of a vile +brotherhood of liars!" +</P> + +<P> +Then he rushed again, making a magnificent show of strength, quickness +and accuracy. The sparks hissed and crackled from the rasping and +ringing blades. +</P> + +<P> +Father Beret was, in truth, a Jesuit, and as such a zealot; but he was +not a liar or a hypocrite. Being human, he resented an insult. The +saintly spirit in him was strong, yet not strong enough to breast the +indignation which now dashed against it. For a moment it went down. +</P> + +<P> +"Liar and scoundrel yourself!" he retorted, hoarsely forcing the words +out of his throat. "Spawn of a beastly breed!" +</P> + +<P> +Hamilton saw and felt a change pass over the spirit of the old priest's +movements. Instantly the sword leaping against his own seemed endowed +with subtle cunning and malignant treachery. Before this it had been +difficult enough to meet the fine play and hold fairly even; now he was +startled and confused; but he rose to the emergency with admirable will +power and cleverness. +</P> + +<P> +"Murderer of a poor orphan girl!" Father Beret added with a hot +concentrated accent; "death is too good for you." +</P> + +<P> +Hamilton felt nearer his grave than ever before in all his wild +experience, for somehow doom, shadowy and formless, like the atmosphere +of an awful dream, enmisted those words; but he was no weakling to quit +at the height of desperate conflict. He was strong, expert, and game to +the middle of his heart. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll add a traitor Jesuit to my list of dead," he panted forth, rising +yet again to the extremest tension of his power. +</P> + +<P> +As he did this Father Beret settled himself as you have seen a mighty +horse do in the home stretch of a race. Both men knew that the moment +had arrived for the final act in their impromptu play. It was short, a +duel condensed and crowded into fifteen seconds of time, and it was +rapid beyond the power of words to describe. A bystander, had there +been one, could not have seen what was finally done or how it was done. +Father Beret's sword seemed to be revolving—it was a halo in front of +Hamilton for a mere point of time. The old priest seemed to crouch and +then make a quick motion as if about to leap backward. A wrench and a +snip, as of something violently jerked from a fastening, were followed +by a semicircular flight of Hamilton's rapier over Father Beret's head +to stick in the ground ten feet behind him. The duel was over, and the +whole terrible struggle had occupied less than three minutes. +</P> + +<P> +With his wrist strained and his fingers almost broken, Hamilton +stumbled forward and would have impaled himself had not Father Beret +turned the point of his weapon aside as he lowered it. +</P> + +<P> +"Surrender, or die!" +</P> + +<P> +That was a strange order for a priest to make, but there could be no +mistaking its authority or the power behind it. Hamilton regained his +footing and looked dazed, wheezing and puffing like a porpoise, but he +clearly understood what was demanded of him. +</P> + +<P> +"If you call out I'll run you through," Father Beret added, seeing him +move his lips as if to shout for help. +</P> + +<P> +The level rapier now reinforced the words. Hamilton let the breath go +noiselessly from his mouth and waved his hand in token of enforced +submission. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, what do you want me to do?" he demanded after a short pause. +"You seem to have me at your mercy. What are your terms?" +</P> + +<P> +Father Beret hesitated. It was a question difficult to answer. +</P> + +<P> +"Give me your word as a British officer that you will never again try +to harm any person, not an open, armed enemy, in this town." +</P> + +<P> +Hamilton's gorge rose perversely. He erected himself with lofty reserve +and folded his arms. The dignity of a Lieutenant Governor leaped into +him and took control. Father Beret correctly interpreted what he saw. +</P> + +<P> +"My people have borne much," he said, "and the killing of that poor +child there will be awfully avenged if I but say the word. Besides, I +can turn every Indian in this wilderness against you in a single day. +You are indeed at my mercy, and I will be merciful if you will satisfy +my demand." +</P> + +<P> +He was trembling with emotion while he spoke and the desire to kill the +man before him was making a frightful struggle with his priestly +conscience; but conscience had the upper hand. Hamilton stood gazing +fixedly, pale as a ghost, his thoughts becoming more and more clear and +logical. He was in a bad situation. Every word that Father Beret had +spoken was true and went home with force. There was no time for parley +or subterfuge; the sword looked as if, eager to find his heart, it +could not be held back another moment. But the wan, cold face of the +girl had more power than the rapier's hungry point. It made an abject +coward of him. +</P> + +<P> +"I am willing to give you my word," he presently said. "And let me tell +you," he went on more rapidly, "I did not shoot at her. She was behind +you." +</P> + +<P> +"Your word as a British officer?" +</P> + +<P> +Hamilton again stiffened and hesitated, but only for the briefest +space, then said: +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, my word as a British officer." +</P> + +<P> +Father Beret waved his hand with impatience. +</P> + +<P> +"Go, then, back to your place in the fort and disturb, my people no +more. The soul of this poor little girl will haunt you forever. Go!" +</P> + +<P> +Hamilton stood a little while gazing at the face of Alice with the +horrible wistfulness of remorse. What would he not have given to rub +his eyes and find it all a dream? +</P> + +<P> +He turned away; a cloud scudded across the moon; here and yonder in the +dim town cocks crowed with a lonesome, desultory effect. +</P> + +<P> +Father Beret plucked up the rapier that he had wrenched from Hamilton's +hand. It suggested something. +</P> + +<P> +"Hold!" he called out, "give me the scabbard of this sword." Hamilton, +who was striding vigorously in the direction of the fort, turned about +as the priest hastened to him. +</P> + +<P> +"Give me the scabbard of this rapier; I want it. Take it off." +</P> + +<P> +The command was not gently voiced. A hoarse, half-whisper winged every +word with an imperious threat. +</P> + +<P> +Hamilton obeyed. His hands were not firm; his fingers fumbled +nervously; but he hurried, and Father Beret soon had the rapier +sheathed and secured at his belt beside its mate. +</P> + +<P> +A good and true priest is a burden-bearer. His motto is: Alter alterius +onera portate; bear ye one another's burdens. His soul is enriched with +the cast-off sorrows of those whom he relieves. Father Beret scarcely +felt the weight of Alice's body when he lifted it from the ground, so +heavy was the pressure of his grief. All that her death meant, not only +to him, but to every person who knew her, came into his heart as the +place of refuge consecrated for the indwelling of pain. He lifted her +and bore her as far toward Roussillon place as he could; but his +strength fell short just in front of the little Bourcier cottage, and +half dead he staggered across the veranda to the door, where he sank +exhausted. +</P> + +<P> +After a breathing spell he knocked. The household, fast asleep, did not +hear; but he persisted until the door was opened to him and his burden. +</P> + +<P> +Captain Farnsworth unclosed his bloodshot eyes, at about eight o'clock +in the morning, quite confused as to his place and surroundings. He +looked about drowsily with a sheepish half-knowledge of having been +very drunk. A purring in his head and a dull ache reminded him of an +abused stomach. He yawned and stretched himself, then sat up, running a +hand through his tousled hair. Father Beret was on his knees before the +cross, still as a statue, his clasped hands extended upward. +</P> + +<P> +Farnsworth's face lighted with recognition, and he smiled rather +bitterly. He recalled everything and felt ashamed, humiliated, +self-debased. He had outraged even a priest's hospitality with his +brutish appetite, and he hated himself for it. Disgust nauseated his +soul apace with the physical sinking and squirming that grew upon him. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm a shabby, worthless dog!" he muttered, with petulant accent; "why +don't you kick me out, Father?" +</P> + +<P> +The priest turned a collapsed and bloodless gray face upon him, smiled +in a tired, perfunctory way, crossed himself absently and said: +</P> + +<P> +"You have rested well, my son. Hard as the bed is, you have done it a +compliment in the way of sleeping. You young soldiers understand how to +get the most out of things." +</P> + +<P> +"You are too generous, Father, and I can't appreciate it. I know what I +deserve, and you know it, too. Tell me what a brute and fool I am; it +will do me good. Punch me a solid jolt in the ribs, like the one you +gave me not long ago." +</P> + +<P> +"Qui sine peccato est, primus lapidem mittat" said the priest. "Let him +who is without sin cast the first stone." +</P> + +<P> +He had gone to the hearth and was taking from the embers an earthen +saucer, or shallow bowl, in which some fragrant broth simmered and +steamed. +</P> + +<P> +"A man who has slept as long as you have, my son, usually has a +somewhat delicate appetite. Now, here is a soup, not especially +satisfying to the taste of a gourmet like yourself, but possessing the +soothing quality that is good for one just aroused from an unusual nap. +I offer it, my son, propter stomachum tuum, et frequentes tuas +infirmitates (on account of thy stomach, and thine often infirmities). +This soup will go to the right spot." +</P> + +<P> +While speaking he brought the hot bowl to Farnsworth and set it on the +bedcover before him, then fetched a big horn spoon. +</P> + +<P> +The fragrance of pungent roots and herbs, blent with a savory waft of +buffalo meat, greeted the Captain's sense, and the anticipation itself +cheered his aching throat. It made him feel greedy and in a hurry. The +first spoonful, a trifle bitter, was not so pleasant at the beginning, +but a moment after he swallowed it a hot prickling set in and seemed to +dart through him from extremity to extremity. +</P> + +<P> +Slowly, as he ate, the taste grew more agreeable, and all the effects +of his debauch disappeared. It was like magic; his blood warmed and +glowed, as if touched with mysterious fire. +</P> + +<P> +"What is this in this soup, Father Beret, that makes it so searching +and refreshing?" he demanded, when the bowl was empty. +</P> + +<P> +Father Beret shook his head and smiled drolly. +</P> + +<P> +"That I cannot divulge, my son, owing to a promise I had to make to the +aged Indian who gave me the secret. It is the elixir of the Miamis. +Only their consecrated medicine men hold the recipe. The stimulation is +but temporary." +</P> + +<P> +Just then someone knocked on the door. Father Beret opened it to one of +Hamilton's aides. +</P> + +<P> +"Your pardon, Father, but hearing Captain Farnsworth's voice I made +bold to knock." +</P> + +<P> +"What is it, Bobby?" Farnsworth called out. +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing, only the Governor has been having you looked for in every +nook and corner of the fort and town. You'd better report at once, or +hell be having us drag the river for your body." +</P> + +<P> +"All right, Lieutenant, go back and keep mum, that's a dear boy, and +I'll shuffle into Colonel Hamilton's august presence before many +minutes." +</P> + +<P> +The aide laughed and went his way whistling a merry tune. +</P> + +<P> +"Now I am sure to get what I deserve, with usury at forty per cent in +advance," said Farnsworth dryly, shrugging his shoulders with +undissembled dread of Hamilton's wrath. But the anticipation was not +realized. The Governor received Farnsworth stiffly enough, yet in a way +that suggested a suppressed desire to avoid explanations on the +Captain's part and a reprimand on his own. In fact, Hamilton was hoping +that something would turn up to shield him from the effect of his +terrible midnight adventure, which seemed the darker the more he +thought of it. He had a slow, numb conscience, lying deep where it was +hard to reach, and when a qualm somehow entered it he endured in secret +what most men would have cast off or confessed. He was haunted, if not +with remorse, at least by a dread of something most disagreeable in +connection with what he had done. Alice's white face had impressed +itself indelibly on his memory, so that it met his inner vision at +every turn. He was afraid to converse with Farnsworth lest she should +come up for discussion; consequently their interview was curt and +formal. +</P> + +<P> +It was soon discovered that Alice had escaped from the stockade, and +some show of search was made for her by Hamilton's order, but +Farnsworth looked to it that the order was not carried out. He thought +he saw at once that his chief knew where she was. The mystery perplexed +and pained the young man, and caused him to fear all sorts of evil; but +there was a chance that Alice had found a safe retreat and he knew that +nothing but ill could befall her if she were discovered and brought +back to the fort. Therefore his search for her became his own secret +and for his own heart's ease. And doubtless he would have found her; +for even handicapped and distorted love like his is lynx-eyed and sure +on the track of its object; but a great event intervened and swept away +his opportunity. +</P> + +<P> +Hamilton's uneasiness, which was that of a strong, misguided nature +trying to justify itself amid a confusion of unmanageable doubts and +misgivings, now vented itself in a resumption of the repairs he had +been making at certain points in the fort. These he completed just in +time for the coming of Clark. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap19"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XIX +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE ATTACK +</H3> + +<P> +It has already been mentioned that Indians, arriving singly or in +squads, to report at Hamilton's headquarters, were in the habit of +firing their guns before entering the town or the fort, not only as a +signal of their approach, but in order to rid their weapons of their +charges preliminary to cleaning them before setting out upon another +scalp-hunting expedition. A shot, therefore, or even a volley, heard on +the outskirts of the village, was not a noticeable incident in the +daily and nightly experience of the garrison. Still, for some reason, +Governor Hamilton started violently when, just after nightfall, five or +six rifles cracked sharply a short distance from the stockade. +</P> + +<P> +He and Helm with two other officers were in the midst of a game of +cards, while a kettle, swinging on a crane in the ample fire-place, +sang a shrill promise of hot apple-jack toddy. +</P> + +<P> +"By Jove!" exclaimed Farnsworth, who, although not in the game, was +amusing himself with looking on; "you jump like a fine lady! I almost +fancied I heard a bullet hit you." +</P> + +<P> +"You may all jump while you can," remarked Helm. "That's Clark, and +your time's short—He'll have this fort tumbling on your heads before +daylight of to-morrow morning comes." +</P> + +<P> +As he spoke he arose from his seat at the card table and went to look +after the toddy, which, as an expert, he had under supervision. +</P> + +<P> +Hamilton frowned. The mention of Clark was disturbing. Ever since the +strange disappearance of Lieutenant Barlow he had nursed the fear that +possibly Clark's scouts had captured him and that the American forces +might be much nearer than Kaskaskia. Besides, his nerves were unruly, +as they had been ever since the encounter with Father Beret; and his +vision persisted in turning back upon the accusing cold face of Alice, +lying in the moonlight. One little detail of that scene almost maddened +him at times; it was a sheeny, crinkled wisp of warm looking hair +looped across the cheek in which he had often seen a saucy dimple dance +when Alice spoke or smiled. He was bad enough, but not wholly bad, and +the thought of having darkened those merry eyes and stilled those sweet +dimples tore through him with a cold, rasping pang. +</P> + +<P> +"Just as soon as this toddy is properly mixed and tempered," said Helm, +with a magnetic jocosity beaming from his genial face, "I'm going to +propose a toast to the banner of Alice Roussillon, which a whole +garrison of British braves has been unable to take!" +</P> + +<P> +"If you do I'll blow a hole through you as big as the south door of +hell," said Hamilton, in a voice fairly shaken to a husky quaver with +rage. "You may do a great many insulting things; but not that." +</P> + +<P> +Helm was in a half stooping attitude with a ladle in one hand, a cup in +the other. He had met Hamilton's glowering look with a peculiarly +innocent smile, as if to say: "What in the world is the matter now? I +never felt in a better humor in all my life. Can't you take a joke, I +wonder?" He did not speak, however, for a rattling volley of musket and +rifle shots hit the top of the clay-daubed chimney, sending down into +the toddy a shower of soot and dirt. +</P> + +<P> +In a wink every man was on his feet and staring. +</P> + +<P> +"Gentlemen," said Helm, with an impressive oath, "that is Clark's +soldiers, and they will take your fort; but they ought not to have +spoiled this apple toddy!" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, the devil!" said Hamilton, forcibly resuming a calm countenance, +"it is only a squad of drunken Indians coming in. We'll forego +excitement; there's no battle on hand, gentlemen." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm glad you think so, Governor Hamilton," Helm responded, "but I +should imagine that I ought to know the crack of a Kentucky rifle. I've +heard one occasionally in my life. Besides, I got a whiff of freedom +just now." +</P> + +<P> +"Captain Helm is right," observed Farnsworth. "That is an attack." +</P> + +<P> +Another volley, this time nearer and more concentrated, convinced +Hamilton that he was, indeed, at the opening of a fight. Even while he +was giving some hurried orders to his officers, a man was wounded at +one of the port-holes. Then came a series of yells, answered by a +ripple of sympathetic French shouting that ran throughout the town. The +patrol guards came straggling in, breathless with excitement. They +swore to having seen a thousand men marching across the water-covered +meadows. +</P> + +<P> +Hamilton was brave. The approach of danger stirred him like a +trumpet-strain. His fighting blood rose to full tide, and he gave his +orders with the steadiness and commanding force of a born soldier. The +officers hastened to their respective positions. On all sides sounds +indicative of rapid preparations for the fight mingled into a confused +strain of military energy. Men marched to their places; cannon were +wheeled into position, and soon enough the firing began in good earnest. +</P> + +<P> +Late in the afternoon a rumor of Clark's approach had gone abroad +through the village; but not a French lip breathed it to a friend of +the British. The creoles were loyal to the cause of freedom; moreover, +they cordially hated Hamilton, and their hearts beat high at the +prospect of a change in masters at the fort. Every cabin had its hidden +gun and supply of ammunition, despite the order to disarm issued by +Hamilton. There was a hustling to bring these forth, which was +accompanied with a guarded yet irrepressible chattering, delightfully +French and infinitely volatile. +</P> + +<P> +"Tiens! je vais frotter mon fusil. J'ai vu un singe!" said Jaques +Bourcier to his daughter, the pretty Adrienne, who was coming out of +the room in which Alice lay. +</P> + +<P> +"I saw a monkey just now; I must rub up my gun!" He could not be +solemn; not he. The thought of an opportunity to get even with Hamilton +was like wine in his blood. +</P> + +<P> +If you had seen those hardy and sinewy Frenchmen gliding in the dusk of +evening from cottage to cottage, passing the word that the Americans +had arrived, saying airy things and pinching one another as they met +and hurried on, you would have thought something very amusing and +wholly jocund was in preparation for the people of Vincennes. +</P> + +<P> +There was a current belief in the town that Gaspard Roussillon never +missed a good thing and always somehow got the lion's share. He went +out with the ebb to return on the flood. Nobody was surprised, +therefore, when he suddenly appeared in the midst of his friends, armed +to the teeth and emotionally warlike to suit the occasion. Of course he +took charge of everybody and everything. You could have heard him +whisper a bowshot away. +</P> + +<P> +"Taisons!" he hissed, whenever he met an acquaintance. "We will +surprise the fort and scalp the whole garrison. Aux armes! les +Americains viennent d'arriver!" +</P> + +<P> +At his own house he knocked and called in vain. He shook the door +violently; for he was thinking of the stores under the floor, of the +grimy bottles, of the fragrant Bordeaux—ah, his throat, how it +throbbed! But where was Madame Roussillon? Where was Alice? "Jean! +Jean!" he cried, forgetting all precaution, "come here, you scamp, and +let me in this minute!" +</P> + +<P> +A profoundly impressive silence gave him to understand that his home +was deserted. +</P> + +<P> +"Chiff! frightened and gone to stay with Madame Godere, I suppose—and +I so thirsty! Bah! hum, hum, apres le vin la bataille, ziff!" +</P> + +<P> +He kicked in the door and groped his way to the liquors. While he +hastily swigged and smacked he heard the firing begin with a crackling, +desultory volley. He laughed jovially, there in the dark, between +draughts and deep sighs of enjoyment. +</P> + +<P> +"Et moi aussi," he murmured, like the vast murmur of the sea, "I want +to be in that dance! Pardonnez, messieurs. Moi, je veux danser, s'il +vous plait." +</P> + +<P> +And when he had filled himself he plunged out and rushed away, wrought +up to the extreme fighting pitch of temper. Diable! if he could but +come across that Lieutenant Barlow, how he would smash him and mangle +him! In magnifying his prowess with the lens of imagination he swelled +and puffed as he lumbered along. +</P> + +<P> +The firing sounded as if it were between the fort and the river; but +presently when one of Hamilton's cannon spoke, M. Roussillon saw the +yellow spike of flame from its muzzle leap directly toward the church, +and he thought it best to make a wide detour to avoid going between the +firing lines. Once or twice he heard the whine of a stray bullet high +overhead. Before he had gone very far he met a man hurrying toward the +fort. It was Captain Francis Maisonville, one of Hamilton's chief +scouts, who had been out on a reconnoissance and, cut off from his +party by some of Clark's forces, was trying to make his way to the main +gate of the stockade. +</P> + +<P> +M. Roussillon knew Maisonville as a somewhat desperate character, a +leader of Indian forays and a trader in human scalps. Surely the fellow +was legitimate prey. +</P> + +<P> +"Ziff! diable de gredin!" he snarled, and leaping upon him choked him +to the ground, "Je vais vous scalper immediatement!" +</P> + +<P> +Clark's plan of approach showed masterly strategy. Lieutenant Bailey, +with fourteen regulars, made a show of attack on the east, while Major +Bowman led a company through the town, on a line near where Main street +in Vincennes is now located, to a point north of the stockade. +Charleville, a brave creole, who was at the head of some daring +fellows, by a brilliant dash got position under cover of a natural +terrace at the edge of the prairie, opposite the fort's southwestern +angle. Lieutenant Beverley, in whom the commander placed highest +confidence, was sent to look for a supply of ammunition, and to gather +up all the Frenchmen in the town who wished to join in the attack. +Oncle Jazon and ten other available men went with him. +</P> + +<P> +They all made a great noise when they felt that the place was +completely invested. Nor can we deny, much as we would like to, the +strong desire for vengeance which raised those shouting voices and +nerved those steady hearts to do or die in an undertaking which +certainly had a desperate look. Patriotism of the purest strain those +men had, and that alone would have borne them up; but the recollection +of smouldering cabin homes in Kentucky, of women and children murdered +and scalped, of men brave and true burned at the stake, and of all the +indescribable outrages of Indian warfare incited and rewarded by the +commander of the fort yonder, added to patriotism the terrible urge of +that dark passion which clamors for blood to quench the fire of wrath. +Not a few of those wet, half-frozen, emaciated soldiers of freedom had +experienced the soul rending shock of returning from a day's hunting in +the forest to find home in ashes and loved ones brutally murdered and +scalped, or dragged away to unspeakable outrage under circumstances too +harrowing for description, the bare thought of which turns our blood +cold, even at this distance. Now the opportunity had arrived for a +stroke of retaliation. The thought was tremendously stimulating. +</P> + +<P> +Beverley, with the aid of Oncle Jazon, was able to lead his little +company as far as the church before the enemy saw him. Here a volley +from the nearest angle of the stockade had to be answered, and pretty +soon a cannon began to play upon the position. +</P> + +<P> +"We kin do better some'rs else," was Oncle Jazon's laconic remark flung +back over his shoulder, as he moved briskly away from the spot just +swept by a six-pounder. "Come this yer way, Lieutenant. I hyer some o' +the fellers a talkin' loud jes' beyant Legrace's place. They ain't no +sort o' sense a tryin' to hit anything a shootin' in the dark nohow." +</P> + +<P> +When they reached the thick of the town there was a strange stir in the +dusky streets. Men were slipping from house to house, arming themselves +and joining their neighbors. Clark had sent an order earlier in the +evening forbidding any street demonstration by the inhabitants; but he +might as well have ordered the wind not to blow or the river to stand +still. Oncle Jazon knew every man whose outlines he could see or whose +voice he heard. He called each one by name: +</P> + +<P> +"Here, Roger, fall in!—Come Louis, Alphonse, Victor, Octave—venez +ici, here's the American army, come with me!" His rapid French phrases +leaped forth as if shot from a pistol, and his shrill voice, familiar +to every ear in Vincennes, drew the creole militiamen to him, and soon +Beverley's company had doubled its numbers, while at the same time its +enthusiasm and ability to make a noise had increased in a far greater +proportion. In accordance with an order from Clark they now took +position near the northeast corner of the stockade and began firing, +although in the darkness there was but little opportunity for +marksmanship. +</P> + +<P> +Oncle Jazon had found citizens Legrace and Bosseron, and through them +Clark's men were supplied with ammunition, of which they stood greatly +in need, their powder having got wet during their long, watery march. +By nine o'clock the fort was completely surrounded, and from every +direction the riflemen and musketeers were pouring in volley after +volley. Beverley with his men took the cover of a fence and some houses +sixty yards from the stockade. Here to their surprise they found +themselves below the line of Hamilton's cannon, which, being planted on +the second floor of the fort, could not be sufficiently depressed to +bear upon them. A well directed musket fire, however, fell from the +loopholes of the blockhouses, the bullets rattling merrily against the +cover behind which the attacking forces lay. +</P> + +<P> +Beverley was thinking of Alice during every moment of all this stir and +tumult He feared that she might still be a prisoner in the fort exposed +to the very bullets that his men were discharging at every crack and +cranny of those loosely constructed buildings. Should he ever see her +again? Would she care for him? What would be the end of all this +terrible suspense? Those remote forebodings of evils, formless, +shadowy, ineffable, which have harried the lover's heart since time +began, crowded all pleasant anticipations out of his mind. +</P> + +<P> +Clark, in passing hurriedly from company to company around the line, +stopped for a little while when he found Beverley. +</P> + +<P> +"Have you plenty of ammunition?" was his first inquiry. +</P> + +<P> +"A mighty sight more'n we kin see to shoot with," spoke up Oncle Jazon. +"It's a right smart o' dad burn foolishness to be wastin' it on +nothin'; seems like to me 'at we'd better set the dasted fort afire an' +smoke the skunks out!" +</P> + +<P> +"Speak when you are spoken to, my man," said the Colonel a trifle +hotly, and trying by a sharp scrutiny to make him out in the gloom +where he crouched. +</P> + +<P> +"Ventrebleu! I'm not askin' YOU, Colonel Clark, nor no other man, when +I shill speak. I talks whenever I gits ready, an' I shoots jes' the +same way. So ye'd better go on 'bout yer business like a white man! +Close up yer own whopper jawed mouth, ef ye want anything shet up!" +</P> + +<P> +"Oho! is that you, Jazon? You're so little I didn't know you! +Certainly, talk your whole damned under jaw off, for all I care," Clark +replied, assuming a jocose tone. Then turning again to Beverley: "Keep +up the firing and the noise; the fort will be ours in the morning." +</P> + +<P> +"What's the use of waiting till morning?" Beverley demanded with +impatience. "We can tear that stockade to pieces with our hands in half +an hour." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't think so, Lieutenant. It is better to play for the sure thing. +Keep up the racket, and be ready for 'em if they rush out. We must not +fail to capture the hair-buyer General." +</P> + +<P> +He passed on, with something cheerful to say whenever he found a squad +of his devoted men. He knew how to humor and manage those independent +and undisciplined yet heroically brave fellows. What to see and hear, +what to turn aside as a joke, what to insist upon with inflexible +mastery, he knew by the fine instantaneous sense of genius. There were +many men of Oncle Jazon's cast, true as steel, but refractory as flint, +who could not be dominated by any person, no matter of what stamp or +office. To them an order was an insult; but a suggestion pleased and +captured them. Strange as it may seem, theirs was the conquering spirit +of America—the spirit which has survived every turn of progress and +built up the great body of our independence. +</P> + +<P> +Beverley submitted to Clark's plan with what patience he could, and all +night long fired shot for shot with the best riflemen in his squad. It +was a fatiguing performance, with apparently little result beyond +forcing the garrison now and again to close the embrasures, thus +periodically silencing the cannon. Toward the close of the night a +relaxation showed itself in the shouting and firing all round the line. +Beverley's men, especially the creoles, held out bravely in the matter +of noise; but even they flagged at length, their volatility simmering +down to desultory bubbling and half sleepy chattering and chaffing. +</P> + +<P> +Beverley leaned upon a rude fence, and for a time neglected to reload +his hot rifle. Of course he was thinking of Alice,—he really could not +think in any other direction; but it gave him a shock and a start when +he presently heard her name mentioned by a little Frenchman near him on +the left. +</P> + +<P> +"There'll never be another such a girl in Post Vincennes as Alice +Roussillon," the fellow said in the soft creole patois, "and to think +of her being shot like a dog!" +</P> + +<P> +"And by a man who calls himself a Governor, too!" said another. "Ah, as +for myself, I'm in favor of burning him alive when we capture him. +That's me!" +</P> + +<P> +"Et moi aussi," chimed in a third voice. "That poor girl must be +avenged. The man who shot her must die. Holy Virgin, but if Gaspard +Roussillon were only here!" +</P> + +<P> +"But he is here; I saw him just after dark. He was in great fighting +temper, that terrible man. Ouf! but I should not like to be Colonel +Hamilton and fall in the way of that Gaspard Roussillon!" +</P> + +<P> +"Morbleu! I should say not. You may leave me out of a chance like that! +I shouldn't mind seeing Gaspard handle the Governor, though. Ah, that +would be too good! He'd pay him up for shooting Mademoiselle Alice." +</P> + +<P> +Beverley could scarcely hold himself erect by the fence; the smoky, +foggy landscape swam round him heavy and strange. He uttered a groan, +which brought Oncle Jazon to his side in a hurry. +</P> + +<P> +"Qu' avez-vous? What's the matter?" the old man demanded with quick +sympathy. "Hev they hit ye? Lieutenant, air ye hurt much?" +</P> + +<P> +Beverley did not hear the old man's words, did not feel his kindly +touch. +</P> + +<P> +"Alice! Alice!" he murmured, "dead, dead!" +</P> + +<P> +"Ya-as," drawled Oncle Jazon, "I hearn about it soon as I got inter +town. It's a sorry thing, a mighty sorry thing. But mebby I won't do a +little somepin' to that—" +</P> + +<P> +Beverley straightened himself and lifted his gun, forgetting that he +had not reloaded it since firing last. He leveled it at the fort and +touched the trigger. Simultaneously with his movement an embrasure +opened and a cannon flashed, its roar flanked on either side by a +crackling of British muskets. Some bullets struck the fence and flung +splinters into Oncle Jazon's face. A cannon ball knocked a ridge pole +from the roof of a house hard by, and sent it whirling through the air. +</P> + +<P> +"Ventrebleu!—et apres? What the devil next? Better knock a feller's +eyes out!" the old man cried. "I ain't a doin' nothin' to ye!" +</P> + +<P> +He capered around rubbing his leathery face after the manner of a +scalded monkey. Beverley was struck in the breast by a flattened and +spent ball that glanced from a fence-picket. The shock caused him to +stagger and drop his gun; but he quickly picked it up and turned to his +companion. +</P> + +<P> +"Are you hurt, Oncle Jazon?" he inquired. "Are you hurt?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not a bit—jes' skeert mos' into a duck fit. Thought a cannon ball had +knocked my whole dang face down my throat! Nothin' but a handful o' +splinters in my poorty count'nance, makin' my head feel like a +porc'-pine. But I sort o' thought I heard somepin' give you a diff." +</P> + +<P> +"Something did hit me," said Beverley, laying a hand on his breast, +"but I don't think it was a bullet. They seem to be getting our range +at last. Tell the men to keep well under cover. They must not expose +themselves until we are ready to charge." +</P> + +<P> +The shock had brought him back to his duty as a leader of his little +company, and with the funeral bell of all his life's happiness tolling +in his agonized heart he turned afresh to directing the fire upon the +block-house. +</P> + +<P> +About this time a runner came from Clark with an order to cease firing +and let a returning party of British scouts under Captain Lamothe +re-enter the fort unharmed. A strange order it seemed to both officers +and men; but it was implicitly obeyed. Clark's genius here made another +fine strategic flash. He knew that unless he let the scouts go back +into the stockade they would escape by running away, and might possibly +organize an army of Indians with which to succor Hamilton. But if they +were permitted to go inside they could be captured with the rest of the +garrison; hence his order. +</P> + +<P> +A few minutes passed in dead silence; then Captain Lamothe and his +party marched close by where Beverley's squad was lying concealed. It +was a difficult task to restrain the creoles, for some of them hated +Lamothe. Oncle Jazon squirmed like a snake while they filed past all +unaware that an enemy lurked so near. When they reached the fort, +ladders were put down for them and they began to clamber over the wall, +crowding and pushing one another in wild haste. Oncle Jazon could hold +in no longer. +</P> + +<P> +"Ya! ya! ya!" he yelled. "Look out! the ladder is a fallin' wi' ye!" +</P> + +<P> +Then all the lurking crowd shouted as one man, and, sure enough, down +came a ladder—men and all in a crashing heap. +</P> + +<P> +"Silence! silence!" Beverley commanded; but he could not check the wild +jeering and laughing, while the bruised and frightened scouts hastily +erected their ladder again, fairly tumbling over one another in their +haste to ascend, and so cleared the wall, falling into the stockade to +join the garrison. +</P> + +<P> +"Ventrebleu!" shrieked Oncle Jazon. "They've gone to bed; but we'll +wake 'em up at the crack o' day an' give 'em a breakfas' o' hot lead!" +</P> + +<P> +Now the fighting was resumed with redoubled spirit and noise, and when +morning came, affording sufficient light to bring out the "bead sights" +on the Kentucky rifles, the matchless marksmen in Clark's band forced +the British to close the embrasures and entirely cease trying to use +their cannon; but the fight with small arms went merrily on until the +middle of the forenoon. +</P> + +<P> +Meantime Gaspard Roussillon had tied Francis Maisonville's hands fast +and hard with the strap of his bullet-pouch. +</P> + +<P> +"Now, I'll scalp you," he said in a rumbling tone, terrible to hear. +And with his words out came his hunting knife from its sheath. +</P> + +<P> +"O have mercy, my dear Monsieur Roussillon!" cried the panting captive; +"have mercy!" +</P> + +<P> +"Mercy! yes, like your Colonel's, that's what you'll get. You stand by +that forban, that scelerat, that bandit, and help him. Oh, yes, you'll +get mercy! Yes, the same mercy that he showed to my poor little Alice! +Your scalp, Monsieur, if you please! A small matter; it won't hurt +much!" +</P> + +<P> +"But, for the sake of old friendship, Gaspard, for the sake—" +</P> + +<P> +"Ziff! poor little Alice!" +</P> + +<P> +"But I swear to you that I—" +</P> + +<P> +"Tout de meme, Monsieur, je vais vous scalper maintenant." +</P> + +<P> +In fact he had taken off a part of Maisonville's scalp, when a party of +soldiers, among whom was Maisonville's brother, a brave fellow and +loyal to the American cause, were attracted by his cries and came to +his rescue. +</P> + +<P> +M. Roussillon struggled savagely, insisting upon completing his cruel +performance; but he was at last overpowered, partly by brute force and +partly by the pleading of Maisonville's brother, and made to desist. +The big man wept with rage when he saw the bleeding prisoner protected. +"Eh bien! I'll keep what I've got," he roared, "and I'll take the rest +of it next time." +</P> + +<P> +He shook the tuft of hair at Maisonville and glared like a mad bull. +</P> + +<P> +Two or three other members of Lamothe's band were captured about the +same time by some of the French militiamen; and Clark, when on his +round cheering and directing his forces, discovered that these +prisoners were being used as shields. Some young creoles, gay with +drink and the stimulating effect of fight, had bound the poor fellows +and were firing from behind them! Of course the commander promptly put +an end to this cruelty; but they considered it exquisite fun while it +lasted. It was in broad daylight, and they knew that the English in the +fort could see what they were doing. +</P> + +<P> +"It's shameful to treat prisoners in this way," said Clark. "I will not +permit it. Shoot the next man that offers to do such a thing!" +</P> + +<P> +One of the creole youths, a handsome, swarthy Adonis in buckskin, +tossed his shapely head with a debonair smile and said: +</P> + +<P> +"To be sure, mon Colonel! but what have they been doing to us? We have +amused them all winter; it's but fair that they should give us a little +fun now." +</P> + +<P> +Clark shrugged his broad shoulders and passed on. He understood +perfectly what the people of Vincennes had suffered under Hamilton's +brutal administration. +</P> + +<P> +At nine o'clock an order was passed to cease firing, and a flag of +truce was seen going from Clark's headquarters to the fort. It was a +peremptory demand for unconditional surrender. Hamilton refused, and +fighting was fiercely resumed from behind rude breastworks meantime +erected. Every loop-hole and opening of whatever sort was the focus +into which the unerring backwoods rifles sent their deadly bullets. Men +began to fall in the fort, and every moment Hamilton expected an +assault in force on all sides of the stockade. This, if successful, +would mean inevitable massacre. Clark had warned him of the terrible +consequences of holding out until the worst should come. "For," said he +in his note to the Governor, "if I am obliged to storm, you may depend +upon such treatment as is justly due to a murderer." +</P> + +<P> +Historians have wondered why Hamilton became so excited and acted so +strangely after receiving the note. The phrase, "justly due to a +murderer," is the key to the mystery. When he read it his heart sank +and a terrible fear seized him. "Justly due to a murderer!" ah, that +calm, white, beautiful girlish face, dead in the moonlight, with the +wisp of shining hair across it! "Such treatment as is justly due to a +murderer!" Cold drops of sweat broke out on his forehead and a shiver +went through his body. +</P> + +<P> +During the truce Clark's weary yet still enthusiastic besiegers enjoyed +a good breakfast prepared for them by the loyal dames of Vincennes. +Little Adrienne Bourcier was one of the handmaidens of the occasion. +She brought to Beverley's squad a basket, almost as large as herself, +heaped high with roasted duck and warm wheaten bread, while another +girl bore two huge jugs of coffee, fragrant and steaming hot. The men +cheered them lustily and complimented them without reserve, so that +before their service was over their faces were glowing with delight. +</P> + +<P> +And yet Adrienne's heart was uneasy, and full of longing to hear +something of Rene de Ronville. Surely some one of her friends must know +something about him. Ah, there was Oncle Jazon! Doubtless he could tell +her all that she wanted to know. She lingered, after the food was +distributed, and shyly inquired. +</P> + +<P> +"Hain't seed the scamp," said Oncle Jazon, only he used the patois most +familiar to the girl's ear. "Killed an' scelped long ago, I reckon." +</P> + +<P> +His mouth was so full that he spoke mumblingly and with utmost +difficulty. Nor did he glance at Adrienne, whose face took on as great +pallor as her brown complexion could show. +</P> + +<P> +Beverley ate but little of the food. He sat apart on a piece of timber +that projected from the rough breastwork and gave himself over to +infinite misery of spirit, which was trebled when he took Alice's +locket from his bosom, only to discover that the bullet which struck +him had almost entirely destroyed the face of the miniature. +</P> + +<P> +He gripped the dinted and twisted case and gazed at it with the stare +of a blind man. His heart almost ceased to beat and his breath had the +rustling sound we hear when a strong man dies of a sudden wound. +Somehow the defacement of the portrait was taken by his soul as the +final touch of fate, signifying that Alice was forever and completely +obliterated from his life. He felt a blur pass over his mind. He tried +in vain to recall the face and form so dear to him; he tried to imagine +her voice; but the whole universe was a vast hollow silence. For a long +while he was cold, staring, rigid; then the inevitable collapse came, +and he wept as only a strong man can who is hurt to death, yet cannot +die. +</P> + +<P> +Adrienne approached him, thinking to speak to him about Rene; but he +did not notice her, and she went her way, leaving beside him a liberal +supply of food. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap20"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XX +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +ALICE'S FLAG +</H3> + +<P> +Governor Hamilton received the note sent him by Colonel Clark and +replied to it with curt dignity; but his heart was quaking. As a +soldier he was true to the military tradition, and nothing could have +induced him to surrender his command with dishonor. +</P> + +<P> +"Lieutenant-Governor Hamilton," he wrote to Clark, "begs leave to +acquaint Colonel Clark that he and his garrison are not disposed to be +awed into any action unworthy of British subjects." +</P> + +<P> +"Very brave words," said Helm, when Hamilton read the note to him, "but +you'll sing a milder tune before many minutes, or you and your whole +garrison will perish in a bloody heap. Listen to those wild yells! +Clark has enough men to eat you all up for breakfast. You'd better be +reasonable and prudent. It's not bravery to court massacre." +</P> + +<P> +Hamilton turned away without a word and sent the message; but Helm saw +that he was excited, and could be still further wrought up. +</P> + +<P> +"You are playing into the hands of your bitterest enemies, the +frog-eaters," he went on. "These creoles, over whom you've held a hot +poker all winter, are crazy to be turned loose upon you; and you know +that they've got good cause to feel like giving you the extreme +penalty. They'll give it to you without a flinch if they get the +chance. You've done enough." +</P> + +<P> +Hamilton whirled about and glared ferociously. +</P> + +<P> +"Helm, what do you mean?" he demanded in a voice as hollow as it was +full of desperate passion. +</P> + +<P> +The genial Captain laughed, as if he had heard a good joke. +</P> + +<P> +"You won't catch any fish if you swear, and you look blasphemous," he +said with the lightness of humor characteristic of him at all times. +"You'd better say a prayer or two. Just reflect a moment upon the awful +sins you have committed and—" +</P> + +<P> +A crash of coalescing volleys from every direction broke off his +levity. Clark was sending his response to Hamilton's lofty note. The +guns of freedom rang out a prophecy of triumph, and the hissing bullets +clucked sharply as they entered the solid logs of the walls or whisked +through an aperture and bowled over a man. The British musketeers +returned the fire as best they could, with a courage and a stubborn +coolness which Helm openly admired, although he could not hide his +satisfaction whenever one of them was disabled. +</P> + +<P> +"Lamothe and his men are refusing to obey orders," said Farnsworth a +little later, hastily approaching Hamilton, his face flushed and a +gleam of hot anger in his eyes. "They're in a nasty mood; I can do +nothing with them; they have not fired a shot." +</P> + +<P> +"Mutiny?" Hamilton demanded. +</P> + +<P> +"Not just that. They say they do not wish to fire on their kinsmen and +friends. They are all French, you know, and they see their cousins, +brothers, uncles and old acquaintances out there in Clark's rabble. I +can do nothing with them." +</P> + +<P> +"Shoot the scoundrels, then!" +</P> + +<P> +"It will be a toss up which of us will come out on top if we try that. +Besides, if we begin a fight inside, the Americans will make short work +of us." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, what in hell are we to do, then?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, fight, that's all," said Farnsworth apathetically turning to a +small loop-hole and leveling a field glass through it. "We might make a +rush from the gates and stampede them," he presently added. Then he +uttered an exclamation of great surprise. +</P> + +<P> +"There's Lieutenant Beverley out there," he exclaimed. +</P> + +<P> +"You're mistaken, you're excited," Hamilton half sneeringly remarked, +yet not without a shade of uneasiness in his expression. "You forget, +sir." +</P> + +<P> +"Look for yourself, it's easily settled," and Farnsworth proffered the +glass. "He's there, to a certainty, sir." +</P> + +<P> +"I saw Beverley an hour ago," said Helm. "I knew all the time that he'd +be on hand." +</P> + +<P> +It was a white lie. Captain Helm was as much surprised as his captors +at what he heard; but he could not resist the temptation to be annoying. +</P> + +<P> +Hamilton looked as Farnsworth directed, and sure enough, there was the +young Virginian Lieutenant, standing on a barricade, his hat off, +cheering his men with a superb show of zeal. Not a hair of his head was +missing, so far as the glass could be relied upon to show. +</P> + +<P> +Oncle Jazon's quick old eyes saw the gleam of the telescope tube in the +loop-hole. +</P> + +<P> +"I never could shoot much," he muttered, and then a little bullet sped +with absolute accuracy from his disreputable looking rifle and +shattered the object-lens, just as Hamilton moved to withdraw the +glass, uttering an ejaculation of intense excitement. +</P> + +<P> +"Such devils of marksmen!" said he, and his face was haggard. "That +infernal Indian lied." +</P> + +<P> +"I could have told you all the time that the scalp Long-Hair brought to +you was not Beverley's," said Helm indifferently. "I recognized +Lieutenant Barlow's hair as soon as I saw it." +</P> + +<P> +This was another piece of off-hand romance. Helm did not dream that he +was accidentally sketching a horrible truth. +</P> + +<P> +"Barlow's!" exclaimed Farnsworth. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, Barlow's, no mistake—" +</P> + +<P> +Two more men reeled from a port-hole, the blood spinning far out of +their wounds. Indeed, through every aperture in the walls the bullets +were now humming like mad hornets. +</P> + +<P> +"Close that port-hole!" stormed Hamilton; then turning to Farnsworth he +added: "We cannot endure this long. Shut up every place large enough +for a bullet to get through. Go all around, give strict orders to all. +See that the men do not foolishly expose themselves. Those ruffians out +there have located every crack." +</P> + +<P> +His glimpse of Beverley and the sinister remark of Helm had completely +unmanned him before his men fell. Now it rushed upon him that if he +would escape the wrath of the maddened creoles and the vengeance of +Alice's lover, he must quickly throw himself upon the mercy of Clark. +It was his only hope. He chafed inwardly, but bore himself with stern +coolness. He presently sought Farnsworth, pulled him aside and +suggested that something must be done to prevent an assault and a +massacre. The sounds outside seemed to forebode a gathering for a +desperate rush, and in his heart he felt all the terrors of awful +anticipation. +</P> + +<P> +"We are completely at their mercy, that is plain," he said, shrugging +his shoulders and gazing at the wounded men writhing in their agony. +"What do you suggest?" +</P> + +<P> +Captain Farnsworth was a shrewd officer. He recollected that Philip +Dejean, justice of Detroit, was on his way down the Wabash from that +post, and probably near at hand, with a flotilla of men and supplies. +Why not ask for a few days of truce? It could do no harm, and if agreed +to, might be their salvation. Hamilton jumped at the thought, and +forthwith drew up a note which he sent out with a white flag. Never +before in all his military career had he been so comforted by a sudden +cessation of fighting. His soul would grovel in spite of him. Alice's +cold face now had Beverley's beside it in his field of inner vision—a +double assurance of impending doom, it seemed to him. +</P> + +<P> +There was short delay in the arrival of Colonel Clark's reply, hastily +scrawled on a bit of soiled paper. The request for a truce was flatly +refused; but the note closed thus: +</P> + +<P> +"If Mr. Hamilton is Desirous of a Conferance with Col. Clark he will +meet him at the Church with Captn. Helms." +</P> + +<P> +The spelling was not very good, and there was a redundancy of capital +letters; yet Hamilton understood it all; and it was very difficult for +him to conceal his haste to attend the proposed conference. But he was +afraid to go to the church—the thought chilled him. He could not face +Father Beret, who would probably be there. And what if there should be +evidences of the funeral?—what if?—he shuddered and tried to break +away from the vision in his tortured brain. +</P> + +<P> +He sent a proposition to Clark to meet him on the esplanade before the +main gate of the fort; but Clark declined, insisting upon the church. +And thither he at last consented to go. It was an immense brace to his +spirit to have Helm beside him during that walk, which, although but +eighty yards in extent, seemed to him a matter of leagues. On the way +he had to pass near the new position taken up by Beverley and his men. +It was a fine test of nerve, when the Lieutenant's eyes met those of +the Governor. Neither man permitted the slightest change of countenance +to betray his feelings. In fact, Beverley's face was as rigid as +marble; he could not have changed it. +</P> + +<P> +But with Oncle Jazon it was a different affair. He had no dignity to +preserve, no fine military bearing to sustain, no terrible tug of +conscience, no paralyzing grip of despair on his heart. When he saw +Hamilton going by, bearing himself so superbly, it affected the French +volatility in his nature to such an extent that his tongue could not be +controlled. +</P> + +<P> +"Va t'en, bete, forban, meurtrier! Skin out f'om here! beast, robber, +murderer!" he cried, in his keen screech-owl voice. "I'll git thet +scelp o' your'n afore sundown, see 'f I don't! Ye onery gal-killer an' +ha'r buyer!" +</P> + +<P> +The blood in Hamilton's veins caught no warmth from these remarks; but +he held his head high and passed stolidly on, as if he did not hear a +word. Helm turned the tail of an eye upon Oncle Jazon and gave him a +droll, quizzical wink of approval. In response the old man with +grotesque solemnity drew his buckhorn handled knife, licked its blade +and returned it to its sheath,—a bit of pantomime well understood and +keenly enjoyed by the onlooking creoles. +</P> + +<P> +"Putois! coquin!" they jeered, "goujat! poltron!" +</P> + +<P> +Beverley heard the taunting racket, but did not realize it, which was +well enough, for he could not have restrained the bitter effervescence. +He stood like a statue, gazing fixedly at the now receding figure, the +lofty, cold-faced man in whom centered his hate of hates. Clark had +requested him to be present at the conference in the church; but he +declined, feeling that he could not meet Hamilton and restrain himself. +Now he regretted his refusal, half wishing that—no, he could not +assassinate an enemy under a white flag. In his heart he prayed that +there would be no surrender, that Hamilton would reject every offer. To +storm the fort and revel in butchering its garrison seemed the only +desirable thing left for him in life. +</P> + +<P> +Father Beret was, indeed, present at the church, as Hamilton had +dreaded; and the two duelists gave each other a rapier-like eye-thrust. +Neither spoke, however, and Clark immediately demanded a settlement of +the matter in hand. He was brusque and imperious to a degree, +apparently rather anxious to repel every peaceful advance. +</P> + +<P> +It was a laconic interview, crisp as autumn ice and bitter as +gallberries. Colonel Clark had no respect whatever for Hamilton, to +whom he had applied the imperishable adjective "hair-buyer General." On +the other hand Governor Hamilton, who felt keenly the disgrace of +having to equalize himself officially and discuss terms of surrender +with a rough backwoodsman, could not conceal his contempt of Clark. +</P> + +<P> +The five men of history, Hamilton, Helm, Hay, Clark and Bowman, were +not distinguished diplomats. They went at their work rather after the +hammer-and-tongs fashion. Clark bluntly demanded unconditional +surrender. Hamilton refused. They argued the matter. Helm put in his +oar, trying to soften the situation, as was his custom on all +occasions, and received from Clark a stinging reprimand, with the +reminder that he was nothing but a prisoner on parole, and had no voice +at all in settling the terms of surrender. +</P> + +<P> +"I release him, sir," said Hamilton. "He is no longer a prisoner. I am +quite willing to have Captain Helm join freely in our conference." +</P> + +<P> +"And I refuse to permit his acceptance of your favor," responded Clark. +"Captain Helm, you will return with Mr. Hamilton to the fort and remain +his captive until I free you by force. Meantime hold your tongue." +</P> + +<P> +Father Beret, suave looking and quiet, occupied himself at the little +altar, apparently altogether indifferent to what was being said; but he +lost not a word of the talk. +</P> + +<P> +"Qui habet aures audiendi, audiat," he inwardly repeated, smiling +blandly. "Gaudete in illa die, et exultate!" +</P> + +<P> +Hamilton rose to go; deep lines of worry creased his face; but when the +party had passed outside, he suddenly turned upon Clark and said: +</P> + +<P> +"Why do you demand impossible terms of me?" +</P> + +<P> +"I will tell you, sir," was the stern answer, in a tone in which there +was no mercy or compromise. "I would rather have you refuse. I desire +nothing so much as an excuse to wreak full and bloody vengeance on +every man in that fort who has engaged in the business of employing +savages to scalp brave, patriotic men and defenseless women and +children. The cries of the widows and the fatherless on our frontiers +require the blood of the Indian partisans at my hands. If you choose to +risk the massacre of your garrison to save those despicable red-handed +partisans, have your pleasure. What you have done you know better than +I do. I have a duty to perform. You may be able to soften its nature. I +may take it into my head to send for some of our bereaved women to +witness my terrible work and see that it is well done, if you insist +upon the worst." +</P> + +<P> +Major Hay, who was Hamilton's Indian agent, now, with some difficulty +clearing his throat, spoke up. +</P> + +<P> +"Pray, sir," said he, "who is it that you call Indian partisans?" +</P> + +<P> +"Sir," replied Clark, seeing that his words had gone solidly home, "I +take Major Hay to be one of the principals." +</P> + +<P> +This seemed to strike Hay with deadly force. Clark's report says that +he was "pale and trembling, scarcely able to stand," and that "Hamilton +blushed, and, I observed, was much affected at his behavior. +"Doubtless, if the doughty American commander had known more about the +Governor's feelings just then, he would have added that an awful fear, +even greater than the Indian agent's, did more than anything else to +congest the veins in his face." +</P> + +<P> +The parties separated without reaching an agreement; but the end had +come. The terror in Hamilton's soul was doubled by a wild scene enacted +under the walls of his fort; a scene which, having no proper place in +this story, strong as its historical interest unquestionably is, must +be but outlined. A party of Indians returning from a scalping +expedition in Kentucky and along the Ohio, was captured on the +outskirts of the town by some of Clark's men, who proceeded to kill and +scalp them within full view of the beleaguered garrison, after which +their mangled bodies were flung into the river. +</P> + +<P> +If the British commander needed further wine of dread to fill his cup +withal, it was furnished by ostentatious marshaling of the American +forces for a general assault. His spirit broke completely, so that it +looked like a godsend to him when Clark finally offered terms of +honorable surrender, the consummation of which was to be postponed +until the following morning. He accepted promptly, appending to the +articles of capitulation the following reasons for his action: "The +remoteness from succor; the state and quantity of provisions, etc.; +unanimity of officers and men in its expediency; the honorable terms +allowed; and, lastly, the confidence in a generous enemy." +</P> + +<P> +Confidence in a generous enemy! Abject fear of the vengeance just +wreaked upon his savage emissaries would have been the true statement. +Beverley read the paper when Clark sent for him; but he could not join +in the extravagant delight of his fellow officers and their brave men. +What did all this victory mean to him? Hamilton to be treated as an +honorable prisoner of war, permitted to strut forth from the feat with +his sword at his side, his head up—the scalp-buyer, the murderer of +Alice! What was patriotism to the crushed heart of a lover? Even if his +vision had been able to pierce the future and realize the splendor of +Anglo-Saxon civilization which was to follow that little triumph at +Vincennes, what pleasure could it have afforded him? Alice, Alice, only +Alice; no other thought had influence, save the recurring surge of +desire for vengeance upon her murderer. +</P> + +<P> +And yet that night Beverley slept, and so forgot his despair for many +hours, even dreamed a pleasant dream of home, where his childhood was +spent, of the stately old house on the breezy hill-top overlooking a +sunny plantation, with a little river lapsing and shimmering through +it. His mother's dear arms were around him, her loving breath stirred +his hair; and his stalwart, gray-headed father sat on the veranda +comfortably smoking his pipe, while away in the wide fields the negroes +sang at the plow and the hoe. Sweeter and sweeter grew the scene, +softer the air, tenderer the blending sounds of the water-murmur, +leaf-rustle, bird-song, and slave-song, until hand in hand he wandered +with Alice in greening groves, where the air was trembling with the +ecstacy of spring. +</P> + +<P> +A young officer awoke him with an order from Clark to go on duty at +once with Captains Worthington and Williams, who, under Colonel Clark +himself, were to take possession of the fort. Mechanically he obeyed. +The sun was far up, shining between clouds of a leaden, watery hue, by +the time everything was ready for the important ceremony. Beside the +main gate of the stockade two companies of patriots under Bowman and +McCarty were drawn up as guards, while the British garrison filed out +and was taken in charge. This bit of formality ended, Governor +Hamilton, attended by some of his officers, went back into the fort and +the gate was closed. +</P> + +<P> +Clark now gave orders that preparations be made for hauling down the +British flag and hoisting the young banner of liberty in its place, +when everything should be ready for a salute of thirteen guns from the +captured battery. +</P> + +<P> +Helm's round face was beaming. Plainly it showed that his happiness was +supreme. He dared not say anything, however; for Clark was now all +sternness and formality; it would be dangerous to take any liberties; +but he could smile and roll his quid of tobacco from cheek to cheek. +</P> + +<P> +Hamilton and Farnsworth, the latter slightly wounded in the left arm, +which was bandaged, stood together somewhat apart from their fellow +officers, while preliminary steps for celebrating their defeat and +capture were in progress. They looked forlorn enough to have excited +deep sympathy under fairer conditions. +</P> + +<P> +Outside the fort the creoles were beginning a noise of jubilation. The +rumor of what was going to be done had passed from mouth to mouth, +until every soul in the town knew and thrilled with expectancy. Men, +women and children came swarming to see the sight, and to hear at close +range the crash of the cannon. They shouted, in a scattering way at +first, then the tumult grew swiftly to a solid rolling tide that seemed +beyond all comparison with the population of Vincennes. Hamilton heard +it, and trembled inwardly, afraid lest the mob should prove too strong +for the guard. +</P> + +<P> +One leonine voice roared distinctly, high above the noise. It was a +sound familiar to all the creoles,—that bellowing shout of Gaspard +Roussillon's. He was roaming around the stockade, having been turned +back by the guard when he tried to pass through the main gate. +</P> + +<P> +"They shut me out!" he bellowed furiously. "I am Gaspard Roussillon, +and they shut me out, me! Ziff! me voici! je vais entrer immediatement, +moi!" +</P> + +<P> +He attracted but little attention, however; the people and the soldiery +were all too excited by the special interest of the occasion, and too +busy with making a racket of their own, for any individual, even the +great Roussillon, to gain their eyes or ears. He in turn scarcely heard +the tumult they made, so self-centered were his burning thoughts and +feelings. A great occasion in Vincennes and he, Gaspard Roussillon, not +recognized as one of the large factors in it! Ah, no, never! And he +strode along the wall of the stockade, turning the corners and heavily +shambling over the inequalities till he reached the postern. It was not +fastened, some one having passed through just before him. +</P> + +<P> +"Ziff!" he ejaculated, stepping into the area and shaking himself after +the manner of a dusty mastiff. "C'est moi! Gaspard Roussillon!" His +massive under jaw was set like that of a vise, yet it quivered with +rage, a rage which was more fiery condensation of self-approval than +anger. +</P> + +<P> +Outside the shouting, singing and huzzahs gathered strength and volume, +until the sound became a hoarse roar. Clark was uneasy; he had +overheard much of a threatening character during the siege. The creoles +were, he knew, justly exasperated, and even his own men had been +showing a spirit which might easily be fanned into a dangerous flame of +vengeance. He was very anxious to have the formalities of taking +possession of the fort over with, so that he could the better control +his forces. Sending for Beverley he assigned him to the duty of hauling +down the British flag and running up that of Virginia. It was an honor +of no doubtful sort, which under different circumstances would have +made the Lieutenant's heart glow. As it was, he proceeded without any +sense of pride or pleasure, moving as a mere machine in performing an +act significant beyond any other done west of the mountains, in the +great struggle for American independence and the control of American +territory. +</P> + +<P> +Hamilton stood a little way from the foot of the tall flag-pole, his +arms folded on his breast, his chin slightly drawn in, his brows +contracted, gazing steadily at Beverley while he was untying the +halyard, which had been wound around the pole's base about three feet +above the ground. The American troops in the fort were disposed so as +to form three sides of a hollow square, facing inward. Oncle Jazon, +serving as the ornamental extreme of one line, was conspicuous for his +outlandish garb and unmilitary bearing. The silence inside the stockade +offered a strong contrast to the tremendous roar of voices outside. +Clark made a signal, and at the tap of a drum, Beverley shook the ropes +loose and began to lower the British colors. Slowly the bright emblem +of earth's mightiest nation crept down in token of the fact that a +handful of back-woodsmen had won an empire by a splendid stroke of pure +heroism. Beverley detached the flag, and saluting, handed it to Colonel +Clark. Hamilton's breast heaved and his iron jaws tightened their +pressure until the lines of his cheeks were deep furrows of pain. +</P> + +<P> +Father Beret, who had just been admitted, quietly took a place at one +side near the wall. There was a fine, warm, benignant smile on his old +face, yet his powerful shoulders drooped as if weighted down with a +heavy load. Hamilton was aware when he entered, and instantly the scene +of their conflict came into his memory with awful vividness, and he saw +Alice lying outstretched, stark and, cold, the shining strand of hair +fluttering across her pallid cheek. Her ghost overshadowed him. +</P> + +<P> +Just then there was a bird-like movement, a wing-like rustle, and a +light figure flitted swiftly across the area. All eyes were turned upon +it. Hamilton recoiled, as pale as death, half lifting his hands, as if +to ward off a deadly blow, and then a gay flag was flung out over his +head. He saw before him the girl he had shot; but her beautiful face +was not waxen now, nor was it cold or lifeless. The rich red blood was +strong under the browned, yet delicate skin, the eyes were bright and +brave, the cherry lips, slightly apart, gave a glimpse of pearl white +teeth, and the dimples,—those roguish dimples,—twinkled sweetly. +</P> + +<P> +Colonel Clark looked on in amazement, and in spite of himself, in +admiration. He did not understand; the sudden incident bewildered him; +but his virile nature was instantly and wholly charmed. Something like +a breath of violets shook the tenderest chords of his heart. +</P> + +<P> +Alice stood firmly, a statue of triumph, her right arm outstretched, +holding the flag high above Hamilton's head; and close by her side the +little hunchback Jean was posed in his most characteristic attitude, +gazing at the banner which he himself had stolen and kept hidden for +Alice's sake, and because he loved it. +</P> + +<P> +There was a dead silence for some moments, during which Hamilton's face +showed that he was ready to collapse; then the keen voice of Oncle +Jazon broke forth: +</P> + +<P> +"Vive Zhorzh Vasinton! Vim la banniere d'Alice Roussillon!" +</P> + +<P> +He sprang to the middle of the area and flung his old cap high in air, +with a shrill war-whoop. +</P> + +<P> +"H'ist it! h'ist it! hissez la banniere de Mademoiselle Alice +Roussillon! Voila, que c'est glorieuse, cette banniere la! H'ist it! +h'ist it!" +</P> + +<P> +He was dancing with a rickety liveliness, his goatish legs and +shriveled body giving him the look of an emaciated satyr. +</P> + +<P> +Clark had been told by some of his creole officers the story of how +Alice raised the flag when Helm took the fort, and how she snatched it +from Hamilton's hand, as it were, and would not give it up when he +demanded it. The whole situation pretty soon began to explain itself, +as he saw what Alice was doing. Then he heard her say to Hamilton, +while she slowly swayed the rippling flag back and forth: +</P> + +<P> +"I said, as you will remember, Monsieur le Gouverneur, that when you +next should see this flag, I should wave it over your head. Well, look, +I am waving it! Vive la republique! Vive George Washington! What do you +think of it, Monsieur le Gouverneur?" +</P> + +<P> +The poor little hunchback Jean took off his cap and tossed it in +rhythmical emphasis, keeping time to her words. +</P> + +<P> +And now from behind the hollow square came a mighty voice: +</P> + +<P> +"C'est moi, Gaspard Roussillon; me voici, messieurs!" +</P> + +<P> +There was a spirit in the air which caught from Alice a thrill of +romantic energy. The men in the ranks and the officers in front of them +felt a wave of irresistible sympathy sweep through their hearts. Her +picturesque beauty, her fine temper, the fitness of the incident to the +occasion, had an instantaneous power which moved all men alike. +</P> + +<P> +"Raise her flag! Run up the young lady's flag!" some one shouted, and +then every voice seemed to echo the words. Clark was a young man of +noble type, in whose veins throbbed the warm chivalrous blood of the +cavaliers. A waft of the suddenly prevailing influence bore him also +quite off his feet. He turned to Beverley and said: +</P> + +<P> +"Do it! It will have a great effect. It is a good idea; get the young +lady's flag and her permission to run it up." +</P> + +<P> +Before he finished speaking, indeed at the first glance, he saw that +Beverley, like Hamilton, was white as a dead man; and at the same time +it came to his memory that his young friend had confided to him during +the awful march through the prairie wilderness, a love-story about this +very Alice Roussillon. In the worry and stress of the subsequent +struggle, he had forgotten the tender basis upon which Beverley had +rested his excuse for leaving Vincennes. Now, it all reappeared in +justification of what was going on. It touched the romantic core of his +southern nature. +</P> + +<P> +"I say, Lieutenant Beverley," he repeated, "beg the young lady's +permission to use her flag upon this glorious occasion; or shall I do +it for you?" +</P> + +<P> +There were no miracles in those brave days, and the strain of life with +its terrible realities braced all men and women to meet sudden +explosions of surprise, whether of good or bad effect, with admirable +equipoise; but Beverley's trial, it must be admitted, was +extraordinary; still he braced himself quickly and his whole expression +changed when Clark moved to go to Alice. For he realized now that it +was, indeed, Alice in flesh and blood, standing there, the center of +admiration, filling the air with her fine magnetism and crowning a +great triumph with her beauty. He gave her a glad, flashing smile, as +if he had just discovered her, and walked straight to her, his hands +extended. She was not looking toward him; but she saw him and turned to +face him. Hers was the advantage; for she had known, for some hours, of +his presence in Vincennes, and had prepared herself to meet him +courageously and with maidenly reserve. +</P> + +<P> +There is no safety, however, where Love lurks. Neither Beverley nor +Alice was as much agitated at Hamilton, yet they both forgot, what he +remembered, that a hundred grim frontier soldiers were looking on. +Hamilton had his personal and official dignity to sustain, and he +fairly did it, under what a pressure of humiliating and surprising +circumstances we can fully comprehend. Not so with the two young +people, standing as it were in a suddenly bestowed and incomparable +happiness, on the verge of a new life, each to the other an unexpected, +unhoped-for resurrection from the dead. To them there was no universe +save the illimitable expanse of their love. In that moment of meeting, +all that they had suffered on account of love was transfused and poured +forth,—a glowing libation for love's sake,—a flood before which all +barriers broke. +</P> + +<P> +Father Beret was looking on with a strange fire in his eyes, and what +he feared would happen, did happen. Alice let the flag fall at +Hamilton's feet, when Beverley came near her smiling that great, glad +smile, and with a joyous cry leaped into his outstretched arms. +</P> + +<P> +Jean snatched up the fallen banner and ran to Colonel Clark with it. +Two minutes later it was made fast and the halyard began to squeak +through the rude pulley at the top of the pole. Up, up, climbed the gay +little emblem of glory, while the cannon crashed from the embrasures of +the blockhouse hard by, and outside the roar of voices redoubled. +Thirteen guns boomed the salute, though it should have been +fourteen,—the additional one for the great Northwestern Territory, +that day annexed to the domain of the young American Republic. The flag +went up at old Vincennes never to come down again, and when it reached +its place at the top of the staff, Beverley and Alice stood side by +side looking at it, while the sun broke through the clouds and flashed +on its shining folds, and love unabashed glorified the two strong young +faces. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap21"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXI +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +SOME TRANSACTIONS IN SCALPS +</H3> + +<P> +History would be a very orderly affair, could the dry-as-dust +historians have their way, and doubtless it would be thrillingly +romantic at every turn if the novelists were able to control its +current. Fortunately neither one nor the other has much influence, and +the result, in the long run, is that most novels are shockingly tame, +while the large body of history is loaded down with picturesque +incidents, which if used in fiction, would be thought absurdly romantic +and improbable. +</P> + +<P> +Were our simple story of old Vincennes a mere fiction, we should +hesitate to bring in the explosion of a magazine at the fort with a +view to sudden confusion and, by that means, distracting attention from +our heroine while she betakes herself out of a situation which, +although delightful enough for a blessed minute, has quickly become an +embarrassment quite unendurable. But we simply adhere to the +established facts in history. Owing to some carelessness there was, +indeed, an explosion of twenty-six six-pound cartridges, which made a +mighty roar and struck the newly installed garrison into a heap, so to +say, scattering things terribly and wounding six men, among them +Captains Bowman and Worthington. +</P> + +<P> +After the thunderous crash came a momentary silence, which embraced +both the people within the fort and the wild crowd outside. Then the +rush and noise were indescribable. Even Clark gave way to excitement, +losing command of himself and, of course, of his men. There was a +stampede toward the main gate by one wing of the troops in the hollow +square. They literally ran over Beverley and Alice, flinging them apart +and jostling them hither and yonder without mercy. Of course the +turmoil quickly subsided. Clark and Beverley got hold of themselves and +sang out their peremptory orders with excellent effect. It was like oil +on raging water; the men obeyed in a straggling way, getting back into +ranks as best they could. +</P> + +<P> +"Ventrebleu!" squeaked Oncle Jazon, "ef I didn't think the ole world +had busted into a million pieces!" +</P> + +<P> +He was jumping up and down not three feet from Beverley's toes, waving +his cap excitedly. +</P> + +<P> +"But wasn't I skeert! Ya, ya, ya! Vive la banniere d'Alice Roussillon! +Vive Zhorzh Vasinton!" +</P> + +<P> +Hearing Alice's name caused Beverley to look around. Where was she? In +the distance he saw Father Beret hurrying to the spot where some of the +men burnt and wounded by the explosion were being stripped and cared +for. Hamilton still stood like a statue. He appeared to be the only +cool person in the fort. +</P> + +<P> +"Where is Alice?—Miss Roussillon—where did Miss Roussillon go?" +Beverley exclaimed, staring around like a lost man. "Where is she?" +</P> + +<P> +"D'know," said Oncle Jazon, resuming his habitual expression of droll +dignity, "she shot apast me jes' as thet thing busted loose, an' she +went like er hummin' bird, skitch!—jes' thet way—an' I didn't see 'r +no more. 'Cause I was skeert mighty nigh inter seven fits; 'spect that +'splosion blowed her clean away! Ventrebleu! never was so plum outen +breath an' dead crazy weak o' bein' afeard!" +</P> + +<P> +"Lieutenant Beverley," roared Clark in his most commanding tone, "go to +the gate and settle things there. That mob outside is trying to break +in!" +</P> + +<P> +The order was instantly obeyed, but Beverley had relapsed. Once more +his soul groped in darkness, while the whole of his life seemed unreal, +a wavering, misty, hollow dream. And yet his military duty was all real +enough. He knew just what to do when he reached the gate. +</P> + +<P> +"Back there at once!" he commanded, not loudly, but with intense force, +"back there!" This to the inward surging wedge of excited outsiders. +Then to the guard. +</P> + +<P> +"Shoot the first man who crosses the line!" +</P> + +<P> +"Ziff! me voici! moi! Gaspard Roussillon. Laissez-moi passer, +messieurs." +</P> + +<P> +A great body hurled itself frantically past Beverley and the guard, +going out through the gateway against the wall of the crowd, bearing +everything before it and shouting: +</P> + +<P> +"Back, fools! you'll all be killed—the powder is on fire! Ziff! run!" +</P> + +<P> +Wild as a March hare, he bristled with terror and foamed at the mouth. +He stampeded the entire mass. There was a wild howl; a rush in the +other direction followed, and soon enough the esplanade and all the +space back to the barricades and beyond were quite deserted. +</P> + +<P> +Alice was not aware that a serious accident had happened. Naturally she +thought the great, rattling, crashing noise of the explosion a mere +part of the spectacular show. When the rush followed, separating her +and Beverley, it was a great relief to her in some way; for a sudden +recognition of the boldness of her action in the little scene just +ended, came over her and bewildered her. An impulse sent her running +away from the spot where, it seemed to her, she had invited public +derision. The terrible noises all around her were, she now fancied, but +the jeering and hooting of rude men who had seen her unmaidenly +forwardness. +</P> + +<P> +With a burning face she flew to the postern and slipped out, once more +taking the course which had become so familiar to her feet. She did not +slacken her speed until she reached the Bourcier cabin, where she had +made her home since the night when Hamilton's pistol ball struck her. +The little domicile was quite empty of its household, but Alice entered +and flung herself into a chair, where she sat quivering and breathless +when Adrienne, also much excited, came in, preceded by a stream of +patois that sparkled continuously. +</P> + +<P> +"The fort is blown up!" she cried, gesticulating in every direction at +once, her petite figure comically dilated with the importance of her +statement. "A hundred men are killed, and the powder is on fire!" +</P> + +<P> +She pounced into Alice's arms, still talking as fast as her tongue +could vibrate, changing from subject to subject without rhyme or +reason, her prattle making its way by skips and shies until what was +really upper-most in her sweet little heart disclosed itself. +</P> + +<P> +"And, O Alice! Rene has not come yet!" +</P> + +<P> +She plunged her dusky face between Alice's cheek and shoulder; Alice +hugged her sympathetically and said: +</P> + +<P> +"But Rene will come, I know he will, dear." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, but do you know it? is it true? who told you? when will he come? +where is he? tell me about him!" +</P> + +<P> +Her head popped up from her friend's neck and she smiled brilliantly +through the tears that were still sparkling on her long black lashes. +</P> + +<P> +"I didn't mean that I had heard from him, and I don't know where he is; +but—but they always come back." +</P> + +<P> +"You say that because your man—because Lieutenant Beverley has +returned. It is always so. You have everything to make you happy, while +I—I—" +</P> + +<P> +Again her eyes spilled their shower, and she hid her face in her hands +which Alice tried in vain to remove. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't cry, Adrienne. You didn't see me crying—" +</P> + +<P> +"No, of course not; you didn't have a thing to cry about. Lieutenant +Beverley told you just where he was going and just what—" +</P> + +<P> +"But think, Adrienne, only think of the awful story they told—that he +was killed, that Governor Hamilton had paid Long-Hair for killing him +and bringing back his scalp—oh dear, just think! And I thought it was +true." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I'd be willing to think and believe anything in the world, if +Rene would come back," said Adrienne, her face, now uncovered, showing +pitiful lines of suffering. "O Alice, Alice, and he never, never will +come!" +</P> + +<P> +Alice exhausted every device to cheer, encourage and comfort her. +Adrienne had been so good to her when she lay recovering from the shock +of Hamilton's pistol bullet, which, although it came near killing her, +made no serious wound—only a bruise, in fact. It was one of those +fortunate accidents, or providentially ordered interferences, which +once in a while save a life. The stone disc worn by Alice chanced to +lie exactly in the missile's way, and while it was not broken, the +ball, already somewhat checked by passing through several folds of +Father Beret's garments, flattened itself upon it with a shock which +somehow struck Alice senseless. +</P> + +<P> +Here again, history in the form of an ancient family document (a letter +written in 1821 by Alice herself), gives us the curious brace of +incidents, to wit, the breaking of the miniature on Beverley's breast +by a British musket-ball, and the stopping of Hamilton's bullet over +Alice's heart by the Indian charm-stone. +</P> + +<P> +"Which shows the goodness of God," the letter goes on, "and also seems +to sustain the Indian legend concerning the stone, that whoever might +wear it could not be killed. Unquestionable (sic) Mr. Hamilton's shot, +which was aimed at poor, dear old Father Beret, would have pierced my +heart, but for that charm-stone. As for my locket, it did not, as some +have reported, save Fitzhugh's life when the musket-ball was stopped. +The ball was so spent that the blow was only hard enough to spoil +temporary (sic) the face of the miniature, which was afterwards +restored fairly well by an artist in Paris. When it did actually save +Fitzhugh's life was out on the Illinois plain. The savage, Long-Hair, +peace to his memory, worked the miracle of restoring to me—" Here a +fold in the paper has destroyed a line of the writing. +</P> + +<P> +The letter is a sacred family paper, and there is not justification for +going farther into its faded and, in some parts, almost obliterated +writing. But so much may pass into these pages as a pleasant +authentication of what otherwise might be altogether too sweet a double +nut for the critic's teeth to crack. +</P> + +<P> +While Adrienne and Alice were still discussing the probability of Rene +de Ronville's return, M. Roussillon came to the door. He was in search +of Madame, his wife, whom he had not yet seen. +</P> + +<P> +He gathered the two girls in his mighty arms, tousling them with rough +tenderness. Alice returned his affectionate embrace and told him where +to find Madame Roussillon, who was with Dame Godere, probably at her +house. +</P> + +<P> +"Nobody killed," he said, in answer to Alice's inquiry about the +catastrophe at the fort. "Some of 'em hurt and burnt a little. Great +big scare about nearly nothing. Ziff! my children, you should have seen +me quiet things. I put out my hands, this way—omme ca—pouf! It was +all over. The people went home." +</P> + +<P> +His gestures indicated that he had borne back an army with open hands. +Then he chucked Adrienne under the chin with his finger and added in +his softest voice: +</P> + +<P> +"I saw somebody's lover the other day, over yonder in the Indian +village. He spoke to me about somebody—eh, ma petite, que voulez-vous +dire?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Papa Roussillon! we were just talking about Rene!" cried Alice. +"Have you seen him?" +</P> + +<P> +"I saw you, you little minx, jumping into a man's arms right under the +eyes of a whole garrison! Bah! I could not believe it was my little +Alice!" +</P> + +<P> +He let go a grand guffaw, which seemed to shake the cabin's walls. +Alice blushed cherry red. Adrienne, too bashful to inquire about Rene, +was trembling with anxiety. The truth was not in Gaspard Roussillon, +just then; or if it was it stayed in him, for he had not seen Rene de +Ronville. It was his generous desire to please and to appear opulent of +knowledge and sympathy that made him speak. He knew what would please +Adrienne, so why not give her at least a delicious foretaste? Surely, +when a thing was so cheap, one need not be so parsimonious as to +withhold a mere anticipation. He was off before the girls could press +him into details, for indeed he had none. +</P> + +<P> +"There now, what did I tell you?" cried Alice, when the big man was +gone. "I told you Rene would come. They always come back!" +</P> + +<P> +Father Beret came in a little later. As soon as he saw Alice he frowned +and began to shake his head; but she only laughed, and imitating his +hypocritical scowl, yet fringing it with a twinkle of merry lines and +dimples, pointed a taper finger at him and exclaimed: +</P> + +<P> +"You bad, bad, man! why did you pretend to me that Lieutenant Beverley +was dead? What sinister ecclesiastical motive prompted you to describe +how Long-Hair scalped him? Ah, Father—" +</P> + +<P> +The priest laid a broad hand over her saucy mouth. "Something or other +seems to have excited you mightily, ma fille, you are a trifle +impulsively inclined to-day." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, Father Beret; yes I know, and I am ashamed. My heart shrinks when +I think of what I did; but I was so glad, such a grand joy came all +over me when I saw him, so strong and brave and beautiful, coming +toward me, smiling that warm, glad smile and holding out his arms—ah, +when I saw all that—when I knew for sure that he was not dead—I, why, +Father—I just had to, I couldn't help it!" +</P> + +<P> +Father Beret laughed in spite of himself, but quickly managed to resume +his severe countenance. +</P> + +<P> +"Ta! ta!" he exclaimed, "it was a bold thing for a little girl to do." +</P> + +<P> +"So it was, so it was. But it was also a bold thing for him to do—to +come back after he was dead and scalped and look so handsome and grand! +I'm ashamed and sorry, Father; but—but, I'm afraid I might do it again +if—well, I don't care if I did—so there, now!" +</P> + +<P> +"But what in the world are you talking about?" interposed Adrienne. +Evidently they were discussing a most interesting matter of which she +knew nothing, and that did not suit her feminine curiosity. "Tell me." +She pulled Father Beret's sleeve. "Tell me, I say!" +</P> + +<P> +It is probable that Father Beret would have pretended to betray Alice's +source of mingled delight and embarrassment, had not the rest of the +Bourcier household returned in time to break up the conversation. A +little later Alice gave Adrienne a vividly dramatic account of the +whole scene. +</P> + +<P> +"Ah, mon Dieu!" exclaimed the petite brunette, after she had heard the +exciting story. "That was just like you, Alice. You always do superb +things. You were born to do them. You shoot Captain Farnsworth, you +wound Lieutenant Barlow, you climb onto the fort and set up your +flag—you take it down again and run away with it—you get shot and you +do not die—you kiss your lover right before a whole garrison! Bon +Dieu! if I could but do all those things!" +</P> + +<P> +She clasped her tiny hands before her and added rather dejectedly: "But +I couldn't, I couldn't. I couldn't kiss a man in that way!" +</P> + +<P> +Late in the evening news came to Roussillon place, where Gaspard +Roussillon was once more happy in the midst of his little family, that +the Indian Long-Hair had just been brought to the fort, and would be +shot on the following day. A scouting party captured him as he +approached the town, bearing at his belt the fresh scalp of a white +man. He would have been killed forthwith, but Clark, who wished to +avoid a repetition of the savage vengeance meted out to the Indians on +the previous day, had given strict orders that all prisoners should be +brought into the fort, where they were to have a fair trial by court +martial. +</P> + +<P> +Both Helm and Beverley were at Roussillon place, the former sipping +wine and chatting with Gaspard, the latter, of course, hovering around +Alice, after the manner of a hungry bee around a particularly sweet and +deliciously refractory flower. It was raining slowly, the fine drops +coming straight down through the cold, still February air; but the two +young people found it pleasant enough for them on the veranda, where +they walked back and forth, making fair exchange of the exciting +experiences which had befallen them during their long separation. +Between the lines of these mutual recitals sweet, fresh echoes of the +old, old story went from heart to heart, an amoebaean love-bout like +that of spring birds calling tenderly back and forth in the blooming +Maytime woods. +</P> + +<P> +Both Captain Helm and M. Roussillon were delighted to hear of +Long-Hair's capture and certain fate, but neither of them regarded the +news as of sufficient importance to need much comment. They did not +think of telling Beverley and Alice. Jean, however, lying awake in his +little bed, overheard the conversation, which he repeated to Alice next +morning with great circumstantiality. +</P> + +<P> +Having the quick insight bred of frontier experience, Alice instantly +caught the terrible significance of the dilemma in which she and +Beverley would be placed by Long-Hair's situation. Moreover, something +in her heart arose with irresistible power demanding the final, the +absolute human sympathy and gratitude. No matter what deeds Long-Hair +had committed that were evil beyond forgiveness, he had done for her +the all-atoning thing. He had saved Beverley and sent him back to her. +</P> + +<P> +With a start and a chill of dread, she thought: "What if it is already +too late!" +</P> + +<P> +But her nature could not hesitate. To feel the demand of an exigency +was to act. She snatched a wrap from its peg on the wall and ran as +fast as she could to the fort. People who met her flying along +wondered, staring after her, what could be urging her so that she saw +nobody, checked herself for nothing, ran splashing through the puddles +in the street, gazing ahead of her, as if pursuing some flying object +from which she dared not turn her eyes. +</P> + +<P> +And there was, indeed, a call for her utmost power of flight, if she +would be of any assistance to Long-Hair, who even then stood bound to a +stake in the fort's area, while a platoon of riflemen, those unerring +shots from Kentucky and Virginia, were ready to make a target of him at +a range of but twenty yards. +</P> + +<P> +Beverley, greatly handicapped by the fact that the fresh scalp of a +white man hung at Long-Hair's belt, had exhausted every possible +argument to avert or mitigate the sentence promptly spoken by the court +martial of which Colonel Clark was the ruling spirit. He had succeeded +barely to the extent of turning the mode of execution from tomahawking +to shooting. All the officers in the fort approved killing the +prisoner, and it was difficult for Colonel Clark to prevent the men +from making outrageous assaults upon him, so exasperated were they at +sight of the scalp. +</P> + +<P> +Oncle Jazon proved to be one of the most refractory among those who +demanded tomahawking and scalping as the only treatment due Long-Hair. +The repulsive savage stood up before them stolid, resolute, defiant, +proudly flaunting the badge which testified to his horrible efficiency +as an emissary of Hamilton's. It had been left in his belt by Clark's +order, as the best justification of his doom. +</P> + +<P> +"L' me hack 'is damned head," Oncle Jazon pleaded. "I jes' hankers to +chop a hole inter it. An' besides I want 'is scelp to hang up wi' mine +an' that'n o' the Injun what scelped me. He kicked me in the ribs, the +stinkin' varmint." +</P> + +<P> +Beverley pleaded eloquently and well, but even the genial Major Helm +laughed at his sentiment of gratitude to a savage who at best but +relented at the last moment, for Alice's sake, and concluded not to +sell him to Hamilton. It is due to the British commander to record here +that he most positively and with what appeared to be high sincerity, +denied the charge of having offered rewards for the taking of human +scalps. He declared that his purposes and practices were humane, and +that while he did use the Indians as military allies, his orders to +them were that they must forego cruel modes of warfare and refrain from +savage outrage upon prisoners. Certainly the weight of contemporary +testimony seems overwhelmingly against him, but we enter his denial. +Long-Hair himself, however, taunted him with accusations of +unfaithfulness in carrying out some very inhuman contracts, and to add +a terrible sting, volunteered the statement that poor Barlow's scalp +had served his turn in the place of Beverley's. +</P> + +<P> +With conditions so hideous to contend against, Beverley, of course, had +no possible means of succoring the condemned savage. +</P> + +<P> +"Him a kickin' yer ribs clean inter ye, an' a makin' ye run the +ga'ntlet, an' here ye air a tryin' to save 'is life!" whined Oncle +Jazon, "W'y man, I thought ye hed some senterments! Dast 'is Injin +liver, I kin feel them kicks what he guv me till yit. Ventrebleu! que +diable voulez-vous?" +</P> + +<P> +Clark simply pushed Beverley's pleadings aside as not worth a moment's +consideration. He easily felt the fine bit of gratitude at the bottom +of it all; but there was too much in the other side of the balance; +justice, the discipline and confidence of his little army, and the +claim of the women and children on the frontier demanded firmness in +dealing with a case like Long-Hair's. +</P> + +<P> +"No, no," he said to Beverley, "I would do anything in the world for +you, Fitz, except to swerve an inch from duty to my country and the +defenceless people down yonder in Kentucky, I can't do it. There's no +use to press the matter further. The die is cast. That brute's got to +be killed, and killed dead. Look at him—look at that scalp! I'd have +him killed if I dropped dead for it the next instant." +</P> + +<P> +Beverley shuddered. The argument was horribly convincing, and yet, +somehow, the desire to save Long-Hair overbore everything else in his +mind. He could not cease his efforts; it seemed to him as if he were +pleading for Alice herself. Captain Farnsworth, strange to say, was the +only man in the fort who leaned to Beverley's side; but he was +reticent, doubtless feeling that his position as a British prisoner +gave him no right to speak, especially when every lip around him was +muttering something about "infamous scalp-buyers and Indian partisans," +with whom he was prominently counted by the speakers. +</P> + +<P> +As Clark had said, the die was cast. Long-Hair, bound to a stake, the +scalp still dangling at his side, grimly faced his executioners, who +were eager to fire. He appeared to be proud of the fact that he was +going to be killed. +</P> + +<P> +"One thing I can say of him," Helm remarked to Beverley; "he's the +grandest specimen of the animal—I might say the brute—man that I ever +saw, red, white or black. Just look at his body and limbs! Those +muscles are perfectly marvelous." +</P> + +<P> +"He saved my life, and I must stand here and see him murdered," the +young man replied with intense bitterness. It was all that he could +think, all that he could say. He felt inefficient and dejected, almost +desperate. +</P> + +<P> +Clark himself, not willing to cast responsibility upon a subordinate, +made ready to give the fatal order. Turning to Long-Hair first, he +demanded of him as well as he could in the Indian dialect of which he +had a smattering, what he had to say at his last moment. +</P> + +<P> +The Indian straightened his already upright form, and, by a strong +bulging of his muscles, snapped the thongs that bound him. Evidently he +had not tried thus to free himself; it was rather a spasmodic +expression of savage dignity and pride. One arm and both his legs still +were partially confined by the bonds, but his right hand he lifted, +with a gesture of immense self-satisfaction, and pointed at Hamilton. +</P> + +<P> +"Indian brave; white man coward," he said, scowling scornfully. +"Long-Hair tell truth; white man lie, damn!" +</P> + +<P> +Hamilton's countenance did not change its calm, cold expression. +Long-Hair gazed at him fixedly for a long moment, his eyes flashing +most concentrated hate and contempt. Then he tore the scalp from his +belt and flung it with great force straight toward the captive +Governor's face. It fell short, but the look that went with it did not, +and Hamilton recoiled. +</P> + +<P> +At that moment Alice arrived. Her coming was just in time to interrupt +Clark, who had turned to the waiting platoon with the order of death on +his lips. She made no noise, save the fluttering of her skirts, and her +loud and rapid panting on account of her long, hard run. She sprang +before Long-Hair and faced the platoon. +</P> + +<P> +"You cannot, you shall not kill this man!" she cried in a voice loaded +with excitement. "Put away those guns!" +</P> + +<P> +Woman never looked more thrillingly beautiful to man than she did just +then to all those rough, stern backwoodsmen. During her flight her hair +had fallen down, and it glimmered like soft sunlight around her face. +Something compelling flashed out of her eyes, an expression between a +triumphant smile and a ray of irresistible beseechment. It took Colonel +Clark's breath when he turned and saw her standing there, and heard her +words. +</P> + +<P> +"This man saved Lieutenant Beverley's life," she presently added, +getting better control of her voice, and sending into it a thrilling +timbre; "you shall not harm him—you must not do it!" +</P> + +<P> +Beverley was astounded when he saw her, the thing was so unexpected, so +daring, and done with such high, imperious force; still it was but a +realization of what he had imagined she would be upon occasion. He +stood gazing at her, as did all the rest, while she faced Clark and the +platoon of riflemen. To hear his own name pass her quivering lips, in +that tone and in that connection, seemed to him a consecration. +</P> + +<P> +"Would you be more savage than your Indian prisoner?" she went on, +"less grateful than he for a life saved? I did him a small, a very +small, service once, and in memory of that he saved Lieutenant +Beverley's life, because—because—" she faltered for a single breath, +then added clearly and with magnetic sweetness—"because Lieutenant +Beverley loved me, and because I loved him. This Indian Long-Hair +showed a gratitude that could overcome his strongest passion. You white +men should be ashamed to fall below his standard." +</P> + +<P> +Her words went home. It was as if the beauty of her face, the magnetism +of her lissome and symmetrical form, the sweet fire of her eyes and the +passionate appeal of her voice gave what she said a new and +irresistible force of truth. When she spoke of Beverley's love for her, +and declared her love for him, there was not a manly heart in all the +garrison that did not suddenly beat quicker and feel a strange, sweet +waft of tenderness. A mother, somewhere, a wife, a daughter, a sister, +a sweetheart, called through that voice of absolute womanhood. +</P> + +<P> +"Beverley, what can I do?" muttered Clark, his bronze face as pale as +it could possibly become. +</P> + +<P> +"Do!" thundered Beverley, "do! you cannot murder that man. Hamilton is +the man you should shoot! He offered large rewards, he inflamed the +passions and fed the love of rum and the cupidity of poor wild men like +the one standing yonder. Yet you take him prisoner and treat him with +distinguished consideration. Hamilton offered a large sum for me taken +alive, a smaller one for my scalp. Long-Hair saved me. You let Hamilton +stand yonder in perfect safety while you shoot the Indian. Shame on +you, Colonel Clark! shame on you, if you do it." +</P> + +<P> +Alice stood looking at the stalwart commander while Beverley was +pouring forth his torrent of scathing reference to Hamilton, and she +quickly saw that Clark was moved. The moment was ripe for the finishing +stroke. They say it is genius that avails itself of opportunity. +Beverley knew the fight was won when he saw what followed. Alice +suddenly left Long-Hair and ran to Colonel Clark, who felt her warm, +strong arms loop round him for a single point of time never to be +effaced from his memory; then he saw her kneeling at his feet, her +hands upstretched, her face a glorious prayer, while she pleaded the +Indian's cause and won it. +</P> + +<P> +Doubtless, while we all rather feel that Clark was weak to be thus +swayed by a girl, we cannot quite blame him. Alice's flag was over him; +he had heard her history from Beverley's cunning lips; he actually +believed that Hamilton was the real culprit, and besides he felt not a +little nauseated with executing Indians. A good excuse to have an end +of it all did not go begging. +</P> + +<P> +But Long-Hair was barely gone over the horizon from the fort, as free +and as villainous a savage as ever trod the earth, when a discovery +made by Oncle Jazon caused Clark to hate himself for what he had done. +</P> + +<P> +The old scout picked up the scalp, which Long-Hair had flung at +Hamilton, and examined it with odious curiosity. He had lingered on the +spot with no other purpose than to get possession of that ghastly +relic. Since losing his own scalp the subject of crownlocks had grown +upon his mind until its fascination was irresistible. He studied the +hair of every person he saw, as a physiognomist studies faces. He held +the gruesome thing up before him, scrutinizing it with the expression +of a connoisseur who has discovered, on a grimy canvas, the signature +of an old master. +</P> + +<P> +"Sac' bleu!" he presently broke forth. "Well I'll be—Look'ee yer, +George Clark! Come yer an' look. Ye've been sold ag'in. Take a squint, +ef ye please!" +</P> + +<P> +Colonel Clark, with his hands crossed behind him, his face thoughtfully +contracted, was walking slowly to and fro a little way off. He turned +about when Oncle Jazon spoke. +</P> + +<P> +"What now, Jazon?" +</P> + +<P> +"A mighty heap right now, that's what; come yer an' let me show ye. Yer +a fine sort o' eejit, now ain't ye!" +</P> + +<P> +The two men walked toward each other and met. Oncle Jazon held up the +scalp with one hand, pointing at it with the index finger of the other. +</P> + +<P> +"This here scalp come off'n Rene de Ronville's head." +</P> + +<P> +"And who is he?" +</P> + +<P> +"Who's he? Ye may well ax thet. He wuz a Frenchman. He wuz a fine young +feller o' this town. He killed a Corp'ral o' Hamilton's an' tuck ter +the woods a month or two ago. Hamilton offered a lot o' money for 'im +or 'is scalp, an' Long-Hair went in fer gittin' it. Now ye knows the +whole racket. An' ye lets that Injun go. An' thet same Injun he mighty +nigh kicked my ribs inter my stomach!" +</P> + +<P> +Oncle Jazon's feelings were visible and audible; but Clark could not +resent the contempt of the old man's looks and words. He felt that he +deserved far more than he was receiving. Nor was Oncle Jazon wrong. +Rene de Ronville never came back to little Adrienne Bourcier, although, +being kept entirely ignorant of her lover's fate, she waited and +dreamed and hoped throughout more than two years, after which there is +no further record of her life. +</P> + +<P> +Clark, Beverley and Oncle Jazon consulted together and agreed among +themselves that they would hold profoundly secret the story of the +scalp. To have made it public would have exasperated the creoles and +set them violently against Clark, a thing heavy with disaster for all +his future plans. As it was, the release of Long-Hair caused a great +deal of dissatisfaction and mutinous talk. Even Beverley now felt that +the execution ordered by the commander ought to have been sternly +carried out. +</P> + +<P> +A day or two later, however, the whole dark affair was closed forever +by a bit of confidence on the part of Oncle Jazon when Beverley dropped +into his hut one evening to have a smoke with him. +</P> + +<P> +The rain was over, the sky shone like one vast luminary, with a nearly +full moon and a thousand stars reinforcing it. Up from the south poured +one of those balmy, accidental wind floods, sometimes due in February +on the Wabash, full of tropical dream-hints, yet edged with a winter +chill that smacks of treachery. Oncle Jazon was unusually talkative; he +may have had a deep draught of liquor; at all events Beverley had +little room for a word. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, bein' as it's twixt us, as is bosom frien's," the old fellow +presently said, "I'll jes' show ye somepin poorty." +</P> + +<P> +He pricked the wick of a lamp and took down his bunch of scalps. +</P> + +<P> +"I hev been a addin' one more to keep company o' mine an' the tothers." +</P> + +<P> +He separated the latest acquisition from the rest of the wisp and +added, with a heinous chuckle: +</P> + +<P> +"This'n's Long-Hair's!" +</P> + +<P> +And so it was. Beverley knocked the ashes from his pipe and rose to go. +</P> + +<P> +"Wen they kicks yer Oncle Jazon's ribs," the old man added, "they'd +jes' as well lay down an' give up, for he's goin' to salervate 'em." +</P> + +<P> +Then, after Beverley had passed out of the cabin, Oncle Jazon chirruped +after him: +</P> + +<P> +"Mebbe ye'd better not tell leetle Alice. The pore leetle gal hev hed +worry 'nough." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap22"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CLARK ADVISES ALICE +</H3> + +<P> +A few days after the surrender of Hamilton, a large boat, the Willing, +arrived from Kaskaskia. It was well manned and heavily armed. Clark +fitted it out before beginning his march and expected it to be of great +assistance to him in the reduction of the fort, but the high waters and +the floating driftwood delayed its progress, so that its disappointed +crew saw Alice's flag floating bright and high when their eyes first +looked upon the dull little town from far down the swollen river. There +was much rejoicing, however, when they came ashore and were +enthusiastically greeted by the garrison and populace. A courier whom +they picked up on the Ohio came with them. He bore dispatches from +Governor Henry of Virginia to Clark and a letter for Beverley from his +father. With them appeared also Simon Kenton, greatly to the delight of +Oncle Jazon, who had worried much about his friend since their latest +fredaine—as he called it—with the Indians. Meantime an expedition +under Captain Helm had been sent up the river with the purpose of +capturing a British flotilla from Detroit. +</P> + +<P> +Gaspard Roussillon, immediately after Clark's victory, thought he saw a +good opening favorable to festivity at the river house, for which he +soon began to make some of his most ostentatious preparations. Fate, +however, as usual in his case, interfered. Fate seemed to like pulling +the big Frenchman's ear now and again, as if to remind him of the +fact—which he was apt to forget—that he lacked somewhat of +omnipotence. +</P> + +<P> +"Ziff! Je vais donner un banquet a tout le moonde, moi!" he cried, +hustling and bustling hither and thither. +</P> + +<P> +A scout from up the river announced the approach of Philip Dejean with +his flotilla richly laden, and what little interest may have been +gathering in the direction of M. Roussillon's festal proposition +vanished like the flame of a lamp in a puff of wind when this news +reached Colonel Clark and became known in the town. +</P> + +<P> +Beverley and Alice sat together in the main room of the Roussillon +cabin—you could scarcely find them separated during those happy +days—and Alice was singing to the soft tinkle of a guitar, a Creole +ditty with a merry smack in its scarcely intelligible nonsense. She +knew nothing about music beyond what M. Roussillon, a jack of all +trades, had been able to teach her,—a few simple chords to accompany +her songs, picked up at hap-hazard. But her voice, like her face and +form, irradiated witchery. It was sweet, firm, deep, with something +haunting in it—the tone of a hermit thrush, marvelously pure and +clear, carried through a gay strain like the mocking-bird's. Of course +Beverley thought it divine; and when a message came from Colonel Clark +bidding him report for duty at once, he felt an impulse toward mutiny +of the rankest sort. He did not dream that a military expedition could +be on hand; but upon reaching headquarters, the first thing he heard +was: +</P> + +<P> +"Report to Captain Helm. You are to go with him up the river and +intercept a British force. Move lively, Helm is waiting for you, +probably." +</P> + +<P> +There was no time for explanations. Evidently Clark expected neither +questions nor delay. Beverley's love of adventure and his patriotic +desire to serve his country came to his aid vigorously enough; still, +with Alice's love-song ringing in his heart, there was a cord pulling +him back from duty to the sweetest of all life's joys. +</P> + +<P> +Helm was already at the landing, where a little fleet of boats was +being prepared. A thousand things had to be done in short order. All +hands were stimulated to highest exertion with the thought of another +fight. Swivels were mounted in boats, ammunition and provisions stored +abundantly, flags hoisted and oars dipped. Never was an expedition of +so great importance more swiftly organized and set in motion, nor did +one ever have a more prosperous voyage or completer triumph. Philip +Dejean, Justice of Detroit, with his men, boats and rich cargo, was +captured easily, with not a shot fired, nor a drop of blood spilled in +doing it. +</P> + +<P> +If Alice could have known all this before it happened, she would +probably have saved herself from the mortification of a rebuke +administered very kindly, but not the less thoroughly, by Colonel Clark. +</P> + +<P> +The rumor came to her—a brilliant creole rumor, duly inflated—that an +overwhelming British force was descending the river, and that Beverley +with a few men, not sufficient to base the expedition on a respectable +forlorn hope, would be sent to meet them. Her nature, as was its wont, +flared into high indignation. What right had Colonel Clark to send her +lover away to be killed just at the time when he was all the whole +world to her? Nothing could be more outrageous. She would not suffer it +to be done; not she! +</P> + +<P> +Colonel Clark greeted her pleasantly, when she came somewhat abruptly +to him, where he was directing a squad of men at work making some +repairs in the picketing of the fort. He did not observe her excitement +until she began to speak, and then it was noticeable only, and not very +strongly, in her tone. She forgot to speak English, and her French was +Greek to him. +</P> + +<P> +"I am glad to see you, Mademoiselle," he said, rather inconsequently, +lifting his hat and bowing with rough grace, while he extended his +right hand cordially. "You have something to say to me? Come with me to +my office." +</P> + +<P> +She barely touched his fingers. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I have something to say to you. I can tell it here," she said, +speaking English now with softest Creole accent. "I wanted—I came +to—" It was not so easy as she had imagined it would be to utter what +she had in mind. Clark's steadfast, inscrutable eyes, kindly yet not +altogether sympathetic, met her own and beat them down. Her voice +failed. +</P> + +<P> +He offered her his arm and gravely said: +</P> + +<P> +"We will go to my office. I see that you have some important +communication to make. There are too many ears here." +</P> + +<P> +Of a sudden she felt like running home. Somehow the situation broke +upon her with a most embarrassing effect. She did not take Clark's arm, +and she began to tremble. He appeared unconscious of this, and probably +was, for his mind had a fine tangle of great schemes in it just then; +but he turned toward his office, and bidding her follow him, walked +away in that direction. +</P> + +<P> +She was helpless. Not the slightest trace of her usual brilliant +self-assertion was at her command. Saving the squad of men sawing and +hacking, digging and hammering, the fort appeared as deserted as her +mind. She stood gazing after Clark. He did not look back, but strode +right on. If she would speak with him, she must follow. It was a +surprise to her, for heretofore she had always had her own way, even if +she found it necessary to use force. And where was Beverley? Where was +the garrison? Colonel Clark did not seem to be at all concerned about +the approach of the British—and yet those repairs—perhaps he was +making ready for a desperate resistance! She did not move until he +reached the door of his office where he stopped and stepped aside, as +if to let her pass in first; he even lifted his hat, then looked a +trifle surprised when he saw that she was not near him, frowned +slightly, changed the frown to a smile and said, lifting his voice so +that she felt a certain imperative meaning in it: +</P> + +<P> +"Did I walk too fast for you? I beg your pardon, Mademoiselle." +</P> + +<P> +He stood waiting for her, as a father waits for a lagging, wilful child. +</P> + +<P> +"Come, please," he added, "if you have something to say to me; my time +just now is precious—I have a great deal to do." +</P> + +<P> +She was not of a nature to retreat under fire, and yet the panic in her +breast came very near mastering her will. Clark saw a look in her face +which made him speak again: +</P> + +<P> +"I assure you, Mademoiselle, that you need not feel embarrassed. You +can rely upon me to—" +</P> + +<P> +She made a gesture that interrupted him; at the same time she almost +ran toward him, gathering in breath, as one does who is about to force +out a desperately resisting and riotous thought. The strong, grave man +looked at her with a full sense of her fascination, and at the same +time he felt a vague wish to get away from her, as if she were about to +cast unwelcome responsibility upon him. +</P> + +<P> +"Where is Lieutenant Beverley?" she demanded, now close to Clark, face +to face, and gazing straight into his eyes. "I want to see him." Her +tone suggested intensest excitement. She was trembling visibly. +</P> + +<P> +Clark's face changed its expression. He suddenly recalled to mind +Alice's rapturous public greeting of Beverley on the day of the +surrender. He was a cavalier, and it did not agree with his sense of +high propriety for girls to kiss their lovers out in the open air +before a gazing army. True enough, he himself had been hoodwinked by +Alice's beauty and boldness in the matter of Long-Hair. He confessed +this to himself mentally, which may have strengthened his present +disapproval of her personal inquiry about Beverley. At all events he +thought she ought not to be coming into the stockade on such an errand. +</P> + +<P> +"Lieutenant Beverley is absent acting under my orders he said, with +perfect respectfulness, yet in a tone suggesting military finality. He +meant to set an indefinite yet effective rebuke in his words. +</P> + +<P> +"Absent?" she echoed. "Gone? You sent him away to be killed! You had no +right—you—" +</P> + +<P> +"Miss Roussillon," said Clark, becoming almost stern, "you had better +go home and stay there; young girls oughtn't to run around hunting men +in places like this." +</P> + +<P> +His blunt severity of speech was accompanied by a slight frown and a +gesture of impatience. +</P> + +<P> +Alice's face blazed red to the roots of her sunny hair; the color +ebbed, giving place to a pallor like death. She began to tremble, and +her lips quivered pitifully, but she braced herself and tried to force +back the choking sensation in her throat. +</P> + +<P> +"You must not misconstrue my words," Clark quickly added; "I simply +mean that men will not rightly understand you. They will form +impressions very harmful to you. Even Lieutenant Beverley might not see +you in the right light." +</P> + +<P> +"What—what do you mean?" she gasped, shrinking from him, a burning +spot reappearing under the dimpled skin of each cheek. +</P> + +<P> +"Pray, Miss, do not get excited. There is nothing to make you cry." He +saw tears shining in her eyes. "Beverley is not in the slightest +danger. All will be well, and he'll come back in a few days. The +expedition will be but a pleasure trip. Now you go home. Lieutenant +Beverley is amply able to take care of himself. And let me tell you, if +you expect a good man to have great confidence in you, stay home and +let him hunt you up instead of you hunting him. A man likes that +better." +</P> + +<P> +It would be impossible to describe Alice's feelings, as they just then +rose like a whirling storm in her heart. She was humiliated, she was +indignant, she was abashed; she wanted to break forth with a tempest of +denial, self-vindication, resentment; she wanted to cry with her face +hidden in her hands. What she did was to stand helplessly gazing at +Clark, with two or three bright tears on either cheek, her hands +clenched, her eyes flashing. She was going to say some wild thing; but +she did not; her voice lodged fast in her throat. She moved her lips, +unable to make a sound. +</P> + +<P> +Two of Clark's officers relieved the situation by coming up to get +orders about some matter of town government, and Alice scarcely knew +how she made her way home. Every vein in her body was humming like a +bee when she entered the house and flung herself into a chair. +</P> + +<P> +She heard Madame Roussillon and Father Beret chatting in the kitchen, +whence came a fragrance of broiling buffalo steak besprinkled with +garlic. It was Father Beret's favorite dish, wherefore his tongue ran +freely—almost as freely as that of his hostess, and when he heard +Alice come in, he called gayly to her through the kitchen door: +</P> + +<P> +"Come here, ma fille, and lend us old folks your appetite; nous avons +une tranche a la Bordelaise!" +</P> + +<P> +"I am not hungry," she managed to say, "you can eat it without me." +</P> + +<P> +The old man's quick ears caught the quaver of trouble in her voice, +much as she tried to hide it. A moment later he was standing beside her +with his hand on her head. +</P> + +<P> +"What is the matter now, little one?" he tenderly demanded. "Tell your +old Father." +</P> + +<P> +She began to cry, laying her face in her crossed arms, the tears +gushing, her whole frame aquiver, and heaving great sobs. She seemed to +shrink like a trodden flower. It touched Father Beret deeply. +</P> + +<P> +He suspected that Beverley's departure might be the cause of her +trouble; but when presently she told him what had taken place in the +fort, he shook his head gravely and frowned. +</P> + +<P> +"Colonel Clark was right, my daughter," he said after a short silence, +"and it is time for you to ponder well upon the significance of his +words. You can't always be a wilful, headstrong little girl, running +everywhere and doing just as you please. You have grown to be a woman +in stature—you must be one in fact. You know I told you at first to be +careful how you acted with—" +</P> + +<P> +"Father, dear old Father!" she cried, springing from her seat and +throwing her arms around his neck. "Have I appeared forward and +unwomanly? Tell me, Father, tell me! I did not mean to do anything—" +</P> + +<P> +"Quietly, my child, don't give way to excitement." He gently put her +from him and crossed himself—a habit of his when suddenly +perplexed—then added: +</P> + +<P> +"You have done no evil; but there are proprieties which a young woman +must not overstep. You are impulsive, too impulsive; and it will not do +to let a young man see that you—that you—" +</P> + +<P> +"Father, I understand," she interrupted, and her face grew very pale. +</P> + +<P> +Madame Roussillon came to the door, flushed with stooping over the +fire, and announced that the steak was ready. +</P> + +<P> +"Bring the wine, Alice," she added, "a bottle of Bordeaux." +</P> + +<P> +She stood for a breath of two, her red hands on her hips, looking first +at Father Beret, then at Alice. +</P> + +<P> +"Quarreling again about the romances?" she inquired. "She's been at it +again?—she's found 'em again?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," said Father Beret, with a queer, dry smile, "more romance. Yes, +she's been at it again! Now fetch the Bordeaux, little one." +</P> + +<P> +The following days were cycles of torture to Alice. She groveled in the +shadow of a great dread. It seemed to her that Beverley could not love +her, could not help looking upon her as a poor, wild, foolish girl, +unworthy of consideration. She magnified her faults and crudities, she +paraded before her inner vision her fecent improprieties, as they had +been disclosed to her, until she saw herself a sort of monstrosity at +which all mankind was gazing with disgust. Life seemed dry and +shriveled, a mere jaundiced shadow, while her love for Beverley took on +a new growth, luxuriant, all-embracing, uncontrollable. The ferment of +spirit going on in her breast was the inevitable process of +self-recognition which follows the terrible unfolding of the +passion-flower, in a nature almost absolutely simple and +unsophisticated. +</P> + +<P> +Vincennes held its breath while waiting for news from Helm's +expedition. Every day had its nimble, yet wholly imaginary account of +what had happened, skipping from mouth to mouth, and from cabin to +cabin. The French folk ran hither and thither in the persistent rain, +industriously improving the dramatic interest of each groundless +report. Alice's disturbed imagination reveled in the kaleidoscopic +terrors conjured up by these swift changes of the form and color of the +stories "from the front," all of them more or less tragic. To-day the +party is reported as having been surprised and massacred to a +man—to-morrow there has been a great fight, many killed, the result in +doubt—next day the British are defeated, and so on. The volatile +spirit of the Creoles fairly surpassed itself in ringing the changes on +stirring rumors. +</P> + +<P> +Alice scarcely left the house during the whole period of excitement and +suspense. Like a wounded bird, she withdrew herself from the light and +noisy chatter of her friends, seeking only solitude and crepuscular +nooks in which to suffer silently. Jean brought her every picturesque +bit of the ghastly gossip, thus heaping coals on the fire of her +torture. But she did not grow pale and thin. Not a dimple fled from +cheek or chin, not a ray of saucy sweetness vanished from her eyes. Her +riant health was unalterable. Indeed, the only change in her was a +sudden ripening and mellowing of her beauty, by which its colors, its +lines, its subtle undercurrents of expression were spiritualized, as if +by some powerful clarifying process. +</P> + +<P> +Tremendous is the effect of a soul surprised by passion and brought +hard up against an opposing force which dashes it back upon itself with +a flare and explosion of self-revealment. Nor shall we ever be able to +foretell just how small a circumstance, just how slight an exigency, +will suffice to bring on the great change. The shifting of a smile to +the gloom of a frown, the snap of a string on the lute of our +imagination, just at the point when a rich melody is culminating; the +waving of a hand, a vanishing face—any eclipse of tender, joyous +expectation—dashes a nameless sense of despair into the soul. And a +young girl's soul—who shall uncover its sacred depths of +sensitiveness, or analyze its capacity for suffering under such a +stroke? +</P> + +<P> +On the fifth day of March, back came the victorious Helm, having +surrounded and captured seven boats, richly loaded with provisions and +goods, and Dejean's whole force. Then again the little Creole town went +wild with rejoicing. Alice heard the news and the noise; but somehow +there was no response in her heart. She dreaded to meet Beverley; +indeed, she did not expect him to come to her. Why should he? +</P> + +<P> +M. Roussillon, who had volunteered to accompany Helm, arrived in a mood +of unlimited proportions, so far as expressing self-admiration and +abounding delight was concerned. You would have been sure that he had +done the whole deed single-handed, and brought the flotilla and +captives to town on his back. But Oncle Jazon for once held his tongue, +being too disgusted for words at not having been permitted to fire a +single shot. What was the use of going to fight and simply meeting and +escorting down the river a lot of non-combatants? +</P> + +<P> +There is something inscrutably delightful about a girl's way of +thinking one thing and doing another. Perversity, thy name is +maidenhood; and maidenhood, thy name is delicious inconsequence! When +Alice heard that Beverley had come back, safe, victorious, to be +greeted as one of the heroes of an important adventure, she immediately +ran to her room frightened and full of vague, shadowy dread, to hide +from him, yet feeling sure that he would not come! Moreover, she busied +herself with the preposterous task of putting on her most attractive +gown—the buff brocade which she wore that evening at the river +house—how long ago it seemed!—when Beverley thought her the +queenliest beauty in the world. And she was putting it on so as to look +her prettiest while hiding from him! +</P> + +<P> +It is a toss-up where happiness will make its nest. The palace, the +hut, the great lady's garden, the wild lass's bower,—skip here, alight +there,—the secret of it may never be told. And love and beauty find +lodgment, by the same inexplicable route, in the same extremes of +circumstances. The wind bloweth where it listeth, finding many a +matchless flower and many a ravishing fragrance in the wildest nooks of +the world. +</P> + +<P> +No sooner did Beverley land at the little wharf than, rushing to his +quarters, he made a hasty exchange of water-soaked apparel for +something more comfortable, and then bolted in the direction of +Roussillon place. +</P> + +<P> +Now Alice knew by the beating of her heart that he was coming. In spite +of all she could do, trying to hold on hard and fast to her doubt and +gloom, a tide of rich sweetness began to course through her heart and +break in splendid expectation from her eyes, as they looked through the +little unglazed window toward the fort. Nor had she long to wait. He +came up the narrow wet street, striding like a tall actor in the height +of a melodrama, his powerful figure erect as an Indian's, and his face +glowing with the joy of a genuine, impatient lover, who is proud of +himself because of the image he bears in his heart. +</P> + +<P> +When Alice flung wide the door (which was before Beverley could cross +the veranda), she had quite forgotten how she had gowned and bedecked +herself; and so, without a trace of self-consciousness, she flashed +upon him a full-blown flower—to his eyes the loveliest that ever +opened under heaven. +</P> + +<P> +Gaspard Roussillon, still overflowing with the importance of his part +in the capture of Dejean, came puffing homeward just in time to see a +man at the door holding Alice a-tiptoe in his arms. +</P> + +<P> +"Ziff!" he cried, as he pushed open the little front gate of the yard, +"en voila assez, vogue la galere!" +</P> + +<P> +The two forms disappeared within the house, as if moved by his roaring +voice. +</P> + +<P> +The letter to Beverley from his father was somewhat disturbing. It bore +the tidings of his mother's failing health. This made it easier for the +young Lieutenant to accept from Clark the assignment to duty with a +party detailed for the purpose of escorting Hamilton, Farnsworth and +several other British officers to Williamsburg, Virginia. It also gave +him a most powerful assistance in persuading Alice to marry him at +once, so as to go with him on what proved to be a delightful wedding +journey through the great wilderness to the Old Dominion. Spring's +verdure burst abroad on the sunny hills as they slowly went their way; +the mating birds sang in every blooming brake and grove by which they +passed, and in their joyous hearts they heard the bubbling of love's +eternal fountain. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap23"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXIII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +AND SO IT ENDED +</H3> + +<P> +Our story must end here, because at this point its current flows away +forever from old Vincennes; and it was only of the post on the Wabash +that we set out to make a record. What befell Alice and Beverley after +they went to Virginia we could go on to tell; but that would be another +story. Suffice it to say, they lived happily ever after, or at least +somewhat beyond three score and ten, and left behind them a good name +and numerous descendants. +</P> + +<P> +How Alice found out her family in Virginia, we are not informed; but +after a lapse of some years from the date of her marriage, there +appears in one of her letters a reference to an estate inherited from +her Tarleton ancestors, and her name appears in old records signed in +full, Alice Tarleton Beverley. A descendant of hers still treasures the +locket, with its broken miniature and battered crest, which won +Beverley's life from Long-Hair, the savage. Beside it, as carefully +guarded, is the Indian charm-stone that stopped Hamilton's bullet over +Alice's heart The rapiers have somehow disappeared, and there is a +tradition in the Tarleton family that they were given by Alice to +Gaspard Roussillon, who, after Madame Roussillon's death in 1790, went +to New Orleans, where he stayed a year or two before embarking for +France, whither he took with him the beautiful pair of colechemardes +and Jean the hunchback. +</P> + +<P> +Oncle Jazon lived in Vincennes many years after the war was over; but +he died at Natchez, Mississippi, when ninety-three years old. He said, +with almost his last breath, that he couldn't shoot very well, even in +his best days; but that he had, upon various occasions, "jes' kind o' +happened to hit a Injun in the lef' eye." They used to tell a story, as +late as General Harrison's stay in Vincennes, about how Oncle Jazon +buried his collection of scalps, with great funeral solemnity, as his +part of the celebration of peace and independence about the year 1784. +</P> + +<P> +Good old Father Beret died suddenly soon after Alice's marriage and +departure for Virginia. He was found lying face downward on the floor +of his cabin. Near him, on a smooth part of a puncheon, were the +mildewed fragments of a letter, which he had been arranging, as if to +read its contents. Doubtless it was the same letter brought to him by +Rene de Ronville, as recorded in an early chapter of our story. The +fragments were gathered up and buried with him. His dust lies under the +present Church of St. Xavier,—the dust of as noble a man and as true a +priest as ever sacrificed himself for the good of humanity. +</P> + +<P> +In after years Simon Kenton visited Beverley and Alice in their +Virginia home. To his dying day he was fond of describing their happy +and hospitable welcome and the luxuries to which they introduced him. +They lived in a stately white mansion on a hill overlooking a vast +tobacco plantation, where hundreds of negro slaves worked and sang by +day and frolicked by night. Their oldest child was named Fitzhugh +Gaspard. Kenton died in 1836. +</P> + +<P> +There remains but one little fact worth recording before we close the +book. In the year 1800, on the fourth of July, a certain leading French +family of Vincennes held a patriotic reunion, during which a little old +flag was produced and its story told. Some one happily proposed that it +be sent to Mrs. Alice Tarleton Beverley with a letter of explanation, +and in profound recognition of the glorious circumstances which made it +the true flag of the great Northwest. +</P> + +<P> +And so it happened that Alice's little banner went to Virginia and is +still preserved in an old mansion not very far from Monticello; but it +seems likely that the Wabash Valley will soon again possess the +precious relic. The marriage engagement of Miss Alice Beverley to a +young Indiana officer, distinguished for his patriotism and military +ardor, has been announced at the old Beverley homestead on the hill, +and the high contracting parties have planned that the wedding ceremony +shall take place under the famous little flag, on the anniversary of +dark's capture of Post Vincennes. When the bride shall be brought to +her new home on the banks of the Wabash, the flag will come with her; +but Oncle Jazon will not be on hand with his falsetto shout: "VIVE LA +BANNIERE D'ALICE ROUSSILLON! VIVE ZHORZZH VASINTON!" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR><BR> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Alice of Old Vincennes, by Maurice Thompson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ALICE OF OLD VINCENNES *** + +***** This file should be named 4097-h.htm or 4097-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/4/0/9/4097/ + +Produced by Charles Franks, Robert Rowe and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Alice of Old Vincennes + +Author: Maurice Thompson + +Posting Date: July 4, 2009 [EBook #4097] +Release Date: May, 2003 +First Posted: November 27, 2001 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ALICE OF OLD VINCENNES *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Franks, Robert Rowe and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. HTML version by Al Haines. + + + + + + + + + + +Alice of Old Vincennes + + +by + +Maurice Thompson + + + + +PREFACE + + +To M. PLACIDE VALCOUR + M. D., Ph D., LL. D. + +MY DEAR DR. VALCOUR: You gave me the Inspiration which made this story +haunt me until I wrote it. Gaspard Roussillon's letter, a mildewed +relic of the year 1788, which you so kindly permitted me to copy, as +far as it remained legible, was the point from which my imagination, +accompanied by my curiosity, set out upon a long and delightful quest. +You laughed at me when I became enthusiastic regarding the possible +historical importance at that ancient find, alas! fragmentary epistle; +but the old saying about the beatitude of him whose cachinations are +latest comes handy to me just now, and I must remind you that "I told +you so." True enough, it was history pure and simple that I had in mind +while enjoying the large hospitality of your gulf-side home. Gaspard +Roussillon's letter then appealed to my greed for materials which would +help along the making of my little book "The Story of Louisiana." +Later, however, as my frequent calls upon you for both documents and +suggestions have informed you, I fell to strumming a different guitar. +And now to you I dedicate this historical romance of old Vincennes, as +a very appropriate, however slight, recognition of your scholarly +attainments, your distinguished career in a noble profession, and your +descent from one of the earliest French families (if not the very +earliest) long resident at that strange little post on the Wabash, now +one of the most beautiful cities between the greet river and the ocean. + +Following, with ever tantalized expectancy, the broken and breezy hints +in the Roussillon letter, I pursued a will-o'-the-wisp, here, there, +yonder, until by slowly arriving increments I gathered up a large +amount of valuable facts, which when I came to compare them with the +history of Clark's conquest of the Wabash Valley, fitted amazingly well +into certain spaces heretofore left open in that important yet sadly +imperfect record. + +You will find that I was not so wrong in suspecting that Emile Jazon, +mentioned in the Roussillon letter, was a brother of Jean Jazon and a +famous scout in the time of Boone and Clark. He was, therefore, a +kinsman of yours on the maternal side, and I congratulate you. Another +thing may please you, the success which attended my long and patient +research with a view to clearing up the connection between Alice +Roussillon's romantic life, as brokenly sketched in M. Roussillon's +letter, and the capture of Vincennes by Colonel George Rogers Clark. + +Accept, then, this book, which to those who care only for history will +seem but an idle romance, while to the lovers of romance it may look +strangely like the mustiest history. In my mind, and in yours I hope, +it will always be connected with a breezy summer-house on a headland of +the Louisiana gulf coast, the rustling of palmetto leaves, the fine +flash of roses, a tumult of mocking-bird voices, the soft lilt of +Creole patois, and the endless dash and roar of a fragrant sea over +which the gulls and pelicans never ceased their flight, and beside +which you smoked while I dreamed. + +MAURICE THOMPSON. + JULY, 1900. + + + + + +Contents + + I. Under the Cherry Tree + II. A Letter from Afar + III. The Rape of the Demijohn + IV. The First Mayor of Vincennes + V. Father Gibault + VI. A Fencing Bout + VII. The Mayor's Party + VIII. The Dilemma of Captain Helm + IX. The Honors of War + X. M. Roussillon Entertains Colonel Hamilton + XI. A Sword and a Horse Pistol + XII. Manon Lescaut, and a Rapier-Thrust + XIII. A Meeting in the Wilderness + XIV. A Prisoner of Love + XV. Virtue in a Locket + XVI. Father Beret's Old Battle + XVII. A March through Cold Water + XVIII. A Duel by Moonlight + XIX. The Attack + XX. Alice's Flag + XXI. Some Transactions in Scalps + XXII. Clark Advises Alice + XXIII. And So It Ended + + + + + +Alice of Old Vincennes + + + + + +CHAPTER I + +UNDER THE CHERRY TREE + + +Up to the days of Indiana's early statehood, probably as late as 1825, +there stood, in what is now the beautiful little city of Vincennes on +the Wabash, the decaying remnant of an old and curiously gnarled cherry +tree, known as the Roussillon tree, le cerisier de Monsieur Roussillon, +as the French inhabitants called it, which as long as it lived bore +fruit remarkable for richness of flavor and peculiar dark ruby depth of +color. The exact spot where this noble old seedling from la belle +France flourished, declined, and died cannot be certainly pointed out; +for in the rapid and happy growth of Vincennes many land-marks once +notable, among them le cerisier de Monsieur Roussillon, have been +destroyed and the spots where they stood, once familiar to every eye in +old Vincennes, are now lost in the pleasant confusion of the new town. + +The security of certain land titles may have largely depended upon the +disappearance of old, fixed objects here and there. Early records were +loosely kept, indeed, scarcely kept at all; many were destroyed by +designing land speculators, while those most carefully preserved often +failed to give even a shadowy trace of the actual boundaries of the +estates held thereby; so that the position of a house or tree not +infrequently settled an important question of property rights left open +by a primitive deed. At all events the Roussillon cherry tree +disappeared long ago, nobody living knows how, and with it also +vanished, quite as mysteriously, all traces of the once important +Roussillon estate. Not a record of the name even can be found, it is +said, in church or county books. + +The old, twisted, gum-embossed cherry tree survived every other +distinguishing feature of what was once the most picturesque and +romantic place in Vincennes. Just north of it stood, in the early +French days, a low, rambling cabin surrounded by rude verandas +overgrown with grapevines. This was the Roussillon place, the most +pretentious home in all the Wabash country. Its owner was Gaspard +Roussillon, a successful trader with the Indians. He was rich, for the +time and the place, influential to a degree, a man of some education, +who had brought with him to the wilderness a bundle of books and a +taste for reading. + +From faded letters and dimly remembered talk of those who once clung +fondly to the legends and traditions of old Vincennes, it is drawn that +the Roussillon cherry tree stood not very far away from the present +site of the Catholic church, on a slight swell of ground overlooking a +wide marshy flat and the silver current of the Wabash. If the tree grew +there, then there too stood the Roussillon house with its cosy log +rooms, its clay-daubed chimneys and its grapevine-mantled verandas, +while some distance away and nearer the river the rude fort with its +huddled officers' quarters seemed to fling out over the wild landscape, +through its squinting and lopsided port-holes, a gaze of stubborn +defiance. + +Not far off was the little log church, where one good Father Beret, or +as named by the Indians, who all loved him, Father Blackrobe, performed +the services of his sacred calling; and scattered all around were the +cabins of traders, soldiers and woodsmen forming a queer little town, +the like of which cannot now be seen anywhere on the earth. + +It is not known just when Vincennes was first founded; but most +historians make the probable date very early in the eighteenth century, +somewhere between 1710 and 1730. In 1810 the Roussillon cherry tree was +thought by a distinguished botanical letter-writer to be at least fifty +years old, which would make the date of its planting about 1760. +Certainly as shown by the time-stained family records upon which this +story of ours is based, it was a flourishing and wide-topped tree in +early summer of 1778, its branches loaded to drooping with luscious +fruit. So low did the dark red clusters hang at one point that a tall +young girl standing on the ground easily reached the best ones and made +her lips purple with their juice while she ate them. + +That was long ago, measured by what has come to pass on the gentle +swell of rich country from which Vincennes overlooks the Wabash. The +new town flourishes notably and its appearance marks the latest limit +of progress. Electric cars in its streets, electric lights in its +beautiful homes, the roar of railway trains coming and going in all +directions, bicycles whirling hither and thither, the most fashionable +styles of equipages, from brougham to pony-phaeton, make the days of +flint-lock guns and buckskin trousers seem ages down the past; and yet +we are looking back over but a little more than a hundred and twenty +years to see Alice Roussillon standing under the cherry tree and +holding high a tempting cluster of fruit, while a very short, +hump-backed youth looks up with longing eyes and vainly reaches for it. +The tableau is not merely rustic, it is primitive. "Jump!" the girl is +saying in French, "jump, Jean; jump high!" + +Yes, that was very long ago, in the days when women lightly braved what +the strongest men would shrink from now. + +Alice Roussillon was tall, lithe, strongly knit, with an almost perfect +figure, judging by what the master sculptors carved for the form of +Venus, and her face was comely and winning, if not absolutely +beautiful; but the time and the place were vigorously indicated by her +dress, which was of coarse stuff and simply designed. Plainly she was a +child of the American wilderness, a daughter of old Vincennes on the +Wabash in the time that tried men's souls. + +"Jump, Jean!" she cried, her face laughing with a show of +cheek-dimples, an arching of finely sketched brows and the twinkling of +large blue-gray eyes. + +"Jump high and get them!" + +While she waved her sun-browned hand holding the cherries aloft, the +breeze blowing fresh from the southwest tossed her hair so that some +loose strands shone like rimpled flames. The sturdy little hunchback +did leap with surprising activity; but the treacherous brown hand went +higher, so high that the combined altitude of his jump and the reach of +his unnaturally long arms was overcome. Again and again he sprang +vainly into the air comically, like a long-legged, squat-bodied frog. + +"And you brag of your agility and strength, Jean," she laughingly +remarked; "but you can't take cherries when they are offered to you. +What a clumsy bungler you are." + +"I can climb and get some," he said with a hideously happy grin, and +immediately embraced the bole of the tree, up which he began scrambling +almost as fast as a squirrel. + +When he had mounted high enough to be extending a hand for a hold on a +crotch, Alice grasped his leg near the foot and pulled him down, +despite his clinging and struggling, until his hands clawed in the soft +earth at the tree's root, while she held his captive leg almost +vertically erect. + +It was a show of great strength; but Alice looked quite unconscious of +it, laughing merrily, the dimples deepening in her plump cheeks, her +forearm, now bared to the elbow, gleaming white and shapely while its +muscles rippled on account of the jerking and kicking of Jean. + +All the time she was holding the cherries high in her other hand, +shaking them by the twig to which their slender stems attached them, +and saying in a sweetly tantalizing tone: + +"What makes you climb downward after cherries. Jean? What a foolish +fellow you are, indeed, trying to grabble cherries out of the ground, +as you do potatoes! I'm sure I didn't suppose that you knew so little +as that." + +Her French was colloquial, but quite good, showing here and there what +we often notice in the speech of those who have been educated in +isolated places far from that babel of polite energies which we call +the world; something that may be described as a bookish cast appearing +oddly in the midst of phrasing distinctly rustic and local,--a +peculiarity not easy to transfer from one language to another. + +Jean the hunchback was a muscular little deformity and a wonder of good +nature. His head looked unnaturally large, nestling grotesquely between +the points of his lifted and distorted shoulders, like a shaggy black +animal in the fork of a broken tree. He was bellicose in his amiable +way and never knew just when to acknowledge defeat. How long he might +have kept up the hopeless struggle with the girl's invincible grip +would be hard to guess. His release was caused by the approach of a +third person, who wore the robe of a Catholic priest and the +countenance of a man who had lived and suffered a long time without +much loss of physical strength and endurance. + +This was Pere Beret, grizzly, short, compact, his face deeply lined, +his mouth decidedly aslant on account of some lost teeth, and his eyes +set deep under gray, shaggy brows. Looking at him when his features +were in repose a first impression might not have been favorable; but +seeing him smile or hearing him speak changed everything. His voice was +sweetness itself and his smile won you on the instant. Something like a +pervading sorrow always seemed to be close behind his eyes and under +his speech; yet he was a genial, sometimes almost jolly, man, very +prone to join in the lighter amusements of his people. + +"Children, children, my children," he called out as he approached along +a little pathway leading up from the direction of the church, "what are +you doing now? Bah there, Alice, will you pull Jean's leg off?" + +At first they did not hear him, they were so nearly deafened by their +own vocal discords. + +"Why are you standing on your head with your feet so high in air, +Jean?" he added. "It's not a polite attitude in the presence of a young +lady. Are you a pig, that you poke your nose in the dirt?" + +Alice now turned her bright head and gave Pere Beret a look of frank +welcome, which at the same time shot a beam of willful self-assertion. + +"My daughter, are you trying to help Jean up the tree feet foremost?" +the priest added, standing where he had halted just outside of the +straggling yard fence. + +He had his hands on his hips and was quietly chuckling at the scene +before him, as one who, although old, sympathized with the natural and +harmless sportiveness of young people and would as lief as not join in +a prank or two. + +"You see what I'm doing, Father Beret," said Alice, "I am preventing a +great damage to you. You will maybe lose a good many cherry pies and +dumplings if I let Jean go. He was climbing the tree to pilfer the +fruit; so I pulled him down, you understand." + +"Ta, ta!" exclaimed the good man, shaking his gray head; "we must +reason with the child. Let go his leg, daughter, I will vouch for him; +eh, Jean?" + +Alice released the hunchback, then laughed gayly and tossed the cluster +of cherries into his hand, whereupon he began munching them voraciously +and talking at the same time. + +"I knew I could get them," he boasted; "and see, I have them now." He +hopped around, looking like a species of ill-formed monkey. + +Pere Beret came and leaned on the low fence close to Alice. She was +almost as tall as he. + +"The sun scorches to-day," he said, beginning to mop his furrowed face +with a red-flowered cotton handkerchief; "and from the look of the sky +yonder," pointing southward, "it is going to bring on a storm. How is +Madame Roussillon to-day?" + +"She is complaining as she usually does when she feels extremely well," +said Alice; "that's why I had to take her place at the oven and bake +pies. I got hot and came out to catch a bit of this breeze. Oh, but you +needn't smile and look greedy, Pere Beret, the pies are not for your +teeth!" + +"My daughter, I am not a glutton, I hope; I had meat not two hours +since--some broiled young squirrels with cress, sent me by Rene de +Ronville. He never forgets his old father." + +"Oh, I never forget you either, mon pere; I thought of you to-day every +time I spread a crust and filled it with cherries; and when I took out +a pie all brown and hot, the red juice bubbling out of it so good +smelling and tempting, do you know what I said to myself?" + +"How could I know, my child?" + +"Well, I thought this: 'Not a single bite of that pie does Father Beret +get.'" + +"Why so, daughter?" + +"Because you said it was bad of me to read novels and told Mother +Roussillon to hide them from me. I've had any amount of trouble about +it." + +"Ta, ta! read the good books that I gave you. They will soon kill the +taste for these silly romances." + +"I tried," said Alice; "I tried very hard, and it's no use; your books +are dull and stupidly heavy. What do I care about something that a +queer lot of saints did hundreds of years ago in times of plague and +famine? Saints must have been poky people, and it is poky people who +care to read about them, I think. I like reading about brave, heroic +men and beautiful women, and war and love." + +Pere Beret looked away with a curious expression in his face, his eyes +half closed. + +"And I'll tell you now, Father Beret," Alice went on after a pause, "no +more claret and pies do you get until I can have my own sort of books +back again to read as I please." She stamped her moccasin-shod foot +with decided energy. + +The good priest broke into a hearty laugh, and taking off his cap of +grass-straw mechanically scratched his bald head. He looked at the +tall, strong girl before him for a moment or two, and it would have +been hard for the best physiognomist to decide just how much of +approval and how much of disapproval that look really signified. + +Although, as Father Beret had said, the sun's heat was violent, causing +that gentle soul to pass his bundled handkerchief with a wiping +circular motion over his bald and bedewed pate, the wind was momently +freshening, while up from behind the trees on the horizon beyond the +river, a cloud was rising blue-black, tumbled, and grim against the sky. + +"Well," said the priest, evidently trying hard to exchange his laugh +for a look of regretful resignation, "you will have your own way, my +child, and--" + +"Then you will have pies galore and no end of claret!" she interrupted, +at the same time stepping to the withe-tied and peg-latched gate of the +yard and opening it. "Come in, you dear, good Father, before the rain +shall begin, and sit with me on the gallery" (the creole word for +veranda) "till the storm is over." + +Father Beret seemed not loath to enter, albeit he offered a weak +protest against delaying some task he had in hand. Alice reached forth +and pulled him in, then reclosed the queer little gate and pegged it. +She caressingly passed her arm through his and looked into his +weather-stained old face with childlike affection. + +There was not a photographer's camera to be had in those days; but what +if a tourist with one in hand could have been there to take a snapshot +at the priest and the maiden as they walked arm in arm to that squat +little veranda! The picture to-day would be worth its weight in a +first-water diamond. It would include the cabin, the cherry-tree, a +glimpse of the raw, wild background and a sharp portrait-group of Pere +Beret, Alice, and Jean the hunchback. To compare it with a photograph +of the same spot now would give a perfect impression of the historic +atmosphere, color and conditions which cannot be set in words. But we +must not belittle the power of verbal description. What if a thoroughly +trained newspaper reporter had been given the freedom of old Vincennes +on the Wabash during the first week of June, 1778, and we now had his +printed story! What a supplement to the photographer's pictures! Well, +we have neither photographs nor graphic report; yet there they are +before us, the gowned and straw-capped priest, the fresh-faced, +coarsely-clad and vigorous girl, the grotesque little hunchback, all +just as real as life itself. Each of us can see them, even with closed +eyes. Led by that wonderful guide, Imagination, we step back a century +and more to look over a scene at once strangely attractive and +unspeakably forlorn. + +What was it that drew people away from the old countries, from the +cities, the villages and the vineyards of beautiful France, for +example, to dwell in the wilderness, amid wild beasts and wilder savage +Indians, with a rude cabin for a home and the exposures and hardships +of pioneer life for their daily experience? + +Men like Gaspard Roussillon are of a distinct stamp. Take him as he +was. Born in France, on the banks of the Rhone near Avignon, he came as +a youth to Canada, whence he drifted on the tide of adventure this way +and that, until at last he found himself, with a wife, at Post +Vincennes, that lonely picket of religion and trade, which was to +become the center of civilizing energy for the great Northwestern +Territory. M. Roussillon had no children of his own; so his kind heart +opened freely to two fatherless and motherless waifs. These were Alice, +now called Alice Roussillon, and the hunchback, Jean. The former was +twelve years old, when he adopted her, a child of Protestant parents, +while Jean had been taken, when a mere babe, after his parents had been +killed and scalped by Indians. Madame Roussillon, a professed invalid, +whose appetite never failed and whose motherly kindness expressed +itself most often through strains of monotonous falsetto scolding, was +a woman of little education and no refinement; while her husband clung +tenaciously to his love of books, especially to the romances most in +vogue when he took leave of France. + +M. Roussillon had been, in a way, Alice's teacher, though not greatly +inclined to abet Father Beret in his kindly efforts to make a Catholic +of the girl, and most treacherously disposed toward the good priest in +the matter of his well-meant attempts to prevent her from reading and +re-reading the aforesaid romances. But for many weeks past Gaspard +Roussillon had been absent from home, looking after his trading schemes +with the Indians; and Pere Beret acting on the suggestion of the +proverb about the absent cat and the playing mouse, had formed an +alliance offensive and defensive with Madame Roussillon, in which it +was strictly stipulated that all novels and romances were to be +forcibly taken and securely hidden away from Mademoiselle Alice; which, +to the best of Madame Roussillon's ability, had accordingly been done. + +Now, while the wind strengthened and the softly booming summer shower +came on apace, the heavy cloud lifting as it advanced and showing under +it the dark gray sheet of the rain, Pere Beret and Alice sat under the +clapboard roof behind the vines of the veranda and discussed, what was +generally uppermost in the priest's mind upon such occasions, the good +of Alice's immortal soul,--a subject not absorbingly interesting to her +at any time. + +It was a standing grief to the good old priest, this strange perversity +of the girl in the matter of religious duty, as he saw it. True she had +a faithful guardian in Gaspard Roussillon; but, much as he had done to +aid the church's work in general, for he was always vigorous and +liberal, he could not be looked upon as a very good Catholic; and of +course his influence was not effective in the right direction. But then +Pere Beret saw no reason why, in due time and with patient work, aided +by Madame Roussillon and notwithstanding Gaspard's treachery, he might +not safely lead Alice, whom he loved as a dear child, into the arms of +the Holy Church, to serve which faithfully, at all hazards and in all +places, was his highest aim. + +"Ah, my child," he was saying, "you are a sweet, good girl, after all, +much better than you make yourself out to be. Your duty will control +you; you do it nobly at last, my child." + +"True enough, Father Beret, true enough!" she responded, laughing, +"your perception is most excellent, which I will prove to you +immediately." + +She rose while speaking and went into the house. + +"I'll return in a minute or two," she called back from a region which +Pere Beret well knew was that of the pantry; "don't get impatient and +go away!" + +Pere Beret laughed softly at the preposterous suggestion that he would +even dream of going out in the rain, which was now roaring heavily on +the loose board roof, and miss a cut of cherry pie--a cherry pie of +Alice's making! And the Roussillon claret, too, was always excellent. +"Ah, child," he thought, "your old Father is not going away." + +She presently returned, bearing on a wooden tray a ruby-stained pie and +a short, stout bottle flanked by two glasses. + +"Of course I'm better than I sometimes appear to be," she said, almost +humbly, but with mischief still in her voice and eyes, "and I shall get +to be very good when I have grown old. The sweetness of my present +nature is in this pie." + +She set the tray on a three-legged stool which she pushed close to him. + +"There now," she said, "let the rain come, you'll be happy, rain or +shine, while the pie and wine last, I'll be bound." + +Pere Beret fell to eating right heartily, meantime handing Jean a +liberal piece of the luscious pie. + +"It is good, my daughter, very good, indeed," the priest remarked with +his mouth full. "Madame Roussillon has not neglected your culinary +education." Alice filled a glass for him. It was Bordeaux and very +fragrant. The bouquet reminded him of his sunny boyhood in France, of +his journey up to Paris and of his careless, joy-brimmed youth in the +gay city. How far away, how misty, yet how thrillingly sweet it all +was! He sat with half closed eyes awhile, sipping and dreaming. + +The rain lasted nearly two hours; but the sun was out again when Pere +Beret took leave of his young friend. They had been having another +good-natured quarrel over the novels, and Madame Roussillon had come +out on the veranda to join in. + +"I've hidden every book of them," said Madame, a stout and swarthy +woman whose pearl-white teeth were her only mark of beauty. Her voice +indicated great stubbornness. + +"Good, good, you have done your very duty, Madame," said Pere Beret, +with immense approval in his charming voice. + +"But, Father, you said awhile ago that I should have my own way about +this," Alice spoke up with spirit; "and on the strength of that remark +of yours I gave you the pie and wine. You've eaten my pie and swigged +the wine, and now--" + +Pere Beret put on his straw cap, adjusting it carefully over the +shining dome out of which had come so many thoughts of wisdom, kindness +and human sympathy. This done, he gently laid a hand on Alice's bright +crown of hair and said: + +"Bless you, my child. I will pray to the Prince of Peace for you as +long as I live, and I will never cease to beg the Holy Virgin to +intercede for you and lead you to the Holy Church." + +He turned and went away; but when he was no farther than the gate, +Alice called out: + +"O Father Beret, I forgot to show you something!" + +She ran forth to him and added in a low tone: + +"You know that Madame Roussillon has hidden all the novels from me." + +She was fumbling to get something out of the loose front of her dress. + +"Well, just take a glance at this, will you?" and she showed him a +little leather bound volume, much cracked along the hinges of the back. + +It was Manon Lescaut, that dreadful romance by the famous Abbe Prevost. + +Pere Beret frowned and went his way shaking his head; but before he +reached his little hut near the church he was laughing in spite of +himself. + +"She's not so bad, not so bad," he thought aloud, "it's only her young, +independent spirit taking the bit for a wild run. In her sweet soul she +is as good as she is pure." + + + + +CHAPTER II + +A LETTER FROM AFAR + + +Although Father Beret was for many years a missionary on the Wabash, +most of the time at Vincennes, the fact that no mention of him can be +found in the records is not stranger than many other things connected +with the old town's history. He was, like nearly all the men of his +calling in that day, a self-effacing and modest hero, apparently quite +unaware that he deserved attention. He and Father Gibault, whose name +is so beautifully and nobly connected with the stirring achievements of +Colonel George Rogers Clark, were close friends and often companions. +Probably Father Gibault himself, whose fame will never fade, would have +been to-day as obscure as Father Beret, but for the opportunity given +him by Clark to fix his name in the list of heroic patriots who +assisted in winning the great Northwest from the English. + +Vincennes, even in the earliest days of its history, somehow kept up +communication and, considering the circumstances, close relations with +New Orleans. It was much nearer Detroit; but the Louisiana colony stood +next to France in the imagination and longing of priests, voyageurs, +coureurs de bois and reckless adventurers who had Latin blood in their +veins. Father Beret first came to Vincennes from New Orleans, the +voyage up the Mississippi, Ohio, and Wabash, in a pirogue, lasting +through a whole summer and far into the autumn. Since his arrival the +post had experienced many vicissitudes, and at the time in which our +story opens the British government claimed right of dominion over the +great territory drained by the Wabash, and, indeed, over a large, +indefinitely outlined part of the North American continent lying above +Mexico; a claim just then being vigorously questioned, flintlock in +hand, by the Anglo-American colonies. + +Of course the handful of French people at Vincennes, so far away from +every center of information, and wholly occupied with their trading, +trapping and missionary work, were late finding out that war existed +between England and her colonies. Nor did it really matter much with +them, one way or another. They felt secure in their lonely situation, +and so went on selling their trinkets, weapons, domestic implements, +blankets and intoxicating liquors to the Indians, whom they held bound +to them with a power never possessed by any other white dwellers in the +wilderness. Father Beret was probably subordinate to Father Gibault. At +all events the latter appears to have had nominal charge of Vincennes, +and it can scarcely be doubted that he left Father Beret on the Wabash, +while he went to live and labor for a time at Kaskaskia beyond the +plains of Illinois. + +It is a curious fact that religion and the power of rum and brandy +worked together successfully for a long time in giving the French posts +almost absolute influence over the wild and savage men by whom they +were always surrounded. The good priests deprecated the traffic in +liquors and tried hard to control it, but soldiers of fortune and +reckless traders were in the majority, their interests taking +precedence of all spiritual demands and carrying everything along. What +could the brave missionaries do but make the very best of a perilous +situation? + +In those days wine was drunk by almost everybody, its use at table and +as an article of incidental refreshment and social pleasure being +practically universal; wherefore the steps of reform in the matter of +intemperance were but rudimentary and in all places beset by well-nigh +insurmountable difficulties. In fact the exigencies of frontier life +demanded, perhaps, the very stimulus which, when over indulged in, +caused so much evil. Malaria loaded the air, and the most efficacious +drugs now at command were then undiscovered or could not be had. +Intoxicants were the only popular specific. Men drank to prevent +contracting ague, drank again, between rigors, to cure it, and yet +again to brace themselves during convalescence. + +But if the effect of rum as a beverage had strong allurement for the +white man, it made an absolute slave of the Indian, who never hesitated +for a moment to undertake any task, no matter how hard, bear any +privation, even the most terrible, or brave any danger, although it +might demand reckless desperation, if in in the end a well filled +bottle or jug appeared as his reward. + +Of course the traders did not overlook such a source of power. +Alcoholic liquor became their implement of almost magical work in +controlling the lives, labors, and resources of the Indians. The +priests with their captivating story of the Cross had a large influence +in softening savage natures and averting many an awful danger; but when +everything else failed, rum always came to the rescue of a threatened +French post. + +We need not wonder, then, when we are told that Father Beret made no +sign of distress or disapproval upon being informed of the arrival of a +boat loaded with rum, brandy or gin. It was Rene de Ronville who +brought the news, the same Rene already mentioned as having given the +priest a plate of squirrels. He was sitting on the doorsill of Father +Beret's hut, when the old man reached it after his visit at the +Roussillon home, and held in his hand a letter which he appeared proud +to deliver. + +"A batteau and seven men, with a cargo of liquor, came during the +rain," he said, rising and taking off his curious cap, which, made of +an animal's skin, had a tail jauntily dangling from its crown-tip; "and +here is a letter for you, Father. The batteau is from New Orleans. +Eight men started with it; but one went ashore to hunt and was killed +by an Indian." + +Father Beret took the letter without apparent interest and said: + +"Thank you, my son, sit down again; the door-log is not wetter than the +stools inside; I will sit by you." + +The wind had driven a flood of rain into the cabin through the open +door, and water twinkled in puddles here and there on the floor's +puncheons. They sat down side by side, Father Beret fingering the +letter in an absent-minded way. + +"There'll be a jolly time of it to-night," Rene de Ronville remarked, +"a roaring time." + +"Why do you say that, my son?" the priest demanded. + +"The wine and the liquor," was the reply; "much drinking will be done. +The men have all been dry here for some time, you know, and are as +thirsty as sand. They are making ready to enjoy themselves down at the +river house." + +"Ah, the poor souls!" sighed Father Beret, speaking as one whose +thoughts were wandering far away. + +"Why don't you read your letter, Father?" Rene added. + +The priest started, turned the soiled square of paper over in his hand, +then thrust it inside his robe. + +"It can wait," he said. Then, changing his voice; "the squirrels you +gave me were excellent, my son. It was good of you to think of me," he +added, laying his hand on Rene's arm. + +"Oh, I'm glad if I have pleased you, Father Beret, for you are so kind +to me always, and to everybody. When I killed the squirrels I said to +myself: 'These are young, juicy and tender, Father Beret must have +these,' so I brought them along." + +The young man rose to go; for he was somehow impressed that Father +Beret must wish opportunity to read his letter, and would prefer to be +left alone with it. But the priest pulled him down again. + +"Stay a while," he said, "I have not had a talk with you for some time." + +Rene looked a trifle uneasy. + +"You will not drink any to-night, my son," Father Beret added. "You +must not; do you hear?" + +The young man's eyes and mouth at once began to have a sullen +expression; evidently he was not pleased and felt rebellious; but it +was hard for him to resist Father Beret, whom he loved, as did every +soul in the post. The priest's voice was sweet and gentle, yet positive +to a degree. Rene did not say a word. + +"Promise me that you will not taste liquor this night," Father Beret +went on, grasping the young man's arm more firmly; "promise me, my son, +promise me." + +Still Rene was silent. The men did not look at each other, but gazed +away across the country beyond the Wabash to where a glory from the +western sun flamed on the upper rim of a great cloud fragment creeping +along the horizon. Warm as the day had been, a delicious coolness now +began to temper the air; for the wind had shifted into the northwest. A +meadowlark sang dreamingly in the wild grass of the low lands hard by, +over which two or three prairie hawks hovered with wings that beat +rapidly. + +"Eh bien, I must go," said Rene presently, getting to his feet nimbly +and evading Father Beret's hand which would have held him. + +"Not to the river house, my son?" said the priest appealingly. + +"No, not there; I have another letter; one for M'sieu' Roussillon; it +came by the boat too. I go to give it to Madame Roussillon." + +Rene de Ronville was a dark, weather-stained young fellow, neither tall +nor short, wearing buckskin moccasins, trousers and tunic. His eyes +were dark brown, keen, quick-moving, set well under heavy brows. A +razor had probably never touched his face, and his thin, curly beard +crinkled over his strongly turned cheeks and chin, while his moustaches +sprang out quite fiercely above his full-lipped, almost sensual mouth. +He looked wiry and active, a man not to be lightly reckoned with in a +trial of bodily strength and will power. + +Father Beret's face and voice changed on the instant. He laughed dryly +and said, with a sly gleam in his eyes: + +"You could spend the evening pleasantly with Madame Roussillon and +Jean. Jean, you know, is a very amusing fellow." + +Rene brought forth the letter of which he had spoken and held it up +before Father Beret's face. + +"Maybe you think I haven't any letter for M'sieu' Roussillon," he +blurted; "and maybe you are quite certain that I am not going to the +house to take the letter." + +"Monsieur Roussillon is absent, you know," Father Beret suggested. "But +cherry pies are just as good while he's gone as when he's at home, and +I happen to know that there are some particularly delicious ones in the +pantry of Madame Roussillon. Mademoiselle Alice gave me a juicy sample; +but then I dare say you do not care to have your pie served by her +hand. It would interfere with your appetite; eh, my son?" + +Rene turned short about wagging his head and laughing, and so with his +back to the priest he strode away along the wet path leading to the +Roussillon place. + +Father Beret gazed after him, his face relaxing to a serious expression +in which a trace of sadness and gloom spread like an elusive twilight. +He took out his letter, but did not glance at it, simply holding it +tightly gripped in his sinewy right hand. Then his old eyes stared +vacantly, as eyes do when their sight is cast back many, many years +into the past. The missive was from beyond the sea--he knew the +handwriting--a waft of the flowers of Avignon seemed to rise out of it, +as if by the pressure of his grasp. + +A stoop-shouldered, burly man went by, leading a pair of goats, a kid +following. He was making haste excitedly, keeping the goats at a lively +trot. + +"Bon jour, Pere Beret," he flung out breezily, and walked rapidly on. + +"Ah, ah; his mind is busy with the newly arrived cargo," thought the +old priest, returning the salutation; "his throat aches for the +liquor,--the poor man." + +Then he read again the letter's superscription and made a faltering +move, as if to break the seal. His hands trembled violently, his face +looked gray and drawn. + +"Come on, you brutes," cried the receding man, jerking the thongs of +skin by which he led the goats. + +Father Beret rose and turned into his damp little hut, where the light +was dim on the crucifix hanging opposite the door against the +clay-daubed wall. It was a bare, unsightly, clammy room; a rude bed on +one side, a shelf for table and two or three wooden stools constituting +the furniture, while the uneven puncheons of the floor wabbled and +clattered under the priest's feet. + +An unopened letter is always a mysterious thing. We who receive three +or four mails every day, scan each little paper square with a +speculative eye. Most of us know what sweet uncertainty hangs on the +opening of envelopes whose contents may be almost anything except +something important, and what a vague yet delicious thrill comes with +the snip of the paper knife; but if we be in a foreign land and long +years absent from home, then is a letter subtly powerful to move us, +even more before it is opened than after it is read. + +It had been many years since a letter from home had come to Father +Beret. The last, before the one now in his hand, had made him ill of +nostalgia, fairly shaking his iron determination never to quit for a +moment his life work as a missionary. Ever since that day he had found +it harder to meet the many and stern demands of a most difficult and +exacting duty. Now the mere touch of the paper in his hand gave him a +sense of returning weakness, dissatisfaction, and longing. The home of +his boyhood, the rushing of the Rhone, a seat in a shady nook of the +garden, Madeline, his sister, prattling beside him, and his mother +singing somewhere about the house--it all came back and went over him +and through him, making his heart sink strangely, while another voice, +the sweetest ever heard--but she was ineffable and her memory a +forbidden fragrance. + +Father Beret tottered across the forlorn little room and knelt before +the crucifix holding his clasped hands high, the letter pressed between +them. His lips moved in prayer, but made no sound; his whole frame +shook violently. + +It would be unpardonable desecration to enter the chamber of Father +Beret's soul and look upon his sacred and secret trouble; nor must we +even speculate as to its particulars. The good old man writhed and +wrestled before the cross for a long time, until at last he seemed to +receive the calmness and strength he prayed for so fervently; then he +rose, tore the letter into pieces so small that not a word remained +whole, and squeezed them so firmly together that they were compressed +into a tiny, solid ball, which he let fall through a crack between the +floor puncheons. After waiting twenty years for that letter, hungry as +his heart was, he did not even open it when at last it arrived. He +would never know what message it bore. The link between him and the old +sweet days was broken forever. Now with God's help he could do his work +to the end. + +He went and stood in his doorway, leaning against the side. Was it a +mere coincidence that the meadowlark flew up just then from its +grass-tuft, and came to the roof's comb overhead, where it lit with a +light yet audible stroke of its feet and began fluting its tender, +lonesome-sounding strain? If Father Beret heard it he gave no sign of +recognition; very likely he was thinking about the cargo of liquor and +how he could best counteract its baleful influence. He looked toward +the "river house," as the inhabitants had named a large shanty, which +stood on a bluff of the Wabash not far from where the road-bridge at +present crosses, and saw men gathering there. + +Meantime Rene de Ronville had delivered Madame Roussillon's letter with +due promptness. Of course such a service demanded pie and claret. What +still better pleased him, Alice chose to be more amiable than was +usually her custom when he called. They sat together in the main room +of the house where M. Roussillon kept his books, his curiosities of +Indian manufacture collected here and there, and his surplus firearms, +swords, pistols, and knives, ranged not unpleasingly around the walls. + +Of course, along with the letter, Rene bore the news, so interesting to +himself, of the boat's tempting cargo just discharged at the river +house. Alice understood her friend's danger--felt it in the intense +enthusiasm of his voice and manner. She had once seen the men carousing +on a similar occasion when she was but a child, and the impression then +made still remained in her memory. Instinctively she resolved to hold +Rene by one means or another away from the river house if possible. So +she managed to keep him occupied eating pie, sipping watered claret and +chatting until night came on and Madame Roussillon brought in a lamp. +Then he hurriedly snatched his cap from the floor beside him and got up +to go. + +"Come and look at my handiwork," Alice quickly said; "my shelf of pies, +I mean." She led him to the pantry, where a dozen or more of the cherry +pates were ranged in order. "I made every one of them this morning and +baked them; had them all out of the oven before the rain came up. Don't +you think me a wonder of cleverness and industry? Father Beret was +polite enough to flatter me; but you--you just eat what you want and +say nothing! You are not polite, Monsieur Rene de Ronville." + +"I've been showing you what I thought of your goodies," said Rene; +"eating's better than talking, you know; so I'll just take one more," +and he helped himself. "Isn't that compliment enough?" + +"A few such would make me another hot day's work," she replied, +laughing. "Pretty talk would be cheaper and more satisfactory in the +long run. Even the flour in these pates I ground with my own hand in an +Indian mortar. That was hard work too." + +By this time Rene had forgotten the river house and the liquor. With +softening eyes he gazed at Alice's rounded cheeks and sheeny hair over +which the light from the curious earthen lamp she bore in her hand +flickered most effectively. He loved her madly; but his fear of her was +more powerful than his love. She gave him no opportunity to speak what +he felt, having ever ready a quick, bright change of mood and manner +when she saw him plucking up courage to address her in a sentimental +way. Their relations had long been somewhat familiar, which was but +natural, considering their youth and the circumstances of their daily +life; but Alice somehow had kept a certain distance open between them, +so that very warm friendship could not suddenly resolve itself into a +troublesome passion on Rene's part. + +We need not attempt to analyze a young girl's feeling and motives in +such a case; what she does and what she thinks are mysteries even to +her own understanding. The influence most potent in shaping the +rudimentary character of Alice Tarleton (called Roussillon) had been +only such as a lonely frontier post could generate. Her associations +with men and women had, with few exceptions, been unprofitable in an +educational way, while her reading in M. Roussillon's little library +could not have given her any practical knowledge of manners and life. + +She was fond of Rene de Ronville, and it would have been quite in +accordance with the law of ordinary human forces, indeed almost the +inevitable thing, for her to love and marry him in the fullness of +time; but her imagination was outgrowing her surroundings. Books had +given her a world of romance wherein she moved at will, meeting a class +of people far different from those who actually shared her experiences. +Her day-dreams and her night-dreams partook much more of what she had +read and imagined than of what she had seen and heard in the raw little +world around her. + +Her affection for Rene was interfered with by her large admiration for +the heroic, masterful and magnetic knights who charged through the +romances of the Roussillon collection. For although Rene was +unquestionably brave and more than passably handsome, he had no armor, +no war-horse, no shining lance and embossed shield--the difference, +indeed, was great. + +Those who love to contend against the fatal drift of our age toward +over-education could find in Alice Tarleton, foster daughter of Gaspard +Roussillon, a primitive example, an elementary case in point. What +could her book education do but set up stumbling blocks in the path of +happiness? She was learning to prefer the ideal to the real. Her soul +was developing itself as best it could for the enjoyment of conditions +and things absolutely foreign to the possibilities of her lot in life. + +Perhaps it was the light and heat of imagination, shining out through +Alice's face, which gave her beauty such a fascinating power. Rene saw +it and felt its electrical stroke send a sweet shiver through his +heart, while he stood before her. + +"You are very beautiful to-night Alice," he presently said, with a +suddenness which took even her alertness by surprise. A flush rose to +his dark face and immediately gave way to a grayish pallor. His heart +came near stopping on the instant, he was so shocked by his own daring; +but he laid a hand on her hair, stroking it softly. + +Just a moment she was at a loss, looking a trifle embarrassed, then +with a merry laugh she stepped aside and said: + +"That sounds better, Monsieur Rene de Ronville much better; you will be +as polite as Father Beret after a little more training." + +She slipped past him while speaking and made her way back again to the +main room, whence she called to him: + +"Come here, I've something to show you." + +He obeyed, a sheepish trace on his countenance betraying his +self-consciousness. + +When he came near Alice she was taking from its buckhorn hook on the +wall a rapier, one of a beautiful pair hanging side by side. + +"Papa Roussillon gave me these," she said with great animation. "He +bought them of an Indian who had kept them a long time; where he came +across them he would not tell; but look how beautiful! Did you ever see +anything so fine?" + +Guard and hilt were of silver; the blade, although somewhat corroded, +still showed the fine wavy lines of Damascus steel and traces of +delicate engraving, while in the end of the hilt was set a large oval +turquoise. + +"A very queer present to give a girl," said Rene; "what can you do with +them?" + +A captivating flash of playfulness came into her face and she sprang +backward, giving the sword a semicircular turn with her wrist. The +blade sent forth a keen hiss as it cut the air close, very close to +Rene's nose. He jerked his head and flung up his hand. + +She laughed merrily, standing beautifully poised before him, the +rapier's point slightly elevated. Her short skirt left her feet and +ankles free to show their graceful proportions and the perfect pose in +which they held her supple body. + +"You see what I can do with the colechemarde, eh, Monsieur Rene de +Ronville!" she exclaimed, giving him a smile which fairly blinded him. +"Notice how very near to your neck I can thrust and yet not touch it. +Now!" + +She darted the keen point under his chin and drew it away so quickly +that the stroke was like a glint of sunlight. + +"What do you think of that as a nice and accurate piece of skill?" + +She again resumed her pose, the right foot advanced, the left arm well +back, her lissome, finely developed body leaning slightly forward. + +Rene's hands were up before his face in a defensive position, palms +outward. + +Just then a chorus of men's voices sounded in the distance. The river +house was beginning its carousal with a song. Alice let fall her +sword's point and listened. + +Rene looked about for his cap. + +"I must be going," he said. + +Another and louder swish of the rapier made him pirouette and dodge +again with great energy. + +"Don't," he cried, "that's dangerous; you'll put out my eyes; I never +saw such a girl!" + +She laughed at him and kept on whipping the air dangerously near his +eyes, until she had driven him backward as far as he could squeeze +himself into a comer of the room. + +Madame Roussillon came to the door from the kitchen and stood looking +in and laughing, with her hands on her hips. By this time the rapier +was making a criss-cross pattern of flashing lines close to the young +man's head while Alice, in the enjoyment of her exercise, seemed to +concentrate all the glowing rays of her beauty in her face, her eyes +dancing merrily. + +"Quit, now, Alice," he begged, half in fun and half in abject fear; +"please quit--I surrender!" + +She thrust to the wall on either side of him, then springing lightly +backward a pace, stood at guard. Her thick yellow hair had fallen over +her neck and shoulders in a loose wavy mass, out of which her face +beamed with a bewitching effect upon her captive. + +Rene, glad enough to have a cessation of his peril, stood laughing +dryly; but the singing down at the river house was swelling louder and +he made another movement to go. + +"You surrendered, you remember," cried Alice, renewing the sword-play; +"sit down on the chair there and make yourself comfortable. You are not +going down yonder to-night; you are going to stay here and talk with me +and Mother Roussillon; we are lonesome and you are good company." + +A shot rang out keen and clear; there was a sudden tumult that broke up +the distant singing; and presently more firing at varying intervals cut +the night air from the direction of the river. + +Jean, the hunchback, came in to say that there was a row of some sort; +he had seen men running across the common as if in pursuit of a +fugitive; but the moonlight was so dim that he could not be sure what +it all meant. + +Rene picked up his cap and bolted out of the house. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE RAPE OF THE DEMIJOHN + + +The row down at the river house was more noise than fight, so far as +results seemed to indicate. It was all about a small dame jeanne of +fine brandy, which an Indian by the name of Long-Hair had seized and +run off with at the height of the carousal. He must have been soberer +than his pursuers, or naturally fleeter; for not one of them could +catch him, or even keep long in sight of him. Some pistols were emptied +while the race was on, and two or three of the men swore roundly to +having seen Long-Hair jump sidewise and stagger, as if one of the shots +had taken effect. But, although the moon was shining, he someway +disappeared, they could not understand just how, far down beside the +river below the fort and the church. + +It was not a very uncommon thing for an Indian to steal what he wanted, +and in most cases light punishment followed conviction; but it was felt +to be a capital offense for an Indian or anybody else to rape a +demijohn of fine brandy, especially one sent as a present, by a friend +in New Orleans, to Lieutenant Governor Abbott, who had until recently +been the commandant of the post. Every man at the river house +recognized and resented the enormity of Long-Hair's crime and each was, +for the moment, ready to be his judge and his executioner. He had +broken at once every rule of frontier etiquette and every bond of +sympathy. Nor was Long-Hair ignorant of the danger involved in his +daring enterprise. He had beforehand carefully and stolidly weighed all +the conditions, and true to his Indian nature, had concluded that a +little wicker covered bottle of brandy was well worth the risk of his +life. So he had put himself in condition for a great race by slipping +out and getting rid of his weapons and all surplus weight of clothes. + +This incident brought the drinking bout at the river house to a sudden +end; but nothing further came of it that night, and no record of it +would be found in these pages, but for the fact that Long-Hair +afterwards became an important character in the stirring historical +drama which had old Vincennes for its center of energy. + +Rene de Ronville probably felt himself in bad luck when he arrived at +the river house just too late to share in the liquor or to join in +chasing the bold thief. He listened with interest, however, to the +story of Long-Hair's capture of the commandant's demijohn and could not +refrain from saying that if he had been present there would have been a +quite different result. + +"I would have shot him before he got to that door," he said, drawing +his heavy flint-lock pistol and going through the motions of one aiming +quickly and firing. Indeed, so vigorously in earnest was he with the +pantomime, that he actually did fire, unintentionally of course,--the +ball burying itself in the door-jamb. + +He was laughed at by those present for being more excited than they who +witnessed the whole thing. One of them, a leathery-faced and grizzled +old sinner, leered at him contemptuously and said in queer French, with +a curious accent caught from long use of backwoods English: + +"Listen how the boy brags! Ye might think, to hear Rene talk, that he +actually amounted to a big pile." + +This personage was known to every soul in Vincennes as Oncle Jazon, and +when Oncle Jazon spoke the whole town felt bound to listen. + +"An' how well he shoots, too," he added with an intolerable wink; +"aimed at the door and hit the post. Certainly Long-Hair would have +been in great danger! O yes, he'd 'ave killed Long-Hair at the first +shot, wouldn't he though!" + +Oncle Jazon had the air of a large man, but the stature of a small one; +in fact he was shriveled bodily to a degree which suggested comparison +with a sun-dried wisp of hickory bark; and when he chuckled, as he was +now doing, his mouth puckered itself until it looked like a scar on his +face. From cap to moccasins he had every mark significant of a +desperate character; and yet there was about him something that +instantly commanded the confidence of rough men,--the look of +self-sufficiency and superior capability always to be found in +connection with immense will power. His sixty years of exposure, +hardship, and danger seemed to have but toughened his physique and +strengthened his vitality. Out of his small hazel eyes gleamed a light +as keen as ice. + +"All right, Oncle Jazon," said Rene laughing and blowing the smoke out +of his pistol; "'twas you all the same who let Long-Hair trot off with +the Governor's brandy, not I. If you could have hit even a door-post it +might have been better." + +Oncle Jazon took off his cap and looked down into it in a way he had +when about to say something final. + +"Ventrebleu! I did not shoot at Long-Hair at all," he said, speaking +slowly, "because the scoundrel was unarmed. He didn't have on even a +knife, and he was havin' enough to do dodgin' the bullets that the rest +of 'em were plumpin' at 'im without any compliments from me to bother +'im more." + +"Well," Rene replied, turning away with a laugh, "if I'd been scalped +by the Indians, as you have, I don't think there would be any +particular reason why I should wait for an Indian thief to go and arm +himself before I accepted him as a target." + +Oncle Jazon lifted a hand involuntarily and rubbed his scalpless crown; +then he chuckled with a grotesque grimace as if the recollection of +having his head skinned were the funniest thing imaginable. + +"When you've killed as many of 'em as Oncle Jazon has," remarked a +bystander to Rene, "you'll not be so hungry for blood, maybe." + +"Especially after ye've took fifty-nine scalps to pay for yer one," +added Oncle Jazon, replacing his cap over the hairless area of his +crown. + +The men who had been chasing Long-Hair, presently came straggling back +with their stories--each had a distinct one--of how the fugitive +escaped. They were wild looking fellows, most of them somewhat +intoxicated, all profusely liberal with their stock of picturesque +profanity. They represented the roughest element of the well-nigh +lawless post. + +"I'm positive that he's wounded," said one. "Jacques and I shot at him +together, so that our pistols sounded just as if only one had been +fired--bang! that way--and he leaped sideways for all the world like a +bird with a broken leg. I thought he'd fall; but ve! he ran faster'n +ever, and all at once he was gone; just disappeared." + +"Well, to-morrow we'll get him," said another. "You and I and Jacques, +we'll take up his trail, the thief, and follow him till we find him. He +can't get off so easy." + +"I don't know so well about that," said another; "it's Long-Hair, you +must remember, and Long-Hair is no common buck that just anybody can +find asleep. You know what Long-Hair is. Nobody's ever got even with +'im yet. That's so, ain't it? Just ask Oncle Jazon, if you don't +believe it!" + +The next morning Long-Hair was tracked to the edge. He had been +wounded, but whether seriously or not could only be conjectured. A +sprinkle of blood, here and there quite a dash of it, reddened the +grass and clumps of weeds he had run through, and ended close to the +water into which it looked as if he had plunged with a view to baffling +pursuit. Indeed pursuit was baffled. No further trace could be found, +by which to follow the cunning fugitive. Some of the men consoled +themselves by saying, without believing, that Long-Hair was probably +lying drowned at the bottom of the river. + +"Pas du tout," observed Oncle Jazon, his short pipe askew far over in +the corner of his mouth, "not a bit of it is that Indian drowned. He's +jes' as live as a fat cat this minute, and as drunk as the devil. He'll +get some o' yer scalps yet after he's guzzled all that brandy and slep' +a week." + +It finally transpired that Oncle Jazon was partly right and partly +wrong. Long-Hair was alive, even as a fat cat, perhaps; but not drunk, +for in trying to swim with the rotund little dame jeanne under his arm +he lost hold of it and it went to the bottom of the Wabash, where it +may be lying at this moment patiently waiting for some one to fish it +out of its bed deep in the sand and mud, and break the ancient wax from +its neck! + +Rene de Ronville, after the chase of Long-Hair had been given over, +went to tell Father Beret what had happened, and finding the priest's +hut empty turned into the path leading to the Roussillon place, which +was at the head of a narrow street laid out in a direction at right +angles to the river's course. He passed two or three diminutive cabins, +all as much alike as bee-hives. Each had its squat veranda and thatched +or clapboarded roof held in place by weight-poles ranged in roughly +parallel rows, and each had the face of the wall under its veranda +neatly daubed with a grayish stucco made of mud and lime. You may see +such houses today in some remote parts of the creole country of +Louisiana. + +As Rene passed along he spoke with a gay French freedom to the dames +and lasses who chanced to be visible. His air would be regarded as +violently brigandish in our day; we might even go so far as to think +his whole appearance comical. His jaunty cap with a tail that wagged as +he walked, his short trousers and leggins of buckskin, and his loose +shirt-like tunic, drawn in at the waist with a broad belt, gave his +strong figure just the dash of wildness suited to the armament with +which it was weighted. A heavy gun lay in the hollow of his shoulder +under which hung an otter-skin bullet-pouch with its clear powder-horn +and white bone charger. In his belt were two huge flint-lock pistols +and a long case-knife. + +"Bon jour, Ma'm'selle Adrienne," he cheerily called, waving his free +hand in greeting to a small, dark lass standing on the step of a +veranda and indolently swinging a broom. "Comment allez-vous auj +ourd'hui?" + +"J'm'porte tres bien, merci, Mo'sieu Rene," was the quick response; "et +vous?" + +"Oh, I'm as lively as a cricket." + +"Going a hunting?" + +"No, just up here a little way--just on business--up to Mo'sieu +Roussillon's for a moment." + +"Yes," the girl responded in a tone indicative of something very like +spleen, "yes, undoubtedly, Mo'sieu de Ronville; your business there +seems quite pressing of late. I have noticed your industrious +application to that business." + +"Ta-ta, little one," he wheedled, lowering his voice; "you mustn't go +to making bug-bears out of nothing." + +"Bug-bears!" she retorted, "you go on about your business and I'll +attend to mine," and she flirted into the house. + +Rene laughed under his breath, standing a moment as if expecting her to +come out again; but she did not, and he resumed his walk singing +softly-- + +"Elle a les joues vermeilles, vermeilles, Ma belle, ma belle petite." + +But ten to one he was not thinking of Madamoiselle Adrienne Bourcier. +His mind, however, must have been absorbingly occupied; for in the +straight, open way he met Father Beret and did not see him until he +came near bumping against the old man, who stepped aside with +astonishing agility and said-- + +"Dieu vous benisse, mon fils; but what is your great hurry--where can +you be going in such happy haste?" Rene did not stop to parley with the +priest. He flung some phrase of pleasant greeting back over his +shoulder as he trudged on, his heart beginning a tattoo against his +ribs when the Roussillon place came in sight, and he took hold of his +mustache to pull it, as some men must do in moments of nervousness and +bashfulness. If sounds ever have color, the humming in his ears was of +a rosy hue; if thoughts ever exhale fragrance, his brain overflowed +with the sweets of violet and heliotrope. + +He had in mind what he was going to say when Alice and he should be +alone together. It was a pretty speech, he thought; indeed a very +thrilling little speech, by the way it stirred his own nerve-centers as +he conned it over. + +Madame Roussillon met him at the door in not a very good humor. + +"Is Mademoiselle Alice here?" he ventured to demand. + +"Alice? no, she's not here; she's never here just when I want her most. +V'la le picbois et la grive--see the woodpecker and the robin--eating +the cherries, eating every one of them, and that girl running off +somewhere instead of staying here and picking them," she railed in +answer to the young man's polite inquiry. "I haven't seen her these +four hours, neither her nor that rascally hunchback, Jean. They're up +to some mischief, I'll be bound!" + +Madame Roussillon puffed audibly between phrases; but she suddenly +became very mild when relieved of her tirade. + +"Mais entrez," she added in a pleasant tone, "come in and tell me the +news." + +Rene's disappointment rushed into his face, but he managed to laugh it +aside. + +"Father Beret has just been telling me," said Madame Roussillon, "that +our friend Long-Hair made some trouble last night. How about it?" + +Rene told her what he knew and added that Long-Hair would probably +never be seen again. + +"He was shot, no doubt of it," he went on, "and is now being nibbled by +fish and turtles. We tracked him by his blood to where he jumped into +the Wabash. He never came out." + +Strangely enough it happened that, at the very time of this chat +between Madame Roussillon and Rene Alice was bandaging Long-Hair's +wounded leg with strips of her apron. It was under some willows which +overhung the bank of a narrow and shallow lagoon or slough, which in +those days extended a mile or two back into the country on the farther +side of the river. Alice and Jean went over in a pirogue to see if the +water lilies, haunting a pond there, were yet beginning to bloom. They +landed at a convenient spot some distance up the little lagoon, made +the boat fast by dragging its prow high ashore, and were on the point +of setting out across a neck of wet, grassy land to the pond, when a +deep grunt, not unlike that of a self-satisfied pig, attracted them to +the willows, where they discovered Long-Hair, badly wounded, weltering +in some black mud. + +His hiding-place was cunningly chosen, save that the mire troubled him, +letting him down by slow degrees, and threatening to engulf him bodily; +and he was now too weak to extricate himself. He lifted his head and +glared. His face was grimy, his hair matted with mud. Alice, although +brave enough and quite accustomed to startling experiences, uttered a +cry when she saw those snaky eyes glistening so savagely amid the +shadows. But Jean was quick to recognize Long-Hair; he had often seen +him about town, a figure not to be forgotten. + +"They've been hunting him everywhere," he said in a half whisper to +Alice, clutching the skirt of her dress. "It's Long-Hair, the Indian +who stole the brandy; I know him." + +Alice recoiled a pace or two. + +"Let's go back and tell 'em," Jean added, still whispering, "they want +to kill him; Oncle Jazon said so. Come on!" + +He gave her dress a jerk; but she did not move any farther back; she +was looking at the blood oozing from a wound in the Indian's leg. + +"He is shot, he is hurt, Jean, we must help him," she presently said, +recovering her self-control, yet still pale. "We must get him out of +that bad place." + +Jean caught Alice's merciful spirit with sympathetic readiness, and +showed immediate willingness to aid her. + +It was a difficult thing to do; but there was a will and of course a +way. They had knives with which they cut willows to make a standing +place on the mud. While they were doing this they spoke friendly words +to Long-Hair, who understood French a little, and at last they got hold +of his arms, tugged, rested, tugged again, and finally managed to help +him to a dry place, still under the willows, where he could lie more at +ease. Jean carried water in his cap with which they washed the wound +and the stolid savage face. Then Alice tore up her cotton apron, in +which she had hoped to bear home a load of lilies, and with the strips +bound the wound very neatly. It took a long time, during which the +Indian remained silent and apparently quite indifferent. + +Long-Hair was a man of superior physique, tall, straight, with the +muscles of a Vulcan; and while he lay stretched on the ground half clad +and motionless, he would have been a grand model for an heroic figure +in bronze. Yet from every lineament there came a strange repelling +influence, like that from a snake. Alice felt almost unbearable disgust +while doing her merciful task; but she bravely persevered until it was +finished. + +It was now late in the afternoon, and the sun would be setting before +they could reach home. + +"We must hurry back, Jean," Alice said, turning to depart. "It will be +all we can do to reach the other side in daylight. I'm thinking that +they'll be out hunting for us too, if we don't move right lively. Come." + +She gave the Indian another glance when she had taken but a step. He +grunted and held up something in his hand--something that shone with a +dull yellow light. It was a small, oval, gold locket which she had +always worn in her bosom. She sprang and snatched it from his palm. + +"Thank you," she exclaimed, smiling gratefully. "I am so glad you found +it." + +The chain by which the locket had hung was broken, doubtless by some +movement while dragging Long-Hair out of the mud, and the lid had +sprung open, exposing a miniature portrait of Alice, painted when she +was a little child, probably not two years old. It was a sweet baby +face, archly bright, almost surrounded with a fluff of golden hair. The +neck and the upper line of the plump shoulders, with a trace of richly +delicate lace and a string of pearls, gave somehow a suggestion of +patrician daintiness. + +Long-Hair looked keenly into Alice's eyes, when she stooped to take the +locket from his hand, but said nothing. + +She and Jean now hurried away, and, so vigorously did they paddle the +pirogue, that the sky was yet red in the west when they reached home +and duly received their expected scolding from Madame Roussillon. + +Alice sealed Jean's lips as to their adventure; for she had made up her +mind to save Long-Hair if possible, and she felt sure that the only way +to do it would be to trust no one but Father Beret. + +It turned out that Long-Hair's wound was neither a broken bone nor a +cut artery. The flesh of his leg, midway between the hip and the knee, +was pierced; the bullet had bored a neat hole clean through. Father +Beret took the case in hand, and with no little surgical skill +proceeded to set the big Indian upon his feet again. The affair had to +be cleverly managed. Food, medicines and clothing were surreptitiously +borne across the river; a bed of grass was kept fresh under Long-Hair's +back; his wound was regularly dressed; and finally his weapons--a +tomahawk, a knife, a strong bow and a quiver of arrows--which he had +hidden on the night of his bold theft, were brought to him. + +"Now go and sin no more," said good Father Beret; but he well knew that +his words were mere puffs of articulate wind in the ear of the grim and +silent savage, who limped away with an air of stately dignity into the +wilderness. + +A load fell from Alice's mind when Father Beret informed her of +Long-Hair's recovery and departure. Day and night the dread lest some +of the men should find out his hiding-place and kill him had depressed +and worried her. And now, when it was all over, there still hovered +like an elusive shadow in her consciousness a vague haunting impression +of the incident's immense significance as an influence in her life. To +feel that she had saved a man from death was a new sensation of itself; +but the man and the circumstances were picturesque; they invited +imagination; they furnished an atmosphere of romance dear to all young +and healthy natures, and somehow stirred her soul with a strange appeal. + +Long-Hair's imperturbable calmness, his stolid, immobile countenance, +the mysterious reptilian gleam of his shifty black eyes, and the +soulless expression always lurking in them, kept a fascinating hold on +the girl's memory. They blended curiously with the impressions left by +the romances she had read in M. Roussillon's mildewed books. + +Long-Hair was not a young man; but it would have been impossible to +guess near his age. His form and face simply showed long experience and +immeasurable vigor. Alice remembered with a shuddering sensation the +look he gave her when she took the locket from his hand. It was of but +a second's duration, yet it seemed to search every nook of her being +with its subtle power. + +Romancers have made much of their Indian heroes, picturing them as +models of manly beauty and nobility; but all fiction must be taken with +liberal pinches of salt. The plain truth is that dark savages of the +pure blood often do possess the magnetism of perfect physical +development and unfathomable mental strangeness; but real beauty they +never have. Their innate repulsiveness is so great that, like the +snake's charm, it may fascinate; yet an indescribable, haunting disgust +goes with it. And, after all, if Alice had been asked to tell just how +she felt toward the Indian she had labored so hard to save, she would +promptly have said: + +"I loathe him as I do a toad!" + +Nor would Father Beret, put to the same test, have made a substantially +different confession. His work, to do which his life went as fuel to +fire, was training the souls of Indians for the reception of divine +grace; but experience had not changed his first impression of savage +character. When he traveled in the wilderness he carried the Word and +the Cross; but he was also armed with a gun and two good pistols, not +to mention a dangerous knife. The rumor prevailed that Father Beret +could drive a nail at sixty yards with his rifle, and at twenty snuff a +candle with either one of his pistols. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE FIRST MAYOR OF VINCENNES + + +Governor Abbott probably never so much as heard of the dame jeanne of +French brandy sent to him by his creole friend in New Orleans. He had +been gone from Vincennes several months when the batteau arrived, +having been recalled to Detroit by the British authorities; and he +never returned. Meantime the little post with its quaint cabins and its +dilapidated block-house, called Fort Sackville, lay sunning drowsily by +the river in a blissful state of helplessness from the military point +of view. There was no garrison; the two or three pieces of artillery, +abandoned and exposed, gathered rust and cobwebs, while the pickets of +the stockade, decaying and loosened in the ground by winter freezes and +summer rains, leaned in all directions, a picture of decay and +inefficiency. + +The inhabitants of the town, numbering about six hundred, lived very +much as pleased them, without any regular municipal government, each +family its own tribe, each man a law unto himself; yet for mutual +protection, they all kept in touch and had certain common rights which +were religiously respected and defended faithfully. A large pasturing +ground was fenced in where the goats and little black cows of the +villagers browsed as one herd, while the patches of wheat, corn and +vegetables were not inclosed at all. A few of the thriftier and more +important citizens, however, had separate estates of some magnitude, +surrounding their residences, kept up with care and, if the time and +place be taken into account, with considerable show of taste. + +Monsieur Gaspard Roussillon was looked upon as the aristocrat par +excellence of Vincennes, notwithstanding the fact that his name bore no +suggestion of noble or titled ancestry. He was rich and in a measure +educated; moreover the successful man's patent of leadership, a +commanding figure and a suave manner, came always to his assistance +when a crisis presented itself. He traded shrewdly, much to his own +profit, but invariably with the excellent result that the man, white or +Indian, with whom he did business felt himself especially favored in +the transaction. By the exercise of firmness, prudence, vast +assumption, florid eloquence and a kindly liberality he had greatly +endeared himself to the people; so that in the absence of a military +commander he came naturally to be regarded as the chief of the town, +Mo'sieu' le maire. + +He returned from his extended trading expedition about the middle of +July, bringing, as was his invariable rule, a gift for Alice. This time +it was a small, thin disc of white flint, with a hole in the center +through which a beaded cord of sinew was looped. The edge of the disc +was beautifully notched and the whole surface polished so that it shone +like glass, while the beads, made of very small segments of porcupine +quills, were variously dyed, making a curiously gaudy show of bright +colors. + +"There now, ma cherie, is something worth fifty times its weight in +gold," said M. Roussillon when he presented the necklace to his foster +daughter with pardonable self-satisfaction. "It is a sacred +charm-string given me by an old heathen who would sell his soul for a +pint of cheap rum. He solemnly informed me that whoever wore it could +not by any possibility be killed by an enemy." + +Alice kissed M. Roussillon. + +"It's so curious and beautiful," she said, holding it up and drawing +the variegated string through her fingers. Then, with her mischievous +laugh, she added; "and I'm glad it is so powerful against one's enemy; +I'll wear it whenever I go where Adrienne Bourcier is, see if I don't!" + +"Is she your enemy? What's up between you and la petite Adrienne, eh?" +M. Roussillon lightly demanded. "You were always the best of good +friends, I thought. What's happened?" + +"Oh, we are good friends," said Alice, quickly, "very good friends, +indeed; I was but chaffing." + +"Good friends, but enemies; that's how it is with women. Who's the +young man that's caused the coolness? I could guess, maybe!" He laughed +and winked knowingly. "May I be so bold as to name him at a venture?" + +"Yes, if you'll be sure to mention Monsieur Rene de Ronville," she +gayly answered. "Who but he could work Adrienne up into a perfect green +mist of jealousy?" + +"He would need an accomplice, I should imagine; a young lady of some +beauty and a good deal of heartlessness." + +"Like whom, for example?" and she tossed her bright head. "Not me, I am +sure." + +"Poh! like every pretty maiden in the whole world, ma petite coquette; +they're all alike as peas, cruel as blue jays and as sweet as +apple-blossoms." He stroked her hair clumsily with his large hand, as a +heavy and roughly fond man is apt to do, adding in an almost serious +tone: + +"But my little girl is better than most of them, not a foolish +mischief-maker, I hope." + +Alice was putting her head through the string of beads and letting the +translucent white disc fall into her bosom. + +"It's time to change the subject," she said; "tell me what you have +seen while away. I wish I could go far off and see things. Have you +been to Detroit, Quebec, Montreal?" + +"Yes, I've been to all, a long, hard journey, but reasonably +profitable. You shall have a goodly dot when you get married, my child." + +"And did you attend any parties and balls?" she inquired quickly, +ignoring his concluding remark. "Tell me about them. How do the fine +ladies dress, and do they wear their hair high with great big combs? Do +they have long skirts and--" + +"Hold up, you double-tongued chatterbox!" he interrupted; "I can't +answer forty questions at once. Yes, I danced till my legs ached with +women old and girls young; but how could I remember how they were +dressed and what their style of coiffure was? I know that silk rustled +and there was a perfume of eau de Cologne and mignonette and my heart +expanded and blazed while I whirled like a top with a sweet lady in my +arms." + +"Yes, you must have cut a ravishing figure!" interpolated Madame +Roussillon with emphatic disapproval, her eyes snapping. "A bull in a +lace shop. How delighted the ladies must have been!" + +"Never saw such blushing faces and burning glances--such fluttering +breasts, such--" + +"Big braggart," Madame Roussillon broke in contemptuously, "it's a +piastre to a sou that you stood gawping in through a window while +gentlemen and ladies did the dancing. I can imagine how you looked--I +can!" and with this she took her prodigious bulk at a waddling gait out +of the room. "I remember how you danced even when you were not clumsy +as a pig on ice!" she shrieked back over her shoulder. + +"Parbleu! true enough, my dear," he called after her, "I should think +you could--you mind how we used trip it together. You were the +prettiest dancer them all, and the young fellows all went to the swords +about you!" + +"But tell me more," Alice insisted; "I want to know about what you saw +in the great towns--in the fine houses--how the ladies looked, how they +acted--what they said--the dresses they wore--how--" + +"Ciel! you will split my ears, child; can't you fill my pipe and bring +it to me with a coal on it? Then I'll try to tell you what I can," he +cried, assuming a humorously resigned air. "Perhaps if I smoke I can +remember everything." + +Alice gladly ran to do what he asked. Meantime Jean was out on the +gallery blowing a flute that M. Roussillon had brought him from Quebec. + +The pipe well filled and lighted apparently did have the effect to +steady and encourage M. Roussillon's memory; or if not his memory, then +his imagination, which was of that fervid and liberal sort common to +natives of the Midi, and which has been exquisitely depicted by the +late Alphonse Daudet in Tartarin and Bompard. He leaned far back in a +strong chair, with his massive legs stretched at full length, and gazed +at the roof-poles while he talked. + +He sympathized fully, in his crude way, with Alice's lively curiosity, +and his affection for her made him anxious to appease her longing after +news from the great outside world. If the sheer truth must come out, +however, he knew precious little about that world, especially the +polite part of it in which thrived those femininities so dear to the +heart of an isolated and imaginative girl. Still, as he, too, lived in +Arcadia, there was no great effort involved when he undertook to blow a +dreamer's flute. + +In the first place he had not been in Quebec or Montreal during his +absence from home. Most of the time he had spent disposing of pelts and +furs at Detroit and in extending his trading relations with other +posts; but what mattered a trifling want of facts when his meridional +fancy once began to warm up? A smattering of social knowledge gained at +first hand in his youthful days in France while he was a student whose +parents fondly expected him to conquer the world, came to his aid, and +besides he had saturated himself all his life with poetry and romance. +Scudery, Scarron, Prevost, Madame La Fayette and Calprenede were the +chief sources of his information touching the life and manners, morals +and gayeties of people who, as he supposed, stirred the surface of that +resplendent and far-off ocean called society. Nothing suited him better +than to smoke a pipe and talk about what he had seen and done; and the +less he had really seen and done the more he had to tell. + +His broad, almost over-virile, kindly and contented face beamed with +the warmth of wholly imaginary recollections while he recounted with +minute circumstantiality to the delighted Alice his gallant adventures +in the crowded and brilliant ball-rooms of the French-Canadian towns. +The rolling burr of his bass voice, deep and resonant, gave force to +the improvised descriptions. + +Madame Roussillon heard the heavy booming and presently came softly +back into the door from the kitchen to listen. She leaned against the +facing in an attitude of ponderous attention, a hand, on her bulging +hip. She could not suppress her unbounded admiration of her liege +lord's manly physique, and jealous to fierceness as she was of his +experiences so eloquently and picturesquely related, her woman's nature +took fire with enjoyment of the scenes described. + +This is the mission of the poet and the romancer--to sponge out of +existence, for a time, the stiff, refractory, and unlovely realities +and give in their place a scene of ideal mobility and charm. The two +women reveled in Gaspard Roussillon's revelations. They saw the +brilliant companies, the luxurious surroundings, heard the rustle of +brocade and the fine flutter of laces, the hum of sweet voices, +breathed in the wafts of costly perfumeries, looked on while the +dancers whirled and flickered in the confusion of lights; and over all +and through all poured and vibrated such ravishing music as only the +southern imagination could have conjured up out of nothing. + +Alice was absolutely charmed. She sat on a low wooden stool and gazed +into Gaspard Roussillon's face with dilating eyes in which burned that +rich and radiant something we call a passionate soul. She drank in his +flamboyant stream of words with a thirst which nothing but experience +could ever quench. He felt her silent applause and the admiring +involuntary absorption that possessed his wife; the consciousness of +his elementary magnetism augmented the flow of his fine descriptions, +and he went on and on, until the arrival of Father Beret put an end to +it all. + +The priest, hearing of M. Roussillon's return, had come to inquire +about some friends living at Detroit. He took luncheon with the family, +enjoying the downright refreshing collation of broiled birds, onions, +meal-cakes and claret, ending with a dish of blackberries and cream. + +M. Roussillon seized the first opportunity to resume his successful +romancing, and presently in the midst of the meal began to tell Father +Beret about what he had seen in Quebec. + +"By the way," he said, with expansive casualness in his voice, "I +called upon your old-time friend and co-adjutor, Father Sebastien, +while up there. A noble old man. He sent you a thousand good messages. +Was mightily delighted when I told him how happy and hale you have +always been here. Ah, you should have seen his dear old eyes full of +loving tears. He would walk a hundred miles to see you, he said, but +never expected to in this world. Blessings, blessings upon dear Father +Beret, was what he murmured in my ear when we were parting. He says +that he will never leave Quebec until he goes to his home above--ah!" + +The way in which M. Roussillon closed his little speech, his large eyes +upturned, his huge hands clasped in front of him, was very effective. + +"I am under many obligations, my son," said Father Beret, "for what you +tell me. It was good of you to remember my dear old friend and go to +him for his loving messages to me. I am very, very thankful. Help me to +another drop of wine, please." + +Now the extraordinary feature of the situation was that Father Beret +had known positively for nearly five years that Father Sebastien was +dead and buried. + +"Ah, yes," M. Roussillon continued, pouring the claret with one hand +and making a pious gesture with the other; "the dear old man loves you +and prays for you; his voice quavers whenever he speaks of you." + +"Doubtless he made his old joke to you about the birth-mark on my +shoulder," said Father Beret after a moment of apparently thoughtful +silence. "He may have said something about it in a playful way, eh?" + +"True, true, why yes, he surely mentioned the same," assented M. +Roussillon, his face assuming an expression of confused memory; "it was +something sly and humorous, I mind; but it just escapes my +recollection. A right jolly old boy is Father Sebastien; indeed very +amusing at times." + +"At times, yes," said Father Beret, who had no birth-mark on his +shoulder, and had never had one there, or on any other part of his +person. + +"How strange!" Alice remarked, "I, too, have a mark on my shoulder--a +pink spot, just like a small, five-petaled flower. We must be of kin to +each other, Father Beret." + +The priest laughed. + +"If our marks are alike, that would be some evidence of kinship," he +said. + +"But what shape is yours, Father?" + +"I've never seen it," he responded. + +"Never seen it! Why?" + +"Well, it's absolutely invisible," and he chuckled heartily, meantime +glancing shrewdly at M. Roussillon out of the tail of his eye. + +"It's on the back part of his shoulder," quickly spoke up M. +Roussillon, "and you know priests never use looking-glasses. The mark +is quite invisible therefore, so far as Father Beret is concerned!" + +"You never told me of your birth-mark before, my daughter," said Father +Beret, turning to Alice with sudden interest. "It may some day be good +fortune to you." + +"Why so, Father?" + +"If your family name is really Tarleton, as you suppose from the +inscription on your locket, the birth-mark, being of such singular +shape, would probably identify you. It is said that these marks run +regularly in families. With the miniature and the distinguishing +birth-mark you have enough to make a strong case should you once find +the right Tarleton family." + +"You talk as they write in novels," said Alice. "I've read about just +such things in them. Wouldn't it be grand if I should turn out to be +some great personage in disguise!" + +The mention of novels reminded Father Beret of that terrible book, +Manon Lescaut, which he last saw in Alice's possession, and he could +not refrain from mentioning it in a voice that shuddered. + +"Rest easy, Father Beret," said Alice; "that is one novel I have found +wholly distasteful to me. I tried to read it, but could not do it, I +flung it aside in utter disgust. You and mother Roussillon are welcome +to hide it deep as a well, for all I care. I don't enjoy reading about +low, vile people and hopeless unfortunates; I like sweet and lovely +heroines and strong, high-souled, brave heroes." + +"Read about the blessed saints, then, my daughter; you will find in +them the true heroes and heroines of this world," said Father Beret. + +M. Roussillon changed the subject, for he always somehow dreaded to +have the good priest fall into the strain of argument he was about to +begin. A stray sheep, no matter how refractory, feels a touch of +longing when it hears the shepherd's voice. M. Roussillon was a +Catholic, but a straying one, who avoided the confessional and often +forgot mass. Still, with all his reckless independence, and with all +his outward show of large and breezy self-sufficiency, he was not +altogether free from the hold that the church had laid upon him in +childhood and youth. Moreover, he was fond of Father Beret and had done +a great deal for the little church of St. Xavier and the mission it +represented; but he distinctly desired to be let alone while he pursued +his own course; and he had promised the dying woman who gave Alice to +him that the child should be left as she was, a Protestant, without +undue influence to change her from the faith of her parents. This +promise he had kept with stubborn persistence and he meant to keep it +as long as he lived. Perhaps the very fact that his innermost +conscience smote him with vague yet telling blows at times for this +departure from the strict religion of his fathers, may have intensified +his resistance of the influence constantly exerted upon Alice by Father +Beret and Madame Roussillon, to bring her gently but surely to the +church. Perverseness is a force to be reckoned with in all original +characters. + +A few weeks had passed after M. Roussillon's return, when that +big-hearted man took it into his head to celebrate his successful +trading ventures with a moonlight dance given without reserve to all +the inhabitants of Vincennes. It was certainly a democratic function +that he contemplated, and motley to a most picturesque extent. + +Rene de Ronville called upon Alice a day or two previous to the +occasion and duly engaged her as his partenaire; but she insisted upon +having the engagement guarded in her behalf by a condition so obviously +fanciful that he accepted it without argument. + +"If my wandering knight should arrive during the dance, you promise to +stand aside and give place to him," she stipulated. "You promise that? +You see I'm expecting him all the time. I dreamed last night that he +came on a great bay horse and, stooping, whirled me up behind the +saddle, and away we went!" + +There was a childish, half bantering air in her look; but her voice +sounded earnest and serious, notwithstanding its delicious timbre of +suppressed playfulness. + +"You promise me?" she insisted. + +"Oh, I promise to slink away into a corner and chew my thumb, the +moment he comes," Rene eagerly assented. "Of course I'm taking a great +risk, I know; for lords and barons and knights are very apt to appear +Suddenly in a place like this." + +"You may banter and make light if you want to," she said, pouting +admirably. "I don't care. All the same the laugh will jump to the other +corner of your mouth, see if it doesn't. They say that what a person +dreams about and wishes for and waits for and believes in, will come +true sooner or later." + +"If that's so," said Rene, "you and I will get married; for I've +dreamed it every night of the year, wished for it, waited for it and +believed in it, and--" + +It was a madly sudden rush. He made it on an impulse quite +irresistible, as hypnotized persons are said to do in response to the +suggestion of the hypnotist, and his heart was choking his throat +before he could end his speech. Alice interrupted him with a hearty +burst of laughter. + +"A very pretty twist you give to my words, I must declare," she said; +"but not new by any means. Little Adrienne Bourcier could tell you +that. She says that you have vowed to her over and over that you dream +about her, and wish for her, and wait for her, precisely as you have +just said to me." + +Rene's brown face flushed to the temples, partly with anger, partly +with the shock of mingled surprise and fear. He was guilty, and the +guilt showed in his eyes and paralyzed his tongue, so that he sat there +before Alice with his under jaw sagging ludicrously. + +"Don't you rather think, Monsieur Rene de Ronville," she presently +added in a calmly advisory tone, "that you had better quit trying to +say such foolish things to me, and just be my very good friend? If you +don't, I do, which comes to the same thing. What's more, I won't be +your partenaire at the dance unless you promise me on your word of +honor that you will dance two dances with Adrienne to every one that +you have with me. Do you promise?" + +He dared not oppose her outwardly, although in his heart resistance +amounted to furious revolt and riot. + +"I promise anything you ask me to," he said resignedly, almost +sullenly; "anything for you." + +"Well, I ask nothing whatever on my own account," Alice quickly +replied; "but I do tell you firmly that you shall not maltreat little +Adrienne Bourcier and remain a friend of mine. She loves you, Rene de +Ronville, and you have told her that you love her. If you are a man +worthy of respect you will not desert her. Don't you think I am right?" + +Like a singed and crippled moth vainly trying to rise once again to the +alluring yet deadly flame, Rene de Ronville essayed to break out of his +embarrassment and resume equal footing with the girl so suddenly become +his commanding superior; but the effort disclosed to him as well as to +her that he had fallen to rise no more. In his abject defeat he +accepted the terms dictated by Alice and was glad when she adroitly +changed her manner and tone in going on to discuss the approaching +dance. + +"Now let me make one request of you," he demanded after a while. "It's +a small favor; may I ask it?" + +"Yes, but I don't grant it in advance." + +"I want you to wear, for my sake, the buff gown which they say was your +grandmother's." + +"No, I won't wear it." + +"But why, Alice?" + +"None of the other girls have anything like such a dress; it would not +be right for me to put it on and make them all feel that I had taken +the advantage of them, just because I could; that's why." + +"But then none of them is beautiful and educated like you," he said; +"you'll outshine them anyway." + +"Save your compliments for poor pretty little Adrienne," she firmly +responded, "I positively do not wish to hear them. I have agreed to be +your partenaire at this dance of Papa Roussillon's, but it is +understood between us that Adrienne is your sweet-heart. I am not, and +I'm not going to be, either. So for your sake and Adrienne's, as well +as out of consideration for the rest of the girls who have no fine +dresses, I am not going to wear the buff brocade gown that belonged to +Papa Roussillon's mother long ago. I shall dress just as the rest do." + +It is safe to say that Rene de Ronville went home with a troublesome +bee in his bonnet. He was not a bad-hearted fellow. Many a right good +young man, before him and since, has loved an Adrienne and been dazzled +by an Alice. A violet is sweet, but a rose is the garden's queen. The +poor youthful frontiersman ought to have been stronger; but he was not, +and what have we to say? + +As for Alice, since having a confidential talk with Adrienne Bourcier +recently, she had come to realize what M. Roussillon meant when he +said; "But my little girl is better than most of them, not a foolish +mischief-maker, I hope." She saw through the situation with a quick +understanding of what Adrienne might suffer should Rene prove +permanently fickle. The thought of it aroused all her natural honesty +and serious nobleness of character, which lay deep under the almost +hoydenish levity usually observable in her manner. Crude as her sense +of life's larger significance was, and meager as had been her +experience in the things which count for most in the sum of a young +girl's existence under fair circumstances, she grasped intuitively the +gist of it all. + +The dance did not come off; it had to be postponed indefinitely on +account of a grave change in the political relations of the little +post. A day or two before the time set for that function a rumor ran +through the town that something of importance was about to happen. +Father Gibault, at the head of a small party, had arrived from +Kaskaskia, far away on the Mississippi, with the news that France and +the American Colonies had made common cause against the English in the +great war of which the people of Vincennes neither knew the cause nor +cared a straw about the outcome. + +It was Oncle Jazon who came to the Roussillon place to tell M. +Roussillon that he was wanted at the river house. Alice met him at the +door. + +"Come in, Oncle Jazon," she cheerily said, "you are getting to be a +stranger at our house lately. Come in; what news do you bring? Take off +your cap and rest your hair, Oncle Jazon." + +The scalpless old fighter chuckled raucously and bowed to the best of +his ability. He not only took off his queer cap, but looked into it +with a startled gaze, as if he expected something infinitely dangerous +to jump out and seize his nose. + +"A thousand thanks, Ma'm'selle," he presently said, "will ye please +tell Mo'sieu' Roussillon that I would wish to see 'im?" + +"Yes, Oncle Jazon; but first be seated, and let me offer you just a +drop of eau de vie; some that Papa Roussillon brought back with him +from Quebec. He says it's old and fine." + +She poured him a full glass, then setting the bottle on a little stand, +went to find M. Roussillon. While she was absent Oncle Jazon improved +his opportunity to the fullest extent. At least three additional +glasses of the brandy went the way of the first. He grinned atrociously +and smacked his corrugated lips; but when Gaspard Roussillon came in, +the old man was sitting at some distance from the bottle and glass +gazing indifferently out across the veranda. He told his story curtly. +Father Gibault, he said, had sent him to ask M. Roussillon to come to +the river house, as he had news of great importance to communicate. + +"Ah, well, Oncle Jazon, we'll have a nip of brandy together before we +go," said the host. + +"Why, yes, jes' one agin' the broilin' weather," assented Oncle Jazon; +"I don't mind jes' one." + +"A very rich friend of mine in Quebec gave me this brandy, Oncle +Jazon," said M. Roussillon, pouring the liquor with a grand flourish; +"and I thought of you as soon as I got it. Now, says I to myself, if +any man knows good brandy when he tastes it, it's Oncle Jazon, and I'll +give him a good chance at this bottle just the first of all my friends." + +"It surely is delicious," said Oncle Jazon, "very delicious." He spoke +French with a curious accent, having spent long years with +English-speaking frontiersmen in the Carolinas and Kentucky, so that +their lingo had become his own. + +As they walked side by side down the way to the river house they looked +like typical extremes of rough, sun-burned and weather-tanned manhood; +Oncle Jazon a wizened, diminutive scrap, wrinkled and odd in every +respect; Gaspard Roussillon towering six feet two, wide shouldered, +massive, lumbering, muscular, a giant with long curling hair and a +superb beard. They did not know that they were going down to help +dedicate the great Northwest to freedom. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +FATHER GIBAULT + + +Great movements in the affairs of men are like tides of the seas which +reach and affect the remotest and quietest nooks and inlets, imparting +a thrill and a swell of the general motion. Father Gibault brought the +wave of the American Revolution to Vincennes. He was a simple +missionary; but he was, besides, a man of great worldly knowledge and +personal force. Colonel George Rogers Clark made Father Gibault's +acquaintance at Kaskaskia, when the fort and its garrison surrendered +to his command, and, quickly discerning the fine qualities of the +priest's character, sent him to the post on the Wabash to win over its +people to the cause of freedom and independence. Nor was the task +assumed a hard one, as Father Gibault probably well knew before he +undertook it. + +A few of the leading men of Vincennes, presided over by Gaspard +Roussillon, held a consultation at the river house, and it was agreed +that a mass meeting should be called bringing all of the inhabitants +together in the church for the purpose of considering the course to be +taken under the circumstances made known by Father Gibault. Oncle Jazon +constituted himself an executive committee of one to stir up a noise +for the occasion. + +It was a great day for Vincennes. The volatile temperament of the +French frontiersmen bubbled over with enthusiasm at the first hint of +something new, and revolutionary in which they might be expected to +take part. Without knowing in the least what it was that Father Gibault +and Oncle Jazon wanted of them, they were all in favor of it at a +venture. + +Rene de Ronville, being an active and intelligent young man, was sent +about through the town to let everybody know of the meeting. In passing +he stepped into the cabin of Father Beret, who was sitting on the loose +puncheon floor, with his back turned toward the entrance and so +absorbed in trying to put together a great number of small paper +fragments that he did not hear or look up. + +"Are you not going to the meeting, Father?" Rene bluntly demanded. In +the hurry that was on him he did not remember to be formally polite, as +was his habit. + +The old priest looked up with a startled face. At the same time he +swept the fragments of paper together and clutched them hard in his +right hand. "Yes, yes, my son--yes I am going, but the time has not yet +come for it, has it?" he stammered. "Is it late?" + +He sprang to his feet and appeared confused, as if caught in doing +something very improper. + +Rene wondered at this unusual behavior, but merely said: + +"I beg pardon, Father Beret, I did not mean to disturb you," and went +his way. + +Father Beret stood for some minutes as if dazed, then squeezed the +paper fragments into a tight ball, just as they were when he took them +from under the floor some time before Rene came in, and put it in his +pocket. A little later he was kneeling, as we have seen him once +before, in silent yet fervent prayer, his clasped hands lifted toward +the crucifix on the wall. + +"Jesus, give me strength to hold on and do my work," he murmured +beseechingly, "and oh, free thy poor servant from bitter temptation." + +Father Gibault had come prepared to use his eloquence upon the +excitable Creoles, and with considerable cunning he addressed a motley +audience at the church, telling them that an American force had taken +Kaskaskia and would henceforth hold it; that France had joined hands +with the Americans against the British, and that it was the duty of all +Frenchmen to help uphold the cause of freedom and independence. + +"I come," said he, "directly from Colonel George Rogers Clark, a noble +and brave officer of the American army, who told me the news that I +have brought to you. He sent me here to say to you that if you will +give allegiance to his government you shall be protected against all +enemies and have the full freedom of citizens. I think you should do +this without a moment's hesitation, as I and my people at Kaskaskia +have already done. But perhaps you would like to have a word from your +distinguished fellow-citizen, Monsieur Gaspard Roussillon. Speak to +your friends, my son, they will be glad to take counsel of your wisdom." + +There was a stir and a craning of necks. M. Roussillon presently +appeared near the little chancel, his great form towering majestically. +He bowed and waved his hand with the air of one who accepts distinction +as a matter of course; then he took his big silver watch and looked at +it. He was the only man in Vincennes who owned a watch, and so the +incident was impressive. Father Gibault looked pleased, and already a +murmur of applause went through the audience. M. Roussillon stroked the +bulging crystal of the time-piece with a circular motion of his thumb +and bowed again, clearing his throat resonantly, his face growing +purplish above his beard. + +"Good friends," he said, "what France does all high-class Frenchmen +applaud." He paused for a shout of approbation, and was not +disappointed. "The other name for France is glory," he added, "and all +true Frenchmen love both names. I am a true Frenchman!" and he struck +his breast a resounding blow with the hand that still held the watch. A +huge horn button on his buckskin jerkin came in contact with the +crystal, and there was a smash, followed by a scattered tinkling of +glass fragments. + +All Vincennes stood breathless, contemplating the irreparable accident. +M. Roussillon had lost the effect of a great period in his speech, but +he was quick. Lifting the watch to his ear, he listened a moment with +superb dignity, then slowly elevating his head and spreading his free +hand over his heart he said: + +"The faithful time-piece still tells off the seconds, and the loyal +heart of its owner still throbs with patriotism." + +Oncle Jazon, who stood in front of the speaker, swung his shapeless cap +as high as he could and yelled like a savage. Then the crowd went wild +for a time. + +"Vive la France! A bas l' Angleterre!" Everybody shouted at the top of +his voice. + +"What France does we all do," continued M. Roussillon, when the noise +subsided. "France has clasped hands with George Washington and his +brave compatriots; so do we." + +"Vive Zhorzh Vasinton!" shrieked Oncle Jazon in a piercing treble, +tiptoeing and shaking his cap recklessly under M. Roussillon's nose. + +The orator winced and jerked his head back, but nobody saw it, save +perhaps Father Gibault, who laughed heartily. + +Great sayings come suddenly, unannounced and unexpected. They have the +mysterious force of prophetic accident combined with happy economy of +phrasing. The southern blood in M. Roussillon's veins was effervescing +upon his brain; his tongue had caught the fine freedom and abandon of +inspired oratory. He towered and glowed; words fell melodiously from +his lips; his gestures were compelling, his visage magnetic. In +conclusion he said: + +"Frenchmen, America is the garden-spot of the world and will one day +rule it, as did Rome of old. Where freedom makes her home, there is the +centre of power!" + +It was in a little log church on the verge of a hummock overlooking a +marshy wild meadow. Westward for two thousand miles stretched the +unbroken prairies, woods, mountains, deserts reaching to the Pacific; +southward for a thousand miles rolled the green billows of the +wilderness to the warm Gulf shore; northward to the pole and eastward +to the thin fringe of settlements beyond the mountains, all was +houseless solitude. + +If the reader should go to Vincennes to-day and walk southward along +Second Street to its intersection with Church Street, the spot then +under foot would be probably very near where M. Roussillon stood while +uttering his great sentence. Mind you, the present writer does not +pretend to know the exact site of old Saint Xavier church. If it could +be fixed beyond doubt the spot should have an imperishable monument of +Indiana stone. + +When M, Roussillon ceased speaking the audience again exhausted its +vocal resources; and then Father Gibault called upon each man to come +forward and solemnly pledge his loyalty to the American cause. Not one +of them hesitated. + +Meantime a woman was doing her part in the transformation of Post +Vincennes from a French-English picket to a full-fledged American fort +and town. Madame Godere, finding out what was about to happen, fell to +work making a flag in imitation of that under which George Washington +was fighting. Alice chanced to be in the Godere home at the time and +joined enthusiastically in the sewing. It was an exciting task. Their +fingers trembled while they worked, and the thread, heavily coated with +beeswax, squeaked as they drew it through the cloth. + +"We shall not be in time," said Madame Godere; "I know we shall not. +Everything hinders me. My thread breaks or gets tangled and my needle's +so rusty I can hardly stick it through the cloth. O dear!" + +Alice encouraged her with both words and work, and they had almost +finished when Rene came with a staff which he had brought from the fort. + +"Mon dieu, but we have had a great meeting!" he cried. He was +perspiring with excitement and fast walking; leaning on the staff he +mopped his face with a blue handkerchief. + +"We heard much shouting and noise," said Madame Godere, "M. +Roussillon's voice rose loud above the rest. He roared like a lion." + +"Ah, he was speaking to us; he was very eloquent," Rene replied. "But +now they are waiting at the fort for the new flag. I have come for it." + +"It is ready," said Madame Godere. + +With flying fingers Alice sewed it to the staff. + +"Voici!" she cried, "vive la republique Americaine!" She lifted the +staff and let the flag droop over her from head to foot. + +"Give it to me," said Rene, holding forth a hand for it, "and I'll run +to the fort with it." + +"No," said Alice, her face suddenly lighting up with resolve. "No, I am +going to take it myself," and without a moment's delay off she went. + +Rene was so caught by surprise that he stood gazing after her until she +passed behind a house, where the way turned, the shining flag rippling +around her, and her moccasins twinkling as she ran. + +At the blockhouse, awaiting the moment when the symbol of freedom +should rise like a star over old Vincennes the crowd had picturesquely +broken into scattered groups. Alice entered through a rent in the +stockade, as that happened to be a shorter route than through the gate, +and appeared suddenly almost in their midst. + +It was a happy surprise, a pretty and catching spectacular apparition +of a sort to be thoroughly appreciated by the lively French fancy of +the audience. The caught the girl's spirit, or it caught them, and they +made haste to be noisy. + +"V'la! V'la! l'p'tite Alice et la bannlere de Zhorzh Vasinton! (Look, +look, little Alice and George Washington's flag!)" shouted Oncle Jazon. +He put his wiry little legs through a sort of pas de zephyr and winked +at himself with concentrated approval. + +All the men danced around and yelled till they were hoarse. + +By this time Rene had reached Alice's side; but she did not see him; +she ran into the blockhouse and climbed up a rude ladder-way; then she +appeared on the roof, still accompanied by Rene, and planted the staff +in a crack of the slabs, where it stood bravely up, the colors floating +free. + +She looked down and saw M. Roussillon, Father Gibault and Father Beret +grouped in the centre of the area. They were waving their hands aloft +at her, while a bedlam of voices sent up applause which went through +her blood like strong wine. She smiled radiantly, and a sweet flush +glowed in her cheeks. + +No one of all that wild crowd could ever forget the picture sketched so +boldly at that moment when, after planting the staff, Alice stepped +back a space and stood strong and beautiful against the soft blue sky. +She glanced down first, then looked up, her arms folded across her +bosom. It was a pose as unconsciously taken as that of a bird, and the +grace of it went straight to the hearts of those below. + +She turned about to descend, and for the first time saw that Rene had +followed her. His face was beaming. + +"What a girl you are!" he exclaimed, in a tone of exultant admiration. +"Never was there another like you!" + +Alice walked quickly past him without speaking; for down in the space +where some women were huddled aside from the crowd, looking on, she had +seen little Adrienne Bourcier. She made haste to descend. Now that her +impulsively chosen enterprise was completed her boldness deserted her +and she slipped out through a dilapidated postern opposite the crowd. +On her right was the river, while southward before her lay a great flat +plain, beyond which rose some hillocks covered with forest. The sun +blazed between masses of slowly drifting clouds that trailed creeping +fantastic shadows across the marshy waste. + +Alice walked along under cover of the slight landswell which then, more +plainly marked than it is now, formed the contour line of hummock upon +which the fort and village stood. A watery swale grown full of tall +aquatic weeds meandered parallel with the bluff, so to call it, and +there was a soft melancholy whispering of wind among the long blades +and stems. She passed the church and Father Beret's hut and continued +for some distance in the direction of that pretty knoll upon which the +cemetery is at present so tastefully kept. She felt shy now, as if to +run away and hide would be a great relief. Indeed, so relaxed were her +nerves that a slight movement in the grass and cat-tail flags near by +startled her painfully, making her jump like a fawn. + +"Little friend not be 'fraid," said a guttural voice in broken French. +"Little friend not make noise." + +At a glance she recognized Long-Hair, the Indian, rising out of the +matted marsh growth. It was a hideous vision of embodied cunning, +soullessness and murderous cruelty. + +"Not tell white man you see me?" he grunted interrogatively, stepping +close to her. He looked so wicked that she recoiled and lifted her +hands defensively. + +She trembled from head to foot, and her voice failed her; but she made +a negative sign and smiled at him, turning as white as her tanned face +could become. + +In his left hand he held his bow, while in his right he half lifted a +murderous looking tomahawk. + +"What new flag mean?" he demanded, waving the bow's end toward the fort +and bending his head down close to hers. "Who yonder?" + +"The great American Father has taken us under his protection," she +explained. "We are big-knives now." It almost choked her to speak. + +"Ugh! heap damn fools," he said with a dark scowl. "Little friend much +damn fool." + +He straightened up his tall form and stood leering at her for some +seconds, then added: + +"Little friend get killed, scalped, maybe." + +The indescribable nobility of animal largeness, symmetry and strength +showed in his form and attitude, but the expression of his countenance +was absolutely repulsive--cold, hard, beastly. + +He did not speak again, but turned quickly, and stooping low, +disappeared like a great brownish red serpent in the high grass, which +scarcely stirred as he moved through it. + +Somehow that day made itself strangely memorable to Alice. She had been +accustomed to stirring scenes and sudden changes of conditions; but +this was the first time that she had ever joined actively in a public +movement of importance. Then, too, Long-Hair's picturesque and rudely +dramatic reappearance affected her imagination with an indescribable +force. Moreover, the pathetic situation in the love affair between Rene +and Adrienne had taken hold of her conscience with a disturbing grip. +But the shadowy sense of impending events, of which she could form no +idea, was behind it all. She had not heard of Brandywine, or Bunker +Hill, or Lexington, or Concord; but something like a waft of their +significance had blown through her mind. A great change was coming into +her idyllic life. She was indistinctly aware of it, as we sometimes are +of an approaching storm, while yet the sky is sweetly blue and serene. +When she reached home the house was full of people to whom M. +Roussillon, in the gayest of moods, was dispensing wine and brandy. + +"Vive Zhorzh Vasinton!" shouted Oncle Jazon as soon as he saw her. + +And then they all talked at once, saying flattering things about her. +Madame Roussillon tried to scold as usual; but the lively chattering of +the guests drowned her voice. + +"I suppose the American commander will send a garrison here," some one +said to Father Gibault, "and repair the fort." + +"Probably," the priest replied, "in a very few weeks. Meantime we will +garrison it ourselves." + +"And we will have M. Roussillon for commander," spoke up Rene de +Ronville, who was standing by. + +"A good suggestion," assented Father Gibault; "let us organize at once." + +Immediately the word was passed that there would be a meeting at the +fort that evening for the purpose of choosing a garrison and a +commander. Everybody went promptly at the hour set. M. Roussillon was +elected Captain by acclamation, with Rene de Ronville as his +Lieutenant. It was observed that Oncle Jazon had resumed his dignity, +and that he looked into his cap several times without speaking. + +Meantime certain citizens, who had been in close relations with +Governor Abbott during his stay, quietly slipped out of town, manned a +batteau and went up the river, probably to Ouiatenon first and then to +Detroit. Doubtless they suspected that things might soon grow too warm +for their comfort. + +It was thus that Vincennes and Fort Sackville first acknowledged the +American Government and hoisted the flag which, as long as it floated +over the blockhouse, was lightly and lovingly called by everyone la +banniere d'Alice Roussillon. + +Father Gibault returned to Fort Kaskaskia and a little later Captain +Leonard Helm, a jovial man, but past the prime of life, arrived at +Vincennes with a commission from Col. Clark authorizing him to +supersede M. Roussillon as commander, and to act as Indian agent for +the American Government in the Department of the Wabash. He was +welcomed by the villagers, and at once made himself very pleasing to +them by adapting himself to their ways and entering heartily into their +social activities. + +M. Roussillon was absent when Captain Helm and his party came. Rene de +Ronville, nominally in command of the fort, but actually enjoying some +excellent grouse shooting with a bell-mouthed old fowling piece on a +distant prairie, could not be present to deliver up the post; and as +there was no garrison just then visible, Helm took possession, without +any formalities. + +"I think, Lieutenant, that you'd better look around through the village +and see if you can scare up this Captain what's-his-name," said the new +commander to a stalwart young officer who had come with him. "I can't +think of these French names without getting my brain in a twist. Do you +happen to recollect the Captain's name, Lieutenant?" + +"Yes, sir; Gaspard Roussillon it reads in Colonel Clark's order; but I +am told that he's away on a trading tour," said the young man. + +"You may be told anything by these hair-tongued parlyvoos," Helm +remarked. "It won't hurt, anyway, to find out where he lives and make a +formal call, just for appearance sake, and to enquire about his health. +I wish you would try it, sir, and let me know the result." + +The Lieutenant felt that this was a peremptory order and turned about +to obey promptly. + +"And I say, Beverley, come back sober, if you possibly can," Helm added +in his most genial tone, thinking it a great piece of humor to suggest +sobriety to a man whose marked difference from men generally, of that +time, was his total abstinence from intoxicating drinks. + +Lieutenant Fitzhugh Beverley was a Virginian of Virginians. His family +had long been prominent in colonial affairs and boasted a record of +great achievements both in peace and in war. He was the only son of his +parents and heir to a fine estate consisting of lands and slaves; but, +like many another of the restless young cavaliers of the Old Dominion, +he had come in search of adventure over into Kentucky, along the path +blazed by Daniel Boone; and when Clark organized his little army, the +young man's patriotic and chivalrous nature leaped at the opportunity +to serve his country under so gallant a commander. + +Beverley was not a mere youth, although yet somewhat under thirty. +Educated abroad and naturally of a thoughtful and studious turn, he had +enriched his mind far beyond the usual limit among young Americans of +the very best class in that time; and so he appeared older than he +really was: an effect helped out by his large and powerful form and +grave dignity of bearing. Clark, who found him useful in emergencies, +cool, intrepid, daring to a fault and possessed of excellent judgement, +sent him with Helm, hoping that he would offset with his orderly +attention to details the somewhat go-as-you-please disposition of that +excellent officer. + +Beverley set out in search of the French commander's house, impressed +with no particular respect for him or his office. Somehow Americans of +Anglo-Saxon blood were slow to recognize any good qualities whatever in +the Latin Creoles of the West and South. It seemed to them that the +Frenchman and the Spaniard were much too apt to equalize themselves +socially and matrimonially with Indians and negroes. The very fact that +for a century, while Anglo-Americans had been in constant bloody +warfare with savages, Frenchmen had managed to keep on easy and highly +profitable trading terms with them, tended to confirm the worst +implication. "Eat frogs and save your scalp," was a bit of contemptuous +frontier humor indicative of what sober judgement held in reserve on +the subject. + +Intent upon his formal mission, Lieutenant Beverley stalked boldly into +the inclosure at Roussillon place and was met on the gallery by Madame +Roussillon in one of her worst moods. She glared at him with her hands +on her hips, her mouth set irritably aslant upward, her eyebrows +gathered into a dark knot over her nose. It would be hard to imagine a +more forbidding countenance; and for supplementary effect out popped +hunchback Jean to stand behind her, with his big head lying back in the +hollow of his shoulders and his long chin elevated, while he gawped +intently up into Beverley's face. + +"Bon jour, Madame," said the Lieutenant, lifting his hat and speaking +with a pleasant accent. "Would it be agreeable to Captain Roussillon +for me to see him a moment?" + +Despite Beverley's cleverness in using the French language, he had a +decided brusqueness of manner and a curt turn of voice not in the least +Gallic. True, the soft Virginian intonation marked every word, and his +obeisance was as low as if Madame Roussillon had been a queen; but the +light French grace was wholly lacking. + +"What do you want of my husband?" Madame Roussillon demanded. + +"Nothing unpleasant, I assure you, Madame," said Beverley. + +"Well, he's not at home, Mo'sieu; he's up the river for a few days." + +She relaxed her stare, untied her eyebrows, and even let fall her hands +from her shelf-like hips. + +"Thank you, Madame," said Beverley, bowing again, "I am sorry not to +have seen him." + +As he was turning to go a shimmer of brown hair streaked with gold +struck upon his vision from just within the door. He paused, as if in +response to a military command, while a pair of gray eyes met his with +a flash. The cabin room was ill lighted; but the crepuscular dimness +did not seem to hinder his sight. Beyond the girl's figure, a pair of +slender swords hung crossed aslant on the wall opposite the low door. + +Beverley had seen, in the old world galleries, pictures in which the +shadowy and somewhat uncertain background thus forced into strongest +projection the main figure, yet without clearly defining it. The rough +frame of the doorway gave just the rustic setting suited to Alice's +costume, the most striking part of which was a grayish short gown +ending just above her fringed buckskin moccasins. Around her head she +had bound a blue kerchief, a wide corner of which lay over her crown +like a loose cap. Her bright hair hung free upon her shoulders in +tumbled half curls. As a picture, the figure and its entourage might +have been artistically effective; but as Beverley saw it in actual life +the first impression was rather embarrassing. Somehow he felt almost +irresistibly invited to laugh, though he had never been much given to +risibility. The blending, or rather the juxtaposition, of extremes--a +face, a form immediately witching, and a costume odd to +grotesquery--had made an assault upon his comprehension at once so +sudden and so direct that his dignity came near being disastrously +broken up. A splendidly beautiful child comically clad would have made +much the same half delightful, half displeasing impression. + +Beverley could not stare at the girl, and no sooner had he turned his +back upon her than the picture in his mind changed like a scene in a +kaleidoscope. He now saw a tall, finely developed figure and a face +delicately oval, with a low, wide forehead, arched brows, a straight, +slightly tip-tilted nose, a mouth sweet and full, dimpled cheeks, and a +strong chin set above a faultless throat. His imagination, in casting +off its first impression, was inclined to exaggerate Alice's beauty and +to dwell upon its picturesqueness. He smiled as he walked back to the +fort, and even found himself whistling gayly a snatch from a rollicking +fiddle-tune that he had heard when a boy. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +A FENCING BOUT + + +A few days after Helm's arrival, M. Roussillon returned to Vincennes, +and if he was sorely touched in his amour propre by seeing his suddenly +acquired military rank and title drop away, he did not let it be known +to his fellow citizens. He promptly called upon the new commander and +made acquaintance with Lieutenant Fitzhugh Beverley, who just then was +superintending the work of cleaning up an old cannon in the fort and +mending some breaks in the stockade. + +Helm formed a great liking for the big Frenchman, whose breezy freedom +of manner and expansive good humor struck him favorably from the +beginning. M. Roussillon's ability to speak English with considerable +ease helped the friendship along, no doubt; at all events their first +interview ended with a hearty show of good fellowship, and as time +passed they became almost inseparable companions during M. Roussillon's +periods of rest from his trading excursions among the Indians. They +played cards and brewed hot drinks over which they told marvelous +stories, the latest one invariably surpassing all its predecessors. + +Helm had an eye to business, and turned M. Roussillon's knowledge of +the Indians to valuable account, so that he soon had very pleasant +relations with most of the tribes within reach of his agents. This gave +a feeling of great security to the people of Vincennes. They pursued +their narrow agricultural activities with excellent results and +redoubled those social gayeties which, even in hut and cabin under all +the adverse conditions of extreme frontier life, were dear to the +volatile and genial French temperament. + +Lieutenant Beverley found much to interest him in the quaint town; but +the piece de resistance was Oncle Jazon, who proved to be both +fascinating and unmanageable; a hard nut to crack, yet possessing a +kernel absolutely original in flavor. Beverley visited him one evening +in his hut--it might better be called den--a curiously built thing, +with walls of vertical poles set in a quadrangular trench dug in the +ground, and roofed with grass. Inside and out it was plastered with +clay, and the floor of dried mud was as smooth and hard as concrete +paving. In one end there was a wide fireplace grimy with soot, in the +other a mere peep-hole for a window: a wooden bench, a bed of skins and +two or three stools were barely visible in the gloom. In the doorway +Oncle Jazon sat whittling a slender billet of hickory into a ramrod for +his long flint-lock American rifle. + +"Maybe ye know Simon Kenton," said the old man, after he and Beverley +had conversed for a while, "seeing that you are from Kentucky--eh?" + +"Yes, I do know him well; he's a warm personal friend of mine," said +Beverley with quick interest, for it surprised him that Oncle Jazon +should know anything about Kenton. "Do you know him, Monsieur Jazon?" + +Oncle Jazon winked conceitedly and sighted along his rudimentary ramrod +to see if it was straight; then puckering his lips, as if on the point +of whistling, made an affirmative noise quite impossible to spell. + +"Well, I'm glad you are acquainted with Kenton," said Beverley. "Where +did you and he come together?" + +Oncle Jazon chuckled reminiscently and scratched the skinless, +cicatrized spot where his scalp had once flourished. + +"Oh, several places," he answered. "Ye see thet hair a hangin' there on +the wall?" He pointed at a dry wisp dangling under a peg in a log +barely visible by the bad light. "Well, thet's my scalp, he! he! he!" +He snickered as if the fact were a most enjoyable joke. "Simon Kenton +can tell ye about thet little affair! The Indians thought I was dead, +and they took my hair; but I wasn't dead; I was just a givin' 'em a +'possum act. When they was gone I got up from where I was a layin' and +trotted off. My head was sore and ventrebleu! but I was mad, he! he! +he!" + +All this time he spoke in French, and the English but poorly +paraphrases his odd turns of expression. His grimaces and grunts cannot +even be hinted. + +It was a long story, as Beverley received it, told scrappily, but with +certain rude art. In the end Oncle Jazon said with unctuous +self-satisfaction: + +"Accidents will happen. I got my chance at that damned Indian who +skinned my head, and I jes took a bead on 'im with my old rifle. I +can't shoot much, never could, but I happened to hit 'im square in the +lef' eye, what I shot at, and it was a hundred yards. Down he tumbles, +and I runs to 'im and finds my same old scalp a hangin' to his belt. +Well, I lifted off his hair with my knife, and untied mine from the +belt, and then I had both scalps, he! he! he! You ask Simon Kenton when +ye see 'im. He was along at the same time, and they made 'im run the +ga'ntlet and pretty nigh beat the life out o' 'im. Ventrebleu!" + +Beverley now recollected hearing Kenton tell the same grim story by a +camp-fire in the hills of Kentucky. Somehow it had caught a new spirit +in the French rendering, which linked it with the old tales of +adventure that he had read in his boyhood, and it suddenly endeared +Oncle Jazon to him. The rough old scrap of a man and the powerful youth +chatted together until sundown, smoking their pipes, each feeling for +what was best in the other, half aware that in the future they would be +tested together in the fire of wild adventure. Every man is more or +less a prophet at certain points in his life. + +Twilight and moonlight were blending softly when Beverley, on his way +back to the fort, departing from a direct course, went along the +river's side southward to have a few moments of reflective strolling +within reach of the water's pleasant murmur and the town's indefinite +evening stir. Rich sweetness, the gift of early autumn, was on the air +blowing softly out of a lilac west and singing in the willow fringe +that hung here and there over the bank. + +On the farther side of the river's wide flow, swollen by recent heavy +rains, Beverley saw a pirogue, in one end of which a dark figure swayed +to the strokes of a paddle. The slender and shallow little craft was +bobbing on the choppy waves and taking a zig-zag course among floating +logs and masses of lighter driftwood, while making slow but certain +headway toward the hither bank. + +Beverley took a bit of punk and a flint and steel from his pocket, +relit his pipe and stood watching the skilful boatman conduct his +somewhat dangerous voyage diagonally against the rolling current. It +was a shifting, hide-and-seek scene, its features appearing and +disappearing with the action of the waves and the doubtful light +reflected from fading clouds and sky. Now and again the man stood up in +his skittish pirogue, balancing himself with care, to use a short pole +in shoving driftwood out of his way; and more than once he looked to +Beverley as if he had plunged head-long into the dark water. + +The spot, as nearly as it can be fixed, was about two hundred yards +below where the public road-bridge at present spans the Wabash. The +bluff was then far different from what it is now, steeper and higher, +with less silt and sand between it and the water's edge. Indeed, +swollen as the current was, a man could stand on the top of the bank +and easily leap into the deep water. At a point near the middle of the +river a great mass of drift-logs and sand had long ago formed a barrier +which split the stream so that one current came heavily shoreward on +the side next the town and swashed with its muddy foam, making a swirl +and eddy just below where Beverley stood. + +The pirogue rounded the upper angle of this obstruction, not without +difficulty to its crew of one, and swung into the rapid shoreward rush, +as was evidently planned for by the steersman, who now paddled against +the tide with all his might to keep from being borne too far down +stream for a safe landing place. + +Beverley stood at ease idly and half dreamily looking on, when suddenly +something caused a catastrophe, which for a moment he did not +comprehend. In fact the man in the pirogue came to grief, as a man in a +pirogue is very apt to do, and fairly somersaulted overboard into the +water. Nothing serious would have threatened (for the man could swim +like an otter) had not a floating, half submerged log thrust up some +short, stiff stumps of boughs, upon the points of which the man struck +heavily and was not only hurt, but had his clothes impaled securely by +one of the ugly spears, so that he hung in a helpless position, while +the water's motion alternately lifted and submerged him, his arms +beating about wildly. + +When Beverley heard a strangling cry for help, he pulled himself +promptly together, flung off his coat, as if by a single motion, and +leaped down the bank into the water. He was a swimmer whose strokes +counted for all that prodigious strength and excellent training could +afford; he rushed through the water with long sweeps, making a +semicircle, rounding against the current, so as to swing down upon the +drowning man. + +Less than a half-hour later a rumor by some means spread throughout the +town that Father Beret and Lieutenant Beverley were drowned in the +Wabash. But when a crowd gathered to verify the terrible news it turned +out to be untrue. Gaspard Roussillon had once more distinguished +himself by an exhibition of heroic nerve and muscle. + +"Ventrebleu! Quel homme!" exclaimed Oncle Jazon, when told that M. +Roussillon had come up the bank of the Wabash with Lieutenant Beverley +under one arm and Father Beret under the other, both men apparently +dead. + +"Bring them to my house immediately," M. Roussillon ordered, as soon as +they were restored to consciousness; and he shook himself, as a big wet +animal sometimes does, covering everybody near him with muddy water. +Then he led the way with melodramatic strides. + +In justice to historical accuracy there must be a trifling reform of +what appeared on the face of things to be grandly true. Gaspard +Roussillon actually dragged Father Beret and Lieutenant Beverley one at +a time out of the eddy water and up the steep river bank. That was +truly a great feat; but the hero never explained. When men arrived he +was standing between the collapsed forms, panting and dripping. +Doubtless he looked just as if he had dropped them from under his arms, +and why shouldn't he have the benefit of a great implication? + +"I've saved them both," he roared; from which, of course, the ready +creole imagination inferred the extreme of possible heroic performance. + +"Bring them to my house immediately," and it was accordingly done. + +The procession, headed by M. Roussillon, moved noisily, for the French +tongue must shake off what comes to it on the thrill of every exciting +moment. The only silent Frenchman is the dead one. + +Father Beret was not only well-nigh drowned, but seriously hurt. He lay +for a week on a bed in M. Roussillon's house before he could sit up. +Alice hung over him night and day, scarcely sleeping or eating until he +was past all danger. As for Beverley, he shook off all the effects of +his struggle in a little while. Next day he was out, as well and strong +as ever, busy with the affairs of his office. Nor was he less happy on +account of what the little adventure had cast into his experience. It +is good to feel that one has done an unselfish deed, and no young man's +heart repels the freshness of what comes to him when a beautiful girl +first enters his life. + +Naturally enough Alice had some thoughts of Beverley while she was so +attentively caring for Father Beret. She had never before seen a man +like him, nor had she read of one. Compared with Rene de Ronville, the +best youth of her acquaintance, he was in every way superior; this was +too evident for analysis; but referred to the romantic standard taken +out of the novels she had read, he somehow failed; and yet he loomed +bravely in her vision, not exactly a knight of the class she had most +admired, still unquestionably a hero of large proportions. + +Beverley stepped in for a few minutes every day to see Father Beret, +involuntarily lengthening his visit by a sliding ratio as he became +better acquainted. He began to enjoy the priest's conversation, with +its sly worldly wisdom cropping up through fervid religious sentiments +and quaint humor. Alice must have interested him more than he was fully +aware of; for his eyes followed her, as she came and went, with a +curious criticism of her half-savage costume and her springy, +Dryad-like suppleness, which reminded him of the shyest and gracefulest +wild birds; and yet a touch of refinement, the subtlest and best, +showed in all her ways. He studied her, as he would have studied a +strange, showy and originally fragrant flower, or a bird of oddly +attractive plumage. While she said little to him or to anyone else in +his presence, he became aware of the willfulness and joyous lightness +which played on her nature's changeable surface. He wondered at her +influence over Father Beret, whom she controlled apparently without +effort. But in due time he began to feel a deeper character, a broader +intelligence, behind her superficial sauvagerie; and he found that she +really had no mean smattering of books in the lighter vein. + +A little thing happened which further opened his eyes and increased the +interest that her beauty and elementary charm of style aroused in him +gradually, apace with their advancing acquaintanceship. + +Father Beret had got well and returned to his hut and his round of +spiritual duties; but Beverley came to Roussillon place every day all +the same. For a wonder Madame Roussillon liked him, and at most times +held the scolding side of her tongue when he was present. Jean, too, +made friendly advances whenever opportunity afforded. Of course Alice +gave him just the frank cordiality of hospitable welcome demanded by +frontier conditions. She scarcely knew whether she liked him or not; +but he had a treasury of information from which he was enriching her +with liberal carelessness day by day. The hungriest part of her mind +was being sumptuously banqueted at his expense. Mere intellectual +greediness drew her to him. + +Naturally they soon threw off such troubling formalities as at first +rose between them, and began to disclose to each other their true +characteristics. Alice found in Beverley a large target for the +missiles of her clever and tantalizing perversity. He in turn practiced +a native dignity and an acquired superiority of manner to excellent +effect. It was a meeting of Greek with Greek in a new Arcadia. To him +here was Diana, strong, strange, simple, even crude almost to +naturalness, yet admirably pure in spirit and imbued with highest +womanly aspirations. To her Beverley represented the great outside area +of life. He came to her from wonderland, beyond the wide circle of +houseless woods and prairies. He represented gorgeous cities, teeming +parks of fashion, boulevards, salons, halls of social splendor, the +theater, the world of woman's dreams. + +Now, there is an antagonism, vague yet powerful, generated between +natures thus cast together from the opposite poles of experience and +education: an antagonism practically equivalent to the most vigorous +attraction. What one knows the other is but half aware of; neither +knowledge nor ignorance being mutual, there is a scintillation of +exchange, from opposing vantage grounds, followed by harmless snaps of +thunder. Culture and refinement take on airs--it is the deepest +artificial instinct of enlightenment to pose--in the presence of +naturalness; and there is a certain style of ignorance which +attitudinizes before the gate of knowledge. The return to nature has +always been the dream of the conventionalized soul, while the simple +Arcadian is forever longing for the maddening honey of sophistication. + +Innate jealousies strike together like flint and steel dashing off +sparks by which nearly everything that life can warm its core withal is +kindled and kept burning. What I envy in my friend I store for my best +use. I thrust and parry, not to kill, but to learn my adversary's +superior feints and guards. And this hint of sword play leads back to +what so greatly surprised and puzzled Beverley one day when he chanced +to be examining the pair of colechemardes on the wall. + +He took one down, and handling it with the indescribable facility +possible to none save a practical swordsman, remarked: + +"There's a world of fascination in these things; I like nothing better +than a bout at fencing. Does your father practice the art?" + +"I have no father, no mother," she quickly said; "but good Papa +Roussillon does like a little exercise with the colechemarde." + +"Well, I'm glad to hear it, I shall ask to teach him a trick or two," +Beverley responded in the lightest mood. "When will he return from the +woods?" + +"I can't tell you; he's very irregular in such matters," she said. +Then, with a smile half banter and half challenge, she added; "if you +are really dying for some exercise, you shall not have to wait for him +to come home, I assure you, Monsieur Beverley." + +"Oh, it's Monsieur de Ronville, perhaps, that you will offer up as a +victim to my skill and address," he slyly returned; for he was +suspecting that a love affair in some stage of progress lay between her +and Rene. + +She blushed violently, but quickly overcoming a combined rush of +surprise and anger, added with an emphasis as charming as it was +unexpected. + +"I myself am, perhaps, swordsman enough to satisfy the impudence and +vanity of Monsieur Beverley, Lieutenant in the American army." + +"Pardon me, Mademoiselle; forgive me, I beg of you," he exclaimed, +earnestly modulating his voice to sincerest beseechment; "I really did +not mean to be impudent, nor--" + +Her vivacity cleared with a merry laugh. + +"No apologies, I command you," she interposed. "We will have them after +I have taught you a fencing lesson." + +From a shelf she drew down a pair of foils and presenting the hilts, +bade him take his choice. + +"There isn't any difference between them that I know of," she said, and +then added archly; "but you will feel better at last, when all is over +and the sting of defeat tingles through you, if you are conscious of +having used every sensible precaution." + +He looked straight into her eyes, trying to catch what was in her mind, +but there was a bewildering glamour playing across those gray, +opal-tinted wells of mystery, from which he could draw only a +mischievous smile-glint, direct, daring, irresistible. + +"Well," he said, taking one of the foils, "what do you really mean? Is +it a challenge without room for honorable retreat?" + +"The time for parley is past," she replied, "follow me to the +battle-ground." + +She led the way to a pleasant little court in the rear of the cabin's +yard, a space between two wings and a vine-covered trellis, beyond +which lay a well kept vineyard and vegetable garden. Here she turned +about and faced him, poising her foil with a fine grace. + +"Are you ready?" she inquired. + +He tried again to force a way into the depths of her eyes with his; but +he might as well have attacked the sun; so he stood in a confusion of +not very well defined feelings, undecided, hesitating, half expecting +that there would be some laughable turn to end the affair. + +"Are you afraid, Monsieur Beverley?" she demanded after a short waiting +in silence. + +He laughed now and whipped the air with his foil. + +"You certainly are not in earnest?" he said interrogatively. "Do you +really mean that you want to fence with me?" + +"If you think because I'm only a girl you can easily beat me, try it," +she tauntingly replied making a level thrust toward his breast. + +Quick as a flash he parried, and then a merry clinking and twinkling of +steel blades kept time to their swift movements. Instantly, by the sure +sense which is half sight, half feeling--the sense that guides the +expert fencer's hand and wrist--Beverley knew that he had probably more +than his match, and in ten seconds his attack was met by a time thrust +in opposition which touched him sharply. + +Alice sprang far back, lowered her point and laughed. + +"Je vous salue, Monsieur Beverley!" she cried, with childlike show of +delight. "Did you feel the button?" + +"Yes, I felt it," he said with frank acknowledgment in his voice, "it +was cleverly done. Now give me a chance to redeem myself." + +He began more carefully and found that she, too, was on her best +mettle; but it was a short bout, as before. Alice seemed to give him an +easy opening and he accepted it with a thrust; then something happened +that he did not understand. The point of his foil was somehow caught +under his opponent's hilt-guard while her blade seemed to twist around +his; at the same time there was a wring and a jerk, the like of which +he had never before felt, and he was disarmed, his wrist and fingers +aching with the wrench they had received. + +Of course the thing was not new; he had been disarmed before; but her +trick of doing it was quite a mystery to him, altogether different from +any that he had ever seen. + +"Vous me pardonnerez, Monsieur," she mockingly exclaimed, picking up +his weapon and offering the hilt to him. "Here is your sword!" + +"Keep it," he said, folding his arms and trying to look unconcerned, +"you have captured it fairly. I am at your mercy; be kind to me." + +Madame Roussillon and Jean, the hunchback, hearing the racket of the +foils had come out to see and were standing agape. + +"You ought to be ashamed, Alice," said the dame in scolding approval of +what she had done; "girls do not fence with gentlemen." + +"This girl does," said Alice. + +"And with extreme disaster to this gentleman," said Beverley, laughing +in a tone of discomfiture and resignation. + +"Ah, Mo'sieu', there's nothing but disaster where she goes," complained +Madame Roussillon, "she is a destroyer of everything. Only yesterday +she dropped my pink bowl and broke it, the only one I had." + +"And just to think," said Beverley, "what would have been the condition +of my heart had we been using rapiers instead of leather-buttoned +foils! She would have spitted it through the very center." + +"Like enough," replied the dame indifferently. "She wouldn't wince, +either,--not she." + +Alice ran into the house with the foils and Beverley followed. + +"We must try it over again some day soon," he said; "I find that you +can show me a few points. Where did you learn to fence so admirably? Is +Monsieur Roussillon your master?" + +"Indeed he isn't," she quickly replied, "he is but a bungling +swordsman. My master--but I am not at liberty to tell you who has +taught me the little I know." + +"Well, whoever he is I should be glad to have lessons from him." + +"But you'll never get them." + +"Why?" + +"Because." + +"A woman's ultimatum." + +"As good as a man's!" she bridled prettily; "and sometimes better--at +the foils for example. Vous--comprenez, n'est ce pas?" + +He laughed heartily. + +"Yes, your point reaches me," he said, "but sperat et in saeva victus +gladiatur arena, as the old Latin poet wisely remarks." The quotation +was meant to tease her. + +"Yes, Montaigne translated that or something in his book," she +commented with prompt erudition. "I understand it." + +Beverley looked amazed. + +"What do you know about Montaigne?" he demanded with a blunt brevity +amounting to something like gruffness. + +"Sh', Monsieur, not too loud," she softly protested, looking around to +see that neither Madame Roussillon nor Jean had followed them into the +main room. "It is not permitted that I read that old book; but they do +not hide it from me, because they think I can't make out its dreadful +spelling." + +She smiled so that her cheeks drew their dimples deep into the +delicately tinted pink-and-brown, where wind and sun and wholesome +exercise had set the seal of absolute health, and took from a niche in +the logs of the wall a stained and dog-eared volume. He looked, and it +was, indeed, the old saint and sinner, Montaigne. + +Involuntarily he ran his eyes over the girl from head to foot, +comparing her show of knowledge with the outward badges of abject +rusticity, and even wildness, with which she was covered. + +"Well," he said, "you are a mystery." + +"You think it surprising that I can read a book! Frankly I can't +understand half of this one. I read it because--well just because they +want me to read about nothing but sickly old saints and woe-begone +penitents. I like something lively. What do I care for all that +uninteresting religious stuff?" + +"Montaigne IS decidedly lively in spots," Beverley remarked. "I +shouldn't think a girl--I shouldn't think you'd particularly enjoy his +humors." + +"I don't care for the book at all," she said, flushing quickly, "only I +seem to learn about the world from it. Sometimes it seems as if it +lifted me up high above all this wild, lonely and tiresome country, so +that I can see far off where things are different and beautiful. It is +the same with the novels; and they don't permit me to read them either; +but all the same I do." + +When Beverley, taking his leave, passed through the gate at Roussillon +place, he met Rene de Ronville going in. It was a notable coincidence +that each young man felt something troublesome rise in his throat as he +looked into the other's eyes. + +A week of dreamy autumn weather came on, during which Beverley managed +to be with Alice a great deal, mostly sitting on the Roussillon +gallery, where the fading vine leaves made fairy whispering, and where +the tempered breeze blew deliciously cool from over the distant +multi-colored woods. The men of Vincennes were gathering their Indian +corn early to dry it on the cob for grating into winter meal. Many +women made wine from the native grapes and from the sweeter and richer +fruit of imported vines. Madame Roussillon and Alice stained their +hands a deep purple during the pressing season, and Beverley found +himself engaged in helping them handle the juicy crop, while around the +overflowing earthen pots the wild bees, wasps and hornets hummed with +an incessant, jarring monotony. + +Jean, the hunchback, gathered ample stores of hickory nuts, walnuts, +hazel-nuts and pin-oak acorns. Indeed, the whole population of the +village made a great spurt of industry just before the falling of +winter; and presently, when every preparation had been completed for +the dreaded cold season, M. Roussillon carried out his long-cherished +plan, and gave a great party at the river house. After the most +successful trading experience of all his life he felt irrepressibly +liberal. + +"Let's have one more roaring good time," he said, "that's what life is +for." + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE MAYOR'S PARTY + + +Beverley was so surprised and confused in his mind by the ease with +which he had been mastered at swordplay by a mere girl, that he felt as +if just coming out of a dream. In fact the whole affair seemed unreal, +yet so vivid and impressive in all its main features, that he could not +emerge from it and look it calmly over from without. His experience +with women had not prepared him for a ready understanding and +acceptance of a girl like Alice. While he was fully aware of her +beauty, freshness, vivacity and grace, this Amazonian strength of hers, +this boldness of spirit, this curious mixture of frontier crudeness and +a certain adumbration--so to call it--of patrician sensibilities and +aspirations, affected him both pleasantly and unpleasantly. He did not +sympathize promptly with her semi-barbaric costume; she seemed not +gently feminine, as compared with the girls of Virginia and Maryland. +He resented her muscular development and her independent disposition. +She was far from coarseness, however, and, indeed, a trace of subtle +refinement, although not conventional, imbued her whole character. + +But why was he thinking so critically about her? Had his selfishness +received an incurable shock from the button of her foil? A healthy +young man of the right sort is apt to be jealous of his physical +prowess--touch him there and he will turn the world over to right +himself in, his own admiration and yours. But to be beaten on his +highest ground of virility by a dimple-faced maiden just leaving her +teens could not offer Beverley any open way to recoupment of damages. + +He tried to shake her out of his mind, as a bit of pretty and +troublesome rubbish, what time he pursued his not very exacting +military duties. But the more he shook the tighter she clung, and the +oftener he went to see her. + +Helm was a good officer in many respects, and his patriotism was of the +best; but he liked jolly company, a glass of something strong and a +large share of ease. Detroit lay many miles northeastward across the +wilderness, and the English, he thought, would scarcely come so far to +attack his little post, especially now that most of the Indians in the +intervening country had declared in favor of the Americans. Recently, +too, the weather had been favoring him by changing from wet to dry, so +that the upper Wabash and its tributaries were falling low and would +soon be very difficult to navigate with large batteaux. + +Very little was done to repair the stockade and dilapidated remnant of +a blockhouse. There were no sufficient barracks, a mere shed in one +angle serving for quarters, and the old cannon could not have been used +to any effect in case of attack. As for the garrison, it was a nominal +quantity, made up mostly of men who preferred hunting and fishing to +the merest pretense of military duty. + +Gaspard Roussillon assumed to know everything about Indian affairs and +the condition of the English at Detroit. His optimistic eloquence +lulled Helm to a very pleasant sense of security. Beverley was not so +easy to satisfy; but his suggestions regarding military discipline and +a vigorous prosecution of repairs to the blockhouse and stockade were +treated with dilatory geniality by his superior officer. The soft +wonder of a perfect Indian summer glorified land, river and sky. Why +not dream and bask? Why not drink exhilarating toddies? + +Meantime the entertainment to be given by Gaspard Roussillon occupied +everybody's imagination to an unusual extent. Rene de Ronville, +remembering but not heeding the doubtful success of his former attempt, +went long beforehand to claim Alice as his partenaire; but she flatly +refused him, once more reminding him of his obligations to little +Adrienne Bourcier. He would not be convinced. + +"You are bound to me," he said, "you promised before, you know, and the +party was but put off. I hold you to it; you are my partenaire, and I +am yours, you can't deny that." + +"No you are not my partenaire," she firmly said; then added lightly, +"Feu mon partenaire, you are dead and buried as my partner at that +dance." + +He glowered in silence for a few moments, then said: + +"It is Lieutenant Beverley, I suppose." + +She gave him a quick contemptuous look, but turned it instantly into +one of her tantalising smiles. + +"Do you imagine that?" she demanded. + +"Imagine it! I know it," he said with a hot flush. "Have I no sense?" + +"Precious little," she replied with a merry laugh. + +"You think so." + +"Go to Father Beret, tell him everything, and then ask him what he +thinks," she said in a calm, even tone, her face growing serious. + +There was an awkward silence. + +She had touched Rene's vulnerable spot; he was nothing if not a devout +Catholic, and his conscience rooted itself in what good Father Beret +had taught him. + +The church, no matter by what name it goes, Catholic or Protestant, has +a saving hold on the deepest inner being of its adherents. No grip is +so hard to shake off as that of early religious convictions. The still, +small voice coming down from the times "When shepherds watched their +flocks by night," in old Judea, passes through the priest, the +minister, the preacher; it echoes in cathedral, church, open-air +meeting; it gently and mysteriously imparts to human life the +distinctive quality which is the exponent of Christian civilization. +Upon the receptive nature of children it makes an impress that forever +afterward exhales a fragrance and irradiates a glory for the saving of +the nations. + +Father Beret was the humble, self-effacing, never-tiring agent of good +in his community. He preached in a tender sing-song voice the sweet +monotonies of his creed and the sublime truths of Christ's code. He was +indeed the spiritual father of his people. No wonder Rene's scowling +expression changed to one of abject self-concern when the priest's name +was suddenly connected with his mood. The confessional loomed up before +the eyes of his conscience, and his knees smote together, spiritually +if not physically. + +"Now," said Alice, brusquely, but with sweet and gentle firmness, "go +to your fiancee, go to pretty and good Adrienne, and ask her to be your +partenaire. Refresh your conscience with a noble draught of duty and +make that dear little girl overflow with joy. Go, Rene de Ronville." + +In making over what she said into English, the translation turns out to +be but a sonorous paraphrase. Her French was of that mixed creole sort, +a blending of linguistic elegance and patois, impossible to imitate. +Like herself it was beautiful, crude, fascinating, and something in it +impressed itself as unimpeachable, despite the broken and incongruous +diction. Rene felt his soul cowering, even slinking; but he fairly +maintained a good face, and went away without saying another word. + +"Ciel, ciel, how beautiful she is!" he thought, as he walked along the +narrow street in the dreamy sunshine. "But she is not for me, not for +me." + +He shook himself and tried to be cheerful. In fact he hummed a Creole +ditty, something about + + "La belle Jeanette, qu' a brise mon coeur." + +Days passed, and at last the time of the great event arrived. It was a +frosty night, clear, sparkling with stars, a keen breath cutting down +from the northwest. M. Roussillon, Madame Roussillon, Alice and +Lieutenant Beverley went together to the river house, whither they had +been preceded by almost the entire population of Vincennes. Some fires +had been built outside; the crowd proving too great for the building's +capacity, as there had to be ample space for the dancers. Merry groups +hovered around the flaming logs, while within the house a fiddle sang +its simple and ravishing tunes. Everybody talked and laughed; it was a +lively racket of clashing voices and rhythmical feet. + +You would have been surprised to find that Oncle Jazon was the fiddler; +but there he sat, perched on a high stool in one corner of the large +room, sawing away as if for dear life, his head wagging, his elbow +leaping back and forth, while his scalpless crown shone like the side +of a peeled onion and his puckered mouth wagged grotesquely from side +to side keeping time to his tuneful scraping. + +When the Roussillon party arrived it attracted condensed attention. Its +importance, naturally of the greatest in the assembled popular mind, +was enhanced--as mathematicians would say, to the nth power--by the +gown of Alice. It was resplendent indeed in the simple, unaccustomed +eyes upon which it flashed with a buff silken glory. Matrons stared at +it; maidens gazed with fascinated and jealous vision; men young and old +let their eyes take full liberty. It was as if a queen, arrayed in a +robe of state, had entered that dingy log edifice, an apparition of +dazzling and awe-inspiring beauty. Oncle Jazon caught sight of her, and +snapped his tune short off. The dancers swung together and stopped in +confusion. But she, fortified by a woman's strongest bulwark, the sense +of resplendency, appeared quite unconscious of herself. + +Little Adrienne, hanging in blissful delight upon Rene's strong arm, +felt the stir of excitement and wondered what was the matter, being too +short to see over the heads of those around her. + +"What is it? what is it?" she cried, tiptoeing and tugging at her +companion's sleeve. "Tell me, Rene, tell me, I say." + +Rene was gazing in dumb admiration into which there swept a powerful +anger, like a breath of flame. He recollected how Alice had refused to +wear that dress when he had asked her, and now she had it on. Moreover, +there she stood beside Lieutenant Beverley, holding his arm, looking up +into his face, smiling, speaking to him. + +"I think you might tell me what has happened," said Adrienne, pouting +and still plucking at his arm. "I can't see a thing, and you won't tell +me." + +"Oh, it's nothing," he presently answered, rather fretfully. Then he +stooped, lowered his voice and added; "it's Mademoiselle Roussillon all +dressed up like a bride or something. She's got on a buff silk dress +that Mo'sieu' Roussillon's mother had in France." + +"How beautiful she must look!" cried the girl. "I wish I could see her." + +Rene put a hand on each side of her slender waist and lifted her high, +so that her pretty head rose above the crowding people. Alice chanced +to turn her face that way just then and saw the unconventional +performance. Her eyes met those of Adrienne and she gave a nod of +smiling recognition. It was a rose beaming upon a gilliflower. + +M. Roussillon naturally understood that all this stir and crowding to +see was but another demonstration of his personal popularity. He bowed +and waved a vast hand. + +But the master of ceremonies called loudly for the dancers to take +their places. Oncle Jazon attacked his fiddle again with startling +energy. Those who were not to dance formed a compact double line around +the wall, the shorter ones in front, the taller in the rear. And what a +scene it was! but no person present regarded it as in any way strange +or especially picturesque, save as to the gown of Alice, which was now +floating and whirling in time to Oncle Jazon's mad music. The people +outside the house cheerfully awaited their turn to go in while an equal +number went forth to chat and sing around the fires. + +Beverley was in a young man's seventh heaven. The angels formed a choir +circling around his heart, and their song brimmed his universe from +horizon to horizon. + +When he called at Roussillon place, and Alice appeared so beautifully +and becomingly robed, it was another memorable surprise. She flashed a +new and subtly stimulating light upon him. The old gown, rich in +subdued splendor of lace and brocade, was ornamented at the throat with +a heavy band of pearls, just above which could be seen a trace of the +gold chain that supported her portrait locket. There, too, with a not +unbecoming gleam of barbaric colors, shone the string of porcupine +beads to which the Indian charmstone hidden in her bosom was attached. +It all harmonized with the time, the place, the atmosphere. Anywhere +else it would have been preposterous as a decorative presentment, but +here, in this little nook where the coureurs de bois, the half-breeds, +the traders and the missionaries had founded a centre of assembly, it +was the best possible expression in the life so formed at hap-hazard, +and so controlled by the coarsest and narrowest influences. To Fitzhugh +Beverley, of Beverley Hall, the picture conveyed immediately a sweet +and pervading influence. + +Alice looked superbly tall, stately and self-possessed in her +transforming costume, a woman of full stature, her countenance gravely +demure yet reserving near the surface the playful dimples and +mischievous smiles so characteristic of her more usual manner. A sudden +mood of the varium et mutabile semper femina had led her to wear the +dress, and the mood still illuminated her. + +Beverley stood before her frankly looking and admiring. The underglow +in her cheeks deepened and spread over her perfect throat; her eyes met +his a second, then shyly avoided him. He hardly could have been sure +which was master, her serenity or her girlish delight in being +attractively dressed; but there could be no doubt as to her +self-possession; for, saving the pretty blush under his almost rude +gaze of admiration, she bore herself as firmly as any fine lady he +remembered. + +They walked together to the river house, she daintily holding up her +skirts, under the insistent verbal direction of Madame Roussillon, and +at the same time keeping a light, strangely satisfying touch on his +arm. When they entered the room there was no way for Beverley to escape +full consciousness of the excitement they aroused; but M. Roussillon's +assumption broke the force of what would have otherwise been extremely +embarrassing. + +"It is encouraging, very encouraging," murmured the big man to Beverley +in the midst of the staring and scrambling and craning of necks, "to +have my people admire and love me so; it goes to the middle of my +heart." And again he bowed and waved his hand with an all-including +gesture, while he swept his eyes over the crowd. + +Alice and Beverley were soon in the whirl of the dance, forgetful of +everything but an exhilaration stirred to its utmost by Oncle Jazon's +music. + +A side remark here may be of interest to those readers who enjoy the +dream that on some fortunate day they will invade a lonely nook, where +amid dust and cobwebs, neglected because unrecognized, reposes a +masterpiece of Stradivari or some other great fiddle-maker. Oncle Jazon +knew nothing whatever about old violins. He was a natural musician, +that was all, and flung himself upon his fiddle with the same +passionate abandon that characterizes a healthy boy's assault when a +plum pudding is at his mercy. But his fiddle was a Carlo Bergonzi; and +now let the search be renewed, for the precious instrument was +certainly still in Vincennes as late as 1819, and there is a vague +tradition that Governor Whitcomb played on it not long before he died. +The mark by which it may be identified is the single word "Jazon" cut +in the back of its neck by Oncle Jazon himself. + +When their dance was ended Alice and Beverley followed the others of +their set out into the open air while a fresh stream of eager dancers +poured in. Beverley insisted upon wrapping Alice in her mantle of +unlined beaver skin against the searching winter breath. They did not +go to the fire, but walked back and forth, chatting until their turn to +dance should come again, pausing frequently to exchange pleasantries +with some of the people. Curiously enough both of them had forgotten +the fact that other young men would be sure to ask Alice for a dance, +and that more than one pretty creole lass was rightfully expecting a +giddy turn with the stalwart and handsome Lieutenant Beverley. + +Rene de Ronville before long broke rudely into their selfish dream and +led Alice into the house. This reminded Beverley of his social duty, +wherefore seeing little Adrienne Bourcier he made a rush and secured +her at a swoop from the midst of a scrambling circle of mutually +hindered young men. + +"Allons, ma petite!" he cried, quite in the gay tone of the occasion, +and swung her lightly along with him. + +It was like an eagle dancing with a linnet, or a giant with a fairy, +when the big Lieutenant led out la petite Adrienne, as everybody called +her. The honor of Beverley's attention sat unappreciated on Adrienne's +mind, for all her thoughts went with her eyes toward Rene and Alice. +Nor was Beverley so absorbed in his partner's behalf that he ever for a +moment willingly lost sight of the floating buff gown, the shining +brown hair and the beautiful face, which formed, indeed, the center of +attraction for all eyes. + +Father Beret was present, sharing heartily in the merriment of his +flock. Voices greeted him on all sides with intonations of tender +respect. The rudest man there was loyal to the kind-hearted priest, and +would as soon have thought of shooting him as of giving him any but the +most reverent attention. It is to be noted, however, that their +understanding of reverence included great freedom and levity not +especially ecclesiastical in its nature. Father Beret understood the +conditions around him and had the genius to know what not to hear, what +not to see; but he never failed when a good word or a fatherly touch +with his hand seemed worth trying on a sheep that appeared to be +straying dangerously far from the fold. Upon an occasion like this +dance at the river house, he was no less the faithful priest because of +his genial sympathy with the happiness of the young people who looked +to him for spiritual guidance. + +It was some time before Beverley could again secure Alice for a dance, +and he found it annoying him atrociously to see her smile sweetly on +some buckskin-clad lout who looked like an Indian and danced like a +Parisian. He did not greatly enjoy most of his partners; they could not +appeal to any side of his nature just then. Not that he at all times +stood too much on his aristocratic traditions, or lacked the virile +traits common to vigorous and worldly-minded men; but the contrast +between Alice and the other girls present was somehow an absolute bar +to a democratic freedom of the sort demanded by the occasion. He met +Father Beret and passed a few pleasant words with him. + +"They have honored your flag, my son, I am glad to see," the priest +said, pointing with a smile to where, in one corner, the banner that +bore Alice's name was effectively draped. + +Beverley had not noticed it before, and when he presently got +possession of Alice he asked her to tell him the story of how she +planted it on the fort, although he had heard it to the last detail +from Father Beret just a moment ago. They stood together under its +folds while she naively sketched the scene for him, even down to her +picturesquely disagreeable interview with Long-Hair, mention of whom +led up to the story of the Indian's race with the stolen dame jeanne of +brandy under his arm on that memorable night, and the subsequent +services performed for him by Father Beret and her, after she and Jean +had found him in the mud beyond the river. + +The dancing went on at a furious pace while they stood there. Now and +again a youth came to claim her, but she said she was tired and begged +to rest awhile, smiling so graciously upon each one that his rebuff +thrilled him as if it had been the most flattering gift of tender +partiality, while at the same time he suspected that it was all for +Beverley. + +Helm in his most jovial mood was circulating freely among those who +formed the periphery of the dancing-area; he even ventured a few clumsy +capers in a cotillion with Madame Godere for partner. She danced well; +but he, as someone remarked, stumbled all over himself. + +There was but one thing to mar the evening's pleasure: some of the men +drank too much and grew boisterous. A quarrel ended in a noisy but +harmless fight near one of the fires. M. Roussillon rushed to the spot, +seized the combatants, tousled them playfully, as if they had been +children, rubbed their heads together, laughed stormily and so restored +the equilibrium of temper. + +It was late when fathers and mothers in the company began to suggest +adjournment. Oncle Jazon's elbow was tired and the enthusiasm generated +by his unrecognized Bergonzi became fitful, while the relaxing crowd +rapidly encroached upon the space set apart for the dancers. In the +open lamps suspended here and there the oil was running low, and the +rag wicks sputtered and winked with their yellow flames. + +"Well," said M. Roussillon, coming to where Alice and Beverley stood +insulated and isolated by their great delight in each other's company, +"it's time to go home." + +Beverley looked at his watch; it was a quarter to three! + +Alice also looked at the watch, and saw engraved and enameled on its +massive case the Beverley crest, but she did not know what it meant. +There was something of the sort in the back of her locket, she +remembered with satisfaction. + +Just then there was a peculiar stir in the flagging crowd. Someone had +arrived, a coureur de bois from the north. Where was the commandant? +the coureur had something important for him. + +Beverley heard a remark in a startled voice about the English getting +ready for a descent upon the Wabash valley. This broke the charm which +thralled him and sent through his nerves the bracing shock that only a +soldier can feel when a hint of coming battle reaches him. + +Alice saw the flash in his face. + +"Where is Captain Helm? I must see him immediately. Excuse me," he +said, abruptly turning away and looking over the heads of the people; +"yonder he is, I must go to him." + +The coureur de bois, Adolphe Dutremble by name, was just from the head +waters of the Wabash. He was speaking to Helm when Beverley came up. M. +Roussillon followed close upon the Lieutenant's heels, as eager as he +to know what the message amounted to; but Helm took the coureur aside, +motioning Beverley to join them. M. Roussillon included himself in the +conference. + +After all it was but the gossip of savages that Dutremble communicated; +still the purport was startling in the extreme. Governor Hamilton, so +the story ran, had been organizing a large force; he was probably now +on his way to the portage of the Wabash with a flotilla of batteaux, +some companies of disciplined soldiers, artillery and a strong body of +Indians. + +Helm listened attentively to Dutremble's lively sketch, then +cross-questioned him with laconic directness. + +"Send Mr. Jazon to me," he said to M. Roussillon, as if speaking to a +servant. + +The master Frenchman went promptly, recognizing Captain Helm's right to +command, and sympathizing With his unpleasant military predicament if +the news should prove true. + +Oncle Jazon came in a minute, his fiddle and bow clamped under his arm, +to receive a verbal commission, which sent him with some scouts of his +own choosing forthwith to the Wabash portage, or far enough to +ascertain what the English commander was doing. + +After the conference Beverley made haste to join Alice; but he found +that she had gone home. + +"One hell of a fix we'll be in if Hamilton comes down here with a good +force," said Helm. + +Beverley felt like retorting that a little forethought, zeal and +preparation might have lessened the prospective gloom. He had been +troubled all the time about Helm's utter lack of military precaution. +True, there was very little material out of which that optimistic +officer could have formed a body of resistance against the army +probably at Hamilton's command; but Beverley was young, energetic, +bellicose, and to him everything seemed possible; he believed in +vigilance, discipline, activity, dash; he had a great faith in the +efficacy of enthusiasm. + +"We must organize these Frenchmen," he said; "they will make good +fighters if we can once get them to act as a body. There's no time to +be lost; but we have time enough in which to do a great deal before +Hamilton can arrive, if we go at it in earnest." + +"Your theory is excellent, Lieutenant, but the practice of it won't be +worth a damn," Helm replied with perfect good nature. "I'd like to see +you organize these parly-voos. There ain't a dozen of 'em that wouldn't +accept the English with open arms. I know 'em. They're good hearted, +polite and all that; they'll hurrah for the flag; that's easy enough; +but put 'em to the test and they'll join in with the strongest side, +see if they don't. Of course there are a few exceptions. There's Jazon, +he's all right, and I have faith in Bosseron, and Legrace, and young +Ronville." + +"Roussillon--" Beverley began. + +"Is much of a blow-hard," Helm interrupted with a laugh. "Barks loud, +but his biting disposition is probably not vicious." + +"He and Father Beret control the whole population at all events," said +Beverley. + +"Yes, and such a population!" + +While joining in Captain Helm's laugh at the expense of Vincennes, +Beverley took leave to indulge a mental reservation in favor of Alice. +He could not bear to class her with the crowd of noisy, thoughtless, +mercurial beings whom he heard still singing gay snatches and calling +to one another from distance to distance, as they strolled homeward in +groups and pairs. Nor could the impending danger of an enforced +surrender to the English and Indians drive from his mind her beautiful +image, while he lay for the rest of the night between sleeping and +waking on his primitive bed, alternately hearing over again her every +phrase and laugh, and striving to formulate some definite plan for +defending the town and fort. His heart was full of her. She had +surprised his nature and filled it, as with a wonderful, haunting song. +His youth, his imagination, all that was fresh and spontaneously gentle +and natural in him, was flooded with the magnetic splendor of her +beauty. And yet, in his pride (and it was not a false pride, but rather +a noble regard for his birthright) he vaguely realized how far she was +from him, how impossible. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE DILEMMA OF CAPTAIN HELM + + +Oncle Jazon, feeling like a fish returned to the water after a long and +torturing captivity in the open air, plunged into the forest with +anticipations of lively adventure and made his way toward the Wea +plains. It was his purpose to get a boat at the village of Ouiatenon +and pull thence up the Wabash until he could find out what the English +were doing. He chose for his companions on this dangerous expedition +two expert coureurs de bois, Dutremble and Jacques Bailoup. Fifty miles +up the river they fell in with some friendly Indians, well known to +them all, who were returning from the portage. + +The savages informed them that there were no signs of an English +advance in that quarter. Some of them had been as far as the St. Joseph +river and to within a short distance of Detroit without seeing a white +man or hearing of any suspicious movements on the part of Hamilton. So +back came Oncle Jazon with his pleasing report, much disappointed that +he had not been able to stir up some sort of trouble. + +It was Helm's turn to laugh. + +"What did I tell you?" he cried, in a jolly mood, slapping Beverley on +the shoulder. "I knew mighty well that it was all a big story with +nothing in it. What on earth would the English be thinking about to +march an army away off down here only to capture a rotten stockade and +a lot of gabbling parly-voos?" + +Beverley, while he did not feel quite as confident as his chief, was +not sorry that things looked a little brighter than he had feared they +would turn out to be. Secretly, and without acknowledging it to +himself, he was delighted with the life he was living. The Arcadian +atmosphere of Vincennes clothed him in its mists and dreams. No matter +what way the weather blew its breath, cold or warm, cloudy or fair, +rain or snow, the peace in his soul changed not. His nature seemed to +hold all of its sterner and fiercer traits in abeyance while he +domiciled himself absolutely within his narrow and monotonous +environment. Since the dance at the river house a new content, like a +soft and diffused sweetness, had crept through his blood with a vague, +tingling sense of joy. + +He began to like walking about rather aimlessly in the town's narrow +streets, with the mud-daubed cabins on either hand. This simple life +under low, thatched roofs had a charm. When a door was opened he could +see a fire of logs on the ample hearth shooting its yellow tongues up +the sooty chimney-throat. Soft creole voices murmured and sang, or +jangled their petty domestic discords. Women in scant petticoats, +leggings and moccasins swept snow from the squat verandas, or fed the +pigs in little sties behind the cabins. Everybody cried cheerily: "Bon +jour, Monsieur, comment allez-vous?" as he went by, always accompanying +the verbal salute with a graceful wave of the hand. + +When he walked early in the morning a waft of broiling game and +browning corn scones was abroad. Pots and kettles occupied the hearths +with glowing coals heaped around and under. Shaggy dogs whined at the +doors until the mensal remnants were tossed out to them in the front +yard. + +But it was always a glimpse of Alice that must count for everything in +Beverley's reckonings, albeit he would have strenuously denied it. True +he went to Roussillon place almost every day, it being a fixed part of +his well ordered habit, and had a talk with her. Sometimes, when Dame +Roussillon was very busy and so quite off her guard, they read together +in a novel, or in certain parts of the odd volume of Montaigne. This +was done more for the sweetness of disobedience than to enjoy the +already familiar pages. + +Now and again they repeated their fencing bout; but never with the +result which followed the first. Beverley soon mastered Alice's tricks +and showed her that, after all, masculine muscle is not to be +discounted at its own game by even the most wonderful womanly strength +and suppleness. She struggled bravely to hold her vantage ground once +gained so easily, but the inevitable was not to be avoided. At last, +one howling winter day, he disarmed her by the very trick that she had +shown him. That ended the play and they ran shivering into the house. + +"Ah," she cried, "it isn't fair. You are so much bigger than I; you +have so much longer arms; so much more weight and power. It all counts +against me! You ought to be ashamed of yourself!" She was rosy with the +exhilarating exercise and the biting of the frosty breeze. Her beauty +gave forth a new ray. + +Deep in her heart she was pleased to have him master her so superbly; +but as the days passed she never said so, never gave over trying to +make him feel the touch of her foil. She did not know that her eyes +were getting through his guard, that her dimples were stabbing his +heart to its middle. + +"You have other advantages," he replied, "which far overbalance my +greater stature and stronger muscles." Then after a pause he added: +"After all a girl must be a girl." + +Something in his face, something in her heart, startled her so that she +made a quick little move like that of a restless bird. + +"You are beautiful and that makes my eyes and my hand uncertain," he +went on. "Were I fencing with a man there would be no glamour." + +He spoke in English, which he did not often do in conversation with +her. It was a sign that he was somewhat wrought upon. She followed his +rapid words with difficulty; but she caught from them a new note of +feeling. He saw a little pale flare shoot across her face and thought +she was angry. + +"You should not use your dimples to distract my vision," he quickly +added, with a light laugh. "It would be no worse for me to throw my hat +in your face!" + +His attempt at levity was obviously weak; she looked straight into his +eyes, with the steady gaze of a simple, earnest nature shocked by a +current quite strange to it. She did not understand him, and she did. +Her fine intuition gathered swiftly together a hundred shreds of +impression received from him during their recent growing intimacy. He +was a patrician, as she vaguely made him out, a man of wealth, whose +family was great. He belonged among people of gentle birth and high +attainments. She magnified him so that he was diffused in her +imagination, as difficult to comprehend as a mist in the morning +air--and as beautiful. + +"You make fun of me," she said, very deliberately, letting her eyes +droop; then she looked up again suddenly and continued, with a certain +naive expression of disappointment gathering in her face. "I have been +too free with you. Father Beret told me not to forget my dignity when +in your company. He told me you might misunderstand me. I don't care; I +shall not fence with you again." She laughed, but there was no joyous +freedom in the sound. + +"Why, Alice--my dear Miss Roussillon, you do me a wrong; I beg a +thousand pardons if I've hurt you," he cried, stepping nearer to her, +"and I can never forgive myself. You have somehow misunderstood me, I +know you have!" + +On his part it was exaggerating a mere contact of mutual feelings into +a dangerous collision. He was as much self-deceived as was she, and he +made more noise about it. + +"It is you who have misunderstood me," she replied, smiling brightly +now, but with just a faint, pitiful touch of regret, or self-blame +lingering in her voice. "Father Beret said you would. I did not believe +him; but--" + +"And you shall not believe him," said Beverley. "I have not +misunderstood you. There has been nothing. You have treated me kindly +and with beautiful friendliness. You have not done or said a thing that +Father Beret or anybody else could criticise. And if I have said or +done the least thing to trouble you I repudiate it--I did not mean it. +Now you believe me, don't you, Miss Roussillon?" + +He seemed to be falling into the habit of speaking to her in English. +She understood it somewhat imperfectly, especially when in an earnest +moment he rushed his words together as if they had been soldiers he was +leading at the charge-step against an enemy. His manner convinced her, +even though his diction fell short. + +"Then we'll talk about something else," she said, laughing naturally +now, and retreating to a chair by the hearthside. "I want you to tell +me all about yourself and your family, your home and everything." + +She seated herself with an air of conscious aplomb and motioned him to +take a distant stool. + +There was a great heap of dry logs in the fireplace, with pointed +flames shooting out of its crevices and leaping into the gloomy, +cave-like throat of the flue. Outside a wind passed heavily across the +roof and bellowed in the chimney-top. + +Beverley drew the stool near Alice, who, with a charred stick, used as +a poker, was thrusting at the glowing crevices and sending showers of +sparks aloft. + +"Why, there wouldn't be much to tell," he said, glad to feel secure +again. "Our home is a big old mansion named Beverley Hall on a hill +among trees, and half surrounded with slave cabins. It overlooks the +plantation in the valley where a little river goes wandering on its +way." He was speaking French and she followed him easily now, her eyes +beginning to fling out again their natural sunny beams of interest. "I +was born there twenty-six years ago and haven't done much of anything +since. You see before you, Mademoiselle, a very undistinguished young +man, who has signally failed to accomplish the dream of his boyhood, +which was to be a great artist like Raphael or Angelo. Instead of being +famous I am but a poor Lieutenant in the forces of Virginia." + +"You have a mother, father, brothers and sisters?" she interrogated. +She did not understand his allusion to the great artists of whom she +knew nothing. She had never before heard of them. She leaned the poker +against the chimney jamb and turned her face toward him. + +"Mother, father, and one sister," he said, "no brothers. We were a +happy little group. But my sister married and lives in Baltimore. I am +here. Father and mother are alone in the old house. Sometimes I am +terribly homesick." He was silent a moment, then added: "But you are +selfish, you make me do all the telling. Now I want you to give me a +little of your story, Mademoiselle, beginning as I did, at the first." + +"But I can't," she replied with childlike frankness, "for I don't know +where I was born, nor my parents' names, nor who I am. You see how +different it is with me. I am called Alice Roussillon, but I suppose +that my name is Alice Tarleton; it is not certain, however. There is +very little to help out the theory. Here is all the proof there is. I +don't know that it is worth anything." + +She took off her locket and handed it to him. + +He handled it rather indifferently, for he was just then studying the +fine lines of her face. But in a moment he was interested. + +"Tarleton, Tarleton," he repeated. Then he turned the little disc of +gold over and saw the enameled drawing on the back,--a crest clearly +outlined. + +He started. The crest was quite familiar. + +"Where did you get this?" he demanded in English, and with such blunt +suddenness that she was startled. "Where did it come from?" + +"I have always had it." + +"Always? It's the Tarleton crest. Do you belong to that family?" + +"Indeed I do not know. Papa Roussillon says he thinks I do." + +"Well, this is strange and interesting," said Beverley, rather to +himself than addressing her. He looked from the miniature to the crest +and back to the miniature again, then at Alice. "I tell you this is +strange," he repeated with emphasis. "It is exceedingly strange." + +Her cheeks flushed quickly under their soft brown and her eyes flashed +with excitement. + +"Yes, I know." Her voice fluttered; her hands were clasped in her lap. +She leaned toward him eagerly. "It is strange. I've thought about it a +great deal." + +"Alice Tarleton; that is right; Alice is a name of the family. Lady +Alice Tarleton was the mother of the first Sir Garnett Tarleton who +came over in the time of Yardley. It's a great family. One of the +oldest and best in Virginia." He looked at her now with a gaze of +concentrated interest, under which her eyes fell. "Why, this is +romantic!" he exclaimed, "absolutely romantic. And you don't know how +you came by this locket? You don't know who was your father, your +mother?" + +"I do not know anything." + +"And what does Monsieur Roussillon know?" + +"Just as little." + +"But how came he to be taking you and caring for you? He must know how +he got you, where he got you, of whom he got you? Surely he knows--" + +"Oh, I know all that. I was twelve years old when Papa Roussillon took +me, eight years ago. I had been having a hard life, and but for him I +must have died. I was a captive among the Indians. He took me and has +cared for me and taught me. He has been very, very good to me. I love +him dearly." + +"And don't you remember anything at all about when, where, how the +Indians got you?" + +"No." She shook her head and seemed to be trying to recollect +something. "No, I just can't remember; and yet there has always been +something like a dream in my mind, which I could not quite get hold of. +I know that I am not a Catholic. I vaguely remember a sweet woman who +taught me to pray like this: 'Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be +Thy name.'" + +And Alice went on through the beautiful and perfect prayer, which she +repeated in English with infinite sweetness and solemnity, her eyes +uplifted, her hands clasped before her. Beverley could have sworn that +she was a shining saint, and that he saw an aureole. + +"I know," she continued, "that sometime, somewhere, to a very dear +person I promised that I never, never, never would pray any prayer but +that. And I remember almost nothing else about that other life, which +is far off back yonder in the past, I don't know where,--sweet, +peaceful, shadowy; a dream that I have all but lost from my mind." + +Beverley's sympathy was deeply moved. He sat for some minutes looking +at her without speaking. She, too, was pensive and silent, while the +fire sputtered and sang, the great logs slowly melting, the flames +tossing wisps of smoke into the chimney still booming to the wind. + +"I know, too, that I am not French," she presently resumed, "but I +don't know just how I know it. My first words must have been English, +for I have always dreamed of talking in that language, and my dimmest +half recollections of the old days are of a large, white house, and a +soft-voiced black woman, who sang to me in that language the very +sweetest songs in the world." + +It must be borne in mind that all this was told by Alice in her creole +French, half bookish, half patois, of which no translation can give any +fair impression. + +Beverley listened, as one who hears a clever reader intoning a strange +and captivating poem. He was charmed. His imagination welcomed the +story and furnished it with all that it lacked of picturesque +completeness. In those days it was no uncommon thing for a white child +to be found among the Indians with not a trace left by which to restore +it to its people. He had often heard of such a case. But here was Alice +right before him, the most beautiful girl that he had ever seen, +telling him the strangest story of all. To his mind it was clear that +she belonged to the Tarleton family of Virginia. Youth always concludes +a matter at once. He knew some of the Tarletons; but it was a widely +scattered family, its members living in almost every colony in America. +The crest he recognized at a glance by the dragon on the helmet with +three stars. It was not for a woman to bear; but doubtless it had been +enameled on the locket merely as a family mark, as was often done in +America. + +"The black woman was your nurse, your mammy," he said. "I know by that +and by your prayer in English, as well as by your locket, that you are +of a good old family." + +Like most Southerners, he had strong faith in genealogy, and he held at +his tongue's tip the names of all the old families. The Carters, the +Blairs, the Fitzhughs, the Hansons, the Randolphs, the Lees, the +Ludwells, the Joneses, the Beverleys, the Tarletons--a whole catalogue +of them stretched back in his memory. He knew the coat of arms +displayed by each house. He could repeat their legends. + +"I wish you could tell me more," he went on. "Can't you recollect +anything further about your early childhood, your first +impressions--the house, the woman who taught you to pray, the old black +mammy? Any little thing might be of priceless value as evidence." + +Alice shrugged her shoulders after the creole fashion with something of +her habitual levity of manner, and laughed. His earnestness seemed +disproportioned to the subject, as she fancied he must view it, +although to her it had always been something to dream over. It was +impossible for her to realize, as he did, the importance of details in +solving a problem like that involved in her past history. Nor could she +feel the pathos and almost tragic fascination with which her story had +touched him. + +"There is absolutely nothing more to tell," she said. "All my life I +have tried to remember more, but it's impossible; I can't get any +further back or call up another thing. There's no use trying. It's all +like a dream--probably it is one. I do have such dreams. In my sleep I +can lift myself into the air, just as easy, and fly back to the same +big white house that I seem to remember. When you told me about your +home it was like something that I had often seen before. I shall be +dreaming about it next!" + +Beverley cross-questioned her from every possible point of view; he was +fascinated with the mystery; but she gave him nothing out of which the +least further light could be drawn. A half-breed woman, it seemed, had +been her Indian foster-mother; a silent, grave, watchful guardian from +whom not a hint of disclosure ever fell. She was, moreover, a Christian +woman, had received her conversion from an English-speaking Protestant +missionary. She prayed with Alice, thus keeping in the child's mind a +perfect memory of the Lord's prayer. + +"Well," said Beverley at last, "you are more of a mystery to me, the +longer I know you." + +"Then I must grow every day more distasteful to you." + +"No, I love mystery." + +He went away feeling a new web of interest binding him to this +inscrutable maiden whose life seemed to him at once so full of idyllic +happiness and so enshrouded in tantalizing doubt. At the first +opportunity he frankly questioned M. Roussillon, with no helpful +result. The big Frenchman told the same meager story. The woman was +dying in the time of a great epidemic, which killed most of her tribe. +She gave Alice to M. Roussillon, but told him not a word about her +ancestry or previous life. That was all. + +A wise old man, when he finds himself in a blind alley, no sooner +touches the terminal wall than he faces about and goes back the way he +came. Under like circumstances a young man must needs try to batter the +wall down with his head. Beverley endeavored to break through the web +of mystery by sheer force. It seemed to him that a vigorous attempt +could not fail to succeed; but, like the fly in the spider's lines, he +became more hopelessly bound at every move he made. Moreover against +his will he was realizing that he could no longer deceive himself about +Alice. He loved her, and the love was mastering him body and soul. Such +a confession carries with it into an honest masculine heart a sense of +contending responsibilities. In Beverley's case the clash was +profoundly disturbing. And now he clutched the thought that Alice was +not a mere child of the woods, but a daughter of an old family of +cavaliers! + +With coat buttoned close against the driving wind, he strode toward the +fort in one of those melodramatic moods to which youth in all climes +and times is subject. It was like a slap in the face when Captain Helm +met him at the stockade gate and said: + +"Well, sir, you are good at hiding." + +"Hiding! what do you mean, Captain Helm?" he demanded, not in the +mildest tone. + +"I mean, sir, that I've been hunting you for an hour and more, over the +whole of this damned town. The English and Indians are upon us, and +there's no time for fooling. Where are all the men?" + +Beverley comprehended the situation in a second. Helm's face was +congested with excitement. Some scouts had come in with the news that +Governor Hamilton, at the head of five or six hundred soldiers and +Indians, was only three or four miles up the river. + +"Where are all the men?" Helm repeated. + +"Buffalo hunting, most of them," said Beverley. + +"What in hell are they off hunting buffaloes for?" raged the excited +captain. + +"You might go to hell and see," Beverley suggested, and they both +laughed in sheer masculine contempt of a predicament too grave for +anything but grim mirth. + +What could they do? Even Oncle Jazon and Rene de Ronville were off with +the hunters. Helm sent for M. Roussillon in the desperate hope that he +could suggest something; but he lost his head and hustled off to hide +his money and valuables. Indeed the French people all felt that, so far +as they were concerned, the chief thing was to save what they had. They +well knew that it mattered little which of the two masters held over +them--they must shift for themselves. In their hearts they were true to +France and America; but France and America could not now protect them +against Hamilton; therefore it would be like suicide to magnify +patriotism or any other sentiment objectionable to the English. So they +acted upon M. Roussillon's advice and offered no resistance when the +new army approached. + +"My poor people are not disloyal to your flag and your cause," said +good Father Beret next morning to Captain Helm, "but they are +powerless. Winter is upon us. What would you have us do? This rickety +fort is not available for defense; the men are nearly all far away on +the plains. Isn't it the part of prudence and common sense to make the +best of a desperate situation? Should we resist, the British and their +savage allies would destroy the town and commit outrages too horrible +to think about. In this case diplomacy promises much more than a +hopeless fight against an overwhelming force." + +"I'll fight 'em," Helm ground out between his teeth, "if I have to do +it single-handed and alone! I'll fight 'em till hell freezes over!" + +Father Beret smiled grimly, as if he, too, would enjoy a lively +skirmish on the ice of Tophet, and said: + +"I admire your courage, my son. Fighting is perfectly proper upon fair +occasion. But think of the poor women and children. These old eyes of +mine have seen some terrible things done by enraged savages. Men can +die fighting; but their poor wives and daughters--ah, I have seen, I +have seen!" + +Beverley felt a pang of terror shoot through his heart as Father +Beret's simple words made him think of Alice in connection with an +Indian massacre. + +"Of course, of course it's horrible to think of," said Helm; "but my +duty is clear, and that flag," he pointed to where la banniere d'Alice +Roussillon was almost blowing away in the cold wind, "that flag shall +not come down save in full honor." + +His speech sounded preposterously boastful and hollow; but he was +manfully in earnest; every word came from his brave heart. + +Father Beret's grim smile returned, lighting up his strongly marked +face with the strangest expression imaginable. + +"We will get all the women inside the fort," Helm began to say. + +"Where the Indians will find them ready penned up and at their mercy," +quickly interpolated the priest "That will not do." + +"Well, then, what can be done?" Beverley demanded, turning with a +fierce stare upon Father Beret. "Don't stand there objecting to +everything, with not a suggestion of your own to offer." + +"I know what is best for my people," the old man replied softly, still +smiling, "I have advised them to stay inside their houses and take no +part in the military event. It is the only hope of averting an +indiscriminate massacre, and things worse." + +The curt phrase, "things worse," went like a bullet-stroke through +Beverley's heart. It flashed an awful picture upon his vision. Father +Beret saw his face whiten and his lips set themselves to resist a great +emotion. + +"Do not be angry with me, my son," he said, laying a hand on the young +man's arm. "I may be wrong, but I act upon long and convincing +experience." + +"Experience or no experience," Helm exclaimed with an oath, "this fort +must be manned and defended. I am commanding here!" + +"Yes, I recognize your authority," responded the priest in a firm yet +deferential tone, "and I heartily wish you had a garrison; but where is +your command, Captain Helm?" Then it was that the doughty Captain let +loose the accumulated profanity with which he had been for some time +well-nigh bursting. He tiptoed in order to curse with extremest +violence. His gestures were threatening. He shook his fists at Father +Beret, without really meaning offence. + +"Where is my garrison, you ask! Yes, and I can tell you. It's where you +might expect a gang of dad blasted jabbering French good-for-nothings +to be, off high-gannicking around shooting buffaloes instead of staying +here and defending their wives, children, homes and country, damn their +everlasting souls! The few I have in the fort will sneak off, I +suppose." + +"The French gave you this post on easy terms, Captain," blandly +retorted Father Beret. + +"Yes, and they'll hand it over to Hamilton, you think, on the same +basis," cried Helm, "but I'll show you! I'll show you, Mr. Priest!" + +"Pardon me, Captain, the French are loyal to you and to the flag +yonder. They have sworn it. Time will prove it. But in the present +desperate dilemma we must choose the safer horn." + +Saying this Father Beret turned about and went his way. He was +chuckling heartily as he passed out of the gate. + +"He is right," said Beverley after a few moments of reflection, during +which he was wholly occupied with Alice, whose terrified face in his +anticipation appealed to him from the midst of howling savages, smoking +cabins and mangled victims of lust and massacre. His imagination +painted the scene with a merciless realism that chilled his blood. All +the sweet romance fell away from Vincennes. + +"Well, sir, right or wrong, your, duty is to obey orders," said Helm +with brutal severity. + +"We had better not quarrel, Captain," Beverley replied. "I have not +signified any unwillingness to obey your commands. Give them, and you +will have no cause to grumble." + +"Forgive me, old fellow," cried the impulsive commander. "I know you +are true as steel. I s'pose I'm wound up too tight to be polite. But +the time is come to do something. Here we are with but five or six +men--" + +He was interrupted by the arrival of two more half-breed scouts. + +Only three miles away was a large flotilla of boats and canoes with +cannon, a force of Indians on land and the British flag flying,--that +was the report. + +"They are moving rapidly," said the spokesman, "and will be here very +soon. They are at least six hundred strong, all well armed." + +"Push that gun to the gate, and load it to the muzzle, Lieutenant +Beverley," Helm ordered with admirable firmness, the purple flush in +his face giving way to a grayish pallor. "We are going to die right +here, or have the honors of war." + +Beverley obeyed without a word. He even loaded two guns instead of +one--charging each so heavily that the last wad looked as if ready to +leap from the grimy mouth. + +Helm had already begun, on receiving the first report, a hasty letter +to Colonel Clark at Kaskaskia. He now added a few words and at the last +moment sent it out by a trusted man, who was promptly captured by +Hamilton's advance guard. The missive, evidently written in +installments during the slow approach of the British, is still in the +Canadian archives, and runs thus: + +"Dear Sir--At this time there is an army within three miles of this +place; I heard of their coming several days beforehand. I sent spies to +find the certainty--the spies being taken prisoner I never got +intelligence till they got within three miles of town. As I had called +the militia and had all assurances of their integrity I ordered at the +firing of a cannon every man to appear, but I saw but few. Captain +Buseron behaved much to his honor and credit, but I doubt the conduct +of a certain gent. Excuse haste, as the army is in sight. My +determination is to defend the garrison, (sic) though I have but +twenty-one men but what has left me. I refer you to Mr. Wmes (sic) for +the rest. The army is within three hundred yards of the village. You +must think how I feel; not four men that I really depend upon; but am +determined to act brave--think of my condition. I know it is out of my +power to defend the town, as not one of the militia will take arms, +though before sight of the army no braver men. There is a flag at a +small distance, I must conclude. + +"Your humble servant, + +"Leo'd Helm. Must stop." + +"To Colonel Clark." + +Having completed this task, the letter shows under what a nervous +strain, Helm turned to his lieutenant and said: + +"Fire a swivel with a blank charge. We'll give these weak-kneed +parly-voos one more call to duty. Of course not a frog-eater of them +all will come. But I said that a gun should be the signal. Possibly +they didn't hear the first one, the damned, deaf, cowardly hounds!" + +Beverley wheeled forth the swivel and rammed a charge of powder home. +But when he fired it, the effect was far from what it should have been. +Instead of calling in a fresh body of militia, it actually drove out +the few who up to that moment had remained as a garrison; so that +Captain Helm and his Lieutenant found themselves quite alone in the +fort, while out before the gate, deployed in fine open order, a strong +line of British soldiers approached with sturdy steps, led by a tall, +erect, ruddy-faced young officer. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE HONORS OF WAR + + +Gaspard Roussillon was thoroughly acquainted with savage warfare, and +he knew all the pacific means so successfully and so long used by +French missionaries and traders to control savage character; but the +emergency now upon him was startling. It confused him. The fact that he +had taken a solemn oath of allegiance to the American government could +have been pushed aside lightly enough upon pressing occasion, but he +knew that certain confidential agents left in Vincennes by Governor +Abbott had, upon the arrival of Helm, gone to Detroit, and of course +they had carried thither a full report of all that happened in the +church of St. Xavier, when Father Gibault called the people together, +and at the fort, when the British flag was hauled down and la banniere +d'Alice Roussillon run up in its place. His expansive imagination did +full credit to itself in exaggerating the importance of his part in +handing the post over to the rebels. And what would Hamilton think of +this? Would he consider it treason? The question certainly bore a +tragic suggestion. + +M. Roussillon lacked everything of being a coward, and treachery had no +rightful place in his nature. He was, however, so in the habit of +fighting windmills and making mountains of molehills that he could not +at first glance see any sudden presentment with a normal vision. He had +no love for Englishmen and he did like Americans, but he naturally +thought that Helm's talk of fighting Hamilton was, as his own would +have been in a like case, talk and nothing more. The fort could not +hold out an hour, he well knew. Then what? Ah, he but too well realized +the result. + +Resistance would inflame the English soldiers and madden the Indians. +There would be a massacre, and the belts of savages would sag with +bloody scalps. He shrugged his shoulders and felt a chill creep up his +back. + +The first thing M. Roussillon did was to see Father Beret and take +counsel of him; then he hurried home to dig a great pit under his +kitchen floor in which he buried many bales of fur and all his most +valuable things. He worked like a giant beaver all night long. Meantime +Father Beret went about over the town quietly notifying the inhabitants +to remain in their houses until after the fort should surrender, which +he was sure would happen the next day. + +"You will be perfectly safe, my children," he said to them. "No harm +can come to you if you follow my directions." + +Relying implicitly upon him, they scrupulously obeyed in every +particular. + +He did not think it necessary to call at Roussillon place, having +already given M. Roussillon the best advice he could command. + +Just at the earliest break of day, while yet the gloom of night +scarcely felt the sun's approach, a huge figure made haste along the +narrow streets in the northern part of the town. If any person had been +looking out through the little holes, called windows, in those silent +and rayless huts, it would have been easy to recognize M. Roussillon by +his stature and his gait, dimly outlined as he was. A thought, which +seemed to him an inspiration of genius, had taken possession of him and +was leading him, as if by the nose, straight away to Hamilton's lines. +He was freighted with eloquence for the ear of that commander, and as +he strode along facing the crisp morning air he was rehearsing under +his breath, emphasizing his periods in tragic whispers with sweeping +gestures and liberal facial contortions. So absorbed was he in his +oratorical soliloquy that he forgot due military precaution and ran +plump into the face of a savage picket guard who, without respect for +the great M. Roussillon's dignity, sprang up before him, grunted +cavernously, flourished a tomahawk and spoke in excellent and +exceedingly guttural Indian: + +"Wah, surrender!" + +It is probable that no man ever complied with a modest request in a +more docile spirit than did M. Roussillon upon that occasion. In fact +his promptness must have been admirable, for the savage grunted +approval and straightway conducted him to Hamilton's headquarters on a +batteau in the river. + +The British commander, a hale man of sandy complexion and probably +under middle age, was in no very pleasant humor. Some of his orders had +been misunderstood by the chief of his Indian allies, so that a +premature exposure of his approach had been made to the enemy. + +"Well, sir, who are you?" he gruffly demanded, when M. Roussillon +loomed before him. + +"I am Gaspard Roussillon, the Mayor of Vincennes," was the lofty reply. +"I have come to announce to you officially that my people greet you +loyally and that my town is freely at your command." He felt as +important as if his statements had been true. + +"Humph, that's it, is it? Well, Mr. Mayor, you have my congratulations, +but I should prefer seeing the military commander and accepting his +surrender. What account can you give me of the American forces, their +numbers and condition?" + +M. Roussillon winced, inwardly at least, under Hamilton's very +undeferential air and style of address. It piqued him cruelly to be +treated as a person without the slightest claim to respect. He somehow +forgot the rolling and rhythmical eloquence prepared for the occasion. + +"The American commander naturally would not confide in me, Monsieur le +Gouverneur, not at all; we are not very friendly; he ousted me from +office, he offended me--" he was coughing and stammering. + +"Oh, the devil! what do I care? Answer my question, sir," Hamilton +gruffly interrupted. "Tell me the number of American troops at the +fort, sir." + +"I don't know exactly. I have not had admittance to the fort. I might +be deceived as to numbers; but they're strong, I believe, Monsieur le +Gouverneur, at least they make a great show and much noise." + +Hamilton eyed the huge bulk before him for a moment, then turning to a +subaltern said: + +"Place this fellow under guard and see that he doesn't get away. Send +word immediately to Captain Farnsworth that I wish to see him at once." + +The interview thereupon closed abruptly. Hamilton's emissaries had +given him a detailed account of M. Roussillon's share in submitting +Vincennes to rebel dominion, and he was not in the least inclined +toward treating him graciously. + +"I would suggest to you, Monsieur le Gouverneur, that my official +position demands--" M. Roussillon began; but he was fastened upon by +two guards, who roughly hustled him aft and bound him so rigidly that +he could scarcely move finger or toe. + +Hamilton smiled coldly and turned to give some orders to a stalwart, +ruddy young officer who in a canoe had just rowed alongside the batteau. + +"Captain Farnsworth," he said, acknowledging the military salute, "you +will take fifty men and make everything ready for a reconnaissance in +the direction of the fort. We will move down the river immediately and +choose a place to land. Move lively, we have no time to lose." + +In the meantime Beverley slipped away from the fort and made a hurried +call upon Alice at Roussillon place. There was not much they could say +to each other during the few moments at command. Alice showed very +little excitement; her past experience had fortified her against the +alarms of frontier life; but she understood and perfectly appreciated +the situation. + +"What are you going to do?" Beverley demanded in sheer despair. He was +not able to see any gleam of hope out of the blackness which had fallen +around him and into his soul. + +"What shall you do?" he repeated. + +"Take the chances of war," she said, smiling gravely. "It will all come +out well, no doubt." + +"I hope so, but--but I fear not." + +His face was gray with trouble. "Helm is determined to fight, and that +means--" + +"Good!" she interrupted with spirit. "I am so glad of that. I wish I +could go to help him! If I were a man I'd love to fight! I think it's +just delightful." + +"But it is reckless bravado; it is worse than foolishness," said +Beverley, not feeling her mood. "What can two or three men do against +an army?" + +"Fight and die like men," she replied, her whole countenance lighting +up. "Be heroic!" + +"We will do that, of course; we--I do not fear death; but you--you--" +His voice choked him. + +A gun shot rang out clear in the distance, and he did not finish +speaking. + +"That's probably the beginning," he added in a moment, extending both +hands to her. "Good bye. I must hurry to the fort. Good bye." + +She drew a quick breath and turned so white that her look struck him +like a sudden and hard blow. He stood for a second, his arms at full +reach, then: + +"My God, Alice, I cannot, cannot leave you!" he cried, his voice again +breaking huskily. + +She made a little movement, as if to take hold of his hands: but in an +instant she stepped back a pace and said: + +"Don't fear about me. I can take care of myself. I'm all right. You'd +better return to the fort as quickly as you can. It is your country, +your flag, not me, that you must think of now." + +She folded her arms and stood boldly erect. + +Never before, in all his life, had he felt such a rebuke. He gave her a +straight, strong look in the eyes. + +"You are right, Alice." he cried, and rushed from the house to the fort. + +She held her rigid attitude for a little while after she heard him shut +the front gate of the yard so forcibly that it broke in pieces, then +she flung her arms wide, as if to clasp something, and ran to the door; +but Beverley was out of sight. She turned and dropped into a chair. +Jean came to her out of the next room. His queer little face was pale +and pinched; but his jaw was set with the expression of one who has +known danger and can meet it somehow. + +"Are they going to scalp us?" he half whispered presently, with a +shuddering lift of his distorted shoulders. + +Her face was buried in her hands and she did not answer. Childlike he +turned from one question to another inconsequently. + +"Where did Papa Roussillon go to?" he next inquired. "Is he going to +fight?" + +She shook her head. + +"They'll tear down the fort, won't they?" + +If she heard him she did not make any sign. + +"They'll kill the Captain and Lieutenant and get the fine flag that you +set so high on the fort, won't they, Alice?" + +She lifted her head and gave the cowering hunchback such a stare that +he shut his eyes and put up a hand, as if afraid of her. Then she +impulsively took his little misshapen form in her arms and hugged it +passionately. Her bright hair fell all over him, almost hiding him. +Madame Roussillon was lying on a bed in an adjoining room moaning +diligently, at intervals handling her rosary and repeating a prayer. +The whole town was silent outside. + +"Why don't you go get the pretty flag down and hide it before they +come?" Jean murmured from within the silken meshes of Alice's hair. + +In his small mind the gaudy banner was the most beautiful of all +things. Every day since it was set up he had gone to gaze at it as it +fluttered against the sky. The men had frequently said in his presence +that the enemy would take it down if they captured the fort. + +Alice heard his inquisitive voice; but it seemed to come from far off; +his words were a part of the strange, wild swirl in her bosom. +Beverley's look, as he turned and left her, now shook every chord of +her being. He had gone to his death at her command. How strong and true +and brave he was! In her imagination she saw the flag above him, saw +him die like a panther at bay, saw the gay rag snatched down and torn +to shreds by savage hands. It was the tragedy of a single moment, +enacted in a flashlight of anticipation. + +She released Jean so suddenly that he fell to the floor. She remembered +what she had said to Beverley on the night of the dance when they were +standing under the flag. + +"You made it and set it up," he lightly remarked; "you must see that no +enemy ever gets possession of it, especially the English." + +"I'll take it down and hide it when there's danger of that," she said +in the same spirit. + +And now she stood there looking at Jean, without seeing him, and +repeated the words under her breath. + +"I'll take it down and hide it. They shan't have it." + +Madame Roussillon began to call from the other room in a loud, +complaining voice; but Alice gave no heed to her querulous demands. + +"Stay here, Jean, and take care of Mama Roussillon," she presently said +to the hunchback. "I am going out; I'll be back soon; don't you dare +leave the house while I'm gone; do you hear?" + +She did not wait for his answer; but snatching a hood-like fur cap from +a peg on the wall, she put it on and hastily left the house. + +Down at the fort Helm and Beverley were making ready to resist +Hamilton's attack, which they knew would not be long deferred. The two +heavily charged cannon were planted so as to cover the space in front +of the gate, and some loaded muskets were ranged near by ready for use. + +"We'll give them one hell of a blast," growled the Captain, "before +they overpower us." + +Beverley made no response in words; but he was preparing a bit of +tinder on the end of a stick with which to fire the cannon. Not far +away a little heap of logs was burning in the fort's area. + +The British officer, already mentioned as at the head of the line +advancing diagonally from the river's bank, halted his men at a +distance of three hundred yards from the fort, and seemed to be taking +a deliberately careful survey of what was before him. + +"Let 'em come a little nearer, Lieutenant," said Helm, his jaw setting +itself like a lion's. "When we shoot we want to hit." + +He stooped and squinted along his gun. + +"When they get to that weedy spot out yonder," he added, "just opposite +the little rise in the river bank, we'll turn loose on 'em." + +Beverley had arranged his primitive match to suit his fancy, and for +probably the twentieth time looked critically to the powder in the +beveled touch-hole of his old cannon. He and Helm were facing the +enemy, with their backs to the main area of the stockade, when a well +known voice attracted their attention to the rear. + +"Any room for a feller o' my size in this here crowded place?" it +demanded in a cracked but cheerful tenor. "I'm kind o' outen breath a +runnin' to git here." + +They turned about. It was Oncle Jazon with his long rifle on his +shoulder and wearing a very important air. He spoke in English, using +the backwoods lingo with the ease of long practice. + +"As I's a comin' in f'om a huntin' I tuck notice 'at somepin' was up. I +see a lot o' boats on the river an' some fellers wi' guns a scootin' +around, so I jes' slipped by 'em all an' come in the back way. They's +plenty of 'em, I tell you what! I can't shoot much, but I tuck one +chance at a buck Indian out yander and jes' happened to hit 'im in the +lef' eye. He was one of the gang 'at scalped me down yander in +Kaintuck." + +The greasy old sinner looked as if he had not been washed since he was +born. He glanced about with furtive, shifty eyes, grimaced and winked, +after the manner of an animal just waking from a lazy nap. + +"Where's the rest o' the fighters?" he demanded quizzically, lolling +out his tongue and peeping past Helm so as to get a glimpse of the +English line. "Where's yer garrison? Have they all gone to breakfas'?" + +The last question set Helm off again cursing and swearing in the most +melodramatic rage. + +Oncle Jazon turned to Beverley and said in rapid French: "Surely the +man's not going to fight those fellows yonder?" + +Beverley nodded rather gloomily. + +"Well," added the old man, fingering his rifle's stock and taking +another glance through the gate, "I can't shoot wo'th a cent, bein' +sort o' nervous like; but I'll stan' by ye awhile, jes' for luck. I +might accidentally hit one of 'em." + +When a man is truly brave himself there is nothing that touches him +like an exhibition of absolutely unselfish gameness in another. A rush +of admiration for Oncle Jazon made Beverley feel like hugging him. + +Meantime the young British officer showed a flag of truce, and, with a +file of men, separated himself from the line, now stationary, and +approached the stockade. At a hundred yards he halted the file and came +on alone, waving the white clout. He boldly advanced to within easy +speaking distance and shouted: + +"I demand the surrender of this fort." + +"Well, you'll not get it, young man," roared Helm, his profanity well +mixed in with the words, "not while there's a man of us left!" + +"Ye'd better use sof' soap on 'im, Cap'n," said Oncle Jazon in English, +"cussin' won't do no good." While he spoke he rubbed the doughty +Captain's arm and then patted it gently. + +Helm, who was not half as excited as he pretended to be, knew that +Oncle Jazon's remark was the very essence of wisdom; but he was not yet +ready for the diplomatic language which the old trooper called "soft +soap." + +"Are you the British commander?" he demanded. + +"No," said the officer, "but I speak for him." + +"Not to me by a damned sight, sir. Tell your commander that I will hear +what he has to say from his own mouth. No understrapper will be +recognized by me." + +That ended the conference. The young officer, evidently indignant, +strode back to his line, and an hour later Hamilton himself demanded +the unconditional surrender of the fort and garrison. + +"Fight for it," Helm stormed forth. "We are soldiers." + +Hamilton held a confab with his officers, while his forces, under cover +of the town's cabins, were deploying so as to form a half circle about +the stockade. Some artillery appeared and was planted directly opposite +the gate, not three hundred yards distant. One blast of that battery +would, as Helm well knew, level a large part of the stockade. + +"S'posin' I hev' a cannon, too, seein' it's the fashion," said Oncle +Jazon. "I can't shoot much, but I might skeer 'em. This little one'll +do me." + +He set his rifle against the wall and with Beverley's help rolled one +of the swivels alongside the guns already in position. + +In a few minutes Hamilton returned under the white flag and shouted: + +"Upon what terms will you surrender?" + +"All the honors of war," Helm firmly replied. "It's that or fight, and +I don't care a damn which!" + +Hamilton half turned away, as if done with the parley, then facing the +fort again, said: + +"Very well, sir, haul down your flag." + +Helm was dumfounded at this prompt acceptance of his terms. Indeed the +incident is unique in history. + +As Hamilton spoke he very naturally glanced up to where la banniere +d'Alice Roussillon waved brilliantly. Someone stood beside it on the +dilapidated roof of the old blockhouse, and was already taking it from +its place. His aid, Captain Farnsworth, saw this, and the vision made +his heart draw in a strong, hot flood It was a girl in short skirts and +moccasins, with a fur hood on her head, her face, thrillingly +beautiful, set around with fluffs of wind-blown brown-gold hair. +Farnsworth was too young to be critical and too old to let his eyes +deceive him. Every detail of the fine sketch, with its steel-blue +background of sky, flashed into his mind, sharp-cut as a cameo. +Involuntarily he took off his hat. + +Alice had come in by way of the postern. She mounted to the roof +unobserved, and made her way to the flag, just at the moment when Helm, +glad at heart to accept the easiest way out of a tight place, asked +Oncle Jazon to lower it. + +Beverley was thinking of Alice, and when he looked up he could scarcely +realize that he saw her; but the whole situation was plain the instant +she snatched the staff from its place; for he, too, recollected what +she had said at the river house. The memory and the present scene +blended perfectly during the fleeting instant that she was visible. He +saw that Alice was smiling somewhat as in her most mischievous moods, +and when she jerked the staff from its fastening she lifted it high and +waved it once, twice, thrice defiantly toward the British lines, then +fled down the ragged roof-slope with it and disappeared. The vision +remained in Beverley's eyes forever afterward. The English troops, +thinking that the flag was taken down in token of surrender, broke into +a wild tumult of shouting. + +Oncle Jazon intuitively understood just what Alice was doing, for he +knew her nature and could read her face. His blood effervesced in an +instant. + +"Vive Zhorzh Vasinton! Vive la banniere d'Alice Roussillon!" he +screamed, waving his disreputable cap round his scalpless head. "Hurrah +for George Washington! Hurrah for Alice Roussillon's flag!" + +It was all over soon. Helm surrendered himself and Beverley with full +honors. As for Oncle Jazon, he disappeared at the critical moment. It +was not just to his mind to be a prisoner of war, especially under +existing conditions; for Hamilton's Indian allies had some old warpath +scores to settle with him dating back to the days when he and Simon +Kenton were comrades in Kentucky. + +When Alice snatched the banner and descended with it to the ground, she +ran swiftly out through the postern, as she had once before done, and +sped along under cover of the low bluff or swell, which, terrace-like, +bounded the flat "bottom" lands southward of the stockade. She kept on +until she reached a point opposite Father Beret's hut, to which she +then ran, the flag streaming bravely behind her in the wind, her heart +beating time to her steps. + +It was plainly a great surprise to Father Beret, who looked up from his +prayer when she rushed in, making a startling clatter, the loose +puncheons shaking together under her reckless feet. + +"Oh, Father, here it is! Hide it, hide it, quick!" + +She thrust the flag toward him. + +"They shall not have it! They shall never have it!" + +He opened wide his shrewd, kindly eyes; but did not fairly comprehend +her meaning. + +She was panting, half laughing, half crying. Her hair, wildly +disheveled, hung in glorious masses over her shoulders. Her face beamed +triumphantly. + +"They are taking the fort," she breathlessly added, again urging the +flag upon him, "they're going in, but I got this and ran away with it. +Hide it, Father, hide it, quick, quick, before they come!" + +The daring light in her eyes, the witching play of her dimples, the +madcap air intensified by her attitude and the excitement of the +violent exercise just ended--something compounded of all these and +more--affected the good priest strangely. Involuntarily he crossed +himself, as if against a dangerous charm. + +"Mon Dieu, Father Beret," she exclaimed with impatience, "haven't you a +grain of sense left? Take this flag and hide it, I tell you! Don't stay +there gazing and blinking. Here, quick! They saw me take it, they may +be following me. Hurry, hide it somewhere!" + +He comprehended now, rising from his knees with a queer smile +broadening on his face. She put the banner into his hands and gave him +a gentle push. + +"Hide it, I tell you, hide it, you dear old goose!" + +Without sneaking he turned the staff over and over in his hand, until +the flag was closely wrapped around it, then stooping he lifted a +puncheon and with it covered the gay roll from sight. + +Alice caught him in her arms and kissed him vigorously on the cheek. +Her warm lips made the spot tingle. + +"Don't you dare to let any person have it! It's the flag of George +Washington." + +She gave him a strong squeeze. + +He pushed her from him with both hands and hastily crossed himself; but +his eyes were laughing. + +"You ought to have seen me; I waved the flag at them--at the +English--and one young officer took off his hat to me! Oh, Father +Beret, it was like what is in a novel. They'll get the fort, but not +the banner! Not the banner! I've saved it, I've saved it!" + +Her enthusiasm gave a splendor to her countenance, heightening its +riches of color and somehow adding to its natural girlish expression an +audacious sweetness. The triumphant success of her undertaking lent the +dignity of conscious power to her look, a dignity which always sits +well upon a young and somewhat immaturely beautiful face. + +Father Beret could not resist her fervid eloquence, and he could not +run away from her or stop up his ears while she went on. So he had to +laugh when she said: + +"Oh, if you had seen it all you would have enjoyed it. There was Oncle +Jazon squatting behind the little swivel, and there were Captain Helm +and Lieutenant Beverley holding their burning sticks over the big +cannon ready to shoot--all of them so intent that they didn't see +me--and yonder came the English officer and his army against the three. +When they got close to the gate the officer called out: 'Surrender!' +and then Captain Helm yelled back: 'Damned if I do! Come another step +and I'll blow you all to hell in a second!' I was mightily in hopes +that they'd come on; I wanted to see a cannon ball hit that English +commander right in the face; he looked so arrogant." + +Father Beret shook his head and tried to look disapproving and solemn. + +Meantime down at the fort Hamilton was demanding the flag. He had seen +Alice take it down, and supposed that it was lowered officially and +would be turned over to him. Now he wanted to handle it as the best +token of his bloodless but important victory. + +"I didn't order the flag down until after I had accepted your terms," +said Helm, "and when my man started to obey, we saw a young lady snatch +it and run away with it." + +"Who was the girl?" + +"I do not inform on women," said Helm. + +Hamilton smiled grimly, with a vexed look in his eyes, then turned to +Captain Farnsworth and ordered him to bring up M. Roussillon, who, when +he appeared, still had his hands tied together. + +"Tell me the name of the young woman who carried away the flag from the +fort. You saw her, you know every soul in this town. Who was it, sir?" + +It was a hard question for M. Roussillon to answer. Although his +humiliating captivity had somewhat cowed him, still his love for Alice +made it impossible for him to give the information demanded by +Hamilton. He choked and stammered, but finally managed to say: + +"I assure you that I don't know--I didn't look--I didn't see--It was +too far off for me to--I was some-what excited--I--" + +"Take him away. Keep him securely bound," said Hamilton. "Confine him. +We'll see how long it will take to refresh his mind. We'll puncture the +big windbag." + +While this curt scene was passing, the flag of Great Britain rose over +the fort to the lusty cheering of the victorious soldiers. + +Hamilton treated Helm and Beverley with extreme courtesy. He was a +soldier, gruff, unscrupulous and cruel to a degree; but he could not +help admiring the daring behavior of these two officers who had wrung +from him the best terms of surrender. He gave them full liberty, on +parole of honor not to attempt escape or to aid in any way an enemy +against him while they were prisoners. + +Nor was it long before Helm's genial and sociable disposition won the +Englishman's respect and confidence to such an extent that the two +became almost inseparable companions, playing cards, brewing toddies, +telling stories, and even shooting deer in the woods together, as if +they had always been the best of friends. + +Hamilton did not permit his savage allies to enter the town, and he +immediately required the French inhabitants to swear allegiance to +Great Britain, which they did with apparent heartiness, all save M. +Roussillon, who was kept in close confinement and bound like a felon, +chafing lugubriously and wearing the air of a martyr. His prison was a +little log pen in one corner of the stockade, much open to the weather, +its gaping cracks giving him a dreary view of the frozen landscape +through which the Wabash flowed in a broad steel-gray current. Helm, +who really liked him, tried in vain to procure his release; but +Hamilton was inexorable on account of what he regarded as duplicity in +M. Roussillon's conduct. + +"No, I'll let him reflect," he said; "there's nothing like a little +tyranny to break up a bad case of self-importance. He'll soon find out +that he has over-rated himself!" + + + + +CHAPTER X + +M. ROUSSILLON ENTERTAINS COLONEL HAMILTON + + +A day or two after the arrival of Hamilton the absent garrison of +buffalo hunters straggled back to Vincennes and were duly sworn to +demean themselves as lawful subjects of Great Britain. Rene de Ronville +was among the first to take the oath, and it promptly followed that +Hamilton ordered him pressed into service as a wood-chopper and +log-hauler during the erection of a new blockhouse, large barracks and +the making of some extensive repairs of the stockade. Nothing could +have been more humiliating to the proud young Frenchman. Every day he +had to report bright and early to a burly Irish Corporal and be ordered +about, as if he had been a slave, cursed at, threatened and forced to +work until his hands were blistered and his muscles sore. The bitterest +part of it all was that he had to trudge past both Roussillon place and +the Bourcier cabin with the eyes of Alice and Adrienne upon him. + +Hamilton did not forget M. Roussillon in this connection. The giant +orator soon found himself face to face with a greater trial even than +Rene's. He was calmly told by the English commander that he could +choose between death and telling who it was that stole the flag. + +"I'll have you shot, sir, to-morrow morning if you prevaricate about +this thing any longer," said Hamilton, with a right deadly strain in +his voice. "You told me that you knew every man, woman and child in +Vincennes at sight. I know that you saw that girl take the flag--lying +does not serve your turn. I give you until this evening to tell me who +she is; if you fail, you die at sunrise to-morrow." + +In fact, it may be that Hamilton did not really purpose to carry out +this blood-thirsty threat; most probably he relied upon M. Roussillon's +imagination to torture him successfully; but the effect, as time +proved, could not be accurately foreseen. + +Captain Farnsworth had energy enough for a dozen ordinary men. Before +he had been in Vincennes twelve hours he had seen every nook and corner +of its surface. Nor was his activity due altogether to military ardor, +although he never let pass an opportunity to serve the best interests +of his commander; all the while his mind was on the strikingly +beautiful girl whose saucy countenance had so dazzled him from the +roof-top of the fort, what time she wrenched away the rebel flag. + +"I'll find her, high or low," he thought, "for I never could fail to +recognize that face. She's a trump." + +It was not in Alice's nature to hide from the English. They had held +the town and fort before Helm came, and she had not found them +troublesome under Abbott. She did not know that M. Roussillon was a +prisoner, the family taking it for granted that he had gone away to +avoid the English. Nor was she aware that Hamilton felt so keenly the +disappearance of the flag. What she did know, and it gladdened her +greatly, was that Beverley had been well treated by his captor. With +this in her heart she went about Roussillon place singing merry +snatches of Creole songs; and when at the gate, which still hung +lop-sided on account of Beverley's force in shutting it, she came +unexpectedly face to face with Captain Farnsworth, there was no great +surprise on her part. + +He lifted his hat and bowed very politely; but a bold smile broke over +his somewhat ruddy face. He spoke in French, but in a drawling tone and +with a bad accent: + +"How do you do, Mademoiselle; I am right glad to see you again." + +Alice drew back a pace or two. She was quick to understand his +allusion, and she shrank from him, fearing that he was going to inquire +about the flag. + +"Don't be afraid," he laughed. "I am not so dangerous. I never did hurt +a girl in all my life. In fact, I am fond of them when they're nice." + +"I am not in the least afraid," she replied, assuming an air of +absolute dismissal, "and you don't look a bit ferocious, Monsieur. You +may pass on, if you please." + +He flushed and bit his lip, probably to keep back some hasty retort, +and thought rapidly for a moment. She looked straight at him with eyes +that stirred and dazzled him. He was handsome in a coarse way, like a +fine young animal, well groomed, well fed, magnetic, forceful; but his +boldness, being of a sort to which she had not been accustomed, +disturbed her vaguely and strangely. + +"Suppose that I don't pass on?" he presently ventured, with just a +suspicion of insolence in his attitude, but laughing until he showed +teeth of remarkable beauty and whiteness. "Suppose that I should wish +to have a little chat with you, Mademoiselle?" + +"I have been told that there are men in the world who think themselves +handsome, and clever, and brilliant, when in fact they are but +conceited simpletons," she remarked, rather indifferently, muffling +herself in her fur wrap. "You certainly would be a fairly good +hitching-post for our horses if you never moved." Then she laughed out +of the depth of her hood, a perfectly merry laugh, but not in the least +flattering to Captain Farnsworth's vanity. He felt the scorn that it +conveyed. + +His face grew redder, while a flash from hers made him wish that he had +been more gracious in his deportment. Here, to his surprise, was not a +mere creole girl of the wild frontier. + +Her superiority struck him with the force of a captivating revelation, +under the light of which he blinked and winced. + +She laid a shapely hand on the broken gate and pushed it open. + +"I beg your pardon, Mademoiselle;" his manner softened as he spoke; "I +beg your pardon; but I came to speak to you about the flag--the flag +you took away from the fort." + +She had been half expecting this; but she was quite unprepared, and in +spite of all she could do showed embarrassment. + +"I have come to get the flag; if you will kindly bring it to me, or +tell me where it is I--" + +She quickly found words to interrupt him with, and at the same time by +a great effort pulled herself together. + +"You have come to the wrong place," she flung in. "I assure you that I +haven't the flag." + +"You took it down, Mademoiselle." + +"Oh, did I?" + +"With bewitching grace you did, Mademoiselle. I saw and admired. Will +you fetch it, please?" + +"Indeed I won't." + +The finality in her voice belied her face, which beamed without a ray +of stubbornness or perversity. He did not know how to interpret her; +but he felt that he had begun wrong. He half regretted that he had +begun at all. + +"More depends upon returning that flag than you are probably aware of," +he presently said in a more serious tone. "In fact, the life of one of +your townsmen, and a person of some importance here I believe, will +surely be saved by it. You'd better consider, Mademoiselle. You +wouldn't like to cause the death of a man." + +She did not fairly grasp the purport of his words; yet the change in +his manner, and the fact that he turned from French to English in +making the statement, aroused a sudden feeling of dread or dark +apprehension in her breast. The first distinct thought was of +Beverley--that some deadly danger threatened him. + +"Who is it?" she frankly demanded. + +"It's the Mayor, the big man of your town, Monsieur Roussillon, I think +he calls himself. He's got himself into a tight place. He'll be shot +to-morrow morning if that flag is not produced. Governor Hamilton has +so ordered, and what he orders is done." + +"You jest, Monsieur." + +"I assure you that I speak the plain truth." + +"You will probably catch Monsieur Roussillon before you shoot him." She +tossed her head. + +"He is already a prisoner in the fort." + +Alice turned pale. + +"Monsieur, is this true?" Her voice had lost its happy tone. "Are you +telling me that to--" + +"You can verify it, Mademoiselle, by calling upon the commander at the +fort. I am sorry that you doubt my veracity. If you will go with me I +will show you M. Roussillon a tightly bound prisoner." + +Jean had crept out of the gate and was standing just behind Alice with +his feet wide apart, his long chin elevated, his head resting far back +between his upthrust shoulders, his hands in his pockets, his uncanny +eyes gazing steadily at Farnsworth. He looked like a deformed frog +ready to jump. + +Alice unmistakably saw truth in the Captain's countenance and felt it +in his voice. The reality came to her with unhindered effect. M. +Roussillon's life depended upon the return of the flag. She put her +hands together and for a moment covered her eyes with them. + +"I will go now, Mademoiselle," said Farnsworth; "but I hope you will be +in great haste about returning the flag." + +He stood looking at her. He was profoundly touched and felt that to say +more would be too brutal even for his coarse nature; so he simply +lifted his hat and went away. + +Jean took hold of Alice's dress as she turned to go back into the house. + +"Is he going to take the flag? Can he find it? What does he want with +it? What did you do with the flag, Alice?" he whined, in his peculiar, +quavering voice. "Where is it?" + +Her skirt dragged him along as she walked. + +"Where did you put it, Alice?" + +"Father Beret hid it under his floor," she answered, involuntarily, and +almost unconsciously. "I shall have to take it back and give it up." + +"No--no--I wouldn't," he quavered, dancing across the veranda as she +quickened her pace and fairly spun him along. "I wouldn't let 'em have +it at all." + +Alice's mind was working with lightning speed. Her imagination took +strong grip on the situation so briefly and effectively sketched by +Captain Farnsworth. Her decision formed itself quickly. + +"Stay here, Jean. I am going to the fort. Don't tell Mama Roussillon a +thing. Be a good boy." + +She was gone before Jean could say a word. She meant to face Hamilton +at once and be sure what danger menaced M. Roussillon. Of course, the +flag must be given up if that would save her foster father any pain; +and if his life were in question there could not be too great haste on +her part. + +She ran directly to the stockade gate and breathlessly informed a +sentinel that she must see Governor Hamilton, into whose presence she +was soon led. Captain Farnsworth had preceded her but a minute or two, +and was present when she entered the miserable shed room where the +commander was having another talk with M. Roussillon. + +The meeting was a tableau which would have been comical but for the +pressure of its tragic possibilities. Hamilton, stern and sententious, +stood frowning upon M. Roussillon, who sat upon the ground, his feet +and hands tightly bound, a colossal statue of injured innocence. + +Alice, as soon as she saw M. Roussillon, uttered a cry of sympathetic +endearment and flung herself toward him with open arms. She could not +reach around his great shoulders; but she did her best to include the +whole bulk. + +"Papa! Papa Roussillon!" she chirruped between the kisses that she +showered upon his weather-beaten face. + +Hamilton and Farnsworth regarded the scene with curious and surprised +interest. M. Roussillon began speaking rapidly; but being a Frenchman +he could not get on well with his tongue while his hands were tied. He +could shrug his shoulders; that helped him some. + +"I am to be shot, MA PETITE," he pathetically growled in his deep bass +voice; "shot like a dog at sunrise to-morrow." + +Alice kissed M. Roussillon's rough cheek once more and sprang to her +feet facing Hamilton. + +"You are not such a fiend and brute as to kill Papa Roussillon," she +cried. "Why do you want to injure my poor, good papa?" + +"I believe you are the young lady that stole the flag?" Hamilton +remarked, smiling contemptuously. + +She looked at him with a swift flash of indignation as he uttered these +words. + +"I am not a thief. I could not steal what was my own. I helped to make +that flag. It was named after me. I took it because it was mine. You +understand me, Monsieur." + +"Tell where it is and your father's life will be spared." + +She glanced at M. Roussillon. + +"No, Alice," said he, with a pathetically futile effort to make a fine +gesture, "don't do it. I am brave enough to die. You would not have me +act the coward." + +No onlooker would have even remotely suspected the fact that M. +Roussillon had chanced to overhear a conversation between Hamilton and +Farnsworth, in which Hamilton stated that he really did not intend to +hurt M. Roussillon in any event; he merely purposed to humiliate the +"big wind-bag!" + +"Ah, no; let me die bravely for honor's sake--I fear death far less +than dishonor! They can shoot me, my little one, but they cannot break +my proud spirit." He tried to strike his breast over his heart. + +"Perhaps it would be just as well to let him be shot," said Hamilton +gruffly, and with dry indifference. "I don't fancy that he's of much +value to the community at best. He'll make a good target for a squad, +and we need an example." + +"Do you mean it?--you ugly English brute--would you murder him?" she +stamped her foot. + +"Not if I get that flag between now and sundown. Otherwise I shall +certainly have him shot. It is all in your hands, Mademoiselle. You can +tell me where the flag is." Hamilton smiled again with exquisite +cruelty. + +Farnsworth stood by gazing upon Alice in open admiration. Her presence +had power in it, to which he was very susceptible. + +"You look like a low, dishonorable, soulless tyrant," she said to +Hamilton, "and if you get my flag, how shall I know that you will keep +your promise and let Papa Roussillon go free?" + +"I am sorry to say that you will have to trust me, unless you'll take +Captain Farnsworth for security. The Captain is a gentleman, I assure +you. Will you stand good for my veracity and sincerity, Captain +Farnsworth?" + +The young man smiled and bowed. + +Alice felt the irony; and her perfectly frank nature preferred to trust +rather than distrust the sincerity of others. She looked at Farnsworth, +who smiled encouragingly. + +"The flag is under Father Beret's floor," she said. + +"Under the church floor?" + +"No, under the floor of his house." + +"Where is his house?" + +She gave full directions how to reach it. + +"Untie the prisoner," Hamilton ordered, and it was quickly done. +"Monsieur Roussillon, I congratulate you upon your narrow escape. Go to +the priest's house, Monsieur, and bring me that flag. It would be well, +I assure you, not to be very long about it. Captain Farnsworth, you +will send a guard with Monsieur Roussillon, a guard of honor, fitting +his official dignity, a Corporal and two men. The honorable Mayor of +this important city should not go alone upon so important an errand. He +must have his attendants." + +"Permit me to go myself and get it," said Alice, "I can do it quickly. +May I, please, Monsieur?" + +Hamilton looked sharply at her. + +"Why, certainly, Mademoiselle, certainly. Captain Farnsworth, you will +escort the young lady." + +"It is not necessary, Monsieur." + +"Oh, yes, it is necessary, my dear young lady, very necessary; so let's +not have further words. I'll try to entertain his honor, the Mayor, +while you go and get the flag. I feel sure, Mademoiselle, that you'll +return with it in a few minutes. But you must not go alone." + +Alice set forth immediately, and Farnsworth, try as hard as he would, +could never reach her side, so swift was her gait. + +When they arrived at Father Beret's cabin, she turned and said with +imperious severity: + +"Don't you come in; you stay out here: I'll get it in a minute." + +Farnsworth obeyed her command. + +The door was wide open, but Father Beret was not inside; he had gone to +see a sick child in the outskirts of the village. Alice looked about +and hesitated. She knew the very puncheon that covered the flag; but +she shrank from lifting it. There seemed nothing else to do, however; +so, after some trouble with herself, she knelt upon the floor and +turned the heavy slab over with a great thump. The flag did not appear. +She peeped under the other puncheons. It was not there. The only thing +visible was a little ball of paper fragments not larger than an egg. + +Farnsworth heard her utter a low cry of surprise or dismay, and was on +the point of going in when Father Beret, coming around the corner of +the cabin, confronted him. The meeting was so sudden and unexpected +that both men recoiled slightly, and then, with a mutual stare, saluted. + +"I came with a young lady to get the flag," said Farnsworth. "She is +inside. I hope there is no serious intrusion. She says the flag is +hidden under your floor." + +Father Beret said nothing, but frowning as if much annoyed, stepped +through the doorway to Alice's side, and stooping where she knelt, laid +a hand on her shoulder as she glanced up and recognized him. + +"What are you doing, my child?" + +"Oh, Father, where is the flag?" It was all that she could say. "Where +is the flag?" + +"Why, isn't it there?" + +"No, you see it isn't there! Where is it?" + +The priest stood as if dumfounded, gazing into the vacant space +uncovered by the puncheon. + +"Is it gone? Has some one taken it away?" + +They turned up all the floor to no avail. La banniere d'Alice +Roussillon had disappeared, and Captain Farnsworth went forthwith to +report the fact to his commander. When he reached the shed at the angle +of the fort he found Governor Hamilton sitting stupid and dazed on the +ground. One jaw was inflamed and swollen and an eye was half closed and +bloodshot. He turned his head with a painful, irregular motion and his +chin sagged. + +Farnsworth sprang to him and lifted him to his feet; but he could +scarcely stand. He licked his lips clumsily. + +"What is the matter? What hurt you?" + +The Governor rubbed his forehead trying to recollect. + +"He struck me," he presently said with difficulty. "He hit me with his +fist Where--where is he?" + +"Who?" + +"That big French idiot--that Roussillon--go after him, take him, shoot +him--quick! I have been stunned; I don't know how long he's been gone. +Give the alarm--do something!" + +Hamilton, as he gathered his wits together, began to foam with rage, +and his passion gave his bruised and swollen face a terrible look. + +The story was short, and may be quickly told. M. Roussillon had taken +advantage of the first moment when he and Hamilton were left alone. One +herculean buffet, a swinging smash of his enormous fist on the point of +the Governors jaw, and then he walked out of the fort unchallenged, +doubtless on account of his lordly and masterful air. + +"Ziff!" he exclaimed, shaking himself and lifting his shoulders, when +he had passed beyond hearing of the sentinel at the gate, "ziff! I can +punch a good stiff stroke yet, Monsieur le Gouverneur. Ah, ziff!" and +he blew like a porpoise. + +Every effort was promptly made to recapture M. Roussillon; but his +disappearance was absolute; even the reward offered for his scalp by +Hamilton only gave the Indians great trouble--they could not find the +man. + +Such a beginning of his administration of affairs at Vincennes did not +put Hamilton into a good humor. He was overbearing and irascible at +best, and under the irritation of small but exceedingly unpleasant +experiences he made life well-nigh unendurable to those upon whom his +dislike chanced to fall. Beverley quickly felt that it was going to be +very difficult for him and Hamilton to get along agreeably. With Helm +it was quite different; smoking, drinking, playing cards, telling good +stories--in a word, rude and not unfrequently boisterous conviviality +drew him and the commandant together. + +Under Captain Farnsworth's immediate supervision the fort was soon in +excellent repair and a large blockhouse and comfortable quarters for +the men were built. Every day added to the strength of the works and to +the importance of the post as a strategic position for the advance +guard of the British army. + +Hamilton was ambitious to prove himself conspicuously valuable to his +country. He was dreaming vast dreams and laying large plans. The +Indians were soon anxious to gain his favor; and to bind them securely +to him he offered liberal pay in rum and firearms, blankets, trinkets +and ammunition for the scalps of rebels. He kept this as secret as +possible from his prisoners; but Beverley soon suspected that a +"traffic in hair," as the terrible business had been named, was going +on. Savages came in from far away with scalps yet scarcely dry dangling +at their belts. It made the young Virginian's blood chill in his heart, +and he regretted that he had given Hamilton his parole of honor not to +attempt to escape. + +Among the Indians occasionally reporting to Hamilton with their ghastly +but valuable trophies was Long-Hair, who slipped into the fort and out +again rather warily, not having much confidence in those Frenchmen who +had once upon a time given him a memorable run for his life. + +Winter shut down, not cold, but damp, changeable, raw. The work on the +fort was nearly completed, and Rene de Ronville would have soon been +relieved of his servile and exasperating employment under the Irish +Corporal; but just at the point of time when only a few days' work +remained for him, he became furious, on account of an insulting remark, +and struck the Corporal over the head with a handspike. This happened +in a wood some miles from town, where he was loading logs upon a sled. +There chanced to be no third person present when the deed was done, and +some hours passed before they found the officer quite cold and stiff +beside the sled. His head was crushed to a pulp. + +Hamilton, now thoroughly exasperated, began to look upon the French +inhabitants of Vincennes as all like M. Roussillon and Rene, but +waiting for an opportunity to strike him unawares. He increased his +military vigilance, ordered the town patrolled day and night, and +forbade public gatherings of the citizens, while at the same time he +forced them to furnish him a large amount of provisions. + +When little Adrienne Bourcier heard of Renews terrible act, followed by +his successful escape to the woods, and of the tempting reward offered +by Hamilton for his scalp, she ran to Roussillon place well-nigh crazed +with excitement. She had always depended upon Alice for advice, +encouragement and comfort in her troubles; but in the present case +there was not much that her friend could do to cheer her. With M. +Roussillon and Rene both fugitives, tracked by wily savages, a price on +their heads, while every day added new dangers to the French +inhabitants of Vincennes, no rosy view could possibly be taken of the +situation. Alice did her best, however, to strengthen her little +friend's faith in a happy outcome. She quoted what she considered +unimpeachable authority to support her optimistic argument. + +"Lieutenant Beverley says that the Americans will be sure to drive +Hamilton out of Vincennes, or capture him. Probably they are not so +very far away now, and Rene may join them and come back to help punish +these brutal Englishmen. Don't you wish he would, Adrienne? Wouldn't it +be romantic?" + +"He's armed, I know that," said Adrienne, brightening a little, "and +he's brave, Alice, brave as can be. He came right back into town the +other night and got his gun and pistols. He was at our house, too, and, +oh!--" + +She burst out crying again. "O Alice! It breaks my heart to think that +the Indians will kill him. Do you think they will kill him, Alice?" + +"He'll come nearer killing them," said Alice confidently, with her +strong, warm arms around the tiny lass; "he's a good woodsman, a fine +shot--he's not so easy to kill, my dear. If he and Papa Roussillon +should get together by chance they would be a match for all the Indians +in the country. Anyway, I feel that it's much better for them to take +their chances in the woods than to be in the hands of Governor +Hamilton. If I were a man I'd do just as Papa Roussillon and Rene did; +I'd break the bigoted head of every Englishman that mistreated me, I'll +do it, girl as I am, if they annoy me, see if I don't!" + +She was thinking of Captain Farnsworth, who had been from the first +untiring in his efforts to gain something more than a passing +acquaintance. As yet he had not made himself unbearable; but Alice's +fine intuition led her to the conclusion that she must guard against +him from the outset. + +Adrienne's simple heart could not grasp the romantic criterion with +which Alice was wont to measure action. Her mind was single, impulsive, +narrow and direct in all its movements. She loved, hated, desired, +caressed, repulsed, not for any assignable reason more solid or more +luminous than "because." She adored Rene and wanted him near her. He +was a hero in her imagination, no matter what he did. Little difference +was it to her whether he hauled logs for the English or smoked his pipe +in idleness by the winter fire--what could it matter which flag he +served under, so that he was true to her? Or whom he served if she +could always have him coming to see her and calling her his little pet? +He might crush an Irish Corporal's head every day, if he would but +stroke her hair and say: "My sweet little one." + +"Why couldn't he be quiet and do as your man, Lieutenant Beverley, +did?" she cried in a sudden change of mood, the tears streaming down +her cheeks. "Lieutenant Beverley surrendered and took the consequences. +He didn't kill somebody and run off to be hunted like a bear. No wonder +you're happy, Alice; I'd be happy, too, if Rene were here and came to +spend half of every day with me. I--" + +"Why, what a silly girl you are!" Alice exclaimed, her face reddening +prettily. "How foolishly you prattle! I'm sure I don't trouble myself +about Lieutenant Beverley--what put such absurd nonsense into your +head, Adrienne?" + +"Because, that's what, and you know it's so, too. You love him just as +much as I love Rene, and that's just all the love in the world, and you +needn't deny it, Alice Roussillon!" + +Alice laughed and hugged the wee, brown-faced mite of a girl until she +almost smothered her. + +It was growing dusk when Adrienne left Roussillon place to go home. The +wind cut icily across the commons and moaned as it whirled around the +cabins and cattle-sheds. She ran briskly, muffled in a wrap, partly +through fear and partly to keep warm, and had gone two-thirds of her +way when she was brought to an abrupt stop by the arms of a man. She +screamed sharply, and Father Beret, who was coming out of a cabin not +far away, heard and knew the voice. + +"Ho-ho, my little lady!" cried Adrienne's captor in a breezy, jocund +tone, "you wouldn't run over a fellow, would you?" The words were +French, but the voice was that of Captain Farnsworth, who laughed while +he spoke. "You jump like a rabbit, my darling! Why, what a lively +little chick of a girl it is!" + +Adrienne screamed and struggled recklessly. + +"Now don't rouse up the town," coaxed the Captain. He was just drunk +enough to be quite a fool, yet sufficiently sober to imagine himself +the most proper person in the world. "I don't mean you any harm, +Mademoiselle; I'll just see you safe home, you know; 'scort you to your +residence; come on, now--that's a good girl." + +Father Beret hurried to the spot, and when in the deepening gloom he +saw Adrienne flinging herself violently this way and that, helplessly +trying to escape from the clasp of a man, he did to perfection what a +priest is supposed to be the least fitted to do. Indeed, considering +his age and leaving his vocation out of the reckoning, his performance +was amazing. It is not certain that the blow dealt upon Governor +Hamilton's jaw by M. Roussillon was a stiffer one than that sent +straight from the priest's shoulder right into the short ribs of +Captain Farnsworth, who there-upon released a mighty grunt and doubled +himself up. + +Adrienne recognized her assailant at the first and used his name freely +during the struggle. When Father Beret appeared she cried out to him-- + +"Oh, Father--Father Beret! help me! help me!" + +When Farnsworth recovered from the breath-expelling shock of the jab in +his side and got himself once more in a vertical position, both girl +and priest were gone. He looked this way and that, rapidly becoming +sober, and beginning to wonder how the thing could have happened so +easily. His ribs felt as if they had been hit with a heavy hammer. + +"By Jove!" he muttered all to himself, "the old prayer-singing heathen! +By Jove!" And with this very brilliant and relevant observation he +rubbed his sore side and went his way to the fort. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +A SWORD AND A HORSE PISTOL + + +We hear much about the "days that tried men's souls"; but what about +the souls of women in those same days? Sitting in the liberal geniality +of the nineteenth century's sunset glow, we insist upon having our +grumble at the times and the manners of our generation; but if we had +to exchange places, periods and experiences with the people who lived +in America through the last quarter of the eighteenth century, there +would be good ground for despairing ululations. And if our men could +not bear it, if it would try their souls too poignantly, let us imagine +the effect upon our women. No, let us not imagine it; but rather let us +give full credit to the heroic souls of the mothers and the maidens who +did actually bear up in the center of that terrible struggle and +unflinchingly help win for us not only freedom, but the vast empire +which at this moment is at once the master of the world and the model +toward which all the nations of the earth are slowly but surely tending. + +If Alice was an extraordinary girl, she was not aware of it; nor had +she ever understood that her life was being shaped by extraordinary +conditions. Of course it could not but be plain to her that she knew +more and felt more than the girls of her narrow acquaintance; that her +accomplishments were greater; that she nursed splendid dreams of which +they could have no proper comprehension, but until now she had never +even dimly realized that she was probably capable of being something +more than a mere creole lass, the foster daughter of Gaspard +Roussillon, trader in pelts and furs. Even her most romantic visions +had never taken the form of personal desire, or ambition in its most +nebulous stage; they had simply pleased her fresh and natural fancy and +served to gild the hardness and crudeness of her life,--that was all. + +Her experiences had been almost too terrible for belief, viewed at our +distance from them; she had passed through scenes of incredible horror +and suffering, but her nature had not been chilled, stunted or +hardened. In body and in temper her development had been sound and +beautiful. It was even thus that our great-grandmothers triumphed over +adversity, hardship, indescribable danger. We cannot say that the +strong, lithe, happy-hearted Alice of old Vincennes was the only one of +her kind. Few of us who have inherited the faded portraits of our +revolutionary forbears can doubt that beauty, wit and great lovableness +flourished in the cabins of pioneers all the way from the Edisto to the +Licking, from the Connecticut to the Wabash. + +Beverley's advent could not fail to mean a great deal in the life of a +girl like Alice; a new era, as it were, would naturally begin for her +the moment that his personal influence touched her imagination; but it +is well not to measure her too strictly by the standard of our present +taste and the specialized forms of our social and moral code. She was a +true child of the wilderness, a girl who grew, as the wild prairie rose +grew, not on account of innumerable exigencies, accidents and +hardships, but in spite of them. She had blushed unseen, and had wasted +divine sweets upon a more than desert air. But when Beverley came near +her, at first carelessly droning his masculine monotonies, as the +wandering bee to the lonely and lovely rose, and presently striking her +soul as with the wings of Love, there fell a change into her heart of +hearts, and lo! her haunting and elusive dreams began to condense and +take on forms that startled her with their wonderful splendor and +beauty. These she saw all the time, sleeping or waking; they made +bright summer of the frozen stream and snapping gale, the snowdrifts +and the sleet. In her brave young heart, swelled the ineffable +song--the music never yet caught by syrinx or flute or violin, the +words no tongue can speak. + +Ah, here may be the secret of that vigorous, brave, sweet life of our +pioneer maids, wives, and mothers. It was love that gave those tender +hearts the iron strength and heroic persistence at which the world must +forever wonder. And do we appreciate those women? Let the Old World +boast its crowned kings, its mailed knights, its ladies of the court +and castle; but we of the New World, we of the powerful West, let us +brim our cups with the wine of undying devotion, and drink to the +memory of the Women of the Revolution,--to the humble but good and +marvelously brave and faithful women like those of old Vincennes. + +But if Alice was being radically influenced by Beverley, he in turn +found a new light suffusing his nature, and he was not unaware that it +came out of her eyes, her face, her smiles, her voice, her soul. It was +the old, well-known, inexplicable, mutual magnetism, which from the +first has been the same on the highest mountain-top and in the lowest +valley. The queen and the milkmaid, the king and the hind may come +together only to find the king walking off with the lowly beauty and +her fragrant pail, while away stalks the lusty rustic, to be lord and +master of the queen. Love is love, and it thrives in all climes, under +all conditions. + +There is an inevitable and curious protest that comes up unbidden +between lovers; it takes many forms in accordance with particular +circumstances. It is the demand for equality and perfection. Love +itself is without degrees--it is perfect--but when shall it see the +perfect object? It does see it, and it does not see it, in every +beloved being. Beverley found his mind turning, as on a pivot, round +and round upon the thought that Alice might be impossible to him. The +mystery of her life seemed to force her below the line of his +aristocratic vision, so that he could not fairly consider her, and yet +with all his heart he loved her. Alice, on the other hand, had her +bookish ideal to reckon with, despite the fact that she daily dashed it +contemptuously down. She was different from Adrienne Bourcier, who +bewailed the absence of her un-tamable lover; she wished that Beverley +had not, as she somehow viewed it, weakly surrendered to Hamilton. His +apparently complacent acceptance of idle captivity did not comport with +her dream of knighthood and heroism. She had been all the time half +expecting him to do something that would stamp him a hero. + +Counter protests of this sort are never sufficiently vigorous to take a +fall out of Love; they merely serve to worry his temper by lightly +hindering his feet. And it is surprising how Love does delight himself +with being entangled. + +Both Beverley and Alice day by day felt the cord tightening which drew +their hearts together--each acknowledged it secretly, but strove not to +evince it openly. Meantime both were as happy and as restlessly +dissatisfied as love and uncertainty could make them. + +Amid the activities in which Hamilton was engaged--his dealings with +the Indians and the work of reconstructing the fort--he found time to +worry his temper about the purloined flag. Like every other man in the +world, he was superstitious, and it had come into his head that to +insure himself and his plans against disaster, he must have the banner +of his captives as a badge of his victory. It was a small matter; but +it magnified itself as he dwelt upon it. He suspected that Alice had +deceived him. He sharply questioned Father Beret, only to be half +convinced that the good priest told the truth when he said that he knew +nothing whatever on the subject beyond the fact that the banner had +mysteriously disappeared from under his floor. + +Captain Farnsworth scarcely sympathized with his chief about the flag, +but he was nothing if not anxious to gain Hamilton's highest +confidence. His military zeal knew no bounds, and he never let pass +even the slightest opportunity to show it. Hence his persistent search +for a clue to the missing banner. He was no respecter of persons. He +frankly suspected both Alice and Father Beret of lying. He would +himself have lied under the existing circumstances, and he considered +himself as truthful and trustworthy as priest or maiden. + +"I'll get that flag for you," he said to Hamilton, "if I have to put +every man, woman and child in this town on the rack. It lies, I think, +between Miss Roussillon and the priest, although both insistently deny +it. I've thought it over in every way, and I can't see how they can +both be ignorant of where it is, or at least who got it." + +Hamilton, since being treated to that wonderful blow on the jaw, was +apt to fall into a spasm of anger whenever the name Roussillon was +spoken in his hearing. Involuntarily he would put his hand to his +cheek, and grimace reminiscently. + +"If it's that girl, make her tell," he savagely commanded. "Let's have +no trifling about it. If it's the priest, then make him tell, or tie +him up by the thumbs. Get that flag, or show some good reason for your +failure. I'm not going to be baffled." + +The Captain's adventure with Father Beret came just in time to make it +count against that courageous and bellicose missionary in more ways +than one. Farnsworth did not tell Hamilton or any other person about +what the priest had done to him, but nursed his sore ribs and his +wrath, waiting patiently for the revenge that he meant soon to take. + +Alice heard from Adrienne the story of Farnsworth's conduct and his +humiliating discomfiture at the hands of Father Beret. She was both +indignant and delighted, sympathizing with Adrienne and glorying in the +priest's vigorous pugilistic achievement. + +"Well," she remarked, with one of her infectious trills of laughter, +"so far the French have the best of it, anyway! Papa Roussillon knocked +the Governor's cheek nearly off, then Rene cracked the Irish Corporal's +head, and now Father Beret has taught Captain Farnsworth a lesson in +fisticuffs that he'll not soon forget! If the good work can only go on +a little longer we shall see every English soldier in Vincennes wearing +the mark of a Frenchman's blow." Then her mood suddenly changed from +smiling lightness to almost fierce gravity, and she added: + +"Adrienne Bourcier, if Captain Farnsworth ever offers to treat me as he +did you, mark my words, I'll kill him--kill him, indeed I will! You +ought to see me!" + +"But he won't dare touch you," said Adrienne, looking at her friend +with round, admiring eyes. "He knows very well that you are not little +and timid like me. He'd be afraid of you." + +"I wish he would try it. How I would love to shoot him into pieces, the +hateful wretch! I wish he would." + +The French inhabitants all, or nearly all, felt as Alice did; but at +present they were helpless and dared not say or do anything against the +English. Nor was this feeling confined to the Creoles of Vincennes; it +had spread to most of the points where trading posts existed. Hamilton +found this out too late to mend some of his mistakes; but he set +himself on the alert and organized scouting bodies of Indians under +white officers to keep him informed as to the American movements in +Kentucky and along the Ohio. One of these bands brought in as captive +Colonel Francis Vigo, of St. Louis, a Spaniard by birth, an American by +adoption, a patriot to the core, who had large influence over both +Indians and Creoles in the Illinois country. + +Colonel Vigo was not long held a prisoner. Hamilton dared not +exasperate the Creoles beyond their endurance, for he knew that the +savages would closely sympathize with their friends of long standing, +and this might lead to revolt and coalition against him,--a very +dangerous possibility. Indeed, at least one of the great Indian +chieftains had already frankly informed him that he and his tribe were +loyal to the Americans. Here was a dilemma requiring consummate +diplomacy. Hamilton saw it, but he was not of a diplomatic temper or +character. With the Indians he used a demoralizing system of bribery, +while toward the whites he was too often gruff, imperious, repellant. +Helm understood the whole situation and was quick to take advantage of +it. His personal relations with Hamilton were easy and familiar, so +that he did not hesitate to give advice upon all occasions. Here his +jovial disposition helped him. + +"You'd better let Vigo return to St. Louis," he said. They had a bowl +of something hot steaming between them. "I know him. He's harmless if +you don't rub him too hard the wrong way. He'll go back, if you treat +him well, and tell Clark how strong you are here and how foolish it +would be to think of attacking you. Clark has but a handful of men, +poorly supplied and tired with long, hard marches. If you'll think a +moment you cannot fail to understand that you'd better be friends with +this man Vigo. He and Father Gibault and this old priest here, Beret, +carry these Frenchmen in their pockets. I'm not on your side, +understand, I'm an American, and I'd blow the whole of you to kingdom +come in a minute, if I could; but common sense is common sense all the +same. There's no good to you and no harm to Clark in mistreating, or +even holding this prisoner. What harm can he do you by going back to +Clark and telling him the whole truth? Clark knew everything long +before Vigo reached here. Old Jazon, my best scout, left here the day +you took possession, and you may bet he got to Kaskaskia in short +order. He never fails. But he'll tell Clark to stay where he is, and +Vigo can do no more." + +What effect Helm's bold and apparently artless talk had upon Hamilton's +mind is not recorded; but the meager historical facts at command show +that Vigo was released and permitted to return under promise that he +would give no information to the enemy ON HIS WAY to Kaskaskia. + +Doubtless this bit of careless diplomacy on the Governor's part did +have a somewhat soothing effect upon a large class of Frenchmen at +Vincennes; but Farnsworth quickly neutralized it to a serious extent by +a foolish act while slightly under the influence of liquor. + +He met Father Beret near Roussillon place, and feeling his ribs squirm +at sight of the priest, he accosted him insolently, demanding +information as to the whereabouts of the missing flag. + +A priest may be good and true--Father Beret certainly was--and yet have +the strongest characteristics of a worldly man. This thing of being +bullied day after day, as had recently been the rule, generated nothing +to aid in removing a refractory desire from the priest's heart--the +worldly desire to repeat with great increment of force the punch +against Famsworth's lower ribs. + +"I order you, sir, to produce that rebel flag," said Farnsworth. "You +will obey forthwith or take the consequences. I am no longer in the +humor to be trifled with. Do you understand?" + +"I might be forced to obey you, if I could," said the priest, drawing +his robe about him; "but, as I have often told you, my son, I do not +know where the flag is or who took it. I do not even suspect any person +of taking it. All that I know about it is the simple fact that it is +gone." + +Father Beret's manner and voice were very mild, but there must have +been a hint of sturdy defiance somewhere in them. At all events +Farnsworth was exasperated and fell into a white rage. Perhaps it was +the liquor he had been drinking that made him suddenly desperate. + +"You canting old fool!" he cried, "don't lie to me any longer; I won't +have it. Don't stand there grinning at me. Get that flag, or I'll make +you." + +"What is impossible, my son, is possible to God alone. Apud homines hoc +impossible est, apud Deum autem omnia possibilia sunt." + +"None of your Jesuit Latin or logic to me--I am not here to argue, but +to command. Get that flag. Be in a hurry about it, sir." + +He whipped out his sword, and in his half drunken eyes there gathered +the dull film of murderous passion. + +"Put up your weapon, Captain; you will not attack an unarmed priest. +You are a soldier, and will not dare strike an old, defenceless man." + +"But I will strike a black-robed and black-hearted French rebel. Get +that flag, you grinning fool!" + +The two men stood facing each other. Father Beret's eyes did not stir +from their direct, fearless gaze. What Farnsworth had called a grin was +a peculiar smile, not of merriment, a grayish flicker and a slight +backward wrinkling of the cheeks. The old man's arms were loosely +crossed upon his sturdy breast. + +"Strike if you must," he said very gently, very firmly. "I never yet +have seen the man that could make me afraid." His speech was slightly +sing-song in tone, as it would have been during a prayer or a blessing. + +"Get the flag then!" raged Farnsworth, in whose veins the heat of +liquor was aided by an unreasoning choler. + +"I cannot," said Father Beret. + +"Then take the consequences!" + +Farnsworth lifted his sword, not to thrust, but to strike with its flat +side, and down it flashed with a noisy whack. Father Beret flung out an +arm and deftly turned the blow aside. It was done so easily that +Farnsworth sprang back glaring and surprised. + +"You old fool!" he cried, leveling his weapon for a direct lunge. "You +devilish hypocrite!" + +It was then that Father Beret turned deadly pale and swiftly crossed +himself. His face looked as if he saw something startling just beyond +his adversary. Possibly this sudden change of expression caused +Farnsworth to hesitate for a mere point of time. Then there was the +swish of a woman's skirts; a light step pattered on the frozen ground, +and Alice sprang between the men, facing Farnsworth. As she did this +something small and yellow,--the locket at her throat,--fell and rolled +under her feet. Nobody saw it. + +In her hand she held an immense horse pistol, which she leveled in the +Captain's face, its flaring, bugle-shaped muzzle gaping not a yard from +his nose. The heavy tube was as steady as if in a vise. + +"Drop that sword!" + +That was all she said; but her finger was pressing the trigger, and the +flint in the backward slanting hammer was ready to click against the +steel. The leaden slugs were on the point of leaping forth. + +"Drop that sword!" + +The repetition seemed to close the opportunity for delay. + +Farnsworth was on his guard in a twinkling. He set his jaw and uttered +an ugly oath; then quick as lightning he struck sidewise at the pistol +with his blade. It was a move which might have taken a less alert +person than Alice unawares; but her training in sword-play was ready in +her wrist and hand. An involuntary turn, the slightest imaginable, set +the heavy barrel of her weapon strongly against the blow, partly +stopping it, and then the gaping muzzle spat its load of balls and +slugs with a bellow that awoke the drowsy old village. + +Farnsworth staggered backward, letting fall his sword. There was a rent +in the clothing of his left shoulder. He reeled; the blood spun out; +but he did not fall, although he grew white. + +Alice stood gazing at him with a look on her face he would never +forget. It was a look that changed by wonderful swift gradations from +terrible hate to something like sweet pity. The instant she saw him +hurt and bleeding, his countenance relaxing and pale, her heart failed +her. She took a step toward him, her hand opened, and with a thud the +heavy old pistol fell upon the ground beside her. + +Father Beret sprang nimbly to sustain Farnsworth, snatching up the +pistol as he passed around Alice. + +"You are hurt, my son," he gently said, "let me help you." He passed +his arm firmly under that of Farnsworth, seeing that the Captain was +unsteady on his feet. + +"Lean upon me. Come with me, Alice, my child, I will take him into the +house." + +Alice picked up the Captain's sword and led the way. + +It was all done so quickly that Farnsworth, in his half dazed +condition, scarcely realized what was going on until he found himself +on a couch in the Roussillon home, his wound (a jagged furrow plowed +out by slugs that the sword's blade had first intercepted) neatly +dressed and bandaged, while Alice and the priest hovered over him busy +with their careful ministrations. + +Hamilton and Helm were, as usual, playing cards at the former's +quarters when a guard announced that Mademoiselle Roussillon wished an +audience with the Governor. + +"Bring the girl in," said Hamilton, throwing down his cards and +scowling darkly. + +"Now you'd better be wise as a serpent and gentle as a dove," remarked +Helm. "There is something up, and that gun-shot we heard awhile ago may +have a good deal to do with it. At any rate, you'll find kindness your +best card to play with Alice Roussillon just at the present stage of +the game." + +Of course they knew nothing of what had happened to Farnsworth; but +they had been discussing the strained relations between the garrison +and the French inhabitants when the roar of Alice's big-mouthed pistol +startled them. Helm was slyly beating about to try to make Hamilton +lose sight of the danger from Clark's direction. To do this he artfully +magnified the insidious work that might be done by the French and their +Indian friends should they be driven to desperation by oppressive or +exasperating action on the part of the English. + +Hamilton felt the dangerous uncertainty upon which the situation +rested; but, like many another vigorously self-reliant man, he could +not subordinate his passions to the dictates of policy. When Alice was +conducted into his presence he instantly swelled with anger. It was her +father who had struck him and escaped, it was she who had carried off +the rebel flag at the moment of victory. + +"Well, Miss, to what do I owe the honor of this visit?" he demanded +with a supercilious air, bending a card between his thumb and finger on +the rude table. + +She stood before him tall and straight, well bundled in furs. She was +not pale; her blood was too rich and brilliant for that; but despite a +half-smile and the inextinguishable dimples, there was a touch of +something appealingly pathetic in the lines of her mouth. She did not +waver or hesitate, however, but spoke promptly and distinctly. + +"I have come, Monsieur, to tell you that I have hurt Captain +Farnsworth. He was about to kill Father Beret, and I shot him. He is in +our house and well cared for. I don't think his wound is bad. And--" +here she hesitated at last and let her gaze fall,--"so here I am." Then +she lifted her eyes again and made an inimitable French gesture with +her shoulders and arms. "You will do as you please, Monsieur, I am at +your mercy." + +Hamilton was astounded. Helm sat staring phlegmatically. Meantime +Beverley entered the room and stopped hat in hand behind Alice. He was +flushed and evidently excited; in fact, he had heard of the trouble +with Farnsworth, and seeing Alice enter the floor of Hamilton's +quarters he followed her in, his heart stirred by no slight emotion. He +met the Governor's glare and parried it with one of equal haughtiness. +The veins on his forehead swelled and turned dark. He was in a mood to +do whatever desperate act should suggest itself. + +When Hamilton fairly comprehended the message so graphically presented +by Alice, he rose from his seat by the fire. + +"What's this you tell me?" he blurted. "You say you've shot Captain +Farnsworth?" + +"Oui, Monsieur." + +He stared a moment, then his features beamed with hate. + +"And I'll have you shot for it, Miss, as sure as you stand there in +your silly impudence ogling me so brazenly!" + +He leaned toward her as he spoke and sent with the words a shock of +coarse, passionate energy from which she recoiled as if expecting a +blow to follow it. + +An irresistible impulse swept Beverley to Alice's side, and his +attitude was that of a protector. Helm sprang up. + +A Lieutenant came in and respectfully, but with evident over-haste, +reported that Captain Farnsworth had been shot and was at Roussillon +place in care of the surgeon. + +"Take this girl into custody. Confine her and put a strong guard over +her." + +In giving the order Hamilton jerked his thumb contemptuously toward +Alice, and at the same time gave Beverley a look of supreme defiance +and hatred. When Helm began to speak he turned fiercely upon him and +stopped him with: + +"None of your advice, sir. I have had all I want of it. Keep your place +or I'll make you." + +Then to Beverley: + +"Retire, sir. When I wish to see you I'll send for you. At present you +are not needed here." + +The English Lieutenant saluted his commander, bowed respectfully to +Alice and said: + +"Come with me, Miss, please." + +Helm and Beverley exchanged a look of helpless and enquiring rage. It +was as if they had said: "What can we do? Must we bear it?" Certainly +they could do nothing. Any interference on their part would be sure to +increase Alice's danger, and at the same time add to the weight of +their own humiliation. + +Alice silently followed the officer out of the room. She did not even +glance toward Beverley, who moved as if to interfere and was promptly +motioned back by the guard. His better judgement returning held him +from a rash and futile act, until Hamilton spoke again, saying loudly +as Alice passed through the door: + +"I'll see who's master of this town if I have to shoot every French +hoyden in it!" + +"Women and children may well fear you, Colonel Hamilton," said +Beverley. "That young lady is your superior." + +"You say that to me, sir!" + +"It is the best I could possibly say of you." + +"I will send you along with the wench if you do not guard your +language. A prisoner on parole has no license to be a blackguard." + +"I return you my parole, sir, I shall no longer regard it as binding," +said Beverley, by a great effort, holding back a blow; "I will not keep +faith with a scoundrel who does not know how to be decent in the +presence of a young girl. You had better have me arrested and confined. +I will escape at the first opportunity and bring a force here to reckon +with you for your villainy. And if you dare hurt Alice Roussillon I +will have you hanged like a dog!" + +Hamilton looked at him scornfully, smiling as one who feels safe in his +authority and means to have his own way with his victim. Naturally he +regarded Beverley's words as the merest vaporings of a helpless and +exasperated young man. He saw very clearly that love was having a hand +in the affair, and he chuckled inwardly, thinking what a fool Beverley +was. + +"I thought I ordered you to leave this room," he said with an air and +tone of lofty superiority, "and I certainly mean to be obeyed. Go, sir, +and if you attempt to escape, or in any way break your parole, I'll +have you shot." + +"I have already broken it. From this moment I shall not regard it. You +have heard my statement. I shall not repeat it. Govern yourself +accordingly." + +With these words Beverley turned and strode out of the house, quite +beside himself, his whole frame quivering. + +Hamilton laughed derisively, then looked at Helm and said: + +"Helm, I like you; I don't wish to be unkind to you; but positively you +must quit breaking in upon my affairs with your ready-made advice. I've +given you and Lieutenant Beverley too much latitude, perhaps. If that +young fool don't look sharp he'll get himself into a beastly lot of +trouble. You'd better give him a talk. He's in a way to need it just +now." + +"I think so myself," said Helm, glad to get back upon fair footing with +the irascible Governor. "I'll wait until he cools off somewhat, and +then I can manage him. Leave him to me." + +"Well, come walk with me to see what has really happened to Farnsworth. +He's probably not much hurt, and deserves what he's got. That girl has +turned his head. I think I understand the whole affair. A little love, +a little wine, some foolishness, and the wench shot him." + +Helm genially assented; but they were delayed for some time by an +officer who came in to consult with Hamilton on some pressing Indian +affairs. When they reached Roussillon place they met Beverley coming +out; but he did not look at them. He was scarcely aware of them. A +little way outside the gate, on going in, he had picked up Alice's +locket and broken chain, which he mechanically put into his pocket. It +was all like a dream to him, and yet he had a clear purpose. He was +going away from Vincennes, or at least he would try, and woe be to +Hamilton on his coming back. It was so easy for an excited young mind +to plan great things and to expect success under apparently impossible +conditions. Beverley gave Jean a note for Alice; it was this that took +him to Roussillon place; and no sooner fell the night than he +shouldered a gun furnished him by Madame Godere, and guided by the +woodsman's fine craft, stole away southward, thinking to swim the icy +Wabash some miles below, and then strike across the plains of Illinois +to Kaskaskia. + +It was a desperate undertaking; but in those days desperate +undertakings were rather the rule than the exception. Moreover, love +was the leader and Beverley the blind follower. Nothing could daunt him +or turn him back, until he found an army to lead against Hamilton. It +seems but a romantic burst of indignation, as we look back at it, +hopelessly foolish, with no possible end but death in the wilderness. +Still there was a method in love's madness, and Beverley, with his +superb physique, his knowledge of the wilderness and his indomitable +self-reliance, was by no means without his fighting chance for success. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +MANON LESCAUT. AND A RAPIER-THRUST + + +Beverley's absence was not noticed by Hamilton until late on the +following day, and even then he scouted Helm's suggestion that the +young man was possibly carrying out his threat to disregard his parole. + +"He would be quite justified in doing it; you know that very well," +said Helm with a laugh, "and he's just the man to undertake what is +impossible. Of course, however, he'll get scalped for his trouble, and +that will cost you something, I'm happy to say." + +"It's a matter of small importance," Hamilton replied; "but I'll wager +you the next toddy that he's not at the present moment a half-mile from +this spot. He may be a fool, I readily grant that he is, but even a +fool is not going to set out alone in this kind of weather to go to +where your rebel friends are probably toasting their shins by a fire of +green logs and half starving over yonder on the Mississippi." + +"Joking aside, you are doubtless right. Beverley is hot-headed, and if +he could he'd get even with you devilish quick; but he hasn't left +Vincennes, I think. Miss Roussillon would keep him here if the place +were on fire!" + +Hamilton laughed dryly. He had thought just what Helm was saying. +Beverley's attentions to Alice had not escaped his notice. + +"Speaking of that girl," he remarked after a moment's silence, "what am +I do to do with her? There's no place to keep her, and Farnsworth +insists that she wasn't to blame." He chuckled again and added: + +"It's true as gospel. He's in love with her, too. Seems to be glad she +shot him. Says he's ashamed of himself for ever suspecting her of +anything but being a genuine angel. Why, he's got as flabby as a rabbit +and mumbles like a fool!" + +"Same as you or I at his age," said Helm, taking a chew of tobacco. +"She IS a pretty thing. Beverley don't know his foot from his +shoulder-blade when she's anywhere near him. Boys are boys. I'm a sort +of a boy myself." + +"If she'd give up that flag he'd let her go," said Hamilton. "I hate +like the devil to confine her; it looks brutal, and makes me feel like +a tyrant." + +"Have you ever happened to notice the obvious fact, Governor Hamilton, +that Alice Roussillon and Father Beret are not all the French in +Vincennes?" + +"What do you mean?" + +"I mean that I don't for a moment believe that either the girl or the +priest knows a thing about where that flag is. They are both as +truthful and honorable as people ever get to be. I know them. Somebody +else got that flag from under the priest's floor. You may depend upon +that. If Miss Roussillon knew where it is she'd say so, and then dare +you to make her tell where it's hidden." + +"Oh, the whole devilish town is rotten with treason; that's very clear. +There's not a loyal soul in it outside of my forces." + +"Thank you for not including me among the loyalists." + +"Humph, I spoke of these French people; they pretend to be true; but I +believe they are all traitors." + +"You can manage them if you try. A little jolly kindness goes a long +way with 'em. _I_ had no trouble while _I_ held the town." + +Hamilton bit his lip and was silent. Helm was exasperatingly good +tempered, and his jocularity was irresistible. While he was yet +speaking a guard came up followed by Jean, the hunchback, and saluting +said to Hamilton: + +"The lad wants to see the young lady, sir." + +Hamilton gazed quizzically at Jean, who planted himself in his habitual +attitude before him and stared up into his face with the grotesque +expression which seems to be characteristic of hunchbacks and unfledged +birds--the look of an embodied and hideous joke. + +"Well, sir, what will you have?" the Governor demanded. + +"I want to see Alice, if you please." + +"What for?" + +"I want to give her a book to read." + +"Ah, indeed. Where is it? Let me see it." + +Jean took from the breast of his loose jerkin a small volume, dog-eared +and mildewed, and handed it to Hamilton. Meantime he stood first on one +foot, then the other, gnawing his thumb-nail and blinking rapidly. + +"Well, Helm, just look here!" + +"What?" + +"Manon Lescaut." + +"And what's that?" + +"Haven't you ever read it?" + +"Read what?" + +"This novel--Manon Lescaut." + +"Never read a novel in my life. Never expect to." + +Hamilton laughed freely at Helm's expense, then turned to Jean and gave +him back the book. + +It would have been quite military, had he taken the precaution to +examine between the pages for something hidden there, but he did not. + +"Go, give it to her," he said, "and tell her I send my compliments, +with great admiration of her taste in literature." He motioned the +soldier to show Jean to Alice. "It's a beastly French story," he added, +addressing Helm; "immoral enough to make a pirate blush. That's the +sort of girl Mademoiselle Roussillon is!" + +"I don't care what kind of a book she reads," blurted Helm, "she's a +fine, pure, good girl. Everybody likes her. She's the good angel of +this miserable frog-hole of a town. You'd like her yourself, if you'd +straighten up and quit burning tow in your brain all the time. You're +always so furious about something that you never have a chance to be +just to yourself, or pleasant to anybody else." + +Hamilton turned fiercely on Helm, but a glimpse of the Captain's broad +good-humored face heartily smiling, dispelled his anger. There was no +ground upon which to maintain a quarrel with a person so persistently +genial and so absurdly frank. And in fact Hamilton was not half so bad +as his choleric manifestations seemed to make him out. Besides, Helm +knew just how far to go, just when to stop. + +"If I had got furious at you every time there was overwhelming +provocation for it," Hamilton said, "you'd have been long since hanged +or shot. I fancy that I have shown angelic forbearance. I've given you +somewhat more than a prisoner's freedom." + +"So you have, so you have," assented Helm. "I've often been surprised +at your generous partiality in my case. Let's have some hot water with +something else in it, what do you say? I won't give you any more advice +for five minutes by your watch." + +"But I want some advice at once." + +"What about?" + +"That girl." + +"Turn her loose. That's easy and reputable." + +"I'll have to, I presume; but she ought to be punished." + +"If you'll think less about punishment, revenge and getting even with +everybody and everything, you'll soon begin to prosper." + +Hamilton winced, but smiled as one quite sure of himself. + +Jean followed the soldier to a rickety log pen on the farther side of +the stockade, where he found the prisoner restlessly moving about like +a bird in a rustic cage. It had no comforts, that gloomy little room. +There was no fireplace, the roof leaked, and the only furniture +consisted of a bench to sit on and a pile of skins for bed. Alice +looked charmingly forlorn peeping out of the wraps in which she was +bundled against the cold, her hair fluffed and rimpled in shining +disorder around her face. + +The guard let Jean in and closed the door, himself staying outside. + +Alice was as glad to see the poor lad as if they had been parted for a +year. She hugged him and kissed his drawn little face. + +"You dear, good Jean!" she murmured, "you did not forget me." + +"I brought you something," he whispered, producing the book. + +Alice snatched it, looked at it, and then at Jean. + +"Why, what did you bring this for? you silly Jean! I didn't want this. +I don't like this book at all. It's hateful. I despise it. Take it +back." + +"There's something in it for you, a paper with writing on it; +Lieutenant Beverley wrote it on there. It's shut up between the leaves +about the middle." + +"Sh-s-sh! not so loud, the guard'll hear you," Alice breathlessly +whispered, her whole manner changing instantly. She was trembling, and +the color had been whisked from her face, as the flame from a candle in +a sudden draught. + +She found the note and read it a dozen times without a pause, her eyes +leaping along the lines back and forth with pathetic eagerness and +concentration. Presently she sat down on the bench and covered her face +with her hands. A tremor first, then a convulsive sobbing, shook her +collapsed form. Jean regarded her with a drolly sympathetic grimace, +elevating his long chin and letting his head settle back between his +shoulders. + +"Oh, Jean, Jean!" she cried at last, looking up and reaching out her +arms; "O Jean, he is gone, gone, gone!" + +Jean stepped closer to her while she sobbed again like a little child. + +She pulled him to her and held him tightly against her breast while she +once more read the note through blinding tears. The words were few, but +to her they bore the message of desolation and despair. A great, +haunting, hollow voice in her heart repeated them until they echoed +from vague distance to distance. + +It was written with a bit of lead on the half of a mildewed fly-leaf +torn from the book: + + +"Dear Alice: + +"I am going away. When you read this, think of me as hurrying through +the wilderness to reach our army and bring it here. Be brave, as you +always have been; be good, as you cannot help being; wait and watch for +me; love me, as I love you. I will come. Do not doubt it, I will come, +and I will crush Hamilton and his command. Courage, Alice dear; +courage, and wait for me. + +"Faithfully ever, + "Beverley." + + +She kissed the paper with passionate fervor, pouring her tears upon it +in April showers between which the light of her eyes played almost +fiercely, so poignant was her sense of a despair which bordered upon +desperation. "Gone, gone!" It was all she could think or say. "Gone, +gone." + +Jean took the offending novel back home with him, hidden under his +jerkin; but Beverley's note lay upon Alice's heart, a sweet comfort and +a crushing weight, when an hour later Hamilton sent for her and she was +taken before him. Her face was stained with tears and she looked +pitifully distressed and disheveled; yet despite all this her beauty +asserted itself with subtle force. + +Hamilton felt ashamed looking at her, but put on sternness and spoke +without apparent sympathy: + +"Miss Roussillon, you came near committing a great crime. As it is, you +have done badly enough; but I wish not to be unreasonably severe. I +hope you are sorry for your act, and feel like doing better hereafter." + +She was trembling, but her eyes looked steadily straight into his. They +were eyes of baby innocence, yet they irradiated a strong womanly +spirit just touched with the old perverse, mischievous light which she +could neither banish nor control. When she did not make reply, Hamilton +continued: + +"You may go home now, and I shall expect to have no more trouble on +your account." He made a gesture indicative of dismissal; then, as she +turned from him, he added, somewhat raising his voice: + +"And further, Miss Roussillon, that flag you took from here must +positively be returned. See that it is done." + +She lifted her head high and walked away, not deigning to give him a +word. + +"Humph! what do you think now of your fine young lady?" he demanded, +turning to Helm with a sneering curl of his mouth. "She gives thanks +copiously for a kindness, don't you think?" + +"Poor girl, she was scared nearly out of her life," said Helm. "She got +away from you, like a wounded bird from a snare. I never saw a face +more pitiful than hers." + +"Much pity she needs, and greatly like a wounded bird she acts, I must +say; but good riddance if she'll keep her place hereafter. I despise +myself when I have to be hard with a woman, especially a pretty one. +That girl's a saucy and fascinating minx, and as dangerous as twenty +men. I'll keep a watch on her movements from this on, and if she gets +into mischief again I'll transport her to Detroit, or give her away to +the Indians, She must stop her high-handed foolishness." + +Helm saw that Hamilton was talking mere wind, VOX ET PRAETEREA NIHIL, +and he furthermore felt that his babbling signified no harm to Alice; +but Hamilton surprised him presently by saying: + +"I have just learned that Lieutenant Beverley is actually gone. Did you +know of his departure?" + +"What are you saying, sir?" + +Helm jumped to his feet, not angry, but excited. + +"Keep cool, you need not answer if you prefer silence or evasion. You +may want to go yourself soon." + +Helm burst out laughing, but quickly growing serious said: + +"Has Beverley been such a driveling fool as that? Are you in earnest?" + +"He killed two of my scouts, wounded another, and crossed the Wabash in +their canoe. He is going straight towards Kaskaskia." + +"The idiot! Hurrah for him! If you catch your hare you may roast him, +but catch him first, Governor!" + +"You'll joke out of the other corner of your mouth, Captain Helm, if I +find out that you gave him aid or countenance in breaking his parole." + +"Aid or countenance! I never saw him after he walked out of this room. +You gave him a devil of a sight more aid and countenance than I did. +What are you talking about! Broke his parole! He did no such thing. He +returned it to you fairly, as you well know. He told you he was going." + +"Well, I've sent twenty of my swiftest Indians after him to bring him +back. I'll let you see him shot. That ought to please you." + +"They'll never get him, Governor. I'll bet high on him against your +twenty scalp-lifters any day. Fitzhugh Beverley is the best Indian +fighter, Daniel Boone and Simon Kenton excepted, in the American +colonies." + +On her way home Alice met Father Beret, who turned and walked beside +her. He was so overjoyed at her release that he could scarcely speak; +but held her hand and stroked it gently while she told him her story. +It was beginning to rain, a steady, cold shower, when they reached the +house, and for many days and nights thereafter the downfall continued +almost incessantly. + +"Dear child," said Father Beret, stopping at the gate and looking +beseechingly into Alice's face, "you must stay at home now--stay in the +house--it will be horribly dangerous for you to pass about in the +village after your--after what has happened." + +"Do not fear, Father, I will be careful. Aren't you coming in? I'll +find you a cake and a glass of wine." + +"No, child, not now." + +"Then good-bye, good-bye," she said, turning from him to run into the +house. "Come soon, I shall be so lonesome." + +On the veranda she suddenly stopped, running her fingers about her neck +and into her bosom. + +"Oh, Father, Father Beret, I've lost my locket!" she cried. "See if I +dropped it there." + +She went back to the gate, searching the ground with her eyes. Of +course she did not find the locket. It was miles and miles away close +to the heart of her lover. If she could but have known this, it would +have comforted her. Beverley had intended to leave it with Jean, but in +his haste and excitement he forgot; writing the note distracted his +attention; and so he bore Alice's picture on his breast and in his +heart while pursuing his long and perilous journey. + +Four of Hamilton's scouts came upon Beverley twenty miles south of +Vincennes, but having the advantage of them, he killed two almost +immediately, and after a running fight, the other two attempted escape +in a canoe on the Wabash. Here, firing from a bluff, he wounded a +third. Both then plunged head-foremost into the water, and by keeping +below the surface, got away. The adventure gave Beverley new spirit and +self-reliance; he felt that he could accomplish anything necessary to +his undertaking. In the captured pirogue he crossed the river, and, to +make his trail hard to find, sent the little craft adrift down the +current. + +Then alone, in the dead of winter, he took his bearings and struck +across the dreary, houseless plain toward St. Louis. + +As soon as Hamilton's discomfited scouts reported to him, he sent +Long-Hair with twenty picked savages, armed and supplied for continuous +and rapid marching, in pursuit of Beverley. There was a large reward +for bringing him in alive, a smaller one for his scalp. + +When Alice heard of all this, her buoyant and happy nature seemed +entirely to desert her for a time. She was proud to find out that +Beverley had shown himself brave and capable; it touched her love of +heroism; but she knew too much about Indian warfare to hope that he +could hold his own against Long-Hair, the wiliest and boldest of +scalp-hunters, and twenty of the most experienced braves in Hamilton's +forces. He would almost certainly be killed and scalped, or captured +and brought back to be shot or hanged in Vincennes. The thought chilled +and curdled her blood. + +Both Helm and Father Beret tried to encourage and comfort her by +representing the probabilities in the fairest light. + +"It's like hunting for a needle in a haystack, going out to find a man +in that wilderness," said Helm with optimistic cheerfulness; "and +besides Beverley is no easy dose for twenty red niggers to take. I've +seen him tried at worse odds than that, and he got out with a whole +skin, too. Don't you fret about him, Miss Roussillon." + +Little help came to her from attempts of this sort. She might brighten +up for a while, but the dark dread, and the terrible gnawing at her +heart, the sinking and despairing in her soul, could not be cured. + +What added immeasurably to her distress was the attention of +Farnsworth, whose wound troubled him but a short time. He seemed to +have had a revelation and a change of spirit since the unfortunate +rencounter and the subsequent nursing at Alice's hands. He was grave, +earnest, kindly, evidently striving to play a gentle and honorable +part. She could feel that he carried a load of regret, that he wanted +to pay a full price in good for the evil that he had done; his sturdy +English heart was righting itself nobly, yet she but half understood +him, until his actions and words began to betray his love; and then she +hated him unreasonably. Realizing this, Farnsworth bore himself more +like a faithful dog than in the manner hitherto habitual to him. He +simply shadowed Alice and would not be rebuffed. + +There can be nothing more painful to a finely sympathetic nature than +regret for having done a kindness. Alice experienced this to the +fullest degree. She had nursed Farnsworth but a little while, yet it +was a while of sweet influence. Her tender woman nature felt the +blessedness of doing good to her enemy lying helpless in her house and +hurt by her own hand. But now she hated the man, and with all her soul +she was sorry that she had been kind to him; for out of her kindness he +had drawn the spell of a love under which he lived a new life, and all +for her. Yet deep down in her consciousness the pity and the pathos of +the thing hovered gloomily and would not be driven out. + +The rain in mid-winter gave every prospect a sad, cold, sodden gray +appearance. The ground was soaked, little rills ran in the narrow +streets, the small streams became great rivers, the Wabash overflowed +its banks and made a sea of all the lowlands on either side. It was +hard on the poor dwellers in the thatched and mostly floorless cabins, +for the grass roofs gradually let the water through and puddles formed +on the ground inside. Fuel was distant and had to be hauled in the +pouring rain; provisions were scarce and hunting almost impossible. +Many people, especially children, were taken ill with colds and fever. +Alice found some relief from her trouble in going from cabin to cabin +and waiting upon the sufferers; but even here Farnsworth could not be +got rid of; he followed her night and day. Never was a good soldier, +for he was that from head to foot, more lovelorn and love-docile. The +maiden had completely subdued the man. + +About this time, deep in a rainy and pitch-black night, Gaspard +Roussillon came home. He tapped on the door again and again. Alice +heard, but she hesitated to speak or move. Was she growing cowardly? +Her heart beat like a drum. There was but one person in all the world +that she could think of--it was not M. Roussillon. Ah, no, she had +well-nigh forgotten her gigantic foster father. + +"It is I, ma cherie, it is Gaspard, my love, open the door," came in a +booming half-whisper from without. "Alice, Jean, it is your Papa +Roussillon, my dears. Let me in." + +Alice was at the door in a minute, unbarring it. M. Roussillon entered, +armed to the teeth, the water dribbling from his buckskin clothes. + +"Pouf!" he exclaimed, "my throat is like dust." His thoughts were +diving into the stores under the floor. "I am famished. Dear children, +dear little ones! They are glad to see papa! Where is your mama?" + +He had Alice in his arms and Jean clung to his legs. Madame Roussillon, +to be sure of no mistake, lighted a lamp with a brand that smoldered on +the hearth and held it up, then, satisfied as to her husband's +identity, set it on a shelf and flung herself into the affectionate +group with clumsy abandon, making a great noise. + +"Oh, my dear Gaspard!" she cried as she lunged forward. "Gaspard, +Gaspard!" Her voice fairly lifted the roof; her great weight, hurled +with such force, overturned everybody, and all of them tumbled in a +heap, the rotund and solid dame sitting on top. + +"Ouf! not so impetuous, my dear," puffed M. Roussillon, freeing himself +from her unpleasant pressure and scrambling to his feet. "Really you +must have fared well in my absence, Madame, you are much heavier." He +laughed and lifted her up as if she had been a child, kissing her +resonantly. + +His gun had fallen with a great clatter. He took it from the floor and +examined it to see if it had been injured, then set it in a corner. + +"I am afraid we have been making too much noise," said Alice, speaking +very low. "There is a patrol guard every night now. If they should hear +you--" + +"Shh!" whispered M. Roussillon, "we will be very still. Alice, is there +something to eat and a drop of wine handy? I have come many miles; I am +tired, hungry, thirsty,--ziff!" + +Alice brought some cold roast venison, a loaf, and a bottle of claret. +These she set before him on a little table. + +"Ah, this is comfort," he said after he had gulped a full cup. "Have +you all been well?" + +Then he began to tell where he had been, what he had seen, and the many +things he had done. A Frenchman must babble while he eats and drinks. A +little wine makes him eloquent. He talks with his hands, shoulders, +eyes. Madame Roussillon, Alice and Jean, wrapped in furs, huddled +around him to hear. He was very entertaining, and they forgot the +patrol until a noise startled them. It was the low of a cow. They +laughed and the master of the house softened his voice. + +M. Roussillon had been the guest of a great Indian chieftain, who was +called the "Gate of the Wabash," because he controlled the river. The +chief was an old acquaintance and treated him well. + +"But I wanted to see you all," Gaspard said. "I was afraid something +might have happened to you. So I came back just to peep in. I can't +stay, of course; Hamilton would kill me as if I were a wolf. I can +remain but an hour and then slip out of town again before daylight +conies. The rain and darkness are my friends." + +He had seen Simon Kenton, who said he had been in the neighborhood of +Vincennes acting as a scout and spy for Clark. Presently and quite +casually he added: + +"And I saw Lieutenant Beverley, too. I suppose you know that he has +escaped from Hamilton, and--" Here a big mouthful of venison interfered. + +Alice leaned toward him white and breathless, her heart standing still. + +Then the door, which had been left unbarred, was flung open and, along +with a great rush of wind and rain, the patrol guard, five in number, +sprang in. + +M. Roussillon reached his gun with one hand, with the other swung a +tremendous blow as he leaped against the intruders. Madame Roussillon +blew out the light. No cave in the depth of earth was ever darker than +that room. The patrolmen could not see one another or know what to do; +but M. Roussillon laid about him with the strength of a giant. His +blows sounded as if they smashed bones. Men fell heavily thumping on +the floor where he rushed along. Some one fired a pistol and by its +flash they all saw him; but instantly the darkness closed again, and +before they could get their bearings he was out and gone, his great +hulking form making its way easily over familiar ground where his +would-be captors could have proceeded but slowly, even with a light to +guide them. There was furious cursing among the patrolmen as they +tumbled about in the room, the unhurt ones trampling their prostrate +companions and striking wildly at each other in their blindness and +confusion. At last one of them bethought him to open a dark lantern +with which the night guards were furnished. Its flame was fluttering +and gave forth a pale red light that danced weirdly on the floors and +walls. + +Alice had snatched down one of her rapiers when the guards first +entered. They now saw her facing them with her slender blade leveled, +her back to the wall, her eyes shining dangerously. Madame Roussillon +had fled into the adjoining room. Jean had also disappeared. The +officer, a subaltern, in charge of the guard, seeing Alice, and not +quickly able to make out that it was a woman thus defying him, crossed +swords with her. There was small space for action; moreover the officer +being not in the least a swordsman, played awkwardly, and quick as a +flash his point was down. The rapier entered just below his thread with +a dull chucking stab. He leaped backward, feeling at the same time a +pair of arms clasp his legs. It was Jean, and the Lieutenant, thus +unexpectedly tangled, fell to the floor, breaking but not extinguishing +the guard's lantern as he went down. The little remaining oil spread +and flamed up brilliantly, as if eager for conflagration, sputtering +along the uneven boards. + +"Kill that devil!" cried the Lieutenant, in a strangling voice, while +trying to regain his feet. "Shoot! Bayonet!" + +In his pain, rage and haste, he inadvertently set his hand in the midst +of the blazing oil, which clung to the flesh with a seething grip. + +"Hell!" he screamed, "fire, fire!" + +Two or three bayonets were leveled upon Alice. Some one kicked Jean +clean across the room, and he lay there curled up in his hairy +night-wrap looking like an enormous porcupine. + +At this point a new performer came upon the stage, a dark-robed thing, +so active that its outlines changed elusively, giving it no +recognizable features. It might have been the devil himself, or some +terrible unknown wild animal clad somewhat to resemble a man, so far as +the startled guards could make out. It clawed right and left, hurled +one of them against the wall, dashed another through the door into +Madame Roussillon's room, where the good woman was wailing at the top +of her voice, and felled a third with a stroke like that of a bear's +paw. + +Consternation was at high tide when Farnsworth, who always slept with +an ear open, reached Roussillon place and quickly quieted things. He +was troubled beyond expression when he found out the true state of the +affair, for there was nothing that he could do but arrest Alice and +take her to Hamilton. It made his heart sink. He would have thought +little of ordering a file of soldiers to shoot a man under the same +conditions; but to subject her again to the Governor's stern +cruelty--how could he do it? This time there would be no hope for her. + +Alice stood before him flushed, disheveled, defiant, sword in hand, +beautiful and terrible as an angel. The black figure, man or devil, had +disappeared as strangely as it had come. The sub-Lieutenant was having +his slight wound bandaged. Men were raging and cursing under their +breath, rubbing their bruised heads and limbs. + +"Alice--Mademoiselle Roussillon, I am so sorry for this," said Captain +Farnsworth. "It is painful, terrible--" + +He could not go on, but stood before her unmanned. In the feeble light +his face was wan and his hurt shoulder, still in bandages, drooped +perceptibly. + +"I surrender to you," she presently said in French, extending the hilt +of her rapier to him. "I had to defend myself when attacked by your +Lieutenant there. If an officer finds it necessary to set upon a girl +with his sword, may not the girl guard her life if she can?" + +She was short of breath, so that her voice palpitated with a touching +plangency that shook the man's heart. + +Farnsworth accepted the sword; he could do nothing less. His duty +admitted of no doubtful consideration; yet he hesitated, feeling around +in his mind for a phrase with which to evade the inevitable. + +"It will be safer for you at the fort, Mademoiselle; let me take you +there." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +A MEETING IN THE WILDERNESS + + +Beverley set out on his mid-winter journey to Kaskaskia with a tempest +in his heart, and it was, perhaps, the storm's energy that gave him the +courage to face undaunted and undoubting what his experience must have +told him lay in his path. He was young and strong; that meant a great +deal; he had taken the desperate chances of Indian warfare many times +before this, and the danger counted as nothing, save that it offered +the possibility of preventing him from doing the one thing in life he +now cared to do. What meant suffering to him, if he could but rescue +Alice? And what were life should he fail to rescue her? The old, old +song hummed in his heart, every phrase of it distinct above the tumult +of the storm. Could cold and hunger, swollen streams, ravenous wild +beasts and scalp-hunting savages baffle him? No, there is no barrier +that can hinder love. He said this over and over to himself after his +rencounter with the four Indian scouts on the Wabash. He repeated it +with every heart-beat until he fell in with some friendly red men, who +took him to their camp, where to his great surprise he met M. +Roussillon. It was his song when again he strode off toward the west on +his lonely way. + +We need not follow him step by step; the monotony of the woods and +prairies, the cold rains, alternating with northerly winds and blinding +snow, the constant watchfulness necessary to guard against a meeting +with hostile savages, the tiresome tramping, wading and swimming, the +hunger, the broken and wretched sleep in frozen and scant wraps,--why +detail it all? + +There was but one beautiful thing about it--the beauty of Alice as she +seemed to walk beside him and hover near him in his dreams. He did not +know that Long-Hair and his band were fast on his track; but the +knowledge could not have urged him to greater haste. He strained every +muscle to its utmost, kept every nerve to the highest tension. Yonder +towards the west was help for Alice; that was all he cared for. + +But if Long-Hair was pursuing him with relentless greed for the reward +offered by Hamilton, there were friendly footsteps still nearer behind +him; and one day at high noon, while he was bending over a little fire, +broiling some liberal cuts of venison, a finger tapped him on the +shoulder. He sprang up and grappled Oncle Jazon; at the same time, +standing near by, he saw Simon Kenton, his old-time Kentucky friend. +The pungled features of one and the fine, rugged face of the other swam +as in a mist before Beverley's eyes. Kenton was laughing quietly, his +strong, upright form shaking to the force of his pleasure. He was in +the early prime of a vigorous life, not handsome, but strikingly +attractive by reason of a certain glow in his face and a kindly flash +in his deep-set eyes. + +"Well, well, my boy!" he exclaimed, laying his left hand on Beverley's +shoulder, while in the other he held a long, heavy rifle. "I'm glad to +see ye, glad to see ye." + +"Thought we was Injuns, eh?" said Oncle Jazon. "An' ef we had 'a' been +we'd 'a' been shore o' your scalp!" The wizzened old creole cackled +gleefully. + +"And where are ye goin'?" demanded Kenton. "Ye're making what lacks a +heap o' bein' a bee-line for some place or other." + +Beverley was dazed and vacant-minded; things seemed wavering and dim. +He pushed the two men from him and gazed at them without speaking. +Their presence and voices did not convince him. + +"Yer meat's a burnin'," said Oncle Jazon, stooping to turn it on the +smouldering coals. "Ye must be hungry. Cookin' enough for a regiment." + +Kenton shook Beverley with rough familiarity, as if to rouse his +faculties. + +"What's the matter? Fitz, my lad, don't ye know Si Kenton? It's not so +long since we were like brothers, and now ye don't speak to me! Ye've +not forgot me, Fitz!" + +"Mebby he don't like ye as well as ye thought he did," drawled Oncle +Jazon. "I HEV known o' fellers a bein' mistaken jes' thet way." + +Beverley got his wits together as best he could, taking in the +situation by such degrees as seemed at the time unduly slow, but which +were really mere momentary falterings. + +"Why, Kenton! Jazon!" he presently exclaimed, a cordial gladness +blending with his surprise. "How did you get here? Where did you come +from?" + +He looked from one to the other back and forth with a wondering smile +breaking over his bronzed and determined face. + +"We've been hot on yer trail for thirty hours," said Kenton. +"Roussillon put us on it back yonder. But what are ye up to? Where are +ye goin'?" + +"I'm going to Clark at Kaskaskia to bring him yonder." He waved his +hand eastward. "I am going to take Vincennes and kill Hamilton." + +"Well, ye're taking a mighty queer course, my boy, if ye ever expect to +find Kaskaskia. Ye're already twenty miles too far south." + +"Carryin' his gun on the same shoulder all the time," said Oncle Jazon, +"has made 'im kind o' swing in a curve like. 'Tain't good luck no how +to carry yer gun on yer lef' shoulder. When you do it meks yer take a +longer step with yer right foot than ye do with yer lef' an' ye can't +walk a straight line to save yer liver. Ventreblue! La venaison brule +encore! Look at that dasted meat burnin' agin!" + +He jumped back to the fire to turn the scorching cuts. + +Beverley wrung Kenton's hand and looked into his eyes, as a man does +when an old friend comes suddenly out of the past, so to say, and +brings the freshness and comfort of a strong, true soul to brace him in +his hour of greatest need. + +"Of all men in the world, Simon Kenton, you were the least expected; +but how glad I am! How thankful! Now I know I shall succeed. We are +going to capture Vincennes, Kenton, are we not? We shall, sha'n't we, +Jazon? Nothing, nothing can prevent us, can it?" + +Kenton heartily returned the pressure of the young man's hand, while +Oncle Jazon looked up quizzically and said: + +"We're a tol'ble 'spectable lot to prevent; but then we might git +pervented. I've seed better men an' us purty consid'ble pervented lots +o' times in my life." + +In speaking the colloquial dialect of the American backwoodsmen, Oncle +Jazon, despite years of practice among them, gave to it a creole lisp +and some turns of pronunciation not to be indicated by any form of +spelling. It added to his talk a peculiar soft drollery. When he spoke +French it was mostly that of the COUREURS DE BOIS, a PATOIS which still +lingers in out-of-the-way nooks of Louisiana. + +"For my part," said Kenton, "I am with ye, old boy, in anything ye want +to do. But now ye've got to tell me everything. I see that ye're +keeping something back. What is it?" He glanced sidewise slyly at Oncle +Jazon. + +Beverley was frank to a fault; but somehow his heart tried to keep +Alice all to itself. He hesitated; then-- + +"I broke my parole with Governor Hamilton," he said. "He forced me to +do it. I feel altogether justified. I told him beforehand that I should +certainly leave Vincennes and go get a force to capture and kill him; +and I'll do it, Simon Kenton, I'll do it!" + +"I see, I see," Kenton assented, "but what was the row about? What did +he do to excite ye--to make ye feel justified in breakin' over yer +parole in that high-handed way? Fitz, I know ye too well to be fooled +by ye--you've got somethin' in mind that ye don't want to tell. Well, +then don't tell it. Oncle Jazon and I will go it blind, won't we, +Jazon?" + +"Blind as two moles," said the old man; "but as for thet secret," he +added, winking both eyes at once, "I don't know as it's so mighty hard +to guess. It's always safe to 'magine a woman in the case. It's mostly +women 'at sends men a trottin' off 'bout nothin', sort o' crazy like." + +Beverley looked guilty and Oncle Jazon continued: "They's a poo'ty gal +at Vincennes, an' I see the young man a steppin' into her house about +fifteen times a day 'fore I lef' the place. Mebbe she's tuck up wi' one +o' them English officers. Gals is slippery an' onsartin'." + +"Jazon!" cried Beverley, "stop that instantly, or I'll wring your old +neck." His anger was real and he meant what he said. He clenched his +hands and glowered. + +Oncle Jazon, who was still squatting by the little fire, tumbled over +backwards, as if Beverley had kicked him; and there he lay on the +ground with his slender legs quivering akimbo in the air, while he +laughed in a strained treble that sounded like the whining of a +screech-owl. + +The old scamp did not know all the facts in Beverley's case, nor did he +even suspect what had happened; but he was aware of the young man's +tender feeling for Alice, and he did shrewdly conjecture that she was a +factor in the problem. + +The rude jest at her expense did not seem to his withered and toughened +taste in the least out of the way. Indeed it was a delectable bit of +humor from Oncle Jazon's point of view. + +"Don't get mad at the old man," said Kenton, plucking Beverley aside. +"He's yer friend from his heels to his old scalped crown. Let him have +his fun." Then lowering his voice almost to a whisper he continued: + +"I was in Vincennes for two days and nights spyin' around. Madame +Godere hid me in her house when there was need of it. I know how it is +with ye; I got all the gossip about ye and the young lady, as well as +all the information about Hamilton and his forces that Colonel Clark +wants. I'm goin' to Kaskaskia; but I think it quite possible that Clark +will be on his march to Vincennes before we get there; for Vigo has +taken him full particulars as to the fort and its garrison, and I know +that he's determined to capture the whole thing or die tryin'." + +Beverley felt his heart swell and his blood leap strong in his veins at +these words. + +"I saw ye while I was in Vincennes," Kenton added, "but I never let ye +see me. Ye were a prisoner, and I had no business with ye while your +parole held. I felt that it was best not to tempt ye to give me aid, or +to let ye have knowledge of me while I was a spy. I left two days +before ye did, and should have been at Kaskaskia by this time if I +hadn't run across Jazon, who detained me. He wanted to go with me, and +I waited for him to repair the stock of his old gun. He tinkered at it +'tween meals and showers for half a week at the Indian village back +yonder before he got it just to suit him. But I tell ye he's wo'th +waiting for any length of time, and I was glad to let him have his way." + +Kenton, who was still a young man in his early thirties, respected +Beverley's reticence on the subject uppermost in his mind. Madame +Godere had told the whole story with flamboyant embellishments; Kenton +tiad seen Alice, and, inspired with the gossip and a surreptitious +glimpse of her beauty, he felt perfectly familiar with Beverley's +condition. He was himself a victim of the tender passion to the extent +of being an exile from his Virginia home, which he had left on account +of dangerously wounding a rival. But he was well touched with the +backwoodsman's taste for joke and banter. He and Oncle Jazon, +therefore, knowing the main feature of Beverley's predicament, enjoyed +making the most of their opportunity in their rude but perfectly +generous and kindly way. + +By indirection and impersonal details, as regarded his feelings toward +Alice, Beverley in due time made his friends understand that his whole +ambition was centered in rescuing her. Nor did the motive fail to +enlist their sympathy to the utmost. If all the world loves a lover, +all men having the best virile instinct will fight for a lover's cause. +Both Kenton and Oncle Jazon were enthusiastic; they wanted nothing +better than an opportunity to aid in rescuing any girl who had shown so +much patriotism and pluck. But Oncle Jazon was fond of Alice, and +Beverley's story affected him peculiarly on her account. + +"They's one question I'm a goin' to put to ye, young man," he said, +after he had heard everything and they had talked it all over, "an' I +want ye to answer it straight as a bullet f'om yer gun." + +"Of course, Jazon, go ahead," said Beverley. "I shall be glad to +answer." But his mind was far away with the gold-haired maiden in +Hamilton's prison. He scarcely knew what he was saying. + +"Air ye expectin' to marry Alice Roussillon?" + +The three men were at the moment eating the well broiled venison. Oncle +Jazon's puckered lips and chin were dripping with the fragrant grease +and juice, which also flowed down his sinewy, claw-like fingers. +Overhead in the bare tops of the scrub oaks that covered the prairie +oasis, the February wind sang a shrill and doleful song. + +Beverley started as if a blow had been aimed at him. Oncle Jazon's +question, indeed, was a blow as unexpected as it was direct and +powerful. + +"I know it's poo'ty p'inted," the old man added after a short pause, +"an' ye may think 'at I ain't got no business askin' it; but I have. +That leetle gal's a pet o' mine, an' I'm a lookin' after her, an' +expectin' to see 'at she's not bothered by nobody who's not goin' to do +right by her. Marryin' is a mighty good thing, but--" + +"What do ye know about matrimony, ye old raw-headed bachelor?" demanded +Kenton, who felt impelled to relieve Beverley of the embarrassment of +an answer. "Ye wouldn't know a wife from a sack o' meal!" + +"Now don't git too peart an' fast, Si Kenton," cried Oncle Jazon, +glaring truculently at his friend, but at the same time showing a dry +smile that seemed to be hopelessly entangled in criss-cross wrinkles. +"Who told ye I was a bach'lor? Not by a big jump. I've been married +mighty nigh on to twenty times in my day. Mos'ly Injuns, o' course; but +a squaw's a wife w'en ye marries her, an' I know how it hurts a gal to +be dis'p'inted in sich a matter. That's w'y I put the question I did. +I'm not goin' to let no man give sorry to that little Roussillon gal; +an' so ye've got my say. Ye seed her raise thet flag on the fort, +Lieutenant Beverley, an' ye seed her take it down an' git away wi' it. +You know 'at she deserves nothin' but the best; an' by the Holy Virgin, +she's got to have it, or I'm a goin' to know several reasons why. +Thet's what made me put the question straight to ye, young man, an' I +expects a straight answer." + +Beverley's face paled; but not with anger. He grasped one of Oncle +Jazon's greasy hands and gave it such a squeeze that the old fellow +grimaced painfully. + +"Thank you, Oncle Jazon, thank you!" he said, with a peculiar husky +burr in his voice. "Alice will never suffer if I can help it. Let the +subject drop now, my friend, until we have saved her from the hands of +Hamilton." In the power of his emotion he continued to grip the old +man's hand with increasing severity of pressure. + +"Ventrebleu! let go! Needn't smash a feller's fingers 'bout it!" +screeched Oncle Jazon. "I can't shoot wo'th a cent, nohow, an' ef ye +cripple up my trigger-finger--" + +Kenton had been peeping under the low-hanging scrub-oak boughs while +Oncle Jazon was speaking these last words; and now he suddenly +interrupted: + +"The devil! look yonder!" he growled out in startling tone. "Injuns!" + +It was a sharp snap of the conversation's thread, and at the same time +our three friends realized that they had been careless in not keeping a +better look-out. They let fall the meat they had not yet finished +eating and seized their guns. + +Five or six dark forms were moving toward them across a little point of +the prairie that cut into the wood a quarter of a mile distant. + +"Yander's more of 'em," said Oncle Jazon, as if not in the least +concerned, wagging his head in an opposite direction, from which +another squad was approaching. + +That he duly appreciated the situation appeared only in the celerity +with which he acted. + +Kenton at once assumed command, and his companions felt his perfect +fitness. There was no doubt from the first as to what the Indians +meant; but even if there had been it would have soon vanished; for in +less than three minutes twenty-one savages were swiftly and silently +forming a circle inclosing the spot where the three white men, who had +covered themselves as best they could with trees, waited in grim +steadiness for the worst. + +Quite beyond gunshot range, but near enough for Oncle Jazon to +recognize Long-Hair as their leader, the Indians halted and began +making signs to one another all round the line. Evidently they dreaded +to test the marksmanship of such riflemen as they knew most border men +to be. Indeed, Long-Hair had personal knowledge of what might certainly +be expected from both Kenton and Oncle Jazon; they were terrible when +out for fight; the red warriors from Georgia to the great lakes had +heard of them; their names smacked of tragedy. Nor was Beverley without +fame among Long-Hair's followers, who had listened to the story of his +fighting qualities, brought to Vincennes by the two survivors of the +scouting party so cleverly defeated by him. + +"The liver-colored cowards," said Kenton, "are afeared of us in a +shootin'-match; they know that a lot of 'em would have to die if they +should undertake an open fight with us. It's some sort of a sneakin' +game they are studyin' about just now." + +"I'm a gittin' mos' too ole to shoot wo'th a cent," said Oncle Jazon, +"but I'd give half o' my scalp ef thet Long-Hair would come clost +enough fo' me to git a bead onto his lef' eye. It's tol'ble plain 'at +we're gone goslins this time, I'm thinkin'; still it'd be mighty +satisfyin' if I could plug out a lef' eye or two 'fore I go." + +Beverley was silent; the words of his companions were heard by him, but +not noticed. Nothing interested him save the thought of escaping and +making his way to Clark. To fail meant infinitely more than death, of +which he had as small fear as most brave men, and to succeed meant +everything that life could offer. So, in the unlimited selfishness of +love, he did not take his companions into account. + +The three stood in a close-set clump of four or five scrub oaks at the +highest point of a thinly wooded knoll that sloped down in all +directions to the prairie. Their view was wide, but in places +obstructed by the trees. + +"Men," said Kenton, after a thoughtful and watchful silence, "the thing +looks kind o' squally for us. I don't see much of a chance to get out +of this alive; but we've got to try." + +He showed by the density of his voice and a certain gray film in his +face that he felt the awful gravity of the situation; but he was calm +and not a muscle quivered. + +"They's jes' two chances for us," said Oncle Jazon, "an' them's as slim +as a broom straw. We've got to stan' here an' fight it out, or wait +till night an' sneak through atween 'em an' run for it." + +"I don't see any hope o' sneakin' through the line," observed Kenton. +"It's not goin' to be dark tonight." + +"Wa-a-l," Oncle Jazon drawled nonchalantly while he took in a quid of +tobacco, "I've been into tighter squeezes 'an this, many a time, an' I +got out, too." + +"Likely enough," said Kenton, still reflecting while his eyes roamed +around the circle of savages. + +"I fit the skunks in Ferginny 'fore you's thought of, Si Kenton, an' +down in Car'lina in them hills. If ye think I'm a goin' to be scalped +where they ain't no scalp, 'ithout tryin' a few dodges, yer a dad +dasteder fool an' I used to think ye was, an' that's makin' a big +compliment to ye." + +"Well, we don't have to argy this question, Oncle Jazon; they're a +gittin' ready to run in upon us, and we've got to fight. I say, +Beverley, are ye ready for fast shootin'? Have ye got a plenty of +bullets?" + +"Yes, Roussillon gave me a hundred. Do you think--" + +He was interrupted by a yell that leaped from savage mouth to mouth all +round the circle, and then the charge began. + +"Steady, now," growled Kenton, "let's not be in a hurry. Wait till they +come nigh enough to hit 'em before we shoot." + +The time was short; for the Indians came on at almost race-horse speed. + +Oncle Jazon fired first, the long, keen crack of his small-bore rifle +splitting the air with a suggestion of vicious energy, and a lithe +young warrior, who was outstripping all his fellows, leaped high and +fell paralyzed. + +"Can't shoot wo'th a cent," muttered the old man, deftly beginning to +reload his gun the while; "but I jes' happened to hit that buck. He'll +never git my scalp, thet's sartin an' sure." + +Beverley and Kenton each likewise dropped an Indian; but the shots did +not even check the rush. Long-Hair had planned to capture his prey, not +kill it. Every savage had his orders to take the white men alive; +Hamilton's larger reward depended on this. + +Right on they came, as fast as their nimble legs could carry them, +yelling like demons; and they reached the grove before the three white +men could reload their guns. Then every warrior took cover behind a +tree and began scrambling forward from bole to bole, thus approaching +rapidly without much exposure. + +"Our 'taters is roasted brown," muttered Oncle Jazon. He crossed +himself. Possibly he prayed; but he was priming his old gun the next +instant. + +Kenton fired again, making a hurried and ineffectual attempt to stop +the nearest warrior, who saved himself by quickly skipping behind a +tree. Beverley's gun snapped, the flint failing to make fire; but Oncle +Jazon bored a little hole through the head of the Indian nearest him; +and then the final rush was made from every direction. + +A struggle ensued, which for desperate energy has probably never been +surpassed. Like three lions at bay, the white men met the shock, and +lion-like they fought in the midst of seventeen stalwart and determined +savages. + +"Don't kill them, take them alive; throw them down and hold them!" was +Long-Hair's order loudly shouted in the tongue of his tribe. + +Both Kenton and Jazon understood every word and knew the significance +of such a command from the leader. It naturally came into Kenton's mind +that Hamilton had been informed of his visit to Vincennes and had +offered a reward for his capture. This being true, death as a spy would +be the certain result if he were taken back. He might as well die now. +As for Beverley, he thought only of Alice, yonder as he had left her, a +prisoner in Hamilton's hands, Oncle Jazon, if he thought at all, +probably considered nothing but present escape, though he prayed +audibly to the Blessed Virgin, even while he lay helpless upon the +ground, pinned down by the weight of an enormous Indian. He could not +move any part of himself, save his lips, and these mechanically put +forth the wheezing supplication. + +Beverley and Kenton, being young and powerful, were not so easily +mastered. For a while, indeed, they appeared to be more than holding +their own. They time and time again scattered the entire crowd by the +violence of their muscular efforts; and after it had finally closed in +upon them in a solid body they swayed and swung it back and forth and +round and round until the writhing, savage mass looked as if caught in +the vortex of a whirlwind. But such tremendous exertion could not last +long. Eight to one made too great a difference between the contending +parties, and the only possible conclusion of the struggle soon came. +Seized upon by desperate, clinging, wolf-like assailants, the white men +felt their arms, legs and bodies weighted down and their strength fast +going. + +Kenton fell next after Oncle Jazon, and was soon tightly bound with +rawhide thongs. He lay on his back panting and utterly exhausted, while +Beverley still kept up the unequal fight. + +Long-Hair sprang in at the last moment to make doubly certain the +securing of his most important captive. He flung his long and powerful +arms around Beverley from behind and made a great effort to throw him +upon the ground. The young man, feeling this fresh and vigorous clasp, +turned himself about to put forth one more mighty spurt of power. He +lifted the stalwart Indian bodily and dashed him headlong against the +buttressed root of a tree half a rod distant, breaking the smaller bone +of his left fore-arm and well-nigh knocking him senseless. + +It was a fine exhibition of manly strength; but there could be nothing +gained by it. A blow on the back of his head the next instant stretched +Beverley face downward and unconscious on the ground. The savages +turned him over and looked satisfied when they found that he was not +dead. They bound him with even greater care than they had shown in +securing the others, while Long-Hair stood by stolidly looking on, +meantime supporting his broken fore-arm in his hand. + +"Ugh! dog!" he grunted, and gave Beverley a kick in the side. Then +turning a fiendish stare upon Oncle Jazon he proceeded to deliver +against his old, dry ribs three or four like contributions with +resounding effect. "Polecat! Little old greasy woman!" he snarled, +"make good fire for warrior to dance by!" Kenton also received his full +share of the kicks and verbal abuse, after which Long-Hair gave orders +for fires to be built. Then he looked to his hurt arm and had the bone +set and bandaged, never so much as wincing the while. + +It was soon apparent that the Indians purposed to celebrate their +successful enterprise with a feast. They cooked a large amount of +buffalo steak; then, each with his hands full of the savory meat, they +began to dance around the fires, droning meantime an atrociously +repellant chant. + +"They're a 'spectin' to hev a leetle bit o' fun outen us," muttered +Oncle Jazon to Beverley, who lay near him. "I onderstan' what they're +up to, dad dast 'em! More'n forty years ago, in Ca'lina, they put me +an' Jim Hipes through the ga'ntlet, an' arter thet, in Kaintuck, me an' +Si Kenton tuck the run. Hi, there, Si! where air ye?" + +"Shut yer fool mouth," Kenton growled under his breath. "Ye'll have +that Injun a kickin' our lights out of us again." + +Oncle Jazon winked at the gray sky and puckered his mouth so that it +looked like a nutgall on an old, dry leaf. + +"What's the diff'ence?" he demanded. "I'd jest as soon be kicked now as +arter while; it's got to come anyhow." + +Kenton made no response. The thongs were torturing his arms and legs. +Beverley was silent, but consciousness had returned, and with it a +sense of despair. All three of the prisoners lay face upward quite +unable to move, knowing full well that a terrible ordeal awaited them. +Oncle Jazon's grim humor could not be quenched, even by the galling +agony of the thongs that buried themselves in the flesh, and the +anticipation of torture beside which death would seem a luxury. + +"Yap! Long-Hair, how's yer arm?" he called jeeringly. "Feels pooty +good, hay?" + +Long-Hair, who was not joining in the dance and song, turned when he +heard these taunting words, and mistaking whence they came, went to +Beverley's side and kicked him again and again. + +Oncle Jazon heard the loud blows, and considered the incident a +remarkably good joke. + +"He, he, he!" he snickered, as soon as Long-Hair walked away again. "I +does the talkin' an' somebody else gits the thumpin'! He, he, he! I +always was devilish lucky. Them kicks was good solid jolts, wasn't +they, Lieutenant? Sounded like they was. He, he, he!" + +Beverley gave no heed to Oncle Jazon's exasperating pleasantry; but +Kenton, sorely chafing under the pressure of his bonds, could not +refrain from making retort in kind. + +"I'd give ye one poundin' that ye'd remember, Emile Jazon, if I could +get to ye, ye old twisted-face, peeled-headed, crooked-mouthed, +aggravatin' scamp!" he exclaimed, not thinking how high his naturally +strong voice was lifted. "I can stand any fool but a damn fool!" + +Long-Hair heard the concluding epithet and understood its meaning. +Moreover, he thought himself the target at which it was so +energetically launched. Wherefore he promptly turned back and gave +Kenton a kicking that made his body resound not unlike a drum. + +And here it was that Oncle Jazon overreached himself. He was so +delighted at Kenton's luck that he broke forth giggling and thereby +drew against his own ribs a considerable improvement of Long-Hair's +pedal applications. + +"Ventrebleu!" whined the old man, when the Indian had gone away again. +"Holy Mary! Jee-ru-sa-lem! They's nary bone o' me left 'at's not +splintered as fine as toothpickers! S'pose yer satisfied now, ain't ye, +Si Kenton? Ef ye ain't I'm shore to satisfy ye the fust time I git a +chance at ye, ye blab-mouthed eejit!" + +Before this conversation was ended a rain began to fall, and it rapidly +thickened from a desultory shower to a roaring downpour that +effectually quenched not only the fires around which the savages were +dancing, but the enthusiasm of the dancers as well. During the rest of +the afternoon and all night long the fall was incessant, accompanied by +a cold, panting, wailing southwest wind. + +Beverley lay on the ground, face upward, the rawhide strings torturing +his limbs, the chill of cold water searching his bones. He could see +nothing but the dim, strange canopy of flying rain, against which the +bare boughs of the scrub oaks were vaguely outlined; he could hear +nothing but the cry of the wind and the swash of the water which fell +upon him and ran under him, bubbling and gurgling as if fiendishly +exultant. + +The night dragged on through its terrible length, dealing out its +indescribable horrors, and at last morning arrived, with a stingy and +uncertain gift of light slowly increasing until the dripping trees +appeared forlornly gray and brown against clouds now breaking into +masses that gave but little rain. + +Beverley lived through the awful trial and even had the hardihood to +brighten inwardly with the first flash of sunlight that shot through a +cloud-crack on the eastern horizon. He thought of Alice, as he had done +all night; but now the thought partook somehow of the glow yonder above +old Vincennes, although he could only see its reflection. + +There was great stir among the Indians. Long-Hair stalked about +scrutinizing the ground. Beverley saw him come near time and again with +a hideous, inquiring scowl on his face. Grunts and laconic exclamations +passed from mouth to mouth, and presently the import of it all could +not be mistaken. Kenton and Jazon were gone--had escaped during the +night--and the rain had completely obliterated their tracks. + +The Indians were furious. Long-Hair sent out picked parties of his best +scouts with orders to scour the country in all directions, keeping with +himself a few of the older warriors. Beverley was fed what he would eat +of venison, and Long-Hair made him understand that he would have to +suffer some terrible punishment on account of the action of his +companions. + +Late in the day the scouts straggled back with the report that no track +or sign of the fugitives had been discovered, and immediately a +consultation was held. Most of the warriors, including all of the young +bucks, demanded a torture entertainment as compensation for their +exertions and the unexpected loss of their own prisoners; for it had +been agreed that Beverley belonged exclusively to Long-Hair, who +objected to anything which might deprive him of the great reward +offered by Hamilton for the prisoner if brought to him alive. + +In the end it was agreed that Beverley should be made to run the +gauntlet, provided that no deadly weapons were used upon him during the +ordeal. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +A PRISONER OF LOVE + + +Alice put on her warmest clothes and followed Captain Farnsworth to the +fort, realizing that no pleasant experience awaited her. The wind and +rain still prevailed when they were ready to set forth, and, although +it was not extremely cold, a searching chill went with every throb that +marked the storm's waves. No lights shone in the village houses. +Overhead a gray gloom covered stars and sky, making the darkness in the +watery streets seem densely black. Farnsworth offered Alice his arm, +but she did not accept it. + +"I know the way better than you do," she said. "Come on, and don't be +afraid that I am going to run. I shall not play any trick on you." + +"Very well, Mademoiselle, as you like. I trust you." + +He followed her from the house. He was so filled with the bitterness of +what he was doing that he carried her sword in his hand all the way to +the fort, quite unaware that its point often touched her dress so that +she plainly felt it. Indeed, she thought he was using that ruffianly +and dangerous means of keeping pace with her. He had sent the patrol on +its rounds, taking upon himself the responsibility of delivering her to +Hamilton. She almost ran, urged by the strange excitement that burned +in her heart, and he followed somewhat awkwardly, stumbling over the +unfamiliar way in the rain and darkness. + +At every step he was wishing that she would escape from him. Coarse as +his nature was and distorted by hardening experiences, it was rooted in +good English honesty and imbued with a chivalric spirit. When, as +happened too often, he fell under the influence of liquor, the bad in +him promptly came uppermost; but at all other times his better traits +made him a good fellow to meet, genial, polite, generous, and inclined +to recognize the finer sentiments of manliness. To march into his +commander's presence with Alice as his prisoner lacked everything of +agreeing with his taste; yet he had not been willing to give her over +into the hands of the patrol. If his regard for military obligation had +not been exceptionally strong, even for an English soldier, he would +have given way to the temptation of taking her to some place of hiding +and safety, instead of brutally subjecting her to Hamilton's harsh +judgment. He anticipated a trying experience for her on account of this +new transgression. + +They hastened along until a lantern in the fort shot a hazy gleam upon +them. + +"Stop a moment, Mademoiselle," Farnsworth called. "I say, Miss +Roussillon, stop a moment, please." + +Alice halted and turned facing him so short and so suddenly that the +rapier in his hand pricked through her wraps and slightly scratched her +arm. + +"What do you mean, sir?" she demanded, thinking that he had thrust +purposely. "Do I deserve this brutality?" + +"You mistake me, Miss Roussillon. I cannot be brutal to you now. Do not +fear me; I only had a word to say." + +"Oh, you deem it very polite and gentle to jab me with your sword, do +you? If I had one in my hand you would not dare try such a thing, and +you know it very well." + +He was amazed, not knowing that the sword-point had touched her. He +could not see her face, but there was a flash in her voice that +startled him with its indignant contempt and resentment. + +"What are you saying, Miss Roussillon? I don't understand you. When did +I ever--when did I jab you with my sword? I never thought of such a +thing." + +"This moment, sir, you did, and you know you did. My arm is bleeding +now." + +She spoke rapidly in French; but he caught her meaning, and for the +first became aware of the rapier in his hand. Even then its point was +toward her and very near her breast. He lowered it instantly while the +truth rushed into his mind. + +"Forgive me," he murmured, his words barely audible in the tumult of +wind and rain, but charged with the intensest feeling. + +"Forgive me; I did not know--it was an accident--I could not do such a +thing purposely. Believe me, believe me, Miss Roussillon. I did not +mean it." + +She stood facing him, trying to look right into his eyes. A quality in +his voice had checked her hot anger. She could only see his dim +outlines in the dull gleam from the fort's lantern. He seemed to be +forlornly wretched. + +"I should like to believe you," she presently said, "but I cannot. You +English are all, all despicable, mean, vile!" + +She was remembering the young officer who had assaulted her with his +sword in the house a while ago. And (what a strange thing the human +brain is!) she at the same time comforted herself with the further +thought that Beverley would never, never, be guilty of rudeness to a +woman. + +"Some time you shall not say that," Farnsworth responded. "I asked you +to stop a moment that I might beg you to believe how wretchedly sorry I +am for what I am doing. But you cannot understand me now. Are you +really hurt, Miss Roussillon? I assure you that it was purely +accidental." + +"My hurt is nothing," she said. + +"I am very glad." + +"Well, then, shall we go on to the fort?" + +"You may go where you please, Mademoiselle." + +She turned her back upon him and without an answering word walked +straight to the lantern that hung by the gate of the stockade, where a +sentinel tramped to and fro. A few moments later Captain Farnsworth +presented her to Hamilton, who had been called from his bed when the +news of the trouble at Roussillon place reached the fort. + +"So you've been raising hell again, have you, Miss?" he growled, with +an ugly frown darkening his face. + +"I beg your pardon," said Farnsworth, "Miss Roussillon was not to blame +for--" + +"In your eyes she'd not be to blame, sir, if she burned up the fort and +all of us in it," Hamilton gruffly interrupted. "Miss, what have you +been doing? What are you here for? Captain Farnsworth, you will please +state the particulars of the trouble that I have just heard about. And +I may as well notify you that I wish to hear no special lover's +pleading in this girl's behalf." + +Farnsworth's face whitened with anger; he bit his lip and a shiver ran +through his frame; but he had to conquer the passion. In a few words, +blunt and direct as musket-balls, he told all the circumstances of what +had taken place, making no concealments to favor Alice, but boldly +blaming the officer of the patrol, Lieutenant Barlow, for losing his +head and attacking a young girl in her own home. + +"I will hear from Barlow," said Hamilton, after listening attentively +to the story. "But take this girl and confine her. Show her no favors. +I hold you responsible for her until to-morrow morning. You can retire." + +There was no room for discussion. Farnsworth saluted and turned to +Alice. + +"Come with me," he gently said. + +Hamilton looked after them as they went out of his room, a curious +smile playing around his firmly set lips. + +"She's the most beautiful vixen that I ever saw," he thought. "She +doesn't look to be a French girl, either--decidedly English." He +shrugged his shoulders, then laughed dryly. "Farnsworth's as crazy as +can be, the beggar; in love with her so deep that he can't see out. By +Jove, she IS a beauty! Never saw such eyes. And plucky to beat the +devil. I'll bet my head Barlow'll be daft about her next!" + +Still, notwithstanding the lightness of his inward comments, Hamilton +regarded the incident as rather serious. He knew that the French +inhabitants were secretly his bitter enemies, yet probably willing, if +he would humor their peculiar social, domestic and commercial +prejudices, to refrain from active hostilities, and even to aid him in +furnishing his garrison with a large amount of needed supplies. The +danger just now was twofold; his Indian allies were deserting him, and +a flotilla loaded with provisions and ammunition from Detroit had +failed to arrive. He might, if the French rose against him and were +joined by the Indians, have great difficulty defending the fort. It was +clear that M. Roussillon had more influence with both creoles and +savages than any other person save Father Beret. Urgent policy dictated +that these two men should somehow be won over. But to do this it would +be necessary to treat Alice in such a way that her arrest would aid, +instead of operating against the desired result,--a thing not easy to +manage. + +Hamilton was not a man of fine scruples, but he may have been, probably +was, better than our American historians have made him appear. His +besetting weakness, which, as a matter of course, he regarded as the +highest flower of efficiency, was an uncontrollable temper, a lack of +fine human sympathy and an inability to forgive. In his calmest +moments, when prudence appealed to him, he would resolve to use +diplomatic means; but no sooner was his opinion questioned or his +purpose opposed than anger and the thirst for revenge overpowered every +gentler consideration. He returned to his bed that night fully resolved +upon a pleasant and successful interview with Alice next morning. + +Captain Farnsworth took his fair prisoner straight-way from Hamilton's +presence to a small room connected with a considerable structure in a +distant angle of the stockade. Neither he nor Alice spoke on the way. +With a huge wooden key he unlocked the door and stepped aside for her +to enter. A dim lamp was burning within, its yellowish light flickering +over the scant furniture, which consisted of a comfortable bed, a table +with some books on it, three chairs, a small looking-glass on the wall, +a guitar and some articles of men's clothing hanging here and there. A +heap of dull embers smouldered in the fireplace. Alice did not falter +at the threshold, but promptly entered her prison. + +"I hope you can be comfortable," said Farnsworth in a low tone. "It's +the best I can give you." + +"Thank you," was the answer spoken quite as if he had handed her a +glass of water or picked up her handkerchief. + +He held the door a moment, while she stopped, with her back toward him, +in the middle of the room; then she heard him close and lock it. The +air was almost too warm after her exposure to the biting wind and cold +dashes of rain. She cast off her outer wraps and stood by the +fireplace. At a glance she comprehended that the place was not the one +she had formerly occupied as a prisoner, and that it belonged to a man. +A long rifle stood in a corner, a bullet-pouch and powder-horn hanging +on a projecting hickory ramrod; a heavy fur top-coat lay across one of +the chairs. + +Alice felt her situation bitterly enough; but she was not of the stuff +that turns to water at the touch of misfortune. Pioneer women took +hardships as a matter of course, and met calamity with admirable +fortitude. There was no wringing of hands, no frantic wailing, no +hollow, despairing groan. While life lasted hope flourished, even in +most tragic surroundings; and not unfrequently succor came, at the last +verge of destruction, as the fitting reward of unconquerable courage. A +girl like Alice must be accepted in the spirit of her time and +surroundings. She was born amid experiences scarcely credible now, and +bred in an area and an atmosphere of incomparable dangers. Naturally +she accepted conditions of terrible import with a sang froid scarcely +possible to a girl of our day. She did not cry, she did not sink down +helpless when she found herself once more imprisoned with some +uncertain trial before her; but simply knelt and repeated the Lord's +prayer, then went to bed and slept; even dreamed the dream of a maid's +first love. + +Meantime Farnsworth, who had given Alice his own apartment, took what +rest he could on the cold ground under a leaky shed hard by. His wound, +not yet altogether healed, was not benefited by the exposure. + +In due time next morning Hamilton ordered Alice brought to his office, +and when she appeared he was smiling with as near an approach to +affability as his disposition would permit. He rose and bowed like a +courtier. + +"I hope you rested well, Mademoiselle," he said in his best French. He +imagined that the use of her language would be agreeable to begin with. + +The moment that Alice saw him wearing that shallow veneering of +pleasantness on his never prepossessing visage, she felt a mood of +perversity come over her. She, too, smiled, and he mistook her +expression for one of reciprocal amenity. She noticed that her sword +was on his table. + +"I am sorry, Monsieur, that I cannot say as much to you," she glibly +responded. "If you lay upon a bed of needles the whole night through, +your rest was better than you deserved. My own sleep was quite +refreshing, thank you." + +Instantly Hamilton's choler rose. He tried to suppress it at first; but +when he saw Alice actually laughing, and Farnsworth (who had brought +her in) biting his lip furiously to keep from adding an uproarious +guffaw, he lost all hold of himself. He unconsciously picked up the +rapier and shook it till its blade swished. + +"I might have known better than to expect decency from a wench of your +character," he said. "I hoped to do you a favor; but I see that you are +not capable of accepting kindness politely." + +"I am sure, Monsieur, that I have but spoken the truth plainly to you. +You would not have me do otherwise, I hope." + +Her voice, absolutely witching in its softness, freshness and suavity, +helped the assault of her eyes, while her dimples twinkled and her hair +shone. Hamilton felt his heart move strangely; but he could not forbear +saying in English: + +"If you are so devilish truthful, Miss, you will probably tell me where +the flag is that you stole and hid." + +It was always the missing banner that came to mind when he saw her. + +"Indeed I will do nothing of the sort," she promptly replied. "When you +see that flag again you will be a prisoner and I will wave it high over +your head." + +She lifted a hand as she spoke and made the motion of shaking a banner +above him. It was exasperation sweetened almost to delight that took +hold of the sturdy Briton. He liked pluck, especially in a woman; all +the more if she was beautiful. Yet the very fact that he felt her charm +falling upon him set him hard against her, not as Hamilton the man, but +as Hamilton the commander at Vincennes. + +"You think to fling yourself upon me as you have upon Captain +Farnsworth," he said, with an insulting leer and in a tone of prurient +innuendo. "I am not susceptible, my dear." This more for Farnsworth's +benefit than to insult her, albeit he was not in a mood to care. + +"You are a coward and a liar!" she exclaimed, her face flushing with +hot shame. "You stand here," she quickly added, turning fiercely upon +Farnsworth, "and quietly listen to such words! You, too, are a coward +if you do not make him retract! Oh, you English are low brutes!" + +Hamilton laughed; but Farnsworth looked dark and troubled, his glance +going back and forth from Alice to his commander, as if another word +would cause him to do something terrible. + +"I rather think I've heard all that I care to hear from you, Miss," +Hamilton presently said. "Captain Farnsworth, you will see that the +prisoner is confined in the proper place, which, I suggest to you, is +not your sleeping quarters, sir." + +"Colonel Hamilton," said Farnsworth in a husky voice, "I slept on the +ground under a shed last night in order that Miss Roussillon might be +somewhat comfortable." + +"Humph! Well, see that you do not do it again. This girl is guilty of +harboring a spy and resisting a lawful attempt of my guards to capture +him. Confine her in the place prepared for prisoners and see that she +stays there until I am ready to fix her punishment." + +"There is no place fit for a young girl to stay in," Farnsworth +ventured. "She can have no comfort or--" + +"Take her along, sir; any place is good enough for her so long as she +behaves like a--" + +"Very well," Farnsworth bluntly interrupted, thus saving Alice the +stroke of a vile comparison. "Come with me, please, Miss Roussillon." + +He pulled her toward the door, then dropped the arm he had grasped and +murmured an apology. + +She followed him out, holding her head high. No one looking on would +have suspected that a sinking sensation in her heart made it difficult +for her to walk, or that her eyes, shining like stars, were so inwardly +clouded with distress that she saw her way but dimly. + +It was a relief to Hamilton when Helm a few minutes later entered the +room with something breezy to say. + +"What's up now, if I may ask?" the jolly American demanded. "What's +this I hear about trouble with the French women? Have they begun a +revolution?" + +"That elephant, Gaspard Roussillon, came back into town last night," +said Hamilton sulkily. + +"Well, he went out again, didn't he?" + +"Yes, but--" + +"Stepped on somebody's toe first, eh?" + +"The guard tried to capture him, and that girl of his wounded +Lieutenant Barlow in the neck with a sword. Roussillon fought like a +tiger and the men swear that the devil himself appeared on the scene to +help the Frenchman out." + +"Moral: Be generous in your dealings with Frenchmen and Frenchwomen and +so get the devil on your side." + +"I've got the girl a prisoner, and I swear to you that I'll have her +shot this time if--" + +"Why not shoot her yourself? You oughtn't to shirk a dirty job like +that and force it upon your men." + +Hamilton laughed and elevated his shoulders as if to shake off an +annoying load. Just then a young officer with a white bandage around +his neck entered and saluted. He was a small, soft-haired, blue-eyed +man of reckless bearing, with marks of dissipation sharply cut into his +face. He saluted, smiling self-consciously. + +"Well, Barlow," said Hamilton, "the kitten scratched you, did she?" + +"Yes, slightly, and I don't think I've been treated fairly in the +matter, sir." + +"How so?" + +"I stood the brunt and now Captain Farnsworth gets the prize." He +twisted his mouth in mock expression of maudlin disappointment. "I'm +always cheated out of the sweets. I never get anything for gallant +conduct on the field." + +"Poor boy! It is a shame. But I say, Lieutenant, has Roussillon really +escaped, or is he hidden somewhere in town? Have you been careful?" + +"Oh, it's the Indians. They all swear by these Frenchmen. You can't get +any help from them against a fellow like Roussillon. In fact they aid +him; he's among them now." + +"Moral again," Helm interposed; "keep on the good side of the French!" + +"That's sensible talk, sir," assented Barlow. + +"Bah!" exclaimed Hamilton. "You might as well talk of keeping on the +good side of the American traitors--a bloody murrain seize the whole +race!" + +"That's what I say," chimed in the Lieutenant, with a sly look at Helm. + +"They have been telling me a cock-and-bull story concerning the affair +at the Roussillon cabin," Hamilton said, changing his manner. "What is +this about a disguised and wonderful man who rushed in and upset the +whole of you. I want no romancing; give me the facts." + +Barlow's dissolute countenance became troubled. + +"The facts," he said, speaking with serious deliberation, "are not +clear. It was like a clap of thunder, the way that man performed. As +you say, he did fling the whole squad all of a heap, and it was done +that quickly," he snapped his thumb and finger demonstratively with a +sharp report; "nobody could understand it." + +Hamilton looked at his subaltern with a smile of unlimited contempt and +said: + +"A pretty officer of His Majesty's army, you are, Lieutenant Barlow! +First a slip of a girl shows herself your superior with the sword and +wounds you, then a single man wipes up the floor of a house with you +and your guard, depriving you at the same time of both vision and +memory, so that you cannot even describe your assailant!" + +"He was dressed like a priest," muttered Barlow, evidently frightened +at his commander's scathing comment. "That was all there was to see." + +"A priest! Some of the men say the devil. I wonder--" Hamilton +hesitated and looked at the floor. + +"This Father Beret, he is too old for such a thing, isn't he?" + +"I have thought of him--it was like him--but he is, as you say, very +old to be so tremendously strong and active. Why, I tell you that men +went from his hands against the walls and floor as if shot out of a +mortar. It was the strangest and most astounding thing I ever heard of." + +A little later Barlow seized a favorable opportunity and withdrew. The +conversation was not to his liking. + +Hamilton sent for Father Beret and had a long talk with him, but the +old man looked so childishly inoffensive in spirit and so collapsed +physically that it seemed worse than foolishness to accuse him of the +exploit over which the entire garrison was wondering. Farnsworth sat by +during the interview. He looked the good priest curiously and +critically over from head to foot, remembering, but not mentioning, the +most unclerical punch in the side received from that energetic right +arm now lying so flabbily across the old man's lap. + +When the talk ended and Father Beret humbly took his leave, Hamilton +turned to Farnsworth and said: + +"What do you think of this affair? I have cross-questioned all the men +who took part in it, and every one of them says simply priest or devil. +I think old Beret is both; but plainly he couldn't hurt a chicken, you +can see that at a glance." + +Farnsworth smiled, rubbing his side reminiscently; but he shook his +head. + +"I'm sure it's puzzling, indeed." + +Hamilton sat in thoughtful silence for a while, then abruptly changed +the subject. + +"I think, Captain, that you had better send out Lieutenant Barlow and +some of the best woodsmen to kill some game. We need fresh venison, +and, by George! I'm not going to depend upon these French traitors any +longer. I have set my foot down; they've got to do better or take the +consequences." He paused for a breath, then added: "That girl has done +too much to escape severest punishment. The garrison will be +demoralized if this thing goes on without an example of authority +rigidly enforced. I am resolved that there shall be a startling and +effective public display of my power to punish. She shot you; you seem +to be glad of it, but it was a grave offence. She has stabbed Barlow; +that is another serious crime; but worst of all she aided a spy and +resisted arrest. She must be punished." + +Farnsworth knew Hamilton's nature, and he now saw that Alice was in +dreadful danger of death or something even worse. Whenever his chief +talked of discipline and the need of maintaining his authority, there +was little hope of softening his decisions. Moreover, the provocation +to apply extreme measures really seemed sufficient, regarded from a +military point of view, and Captain Farnsworth was himself, under +ordinary circumstances, a disciplinarian of the strictest class. The +fascination, however, by which Alice held him overbore every other +influence, and his devotion to her loosened every other tie and +obligation to a most dangerous extent. No sooner had he left +headquarters and given Barlow his instructions touching the hunting +expedition, than his mind began to wander amid visions and schemes by +no means consistent with his military obligations. In order to reflect +undisturbed he went forth into the dreary, lane-like streets of +Vincennes and walked aimlessly here and there until he met Father Beret. + +Farnsworth saluted the old man, and was passing him by, when seeing a +sword in his hand, half hidden in the folds of his worn and faded +cassock, he turned and addressed him. + +"Why are you armed this morning, Father?" he demanded very pleasantly. +"Who is to suffer now?" + +"I am not on the war-path, my son," replied the priest. "It is but a +rapier that I am going to clean of rust spots that are gathering on its +blade." + +"Is it yours, Father? Let me see it." He held out his hand. + +"No, not mine." + +Father Beret seemed not to notice Farnsworth's desire to handle the +weapon, and the young man, instead of repeating his words, reached +farther, nearly grasping the scabbard. + +"I cannot let you take it, my son," said Father Beret "You have its +mate, that should satisfy you." + +"No, Colonel Hamilton took it," Farnsworth quickly replied. "If I could +I would gladly return it to its owner. I am not a thief, Father, and I +am ashamed of--of--what I did when I was drunk." + +The priest looked sharply into Farnsworth's eyes and read there +something that reassured him. His long experience had rendered him +adept at taking a man's value at a glance. He slightly lifted his face +and said: "Ah, but the poor little girl! why do you persecute her? She +really does not deserve it. She is a noble child. Give her back to her +home and her people. Do not soil and spoil her sweet life." + +It was the sing-song voice used by Father Beret in his sermons and +prayers; but something went with it indescribably touching. Farnsworth +felt a lump rise in his throat and his eyes were ready to show tears. +"Father," he said, with difficulty making his words distinct, "I would +not harm Miss Roussillon to save my own life, and I would do +anything--" he paused slightly, then added with passionate force; "I +would do anything, no matter what, to save her from the terrible thing +that now threatens her." + +Father Beret's countenance changed curiously as he gazed at the young +man and said: + +"If you really mean what you say, you can easily save her, my son." + +"Father, by all that is holy, I mean just what I say." + +"Swear not at all, my son, but give me your hand." + +The two men stood with a tight grip between them and exchanged a long, +steady, searching gaze. + +A drizzling rain had begun to fall again, with a raw wind creeping from +the west. + +"Come with me to my house, my son," Father Beret presently added; and +together they went, the priest covering Alice's sword from the rain +with the folds of his cassock. