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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: In the Valley + +Author: Harold Frederic + +Posting Date: November 19, 2011 [EBook #9787] +Release Date: January, 2006 +First Posted: October 16, 2003 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN THE VALLEY *** + + + + +Produced by Project Gutenberg Distributed Proofreaders + + + + + +</pre> + + +<br /> +<br /> +<hr /> +<br /> +<h1>In the Valley</h1> + +<p align="center" class="smallcaps">By</p> + +<h2>Harold Frederic</h2> + + + +<h4>Copyright 1890</h4> + + + + +<h2>Dedication.</h2> + + + +<p><i>When, after years of preparation, the pleasant task of writing this tale +was begun, I had my chief delight in the hope that the completed book +would gratify a venerable friend, to whose inspiration my first idea of +the work was due, and that I might be allowed to place his honored name +upon this page. The ambition was at once lofty and intelligible. While he +was the foremost citizen of New York State, we of the Mohawk Valley +thought of him as peculiarly our own. Although born elsewhere, his whole +adult life was spent among us, and he led all others in his love for the +Valley, his pride in its noble history, and his broad aspirations for the +welfare and progress in wise and good ways of its people. His approval ef +this book would have been the highest honor it could possibly have won. +Long before it was finished, he had been laid in his last sleep upon the +bosom of the hills that watch over our beautiful river. With reverent +affection the volume is brought now to lay as a wreath upon his +grave--dedicated to the memory of Horatio Seymour.</i></p> + +<p>London, <i>September 11</i>, 1890</p> + + + + +<h1>Contents.</h1> + + + +<p>Chapter I. <a href="#01">"The French Are in the Valley!"</a><br /> +Chapter II. <a href="#02">Setting Forth How the Girl Child Was Brought to Us.</a><br /> +Chapter III. <a href="#03">Master Philip Makes His Bow--And Behaves Badly</a><br /> +Chapter IV. <a href="#04">In Which I Become the Son of the House.</a><br /> +Chapter V. <a href="#05">How a Stately Name Was Shortened and Sweetened.</a><br /> +Chapter VI. <a href="#06">Within Sound of the Shouting Waters.</a><br /> +Chapter VII. <a href="#07">Through Happy Youth to Man's Estate.</a><br /> +Chapter VIII. <a href="#08">Enter My Lady Berenicia Cross.</a><br /> +Chapter IX. <a href="#09">I See My Sweet Sister Dressed in Strange Attire.</a><br /> +Chapter X. <a href="#10">The Masquerade Brings Me Nothing but Pain.</a><br /> +Chapter XI. <a href="#11">As I Make My Adieux Mr. Philip Comes In.</a><br /> +Chapter XII. <a href="#12">Old-Time Politics Pondered under the Starlight.</a><br /> +Chapter XIII. <a href="#13">To the Far Lake Country and Home Again.</a><br /> +Chapter XIV. <a href="#14">How I Seem to Feel a Wanting Note in the Chorus of Welcome.</a><br /> +Chapter XV. <a href="#15">The Rude Awakening from My Dream.</a><br /> +Chapter XVI. <a href="#16">Tulp Gets a Broken Head to Match My Heart.</a><br /> +Chapter XVII. <a href="#17">I Perforce Say Farewell to My Old Home.</a><br /> +Chapter XVIII. <a href="#18">The Fair Beginning of a New Life in Ancient Albany.</a><br /> +Chapter XIX. <a href="#19">I Go to a Famous Gathering at the Patroon's Manor House.</a><br /> +Chapter XX. <a href="#20">A Foolish and Vexatious Quarrel Is Thrust upon Me.</a><br /> +Chapter XXI. <a href="#21">Containing Other News Besides that from Bunker Hill.</a><br /> +Chapter XXII. <a href="#22">The Master and Mistress of Cairncross.</a><br /> +Chapter XXIII. <a href="#23">How Philip in Wrath, Daisy in Anguish, Fly Their Home.</a><br /> +Chapter XXIV. <a href="#24">The Night Attack Upon Quebec--And My Share in It.</a><br /> +Chapter XXV. <a href="#25">A Crestfallen Return to Albany.</a><br /> +Chapter XXVI. <a href="#26">I See Daisy and the Old Home Once More.</a><br /> +Chapter XXVII. <a href="#27">The Arrest of Poor Lady Johnson.</a><br /> +Chapter XXVIII. <a href="#28">An Old Acquaintance Turns Up in Manacles.</a><br /> +Chapter XXIX. <a href="#29">The Message Sent Ahead from the Invading Army.</a><br /> +Chapter XXX. <a href="#30">From the Scythe and Reaper to the Musket.</a><br /> +Chapter XXXI. <a href="#31">The Rendezvous of Fighting Men at Fort Dayton.</a><br /> +Chapter XXXII. <a href="#32">"The Blood Be on Your Heads."</a><br /> +Chapter XXXIII. <a href="#33">The Fearsome Death-Struggle in the Forest.</a><br /> +Chapter XXXIV. <a href="#34">Alone at Last with My Enemy.</a><br /> +Chapter XXXV. <a href="#35">The Strange Uses to Which Revenge May Be Put.</a><br /> +Chapter XXXVI. <a href="#36">A Final Scene in the Gulf which My Eyes Are Mercifully Spared.</a><br /> +Chapter XXXVII. <a href="#37">The Peaceful Ending of It All.</a></p> + + + + + +<h1>In The Valley</h1> + + + + +<h2><a name="01"></a>Chapter I</h2> + +<h3>"The French Are in the Valley!"</h3> + + + +<p>It may easily be that, during the many years which have come and gone +since the eventful time of my childhood, Memory has played tricks upon me +to the prejudice of Truth. I am indeed admonished of this by study of my +son, for whose children in turn this tale is indited, and who is now able +to remember many incidents of his youth--chiefly beatings and like +parental cruelties--which I know very well never happened at all. He is +good enough to forgive me these mythical stripes and bufferings, but he +nurses their memory with ostentatious and increasingly succinct +recollection, whereas for my own part, and for his mother's, our enduring +fear was lest we had spoiled him through weak fondness. By good fortune +the reverse has been true. He is grown into a man of whom any parents +might be proud--tall, well-featured, strong, tolerably learned, honorable, +and of influence among his fellows. His affection for us, too, is very +great. Yet in the fashion of this new generation, which speaks without +waiting to be addressed, and does not scruple to instruct on all subjects +its elders, he will have it that he feared me when a lad--and with cause! +If fancy can so distort impressions within such short span, it does not +become me to be too set about events which come back slowly through the +mist and darkness of nearly threescore years.</p> + +<p>Yet they return to me so full of color, and cut in such precision and +keenness of outline, that at no point can I bring myself to say, "Perhaps +I am in error concerning this," or to ask, "Has this perchance been +confused with other matters?" Moreover, there are few now remaining who of +their own memory could controvert or correct me. And if they essay to do +so, why should not my word be at least as weighty as theirs? And so to +the story:</p> + +<hr width="80%" size="1" /> + +<p>I was in my eighth year, and there was snow on the ground.</p> + +<p>The day is recorded in history as November 13, A.D. 1757, but I am afraid +that I did not know much about years then, and certainly the month seems +now to have been one of midwinter. The Mohawk, a larger stream then by far +than in these days, was not yet frozen over, but its frothy flood ran very +dark and chill between the white banks, and the muskrats and the beavers +were all snug in their winter holes. Although no big fragments of ice +floated on the current, there had already been a prodigious scattering of +the bateaux and canoes which through all the open season made a thriving +thoroughfare of the river. This meant that the trading was over, and that +the trappers and hunters, white and red, were either getting ready to go +or had gone northward into the wilderness, where might be had during the +winter the skins of dangerous animals--bears, wolves, catamounts, and +lynx--and where moose and deer could be chased and yarded over the crust, +not to refer to smaller furred beasts to be taken in traps.</p> + +<p>I was not at all saddened by the departure of these rude, foul men, of +whom those of Caucasian race were not always the least savage, for they +did not fail to lay hands upon traps or nets left by the heedless within +their reach, and even were not beyond making off with our boats, cursing +and beating children who came unprotected in their path, and putting the +women in terror of their very lives. The cold weather was welcome not only +for clearing us of these pests, but for driving off the black flies, +mosquitoes, and gnats which at that time, with the great forests so close +behind us, often rendered existence a burden, particularly just +after rains.</p> + +<p>Other changes were less grateful to the mind. It was true I would no +longer be held near the house by the task of keeping alight the smoking +kettles of dried fungus, designed to ward off the insects, but at the same +time had disappeared many of the enticements which in summer oft made this +duty irksome. The partridges were almost the sole birds remaining in the +bleak woods, and, much as their curious ways of hiding in the snow, and +the resounding thunder of their strange drumming, mystified and attracted +me, I was not alert enough to catch them. All my devices of horse-hair +and deer-hide snares were foolishness in their sharp eyes. The water-fowl, +too--the geese, ducks, cranes, pokes, fish-hawks, and others--had flown, +sometimes darkening the sky over our clearing by the density of their +flocks, and filling the air with clamor. The owls, indeed, remained, but I +hated them.</p> + +<p>The very night before the day of which I speak, I was awakened by one of +these stupid, perverse birds, which must have been in the cedars on the +knoll close behind the house, and which disturbed my very soul by his +ceaseless and melancholy hooting. For some reason it affected me more than +commonly, and I lay for a long time nearly on the point of tears with +vexation--and, it is likely, some of that terror with which uncanny noises +inspire children in the darkness. I was warm enough under my fox-robe, +snuggled into the husks, but I was very wretched. I could hear, between +the intervals of the owl's sinister cries, the distant yelping of the +timber wolves, first from the Schoharie side of the river, and then from +our own woods. Once there rose, awfully near the log wall against which I +nestled, a panther's shrill scream, followed by a long silence, as if the +lesser wild things outside shared for the time my fright. I remember that +I held my breath.</p> + +<p>It was during this hush, and while I lay striving, poor little fellow, to +dispel my alarm by fixing my thoughts resolutely on a rabbit-trap I had +set under some running hemlock out on the side hill, that there rose the +noise of a horse being ridden swiftly down the frosty highway outside. The +hoofbeats came pounding up close to our gate. A moment later there was a +great hammering on the oak door, as with a cudgel or pistol handle, and I +heard a voice call out in German (its echoes ring still in my old ears):</p> + +<p>"The French are in the Valley!"</p> + +<p>I drew my head down under the fox-skin as if it had been smitten sharply, +and quaked in solitude. I desired to hear no more.</p> + +<p>Although so very young a boy, I knew quite well who the French were, and +what their visitations portended. Even at that age one has recollections. +I could recall my father, peaceful man of God though he was, taking down +his gun some years before at the rumor of a French approach, and my mother +clinging to his coat as he stood in the doorway, successfully pleading +with him not to go forth. I had more than once seen Mrs. Markell of +Minden, with her black knit cap worn to conceal the absence of her scalp, +which had been taken only the previous summer by the Indians, who sold it +to the French for ten livres, along with the scalps of her murdered +husband and babe. So it seemed that adults sometimes parted with this +portion of their heads without losing also their lives. I wondered if +small boys were ever equally fortunate. I felt softly of my hair and wept.</p> + +<p>How the crowding thoughts of that dismal hour return to me! I recall +considering in my mind the idea of bequeathing my tame squirrel to +Hendrick Getman, and the works of an old clock, with their delightful +mystery of wooden cogs and turned wheels, which was my chief treasure, to +my negro friend Tulp--and then reflecting that they too would share my +fate, and would thus be precluded from enjoying my legacies. The whimsical +aspect of the task of getting hold upon Tulp's close, woolly scalp was +momentarily apparent to me, but I did not laugh. Instead, the very +suggestion of humor converted my tears into vehement sobbings.</p> + +<p>When at last I ventured to lift my head and listen again, it was to hear +another voice, an English-speaking voice which I knew very well, saying +gravely from within the door:</p> + +<p>"It is well to warn, but not to terrify. There are many leagues between us +and danger, and many good fighting men. When you have told your tidings to +Sir William, add that I have heard it all and have gone back to bed."</p> + +<p>Then the door was closed and barred, and the hoofbeats died away down the +Valley.</p> + +<p>These few words had sufficed to shame me heartily of my cowardice. I ought +to have remembered that we were almost within hail of Fort Johnson and its +great owner the General; that there was a long Ulineof forts between us and +the usual point of invasion with many soldiers; and--most important of +all--that I was in the house of Mr. Stewart.</p> + +<p>If these seem over-mature reflections for one of my age, it should be +explained, that, while a veritable child in matters of heart and impulse, +I was in education and association much advanced beyond my years. The +master of the house, Mr. Thomas Stewart, whose kind favor had provided me +with a home after my father's sad demise, had diverted his leisure with +my instruction, and given me the great advantage of daily conversation +both in English and Dutch with him. I was known to Sir William and to Mr. +Butler and other gentlemen, and was often privileged to listen when they +conversed with Mr. Stewart. Thus I had grown wise in certain respects, +while remaining extremely childish in others. Thus it was that I trembled +first at the common hooting of an owl, and then cried as if to die at +hearing the French were coming, and lastly recovered all my spirits at the +reassuring sound of Mr. Stewart's voice, and the knowledge that he was +content to return to his sleep.</p> + +<p>I went soundly to sleep myself, presently, and cannot remember to have +dreamed at all.</p> + + + + +<h2><a name="02"></a>Chapter II</h2> + +<h3>Setting Forth How the Girl Child Was Brought to Us.</h3> + + + +<p>When I came out of my nest next morning--my bed was on the floor of a +small recess back of the great fireplace, made, I suspect, because the +original builders lacked either the skill or the inclination, whichever it +might be, to more neatly skirt the chimney with the logs--it was quite +late. Some meat and corn-bread were laid for me on the table in Mr. +Stewart's room, which was the chief chamber of the house. Despite the big +fire roaring on the hearth, it was so cold that the grease had hardened +white about the meat in the pan, and it had to be warmed again before I +could sop my bread.</p> + +<p>During the solitary meal it occurred to me to question my aunt, the +housekeeper, as to the alarm of the night, which lay heavily once more +upon my mind. But I could hear her humming to herself in the back room, +which did not indicate acquaintance with any danger. Moreover, it might as +well be stated here that my aunt, good soul though she was, did not +command especial admiration for the clearness of her wits, having been +cruelly stricken with the small-pox many years before, and owing her +employment, be it confessed, much more to Mr. Stewart's excellence of +heart than to her own abilities. She was probably the last person in the +Valley whose judgment upon the question of a French invasion, or indeed +any other large matter, I would have valued.</p> + +<p>Having donned my coon-skin cap, and drawn on my thick pelisse over my +apron, I put another beech-knot on the fire and went outside. The stinging +air bit my nostrils and drove my hands into my pockets. Mr. Stewart was at +the work which had occupied him for some weeks previously--hewing out logs +on the side hill. His axe strokes rang through the frosty atmosphere now +with a sharp reverberation which made it seem much colder, and yet more +cheerful. Winter had come, indeed, but I began to feel that I liked it. I +almost skipped as I went along the hard, narrow path to join him.</p> + +<p>He was up among the cedars, under a close-woven net of boughs, which, +themselves heavily capped with snow, had kept the ground free. He nodded +pleasantly to me when I wished him good-morning, then returned to his +labor. Although I placed myself in front of him, in the hope that he would +speak, and thus possibly put me in the way to learn something about this +French business, he said nothing, but continued whacking at the deeply +notched trunk. The temptation to begin the talk myself came near mastering +me, so oppressed with curiosity was I; and finally, to resist it the +better, I walked away and stood on the brow of the knoll, whence one could +look up and down the Valley.</p> + +<p>It was the only world I knew--this expanse of flats, broken by wedges of +forest stretching down from the hills on the horizon to the very water's +edge. Straight, glistening lines of thin ice ran out here and there from +the banks of the stream this morning, formed on the breast of the flood +through the cold night.</p> + +<p>To the left, in the direction of the sun, lay, at the distance of a mile +or so, Mount Johnson, or Fort Johnson, as one chose to call it. It could +not be seen for the intervening hills, but so important was the fact of +its presence to me that I never looked eastward without seeming to behold +its gray stone walls with their windows and loopholes, its stockade of +logs, its two little houses on either side, its barracks for the guard +upon the ridge back of the gristmill, and its accustomed groups of +grinning black slaves, all eyeballs and white teeth, of saturnine Indians +in blankets, and of bold-faced fur-traders. Beyond this place I had never +been, but I knew vaguely that Schenectady was in that direction, where the +French once wrought such misery, and beyond that Albany, the great town of +our parts, and then the big ocean which separated us from England and +Holland. Civilization lay that way, and all the luxurious things which, +being shown or talked of by travellers, made our own rough life seem ruder +still by contrast.</p> + +<p>Turning to the right I looked on the skirts of savagery. Some few +adventurous villages of poor Palatine-German farmers and traders there +were up along the stream, I knew, hidden in the embrace of the wilderness, +and with them were forts and soldiers But these latter did not prevent +houses being sacked and their inmates tomahawked every now and then.</p> + +<p>It astonished me, that, for the sake of mere furs and ginseng and potash, +men should be moved to settle in these perilous wilds, and subject their +wives and families to such dangers, when they might live in peace at +Albany, or, for that matter, in the old countries whence they came. For my +part, I thought I would much rather be oppressed by the Grand Duke's +tax-collectors, or even be caned now and again by the Grand Duke himself, +than undergo these privations and panics in a savage land. I was too +little then to understand the grandeur of the motives which impelled men +to expatriate themselves and suffer all things rather than submit to +religious persecution or civil tyranny. Sometimes even now, in my old age, +I feel that I do not wholly comprehend it. But that it was a grand thing, +I trust there can be no doubt.</p> + +<p>While I still stood on the brow of the hill, my young head filled with +these musings, and my heart weighed down almost to crushing by the sense +of vast loneliness and peril which the spectacle of naked marsh-lands and +dark, threatening forests inspired, the sound of the chopping ceased, and +there followed, a few seconds later, a great swish and crash down +the hill.</p> + +<p>As I looked to note where the tree had fallen, I saw Mr. Stewart lay down +his axe, and take into his hands the gun which stood near by. He motioned +to me to preserve silence, and himself stood in an attitude of deep +attention. Then my slow ears caught the noise he had already heard--a +mixed babel of groans, curses, and cries of fear, on the road to the +westward of us, and growing louder momentarily.</p> + +<p>After a minute or two of listening he said to me, "It is nothing. The +cries are German, but the oaths are all English--as they generally are."</p> + +<p>All the same he put his gun over his arm as he walked down to the +stockade, and out through the gate upon the road, to discover the cause of +the commotion.</p> + +<p>Five red-coated soldiers on horseback, with another, cloaked to the eyes +and bearing himself proudly, riding at their heels; a negro following on, +also mounted, with a huge bundle in his arms before him, and a shivering, +yellow-haired lad of about my own age on a pillion behind him; clustering +about these, a motley score of poor people, young and old, some bearing +household goods, and all frightened out of their five senses--this is what +we saw on the highway.</p> + +<p>What we heard it would be beyond my power to recount. From the chaos of +terrified exclamations in German, and angry cursing in English, I gathered +generally that the scared mob of Palatines were all for flying the Valley, +or at the least crowding into Fort Johnson, and that the troopers were +somewhat vigorously endeavoring to reassure and dissuade them.</p> + +<p>Mr. Stewart stepped forward--I following close in his rear--and began +phrasing in German to these poor souls the words of the soldiers, leaving +out the blasphemies with which they were laden. How much he had known +before I cannot guess, but the confidence with which he told them that the +French and Indian marauders had come no farther than the Palatine Village +above Fort Kouarie, that they were but a small force, and that Honikol +Herkimer had already started out to drive them back, seemed to his simple +auditors born of knowledge. They at all events listened to him, which they +had not done to the soldiers, and plied him with anxious queries, which he +in turn referred to the mounted men and then translated their sulky +answers. This was done to such good purpose that before long the wiser of +the Palatines were agreed to return to their homes up the Valley, and the +others had become calm.</p> + +<p>As the clamor ceased, the soldier whom I took to be an officer removed his +cloak a little from his face and called out gruffly:</p> + +<p>"Tell this fellow to fetch me some brandy, or whatever cordial is to be +had in this God-forgotten country, and stir his bones about it, too!"</p> + +<p>To speak to Mr. Thomas Stewart in this fashion! I looked at my protector +in pained wrath and apprehension, knowing his fiery temper.</p> + +<p>With a swift movement he pushed his way between the sleepy soldiers +straight to the officer. I trembled in every joint, expecting to see him +cut down where he stood, here in front of his own house!</p> + +<p>He plucked the officer's cloak down from his face with a laugh, and then +put his hands on his hips, his gun under his arm, looked the other square +in the face, and laughed again.</p> + +<p>All this was done so quickly that the soldiers, being drowsy with their +all-night ride, scarcely understood what was going forward. The officer +himself strove to unwrap the muffled cloak that he might grasp his sword, +puffing out his cheeks with amazement and indignation meanwhile, and +staring down fiercely at Mr. Stewart. The fair-haired boy on the horse +with the negro was almost as greatly excited, and cried out, "Kill him, +some one! Strike him down!" in a stout voice. At this some of the soldiers +wheeled about, prepared to take part in the trouble when they should +comprehend it, while their horses plunged and reared into the others.</p> + +<p>The only cool one was Mr. Stewart, who still stood at his ease, smiling at +the red-faced, blustering officer, to whom he now said:</p> + +<p>"When you are free of your cloak, Tony Cross, dismount and let us +embrace."</p> + +<p>The gentleman thus addressed peered at the speaker, gave an exclamation or +two of impatience, then looked again still more closely. All at once his +face brightened, and he slapped his round, tight thigh with a noise like +the rending of an ice-gorge.</p> + +<p>"Tom Lynch!" he shouted. "Saints' breeches! 'tis he!" and off his horse +came the officer, and into Mr. Stewart's arms, before I could catch +my breath.</p> + +<p>It seemed that the twain were old comrades, and had been like brothers in +foreign wars, now long past. They walked affectionately, hand in hand, to +the house. The negro followed, bringing the two horses into the stockade, +and then coming inside with the bundle and the boy, the soldiers being +despatched onward to the fort.</p> + +<p>While my aunt, Dame Kronk, busied herself in bringing bottles and glasses, +and swinging the kettle over the fire, the two gentlemen could not keep +eyes off each other, and had more to say than there were words for. It was +eleven years since they had met, and, although Mr. Stewart had learned +(from Sir William) of the other's presence in the Valley, Major Cross had +long since supposed his friend to be dead. Conceive, then, the warmth of +their greeting, the fondness of their glances, the fervor of the +reminiscences into which they straightway launched, sitting wide-kneed by +the roaring hearth, steaming glass in hand.</p> + +<p>The Major sat massively upright on the bench, letting his thick cloak fall +backward from his broad shoulders to the floor, for, though the heat of +the flames might well-nigh singe one's eyebrows, it would be cold behind. +I looked upon his great girth of chest, upon his strong hands, which yet +showed delicately fair when they were ungloved, and upon his round, +full-colored, amiable face with much satisfaction. I seemed to swell with +pride when he unbuckled his sword, belt and all, and handed it to me, I +being nearest, to put aside for him. It was a ponderous, severe-looking +weapon, and I bore it to the bed with awe, asking myself how many people +it was likely to have killed in its day. I had before this handled other +swords--including Sir William's--but never such a one as this. Nor had I +ever before seen a soldier who seemed to my boyish eyes so like what a +warrior should be.</p> + +<p>It was not our habit to expend much liking upon English officers or +troopers, who were indeed quite content to go on without our friendship, +and treated us Dutch and Palatines in turn with contumacy and roughness, +as being no better than their inferiors. But no one could help liking +Major Anthony Cross--at least when they saw him under his old friend's +roof-tree, expanding with genial pleasure.</p> + +<p>For the yellow-haired boy, who was the Major's son, I cared much less. I +believe truly that I disliked him from the very first moment out on the +frosty road, and that when I saw him shivering there with the cold, I was +not a whit sorry. This may be imagination, but it is certain that he did +not get into my favor after we came inside.</p> + +<p>Under this Master Philip's commands the negro squatted on his haunches and +unrolled the blankets from the bundle I had seen him carrying. Out of this +bundle, to my considerable amazement, was revealed a little child, perhaps +between three and four years of age.</p> + +<p>This tiny girl blinked in the light thus suddenly surrounding her, and +looked about the room piteously, with her little lips trembling and her +eyes filled with tears. She was very small for her years, and had long, +tumbled hair. Her dress was a homespun frock in a single piece, and her +feet were wrapped for warmth in wool stockings of a grown woman's measure. +She looked about the room, I say, until she saw me. No doubt my Dutch face +was of the sort she was accustomed to, for she stretched out her hands to +me. Thereupon I went and took her in my arms, the negro smiling upon +us both.</p> + +<p>I had thought to bear her to the fire-place, where Master Philip was +already toasting himself, standing between Mr. Stewart's knees, and boldly +spreading his hands over the heat. But when he espied me bringing forward +the child he darted to us and sharply bade me leave the girl alone.</p> + +<p>"Is she not to be warmed, then?" I asked, puzzled alike at his rude +behavior and at his words.</p> + +<p>"I will do it myself," he answered shortly, and made to take the child.</p> + +<p>He alarmed her with his imperious gesture, and she turned from him, +clinging to my neck. I was vexed now, and, much as I feared discourtesy to +one of Mr. Stewart's guests, felt like holding my own. Keeping the little +girl tight in my arms, I pushed past him toward the fire. To my great +wrath he began pulling at her shawl as I went, shouting that he would have +her, while to make matters worse the babe herself set up a loud wail. Thus +you may imagine I was in a fine state of confusion and temper when I stood +finally at the side of the hearth and felt Mr. Stewart's eyes upon me. But +I had the girl.</p> + +<p>"What is the tumult?" he demanded, in a vexed tone. "What are you doing, +Douw, and what child is this?"</p> + +<p>"It is my child, sir!" young Philip spoke up, panting from his exertions, +and red with color.</p> + +<p>The two men broke out in loud laughter at this, so long sustained that +Philip himself joined it, and grinned reluctantly. I was too angry to even +feel relieved that the altercation was to have no serious consequences for +me--much less to laugh myself. I opened the shawl, that the little one +might feel the heat, and said nothing.</p> + +<p>"Well, the lad is right, in a way," finally chuckled the Major. "It's as +much his child as it is anybody's this side of heaven."</p> + +<p>The phrase checked his mirth, and he went on more seriously:</p> + +<p>"She is the child of a young couple who had come to the Palatine Village +only a few weeks before. The man was a cooper or wheelwright, one or the +other, and his name was Peet or Peek, or some such Dutch name. When +Bellêtre fell upon the town at night, the man was killed in the first +attack. The woman with her child ran with the others to the ford. There in +the darkness and panic she was crushed under and drowned; but strange +enough--who can tell how these matters are ordered?--the infant was in +some way got across the river safe, and fetched to the Fort. But there, so +great is the throng, both of those who escaped and those who now, alarmed +for their lives, flock in from the farms round about, that no one had time +to care for a mere infant. Her parents were new-comers, and had no +friends. Besides, every one up there is distracted with mourning or +frantic with preparation for the morrow. The child stood about among the +cattle, trying to get warm in the straw, when we came out last night to +start. She looked so beseechingly at us, and so like my own little +Cordelia, by God! I couldn't bear it! I cursed a trifle about their +brutality, and one of 'em offered at that to take her in; but my boy here +said, 'Let's bring her with us, father,' and up she came on to Bob's +saddle, and off we started. At Herkimer's I found blankets for her, and +one of the girls gave us some hose, big enough for Bob, which we +bundled her in."</p> + +<p>"There! said I not truly she was mine?" broke in the boy, shaking his +yellow hair proudly, and looking Mr. Stewart confidently in the eye.</p> + +<p>"Rightly enough," replied Mr. Stewart, kindly. "And so you are my old +friend Anthony Cross's son, eh? A good, hearty lad, seeing the world +young. Can you realize easily, Master Philip, looking at us two old +people, that we were once as small as you, and played together then on the +Galway hills, never knowing there could be such a place as America? And +that later we slept together in the same tent, and thanked our stars for +not being bundled together into the same trench, years upon years?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, and I know who you are, what's more!" said the pert boy, unabashed.</p> + +<p>"Why, that's wisdom itself," said Mr. Stewart, pleasantly.</p> + +<p>"You are Tom Lynch, and your grandfather was a king----"</p> + +<p>"No more," interposed Mr. Stewart, frowning and lifting his finger. "That +folly is dead and in its grave. Not even so fair a youth as you must give +it resurrection."</p> + +<p>"Here, Bob," said the Major, with sudden alacrity. "Go outside with these +children, and help them to some games."</p> + + + + +<h2><a name="03"></a>Chapter III</h2> + +<h3>Master Philip Makes His Bow--And Behaves Badly.</h3> + + + +<p>My protector and chief friend was at this time, as near as may be, fifty +years of age; yet he bore these years so sturdily that, if one should see +him side by side with his gossip and neighbor, Sir William Johnson, there +would be great doubt which was the elder--and the Baronet was not above +forty-two. Mr. Stewart was not tall, and seemed of somewhat slight frame, +yet he had not only grace of movement, but prodigious strength of wrist +and shoulders. For walking he was not much, but he rode like a knight. He +was of strictest neatness and method concerning his clothes; not so much, +let me explain, as to their original texture, for they were always plain, +ordinary garments, but regarding their cleanliness and order. He had a +swift and ready temper, and could not brook to be disputed by his equals, +much less by his inferiors, yet had a most perfect and winning politeness +when agreed with.</p> + +<p>All these, I had come to know, were traits of a soldier, yet he had many +other qualities which puzzled me, not being observable in other troopers. +He swore very rarely, he was abstemious with wines and spirits, and he +loved books better than food itself. Of not even Sir William, great +warrior and excellent scholar though he was, could all these things be +said. Mr. Stewart had often related to me, during the long winter days and +evenings spent of necessity by the fire, stories drawn from his campaigns +in the Netherlands and France and Scotland, speaking freely and most +instructively. But he had never helped me to unravel the mystery why he, +so unlike other soldiers in habits and tastes, should have chosen the +profession of arms.</p> + +<p>A ray of light was thrown upon the question this very day by the forward +prattle of the boy Philip. In after years the full illumination came, and +I understood it all. It is as well, perhaps, to outline the story here, +although at the time I was in ignorance of it.</p> + +<p>In Ireland, nearly eighty years before, that is to say in 1679, there had +been born a boy to whom was given the name of James Lynch. His mother was +the smooth-faced, light-hearted daughter of a broken Irish gentleman, who +loved her boy after a gusty fashion, and bore a fierce life of scorn and +sneers on his behalf. His father was--who? There were no proofs in court, +of course, but it seems never to have been doubted by any one that the +father was no other than the same worthless prince to wear whose titles +the two chief towns of my State were despoiled of their honest Dutch +names--I mean the Duke of York and Albany.</p> + +<p>Little James Lynch, unlike so many of his luckier brothers and cousins, +got neither a peerage nor a gentle breeding. Instead he was reared +meagrely, if not harshly, under the maternal roof and name, until he grew +old enough to realize that he was on an island where bad birth is not +forgiven, even if the taint be royal. Then he ran away, reached the coast +of France, and made his way to the French court, where his father was now, +and properly enough, an exile. He was a fine youth, with a prompt tongue +and clever head, and some attention was finally shown him. They gave him a +sword and a company, and he went with the French through all the wars of +Marlborough, gaining distinction, and, what is more, a fat purse.</p> + +<p>With his money he returned to Ireland, wedded a maid of whom he had +dreamed during all his exile, and settled down there to beggar himself in +a life of bibulous ease, gaming, fox-hunting, and wastefulness generally. +After some years the wife died, and James Lynch drifted naturally into the +conspiracy which led to the first rising for the Pretender, involving +himself as deeply as possible, and at its collapse flying once more to +France, never to return.</p> + +<p>He bore with him this time a son of eight years--my Mr. Stewart. This +boy, called Thomas, was reared on the skirts of the vicious French court, +now in a Jesuit school, now a poor relation in a palace, always reflecting +in the vicissitudes of his condition the phases of his sire's vagrant +existence. Sometimes this father would be moneyed and prodigal, anon +destitute and mean, but always selfish to the core, and merrily regardless +alike of canons and of consequences. He died, did this adventurous +gentleman, in the very year which took off the first George in Hanover, +and left his son a very little money, a mountain of debts, and an +injunction of loyalty to the Stewarts.</p> + +<p>Young Thomas, then nearly twenty, thought much for a time of becoming a +priest, and was always a favorite with the British Jesuits about +Versailles, but this in the end came to nothing. He abandoned the +religious vocation, though not the scholar's tastes, and became a soldier, +for the sake of a beautiful face which he saw once when on a secret visit +to England. He fell greatly in love, and ventured to believe that the +emotion was reciprocated. As Jacob served Laban for his daughter, so did +Tom Lynch serve the Pretender's cause for the hope of some day returning, +honored and powerful, to ask the hand of that sweet daughter of the +Jacobite gentleman.</p> + +<p>One day there came to him at Paris, to offer his sword to the Stewarts, a +young Irish gentleman who had been Tom's playmate in childhood--Anthony +Cross. This gallant, fresh-faced, handsome youth was all ablaze with +ardor; he burned to achieve impossible deeds, to attain glory at a stroke. +He confessed to Tom over their dinner, or the wine afterward perhaps, that +his needs were great because Love drove. He was partly betrothed to the +daughter of an English Jacobite--yet she would marry none but one who had +gained his spurs under his rightful king. They drank to the health of this +exacting, loyal maiden, and Cross gave her name. Then Tom Lynch rose from +the table, sick at heart, and went away in silence.</p> + +<p>Cross never knew of the hopes and joys he had unwittingly crushed. The +two young men became friends, intimates, brothers, serving in half the +lands of Europe side by side. The maiden, an orphan now, and of substance +and degree, came over at last to France, and Lynch stood by, calm-faced, +and saw her married to his friend. She only pleasantly remembered him; he +never forgot her till his death.</p> + +<p>Finally, in 1745, when both men were nearing middle age, the time for +striking the great blow was thought to have arrived. The memory of Lynch's +lineage was much stronger with the romantic young Pretender of his +generation than had been the rightfully closer tie between their more +selfish fathers, and princely favor gave him a prominent position among +those who arranged that brilliant melodrama of Glenfinnan and Edinburgh +and Preston Pans, which was to be so swiftly succeeded by the tragedy of +Culloden. The two friends were together through it all--in its triumph, +its disaster, its rout--but they became separated afterward in the +Highlands, when they were hiding for their lives. Cross, it seems, was +able to lie secure until his wife's relatives, through some Whig +influence, I know not what, obtained for him amnesty first, then leave to +live in England, and finally a commission under the very sovereign he had +fought. His comrade, less fortunate, at least contrived to make way to +Ireland and then to France. There, angered and chagrined at unjust and +peevish rebukes offered him, he renounced the bad cause, took the name of +Stewart, and set sail to the New World.</p> + +<p>This was my patron's story, as I gathered it in later years, and which +perhaps I have erred in bringing forward here among my childish +recollections. But, it seems to belong in truth much more to this day on +which, for the first and last time I beheld Major Cross, than to the +succeeding period when his son became an actor in the drama of my life.</p> + +<hr width="80%" size="1" /> + +<p>The sun was now well up in the sky, and the snow was melting. While I +still moodily eyed my young enemy and wondered how I should go about to +acquit myself of the task laid upon me--to play with him--he solved the +question by kicking into the moist snow with his boots and calling out:</p> + +<p>"Aha! we can build a fort with this, and have a fine attack. Bob, make me +a fort!"</p> + +<p>Seeing that he bore no malice, my temper softened toward him a little, and +I set to helping the negro in his work. There was a great pile of logs in +the clearing close to the house, and on the sunny side near this the +little girl was placed, in a warm, dry spot; and here we two, with sticks +and balls of snow, soon reared a mock block-house. The English boy did no +work, but stood by and directed us with enthusiasm. When the structure was +to his mind, he said:</p> + +<p>"Now we will make up some snowballs, and have an attack I will be the +Englishman and defend the fort; you must be the Frenchman and come to +drive me out. You can have Bob with you for a savage, if you like; only he +must throw no balls, but stop back in the woods and whoop. But first we +must have some hard balls made, so that I may hit you good when you come +up.--Bob, help this boy make some balls for me!"</p> + +<p>Thus outlined, the game did not attract me. I did not so much mind doing +his work for him, since he was company, so to speak, but it did go against +my grain to have to manufacture the missiles for my own hurt.</p> + +<p>"Why should I be the Frenchman?" I said, grumblingly. "I am no more a +Frenchman than you are yourself."</p> + +<p>"You're a Dutchman, then, and it's quite the same," he replied. "All +foreigners are the same."</p> + +<p>"It is you who are the foreigner," I retorted with heat. "How can I be a +foreigner in my own country, here where I was born?"</p> + +<p>He did not take umbrage at this, but replied with argument: "Why, of +course you're a foreigner. You wear an apron, and you are not able to even +speak English properly."</p> + +<p>This reflection upon my speech pained even more than it nettled me. Mr. +Stewart had been at great pains to teach me English, and I had begun to +hope that he felt rewarded by my proficiency. Years afterward he was wont +to laughingly tell me that I never would live long enough to use English +correctly, and that as a boy I spoke it abominably, which I dare say was +true enough. But just then my childish pride was grievously piqued by +Philip's criticism.</p> + +<p>"Very well, I'll be on the outside, then," I said. "I won't be a +Frenchman, but I'll come all the same, and do you look out for yourself +when I <i>do</i> come," or words to that purport.</p> + +<p>We had a good, long contest over the snow wall. I seem to remember it all +better than I remember any other struggle of my life, although there were +some to come in which existence itself was at stake, but boys' mimic +fights are not subjects upon which a writer may profitably dwell. It is +enough to say that he defended himself very stoutly, hurling the balls +which Bob had made for him with great swiftness and accuracy, so that my +head was sore for a week. But my blood was up, and at last over the wall I +forced my way, pushing a good deal of it down as I went, and, grappling +him by the waist, wrestled with and finally threw him. We were both down, +with our faces in the snow, and I held him tight. I expected that he would +be angry, and hot to turn the play into a real fight; but he said instead, +mumbling with his mouth full of snow:</p> + +<p>"Now you must pretend to scalp me, you know."</p> + +<p>My aunt called us at this, and we all trooped into the house again. The +little girl had crowed and clapped her hands during our struggle, all +unconscious of the dreadful event of which it was a juvenile travesty. We +two boys admired her as she was borne in on the negro's shoulder, and +Philip said:</p> + +<p>"I am going to take her to England, for a playmate. Papa has said I may. +My brother Digby has no sport in him, and he is much bigger than me, +besides. So I shall have her all for my own. Only I wish she +weren't Dutch."</p> + +<p>When we entered the house the two gentlemen were seated at the table, +eating their dinner, and my aunt had spread for us, in the chimney-corner, +a like repast. She took the little girl off to her own room, the kitchen, +and we fell like famished wolves upon the smoking venison and onions.</p> + +<p>The talk of our elders was mainly about a personage of whom I could not +know anything then, but whom I now see to have been the Young Pretender. +They spoke of him as "he," and as leading a painfully worthless and +disreputable life. This Mr. Stewart, who was twelve years the Chevalier's +senior, and, as I learned later, had been greatly attached to his person, +deplored with affectionate regret. But Major Cross, who related incidents +of debauchery and selfishness which, being in Europe, had come to his +knowledge about the prince, did not seem particularly cast down.</p> + +<p>"It's but what might have been looked for," he said, lightly, in answer to +some sad words of my patron's. "Five generations of honest men have +trusted to their sorrow in the breed, and given their heads or their +estates or their peace for not so much as a single promise kept, or a +single smile without speculation in it. Let them rot out, I say, and be +damned to them!"</p> + +<p>"But he was such a goodly lad, Tony. Think of him as we knew him--and +now!"</p> + +<p>"No, I'll <i>not</i> think, Tom," broke in the officer, "for, when I do, then I +too get soft-hearted. And I'll waste no more feeling or faith on any of +'em--on any of 'em, save the only true man of the lot, who's had the wit +to put the ocean 'twixt him and them. And you're content here, Tom?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, ay! Why not?" said Mr. Stewart. "It is a rude life in some ways, no +doubt, but it's free and it's honest. I have my own roof, such as it is, +and no one to gainsay me under it. I hunt, I fish, I work, I study, I +dream--precisely what pleases me best."</p> + +<p>"Ay, but the loneliness of it!"</p> + +<p>"Why, no! I see much of Johnson, and there are others round about to talk +with, when I'm driven to it. And then there's my young Dutchman--Douw, +yonder--who bears me company, and fits me so well that he's like a +second self."</p> + +<p>The Major looked over toward my corner with a benevolent glance, but +without comment. Presently he said, while he took more meat upon +his plate:</p> + +<p>"You've no thought of marrying, I suppose?"</p> + +<p>"None!" said my patron, gravely and with emphasis.</p> + +<p>The Major nodded his handsome head meditatively. "Well, there's a deal to +be said on that side," he remarked. "Still, children about the hearth help +one to grow old pleasantly. And you always had a weakness for brats."</p> + +<p>Mr. Stewart said again: "I have my young Dutchman."</p> + +<p>Once more the soldier looked at me, and, I'll be bound, saw me blushing +furiously. He smiled and said:</p> + +<p>"He seems an honest chap. He has something of your mouth, methinks."</p> + +<p>My patron pushed his dish back with a gesture of vexation.</p> + +<p>"No!" he said, sharply. "There's none of that. His father was a dominie +over the river; his mother, a good, hard-working lady, left a widow, +struggles to put bread in a dozen mouths by teaching a little home-school +for infants. I have the boy here because I like him--because I want him. +We shall live together--he and I. As he gets older this hut will doubtless +grow into a house fit for gentlemen. Indeed, already I have the logs cut +out in part for an addition, on the other side of the chimney."</p> + +<p>The Major rose at this, smiling again, and frankly put out his hand.</p> + +<p>"I meant no harm, you know, Tom, by my barracks jest. Faith! I envy the +lad the privilege of living here with you. The happiest days of my life, +dear friend, were those we spent together while I was waiting for +my bride."</p> + +<p>Mr. Stewart returned his smile rather sadly, and took his hand.</p> + +<p>The time for parting had come. The two men stood hand in hand, with +moistened eyes and slow-coming words, meeting for perhaps the last time in +this life; for the Major was to stop but an hour at Fort Johnson, and +thence hasten on to New York and to England, bearing with him weighty +despatches.</p> + +<p>While they still stood, and the negro was tying Master Philip's hat over +his ears, my aunt entered the room, bearing in her arms the poor little +waif from the massacre. The child had been washed and warmed, and wore +over her dress and feet a sort of mantle, which the good woman had hastily +and somewhat rudely fashioned meantime.</p> + +<p>"Oh, we came near forgetting her!" cried Philip. "Wrap her snug and warm, +Bob, for the journey."</p> + +<p>The Major looked blank at sight of the child, who nestled in my aunt's +arms. "What am I to do with her?" he said to my patron.</p> + +<p>"Why, papa, you know she is going to England with us," said the boy.</p> + +<p>"Tut, lad!" spoke the Major, peremptorily; then, to Mr. Stewart: "Could +Sir William place her, think you, or does that half-breed swarm of his +fill the house? It seemed right enough to bring her out from the Palatine +country, but now that she's out, damme! I almost wish she was back again. +What a fool not to leave her at Herkimer's!"</p> + +<p>I do not know if I had any clear idea of what was springing up in Mr. +Stewart's mind, but it seems to me that I must have looked at him +pleadingly and with great hope in my eyes, during the moment of silence +which followed. Mr. Stewart in turn regarded the child attentively.</p> + +<p>"Would it please you to keep her here, Dame Kronk?" he asked at last.</p> + +<p>As my aunt made glad assent, I could scarcely refrain from dancing. I +walked over to the little girl and took her hand in mine, filled with +deep joy.</p> + +<p>"You render me very grateful, Tom," said Major Cross, heartily. "It's a +load off my mind.--Come, Philip, make your farewells. We must be off."</p> + +<p>"And isn't the child to be mine--to go with us?" the boy asked, +vehemently.</p> + +<p>"Why be childish, Philip?" demanded the Major. "Of course it's out of the +question."</p> + +<p>The English lad, muffled up now for the ride, with his large flat hat +pressed down comically at the sides by the great knitted comforter which +Bob had tied under his chin, scowled in a savage fashion, bit his lips, +and started for the door, too angry to say good-by. When he passed me, +red-faced and wrathful, I could not keep from smiling, but truly rather at +his swaddled appearance than at his discomfiture. He had sneered at my +apron, besides.</p> + +<p>With a cry of rage he whirled around and struck me full in the face, +knocking me head over heels into the ashes on the hearth. Then he burst +into a fit of violent weeping, or rather convulsions more befitting a +wild-cat than a human being, stamping furiously with his feet, and +screaming that he <i>would</i> have the child.</p> + +<p>I picked myself out of the ashes, where my hair had been singed a trifle +by the embers, in time to see the Major soundly cuff his offspring, and +then lead him by the arm, still screaming, out of the door. There Bob +enveloped him in his arms, struggling and kicking, and put him on +the horse. + +Major Cross, returning for a final farewell word, gave me a shilling as a +salve for my hurts, physical and mental, and said:</p> + +<p>"I am sorry to have so ill-tempered a son. He cannot brook denial, when +once he fixes his heart on a thing. However, he'll get that beaten out of +him before he's done with the world. And so, Tom, dear, dear old comrade, +a last good-by. God bless you, Tom! Farewell."</p> + +<p>"God bless you--and yours, <i>mon frère</i>!"</p> + +<p>We stood, Mr. Stewart and I, at the outer gate, and watched them down the +river road, until the jutting headland intervened. As we walked slowly +back toward the house, my guardian said, as if talking partly to himself:</p> + +<p>"There is nothing clearer in natural law than that sons inherit from their +mothers. I know of only two cases in all history where an able man had a +father superior in brain and energy to the mother--Martin Luther and the +present King of Prussia. Perhaps it was all for the best."</p> + +<p>To this I of course offered no answer, but trudged along through the +melting snow by his side.</p> + +<p>Presently, as we reached the house, he stopped and looked the log +structure critically over.</p> + +<p>"You heard what I said, Douw, upon your belonging henceforth to this +house--to me?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Mr. Stewart."</p> + +<p>"And now, lo and behold, I have a daughter as well! To-morrow we must plan +out still another room for our abode."</p> + +<p>Thus ended the day on which my story properly and prophetically +begins--the day when I first met Master Philip Cross.</p> + + + + +<h2><a name="04"></a>Chapter IV</h2> + +<h3>In Which I Become the Son of the House.</h3> + + + +<p>The French, for some reason or other, did not follow up their advantage +and descend upon the lower Valley; but had they done so there could +scarcely have been a greater panic among the Palatines. All during the +year there had been seen at times, darkly flitting through the woods near +the sparse settlements, little bands of hostile Indians. It was said that +their purpose was to seize and abduct Sir William; failing in this, they +did what other mischief they could, so that the whole Valley was kept in +constant alarm. No household knew, on going to bed, that they would not be +roused before morning by savage war-cries. No man ventured out of sight of +his home without entertaining the idea that he might never get back alive. +Hence, when the long-expected blow was really struck, and the town on the +German Flatts devastated, everybody was in an agony of fear. To make +matters worse, Sir William was at his home ill in bed, and there was some +trouble between him and the English commanders, which stood in the way of +troops being sent to our aid.</p> + +<p>Those few days following the dreadful news of the attack above us seem +still like a nightmare. The settlers up the river began sending their +household goods down to Albany; women and children, too, passed us in +great parties, to take refuge in Fort Hunter or at Schenectady. The river +suddenly became covered with boats once more, but this time representing +the affrighted flight of whole communities instead of a peaceful commerce.</p> + +<p>During this season of terror I was, as may be conceived, indeed unhappy. I +had no stomach even for play with the new addition to our household, yet +scarcely dared to show my nose outside the stockade. Mr. Stewart spent his +days abroad, either with Sir William, or up at Caughnawaga concerting +means of defence with our friends the Fondas. He did, however, find time +to cross the river and reassure my mother, who trembled with apprehension +for her great brood of young, but was brave as a lion for herself. Weeks +afterward, when I visited her once more, I saw baskets of lime in the +attic which this devoted woman had stored there, to throw with water on +the Indians when they came. This device she had learned from the family +traditions of her ancestors' doings, when the Spaniards were in Holland.</p> + +<p>Gradually the alarm wore away. The French and Indians, after killing fifty +Palatines and taking thrice that number prisoners, turned tail and marched +back to the Lake again, with some of Honikol Herkimer's lead in their +miserable bodies. The Valley was rarely to be cursed with their presence +again. It was as if a long fever had come to its climax in a tremendous +convulsion, and then gone off altogether. We regained confidence, and +faced the long winter of '57 with content.</p> + +<p>Before the next snowfall succeeded to that first November flurry, and the +season closed in in earnest, Mr. Stewart was able, by the aid of a number +of neighbors, to build and roof over two additions to his house. The +structure was still all of logs, but with its new wings became almost as +large, if not as imposing, as any frame-house round about. One of these +wings was set aside for Dame Kronk and the little girl. The other, much to +my surprise, was given to me. At the same time my benefactor formally +presented me with my little black playmate, Tulp. He had heretofore been +my friend; henceforth he was my slave, yet, let me add, none the less +my friend.</p> + +<p>All this was equivalent to my formal adoption as Mr. Stewart's son. It was +the custom in those days, when a slave child came of a certain age, to +present it to the child of the family who should be of the same age and +sex. The presentation was made at New Year's, ordinarily, and the white +child acknowledged it by giving the little black a piece of money and a +pair of shoes. My mother rather illogically shed some tears at this token +that I was to belong henceforth to Mr. Stewart; but she gave me a bright +Spanish dollar out of her small hoard, for Tulp, and she had old William +Dietz, the itinerant cobbler of Schoharie, construct for him a very +notable pair of shoes, which did him no good since his father promptly +sold them over at Fort Hunter for rum. The old rascal would have made +away with the coin as well, no doubt, but that Mr. Stewart threatened him +with a hiding, and so Tulp wore it on a leather string about his neck.</p> + +<p>I did not change my name, but continued to be Douw Mauverensen. This was +at the wish of both Mr. Stewart and my mother, for the name I bore was an +honorable one. My father had been for years a clergyman in the Valley, +preaching now in Dutch, now in German, according to the nationality of the +people, and leading a life of much hardship, travelling up and down among +them. It is not my business to insist that he was a great man, but it is +certain that through all my younger years I received kindnesses from many +people because I was my father's son. For my own part I but faintly +remember him, he having been killed by a fractious horse when I was a very +small boy.</p> + +<p>As he had had no fixed charge during life, but had ministered to half a +dozen communities, so it was nobody's business in particular to care for +his family after his death. The owner of the horse did send my mother a +bushel of apples, and the congregation at Stone Arabia took up a little +money for her. But they were all poor people in those days, wresting a +scanty livelihood from the wilderness, and besides, I have never noticed +that to be free with their money is in the nature of either the Dutch or +the Palatines. The new dominie, too, who came up from Albany to take my +father's place, was of the opinion that there was quite little enough +coming in for the living pastor, without shearing it, as he said, to keep +alive dead folk's memories. Thus sadly a prospect of great destitution +opened before my mother.</p> + +<p>But she was, if I say it myself, a superior woman. Her father, Captain +Baltus Van Hoorn, had been a burgher of substance in old Dorp, until the +knavery of a sea-captain who turned pirate with a ship owned by my +grandfather drove the old gentleman into poverty and idleness. For years +his younger daughter, my mother, kept watch over him, contrived by hook or +by crook to collect his old credits outstanding, and maintained at least +enough of his business to ward the wolf from the door. It was only after +his death, and after her older sister Margaret had gone to Coeymans with +her husband, Kronk, that my mother married the elderly Dominie +Mauverensen. When he was so untowardly killed, fifteen years later, she +was left with eight children, of whom I, a toddling urchin, was among the +youngest. She had no money save the pittance from Stone Arabia, no means +of livelihood, nor even a roof of her own over her head, since the new +dominie made harsh remarks about her keeping him out of his own every time +he visited our village. To add to the wretchedness of her plight, at this +very time her sister Margaret came back in destitution and weakness to +her, having been both widowed and sorely shaken in wits by the small-pox.</p> + +<p>It was then that Mr. Stewart, who had known my father, came to our relief. +He first lent my mother a small sum of money--she would take no more, and +was afterward very proud to repay him penny for penny. He further +interested Sir William Johnson, Mr. Douw Fonda, Mr. John Butler, and +others in the project of aiding her to establish a small school at Fort +Hunter, where little children might be taught pure Dutch.</p> + +<p>This language, which I have lived to see almost entirely fade from use, +was even then thought to be most probably the tongue of the future in the +colony, and there was the more need to teach it correctly, since, by the +barbarous commingling of Rhenish peasant dialects, Irish and Scotch +perversions of English, Indian phrases, the lingo of the slaves, and the +curious expressions of the Yankees from the East, the most villanous +jargon ever heard was commonly spoken in our Valley. My mother knew the +noble language of her fathers in all its strength and sweetness, and her +teaching was so highly prized that soon the school became a source of +steady support to us all. Old "Uncle" Conrad--or Coonrod as we used to +call him--the high-shouldered old pedagogue who was at once teacher, +tithing-man, herb-doctor, and fiddler for our section, grumbled a little +at the start; but either he had not the heart to take the bread from our +mouths, or his own lips were soon silenced by the persuasion of +our patrons.</p> + +<p>It was out of respect for one of these, good old Douw Fonda, who came from +Schenectady to live at Caughnawaga when I was two years old, that I had +been named. But even more we all owed to the quiet, lonely man who had +built the log house opposite Aries Creek, and who used so often to come +over on Sunday afternoons in the warm weather and pay us a +friendly visit.</p> + +<p>My earliest recollections are of this Mr. Stewart, out of whom my boyish +fancy created a beneficent sort of St. Nicholas, who could be good all the +year round instead of only at New Year's. As I grew older his visits +seemed more and more to be connected with me, for he paid little attention +to my sisters, and rarely missed taking me on his knee, or, later on, +leading me out for a walk. Finally I was asked to go over and stay with +him for a week, and this practically was the last of my life with my +mother. Soon afterward my aunt was engaged as his housekeeper, and I +tacitly became a part of the household as well. Last of all, on my eighth +birthday, in this same November of '57, I was formally installed as son of +the house.</p> + +<p>It was a memorable day, as I have said, in that Tulp was given me for my +own. But I think that at the time I was even more affected by the fact +that I was presented with a coat, and allowed to forever lay aside my +odious aprons. These garments, made by my mother's own hands, had long +been the bane of my existence. To all my entreaties to be dressed as the +other boys of my age were, like Matthew Wormuth or Walter Butler instead +of like a Dutch infant, she was accustomed to retort that young Peter +Hansenius, the son of the dominie at Schenectady, had worn aprons until he +was twelve. I had never seen Peter Hansenius, nor has it ever since been +my fortune so to do, but I hated him bitterly as the cause of my +humiliation.</p> + +<p>Yet when I had got my coat, and wore it, along with breeches of the same +pearl-gray color, dark woollen stockings, copper buckles on my shoes, and +plain lace at my wrists and neck and on my new hat, I somehow did not feel +any more like the other boys than before.</p> + +<p>It was my bringing up, I fancy, which made me a solitary lad. Continual +contact with Mr. Stewart had made me older than my years. I knew the +history of Holland almost as well, I imagine, as any grown man in the +neighborhood, and I had read many valuable books on the history of other +countries and the lives of famous men, which were in Mr. Stewart's +possession. Sir William also loaned me numerous books, including the +<i>Gentleman's Magazine,</i> which I studied with delight. I had also from him +<i>Roderick Random</i>, which I did not at all enjoy, nor do I even now +understand how it, or for that matter any of its rowdy fellows, found +favor with sensible people.</p> + +<p>My reading was all very serious--strangely so, no doubt, for a little +boy--but in truth reading of any sort would have served to make me an odd +sheep among my comrades. I wonder still at the unlettered condition of the +boys about me. John Johnson, though seven years my senior, was so ignorant +as scarcely to be able to tell the difference between the Dutch and the +Germans, and whence they respectively came. He told me once, some years +after this, when I was bringing an armful of volumes from his father's +mansion, that a boy was a fool to pore over books when he could ride and +fish and hunt instead. Young Butler was of a better sort mentally, but he +too never cared to read much. Both he and the Groats, the Nellises, the +Cosselmans, young Wormuth--in fact, all the boys of good families I knew +in the Valley--derided education, and preferred instead to go into the +woods with a negro, and hunt squirrels while he chopped, or to play with +their traps.</p> + +<p>Perhaps they were not to be blamed much, for the attractions of the rough +out-of-door life which they saw men leading all about them might very +easily outweigh the quiet pleasures of a book. But it was a misfortune +none the less in after-years to some of them, when they allowed uninformed +prejudices to lead them into a terrible course of crime against their +country and their neighbors, and paid their estates or their lives as the +penalty for their ignorance and folly.</p> + +<p>Fortunately, things are better ordered for the youth of the land in these +days.</p> + + + + +<h2><a name="05"></a>Chapter V</h2> + +<h3>How a Stately Name Was Shortened and Sweetened.</h3> + + + +<p>It was on the morrow after my birthday that we became finally convinced of +the French retreat. Mr. Stewart had returned from his journeys, contented, +and sat now, after his hot supper, smoking by the fire. I lay at his feet +on a bear-skin, I remember, reading by the light of the flames, when my +aunt brought the baby-girl in.</p> + +<p>During the week that she had been with us, I had been too much terrified +by the menace of invasion to take much interest in her, and Mr. Stewart +had scarcely seen her. He smiled now, and held out his hands to her. She +went to him very freely, and looked him over with a wise, wondering +expression when he took her on his knee. It could be seen that she was +very pretty. Her little white rows of teeth were as regular and pearly as +the upper kernels on an ear of fresh sweet corn. She had a ribbon in her +long, glossy hair, and her face shone pleasantly with soap. My aunt had +made her some shoes out of deer-hide, which Mr. Stewart chuckled over.</p> + +<p>"What a people the Dutch are!" he said, with a smile. "The child is +polished like the barrel of a gun. What's your name, little one?"</p> + +<p>The girl made no answer, from timidity I suppose.</p> + +<p>"Has she no name? I should think she would have one," said I. It was the +first time I had ever spoken to Mr. Stewart without having been addressed. +But my new position in the house seemed to entitle me to this much +liberty, for once.</p> + +<p>"No," he replied, "your aunt is not able to discover that she has a +name--except that she calls herself Pulkey, or something like that."</p> + +<p>"That is not a good name to the ear," I said, in comment.</p> + +<p>"No; doubtless it is a nickname. I have thought," he added, musingly, "of +calling her Desideria."</p> + +<p>I sat bolt upright at this. It did not become me to protest, but I could +not keep the dismay from my face, evidently, for Mr. Stewart +laughed aloud.</p> + +<p>"What is it, Douw? Is it not to your liking?"</p> + +<p>"Y-e-s, sir--but she is such a very little girl!"</p> + +<p>"And the name is so great, eh? She'll grow to it, lad, she'll grow to it. +And what kind of a Dutchman are you, sir, who are unwilling to do honor to +the greatest of all Dutchmen? The Dr. Erasmus upon whose letters you are +to try your Latin this winter--his name was Desiderius. Can you tell what +it means? It signifies 'desired,' as of a mother's heart, and he took a +form of the Greek verb <i>erao</i>, meaning about the same thing, instead. It's +a goodly famous name, you see. We mean to make our little girl the truest +lady, and love her the best, of all the women in the Valley. And so we'll +give her a name--a fair-sounding, gracious, classical name--which no +other woman bears, and one that shall always suggest home love--eh, boy?"</p> + +<p>"But if it be so good a name, sir," I said, gingerly being conscious of +presumption, "why did Dr. Erasmus not keep it himself instead of turning +it into Greek?"</p> + +<p>My patron laughed heartily at this. "A Dutchman for obstinacy!" he said, +and leaned over to rub the top of my head, which he did when I specially +pleased him.</p> + +<p>Late that night, as I lay awake in my new room, listening to the whistling +of the wind in the snow-laden branches outside, an idea came to me which I +determined to put into action. So next evening, when the little girl was +brought in after our supper, I begged that she might be put down on the +fur before the fire, to play with me, and I watched my opportunity. Mr. +Stewart was reading by the candles on the table. Save for the singing of +the kettle on the crane--for the mixing of his night-drink later on--and +the click of my aunt's knitting-needles, there was perfect silence. I +mustered my bravery, and called my wee playmate "Daisy."</p> + +<p>I dared not look at the master, and could not tell if he had heard or not. +Presently I spoke the name again, and this time ventured to steal an +apprehensive glance at him, and fancied I saw the workings of a smile +repressed in the deep lines about his mouth. "A Dutchman for obstinacy" +truly, since two days afterward Mr. Stewart himself called the girl +"Daisy"--and there was an end of it. Until confirmation time, when she +played a queenly part at the head of the little class of farmers' and +villagers' daughters whom Dominie Romeyn baptized into full communion, +the ponderous Latin name was never heard of again. Then it indeed emerged +for but a single day, to dignify a state occasion, and disappeared +forever. Except alone on the confirmation register of the Stone Church at +Caughnawaga, she was Daisy thenceforth for all time and to all men.</p> + +<p>The winter of 1757-58 is still spoken of by us old people as a season of +great severity and consequent privation. The snow was drifted over the +roads up to the first branches of the trees, yet rarely formed a good +crust upon which one could move with snow-shoes. Hence the outlying +settlements, like Cherry Valley and Tribes Hill, had hard work to +get food.</p> + +<p>I do not remember that our household stood in any such need, but +occasionally some Indian who had been across the hills carrying venison +would come in and rest, begging for a drink of raw rum, and giving forth a +strong smell like that of a tame bear as he toasted himself by the fire. +Mr. Stewart was often amused by these fellows, and delighted to talk with +them as far as their knowledge of language and inclination to use it went, +but I never could abide them.</p> + +<p>It has become the fashion now to be sentimental about the red man, and +young people who never knew what he really was like find it easy to extol +his virtues, and to create for him a chivalrous character. No doubt there +were some honest creatures among them; even in Sodom and Gomorrah a few +just people were found. It is true that in later life I once had occasion +to depend greatly upon the fidelity of two Oneidas, and they did not fail +me. But as a whole the race was a bad one--full of laziness and lies and +cowardly ferocity. From earliest childhood I saw a good deal of them, and +I know what I say.</p> + +<p>Probably there was no place on the whole continent where these Indians +could be better studied than in the Mohawk Valley, near to Sir William's +place. They came to him in great numbers, not only from the Six Nations, +but often from far-distant tribes living beyond the Lakes and north of the +St. Lawrence. They were on their best behavior with him, and no doubt had +an affection for him in their way, but it was because he flattered their +egregious vanity by acting and dressing in Indian fashion, and made it +worth their while by constantly giving them presents and rum. Their liking +seemed always to me to be that of the selfish, treacherous cat, rather +than of the honest dog. Their teeth and claws were always ready for your +flesh, if you did not give them enough, and if they dared to strike. And +they were cowards, too, for all their boasting. Not even Sir William could +get them to face any enemy in the open. Their notion of war was midnight +skulking and shooting from behind safe cover. Even in battle they were +murderers, not warriors.</p> + +<p>In peace they were next to useless. There was a little colony of them in +our orchard one summer which I watched with much interest. The men never +did one stroke of honest work all the season long, except to trot on +errands when they felt like it, and occasionally salt and smoke fish +which they caught in the river.</p> + +<p>But the wretched squaws--my word but <i>they</i> worked enough for both! These +women, wrinkled, dirty, sore-eyed from the smoke in their miserable huts, +toiled on patiently, ceaselessly, making a great variety of wooden +utensils and things of deer-hide like snow-shoes, moccasins, and shirts, +which they bartered with the whites for milk and vegetables and rum. Even +the little girls among them had to gather berries and mandrake, and, in +the fall, the sumach blows which the Indians used for savoring their food. +And if these poor creatures obtained in their bartering too much bread and +milk and too little rum and tobacco, they were beaten by their men as no +white man would beat the meanest animal.</p> + +<p>Doubtless much of my dislike for the Indian came from his ridiculous and +hateful assumption of superiority over the negro. To my mind, and to all +sensible minds I fancy, one simple, honest, devoted black was worth a +score of these conceited, childish brutes. I was so fond of my boy Tulp, +that, even as a little fellow, I deeply resented the slights and cuffs +which he used to receive at the hands of the savages who lounged about in +the sunshine in our vicinity. His father, mother, and brothers, who herded +together in a shanty at the edge of the clearing back of us, had their +faults, no doubt; but they would work when they were bid, and they were +grateful to those who fed and clothed and cared for them. These were +reasons for their being despised by the Indians--and they seemed also +reasons why I should like them, as I always did.</p> + +<p>There were other reasons why I should be very fond of Tulp. He was a +queer, droll little darky as a boy, full of curious fancies and comical +sayings, and I never can remember a time when he would not, I veritably +believe, have laid down his life for me. We were always together, indoors +or out. He was exceedingly proud of his name, which was in a way a badge +of ancient descent--having been borne by a long line of slaves, his +ancestors, since that far-back time when the Dutch went crazy over +collecting tulip-bulbs.</p> + +<p>His father had started in life with this name, too, but, passing into the +possession of an unromantic Yankee at Albany, had been re-christened +Eli--a name which he loathed yet perforce retained when Mr. Stewart bought +him. He was a drunken, larcenous old rascal, but as sweet-tempered as the +day is long, and many's the time I've heard him vow, with maudlin tears in +his eyes, that all his evil habits came upon him as the result of changing +his name. If he had continued to be Tulp, he argued, he would have had +some incentive to an honorable life; but what self-respecting nigger could +have so low-down a name as Eli, and be good for anything? All this +warranted my boy in being proud of his name, and, so to speak, living +up to it.</p> + +<p>I have gossiped along without telling much of the long winter of 1757. In +truth, there is little to tell. I happen to remember that it was a season +of cruel hardship to many of our neighbors. But it was a happy time for +me. What mattered it that the snow was piled outside high above my head; +that food in the forest was so scarce that the wolves crept yelping close +to our stockade; that we had to eat cranberries to keep off the scurvy, +until I grew for all time to hate their very color; or that for five long +months I never saw my mother and sisters, or went to church? It was very +pleasant inside.</p> + +<p>I seem still to see the square, home-like central room of the old house, +with Mr. Stewart's bed in one corner, covered with a great robe of pieced +panther skins. The smoky rafters above were hung with strings of onions, +red-peppers, and long ears of Indian corn, the gold of which shone through +pale parted husks and glowed in the firelight. The rude home-made table, +chairs, and stools stood in those days upon a rough floor of hewn planks, +on projecting corners of which an unlucky toe was often stubbed. There +were various skins spread on this floor, and others on the log walls, hung +up to dry. Over the great stone mantel were suspended Mr. Stewart's guns, +along with his sword and pistols. Back in the corners of the fireplace +were hung traps, nets, and the like, while on the opposite side of the +room was the master's bookcase, well filled with volumes in English, +Latin, and other tongues. Three doors, low and unpanelled, opened from +this room to the other chambers of the house--leading respectively to the +kitchen, to my room, and to the room now set apart for my aunt and +little Daisy.</p> + +<p>No doubt it was a poor abode, and scantily enough furnished, judged by +present standards, but we were very comfortable in it, none the less. I +worked pretty hard that winter on my Latin, conning Cæsar for labor and +Dr. Erasmus for play, and kept up my other studies as well, reading for +the first time, I remember, the adventures of Robinson Crusoe. For the +rest, I busied myself learning to make snow-shoes, to twist cords out of +flax, to mould bullets, and to write legibly, or else played with +Daisy and Tulp.</p> + +<p>To confess how simply we amused ourselves, we three little ones, would be +to speak in an unknown tongue, I fear, to modern children. Our stock of +playthings was very limited. We had, as the basis of everything, the +wooden works of the old clock, which served now for a gristmill like that +of the Groats, now for a fort, again for a church. Then there were the +spindles of a discarded spinning-wheel, and a small army of spools which +my aunt used for winding linen thread. These we dressed in odd rags for +dolls--soldiers, Indians, and fine ladies, and knights of old. To our +contented fancy, there was endless interest in the lives and doings of +these poor puppets. I made them illustrate the things I read, and the +slave boy and tiny orphan girl assisted and followed on with equal +enthusiasm, whether the play was of Alexander of Macedon, or Captain Kidd, +or only a war-council of Delaware Indians, based upon Mr. Colden's book.</p> + +<p>Sometimes, when it was warm enough to leave the hearth, and Mr. Stewart +desired not to be disturbed, we would transport ourselves and our games to +my aunt's room. This would be a dingy enough place, I suppose, even to my +eyes now, but it had a great charm then. Here from the rafters hung the +dried, odoriferous herbs--sage, summer-savory, and mother-wort; bottles of +cucumber ointment and of a liniment made from angle-worms--famous for cuts +and bruises; strings of dried apples and pumpkins; black beans in their +withered pods; sweet clover for the linen--and I know not what else +besides. On the wall were two Dutch engravings of the killing of Jan and +Cornelis de Wit by the citizens of The Hague, which, despite their hideous +fidelity to details, had a great fascination for me.</p> + +<p>My childhood comes back vividly indeed to me as I recall the good old +woman, in her white cap and short gown (which she had to lift to get at +the pocket tied over her petticoat by a string to her waist), walking up +and down with the yarn taut from the huge, buzzing wheel, crooning Dutch +hymns to herself the while, and thinking about our dinner.</p> + + + + +<h2><a name="06"></a>Chapter VI</h2> + +<h3>Within Sound of the Shouting Waters.</h3> + + + +<p>If I relied upon my memory, I could not tell when the French war ended. It +had practically terminated, so far as our Valley was concerned, with the +episode already related. Sir William Johnson was away much of the time +with the army, and several of the boys older than myself--John Johnson, +John Frey, and Adam Fonda among them--went with him. We heard vague news +of battles at distant places, at Niagara, at Quebec, and elsewhere. Once, +indeed, a band of Roman Catholic Indians appeared at Fort Herkimer and did +bloody work before they were driven off, but this time there was no panic +in the lower settlements.</p> + +<p>Large troops of soldiers continually passed up and down on the river in +the open seasons, some of them in very handsome clothes.</p> + +<p>I remember one body of Highlanders in particular whose dress and mien +impressed me greatly. Mr. Stewart, too, was much excited by the memories +this noble uniform evoked, and had the officers into the house to eat and +drink with him. I watched and listened to these tall, fierce, bare-kneed +warriors in awe, from a distance. He brought out bottles from his rare +stock of Madeira, and they drank it amid exclamations which, if I mistake +not, were highly treasonable. This was almost the last occasion on which I +heard references made to his descent, and he did his best to discourage +them then. Most of these fine red-haired men, I learned afterward laid +their bones on the bloody plateau overlooking Quebec.</p> + +<p>Far fresher in my recollection than these rumors of war is the fact that +my Tulp caught the small-pox, in the spring of '60, the malady having been +spread by a Yankee who came up the Valley selling sap-spouts that were +turned with a lathe instead of being whittled. The poor little chap was +carried off to a sheep-shed on the meadow clearing, a long walk from our +house, and he had to remain there by himself for six weeks. At my urgent +request, I was allowed to take his food to him daily, leaving it on a +stone outside and then discreetly retiring. He would come out and get it, +and then we would shout to each other across the creek. I took up some of +our dolls to him, but he did not get much comfort out of them, being +unable to remember any of the stories which I illustrated with them, or to +invent any for himself. At his suggestion I brought him instead a piece of +tanned calf-skin, with a sailor's needle and some twine, and the little +fellow made out of this a lot of wallets for his friends, which had to be +buried a long time before they could be safely used. I have one of these +yet--mildewed with age, and most rudely stitched, but still a very +precious possession.</p> + +<p>Tulp came out finally, scarred and twisted so that he was ever afterward +repellent to the eye, and as crooked as Richard the Third. I fear that +Daisy never altogether liked him after this. To me he was dearer than +ever, not because my heart was tenderer than hers, of course, but because +women are more delicately made, and must perforce shudder at ugliness.</p> + +<p>How happily the years went by! The pictures in my memory, save those of +the snug winter rooms already referred to, are all of a beautiful Valley, +embowered in green, radiant with sunshine--each day live-long +with delight.</p> + +<p>There was first of all in the spring, when the chorus of returning +song-birds began, the gathering of maple-sap, still sacred to boyhood. The +sheep were to be washed and sheared, too, and the awkward, weak-kneed +calves to be fed. While the spring floods ran high, ducks and geese +covered the water, and muskrats came out, driven from their holes. Then +appeared great flocks of pigeons, well fattened from their winter's +sojourn in the South, and everybody, young and old, gave himself up to +their slaughter; while this lasted, the crack! crack! of guns was heard +all the forenoon long, particularly if the day was cloudy and the birds +were flying low--and ah! the buttered pigeon pies my aunt made, too.</p> + +<p>As the floods went down, and the snow-water disappeared, the fishing +began, first with the big, silly suckers, then with wiser and more valued +fish. The woods became dry, and then in long, joyous rambles we set traps +and snares, hunted for nests among the low branches and in the +marsh-grass, smoked woodchucks out of their holes, gathered wild flowers, +winter-green, and dye-plants, or built great fires of the dead leaves and +pithless, scattered branches, as boys to the end of time will delight +to do.</p> + +<p>When autumn came, there were mushrooms, and beech-nuts, butter-nuts, +hickory-nuts, wild grapes, pucker-berries, not to speak of loads of +elder-berries for making wine. And the pigeons, flying southward, darkened +the sky once more; and then the horses were unshod for treading out the +wheat, and we children fanned away the chaff with big palm-leaves; and the +combs of honey were gathered and shelved; and the October husking began by +our having the first kettleful of white corn, swollen and hulled by being +boiled in lye of wood ashes, spooned steaming into our porringers of milk +by my aunt.</p> + +<p>Ah, they were happy times indeed!</p> + +<p>Every other Sunday, granted tolerable weather, I crossed the river early +in the morning to attend church with my mother and sisters. It is no +reflection upon my filial respect, I hope, to confess that these are +wearisome memories. We went in solemn procession, the family being +invariably ready and waiting when I arrived. We sat in a long row in a pew +quite in front of the slate-colored pulpit--my mother sitting sternly +upright at the outer end, my tallest sister next, and so on, in regular +progression, down to wretched baby Gertrude and me. The very color of the +pew, a dull Spanish brown, was enough to send one to sleep, and its high, +uncompromising back made all my bones ache.</p> + +<p>Yet I was forced to keep awake, and more, to look deeply interested. I was +a clergyman's son, and the ward of an important man; I was the +best-dressed youngster in the congregation, and brought a slave of my own +to church with me. So Dominie Romeyn always fixed his lack-lustre eye on +me, and seemed to develop all his long, prosy arguments one by one to me +personally. Even when he turned the hour-glass in front of him, he seemed +to indicate that it was quite as much my affair as his. I dared not twist +clear around, to see Tulp sitting among the negroes and Indians, on one of +the backless benches under the end gallery; it was scarcely possible even +to steal glances up to the side galleries, where the boys of lower degree +were at their mischief, and where fits of giggling and horse-play rose and +spread from time to time until the tithing-man, old Conrad to wit, burst +in and laid his hickory gad over their irreverent heads.</p> + +<p>When at last I could escape without discredit, and get across the river +again, it was with the consoling thought that the next Sunday would be Mr. +Stewart's Sunday.</p> + +<p>This meant a good long walk with my patron. Sometimes we would go down to +Mount Johnson, if Sir William was at home, or to Mr. Butler's, or some +other English-speaking house, where I would hear much profitable +conversation, and then be encouraged to talk about it during our leisurely +homeward stroll. But more often, if the day were fine, we would leave +roads and civilization behind us, and climb the gradual elevation to the +north of the house, through the woodland to an old Indian trail which led +to our favorite haunt--a wonderful ravine.</p> + +<p>The place has still a local fame, and picnic parties go there to play at +forestry, but it gives scarcely a suggestion now of its ancient wildness. +As my boyish eyes saw it, it was nothing short of awe-inspiring. The +creek, then a powerful stream, had cut a deep gorge in its exultant leap +over the limestone barrier. On the cliffs above, giant hemlocks seemed to +brush the very sky with their black, tufted boughs. Away below, on the +shadowed bottomland, which could be reached only by feet trained to +difficult descents, strange plants grew rank in the moisture of the +waterfall, and misshapen rocks wrapped their nakedness in heavy folds of +unknown mosses and nameless fern-growths. Above all was the ceaseless +shout of the tumbling waters, which had in my ears ever a barbaric message +from the Spirit of the Wilderness.</p> + +<p>The older Mohawks told Mr. Stewart that in their childhood this weird spot +was held to be sacred to the Great Wolf, the totem of their tribe. Here, +for more generations than any could count, their wise men had gathered +about the mystic birch flame, in grave council of war. Here the tribe had +assembled to seek strength of arm, hardness of heart, cunning of brain, +for its warriors, in solemn incantations and offerings to the Unknown. +Here hostile prisoners had been tortured and burned. Some mishap or omen +or shift of superstitious feeling had led to the abandonment of this +council place. Even the trail, winding its tortuous way from the Valley +over the hills toward the Adirondack fastnesses, had been deserted for +another long before--so long, in fact, that the young brave who chanced to +follow the lounging tracks of the black bear down the creek to the gorge, +or who turned aside from the stealthy pursuit of the eagle's flight to +learn what this muffled roar might signify, looked upon the remains of the +council fire's circle of stone seats above the cataract, and down into the +chasm of mist and foam underneath, with no knowledge that they were a part +of his ancestral history.</p> + +<p>Mr. Stewart told me that when he first settled in the Valley, a +disappointed and angry man, this gulf had much the satisfaction for him +that men in great grief or wrath find in breasting a sharp storm. There +was something congenial to his ugly unrest in this place, with its violent +clamor, its swift dashing of waters, its dismal shadows, and damp +chilliness of depths.</p> + +<p>But we were fallen now upon calmer, brighter days. He was no longer the +discouraged, sullen misanthropist, but had come to be instead a pacific, +contented, even happy, gentleman. And lo! the meaning of the wild gorge +changed to reflect his mood. There was no stain of savagery upon the +delight we had in coming to this spot. As he said, once listened rightly +to, the music of the falling waters gave suggestions which, if they were +sobering, were still not sad.</p> + +<p>This place was all our own, and hither we most frequently bent our steps +on Sundays, after the snow-water had left the creek, and the danger of +lurking colds had been coaxed from the earth by the May sun. Here he would +sit for hours on one of the stones in the great Druid-like circle which +some dead generation of savages had toiled to construct. Sometimes I +would scour the steep sides of the ravine and the moist bottom for curious +plants to fetch to him, and he would tell me of their structure and +design. More often I would sit at his feet, and he, between whiffs at his +pipe, would discourse to me of the differences between his Old World and +this new one, into which I providentially had been born. He talked of his +past, of my future, and together with this was put forth an indescribable +wealth of reminiscence, reflection, and helpful anecdote.</p> + +<p>On this spot, with the gaunt outlines of mammoth primeval trunks and +twisted boughs above us, with the sacred memorials of extinct rites about +us, and with the waters crashing down through the solitude beneath us on +their way to turn Sir William's mill-wheel, one could get broad, +comprehensive ideas of what things really meant. One could see wherein the +age of Pitt differed from and advanced upon the age of Colbert, on this +new continent, and could as in prophecy dream of the age of Jefferson yet +to come. Did I as a lad feel these things? Truly it seems to me that +I did.</p> + +<p>Half a century before, the medicine-man's fire had blazed in this circle, +its smoky incense crackling upward in offering to the gods of the pagan +tribe. Here, too, upon this charred, barren spot, had been heaped the +blazing fagots about the limbs of the captive brave, and the victim bound +to the stake had nerved himself to show the encircling brutes that not +even the horrors of this death could shake his will, or wring a groan +from his heaving breast. Here, too, above the unending din of the +waterfall and the whisper of these hemlocks overhead, had often risen some +such shrill-voiced, defiant deathsong, from the smoke and anguish of the +stake, as that chant of the Algonquin son of Alknomuk which my +grandchildren still sing at their school. This dead and horrible past of +heathendom I saw as in a mirror, looking upon these council-stones.</p> + +<p>The children's children of these savages were still in the Valley. Their +council fires were still lighted, no further distant than the Salt +Springs. In their hearts burned all the old lust for torture and massacre, +and the awful joys of rending enemies limb by limb. But the spell of +Europe was upon them, and, in good part or otherwise, they bowed under it. +So much had been gained, and two peaceful white people could come and talk +in perfect safety on the ancient site of their sacrifices and cruelties.</p> + +<p>Yet this spell of Europe, accomplishing so much, left much to be desired. +It was still possible to burn a slave to death by legal process, here in +our Valley; and it was still within the power of careless, greedy noblemen +in London, who did not know the Mohawk from the Mississippi, to sign away +great patents of our land, robbing honest settlers of their all. There was +to come the spell of America, which should remedy these things. I cannot +get it out of my head that I learned to foresee this, to feel and to look +for its coming, there in the gorge as a boy.</p> + +<p>But there are other reasons why I should remember the place--to be told +later on.</p> + +<p>The part little Daisy played in all these childhood enjoyments of mine is +hardly to be described in words, much less portrayed in incidents. I can +recall next to nothing to relate. Her presence as my sister, my comrade, +and my pupil seems only an indefinable part of the sunshine which gilds +these old memories. We were happy together--that is all.</p> + +<p>I taught her to read and write and cipher, and to tell mushrooms from +toadstools, to eschew poisonous berries, and to know the weather signs. +For her part, she taught me so much more that it seems effrontery to call +her my pupil. It was from her gentle, softening companionship that I +learned in turn to be merciful to helpless creatures, and to be honest and +cleanly in my thoughts and talk. She would help me to seek for birds' +nests with genuine enthusiasm, but it was her pity which prevented their +being plundered afterward. Her pretty love for all living things, her +delight in innocent, simple amusements, her innate repugnance to coarse +and cruel actions--all served to make me different from the rough +boys about me.</p> + +<p>Thus we grew up together, glad in each other's constant company, and +holding our common benefactor, Mr. Stewart, in the greatest love and +veneration.</p> + + + + +<h2><a name="07"></a>Chapter VII</h2> + +<h3>Through Happy Youth to Man's Estate.</h3> + + + +<p>As we two children became slowly transformed into youths, the Valley with +no less steadiness developed in activity, population, and wealth. Good +roads were built; new settlements sprang up; the sense of being in the +hollow of the hand of savagery wore off. Primitive conditions lapsed, +disappeared one by one. We came to smile at the uncouth dress and unshaven +faces of the "bush-bauer" Palatines--once so familiar, now well nigh +outlandish. Families from Connecticut and the Providence Plantations began +to come in numbers, and their English tongue grew more and more to be the +common language. People spoke now of the Winchester bushel, instead of the +Schoharie spint and skipple. The bounty on wolves' heads went up to a +pound sterling. The number of gentlemen who shaved every day, wore +ruffles, and even wigs or powder on great occasions, and maintained +hunting with hounds and horse-racing, increased yearly--so much so that +some innocent people thought England itself could not offer more +attractions.</p> + +<p>There was much envy when John Johnson, now twenty-three years old, was +sent on a visit to England, to learn how still better to play the +gentleman--and even more when he came back a knight, with splendid London +clothes, and stories of what the King and the princes had said to him.</p> + +<p>The Johnsons were a great family now, receiving visits from notable people +all over the colony at their new hall, which Sir William had built on the +hills back of his new Scotch settlement. Nothing could have better shown +how powerful Sir William had become, and how much his favor was to be +courted, than the fact that ladies of quality and strict propriety, who +fancied themselves very fine folk indeed, the De Lanceys and Phillipses +and the like, would come visiting the widower baronet in his hall, and +close their eyes to the presence there of Miss Molly and her half-breed +children. Sir William's neighbors, indeed, overlooked this from their love +for the man, and their reliance in his sense and strength. But the others, +the aristocrats, held their tongues from fear of his wrath, and of his +influence in London.</p> + +<p>They never liked him entirely; he in turn had so little regard for them +and their pretensions that, when they came, he would suffer none of them +to markedly avoid or affront the Brant squaw, whom indeed they had often +to meet as an associate and equal. Yet this bold, independent, really +great man, so shrewdly strong in his own attitude toward these gilded +water-flies, was weak enough to rear his own son to be one of them, to +value the baubles they valued, to view men and things through their +painted spectacles--and thus to come to grief.</p> + +<p>Two years after Johnson Hall was built, Mr. Stewart all at once decided +that he too would have a new house; and before snow flew the handsome, +spacious "Cedars," as it was called, proudly fronted the Valley highway. +Of course it was not, in size, a rival of the Hall at Johnstown, but it +none the less was among the half-dozen best houses in the Mohawk Valley, +and continued so to be until John Johnson burned it to the ground fifteen +years later. It stood in front of our old log structure, now turned over +to the slaves. It was of two stories, with lofty and spacious rooms, and +from the road it presented a noble appearance, now that the old stockade +had given place to a wall of low, regular masonry.</p> + +<p>With this new residence came a prodigious change in our way of life. Daisy +was barely twelve years old, but we already thought of her as the lady of +the house, for whom nothing was too good. The walls were plastered, and +stiff paper from Antwerp with great sprawling arabesques, and figures of +nymphs and fauns chasing one another up and down with ceaseless, fruitless +persistency, was hung upon them, at least in the larger rooms. The floors +were laid smoothly, each board lapping into the next by a then novel +joiner's trick.</p> + +<p>On the floor in Daisy's room there was a carpet, too, a rare and +remarkable thing in those days, and also from the Netherlands. In this +same chamber, as well, were set up a bed of mahogany, cunningly carved and +decorated, and a tall foreign cabinet of some rich dark wood, for linen, +frocks, and the like. Here, likewise, were two gilt cages from Paris, in +which a heart-breaking succession of native birds drooped and died, until +four Dublin finches were at last imported for Daisy's special delight; and +a case with glass doors and a lock, made in Boston, wherein to store her +books; and, best of all, a piano--or was it a harpsichord?--standing on +its own legs, which Mr. Stewart heard of as for sale in New York and +bought at a pretty high figure. This last was indeed a rickety, jangling +old box, but Daisy learned in a way to play upon it, and we men-folk, +sitting in her room in the candle-light, and listening to her voice cooing +to its shrill tinkle of accompaniment, thought the music as sweet as that +of the cherubim.</p> + +<p>Mr. Stewart and I lived in far less splendor. There was no foreign +furniture to speak of in our portions of the house; we slept on beds the +cords of which creaked through honest American maple posts; we walked on +floors which offered gritty sand to the tread instead of carpet-stuffs. +But there were two great stands laden with good books in our living-room; +we had servants now within sound of a bell; we habitually wore garments +befitting men of refinement and substance; we rode our own horses, and we +could have given Daisy a chaise had the condition of our roads made it +desirable.</p> + +<p>I say "we" because I had come to be a responsible factor in the control of +the property. Mr. Stewart had never been poor; he was now close upon being +wealthy. Upon me little by little had devolved the superintendence of +affairs. I directed the burning over and clearing of land, which every +year added scores of tillable acres to our credit; saw to the planting, +care, and harvesting of crops; bought, bred, and sold the stock; watched +prices, dickered with travelling traders, provisioned the house--in a +word, grew to be the manager of all, and this when I was barely twenty.</p> + +<p>Mr. Stewart bore his years with great strength, physically, but he readily +gave over to me, as fast as I could assume them, the details of out-door +work. The taste for sitting indoors or in the garden, and reading, or +talking with Daisy--the charm of simply living in a home made beautiful by +a good and clever young girl--gained yearly upon him.</p> + +<p>Side by side with this sedentary habit, curiously enough, came up a second +growth of old-world, mediæval notions--a sort of aristocratic aftermath. +It was natural, no doubt. His inborn feudal ideas had not been killed by +ingratitude, exile, or his rough-and-ready existence on the edge of the +wilderness, but only chilled to dormancy; they warmed now into life under +the genial radiance of a civilized home. But it is not my purpose to dwell +upon this change, or rather upon its results, at this stage of the story.</p> + +<p>Social position was now a matter for consideration. With improved means of +intercourse and traffic, each year found some family thrifty enough to +thrust its head above the rude level of settlers' equality, and take on +the airs of superiority. Twenty years before, it had been Colonel Johnson +first, and nobody else second. Now the Baronet-General was still +preeminently first; but every little community in the Valley chain had its +two or three families holding themselves only a trifle lower than +the Johnsons.</p> + +<p>Five or six nationalities were represented. Of the Germans, there were the +Herkimers up above the Falls, the Lawyers at Schoharie, the Freys (who +were commonly thus classed, though they came originally from Switzerland), +and many others. Of important Dutch families, there were the Fondas at +Caughnawaga, the Mabies and Groats at Rotterdam, below us, and the +Quackenbosses to the west of us, across the river. The Johnsons and +Butlers were Irish. Over at Cherry Valley the Campbells and Clydes were +Scotch--the former being, indeed, close blood relatives of the great +Argyll house. Colonel Isaac Paris, a prominent merchant near Stone Arabia, +came from Strasbourg, and accounted himself a Frenchman, though he spoke +German better than French, and attended the Dutch Calvinistic church. +There were also English families of quality. I mention them all to show +how curious was the admixture of races in our Valley. One cannot +understand the terrible trouble which came upon us later without some +knowledge of these race divisions.</p> + +<p>Mr. Stewart held a place in social estimation rather apart from any of +these cliques. He was both Scotch and Irish by ancestry; he was French by +education; he had lived and served in the Netherlands and sundry German +states. Thus he could be all things to all men--yet he would not. He +indeed became more solitary as he grew older, for the reasons I have +already mentioned. He once had been friendly with all his intelligent +neighbors, no matter what their nationality. Gradually he came to be +intimate with only the Johnsons and Butlers on the theory that they were +alone well born. Hours upon hours he talked with them of the Warrens and +the Ormund-Butlers in Ireland, from whom they claimed descent, and of the +assurance of Dutch and German cobblers and tinkers, in setting up for +gentlemen.</p> + +<p>Sir William, in truth, had too much sense to often join or sympathize with +these notions. But young Sir John and the Butlers, father and son, adopted +them with enthusiasm, and I am sorry to say there were both Dutch and +German residents, here and there, mean-spirited enough to accept these +reflections upon their ancestry, and strive to atone for their assumed +lack of birth by aping the manners, and fawning for the friendship, of +their critics.</p> + +<p>But let me defer these painful matters as long as possible. There are +still the joys of youth to recall.</p> + +<p>I had grown now into a tall, strong young man, and I was in the way of +meeting no one who did not treat me as an equal. It seems to me now that I +was not particularly popular among my fellows, but I was conscious of no +loneliness then. I had many things to occupy my mind, besides my regular +tasks. Both natural history and botany interested me greatly, and I was +privileged also to assist Sir William's investigations in the noble paths +of astronomy. He had both large information and many fine thoughts on the +subject, and used laughingly to say that if he were not too lazy he would +write a book thereon. This was his way of saying that he had more labor to +get through than any other man in the Colony. It was his idea that some +time I should write the work instead; upon the Sacondaga hills, he said, +we saw and read the heavens without Old-World dust in our eyes, and our +book that was to be should teach the European moles the very alphabet of +planets. Alas! I also was too indolent--truly, not figuratively; the book +was never written.</p> + +<p>In those days there was royal sport for rod and gun, but books also had a +solid worth. We did not visit other houses much--Daisy and I--but held +ourselves to a degree apart. The British people were, as a whole, nearer +our station than the others, and had more ideas in common with us; but +they were not of our blood, and we were not drawn toward many of them. As +they looked down upon the Dutch, so the Dutch, in turn, were supercilious +toward the Germans. I was Dutch, Daisy was German: but by a sort of tacit +consent we identified ourselves with neither race, and this aided our +isolation.</p> + +<p>There was also the question of religion. Mr. Stewart had been bred a +Papist, and at the time of which I write, after the French war, Jesuit +priests of that nation several times visited him to renew old European +friendships. But he never went to mass, and never allowed them or anybody +else to speak with him on the subject, no matter how deftly they +approached it. This was prudent, from a worldly point of view, because the +Valley, and for that matter the whole upper Colony, was bitterly opposed +to Romish pretensions, and the first Scotch Highlanders who brought the +mass into the Valley above Johnstown were openly denounced as idolaters. +But it was certainly not caution which induced Mr. Stewart's backsliding. +He was not the man to defer in that way to the prejudices of others. The +truth was that he had no religious beliefs or faith whatever. But his +scepticism was that of the French noble of the time, that of Voltaire and +Mirabeau, rather than of the English plebeian and democrat, Thomas Paine.</p> + +<p>Naturally Daisy and I were not reared as theologians. We nominally +belonged to the Calvinistic church, but not being obliged to attend its +services, rarely did so. This tended to further separate us from our +neighbors, who were mainly prodigious church-goers.</p> + +<p>But, more than all else, we lived by ourselves because, by constant +contact with refined associations, we had grown to shrink from the +coarseness which ruled outside. All about us marriages were made between +mere children, each boy setting up for himself and taking a wife as soon +as he had made a voyage to the Lakes and obtained a start in fur-trading. +There was precious little sentiment or delicacy in these early courtships +and matches, or in the state of society which they reflected--uncultured, +sordid, rough, unsympathetic, with all its elementary instincts bluntly +exposed and expressed. This was of course a subject not to be discussed by +us. Up to the spring of 1772, when I was twenty-three years of age and +Daisy was eighteen, no word of all the countless words which young men and +women have from the dawn of language spoken on this great engrossing topic +had ever been exchanged between us. In earlier years, when we were on the +threshold of our teens, Mr. Stewart had more than once thought aloud in +our hearing upon the time when we should inherit his home and fortune as a +married couple. Nothing of that talk, though, had been heard for a +long while.</p> + +<p>I had not entirely forgotten it; but I carried the idea along in the attic +of my mind, as a thing not to be thrown away, yet of no present use or +value or interest.</p> + +<p>Occasionally, indeed, I did recall it for the moment, and cast a diffident +conjecture as to whether Daisy also remembered. Who shall say? I have been +young and now am old, yet have I not learned the trick of reading a +woman's mind. Very far indeed was I from it in those callow days.</p> + +<p>And now, after what I fear has been a tiresome enough prologue, my story +awaits.</p> + + + + +<h2><a name="08"></a>Chapter VIII</h2> + +<h3>Enter My Lady Berenicia Cross.</h3> + + + +<p>It is averred that all the evils and miseries of our existence were +entailed upon us by the meddlesome and altogether gratuitous perverseness +of one weak-headed woman. Although faith in the personal influence of Eve +upon the ages is visibly waning in these incredulous, iconoclastic times, +there still remains enough respect for the possibilities for mischief +inherent within a single silly woman to render Lady Berenicia Cross and +her works intelligible, even to the fifth and sixth generations.</p> + +<p>I knew that she was a fool the moment I first laid eyes on her--as she +stood courtesying and simpering to us on the lawn in front of Johnson +Hall, her patched and raddled cheeks mocking the honest morning sunlight. +I take no credit that my eyes had a clearer vision than those of my +companions, but grieve instead that it was not ordered otherwise.</p> + +<p>We had ridden up to the hall, this bright, warm May forenoon, on our first +visit of the spring to the Johnsons. There is a radiant picture of this +morning ride still fresh in my memory. Daisy, I remember, sat on a pillion +behind Mr. Stewart, holding him by the shoulder, and jogging pleasantly +along with the motion of the old horse. Our patron looked old in this +full, broad light; the winter had obviously aged him. His white, queued +hair no longer needed powder; his light blue eyes seemed larger than ever +under the bristling brows, still dark in color; the profile of his lean +face, which had always been so nobly commanding in outline, had grown +sharper of late, and bended nose and pointed chin were closer together, +from the shrinking of the lips. But he sat erect as of old, proud of +himself and of the beautiful girl behind him.</p> + +<p>And she <i>was</i> beautiful, was our Daisy! Her rounded, innocent face beamed +with pleasure from its camlet hood, as sweet and suggestive of fragrance +as a damask rose against the blue sky. It was almost a childish face in +its simplicity and frankness, yet already beginning to take on a woman's +thoughtfulness and a woman's charm of tint and texture. We often thought +that her parents must have had other than Palatine peasant blood, so +delicate and refined were her features, not realizing that books and +thoughts help far more toward making faces than does ancestry. Just the +edge of her wavy light-brown hair could be seen under the frill of the +hood, with lines of gold upon it painted by the sun.</p> + +<p>She laughed and talked gayly as our horses climbed the hills. I thought, +as I rode by their side, how happy we all were, and how beautiful was +she--this flower plucked from the rapine and massacre of the Old War! And +I fancy the notion that we were no longer children began dancing in my +head a little, too.</p> + +<p>It would have been strange otherwise, for the day and the scene must have +stirred the coldest pulse. We moved through a pale velvety panorama of +green--woodland and roadside and river reflections and shadows, all of +living yet young and softening green; the birds all about us filled the +warm air with song; the tapping of the woodpeckers and the shrill chatter +of squirrels came from every thicket; there was nothing which did not +reflect our joyous, buoyant delight that spring had come again. And I rode +by Daisy's side, and thought more of her, I'm bound, than I did of the +flood-dismantled dike on the river-bend at home which I had left +unrestored for the day.</p> + +<p>Over the heads of the negroes, who, spying us, came headlong to take our +horses, we saw Sir William standing in the garden with an unknown lady. +The baronet himself, walking a little heavily with his cane, approached us +with hearty salutations, helped Daisy to unmount, and presented us to this +stranger--Lady Berenicia Cross.</p> + +<p>I am not so sure that people can fall in love at first sight. But never +doubt their ability to dislike from the beginning! I know that I felt +indignantly intolerant of this woman even before, hat in hand, I had +finished my bow to her.</p> + +<p>Yet it might well have been that I was over-harsh in my judgment. She had +been a pretty woman in her time, and still might be thought well-favored. +At least <i>she</i> must have thought so, for she wore more paint and ribbons, +and fal-lals generally, than ever I saw on another woman, before or since. +Her face was high, narrow, and very regular; oddly enough, it was in +outline, with its thin, pursed-up mouth, straight nose, and full eyelids +and brows, very like a face one would expect to see in a nun's hood. Yet +so little in the character of the cloister did this countenance keep, that +it was plastered thick with chalk and rouge, and sprinkled with ridiculous +black patches, and bore, as it rose from the low courtesy before me, an +unnatural smile half-way between a leer and a grin.</p> + +<p>I may say that I was a wholesome-enough looking young fellow, very tall +and broad-shouldered, with a long, dark face, which was ugly in childhood, +but had grown now into something like comeliness. I am not parading +special innocence either, but no woman had ever looked into my eyes with +so bold, I might say impudent, an expression as this fine lady put on to +greet me. And she was old enough to be my mother, almost, into +the bargain.</p> + +<p>But even more than her free glances, which, after all, meant no harm, but +only reflected London manners, her dress grated upon me. We were not +unaccustomed to good raiment in the Valley. Johnson Hall, which reared its +broad bulk through the trees on the knoll above us, had many a time +sported richer and costlier toilets in its chambers than this before us. +But on my lady the gay stuffs seemed painfully out of place--like her +feather fan, and smelling-salts, and dainty netted purse. The mountains +and girdling forests were real; the strong-faced, burly, handsome baronet, +whose words spoken here in the back-woods were law to British king and +Parliament, was real; we ourselves, suitably and decently clad, and +knowing our position, were also genuine parts of the scene. The English +lady was pinchbeck by contrast with all about her.</p> + +<p>"Will you give the ladies an arm, Douw?" said Sir William. "We were +walking to see the lilacs I planted a year ago. We old fellows, with so +much to say to each other, will lead the way."</p> + +<p>Nothing occurred to me to say to the new acquaintance, who further annoyed +me by clinging to my arm with a zeal unpleasantly different from Daisy's +soft touch on the other side. I walked silent, and more or less sulky, +between them down the gravelled path. Lady Berenicia chattered steadily.</p> + +<p>"And so this is the dear little Mistress Daisy of whom Sir William talks +so much. How happy one must be to be such a favorite everywhere! And you +content to live here, too, leading this simple, pastoral life! How sweet! +And you never weary of it--never sigh when it is time to return to it from +New York?"</p> + +<p>"I never have been to New York, nor Albany either," Daisy made answer.</p> + +<p>Lady Berenicia held up her fan in pretended astonishment.</p> + +<p>"Never to New York! nor even to Albany! <i>Une vraie belle sauvage!</i> How you +amaze me, poor child!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I crave no pity, madam," our dear girl answered, cheerily. "My father +and brother are so good to me--just like a true father and brother--that +if I but hinted a wish to visit the moon, they would at once set about to +arrange the voyage. I do not always stay at home. Twice I have been on a +visit to Mr. Campbell, at Cherry Valley, over the hills yonder. And then +once we made a grand excursion up the river, way to Fort Herkimer, and +beyond to the place where my poor parents lost their lives."</p> + +<p>As we stood regarding the lilac bushes, planted in a circle on the slope, +and I was congratulating myself that my elbows were free again, two +gentlemen approached us from the direction of the Hall.</p> + +<p>Daisy was telling the story of her parents' death, which relation Lady +Berenicia had urgently pressed, but now interrupted by saying: "There, +that is my husband, with young Mr. Butler."</p> + +<p>Mr. Jonathan Cross seemed a very honest and sensible gentleman when we +came to converse with him; somewhat austere, in the presence of his +rattle-headed spouse at least, but polite and well-informed. He spoke +pleasantly with me, saying that he was on his way to the farther Lake +country on business, and that his wife was to remain, until his return, at +Johnson Hall.</p> + +<p>His companion was Walter Butler, and of him I ought to speak more closely, +since long generations after this tale is forgotten his name will remain +written, blood-red, in the Valley's chronicles. I walked away from the +lilacs with him, I recall, discussing some unremembered subject. I always +liked Walter: even now, despite everything, there continues a soft spot in +my memory for him.</p> + +<p>He was about my own age, and, oh! such a handsome youth, with features cut +as in a cameo, and pale-brown smooth skin, and large deep eyes, that look +upon me still sometimes in dreams with ineffable melancholy. He was +somewhat beneath my stature, but formed with perfect delicacy.</p> + +<p>In those old days of breeches and long hose, a man's leg went for a good +deal. I have often thought that there must be a much closer connection +between trousers and democracy than has ever been publicly traced. A man +like myself, with heavy knee-joints and a thick ankle, was almost always a +Whig in the Revolutionary time--as if by natural prejudice against the +would-be aristocrats, who liked to sport a straight-sinking knee-cap and +dapper calf. When the Whigs, after the peace, became masters of their own +country, and divided into parties again on their own account, it was still +largely a matter of lower limbs. The faction which stood nearest Old-World +ideas and monarchical tastes are said to have had great delight in the +symmetry of Mr. Adams's underpinning, so daintily displayed in satin and +silk. And when the plainer majority finally triumphed with the induction +of Mr. Jefferson, some fifteen years since, was it not truly a victory of +republican trousers--a popular decree that henceforth all men should be +equal as to legs?</p> + +<p>To return. Walter Butler was most perfectly built--a living picture of +grace. He dressed, too, with remarkable taste, contriving always to appear +the gentleman, yet not out of place in the wilderness. He wore his own +black hair, carelessly tied or flowing, and with no thought of powder.</p> + +<p>We had always liked each other, doubtless in that we were both of a solemn +and meditative nature. We had not much else in common, it is true, for he +was filled to the nostrils with pride about the Ormond-Butlers, whom he +held to be his ancestors, and took it rather hard that I should not also +be able to revere them for upholding a false-tongued king against the +rights of his people. For my own part, I did not pin much faith upon his +descent, being able to remember his grandfather, the old lieutenant, who +seemed a peasant to the marrow of his bones.</p> + +<p>Nor could I see any special value in the fact of descent, even were it +unquestioned. Walter, it seemed to me, would do much better to work at the +law, to which he was bred, and make a name for himself by his own +exertions. Alas, he did make a name!</p> + +<p>But though our paths would presently diverge we still were good friends, +and as we walked he told me what he had heard that day of Lady Berenicia +Cross. It was not much. She had been the daughter of a penniless, +disreputable Irish earl, and had wedded early in life to escape the +wretchedness of her paternal home. She had played quite a splendid part +for a time in the vanities of London court-life, after her husband gained +his wealth, but had latterly found her hold upon fashion's favor loosened. +Why she had accompanied her serious spouse on this rough and wearisome +journey was not clear. It might be that she came because he did not care +for her company. It might be that he thought it wisest not to leave her in +London to her own devices. In any case, here she indubitably was, and +Walter was disposed to think her rather a fine woman <b>for her years</b>, +which he took to be about twoscore.</p> + +<hr width="80%" size="1" /> + +<p>We strolled back again to the lilacs, where the two women were seated on a +bench, with Mr. Cross and Colonel Claus--the brighter and better of Sir +William's two sons-in-law--standing over them. Lady Berenicia beckoned to +my companion with her fan.</p> + +<p>"Pray come and amuse us, Mr. Butler," she said, in her high, mincing +tones. "Were it not for the fear of ministering to your vanity, I might +confess we two have been languishing for an hour for your company. +Mistress Daisy and I venerate these cavaliers of ours vastly--we hold +their grave wisdom in high regard--but our frivolous palates need lighter +things than East India Companies and political quarrels in Boston. I +command you to discourse nonsense, Mr. Butler--pure, giddy nonsense."</p> + +<p>Walter bowed, and with a tinge of irony acknowledged the compliment, but +all pleasantly enough. I glanced at our Daisy, expecting to discover my +own distaste for this silly speech mirrored on her face. It vexed me a +little to see that she seemed instead to be pleased with the London lady.</p> + +<p>"What shall it be, my lady?" smiled Walter; "what shall be the +shuttlecock--the May races, the ball, the Klock scandal, the--"</p> + +<p>If it was rude, it is too late to be helped now. I interrupted the foolish +talk by asking Colonel Claus what the news from Boston was, for the +post-boy had brought papers to the Hall that morning.</p> + +<p>"The anniversary speech is reported. Some apothecary, named Warren, held +forth this year, and his seems the boldest tongue yet. If his talk stinks +not of treason in every line, why then I have no smelling sense. They are +talking of it in the library now; but I am no statesman, and it suits me +better out here in the sun."</p> + +<p>"But," I replied, "I have heard of this Dr. Warren, and he is not reputed +to be a rash or thoughtless speaker."</p> + +<p>Young Butler burst into the conversation with eager bitterness:</p> + +<p>"Thoughtless! Rash! No--the dogs know better! There'll be no word that can +be laid hold upon--all circumspect outside, with hell itself underneath. +Do we not know the canters? Oh, but I'd smash through letter and seal of +the law alike to get at them, were I in power! There'll be no peace till +some strong hand does do it."</p> + +<p>Walter's deep eyes flashed and glowed as he spoke, and his face was +shadowed with grave intensity of feeling.</p> + +<p>There was a moment's silence--broken by the thin voice of the London lady: +"<i>Bravo</i>! admirable! Always be in a rage, Mr. Butler, it suits you so +much.--Isn't he handsome, Daisy, with his feathers all on end?"</p> + +<p>While our girl, unused to such bold talk, looked blushingly at the young +grass, Mr. Cross spoke:</p> + +<p>"Doubtless you gentry of New York have your own good reasons for disliking +Boston men, as I find you do. But why rasp your nerves and spoil your +digestion by so fuming over their politics? I am an Englishman: if I can +keep calm on the subject, you who are only collaterally aggrieved, as it +were, should surely be able to do so. My word for it, young men, life +brings vexations enough to one's very door, without setting out in +quest of them."</p> + +<p>"Pray, Mr. Cross," languidly sneered my lady, "what is there in the +heavens or on the earth, or in the waters under the earth, which could +stir your blood by one added beat an hour, save indigo and spices?"</p> + +<p>There was so distinct a menace of domestic discord in this iced query that +Butler hastened to take up the talk:</p> + +<p>"Ah, yes, <i>you</i> can keep cool! There are thousands of miles of water +between you English and the nest where this treason is hatched. It's close +to us. Do you think you can fence in a sentiment as you can cattle? No: it +will spread. Soon what is shouted in Boston will be spoken in Albany, +whispered in Philadelphia, winked and nodded in Williamsburg, thought in +Charleston. And how will it be here, with us? Let me tell you, Mr. Cross, +we are really in an alien country here. The high Germans above us, like +that Herkimer you saw here Tuesday, do you think they care a pistareen for +the King? And these damned sour-faced Dutch traders below, have they +forgotten that this province was their grandfathers'? The moment it +becomes clear to their niggard souls that there's no money to be lost by +treason, will they not delight to help on any trouble the Yankees contrive +to make for England? I tell you, sir, if you knew these Dutch as I know +them--their silent treachery, their jealousy of us, their greed--"</p> + +<p>This seemed to have gone far enough. "Come, you forget that I am a +Dutchman," I said, putting my hand on Butler's shoulder.</p> + +<p>Quivering with the excitement into which he had worked himself, he shook +off my touch, and took a backward step, eying me angrily. I returned his +gaze, and I dare say it was about as wrathful as his own.</p> + +<p>Lady Berenicia made a diversion. "It grows cool," she said. "Come inside +with me, Mistress Daisy, and I will show you all my chests and boxes. Mr. +Cross made a great to-do about bringing them, but--"</p> + +<p>As the ladies rose, Walter came to me with outstretched hand. "I was at +fault, Douw," said he, frankly. "Don't think more about it."</p> + +<p>I took his hand, though I was not altogether sure about forgetting his +words.</p> + +<p>Lady Berenicia looked at us over her shoulder, as she moved away, with +disappointment mantling through the chalk on her cheeks.</p> + +<p>"My word! I protest they're not going to fight after all," she said.</p> + + + + +<h2><a name="09"></a>Chapter IX</h2> + +<h3>I See My Sweet Sister Dressed in Strange Attire.</h3> + + + +<p>In the library room of the Hall, across from the dining-chamber, and at +the foot of the great staircase, on the bannister of which you may still +see the marks of Joseph Brant's hatchet, we men had a long talk in the +afternoon. I recall but indifferently the lesser topics of conversation. +There was, of course, some political debate, in which Sir William and I +were alone on the side of the Colonist feeling, and Mr. Stewart, the two +Butlers, and Sir John Johnson were all for choking discontent with the +rope. Nothing very much to the point was said, on our part at least; for +the growing discord pained Sir William too deeply to allow him pleasure in +its discussion, and I shrank from appearing to oppose Mr. Stewart, hateful +as his notions seemed.</p> + +<p>Young Sir John stood by the window, I remember, sulkily drumming on the +diapered panes, and purposely making his interjections as disagreeable to +me as he could; at least, I thought so. So, apparently, did his father +think, for several times I caught the wise old baronet glancing at his son +in reproof, with a look in his grave gray eyes as of dawning doubt about +the future of his heir.</p> + +<p>Young Johnson was now a man of thirty, blond, aquiline-faced, with cold +blue eyes and thin, tight lips, which pouted more readily than they +smiled. His hair was the pale color of bleached hay, a legacy from his low +born German mother, and his complexion was growing evenly florid from too +much Madeira wine. We were not friends, and we both knew it.</p> + +<p>There was other talk--about the recent creation of our part into a county +by itself to be named after the Governor; about the behavior of the French +traders at Oswego and Detroit, and a report from Europe in the latest +gazettes that the "Young" Pretender, now a broken old rake, was at last to +be married. This last was a subject upon which Mr. Stewart spoke most +entertainingly, but with more willingness to let it be known that he had a +kinsman's interest in the matter than he would formerly have shown. He was +getting old, in fact, and an almost childish pride in his equivocal +ancestry was growing upon him. Still his talk and reminiscences were +extremely interesting.</p> + +<p>They fade in my recollection, however, before the fact that it was at this +little gathering, this afternoon, that my career was settled for me. There +had been some talk about me while I remained alone outside to confer with +Sir William's head farmer, and Mr. Cross had agreed with Mr. Stewart and +Sir William that I was to accompany him on his trip to the far Western +region the following week. My patron had explained that I needed some +added knowledge of the world and its affairs, yet was of too serious a +turn to gather this in the guise of amusement, as Mr. John Butler advised +I should, by being sent on a holiday to New York. Mr. Cross had been good +enough to say that he liked what he had seen of me, and should be glad of +my company.</p> + +<p>Of all this I knew nothing when I entered the library. The air was heavy +with tobacco-smoke, and the table bore more bottles and glasses +than books.</p> + +<p>"Find a chair, Douw," said Sir William. "I have sent for my man, Enoch +Wade, who is to go westward with Mr, Cross next week. If he's drunk enough +there'll be some sport."</p> + +<p>There entered the room a middle-aged man, tall, erect, well-knit in frame, +with a thin, Yankeeish face, deeply browned, and shrewd hazel eyes. He +bowed to nobody, but stood straight, looking like an Indian in his clothes +of deer-hide.</p> + +<p>"This is Enoch Wade, gentlemen," said the baronet, indicating the +new-comer with a wave of his glass, and stretching out his legs to enjoy +the scene the more. "He is my land-sailor. Between his last sale at +Albany, and his first foot westward from here, he professes all the vices +and draws never a sober breath. Yet when he is in the woods he is +abstemious, amiable, wise, resourceful, virtuous as a statue--a paragon of +trappers. You can see him for yourselves. Yet, I warn you, appearances are +deceitful; he is always drunker than he looks. He was, I know, most +sinfully tipsy last night."</p> + +<p>"It was in excellent good company, General," said the hunter, drawling his +words and no whit abashed.</p> + +<p>"He has no manners to speak of," continued the baronet, evidently with +much satisfaction to himself; "he can outlie a Frontenac half-breed, he is +more greedy of gain than a Kinderhook Dutchman, he can drink all the +Mohawks of both castles under the bench, and my niggers are veritable +Josephs in comparison with him--wait a moment, Enoch!--this is while he is +in contact with civilization. Yet once on the trail, so to speak, he is +probity personified. I know this, since he has twice accompanied me +to Detroit."</p> + +<p>"Oh, in the woods, you know, some one of the party must remain sober," +said Enoch, readily, still stiffly erect, but with a faint grin twitching +on the saturnine corners of his mouth.</p> + +<p>This time Sir William laughed aloud, and pointed to a decanter and glass, +from which the trapper helped himself with dignity.</p> + +<p>"Look you, rogue," said the host, "there is a young gentleman to be added +to your party next week, and doubtless he will of needs have a nigger with +him. See to it that the boat and provision arrangements are altered to +meet this, and to-morrow be sober enough to advise him as to his outfit. +For to-night, soak as deep as you like."</p> + +<p>Enoch poured out for himself a second tumbler of rum, but not showing the +first signs of unsteadiness in gait or gesture.</p> + +<p>"This young gentleman"--he said, gravely smacking his lips--"about him; is +he a temperate person, one of the sort who can turn a steadfast back upon +the bottle?"</p> + +<p>A burst of Homeric laughter was Sir William's reply--laughter in which +all were fain to join.</p> + +<p>"It's all right, General," said Enoch, as he turned to go; "don't mind my +asking. One never can tell, you know, what kind of company he is like to +pick up with here at the Hall."</p> + +<hr width="80%" size="1" /> + +<p>My surprise and delight when I learned that I was the young gentleman in +question, and that I was really to go to the Lakes and beyond, may be +imagined. I seemed to walk on air, so great was my elation. You will not +marvel now that I fail to recall very distinctly the general talk +which followed.</p> + +<p>Conversation finally lagged, as the promptings of hunger, not less than +the Ethiopian shouting and scolding from the kitchen below, warned us of +approaching dinner.</p> + +<p>The drinking moderated somewhat, and the pipes were one by one laid aside, +in tacit preparation for the meal. The Butlers rose to go, and were +persuaded to remain. Mr. Stewart, who had an Old-World prejudice against +tippling during the day, was induced by the baronet to taste a thimble of +hollands, for appetite's sake. So we waited, with only a decent pretence +of interest in the fitful talk.</p> + +<p>There came a sharp double knock on the door, which a second later was +pushed partly open. Some of us rose, pulling our ruffles into place, and +ready to start at once, for there were famous appetites in the wild Valley +of those days. But the voice from behind the door was not a servant's, nor +did it convey the intelligence we all awaited. It was, instead, the +sharp, surface voice of Lady Berenicia, and it said:</p> + +<p>"We are weary of waiting for you in civilized quarters of the Hall. May we +come in here, or are you too much ashamed of your vices to court +inspection?"</p> + +<p>Walter Butler hastened to open the door, bowing low as he did so, and +delivering himself of some gallant nonsense or other.</p> + +<p>The London lady entered the room with a mincing, kittenish affectation of +carriage, casting bold smirks about her, like an Italian dancer.</p> + +<p>If her morning attire had seemed over-splendid, what shall I say of her +appearance now? I looked in amazement upon her imposing tower of whitened +hair, upon the great fluffs of lace, the brocaded stomacher and train, the +shining satin petticoat front, the dazzling, creamy surfaces of throat and +shoulders and forearms, all rather freely set forth.</p> + +<p>If the effect was bewildering, it was not unpleasant. The smoke-laden air +of the dim old room seemed suddenly clarified, made radiant. A movement of +chairs and of their occupants ran through the chamber, like a murmur of +applause, as we rose to greet the resplendent apparition. But there came a +veritable outburst of admiration when my lady's companion appeared +in view.</p> + +<p>It was our Daisy, robed like a princess, who dawned upon our vision. She +was blushing as much from embarrassment as from novel pride, yet managed +to keep her pretty head up, smiling at us all, and to bear herself +with grace.</p> + +<p>Lady Berenicia, from the wealth of finery in those bulky chests which +honest Mr. Cross in vain had protested against bringing over the ocean and +up to this savage outpost, had tricked out the girl in wondrous fashion. +Her gown was not satin, like the other, but of a soft, lustreless stuff, +whose delicate lavender folds fell into the sweetest of violet shadows. I +was glad to see that her neck and arms were properly covered. The laces on +the sleeves were tawny with age; the ribbon by which the little white +shawl was decorously gathered at the bosom carried the faint suggestion of +yellow to a distinct tone, repeated and deepened above by the color of the +maiden's hair. This hair, too, was a marvel of the dresser's art--reared +straight and tight from the forehead over a high-arched roll, and losing +strictness of form behind in ingenious wavy curls, which seemed the very +triumph of artlessness; it was less wholly powdered than Lady Berenicia's, +so that the warm gold shone through the white dust in soft gradations of +half tints; at the side, well up, was a single salmon tea-rose, that +served to make everything else more beautiful.</p> + +<p>Picture to yourself this delicious figure--this face which had seemed +lovely before, and now, with deft cosmetics, and a solitary tiny patch, +and the glow of exquisite enjoyment in the sweet hazel eyes, was nothing +less than a Greuze's dream--picture our Daisy to yourself, I say, and you +may guess in part how flattering was her reception, how high and fast rose +the gallant congratulations that the Valley boasted such a beauteous +daughter. Sir William himself gave her his arm, jovially protesting that +this was not the Mohawk country, but France--not Johnson Hall, but +Versailles.</p> + +<p>I came on at the tail of the dinner procession, not quite easy in my mind +about all this.</p> + + + + +<h2><a name="10"></a>Chapter X</h2> + +<h3>The Masquerade Brings Me Nothing but Pain.</h3> + + + +<p>There were, in all, ten of us at the table. Sir William beamed upon us +from the end nearest the windows, with Daisy on his left hand and the +London dame on the other--in the place of distinction to which she was, I +suppose, entitled. Below Lady Berenicia sat Mr. Stewart, Sir John, and +Walter Butler. I was on the left side below Mr. Cross. These details come +back to me as if they were of yesterday, when I think of that dinner.</p> + +<p>I could not see Daisy from where I sat, but all through the meal I watched +the effect she was producing upon those opposite us. To do her justice, +Lady Berenicia seemed to have no alloy of jealousy in the delight with +which she regarded the result of her handiwork. Mr. Stewart could not keep +his fond eyes off the girl; they fairly glowed with satisfied pride and +affection. Both Sir John and Walter gave more attention to our beautiful +maiden than they did to their plates, and both faces told an open tale of +admiration, each after its kind.</p> + +<p>There was plenty of gay talk at the head of the table--merry chatter of +which I recall nothing, save vaguely that it was about the triumph of art +over unadorned nature at which we were assisting.</p> + +<p>Mr. Cross and I bore our small part in the celebration in silence for a +time. Then we fell to talking quietly of the journey upon which we were so +soon to embark; but our minds were not on the subject, and after a little +its discussion lapsed. All at once he said, as if speaking the thoughts +which tied my tongue:</p> + +<p>"To my mind the young woman is not improved by these furbelows and +fal-lals my wife has put upon her. What wit or reason is there in a +homely, sensible little maiden like this--a pretty flower growing, as God +designed it to, in modest sweetness on its own soil--being garnished out +in the stale foppery of the last London season?"</p> + +<p>"But it is only a masquerade, sir," I pleaded--as much to my own judgment +as to his--"and it does make her very beautiful, does it not?"</p> + +<p>"She <i>was</i> beautiful before," he replied, in the same low tones. "Can a +few trumpery laces and ribbons, a foolish patch, a little powder, affect +what is real about a woman, think you? And do any but empty heads value +unreal things?"</p> + +<p>"True enough, sir; but this is nothing more than harmless pleasantry. +Women are that way. See how pleased she is--how full of smiles and +happiness she seems. It's a dull sort of life here in the woods. Poor +Daisy, she sees so little of gayety, it would be cruel to begrudge her +this innocent pleasure."</p> + +<p>"Innocent--yes, no doubt; but, do you know, she will never be the same +girl again. She will never feel quite the same pretty little Mistress +Daisy, in her woollen gown and her puttical kerchief. She will never get +the taste of this triumph out of her mouth. You do not know women, young +man, as I do. I have studied the sex in a very celebrated and costly +school. Mark my words, ideas have been put into her head that will never +come out."