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +VIRTUE IN A LOCKET + + +Long-Hair stood not upon ceremony in conveying to Beverley the +information that he was to run the gauntlet, which, otherwise stated, +meant that the Indians would form themselves in two parallel lines +facing each other about six feet apart, and that the prisoner would be +expected to run down the length of the space between, thus affording +the warriors an opportunity, greatly coveted and relished by their +fiendish natures, to beat him cruelly during his flight. This sort of +thing was to the Indians, indeed, an exquisite amusement, as +fascinating to them as the theater is to more enlightened people. No +sooner was it agreed upon that the entertainment should again be +undertaken than all the younger men began to scurry around getting +everything ready for it. Their faces glowed with a droll cruelty +strange to see, and they further expressed their lively expectations by +playful yet curiously solemn antics. + +The preparations were simple and quickly made. Each man armed himself +with a stick three feet long and about three-quarters of an inch in +diameter. Rough weapons they were, cut from boughs of scrub-oak, knotty +and tough as horn. Long-Hair unbound Beverley and stripped his clothes +from his body down to the waist. Then the lines formed, the Indians in +each row standing about as far apart as the width of the space in which +the prisoner was to run. This arrangement gave them free use of their +sticks and plenty of room for full swing of their lithe bodies. + +In removing Beverley's clothes Long-Hair found Alice's locket hanging +over the young man's heart. He tore it rudely off and grunted, glaring +viciously, first at it, then at Beverley. He seemed to be mightily +wrought upon. + +"White man damn thief," he growled deep in his throat; "stole from +little girl!" + +He put the locket in his pouch and resumed his stupidly indifferent +expression. + +When everything was ready for the delightful entertainment to begin, +Long-Hair waved his tomahawk three times over Beverley's head, and +pointing down between the waiting lines said: + +"Ugh, run!" + +But Beverley did not budge. He was standing erect, with his arms, +deeply creased where the thongs had sunk, folded across his breast. A +rush of thoughts and feelings had taken tumultuous possession of him +and he could not move or decide what to do. A mad desire to escape +arose in his heart the moment that he saw Long-Hair take the locket. It +was as if Alice had cried to him and bidden him make a dash for liberty. + +"Ugh, run!" + +The order was accompanied with a push of such violence from Long-Hair's +left elbow that Beverley plunged and fell, for his limbs, after their +long and painful confinement in the raw-hide bonds, were stiff and +almost useless. Long-Hair in no gentle voice bade him get up. The shock +of falling seemed to awaken his dormant forces; a sudden resolve leaped +into his brain. He saw that the Indians had put aside their bows and +guns, most of which were leaning against the boles of trees here and +yonder. What if he could knock Long-Hair down and run away? This might +possibly be easy, considering the Indian's broken arm. His heart jumped +at the possibility. But the shrewd savage was alert and saw the thought +come into his face. + +"You try git 'way, kill dead!" he snarled, lifting his tomahawk ready +for a stroke. "Brains out, damn!" + +Beverley glanced down the waiting and eager lines. Swiftly he +speculated, wondering what would be his chance for escape were he to +break through. But he did not take his own condition into account. + +"Ugh, run!" + +Again the elbow of Long-Hair's hurt arm pushed him toward the expectant +rows of Indians, who flourished their clubs and uttered impatient +grunts. + +This time he did not fall; but in trying to run he limped stiffly at +first, his legs but slowly and imperfectly regaining their strength and +suppleness from the action. Just before reaching the lines, however, he +stopped short. Long-Hair, who was close behind him, took hold of his +shoulder and led him back to the starting place. The big Indian's arm +must have given him pain when he thus used it, but he did not wince. +"Fool--kill dead!" he repeated two or three times, holding his tomahawk +on high with threatening motions and frequent repetitions of his one +echo from the profanity of civilization. He was beginning to draw his +mouth down at the corners, and his eyes were narrowed to mere slits. + +Beverley understood now that he could not longer put off the trial. He +must choose between certain death and the torture of the gauntlet, as +frontiersmen named this savage ordeal. An old man might have preferred +the stroke of the hatchet to such an infliction as the clubs must +afford, considering that, even after all the agony, his captivity and +suffering would be only a little nearer its end. Youth, however, has +faith in the turn of fortune's wheel, and faith in itself, no matter +how dark the prospect. Hope blows her horn just over the horizon, and +the strain bids the young heart take courage and beat strong. Moreover, +men were men, who led the van in those days on the outmost lines of our +march to the summit of the world. Beverley was not more a hero than any +other young, brave, unconquerable patriot of the frontier army. His +situation simply tried him a trifle harder than was common. But it must +be remembered that he had Love with him, and where Love is there can be +no cowardice, no surrender. + +Long-Hair once again pushed him and said + +"Ugh, run!" + +Beverley made a direct dash for the narrow lane between the braced and +watchful lines. Every warrior lifted his club; every copper face +gleamed stolidly, a mask behind which burned a strangely atrocious +spirit. The two savages standing at the end nearest Beverley struck at +him the instant he reached than, but they taken quite by surprise when +he checked himself between them and, leaping this way and that, swung +out two powerful blows, left and right, stretching one of them flat and +sending the other reeling and staggering half a dozen paces backward +with the blood streaming from his nose. + +This done, Beverley turned to run away, but his breath was already +short and his strength rapidly going. + +Long-Hair, who was at his heels, leaped before him when he had gone but +a few steps and once more flourished the tomahawk. To struggle was +useless, save to insist upon being brained outright, which just then +had no part in Beverley's considerations. Long-Hair kicked his victim +heavily, uttering laconic curses meanwhile, and led him back again to +the starting-point. + +A genuine sense of humor seems almost entirely lacking in the mind of +the American Indian. He smiles at things not in the least amusing to us +and when he laughs, which is very seldom, the cause of his merriment +usually lies in something repellantly cruel and inhuman. When Beverley +struck his two assailants, hurting them so that one lay half stunned, +while the other spun away from his fist with a smashed nose, all the +rest of the Indians grunted and laughed raucously in high delight. They +shook their clubs, danced, pointed at their discomfited fellows and +twisted their painted faces into knotted wrinkles, their eyes twinkling +with devilish expression of glee quite indescribable. + +"Ugh, damn, run!" said Long-Half, this time adding a hard kick to the +elbow-shove he gave Beverley. + +The young man, who had borne all he could, now turned upon him +furiously and struck straight from the shoulder, setting the whole +weight of his body into the blow. Long-Hair stepped out of the way and +quick as a flash brought the flat side of his tomahawk with great force +against Beverley's head. This gave the amusement a sudden and +disappointing end, for the prisoner fell limp and senseless to the +ground. No more running the gauntlet for him that day. Indeed it +required protracted application of the best Indian skill to revive him +so that he could fairly be called a living man. There had been no +dangerous concussion, however, and on the following morning camp was +broken. + +Beverley, sore, haggard, forlornly disheveled, had his arms bound again +and was made to march apace with his nimble enemies, who set out +swiftly eastward, their disappointment at having their sport cut short, +although bitter enough, not in the least indicated by any facial +expression or spiteful act. + +Was it really a strange thing, or was it not, that Beverley's mind now +busied itself unceasingly with the thought that Long-Hair had Alice's +picture in his pouch? One might find room for discussion of a cerebral +problem like this; but our history cannot be delayed with analyses and +speculations; it must run its direct course unhindered to the end. +Suffice it to record that, while tramping at Long-Hair's side and +growing more and more desirous of seeing the picture again, Beverley +began trying to converse with his taciturn captor. He had a +considerable smattering of several Indian dialects, which he turned +upon Long-Hair to the best of his ability, but apparently without +effect. Nevertheless he babbled at intervals, always upon the same +subject and always endeavoring to influence that huge, stolid, +heartless savage in the direction of letting him see again the child +face of the miniature. + +A stone, one of our travel-scarred and mysterious western granite +bowlders brought from the far north by the ancient ice, would show as +much sympathy as did the face of Long-Hair. Once in a while he gave +Beverley a soulless glance and said "damn" with utter indifference. +Nothing, however, could quench or even in the slightest sense allay the +lover's desire. He talked of Alice and the locket with constantly +increasing volubility, saying over and over phrases of endearment in a +half-delirious way, not aware that fever was fermenting his blood and +heating his brain. Probably he would have been very ill but for the +tremendous physical exercise forced upon him. The exertion kept him in +a profuse perspiration and his robust constitution cast off the +malarial poison. Meantime he used every word and phrase, every grunt +and gesture of Indian dialect that he could recall, in the iterated and +reiterated attempt to make Long-Hair understand what he wanted. + +When night came on again the band camped under some trees beside a +swollen stream. There was no rain falling, but almost the entire +country lay under a flood of water. Fires of logs were soon burning +brightly on the comparatively dry bluff chosen by the Indians. The +weather was chill, but not cold. Long-Hair took great pains, however, +to dry Beverley's clothes and see that he had warm wraps and plenty to +eat. Hamilton's large reward would not be forthcoming should the +prisoner die, Beverley was good property, well worth careful attention. +To be sure his scalp, in the worst event, would command a sufficient +honorarium, but not the greatest. Beverley thought of all this while +the big Indian was wrapping him snugly in skins and blankets for the +night, and there was no comfort in it, save that possibly if he were +returned to Hamilton he might see Alice again before he died. + +A fitful wind cried dolefully in the leafless treetops, the stream hard +by gave forth a rushing sound, and far away some wolves howled like +lost souls. Worn out, sore from head to foot, Beverley, deep buried in +the blankets and skins, soon fell into a profound sleep. The fires +slowly crumbled and faded; no sentinel was posted, for the Indians did +not fear an attack, there being no enemies that they knew of nearer +than Kaskaskia. The camp slumbered as one man. + +At about the mid-hour of the night Long-Hair gently awoke his prisoner +by drawing a hand across his face, then whispered in his ear: + +"Damn, still!" + +Beverley tried to rise, uttering a sleepy ejaculation under his breath. +"No talk," hissed Long-Hair. "Still!" + +There was something in his voice that not only swept the last film of +sleep out of Beverley's brain, but made it perfectly clear to him that +a very important bit of craftiness was being performed; just what its +nature was, however, he could not surmise. One thing was obvious, +Long-Hair did not wish the other Indians to know of the move he was +making. Deftly he slipped the blankets from around Beverley, and cut +the thongs at his ankles. + +"Still!" he whispered. "Come 'long." + +Under such circumstances a competent mind acts with lightning celerity. +Beverley now understood that Long-Hair was stealing him away from the +other savages and that the big villain meant to cheat them out of their +part of the reward. Along with this discovery came a fresh gleam of +hope. It would be far easier to escape from one Indian than from nearly +a score. Ah, he would follow Long-Hair, indeed he would! The needed +courage came with the thought, and so with immense labor he crept at +the heels of that crawling monster. It was a painful process, for his +arms were still fast bound at the wrists with the raw-hide strings; but +what was pain to him? He shivered with joy, thinking of what might +happen. The voice of the wind overhead and the noisy bubbling of the +stream near by were cheerful and cheering sounds to him now. So much +can a mere shadow of hope do for a human soul on the verge of despair! +Already he was planning or trying to plan some way by which he could +kill Long-Hair when they should reach a safe distance from the sleeping +camp. + +But how could the thing be done? A man with his hands tied, though they +are in front of him, is in no excellent condition to cope with a free +and stalwart savage armed to the teeth. Still Beverley's spirits rose +with every rod of distance that was added to their slow progress. + +Their course was nearly parallel with that of the stream, but slightly +converging toward it, and after they had gone about a furlong they +reached the bank. Here Long-Hair stopped and, without a word, cut the +thongs from Beverley's wrists. This was astounding; the young man could +scarcely realize it, nor was he ready to act. + +"Swim water," Long-Hair said in a guttural murmur barely audible. +"Swim, damn!" + +Again it was necessary for Beverley's mind to act swiftly and with +prudence. The camp was yet within hailing distance. A false move now +would bring the whole pack howling to the rescue. Something told him to +do as Long-Hair ordered, so with scarcely a perceptible hesitation he +scrambled down the bushy bank and slipped into the water, followed by +Long-Hair, who seized him by one arm when he began to swim, and struck +out with him into the boiling and tumbling current. + +Beverley had always thought himself a master swimmer, but Long-Hair +showed him his mistake. The giant Indian, with but one hand free to +use, fairly rushed through that deadly cold and turbulent water, +bearing his prisoner with him despite the wounded arm, as easily as if +towing him at the stern of a pirogue. True, his course was down stream +for a considerable distance, but even when presently he struck out +boldly for the other bank, breasting a current in which few swimmers +could have lived, much less made headway, he still swung forward +rapidly, splitting the waves and scarcely giving Beverley freedom +enough so that he could help in the progress. It was a long, cold +struggle, and when at last they touched the sloping low bank on the +other side, Long-Hair had fairly to lift his chilled and exhausted +prisoner to the top. + +"Ugh, cold," he grunted, beginning to pound and rub Beverley's arms, +legs and body. "Make warm, damn heap!" + +All this he did with his right hand, holding the tomahawk in his left. + +It was a strange, bewildering experience out of which the young man +could not see in any direction far enough to give him a hint upon which +to act. In a few minutes Long-Hair jerked him to his feet and said: + +"Go." + +It was just light enough to see that the order had a tomahawk to +enforce it withal. Long-Hair indicated the direction and drove Beverley +onward as fast as he could. + +"Try run 'way, kill, damn!" he kept repeating, while with his left hand +on the young man's shoulder he guided him from behind dexterously +through the wood for some distance. Then he stopped and grunted, adding +his favorite expletive, which he used with not the least knowledge of +its meaning. To him the syllable "damn" was but a mouthful of forcible +wind. + +They had just emerged from a thicket into an open space, where the +ground was comparatively dry. Overhead the stars were shining in great +clusters of silver and gold against a dark, cavernous looking sky, here +and there overrun with careering black clouds. Beverley shivered, not +so much with cold as on account of the stress of excitement which +amounted to nervous rigor. Long-Hair faced him and leaned toward him, +until his breathing was audible and his massive features were dimly +outlined. A dragon of the darkest age could not have been more +repulsive. + +"Ugh, friend, damn!" + +Beverley started when these words were followed by a sentence in an +Indian dialect somewhat familiar to him, a dialect in which he had +tried to talk with Long-Hair during the day's march. The sentence, +literally translated, was: + +"Long-Hair is friendly now." + +A blow in the face could not have been so surprising. Beverley not only +started, but recoiled as if from a sudden and deadly apparition. The +step between supreme exhilaration and utter collapse is now and then +infinitesimal. There are times, moreover, when an expression on the +face of Hope makes her look like the twin sister of Despair. The moment +falling just after Long-Hair spoke was a century condensed in a breath. + +"Long-Hair is friendly now; will white man be friendly?" + +Beverley heard, but the speech seemed to come out of vastness and +hollow distance; he could not realize it fairly. He felt as if in a +dream, far off somewhere in loneliness, with a big, shadowy form +looming before him. He heard the chill wind in the thickets round +about, and beyond Long-Hair rose a wall of giant trees. + +"Ugh, not understand?" the savage presently demanded in his broken +English. + +"Yes, yes," said Beverley, "I understand." + +"Is the white man friendly now?" Long-Hair then repeated in his own +tongue, with a certain insistence of manner and voice. + +"Yes, friendly." + +Beverley said this absently in a tone of perfunctory dryness. His +throat was parched, his head seemed to waver. But he was beginning to +comprehend that Long-Hair, for some inscrutable reason of his own, was +desirous of making a friendship between them. The thought was +bewildering. + +Long-Hair fumbled in his pouch and took out Alice's locket, which he +handed to Beverley. "White man love little girl?" he inquired in a tone +that bordered upon tenderness, again speaking in Indian. + +Beverley clutched the disk as soon as he saw it gleam in the star-light. + +"White man going to have little girl for his squaw--eh?" + +"Yes, yes," cried Beverley without hearing his own voice. He was trying +to open the locket but his hands were numb and trembling. When at last +he did open it he could not see the child face within, for now even the +star-light was shut off by a scudding black cloud. + +"Little girl saved Long-Hair's life. Long-Hair save white warrior for +little girl." + +A dignity which was almost noble accompanied these simple sentences. +Long-Hair stood proudly erect, like a colossal dark statue in the +dimness. + +The great truth dawned upon Beverley that here was a characteristic +act. He knew that an Indian rarely failed to repay a kindness or an +injury, stroke for stroke, when opportunity offered. Long-Hair was a +typical Indian. That is to say, a type of inhumanity raised to the last +power; but under his hideous atrocity of nature lay the indestructible +sense of gratitude so fixed and perfect that it did its work almost +automatically. + +It must be said, and it may or may not be to the white man's shame, +that Beverley did not respond with absolute promptness and sincerity to +Long-Hair's generosity. He had suffered terribly at the hands of this +savage. His arms and legs were raw from the biting of the thongs; his +body ached from the effect of blows and kicks laid upon him while bound +and helpless. Perhaps he was not a very emotional man. At all events +there was no sudden recognition of the favor he was receiving. And this +pleased Long-Hair, for the taste of the American Indian delights in +immobility of countenance and reserve of feeling under great strain. + +"Wait here a little while," Long-Hair presently said, and without +lingering for reply, turned away and disappeared in the wood. Beverley +was free to run if he wished to, and the thought did surge across his +mind; but a restraining something, like a hand laid upon him, would not +let his limbs move. Down deep in his heart a calm voice seemed to be +repeating Long-Hair's Indian sentence--"Wait here a little while." + +A few minutes later Long-Hair returned bearing two guns, Beverley's and +his own, the latter, a superb weapon given him by Hamilton. He +afterward explained that he had brought these, with their +bullet-pouches and powder-horns, to a place of concealment near by +before he awoke Beverley. This meant that he had swum the cold river +three times since night-fall; once over with the guns and +accouterments; once back to camp, then over again with Beverley! All +this with a broken arm, and to repay Alice for her kindness to him. + +Beverley may have been slow, but at last his appreciation was, perhaps, +all the more profound. As best he could he expressed it to Long-Hair, +who showed no interest whatever in the statement. Instead of responding +in Indian, he said "damn" without emphasis. It was rather as if he had +yawned absently, being bored. + +Delay could not be thought of. Long-Hair explained briefly that he +thought. Beverley must go to Kaskaskia. He had come across the stream +in the direction of Vincennes in order to set his warriors at fault. +The stream must be recrossed, he said, farther down, and he would help +Beverley a certain distance on his way, then leave him to shift for +himself. He had a meager amount of parched corn and buffalo meat in his +pouch, which would stay hunger until they could kill some game. Now +they must go. + +The resilience of a youthful and powerful physique offers many a +problem to the biologist. Vital force seems to find some mysterious +reservoir of nourishment hidden away in the nerve-centers. Beverley set +out upon that seemingly impossible undertaking with renewed energy. It +could not have been the ounce of parched corn and bit of jerked venison +from which he drew so much strength; but on the other hand, could it +have been the miniature of Alice, which he felt pressing over his heart +once more, that afforded a subtle stimulus to both mind and body? They +flung miles behind them before day-dawn, Long-Hair leading, Beverley +pressing close at his heels. Most of the way led over flat prairies +covered with water, and they therefore left no track by which they +could be followed. + +Late in the forenoon Long-Hair killed a deer at the edge of a wood. +Here they made a fire and cooked a supply which would last them for a +day or two, and then on they went again. But we cannot follow them step +by step. When Long-Hair at last took leave of Beverley, the occasion +had no ceremony. It was an abrupt, unemotional parting. The stalwart +Indian simply said in his own dialect, pointing westward: + +"Go that way two days. You will find your friends." + +Then, without another look or word, he turned about and stalked +eastward at a marvelously rapid gait. In his mind he had a good tale to +tell his warrior companions when he should find them again: how +Beverley escaped that night and how he followed him a long, long chase, +only to lose him at last under the very guns of the fort at Kaskaskia. +But before he reached his band an incident of some importance changed +his story to a considerable degree. It chanced that he came upon +Lieutenant Barlow, who, in pursuit of game, had lost his bearings and, +far from his companions, was beating around quite bewildered in a +watery solitude. Long-Hair promptly murdered the poor fellow and +scalped him with as little compunction as he would have skinned a +rabbit; for he had a clever scheme in his head, a very audacious and +outrageous scheme, by which he purposed to recoup, to some extent, the +damages sustained by letting Beverley go. + +Therefore, when he rejoined his somewhat disheartened and demoralized +band he showed them the scalp and gave them an eloquent account of how +he tore it from Beverley's head after a long chase and a bloody hand to +hand fight. They listened, believed, and were satisfied. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +FATHER BERET'S OLD BATTLE + + +The room in which Alice was now imprisoned formed part of the upper +story of a building erected by Hamilton in one of the four angles of +the stockade. It had no windows and but two oblong port-holes made to +accommodate a small swivel, which stood darkly scowling near the middle +of the floor. From one of these apertures Alice could see the +straggling roofs and fences of the dreary little town, while from the +other a long reach of watery prairie, almost a lake, lay under view +with the rolling, muddy Wabash gleaming beyond. There seemed to be no +activity of garrison or townspeople. Few sounds broke the silence of +which the cheerless prison room seemed to be the center. + +Alice felt all her courage and cheerfulness leaving her. She was alone +in the midst of enemies. No father or mother, no friend--a young girl +at the mercy of soldiers, who could not be expected to regard her with +any sympathy beyond that which is accompanied with repulsive leers and +hints. Day after day her loneliness and helplessness became more +agonizing. Farnsworth, it is true, did all he could to relieve the +strain of her situation; but Hamilton had an eye upon what passed and +soon interfered. He administered a bitter reprimand, under which his +subordinate writhed in speechless anger and resentment. + +"Finally, Captain Farnsworth," he said in conclusion, "you will +distinctly understand that this girl is my prisoner, not yours; that I, +not you, will direct how she is to be held and treated, and that +hereafter I will suffer no interference on your part. I hope you fully +understand me, sir, and will govern yourself accordingly." + +Smarting, or rather smothering, under the outrageous insult of these +remarks, Farnsworth at first determined to fling his resignation at the +Governor's feet and then do whatever desperate thing seemed most to his +mood. But a soldier's training is apt to call a halt before the worst +befalls in such a case. Moreover, in the present temptation, Farnsworth +had a special check and hindrance. He had had a conference with Father +Beret, in which the good priest had played the part of wisdom in +slippers, and of gentleness more dove-like than the dove's. A very +subtle impression, illuminated with the "hope that withers hope," had +come of that interview; and now Farnsworth felt its restraint. He +therefore saluted Hamilton formally and walked away. + +Father Beret's paternal love for Alice,--we cannot characterize it more +nicely than to call it paternal,--was his justification for a certain +mild sort of corruption insinuated by him into the heart of Farnsworth. +He was a crafty priest, but his craft was always used for a good end. +Unquestionably Jesuitic was his mode of circumventing the young man's +military scruples by offering him a puff of fair weather with which to +sail toward what appeared to be the shore of delight. He saw at a +glance that Farnsworth's love for Alice was a consuming passion in a +very ardent yet decidedly weak heart. Here was the worldly lever with +which Father Beret hoped to raze Alice's prison and free her from the +terrible doom with which she was threatened. + +The first interview was at Father Beret's cabin, to which, as will be +remembered, the priest and Farnsworth went after their meeting in the +street. It actually came to nothing, save an indirect understanding but +half suggested by Father Beret and never openly sanctioned by Captain +Farnsworth. The talk was insinuating on the part of the former, while +the latter slipped evasively from every proposition, as if not able to +consider it on account of a curious obtuseness of perception. Still, +when they separated they shook hands and exchanged a searching look +perfectly satisfactory to both. + +The memory of that interview with the priest was in Farnsworth's mind +when, boiling with rage, he left Hamilton's presence and went forth +into the chill February air. He passed out through the postern and +along the sodden and queachy aedge of the prairie, involuntarily making +his way to Father Beret's cabin. His indignation was so great that he +trembled from head to foot at every step. The door of the place was +open and Father Beret was eating a frugal meal of scones and sour wine +(of his own make, he said), which he hospitably begged to share with +his visitor. A fire smouldered on the hearth, and a flat stone showed, +by the grease smoking over its hot surface, where the cakes had been +baked. + +"Come in, my son," said the priest, "and try the fare of a poor old +man. It is plain, very plain, but good." He smacked his lips sincerely +and fingered another scone. "Take some, take some." + +Farnsworth was not tempted. The acid bouquet of the wine filled the +room with a smack of vinegar, and the smoke from rank scorching fat and +wheat meal did not suggest an agreeable feast. + +"Well, well, if you are not hungry, my son, sit down on the stool there +and tell me the news." + +Farnsworth took the low seat without a word, letting his eyes wander +over the walls. Alice's rapier, the mate to that now worn by Hamilton, +hung in its curiously engraved scabbard near one corner. The sight of +it inflamed Farnsworth. + +"It's an outrage," he broke forth. "Governor Hamilton sent a man to +Roussillon place with orders to bring him the scabbard of Miss +Roussillon's sword, and he now wears the beautiful weapon as if he had +come by it honestly. Damn him!" + +"My dear, dear son, you must not soil your lips with such language!" +Father Beret let fall the half of a well bitten cake and held up both +hands. + +"I beg your pardon, Father; I know I ought to be more careful in your +presence; but--but--the beastly, hellish scoundrel--" + +"Bah! doucement, mon fils, doucement." The old man shook his head and +his finger while speaking. "Easy, my son, easy. You would be a fine +target for bullets were your words to reach Hamilton's ears. You are +not permitted to revile your commander." + +"Yes, I know; but how can a man restrain himself under such abominable +conditions?" + +Father Beret shrewdly guessed that Hamilton had been giving the Captain +fresh reason for bitter resentment. Moreover, he was sure that the +moving cause had been Alice. So, in order to draw out what he wished to +hear, he said very gently: + +"How is the little prisoner getting along?" + +Farnsworth ground his teeth and swore; but Father Beret appeared not to +hear; he bit deep into a scone, took a liberal sip of the muddy red +wine and added: + +"Has she a comfortable place? Do you think Governor Hamilton would let +me visit her?" + +"It is horrible!" Farnsworth blurted. "She's penned up as if she were a +dangerous beast, the poor girl. And that damned scoundrel--" + +"Son, son!" + +"Oh, it's no use to try, I can't help it, Father. The whelp--" + +"We can converse more safely and intelligently if we avoid profanity, +and undue emotion, my son. Now, if you will quit swearing, I will, and +if you will be calm, so will I." + +Farnsworth felt the sly irony of this absurdly vicarious proposition. +Father Beret smiled with a kindly twinkle in his deep-set eyes. + +"Well, if you don't use profane language, Father, there's no telling +how much you think in expletives. What is your opinion of a man who +tumbles a poor, defenseless girl into prison and then refuses to let +her be decently cared for? How do you express yourself about him?" + +"My son, men often do things of which they ought to be ashamed. I heard +of a young officer once who maltreated a little girl that he met at +night in the street. What evil he would have done, had not a passing +kind-hearted man reminded him of his honor by a friendly punch in the +ribs, I dare not surmise." + +"True, and your sarcasm goes home as hard as your fist did, Father. I +know that I've been a sad dog all my life. Miss Roussillon saved you by +shooting me, and I love her for it. Lay on, Father, I deserve more than +you can give me." + +"Surely you do, my son, surely you do; but my love for you will not let +me give you pain. Ah, we priests have to carry all men's loads. Our +backs are broad, however, very broad, my son." + +"And your fists devilish heavy, Father, devilish heavy." + +The gentle smile again flickered over the priest's weather-beaten face +as he glanced sidewise at Farnsworth and said: + +"Sometimes, sometimes, my son, a carnal weapon must break the way for a +spiritual one. But we priests rarely have much physical strength; our +dependence is upon--" + +"To be sure; certainly," Farnsworth interrupted, rubbing his side, +"your dependence is upon the first thing that offers. I've had many a +blow; but yours was the solidest that ever jarred thy mortal frame, +Father Beret." + +The twain began to laugh. There is nothing like a reminiscence to stir +up fresh mutual sympathy. + +"If your intercostals were somewhat sore for a time, on account of a +contact with priestly knuckles, doubtless there soon set in a +corresponding uneasiness in the region of your conscience. Such shocks +are often vigorously alterative and tonic--eh, my son?" + +"You jolted me sober, Father, and then I was ashamed of myself. But +where does all your tremendous strength lie? You don't look strong." + +While speaking Farnsworth leaned near Father Beret and grasped his arm. +The young man started, for his fingers, instead of closing around a +flabby, shrunken old man's limb, spread themselves upon a huge, knotted +mass of iron muscles. With a quick movement Father Beret shook off +Farnsworth's hand, and said: + +"I am no Samson, my son. Non sum qualis eram." Then, as if dismissing a +light subject for a graver one, he sighed and added; "I suppose there +is nothing that can be done for little Alice." + +He called the tall, strong girl "little Alice," and so she seemed to +him. He could not, without direct effort, think of her as a +magnificently maturing woman. She had always been his spoiled pet +child, perversely set against the Holy Church, but dear to him +nevertheless. + +"I came to you to ask that very question, Father," said Farnsworth. + +"And what do I know? Surely, my son, you see how utterly helpless an +old priest is against all you British. And besides--" + +"Father Beret," Farnsworth huskily interrupted, "is there a place that +you know of anywhere in which Miss Roussillon could be hidden, if--" + +"My dear son." + +"But, Father, I mean it." + +"Mean what? Pardon an old man's slow understanding. What are you +talking about, my son?" + +Father Beret glanced furtively about, then quickly stepped through the +doorway, walked entirely around the house and came in again before +Farnsworth could respond. Once more seated on his stool he added +interrogatively: + +"Did you think you heard something moving outside?" + +"No." + +"You were saying something when I went out. Pardon my interruption." + +Farnsworth gave the priest a searching and not wholly confiding look. + +"You did not interrupt me, Father Beret. I was not speaking. Why are +you so watchful? Are you afraid of eavesdroppers?" + +"You were speaking recklessly. Your words were incendiary: ardentia +verba. My son, you were suggesting a dangerous thing. Your life would +scarcely satisfy the law were you convicted of insinuating such +treason. What if one of your prowling guards had overheard you? Your +neck and mine might feel the halter. Quod avertat dominus." He crossed +himself and in a solemn voice added in English: + +"May the Lord forbid! Ah, my son, we priests protect those we love." + +"And I, who am not fit to tie a priest's shoe, do likewise. Father, I +love Alice Roussillon." + +"Love is a holy thing, my son. Amare divinum est et humanum." + +"Father Beret, can you help me?" + +"Spiritually speaking, my son?" + +"I mean, can you hide Mademoiselle Roussillon in some safe place, if I +take her out of the prison yonder? That's just what I mean. Can you do +it?" + +"Your question is a remarkable one. Have you thought upon it from all +directions, my son? Think of your position, your duty as an officer." + +A shrewd polemical expression beamed from Father Beret's eyes, and a +very expert physiogomist might have suspected duplicity from certain +lines about the old man's mouth. + +"I simply know that I cannot stand by and see Alice--Mademoiselle +Roussillon, forced to suffer treatment too beastly for an Indian thief. +That's the only direction there is for me to look at it from, and you +can understand my feelings if you will; you know that very well, Father +Beret. When a man loves a girl, he loves her; that's the whole thing.". + +The quiet, inscrutable half-smile flickered once more on Father Beret's +face; but he sat silent some time with a sinewy forefinger lying +alongside his nose. When at last he spoke it was in a tone of voice +indicative of small interest in what he was saying. His words rambled +to their goal with the effect of happy accident. + +"There are places in this neighborhood in which a human being would be +as hard to find as the flag that you and Governor Hamilton have so +diligently and unsuccessfully been in quest of for the past month or +two. Really, my son, this is a mysterious little town." + +Farnsworth's eyes widened and a flush rose in his swarthy cheeks. + +"Damn the flag!" he exclaimed. "Let it lie hidden forever; what do I +care? I tell you, Father Beret, that Alice Roussillon is in extreme +danger. Governor Hamilton means to put some terrible punishment on her. +He has a devil's vindictiveness. He showed it to me clearly awhile ago." + +"You showed something of the same sort to me, once upon a time, my son." + +"Yes, I did, Father Beret, and I got a load of slugs in my shoulder for +it from that brave girl's pistol. She saved your life. Now I ask you to +help me save hers; or, if not her life, what is infinitely more, her +honor." + +"Her honor!" cried Father Beret, leaping to his feet so suddenly and +with such energy that the cabin shook from base to roof. "What do you +say, Captain Farnsworth? What do you mean?" + +The old man was transformed. His face was terrible to see, with its +narrow, burning eyes deep under the shaggy brows, its dark veins +writhing snakelike on the temples and forehead, the projected mouth and +chin, the hard lines of the jaws, the iron-gray gleam from all the +features--he looked like an aged tiger stiffened for a spring. + +Farnsworth was made of right soldierly stuff; but he felt a distinct +shiver flit along his back. His past life had not lacked thrilling +adventures and strangely varied experiences with desperate men. Usually +he met sudden emergencies rather calmly, sometimes with phlegmatic +indifference. This passionate outburst on the priest's part, however, +surprised him and awed him, while it stirred his heart with a profound +sympathy unlike anything he had ever felt before. + +Father Beret mastered himself in a moment, and passing his hand over +his face, as if to brush away the excitement, sat down again on his +stool. He appeared to collapse inwardly. + +"You must excuse the weakness of an old man, my son," he said, in a +voice hoarse and shaking. "But tell me what is going to be done with +Alice. Your words--what you said--I did not understand." + +He rubbed his forehead slowly, as one who has difficulty in trying to +collect his thoughts. + +"I do not know what Governor Hamilton means to do, Father Beret. It +will be something devilish, however,--something that must not happen," +said Farnsworth. + +Then he recounted all that Hamilton had done and said. He described the +dreary and comfortless room in which Alice was confined, the miserable +fare given her, and how she would be exposed to the leers and low +remarks of the soldiers. She had already suffered these things, and now +that she could no longer have any protection, what was to become of +her? He did not attempt to overstate the case; but presented it with a +blunt sincerity which made a powerfully realistic impression. + +Father Beret, like most men of strong feeling who have been subjected +to long years of trial, hardship, multitudinous dangers and all sorts +of temptation, and who have learned the lessons of self-control, had an +iron will, and also an abiding distrust of weak men. He saw +Farnsworth's sincerity; but he had no faith in his constancy, although +satisfied that while resentment of Hamilton's imperiousness lasted, he +would doubtless remain firm in his purpose to aid Alice. Let that wear +off, as in a short time it would, and then what? The old man studied +his companion with eyes that slowly resumed their expression of +smouldering and almost timid geniality. His priestly experience with +desperate men was demanding of him a proper regard for that subtlety of +procedure which had so often compassed most difficult ends. + +He listened in silence to Farnsworth's story. When it came to an end he +began to offer some but half relevant suggestions in the form of +indirect cross-questions, by means of which he gradually drew out a +minute description of Alice's prison, the best way to reach it, the +nature of its door-fastenings, where the key was kept, and everything, +indeed, likely to be helpful to one contemplating a jail delivery. +Farnsworth was inwardly delighted. He felt Father Beret's cunning +approach to the central object and his crafty method of gathering +details. + +The shades of evening thickened in the stuffy cabin room while the +conversation went on. Father Beret presently lifted a puncheon in one +corner of the floor and got out a large bottle, which bore a mildewed +and faded French label, and with it a small iron cup. There was just +light enough left to show a brownish sparkle when, after popping out +the cork, he poured a draught in the fresh cup and in his own. + +"We may think more clearly, my son, if we taste this old liquor. I have +kept it a long while to offer upon a proper occasion. The occasion is +here." + +A ravishing bouquet quickly imbued the air. It was itself an +intoxication. + +"The Brothers of St. Martin distilled this liquor," Father Beret added, +handing the cup to Farnsworth, "not for common social drinking, my son, +but for times when a man needs extraordinary stimulation. It is said to +be surpassingly good, because St. Martin blessed the vine." + +The doughty Captain felt a sudden and imperious thirst seize his +throat. The liquor flooded his veins before his lips touched the cup. +He had been abstaining lately; now his besetting appetite rushed upon +him. At one gulp he took in the fiery yet smooth and captivating +draught. Nor did he notice that Father Beret, instead of joining him in +the potation, merely lifted his cup and set it down again, smacking his +lips gusto. + +There followed a silence, during which the aromatic breath of the +bottle increased its dangerous fascination. Then Father Beret again +filled Farnsworth's cup and said: + +"Ah, the blessed monks, little thought they that their matchless brew +would ever be sipped in a poor missionary's hut on the Wabash! But, +after all, my son, why not here as well as in sunny France? Our object +justifies any impropriety of time and place." + +"You are right, Father. I drink to our object. Yes, I say, to our +object." + +In fact, the drinking preceded his speech, and his tongue already had a +loop in it The liquor stole through him, a mist of bewildering and +enchanting influence. The third cup broke his sentences into +unintelligible fragments; the fourth made his underjaw sag loosely, the +fifth and sixth, taken in close succession, tumbled him limp on the +floor, where he slept blissfully all night long, snugly covered with +some of Father Beret's bed clothes. + +"Per casum obliquum, et per indirectum," muttered the priest, when he +had returned the bottle and cup to their hiding-place." The end +justifies the means. Sleep well, my son. Ah, little Alice, little +Alice, your old Father will try--will try!" + +He fumbled along the wall in the dark until he found the rapier, which +he took down; then he went out and sat for some time motionless beside +the door, while the clouds thickened overhead. It was late when he +arose and glided away shadow-like toward the fort, over which the night +hung black, chill and drearily silent. The moon was still some hours +high, smothered by the clouds; a fog slowly drifted from the river. + +Meantime Hamilton and Helm had spent a part of the afternoon and +evening, as usual, at cards. Helm broke off the game and went to his +quarters rather early for him, leaving the Governor alone and in a bad +temper, because Farnsworth, when he had sent for him, could not be +found. Three times his orderly returned in as many hours with the same +report; the Captain had not been seen or heard of. Naturally this +sudden and complete disappearance, immediately after the reprimand, +suggested to Hamilton an unpleasant possibility. What if Farnsworth had +deserted him? Down deep in his heart he was conscious that the young +man had good cause for almost any desperate action. To lose Captain +Farnsworth, however, would be just now a calamity. The Indians were +drifting over rapidly to the side of the Americans, and every day +showed that the French could not long be kept quiet. + +Hamilton sat for some time after Helm's departure, thinking over what +he now feared was a foolish mistake. Presently he buckled on Alice's +rapier, which he had lately been wearing as his own, and went out into +the main area of the stockade. A sentinel was tramping to and fro at +the gate, where a hazy lantern shone. The night was breathless and +silent. Hamilton approached the soldier on duty and asked him if he had +seen Captain Farnsworth, and receiving a negative reply, turned about +puzzled and thoughtful to walk back and forth in the chill, foggy air. + +Presently a faint yellow light attracted his attention. It shone +through a porthole in an upper room of the block-house at the farther +angle of the stockade. In fact, Alice was reading by a sputtering lamp +a book Farnsworth had sent her, a volume of Ronsard that he had picked +up in Canada. Hamilton made his way in that direction, at first merely +curious to know who was burning oil so late; but after a few paces he +recognized where the light came from, and instantly suspected that +Captain Farnsworth was there. Indeed he felt sure of it. Somehow he +could not regard Alice as other than a saucy hoyden, incapable of +womanly virtue. His experience with the worst element of Canadian +French life and his peculiar cast of mind and character colored his +impression of her. He measured her by the women with whom the coureurs +de bois and half-breed trappers consorted in Detroit and at the posts +eastward to Quebec. + +Alice, unable to sleep, had sought forgetfulness of her bitter +captivity in the old poet's charming lyrics. She sat on the floor, some +blankets and furs drawn around her, the book on her lap, the stupidly +dull lamp hanging beside her on a part of the swivel. Her hair lay +loose over her neck and shoulders and shimmered around her face with a +cloud-like effect, giving to the features in their repose a setting +that intensified their sweetness and sadness. In a very low but +distinct voice was reading, with a slightly quavering emotion: + + "Mignonne, allons voir si la rose, + Que ce matin avoit desclose + Sa robe de pourpe au soleil." + +When Hamilton, after stealthily mounting the rough stairway which led +to her door, peeped in through a space between the slabs and felt a +stroke of disappointment, seeing at a glance that Farnsworth was not +there. He gazed for some time, not without a sense of villainy, while +she continued her sweetly monotonous reading. If his heart had been as +hard as the iron swivel-balls that lay beside Alice, he must still have +felt a thrill of something like tender sympathy. She now showed no +trace of the vivacious sauciness which had heretofore always marked her +features when she was in his presence. A dainty gentleness, touched +with melancholy, gave to her face an appealing look all the more +powerful on account of its unconscious simplicity of expression. + +The man felt an impulse pure and noble, which would have borne him back +down the ladder and away from the building, had not a stronger one set +boldly in the opposite direction. There was a short struggle with the +seared remnant of his better nature, and then he tried to open the +door; but it was locked. + +Alice heard the slight noise and breaking off her reading turned to +look. Hamilton made another effort to enter before he recollected that +the wooden key, or notched lever, that controlled the cumbrous wooden +lock, hung on a peg beside the door. He felt for it along the wall, and +soon laid his hand on it. Then again he peeped through to see Alice, +who was now standing upright near the swivel. She had thrown her hair +back from her face and neck; the lamp's flickering light seemed +suddenly to have magnified her stature and enhanced her beauty. Her +book lay on the tumbled wraps at her feet, and in either hand she +grasped a swivel-shot. + +Hamilton's combative disposition came to the aid of his baser passion +when he saw once more a defiant flash from his prisoner's face. It was +easy for him to be fascinated by opposition. Helm had profited by this +trait as much as others had suffered by it; but, in the case of Alice, +Hamilton's mingled resentment and admiration were but a powerful +irritant to the coarsest and most dangerous side of his nature. + +After some fumbling and delay he fitted the key with a steady hand and +moved the wooden bolt creaking and jolting from its slot. Then flinging +the clumsy door wide open, he stepped in. + +Alice started when she recognized the midnight intruder, and a second +deeper look into his countenance made her brave heart recoil, while +with a sinking sensation her breath almost stopped. It was but a +momentary weakness, however, followed by vigorous reaction. + +"What are you here for, sir?" she demanded. "What do you want?" + +"I am neither a burglar nor a murderer, Mademoiselle," he responded, +lifting his hat and bowing, with a smile not in the least reassuring. + +"You look like both. Stop where you are!" + +"Not so loud, my dear Miss Roussillon; I am not deaf. And besides the +garrison needs to sleep." + +"Stop, sir; not another step." + +She poised herself, leaning slightly backward, and held the iron ball +in her right hand ready to throw it at him. + +He halted, still smiling villainously. + +"Mademoiselle, I assure you that your excitement is quite unnecessary. +I am not here to harm you." + +"You cannot harm me, you cowardly wretch!" + +"Humph! Pride goes before a fall, wench," he retorted, taking a +half-step backward. Then a thought arose in his mind which added a new +shade to the repellent darkness of his countenance. + +"Miss Roussillon," he said in English and with a changed voice, which +seemed to grow harder, each word deliberately emphasized, "I have come +to break some bad news to you." + +"You would scarcely bring me good news, sir, and I am not curious to +hear the bad." + +He was silent for a little while, gazing at her with the sort of +admiration from which a true woman draws away appalled. He saw how she +loathed him, saw how impossible it was for him to get a line nearer to +her by any turn of force or fortune. Brave, high-headed, strong as a +young leopard, pure and sweet as a rose, she stood before him fearless, +even aggressive, showing him by every line of her face and form that +she felt her infinite superiority and meant to maintain it. Her whole +personal expression told him he was defeated; therefore he quickly +seized upon a suggestion caught from a transaction with Long-Hair, who +had returned a few hours before from his pursuit of Beverley. + +"It pains me, I assure you, Miss Roussillon, to tell you what will +probably grieve you deeply," he presently added; "but I have not been +unaware of your tender interest in Lieutenant Beverley, and when I had +bad news from him, I thought it my duty to inform you." + +He paused, feeling with a devil's satisfaction the point of his +statement go home to the girl's heart. + +The wind was beginning to blow outside, shaking open the dark clouds +and letting gleams of moonlight flicker on the thinning fog. A ghostly +ray came through a crack between the logs and lit Alice's face with a +pathetic wanness. She moved her lips as if speaking, but Hamilton heard +no sound. + +"The Indian, Long-Hair, whom I sent upon Lieutenant Beverley's trail, +reported to me this afternoon that his pursuit had been quite +successful. He caught his game." + +Alice's voice came to her now. She drew in a quivering breath of relief. + +"Then he is here--he is--you have him a prisoner again?" + +"A part of him, Miss Roussillon. Enough to be quite sure that there is +one traitor who will trouble his king no more. Mr. Long-Hair brought in +the Lieutenant's scalp." + +Alice received this horrible statement in silence; but her face +blanched and she stood as if frozen by the shock. The shifty +moon-glimmer and the yellow glow of the lamp showed Hamilton to what an +extent his devilish cruelty hurt her, and somehow it chilled him as if +by reflection; but he could not forego another thrust. + +"He deserved hanging, and would have got it had he been brought to me +alive. So after all, you should be satisfied. He escaped my vengeance +and Long-Hair got his pay. You see I am the chief sufferer." + +These words, however, fell without effect upon the girl's ears, in +which was booming the awful, storm-like roar of her excitement. She did +not see her persecutor standing there; her vision, unhindered by walls +and distance, went straight away to a place in the wilderness, where +all mangled and disfigured Beverley lay dead. A low cry broke from her +lips; she dropped the heavy swivel-balls; and then, like a bird, +swiftly, with a rustling swoop, she went past Hamilton and down the +stair. + +For perhaps a full minute the man stood there motionless, stupefied, +amazed; and when at length he recovered himself, it was with difficulty +that he followed her. Everything seemed to hinder him. When he reached +the open air, however, he quickly regained his activity of both mind +and body, and looked in all directions. The clouds were breaking into +parallel masses with streaks of sky between. The moon hanging aslant +against the blue peeped forth just in time to show him a flying figure +which, even while he looked, reached the postern, opened it and slipped +through. + +With but a breath of hesitation between giving the alarm and following +Alice silently and alone, he chose the latter. He was a swift runner +and light footed. With a few bounds he reached the little gate, which +was still oscillating on its hinges, darted through and away, straining +every muscle in desperate pursuit, gaining rapidly in the race, which +bore eastward along the course twice before chosen by Alice in leaving +the stockade. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +A MARCH THROUGH COLD WATER + + +On the fifth day of February, 1779, Colonel George Rogers Clark led an +army across the Kaskaskia River and camped. This was the first step in +his march towards the Wabash. An army! Do not smile. Fewer than two +hundred men, it is true, answered the roll-call, when Father Gibault +lifted the Cross and blessed them; but every name told off by the +company sergeants belonged to a hero, and every voice making response +struck a full note in the chorus of freedom's morning song. + +It was an army, small indeed, but yet an army; even though so rudely +equipped that, could we now see it before us, we might wonder of what +use it could possibly be in a military way. + +We should nevertheless hardly expect that a hundred and seventy of our +best men, even if furnished with the latest and most deadly engines of +destruction, could do what those pioneers cheerfully undertook and +gloriously accomplished in the savage wilderness which was to be the +great central area of the United States of America. + +We look back with a shiver of awe at the three hundred Spartans for +whom Simonides composed his matchless epitaph. They wrought and died +gloriously; that was Greek. The one hundred and seventy men, who, led +by the backwoodsman, Clark, made conquest of an empire's area for +freedom in the west, wrought and lived gloriously; that was American. +It is well to bear in mind this distinction by which our civilization +separates itself from that of old times. Our heroism has always been of +life--our heroes have conquered and lived to see the effect of +conquest. We have fought all sorts of wars and have never yet felt +defeat. Washington, Jackson, Taylor, Grant, all lived to enjoy, after +successful war, a triumphant peace. "These Americans," said a witty +Frenchman, "are either enormously lucky, or possessed of miraculous +vitality. You rarely kill them in battle, and if you wound them their +wounds are never mortal. Their history is but a chain of +impossibilities easily accomplished. Their undertakings have been +without preparation, their successes in the nature of stupendous +accidents." Such a statement may appear critically sound from a Gallic +point of view; but it leaves out the dominant element of American +character, namely, heroic efficiency. From the first we have had the +courage to undertake, the practical common sense which overcomes the +lack of technical training, and the vital force which never flags under +the stress of adversity. + +Clark knew, when he set out on his march to Vincennes, that he was not +indulging a visionary impulse. The enterprise was one that called for +all that manhood could endure, but not more. With the genius of a born +leader he measured his task by his means. He knew his own courage and +fortitude, and understood the best capacity of his men. He had genius; +that is, he possessed the secret of extracting from himself and from +his followers the last refinement of devotion to purpose. There was a +certainty, from first to last, that effort would not flag at any point +short of the top-most possible strain. + +The great star of America was no more than a nebulous splendor on the +horizon in 1779. It was a new world forming by the law of youth. The +men who bore the burdens of its exacting life were mostly stalwart +striplings who, before the down of adolescence fairly sprouted on their +chins, could swing the ax, drive a plow, close with a bear or kill an +Indian. Clark was not yet twenty-seven when he made his famous +campaign. A tall, brawny youth, whose frontier experience had enriched +a native character of the best quality, he marched on foot at the head +of his little column, and was first to test every opposing danger. Was +there a stream to wade or swim? Clark enthusiastically shouted, "Come +on!" and in he plunged. Was there a lack of food? "I'm not hungry," he +cried. "Help yourselves, men!" Had some poor soldier lost his blanket? +"Mine is in my way," said Clark. "Take it, I'm glad to get rid of it!" +His men loved him, and would die rather than fall short of his +expectations. + +The march before them lay over a magnificent plain, mostly prairie, +rich as the delta of the Nile, but extremely difficult to traverse. The +distance, as the route led, was about a hundred and seventy miles. On +account of an open and rainy winter all the basins and flat lands were +inundated, often presenting leagues of water ranging in depth from a +few inches to three of four feet. Cold winds blew, sometimes with spits +of snow and dashes of sleet, while thin ice formed on the ponds and +sluggish streams. By day progress meant wading ankle-deep, knee-deep, +breast-deep, with an occasional spurt of swimming. By night the brave +fellows had to sleep, if sleep they could, on the cold ground in soaked +clothing under water-heavy blankets. They flung the leagues behind +them, however, cheerfully stimulating one another by joke and +challenge, defying all the bitterness of weather, all the bitings of +hunger, all the toil, danger and deprivation of a trackless and +houseless wilderness, looking only eastward, following their youthful +and intrepid commander to one of the most valuable victories gained by +American soldiers during the War of the Revolution. + +Colonel Clark understood perfectly the strategic importance of +Vincennes as a post commanding the Wabash, and as a base of +communication with the many Indian tribes north of the Ohio and east of +the Mississippi. Francis Vigo (may his name never fade!) had brought +him a comprehensive and accurate report of Hamilton's strength and the +condition of the fort and garrison. This information confirmed his +belief that it would be possible not only to capture Vincennes, but +Detroit as well. + +Just seven days after the march began, the little army encamped for a +night's rest at the edge of a wood; and here, just after nightfall, +when the fires were burning merrily and the smell of broiling buffalo +steaks burdened the damp air, a wizzened old man suddenly appeared, how +or from where nobody had observed He was dirty and in every way +disreputable in appearance, looking like an animated mummy, bearing a +long rifle on his shoulder, and walking with the somewhat halting +activity of a very old, yet vivacious and energetic simian. Of course +it was Oncle Jason, "Oncle Jazon sui generis," as Father Beret had +dubbed him. + +"Well, here I am!" he cried, approaching the fire by which Colonel +Clark and some of his officers were cooking supper, "but ye can't guess +in a mile o' who I am to save yer livers and lights." + +He danced a few stiff steps, which made the water gush out of his +tattered moccasins, then doffed his nondescript cap and nodded his +scalpless head in salutation to the commander. + +Clark looked inquiringly at him, while the old fellow grimaced and +rubbed his shrunken chin. + +"I smelt yer fat a fryin' somepin like a mile away, an' it set my +in'ards to grumblin' for a snack; so I jes thought I'd drap in on ye +an' chaw wittles wi' ye." + +"Your looks are decidedly against you," remarked the Colonel with a dry +smile. He had recognized Oncle Jazon after a little sharp scrutiny. "I +suppose, however, that we can let you gnaw the bones after we've got +off the meat." + +"Thank 'ee, thank 'ee, plenty good. A feller 'at's as hongry as I am +kin go through a bone like a feesh through water." + +Clark laughed and said: + +"I don't see any teeth that you have worth mentioning, but your gums +may be unusually sharp." + +"Ya-a-s, 'bout as sharp as yer wit, Colonel Clark, an' sharper'n yer +eyes, a long shot. Ye don't know me, do ye? Take ernother squint at me, +an' see'f ye kin 'member a good lookin' man!" + +"You have somewhat the appearance of an old scamp by the name of Jazon +that formerly loafed around with a worthless gun on his shoulder, and +used to run from every Indian he saw down yonder in Kentucky." Clark +held out his hand and added cordially: + +"How are you, Jazon, my old friend, and where upon earth have you come +from?" + +Oncle Jazon pounced upon the hand and gripped it in his own knotted +fingers, gazing delightedly up into Clark's bronzed and laughing face. + +"Where'd I come frum? I come frum ever'wheres. Fust time I ever got +lost in all my born days. Fve been a trompin' 'round in the water seems +like a week, crazy as a pizened rat, not a knowin' north f'om south, +ner my big toe f'om a turnip! Who's got some tobacker?" + +Oncle Jazon's story, when presently he told it, interested Clark +deeply. In the first place he was glad to hear that Simon Kenton had +once more escaped from the Indians; and the news from Beverley, +although bad enough, left room for hope. Frontiersmen always regarded +the chances better than even, so long as there was life. Oncle Jazon, +furthermore, had much to tell about the situation at Vincennes, the +true feeling of the French inhabitants, the lukewarm friendship of the +larger part of the Indians for Hamilton, and, indeed, everything that +Clark wished to know regarding the possibilities of success in his +arduous undertaking. The old man's advent cheered the whole camp. He +soon found acquaintances and friends among the French volunteers from +Kaskaskia, with whom he exchanged creole gestures and chatter with a +vivacity apparently inexhaustible. He and Kenton had, with wise +judgement, separated on escaping from the Indian camp, Kenton striking +out for Kentucky, while Oncle Jazon went towards Kaskaskia. + +The information that Beverley would be shot as soon as he was returned +to Hamilton, caused Colonel Clark serious worry of mind. Not only the +fact that Beverley, who had been a charming friend and a most gallant +officer, was now in such imminent danger, but the impression (given by +Oncle Jazon's account) that he had broken his parole, was deeply +painful to the brave and scrupulously honorable commander. Still, +friendship rose above regret, and Clark resolved to push his little +column forward all the more rapidly, hoping to arrive in time to +prevent the impending execution. + +Next morning the march was resumed at the break of dawn; but a swollen +stream caused some hours of delay, during which Beverley himself +arrived from the rear, a haggard and weirdly unkempt apparition. He had +been for three days following hard on the army's track, which he came +to far westward. Oncle Jazon saw him first in the distance, and his old +but educated eyes made no mistake. + +"Yander's that youngster Beverley," he exclaimed. "Ef it ain't I'm a +squaw!" + +Nor did he parley further on the subject; but set off at a rickety trot +to meet and assist the fagged and excited young man. + +Clark had given Oncle Jazon his flask, which contained a few gills of +whisky. This was the first thing offered to Beverley; who wisely took +but a swallow. Oncle Jazon was so elated that he waved his cap on high, +and unconsciously falling into French, yelled in a piercing voice: + +"VIVE ZHORSH VASINTON! VIVE LA BANNIERE D'ALICE ROUSSILLON!" + +Seeing Beverley reminded him of Alice and the flag. As for Beverley, +the sentiment braced him, and the beloved name brimmed his heart with +sweetness. + +Clark went to meet them as they came in. He hugged the gaunt Lieutenant +with genuine fervor of joy, while Oncle Jazon ran around them making a +series of grotesque capers. The whole command, hearing Oncle Jazon's +patriotic words, set up a wild shouting on the spur of a general +impression that Beverley came as a messenger bearing glorious news from +Washington's army in the east. + +It was a great relief to Clark when he found out that his favorite +Lieutenant had not broken his parole; but had instead boldly +resurrendered himself, declaring the obligation no longer binding, and +notifying Hamilton of his intention to go away with the purpose of +returning and destroying him and his command. Clark laughed heartily +when this explanation brought out Beverley's tender interest in Alice; +but he sympathized cordially; for he himself knew what love is. + +Although Beverley was half starved and still suffering from the kicks +and blows given him by Long-Hair and his warriors, his exhausting run +on the trail of Clark aad his band had not worked him serious harm. All +of the officers and men did their utmost to serve him. He was feasted +without stint and furnished with everything that the scant supply of +clothing on the pack horses could afford for his comfort. He promptly +asked for an assignment to duty in his company and took his place with +such high enthusiasm that his companions regarded him with admiring +wonder. None of them save Clark and Oncle Jazon suspected that love for +a fair-haired girl yonder in Vincennes was the secret of his amazing +zeal and intrepidity. + +In one respect Clark's expedition was sadly lacking in its equipment +for the march. It had absolutely no means of transporting adequate +supplies. The pack-horses were not able to carry more than a little +extra ammunition, a few articles of clothing, some simple cooking +utensils and such tools as were needed in improvising rafts and canoes. +Consequently, although buffalo and deer were sometimes plentiful, they +furnished no lasting supply of meat, because it could not be +transported; and as the army neared Vincennes wild animals became +scarce, so that the men began to suffer from hunger when within but a +few days of their journey's end. + +Clark made almost superhuman efforts in urging forward his chilled, +water-soaked, foot-sore command; and when hunger added its torture to +the already disheartening conditions, his courage and energy seemed to +burn stronger and brighter. Beverley was always at his side ready to +undertake any task, accept any risk; his ardor made his face glow, and +he seemed to thrive upon hardships. The two men were a source of +inspiration--their followers could not flag and hesitate while under +the influence of their example. + +Toward the end of the long march a decided fall of temperature added +ice to the water through which our dauntless patriots waded and swam +for miles. The wind shifted northwesterly, taking on a searching chill. +Each gust, indeed, seemed to shoot wintry splinters into the very +marrow of the men's bones. The weaker ones began to show the approach +of utter exhaustion just at the time when a final spurt of unflinching +power was needed. True, they struggled heroically; but nature was +nearing the inexorable limit of endurance. Without food, which there +was no prospect of getting, collapse was sure to come. + +Standing nearly waist-deep in freezing water and looking out upon the +muddy, sea-like flood that stretched far away to the channel of the +Wabash and beyond, Clark turned to Beverley and said, speaking low, so +as not to be overheard by any other of his officers or men: + +"Is it possible, Lieutenant Beverley, that we are to fail, with +Vincennes almost in sight of us?" + +"No, sir, it is not possible," was the firm reply. "Nothing must, +nothing can stop us. Look at that brave child! He sets the heroic +example." + +Beverley pointed, as he spoke, at a boy but fourteen years old, who was +using his drum as a float to bear him up while he courageously swam +beside the men. + +Clark's clouded face cleared once more. "You are right," he said, "come +on! we must win or die." + +"Sergeant Dewit," he added, turning to an enormously tall and athletic +man near by, "take that little drummer and his drum on your shoulder +and lead the way. And, sergeant, make him pound that drum like the +devil beating tan-bark!" + +The huge man caught the spirit of his commander's order. In a twinkling +he had the boy astride of his neck with the kettle-drum resting on his +head, and then the rattling music began. Clark followed, pointing +onward with his sword. The half frozen and tottering soldiers sent up a +shout that went back to where Captain Bowman was bringing up the rear +under orders to shoot every man that straggled or shrank from duty. + +Now came a time when not a mouthful of food was left. A whole day they +floundered on, starving, growing fainter at every step, the temperature +falling, the ice thickening. They camped on high land; and next morning +they heard Hamilton's distant sunrise gun boom over the water. + +"One half-ration for the men," said Clark, looking disconsolately in +the direction whence the sound had come. "Just five mouthfuls apiece, +even, and I'll have Hamilton and his fort within forty-eight hours." + +"We will have the provisions, Colonel, or I will die trying to get +them," Beverley responded "Depend upon me." + +They had constructed some canoes in which to transport the weakest of +the men. + +"I will take a dugout and some picked fellows. We will pull to the wood +yonder, and there we shall find some kind of game which has been forced +to shelter from the high water." + +It was a cheerful view of a forlorn hope. Clark grasped the hand +extended by Beverley and they looked encouragement into each other's +eyes. + +Oncle Jazon volunteered to go in the pirogue. He was ready for +anything, everything. + +"I can't shoot wo'th a cent," he whined, as they took their places in +the cranky pirogue; "but I might jes' happen to kill a squir'l or a +elephant or somepin 'nother." + +"Very well," shouted Clark in a loud, cheerful voice, when they had +paddled away to a considerable distance, "bring the meat to the woods +on the hill yonder," pointing to a distant island-like ridge far beyond +the creeping flood. "We'll be there ready to eat it!" + +He said this for the ears of his men. They heard and answered with a +straggling but determined chorus of approval. They crossed the rolling +current of the Wabash by a tedious process of ferrying, and at last +found themselves once more wading in back-water up to their armpits, +breaking ice an inch thick as they went. It was the closing struggle to +reach the high wooded lands. Many of them fell exhausted; but their +stronger comrades lifted them, holding their heads above water, and +dragged them on. + +Clark, always leading, always inspiring, was first to set foot on dry +land. He shouted triumphantly, waved his sword, and then fell to +helping the men out of the freezing flood. This accomplished, he +ordered fires built; but there was not a soldier of them all whose +hands could clasp an ax-handle, so weak and numbed with cold were they. +He was not to be baffled, however. If fire could not be had, exercise +must serve its purpose. Hastily pouring some powder into his hand he +dampened it and blacked his face. "Victory, men, victory!" he shouted, +taking off his hat and beginning to leap and dance. "Come on! We'll +have a war dance and then a feast, as soon as the meat arrives that I +have sent for. Dance! you brave lads, dance! Victory! victory!" + +The strong men, understanding their Colonel's purpose, took hold of the +delicate ones; and the leaping, the capering, the tumult of voices and +the stamping of slushy moccasins with which they assaulted that stately +forest must have frightened every wild thing thereabout into a deadly +rigor, dark's irrepressible energy and optimism worked a veritable +charm upon his faithful but almost dying companions in arms. Their +trust in him made them feel sure that food would soon be forthcoming. +The thought afforded a stimulus more potent than wine; it drove them +into an ecstasy of frantic motion and shouting which soon warmed them +thoroughly. + +It is said that fortune favors the brave. The larger meaning of the +sentence may be given thus: God guards those who deserve His +protection. History tells us that just when Clark halted his command +almost in sight of Vincennes--just when hunger was about to prevent the +victory so close to his grasp--a party of his scouts brought in the +haunch of a buffalo captured from some Indians. The scouts were +Lieutenant Beverley and Oncle Jazon. And with the meat they brought +Indian kettles in which to cook it. + +With consummate forethought Clark arranged to prevent his men doing +themselves injury by bolting their food or eating it half-cooked. Broth +was first made and served hot; then small bits of well broiled steak +were doled out, until by degrees the fine effect of nourishment set in, +and all the command felt the fresh courage of healthy reaction. + +"I ain't no gin'ral, nor corp'ral, nor nothin'," remarked Oncle Jazon +to Colonel Clark, "but 'f I's you I'd h'ist up every dad dinged ole +flag in the rig'ment, w'en I got ready to show myself to 'em, an' I'd +make 'em think, over yander at the fort, 'at I had 'bout ninety +thousan' men. Hit'd skeer that sandy faced Gov'nor over there till he'd +think his back-bone was a comin' out'n 'im by the roots." + +Clark laughed, but his face showed that the old man's suggestion struck +him forcibly and seriously. + +"We'll see about that presently, Oncle Jazon. Wait till we reach the +hill yonder, from which the whole town can observe our manoeuvres, then +we'll try it, maybe." + +Once more the men were lined up, the roll-call gone through with +satisfactorily, and the question put: "Are we ready for another plunge +through the mud and water?" + +The answer came in the affirmative, with a unanimity not to be +mistaken. The weakest heart of them all beat to the time of the charge +step. Again Clark and Beverley clasped hands and took the lead. + +When they reached the next high ground they gazed in silence across a +slushy prairie plot to where, on a slight elevation, old Vincennes and +Fort Sackville lay in full view. + +Beverley stood apart. A rush of sensations affected him so that he +shook like one whose strength is gone. His vision was blurred. Fort and +town swimming in a mist were silent and still. Save the British flag +twinkling above Hamilton's headquarters, nothing indicated that the +place was not deserted. And Alice? With the sweet name's echo +Beverley's heart bounded high, then sank fluttering at the recollection +that she was either yonder at the mercy of Hamilton, or already the +victim of an unspeakable cruelty. Was it weakness for him to lift his +clasped hands heavenward and send up a voiceless prayer? + +While he stood thus Oncle Jazon came softly to his side and touched his +arm. Beverley started. + +"The nex' thing'll be to shoot the everlastin' gizzards outen 'em, +won't it?" the old man inquired. "I'm jes' a eetchin' to git a grip +onto that Gov'nor. Ef I don't scelp 'em I'm a squaw." + +Beverley drew a deep breath and came promptly back from his dream. It +was now Oncle Jazon's turn to assume a reflective, reminiscent mood. He +looked about him with an expression of vague half tenderness on his +shriveled features. + +"I's jes' a thinkin' how time do run past a feller," he presently +remarked. "Twenty-seven years ago I camped right here wi' my +wife--ninth one, ef I 'member correct--jes' fresh married to 'r; sort +o' honey-moon. 'Twus warm an' sunshiny an' nice. She wus a poorty +squaw, mighty poorty, an' I wus as happy as a tomtit on a sugar-trough. +We b'iled sap yander on them nobs under the maples. It wus glor'us. Had +some several wives 'fore an' lots of 'm sence; but she wus sweetes' of +'m all. Strange how a feller 'members sich things an' feels sort o' +lonesome like!" + +The old man's mouth drooped at the corners and he hitched up his +buckskin trousers with a ludicrous suggestion of pathos in every line +of his attitude. Unconsciously he sidled closer to Beverley, remotely +feeling that he was giving the young man very effective sympathy, well +knowing that Alice was the sweet burden of his thoughts. It was thus +Oncle Jazon honestly tried to fortify his friend against what probably +lay in store for him. + +But Beverley failed to catch the old man's crude comfort thus flung at +him. The analogy was not apparent. Oncle Jazon probably felt that his +kindness had been ineffectual, for he changed his tone and added: + +"But I s'pose a young feller like ye can't onderstan' w'at it is to +love a 'oman an' 'en hev 'er quit ye for 'nother feller, an' him a buck +Injin. Wall, wall, wall, that's the way it do go! Of all the livin' +things upon top o' this yere globe, the mos' onsartin', +crinkety-crankety an' slippery thing is a young 'oman 'at knows she's +poorty an' 'at every other man in the known world is blind stavin' +crazy in love wi' 'er, same as you are. She'll drop ye like a hot tater +'fore ye know it, an' 'en look at ye jes' pine blank like she never +knowed ye afore in her life. It's so, Lieutenant, shore's ye'r born. I +know, for I've tried the odd number of 'em, an' they're all jes' the +same." + +By this time Beverley's ears were deaf to Oncle Jazon's querulous, +whining voice, and his thoughts once more followed his wistful gaze +across the watery plain to where the low roofs of the creole town +appeared dimly wavering in the twilight of eventide, which was fast +fading into night. The scene seemed unsubstantial; he felt a strange +lethargy possessing his soul; he could not realize the situation. In +trying to imagine Alice, she eluded him, so that a sort of cloudy void +fell across his vision with the effect of baffling and benumbing it. He +made vain efforts to recall her voice, things that she had said to him, +her face, her smiles; all he could do was to evoke an elusive, +tantalizing, ghostly something which made him shiver inwardly with a +haunting fear that it meant the worst, whatever the worst might be. +Where was she? Could she be dead, and this the shadowy message of her +fate? + +Darkness fell, and a thin fog began to drift in wan streaks above the +water. Not a sound, save the suppressed stir of the camp, broke the +wide, dreary silence. Oncle Jazon babbled until satisfied that Beverley +was unappreciative, or at least unresponsive. + +"Got to hev some terbacker," he remarked, and shambled away in search +of it among his friends. + +A little later Clark approached hastily and said: + +"I have been looking for you. The march has begun. Bowman and +Charleville are moving; come, there's no time to lose." + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +A DUEL BY MOONLIGHT + + +When Hamilton, after running some distance, saw that he was gaining +upon Alice and would soon overtake her, it added fresh energy to his +limbs. He had quickly realized the foolishness of what he had done in +visiting the room of his prisoner at so late an hour in the night. What +would his officers and men think? To let Alice escape would be +extremely embarrassing, and to be seen chasing her would give good +ground for ridicule on the part of his entire command. Therefore his +first thought, after passing through the postern and realizing fully +what sort of predicament threatened him, was to recapture her and +return her to the prison room in the block-house without attracting +attention. This now promised to be an easier task than he had at first +feared; for in the moonlight, which on account of the dispersing +clouds, was fast growing stronger, he saw her seem to falter and +weaken. Certainly her flight was checked and took an eccentric turn, as +if some obstruction had barred her way. He rushed on, not seeing that, +as Alice swerved, a man intervened. Indeed he was within a few strides +of laying his hand on her when he saw her make the strange movement. It +was as if, springing suddenly aside, she had become two persons instead +of one. But instantly the figures coincided again, and in becoming +taller faced about and confronted him. + +Hamilton stopped short in his tracks. The dark figure was about five +paces from him. It was not Alice, and a sword flashed dimly but +unmistakably in a ray of the moon. The motion visible was that of an +expert swordsman placing himself firmly on his legs, with his weapon at +guard. + +Alice saw the man in her path just in time to avoid running against +him. Lightly as a flying bird, when it whisks itself in a short +semicircle past a tree or a bough, she sprang aside and swung around to +the rear of him, where she could continue her course toward the town. +But in passing she recognized him. It was Father Beret, and how grim he +looked! The discovery was made in the twinkling of an eye, and its +effect was instantaneous, not only checking the force of her flight, +but stopping her and turning her about to gaze before she had gone five +paces farther. + +Hamilton's nerve held, startled as he was, when he realized that an +armed man stood before him. Naturally he fell into the error of +thinking that he had been running after this fellow all the way from +the little gate, where, he supposed, Alice had somehow given him the +slip. It was a mere flash of brain-light, so to call it, struck out by +the surprise of this curious discovery. He felt his bellicose temper +leap up furiously at being balked in a way so unexpected and withal so +inexplicable. Of course he did not stand there reasoning it all out. +The rush of impressions came, and at the same time he acted with +promptness. Changing the rapier, which he held in his right hand, over +into his left, he drew a small pistol from the breast of his coat and +fired. The report was sharp and loud; but it caused no uneasiness or +inquiry in the fort, owing to the fact that Indians invariably emptied +their guns when coming into the town. + +Hamilton's aim, although hasty, was not bad. The bullet from his weapon +cut through Father Beret's clothes between his left arm and his body, +slightly creasing the flesh on a rib. Beyond him it struck heavily and +audibly. Alice fell limp and motionless to the soft wet ground, where +cold puddles of water were splintered over with ice. She lay pitifully +crumpled, one arm outstretched in the moonlight. Father Beret heard the +bullet hit her, and turned in time to see her stagger backward with a +hand convulsively pressed over her heart. Her face, slightly upturned +as she reeled, gave the moon a pallid target for its strengthening +rays. Sweet, beautiful, its rigid features flashed for a second and +then half turned away from the light and went down. + +Father Beret uttered a short, thin cry and moved as if to go to the +fallen girl, but just then he saw Hamilton's sword pass over again into +his right hand, and knew that there was no time for anything but death +or fight. The good priest did not shirk what might have made the +readiest of soldiers nervous. Hamilton was known to be a great +swordsman and proud of the distinction. Father Beret had seen him fence +with Farnsworth in remarkable form, touching him at will, and in +ministering to the men in the fort he had heard them talk of the +Governor's incomparable skill. + +A priest is, in perhaps all cases but the last out of a thousand, a man +of peace, not to be forced into a fight; but the exceptional one out of +the ten hundred it is well not to stir up if you are looking for an +easy victim. Hamilton was in the habit of considering every antagonist +immediately conquerable. His domineering spirit could not, when +opposed, reckon with any possibility of disaster. As he sprang toward +Father Beret there was a mutual recognition and, we speak guardedly, +something that sounded exactly like an exchange of furious execrations. +As for Father Beret's words, they may have been a mere priestly formula +of objurgation. + +The moon was accommodating. With a beautiful white splendor it entered +a space of cloudless sky, where it seemed to slip along the dusky blue +surface among the stars, far over in the west. + +"It's you, is it?" Hamilton exclaimed between teeth that almost crushed +one another. "You prowling hypocrite of hell!" + +Father Beret said something. It was not complimentary, and it sounded +sulphurous, if not profane. Remember, however, that a priest can +scarcely hope to be better than Peter, and Peter did actually make the +Simon pure remark when hard pressed. At all events Father Beret said +something with vigorous emphasis, and met Hamilton half way. + +Both men, stimulated to the finger-tips by a draught of imperious +passion, fairly plunged to the inevitable conflict. Ah, if Alice could +have seen her beautiful weapons cross, if she could have heard the +fine, far-reaching clink, clink, clink, while sparks leaped forth, +dazzling even in the moonlight; if she could have noted the admirable, +nay, the amazing, play, as the men, regaining coolness to some extent, +gathered their forces and fell cautiously to the deadly work, it would +have been enough to change the cold shimmer of her face to a flash of +warm delight. For she would have understood every feint, longe, parry, +and seen at a glance how Father Beret set the pace and led the race at +the beginning. She would have understood; for Father Beret had taught +her all she knew about the art of fencing. + +Hamilton quickly felt, and with a sense of its strangeness, the +priest's masterly command of his weapon. The surprise called up all his +caution and cleverness. Before he could adjust himself to such an +unexpected condition he came near being spitted outright by a pretty +pass under his guard. The narrow escape, while it put him on his best +mettle, sent a wave of superstition through his brain. He recalled what +Barlow had jocularly said about the doings of the devil-priest or +priest-devil at Roussillon place on that night when the patrol guard +attempted to take Gaspard Roussillon. Was this, indeed, Father Beret, +that gentle old man, now before him, or was it an avenging demon from +the shades? + +The thought flitted electrically across his mind, while he deftly +parried, feinted, longed, giving his dark antagonist all he could do to +meet the play. Priest or devil, he thought, he cared not which, he +would reach its vitals presently. Yet there lingered with him a +haunting half-fear, or tenuous awe, which may have aided, rather than +hindered his excellent swordsmanship. + +Under foot it was slushy with mud, water and ice, the consistency +varying from a somewhat solid crust to puddles that half inundated +Hamilton's boots and quite overflowed Father Beret's moccasins. An +execrable field for the little matter in hand. They gradually shifted +position. Now it was the Governor, then the priest, who had advantage +as to the light. For some time Father Beret seemed quite the shiftier +and surer fighter, but (was it his age telling on him?) he lost +perceptibly in suppleness. Still Hamilton failed to touch him. There +was a baffling something in the old man's escape now and again from +what ought to have been an inevitable stroke. Was it luck? It seemed to +Hamilton more than that--a sort of uncanny evasion. Or was it supreme +mastery, the last and subtlest reach of the fencer's craft? + +Youth forced age slowly backward in the struggle, which at times took +on spurts so furious that the slender blades, becoming mere glints of +acicular steel, split the moonlight back and forth, up and down, so +that their meetings, following one another in a well-nigh continuous +stroke, sent a jarring noise through the air. Father Beret lost inch by +inch, until the fighting was almost over the body of Alice; and now for +the first time Hamilton became aware of that motionless something with +the white, luminous face in profile against the ground; but he did not +let even that unsettle his fencing gaze, which followed the sunken and +dusky eyes of his adversary. A perspiration suddenly flooded his body, +however, and began to drip across his face. His arm was tiring. A doubt +crept like a chill into his heart. Then the priest appeared to add a +cubit to his stature and waver strangely in the soft light. Behind him, +low against the sky, a wide winged owl shot noiselessly across just +above the prairie. + +The soul of a true priest is double: it is the soul of a saint and the +soul of a worldly man. What is most beautiful in this duality is the +supreme courage with which the saintly spirit attacks the worldly and +so often heroically masters it. In the beginning of the fight Father +Beret let a passion of the earthly body take him by storm. It was well +for Governor Henry Hamilton that the priest was so wrought upon as to +unsettle his nerves, otherwise there would have been an evil heart +impaled midway of Father Beret's rapier. A little later the saintly +spirit began to assert itself, feebly indeed, but surely. Then it was +that Father Beret seemed to be losing agility for a while as he +backstepped away from Hamilton's increasing energy of assault. In his +heart the priest was saying: "I will not murder him. I must not do +that. He deserves death, but vengeance is not mine. I will disarm him." +Step by step he retreated, playing erratically to make an opening for a +trick he meant to use. + +It was singularly loose play, a sort of wavering, shifty, +incomprehensible show of carelessness, that caused Hamilton to +entertain a doubt, which was really a fear, as to what was going to +happen; for, notwithstanding all this neglect of due precaution on the +priest's part, to touch him seemed impossible, miraculously so, and +every plan of attack dissolved into futility in the most maddening way. + +"Priest, devil or ghost!" raged Hamilton, with a froth gathering around +his mouth; "I'll kill you, or--" + +He made a longe, when his adversary left an opening which appeared +absolutely beyond defence. It was a quick, dextrous, vicious thrust. +The blade leaped toward Father Beret's heart with a twinkle like +lightning. + +At that moment, although warily alert and hopeful that his opportunity +was at hand, Father Beret came near losing his life; for as he +side-stepped and easily parried Hamilton's thrust, which he had +invited, thinking to entangle his blade and disarm him, he caught his +foot in Alice's skirt and stumbled, nearly falling across her. It would +have been easy for Hamilton to run him through, had he instantly +followed up the advantage. But the moonlight on Alice's face struck his +eyes, and by that indirect ray of vision which is often strangely +effective, he recognized her lying there. It was a disconcerting thing +for him, but he rallied instantly and sprang aside, taking a new +position just in time to face Father Beret again. A chill crept up his +back. The horror which he could not shake off enraged him beyond +measure. Gathering fresh energy, he renewed the assault with desperate +steadiness the highest product of absolutely molten fury. + +Father Beret felt the dangerous access of power in his antagonist's +arm, and knew that a crisis had arrived. He could not be careless now. +Here was a swordsman of the best school calling upon him for all the +skill and strength and cunning that he could command. Again the saintly +element was near being thrown aside by the worldly in the old man's +breast. Alice lying there seemed mutely demanding that he avenge her. A +riotous something in his blood clamored for a quick and certain act in +this drama by moonlight--a tragic close by a stroke of terrible yet +perfectly fitting justice. + +There was but the space of a breath for the conflict in the priest's +heart, yet during that little time he reasoned the case and quoted +scripture to himself. + +"Domine, percutimus in gladio?" rang through his mind. "Lord, shall we +smite with the sword?" + +Hamilton seemed to make answer to this with a dazzling display of +skill. The rapiers sang a strange song above the sleeping girl, a +lullaby with coruscations of death in every keen note. + +Father Beret was thinking of Alice. His brain, playing double, +calculated with lightning swiftness the chances and movements of that +whirlwind rush of fight, while at the same time it swept through a +retrospect of all the years since Alice came into his life. How he had +watched her grow and bloom; how he had taught her, trained her mind and +soul and body to high things, loved her with a fatherly passion +unbounded, guarded her from the coarse and lawless influences of her +surroundings. Like the tolling of an infinitely melancholy bell, all +this went through his breast and brain, and, blending with a furious +current of whatever passions were deadly dangerous in his nature, swept +as a storm bearing its awful force into his sword-arm. + +The Englishman was a lion, the priest a gladiator. The stars aloft in +the vague, dark, yet splendid, amphitheater were the audience. It was a +question. Would the thumbs go down or up? Life and death held the +chances even; but it was at the will of Heaven, not of the stars. "Hoc +habet" must follow the stroke ordered from beyond the astral clusters +and the dusky blue. + +Hamilton pressed, nay rushed, the fight with a weight and at a pace +which could not last. But Father Beret withstood him so firmly that he +made no farther headway; he even lost some ground a moment later. + +"You damned Jesuit hypocrite!" he snarled; "you lowest of a vile +brotherhood of liars!" + +Then he rushed again, making a magnificent show of strength, quickness +and accuracy. The sparks hissed and crackled from the rasping and +ringing blades. + +Father Beret was, in truth, a Jesuit, and as such a zealot; but he was +not a liar or a hypocrite. Being human, he resented an insult. The +saintly spirit in him was strong, yet not strong enough to breast the +indignation which now dashed against it. For a moment it went down. + +"Liar and scoundrel yourself!" he retorted, hoarsely forcing the words +out of his throat. "Spawn of a beastly breed!" + +Hamilton saw and felt a change pass over the spirit of the old priest's +movements. Instantly the sword leaping against his own seemed endowed +with subtle cunning and malignant treachery. Before this it had been +difficult enough to meet the fine play and hold fairly even; now he was +startled and confused; but he rose to the emergency with admirable will +power and cleverness. + +"Murderer of a poor orphan girl!" Father Beret added with a hot +concentrated accent; "death is too good for you." + +Hamilton felt nearer his grave than ever before in all his wild +experience, for somehow doom, shadowy and formless, like the atmosphere +of an awful dream, enmisted those words; but he was no weakling to quit +at the height of desperate conflict. He was strong, expert, and game to +the middle of his heart. + +"I'll add a traitor Jesuit to my list of dead," he panted forth, rising +yet again to the extremest tension of his power. + +As he did this Father Beret settled himself as you have seen a mighty +horse do in the home stretch of a race. Both men knew that the moment +had arrived for the final act in their impromptu play. It was short, a +duel condensed and crowded into fifteen seconds of time, and it was +rapid beyond the power of words to describe. A bystander, had there +been one, could not have seen what was finally done or how it was done. +Father Beret's sword seemed to be revolving--it was a halo in front of +Hamilton for a mere point of time. The old priest seemed to crouch and +then make a quick motion as if about to leap backward. A wrench and a +snip, as of something violently jerked from a fastening, were followed +by a semicircular flight of Hamilton's rapier over Father Beret's head +to stick in the ground ten feet behind him. The duel was over, and the +whole terrible struggle had occupied less than three minutes. + +With his wrist strained and his fingers almost broken, Hamilton +stumbled forward and would have impaled himself had not Father Beret +turned the point of his weapon aside as he lowered it. + +"Surrender, or die!" + +That was a strange order for a priest to make, but there could be no +mistaking its authority or the power behind it. Hamilton regained his +footing and looked dazed, wheezing and puffing like a porpoise, but he +clearly understood what was demanded of him. + +"If you call out I'll run you through," Father Beret added, seeing him +move his lips as if to shout for help. + +The level rapier now reinforced the words. Hamilton let the breath go +noiselessly from his mouth and waved his hand in token of enforced +submission. + +"Well, what do you want me to do?" he demanded after a short pause. +"You seem to have me at your mercy. What are your terms?" + +Father Beret hesitated. It was a question difficult to answer. + +"Give me your word as a British officer that you will never again try +to harm any person, not an open, armed enemy, in this town." + +Hamilton's gorge rose perversely. He erected himself with lofty reserve +and folded his arms. The dignity of a Lieutenant Governor leaped into +him and took control. Father Beret correctly interpreted what he saw. + +"My people have borne much," he said, "and the killing of that poor +child there will be awfully avenged if I but say the word. Besides, I +can turn every Indian in this wilderness against you in a single day. +You are indeed at my mercy, and I will be merciful if you will satisfy +my demand." + +He was trembling with emotion while he spoke and the desire to kill the +man before him was making a frightful struggle with his priestly +conscience; but conscience had the upper hand. Hamilton stood gazing +fixedly, pale as a ghost, his thoughts becoming more and more clear and +logical. He was in a bad situation. Every word that Father Beret had +spoken was true and went home with force. There was no time for parley +or subterfuge; the sword looked as if, eager to find his heart, it +could not be held back another moment. But the wan, cold face of the +girl had more power than the rapier's hungry point. It made an abject +coward of him. + +"I am willing to give you my word," he presently said. "And let me tell +you," he went on more rapidly, "I did not shoot at her. She was behind +you." + +"Your word as a British officer?" + +Hamilton again stiffened and hesitated, but only for the briefest +space, then said: + +"Yes, my word as a British officer." + +Father Beret waved his hand with impatience. + +"Go, then, back to your place in the fort and disturb, my people no +more. The soul of this poor little girl will haunt you forever. Go!" + +Hamilton stood a little while gazing at the face of Alice with the +horrible wistfulness of remorse. What would he not have given to rub +his eyes and find it all a dream? + +He turned away; a cloud scudded across the moon; here and yonder in the +dim town cocks crowed with a lonesome, desultory effect. + +Father Beret plucked up the rapier that he had wrenched from Hamilton's +hand. It suggested something. + +"Hold!" he called out, "give me the scabbard of this sword." Hamilton, +who was striding vigorously in the direction of the fort, turned about +as the priest hastened to him. + +"Give me the scabbard of this rapier; I want it. Take it off." + +The command was not gently voiced. A hoarse, half-whisper winged every +word with an imperious threat. + +Hamilton obeyed. His hands were not firm; his fingers fumbled +nervously; but he hurried, and Father Beret soon had the rapier +sheathed and secured at his belt beside its mate. + +A good and true priest is a burden-bearer. His motto is: Alter alterius +onera portate; bear ye one another's burdens. His soul is enriched with +the cast-off sorrows of those whom he relieves. Father Beret scarcely +felt the weight of Alice's body when he lifted it from the ground, so +heavy was the pressure of his grief. All that her death meant, not only +to him, but to every person who knew her, came into his heart as the +place of refuge consecrated for the indwelling of pain. He lifted her +and bore her as far toward Roussillon place as he could; but his +strength fell short just in front of the little Bourcier cottage, and +half dead he staggered across the veranda to the door, where he sank +exhausted. + +After a breathing spell he knocked. The household, fast asleep, did not +hear; but he persisted until the door was opened to him and his burden. + +Captain Farnsworth unclosed his bloodshot eyes, at about eight o'clock +in the morning, quite confused as to his place and surroundings. He +looked about drowsily with a sheepish half-knowledge of having been +very drunk. A purring in his head and a dull ache reminded him of an +abused stomach. He yawned and stretched himself, then sat up, running a +hand through his tousled hair. Father Beret was on his knees before the +cross, still as a statue, his clasped hands extended upward. + +Farnsworth's face lighted with recognition, and he smiled rather +bitterly. He recalled everything and felt ashamed, humiliated, +self-debased. He had outraged even a priest's hospitality with his +brutish appetite, and he hated himself for it. Disgust nauseated his +soul apace with the physical sinking and squirming that grew upon him. + +"I'm a shabby, worthless dog!" he muttered, with petulant accent; "why +don't you kick me out, Father?" + +The priest turned a collapsed and bloodless gray face upon him, smiled +in a tired, perfunctory way, crossed himself absently and said: + +"You have rested well, my son. Hard as the bed is, you have done it a +compliment in the way of sleeping. You young soldiers understand how to +get the most out of things." + +"You are too generous, Father, and I can't appreciate it. I know what I +deserve, and you know it, too. Tell me what a brute and fool I am; it +will do me good. Punch me a solid jolt in the ribs, like the one you +gave me not long ago." + +"Qui sine peccato est, primus lapidem mittat" said the priest. "Let him +who is without sin cast the first stone." + +He had gone to the hearth and was taking from the embers an earthen +saucer, or shallow bowl, in which some fragrant broth simmered and +steamed. + +"A man who has slept as long as you have, my son, usually has a +somewhat delicate appetite. Now, here is a soup, not especially +satisfying to the taste of a gourmet like yourself, but possessing the +soothing quality that is good for one just aroused from an unusual nap. +I offer it, my son, propter stomachum tuum, et frequentes tuas +infirmitates (on account of thy stomach, and thine often infirmities). +This soup will go to the right spot." + +While speaking he brought the hot bowl to Farnsworth and set it on the +bedcover before him, then fetched a big horn spoon. + +The fragrance of pungent roots and herbs, blent with a savory waft of +buffalo meat, greeted the Captain's sense, and the anticipation itself +cheered his aching throat. It made him feel greedy and in a hurry. The +first spoonful, a trifle bitter, was not so pleasant at the beginning, +but a moment after he swallowed it a hot prickling set in and seemed to +dart through him from extremity to extremity. + +Slowly, as he ate, the taste grew more agreeable, and all the effects +of his debauch disappeared. It was like magic; his blood warmed and +glowed, as if touched with mysterious fire. + +"What is this in this soup, Father Beret, that makes it so searching +and refreshing?" he demanded, when the bowl was empty. + +Father Beret shook his head and smiled drolly. + +"That I cannot divulge, my son, owing to a promise I had to make to the +aged Indian who gave me the secret. It is the elixir of the Miamis. +Only their consecrated medicine men hold the recipe. The stimulation is +but temporary." + +Just then someone knocked on the door. Father Beret opened it to one of +Hamilton's aides. + +"Your pardon, Father, but hearing Captain Farnsworth's voice I made +bold to knock." + +"What is it, Bobby?" Farnsworth called out. + +"Nothing, only the Governor has been having you looked for in every +nook and corner of the fort and town. You'd better report at once, or +hell be having us drag the river for your body." + +"All right, Lieutenant, go back and keep mum, that's a dear boy, and +I'll shuffle into Colonel Hamilton's august presence before many +minutes." + +The aide laughed and went his way whistling a merry tune. + +"Now I am sure to get what I deserve, with usury at forty per cent in +advance," said Farnsworth dryly, shrugging his shoulders with +undissembled dread of Hamilton's wrath. But the anticipation was not +realized. The Governor received Farnsworth stiffly enough, yet in a way +that suggested a suppressed desire to avoid explanations on the +Captain's part and a reprimand on his own. In fact, Hamilton was hoping +that something would turn up to shield him from the effect of his +terrible midnight adventure, which seemed the darker the more he +thought of it. He had a slow, numb conscience, lying deep where it was +hard to reach, and when a qualm somehow entered it he endured in secret +what most men would have cast off or confessed. He was haunted, if not +with remorse, at least by a dread of something most disagreeable in +connection with what he had done. Alice's white face had impressed +itself indelibly on his memory, so that it met his inner vision at +every turn. He was afraid to converse with Farnsworth lest she should +come up for discussion; consequently their interview was curt and +formal. + +It was soon discovered that Alice had escaped from the stockade, and +some show of search was made for her by Hamilton's order, but +Farnsworth looked to it that the order was not carried out. He thought +he saw at once that his chief knew where she was. The mystery perplexed +and pained the young man, and caused him to fear all sorts of evil; but +there was a chance that Alice had found a safe retreat and he knew that +nothing but ill could befall her if she were discovered and brought +back to the fort. Therefore his search for her became his own secret +and for his own heart's ease. And doubtless he would have found her; +for even handicapped and distorted love like his is lynx-eyed and sure +on the track of its object; but a great event intervened and swept away +his opportunity. + +Hamilton's uneasiness, which was that of a strong, misguided nature +trying to justify itself amid a confusion of unmanageable doubts and +misgivings, now vented itself in a resumption of the repairs he had +been making at certain points in the fort. These he completed just in +time for the coming of Clark. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +THE ATTACK + + +It has already been mentioned that Indians, arriving singly or in +squads, to report at Hamilton's headquarters, were in the habit of +firing their guns before entering the town or the fort, not only as a +signal of their approach, but in order to rid their weapons of their +charges preliminary to cleaning them before setting out upon another +scalp-hunting expedition. A shot, therefore, or even a volley, heard on +the outskirts of the village, was not a noticeable incident in the +daily and nightly experience of the garrison. Still, for some reason, +Governor Hamilton started violently when, just after nightfall, five or +six rifles cracked sharply a short distance from the stockade. + +He and Helm with two other officers were in the midst of a game of +cards, while a kettle, swinging on a crane in the ample fire-place, +sang a shrill promise of hot apple-jack toddy. + +"By Jove!" exclaimed Farnsworth, who, although not in the game, was +amusing himself with looking on; "you jump like a fine lady! I almost +fancied I heard a bullet hit you." + +"You may all jump while you can," remarked Helm. "That's Clark, and +your time's short--He'll have this fort tumbling on your heads before +daylight of to-morrow morning comes." + +As he spoke he arose from his seat at the card table and went to look +after the toddy, which, as an expert, he had under supervision. + +Hamilton frowned. The mention of Clark was disturbing. Ever since the +strange disappearance of Lieutenant Barlow he had nursed the fear that +possibly Clark's scouts had captured him and that the American forces +might be much nearer than Kaskaskia. Besides, his nerves were unruly, +as they had been ever since the encounter with Father Beret; and his +vision persisted in turning back upon the accusing cold face of Alice, +lying in the moonlight. One little detail of that scene almost maddened +him at times; it was a sheeny, crinkled wisp of warm looking hair +looped across the cheek in which he had often seen a saucy dimple dance +when Alice spoke or smiled. He was bad enough, but not wholly bad, and +the thought of having darkened those merry eyes and stilled those sweet +dimples tore through him with a cold, rasping pang. + +"Just as soon as this toddy is properly mixed and tempered," said Helm, +with a magnetic jocosity beaming from his genial face, "I'm going to +propose a toast to the banner of Alice Roussillon, which a whole +garrison of British braves has been unable to take!" + +"If you do I'll blow a hole through you as big as the south door of +hell," said Hamilton, in a voice fairly shaken to a husky quaver with +rage. "You may do a great many insulting things; but not that." + +Helm was in a half stooping attitude with a ladle in one hand, a cup in +the other. He had met Hamilton's glowering look with a peculiarly +innocent smile, as if to say: "What in the world is the matter now? I +never felt in a better humor in all my life. Can't you take a joke, I +wonder?" He did not speak, however, for a rattling volley of musket and +rifle shots hit the top of the clay-daubed chimney, sending down into +the toddy a shower of soot and dirt. + +In a wink every man was on his feet and staring. + +"Gentlemen," said Helm, with an impressive oath, "that is Clark's +soldiers, and they will take your fort; but they ought not to have +spoiled this apple toddy!" + +"Oh, the devil!" said Hamilton, forcibly resuming a calm countenance, +"it is only a squad of drunken Indians coming in. We'll forego +excitement; there's no battle on hand, gentlemen." + +"I'm glad you think so, Governor Hamilton," Helm responded, "but I +should imagine that I ought to know the crack of a Kentucky rifle. I've +heard one occasionally in my life. Besides, I got a whiff of freedom +just now." + +"Captain Helm is right," observed Farnsworth. "That is an attack." + +Another volley, this time nearer and more concentrated, convinced +Hamilton that he was, indeed, at the opening of a fight. Even while he +was giving some hurried orders to his officers, a man was wounded at +one of the port-holes. Then came a series of yells, answered by a +ripple of sympathetic French shouting that ran throughout the town. The +patrol guards came straggling in, breathless with excitement. They +swore to having seen a thousand men marching across the water-covered +meadows. + +Hamilton was brave. The approach of danger stirred him like a +trumpet-strain. His fighting blood rose to full tide, and he gave his +orders with the steadiness and commanding force of a born soldier. The +officers hastened to their respective positions. On all sides sounds +indicative of rapid preparations for the fight mingled into a confused +strain of military energy. Men marched to their places; cannon were +wheeled into position, and soon enough the firing began in good earnest. + +Late in the afternoon a rumor of Clark's approach had gone abroad +through the village; but not a French lip breathed it to a friend of +the British. The creoles were loyal to the cause of freedom; moreover, +they cordially hated Hamilton, and their hearts beat high at the +prospect of a change in masters at the fort. Every cabin had its hidden +gun and supply of ammunition, despite the order to disarm issued by +Hamilton. There was a hustling to bring these forth, which was +accompanied with a guarded yet irrepressible chattering, delightfully +French and infinitely volatile. + +"Tiens! je vais frotter mon fusil. J'ai vu un singe!" said Jaques +Bourcier to his daughter, the pretty Adrienne, who was coming out of +the room in which Alice lay. + +"I saw a monkey just now; I must rub up my gun!" He could not be +solemn; not he. The thought of an opportunity to get even with Hamilton +was like wine in his blood. + +If you had seen those hardy and sinewy Frenchmen gliding in the dusk of +evening from cottage to cottage, passing the word that the Americans +had arrived, saying airy things and pinching one another as they met +and hurried on, you would have thought something very amusing and +wholly jocund was in preparation for the people of Vincennes. + +There was a current belief in the town that Gaspard Roussillon never +missed a good thing and always somehow got the lion's share. He went +out with the ebb to return on the flood. Nobody was surprised, +therefore, when he suddenly appeared in the midst of his friends, armed +to the teeth and emotionally warlike to suit the occasion. Of course he +took charge of everybody and everything. You could have heard him +whisper a bowshot away. + +"Taisons!" he hissed, whenever he met an acquaintance. "We will +surprise the fort and scalp the whole garrison. Aux armes! les +Americains viennent d'arriver!" + +At his own house he knocked and called in vain. He shook the door +violently; for he was thinking of the stores under the floor, of the +grimy bottles, of the fragrant Bordeaux--ah, his throat, how it +throbbed! But where was Madame Roussillon? Where was Alice? "Jean! +Jean!" he cried, forgetting all precaution, "come here, you scamp, and +let me in this minute!" + +A profoundly impressive silence gave him to understand that his home +was deserted. + +"Chiff! frightened and gone to stay with Madame Godere, I suppose--and +I so thirsty! Bah! hum, hum, apres le vin la bataille, ziff!" + +He kicked in the door and groped his way to the liquors. While he +hastily swigged and smacked he heard the firing begin with a crackling, +desultory volley. He laughed jovially, there in the dark, between +draughts and deep sighs of enjoyment. + +"Et moi aussi," he murmured, like the vast murmur of the sea, "I want +to be in that dance! Pardonnez, messieurs. Moi, je veux danser, s'il +vous plait." + +And when he had filled himself he plunged out and rushed away, wrought +up to the extreme fighting pitch of temper. Diable! if he could but +come across that Lieutenant Barlow, how he would smash him and mangle +him! In magnifying his prowess with the lens of imagination he swelled +and puffed as he lumbered along. + +The firing sounded as if it were between the fort and the river; but +presently when one of Hamilton's cannon spoke, M. Roussillon saw the +yellow spike of flame from its muzzle leap directly toward the church, +and he thought it best to make a wide detour to avoid going between the +firing lines. Once or twice he heard the whine of a stray bullet high +overhead. Before he had gone very far he met a man hurrying toward the +fort. It was Captain Francis Maisonville, one of Hamilton's chief +scouts, who had been out on a reconnoissance and, cut off from his +party by some of Clark's forces, was trying to make his way to the main +gate of the stockade. + +M. Roussillon knew Maisonville as a somewhat desperate character, a +leader of Indian forays and a trader in human scalps. Surely the fellow +was legitimate prey. + +"Ziff! diable de gredin!" he snarled, and leaping upon him choked him +to the ground, "Je vais vous scalper immediatement!" + +Clark's plan of approach showed masterly strategy. Lieutenant Bailey, +with fourteen regulars, made a show of attack on the east, while Major +Bowman led a company through the town, on a line near where Main street +in Vincennes is now located, to a point north of the stockade. +Charleville, a brave creole, who was at the head of some daring +fellows, by a brilliant dash got position under cover of a natural +terrace at the edge of the prairie, opposite the fort's southwestern +angle. Lieutenant Beverley, in whom the commander placed highest +confidence, was sent to look for a supply of ammunition, and to gather +up all the Frenchmen in the town who wished to join in the attack. +Oncle Jazon and ten other available men went with him. + +They all made a great noise when they felt that the place was +completely invested. Nor can we deny, much as we would like to, the +strong desire for vengeance which raised those shouting voices and +nerved those steady hearts to do or die in an undertaking which +certainly had a desperate look. Patriotism of the purest strain those +men had, and that alone would have borne them up; but the recollection +of smouldering cabin homes in Kentucky, of women and children murdered +and scalped, of men brave and true burned at the stake, and of all the +indescribable outrages of Indian warfare incited and rewarded by the +commander of the fort yonder, added to patriotism the terrible urge of +that dark passion which clamors for blood to quench the fire of wrath. +Not a few of those wet, half-frozen, emaciated soldiers of freedom had +experienced the soul rending shock of returning from a day's hunting in +the forest to find home in ashes and loved ones brutally murdered and +scalped, or dragged away to unspeakable outrage under circumstances too +harrowing for description, the bare thought of which turns our blood +cold, even at this distance. Now the opportunity had arrived for a +stroke of retaliation. The thought was tremendously stimulating. + +Beverley, with the aid of Oncle Jazon, was able to lead his little +company as far as the church before the enemy saw him. Here a volley +from the nearest angle of the stockade had to be answered, and pretty +soon a cannon began to play upon the position. + +"We kin do better some'rs else," was Oncle Jazon's laconic remark flung +back over his shoulder, as he moved briskly away from the spot just +swept by a six-pounder. "Come this yer way, Lieutenant. I hyer some o' +the fellers a talkin' loud jes' beyant Legrace's place. They ain't no +sort o' sense a tryin' to hit anything a shootin' in the dark nohow." + +When they reached the thick of the town there was a strange stir in the +dusky streets. Men were slipping from house to house, arming themselves +and joining their neighbors. Clark had sent an order earlier in the +evening forbidding any street demonstration by the inhabitants; but he +might as well have ordered the wind not to blow or the river to stand +still. Oncle Jazon knew every man whose outlines he could see or whose +voice he heard. He called each one by name: + +"Here, Roger, fall in!--Come Louis, Alphonse, Victor, Octave--venez +ici, here's the American army, come with me!" His rapid French phrases +leaped forth as if shot from a pistol, and his shrill voice, familiar +to every ear in Vincennes, drew the creole militiamen to him, and soon +Beverley's company had doubled its numbers, while at the same time its +enthusiasm and ability to make a noise had increased in a far greater +proportion. In accordance with an order from Clark they now took +position near the northeast corner of the stockade and began firing, +although in the darkness there was but little opportunity for +marksmanship. + +Oncle Jazon had found citizens Legrace and Bosseron, and through them +Clark's men were supplied with ammunition, of which they stood greatly +in need, their powder having got wet during their long, watery march. +By nine o'clock the fort was completely surrounded, and from every +direction the riflemen and musketeers were pouring in volley after +volley. Beverley with his men took the cover of a fence and some houses +sixty yards from the stockade. Here to their surprise they found +themselves below the line of Hamilton's cannon, which, being planted on +the second floor of the fort, could not be sufficiently depressed to +bear upon them. A well directed musket fire, however, fell from the +loopholes of the blockhouses, the bullets rattling merrily against the +cover behind which the attacking forces lay. + +Beverley was thinking of Alice during every moment of all this stir and +tumult He feared that she might still be a prisoner in the fort exposed +to the very bullets that his men were discharging at every crack and +cranny of those loosely constructed buildings. Should he ever see her +again? Would she care for him? What would be the end of all this +terrible suspense? Those remote forebodings of evils, formless, +shadowy, ineffable, which have harried the lover's heart since time +began, crowded all pleasant anticipations out of his mind. + +Clark, in passing hurriedly from company to company around the line, +stopped for a little while when he found Beverley. + +"Have you plenty of ammunition?" was his first inquiry. + +"A mighty sight more'n we kin see to shoot with," spoke up Oncle Jazon. +"It's a right smart o' dad burn foolishness to be wastin' it on +nothin'; seems like to me 'at we'd better set the dasted fort afire an' +smoke the skunks out!" + +"Speak when you are spoken to, my man," said the Colonel a trifle +hotly, and trying by a sharp scrutiny to make him out in the gloom +where he crouched. + +"Ventrebleu! I'm not askin' YOU, Colonel Clark, nor no other man, when +I shill speak. I talks whenever I gits ready, an' I shoots jes' the +same way. So ye'd better go on 'bout yer business like a white man! +Close up yer own whopper jawed mouth, ef ye want anything shet up!" + +"Oho! is that you, Jazon? You're so little I didn't know you! +Certainly, talk your whole damned under jaw off, for all I care," Clark +replied, assuming a jocose tone. Then turning again to Beverley: "Keep +up the firing and the noise; the fort will be ours in the morning." + +"What's the use of waiting till morning?" Beverley demanded with +impatience. "We can tear that stockade to pieces with our hands in half +an hour." + +"I don't think so, Lieutenant. It is better to play for the sure thing. +Keep up the racket, and be ready for 'em if they rush out. We must not +fail to capture the hair-buyer General." + +He passed on, with something cheerful to say whenever he found a squad +of his devoted men. He knew how to humor and manage those independent +and undisciplined yet heroically brave fellows. What to see and hear, +what to turn aside as a joke, what to insist upon with inflexible +mastery, he knew by the fine instantaneous sense of genius. There were +many men of Oncle Jazon's cast, true as steel, but refractory as flint, +who could not be dominated by any person, no matter of what stamp or +office. To them an order was an insult; but a suggestion pleased and +captured them. Strange as it may seem, theirs was the conquering spirit +of America--the spirit which has survived every turn of progress and +built up the great body of our independence. + +Beverley submitted to Clark's plan with what patience he could, and all +night long fired shot for shot with the best riflemen in his squad. It +was a fatiguing performance, with apparently little result beyond +forcing the garrison now and again to close the embrasures, thus +periodically silencing the cannon. Toward the close of the night a +relaxation showed itself in the shouting and firing all round the line. +Beverley's men, especially the creoles, held out bravely in the matter +of noise; but even they flagged at length, their volatility simmering +down to desultory bubbling and half sleepy chattering and chaffing. + +Beverley leaned upon a rude fence, and for a time neglected to reload +his hot rifle. Of course he was thinking of Alice,--he really could not +think in any other direction; but it gave him a shock and a start when +he presently heard her name mentioned by a little Frenchman near him on +the left. + +"There'll never be another such a girl in Post Vincennes as Alice +Roussillon," the fellow said in the soft creole patois, "and to think +of her being shot like a dog!" + +"And by a man who calls himself a Governor, too!" said another. "Ah, as +for myself, I'm in favor of burning him alive when we capture him. +That's me!" + +"Et moi aussi," chimed in a third voice. "That poor girl must be +avenged. The man who shot her must die. Holy Virgin, but if Gaspard +Roussillon were only here!" + +"But he is here; I saw him just after dark. He was in great fighting +temper, that terrible man. Ouf! but I should not like to be Colonel +Hamilton and fall in the way of that Gaspard Roussillon!" + +"Morbleu! I should say not. You may leave me out of a chance like that! +I shouldn't mind seeing Gaspard handle the Governor, though. Ah, that +would be too good! He'd pay him up for shooting Mademoiselle Alice." + +Beverley could scarcely hold himself erect by the fence; the smoky, +foggy landscape swam round him heavy and strange. He uttered a groan, +which brought Oncle Jazon to his side in a hurry. + +"Qu' avez-vous? What's the matter?" the old man demanded with quick +sympathy. "Hev they hit ye? Lieutenant, air ye hurt much?" + +Beverley did not hear the old man's words, did not feel his kindly +touch. + +"Alice! Alice!" he murmured, "dead, dead!" + +"Ya-as," drawled Oncle Jazon, "I hearn about it soon as I got inter +town. It's a sorry thing, a mighty sorry thing. But mebby I won't do a +little somepin' to that--" + +Beverley straightened himself and lifted his gun, forgetting that he +had not reloaded it since firing last. He leveled it at the fort and +touched the trigger. Simultaneously with his movement an embrasure +opened and a cannon flashed, its roar flanked on either side by a +crackling of British muskets. Some bullets struck the fence and flung +splinters into Oncle Jazon's face. A cannon ball knocked a ridge pole +from the roof of a house hard by, and sent it whirling through the air. + +"Ventrebleu!--et apres? What the devil next? Better knock a feller's +eyes out!" the old man cried. "I ain't a doin' nothin' to ye!" + +He capered around rubbing his leathery face after the manner of a +scalded monkey. Beverley was struck in the breast by a flattened and +spent ball that glanced from a fence-picket. The shock caused him to +stagger and drop his gun; but he quickly picked it up and turned to his +companion. + +"Are you hurt, Oncle Jazon?" he inquired. "Are you hurt?" + +"Not a bit--jes' skeert mos' into a duck fit. Thought a cannon ball had +knocked my whole dang face down my throat! Nothin' but a handful o' +splinters in my poorty count'nance, makin' my head feel like a +porc'-pine. But I sort o' thought I heard somepin' give you a diff." + +"Something did hit me," said Beverley, laying a hand on his breast, +"but I don't think it was a bullet. They seem to be getting our range +at last. Tell the men to keep well under cover. They must not expose +themselves until we are ready to charge." + +The shock had brought him back to his duty as a leader of his little +company, and with the funeral bell of all his life's happiness tolling +in his agonized heart he turned afresh to directing the fire upon the +block-house. + +About this time a runner came from Clark with an order to cease firing +and let a returning party of British scouts under Captain Lamothe +re-enter the fort unharmed. A strange order it seemed to both officers +and men; but it was implicitly obeyed. Clark's genius here made another +fine strategic flash. He knew that unless he let the scouts go back +into the stockade they would escape by running away, and might possibly +organize an army of Indians with which to succor Hamilton. But if they +were permitted to go inside they could be captured with the rest of the +garrison; hence his order. + +A few minutes passed in dead silence; then Captain Lamothe and his +party marched close by where Beverley's squad was lying concealed. It +was a difficult task to restrain the creoles, for some of them hated +Lamothe. Oncle Jazon squirmed like a snake while they filed past all +unaware that an enemy lurked so near. When they reached the fort, +ladders were put down for them and they began to clamber over the wall, +crowding and pushing one another in wild haste. Oncle Jazon could hold +in no longer. + +"Ya! ya! ya!" he yelled. "Look out! the ladder is a fallin' wi' ye!" + +Then all the lurking crowd shouted as one man, and, sure enough, down +came a ladder--men and all in a crashing heap. + +"Silence! silence!" Beverley commanded; but he could not check the wild +jeering and laughing, while the bruised and frightened scouts hastily +erected their ladder again, fairly tumbling over one another in their +haste to ascend, and so cleared the wall, falling into the stockade to +join the garrison. + +"Ventrebleu!" shrieked Oncle Jazon. "They've gone to bed; but we'll +wake 'em up at the crack o' day an' give 'em a breakfas' o' hot lead!" + +Now the fighting was resumed with redoubled spirit and noise, and when +morning came, affording sufficient light to bring out the "bead sights" +on the Kentucky rifles, the matchless marksmen in Clark's band forced +the British to close the embrasures and entirely cease trying to use +their cannon; but the fight with small arms went merrily on until the +middle of the forenoon. + +Meantime Gaspard Roussillon had tied Francis Maisonville's hands fast +and hard with the strap of his bullet-pouch. + +"Now, I'll scalp you," he said in a rumbling tone, terrible to hear. +And with his words out came his hunting knife from its sheath. + +"O have mercy, my dear Monsieur Roussillon!" cried the panting captive; +"have mercy!" + +"Mercy! yes, like your Colonel's, that's what you'll get. You stand by +that forban, that scelerat, that bandit, and help him. Oh, yes, you'll +get mercy! Yes, the same mercy that he showed to my poor little Alice! +Your scalp, Monsieur, if you please! A small matter; it won't hurt +much!" + +"But, for the sake of old friendship, Gaspard, for the sake--" + +"Ziff! poor little Alice!" + +"But I swear to you that I--" + +"Tout de meme, Monsieur, je vais vous scalper maintenant." + +In fact he had taken off a part of Maisonville's scalp, when a party of +soldiers, among whom was Maisonville's brother, a brave fellow and +loyal to the American cause, were attracted by his cries and came to +his rescue. + +M. Roussillon struggled savagely, insisting upon completing his cruel +performance; but he was at last overpowered, partly by brute force and +partly by the pleading of Maisonville's brother, and made to desist. +The big man wept with rage when he saw the bleeding prisoner protected. +"Eh bien! I'll keep what I've got," he roared, "and I'll take the rest +of it next time." + +He shook the tuft of hair at Maisonville and glared like a mad bull. + +Two or three other members of Lamothe's band were captured about the +same time by some of the French militiamen; and Clark, when on his +round cheering and directing his forces, discovered that these +prisoners were being used as shields. Some young creoles, gay with +drink and the stimulating effect of fight, had bound the poor fellows +and were firing from behind them! Of course the commander promptly put +an end to this cruelty; but they considered it exquisite fun while it +lasted. It was in broad daylight, and they knew that the English in the +fort could see what they were doing. + +"It's shameful to treat prisoners in this way," said Clark. "I will not +permit it. Shoot the next man that offers to do such a thing!" + +One of the creole youths, a handsome, swarthy Adonis in buckskin, +tossed his shapely head with a debonair smile and said: + +"To be sure, mon Colonel! but what have they been doing to us? We have +amused them all winter; it's but fair that they should give us a little +fun now." + +Clark shrugged his broad shoulders and passed on. He understood +perfectly what the people of Vincennes had suffered under Hamilton's +brutal administration. + +At nine o'clock an order was passed to cease firing, and a flag of +truce was seen going from Clark's headquarters to the fort. It was a +peremptory demand for unconditional surrender. Hamilton refused, and +fighting was fiercely resumed from behind rude breastworks meantime +erected. Every loop-hole and opening of whatever sort was the focus +into which the unerring backwoods rifles sent their deadly bullets. Men +began to fall in the fort, and every moment Hamilton expected an +assault in force on all sides of the stockade. This, if successful, +would mean inevitable massacre. Clark had warned him of the terrible +consequences of holding out until the worst should come. "For," said he +in his note to the Governor, "if I am obliged to storm, you may depend +upon such treatment as is justly due to a murderer." + +Historians have wondered why Hamilton became so excited and acted so +strangely after receiving the note. The phrase, "justly due to a +murderer," is the key to the mystery. When he read it his heart sank +and a terrible fear seized him. "Justly due to a murderer!" ah, that +calm, white, beautiful girlish face, dead in the moonlight, with the +wisp of shining hair across it! "Such treatment as is justly due to a +murderer!" Cold drops of sweat broke out on his forehead and a shiver +went through his body. + +During the truce Clark's weary yet still enthusiastic besiegers enjoyed +a good breakfast prepared for them by the loyal dames of Vincennes. +Little Adrienne Bourcier was one of the handmaidens of the occasion. +She brought to Beverley's squad a basket, almost as large as herself, +heaped high with roasted duck and warm wheaten bread, while another +girl bore two huge jugs of coffee, fragrant and steaming hot. The men +cheered them lustily and complimented them without reserve, so that +before their service was over their faces were glowing with delight. + +And yet Adrienne's heart was uneasy, and full of longing to hear +something of Rene de Ronville. Surely some one of her friends must know +something about him. Ah, there was Oncle Jazon! Doubtless he could tell +her all that she wanted to know. She lingered, after the food was +distributed, and shyly inquired. + +"Hain't seed the scamp," said Oncle Jazon, only he used the patois most +familiar to the girl's ear. "Killed an' scelped long ago, I reckon." + +His mouth was so full that he spoke mumblingly and with utmost +difficulty. Nor did he glance at Adrienne, whose face took on as great +pallor as her brown complexion could show. + +Beverley ate but little of the food. He sat apart on a piece of timber +that projected from the rough breastwork and gave himself over to +infinite misery of spirit, which was trebled when he took Alice's +locket from his bosom, only to discover that the bullet which struck +him had almost entirely destroyed the face of the miniature. + +He gripped the dinted and twisted case and gazed at it with the stare +of a blind man. His heart almost ceased to beat and his breath had the +rustling sound we hear when a strong man dies of a sudden wound. +Somehow the defacement of the portrait was taken by his soul as the +final touch of fate, signifying that Alice was forever and completely +obliterated from his life. He felt a blur pass over his mind. He tried +in vain to recall the face and form so dear to him; he tried to imagine +her voice; but the whole universe was a vast hollow silence. For a long +while he was cold, staring, rigid; then the inevitable collapse came, +and he wept as only a strong man can who is hurt to death, yet cannot +die. + +Adrienne approached him, thinking to speak to him about Rene; but he +did not notice her, and she went her way, leaving beside him a liberal +supply of food. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +ALICE'S FLAG + + +Governor Hamilton received the note sent him by Colonel Clark and +replied to it with curt dignity; but his heart was quaking. As a +soldier he was true to the military tradition, and nothing could have +induced him to surrender his command with dishonor. + +"Lieutenant-Governor Hamilton," he wrote to Clark, "begs leave to +acquaint Colonel Clark that he and his garrison are not disposed to be +awed into any action unworthy of British subjects." + +"Very brave words," said Helm, when Hamilton read the note to him, "but +you'll sing a milder tune before many minutes, or you and your whole +garrison will perish in a bloody heap. Listen to those wild yells! +Clark has enough men to eat you all up for breakfast. You'd better be +reasonable and prudent. It's not bravery to court massacre." + +Hamilton turned away without a word and sent the message; but Helm saw +that he was excited, and could be still further wrought up. + +"You are playing into the hands of your bitterest enemies, the +frog-eaters," he went on. "These creoles, over whom you've held a hot +poker all winter, are crazy to be turned loose upon you; and you know +that they've got good cause to feel like giving you the extreme +penalty. They'll give it to you without a flinch if they get the +chance. You've done enough." + +Hamilton whirled about and glared ferociously. + +"Helm, what do you mean?" he demanded in a voice as hollow as it was +full of desperate passion. + +The genial Captain laughed, as if he had heard a good joke. + +"You won't catch any fish if you swear, and you look blasphemous," he +said with the lightness of humor characteristic of him at all times. +"You'd better say a prayer or two. Just reflect a moment upon the awful +sins you have committed and--" + +A crash of coalescing volleys from every direction broke off his +levity. Clark was sending his response to Hamilton's lofty note. The +guns of freedom rang out a prophecy of triumph, and the hissing bullets +clucked sharply as they entered the solid logs of the walls or whisked +through an aperture and bowled over a man. The British musketeers +returned the fire as best they could, with a courage and a stubborn +coolness which Helm openly admired, although he could not hide his +satisfaction whenever one of them was disabled. + +"Lamothe and his men are refusing to obey orders," said Farnsworth a +little later, hastily approaching Hamilton, his face flushed and a +gleam of hot anger in his eyes. "They're in a nasty mood; I can do +nothing with them; they have not fired a shot." + +"Mutiny?" Hamilton demanded. + +"Not just that. They say they do not wish to fire on their kinsmen and +friends. They are all French, you know, and they see their cousins, +brothers, uncles and old acquaintances out there in Clark's rabble. I +can do nothing with them." + +"Shoot the scoundrels, then!" + +"It will be a toss up which of us will come out on top if we try that. +Besides, if we begin a fight inside, the Americans will make short work +of us." + +"Well, what in hell are we to do, then?" + +"Oh, fight, that's all," said Farnsworth apathetically turning to a +small loop-hole and leveling a field glass through it. "We might make a +rush from the gates and stampede them," he presently added. Then he +uttered an exclamation of great surprise. + +"There's Lieutenant Beverley out there," he exclaimed. + +"You're mistaken, you're excited," Hamilton half sneeringly remarked, +yet not without a shade of uneasiness in his expression. "You forget, +sir." + +"Look for yourself, it's easily settled," and Farnsworth proffered the +glass. "He's there, to a certainty, sir." + +"I saw Beverley an hour ago," said Helm. "I knew all the time that he'd +be on hand." + +It was a white lie. Captain Helm was as much surprised as his captors +at what he heard; but he could not resist the temptation to be annoying. + +Hamilton looked as Farnsworth directed, and sure enough, there was the +young Virginian Lieutenant, standing on a barricade, his hat off, +cheering his men with a superb show of zeal. Not a hair of his head was +missing, so far as the glass could be relied upon to show. + +Oncle Jazon's quick old eyes saw the gleam of the telescope tube in the +loop-hole. + +"I never could shoot much," he muttered, and then a little bullet sped +with absolute accuracy from his disreputable looking rifle and +shattered the object-lens, just as Hamilton moved to withdraw the +glass, uttering an ejaculation of intense excitement. + +"Such devils of marksmen!" said he, and his face was haggard. "That +infernal Indian lied." + +"I could have told you all the time that the scalp Long-Hair brought to +you was not Beverley's," said Helm indifferently. "I recognized +Lieutenant Barlow's hair as soon as I saw it." + +This was another piece of off-hand romance. Helm did not dream that he +was accidentally sketching a horrible truth. + +"Barlow's!" exclaimed Farnsworth. + +"Yes, Barlow's, no mistake--" + +Two more men reeled from a port-hole, the blood spinning far out of +their wounds. Indeed, through every aperture in the walls the bullets +were now humming like mad hornets. + +"Close that port-hole!" stormed Hamilton; then turning to Farnsworth he +added: "We cannot endure this long. Shut up every place large enough +for a bullet to get through. Go all around, give strict orders to all. +See that the men do not foolishly expose themselves. Those ruffians out +there have located every crack." + +His glimpse of Beverley and the sinister remark of Helm had completely +unmanned him before his men fell. Now it rushed upon him that if he +would escape the wrath of the maddened creoles and the vengeance of +Alice's lover, he must quickly throw himself upon the mercy of Clark. +It was his only hope. He chafed inwardly, but bore himself with stern +coolness. He presently sought Farnsworth, pulled him aside and +suggested that something must be done to prevent an assault and a +massacre. The sounds outside seemed to forebode a gathering for a +desperate rush, and in his heart he felt all the terrors of awful +anticipation. + +"We are completely at their mercy, that is plain," he said, shrugging +his shoulders and gazing at the wounded men writhing in their agony. +"What do you suggest?" + +Captain Farnsworth was a shrewd officer. He recollected that Philip +Dejean, justice of Detroit, was on his way down the Wabash from that +post, and probably near at hand, with a flotilla of men and supplies. +Why not ask for a few days of truce? It could do no harm, and if agreed +to, might be their salvation. Hamilton jumped at the thought, and +forthwith drew up a note which he sent out with a white flag. Never +before in all his military career had he been so comforted by a sudden +cessation of fighting. His soul would grovel in spite of him. Alice's +cold face now had Beverley's beside it in his field of inner vision--a +double assurance of impending doom, it seemed to him. + +There was short delay in the arrival of Colonel Clark's reply, hastily +scrawled on a bit of soiled paper. The request for a truce was flatly +refused; but the note closed thus: + +"If Mr. Hamilton is Desirous of a Conferance with Col. Clark he will +meet him at the Church with Captn. Helms." + +The spelling was not very good, and there was a redundancy of capital +letters; yet Hamilton understood it all; and it was very difficult for +him to conceal his haste to attend the proposed conference. But he was +afraid to go to the church--the thought chilled him. He could not face +Father Beret, who would probably be there. And what if there should be +evidences of the funeral?--what if?--he shuddered and tried to break +away from the vision in his tortured brain. + +He sent a proposition to Clark to meet him on the esplanade before the +main gate of the fort; but Clark declined, insisting upon the church. +And thither he at last consented to go. It was an immense brace to his +spirit to have Helm beside him during that walk, which, although but +eighty yards in extent, seemed to him a matter of leagues. On the way +he had to pass near the new position taken up by Beverley and his men. +It was a fine test of nerve, when the Lieutenant's eyes met those of +the Governor. Neither man permitted the slightest change of countenance +to betray his feelings. In fact, Beverley's face was as rigid as +marble; he could not have changed it. + +But with Oncle Jazon it was a different affair. He had no dignity to +preserve, no fine military bearing to sustain, no terrible tug of +conscience, no paralyzing grip of despair on his heart. When he saw +Hamilton going by, bearing himself so superbly, it affected the French +volatility in his nature to such an extent that his tongue could not be +controlled. + +"Va t'en, bete, forban, meurtrier! Skin out f'om here! beast, robber, +murderer!" he cried, in his keen screech-owl voice. "I'll git thet +scelp o' your'n afore sundown, see 'f I don't! Ye onery gal-killer an' +ha'r buyer!" + +The blood in Hamilton's veins caught no warmth from these remarks; but +he held his head high and passed stolidly on, as if he did not hear a +word. Helm turned the tail of an eye upon Oncle Jazon and gave him a +droll, quizzical wink of approval. In response the old man with +grotesque solemnity drew his buckhorn handled knife, licked its blade +and returned it to its sheath,--a bit of pantomime well understood and +keenly enjoyed by the onlooking creoles. + +"Putois! coquin!" they jeered, "goujat! poltron!" + +Beverley heard the taunting racket, but did not realize it, which was +well enough, for he could not have restrained the bitter effervescence. +He stood like a statue, gazing fixedly at the now receding figure, the +lofty, cold-faced man in whom centered his hate of hates. Clark had +requested him to be present at the conference in the church; but he +declined, feeling that he could not meet Hamilton and restrain himself. +Now he regretted his refusal, half wishing that--no, he could not +assassinate an enemy under a white flag. In his heart he prayed that +there would be no surrender, that Hamilton would reject every offer. To +storm the fort and revel in butchering its garrison seemed the only +desirable thing left for him in life. + +Father Beret was, indeed, present at the church, as Hamilton had +dreaded; and the two duelists gave each other a rapier-like eye-thrust. +Neither spoke, however, and Clark immediately demanded a settlement of +the matter in hand. He was brusque and imperious to a degree, +apparently rather anxious to repel every peaceful advance. + +It was a laconic interview, crisp as autumn ice and bitter as +gallberries. Colonel Clark had no respect whatever for Hamilton, to +whom he had applied the imperishable adjective "hair-buyer General." On +the other hand Governor Hamilton, who felt keenly the disgrace of +having to equalize himself officially and discuss terms of surrender +with a rough backwoodsman, could not conceal his contempt of Clark. + +The five men of history, Hamilton, Helm, Hay, Clark and Bowman, were +not distinguished diplomats. They went at their work rather after the +hammer-and-tongs fashion. Clark bluntly demanded unconditional +surrender. Hamilton refused. They argued the matter. Helm put in his +oar, trying to soften the situation, as was his custom on all +occasions, and received from Clark a stinging reprimand, with the +reminder that he was nothing but a prisoner on parole, and had no voice +at all in settling the terms of surrender. + +"I release him, sir," said Hamilton. "He is no longer a prisoner. I am +quite willing to have Captain Helm join freely in our conference." + +"And I refuse to permit his acceptance of your favor," responded Clark. +"Captain Helm, you will return with Mr. Hamilton to the fort and remain +his captive until I free you by force. Meantime hold your tongue." + +Father Beret, suave looking and quiet, occupied himself at the little +altar, apparently altogether indifferent to what was being said; but he +lost not a word of the talk. + +"Qui habet aures audiendi, audiat," he inwardly repeated, smiling +blandly. "Gaudete in illa die, et exultate!" + +Hamilton rose to go; deep lines of worry creased his face; but when the +party had passed outside, he suddenly turned upon Clark and said: + +"Why do you demand impossible terms of me?" + +"I will tell you, sir," was the stern answer, in a tone in which there +was no mercy or compromise. "I would rather have you refuse. I desire +nothing so much as an excuse to wreak full and bloody vengeance on +every man in that fort who has engaged in the business of employing +savages to scalp brave, patriotic men and defenseless women and +children. The cries of the widows and the fatherless on our frontiers +require the blood of the Indian partisans at my hands. If you choose to +risk the massacre of your garrison to save those despicable red-handed +partisans, have your pleasure. What you have done you know better than +I do. I have a duty to perform. You may be able to soften its nature. I +may take it into my head to send for some of our bereaved women to +witness my terrible work and see that it is well done, if you insist +upon the worst." + +Major Hay, who was Hamilton's Indian agent, now, with some difficulty +clearing his throat, spoke up. + +"Pray, sir," said he, "who is it that you call Indian partisans?" + +"Sir," replied Clark, seeing that his words had gone solidly home, "I +take Major Hay to be one of the principals." + +This seemed to strike Hay with deadly force. Clark's report says that +he was "pale and trembling, scarcely able to stand," and that "Hamilton +blushed, and, I observed, was much affected at his behavior. +"Doubtless, if the doughty American commander had known more about the +Governor's feelings just then, he would have added that an awful fear, +even greater than the Indian agent's, did more than anything else to +congest the veins in his face." + +The parties separated without reaching an agreement; but the end had +come. The terror in Hamilton's soul was doubled by a wild scene enacted +under the walls of his fort; a scene which, having no proper place in +this story, strong as its historical interest unquestionably is, must +be but outlined. A party of Indians returning from a scalping +expedition in Kentucky and along the Ohio, was captured on the +outskirts of the town by some of Clark's men, who proceeded to kill and +scalp them within full view of the beleaguered garrison, after which +their mangled bodies were flung into the river. + +If the British commander needed further wine of dread to fill his cup +withal, it was furnished by ostentatious marshaling of the American +forces for a general assault. His spirit broke completely, so that it +looked like a godsend to him when Clark finally offered terms of +honorable surrender, the consummation of which was to be postponed +until the following morning. He accepted promptly, appending to the +articles of capitulation the following reasons for his action: "The +remoteness from succor; the state and quantity of provisions, etc.; +unanimity of officers and men in its expediency; the honorable terms +allowed; and, lastly, the confidence in a generous enemy." + +Confidence in a generous enemy! Abject fear of the vengeance just +wreaked upon his savage emissaries would have been the true statement. +Beverley read the paper when Clark sent for him; but he could not join +in the extravagant delight of his fellow officers and their brave men. +What did all this victory mean to him? Hamilton to be treated as an +honorable prisoner of war, permitted to strut forth from the feat with +his sword at his side, his head up--the scalp-buyer, the murderer of +Alice! What was patriotism to the crushed heart of a lover? Even if his +vision had been able to pierce the future and realize the splendor of +Anglo-Saxon civilization which was to follow that little triumph at +Vincennes, what pleasure could it have afforded him? Alice, Alice, only +Alice; no other thought had influence, save the recurring surge of +desire for vengeance upon her murderer. + +And yet that night Beverley slept, and so forgot his despair for many +hours, even dreamed a pleasant dream of home, where his childhood was +spent, of the stately old house on the breezy hill-top overlooking a +sunny plantation, with a little river lapsing and shimmering through +it. His mother's dear arms were around him, her loving breath stirred +his hair; and his stalwart, gray-headed father sat on the veranda +comfortably smoking his pipe, while away in the wide fields the negroes +sang at the plow and the hoe. Sweeter and sweeter grew the scene, +softer the air, tenderer the blending sounds of the water-murmur, +leaf-rustle, bird-song, and slave-song, until hand in hand he wandered +with Alice in greening groves, where the air was trembling with the +ecstacy of spring. + +A young officer awoke him with an order from Clark to go on duty at +once with Captains Worthington and Williams, who, under Colonel Clark +himself, were to take possession of the fort. Mechanically he obeyed. +The sun was far up, shining between clouds of a leaden, watery hue, by +the time everything was ready for the important ceremony. Beside the +main gate of the stockade two companies of patriots under Bowman and +McCarty were drawn up as guards, while the British garrison filed out +and was taken in charge. This bit of formality ended, Governor +Hamilton, attended by some of his officers, went back into the fort and +the gate was closed. + +Clark now gave orders that preparations be made for hauling down the +British flag and hoisting the young banner of liberty in its place, +when everything should be ready for a salute of thirteen guns from the +captured battery. + +Helm's round face was beaming. Plainly it showed that his happiness was +supreme. He dared not say anything, however; for Clark was now all +sternness and formality; it would be dangerous to take any liberties; +but he could smile and roll his quid of tobacco from cheek to cheek. + +Hamilton and Farnsworth, the latter slightly wounded in the left arm, +which was bandaged, stood together somewhat apart from their fellow +officers, while preliminary steps for celebrating their defeat and +capture were in progress. They looked forlorn enough to have excited +deep sympathy under fairer conditions. + +Outside the fort the creoles were beginning a noise of jubilation. The +rumor of what was going to be done had passed from mouth to mouth, +until every soul in the town knew and thrilled with expectancy. Men, +women and children came swarming to see the sight, and to hear at close +range the crash of the cannon. They shouted, in a scattering way at +first, then the tumult grew swiftly to a solid rolling tide that seemed +beyond all comparison with the population of Vincennes. Hamilton heard +it, and trembled inwardly, afraid lest the mob should prove too strong +for the guard. + +One leonine voice roared distinctly, high above the noise. It was a +sound familiar to all the creoles,--that bellowing shout of Gaspard +Roussillon's. He was roaming around the stockade, having been turned +back by the guard when he tried to pass through the main gate. + +"They shut me out!" he bellowed furiously. "I am Gaspard Roussillon, +and they shut me out, me! Ziff! me voici! je vais entrer immediatement, +moi!" + +He attracted but little attention, however; the people and the soldiery +were all too excited by the special interest of the occasion, and too +busy with making a racket of their own, for any individual, even the +great Roussillon, to gain their eyes or ears. He in turn scarcely heard +the tumult they made, so self-centered were his burning thoughts and +feelings. A great occasion in Vincennes and he, Gaspard Roussillon, not +recognized as one of the large factors in it! Ah, no, never! And he +strode along the wall of the stockade, turning the corners and heavily +shambling over the inequalities till he reached the postern. It was not +fastened, some one having passed through just before him. + +"Ziff!" he ejaculated, stepping into the area and shaking himself after +the manner of a dusty mastiff. "C'est moi! Gaspard Roussillon!" His +massive under jaw was set like that of a vise, yet it quivered with +rage, a rage which was more fiery condensation of self-approval than +anger. + +Outside the shouting, singing and huzzahs gathered strength and volume, +until the sound became a hoarse roar. Clark was uneasy; he had +overheard much of a threatening character during the siege. The creoles +were, he knew, justly exasperated, and even his own men had been +showing a spirit which might easily be fanned into a dangerous flame of +vengeance. He was very anxious to have the formalities of taking +possession of the fort over with, so that he could the better control +his forces. Sending for Beverley he assigned him to the duty of hauling +down the British flag and running up that of Virginia. It was an honor +of no doubtful sort, which under different circumstances would have +made the Lieutenant's heart glow. As it was, he proceeded without any +sense of pride or pleasure, moving as a mere machine in performing an +act significant beyond any other done west of the mountains, in the +great struggle for American independence and the control of American +territory. + +Hamilton stood a little way from the foot of the tall flag-pole, his +arms folded on his breast, his chin slightly drawn in, his brows +contracted, gazing steadily at Beverley while he was untying the +halyard, which had been wound around the pole's base about three feet +above the ground. The American troops in the fort were disposed so as +to form three sides of a hollow square, facing inward. Oncle Jazon, +serving as the ornamental extreme of one line, was conspicuous for his +outlandish garb and unmilitary bearing. The silence inside the stockade +offered a strong contrast to the tremendous roar of voices outside. +Clark made a signal, and at the tap of a drum, Beverley shook the ropes +loose and began to lower the British colors. Slowly the bright emblem +of earth's mightiest nation crept down in token of the fact that a +handful of back-woodsmen had won an empire by a splendid stroke of pure +heroism. Beverley detached the flag, and saluting, handed it to Colonel +Clark. Hamilton's breast heaved and his iron jaws tightened their +pressure until the lines of his cheeks were deep furrows of pain. + +Father Beret, who had just been admitted, quietly took a place at one +side near the wall. There was a fine, warm, benignant smile on his old +face, yet his powerful shoulders drooped as if weighted down with a +heavy load. Hamilton was aware when he entered, and instantly the scene +of their conflict came into his memory with awful vividness, and he saw +Alice lying outstretched, stark and, cold, the shining strand of hair +fluttering across her pallid cheek. Her ghost overshadowed him. + +Just then there was a bird-like movement, a wing-like rustle, and a +light figure flitted swiftly across the area. All eyes were turned upon +it. Hamilton recoiled, as pale as death, half lifting his hands, as if +to ward off a deadly blow, and then a gay flag was flung out over his +head. He saw before him the girl he had shot; but her beautiful face +was not waxen now, nor was it cold or lifeless. The rich red blood was +strong under the browned, yet delicate skin, the eyes were bright and +brave, the cherry lips, slightly apart, gave a glimpse of pearl white +teeth, and the dimples,--those roguish dimples,--twinkled sweetly. + +Colonel Clark looked on in amazement, and in spite of himself, in +admiration. He did not understand; the sudden incident bewildered him; +but his virile nature was instantly and wholly charmed. Something like +a breath of violets shook the tenderest chords of his heart. + +Alice stood firmly, a statue of triumph, her right arm outstretched, +holding the flag high above Hamilton's head; and close by her side the +little hunchback Jean was posed in his most characteristic attitude, +gazing at the banner which he himself had stolen and kept hidden for +Alice's sake, and because he loved it. + +There was a dead silence for some moments, during which Hamilton's face +showed that he was ready to collapse; then the keen voice of Oncle +Jazon broke forth: + +"Vive Zhorzh Vasinton! Vim la banniere d'Alice Roussillon!" + +He sprang to the middle of the area and flung his old cap high in air, +with a shrill war-whoop. + +"H'ist it! h'ist it! hissez la banniere de Mademoiselle Alice +Roussillon! Voila, que c'est glorieuse, cette banniere la! H'ist it! +h'ist it!" + +He was dancing with a rickety liveliness, his goatish legs and +shriveled body giving him the look of an emaciated satyr. + +Clark had been told by some of his creole officers the story of how +Alice raised the flag when Helm took the fort, and how she snatched it +from Hamilton's hand, as it were, and would not give it up when he +demanded it. The whole situation pretty soon began to explain itself, +as he saw what Alice was doing. Then he heard her say to Hamilton, +while she slowly swayed the rippling flag back and forth: + +"I said, as you will remember, Monsieur le Gouverneur, that when you +next should see this flag, I should wave it over your head. Well, look, +I am waving it! Vive la republique! Vive George Washington! What do you +think of it, Monsieur le Gouverneur?" + +The poor little hunchback Jean took off his cap and tossed it in +rhythmical emphasis, keeping time to her words. + +And now from behind the hollow square came a mighty voice: + +"C'est moi, Gaspard Roussillon; me voici, messieurs!" + +There was a spirit in the air which caught from Alice a thrill of +romantic energy. The men in the ranks and the officers in front of them +felt a wave of irresistible sympathy sweep through their hearts. Her +picturesque beauty, her fine temper, the fitness of the incident to the +occasion, had an instantaneous power which moved all men alike. + +"Raise her flag! Run up the young lady's flag!" some one shouted, and +then every voice seemed to echo the words. Clark was a young man of +noble type, in whose veins throbbed the warm chivalrous blood of the +cavaliers. A waft of the suddenly prevailing influence bore him also +quite off his feet. He turned to Beverley and said: + +"Do it! It will have a great effect. It is a good idea; get the young +lady's flag and her permission to run it up." + +Before he finished speaking, indeed at the first glance, he saw that +Beverley, like Hamilton, was white as a dead man; and at the same time +it came to his memory that his young friend had confided to him during +the awful march through the prairie wilderness, a love-story about this +very Alice Roussillon. In the worry and stress of the subsequent +struggle, he had forgotten the tender basis upon which Beverley had +rested his excuse for leaving Vincennes. Now, it all reappeared in +justification of what was going on. It touched the romantic core of his +southern nature. + +"I say, Lieutenant Beverley," he repeated, "beg the young lady's +permission to use her flag upon this glorious occasion; or shall I do +it for you?" + +There were no miracles in those brave days, and the strain of life with +its terrible realities braced all men and women to meet sudden +explosions of surprise, whether of good or bad effect, with admirable +equipoise; but Beverley's trial, it must be admitted, was +extraordinary; still he braced himself quickly and his whole expression +changed when Clark moved to go to Alice. For he realized now that it +was, indeed, Alice in flesh and blood, standing there, the center of +admiration, filling the air with her fine magnetism and crowning a +great triumph with her beauty. He gave her a glad, flashing smile, as +if he had just discovered her, and walked straight to her, his hands +extended. She was not looking toward him; but she saw him and turned to +face him. Hers was the advantage; for she had known, for some hours, of +his presence in Vincennes, and had prepared herself to meet him +courageously and with maidenly reserve. + +There is no safety, however, where Love lurks. Neither Beverley nor +Alice was as much agitated at Hamilton, yet they both forgot, what he +remembered, that a hundred grim frontier soldiers were looking on. +Hamilton had his personal and official dignity to sustain, and he +fairly did it, under what a pressure of humiliating and surprising +circumstances we can fully comprehend. Not so with the two young +people, standing as it were in a suddenly bestowed and incomparable +happiness, on the verge of a new life, each to the other an unexpected, +unhoped-for resurrection from the dead. To them there was no universe +save the illimitable expanse of their love. In that moment of meeting, +all that they had suffered on account of love was transfused and poured +forth,--a glowing libation for love's sake,--a flood before which all +barriers broke. + +Father Beret was looking on with a strange fire in his eyes, and what +he feared would happen, did happen. Alice let the flag fall at +Hamilton's feet, when Beverley came near her smiling that great, glad +smile, and with a joyous cry leaped into his outstretched arms. + +Jean snatched up the fallen banner and ran to Colonel Clark with it. +Two minutes later it was made fast and the halyard began to squeak +through the rude pulley at the top of the pole. Up, up, climbed the gay +little emblem of glory, while the cannon crashed from the embrasures of +the blockhouse hard by, and outside the roar of voices redoubled. +Thirteen guns boomed the salute, though it should have been +fourteen,--the additional one for the great Northwestern Territory, +that day annexed to the domain of the young American Republic. The flag +went up at old Vincennes never to come down again, and when it reached +its place at the top of the staff, Beverley and Alice stood side by +side looking at it, while the sun broke through the clouds and flashed +on its shining folds, and love unabashed glorified the two strong young +faces. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +SOME TRANSACTIONS IN SCALPS + + +History would be a very orderly affair, could the dry-as-dust +historians have their way, and doubtless it would be thrillingly +romantic at every turn if the novelists were able to control its +current. Fortunately neither one nor the other has much influence, and +the result, in the long run, is that most novels are shockingly tame, +while the large body of history is loaded down with picturesque +incidents, which if used in fiction, would be thought absurdly romantic +and improbable. + +Were our simple story of old Vincennes a mere fiction, we should +hesitate to bring in the explosion of a magazine at the fort with a +view to sudden confusion and, by that means, distracting attention from +our heroine while she betakes herself out of a situation which, +although delightful enough for a blessed minute, has quickly become an +embarrassment quite unendurable. But we simply adhere to the +established facts in history. Owing to some carelessness there was, +indeed, an explosion of twenty-six six-pound cartridges, which made a +mighty roar and struck the newly installed garrison into a heap, so to +say, scattering things terribly and wounding six men, among them +Captains Bowman and Worthington. + +After the thunderous crash came a momentary silence, which embraced +both the people within the fort and the wild crowd outside. Then the +rush and noise were indescribable. Even Clark gave way to excitement, +losing command of himself and, of course, of his men. There was a +stampede toward the main gate by one wing of the troops in the hollow +square. They literally ran over Beverley and Alice, flinging them apart +and jostling them hither and yonder without mercy. Of course the +turmoil quickly subsided. Clark and Beverley got hold of themselves and +sang out their peremptory orders with excellent effect. It was like oil +on raging water; the men obeyed in a straggling way, getting back into +ranks as best they could. + +"Ventrebleu!" squeaked Oncle Jazon, "ef I didn't think the ole world +had busted into a million pieces!" + +He was jumping up and down not three feet from Beverley's toes, waving +his cap excitedly. + +"But wasn't I skeert! Ya, ya, ya! Vive la banniere d'Alice Roussillon! +Vive Zhorzh Vasinton!" + +Hearing Alice's name caused Beverley to look around. Where was she? In +the distance he saw Father Beret hurrying to the spot where some of the +men burnt and wounded by the explosion were being stripped and cared +for. Hamilton still stood like a statue. He appeared to be the only +cool person in the fort. + +"Where is Alice?--Miss Roussillon--where did Miss Roussillon go?" +Beverley exclaimed, staring around like a lost man. "Where is she?" + +"D'know," said Oncle Jazon, resuming his habitual expression of droll +dignity, "she shot apast me jes' as thet thing busted loose, an' she +went like er hummin' bird, skitch!--jes' thet way--an' I didn't see 'r +no more. 'Cause I was skeert mighty nigh inter seven fits; 'spect that +'splosion blowed her clean away! Ventrebleu! never was so plum outen +breath an' dead crazy weak o' bein' afeard!" + +"Lieutenant Beverley," roared Clark in his most commanding tone, "go to +the gate and settle things there. That mob outside is trying to break +in!" + +The order was instantly obeyed, but Beverley had relapsed. Once more +his soul groped in darkness, while the whole of his life seemed unreal, +a wavering, misty, hollow dream. And yet his military duty was all real +enough. He knew just what to do when he reached the gate. + +"Back there at once!" he commanded, not loudly, but with intense force, +"back there!" This to the inward surging wedge of excited outsiders. +Then to the guard. + +"Shoot the first man who crosses the line!" + +"Ziff! me voici! moi! Gaspard Roussillon. Laissez-moi passer, +messieurs." + +A great body hurled itself frantically past Beverley and the guard, +going out through the gateway against the wall of the crowd, bearing +everything before it and shouting: + +"Back, fools! you'll all be killed--the powder is on fire! Ziff! run!" + +Wild as a March hare, he bristled with terror and foamed at the mouth. +He stampeded the entire mass. There was a wild howl; a rush in the +other direction followed, and soon enough the esplanade and all the +space back to the barricades and beyond were quite deserted. + +Alice was not aware that a serious accident had happened. Naturally she +thought the great, rattling, crashing noise of the explosion a mere +part of the spectacular show. When the rush followed, separating her +and Beverley, it was a great relief to her in some way; for a sudden +recognition of the boldness of her action in the little scene just +ended, came over her and bewildered her. An impulse sent her running +away from the spot where, it seemed to her, she had invited public +derision. The terrible noises all around her were, she now fancied, but +the jeering and hooting of rude men who had seen her unmaidenly +forwardness. + +With a burning face she flew to the postern and slipped out, once more +taking the course which had become so familiar to her feet. She did not +slacken her speed until she reached the Bourcier cabin, where she had +made her home since the night when Hamilton's pistol ball struck her. +The little domicile was quite empty of its household, but Alice entered +and flung herself into a chair, where she sat quivering and breathless +when Adrienne, also much excited, came in, preceded by a stream of +patois that sparkled continuously. + +"The fort is blown up!" she cried, gesticulating in every direction at +once, her petite figure comically dilated with the importance of her +statement. "A hundred men are killed, and the powder is on fire!" + +She pounced into Alice's arms, still talking as fast as her tongue +could vibrate, changing from subject to subject without rhyme or +reason, her prattle making its way by skips and shies until what was +really upper-most in her sweet little heart disclosed itself. + +"And, O Alice! Rene has not come yet!" + +She plunged her dusky face between Alice's cheek and shoulder; Alice +hugged her sympathetically and said: + +"But Rene will come, I know he will, dear." + +"Oh, but do you know it? is it true? who told you? when will he come? +where is he? tell me about him!" + +Her head popped up from her friend's neck and she smiled brilliantly +through the tears that were still sparkling on her long black lashes. + +"I didn't mean that I had heard from him, and I don't know where he is; +but--but they always come back." + +"You say that because your man--because Lieutenant Beverley has +returned. It is always so. You have everything to make you happy, while +I--I--" + +Again her eyes spilled their shower, and she hid her face in her hands +which Alice tried in vain to remove. + +"Don't cry, Adrienne. You didn't see me crying--" + +"No, of course not; you didn't have a thing to cry about. Lieutenant +Beverley told you just where he was going and just what--" + +"But think, Adrienne, only think of the awful story they told--that he +was killed, that Governor Hamilton had paid Long-Hair for killing him +and bringing back his scalp--oh dear, just think! And I thought it was +true." + +"Well, I'd be willing to think and believe anything in the world, if +Rene would come back," said Adrienne, her face, now uncovered, showing +pitiful lines of suffering. "O Alice, Alice, and he never, never will +come!" + +Alice exhausted every device to cheer, encourage and comfort her. +Adrienne had been so good to her when she lay recovering from the shock +of Hamilton's pistol bullet, which, although it came near killing her, +made no serious wound--only a bruise, in fact. It was one of those +fortunate accidents, or providentially ordered interferences, which +once in a while save a life. The stone disc worn by Alice chanced to +lie exactly in the missile's way, and while it was not broken, the +ball, already somewhat checked by passing through several folds of +Father Beret's garments, flattened itself upon it with a shock which +somehow struck Alice senseless. + +Here again, history in the form of an ancient family document (a letter +written in 1821 by Alice herself), gives us the curious brace of +incidents, to wit, the breaking of the miniature on Beverley's breast +by a British musket-ball, and the stopping of Hamilton's bullet over +Alice's heart by the Indian charm-stone. + +"Which shows the goodness of God," the letter goes on, "and also seems +to sustain the Indian legend concerning the stone, that whoever might +wear it could not be killed. Unquestionable (sic) Mr. Hamilton's shot, +which was aimed at poor, dear old Father Beret, would have pierced my +heart, but for that charm-stone. As for my locket, it did not, as some +have reported, save Fitzhugh's life when the musket-ball was stopped. +The ball was so spent that the blow was only hard enough to spoil +temporary (sic) the face of the miniature, which was afterwards +restored fairly well by an artist in Paris. When it did actually save +Fitzhugh's life was out on the Illinois plain. The savage, Long-Hair, +peace to his memory, worked the miracle of restoring to me--" Here a +fold in the paper has destroyed a line of the writing. + +The letter is a sacred family paper, and there is not justification for +going farther into its faded and, in some parts, almost obliterated +writing. But so much may pass into these pages as a pleasant +authentication of what otherwise might be altogether too sweet a double +nut for the critic's teeth to crack. + +While Adrienne and Alice were still discussing the probability of Rene +de Ronville's return, M. Roussillon came to the door. He was in search +of Madame, his wife, whom he had not yet seen. + +He gathered the two girls in his mighty arms, tousling them with rough +tenderness. Alice returned his affectionate embrace and told him where +to find Madame Roussillon, who was with Dame Godere, probably at her +house. + +"Nobody killed," he said, in answer to Alice's inquiry about the +catastrophe at the fort. "Some of 'em hurt and burnt a little. Great +big scare about nearly nothing. Ziff! my children, you should have seen +me quiet things. I put out my hands, this way--omme ca--pouf! It was +all over. The people went home." + +His gestures indicated that he had borne back an army with open hands. +Then he chucked Adrienne under the chin with his finger and added in +his softest voice: + +"I saw somebody's lover the other day, over yonder in the Indian +village. He spoke to me about somebody--eh, ma petite, que voulez-vous +dire?" + +"Oh, Papa Roussillon! we were just talking about Rene!" cried Alice. +"Have you seen him?" + +"I saw you, you little minx, jumping into a man's arms right under the +eyes of a whole garrison! Bah! I could not believe it was my little +Alice!" + +He let go a grand guffaw, which seemed to shake the cabin's walls. +Alice blushed cherry red. Adrienne, too bashful to inquire about Rene, +was trembling with anxiety. The truth was not in Gaspard Roussillon, +just then; or if it was it stayed in him, for he had not seen Rene de +Ronville. It was his generous desire to please and to appear opulent of +knowledge and sympathy that made him speak. He knew what would please +Adrienne, so why not give her at least a delicious foretaste? Surely, +when a thing was so cheap, one need not be so parsimonious as to +withhold a mere anticipation. He was off before the girls could press +him into details, for indeed he had none. + +"There now, what did I tell you?" cried Alice, when the big man was +gone. "I told you Rene would come. They always come back!" + +Father Beret came in a little later. As soon as he saw Alice he frowned +and began to shake his head; but she only laughed, and imitating his +hypocritical scowl, yet fringing it with a twinkle of merry lines and +dimples, pointed a taper finger at him and exclaimed: + +"You bad, bad, man! why did you pretend to me that Lieutenant Beverley +was dead? What sinister ecclesiastical motive prompted you to describe +how Long-Hair scalped him? Ah, Father--" + +The priest laid a broad hand over her saucy mouth. "Something or other +seems to have excited you mightily, ma fille, you are a trifle +impulsively inclined to-day." + +"Yes, Father Beret; yes I know, and I am ashamed. My heart shrinks when +I think of what I did; but I was so glad, such a grand joy came all +over me when I saw him, so strong and brave and beautiful, coming +toward me, smiling that warm, glad smile and holding out his arms--ah, +when I saw all that--when I knew for sure that he was not dead--I, why, +Father--I just had to, I couldn't help it!" + +Father Beret laughed in spite of himself, but quickly managed to resume +his severe countenance. + +"Ta! ta!" he exclaimed, "it was a bold thing for a little girl to do." + +"So it was, so it was. But it was also a bold thing for him to do--to +come back after he was dead and scalped and look so handsome and grand! +I'm ashamed and sorry, Father; but--but, I'm afraid I might do it again +if--well, I don't care if I did--so there, now!" + +"But what in the world are you talking about?" interposed Adrienne. +Evidently they were discussing a most interesting matter of which she +knew nothing, and that did not suit her feminine curiosity. "Tell me." +She pulled Father Beret's sleeve. "Tell me, I say!" + +It is probable that Father Beret would have pretended to betray Alice's +source of mingled delight and embarrassment, had not the rest of the +Bourcier household returned in time to break up the conversation. A +little later Alice gave Adrienne a vividly dramatic account of the +whole scene. + +"Ah, mon Dieu!" exclaimed the petite brunette, after she had heard the +exciting story. "That was just like you, Alice. You always do superb +things. You were born to do them. You shoot Captain Farnsworth, you +wound Lieutenant Barlow, you climb onto the fort and set up your +flag--you take it down again and run away with it--you get shot and you +do not die--you kiss your lover right before a whole garrison! Bon +Dieu! if I could but do all those things!" + +She clasped her tiny hands before her and added rather dejectedly: "But +I couldn't, I couldn't. I couldn't kiss a man in that way!" + +Late in the evening news came to Roussillon place, where Gaspard +Roussillon was once more happy in the midst of his little family, that +the Indian Long-Hair had just been brought to the fort, and would be +shot on the following day. A scouting party captured him as he +approached the town, bearing at his belt the fresh scalp of a white +man. He would have been killed forthwith, but Clark, who wished to +avoid a repetition of the savage vengeance meted out to the Indians on +the previous day, had given strict orders that all prisoners should be +brought into the fort, where they were to have a fair trial by court +martial. + +Both Helm and Beverley were at Roussillon place, the former sipping +wine and chatting with Gaspard, the latter, of course, hovering around +Alice, after the manner of a hungry bee around a particularly sweet and +deliciously refractory flower. It was raining slowly, the fine drops +coming straight down through the cold, still February air; but the two +young people found it pleasant enough for them on the veranda, where +they walked back and forth, making fair exchange of the exciting +experiences which had befallen them during their long separation. +Between the lines of these mutual recitals sweet, fresh echoes of the +old, old story went from heart to heart, an amoebaean love-bout like +that of spring birds calling tenderly back and forth in the blooming +Maytime woods. + +Both Captain Helm and M. Roussillon were delighted to hear of +Long-Hair's capture and certain fate, but neither of them regarded the +news as of sufficient importance to need much comment. They did not +think of telling Beverley and Alice. Jean, however, lying awake in his +little bed, overheard the conversation, which he repeated to Alice next +morning with great circumstantiality. + +Having the quick insight bred of frontier experience, Alice instantly +caught the terrible significance of the dilemma in which she and +Beverley would be placed by Long-Hair's situation. Moreover, something +in her heart arose with irresistible power demanding the final, the +absolute human sympathy and gratitude. No matter what deeds Long-Hair +had committed that were evil beyond forgiveness, he had done for her +the all-atoning thing. He had saved Beverley and sent him back to her. + +With a start and a chill of dread, she thought: "What if it is already +too late!" + +But her nature could not hesitate. To feel the demand of an exigency +was to act. She snatched a wrap from its peg on the wall and ran as +fast as she could to the fort. People who met her flying along +wondered, staring after her, what could be urging her so that she saw +nobody, checked herself for nothing, ran splashing through the puddles +in the street, gazing ahead of her, as if pursuing some flying object +from which she dared not turn her eyes. + +And there was, indeed, a call for her utmost power of flight, if she +would be of any assistance to Long-Hair, who even then stood bound to a +stake in the fort's area, while a platoon of riflemen, those unerring +shots from Kentucky and Virginia, were ready to make a target of him at +a range of but twenty yards. + +Beverley, greatly handicapped by the fact that the fresh scalp of a +white man hung at Long-Hair's belt, had exhausted every possible +argument to avert or mitigate the sentence promptly spoken by the court +martial of which Colonel Clark was the ruling spirit. He had succeeded +barely to the extent of turning the mode of execution from tomahawking +to shooting. All the officers in the fort approved killing the +prisoner, and it was difficult for Colonel Clark to prevent the men +from making outrageous assaults upon him, so exasperated were they at +sight of the scalp. + +Oncle Jazon proved to be one of the most refractory among those who +demanded tomahawking and scalping as the only treatment due Long-Hair. +The repulsive savage stood up before them stolid, resolute, defiant, +proudly flaunting the badge which testified to his horrible efficiency +as an emissary of Hamilton's. It had been left in his belt by Clark's +order, as the best justification of his doom. + +"L' me hack 'is damned head," Oncle Jazon pleaded. "I jes' hankers to +chop a hole inter it. An' besides I want 'is scelp to hang up wi' mine +an' that'n o' the Injun what scelped me. He kicked me in the ribs, the +stinkin' varmint." + +Beverley pleaded eloquently and well, but even the genial Major Helm +laughed at his sentiment of gratitude to a savage who at best but +relented at the last moment, for Alice's sake, and concluded not to +sell him to Hamilton. It is due to the British commander to record here +that he most positively and with what appeared to be high sincerity, +denied the charge of having offered rewards for the taking of human +scalps. He declared that his purposes and practices were humane, and +that while he did use the Indians as military allies, his orders to +them were that they must forego cruel modes of warfare and refrain from +savage outrage upon prisoners. Certainly the weight of contemporary +testimony seems overwhelmingly against him, but we enter his denial. +Long-Hair himself, however, taunted him with accusations of +unfaithfulness in carrying out some very inhuman contracts, and to add +a terrible sting, volunteered the statement that poor Barlow's scalp +had served his turn in the place of Beverley's. + +With conditions so hideous to contend against, Beverley, of course, had +no possible means of succoring the condemned savage. + +"Him a kickin' yer ribs clean inter ye, an' a makin' ye run the +ga'ntlet, an' here ye air a tryin' to save 'is life!" whined Oncle +Jazon, "W'y man, I thought ye hed some senterments! Dast 'is Injin +liver, I kin feel them kicks what he guv me till yit. Ventrebleu! que +diable voulez-vous?" + +Clark simply pushed Beverley's pleadings aside as not worth a moment's +consideration. He easily felt the fine bit of gratitude at the bottom +of it all; but there was too much in the other side of the balance; +justice, the discipline and confidence of his little army, and the +claim of the women and children on the frontier demanded firmness in +dealing with a case like Long-Hair's. + +"No, no," he said to Beverley, "I would do anything in the world for +you, Fitz, except to swerve an inch from duty to my country and the +defenceless people down yonder in Kentucky, I can't do it. There's no +use to press the matter further. The die is cast. That brute's got to +be killed, and killed dead. Look at him--look at that scalp! I'd have +him killed if I dropped dead for it the next instant." + +Beverley shuddered. The argument was horribly convincing, and yet, +somehow, the desire to save Long-Hair overbore everything else in his +mind. He could not cease his efforts; it seemed to him as if he were +pleading for Alice herself. Captain Farnsworth, strange to say, was the +only man in the fort who leaned to Beverley's side; but he was +reticent, doubtless feeling that his position as a British prisoner +gave him no right to speak, especially when every lip around him was +muttering something about "infamous scalp-buyers and Indian partisans," +with whom he was prominently counted by the speakers. + +As Clark had said, the die was cast. Long-Hair, bound to a stake, the +scalp still dangling at his side, grimly faced his executioners, who +were eager to fire. He appeared to be proud of the fact that he was +going to be killed. + +"One thing I can say of him," Helm remarked to Beverley; "he's the +grandest specimen of the animal--I might say the brute--man that I ever +saw, red, white or black. Just look at his body and limbs! Those +muscles are perfectly marvelous." + +"He saved my life, and I must stand here and see him murdered," the +young man replied with intense bitterness. It was all that he could +think, all that he could say. He felt inefficient and dejected, almost +desperate. + +Clark himself, not willing to cast responsibility upon a subordinate, +made ready to give the fatal order. Turning to Long-Hair first, he +demanded of him as well as he could in the Indian dialect of which he +had a smattering, what he had to say at his last moment. + +The Indian straightened his already upright form, and, by a strong +bulging of his muscles, snapped the thongs that bound him. Evidently he +had not tried thus to free himself; it was rather a spasmodic +expression of savage dignity and pride. One arm and both his legs still +were partially confined by the bonds, but his right hand he lifted, +with a gesture of immense self-satisfaction, and pointed at Hamilton. + +"Indian brave; white man coward," he said, scowling scornfully. +"Long-Hair tell truth; white man lie, damn!" + +Hamilton's countenance did not change its calm, cold expression. +Long-Hair gazed at him fixedly for a long moment, his eyes flashing +most concentrated hate and contempt. Then he tore the scalp from his +belt and flung it with great force straight toward the captive +Governor's face. It fell short, but the look that went with it did not, +and Hamilton recoiled. + +At that moment Alice arrived. Her coming was just in time to interrupt +Clark, who had turned to the waiting platoon with the order of death on +his lips. She made no noise, save the fluttering of her skirts, and her +loud and rapid panting on account of her long, hard run. She sprang +before Long-Hair and faced the platoon. + +"You cannot, you shall not kill this man!" she cried in a voice loaded +with excitement. "Put away those guns!" + +Woman never looked more thrillingly beautiful to man than she did just +then to all those rough, stern backwoodsmen. During her flight her hair +had fallen down, and it glimmered like soft sunlight around her face. +Something compelling flashed out of her eyes, an expression between a +triumphant smile and a ray of irresistible beseechment. It took Colonel +Clark's breath when he turned and saw her standing there, and heard her +words. + +"This man saved Lieutenant Beverley's life," she presently added, +getting better control of her voice, and sending into it a thrilling +timbre; "you shall not harm him--you must not do it!" + +Beverley was astounded when he saw her, the thing was so unexpected, so +daring, and done with such high, imperious force; still it was but a +realization of what he had imagined she would be upon occasion. He +stood gazing at her, as did all the rest, while she faced Clark and the +platoon of riflemen. To hear his own name pass her quivering lips, in +that tone and in that connection, seemed to him a consecration. + +"Would you be more savage than your Indian prisoner?" she went on, +"less grateful than he for a life saved? I did him a small, a very +small, service once, and in memory of that he saved Lieutenant +Beverley's life, because--because--" she faltered for a single breath, +then added clearly and with magnetic sweetness--"because Lieutenant +Beverley loved me, and because I loved him. This Indian Long-Hair +showed a gratitude that could overcome his strongest passion. You white +men should be ashamed to fall below his standard." + +Her words went home. It was as if the beauty of her face, the magnetism +of her lissome and symmetrical form, the sweet fire of her eyes and the +passionate appeal of her voice gave what she said a new and +irresistible force of truth. When she spoke of Beverley's love for her, +and declared her love for him, there was not a manly heart in all the +garrison that did not suddenly beat quicker and feel a strange, sweet +waft of tenderness. A mother, somewhere, a wife, a daughter, a sister, +a sweetheart, called through that voice of absolute womanhood. + +"Beverley, what can I do?" muttered Clark, his bronze face as pale as +it could possibly become. + +"Do!" thundered Beverley, "do! you cannot murder that man. Hamilton is +the man you should shoot! He offered large rewards, he inflamed the +passions and fed the love of rum and the cupidity of poor wild men like +the one standing yonder. Yet you take him prisoner and treat him with +distinguished consideration. Hamilton offered a large sum for me taken +alive, a smaller one for my scalp. Long-Hair saved me. You let Hamilton +stand yonder in perfect safety while you shoot the Indian. Shame on +you, Colonel Clark! shame on you, if you do it." + +Alice stood looking at the stalwart commander while Beverley was +pouring forth his torrent of scathing reference to Hamilton, and she +quickly saw that Clark was moved. The moment was ripe for the finishing +stroke. They say it is genius that avails itself of opportunity. +Beverley knew the fight was won when he saw what followed. Alice +suddenly left Long-Hair and ran to Colonel Clark, who felt her warm, +strong arms loop round him for a single point of time never to be +effaced from his memory; then he saw her kneeling at his feet, her +hands upstretched, her face a glorious prayer, while she pleaded the +Indian's cause and won it. + +Doubtless, while we all rather feel that Clark was weak to be thus +swayed by a girl, we cannot quite blame him. Alice's flag was over him; +he had heard her history from Beverley's cunning lips; he actually +believed that Hamilton was the real culprit, and besides he felt not a +little nauseated with executing Indians. A good excuse to have an end +of it all did not go begging. + +But Long-Hair was barely gone over the horizon from the fort, as free +and as villainous a savage as ever trod the earth, when a discovery +made by Oncle Jazon caused Clark to hate himself for what he had done. + +The old scout picked up the scalp, which Long-Hair had flung at +Hamilton, and examined it with odious curiosity. He had lingered on the +spot with no other purpose than to get possession of that ghastly +relic. Since losing his own scalp the subject of crownlocks had grown +upon his mind until its fascination was irresistible. He studied the +hair of every person he saw, as a physiognomist studies faces. He held +the gruesome thing up before him, scrutinizing it with the expression +of a connoisseur who has discovered, on a grimy canvas, the signature +of an old master. + +"Sac' bleu!" he presently broke forth. "Well I'll be--Look'ee yer, +George Clark! Come yer an' look. Ye've been sold ag'in. Take a squint, +ef ye please!" + +Colonel Clark, with his hands crossed behind him, his face thoughtfully +contracted, was walking slowly to and fro a little way off. He turned +about when Oncle Jazon spoke. + +"What now, Jazon?" + +"A mighty heap right now, that's what; come yer an' let me show ye. Yer +a fine sort o' eejit, now ain't ye!" + +The two men walked toward each other and met. Oncle Jazon held up the +scalp with one hand, pointing at it with the index finger of the other. + +"This here scalp come off'n Rene de Ronville's head." + +"And who is he?" + +"Who's he? Ye may well ax thet. He wuz a Frenchman. He wuz a fine young +feller o' this town. He killed a Corp'ral o' Hamilton's an' tuck ter +the woods a month or two ago. Hamilton offered a lot o' money for 'im +or 'is scalp, an' Long-Hair went in fer gittin' it. Now ye knows the +whole racket. An' ye lets that Injun go. An' thet same Injun he mighty +nigh kicked my ribs inter my stomach!" + +Oncle Jazon's feelings were visible and audible; but Clark could not +resent the contempt of the old man's looks and words. He felt that he +deserved far more than he was receiving. Nor was Oncle Jazon wrong. +Rene de Ronville never came back to little Adrienne Bourcier, although, +being kept entirely ignorant of her lover's fate, she waited and +dreamed and hoped throughout more than two years, after which there is +no further record of her life. + +Clark, Beverley and Oncle Jazon consulted together and agreed among +themselves that they would hold profoundly secret the story of the +scalp. To have made it public would have exasperated the creoles and +set them violently against Clark, a thing heavy with disaster for all +his future plans. As it was, the release of Long-Hair caused a great +deal of dissatisfaction and mutinous talk. Even Beverley now felt that +the execution ordered by the commander ought to have been sternly +carried out. + +A day or two later, however, the whole dark affair was closed forever +by a bit of confidence on the part of Oncle Jazon when Beverley dropped +into his hut one evening to have a smoke with him. + +The rain was over, the sky shone like one vast luminary, with a nearly +full moon and a thousand stars reinforcing it. Up from the south poured +one of those balmy, accidental wind floods, sometimes due in February +on the Wabash, full of tropical dream-hints, yet edged with a winter +chill that smacks of treachery. Oncle Jazon was unusually talkative; he +may have had a deep draught of liquor; at all events Beverley had +little room for a word. + +"Well, bein' as it's twixt us, as is bosom frien's," the old fellow +presently said, "I'll jes' show ye somepin poorty." + +He pricked the wick of a lamp and took down his bunch of scalps. + +"I hev been a addin' one more to keep company o' mine an' the tothers." + +He separated the latest acquisition from the rest of the wisp and +added, with a heinous chuckle: + +"This'n's Long-Hair's!" + +And so it was. Beverley knocked the ashes from his pipe and rose to go. + +"Wen they kicks yer Oncle Jazon's ribs," the old man added, "they'd +jes' as well lay down an' give up, for he's goin' to salervate 'em." + +Then, after Beverley had passed out of the cabin, Oncle Jazon chirruped +after him: + +"Mebbe ye'd better not tell leetle Alice. The pore leetle gal hev hed +worry 'nough." + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +CLARK ADVISES ALICE + + +A few days after the surrender of Hamilton, a large boat, the Willing, +arrived from Kaskaskia. It was well manned and heavily armed. Clark +fitted it out before beginning his march and expected it to be of great +assistance to him in the reduction of the fort, but the high waters and +the floating driftwood delayed its progress, so that its disappointed +crew saw Alice's flag floating bright and high when their eyes first +looked upon the dull little town from far down the swollen river. There +was much rejoicing, however, when they came ashore and were +enthusiastically greeted by the garrison and populace. A courier whom +they picked up on the Ohio came with them. He bore dispatches from +Governor Henry of Virginia to Clark and a letter for Beverley from his +father. With them appeared also Simon Kenton, greatly to the delight of +Oncle Jazon, who had worried much about his friend since their latest +fredaine--as he called it--with the Indians. Meantime an expedition +under Captain Helm had been sent up the river with the purpose of +capturing a British flotilla from Detroit. + +Gaspard Roussillon, immediately after Clark's victory, thought he saw a +good opening favorable to festivity at the river house, for which he +soon began to make some of his most ostentatious preparations. Fate, +however, as usual in his case, interfered. Fate seemed to like pulling +the big Frenchman's ear now and again, as if to remind him of the +fact--which he was apt to forget--that he lacked somewhat of +omnipotence. + +"Ziff! Je vais donner un banquet a tout le moonde, moi!" he cried, +hustling and bustling hither and thither. + +A scout from up the river announced the approach of Philip Dejean with +his flotilla richly laden, and what little interest may have been +gathering in the direction of M. Roussillon's festal proposition +vanished like the flame of a lamp in a puff of wind when this news +reached Colonel Clark and became known in the town. + +Beverley and Alice sat together in the main room of the Roussillon +cabin--you could scarcely find them separated during those happy +days--and Alice was singing to the soft tinkle of a guitar, a Creole +ditty with a merry smack in its scarcely intelligible nonsense. She +knew nothing about music beyond what M. Roussillon, a jack of all +trades, had been able to teach her,--a few simple chords to accompany +her songs, picked up at hap-hazard. But her voice, like her face and +form, irradiated witchery. It was sweet, firm, deep, with something +haunting in it--the tone of a hermit thrush, marvelously pure and +clear, carried through a gay strain like the mocking-bird's. Of course +Beverley thought it divine; and when a message came from Colonel Clark +bidding him report for duty at once, he felt an impulse toward mutiny +of the rankest sort. He did not dream that a military expedition could +be on hand; but upon reaching headquarters, the first thing he heard +was: + +"Report to Captain Helm. You are to go with him up the river and +intercept a British force. Move lively, Helm is waiting for you, +probably." + +There was no time for explanations. Evidently Clark expected neither +questions nor delay. Beverley's love of adventure and his patriotic +desire to serve his country came to his aid vigorously enough; still, +with Alice's love-song ringing in his heart, there was a cord pulling +him back from duty to the sweetest of all life's joys. + +Helm was already at the landing, where a little fleet of boats was +being prepared. A thousand things had to be done in short order. All +hands were stimulated to highest exertion with the thought of another +fight. Swivels were mounted in boats, ammunition and provisions stored +abundantly, flags hoisted and oars dipped. Never was an expedition of +so great importance more swiftly organized and set in motion, nor did +one ever have a more prosperous voyage or completer triumph. Philip +Dejean, Justice of Detroit, with his men, boats and rich cargo, was +captured easily, with not a shot fired, nor a drop of blood spilled in +doing it. + +If Alice could have known all this before it happened, she would +probably have saved herself from the mortification of a rebuke +administered very kindly, but not the less thoroughly, by Colonel Clark. + +The rumor came to her--a brilliant creole rumor, duly inflated--that an +overwhelming British force was descending the river, and that Beverley +with a few men, not sufficient to base the expedition on a respectable +forlorn hope, would be sent to meet them. Her nature, as was its wont, +flared into high indignation. What right had Colonel Clark to send her +lover away to be killed just at the time when he was all the whole +world to her? Nothing could be more outrageous. She would not suffer it +to be done; not she! + +Colonel Clark greeted her pleasantly, when she came somewhat abruptly +to him, where he was directing a squad of men at work making some +repairs in the picketing of the fort. He did not observe her excitement +until she began to speak, and then it was noticeable only, and not very +strongly, in her tone. She forgot to speak English, and her French was +Greek to him. + +"I am glad to see you, Mademoiselle," he said, rather inconsequently, +lifting his hat and bowing with rough grace, while he extended his +right hand cordially. "You have something to say to me? Come with me to +my office." + +She barely touched his fingers. + +"Yes, I have something to say to you. I can tell it here," she said, +speaking English now with softest Creole accent. "I wanted--I came +to--" It was not so easy as she had imagined it would be to utter what +she had in mind. Clark's steadfast, inscrutable eyes, kindly yet not +altogether sympathetic, met her own and beat them down. Her voice +failed. + +He offered her his arm and gravely said: + +"We will go to my office. I see that you have some important +communication to make. There are too many ears here." + +Of a sudden she felt like running home. Somehow the situation broke +upon her with a most embarrassing effect. She did not take Clark's arm, +and she began to tremble. He appeared unconscious of this, and probably +was, for his mind had a fine tangle of great schemes in it just then; +but he turned toward his office, and bidding her follow him, walked +away in that direction. + +She was helpless. Not the slightest trace of her usual brilliant +self-assertion was at her command. Saving the squad of men sawing and +hacking, digging and hammering, the fort appeared as deserted as her +mind. She stood gazing after Clark. He did not look back, but strode +right on. If she would speak with him, she must follow. It was a +surprise to her, for heretofore she had always had her own way, even if +she found it necessary to use force. And where was Beverley? Where was +the garrison? Colonel Clark did not seem to be at all concerned about +the approach of the British--and yet those repairs--perhaps he was +making ready for a desperate resistance! She did not move until he +reached the door of his office where he stopped and stepped aside, as +if to let her pass in first; he even lifted his hat, then looked a +trifle surprised when he saw that she was not near him, frowned +slightly, changed the frown to a smile and said, lifting his voice so +that she felt a certain imperative meaning in it: + +"Did I walk too fast for you? I beg your pardon, Mademoiselle." + +He stood waiting for her, as a father waits for a lagging, wilful child. + +"Come, please," he added, "if you have something to say to me; my time +just now is precious--I have a great deal to do." + +She was not of a nature to retreat under fire, and yet the panic in her +breast came very near mastering her will. Clark saw a look in her face +which made him speak again: + +"I assure you, Mademoiselle, that you need not feel embarrassed. You +can rely upon me to--" + +She made a gesture that interrupted him; at the same time she almost +ran toward him, gathering in breath, as one does who is about to force +out a desperately resisting and riotous thought. The strong, grave man +looked at her with a full sense of her fascination, and at the same +time he felt a vague wish to get away from her, as if she were about to +cast unwelcome responsibility upon him. + +"Where is Lieutenant Beverley?" she demanded, now close to Clark, face +to face, and gazing straight into his eyes. "I want to see him." Her +tone suggested intensest excitement. She was trembling visibly. + +Clark's face changed its expression. He suddenly recalled to mind +Alice's rapturous public greeting of Beverley on the day of the +surrender. He was a cavalier, and it did not agree with his sense of +high propriety for girls to kiss their lovers out in the open air +before a gazing army. True enough, he himself had been hoodwinked by +Alice's beauty and boldness in the matter of Long-Hair. He confessed +this to himself mentally, which may have strengthened his present +disapproval of her personal inquiry about Beverley. At all events he +thought she ought not to be coming into the stockade on such an errand. + +"Lieutenant Beverley is absent acting under my orders he said, with +perfect respectfulness, yet in a tone suggesting military finality. He +meant to set an indefinite yet effective rebuke in his words. + +"Absent?" she echoed. "Gone? You sent him away to be killed! You had no +right--you--" + +"Miss Roussillon," said Clark, becoming almost stern, "you had better +go home and stay there; young girls oughtn't to run around hunting men +in places like this." + +His blunt severity of speech was accompanied by a slight frown and a +gesture of impatience. + +Alice's face blazed red to the roots of her sunny hair; the color +ebbed, giving place to a pallor like death. She began to tremble, and +her lips quivered pitifully, but she braced herself and tried to force +back the choking sensation in her throat. + +"You must not misconstrue my words," Clark quickly added; "I simply +mean that men will not rightly understand you. They will form +impressions very harmful to you. Even Lieutenant Beverley might not see +you in the right light." + +"What--what do you mean?" she gasped, shrinking from him, a burning +spot reappearing under the dimpled skin of each cheek. + +"Pray, Miss, do not get excited. There is nothing to make you cry." He +saw tears shining in her eyes. "Beverley is not in the slightest +danger. All will be well, and he'll come back in a few days. The +expedition will be but a pleasure trip. Now you go home. Lieutenant +Beverley is amply able to take care of himself. And let me tell you, if +you expect a good man to have great confidence in you, stay home and +let him hunt you up instead of you hunting him. A man likes that +better." + +It would be impossible to describe Alice's feelings, as they just then +rose like a whirling storm in her heart. She was humiliated, she was +indignant, she was abashed; she wanted to break forth with a tempest of +denial, self-vindication, resentment; she wanted to cry with her face +hidden in her hands. What she did was to stand helplessly gazing at +Clark, with two or three bright tears on either cheek, her hands +clenched, her eyes flashing. She was going to say some wild thing; but +she did not; her voice lodged fast in her throat. She moved her lips, +unable to make a sound. + +Two of Clark's officers relieved the situation by coming up to get +orders about some matter of town government, and Alice scarcely knew +how she made her way home. Every vein in her body was humming like a +bee when she entered the house and flung herself into a chair. + +She heard Madame Roussillon and Father Beret chatting in the kitchen, +whence came a fragrance of broiling buffalo steak besprinkled with +garlic. It was Father Beret's favorite dish, wherefore his tongue ran +freely--almost as freely as that of his hostess, and when he heard +Alice come in, he called gayly to her through the kitchen door: + +"Come here, ma fille, and lend us old folks your appetite; nous avons +une tranche a la Bordelaise!" + +"I am not hungry," she managed to say, "you can eat it without me." + +The old man's quick ears caught the quaver of trouble in her voice, +much as she tried to hide it. A moment later he was standing beside her +with his hand on her head. + +"What is the matter now, little one?" he tenderly demanded. "Tell your +old Father." + +She began to cry, laying her face in her crossed arms, the tears +gushing, her whole frame aquiver, and heaving great sobs. She seemed to +shrink like a trodden flower. It touched Father Beret deeply. + +He suspected that Beverley's departure might be the cause of her +trouble; but when presently she told him what had taken place in the +fort, he shook his head gravely and frowned. + +"Colonel Clark was right, my daughter," he said after a short silence, +"and it is time for you to ponder well upon the significance of his +words. You can't always be a wilful, headstrong little girl, running +everywhere and doing just as you please. You have grown to be a woman +in stature--you must be one in fact. You know I told you at first to be +careful how you acted with--" + +"Father, dear old Father!" she cried, springing from her seat and +throwing her arms around his neck. "Have I appeared forward and +unwomanly? Tell me, Father, tell me! I did not mean to do anything--" + +"Quietly, my child, don't give way to excitement." He gently put her +from him and crossed himself--a habit of his when suddenly +perplexed--then added: + +"You have done no evil; but there are proprieties which a young woman +must not overstep. You are impulsive, too impulsive; and it will not do +to let a young man see that you--that you--" + +"Father, I understand," she interrupted, and her face grew very pale. + +Madame Roussillon came to the door, flushed with stooping over the +fire, and announced that the steak was ready. + +"Bring the wine, Alice," she added, "a bottle of Bordeaux." + +She stood for a breath of two, her red hands on her hips, looking first +at Father Beret, then at Alice. + +"Quarreling again about the romances?" she inquired. "She's been at it +again?--she's found 'em again?" + +"Yes," said Father Beret, with a queer, dry smile, "more romance. Yes, +she's been at it again! Now fetch the Bordeaux, little one." + +The following days were cycles of torture to Alice. She groveled in the +shadow of a great dread. It seemed to her that Beverley could not love +her, could not help looking upon her as a poor, wild, foolish girl, +unworthy of consideration. She magnified her faults and crudities, she +paraded before her inner vision her fecent improprieties, as they had +been disclosed to her, until she saw herself a sort of monstrosity at +which all mankind was gazing with disgust. Life seemed dry and +shriveled, a mere jaundiced shadow, while her love for Beverley took on +a new growth, luxuriant, all-embracing, uncontrollable. The ferment of +spirit going on in her breast was the inevitable process of +self-recognition which follows the terrible unfolding of the +passion-flower, in a nature almost absolutely simple and +unsophisticated. + +Vincennes held its breath while waiting for news from Helm's +expedition. Every day had its nimble, yet wholly imaginary account of +what had happened, skipping from mouth to mouth, and from cabin to +cabin. The French folk ran hither and thither in the persistent rain, +industriously improving the dramatic interest of each groundless +report. Alice's disturbed imagination reveled in the kaleidoscopic +terrors conjured up by these swift changes of the form and color of the +stories "from the front," all of them more or less tragic. To-day the +party is reported as having been surprised and massacred to a +man--to-morrow there has been a great fight, many killed, the result in +doubt--next day the British are defeated, and so on. The volatile +spirit of the Creoles fairly surpassed itself in ringing the changes on +stirring rumors. + +Alice scarcely left the house during the whole period of excitement and +suspense. Like a wounded bird, she withdrew herself from the light and +noisy chatter of her friends, seeking only solitude and crepuscular +nooks in which to suffer silently. Jean brought her every picturesque +bit of the ghastly gossip, thus heaping coals on the fire of her +torture. But she did not grow pale and thin. Not a dimple fled from +cheek or chin, not a ray of saucy sweetness vanished from her eyes. Her +riant health was unalterable. Indeed, the only change in her was a +sudden ripening and mellowing of her beauty, by which its colors, its +lines, its subtle undercurrents of expression were spiritualized, as if +by some powerful clarifying process. + +Tremendous is the effect of a soul surprised by passion and brought +hard up against an opposing force which dashes it back upon itself with +a flare and explosion of self-revealment. Nor shall we ever be able to +foretell just how small a circumstance, just how slight an exigency, +will suffice to bring on the great change. The shifting of a smile to +the gloom of a frown, the snap of a string on the lute of our +imagination, just at the point when a rich melody is culminating; the +waving of a hand, a vanishing face--any eclipse of tender, joyous +expectation--dashes a nameless sense of despair into the soul. And a +young girl's soul--who shall uncover its sacred depths of +sensitiveness, or analyze its capacity for suffering under such a +stroke? + +On the fifth day of March, back came the victorious Helm, having +surrounded and captured seven boats, richly loaded with provisions and +goods, and Dejean's whole force. Then again the little Creole town went +wild with rejoicing. Alice heard the news and the noise; but somehow +there was no response in her heart. She dreaded to meet Beverley; +indeed, she did not expect him to come to her. Why should he? + +M. Roussillon, who had volunteered to accompany Helm, arrived in a mood +of unlimited proportions, so far as expressing self-admiration and +abounding delight was concerned. You would have been sure that he had +done the whole deed single-handed, and brought the flotilla and +captives to town on his back. But Oncle Jazon for once held his tongue, +being too disgusted for words at not having been permitted to fire a +single shot. What was the use of going to fight and simply meeting and +escorting down the river a lot of non-combatants? + +There is something inscrutably delightful about a girl's way of +thinking one thing and doing another. Perversity, thy name is +maidenhood; and maidenhood, thy name is delicious inconsequence! When +Alice heard that Beverley had come back, safe, victorious, to be +greeted as one of the heroes of an important adventure, she immediately +ran to her room frightened and full of vague, shadowy dread, to hide +from him, yet feeling sure that he would not come! Moreover, she busied +herself with the preposterous task of putting on her most attractive +gown--the buff brocade which she wore that evening at the river +house--how long ago it seemed!--when Beverley thought her the +queenliest beauty in the world. And she was putting it on so as to look +her prettiest while hiding from him! + +It is a toss-up where happiness will make its nest. The palace, the +hut, the great lady's garden, the wild lass's bower,--skip here, alight +there,--the secret of it may never be told. And love and beauty find +lodgment, by the same inexplicable route, in the same extremes of +circumstances. The wind bloweth where it listeth, finding many a +matchless flower and many a ravishing fragrance in the wildest nooks of +the world. + +No sooner did Beverley land at the little wharf than, rushing to his +quarters, he made a hasty exchange of water-soaked apparel for +something more comfortable, and then bolted in the direction of +Roussillon place. + +Now Alice knew by the beating of her heart that he was coming. In spite +of all she could do, trying to hold on hard and fast to her doubt and +gloom, a tide of rich sweetness began to course through her heart and +break in splendid expectation from her eyes, as they looked through the +little unglazed window toward the fort. Nor had she long to wait. He +came up the narrow wet street, striding like a tall actor in the height +of a melodrama, his powerful figure erect as an Indian's, and his face +glowing with the joy of a genuine, impatient lover, who is proud of +himself because of the image he bears in his heart. + +When Alice flung wide the door (which was before Beverley could cross +the veranda), she had quite forgotten how she had gowned and bedecked +herself; and so, without a trace of self-consciousness, she flashed +upon him a full-blown flower--to his eyes the loveliest that ever +opened under heaven. + +Gaspard Roussillon, still overflowing with the importance of his part +in the capture of Dejean, came puffing homeward just in time to see a +man at the door holding Alice a-tiptoe in his arms. + +"Ziff!" he cried, as he pushed open the little front gate of the yard, +"en voila assez, vogue la galere!" + +The two forms disappeared within the house, as if moved by his roaring +voice. + +The letter to Beverley from his father was somewhat disturbing. It bore +the tidings of his mother's failing health. This made it easier for the +young Lieutenant to accept from Clark the assignment to duty with a +party detailed for the purpose of escorting Hamilton, Farnsworth and +several other British officers to Williamsburg, Virginia. It also gave +him a most powerful assistance in persuading Alice to marry him at +once, so as to go with him on what proved to be a delightful wedding +journey through the great wilderness to the Old Dominion. Spring's +verdure burst abroad on the sunny hills as they slowly went their way; +the mating birds sang in every blooming brake and grove by which they +passed, and in their joyous hearts they heard the bubbling of love's +eternal fountain. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +AND SO IT ENDED + + +Our story must end here, because at this point its current flows away +forever from old Vincennes; and it was only of the post on the Wabash +that we set out to make a record. What befell Alice and Beverley after +they went to Virginia we could go on to tell; but that would be another +story. Suffice it to say, they lived happily ever after, or at least +somewhat beyond three score and ten, and left behind them a good name +and numerous descendants. + +How Alice found out her family in Virginia, we are not informed; but +after a lapse of some years from the date of her marriage, there +appears in one of her letters a reference to an estate inherited from +her Tarleton ancestors, and her name appears in old records signed in +full, Alice Tarleton Beverley. A descendant of hers still treasures the +locket, with its broken miniature and battered crest, which won +Beverley's life from Long-Hair, the savage. Beside it, as carefully +guarded, is the Indian charm-stone that stopped Hamilton's bullet over +Alice's heart The rapiers have somehow disappeared, and there is a +tradition in the Tarleton family that they were given by Alice to +Gaspard Roussillon, who, after Madame Roussillon's death in 1790, went +to New Orleans, where he stayed a year or two before embarking for +France, whither he took with him the beautiful pair of colechemardes +and Jean the hunchback. + +Oncle Jazon lived in Vincennes many years after the war was over; but +he died at Natchez, Mississippi, when ninety-three years old. He said, +with almost his last breath, that he couldn't shoot very well, even in +his best days; but that he had, upon various occasions, "jes' kind o' +happened to hit a Injun in the lef' eye." They used to tell a story, as +late as General Harrison's stay in Vincennes, about how Oncle Jazon +buried his collection of scalps, with great funeral solemnity, as his +part of the celebration of peace and independence about the year 1784. + +Good old Father Beret died suddenly soon after Alice's marriage and +departure for Virginia. He was found lying face downward on the floor +of his cabin. Near him, on a smooth part of a puncheon, were the +mildewed fragments of a letter, which he had been arranging, as if to +read its contents. Doubtless it was the same letter brought to him by +Rene de Ronville, as recorded in an early chapter of our story. The +fragments were gathered up and buried with him. His dust lies under the +present Church of St. Xavier,--the dust of as noble a man and as true a +priest as ever sacrificed himself for the good of humanity. + +In after years Simon Kenton visited Beverley and Alice in their +Virginia home. To his dying day he was fond of describing their happy +and hospitable welcome and the luxuries to which they introduced him. +They lived in a stately white mansion on a hill overlooking a vast +tobacco plantation, where hundreds of negro slaves worked and sang by +day and frolicked by night. Their oldest child was named Fitzhugh +Gaspard. Kenton died in 1836. + +There remains but one little fact worth recording before we close the +book. In the year 1800, on the fourth of July, a certain leading French +family of Vincennes held a patriotic reunion, during which a little old +flag was produced and its story told. Some one happily proposed that it +be sent to Mrs. Alice Tarleton Beverley with a letter of explanation, +and in profound recognition of the glorious circumstances which made it +the true flag of the great Northwest. + +And so it happened that Alice's little banner went to Virginia and is +still preserved in an old mansion not very far from Monticello; but it +seems likely that the Wabash Valley will soon again possess the +precious relic. The marriage engagement of Miss Alice Beverley to a +young Indiana officer, distinguished for his patriotism and military +ardor, has been announced at the old Beverley homestead on the hill, +and the high contracting parties have planned that the wedding ceremony +shall take place under the famous little flag, on the anniversary of +dark's capture of Post Vincennes. When the bride shall be brought to +her new home on the banks of the Wabash, the flag will come with her; +but Oncle Jazon will not be on hand with his falsetto shout: "VIVE LA +BANNIERE D'ALICE ROUSSILLON! VIVE ZHORZZH VASINTON!" + + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Alice of Old Vincennes, by Maurice Thompson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ALICE OF OLD VINCENNES *** + +***** This file should be named 4097.txt or 4097.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/4/0/9/4097/ + +Produced by Charles Franks, Robert Rowe and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. 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Hart +and may be reprinted only when these Etexts are free of all fees.] +[Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be used in any sales +of Project Gutenberg Etexts or other materials be they hardware or +software or any other related product without express permission.] + +*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.10/04/01*END* + + + + +This etext was produced by Charles Franks, Robert Rowe and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + +PREFACE + + +To M. PLACIDE VALCOUR +M. D., Ph D., LL. D. + +MY DEAR DR. VALCOUR: You gave me the Inspiration which made this +story haunt me until I wrote it. Gaspard Roussillon's letter, a +mildewed relic of the year 1788, which you so kindly permitted me +to copy, as far as it remained legible, was the point from which +my imagination, accompanied by my curiosity, set out upon a long +and delightful quest. You laughed at me when I became enthusiastic +regarding the possible historical importance at that ancient find, +alas! fragmentary epistle; but the old saying about the beatitude +of him whose cachinations are latest comes handy to me just now, +and I must remind you that "I told you so." True enough, it was +history pure and simple that I had in mind while enjoying the +large hospitality of your gulf-side home. Gaspard Roussillon's +letter then appealed to my greed for materials which would help +along the making of my little book "The Story of Louisiana." +Later, however, as my frequent calls upon you for both documents +and suggestions have informed you, I fell to strumming a different +guitar. And now to you I dedicate this historical romance of old +Vincennes, as a very appropriate, however slight, recognition of +your scholarly attainments, your distinguished career in a noble +profession, and your descent from one of the earliest French +families (if not the very earliest) long resident at that strange +little post on the Wabash, now one of the most beautiful cities +between the greet river and the ocean. + +Following, with ever tantalized expectancy, the broken and breezy +hints in the Roussillon letter, I pursued a will-o'-the-wisp, +here, there, yonder, until by slowly arriving increments I +gathered up a large amount of valuable facts, which when I came to +compare them with the history of Clark's conquest of the Wabash +Valley, fitted amazingly well into certain spaces heretofore left +open in that important yet sadly imperfect record. + +You will find that I was not so wrong in suspecting that Emile +Jazon, mentioned in the Roussillon letter, was a brother of Jean +Jazon and a famous scout in the time of Boone and Clark. He was, +therefore, a kinsman of yours on the maternal side, and I +congratulate you. Another thing may please you, the success which +attended my long and patient research with a view to clearing up +the connection between Alice Roussillon's romantic life, as +brokenly sketched in M. Roussillon's letter, and the capture of +Vincennes by Colonel George Rogers Clark. + +Accept, then, this book, which to those who care only for history +will seem but an idle romance, while to the lovers of romance it +may look strangely like the mustiest history. In my mind, and in +yours I hope, it will always be connected with a breezy summer- +house on a headland of the Louisiana gulf coast, the rustling of +palmetto leaves, the fine flash of roses, a tumult of mocking-bird +voices, the soft lilt of Creole patois, and the endless dash and +roar of a fragrant sea over which the gulls and pelicans never +ceased their flight, and beside which you smoked while I dreamed. + +MAURICE THOMPSON. +JULY, 1900. + + + + + +Contents + + I. Under the Cherry Tree + II. A Letter from Afar + III. The Rape of the Demijohn + IV. The First Mayor of Vincennes + V. Father Gibault + VI. A Fencing Bout + VII. The Mayor's Party + VIII. The Dilemma of Captain Helm + IX. The Honors of War + X. M. Roussillon Entertains Colonel Hamilton + XI. A Sword and a Horse Pistol + XII. Manon Lescaut, and a Rapier-Thrust + XIII. A Meeting in the Wilderness + XIV. A Prisoner of Love + XV. Virtue in a Locket + XVI. Father Beret's Old Battle + XVII. A March through Cold Water +XVIII. A Duel by Moonlight + XIX. The Attack + XX. Alice's Flag + XXI. Some Transactions in Scalps + XXII. Clark Advises Alice +XXIII. And So It Ended + + + + + +Alice of Old Vincennes + + + + + +CHAPTER I + +UNDER THE CHERRY TREE + + +Up to the days of Indiana's early statehood, probably as late as +1825, there stood, in what is now the beautiful little city of +Vincennes on the Wabash, the decaying remnant of an old and +curiously gnarled cherry tree, known as the Roussillon tree, le +cerisier de Monsieur Roussillon, as the French inhabitants called +it, which as long as it lived bore fruit remarkable for richness +of flavor and peculiar dark ruby depth of color. The exact spot +where this noble old seedling from la belle France flourished, +declined, and died cannot be certainly pointed out; for in the +rapid and happy growth of Vincennes many land-marks once notable, +among them le cerisier de Monsieur Roussillon, have been destroyed +and the spots where they stood, once familiar to every eye in old +Vincennes, are now lost in the pleasant confusion of the new town. + +The security of certain land titles may have largely depended upon +the disappearance of old, fixed objects here and there. Early +records were loosely kept, indeed, scarcely kept at all; many were +destroyed by designing land speculators, while those most +carefully preserved often failed to give even a shadowy trace of +the actual boundaries of the estates held thereby; so that the +position of a house or tree not infrequently settled an important +question of property rights left open by a primitive deed. At all +events the Roussillon cherry tree disappeared long ago, nobody +living knows how, and with it also vanished, quite as +mysteriously, all traces of the once important Roussillon estate. +Not a record of the name even can be found, it is said, in church +or county books. + +The old, twisted, gum-embossed cherry tree survived every other +distinguishing feature of what was once the most picturesque and +romantic place in Vincennes. Just north of it stood, in the early +French days, a low, rambling cabin surrounded by rude verandas +overgrown with grapevines. This was the Roussillon place, the most +pretentious home in all the Wabash country. Its owner was Gaspard +Roussillon, a successful trader with the Indians. He was rich, for +the time and the place, influential to a degree, a man of some +education, who had brought with him to the wilderness a bundle of +books and a taste for reading. + +From faded letters and dimly remembered talk of those who once +clung fondly to the legends and traditions of old Vincennes, it is +drawn that the Roussillon cherry tree stood not very far away from +the present site of the Catholic church, on a slight swell of +ground overlooking a wide marshy flat and the silver current of +the Wabash. If the tree grew there, then there too stood the +Roussillon house with its cosy log rooms, its clay-daubed chimneys +and its grapevine-mantled verandas, while some distance away and +nearer the river the rude fort with its huddled officers' quarters +seemed to fling out over the wild landscape, through its squinting +and lopsided port-holes, a gaze of stubborn defiance. + +Not far off was the little log church, where one good Father +Beret, or as named by the Indians, who all loved him, Father +Blackrobe, performed the services of his sacred calling; and +scattered all around were the cabins of traders, soldiers and +woodsmen forming a queer little town, the like of which cannot now +be seen anywhere on the earth. + +It is not known just when Vincennes was first founded; but most +historians make the probable date very early in the eighteenth +century, somewhere between 1710 and 1730. In 1810 the Roussillon +cherry tree was thought by a distinguished botanical letter- +writer to be at least fifty years old, which would make the date +of its planting about 1760. Certainly as shown by the time-stained +family records upon which this story of ours is based, it was a +flourishing and wide-topped tree in early summer of 1778, its +branches loaded to drooping with luscious fruit. So low did the +dark red clusters hang at one point that a tall young girl +standing on the ground easily reached the best ones and made her +lips purple with their juice while she ate them. + +That was long ago, measured by what has come to pass on the gentle +swell of rich country from which Vincennes overlooks the Wabash. +The new town flourishes notably and its appearance marks the +latest limit of progress. Electric cars in its streets, electric +lights in its beautiful homes, the roar of railway trains coming +and going in all directions, bicycles whirling hither and thither, +the most fashionable styles of equipages, from brougham to pony- +phaeton, make the days of flint-lock guns and buckskin trousers +seem ages down the past; and yet we are looking back over but a +little more than a hundred and twenty years to see Alice +Roussillon standing under the cherry tree and holding high a +tempting cluster of fruit, while a very short, hump-backed youth +looks up with longing eyes and vainly reaches for it. The tableau +is not merely rustic, it is primitive. "Jump!" the girl is saying +in French, "jump, Jean; jump high!" + +Yes, that was very long ago, in the days when women lightly braved +what the strongest men would shrink from now. + +Alice Roussillon was tall, lithe, strongly knit, with an almost +perfect figure, judging by what the master sculptors carved for +the form of Venus, and her face was comely and winning, if not +absolutely beautiful; but the time and the place were vigorously +indicated by her dress, which was of coarse stuff and simply +designed. Plainly she was a child of the American wilderness, a +daughter of old Vincennes on the Wabash in the time that tried +men's souls. + +"Jump, Jean!" she cried, her face laughing with a show of cheek- +dimples, an arching of finely sketched brows and the twinkling of +large blue-gray eyes. + +"Jump high and get them!" + +While she waved her sun-browned hand holding the cherries aloft, +the breeze blowing fresh from the southwest tossed her hair so +that some loose strands shone like rimpled flames. The sturdy +little hunchback did leap with surprising activity; but the +treacherous brown hand went higher, so high that the combined +altitude of his jump and the reach of his unnaturally long arms +was overcome. Again and again he sprang vainly into the air +comically, like a long-legged, squat-bodied frog. + +"And you brag of your agility and strength, Jean," she laughingly +remarked; "but you can't take cherries when they are offered to +you. What a clumsy bungler you are." + +"I can climb and get some," he said with a hideously happy grin, +and immediately embraced the bole of the tree, up which he began +scrambling almost as fast as a squirrel. + +When he had mounted high enough to be extending a hand for a hold +on a crotch, Alice grasped his leg near the foot and pulled him +down, despite his clinging and struggling, until his hands clawed +in the soft earth at the tree's root, while she held his captive +leg almost vertically erect. + +It was a show of great strength; but Alice looked quite +unconscious of it, laughing merrily, the dimples deepening in her +plump cheeks, her forearm, now bared to the elbow, gleaming white +and shapely while its muscles rippled on account of the jerking +and kicking of Jean. + +All the time she was holding the cherries high in her other hand, +shaking them by the twig to which their slender stems attached +them, and saying in a sweetly tantalizing tone: + +"What makes you climb downward after cherries. Jean? What a +foolish fellow you are, indeed, trying to grabble cherries out of +the ground, as you do potatoes! I'm sure I didn't suppose that you +knew so little as that." + +Her French was colloquial, but quite good, showing here and there +what we often notice in the speech of those who have been educated +in isolated places far from that babel of polite energies which we +call the world; something that may be described as a bookish cast +appearing oddly in the midst of phrasing distinctly rustic and +local,--a peculiarity not easy to transfer from one language to +another. + +Jean the hunchback was a muscular little deformity and a wonder of +good nature. His head looked unnaturally large, nestling +grotesquely between the points of his lifted and distorted +shoulders, like a shaggy black animal in the fork of a broken +tree. He was bellicose in his amiable way and never knew just when +to acknowledge defeat. How long he might have kept up the hopeless +struggle with the girl's invincible grip would be hard to guess. +His release was caused by the approach of a third person, who wore +the robe of a Catholic priest and the countenance of a man who had +lived and suffered a long time without much loss of physical +strength and endurance. + +This was Pere Beret, grizzly, short, compact, his face deeply +lined, his mouth decidedly aslant on account of some lost teeth, +and his eyes set deep under gray, shaggy brows. Looking at him +when his features were in repose a first impression might not have +been favorable; but seeing him smile or hearing him speak changed +everything. His voice was sweetness itself and his smile won you +on the instant. Something like a pervading sorrow always seemed to +be close behind his eyes and under his speech; yet he was a +genial, sometimes almost jolly, man, very prone to join in the +lighter amusements of his people. + +"Children, children, my children," he called out as he approached +along a little pathway leading up from the direction of the +church, "what are you doing now? Bah there, Alice, will you pull +Jean's leg off?" + +At first they did not hear him, they were so nearly deafened by +their own vocal discords. + +"Why are you standing on your head with your feet so high in air, +Jean?" he added. "It's not a polite attitude in the presence of a +young lady. Are you a pig, that you poke your nose in the dirt?" + +Alice now turned her bright head and gave Pere Beret a look of +frank welcome, which at the same time shot a beam of willful self- +assertion. + +"My daughter, are you trying to help Jean up the tree feet +foremost?" the priest added, standing where he had halted just +outside of the straggling yard fence. + +He had his hands on his hips and was quietly chuckling at the +scene before him, as one who, although old, sympathized with the +natural and harmless sportiveness of young people and would as +lief as not join in a prank or two. + +"You see what I'm doing, Father Beret," said Alice, "I am +preventing a great damage to you. You will maybe lose a good many +cherry pies and dumplings if I let Jean go. He was climbing the +tree to pilfer the fruit; so I pulled him down, you understand." + +"Ta, ta!" exclaimed the good man, shaking his gray head; "we must +reason with the child. Let go his leg, daughter, I will vouch for +him; eh, Jean?" + +Alice released the hunchback, then laughed gayly and tossed the +cluster of cherries into his hand, whereupon he began munching +them voraciously and talking at the same time. + +"I knew I could get them," he boasted; "and see, I have them now." +He hopped around, looking like a species of ill-formed monkey. + +Pere Beret came and leaned on the low fence close to Alice. She +was almost as tall as he. + +"The sun scorches to-day," he said, beginning to mop his furrowed +face with a red-flowered cotton handkerchief; "and from the look +of the sky yonder," pointing southward, "it is going to bring on a +storm. How is Madame Roussillon to-day?" + +"She is complaining as she usually does when she feels extremely +well," said Alice; "that's why I had to take her place at the oven +and bake pies. I got hot and came out to catch a bit of this +breeze. Oh, but you needn't smile and look greedy, Pere Beret, the +pies are not for your teeth!" + +"My daughter, I am not a glutton, I hope; I had meat not two hours +since--some broiled young squirrels with cress, sent me by Rene de +Ronville. He never forgets his old father." + +"Oh, I never forget you either, mon pere; I thought of you to-day +every time I spread a crust and filled it with cherries; and when +I took out a pie all brown and hot, the red juice bubbling out of +it so good smelling and tempting, do you know what I said to +myself?" + +"How could I know, my child?" + +"Well, I thought this: 'Not a single bite of that pie does Father +Beret get.'" + +"Why so, daughter?" + +"Because you said it was bad of me to read novels and told Mother +Roussillon to hide them from me. I've had any amount of trouble +about it." + +"Ta, ta! read the good books that I gave you. They will soon kill +the taste for these silly romances." + +"I tried," said Alice; "I tried very hard, and it's no use; your +books are dull and stupidly heavy. What do I care about something +that a queer lot of saints did hundreds of years ago in times of +plague and famine? Saints must have been poky people, and it is +poky people who care to read about them, I think. I like reading +about brave, heroic men and beautiful women, and war and love." + +Pere Beret looked away with a curious expression in his face, his +eyes half closed. + +"And I'll tell you now, Father Beret," Alice went on after a +pause, "no more claret and pies do you get until I can have my own +sort of books back again to read as I please." She stamped her +moccasin-shod foot with decided energy. + +The good priest broke into a hearty laugh, and taking off his cap +of grass-straw mechanically scratched his bald head. He looked at +the tall, strong girl before him for a moment or two, and it would +have been hard for the best physiognomist to decide just how much +of approval and how much of disapproval that look really +signified. + +Although, as Father Beret had said, the sun's heat was violent, +causing that gentle soul to pass his bundled handkerchief with a +wiping circular motion over his bald and bedewed pate, the wind +was momently freshening, while up from behind the trees on the +horizon beyond the river, a cloud was rising blue-black, tumbled, +and grim against the sky. + +"Well," said the priest, evidently trying hard to exchange his +laugh for a look of regretful resignation, "you will have your own +way, my child, and--" + +"Then you will have pies galore and no end of claret!" she +interrupted, at the same time stepping to the withe-tied and peg- +latched gate of the yard and opening it. "Come in, you dear, good +Father, before the rain shall begin, and sit with me on the +gallery" (the creole word for veranda) "till the storm is over." + +Father Beret seemed not loath to enter, albeit he offered a weak +protest against delaying some task he had in hand. Alice reached +forth and pulled him in, then reclosed the queer little gate and +pegged it. She caressingly passed her arm through his and looked +into his weather-stained old face with childlike affection. + +There was not a photographer's camera to be had in those days; but +what if a tourist with one in hand could have been there to take a +snapshot at the priest and the maiden as they walked arm in arm to +that squat little veranda! The picture to-day would be worth its +weight in a first-water diamond. It would include the cabin, the +cherry-tree, a glimpse of the raw, wild background and a sharp +portrait-group of Pere Beret, Alice, and Jean the hunchback. To +compare it with a photograph of the same spot now would give a +perfect impression of the historic atmosphere, color and +conditions which cannot be set in words. But we must not belittle +the power of verbal description. What if a thoroughly trained +newspaper reporter had been given the freedom of old Vincennes on +the Wabash during the first week of June, 1778, and we now had his +printed story! What a supplement to the photographer's pictures! +Well, we have neither photographs nor graphic report; yet there +they are before us, the gowned and straw-capped priest, the fresh- +faced, coarsely-clad and vigorous girl, the grotesque little +hunchback, all just as real as life itself. Each of us can see +them, even with closed eyes. Led by that wonderful guide, +Imagination, we step back a century and more to look over a scene +at once strangely attractive and unspeakably forlorn. + +What was it that drew people away from the old countries, from the +cities, the villages and the vineyards of beautiful France, for +example, to dwell in the wilderness, amid wild beasts and wilder +savage Indians, with a rude cabin for a home and the exposures and +hardships of pioneer life for their daily experience? + +Men like Gaspard Roussillon are of a distinct stamp. Take him as +he was. Born in France, on the banks of the Rhone near Avignon, he +came as a youth to Canada, whence he drifted on the tide of +adventure this way and that, until at last he found himself, with +a wife, at Post Vincennes, that lonely picket of religion and +trade, which was to become the center of civilizing energy for the +great Northwestern Territory. M. Roussillon had no children of his +own; so his kind heart opened freely to two fatherless and +motherless waifs. These were Alice, now called Alice Roussillon, +and the hunchback, Jean. The former was twelve years old, when he +adopted her, a child of Protestant parents, while Jean had been +taken, when a mere babe, after his parents had been killed and +scalped by Indians. Madame Roussillon, a professed invalid, whose +appetite never failed and whose motherly kindness expressed itself +most often through strains of monotonous falsetto scolding, was a +woman of little education and no refinement; while her husband +clung tenaciously to his love of books, especially to the romances +most in vogue when he took leave of France. + +M. Roussillon had been, in a way, Alice's teacher, though not +greatly inclined to abet Father Beret in his kindly efforts to +make a Catholic of the girl, and most treacherously disposed +toward the good priest in the matter of his well-meant attempts to +prevent her from reading and re-reading the aforesaid romances. +But for many weeks past Gaspard Roussillon had been absent from +home, looking after his trading schemes with the Indians; and Pere +Beret acting on the suggestion of the proverb about the absent cat +and the playing mouse, had formed an alliance offensive and +defensive with Madame Roussillon, in which it was strictly +stipulated that all novels and romances were to be forcibly taken +and securely hidden away from Mademoiselle Alice; which, to the +best of Madame Roussillon's ability, had accordingly been done. + +Now, while the wind strengthened and the softly booming summer +shower came on apace, the heavy cloud lifting as it advanced and +showing under it the dark gray sheet of the rain, Pere Beret and +Alice sat under the clapboard roof behind the vines of the veranda +and discussed, what was generally uppermost in the priest's mind +upon such occasions, the good of Alice's immortal soul,--a subject +not absorbingly interesting to her at any time. + +It was a standing grief to the good old priest, this strange +perversity of the girl in the matter of religious duty, as he saw +it. True she had a faithful guardian in Gaspard Roussillon; but, +much as he had done to aid the church's work in general, for he +was always vigorous and liberal, he could not be looked upon as a +very good Catholic; and of course his influence was not effective +in the right direction. But then Pere Beret saw no reason why, in +due time and with patient work, aided by Madame Roussillon and +notwithstanding Gaspard's treachery, he might not safely lead +Alice, whom he loved as a dear child, into the arms of the Holy +Church, to serve which faithfully, at all hazards and in all +places, was his highest aim. + +"Ah, my child," he was saying, "you are a sweet, good girl, after +all, much better than you make yourself out to be. Your duty will +control you; you do it nobly at last, my child." + +"True enough, Father Beret, true enough!" she responded, laughing, +"your perception is most excellent, which I will prove to you +immediately." + +She rose while speaking and went into the house. + +"I'll return in a minute or two," she called back from a region +which Pere Beret well knew was that of the pantry; "don't get +impatient and go away!" + +Pere Beret laughed softly at the preposterous suggestion that he +would even dream of going out in the rain, which was now roaring +heavily on the loose board roof, and miss a cut of cherry pie--a +cherry pie of Alice's making! And the Roussillon claret, too, was +always excellent. "Ah, child," he thought, "your old Father is not +going away." + + She presently returned, bearing on a wooden tray a ruby-stained +pie and a short, stout bottle flanked by two glasses. + +"Of course I'm better than I sometimes appear to be," she said, +almost humbly, but with mischief still in her voice and eyes, "and +I shall get to be very good when I have grown old. The sweetness +of my present nature is in this pie." + +She set the tray on a three-legged stool which she pushed close to +him. + +"There now," she said, "let the rain come, you'll be happy, rain +or shine, while the pie and wine last, I'll be bound." + +Pere Beret fell to eating right heartily, meantime handing Jean a +liberal piece of the luscious pie. + +"It is good, my daughter, very good, indeed," the priest remarked +with his mouth full. "Madame Roussillon has not neglected your +culinary education." Alice filled a glass for him. It was Bordeaux +and very fragrant. The bouquet reminded him of his sunny boyhood +in France, of his journey up to Paris and of his careless, joy- +brimmed youth in the gay city. How far away, how misty, yet how +thrillingly sweet it all was! He sat with half closed eyes awhile, +sipping and dreaming. + +The rain lasted nearly two hours; but the sun was out again when +Pere Beret took leave of his young friend. They had been having +another good-natured quarrel over the novels, and Madame +Roussillon had come out on the veranda to join in. + +"I've hidden every book of them," said Madame, a stout and swarthy +woman whose pearl-white teeth were her only mark of beauty. Her +voice indicated great stubbornness. + +"Good, good, you have done your very duty, Madame," said Pere +Beret, with immense approval in his charming voice. + +"But, Father, you said awhile ago that I should have my own way +about this," Alice spoke up with spirit; "and on the strength of +that remark of yours I gave you the pie and wine. You've eaten my +pie and swigged the wine, and now--" + +Pere Beret put on his straw cap, adjusting it carefully over the +shining dome out of which had come so many thoughts of wisdom, +kindness and human sympathy. This done, he gently laid a hand on +Alice's bright crown of hair and said: + +"Bless you, my child. I will pray to the Prince of Peace for you +as long as I live, and I will never cease to beg the Holy Virgin +to intercede for you and lead you to the Holy Church." + +He turned and went away; but when he was no farther than the gate, +Alice called out: + +"O Father Beret, I forgot to show you something!" + +She ran forth to him and added in a low tone: + +"You know that Madame Roussillon has hidden all the novels from +me." + +She was fumbling to get something out of the loose front of her +dress. + +"Well, just take a glance at this, will you?" and she showed him a +little leather bound volume, much cracked along the hinges of the +back. + +It was Manon Lescaut, that dreadful romance by the famous Abbe +Prevost. + +Pere Beret frowned and went his way shaking his head; but before +he reached his little hut near the church he was laughing in spite +of himself. + +"She's not so bad, not so bad," he thought aloud, "it's only her +young, independent spirit taking the bit for a wild run. In her +sweet soul she is as good as she is pure." + + + + + +CHAPTER II + +A LETTER FROM AFAR + + +Although Father Beret was for many years a missionary on the +Wabash, most of the time at Vincennes, the fact that no mention of +him can be found in the records is not stranger than many other +things connected with the old town's history. He was, like nearly +all the men of his calling in that day, a self-effacing and modest +hero, apparently quite unaware that he deserved attention. He and +Father Gibault, whose name is so beautifully and nobly connected +with the stirring achievements of Colonel George Rogers Clark, +were close friends and often companions. Probably Father Gibault +himself, whose fame will never fade, would have been to-day as +obscure as Father Beret, but for the opportunity given him by +Clark to fix his name in the list of heroic patriots who assisted +in winning the great Northwest from the English. + +Vincennes, even in the earliest days of its history, somehow kept +up communication and, considering the circumstances, close +relations with New Orleans. It was much nearer Detroit; but the +Louisiana colony stood next to France in the imagination and +longing of priests, voyageurs, coureurs de bois and reckless +adventurers who had Latin blood in their veins. Father Beret first +came to Vincennes from New Orleans, the voyage up the Mississippi, +Ohio, and Wabash, in a pirogue, lasting through a whole summer and +far into the autumn. Since his arrival the post had experienced +many vicissitudes, and at the time in which our story opens the +British government claimed right of dominion over the great +territory drained by the Wabash, and, indeed, over a large, +indefinitely outlined part of the North American continent lying +above Mexico; a claim just then being vigorously questioned, +flintlock in hand, by the Anglo-American colonies. + +Of course the handful of French people at Vincennes, so far away +from every center of information, and wholly occupied with their +trading, trapping and missionary work, were late finding out that +war existed between England and her colonies. Nor did it really +matter much with them, one way or another. They felt secure in +their lonely situation, and so went on selling their trinkets, +weapons, domestic implements, blankets and intoxicating liquors to +the Indians, whom they held bound to them with a power never +possessed by any other white dwellers in the wilderness. Father +Beret was probably subordinate to Father Gibault. At all events +the latter appears to have had nominal charge of Vincennes, and it +can scarcely be doubted that he left Father Beret on the Wabash, +while he went to live and labor for a time at Kaskaskia beyond the +plains of Illinois. + +It is a curious fact that religion and the power of rum and brandy +worked together successfully for a long time in giving the French +posts almost absolute influence over the wild and savage men by +whom they were always surrounded. The good priests deprecated the +traffic in liquors and tried hard to control it, but soldiers of +fortune and reckless traders were in the majority, their interests +taking precedence of all spiritual demands and carrying everything +along. What could the brave missionaries do but make the very best +of a perilous situation? + +In those days wine was drunk by almost everybody, its use at table +and as an article of incidental refreshment and social pleasure +being practically universal; wherefore the steps of reform in the +matter of intemperance were but rudimentary and in all places +beset by well-nigh insurmountable difficulties. In fact the +exigencies of frontier life demanded, perhaps, the very stimulus +which, when over indulged in, caused so much evil. Malaria loaded +the air, and the most efficacious drugs now at command were then +undiscovered or could not be had. Intoxicants were the only +popular specific. Men drank to prevent contracting ague, drank +again, between rigors, to cure it, and yet again to brace +themselves during convalescence. + +But if the effect of rum as a beverage had strong allurement for +the white man, it made an absolute slave of the Indian, who never +hesitated for a moment to undertake any task, no matter how hard, +bear any privation, even the most terrible, or brave any danger, +although it might demand reckless desperation, if in in the end a +well filled bottle or jug appeared as his reward. + +Of course the traders did not overlook such a source of power. +Alcoholic liquor became their implement of almost magical work in +controlling the lives, labors, and resources of the Indians. The +priests with their captivating story of the Cross had a large +influence in softening savage natures and averting many an awful +danger; but when everything else failed, rum always came to the +rescue of a threatened French post. + +We need not wonder, then, when we are told that Father Beret made +no sign of distress or disapproval upon being informed of the +arrival of a boat loaded with rum, brandy or gin. It was Rene de +Ronville who brought the news, the same Rene already mentioned as +having given the priest a plate of squirrels. He was sitting on +the doorsill of Father Beret's hut, when the old man reached it +after his visit at the Roussillon home, and held in his hand a +letter which he appeared proud to deliver. + +"A batteau and seven men, with a cargo of liquor, came during the +rain," he said, rising and taking off his curious cap, which, made +of an animal's skin, had a tail jauntily dangling from its crown- +tip; "and here is a letter for you, Father. The batteau is from +New Orleans. Eight men started with it; but one went ashore to +hunt and was killed by an Indian." + +Father Beret took the letter without apparent interest and said: + +"Thank you, my son, sit down again; the door-log is not wetter +than the stools inside; I will sit by you." + +The wind had driven a flood of rain into the cabin through the +open door, and water twinkled in puddles here and there on the +floor's puncheons. They sat down side by side, Father Beret +fingering the letter in an absent-minded way. + +"There'll be a jolly time of it to-night," Rene de Ronville +remarked, "a roaring time." + +"Why do you say that, my son?" the priest demanded. + +"The wine and the liquor," was the reply; "much drinking will be +done. The men have all been dry here for some time, you know, and +are as thirsty as sand. They are making ready to enjoy themselves +down at the river house." + +"Ah, the poor souls!" sighed Father Beret, speaking as one whose +thoughts were wandering far away. + +"Why don't you read your letter, Father?" Rene added. + +The priest started, turned the soiled square of paper over in his +hand, then thrust it inside his robe. + +"It can wait," he said. Then, changing his voice; "the squirrels +you gave me were excellent, my son. It was good of you to think of +me," he added, laying his hand on Rene's arm. + +"Oh, I'm glad if I have pleased you, Father Beret, for you are so +kind to me always, and to everybody. When I killed the squirrels I +said to myself: 'These are young, juicy and tender, Father Beret +must have these,' so I brought them along." + +The young man rose to go; for he was somehow impressed that Father +Beret must wish opportunity to read his letter, and would prefer +to be left alone with it. But the priest pulled him down again. + +"Stay a while," he said, "I have not had a talk with you for some +time." + +Rene looked a trifle uneasy. + +"You will not drink any to-night, my son," Father Beret added. +"You must not; do you hear?" + +The young man's eyes and mouth at once began to have a sullen +expression; evidently he was not pleased and felt rebellious; but +it was hard for him to resist Father Beret, whom he loved, as did +every soul in the post. The priest's voice was sweet and gentle, +yet positive to a degree. Rene did not say a word. + +"Promise me that you will not taste liquor this night," Father +Beret went on, grasping the young man's arm more firmly; "promise +me, my son, promise me." + +Still Rene was silent. The men did not look at each other, but +gazed away across the country beyond the Wabash to where a glory +from the western sun flamed on the upper rim of a great cloud +fragment creeping along the horizon. Warm as the day had been, a +delicious coolness now began to temper the air; for the wind had +shifted into the northwest. A meadowlark sang dreamingly in the +wild grass of the low lands hard by, over which two or three +prairie hawks hovered with wings that beat rapidly. + +"Eh bien, I must go," said Rene presently, getting to his feet +nimbly and evading Father Beret's hand which would have held him. + +"Not to the river house, my son?" said the priest appealingly. + +"No, not there; I have another letter; one for M'sieu' Roussillon; +it came by the boat too. I go to give it to Madame Roussillon." + +Rene de Ronville was a dark, weather-stained young fellow, neither +tall nor short, wearing buckskin moccasins, trousers and tunic. +His eyes were dark brown, keen, quick-moving, set well under heavy +brows. A razor had probably never touched his face, and his thin, +curly beard crinkled over his strongly turned cheeks and chin, +while his moustaches sprang out quite fiercely above his full- +lipped, almost sensual mouth. He looked wiry and active, a man not +to be lightly reckoned with in a trial of bodily strength and will +power. + +Father Beret's face and voice changed on the instant. He laughed +dryly and said, with a sly gleam in his eyes: + +"You could spend the evening pleasantly with Madame Roussillon and +Jean. Jean, you know, is a very amusing fellow." + +Rene brought forth the letter of which he had spoken and held it +up before Father Beret's face. + +"Maybe you think I haven't any letter for M'sieu' Roussillon," he +blurted; "and maybe you are quite certain that I am not going to +the house to take the letter." + +"Monsieur Roussillon is absent, you know," Father Beret suggested. +"But cherry pies are just as good while he's gone as when he's at +home, and I happen to know that there are some particularly +delicious ones in the pantry of Madame Roussillon. Mademoiselle +Alice gave me a juicy sample; but then I dare say you do not care +to have your pie served by her hand. It would interfere with your +appetite; eh, my son?" + +Rene turned short about wagging his head and laughing, and so with +his back to the priest he strode away along the wet path leading +to the Roussillon place. + +Father Beret gazed after him, his face relaxing to a serious +expression in which a trace of sadness and gloom spread like an +elusive twilight. He took out his letter, but did not glance at +it, simply holding it tightly gripped in his sinewy right hand. +Then his old eyes stared vacantly, as eyes do when their sight is +cast back many, many years into the past. The missive was from +beyond the sea--he knew the handwriting--a waft of the flowers of +Avignon seemed to rise out of it, as if by the pressure of his +grasp. + +A stoop-shouldered, burly man went by, leading a pair of goats, a +kid following. He was making haste excitedly, keeping the goats at +a lively trot. + +"Bon jour, Pere Beret," he flung out breezily, and walked rapidly +on. + +"Ah, ah; his mind is busy with the newly arrived cargo," thought +the old priest, returning the salutation; "his throat aches for +the liquor,--the poor man." + +Then he read again the letter's superscription and made a +faltering move, as if to break the seal. His hands trembled +violently, his face looked gray and drawn. + +"Come on, you brutes," cried the receding man, jerking the thongs +of skin by which he led the goats. + +Father Beret rose and turned into his damp little hut, where the +light was dim on the crucifix hanging opposite the door against +the clay-daubed wall. It was a bare, unsightly, clammy room; a +rude bed on one side, a shelf for table and two or three wooden +stools constituting the furniture, while the uneven puncheons of +the floor wabbled and clattered under the priest's feet. + +An unopened letter is always a mysterious thing. We who receive +three or four mails every day, scan each little paper square with +a speculative eye. Most of us know what sweet uncertainty hangs on +the opening of envelopes whose contents may be almost anything +except something important, and what a vague yet delicious thrill +comes with the snip of the paper knife; but if we be in a foreign +land and long years absent from home, then is a letter subtly +powerful to move us, even more before it is opened than after it +is read. + +It had been many years since a letter from home had come to Father +Beret. The last, before the one now in his hand, had made him ill +of nostalgia, fairly shaking his iron determination never to quit +for a moment his life work as a missionary. Ever since that day he +had found it harder to meet the many and stern demands of a most +difficult and exacting duty. Now the mere touch of the paper in +his hand gave him a sense of returning weakness, dissatisfaction, +and longing. The home of his boyhood, the rushing of the Rhone, a +seat in a shady nook of the garden, Madeline, his sister, +prattling beside him, and his mother singing somewhere about the +house--it all came back and went over him and through him, making +his heart sink strangely, while another voice, the sweetest ever +heard--but she was ineffable and her memory a forbidden fragrance. + +Father Beret tottered across the forlorn little room and knelt +before the crucifix holding his clasped hands high, the letter +pressed between than. His lips moved in prayer, but made no sound; +his whole frame shook violently. + +It would be unpardonable desecration to enter the chamber of +Father Beret's soul and look upon his sacred and secret trouble; +nor must we even speculate as to its particulars. The good old man +writhed and wrestled before the cross for a long time, until at +last he seemed to receive the calmness and strength he prayed for +so fervently; then he rose, tore the letter into pieces so small +that not a word remained whole, and squeezed them so firmly +together that they were compressed into a tiny, solid ball, which +he let fall through a crack between the floor puncheons. After +waiting twenty years for that letter, hungry as his heart was, he +did not even open it when at last it arrived. He would never know +what message it bore. The link between him and the old sweet days +was broken forever. Now with God's help he could do his work to +the end. + +He went and stood in his doorway, leaning against the side. Was it +a mere coincidence that the meadowlark flew up just then from its +grass-tuft, and came to the roof's comb overhead, where it lit +with a light yet audible stroke of its feet and began fluting its +tender, lonesome-sounding strain? If Father Beret heard it he gave +no sign of recognition; very likely he was thinking about the +cargo of liquor and how he could best counteract its baleful +influence. He looked toward the "river house," as the inhabitants +had named a large shanty, which stood on a bluff of the Wabash not +far from where the road-bridge at present crosses, and saw men +gathering there. + +Meantime Rene de Ronville had delivered Madame Roussillon's letter +with due promptness. Of course such a service demanded pie and +claret. What still better pleased him, Alice chose to be more +amiable than was usually her custom when he called. They sat +together in the main room of the house where M. Roussillon kept +his books, his curiosities of Indian manufacture collected here +and there, and his surplus firearms, swords, pistols, and knives, +ranged not unpleasingly around the walls. + +Of course, along with the letter, Rene bore the news, so +interesting to himself, of the boat's tempting cargo just +discharged at the river house. Alice understood her friend's +danger--felt it in the intense enthusiasm of his voice and manner. +She had once seen the men carousing on a similar occasion when she +was but a child, and the impression then made still remained in +her memory. Instinctively she resolved to hold Rene by one means +or another away from the river house if possible. So she managed +to keep him occupied eating pie, sipping watered claret and +chatting until night came on and Madame Roussillon brought in a +lamp. Then he hurriedly snatched his cap from the floor beside him +and got up to go. + +"Come and look at my handiwork," Alice quickly said; "my shelf of +pies, I mean." She led him to the pantry, where a dozen or more of +the cherry pates were ranged in order. "I made every one of them +this morning and baked them; had them all out of the oven before +the rain came up. Don't you think me a wonder of cleverness and +industry? Father Beret was polite enough to flatter me; but you-- +you just eat what you want and say nothing! You are not polite, +Monsieur Rene de Ronville." + +"I've been showing you what I thought of your goodies," said Rene; +"eating's better than talking, you know; so I'll just take one +more," and he helped himself. "Isn't that compliment enough?" + +"A few such would make me another hot day's work," she replied, +laughing. "Pretty talk would be cheaper and more satisfactory in +the long run. Even the flour in these pates I ground with my own +hand in an Indian mortar. That was hard work too." + +By this time Rene had forgotten the river house and the liquor. +With softening eyes he gazed at Alice's rounded cheeks and sheeny +hair over which the light from the curious earthen lamp she bore +in her hand flickered most effectively. He loved her madly; but +his fear of her was more powerful than his love. She gave him no +opportunity to speak what he felt, having ever ready a quick, +bright change of mood and manner when she saw him plucking up +courage to address her in a sentimental way. Their relations had +long been somewhat familiar, which was but natural, considering +their youth and the circumstances of their daily life; but Alice +somehow had kept a certain distance open between them, so that +very warm friendship could not suddenly resolve itself into a +troublesome passion on Rene's part. + +We need not attempt to analyze a young girl's feeling and motives +in such a case; what she does and what she thinks are mysteries +even to her own understanding. The influence most potent in +shaping the rudimentary character of Alice Tarleton (called +Roussillon) had been only such as a lonely frontier post could +generate. Her associations with men and women had, with few +exceptions, been unprofitable in an educational way, while her +reading in M. Roussillon's little library could not have given her +any practical knowledge of manners and life. + +She was fond of Rene de Ronville, and it would have been quite in +accordance with the law of ordinary human forces, indeed almost +the inevitable thing, for her to love and marry him in the +fullness of time; but her imagination was outgrowing her +surroundings. Books had given her a world of romance wherein she +moved at will, meeting a class of people far different from those +who actually shared her experiences. Her day-dreams and her night- +dreams partook much more of what she had read and imagined than of +what she had seen and heard in the raw little world around her. + +Her affection for Rene was interfered with by her large admiration +for the heroic, masterful and magnetic knights who charged through +the romances of the Roussillon collection. For although Rene was +unquestionably brave and more than passably handsome, he had no +armor, no war-horse, no shining lance and embossed shield--the +difference, indeed, was great. + +Those who love to contend against the fatal drift of our age +toward over-education could find in Alice Tarleton, foster +daughter of Gaspard Roussillon, a primitive example, an elementary +case in point. What could her book education do but set up +stumbling blocks in the path of happiness? She was learning to +prefer the ideal to the real. Her soul was developing itself as +best it could for the enjoyment of conditions and things +absolutely foreign to the possibilities of her lot in life. + +Perhaps it was the light and heat of imagination, shining out +through Alice's face, which gave her beauty such a fascinating +power. Rene saw it and felt its electrical stroke send a sweet +shiver through his heart, while he stood before her. + +"You are very beautiful to-night Alice," he presently said, with a +suddenness which took even her alertness by surprise. A flush rose +to his dark face and immediately gave way to a grayish pallor. His +heart came near stopping on the instant, he was so shocked by his +own daring; but he laid a hand on her hair, stroking it softly. + +Just a moment she was at a loss, looking a trifle embarrassed, +then with a merry laugh she stepped aside and said: + +"That sounds better, Monsieur Rene de Ronville much better; you +will be as polite as Father Beret after a little more training." + +She slipped past him while speaking and made her way back again to +the main room, whence she called to him: + +"Come here, I've something to show you." + +He obeyed, a sheepish trace on his countenance betraying his self- +consciousness. + +When he came near Alice she was taking from its buckhorn hook on +the wall a rapier, one of a beautiful pair hanging side by side. + +"Papa Roussillon gave me these," she said with great animation. +"He bought them of an Indian who had kept them a long time; where +he came across them he would not tell; but look how beautiful! Did +you ever see anything so fine?" + +Guard and hilt were of silver; the blade, although somewhat +corroded, still showed the fine wavy lines of Damascus steel and +traces of delicate engraving, while in the end of the hilt was set +a large oval turquoise. + +"A very queer present to give a girl," said Rene; "what can you do +with them?" + +A captivating flash of playfulness came into her face and she +sprang backward, giving the sword a semicircular turn with her +wrist. The blade sent forth a keen hiss as it cut the air close, +very close to Rene's nose. He jerked his head and flung up his +hand. + +She laughed merrily, standing beautifully poised before him, the +rapier's point slightly elevated. Her short skirt left her feet +and ankles free to show their graceful proportions and the perfect +pose in which they held her supple body. + +"You see what I can do with the colechemarde, eh, Monsieur Rene de +Ronville!" she exclaimed, giving him a smile which fairly blinded +him. "Notice how very near to your neck I can thrust and yet not +touch it. Now!" + +She darted the keen point under his chin and drew it away so +quickly that the stroke was like a glint of sunlight. + +"What do you think of that as a nice and accurate piece of skill?" + +She again resumed her pose, the right foot advanced, the left arm +well back, her lissome, finely developed body leaning slightly +forward. + +Rene's hands were up before his face in a defensive position, +palms outward. + +Just then a chorus of men's voices sounded in the distance. The +river house was beginning its carousal with a song. Alice let fall +her sword's point and listened. + +Rene looked about for his cap. + +"I must be going," he said. + +Another and louder swish of the rapier made him pirouette and +dodge again with great energy. + +"Don't," he cried, "that's dangerous; you'll put out my eyes; I +never saw such a girl!" + +She laughed at him and kept on whipping the air dangerously near +his eyes, until she had driven him backward as far as he could +squeeze himself into a comer of the room. + +Madame Roussillon came to the door from the kitchen and stood +looking in and laughing, with her hands on her hips. By this time +the rapier was making a criss-cross pattern of flashing lines +close to the young man's head while Alice, in the enjoyment of her +exercise, seemed to concentrate all the glowing rays of her beauty +in her face, her eyes dancing merrily. + +"Quit, now, Alice," he begged, half in fun and half in abject +fear; "please quit--I surrender!" + +She thrust to the wall on either side of him, then springing +lightly backward a pace, stood at guard. Her thick yellow hair had +fallen over her neck and shoulders in a loose wavy mass, out of +which her face beamed with a bewitching effect upon her captive. + +Rene, glad enough to have a cessation of his peril, stood laughing +dryly; but the singing down at the river house was swelling louder +and he made another movement to go. + +"You surrendered, you remember," cried Alice, renewing the sword- +play; "sit down on the chair there and make yourself comfortable. +You are not going down yonder to-night; you are going to stay here +and talk with me and Mother Roussillon; we are lonesome and you +are good company." + +A shot rang out keen and clear; there was a sudden tumult that +broke up the distant singing; and presently more firing at varying +intervals cut the night air from the direction of the river. + +Jean, the hunchback, came in to say that there was a row of some +sort; he had seen men running across the common as if in pursuit +of a fugitive; but the moonlight was so dim that he could not be +sure what it all meant. + +Rene picked up his cap and bolted out of the house. + + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE RAPE OF THE DEMIJOHN + + +The row down at the river house was more noise than fight, so far +as results seemed to indicate. It was all about a small dame +jeanne of fine brandy, which an Indian by the name of Long-Hair +had seized and run off with at the height of the carousal. He must +have been soberer than his pursuers, or naturally fleeter; for not +one of them could catch him, or even keep long in sight of him. +Some pistols were emptied while the race was on, and two or three +of the men swore roundly to having seen Long-Hair jump sidewise +and stagger, as if one of the shots had taken effect. But, +although the moon was shining, he someway disappeared, they could +not understand just how, far down beside the river below the fort +and the church. + +It was not a very uncommon thing for an Indian to steal what he +wanted, and in most cases light punishment followed conviction; +but it was felt to be a capital offense for an Indian or anybody +else to rape a demijohn of fine brandy, especially one sent as a +present, by a friend in New Orleans, to Lieutenant Governor +Abbott, who had until recently been the commandant of the post. +Every man at the river house recognized and resented the enormity +of Long-Hair's crime and each was, for the moment, ready to be his +judge and his executioner. He had broken at once every rule of +frontier etiquette and every bond of sympathy. Nor was Long-Hair +ignorant of the danger involved in his daring enterprise. He had +beforehand carefully and stolidly weighed all the conditions, and +true to his Indian nature, had concluded that a little wicker +covered bottle of brandy was well worth the risk of his life. So +he had put himself in condition for a great race by slipping out +and getting rid of his weapons and all surplus weight of clothes. + +This incident brought the drinking bout at the river house to a +sudden end; but nothing further came of it that night, and no +record of it would be found in these pages, but for the fact that +Long-Hair afterwards became an important character in the stirring +historical drama which had old Vincennes for its center of energy. + +Rene de Ronville probably felt himself in bad luck when he arrived +at the river house just too late to share in the liquor or to join +in chasing the bold thief. He listened with interest, however, to +the story of Long-Hair's capture of the commandant's demijohn and +could not refrain from saying that if he had been present there +would have been a quite different result. + +"I would have shot him before he got to that door," he said, +drawing his heavy flint-lock pistol and going through the motions +of one aiming quickly and firing. Indeed, so vigorously in earnest +was he with the pantomime, that he actually did fire, +unintentionally of course,--the ball burying itself in the door- +jamb. + +He was laughed at by those present for being more excited than +they who witnessed the whole thing. One of them, a leathery-faced +and grizzled old sinner, leered at him contemptuously and said in +queer French, with a curious accent caught from long use of +backwoods English: + +"Listen how the boy brags! Ye might think, to hear Rene talk, that +he actually amounted to a big pile." + +This personage was known to every soul in Vincennes as Oncle +Jazon, and when Oncle Jazon spoke the whole town felt bound to +listen. + +"An' how well he shoots, too," he added with an intolerable wink; +"aimed at the door and hit the post. Certainly Long-Hair would +have been in great danger! O yes, he'd 'ave killed Long-Hair at +the first shot, wouldn't he though!" + +Oncle Jazon had the air of a large man, but the stature of a small +one; in fact he was shriveled bodily to a degree which suggested +comparison with a sun-dried wisp of hickory bark; and when he +chuckled, as he was now doing, his mouth puckered itself until it +looked like a scar on his face. From cap to moccasins he had every +mark significant of a desperate character; and yet there was about +him something that instantly commanded the confidence of rough +men,--the look of self-sufficiency and superior capability always +to be found in connection with immense will power. His sixty years +of exposure, hardship, and danger seemed to have but toughened his +physique and strengthened his vitality. Out of his small hazel +eyes gleamed a light as keen as ice. + +"All right, Oncle Jazon," said Rene laughing and blowing the smoke +out of his pistol; "'twas you all the same who let Long-Hair trot +off with the Governor's brandy, not I. If you could have hit even +a door-post it might have been better." + +Oncle Jazon took off his cap and looked down into it in a way he +had when about to say something final. + +"Ventrebleu! I did not shoot at Long-Hair at all," he said, +speaking slowly, "because the scoundrel was unarmed. He didn't +have on even a knife, and he was havin' enough to do dodgin' the +bullets that the rest of 'em were plumpin' at 'im without any +compliments from me to bother 'im more." + +"Well," Rene replied, turning away with a laugh, "if I'd been +scalped by the Indians, as you have, I don't think there would be +any particular reason why I should wait for an Indian thief to go +and arm himself before I accepted him as a target." + +Oncle Jazon lifted a hand involuntarily and rubbed his scalpless +crown; then he chuckled with a grotesque grimace as if the +recollection of having his head skinned were the funniest thing +imaginable. + +"When you've killed as many of 'em as Oncle Jazon has," remarked a +bystander to Rene, "you'll not be so hungry for blood, maybe." + +"Especially after ye've took fifty-nine scalps to pay for yer +one," added Oncle Jazon, replacing his cap over the hairless area +of his crown. + +The men who had been chasing Long-Hair, presently came straggling +back with their stories--each had a distinct one--of how the +fugitive escaped. They were wild looking fellows, most of them +somewhat intoxicated, all profusely liberal with their stock of +picturesque profanity. They represented the roughest element of +the well-nigh lawless post. + +"I'm positive that he's wounded," said one. "Jacques and I shot at +him together, so that our pistols sounded just as if only one had +been fired--bang! that way--and he leaped sideways for all the +world like a bird with a broken leg. I thought he'd fall; but ve! +he ran faster'n ever, and all at once he was gone; just +disappeared." + +"Well, to-morrow we'll get him," said another. "You and I and +Jacques, we'll take up his trail, the thief, and follow him till +we find him. He can't get off so easy." + +"I don't know so well about that," said another; "it's Long-Hair, +you must remember, and Long-Hair is no common buck that just +anybody can find asleep. You know what Long-Hair is. Nobody's ever +got even with 'im yet. That's so, ain't it? Just ask Oncle Jazon, +if you don't believe it!" + +The next morning Long-Hair was tracked to the edge. He had been +wounded, but whether seriously or not could only be conjectured. A +sprinkle of blood, here and there quite a dash of it, reddened the +grass and clumps of weeds he had run through, and ended close to +the water into which it looked as if he had plunged with a view to +baffling pursuit. Indeed pursuit was baffled. No further trace +could be found, by which to follow the cunning fugitive. Some of +the men consoled themselves by saying, without believing, that +Long-Hair was probably lying drowned at the bottom of the river. + +"Pas du tout," observed Oncle Jazon, his short pipe askew far over +in the corner of his mouth, "not a bit of it is that Indian +drowned. He's jes' as live as a fat cat this minute, and as drunk +as the devil. He'll get some o' yer scalps yet after he's guzzled +all that brandy and slep' a week." + +It finally transpired that Oncle Jazon was partly right and partly +wrong. Long-Hair was alive, even as a fat cat, perhaps; but not +drunk, for in trying to swim with the rotund little dame jeanne +under his arm he lost hold of it and it went to the bottom of the +Wabash, where it may be lying at this moment patiently waiting for +some one to fish it out of its bed deep in the sand and mud, and +break the ancient wax from its neck! + +Rene de Ronville, after the chase of Long-Hair had been given +over, went to tell Father Beret what had happened, and finding the +priest's hut empty turned into the path leading to the Roussillon +place, which was at the head of a narrow street laid out in a +direction at right angles to the river's course. He passed two or +three diminutive cabins, all as much alike as bee-hives. Each had +its squat veranda and thatched or clapboarded roof held in place +by weight-poles ranged in roughly parallel rows, and each had the +face of the wall under its veranda neatly daubed with a grayish +stucco made of mud and lime. You may see such houses today in some +remote parts of the creole country of Louisiana. + +As Rene passed along he spoke with a gay French freedom to the +dames and lasses who chanced to be visible. His air would be +regarded as violently brigandish in our day; we might even go so +far as to think his whole appearance comical. His jaunty cap with +a tail that wagged as he walked, his short trousers and leggins of +buckskin, and his loose shirt-like tunic, drawn in at the waist +with a broad belt, gave his strong figure just the dash of +wildness suited to the armament with which it was weighted. A +heavy gun lay in the hollow of his shoulder under which hung an +otter-skin bullet-pouch with its clear powder-horn and white bone +charger. In his belt were two huge flint-lock pistols and a long +case-knife. + +"Bon jour, Ma'm'selle Adrienne," he cheerily called, waving his +free hand in greeting to a small, dark lass standing on the step +of a veranda and indolently swinging a broom. "Comment allez-vous +auj ourd'hui?" + +"J'm'porte tres bien, merci, Mo'sieu Rene," was the quick +response; "et vous?" + +"Oh, I'm as lively as a cricket." + +"Going a hunting?" + +"No, just up here a little way--just on business--up to Mo'sieu +Roussillon's for a moment." + +"Yes," the girl responded in a tone indicative of something very +like spleen, "yes, undoubtedly, Mo'sieu de Ronville; your business +there seems quite pressing of late. I have noticed your +industrious application to that business." + +"Ta-ta, little one," he wheedled, lowering his voice; "you mustn't +go to making bug-bears out of nothing." + +"Bug-bears!" she retorted, "you go on about your business and I'll +attend to mine," and she flirted into the house. + +Rene laughed under his breath, standing a moment as if expecting +her to come out again; but she did not, and he resumed his walk +singing softly-- + +"Elle a les joues vermeilles, vermeilles, Ma belle, ma belle +petite." + +But ten to one he was not thinking of Madamoiselle Adrienne +Bourcier. His mind, however, must have been absorbingly occupied; +for in the straight, open way he met Father Beret and did not see +him until he came near bumping against the old man, who stepped +aside with astonishing agility and said-- + +"Dieu vous benisse, mon fils; but what is your great hurry--where +can you be going in such happy haste?" Rene did not stop to parley +with the priest. He flung some phrase of pleasant greeting back +over his shoulder as he trudged on, his heart beginning a tattoo +against his ribs when the Roussillon place came in sight, and he +took hold of his mustache to pull it, as some men must do in +moments of nervousness and bashfulness. If sounds ever have color, +the humming in his ears was of a rosy hue; if thoughts ever exhale +fragrance, his brain overflowed with the sweets of violet and +heliotrope. + +He had in mind what he was going to say when Alice and he should +be alone together. It was a pretty speech, he thought; indeed a +very thrilling little speech, by the way it stirred his own nerve- +centers as he conned it over. + +Madame Roussillon met him at the door in not a very good humor. + +"Is Mademoiselle Alice here?" he ventured to demand. + +"Alice? no, she's not here; she's never here just when I want her +most. V'la le picbois et la grive--see the woodpecker and the +robin--eating the cherries, eating every one of them, and that +girl running off somewhere instead of staying here and picking +them," she railed in answer to the young man's polite inquiry. "I +haven't seen her these four hours, neither her nor that rascally +hunchback, Jean. They're up to some mischief, I'll be bound!" + +Madame Roussillon puffed audibly between phrases; but she suddenly +became very mild when relieved of her tirade. + +"Mais entrez," she added in a pleasant tone, "come in and tell me +the news." + +Rene's disappointment rushed into his face, but he managed to +laugh it aside. + +"Father Beret has just been telling me," said Madame Roussillon, +"that our friend Long-Hair made some trouble last night. How about +it?" + +Rene told her what he knew and added that Long-Hair would +probably never be seen again. + +"He was shot, no doubt of it," he went on, "and is now being +nibbled by fish and turtles. We tracked him by his blood to where +he jumped into the Wabash. He never came out." + +Strangely enough it happened that, at the very time of this chat +between Madame Roussillon and Rene Alice was bandaging Long-Hair's +wounded leg with strips of her apron. It was under some willows +which overhung the bank of a narrow and shallow lagoon or slough, +which in those days extended a mile or two back into the country +on the farther side of the river. Alice and Jean went over in a +pirogue to see if the water lilies, haunting a pond there, were +yet beginning to bloom. They landed at a convenient spot some +distance up the little lagoon, made the boat fast by dragging its +prow high ashore, and were on the point of setting out across a +neck of wet, grassy land to the pond, when a deep grunt, not +unlike that of a self-satisfied pig, attracted them to the +willows, where they discovered Long-Hair, badly wounded, weltering +in some black mud. + +His hiding-place was cunningly chosen, save that the mire troubled +him, letting him down by slow degrees, and threatening to engulf +him bodily; and he was now too weak to extricate himself. He +lifted his head and glared. His face was grimy, his hair matted +with mud. Alice, although brave enough and quite accustomed to +startling experiences, uttered a cry when she saw those snaky eyes +glistening so savagely amid the shadows. But Jean was quick to +recognize Long-Hair; he had often seen him about town, a figure +not to be forgotten. + +"They've been hunting him everywhere," he said in a half whisper +to Alice, clutching the skirt of her dress. "It's Long-Hair, the +Indian who stole the brandy; I know him." + +Alice recoiled a pace or two. + +"Let's go back and tell 'em," Jean added, still whispering, "they +want to kill him; Oncle Jazon said so. Come on!" + +He gave her dress a jerk; but she did not move any farther back; +she was looking at the blood oozing from a wound in the Indian's +leg. + +"He is shot, he is hurt, Jean, we must help him," she presently +said, recovering her self-control, yet still pale. "We must get +him out of that bad place." + +Jean caught Alice's merciful spirit with sympathetic readiness, +and showed immediate willingness to aid her. + +It was a difficult thing to do; but there was a will and of course +a way. They had knives with which they cut willows to make a +standing place on the mud. While they were doing this they spoke +friendly words to Long-Hair, who understood French a little, and +at last they got hold of his arms, tugged, rested, tugged again, +and finally managed to help him to a dry place, still under the +willows, where he could lie more at ease. Jean carried water in +his cap with which they washed the wound and the stolid savage +face. Then Alice tore up her cotton apron, in which she had hoped +to bear home a load of lilies, and with the strips bound the wound +very neatly. It took a long time, during which the Indian remained +silent and apparently quite indifferent. + +Long-Hair was a man of superior physique, tall, straight, with the +muscles of a Vulcan; and while he lay stretched on the ground half +clad and motionless, he would have been a grand model for an +heroic figure in bronze. Yet from every lineament there came a +strange repelling influence, like that from a snake. Alice felt +almost unbearable disgust while doing her merciful task; but she +bravely persevered until it was finished. + +It was now late in the afternoon, and the sun would be setting +before they could reach home. + +"We must hurry back, Jean," Alice said, turning to depart. "It +will be all we can do to reach the other side in daylight. I'm +thinking that they'll be out hunting for us too, if we don't move +right lively. Come." + +She gave the Indian another glance when she had taken but a step. +He grunted and held up something in his hand--something that shone +with a dull yellow light. It was a small, oval, gold locket which +she had always worn in her bosom. She sprang and snatched it from +his palm. + +"Thank you," she exclaimed, smiling gratefully. "I am so glad you +found it." + +The chain by which the locket had hung was broken, doubtless by +some movement while dragging Long-Hair out of the mud, and the +lid had sprung open, exposing a miniature portrait of Alice, +painted when she was a little child, probably not two years old. +It was a sweet baby face, archly bright, almost surrounded with a +fluff of golden hair. The neck and the upper line of the plump +shoulders, with a trace of richly delicate lace and a string of +pearls, gave somehow a suggestion of patrician daintiness. + +Long-Hair looked keenly into Alice's eyes, when she stooped to +take the locket from his hand, but said nothing. + +She and Jean now hurried away, and, so vigorously did they paddle +the pirogue, that the sky was yet red in the west when they +reached home and duly received their expected scolding from Madame +Roussillon. + +Alice sealed Jean's lips as to their adventure; for she had made +up her mind to save Long-Hair if possible, and she felt sure that +the only way to do it would be to trust no one but Father Beret. + +It turned out that Long-Hair's wound was neither a broken bone nor +a cut artery. The flesh of his leg, midway between the hip and the +knee, was pierced; the bullet had bored a neat hole clean through. +Father Beret took the case in hand, and with no little surgical +skill proceeded to set the big Indian upon his feet again. The +affair had to be cleverly managed. Food, medicines and clothing +were surreptitiously borne across the river; a bed of grass was +kept fresh under Long-Hair's back; his wound was regularly +dressed; and finally his weapons--a tomahawk, a knife, a strong +bow and a quiver of arrows--which he had hidden on the night of +his bold theft, were brought to him. + +"Now go and sin no more," said good Father Beret; but he well knew +that his words were mere puffs of articulate wind in the ear of +the grim and silent savage, who limped away with an air of stately +dignity into the wilderness. + +A load fell from Alice's mind when Father Beret informed her of +Long-Hair's recovery and departure. Day and night the dread lest +some of the men should find out his hiding-place and kill him had +depressed and worried her. And now, when it was all over, there +still hovered like an elusive shadow in her consciousness a vague +haunting impression of the incident's immense significance as an +influence in her life. To feel that she had saved a man from death +was a new sensation of itself; but the man and the circumstances +were picturesque; they invited imagination; they furnished an +atmosphere of romance dear to all young and healthy natures, and +somehow stirred her soul with a strange appeal. + +Long-Hair's imperturbable calmness, his stolid, immobile +countenance, the mysterious reptilian gleam of his shifty black +eyes, and the soulless expression always lurking in them, kept a +fascinating hold on the girl's memory. They blended curiously with +the impressions left by the romances she had read in M. +Roussillon's mildewed books. + +Long-Hair was not a young man; but it would have been impossible +to guess near his age. His form and face simply showed long +experience and immeasurable vigor. Alice remembered with a +shuddering sensation the look he gave her when she took the locket +from his hand. It was of but a second's duration, yet it seemed to +search every nook of her being with its subtle power. + +Romancers have made much of their Indian heroes, picturing them as +models of manly beauty and nobility; but all fiction must be taken +with liberal pinches of salt. The plain truth is that dark savages +of the pure blood often do possess the magnetism of perfect +physical development and unfathomable mental strangeness; but real +beauty they never have. Their innate repulsiveness is so great +that, like the snake's charm, it may fascinate; yet an +indescribable, haunting disgust goes with it. And, after all, if +Alice had been asked to tell just how she felt toward the Indian +she had labored so hard to save, she would promptly have said: + +"I loathe him as I do a toad!" + +Nor would Father Beret, put to the same test, have made a +substantially different confession. His work, to do which his life +went as fuel to fire, was training the souls of Indians for the +reception of divine grace; but experience had not changed his +first impression of savage character. When he traveled in the +wilderness he carried the Word and the Cross; but he was also +armed with a gun and two good pistols, not to mention a dangerous +knife. The rumor prevailed that Father Beret could drive a nail at +sixty yards with his rifle, and at twenty snuff a candle with +either one of his pistols. + + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE FIRST MAYOR OF VINCENNES + + +Governor Abbott probably never so much as heard of the dame jeanne +of French brandy sent to him by his creole friend in New Orleans. +He had been gone from Vincennes several months when the batteau +arrived, having been recalled to Detroit by the British +authorities; and he never returned. Meantime the little post with +its quaint cabins and its dilapidated block-house, called Fort +Sackville, lay sunning drowsily by the river in a blissful state +of helplessness from the military point of view. There was no +garrison; the two or three pieces of artillery, abandoned and +exposed, gathered rust and cobwebs, while the pickets of the +stockade, decaying and loosened in the ground by winter freezes +and summer rains, leaned in all directions, a picture of decay and +inefficiency. + +The inhabitants of the town, numbering about six hundred, lived +very much as pleased them, without any regular municipal +government, each family its own tribe, each man a law unto +himself; yet for mutual protection, they all kept in touch and had +certain common rights which were religiously respected and +defended faithfully. A large pasturing ground was fenced in where +the goats and little black cows of the villagers browsed as one +herd, while the patches of wheat, corn and vegetables were not +inclosed at all. A few of the thriftier and more important +citizens, however, had separate estates of some magnitude, +surrounding their residences, kept up with care and, if the time +and place be taken into account, with considerable show of taste. + +Monsieur Gaspard Roussillon was looked upon as the aristocrat par +excellence of Vincennes, notwithstanding the fact that his name +bore no suggestion of noble or titled ancestry. He was rich and in +a measure educated; moreover the successful man's patent of +leadership, a commanding figure and a suave manner, came always to +his assistance when a crisis presented itself. He traded shrewdly, +much to his own profit, but invariably with the excellent result +that the man, white or Indian, with whom he did business felt +himself especially favored in the transaction. By the exercise of +firmness, prudence, vast assumption, florid eloquence and a kindly +liberality he had greatly endeared himself to the people; so that +in the absence of a military commander he came naturally to be +regarded as the chief of the town, Mo'sieu' le maire. + +He returned from his extended trading expedition about the middle +of July, bringing, as was his invariable rule, a gift for Alice. +This time it was a small, thin disc of white flint, with a hole in +the center through which a beaded cord of sinew was looped. The +edge of the disc was beautifully notched and the whole surface +polished so that it shone like glass, while the beads, made of +very small segments of porcupine quills, were variously dyed, +making a curiously gaudy show of bright colors. + +"There now, ma cherie, is something worth fifty times its weight +in gold," said M. Roussillon when he presented the necklace to his +foster daughter with pardonable self-satisfaction. "It is a sacred +charm-string given me by an old heathen who would sell his soul +for a pint of cheap rum. He solemnly informed me that whoever wore +it could not by any possibility be killed by an enemy." + +Alice kissed M. Roussillon. + +"It's so curious and beautiful," she said, holding it up and +drawing the variegated string through her fingers. Then, with her +mischievous laugh, she added; "and I'm glad it is so powerful +against one's enemy; I'll wear it whenever I go where Adrienne +Bourcier is, see if I don't!" + +"Is she your enemy? What's up between you and la petite Adrienne, +eh?" M. Roussillon lightly demanded. "You were always the best of +good friends, I thought. What's happened?" + +"Oh, we are good friends," said Alice, quickly, "very good +friends, indeed; I was but chaffing." + +"Good friends, but enemies; that's how it is with women. Who's the +young man that's caused the coolness? I could guess, maybe!" He +laughed and winked knowingly. "May I be so bold as to name him at +a venture?" + +"Yes, if you'll be sure to mention Monsieur Rene de Ronville," she +gayly answered. "Who but he could work Adrienne up into a perfect +green mist of jealousy?" + +"He would need an accomplice, I should imagine; a young lady of +some beauty and a good deal of heartlessness." + +"Like whom, for example?" and she tossed her bright head. "Not me, +I am sure." + +"Poh! like every pretty maiden in the whole world, ma petite +coquette; they're all alike as peas, cruel as blue jays and as +sweet as apple-blossoms." He stroked her hair clumsily with his +large hand, as a heavy and roughly fond man is apt to do, adding +in an almost serious tone: + +"But my little girl is better than most of them, not a foolish +mischief-maker, I hope." + +Alice was putting her head through the string of beads and letting +the translucent white disc fall into her bosom. + +"It's time to change the subject," she said; "tell me what you +have seen while away. I wish I could go far off and see things. +Have you been to Detroit, Quebec, Montreal?" + +"Yes, I've been to all, a long, hard journey, but reasonably +profitable. You shall have a goodly dot when you get married, my +child." + +"And did you attend any parties and balls?" she inquired quickly, +ignoring his concluding remark. "Tell me about them. How do the +fine ladies dress, and do they wear their hair high with great big +combs? Do they have long skirts and--" + +"Hold up, you double-tongued chatterbox!" he interrupted; "I can't +answer forty questions at once. Yes, I danced till my legs ached +with women old and girls young; but how could I remember how they +were dressed and what their style of coiffure was? I know that +silk rustled and there was a perfume of eau de Cologne and +mignonette and my heart expanded and blazed while I whirled like a +top with a sweet lady in my arms." + +"Yes, you must have cut a ravishing figure!" interpolated Madame +Roussillon with emphatic disapproval, her eyes snapping. "A bull in +a lace shop. How delighted the ladies must have been!" + +"Never saw such blushing faces and burning glances--such +fluttering breasts, such--" + +"Big braggart," Madame Roussillon broke in contemptuously, "it's a +piastre to a sou that you stood gawping in through a window while +gentlemen and ladies did the dancing. I can imagine how you looked +--I can!" and with this she took her prodigious bulk at a waddling +gait out of the room. "I remember how you danced even when you +were not clumsy as a pig on ice!" she shrieked back over her +shoulder. + +"Parbleu! true enough, my dear," he called after her, "I should +think you could--you mind how we used trip it together. You were +the prettiest dancer them all, and the young fellows all went to +the swords about you!" + +"But tell me more," Alice insisted; "I want to know about what you +saw in the great towns--in the fine houses--how the ladies looked, +how they acted--what they said--the dresses they wore--how--" + +"Ciel! you will split my ears, child; can't you fill my pipe and +bring it to me with a coal on it? Then I'll try to tell you what I +can," he cried, assuming a humorously resigned air. "Perhaps if I +smoke I can remember everything." + +Alice gladly ran to do what he asked. Meantime Jean was out on the +gallery blowing a flute that M. Roussillon had brought him from +Quebec. + +The pipe well filled and lighted apparently did have the effect to +steady and encourage M. Roussillon's memory; or if not his memory, +then his imagination, which was of that fervid and liberal sort +common to natives of the Midi, and which has been exquisitely +depicted by the late Alphonse Daudet in Tartarin and Bompard. He +leaned far back in a strong chair, with his massive legs stretched +at full length, and gazed at the roof-poles while he talked. + +He sympathized fully, in his crude way, with Alice's lively +curiosity, and his affection for her made him anxious to appease +her longing after news from the great outside world. If the sheer +truth must come out, however, he knew precious little about that +world, especially the polite part of it in which thrived those +femininities so dear to the heart of an isolated and imaginative +girl. Still, as he, too, lived in Arcadia, there was no great +effort involved when he undertook to blow a dreamer's flute. + +In the first place he had not been in Quebec or Montreal during +his absence from home. Most of the time he had spent disposing of +pelts and furs at Detroit and in extending his trading relations +with other posts; but what mattered a trifling want of facts when +his meridional fancy once began to warm up? A smattering of social +knowledge gained at first hand in his youthful days in France +while he was a student whose parents fondly expected him to +conquer the world, came to his aid, and besides he had saturated +himself all his life with poetry and romance. Scudery, Scarron, +Prevost, Madame La Fayette and Calprenede were the chief sources +of his information touching the life and manners, morals and +gayeties of people who, as he supposed, stirred the surface of +that resplendent and far-off ocean called society. Nothing suited +him better than to smoke a pipe and talk about what he had seen +and done; and the less he had really seen and done the more he had +to tell. + +His broad, almost over-virile, kindly and contented face beamed +with the warmth of wholly imaginary recollections while he +recounted with minute circumstantiality to the delighted Alice his +gallant adventures in the crowded and brilliant ball-rooms of the +French-Canadian towns. The rolling burr of his bass voice, deep +and resonant, gave force to the improvised descriptions. + +Madame Roussillon heard the heavy booming and presently came +softly back into the door from the kitchen to listen. She leaned +against the facing in an attitude of ponderous attention, a hand, +on her bulging hip. She could not suppress her unbounded +admiration of her liege lord's manly physique, and jealous to +fierceness as she was of his experiences so eloquently and +picturesquely related, her woman's nature took fire with enjoyment +of the scenes described. + +This is the mission of the poet and the romancer--to sponge out +of existence, for a time, the stiff, refractory, and unlovely +realities and give in their place a scene of ideal mobility and +charm. The two women reveled in Gaspard Roussillon's revelations. +They saw the brilliant companies, the luxurious surroundings, +heard the rustle of brocade and the fine flutter of laces, the hum +of sweet voices, breathed in the wafts of costly perfumeries, +looked on while the dancers whirled and flickered in the confusion +of lights; and over all and through all poured and vibrated such +ravishing music as only the southern imagination could have +conjured up out of nothing. + +Alice was absolutely charmed. She sat on a low wooden stool and +gazed into Gaspard Roussillon's face with dilating eyes in which +burned that rich and radiant something we call a passionate soul. +She drank in his flamboyant stream of words with a thirst which +nothing but experience could ever quench. He felt her silent +applause and the admiring involuntary absorption that possessed +his wife; the consciousness of his elementary magnetism augmented +the flow of his fine descriptions, and he went on and on, until +the arrival of Father Beret put an end to it all. + +The priest, hearing of M. Roussillon's return, had come to inquire +about some friends living at Detroit. He took luncheon with the +family, enjoying the downright refreshing collation of broiled +birds, onions, meal-cakes and claret, ending with a dish of +blackberries and cream. + +M. Roussillon seized the first opportunity to resume his +successful romancing, and presently in the midst of the meal began +to tell Father Beret about what he had seen in Quebec. + +"By the way," he said, with expansive casualness in his voice, "I +called upon your old-time friend and co-adjutor, Father +Sebastien, while up there. A noble old man. He sent you a thousand +good messages. Was mightily delighted when I told him how happy +and hale you have always been here. Ah, you should have seen his +dear old eyes full of loving tears. He would walk a hundred miles +to see you, he said, but never expected to in this world. +Blessings, blessings upon dear Father Beret, was what he murmured +in my ear when we were parting. He says that he will never leave +Quebec until he goes to his home above--ah!" + +The way in which M. Roussillon closed his little speech, his large +eyes upturned, his huge hands clasped in front of him, was very +effective. + +"I am under many obligations, my son," said Father Beret, "for +what you tell me. It was good of you to remember my dear old +friend and go to him for his loving messages to me. I am very, +very thankful. Help me to another drop of wine, please." + +Now the extraordinary feature of the situation was that Father +Beret had known positively for nearly five years that Father +Sebastien was dead and buried. + +"Ah, yes," M. Roussillon continued, pouring the claret with one +hand and making a pious gesture with the other; "the dear old man +loves you and prays for you; his voice quavers whenever he speaks +of you." + +"Doubtless he made his old joke to you about the birth-mark on my +shoulder," said Father Beret after a moment of apparently +thoughtful silence. "He may have said something about it in a +playful way, eh?" + +"True, true, why yes, he surely mentioned the same," assented M. +Roussillon, his face assuming an expression of confused memory; +"it was something sly and humorous, I mind; but it just escapes my +recollection. A right jolly old boy is Father Sebastien; indeed +very amusing at times." + +"At times, yes," said Father Beret, who had no birth-mark on his +shoulder, and had never had one there, or on any other part of his +person. + +"How strange!" Alice remarked, "I, too, have a mark on my +shoulder--a pink spot, just like a small, five-petaled flower. We +must be of kin to each other, Father Beret." + +The priest laughed. + +"If our marks are alike, that would be some evidence of kinship," +he said. + +"But what shape is yours, Father?" + +"I've never seen it," he responded. + +"Never seen it! Why?" + +"Well, it's absolutely invisible," and he chuckled heartily, +meantime glancing shrewdly at M. Roussillon out of the tail of his +eye. + +"It's on the back part of his shoulder," quickly spoke up M. +Roussillon, "and you know priests never use looking-glasses. The +mark is quite invisible therefore, so far as Father Beret is +concerned!" + +"You never told me of your birth-mark before, my daughter," said +Father Beret, turning to Alice with sudden interest. "It may some +day be good fortune to you." + +"Why so, Father?" + +"If your family name is really Tarleton, as you suppose from the +inscription on your locket, the birth-mark, being of such singular +shape, would probably identify you. It is said that these marks +run regularly in families. With the miniature and the +distinguishing birth-mark you have enough to make a strong case +should you once find the right Tarleton family." + +"You talk as they write in novels," said Alice. "I've read about +just such things in them. Wouldn't it be grand if I should turn +out to be some great personage in disguise!" + +The mention of novels reminded Father Beret of that terrible book, +Manon Lescaut, which he last saw in Alice's possession, and he +could not refrain from mentioning it in a voice that shuddered. + +"Rest easy, Father Beret," said Alice; "that is one novel I have +found wholly distasteful to me. I tried to read it, but could not +do it, I flung it aside in utter disgust. You and mother +Roussillon are welcome to hide it deep as a well, for all I care. +I don't enjoy reading about low, vile people and hopeless +unfortunates; I like sweet and lovely heroines and strong, high- +souled, brave heroes." + +"Read about the blessed saints, then, my daughter; you will find +in them the true heroes and heroines of this world," said Father +Beret. + +M. Roussillon changed the subject, for he always somehow dreaded +to have the good priest fall into the strain of argument he was +about to begin. A stray sheep, no matter how refractory, feels a +touch of longing when it hears the shepherd's voice. M. Roussillon +was a Catholic, but a straying one, who avoided the confessional +and often forgot mass. Still, with all his reckless independence, +and with all his outward show of large and breezy self- +sufficiency, he was not altogether free from the hold that the +church had laid upon him in childhood and youth. Moreover, he was +fond of Father Beret and had done a great deal for the little +church of St. Xavier and the mission it represented; but he +distinctly desired to be let alone while he pursued his own +course; and he had promised the dying woman who gave Alice to him +that the child should be left as she was, a Protestant, without +undue influence to change her from the faith of her parents. This +promise he had kept with stubborn persistence and he meant to keep +it as long as he lived. Perhaps the very fact that his innermost +conscience smote him with vague yet telling blows at times for +this departure from the strict religion of his fathers, may have +intensified his resistance of the influence constantly exerted +upon Alice by Father Beret and Madame Roussillon, to bring her +gently but surely to the church. Perverseness is a force to be +reckoned with in all original characters. + +A few weeks had passed after M. Roussillon's return, when that +big-hearted man took it into his head to celebrate his successful +trading ventures with a moonlight dance given without reserve to +all the inhabitants of Vincennes. It was certainly a democratic +function that he contemplated, and motley to a most picturesque +extent. + +Rene de Ronville called upon Alice a day or two previous to the +occasion and duly engaged her as his partenaire; but she insisted +upon having the engagement guarded in her behalf by a condition so +obviously fanciful that he accepted it without argument. + +"If my wandering knight should arrive during the dance, you +promise to stand aside and give place to him," she stipulated. +"You promise that? You see I'm expecting him all the time. I +dreamed last night that he came on a great bay horse and, +stooping, whirled me up behind the saddle, and away we went!" + +There was a childish, half bantering air in her look; but her +voice sounded earnest and serious, notwithstanding its delicious +timbre of suppressed playfulness. + +"You promise me?" she insisted. + +"Oh, I promise to slink away into a corner and chew my thumb, the +moment he comes," Rene eagerly assented. "Of course I'm taking a +great risk, I know; for lords and barons and knights are very apt +to appear Suddenly in a place like this." + +"You may banter and make light if you want to," she said, pouting +admirably. "I don't care. All the same the laugh will jump to the +other corner of your mouth, see if it doesn't. They say that what +a person dreams about and wishes for and waits for and believes +in, will come true sooner or later." + +"If that's so," said Rene, "you and I will get married; for I've +dreamed it every night of the year, wished for it, waited for it +and believed in it, and--" + +It was a madly sudden rush. He made it on an impulse quite +irresistible, as hypnotized persons are said to do in response to +the suggestion of the hypnotist, and his heart was choking his +throat before he could end his speech. Alice interrupted him with +a hearty burst of laughter. + +"A very pretty twist you give to my words, I must declare," she +said; "but not new by any means. Little Adrienne Bourcier could +tell you that. She says that you have vowed to her over and over +that you dream about her, and wish for her, and wait for her, +precisely as you have just said to me," + +Rene's brown face flushed to the temples, partly with anger, +partly with the shock of mingled surprise and fear. He was guilty, +and the guilt showed in his eyes and paralyzed his tongue, so that +he sat there before Alice with his under jaw sagging ludicrously. + +"Don't you rather think, Monsieur Rene de Ronville," she presently +added in a calmly advisory tone, "that you had better quit trying +to say such foolish things to me, and just be my very good friend? +If you don't, I do, which comes to the same thing. What's more, I +won't be your partenaire at the dance unless you promise me on +your word of honor that you will dance two dances with Adrienne to +every one that you have with me. Do you promise?" + +He dared not oppose her outwardly, although in his heart +resistance amounted to furious revolt and riot. + +"I promise anything you ask me to," he said resignedly, almost +sullenly; "anything for you." + +"Well, I ask nothing whatever on my own account," Alice quickly +replied; "but I do tell you firmly that you shall not maltreat +little Adrienne Bourcier and remain a friend of mine. She loves +you, Rene de Ronville, and you have told her that you love her. If +you are a man worthy of respect you will not desert her. Don't you +think I am right?" + +Like a singed and crippled moth vainly trying to rise once again +to the alluring yet deadly flame, Rene de Ronville essayed to +break out of his embarrassment and resume equal footing with the +girl so suddenly become his commanding superior; but the effort +disclosed to him as well as to her that he had fallen to rise no +more. In his abject defeat he accepted the terms dictated by Alice +and was glad when she adroitly changed her manner and tone in +going on to discuss the approaching dance. + +"Now let me make one request of you," he demanded after a while. +"It's a small favor; may I ask it?" + +"Yes, but I don't grant it in advance." + +"I want you to wear, for my sake, the buff gown which they say +was your grandmother's." + +"No, I won't wear it." + +"But why, Alice?" + +"None of the other girls have anything like such a dress; it would +not be right for me to put it on and make them all feel that I had +taken the advantage of them, just because I could; that's why." + +"But then none of them is beautiful and educated like you," he +said; "you'll outshine them anyway." + +"Save your compliments for poor pretty little Adrienne," she +firmly responded, "I positively do not wish to hear them. I have +agreed to be your partenaire at this dance of Papa Roussillon's, +but it is understood between us that Adrienne is your sweet-heart. +I am not, and I'm not going to be, either. So for your sake and +Adrienne's, as well as out of consideration for the rest of the +girls who have no fine dresses, I am not going to wear the buff +brocade gown that belonged to Papa Roussillon's mother long ago. I +shall dress just as the rest do." + +It is safe to say that Rene de Ronville went home with a +troublesome bee in his bonnet. He was not a bad-hearted fellow. +Many a right good young man, before him and since, has loved an +Adrienne and been dazzled by an Alice. A violet is sweet, but a +rose is the garden's queen. The poor youthful frontiersman ought +to have been stronger; but he was not, and what have we to say? + +As for Alice, since having a confidential talk with Adrienne +Bourcier recently, she had come to realize what M. Roussillon +meant when he said; "But my little girl is better than most of +them, not a foolish mischief-maker, I hope." She saw through the +situation with a quick understanding of what Adrienne might suffer +should Rene prove permanently fickle. The thought of it aroused +all her natural honesty and serious nobleness of character, which +lay deep under the almost hoydenish levity usually observable in +her manner. Crude as her sense of life's larger significance was, +and meager as had been her experience in the things which count +for most in the sum of a young girl's existence under fair +circumstances, she grasped intuitively the gist of it all. + +The dance did not come off; it had to be postponed indefinitely on +account of a grave change in the political relations of the little +post. A day or two before the time set for that function a rumor +ran through the town that something of importance was about to +happen. Father Gibault, at the head of a small party, had arrived +from Kaskaskia, far away on the Mississippi, with the news that +France and the American Colonies had made common cause against the +English in the great war of which the people of Vincennes neither +knew the cause nor cared a straw about the outcome. + +It was Oncle Jazon who came to the Roussillon place to tell M. +Roussillon that he was wanted at the river house. Alice met him at +the door. + +"Come in, Oncle Jazon," she cheerily said, "you are getting to be +a stranger at our house lately. Come in; what news do you bring? +Take off your cap and rest your hair, Oncle Jazon." + +The scalpless old fighter chuckled raucously and bowed to the best +of his ability. He not only took off his queer cap, but looked +into it with a startled gaze, as if he expected something +infinitely dangerous to jump out and seize his nose. + +"A thousand thanks, Ma'm'selle," he presently said, "will ye +please tell Mo'sieu' Roussillon that I would wish to see 'im?" + +"Yes, Oncle Jazon; but first be seated, and let me offer you just +a drop of eau de vie; some that Papa Roussillon brought back with +him from Quebec. He says it's old and fine." + +She poured him a full glass, then setting the bottle on a little +stand, went to find M. Roussillon. While she was absent Oncle +Jazon improved his opportunity to the fullest extent. At least +three additional glasses of the brandy went the way of the first. +He grinned atrociously and smacked his corrugated lips; but when +Gaspard Roussillon came in, the old man was sitting at some +distance from the bottle and glass gazing indifferently out across +the veranda. He told his story curtly. Father Gibault, he said, +had sent him to ask M. Roussillon to come to the river house, as +he had news of great importance to communicate. + +"Ah, well, Oncle Jazon, we'll have a nip of brandy together before +we go," said the host. + +"Why, yes, jes" one agin' the broilin' weather," assented Oncle +Jazon; "I don't mind jes' one." + +"A very rich friend of mine in Quebec gave me this brandy, Oncle +Jazon," said M. Roussillon, pouring the liquor with a grand +flourish; "and I thought of you as soon as I got it. Now, says I +to myself, if any man knows good brandy when he tastes