</p> + +<p>I tried to believe that this was not so. "Ah," I said, "to know other +women is not to know our Daisy. Why, she is good sense itself--so prudent +and modest and thoughtful that she makes the other girls roundabout seem +all hoydens or simpletons. She has read the most serious books--never +anything else. Her heart is as good as her mind is rich. Never fear, Mr. +Cross! not all the silks in China or velvets in Genoa could turn her +dear head."</p> + +<p>He smiled, somewhat compassionately I thought, and made no answer.</p> + +<p>Was I so firm in my faith, after all? The doubt rose in my thoughts, and +would not down, as the gallant talk flowed and bubbled around me. <i>Would</i> +this Daisy be quite the same next day, or next week, singing to us at the +old harpsichord in the twilight, with the glare of the blaze on the hearth +making red gold of that hair, plaited once more in simple braids? I tried +with all my might to call up this sweet familiar figure before my mental +vision: it would not freely come.</p> + +<p>She was laughing now, with a clear ripple of joyousness, at some passing +quip between our host and sharp-tongued Lady Berenicia, both of whom +employed pretty liberally their Irish knack of saying witty, biting +things. The sound came strangely to my ears, as if it were some other than +Daisy laughing.</p> + +<p>I was still in this brown study when Sir William called the health of the +ladies, with some jocose words of compliment to them, congratulation to +ourselves. I rose mechanically after the other gentlemen, glass in hand, +to hear Mr. Stewart make pleasant and courtly acknowledgment, and to see +the two women pass out in a great rustling of draperies and hoops, with +Walter Butler holding open the door and bowing profoundly. The faint scent +of powder left on the air annoyed me, as something stifling those thoughts +of the good little adopted sister, whom I had brought to the Hall and lost +there, which I would fain dwell upon.</p> + +<p>We sat over our Madeira and pipes longer than usual. Candles were brought +in by Sir William's young body-servant Pontiac, for there was a full moon, +and we might thus prolong our stay after nightfall. The talk was chiefly +about our coming trip--a very serious undertaking. Sir William and Mr. +Butler had adventures of their own early trading days to recall, and they +gave us great stores of advice drawn from experience, and ranging from +choice of shirts and spirits to needful diplomacy with the Algonquins +and Sakis.</p> + +<p>Then the company drank the health of Mr. Cross, and were good enough to +couple mine with it. A comical little yellow boy danced for us before the +hearth--an admiring wall of black faces and rolling white eyeballs filling +up the open door meanwhile. Walter Butler sang a pretty song--everybody, +negroes and all, swelling the chorus. Rum was brought in, and mixed in hot +glasses, with spice, molasses, and scalding water from the kettle on the +crane. So evening deepened to night; but I never for a moment, not even +when they drank my health, shook off the sense of unrest born of Daisy's +masquerade.</p> + +<p>It was Molly Brant herself, nobly erect and handsome in her dark, sinister +way, who came to us with word that the moon was up over the pine-ridged +hills, and that Mistress Daisy was attired for the homeward ride, +and waiting.</p> + +<p>Of all the pictures in Memory's portfolio, none is more distinct than this +of the departure that evening from the Hall. A dozen negroes were about +the steps, two or three mounted ready to escort us home, others bearing +horn lanterns which the moonlight darkened into inutility, still others +pulling the restive horses about on the gravel. Mr. Stewart swung himself +into the saddle, and Daisy stepped out to mount behind him. She wore her +own garments once more, but there was just a trace of powder on the hair +under the hood, and the patch was still on her chin. I moved forward to +lift her to the pillion as I had done hundreds of times before, but she +did not see me. Instead, I was almost pushed away by the rush of Sir John +and young Butler to her side, both eager to assist. It was the knight, +flushed and a little unsteady with wine, who won the privilege, and held +Daisy's foot. I climbed into my saddle moodily, getting offence out of +even this.</p> + +<p>So we rode away, pursued down the path to the lilacs by shouts of +"Good-night! Safe home!" Looking back to lift my hat for the last adieu, I +saw the honest old baronet, bareheaded in the clear moonlight, waving his +hand from the lowest step, with Lady Berenicia and the others standing +above him, outlined upon the illumined doorway, and the negroes grouped on +either side, obscurely gesticulating in the shadows of the broad, dark +front of the Hall, which glowed against the white sky.</p> + +<p>As I recall the scene, it seems to me that then and there I said farewell, +not alone to pleasant friends, but to the Daisy of my childhood and youth.</p> + +<hr width="80%" size="1" /> + +<p>The Hall slaves rode well ahead in the narrow road; we could just hear +faintly the harmony of the tune they were humming in concert, as one hears +the murmur of an Æolian harp. As a guard, they were of course ridiculous: +the veriest suspicion of peril would have sent them all galloping +helter-skelter, with frantic shrieks of fright. But the road was perfectly +safe, and these merry fellows were to defend us from loneliness, +not danger.</p> + +<p>I did indeed rest my free hand on the pistol in my holster as I jogged +along close behind the old gray horse and his double burden; but the act +was more an unconscious reflection of my saturnine mood, I fear, than a +recognition of need. There was every reason why I should dwell with +delight upon the prospect opening before me--upon the idea of the great +journey so close at hand; but I scarcely thought of it at all, and I was +not happy. The moon threw a jaundiced light over my mind, and in its +discolored glare I saw things wrongly, and with gratuitous pain to myself.</p> + +<p>In fact, my brooding was the creature of the last few hours, born of a +childish pique. But as I rode gloomily silent behind my companions, it +seemed as if I had long suffered a growing separation from them. "Three is +a clumsy number," I said to myself, "in family affection not less than in +love; there was never any triad of friends since the world began, no +matter how fond their ties, in which two did not build a little interior +court of thoughts and sympathies from which the third was shut out. These +two people whom I hold dearer than everything else on earth--this good +gentleman to whom I owe all, this sweet girl who has grown up from +babyhood in my heart--would scout the idea that there was any line of +division running through our household. They do not see it--cannot see it. +Yet they have a whole world of ideas and sentiments in common, a whole +world of communion, which I may never enter."</p> + +<p>This was what, in sulky, inchoate fashion, I said to myself, under the +spur of the jealous spirits which sometimes get rein over the thoughts of +the best of us. And it was all because the London woman had tricked out +our Daisy, for but a little hour or two, in the presentment of a +court lady!</p> + +<p>Conversation went briskly forward, meanwhile, from the stout back of the +gray horse.</p> + +<p>"Did you note, papa, how white and soft her hands were?" said Daisy. +"Mine were so red beside them! It is working in the garden, I believe, +although Mary Johnson always wore gloves when she was out among the +flowers and vegetables, and her hands were red, too. And Lady Berenicia +was so surprised to learn that I had never read any of the romances which +they write now in England! She says ladies in London, and in the provinces +too, do not deem themselves fit to converse unless they keep abreast of +all these. She has some of them in her chests, and there are others in the +Hall, she has found, and I am to read them, and welcome."</p> + +<p>"You are old enough now, my girl," replied Mr. Stewart. "They seem to me +to be trivial enough things, but no doubt they have their use. I would not +have you seem as inferior to other ladies in knowledge of the matters they +talk of, as they are inferior to you in honest information."</p> + +<p>"How interested she was when I told her of the serious books I read, and +of my daily occupations--moulding the candles, brewing the beer, carding +wool, making butter, and then caring for the garden! She had never seen +celery in trenches, she said, and would not know beans from gourds if she +saw them growing. It seems that in England ladies have nothing to do with +their gardens--when, indeed, they have any at all--save to pluck a rose +now and then, or give tea to their gentlemen under the shrubbery when it +is fine. And I told her of our quilting and spinning bees, and the +coasting on clear winter evenings, and of watching the blacks on Pinkster +night, and the picnics in the woods, and she vowed London had no +pleasures like them. She was jesting though, I think. Oh, shall we ever go +to London, papa?"</p> + +<p>"By all means, let us go," chuckled Mr. Stewart. "You would see something +there she never saw--my grizzled old head upon Temple Bar. Shall we be off +to-morrow? My neck tingles with anticipation."</p> + +<p>"Old tease!" laughed Daisy, patting his shoulder. "You know there have +been no heads put there since long before I was born. Never flatter +yourself that they would begin again now with yours. They've forgotten +there was ever such a body as you."</p> + +<p>"Faith! the world doesn't go round so fast as you young people think. Only +to-day I read in the London mail that two months ago one of the polls that +had been there since '46 fell down; but if it was Fletcher's or Townley's +no one can tell--like enough not even they themselves by this time. So +there's a vacant spike now for mine. No, child--I doubt these old bones +will ever get across the sea again. But who knows?--it may be your fortune +to go some time."</p> + +<p>"Lady Berenicia says I must come to the Hall often, papa, while she is +there," said the girl, returning to the subject which bewitched her; "and +you must fetch me, of course. She admires you greatly; she says gentlemen +in London have quite lost the fine manner that you keep up here, with your +bow and your compliments. You must practise them on me now. We are to keep +each other company as much as possible, she and I, while her husband and +Douw go off together. You should have seen her mimic them--the two +solemn, long-faced men boring each other in the depths of the wilderness."</p> + +<p>The talk had at last got around to me. Daisy laughed gayly at recollection +of the London woman's jesting. Surely never a more innocent, less +malicious laugh came from a maiden's merry lips, but it fell sourly on +my ears.</p> + +<p>"It is easy for people to be clever who do not scruple to be +disagreeable," I said, without much relevancy.</p> + +<p>"What is this, Douw?" Mr. Stewart turned half-way in his saddle and +glanced inquiry back at me. "What is wrong with you? You were as glum all +the evening long as a Tuscarora. Isn't the trip with Mr. Cross to +your liking?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, ay! I shall be glad to go."</p> + +<p>It was on my perverse tongue's end to add the peevish thought that nobody +would specially miss me, but I held it back.</p> + +<p>"He has had a perfect Dutch fit on to-day," said Daisy, with good-natured +sisterly frankness; "for all the world such as old Hon Yost Polhemus has +when his yeast goes bitter. Whenever I looked down the table to him, at +dinner, he was scowling across at poor Walter Butler or Sir John, as if he +would presently eat them both. He was the only one who failed to tell me I +looked well in the--the citified costume."</p> + +<p>"Rather say I was the only one whose opinion you did not care for."</p> + +<p>She was too sweet-tempered to take umbrage at my morose rejoinder, and +went on with her mock-serious catalogue of my crimes:</p> + +<p>"And what do you think, papa? Who should it be but our patient, equable +Master Douw that was near quarrelling with Walter Butler, out by the +lilacs, this very morning--and in the presence of ladies, too."</p> + +<p>"No one ever saw me quarrel, 'ladies' or anybody else," I replied.</p> + +<p>"Faith! then I did myself," Mr. Stewart laughingly called out. "And it was +before a lady too--or the small beginnings of one. I saw him with my own +eyes, Daisy, get knocked into the ashes by a young man, and jump up and +run at him with both fists out--and all on your account, too, my lady; +and then--"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I am reminded!"</p> + +<p>It was Daisy who cried out, and with visible excitement. Then she clapped +her hand to her mouth with a pretty gesture; then she said:</p> + +<p>"Or no! I will not tell you yet. It is so famous a secret, it must come +out little by little. Tell me, papa, did you know that this Mr. Cross up +at the Hall--Lady Berenicia's husband--is a cousin to the old Major who +brought me to you, out of the rout at Kouarie?" + +"Is <i>that</i> your secret, miss? I knew it hours ago."</p> + +<p>"How wise! And perhaps you knew that the Major became a Colonel, and then +a General, and died last winter, poor man."</p> + +<p>"Alas, yes, poor Tony! I heard that too from his cousin. Heigh-ho! We all +walk that way."</p> + +<p>Daisy bent forward to kiss the old man. "Not you, for many a long year, +papa. And now tell me, did not this Major--<i>my</i> Major, though I do not +remember him--take up a patent of land here, or hereabouts, through Sir +William, while he was on this side of the water?"</p> + +<p>"Why, we should be on his land now," said Mr. Stewart, reining up the +horse.</p> + +<p>We sat thus in the moonlight while he pointed out to us, as nearly as he +knew them, the confines of the Cross patent. To the left of us, over a +tract covered thick with low, gnarled undergrowth, the estate stretched +beyond the brow of the hill, distant a mile or more. On our right, masked +by a dense tangle of fir-boughs, lay a ravine, also a part of the +property. We could hear, as we passed there, the gurgle of the water +running at the gulf's bottom, on its way to the great leap over the rock +wall, farther down, of which I have already written.</p> + +<p>"Yes, this was what Tony Cross took up. I doubt he ever saw it. Why do you +ask, girl?"</p> + +<p>"<i>Now</i> for my secret," said Daisy. "The Major's elder son, Digby, inherits +the English house and lands. The other son, Philip--the boy you fought +with, Douw--is given this American land, and money to clear and settle it. +He sailed with the others--he is in New York--he is coming here to live!"</p> + +<p>"We'll make him welcome," cried Mr. Stewart, heartily.</p> + +<p>"I hope his temper is bettered since last he was here," was the civillest +comment I could screw my tongue to.</p> + +<p>Clouds dimmed the radiance of the moon, threatening darkness, and we +quickened our pace. There was no further talk on the homeward ride.</p> + + + + +<h2><a name="11"></a>Chapter XI</h2> + +<h3>As I Make My Adieux Mr. Philip Comes In.</h3> + + + +<p>When the eventful day of departure came, what with the last packing, the +searches to see that nothing should be forgotten, the awkwardness and +slowness of hands unnerved by the excitement of a great occasion, it was +high noon before I was ready to start. I stood idly in the hall, while my +aunt put final touches to my traps, my mind swinging like a pendulum +between fear that Mr. Cross, whom I was to join at Caughnawaga, would be +vexed at my delay, and genuine pain at leaving my dear home and its +inmates, now that the hour had arrived.</p> + +<p>I had made my farewells over at my mother's house the previous day, +dutifully kissing her and all the sisters who happened to be at home, but +without much emotion on either side. Blood is thicker than water, the +adage runs. Perhaps that is why it flowed so calmly in all our Dutch veins +while we said good-by. But here in my adopted home--my true home--my heart +quivered and sank at thought of departure.</p> + +<p>"I could not have chosen a better or safer man for you to travel with than +Jonathan Cross," Mr. Stewart was saying to me. "He does not look on all +things as I do, perhaps, for our breeding was as different as the desk is +different from the drum. But he is honest and courteous, well informed +after his way, and as like what you will be later on as two peas in a pod. +You were born for a trader, a merchant, a man of affairs; and you will be +at a good school with him."</p> + +<p>He went on in his grave, affectionate manner, telling me in a hundred +indirect ways that I belonged to the useful rather than to the ornamental +order of mankind, with never a thought in his good heart of wounding my +feelings, or of letting me know that in his inmost soul he would have +preferred me to be a soldier or an idler with race-horses and a velvet +coat. Nor did he wound me, for I had too great a love for him, and yet +felt too thorough a knowledge of myself to allow the two to clash. I +listened silently, with tears almost ready at my eyes, but with thoughts +vagrantly straying from his words to the garden outside.</p> + +<p>Tulp was to go with me, and his parents and kin were filling the air with +advice and lamentations in about equal measure, and all in the major key. +Their shouts and wailing--they could not have made more ado if he had just +been sold to Jamaica--came through the open door. It was not of this din I +thought, though, nor of the cart which the negroes, while they wept, were +piling high with my goods, and which I could see in the highway beyond.</p> + +<p>I was thinking of Daisy, my sweet sister, who had gone into the garden to +gather a nosegay for me.</p> + +<p>Through the door I could see her among the bushes, her lithe form bending +in the quest of blossoms. Were it midsummer, I thought, and the garden +filled with the whole season's wealth of flowers, it could hold nothing +more beautiful than she. Perhaps there was some shadow of my moody fit, +the evening after the dinner at the Hall, remaining to sadden my thoughts +of parting from her. I cannot tell. I only know that they were indeed sad +thoughts. I caught myself wondering if she would miss me much--this dear +girl who had known no life in which I had not had daily share. Yes, the +tears <i>were</i> coming, I felt. I wrung my good old patron's hand, and turned +my head away.</p> + +<p>There came a clattering of hoofs on the road and the sound of male voices. +Tulp ran in agape with the tidings that Sir John and a strange gentleman +had ridden up, and desired to see Mr. Stewart. We at once walked out to +the garden, a little relieved perhaps by the interruption.</p> + +<p>Both visitors had had time to alight and leave their horses outside the +wall. The younger Johnson stood in the centre path of the garden, +presenting his companion to Daisy, who, surprised at her task, and with +her back to us, was courtesying. Even to the nape of her neck she +was blushing.</p> + +<p>There was enough for her to blush at. The stranger was bowing very low, +putting one hand up to his breast. With the other he had taken her fingers +and raised them formally to his lips. This was not a custom in our parts. +Sir William did it now and then on state occasions, but young men, +particularly strangers, did not.</p> + +<p>As we advanced, this gallant morning-caller drew himself up and turned +toward us. You may be sure I looked him over attentively.</p> + +<p>I have seen few handsomer young men. In a way, so far as light hair, blue +eyes, ruddy and regular face went, he was not unlike Sir John. But he was +much taller, and his neck and shoulders were squared proudly--a trick +Johnson never learned. The fine effect of his figure was enhanced by a +fawn-colored top-coat, with a graceful little cape falling over the +shoulders. His clothes beneath, from the garnet coat with mother-of-pearl +buttons down to his shining Hessians, all fitted him as if he had been run +into them as into a mould. He held his hat, a glossy sugar-loaf beaver, in +one hand, along with whip and gloves. The other hand, white and shapely in +its ruffles, he stretched out now toward Mr. Stewart with a free, +pleasant gesture.</p> + +<p>"With my father's oldest friend," he said, "I must not wait for ceremony. +I am Philip Cross, from England, and I hope you will be my friend, sir, +now that my father is gone."</p> + +<p>That this speech found instant favor need not be doubted. Mr. Stewart +shook him again and again by the hand, and warmly bade him welcome to the +Valley and the Cedars a dozen times in as many breaths. Young Cross +managed to explain between these cordial ejaculations, that he had +journeyed up from New York with the youthful Stephen Watts--to whose +sister Sir John was already betrothed; that they had reached Guy Park the +previous evening; that Watts was too wearied this morning to think of +stirring out, but that hardly illness itself could have prevented him, +Cross, from promptly paying his respects to his father's ancient comrade.</p> + +<p>The young man spoke easily and fluently, looking Mr. Stewart frankly in +the eye, with smiling sincerity in glance and tone. He went on:</p> + +<p>"How changed everything is roundabout!--all save you, who look scarcely +older or less strong. When I was here as a boy it was winter, cold and +bleak. There was a stockade surrounded by wilderness then, I remember, and +a log-house hardly bigger than the fireplace inside it. Where we stand now +the ground was covered with brush and chips, half hidden by snow. +Now--<i>presto!</i> there is a mansion in the midst of fields, and a garden +neatly made, and"--turning with a bow to Daisy--"a fair mistress for them +all, who would adorn any palace or park in Europe, and whom I remember as +a frightened little baby, with stockings either one of which would have +held her entire."</p> + +<p>"I saw the cart laden outside," put in Sir John, "and fancied perhaps we +should miss you."</p> + +<p>"Why, no," said Mr. Stewart; "I had forgotten for the moment that this was +a house of mourning. Douw is starting to the Lake country this very day. +Mr. Cross, you must remember my boy, my Douw?"</p> + +<p>The young Englishman turned toward me, as I was indicated by Mr. Stewart's +gesture. He looked me over briefly, with a half-smile about his eyes, +nodded to me, and said:</p> + +<p>"You were the Dutch boy with the apron, weren't you?"</p> + +<p>I assented by a sign of the head, as slight as I could politely make it.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, I recall you quite distinctly. I used to make my brother Digby +laugh by telling about your aprons. He made quite a good picture of you in +one of them, drawn from my descriptions. We had a fort of snow, too, did +we not? and I beat you, or you me, I forget which. I got snow down the +back of my neck, I know, and shivered all the way to the fort."</p> + +<p>He turned lightly at this to Mr. Stewart, and began conversation again. I +went over to where Daisy stood, by the edge of the flower-bed.</p> + +<p>"I must go now, dear sister," I said. The words were choking me.</p> + +<p>We walked slowly to the house, she and I. When I had said good-by to my +aunt, and gathered together my hat, coats, and the like, I stood +speechless, looking at Daisy. The moment was here, and I had no word for +it which did not seem a mockery.</p> + +<p>She raised herself on tiptoe to be kissed. "Good-by, big brother," she +said, softly. "Come back to us well and strong, and altogether homesick, +won't you? It will not be like home, without you, to either of us."</p> + +<p>And so the farewells were all made, and I stood in the road prepared to +mount. Tulp was already on the cart, along with another negro who was to +bring back my horse and the vehicle after we had embarked in the boats. +There was nothing more to say--time pressed--yet I lingered dumb and +irresolute. At the moment I seemed to be exchanging everything for +nothing--committing domestic suicide. I looked at them both, the girl and +the old man, with the gloomy thought that I might never lay eyes on them +again. I dare say I wore my grief upon my face, for Mr. Stewart tried +cheerily to hearten me with, "Courage, lad! We shall all be waiting for +you, rejoiced to welcome you back safe and sound."</p> + +<p>Daisy came to me now again, as I put my hand on the pommel, and pinned +upon my lapel some of the pale blue blossoms she had gathered.</p> + +<p>"There's 'rosemary for remembrance,'" she murmured. "Poor Ophelia could +scarce have been sadder than we feel, Douw, at your going."</p> + +<p>"And may I be decorated too--for remembrance' sake?" asked handsome young +Philip Cross, gayly.</p> + +<p>"Surely, sir," the maiden answered, with a smile of sweet sorrowfulness. +"You have a rightful part in the old memories--in a sense, perhaps, the +greatest part of all."</p> + +<p>"Ay, you two were friends before ever you came to us, dear," said Mr. +Stewart.</p> + +<p>So as I rode away, with smarting eyes and a heart weighing like lead, my +last picture of the good old home was of Daisy fastening flowers on the +young Englishman's breast, just as she had put these of mine in +their place.</p> + + + + +<h2><a name="12"></a>Chapter XII</h2> + +<h3>Old-Time Politics Pondered Under the Forest Starlight.</h3> + + + +<p>Among the numerous books which at one time of another I had resolved to +write, and which the evening twilight of my life finds still unwritten, +was one on Fur-trading. This volume, indeed, came somewhat nearer to a +state of actual existence than any of its unborn brethren, since I have +yet a great store of notes and memoranda gathered for its construction in +earlier years. My other works, such as the great treatise on Astronomical +Delusions--which Herschel and La Place afterward rendered unnecessary--and +the "History of the Dutch in America," never even progressed to this point +of preparation. I mention this to show that I resist a genuine temptation +now in deciding not to put into this narrative a great deal about my +experiences in, and information concerning, the almost trackless West of +my youth. My diary of this first and momentous journey with Mr. Jonathan +Cross, yellow with age and stained by damp and mildew, lies here before +me; along with it are many odd and curious incidents and reflections +jotted down, mirroring that strange, rude, perilous past which seems so +far away to the generation now directing a safe and almost eventless +commerce to the Pacific and the Gulf. But I will draw from my stock only +the barest outlines, sufficient to keep in continuity the movement of +my story.</p> + +<p>When we reached Caughnawaga Mr. Cross and his party were waiting for us at +the trading store of my godfather, good old Douw Fonda. I was relieved to +learn that I had not delayed them; for it was still undecided, I found, +whether we should all take to the river here, or send the boats forward +with the men, and ourselves proceed to the Great Carrying Place at Fort +Stanwix by the road. Although it was so early in the season, the Mohawk +ran very low between its banks. Major Jelles Fonda, the eldest son of my +godfather, and by this time the true head of the business, had only +returned from the Lakes, and it was by his advice that we settled upon +riding and carting as far as we could, and leaving the lightened boats to +follow. So we set out in the saddle, my friend and I, stopping one night +with crazy old John Abeel--he who is still remembered as the father of the +Seneca half-breed chieftain Corn-Planter--and the next night with +Honnikol Herkimer.</p> + +<p>This man, I recall, greatly impressed Mr. Cross. We were now in an +exclusively German section of the Valley, where no Dutch and very little +English was to be heard. Herkimer himself conversed with us in a dialect +that must often have puzzled my English friend, though he gravely forbore +showing it. I had known Colonel Herkimer all my life; doubtless it was +this familiarity with his person and speech which had prevented my +recognizing his real merit, for I was not a little surprised when Mr. +Cross said to me that night: "Our host is one of the strongest and most +sagacious men I have ever encountered in the Colonies; he is worth a +thousand of your Butlers or Sir Johns."</p> + +<p>It became clear in later years that my friend was right. I remember that I +regarded the hospitable Colonel, at breakfast next morning, with a closer +and more respectful attention than ever before, but it was not easy to +discern any new elements of greatness in his talk.</p> + +<p>Herkimer was then a middle-aged, undersized man, very swart and +sharp-eyed, and with a quick, almost vehement way of speaking. It took no +time at all to discover that he watched the course of politics in the +Colonies pretty closely, and was heart and soul on the anti-English side. +One thing which he said, in his effort to make my friend understand the +difference between his position and the more abstract and educated +discontent of New England and Virginia, sticks in my memory.</p> + +<p>"We Germans," he said, "are not like the rest. Our fathers and mothers +remember their sufferings in the old country, kept ragged and hungry and +wretched, in such way as my negroes do not dream of, all that some +scoundrel baron might have gilding on his carriage, and that the Elector +might enjoy himself in his palace. They were beaten, hanged, robbed of +their daughters, worked to death, frozen by the cold in their nakedness, +dragged off into the armies to be sold to any prince who could pay for +their blood and broken bones. The French who overran the Palatinate were +bad enough; the native rulers were even more to be hated. The exiles of +our race have not forgotten this; they have told it all to us, their +children and grandchildren born here in this Valley. We have made a new +home for ourselves over here, and we owe no one but God anything for it. +If they try to make here another aristocracy over us, then we will die +first before we will submit."</p> + +<p>The case for the Mohawk Valley's part in the great revolt has never been +more truly stated, I think, than it was thus, by the rough, uneducated, +little frontier trader, in his broken English, on that May morning years +before the storm broke.</p> + +<p>We rode away westward in the full sunshine that morning, in high spirits. +The sky was pure blue overhead; the birds carolled from every clump of +foliage about us; the scenery, to which Mr. Cross paid much delighted +attention, first grew nobly wild and impressive when we skirted the Little +Falls--as grand and gloomy in its effect of towering jagged cliffs and +foaming cataracts as one of Jacob Ruysdael's pictures--and then softened +into a dream of beauty as it spread out before us the smiling, embowered +expanses of the German Flatts. Time and time again my companion and I +reined up our horses to contemplate the charms of this lovely scene. + +We had forded the river near Fort Herkimer, where old Hon Yost Herkimer, +the father of the Colonel, lived, and were now once more on the north +side. From an open knoll I pointed out to my friend, by the apple and pear +blossoms whitening the deserted orchards, the site of the Palatines' +village where Daisy's father had been killed, fifteen years ago, in the +midnight rout and massacre.</p> + +<p>"It was over those hills that the French stole in darkness. Back yonder, +at the very ford we crossed, her poor mother was trampled under foot and +drowned in the frightened throng. It was at the fort there, where we had +the buttermilk and <i>Kuchen,</i> that your cousin, Major Cross, found the +little girl. I wonder if he ever knew how deeply grateful to him we +were--and are."</p> + +<p>This brought once more to my mind--where indeed it had often enough before +intruded itself--the recollection of young Philip's arrival at the Cedars. +For some reason I had disliked to speak of it before, but now I told Mr. +Cross of it as we walked our horses along over the rough, muddy road, +under the arching roof of thicket.</p> + +<p>"I'll be bound Mr. Stewart welcomed him with open arms," said my +companion.</p> + +<p>"Ay, indeed! No son could have asked a fonder greeting."</p> + +<p>"Yes, the lad is very like his mother; that of itself would suffice to +warm the old gentleman's heart. You knew he was a suitor for her hand long +before Tony Cross ever saw her?"</p> + +<p>I didn't know this, but I nodded silently.</p> + +<p>"Curious creature she was," mused he, as if to himself. "Selfish, +suspicious, swift to offence, jealous of everything and everybody about +her--yet with moods when she seemed to all she met the most amiable and +delightful of women. She had her fine side, too. She would have given her +life gladly for the success of the Jacobites, of that I'm sure. And +proud!--no duchess could have carried her head higher."</p> + +<p>"You say her son is very like her?"</p> + +<p>"As like as two leaves on a twig. Perhaps he has something of his father's +Irish openness of manner as well. His father belonged to the younger, what +we call the Irish, branch of our family, you know, though it is as English +in the matter of blood as I am. We were only second cousins, in point of +fact, and his grandfather was set up in Ireland by the bounty of mine. Yet +Master Philip condescends to me, patronizes me, as if the case had been +reversed."</p> + +<p>Mr. Cross did not speak as if he at all resented this, but in a calm, +analytical manner, and with a wholly impersonal interest. I have never +known another man who was so totally without individual bias, and regarded +all persons and things with so little reference to his own feelings. If he +had either prejudices or crotchets on any point, I never discovered them. +He was, I feel assured, a scrupulously honest and virtuous gentleman, yet +he never seemed to hate people who were not so. He was careful not to let +them get an advantage over him, but for the rest he studied them and +observed their weaknesses and craft, with the same quiet interest he +displayed toward worthier objects. A thoroughly equable nature was +his--with little capacity for righteous indignation on the one side, and +no small tendencies toward envy or peevishness on the other. There was not +a wrinkle on his calm countenance, nor any power of angry flashing in his +steadfast, wide-apart, gray eyes. But his tongue could cut deep +on occasion.</p> + +<p>We were now well beyond the last civilized habitation in the Valley of the +Mohawk, and we encamped that night above the bank of a little rivulet that +crossed the highway some four miles to the east of Fort Stanwix. Tulp and +the Dutchman, Barent Coppernol, whom Mr. Cross had brought along, +partially unpacked the cart, and set to with their axes. Soon there had +been constructed a shelter for us, half canvas, half logs and brush, under +a big beech-tree which stood half-way up the western incline from the +brook, and canopied with its low boughs a smooth surface of clear ground. +We had supper here, and then four huge night-fires were built as an outer +wall of defence, and Barent went to sleep, while young Tulp, crouching and +crooning by the blaze, began his portion of the dreary watch to keep up +the fires.</p> + +<p>We lay awake for a long time on our bed of hemlock twigs and brake, well +wrapped up, our heads close to the beech-trunk, our knees raised to keep +the fierce heat of the flames from our faces. From time to time we heard +the barking of the wolves, now distant, now uncomfortably near. When the +moon came up, much later, the woods seemed alive with strange vocal noises +and ominous rustlings in the leaves and brakes. It was my London +companion's first night in the open wilderness; but while he was very +acute to note new sounds and inquire their origin, he seemed to be in no +degree nervous.</p> + +<p>We talked of many things, more particularly, I remember, of what Herkimer +had said at breakfast. And it is a very remarkable thing that, as we +talked thus of the German merchant-farmer and his politics, we were lying +on the very spot where, five years later, I was to behold him sitting, +wounded but imperturbable, smoking his pipe and giving orders of battle, +under the most hellish rain of bullets from which man ever shrank +affrighted. And the tranquil moon above us was to look down again upon +this little vale, and turn livid to see its marsh and swale choked with +fresh corpses, and its brook rippling red with blood. And the very wolves +we heard snapping and baying in the thicket were to raise a ghastly +halloo, here among these same echoes, as they feasted on the flesh of my +friends and comrades.</p> + +<p>We did not guess this fearsome future, but instead lay peacefully, +contentedly under the leaves, with the balmy softness of the firs in the +air we breathed, and the flaming firelight in our eyes. Perhaps lank, +uncouth Barent Coppernol may have dreamed of it, as he snored by the outer +heap of blazing logs. If so, did he, as in prophecy, see his own form, +with cleft skull, stretched on the hill-side?</p> + +<p>"I spoke about Philip's having some of his father's adopted Irish traits," +said Mr. Cross, after a longer interval of silence than usual. "One of +them is the desire to have subordinates, dependents, about him. There is +no Irishman so poor or lowly that he will not, if possible, encourage some +still poorer, lowlier Irishman to hang to his skirts. It is a reflection +of their old Gaelic tribal system, I suppose, which, between its chiefs +above and its clansmen below, left no place for a free yeomanry. I note +this same thing in the Valley, with the Johnsons and the Butlers. So far +as Sir William is concerned, the quality I speak of has been of service to +the Colony, for he has used his fondness and faculty for attracting +retainers and domineering over subordinates to public advantage. But then +he is an exceptional and note-worthy man--one among ten thousand. But his +son Sir John, and his son-in-law Guy Johnson, and the Butlers, father and +son, and now to them added our masterful young Master Philip--these own no +such steadying balance-wheel of common-sense. They have no restraining +notion of public interest. Their sole idea is to play the aristocrat, to +surround themselves with menials, to make their neighbors concede to them +submission and reverence. It was of them that Herkimer spoke, plainly +enough, though he gave no names. Mark my words, they will come to grief +with that man, if the question be ever put to the test."</p> + +<p>I had not seen enough of Englishmen to understand very clearly the +differences between them and the Irish, and I said so. The conversation +drifted upon race questions and distinctions, as they were presented by +the curiously mixed population of New York province.</p> + +<p>My companion was of the impression that the distinctly British +settlements, like those of Massachusetts and Virginia, were far more +powerful and promising than my own polyglot province. No doubt from his +point of view this notion was natural, but it nettled me. To this day I +cannot read or listen to the inflated accounts this New England and this +Southern State combine to give of their own greatness, of their wonderful +patriotism and intelligence, and of the tremendous part they played in the +Revolution, without smashing my pipe in wrath. Yet I am old enough now to +see that all this is largely the fault of the New Yorkers themselves. We +have given our time and attention to the making of money, and have left it +to others to make the histories. If they write themselves down large, and +us small, it is only what might have been expected. But at the time of +which I am telling I was very young, and full of confidence in not only +the existing superiority but the future supremacy of my race. I could not +foresee how we were to be snowed under by the Yankees in our own State, +and, what is worse, accept our subjugation without a protest--so that +to-day the New York schoolboy supposes Fisher Ames, or any other of a +dozen Boston talkers, to have been a greater man than Philip Schuyler.</p> + +<p>I remember that I greatly vaunted the good qualities of the Dutch that +night. I pointed out how they alone had learned the idea of religious +toleration toward others in the cruel school of European persecution; how +their faith in liberty and in popular institutions, nobly exemplified at +home in the marvellous struggle with Spain, had planted roots of civil and +religious freedom in the New World which he could find neither to the east +nor to the south of us; and how even the early Plymouth Puritans had +imbibed all they knew of clemency and liberty during their stay +in Holland.</p> + +<p>I fear that Mr. Cross inwardly smiled more or less at my enthusiasm and +extravagance, but his comments were all serious and kindly. He conceded +the justice of much that I said, particularly as to the admirable +resolution, tenacity, and breadth of character the Dutch had displayed +always in Europe. But then he went on to declare that the Dutch could not +hope to hold their own in strange lands against the extraordinary +conquering and colonizing power of the more numerous English, who, by +sheer force of will and energy, were destined in the end to dominate +everything they touched. Note how Clive and the English had gradually +undermined or overthrown French, Portuguese, and Dutch alike in the +Indies, he said; the same thing has happened here, either by bloodshed or +barter. No nation could resist the English in war; no people could +maintain themselves in trade or the peaceful arts against the English.</p> + +<p>"But you yourself predicted, not an hour ago, that the young gentry down +the Valley would come to grief in their effort to lord it over the Dutch +and Palatines."</p> + +<p>"Oh, that indeed," my friend replied. "They are silly sprouts, grown up +weak and spindling under the shadow of Sir William; when he is cut down +the sun will shrivel them, no doubt. But the hardier, healthier plants +which finally take their place will be of English stock--not Dutch +or German."</p> + +<p>I hope devoutly that this lengthened digression into politics has not +proved wearisome. I have touched upon but one of a hundred like +conversations which we two had together on our slow journey, and this +because I wanted to set forth the manner of things we discussed, and the +views we severally had. Events proved that we both were partially right. +The United States of the Netherlands was the real parent of the United +States of America, and the constitution which the Dutch made for the +infant State of New York served as the model in breadth and in freedom for +our present noble Federal Constitution. In that much my faith was +justified. But it is also true that my State is no longer Dutch, but +English, and that the language of my mother has died out from among us.</p> + +<p>Before noon next day we reached Fort Stanwix, the forest-girdled +block-house commanding the Great Carrying Place. Here we waited one day +for the boats to come up, and half of another to get them through the +sluices into Wood Creek. Then, as the horses and carts returned, we +embarked and set our faces toward the Lakes.</p> + + + + +<h2><a name="13"></a>Chapter XIII</h2> + +<h3>To the Far Lake Country and Home Again.</h3> + + + +<p>We had left what it pleases us to call civilization behind. Until our +return we were scarcely again to see the blackened fields of stumps +surrounding clearings, or potash kettles, or girdled trees, or chimneys.</p> + +<p>Not that our course lay wholly through unbroken solitude; but the men we +for the most part encountered were of the strange sort who had pushed +westward farther and farther to be alone--to get away from their fellows. +The axe to them did not signify the pearlash of commerce, but firewood and +honey and coon-skins for their own personal wants. They traded a little, +in a careless, desultory fashion, with the proceeds of their traps and +rifles. But their desires were few--a pan and kettle, a case of needles +and cord, some rum or brandy from cider or wild grapes, tobacco, lead, and +powder--chiefly the last three. They fed themselves, adding to their own +fish and game only a little pounded maize which they got mostly from the +Indians, and cooked in mush or on a baking stone. In the infrequent cases +where there were women with them, we sometimes saw candles, either dips or +of the wax of myrtle-berries, but more often the pine-knot was used. +Occasionally they had log-houses, with even here and there a second story +above the puncheon-floor, reached by a ladder; but in the main their +habitations were half-faced camps, secured in front at night by fires. +They were rough, coarse, hardened, drunken men as a rule, generally +disagreeable and taciturn; insolent, lazy, and miserable from my point of +view, but I judge both industrious and contented from their own.</p> + +<p>We should have had little favor or countenance from these fellows, I doubt +not, but for Enoch Wade. He seemed to know all the saturnine, shaggy, +lounging outcasts whom we met in unexpected places; if he did not, they +knew him at a glance for one of their own kidney, which came to the same +thing. It was on his account that we were tolerated, nay, even advised and +helped and entertained.</p> + +<p>Enoch had been a prodigious traveller--or else was a still more prodigious +liar--I never quite decided which. He told them, when we chanced to sit +around their fires of an evening, most remarkable stories of field and +forest--of caribou and seals killed in the North; of vast herds of bison +on far Western prairies; of ice-bound winters spent in the Hudson Bay +Company's preserves beyond the Lakes; of houses built of oyster-shells and +cement on the Carolina coast. They listened gravely, smoking their +cob-and-reed pipes, and eying him attentively. They liked him, and they +did not seem to dislike Coppernol and our other white servants. But they +showed no friendliness toward my poor Tulp, and exhibited only scant, +frigid courtesy to Mr. Cross and me.</p> + +<p>The fact that my companion was a power in the East India Company, and a +director in the new Northwestern Fur Company, did not interest them, at +least favorably. It was indeed not until after we had got beyond the +Sandusky that Enoch often volunteered this information, for the trappers +of the East had little love for companies, or organized commerce and +property of any sort.</p> + +<p>I like better to recall the purely physical side of our journey. Now our +little flotilla would move for hours on broad, placid, still waters, +flanked on each side by expanses of sedge and flags--in which great broods +of water-fowl lived--and beyond by majestic avenues formed of pines, +towering mast-like sheer sixty feet before they burst into intertwining +branches. Again, we would pass through darkened, narrow channels, where +adverse waters sped swiftly, and where we battled not only with deep +currents, but had often to chop our way through barriers of green +tree-trunks, hickory, ash, and birch, which the soft soil on the banks had +been unable to longer hold erect. Now we flew merrily along under sail or +energetic oars; now we toiled laboriously against strong tides, by poles +or by difficult towing.</p> + +<p>But it was all healthful, heartening work, and we enjoyed it to the full. +Toward sundown we would begin to look for a brook upon which to pitch our +camp. When one was found which did not run black, showing its origin in a +tamarack swamp, a landing was made with all the five boats. These +secured, axes were out with, and a shelter soon constructed, while others +heaped the fire, prepared the food and utensils, and cooked the welcome +meal. How good everything tasted! how big and bright the stars looked! how +sweet was the odor of the balsam in the air, later, as we lay on our +blankets, looking skyward, and talked! Or, if the night was wild and wet, +how cheerily the great fires roared in the draught, and how snugly we lay +in our shelter, blinking at the fierce blaze!</p> + +<p>When in early July we drew near the country of the Outagamis, having left +the Detroit settlement behind us, not to speak of Oswego and Niagara, +which seemed as far off now as the moon, an element of personal danger was +added to our experiences. Both white hunters and Indians were warmly +affected toward the French interest, and often enough we found reason to +fear that we would be made to feel this, though luckily it never came to +anything serious. It was a novel experience to me to be disliked on +account of the English, whom I had myself never regarded with friendship. +I was able, fortunately, being thus between the two rival races, as it +were, to measure them each against the other.</p> + +<p>I had no prejudice in favor of either, God knows. My earliest +recollections were of the savage cruelty with which the French had +devastated, butchered, and burned among the hapless settlements at the +head of the Mohawk Valley. My maturer feelings were all colored with the +strong repulsion we Dutch felt for the English rule, which so scornfully +misgoverned and plundered our province, granting away our lands to court +favorites and pimps, shipping to us the worst and most degraded of +Old-World criminals, quartering upon us soldiers whose rude vices made +them even more obnoxious than the convicts, and destroying our commerce by +selfish and senseless laws.</p> + +<p>From the Straits west I saw the Frenchman for the first time, and read the +reasons for his failure to stand against the English. Even while we +suspected grounds for fearing his hostility, we found him a more courteous +and affable man than the Englishman or Yankee. To be pleasant with us +seemed a genuine concern, though it may really have been otherwise. The +Indians about him, too, were a far more satisfactory lot than I had known +in the Valley. Although many of our Mohawks could read, and some few +write, and although the pains and devotion of my friend Samuel Kirkland +had done much for the Oneidas, still these French-spoken, Jesuit-taught +Indians seemed a much better and soberer class than my neighbors of the +Iroquois. They drank little or no rum, save as English traders furtively +plied them with it, for the French laws were against its sale. They lived +most amicably with the French, too, neither hating nor fearing them; and +this was in agreeable contrast to the wearisome bickering eternally going +on in New York between the Indians striving to keep their land, and the +English and Dutch forever planning to trick them out of it. So much for +the good side.</p> + +<p>The medal had a reverse. The Frenchman contrived to get on with the +Indian by deferring to him, cultivating his better and more generous side, +and treating him as an equal. This had the effect of improving and +softening the savage, but it inevitably tended to weaken and lower the +Frenchman--at least, judged by the standard of fitness to maintain himself +in a war of races. No doubt the French and Indians lived together much +more quietly and civilly than did the English and Indians. But when these +two systems came to be tested by results, it was shown that the +Frenchman's policy and kindliness had only enervated and emasculated him, +while the Englishman's rough domineering and rule of force had hardened +his muscles and fired his resolution. To be sure, measured by the received +laws of humanity, the Frenchman was right and the other wrong. But is it +so certain, after all, that the right invariably wins?</p> + +<hr width="80%" size="1" /> + +<p>It was well along in September when, standing on the eminence to the east +of Fort Stanwix, I first looked again on my beloved Mohawk.</p> + +<p>The trip had been a highly successful one. Enoch was bringing back four +bateaux well packed under thin oilskin covers with rare peltries, +including some choice black-beaver skins and sea-otter furs from the +remote West, which would fetch extravagant prices. On the best estimate of +his outward cargo of tea, spirits, powder, traps, calico, duffle, and +silver ear-bobs, breast-buckles, and crosses, he had multiplied its value +twenty-fold.</p> + +<p>Of course, this was of secondary importance. The true object of the +journey had been to enable Mr. Jonathan Cross to see for himself the +prospects of the new Northwestern Company--to look over the territory +embraced in its grants, estimate its probable trade, mark points for the +establishment of its forts and posts, and secure the information necessary +to guard the company from the frauds or failings of agents. He professed +himself vastly gratified at the results, physical as well as financial, of +his experience, and that was the great thing.</p> + +<p>Or no!--perhaps for the purposes of this story there was something more +important still. It is even now very pleasant to me to recall that he +liked me well enough, after this long, enforced intimacy, to proffer me +the responsible and exacting post of the company's agent at Albany.</p> + +<p>To say that the offer made me proud and glad would be to feebly understate +my emotions. I could not be expected to decide all at once. Independent of +the necessity of submitting the proposition to Mr. Stewart, there was a +very deep distaste within me for fur-trading at Albany--of the meanness +and fraudulency of which I had heard from boyhood. A good many hard +stories are told of the Albanians, which, aside from all possible bias of +race, I take the liberty of doubting. I do not, for instance, believe all +the Yankee tales that the Albany Dutchmen bought from the Indians the +silver plate which the latter seized in New England on the occasions of +the French and Indian incursions--if for no other reason than the absence +of proof that they ever had any plate in New England. But that the +Indians used to be most shamefully drugged and cheated out of their +eye-teeth in Albany, I fear there can be no reasonable doubt. An evil +repute attached to the trade there, and I shrank from embarking in it, +even under such splendid auspices. All the same, the offer gratified +me greatly.</p> + +<p>To be in the woods with a man, day in and day out, is to know him through +and through. If I had borne this closest of all conceivable forms of +scrutiny, in the factor's estimation, there must be something good in me.</p> + +<p>So there was pride as well as joy in this first glance I cast upon the +soft-flowing, shadowed water, upon the spreading, stately willows, upon +the far-off furrow in the hazy lines of foliage--which spoke to me of +home. Here at last was my dear Valley, always to me the loveliest on +earth, but now transfigured in my eyes, and radiant beyond all dreams of +beauty--because in it was my home, and in that home was the sweet maid +I loved.</p> + +<p>Yes--I was returned a man, with the pride and the self-reliance and the +heart of a man. As I thought upon myself, it was to recognize that the +swaddlings of youth had fallen from me. I had never been conscious of +their pressure; I had not rebelled against them, nor torn them asunder. +Yet somehow they were gone, and my breast swelled with a longer, deeper +breath for their absence. I had almost wept with excess of boyish feeling +when I left the Valley--my fond old mother and protector. I gazed upon it +now with an altogether variant emotion--as of one coming to take +possession. Ah, the calm elation of that one moment, there alone on the +knoll, with the sinking September sun behind me, and in front but the +trifle of sixty miles of river route--when I realized that I was a man!</p> + +<p>Perhaps it was at this moment that I first knew I loved Daisy; perhaps it +had been the truly dominant thought in my mind for months, gathering vigor +and form from every tender, longing memory of the Cedars. I cannot decide, +nor is it needful that I should. At least now my head was full of the +triumphant thoughts that I returned successful and in high favor with my +companion, that I had a flattering career opened for me, that the people +at home would be pleased with me--and that I should marry Daisy.</p> + +<p>These remaining twenty leagues grew really very tedious before they were +done with. We went down with the boats this time. I fear that Mr. Cross +found me but poor company these last three days, for I sat mute in the bow +most of the time, twisted around to look forward down the winding course, +as if this would bring the Cedars nearer. I had not the heart to talk. +"Now she is winding the yarn for my aunt," I would think; "now she is +scattering oats for the pigeons, or filling Mr. Stewart's pipe, or running +the candles into the moulds. Dear girl, does she wonder when I am coming? +If she could know that I was here--here on the river speeding to +her--what, would she think?"</p> + +<p>And I pictured to myself the pretty glance of surprise, mantling into a +flush of joyous welcome, which would greet me on her face, as she ran +gladly to my arms. Good old Mr. Stewart, my more than father, would stare +at me, then smile with pleasure, and take both my hands in his, with warm, +honest words straight from his great heart. What an evening it would be +when, seated snugly around the huge blaze--Mr. Stewart in his arm-chair to +the right, Daisy nestling on the stool at his knee and looking up into my +face, and Dame Kronk knitting in the chimney-shadow to the left--I should +tell of my adventures! How goodly a recital I could make of them, though +they had been even tamer than they were, with such an audience! And how +happy, how gratified they would be when I came to the climax, artfully +postponed, of Mr. Cross's offer to me of the Albany agency!</p> + +<p>And then how natural, how easy, while these dear people were still smiling +with pride and satisfaction at my good fortune, to say calmly--yes, calmly +in tone, though my heart should be beating its way through my breast:</p> + +<p>"Even more, sir, I prize the hope that Daisy will share it with me--as my +wife!"</p> + +<p>What with the delay at Caughnawaga, where Mr. Cross debarked, and Major +Fonda would have us eat and drink while he told us the news, and Tulp's +crazy rowing later, through excitement at nearing home, it was twilight +before the boat was run up into our little cove, and I set my foot on +land. The Cedars stood before us as yet lightless against the northern +sky. The gate was open. The sweet voice of a negro singing arose from the +cabins on the dusky hill-side. Tears came to my eyes as I turned to Tulp, +who was gathering up the things in the boat, and said:</p> + +<p>"Do you see, boy? We're home--home at last!"</p> + + + + +<h2><a name="14"></a>Chapter XIV</h2> + +<h3>How I Seem to Feel a Wanting Note in the Chorus of Welcome.</h3> + + + +<p>I could hear the noisy clamor among the negroes over the advent of Tulp, +whom I had sent off, desiring to be alone, while I still stood irresolute +on the porch. My hand was on the familiar, well-worn latch, yet I almost +hesitated to enter, so excited was I with eager anticipations of welcome.</p> + +<p>The spacious hall--our sitting-room--was deserted. A fire was blazing on +the hearth, and plates were laid on the oak table as in preparation for a +meal, but there was no one to speak to me. I lighted a candle, and opened +the door to the kitchen; here too there was a fire, but my aunt was not +visible. Mr. Stewart's room to the right of the hall, and mine to the +left, were alike unoccupied. I threw aside my hat and watch-coat here, and +then with the light went up-stairs, whistling as was my wont to warn Daisy +of my coming. There was no sound or sign of movement. The door of her +outer room stood open, and I entered and looked about.</p> + +<p>The furniture and appointments had been changed in position somewhat, so +that the chamber seemed strange to me. There were numerous novel objects +scattered through the rooms as well. A Spanish guitar which I had never +seen before stood beside the old piano. There were several elegantly bound +books, new to me, on the table; on the mantel-shelf were three miniatures, +delicately painted, depicting a florid officer in scarlet, a handsome, +proud-looking lady with towering powdered coiffure, and a fair-haired, +proud-looking youth. This last I knew in an instant to be the likeness of +Master Philip Cross, though it seemingly portrayed him at an age half-way +between the two times I had seen him as boy and man. His resemblance to +the lady, and then my own recurring recollection of the officer's +features, helped me to place them as his parents.</p> + +<p>I called out "Daisy!" My voice had a faltering, mournful sound, and there +was no answer.</p> + +<p>I came down the stairs again, burdened with a sudden sense of mental +discomfort. Already the visions I had had of an enthusiastic welcome were +but vague outlines of dreams. There had sprung up in my mind instead a +sudden, novel doubt of my position in this house--a cruel idea that +perhaps the affection which had so swelled and buoyed my heart was not +reciprocated. I put this notion away as foolish and baseless, but all the +same the silent hall-room down-stairs seemed now larger and colder, and +the flames curled and writhed toward the flue with a chill, metallic +aspect, instead of the bright, honest glow of greeting.</p> + +<p>While I stood before the fire-place, still holding the candle in my hand, +my aunt entered the room from the kitchen door. At sight of me the good +soul gave a guttural exclamation, dropped flat an apronful of chips she +was bringing in, and stared at me open-mouthed. When she was at last +persuaded that I was in proper person and not the spirit, she submitted to +be kissed by me--it was not a fervent proceeding, I am bound to add--but +it was evident the shock had sent her wits wool-gathering. Her hands were +a bright brown from the butternut dye, and the pungent, acrid odor she +brought in with her garments made unnecessary her halting explanation that +she had been out in the smoke-house.</p> + +<p>"Philip sent down two haunches yesterday by Marinus Folts," she said, +apologetically, "and this muggy weather I was afraid they wouldn't keep."</p> + +<p>"This is the Dutch conception of a welcome after five months!" I could not +help thinking to myself, uncharitably forgetting for the moment my aunt's +infirmities. Aloud I said:</p> + +<p>"How are they all--Mr. Stewart and Daisy? And where are they? And how have +the farms been doing?"</p> + +<p>"Well," answered Dame Kronk, upon reflection, "I maintain that the wool is +the worst we ever clipped. Was the shearing after you went? Yes, of course +it was. Well, how I'm going to get out enough fine for the stockings +alone, is more than I can see. It's downright poor."</p> + +<p>"But Mr. Stewart and Daisy--are they well? Where are they?"</p> + +<p>"But the niggers have gathered five times as much ginseng as they ever did +before. The pigs are fattening fit to eat alive. Eli's been drunk some, +bur his girls are really a good deal of help. There are going to be more +elder-berries this fall than you can shake a stick at; they're just +breaking the branches. And the--"</p> + +<p>"Oh, aunt," I broke in, "do tell me! Are Daisy and Mr. Stewart well?"</p> + +<p>"Why, of course they are," she answered; "that is, they were when they +left here a week come Thursday. And Marinus Folts didn't say anything to +the contrary yesterday. Why shouldn't they be well? They don't do anything +but gad about, these days. Daisy hasn't done a stitch of work all summer +but knit a couple of comforters--and the time she's been about it! When I +was her age I could have knit the whole side of a house in less time. One +of them is for you."</p> + +<p>Dear girl, I had wronged her, then. She had been thinking of me--working +for me. My heart felt lighter.</p> + +<p>"But where <i>are</i> they?" I repeated.</p> + +<p>"Oh, where are they? Up at Sir William's new summer-house that he's just +built. I don't know just where it is, but it's fourteen miles from the +Hall, up somewhere on the Sacondaga Vlaie, where two creeks join. He's +made a corduroy road out to it, and he's painted it white and green, and +he's been having a sort of fandango out there--a house-warming, I take it. +Marinus Folts says he never saw so much drinking in his born days. He'd +had his full share himself, I should judge. They're coming back to-night."</p> + +<p>I sat down at this, and stared into the fire. It was not just the +home-coming which I had looked forward to, but it would be all right when +they returned Ah, but would it? Yes, I forced myself to believe so, and +began to find comfort of mind again.</p> + +<p>My aunt picked up the chips and dumped them into the wood-box. Then she +came over and stood for a long time looking at me. Once she said: "I'm +going to get supper for them when they get back. Can you wait till then, +or shall I cook you something now?" Upon my thanking her and saying I +would wait, she relapsed into silence, but still keeping her eyes on me. I +was growing nervous under this phlegmatic inspection, and idly investing +it with some occult and sinister significance, when she broke out with:</p> + +<p>"Oh, I know what it was I wanted to ask you. Is it really true that the +trappers and men in the woods out there eat the hind-quarters of frogs +and toads?"</p> + +<p>This was the sum of my relative's interest in my voyage. When I had +answered her, she gathered up my luggage and bundles and took them off to +the kitchen, there to be overhauled, washed, and mended.</p> + +<p>I got into my slippers and a loose coat, lighted a pipe, and settled +myself in front of the fire to wait. Tulp came over, grinning with delight +at being among his own once more, to see if I wanted anything. I sent him +off, rather irritably I fear, but I couldn't bear the contrast which his +jocose bearing enforced on my moody mind, between my reception and his. +This slave of mine had kin and friends who rushed to fall upon his neck, +and made the night echoes ring again with their shouts of welcome. I could +hear that old Eli had got down his fiddle, and between the faint squeaking +strains I could distinguish choruses of happy guffaws and bursts of +child-like merriment. Tulp's return caused joy, while mine----</p> + +<p>Then I grew vexed at my peevish injustice in complaining because my dear +ones, not being gifted with second-sight, had failed to exactly anticipate +my coming; and in blaming my poor aunt for behaving just as the dear old +slow-witted creature had always behaved since she was stricken with +small-pox, twenty years before. Yet this course of candid self-reproach +upon which I entered brought me small relief. I was unhappy, and whether +it was my own fault or that of somebody else did not at all help the +matter. And I had thought to be so exaltedly happy, on this of all the +nights of my life!</p> + +<p>At length I heard the sound of hoofs clattering down the road, and of +voices lifted in laughing converse. Eli's fiddle ceased its droning, and +on going to the window I saw lanterns scudding along to the gate from the +slaves' cabins, like fireflies in a gale. I opened the window softly, +enough to hear. Not much was to be seen, for the night had set in dark; +but there were evidently a number of horsemen outside the gate, and, +judging from the noise, all were talking together. The bulk of the party, +I understood at once, were going on down the river road, to make a night +of it at Sir John's bachelor quarters in old Fort Johnson, or at one of +the houses of his two brothers-in-law. I was relieved to hear these +roisterers severally decline the invitations to enter the Cedars for a +time, and presently out of the gloom became distinguishable the forms of +the two for whom I had been waiting. Both were muffled to the eyes, for +the air had turned cold, but it seemed as if I should have recognized them +in any disguise.</p> + +<p>I heard Tulp and Eli jointly shouting out the news of my arrival--for +which premature disclosure I could have knocked their woolly heads +together--but it seemed that the tidings had reached them before. In fact, +they had met Mr. Cross and Enoch on the road down from Johnstown, as I +learned afterward.</p> + +<p>All my doubts vanished in the warm effusion of their welcome to me, as +sincere and honest as it was affectionate. I had pictured it to myself +almost aright. Mr. Stewart did come to me with outstretched arms, and +wring my hands, and pat my shoulder, and well-nigh weep for joy at seeing +me returned, safe and hale. Daisy did not indeed throw herself upon my +breast, but she ran to me and took my hands, and lifted her face to be +kissed with a smile of pleasure in which there was no reservation.</p> + +<p>And it was a merry supper-table around which we sat, too, half an hour +later, and gossiped gayly, while the wind rose outside, and the sparks +flew the swifter and higher for it. There was so much to tell on +both sides.</p> + +<p>Somehow, doubtless because of my slowness of tongue, my side did not seem +very big compared with theirs. One day had been very much like another +with me, and, besides, the scenes through which I had passed did not +possess the novelty for these frontier folk that they would have for +people nowadays.</p> + +<p>But their budget of news was fairly prodigious, alike in range and +quantity. The cream of this, so to speak, had been taken off by hospitable +Jelles Fonda at Caughnawaga, yet still a portentous substance remained. +Some of my friends were dead, others were married. George Klock was in +fresh trouble through his evil tricks with the Indians. A young half-breed +had come down from the Seneca nation and claimed John Abeel as his father. +Daniel Claus had set up a pack of hounds, equal in breed to Sir William's. +It was really true that Sir John was to marry Miss Polly Watts of New +York, and soon too. Walter Butler had been crossed in love, and was very +melancholy and moody, so much so that he had refused to join the +house-warming party at the new summer-house on Sacondaga Vlaie, which Sir +William had christened Mount Joy Pleasure Hall--an ambitious enough name, +surely, for a forest fishing-cottage.</p> + +<p>Naturally a great deal was told me concerning this festival from which +they had just returned. It seems that Lady Berenicia Cross and Daisy were +the only ladies there. They were given one of the two sleeping-rooms, +while Sir William and Mr. Stewart shared the other. The younger men had +ridden over to Fish House each night, returning next day. Without its +being said in so many words, I could see that the drinking and carousing +there had disturbed and displeased Daisy. There had even, I fancied, been +a dispute on this subject between her and our guardian, for he was at +pains several times to insist upon telling me incidents which it was plain +she desired left unmentioned, and to rather pointedly yet good-humoredly +laugh at her as a little puritan, who did not realize that young gentlemen +had their own particular ways, as proper and natural to them as were other +habits and ways to young foxes or fishes. Her manner said clearly enough +that she did not like these ways, but he pleasantly joked her down.