it, it's +Oncle Jazon, and I'll give him a good chance at this bottle just +the first of all my friends." + +"It surely is delicious," said Oncle Jazon, "very delicious." He +spoke French with a curious accent, having spent long years with +English-speaking frontiersmen in the Carolinas and Kentucky, so +that their lingo had become his own. + +As they walked side by side down the way to the river house they +looked like typical extremes of rough, sun-burned and weather- +tanned manhood; Oncle Jazon a wizened, diminutive scrap, wrinkled +and odd in every respect; Gaspard Roussillon towering six feet +two, wide shouldered, massive, lumbering, muscular, a giant with +long curling hair and a superb beard. They did not know that they +were going down to help dedicate the great Northwest to freedom. + + + + + +CHAPTER V + +FATHER GIBAULT + + +Great movements in the affairs of men are like tides of the seas +which reach and affect the remotest and quietest nooks and inlets, +imparting a thrill and a swell of the general motion. Father +Gibault brought the wave of the American Revolution to Vincennes. +He was a simple missionary; but he was, besides, a man of great +worldly knowledge and personal force. Colonel George Rogers Clark +made Father Gibault's acquaintance at Kaskaskia, when the fort and +its garrison surrendered to his command, and, quickly discerning +the fine qualities of the priest's character, sent him to the post +on the Wabash to win over its people to the cause of freedom and +independence. Nor was the task assumed a hard one, as Father +Gibault probably well knew before he undertook it. + +A few of the leading men of Vincennes, presided over by Gaspard +Roussillon, held a consultation at the river house, and it was +agreed that a mass meeting should be called bringing all of the +inhabitants together in the church for the purpose of considering +the course to be taken under the circumstances made known by +Father Gibault. Oncle Jazon constituted himself an executive +committee of one to stir up a noise for the occasion. + +It was a great day for Vincennes. The volatile temperament of the +French frontiersmen bubbled over with enthusiasm at the first hint +of something new, and revolutionary in which they might be +expected to take part. Without knowing in the least what it was +that Father Gibault and Oncle Jazon wanted of them, they were all +in favor of it at a venture. + +Rene de Ronville, being an active and intelligent young man, was +sent about through the town to let everybody know of the meeting. +In passing he stepped into the cabin of Father Beret, who was +sitting on the loose puncheon floor, with his back turned toward +the entrance and so absorbed in trying to put together a great +number of small paper fragments that he did not hear or look up. + +"Are you not going to the meeting, Father?" Rene bluntly demanded. +In the hurry that was on him he did not remember to be formally +polite, as was his habit. + +The old priest looked up with a startled face. At the same time he +swept the fragments of paper together and clutched them hard in +his right hand. "Yes, yes, my son--yes I am going, but the time +has not yet come for it, has it?" he stammered. "Is it late?" + +He sprang to his feet and appeared confused, as if caught in doing +something very improper. + +Rene wondered at this unusual behavior, but merely said: + +"I beg pardon, Father Beret, I did not mean to disturb you," and +went his way. + +Father Beret stood for some minutes as if dazed, then squeezed the +paper fragments into a tight ball, just as they were when he took +them from under the floor some time before Rene came in, and put +it in his pocket. A little later he was kneeling, as we have seen +him once before, in silent yet fervent prayer, his clasped hands +lifted toward the crucifix on the wall. + +"Jesus, give me strength to hold on and do my work," he murmured +beseechingly, "and oh, free thy poor servant from bitter +temptation." + +Father Gibault had come prepared to use his eloquence upon the +excitable Creoles, and with considerable cunning he addressed a +motley audience at the church, telling them that an American force +had taken Kaskaskia and would henceforth hold it; that France had +joined hands with the Americans against the British, and that it +was the duty of all Frenchmen to help uphold the cause of freedom +and independence. + +"I come," said he, "directly from Colonel George Rogers Clark, a +noble and brave officer of the American army, who told me the news +that I have brought to you. He sent me here to say to you that if +you will give allegiance to his government you shall be protected +against all enemies and have the full freedom of citizens. I think +you should do this without a moment's hesitation, as I and my +people at Kaskaskia have already done. But perhaps you would like +to have a word from your distinguished fellow-citizen, Monsieur +Gaspard Roussillon. Speak to your friends, my son, they will be +glad to take counsel of your wisdom." + +There was a stir and a craning of necks. M. Roussillon presently +appeared near the little chancel, his great form towering +majestically. He bowed and waved his hand with the air of one who +accepts distinction as a matter of course; then he took his big +silver watch and looked at it. He was the only man in Vincennes +who owned a watch, and so the incident was impressive. Father +Gibault looked pleased, and already a murmur of applause went +through the audience. M. Roussillon stroked the bulging crystal of +the time-piece with a circular motion of his thumb and bowed +again, clearing his throat resonantly, his face growing purplish +above his beard. + +"Good friends," he said, "what France does all high-class +Frenchmen applaud." He paused for a shout of approbation, and was +not disappointed. "The other name for France is glory," he added, +"and all true Frenchmen love both names. I am a true Frenchman!" +and he struck his breast a resounding blow with the hand that +still held the watch. A huge horn button on his buckskin jerkin +came iu contact with the crystal, and there was a smash, followed +by a scattered tinkling of glass fragments. + +All Vincennes stood breathless, contemplating the irreparable +accident. M. Roussillon had lost the effect of a great period in +his speech, but he was quick. Lifting the watch to his ear, he +listened a moment with superb dignity, then slowly elevating his +head and spreading his free hand over his heart he said: + +"The faithful time-piece still tells off the seconds, and the +loyal heart of its owner still throbs with patriotism." + +Oncle Jazon, who stood in front of the speaker, swung his +shapeless cap as high as he could and yelled like a savage. Then +the crowd went wild for a time. + +"Vive la France! A bas l' Angleterre!" Everybody shouted at the +top of his voice. + +"What France does we all do," continued M. Roussillon, when the +noise subsided. "France has clasped hands with George Washington +and his brave compatriots; so do we." + +"Vive Zhorzh Vasinton!" shrieked Oncle Jazon in a piercing treble, +tiptoeing and shaking his cap recklessly under M. Roussillon's +nose. + +The orator winced and jerked his head back, but nobody saw it, +save perhaps Father Gibault, who laughed heartily. + +Great sayings come suddenly, unannounced and unexpected. They have +the mysterious force of prophetic accident combined with happy +economy of phrasing. The southern blood in M. Roussillon's veins +was effervescing upon his brain; his tongue had caught the fine +freedom and abandon of inspired oratory. He towered and glowed; +words fell melodiously from his lips; his gestures were +compelling, his visage magnetic. In conclusion he said: + +"Frenchmen, America is the garden-spot of the world and will one +day rule it, as did Rome of old. Where freedom makes her home, +there is the centre of power!" + +It was in a little log church on the verge of a hummock +overlooking a marshy wild meadow. Westward for two thousand miles +stretched the unbroken prairies, woods, mountains, deserts +reaching to the Pacific; southward for a thousand miles rolled the +green billows of the wilderness to the warm Gulf shore; northward +to the pole and eastward to the thin fringe of settlements beyond +the mountains, all was houseless solitude. + +If the reader should go to Vincennes to-day and walk southward +along Second Street to its intersection with Church Street, the +spot then under foot would be probably very near where M. +Roussillon stood while uttering his great sentence. Mind you, the +present writer does not pretend to know the exact site of old +Saint Xavier church. If it could be fixed beyond doubt the spot +should have an imperishable monument of Indiana stone. + +When M, Roussillon ceased speaking the audience again exhausted +its vocal resources; and then Father Gibault called upon each man +to come forward and solemnly pledge his loyalty to the American +cause. Not one of them hesitated. + +Meantime a woman was doing her part in the transformation of Post +Vincennes from a French-English picket to a full-fledged American +fort and town. Madame Godere, finding out what was about to +happen, fell to work making a flag in imitation of that under +which George Washington was fighting. Alice chanced to be in the +Godere home at the time and joined enthusiastically in the sewing. +It was an exciting task. Their fingers trembled while they worked, +and the thread, heavily coated with beeswax, squeaked as they drew +it through the cloth. + +"We shall not be in time," said Madame Godere; "I know we shall +not. Everything hinders me. My thread breaks or gets tangled and +my needle's so rusty I can hardly stick it through the cloth. O +dear!" + +Alice encouraged her with both words and work, and they had almost +finished when Rene came with a staff which he had brought from the +fort. + +"Mon dieu, but we have had a great meeting!" he cried. He was +perspiring with excitement and fast walking; leaning on the staff +he mopped his face with a blue handkerchief. + +"We heard much shouting and noise," said Madame Godere, "M. +Roussillon's voice rose loud above the rest. He roared like a +lion." + +"Ah, he was speaking to us; he was very eloquent," Rene replied. +"But now they are waiting at the fort for the new flag. I have +come for it." + +"It is ready," said Madame Godere. + +With flying fingers Alice sewed it to the staff. + +"Voici!" she cried, "vive la republique Americaine!" She lifted +the staff and let the flag droop over her from head to foot. + +"Give it to me," said Rene, holding forth a hand for it, "and I'll +run to the fort with it." + +"No," said Alice, her face suddenly lighting up with resolve. "No, +I am going to take it myself," and without a moment's delay off +she went. + +Rene was so caught by surprise that he stood gazing after her +until she passed behind a house, where the way turned, the shining +flag rippling around her, and her moccasins twinkling as she ran. + +At the blockhouse, awaiting the moment when the symbol of freedom +should rise like a star over old Vincennes the crowd had +picturesquely broken into scattered groups. Alice entered through +a rent in the stockade, as that happened to be a shorter route +than through the gate, and appeared suddenly almost in their +midst. + +It was a happy surprise, a pretty and catching spectacular +apparition of a sort to be thoroughly appreciated by the lively +French fancy of the audience. The caught the girl's spirit, or it +caught them, and they made haste to be noisy. + +"V'la! V'la! l'p'tite Alice et la bannlere de Zhorzh Vasinton! +(Look, look, little Alice and George Washington's flag!)" shouted +Oncle Jazon. He put his wiry little legs through a sort of pas de +zephyr and winked at himself with concentrated approval. + +All the men danced around and yelled till they were hoarse. + +By this time Rene had reached Alice's side; but she did not see +him; she ran into the blockhouse and climbed up a rude ladder-way; +then she appeared on the roof, still accompanied by Rene, and +planted the staff in a crack of the slabs, where it stood bravely +up, the colors floating free. + +She looked down and saw M. Roussillon, Father Gibault and Father +Beret grouped in the centre of the area. They were waving their +hands aloft at her, while a bedlam of voices sent up applause +which went through her blood like strong wine. She smiled +radiantly, and a sweet flush glowed in her cheeks. + +No one of all that wild crowd could ever forget the picture +sketched so boldly at that moment when, after planting the staff, +Alice stepped back a space and stood strong and beautiful against +the soft blue sky. She glanced down first, then looked up, her +arms folded across her bosom. It was a pose as unconsciously taken +as that of a bird, and the grace of it went straight to the hearts +of those below. + +She turned about to descend, and for the first time saw that Rene +had followed her. His face was beaming. + +"What a girl you are!" he exclaimed, in a tone of exultant +admiration. "Never was there another like you!" + +Alice walked quickly past him without speaking; for down in the +space where some women were huddled aside from the crowd, looking +on, she had seen little Adrienne Bourcier. She made haste to +descend. Now that her impulsively chosen enterprise was completed +her boldness deserted her and she slipped out through a +dilapidated postern opposite the crowd. On her right was the +river, while southward before her lay a great flat plain, beyond +which rose some hillocks covered with forest. The sun blazed +between masses of slowly drifting clouds that trailed creeping +fantastic shadows across the marshy waste. + +Alice walked along under cover of the slight landswell which then, +more plainly marked than it is now, formed the contour line of +hummock upon which the fort and village stood. A watery swale +grown full of tall aquatic weeds meandered parallel with the +bluff, so to call it, and there was a soft melancholy whispering +of wind among the long blades and stems. She passed the church and +Father Beret's hut and continued for some distance in the +direction of that pretty knoll upon which the cemetery is at +present so tastefully kept. She felt shy now, as if to run away +and hide would be a great relief. Indeed, so relaxed were her +nerves that a slight movement in the grass and cat-tail flags near +by startled her painfully, making her jump like a fawn. + +"Little friend not be 'fraid," said a guttural voice in broken +French. "Little friend not make noise." + +At a glance she recognized Long-Hair, the Indian, rising out of +the matted marsh growth. It was a hideous vision of embodied +cunning, soullessness and murderous cruelty. + +"Not tell white man you see me?" he grunted interrogatively, +stepping close to her. He looked so wicked that she recoiled and +lifted her hands defensively. + +She trembled from head to foot, and her voice failed her; but she +made a negative sign and smiled at him, turning as white as her +tanned face could become. + +In his left hand he held his bow, while in his right he half +lifted a murderous looking tomahawk. + +"What new flag mean?" he demanded, waving the bow's end toward the +fort and bending his head down close to hers. "Who yonder?" + +"The great American Father has taken us under his protection," she +explained. "We are big-knives now." It almost choked her to speak. + +"Ugh! heap damn fools," he said with a dark scowl. "Little friend +much damn fool." + +He straightened up his tall form and stood leering at her for some +seconds, then added: + +"Little friend get killed, scalped, maybe." + +The indescribable nobility of animal largeness, symmetry and +strength showed in his form and attitude, but the expression of +his countenance was absolutely repulsive--cold, hard, beastly. + +He did not speak again, but turned quickly, and stooping low, +disappeared like a great brownish red serpent in the high grass, +which scarcely stirred as he moved through it. + +Somehow that day made itself strangely memorable to Alice. She had +been accustomed to stirring scenes and sudden changes of +conditions; but this was the first time that she had ever joined +actively in a public movement of importance. Then, too, Long- +Hair's picturesque and rudely dramatic reappearance affected her +imagination with an indescribable force. Moreover, the pathetic +situation in the love affair between Rene and Adrienne had taken +hold of her conscience with a disturbing grip. But the shadowy +sense of impending events, of which she could form no idea, was +behind it all. She had not heard of Brandywine, or Bunker Hill, or +Lexington, or Concord; but something like a waft of their +significance had blown through her mind. A great change was coming +into her idyllic life. She was indistinctly aware of it, as we +sometimes are of an approaching storm, while yet the sky is +sweetly blue and serene. When she reached home the house was full +of people to whom M. Roussillon, in the gayest of moods, was +dispensing wine and brandy. + +"Vive Zhorzh Vasinton!" shouted Oncle Jazon as soon as he saw her. + +And then they all talked at once, saying flattering things about +her. Madame Roussillon tried to scold as usual; but the lively +chattering of the guests drowned her voice. + +"I suppose the American commander will send a garrison here," some +one said to Father Gibault, "and repair the fort." + +"Probably," the priest replied, "in a very few weeks. Meantime we +will garrison it ourselves." + +"And we will have M. Roussillon for commander," spoke up Rene de +Ronville, who was standing by. + +"A good suggestion," assented Father Gibault; "let us organize at +once." + +Immediately the word was passed that there would be a meeting at +the fort that evening for the purpose of choosing a garrison and a +commander. Everybody went promptly at the hour set. M. Roussillon +was elected Captain by acclamation, with Rene de Ronville as his +Lieutenant. It was observed that Oncle Jazon had resumed his +dignity, and that he looked into his cap several times without +speaking. + +Meantime certain citizens, who had been in close relations with +Governor Abbott during his stay, quietly slipped out of town, +manned a batteau and went up the river, probably to Ouiatenon +first and then to Detroit. Doubtless they suspected that things +might soon grow too warm for their comfort. + +It was thus that Vincennes and Fort Sackville first acknowledged +the American Government and hoisted the flag which, as long as it +floated over the blockhouse, was lightly and lovingly called by +everyone la banniere d'Alice Roussillon. + +Father Gibault returned to Fort Kaskaskia and a little later +Captain Leonard Helm, a jovial man, but past the prime of life, +arrived at Vincennes with a commission from Col. Clark authorizing +him to supersede M. Roussillon as commander, and to act as Indian +agent for the American Government in the Department of the Wabash. +He was welcomed by the villagers, and at once made himself very +pleasing to them by adapting himself to their ways and entering +heartily into their social activities. + +M. Roussillon was absent when Captain Helm and his party came. +Rene de Ronville, nominally in command of the fort, but actually +enjoying some excellent grouse shooting with a bell-mouthed old +fowling piece on a distant prairie, could not be present to +deliver up the post; and as there was no garrison just then +visible, Helm took possession, without any formalities. + +"I think, Lieutenant, that you'd better look around through the +village and see if you can scare up this Captain what's-his-name," +said the new commander to a stalwart young officer who had come +with him. "I can't think of these French names without getting my +brain in a twist. Do you happen to recollect the Captain's name, +Lieutenant?" + +"Yes, sir; Gaspard Roussillon it reads in Colonel Clark's order; +but I am told that he's away on a trading tour," said the young +man. + +"You may be told anything by these hair-tongued parlyvoos," Helm +remarked. "It won't hurt, anyway, to find out where he lives and +make a formal call, just for appearance sake, and to enquire about +his health. I wish you would try it, sir, and let me know the +result." + +The Lieutenant felt that this was a peremptory order and turned +about to obey promptly. + +"And I say, Beverley, come back sober, if you possibly can," Helm +added in his most genial tone, thinking it a great piece of humor +to suggest sobriety to a man whose marked difference from men +generally, of that time, was his total abstinence from +intoxicating drinks. + +Lieutenant Fitzhugh Beverley was a Virginian of Virginians. His +family had long been prominent in colonial affairs and boasted a +record of great achievements both in peace and in war. He was the +only son of his parents and heir to a fine estate consisting of +lands and slaves; but, like many another of the restless young +cavaliers of the Old Dominion, he had come in search of adventure +over into Kentucky, along the path blazed by Daniel Boone; and +when Clark organized his little army, the young man's patriotic +and chivalrous nature leaped at the opportunity to serve his +country under so gallant a commander. + +Beverley was not a mere youth, although yet somewhat under thirty. +Educated abroad and naturally of a thoughtful and studious turn, +he had enriched his mind far beyond the usual limit among young +Americans of the very best class in that time; and so he appeared +older than he really was: an effect helped out by his large and +powerful form and grave dignity of bearing. Clark, who found him +useful in emergencies, cool, intrepid, daring to a fault and +possessed of excellent judgement, sent him with Helm, hoping that +he would offset with his orderly attention to details the somewhat +go-as-you-please disposition of that excellent officer. + +Beverley set out in search of the French commander's house, +impressed with no particular respect for him or his office. +Somehow Americans of Anglo-Saxon blood were slow to recognize any +good qualities whatever in the Latin Creoles of the West and +South. It seemed to them that the Frenchman and the Spaniard were +much too apt to equalize themselves socially and matrimonially +with Indians and negroes. The very fact that for a century, while +Anglo-Americans had been in constant bloody warfare with savages, +Frenchmen had managed to keep on easy and highly profitable +trading terms with them, tended to confirm the worst implication. +"Eat frogs and save your scalp," was a bit of contemptuous +frontier humor indicative of what sober judgement held in reserve +on the subject. + +Intent upon his formal mission, Lieutenant Beverley stalked boldly +into the inclosure at Roussillon place and was met on the gallery +by Madame Roussillon in one of her worst moods. She glared at him +with her hands on her hips, her mouth set irritably aslant upward, +her eyebrows gathered into a dark knot over her nose. It would be +hard to imagine a more forbidding countenance; and for +supplementary effect out popped hunchback Jean to stand behind +her, with his big head lying back in the hollow of his shoulders +and his long chin elevated, while he gawped intently up into +Beverley's face. + +"Bon jour, Madame" said the Lieutenant, lifting his hat and +speaking with a pleasant accent. "Would it be agreeable to Captain +Roussillon for me to see him a moment?" + +Despite Beverley's cleverness in using the French language, he had +a decided brusqueness of manner and a curt turn of voice not in +the least Gallic. True, the soft Virginian intonation marked every +word, and his obeisance was as low as if Madame Roussillon had +been a queen; but the light French grace was wholly lacking. + +"What do you want of my husband?" Madame Roussillon demanded. + +"Nothing unpleasant, I assure you, Madame," said Beverley. + +"Well, he's not at home, Mo'sieu; he's up the river for a few +days." + +She relaxed her stare, untied her eyebrows, and even let fall her +hands from her shelf-like hips. + +"Thank you, Madame," said Beverley, bowing again, "I am sorry not +to have seen him." + +As he was turning to go a shimmer of brown hair streaked with gold +struck upon his vision from just within the door. He paused, as if +in response to a military command, while a pair of gray eyes met +his with a flash. The cabin room was ill lighted; but the +crepuscular dimness did not seem to hinder his sight. Beyond the +girl's figure, a pair of slender swords hung crossed aslant on the +wall opposite the low door. + +Beverley had seen, in the old world galleries, pictures in which +the shadowy and somewhat uncertain background thus forced into +strongest projection the main figure, yet without clearly defining +it. The rough frame of the doorway gave just the rustic setting +suited to Alice's costume, the most striking part of which was a +grayish short gown ending just above her fringed buckskin +moccasins. Around her head she had bound a blue kerchief, a wide +corner of which lay over her crown like a loose cap. Her bright +hair hung free upon her shoulders in tumbled half curls. As a +picture, the figure and its entourage might have been artistically +effective; but as Beverley saw it in actual life the first +impression was rather embarrassing. Somehow he felt almost +irresistibly invited to laugh, though he had never been much given +to risibility. The blending, or rather the juxtaposition, of +extremes--a face, a form immediately witching, and a costume odd +to grotesquery--had made an assault upon his comprehension at +once so sudden and so direct that his dignity came near being +disastrously broken up. A splendidly beautiful child comically +clad would have made much the same half delightful, half +displeasing impression. + +Beverley could not stare at the girl, and no sooner had he turned +his back upon her than the picture in his mind changed like a +scene in a kaleidoscope. He now saw a tall, finely developed +figure and a face delicately oval, with a low, wide forehead, +arched brows, a straight, slightly tip-tilted nose, a mouth sweet +and full. dimpled cheeks, and a strong chin set above a faultless +throat. His imagination, in casting off its first impression, was +inclined to exaggerate Alice's beauty and to dwell upon its +picturesqueness. He smiled as he walked back to the fort, and even +found himself whistling gayly a snatch from a rollicking fiddle- +tune that he had heard when a boy. + + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +A FENCING BOUT + + +A few days after Helm's arrival, M. Roussillon returned to +Vincennes, and if he was sorely touched in his amour propre by +seeing his suddenly acquired military rank and title drop away, he +did not let it be known to his fellow citizens. He promptly called +upon the new commander and made acquaintance with Lieutenant +Fitzhugh Beverley, who just then was superintending the work of +cleaning up an old cannon in the fort and mending some breaks in +the stockade. + +Helm formed a great liking for the big Frenchman, whose breezy +freedom of manner and expansive good humor struck him favorably +from the beginning. M. Roussillon's ability to speak English with +considerable ease helped the friendship along, no doubt; at all +events their first interview ended with a hearty show of good +fellowship, and as time passed they became almost inseparable +companions during M. Roussillon's periods of rest from his trading +excursions among the Indians. They played cards and brewed hot +drinks over which they told marvelous stories, the latest one +invariably surpassing all its predecessors. + +Helm had an eye to business, and turned M. Roussillon's knowledge +of the Indians to valuable account, so that he soon had very +pleasant relations with most of the tribes within reach of his +agents. This gave a feeling of great security to the people of +Vincennes. They pursued their narrow agricultural activities with +excellent results and redoubled those social gayeties which, even +in hut and cabin under all the adverse conditions of extreme +frontier life, were dear to the volatile and genial French +temperament. + +Lieutenant Beverley found much to interest him in the quaint town; +but the piece de resistance was Oncle Jazon, who proved to be both +fascinating and unmanageable; a hard nut to crack, yet possessing +a kernel absolutely original in flavor. Beverley visited him one +evening in his hut--it might better be called den--a curiously +built thing, with walls of vertical poles set in a quadrangular +trench dug in the ground, and roofed with grass. Inside and out it +was plastered with clay, and the floor of dried mud was as smooth +and hard as concrete paving. In one end there was a wide fireplace +grimy with soot, in the other a mere peep-hole for a window: a +wooden bench, a bed of skins and two or three stools were barely +visible in the gloom. In the doorway Oncle Jazon sat whittling a +slender billet of hickory into a ramrod for his long flint-lock +American rifle. + +"Maybe ye know Simon Kenton," said the old man, after he and +Beverley had conversed for a while, "seeing that you are from +Kentucky--eh?" + +"Yes, I do know him well; he's a warm personal friend of mine," +said Beverley with quick interest, for it surprised him that Oncle +Jazon should know anything about Kenton. "Do you know him, +Monsieur Jazon?" + +Oncle Jazon winked conceitedly and sighted along his rudimentary +ramrod to see if it was straight; then puckering his lips, as if +on the point of whistling, made an affirmative noise quite +impossible to spell. + +"Well, I'm glad you are acquainted with Kenton," said Beverley. +"Where did you and he come together?" + +Oncle Jazon chuckled reminiscently and scratched the skinless, +cicatrized spot where his scalp had once flourished. + +"Oh, several places," he answered. "Ye see thet hair a hangin' +there on the wall?" He pointed at a dry wisp dangling under a peg +in a log barely visible by the bad light. "Well, thet's my scalp, +he! he! he!" He snickered as if the fact were a most enjoyable +joke. "Simon Kenton can tell ye about thet little affair! The +Indians thought I was dead, and they took my hair; but I wasn't +dead; I was just a givin' 'em a 'possum act. When they was gone I +got up from where I was a layin' and trotted off. My head was sore +and ventrebleu! but I was mad, he! he! he!" + +All this time he spoke in French, and the English but poorly +paraphrases his odd turns of expression. His grimaces and grunts +cannot even be hinted. + +It was a long story, as Beverley received it, told scrappily, but +with certain rude art. In the end Oncle Jazon said with unctuous +self-satisfaction: + +"Accidents will happen. I got my chance at that damned Indian who +skinned my head, and I jes took a bead on 'im with my old rifle. I +can't shoot much, never could, but I happened to hit 'im square in +the lef' eye, what I shot at, and it was a hundred yards. Down he +tumbles, and I runs to 'im and finds my same old scalp a hangin' +to his belt. Well, I lifted off his hair with my knife, and untied +mine from the belt, and then I had both scalps, he! he! he! You +ask Simon Kenton when ye see 'im. He was along at the same time, +and they made 'im run the ga'ntlet and pretty nigh beat the life +out o' 'im. Ventrebleu!" + +Beverley now recollected hearing Kenton tell the same grim story +by a camp-fire in the hills of Kentucky. Somehow it had caught a +new spirit in the French rendering, which linked it with the old +tales of adventure that he had read in his boyhood, and it +suddenly endeared Oncle Jazon to him. The rough old scrap of a man +and the powerful youth chatted together until sundown, smoking +their pipes, each feeling for what was best in the other, half +aware that in the future they would be tested together in the fire +of wild adventure. Every man is more or less a prophet at certain +points in his life. + +Twilight and moonlight were blending softly when Beverley, on his +way back to the fort, departing from a direct course, went along +the river's side southward to have a few moments of reflective +strolling within reach of the water's pleasant murmur and the +town's indefinite evening stir. Rich sweetness, the gift of early +autumn, was on the air blowing softly out of a lilac west and +singing in the willow fringe that hung here and there over the +bank. + +On the farther side of the river's wide flow, swollen by recent +heavy rains, Beverley saw a pirogue, in one end of which a dark +figure swayed to the strokes of a paddle. The slender and shallow +little craft was bobbing on the choppy waves and taking a zig-zag +course among floating logs and masses of lighter driftwood, while +making slow but certain headway toward the hither bank. + +Beverley took a bit of punk and a flint and steel from his pocket, +relit his pipe and stood watching the skilful boatman conduct his +somewhat dangerous voyage diagonally against the rolling current. +It was a shifting, hide-and-seek scene, its features appearing and +disappearing with the action of the waves and the doubtful light +reflected from fading clouds and sky. Now and again the man stood +up in his skittish pirogue, balancing himself with care, to use a +short pole in shoving driftwood out of his way; and more than once +he looked to Beverley as if he had plunged head-long into the +dark water. + +The spot, as nearly as it can be fixed, was about two hundred +yards below where the public road-bridge at present spans the +Wabash. The bluff was then far different from what it is now, +steeper and higher, with less silt and sand between it and the +water's edge. Indeed, swollen as the current was, a man could +stand on the top of the bank and easily leap into the deep water. +At a point near the middle of the river a great mass of drift-logs +and sand had long ago formed a barrier which split the stream so +that one current came heavily shoreward on the side next the town +and swashed with its muddy foam, making a swirl and eddy just +below where Beverley stood. + +The pirogue rounded the upper angle of this obstruction, not +without difficulty to its crew of one, and swung into the rapid +shoreward rush, as was evidently planned for by the steersman, who +now paddled against the tide with all his might to keep from being +borne too far down stream for a safe landing place. + +Beverley stood at ease idly and half dreamily looking on, when +suddenly something caused a catastrophe, which for a moment he did +not comprehend. In fact the man in the pirogue came to grief, as a +man in a pirogue is very apt to do, and fairly somersaulted +overboard into the water. Nothing serious would have threatened +(for the man could swim like an otter) had not a floating, half +submerged log thrust up some short, stiff stumps of boughs, upon +the points of which the man struck heavily and was not only hurt, +but had his clothes impaled securely by one of the ugly spears, so +that he hung in a helpless position, while the water's motion +alternately lifted and submerged him, his arms beating about +wildly. + +When Beverley heard a strangling cry for help, he pulled himself +promptly together, flung off his coat, as if by a single motion, +and leaped down the bank into the water. He was a swimmer whose +strokes counted for all that prodigious strength and excellent +training could afford; he rushed through the water with long +sweeps, making a semicircle, rounding against the current, so as +to swing down upon the drowning man. + +Less than a half-hour later a rumor by some means spread +throughout the town that Father Beret and Lieutenant Beverley were +drowned in the Wabash. But when a crowd gathered to verify the +terrible news it turned out to be untrue. Gaspard Roussillon had +once more distinguished himself by an exhibition of heroic nerve +and muscle. + +"Ventrebleu! Quel homme!" exclaimed Oncle Jazon, when told that M. +Roussillon had come up the bank of the Wabash with Lieutenant +Beverley under one arm and Father Beret under the other, both men +apparently dead. + +"Bring them to my house immediately," M. Roussillon ordered, as +soon as they were restored to consciousness; and he shook himself, +as a big wet animal sometimes does, covering everybody near him +with muddy water. Then he led the way with melodramatic strides. + +In justice to historical accuracy there must be a trifling reform +of what appeared on the face of things to be grandly true. Gaspard +Roussillon actually dragged Father Beret and Lieutenant Beverley +one at a time out of the eddy water and up the steep river bank. +That was truly a great feat; but the hero never explained. When +men arrived he was standing between the collapsed forms, panting +and dripping. Doubtless he looked just as if he had dropped them +from under his arms, and why shouldn't he have the benefit of a +great implication? + +"I've saved them both," he roared; from which, of course, the +ready creole imagination inferred the extreme of possible heroic +performance. + +"Bring them to my house immediately," and it was accordingly done. + +The procession, headed by M. Roussillon, moved noisily, for the +French tongue must shake off what comes to it on the thrill of +every exciting moment. The only silent Frenchman is the dead one. + +Father Beret was not only well-nigh drowned, but seriously hurt. +He lay for a week on a bed in M. Roussillon's house before he +could sit up. Alice hung over him night and day, scarcely sleeping +or eating until he was past all danger. As for Beverley, he shook +off all the effects of his struggle in a little while. Next day he +was out, as well and strong as ever, busy with the affairs of his +office. Nor was he less happy on account of what the little +adventure had cast into his experience. It is good to feel that +one has done an unselfish deed, and no young man's heart repels +the freshness of what comes to him when a beautiful girl first +enters his life. + +Naturally enough Alice had some thoughts of Beverley while she was +so attentively caring for Father Beret. She had never before seen +a man like him, nor had she read of one. Compared with Rene de +Ronville, the best youth of her acquaintance, he was in every way +superior; this was too evident for analysis; but referred to the +romantic standard taken out of the novels she had read, he somehow +failed; and yet he loomed bravely in her vision, not exactly a +knight of the class she had most admired, still unquestionably a +hero of large proportions. + +Beverley stepped in for a few minutes every day to see Father +Beret, involuntarily lengthening his visit by a sliding ratio as +he became better acquainted. He began to enjoy the priest's +conversation, with its sly worldly wisdom cropping up through +fervid religious sentiments and quaint humor. Alice must have +interested him more than he was fully aware of; for his eyes +followed her, as she came and went, with a curious criticism of +her half-savage costume and her springy, Dryad-like suppleness, +which reminded him of the shyest and gracefulest wild birds; and +yet a touch of refinement, the subtlest and best, showed in all +her ways. He studied her, as he would have studied a strange, +showy and originally fragrant flower, or a bird of oddly +attractive plumage. While she said little to him or to anyone else +in his presence, he became aware of the willfulness and joyous +lightness which played on her nature's changeable surface. He +wondered at her influence over Father Beret, whom she controlled +apparently without effort. But in due time he began to feel a +deeper character, a broader intelligence, behind her superficial +sauvagerie; and he found that she really had no mean smattering of +books in the lighter vein. + +A little thing happened which further opened his eyes and +increased the interest that her beauty and elementary charm of +style aroused in him gradually, apace with their advancing +acquaintanceship. + +Father Beret had got well and returned to his hut and his round of +spiritual duties; but Beverley came to Roussillon place every day +all the same. For a wonder Madame Roussillon liked him, and at +most times held the scolding side of her tongue when he was +present. Jean, too, made friendly advances whenever opportunity +afforded. Of course Alice gave him just the frank cordiality of +hospitable welcome demanded by frontier conditions. She scarcely +knew whether she liked him or not; but he had a treasury of +information from which he was enriching her with liberal +carelessness day by day. The hungriest part of her mind was being +sumptuously banqueted at his expense. Mere intellectual greediness +drew her to him. + +Naturally they soon threw off such troubling formalities as at +first rose between them, and began to disclose to each other their +true characteristics. Alice found in Beverley a large target for +the missiles of her clever and tantalizing perversity. He in turn +practiced a native dignity and an acquired superiority of manner +to excellent effect. It was a meeting of Greek with Greek in a new +Arcadia. To him here was Diana, strong, strange, simple, even +crude almost to naturalness, yet admirably pure in spirit and +imbued with highest womanly aspirations. To her Beverley +represented the great outside area of life. He came to her from +wonderland, beyond the wide circle of houseless woods and +prairies. He represented gorgeous cities, teeming parks of +fashion, boulevards, salons, halls of social splendor, the +theater, the world of woman's dreams. + +Now, there is an antagonism, vague yet powerful, generated between +natures thus cast together from the opposite poles of experience +and education: an antagonism practically equivalent to the most +vigorous attraction. What one knows the other is but half aware +of; neither knowledge nor ignorance being mutual, there is a +scintillation of exchange, from opposing vantage grounds, followed +by harmless snaps of thunder. Culture and refinement take on airs-- +it is the deepest artificial instinct of enlightenment to pose-- +in the presence of naturalness; and there is a certain style of +ignorance which attitudinizes before the gate of knowledge. The +return to nature has always been the dream of the conventionalized +soul, while the simple Arcadian is forever longing for the +maddening honey of sophistication. + +Innate jealousies strike together like flint and steel dashing off +sparks by which nearly everything that life can warm its core +withal is kindled and kept burning. What I envy in my friend I +store for my best use. I thrust and parry, not to kill, but to +learn my adversary's superior feints and guards. And this hint of +sword play leads back to what so greatly surprised and puzzled +Beverley one day when he chanced to be examining the pair of +colechemardes on the wall. + +He took one down, and handling it with the indescribable facility +possible to none save a practical swordsman, remarked: + +"There's a world of fascination in these things; I like nothing +better than a bout at fencing. Does your father practice the art?" + +"I have no father, no mother," she quickly said; "but good Papa +Roussillon does like a little exercise with the colechemarde." + +"Well, I'm glad to hear it, I shall ask to teach him a trick or +two," Beverley responded in the lightest mood. "When will he +return from the woods?" + +"I can't tell you; he's very irregular in such matters," she said. +Then, with a smile half banter and half challenge, she added; "if +you are really dying for some exercise, you shall not have to wait +for him to come home, I assure you, Monsieur Beverley." + +"Oh, it's Monsieur de Ronville, perhaps, that you will offer up as +a victim to my skill and address," he slyly returned; for he was +suspecting that a love affair in some stage of progress lay +between her and Rene. + +She blushed violently, but quickly overcoming a combined rush of +surprise and anger, added with an emphasis as charming as it was +unexpected. + +"I myself am, perhaps, swordsman enough to satisfy the impudence +and vanity of Monsieur Beverley, Lieutenant in the American army." + +"Pardon me, Mademoiselle; forgive me, I beg of you," he exclaimed, +earnestly modulating his voice to sincerest beseechment; "I really +did not mean to be impudent, nor--" + +Her vivacity cleared with a merry laugh. + +"No apologies, I command you," she interposed. "We will have them +after I have taught you a fencing lesson." + +From a shelf she drew down a pair of foils and presenting the +hilts, bade him take his choice. + +"There isn't any difference between them that I know of," she +said, and then added archly; "but you will feel better at last, +when all is over and the sting of defeat tingles through you, if +you are conscious of having used every sensible precaution." + +He looked straight into her eyes, trying to catch what was in her +mind, but there was a bewildering glamour playing across those +gray, opal-tinted wells of mystery, from which he could draw only +a mischievous smile-glint, direct, daring, irresistible. + +"Well," he said, taking one of the foils, "what do you really +mean? Is it a challenge without room for honorable retreat?" + +"The time for parley is past," she replied, "follow me to the +battle-ground." + +She led the way to a pleasant little court in the rear of the +cabin's yard, a space between two wings and a vine-covered +trellis, beyond which lay a well kept vineyard and vegetable +garden. Here she turned about and faced him, poising her foil with +a fine grace. + +"Are you ready?" she inquired. + +He tried again to force a way into the depths of her eyes with +his; but he might as well have attacked the sun; so he stood in a +confusion of not very well defined feelings, undecided, +hesitating, half expecting that there would be some laughable turn +to end the affair. + +"Are you afraid, Monsieur Beverley?" she demanded after a short +waiting in silence. + +He laughed now and whipped the air with his foil. + +"You certainly are not in earnest?" he said interrogatively. "Do +you really mean that you want to fence with me?" + +"If you think because I'm only a girl you can easily beat me, try +it," she tauntingly replied making a level thrust toward his +breast. + +Quick as a flash he parried, and then a merry clinking and +twinkling of steel blades kept time to their swift movements. +Instantly, by the sure sense which is half sight, half feeling-- +the sense that guides the expert fencer's hand and wrist--Beverley +knew that he had probably more than his match, and in ten seconds +his attack was met by a time thrust in opposition which touched +him sharply. + +Alice sprang far back, lowered her point and laughed. + +"Je vous salue, Monsieur Beverley!" she cried, with childlike show +of delight. "Did you feel the button?" + +"Yes, I felt it," he said with frank acknowledgment in his voice, +"it was cleverly done. Now give me a chance to redeem myself." + +He began more carefully and found that she, too, was on her best +mettle; but it was a short bout, as before. Alice seemed to give +him an easy opening and he accepted it with a thrust; then +something happened that he did not understand. The point of his +foil was somehow caught under his opponent's hilt-guard while her +blade seemed to twist around his; at the same time there was a +wring and a jerk, the like of which he had never before felt, and +he was disarmed, his wrist and fingers aching with the wrench they +had received. + +Of course the thing was not new; he had been disarmed before; but +her trick of doing it was quite a mystery to him, altogether +different from any that he had ever seen. + +"Vous me pardonnerez, Monsieur" she mockingly exclaimed, picking +up his weapon and offering the hilt to him. "Here is your sword!" + +"Keep it," he said, folding his arms and trying to look +unconcerned, "you have captured it fairly. I am at your mercy; be +kind to me." + +Madame Roussillon and Jean, the hunchback, hearing the racket of +the foils had come out to see and were standing agape. + +"You ought to be ashamed, Alice," said the dame in scolding +approval of what she had done; "girls do not fence with +gentlemen." + +"This girl does," said Alice. + +"And with extreme disaster to this gentleman," said Beverley, +laughing in a tone of discomfiture and resignation. + +"Ah, Mo'sieu', there's nothing but disaster where she goes," +complained Madame Roussillon, "she is a destroyer of everything. +Only yesterday she dropped my pink bowl and broke it, the only one +I had." + +"And just to think," said Beverley, "what would have been the +condition of my heart had we been using rapiers instead of +leather-buttoned foils! She would have spitted it through the very +center." + +"Like enough," replied the dame indifferently. "She wouldn't +wince, either,--not she." + +Alice ran into the house with the foils and Beverley followed. + +"We must try it over again some day soon," he said; "I find that +you can show me a few points. Where did you learn to fence so +admirably? Is Monsieur Roussillon your master?" + +"Indeed he isn't," she quickly replied, "he is but a bungling +swordsman. My master--but I am not at liberty to tell you who has +taught me the little I know." + +"Well, whoever he is I should be glad to have lessons from him." + +"But you'll never get them." + +"Why?" + +"Because." + +"A woman's ultimatum." + +"As good as a man's!" she bridled prettily; "and sometimes better-- +at the foils for example. Vous--comprenez, n'est ce pas?" + +He laughed heartily. + +"Yes, your point reaches me," he said, "but sperat et in saeva +victus gladiatur arena, as the old Latin poet wisely remarks." The +quotation was meant to tease her. + +"Yes, Montaigne translated that or something in his book," she +commented with prompt erudition. "I understand it." + +Beverley looked amazed. + +"What do you know about Montaigne?" he demanded with a blunt +brevity amounting to something like gruffness. + +"Sh', Monsieur, not too loud," she softly protested, looking +around to see that neither Madame Roussillon nor Jean had followed +them into the main room. "It is not permitted that I read that old +book; but they do not hide it from me, because they think I can't +make out its dreadful spelling." + +She smiled so that her cheeks drew their dimples deep into the +delicately tinted pink-and-brown, where wind and sun and wholesome +exercise had set the seal of absolute health, and took from a +niche in the logs of the wall a stained and dog-eared volume. He +looked, and it was, indeed, the old saint and sinner, Montaigne. + +Involuntarily he ran his eyes over the girl from head to foot, +comparing her show of knowledge with the outward badges of abject +rusticity, and even wildness, with which she was covered. + +"Well," he said, "you are a mystery." + +"You think it surprising that I can read a book! Frankly I can't +understand half of this one. I read it because--well just because +they want me to read about nothing but sickly old saints and woe- +begone penitents. I like something lively. What do I care for all +that uninteresting religious stuff?" + +"Montaigne IS decidedly lively in spots," Beverley remarked. "I +shouldn't think a girl--I shouldn't think you'd particularly enjoy +his humors." + +"I don't care for the book at all," she said, flushing quickly, +"only I seem to learn about the world from it. Sometimes it seems +as if it lifted me up high above all this wild, lonely and +tiresome country, so that I can see far off where things are +different and beautiful. It is the same with the novels; and they +don't permit me to read them either; but all the same I do." + +When Beverley, taking his leave, passed through the gate at +Roussillon place, he met Rene de Ronville going in. It was a +notable coincidence that each young man felt something troublesome +rise in his throat as he looked into the other's eyes. + +A week of dreamy autumn weather came on, during which Beverley +managed to be with Alice a great deal, mostly sitting on the +Roussillon gallery, where the fading vine leaves made fairy +whispering, and where the tempered breeze blew deliciously cool +from over the distant multi-colored woods. The men of Vincennes +were gathering their Indian corn early to dry it on the cob for +grating into winter meal. Many women made wine from the native +grapes and from the sweeter and richer fruit of imported vines. +Madame Roussillon and Alice stained their hands a deep purple +during the pressing season, and Beverley found himself engaged in +helping them handle the juicy crop, while around the overflowing +earthen pots the wild bees, wasps and hornets hummed with an +incessant, jarring monotony. + +Jean, the hunchback, gathered ample stores of hickory nuts, +walnuts, hazel-nuts and pin-oak acorns. Indeed, the whole +population of the village made a great spurt of industry just +before the falling of winter; and presently, when every +preparation had been completed for the dreaded cold season, M. +Roussillon carried out his long-cherished plan, and gave a great +party at the river house. After the most successful trading +experience of all his life he felt irrepressibly liberal. + +"Let's have one more roaring good time," he said, "that's what +life is for." + + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE MAYOR'S PARTY + + +Beverley was so surprised and confused in his mind by the ease +with which he had been mastered at swordplay by a mere girl, that +he felt as if just coming out of a dream. In fact the whole affair +seemed unreal, yet so vivid and impressive in all its main +features, that he could not emerge from it and look it calmly over +from without. His experience with women had not prepared him for a +ready understanding and acceptance of a girl like Alice. While he +was fully aware of her beauty, freshness, vivacity and grace, this +Amazonian strength of hers, this boldness of spirit, this curious +mixture of frontier crudeness and a certain adumbration--so to +call it--of patrician sensibilities and aspirations, affected him +both pleasantly and unpleasantly. He did not sympathize promptly +with her semi-barbaric costume; she seemed not gently feminine, as +compared with the girls of Virginia and Maryland. He resented her +muscular development and her independent disposition. She was far +from coarseness, however, and, indeed, a trace of subtle +refinement, although not conventional, imbued her whole character. + +But why was he thinking so critically about her? Had his +selfishness received an incurable shock from the button of her +foil? A healthy young man of the right sort is apt to be jealous +of his physical prowess--touch him there and he will turn the +world over to right himself in, his own admiration and yours. But +to be beaten on his highest ground of virility by a dimple-faced +maiden just leaving her teens could not offer Beverley any open +way to recoupment of damages. + +He tried to shake her out of his mind, as a bit of pretty and +troublesome rubbish, what time he pursued his not very exacting +military duties. But the more he shook the tighter she clung, and +the oftener he went to see her. + +Helm was a good officer in many respects, and his patriotism was +of the best; but he liked jolly company, a glass of something +strong and a large share of ease. Detroit lay many miles +northeastward across the wilderness, and the English, he thought, +would scarcely come so far to attack his little post, especially +now that most of the Indians in the intervening country had +declared in favor of the Americans. Recently, too, the weather had +been favoring him by changing from wet to dry, so that the upper +Wabash and its tributaries were falling low and would soon be very +difficult to navigate with large batteaux. + +Very little was done to repair the stockade and dilapidated +remnant of a blockhouse. There were no sufficient barracks, a mere +shed in one angle serving for quarters, and the old cannon could +not have been used to any effect in case of attack. As for the +garrison, it was a nominal quantity, made up mostly of men who +preferred hunting and fishing to the merest pretense of military +duty. + +Gaspard Roussillon assumed to know everything about Indian affairs +and the condition of the English at Detroit. His optimistic +eloquence lulled Helm to a very pleasant sense of security. +Beverley was not so easy to satisfy; but his suggestions regarding +military discipline and a vigorous prosecution of repairs to the +blockhouse and stockade were treated with dilatory geniality by +his superior officer. The soft wonder of a perfect Indian summer +glorified land, river and sky. Why not dream and bask? Why not +drink exhilarating toddies? + +Meantime the entertainment to be given by Gaspard Roussillon +occupied everybody's imagination to an unusual extent. Rene de +Ronville, remembering but not heeding the doubtful success of his +former attempt, went long beforehand to claim Alice as his +partenaire; but she flatly refused him, once more reminding him of +his obligations to little Adrienne Bourcier. He would not be +convinced. + +"You are bound to me," he said, "you promised before, you know, +and the party was but put off. I hold you to it; you are my +partenaire, and I am yours, you can't deny that." + +"No you are not my partenaire," she firmly said; then added +lightly, "Feu mon partenaire, you are dead and buried as my +partner at that dance." + +He glowered in silence for a few moments, then said: + +"It is Lieutenant Beverley, I suppose." + +She gave him a quick contemptuous look, but turned it instantly +into one of her tantalising smiles. + +"Do you imagine that?" she demanded. + +"Imagine it! I know it," he said with a hot flush. "Have I no +sense?" + +"Precious little," she replied with a merry laugh. + +"You think so." + +"Go to Father Beret, tell him everything, and then ask him what he +thinks," she said in a calm, even tone, her face growing serious. + +There was an awkward silence. + +She had touched Rene's vulnerable spot; he was nothing if not a +devout Catholic, and his conscience rooted itself in what good +Father Beret had taught him. + +The church, no matter by what name it goes, Catholic or +Protestant, has a saving hold on the deepest inner being of its +adherents. No grip is so hard to shake off as that of early +religious convictions. The still, small voice coming down from the +times "When shepherds watched their flocks by night," in old +Judea, passes through the priest, the minister, the preacher; it +echoes in cathedral, church, open-air meeting; it gently and +mysteriously imparts to human life the distinctive quality which +is the exponent of Christian civilization. Upon the receptive +nature of children it makes an impress that forever afterward +exhales a fragrance and irradiates a glory for the saving of the +nations. + +Father Beret was the humble, self-effacing, never-tiring agent of +good in his community. He preached in a tender sing-song voice the +sweet monotonies of his creed and the sublime truths of Christ's +code. He was indeed the spiritual father of his people. No wonder +Rene's scowling expression changed to one of abject self-concern +when the priest's name was suddenly connected with his mood. The +confessional loomed up before the eyes of his conscience, and his +knees smote together, spiritually if not physically. + +"Now," said Alice, brusquely, but with sweet and gentle firmness, +"go to your fiancee, go to pretty and good Adrienne, and ask her +to be your partenaire. Refresh your conscience with a noble +draught of duty and make that dear little girl overflow with joy. +Go, Rene de Ronville." + +In making over what she said into English, the translation turns +out to be but a sonorous paraphrase. Her French was of that mixed +creole sort, a blending of linguistic elegance and patois, +impossible to imitate. Like herself it was beautiful, crude, +fascinating, and something in it impressed itself as +unimpeachable, despite the broken and incongruous diction. Rene +felt his soul cowering, even slinking; but he fairly maintained a +good face, and went away without saying another word. + +"Ciel, ciel, how beautiful she is!" he thought, as he walked along +the narrow street in the dreamy sunshine. "But she is not for me, +not for me." + +He shook himself and tried to be cheerful. In fact he hummed a +Creole ditty, something about + +"La belle Jeanette, qu' a brise mon coeur." + +Days passed, and at last the time of the great event arrived. It +was a frosty night, clear, sparkling with stars, a keen breath +cutting down from the northwest. M. Roussillon, Madame Roussillon, +Alice and Lieutenant Beverley went together to the river house, +whither they had been preceded by almost the entire population of +Vincennes. Some fires had been built outside; the crowd proving +too great for the building's capacity, as there had to be ample +space for the dancers. Merry groups hovered around the flaming +logs, while within the house a fiddle sang its simple and +ravishing tunes. Everybody talked and laughed; it was a lively +racket of clashing voices and rhythmical feet. + +You would have been surprised to find that Oncle Jazon was the +fiddler; but there he sat, perched on a high stool in one corner +of the large room, sawing away as if for dear life, his head +wagging, his elbow leaping back and forth, while his scalpless +crown shone like the side of a peeled onion and his puckered mouth +wagged grotesquely from side to side keeping time to his tuneful +scraping. + +When the Roussillon party arrived it attracted condensed +attention. Its importance, naturally of the greatest in the +assembled popular mind, was enhanced--as mathematicians would +say, to the nth power--by the gown of Alice. It was resplendent +indeed in the simple, unaccustomed eyes upon which it flashed with +a buff silken glory. Matrons stared at it; maidens gazed with +fascinated and jealous vision; men young and old let their eyes +take full liberty. It was as if a queen, arrayed in a robe of +state, had entered that dingy log edifice, an apparition of +dazzling and awe-inspiring beauty. Oncle Jazon caught sight of +her, and snapped his tune short off. The dancers swung together +and stopped in confusion. But she, fortified by a woman's +strongest bulwark, the sense of resplendency, appeared quite +unconscious of herself. + +Little Adrienne, hanging in blissful delight upon Rene's strong +arm, felt the stir of excitement and wondered what was the matter, +being too short to see over the heads of those around her. + +"What is it? what is it?" she cried, tiptoeing and tugging at her +companion's sleeve. "Tell me, Rene, tell me, I say." + +Rene was gazing in dumb admiration into which there swept a +powerful anger, like a breath of flame. He recollected how Alice +had refused to wear that dress when he had asked her, and now she +had it on. Moreover, there she stood beside Lieutenant Beverley, +holding his arm, looking up into his face, smiling, speaking to +him. + +"I think you might tell me what has happened," said Adrienne, +pouting and still plucking at his arm. "I can't see a thing, and +you won't tell me." + +"Oh, it's nothing," he presently answered, rather fretfully. Then +he stooped, lowered his voice and added; "it's Mademoiselle +Roussillon all dressed up like a bride or something. She's got on +a buff silk dress that Mo'sieu' Roussillon's mother had in +France." + +"How beautiful she must look!" cried the girl. "I wish I could see +her." + +Rene put a hand on each side of her slender waist and lifted her +high, so that her pretty head rose above the crowding people. +Alice chanced to turn her face that way just then and saw the +unconventional performance. Her eyes met those of Adrienne and she +gave a nod of smiling recognition. It was a rose beaming upon a +gilliflower. + +M. Roussillon naturally understood that all this stir and crowding +to see was but another demonstration of his personal popularity. +He bowed and waved a vast hand. + +But the master of ceremonies called loudly for the dancers to take +their places. Oncle Jazon attacked his fiddle again with startling +energy. Those who were not to dance formed a compact double line +around the wall, the shorter ones in front, the taller in the +rear. And what a scene it was! but no person present regarded it +as in any way strange or especially picturesque, save as to the +gown of Alice, which was now floating and whirling in time to +Oncle Jazon's mad music. The people outside the house cheerfully +awaited their turn to go in while an equal number went forth to +chat and sing around the fires. + +Beverley was in a young man's seventh heaven. The angels formed a +choir circling around his heart, and their song brimmed his +universe from horizon to horizon. + +When he called at Roussillon place, and Alice appeared so +beautifully and becomingly robed, it was another memorable +surprise. She flashed a new and subtly stimulating light upon him. +The old gown, rich in subdued splendor of lace and brocade, was +ornamented at the throat with a heavy band of pearls, just above +which could be seen a trace of the gold chain that supported her +portrait locket. There, too, with a not unbecoming gleam of +barbaric colors, shone the string of porcupine beads to which the +Indian charmstone hidden in her bosom was attached. It all +harmonized with the time, the place, the atmosphere. Anywhere else +it would have been preposterous as a decorative presentment, but +here, in this little nook where the coureurs de bois, the half- +breeds, the traders and the missionaries had founded a centre of +assembly, it was the best possible expression in the life so +formed at hap-hazard, and so controlled by the coarsest and +narrowest influences. To Fitzhugh Beverley, of Beverley Hall, the +picture conveyed immediately a sweet and pervading influence. + +Alice looked superbly tall, stately and self-possessed in her +transforming costume, a woman of full stature, her countenance +gravely demure yet reserving near the surface the playful dimples +and mischievous smiles so characteristic of her more usual manner. +A sudden mood of the varium et mutabile semper femina had led her +to wear the dress, and the mood still illuminated her. + +Beverley stood before her frankly looking and admiring. The +underglow in her cheeks deepened and spread over her perfect +throat; her eyes met his a second, then shyly avoided him. He +hardly could have been sure which was master, her serenity or her +girlish delight in being attractively dressed; but there could be +no doubt as to her self-possession; for, saving the pretty blush +under his almost rude gaze of admiration, she bore herself as +firmly as any fine lady he remembered. + +They walked together to the river house, she daintily holding up +her skirts, under the insistent verbal direction of Madame +Roussillon, and at the same time keeping a light, strangely +satisfying touch on his arm. When they entered the room there was +no way for Beverley to escape full consciousness of the excitement +they aroused; but M. Roussillon's assumption broke the force of +what would have otherwise been extremely embarrassing. + +"It is encouraging, very encouraging," murmured the big man to +Beverley in the midst of the staring and scrambling and craning of +necks, "to have my people admire and love me so; it goes to the +middle of my heart." And again he bowed and waved his hand with an +all-including gesture, while he swept his eyes over the crowd. + +Alice and Beverley were soon in the whirl of the dance, forgetful +of everything but an exhilaration stirred to its utmost by Oncle +Jazon's music. + +A side remark here may be of interest to those readers who enjoy +the dream that on some fortunate day they will invade a lonely +nook, where amid dust and cobwebs, neglected because unrecognized, +reposes a masterpiece of Stradivari or some other great fiddle- +maker. Oncle Jazon knew nothing whatever about old violins. He was +a natural musician, that was all, and flung himself upon his +fiddle with the same passionate abandon that characterizes a +healthy boy's assault when a plum pudding is at his mercy. But his +fiddle was a Carlo Bergonzi; and now let the search be renewed, +for the precious instrument was certainly still in Vincennes as +late as 1819, and there is a vague tradition that Governor +Whitcomb played on it not long before he died. The mark by which +it may be identified is the single word "Jazon" cut in the back of +its neck by Oncle Jazon himself. + +When their dance was ended Alice and Beverley followed the others +of their set out into the open air while a fresh stream of eager +dancers poured in. Beverley insisted upon wrapping Alice in her +mantle of unlined beaver skin against the searching winter breath. +They did not go to the fire, but walked back and forth, chatting +until their turn to dance should come again, pausing frequently to +exchange pleasantries with some of the people. Curiously enough +both of them had forgotten the fact that other young men would be +sure to ask Alice for a dance, and that more than one pretty +creole lass was rightfully expecting a giddy turn with the +stalwart and handsome Lieutenant Beverley. + +Rene de Ronville before long broke rudely into their selfish dream +and led Alice into the house. This reminded Beverley of his social +duty, wherefore seeing little Adrienne Bourcier he made a rush and +secured her at a swoop from the midst of a scrambling circle of +mutually hindered young men. + +"Allons, ma petite!" he cried, quite in the gay tone of the +occasion, and swung her lightly along with him. + +It was like an eagle dancing with a linnet, or a giant with a +fairy, when the big Lieutenant led out la petite Adrienne, as +everybody called her. The honor of Beverley's attention sat +unappreciated on Adrienne's mind, for all her thoughts went with +her eyes toward Rene and Alice. Nor was Beverley so absorbed in +his partner's behalf that he ever for a moment willingly lost +sight of the floating buff gown, the shining brown hair and the +beautiful face, which formed, indeed, the center of attraction for +all eyes. + +Father Beret was present, sharing heartily in the merriment of his +flock. Voices greeted him on all sides with intonations of tender +respect. The rudest man there was loyal to the kind-hearted +priest, and would as soon have thought of shooting him as of +giving him any but the most reverent attention. It is to be noted, +however, that their understanding of reverence included great +freedom and levity not especially ecclesiastical in its nature. +Father Beret understood the conditions around him and had the +genius to know what not to hear, what not to see; but he never +failed when a good word or a fatherly touch with his hand seemed +worth trying on a sheep that appeared to be straying dangerously +far from the fold. Upon an occasion like this dance at the river +house, he was no less the faithful priest because of his genial +sympathy with the happiness of the young people who looked to him +for spiritual guidance. + +It was some time before Beverley could again secure Alice for a +dance, and he found it annoying him atrociously to see her smile +sweetly on some buckskin-clad lout who looked like an Indian and +danced like a Parisian. He did not greatly enjoy most of his +partners; they could not appeal to any side of his nature just +then. Not that he at all times stood too much on his aristocratic +traditions, or lacked the virile traits common to vigorous and +worldly-minded men; but the contrast between Alice and the other +girls present was somehow an absolute bar to a democratic freedom +of the sort demanded by the occasion. He met Father Beret and +passed a few pleasant words with him. + +"They have honored your flag, my son, I am glad to see," the +priest said, pointing with a smile to where, in one corner, the +banner that bore Alice's name was effectively draped. + +Beverley had not noticed it before, and when he presently got +possession of Alice he asked her to tell him the story of how she +planted it on the fort, although he had heard it to the last +detail from Father Beret just a moment ago. They stood together +under its folds while she naively sketched the scene for him, even +down to her picturesquely disagreeable interview with Long-Hair, +mention of whom led up to the story of the Indian's race with the +stolen dame jeanne of brandy under his arm on that memorable +night, and the subsequent services performed for him by Father +Beret and her, after she and Jean had found him in the mud beyond +the river. + +The dancing went on at a furious pace while they stood there. Now +and again a youth came to claim her, but she said she was tired +and begged to rest awhile, smiling so graciously upon each one +that his rebuff thrilled him as if it had been the most flattering +gift of tender partiality, while at the same time he suspected +that it was all for Beverley. + +Helm in his most jovial mood was circulating freely among those +who formed the periphery of the dancing-area; he even ventured a +few clumsy capers in a cotillion with Madame Godere for partner. +She danced well; but he, as someone remarked, stumbled all over +himself. + +There was but one thing to mar the evening's pleasure: some of the +men drank too much and grew boisterous. A quarrel ended in a noisy +but harmless fight near one of the fires. M. Roussillon rushed to +the spot, seized the combatants, tousled them playfully, as if +they had been children, rubbed their heads together, laughed +stormily and so restored the equilibrium of temper. + +It was late when fathers and mothers in the company began to +suggest adjournment. Oncle Jazon's elbow was tired and the +enthusiasm generated by his unrecognized Bergonzi became fitful, +while the relaxing crowd rapidly encroached upon the space set +apart for the dancers. In the open lamps suspended here and there +the oil was running low, and the rag wicks sputtered and winked +with their yellow flames. + +"Well," said M. Roussillon, coming to where Alice and Beverley +stood insulated and isolated by their great delight in each +other's company, "it's time to go home." + +Beverley looked at his watch; it was a quarter to three! + +Alice also looked at the watch, and saw engraved and enameled on +its massive case the Beverley crest, but she did not know what it +meant. There was something of the sort in the back of her locket, +she remembered with satisfaction. + +Just then there was a peculiar stir in the flagging crowd. Someone +had arrived, a coureur de bois from the north. Where was the +commandant? the coureur had something important for him. + +Beverley heard a remark in a startled voice about the English +getting ready for a descent upon the Wabash valley. This broke the +charm which thralled him and sent through his nerves the bracing +shock that only a soldier can feel when a hint of coming battle +reaches him. + +Alice saw the flash in his face. + +"Where is Captain Helm? I must see him immediately. Excuse me," he +said, abruptly turning away and looking over the heads of the +people; "yonder he is, I must go to him." + +The coureur de bois, Adolphe Dutremble by name, was just from the +head waters of the Wabash. He was speaking to Helm when Beverley +came up. M. Roussillon followed close upon the Lieutenant's heels, +as eager as he to know what the message amounted to; but Helm took +the coureur aside, motioning Beverley to join them. M. Roussillon +included himself in the conference. + +After all it was but the gossip of savages that Dutremble +communicated; still the purport was startling in the extreme. +Governor Hamilton, so the story ran, had been organizing a large +force; he was probably now on his way to the portage of the Wabash +with a flotilla of batteaux, some companies of disciplined +soldiers, artillery and a strong body of Indians. + +Helm listened attentively to Dutremble's lively sketch, then +cross-questioned him with laconic directness. + +"Send Mr. Jazon to me," he said to M. Roussillon, as if speaking +to a servant. + +The master Frenchman went promptly, recognizing Captain Helm's +right to command, and sympathizing With his unpleasant military +predicament if the news should prove true. + +Oncle Jazon came in a minute, his fiddle and bow clamped under his +arm, to receive a verbal commission, which sent him with some +scouts of his own choosing forthwith to the Wabash portage, or far +enough to ascertain what the English commander was doing. + +After the conference Beverley made haste to join Alice; but he +found that she had gone home. + +"One hell of a fix we'll be in if Hamilton comes down here with a +good force," said Helm. + +Beverley felt like retorting that a little forethought, zeal and +preparation might have lessened the prospective gloom. He had been +troubled all the time about Helm's utter lack of military +precaution. True, there was very little material out of which that +optimistic officer could have formed a body of resistance against +the army probably at Hamilton's command; but Beverley was young, +energetic, bellicose, and to him everything seemed possible; he +believed in vigilance, discipline, activity, dash; he had a great +faith in the efficacy of enthusiasm. + +"We must organize these Frenchmen," he said; "they will make good +fighters if we can once get them to act as a body. There's no time +to be lost; but we have time enough in which to do a great deal +before Hamilton can arrive, if we go at it in earnest." + +"Your theory is excellent, Lieutenant, but the practice of it +won't be worth a damn," Helm replied with perfect good nature. +"I'd like to see you organize these parly-voos. There ain't a +dozen of 'em that wouldn't accept the English with open arms. I +know 'em. They're good hearted, polite and all that; they'll +hurrah for the flag; that's easy enough; but put 'em to the test +and they'll join in with the strongest side, see if they don't. Of +course there are a few exceptions. There's Jazon, he's all right, +and I have faith in Bosseron, and Legrace, and young Ronville." + +"Roussillon--" Beverley began. + +"Is much of a blow-hard," Helm interrupted with a laugh. "Barks +loud, but his biting disposition is probably not vicious." + +"He and Father Beret control the whole population at all events," +said Beverley. + +"Yes, and such a population!" + +While joining in Captain Helm's laugh at the expense of Vincennes, +Beverley took leave to indulge a mental reservation in favor of +Alice. He could not bear to class her with the crowd of noisy, +thoughtless, mercurial beings whom he heard still singing gay +snatches and calling to one another from distance to distance, as +they strolled homeward in groups and pairs. Nor could the +impending danger of an enforced surrender to the English and +Indians drive from his mind her beautiful image, while he lay for +the rest of the night between sleeping and waking on his primitive +bed, alternately hearing over again her every phrase and laugh, +and striving to formulate some definite plan for defending the +town and fort. His heart was full of her. She had surprised his +nature and filled it, as with a wonderful, haunting song. His +youth, his imagination, all that was fresh and spontaneously +gentle and natural in him, was flooded with the magnetic splendor +of her beauty. And yet, in his pride (and it was not a false +pride, but rather a noble regard for his birthright) he vaguely +realized how far she was from him, how impossible. + + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE DILEMMA OF CAPTAIN HELM + + +Oncle Jazon, feeling like a fish returned to the water after a +long and torturing captivity in the open air, plunged into the +forest with anticipations of lively adventure and made his way +toward the Wea plains. It was his purpose to get a boat at the +village of Ouiatenon and pull thence up the Wabash until he could +find out what the English were doing. He chose for his companions +on this dangerous expedition two expert coureurs de bois, +Dutremble and Jacques Bailoup. Fifty miles up the river they fell +in with some friendly Indians, well known to them all, who were +returning from the portage. + +The savages informed them that there were no signs of an English +advance in that quarter. Some of them had been as far as the St. +Joseph river and to within a short distance of Detroit without +seeing a white man or hearing of any suspicious movements on the +part of Hamilton. So back came Oncle Jazon with his pleasing +report, much disappointed that he had not been able to stir up +some sort of trouble. + +It was Helm's turn to laugh. + +"What did I tell you?" he cried, in a jolly mood, slapping +Beverley on the shoulder. "I knew mighty well that it was all a +big story with nothing in it. What on earth would the English be +thinking about to march an army away off down here only to capture +a rotten stockade and a lot of gabbling parly-voos?" + +Beverley, while he did not feel quite as confident as his chief, +was not sorry that things looked a little brighter than he had +feared they would turn out to be. Secretly, and without +acknowledging it to himself, he was delighted with the life he was +living. The Arcadian atmosphere of Vincennes clothed him in its +mists and dreams. No matter what way the weather blew its breath, +cold or warm, cloudy or fair, rain or snow, the peace in his soul +changed not. His nature seemed to hold all of its sterner and +fiercer traits in abeyance while he domiciled himself absolutely +within his narrow and monotonous environment. Since the dance at +the river house a new content, like a soft and diffused sweetness, +had crept through his blood with a vague, tingling sense of joy. + +He began to like walking about rather aimlessly in the town's +narrow streets, with the mud-daubed cabins on either hand. This +simple life under low, thatched roofs had a charm. When a door was +opened he could see a fire of logs on the ample hearth shooting +its yellow tongues up the sooty chimney-throat. Soft creole voices +murmured and sang, or jangled their petty domestic discords. Women +in scant petticoats, leggings and moccasins swept snow from the +squat verandas, or fed the pigs in little sties behind the cabins. +Everybody cried cheerily: "Bon jour, Monsieur, comment allez- +vous?" as he went by, always accompanying the verbal salute with a +graceful wave of the hand. + +When he walked early in the morning a waft of broiling game and +browning corn scones was abroad. Pots and kettles occupied the +hearths with glowing coals heaped around and under. Shaggy dogs +whined at the doors until the mensal remnants were tossed out to +them in the front yard. + +But it was always a glimpse of Alice that must count for +everything in Beverley's reckonings, albeit he would have +strenuously denied it. True he went to Roussillon place almost +every day, it being a fixed part of his well ordered habit, and +had a talk with her. Sometimes, when Dame Roussillon was very busy +and so quite off her guard, they read together in a novel, or in +certain parts of the odd volume of Montaigne. This was done more +for the sweetness of disobedience than to enjoy the already +familiar pages. + +Now and again they repeated their fencing bout; but never with the +result which followed the first. Beverley soon mastered Alice's +tricks and showed her that, after all, masculine muscle is not to +be discounted at its own game by even the most wonderful womanly +strength and suppleness. She struggled bravely to hold her vantage +ground once gained so easily, but the inevitable was not to be +avoided. At last, one howling winter day, he disarmed her by the +very trick that she had shown him. That ended the play and they +ran shivering into the house. + +"Ah," she cried, "it isn't fair. You are so much bigger than I; +you have so much longer arms; so much more weight and power. It +all counts against me! You ought to be ashamed of yourself!" She +was rosy with the exhilarating exercise and the biting of the +frosty breeze. Her beauty gave forth a new ray. + +Deep in her heart she was pleased to have him master her so +superbly; but as the days passed she never said so, never gave +over trying to make him feel the touch of her foil. She did not +know that her eyes were getting through his guard, that her +dimples were stabbing his heart to its middle. + +"You have other advantages," he replied, "which far overbalance my +greater stature and stronger muscles." Then after a pause he +added: "After all a girl must be a girl." + +Something in his face, something in her heart, startled her so +that she made a quick little move like that of a restless bird. + +"You are beautiful and that makes my eyes and my hand uncertain," +he went on. "Were I fencing with a man there would be no glamour." + +He spoke in English, which he did not often do in conversation +with her. It was a sign that he was somewhat wrought upon. She +followed his rapid words with difficulty; but she caught from them +a new note of feeling. He saw a little pale flare shoot across her +face and thought she was angry. + +"You should not use your dimples to distract my vision," he +quickly added, with a light laugh. "It would be no worse for me to +throw my hat in your face!" + +His attempt at levity was obviously weak; she looked straight into +his eyes, with the steady gaze of a simple, earnest nature shocked +by a current quite strange to it. She did not understand him, and +she did. Her fine intuition gathered swiftly together a hundred +shreds of impression received from him during their recent growing +intimacy. He was a patrician, as she vaguely made him out, a man +of wealth, whose family was great. He belonged among people of +gentle birth and high attainments. She magnified him so that he +was diffused in her imagination, as difficult to comprehend as a +mist in the morning air--and as beautiful. + +"You make fun of me," she said, very deliberately, letting her +eyes droop; then she looked up again suddenly and continued, with +a certain naive expression of disappointment gathering in her +face. "I have been too free with you. Father Beret told me not to +forget my dignity when in your company. He told me you might +misunderstand me. I don't care; I shall not fence with you again." +She laughed, but there was no joyous freedom in the sound. + +"Why, Alice--my dear Miss Roussillon, you do me a wrong; I beg a +thousand pardons if I've hurt you," he cried, stepping nearer to +her, "and I can never forgive myself. You have somehow +misunderstood me, I know you have!" + +On his part it was exaggerating a mere contact of mutual feelings +into a dangerous collision. He was as much self-deceived as was +she, and he made more noise about it. + +"It is you who have misunderstood me," she replied, smiling +brightly now, but with just a faint, pitiful touch of regret, or +self-blame lingering in her voice. "Father Beret said you would. I +did not believe him; but--" + +"And you shall not believe him," said Beverley. "I have not +misunderstood you. There has been nothing. You have treated me +kindly and with beautiful friendliness. You have not done or said +a thing that Father Beret or anybody else could criticise. And if +I have said or done the least thing to trouble you I repudiate it-- +I did not mean it. Now you believe me, don't you, Miss +Roussillon?" + +He seemed to be falling into the habit of speaking to her in +English. She understood it somewhat imperfectly, especially when +in an earnest moment he rushed his words together as if they had +been soldiers he was leading at the charge-step against an enemy. +His manner convinced her, even though his diction fell short. + +"Then we'll talk about something else," she said, laughing +naturally now, and retreating to a chair by the hearthside. "I +want you to tell me all about yourself and your family, your home +and everything." + +She seated herself with an air of conscious aplomb and motioned +him to take a distant stool. + +There was a great heap of dry logs in the fireplace, with pointed +flames shooting out of its crevices and leaping into the gloomy, +cave-like throat of the flue. Outside a wind passed heavily across +the roof and bellowed in the chimney-top. + +Beverley drew the stool near Alice, who, with a charred stick, +used as a poker, was thrusting at the glowing crevices and sending +showers of sparks aloft. + +"Why, there wouldn't be much to tell," he said, glad to feel +secure again. "Our home is a big old mansion named Beverley Hall +on a hill among trees, and half surrounded with slave cabins. It +overlooks the plantation in the valley where a little river goes +wandering on its way." He was speaking French and she followed him +easily now, her eyes beginning to fling out again their natural +sunny beams of interest. "I was born there twenty-six years ago +and haven't done much of anything since. You see before you, +Mademoiselle, a very undistinguished young man, who has signally +failed to accomplish the dream of his boyhood, which was to be a +great artist like Raphael or Angelo. Instead of being famous I am +but a poor Lieutenant in the forces of Virginia." + +"You have a mother, father, brothers and sisters?" she +interrogated. She did not understand his allusion to the great +artists of whom she knew nothing. She had never before heard of +them. She leaned the poker against the chimney jamb and turned her +face toward him. + +"Mother, father, and one sister," he said, "no brothers. We were a +happy little group. But my sister married and lives in Baltimore. +I am here. Father and mother are alone in the old house. Sometimes +I am terribly homesick." He was silent a moment, then added: "But +you are selfish, you make me do all the telling. Now I want you to +give me a little of your story, Mademoiselle, beginning as I did, +at the first." + +"But I can't," she replied with childlike frankness, "for I don't +know where I was born, nor my parents' names, nor who I am. You +see how different it is with me. I am called Alice Roussillon, but +I suppose that my name is Alice Tarleton; it is not certain, +however. There is very little to help out the theory. Here is all +the proof there is. I don't know that it is worth anything." + +She took off her locket and handed it to him. + +He handled it rather indifferently, for he was just then studying +the fine lines of her face. But in a moment he was interested. + +"Tarleton, Tarleton," he repeated. Then he turned the little disc +of gold over and saw the enameled drawing on the back,--a crest +clearly outlined. + +He started. The crest was quite familiar. + +"Where did you get this?" he demanded in English, and with such +blunt suddenness that she was startled. "Where did it come from?" + +"I have always had it." + +"Always? It's the Tarleton crest. Do you belong to that family?" + +"Indeed I do not know. Papa Roussillon says he thinks I do." + +"Well, this is strange and interesting," said Beverley, rather to +himself than addressing her. He looked from the miniature to the +crest and back to the miniature again, then at Alice. "I tell you +this is strange," he repeated with emphasis. "It is exceedingly +strange." + +Her cheeks flushed quickly under their soft brown and her eyes +flashed with excitement. + +"Yes, I know." Her voice fluttered; her hands were clasped in her +lap. She leaned toward him eagerly. "It is strange. I've thought +about it a great deal." + +"Alice Tarleton; that is right; Alice is a name of the family. +Lady Alice Tarleton was the mother of the first Sir Garnett +Tarleton who came over in the time of Yardley. It's a great +family. One of the oldest and best in Virginia." He looked at her +now with a gaze of concentrated interest, under which her eyes +fell. "Why, this is romantic!" he exclaimed, "absolutely romantic. +And you don't know how you came by this locket? You don't know who +was your father, your mother?" + +"I do not know anything." + +"And what does Monsieur Roussillon know?" + +"Just as little." + +"But how came he to be taking you and caring for you? He must know +how he got you, where he got you, of whom he got you? Surely he +knows--" + +"Oh, I know all that. I was twelve years old when Papa Roussillon +took me, eight years ago. I had been having a hard life, and but +for him I must have died. I was a captive among the Indians. He +took me and has cared for me and taught me. He has been very, very +good to me. I love him dearly." + +"And don't you remember anything at all about when, where, how the +Indians got you?" + +"No." She shook her head and seemed to be trying to recollect +something. "No, I just can't remember; and yet there has always +been something like a dream in my mind, which I could not quite +get hold of. I know that I am not a Catholic. I vaguely remember a +sweet woman who taught me to pray like this: 'Our Father who art +in heaven, hallowed be Thy name.'" + +And Alice went on through the beautiful and perfect prayer, which +she repeated in English with infinite sweetness and solemnity, her +eyes uplifted, her hands clasped before her. Beverley could have +sworn that she was a shining saint, and that he saw an aureole. + +"I know," she continued, "that sometime, somewhere, to a very dear +person I promised that I never, never, never would pray any prayer +but that. And I remember almost nothing else about that other +life, which is far off back yonder in the past, I don't know +where,--sweet, peaceful, shadowy; a dream that I have all but lost +from my mind." + +Beverley's sympathy was deeply moved. He sat for some minutes +looking at her without speaking. She, too, was pensive and silent, +while the fire sputtered and sang, the great logs slowly melting, +the flames tossing wisps of smoke into the chimney still booming +to the wind. + +"I know, too, that I am not French," she presently resumed, "but I +don't know just how I know it. My first words must have been +English, for I have always dreamed of talking in that language, +and my dimmest half recollections of the old days are of a large, +white house, and a soft-voiced black woman, who sang to me in that +language the very sweetest songs in the world." + +It must be borne in mind that all this was told by Alice in her +creole French, half bookish, half patois, of which no translation +can give any fair impression. + +Beverley listened, as one who hears a clever reader intoning a +strange and captivating poem. He was charmed. His imagination +welcomed the story and furnished it with all that it lacked of +picturesque completeness. In those days it was no uncommon thing +for a white child to be found among the Indians with not a trace +left by which to restore it to its people. He had often heard of +such a case. But here was Alice right before him, the most +beautiful girl that he had ever seen, telling him the strangest +story of all. To his mind it was clear that she belonged to the +Tarleton family of Virginia. Youth always concludes a matter at +once. He knew some of the Tarletons; but it was a widely scattered +family, its members living in almost every colony in America. The +crest he recognized at a glance by the dragon on the helmet with +three stars. It was not for a woman to bear; but doubtless it had +been enameled on the locket merely as a family mark, as was often +done in America. + +"The black woman was your nurse, your mammy," he said. "I know by +that and by your prayer in English, as well as by your locket, +that you are of a good old family." + +Like most Southerners, he had strong faith in genealogy, and he +held at his tongue's tip the names of all the old families. The +Carters, the Blairs, the Fitzhughs, the Hansons, the Randolphs, +the Lees, the Ludwells, the Joneses, the Beverleys, the Tarletons-- +a whole catalogue of them stretched back in his memory. He knew +the coat of arms displayed by each house. He could repeat their +legends. + +"I wish you could tell me more," he went on. "Can't you recollect +anything further about your early childhood, your first +impressions--the house, the woman who taught you to pray, the old +black mammy? Any little thing might be of priceless value as +evidence." + +Alice shrugged her shoulders after the creole fashion with +something of her habitual levity of manner, and laughed. His +earnestness seemed disproportioned to the subject, as she fancied +he must view it, although to her it had always been something to +dream over. It was impossible for her to realize, as he did, the +importance of details in solving a problem like that involved in +her past history. Nor could she feel the pathos and almost tragic +fascination with which her story had touched him. + +"There is absolutely nothing more to tell," she said. "All my life +I have tried to remember more, but it's impossible; I can't get +any further back or call up another thing. There's no use trying. +It's all like a dream--probably it is one. I do have such dreams. +In my sleep I can lift myself into the air, just as easy, and fly +back to the same big white house that I seem to remember. When you +told me about your home it was like something that I had often +seen before. I shall be dreaming about it next!" + +Beverley cross-questioned her from every possible point of view; +he was fascinated with the mystery; but she gave him nothing out +of which the least further light could be drawn. A half-breed +woman, it seemed, had been her Indian foster-mother; a silent, +grave, watchful guardian from whom not a hint of disclosure ever +fell. She was, moreover, a Christian woman, had received her +conversion from an English-speaking Protestant missionary. She +prayed with Alice, thus keeping in the child's mind a perfect +memory of the Lord's prayer. + +"Well," said Beverley at last, "you are more of a mystery to me, +the longer I know you." + +"Then I must grow every day more distasteful to you." + +"No, I love mystery." + +He went away feeling a new web of interest binding him to this +inscrutable maiden whose life seemed to him at once so full of +idyllic happiness and so enshrouded in tantalizing doubt. At the +first opportunity he frankly questioned M. Roussillon, with no +helpful result. The big Frenchman told the same meager story. The +woman was dying in the time of a great epidemic, which killed most +of her tribe. She gave Alice to M. Roussillon, but told him not a +word about her ancestry or previous life. That was all. + +A wise old man, when he finds himself in a blind alley, no sooner +touches the terminal wall than he faces about and goes back the +way he came. Under like circumstances a young man must needs try +to batter the wall down with his head. Beverley endeavored to +break through the web of mystery by sheer force. It seemed to him +that a vigorous attempt could not fail to succeed; but, like the +fly in the spider's lines, he became more hopelessly bound at +every move he made. Moreover against his will he was realizing +that he could no longer deceive himself about Alice. He loved her, +and the love was mastering him body and soul. Such a confession +carries with it into an honest masculine heart a sense of +contending responsibilities. In Beverley's case the clash was +profoundly disturbing. And now he clutched the thought that Alice +was not a mere child of the woods, but a daughter of an old family +of cavaliers! + +With coat buttoned close against the driving wind, he strode +toward the fort in one of those melodramatic moods to which youth +in all climes and times is subject. It was like a slap in the face +when Captain Helm met him at the stockade gate and said: + +"Well, sir, you are good at hiding." + +"Hiding! what do you mean, Captain Helm?" he demanded, not in the +mildest tone. + +"I mean, sir, that I've been hunting you for an hour and more, +over the whole of this damned town. The English and Indians are +upon us, and there's no time for fooling. Where are all the men?" + +Beverley comprehended the situation in a second. Helm's face was +congested with excitement. Some scouts had come in with the news +that Governor Hamilton, at the head of five or six hundred +soldiers and Indians, was only three or four miles up the river. + +"Where are all the men?" Helm repeated. + +"Buffalo hunting, most of them," said Beverley. + +"What in hell are they off hunting buffaloes for?" raged the +excited captain. + +"You might go to hell and see," Beverley suggested, and they both +laughed in sheer masculine contempt of a predicament too grave for +anything but grim mirth. + +What could they do? Even Oncle Jazon and Rene de Ronville were off +with the hunters. Helm sent for M. Roussillon in the desperate +hope that he could suggest something; but he lost his head and +hustled off to hide his money and valuables. Indeed the French +people all felt that, so far as they were concerned, the chief +thing was to save what they had. They well knew that it mattered +little which of the two masters held over them--they must shift +for themselves. In their hearts they were true to France and +America; but France and America could not now protect them against +Hamilton; therefore it would be like suicide to magnify patriotism +or any other sentiment objectionable to the English. So they acted +upon M. Roussillon's advice and offered no resistance when the new +army approached. + +"My poor people are not disloyal to your flag and your cause," +said good Father Beret next morning to Captain Helm, "but they are +powerless. Winter is upon us. What would you have us do? This +rickety fort is not available for defense; the men are nearly all +far away on the plains. Isn't it the part of prudence and common +sense to make the best of a desperate situation? Should we resist, +the British and their savage allies would destroy the town and +commit outrages too horrible to think about. In this case +diplomacy promises much more than a hopeless fight against an +overwhelming force." + +"I'll fight 'em," Helm ground out between his teeth, "if I have to +do it single-handed and alone! I'll fight 'em till hell freezes +over!" + +Father Beret smiled grimly, as if he, too, would enjoy a lively +skirmish on the ice of Tophet, and said: + +"I admire your courage, my son. Fighting is perfectly proper upon +fair occasion. But think of the poor women and children. These old +eyes of mine have seen some terrible things done by enraged +savages. Men can die fighting; but their poor wives and daughters-- +ah, I have seen, I have seen!" + +Beverley felt a pang of terror shoot through his heart as Father +Beret's simple words made him think of Alice in connection with an +Indian massacre. + +"Of course, of course it's horrible to think of," said Helm; "but +my duty is clear, and that flag," he pointed to where la banniere +d'Alice Roussillon was almost blowing away in the cold wind, "that +flag shall not come down save in full honor." + +His speech sounded preposterously boastful and hollow; but he was +manfully in earnest; every word came from his brave heart. + +Father Beret's grim smile returned, lighting up his strongly +marked face with the strangest expression imaginable. + +"We will get all the women inside the fort," Helm began to say. + +"Where the Indians will find them ready penned up and at their +mercy," quickly interpolated the priest "That will not do." + +"Well, then, what can be done?" Beverley demanded, turning with a +fierce stare upon Father Beret. "Don't stand there objecting to +everything, with not a suggestion of your own to offer." + +"I know what is best for my people," the old man replied softly, +still smiling, "I have advised them to stay inside their houses +and take no part in the military event. It is the only hope of +averting an indiscriminate massacre, and things worse." + +The curt phrase, "things worse," went like a bullet-stroke through +Beverley's heart. It flashed an awful picture upon his vision. +Father Beret saw his face whiten and his lips set themselves to +resist a great emotion. + +"Do not be angry with me, my son," he said, laying a hand on the +young man's arm. "I may be wrong, but I act upon long and +convincing experience." + +"Experience or no experience," Helm exclaimed with an oath, "this +fort must be manned and defended. I am commanding here!" + +"Yes, I recognize your authority," responded the priest in a firm +yet deferential tone, "and I heartily wish you had a garrison; but +where is your command, Captain Helm?" Then it was that the doughty +Captain let loose the accumulated profanity with which he had been +for some time well-nigh bursting. He tiptoed in order to curse +with extremest violence. His gestures were threatening. He shook +his fists at Father Beret, without really meaning offence. + +"Where is my garrison, you ask! Yes, and I can tell you. It's +where you might expect a gang of dad blasted jabbering French +good-for-nothings to be, off high-gannicking around shooting +buffaloes instead of staying here and defending their wives, +children, homes and country, damn their everlasting souls! The few +I have in the fort will sneak off, I suppose." + +"The French gave you this post on easy terms, Captain," blandly +retorted Father Beret. + +"Yes, and they'll hand it over to Hamilton, you think, on the same +basis," cried Helm, "but I'll show you! I'll show you, Mr. +Priest!" + +"Pardon me, Captain, the French are loyal to you and to the flag +yonder. They have sworn it. Time will prove it. But in the present +desperate dilemma we must choose the safer horn." + +Saying this Father Beret turned about and went his way. He was +chuckling heartily as he passed out of the gate. + +"He is right," said Beverley after a few moments of reflection, +during which he was wholly occupied with Alice, whose terrified +face in his anticipation appealed to him from the midst of howling +savages, smoking cabins and mangled victims of lust and massacre. +His imagination painted the scene with a merciless realism that +chilled his blood. All the sweet romance fell away from Vincennes. + +"Well, sir, right or wrong, your, duty is to obey orders," said +Helm with brutal severity. + +"We had better not quarrel, Captain," Beverley replied. "I have +not signified any unwillingness to obey your commands. Give them, +and you will have no cause to grumble." + +"Forgive me, old fellow," cried the impulsive commander. "I know +you are true as steel. I s'pose I'm wound up too tight to be +polite. But the time is come to do something. Here we are with but +five or six men--" + +He was interrupted by the arrival of two more half-breed scouts. + +Only three miles away was a large flotilla of boats and canoes +with cannon, a force of Indians on land and the British flag +flying,--that was the report. + +"They are moving rapidly," said the spokesman, "and will be here +very soon. They are at least six hundred strong, all well armed." + +"Push that gun to the gate, and load it to the muzzle, Lieutenant +Beverley," Helm ordered with admirable firmness, the purple flush +in his face giving way to a grayish pallor. "We are going to die +right here, or have the honors of war." + +Beverley obeyed without a word. He even loaded two guns instead of +one--charging each so heavily that the last wad looked as if ready +to leap from the grimy mouth. + +Helm had already begun, on receiving the first report, a hasty +letter to Colonel Clark at Kaskaskia. He now added a few words and +at the last moment sent it out by a trusted man, who was promptly +captured by Hamilton's advance guard. The missive, evidently +written in installments during the slow approach of the British, +is still in the Canadian archives, and runs thus: + +"Dear Sir--At this time there is an army within three miles of +this place; I heard of their coming several days beforehand. I +sent spies to find the certainty--the spies being taken prisoner +I never got intelligence till they got within three miles of town. +As I had called the militia and had all assurances of their +integrity I ordered at the firing of a cannon every man to appear, +but I saw but few. Captain Buseron behaved much to his honor and +credit, but I doubt the conduct of a certain gent. Excuse haste, +as the army is in sight. My determination is to defend the +garrison, (sic) though I have but twenty-one men but what has left +me. I refer you to Mr. Wmes (sic) for the rest. The army is within +three hundred yards of the village. You must think how I feel; not +four men that I really depend upon; but am determined to act +brave--think of my condition. I know it is out of my power to +defend the town, as not one of the militia will take arms, though +before sight of the army no braver men. There is a flag at a small +distance, I must conclude. + +"Your humble servant, + +"Leo'd Helm. Must stop." + +"To Colonel Clark." + +Having completed this task, the letter shows under what a nervous +strain, Helm turned to his lieutenant and said: + +"Fire a swivel with a blank charge. We'll give these weak-kneed +parly-voos one more call to duty. Of course not a frog-eater of +them all will come. But I said that a gun should be the signal. +Possibly they didn't hear the first one, the damned, deaf, +cowardly hounds!" + +Beverley wheeled forth the swivel and rammed a charge of powder +home. But when he fired it, the effect was far from what it should +have been. Instead of calling in a fresh body of militia, it +actually drove out the few who up to that moment had remained as a +garrison; so that Captain Helm and his Lieutenant found themselves +quite alone in the fort, while out before the gate, deployed in +fine open order, a strong line of British soldiers approached with +sturdy steps, led by a tall, erect, ruddy-faced young officer. + + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE HONORS OF WAR + + +Gaspard Roussillon was thoroughly acquainted with savage warfare, +and he knew all the pacific means so successfully and so long used +by French missionaries and traders to control savage character; +but the emergency now upon him was startling. It confused him. The +fact that he had taken a solemn oath of allegiance to the American +government could have been pushed aside lightly enough upon +pressing occasion, but he knew that certain confidential agents +left in Vincennes by Governor Abbott had, upon the arrival of +Helm, gone to Detroit, and of course they had carried thither a +full report of all that happened in the church of St. Xavier, when +Father Gibault called the people together, and at the fort, when +the British flag was hauled down and la banniere d'Alice +Roussillon run up in its place. His expansive imagination did full +credit to itself in exaggerating the importance of his part in +handing the post over to the rebels. And what would Hamilton think +of this? Would he consider it treason? The question certainly bore +a tragic suggestion. + +M. Roussillon lacked everything of being a coward, and treachery +had no rightful place in his nature. He was, however, so in the +habit of fighting windmills and making mountains of molehills that +he could not at first glance see any sudden presentment with a +normal vision. He had no love for Englishmen and he did like +Americans, but he naturally thought that Helm's talk of fighting +Hamilton was, as his own would have been in a like case, talk and +nothing more. The fort could not hold out an hour, he well knew. +Then what? Ah, he but too well realized the result. + +Resistance would inflame the English soldiers and madden the +Indians. There would be a massacre, and the belts of savages would +sag with bloody scalps. He shrugged his shoulders and felt a chill +creep up his back. + +The first thing M. Roussillon did was to see Father Beret and take +counsel of him; then he hurried home to dig a great pit under his +kitchen floor in which he buried many bales of fur and all his +most valuable things. He worked like a giant beaver all night +long. Meantime Father Beret went about over the town quietly +notifying the inhabitants to remain in their houses until after +the fort should surrender, which he was sure would happen the next +day. + +"You will be perfectly safe, my children," he said to them. "No +harm can come to you if you follow my directions." + +Relying implicitly upon him, they scrupulously obeyed in every +particular. + +He did not think it necessary to call at Roussillon place, having +already given M. Roussillon the best advice he could command. + +Just at the earliest break of day, while yet the gloom of night +scarcely felt the sun's approach, a huge figure made haste along +the narrow streets in the northern part of the town. If any person +had been looking out through the little holes, called windows, in +those silent and rayless huts, it would have been easy to +recognize M. Roussillon by his stature and his gait, dimly +outlined as he was. A thought, which seemed to him an inspiration +of genius, had taken possession of him and was leading him, as if +by the nose, straight away to Hamilton's lines. He was freighted +with eloquence for the ear of that commander, and as he strode +along facing the crisp morning air he was rehearsing under his +breath, emphasizing his periods in tragic whispers with sweeping +gestures and liberal facial contortions. So absorbed was he in his +oratorical soliloquy that he forgot due military precaution and +ran plump into the face of a savage picket guard who, without +respect for the great M. Roussillon's dignity, sprang up before +him, grunted cavernously, flourished a tomahawk and spoke in +excellent and exceedingly guttural Indian: + +"Wah, surrender!" + +It is probable that no man ever complied with a modest request in +a more docile spirit than did M. Roussillon upon that occasion. In +fact his promptness must have been admirable, for the savage +grunted approval and straightway conducted him to Hamilton's +headquarters on a batteau in the river. + +The British commander, a hale man of sandy complexion and probably +under middle age, was in no very pleasant humor. Some of his +orders had been misunderstood by the chief of his Indian allies, +so that a premature exposure of his approach had been made to the +enemy. + +"Well, sir, who are you?" he gruffly demanded, when M. Roussillon +loomed before him. + +"I am Gaspard Roussillon, the Mayor of Vincennes," was the lofty +reply. "I have come to announce to you officially that my people +greet you loyally and that my town is freely at your command." He +felt as important as if his statements had been true. + +"Humph, that's it, is it? Well, Mr. Mayor, you have my +congratulations, but I should prefer seeing the military commander +and accepting his surrender. What account can you give me of the +American forces, their numbers and condition?" + +M. Roussillon winced, inwardly at least, under Hamilton's very +undeferential air and style of address. It piqued him cruelly to +be treated as a person without the slightest claim to respect. He +somehow forgot the rolling and rhythmical eloquence prepared for +the occasion. + +"The American commander naturally would not confide in me, +Monsieur le Gouverneur, not at all; we are not very friendly; he +ousted me from office, he offended me--" he was coughing and +stammering. + +"Oh, the devil! what do I care? Answer my question, sir," Hamilton +gruffly interrupted. "Tell me the number of American troops at the +fort, sir." + +"I don't know exactly. I have not had admittance to the fort. I +might be deceived as to numbers; but they're strong, I believe, +Monsieur le Gouverneur, at least they make a great show and much +noise." + +Hamilton eyed the huge bulk before him for a moment, then turning +to a subaltern said: + +"Place this fellow under guard and see that he doesn't get away. +Send word immediately to Captain Farnsworth that I wish to see him +at once." + +The interview thereupon closed abruptly. Hamilton's emissaries had +given him a detailed account of M. Roussillon's share in +submitting Vincennes to rebel dominion, and he was not in the +least inclined toward treating him graciously. + +"I would suggest to you, Monsieur le Gouverneur, that my official +position demands--" M. Roussillon began; but he was fastened upon +by two guards, who roughly hustled him aft and bound him so +rigidly that he could scarcely move finger or toe. + +Hamilton smiled coldly and turned to give some orders to a +stalwart, ruddy young officer who in a canoe had just rowed +alongside the batteau. + +"Captain Farnsworth," he said, acknowledging the military salute, +"you will take fifty men and make everything ready for a +reconnaissance in the direction of the fort. We will move down the +river immediately and choose a place to land. Move lively, we have +no time to lose." + +In the meantime Beverley slipped away from the fort and made a +hurried call upon Alice at Roussillon place. There was not much +they could say to each other during the few moments at command. +Alice showed very little excitement; her past experience had +fortified her against the alarms of frontier life; but she +understood and perfectly appreciated the situation. + +"What are you going to do?" Beverley demanded in sheer despair. He +was not able to see any gleam of hope out of the blackness which +had fallen around him and into his soul. + +"What shall you do?" he repeated. + +"Take the chances of war," she said, smiling gravely. "It will all +come out well, no doubt." + +"I hope so, but--but I fear not." + +His face was gray with trouble. "Helm is determined to fight, and +that means--" + +"Good!" she interrupted with spirit. "I am so glad of that. I wish +I could go to help him! If I were a man I'd love to fight! I think +it's just delightful." + +"But it is reckless bravado; it is worse than foolishness," said +Beverley, not feeling her mood. "What can two or three men do +against an army?" + +"Fight and die like men," she replied, her whole countenance +lighting up. "Be heroic!" + +"We will do that, of course; we--I do not fear death; but you-- +you--" His voice choked him. + +A gun shot rang out clear in the distance, and he did not finish +speaking. + +"That's probably the beginning," he added in a moment, extending +both hands to her. "Good bye. I must hurry to the fort. Good bye." + +She drew a quick breath and turned so white that her look struck +him like a sudden and hard blow. He stood for a second, his arms +at full reach, then: + +"My God, Alice, I cannot, cannot leave you!" he cried, his voice +again breaking huskily. + +She made a little movement, as if to take hold of his hands: but +in an instant she stepped back a pace and said; + +"Don't fear about me. I can take care of myself. I'm all right. +You'd better return to the fort as quickly as you can. It is your +country, your flag, not me, that you must think of now." + +She folded her arms and stood boldly erect. + +Never before, in all his life, had he felt such a rebuke. He gave +her a straight, strong look in the eyes. + +"You are right, Alice." he cried, and rushed from the house to the +fort. + +She held her rigid attitude for a little while after she heard him +shut the front gate of the yard so forcibly that it broke in +pieces, then she flung her arms wide, as if to clasp something, +and ran to the door; but Beverley was out of sight. She turned and +dropped into a chair. Jean came to her out of the next room. His +queer little face was pale and pinched; but his jaw was set with +the expression of one who has known danger and can meet it +somehow. + +"Are they going to scalp us?" he half whispered presently, with a +shuddering lift of his distorted shoulders. + +Her face was buried in her hands and she did not answer. Childlike +he turned from one question to another inconsequently. + +"Where did Papa Roussillon go to?" he next inquired. "Is he going +to fight?" + +She shook her head. + +"They'll tear down the fort, won't they?" + +If she heard him she did not make any sign. + +"They'll kill the Captain and Lieutenant and get the fine flag +that you set so high on the fort, won't they, Alice?" + +She lifted her head and gave the cowering hunchback such a stare +that he shut his eyes and put up a hand, as if afraid of her. Then +she impulsively took his little misshapen form in her arms and +hugged it passionately. Her bright hair fell all over him, almost +hiding him. Madame Roussillon was lying on a bed in an adjoining +room moaning diligently, at intervals handling her rosary and +repeating a prayer. The whole town was silent outside. + +"Why don't you go get the pretty flag down and hide it before they +come?" Jean murmured from within the silken meshes of Alice's +hair. + +In his small mind the gaudy banner was the most beautiful of all +things. Every day since it was set up he had gone to gaze at it as +it fluttered against the sky. The men had frequently said in his +presence that the enemy would take it down if they captured the +fort. + +Alice heard his inquisitive voice; but it seemed to come from far +off; his words were a part of the strange, wild swirl in her +bosom. Beverley's look, as he turned and left her, now shook every +chord of her being. He had gone to his death at her command. How +strong and true and brave he was! In her imagination she saw the +flag above him, saw him die like a panther at bay, saw the gay rag +snatched down and torn to shreds by savage hands. It was the +tragedy of a single moment, enacted in a flashlight of +anticipation. + +She released Jean so suddenly that he fell to the floor. She +remembered what she had said to Beverley on the night of the dance +when they were standing under the flag. + +"You made it and set it up," he lightly remarked; "you must see +that no enemy ever gets possession of it, especially the English." + +"I'll take it down and hide it when there's danger of that," she +said in the same spirit. + +And now she stood there looking at Jean, without seeing him, and +repeated the words under her breath. + +"I'll take it down and hide it. They shan't have it." + +Madame Roussillon began to call from the other room in a loud, +complaining voice; but Alice gave no heed to her querulous +demands. + +"Stay here, Jean, and take care of Mama Roussillon," she presently +said to the hunchback. "I am going out; I'll be back soon; don't +you dare leave the house while I'm gone; do you hear?" + +She did not wait for his answer; but snatching a hood-like fur cap +from a peg on the wall, she put it on and hastily left the house. + +Down at the fort Helm and Beverley were making ready to resist +Hamilton's attack, which they knew would not be long deferred. The +two heavily charged cannon were planted so as to cover the space +in front of the gate, and some loaded muskets were ranged near by +ready for use. + +"We'll give them one hell of a blast," growled the Captain, +"before they overpower us." + +Beverley made no response in words; but he was preparing a bit of +tinder on the end of a stick with which to fire the cannon. Not +far away a little heap of logs was burning in the fort's area. + +The British officer, already mentioned as at the head of the line +advancing diagonally from the river's bank, halted his men at a +distance of three hundred yards from the fort, and seemed to be +taking a deliberately careful survey of what was before him. + +"Let 'em come a little nearer, Lieutenant," said Helm, his jaw +setting itself like a lion's. "When we shoot we want to hit." + +He stooped and squinted along his gun. + +"When they get to that weedy spot out yonder," he added, "just +opposite the little rise in the river bank, we'll turn loose on +'em." + +Beverley had arranged his primitive match to suit his fancy, and +for probably the twentieth time looked critically to the powder in +the beveled touch-hole of his old cannon. He and Helm were facing +the enemy, with their backs to the main area of the stockade, when +a well known voice attracted their attention to the rear. + +"Any room for a feller o' my size in this here crowded place?" it +demanded in a cracked but cheerful tenor. "I'm kind o' outen +breath a runnin' to git here." + +They turned about. It was Oncle Jazon with his long rifle on his +shoulder and wearing a very important air. He spoke in English, +using the backwoods lingo with the ease of long practice. + +"As I's a comin' in f'om a huntin' I tuck notice 'at somepin' was +up. I see a lot o' boats on the river an' some fellers wi' guns a +scootin' around, so I jes' slipped by 'em all an' come in the back +way. They's plenty of 'em, I tell you what! I can't shoot much, +but I tuck one chance at a buck Indian out yander and jes' +happened to hit 'im in the lef' eye. He was one of the gang 'at +scalped me down yander in Kaintuck." + +The greasy old sinner looked as if he had not been washed since he +was born. He glanced about with furtive, shifty eyes, grimaced and +winked, after the manner of an animal just waking from a lazy nap. + +"Where's the rest o' the fighters?" he demanded quizzically, +lolling out his tongue and peeping past Helm so as to get a +glimpse of the English line. "Where's yer garrison? Have they all +gone to breakfas'?" + +The last question set Helm off again cursing and swearing in the +most melodramatic rage. + +Oncle Jazon turned to Beverley and said in rapid French: "Surely +the man's not going to fight those fellows yonder?" + +Beverley nodded rather gloomily. + +"Well," added the old man, fingering his rifle's stock and taking +another glance through the gate, "I can't shoot wo'th a cent, +bein' sort o' nervous like; but I'll stan' by ye awhile, jes' for +luck. I might accidentally hit one of 'em." + +When a man is truly brave himself there is nothing that touches +him like an exhibition of absolutely unselfish gameness in +another. A rush of admiration for Oncle Jazon made Beverley feel +like hugging him. + +Meantime the young British officer showed a flag of truce, and, +with a file of men, separated himself from the line, now +stationary, and approached the stockade. At a hundred yards he +halted the file and came on alone, waving the white clout. He +boldly advanced to within easy speaking distance and shouted: + +"I demand the surrender of this fort." + +"Well, you'll not get it, young man," roared Helm, his profanity +well mixed in with the words, "not while there's a man of us +left!" + +"Ye'd better use sof' soap on 'im, Cap'n," said Oncle Jazon in +English, "cussin' won't do no good." While he spoke he rubbed the +doughty Captain's arm and then patted it gently. + +Helm, who was not half as excited as he pretended to be, knew that +Oncle Jazon's remark was the very essence of wisdom; but he was +not yet ready for the diplomatic language which the old trooper +called "soft soap." + +"Are you the British commander?" he demanded. + +"No," said the officer, "but I speak for him." + +"Not to me by a damned sight, sir. Tell your commander that I will +hear what he has to say from his own mouth. No understrapper will +be recognized by me." + +That ended the conference. The young officer, evidently indignant, +strode back to his line, and an hour later Hamilton himself +demanded the unconditional surrender of the fort and garrison. + +"Fight for it," Helm stormed forth. "We are soldiers." + +Hamilton held a confab with his officers, while his forces, under +cover of the town's cabins, were deploying so as to form a half +circle about the stockade. Some artillery appeared and was planted +directly opposite the gate, not three hundred yards distant. One +blast of that battery would, as Helm well knew, level a large part +of the stockade. + +"S'posin' I hev' a cannon, too, seein' it's the fashion," said +Oncle Jazon. "I can't shoot much, but I might skeer 'em. This +little one'll do me." + +He set his rifle against the wall and with Beverley's help rolled +one of the swivels alongside the guns already in position. + +In a few minutes Hamilton returned under the white flag and +shouted: + +"Upon what terms will you surrender?" + +"All the honors of war," Helm firmly replied. "It's that or fight, +and I don't care a damn which!" + +Hamilton half turned away, as if done with the parley, then facing +the fort again, said: + +"Very well, sir, haul down your flag." + +Helm was dumfounded at this prompt acceptance of his terms. Indeed +the incident is unique in history. + +As Hamilton spoke he very naturally glanced up to where la +banniere d'Alice Roussillon waved brilliantly. Someone stood +beside it on the dilapidated roof of the old blockhouse, and was +already taking it from its place. His aid, Captain Farnsworth, saw +this, and the vision made his heart draw in a strong, hot flood It +was a girl in short skirts and moccasins, with a fur hood on her +head, her face, thrillingly beautiful, set around with fluffs of +wind-blown brown-gold hair. Farnsworth was too young to be +critical and too old to let his eyes deceive him. Every detail of +the fine sketch, with its steel-blue background of sky, flashed +into his mind, sharp-cut as a cameo. Involuntarily he took off his +hat. + +Alice had come in by way of the postern. She mounted to the roof +unobserved, and made her way to the flag, just at the moment when +Helm, glad at heart to accept the easiest way out of a tight +place, asked Oncle Jazon to lower it. + +Beverley was thinking of Alice, and when he looked up he could +scarcely realize that he saw her; but the whole situation was +plain the instant she snatched the staff from its place; for he, +too, recollected what she had said at the river house. The memory +and the present scene blended perfectly during the fleeting +instant that she was visible. He saw that Alice was smiling +somewhat as in her most mischievous moods, and when she jerked the +staff from its fastening she lifted it high and waved it once, +twice, thrice defiantly toward the British lines, then fled down +the ragged roof-slope with it and disappeared. The vision remained +in Beverley's eyes forever afterward. The English troops, thinking +that the flag was taken down in token of surrender, broke into a +wild tumult of shouting. + +Oncle Jazon intuitively understood just what Alice was doing, for +he knew her nature and could read her face. His blood effervesced +in an instant. + +"Vive Zhorzh Vasinton! Vive la banniere d'Alice Roussillon!" he +screamed, waving his disreputable cap round his scalpless head. +"Hurrah for George Washington! Hurrah for Alice Roussillon's +flag!" + +It was all over soon. Helm surrendered himself and Beverley with +full honors. As for Oncle Jazon, he disappeared at the critical +moment. It was not just to his mind to be a prisoner of war, +especially under existing conditions; for Hamilton's Indian allies +had some old warpath scores to settle with him dating back to the +days when he and Simon Kenton were comrades in Kentucky. + +When Alice snatched the banner and descended with it to the +ground, she ran swiftly out through the postern, as she had once +before done, and sped along under cover of the low bluff or swell, +which, terrace-like, bounded the flat "bottom" lands southward of +the stockade. She kept on until she reached a point opposite +Father Beret's hut, to which she then ran, the flag streaming +bravely behind her in the wind, her heart beating time to her +steps. + +It was plainly a great surprise to Father Beret, who looked up +from his prayer when she rushed in, making a startling clatter, +the loose puncheons shaking together under her reckless feet. + +"Oh, Father, here it is! Hide it, hide it, quick!" + +She thrust the flag toward him. + +"They shall not have it! They shall never have it!" + +He opened wide his shrewd, kindly eyes; but did not fairly +comprehend her meaning. + +She was panting, half laughing, half crying. Her hair, wildly +disheveled, hung in glorious masses over her shoulders. Her face +beamed triumphantly, + +"They are taking the fort," she breathlessly added, again urging +the flag upon him, "they're going in, but I got this and ran away +with it. Hide it, Father, hide it, quick, quick, before they +come!" + +The daring light in her eyes, the witching play of her dimples, +the madcap air intensified by her attitude and the excitement of +the violent exercise just ended--something compounded of all +these and more--affected the good priest strangely. Involuntarily +he crossed himself, as if against a dangerous charm. + +"Mon Dieu, Father Beret," she exclaimed with impatience, "haven't +you a grain of sense left? Take this flag and hide it, I tell you! +Don't stay there gazing and blinking. Here, quick! They saw me +take it, they may be following me. Hurry, hide it somewhere!" + +He comprehended now, rising from his knees with a queer smile +broadening on his face. She put the banner into his hands and gave +him a gentle push. + +"Hide it, I tell you, hide it, you dear old goose!" + +Without sneaking he turned the staff over and over in his hand, +until the flag was closely wrapped around it, then stooping he +lifted a puncheon and with it covered the gay roll from sight. + +Alice caught him in her arms and kissed him vigorously on the +cheek. Her warm lips made the spot tingle. + +"Don't you dare to let any person have it! It's the flag of George +Washington." + +She gave him a strong squeeze. + +He pushed her from him with both hands and hastily crossed +himself; but his eyes were laughing. + +"You ought to have seen me; I waved the flag at them--at the +English--and one young officer took off his hat to me! Oh, Father +Beret, it was like what is in a novel. They'll get the fort, but +not the banner! Not the banner! I've saved it, I've saved it!" + +Her enthusiasm gave a splendor to her countenance, heightening its +riches of color and somehow adding to its natural girlish +expression an audacious sweetness. The triumphant success of her +undertaking lent the dignity of conscious power to her look, a +dignity which always sits well upon a young and somewhat +immaturely beautiful face. + +Father Beret could not resist her fervid eloquence, and he could +not run away from her or stop up his ears while she went on. So he +had to laugh when she said: + +"Oh, if you had seen it all you would have enjoyed it. There was +Oncle Jazon squatting behind the little swivel, and there were +Captain Helm and Lieutenant Beverley holding their burning sticks +over the big cannon ready to shoot--all of them so intent that +they didn't see me--and yonder came the English officer and his +army against the three. When they got close to the gate the +officer called out: 'Surrender!' and then Captain Helm yelled +back: 'Damned if I do! Come another step and I'll blow you all to +hell in a second!' I was mightily in hopes that they'd come on; I +wanted to see a cannon ball hit that English commander right in +the face; he looked so arrogant." + +Father Beret shook his head and tried to look disapproving and +solemn. + +Meantime down at the fort Hamilton was demanding the flag. He had +seen Alice take it down, and supposed that it was lowered +officially and would be turned over to him. Now he wanted to +handle it as the best token of his bloodless but important +victory. + +"I didn't order the flag down until after I had accepted your +terms," said Helm, "and when my man started to obey, we saw a +young lady snatch it and run away with it." + +"Who was the girl?" + +"I do not inform on women," said Helm. + +Hamilton smiled grimly, with a vexed look in his eyes, then turned +to Captain Farnsworth and ordered him to bring up M. Roussillon, +who, when he appeared, still had his hands tied together. + +"Tell me the name of the young woman who carried away the flag +from the fort. You saw her, you know every soul in this town. Who +was it, sir?" + +It was a hard question for M. Roussillon to answer. Although his +humiliating captivity had somewhat cowed him, still his love for +Alice made it impossible for him to give the information demanded +by Hamilton. He choked and stammered, but finally managed to say: + +"I assure you that I don't know--I didn't look--I didn't see--It +was too far off for me to--I was some-what excited--I--" + +"Take him away. Keep him securely bound," said Hamilton. "Confine +him. We'll see how long it will take to refresh his mind. We'll +puncture the big windbag." + +While this curt scene was passing, the flag of Great Britain rose +over the fort to the lusty cheering of the victorious soldiers. + +Hamilton treated Helm and Beverley with extreme courtesy. He was a +soldier, gruff, unscrupulous and cruel to a degree; but he could +not help admiring the daring behavior of these two officers who +had wrung from him the best terms of surrender. He gave them full +liberty, on parole of honor not to attempt escape or to aid in any +way an enemy against him while they were prisoners. + +Nor was it long before Helm's genial and sociable disposition won +the Englishman's respect and confidence to such an extent that the +two became almost inseparable companions, playing cards, brewing +toddies, telling stories, and even shooting deer in the woods +together, as if they had always been the best of friends. + +Hamilton did not permit his savage allies to enter the town, and +he immediately required the French inhabitants to swear allegiance +to Great Britain, which they did with apparent heartiness, all +save M. Roussillon, who was kept in close confinement and bound +like a felon, chafing lugubriously and wearing the air of a +martyr. His prison was a little log pen in one corner of the +stockade, much open to the weather, its gaping cracks giving him a +dreary view of the frozen landscape through which the Wabash +flowed in a broad steel-gray current. Helm, who really liked him, +tried in vain to procure his release; but Hamilton was inexorable +on account of what he regarded as duplicity in M. Roussillon's +conduct. + +"No, I'll let him reflect," he said; "there's nothing like a +little tyranny to break up a bad case of self-importance. He'll +soon find out that he has over-rated himself!" + + + + + +CHAPTER X + +M. ROUSSILLON ENTERTAINS COLONEL HAMILTON + + +A day or two after the arrival of Hamilton the absent garrison of +buffalo hunters straggled back to Vincennes and were duly sworn to +demean themselves as lawful subjects of Great Britain. Rene de +Ronville was among the first to take the oath, and it promptly +followed that Hamilton ordered him pressed into service as a wood- +chopper and log-hauler during the erection of a new blockhouse, +large barracks and the making of some extensive repairs of the +stockade. Nothing could have been more humiliating to the proud +young Frenchman. Every day he had to report bright and early to a +burly Irish Corporal and be ordered about, as if he had been a +slave, cursed at, threatened and forced to work until his hands +were blistered and his muscles sore. The bitterest part of it all +was that he had to trudge past both Roussillon place and the +Bourcier cabin with the eyes of Alice and Adrienne upon him. + +Hamilton did not forget M. Roussillon in this connection. The +giant orator soon found himself face to face with a greater trial +even than Rene's. He was calmly told by the English commander that +he could choose between death and telling who it was that stole +the flag. + +"I'll have you shot, sir, to-morrow morning if you prevaricate +about this thing any longer," said Hamilton, with a right deadly +strain in his voice. "You told me that you knew every man, woman +and child in Vincennes at sight. I know that you saw that girl +take the flag--lying does not serve your turn. I give you until +this evening to tell me who she is; if you fail, you die at +sunrise to-morrow." + +In fact, it may be that Hamilton did not really purpose to carry +out this blood-thirsty threat; most probably he relied upon M. +Roussillon's imagination to torture him successfully; but the +effect, as time proved, could not be accurately foreseen. + +Captain Farnsworth had energy enough for a dozen ordinary men. +Before he had been in Vincennes twelve hours he had seen every +nook and corner of its surface. Nor was his activity due +altogether to military ardor, although he never let pass an +opportunity to serve the best interests of his commander; all the +while his mind was on the strikingly beautiful girl whose saucy +countenance had so dazzled him from the roof-top of the fort, what +time she wrenched away the rebel flag. + +"I'll find her, high or low," he thought, "for I never could fail +to recognize that face. She's a trump." + +It was not in Alice's nature to hide from the English. They had +held the town and fort before Helm came, and she had not found +them troublesome under Abbott. She did not know that M. Roussillon +was a prisoner, the family taking it for granted that he had gone +away to avoid the English. Nor was she aware that Hamilton felt so +keenly the disappearance of the flag. What she did know, and it +gladdened her greatly, was that Beverley had been well treated by +his captor. With this in her heart she went about Roussillon place +singing merry snatches of Creole songs; and when at the gate, +which still hung lop-sided on account of Beverley's force in +shutting it, she came unexpectedly face to face with Captain +Farnsworth, there was no great surprise on her part. + +He lifted his hat and bowed very politely; but a bold smile broke +over his somewhat ruddy face. He spoke in French, but in a +drawling tone and with a bad accent: + +"How do you do, Mademoiselle; I am right glad to see you again." + +Alice drew back a pace or two. She was quick to understand his +allusion, and she shrank from him, fearing that he was going to +inquire about the flag. + +"Don't be afraid," he laughed. "I am not so dangerous. I never did +hurt a girl in all my life. In fact, I am fond of them when +they're nice." + +"I am not in the least afraid," she replied, assuming an air of +absolute dismissal, "and you don't look a bit ferocious, Monsieur. +You may pass on, if you please." + +He flushed and bit his lip, probably to keep back some hasty +retort, and thought rapidly for a moment. She looked straight at +him with eyes that stirred and dazzled him. He was handsome in a +coarse way, like a fine young animal, well groomed, well fed, +magnetic, forceful; but his boldness, being of a sort to which she +had not been accustomed, disturbed her vaguely and strangely. + +"Suppose that I don't pass on?" he presently ventured, with just a +suspicion of insolence in his attitude, but laughing until he +showed teeth of remarkable beauty and whiteness. "Suppose that I +should wish to have a little chat with you, Mademoiselle?" + +"I have been told that there are men in the world who think +themselves handsome, and clever, and brilliant, when in fact they +are but conceited simpletons," she remarked, rather indifferently, +muffling herself in her fur wrap. "You certainly would be a fairly +good hitching-post for our horses if you never moved." Then she +laughed out of the depth of her hood, a perfectly merry laugh, but +not in the least flattering to Captain Farnsworth's vanity. He +felt the scorn that it conveyed. + +His face grew redder, while a flash from hers made him wish that +he had been more gracious in his deportment. Here, to his +surprise, was not a mere creole girl of the wild frontier. + +Her superiority struck him with the force of a captivating +revelation, under the light of which he blinked and winced. + +She laid a shapely hand on the broken gate and pushed it open. + +"I beg your pardon, Mademoiselle;" his manner softened as he +spoke; "I beg your pardon; but I came to speak to you about the +flag--the flag you took away from the fort." + +She had been half expecting this; but she was quite unprepared, +and in spite of all she could do showed embarrassment. + +"I have come to get the flag; if you will kindly bring it to me, +or tell me where it is I--" + +She quickly found words to interrupt him with, and at the same +time by a great effort pulled herself together. + +"You have come to the wrong place," she flung in. "I assure you +that I haven't the flag." + +"You took it down, Mademoiselle." + +"Oh, did I?" + +"With bewitching grace you did, Mademoiselle. I saw and admired. +Will you fetch it, please?" + +"Indeed I won't." + +The finality in her voice belied her face, which beamed without a +ray of stubbornness or perversity. He did not know how to +interpret her; but he felt that he had begun wrong. He half +regretted that he had begun at all. + +"More depends upon returning that flag than you are probably aware +of," he presently said in a more serious tone. "In fact, the life +of one of your townsmen, and a person of some importance here I +believe, will surely be saved by it. You'd better consider, +Mademoiselle. You wouldn't like to cause the death of a man." + +She did not fairly grasp the purport of his words; yet the change +in his manner, and the fact that he turned from French to English +in making the statement, aroused a sudden feeling of dread or dark +apprehension in her breast. The first distinct thought was of +Beverley--that some deadly danger threatened him. + +"Who is it?" she frankly demanded. + +"It's the Mayor, the big man of your town, Monsieur Roussillon, I +think he calls himself. He's got himself into a tight place. He'll +be shot to-morrow morning if that flag is not produced. Governor +Hamilton has so ordered, and what he orders is done." + +"You jest, Monsieur." + +"I assure you that I speak the plain truth." + +"You will probably catch Monsieur Roussillon before you shoot +him." She tossed her head. + +"He is already a prisoner in the fort." + +Alice turned pale. + +"Monsieur, is this true?" Her voice had lost its happy tone. "Are +you telling me that to--" + +"You can verify it, Mademoiselle, by calling upon the commander at +the fort. I am sorry that you doubt my veracity. If you will go +with me I will show you M. Roussillon a tightly bound prisoner." + +Jean had crept out of the gate and was standing just behind Alice +with his feet wide apart, his long chin elevated, his head resting +far back between his upthrust shoulders, his hands in his pockets, +his uncanny eyes gazing steadily at Farnsworth. He looked like a +deformed frog ready to jump. + +Alice unmistakably saw truth in the Captain's countenance and felt +it in his voice. The reality came to her with unhindered effect. +M. Roussillon's life depended upon the return of the flag. She put +her hands together and for a moment covered her eyes with them. + +"I will go now, Mademoiselle," said Farnsworth; "but I hope you +will be in great haste about returning the flag." + +He stood looking at her. He was profoundly touched and felt that +to say more would be too brutal even for his coarse nature; so he +simply lifted his hat and went away. + +Jean took hold of Alice's dress as she turned to go back into the +house. + +"Is he going to take the flag? Can he find it? What does he want +with it? What did you do with the flag, Alice?" he whined, in his +peculiar, quavering voice. "Where is it?" + +Her skirt dragged him along as she walked. + +"Where did you put it, Alice?" + +"Father Beret hid it under his floor," she answered, +involuntarily, and almost unconsciously. "I shall have to take it +back and give it up." + +"No--no--I wouldn't," he quavered, dancing across the veranda as +she quickened her pace and fairly spun him along. "I wouldn't let +'em have it at all." + +Alice's mind was working with lightning speed. Her imagination +took strong grip on the situation so briefly and effectively +sketched by Captain Farnsworth. Her decision formed itself +quickly. + +"Stay here, Jean. I am going to the fort. Don't tell Mama +Roussillon a thing. Be a good boy." + +She was gone before Jean could say a word. She meant to face +Hamilton at once and be sure what danger menaced M. Roussillon. Of +course, the flag must be given up if that would save her foster +father any pain; and if his life were in question there could not +be too great haste on her part. + +She ran directly to the stockade gate and breathlessly informed a +sentinel that she must see Governor Hamilton, into whose presence +she was soon led. Captain Farnsworth had preceded her but a minute +or two, and was present when she entered the miserable shed room +where the commander was having another talk with M. Roussillon. + +The meeting was a tableau which would have been comical but for +the pressure of its tragic possibilities. Hamilton, stern and +sententious, stood frowning upon M. Roussillon, who sat upon the +ground, his feet and hands tightly bound, a colossal statue of +injured innocence. + +Alice, as soon as she saw M. Roussillon, uttered a cry of +sympathetic endearment and flung herself toward him with open +arms. She could not reach around his great shoulders; but she did +her best to include the whole bulk. + +"Papa! Papa Roussillon!" she chirruped between the kisses that she +showered upon his weather-beaten face. + +Hamilton and Farnsworth regarded the scene with curious and +surprised interest. M. Roussillon began speaking rapidly; but +being a Frenchman he could not get on well with his tongue while +his hands were tied. He could shrug his shoulders; that helped him +some. + +"I am to be shot, MA PETITE," he pathetically growled in his deep +bass voice; "shot like a dog at sunrise to-morrow." + +Alice kissed M. Roussillon's rough cheek once more and sprang to +her feet facing Hamilton. + +"You are not such a fiend and brute as to kill Papa Roussillon," +she cried. "Why do you want to injure my poor, good papa?" + +"I believe you are the young lady that stole the flag?" Hamilton +remarked, smiling contemptuously. + +She looked at him with a swift flash of indignation as he uttered +these words. + +"I am not a thief. I could not steal what was my own. I helped to +make that flag. It was named after me. I took it because it was +mine. You understand me, Monsieur." + +"Tell where it is and your father's life will be spared." + +She glanced at M. Roussillon. + +"No, Alice," said he, with a pathetically futile effort to make a +fine gesture, "don't do it. I am brave enough to die. You would +not have me act the coward." + +No onlooker would have even remotely suspected the fact that M. +Roussillon had chanced to overhear a conversation between Hamilton +and Farnsworth, in which Hamilton stated that he really did not +intend to hurt M. Roussillon in any event; he merely purposed to +humiliate the "big wind-bag!" + +"Ah, no; let me die bravely for honor's sake--I fear death far +less than dishonor! They can shoot me, my little one, but they +cannot break my proud spirit." He tried to strike his breast over +his heart. + +"Perhaps it would be just as well to let him be shot," said +Hamilton gruffly, and with dry indifference. "I don't fancy that +he's of much value to the community at best. He'll make a good +target for a squad, and we need an example." + +"Do you mean it?--you ugly English brute--would you murder him?" +she stamped her foot. + +"Not if I get that flag between now and sundown. Otherwise I shall +certainly have him shot. It is all in your hands, Mademoiselle. +You can tell me where the flag is." Hamilton smiled again with +exquisite cruelty. + +Farnsworth stood by gazing upon Alice in open admiration. Her +presence had power in it, to which he was very susceptible. + +"You look like a low, dishonorable, soulless tyrant," she said to +Hamilton, "and if you get my flag, how shall I know that you will +keep your promise and let Papa Roussillon go free?" + +"I am sorry to say that you will have to trust me, unless you'll +take Captain Farnsworth for security. The Captain is a gentleman, +I assure you. Will you stand good for my veracity and sincerity, +Captain Farnsworth?" + +The young man smiled and bowed. + +Alice felt the irony; and her perfectly frank nature preferred to +trust rather than distrust the sincerity of others. She looked at +Farnsworth, who smiled encouragingly. + +"The flag is under Father Beret's floor," she said. + +"Under the church floor?" + +"No, under the floor of his house." + +"Where is his house?" + +She gave full directions how to reach it. + +"Untie the prisoner," Hamilton ordered, and it was quickly done. +"Monsieur Roussillon, I congratulate you upon your narrow escape. +Go to the priest's house, Monsieur, and bring me that flag. It +would be well, I assure you, not to be very long about it. Captain +Farnsworth, you will send a guard with Monsieur Roussillon, a +guard of honor, fitting his official dignity, a Corporal and two +men. The honorable Mayor of this important city should not go +alone upon so important an errand. He must have his attendants." + +"Permit me to go myself and get it," said Alice, "I can do it +quickly. May I, please, Monsieur?" + +Hamilton looked sharply at her. + +"Why, certainly, Mademoiselle, certainly. Captain Farnsworth, you +will escort the young lady." + +"It is not necessary, Monsieur." + +"Oh, yes, it is necessary, my dear young lady, very necessary; so +let's not have further words. I'll try to entertain his honor, the +Mayor, while you go and get the flag. I feel sure, Mademoiselle, +that you'll return with it in a few minutes. But you must not go +alone." + +Alice set forth immediately, and Farnsworth, try as hard as he +would, could never reach her side, so swift was her gait. + +When they arrived at Father Beret's cabin, she turned and said +with imperious severity: + +"Don't you come in; you stay out here: I'll get it in a minute." + +Farnsworth obeyed her command. + +The door was wide open, but Father Beret was not inside; he had +gone to see a sick child in the outskirts of the village. Alice +looked about and hesitated. She knew the very puncheon that +covered the flag; but she shrank from lifting it. There seemed +nothing else to do, however; so, after some trouble with herself, +she knelt upon the floor and turned the heavy slab over with a +great thump. The flag did not appear. She peeped under the other +puncheons. It was not there. The only thing visible was a little +ball of paper fragments not larger than an egg. + +Farnsworth heard her utter a low cry of surprise or dismay, and +was on the point of going in when Father Beret, coming around the +corner of the cabin, confronted him. The meeting was so sudden and +unexpected that both men recoiled slightly, and then, with a +mutual stare, saluted. + +"I came with a young lady to get the flag," said Farnsworth. "She +is inside. I hope there is no serious intrusion. She says the flag +is hidden under your floor." + +Father Beret said nothing, but frowning as if much annoyed, +stepped through the doorway to Alice's side, and stooping where +she knelt, laid a hand on her shoulder as she glanced up and +recognized him. + +"What are you doing, my child?" + +"Oh, Father, where is the flag?" It was all that she could say. +"Where is the flag?" + +"Why, isn't it there?" + +"No, you see it isn't there! Where is it?" + +The priest stood as if dumfounded, gazing into the vacant space +uncovered by the puncheon. + +"Is it gone? Has some one taken it away?" + +They turned up all the floor to no avail. La banniere d'Alice +Roussillon had disappeared, and Captain Farnsworth went forthwith +to report the fact to his commander. When he reached the shed at +the angle of the fort he found Governor Hamilton sitting stupid +and dazed on the ground. One jaw was inflamed and swollen and an +eye was half closed and bloodshot. He turned his head with a +painful, irregular motion and his chin sagged. + +Farnsworth sprang to him and lifted him to his feet; but he could +scarcely stand. He licked his lips clumsily. + +"What is the matter? What hurt you?" + +The Governor rubbed his forehead trying to recollect. + +"He struck me," he presently said with difficulty. "He hit me with +his fist Where--where is he?" + +"Who?" + +"That big French idiot--that Roussillon--go after him, take him, +shoot him--quick! I have been stunned; I don't know how long he's +been gone. Give the alarm--do something!" + +Hamilton, as he gathered his wits together, began to foam with +rage, and his passion gave his bruised and swollen face a terrible +look. + +The story was short, and may be quickly told. M. Roussillon had +taken advantage of the first moment when he and Hamilton were left +alone. One herculean buffet, a swinging smash of his enormous fist +on the point of the Governors jaw, and then he walked out of the +fort unchallenged, doubtless on account of his lordly and +masterful air. + +"Ziff!" he exclaimed, shaking himself and lifting his shoulders, +when he had passed beyond hearing of the sentinel at the gate, +"ziff! I can punch a good stiff stroke yet, Monsieur le +Gouverneur. Ah, ziff!" and he blew like a porpoise. + +Every effort was promptly made to recapture M. Roussillon; but his +disappearance was absolute; even the reward offered for his scalp +by Hamilton only gave the Indians great trouble--they could not +find the man. + +Such a beginning of his administration of affairs at Vincennes did +not put Hamilton into a good humor. He was overbearing and +irascible at best, and under the irritation of small but +exceedingly unpleasant experiences he made life well-nigh +unendurable to those upon whom his dislike chanced to fall. +Beverley quickly felt that it was going to be very difficult for +him and Hamilton to get along agreeably. With Helm it was quite +different; smoking, drinking, playing cards, telling good stories-- +in a word, rude and not unfrequently boisterous conviviality drew +him and the commandant together. + +Under Captain Farnsworth's immediate supervision the fort was soon +in excellent repair and a large blockhouse and comfortable +quarters for the men were built. Every day added to the strength +of the works and to the importance of the post as a strategic +position for the advance guard of the British army. + +Hamilton was ambitious to prove himself conspicuously valuable to +his country. He was dreaming vast dreams and laying large plans. +The Indians were soon anxious to gain his favor; and to bind them +securely to him he offered liberal pay in rum and firearms, +blankets, trinkets and ammunition for the scalps of rebels. He +kept this as secret as possible from his prisoners; but Beverley +soon suspected that a "traffic in hair," as the terrible business +had been named, was going on. Savages came in from far away with +scalps yet scarcely dry dangling at their belts. It made the young +Virginian's blood chill in his heart, and he regretted that he had +given Hamilton his parole of honor not to attempt to escape. + +Among the Indians occasionally reporting to Hamilton with their +ghastly but valuable trophies was Long-Hair, who slipped into the +fort and out again rather warily, not having much confidence in +those Frenchmen who had once upon a time given him a memorable run +for his life. + +Winter shut down, not cold, but damp, changeable, raw. The work on +the fort was nearly completed, and Rene de Ronville would have +soon been relieved of his servile and exasperating employment +under the Irish Corporal; but just at the point of time when only +a few days' work remained for him, he became furious, on account +of an insulting remark, and struck the Corporal over the head with +a handspike. This happened in a wood some miles from town, where +he was loading logs upon a sled. There chanced to be no third +person present when the deed was done, and some hours passed +before they found the officer quite cold and stiff beside the +sled. His head was crushed to a pulp. + +Hamilton, now thoroughly exasperated, began to look upon the +French inhabitants of Vincennes as all like M. Roussillon and +Rene, but waiting for an opportunity to strike him unawares. He +increased his military vigilance, ordered the town patrolled day +and night, and forbade public gatherings of the citizens, while at +the same time he forced them to furnish him a large amount of +provisions. + +When little Adrienne Bourcier heard of Renews terrible act, +followed by his successful escape to the woods, and of the +tempting reward offered by Hamilton for his scalp, she ran to +Roussillon place well-nigh crazed with excitement. She had always +depended upon Alice for advice, encouragement and comfort in her +troubles; but in the present case there was not much that her +friend could do to cheer her. With M. Roussillon and Rene both +fugitives, tracked by wily savages, a price on their heads, while +every day added new dangers to the French inhabitants of +Vincennes, no rosy view could possibly be taken of the situation. +Alice did her best, however, to strengthen her little friend's +faith in a happy outcome. She quoted what she considered +unimpeachable authority to support her optimistic argument. + +"Lieutenant Beverley says that the Americans will be sure to drive +Hamilton out of Vincennes, or capture him. Probably they are not +so very far away now, and Rene may join them and come back to help +punish these brutal Englishmen. Don't you wish he would, Adrienne? +Wouldn't it be romantic?" + +"He's armed, I know that," said Adrienne, brightening a little, +"and he's brave, Alice, brave as can be. He came right back into +town the other night and got his gun and pistols. He was at our +house, too, and, oh!