</p> + +<p>I noted some slight changes in Mr. Stewart, which gave me a sense of +uneasiness. He seemed paler than before, and there were darker pits under +his prominent, bright eyes. He had been visibly exhausted on entering the +house, but revived his strength and spirits under the influence of the +food and wine. But the spirits struck, somehow, a false note on my ear. +They seemed not to come from a natural and wholesome fund, as of old, but +to have a ring of artificiality in them. I could not help thinking, as I +looked at him, of the aged French noblemen we read about, who, at an age +and an hour which ought to have found them nightcapped and asleep, +nourishing their waning vitality, were dancing attendance in ladies' +boudoirs, painted, rouged, padded, and wigged, aping the youth they had +parted with so long ago. Of course, the comparison was ridiculous, but +still it suggested itself, and, once framed in my mind, clung there.</p> + +<p>It dawned upon me after a time that it was contact with that Lady +Berenicia which had wrought this change in him, or, rather, had brought +forth in his old age a development of his early associations, that, but +for her, would to the end have lain hidden, unsuspected, under the manly +cover of his simple middle life.</p> + +<p>If there were alterations of a similar sort in Daisy, I could not see them +this night. I had regard only for the beauty of the fire-glow on her fair +cheek, for the sweet, maidenly light in her hazel eyes, for the soft smile +which melted over her face when she looked upon me. If she was quieter and +more reserved in her manner than of old, doubtless the same was true of +me, for I did not notice it.</p> + +<p>I had learned at Fonda's that young Philip Cross was cutting a great +swath, socially, in the Valley, and that he was building a grand mansion, +fully as large as Johnson Hall, nearly at the summit of the eminence which +crowned his patent. Major Fonda was, indeed, contracting to furnish the +bricks for what he called the "shimlies," and the house was, by all +accounts, to be a wonderful affair. I heard much more about it, in detail, +this evening, chiefly from Mr. Stewart. Nay, I might say entirely, for +Daisy never once mentioned Philip's name if it could be avoided. Mr. +Stewart was evidently much captivated by the young man's spirit and social +qualities and demeanor generally.</p> + +<p>"He is his father's own boy, ay, and his mother's too," said the old man, +with sparkling eyes. "Not much for books, perhaps, though no dullard. But +he can break a wild colt, or turn a bottle inside out, or bore a +pencilled hole with a pistol-bullet at thirty paces, or tell a story, or +sing a song, or ride, dance, box, cross swords, with any gentleman in the +Colony. You should have seen him stand Walrath the blacksmith on his head +at the races a fortnight ago! I never saw it better done in the +Tweed country."</p> + +<p>"A highly accomplished gentleman, truly," I said, with as little obvious +satire as possible.</p> + +<p>"Ah, but he has mind as well as muscle," put in Mr. Stewart. "He is a very +Bolingbroke with the ladies. It carries me back to my days at the play, I +swear, to hear him and Lady Berenicia clashing rapiers in badinage. You +shall hear them, my boy, and judge. And there's a sweet side to his +tongue, too, or many a pretty, blushing cheek belies the little ear +behind it."</p> + +<p>The old gentleman chuckled amiably to himself as he spoke, and poured more +Madeira into my glass and his. Daisy somewhat hurriedly rose, bade us +"good-night," and left us to ourselves.</p> + +<p>Oh, if I had only spoken the word that night!</p> + + + + +<h2><a name="15"></a>Chapter XV</h2> + +<h3>The Rude Awakening from My Dream.</h3> + + + +<p>I look back now upon the week which followed this home-coming as a season +of much dejection and unhappiness. Perhaps at the time it was not all +unmixed tribulation. There was a great deal to do, naturally, and +occupation to a healthful and vigorous young man is of itself a sovereign +barrier against undue gloom. Yet I think of it now as all sadness.</p> + +<p>Mr. Stewart had really grown aged and feeble. For the first time, too, +there was a petulant vein in his attitude toward me. Heretofore he had +treated my failure to grow up into his precise ideal of a gentleman with +affectionate philosophy, being at pains to conceal from me whatever +disappointment he felt, and, indeed, I think, honestly trying to persuade +himself that it was all for the best.</p> + +<p>But these five months had created a certain change in the social +conditions of the Valley. For years the gulf had been insensibly widening, +here under our noses, between the workers and the idlers; during my +absence there had come, as it were, a landslide, and the chasm was now +manifest to us all. Something of this was true all over the Colonies: no +doubt what I noticed was but a phase of the general movement, part social, +part religious, part political, now carrying us along with a perceptible +glide toward the crisis of revolution. But here in the Valley, more than +elsewhere, this broadening fissure of division ran through farms, through +houses, ay, even through the group gathered in front of the family +fire-place--separating servants from employers, sons from fathers, +husbands from wives. And, alas! when I realized now for the first time the +existence of this abyss, it was to discover that my dearest friend, the +man to whom I most owed duty and esteem and love, stood on one side of it +and I on the other.</p> + +<p>This was made clear to me by his comments--and even more by his +manner--when I told him next day of the great offer which Mr. Cross had +made. Not unnaturally I expected that he would be gratified by this proof +of the confidence I had inspired, even if he did not favor my acceptance +of the proffered post. Instead, the whole matter seemed to vex him. When I +ventured to press him for a decision, he spoke unjustly and impatiently to +me, for the first time.</p> + +<p>"Oh, ay! that will serve as well as anything else, I suppose," he said. +"If you are resolute and stubborn to insist upon leaving me, and tossing +aside the career it has been my pleasure to plan for you, by all means go +to Albany with the other Dutchmen, and barter and cheapen to your heart's +content. You know it's no choice of mine, but please yourself!"</p> + +<p>This was so gratuitously unfair and unlike him, and so utterly at variance +with the reception I had expected for my tidings, that I stood astounded, +looking at him. He went on:</p> + +<p>"What the need is for your going off and mixing yourself up with these +people, I fail for the life of me to see. I suppose it is in the blood. +Any other young man but a Dutchman, reared and educated as you have been, +given the society and friendship of gentlefolk from boyhood, and placed, +by Heaven! as you are here, with a home and an estate to inherit, and +people about you to respect and love--I say nothing of obeying them--would +have appreciated his fortune, and asked no more. But no! You must, +forsooth, pine and languish to be off tricking drunken Indians out of +their peltry, and charging some other Dutchman a shilling for fourpence +worth of goods!"</p> + +<p>What could I say? What could I do but go away sorrowfully, and with a +heavy heart take up farm affairs where I had left them? It was very hard +to realize that these rough words, still rasping my ears, had issued from +Mr. Stewart's lips. I said to myself that he must have had causes for +irritation of which I knew nothing, and that he must unconsciously have +visited upon me the peevishness which the actions of others had +engendered. All the same, it was not easy to bear.</p> + +<p>Daily contact with Daisy showed changes, too, in her which disturbed me. +Little shades of formalism had crept here and there into her manner, even +toward me. She was more distant, I fancied, and mistress-like, toward my +poor old aunt. She rose later, and spent more of her leisure time +up-stairs in her rooms alone. Her dress was notably more careful and +elegant, now, and she habitually wore her hair twisted upon the crown of +her head, instead of in a simple braid as of old.</p> + +<p>If she was not the Daisy I had so learned to love in my months of absence, +it seemed that my heart went out in even greater measure to this new +Daisy. She was more beautiful than ever, and she was very gentle and soft +with me. A sense of tender pity vaguely colored my devotion, for the dear +girl seemed to my watchful solicitude to be secretly unhappy. Once or +twice I strove to so shape our conversation that she would be impelled to +confide in me--to throw herself upon my old brotherly fondness, if she +suspected no deeper passion. But she either saw through my clumsy devices, +or else in her innocence evaded them; for she hugged the sorrow closer to +her heart, and was only pensively pleasant with me.</p> + +<p>I may explain now, in advance of my story, what I came to learn long +afterward; namely, that the poor little maiden was truly in sore distress +at this time--torn by the conflict between her inclination and her +judgment, between her heart and her head. She was, in fact, hesitating +between the glamour which the young Englishman and Lady Berenicia, with +their polished ways, their glistening surfaces, and their attractive, +idlers' views of existence, had thrown over her, and her own innate, +womanly repugnance to the shallowness and indulgence, not to say license, +beneath it all. It was this battle the progress of which I unwittingly +watched. Had I but known what emotions were fighting for mastery behind +those sweetly grave hazel eyes--had I but realized how slight a pressure +might have tipped the scales my way--how much would have been different!</p> + +<p>But I, slow Frisian that I was, comprehended nothing of it all, and so was +by turns futilely compassionate--and sulky.</p> + +<p>For again, at intervals, she would be as gay and bright as a June rose, +tripping up and down through the house with a song on her lips, and the +old laugh rippling like sunbeams about her. Then she would deftly perch +herself on the arm of Mr. Stewart's chair, and dazzle us both with the +joyous merriment of her talk, and the sparkle in her eyes--or sing for us +of an evening, up-stairs, playing the while upon the lute (which young +Cross had given her) instead of the discarded piano. Then she would wear a +bunch of flowers--I never suspecting whence they came--upon her breast, +and an extra ribbon in her hair. And then I would be wretched, and +gloomily say to myself that I preferred her unhappy, and next morning, +when the cloud had gathered afresh upon her face, would long again to see +her cheerful once more.</p> + +<p>And so the week went by miserably, and I did not tell my love.</p> + +<p>One morning, after breakfast, Mr. Stewart asked Daisy to what conclusion +she had come about our accepting Philip Cross's invitation to join a +luncheon-party on his estate that day. I had heard this gathering +mentioned several times before, as a forthcoming event of great promise, +and I did not quite understand either the reluctance with which Daisy +seemed to regard the thought of going, or the old gentleman's mingled +insistence and deference to her wishes in the matter.</p> + +<p>To be sure, I had almost given up in weary heart-sickness the attempt to +understand his new moods. Since his harsh words to me, I had had nothing +but amiable civility from him--now and then coming very near to his +old-time fond cordiality--but it was none the less grievously apparent to +me that our relations would never again be on the same footing. I could no +longer anticipate his wishes, I found, or foresee what he would think or +say upon matters as they came up. We two were wholly out of chord, be the +fault whose it might. And so, I say, I was rather puzzled than surprised +to see how much stress was laid between them upon the question whether or +not Daisy would go that day to Cairncross, as the place was to be called.</p> + +<p>Finally, without definitely having said "yes," she appeared dressed for +the walk, and put on a mock air of surprise at not finding us also ready. +She blushed, I remember, as she did so. There was no disposition on my +part to make one of the party, but when I pleaded that I had not been +invited, and that there was occupation for me at home, Mr. Stewart seemed +so much annoyed that I hastened to join them.</p> + +<p>It was a perfect autumn day, with the sweet scent of burning leaves in the +air, and the foliage above the forest path putting on its first pale +changes toward scarlet and gold. Here and there, when the tortuous way +approached half-clearings, we caught glimpses of the round sun, opaquely +red through the smoky haze.</p> + +<p>Our road was the old familiar trail northward over which Mr. Stewart and +I, in the happy days, had so often walked to reach our favorite haunt the +gulf. The path was wider and more worn now--almost a thoroughfare, in +fact. It came to the creek at the very head of the chasm, skirting the +mysterious circle of sacred stones, then crossing the swift water on a new +bridge of logs, then climbing the farther side of the ravine by a steep +zigzag course which hung dangerously close to the precipitous wall of dark +rocks. I remarked at the time, as we made our way up, that there ought to +be a chain, or outer guard of some sort, for safety. Mr. Stewart said he +would speak to Philip about it, and added the information that this side +of the gulf was Philip's property.</p> + +<p>"It is rough enough land," he went on to say, "and would never be worth +clearing. He has some plan of keeping it in all its wildness, and building +a little summer-house down below by the bridge, within full sound of the +waterfall. No doubt we shall arrange to share the enterprise together. You +know I have bought on the other side straight to the creek."</p> + +<p>Once the road at the top was gained, Cairncross was but a pleasant walking +measure, over paths well smoothed and made. Of the mansion in process of +erection, which, like Johnson Hall, was to be of wood, not much except the +skeleton framework met the eye, but this promised a massive and imposing +edifice. A host of masons, carpenters, and laborers, sufficient to have +quite depopulated Johnstown during the daylight hours, were hammering, +hewing, or clinking the chimney-bricks with their trowels, within and +about the structure.</p> + +<p>At a sufficient distance from this tumult of construction, and on a level, +high plot of lawn, was a pretty marquee tent. Here the guests were +assembled, and thither we bent our steps.</p> + +<p>Young Cross came forth eagerly to greet us--or, rather, my +companions--with outstretched hands and a glowing face. He was bareheaded, +and very beautifully, though not garishly clad. In the reddish, dimmed +sunlight, with his yellow hair and his fresh, beaming face, he certainly +was handsome.</p> + +<p>He bowed ceremoniously to Mr. Stewart, and then took him warmly by the +hand. Then with a frank gesture, as if to gayly confess that the real +delight was at hand, he bent low before Daisy and touched her fingers +with his lips.</p> + +<p>"You make me your slave, your very happy slave, dear lady, by coming," he +murmured, loud enough for me to hear. She blushed, and smiled with +pleasure at him.</p> + +<p>To me our young host was civil enough. He called me "Morrison," it is +true, without any "Mr.," but he shook hands with me, and said affably that +he was glad to see me back safe and sound. Thereafter he paid no attention +whatsoever to me, but hung by Daisy's side in the cheerful circle +outside the tent.</p> + +<p>Sir William was there, and Lady Berenicia, of course, and a dozen others. +By all I was welcomed home with cordiality--by all save the Lady, who was +distant, not to say supercilious in her manner, and Sir John Johnson, who +took the trouble only to nod at me.</p> + +<p>Inquiring after Mr. Jonathan Cross, I learned that my late companion was +confined to the Hall, if not to his room, by a sprained ankle. There being +nothing to attract me at the gathering, save, indeed, the girl who was +monopolized by my host, and the spectacle of this affording me more +discomfort than satisfaction, the condition of my friend at the Hall +occurred to me as a pretext for absenting myself. I mentioned it to Mr. +Stewart, who had been this hour or so in great spirits, and who now was +chuckling with the Lady and one or two others over some tale she +was telling.</p> + +<p>"Quite right," he said, without turning his head; and so, beckoning to +Tulp to follow me, I started.</p> + +<p>It was a brisk hour's walk to the Hall, and I strode along at a pace which +forced my companion now and again into a trot. I took rather a savage +comfort in this, as one likes to bite hard on an aching tooth; for I had a +profound friendship for this poor black boy, and to put a hardship upon +him was to suffer myself even more than he did. Tulp had come up misshapen +and undersized from his long siege with the small-pox, and with very +rickety and unstable legs. I could scarcely have sold him for a hundred +dollars, and would not have parted with him for ten thousand, if for no +other reason than his deep and dog-like devotion to me. Hence, when I +made this poor fellow run and pant, I must have been possessed of an +unusually resolute desire to be disagreeable to myself. And in truth +I was.</p> + +<hr width="80%" size="1" /> + +<p>Mr. Jonathan Cross made me very welcome. His accident had befallen on the +very day following his return, and he had seen nobody save the inmates of +the Hall since that time. We had many things to talk about--among others, +of my going to Albany to take the agency. I told him that this had not +been quite decided as yet, but avoided giving reasons. I could not well +tell this born-and-bred merchant that my guardian thought I ought to feel +above trade. His calm eyes permitted themselves a solitary twinkle as I +stumbled over the subject, but he said nothing.</p> + +<p>He did express some interest, however, when I told him whence I had come, +and what company I had quitted to visit him.</p> + +<p>"So Mistress Daisy is there with the rest, is she?" he said, with more +vigor in his voice than I had ever heard there before. "So, so! The apple +has fallen with less shaking than I thought for."</p> + +<p>I do not think that I made any remark in reply. If I did, it must have +been inconsequential in the extreme, for my impression is of a long, +heart-aching silence, during which I stared at my companion, and +saw nothing.</p> + +<p>At last I know that he said to me--I recall the very tone to this day:</p> + +<p>"You ought to be told, I think. Yes, you ought to know. Philip Cross +asked her to be his wife a fortnight ago. She gave no decided answer. From +what Philip and Lady Berenicia have said to each other here, since, I know +it was understood that if she went to him to-day it meant 'yes.'"</p> + +<p>This time I know I kept silence for a long time.</p> + +<p>I found myself finally holding the hand he had extended to me, and saying, +in a voice which sounded like a stranger's:</p> + +<p>"I will go to Albany whenever you like."</p> + +<p>I left the Hall somehow, kicking the drunken Enoch Wade fiercely out of my +path, I remember, and walking straight ahead as if blindfolded.</p> + + + + +<h2><a name="16"></a>Chapter XVI</h2> + +<h3>Tulp Gets a Broken Head to Match My Heart.</h3> + + + +<p>Without heed as to the direction, I started at a furious pace up the road +which I found myself upon--Tulp at my heels. If he had not, from utter +weariness, cried out after a time, I should have followed the track +straight, unceasing, over the four leagues and more to the Sacondaga. As +it was, I had presently to stop and retrace my steps to where he sat on a +wayside stump, dead beat.</p> + +<p>"Don't you wait for me, Mass' Douw, if you're bound to get there quick," +he said, gasping for breath. "Don't mind me. I'll follow along the best +I can."</p> + +<p>The phrase "get there"--it was almost the only English which poor Tulp had +put into the polyglot sentence he really uttered--arrested my attention. +"Get where?" I had been headed for the mountains--for the black water +which dashed foaming down their defiles, and eddied in sinister depths at +their bases. I could see the faint blue peaks on the horizon from where I +stood, by the side of the tired slave. The sight sobered me. To this day I +cannot truly say whether I had known where I was going, and if there had +not been in my burning brain the latent impulse to throw myself into the +Sacondaga. But I could still find the spot--altered beyond recollection +as the face of the country is--where Tulp's fatigue compelled me to stop, +and where I stood gazing out of new eyes, as it were, upon the pale +Adirondack outlines.</p> + +<p>As I looked, the aspect of the day had changed The soft, somnolent haze +had vanished from the air. Dark clouds were lifting themselves in the east +and north beyond the mountains, and a chill breeze was blowing from them +upon my brow. I took off my hat, and held up my face to get all its +cooling touch. Tulp, between heavy breaths, still begged that his +infirmity might not be allowed to delay me.</p> + +<p>"Why, boy," I laughed bitterly at him, "I have no place to go to. Nobody +is waiting for me--nobody wants me."</p> + +<p>The black looked hopeless bewilderment at me, and offered no comment. Long +afterward I learned that he at the moment reached the reluctant conclusion +that I had taken too much drink in the Hall.</p> + +<p>"Or no!" I went on, a thought coming to the surface in the hurly-burly of +my mind. "We are going to Albany. That's where we're going."</p> + +<p>Tulp's sooty face took on a more dubious look, if that were possible. He +humbly suggested that I had chosen a roundabout route; perhaps I was going +by the way of the Healing Springs. But it must be a long, lonesome road, +and the rain was coming on.</p> + +<p>Sure enough the sky was darkening: a storm was in the air, and already the +distant mountain-tops were hidden from view by the rain-mist.</p> + +<p>Without more words I put on my hat, and we turned back toward the +settlements. The disposition to walk swiftly, which before had been a +controlling thing, was gone. My pace was slow enough now, descending the +hill, for even Tulp, who followed close upon my heels. But my head was not +much clearer. It was not from inability to think: to the contrary, the +vividness and swift succession of my thoughts, as they raced through my +brain, almost frightened me.</p> + +<p>I had fancied myself miserable that very morning, because Mr. Stewart had +spoken carelessly to me, and she had been only ordinarily pleasant. Ah, +fool! My estate that morning had been that of a king, of a god, in +contrast to this present wretchedness. Then I still had a home--still +nourished in my heart a hope--and these <i>were</i> happiness! I laughed aloud +at my folly in having deemed them less.</p> + +<p>She had put her hand in his--given herself to him! She had with her eyes +open promised to marry this Englishman--fop! dullard! roisterer! insolent +cub!--so the rough words tumbled to my tongue. In a hundred ways I +pictured her--called up her beauty, her delicacy, her innocence, her +grace, the refined softness of her bearing, the sweet purity of her smile, +the high dignity of her thoughts--and then ground my teeth as I placed +against them the solitary image my mind consented to limn of him--brawling +dandy with fashionable smirk and false blue eyes, flushed with wine, and +proud of no better achievement than throwing a smith in a drunken +wrestling-bout. It was a sin--a desecration! Where were their eyes, that +they did not read this fellow's worthlessness, and bid him stand back when +he sought to lay his coarse hands upon her?</p> + +<p>Yet who were these that should have saved her? Ah! were they not all of +his class, or of his pretence to class?</p> + +<p>Some of them had been my life-long friends. To Mr. Stewart--and I could +not feel bitterly toward him even now--I owed home, education, rearing, +everything; Sir William had been the earliest and kindest of my other +friends, eager and glad always to assist, instruct, encourage me; John +Butler had given me my first gun, and had petted me in his rough way from +boyhood. Yet now, at a touch of that hateful, impalpable thing "class," +these all vanished away from my support, and were to me as if they had +never been. I saw them over on the other side, across the abyss from me, +grouped smiling about this new-comer, praising his brute ability to drink +and race and wrestle, complimenting him upon his position among the +gentry--save the mark!--of Tryon County, and proud that they had by never +so little aided him to secure for a wife this poor trembling, timid, +fascinated girl. Doubtless they felt that a great honor had been done her; +it might be that even she dreamed this, too, as she heard their +congratulations.</p> + +<p>And these men, honest, fair-minded gentlemen as they were in other +affairs, would toss me aside like a broken pipe if I ventured to challenge +their sympathy as against this empty-headed, satined, and powdered +stranger. They had known and watched me all my life. My smallest action, +my most trivial habit, was familiar to them. They had seen me grow before +their eyes--dutiful, obedient, diligent, honest, sober, truthful. In their +hearts they knew that I deserved all these epithets. They themselves time +out of mind had applied them to me. I stood now, at my early age, and on +my own account, on the threshold of a career of honorable trade, surely as +worthy now as it was when Sir William began at it far more humbly. Yet +with all these creditable things known to them, I could not stand for a +moment in their estimation against this characterless new-comer!</p> + +<p>Why? He was a "gentleman," and I was not.</p> + +<p>Not that he was better born--a thousand times no! But I had drawn from the +self-sacrificing, modest, devoted man of God, my father, and the resolute, +tireless, hard working, sternly honest housewife, my mother, the fatal +notion that it was not beneath the dignity of a Mauverensen or a Van Hoorn +to be of use in the world. My ancestors had fought for their little +country, nobly and through whole generations, to free it from the accursed +rule of that nest of aristocrats, Spain; but they had not been ashamed +also to work, in either the Old World or the New. This other, this +Englishman--I found myself calling him that as the most comprehensive +expletive I could use--the son of a professional butcher and of an +intriguing woman, was my superior here, in truth, where I had lived all +my life and he had but shown his nose, because he preferred idleness to +employment!</p> + +<p>It was a mistake, then, was it, to be temperate and industrious? It was +more honorable to ride at races, to play high stakes, and drain three +bottles at dinner, than to study and to do one's duty? To be a gentleman +was a matter of silk breeches and perukes and late hours? Out upon the +blundering playwright who made Bassanio win with the leaden casket! Portia +was a woman, and would have wrapped her picture--nay, herself--in tinsel +gilt, the gaudier the better!</p> + +<p>But why strive to trace further my wrathful meditations? There is nothing +pleasant or profitable in the contemplation of anger, even when reason +runs abreast of it. And I especially have no pride in this three hours' +wild fury. There were moments in it, I fear, when my rage was well-nigh +murderous in its fierceness.</p> + +<p>The storm came--a cold, thin, driving rain, with faint mutterings of +thunder far behind. I did not care to quicken my pace or fasten my coat. +The inclemency fitted and echoed my mood.</p> + +<p>On the road we came suddenly upon the Hall party, returning in haste from +the interrupted picnic. The baronet's carriage, with the hood drawn, +rumbled past without a sign of recognition from driver or inmates. A +half-dozen horsemen cantered behind, their chins buried in their collars, +and their hats pulled down over their eyes. One of the last of these--it +was Bryan Lefferty--reined up long enough to inform me that Mr. Stewart +and Daisy had long before started by the forest path for their home, and +that young Cross had made short work of his other guests in order to +accompany them.</p> + +<p>"We're not after complaining, though," said the jovial Irishman; "it's +human nature to desert ordinary mortals like us when youth and beauty +beckon the other way."</p> + +<p>I made some indifferent answer, and he rode away after his companions. We +resumed our tramp over the muddy track, with the rain and wind gloomily +pelting upon our backs.</p> + +<p>When we turned off into the woods, to descend the steep side-hill to the +waterfall, it was no easy matter to keep our footing. The narrow trail +was slippery with wet leaves and moss. Looking over the dizzy edge, you +could see the tops of tall trees far below. The depths were an indistinct +mass of dripping foliage, dark green and russet. We made our way gingerly +and with extreme care, with the distant clamor of the falls in our ears, +and the peril of tumbling headlong keeping all our senses painfully alert.</p> + +<p>At a turn in the path, I came sharply upon Philip Cross.</p> + +<p>He was returning from the Cedars: he carried a broken bough to use as a +walking-stick in the difficult ascent, and was panting with the exertion; +yet the lightness of his heart impelled him to hum broken snatches of a +song as he climbed. The wet verdure under foot had so deadened sound that +neither suspected the presence of the other till we suddenly stood, on +this slightly widened, overhanging platform, face to face!</p> + +<p>He seemed to observe an unusual something on my face, but it did not +interest him enough to affect his customary cool, off-hand civility +toward me.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Morrison, is that you?" he said, nonchalantly. "You're drenched, I +see, like the rest of us. Odd that so fine a day should end like this +"--and made as if to pass me on the inner side.</p> + +<p>I blocked his way and said, with an involuntary shake in my voice which I +could only hope he failed to note:</p> + +<p>"You have miscalled me twice to-day. I will teach you my true name, if you +like--here! now!"</p> + +<p>He looked at me curiously for an instant--then with a frown. "You are +drunk," he cried, angrily. "Out of my way!"</p> + +<p>"No, you are again wrong," I said, keeping my voice down, and looking him +square in the eye. "I'm not of the drunken set in the Valley. No man was +ever soberer. But I am going to spell my name out for you, in such manner +that you will be in no danger of forgetting it to your dying day."</p> + +<p>The young Englishman threw a swift glance about him, to measure his +surroundings. Then he laid down his cudgel, and proceeded to unbutton his +great-coat, which by some strange freak of irony happened to be one of +mine that they had lent him at the Cedars for his homeward journey.</p> + +<p>If the words may be coupled, I watched him with an enraged admiration. +There was no sign of fear manifest in his face or bearing. With all his +knowledge of wrestling, he could not but have felt that, against my +superior size and weight, and long familiarity with woodland footing, +there were not many chances of his escaping with his life: if I went over, +he certainly would go too--and he might go alone. Yet he unfastened his +coats with a fine air of unconcern, and turned back his ruffles carefully. +I could not maintain the same calm in throwing off my hat and coat, and +was vexed with myself for it.</p> + +<p>We faced each other thus in our waistcoats in the drizzling rain for a +final moment, exchanging a crossfire sweep of glances which took in not +only antagonist, but every varying foot of the treacherous ground we stood +upon, and God knows what else beside--when I was conscious of a swift +movement past me from behind.</p> + +<p>I had so completely forgotten Tulp's presence that for the second that +followed I scarcely realized what was happening. Probably the faithful +slave had no other thought, as he glided in front of me, than to thus +place himself between me and what he believed to be certain death.</p> + +<p>To the Englishman the sudden movement may easily have seemed an attack.</p> + +<p>There was an instant's waving to and fro of a light and a dark body close +before my startled eyes. Then, with a scream which froze the very marrow +in my bones, the negro boy, arms whirling wide in air, shot over the side +of the cliff!</p> + +<p>Friends of mine in later years, when they heard this story from my lips +over a pipe and bowl, used to express surprise that I did not that very +moment throw myself upon Cross, and fiercely bring the quarrel to an end, +one way or the other. I remember that when General Arnold came up the +Valley, five years after, and I recounted to him this incident, which +recent events had recalled, he did not conceal his opinion that I had +chosen the timid part. "By God!" he cried, striking the camp-table till +the candlesticks rattled, "I would have killed him or he would have killed +me, before the nigger struck bottom!" Very likely he would have done as he +said. I have never seen a man with a swifter temper and resolution than +poor, brave, choleric, handsome Arnold had; and into a hideously hopeless +morass of infamy they landed him, too! No doubt it will seem to my +readers, as well, that in nature I ought upon the instant to have grappled +the Englishman.</p> + +<p>The fact was, however, that this unforeseen event took every atom of fight +out of both of us as completely as if we had been struck by lightning.</p> + +<p>With a cry of horror I knelt and hung over the shelving edge as far as +possible, striving to discover some trace of my boy through the misty +masses of foliage below. I could see nothing--could hear nothing but the +far-off dashing of the waters, which had now in my ears an unspeakably +sinister sound. It was only when I rose to my feet again that I caught +sight of Tulp, slowly making his way up the other side of the ravine, +limping and holding one hand to his head. He had evidently been hurt, but +it was a great deal to know that he was alive. I turned to my +antagonist--it seemed that a long time had passed since I last looked +at him.</p> + +<p>The same idea that the struggle was postponed had come to him, evidently, +for he had put on his coats again, and had folded his arms. He too had +been alarmed for the fate of the boy, but he affected now not to see him.</p> + +<p>I drew back to the rock now, and Cross passed me in silence, with his chin +defiantly in the air. He turned when he had gained the path above, and +stood for a moment frowning down at me.</p> + +<p>"I am going to marry Miss Stewart," he called out. "The sooner you find a +new master, and take yourself off, the better. I don't want to see +you again."</p> + +<p>"When you do see me again," I made answer, "be sure that I will break +every bone in your body."</p> + +<p>With this not very heroic interchange of compliments we parted. I +continued the descent, and crossed the creek to where the unfortunate Tulp +was waiting for me.</p> + + + + +<h2><a name="17"></a>Chapter XVII</h2> + +<h3>I Perforce Say Farewell to My Old Home.</h3> + + + +<p>The slave sat upon one of the bowlders in the old Indian circle, holding +his jaw with his hand, and rocking himself like a child with the colic.</p> + +<p>He could give me no account whatever of the marvellous escape he had had +from instant death, and I was forced to conclude that his fall had been +more than once broken by the interposition of branches or clumps of vines. +He seemed to have fortunately landed on his head. His jaw was broken, and +some of his teeth loosened, but none of his limbs were fractured, though +all were bruised. I bound up his chin with my handkerchief, and put my +neckcloth over one of his eyes, which was scratched and swollen shut, as +by some poisonous thing. Thus bandaged, he hobbled along behind me over +the short remaining distance. The rain and cold increased as nightfall +came on, and, no longer sustained by my anger, I found the walk a very wet +and miserable affair.</p> + +<p>When I reached the Cedars, and had sent Tulp to his parents with a promise +to look in upon him later, I was still without any definite plan of what +to say or do upon entering. The immensity of the crisis which had +overtaken me had not shut my mind to the fact that the others, so far +from being similarly overwhelmed, did not even suspect any reason on my +part for revolt or sorrow. I had given neither of them any cause, by word +or sign, to regard me as a rival to Cross--at least, of late years. So far +as they were concerned, I had no ground to stand upon in making a protest. +Yet when did this consideration restrain an angry lover? I had a savage +feeling that they ought to have known, if they didn't. And reflection upon +the late scene on the gulf side--upon the altercation, upon the abortive +way in which I had allowed mastery of the situation to slip through my +fingers, and upon poor Tulp's sufferings--only served to swell my +mortification and rage.</p> + +<p>When I entered--after a momentary temptation to make a stranger of myself +by knocking at the door--Daisy was sitting by the fire beside Mr. Stewart; +both were looking meditatively into the fire, which gave the only light in +the room, and she was holding his hand. My heart melted for a second as +this pretty, home-like picture met my eyes, and a sob came into my throat +at the thought that I was no longer a part of this dear home-circle. Then +sulkiness rose to the top again. I muttered something about the weather, +lighted a candle at the fire, and moved past them to the door of my room.</p> + +<p>"Why, Douw," asked Daisy, half rising as she spoke, "what has happened? +There's blood on your ruffles! Where is your neckcloth?"</p> + +<p>I made answer, standing with my hand upon the latch, and glowering at her:</p> + +<p>"The blood comes from my Tulp's broken head: I used my neckcloth to tie +it up. He was thrown over the side of Kayaderosseros gulf, an hour ago, by +the gentleman whom it is announced you are going to marry!"</p> + +<p>Without waiting to note the effect of these words, I went into my room, +closing the door behind me sharply. I spent a wretched hour or so, sorting +over my clothes and possessions, trinkets and the like, and packing them +for a journey. Nothing was very clear in my mind, between bitter repining +at the misery which had come upon me and the growing repulsion I felt for +making these two unhappy, but it was at least obvious that I must as soon +as possible leave the Cedars.</p> + +<p>When at last I reentered the outer room, the table was spread for supper. +Only Mr. Stewart was in the room, and he stood in his favorite attitude, +with his back to the fire and his hands behind him. He preserved a +complete silence, not even looking at me, until my aunt had brought in the +simple evening meal. To her he said briefly that Mistress Daisy had gone +to her room, weary and with a headache, and would take no supper. I felt +the smart of reproof to me in every word he uttered, and even more in his +curt tone. I stood at the window with my back to him, looking through the +dripping little panes at the scattered lights across the river, and not +ceasing for an instant to think forebodingly of the scene which was +impendent.</p> + +<p>Dame Kronk had been out of the room some moments when he said, testily:</p> + +<p>"Well, sir! will you do me the honor to come to the table, or is it your +wish that I should fetch your supper to you?" The least trace of softness +in his voice would, I think, have broken down my temper. If he had been +only grieved at my behavior, and had shown to me sorrow instead of +truculent rebuke, I would have been ready, I believe, to fall at his feet. +But his scornful sternness hardened me.</p> + +<p>"Thank you, sir," I replied, "I have no wish for supper."</p> + +<p>More seconds of silence ensued. The streaming windows and blurred +fragments of light, against the blackness outside, seemed to mirror the +chaotic state of my mind. I ought to turn to him--a thousand times over, I +knew I ought--and yet for my life I could not. At last he spoke again:</p> + +<p>"Perhaps, then, you will have the politeness to face me. My association +has chiefly been with gentlemen, and I should mayhap be embarrassed by +want of experience if I essayed to address you to your back."</p> + +<p>I had wheeled around before half his first sentence was out, thoroughly +ashamed of myself. In my contrition I had put forth my hand as I moved +toward him. He did not deign to notice--or rather to respond to--the +apologetic overture, and I dropped the hand and halted. He looked me over +now, searchingly and with a glance of mingled curiosity and anger. He +seemed to be searching for words sufficiently formal and harsh, meanwhile, +and he was some time in finding them.</p> + +<p>"In the days when I wore a sword for use, young man, and moved among my +equals," he began, deliberately, "it was not held to be a safe or small +matter to offer me affront. Other times, other manners. The treatment +which then I would not have brooked from Cardinal York himself, I find +myself forced to submit to, under my own roof, at the hands of a person +who, to state it most lightly, should for decency's sake put on the +appearance of respect for my gray hairs."</p> + +<p>He paused here, and I would have spoken, but he held up his slender, +ruffled hand with a peremptory "Pray, allow me!" and presently went on:</p> + +<p>"In speaking to you as I ought to speak, I am at the disadvantage of being +wholly unable to comprehend the strange and malevolent change which has +come over you. Through nearly twenty years of close and even daily +observation, rendered at once keen and kindly by an affection to which I +will not now refer, you had produced upon me the impression of a dutiful, +respectful, honorable, and polite young man. If, as was the case, you +developed some of the to me less attractive and less generous virtues of +your race, I still did not fail to see that they were, in their way, +virtues, and that they inured both to my material profit and to your +credit among your neighbors. I had said to myself, after much +consideration, that if you had not come up wholly the sort of gentleman I +had looked for, still you were a gentleman, and had qualities which, taken +altogether, would make you a creditable successor to me on the portions of +my estate which it was my purpose to entail upon you and yours."</p> + +<p>"Believe me, Mr. Stewart," I interposed here, with a broken voice, as he +paused again, "I am deeply--very deeply grateful to you."</p> + +<p>He went on as if I had not spoken:</p> + +<p>"Judge, then, my amazement and grief to find you returning from your +voyage to the West intent upon leaving me, upon casting aside the position +and duties for which I had trained you, and upon going down to Albany to +dicker for pence and ha'pence with the other Dutchmen there. I did not +forbid your going. I contented myself by making known to you my +disappointment at your selection of a career so much inferior to your +education and position in life. Whereupon you have no better conception of +what is due to me and to yourself than to begin a season of sulky pouting +and sullenness, culminating in the incredible rudeness of open insults to +me, and, what is worse, to my daughter in my presence. She has gone to her +chamber sick in head and heart alike from your boorish behavior. I would +fain have retired also, in equal sorrow and disgust, had it not seemed my +duty to demand an explanation from you before the night passed."</p> + +<p>The blow--the whole crushing series of blows--had fallen. How I suffered +under them, how each separate lash tore savagely through heart and soul +and flesh, it would be vain to attempt to tell.</p> + +<p>Yet with the anguish there came no weakening. I had been wrong and +foolish, and clearly enough I saw it, but this was not the way to correct +or chastise me. A solitary sad word would have unmanned me; this long, +stately, satirical speech, this ironically elaborate travesty of my +actions and motives, had an opposite effect. I suffered, but I stubbornly +stood my ground.</p> + +<p>"If I have disappointed you, sir, I am more grieved than you can possibly +be," I replied. "If what I said was in fact an affront to you, and +to--her--then I would tear out my tongue to recall the words. But how can +the simple truth affront?"</p> + +<p>"What was this you called out so rudely about the gulf--about Tulp's being +thrown over by--by the gentleman my daughter is to marry? since you choose +to describe him thus."</p> + +<p>"I spoke the literal truth, sir. It was fairly by a miracle that the poor +devil escaped with his life."</p> + +<p>"How did it happen? What was the provocation? Even in Caligula's days +slaves were not thrown over cliffs without some reason."</p> + +<p>"Tulp suffered for the folly of being faithful to me--for not +understanding that it was the fashion to desert me," I replied, with +rising temerity. "He threw himself between me and this Cross of yours, as +we faced each other on the ledge--where we spoke this morning of the need +for a chain--and the Englishman flung him off."</p> + +<p>"Threw himself between you! Were you quarrelling, you two, then?"</p> + +<p>"I dare say it would be described as a quarrel. I think I should have +killed him, or he killed me, if the calamity of poor Tulp's tumble had not +put other things in our heads."</p> + +<p>"My faith!" was Mr. Stewart's only comment. He stared at me for a time, +then seated himself before the fire, and looked at the blaze and smoke in +apparent meditation. Finally he said, in a somewhat milder voice than +before: "Draw a chair up here and sit down. Doubtless there is more in +this than I thought. Explain it to me."</p> + +<p>I felt less at my ease, seated now for a more or less moderate conference, +than I had been on my feet, bearing my part in a quarrel.</p> + +<p>"What am I to explain?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"Why were you quarrelling with Philip?"</p> + +<p>"Because I felt like it--because I hate him!"</p> + +<p>"Tut, tut! That is a child's answer. What is the trouble between you two? +I demand to know!"</p> + +<p>"If you will have it"--and all my resentment and sense of loss burst forth +in the explanation--"because he has destroyed my home for me; because he +has ousted me from the place I used to have, and strove so hard to be +worthy of, in your affections; because, after a few months here, with his +fine clothes and his dashing, wasteful ways, he is more regarded by you +and your friends than I am, who have tried faithfully all my life to +deserve your regard; because he has taken--" But I broke down here. My +throat choked the sound in sobs, and I turned my face away that he might +not see the tears which I felt scalding my eyes.</p> + +<p>My companion kept silent, but he poked the damp, smudging sticks about in +the fire-place vigorously, took his spectacles out of their case, rubbed +them, and put them back in his pocket, and in other ways long since +familiar to me betrayed his uneasy interest. These slight signs of growing +sympathy--or, at least, comprehension--encouraged me to proceed, and my +voice came back to me.</p> + +<p>"If you could know," I went mournfully on, "the joy I felt when I first +looked on the Valley--<i>our</i> Valley--again at Fort Stanwix; if you could +only realize how I counted the hours and minutes which separated me from +this home, from you and her, and how I cried out at their slowness; if you +could guess how my heart beat when I walked up the path out there that +evening, and opened that door, and looked to see you two welcome me--ah, +then you could feel the bitterness I have felt since! I came home burning +with eagerness, homesickness, to be in my old place again near you and +her--and the place was filled by another! If I have seemed rude and +sullen, <i>that</i> is the reason. If I had set less store upon your love, and +upon her--her--liking for me, then doubtless I should have borne the +displacement with better grace. But it put me on the rack. Believe me, if +I have behaved to your displeasure, and hers, it has been from very excess +of tenderness trampled underfoot."</p> + +<p>At least the misunderstanding had been cleared up, and for a time, at all +events, the heart of my life-long friend had warmed again to me as of old. +He put his hand paternally upon my knee, and patted it softly.</p> + +<p>"My poor boy," he said, with a sympathetic half-smile, and in his old-time +gravely gentle voice: "even in your tribulation you must be Dutch! Why not +have said this to me--or what then occurred to you of it--at the outset, +the first day after you came? Why, then it could all have been put right +in a twinkling. But no! in your secretive Dutch fashion you must needs go +aloof, and worry your heart sore by all sorts of suspicions and jealousies +and fears that you have been supplanted--until, see for yourself what a +melancholy pass you have brought us all to! Suppose by chance, while these +sullen devils were driving you to despair, you had done injury to +Philip--perhaps even killed him! Think what your feelings, and ours, would +be now. And all might have been cleared up, set right, by a word at the +beginning."</p> + +<p>I looked hard into the fire, and clinched my teeth.</p> + +<p>"Would a word have given me Daisy?" I asked from between them.</p> + +<p>He withdrew his hand from my knee, and pushed one of the logs petulantly +with his foot. "What do you mean?" he demanded.</p> + +<p>"I mean that for five years I have desired--for the past six months have, +waking or sleeping, thought of nothing else but this desire of my +heart--to have Daisy for my wife."</p> + +<p>As he did not speak, I went on with an impassioned volubility altogether +strange to my custom, recalling to him the tender intimacy in which she +and I had grown up from babyhood; the early tacit understanding that we +were to inherit the Cedars and all its belongings, and his own not +infrequent allusions in those days to the vision of our sharing it, and +all else in life, together. Then I pictured to him the brotherly fondness +of my later years, blossoming suddenly, luxuriantly, into the fervor of a +lover's devotion while I was far away in the wilds, with no gracious, +civilizing presence (save always Mr. Cross) near me except the dear image +of her which I carried in my heart of hearts. I told him, too, of the +delicious excitement with which, day by day, I drew nearer to the home +that held her, trembling now with nervousness at my slow progress, now +with timidity lest, grasping this vast happiness too swiftly, I should +crush it from very ecstasy of possession. I made clear to him, moreover, +that I had come without ever dreaming of the possibility of a rival--as +innocently, serenely confident of right, as would be a little child +approaching to kiss its mother.</p> + +<p>"Fancy this child struck violently in the face by this mother, from whom +it had never before received so much as a frown," I concluded; "then you +will understand something of the blow which has sent me reeling."</p> + +<p>His answering words, when finally he spoke, were sympathetic and friendly +enough, but not very much to the point. This was, doubtless, due to no +fault of his; consolation at such times is not within the power of the +very wisest to bestow.</p> + +<p>He pointed out to me that these were a class of disappointments +exceedingly common to the lot of young men; it was the way of the world. +In the process of pairing off a generation, probably ninety-nine out of +every hundred couples would secretly have preferred some other +distribution; yet they made the best of it, and the world wagged on just +the same as before. With all these and many other jarring commonplaces he +essayed to soothe me--to the inevitable increase of my bitter discontent. +He added, I remember, a personal parallel:</p> + +<p>"I have never spoken of it to you, or to any other, but I too had my +grievous disappointment. I was in love with the mother of this young +Philip Cross. I worshipped her reverently from afar; I had no other +thought or aim in life but to win her favor, to gain a position worthy of +her; I would have crossed the Channel, and marched into St. James's, and +hacked off the Hanoverian's heavy head with my father's broadsword, I +verily believe, to have had one smile from her lips. Yet I had to pocket +this all, and stand smilingly by and see her wedded to my tent-mate, Tony +Cross. I thought the world had come to an end--but it hadn't. Women are +kittle cattle, my boy. They must have their head, or their blood turns +sour. Come! where is the genuineness of your affection for our girl, if +you would deny her the gallant of her choice?"</p> + +<p>"If I believed," I blurted out, "that it <i>was</i> her own free choice!"</p> + +<p>"Whose else, then, pray?"</p> + +<p>"If I felt that she truly, deliberately preferred him--that she had not +been decoyed and misled by that Lady Ber--"</p> + +<p>"Fie upon such talk!" said the old gentleman, with a shade of returning +testiness in his tone. "Do you comprehend our Daisy so slightly, after all +these years? Is she a girl not to know her own mind? Tut! she loves the +youngster; she has chosen him. If you had stopped at home, if you had +spoken earlier instead of mooning, Dutch fashion, in your own mind, it +might have been different. Who can say? But it may not be altered now. We +who are left must still plan to promote her happiness. A hundred +bridegrooms could not make her less our Daisy than she was. There must be +no more quarrels between you boys, remember! I forbid it, your own +judgment will forbid it. He will make a good husband to the girl, and I +mistake much if he does not make a great man of himself in the Colony. +Perhaps--who knows?--he may bring her a title, or even a coronet, some of +these days. The Crown will have need of all its loyal gentlemen here, soon +enough, too, as the current runs now, and rewards and honors will flow +freely. Philip will lose no chance to turn the stream Cairncross way."</p> + +<p>My aunt came in to take away the untouched dishes--Mr. Stewart could never +abide negroes in their capacity as domestics--and soon thereafter we went +to bed; I, for one, to lie sleepless and disconsolate till twilight came.</p> + +<p>The next morning we two again had the table to ourselves, for Daisy sent +down word that her head was still aching, and we must not wait the meal +for her. It was a silent and constrained affair, this breakfast, and we +hurried through it as one speeds a distasteful task.</p> + +<p>It was afterward, as we walked forth together into the garden, where the +wet earth already steamed under the warm downpour of sunlight, that I told +Mr. Stewart of my resolution to go as soon as possible to Albany, and +take up the proffered agency.</p> + +<p>He seemed to have prepared himself for this, and offered no strong +opposition. We had both, indeed, reached the conclusion that it was the +best way out of the embarrassment which hung over us. He still clung, or +made a show of clinging, to his regret that I had not been satisfied with +my position at the Cedars. But in his heart, I am sure, he was relieved by +my perseverance in the project.</p> + +<p>Two or three days were consumed in preparations at home and in conferences +with Jonathan Cross, either at Johnson Hall or at our place, whither he +was twice able to drive. He furnished me with several letters, and with +voluminous suggestions and advice. Sir William, too, gave me letters, and +much valuable information as to Albany ways and prejudices. I had, among +others from him, I remember, a letter of presentation to Governor Tryon, +who with his lady had visited the baronet during my absence, but which I +never presented, and another to the uncle of the boy-Patroon, which was of +more utility.</p> + +<p>In the hurry and occupation of making ready for so rapid and momentous a +departure, I had not many opportunities of seeing Daisy. During the few +times that we were alone together, no allusion was made to the scene of +that night, or to my words, or to her betrothal. How much she knew of the +incident on the gulf-side, or of my later explanation and confession to +Mr. Stewart, I could not guess. She was somewhat reserved in her manner, I +fancied, and she seemed to quietly avoid being alone in the room with me. +At the final parting, too, she proffered me only her cheek to touch with +my lips. Yet I could not honestly say that, deep in her heart, she was not +sorry for me and tender toward me, and grieved to have me go.</p> + +<p>It was on the morning of the last day of September, 1772, that I began +life alone, for myself, by starting on the journey to Albany. If I carried +with me a sad heart, there yet were already visible the dawnings of +compensation. At least, I had not quarrelled with the dear twain of +the Cedars.</p> + +<p>As for Philip Cross, I strove not to think of him at all.</p> + + + + +<h2><a name="18"></a>Chapter XVIII</h2> + +<h3>The Fair Beginning of a New Life in Ancient Albany.</h3> + + + +<p>The life in Albany was to me as if I had become a citizen of some new +world. I had seen the old burgh once or twice before, fleetingly and with +but a stranger's eyes; now it was my home. As I think upon it at this +distance, it seems as if I grew accustomed to the novel environment almost +at the outset. At least, I did not pine overmuch for the Valley I had +left behind.</p> + +<p>For one thing, there was plenty of hard work to keep my mind from moping. +I had entirely to create both my position and my business. This latter +was, in some regards, as broad as the continent; in others it was +pitifully circumscribed and narrow. It is hard for us now, with our eager +national passion for opening up the wilderness and peopling waste places, +to realize that the great trading companies of Colonial days had exactly +the contrary desire. It was the chief anxiety of the fur companies to +prevent immigration--to preserve the forests in as savage a state as +possible. One can see now that it was a fatal error in England's policy to +encourage these vast conservators of barbarism, instead of wholesome +settlement by families--a policy which was avowedly adopted because it was +easier to sell monopolies to a few companies than to collect taxes from +scattered communities. I do not know that I thought much upon this then, +however. I was too busy in fitting myself to Albany.</p> + +<p>Others who saw the city in these primitive Dutch days have found much in +it and its inhabitants to revile and scoff at. To my mind it was a most +delightful place. Its Yankee critics assail a host of features which were +to me sources of great satisfaction--doubtless because they and I were +equally Dutch. I loved its narrow-gabled houses, with their yellow pressed +brick, and iron girders, and high, hospitable stoops, and projecting +water-spouts--which all spoke to me of the dear, brave, good old Holland I +had never seen. It is true that these eaves-troughs, which in the +Netherlands discharged the rainfall into the canal in front of the houses, +here poured their contents upon the middle of the sidewalks, and New +England carpers have made much of this. But to me there was always a +pretty pathos in this resolution to reproduce, here in the wilderness, the +conditions of the dear old home, even if one got drenched for it.</p> + +<p>And Albany was then almost as much in the wilderness as Caughnawaga. There +were a full score of good oil-lamps set up in the streets; some Scotchmen +had established a newspaper the year before, which print was to be had +weekly; the city had had its dramatic baptism, too, and people still told +of the theatrical band who had come and performed for a month at the +hospital, and of the fierce sermon against them which Dominie +Freylinghuysen had preached three years before. Albany now is a great +town, having over ten thousand souls within its boundaries; then its +population was less than one-third of that number. But the three or four +hundred houses of the city were spread over such an area of ground, and +were so surrounded by trim gardens and embowered in trees, that the effect +was that of a vastly larger place. Upon its borders, one stepped off the +grassy street into the wild country-road or wilder forest-trail. The +wilderness stretched its dark shadows to our very thresholds. It is +thought worthy of note now by travellers that one can hear, from the steps +of our new State House, the drumming of partridges in the woods beyond. +Then we could hear, in addition, the barking of wolves skulking down from +the Helderbergs, and on occasion the scream of a panther.</p> + +<p>Yet here there was a feeling of perfect security and peace. The days when +men bore their guns to church were now but a memory among the elders. The +only Indians we saw were those who came in, under strict espionage, to +barter their furs for merchandise and drink--principally drink--and +occasional delegations of chiefs who came here to meet the governor or his +representatives--these latter journeying up from New York for the purpose. +For the rest, a goodly and profitable traffic went sedately and +comfortably forward. We sent ships to Europe and the West Indies, and even +to the slave-yielding coast of Guinea. In both the whaling and deep-sea +fisheries we had our part. As for furs and leather and lumber, no other +town in the colonies compared with Albany. We did this business in our +own way, to be sure, without bustle or boasting, and so were accounted +slow by our noisier neighbors to the east and south.</p> + +<p>There were numerous holidays in this honest, happy old time, although the +firing of guns on New Year's was rather churlishly forbidden by the +Assembly the year after my arrival. It gives me no pleasure now, in my old +age, to see Pinkster forgotten, and Vrouwen-dagh and Easter pass +unnoticed, under the growing sway of the New England invaders, who know +how neither to rest nor to play.</p> + +<p>But my chief enjoyment lay, I think, in the people I came to know. Up in +the Valley, if exception were made of four or five families already +sketched in this tale, there were no associates for me who knew aught of +books or polite matters in general. Of late, indeed, I had felt myself +almost wholly alone, since my few educated companions or acquaintances +were on the Tory side of the widening division, and I, much as I was +repelled by their politics, could find small intellectual equivalent for +them among the Dutch and German Whigs whose cause and political sympathies +were mine. + +But here in Albany I could hate the English and denounce their rule and +rulers in excellent and profitable company. I was fortunate enough at the +outset to produce a favorable impression upon Abraham Ten Broeck, the +uncle and guardian of the boy-Patroon, and in some respects the foremost +citizen of the town. Through him I speedily became acquainted with others +not less worthy of friendship--Colonel Philip Schuyler, whom I had seen +before and spoken with in the Valley once or twice, but now came upon +terms of intimacy with; John Tayler and Jeremiah Van Rensselaer, younger +men, and trusted friends of his; Peter Gansevoort, who was of my own age, +and whom I grew to love like a brother--and so on, through a long list.</p> + +<p>These and their associates were educated and refined gentlemen, not +inferior in any way to the Johnsons and Butlers I had left behind me, or +to the De Lanceys, Phillipses, Wattses, and other Tory gentry whom I had +seen. If they did not drink as deep, they read a good deal more, and were +masters of as courteous and distinguished a manner. Heretofore I had +suffered not a little from the notion--enforced upon me by all my +surroundings--that gentility and good-breeding went hand in hand with +loyalty to everything England did, and that disaffection was but another +name for vulgarity and ignorance. Despite this notion, I had still chosen +disaffection, but I cannot say that I was altogether pleased with the +ostracism from congenial companionship which this seemed to involve. Hence +the charm of my discovery in Albany that the best and wisest of its +citizens, the natural leaders of its social, commercial, and political +life, were of my way of thinking.</p> + +<p>More than this, I soon came to realize that this question for and against +England was a deeper and graver matter than I had dreamed it to be. Up in +our slow, pastoral, uninformed Valley the division was of recent growth, +and, as I have tried to show, was even now more an affair of race and +social affiliations than of politics. The trial of Zenger, the Stamp Act +crisis, the Boston Massacre--all the great events which were so bitterly +discussed in the outer Colonial world--had created scarcely a ripple in +our isolated chain of frontier settlements. We rustics had been conscious +of disturbances and changes in the atmosphere, so to speak, but had lacked +the skill and information--perhaps the interest as well--to interpret +these signs of impending storm aright. Here in Albany I suddenly found +myself among able and prudent men who had as distinct ideas of the evils +of English control, and as deep-seated a resolution to put an end to it, +as our common ancestors had held in Holland toward the detested Spaniards. +Need I say that I drank in all this with enthusiastic relish, and became +the most ardent of Whigs?</p> + +<p>Of my business it is not needful to speak at length. Once established, +there was nothing specially laborious or notable about it. The whole +current of the company's traffic to and fro passed under my eye. There +were many separate accounts to keep, and a small army of agents to govern, +to supply, to pay, and to restrain from fraud--for which they had a +considerable talent, and even more inclination. There were cargoes of +provisions and merchandise to receive from our company's vessels at +Albany, and prepare for transportation across country to the West; and +there were return-cargoes of peltries and other products to be shipped +hence to England. Of all this I had charge and oversight, but with no +obligation upon me to do more of the labor than was fit, or to spare +expense in securing a proper performance of the residue by others.</p> + +<p>Mr. Jonathan Cross and his lady came down to Albany shortly after I had +entered upon my duties there, and made a stay of some days. He was as kind +and thoughtful as ever, approving much that I had done, suggesting +alterations and amendments here and there, but for the most part talking +of me and my prospects. He had little to say about the people at the +Cedars, or about the young master of Cairncross, which was now approaching +completion, and I had small heart to ask him for more than he volunteered. +Both Mr. Stewart and Daisy had charged him with affectionate messages for +me, and that was some consolation; but I was still sore enough over the +collapse of my hopes, and still held enough wrath in my heart against +Philip, to make me wish to recall neither more often than could be helped. +The truth is, I think that I was already becoming reconciled to my +disappointment and to my change of life, and was secretly ashamed of +myself for it, and so liked best to keep my thoughts and talk upon +other things.</p> + +<p>Lady Berenicia I saw but once, and that was once too often. It pleased her +ladyship to pretend to recall me with difficulty, and, after she had +established my poor identity in her mind, to treat me with great coolness. +I am charitable enough to hope that this gratified her more than it vexed +me, which was not at all.</p> + +<p>The ill-assorted twain finally left Albany, taking passage on one of the +company's ships. Mr. Cross's last words to me were: "Do as much business, +push trade as sharply, as you can. There is no telling how long English +charters, or the King's writ for that matter, will continue to run +over here."</p> + +<p>So they set sail, and I never saw either of them again.</p> + +<p>It was a source of much satisfaction and gain to me that my position held +me far above the bartering and dickering of the small traders. It is true +that I went through the form of purchasing a license to trade in the city, +for which I paid four pounds sterling--a restriction which has always +seemed to me as unintelligent as it was harmful to the interests of the +town--but it was purely a form. We neither bought nor sold in Albany. This +made it the easier for me to meet good people on equal terms--not that I +am silly enough to hold trade in disrespect, but because the merchants who +came in direct contact with the Indians and trappers suffered in +estimation from the cloud of evil repute which hung over their business.</p> + +<p>I lived quietly, and without ostentation, putting aside some money each +quarter, and adventuring my savings to considerable profit in the +company's business--a matter which Mr. Cross had arranged for me. I went +to many of the best houses of the Whig sort. In some ways, perhaps, my +progress in knowledge and familiarity with worldly things were purchased +at the expense of an innocence which might better have been retained. But +that is the manner of all flesh, and I was no worse, I like to hope, than +the best-behaved of my fellows. I certainly laughed more now in a year +than I had done in all my life before; in truth, I may be said to have +learned to laugh here in Albany, for there were merry wights among my +companions. One in particular should be spoken of--a second-cousin of +mine, named Teunis Van Hoorn, a young physician who had studied at Leyden, +and who made jests which were often worthy to be written down.</p> + +<p>So two years went by. I had grown somewhat in flesh, being now decently +rounded out and solid. Many of my timid and morose ways had been dropped +meantime. I could talk now to ladies and to my elders without feeling +tongue-tied at my youthful presumption. I was a man of affairs, +twenty-five years of age, with some money of my own, an excellent +position, and as good a circle of friends as fortune ever gave to +mortal man.</p> + +<p>Once each month Mr. Stewart and I exchanged letters. Through this +correspondence I was informed, in the winter following my departure, of +the marriage of Daisy and Philip Cross.</p> + + + + +<h2><a name="19"></a>Chapter XIX</h2> + +<h3>I Go to a Famous Gathering at the Patroon's Manor House.</h3> + + + +<p>We come to a soft, clear night in the Indian summer-time of 1774--a night +not to be forgotten while memory remains to me.</p> + +<p>There was a grand gathering and ball at the Manor House of the Patroons, +and to it I was invited. Cadwallader Golden, the octogenarian +lieutenant-governor, and chief representative of the Crown now that Tryon +was away in England, had come up to Albany in state, upon some business +which I now forget, and he was to be entertained at the Van Rensselaer +mansion, and with him the rank, beauty, and worth of all the country +roundabout. I had heard that a considerable number of invitations had been +despatched to the Tory families in my old neighborhood, and that, despite +the great distance, sundry of them had been accepted. Sir William Johnson +had now been dead some months, and it was fitting that his successor, Sir +John, newly master of all the vast estates, should embrace this +opportunity to make his first appearance as baronet in public. In fact, he +had arrived in town with Lady Johnson, and it was said that they came in +company with others. I could not help wondering, as I attired myself, with +more than ordinary care, in my best maroon coat and smallclothes and +flowered saffron waistcoat, who it was that accompanied the Johnsons. Was +I at last to meet Daisy?