--" + +She burst out crying again. "O Alice! It breaks my heart to think +that the Indians will kill him. Do you think they will kill him, +Alice?" + +"He'll come nearer killing them," said Alice confidently, with her +strong, warm arms around the tiny lass; "he's a good woodsman, a +fine shot--he's not so easy to kill, my dear. If he and Papa +Roussillon should get together by chance they would be a match for +all the Indians in the country. Anyway, I feel that it's much +better for them to take their chances in the woods than to be in +the hands of Governor Hamilton. If I were a man I'd do just as +Papa Roussillon and Rene did; I'd break the bigoted head of every +Englishman that mistreated me, I'll do it, girl as I am, if they +annoy me, see if I don't!" + +She was thinking of Captain Farnsworth, who had been from the +first untiring in his efforts to gain something more than a +passing acquaintance. As yet he had not made himself unbearable; +but Alice's fine intuition led her to the conclusion that she must +guard against him from the outset. + +Adrienne's simple heart could not grasp the romantic criterion +with which Alice was wont to measure action. Her mind was single, +impulsive, narrow and direct in all its movements. She loved, +hated, desired, caressed, repulsed, not for any assignable reason +more solid or more luminous than "because." She adored Rene and +wanted him near her. He was a hero in her imagination, no matter +what he did. Little difference was it to her whether he hauled +logs for the English or smoked his pipe in idleness by the winter +fire--what could it matter which flag he served under, so that he +was true to her? Or whom he served if she could always have him +coming to see her and calling her his little pet? He might crush +an Irish Corporal's head every day, if he would but stroke her +hair and say: "My sweet little one." + +"Why couldn't he be quiet and do as your man, Lieutenant Beverley, +did?" she cried in a sudden change of mood, the tears streaming +down her cheeks. "Lieutenant Beverley surrendered and took the +consequences. He didn't kill somebody and run off to be hunted +like a bear. No wonder you're happy, Alice; I'd be happy, too, if +Rene were here and came to spend half of every day with me. I--" + +"Why, what a silly girl you are!" Alice exclaimed, her face +reddening prettily. "How foolishly you prattle! I'm sure I don't +trouble myself about Lieutenant Beverley--what put such absurd +nonsense into your head, Adrienne?" + +"Because, that's what, and you know it's so, too. You love him +just as much as I love Rene, and that's just all the love in the +world, and you needn't deny it, Alice Roussillon!" + +Alice laughed and hugged the wee, brown-faced mite of a girl until +she almost smothered her. + +It was growing dusk when Adrienne left Roussillon place to go +home. The wind cut icily across the commons and moaned as it +whirled around the cabins and cattle-sheds. She ran briskly, +muffled in a wrap, partly through fear and partly to keep warm, +and had gone two-thirds of her way when she was brought to an +abrupt stop by the arms of a man. She screamed sharply, and Father +Beret, who was coming out of a cabin not far away, heard and knew +the voice. + +"Ho-ho, my little lady!" cried Adrienne's captor in a breezy, +jocund tone, "you wouldn't run over a fellow, would you?" The +words were French, but the voice was that of Captain Farnsworth, +who laughed while he spoke. "You jump like a rabbit, my darling! +Why, what a lively little chick of a girl it is!" + +Adrienne screamed and struggled recklessly. + +"Now don't rouse up the town," coaxed the Captain. He was just +drunk enough to be quite a fool, yet sufficiently sober to imagine +himself the most proper person in the world. "I don't mean you any +harm, Mademoiselle; I'll just see you safe home, you know; 'scort +you to your residence; come on, now--that's a good girl." + +Father Beret hurried to the spot, and when in the deepening gloom +he saw Adrienne flinging herself violently this way and that, +helplessly trying to escape from the clasp of a man, he did to +perfection what a priest is supposed to be the least fitted to do. +Indeed, considering his age and leaving his vocation out of the +reckoning, his performance was amazing. It is not certain that the +blow dealt upon Governor Hamilton's jaw by M. Roussillon was a +stiffer one than that sent straight from the priest's shoulder +right into the short ribs of Captain Farnsworth, who there-upon +released a mighty grunt and doubled himself up. + +Adrienne recognized her assailant at the first and used his name +freely during the struggle. When Father Beret appeared she cried +out to him-- + +"Oh, Father--Father Beret! help me! help me!" + +When Farnsworth recovered from the breath-expelling shock of the +jab in his side and got himself once more in a vertical position, +both girl and priest were gone. He looked this way and that, +rapidly becoming sober, and beginning to wonder how the thing +could have happened so easily. His ribs felt as if they had been +hit with a heavy hammer. + +"By Jove!" he muttered all to himself, "the old prayer-singing +heathen! By Jove!" And with this very brilliant and relevant +observation he rubbed his sore side and went his way to the fort. + + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +A SWORD AND A HORSE PISTOL + + +We hear much about the "days that tried men's souls"; but what +about the souls of women in those same days? Sitting in the +liberal geniality of the nineteenth century's sunset glow, we +insist upon having our grumble at the times and the manners of our +generation; but if we had to exchange places, periods and +experiences with the people who lived in America through the last +quarter of the eighteenth century, there would be good ground for +despairing ululations. And if our men could not bear it, if it +would try their souls too poignantly, let us imagine the effect +upon our women. No, let us not imagine it; but rather let us give +full credit to the heroic souls of the mothers and the maidens who +did actually bear up in the center of that terrible struggle and +unflinchingly help win for us not only freedom, but the vast +empire which at this moment is at once the master of the world and +the model toward which all the nations of the earth are slowly but +surely tending. + +If Alice was an extraordinary girl, she was not aware of it; nor +had she ever understood that her life was being shaped by +extraordinary conditions. Of course it could not but be plain to +her that she knew more and felt more than the girls of her narrow +acquaintance; that her accomplishments were greater; that she +nursed splendid dreams of which they could have no proper +comprehension, but until now she had never even dimly realized +that she was probably capable of being something more than a mere +creole lass, the foster daughter of Gaspard Roussillon, trader in +pelts and furs. Even her most romantic visions had never taken the +form of personal desire, or ambition in its most nebulous stage; +they had simply pleased her fresh and natural fancy and served to +gild the hardness and crudeness of her life,--that was all. + +Her experiences had been almost too terrible for belief, viewed at +our distance from them; she had passed through scenes of +incredible horror and suffering, but her nature had not been +chilled, stunted or hardened. In body and in temper her +development had been sound and beautiful. It was even thus that +our great-grandmothers triumphed over adversity, hardship, +indescribable danger. We cannot say that the strong, lithe, happy- +hearted Alice of old Vincennes was the only one of her kind. Few +of us who have inherited the faded portraits of our revolutionary +forbears can doubt that beauty, wit and great lovableness +flourished in the cabins of pioneers all the way from the Edisto +to the Licking, from the Connecticut to the Wabash. + +Beverley's advent could not fail to mean a great deal in the life +of a girl like Alice; a new era, as it were, would naturally begin +for her the moment that his personal influence touched her +imagination; but it is well not to measure her too strictly by the +standard of our present taste and the specialized forms of our +social and moral code. She was a true child of the wilderness, a +girl who grew, as the wild prairie rose grew, not on account of +innumerable exigencies, accidents and hardships, but in spite of +them. She had blushed unseen, and had wasted divine sweets upon a +more than desert air. But when Beverley came near her, at first +carelessly droning his masculine monotonies, as the wandering bee +to the lonely and lovely rose, and presently striking her soul as +with the wings of Love, there fell a change into her heart of +hearts, and lo! her haunting and elusive dreams began to condense +and take on forms that startled her with their wonderful splendor +and beauty. These she saw all the time, sleeping or waking; they +made bright summer of the frozen stream and snapping gale, the +snowdrifts and the sleet. In her brave young heart, swelled the +ineffable song--the music never yet caught by syrinx or flute or +violin, the words no tongue can speak. + +Ah, here may be the secret of that vigorous, brave, sweet life of +our pioneer maids, wives, and mothers. It was love that gave those +tender hearts the iron strength and heroic persistence at which +the world must forever wonder. And do we appreciate those women? +Let the Old World boast its crowned kings, its mailed knights, its +ladies of the court and castle; but we of the New World, we of the +powerful West, let us brim our cups with the wine of undying +devotion, and drink to the memory of the Women of the Revolution, +--to the humble but good and marvelously brave and faithful women +like those of old Vincennes. + +But if Alice was being radically influenced by Beverley, he in +turn found a new light suffusing his nature, and he was not +unaware that it came out of her eyes, her face, her smiles, her +voice, her soul. It was the old, well-known, inexplicable, mutual +magnetism, which from the first has been the same on the highest +mountain-top and in the lowest valley. The queen and the milkmaid, +the king and the hind may come together only to find the king +walking off with the lowly beauty and her fragrant pail, while +away stalks the lusty rustic, to be lord and master of the queen. +Love is love, and it thrives in all climes, under all conditions. + +There is an inevitable and curious protest that comes up unbidden +between lovers; it takes many forms in accordance with particular +circumstances. It is the demand for equality and perfection. Love +itself is without degrees--it is perfect--but when shall it see +the perfect object? It does see it, and it does not see it, in +every beloved being. Beverley found his mind turning, as on a +pivot, round and round upon the thought that Alice might be +impossible to him. The mystery of her life seemed to force her +below the line of his aristocratic vision, so that he could not +fairly consider her, and yet with all his heart he loved her. +Alice, on the other hand, had her bookish ideal to reckon with, +despite the fact that she daily dashed it contemptuously down. She +was different from Adrienne Bourcier, who bewailed the absence of +her un-tamable lover; she wished that Beverley had not, as she +somehow viewed it, weakly surrendered to Hamilton. His apparently +complacent acceptance of idle captivity did not comport with her +dream of knighthood and heroism. She had been all the time half +expecting him to do something that would stamp him a hero. + +Counter protests of this sort are never sufficiently vigorous to +take a fall out of Love; they merely serve to worry his temper by +lightly hindering his feet. And it is surprising how Love does +delight himself with being entangled. + +Both Beverley and Alice day by day felt the cord tightening which +drew their hearts together--each acknowledged it secretly, but +strove not to evince it openly. Meantime both were as happy and as +restlessly dissatisfied as love and uncertainty could make them. + +Amid the activities in which Hamilton was engaged--his dealings +with the Indians and the work of reconstructing the fort--he found +time to worry his temper about the purloined flag. Like every +other man in the world, he was superstitious, and it had come into +his head that to insure himself and his plans against disaster, he +must have the banner of his captives as a badge of his victory. It +was a small matter; but it magnified itself as he dwelt upon it. +He suspected that Alice had deceived him. He sharply questioned +Father Beret, only to be half convinced that the good priest told +the truth when he said that he knew nothing whatever on the +subject beyond the fact that the banner had mysteriously +disappeared from under his floor. + +Captain Farnsworth scarcely sympathized with his chief about the +flag, but he was nothing if not anxious to gain Hamilton's highest +confidence. His military zeal knew no bounds, and he never let +pass even the slightest opportunity to show it. Hence his +persistent search for a clue to the missing banner. He was no +respecter of persons. He frankly suspected both Alice and Father +Beret of lying. He would himself have lied under the existing +circumstances, and he considered himself as truthful and +trustworthy as priest or maiden. + +"I'll get that flag for you," he said to Hamilton, "if I have to +put every man, woman and child in this town on the rack. It lies, +I think, between Miss Roussillon and the priest, although both +insistently deny it. I've thought it over in every way, and I +can't see how they can both be ignorant of where it is, or at +least who got it." + +Hamilton, since being treated to that wonderful blow on the jaw, +was apt to fall into a spasm of anger whenever the name Roussillon +was spoken in his hearing. Involuntarily he would put his hand to +his cheek, and grimace reminiscently. + +"If it's that girl, make her tell," he savagely commanded. "Let's +have no trifling about it. If it's the priest, then make him tell, +or tie him up by the thumbs. Get that flag, or show some good +reason for your failure. I'm not going to be baffled." + +The Captain's adventure with Father Beret came just in time to +make it count against that courageous and bellicose missionary in +more ways than one. Farnsworth did not tell Hamilton or any other +person about what the priest had done to him, but nursed his sore +ribs and his wrath, waiting patiently for the revenge that he +meant soon to take. + +Alice heard from Adrienne the story of Farnsworth's conduct and +his humiliating discomfiture at the hands of Father Beret. She was +both indignant and delighted, sympathizing with Adrienne and +glorying in the priest's vigorous pugilistic achievement. + +"Well," she remarked, with one of her infectious trills of +laughter, "so far the French have the best of it, anyway! Papa +Roussillon knocked the Governor's cheek nearly off, then Rene +cracked the Irish Corporal's head, and now Father Beret has taught +Captain Farnsworth a lesson in fisticuffs that he'll not soon +forget! If the good work can only go on a little longer we shall +see every English soldier in Vincennes wearing the mark of a +Frenchman's blow." Then her mood suddenly changed from smiling +lightness to almost fierce gravity, and she added: + +"Adrienne Bourcier, if Captain Farnsworth ever offers to treat me +as he did you, mark my words, I'll kill him--kill him, indeed I +will! You ought to see me!" + +"But he won't dare touch you," said Adrienne, looking at her +friend with round, admiring eyes. "He knows very well that you are +not little and timid like me. He'd be afraid of you." + +"I wish he would try it. How I would love to shoot him into +pieces, the hateful wretch! I wish he would." + +The French inhabitants all, or nearly all, felt as Alice did; but +at present they were helpless and dared not say or do anything +against the English. Nor was this feeling confined to the Creoles +of Vincennes; it had spread to most of the points where trading +posts existed. Hamilton found this out too late to mend some of +his mistakes; but he set himself on the alert and organized +scouting bodies of Indians under white officers to keep him +informed as to the American movements in Kentucky and along the +Ohio. One of these bands brought in as captive Colonel Francis +Vigo, of St. Louis, a Spaniard by birth, an American by adoption, +a patriot to the core, who had large influence over both Indians +and Creoles in the Illinois country. + +Colonel Vigo was not long held a prisoner. Hamilton dared not +exasperate the Creoles beyond their endurance, for he knew that +the savages would closely sympathize with their friends of long +standing, and this might lead to revolt and coalition against +him,--a very dangerous possibility. Indeed, at least one of the +great Indian chieftains had already frankly informed him that he +and his tribe were loyal to the Americans. Here was a dilemma +requiring consummate diplomacy. Hamilton saw it, but he was not of +a diplomatic temper or character. With the Indians he used a +demoralizing system of bribery, while toward the whites he was too +often gruff, imperious, repellant. Helm understood the whole +situation and was quick to take advantage of it. His personal +relations with Hamilton were easy and familiar, so that he did not +hesitate to give advice upon all occasions. Here his jovial +disposition helped him. + +"You'd better let Vigo return to St. Louis," he said. They had a +bowl of something hot steaming between them. "I know him. He's +harmless if you don't rub him too hard the wrong way. He'll go +back, if you treat him well, and tell Clark how strong you are +here and how foolish it would be to think of attacking you. Clark +has but a handful of men, poorly supplied and tired with long, +hard marches. If you'll think a moment you cannot fail to +understand that you'd better be friends with this man Vigo. He and +Father Gibault and this old priest here, Beret, carry these +Frenchmen in their pockets. I'm not on your side, understand, I'm +an American, and I'd blow the whole of you to kingdom come in a +minute, if I could; but common sense is common sense all the same. +There's no good to you and no harm to Clark in mistreating, or +even holding this prisoner. What harm can he do you by going back +to Clark and telling him the whole truth? Clark knew everything +long before Vigo reached here. Old Jazon, my best scout, left here +the day you took possession, and you may bet he got to Kaskaskia +in short order. He never fails. But he'll tell Clark to stay where +he is, and Vigo can do no more." + +What effect Helm's bold and apparently artless talk had upon +Hamilton's mind is not recorded; but the meager historical facts +at command show that Vigo was released and permitted to return +under promise that he would give no information to the enemy ON +HIS WAY to Kaskaskia. + +Doubtless this bit of careless diplomacy on the Governor's part +did have a somewhat soothing effect upon a large class of +Frenchmen at Vincennes; but Farnsworth quickly neutralized it to a +serious extent by a foolish act while slightly under the influence +of liquor. + +He met Father Beret near Roussillon place, and feeling his ribs +squirm at sight of the priest, he accosted him insolently, +demanding information as to the whereabouts of the missing flag. + +A priest may be good and true--Father Beret certainly was--and yet +have the strongest characteristics of a worldly man. This thing of +being bullied day after day, as had recently been the rule, +generated nothing to aid in removing a refractory desire from the +priest's heart--the worldly desire to repeat with great increment +of force the punch against Famsworth's lower ribs. + +"I order you, sir, to produce that rebel flag," said Farnsworth. +"You will obey forthwith or take the consequences. I am no longer +in the humor to be trifled with. Do you understand?" + +"I might be forced to obey you, if I could," said the priest, +drawing his robe about him; "but, as I have often told you, my +son, I do not know where the flag is or who took it. I do not even +suspect any person of taking it. All that I know about it is the +simple fact that it is gone." + +Father Beret's manner and voice were very mild, but there must +have been a hint of sturdy defiance somewhere in them. At all +events Farnsworth was exasperated and fell into a white rage. +Perhaps it was the liquor he had been drinking that made him +suddenly desperate. + +"You canting old fool!" he cried, "don't lie to me any longer; I +won't have it. Don't stand there grinning at me. Get that flag, or +I'll make you." + +"What is impossible, my son, is possible to God alone. Apud +homines hoc impossible est, apud Deum autem omnia possibilia +sunt." + +"None of your Jesuit Latin or logic to me--I am not here to argue, +but to command. Get that flag. Be in a hurry about it, sir." + +He whipped out his sword, and in his half drunken eyes there +gathered the dull film of murderous passion. + +"Put up your weapon, Captain; you will not attack an unarmed +priest. You are a soldier, and will not dare strike an old, +defenceless man." + +"But I will strike a black-robed and black-hearted French rebel. +Get that flag, you grinning fool!" + +The two men stood facing each other. Father Beret's eyes did not +stir from their direct, fearless gaze. What Farnsworth had called +a grin was a peculiar smile, not of merriment, a grayish flicker +and a slight backward wrinkling of the cheeks. The old man's arms +were loosely crossed upon his sturdy breast. + +"Strike if you must," he said very gently, very firmly. "I never +yet have seen the man that could make me afraid." His speech was +slightly sing-song in tone, as it would have been during a prayer +or a blessing. + +"Get the flag then!" raged Farnsworth, in whose veins the heat of +liquor was aided by an unreasoning choler. + +"I cannot," said Father Beret. + +"Then take the consequences!" + +Farnsworth lifted his sword, not to thrust, but to strike with its +flat side, and down it flashed with a noisy whack. Father Beret +flung out an arm and deftly turned the blow aside. It was done so +easily that Farnsworth sprang back glaring and surprised. + +"You old fool!" he cried, leveling his weapon for a direct lunge. +"You devilish hypocrite!" + +It was then that Father Beret turned deadly pale and swiftly +crossed himself. His face looked as if he saw something startling +just beyond his adversary. Possibly this sudden change of +expression caused Farnsworth to hesitate for a mere point of time. +Then there was the swish of a woman's skirts; a light step +pattered on the frozen ground, and Alice sprang between the men, +facing Farnsworth. As she did this something small and yellow,-- +the locket at her throat,--fell and rolled under her feet. Nobody +saw it. + +In her hand she held an immense horse pistol, which she leveled in +the Captain's face, its flaring, bugle-shaped muzzle gaping not a +yard from his nose. The heavy tube was as steady as if in a vise. + +"Drop that sword!" + +That was all she said; but her finger was pressing the trigger, +and the flint in the backward slanting hammer was ready to click +against the steel. The leaden slugs were on the point of leaping +forth. + +"Drop that sword!" + +The repetition seemed to close the opportunity for delay. + +Farnsworth was on his guard in a twinkling. He set his jaw and +uttered an ugly oath; then quick as lightning he struck sidewise +at the pistol with his blade. It was a move which might have taken +a less alert person than Alice unawares; but her training in +sword-play was ready in her wrist and hand. An involuntary turn, +the slightest imaginable, set the heavy barrel of her weapon +strongly against the blow, partly stopping it, and then the gaping +muzzle spat its load of balls and slugs with a bellow that awoke +the drowsy old village. + +Farnsworth staggered backward, letting fall his sword. There was a +rent in the clothing of his left shoulder. He reeled; the blood +spun out; but he did not fall, although he grew white. + +Alice stood gazing at him with a look on her face he would never +forget. It was a look that changed by wonderful swift gradations +from terrible hate to something like sweet pity. The instant she +saw him hurt and bleeding, his countenance relaxing and pale, her +heart failed her. She took a step toward him, her hand opened, and +with a thud the heavy old pistol fell upon the ground beside her. + +Father Beret sprang nimbly to sustain Farnsworth, snatching up the +pistol as he passed around Alice. + +"You are hurt, my son," he gently said, "let me help you." He +passed his arm firmly under that of Farnsworth, seeing that the +Captain was unsteady on his feet. + +"Lean upon me. Come with me, Alice, my child, I will take him into +the house." + +Alice picked up the Captain's sword and led the way. + +It was all done so quickly that Farnsworth, in his half dazed +condition, scarcely realized what was going on until he found +himself on a couch in the Roussillon home, his wound (a jagged +furrow plowed out by slugs that the sword's blade had first +intercepted) neatly dressed and bandaged, while Alice and the +priest hovered over him busy with their careful ministrations. + +Hamilton and Helm were, as usual, playing cards at the former's +quarters when a guard announced that Mademoiselle Roussillon +wished an audience with the Governor. + +"Bring the girl in," said Hamilton, throwing down his cards and +scowling darkly. + +"Now you'd better be wise as a serpent and gentle as a dove," +remarked Helm. "There is something up, and that gun-shot we heard +awhile ago may have a good deal to do with it. At any rate, you'll +find kindness your best card to play with Alice Roussillon just at +the present stage of the game." + +Of course they knew nothing of what had happened to Farnsworth; +but they had been discussing the strained relations between the +garrison and the French inhabitants when the roar of Alice's big- +mouthed pistol startled them. Helm was slyly beating about to try +to make Hamilton lose sight of the danger from Clark's direction. +To do this he artfully magnified the insidious work that might be +done by the French and their Indian friends should they be driven +to desperation by oppressive or exasperating action on the part of +the English. + +Hamilton felt the dangerous uncertainty upon which the situation +rested; but, like many another vigorously self-reliant man, he +could not subordinate his passions to the dictates of policy. When +Alice was conducted into his presence he instantly swelled with +anger. It was her father who had struck him and escaped, it was +she who had carried off the rebel flag at the moment of victory. + +"Well, Miss, to what do I owe the honor of this visit?" he +demanded with a supercilious air, bending a card between his thumb +and finger on the rude table. + +She stood before him tall and straight, well bundled in furs. She +was not pale; her blood was too rich and brilliant for that; but +despite a half-smile and the inextinguishable dimples, there was a +touch of something appealingly pathetic in the lines of her mouth. +She did not waver or hesitate, however, but spoke promptly and +distinctly. + +"I have come, Monsieur, to tell you that I have hurt Captain +Farnsworth. He was about to kill Father Beret, and I shot him. He +is in our house and well cared for. I don't think his wound is +bad. And--" here she hesitated at last and let her gaze fall,--"so +here I am." Then she lifted her eyes again and made an inimitable +French gesture with her shoulders and arms. "You will do as you +please, Monsieur, I am at your mercy." + +Hamilton was astounded. Helm sat staring phlegmatically. Meantime +Beverley entered the room and stopped hat in hand behind Alice. He +was flushed and evidently excited; in fact, he had heard of the +trouble with Farnsworth, and seeing Alice enter the floor of +Hamilton's quarters he followed her in, his heart stirred by no +slight emotion. He met the Governor's glare and parried it with +one of equal haughtiness. The veins on his forehead swelled and +turned dark. He was in a mood to do whatever desperate act should +suggest itself. + +When Hamilton fairly comprehended the message so graphically +presented by Alice, he rose from his seat by the fire. + +"What's this you tell me?" he blurted. "You say you've shot +Captain Farnsworth?" + +"Oui, Monsieur" + +He stared a moment, then his features beamed with hate. + +"And I'll have you shot for it, Miss, as sure as you stand there +in your silly impudence ogling me so brazenly!" + +He leaned toward her as he spoke and sent with the words a shock +of coarse, passionate energy from which she recoiled as if +expecting a blow to follow it. + +An irresistible impulse swept Beverley to Alice's side, and his +attitude was that of a protector. Helm sprang up. + +A Lieutenant came in and respectfully, but with evident over- +haste, reported that Captain Farnsworth had been shot and was at +Roussillon place in care of the surgeon. + +"Take this girl into custody. Confine her and put a strong guard +over her." + +In giving the order Hamilton jerked his thumb contemptuously +toward Alice, and at the same time gave Beverley a look of supreme +defiance and hatred. When Helm began to speak he turned fiercely +upon him and stopped him with: + +"None of your advice, sir. I have had all I want of it. Keep your +place or I'll make you." + +Then to Beverley: + +"Retire, sir. When I wish to see you I'll send for you. At present +you are not needed here." + +The English Lieutenant saluted his commander, bowed respectfully +to Alice and said: + +"Come with me, Miss, please." + +Helm and Beverley exchanged a look of helpless and enquiring rage. +It was as if they had said: "What can we do? Must we bear it?" +Certainly they could do nothing. Any interference on their part +would be sure to increase Alice's danger, and at the same time add +to the weight of their own humiliation. + +Alice silently followed the officer out of the room. She did not +even glance toward Beverley, who moved as if to interfere and was +promptly motioned back by the guard. His better judgement +returning held him from a rash and futile act, until Hamilton +spoke again, saying loudly as Alice passed through the door: + +"I'll see who's master of this town if I have to shoot every +French hoyden in it!" + +"Women and children may well fear you, Colonel Hamilton," said +Beverley. "That young lady is your superior." + +"You say that to me, sir!" + +"It is the best I could possibly say of you." + +"I will send you along with the wench if you do not guard your +language. A prisoner on parole has no license to be a blackguard." + +"I return you my parole, sir, I shall no longer regard it as +binding," said Beverley, by a great effort, holding back a blow; +"I will not keep faith with a scoundrel who does not know how to +be decent in the presence of a young girl. You had better have me +arrested and confined. I will escape at the first opportunity and +bring a force here to reckon with you for your villainy. And if +you dare hurt Alice Roussillon I will have you hanged like a dog!" + +Hamilton looked at him scornfully, smiling as one who feels safe +in his authority and means to have his own way with his victim. +Naturally he regarded Beverley's words as the merest vaporings of +a helpless and exasperated young man. He saw very clearly that +love was having a hand in the affair, and he chuckled inwardly, +thinking what a fool Beverley was. + +"I thought I ordered you to leave this room," he said with an air +and tone of lofty superiority, "and I certainly mean to be obeyed. +Go, sir, and if you attempt to escape, or in any way break your +parole, I'll have you shot." + +"I have already broken it. From this moment I shall not regard it. +You have heard my statement. I shall not repeat it. Govern +yourself accordingly." + +With these words Beverley turned and strode out of the house, +quite beside himself, his whole frame quivering. + +Hamilton laughed derisively, then looked at Helm and said: + +"Helm, I like you; I don't wish to be unkind to you; but +positively you must quit breaking in upon my affairs with your +ready-made advice. I've given you and Lieutenant Beverley too much +latitude, perhaps. If that young fool don't look sharp he'll get +himself into a beastly lot of trouble. You'd better give him a +talk. He's in a way to need it just now." + +"I think so myself," said Helm, glad to get back upon fair footing +with the irascible Governor. "I'll wait until he cools off +somewhat, and then I can manage him. Leave him to me." + +"Well, come walk with me to see what has really happened to +Farnsworth. He's probably not much hurt, and deserves what he's +got. That girl has turned his head. I think I understand the whole +affair. A little love, a little wine, some foolishness, and the +wench shot him." + +Helm genially assented; but they were delayed for some time by an +officer who came in to consult with Hamilton on some pressing +Indian affairs. When they reached Roussillon place they met +Beverley coming out; but he did not look at them. He was scarcely +aware of them. A little way outside the gate, on going in, he had +picked up Alice's locket and broken chain, which he mechanically +put into his pocket. It was all like a dream to him, and yet he +had a clear purpose. He was going away from Vincennes, or at least +he would try, and woe be to Hamilton on his coming back. It was so +easy for an excited young mind to plan great things and to expect +success under apparently impossible conditions. Beverley gave Jean +a note for Alice; it was this that took him to Roussillon place; +and no sooner fell the night than he shouldered a gun furnished +him by Madame Godere, and guided by the woodsman's fine craft, +stole away southward, thinking to swim the icy Wabash some miles +below, and then strike across the plains of Illinois to Kaskaskia. + +It was a desperate undertaking; but in those days desperate +undertakings were rather the rule than the exception. Moreover, +love was the leader and Beverley the blind follower. Nothing could +daunt him or turn him back, until he found an army to lead against +Hamilton. It seems but a romantic burst of indignation, as we look +back at it, hopelessly foolish, with no possible end but death in +the wilderness. Still there was a method in love's madness, and +Beverley, with his superb physique, his knowledge of the +wilderness and his indomitable self-reliance, was by no means +without his fighting chance for success. + + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +MANON LESCAUT. AND A RAPIER-THRUST + + +Beverley's absence was not noticed by Hamilton until late on the +following day, and even then he scouted Helm's suggestion that the +young man was possibly carrying out his threat to disregard his +parole. + +"He would be quite justified in doing it; you know that very +well," said Helm with a laugh, "and he's just the man to undertake +what is impossible. Of course, however, he'll get scalped for his +trouble, and that will cost you something, I'm happy to say." + +"It's a matter of small importance," Hamilton replied; "but I'll +wager you the next toddy that he's not at the present moment a +half-mile from this spot. He may be a fool, I readily grant that +he is, but even a fool is not going to set out alone in this kind +of weather to go to where your rebel friends are probably toasting +their shins by a fire of green logs and half starving over yonder +on the Mississippi." + +"Joking aside, you are doubtless right. Beverley is hot-headed, +and if he could he'd get even with you devilish quick; but he +hasn't left Vincennes, I think. Miss Roussillon would keep him +here if the place were on fire!" + +Hamilton laughed dryly. He had thought just what Helm was saying. +Beverley's attentions to Alice had not escaped his notice. + +"Speaking of that girl," he remarked after a moment's silence, +"what am I do to do with her? There's no place to keep her, and +Farnsworth insists that she wasn't to blame." He chuckled again +and added: + +"It's true as gospel. He's in love with her, too. Seems to be glad +she shot him. Says he's ashamed of himself for ever suspecting her +of anything but being a genuine angel. Why, he's got as flabby as +a rabbit and mumbles like a fool!" + +"Same as you or I at his age," said Helm, taking a chew of +tobacco. "She IS a pretty thing. Beverley don't know his foot from +his shoulder-blade when she's anywhere near him. Boys are boys. +I'm a sort of a boy myself." + +"If she'd give up that flag he'd let her go," said Hamilton. "I hate +like the devil to confine her; it looks brutal, and makes me feel +like a tyrant." + +"Have you ever happened to notice the obvious fact, Governor +Hamilton, that Alice Roussillon and Father Beret are not all the +French in Vincennes?" + +"What do you mean?" + +"I mean that I don't for a moment believe that either the girl or +the priest knows a thing about where that flag is. They are both +as truthful and honorable as people ever get to be. I know them. +Somebody else got that flag from under the priest's floor. You may +depend upon that. If Miss Roussillon knew where it is she'd say +so, and then dare you to make her tell where it's hidden." "Oh, +the whole devilish town is rotten with treason; that's very clear. +There's not a loyal soul in it outside of my forces." + +"Thank you for not including me among the loyalists." + +"Humph, I spoke of these French people; they pretend to be true; +but I believe they are all traitors," + +"You can manage them if you try. A little jolly kindness goes a +long way with 'em. _I_ had no trouble while _I_ held the town." + +Hamilton bit his lip and was silent. Helm was exasperatingly good +tempered, and his jocularity was irresistible. While he was yet +speaking a guard came up followed by Jean, the hunchback, and +saluting said to Hamilton: + +"The lad wants to see the young lady, sir." + +Hamilton gazed quizzically at Jean, who planted himself in his +habitual attitude before him and stared up into his face with the +grotesque expression which seems to be characteristic of +hunchbacks and unfledged birds--the look of an embodied and +hideous joke. + +"Well, sir, what will you have?" the Governor demanded. + +"I want to see Alice, if you please." + +"What for?" + +"I want to give her a book to read." + +"Ah, indeed. Where is it? Let me see it" + +Jean took from the breast of his loose jerkin a small volume, dog- +eared and mildewed, and handed it to Hamilton. Meantime he stood +first on one foot, then the other, gnawing his thumb-nail and +blinking rapidly. + +"Well, Helm, just look here!" + +"What?" + +"Manon Lescaut." + +"And what's that?" + +"Haven't you ever read it?" + +"Read what?" + +"This novel--Manon Lescaut." + +"Never read a novel in my life. Never expect to." + +Hamilton laughed freely at Helm's expense, then turned to Jean and +gave him back the book. + +It would have been quite military, had he taken the precaution to +examine between the pages for something hidden there, but he did +not. + +"Go, give it to her," he said, "and tell her I send my +compliments, with great admiration of her taste in literature." He +motioned the soldier to show Jean to Alice. "It's a beastly French +story," he added, addressing Helm; "immoral enough to make a +pirate blush. That's the sort of girl Mademoiselle Roussillon is!" + +"I don't care what kind of a book she reads," blurted Helm, "she's +a fine, pure, good girl. Everybody likes her. She's the good angel +of this miserable frog-hole of a town. You'd like her yourself, if +you'd straighten up and quit burning tow in your brain all the +time. You're always so furious about something that you never have +a chance to be just to yourself, or pleasant to anybody else." + +Hamilton turned fiercely on Helm, but a glimpse of the Captain's +broad good-humored face heartily smiling, dispelled his anger. +There was no ground upon which to maintain a quarrel with a person +so persistently genial and so absurdly frank. And in fact Hamilton +was not half so bad as his choleric manifestations seemed to make +him out. Besides, Helm knew just how far to go, just when to stop. + +"If I had got furious at you every time there was overwhelming +provocation for it," Hamilton said, "you'd have been long since +hanged or shot. I fancy that I have shown angelic forbearance. +I've given you somewhat more than a prisoner's freedom." + +"So you have, so you have," assented Helm. "I've often been +surprised at your generous partiality in my case. Let's have some +hot water with something else in it, what do you say? I won't give +you any more advice for five minutes by your watch." + +"But I want some advice at once." + +"What about?" + +"That girl." + +"Turn her loose. That's easy and reputable." + +"I'll have to, I presume; but she ought to be punished." + +"If you'll think less about punishment, revenge and getting even +with everybody and everything, you'll soon begin to prosper." + +Hamilton winced, but smiled as one quite sure of himself. + +Jean followed the soldier to a rickety log pen on the farther side +of the stockade, where he found the prisoner restlessly moving +about like a bird in a rustic cage. It had no comforts, that +gloomy little room. There was no fireplace, the roof leaked, and +the only furniture consisted of a bench to sit on and a pile of +skins for bed. Alice looked charmingly forlorn peeping out of the +wraps in which she was bundled against the cold, her hair fluffed +and rimpled in shining disorder around her face. + +The guard let Jean in and closed the door, himself staying +outside. + +Alice was as glad to see the poor lad as if they had been parted +for a year. She hugged him and kissed his drawn little face. + +"You dear, good Jean!" she murmured, "you did not forget me." + +"I brought you something," he whispered, producing the book. + +Alice snatched it, looked at it, and then at Jean. + +"Why, what did you bring this for? you silly Jean! I didn't want +this. I don't like this book at all. It's hateful. I despise it. +Take it back." + +"There's something in it for you, a paper with writing on it; +Lieutenant Beverley wrote it on there. It's shut up between the +leaves about the middle." + +"Sh-s-sh! not so loud, the guard'll hear you," Alice breathlessly +whispered, her whole manner changing instantly. She was trembling, +and the color had been whisked from her face, as the flame from a +candle in a sudden draught. + +She found the note and read it a dozen times without a pause, her +eyes leaping along the lines back and forth with pathetic +eagerness and concentration. Presently she sat down on the bench +and covered her face with her hands. A tremor first, then a +convulsive sobbing, shook her collapsed form. Jean regarded her +with a drolly sympathetic grimace, elevating his long chin and +letting his head settle back between his shoulders. + +"Oh, Jean, Jean!" she cried at last, looking up and reaching out +her arms; "O Jean, he is gone, gone, gone!" + +Jean stepped closer to her while she sobbed again like a little +child. + +She pulled him to her and held him tightly against her breast +while she once more read the note through blinding tears. The +words were few, but to her they bore the message of desolation and +despair. A great, haunting, hollow voice in her heart repeated +them until they echoed from vague distance to distance. + +It was written with a bit of lead on the half of a mildewed fly- +leaf torn from the book: + +"Dear Alice: + +"I am going away. When you read this, think of me as hurrying +through the wilderness to reach our army and bring it here. Be +brave, as you always have been; be good, as you cannot help being; +wait and watch for me; love me, as I love you. I will come. Do not +doubt it, I will come, and I will crush Hamilton and his command. +Courage, Alice dear; courage, and wait for me. "Faithfully ever, +"Beverley." + +She kissed the paper with passionate fervor, pouring her tears +upon it in April showers between which the light of her eyes +played almost fiercely, so poignant was her sense of a despair +which bordered upon desperation. "Gone, gone!" It was all she +could think or say. "Gone, gone." + +Jean took the offending novel back home with him, hidden under his +jerkin; but Beverley's note lay upon Alice's heart, a sweet +comfort and a crushing weight, when an hour later Hamilton sent +for her and she was taken before him. Her face was stained with +tears and she looked pitifully distressed and disheveled; yet +despite all this her beauty asserted itself with subtle force. + +Hamilton felt ashamed looking at her, but put on sternness and +spoke without apparent sympathy: + +"Miss Roussillon, you came near committing a great crime. As it +is, you have done badly enough; but I wish not to be unreasonably +severe. I hope you are sorry for your act, and feel like doing +better hereafter." + +She was trembling, but her eyes looked steadily straight into his. +They were eyes of baby innocence, yet they irradiated a strong +womanly spirit just touched with the old perverse, mischievous +light which she could neither banish nor control. When she did not +make reply, Hamilton continued: + +"You may go home now, and I shall expect to have no more trouble +on your account." He made a gesture indicative of dismissal; then, +as she turned from him, he added, somewhat raising his voice: + +"And further, Miss Roussillon, that flag you took from here must +positively be returned. See that it is done." + +She lifted her head high and walked away, not deigning to give him +a word. + +"Humph! what do you think now of your fine young lady?" he +demanded, turning to Helm with a sneering curl of his mouth. "She +gives thanks copiously for a kindness, don't you think?" + +"Poor girl, she was scared nearly out of her life," said Helm. +"She got away from you, like a wounded bird from a snare. I never +saw a face more pitiful than hers." + +"Much pity she needs, and greatly like a wounded bird she acts, I +must say; but good riddance if she'll keep her place hereafter. I +despise myself when I have to be hard with a woman, especially a +pretty one. That girl's a saucy and fascinating minx, and as +dangerous as twenty men. I'll keep a watch on her movements from +this on, and if she gets into mischief again I'll transport her to +Detroit, or give her away to the Indians, She must stop her high- +handed foolishness." + +Helm saw that Hamilton was talking mere wind, VOX ET PRAETEREA +NIHIL, and he furthermore felt that his babbling signified no harm +to Alice; but Hamilton surprised him presently by saying: + +"I have just learned that Lieutenant Beverley is actually gone. +Did you know of his departure?" + +"What are you saying, sir?" + +Helm jumped to his feet, not angry, but excited. + +"Keep cool, you need not answer if you prefer silence or evasion. +You may want to go yourself soon." + +Helm burst out laughing, but quickly growing serious said: + +"Has Beverley been such a driveling fool as that? Are you in +earnest?" + +"He killed two of my scouts, wounded another, and crossed the +Wabash in their canoe. He is going straight towards Kaskaskia." + +"The idiot! Hurrah for him! If you catch your hare you may roast +him, but catch him first, Governor!" + +"You'll joke out of the other corner of your mouth, Captain Helm, +if I find out that you gave him aid or countenance in breaking his +parole." + +"Aid or countenance! I never saw him after he walked out of this +room. You gave him a devil of a sight more aid and countenance +than I did. What are you talking about! Broke his parole! He did +no such thing. He returned it to you fairly, as you well know. He +told you he was going." + +"Well, I've sent twenty of my swiftest Indians after him to bring +him back. I'll let you see him shot. That ought to please you." + +"They'll never get him, Governor. I'll bet high on him against +your twenty scalp-lifters any day. Fitzhugh Beverley is the best +Indian fighter, Daniel Boone and Simon Kenton excepted, in the +American colonies." + +On her way home Alice met Father Beret, who turned and walked +beside her. He was so overjoyed at her release that he could +scarcely speak; but held her hand and stroked it gently while she +told him her story. It was beginning to rain, a steady, cold +shower, when they reached the house, and for many days and nights +thereafter the downfall continued almost incessantly. + +"Dear child," said Father Beret, stopping at the gate and looking +beseechingly into Alice's face, "you must stay at home now--stay +in the house--it will be horribly dangerous for you to pass about +in the village after your--after what has happened." + +"Do not fear, Father, I will be careful. Aren't you coming in? +I'll find you a cake and a glass of wine." + +"No, child, not now." + +"Then good-bye, good-bye," she said, turning from him to run into +the house. "Come soon, I shall be so lonesome." + +On the veranda she suddenly stopped, running her fingers about her +neck and into her bosom. + +"Oh, Father, Father Beret, I've lost my locket!" she cried. "See +if I dropped it there." + +She went back to the gate, searching the ground with her eyes. Of +course she did not find the locket. It was miles and miles away +close to the heart of her lover. If she could but have known this, +it would have comforted her. Beverley had intended to leave it +with Jean, but in his haste and excitement he forgot; writing the +note distracted his attention; and so he bore Alice's picture on +his breast and in his heart while pursuing his long and perilous +journey. + +Four of Hamilton's scouts came upon Beverley twenty miles south of +Vincennes, but having the advantage of them, he killed two almost +immediately, and after a running fight, the other two attempted +escape in a canoe on the Wabash. Here, firing from a bluff, he +wounded a third. Both then plunged head-foremost into the water, +and by keeping below the surface, got away. The adventure gave +Beverley new spirit and self-reliance; he felt that he could +accomplish anything necessary to his undertaking. In the captured +pirogue he crossed the river, and, to make his trail hard to find, +sent the little craft adrift down the current. + +Then alone, in the dead of winter, he took his bearings and struck +across the dreary, houseless plain toward St. Louis. + +As soon as Hamilton's discomfited scouts reported to him, he sent +Long-Hair with twenty picked savages, armed and supplied for +continuous and rapid marching, in pursuit of Beverley. There was a +large reward for bringing him in alive, a smaller one for his +scalp. + +When Alice heard of all this, her buoyant and happy nature seemed +entirely to desert her for a time. She was proud to find out that +Beverley had shown himself brave and capable; it touched her love +of heroism; but she knew too much about Indian warfare to hope +that he could hold his own against Long-Hair, the wiliest and +boldest of scalp-hunters, and twenty of the most experienced +braves in Hamilton's forces. He would almost certainly be killed +and scalped, or captured and brought back to be shot or hanged in +Vincennes. The thought chilled and curdled her blood. + +Both Helm and Father Beret tried to encourage and comfort her by +representing the probabilities in the fairest light. + +"It's like hunting for a needle in a haystack, going out to find a +man in that wilderness," said Helm with optimistic cheerfulness; +"and besides Beverley is no easy dose for twenty red niggers to +take. I've seen him tried at worse odds than that, and he got out +with a whole skin, too. Don't you fret about him, Miss +Roussillon." + +Little help came to her from attempts of this sort. She might +brighten up for a while, but the dark dread, and the terrible +gnawing at her heart, the sinking and despairing in her soul, +could not be cured. + +What added immeasurably to her distress was the attention of +Farnsworth, whose wound troubled him but a short time. He seemed +to have had a revelation and a change of spirit since the +unfortunate rencounter and the subsequent nursing at Alice's +hands. He was grave, earnest, kindly, evidently striving to play a +gentle and honorable part. She could feel that he carried a load +of regret, that he wanted to pay a full price in good for the evil +that he had done; his sturdy English heart was righting itself +nobly, yet she but half understood him, until his actions and +words began to betray his love; and then she hated him +unreasonably. Realizing this, Farnsworth bore himself more like a +faithful dog than in the manner hitherto habitual to him. He +simply shadowed Alice and would not be rebuffed. + +There can be nothing more painful to a finely sympathetic nature +than regret for having done a kindness. Alice experienced this to +the fullest degree. She had nursed Farnsworth but a little while, +yet it was a while of sweet influence. Her tender woman nature +felt the blessedness of doing good to her enemy lying helpless in +her house and hurt by her own hand. But now she hated the man, and +with all her soul she was sorry that she had been kind to him; for +out of her kindness he had drawn the spell of a love under which +he lived a new life, and all for her. Yet deep down in her +consciousness the pity and the pathos of the thing hovered +gloomily and would not be driven out. + +The rain in mid-winter gave every prospect a sad, cold, sodden +gray appearance. The ground was soaked, little rills ran in the +narrow streets, the small streams became great rivers, the Wabash +overflowed its banks and made a sea of all the lowlands on either +side. It was hard on the poor dwellers in the thatched and mostly +floorless cabins, for the grass roofs gradually let the water +through and puddles formed on the ground inside. Fuel was distant +and had to be hauled in the pouring rain; provisions were scarce +and hunting almost impossible. Many people, especially children, +were taken ill with colds and fever. Alice found some relief from +her trouble in going from cabin to cabin and waiting upon the +sufferers; but even here Farnsworth could not be got rid of; he +followed her night and day. Never was a good soldier, for he was +that from head to foot, more lovelorn and love-docile. The maiden +had completely subdued the man. + +About this time, deep in a rainy and pitch-black night, Gaspard +Roussillon came home. He tapped on the door again and again. Alice +heard, but she hesitated to speak or move. Was she growing +cowardly? Her heart beat like a drum. There was but one person in +all the world that she could think of--it was not M. Roussillon. +Ah, no, she had well-nigh forgotten her gigantic foster father. + +"It is I, ma cherie, it is Gaspard, my love, open the door," came +in a booming half-whisper from without. "Alice, Jean, it is your +Papa Roussillon, my dears. Let me in." + +Alice was at the door in a minute, unbarring it. M. Roussillon +entered, armed to the teeth, the water dribbling from his buckskin +clothes. + +"Pouf!" he exclaimed, "my throat is like dust." His thoughts were +diving into the stores under the floor. "I am famished. Dear +children, dear little ones! They are glad to see papa! Where is +your mama?" + +He had Alice in his arms and Jean clung to his legs. Madame +Roussillon, to be sure of no mistake, lighted a lamp with a brand +that smoldered on the hearth and held it up, then, satisfied as to +her husband's identity, set it on a shelf and flung herself into +the affectionate group with clumsy abandon, making a great noise. + +"Oh, my dear Gaspard!" she cried as she lunged forward. "Gaspard, +Gaspard!" Her voice fairly lifted the roof; her great weight, +hurled with such force, overturned everybody, and all of them +tumbled in a heap, the rotund and solid dame sitting on top. + +"Ouf! not so impetuous, my dear, "puffed M. Roussillon, freeing +himself from her unpleasant pressure and scrambling to his feet. +"Really you must have fared well in my absence, Madame, you are +much heavier." He laughed and lifted her up as if she had been a +child, kissing her resonantly. + +His gun had fallen with a great clatter. He took it from the floor +and examined it to see if it had been injured, then set it in a +corner. + +"I am afraid we have been making too much noise," said Alice, +speaking very low. "There is a patrol guard every night now. If +they should hear you--" + +"Shh!" whispered M. Roussillon, "we will be very still. Alice, is +there something to eat and a drop of wine handy? I have come many +miles; I am tired, hungry, thirsty,--ziff!" + +Alice brought some cold roast venison, a loaf, and a bottle of +claret. These she set before him on a little table. + +"Ah, this is comfort," he said after he had gulped a full cup. +"Have you all been well?" + +Then he began to tell where he had been, what he had seen, and the +many things he had done. A Frenchman must babble while he eats and +drinks. A little wine makes him eloquent. He talks with his hands, +shoulders, eyes. Madame Roussillon, Alice and Jean, wrapped in +furs, huddled around him to hear. He was very entertaining, and +they forgot the patrol until a noise startled them. It was the low +of a cow. They laughed and the master of the house softened his +voice. + +M. Roussillon had been the guest of a great Indian chieftain, who +was called the "Gate of the Wabash," because he controlled the +river. The chief was an old acquaintance and treated him well. + +"But I wanted to see you all," Gaspard said. "I was afraid +something might have happened to you. So I came back just to peep +in. I can't stay, of course; Hamilton would kill me as if I were a +wolf. I can remain but an hour and then slip out of town again +before daylight conies. The rain and darkness are my friends." + +He had seen Simon Kenton, who said he had been in the neighborhood +of Vincennes acting as a scout and spy for Clark. Presently and +quite casually he added: + +"And I saw Lieutenant Beverley, too. I suppose you know that he +has escaped from Hamilton, and--" Here a big mouthful of venison +interfered. + +Alice leaned toward him white and breathless, her heart standing +still. + +Then the door, which had been left unbarred, was flung open and, +along with a great rush of wind and rain, the patrol guard, five +in number, sprang in. + +M. Roussillon reached his gun with one hand, with the other swung +a tremendous blow as he leaped against the intruders. Madame +Roussillon blew out the light. No cave in the depth of earth was +ever darker than that room. The patrolmen could not see one +another or know what to do; but M. Roussillon laid about him with +the strength of a giant. His blows sounded as if they smashed +bones. Men fell heavily thumping on the floor where he rushed +along. Some one fired a pistol and by its flash they all saw him; +but instantly the darkness closed again, and before they could get +their bearings he was out and gone, his great hulking form making +its way easily over familiar ground where his would-be captors +could have proceeded but slowly, even with a light to guide them. +There was furious cursing among the patrolmen as they tumbled +about in the room, the unhurt ones trampling their prostrate +companions and striking wildly at each other in their blindness +and confusion. At last one of them bethought him to open a dark +lantern with which the night guards were furnished. Its flame was +fluttering and gave forth a pale red light that danced weirdly on +the floors and walls. + +Alice had snatched down one of her rapiers when the guards first +entered. They now saw her facing them with her slender blade +leveled, her back to the wall, her eyes shining dangerously. +Madame Roussillon had fled into the adjoining room. Jean had also +disappeared. The officer, a subaltern, in charge of the guard, +seeing Alice, and not quickly able to make out that it was a woman +thus defying him, crossed swords with her. There was small space +for action; moreover the officer being not in the least a +swordsman, played awkwardly, and quick as a flash his point was +down. The rapier entered just below his thread with a dull +chucking stab. He leaped backward, feeling at the same time a pair +of arms clasp his legs. It was Jean, and the Lieutenant, thus +unexpectedly tangled, fell to the floor, breaking but not +extinguishing the guard's lantern as he went down. The little +remaining oil spread and flamed up brilliantly, as if eager for +conflagration, sputtering along the uneven boards. + +"Kill that devil!" cried the Lieutenant, in a strangling voice, +while trying to regain his feet. "Shoot! Bayonet!" + +In his pain, rage and haste, he inadvertently set his hand in the +midst of the blazing oil, which clung to the flesh with a seething +grip. + +"Hell!" he screamed, "fire, fire!" + +Two or three bayonets were leveled upon Alice. Some one kicked +Jean clean across the room, and he lay there curled up in his +hairy night-wrap looking like an enormous porcupine. + +At this point a new performer came upon the stage, a dark-robed +thing, so active that its outlines changed elusively, giving it no +recognizable features. It might have been the devil himself, or +some terrible unknown wild animal clad somewhat to resemble a man, +so far as the startled guards could make out. It clawed right and +left, hurled one of them against the wall, dashed another through +the door into Madame Roussillon's room, where the good woman was +wailing at the top of her voice, and felled a third with a stroke +like that of a bear's paw. + +Consternation was at high tide when Farnsworth, who always slept +with an ear open, reached Roussillon place and quickly quieted +things. He was troubled beyond expression when he found out the +true state of the affair, for there was nothing that he could do +but arrest Alice and take her to Hamilton. It made his heart sink. +He would have thought little of ordering a file of soldiers to +shoot a man under the same conditions; but to subject her again to +the Governor's stern cruelty--how could he do it? This time there +would be no hope for her. + +Alice stood before him flushed, disheveled, defiant, sword in +hand, beautiful and terrible as an angel. The black figure, man or +devil, had disappeared as strangely as it had come. The sub- +Lieutenant was having his slight wound bandaged. Men were raging +and cursing under their breath, rubbing their bruised heads and +limbs. + +"Alice--Mademoiselle Roussillon, I am so sorry for this," said +Captain Farnsworth. "It is painful, terrible--" + +He could not go on, but stood before her unmanned. In the feeble +light his face was wan and his hurt shoulder, still in bandages, +drooped perceptibly. + +"I surrender to you," she presently said in French, extending the +hilt of her rapier to him. "I had to defend myself when attacked +by your Lieutenant there. If an officer finds it necessary to set +upon a girl with his sword, may not the girl guard her life if she +can?" + +She was short of breath, so that her voice palpitated with a +touching plangency that shook the man's heart. + +Farnsworth accepted the sword; he could do nothing less. His duty +admitted of no doubtful consideration; yet he hesitated, feeling +around in his mind for a phrase with which to evade the +inevitable. + +"It will be safer for you at the fort, Mademoiselle; let me take +you there." + + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +A MEETING IN THE WILDERNESS + + +Beverley set out on his mid-winter journey to Kaskaskia with a +tempest in his heart, and it was, perhaps, the storm's energy that +gave him the courage to face undaunted and undoubting what his +experience must have told him lay in his path. He was young and +strong; that meant a great deal; he had taken the desperate +chances of Indian warfare many times before this, and the danger +counted as nothing, save that it offered the possibility of +preventing him from doing the one thing in life he now cared to +do. What meant suffering to him, if he could but rescue Alice? And +what were life should he fail to rescue her? The old, old song +hummed in his heart, every phrase of it distinct above the tumult +of the storm. Could cold and hunger, swollen streams, ravenous +wild beasts and scalp-hunting savages baffle him? No, there is no +barrier that can hinder love. He said this over and over to +himself after his rencounter with the four Indian scouts on the +Wabash. He repeated it with every heart-beat until he fell in with +some friendly red men, who took him to their camp, where to his +great surprise he met M. Roussillon. It was his song when again he +strode off toward the west on his lonely way. + +We need not follow him step by step; the monotony of the woods and +prairies, the cold rains, alternating with northerly winds and +blinding snow, the constant watchfulness necessary to guard +against a meeting with hostile savages, the tiresome tramping, +wading and swimming, the hunger, the broken and wretched sleep in +frozen and scant wraps,--why detail it all? + +There was but one beautiful thing about it--the beauty of Alice as +she seemed to walk beside him and hover near him in his dreams. He +did not know that Long-Hair and his band were fast on his track; +but the knowledge could not have urged him to greater haste. He +strained every muscle to its utmost, kept every nerve to the +highest tension. Yonder towards the west was help for Alice; that +was all he cared for. + +But if Long-Hair was pursuing him with relentless greed for the +reward offered by Hamilton, there were friendly footsteps still +nearer behind him; and one day at high noon, while he was bending +over a little fire, broiling some liberal cuts of venison, a +finger tapped him on the shoulder. He sprang up and grappled Oncle +Jazon; at the same time, standing near by, he saw Simon Kenton, +his old-time Kentucky friend. The pungled features of one and the +fine, rugged face of the other swam as in a mist before Beverley's +eyes. Kenton was laughing quietly, his strong, upright form +shaking to the force of his pleasure. He was in the early prime of +a vigorous life, not handsome, but strikingly attractive by reason +of a certain glow in his face and a kindly flash in his deep-set +eyes. + +"Well, well, my boy!" he exclaimed, laying his left hand on +Beverley's shoulder, while in the other he held a long, heavy +rifle. "I'm glad to see ye, glad to see + +"Thought we was Injuns, eh?" said Oncle Jazon. "An' ef we had 'a' +been we'd 'a' been shore o' your scalp!" The wizzened old creole +cackled gleefully. + +"And where are ye goin'?" demanded Kenton. "Ye're making what +lacks a heap o' bein' a bee-line for some place or other." + +Beverley was dazed and vacant-minded; things seemed wavering and +dim. He pushed the two men from him and gazed at them without +speaking. Their presence and voices did not convince him. + +"Yer meat's a burnin'," said Oncle Jazon, stooping to turn it on +the smouldering coals. "Ye must be hungry. Cookin' enough for a +regiment." + +Kenton shook Beverley with rough familiarity, as if to rouse his +faculties. + +"What's the matter? Fitz, my lad, don't ye know Si Kenton? It's +not so long since we were like brothers, and now ye don't speak to +me! Ye've not forgot me, Fitz!" + +"Mebby he don't like ye as well as ye thought he did," drawled +Oncle Jazon. "I HEV known o' fellers a bein' mistaken jes' thet +way." + +Beverley got his wits together as best he could, taking in the +situation by such degrees as seemed at the time unduly slow, but +which were really mere momentary falterings. + +"Why, Kenton! Jazon!" he presently exclaimed, a cordial gladness +blending with his surprise. "How did you get here? Where did you +come from?" + +He looked from one to the other back and forth with a wondering +smile breaking over his bronzed and determined face. + +"We've been hot on yer trail for thirty hours," said Kenton. +"Roussillon put us on it back yonder. But what are ye up to? Where +are ye goin'?" + +"I'm going to Clark at Kaskaskia to bring him yonder." He waved +his hand eastward. "I am going to take Vincennes and kill +Hamilton." + +'Well, ye're taking a mighty queer course, my boy, if ye ever +expect to find Kaskaskia. Ye're already twenty miles too far +south." + +"Carryin' his gun on the same shoulder all the time," said Oncle +Jazon, "has made 'im kind o' swing in a curve like. 'Tain't good +luck no how to carry yer gun on yer lef' shoulder. When you do it +meks yer take a longer step with yer right foot than ye do with +yer lef' an' ye can't walk a straight line to save yer liver. +Ventreblue! La venaison brule encore! Look at that dasted meat +burnin' agin!" + +He jumped back to the fire to turn the scorching cuts. + +Beverley wrung Kenton's hand and looked into his eyes, as a man +does when an old friend comes suddenly out of the past, so to say, +and brings the freshness and comfort of a strong, true soul to +brace him in his hour of greatest need. + +"Of all men in the world, Simon Kenton, you were the least +expected; but how glad I am! How thankful! Now I know I shall +succeed. We are going to capture Vincennes, Kenton, are we not? We +shall, sha'n't we, Jazon? Nothing, nothing can prevent us, can +it?" + +Kenton heartily returned the pressure of the young man's hand, +while Oncle Jazon looked up quizzically and said: + +"We're a tol'ble 'spectable lot to prevent; but then we might git +pervented. I've seed better men an' us purty consid'ble pervented +lots o' times in my life." + +In speaking the colloquial dialect of the American backwoodsmen, +Oncle Jazon, despite years of practice among them, gave to it a +creole lisp and some turns of pronunciation not to be indicated by +any form of spelling. It added to his talk a peculiar soft +drollery. When he spoke French it was mostly that of the COUREURS +DE BOIS, a PATOIS which still lingers in out-of-the-way nooks of +Louisiana. + +"For my part," said Kenton, "I am with ye, old boy, in anything ye +want to do. But now ye've got to tell me everything. I see that +ye're keeping something back. What is it?" He glanced sidewise +slyly at Oncle Jazon. + +Beverley was frank to a fault; but somehow his heart tried to keep +Alice all to itself. He hesitated; then-- + +"I broke my parole with Governor Hamilton," he said. "He forced me +to do it. I feel altogether justified. I told him beforehand that +I should certainly leave Vincennes and go get a force to capture +and kill him; and I'll do it, Simon Kenton, I'll do it!" + +"I see, I see," Kenton assented, "but what was the row about? What +did he do to excite ye--to make ye feel justified in breakin' over +yer parole in that high-handed way? Fitz, I know ye too well to be +fooled by ye--you've got somethin' in mind that ye don't want to +tell. Well, then don't tell it. Oncle Jazon and I will go it +blind, won't we, Jazon?" + +"Blind as two moles," said the old man; "but as for thet secret," +he added, winking both eyes at once, "I don't know as it's so +mighty hard to guess. It's always safe to 'magine a woman in the +case. It's mostly women 'at sends men a trottin' off 'bout +nothin', sort o' crazy like." + +Beverley looked guilty and Oncle Jazon continued: "They's a poo'ty +gal at Vincennes, an' I see the young man a steppin' into her +house about fifteen times a day 'fore I lef' the place. Mebbe +she's tuck up wi' one o' them English officers. Gals is slippery +an' onsartin'." + +"Jazon!" cried Beverley, "stop that instantly, or I'll wring your +old neck." His anger was real and he meant what he said. He +clenched his hands and glowered. + +Oncle Jazon, who was still squatting by the little fire, tumbled +over backwards, as if Beverley had kicked him; and there he lay on +the ground with his slender legs quivering akimbo in the air, +while he laughed in a strained treble that sounded like the +whining of a screech-owl. + +The old scamp did not know all the facts in Beverley's case, nor +did he even suspect what had happened; but he was aware of the +young man's tender feeling for Alice, and he did shrewdly +conjecture that she was a factor in the problem. + +The rude jest at her expense did not seem to his withered and +toughened taste in the least out of the way. Indeed it was a +delectable bit of humor from Oncle Jazon's point of view. + +"Don't get mad at the old man," said Kenton, plucking Beverley +aside. "He's yer friend from his heels to his old scalped crown. +Let him have his fun." Then lowering his voice almost to a whisper +he continued: + +"I was in Vincennes for two days and nights spyin' around. Madame +Godere hid me in her house when there was need of it. I know how +it is with ye; I got all the gossip about ye and the young lady, +as well as all the information about Hamilton and his forces that +Colonel Clark wants. I'm goin' to Kaskaskia; but I think it quite +possible that Clark will be on his march to Vincennes before we +get there; for Vigo has taken him full particulars as to the fort +and its garrison, and I know that he's determined to capture the +whole thing or die tryin'." + +Beverley felt his heart swell and his blood leap strong in his +veins at these words. + +"I saw ye while I was in Vincennes," Kenton added, "but I never +let ye see me. Ye were a prisoner, and I had no business with ye +while your parole held. I felt that it was best not to tempt ye to +give me aid, or to let ye have knowledge of me while I was a spy. +I left two days before ye did, and should have been at Kaskaskia +by this time if I hadn't run across Jazon, who detained me. He +wanted to go with me, and I waited for him to repair the stock of +his old gun. He tinkered at it 'tween meals and showers for half a +week at the Indian village back yonder before he got it just to +suit him. But I tell ye he's wo'th waiting for any length of time, +and I was glad to let him have his way." + +Kenton, who was still a young man in his early thirties, respected +Beverley's reticence on the subject uppermost in his mind. Madame +Godere had told the whole story with flamboyant embellishments; +Kenton tiad seen Alice, and, inspired with the gossip and a +surreptitious glimpse of her beauty, he felt perfectly familiar +with Beverley's condition. He was himself a victim of the tender +passion to the extent of being an exile from his Virginia home, +which he had left on account of dangerously wounding a rival. But +he was well touched with the backwoodsman's taste for joke and +banter. He and Oncle Jazon, therefore, knowing the main feature of +Beverley's predicament, enjoyed making the most of their +opportunity in their rude but perfectly generous and kindly way. + +By indirection and impersonal details, as regarded his feelings +toward Alice, Beverley in due time made his friends understand +that his whole ambition was centered in rescuing her. Nor did the +motive fail to enlist their sympathy to the utmost. If all the +world loves a lover, all men having the best virile instinct will +fight for a lover's cause. Both Kenton and Oncle Jazon were +enthusiastic; they wanted nothing better than an opportunity to +aid in rescuing any girl who had shown so much patriotism and +pluck. But Oncle Jazon was fond of Alice, and Beverley's story +affected him peculiarly on her account. + +"They's one question I'm a goin' to put to ye, young man," he +said, after he had heard everything and they had talked it all +over, "an' I want ye to answer it straight as a bullet f'om yer +gun." + +"Of course, Jazon, go ahead," said Beverley. "I shall be glad to +answer." But his mind was far away with the gold-haired maiden in +Hamilton's prison. He scarcely knew what he was saying. + +"Air ye expectin' to marry Alice Roussillon?" + +The three men were at the moment eating the well broiled venison. +Oncle Jazon's puckered lips and chin were dripping with the +fragrant grease and juice, which also flowed down his sinewy, +claw-like fingers. Overhead in the bare tops of the scrub oaks +that covered the prairie oasis, the February wind sang a shrill +and doleful song. + +Beverley started as if a blow had been aimed at him. Oncle Jazon's +question, indeed, was a blow as unexpected as it was direct and +powerful. + +"I know it's poo'ty p'inted," the old man added after a short +pause, "an' ye may think 'at I ain't got no business askin' it; +but I have. That leetle gal's a pet o' mine, an' I'm a lookin' +after her, an' expectin' to see 'at she's not bothered by nobody +who's not goin' to do right by her. Marryin' is a mighty good +thing, but--" + +"What do ye know about matrimony, ye old raw-headed bachelor?" +demanded Kenton, who felt impelled to relieve Beverley of the +embarrassment of an answer. "Ye wouldn't know a wife from a sack +o' meal!" + +"Now don't git too peart an' fast, Si Kenton," cried Oncle Jazon, +glaring truculently at his friend, but at the same time showing a +dry smile that seemed to be hopelessly entangled in criss-cross +wrinkles. "Who told ye I was a bach'lor? Not by a big jump. I've +been married mighty nigh on to twenty times in my day. Mos'ly +Injuns, o' course; but a squaw's a wife w'en ye marries her, an' I +know how it hurts a gal to be dis'p'inted in sich a matter. That's +w'y I put the question I did. I'm not goin' to let no man give +sorry to that little Roussillon gal; an' so ye've got my say. Ye +seed her raise thet flag on the fort, Lieutenant Beverley, an' ye +seed her take it down an' git away wi' it. You know 'at she +deserves nothin' but the best; an' by the Holy Virgin, she's got +to have it, or I'm a goin' to know several reasons why. Thet's +what made me put the question straight to ye, young man, an' I +expects a straight answer." + +Beverley's face paled; but not with anger. He grasped one of Oncle +Jazon's greasy hands and gave it such a squeeze that the old +fellow grimaced painfully. + +"Thank you, Oncle Jazon, thank you!" he said, with a peculiar +husky burr in his voice. "Alice will never suffer if I can help +it. Let the subject drop now, my friend, until we have saved her +from the hands of Hamilton." In the power of his emotion he +continued to grip the old man's hand with increasing severity of +pressure. + +"Ventrebleu! let go! Needn't smash a feller's fingers 'bout it!" +screeched Oncle Jazon. "I can't shoot wo'th a cent, nohow, an' ef +ye cripple up my trigger-finger--" + +Kenton had been peeping under the low-hanging scrub-oak boughs +while Oncle Jazon was speaking these last words; and now he +suddenly interrupted: + +"The devil! look yonder!" he growled out in startling tone. +"Injuns!" + +It was a sharp snap of the conversation's thread, and at the same +time our three friends realized that they had been careless in not +keeping a better look-out. They let fall the meat they had not +yet finished eating and seized their guns. + +Five or six dark forms were moving toward them across a little +point of the prairie that cut into the wood a quarter of a mile +distant. + +"Yander's more of 'em," said Oncle Jazon, as if not in the least +concerned, wagging his head in an opposite direction, from which +another squad was approaching. + +That he duly appreciated the situation appeared only in the +celerity with which he acted. + +Kenton at once assumed command, and his companions felt his +perfect fitness. There was no doubt from the first as to what the +Indians meant; but even if there had been it would have soon +vanished; for in less than three minutes twenty-one savages were +swiftly and silently forming a circle inclosing the spot where the +three white men, who had covered themselves as best they could +with trees, waited in grim steadiness for the worst. + +Quite beyond gunshot range, but near enough for Oncle Jazon to +recognize Long-Hair as their leader, the Indians halted and began +making signs to one another all round the line. Evidently they +dreaded to test the marksmanship of such riflemen as they knew +most border men to be. Indeed, Long-Hair had personal knowledge of +what might certainly be expected from both Kenton and Oncle Jazon; +they were terrible when out for fight; the red warriors from +Georgia to the great lakes had heard of them; their names smacked +of tragedy. Nor was Beverley without fame among Long-Hair's +followers, who had listened to the story of his fighting +qualities, brought to Vincennes by the two survivors of the +scouting party so cleverly defeated by him. + +"The liver-colored cowards," said Kenton, "are afeared of us in a +shootin'-match; they know that a lot of 'em would have to die if +they should undertake an open fight with us. It's some sort of a +sneakin' game they are studyin' about just now." + +"I'm a gittin' mos' too ole to shoot wo'th a cent," said Oncle +Jazon, "but I'd give half o' my scalp ef thet Long-Hair would come +clost enough fo' me to git a bead onto his lef' eye. It's tol'ble +plain 'at we're gone goslins this time, I'm thinkin'; still it'd +be mighty satisfyin' if I could plug out a lef' eye or two 'fore I +go." + +Beverley was silent; the words of his companions were heard by +him, but not noticed. Nothing interested him save the thought of +escaping and making his way to Clark. To fail meant infinitely +more than death, of which he had as small fear as most brave men, +and to succeed meant everything that life could offer. So, in the +unlimited selfishness of love, he did not take his companions into +account. + +The three stood in a close-set clump of four or five scrub oaks at +the highest point of a thinly wooded knoll that sloped down in all +directions to the prairie. Their view was wide, but in places +obstructed by the trees. + +"Men," said Kenton, after a thoughtful and watchful silence, "the +thing looks kind o' squally for us. I don't see much of a chance +to get out of this alive; but we've got to try." + +He showed by the density of his voice and a certain gray film in +his face that he felt the awful gravity of the situation; but he +was calm and not a muscle quivered. + +"They's jes' two chances for us," said Oncle Jazon, "an' them's as +slim as a broom straw. We've got to stan' here an' fight it out, +or wait till night an' sneak through atween 'em an' run for it." + +"I don't see any hope o' sneakin' through the line," observed +Kenton. "It's not goin' to be dark tonight." + +"Wa-a-l," Oncle Jazon drawled nonchalantly while he took in a quid +of tobacco, "I've been into tighter squeezes 'an this, many a +time, an' I got out, too." + +"Likely enough," said Kenton, still reflecting while his eyes +roamed around the circle of savages. + +"I fit the skunks in Ferginny 'fore you's thought of, Si Kenton, +an' down in Car'lina in them hills. If ye think I'm a goin' to be +scalped where they ain't no scalp, 'ithout tryin' a few dodges, +yer a dad dasteder fool an' I used to think ye was, an' that's +makin' a big compliment to ye." + +"Well, we don't have to argy this question, Oncle Jazon; they're a +gittin' ready to run in upon us, and we've got to fight. I say, +Beverley, are ye ready for fast shootin'? Have ye got a plenty of +bullets?" + +"Yes, Roussillon gave me a hundred. Do you think--" + +He was interrupted by a yell that leaped from savage mouth to +mouth all round the circle, and then the charge began. + +"Steady, now," growled Kenton, "let's not be in a hurry. Wait till +they come nigh enough to hit 'em before we shoot." + +The time was short; for the Indians came on at almost race-horse +speed. + +Oncle Jazon fired first, the long, keen crack of his small-bore +rifle splitting the air with a suggestion of vicious energy, and a +lithe young warrior, who was outstripping all his fellows, leaped +high and fell paralyzed. + +"Can't shoot wo'th a cent," muttered the old man, deftly beginning +to reload his gun the while; "but I jes' happened to hit that +buck. He'll never git my scalp, thet's sartin an' sure." + +Beverley and Kenton each likewise dropped an Indian; but the shots +did not even check the rush. Long-Hair had planned to capture his +prey, not kill it. Every savage had his orders to take the white +men alive; Hamilton's larger reward depended on this. + +Right on they came, as fast as their nimble legs could carry them, +yelling like demons; and they reached the grove before the three +white men could reload their guns. Then every warrior took cover +behind a tree and began scrambling forward from bole to bole, thus +approaching rapidly without much exposure. + +"Our 'taters is roasted brown," muttered Oncle Jazon. He crossed +himself. Possibly he prayed; but he was priming his old gun the +next instant. + +Kenton fired again, making a hurried and ineffectual attempt to +stop the nearest warrior, who saved himself by quickly skipping +behind a tree. Beverley's gun snapped, the flint failing to make +fire; but Oncle Jazon bored a little hole through the head of the +Indian nearest him; and then the final rush was made from every +direction. + +A struggle ensued, which for desperate energy has probably never +been surpassed. Like three lions at bay, the white men met the +shock, and lion-like they fought in the midst of seventeen +stalwart and determined savages. + +"Don't kill them, take them alive; throw them down and hold them!" +was Long-Hair's order loudly shouted in the tongue of his tribe. + +Both Kenton and Jazon understood every word and knew the +significance of such a command from the leader. It naturally came +into Kenton's mind that Hamilton had been informed of his visit to +Vincennes and had offered a reward for his capture. This being +true, death as a spy would be the certain result if he were taken +back. He might as well die now. As for Beverley, he thought only +of Alice, yonder as he had left her, a prisoner in Hamilton's +hands, Oncle Jazon, if he thought at all, probably considered +nothing but present escape, though he prayed audibly to the +Blessed Virgin, even while he lay helpless upon the ground, pinned +down by the weight of an enormous Indian. He could not move any +part of himself, save his lips, and these mechanically put forth +the wheezing supplication. + +Beverley and Kenton, being young and powerful, were not so easily +mastered. For a while, indeed, they appeared to be more than +holding their own. They time and time again scattered the entire +crowd by the violence of their muscular efforts; and after it had +finally closed in upon them in a solid body they swayed and swung +it back and forth and round and round until the writhing, savage +mass looked as if caught in the vortex of a whirlwind. But such +tremendous exertion could not last long. Eight to one made too +great a difference between the contending parties, and the only +possible conclusion of the struggle soon came. Seized upon by +desperate, clinging, wolf-like assailants, the white men felt +their arms, legs and bodies weighted down and their strength fast +going. + +Kenton fell next after Oncle Jazon, and was soon tightly bound +with rawhide thongs. He lay on his back panting and utterly +exhausted, while Beverley still kept up the unequal fight. + +Long-Hair sprang in at the last moment to make doubly certain the +securing of his most important captive. He flung his long and +powerful arms around Beverley from behind and made a great effort +to throw him upon the ground. The young man, feeling this fresh +and vigorous clasp, turned himself about to put forth one more +mighty spurt of power. He lifted the stalwart Indian bodily and +dashed him headlong against the buttressed root of a tree half a +rod distant, breaking the smaller bone of his left fore-arm and +well-nigh knocking him senseless. + +It was a fine exhibition of manly strength; but there could be +nothing gained by it. A blow on the back of his head the next +instant stretched Beverley face downward and unconscious on the +ground. The savages turned him over and looked satisfied when they +found that he was not dead. They bound him with even greater care +than they had shown in securing the others, while Long-Hair stood +by stolidly looking on, meantime supporting his broken fore-arm in +his hand. + +"Ugh! dog!" he grunted, and gave Beverley a kick in the side. Then +turning a fiendish stare upon Oncle Jazon he proceeded to deliver +against his old, dry ribs three or four like contributions with +resounding effect. "Polecat! Little old greasy woman!" he snarled, +"make good fire for warrior to dance by!" Kenton also received his +full share of the kicks and verbal abuse, after which Long-Hair +gave orders for fires to be built. Then he looked to his hurt arm +and had the bone set and bandaged, never so much as wincing the +while. + +It was soon apparent that the Indians purposed to celebrate their +successful enterprise with a feast. They cooked a large amount of +buffalo steak; then, each with his hands full of the savory meat, +they began to dance around the fires, droning meantime an +atrociously repellant chant. + +"They're a 'spectin' to hev a leetle bit o' fun outen us," +muttered Oncle Jazon to Beverley, who lay near him. "I onderstan' +what they're up to, dad dast 'em! More'n forty years ago, in +Ca'lina, they put me an' Jim Hipes through the ga'ntlet, an' arter +thet, in Kaintuck, me an' Si Kenton tuck the run. Hi, there, Si! +where air ye?" + +"Shut yer fool mouth," Kenton growled under his breath. "Ye'll +have that Injun a kickin' our lights out of us again." + +Oncle Jazon winked at the gray sky and puckered his mouth so that +it looked like a nutgall on an old, dry leaf. + +"What's the diff'ence?" he demanded. "I'd jest as soon be kicked +now as arter while; it's got to come anyhow." + +Kenton made no response. The thongs were torturing his arms and +legs. Beverley was silent, but consciousness had returned, and +with it a sense of despair. All three of the prisoners lay face +upward quite unable to move, knowing full well that a terrible +ordeal awaited them. Oncle Jazon's grim humor could not be +quenched, even by the galling agony of the thongs that buried +themselves in the flesh, and the anticipation of torture beside +which death would seem a luxury. + +"Yap! Long-Hair, how's yer arm?" he called jeeringly. "Feels pooty +good, hay?" + +Long-Hair, who was not joining in the dance and song, turned when +he heard these taunting words, and mistaking whence they came, +went to Beverley's side and kicked him again and again. + +Oncle Jazon heard the loud blows, and considered the incident a +remarkably good joke. + +"He, he, he!" he snickered, as soon as Long-Hair walked away +again. "I does the talkin' an' somebody else gits the thumpin'! +He, he, he! I always was devilish lucky. Them kicks was good solid +jolts, wasn't they, Lieutenant? Sounded like they was. He, he, +he!" + +Beverley gave no heed to Oncle Jazon's exasperating pleasantry; +but Kenton, sorely chafing under the pressure of his bonds, could +not refrain from making retort in kind. + +"I'd give ye one poundin' that ye'd remember, Emile Jazon, if I +could get to ye, ye old twisted-face, peeled-headed, crooked- +mouthed, aggravatin' scamp!" he exclaimed, not thinking how high +his naturally strong voice was lifted. "I can stand any fool but a +damn fool!" + +Long-Hair heard the concluding epithet and understood its meaning. +Moreover, he thought himself the target at which it was so +energetically launched. Wherefore he promptly turned back and gave +Kenton a kicking that made his body resound not unlike a drum. + +And here it was that Oncle Jazon overreached himself. He was so +delighted at Kenton's luck that he broke forth giggling and +thereby drew against his own ribs a considerable improvement of +Long-Hair's pedal applications. + +"Ventrebleu!" whined the old man, when the Indian had gone away +again. "Holy Mary! Jee-ru-sa-lem! They's nary bone o' me left +'at's not splintered as fine as toothpickers! S'pose yer satisfied +now, ain't ye, Si Kenton? Ef ye ain't I'm shore to satisfy ye the +fust time I git a chance at ye, ye blab-mouthed eejit!" + +Before this conversation was ended a rain began to fall, and it +rapidly thickened from a desultory shower to a roaring downpour +that effectually quenched not only the fires around which the +savages were dancing, but the enthusiasm of the dancers as well. +During the rest of the afternoon and all night long the fall was +incessant, accompanied by a cold, panting, wailing southwest wind. + +Beverley lay on the ground, face upward, the rawhide strings +torturing his limbs, the chill of cold water searching his bones. +He could see nothing but the dim, strange canopy of flying rain, +against which the bare boughs of the scrub oaks were vaguely +outlined; he could hear nothing but the cry of the wind and the +swash of the water which fell upon him and ran under him, bubbling +and gurgling as if fiendishly exultant. + +The night dragged on through its terrible length, dealing out its +indescribable horrors, and at last morning arrived, with a stingy +and uncertain gift of light slowly increasing until the dripping +trees appeared forlornly gray and brown against clouds now +breaking into masses that gave but little rain. + +Beverley lived through the awful trial and even had the hardihood +to brighten inwardly with the first flash of sunlight that shot +through a cloud-crack on the eastern horizon. He thought of Alice, +as he had done all night; but now the thought partook somehow of +the glow yonder above old Vincennes, although he could only see +its reflection. + +There was great stir among the Indians. Long-Hair stalked about +scrutinizing the ground. Beverley saw him come near time and again +with a hideous, inquiring scowl on his face. Grunts and laconic +exclamations passed from mouth to mouth, and presently the import +of it all could not be mistaken. Kenton and Jazon were gone--had +escaped during the night--and the rain had completely obliterated +their tracks. + +The Indians were furious. Long-Hair sent out picked parties of his +best scouts with orders to scour the country in all directions, +keeping with himself a few of the older warriors. Beverley was fed +what he would eat of venison, and Long-Hair made him understand +that he would have to suffer some terrible punishment on account +of the action of his companions. + +Late in the day the scouts straggled back with the report that no +track or sign of the fugitives had been discovered, and +immediately a consultation was held. Most of the warriors, +including all of the young bucks, demanded a torture entertainment +as compensation for their exertions and the unexpected loss of +their own prisoners; for it had been agreed that Beverley belonged +exclusively to Long-Hair, who objected to anything which might +deprive him of the great reward offered by Hamilton for the +prisoner if brought to him alive. + +In the end it was agreed that Beverley should be made to run the +gauntlet, provided that no deadly weapons were used upon him +during the ordeal. + + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +A PRISONER OF LOVE + + +Alice put on her warmest clothes and followed Captain Farnsworth +to the fort, realizing that no pleasant experience awaited her. +The wind and rain still prevailed when they were ready to set +forth, and, although it was not extremely cold, a searching chill +went with every throb that marked the storm's waves. No lights +shone in the village houses. Overhead a gray gloom covered stars +and sky, making the darkness in the watery streets seem densely +black. Farnsworth offered Alice his arm, but she did not accept +it. + +"I know the way better than you do," she said. "Come on, and don't +be afraid that I am going to run. I shall not play any trick on +you." + +"Very well, Mademoiselle, as you like. I trust you." + +He followed her from the house. He was so filled with the +bitterness of what he was doing that he carried her sword in his +hand all the way to the fort, quite unaware that its point often +touched her dress so that she plainly felt it. Indeed, she thought +he was using that ruffianly and dangerous means of keeping pace +with her. He had sent the patrol on its rounds, taking upon +himself the responsibility of delivering her to Hamilton. She +almost ran, urged by the strange excitement that burned in her +heart, and he followed somewhat awkwardly, stumbling over the +unfamiliar way in the rain and darkness. + +At every step he was wishing that she would escape from him. +Coarse as his nature was and distorted by hardening experiences, +it was rooted in good English honesty and imbued with a chivalric +spirit. When, as happened too often, he fell under the influence +of liquor, the bad in him promptly came uppermost; but at all +other times his better traits made him a good fellow to meet, +genial, polite, generous, and inclined to recognize the finer +sentiments of manliness. To march into his commander's presence +with Alice as his prisoner lacked everything of agreeing with his +taste; yet he had not been willing to give her over into the hands +of the patrol. If his regard for military obligation had not been +exceptionally strong, even for an English soldier, he would have +given way to the temptation of taking her to some place of hiding +and safety, instead of brutally subjecting her to Hamilton's harsh +judgment. He anticipated a trying experience for her on account of +this new transgression. + +They hastened along until a lantern in the fort shot a hazy gleam +upon them. + +"Stop a moment, Mademoiselle," Farnsworth called. "I say, Miss +Roussillon, stop a moment, please." + +Alice halted and turned facing him so short and so suddenly that +the rapier in his hand pricked through her wraps and slightly +scratched her arm. + +"What do you mean, sir?" she demanded, thinking that he had thrust +purposely. "Do I deserve this brutality?" + +"You mistake me, Miss Roussillon. I cannot be brutal to you now. +Do not fear me; I only had a word to say." + +"Oh, you deem it very polite and gentle to jab me with your sword, +do you? If I had one in my hand you would not dare try such a +thing, and you know it very well." + +He was amazed, not knowing that the sword-point had touched her. +He could not see her face, but there was a flash in her voice that +startled him with its indignant contempt and resentment. + +"What are you saying, Miss Roussillon? I don't understand you. +When did I ever--when did I jab you with my sword? I never thought +of such a thing." + +"This moment, sir, you did, and you know you did. My arm is +bleeding now." + +She spoke rapidly in French; but he caught her meaning, and for +the first became aware of the rapier in his hand. Even then its +point was toward her and very near her breast. He lowered it +instantly while the truth rushed into his mind. + +"Forgive me," he murmured, his words barely audible in the tumult +of wind and rain, but charged with the intensest feeling. + +"Forgive me; I did not know--it was an accident--I could not do +such a thing purposely. Believe me, believe me, Miss Roussillon. I +did not mean it." + +She stood facing him, trying to look right into his eyes. A +quality in his voice had checked her hot anger. She could only see +his dim outlines in the dull gleam from the fort's lantern. He +seemed to be forlornly wretched. + +"I should like to believe you," she presently said, "but I cannot. +You English are all, all despicable, mean, vile!" + +She was remembering the young officer who had assaulted her with +his sword in the house a while ago. And (what a strange thing the +human brain is!) she at the same time comforted herself with the +further thought that Beverley would never, never, be guilty of +rudeness to a woman. + +"Some time you shall not say that," Farnsworth responded. "I asked +you to stop a moment that I might beg you to believe how +wretchedly sorry I am for what I am doing. But you cannot +understand me now. Are you really hurt, Miss Roussillon? I assure +you that it was purely accidental." + +"My hurt is nothing," she said. + +"I am very glad." + +"Well, then, shall we go on to the fort?" + +"You may go where you please, Mademoiselle." + +She turned her back upon him and without an answering word walked +straight to the lantern that hung by the gate of the stockade, +where a sentinel tramped to and fro. A few moments later Captain +Farnsworth presented her to Hamilton, who had been called from his +bed when the news of the trouble at Roussillon place reached the +fort. + +"So you've been raising hell again, have you, Miss?" he growled, +with an ugly frown darkening his face. + +"I beg your pardon," said Farnsworth, "Miss Roussillon was not to +blame for--" + +"In your eyes she'd not be to blame, sir, if she burned up the +fort and all of us in it," Hamilton gruffly interrupted. "Miss, +what have you been doing? What are you here for? Captain +Farnsworth, you will please state the particulars of the trouble +that I have just heard about. And I may as well notify you that I +wish to hear no special lover's pleading in this girl's behalf." + +Farnsworth's face whitened with anger; he bit his lip and a shiver +ran through his frame; but he had to conquer the passion. In a few +words, blunt and direct as musket-balls, he told all the +circumstances of what had taken place, making no concealments to +favor Alice, but boldly blaming the officer of the patrol, +Lieutenant Barlow, for losing his head and attacking a young girl +in her own home. + +"I will hear from Barlow," said Hamilton, after listening +attentively to the story. "But take this girl and confine her. +Show her no favors. I hold you responsible for her until to-morrow +morning. You can retire." + +There was no room for discussion. Farnsworth saluted and turned to +Alice. + +"Come with me," he gently said. + +Hamilton looked after them as they went out of his room, a curious +smile playing around his firmly set lips. + +"She's the most beautiful vixen that I ever saw," he thought. "She +doesn't look to be a French girl, either--decidedly English." He +shrugged his shoulders, then laughed dryly. "Farnsworth's as crazy +as can be, the beggar; in love with her so deep that he can't see +out. By Jove, she IS a beauty! Never saw such eyes. And plucky to +beat the devil. I'll bet my head Barlow'll be daft about her +next!" + +Still, notwithstanding the lightness of his inward comments, +Hamilton regarded the incident as rather serious. He knew that the +French inhabitants were secretly his bitter enemies, yet probably +willing, if he would humor their peculiar social, domestic and +commercial prejudices, to refrain from active hostilities, and +even to aid him in furnishing his garrison with a large amount of +needed supplies. The danger just now was twofold; his Indian +allies were deserting him, and a flotilla loaded with provisions +and ammunition from Detroit had failed to arrive. He might, if the +French rose against him and were joined by the Indians, have great +difficulty defending the fort. It was clear that M. Roussillon had +more influence with both creoles and savages than any other person +save Father Beret. Urgent policy dictated that these two men +should somehow be won over. But to do this it would be necessary +to treat Alice in such a way that her arrest would aid, instead of +operating against the desired result,--a thing not easy to manage. + +Hamilton was not a man of fine scruples, but he may have been, +probably was, better than our American historians have made him +appear. His besetting weakness, which, as a matter of course, he +regarded as the highest flower of efficiency, was an +uncontrollable temper, a lack of fine human sympathy and an +inability to forgive. In his calmest moments, when prudence +appealed to him, he would resolve to use diplomatic means; but no +sooner was his opinion questioned or his purpose opposed than +anger and the thirst for revenge overpowered every gentler +consideration. He returned to his bed that night fully resolved +upon a pleasant and successful interview with Alice next morning. + +Captain Farnsworth took his fair prisoner straight-way from +Hamilton's presence to a small room connected with a considerable +structure in a distant angle of the stockade. Neither he nor Alice +spoke on the way. With a huge wooden key he unlocked the door and +stepped aside for her to enter. A dim lamp was burning within, its +yellowish light flickering over the scant furniture, which +consisted of a comfortable bed, a table with some books on it, +three chairs, a small looking-glass on the wall, a guitar and some +articles of men's clothing hanging here and there. A heap of dull +embers smouldered in the fireplace. Alice did not falter at the +threshold, but promptly entered her prison. + +"I hope you can be comfortable," said Farnsworth in a low tone. +"It's the best I can give you." + +"Thank you," was the answer spoken quite as if he had handed her a +glass of water or picked up her handkerchief. + +He held the door a moment, while she stopped, with her back toward +him, in the middle of the room; then she heard him close and lock +it. The air was almost too warm after her exposure to the biting +wind and cold dashes of rain. She cast off her outer wraps and +stood by the fireplace. At a glance she comprehended that the +place was not the one she had formerly occupied as a prisoner, and +that it belonged to a man. A long rifle stood in a corner, a +bullet-pouch and powder-horn hanging on a projecting hickory +ramrod; a heavy fur top-coat lay across one of the chairs. + +Alice felt her situation bitterly enough; but she was not of the +stuff that turns to water at the touch of misfortune. Pioneer +women took hardships as a matter of course, and met calamity with +admirable fortitude. There was no wringing of hands, no frantic +wailing, no hollow, despairing groan. While life lasted hope +flourished, even in most tragic surroundings; and not unfrequently +succor came, at the last verge of destruction, as the fitting +reward of unconquerable courage. A girl like Alice must be +accepted in the spirit of her time and surroundings. She was born +amid experiences scarcely credible now, and bred in an area and an +atmosphere of incomparable dangers. Naturally she accepted +conditions of terrible import with a sang froid scarcely possible +to a girl of our day. She did not cry, she did not sink down +helpless when she found herself once more imprisoned with some +uncertain trial before her; but simply knelt and repeated the +Lord's prayer, then went to bed and slept; even dreamed the dream +of a maid's first love. + +Meantime Farnsworth, who had given Alice his own apartment, took +what rest he could on the cold ground under a leaky shed hard by. +His wound, not yet altogether healed, was not benefited by the +exposure. + +In due time next morning Hamilton ordered Alice brought to his +office, and when she appeared he was smiling with as near an +approach to affability as his disposition would permit. He rose +and bowed like a courtier. + +"I hope you rested well, Mademoiselle," he said in his best +French. He imagined that the use of her language would be +agreeable to begin with. + +The moment that Alice saw him wearing that shallow veneering of +pleasantness on his never prepossessing visage, she felt a mood of +perversity come over her. She, too. smiled, and he mistook her +expression for one of reciprocal amenity. She noticed that her +sword was on his table. + +"I am sorry, Monsieur, that I cannot say as much to you," she +glibly responded. "If you lay upon a bed of needles the whole +night through, your rest was better than you deserved. My own +sleep was quite refreshing, thank you." + +Instantly Hamilton's choler rose. He tried to suppress it at +first; but when he saw Alice actually laughing, and Farnsworth +(who had brought her in) biting his lip furiously to keep from +adding an uproarious guffaw, he lost all hold of himself. He +unconsciously picked up the rapier and shook it till its blade +swished. + +"I might have known better than to expect decency from a wench of +your character," he said. "I hoped to do you a favor; but I see +that you are not capable of accepting kindness politely." + +"I am sure, Monsieur, that I have but spoken the truth plainly to +you. You would not have me do otherwise, I hope." + +Her voice, absolutely witching in its softness, freshness and +suavity, helped the assault of her eyes, while her dimples +twinkled and her hair shone. Hamilton felt his heart move +strangely; but he could not forbear saying in English: + +"If you are so devilish truthful, Miss, you will probably tell me +where the flag is that you stole and hid." + +It was always the missing banner that came to mind when he saw +her. + +"Indeed I will do nothing of the sort," she promptly replied. +"When you see that flag again you will be a prisoner and I will +wave it high over your head." + +She lifted a hand as she spoke and made the motion of shaking a +banner above him. It was exasperation sweetened almost to delight +that took hold of the sturdy Briton. He liked pluck, especially in +a woman; all the more if she was beautiful. Yet the very fact that +he felt her charm falling upon him set him hard against her, not +as Hamilton the man, but as Hamilton the commander at Vincennes. + +"You think to fling yourself upon me as you have upon Captain +Farnsworth," he said, with an insulting leer and in a tone of +prurient innuendo. "I am not susceptible, my dear." This more for +Farnsworth's benefit than to insult her, albeit he was not in a +mood to care. + +"You are a coward and a liar!" she exclaimed, her face flushing +with hot shame. "You stand here," she quickly added, turning +fiercely upon Farnsworth, "and quietly listen to such words! You, +too, are a coward if you do not make him retract! Oh, you English +are low brutes!" + +Hamilton laughed; but Farnsworth looked dark and troubled, his +glance going back and forth from Alice to his commander, as if +another word would cause him to do something terrible. + +"I rather think I've heard all that I care to hear from you, +Miss," Hamilton presently said. "Captain Farnsworth, you will see +that the prisoner is confined in the proper place, which, I +suggest to you, is not your sleeping quarters, sir." + +"Colonel Hamilton," said Farnsworth in a husky voice, "I slept on +the ground under a shed last night in order that Miss Roussillon +might be somewhat comfortable." + +"Humph! Well, see that you do not do it again. This girl is guilty +of harboring a spy and resisting a lawful attempt of my guards to +capture him. Confine her in the place prepared for prisoners and +see that she stays there until I am ready to fix her punishment." + +"There is no place fit for a young girl to stay in," Farnsworth +ventured. "She can have no comfort or--" + +"Take her along, sir; any place is good enough for her so long as +she behaves like a--" + +"Very well," Farnsworth bluntly interrupted, thus saving Alice the +stroke of a vile comparison. "Come with me, please, Miss +Roussillon." + +He pulled her toward the door, then dropped the arm he had grasped +and murmured an apology. + +She followed him out, holding her head high. No one looking on +would have suspected that a sinking sensation in her heart made it +difficult for her to walk, or that her eyes, shining like stars, +were so inwardly clouded with distress that she saw her way but +dimly. + +It was a relief to Hamilton when Helm a few minutes later entered +the room with something breezy to say. + +"What's up now, if I may ask?" the jolly American demanded. +"What's this I hear about trouble with the French women? Have they +begun a revolution?" + +"That elephant, Gaspard Roussillon, came back into town last +night," said Hamilton sulkily. + +"Well, he went out again, didn't he?" + +"Yes, but--" + +"Stepped on somebody's toe first, eh?" + +"The guard tried to capture him, and that girl of his wounded +Lieutenant Barlow in the neck with a sword. Roussillon fought like +a tiger and the men swear that the devil himself appeared on the +scene to help the Frenchman out." + +"Moral: Be generous in your dealings with Frenchmen and +Frenchwomen and so get the devil on your side." + +"I've got the girl a prisoner, and I swear to you that I'll have +her shot this time if--" + +"Why not shoot her yourself? You oughtn't to shirk a dirty job +like that and force it upon your men." + +Hamilton laughed and elevated his shoulders as if to shake off an +annoying load. Just then a young officer with a white bandage +around his neck entered and saluted. He was a small, soft-haired, +blue-eyed man of reckless bearing, with marks of dissipation +sharply cut into his face. He saluted, smiling self-consciously. + +"Well, Barlow," said Hamilton, "the kitten scratched you, did +she?" + +"Yes, slightly, and I don't think I've been treated fairly in the +matter, sir." + +"How so?" + +"I stood the brunt and now Captain Farnsworth gets the prize." He +twisted his mouth in mock expression of maudlin disappointment. +"I'm always cheated out of the sweets. I never get anything for +gallant conduct on the field." + +"Poor boy! It is a shame. But I say, Lieutenant, has Roussillon +really escaped, or is he hidden somewhere in town? Have you been +careful?" + +"Oh, it's the Indians. They all swear by these Frenchmen. You +can't get any help from them against a fellow like Roussillon. In +fact they aid him; he's among them now." + +"Moral again," Helm interposed; "keep on the good side of the +French!" + +"That's sensible talk, sir," assented Barlow. + +"Bah!" exclaimed Hamilton. "You might as well talk of keeping on +the good side of the American traitors--a bloody murrain seize the +whole race!" + +"That's what I say," chimed in the Lieutenant, with a sly look at +Helm. + +"They have been telling me a cock-and-bull story concerning the +affair at the Roussillon cabin," Hamilton said, changing his +manner. "What is this about a disguised and wonderful man who +rushed in and upset the whole of you. I want no romancing; give me +the facts." + +Barlow's dissolute countenance became troubled. + +"The facts," he said, speaking with serious deliberation, "are not +clear. It was like a clap of thunder, the way that man performed. +As you say, he did fling the whole squad all of a heap, and it was +done that quickly," he snapped his thumb and finger +demonstratively with a sharp report; "nobody could understand it." + +Hamilton looked at his subaltern with a smile of unlimited +contempt and said: + +"A pretty officer of His Majesty's army, you are, Lieutenant +Barlow! First a slip of a girl shows herself your superior with +the sword and wounds you, then a single man wipes up the floor of +a house with you and your guard, depriving you at the same time of +both vision and memory, so that you cannot even describe your +assailant!" + +"He was dressed like a priest," muttered Barlow, evidently +frightened at his commander's scathing comment. "That was all +there was to see." + +"A priest! Some of the men say the devil. I wonder--" Hamilton +hesitated and looked at the floor. + +"This Father Beret, he is too old for such a thing, isn't he?" + +"I have thought of him--it was like him--but he is, as you say, +very old to be so tremendously strong and active. Why, I tell you +that men went from his hands against the walls and floor as if +shot out of a mortar. It was the strangest and most astounding +thing I ever heard of." + +A little later Barlow seized a favorable opportunity and withdrew. +The conversation was not to his liking. + +Hamilton sent for Father Beret and had a long talk with him, but +the old man looked so childishly inoffensive in spirit and so +collapsed physically that it seemed worse than foolishness to +accuse him of the exploit over which the entire garrison was +wondering. Farnsworth sat by during the interview. He looked the +good priest curiously and critically over from head to foot, +remembering, but not mentioning, the most unclerical punch in the +side received from that energetic right arm now lying so flabbily +across the old man's lap. + +When the talk ended and Father Beret humbly took his leave, +Hamilton turned to Farnsworth and said: + +"What do you think of this affair? I have cross-questioned all +the men who took part in it, and every one of them says simply +priest or devil. I think old Beret is both; but plainly he +couldn't hurt a chicken, you can see that at a glance." + +Farnsworth smiled, rubbing his side reminiscently; but he shook +his head. + +"I'm sure it's puzzling, indeed." + +Hamilton sat in thoughtful silence for a while, then abruptly +changed the subject. + +"I think, Captain, that you had better send out Lieutenant Barlow +and some of the best woodsmen to kill some game. We need fresh +venison, and, by George! I'm not going to depend upon these French +traitors any longer. I have set my foot down; they've got to do +better or take the consequences." He paused for a breath, then +added: "That girl has done too much to escape severest punishment. +The garrison will be demoralized if this thing goes on without an +example of authority rigidly enforced. I am resolved that there +shall be a startling and effective public display of my power to +punish. She shot you; you seem to be glad of it, but it was a +grave offence. She has stabbed Barlow; that is another serious +crime; but worst of all she aided a spy and resisted arrest. She +must be punished." + +Farnsworth knew Hamilton's nature, and he now saw that Alice was +in dreadful danger of death or something even worse. Whenever his +chief talked of discipline and the need of maintaining his +authority, there was little hope of softening his decisions. +Moreover, the provocation to apply extreme measures really seemed +sufficient, regarded from a military point of view, and Captain +Farnsworth was himself, under ordinary circumstances, a +disciplinarian of the strictest class. The fascination, however, +by which Alice held him overbore every other influence, and his +devotion to her loosened every other tie and obligation to a most +dangerous extent. No sooner had he left headquarters and given +Barlow his instructions touching the hunting expedition, than his +mind began to wander amid visions and schemes by no means +consistent with his military obligations. In order to reflect +undisturbed he went forth into the dreary, lane-like streets of +Vincennes and walked aimlessly here and there until he met Father +Beret. + +Farnsworth saluted the old man, and was passing him by, when +seeing a sword in his hand, half hidden in the folds of his worn +and faded cassock, he turned and addressed him. + +"Why are you armed this morning, Father?" he demanded very +pleasantly. "Who is to suffer now?" + +"I am not on the war-path, my son," replied the priest. "It is but +a rapier that I am going to clean of rust spots that are gathering +on its blade." + +"Is it yours, Father? Let me see it." He held out his hand. + +"No, not mine." + +Father Beret seemed not to notice Farnsworth's desire to handle +the weapon, and the young man, instead of repeating his words, +reached farther, nearly grasping the scabbard. + +"I cannot let you take it, my son," said Father Beret "You have +its mate, that should satisfy you." + +"No, Colonel Hamilton took it," Farnsworth quickly replied. "If I +could I would gladly return it to its owner. I am not a thief, +Father, and I am ashamed of--of--what I did when I was drunk." + +The priest looked sharply into Farnsworth's eyes and read there +something that reassured him. His long experience had rendered him +adept at taking a man's value at a glance. He slightly lifted his +face and said: "Ah, but the poor little girl! why do you persecute +her? She really does not deserve it. She is a noble child. Give +her back to her home and her people. Do not soil and spoil her +sweet life." + +It was the sing-song voice used by Father Beret in his sermons and +prayers; but something went with it indescribably touching. +Farnsworth felt a lump rise in his throat and his eyes were ready +to show tears. "Father," he said, with difficulty making his words +distinct, "I would not harm Miss Roussillon to save my own life, +and I would do anything--" he paused slightly, then added with +passionate force; "I would do anything, no matter what, to save +her from the terrible thing that now threatens her." + +Father Beret's countenance changed curiously as he gazed at the +young man and said: + +"If you really mean what you say, you can easily save her, my +son." + +"Father, by all that is holy, I mean just what I say." + +"Swear not at all, my son, but give me your hand." + +The two men stood with a tight grip between them and exchanged a +long, steady, searching gaze. + +A drizzling rain had begun to fall again, with a raw wind creeping +from the west. + +"Come with me to my house, my son," Father Beret presently added; +and together they went, the priest covering Alice's sword from the +rain with the folds of his cassock. + + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +VIRTUE IN A LOCKET + + +Long-Hair stood not upon ceremony in conveying to Beverley the +information that he was to run the gauntlet, which, otherwise +stated, meant that the Indians would form themselves in two +parallel lines facing each other about six feet apart, and that +the prisoner would be expected to run down the length of the space +between, thus affording the warriors an opportunity, greatly +coveted and relished by their fiendish natures, to beat him +cruelly during his flight. This sort of thing was to the Indians, +indeed, an exquisite amusement, as fascinating to them as the +theater is to more enlightened people. No sooner was it agreed +upon that the entertainment should again be undertaken than all +the younger men began to scurry around getting everything ready +for it. Their faces glowed with a droll cruelty strange to see, +and they further expressed their lively expectations by playful +yet curiously solemn antics. + +The preparations were simple and quickly made. Each man armed +himself with a stick three feet long and about three-quarters of +an inch in diameter. Rough weapons they were, cut from boughs of +scrub-oak, knotty and tough as horn. Long-Hair unbound Beverley +and stripped his clothes from his body down to the waist. Then the +lines formed, the Indians in each row standing about as far apart +as the width of the space in which the prisoner was to run. This +arrangement gave them free use of their sticks and plenty of room +for full swing of their lithe bodies. + +In removing Beverley's clothes Long-Hair found Alice's locket +hanging over the young man's heart. He tore it rudely off and +grunted, glaring viciously, first at it, then at Beverley. He +seemed to be mightily wrought upon. + +"White man damn thief," he growled deep in his throat; "stole from +little girl!" + +He put the locket in his pouch and resumed his stupidly +indifferent expression. + +When everything was ready for the delightful entertainment to +begin, Long-Hair waved his tomahawk three times over Beverley's +head, and pointing down between the waiting lines said: + +"Ugh, run!" + +But Beverley did not budge. He was standing erect, with his arms, +deeply creased where the thongs had sunk, folded across his +breast. A rush of thoughts and feelings had taken tumultuous +possession of him and he could not move or decide what to do. A +mad desire to escape arose in his heart the moment that he saw +Long-Hair take the locket. It was as if Alice had cried to him and +bidden him make a dash for liberty. + +"Ugh, run!" + +The order was accompanied with a push of such violence from Long- +Hair's left elbow that Beverley plunged and fell, for his limbs, +after their long and painful confinement in the raw-hide bonds, +were stiff and almost useless. Long-Hair in no gentle voice bade +him get up. The shock of falling seemed to awaken his dormant +forces; a sudden resolve leaped into his brain. He saw that the +Indians had put aside their bows and guns, most of which were +leaning against the boles of trees here and yonder. What if he +could knock Long-Hair down and run away? This might possibly be +easy, considering the Indian's broken arm. His heart jumped at the +possibility. But the shrewd savage was alert and saw the thought +come into his face. + +"You try git 'way, kill dead!" he snarled, lifting his tomahawk +ready for a stroke. "Brains out, damn!" + +Beverley glanced down the waiting and eager lines. Swiftly he +speculated, wondering what would be his chance for escape were he +to break through. But he did not take his own condition into +account. + +"Ugh, run!" + +Again the elbow of Long-Hair's hurt arm pushed him toward the +expectant rows of Indians, who flourished their clubs and uttered +impatient grunts. + +This time he did not fall; but in trying to run he limped stiffly +at first, his legs but slowly and imperfectly regaining their +strength and suppleness from the action. Just before reaching the +lines, however, he stopped short. Long-Hair, who was close behind +him, took hold of his shoulder and led him back to the starting +place. The big Indian's arm must have given him pain when he thus +used it, but he did not wince. "Fool--kill dead!" he repeated two +or three times, holding his tomahawk on high with threatening +motions and frequent repetitions of his one echo from the +profanity of civilization. He was beginning to draw his mouth down +at the corners, and his eyes were narrowed to mere slits. + +Beverley understood now that he could not longer put off the +trial. He must choose between certain death and the torture of the +gauntlet, as frontiersmen named this savage ordeal. An old man +might have preferred the stroke of the hatchet to such an +infliction as the clubs must afford, considering that, even after +all the agony, his captivity and suffering would be only a little +nearer its end. Youth, however, has faith in the turn of fortune's +wheel, and faith in itself, no matter how dark the prospect. Hope +blows her horn just over the horizon, and the strain bids the +young heart take courage and beat strong. Moreover, men were men, +who led the van in those days on the outmost lines of our march to +the summit of the world. Beverley was not more a hero than any +other young, brave, unconquerable patriot of the frontier army. +His situation simply tried him a trifle harder than was common. +But it must be remembered that he had Love with him, and where +Love is there can be no cowardice, no surrender. + +Long-Hair once again pushed him and said + +"Ugh, run!" + +Beverley made a direct dash for the narrow lane between the braced +and watchful lines. Every warrior lifted his club; every copper +face gleamed stolidly, a mask behind which burned a strangely +atrocious spirit. The two savages standing at the end nearest +Beverley struck at him the instant he reached than, but they taken +quite by surprise when he checked himself between them and, +leaping this way and that, swung out two powerful blows, left and +right, stretching one of them flat and sending the other reeling +and staggering half a dozen paces backward with the blood +streaming from his nose. + +This done, Beverley turned to run away, but his breath was already +short and his strength rapidly going. + +Long-Hair, who was at his heels, leaped before him when he had +gone but a few steps and once more flourished the tomahawk. To +struggle was useless, save to insist upon being brained outright, +which just then had no part in Beverley's considerations. Long- +Hair kicked his victim heavily, uttering laconic curses meanwhile, +and led him back again to the starting-point. + +A genuine sense of humor seems almost entirely lacking in the mind +of the American Indian. He smiles at things not in the least +amusing to us and when he laughs, which is very seldom, the cause +of his merriment usually lies in something repellantly cruel and +inhuman. When Beverley struck his two assailants, hurting them so +that one lay half stunned, while the other spun away from his fist +with a smashed nose, all the rest of the Indians grunted and +laughed raucously in high delight. They shook their clubs, danced, +pointed at their discomfited fellows and twisted their painted +faces into knotted wrinkles, their eyes twinkling with devilish +expression of glee quite indescribable. + +"Ugh, damn, run!" said Long-Half, this time adding a hard kick to +the elbow-shove he gave Beverley. + +The young man, who had borne all he could, now turned upon him +furiously and struck straight from the shoulder, setting the whole +weight of his body into the blow. Long-Hair stepped out of the way +and quick as a flash brought the flat side of his tomahawk with +great force against Beverley's head. This gave the amusement a +sudden and disappointing end, for the prisoner fell limp and +senseless to the ground. No more running the gauntlet for him that +day. Indeed it required protracted application of the best Indian +skill to revive him so that he could fairly be called a living +man. There had been no dangerous concussion, however, and on the +following morning camp was broken. + +Beverley, sore, haggard, forlornly disheveled, had his arms bound +again and was made to march apace with his nimble enemies, who set +out swiftly eastward, their disappointment at having their sport +cut short, although bitter enough, not in the least indicated by +any facial expression or spiteful act. + +Was it really a strange thing, or was it not, that Beverley's mind +now busied itself unceasingly with the thought that Long-Hair had +Alice's picture in his pouch? One might find room for discussion +of a cerebral problem like this; but our history cannot be delayed +with analyses and speculations; it must run its direct course +unhindered to the end. Suffice it to record that, while tramping +at Long-Hair's side and growing more and more desirous of seeing +the picture again, Beverley began trying to converse with his +taciturn captor. He had a considerable smattering of several +Indian dialects, which he turned upon Long-Hair to the best of +his ability, but apparently without effect. Nevertheless he +babbled at intervals, always upon the same subject and always +endeavoring to influence that huge, stolid, heartless savage in +the direction of letting him see again the child face of the +miniature. + +A stone, one of our travel-scarred and mysterious western granite +bowlders brought from the far north by the ancient ice, would show +as much sympathy as did the face of Long-Hair. Once in a while he +gave Beverley a soulless glance and said "damn" with utter +indifference. Nothing, however, could quench or even in the +slightest sense allay the lover's desire. He talked of Alice and +the locket with constantly increasing volubility, saying over and +over phrases of endearment in a half-delirious way, not aware that +fever was fermenting his blood and heating his brain. Probably he +would have been very ill but for the tremendous physical exercise +forced upon him. The exertion kept him in a profuse perspiration +and his robust constitution cast off the malarial poison. Meantime +he used every word and phrase, every grunt and gesture of Indian +dialect that he could recall, in the iterated and reiterated +attempt to make Long-Hair understand what he wanted. + +When night came on again the band camped under some trees beside a +swollen stream. There was no rain falling, but almost the entire +country lay under a flood of water. Fires of logs were soon +burning brightly on the comparatively dry bluff chosen by the +Indians. The weather was chill, but not cold. Long-Hair took +great pains, however, to dry Beverley's clothes and see that he +had warm wraps and plenty to eat. Hamilton's large reward would +not be forthcoming should the prisoner die, Beverley was good +property, well worth careful attention. To be sure his scalp, in +the worst event, would command a sufficient honorarium, but not +the greatest. Beverley thought of all this while the big Indian +was wrapping him snugly in skins and blankets for the night, and +there was no comfort in it, save that possibly if he were returned +to Hamilton he might see Alice again before he died. + +A fitful wind cried dolefully in the leafless treetops, the stream +hard by gave forth a rushing sound, and far away some wolves +howled like lost souls. Worn out, sore from head to foot, +Beverley, deep buried in the blankets and skins, soon fell into a +profound sleep. The fires slowly crumbled and faded; no sentinel +was posted, for the Indians did not fear an attack, there being no +enemies that they knew of nearer than Kaskaskia. The camp +slumbered as one man. + +At about the mid-hour of the night Long-Hair gently awoke his +prisoner by drawing a hand across his face, then whispered in his +ear: + +"Damn, still!" + +Beverley tried to rise, uttering a sleepy ejaculation under his +breath. "No talk," hissed Long-Hair. "Still!" + +There was something in his voice that not only swept the last film +of sleep out of Beverley's brain, but made it perfectly clear to +him that a very important bit of craftiness was being performed; +just what its nature was, however, he could not surmise. One thing +was obvious, Long-Hair did not wish the other Indians to know of +the move he was making. Deftly he slipped the blankets from around +Beverley, and cut the thongs at his ankles. + +"Still!" he whispered. "Come 'long." + +Under such circumstances a competent mind acts with lightning +celerity. Beverley now understood that Long-Hair was stealing him +away from the other savages and that the big villain meant to +cheat them out of their part of the reward. Along with this +discovery came a fresh gleam of hope. It would be far easier to +escape from one Indian than from nearly a score. Ah, he would +follow Long-Hair, indeed he would! The needed courage came with +the thought, and so with immense labor he crept at the heels of +that crawling monster. It was a painful process, for his arms were +still fast bound at the wrists with the raw-hide strings; but +what was pain to him? He shivered with joy, thinking of what might +happen. The voice of the wind overhead and the noisy bubbling of +the stream near by were cheerful and cheering sounds to him now. +So much can a mere shadow of hope do for a human soul on the verge +of despair! Already he was planning or trying to plan some way by +which he could kill Long-Hair when they should reach a safe +distance from the sleeping camp. + +But how could the thing be done? A man with his hands tied, though +they are in front of him, is in no excellent condition to cope +with a free and stalwart savage armed to the teeth. Still +Beverley's spirits rose with every rod of distance that was added +to their slow progress. + +Their course was nearly parallel with that of the stream, but +slightly converging toward it, and after they had gone about a +furlong they reached the bank. Here Long-Hair stopped and, without +a word, cut the thongs from Beverley's wrists. This was +astounding; the young man could scarcely realize it, nor was he +ready to act. + +"Swim water," Long-Hair said in a guttural murmur barely audible. +"Swim, damn!" + +Again it was necessary for Beverley's mind to act swiftly and with +prudence. The camp was yet within hailing distance. A false move +now would bring the whole pack howling to the rescue. Something +told him to do as Long-Hair ordered, so with scarcely a +perceptible hesitation he scrambled down the bushy bank and +slipped into the water, followed by Long-Hair, who seized him by +one arm when he began to swim, and struck out with him into the +boiling and tumbling current. + +Beverley had always thought himself a master swimmer, but Long- +Hair showed him his mistake. The giant Indian, with but one hand +free to use, fairly rushed through that deadly cold and turbulent +water, bearing his prisoner with him despite the wounded arm, as +easily as if towing him at the stern of a pirogue. True, his +course was down stream for a considerable distance, but even when +presently he struck out boldly for the other bank, breasting a +current in which few swimmers could have lived, much less made +headway, he still swung forward rapidly, splitting the waves and +scarcely giving Beverley freedom enough so that he could help in +the progress. It was a long, cold struggle, and when at last they +touched the sloping low bank on the other side, Long-Hair had +fairly to lift his chilled and exhausted prisoner to the top. + +"Ugh, cold," he grunted, beginning to pound and rub Beverley's +arms, legs and body. "Make warm, damn heap!" + +All this he did with his right hand, holding the tomahawk in his +left. + +It was a strange, bewildering experience out of which the young +man could not see in any direction far enough to give him a hint +upon which to act. In a few minutes Long-Hair jerked him to his +feet and said: + +"Go." + +It was just light enough to see that the order had a tomahawk to +enforce it withal. Long-Hair indicated the direction and drove +Beverley onward as fast as he could. + +"Try run 'way, kill, damn!" he kept repeating, while with his left +hand on the young man's shoulder he guided him from behind +dexterously through the wood for some distance. Then he stopped +and grunted, adding his favorite expletive, which he used with not +the least knowledge of its meaning. To him the syllable "damn" was +but a mouthful of forcible wind. + +They had just emerged from a thicket into an open space, where the +ground was comparatively dry. Overhead the stars were shining in +great clusters of silver and gold against a dark, cavernous +looking sky, here and there overrun with careering black clouds. +Beverley shivered, not so much with cold as on account of the +stress of excitement which amounted to nervous rigor. Long-Hair +faced him and leaned toward him, until his breathing was audible +and his massive features were dimly outlined. A dragon of the +darkest age could not have been more repulsive. + +"Ugh, friend, damn!" + +Beverley started when these words were followed by a sentence in +an Indian dialect somewhat familiar to him, a dialect in which he +had tried to talk with Long-Hair during the day's march. The +sentence, literally translated, was: + +"Long-Hair is friendly now." + +A blow in the face could not have been so surprising. Beverley not +only started, but recoiled as if from a sudden and deadly +apparition. The step between supreme exhilaration and utter +collapse is now and then infinitesimal. There are times, moreover, +when an expression on the face of Hope makes her look like the +twin sister of Despair. The moment falling just after Long-Hair +spoke was a century condensed in a breath. + +"Long-Hair is friendly now; will white man be friendly?" + +Beverley heard, but the speech seemed to come out of vastness and +hollow distance; he could not realize it fairly. He felt as if in +a dream, far off somewhere in loneliness, with a big, shadowy form +looming before him. He heard the chill wind in the thickets round +about, and beyond Long-Hair rose a wall of giant trees. + +"Ugh, not understand?" the savage presently demanded in his broken +English. + +"Yes, yes," said Beverley, "I understand." + +"Is the white man friendly now?" Long-Hair then repeated in his +own tongue, with a certain insistence of manner and voice. + +"Yes, friendly." + +Beverley said this absently in a tone of perfunctory dryness. His +throat was parched, his head seemed to waver. But he was beginning +to comprehend that Long-Hair, for some inscrutable reason of his +own, was desirous of making a friendship between them. The thought +was bewildering. + +Long-Hair fumbled in his pouch and took out Alice's locket, which +he handed to Beverley. "White man love little girl?" he inquired +in a tone that bordered upon tenderness, again speaking in Indian. + +Beverley clutched the disk as soon as he saw it gleam in the star- +light. + +"White man going to have little girl for his squaw--eh?" + +"Yes, yes," cried Beverley without hearing his own voice. He was +trying to open the locket but his hands were numb and trembling. +When at last he did open it he could not see the child face +within, for now even the star-light was shut off by a scudding +black cloud. + +"Little girl saved Long-Hair's life. Long-Hair save white warrior +for little girl." + +A dignity which was almost noble accompanied these simple +sentences. Long-Hair stood proudly erect, like a colossal dark +statue in the dimness. + +The great truth dawned upon Beverley that here was a +characteristic act. He knew that an Indian rarely failed to repay +a kindness or an injury, stroke for stroke, when opportunity +offered. Long-Hair was a typical Indian. That is to say, a type of +inhumanity raised to the last power; but under his hideous +atrocity of nature lay the indestructible sense of gratitude so +fixed and perfect that it did its work almost automatically. + +It must be said, and it may or may not be to the white man's +shame, that Beverley did not respond with absolute promptness and +sincerity to Long-Hair's generosity. He had suffered terribly at +the hands of this savage. His arms and legs were raw from the +biting of the thongs; his body ached from the effect of blows and +kicks laid upon him while bound and helpless. Perhaps he was not a +very emotional man. At all events there was no sudden recognition +of the favor he was receiving. And this pleased Long-Hair, for the +taste of the American Indian delights in immobility of countenance +and reserve of feeling under great strain. + +"Wait here a little while," Long-Hair presently said, and without +lingering for reply, turned away and disappeared in the wood. +Beverley was free to run if he wished to, and the thought did +surge across his mind; but a restraining something, like a hand +laid upon him, would not let his limbs move. Down deep in his +heart a calm voice seemed to be repeating Long-Hair's Indian +sentence--"Wait here a little while." + +A few minutes later Long-Hair returned bearing two guns, +Beverley's and his own, the latter, a superb weapon given him by +Hamilton. He afterward explained that he had brought these, with +their bullet-pouches and powder-horns, to a place of concealment +near by before he awoke Beverley. This meant that he had swum the +cold river three times since night-fall; once over with the guns +and accouterments; once back to camp, then over again with +Beverley! All this with a broken arm, and to repay Alice for her +kindness to him. + +Beverley may have been slow, but at last his appreciation was, +perhaps, all the more profound. As best he could he expressed it +to Long-Hair, who showed no interest whatever in the statement. +Instead of responding in Indian, he said "damn" without emphasis. +It was rather as if he had yawned absently, being bored. + +Delay could not be thought of. Long-Hair explained briefly that he +thought. Beverley must go to Kaskaskia. He had come across the +stream in the direction of Vincennes in order to set his warriors +at fault. The stream must be recrossed, he said, farther down, and +he would help Beverley a certain distance on his way, then leave +him to shift for himself. He had a meager amount of parched corn +and buffalo meat in his pouch, which would stay hunger until they +could kill some game. Now they must go. + +The resilience of a youthful and powerful physique offers many a +problem to the biologist. Vital force seems to find some +mysterious reservoir of nourishment hidden away in the nerve- +centers. Beverley set out upon that seemingly impossible +undertaking with renewed energy. It could not have been the ounce +of parched corn and bit of jerked venison from which he drew so +much strength; but on the other hand, could it have been the +miniature of Alice, which he felt pressing over his heart once +more, that afforded a subtle stimulus to both mind and body? They +flung miles behind them before day-dawn, Long-Hair leading, +Beverley pressing close at his heels. Most of the way led over +flat prairies covered with water, and they therefore left no track +by which they could be followed. + +Late in the forenoon Long-Hair killed a deer at the edge of a +wood. Here they made a fire and cooked a supply which would last +them for a day or two, and then on they went again. But we cannot +follow them step by step. When Long-Hair at last took leave of +Beverley, the occasion had no ceremony. It was an abrupt, +unemotional parting. The stalwart Indian simply said in his own +dialect, pointing westward: + +"Go that way two days. You will find your friends." + +Then, without another look or word, he turned about and stalked +eastward at a marvelously rapid gait. In his mind he had a good +tale to tell his warrior companions when he should find them +again: how Beverley escaped that night and how he followed him a +long, long chase, only to lose him at last under the very guns of +the fort at Kaskaskia. But before he reached his band an incident +of some importance changed his story to a considerable degree. It +chanced that he came upon Lieutenant Barlow, who, in pursuit of +game, had lost his bearings and, far from his companions, was +beating around quite bewildered in a watery solitude. Long-Hair +promptly murdered the poor fellow and scalped him with as little +compunction as he would have skinned a rabbit; for he had a clever +scheme in his head, a very audacious and outrageous scheme, by +which he purposed to recoup, to some extent, the damages sustained +by letting Beverley go. + +Therefore, when he rejoined his somewhat disheartened and +demoralized band he showed them the scalp and gave them an +eloquent account of how he tore it from Beverley's head after a +long chase and a bloody hand to hand fight. They listened, +believed, and were satisfied. + + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +FATHER BERET'S OLD BATTLE + + +The room in which Alice was now imprisoned formed part of the +upper story of a building erected by Hamilton in one of the four +angles of the stockade. It had no windows and but two oblong port- +holes made to accommodate a small swivel, which stood darkly +scowling near the middle of the floor. From one of these apertures +Alice could see the straggling roofs and fences of the dreary +little town, while from the other a long reach of watery prairie, +almost a lake, lay under view with the rolling, muddy Wabash +gleaming beyond. There seemed to be no activity of garrison or +townspeople. Few sounds broke the silence of which the cheerless +prison room seemed to be the center. + +Alice felt all her courage and cheerfulness leaving her. She was +alone in the midst of enemies. No father or mother, no friend--a +young girl at the mercy of soldiers, who could not be expected to +regard her with any sympathy beyond that which is accompanied with +repulsive leers and hints. Day after day her loneliness and +helplessness became more agonizing. Farnsworth, it is true, did +all he could to relieve the strain of her situation; but Hamilton +had an eye upon what passed and soon interfered. He administered a +bitter reprimand, under which his subordinate writhed in +speechless anger and resentment. + +"Finally, Captain Farnsworth," he said in conclusion, "you will +distinctly understand that this girl is my prisoner, not yours; +that I, not you, will direct how she is to be held and treated, +and that hereafter I will suffer no interference on your part. I +hope you fully understand me, sir, and will govern yourself +accordingly." + +Smarting, or rather smothering, under the outrageous insult of +these remarks, Farnsworth at first determined to fling his +resignation at the Governor's feet and then do whatever desperate +thing seemed most to his mood. But a soldier's training is apt to +call a halt before the worst befalls in such a case. Moreover, in +the present temptation, Farnsworth had a special check and +hindrance. He had had a conference with Father Beret, in which the +good priest had played the part of wisdom in slippers, and of +gentleness more dove-like than the dove's. A very subtle +impression, illuminated with the "hope that withers hope," had +come of that interview; and now Farnsworth felt its restraint. He +therefore saluted Hamilton formally and walked away. + +Father Beret's paternal love for Alice,--we cannot characterize it +more nicely than to call it paternal,--was his justification for +a certain mild sort of corruption insinuated by him into the heart +of Farnsworth. He was a crafty priest, but his craft was always +used for a good end. Unquestionably Jesuitic was his mode of +circumventing the young man's military scruples by offering him a +puff of fair weather with which to sail toward what appeared to be +the shore of delight. He saw at a glance that Farnsworth's love +for Alice was a consuming passion in a very ardent yet decidedly +weak heart. Here was the worldly lever with which Father Beret +hoped to raze Alice's prison and free her from the terrible doom +with which she was threatened. + +The first interview was at Father Beret's cabin, to which, as will +be remembered, the priest and Farnsworth went after their meeting +in the street. It actually came to nothing, save an indirect +understanding but half suggested by Father Beret and never openly +sanctioned by Captain Farnsworth. The talk was insinuating on the +part of the former, while the latter slipped evasively from every +proposition, as if not able to consider it on account of a curious +obtuseness of perception. Still, when they separated they shook +hands and exchanged a searching look perfectly satisfactory to +both. + +The memory of that interview with the priest was in Farnsworth's +mind when, boiling with rage, he left Hamilton's presence and went +forth into the chill February air. He passed out through the +postern and along the sodden and queachy aedge of the prairie, +involuntarily making his way to Father Beret's cabin. His +indignation was so great that he trembled from head to foot at +every step. The door of the place was open and Father Beret was +eating a frugal meal of scones and sour wine (of his own make, he +said), which he hospitably begged to share with his visitor. A +fire smouldered on the hearth, and a flat stone showed, by the +grease smoking over its hot surface, where the cakes had been +baked. + +"Come in, my son," said the priest, "and try the fare of a poor +old man. It is plain, very plain, but good." He smacked his lips +sincerely and fingered another scone. "Take some, take some." + +Farnsworth was not tempted. The acid bouquet of the wine filled +the room with a smack of vinegar, and the smoke from rank +scorching fat and wheat meal did not suggest an agreeable feast. + +"Well, well, if you are not hungry, my son, sit down on the stool +there and tell me the news." + +Farnsworth took the low seat without a word, letting his eyes +wander over the walls. Alice's rapier, the mate to that now worn +by Hamilton, hung in its curiously engraved scabbard near one +corner. The sight of it inflamed Farnsworth. + +"It's an outrage," he broke forth. "Governor Hamilton sent a man +to Roussillon place with orders to bring him the scabbard of Miss +Roussillon's sword, and he now wears the beautiful weapon as if he +had come by it honestly. Damn him!" + +"My dear, dear son, you must not soil your lips with such +language!" Father Beret let fall the half of a well bitten cake +and held up both hands. + +"I beg your pardon, Father; I know I ought to be more careful in +your presence; but--but--the beastly, hellish scoundrel--" + +"Bah! doucement, mon fils, doucement." The old man shook his head +and his finger while speaking. "Easy, my son, easy. You would be a +fine target for bullets were your words to reach Hamilton's ears. +You are not permitted to revile your commander." + +"Yes, I know; but how can a man restrain himself under such +abominable conditions?" + +Father Beret shrewdly guessed that Hamilton had been giving the +Captain fresh reason for bitter resentment. Moreover, he was sure +that the moving cause had been Alice. So, in order to draw out +what he wished to hear, he said very gently: + +"How is the little prisoner getting along?" + +Farnsworth ground his teeth and swore; but Father Beret appeared +not to hear; he bit deep into a scone, took a liberal sip of the +muddy red wine and added: + +"Has she a comfortable place? Do you think Governor Hamilton would +let me visit her?" + +"It is horrible!" Farnsworth blurted. "She's penned up as if she +were a dangerous beast, the poor girl. And that damned scoundrel-- +" + +"Son, son!" + +"Oh, it's no use to try, I can't help it, Father. The whelp--" + +"We can converse more safely and intelligently if we avoid +profanity, and undue emotion, my son. Now, if you will quit +swearing, I will, and if you will be calm, so will I." + +Farnsworth felt the sly irony of this absurdly vicarious +proposition. Father Beret smiled with a kindly twinkle in his +deep-set eyes. + +"Well, if you don't use profane language, Father, there's no +telling how much you think in expletives. What is your opinion of +a man who tumbles a poor, defenseless girl into prison and then +refuses to let her be decently cared for? How do you express +yourself about him?" + +"My son, men often do things of which they ought to be ashamed. I +heard of a young officer once who maltreated a little girl that he +met at night in the street. What evil he would have done, had not +a passing kind-hearted man reminded him of his honor by a friendly +punch in the ribs, I dare not surmise." + +"True, and your sarcasm goes home as hard as your fist did, +Father. I know that I've been a sad dog all my life. Miss +Roussillon saved you by shooting me, and I love her for it. Lay +on, Father, I deserve more than you can give me." + +"Surely you do, my son, surely you do; but my love for you will +not let me give you pain. Ah, we priests have to carry all men's +loads. Our backs are broad, however, very broad, my son." + +"And your fists devilish heavy, Father, devilish heavy." + +The gentle smile again flickered over the priest's weather-beaten +face as he glanced sidewise at Farnsworth and said: + +"Sometimes, sometimes, my son, a carnal weapon must break the way +for a spiritual one. But we priests rarely have much physical +strength; our dependence is upon--" + +"To be sure; certainly," Farnsworth interrupted, rubbing his side, +"your dependence is upon the first thing that offers. I've had +many a blow; but yours was the solidest that ever jarred tny +mortal frame, Father Beret." + +The twain began to laugh. There is nothing like a reminiscence to +stir up fresh mutual sympathy. + +"If your intercostals were somewhat sore for a time, on account of +a contact with priestly knuckles, doubtless there soon set in a +corresponding uneasiness in the region of your conscience. Such +shocks are often vigorously alterative and tonic--eh, my son?" + +"You jolted me sober, Father, and then I was ashamed of myself. +But where does all your tremendous strength lie? You don't look +strong." + +While speaking Farnsworth leaned near Father Beret and grasped his +arm. The young man started, for his fingers, instead of closing +around a flabby, shrunken old man's limb, spread themselves upon a +huge, knotted mass of iron muscles. With a quick movement Father +Beret shook off Farnsworth's hand, and said: + +"I am no Samson, my son. Non sum qualis eram." Then, as if +dismissing a light subject for a graver one, he sighed and added; +"I suppose there is nothing that can be done for little Alice." + +He called the tall, strong girl "little Alice," and so she seemed +to him. He could not, without direct effort, think of her as a +magnificently maturing woman. She had always been his spoiled pet +child, perversely set against the Holy Church, but dear to him +nevertheless. + +"I came to you to ask that very question, Father," said +Farnsworth. + +"And what do I know? Surely, my son, you see how utterly helpless +an old priest is against all you British. And besides--" + +"Father Beret," Farnsworth huskily interrupted, "is there a place +that you know of anywhere in which Miss Roussillon could be +hidden, if--" + +"My dear son." + +"But, Father, I mean it." + +"Mean what? Pardon an old man's slow understanding. What are you +talking about, my son?" + +Father Beret glanced furtively about, then quickly stepped through +the doorway, walked entirely around the house and came in again +before Farnsworth could respond. Once more seated on his stool he +added interrogatively: + +"Did you think you heard something moving outside?" + +"No." + +"You were saying something when I went out. Pardon my +interruption." + +Farnsworth gave the priest a searching and not wholly confiding +look. + +"You did not interrupt me, Father Beret. I was not speaking. Why +are you so watchful? Are you afraid of eavesdroppers?" + +"You were speaking recklessly. Your words were incendiary: +ardentia verba. My son, you were suggesting a dangerous thing. +Your life would scarcely satisfy the law were you convicted of +insinuating such treason. What if one of your prowling guards had +overheard you? Your neck and mine might feel the halter. Quod +avertat dominus." He crossed himself and in a solemn voice added +in English: + +"May the Lord forbid! Ah, my son, we priests protect those we +love." + +"And I, who am not fit to tie a priest's shoe, do likewise. +Father, I love Alice Roussillon." + +"Love is a holy thing, my son. Amare divinum est et humanum." + +"Father Beret, can you help me?" + +"Spiritually speaking, my son?" + +"I mean, can you hide Mademoiselle Roussillon in some safe place, +if I take her out of the prison yonder? That's just what I mean. +Can you do it?" + +"Your question is a remarkable one. Have you thought upon it from +all directions, my son? Think of your position, your duty as an +officer." + +A shrewd polemical expression beamed from Father Beret's eyes, and +a very expert physiogomist might have suspected duplicity from +certain lines about the old man's mouth. + +"I simply know that I cannot stand by and see Alice--Mademoiselle +Roussillon, forced to suffer treatment too beastly for an Indian +thief. That's the only direction there is for me to look at it +from, and you can understand my feelings if you will; you know +that very well, Father Beret. When a man loves a girl, he loves +her; that's the whole thing.". + +The quiet, inscrutable half-smile flickered once more on Father +Beret's face; but he sat silent some time with a sinewy forefinger +lying alongside his nose. When at last he spoke it was in a tone +of voice indicative of small interest in what he was saying. His +words rambled to their goal with the effect of happy accident. + +"There are places in this neighborhood in which a human being +would be as hard to find as the flag that you and Governor +Hamilton have so diligently and unsuccessfully been in quest of +for the past month or two. Really, my son, this is a mysterious +little town." + +Farnsworth's eyes widened and a flush rose in his swarthy cheeks. + +"Damn the flag!" he exclaimed. "Let it lie hidden forever; what do +I care? I tell you, Father Beret, that Alice Roussillon is in +extreme danger. Governor Hamilton means to put some terrible +punishment on her. He has a devil's vindictiveness. He showed it +to me clearly awhile ago." + +"You showed something of the same sort to me, once upon a time, my +son." + +"Yes, I did, Father Beret, and I got a load of slugs in my +shoulder for it from that brave girl's pistol. She saved your +life. Now I ask you to help me save hers; or, if not her life, +what is infinitely more, her honor." + +"Her honor!" cried Father Beret, leaping to his feet so suddenly +and with such energy that the cabin shook from base to roof. "What +do you say, Captain Farnsworth? What do you mean?" + +The old man was transformed. His face was terrible to see, with +its narrow, burning eyes deep under the shaggy brows, its dark +veins writhing snakelike on the temples and forehead, the +projected mouth and chin, the hard lines of the jaws, the iron- +gray gleam from all the features--he looked like an aged tiger +stiffened for a spring. + +Farnsworth was made of right soldierly stuff; but he felt a +distinct shiver flit along his back. His past life had not lacked +thrilling adventures and strangely varied experiences with +desperate men. Usually he met sudden emergencies rather calmly, +sometimes with phlegmatic indifference. This passionate outburst +on the priest's part, however, surprised him and awed him, while +it stirred his heart with a profound sympathy unlike anything he +had ever felt before. + +Father Beret mastered himself in a moment, and passing his hand +over his face, as if to brush away the excitement, sat down again +on his stool. He appeared to collapse inwardly. + +"You must excuse the weakness of an old man, my son," he said, in +a voice hoarse and shaking. "But tell me what is going to be done +with Alice. Your words--what you said--I did not understand." + +He rubbed his forehead slowly, as one who has difficulty in trying +to collect his thoughts. + +"I do not know what Governor Hamilton means to do, Father Beret. +It will be something devilish, however,--something that must not +happen," said Farnsworth. + +Then he recounted all that Hamilton had done and said. He +described the dreary and comfortless room in which Alice was +confined, the miserable fare given her, and how she would be +exposed to the leers and low remarks of the soldiers. She had +already suffered these things, and now that she could no longer +have any protection, what was to become of her? He did not attempt +to overstate the case; but presented it with a blunt sincerity +which made a powerfully realistic impression. + +Father Beret, like most men of strong feeling who have been +subjected to long years of trial, hardship, multitudinous dangers +and all sorts of temptation, and who have learned the lessons of +self-control, had an iron will, and also an abiding distrust of +weak men. He saw Farnsworth's sincerity; but he had no faith in +his constancy, although satisfied that while resentment of +Hamilton's imperiousness lasted, he would doubtless remain firm in +his purpose to aid Alice. Let that wear off, as in a short time it +would, and then what? The old man studied his companion with eyes +that slowly resumed their expression of smouldering and almost +timid geniality. His priestly experience with desperate men was +demanding of him a proper regard for that subtlety of procedure +which had so often compassed most difficult ends. + +He listened in silence to Farnsworth's story. When it came to an +end he began to offer some but half relevant suggestions in the +form of indirect cross-questions, by means of which he gradually +drew out a minute description of Alice's prison, the best way to +reach it, the nature of its door-fastenings, where the key was +kept, and everything, indeed, likely to be helpful to one +contemplating a jail delivery. Farnsworth was inwardly delighted. +He felt Father Beret's cunning approach to the central object and +his crafty method of gathering details. + +The shades of evening thickened in the stuffy cabin room while the +conversation went on. Father Beret presently lifted a puncheon in +one corner of the floor and got out a large bottle, which bore a +mildewed and faded French label, and with it a small iron cup. +There was just light enough left to show a brownish sparkle when, +after popping out the cork, he poured a draught in the fresh cup +and in his own. + +"We may think more clearly, my son, if we taste this old liquor. I +have kept it a long while to offer upon a proper occasion. The +occasion is here." + +A ravishing bouquet quickly imbued the air. It was itself an +intoxication. + +"The Brothers of St. Martin distilled this liquor," Father Beret +added, handing the cup to Farnsworth, "not for common social +drinking, my son, but for times when a man needs extraordinary +stimulation. It is said to be surpassingly good, because St. +Martin blessed the vine." + +The doughty Captain felt a sudden and imperious thirst seize his +throat. The liquor flooded his veins before his lips touched the +cup. He had been abstaining lately; now his besetting appetite +rushed upon him. At one gulp he took in the fiery yet smooth and +captivating draught. Nor did he notice that Father Beret, instead +of joining him in the potation, merely lifted his cup and set it +down again, smacking his lips gusto. + +There followed a silence, during which the aromatic breath of the +bottle increased its dangerous fascination. Then Father Beret +again filled Farnsworth's cup and said: + +"Ah, the blessed monks, little thought they that their matchless +brew would ever be sipped in a poor missionary's hut on the +Wabash! But, after all, my son, why not here as well as in sunny +France? Our object justifies any impropriety of time and place." + +"You are right, Father. I drink to our object. Yes, I say, to our +object." + +In fact, the drinking preceded his speech, and his tongue already +had a loop in it The liquor stole through him, a mist of +bewildering and enchanting influence. The third cup broke his +sentences into unintelligible fragments; the fourth made his +underjaw sag loosely, the fifth and sixth, taken in close +succession, tumbled him limp on the floor, where he slept +blissfully all night long, snugly covered with some of Father +Beret's bed clothes. + +"Per casum obliquum, et per indirectum," muttered the priest, when +he had returned the bottle and cup to their hiding-place." The end +justifies the means. Sleep well, my son. Ah, little Alice, little +Alice, your old Father will try--will try!" + +He fumbled along the wall in the dark until he found the rapier, +which he took down; then he went out and sat for some time +motionless beside the door, while the clouds thickened overhead. +It was late when he arose and glided away shadow-like toward the +fort, over which the night hung black, chill and drearily silent. +The moon was still some hours high, smothered by the clouds; a fog +slowly drifted from the river. + +Meantime Hamilton and Helm had spent a part of the afternoon and +evening, as usual, at cards. Helm broke off the game and went to +his quarters rather early for him, leaving the Governor alone and +in a bad temper, because Farnsworth, when he had sent for him, +could not be found. Three times his orderly returned in as many +hours with the same report; the Captain had not been seen or heard +of. Naturally this sudden and complete disappearance, immediately +after the reprimand, suggested to Hamilton an unpleasant +possibility. What if Farnsworth had deserted him? Down deep in his +heart he was conscious that the young man had good cause for +almost any desperate action. To lose Captain Farnsworth, however, +would be just now a calamity. The Indians were drifting over +rapidly to the side of the Americans, and every day showed that +the French could not long be kept quiet. + +Hamilton sat for some time after Helm's departure, thinking over +what he now feared was a foolish mistake. Presently he buckled on +Alice's rapier, which he had lately been wearing as his own, and +went out into the main area of the stockade. A sentinel was +tramping to and fro at the gate, where a hazy lantern shone. The +night was breathless and silent. Hamilton approached the soldier +on duty and asked him if he had seen Captain Farnsworth, and +receiving a negative reply, turned about puzzled and thoughtful to +walk back and forth in the chill, foggy air. + +Presently a faint yellow light attracted his attention. It shone +through a porthole in an upper room of the block-house at the +farther angle of the stockade. In fact, Alice was reading by a +sputtering lamp a book Farnsworth had sent her, a volume of +Ronsard that he had picked up in Canada. Hamilton made his way in +that direction, at first merely curious to know who was burning +oil so late; but after a few paces he recognized where the light +came from, and instantly suspected that Captain Farnsworth was +there. Indeed he felt sure of it. Somehow he could not regard +Alice as other than a saucy hoyden, incapable of womanly virtue. +His experience with the worst element of Canadian French life and +his peculiar cast of mind and character colored his impression of +her. He measured her by the women with whom the coureurs de bois +and half-breed trappers consorted in Detroit and at the posts +eastward to Quebec. + +Alice, unable to sleep, had sought forgetfulness of her bitter +captivity in the old poet's charming lyrics. She sat on the floor, +some blankets and furs drawn around her, the book on her lap, the +stupidly dull lamp hanging beside her on a part of the swivel. Her +hair lay loose over her neck and shoulders and shimmered around +her face with a cloud-like effect, giving to the features in their +repose a setting that intensified their sweetness and sadness. In +a very low but distinct voice was reading, with a slightly +quavering emotion: + + "Mignonne, allons voir si la rose, + Que ce matin avoit desclose + Sa robe de pourpe au soleil." + +When Hamilton, after stealthily mounting the rough stairway which +led to her door, peeped in through a space between the slabs and +felt a stroke of disappointment, seeing at a glance that +Farnsworth was not there. He gazed for some time, not without a +sense of villainy, while she continued her sweetly monotonous +reading. If his heart had been as hard as the iron swivel-balls +that lay beside Alice, he must still have felt a thrill of +something like tender sympathy. She now showed no trace of the +vivacious sauciness which had heretofore always marked her +features when she was in his presence. A dainty gentleness, +touched with melancholy, gave to her face an appealing look all +the more powerful on account of its unconscious simplicity of +expression. + +The man felt an impulse pure and noble, which would have borne him +back down the ladder and away from the building, had not a +stronger one set boldly in the opposite direction. There was a +short struggle with the seared remnant of his better nature, and +then he tried to open the door; but it was locked. + +Alice heard the slight noise and breaking off her reading turned +to look. Hamilton made another effort to enter before he +recollected that the wooden key, or notched lever, that controlled +the cumbrous wooden lock, hung on a peg beside the door. He felt +for it along the wall, and soon laid his hand on it. Then again he +peeped through to see Alice, who was now standing upright near the +swivel. She had thrown her hair back from her face and neck; the +lamp's flickering light seemed suddenly to have magnified her +stature and enhanced her beauty. Her book lay on the tumbled wraps +at her feet, and in either hand she grasped a swivel-shot. + +Hamilton's combative disposition came to the aid of his baser +passion when he saw once more a defiant flash from his prisoner's +face. It was easy for him to be fascinated by opposition. Helm had +profited by this trait as much as others had suffered by it; but, +in the case of Alice, Hamilton's mingled resentment and admiration +were but a powerful irritant to the coarsest and most dangerous +side of his nature. + +After some fumbling and delay he fitted the key with a steady hand +and moved the wooden bolt creaking and jolting from its slot. Then +flinging the clumsy door wide open, he stepped in. + +Alice started when she recognized the midnight intruder, and a +second deeper look into his countenance made her brave heart +recoil, while with a sinking sensation her breath almost stopped. +It was but a momentary weakness, however, followed by vigorous +reaction. + +"What are you here for, sir?" she demanded. "What do you want?" + +"I am neither a burglar nor a murderer, Mademoiselle," he +responded, lifting his hat and bowing, with a smile not in the +least reassuring. + +"You look like both. Stop where you are!" + +"Not so loud, my dear Miss Roussillon; I am not deaf. And besides +the garrison needs to sleep." + +"Stop, sir; not another step." + +She poised herself, leaning slightly backward, and held the iron +ball in her right hand ready to throw it at him. + +He halted, still smiling villainously. + +"Mademoiselle, I assure you that your excitement is quite +unnecessary. I am not here to harm you." + +"You cannot harm me, you cowardly wretch!" + +"Humph! Pride goes before a fall, wench," he retorted, taking a +half-step backward. Then a thought arose in his mind which added a +new shade to the repellent darkness of his countenance. + +"Miss Roussillon," he said in English and with a changed voice, +which seemed to grow harder, each word deliberately emphasized, "I +have come to break some bad news to you." + +"You would scarcely bring me good news, sir, and I am not curious +to hear the bad." + +He was silent for a little while, gazing at her with the sort of +admiration from which a true woman draws away appalled. He saw how +she loathed him, saw how impossible it was for him to get a line +nearer to her by any turn of force or fortune. Brave, high- +headed, strong as a young leopard, pure and sweet as a rose, she +stood before him fearless, even aggressive, showing him by every +line of her face and form that she felt her infinite superiority +and meant to maintain it. Her whole personal expression told him +he was defeated; therefore he quickly seized upon a suggestion +caught from a transaction with Long-Hair, who had returned a few +hours before from his pursuit of Beverley. + +"It pains me, I assure you, Miss Roussillon, to tell you what will +probably grieve you deeply," he presently added; "but I have not +been unaware of your tender interest in Lieutenant Beverley, and +when I had bad news from him, I thought it my duty to inform you." + +He paused, feeling with a devil's satisfaction the point of his +statement go home to the girl's heart. + +The wind was beginning to blow outside, shaking open the dark +clouds and letting gleams of moonlight flicker on the thinning +fog. A ghostly ray came through a crack between the logs and lit +Alice's face with a pathetic wanness. She moved her lips as if +speaking, but Hamilton heard no sound. + +"The Indian, Long-Hair, whom I sent upon Lieutenant Beverley's +trail, reported to me this afternoon that his pursuit had been +quite successful. He caught his game." + +Alice's voice came to her now. She drew in a quivering breath of +relief. + +"Then he is here--he is--you have him a prisoner again?" + +"A part of him, Miss Roussillon. Enough to be quite sure that +there is one traitor who will trouble his king no more. Mr. Long- +Hair brought in the Lieutenant's scalp." + +Alice received this horrible statement in silence; but her face +blanched and she stood as if frozen by the shock. The shifty moon- +glimmer and the yellow glow of the lamp showed Hamilton to what an +extent his devilish cruelty hurt her, and somehow it chilled him +as if by reflection; but he could not forego another thrust. + +"He deserved hanging, and would have got it had he been brought to +me alive. So after all, you should be satisfied. He escaped my +vengeance and Long-Hair got his pay. You see I am the chief +sufferer." + +These words, however, fell without effect upon the girl's ears, in +which was booming the awful, storm-like roar of her excitement. +She did not see her persecutor standing there; her vision, +unhindered by walls and distance, went straight away to a place in +the wilderness, where all mangled and disfigured Beverley lay +dead. A low cry broke from her lips; she dropped the heavy swivel- +balls; and then, like a bird, swiftly, with a rustling swoop, she +went past Hamilton and down the stair. + +For perhaps a full minute the man stood there motionless, +stupefied, amazed; and when at length he recovered himself, it was +with difficulty that he followed her. Everything seemed to hinder +him. When he reached the open air, however, he quickly regained +his activity of both mind and body, and looked in all directions. +The clouds were breaking into parallel masses with streaks of sky +between. The moon hanging aslant against the blue peeped forth +just in time to show him a flying figure which, even while he +looked, reached the postern, opened it and slipped through. + +With but a breath of hesitation between giving the alarm and +following Alice silently and alone, he chose the latter. He was a +swift runner and light footed. With a few bounds he reached the +little gate, which was still oscillating on its hinges, darted +through and away, straining every muscle in desperate pursuit, +gaining rapidly in the race, which bore eastward along the course +twice before chosen by Alice in leaving the stockade. + + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +A MARCH THROUGH COLD WATER + + +On the fifth day of February, 1779, Colonel George Rogers Clark +led an army across the Kaskaskia River and camped. This was the +first step in his march towards the Wabash. An army! Do not smile. +Fewer than two hundred men, it is true, answered the roll-call, +when Father Gibault lifted the Cross and blessed them; but every +name told off by the company sergeants belonged to a hero, and +every voice making response struck a full note in the chorus of +freedom's morning song. + +It was an army, small indeed, but yet an army; even though so +rudely equipped that, could we now see it before us, we might +wonder of what use it could possibly be in a military way. + +We should nevertheless hardly expect that a hundred and seventy of +our best men, even if furnished with the latest and most deadly +engines of destruction, could do what those pioneers cheerfully +undertook and gloriously accomplished in the savage wilderness +which was to be the great central area of the United States of +America. + +We look back with a shiver of awe at the three hundred Spartans +for whom Simonides composed his matchless epitaph. They wrought +and died gloriously; that was Greek. The one hundred and seventy +men, who, led by the backwoodsman, Clark, made conquest of an +empire's area for freedom in the west, wrought and lived +gloriously; that was American. It is well to bear in mind this +distinction by which our civilization separates itself from that +of old times. Our heroism has always been of life--our heroes have +conquered and lived to see the effect of conquest. We have fought +all sorts of wars and have never yet felt defeat. Washington, +Jackson, Taylor, Grant, all lived to enjoy, after successful war, +a triumphant peace. "These Americans," said a witty Frenchman, +"are either enormously lucky, or possessed of miraculous vitality. +You rarely kill them in battle, and if you wound them their wounds +are never mortal. Their history is but a chain of impossibilities +easily accomplished. Their undertakings have been without +preparation, their successes in the nature of stupendous +accidents." Such a statement may appear critically sound from a +Gallic point of view; but it leaves out the dominant element of +American character, namely, heroic efficiency. From the first we +have had the courage to undertake, the practical common sense +which overcomes the lack of technical training, and the vital +force which never flags under the stress of adversity. + +Clark knew, when he set out on his march to Vincennes, that he was +not indulging a visionary impulse. The enterprise was one that +called for all that manhood could endure, but not more. With the +genius of a born leader he measured his task by his means. He knew +his own courage and fortitude, and understood the best capacity of +his men. He had genius; that is, he possessed the secret of +extracting from himself and from his followers the last refinement +of devotion to purpose. There was a certainty, from first to last, +that effort would not flag at any point short of the top-most +possible strain. + +The great star of America was no more than a nebulous splendor on +the horizon in 1779. It was a new world forming by the law of +youth. The men who bore the burdens of its exacting life were +mostly stalwart striplings who, before the down of adolescence +fairly sprouted on their chins, could swing the ax, drive a plow, +close with a bear or kill an Indian. Clark was not yet twenty- +seven when he made his famous campaign. A tall, brawny youth, +whose frontier experience had enriched a native character of the +best quality, he marched on foot at the head of his little column, +and was first to test every opposing danger. Was there a stream to +wade or swim? Clark enthusiastically shouted, "Come on!" and in he +plunged. Was there a lack of food? "I'm not hungry," he cried. +"Help yourselves, men!" Had some poor soldier lost his blanket? +"Mine is in my way," said Clark. "Take it, I'm glad to get rid of +it!" His men loved him, and would die rather than fall short of +his expectations. + +The march before them lay over a magnificent plain, mostly +prairie, rich as the delta of the Nile, but extremely difficult to +traverse. The distance, as the route led, was about a hundred and +seventy miles. On account of an open and rainy winter all the +basins and flat lands were inundated, often presenting leagues of +water ranging in depth from a few inches to three of four feet. +Cold winds blew, sometimes with spits of snow and dashes of sleet, +while thin ice formed on the ponds and sluggish streams. By day +progress meant wading ankle-deep, knee-deep, breast-deep, with an +occasional spurt of swimming. By night the brave fellows had to +sleep, if sleep they could, on the cold ground in soaked clothing +under water-heavy blankets. They flung the leagues behind them, +however, cheerfully stimulating one another by joke and challenge, +defying all the bitterness of weather, all the bitings of hunger, +all the toil, danger and deprivation of a trackless and houseless +wilderness, looking only eastward, following their youthful and +intrepid commander to one of the most valuable victories gained by +American soldiers during the War of the Revolution. + +Colonel Clark understood perfectly the strategic importance of +Vincennes as a post commanding the Wabash, and as a base of +communication with the many Indian tribes north of the Ohio and +east of the Mississippi. Francis Vigo (may his name never fade!) +had brought him a comprehensive and accurate report of Hamilton's +strength and the condition of the fort and garrison. This +information confirmed his belief that it would be possible not +only to capture Vincennes, but Detroit as well. + +Just seven days after the march began, the little army encamped +for a night's rest at the edge of a wood; and here, just after +nightfall, when the fires were burning merrily and the smell of +broiling buffalo steaks burdened the damp air, a wizzened old man +suddenly appeared, how or from where nobody had observed He was +dirty and in every way disreputable in appearance, looking like an +animated mummy, bearing a long rifle on his shoulder, and walking +with the somewhat halting activity of a very old, yet vivacious +and energetic simian. Of course it was Oncle Jason, "Oncle Jazon +sui generis," as Father Beret had dubbed him. + +"Well, here I am!" he cried, approaching the fire by which Colonel +Clark and some of his officers were cooking supper, "but ye can't +guess in a mile o' who I am to save yer livers and lights." + +He danced a few stiff steps, which made the water gush out of his +tattered moccasins, then doffed his nondescript cap and nodded his +scalpless head in salutation to the commander. + +Clark looked inquiringly at him, while the old fellow grimaced and +rubbed his shrunken chin. + +"I smelt yer fat a fryin' somepin like a mile away, an' it set my +in'ards to grumblin' for a snack; so I jes thought I'd drap in on +ye an' chaw wittles wi' ye." + +"Your looks are decidedly against you," remarked the Colonel with +a dry smile. He had recognized Oncle Jazon after a little sharp +scrutiny. "I suppose, however, that we can let you gnaw the bones +after we've got off the meat." + +"Thank 'ee, thank 'ee, plenty good. A feller 'at's as hongry as I +am kin go through a bone like a feesh through water." + +Clark laughed and said: + +"I don't see any teeth that you have worth mentioning, but your +gums may be unusually sharp." + +"Ya-a-s, 'bout as sharp as yer wit, Colonel Clark, an' sharper'n +yer eyes, a long shot. Ye don't know me, do ye? Take ernother +squint at me, an' see'f ye kin 'member a good lookin' man!" + +"You have somewhat the appearance of an old scamp by the name of +Jazon that formerly loafed around with a worthless gun on his +shoulder, and used to run from every Indian he saw down yonder in +Kentucky." Clark held out his hand and added cordially: + +"How are you, Jazon, my old friend, and where upon earth have you +come from?" + +Oncle Jazon pounced upon the hand and gripped it in his own +knotted fingers, gazing delightedly up into Clark's bronzed and +laughing face. + +"Where'd I come frum? I come frum ever'wheres. Fust time I ever +got lost in all my born days. Fve been a trompin' 'round in the +water seems like a week, crazy as a pizened rat, not a knowin' +north f'om south, ner my big toe f'om a turnip! Who's got some +tobacker?" + +Oncle Jazon's story, when presently he told it, interested Clark +deeply. In the first place he was glad to hear that Simon Kenton +had once more escaped from the Indians; and the news from +Beverley, although bad enough, left room for hope. Frontiersmen +always regarded the chances better than even, so long as there was +life. Oncle Jazon, furthermore, had much to tell about the +situation at Vincennes, the true feeling of the French +inhabitants, the lukewarm friendship of the larger part of the +Indians for Hamilton, and, indeed, everything that Clark wished to +know regarding the possibilities of success in his arduous +undertaking. The old man's advent cheered the whole camp. He soon +found acquaintances and friends among the French volunteers from +Kaskaskia, with whom he exchanged creole gestures and chatter with +a vivacity apparently inexhaustible. He and Kenton had, with wise +judgement, separated on escaping from the Indian camp, Kenton +striking out for Kentucky, while Oncle Jazon went towards +Kaskaskia. + +The information that Beverley would be shot as soon as he was +returned to Hamilton, caused Colonel Clark serious worry of mind. +Not only the fact that Beverley, who had been a charming friend +and a most gallant officer, was now in such imminent danger, but +the impression (given by Oncle Jazon's account) that he had broken +his parole, was deeply painful to the brave and scrupulously +honorable commander. Still, friendship rose above regret, and +Clark resolved to push his little column forward all the more +rapidly, hoping to arrive in time to prevent the impending +execution. + +Next morning the march was resumed at the break of dawn; but a +swollen stream caused some hours of delay, during which Beverley +himself arrived from the rear, a haggard and weirdly unkempt +apparition. He had been for three days following hard on the +army's track, which he came to far westward. Oncle Jazon saw him +first in the distance, and his old but educated eyes made no +mistake. + +"Yander's that youngster Beverley," he exclaimed. "Ef it ain't I'm +a squaw!" + +Nor did he parley further on the subject; but set off at a rickety +trot to meet and assist the fagged and excited young man. + +Clark had given Oncle Jazon his flask, which contained a few gills +of whisky. This was the first thing offered to Beverley; who +wisely took but a swallow. Oncle Jazon was so elated that he waved +his cap on high, and unconsciously falling into French, yelled in +a piercing voice: + +"VIVE ZHORSH VASINTON! VIVE LA BANNIERE D'ALICE ROUSSILLON!" + +Seeing Beverley reminded him of Alice and the flag. As for +Beverley, the sentiment braced him, and the beloved name brimmed +his heart with sweetness. + +Clark went to meet them as they came in. He hugged the gaunt +Lieutenant with genuine fervor of joy, while Oncle Jazon ran +around them making a series of grotesque capers. The whole +command, hearing Oncle Jazon's patriotic words, set up a wild +shouting on the spur of a general impression that Beverley came as +a messenger bearing glorious news from Washington's army in the +east. + +It was a great relief to Clark when he found out that his favorite +Lieutenant had not broken his parole; but had instead boldly +resurrendered himself, declaring the obligation no longer binding, +and notifying Hamilton of his intention to go away with the +purpose of returning and destroying him and his command. Clark +laughed heartily when this explanation brought out Beverley's +tender interest in Alice; but he sympathized cordially; for he +himself knew what love is. + +Although Beverley was half starved and still suffering from the +kicks and blows given him by Long-Hair and his warriors, his +exhausting run on the trail of Clark aad his band had not worked +him serious harm. All of the officers and men did their utmost to +serve him. He was feasted without stint and furnished with +everything that the scant supply of clothing on the pack horses +could afford for his comfort. He promptly asked for an assignment +to duty in his company and took his place with such high +enthusiasm that his companions regarded him with admiring wonder. +None of them save Clark and Oncle Jazon suspected that love for a +fair-haired girl yonder in Vincennes was the secret of his amazing +zeal and intrepidity. + +In one respect Clark's expedition was sadly lacking in its +equipment for the march. It had absolutely no means of +transporting adequate supplies. The pack-horses were not able to +carry more than a little extra ammunition, a few articles of +clothing, some simple cooking utensils and such tools as were +needed in improvising rafts and canoes. Consequently, although +buffalo and deer were sometimes plentiful, they furnished no +lasting supply of meat, because it could not be transported; and +as the army neared Vincennes wild animals became scarce, so that +the men began to suffer from hunger when within but a few days of +their journey's end. + +Clark made almost superhuman efforts in urging forward his +chilled, water-soaked, foot-sore command; and when hunger added +its torture to the already disheartening conditions, his courage +and energy seemed to burn stronger and brighter. Beverley was +always at his side ready to undertake any task, accept any risk; +his ardor made his face glow, and he seemed to thrive upon +hardships. The two men were a source of inspiration--their +followers could not flag and hesitate while under the influence of +their example. + +Toward the end of the long march a decided fall of temperature +added ice to the water through which our dauntless patriots waded +and swam for miles. The wind shifted northwesterly, taking on a +searching chill. Each gust, indeed, seemed to shoot wintry +splinters into the very marrow of the men's bones. The weaker ones +began to show the approach of utter exhaustion just at the time +when a final spurt of unflinching power was needed. True, they +struggled heroically; but nature was nearing the inexorable limit +of endurance. Without food, which there was no prospect of +getting, collapse was sure to come. + +Standing nearly waist-deep in freezing water and looking out upon +the muddy, sea-like flood that stretched far away to the channel +of the Wabash and beyond, Clark turned to Beverley and said, +speaking low, so as not to be overheard by any other of his +officers or men: + +"Is it possible, Lieutenant Beverley, that we are to fail, with +Vincennes almost in sight of us?" + +"No, sir, it is not possible," was the firm reply. "Nothing must, +nothing can stop us. Look at that brave child! He sets the heroic +example." + +Beverley pointed, as he spoke, at a boy but fourteen years old, +who was using his drum as a float to bear him up while he +courageously swam beside the men. + +Clark's clouded face cleared once more. "You are right," he said, +"come on! we must win or die." + +"Sergeant Dewit," he added, turning to an enormously tall and +athletic man near by, "take that little drummer and his drum on +your shoulder and lead the way. And, sergeant, make him pound that +drum like the devil beating tan-bark!" + +The huge man caught the spirit of his commander's order. In a +twinkling he had the boy astride of his neck with the kettle-drum +resting on his head, and then the rattling music began. Clark +followed, pointing onward with his sword. The half frozen and +tottering soldiers sent up a shout that went back to where Captain +Bowman was bringing up the rear under orders to shoot every man +that straggled or shrank from duty. + +Now came a time when not a mouthful of food was left. A whole day +they floundered on, starving, growing fainter at every step, the +temperature falling, the ice thickening. They camped on high land; +and next morning they heard Hamilton's distant sunrise gun boom +over the water. + +"One half-ration for the men," said Clark, looking disconsolately +in the direction whence the sound had come. "Just five mouthfuls +apiece, even, and I'll have Hamilton and his fort within forty- +eight hours." + +"We will have the provisions, Colonel, or I will die trying to get +them," Beverley responded "Depend upon me." + +They had constructed some canoes in which to transport the weakest +of the men. + +"I will take a dugout and some picked fellows. We will pull to the +wood yonder, and there we shall find some kind of game which has +been forced to shelter from the high water." + +It was a cheerful view of a forlorn hope. Clark grasped the hand +extended by Beverley and they looked encouragement into each +other's eyes. + +Oncle Jazon volunteered to go in the pirogue. He was ready for +anything, everything. + +"I can't shoot wo'th a cent," he whined, as they took their places +in the cranky pirogue; "but I might jes' happen to kill a squir'l +or a elephant or somepin 'nother." + +"Very well," shouted Clark in a loud, cheerful voice, when they +had paddled away to a considerable distance, "bring the meat to +the woods on the hill yonder," pointing to a distant island-like +ridge far beyond the creeping flood. "We'll be there ready to eat +it!" + +He said this for the ears of his men. They heard and answered with +a straggling but determined chorus of approval. They crossed the +rolling current of the Wabash by a tedious process of ferrying, +and at last found themselves once more wading in back-water up to +their armpits, breaking ice an inch thick as they went. It was the +closing struggle to reach the high wooded lands. Many of them fell +exhausted; but their stronger comrades lifted them, holding their +heads above water, and dragged them on. + +Clark, always leading, always inspiring, was first to set foot on +dry land. He shouted triumphantly, waved his sword, and then fell +to helping the men out of the freezing flood. This accomplished, +he ordered fires built; but there was not a soldier of them all +whose hands could clasp an ax-handle, so weak and numbed with cold +were they. He was not to be baffled, however. If fire could not be +had, exercise must serve its purpose. Hastily pouring some powder +into his hand he dampened it and blacked his face. "Victory, men, +victory!" he shouted, taking off his hat and beginning to leap and +dance. "Come on! We'll have a war dance and then a feast, as soon +as the meat arrives that I have sent for. Dance! you brave lads, +dance! Victory! victory!" + +The strong men, understanding their Colonel's purpose, took hold +of the delicate ones; and the leaping, the capering, the tumult of +voices and the stamping of slushy moccasins with which they +assaulted that stately forest must have frightened every wild +thing thereabout into a deadly rigor, dark's irrepressible energy +and optimism worked a veritable charm upon his faithful but almost +dying companions in arms. Their trust in him made them feel sure +that food would soon be forthcoming. The thought afforded a +stimulus more potent than wine; it drove them into an ecstasy of +frantic motion and shouting which soon warmed them thoroughly. + +It is said that fortune favors the brave. The larger meaning of +the sentence may be given thus: God guards those who deserve His +protection. History tells us that just when Clark halted his +command almost in sight of Vincennes--just when hunger was about +to prevent the victory so close to his grasp--a party of his +scouts brought in the haunch of a buffalo captured from some +Indians. The scouts were Lieutenant Beverley and Oncle Jazon. And +with the meat they brought Indian kettles in which to cook it. + +With consummate forethought Clark arranged to prevent his men +doing themselves injury by bolting their food or eating it half- +cooked. Broth was first made and served hot; then small bits of +well broiled steak were doled out, until by degrees the fine +effect of nourishment set in, and all the command felt the fresh +courage of healthy reaction. + +"I ain't no gin'ral, nor corp'ral, nor nothin'," remarked Oncle +Jazon to Colonel Clark, "but 'f I's you I'd h'ist up every dad +dinged ole flag in the rig'ment, w'en I got ready to show myself +to 'em, an' I'd make 'em think, over yander at the fort, 'at I had +'bout ninety thousan' men. Hit'd skeer that sandy faced Gov'nor +over there till he'd think his back-bone was a comin' out'n 'im by +the roots." + +Clark laughed, but his face showed that the old man's suggestion +struck him forcibly and seriously. + +"We'll see about that presently, Oncle Jazon. Wait till we reach +the hill yonder, from which the whole town can observe our +manoeuvres, then we'll try it, maybe." + +Once more the men were lined up, the roll-call gone through with +satisfactorily, and the question put: "Are we ready for another +plunge through the mud and water?" + +The answer came in the affirmative, with a unanimity not to be +mistaken. The weakest heart of them all beat to the time of the +charge step. Again Clark and Beverley clasped hands and took the +lead. + +When they reached the next high ground they gazed in silence +across a slushy prairie plot to where, on a slight elevation, old +Vincennes and Fort Sackville lay in full view. + +Beverley stood apart. A rush of sensations affected him so that he +shook like one whose strength is gone. His vision was blurred. +Fort and town swimming in a mist were silent and still. Save the +British flag twinkling above Hamilton's headquarters, nothing +indicated that the place was not deserted. And Alice? With the +sweet name's echo Beverley's heart bounded high, then sank +fluttering at the recollection that she was either yonder at the +mercy of Hamilton, or already the victim of an unspeakable +cruelty. Was it weakness for him to lift his clasped hands +heavenward and send up a voiceless prayer? + +While he stood thus Oncle Jazon came softly to his side and +touched his arm. Beverley started. + +"The nex' thing'll be to shoot the everlastin' gizzards outen 'em, +won't it?" the old man inquired. "I'm jes' a eetchin' to git a +grip onto that Gov'nor. Ef I don't scelp 'em I'm a squaw." + +Beverley drew a deep breath and came promptly. back from his +dream. It was now Oncle Jazon's turn to assume a reflective, +reminiscent mood. He looked about him with an expression of vague +half tenderness on his shriveled features. + +"I's jes' a thinkin' how time do run past a feller," he presently +remarked. "Twenty-seven years ago I camped right here wi' my wife-- +ninth one, ef I 'member correct--jes' fresh married to 'r; sort +o' honey-moon. 