</p> + +<p>Succeeding generations have discovered many tricks of embellishment and +decoration of which we old ones never dreamed. But I doubt if even the +most favored of progressive moderns has laid eyes upon any sight more +beautiful than that which I recall now, as the events of this evening +return to me.</p> + +<p>You may still see for yourselves how noble, one might say palatial, was +the home which young Stephen Van Rensselaer built for himself, there on +the lowlands at the end of Broadway, across the Kissing Bridge. But no +power of fancy can restore for <i>you</i>--sober-clad, pre-occupied, democratic +people that you are--the flashing glories of that spectacle: the broad, +fine front of the Manor House, with all its windows blazing in welcome; +the tall trees in front aglow with swinging lanterns and colored lights, +hung cunningly in their shadowy branches after some Italian device; the +stately carriages sweeping up the gravelled avenue, and discharging their +passengers at the block; the gay procession up the wide stone steps--rich +velvets and costly satins, powdered wigs and alabaster throats, bright +eyes, and gems on sword-hilts or at fair breasts--all radiant in the +hospitable flood of light streaming from the open door; the throng of +gaping slaves with torches, and smartly dressed servants holding the +horses or helping with my lady's train and cloak; the resplendent body of +color, and light, and sparkling beauty, which the eye caught in the +spacious hall within, beyond the figures of the widowed hostess and her +son, the eight-year-old Patroon, who stood forth to greet their guests. +No! the scene belongs to its own dead century and fading generation. You +shall strive in vain to reproduce it, even in fancy.</p> + +<p>The full harvest-moon, which hung in the lambent heavens above all, +pictures itself to my memory as far fairer and more luminous than is the +best of nowaday moons. Alas! my old eyes read no romance in the silvery +beams now, but suspect rheumatism instead.</p> + +<p>This round, lustrous orb, pendant over the Hudson, was not plainer to +every sight that evening than was to every consciousness the fact that +this gathering was a sort of ceremonial salute before a duel. The storm +was soon to break; we all felt it in the air. There was a subdued, almost +stiff, politeness in the tone and manner when Dutchman met Englishman, +when Whig met Tory, which spoke more eloquently than words. Beneath the +formal courtesy, and careful avoidance of debatable topics, one could see +sidelong glances cast, and hear muttered sneers. We bowed low to one +another, but with anxious faces, knowing that we stood upon the thin crust +over the crater, likely at any moment to crash through it.</p> + +<p>It was my fortune to be well known to Madame Van Rensselaer, our hostess. +She was a Livingston, and a patriot, and she knew me for one as well. "The +Tories are here in great muster," she whispered to me, when I bowed before +her; "I doubt not it is the last time you will ever see them under my +roof. The Colonel has news from Philadelphia to-day. There is +trouble brewing."</p> + +<p>I could see Colonel Schuyler standing beside one of the doors to the left, +but to reach him was not easy. First I must pause to exchange a few words +with Dominie Westerlo, the learned and good pastor of the Dutch church, of +whose intended marriage with the widow, our hostess, there were even then +rumors. And afterward there was the mayor, Abraham Cuyler, whom we all +liked personally, despite his weak leaning toward the English, and it +would not do to pass him by unheeded.</p> + +<p>While I still stood with him, talking of I know not what, the arrival of +the lieutenant-governor was announced. A buzz of whispering ran round the +hall. In the succeeding silence that dignitary walked toward us, a space +clearing about him as he did so. The mayor advanced to meet him, and I +perforce followed.</p> + +<p>I knew much about this remarkable Mr. Colden. Almost my first English book +had been his account of the Indian tribes, and in later years I had been +equally instructed by his writings on astronomy and scientific subjects. +Even in my boyhood I had heard of him as a very old man, and here he was +now, eighty-six years of age, the highest representative in the Colony of +English authority. I could feel none of the hostility I ought from his +office to have felt, when I presently made my obeisance, and he offered +me his hand.</p> + +<p>It was a pleasant face and a kindly eye which met my look. Despite his +great age, he seemed scarcely older in countenance and bearing than had +Mr. Stewart when last I saw him. He was simply clad, and I saw from his +long, waving, untied hair why he was called "Old Silver Locks." His few +words to me were amiable commonplaces, and I passed to make room for +others, and found my way now to where Schuyler stood.</p> + +<p>"The old fox!" he said, smilingly nodding toward Colden. "One may not but +like him, for all his tricks. If England had had the wit to keep that rude +boor of a Tryon at home, and make Colden governor, and listen to him, +matters would have gone better. Who is that behind him? Oh, yes, +De Lancey."</p> + +<p>Oliver de Lancey was chiefly notable on account of his late brother James, +who had been chief justice and lieutenant-governor, and the most +brilliant, unscrupulous, masterful politician of his time. Oliver was +himself a man of much energy and ambition. I observed him curiously, for +his mother had been a Van Cortlandt, and I had some of that blood in my +veins as well. So far as it had contributed to shape his face, I was not +proud of it, for he had a selfish and arrogant mien.</p> + +<p>It was more satisfactory to watch my companion, as he told me the names of +the Tories who followed in Colden's wake, and commented on their +characters. I do not recall them, but I remember every line of Philip +Schuyler's face, and every inflection of his voice. He was then not quite +forty years of age, almost of my stature--that is to say, a tall man. He +held himself very erect, giving strangers the impression of a haughty air, +which his dark face and eyes, and black lines of hair peeping from under +the powder, helped to confirm. But no one could speak in amity with him +without finding him to be the most affable and sweet-natured of men. If he +had had more of the personal vanity and self-love which his bearing seemed +to indicate, it would have served him well, perhaps, when New England +jealousy assailed and overbore him. But he was too proud to fight for +himself, and too patriotic not to fight for his country, whether the just +reward came or was withheld.</p> + +<p>Colonel Schuyler had been chosen as one of the five delegates of the +Colony to attend the first Continental Congress, now sitting at +Philadelphia, but ill-health had compelled him to decline the journey. He +had since been to New York, however, where he had learned much of the +situation, and now was in receipt of tidings from the Congress itself. By +a compromise in the New York Assembly, both parties had been represented +in our delegation, the Whigs sending Philip Livingston and Isaac Low, the +Tories James Duane and John Jay, and the fifth man, one Alsopp, being a +neutral-tinted individual to whom neither side could object. The +information which Schuyler had received was to the effect that all five, +under the tremendous and enthusiastic pressure they had encountered in +Philadelphia, had now resolved to act together in all things for the +Colonies and against the Crown.</p> + +<p>"That means," said he, "that we shall all adopt Massachusetts's cause as +our own. After Virginia led the way with Patrick Henry's speech, there was +no other course possible for even Jay and Duane. I should like to hear +that man Henry. He must be wonderful."</p> + +<p>The space about Mr. Colden had shifted across the room, so that we were +now upon its edge, and Schuyler went to him with outstretched hand. The +two men exchanged a glance, and each knew what the other was thinking of.</p> + +<p>"Your excellency has heard from Philadelphia," said the Colonel, more as a +statement of fact than as an inquiry.</p> + +<p>"Sad, sad!" exclaimed the aged politician, in a low tone. "It is a grief +instead of a joy to have lived so long, if my life must end amid +contention and strife."</p> + +<p>"He is really sincere in deploring the trouble," said Schuyler, when he +had rejoined me. "He knows in his heart that the Ministry are pig-headedly +wrong, and that we are in the right. He would do justice if he could, but +he is as powerless as I am so far as influencing London goes, and here he +is in the hands of the De Lanceys. To give the devil his due, I believe +Sir William Johnson was on our side, too, at heart."</p> + +<p>We had talked of this before, and out of deference to my sentiments of +liking and gratitude to Sir William, he always tried to say amiable things +about the late baronet to me. But they did not come easily, for there was +an old-time feud between the two families. The dislike dated back to the +beginning of young Johnson's career, when, by taking sides shrewdly in a +political struggle between Clinton and De Lancey, he had ousted John +Schuyler, Philip's grandfather, from the Indian commissionership and +secured it for himself. In later years, since the Colonel had come to +manhood, he had been forced into rivalry, almost amounting to antagonism +at times, with the baronet, in Colonial and Indian affairs; and even now, +after the baronet's death, it was hard for him to acknowledge the +existence of all the virtues which my boyish liking had found in Sir +William. But still he did try, if only to please me.</p> + +<p>As we spoke, Sir John Johnson passed us, in company with several younger +men, pushing toward the room to the right, where the punch-bowl +was placed.</p> + +<p>"At least, <i>he</i> is no friend of yours?" said Schuyler, indicating the +red-faced young baronet.</p> + +<p>"No man less so," I replied, promptly. Two years ago I doubt I should have +been so certain of my entire enmity toward Sir John. But in the interim +all my accumulating political fervor had unconsciously stretched back to +include the Johnstown Tories; I found myself now honestly hating them all +alike for their former coolness to me and their present odious attitude +toward my people. And it was not difficult, recalling all my boyish +dislike for John Johnson and his steadily contemptuous treatment of me, to +make him the chief object of my aversion.</p> + +<p>We talked of him now, and of his wife, a beautiful, sweet-faced girl of +twenty, who had been Polly Watts of New York. My companion pointed her out +to me, as one of a circle beyond the fire-place. He had only soft words +and pity for her--as if foreseeing the anguish and travail soon to be +brought upon her by her husband's misdeeds--but he spoke very slightingly +and angrily of Sir John. To Schuyler's mind there was no good in him.</p> + +<p>"I have known him more or less since he was a boy and followed his father +in the Lake George campaign. The officers then could not abide him, though +some were submissive to him because of his father's position. So now, +fifteen years afterward, although he has many toadies and flatterers, I +doubt his having any real friends. Through all these score of years, I +have yet to learn of any gracious or manly thing he has done."</p> + +<p>"At least he did gallop from the Fort to the Hall at news of his father's +death, and kill his horse by the pace," I said.</p> + +<p>"Heirs can afford to ride swiftly," replied the Colonel, in a dry tone. +"No: he has neither the honesty to respect the rights of others, nor the +wit to enforce those which he arrogates to himself. Look at his management +in the Mohawk Valley. Scarce two months after the old baronet's +death--before he was barely warm in his father's bed--all the Dutch and +Palatines and Cherry Valley Scotch were up in arms against him and his +friends. I call that the work of a fool. Why, Tryon County ought, by all +the rules, to be the Tories' strongest citadel. There, of all other +places, they should be able to hold their own. Old Sir William would have +contrived matters better, believe me. But this sulky, slave-driving cub +must needs force the quarrel from the start. Already they have their +committee in the Palatine district, with men like Frey and Yates and Paris +on it, and their resolutions are as strong as any we have heard."</p> + +<p>Others came up at this, and I moved away, thinking to pay my respects to +friends in the rooms on the left. The fine hall was almost overcrowded. +One's knee struck a sword, or one's foot touched a satin train, at every +step. There were many whom I knew, chiefly Albanians, and my progress was +thus rendered slow. At the door I met my kinsman, Dr. Teunis Van Hoorn.</p> + +<p>"Ha! well met, Cousin Sobriety!" he cried. "Let us cross the hall, and get +near the punch-bowl."</p> + +<p>"It is my idea that you have had enough," I answered.</p> + +<p>"'Too much is enough,' as the Indian said. He was nearer the truth than +you are," replied Teunis, taking my arm.</p> + +<p>"No, not now! First let me see who is here."</p> + +<p>"Who is here? Everybody--from Hendrik Hudson and Killian the First down. +Old Centenarian Colden is telling them about William the Silent, whom he +remembers very well."</p> + +<p>"I have never heard any one speak of Teunis the Silent."</p> + +<p>"Nor ever will! It is not my <i>métier</i>, as the French students used to say. +Well, then, I will turn back with you; but the punch will all be gone, +mark my words. I saw Johnson and Watts and their party headed for the bowl +five-and-twenty minutes ago. We shall get not so much as a lemon-seed. But +I sacrifice myself."</p> + +<p>We entered the room, and my eyes were drawn, as by the force of a million +magnets, to the place where Daisy sat.</p> + +<p>For the moment she was unattended. She was very beautifully attired, and +jewels glistened from her hair and throat. Her eyes were downcast--looking +upon the waxed floor as if in meditation. Even to this sudden, momentary +glance, her fair face looked thinner and paler than I remembered it--and +ah, how well did I remember it! With some muttered word of explanation I +broke away from my companion, and went straight to her.</p> + +<p>She had not noted my presence or approach, and only looked up when I stood +before her. There was not in her face the look of surprise which I had +expected. She smiled in a wan way, and gave me her hand.</p> + +<p>"I knew you were here," she said, in a soft voice which I scarcely +recognized, so changed, I might say saddened, was it by the introduction +of some plaintive, minor element. "Philip told me. I thought that sooner +or later I should see you."</p> + +<p>"And I have thought of little else but the chance of seeing you," I +replied, speaking what was in my heart, with no reflection save that this +was our Daisy, come into my life again.</p> + +<p>She was silent for a moment, her eyes seeking the floor and a faint glow +coming upon her cheeks. Then she raised them to my face, with something of +the old sparkle in their glance.</p> + +<p>"Well, then," she said, drawing aside her skirts, "sit here, and see me."</p> + + + + +<h2><a name="20"></a>Chapter XX</h2> + +<h3>A Foolish and Vexatious Quarrel Is Thrust Upon Me.</h3> + + + +<p>I sat beside Daisy, and we talked. It was at the beginning a highly +superficial conversation, as I remember it, during which neither looked at +the other, and each made haste to fill up any threatened lapse into +silence by words of some sort, it mattered not much what.</p> + +<p>She told me a great deal about Mr. Stewart's health, which I learned was +far less satisfactory than his letters had given reason to suspect. In +reply to questions, I told her of my business and my daily life here in +Albany. I did not ask her in return about herself. She seemed eager to +forestall any possible inquiry on this point, and hastened to inform me as +to my old acquaintances in the Valley.</p> + +<p>From her words I first realized how grave the situation there had suddenly +become. It was not only that opposition to the Johnsons had been openly +formulated, but feuds of characteristic bitterness had sprung up within +families, and between old-time friends, in consequence. Colonel Henry +Frey, who owned the upper Canajoharie mills, took sides with the Tories, +and had fiercely quarrelled with his brother John, who was one of the Whig +Committee. There was an equally marked division in the Herkimer family, +where one brother, Hon-Yost Herkimer, and his nephew, outraged the others +by espousing the Tory cause. So instances might be multiplied. Already on +one side there were projects of forcible resistance, and on the other ugly +threats of using the terrible Indian power, which hung portentous on the +western skirt of the Valley, to coerce the Whigs.</p> + +<p>I gained from this recital, more from her manner than her words, that her +sympathies were with the people and not with the aristocrats. She went on +to say things which seemed to offer an explanation of this.</p> + +<p>The tone of Valley society, at least so far as it was a reflection of +Johnson Hall, had, she said, deteriorated wofully since the old baronet's +death. A reign of extravagance and recklessness both as to money and +temper--of gambling, racing, hard drinking, low sports, and coarse +manners--had set in. The friends of Sir John were now a class by +themselves, having no relations to speak of with the body of Whig farmers, +merchants, inn-keepers, and the like. Rather it seemed to please the Tory +clique to defy the good opinion of their neighbors, and show by very +excess and license contempt for their judgment. Some of the young men whom +I had known were of late sadly altered. She spoke particularly of Walter +Butler, whose moodiness had now been inflamed, by dissipation and by the +evil spell which seemed to hang over everything in the Valley, into a +sinister and sombre rage at the Whigs, difficult to distinguish sometimes +from madness.</p> + +<p>In all this I found but one reflection--rising again and again as she +spoke--and this was that she was telling me, by inference, the story of +her own unhappiness.</p> + +<p>Daisy would never have done this consciously--of that I am positive. But +it was betrayed in every line of her face, and my anxious ear caught it in +every word she uttered as to the doings of the Johnson party. Doubtless +she did not realize how naturally and closely I would associate her +husband with that party.</p> + +<p>Underneath all our talk there had been, on both sides, I dare say, a sense +of awkward constraint. There were so many things which we must not speak +of--things which threatened incessantly to force their way to the surface.</p> + +<p>I thought of them all, and wondered how much she knew of the events that +preceded my departure--how much she guessed of the heart-breaking grief +with which I had seen her go to another. It came back to me now, very +vividly, as I touched the satin fold of her gown with my shoe, and said to +myself, "This is really she."</p> + +<p>The two years had not passed so uncomfortably, it is true; work and +pre-occupation and the change of surroundings had brought me back my peace +of mind and taken the keen edge from my despair--which was to have been +life-long, and had faded in a month. Yet now her simple presence--with the +vague added feeling that she was unhappy--sufficed to wipe out the whole +episode of Albany, and transport me bodily back to the old Valley days. I +felt again all the anguish at losing her, all the bitter wrath at the +triumph of my rival--emphasized and intensified now by the implied +confession that he had proved unworthy.</p> + +<p>To this gloom there presently succeeded, by some soft, subtle transition, +the consciousness that it was very sweet to sit thus beside her. The air +about us seemed suddenly filled with some delicately be-numbing influence. +The chattering, smiling, moving throng was here, close upon us, enveloping +us in its folds. Yet we were deliciously isolated. Did she feel it as +I did?</p> + +<p>I looked up into her face. She had been silent for I know not how long, +following her thoughts as I had followed mine. It was almost a shock to me +to find that the talk had died away, and I fancied that I read a kindred +embarrassment in her eyes. I seized upon the first subject which +entered my head.</p> + +<p>"Tulp would be glad to see you," I said, foolishly enough.</p> + +<p>She colored slightly, and opened and shut her fan in a nervous way. "Poor +Tulp!" she said, "I don't think he ever liked me as he did you. Is +he well?"</p> + +<p>"He has never been quite the same since--since he came to Albany. He is a +faithful body-servant now--nothing more."</p> + +<p>"Yes," she said, softly, with a sigh; then, after a pause, "Philip spoke +of offering to make good to you your money loss in Tulp, but I told him he +would better not."</p> + +<p>"It <i>was</i> better not," I answered.</p> + +<p>Silence menaced us again. I did not find myself indignant at this +insolent idea of the Englishman's. Instead, my mind seemed to distinctly +close its doors against the admission of his personality. I was near +Daisy, and that was enough; let there be no thoughts of him whatsoever.</p> + +<p>"You do Tulp a wrong," I said. "Poor little fellow! Do you remember--" and +so we drifted into the happy, sunlit past, with its childish memories for +both of games and forest rambles, and innocent pleasures making every day +a little blissful lifetime by itself, and all the years behind our parting +one sweet prolonged delight.</p> + +<p>Words came freely now; we looked into each other's faces without +constraint, and laughed at the pastimes we recalled. It was so pleasant to +be together again, and there was so much of charm for us both in the time +which we remembered together.</p> + +<p>Sir John Johnson and his party had left the punch--or what remained of +it--and came suddenly up to us. Behind the baronet I saw young Watts, +young De Lancey, one or two others whom I did not know, and, yes!--it was +he--Philip Cross.</p> + +<p>He had altered in appearance greatly. The two years had added much flesh +to his figure, which was now burly, and seemed to have diminished his +stature in consequence. His face, which even I had once regarded as +handsome, was hardened now in expression, and bore an unhealthy, reddish +hue. For that matter, all these young men were flushed with drink, and had +entered rather boisterously, attracting attention as they progressed. This +attention was not altogether friendly. Some of the ladies had drawn in +their skirts impatiently, as they passed, and beyond them I saw a group of +Dutch friends of mine, among them Teunis, who were scowling dark looks at +the new-comers.</p> + +<p>Sir John recognized me as he approached, and deigned to say, "Ha! +Mauverensen--you here?" after a cool fashion, and not offering his hand.</p> + +<p>I had risen, not knowing what his greeting would be like. It was only +decent now to say: "I was much grieved to hear of your honored father's +death last summer."</p> + +<p>"Well you might be!" said polite Sir John. "He served you many a good +purpose. I saw you talking out yonder with Schuyler, that coward who dared +not go to Philadelphia and risk his neck for his treason. I dare say he, +too, was convulsed with grief over my father's death!"</p> + +<p>"Perhaps you would like to tell Philip Schuyler to his face that he is a +coward," I retorted, in rising heat at the unprovoked insolence in his +tone. "There is no braver man in the Colony."</p> + +<p>"But he didn't go to Philadelphia, all the same. He had a very pretty +scruple about subscribing his name to the hangman's list."</p> + +<p>"He did not go for a reason which is perfectly well known--his illness +forbade the journey."</p> + +<p>"Yes," sneered the baronet, his pale eyes shifting away from my glance; +"too ill for Philadelphia, but not too ill for New York, where, I am told, +he has been most of the time since your--what d'ye call it?--Congress +assembled."</p> + +<p>I grew angry. "He went there to bury General Bradstreet. That, also, is +well known. Information seems to reach the Valley but indifferently, Sir +John. Everywhere else people understand and appreciate the imperative +nature of the summons which called Colonel Schuyler to New York. The +friendship of the two men has been a familiar matter of knowledge this +fifteen years. I know not your notions of friendship's duties; but for a +gentleman like Schuyler, scarcely a mortal illness itself could serve to +keep him from paying the last respect to a friend whose death was such an +affliction to him."</p> + +<p>Johnson had begun some response, truculent in tone, when an interruption +came from a most unexpected source. Philip Cross, who had looked at me +closely without betraying any sign of recognition, put his hand now on Sir +John's shoulder.</p> + +<p>"Bradstreet?" he said. "Did I not know him? Surely he is the man who found +his friend's wife so charming that he sent that friend to distant +posts--to England, to Quebec, to Oswego, and Detroit--and amused himself +here at home during the husband's absence. I am told he even built a +mansion for her while the spouse was in London <i>on business.</i> So he is +dead, eh?"</p> + +<p>I had felt the bitter purport of his words, almost before they were out. +It was a familiar scandal in the mouths of the Johnson coterie--this foul +assertion that Mrs. Schuyler, one of the best and most faithful of +helpmates, as witty as she was beautiful, as good as she was diligent, in +truth, an ideal wife, had pursued through many years a course of deceit +and dishonor, and that her husband, the noblest son of our Colony, had +been base enough to profit by it. Of all the cruel and malignant things to +which the Tories laid their mean tongues, this was the lowest and most +false. I could not refrain from putting my hand on my sword-hilt as +I answered:</p> + +<p>"Such infamous words as these are an insult to every gentleman, the world +over, who has ever presented a friend to his family!"</p> + +<p>Doubtless there was apparent in my face, as in the exaggerated formality +of my bow to Cross, a plain invitation to fight. If there had not been, +then my manner would have wofully belied my intent. It was, in fact, so +plain that Daisy, who sat close by my side, and, like some others near at +hand, had heard every word that had passed, half-started to her feet and +clutched my sleeve, as with an appeal against my passionate purpose.</p> + +<p>Her husband had not stirred from his erect and arrogant posture until he +saw his wife's frightened action. I could see that he noted this, and that +it further angered him. He also laid his hand on his sword now, and +frigidly inclined his wigged head toward me.</p> + +<p>"I had not the honor of addressing you, sir," he said, in a low voice, +very much at variance with the expression in his eyes. "I had no wish to +exchange words with you, or with any of your sour-faced tribe. But if you +desire a conversation--a lengthy and more private conversation--I am at +your disposition. Let me say here, however,"--and he glanced with fierce +meaning at Daisy as he spoke--"I am not a Schuyler; I do not encourage +'friends.'"</p> + +<p>Even Sir John saw that this was too much.</p> + +<p>"Come, come, Cross!" he said, going to his friend. "Your tongue runs away +with you." Then, in a murmur, he added: "Damn it, man! Don't drag your +wife into the thing. Skewer the Dutchman outside, if you like, and if you +are steady enough, but remember what you are about."</p> + +<p>I could hear this muttered exhortation as distinctly as I had heard +Cross's outrageous insult. Sir John's words appealed to me even more than +they did to his companion. I was already ashamed to have been led into a +display of temper and a threat of quarrelling, here in the company of +ladies, and on such an occasion. We were attracting attention, moreover, +and Teunis and some of his Dutch friends had drawn nearer, evidently +understanding that a dispute was at hand. The baronet's hint about Daisy +completed my mortification. <i>I</i> should have been the one to think of her, +to be restrained by her presence, and to prevent, at any cost, her name +being associated with the quarrel by so much as the remotest inference.</p> + +<p>So I stood irresolute, with my hand still on my sword, and black rage +still tearing at my heart, but with a mist of self-reproach and indecision +before my eyes, in which lights, costumes, powdered wigs, gay figures +about me, all swam dizzily.</p> + +<p>Stephen Watts, a man in manner, though a mere stripling in years, had +approached me from the other group, a yard off, in a quiet way to avoid +observation. He whispered:</p> + +<p>"There must be no quarrel <i>here</i>, Mr. Mauverensen. And there must be no +notice taken of his last words--spoken in heat, and properly due, I dare +say, to the punch rather than to the man."</p> + +<p>"I feel that as deeply as you can," I replied.</p> + +<p>"I am glad," said Watts, still in a sidelong whisper. "If you must fight, +let there be some tolerable pretext."</p> + +<p>"We have one ready standing," I whispered back. "When we last met I warned +him that at our next encounter I should break every bone in his skin. Is +not that enough?"</p> + +<p>"Capital! Who is your friend?"</p> + +<p>By some remarkable intuition my kinsman Teunis was prompted to advance at +this. I introduced the two young men to each other, and they sauntered +off, past where Sir John was still arguing with Cross, and into the outer +hall. I stood watching them till they disappeared, then looking aimlessly +at the people in front of me, who seemed to belong to some strange +phantasmagoria.</p> + +<p>It was Daisy's voice which awakened me from this species of trance. She +spoke from behind her fan, purposely avoiding looking up at me.</p> + +<p>"You are going to fight--you two!" she murmured.</p> + +<p>I could not answer her directly, and felt myself flushing with +embarrassment. "He spoke in heat," I said, stumblingly. "Doubtless he will +apologize--to you, at least."</p> + +<p>"You do not know him. He would have his tongue torn out before he would +admit his wrong, or any sorrow for it."</p> + +<p>To this I could find no reply. It was on my tongue's end to say that men +who had a pride in combining obstinacy with insolence must reap what they +sow, but I wisely kept silence.</p> + +<p>She went on:</p> + +<p>"Promise me, Douw, that you will not fight. It chills my heart, even the +thought of it. Let it pass. Go away now--anything but a quarrel! I +beseech you!"</p> + +<p>"'Tis more easily said than done," I muttered back to her. "Men cannot +slip out of du--out of quarrels as they may out of coats."</p> + +<p>"For my sake!" came the whisper, with a pleading quaver in it, from behind +the feathers.</p> + +<p>"It is all on one side, Daisy," I protested. "I must be ridden over, +insulted, scorned, flouted to my face--and pocket it all! That is a +nigger's portion, not a gentleman's. You do not know what I have +borne already."</p> + +<p>"Do I not? Ah, too well! For my sake, Douw, for the sake of our memories +of the dear old home, I implore you to avoid an encounter. Will you +not--for me?"</p> + +<p>"It makes a coward out of me! Every Tory in the two counties will cackle +over the story that a Dutchman, a Whig, was affronted here under the +Patroon's very roof, and dared not resent it."</p> + +<p>"How much do you value their words? Must a thing be true for them to say +it? The real manhood is shown in the strength of restraint, not the +weakness of yielding to the impulse of the moment. And you can be strong +if you choose, Douw!"</p> + +<p>While I still pondered these words Teunis Van Hoorn returned to me, having +finished his consultation with Watts, whom I now saw whispering to Sir +John and the others who clustered about Cross.</p> + +<p>The doctor was in good spirits. He sidled up to me, uttering aloud some +merry commonplace, and then adding, in a low tone:</p> + +<p>"I was a match for him. He insisted that they were the aggrieved party, +and chose swords. I stuck to it that we occupied that position, and had +the right to choose pistols. You are no Frenchman, to spit flesh with a +wire; but you <i>can</i> shoot, can't you? If we stand to our point, they +must yield."</p> + +<p>I cast a swift glance toward the sweet, pleading face at my side, and made +answer:</p> + +<p>"I will not fight!"</p> + +<p>My kinsman looked at me with surprise and vexation.</p> + +<p>"No," I went on, "it is not our way here. You have lived so long abroad +that duelling seems a natural and proper thing. But we stay-at-homes no +more recognize the right of these English fops to force their fighting +customs upon us than we rush to tie our hair in queues because it is +their fashion."</p> + +<p>I will not pretend that I was much in love with the line of action thus +lamely defended. To the contrary, it seemed to me then a cowardly and +unworthy course; but I had chosen it, and I could not retreat.</p> + +<p>There was upon the moment offered temptation enough to test my resolution +sorely.</p> + +<p>Many of the ladies had in the meantime left the room, not failing to let +it be seen that they resented the wrangling scene which had been thrust +upon them. Mistress Daisy had crossed the floor to where Lady Johnson +stood, with others, and this frightened group were now almost our sole +observers.</p> + +<p>Philip Cross shook himself loose from the restraining circle of friends, +and strode toward me, his face glowing darkly with passion, and his +hands clinched.</p> + +<p>"You run away, do you?" he said. "I have a mind, then, to thrash you where +you stand, you canting poltroon! Do you hear me?--here, where you stand!"</p> + +<p>"I hear you," I made answer, striving hard to keep my voice down and my +resolution up. "Others hear you, too. There are ladies in the room. If you +have any right to be among gentlemen, it is high time for you to show it. +You are acting like a blackguard."</p> + +<p>"Hear the preaching Dutchman!" he called out, with a harsh, scornful +laugh, to those behind him. "He will teach me manners, from his +hiding-place behind the petticoats.--Come out, you skunk-skin pedler, and +I'll break that sword of yours over your back!"</p> + +<p>Where this all would have ended I cannot tell. My friends gathered around +beside me, and at my back. Cross advanced a step or two nearer to me, his +companions with him. I felt, rather than saw, the gestures preceding the +drawing of swords. I cast a single glance toward the group of women across +the room--who, huddled together, were gazing at us with pale faces and +fixed eyes--and I dare say the purport of my glance was that I had borne +all I could, and that the results were beyond my control--when suddenly +there came an unlooked-for interruption.</p> + +<p>The dignified, sober figure of Abraham Ten Broeck appeared in our wrathful +circle. Some one had doubtless told him, in the outer hall, of the +quarrel, and he had come to interfere. A hush fell over us all at +his advent.</p> + +<p>"What have we here, gentlemen?" asked the merchant, looking from one to +another of our heated faces with a grave air of authority. "Are you well +advised to hold discussions here, in what ought to be a pleasant and +social company?"</p> + +<p>No ready answer was forthcoming. The quarrel was none of my manufacture, +and it was not my business to explain it to him. The Tories were secretly +disgusted, I fancy, with the personal aspects of the dispute, and had +nothing to say. Only Cross, who unfortunately did not know the new-comer, +and perhaps would not have altered his manner if he had known him, said +uncivilly:</p> + +<p>"The matter concerns us alone, sir. It is no affair of outsiders."</p> + +<p>I saw the blood mount to Mr. Ten Broeck's dark cheeks, and the fire flash +in his eyes. But the Dutch gentleman kept tight bit on his tongue +and temper.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps I am not altogether an outsider, young sir," he replied, calmly. +"It might be thought that I would have a right to civil answers here."</p> + +<p>"Who is he?" asked Cross, contemptuously turning his head toward Sir John.</p> + +<p>Mr. Ten Broeck took the reply upon himself. "I am the uncle and guardian +of your boy-host," he said, quietly. "In a certain sense I am myself your +host--though it may be an honor which I shall not enjoy again."</p> + +<p>There was a stateliness and solidity about this rebuke which seemed to +impress even my headstrong antagonist. He did not retort upon the instant, +and all who listened felt the tension upon their emotions relaxed. Some on +the outskirts began talking of other things, and at least one of the +principals changed his posture with a sense of relief.</p> + +<p>Philip Cross presently went over to where the ladies stood, exchanged a +few words with them, and then with his male friends left the room, +affecting great composure and indifference. It was departing time; the +outer hall was beginning to display cloaks, hoods, and tippets, and from +without could be heard the voices of the negroes, bawling out demands for +carriages.</p> + +<p>I had only a momentary chance of saying farewell to Daisy. Doubtless I +ought to have held aloof from her altogether, but I felt that to be +impossible. She gave me her hand, looking still very pale and distrait, +and murmured only, "It was brave of you, Douw."</p> + +<p>I did not entirely agree with her, so I said in reply: "I hope you will +be happy, dear girl; that I truly hope. Give my love and duty to Mr. +Stewart, and--and if I may be of service to you, no matter in how exacting +or how slight a matter, I pray you command me."</p> + +<p>We exchanged good-byes at this, with perfunctory words, and then she left +me to join Lady Johnson and to depart with their company.</p> + +<p>Later, when I walked homeward with Teunis, sauntering in the moonlight, he +imparted something to me which he had heard, in confidence of course, from +one of the ladies who had formed the anxious little group that watched +our quarrel.</p> + +<p>"After Ten Broeck came in, Cross went over to his wife, and brusquely said +to her, in the hearing of her friends, that your acquaintance with her was +an insult to him, and that he forbade her ever again holding converse +with you!"</p> + +<p>We walked a considerable time in silence after this, and I will not essay +to describe for you my thoughts. We had come into the shadow of the old +Dutch church in the square, I know, before Teunis spoke again.</p> + +<p>"Be patient yet a little longer, Douw," he said. "The break must come soon +now, and then we will drive all these insolent scoundrels before us +into the sea!"</p> + +<p>I shook hands with him solemnly on this, as we parted.</p> + + + + +<h2><a name="21"></a>Chapter XXI</h2> + +<h3>Containing Other News Besides that from Bunker Hill.</h3> + + + +<p>To pass from October, 1774, to mid-June of 1775--from the moonlit streets +of sleeping Albany to the broad noonday of open revolt in the Mohawk +Valley--is for the reader but the turning of a page with his fingers. To +us, in those trying times, these eight months were a painfully +long-drawn-out period of anxiety and growing excitement.</p> + +<p>War was coming surely upon us--and war under strange and sinister +conditions. Dull, horse-racing, dog-fighting noblemen were comforting +themselves in Parliament, at London, by declaring that the Americans were +cowards and would not fight. We boasted little, but we knew ourselves +better. There was as yet small talk of independence, of separation. +Another year was to elapse before Thomas Paine's <i>Common Sense</i> should +flash a flood of light as from some new sun upon men's minds, and show us +both our real goal and the way to attain it. But about fighting, we had +resolved our purpose.</p> + +<p>We should have been slaves otherwise.</p> + +<p>Turn and turn about, titled imbecile had succeeded distinguished incapable +at London in the task of humiliating and bullying us into subjection. Now +it was Granville, now Townshend, now Bedford, now North--all tediously +alike in their refusal to understand us, and their slow obstinacy of +determination to rule us in their way, not in ours. To get justice, or +even an intelligent hearing, from these people, was hopeless. They +listened to their own little clique in the colonies--a coterie of +officials, land-owners, dependents of the Crown, often men of too +worthless a character to be tolerated longer in England--who lied us +impudently and unblushingly out of court. To please these gentry, the +musty statutes of Tudor despotism were ransacked for a law by which we +were to be haled over the seas for trial by an English jury for sedition; +the port of Boston was closed to traffic, and troops crowded into the town +to overawe and crush its citizens; a fleet of war-ships was despatched +under Lord Howe to enforce by broadsides, if needs be, the wicked and +stupid trade and impost laws which we resented; everywhere the Crown +authorities existed to harass our local government, affront such honest +men as we selected to honor, fetter or destroy our business, and eat up +our substance in wanton taxation.</p> + +<p>There had been a chance that the new Parliament, meeting for the first +time in the January of this 1775, would show more sense, and strive to +honestly set matters right. We had appealed from Crown and Commons to the +English people; for a little we fancied the result might be favorable. But +the hope speedily fell to the ground. The English, with that strange +rushing of blood to the head which, from age to age, on occasion blinds +their vision, confuses their judgment, and impels them to rude and brutal +courses, decreed in their choler that we should be flogged at the +cart-tail. + +To this we said no!</p> + +<p>In Albany, on this day in the latter part of June, when the thread of the +story is again resumed, there were notable, but distressingly vague, +tidings. Following upon the blow struck at Concord in April, a host of +armed patriots, roughly organized into something like military form, were +investing Boston, and day by day closing in the cordon around the +beleaguered British General Gage. A great battle had been fought near the +town--this only we knew, and not its result or character. But it meant +War, and the quiet burgh for the nonce buzzed with the hum of +excited comment.</p> + +<p>The windows of my upper room were open, and along with the streaming +sunlight came snatches of echoing words from the street below. Men had +gone across the river, and horses were to be posted farther on upon the +Berkshire turnpike, to catch the earliest whisper from across the +mountains of how the fight had gone. No one talked of anything else. +Assuredly I too would have been on the street outside, eager to learn and +discuss the news from Boston, but that my old friend Major Jelles Fonda +had come down from Caughnawaga, bearing to me almost as grave intelligence +from the Mohawk Valley.</p> + +<p>How well I remember him still, the good, square-set, solid +merchant-soldier, with his bold broad face, resolute mouth, and calm, +resourceful, masterful air! He sat in his woollen shirt-sleeves, for the +day was hot, and slowly unfolded to me his story between meditative and +deliberate whiffs of his pipe. I listened with growing interest, until at +last I forgot to keep even one ear upon the sounds from the street, which +before had so absorbed me. He had much to tell.</p> + +<p>More than a month before, the two contending factions had come to +fisticuffs, during a meeting held by the Whigs in and in front of John +Veeder's house, at Caughnawaga. They were to raise a liberty pole there, +and the crowd must have numbered two hundred or more. While they were +deliberating, up rides Guy Johnson, his short, pursy figure waddling in +the saddle, his arrogant, high-featured face redder than ever with rage. +Back of him rode a whole company of the Hall cabal--Sir John Johnson, +Philip Cross, the Butlers, and so on--all resolved upon breaking up the +meeting, and supported by a host of servants and dependents, well armed. +Many of these were drunk. Colonel Guy pushed his horse into the crowd, and +began a violent harangue, imputing the basest motives to those who had +summoned them thither. Young Jake Sammons, with the characteristic +boldness of his family, stood up to the Indian superintendent and answered +him as he deserved, whereat some half-dozen of the Johnson men fell upon +Jake, knocked him down, and pummelled him sorely. Some insisted that it +was peppery Guy himself who felled the youngster with his loaded +riding-whip, but on this point Major Jelles was not clear.</p> + +<p>"But what were our people about, to let this happen?" I asked, with some +heat.</p> + +<p>"To tell the truth," he answered, regretfully, "they mostly walked away. +Only a few of us held our place. Our men were unarmed, for one thing. +Moreover, they are in awe of the power of the Hall. The magistrates, the +sheriff, the constables, the assessors--everybody, in fact, who has office +in Tryon County--take orders from the Hall. You can't get people to forget +that. Besides, if they had resisted, they would have been shot down."</p> + +<p>Major Jelles went on to tell me, that, despite this preponderance of armed +force on the side of the Johnsons, they were visibly alarmed at the temper +of the people and were making preparations to act on the defensive. Sir +John had set up cannon on the eminence crowned by the Hall, and his Roman +Catholic Highlanders were drilling night and day to perfect themselves as +a military body. All sorts of stories came down from Johnstown and up from +Guy Park, as to the desperate intentions of the aristocrats and their +retainers. Peculiarly conspicuous in the bandying of these threats were +Philip Cross and Walter Butler, who had eagerly identified themselves with +the most violent party of the Tories. To them, indeed, was directly +traceable the terrible rumor, that, if the Valley tribes proved to have +been too much spoiled by the missionaries, the wilder Indians were to be +called down from the headwaters of the Three Rivers, and from the Lake +plains beyond, to coerce the settlements in their well-known fashion, if +rebellion was persisted in.</p> + +<p>"But they would never dare do that!" I cried rising to my feet.</p> + +<p>"Why not?" asked Jelles, imperturbably sucking at his pipe. "After all, +that is their chief strength. Make no mistake! They are at work with the +red-skins, poisoning them against us. Guy Johnson is savage at the +mealy-mouthed way in which they talked at his last council, at Guy Park, +and he has already procured orders from London to remove Dominie Kirkland, +the missionary who has kept the Oneidas heretofore friendly to us. That +means--You can see as well as the rest of us what it means."</p> + +<p>"It means war in the Valley--fighting for your lives."</p> + +<p>"Well, let it! My customers owe me three thousand pounds and more. I will +give every penny of that, and as much besides, and fight with my gun from +the windows of my house, sooner than tolerate this Johnson nonsense any +longer. And my old father and my brothers say it with me. My brother Adam, +he thinks of nothing but war these days; he can hardly attend to his work, +his head is so full of storing powder, and collecting cherry and red maple +for gun-stocks, and making bullets. That reminds me--Guy Johnson took all +the lead weights out of the windows at Guy Park, and hid them, to keep +them from our bullet-moulds, before he ran away."</p> + +<p>"Before he ran away? Who ran away?"</p> + +<p>"Why, Guy, of course," was the calm reply.</p> + +<p>I stared at the man in open-mouthed astonishment. "You never mentioned +this!" I managed to say at last.</p> + +<p>"I hadn't got to it yet," the Dutchman answered, filling his pipe slowly. +"You young people hurry one so."</p> + +<p>By degrees I obtained the whole story from him--the story which he had +purposely come down, I believe, to tell me. As he progressed, my fancy ran +before him, and pictured the conclave of desperate plotters in the great +Hall on the hill which I knew so well.</p> + +<p>I needed not his assurances to believe that Molly Brant, who had come down +from the upper Mohawk Castle to attend this consultation, led and spurred +on all the rest into malevolent resolves.</p> + +<p>I could conceive her, tall, swart, severely beautiful still, seated at the +table where in Sir William's time she had been mistress, and now was but a +visitor, yet now as then every inch a queen. I could see her watching with +silent intentness--first the wigged and powdered gentlemen, Sir John, +Colonel Guy, the Butlers, Cross, and Claus, and then her own brother +Joseph, tall like herself, and darkly handsome, but, unlike her, +engrafting upon his full wolf-totem Mohawk blood the restraints of tongue +and of thought learned in the schools of white youth. No one of the males, +Caucasian or aboriginal, spoke out clearly what was in their minds. Each +in turn befogged his suggestions by deference to what the world--which to +them meant London--would think of their acts. No one, not even Joseph +Brant, uttered bluntly the one idea which lay covert in their hearts--to +wit: that the recalcitrant Valley should be swept as with a besom of fire +and steel in the hands of the savage horde at their command. This, when +it came her time, the Indian woman said for them frankly, and with +scornful words on their own faint stomachs for bloodshed. I could fancy +her darkling glances around the board, and their regards shrinking away +from her, as she called them cowards for hesitating to use in his interest +the powers with which the king had intrusted them.</p> + +<p>It was not hard, either, to imagine young Walter Butler and Philip Cross +rising with enthusiasm to approve her words, or how these, speaking hot +and fast upon the echo of Mistress Molly's contemptuous rebuke, should +have swept away the last restraining fears of the others, and committed +all to the use of the Indians.</p> + +<p>So that day, just a week since, it had been settled that Colonel Guy and +the two Butlers, father and son, should go west, ostensibly to hold a +council near Fort Schuyler, but really to organize the tribes against +their neighbors; and promptly thereafter, with a body of retainers, they +had departed. Guy had taken his wife, because, as a daughter of the great +Sir William, she would be of use in the work; but Mrs. John Butler had +gone to the Hall--a refuge which she later was to exchange for the lower +Indian Castle.</p> + +<p>The two houses thus deserted--Guy Park and the Butlers' home on Switzer's +Hill--had been in a single night almost despoiled by their owners of their +contents; some of which, the least bulky, had been taken with them in +their flight, the residue given into safe-keeping in the vicinity, +or hidden.</p> + +<p>"My brother Adam went to look for the lead in the windows," honest Jelles +Fonda concluded, "but it was all gone. So their thoughts were on bullets +as well as his. He has his eye now on the church roof at home."</p> + +<p>Here was news indeed! There could be no pretence that the clandestine +flight of these men was from fear for their personal safety. To the +contrary, Colonel Guy, as Indian superintendent, had fully five hundred +fighting men, Indian and otherwise, about his fortified residence. They +had clearly gone to enlist further aid, to bring down fresh forces to +assist Sir John, Sheriff White, and their Tory minions to hold Tryon +County in terror, and, if need be, to flood it with our blood.</p> + +<p>We sat silent for a time, as befitted men confronting so grave a +situation. At last I said:</p> + +<p>"Can I do anything? You all must know up there that I am with you, heart +and soul."</p> + +<p>Major Jelles looked meditatively at me, through his fog of smoke.</p> + +<p>"Yes, we never doubted that. But we are not agreed how you can best serve +us. You are our best-schooled young man; you know how to write well, and +to speak English like an Englishman. Some think you can be of most use +here, standing between us and the Albany committee; others say that things +would go better if we had you among us. Matters are very bad. John Johnson +is stopping travellers on the highways and searching them; we are trying +to watch the river as closely as he does the roads, but he has the courts +and the sheriff, and that makes it hard for us. I don't know what to +advise you. What do you think?"</p> + +<p>While we were still debating the question thus raised by Major +Fonda--although I have written it in an English which the worthy soul +never attained--my cousin Teunis Van Hoorn burst into the room with +tidings from Boston which had just arrived by courier. Almost before he +could speak, the sound of cheering in the streets told me the burden of +his story. It was the tale of Bunker Hill which he shouted out to us--that +story still so splendid in our ears, but then, with all its freshness of +vigor and meaning upon us, nothing less than soul-thrilling!</p> + +<p>An hour later Major Jelles rose, put on his coat, and said he must be off.</p> + +<p>He would sleep that night at Mabie's, so as to have all the Tryon County +part of his ride by daylight next day, when the roads would be safer.</p> + +<p>It was only when we were shaking hands with him at the door that I found +how the secretive Dutchman had kept his greatest, to me most vital, +tidings for the last.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes!" he said, as he stood in the doorway; "perhaps I did not mention +it. Young Cross has left his home and gone to join Guy Johnson and the +Butlers. They say he had angry words with his wife--your Daisy--before he +deserted her. She has come back to the Cedars again to live!"</p> + + + + +<h2><a name="22"></a>Chapter XXII</h2> + +<h3>The Master and Mistress of Cairncross.</h3> + + + +<p>There is the less need to apologize for now essaying to portray sundry +scenes of which I was not an actual witness, in that the reader must by +this time be heartily disposed to welcome an escape from my wearisome +<i>ego</i>, at any expense whatsoever of historical accuracy. Nor is it +essential to set forth in this place the means by which I later came to be +familiar with the events now to be described--means which will be apparent +enough as the tale unfolds.</p> + +<p>Dusk is gathering in the great room to the right and rear of the wide hall +at Cairncross, and a black servant has just brought in candles, to be +placed on the broad marble mantel, and on the oaken table in the centre of +the room. The soft light mellows the shadows creeping over the white and +gold panelling of the walls, and twinkles faintly in reflection back from +the gilt threads in the heavy curtains; but it cannot dispel the gloom +which, like an atmosphere, pervades the chamber. Although it is June, and +warm of mid-days, a fire burns on the hearth, slowly and spiritlessly, as +if the task of imparting cheerfulness to the room were beyond +its strength.</p> + +<p>Close by the fireplace, holding over it, in fact, his thin, wrinkled +hands, sits an old man. At first glance, one would need to be told that it +was Mr. Stewart, so heavily has Time laid his weight upon him in these +last four years. There are few enough external suggestions now of the +erect, soldierly gentleman, swift of perception, authoritative of tone, +the prince of courtiers in bearing, whom we used to know. The white hair +is still politely queued, and the close-shaven cheeks glisten with the +neat polish of the razor's edge; but, alas! it is scarcely the same face. +The luminous glow of the clear blue eyes has faded; the corners of the +mouth, eloquently resolute no longer, depend in weakness. As he turns now +to speak to his companion, there is a moment's relief: the voice is still +calm and full, with perhaps just a thought of change toward the +querulous in tone.</p> + +<p>"I heard something like the sound of hoofs," he says; "doubtless it is +Philip."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps, father; but he is wont to be late, nowadays."</p> + +<p>Here the change <i>is</i> in the voice, if little else be altered. It is Daisy +who speaks, standing by his chair, with one hand upon his shoulder, the +other hanging listlessly at her side. Like him she looks at the +smouldering fire, preferring the silence of her own thoughts to empty +efforts at talk. The formal, unsympathetic walls and hangings seem to take +up the sad sound of her murmured words and return it to her, as if to +emphasize her loneliness.</p> + +<p>"The rooms are so large--so cold," she says again, after a long pause, in +comment upon a little shiver which shakes the old man's bent shoulders. +"If we heaped the fireplace to the top, it could not make them seem +home-like."</p> + +<p>The last words sink with a sigh into the silence of the great room, and no +more are spoken. Both feel, perhaps, that if more were spoken there must +be tears as well. Only the poor girl presses her hand upon his arm with a +mute caress, and draws closer to his side. There is nothing of novelty to +them in this tacitly shared sense of gloom. This Thursday is as Monday +was, as any day last year was, as seemingly all days to come will be.</p> + +<p>The misery of this marriage has never been discussed between these two. +The girl is too fond to impute blame, the old gentleman too proud to +accept it; in both minds there is the silent consciousness that into this +calamity they walked with eyes open, and must needs bear the results +without repining. And more, though there is true sympathy between the two +up to a certain point, even Daisy and Mr. Stewart have drifted apart +beyond it. Both view Philip within the house with the same eyes; the +Philip of the outer world--the little Valley-world of hot passions, strong +ambitions, fierce intolerances, growing strife and rancor--they see +differently. And this was the saddest thing of all.</p> + +<p>Philip Cross entered abruptly, his spurs clanking with a sharp ring at his +boot-heels, and nodded with little enough graciousness of manner to the +two before the fire.</p> + +<p>"I have not ordered supper to be laid," said Daisy; "your coming was so +uncertain. Shall I ring for it now?"</p> + +<p>"I have eaten at the Hall," said the young man, unlocking an escritoire at +the farther end of the room as he spoke, and taking from it some papers. +He presently advanced toward the fire, holding these in his hand. He +walked steadily enough, but there was the evil flush upon his temples and +neck--a deep suffusion of color, against which his flaxen, powdered hair +showed almost white--which both knew too well.</p> + +<p>"Who is at the Hall?" asked Mr. Stewart.</p> + +<p>"There were good men there to-day--and a woman, too, who topped them all +in spirit and worth. We call the Indians an inferior race, but, by God! +they at least have not lost the trick of breeding women who do not +whine--who would rather show us blood than tears!"</p> + +<p>Thus young Mr. Cross spoke, with a sulky inference in his tone, as he held +up his papers to the candle, and scanned the writings by its light.</p> + +<p>"Ah," Mr. Stewart made answer, dissembling what pique he might have felt, +and putting real interest into his words. "Is Molly Brant, then, come down +from the Castle? What does she at the Hall? I thought Lady Johnson would +have none of her."</p> + +<p>"Yes, she is at the Hall, or was when I left. She was sorely needed, too, +to put something like resolution into the chicken-hearts there. Things +will move now--nay, are moving! As for Lady Johnson, she is too dutiful +and wise a woman to have any wishes that are not her husband's. I would to +God there were others half so obedient and loyal as Polly Watts!"</p> + +<p>Again there was the obvious double meaning in his sullen tone. A swift +glance flashed back and forth between Mr. Stewart and the pale-faced young +wife, and again Mr. Stewart avoided the subject at which Cross hinted. +Instead he turned his chair toward the young man, and said:</p> + +<p>"Things are moving, you say. What is new?"</p> + +<p>"Why, this is new," answered Cross, lowering the papers for the moment, +and looking down upon his questioner: "blood runs now at last instead of +milk in the veins of the king's men. We will know where we stand. We will +master and punish disloyalty; we will brook not another syllable of +rebellion!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, it has been let to run overlong," said Mr. Stewart. "Often enough, +since Sir William died, have I wished that I were a score of years +younger. Perhaps I might have served in unravelling this unhappy tangle of +misunderstandings. The new fingers that are picking at the knot are honest +enough, but they have small cunning."</p> + +<p>"That as you will; but there is to be no more fumbling at the knot. We +will cut it now at a blow--cut it clean and sharp with the tomahawk!"</p> + +<p>An almost splendid animation glowed in the young man's eyes as he spoke, +and for the nonce lit up the dogged hardness of his face. So might the +stolid purple visage of some ancestral Cross have become illumined, over +his heavy beef and tubs of ale, at the stray thought of spearing a boar at +bay, or roasting ducats out of a Jew. The thick rank blood of centuries +of gluttonous, hunting, marauding progenitors, men whose sum of delights +lay in working the violent death of some creature--wild beast or human, it +mattered little which--warmed in the veins of the young man now, at the +prospect of slaughter. The varnish of civilization melted from his +surface; one saw in him only the historic fierce, blood-letting islander, +true son of the men who for thirty years murdered one another by tens of +thousands all over England, nominally for a York or a Lancaster, but truly +from the utter wantonness of the butcher's instinct, the while we Dutch +were discovering oil-painting and perfecting the noble craft of printing +with types.</p> + +<p>"Yes!" he repeated, with a stormy smile. "We will cut the knot with the +tomahawk!"</p> + +<p>The quicker wit of the young woman first scented his meaning.</p> + +<p>"You are going to bring down the savages?" she asked, with dilated eyes, +and in her emotion forgetting that it was not her recent habit to +interrogate her husband.</p> + +<p>He vouchsafed her no answer, but made a pretence of again being engrossed +with his papers.</p> + +<p>After a moment or two of silence the old gentleman rose to his feet, +walked over to Philip, and put his hand on the young man's arm.</p> + +<p>"I will take my leave now," he said, in a low voice; "Eli is here waiting +for me, and the evenings grow cold."</p> + +<p>"Nay, do not hasten your going, Mr. Stewart," said Philip, with a +perfunctory return to the usages of politeness. "You are ever +welcome here."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I know," replied Mr. Stewart, not in a tone of complete conviction. +"But old bones are best couched at home."</p> + +<p>There was another pause, the old gentleman still resting his hand +affectionately, almost deprecatingly, on the other's sleeve.</p> + +<p>"I would speak plainly to you before I go, Philip," he said, at last. "I +pray you, listen to the honest advice of an old man, who speaks to you, +God knows, from the very fulness of his heart. I mislike this adventure at +which you hint. It has an evil source of inspiration. It is a gloomy day +for us here, and for the Colony, and for the cause of order, when the +counsels of common-sense and civilization are tossed aside, and the words +of that red she-devil regarded instead. No good will come out of it--no +good, believe me. Be warned in time! I doubt you were born when I first +came into this Valley. I have known it for decades, almost, where you have +known it for years. I have watched its settlements grow, its fields push +steadily, season after season, upon the heels of the forest. I understand +its people as you cannot possibly do. Much there is that I do not like. +Many things I would change, as you would change them. But those err +cruelly, criminally, who would work this change by the use of +the savages."</p> + +<p>"All other means have been tried, short of crawling on our bellies to +these Dutch hinds!" muttered the young man.</p> + +<p>"You do not know what the coming of the tribes in hostility means," +continued Mr. Stewart, with increasing solemnity of earnestness. "You were +too young to realize what little you saw, as a child here in the Valley, +of Bellêtre's raid. Sir John and Guy know scarcely more of it than you. +Twenty years, almost, have passed since the Valley last heard the Mohawk +yell rise through the night-air above the rifle's crack, and woke in +terror to see the sky red with the blaze of roof-trees. All over the world +men shudder still at hearing of the things done then. Will you be a +willing party to bringing these horrors again upon us? Think what it is +that you would do!"</p> + +<p>"It is not I alone," Philip replied, in sullen defence. "I but cast my lot +on the king's side, as you yourself do. Only you are not called upon to +fit your action to your words; I am! Besides," he went on, sulkily, "I +have already chosen not to go with Guy and the Butlers. Doubtless they +deem me a coward for my resolution. That ought to please you."</p> + +<p>"Go with them? Where are they going?"</p> + +<p>"Up the river; perhaps only to the Upper Castle; perhaps to Oswego; +perhaps to Montreal--at all events, to get the tribes well in hand, and +hold them ready to strike. That is," he added, as an afterthought, "if it +really becomes necessary to strike at all. It may not come to that, +you know."</p> + +<p>"And this flight is actually resolved upon?"</p> + +<p>"If you call it a flight, yes! The Indian superintendent goes to see the +Indians; some friends go with him--that is all. What more natural? They +have in truth started by this time, well on their way. I was sorely +pressed to accompany them; for hours Walter Butler urged all the pleas at +his command to shake my will."</p> + +<p>"Of course you could not go; that would have been madness!" said Mr. +Stewart, testily. Both men looked toward the young wife, with instinctive +concert of thought.</p> + +<p>She sat by the fire, with her fair head bent forward in meditation; if she +had heard the conversation, or knew now that they were thinking of her, +she signified it not by glance or gesture.</p> + +<p>"No, of course," said Philip, with a faltering disclaimer. "Yet they urged +me strenuously. Even now they are to wait two days at Thompson's on +Cosby's Manor, for my final word--they choosing still to regard my coming +as possible."</p> + +<p>"Fools!" broke in the old gentleman. "It is not enough to force war upon +their neighbors, but they must strive to destroy what little happiness I +have remaining to me!" His tone softened to one of sadness, and again he +glanced toward Daisy. "Alas, Philip," he said, mournfully, "that it +<i>should</i> be so little!"</p> + +<p>The young man shifted his attitude impatiently, and began scanning his +papers once more. A moment later he remarked, from behind the manuscripts:</p> + +<p>"It is not we who begin this trouble. These committees of the rebel +scoundrels have been active for months, all about us. Lying accounts to +our prejudice are ceaselessly sent down to the committees at Schenectady +and Albany, and from these towns comes back constant encouragement to +disorder and bad blood. If they will have it so, are we to blame? You +yourself spoke often to me, formerly, of the dangerous opinions held by +the Dutch here, and the Palatines up the river, and, worst of all, by +those canting Scotch-Irish Presbyterians over Cherry Valley way. Yet now +that we must meet this thing, you draw back, and would tie my hands as +well. But doubtless you are unaware of the lengths to which the Albany +conspirators are pushing their schemes."</p> + +<p>"I am not without information," replied Mr. Stewart, perhaps in his desire +to repudiate the imputation of ignorance revealing things which upon +reflection he would have reserved. "I have letters from my boy Douw +regularly, and of late he has told me much of the doings of the Albany +committee."</p> + +<p>Young Cross put his papers down from before his face with a swift gesture. +Whether he had laid a trap for Mr. Stewart or not, is doubtful; we who +knew him best have ever differed on that point. But it is certain that his +manner and tone had changed utterly in the instant before he spoke.</p> + +<p>"Yes!" he said, with a hard, sharp inflection; "it is known that you hold +regular correspondence with this peculiarly offensive young sneak and spy. +Let me tell you frankly, Mr. Stewart, that this thing is not liked +overmuch. These are times when men, even old men, must choose their side +and stand to it. People who talk in one camp and write to the other +subject themselves to uncomfortable suspicions. Men are beginning to +recall that you were in arms against His Majesty King George the Second, +and to hint that perhaps you are not precisely overflowing with loyalty to +his grandson, though you give him lip-service readily enough. As you were +pleased to say to me a few minutes ago, 'Be warned in time,' Mr. Stewart!"</p> + +<p>The old gentleman had started back as if struck by a whip at the first +haughty word's inflection. Gradually, as the impertinent sentences +followed, he had drawn up his bent, slender frame until he stood now +erect, his hooked nose in the air, and his blue eyes flashing. Only the +shrunken lips quivered with the weakness of years, as he looked tall young +Mr. Cross full in the face.</p> + +<p>"Death of my life!" he stammered. "<i>You</i> are saying these things to <i>me</i>! +It is Tony Cross's son whom I listen to--and <i>her</i> son--the young man to +whom I gave my soul's treasure!"</p> + +<p>Then he stopped, and while his eyes still glowed fiery wrath the trembling +lips became piteous in their inability to form words. For a full minute +the fine old soldier stood, squared and quivering with indignation. What +he would have said, had he spoken, we can only guess. But no utterance +came. He half-raised his hand to his head with a startled movement; then, +seeming to recover himself, walked over to where Daisy sat, ceremoniously +stooped to kiss her forehead, and, with a painfully obvious effort to keep +his gait from tottering, moved proudly out of the room.</p> + +<p>When Philip, who had dumbly watched the effect of his words, turned +about, he found himself confronted with a woman whom he scarcely knew to +be his wife, so deadly pale and drawn was her face, so novel and startling +were the glance and gesture with which she reared herself before him.</p> + + + + +<h2><a name="23"></a>Chapter XXIII</h2> + +<h3>How Philip in Wrath, Daisy in Anguish, Fly Their Home.</h3> + + + +<p>"You are, then, not even a gentleman!"</p> + +<p>The ungracious words came almost unbidden from Daisy's pallid lips, as +husband and wife for the first time faced each other in anger. She could +not help it. Passive, patient, long-suffering she had been the while the +mortifications and slights were for herself. But it was beyond the +strength of her control to sit quietly by when Mr. Stewart was also +affronted.</p> + +<p>Through all the years of her life she had been either so happy in her +first home, or so silently loyal to duty in her second, that no one had +discovered in Daisy the existence of a strong spirit. Sweet-tempered, +acquiescent, gentle, every one had known her alike in joy or under the +burden of disappointment and disillusion. "As docile as Daisy" might have +been a proverb in the neighborhood, so general was this view of her +nature. Least of all did the selfish, surly-tempered, wilful young +Englishman who was her husband, and who had ridden rough-shod over her +tender thoughts and dreams these two years, suspect that she had in her +the capabilities of flaming, wrathful resistance.</p> + +<p>He stared at her now, at first in utter bewilderment, then with the +instinct of combat in his scowl.</p> + +<p>"Be careful what you say!" he answered, sharply. "I am in no mood for +folly."</p> + +<p>"Nay, mood or no mood, I shall speak. Too long have I held my peace. You +should be ashamed in every recess of your heart for what you have said and +done this day!" She spoke with a vibrant fervency of feeling which for the +moment pierced even his thick skin.</p> + +<p>"He was over-hasty," he muttered, in half-apology. "What I said was for +his interest. I intended no offence."</p> + +<p>"Will you follow him, and say so?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly not! If he chooses to take umbrage, let him. It's no affair of +mine."</p> + +<p>"Then <i>I</i> will go--and not return until he comes with me, invited by you!"</p> + +<p>The woman's figure, scornfully erect, trembled with the excitement of the +position she had on the moment assumed; but her beautiful face, refined +and spiritualized of late by the imprint of womanhood's saddening wisdom, +was coldly resolute. By contrast with the burly form and red, rough +countenance of the man she confronted, she seemed made of another clay.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I will go!" she went on, hurriedly. "This last is too much! It is +not fit that I should keep up the pretence longer."</p> + +<p>The husband burst out with a rude and somewhat hollow laugh. "Pretence, +you say! Nay, madam, you miscall it. A pretence is a thing that deceives, +and I have never been deceived. Do not flatter yourself. I have read you +like a page of large print, these twenty months. Like the old gaffer +whose feathers I ruffled here a while ago with a few words of truth, your +tongue has been here, but your thoughts have been with the Dutchman +in Albany!"</p> + +<p>The poor girl flushed and recoiled under the coarse insult, and the words +did not come readily with which to repel it.</p> + +<p>"I know not how to answer insolence of this kind," she said, at last. "I +have been badly reared for such purposes."</p> + +<p>She felt her calmness deserting her as she spoke; her eyes began to burn +with the starting tears. This crisis in her life had sprung into being +with such terrible swiftness, and yawned before her now, as reflection +came, with such blackness of unknown consequences, that her woman's +strength quaked and wavered. The tears found their way to her cheeks now, +and through them she saw, not the heavy, half-drunken young husband, but +the handsome, slender, soft-voiced younger lover of three years ago. And +then the softness came to her voice too.</p> + +<p>"How <i>can</i> you be so cruel and coarse, Philip, so unworthy of your real +self?" She spoke despairingly, not able wholly to believe that the old +self was the true self, yet clinging, woman-like, to the hope that she +was mistaken.</p> + +<p>"Ha! So my lady has thought better of going, has she?"</p> + +<p>"Why should you find pleasure in seeking to make this home impossible for +me, Philip?" she asked, in grave gentleness of appeal.</p> + +<p>"I thought you would change your tune," he sneered back at her, throwing +himself into a chair. "I have a bit of counsel for you. Do not venture +upon that tone with me again. It serves with Dutch husbands, no doubt; but +I am not Dutch, and I don't like it."</p> + +<p>She stood for what seemed to be a long time, unoccupied and irresolute, in +the centre of the room. It was almost impossible for her to think clearly +or to see what she ought to do. She had spoken in haste about leaving the +house, and felt now that that would be an unwise and wrongful step to +take. Yet her husband had deliberately insulted her, and had coldly +interpreted as weak withdrawals her conciliatory words, and it was very +hard to let this state of affairs stand without some attempt at its +improvement. Her pride tugged bitterly against the notion of addressing +him again, yet was it not right that she should do so?</p> + +<p>The idea occurred to her of ringing for a servant and directing him to +draw off his master's boots. The slave-boy who came in was informed by a +motion of her finger, and, kneeling to the task, essayed to lift one of +the heavy boots from the tiled hearth. The amiable Mr. Cross allowed the +foot to be raised into the boy's lap. Then he kicked the lad backward, +head over heels, with it, and snapped out angrily:</p> + +<p>"Get away! When I want you, I'll call!"</p> + +<p>The slave scrambled to his feet and slunk out of the room. The master sat +in silence, moodily sprawled out before the fire. At last the wife +approached him, and stood at the back of his chair.</p> + +<p>"You are no happier than I am, Philip," she said. "Surely there must be +some better way to live than this. Can we not find it, and spare ourselves +all this misery?"</p> + +<p>"What misery?" he growled. "There is none that I know, save the misery of +having a wife who hates everything her husband does. The weather-cock on +the roof has more sympathy with my purposes and aims than you have. At +least once in a while he points my way."</p> + +<p>"Wherein have I failed? When have you ever temperately tried to set me +aright, seeing my errors?"</p> + +<p>"There it is--the plausible tongue always. 'When have I done this, or +that, or the other?' It is not one thing that has been done, madam, but +ten thousand left undone! What did I need--having lands, money, +position--to make me the chief gentleman of Tryon County, and this house +of mine the foremost mansion west of Albany, once Sir William was dead? +Naught but a wife who should share my ambitions, enter into my plans, +gladly help to further my ends! I choose for this a wife with a pretty +face, a pretty manner, a tidy figure which carries borrowed satins +gracefully enough--as I fancy, a wife who will bring sympathy and +distinction as well as beauty. Well, I was a fool! This precious wife of +mine is a Puritan ghost who gazes gloomily at me when we are alone, and +chills my friends to the marrow when they are ill-advised enough to visit +me. She looks at the wine I lift to my lips, and it sours in the glass. +She looks into my kennels, and it is as if turpentine had been rubbed on +the hounds' snouts. This great house of mine, which ought of right to be +the gallant centre of Valley life and gayety, stands up here, by God! Like +a deserted churchyard. Men avoid it as if a regicide had died here. I +might have been Sir Philip before this, and had his Majesty's commission +in my pocket, but for this petticoated skeleton which warns off pleasure +and promotion. And then she whines, 'What have I done?'"</p> + +<p>"You are clever enough, Philip, to have been anything you wanted to be, if +only you had started with more heart and less appetite for pleasure. It is +not your wife, but your wine, that you should blame."</p> + +<p>"Ay, there it comes! And even if it were true--as it is not, for I am as +temperate as another--it would be you who had driven me to it."</p> + +<p>"What folly!"</p> + +<p>"Folly, madam? By Heaven, I will not--"</p> + +<p>"Nay, listen to me, Philip, for the once. We may not speak thus frankly +again; it would have been better had we freed our minds in this plain +fashion long ago. It is not poor me, but something else, that in two years +has changed you utterly. To-day you could no more get your mind into the +same honest course of thoughts you used to hold than you could your body +into your wedding waistcoat. You talk now of ambitions; for the moment you +really think you had ambitions, and because they are only memories, you +accuse me. Tell me truly, what were your ambitions? To do nothing but +please yourself--to ride, hunt, gamble, scatter money, drink till you +could drink no more. Noble aspirations these for which to win the sympathy +of a wife!"</p> + +<p>Philip had turned himself around in his chair, and was looking steadily at +her. She found the courage to stand resolute under the gaze and return it.</p> + +<p>"There is one point on which I agree with you," he said, slowly: "I am not +like ever again to hear talk of this kind under my roof. But while we are +thus amiably laying our hearts bare to each other, there is another thing +to be said. Everywhere it is unpleasantly remarked that I am not master in +my own house--that here there are two kinds of politics--that I am loyal +and my wife is a rebel."</p> + +<p>"Oh, that is unfair! Truly, Philip, I have given no cause for such speech. +Not a word have I spoken, ever, to warrant this. It would be not only +wrong but presuming to do so, since I am but a woman, and have no more +than a woman's partial knowledge of these things. If you had ever asked me +I would have told you frankly, that, as against the Johnsons and Butlers +and Whites, my feelings were with the people of my own flesh and blood; +but as to my having ever spoken--"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I know what you would say," he broke in, with cold, measured words. +"I can put it for you in a breath--I am an English gentleman; you are a +Dutch foundling!"</p> + +<p>She looked at him, speechless and mentally staggered. In all her life it +had never occurred to her that this thing could be thought or said. That +it should be flung thus brutally into her face now by her husband--and he +the very man who as a boy had saved her life--seemed to her astonished +sense so incredible that she could only stare, and say nothing.</p> + +<p>While she still stood thus, the young aristocrat rose, jerked the +bell-cord fiercely, and strode again to the escritoire, pulling forth +papers from its recesses with angry haste.</p> + +<p>"Send Rab to me on the instant!" he called out to the slave who appeared.</p> + +<p>The under-sized, evil-faced creature who presently answered this summons +was the son of a Scotch dependent of the Johnsons, half tinker, half +trapper, and all ruffian, by an Indian wife. Rab, a young-old man, had the +cleverness and vices of both strains of blood, and was Philip's most +trusted servant, as he was Daisy's especial horror. He came in now, his +black eyes sparkling close together like a snake's, and his miscolored +hair in uncombed tangle hanging to his brows. He did not so much as glance +at his mistress, but went to Philip, with a cool--</p> + +<p>"What is it?"</p> + +<p>"There is much to be done to-night, Rab," said the master, assorting +papers still as he spoke. "I am leaving Cairncross on a journey. It may be +a long one; it may not."</p> + +<p>"It will at least be as long as Thompson's is distant," said the familiar.</p> + +<p>"Oh, you know, then," said Philip. "So much the better, when one deals +with close tongues. Very well. I ride to-night. Do you gather the things +I need--clothes, money, trinkets, and what not--to be taken with me. Have +the plate, the china, the curtains, pictures, peltries, and such like, +properly packed, to be sent over to the Hall with the horses and dogs in +the early morning. I shall ride all night, and all to-morrow if needs be. +When you have seen the goods safely at the Hall, deliver certain letters +which I shall presently write, and return here. I leave you in charge of +the estate; you will be master--supreme--and will account only to me, when +the king's men come back. I shall take Caesar and Sam with me. Have them +saddle the roan for me, and they may take the chestnut pair and lead +Firefly. Look to the saddle-bags and packs yourself. Let everything be +ready for my start at eleven; the moon will be up by then."</p> + +<p>The creature waited for a moment after Philip had turned to his papers.</p> + +<p>"Will you take my lady's jewels?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"Damnation! No!" growled Philip.</p> + +<p>"<i>If you do not, they shall be thrown after you</i>!"</p> + +<p>It was Daisy who spoke--Daisy, who leaned heavily upon the chair-back to +keep erect in the whirling dream of bewilderment which enveloped her. The +words when they had been uttered seemed from some other lips than hers. +There was no thought in her mind which they reflected. She was too near +upon swooning to think at all.</p> + +<p>Only dimly could she afterward recall having left the room, and the memory +was solely of the wicked gleam in the serpent eyes of her enemy Rab, and +of the sound of papers being torn by her husband, as she, dazed and +fainting, managed to creep away and reach her chamber.</p> + +<hr width="80%" size="1" /> + +<p>The wakeful June sun had been up for an hour or so, intent upon the +self-appointed and gratuitous task of heating still more the sultry, +motionless morning air, when consciousness returned to Daisy. All about +her the silence was profound. As she rose, the fact that she was already +dressed scarcely interested her. She noted that the lace and velvet +hangings were gone, and that the apartment had been despoiled of much else +besides, and gave this hardly a passing thought.</p> + +<p>Mechanically she took from the wardrobe a hooded cloak, put it about her, +and left the room. The hallways were strewn with straw and the litter of +packing. Doors of half-denuded rooms hung open. In the corridor below two +negroes lay asleep, snoring grotesquely, beside some chests at which they +had worked. There was no one to speak to her or bar her passage. The door +was unbolted. She passed listlessly out, and down the path toward +the gulf.</p> + +<p>It was more like sleep-walking than waking, conscious progress--this +melancholy journey. The dry, parched grass, the leaves depending wilted +and sapless, the leaden air, the hot, red globe of dull light hanging +before her in the eastern heavens--all seemed a part of the lifeless, +hopeless pall which weighed from every point upon her, deadening thought +and senses. The difficult descent of the steep western hill, the passage +across the damp bottom and over the tumbling, shouting waters, the milder +ascent, the cooler, smoother forest walk toward the Cedars beyond--these +vaguely reflected themselves as stages of the crisis through which she had +passed: the heart-aching quarrel, the separation, the swoon, and now the +approaching rest.</p> + +<p>Thus at last she stood before her old home, and opened the familiar gate. +The perfume of the flowers, heavily surcharging the dewless air, seemed to +awaken and impress her. There was less order in the garden than before, +but the plants and shrubs were of her own setting. A breath of rising +zephyr stirred their blossoms as she regarded them in passing.</p> + +<p>"They nod to me in welcome," her dry lips murmured.</p> + +<p>A low, reverberating mutter of distant thunder came as an echo, and a +swifter breeze lifted the flowers again, and brought a whispered greeting +from the lilac-leaves clustered thick about her.</p> + +<p>The door opened at her approach, and she saw Mr. Stewart standing there on +the threshold, awaiting her. It seemed natural enough that he should be up +at this hour, and expecting her. She did not note the uncommon whiteness +of his face, or the ceaseless twitching of his fallen lips.</p> + +<p>"I have come home to you, father," she said, calmly, wearily.</p> + +<p>He gazed at her without seeming to apprehend her meaning.</p> + +<p>"I have no longer any other home," she added.</p> + +<p>She saw the pallid face before her turn to wax shot over with green and +brazen tints. The old hands stretched out as if to clutch hers--then +fell inert.</p> + +<p>Something had dropped shapeless, bulky at her feet and she could not see +Mr. Stewart. Instead here was a reeling vision of running slaves of a form +lifted and borne in, and then nothing but a sinking away of self amid the +world-shaking roar of thunder and blazing lightning streaks.</p> + + + + +<h2><a name="24"></a>Chapter XXIV</h2> + +<h3>The Night Attack upon Quebec--And My Share in It.</h3> + + + +<p>Of these sad occurrences it was my fortune not to be informed for many +months. In some senses this was a beneficent ignorance. Had I known that, +under the dear old roof which so long sheltered me, Mr. Stewart was +helplessly stricken with paralysis, and poor Daisy lay ill unto death with +a brain malady, the knowledge must have gone far to unfit me for the work +which was now given into my hands. And it was work of great magnitude and +importance.</p> + +<p>Close upon the heels of the Bunker Hill intelligence came the news that a +Continental army had been organized; that Colonel Washington of Virginia +had been designated by Congress as its chief, and had started to assume +command at Cambridge; and that our own Philip Schuyler was one of the four +officers named at the same time as major-generals. There was great +pleasure in Albany over the tidings; the patriot committee began to +prepare for earnest action, and our Tory mayor, Abraham Cuyler, +sagaciously betook himself off, ascending the Mohawk in a canoe, and +making his way to Canada.</p> + +<p>Among the first wishes expressed by General Schuyler was one that I +should assist and accompany him, and this, flattering enough in itself, +was made delightful by the facts that my friend Peter Gansevoort was named +as another aide, and that my kinsman Dr. Teunis was given a professional +place in the general's camp family. We three went with him to the +headquarters at Cambridge very shortly after, and thenceforward were too +steadily engrossed with our novel duties to give much thought to +home affairs.</p> + +<p>It was, indeed, a full seven months onward from the June of which I have +written that my first information concerning the Cedars, and the dear folk +within its walls, came to me in a letter from my mother. This letter found +me, of all unlikely places in the world, lying in garrison on the frozen +bank of the St. Lawrence--behind us the strange, unnatural silence of the +northern waste of snow, before us the black, citadel-crowned, +fire-spitting rock of Quebec.</p> + +<p>Again there presses upon me the temptation to put into this book the story +of what I saw there while we were gathering our strength and resolution +for the fatal assault. If I am not altogether proof against its wiles, at +least no more shall be told of it than properly belongs here, insomuch as +this is the relation of my life's romance.</p> + +<p>We had started in September with the expedition against Canada, while it +was under the personal command of our general; and when his old sickness +came unluckily upon him and forced his return, it was at his request that +we still kept on, under his successor, General Richard Montgomery. It was +the pleasanter course for us, both because we wanted to see fighting, and +because Montgomery, as the son-in-law of Mr. Livingston, was known to us +and was our friend. And so with him we saw the long siege of St. John's +ended, and Chambly, and then Montreal, Sorel, and Three Rivers, one by one +submit, and the <i>habitants</i> acclaim us their deliverers as we swept the +country clean to the gates of Quebec.</p> + +<p>To this place we came in the first week of December, and found bold Arnold +and his seven hundred scarecrows awaiting us. These men had been here for +a month, yet had scarcely regained their strength from the horrible +sufferings they encountered throughout their wilderness march. We were by +this time not enamoured of campaigning in any large degree, from our own +experience of it. Yet when we saw the men whom Arnold and Morgan had led +through the trackless Kennebec forest, and heard them modestly tell the +story of that great achievement--of their dreadful sustained battle with +cold, exhaustion, famine, with whirling rapids, rivers choked with ice, +and dangerous mountain precipices--we felt ashamed at having supposed we +knew what soldiering was.</p> + +<p>Three weeks we lay waiting. Inside, clever Carleton was straining heaven +and earth in his endeavor to strengthen his position; without, we could +only wait. Those of us who were from the Albany and Mohawk country came to +learn that some of our old Tory neighbors were within the walls, and the +knowledge gave a new zest to our eager watchfulness.</p> + +<p>This, it should be said, was more eager than sanguine. It was evident from +the outset that, in at least one respect, we had counted without our host. +The French-Canadians were at heart on our side, perhaps, but they were not +going to openly help us; and we had expected otherwise. Arnold himself, +who as an old horse-dealer knew the country, had especially believed in +their assistance and sympathy, and we had bills printed in the French +language to distribute, calling upon them to rise and join us. That they +did not do so was a grievous disappointment from the beginning.</p> + +<p>Yet we might have been warned of this. The common people were friendly to +us--aided us privily when they could--but they were afraid of their +seigneurs and curés. These gentry were our enemies for a good reason--in +their eyes we were fighting New England's fight, and intolerant New +England had only the year before bitterly protested to Parliament against +the favor shown the Papist religion in Quebec. These seigneurs and priests +stood together in a common interest. England had been shrewd enough to +guarantee them their domains and revenues. Loyalty meant to them the +security of their <i>rentes et dîmes</i>, and they were not likely to risk +these in an adventure with the Papist-hating Yankees. Hence they stood by +England, and, what is more, held their people practically aloof from us.</p> + +<p>But even then we could have raised Canadian troops, if we had had the +wherewithal to feed or clothe or arm them. But of this Congress had taken +no thought. Our ordnance was ridiculously inadequate for a siege; our +clothes were ragged and foul, our guns bad, our powder scanty, and our +food scarce. Yet we were deliberately facing, in this wretched plight, the +most desperate assault of known warfare.</p> + +<p>The weeks went by swiftly enough. Much of the time I was with the +commander at our headquarters in Holland House, and I grew vastly attached +to the handsome, gracious, devoted young soldier. Brigadier-General +Montgomery had not, perhaps, the breadth of character that made Schuyler +so notable; which one of all his contemporaries, save Washington, for that +matter, had? But he was very single-minded and honorable, and had much +charm of manner. Often, during those weeks, he told me of his beautiful +young wife, waiting for his return at their new home on the Hudson, and of +his hope soon to be able to abandon the strife and unrest of war, and +settle there in peace. Alas! it was not to be so.</p> + +<p>And then, again, we would adventure forth at night, when there was no +moon, to note what degree of vigilance was observed by the beleaguered +force. This was dangerous, for the ingenious defenders hung out at the +ends of poles from the bastions either lighted lanterns or iron pots +filled with blazing balsam, which illuminated the ditch even better than +the moon would have done. Often we were thus discovered and fired upon, +and once the General had his horse killed under him.</p> + +<p>I should say that he was hardly hopeful of the result of the attack +already determined upon. But it was the only thing possible to be done, +and with all his soul and mind he was resolved to as nearly do it as +might be.</p> + +<p>The night came, the last night but one of that eventful, momentous year +1775. Men had passed each day for a week between our quarters and Colonel +Arnold's at St. Roch, concerting arrangements. There were Frenchmen inside +the town from whom we were promised aid. What we did not know was that +there were other Frenchmen, in our camp, who advised Carleton of all our +plans. The day and evening were spent in silent preparations for the +surprise and assault--if so be it the snow-storm came which was agreed +upon as the signal. Last words of counsel and instruction were spoken. +Suppressed excitement reigned everywhere.</p> + +<p>The skies were clear and moonlit in the evening; now, about midnight, a +damp, heavy snowfall began and a fierce wind arose. So much the better for +us and our enterprise, we thought.</p> + +<p>We left Holland House some hours after midnight, without lights and on +foot, and placed ourselves at the head of the three hundred and fifty men +whom Colonel Campbell (not the Cherry Valley man, but a vain and cowardly +creature from down the Hudson, recently retired from the British army) +held in waiting for us. Noiselessly we descended from the heights, passed +Wolfe's Cove, and gained the narrow road on the ledge under the mountain.</p> + +<p>The General and his aide, McPherson, trudged through the deep snow ahead +of all, with Gansevoort, and me keeping up to them as well as we could. +What with the very difficult walking, the wildness of the gale, and the +necessity for silence, I do not remember that anything was said. We panted +heavily, I know, and more than once had to stop while the slender and less +eager carpenters who formed the van came up.</p> + +<p>It was close upon the fence of wooden pickets which stretched across the +causeway at Cape Diamond that the last of these halts was made. Through +the darkness, rendered doubly dense by the whirling snowflakes with which +the wind lashed our faces, we could only vaguely discern the barrier and +the outlines of the little block-house beyond it.</p> + +<p>"Here is our work!" whispered the General to the half-dozen nearest him, +and pointing ahead with his gauntleted hand. "Once over this and into the +guard-house, and we can never be flanked, whatever else betide."</p> + +<p>We tore furiously at the posts, even while he spoke--we four with our +hands, the carpenters with their tools. It was the work of a moment to lay +a dozen of these; another moment and the first score of us were knee-deep +in the snow piled to one side of the guard-house door. There was a murmur +from behind which caused us to glance around. The body of Campbell's +troops, instead of pressing us closely, had lingered to take down more +pickets. Somebody--it may have been I--said, "Cowards!" Some one else, +doubtless the General, said, "Forward!"</p> + +<p>Then the ground shook violently under our feet, a great bursting roar +deafened us, and before a scythe-like sweep of fire we at the front +tumbled and fell!</p> + +<p>I got to my feet again, but had lost both sword and pistol in the snow. I +had been hit somewhere--it seemed in the side--but of that I scarcely +thought. I heard sharp firing and the sound of oaths and groans all around +me, so it behooved me to fight, too. There were dimly visible dark forms +issuing from the guard-house, and wrestling or exchanging blows with other +forms, now upright, now in the snow. Here and there a flash of fire from +some gun or pistol gave an instant's light to this Stygian hurly-burly.</p> + +<p>A heavy man, coming from the door of the block-house, fired a pistol +straight at me; the bullet seemed not to have struck me, and I leaped upon +him before he could throw the weapon. We struggled fiercely backward +toward the pickets, I tearing at him with all my might, and striving with +tremendous effort to keep my wits as well as my strength about me, in +order to save my life. Curiously enough, I found that the simplest +wrestling tricks I tried I had not the power for; even in this swift +minute, loss of blood was telling on me. A ferocious last effort I made to +swing and hurl him, and, instead, went staggering down into the drift with +him on top.</p> + +<p>As I strove still to turn, and lifted my head, a voice sounded close in my +ear, "It's you, is it? Damn you!" and then a great mashing blow on my face +ended my fight.</p> + +<p>Doubtless some reminiscence in that voice caused my mind to carry on the +struggle in the second after sense had fled, for I thought we still were +in the snow wrestling, only it was inside a mimic fort in the clearing +around Mr. Stewart's old log-house, and I was a little boy in an apron, +and my antagonist was a yellow-haired lad with hard fists, with which he +beat me cruelly in the face--and so off into utter blackness and void +of oblivion.</p> + +<p>One morning in the latter half of January, nearly three weeks after, I +woke to consciousness again. Wholly innocent of the lapse of time, I +seemed to be just awakening from the dream of the snow fort, and of my +boyish fight with little Philip Cross. I smiled to myself as I thought of +it, but even while I smiled the vague shadows of later happenings came +over my mind. Little by little the outlines of that rough December night +took shape in my puzzled wits.</p> + +<p>I had been wounded, evidently, and had been borne back to Holland House, +for I recognized the room in which I lay. My right arm was in stiff +splints; with the other hand I felt of my head and discovered that my hair +had been cut close, and that my skull and face were fairly thatched with +crossing strips of bandage. My chest, too, was girdled by similar +medicated bands. My mental faculties moved very sedately, it seemed, and I +had been pondering these phenomena for a long time when my cousin Dr. +Teunis Van Hoorn came tip-toeing into the room.</p> + +<p>This worthy young man was sincerely delighted to find me come by my +senses once more. In his joy he allowed me to talk and to listen more than +was for my good, probably, for I had some bad days immediately following; +but the relapse did not come before I had learned much that was gravely +interesting.</p> + +<p>It is a story of sufficient sorrow and shame to American ears even +now--this tale of how we failed to carry Quebec. Judge how grievously the +recital fell upon my ears then, in the little barrack-chamber of Holland +House, within hearing of the cannonade by which the farce of a siege was +still maintained from day to day! Teunis told me how, by that first volley +of grape at the guard-house, the brave and noble Montgomery had been +instantly killed; how Arnold, forcing his way from the other direction at +the head of his men, and being early shot in the leg, had fought and +stormed like a wounded lion in the narrow Sault-au-Matelot; how he and the +gallant Morgan had done more than their share in the temerarious +adventure, and had held the town and citadel at their mercy if only the +miserable Campbell had pushed forward after poor Montgomery fell, and gone +on to meet those battling heroes in the Lower Town. But I have not the +patience, even at this late day, to write about this melancholy and +mortifying failure.</p> + +<p>Some of our best men--Montgomery, Hendricks, Humphreys, Captain Cheseman, +and other officers, and nearly two hundred men--had been killed out-right, +and the host of wounded made veritable hospitals of both the +headquarters. Nearly half of our total original force had been taken +prisoners. With the shattered remnants of our little army we were still +keeping up the pretence of a siege, but there was no heart in our +operations, since reverse had broken the last hope of raising assistance +among the French population. We were too few in numbers to be able now to +prevent supplies reaching the town, and everybody gloomily foresaw that +when the river became free of ice, and open for the British fleet to throw +in munitions and re-enforcements, the game would be up.</p> + +<p>All this Dr. Teunis told me, and often during the narration it seemed as +if my indignant blood would burst off the healing bandages, so angrily did +it boil at the thought of what poltroonery had lost to us.</p> + +<p>It was a relief to turn to the question of my own adventure. It appeared +that I had been wounded by the first and only discharge of the cannon at +the guard-house, for there was discovered, embedded in the muscles over my +ribs, a small iron bolt, which would have come from no lesser firearm. +They moreover had the honor of finding a bullet in my right forearm, which +was evidently a pistol-ball. And, lastly, my features had been beaten into +an almost unrecognizable mass of bruised flesh by either a heavy-ringed +fist or a pistol-butt.</p> + +<p>"Pete Gansevoort dragged you off on his back," my kinsman concluded. "Some +of our men wanted to go back for the poor General, and for Cheseman and +McPherson, but that Campbell creature would not suffer them. Instead, he +and his cowards ran back as if the whole King's army were at their heels. +You may thank God and Gansevoort that you were not found frozen stiff with +the rest, next morning."</p> + +<p>"Ah, you may be sure I do!" I answered. "Can I see Peter?"</p> + +<p>"Why, no--at least not in this God-forgotten country. He has been made a +colonel, and is gone back to Albany to join General Schuyler. And we are +to go--you and I--as soon as it suits your convenience to be able to +travel. There are orders to that purport. So make haste and get well, if +you please."</p> + +<p>"I have been dangerously ill, have I not?"</p> + +<p>"Scarcely that, I should say. At least, I had little fear for you after +the first week. Neither of the gunshot wounds was serious. But somebody +must have dealt you some hearty thwacks on the poll, my boy. It was these, +and the wet chill, and the loss of blood, which threw you into a fever. +But I never feared for you."</p> + +<p>Later in the year, long after I was wholly recovered, my cousin confided +to me that this was an amiable lie, designed to instil me with that +confidence which is so great a part of the battle gained, and that for a +week or so my chance of life had been held hardly worth a <i>son marquee</i>. +But I did not now know this, and I tried to fasten my mind upon that +encounter in the drift by the guard-house, which was my last recollection. +Much of it curiously eluded my mental grasp for a time; then all at once +it came to me.</p> + +<p>"Do you know, Teunis," I said, "that I believe it was Philip Cross who +broke my head with his pistol-butt?"</p> + +<p>"Nonsense!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, it surely was--and he knew me, too!" And I explained the grounds for +my confidence.</p> + +<p>"Well, young man," said Dr. Teunis, at last, "if you do not find that +gentleman out somewhere, sometime, and choke him, and tear him up into +fiddle-strings, you've not a drop of Van Hoorn blood in your +whole carcass!"</p> + + + + +<h2><a name="25"></a>Chapter XXV</h2> + +<h3>A Crestfallen Return to Albany.</h3> + + + +<p>For a man who had his physician's personal assurance that there was +nothing serious in his case, I recovered my strength with vexatious +slowness. There was a very painful and wearing week, indeed, before it +became clear to me that I was even convalescent, and thereafter my +progress was wofully halting and intermittent. Perhaps health would have +come more rapidly if with every sound of the guns from the platforms, and +every rattle of the drums outside, I had not wrathfully asked myself, "Of +what use is all this now, alas!"</p> + +<p>These bad days were nearing their end when Dr. Teunis one afternoon came +in with tidings from home. An express had arrived from Albany, bringing +the intelligence that General Wooster was shortly to come with +re-enforcements, to take over our headless command. There were many +letters for the officers as well, and among these were two for me. The +physician made some show of keeping these back from me, but the cousin +relented, and I was bolstered up in bed to read them.</p> + +<p>One was a business epistle from Albany, enclosing a brief memorandum of +the disposition of certain moneys and goods belonging to the English +trading company whose agent I had been, and setting my mind at ease +concerning what remained of its interests.</p> + +<p>The other was a much longer missive, written in my mother's neat, +painstaking hand, and in my mother's language. My story can be advanced in +no better way than by translating freely from the original Dutch document, +which I still have, and which shows, if nothing else, that Dame +Mauverensen had powers of directness and brevity of statement not +inherited by her son.</p> + +<p>"<i>January 9,</i> A. D. 1776.</p> + +<p>"Dearly Beloved Son: This I write, being well and contented for the most +part, and trusting that you are the same. It is so long since I have seen +you--now nearly four years--that your ways are beyond me, and I offer you +no advice. People hereabout affect much satisfaction in your promotion to +be an officer. I do not conceal my preference that you should have been a +God-fearing man, though you were of humbler station. However, that I +surrendered your keeping to a papistical infidel is my own blame, and I do +not reproach you.</p> + +<p>"The nigger Tulp, whom you sent to me upon your departure for the wars, +was more trouble than he was worth, to say nothing of his keep. He was +both lame and foolish, getting forever in my way, and crying by the hour +with fears for your safety. I therefore sent him to his old home, the +Cedars, where, as nobody now does any manner of work (your aunt being +dead, and an incapable sloven having taken her place), he will not get in +the way, and where others can help him to weep.</p> + +<p>"When Mistress Cross came down to the Cedars last summer, having been +deserted by her worthless husband, and found Mr. Stewart stricken with +paralysis, I was moved to offer my assistance while they both lay ill. The +burden of their illness was so great that your aunt broke down under it, +but she did not die until after Mistress Cross had recovered from her +fever, and Mr Stewart had regained his speech and a small portion of his +wits. Mistress Cross was in a fair way to be despoiled of all her rightful +belongings, for she brought not so much as a clean smock away with her +from her husband's house, and there was there in charge an insolent rascal +named Rab, who, when I demanded the keys and his mistress's chattels, +essayed to turn me away. I lectured him upon his behavior in such terms +that he slunk off like a whipped dog, and presently sent to me a servant +from whom I received what I came for. She would otherwise have obtained +nothing, for, obstinate as she is in some matters, she is a timid soul at +best, and stands in mortal fear of Rab's malevolence.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Stewart's mind is still in a sad way. He is childish beyond belief, +and talks about you as if you were a lad again, and then speaks of foreign +matters of which we know nothing, so long past are they, as if they were +still proceeding. In bodily health, he seems now somewhat stronger. I +knitted him some woollen stockings, but he would not wear them, saying +that they scratched his legs. Mistress Cross might have persuaded him out +of this nonsense, but did not see fit to do so. She also humors him in the +matter of taking him to the Papist church at Johnstown whenever the roads +are open, he having become highly devotional in his second childhood. I +was vigorously opposed to indulging this idea of his, which is almost as +sinful in her as it is superstitious and silly in him; but she would go +her own gait, and so she may for all of me.</p> + +<p>"She insisted, too, on having one of Adam Wemple's girls in to do the work +when your aunt fell ill. I recommended to her the widow of Dirck Tappan, a +worthy and pious woman who could not sleep if there was so much as a speck +of dust on the floor under her bed, but she would not listen to me, saying +that she liked Moll Wemple and wanted her, and that she did not like Dame +Tappan and did not want her. Upon this I came home, seeing clearly that my +company was not desired longer.</p> + +<p>"I send you the stockings which I knitted for Mr. Stewart, and sundry +other woollen trifles. Your sisters are all well, but the troubles in the +Valley take young men's thoughts unduly off the subject of marriage. If +the committee would only hang John Johnson or themselves, there would be +peace, one way or the other, and girls would get husbands again. But all +say matters will be worse before they mend.</p> + +<p>"Affectionately, your mother,</p> + +<p>"Katharine Mauverensen."</p> + +<p>As I look at this ancient, faded letter, which brought to me in belated +and roundabout form the tidings of Mr. Stewart's helpless condition and of +Daisy's illness and grief, I can recall that my first impulse was to +laugh. There was something so droll, yet so thoroughly characteristic of +my honest, bustling, resolute, domineering mother in the thing, that its +humor for the moment overbalanced the gravity of the news. There was no +more helpful, valuable, or good-hearted woman alive than she, provided +always it was permitted her to manage and dictate everything for +everybody. There was no limit to the trouble she would undertake, nothing +in the world she would not do, for people who would consent to be done +for, and would allow her to dominate all their thoughts and deeds. But the +moment they revolted, or showed the weakest inclination to do things their +own way, she blazed up and was off like a rocket. Her taste for governing +was little short of a mania, and I could see, in my mind's eye, just how +she had essayed to rule Daisy, and how in her failure she had written to +me, unconsciously revealing her pique.</p> + +<p>Poor Daisy! My thoughts had swung quickly enough from my mother to her, +and, once there, persistently lingered. She had, then, been at the Cedars +since June; she had been very ill, but now was in health again; she was a +fugitive from her rightful home, and stood in fear of her former servants; +she had upon her hands a broken old invalid, and to all his freaks and +foibles was a willing slave; she was the saddened, solitary mistress of a +large estate, with all its anxieties multiplied a hundred-fold by the +fact that these were war-times, that passions ran peculiarly high and +fierce all about her, and that her husband's remaining friends, now her +bitter foes perhaps, were in a desperate state of temper and daring.</p> + +<p>From this grewsome revery I roused myself to exclaim: "Teunis, every day +counts now. The sooner I get home the better."</p> + +<p>"Quite so," said he, with ready sarcasm. "We will go on snow-shoes to +Sorel to-morrow morning."</p> + +<p>"No: you know what I mean. I want to----"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, entirely so. We might, in fact, start this evening. The wolves +are a trifle troublesome just now, but with a strong and active companion, +like you, I should fear nothing."</p> + +<p>"Will you cease jesting, Teunis! What I want now is to exhaust all means +of gaining strength--to make every hour tell upon the work of my +restoration. There is urgent need of me at home. See for yourself!" And I +gave him my mother's letter.</p> + +<p>My cousin had had from me, during our long camp intercourse, sufficient +details of my early life to enable him to understand all my mother's +allusions. He read the letter through carefully, and smiled. Then he went +over it again, and turned grave, and began to look out of the window and +whistle softly.</p> + +<p>"Well," I asked, impatiently, "what is your judgment?"</p> + +<p>"My judgment is that your mother was, without doubt, the daughter of my +great-uncle Baltus. When I was fourteen years old my father put me out of +his house because I said that cocoa-nuts grew on trees, he having been +credibly informed by a sailor that they were dug from the ground like +potatoes. Everybody said of my father, when they learned of this: 'How +much he is like his uncle, Captain Baltus.' She has the true family piety, +too. The saying in Schenectady used to be: 'The Van Hoorns are a +God-fearing people--and they have reason to be.'"</p> + +<p>I could not but laugh at this, the while I protested that it was his views +upon the tidings in the letter that I wished.</p> + +<p>"I agree with you that the sooner you get home the better," he said, +seriously. "The troubles in the Valley will be ripe ere long. The letters +from Albany, just arrived, are filled, they tell me, with rumors of the +doings of Johnson. General Schuyler had, at last accounts, gone up toward +Johnstown with a regiment, to discover the baronet's intentions. So get +well as fast as you like, and we will be off."</p> + +<p>This was easy enough to say, but nearly two months went by before I was +judged able to travel. We indeed did not make a start until after General +Wooster arrived with more troops, and assumed command. Our return was +accomplished in the company of the express he sent back with news of his +arrival, and his report of the state of affairs in front of Quebec. From +our own knowledge this was very bad, what with the mutinous character of +many of the men, the total absence of subordination, and the bitter +jealousies which existed among the rival officers. Even above the joy of +turning our faces once more toward home, there rose in both of us a sense +of relief at cutting loose from an expedition which had done no good, and +that, too, at such a sad cost of suffering and bloodshed. It was +impossible to have any pride whatever in the adventure, and we had small +disposition to look people in the face, or talk with them of the siege and +attack. To do them justice, the residents of the sparsely settled +districts through which we slowly passed were civil enough. But we felt +that we were returning like detected impostors, and we had no heart for +their courtesies.</p> + +<p>Albany was reached at last, and there the news that the British had +evacuated Boston put us in better spirits. The spring was backward, but it +was April by the calendar if not by the tree-buds and gardens, and busy +preparations for the season's campaign were going forward. General +Schuyler took me into his own house, and insisted upon my having a full +fortnight's rest, telling me that I needed all my strength for the work he +had in mind for me. The repose was in truth grateful, after the long and +difficult journey I had performed in my enfeebled condition; and what with +books and pictures, and the journals of events that had transpired during +my long absence, and the calls of friends, and the careful kindness of the +General and his good wife, I ought to have felt myself indeed happy.</p> + +<p>But in some senses it was to me the most vexatious fortnight of the whole +spring, for no hour of it all passed in which I was not devoured with +anxiety to be among my own people again. The General was so pre-occupied +and burdened with the stress of public and martial business, always in his +case carried on for the most part under the embarrassment of recurring +illness, that I shrank from questioning him, and the fear haunted me that +it was his intention to send me away again without a visit to my old home. +It is true that I might have pleaded an invalid's privileges, but I was +really well enough to work with prudence, and I could not offer to shirk +duty at such a time.</p> + +<p>But in his own good time the General relieved my mind and made me ashamed +that I had ever doubted his considerateness. After breakfast one +morning--it was the first, I remember, upon which I wore the new uniform +with which I had been forced to replace the rags brought from Quebec--he +called me to him in his library, and unfolded to me his plans:</p> + +<p>"John Johnson lied to me last January, when I went up there, disarmed his +Scotchmen, and took his parole. He lied to me here in March, when he came +down and denied that he was receiving and despatching spies through the +woods to and from Canada. The truth is not in him. During the past month +much proof has come to my hands of his hiding arms and powder and lead +near the Hall, and of his devil's work among the Mohawks, whom he plots +day and night to turn against us. All this time he keeps a smooth tongue +for us, but is conspiring with his Tory neighbors, and with those who +followed Guy to Canada, to do us a mischief. Now that General Washington +is master at Boston, and affairs are moving well elsewhere, there is no +reason for further mincing of matters in Tryon County. It is my purpose to +send Colonel Dayton to Johnstown with part of his regiment, to settle the +thing once for all. He will have the aid of Herkimer's militia if he needs +them, and will arrest Sir John, the leaders of his Scotch followers, and +all others, tenants and gentlemen alike, whose freedom is a threat to the +neighborhood. In short, he will stamp out the whole wasps nest.</p> + +<p>"You know the Valley well, and your people are there. It is the place for +you just now. Here is your commission as major. But you are still attached +to my staff. I lend you merely to the Tryon County committee. You will go +with Dayton as far as you like--either to Caughnawaga or some near +place--perhaps your old home would suit you best. Please yourself. You +need not assist in the arrests at Johnstown; that might be painful to you. +But after Dayton's return with his prisoners you will be my representative +in that district. You have four days in which to make ready. I see the +prospect pleases you. Good! To-morrow we will discuss it further."</p> + +<p>When I got outside I fairly leaped for joy.</p> + + + + +<h2><a name="26"></a>Chapter XXVI</h2> + +<h3>I See Daisy and the Old Home Once More.</h3> + + + +<p>I rode beside Colonel Elias Dayton one forenoon some ten days later, up +the Valley road, my pulses beating fast at the growing familiarity of the +scene before us. We had crossed the Chuctenunda Creek, and were within +sight of the gray walls of Guy Park. Beyond rose the hills behind which +lay Fort Johnson. I was on the very threshold of my boyhood's +playfield--within a short hour's walk of my boyhood's home.</p> + +<p>The air was full of sounds. Birds sang with merry discordance all through +the thicket to our right, flitting among the pale green tangle of spring's +foliage. The May sunshine had lured forth some pioneer locusts, whose +shrill cries came from who could tell where--the tall swale-grass on the +river edge, erect now again after the April floods, or the brown +broom-corn nearer the road, or from the sky above? We could hear the +squirrels' mocking chatter in the tree-tops, the whir of the kingfishers +along the willow-fringed water--the indefinable chorus of Nature's myriad +small children, all glad that spring was come. But above these our ears +took in the ceaseless clang of the drums, and the sound of hundreds of +armed men's feet, tramping in unison upon the road before us, behind us, +at our side.</p> + +<p>For my second return to the Valley was at the head of troops, bringing +violence, perhaps bloodshed, in their train. I could not but contrast it +in my mind with that other home-coming, four years before, when I sat +turned to look eastward in the bow of Enoch's boat, and every soft dip of +the oars timed the glad carol in my heart of home and friends--and the +sweet maid I loved. I was so happy then!--and now, coming from the other +direction, with suggestions of force and cruel purposes in every echo of +our soldiers' tread, I was, to tell the plain truth, very +miserable withal.</p> + +<p>My talk with Colonel Dayton had, in a way, contributed to this gloomy +feeling. We had, from choice, ridden side by side for the better part of +two days, and, for very need of confiding in some one, I had talked with +him concerning my affairs more freely than was my wont. This was the +easier, because he was a contemplative, serious, and sensible man, whose +words and manner created confidence. Moreover, he was neither Dutchman nor +Yankee, but a native Jerseyman, and so considered my story from an equable +and fair point of view, without bias.</p> + +<p>It was, indeed, passing strange that this man, on his way to seize or +crush the Johnson clique, as the case might be, should have been the one +to first arouse in my mind the idea that, after all, the Tories had their +good side, and were doing what to them seemed right, at tremendous cost +and sacrifice to themselves. I had been telling him what a ruffian was +Philip Cross, and what grounds I had for hating him, and despitefully +describing the other chief Tories of the district. He said in reply, +I remember:</p> + +<p>"You seem to miss the sad phase of all this, my friend. Your young blood +feels only the partisan promptings of dislike. Some day--soon, perhaps-- +you will all at once find this youthful heat gone; you will begin to walk +around men and things, so to speak, and study them from all sides. This +stage comes to every sober mind; it will come to you. Then you will +realize that this baronet up yonder is, from his own stand-point, a +chivalrous, gallant loyal gentleman, who imperils estates, power, peace, +almost life itself, rather than do what he holds to be weak or wrong. Why, +take even this enemy of yours, this Cross. He was one of the notables of +these parts--rich, popular, influential; he led a life of utmost luxury +and pleasure. All this he has exchanged for the rough work of a soldier, +with its privations, cold, fatigue, and the risk of death. Ask yourself +why he did it."</p> + +<p>"I see what you would enforce," I said. "Your meaning is that these men, +as well as our side, think the right is theirs."</p> + +<p>"Precisely. They have inherited certain ideas. We disagree with them; we +deem it our duty to silence them, fight them, drive them out of the +country, and, with God's help, we will do it. But let us do this with our +eyes open, and with the understanding that they are not necessarily +scoundrels and heathen because they fail to see things as we see them."</p> + +<p>"But you would not defend, surely, their plotting to use the savages +against their neighbors--against helpless women and children. That must be +heathenish to any mind."</p> + +<p>"Defend it? No! I do not defend any acts of theirs. Rid your mind of the +idea that because a man tries to understand a thing he therefore defends +it. But I can see how they would defend it to their own consciences--just +as these thrifty Whig farmers hereabout explain in their own minds as +patriotic and public-spirited their itching to get hold of Johnson's +Manor. Try and look at things in this light. Good and bad are relative +terms; nothing is positively and unchangeably evil. Each group of men has +its own little world of reasons and motives, its own atmosphere, its own +standard of right and wrong. If you shut your eyes, and condemn or praise +these wholly, without first striving to comprehend them, you may or may +not do mischief to them; you assuredly injure yourself."</p> + +<p>Thus, and at great length, spoke the philosophical colonel. I could not +help suspecting that he had too open a mind to be a very valuable fighter, +and, indeed, this proved to be true. He subsequently built some good and +serviceable forts along the Mohawk, one of which to this day bears his +name, but he attained no distinction as a soldier in the field.</p> + +<p>But, none the less, his words impressed me greatly. What he said had never +been put to me in clear form before, and at twenty-seven a man's mind is +in that receptive frame, trembling upon the verge of the meditative +stage, when the presentation of new ideas like these often marks a +distinct turn in the progress and direction of his thoughts. It seems +strange to confess it, but I still look back to that May day of 1776 as +the date of my first notion that there could be anything admirable in +my enemies.</p> + +<p>At the time, these new views and the tone of our talk helped to disquiet +me. The swinging lines of shoulders, the tramp! tramp! in the mud, the +sight of the guns and swords about me, were all depressing. They seemed to +give a sinister significance to my return. It was my home, the dearest +spot on earth--this smiling, peaceful, sunlit Mohawk Valley--and I was +entering it with soldiers whose mission was to seize and despoil the son +of my boyhood's friend, Sir William. More than one of my old play-mates, +now grown to man's estate, would note with despair our approach, and curse +me for being of it. The lady of Johnson Hall, to whom all this would be +horrible nigh unto death, was a close, warm friend of Daisy's. So my +thoughts ran gloomily, and I had no joy in any of the now familiar sights +around me.</p> + +<p>The march up from Schenectady had been a most wearisome one for the men, +owing to the miserable condition of the road, never over-smooth and now +rendered doubly bad and difficult by the spring freshets and the oozing +frost. When we reached the pleasant little hollow in which Fort Johnson +nestles, a halt was accordingly ordered, and the tired soldiers prepared +to refresh themselves with food by the banks of the creek. It was now +afternoon; we were distant but a short mile from the Cedars, and I could +not abide the thought of lingering here, to no purpose, so close to the +goal of all my longings. I therefore exchanged some plans and suggestions +with Colonel Dayton and his companion Judge Duer, who represented the +civil law in the expedition, and so clapped spurs and dashed forward +up the road.</p> + +<p>"It seems ten years, not four, since I was last here," I was saying to +Daisy half an hour later, and unconsciously framing in words the thoughts +which her face suggested.</p> + +<p>I know not how to describe the changes which this lapse of time had +wrought upon her countenance and carriage. In the more obvious, outward +sense, it had scarcely aged her. She was now twenty-three years of age, +and I doubt a stranger would have deemed her older. Yet, looking upon her +and listening to her, I seemed to feel that, instead of being four years +her senior, I was in truth the younger of the two. The old buoyant, +girlish air was all gone, for one thing. She spoke now with gentle, +sweet-toned gravity; and her eyes, frankly meeting mine as of old, had in +their glance a soft, reposeful dignity which was new to me.</p> + +<p>Almost another Daisy, too, she seemed in face. It was the woman in her +features, I dare say, which disconcerted me. I had expected changes, +perhaps, but not upon these lines. She had been the prettiest maiden of +the Valley, beyond all others. She was not pretty now, I should say, but +she <i>was</i> beautiful--somewhat pallid, yet not to give an air of unhealth; +the delicate chiselling of features yielded now not merely the pleasure +of regularity, but the subtler charm of sensitive, thoughtful character. +The eyes and hair seemed a deeper hazel, a darker brown, than they had +been. The lips had lost some, thing of their childish curve, and met each +other in a straight line--fairer than ever, I thought, because more firm.</p> + +<p>I am striving now, you see, against great odds, to revive in words the +impressions of difference which came to me in those first hours, as I +scanned her face. They furnish forth no real portrait of the dear lady: +how could I hope they should? But they help to define, even if dimly, the +changes toward strength and self-control I found in her.</p> + +<p>I was, indeed, all unprepared for what awaited me here at the Cedars. My +heart had been torn by all manner of anxieties and concern. I had hastened +forward, convinced that my aid and protection were direly needed. I sat +now, almost embarrassed, digesting the fact that the fortunes of the +Cedars were in sufficient and capable hands.</p> + +<p>Mr. Stewart's condition was in truth sad enough. He had greeted me with +such cordiality and clear-wittedness of utterance and manner that at first +I fancied his misfortunes to have been exaggerated in my mother's letter. +His conversation for a moment or two was also coherent and timely. But his +mind was prone to wander mysteriously. He presently said: "Assuredly I +taught you to shave with both hands. I knew I could not be mistaken." I +stole a glance toward Daisy at this, and her answering nod showed me the +whole case. It was after old Eli had come in and wheeled Mr. Stewart in +his big chair out into the garden, that I spoke to Daisy of the +differences time had wrought.</p> + +<p>"Ay," she said, "it must be sadly apparent to you--the change in +everything."</p> + +<p>How should I approach the subject--the one thing of which I knew we were +both thinking? There seemed a wall between us. She had been unaffectedly +glad to see me; had, for the instant, I fancied, thought to offer me her +cheek to kiss--yet was, with it all, so self-possessed and reserved that I +shrank from touching upon her trouble.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps not everything is sad," I made answer, falteringly. "Poor Mr. +Stewart--that is indeed mournful; but, on the other hand--" I broke +off abruptly.</p> + +<p>"On the other hand," she took up my words calmly, "you are thinking that I +am advantaged by Philip's departure."</p> + +<p>My face must have showed that I could not deny it.</p> + +<p>"In some respects," she went on, "yes; in others, no. I am glad to be able +to speak freely to you, Douw, for you are nearest to me of all that are +left. I do not altogether know my own mind; for that matter, does any one? +The Philip to whom I gave my heart and whom I married is one person; the +Philip who trampled on the heart and fled his home seems quite another and +a different man. I hesitate between the two sometimes. I cannot always say +to myself: 'The first was all fancy; the second is the reality.' Rather, +they blend themselves in my mind, and I seem to see the fond lover +remaining still the good husband, if only I had had the knowledge and +tenderness to keep him so!"</p> + +<p>"In what are you to be reproached, Daisy?" I said this somewhat testily, +for the self-accusation nettled me.</p> + +<p>"It may easily be that I was not wise, Douw. Indeed, I showed small wisdom +from the beginning."</p> + +<p>"It was all the doing of that old cat, Lady Berenicia!" I said, with +melancholy conviction.</p> + +<p>"Nay, blame not her alone. I was the silly girl to be thus befooled. My +heart would have served me better if it had been all good. The longing for +finery and luxury was my own. I yearned to be set above the rest. I +dreamed to be called 'My lady,' too, in good time. I forgot that I came +from the poor people, and that I belonged to them. So well and truly did I +forget this that the fact struck me like a whip when--when it was brought +to my notice."</p> + +<p>"He taunted you with it, then!" I burst forth, my mind working quickly for +once.</p> + +<p>She made no answer for the time, but rose from her chair and looked out +upon the group in the garden. From the open door she saw the van of +Dayton's soldiers trudging up the Valley road. I had previously told her +of their mission and my business.</p> + +<p>"Poor Lady Johnson," she said, resting her head against her hand on the +door-frame, and looking upon the advancing troops with a weary expression +of face. "Her trouble is coming--mine is past." Then, after a pause: +"Will they be harsh with Sir John, think you? I trust not. They have both +been kind to me since--since Philip went. Sir John is not bad at heart, +Douw, believe me. You twain never liked each other, I know. He is a bitter +man with those who are against him, but his heart is good if you touch +it aright."</p> + +<p>I had not much to say to this. "I am glad he was good to you," I managed +to utter, not over-graciously, I fear.</p> + +<p>The troops went by, with no sound of drums now, lest an alarm be raised +prematurely. We watched them pass in silence, and soon after I took my +leave for the day, saying that I would go up to see the Fondas at +Caughnawaga, and cross the river to my mother's home, and would return +next morning. We shook hands at parting, almost with constraint.</p> + + + + +<h2><a name="27"></a>Chapter XXVII</h2> + +<h3>The Arrest of Poor Lady Johnson.</h3> + + + +<p>Early the next day, which was May 20th, we heard to our surprise and +consternation that on the preceding afternoon, almost as Colonel Dayton +and his soldiers were entering Johnstown, Sir John and the bulk of his +Highlanders and sympathizers, to the number of one hundred and thirty, had +privately taken to the woods at the north of the Hall, and struck out +for Canada.</p> + +<p>Over six weeks elapsed before we learned definitely that the baronet and +his companions had traversed the whole wilderness in safety and reached +Montreal, which now was once more in British hands--our ill-starred Quebec +expedition having finally quitted Canada earlier in the month. We could +understand the stories of Sir John's travail and privations, for the snow +was not yet out of the Adirondack trails, and few of his company were +skilled in woodmen's craft. But they did accomplish the journey, and that +in nineteen days.</p> + +<p>I, for one, was not very much grieved at Johnson's escape, for his +imprisonment would have been an embarrassment rather than a service to us. +But Colonel Dayton was deeply chagrined at finding the bird flown, and I +fear that in the first hours of his discomfiture he may have forgotten +some of his philosophical toleration for Tories in general. He had, +moreover, the delicate question on his hands of what to do with Lady +Johnson. Neither Judge Duer nor I could advise him, and so everything was +held in suspense for the better part of a week, until General Schuyler's +decision could be had.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile my time was fairly occupied in the fulfilment of matters +intrusted to me by the General. I had to visit Colonel Herkimer at his +home below Little Falls, and talk with him about the disagreeable fact +that his brother, Hon-Yost Herkimer, had deserted the militia command +given him by the Whigs and fled to Canada. The stout old German was free +to denounce his brother, however, and I liked the looks and blunt speech +of Peter Bellinger, who had been made colonel of the deserted battalion of +German Flatts. There were also conversations to be had with Colonel Klock, +and Ebenezer Cox, and the Fondas, at their several homes, and a day to +spend with my friend John Frey, now sheriff in place of the Tory White. It +thus happened that I saw very little of the people at the Cedars, and had +no real talk again with Daisy, until a full week had passed.</p> + +<p>It was a cool, overcast forenoon when I alighted next at the familiar +gate, and gave my horse into Tulp's charge. The boy, though greatly +rejoiced to see me back again, had developed a curious taciturnity in +these latter years--since his accident, in fact--and no longer shouted out +the news to me at sight. Hence I had to ask him, as I neared the door, +what strange carriage was that in the yard beyond, and why it was there. +As I spoke, a couple of men lounged in view from the rear of the house, +and I recognized them as of Dayton's command. Tulp explained that Lady +Johnson was being taken away, and that she had tarried here to rest on +her journey.</p> + +<p>If I had known this at the gate, I doubt I should have stopped at all; but +I had been seen from the window, and it was too late now to turn about. So +I entered, much wishing that I had left off my uniform, or, still better, +that I had stayed away altogether.</p> + +<p>There were present in the great room Daisy, Lady Johnson, a young lady who +was her sister, two children--and a man in civilian's garb, with some few +military touches, such as a belt and sword and a cockade, who sat by the +window, his knees impudently spread apart and his hat on his head. I +looked at this fellow in indignant inquiry.</p> + +<p>Daisy came eagerly to me, with an explanation on her lips:</p> + +<p>"It is the officer who is to take Lady Johnson to Albany. He insists upon +forcing his presence upon us, and will not suffer us to be alone together +in any room in the house."</p> + +<p>"Who are you?--and off with your hat!" I said to the man, sharply.</p> + +<p>My uniform was of service, after all. He looked me over, and evidently +remembered having seen me with his colonel, for he stood up and took off +his hat. "I am a lieutenant of the Connecticut line," he said, in a +Yankee snarl, "and I am doing my duty."</p> + +<p>"I am a major in the Continental line, and I should be doing <i>my</i> duty if +I sent you back in irons to your colonel," I answered. "Get out of here, +what time Lady Johnson is to remain, and leave these ladies to +themselves!"</p> + +<p>He was clearly in two minds about obeying me, and I fancy it was my +superior size rather than my rank that induced him to go, which he did in +as disagreeable a fashion as possible. I made my bow to Lady Johnson, and +said something about being glad that I had come, if I had been of use.</p> + +<p>She, poor young woman, was in a sad state of nervous excitement, what with +her delicate condition and the distressing circumstances of the past week. +She was, moreover, a very beautiful creature, naturally of soft and +refined manners, and this made me the readier to overlook the way in which +she met my kindly meant phrases.</p> + +<p>"I marvel that you are not ashamed, Mr. Mauverensen," she said, heatedly, +"to belong to an army made up of such ruffians. Every rag of raiment that +man has on he stole from my husband's wardrobe at the Hall. To think of +calling such low fellows officers, or consorting with them!"</p> + +<p>I answered as gently as I could that, unfortunately, there were many such +ill-conditioned men in every service, and pointed out that the man, by his +speech, was a New Englander.</p> + +<p>"And who fetched them into this province, I should like to know!"</p> + +<p>Nothing was further from my thoughts than to hold a political discussion +with this poor troubled wife, who saw her husband's peril, her own plight, +and the prospective birth of her first child in captivity constantly +before her eyes! So I strove to bring the talk upon other grounds, but not +with much success. She grew calmer, and with the returning calmness came a +fine, cool dignity of manner and tone which curiously reminded me of Lady +Berenicia Cross; but she could talk of nothing save her wrongs, or rather +those of her husband. She seemed not to have very clear notions of what +the trouble was all about, but ascribed it loosely, I gathered, to the +jealousy of Philip Livingston, who was vexed that the Scotch did not +settle upon his patent instead of on Sir John's land, and to the malice of +General Schuyler, whose feud with the Johnsons was notorious.</p> + +<p>"And to think, too," she added, "that Mr. Schuyler's mother and my +mother's mother were sisters! A very pleasant and valuable cousin he is, +to be sure! Driving my husband off into the forest to perhaps die of +hunger, and dragging me down to Albany, in my condition, and thrusting a +low Connecticut cobbler into my carriage with me! If my sickness overtakes +me on the road, and I die, my blood will be on the head of Philip +Schuyler."</p> + +<p>I read in Daisy's eyes a way out of this painful conversation, and so +said: "Lady Johnson, it will perhaps render your journey less harrowing if +I have some talk with this officer who is your escort. Let me leave you +women-folk together here in peace, the while"--and went out into the +garden again.