'Twus warm an' sunshiny an' nice. She wus a poorty +squaw, mighty poorty, an' I wus as happy as a tomtit on a sugar- +trough. We b'iled sap yander on them nobs under the maples. It wus +glor'us. Had some several wives 'fore an' lots of 'm sence; but +she wus sweetes' of 'm all. Strange how a feller 'members sich +things an' feels sort o' lonesome like!" + +The old man's mouth drooped at the corners and he hitched up his +buckskin trousers with a ludicrous suggestion of pathos in every +line of his attitude. Unconsciously he sidled closer to Beverley, +remotely feeling that he was giving the young man very effective +sympathy, well knowing that Alice was the sweet burden of his +thoughts. It was thus Oncle Jazon honestly tried to fortify his +friend against what probably lay in store for him. + +But Beverley failed to catch the old man's crude comfort thus +flung at him. The analogy was not apparent. Oncle Jazon probably +felt that his kindness had been ineffectual, for he changed his +tone and added: + +"But I s'pose a young feller like ye can't onderstan' w'at it is +to love a 'oman an' 'en hev 'er quit ye for 'nother feller, an' +him a buck Injin. Wall, wall, wall, that's the way it do go! Of +all the livin' things upon top o' this yere globe, the mos' +onsartin', crinkety-crankety an' slippery thing is a young 'oman +'at knows she's poorty an' 'at every other man in the known world +is blind stavin' crazy in love wi' 'er, same as you are. She'll +drop ye like a hot tater 'fore ye know it, an' 'en look at ye jes' +pine blank like she never knowed ye afore in her life. It's so, +Lieutenant, shore's ye'r born. I know, for I've tried the odd +number of 'em, an' they're all jes' the same." + +By this time Beverley's ears were deaf to Oncle Jazon's querulous, +whining voice, and his thoughts once more followed his wistful +gaze across the watery plain to where the low roofs of the creole +town appeared dimly wavering in the twilight of eventide, which +was fast fading into night. The scene seemed unsubstantial; he +felt a strange lethargy possessing his soul; he could not realize +the situation. In trying to imagine Alice, she eluded him, so that +a sort of cloudy void fell across his vision with the effect of +baffling and benumbing it. He made vain efforts to recall her +voice, things that she had said to him, her face, her smiles; all +he could do was to evoke an elusive, tantalizing, ghostly +something which made him shiver inwardly with a haunting fear that +it meant the worst, whatever the worst might be. Where was she? +Could she be dead, and this the shadowy message of her fate? + +Darkness fell, and a thin fog began to drift in wan streaks above +the water. Not a sound, save the suppressed stir of the camp, +broke the wide, dreary silence. Oncle Jazon babbled until +satisfied that Beverley was unappreciative, or at least +unresponsive. + +"Got to hev some terbacker," he remarked, and shambled away in +search of it among his friends. + +A little later Clark approached hastily and said: + +"I have been looking for you. The march has begun. Bowman and +Charleville are moving; come, there's no time to lose." + + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +A DUEL BY MOONLIGHT + + +When Hamilton, after running some distance, saw that he was +gaining upon Alice and would soon overtake her, it added fresh +energy to his limbs. He had quickly realized the foolishness of +what he had done in visiting the room of his prisoner at so late +an hour in the night. What would his officers and men think? To +let Alice escape would be extremely embarrassing, and to be seen +chasing her would give good ground for ridicule on the part of his +entire command. Therefore his first thought, after passing through +the postern and realizing fully what sort of predicament +threatened him, was to recapture her and return her to the prison +room in the block-house without attracting attention. This now +promised to be an easier task than he had at first feared; for in +the moonlight, which on account of the dispersing clouds, was fast +growing stronger, he saw her seem to falter and weaken. Certainly +her flight was checked and took an eccentric turn, as if some +obstruction had barred her way. He rushed on, not seeing that, as +Alice swerved, a man intervened. Indeed he was within a few +strides of laying his hand on her when he saw her make the strange +movement. It was as if, springing suddenly aside, she had become +two persons instead of one. But instantly the figures coincided +again, and in becoming taller faced about and confronted him. + +Hamilton stopped short in his tracks. The dark figure was about +five paces from him. It was not Alice, and a sword flashed dimly +but unmistakably in a ray of the moon. The motion visible was that +of an expert swordsman placing himself firmly on his legs, with +his weapon at guard. + +Alice saw the man in her path just in time to avoid running +against him. Lightly as a flying bird, when it whisks itself in a +short semicircle past a tree or a bough, she sprang aside and +swung around to the rear of him, where she could continue her +course toward the town. But in passing she recognized him. It was +Father Beret, and how grim he looked! The discovery was made in +the twinkling of an eye, and its effect was instantaneous, not +only checking the force of her flight, but stopping her and +turning her about to gaze before she had gone five paces farther. + +Hamilton's nerve held, startled as he was, when he realized that +an armed man stood before him. Naturally he fell into the error of +thinking that he had been running after this fellow all the way +from the little gate, where, he supposed, Alice had somehow given +him the slip. It was a mere flash of brain-light, so to call it, +struck out by the surprise of this curious discovery. He felt his +bellicose temper leap up furiously at being balked in a way so +unexpected and withal so inexplicable. Of course he did not stand +there reasoning it all out. The rush of impressions came, and at +the same time he acted with promptness. Changing the rapier, which +he held in his right hand, over into his left, he drew a small +pistol from the breast of his coat and fired. The report was sharp +and loud; but it caused no uneasiness or inquiry in the fort, +owing to the fact that Indians invariably emptied their guns when +coming into the town. + +Hamilton's aim, although hasty, was not bad. The bullet from his +weapon cut through Father Beret's clothes between his left arm and +his body, slightly creasing the flesh on a rib. Beyond him it +struck heavily and audibly. Alice fell limp and motionless to the +soft wet ground, where cold puddles of water were splintered over +with ice. She lay pitifully crumpled, one arm outstretched in the +moonlight. Father Beret heard the bullet hit her, and turned in +time to see her stagger backward with a hand convulsively pressed +over her heart. Her face, slightly upturned as she reeled, gave +the moon a pallid target for its strengthening rays. Sweet, +beautiful, its rigid features flashed for a second and then half +turned away from the light and went down. + +Father Beret uttered a short, thin cry and moved as if to go to +the fallen girl, but just then he saw Hamilton's sword pass over +again into his right hand, and knew that there was no time for +anything but death or fight. The good priest did not shirk what +might have made the readiest of soldiers nervous. Hamilton was +known to be a great swordsman and proud of the distinction. Father +Beret had seen him fence with Farnsworth in remarkable form, +touching him at will, and in ministering to the men in the fort he +had heard them talk of the Governor's incomparable skill. + +A priest is, in perhaps all cases but the last out of a thousand, +a man of peace, not to be forced into a fight; but the exceptional +one out of the ten hundred it is well not to stir up if you are +looking for an easy victim. Hamilton was in the habit of +considering every antagonist immediately conquerable. His +domineering spirit could not, when opposed, reckon with any +possibility of disaster. As he sprang toward Father Beret there +was a mutual recognition and, we speak guardedly, something that +sounded exactly like an exchange of furious execrations. As for +Father Beret's words, they may have been a mere priestly formula +of objurgation. + +The moon was accommodating. With a beautiful white splendor it +entered a space of cloudless sky, where it seemed to slip along +the dusky blue surface among the stars, far over in the west. + +"It's you, is it?" Hamilton exclaimed between teeth that almost +crushed one another. "You prowling hypocrite of hell!" + +Father Beret said something. It was not complimentary, and it +sounded sulphurous, if not profane. Remember, however, that a +priest can scarcely hope to be better than Peter, and Peter did +actually make the Simon pure remark when hard pressed. At all +events Father Beret said something with vigorous emphasis, and met +Hamilton half way. + +Both men, stimulated to the finger-tips by a draught of imperious +passion, fairly plunged to the inevitable conflict. Ah, if Alice +could have seen her beautiful weapons cross, if she could have +heard the fine, far-reaching clink, clink, clink, while sparks +leaped forth, dazzling even in the moonlight; if she could have +noted the admirable, nay, the amazing, play, as the men, regaining +coolness to some extent, gathered their forces and fell cautiously +to the deadly work, it would have been enough to change the cold +shimmer of her face to a flash of warm delight. For she would have +understood every feint, longe, parry, and seen at a glance how +Father Beret set the pace and led the race at the beginning. She +would have understood; for Father Beret had taught her all she +knew about the art of fencing. + +Hamilton quickly felt, and with a sense of its strangeness, the +priest's masterly command of his weapon. The surprise called up +all his caution and cleverness. Before he could adjust himself to +such an unexpected condition he came near being spitted outright +by a pretty pass under his guard. The narrow escape, while it put +him on his best mettle, sent a wave of superstition through his +brain. He recalled what Barlow had jocularly said about the doings +of the devil-priest or priest-devil at Roussillon place on that +night when the patrol guard attempted to take Gaspard Roussillon. +Was this, indeed, Father Beret, that gentle old man, now before +him, or was it an avenging demon from the shades? + +The thought flitted electrically across his mind, while he deftly +parried, feinted, longed, giving his dark antagonist all he could +do to meet the play. Priest or devil, he thought, he cared not +which, he would reach its vitals presently. Yet there lingered +with him a haunting half-fear, or tenuous awe, which may have +aided, rather than hindered his excellent swordsmanship. + +Under foot it was slushy with mud, water and ice, the consistency +varying from a somewhat solid crust to puddles that half inundated +Hamilton's boots and quite overflowed Father Beret's moccasins. An +execrable field for the little matter in hand. They gradually +shifted position. Now it was the Governor, then the priest, who +had advantage as to the light. For some time Father Beret seemed +quite the shiftier and surer fighter, but (was it his age telling +on him?) he lost perceptibly in suppleness. Still Hamilton failed +to touch him. There was a baffling something in the old man's +escape now and again from what ought to have been an inevitable +stroke. Was it luck? It seemed to Hamilton more than that--a sort +of uncanny evasion. Or was it supreme mastery, the last and +subtlest reach of the fencer's craft? + +Youth forced age slowly backward in the struggle, which at times +took on spurts so furious that the slender blades, becoming mere +glints of acicular steel, split the moonlight back and forth, up +and down, so that their meetings, following one another in a well- +nigh continuous stroke, sent a jarring noise through the air. +Father Beret lost inch by inch, until the fighting was almost over +the body of Alice; and now for the first time Hamilton became +aware of that motionless something with the white, luminous face +in profile against the ground; but he did not let even that +unsettle his fencing gaze, which followed the sunken and dusky +eyes of his adversary. A perspiration suddenly flooded his body, +however, and began to drip across his face. His arm was tiring. A +doubt crept like a chill into his heart. Then the priest appeared +to add a cubit to his stature and waver strangely in the soft +light. Behind him, low against the sky, a wide winged owl shot +noiselessly across just above the prairie. + +The soul of a true priest is double: it is the soul of a saint and +the soul of a worldly man. What is most beautiful in this duality +is the supreme courage with which the saintly spirit attacks the +worldly and so often heroically masters it. In the beginning of +the fight Father Beret let a passion of the earthly body take him +by storm. It was well for Governor Henry Hamilton that the priest +was so wrought upon as to unsettle his nerves, otherwise there +would have been an evil heart impaled midway of Father Beret's +rapier. A little later the saintly spirit began to assert itself, +feebly indeed, but surely. Then it was that Father Beret seemed to +be losing agility for a while as he backstepped away from +Hamilton's increasing energy of assault. In his heart the priest +was saying: "I will not murder him. I must not do that. He +deserves death, but vengeance is not mine. I will disarm him." +Step by step he retreated, playing erratically to make an opening +for a trick he meant to use. + +It was singularly loose play, a sort of wavering, shifty, +incomprehensible show of carelessness, that caused Hamilton to +entertain a doubt, which was really a fear, as to what was going +to happen; for, notwithstanding all this neglect of due precaution +on the priest's part, to touch him seemed impossible, miraculously +so, and every plan of attack dissolved into futility in the most +maddening way. + +"Priest, devil or ghost!" raged Hamilton, with a froth gathering +around his mouth; "I'll kill you, or--" + +He made a longe, when his adversary left an opening which appeared +absolutely beyond defence. It was a quick, dextrous, vicious +thrust. The blade leaped toward Father Beret's heart with a +twinkle like lightning. + +At that moment, although warily alert and hopeful that his +opportunity was at hand, Father Beret came near losing his life; +for as he side-stepped and easily parried Hamilton's thrust, which +he had invited, thinking to entangle his blade and disarm him, he +caught his foot in Alice's skirt and stumbled, nearly falling +across her. It would have been easy for Hamilton to run him +through, had he instantly followed up the advantage. But the +moonlight on Alice's face struck his eyes, and by that indirect +ray of vision which is often strangely effective, he recognized +her lying there. It was a disconcerting thing for him, but he +rallied instantly and sprang aside, taking a new position just in +time to face Father Beret again. A chill crept up his back. The +horror which he could not shake off enraged him beyond measure. +Gathering fresh energy, he renewed the assault with desperate +steadiness the highest product of absolutely molten fury. + +Father Beret felt the dangerous access of power in his +antagonist's arm, and knew that a crisis had arrived. He could not +be careless now. Here was a swordsman of the best school calling +upon him for all the skill and strength and cunning that he could +command. Again the saintly element was near being thrown aside by +the worldly in the old man's breast. Alice lying there seemed +mutely demanding that he avenge her. A riotous something in his +blood clamored for a quick and certain act in this drama by +moonlight--a tragic close by a stroke of terrible yet perfectly +fitting justice. + +There was but the space of a breath for the conflict in the +priest's heart, yet during that little time he reasoned the case +and quoted scripture to himself. + +"Domine, percutimus in gladio?" rang through his mind. "Lord, +shall we smite with the sword?" + +Hamilton seemed to make answer to this with a dazzling display of +skill. The rapiers sang a strange song above the sleeping girl, a +lullaby with coruscations of death in every keen note. + +Father Beret was thinking of Alice. His brain, playing double, +calculated with lightning swiftness the chances and movements of +that whirlwind rush of fight, while at the same time it swept +through a retrospect of all the years since Alice came into his +life. How he had watched her grow and bloom; how he had taught +her, trained her mind and soul and body to high things, loved her +with a fatherly passion unbounded, guarded her from the coarse and +lawless influences of her surroundings. Like the tolling of an +infinitely melancholy bell, all this went through his breast and +brain, and, blending with a furious current of whatever passions +were deadly dangerous in his nature, swept as a storm bearing its +awful force into his sword-arm. + +The Englishman was a lion, the priest a gladiator. The stars aloft +in the vague, dark, yet splendid, amphitheater were the audience. +It was a question. Would the thumbs go down or up? Life and death +held the chances even; but it was at the will of Heaven, not of +the stars. "Hoc habet" must follow the stroke ordered from beyond +the astral clusters and the dusky blue. + +Hamilton pressed, nay rushed, the fight with a weight and at a +pace which could not last. But Father Beret withstood him so +firmly that he made no farther headway; he even lost some ground a +moment later. + +"You damned Jesuit hypocrite!" he snarled; "you lowest of a vile +brotherhood of liars!" + +Then he rushed again, making a magnificent show of strength, +quickness and accuracy. The sparks hissed and crackled from the +rasping and ringing blades. + +Father Beret was, in truth, a Jesuit, and as such a zealot; but he +was not a liar or a hypocrite. Being human, he resented an insult. +The saintly spirit in him was strong, yet not strong enough to +breast the indignation which now dashed against it. For a moment +it went down. + +"Liar and scoundrel yourself!" he retorted, hoarsely forcing the +words out of his throat. "Spawn of a beastly breed!" + +Hamilton saw and felt a change pass over the spirit of the old +priest's movements. Instantly the sword leaping against his own +seemed endowed with subtle cunning and malignant treachery. Before +this it had been difficult enough to meet the fine play and hold +fairly even; now he was startled and confused; but he rose to the +emergency with admirable will power and cleverness. + +"Murderer of a poor orphan girl!" Father Beret added with a hot +concentrated accent; "death is too good for you." + +Hamilton felt nearer his grave than ever before in all his wild +experience, for somehow doom, shadowy and formless, like the +atmosphere of an awful dream, enmisted those words; but he was no +weakling to quit at the height of desperate conflict. He was +strong, expert, and game to the middle of his heart. + +"I'll add a traitor Jesuit to my list of dead," he panted forth, +rising yet again to the extremest tension of his power. + +As he did this Father Beret settled himself as you have seen a +mighty horse do in the home stretch of a race. Both men knew that +the moment had arrived for the final act in their impromptu play. +It was short, a duel condensed and crowded into fifteen seconds of +time, and it was rapid beyond the power of words to describe. A +bystander, had there been one, could not have seen what was +finally done or how it was done. Father Beret's sword seemed to be +revolving--it was a halo in front of Hamilton for a mere point of +time. The old priest seemed to crouch and then make a quick motion +as if about to leap backward. A wrench and a snip, as of something +violently jerked from a fastening, were followed by a semicircular +flight of Hamilton's rapier over Father Beret's head to stick in +the ground ten feet behind him. The duel was over, and the whole +terrible struggle had occupied less than three minutes. + +With his wrist strained and his fingers almost broken, Hamilton +stumbled forward and would have impaled himself had not Father +Beret turned the point of his weapon aside as he lowered it. + +"Surrender, or die!" + +That was a strange order for a priest to make, but there could be +no mistaking its authority or the power behind it. Hamilton +regained his footing and looked dazed, wheezing and puffing like a +porpoise, but he clearly understood what was demanded of him. + +"If you call out I'll run you through," Father Beret added, seeing +him move his lips as if to shout for help. + +The level rapier now reinforced the words. Hamilton let the breath +go noiselessly from his mouth and waved his hand in token of +enforced submission. + +"Well, what do you want me to do?" he demanded after a short +pause. "You seem to have me at your mercy. What are your terms?" + +Father Beret hesitated. It was a question difficult to answer. + +"Give me your word as a British officer that you will never again +try to harm any person, not an open, armed enemy, in this town." + +Hamilton's gorge rose perversely. He erected himself with lofty +reserve and folded his arms. The dignity of a Lieutenant Governor +leaped into him and took control. Father Beret correctly +interpreted what he saw. + +"My people have borne much," he said, "and the killing of that +poor child there will be awfully avenged if I but say the word. +Besides, I can turn every Indian in this wilderness against you in +a single day. You are indeed at my mercy, and I will be merciful +if you will satisfy my demand." + +He was trembling with emotion while he spoke and the desire to +kill the man before him was making a frightful struggle with his +priestly conscience; but conscience had the upper hand. Hamilton +stood gazing fixedly, pale as a ghost, his thoughts becoming more +and more clear and logical. He was in a bad situation. Every word +that Father Beret had spoken was true and went home with force. +There was no time for parley or subterfuge; the sword looked as +if, eager to find his heart, it could not be held back another +moment. But the wan, cold face of the girl had more power than the +rapier's hungry point. It made an abject coward of him. + +"I am willing to give you my word," he presently said. "And let me +tell you," he went on more rapidly, "I did not shoot at her. She +was behind you," + +"Your word as a British officer?" + +Hamilton again stiffened and hesitated, but only for the briefest +space, then said: + +"Yes, my word as a British officer." + +Father Beret waved his hand with impatience. + +"Go, then, back to your place in the fort and disturb, my people +no more. The soul of this poor little girl will haunt you forever. +Go!" + +Hamilton stood a little while gazing at the face of Alice with the +horrible wistfulness of remorse. What would he not have given to +rub his eyes and find it all a dream? + +He turned away; a cloud scudded across the moon; here and yonder +in the dim town cocks crowed with a lonesome, desultory effect. + +Father Beret plucked up the rapier that he had wrenched from +Hamilton's hand. It suggested something. + +"Hold!" he called out, "give me the scabbard of this sword." +Hamilton, who was striding vigorously in the direction of the +fort, turned about as the priest hastened to him. + +"Give me the scabbard of this rapier; I want it. Take it off." + +The command was not gently voiced. A hoarse, half-whisper winged +every word with an imperious threat. + +Hamilton obeyed. His hands were not firm; his fingers fumbled +nervously; but he hurried, and Father Beret soon had the rapier +sheathed and secured at his belt beside its mate. + +A good and true priest is a burden-bearer. His motto is: Alter +alterius onera portate; bear ye one another's burdens. His soul is +enriched with the cast-off sorrows of those whom he relieves. +Father Beret scarcely felt the weight of Alice's body when he +lifted it from the ground, so heavy was the pressure of his grief. +All that her death meant, not only to him, but to every person who +knew her, came into his heart as the place of refuge consecrated +for the indwelling of pain. He lifted her and bore her as far +toward Roussillon place as he could; but his strength fell short +just in front of the little Bourcier cottage, and half dead he +staggered across the veranda to the door, where he sank exhausted. + +After a breathing spell he knocked. The household, fast asleep, +did not hear; but he persisted until the door was opened to him +and his burden. + + Captain Farnsworth unclosed his bloodshot eyes, at about eight +o'clock in the morning, quite confused as to his place and +surroundings. He looked about drowsily with a sheepish half- +knowledge of having been very drunk. A purring in his head and a +dull ache reminded him of an abused stomach. He yawned and +stretched himself, then sat up, running a hand through his tousled +hair. Father Beret was on his knees before the cross, still as a +statue, his clasped hands extended upward. + +Farnsworth's face lighted with recognition, and he smiled rather +bitterly. He recalled everything and felt ashamed, humiliated, +self-debased. He had outraged even a priest's hospitality with his +brutish appetite, and he hated himself for it. Disgust nauseated +his soul apace with the physical sinking and squirming that grew +upon him. + +"I'm a shabby, worthless dog!" he muttered, with petulant accent; +"why don't you kick me out, Father?" + +The priest turned a collapsed and bloodless gray face upon him, +smiled in a tired, perfunctory way, crossed himself absently and +said: + +"You have rested well, my son. Hard as the bed is, you have done +it a compliment in the way of sleeping. You young soldiers +understand how to get the most out of things." + +"You are too generous, Father, and I can't appreciate it. I know +what I deserve, and you know it, too. Tell me what a brute and +fool I am; it will do me good. Punch me a solid jolt in the ribs, +like the one you gave me not long ago." + +"Qui sine peccato est, primus lapidem mittat" said the priest. +"Let him who is without sin cast the first stone." + +He had gone to the hearth and was taking from the embers an +earthen saucer, or shallow bowl, in which some fragrant broth +simmered and steamed. + +"A man who has slept as long as you have, my son, usually has a +somewhat delicate appetite. Now, here is a soup, not especially +satisfying to the taste of a gourmet like yourself, but possessing +the soothing quality that is good for one just aroused from an +unusual nap. I offer it, my son, propter stomachum tuum, et +frequentes tuas infirmitates (on account of thy stomach, and thine +often infirmities). This soup will go to the right spot." + +While speaking he brought the hot bowl to Farnsworth and set it on +the bedcover before him, then fetched a big horn spoon. + +The fragrance of pungent roots and herbs, blent with a savory waft +of buffalo meat, greeted the Captain's sense, and the anticipation +itself cheered his aching throat. It made him feel greedy and in a +hurry. The first spoonful, a trifle bitter, was not so pleasant at +the beginning, but a moment after he swallowed it a hot prickling +set in and seemed to dart through him from extremity to extremity. + +Slowly, as he ate, the taste grew more agreeable, and all the +effects of his debauch disappeared. It was like magic; his blood +warmed and glowed, as if touched with mysterious fire. + +"What is this in this soup, Father Beret, that makes it so +searching and refreshing?" he demanded, when the bowl was empty. + +Father Beret shook his head and smiled drolly. + +"That I cannot divulge, my son, owing to a promise I had to make +to the aged Indian who gave me the secret. It is the elixir of the +Miamis. Only their consecrated medicine men hold the recipe. The +stimulation is but temporary." + +Just then someone knocked on the door. Father Beret opened it to +one of Hamilton's aides, + +"Your pardon, Father, but hearing Captain Farnsworth's voice I +made bold to knock." + +"What is it, Bobby?" Farnsworth called out. + +"Nothing, only the Governor has been having you looked for in +every nook and corner of the fort and town. You'd better report at +once, or hell be having us drag the river for your body." + +"All right, Lieutenant, go back and keep mum, that's a dear boy, +and I'll shuffle into Colonel Hamilton's august presence before +many minutes." + +The aide laughed and went his way whistling a merry tune. + +"Now I am sure to get what I deserve, with usury at forty per cent +in advance," said Farnsworth dryly, shrugging his shoulders with +undissembled dread of Hamilton's wrath. But the anticipation was +not realized. The Governor received Farnsworth stiffly enough, yet +in a way that suggested a suppressed desire to avoid explanations +on the Captain's part and a reprimand on his own. In fact, +Hamilton was hoping that something would turn up to shield him +from the effect of his terrible midnight adventure, which seemed +the darker the more he thought of it. He had a slow, numb +conscience, lying deep where it was hard to reach, and when a +qualm somehow entered it he endured in secret what most men would +have cast off or confessed. He was haunted, if not with remorse, +at least by a dread of something most disagreeable in connection +with what he had done. Alice's white face had impressed itself +indelibly on his memory, so that it met his inner vision at every +turn. He was afraid to converse with Farnsworth lest she should +come up for discussion; consequently their interview was curt and +formal. + +It was soon discovered that Alice had escaped from the stockade, +and some show of search was made for her by Hamilton's order, but +Farnsworth looked to it that the order was not carried out. He +thought he saw at once that his chief knew where she was. The +mystery perplexed and pained the young man, and caused him to fear +all sorts of evil; but there was a chance that Alice had found a +safe retreat and he knew that nothing but ill could befall her if +she were discovered and brought back to the fort. Therefore his +search for her became his own secret and for his own heart's ease. +And doubtless he would have found her; for even handicapped and +distorted love like his is lynx-eyed and sure on the track of its +object; but a great event intervened and swept away his +opportunity. + +Hamilton's uneasiness, which was that of a strong, misguided +nature trying to justify itself amid a confusion of unmanageable +doubts and misgivings, now vented itself in a resumption of the +repairs he had been making at certain points in the fort. These he +completed just in time for the coming of Clark. + + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +THE ATTACK + + +It has already been mentioned that Indians, arriving singly or in +squads, to report at Hamilton's headquarters, were in the habit of +firing their guns before entering the town or the fort, not only +as a signal of their approach, but in order to rid their weapons +of their charges preliminary to cleaning them before setting out +upon another scalp-hunting expedition. A shot, therefore, or even +a volley, heard on the outskirts of the village, was not a +noticeable incident in the daily and nightly experience of the +garrison. Still, for some reason, Governor Hamilton started +violently when, just after nightfall, five or six rifles cracked +sharply a short distance from the stockade. + +He and Helm with two other officers were in the midst of a game of +cards, while a kettle, swinging on a crane in the ample fire- +place, sang a shrill promise of hot apple-jack toddy. + +"By Jove!" exclaimed Farnsworth, who, although not in the game, +was amusing himself with looking on; "you jump like a fine lady! I +almost fancied I heard a bullet hit you." + +"You may all jump while you can," remarked Helm. "That's Clark, +and your time's short--He'll have this fort tumbling on your heads +before daylight of to-morrow morning comes." + +As he spoke he arose from his seat at the card table and went to +look after the toddy, which, as an expert, he had under +supervision. + +Hamilton frowned. The mention of Clark was disturbing. Ever since +the strange disappearance of Lieutenant Barlow he had nursed the +fear that possibly Clark's scouts had captured him and that the +American forces might be much nearer than Kaskaskia. Besides, his +nerves were unruly, as they had been ever since the encounter with +Father Beret; and his vision persisted in turning back upon the +accusing cold face of Alice, lying in the moonlight. One little +detail of that scene almost maddened him at times; it was a +sheeny, crinkled wisp of warm looking hair looped across the cheek +in which he had often seen a saucy dimple dance when Alice spoke +or smiled. He was bad enough, but not wholly bad, and the thought +of having darkened those merry eyes and stilled those sweet +dimples tore through him with a cold, rasping pang. + +"Just as soon as this toddy is properly mixed and tempered," said +Helm, with a magnetic jocosity beaming from his genial face, "I'm +going to propose a toast to the banner of Alice Roussillon, which +a whole garrison of British braves has been unable to take!" + +"If you do I'll blow a hole through you as big as the south door +of hell," said Hamilton, in a voice fairly shaken to a husky +quaver with rage. "You may do a great many insulting things; but +not that." + +Helm was in a half stooping attitude with a ladle in one hand, a +cup in the other. He had met Hamilton's glowering look with a +peculiarly innocent smile, as if to say: "What in the world is the +matter now? I never felt in a better humor in all my life. Can't +you take a joke, I wonder?" He did not speak, however, for a +rattling volley of musket and rifle shots hit the top of the clay- +daubed chimney, sending down into the toddy a shower of soot and +dirt. + +In a wink every man was on his feet and staring. + +"Gentlemen," said Helm, with an impressive oath, "that is Clark's +soldiers, and they will take your fort; but they ought not to have +spoiled this apple toddy!" "Oh, the devil!" said Hamilton, +forcibly resuming a calm countenance, "it is only a squad of +drunken Indians coming in. We'll forego excitement; there's no +battle on hand, gentlemen." + +"I'm glad you think so, Governor Hamilton," Helm responded, "but I +should imagine that I ought to know the crack of a Kentucky rifle. +I've heard one occasionally in my life. Besides, I got a whiff of +freedom just now." + +"Captain Helm is right," observed Farnsworth. "That is an attack." + +Another volley, this time nearer and more concentrated, convinced +Hamilton that he was, indeed, at the opening of a fight. Even +while he was giving some hurried orders to his officers, a man was +wounded at one of the port-holes. Then came a series of yells, +answered by a ripple of sympathetic French shouting that ran +throughout the town. The patrol guards came straggling in, +breathless with excitement. They swore to having seen a thousand +men marching across the water-covered meadows. + +Hamilton was brave. The approach of danger stirred him like a +trumpet-strain. His fighting blood rose to full tide, and he gave +his orders with the steadiness and commanding force of a born +soldier. The officers hastened to their respective positions. On +all sides sounds indicative of rapid preparations for the fight +mingled into a confused strain of military energy. Men marched to +their places; cannon were wheeled into position, and soon enough +the firing began in good earnest. + +Late in the afternoon a rumor of Clark's approach had gone abroad +through the village; but not a French lip breathed it to a friend +of the British. The creoles were loyal to the cause of freedom; +moreover, they cordially hated Hamilton, and their hearts beat +high at the prospect of a change in masters at the fort. Every +cabin had its hidden gun and supply of ammunition, despite the +order to disarm issued by Hamilton. There was a hustling to bring +these forth, which was accompanied with a guarded yet +irrepressible chattering, delightfully French and infinitely +volatile. + +"Tiens! je vais frotter mon fusil. J'ai vu un singe!" said Jaques +Bourcier to his daughter, the pretty Adrienne, who was coming out +of the room in which Alice lay. + +"I saw a monkey just now; I must rub up my gun!" He could not be +solemn; not he. The thought of an opportunity to get even with +Hamilton was like wine in his blood. + +If you had seen those hardy and sinewy Frenchmen gliding in the +dusk of evening from cottage to cottage, passing the word that the +Americans had arrived, saying airy things and pinching one another +as they met and hurried on, you would have thought something very +amusing and wholly jocund was in preparation for the people of +Vincennes. + +There was a current belief in the town that Gaspard Roussillon +never missed a good thing and always somehow got the lion's share. +He went out with the ebb to return on the flood. Nobody was +surprised, therefore, when he suddenly appeared in the midst of +his friends, armed to the teeth and emotionally warlike to suit +the occasion. Of course he took charge of everybody and +everything. You could have heard him whisper a bowshot away. + +"Taisons!" he hissed, whenever he met an acquaintance. "We will +surprise the fort and scalp the whole garrison. Aux armes! les +Americains viennent d'arriver!" + +At his own house he knocked and called in vain. He shook the door +violently; for he was thinking of the stores under the floor, of +the grimy bottles, of the fragrant Bordeaux--ah, his throat, how +it throbbed! But where was Madame Roussillon? Where was Alice? +"Jean! Jean!" he cried, forgetting all precaution, "come here, you +scamp, and let me in this minute!" + +A profoundly impressive silence gave him to understand that his +home was deserted. + +"Chiff! frightened and gone to stay with Madame Godere, I suppose-- +and I so thirsty! Bah! hum, hum, apres le vin la bataille, ziff!" + +He kicked in the door and groped his way to the liquors. While he +hastily swigged and smacked he heard the firing begin with a +crackling, desultory volley. He laughed jovially, there in the +dark, between draughts and deep sighs of enjoyment. + +"Et moi aussi," he murmured, like the vast murmur of the sea, "I +want to be in that dance! Pardonnez, messieurs. Moi, je veux +danser, s'il vous plait." + +And when he had filled himself he plunged out and rushed away, +wrought up to the extreme fighting pitch of temper. Diable! if he +could but come across that Lieutenant Barlow, how he would smash +him and mangle him! In magnifying his prowess with the lens of +imagination he swelled and puffed as he lumbered along. + +The firing sounded as if it were between the fort and the river; +but presently when one of Hamilton's cannon spoke, M. Roussillon +saw the yellow spike of flame from its muzzle leap directly toward +the church, and he thought it best to make a wide detour to avoid +going between the firing lines. Once or twice he heard the whine +of a stray bullet high overhead. Before he had gone very far he +met a man hurrying toward the fort. It was Captain Francis +Maisonville, one of Hamilton's chief scouts, who had been out on a +reconnoissance and, cut off from his party by some of Clark's +forces, was trying to make his way to the main gate of the +stockade. + +M. Roussillon knew Maisonville as a somewhat desperate character, +a leader of Indian forays and a trader in human scalps. Surely the +fellow was legitimate prey. + +"Ziff! diable de gredin!" he snarled, and leaping upon him choked +him to the ground, "Je vais vous scalper immediatement!" + +Clark's plan of approach showed masterly strategy. Lieutenant +Bailey, with fourteen regulars, made a show of attack on the east, +while Major Bowman led a company through the town, on a line near +where Main street in Vincennes is now located, to a point north of +the stockade. Charleville, a brave creole, who was at the head of +some daring fellows, by a brilliant dash got position under cover +of a natural terrace at the edge of the prairie, opposite the +fort's southwestern angle. Lieutenant Beverley, in whom the +commander placed highest confidence, was sent to look for a supply +of ammunition, and to gather up all the Frenchmen in the town who +wished to join in the attack. Oncle Jazon and ten other available +men went with him. + +They all made a great noise when they felt that the place was +completely invested. Nor can we deny, much as we would like to, +the strong desire for vengeance which raised those shouting voices +and nerved those steady hearts to do or die in an undertaking +which certainly had a desperate look. Patriotism of the purest +strain those men had, and that alone would have borne them up; but +the recollection of smouldering cabin homes in Kentucky, of women +and children murdered and scalped, of men brave and true burned at +the stake, and of all the indescribable outrages of Indian warfare +incited and rewarded by the commander of the fort yonder, added to +patriotism the terrible urge of that dark passion which clamors +for blood to quench the fire of wrath. Not a few of those wet, +half-frozen, emaciated soldiers of freedom had experienced the +soul rending shock of returning from a day's hunting in the forest +to find home in ashes and loved ones brutally murdered and +scalped, or dragged away to unspeakable outrage under +circumstances too harrowing for description, the bare thought of +which turns our blood cold, even at this distance. Now the +opportunity had arrived for a stroke of retaliation. The thought +was tremendously stimulating. + +Beverley, with the aid of Oncle Jazon, was able to lead his little +company as far as the church before the enemy saw him. Here a +volley from the nearest angle of the stockade had to be answered, +and pretty soon a cannon began to play upon the position. + +"We kin do better some'rs else," was Oncle Jazon's laconic remark +flung back over his shoulder, as he moved briskly away from the +spot just swept by a six-pounder. "Come this yer way, Lieutenant. +I hyer some o' the fellers a talkin' loud jes' beyant Legrace's +place. They ain't no sort o' sense a tryin' to hit anything a +shootin' in the dark nohow." + +When they reached the thick of the town there was a strange stir +in the dusky streets. Men were slipping from house to house, +arming themselves and joining their neighbors. Clark had sent an +order earlier in the evening forbidding any street demonstration +by the inhabitants; but he might as well have ordered the wind not +to blow or the river to stand still. Oncle Jazon knew every man +whose outlines he could see or whose voice he heard. He called +each one by name: + +"Here, Roger, fall in!--Come Louis, Alphonse, Victor, Octave-- +venez ici, here's the American army, come with me!" His rapid +French phrases leaped forth as if shot from a pistol, and his +shrill voice, familiar to every ear in Vincennes, drew the creole +militiamen to him, and soon Beverley's company had doubled its +numbers, while at the same time its enthusiasm and ability to make +a noise had increased in a far greater proportion. In accordance +with an order from Clark they now took position near the northeast +corner of the stockade and began firing, although in the darkness +there was but little opportunity for marksmanship. + +Oncle Jazon had found citizens Legrace and Bosseron, and through +them Clark's men were supplied with ammunition, of which they +stood greatly in need, their powder having got wet during their +long, watery march. By nine o'clock the fort was completely +surrounded, and from every direction the riflemen and musketeers +were pouring in volley after volley. Beverley with his men took +the cover of a fence and some houses sixty yards from the +stockade. Here to their surprise they found themselves below the +line of Hamilton's cannon, which, being planted on the second +floor of the fort, could not be sufficiently depressed to bear +upon them. A well directed musket fire, however, fell from the +loopholes of the blockhouses, the bullets rattling merrily against +the cover behind which the attacking forces lay. + +Beverley was thinking of Alice during every moment of all this +stir and tumult He feared that she might still be a prisoner in +the fort exposed to the very bullets that his men were discharging +at every crack and cranny of those loosely constructed buildings. +Should he ever see her again? Would she care for him? What would +be the end of all this terrible suspense? Those remote forebodings +of evils, formless, shadowy, ineffable, which have harried the +lover's heart since time began, crowded all pleasant anticipations +out of his mind. + +Clark, in passing hurriedly from company to company around the +line, stopped for a little while when he found Beverley. + +"Have you plenty of ammunition?" was his first inquiry. + +"A mighty sight more'n we kin see to shoot with," spoke up Oncle +Jazon. "It's a right smart o' dad burn foolishness to be wastin' +it on nothin'; seems like to me 'at we'd better set the dasted +fort afire an' smoke the skunks out!" + +"Speak when you are spoken to, my man," said the Colonel a trifle +hotly, and trying by a sharp scrutiny to make him out in the gloom +where he crouched. + +"Ventrebleu! I'm not askin' YOU, Colonel Clark, nor no other man, +when I shill speak. I talks whenever I gits ready, an' I shoots +jes' the same way. So ye'd better go on 'bout yer business like a +white man! Close up yer own whopper jawed mouth, ef ye want +anything shet up!" + +"Oho! is that you, Jazon? You're so little I didn't know you! +Certainly, talk your whole damned under jaw off, for all I care," +Clark replied, assuming a jocose tone. Then turning again to +Beverley: "Keep up the firing and the noise; the fort will be ours +in the morning." + +"What's the use of waiting till morning?" Beverley demanded with +impatience. "We can tear that stockade to pieces with our hands in +half an hour." + +"I don't think so, Lieutenant. It is better to play for the sure +thing. Keep up the racket, and be ready for 'em if they rush out. +We must not fail to capture the hair-buyer General." + +He passed on, with something cheerful to say whenever he found a +squad of his devoted men. He knew how to humor and manage those +independent and undisciplined yet heroically brave fellows. What +to see and hear, what to turn aside as a joke, what to insist upon +with inflexible mastery, he knew by the fine instantaneous sense +of genius. There were many men of Oncle Jazon's cast, true as +steel, but refractory as flint, who could not be dominated by any +person, no matter of what stamp or office. To them an order was an +insult; but a suggestion pleased and captured them. Strange as it +may seem, theirs was the conquering spirit of America--the spirit +which has survived every turn of progress and built up the great +body of our independence. + +Beverley submitted to Clark's plan with what patience he could, +and all night long fired shot for shot with the best riflemen in +his squad. It was a fatiguing performance, with apparently little +result beyond forcing the garrison now and again to close the +embrasures. thus periodically silencing the cannon. Toward the +close of the night a relaxation showed itself in the shouting and +firing all round the line. Beverley's men, especially the creoles, +held out bravely in the matter of noise; but even they flagged at +length, their volatility simmering down to desultory bubbling and +half sleepy chattering and chaffing. + +Beverley leaned upon a rude fence, and for a time neglected to +reload his hot rifle. Of course he was thinking of Alice,--he +really could not think in any other direction; but it gave him a +shock and a start when he presently heard her name mentioned by a +little Frenchman near him on the left. + +"There'll never be another such a girl in Post Vincennes as Alice +Roussillon," the fellow said in the soft creole patois, "and to +think of her being shot like a dog!" + +"And by a man who calls himself a Governor, too!" said another. +"Ah, as for myself, I'm in favor of burning him alive when we +capture him. That's me!" + +"Et moi aussi," chimed in a third voice. "That poor girl must be +avenged. The man who shot her must die. Holy Virgin, but if +Gaspard Roussillon were only here!" + +"But he is here; I saw him just after dark. He was in great +fighting temper, that terrible man. Ouf! but I should not like to +be Colonel Hamilton and fall in the way of that Gaspard +Roussillon!" + +"Morbleu! I should say not. You may leave me out of a chance like +that! I shouldn't mind seeing Gaspard handle the Governor, though. +Ah, that would be too good! He'd pay him up for shooting +Mademoiselle Alice." + +Beverley could scarcely hold himself erect by the fence; the +smoky, foggy landscape swam round him heavy and strange. He +uttered a groan, which brought Oncle Jazon to his side in a hurry. + +"Qu' avez-vous? What's the matter?" the old man demanded with +quick sympathy. "Hev they hit ye? Lieutenant, air ye hurt much?" + +Beverley did not hear the old man's words, did not feel his kindly +touch. + +"Alice! Alice!" he murmured, "dead, dead!" + +"Ya-as," drawled Oncle Jazon, "I hearn about it soon as I got +inter town. It's a sorry thing, a mighty sorry thing. But mebby I +won't do a little somepin' to that--" + +Beverley straightened himself and lifted his gun, forgetting that +he had not reloaded it since firing last. He leveled it at the +fort and touched the trigger. Simultaneously with his movement an +embrasure opened and a cannon flashed, its roar flanked on either +side by a crackling of British muskets. Some bullets struck the +fence and flung splinters into Oncle Jazon's face. A cannon ball +knocked a ridge pole from the roof of a house hard by, and sent it +whirling through the air. + +"Ventrebleu!--et apres? What the devil next? Better knock a +feller's eyes out!" the old man cried. "I ain't a doin' nothin' to +ye!" + +He capered around rubbing his leathery face after the manner of a +scalded monkey. Beverley was struck in the breast by a flattened +and spent ball that glanced from a fence-picket. The shock caused +him to stagger and drop his gun; but he quickly picked it up and +turned to his companion. + +"Are you hurt, Oncle Jazon?" he inquired. "Are you hurt?" + +"Not a bit--jes' skeert mos' into a duck fit. Thought a cannon +ball had knocked my whole dang face down my throat! Nothin' but a +handful o' splinters in my poorty count'nance, makin' my head feel +like a porc'-pine. But I sort o' thought I heard somepin' give +you a diff." + +"Something did hit me," said Beverley, laying a hand on his +breast, "but I don't think it was a bullet. They seem to be +getting our range at last. Tell the men to keep well under cover. +They must not expose themselves until we are ready to charge." + +The shock had brought him back to his duty as a leader of his +little company, and with the funeral bell of all his life's +happiness tolling in his agonized heart he turned afresh to +directing the fire upon the block-house. + +About this time a runner came from Clark with an order to cease +firing and let a returning party of British scouts under Captain +Lamothe re-enter the fort unharmed. A strange order it seemed to +both officers and men; but it was implicitly obeyed. Clark's +genius here made another fine strategic flash. He knew that unless +he let the scouts go back into the stockade they would escape by +running away, and might possibly organize an army of Indians with +which to succor Hamilton. But if they were permitted to go inside +they could be captured with the rest of the garrison; hence his +order. + +A few minutes passed in dead silence; then Captain Lamothe and his +party marched close by where Beverley's squad was lying concealed. +It was a difficult task to restrain the creoles, for some of them +hated Lamothe. Oncle Jazon squirmed like a snake while they filed +past all unaware that an enemy lurked so near. When they reached +the fort, ladders were put down for them and they began to clamber +over the wall, crowding and pushing one another in wild haste. +Oncle Jazon could hold in no longer. + +"Ya! ya! ya I" he yelled. "Look out! the ladder is a fallin' wi' +ye!" + +Then all the lurking crowd shouted as one man, and, sure enough, +down came a ladder--men and all in a crashing heap. + +"Silence! silence!" Beverley commanded; but he could not check the +wild jeering and laughing, while the bruised and frightened scouts +hastily erected their ladder again, fairly tumbling over one +another in their haste to ascend, and so cleared the wall, falling +into the stockade to join the garrison. + +"Ventrebleu!" shrieked Oncle Jazon. "They've gone to bed; but +we'll wake 'em up at the crack o' day an' give 'em a breakfas' o' +hot lead!" + +Now the fighting was resumed with redoubled spirit and noise, and +when morning came, affording sufficient light to bring out the +"bead sights" on the Kentucky rifles, the matchless marksmen in +Clark's band forced the British to close the embrasures and +entirely cease trying to use their cannon; but the fight with +small arms went merrily on until the middle of the forenoon. + +Meantime Gaspard Roussillon had tied Francis Maisonville's hands +fast and hard with the strap of his bullet-pouch. + +"Now, I'll scalp you," he said in a rumbling tone, terrible to +hear. And with his words out came his hunting knife from its +sheath. + +"O have mercy, my dear Monsieur Roussillon!" cried the panting +captive; "have mercy!" + +"Mercy! yes, like your Colonel's, that's what you'll get. You +stand by that forban, that scelerat, that bandit, and help him. +Oh, yes, you'll get mercy! Yes, the same mercy that he showed to +my poor little Alice! Your scalp, Monsieur, if you please! A small +matter; it won't hurt much!" + +"But, for the sake of old friendship, Gaspard, for the sake--" + +"Ziff! poor little Alice!" + +"But I swear to you that I--" + +"Tout de meme, Monsieur, je vais vous scalper maintenant." + +In fact he had taken off a part of Maisonville's scalp, when a +party of soldiers, among whom was Maisonville's brother, a brave +fellow and loyal to the American cause, were attracted by his +cries and came to his rescue. + +M. Roussillon struggled savagely, insisting upon completing his +cruel performance; but he was at last overpowered, partly by brute +force and partly by the pleading of Maisonville's brother, and +made to desist. The big man wept with rage when he saw the +bleeding prisoner protected. "Eh bien! I'll keep what I've got," +he roared, "and I'll take the rest of it next time." + +He shook the tuft of hair at Maisonville and glared like a mad +bull. + +Two or three other members of Lamothe's band were captured about +the same time by some of the French militiamen; and Clark, when on +his round cheering and directing his forces, discovered that these +prisoners were being used as shields. Some young creoles, gay with +drink and the stimulating effect of fight, had bound the poor +fellows and were firing from behind them! Of course the commander +promptly put an end to this cruelty; but they considered it +exquisite fun while it lasted. It was in broad daylight, and they +knew that the English in the fort could see what they were doing. + +"It's shameful to treat prisoners in this way," said Clark. "I +will not permit it. Shoot the next man that offers to do such a +thing!" + +One of the creole youths, a handsome, swarthy Adonis in buckskin, +tossed his shapely head with a debonair smile and said: + +"To be sure, mon Colonel! but what have they been doing to us? We +have amused them all winter; it's but fair that they should give +us a little fun now." + +Clark shrugged his broad shoulders and passed on. He understood +perfectly what the people of Vincennes had suffered under +Hamilton's brutal administration. + +At nine o'clock an order was passed to cease firing, and a flag of +truce was seen going from Clark's headquarters to the fort. It was +a peremptory demand for unconditional surrender. Hamilton refused, +and fighting was fiercely resumed from behind rude breastworks +meantime erected. Every loop-hole and opening of whatever sort was +the focus into which the unerring backwoods rifles sent their +deadly bullets. Men began to fall in the fort, and every moment +Hamilton expected an assault in force on all sides of the +stockade. This, if successful, would mean inevitable massacre. +Clark had warned him of the terrible consequences of holding out +until the worst should come. "For," said he in his note to the +Governor, "if I am obliged to storm, you may depend upon such +treatment as is justly due to a murderer." + +Historians have wondered why Hamilton became so excited and acted +so strangely after receiving the note. The phrase, "justly due to +a murderer," is the key to the mystery. When he read it his heart +sank and a terrible fear seized him. "Justly due to a murderer!" +ah, that calm, white, beautiful girlish face, dead in the +moonlight, with the wisp of shining hair across it! "Such +treatment as is justly due to a murderer!" Cold drops of sweat +broke out on his forehead and a shiver went through his body. + +During the truce Clark's weary yet still enthusiastic besiegers +enjoyed a good breakfast prepared for them by the loyal dames of +Vincennes. Little Adrienne Bourcier was one of the handmaidens of +the occasion. She brought to Beverley's squad a basket, almost as +large as herself, heaped high with roasted duck and warm wheaten +bread, while another girl bore two huge jugs of coffee, fragrant +and steaming hot. The men cheered them lustily and complimented +them without reserve, so that before their service was over their +faces were glowing with delight + +And yet Adrienne's heart was uneasy, and full of longing to hear +something of Rene de Ronville. Surely some one of her friends must +know something about him. Ah, there was Oncle Jazon! Doubtless he +could tell her all that she wanted to know. She lingered, after +the food was distributed, and shyly inquired. + +"Hain't seed the scamp," said Oncle Jazon, only he used the patois +most familiar to the girl's ear. "Killed an' scelped long ago, I +reckon." + +His mouth was so full that he spoke mumblingly and with utmost +difficulty. Nor did he glance at Adrienne, whose face took on as +great pallor as her brown complexion could show. + +Beverley ate but little of the food. He sat apart on a piece of +timber that projected from the rough breastwork and gave himself +over to infinite misery of spirit, which was trebled when he took +Alice's locket from his bosom, only to discover that the bullet +which struck him had almost entirely destroyed the face of the +miniature. + +He gripped the dinted and twisted case and gazed at it with the +stare of a blind man. His heart almost ceased to beat and his +breath had the rustling sound we hear when a strong man dies of a +sudden wound. Somehow the defacement of the portrait was taken by +his soul as the final touch of fate, signifying that Alice was +forever and completely obliterated from his life. He felt a blur +pass over his mind. He tried in vain to recall the face and form +so dear to him; he tried to imagine her voice; but the whole +universe was a vast hollow silence. For a long while he was cold, +staring, rigid; then the inevitable collapse came, and he wept as +only a strong man can who is hurt to death, yet cannot die. + +Adrienne approached him, thinking to speak to him about Rene; but +he did not notice her, and she went her way, leaving beside him a +liberal supply of food. + + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +ALICE'S FLAG + + +Governor Hamilton received the note sent him by Colonel Clark and +replied to it with curt dignity; but his heart was quaking. As a +soldier he was true to the military tradition, and nothing could +have induced him to surrender his command with dishonor. + +"Lieutenant-Governor Hamilton," he wrote to Clark, "begs leave to +acquaint Colonel Clark that he and his garrison are not disposed +to be awed into any action unworthy of British subjects." + +"Very brave words," said Helm, when Hamilton read the note to him, +"but you'll sing a milder tune before many minutes, or you and +your whole garrison will perish in a bloody heap. Listen to those +wild yells! Clark has enough men to eat you all up for breakfast. +You'd better be reasonable and prudent. It's not bravery to court +massacre." + +Hamilton turned away without a word and sent the message; but Helm +saw that he was excited, and could be still further wrought up. + +"You are playing into the hands of your bitterest enemies, the +frog-eaters," he went on. "These creoles, over whom you've held a +hot poker all winter, are crazy to be turned loose upon you; and +you know that they've got good cause to feel like giving you the +extreme penalty. They'll give it to you without a flinch if they +get the chance. You've done enough." + +Hamilton whirled about and glared ferociously. + +"Helm, what do you mean?" he demanded in a voice as hollow as it +was full of desperate passion. + +The genial Captain laughed, as if he had heard a good joke. + +"You won't catch any fish if you swear, and you look blasphemous," +he said with the lightness of humor characteristic of him at all +times. "You'd better say a prayer or two. Just reflect a moment +upon the awful sins you have committed and--" + +A crash of coalescing volleys from every direction broke off his +levity. Clark was sending his response to Hamilton's lofty note. +The guns of freedom rang out a prophecy of triumph, and the +hissing bullets clucked sharply as they entered the solid logs of +the walls or whisked through an aperture and bowled over a man. +The British musketeers returned the fire as best they could, with +a courage and a stubborn coolness which Helm openly admired, +although he could not hide his satisfaction whenever one of them +was disabled. + +"Lamothe and his men are refusing to obey orders," said Farnsworth +a little later, hastily approaching Hamilton, his face flushed and +a gleam of hot anger in his eyes. "They're in a nasty mood; I can +do nothing with them; they have not fired a shot." + +"Mutiny?" Hamilton demanded. + +"Not just that. They say they do not wish to fire on their kinsmen +and friends. They are all French, you know, and they see their +cousins, brothers, uncles and old acquaintances out there in +Clark's rabble. I can do nothing with them." + +"Shoot the scoundrels, then!" + +"It will be a toss up which of us will come out on top if we try +that. Besides, if we begin a fight inside, the Americans will make +short work of us." + +"Well, what in hell are we to do, then?" + +"Oh, fight, that's all," said Farnsworth apathetically turning to +a small loop-hole and leveling a field glass through it. "We might +make a rush from the gates and stampede them," he presently added. +Then he uttered an exclamation of great surprise. + +"There's Lieutenant Beverley out there," he exclaimed. + +"You're mistaken, you're excited," Hamilton half sneeringly +remarked, yet not without a shade of uneasiness in his expression. +"You forget, sir." + +"Look for yourself, it's easily settled," and Farnsworth proffered +the glass. "He's there, to a certainty, sir." + +"I saw Beverley an hour ago," said Helm. "I knew all the time that +he'd be on hand." + +It was a white lie. Captain Helm was as much surprised as his +captors at what he heard; but he could not resist the temptation +to be annoying. + +Hamilton looked as Farnsworth directed, and sure enough, there was +the young Virginian Lieutenant, standing on a barricade, his hat +off, cheering his men with a superb show of zeal. Not a hair of +his head was missing, so far as the glass could be relied upon to +show. + +Oncle Jazon's quick old eyes saw the gleam of the telescope tube +in the loop-hole. + +"I never could shoot much," he muttered, and then a little bullet +sped with absolute accuracy from his disreputable looking rifle +and shattered the object-lens, just as Hamilton moved to withdraw +the glass, uttering an ejaculation of intense excitement. + +"Such devils of marksmen!" said he, and his face was haggard. +"That infernal Indian lied." + +"I could have told you all the time that the scalp Long-Hair +brought to you was not Beverley's," said Helm indifferently. "I +recognized Lieutenant Barlow's hair as soon as I saw it." + +This was another piece of off-hand romance. Helm did not dream +that he was accidentally sketching a horrible truth. + +"Barlow's!" exclaimed Farnsworth. + +"Yes, Barlow's, no mistake--" + +Two more men reeled from a port-hole, the blood spinning far out +of their wounds. Indeed, through every aperture in the walls the +bullets were now humming like mad hornets. + +"Close that port-hole!" stormed Hamilton; then turning to +Farnsworth he added: "We cannot endure this long. Shut up every +place large enough for a bullet to get through. Go all around, +give strict orders to all. See that the men do not foolishly +expose themselves. Those ruffians out there have located every +crack." + +His glimpse of Beverley and the sinister remark of Helm had +completely unmanned him before his men fell. Now it rushed upon +him that if he would escape the wrath of the maddened creoles and +the vengeance of Alice's lover, he must quickly throw himself upon +the mercy of Clark. It was his only hope. He chafed inwardly, but +bore himself with stern coolness. He presently sought Farnsworth, +pulled him aside and suggested that something must be done to +prevent an assault and a massacre. The sounds outside seemed to +forebode a gathering for a desperate rush, and in his heart he +felt all the terrors of awful anticipation. + +"We are completely at their mercy, that is plain," he said, +shrugging his shoulders and gazing at the wounded men writhing in +their agony. "What do you suggest?" + +Captain Farnsworth was a shrewd officer. He recollected that +Philip Dejean, justice of Detroit, was on his way down the Wabash +from that post, and probably near at hand, with a flotilla of men +and supplies. Why not ask for a few days of truce? It could do no +harm, and if agreed to, might be their salvation. Hamilton jumped +at the thought, and forthwith drew up a note which he sent out +with a white flag. Never before in all his military career had he +been so comforted by a sudden cessation of fighting. His soul +would grovel in spite of him. Alice's cold face now had Beverley's +beside it in his field of inner vision--a double assurance of +impending doom, it seemed to him. + +There was short delay in the arrival of Colonel Clark's reply, +hastily scrawled on a bit of soiled paper. The request for a truce +was flatly refused; but the note closed thus: + +"If Mr. Hamilton is Desirous of a Conferance with Col. Clark he +will meet him at the Church with Captn. Helms." + +The spelling was not very good, and there was a redundancy of +capital letters; yet Hamilton understood it all; and it was very +difficult for him to conceal his haste to attend the proposed +conference. But he was afraid to go to the church--the thought +chilled him. He could not face Father Beret, who would probably be +there. And what if there should be evidences of the funeral?--what +if?--he shuddered and tried to break away from the vision in his +tortured brain. + +He sent a proposition to Clark to meet him on the esplanade before +the main gate of the fort; but Clark declined, insisting upon the +church. And thither he at last consented to go. It was an immense +brace to his spirit to have Helm beside him during that walk, +which, although but eighty yards in extent, seemed to him a matter +of leagues. On the way he had to pass near the new position taken +up by Beverley and his men. It was a fine test of nerve, when the +Lieutenant's eyes met those of the Governor. Neither man permitted +the slightest change of countenance to betray his feelings. In +fact, Beverley's face was as rigid as marble; he could not have +changed it. + +But with Oncle Jazon it was a different affair. He had no dignity +to preserve, no fine military bearing to sustain, no terrible tug +of conscience, no paralyzing grip of despair on his heart. When he +saw Hamilton going by, bearing himself so superbly, it affected +the French volatility in his nature to such an extent that his +tongue could not be controlled. + +"Va t'en, bete, forban, meurtrier! Skin out f'om here! beast, +robber, murderer!" he cried, in his keen screech-owl voice. "I'll +git thet scelp o' your'n afore sundown, see 'f I don't! Ye onery +gal-killer an' ha'r buyer!" + +The blood in Hamilton's veins caught no warmth from these remarks; +but he held his head high and passed stolidly on, as if he did not +hear a word. Helm turned the tail of an eye upon Oncle Jazon and +gave him a droll, quizzical wink of approval. In response the old +man with grotesque solemnity drew his buckhorn handled knife, +licked its blade and returned it to its sheath,--a bit of +pantomime well understood and keenly enjoyed by the onlooking +creoles. + +"Putois! coquin!" they jeered, "goujat! poltron!" + +Beverley heard the taunting racket, but did not realize it, which +was well enough, for he could not have restrained the bitter +effervescence. He stood like a statue, gazing fixedly at the now +receding figure, the lofty, cold-faced man in whom centered his +hate of hates. Clark had requested him to be present at the +conference in the church; but he declined, feeling that he could +not meet Hamilton and restrain himself. Now he regretted his +refusal, half wishing that--no, he could not assassinate an enemy +under a white flag. In his heart he prayed that there would be no +surrender, that Hamilton would reject every offer. To storm the +fort and revel in butchering its garrison seemed the only +desirable thing left for him in life. + +Father Beret was, indeed, present at the church, as Hamilton had +dreaded; and the two duelists gave each other a rapier-like eye- +thrust. Neither spoke, however, and Clark immediately demanded a +settlement of the matter in hand. He was brusque and imperious to +a degree, apparently rather anxious to repel every peaceful +advance. + +It was a laconic interview, crisp as autumn ice and bitter as +gallberries. Colonel Clark had no respect whatever for Hamilton, +to whom he had applied the imperishable adjective "hair-buyer +General." On the other hand Governor Hamilton, who felt keenly the +disgrace of having to equalize himself officially and discuss +terms of surrender with a rough backwoodsman, could not conceal +his contempt of Clark. + +The five men of history, Hamilton, Helm, Hay, Clark and Bowman, +were not distinguished diplomats. They went at their work rather +after the hammer-and-tongs fashion. Clark bluntly demanded +unconditional surrender. Hamilton refused. They argued the matter. +Helm put in his oar, trying to soften the situation, as was his +custom on all occasions, and received from Clark a stinging +reprimand, with the reminder that he was nothing but a prisoner on +parole, and had no voice at all in settling the terms of +surrender. + +"I release him, sir," said Hamilton. "He is no longer a prisoner. +I am quite willing to have Captain Helm join freely in our +conference." + +"And I refuse to permit his acceptance of your favor," responded +Clark. "Captain Helm, you will return with Mr. Hamilton to the +fort and remain his captive until I free you by force. Meantime +hold your tongue." + +Father Beret, suave looking and quiet, occupied himself at the +little altar, apparently altogether indifferent to what was being +said; but he lost not a word of the talk. + +"Qui habet aures audiendi, audiat," he inwardly repeated, smiling +blandly. "Gaudete in illa die, et exultate!" + +Hamilton rose to go; deep lines of worry creased his face; but +when the party had passed outside, he suddenly turned upon Clark +and said: + +"Why do you demand impossible terms of me?" + +"I will tell you, sir," was the stern answer, in a tone in which +there was no mercy or compromise. "I would rather have you refuse. +I desire nothing so much as an excuse to wreak full and bloody +vengeance on every man in that fort who has engaged in the +business of employing savages to scalp brave, patriotic men and +defenseless women and children. The cries of the widows and the +fatherless on our frontiers require the blood of the Indian +partisans at my hands. If you choose to risk the massacre of your +garrison to save those despicable red-handed partisans, have your +pleasure. What you have done you know better than I do. I have a +duty to perform. You may be able to soften its nature. I may take +it into my head to send for some of our bereaved women to witness +my terrible work and see that it is well done, if you insist upon +the worst." + +Major Hay, who was Hamilton's Indian agent, now, with some +difficulty clearing his throat, spoke up. + +"Pray, sir," said he, "who is it that you call Indian partisans?" +"Sir," replied Clark, seeing that his words had gone solidly home, +"I take Major Hay to be one of the principals." + +This seemed to strike Hay with deadly force, dark's report says +that he was "pale and trembling, scarcely able to stand," and that +"Hamilton blushed, and, I observed, was much affected at his +behavior. "Doubtless, if the doughty American commander had known +more about the Governor's feelings just then, he would have added +that an awful fear, even greater than the Indian agent's, did more +than anything else to congest the veins in his face. + +The parties separated without reaching an agreement; but the end +had come. The terror in Hamilton's soul was doubled by a wild +scene enacted under the walls of his fort; a scene which, having +no proper place in this story, strong as its historical interest +unquestionably is, must be but outlined. A party of Indians +returning from a scalping expedition in Kentucky and along the +Ohio, was captured on the outskirts of the town by some of Clark's +men, who proceeded to kill and scalp them within full view of the +beleaguered garrison, after which their mangled bodies were flung +into the river. + +If the British commander needed further wine of dread to fill his +cup withal, it was furnished by ostentatious marshaling of the +American forces for a general assault. His spirit broke +completely, so that it looked like a godsend to him when Clark +finally offered terms of honorable surrender, the consummation of +which was to be postponed until the following morning. He accepted +promptly, appending to the articles of capitulation the following +reasons for his action: "The remoteness from succor; the state and +quantity of provisions, etc.; unanimity of officers and men in its +expediency; the honorable terms allowed; and, lastly, the +confidence in a generous enemy." + +Confidence in a generous enemy! Abject fear of the vengeance just +wreaked upon his savage emissaries would have been the true +statement. Beverley read the paper when Clark sent for him; but he +could not join in the extravagant delight of his fellow officers +and their brave men. What did all this victory mean to him? +Hamilton to be treated as an honorable prisoner of war, permitted +to strut forth from the feat with his sword at his side, his head +up--the scalp-buyer, the murderer of Alice! What was patriotism +to the crushed heart of a lover? Even if his vision had been able +to pierce the future and realize the splendor of Anglo-Saxon +civilization which was to follow that little triumph at Vincennes, +what pleasure could it have afforded him? Alice, Alice, only +Alice; no other thought had influence, save the recurring surge of +desire for vengeance upon her murderer. + +And yet that night Beverley slept, and so forgot his despair for +many hours, even dreamed a pleasant dream of home, where his +childhood was spent, of the stately old house on the breezy hill- +top overlooking a sunny plantation, with a little river lapsing +and shimmering through it. His mother's dear arms were around him, +her loving breath stirred his hair; and his stalwart, gray-headed +father sat on the veranda comfortably smoking his pipe, while away +in the wide fields the negroes sang at the plow and the hoe. +Sweeter and sweeter grew the scene, softer the air, tenderer the +blending sounds of the water-murmur, leaf-rustle, bird-song, and +slave-song, until hand in hand he wandered with Alice in greening +groves, where the air was trembling with the ecstacy of spring. + +A young officer awoke him with an order from Clark to go on duty +at once with Captains Worthington and Williams, who, under Colonel +Clark himself, were to take possession of the fort. Mechanically +he obeyed. The sun was far up, shining between clouds of a leaden, +watery hue, by the time everything was ready for the important +ceremony. Beside the main gate of the stockade two companies of +patriots under Bowman and McCarty were drawn up as guards, while +the British garrison filed out and was taken in charge. This bit +of formality ended, Governor Hamilton, attended by some of his +officers, went back into the fort and the gate was closed. + +Clark now gave orders that preparations be made for hauling down +the British flag and hoisting the young banner of liberty in its +place, when everything should be ready for a salute of thirteen +guns from the captured battery. + +Helm's round face was beaming. Plainly it showed that his +happiness was supreme. He dared not say anything, however; for +Clark was now all sternness and formality; it would be dangerous +to take any liberties; but he could smile and roll his quid of +tobacco from cheek to cheek. + +Hamilton and Farnsworth, the latter slightly wounded in the left +arm, which was bandaged, stood together somewhat apart from their +fellow officers, while preliminary steps for celebrating their +defeat and capture were in progress. They looked forlorn enough to +have excited deep sympathy under fairer conditions. + +Outside the fort the creoles were beginning a noise of jubilation. +The rumor of what was going to be done had passed from mouth to +mouth, until every soul in the town knew and thrilled with +expectancy. Men, women and children came swarming to see the +sight, and to hear at close range the crash of the cannon. They +shouted, in a scattering way at first, then the tumult grew +swiftly to a solid rolling tide that seemed beyond all comparison +with the population of Vincennes. Hamilton heard it, and trembled +inwardly, afraid lest the mob should prove too strong for the +guard. + +One leonine voice roared distinctly, high above the noise. It was +a sound familiar to all the creoles,--that bellowing shout of +Gaspard Roussillon's. He was roaming around the stockade, having +been turned back by the guard when he tried to pass through the +main gate. + +"They shut me out!" he bellowed furiously. "I am Gaspard +Roussillon, and they shut me out, me! Ziff! me voici! je vais +entrer immediatement, moi!" + +He attracted but little attention, however; the people and the +soldiery were all too excited by the special interest of the +occasion, and too busy with making a racket of their own, for any +individual, even the great Roussillon, to gain their eyes or ears. +He in turn scarcely heard the tumult they made, so self-centered +were his burning thoughts and feelings. A great occasion in +Vincennes and he, Gaspard Roussillon, not recognized as one of the +large factors in it! Ah, no, never! And he strode along the wall +of the stockade, turning the corners and heavily shambling over +the inequalities till he reached the postern. It was not fastened, +some one having passed through just before him. + +"Ziff!" he ejaculated, stepping into the area and shaking himself +after the manner of a dusty mastiff. "C'est moi! Gaspard +Roussillon!" His massive under jaw was set like that of a vise, +yet it quivered with rage, a rage which was more fiery +condensation of self-approval than anger. + +Outside the shouting, singing and huzzahs gathered strength and +volume, until the sound became a hoarse roar. Clark was uneasy; he +had overheard much of a threatening character during the siege. +The creoles were, he knew, justly exasperated, and even his own +men had been showing a spirit which might easily be fanned into a +dangerous flame of vengeance. He was very anxious to have the +formalities of taking possession of the fort over with, so that he +could the better control his forces. Sending for Beverley he +assigned him to the duty of hauling down the British flag and +running up that of Virginia. It was an honor of no doubtful sort, +which under different circumstances would have made the +Lieutenant's heart glow. As it was, he proceeded without any sense +of pride or pleasure, moving as a mere machine in performing an +act significant beyond any other done west of the mountains, in +the great struggle for American independence and the control of +American territory. + +Hamilton stood a little way from the foot of the tall flag-pole, +his arms folded on his breast, his chin slightly drawn in, his +brows contracted, gazing steadily at Beverley while he was untying +the halyard, which had been wound around the pole's base about +three feet above the ground. The American troops in the fort were +disposed so as to form three sides of a hollow square, facing +inward. Oncle Jazon, serving as the ornamental extreme of one +line, was conspicuous for his outlandish garb and unmilitary +bearing. The silence inside the stockade offered a strong contrast +to the tremendous roar of voices outside. Clark made a signal, and +at the tap of a drum, Beverley shook the ropes loose and began to +lower the British colors. Slowly the bright emblem of earth's +mightiest nation crept down in token of the fact that a handful of +back-woodsmen had won an empire by a splendid stroke of pure +heroism. Beverley detached the flag, and saluting, handed it to +Colonel Clark. Hamilton's breast heaved and his iron jaws +tightened their pressure until the lines of his cheeks were deep +furrows of pain. + +Father Beret, who had just been admitted, quietly took a place at +one side near the wall. There was a fine, warm, benignant smile on +his old face, yet his powerful shoulders drooped as if weighted +down with a heavy load. Hamilton was aware when he entered, and +instantly the scene of their conflict came into his memory with +awful vividness, and he saw Alice lying outstretched, stark and, +cold, the shining strand of hair fluttering across her pallid +cheek. Her ghost overshadowed him. + +Just then there was a bird-like movement, a wing-like rustle, and +a light figure flitted swiftly across the area. All eyes were +turned upon it. Hamilton recoiled, as pale as death, half lifting +his hands, as if to ward off a deadly blow, and then a gay flag +was flung out over his head. He saw before him the girl he had +shot; but her beautiful face was not waxen now, nor was it cold or +lifeless. The rich red blood was strong under the browned, yet +delicate skin, the eyes were bright and brave, the cherry lips, +slightly apart, gave a glimpse of pearl white teeth, and the +dimples,--those roguish dimples,--twinkled sweetly. + +Colonel Clark looked on in amazement, and in spite of himself, in +admiration. He did not understand; the sudden incident bewildered +him; but his virile nature was instantly and wholly charmed. +Something like a breath of violets shook the tenderest chords of +his heart. + +Alice stood firmly, a statue of triumph, her right arm +outstretched, holding the flag high above Hamilton's head; and +close by her side the little hunchback Jean was posed in his most +characteristic attitude, gazing at the banner which he himself had +stolen and kept hidden for Alice's sake, and because he loved it. + +There was a dead silence for some moments, during which Hamilton's +face showed that he was ready to collapse; then the keen voice of +Oncle Jazon broke forth: + +"Vive Zhorzh Vasinton! Vim la banniere d'Alice Roussillon!" + +He sprang to the middle of the area and flung his old cap high in +air, with a shrill war-whoop. + +"H'ist it! h'ist it! hissez la banniere de Mademoiselle Alice +Roussillon! Voila, que c'est glorieuse, cette banniere la! H'ist +it! h'ist it!" + +He was dancing with a rickety liveliness, his goatish legs and +shriveled body giving him the look of an emaciated satyr. + +Clark had been told by some of his creole officers the story of +how Alice raised the flag when Helm took the fort, and how she +snatched it from Hamilton's hand, as it were, and would not give +it up when he demanded it. The whole situation pretty soon began +to explain itself, as he saw what Alice was doing. Then he heard +her say to Hamilton, while she slowly swayed the rippling flag +back and forth: + +"I said, as you will remember, Monsieur le Gouverneur, that when +you next should see this flag, I should wave it over your head. +Well, look, I am waving it! Vive la republique! Vive George +Washington! What do you think of it, Monsieur le Gouverneur?" + +The poor little hunchback Jean took off his cap and tossed it in +rhythmical emphasis, keeping time to her words. + +And now from behind the hollow square came a mighty voice: + +"C'est moi, Gaspard Roussillon; me voici, messieurs!" + +There was a spirit in the air which caught from Alice a thrill of +romantic energy. The men in the ranks and the officers in front of +them felt a wave of irresistible sympathy sweep through their +hearts. Her picturesque beauty, her fine temper, the fitness of +the incident to the occasion, had an instantaneous power which +moved all men alike. + +"Raise her flag! Run up the young lady's flag!" some one shouted, +and then every voice seemed to echo the words. Clark was a young +man of noble type, in whose veins throbbed the warm chivalrous +blood of the cavaliers. A waft of the suddenly prevailing +influence bore him also quite off his feet. He turned to Beverley +and said: + +"Do it! It will have a great effect. It is a good idea; get the +young lady's flag and her permission to run it up." + +Before he finished speaking, indeed at the first glance, he saw +that Beverley, like Hamilton, was white as a dead man; and at the +same time it came to his memory that his young friend had confided +to him during the awful march through the prairie wilderness, a +love-story about this very Alice Roussillon. In the worry and +stress of the subsequent struggle, he had forgotten the tender +basis upon which Beverley had rested his excuse for leaving +Vincennes. Now, it all reappeared in justification of what was +going on. It touched the romantic core of his southern nature. + +"I say, Lieutenant Beverley," he repeated, "beg the young lady's +permission to use her flag upon this glorious occasion; or shall I +do it for you?" + +There were no miracles in those brave days, and the strain of life +with its terrible realities braced all men and women to meet +sudden explosions of surprise, whether of good or bad effect, with +admirable equipoise; but Beverley's trial, it must be admitted, +was extraordinary; still he braced himself quickly and his whole +expression changed when Clark moved to go to Alice. For he +realized now that it was, indeed, Alice in flesh and blood, +standing there, the center of admiration, filling the air with her +fine magnetism and crowning a great triumph with her beauty. He +gave her a glad, flashing smile, as if he had just discovered her, +and walked straight to her, his hands extended. She was not +looking toward him; but she saw him and turned to face him. Hers +was the advantage; for she had known, for some hours, of his +presence in Vincennes, and had prepared herself to meet him +courageously and with maidenly reserve. + +There is no safety, however, where Love lurks. Neither Beverley +nor Alice was as much agitated at Hamilton, yet they both forgot, +what he remembered, that a hundred grim frontier soldiers were +looking on. Hamilton had his personal and official dignity to +sustain, and he fairly did it, under what a pressure of +humiliating and surprising circumstances we can fully comprehend. +Not so with the two young people, standing as it were in a +suddenly bestowed and incomparable happiness, on the verge of a +new life, each to the other an unexpected, unhoped-for +resurrection from the dead. To them there was no universe save the +illimitable expanse of their love. In that moment of meeting, all +that they had suffered on account of love was transfused and +poured forth,--a glowing libation for love's sake,--a flood before +which all barriers broke. + +Father Beret was looking on with a strange fire in his eyes, and +what he feared would happen, did happen. Alice let the flag fall +at Hamilton's feet, when Beverley came near her smiling that +great, glad smile, and with a joyous cry leaped into his +outstretched arms. + +Jean snatched up the fallen banner and ran to Colonel Clark with +it. Two minutes later it was made fast and the halyard began to +squeak through the rude pulley at the top of the pole. Up, up, +climbed the gay little emblem of glory, while the cannon crashed +from the embrasures of the blockhouse hard by, and outside the +roar of voices redoubled. Thirteen guns boomed the salute, though +it should have been fourteen,--the additional one for the great +Northwestern Territory, that day annexed to the domain of the +young American Republic. The flag went up at old Vincennes never +to come down again, and when it reached its place at the top of +the staff, Beverley and Alice stood side by side looking at it, +while the sun broke through the clouds and flashed on its shining +folds, and love unabashed glorified the two strong young faces. + + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +SOME TRANSACTIONS IN SCALPS + + +History would be a very orderly affair, could the dry-as-dust +historians have their way, and doubtless it would be thrillingly +romantic at every turn if the novelists were able to control its +current. Fortunately neither one nor the other has much influence, +and the result, in the long run, is that most novels are +shockingly tame, while the large body of history is loaded down +with picturesque incidents, which if used in fiction, would be +thought absurdly romantic and improbable. + +Were our simple story of old Vincennes a mere fiction, we should +hesitate to bring in the explosion of a magazine at the fort with +a view to sudden confusion and, by that means, distracting +attention from our heroine while she betakes herself out of a +situation which, although delightful enough for a blessed minute, +has quickly become an embarrassment quite unendurable. But we +simply adhere to the established facts in history. Owing to some +carelessness there was, indeed, an explosion of twenty-six six- +pound cartridges, which made a mighty roar and struck the newly +installed garrison into a heap, so to say, scattering things +terribly and wounding six men, among them Captains Bowman and +Worthington. + +After the thunderous crash came a momentary silence, which +embraced both the people within the fort and the wild crowd +outside. Then the rush and noise were indescribable. Even Clark +gave way to excitement, losing command of himself and, of course, +of his men. There was a stampede toward the main gate by one wing +of the troops in the hollow square. They literally ran over +Beverley and Alice, flinging them apart and jostling them hither +and yonder without mercy. Of course the turmoil quickly subsided. +Clark and Beverley got hold of themselves and sang out their +peremptory orders with excellent effect. It was like oil on raging +water; the men obeyed in a straggling way, getting back into ranks +as best they could. + +"Ventrebleu!" squeaked Oncle Jazon, "ef I didn't think the ole +world had busted into a million pieces!" + +He was jumping up and down not three feet from Beverley's toes, +waving his cap excitedly. + +"But wasn't I skeert! Ya, ya, ya! Vive la banniere d'Alice +Roussillon! Vive Zhorzh Vasinton!" + +Hearing Alice's name caused Beverley to look around. Where was +she? In the distance he saw Father Beret hurrying to the spot +where some of the men burnt and wounded by the explosion were +being stripped and cared for. Hamilton still stood like a statue. +He appeared to be the only cool person in the fort. + +"Where is Alice?--Miss Roussillon--where did Miss Roussillon go?" +Beverley exclaimed, staring around like a lost man. "Where is +she?" + +"D'know," said Oncle Jazon, resuming his habitual expression of +droll dignity, "she shot apast me jes' as thet thing busted loose, +an' she went like er hummin' bird, skitch!--jes' thet way--an' I +didn't see 'r no more. 'Cause I was skeert mighty nigh inter seven +fits; 'spect that 'splosion blowed her clean away! Ventrebleu! +never was so plum outen breath an' dead crazy weak o' bein' +afeard!" + +"Lieutenant Beverley," roared Clark in his most commanding tone, +"go to the gate and settle things there. That mob outside is +trying to break in!" + +The order was instantly obeyed, but Beverley had relapsed. Once +more his soul groped in darkness, while the whole of his life +seemed unreal, a wavering, misty, hollow dream. And yet his +military duty was all real enough. He knew just what to do when he +reached the gate. + +"Back there at once!" he commanded, not loudly, but with intense +force, "back there!" This to the inward surging wedge of excited +outsiders. Then to the guard. + +"Shoot the first man who crosses the line!" + +"Ziff! me voici! moi! Gaspard Roussillon. Laissez-moi passer, +messieurs." + +A great body hurled itself frantically past Beverley and the +guard, going out through the gateway against the wall of the +crowd, bearing everything before it and shouting: + +"Back, fools! you'll all be killed--the powder is on fire! Ziff! +run!" + +Wild as a March hare, he bristled with terror and foamed at the +mouth. He stampeded the entire mass. There was a wild howl; a rush +in the other direction followed, and soon enough the esplanade and +all the space back to the barricades and beyond were quite +deserted. + +Alice was not aware that a serious accident had happened. +Naturally she thought the great, rattling, crashing noise of the +explosion a mere part of the spectacular show. When the rush +followed, separating her and Beverley, it was a great relief to +her in some way; for a sudden recognition of the boldness of her +action in the little scene just ended, came over her and +bewildered her. An impulse sent her running away from the spot +where, it seemed to her, she had invited public derision. The +terrible noises all around her were, she now fancied, but the +jeering and hooting of rude men who had seen her unmaidenly +forwardness. + +With a burning face she flew to the postern and slipped out, once +more taking the course which had become so familiar to her feet. +She did not slacken her speed until she reached the Bourcier +cabin, where she had made her home since the night when Hamilton's +pistol ball struck her. The little domicile was quite empty of its +household, but Alice entered and flung herself into a chair, where +she sat quivering and breathless when Adrienne, also much excited, +came in, preceded by a stream of patois that sparkled +continuously. + +"The fort is blown up!" she cried, gesticulating in every +direction at once, her petite figure comically dilated with the +importance of her statement. "A hundred men are killed, and the +powder is on fire!" + +She pounced into Alice's arms, still talking as fast as her tongue +could vibrate, changing from subject to subject without rhyme or +reason, her prattle making its way by skips and shies until what +was really upper-most in her sweet little heart disclosed itself. + +"And, O Alice! Rene has not come yet!" + +She plunged her dusky face between Alice's cheek and shoulder; +Alice hugged her sympathetically and said: + +"But Rene will come, I know he will, dear." + +"Oh, but do you know it? is it true? who told you? when will he +come? where is he? tell me about him!" + +Her head popped up from her friend's neck and she smiled +brilliantly through the tears that were still sparkling on her +long black lashes. + +"I didn't mean that I had heard from him, and I don't know where +he is; but--but they always come back." + +"You say that because your man--because Lieutenant Beverley has +returned. It is always so. You have everything to make you happy, +while I--I--" + +Again her eyes spilled their shower, and she hid her face in her +hands which Alice tried in vain to remove. + +"Don't cry, Adrienne. You didn't see me crying--" + +"No, of course not; you didn't have a thing to cry about. +Lieutenant Beverley told you just where he was going and just +what--" + +"But think, Adrienne, only think of the awful story they told-- +that he was killed, that Governor Hamilton had paid Long-Hair for +killing him and bringing back his scalp--oh dear, just think! And +I thought it was true." + +"Well, I'd be willing to think and believe anything in the world, +if Rene would come back," said Adrienne, her face, now uncovered, +showing pitiful lines of suffering. "O Alice, Alice, and he never, +never will come!" + +Alice exhausted every device to cheer, encourage and comfort her. +Adrienne had been so good to her when she lay recovering from the +shock of Hamilton's pistol bullet, which, although it came near +killing her, made no serious wound--only a bruise, in fact. It was +one of those fortunate accidents, or providentially ordered +interferences, which once in a while save a life. The stone disc +worn by Alice chanced to lie exactly in the missile's way, and +while it was not broken, the ball, already somewhat checked by +passing through several folds of Father Beret's garments, +flattened itself upon it with a shock which somehow struck Alice +senseless. + +Here again, history in the form of an ancient family document (a +letter written in 1821 by Alice herself), gives us the curious +brace of incidents, to wit, the breaking of the miniature on +Beverley's breast by a British musket-ball, and the stopping of +Hamilton's bullet over Alice's heart by the Indian charm-stone. + +"Which shows the goodness of God," the letter goes on, "and also +seems to sustain the Indian legend concerning the stone, that +whoever might wear it could not be killed. Unquestionable (sic) +Mr. Hamilton's shot, which was aimed at poor, dear old Father +Beret, would have pierced my heart, but for that charm-stone. As +for my locket, it did not, as some have reported, save Fitzhugh's +life when the musket-ball was stopped. The ball was so spent that +the blow was only hard enough to spoil temporary (sic) the face of +the miniature, which was afterwards restored fairly well by an +artist in Paris. When it did actually save Fitzhugh's life was out +on the Illinois plain. The savage, Long-Hair, peace to his memory, +worked the miracle of restoring to me--" Here a fold in the paper +has destroyed a line of the writing. + +The letter is a sacred family paper, and there is not +justification for going farther into its faded and, in some parts, +almost obliterated writing. But so much may pass into these pages +as a pleasant authentication of what otherwise might be altogether +too sweet a double nut for the critic's teeth to crack. + +While Adrienne and Alice were still discussing the probability of +Rene de Ronville's return, M. Roussillon came to the door. He was +in search of Madame, his wife, whom he had not yet seen. + +He gathered the two girls in his mighty arms, tousling them with +rough tenderness. Alice returned his affectionate embrace and told +him where to find Madame Roussillon, who was with Dame Godere, +probably at her house. + +"Nobody killed," he said, in answer to Alice's inquiry about the +catastrophe at the fort. "Some of 'em hurt and burnt a little. +Great big scare about nearly nothing. Ziff! my children, you +should have seen me quiet things. I put out my hands, this way-- +omme ca--pouf! It was all over. The people went home." + +His gestures indicated that he had borne back an army with open +hands. Then he chucked Adrienne under the chin with his finger and +added in his softest voice: + +"I saw somebody's lover the other day, over yonder in the Indian +village. He spoke to me about somebody--eh, ma petite, que +voulez-vous dire?" + +"Oh, Papa Roussillon! we were just talking about Rene!" cried +Alice. "Have you seen him?" + +"I saw you, you little minx, jumping into a man's arms right under +the eyes of a whole garrison! Bah! I could not believe it was my +little Alice!" + +He let go a grand guffaw, which seemed to shake the cabin's walls. +Alice blushed cherry red. Adrienne, too bashful to inquire about +Rene, was trembling with anxiety. The truth was not in Gaspard +Roussillon, just then; or if it was it stayed in him, for he had +not seen Rene de Ronville. It was his generous desire to please +and to appear opulent of knowledge and sympathy that made him +speak. He knew what would please Adrienne, so why not give her at +least a delicious foretaste? Surely, when a thing was so cheap, +one need not be so parsimonious as to withhold a mere +anticipation. He was off before the girls could press him into +details, for indeed he had none. + +"There now, what did I tell you?" cried Alice, when the big man +was gone. "I told you Rene would come. They always come back!" + +Father Beret came in a little later. As soon as he saw Alice he +frowned and began to shake his head; but she only laughed, and +imitating his hypocritical scowl, yet fringing it with a twinkle +of merry lines and dimples, pointed a taper finger at him and +exclaimed: + +"You bad, bad, man! why did you pretend to me that Lieutenant +Beverley was dead? What sinister ecclesiastical motive prompted +you to describe how Long-Hair scalped him? Ah, Father--" + +The priest laid a broad hand over her saucy mouth. "Something or +other seems to have excited you mightily, ma fille, you are a +trifle impulsively inclined to-day." + +"Yes, Father Beret; yes I know, and I am ashamed. My heart shrinks +when I think of what I did; but I was so glad, such a grand joy +came all over me when I saw him, so strong and brave and +beautiful, coming toward me, smiling that warm, glad smile and +holding out his arms--ah, when I saw all that--when I knew for +sure that he was not dead--I, why, Father--I just had to, I +couldn't help it!" + +Father Beret laughed in spite of himself, but quickly managed to +resume his severe countenance. + +"Ta! ta!" he exclaimed, "it was a bold thing for a little girl to +do." + +"So it was, so it was. But it was also a bold thing for him to do-- +to come back after he was dead and scalped and look so handsome +and grand! I'm ashamed and sorry, Father; but--but, I'm afraid I +might do it again if--well, I don't care if I did--so there, now!" + +"But what in the world are you talking about?" interposed +Adrienne. Evidently they were discussing a most interesting matter +of which she knew nothing, and that did not suit her feminine +curiosity. "Tell me." She pulled Father Beret's sleeve. "Tell me, +I say!" + +It is probable that Father Beret would have pretended to betray +Alice's source of mingled delight and embarrassment, had not the +rest of the Bourcier household returned in time to break up the +conversation. A little later Alice gave Adrienne a vividly +dramatic account of the whole scene. + +"Ah, mon Dieu!" exclaimed the petite brunette, after she had heard +the exciting story. "That was just like you, Alice. You always do +superb things. You were born to do them. You shoot Captain +Farnsworth, you wound Lieutenant Barlow, you climb onto the fort +and set up your flag--you take it down again and run away with it-- +you get shot and you do not die--you kiss your lover right before +a whole garrison! Bon Dieu! if I could but do all those things! +"She clasped her tiny hands before her and added rather +dejectedly: "But I couldn't, I couldn't. I couldn't kiss a man in +that way!" + +Late in the evening news came to Roussillon place, where Gaspard +Roussillon was once more happy in the midst of his little family, +that the Indian Long-Hair had just been brought to the fort, and +would be shot on the following day. A scouting party captured him +as he approached the town, bearing at his belt the fresh scalp of +a white man. He would have been killed forthwith, but Clark, who +wished to avoid a repetition of the savage vengeance meted out to +the Indians on the previous day, had given strict orders that all +prisoners should be brought into the fort, where they were to have +a fair trial by court martial. + +Both Helm and Beverley were at Roussillon place, the former +sipping wine and chatting with Gaspard, the latter, of course, +hovering around Alice, after the manner of a hungry bee around a +particularly sweet and deliciously refractory flower. It was +raining slowly, the fine drops coming straight down through the +cold, still February air; but the two young people found it +pleasant enough for them on the veranda, where they walked back +and forth, making fair exchange of the exciting experiences which +had befallen them during their long separation. Between the lines +of these mutual recitals sweet, fresh echoes of the old, old story +went from heart to heart, an amoebaean love-bout like that of +spring birds calling tenderly back and forth in the blooming +Maytime woods. + +Both Captain Helm and M. Roussillon were delighted to hear of +Long-Hair's capture and certain fate, but neither of them regarded +the news as of sufficient importance to need much comment. They +did not think of telling Beverley and Alice. Jean, however, lying +awake in his little bed, overheard the conversation, which he +repeated to Alice next morning with great circumstantiality. + +Having the quick insight bred of frontier experience, Alice +instantly caught the terrible significance of the dilemma in which +she and Beverley would be placed by Long-Hair's situation. +Moreover, something in her heart arose with irresistible power +demanding the final, the absolute human sympathy and gratitude. No +matter what deeds Long-Hair had committed that were evil beyond +forgiveness, he had done for her the all-atoning thing. He had +saved Beverley and sent him back to her. + +With a start and a chill of dread, she thought: "What if it is +already too late!" + +But her nature could not hesitate. To feel the demand of an +exigency was to act. She snatched a wrap from its peg on the wall +and ran as fast as she could to the fort. People who met her +flying along wondered, staring after her, what could be urging her +so that she saw nobody, checked herself for nothing, ran splashing +through the puddles in the street, gazing ahead of her, as if +pursuing some flying object from which she dared not turn her +eyes. + +And there was, indeed, a call for her utmost power of flight, if +she would be of any assistance to Long-Hair, who even then stood +bound to a stake in the fort's area, while a platoon of riflemen, +those unerring shots from Kentucky and Virginia, were ready to +make a target of him at a range of but twenty yards. + +Beverley, greatly handicapped by the fact that the fresh scalp of +a white man hung at Long-Hair's belt, had exhausted every possible +argument to avert or mitigate the sentence promptly spoken by the +court martial of which Colonel Clark was the ruling spirit. He had +succeeded barely to the extent of turning the mode of execution +from tomahawking to shooting. All the officers in the fort +approved killing the prisoner, and it was difficult for Colonel +Clark to prevent the men from making outrageous assaults upon him, +so exasperated were they at sight of the scalp. + +Oncle Jazon proved to be one of the most refractory among those +who demanded tomahawking and scalping as the only treatment due +Long-Hair. The repulsive savage stood up before them stolid, +resolute, defiant, proudly flaunting the badge which testified to +his horrible efficiency as an emissary of Hamilton's. It had been +left in his belt by Clark's order, as the best justification of +his doom. + +"L' me hack 'is damned head," Oncle Jazon pleaded. "I jes' hankers +to chop a hole inter it. An' besides I want 'is scelp to hang up +wi' mine an' that'n o' the Injun what scelped me. He kicked me in +the ribs, the stinkin' varmint" + +Beverley pleaded eloquently and well, but even the genial Major +Helm laughed at his sentiment of gratitude to a savage who at best +but relented at the last moment, for Alice's sake, and concluded +not to sell him to Hamilton. It is due to the British commander to +record here that he most positively and with what appeared to be +high sincerity, denied the charge of having offered rewards for +the taking of human scalps. He declared that his purposes and +practices were humane, and that while he did use the Indians as +military allies, his orders to them were that they must forego +cruel modes of warfare and refrain from savage outrage upon +prisoners. Certainly the weight of contemporary testimony seems +overwhelmingly against him, but we enter his denial. Long-Hair +himself, however, taunted him with accusations of unfaithfulness +in carrying out some very inhuman contracts, and to add a terrible +sting, volunteered the statement that poor Barlow's scalp had +served his turn in the place of Beverley's. + +With conditions so hideous to contend against, Beverley, of +course, had no possible means of succoring the condemned savage. + +"Him a kickin' yer ribs clean inter ye, an' a makin' ye run the +ga'ntlet, an' here ye air a tryin' to save 'is life!" whined Oncle +Jazon, "W'y man, I thought ye hed some senterments! Dast 'is Injin +liver, I kin feel them kicks what he guv me till yit. Ventrebleu! +que diable voulez-vous?" + +Clark simply pushed Beverley's pleadings aside as not worth a +moment's consideration. He easily felt the fine bit of gratitude +at the bottom of it all; but there was too much in the other side +of the balance; justice, the discipline and confidence of his +little army, and the claim of the women and children on the +frontier demanded firmness in dealing with a case like Long- +Hair's. + +"No, no," he said to Beverley, "I would do anything in the world +for you, Fitz, except to swerve an inch from duty to my country +and the defenceless people down yonder in Kentucky, I can't do it. +There's no use to press the matter further. The die is cast. That +brute's got to be killed, and killed dead. Look at him--look at +that scalp! I'd have him killed if I dropped dead for it the next +instant." + +Beverley shuddered. The argument was horribly convincing, and yet, +somehow, the desire to save Long-Hair overbore everything else in +his mind. He could not cease his efforts; it seemed to him as if +he were pleading for Alice herself. Captain Farnsworth, strange to +say, was the only man in the fort who leaned to Beverley's side; +but he was reticent, doubtless feeling that his position as a +British prisoner gave him no right to speak, especially when every +lip around him was muttering something about "infamous scalp- +buyers and Indian partisans," with whom he was prominently counted +by the speakers. + +As Clark had said, the die was cast. Long-Hair, bound to a stake, +the scalp still dangling at his side, grimly faced his +executioners, who were eager to fire. He appeared to be proud of +the fact that he was going to be killed. + +"One thing I can say of him," Helm remarked to Beverley; "he's the +grandest specimen of the animal--I might say the brute--man that +I ever saw, red, white or black. Just look at his body and limbs! +Those muscles are perfectly marvelous." + +"He saved my life, and I must stand here and see him murdered," +the young man replied with intense bitterness. It was all that he +could think, all that he could say. He felt inefficient and +dejected, almost desperate. + +Clark himself, not willing to cast responsibility upon a +subordinate, made ready to give the fatal order. Turning to Long- +Hair first, he demanded of him as well as he could in the Indian +dialect of which he had a smattering, what he had to say at his +last moment. + +The Indian straightened his already upright form, and, by a strong +bulging of his muscles, snapped the thongs that bound him. +Evidently he had not tried thus to free himself; it was rather a +spasmodic expression of savage dignity and pride. One arm and both +his legs still were partially confined by the bonds, but his right +hand he lifted, with a gesture of immense self-satisfaction, and +pointed at Hamilton. + +"Indian brave; white man coward," he said, scowling scornfully. +"Long-Hair tell truth; white man lie, damn!" + +Hamilton's countenance did not change its calm, cold expression. +Long-Hair gazed at him fixedly for a long moment, his eyes +flashing most concentrated hate and contempt. Then he tore the +scalp from his belt and flung it with great force straight toward +the captive Governor's face. It fell short, but the look that went +with it did not, and Hamilton recoiled. + +At that moment Alice arrived. Her coming was just in time to +interrupt Clark, who had turned to the waiting platoon with the +order of death on his lips. She made no noise, save the fluttering +of her skirts, and her loud and rapid panting on account of her +long, hard run. She sprang before Long-Hair and faced the platoon. + +"You cannot, you shall not kill this man!" she cried in a voice +loaded with excitement. "Put away those guns!" + +Woman never looked more thrillingly beautiful to man than she did +just then to all those rough, stern backwoodsmen. During her +flight her hair had fallen down, and it glimmered like soft +sunlight around her face. Something compelling flashed out of her +eyes, an expression between a triumphant smile and a ray of +irresistible beseechment. It took Colonel Clark's breath when he +turned and saw her standing there, and heard her words. + +"This man saved Lieutenant Beverley's life," she presently added, +getting better control of her voice, and sending into it a +thrilling timbre; "you shall not harm him--you must not do it!" + +Beverley was astounded when he saw her, the thing was so +unexpected, so daring, and done with such high, imperious force; +still it was but a realization of what he had imagined she would +be upon occasion. He stood gazing at her, as did all the rest, +while she faced Clark and the platoon of riflemen. To hear his own +name pass her quivering lips, in that tone and in that connection, +seemed to him a consecration. + +"Would you be more savage than your Indian prisoner?" she went on, +"less grateful than he for a life saved? I did him a small, a very +small, service once, and in memory of that he saved Lieutenant +Beverley's life, because--because--" she faltered for a single +breath, then added clearly and with magnetic sweetness--"because +Lieutenant Beverley loved me, and because I loved him. This Indian +Long-Hair showed a gratitude that could overcome his strongest +passion. You white men should be ashamed to fall below his +standard." + +Her words went home. It was as if the beauty of her face, the +magnetism of her lissome and symmetrical form, the sweet fire of +her eyes and the passionate appeal of her voice gave what she said +a new and irresistible force of truth. When she spoke of +Beverley's love for her, and declared her love for him, there was +not a manly heart in all the garrison that did not suddenly beat +quicker and feel a strange, sweet waft of tenderness. A mother, +somewhere, a wife, a daughter, a sister, a sweetheart, called +through that voice of absolute womanhood. + +"Beverley, what can I do?" muttered Clark, his bronze face as pale +as it could possibly become. + +"Do!" thundered Beverley, "do! you cannot murder that man. +Hamilton is the man you should shoot! He offered large rewards, he +inflamed the passions and fed the love of rum and the cupidity of +poor wild men like the one standing yonder. Yet you take him +prisoner and treat him with distinguished consideration. Hamilton +offered a large sum for me taken alive, a smaller one for my +scalp. Long-Hair saved me. You let Hamilton stand yonder in +perfect safety while you shoot the Indian. Shame on you, Colonel +Clark! shame on you, if you do it." + +Alice stood looking at the stalwart commander while Beverley was +pouring forth his torrent of scathing reference to Hamilton, and +she quickly saw that Clark was moved. The moment was ripe for the +finishing stroke. They say it is genius that avails itself of +opportunity. Beverley knew the fight was won when he saw what +followed. Alice suddenly left Long-Hair and ran to Colonel Clark, +who felt her warm, strong arms loop round him for a single point +of time never to be effaced from his memory; then he saw her +kneeling at his feet, her hands upstretched, her face a glorious +prayer, while she pleaded the Indian's cause and won it. + +Doubtless, while we all rather feel that Clark was weak to be thus +swayed by a girl, we cannot quite blame him. Alice's flag was over +him; he had heard her history from Beverley's cunning lips; he +actually believed that Hamilton was the real culprit, and besides +he felt not a little nauseated with executing Indians. A good +excuse to have an end of it all did not go begging. + +But Long-Hair was barely gone over the horizon from the fort, as +free and as villainous a savage as ever trod the earth, when a +discovery made by Oncle Jazon caused Clark to hate himself for +what he had done. + +The old scout picked up the scalp, which Long-Hair had flung at +Hamilton, and examined it with odious curiosity. He had lingered +on the spot with no other purpose than to get possession of that +ghastly relic. Since losing his own scalp the subject of +crownlocks had grown upon his mind until its fascination was +irresistible. He studied the hair of every person he saw, as a +physiognomist studies faces. He held the gruesome thing up before +him, scrutinizing it with the expression of a connoisseur who has +discovered, on a grimy canvas, the signature of an old master. + +"Sac' bleu!" he presently broke forth. "Well I'll be--Look'ee yer, +George Clark! Come yer an' look. Ye've been sold ag'in. Take a +squint, ef ye please!" + +Colonel Clark, with his hands crossed behind him, his face +thoughtfully contracted, was walking slowly to and fro a little +way off. He turned about when Oncle Jazon spoke. + +"What now, Jazon?" + +"A mighty heap right now, that's what; come yer an' let me show +ye. Yer a fine sort o' eejit, now ain't ye!" + +The two men walked toward each other and met. Oncle Jazon held up +the scalp with one hand, pointing at it with the index finger of +the other. + +"This here scalp come off'n Rene de Ronville's head." + +"And who is he?" + +"Who's he? Ye may well ax thet. He wuz a Frenchman. He wuz a fine +young feller o' this town. He killed a Corp'ral o' Hamilton's an' +tuck ter the woods a month or two ago. Hamilton offered a lot o' +money for 'im or 'is scalp, an' Long-Hair went in fer gittin' it. +Now ye knows the whole racket. An' ye lets that Injun go. An' thet +same Injun he mighty nigh kicked my ribs inter my stomach!" + +Oncle Jazon's feelings were visible and audible; but Clark could +not resent the contempt of the old man's looks and words. He felt +that he deserved far more than he was receiving. Nor was Oncle +Jazon wrong. Rene de Ronville never came back to little Adrienne +Bourcier, although, being kept entirely ignorant of her lover's +fate, she waited and dreamed and hoped throughout more than two +years, after which there is no further record of her life. + +Clark, Beverley and Oncle Jazon consulted together and agreed +among themselves that they would hold profoundly secret the story +of the scalp. To have made it public would have exasperated the +creoles and set them violently against Clark, a thing heavy with +disaster for all his future plans. As it was, the release of Long- +Hair caused a great deal of dissatisfaction and mutinous talk. +Even Beverley now felt that the execution ordered by the commander +ought to have been sternly carried out. + +A day or two later, however, the whole dark affair was closed +forever by a bit of confidence on the part of Oncle Jazon when +Beverley dropped into his hut one evening to have a smoke with +him. + +The rain was over, the sky shone like one vast luminary, with a +nearly full moon and a thousand stars reinforcing it. Up from the +south poured one of those balmy, accidental wind floods, sometimes +due in February on the Wabash, full of tropical dream-hints, yet +edged with a winter chill that smacks of treachery. Oncle Jazon +was unusually talkative; he may have had a deep draught of liquor; +at all events Beverley had little room for a word. + +"Well, bein' as it's twixt us, as is bosom frien's," the old +fellow presently said, "I'll jes' show ye somepin poorty." + +He pricked the wick of a lamp and took down his bunch of scalps. + +"I hev been a addin' one more to keep company o' mine an' the +tothers." + +He separated the latest acquisition from the rest of the wisp and +added, with a heinous chuckle: + +"This'n's Long-Hair's!" + +And so it was. Beverley knocked the ashes from his pipe and rose +to go. + +"Wen they kicks yer Oncle Jazon's ribs," the old man added, +"they'd jes' as well lay down an' give up, for he's goin' to +salervate 'em." + +Then, after Beverley had passed out of the cabin, Oncle Jazon +chirruped after him: + +"Mebbe ye'd better not tell leetle Alice. The pore leetle gal hev +hed worry 'nough." + + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +CLARK ADVISES ALICE + + +A few days after the surrender of Hamilton, a large boat, the +Willing, arrived from Kaskaskia. It was well manned and heavily +armed. Clark fitted it out before beginning his march and expected +it to be of great assistance to him in the reduction of the fort, +but the high waters and the floating driftwood delayed its +progress, so that its disappointed crew saw Alice's flag floating +bright and high when their eyes first looked upon the dull little +town from far down the swollen river. There was much rejoicing, +however, when they came ashore and were enthusiastically greeted +by the garrison and populace. A courier whom they picked up on the +Ohio came with them. He bore dispatches from Governor Henry of +Virginia to Clark and a letter for Beverley from his father. With +them appeared also Simon Kenton, greatly to the delight of Oncle +Jazon, who had worried much about his friend since their latest +fredaine--as he called it--with the Indians. Meantime an +expedition under Captain Helm had been sent up the river with the +purpose of capturing a British flotilla from Detroit. + +Gaspard Roussillon, immediately after Clark's victory, thought he +saw a good opening favorable to festivity at the river house, for +which he soon began to make some of his most ostentatious +preparations. Fate, however, as usual in his case, interfered. +Fate seemed to like pulling the big Frenchman's ear now and again, +as if to remind him of the fact--which he was apt to forget--that +he lacked somewhat of omnipotence. + +"Ziff! Je vais donner un banquet a tout le moonde, moi!" he cried, +hustling and bustling hither and thither. + +A scout from up the river announced the approach of Philip Dejean +with his flotilla richly laden, and what little interest may have +been gathering in the direction of M. Roussillon's festal +proposition vanished like the flame of a lamp in a puff of wind +when this news reached Colonel Clark and became known in the town. + +Beverley and Alice sat together in the main room of the Roussillon +cabin--you could scarcely find them separated during those happy +days--and Alice was singing to the soft tinkle of a guitar, a +Creole ditty with a merry smack in its scarcely intelligible +nonsense. She knew nothing about music beyond what M. Roussillon, +a jack of all trades, had been able to teach her,--a few simple +chords to accompany her songs, picked up at hap-hazard. But her +voice, like her face and form, irradiated witchery. It was sweet, +firm, deep, with something haunting in it--the tone of a hermit +thrush, marvelously pure and clear, carried through a gay strain +like the mocking-bird's. Of course Beverley thought it divine; and +when a message came from Colonel Clark bidding him report for duty +at once, he felt an impulse toward mutiny of the rankest sort. He +did not dream that a military expedition could be on hand; but +upon reaching headquarters, the first thing he heard was: + +"Report to Captain Helm. You are to go with him up the river and +intercept a British force. Move lively, Helm is waiting for you, +probably." + +There was no time for explanations. Evidently Clark expected +neither questions nor delay. Beverley's love of adventure and his +patriotic desire to serve his country came to his aid vigorously +enough; still, with Alice's love-song ringing in his heart, there +was a cord pulling him back from duty to the sweetest of all +life's joys. + +Helm was already at the landing, where a little fleet of boats was +being prepared. A thousand things had to be done in short order. +All hands were stimulated to highest exertion with the thought of +another fight. Swivels were mounted in boats, ammunition and +provisions stored abundantly, flags hoisted and oars dipped. Never +was an expedition of so great importance more swiftly organized +and set in motion, nor did one ever have a more prosperous voyage +or completer triumph. Philip Dejean, Justice of Detroit, with his +men, boats and rich cargo, was captured easily, with not a shot +fired, nor a drop of blood spilled in doing it. + +If Alice could have known all this before it happened, she would +probably have saved herself from the mortification of a rebuke +administered very kindly, but not the less thoroughly, by Colonel +Clark. + +The rumor came to her--a brilliant creole rumor, duly inflated-- +that an overwhelming British force was descending the river, and +that Beverley with a few men, not sufficient to base the +expedition on a respectable forlorn hope, would be sent to meet +them. Her nature, as was its wont, flared into high indignation. +What right had Colonel Clark to send her lover away to be killed +just at the time when he was all the whole world to her? Nothing +could be more outrageous. She would not suffer it to be done; not +she! + +Colonel Clark greeted her pleasantly, when she came somewhat +abruptly to him, where he was directing a squad of men at work +making some repairs in the picketing of the fort. He did not +observe her excitement until she began to speak, and then it was +noticeable only, and not very strongly, in her tone. She forgot to +speak English, and her French was Greek to him. + +"I am glad to see you, Mademoiselle," he said, rather +inconsequently, lifting his hat and bowing with rough grace, while +he extended his right hand cordially. "You have something to say +to me? Come with me to my office." + +She barely touched his fingers. + +"Yes, I have something to say to you. I can tell it here," she +said, speaking English now with softest Creole accent. "I wanted-- +I came to--" It was not so easy as she had imagined it would be to +utter what she had in mind. Clark's steadfast, inscrutable eyes, +kindly yet not altogether sympathetic, met her own and beat them +down. Her voice failed. + +He offered her his arm and gravely said: + +"We will go to my office. I see that you have some important +communication to make. There are too many ears here." + +Of a sudden she felt like running home. Somehow the situation +broke upon her with a most embarrassing effect. She did not take +Clark's arm, and she began to tremble. He appeared unconscious of +this, and probably was, for his mind had a fine tangle of great +schemes in it just then; but he turned toward his office, and +bidding her follow him, walked away in that direction. + +She was helpless. Not the slightest trace of her usual brilliant +self-assertion was at her command. Saving the squad of men sawing +and hacking, digging and hammering, the fort appeared as deserted +as her mind. She stood gazing after Clark. He did not look back, +but strode right on. If she would speak with him, she must follow. +It was a surprise to her, for heretofore she had always had her +own way, even if she found it necessary to use force. And where +was Beverley? Where was the garrison? Colonel Clark did not seem +to be at all concerned about the approach of the British--and yet +those repairs--perhaps he was making ready for a desperate +resistance! She did not move until he reached the door of his +office where he stopped and stepped aside, as if to let her pass +in first; he even lifted his hat, then looked a trifle surprised +when he saw that she was not near him, frowned slightly, changed +the frown to a smile and said, lifting his voice so that she felt +a certain imperative meaning in it: + +"Did I walk too fast for you? I beg your pardon, Mademoiselle." + +He stood waiting for her, as a father waits for a lagging, wilful +child. + +"Come, please," he added, "if you have something to say to me; my +time just now is precious--I have a great deal to do." + +She was not of a nature to retreat under fire, and yet the panic +in her breast came very near mastering her will. Clark saw a look +in her face which made him speak again: + +"I assure you, Mademoiselle, that you need not feel embarrassed. +You can rely upon me to--" + +She made a gesture that interrupted him; at the same time she +almost ran toward him, gathering in breath, as one does who is +about to force out a desperately resisting and riotous thought. +The strong, grave man looked at her with a full sense of her +fascination, and at the same time he felt a vague wish to get away +from her, as if she were about to cast unwelcome responsibility +upon him. + +"Where is Lieutenant Beverley?" she demanded, now close to Clark, +face to face, and gazing straight into his eyes. "I want to see +him." Her tone suggested intensest excitement. She was trembling +visibly. + +Clark's face changed its expression. He suddenly recalled to mind +Alice's rapturous public greeting of Beverley on the day of the +surrender. He was a cavalier, and it did not agree with his sense +of high propriety for girls to kiss their lovers out in the open +air before a gazing army. True enough, he himself had been +hoodwinked by Alice's beauty and boldness in the matter of Long- +Hair. He confessed this to himself mentally, which may have +strengthened his present disapproval of her personal inquiry about +Beverley. At all events he thought she ought not to be coming into +the stockade on such an errand. + +"Lieutenant Beverley is absent acting under my orders he said, +with perfect respectfulness, yet in a tone suggesting military +finality. He meant to set an indefinite yet effective rebuke in +his words. + +"Absent?" she echoed. "Gone? You sent him away to be killed! You +had no right--you--" + +"Miss Roussillon," said Clark, becoming almost stern, "you had +better go home and stay there; young girls oughtn't to run around +hunting men in places like this." + +His blunt severity of speech was accompanied by a slight frown and +a gesture of impatience. + +Alice's face blazed red to the roots of her sunny hair; the color +ebbed, giving place to a pallor like death. She began to tremble, +and her lips quivered pitifully, but she braced herself and tried +to force back the choking sensation in her throat. + +"You must not misconstrue my words," Clark quickly added; "I +simply mean that men will not rightly understand you. They will +form impressions very harmful to you. Even Lieutenant Beverley +might not see you in the right light." + +"What--what do you mean?" she gasped, shrinking from him, a +burning spot reappearing under the dimpled skin of each cheek. + +"Pray, Miss, do not get excited. There is nothing to make you +cry." He saw tears shining in her eyes. "Beverley is not in the +slightest danger. All will be well, and he'll come back in a few +days. The expedition will be but a pleasure trip. Now you go home. +Lieutenant Beverley is amply able to take care of himself. And let +me tell you, if you expect a good man to have great confidence in +you, stay home and let him hunt you up instead of you hunting him. +A man likes that better." + +It would be impossible to describe Alice's feelings, as they just +then rose like a whirling storm in her heart. She was humiliated, +she was indignant, she was abashed; she wanted to break forth with +a tempest of denial, self-vindication, resentment; she wanted to +cry with her face hidden in her hands. What she did was to stand +helplessly gazing at Clark, with two or three bright tears on +either cheek, her hands clenched, her eyes flashing. She was going +to say some wild thing; but she did not; her voice lodged fast in +her throat. She moved her lips, unable to make a sound. + +Two of Clark's officers relieved the situation by coming up to get +orders about some matter of town government, and Alice scarcely +knew how she made her way home. Every vein in her body was humming +like a bee when she entered the house and flung herself into a +chair. + +She heard Madame Roussillon and Father Beret chatting in the +kitchen, whence came a fragrance of broiling buffalo steak +besprinkled with garlic. It was Father Beret's favorite dish, +wherefore his tongue ran freely--almost as freely as that of his +hostess, and when he heard Alice come in, he called gayly to her +through the kitchen door: + +"Come here, ma fille, and lend us old folks your appetite; nous +avons une tranche a la Bordelaise!" + +"I am not hungry," she managed to say, "you can eat it without +me." + +The old man's quick ears caught the quaver of trouble in her +voice, much as she tried to hide it. A moment later he was +standing beside her with his hand on her head. + +"What is the matter now, little one?" he tenderly demanded. "Tell +your old Father." + +She began to cry, laying her face in her crossed arms, the tears +gushing, her whole frame aquiver, and heaving great sobs. She +seemed to shrink like a trodden flower. It touched Father Beret +deeply. + +He suspected that Beverley's departure might be the cause of her +trouble; but when presently she told him what had taken place in +the fort, he shook his head gravely and frowned. + +"Colonel Clark was right, my daughter," he said after a short +silence, "and it is time for you to ponder well upon the +significance of his words. You can't always be a wilful, +headstrong little girl, running everywhere and doing just as you +please. You have grown to be a woman in stature--you must be one +in fact. You know I told you at first to be careful how you acted +with--" + +"Father, dear old Father!" she cried, springing from her seat and +throwing her arms around his neck. "Have I appeared forward and +unwomanly? Tell me, Father, tell me! I did not mean to do +anything--" + +"Quietly, my child, don't give way to excitement." He gently put +her from him and crossed himself--a habit of his when suddenly +perplexed--then added: + +"You have done no evil; but there are proprieties which a young +woman must not overstep. You are impulsive, too impulsive; and it +will not do to let a young man see that you--that you--" + +"Father, I understand," she interrupted, and her face grew very +pale. + +Madame Roussillon came to the door, flushed with stooping over the +fire, and announced that the steak was ready. + +"Bring the wine, Alice," she added, "a bottle of Bordeaux." + +She stood for a breath of two, her red hands on her hips, looking +first at Father Beret, then at Alice. + +"Quarreling again about the romances?" she inquired. "She's been +at it again?--she's found 'em again?" + +"Yes," said Father Beret, with a queer, dry smile, "more romance. +Yes, she's been at it again! Now fetch the Bordeaux, little one." + +The following days were cycles of torture to Alice. She groveled +in the shadow of a great dread. It seemed to her that Beverley +could not love her, could not help looking upon her as a poor, +wild, foolish girl, unworthy of consideration. She magnified her +faults and crudities, she paraded before her inner vision her +fecent improprieties, as they had been disclosed to her, until she +saw herself a sort of monstrosity at which all mankind was gazing +with disgust. Life seemed dry and shriveled, a mere jaundiced +shadow, while her love for Beverley took on a new growth, +luxuriant, all-embracing, uncontrollable. The ferment of spirit +going on in her breast was the inevitable process of self- +recognition which follows the terrible unfolding of the passion- +flower, in a nature almost absolutely simple and unsophisticated. + +Vincennes held its breath while waiting for news from Helm's +expedition. Every day had its nimble, yet wholly imaginary account +of what had happened, skipping from mouth to mouth, and from cabin +to cabin. The French folk ran hither and thither in the persistent +rain, industriously improving the dramatic interest of each +groundless report. Alice's disturbed imagination reveled in the +kaleidoscopic terrors conjured up by these swift changes of the +form and color of the stories "from the front," all of them more +or less tragic. To-day the party is reported as having been +surprised and massacred to a man--to-morrow there has been a great +fight, many killed, the result in doubt--next day the British are +defeated, and so on. The volatile spirit of the Creoles fairly +surpassed itself in ringing the changes on stirring rumors. + +Alice scarcely left the house during the whole period of +excitement and suspense. Like a wounded bird, she withdrew herself +from the light and noisy chatter of her friends, seeking only +solitude and crepuscular nooks in which to suffer silently. Jean +brought her every picturesque bit of the ghastly gossip, thus +heaping coals on the fire of her torture. But she did not grow +pale and thin. Not a dimple fled from cheek or chin, not a ray of +saucy sweetness vanished from her eyes. Her riant health was +unalterable. Indeed, the only change in her was a sudden ripening +and mellowing of her beauty, by which its colors, its lines, its +subtle undercurrents of expression were spiritualized, as if by +some powerful clarifying process. + +Tremendous is the effect of a soul surprised by passion and +brought hard up against an opposing force which dashes it back +upon itself with a flare and explosion of self-revealment. Nor +shall we ever be able to foretell just how small a circumstance, +just how slight an exigency, will suffice to bring on the great +change. The shifting of a smile to the gloom of a frown, the snap +of a string on the lute of our imagination, just at the point when +a rich melody is culminating; the waving of a hand, a vanishing +face--any eclipse of tender, joyous expectation--dashes a nameless +sense of despair into the soul. And a young girl's soul--who shall +uncover its sacred depths of sensitiveness, or analyze its +capacity for suffering under such a stroke? + +On the fifth day of March, back came the victorious Helm, having +surrounded and captured seven boats, richly loaded with provisions +and goods, and Dejean's whole force. Then again the little Creole +town went wild with rejoicing. Alice heard the news and the noise; +but somehow there was no response in her heart. She dreaded to +meet Beverley; indeed, she did not expect him to come to her. Why +should he? + +M. Roussillon, who had volunteered to accompany Helm, arrived in a +mood of unlimited proportions, so far as expressing self- +admiration and abounding delight was concerned. You would have +been sure that he had done the whole deed single-handed, and +brought the flotilla and captives to town on his back. But Oncle +Jazon for once held his tongue, being too disgusted for words at +not having been permitted to fire a single shot. What was the use +of going to fight and simply meeting and escorting down the river +a lot of non-combatants? + +There is something inscrutably delightful about a girl's way of +thinking one thing and doing another. Perversity, thy name is +maidenhood; and maidenhood, thy name is delicious inconsequence! +When Alice heard that Beverley had come back, safe, victorious, to +be greeted as one of the heroes of an important adventure, she +immediately ran to her room frightened and full of vague, shadowy +dread, to hide from him, yet feeling sure that he would not come! +Moreover, she busied herself with the preposterous task of putting +on her most attractive gown--the buff brocade which she wore that +evening at the river house--how long ago it seemed!--when Beverley +thought her the queenliest beauty in the world. And she was +putting it on so as to look her prettiest while hiding from him! + +It is a toss-up where happiness will make its nest. The palace, +the hut, the great lady's garden, the wild lass's bower,--skip +here, alight there,--the secret of it may never be told. And love +and beauty find lodgment, by the same inexplicable route, in the +same extremes of circumstances. The wind bloweth where it listeth, +finding many a matchless flower and many a ravishing fragrance in +the wildest nooks of the world. + +No sooner did Beverley land at the little wharf than, rushing to +his quarters, he made a hasty exchange of water-soaked apparel for +something more comfortable, and then bolted in the direction of +Roussillon place. + +Now Alice knew by the beating of her heart that he was coming. In +spite of all she could do, trying to hold on hard and fast to her +doubt and gloom, a tide of rich sweetness began to course through +her heart and break in splendid expectation from her eyes, as they +looked through the little unglazed window toward the fort. Nor had +she long to wait. He came up the narrow wet street, striding like +a tall actor in the height of a melodrama, his powerful figure +erect as an Indian's, and his face glowing with the joy of a +genuine, impatient lover, who is proud of himself because of the +image he bears in his heart. + +When Alice flung wide the door (which was before Beverley could +cross the veranda), she had quite forgotten how she had gowned and +bedecked herself; and so, without a trace of self-consciousness, +she flashed upon him a full-blown flower--to his eyes the +loveliest that ever opened under heaven. + +Gaspard Roussillon, still overflowing with the importance of his +part in the capture of Dejean, came puffing homeward just in time +to see a man at the door holding Alice a-tiptoe in his arms. + +"Ziff!" he cried, as he pushed open the little front gate of the +yard, "en voila assez, vogue la galere!" + +The two forms disappeared within the house, as if moved by his +roaring voice. + +The letter to Beverley from his father was somewhat disturbing. It +bore the tidings of his mother's failing health. This made it +easier for the young Lieutenant to accept from Clark the +assignment to duty with a party detailed for the purpose of +escorting Hamilton, Farnsworth and several other British officers +to Williamsburg, Virginia. It also gave him a most powerful +assistance in persuading Alice to marry him at once, so as to go +with him on what proved to be a delightful wedding journey through +the great wilderness to the Old Dominion. Spring's verdure burst +abroad on the sunny hills as they slowly went their way; the +mating birds sang in every blooming brake and grove by which they +passed, and in their joyous hearts they heard the bubbling of +love's eternal fountain. + + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +AND SO IT ENDED + + +Our story must end here, because at this point its current flows +away forever from old Vincennes; and it was only of the post on +the Wabash that we set out to make a record. What befell Alice and +Beverley after they went to Virginia we could go on to tell; but +that would be another story. Suffice it to say, they lived happily +ever after, or at least somewhat beyond three score and ten, and +left behind them a good name and numerous descendants. + +How Alice found out her family in Virginia, we are not informed; +but after a lapse of some years from the date of her marriage, +there appears in one of her letters a reference to an estate +inherited from her Tarleton ancestors, and her name appears in old +records signed in full, Alice Tarleton Beverley. A descendant of +hers still treasures the locket, with its broken miniature and +battered crest, which won Beverley's life from Long-Hair, the +savage. Beside it, as carefully guarded, is the Indian charm-stone +that stopped Hamilton's bullet over Alice's heart The rapiers have +somehow disappeared, and there is a tradition in the Tarleton +family that they were given by Alice to Gaspard Roussillon, who, +after Madame Roussillon's death in 1790, went to New Orleans, +where he stayed a year or two before embarking for France, whither +he took with him the beautiful pair of colechemardes and Jean the +hunchback. + +Oncle Jazon lived in Vincennes many years after the war was over; +but he died at Natchez, Mississippi, when ninety-three years old. +He said, with almost his last breath, that he couldn't shoot very +well, even in his best days; but that he had, upon various +occasions, "jes' kind o' happened to hit a Injun in the lef' eye." +They used to tell a story, as late as General Harrison's stay in +Vincennes, about how Oncle Jazon buried his collection of scalps, +with great funeral solemnity, as his part of the celebration of +peace and independence about the year 1784. + +Good old Father Beret died suddenly soon after Alice's marriage +and departure for Virginia. He was found lying face downward on +the floor of his cabin. Near him, on a smooth part of a puncheon, +were the mildewed fragments of a letter, which he had been +arranging, as if to read its contents. Doubtless it was the same +letter brought to him by Rene de Ronville, as recorded in an early +chapter of our story. The fragments were gathered up and buried +with him. His dust lies under the present Church of St. Xavier,-- +the dust of as noble a man and as true a priest as ever sacrificed +himself for the good of humanity. + +In after years Simon Kenton visited Beverley and Alice in their +Virginia home. To his dying day he was fond of describing their +happy and hospitable welcome and the luxuries to which they +introduced him. They lived in a stately white mansion on a hill +overlooking a vast tobacco plantation, where hundreds of negro +slaves worked and sang by day and frolicked by night. Their oldest +child was named Fitzhugh Gaspard. Kenton died in 1836. + +There remains but one little fact worth recording before we close +the book. In the year 1800, on the fourth of July, a certain +leading French family of Vincennes held a patriotic reunion, +during which a little old flag was produced and its story told. +Some one happily proposed that it be sent to Mrs. Alice Tarleton +Beverley with a letter of explanation, and in profound recognition +of the glorious circumstances which made it the true flag of the +great Northwest, + +And so it happened that Alice's little banner went to Virginia and +is still preserved in an old mansion not very far from Monticello; +but it seems likely that the Wabash Valley will soon again possess +the precious relic. The marriage engagement of Miss Alice Beverley +to a young Indiana officer, distinguished for his patriotism and +military ardor, has been announced at the old Beverley homestead +on the hill, and the high contracting parties have planned that +the wedding ceremony shall take place under the famous little +flag, on the anniversary of dark's capture of Post Vincennes. When +the bride shall be brought to her new home on the banks of the +Wabash, the flag will come with her; but Oncle Jazon will not be +on hand with his falsetto shout: "VIVE LA BANNIERE D'ALICE +ROUSSILLON! VIVE ZHORZZH VASINTON!" + + +End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of Alice of Old Vincennes +by Maurice Thompson + diff --git a/old/aovnn10.zip b/old/aovnn10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..cabbbf5 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/aovnn10.zip |