</p> + +<p>I found the lieutenant in the garden to the rear of the house, gossiping +in familiar style with his half-dozen men, and drew him aside for some +private words. He was sensible enough, at bottom, and when I had pointed +out to him that his prisoner was a good and kindly soul, who had been, +through no fault of her own, nurtured in aristocratic ideas and ways; that +those of whatever party who knew her well most heartily esteemed her; and +that, moreover, she was nearly related by blood to General Schuyler--he +professed himself ready to behave toward her with more politeness.</p> + +<p>The trouble with him really lay in his abiding belief that people +underestimated his importance, and hence he sought to magnify his position +in their eyes by insolent demeanor. Therein I discerned the true Yankee.</p> + +<p>That the men of the New England States have many excellent parts, I would +be the last to deny; but that they were in the main a quarrelsome, +intractable, mutinous, and mischief-making element in our armies during +the Revolution, is not to be gainsaid. I know, of my own knowledge, how +their fractious and insubordinate conduct grieved and sorely disheartened +poor Montgomery while we lay before Quebec. I could tell many tales, too, +of the harm they did to the cause in New York State, by their prejudices +against us, and their narrow spite against General Schuyler. So +mischievous did this attitude become at last--when old General Wooster +came to us with his Connecticut troops, and these set themselves up to be +independent of all our plans or rules, refusing even to mess with the +others or to touch Continental provisions and munitions--that Congress had +to interfere and put them sharply back into their proper places. +Jerseymen, Pennsylvanians, Virginians, and men from the Carolinas will +bear me out in saying these things about the New England soldiery. I speak +not in blame or bitterness. The truth is that they were too much akin in +blood and conceit to the English not to have in themselves many of the +disagreeable qualities which had impelled us all to revolt against +British rule.</p> + +<p>When the lieutenant had ordered the horses to be brought out for a start, +I went back into the house. The women had been weeping, I could see. Lady +Johnson had softened in her mood toward me, and spoke now some gentle +words of thanks for the little I had done. When I told her, in turn, that +her escort would henceforth be more considerate in his conduct toward her, +she was for a moment pleased, but then tears filled her eyes at the +thoughts of the journey before her.</p> + +<p>"When I am out of sight of this house," she said, sadly, "it will seem as +if my last friend had been left behind. Why could they not have left me at +the Hall? I gave them the keys; I yielded up everything! What harm could I +have done them--remaining there? I had no wish to visit my relatives in +Albany! It is a trick--a device! I doubt I shall ever lay eyes on my dear +home again."</p> + +<p>And, poor lady, she never did.</p> + +<p>We strove to speak words of comfort to her, but they came but feebly, and +could not have consoled her much. When the lieutenant opened the door, the +women made a tearful adieu, with sobs and kisses upon which I could not +bear to look. Lady Johnson shook hands with me, still with a pathetic +quivering of the lips. But then in an instant she straightened herself to +her full height, bit her lips tight, and walked proudly past the obnoxious +escort down the path to the carriage, followed by her weeping sister and +the two big-eyed wondering children.</p> + +<p>"Will she ever come back?" said Daisy, half in inquiry, half in despairing +exclamation, as we saw the last of the carriage and its guard. "How will +it all end, Douw?"</p> + +<p>"Who can foresee?" I answered. "It is war now, at last, war open and +desperate. I can see no peaceful way out of it. These aristocratic +landlords, these Johnsons, Butlers, Phillipses, De Lanceys, and the rest, +will not give up their estates without a hard fight for them. Of that you +may be sure. <i>They</i> will come back, if their wives do not, and all that +they can do, backed by England, to regain their positions, will be done. +They may win, and if they do, it will be our necks that will be put into +the yoke--or the halter. At all events, it has gone too far to be patched +over now. We can only stand up and fight as stoutly as we may, and leave +the rest to fate."</p> + +<p>"And it really was necessary to fight--I suppose it could not have been in +reason avoided?"</p> + +<p>"They would have it so. They clung to the faith that they were by right +the masters here, and we the slaves, and so infatuated were they that they +brought in English troops and force to back them up. There was no +alternative but to fight. Would you have had me on the other side--on the +English side, Daisy?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, Douw," she answered, in a clear voice. "If war there must be, +why, of course, the side of my people is my side."</p> + +<p>I was not surprised at this, but I said, "You speak of your people, +Daisy--but surely mere birth does not count for more than one's whole +training afterward, and you have been bred among another class altogether. +Why, I should think nine out of every ten of your friends here in the +Mohawk district must be Tories."</p> + +<p>"Not so great a proportion as that," she went on, with a faint smile upon +her lips, but deep gravity in her eyes. "You do not know the value of +these 'friends,' as you call them, as closely as I do. Never have they +forgotten on their side, even if I did on mine, that my parents were +Palatine peasants. And you speak of my being bred among them! In what way +more than you were? Was I not brought up side by side with you? Was there +any difference in our rearing, in our daily life until--until you left us? +Why should I not be a patriot, sir, as well as you?"</p> + +<p>She ended with a little laugh, but the voice quivered beneath it. We both +were thinking, I felt, of the dear old days gone by, and of the melancholy +fate which clouded over and darkened those days, and drove us apart.</p> + +<p>We still stood by the open door, whence we had watched the carriage +disappear. After some seconds of silence I essayed to bring back the +conversation to Lady Johnson, and talked of her narrow, ill-informed, +purely one-sided way of regarding the troubles, and of how impossible it +was that the class to which she belonged, no matter how amiable and good +they might be, could ever adapt themselves to the enlarging social +conditions of this new country.</p> + +<p>While I talked, there burst forth suddenly the racket of fifes and drums +in the road. Some militia companies were marching past on their way to +join Colonel Dayton's force. We stood and watched these go by, and in the +noise that they made we failed to hear Mr. Stewart's tottering footsteps +behind us.</p> + +<p>The din of the drums had called him out of his lethargy, and he came +forward to watch the yeoman-soldiery.</p> + +<p>"They march badly--badly," he said, shielding his eyes from the sun with +his hand. "I do not know the uniform. But I have been away so long, and +everything is changed since the King of Prussia began his wars. Yet I am +happier here as I am--far happier with my fields, and my freedom, and my +children."</p> + +<p>He had spoken in the tone, half-conversational, half-dreamy, which of late +strangely marked most of his speech. He turned now and looked at us; a +pleasant change came over his wan face, and he smiled upon us with a +curious reflection of the old fond look.</p> + +<p>"You are good children," he said; "you shall be married in due time, and +come after me when I am gone. There will be no handsomer, happier twain in +the province."</p> + +<p>Daisy flushed crimson and looked pained at the old gentleman's childish +babbling, and I made haste to get away.</p> + + + + +<h2><a name="28"></a>Chapter XXVIII</h2> + +<h3>An Old Acquaintance Turns Up In Manacles.</h3> + + + +<p>A truly miserable fourteen months' period of thankless labor, and of +unending yet aimless anxiety, follows here in my story. It was my business +to remain in the Valley, watch its suspected figures, invigorate and +encourage its militia, and combat the secret slander and open cowardice +which there menaced the cause of liberty. Fortunately I had, from time to +time, assurance that my work was of actual advantage to General Schuyler, +and occasionally I had leisure hours to spend at the Cedars. If these +pleasurable things had been denied me, there would have been in the whole +Continental service no more unenviable post than mine.</p> + +<p>I have never pretended, least of all to myself, to be much enamoured of +fighting; nor have I ever been regardless of personal comfort, and of the +satisfaction of having warm clothes, sufficient food, and a good bed in +which to sleep. Yet I would gladly have exchanged my state for that of the +most wretched private soldier, barefooted and famished, on the frozen +Delaware or at Morristown. War is a hateful and repellent enough thing; +but it is at least better to be in the thick of it, to smell burning +powder and see and feel the enemy, even if he be at your heels, than to be +posted far away from the theatre of conflict, spying upon an outwardly +peaceful community for signs of treason and disaffection.</p> + +<p>I should not like to put down in black and white, here in my old age, all +the harsh and malignant things which I thought of my Mohawk Valley +neighbors, or some of them, during those fourteen months. I am able to see +now that they were not altogether without excuse.</p> + +<p>The affairs of the revolted Colonies were, in truth, going very badly. No +sooner had Congress summoned the resolution to decree Continental +independence than the fates seemed to conspire to show that the +declaration was a mistake. Our successes in the field came to a sudden +halt; then disasters followed in their place. Public confidence, which had +been too lightly raised, first wavered, then collapsed. Against the +magnificent army of English and Hessian regulars which Howe mustered in +New York, General Washington could not hold his own, and Congress lost the +nerve to stand at his back. Our militia threw up the service, +disheartened. Our commissariat faded out of existence. The patriot force +became the mere skeleton of an army, ragged, ill-fed, discouraged, and +almost hopeless. In battle after battle the British won--by overwhelming +numbers or superior fortune, it mattered not which; the result was equally +lamentable.</p> + +<p>There had been, indeed, a notable week at Christmas-time, when the swift +strong blows struck at Trenton and Princeton lifted for a moment the cloud +which hung over us. But it settled down again, black and threatening, +before spring came.</p> + +<p>The Colonies quarrelled with one another; their generals plotted and +intrigued, or sullenly held aloof. Cool men, measuring on the one side +this lax and inharmonious alliance of jealous States, without money, +without public-spirited populations, and, above all, without confidence in +their own success, and on the other the imposing power of rich and +resolute England, with its splendid armies and fleets in the St. Lawrence +and in New York Harbor, and with its limitless supply of hired German +auxiliaries--cool men, I say, weighing dispassionately these two opposing +forces, came pretty generally to believe that in the end General +Washington would find himself laid by the heels in the Tower at London.</p> + +<p>I cannot honestly say now whether I ever shared this despondent view or +not. But I do know that I chafed bitterly under the orders which kept me +in the Valley, and not only prevented my seeing what fighting there was, +but put me to no better task than watching in a ten-acre field for +rattlesnakes. I can in no apter way describe my employment from May of +1776 to July of the following year. There was unending work, but no +visible fruit, either for the cause or for myself. The menace of impending +danger hung over us constantly--and nothing came of it, month after month. +I grew truly sick of it all. Besides, my wounds did not heal well, and my +bad health from time to time induced both melancholy and an +irritable mind.</p> + +<p>The situation in the Valley was extremely simple. There was a small +outspoken Tory party, who made no secret of their sympathies, and kept up +communications with the refugees in Canada. These talked openly of the +time soon to arrive when the King's troops would purge the Valley of +disloyalty, and loyalists should come by more than their own. There was a +somewhat larger Whig party, which by word and deed supported Congress. +Between these two, or rather, because of their large number, surrounding +them, was the great neutral party, who were chiefly concerned to so trim +their sails that they should ship no water whichever way the wind blew.</p> + +<p>Up to the time of the Declaration of Independence these peaceful people +had leaned rather toward the Whigs. But when General Washington evacuated +Long Island, and the Continental prospects seemed to dwindle, it was +wonderful to note how these same trimmers began again, first furtively, +then with less concealment, to drink the King's health.</p> + +<p>Roughly speaking, the majority of the avowed Tories were in the lower +district of Tryon County, that called the Mohawk district, embracing all +east of Anthony's Nose, including Johnstown, Tribes Hill, and Caughnawaga. +They had, indeed, out-numbered the Whigs by five to one before the flights +to Canada began; and even now enough remained to give a strong British +color to the feeling of the district. In the western districts of the +county, where the population was more purely Dutch and Palatine, the Whig +sentiment was very much stronger. But here, too, there were Tories, +confessed and defiant; and everywhere, as time passed, the dry-rot of +doubt spread among those who were of neither party. It came at last that +nearly every week brought news of some young man's disappearance from +home--which meant another recruit for the hostile Canadian force; and +scarcely a day went by without the gloomy tidings that this man or the +other, heretofore lukewarm, now spoke in favor of submission to the King.</p> + +<p>It was my function to watch this shifting public opinion, to sway it where +I could, but to watch it always. No more painful task could have been +conceived. I lived in an atmosphere of treachery and suspicion. Wherever I +turned I saw humanity at its worst. Men doubted their brothers, their +sons, even their wives. The very ground underneath us was honeycombed with +intrigues and conspiracies. Intelligence from Canada, with its burden of +promises to speedily glut the passions of war, circulated stealthily all +about us. How it came, how it was passed from hearth to hearth, defied our +penetration. We could only feel that it was in the air around us, and +strive to locate it--mainly in vain--and shudder at its sinister omens.</p> + +<p>For all felt a blow to be impending, and only marvelled at its being so +long withheld. It was two years now since Colonel Guy Johnson, with the +Butlers and Philip Cross, had gone westward to raise the Indians. It was +more than a year since Sir John and his retainers had joined them. Some of +these had been to England in the interim, and we vaguely heard of others +flitting, now in Quebec, now at Niagara or Detroit; yet none doubted that +the dearest purpose of all of them was to return with troops and savages +to reconquer the Valley. This was the sword which hung daily, nightly, +over our heads.</p> + +<p>And as the waiting time lengthened out it grew terrible to weak and +selfish minds. More and more men sought to learn how they might soften and +turn its wrath aside, not how they might meet and repel its stroke.</p> + +<p>Congress would not believe in our danger--perhaps could not have helped us +if it would. And then our own friends at this lost heart. The flights to +Canada multiplied; our volunteer militiamen fell away from the drills and +patrols. Stories and rumors grew thicker of British preparations, of +Indian approaches, of invasion's red track being cleared up to the very +gates of the Valley. And no man saw how the ruin was to be averted.</p> + +<p>It was in the second week of July, at almost the darkest hour in that +gloomy first part of 1777, that a singular link in the chain of my story +was forged.</p> + +<p>Affairs were at their worst, abroad and at home. General Washington's call +for more troops had fallen on deaf ears, and it seemed impossible that his +poor force could withstand the grand army and fleet mustering at New York. +The news of St. Clair's wretched evacuation of Ticonderoga had come in, +and we scarcely dared look one another in the face when it was told. +Apparently matters were nearing a climax, so far at least as we in New +York State were involved. For Burgoyne was moving down through the +Champlain country upon Albany, with none to stay his progress, and an +auxiliary force was somewhere upon the great northern water frontier of +our State, intending to sweep through the Mohawk Valley to join him. Once +this junction was formed, the Hudson lay open--and after that? We dared +not think!</p> + +<p>I cannot hope to make young people realize what all this meant to us. To +comprehend this, one must have had not only a neck menaced by the halter, +but mother, sisters, dear ones, threatened by the tomahawk and knife. +Thinking back upon it now, I marvel that men did not go mad under this +horrible stress of apprehension. Apparently there was no hope. The old New +England spite and prejudice against General Schuyler had stirred up now a +fierce chorus of calumny and attack. He was blamed for St. Clair's +pusillanimous retreat, for Congressional languor, for the failure of the +militia to come forward--for everything, in fact. His hands were tied by +suspicion, by treason, by popular lethargy, by lack of money, men, and +means. Against these odds he strove like a giant, but I think not even he, +with all his great, calm confidence, saw clearly through the black cloud +just then.</p> + +<p>I had gone to bed late one hot July night, and had hardly fallen asleep, +for gloomy musing upon these things, when I was awakened by a loud +pounding on the door beneath. I was at my mother's house, fortunately, and +the messenger had thus found me out promptly.</p> + +<p>Tulp had also been aroused, and saddled my horse while I dressed, in +response to the summons. I was wanted at Johnstown by Sheriff Frey, on +some matter which would not wait for the morrow. This much I gathered +from the messenger, as we rode together in the starlight, but he could +tell me little more, save that an emissary from the Tories in Canada had +been captured near the Sacondaga, and it was needful that I should see +him. I wondered somewhat at this as a reason for routing me out of my +sleep, but cantered silently along, too drowsy to be querulous.</p> + +<p>Daylight broke before we crossed the river, and the sunrise gun sounded as +we rode up into the court-house square at Johnstown. Soldiers were already +to be seen moving about outside the block-houses at the corners of the +palisade which, since Sir John's flight, had been built around the jail. +Our coming seemed to be expected, for one of the soldiers told us to wait +while he went inside, and after a few minutes John Frey came out, rubbing +his eyes. As I dismounted, he briefly explained matters to me.</p> + +<p>It seemed that a Tory spy had made his way in from the woods, had +delivered letters both at Cairncross and at the Cedars, and had then +started to return, but by the vigilance of one of the Vrooman boys had +been headed off and taken.</p> + +<p>"He is as close as the bark on a beech-tree," concluded the sheriff. "We +could get nothing out of him. Even when I told him he would be hanged this +morning after breakfast, he did not change color. He only said that if +this was the case he would like first to see you; it seems he knows you, +and has some information for you--probably about Philip Cross's wife. +Perhaps he will tell <i>you</i> what was in the letter he brought to her."</p> + +<p>It occurred to me on the instant that this was the real reason for my +being summoned. These were days of universal suspicion, and the worthy +sheriff had his doubts even of Daisy.</p> + +<p>"All right! Let me see the man," I said, and we entered the jail.</p> + +<p>When the soldier in charge had opened the cell-door, the object of our +interest was discovered to be asleep. Frey shook him vigorously by the +shoulder. He sat bolt upright on the instant, squinting his eyes to +accustom them to the light, but evincing no special concern at +our presence.</p> + +<p>"Is your hanging-party ready?" he said, and yawned, stretching his arms as +freely as the manacles would admit.</p> + +<p>I looked curiously at him--a long, slender, wiry figure, with thin, corded +neck, and twisted muscles showing on so much of his hairy breast as the +open buckskin shirt exposed. The face was pointed and bony, and brown as +leather. For the moment I could not place him; then his identity dawned on +me. I stepped forward, and said:</p> + +<p>"Is that you, Enoch Wade?"</p> + +<p>He looked up at me, and nodded recognition, with no show of emotion.</p> + +<p>"It might have been my ghost, cap'n," he said, "if you hadn't hurried +right along. These friends of yours were bent on spoiling a good man to +make bad meat. They wouldn't listen to any kind of reason. Can I have a +palaver with you, all by yourself?"</p> + +<p>"What does he mean by a 'palaver'?" asked the honest Swiss sheriff.</p> + +<p>I explained that it was a common enough Portuguese word, signifying +"talk," which Enoch in his wanderings had picked up. Furthermore, I told +Frey that I knew the man, and wished to speak with him apart, whereupon +the sheriff and the soldier left us.</p> + +<p>"It is all in my eye--their hanging me," began Enoch, with a sardonic +smile slowly relaxing his thin lips. "I wasn't fooled a minute by that."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps you are mistaken there, my man," I said, as sternly as I could.</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, not a bit! What's more, they wouldn't have caught me if I hadn't +wanted to be caught. You know me. You have travelled with me. Honest +Injun, now, do you take me for the kind of a man to be treed by a young +Dutch muskrat-trapper if I have a mind not to be?"</p> + +<p>I had to admit that my knowledge of his resourceful nature had not +prepared me for such an ignoble catastrophe, but I added that all the more +his conduct mystified me.</p> + +<p>"Quite so!" he remarked, with another grim smile of complacency. "Sit +down here on this bed, if you can find room, and I'll tell you all +about it."</p> + +<p>The tale to which I listened during the next half-hour, full of deep +interest as it was for me, would not bear repeating here at length. Its +essential points were these:</p> + +<p>After Sir William's death Enoch had remained on at the Hall, not feeling +particularly bound to the new baronet, but having a cat's attachment to +the Hall itself. When Sir John finally resolved to avoid arrest by flight, +Enoch had been in two minds about accompanying him, but had finally +yielded to the flattering reliance placed by all upon the value and +thoroughness of his knowledge as a woodsman. It was largely due to his +skill that the party got safely through the great wilderness, and reached +Montreal so soon. Since his arrival in Canada, however, things had not +been at all to his liking. There was but one thought among all his refugee +companions, which was to return to the Mohawk Valley and put their old +neighbors to fire and sword--and for this Enoch had no inclination +whatever. He had accordingly resisted all offers to enrol him in the Tory +regiment which Sir John was raising in Canada, and had looked for an +opportunity to get away quietly and without reproach. This chance had only +come to him a week or so ago, when Philip Cross offered to pay him well to +take two letters down the Valley--one to his servant Rab, the other to +Mrs. Cross. He had accepted this errand, and had delivered the letters as +in duty bound. There his responsibility ended. He had no intention to +return, and had allowed himself to be arrested by a slow and uninventive +young man, solely because it seemed the best way of achieving his purpose.</p> + +<p>"What is your purpose, Enoch?"</p> + +<p>"Well, to begin with, it is to make your hair stand on end. I started from +Buck's Island, on the St. Lawrence, on the 9th of this month. Do you know +who I left there? Seven hundred uniformed soldiers, English and Tory, +with eight cannons, commanded by a British colonel--Sillinger they called +him--and Sir John Johnson. They are coming to Oswego, where they will meet +the Butlers with more Tories, and Dan Claus with five hundred Indians. +Then the whole force is to march on Fort Stanwix, capture it, and come +down the Valley!"</p> + +<p>You may guess how eagerly I listened to the details which Enoch +gave--details of the gravest importance, which I must hasten to send west +to Herkimer and east to Schuyler. When this vital talk was ended, I +returned to the personal side of the matter with a final query:</p> + +<p>"But why get yourself arrested?"</p> + +<p>"Because I wanted to see you. My errand wasn't finished till I had given +you Philip Cross's message. 'Tell that Dutchman,' he said, 'if you can +contrive to do it without peril to yourself, that when I come into the +Valley I will cut out his heart, and feed it to a Missisague dog!'"</p> + + + + +<h2><a name="29"></a>Chapter XXIX</h2> + +<h3>The Message Sent Ahead from the Invading Army.</h3> + + + +<p>The whole forenoon of this eventful day was occupied in transmitting to +the proper authorities the great tidings which had so fortuitously come +to us.</p> + +<p>For this purpose, after breakfast, John Frey, who was the brigade major as +well as sheriff, rode down to Caughnawaga with me, four soldiers bringing +Enoch in our train. It was a busy morning at the Fonda house, where we +despatched our business, only Jelles Fonda and his brother Captain Adam +and the staunch old Samson Sammons being admitted to our counsels.</p> + +<p>Here Enoch repeated his story, telling now in addition that one-half of +the approaching force was composed of Hanau Chasseurs--skilled marksmen +recruited in Germany from the gamekeeper or forester class--and that +Joseph Brant was expected to meet them at Oswego with the Iroquois war +party, Colonel Claus having command of the Missisaguesor Hurons from the +Far West. As he mentioned the names of various officers in Sir John's +regiment of Tories, we ground our teeth with wrath. They were the names of +men we had long known in the Valley--men whose brothers and kinsmen were +still among us, some even holding commissions in our militia. Old Sammons +could not restrain a snort of rage when the name of Hon-Yost Herkimer was +mentioned in this list of men who wore now the traitor's "Royal Green" +uniform, and carried commissions from King George to fight against their +own blood.</p> + +<p>"You saw no Sammons in that damned snake's nest, I'll be bound!" he +shouted fiercely at Enoch.</p> + +<p>"Nor any Fonda, either," said Major Jelles, as firmly.</p> + +<p>But then both bethought them that these were cruel words to say in the +hearing of the stalwart John Frey, who could not help it that his brother, +Colonel Hendrick, was on parole as a suspected Tory, and that another +brother, Bernard, and a nephew, young Philip Frey, Hendrick's son, were +with Johnson in Canada. So the family subject was dropped.</p> + +<p>More or less minute reports of all that Enoch revealed, according to the +position of those for whom they were intended, were written out by me, and +despatched by messenger to General Schuyler at Albany; to +Brigadier-General Herkimer near the Little Falls; to Colonel Campbell at +Cherry Valley; and to my old comrade Peter Gansevoort, now a full colonel, +and since April the commandant at Fort Stanwix. Upon him the first brunt +of the coming invasion would fall. He had under him only five hundred +men--the Third New York Continentals--and I took it upon myself to urge +now upon General Schuyler that more should be speeded to him.</p> + +<p>This work finally cleared away, and all done that was proper until the +military head of Tryon County, Brigadier Herkimer, should take action, +there was time to remember my own affairs. It had been resolved that no +word of what we had learned should be made public. The haying had begun, +and a panic now would work only disaster by interfering with this most +important harvest a day sooner than need be. There was no longer any +question of keeping Enoch in prison, but there was a real fear that if he +were set at large he might reveal his secret. Hence John Frey suggested +that I keep him under my eye, and this jumped with my inclination.</p> + +<p>Accordingly, when the noon-day heat was somewhat abated, we set out down +the Valley road toward the Cedars. There was no horse for him, but he +walked with the spring and tirelessness of a grey-hound, his hand on the +pommel of my saddle. The four soldiers who had come down from Johnstown +followed in our rear, keeping under the shade where they could, and +picking berries by the way.</p> + +<p>The mysterious letter from Philip to his deserted wife lay heavily upon my +thoughts. I could not ask Enoch if he knew its contents--which it turned +out he did not--but I was unable to keep my mind from speculating +upon them.</p> + +<p>During all these fourteen months Daisy and I had rarely spoken of her +recreant ruffian of a husband--or, for that matter, of any other phase of +her sad married life. There had been some little constraint between us for +a time, after Mr. Stewart's childish babbling about us as still youth and +maiden. He never happened to repeat it, and the embarrassment gradually +wore away. But we had both been warned by it--if indeed I ought to speak +of her as possibly needing such a warning--and by tacit consent the whole +subject of her situation was avoided. I did not even tell her that I owed +the worst and most lasting of my wounds to Philip. It would only have +added to her grief, and impeded the freedom of my arm when the chance for +revenge should come.</p> + +<p>That my heart had been all this while deeply tender toward the poor girl, +I need hardly say. I tried to believe that I thought of her only as the +dear sister of my childhood, and that I looked upon her when we met with +no more than the fondness which may properly glow in a brother's eyes. For +the most part I succeeded in believing it, but it is just to add that the +neighborhood did not. More than once my mother had angered me by reporting +that people talked of my frequent visits to the Cedars, and faint echoes +of this gossip had reached my ears from other sources.</p> + +<p>"You did not stop to see Mistress Cross open her letter, then?" I asked +Enoch.</p> + +<p>"No: why should I? Nothing was said about that. He paid me only to deliver +it into her hands."</p> + +<p>"And what was his mood when he gave it to you?"</p> + +<p>"Why, it was what you might call the Madeira mood--his old accustomed +temper. He had the hiccoughs, I recall, when he spoke with me. Most +generally he does have them. Yet, speak the truth and shame the devil! he +is sober two days to that Colonel Sillinger's one. If their expedition +fails, it won't be for want of rum. They had twenty barrels when they +started from La Chine, and it went to my heart to see men make such beasts +of themselves."</p> + +<p>I could not but smile at this. "The last time I saw you before to-day," I +said, "there could not well have been less than a quart of rum inside +of you."</p> + +<p>"No doubt! But it is quite another thing to guzzle while your work is +still in hand. That I never would do. And it is that which makes me doubt +these British will win, in the long-run. Rum is good to rest upon--it is +rest itself--when the labor is done; but it is ruin to drink it when your +task is still ahead of you. To tell the truth, I could not bear to see +these fellows drink, drink, drink, all day long, with all their hard +fighting to come. It made me uneasy."</p> + +<p>"And is it your purpose to join us? We are the sober ones, you know."</p> + +<p>"Well, yes and no. I don't mind giving your side a lift--it's more my way +of thinking than the other--and you seem to need it powerfully, too. +But"--here he looked critically over my blue and buff, from cockade to +boot-tops--"you don't get any uniform on me, and I don't join any +regiment. I'd take my chance in the woods first. It suits you to a 't,' +but it would gag me from the first minute."</p> + +<p>We talked thus until we reached the Cedars. I left Enoch and the escort +without, and knocked at the door. I had to rap a second time before Molly +Wemple appeared to let me in.</p> + +<p>"We were all up-stairs," she said, wiping her hot and dusty brow with her +apron, "hard at it! I'll send her down to you. She needs a little +breathing-spell."</p> + +<p>The girl was gone before I could ask what extra necessity for labor had +fallen upon the household this sultry summer afternoon.</p> + +<p>Daisy came hurriedly to me, a moment later, and took both my hands in +hers. She also bore signs of work and weariness.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I am <i>so</i> glad you are come!" she said, eagerly. "Twice I have sent +Tulp for you across to your mother's. It seemed as if you never +would come."</p> + +<p>"Why, what is it, my girl? Is it about the letter from--from----"</p> + +<p>"You know, then!"</p> + +<p>"Only that a letter came to you yesterday from him. The messenger--he is +an old friend of ours--told me that much, nothing more."</p> + +<p>Daisy turned at this and took a chair, motioning me to another. The +pleased excitement at my arrival--apparently so much desired--was +succeeded all at once by visible embarrassment.</p> + +<p>"Now that you are here, I scarcely know why I wanted you, or--or how to +tell you what it is," she said, speaking slowly. "I was full of the idea +that nothing could be done without your advice and help--and yet, now you +have come, it seems that there is nothing left for you to say or do." She +paused for a moment, then added: "You know we are going back to +Cairncross."</p> + +<p>I stared at her, aghast. The best thing I could say was, "Nonsense!"</p> + +<p>She smiled wearily. "So I might have known you would say. But it is the +truth, none the less."</p> + +<p>"You must be crazy!"</p> + +<p>"No, Douw, only very, very wretched!"</p> + +<p>The poor girl's voice faltered as she spoke, and I thought I saw the +glisten of tears in her eyes. She had borne so brave and calm a front +through all her trouble, that this suggestion of a sob wrung my heart with +the cruelty of a novel sorrow. I drew my chair nearer to her.</p> + +<p>"Tell me about it all, Daisy--if you can."</p> + +<p>Her answer was to impulsively take a letter from her pocket and hand it to +me. She would have recalled it an instant later.</p> + +<p>"No--give it me back," she cried. "I forgot! There are things in it you +should not see."</p> + +<p>But even as I held it out to her, she changed her mind once again.</p> + +<p>"No--read it," she said, sinking back in her chair; "it can make no +difference--between <i>us</i>. You might as well know all!"</p> + +<p>The "all" could not well have been more hateful. I smoothed out the folded +sheet over my knee, and read these words, written in a loose, bold +character, with no date or designation of place, and with the signature +scrawled grandly like the sign-manual of a duke, at least:</p> + +<p>"Madam:--It is my purpose to return to Cairncross forthwith, though you +are not to publish it.</p> + +<p>"If I fail to find you there residing, as is your duty, upon my arrival, I +shall be able to construe the reasons for your absence, and shall act +accordingly.</p> + +<p>"I am fully informed of your behavior in quitting my house the instant my +back was turned, and in consorting publicly with my enemies, and with +ruffian foes to law and order generally.</p> + +<p>"All these rebels and knaves will shortly be shot or hanged, including +without fail your Dutch gallant, who, I am told, now calls himself a +major. His daily visits to you have all been faithfully reported to me. +After his neck has been properly twisted, I may be in a better humor to +listen to such excuses as you can offer in his regard, albeit I make +no promise.</p> + +<p>"I despatch by this same express my commands to Rab, which will serve as +your further instructions.</p> + +<p>"Philip."</p> + +<p>One clearly had a right to time for reflection, after having read such a +letter as this. I turned the sheet over and over in my hands, re-reading +lines here and there under pretence of study, and preserving silence, +until finally she asked me what I thought of it all. Then I had perforce +to speak my mind.</p> + +<p>"I think, if you wish to know," I said, deliberately, "that this husband +of yours is the most odious brute God ever allowed to live!"</p> + +<p>There came now in her reply a curious confirmation of the familiar saying, +that no man can ever comprehend a woman. A long life's experience has +convinced me that the simplest and most direct of her sex must be, in the +inner workings of her mind, an enigma to the wisest man that ever existed; +so impressed am I with this fact that several times in the course of this +narrative I have been at pains to disavow all knowledge of why the women +folk of my tale did this or that, only recording the fact that they did do +it; and thus to the end of time, I take it, the world's stories must +be written.</p> + +<p>This is what Daisy actually said:</p> + +<p>"But do you not see running through every line of the letter, and but +indifferently concealed, the confession that he is sorry for what he has +done, and that he still loves me?"</p> + +<p>"I certainly see nothing of the kind!"</p> + +<p>She had the letter by heart. "Else why does he wish me to return to his +home?" she asked. "And you see he is grieved at my having been friendly +with those who are not his friends; that he would not be if he cared +nothing for me. Note, too, how at the close, even when he has shown that +by the reports that have reached him he is justified in suspecting me, he +as much as says that he will forgive me."</p> + +<p>"Yes--perhaps--when once he has had his sweet fill of seeing me kicking at +the end of a rope! Truly I marvel, Daisy, how you can be so blind, after +all the misery and suffering this ruffian has caused you."</p> + +<p>"He is my husband, Douw," she said, simply, as if that settled everything.</p> + +<p>"Yes, he is your husband--a noble and loving husband, in truth! He first +makes your life wretched at home--you know you <i>were</i> wretched, Daisy! +Then he deserts you, despoiling your house before your very eyes, +humiliating you in the hearing of your servants, and throwing the poverty +of your parents in your face as he goes! He stops away two years--having +you watched meanwhile, it seems--yet never vouchsafing you so much as a +word of message! Then at last, when these coward Tories have bought help +enough in Germany and in the Indian camps to embolden them to come down +and look their neighbors in the face, he is pleased to write you this +letter, abounding in coarse insults in every sentence. He tells you of his +coming as he might notify a tavern wench. He hectors and orders you as if +you were his slave. He pleasantly promises the ignominious death of your +chief friends. And all this you take kindly--sifting his brutal words in +search for even the tiniest grain of manliness. My faith, I am astonished +at you! I credited you with more spirit."</p> + +<p>She was not angered at this outburst, which had in it more harsh phrases +than she had heard in all her life from me before, but, after a little +pause, said to me quite calmly:</p> + +<p>"I know you deem him all bad. You never allowed him any good quality."</p> + +<p>"You know him better than I--a thousand times better, more's the pity. +Very well! I rest the case with you. Tell me, out of all your knowledge of +the man, what 'good quality' he ever showed, how he showed it, and when!"</p> + +<p>"Have you forgotten that he saved my life?"</p> + +<p>"No; but he forgot it--or rather made it the subject of taunts, in place +of soft thoughts."</p> + +<p>"And he loved me--ah! he truly did--for a little!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, he loved you! So he did his horses, his kennel, his wine cellar; +and a hundred-fold more he loved himself and his cursed pride."</p> + +<p>"How you hate him!"</p> + +<p>"Hate him? Yes! Have I not been given cause?"</p> + +<p>"He often said that he was not in fault for throwing Tulp over the +gulf-side. He knew no reason, he avowed, why you should have sought a +quarrel with him that day, and forced it upon him, there in the gulf; and +as for Tulp--why, the foolish boy ran at him. Is it not so?"</p> + +<p>"Who speaks of Tulp?" I asked, impatiently. "If he had tossed all Ethiopia +over the cliff, and left me <i>you</i>--I--I----"</p> + +<p>The words were out!</p> + +<p>I bit my tongue in shamed regret, and dared not let my glance meet hers. +Of all things in the world, this was precisely what I should not have +uttered--what I wanted least to say. But it had been said, and I was +covered with confusion. The necessity of saying something to bridge over +this chasm of insensate indiscretion tugged at my senses, and +finally--after what had seemed an age of silence--I stammered on:</p> + +<p>"What I mean is, we never liked each other. Why, the first time we ever +met, we fought. You cannot remember it, but we did. He knocked me into the +ashes. And then there was our dispute at Albany--in the Patroon's mansion, +you will recall. And then at Quebec. I have never told you of this," I +went on, recklessly, "but we met that morning in the snow, as Montgomery +fell. He knew me, dark as it still was, and we grappled. This scar here," +I pointed to a reddish seam across my temple and cheek, "this was +his doing."</p> + +<p>I have said that I could never meet Daisy in these days without feeling +that, mere chronology to the opposite notwithstanding, she was much the +older and more competent person of the two. This sense of juvenility +overwhelmed me now, as she calmly rose and put her hand on my shoulder, +and took a restful, as it were maternal, charge of me and my mind.</p> + +<p>"My dear Douw," she said, with as fine an assumption of quiet, composed +superiority as if she had not up to that moment been talking the veriest +nonsense, "I understand just what you mean. Do not think, if I seem +sometimes thoughtless or indifferent, that I am not aware of your +feelings, or that I fail to appreciate the fondness you have always given +me. I know what you would have said----"</p> + +<p>"It was exactly what I most of all would <i>not</i> have said," I broke in +with, in passing.</p> + +<p>"Even so. But do you think, silly boy, that the thought was new to me? Of +course we shall never speak of it again, but I am not altogether sorry it +was referred to. It gives me the chance to say to you"--her voice softened +and wavered here, as she looked around the dear old room, reminiscent in +every detail of our youth--"to say to you that, wherever my duty may be, +my heart is here, here under this roof where I was so happy, and where the +two best men I shall ever know loved me so tenderly, so truly, as daughter +and sister."</p> + +<p>There were tears in her eyes at the end, but she was calm and +self-sustained enough.</p> + +<p>She was very firmly of opinion that it was her duty to go to Cairncross +at once, and nothing I could say sufficed to dissuade her. So it turned +out that the afternoon and evening of this important day were devoted to +convoying across to Cairncross the whole Cedars establishment, I myself +accompanying Daisy and Mr. Stewart in the carriage around by the Johnstown +road. Rab was civil almost to the point of servility, but, to make +assurance doubly sure, I sent up a guard of soldiers to the house that +very night, brought Master Rab down to be safely locked up by the sheriff +at Johnstown, and left her Enoch instead.</p> + + + + +<h2><a name="30"></a>Chapter XXX</h2> + +<h3>From the Scythe and Reaper to the Musket.</h3> + + + +<p>And now, with all the desperate energy of men who risked everything that +mortal can have in jeopardy, we prepared to meet the invasion.</p> + +<p>The tidings of the next few days but amplified what Enoch had told us. +Thomas Spencer, the half-breed, forwarded full intelligence of the +approaching force; Oneida runners brought in stories of its magnitude, +with which the forest glades began to be vocal; Colonel Gansevoort, +working night and day to put into a proper state of defence the +dilapidated fort at the Mohawk's headwaters, sent down urgent demands for +supplies, for more men, and for militia support.</p> + +<p>At the most, General Schuyler could spare him but two hundred men, for +Albany was in sore panic at the fall of Ticonderoga and the menace of +Burgoyne's descent in force through the Champlain country. We watched this +little troop march up the river road in a cloud of dust, and realized that +this was the final thing Congress and the State could do for us. What more +was to be done we men of the Valley must do for ourselves.</p> + +<p>It was almost welcome, this grim, blood-red reality of peril which now +stared us in the face, so good and wholesome a change did it work in the +spirit of the Valley. Despondency vanished; the cavillers who had +disparaged Washington and Schuyler, sneered at stout Governor Clinton, and +doubted all things save that matters would end badly, ceased their +grumbling and took heart; men who had wavered and been lukewarm or +suspicious came forward now and threw in their lot with their neighbors. +And if here and there on the hillsides were silent houses whence no help +was to come, and where, if the enemy once broke through, he would be +welcomed the more as a friend if his hands were spattered with our +blood--the consciousness, I say, that we had these base traitors in our +midst only gave us a deeper resolution not to fail.</p> + +<p>General Herkimer presently issued his order to the Tryon militia, +apprising them of the imminent danger, and summoning all between sixteen +and sixty to arms. There was no doubt now where the blow would fall. +Cherry Valley, Unadilla, and the Sacondaga settlements no longer feared +raids from the wilderness upon their flanks. The invaders were coming +forward in a solid mass, to strike square at the Valley's head. There we +must meet them!</p> + +<p>It warms my old heart still to recall the earnestness and calm courage of +that summer fortnight of preparation. All up and down the Valley +bottom-lands the haying was in progress. Young and old, rich and poor, came +out to carry forward this work in common. The meadows were taken in their +order, some toiling with scythe and sickle, others standing guard at the +forest borders of the field to protect the workers. It was a goodly yield +that year, I remember, and never in my knowledge was the harvest gathered +and housed better or more thoroughly than in this period of genuine +danger, when no man knew whose cattle would feed upon his hay a month +hence. The women and girls worked beside the men, and brought them cooling +drinks of ginger, molasses, and vinegar, and spread tables of food in the +early evening shade for the weary gleaners. These would march home in +bodies, a little later, those with muskets being at the front and rear; +and then, after a short night's honest sleep, the rising sun would find +them again at work upon some other farm.</p> + +<p>There was something very good and strengthening in this banding together +to get the hay in for all. During twenty years of peace and security, we +had grown selfish and solitary--each man for himself. We had forgotten, in +the strife for individual gain and preferment, the true meaning of that +fine old word "neighbor"--the husbandman, or <i>boer</i>, who is nigh, and to +whom in nature you first look for help and sympathy and friendship. It was +in this fortnight of common peril that we saw how truly we shared +everything, even life itself, and how good it was to work for as well as +to fight for one another--each for all, and all for each. Forty years have +gone by since that summer, yet still I seem to discover in the Mohawk +Valley the helpful traces of that fortnight's harvesting in common. The +poor <i>bauers</i> and squatters from the bush came out then and did their +share of the work, and we went back with them into their forest clearings +and beaver-flies and helped them get in their small crops, in turn. And to +this day there is more brotherly feeling here between the needy and the +well-to-do than I know of anywhere else.</p> + +<p>When the barns were filled, and the sweet-smelling stacks outside properly +built and thatched, the scythe was laid aside for the musket, the sickle +for the sword and pistol. All up the Valley the drums' rattle drowned the +drone of the locusts in the stubble. The women moulded bullets now and +filled powder-horns instead of making drinks for the hay-field. There was +no thought anywhere save of preparation for the march. Guns were cleaned, +flints replaced, new hickory ramrods whittled out, and the grindstones +threw off sparks under the pressure of swords and spear-heads. Even the +little children were at work rubbing goose-grease into the hard leather of +their elders' foot-gear, against the long tramp to Fort Stanwix.</p> + +<p>By this time, the first of August, we knew more about the foe we were to +meet. The commander whom Enoch had heard called Sillinger was learned to +be one Colonel St. Leger, a British officer of distinction, which might +have been even greater if he had not embraced the Old-World military vice +of his day--grievous drunkenness. The gathering of Indians at Oswego under +Claus and Brant was larger than the first reports had made it. The regular +troops, both British and German, intended for our destruction, were said +to alone outnumber the whole militia force which we could hope to oppose +to them. But most of all we thought of the hundreds of our old Tory +neighbors, who were bringing this army down upon us to avenge their own +fancied wrongs; and when we thought of them we moodily rattled the bullets +in our deerskin bags, and bent the steel more fiercely upon the whirling, +hissing stone.</p> + +<p>I have read much of war, both ancient and modern. I declare solemnly that +in no chronicle of warfare in any country, whether it be of great +campaigns like those of Marlborough and the late King of Prussia, and that +strange Buonaparte, half god, half devil, who has now been caged at last +at St. Helena; of brutal invasions by a foreign enemy, as when the French +overran and desolated the Palatinate; or of buccaneering and piratical +enterprise by the Spaniards and Portuguese; or of the fighting of savages +or of the Don Cossacks--in none of these records, I aver, can you find so +much wanton baseness and beast-like bloodthirstiness as these native-born +Tories showed toward us. Mankind has not been capable of more utter +cruelty and wickedness than were in their hearts. Beside them the lowest +painted heathen in their train was a Christian, the most ignorant Hessian +peasant was a nobleman.</p> + +<p>Ever since my talk with Colonel Dayton I had been trying to look upon +these Tories as men who, however mistaken, were acting from a sense of +duty. For a full year it seemed as if I had succeeded; indeed, more than +once, so temperately did I bring myself in my new philosophy to think of +them, I was warned by my elders that it would be better for me to keep my +generous notions to myself. But now, when the stress came, all this +philanthropy fell away. These men were leading down to their old home an +army of savages and alien soldiers; they were boasting that we, their +relatives or whilom school-fellows, neighbors, friends, should be +slaughtered like rats in a pit; their commander, St. Leger, published at +their instigation general orders offering his Indians twenty dollars +apiece for the scalps of our men, women, and children! How could one +pretend not to hate such monsters?</p> + +<p>At least I did not pretend any longer, but worked with an enthusiasm I had +never known before to marshal our yeomanry together.</p> + +<p>Under the pelting July sun, in the saddle from morning till night--to +Cherry Valley, to Stone Arabia, to the obscure little groups of cabins in +the bush, to the remote settlements on the Unadilla and the East +Creek--organizing, suggesting, pleading, sometimes, I fear, also cursing a +little, my difficult work was at last done. The men of the Mohawk district +regiment, who came more directly under my eye, were mustered at +Caughnawaga, and some of the companies that were best filled despatched +forward under Captain Adam Fonda, who was all impatience to get first to +Fort Dayton, the general rendezvous. In all we were likely to gather +together in this regiment one hundred and thirty men, and this was better +than a fortnight ago had seemed possible.</p> + +<p>They were sturdy fellows for the most part, tall, deep-chested, and hard +of muscle. They came from the high forest clearings of Kingsland and +Tribes Hill, from the lower Valley flatlands near to Schenectady, from the +bush settlements scattered back on Aries Creek, from the rich farms and +villages of Johnstown, and Caughnawaga, and Spraker's. There were among +them all sorts and conditions of men, thrifty and thriftless, cautious and +imprudent, the owners of slaves along with poor yokels of scarcely higher +estate than the others' niggers. Here were posted thick in the roll-call +such names as Fonda, Starin, Yates, Sammons, Gardenier, and Wemple. Many +of the officers, and some few of the men, had rough imitations of uniform, +such as home-made materials and craft could command, but these varied +largely in style and color. The great majority of the privates wore simply +their farm homespun, gray and patched, and some had not even their +hat-brims turned up with a cockade. But they had a look on their +sunburned, gnarled, and honest faces which the Butlers and Johnsons might +well have shrunk from.</p> + +<p>These men of the Mohawk district spoke more Dutch than anything else, +though there were both English and High German tongues among them. They +had more old acquaintances among the Tories than had their Palatine +friends up the river, for this had been the Johnsons' own district. Hence, +though in numbers we were smaller than the regiments that mustered above +at Stone Arabia and Zimmerman's, at Canajoharie and Cherry Valley, we were +richer in hate.</p> + +<p>At daybreak on August 2, the remaining companies of this regiment were to +start on their march up the Valley. I rode home to my mother's house late +in the afternoon of the 1st, to spend what might be a last night under her +roof. On the morrow, Samson Sammons and Jelles Fonda, members of the +Committee of Safety, and I, could easily overtake the column on +our horses.</p> + +<p>I was greatly perplexed and unsettled in mind about Daisy and my duty +toward her, and, though I turned this over in my thoughts the whole +distance, I could come to no satisfactory conclusion. On the one hand, I +yearned to go and say farewell to her; on the other, it was not clear, +after that letter of her husband's, that I could do this without unjustly +prejudicing her as a wife. For the wife of this viper she still was, and +who could tell how soon she might not be in his power again?</p> + +<p>I was still wrestling with this vexatious question when I came to my +mother's house. I tied the horse to the fence till Tulp should come out +for him, and went in, irresolutely. At every step it seemed to me as if I +ought instead to be going toward Cairncross.</p> + +<p>Guess my surprise at being met, almost upon the threshold, by the very +woman of whom of all others I had been thinking! My mother and she had +apparently made up their differences, and stood together waiting for me.</p> + +<p>"Were you going away, Douw, without coming to see me--to say good-by?" +asked Daisy, with a soft reproach in her voice. "Your mother tells me of +your starting to-morrow--for the battle."</p> + +<p>I took her hand, and, despite my mother's presence, continued to hold it +in mine. This was bold, but there was little enough of bravery in +my words.</p> + +<p>"Yes, we go to-morrow; I wanted to come--all day I have been thinking of +little else--yet I feared that my visit might--might----"</p> + +<p>Very early in this tale it was my pride to explain that my mother was a +superior woman. Faults of temper she may have had, and eke narrow +prejudices on sundry points. But she had also great good sense, which she +showed now by leaving the room.</p> + +<p>"I came to you instead, you see," my dear girl said, trying to smile, yet +with a quivering lip; "I could not have slept, I could not have borne to +live almost, it seems, if I had let you ride off without a word, without +a sign."</p> + +<p>We stood thus facing each other for a moment--mumbling forth some +commonplaces of explanation, she looking intently into my eyes. Then with +a sudden deep outburst of anguish, moaning piteously, "<i>Must you truly +go</i>?" she came, nay, almost fell into my arms, burying her face on my +shoulder and weeping violently.</p> + +<p>It is not meet that I should speak much of the hour that followed. I +would, in truth, pass over it wholly in silence--as being too sacred a +thing for aught of disclosure or speculation--were it not that some might, +in this case, think lightly of the pure and good woman who, unduly wrung +by years of grief, disappointment, and trial, now, from very weariness of +soul, sobbed upon my breast. And that would be intolerable.</p> + +<p>We sat side by side in the little musty parlor. I did not hold her hand, +or so much as touch her gown with my knee or foot.</p> + +<p>We talked of impersonal things--of the coming invasion, of the chances of +relieving Fort Stanwix, of the joy it would be to me if I could bear a +good part in rescuing my dear friend Gansevoort, its brave young +commandant. I told her about Peter, and of how we two had consorted +together in Albany, and later in Quebec. And this led us back--as we had +so often returned before during these latter hateful months--to the sweet +companionship of our own childhood and youth. She, in turn, talked of Mr. +Stewart, who seemed less strong and contented in his new home at +Cairncross. He had much enjoyment now, she said, in counting over a rosary +of beads which had been his mother's, reiterating a prayer for each one in +the Romish fashion, and he was curiously able to remember these +long-disused formulas of his boyhood, even while he forgot the things of +yesterday. I commented upon this, pointing out to her that this is the +strange quality of the Roman faith--that its forms and customs, learned in +youth, remain in the affections of Papists to their dying day, even after +many years of neglect and unbelief; whereas in the severe, Spanish-drab +Protestantism to which I was reared, if one once loses interest in the +tenets themselves, there is nothing whatever left upon which the mind may +linger pleasantly.</p> + +<p>Thus our conversation ran--decorous and harmless enough, in all +conscience. And if the thoughts masked by these words were all of a +forbidden subject; if the very air about us was laden with sweet +influences; if, when our eyes met, each read in the other's glance a whole +world of meaning evaded in our talk--were we to blame?</p> + +<p>I said "no" then, in my own heart, honestly. I say it now. Why, think you! +This love of ours was as old as our intelligence itself. Looking back, we +could trace its soft touch upon every little childish incident we had in +common memory; the cadence of its music bore forward, tenderly, sweetly, +the song of all that had been happy in our lives. We were man and woman +now, wise and grave by reason of sorrow and pain and great trials. These +had come upon us both because neither of us had frankly said, at a time +when to have said it would have been to alter all, "I love you!" And this +we must not say to each other even now, by all the bonds of mutual honor +and self-respect. But not any known law, human or divine, could hold our +thoughts in leash. So we sat and talked of common things, calmly and +without restraint, and our minds were leagues away, in fields of their own +choosing, amid sunshine and flowers and the low chanting of +love's cherubim.</p> + +<p>We said farewell, instinctively, before my mother returned. I held her +hands in mine, and, as if she had been a girl again, gently kissed the +white forehead she as gently inclined to me.</p> + +<p>"Poor old father is to burn candles for your safety," she said, with a +soft smile, "and I will pray too. Oh, do spare yourself! Come back to us!"</p> + +<p>"I feel it in my bones," I answered, stoutly. "Fear nothing, I shall come +back."</p> + +<p>The tall, bright-eyed, shrewd old dame, my mother, came in at this, and +Daisy consented to stop for supper with us, but not to spend the night +with one of my sisters as was urged. I read her reason to be that she +shrank from a second and public farewell in the morning.</p> + +<p>The supper was almost a cheery meal. The women would have readily enough +made it doleful, I fancy, but my spirits were too high for that. There +were birds singing in my heart. My mother from time to time looked at me +searchingly, as if to guess the cause of this elation, but I doubt she was +as mystified as I then thought.</p> + +<p>At twilight I stood bareheaded and watched Daisy drive away, with Enoch +and Tulp as a mounted escort. The latter was also to remain with her +during my absence--and Major Mauverensen almost envied his slave.</p> + + + + +<h2><a name="31"></a>Chapter XXXI</h2> + +<h3>The Rendezvous of Fighting Men at Fort Dayton.</h3> + + + +<p>I shall not easily forget the early breakfast next morning, or the calm +yet serious air with which my mother and two unmarried sisters went about +the few remaining duties of preparing for my departure. For all they said, +they might have been getting me ready for a fishing excursion, but it +would be wrong to assume that they did not think as gravely as if they had +flooded the kitchen with tears.</p> + +<p>Little has been said of these good women in the course of my story, for +the reason that Fate gave them very little to do with it, and the +narrative is full long as it is, without the burden of extraneous +personages. But I would not have it thought that we did not all love one +another, and stand up for one another, because we kept cool about it.</p> + +<p>During this last year, in truth, my mother and I had seen more of each +other than for all the time before since my infancy, and in the main had +got on admirably together. Despite the affectation of indifference in her +letter, she did not lack for pride in my being a major; it is true that +she exhibited little of this emotion to me, fearing its effect upon my +vanity, doubtless, but her neighbors and gossips heard a good deal from +it, I fancy. It was in her nature to be proud, and she had right to be; +for what other widow in the Valley, left in sore poverty with a household +of children, had, like her, by individual exertions, thrift, and keen +management, brought all that family well up, purchased and paid for her +own homestead and farm, and laid by enough for a comfortable old age? Not +one! She therefore was justified in respecting herself and exacting +respect from others, and it pleased me that she should have satisfaction +as well in my advancement. But she did ruffle me sometimes by seeking to +manage my business for me--she never for a moment doubting that it was +within her ability to make a much better major than I was--and by ever and +anon selecting some Valley maiden for me to marry. This last became a +veritable infliction, so that I finally assured her I should never +marry--my heart being irrevocably fixed upon a hopelessly +unattainable ideal.</p> + +<p>I desired her to suppose that this referred to some Albany woman, but I +was never skilful in indirection, and I do not believe that she was at +all deceived.</p> + +<p>The time came soon enough when I must say good-by. My carefully packed +bags were carried out and fastened to the saddle. Tall, slender, +high-browed Margaret sadly sewed a new cockade of her own making upon my +hat, and round-faced, red-cheeked Gertrude tied my sash and belt about me +in silence. I kissed them both with more feeling than in all their lives +before I had known for them, and when my mother followed me to the +horse-block, and embraced me again, the tears could not be kept back. +After all, I was her only boy, and it was to war in its deadliest form +that I was going.</p> + +<p>And then the thought came to me--how often in that cruel week it had come +to fathers, husbands, brothers, in this sunny Valley of ours, leaving +homes they should never see again!--that nothing but our right arms could +save these women, my own flesh and blood, from the hatchet and +scalping-knife.</p> + +<p>I swung myself into the saddle sternly at this thought, and gripped the +reins hard and pushed my weight upon the stirrups. By all the gods, I +should not take this ride for nothing!</p> + +<p>"Be of good heart, mother," I said, between my teeth. "We shall drive the +scoundrels back--such as we do not feed to the wolves."</p> + +<p>"Ay! And do you your part!" said this fine old daughter of the men who +through eighty years of warfare broke the back of Spain. "Remember that +you are a Van Hoorn!"</p> + +<p>"I shall not forget."</p> + +<p>"And is that young Philip Cross--<i>her</i> husband--with Johnson's crew?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, he is."</p> + +<p>"Then if he gets back to Canada alive, you are not the man your +grandfather Baltus was!"</p> + +<p>These were her last words, and they rang in my ears long after I had +joined Fonda and Sammons at Caughnawaga, and we had started westward to +overtake the regiment. If I could find this Philip Cross, there was +nothing more fixed in my mind than the resolve to kill him.</p> + +<p>We rode for the most part without conversation along the rough, sun-baked +road, the ruts of which had here and there been trampled into fine dust by +the feet of the soldiers marching before. When we passed houses near the +highway, women and children came to the doors to watch us; other women and +children we could see working in the gardens or among the rows of tall +corn. But save for now and then an aged gaffer, sitting in the sunshine +with his pipe, there were no men. All those who could bear a musket were +gone to meet the invasion. Two years of war in other parts had drained the +Valley of many of its young men, who could not bear peace at home while +there were battles at the North or in the Jerseys, and were serving in +every army which Congress controlled, from Champlain and the Delaware to +Charleston. And now this levy for home defence had swept the farms clean.</p> + +<p>We had late dinner, I remember, at the house of stout old Peter Wormuth, +near the Palatine church. Both he and his son Matthew--a friend of mine +from boyhood, who was to survive Oriskany only to be shot down near Cherry +Valley next year by Joseph Brant--had of course gone forward with the +Palatine militia. The women gave us food and drink, and I recall that +Matthew's young wife, who had been Gertrude Shoemaker and was General +Herkimer's niece, wept bitterly when we left, and we shouted back to her +promises to keep watch over her husband. It is curious to think that when +I next saw this young woman, some years later, she was the wife of Major +John Frey.</p> + +<p>It was a stiff ride on to overtake the stalwart yeomen of our regiment, +which we did not far from a point opposite the upper Canajoharie Castle. +The men had halted here, weary after their long, hot march, and were +sprawling on the grass and in the shade of the bushes. The sun was getting +low on the distant hills of the Little Falls, and there came up a +refreshing stir of air from the river. Some were for encamping here for +the night; others favored going on to the Falls. It annoyed me somewhat to +find that this question was apparently to be left to the men themselves, +Colonel Visscher not seeming able or disposed to decide for himself.</p> + +<p>Across the stream, in the golden August haze, we could see the roofs of +the Mohawks' village--or castle as they called it. Some of the men idly +proposed to go over and stampede or clear out this nest of red vermin, but +the idea was not seriously taken up. Perhaps if it had been, much might +have been changed for the better. Nothing is clearer than that Molly +Brant, who with her bastard brood and other Mohawk women was then living +there, sent up an emissary to warn her brother Joseph of our coming, and +that it was upon this information he acted to such fell purpose. Doubtless +if we had gone over and seized the castle and its inmates then, that +messenger would never have been sent. But we are all wise when we +look backward.</p> + +<hr width="80%" size="1" /> + +<p>By the afternoon of the next day, August 3, the mustering at Fort Dayton +was complete. No one of the thirty-three companies of Tryon County militia +was absent, and though some sent barely a score of men, still no more +were to be expected Such as the little army was, it must suffice. There +were of more or less trained militiamen nearly six hundred. Of artisan +volunteers, of farmers who had no place in the regular company formations, +and of citizens whose anxiety to be present was unfortunately much in +excess of their utility, there were enough to bring the entire total up to +perhaps two-score over eight hundred. Our real and effective fighting +force was about half-way between these two figures--I should say about +seven hundred strong.</p> + +<p>It was the first time that the whole Tryon militia had been gathered +together, and we looked one another over with curiosity. Though called +into common action by a common peril, the nearness of which made the +Mohawk Valley seem a very small place and its people all close neighbors, +the men assembled here represented the partial settlement of a country +larger than any one of several European monarchies.</p> + +<p>As there were all sorts and grades of dress, ranging from the spruce blue +and buff of some of the officers, through the gray homespun and +linsey-woolsey of the farmer privates, to the buckskin of the trappers and +huntsmen, so there were all manner of weapons, all styles of head-gear and +equipment, all fashions of faces. There were Germans of half a dozen +different types, there were Dutch, there were Irish and Scotch +Presbyterians, there were stray French Huguenots, and even Englishmen, and +here and there a Yankee settler from New England. Many there were who +with difficulty understood each other, as when the Scotch Campbells and +Clydes of Cherry Valley, for example, essayed to talk with the +bush-Germans from above Zimmerman's.</p> + +<p>Notable among the chief men of the communities here, so to speak, huddled +together for safety, was old Isaac Paris, the foremost man of Stone +Arabia. He should now be something over sixty years of age, yet had +children at home scarce out of the cradle, and was so hale and strong in +bearing that he seemed no less fit for battle and hardship than his +strapping son Peter, who was not yet eighteen. These two laid their lives +down together within this dread week of which I write. I shall never +forget how fine and resolute a man the old colonel looked, with his good +clothes of citizen make, as became a member of the State Senate and one of +the Committee of Safety, yet with as martial a bearing as any. He was a +Frenchman from Strasbourg, but spoke like a German; no man of us all +looked forward to fighting with greater appetite, though he had been +always a quiet merchant and God-fearing, peaceful burgher.</p> + +<p>Colonel Ebenezer Cox, a somewhat arrogant and solitary man for whom I had +small liking, now commanded the Canajoharie regiment in place of Herkimer +the Brigadier-General; there were at the head of the other regiments stout +Colonel Peter Bellinger, the capable and determined Colonel Jacob Klock, +and our own Colonel Frederick Visscher. Almost all of the Committee of +Safety were here--most of them being also officers in the militia; but +others, like Paris, John Dygert, Samson Sammons, Jacob Snell, and Samuel +Billington, coming merely as lookers-on. In short, no well-known Whig of +the Valley seemed absent as we looked the gathering over, and scarcely a +familiar family name was lacking on our lists, which it was now my +business to check off.</p> + +<p>Whole households of strong men marched together. There were nine Snells, +all relatives, in the patriot ranks; so far as I can remember, there were +five Bellingers, five Seebers, five Wagners, and five Wollovers--and it +may well be five of more than one other family.</p> + +<p>The men of the different settlements formed groups by themselves at the +first, and arranged their own separate camping-places for the night. But +soon, as was but natural, they discovered acquaintances from other parts, +and began to mingle, sitting in knots or strolling about the outer +palisades or on the clearing beyond. The older men who had borne a part in +the French war told stories of that time, which, indeed, had now a new, +deep interest for us, not only in that we were to face an invading force +greater and more to be dreaded than was Bellêtre's, but because we were +encamped on historic ground.</p> + +<p>From the gentle knoll upon which the block-house and stockade of Fort +Dayton were now reared we could see the site of that first little Palatine +settlement that had then been wiped so rudely from the face of the earth; +and our men revived memories of that dreadful night, and talked of them in +a low voice as the daylight faded.</p> + +<p>The scene affected me most gravely. I looked at the forest-clad range of +northern hills over which the French and Indian horde stole in the night, +and tried to picture their stealthy approach in my mind. Below us, flowing +tranquilly past the willow-hedged farms of the German Flatts settlers, lay +the Mohawk. The white rippling overcast on the water marked the shallow +ford through which the panic-stricken refugees crowded in affright in the +wintry darkness, and where, in the crush, that poor forgotten woman, the +widow of an hour, was trampled under foot, swept away by the +current, drowned!</p> + +<p>How miraculous it seemed that her baby girl should have been saved, should +have been brought to Mr. Stewart's door, and placed in the very sanctuary +of my life, by the wilful freak of a little English boy! And how +marvellous that this self-same boy, her husband now, should be among the +captains of a new and more sinister invasion of our Valley, and that I +should be in arms with my neighbors to stay his progress! Truly here was +food enough for thought.</p> + +<p>But there was little time for musing. After supper, when most of the rest +were free to please themselves, to gossip, to set night-lines in the river +against breakfast, or to carve rough initials on their powder-horns in +emulation of the art-work displayed by the ingenious Petrie boys, I was +called to the council held by General Herkimer in one of the rooms of the +fort. There were present some of those already mentioned, and I think that +Colonel Wesson, the Massachusetts officer whose troops garrisoned the +place, was from courtesy also invited to take part, though if he was +there he said nothing. Thomas Spencer, the Seneca half-breed blacksmith, +who had throughout been our best friend, had come down, and with him was +Skenandoah, the war-chief of the Oneidas, whom Dominie Kirkland had kept +in our interest.</p> + +<p>The thing most talked of, I remember, was the help that these Oneidas +could render us. General Schuyler had all along shrunk from the use of +savages on the Continental side, and hence had required only friendly +neutrality of the Oneidas, whose chief villages lay between us and the +foe. But these Indians now saw clearly, that, if the invasion succeeded, +they would be exterminated not a whit the less ruthlessly by their +Iroquois brothers because they had held aloof. In the grim code of the +savage, as in the softened law of the Christian, those who were not for +him were against him. So the noble old Oneida war-chief had come to us to +say that his people, standing as it were between the devil and the deep +sea, preferred to at least die like men, fighting for their lives. +Skenandoah was reputed even then to be seventy years of age, but he had +the square shoulders, full, corded neck, and sharp glance of a man of +forty. Only last year he died, at a great age--said to be one hundred and +ten years--and was buried on Clinton Hill beside his good friend Kirkland, +whom for half a century he had loved so well.</p> + +<p>There were no two opinions in the council: let the Oneidas join us with +their war-party, by all means.</p> + +<p>After this had been agreed upon, other matters came up--the quantity of +stores we should take, the precedence of the regiments, the selection of +the men to be sent ahead to apprise Gansevoort of our approach. But these +do not concern the story.</p> + +<p>It was after this little gathering had broken up, and the candles been +blown out, that General Herkimer put his hand on my shoulder and said, in +his quaint German dialect:</p> + +<p>"Come, walk with me outside the fort."</p> + +<p>We went together across the parade in the growing dusk. Most of those whom +we passed recognized my companion, and greeted him--more often, I am bound +to say, with "Guten Abend, Honikol!" than with the salute due to his rank. +There was, indeed, very little notion of discipline in this rough, simple +militia gathering.</p> + +<p>We walked outside the ditch to a grassy clearing toward the Flatts where +we could pace back and forth without listeners, and yet could see the +sentries posted at the corners of the forest enclosure. Then the honest +old Brigadier laid open his heart to me.</p> + +<p>"I wish to God we were well out of this all," he said, almost gloomily.</p> + +<p>I was taken aback at this. Dejection was last to be looked for in this +brave, stout-hearted old frontier fighter. I asked, "What is wrong?" +feeling that surely there must be some cause for despondency I knew +not of.</p> + +<p>"<i>I</i> am wrong," he said, simply.</p> + +<p>"I do not understand you, Brigadier."</p> + +<p>"Say rather that <i>they</i>, who ought to know me better, do not understand +me."</p> + +<p>"They? Whom do you mean?"</p> + +<p>"All these men about us--Isaac Paris, Ebenezer Cox the colonel of my own +regiment, Fritz Visscher, and many more. I can see it--they suspect me. +Nothing could be worse than that."</p> + +<p>"Suspect <i>you</i>, Brigadier! It is pure fancy! You are dreaming!"</p> + +<p>"No, I am very much awake, young man. You have not heard them--I have! It +has been as much as flung in my face to-day that my brother Hon-Yost is a +colonel with Johnson--up yonder."</p> + +<p>The little man pointed westward with his hand to where the last red lights +of day were paling over the black line of trees.</p> + +<p>"He is with them," he said, bitterly, "and I am blamed for it. Then, too, +my brother Hendrick hides himself away in Stone Arabia, and is not of us, +and his son <i>is</i> with the Tories--up yonder."</p> + +<p>"But your brother George is here with us, as true a man as will march +to-morrow."</p> + +<p>"Then I have a sister married to Dominie Rosencranz, and he is a Tory; and +another married to Hendrick Frey, and <i>he</i> is a Tory, too. All this is +thrown in my teeth. I do not pass two men with their heads together but I +feel they are talking of this."</p> + +<p>"Why should they? You have two other brothers-in-law here in camp--Peter +Bellinger and George Bell. You imagine a vain thing, Brigadier. Believe +me, I have seen or heard no hint of this." + +"You would not. You are an officer of the line--the only one here. +Besides, you are Schuyler's man. They would not talk before you."</p> + +<p>"But I am Valley born, Valley bred, as much as any of you. Wherein am I +different from the others? Why should they keep me in the dark? They are +all my friends, just as--if you would only believe it--they are yours +as well."</p> + +<p>"Young man," said the General, in a low, impressive voice, and filling and +lighting his pipe as he slowly spoke, "if you come back alive, and if you +get to be of my age, you will know some things that you don't know now. +Danger makes men brave; it likewise makes them selfish and jealous. We are +going out together, all of us, to try what, with God's help, we can do. +Behind us, down the river, are our wives or our sweethearts; some of you +leave children, others leave mothers and sisters. We are going forward to +save them from death or worse than death, and to risk our lives for them +and for our homes. Yet, I tell you candidly, there are men here--back here +in this fort--who would almost rather see us fail, than see me win my rank +in the State line."</p> + +<p>"I cannot credit that."</p> + +<p>"Then--why else should they profess to doubt me? Why should they bring up +my brothers' names to taunt me with their treason?"</p> + +<p>Alas! I could not tell. We walked up and down, I remember, until long +after darkness fell full upon us, and the stars were all aglow--I trying +my best to dissuade the honest Brigadier from his gloomy conviction.</p> + +<p>To be frank, although he doubtless greatly exaggerated the feeling +existing against him, it to a degree did exist.</p> + +<p>The reasons for it are not difficult of comprehension. There were not a +few officers in our force who were better educated than bluff, unlettered +old Honikol Herkimer, and who had seen something of the world outside our +Valley. It nettled their pride to be under a plain little German, who +spoke English badly, and could not even spell his own name twice alike. +There were at work under the surface, too, old trade and race jealousies, +none the less strong because those upon whom they acted scarcely realized +their presence. The Herkimers were the great family on the river from the +Little Falls westward, and there were ancient rivalries, unexpressed but +still potent, between them and families down the Valley. Thus, when some +of the Herkimers and their connections--a majority, for that +matter--either openly joined the enemy or held coldly apart from us, it +was easy for these jealous promptings to take the form of doubt and +suspicions as to the whole-hearted loyalty of the Brigadier himself. Once +begun, these cruelly unjust suspicions rankled in men's minds and spread.</p> + +<p>All this I should not mention were it not the key to the horrible tragedy +which followed. It is this alone which explains how a trained Indian +fighter, a veteran frontiersman like Herkimer, was spurred and stung into +rushing headlong upon the death-trap, as if he had been any ignorant and +wooden-headed Braddock.</p> + +<p>We started on the march westward next day, the 4th, friendly Indians +bringing us news that the van of the enemy had appeared on the evening of +the 2d before Fort Stanwix, and had already begun an investment. We forded +the river at Fort Schuyler, just below where Utica now stands, and pushed +slowly forward through the forest, over the rude and narrow road, to the +Oneida village of Oriska, something to the east of the large creek which +bears the name Oriskany.</p> + +<p>Here we halted a second time, encamping at our leisure, and despatching, +on the evening of the 5th, Adam Helmer and two other scouts to penetrate +to the fort and arrange a sortie by the garrison, simultaneous with +our attack.</p> + + + + +<h2><a name="32"></a>Chapter XXXII</h2> + +<h3>"The Blood Be on Your Heads."</h3> + + + +<p>A bright, hot sun shone upon us the next morning--the +never-to-be-forgotten 6th. There would have been small need for any waking +rattle of the drums; the sultry heat made all willing to rise from the +hard, dry ground, where sleep had been difficult enough even in the cooler +darkness. At six o'clock the camp, such as it was, was all astir.</p> + +<p>Breakfast was eaten in little groups squatted about in the clearing, or in +the shade of the trees at its edges, members of families or close +neighbors clustering together in parties once more, to share victuals +prepared by the same housewives--it may be from the same oven or spit. It +might well happen that for many of us this was the last meal on earth, for +we were within hearing of the heavy guns of the fort, and when three of +these should be fired in succession we were to take up our final +six-miles' march. But this reflection made no one sad, apparently. +Everywhere you could hear merry converse and sounds of laughter. +Listening, no one would have dreamed that this body of men stood upon the +threshold of so grave an adventure.</p> + +<p>I had been up earlier than most of the others, and had gone over to the +spot where the horses were tethered. Of these animals there were some +dozen, all told, and their appearance showed that they had had a bad night +of it with the flies. After I had seen them led to water and safely +brought back, and had watched that in the distribution of the scanty store +of oats my steed had his proper share, I came back to breakfast with the +Stone Arabia men, among whom I had many acquaintances. I contributed some +sausages and slices of bread and meat, I remember, to the general stock of +food, which was spread out upon one of Isaac Paris's blankets. We ate with +a light heart, half-lying on the parched grass around the extemporized +cloth. Some of the young farmers, their meal already finished, were up on +their feet, scuffling and wrestling in jest and high spirits. They laughed +so heartily from time to time that Mr. Paris would call out: "Less noise +there, you, or we shall not hear the cannon from the fort!"</p> + +<p>No one would have thought that this was the morning before a battle.</p> + +<p>Eight o'clock arrived, and still there had been no signal. All +preparations had long since been made. The saddle-horses of the officers +were ready under the shade, their girths properly tightened. Blankets had +been rolled up and strapped, haversacks and bags properly repacked, a last +look taken to flints and priming. The supply-wagon stood behind where the +General's tent had been, all laden for the start, and with the horses +harnessed to the pole. Still no signal came!</p> + +<p>The men began to grow uneasy with the waiting. It had been against the +prevalent feeling of impatience that we halted here the preceding day, +instead of hastening forward to strike the blow. Now every minute's +inaction increased this spirit of restlessness. The militiamen's +faces--already saturnine enough, what with broken rest and three days' +stubble of beard--were clouding over with dislike for the delay.</p> + +<p>The sauntering to and fro began to assume a general trend toward the +headquarters of the Brigadier. I had visited this spot once or twice +before during the early morning to offer suggestions or receive commands. +I went again now, having it in mind to report to the General the evident +impatience of the men. A doubt was growing with me, too, whether we were +not too far away to be sure of hearing the guns from the fort--quite six +miles distant.</p> + +<p>The privacy of the commander was indifferently secured by the posting of +sentries, who guarded a square perhaps forty feet each way. In the centre +of this enclosure was a clump of high bushes, with one or two young trees, +bunched upon the bank of a tiny rivulet now almost dried up. Here, during +the night, the General's small army-tent had been pitched, and here now, +after the tent had been packed on the wagon, he sat, on the only chair in +camp, under the shadow of the bushes, within full view of his soldiers. +These were by this time gathered three or four deep around the three front +sides of the square, and were gradually pushing the sentries in. Five or +six officers stood about the General, talking earnestly with him and with +one another, and the growing crowd outside the square were visibly anxious +to hear what was going on.</p> + +<p>I have said before, I think, that I was the only officer of the +Continental line in the whole party. This fact, and some trifling +differences between my uniform and that of the militia colonels and +majors, had attracted notice, not wholly of an admiring sort. I had had +the misfortune, moreover, to learn in camp before Quebec to shave every +day, as regularly as if at home, with the result that I was probably the +only man in the clearing that morning who wore a clean face. This served +further to make me a marked man among such of the farmer boys as knew me +only by sight. As I pushed my way through the throng to get inside the +square, I heard various comments by strangers from Canajoharie or Cherry +Valley way.</p> + +<p>"There goes Schuyler's Dutchman," said one. "He has brought his <i>friseur</i> +with him."</p> + +<p>"It would have been more to the point if he had brought some soldiers. +Albany would see us hang before she would help us," growled another.</p> + +<p>"Make way for Mynheer," said a rough joker in the crowd, half-laughing, +half-scowling. "What they need inside yonder is some more Dutch prudence. +When they have heard him they will vote to go into winter quarters and +fight next spring!"</p> + +<p>All this was disagreeable enough, but it was wisest to pretend not to +hear, and I went forward to the groups around the Brigadier.</p> + +<p>The question under debate was, of course, whether we should wait longer +for the signal; or, rather, whether it had not been already fired, and the +sound failed to reach us on the sultry, heavy air. There were two opinions +upon this, and for a time the difference was discussed in amiability, if +with some heat. The General felt positive that if the shots had been fired +we must have heard them.</p> + +<p>I seem to see him now, the brave old man, as he sat there on the rough +stool, imperturbably smoking, and maintaining his own against the +dissenting officers. Even after some of them grew vexed, and declared that +either the signal had been fired or the express had been captured, and +that in either case it would be worse than folly to longer remain here, he +held his temper. Perhaps his keen black eyes sparkled the brighter, but he +kept his tongue calm, and quietly reiterated his arguments. The +beleaguering force outside the fort, he said, must outnumber ours two to +one. They had artillery, and they had regular German troops, the best in +Europe, not to mention many hundreds of Indians, all well armed and +munitioned. It would be next to impossible to surprise an army thus +supplied with scouts; it would be practically hopeless to attack them, +unless we were backed up by a simultaneous sortie in force from the fort. +In that, the Brigadier insisted, lay our only chance of success.</p> + +<p>"But I say the sortie <i>will</i> be made! They are waiting for us--only we are +too far off to hear their signal!" cried one of the impatient colonels.</p> + +<p>"If the wind was in the east," said the Brigadier, "that might be the +case. But in breathless air like this I have heard the guns from that +fort two miles farther back."</p> + +<p>"Our messengers may not have got through the lines last night," put in +Thomas Spencer, the half-breed. "The swamp back of the fort is difficult +travelling, even to one who knows it better than Helmer does, and Butler's +Indians are not children, to see only straight ahead of their noses."</p> + +<p>"Would it not be wise for Spencer here, and some of our young trappers, or +some of Skenandoah's Indians, to go forward and spy out the land for us?" +I asked.</p> + +<p>"These would do little good now," answered Herkimer; "the chief thing is +to know when Gansevoort is ready to come out and help us."</p> + +<p>"The chief thing to know, by God," broke forth one of the colonels, with a +great oath, "is whether we have a patriot or a Tory at our head!"</p> + +<p>Herkimer's tanned and swarthy face changed color at this taunt. He stole a +swift glance at me, as if to say, "This is what I warned you was to be +looked for," and smoked his pipe for a minute in silence.</p> + +<p>His brother-in-law, Colonel Peter Bellinger, took the insult less tamely.</p> + +<p>"The man who says Honikol Herkimer is a Tory lies," he said, bluntly, with +his hand on his sword-hilt, and honest wrath in his gray eyes.</p> + +<p>"Peace, Peter," said the Brigadier. "Let them think what they like. It is +not my affair. My business is to guard the lives of these young men here, +as if I were their father. I am a childless man, yet here I am as the +parent of all of them. I could not go back again and look their mothers +in the eye if I had led them into trouble which could be avoided."</p> + +<p>"We are not here to avoid trouble, but rather to seek it," shouted Colonel +Cox, angrily.</p> + +<p>He spoke loud enough to be heard by the throng beyond, which now numbered +four-fifths of our whole force, and there rolled back to us from them a +loud answering murmur of approval. At the sound of this, others came +running up to learn what was going on; and the line, hitherto with +difficulty kept back by the sentries, was broken in in more than one +place. Matters looked bad for discipline, or wise action of any sort.</p> + +<p>"A man does not show his bravery by running his head at a stone wall," +said the Brigadier, still striving to keep his temper, but rising to his +feet as he spoke.</p> + +<p>"<i>Will</i> you give the order to go on?" demanded Cox, in a fierce tone, +pitched even higher.</p> + +<p>"Lead us on!" came loud shouts from many places in the crowd. There was a +general pushing in of the line now, and some men at the back, +misinterpreting this, began waving their hats and cheering.</p> + +<p>"Give us the word, Honikol!" they yelled.</p> + +<p>Still Herkimer stood his ground, though with rising color.</p> + +<p>"What for a soldier are you," he called out, sharply, "to make mutiny like +this? Know you not your duty better?"</p> + +<p>"Our duty is to fight, not to sit around here in idleness. At least <i>we</i> +are not cowards," broke in another, who had supported Cox from the outset.</p> + +<p>"<i>You</i>!" cried Herkimer, all roused at last. "<i>You</i> will be the first to +run when you see the British!"</p> + +<p>There was no longer any pretence of keeping the square. The excited +farmers pressed closely about us now, and the clamor was rising +momentarily. All thought of order or military grade was gone. Men who had +no rank whatever thrust their loud voices into the council, so that we +could hear nothing clearly.</p> + +<p>There was a brief interchange of further hot words between the Brigadier, +Colonel Bellinger, and John Frey on the one side, and the mutinous +colonels and men on the other. I heard the bitter epithets of "Tory" and +"coward" hurled at the old man, who stood with chin defiant in air, and +dark eyes ablaze, facing his antagonists. The scene was so shameful that I +could scarce bear to look upon it.</p> + +<p>There came a hurly-burly of confusion and tumult as the shouts of the +crowd grew more vehement, and one of the refractory colonels impetuously +drew his sword and half turned as if to give the command himself.</p> + +<p>Then I heard Herkimer, too incensed to longer control himself, cry: "If +you will have it so, the blood be on your heads." He sprang upon the stool +at this, waved his sword, and shouted so that all the eight hundred +could hear:</p> + +<p>"VORWÄRTS!"</p> + +<p>The tall pines themselves shook with the cheer which the yeomen raised.</p> + +<p>There was a scramble on the instant for muskets, bags, and belongings. To +rush was the order. We under-officers caught the infection, and with no +dignity at all hurried across the clearing to our horses. We cantered back +in a troop, Barent Coppernol leading the Brigadier's white mare at a +hand-gallop by our side. Still trembling with excitement, yet perhaps +somewhat reconciled to the adventure by the exultant spirit of the scene +before him, General Herkimer got into the saddle, and watched closely the +efforts of the colonels, now once more all gratified enthusiasm, to bring +their eager men into form. It had been arranged that Cox with his +Canajoharie regiment should have the right of the line, and this body was +ready and under way in less time, it seemed, than I have taken to write of +it. The General saw the other three regiments trooped, told Visscher to +bring the supply-wagon with the rear, and then, with Isaac Paris, Jelles +Fonda, and myself, galloped to the head of the column, where Spencer and +Skenandoah with the Oneida Indians were.</p> + +<p>So marching swiftly, and without scouts, we started forth at about nine in +the morning.</p> + +<p>The road over which we hurried was as bad, even in those hot, dry days of +August, as any still to be found in the Adirondacks. The bottom-lands of +the Mohawk Valley, as is well known, are of the best farming soil in the +world, but for that very reason they make bad roads. The highway leading +to the fort lay for the most part over low and springy land, and was cut +through the thick beech and hemlock forest almost in a straight line, +regardless of swales and marshy places. These had been in some instances +bridged indifferently by corduroys of logs, laid the previous spring when +Gansevoort dragged up his cannon for the defence of the fort, and by this +time too often loose and out of place. We on horseback found these rough +spots even more trying than did the footmen; but for all of us progress +was slow enough, after the first excitement of the start had passed away.</p> + +<p>There was no outlook at any point. We were hedged in everywhere by walls +of foliage, of mossy tree-trunks covered with vines, of tangled +undergrowth and brush. When we had gained a hill-top, nothing more was to +be seen than the dark-brown band of logs on the gully bottom before us, +and the dim line of road losing itself in a mass of green beyond.</p> + +<p>Neither Herkimer nor Paris had much to say, as we rode on in the van. +Major Fonda made sundry efforts to engage them in talk, as if there had +been no recent dispute, no harsh words, no angry recriminations, but +without special success. For my part, I said nothing whatever. Surely +there was enough to think of, both as to the miserable insubordination of +an hour back, and as to what the next hour might bring.</p> + +<p>We had passed over about the worst of these patches of corduroy road, in +the bottom of a ravine between two hills, where a little brook, dammed in +part by the logs, spread itself out over the swampy soil on both sides. We +in the van had nearly gained the summit of the farther eminence, and were +resting for the moment to see how Visscher should manage with his wagon +in the rear. Colonel Cox had also turned in his saddle, some ten yards +farther down the hill, and was calling back angrily to his men to keep in +the centre of the logs and not tip them up by walking on the ends.</p> + +<p>While I looked Barent Coppernol called out to me: "Do you remember? This +is where we camped five years ago."</p> + +<p>Before I could answer I heard a rifle report, and saw Colonel Cox fall +headlong upon the neck of his horse.</p> + +<p>There was a momentary glimpse of dark forms running back, a strange yell, +a shot or two--and then the gates of hell opened upon us.</p> + + + + +<h2><a name="33"></a>Chapter XXXIII</h2> + +<h3>The Fearsome Death-Struggle in the Forest.</h3> + + + +<p>Were I Homer and Shakespeare and Milton, merged all in one, I should still +not know how fitly to depict the terrible scene which followed.</p> + +<p>I had seen poor headstrong, wilful Cox pitch forward upon the mane of his +horse, as if all at once his spine had been turned, into limp string; I +saw now a ring of fire run out in spitting tongues of flame around the +gulf, and a circle of thin whitish smoke slowly raise itself through the +dark leaves of the girdling bushes. It was an appalling second of mental +numbness during which I looked at this strange sight, and seemed not at +all to comprehend it.</p> + +<p>Then Herkimer cried out, shrilly: "My God! here it is!" and, whirling his +mare about, dashed down the hill-side again. I followed him, keeping ahead +of Paris, and pushing my horse forward through the aimlessly swarming +footmen of our van with a fierce, unintelligent excitement.</p> + +<p>The air was filled now with shouts--what they were I did not know. The +solid body of our troops on the corduroy bridge were huddling together +like sheep in a storm. From the outer edges of this mass men were sinking +to the ground. The tipping, rolling logs tossed these bodies on their ends +off into the water, or under the feet of the others. Cox's horse had +jumped sidelong into the marsh, and now, its hind-quarters sinking in the +mire, plunged wildly, flinging the inert body still fastened in the +stirrups from side to side. Some of our men were firing their guns at +random into the underbrush.</p> + +<p>All this I saw in the swift gallop down the hill to rejoin the Brigadier.</p> + +<p>As I jerked up my horse beside him, a blood-curdling chorus of strange +barking screams, as from the throats of maniac women, rose at the farther +side of the ravine, drowning the shouts of our men, the ping-g-g of the +whistling bullets, and even the sharp crack of the muskets. It was the +Indian war-whoop! A swarm of savages were leaping from the bush in all +directions, and falling upon our men as they stood jammed together on the +causeway. It was a horrible spectacle--of naked, yelling devils, daubed +with vermilion and ghastly yellow, rushing with uplifted hatchets and +flashing knives upon this huddled mass of white men, our friends and +neighbors. These, after the first bewildering shock, made what defence +they could, shooting right and left, and beating down their assailants +with terrific smashing blows from their gun-stocks. But the throng on the +sliding logs made them almost powerless, and into their jumbled ranks kept +pouring the pitiless rain of bullets from the bush.</p> + +<p>By God's providence there were cooler brains and wiser heads than mine, +here in the ravine, to face and grapple with this awful crisis.</p> + +<p>Old Herkimer seemed before my very eyes to wax bigger and stronger and +calmer in the saddle, as this pandemonium unfolded in front of us. His +orders I forget now--or what part I played at first in carrying them +out--but they were given swiftly and with cool comprehension of all our +needs. I should think that within five minutes from the first shot of the +attack, our forces--or what was left of them--had been drawn out of the +cruel helplessness of their position in the centre of the swamp. This +could never have been done had not Honikol Herkimer kept perfectly his +self-control and balance, like an eagle in a tempest.</p> + +<p>Visscher's regiment, in the rear, had not got fairly into the gulf, owing +to the delay in dragging the wagon along, when the ambushed Indians fired +their first volley; and he and his men, finding themselves outside the +fiery circle, promptly ran away. They were followed by many of the +Indians, which weakened the attacking force on the eastern side of the +ravine. Peter Bellinger, therefore, was able to push his way back again +from the beginning of the corduroy bridge into the woods on both sides of +the road beyond, where cover was to be had. It was a noble sight to see +the stalwart Palatine farmers of his regiment--these Petries, Weavers, +Helmers, and Dygerts of the German Flatts--fight their path backward +through the hail of lead, crushing Mohawk skulls as though they had been +egg-shells with the mighty flail-like swing of their clubbed muskets, and +returning fire only to kill every time. The bulk of Cox's Canajoharie +regiment and of Klock's Stone Arabia yeomen were pulled forward to the +rising ground on the west side, and spread themselves out in the timber +as well as they could, north and south of the road.</p> + +<p>While these wise measures were being ordered, we three horsemen had, +strangely enough, been out of the range of fire; but now, as we turned to +ride back, a sudden shower of bullets came whizzing past us. My horse was +struck in the head, and began staggering forward blindly. I leaped from +his back as he toppled, only to come in violent collision with General +Herkimer, whose white mare, fatally wounded, had toppled toward me. The +Brigadier helped extricate himself from the saddle, and started with the +rest of us to run up the hill for cover, but stumbled and stopped after a +step or two. The bone of his right leg had been shattered by the ball +which killed his steed, and his high boot was already welling with blood.</p> + +<p>It was in my arms, never put to better purpose, that the honest old man +was carried up the side-hill. Here, under a low-branched beech some two +rods from the road, Dr. William Petrie stripped off the boot, and +bandaged, as best he could, the wounded leg. The spot was not well +sheltered, but here the Brigadier, a little pale, yet still calm and +resolute, said he would sit and see the battle out. Several young men, at +a hint from the doctor, ran down through the sweeping fire to the edge of +the morass, unfastened the big saddle from his dead mare, and safely +brought it to us. On this the brave old German took his seat, with the +maimed leg stretched out on some boughs hastily gathered, and coolly +lighting his pipe, proceeded to look about him.</p> + +<p>"Can we not find a safer place for you farther back, Brigadier?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"No; here I will sit," he answered, stoutly. "The men can see me here; I +will face the enemy till I die."</p> + +<p>All this time the rattle of musketry, the screech of flying bullets, the +hoarse din and clamor of forest warfare, had never for an instant abated. +Looking down upon the open space of the gully's bottom, we could see more +than two-score corpses piled upon the logs of the road, or upon little +mounds of black soil which showed above the level of the slough, +half-hidden by the willows and tall, rank tufts of swamp-grass. Save for +the dead, this natural clearing was well-nigh deserted. Captain Jacob +Seeber was in sight, upon a hillock below us to the north, with a score of +his Canajoharie company in a circle, firing outward at the enemy. Across +the ravine Captain Jacob Gardenier, a gigantic farmer, armed with a +captured Indian spear, had cut loose with his men from Visscher's retreat, +and had fought his way back to help us. Farther to the south, some of the +Cherry Valley men had got trees, and were holding the Indians at bay.</p> + +<p>The hot August sun poured its fiercest rays down upon the heaps of dead +and wounded in this forest cockpit, and turned into golden haze the mist +of smoke encircling it. Through this pale veil we saw, from time to time, +forms struggling in the dusk of the thicket beyond. Behind each tree-trunk +was the stage whereon a life-drama was being played, with a sickening and +tragic sameness in them all. The yeoman from his cover would fire; if he +missed, forth upon him would dart the savage, raised hatchet gleaming--and +there would be a widow the more in some one of our Valley homes.</p> + +<p>"Put two men behind each tree," ordered keen-eyed Herkimer. "Then, when +one fires, the other's gun will be loaded for the Indian on his running +forward." After this command had been followed, the battle went better +for us.</p> + +<p>There was a hideous fascination in this spectacle stretched before us. An +hour ago it had been so softly peaceful, with the little brook picking its +clean way in the sunlight through the morass, and the kingfisher flitting +among the willows, and the bees' drone laying like a spell of indolence +upon the heated air. Now the swale was choked with corpses! The rivulet +ran red with blood, and sluggishly spread its current around barriers of +dead men. Bullets whistled across the gulf, cutting off boughs of trees as +with a knife, and scattering tufts of leaves like feathers from a hawk +stricken in its flight. The heavy air grew thick with smoke, dashed by +swift streaks of dancing flame. The demon-like screams of the savages, the +shouts and moans and curses of our own men, made hearing horrible. +Yes--horrible is the right word!</p> + +<p>A frightened owl, I remember, was routed by the tumult from its sleepy +perch, and flew slowly over the open space of the ravine. So curious a +compound is man!--we watched the great brown-winged creature flap its +purblind way across from wood to wood, and speculated there, as we stood +in the jaws of death, if some random ball would hit it!</p> + +<p>I am writing of all this as if I did nothing but look about me while +others fought. Of course that could not have been the case. I recall now +these fragmentary impressions of the scene around me with a distinctness +and with a plenitude of minutiæ which surprise me, the more that I +remember little enough of what I myself did. But when a man is in a fight +for his life there are no details. He is either to come out of it or he +isn't, and that is about all he thinks of.</p> + +<p>I have put down nothing about what was now the most serious part of the +struggle--the combat with the German mercenaries and Tory volunteers on +the high ground beyond the ravine. I conceive it to have been the plan of +the enemy to let the Indians lie hidden round about the gulf until our +rear-guard had entered it. Then they were to disclose their ambuscade, +sweeping the corduroy bridge with fire, while the Germans and Tories, +meeting our van up on the crown of the hill beyond, were to attack and +drive it back upon our flank in the gulf bottom, when we should have been +wholly at the mercy of the encircling fusilade from the hills. Fortunately +St. Leger had given the Indians a quart of rum apiece before they started; +this was our salvation. The savages were too excited to wait, and closed +too soon the fiery ring which was to destroy us all. This premature action +cut off our rear, but it also prevented our van reaching the point where +the white foe lay watching for us. Thus we were able to form upon our +centre, after the first awful shock was over, and to then force our way +backward or forward to some sort of cover before the Germans and Tories +came upon us.</p> + +<p>The fighting in which I bore a part was at the farthest western point, +where the remnants of four or five companies, half buried in the gloom of +the impenetrable wood, on a line stretching along the whole crest of the +hill, held these troops at bay. We lay or crouched behind leafy coverts, +crawling from place to place as our range was reached by the enemy, +shooting from the shield of tree-trunks or of tangled clumps of small +firs, or, best of all, of fallen and prostrate logs.</p> + +<p>Often, when one of us, creeping cautiously forward, gained a spot which +promised better shelter, it was to find it already tenanted by a corpse, +perhaps of a near and dear friend. It was thus that I came upon the body +of Major John Eisenlord, and later upon what was left of poor Barent +Coppernol, lying half-hidden among the running hemlock, scalpless and +cold. It was from one of these recesses, too, that I saw stout old Isaac +Paris shot down, and then dragged away a prisoner by the Tories, to be +handed over to the hatchets of their Indian friends a few days hence.</p> + +<p>Fancy three hours of this horrible forest warfare, in which every minute +bore a whole lifetime's strain and burden of peril!</p> + +<p>We knew not then how time passed, and could but dimly guess how things +were going beyond the brambled copse in which we fought. Vague +intimations reached our ears, as the sounds of battle now receded, now +drew near, that the issue of the day still hung in suspense. The war-yells +of the Indians to the rear were heard less often now. The conflict seemed +to be spreading out over a greater area, to judge from the faintness of +some of the rifle reports which came to us. But we could not tell which +side was giving way, nor was there much time to think of this: all our +vigilance and attention were needed from moment to moment to keep +ourselves alive.</p> + +<p>All at once, with a terrific swoop, there burst upon the forest a great +storm, with loud-rolling thunder and a drenching downfall of rain. We had +been too grimly engrossed in the affairs of the earth to note the +darkening sky. The tempest broke upon us unawares. The wind fairly roared +through the branches high above us; blinding flashes of lightning blazed +in the shadows of the wood. Huge boughs were wrenched bodily off by the +blast. Streaks of flame ran zigzag down the sides of the tall, straight +hemlocks. The forest fairly rocked under the convulsion of the elements.</p> + +<p>We wrapped our neckcloths or kerchiefs about our gunlocks, and crouched +under shelter from the pelting sheets of water as well as might be. As for +the fight, it ceased utterly.</p> + +<p>While we lay thus quiescent in the rain, I heard a low, distant report +from the west, which seemed distinct among the growlings of the thunder; +there followed another, and a third. It was the belated signal from +the fort!</p> + +<p>I made my way back to the hill-side as best I could, under the dripping +brambles, over the drenched and slippery ground vines, upon the chance +that the Brigadier had not heard the reports.</p> + +<p>The commander still sat on his saddle under the beech-tree where I had +left him. Some watch-coats had been stretched over the lowest branches +above him, forming a tolerable shelter. His honest brown face seemed to +have grown wan and aged during the day. He protested that he had little or +no pain from his wound, but the repressed lines about his lips belied +their assurance. He smiled with gentle irony when I told him of what I had +heard, and how I had hastened to apprise him of it.</p> + +<p>"I must indeed be getting old," he said to his brother George. "The young +men think I can no longer hear cannon when they are fired off."</p> + +<p>The half-dozen officers who squatted or stood about under the tree, +avoiding the streams which fell from the holes in the improvised roof, +told me a terrible story of the day's slaughter. Of our eight hundred, +nearly half were killed. Visscher's regiment had been chased northward +toward the river, whither the fighting from the ravine had also in large +part drifted. How the combat was going down there, it was difficult to +say. There were dead men behind every tree, it seemed. Commands were so +broken up, and troops so scattered by the stern exigencies of forest +fighting, that it could not be known who was living and who was dead.</p> + +<p>What made all this doubly tragic in my ears was that these officers, who +recounted to me our losses, had to name their own kinsmen among the slain. +Beneath the general grief and dismay in the presence of this great +catastrophe were the cruel gnawings of personal anguish.</p> + +<p>"My son Robert lies out there, just beyond the tamarack," said Colonel +Samuel Campbell to me, in a hoarse whisper.</p> + +<p>"My brother Stufel killed two Mohawks before he died; he is on the knoll +there with most of his men," said Captain Fox.</p> + +<p>Major William Seeber, himself wounded beyond help, said gravely: "God only +knows whether my boy Jacob lives or not; but Audolph is gone, and my +brother Saffreness and his son James." The old merchant said this with dry +eyes, but with the bitterness of a broken heart.</p> + +<p>I told them of the shooting and capture of Paris and the death of +Eisenlord. My news created no impression, apparently. Our minds were +saturated with horror. Of the nine Snells who came with us, seven were +said to be dead already.</p> + +<p>The storm stopped as abruptly as it had come upon us. Of a sudden it grew +lighter, and the rain dwindled to a fine mist. Great luminous masses of +white appeared in the sky, pushing aside the leaden clouds. Then all at +once the sun was shining.</p> + +<p>On that instant shots rang out here and there through the forest. The +fight began again.</p> + +<p>The two hours which followed seem to me now but the indistinct space of a +few minutes. Our men had seized upon the leisure of the lull to eat what +food was at hand in their pockets, and felt now refreshed in strength. +They had had time, too, to learn something of the awful debt of vengeance +they owed the enemy. A sombre rage possessed them, and gave to their +hearts a giant's daring. Heroes before, they became Titans now.</p> + +<p>The vapors steaming up in the sunlight from the wet earth seemed to bear +the scent of blood. The odor affected our senses. We ran forth in parties +now, disdaining cover. Some fell; we leaped over their writhing forms, +dashed our fierce way through the thicket to where the tell-tale smoke +arose, and smote, stabbed, stamped out the life of, the ambushed foe. +Under the sway of this frenzy, timorous men swelled into veritable +paladins. The least reckless of us rushed upon death with breast bared and +with clinched fists.</p> + +<p>A body of us were thus scouring the wood on the crest of the hill, pushing +through the tangle of dead brush and thick high brake, which soaked us +afresh to the waist, resolute to overcome and kill whomsoever we could +reach. Below us, in the direction of the river, though half a mile this +side of it, we could hear a scattering fusillade maintained, which bespoke +bush-fighting. Toward this we made our way, firing at momentary glimpses +of figures in the thicket, and driving scattered groups of the foe before +us as we ran.</p> + +<p>Coming out upon the brow of the hill, and peering through the saplings and +underbrush, we could see that big Captain Gardenier and his Caughnawaga +men were gathered in three or four parties behind clumps of alders in the +bottom, loading and firing upon an enemy invisible to us. While we were +looking down and hesitating how best to go to his succor, one of old +Sammons's sons came bounding down the side-hill, all excitement, crying:</p> + +<p>"Help is here from the fort!"</p> + +<p>Sure enough, close behind him were descending some fourscore men, whose +musket-barrels and cocked hats we could distinguish swaying above the +bushes, as they advanced in regular order.</p> + +<p>I think I see huge, burly Gardenier still, standing in his woollen +shirt-sleeves, begrimed with powder and mud, one hand holding his spear, +the other shading his eyes against the sinking sun as he scanned the +new-comers.</p> + +<p>"Who's there?" he roared at them.</p> + +<p>"From the fort!" we could hear the answer.</p> + +<p>Our hearts leaped with joy at this, and we began with one accord to get to +the foot of the hill, to meet these preservers. Down the steep side we +clambered, through the dense second-growth, in hot haste and all +confidence. We had some friendly Oneidas with us, and I had to tell them +to keep back, lest Gardenier, deeming them Mohawks, should fire upon them.</p> + +<p>Coming to the edge of the swampy clearing we saw a strange sight.</p> + +<p>Captain Gardenier was some yards in advance of his men, struggling like a +mad Hercules with half a dozen of these new-comers, hurling them right and +left, then falling to the ground, pinned through each thigh by a bayonet, +and pulling down his nearest assailant upon his breast to serve as +a shield.</p> + +<p>While we took in this astounding spectacle, young Sammons was dancing +with excitement.</p> + +<p>"In God's name, Captain," he shrieked, "you are killing our friends!"</p> + +<p>"Friends be damned!" yelled back Gardenier, still struggling with all his +vast might. "These art Tories. <i>Fire</i>! you fools! <i>Fire</i>!"</p> + +<p>It was the truth. They were indeed Tories--double traitors to their former +friends. As Gardenier shouted out his command, these ruffians raised their +guns, and there sprang up from the bushes on either side of them as many +more savages, with weapons lifting for a volley.</p> + +<p>How it was I know not, but they never fired that volley. Our muskets +seemed to poise and discharge themselves of their own volition, and a +score of the villains, white and red, tumbled before us. Gardenier's men +had recovered their senses as well, and, pouring in a deadly fusillade, +dashed furiously forward with clubbed muskets upon the unmasked foe. These +latter would now have retreated up the hill again, whence they could fire +to advantage, but we at this leaped forth upon their flank, and they, with +a futile shot or two, turned and fled in every direction, we all in +wild pursuit.</p> + +<p>Ah, that chase! Over rotten, moss-grown logs, weaving between gnarled +tree-trunks, slipping on treacherous twigs, the wet saplings whipping our +faces, the boughs knocking against our guns, in savage heat we tore +forward, loading and firing as we ran.</p> + +<p>The pursuit had a malignant pleasure in it: we knew the men we were +driving before us. Cries of recognition rose through the woods; names of +renegades were shouted out which had a sinister familiarity in all +our ears.</p> + +<p>I came upon young Stephen Watts, the boyish brother of Lady Johnson, lying +piteously prone against some roots, his neck torn with a hideous wound of +some sort; he did not know me, and I passed him by with a bitter hardening +of the heart. What did he here, making war upon my Valley? One of the +Papist Scots from Johnstown, Angus McDonell, was shot, knocked down, and +left senseless behind us. So far from there being any pang of compassion +for him, we cheered his fall, and pushed fiercely on. The scent of blood +in the moist air had made us wild beasts all.</p> + +<p>I found myself at last near the river, and on the edge of a morass, where +the sun was shining upon the purple flowers of the sweet-flag, and tall +rushes rose above little miry pools. I had with me a young Dutch +farmer--John Van Antwerp--and three Oneida Indians, who had apparently +attached themselves to me on account of my epaulettes. We had followed +thus far at some distance a party of four or five Tories and Indians; we +came to a halt here, puzzled as to the course they had taken.</p> + +<p>While my Indians, bent double, were running about scanning the soft ground +for a trail, I heard a well-known voice close behind me say:</p> + +<p>"They're over to the right, in that clump of cedars. Better get behind a +tree."</p> + +<p>I turned around. To my amazement Enoch Wade stood within two yards of me, +his buckskin shirt wide open at the throat, his coon-skin cap on the back +of his head, his long rifle over his arm.</p> + +<p>"In Heaven's name, how did you come here?"</p> + +<p>"Lay down, I tell ye!" he replied, throwing himself flat on his face as he +spoke.</p> + +<p>We were too late. They had fired on us from the cedars, and a bullet +struck poor Van Antwerp down at my feet.</p> + +<p>"Now for it, before they can load," cried Enoch, darting past me and +leading a way on the open border of the swale, with long, unerring leaps +from one raised point to another. The Indians raced beside him, crouching +almost to a level with the reeds, and I followed.</p> + +<p>A single shot came from the thicket as we reached it, and I felt a +momentary twinge of pain in my arm.</p> + +<p>"Damnation! I've missed him! Run for your lives!" I heard shouted +excitedly from the bush.</p> + +<p>There came a crack, crack, of two guns. One of my Indians rolled headlong +upon the ground; the others darted forward in pursuit of some flitting +forms dimly to be seen in the undergrowth beyond.</p> + +<p>"Come here!" called Enoch to me. He was standing among the low cedars, +resting his chin on his hands, spread palm down over the muzzle of his +gun, and looking calmly upon something on the ground before him.</p> + +<p>I hurried to his side. There, half-stretched on the wet, blood-stained +grass, panting with the exertion of raising himself on his elbow, and +looking me square in the face with distended eyes, lay Philip Cross.</p> + + + + +<h2><a name="34"></a>Chapter XXXIV</h2> + +<h3>Alone at Last with My Enemy.</h3> + + + +<p>My stricken foe looked steadily into my face; once his lips parted to +speak, but no sound came from them.</p> + +<p>For my part I did not know what to say to him. A score of thoughts pressed +upon my tongue for utterance, but none of them seemed suited to this +strange occasion. Everything that occurred to me was either weak or +over-violent. Two distinct ideas of this momentary irresolution I +remember--one was to leave him in silence for my Oneidas to tomahawk and +scalp; the other was to curse him where he lay.</p> + +<p>There was nothing in his whitening face to help me to a decision. The look +in his eyes was both sad and savage--an expression I could not fathom. For +all it said to me, he might be thinking wholly of his wound, or of nothing +whatever. The speechless fixity of this gaze embarrassed me. For relief I +turned to Enoch, and said sharply:</p> + +<p>"You haven't told me yet what you were doing here."</p> + +<p>The trapper kept his chin still on its rest, and only for a second turned +his shrewd gray eyes from the wounded quarry to me.</p> + +<p>"You can see for yourself, can't ye?" he said. "What do people mostly do +when there's shooting going on, and they've got a gun?"</p> + +<p>"But how came you here at all? I thought you were to stay at--at the place +where I put you."</p> + +<p>"That was likely, wasn't it! Me loafing around the house like a tame cat +among the niggers while good fighting was going on up here!"</p> + +<p>"If you wanted to come, why not have marched with us? I asked you."</p> + +<p>"I don't march much myself. It suits me to get around on my own legs in my +own way. I told you I wouldn't go into any ranks, or tote my gun on my +shoulder when it was handier to carry it on my arm. But I didn't tell you +I wouldn't come up and see this thing on my own hook."</p> + +<p>"Have you been here all day?"</p> + +<p>"If you come to that, it's none of your business, young man. I got here +about the right time of day to save <i>your</i> bacon, anyway. That's enough +for <i>you</i>, ain't it?"</p> + +<p>The rebuke was just, and I put no further questions.</p> + +<p>A great stillness had fallen upon the forest behind us. In the distance, +from the scrub-oak thickets on the lowlands by the river, there sounded +from time to time the echo of a stray shot, and faint Mohawk cries of +"Oonah! Oonah!" The battle was over.</p> + +<p>"They were beginning to run away before I came down," said Enoch, in +comment upon some of these dying-away yells of defeat which came to us. +"They got handled too rough. If their white officers had showed themselves +more, and took bigger risks, they'd have stood their ground. But these +Tory fine gentlemen are a pack of cowards. They let the Injuns get killed, +but they kept darned well hid themselves."</p> + +<p>The man on the ground broke silence here.</p> + +<p>"You lie!" he said, fiercely.</p> + +<p>"Oh! you can talk, can you?" said Enoch. "No, I don't lie, Mr. Cross. I'm +talking gospel truth. Herkimer's officers came out like men, and fought +like men, and got shot by dozens; but till we struck you, I never laid +eyes on one of you fellows all day long, and my eyesight's pretty good, +too. Don't you think it is? I nailed you right under the nipple, there, +within a hair of the button I sighted on. I leave it to you if that ain't +pretty fair shooting."</p> + +<p>The cool brutality of this talk revolted me. I had it on my tongue to +interpose, when the wounded man spoke again, with a new accent of gloom +in his tone.</p> + +<p>"What have I ever done to you?" he said, with his hand upon his breast.</p> + +<p>"Why, nothing at all, Mr. Cross," answered Enoch, amiably. "There wasn't +any feeling about it, at least on my part. I'd have potted you just as +carefully if we'd been perfect strangers."</p> + +<p>"Will you leave us here together for a little while, Enoch?" I broke in. +"Come back in a few minutes; find out what the news is in the gulf--how +the fight has gone. I desire some words with this--this gentleman."</p> + +<p>The trapper nodded at this, and started off with his cat-like, springing +walk, loading his rifle as he went. "I'll turn up in about a quarter of +an hour," he said.</p> + +<p>I watched his lithe, leather-clad figure disappear among the trees, and +then wheeled around to my prostrate foe.</p> + +<p>"I do not know what to say to you," I said, hesitatingly, looking down +upon him.</p> + +<p>He had taken his hand away from his breast, and was fumbling with it on +the grass behind him. Suddenly he raised it, with a sharp cry of--</p> + +<p>"I know what to say to you!"</p> + +<p>There was a pistol in the air confronting me, and I, taken all aback, +looked full into the black circle of its barrel as he pulled the trigger. +The flint struck out a spark of flame, but it fell upon priming dampened +by the wet grass.</p> + +<p>The momentary gleam of eagerness in the pallid face before me died +piteously away when no report came. If he had had the strength he would +have thrown the useless weapon at me. As it was, it dropped from his +nerveless fingers. He closed his eyes under the knit brows, upon which +cold sweat stood out, and groaned aloud.</p> + +<p>"I do not know what to say to you," I went on, the episode of the pistol +seeming, strangely enough, to have cleared my thoughts. "For two +years--yes, for five years--I have been picturing to myself some such +scene as this, where you should lie overthrown before me, and I should +crush the life out of your hateful body with my heel, as one does with +snakes. But now that it has come about, I am at a strange loss for words."</p> + +<p>"That you were not formerly," said the wounded man. "Since I have known +you, you have fought always exceedingly well with your mouth. It was only +in deeds that you were slow."</p> + +<p>He made this retort with a contemptuous coolness of tone which was belied +by his white face and drawn brows, and by the troubled, clinging gaze in +his eyes. I found myself looking with a curious impersonal interest upon +this heavy, large-featured countenance, always heretofore so deeply +flushed with color, and now coarsely blotched with varying depths +of pallor.</p> + +<p>"Doubtless it would be best to leave you here. None of your party will +straggle this way. They have all fled. You can lie here and think of your +misdeeds until-----" + +"Until the wolves come, you mean. Yes, go away. I prefer them to you."</p> + +<p>The sky to the west was one great lurid, brassy glare, overhung with banks +of sinister clouds, a leaden purple above, fiery crimson below. The +unnatural light fell strongly upon us both. A big shadow passed for an +instant across the sunset, and we, looking instinctively up, saw the +circling bulk of some huge bird of prey. I shuddered at the sight.</p> + +<p>"Yes, leave me to <i>them</i>!" he said, bitterly. "Go back and seize my lands, +my house. While the beasts and the birds tear me to bits here in the +forest, do you fatten upon my substance at home. You and they are of +a kidney."</p> + +<p>"You know I would touch nothing of yours."</p> + +<p>"No--not even my wife!"</p> + +<p>The thrust went home. There was a world of sardonic disdain in his voice +as he spoke, but in truth I thought little of his tone. The words +themselves seemed to open a gulf before my feet. Was it indeed true, in +welcoming this man's death, that I was thinking of the woman it would set +free--for me?</p> + +<p>It seemed a long, long time before I found tongue again. I walked up and +down among the small cedars, fighting out in my own mind the issue of +honor which had been with such brutal frankness raised. I could not make +it seem wholly untrue--this charge he so contemptuously flung at me. There +was no softening of my heart toward him: he was still the repellent, evil +ruffian I had for years held him to be. I felt that I hated him the more +because he had put me in the wrong. I went back to him, ashamed for the +source of the increase of temper I trembled under, yet powerless to +dissemble it.</p> + +<p>"Why should I not kill you where you lie?" I shouted at him.</p> + +<p>He made an effort at shrugging his shoulders, but vouchsafed no other +reply.</p> + +<p>"You"--I went on, in a whirl of rage at myself, at him, at the entire +universe--"you have made my whole manhood bitter. I fought you the first +time I saw you, when we were little boys. Even then you insulted, injured +me. I have always hated you. You have always given me reason to hate you. +It was you who poisoned Mr. Stewart's mind against me. It was you who +stole my sweet sister away from me. Did this content you? No. You must +drive the good old gentleman into paralysis and illness unto death--out of +his mind--and you must overwhelm the poor, gentle girl with drunken +brutality and cruelty, and to cap all, with desertion. And this is not +enough--my God! think of it! <i>this</i> is not enough!--but you must come with +the others to force Indian war upon our Valley, upon your old neighbors! +There are hundreds lying dead here to-day in these woods--honest men whose +wives, parents, little children, are waiting for them at home. They will +never lay eyes on them again. Why? Because of you and your scoundrel +friends. You have done too much mischief already. It is high time to put +an end to you."</p> + +<p>The wounded man had listened to me wearily, with his free hand clutched +tight over his wound, and the other tearing spasmodically at the grass +beside him.</p> + +<p>"I am bleeding to death," he said, with a voice obviously weakened since +his last preceding words. "So much the better for you. You would like it +so. You are not bold enough to knock me on the head, or merciful enough to +go about your business and leave me in peace. I ought to be above bandying +words with you; nor would I if it did not take my mind from my hurt. You +are right--you have always been my enemy. You were jealous of me as a +little boy. You had an apron, and you envied me my coat. When, like a +fool, I came again to this cursed wilderness, your sour face rose up in +front of me like an ugly dream. It was my first disagreeable thing. Still +you were jealous of me, for I was a gentleman; you were a skin-pedler. I +married a maiden who had beauty and wit enough to grace my station, even +though she had not been born to it. It was you who turned her mind against +me, and incited her to unhappiness in the home I had given her. It was you +who made a damned rebel out of her, and drove me into going to Canada. She +has ever been more your friend than mine. You are of her sort. An English +gentleman could rightly have had no part or lot with either of you. Go +back to her now--tell her you left me here waiting for the wolves--and +that my dying message was--"</p> + +<p>He followed with some painfully bitter and malignant words which I have +not the heart to set down here in cold blood against him.</p> + +<p>"Let me see your wound," I said, when he had finished and sank back, +exhausted.</p> + +<p>I knelt beside him and opened his green coat, and the fine, ruffled shirt +beneath it. Both were soaked with blood on the whole right side, but the +soft cambric had, in a measure, checked the flow. He made no resistance, +and I spread over the ugly aperture some of the plaster with which my +mother had fitted me out, and bound it fast, with some difficulty, by +passing my sash under his body and winding it about his chest.</p> + +<p>He kept his eyes closed while I was doing this. I could not tell whether +he was conscious or not. Nor could I explain to myself why I was +concerning myself with his wound. Was it to save, if possible, his life? +Was it to lengthen out his term of torture here in the great final +solitude, helplessly facing the end, with snarling wolves and screaming +kites for his death-watch? I scarcely knew which.</p> + +<p>I try now to retrace the courses by which my thoughts, in the confused +searchings of those few moments, reached finally a good conclusion; but +the effort is beyond my powers. I know only that all at once it became +quite clear to my mind that I must not leave my enemy to die. How much of +this was due to purely physical compassion for suffering, how much to the +higher pleadings of humanity, how much to the feeling that his taunts of +baseness must be proved untrue, I cannot say.</p> + +<p>I was still kneeling beside him, I know, when Enoch suddenly stood in +front of me. His practised footsteps had made no sound. He glanced gravely +at me and at the white, inanimate face of Cross. Emotions did not play +lightly upon Enoch's leather-like visage; there was nothing in his look to +tell whether he was surprised or not.</p> + +<p>"Well, what news? How has the day gone?" I asked him.</p> + +<p>"Your people hold the gulf. The British have gone back. It seems they were +attacked in their rear from the fort. The woods are full of dead men."</p> + +<p>"What is Herkimer going to do?"</p> + +<p>"They were making a litter to carry him off the field. They are going home +again--down the Valley."</p> + +<p>"So, then, we have lost the fight."</p> + +<p>"Well, seeing that every three sound men have got to tote back one wounded +man, and that about half the people you brought here are dead to begin +with, it don't look much like a victory, does it?"</p> + +<p>"But the British have retreated, you say, and there was a sortie from the +fort?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, it's about six of one and half-dozen of t'other. I should say that +both sides had got their bellyful of fighting. I guess they'll both want +to rest for a spell."</p> + +<p>I made no answer, being lost in a maze of thoughts upon the hideous +carnage of the day, and upon what was likely to come of it. Enoch went on:</p> + +<p>"They seemed to be pretty nigh through with their litter-making. They must +be about ready to start. You'd better be spry if you want to go along +with 'em."</p> + +<p>"Did you speak to any one of me? Did you tell them where I was?"</p> + +<p>"I ain't quite a fool, young man," said the trapper, with a gaunt sort of +smile. "If they'd caught sight of me, I wouldn't have got much chance to +explain about myself, let alone you. It kind of occurred to me that +strangers found loafing around in the woods wouldn't get much of an +opening for polite conversation just now--especially if those strangers +were fellows who had come down from Sillinger's camp with letters only a +fortnight ago."</p> + +<p>All this time Cross had been stretched at my knees, with his eyes closed. +He opened them here, at Enoch's last words, and broke into our +conversation with a weak, strangely altered voice:</p> + +<p>"I know you now--damn you! I couldn't think before. You are the fellow I +gave my letters to, there on Buck's Island. I paid you your own price--in +hard gold--and now you shoot me in return. You are on the right side now. +You make a good rebel."</p> + +<p>"Now look here, Mr. Cross," put in Enoch, with just a trace of temper in +his tone. "You paid me to carry those letters because I was going that +way, and I carried 'em straight. You didn't pay me for anything else, and +you couldn't, neither. There ain't been gold enough minted yet to hire me +to fight for your King George against Congress. Put that in your pipe and +smoke it!"</p> + +<p>"Come, Enoch," I here interrupted, "enough of that. The man is suffering. +You must not vex him further by words."</p> + +<p>"Suffering or not," returned the trapper, "he might keep a civil tongue in +his head.--Why, I even did something you didn't pay me for," he went on, +scowling down at the prostrate soldier. "I delivered your message here to +this man" (indicating me with a gesture of his thumb)--"all that, you +know, about cutting out his heart when you met him, and feeding it to a +Missisague dog."</p> + +<p>Enoch's grim features relaxed into a sardonic smile as he added: "There +may be more or less heart-eating round about here presently, but it don't +look much as if it would be his, and the dogs that'll do it don't belong +to anybody--not even to a Missisague buck."</p> + +<p>The wounded man's frame shook under a spasm of shuddering, and he glowered +at us both wildly, with a look half-wrath, half-pitiful pleading, which +helped me the better to make up my mind.</p> + +<p>Enoch had turned to me once more:</p> + +<p>"Come," he said, "we better hustle along. It will be all right with me so +long as I am with you, and there is no time to lose. They must be starting +from the gulf by this time. If we step along brisk, we'll soon catch them. +As for this chap here, I guess we'd better leave him. He won't last long +anyway, and your folks don't want any wounded prisoners. They've got too +many litters to carry already."</p> + +<p>"No," I made answer, with my resolve clear now before me. "We will make +our own litter, and we will carry him to his home ourselves--by the +river--away from the others."</p> + +<p>"The hell you say!" said Enoch.</p> + + + + +<h2><a name="35"></a>Chapter XXXV</h2> + +<h3>The Strange Uses to Which Revenge May Be Put.</h3> + + + +<p>In after-times, when it could do no harm to tell this story, people were +wont to regard as its most remarkable feature the fact that we made the +trip from the Oriskany battle-field to Cairncross in five days. There was +never exhibited any special interest in the curious workings of mind, and +conscience too if you like, which led me to bring my enemy home. Some few, +indeed, like General Arnold, to whom I recounted the affair a fortnight +later when he marched up the Valley, frankly said that I was a fool for my +pains, and doubtless many others dissembled the same opinion. But they +all, with one accord, expressed surprise, admiration, even incredulity, at +the despatch with which we accomplished the difficult journey.</p> + +<p>This achievement was, of course, entirely due to Enoch. At the outset he +protested stoutly against the waste of time and trouble involved in my +plan. It was only after much argument that I won him over to consenting, +which he did with evident reluctance. But it is right to say that, once +embarked on the adventure, he carried it through faithfully and with zeal.</p> + +<p>The wounded man lay silent, with closed eyes, while our discussion went +on. He seemed in a half-lethargic state, probably noting all that we said, +yet under too heavy a spell of pain and weakness to care to speak. It was +not until we two had woven a rough sort of litter out of hickory saplings, +covered thick with moss and hemlock twigs, and Enoch had knelt by his side +to look to his wounds again, that Cross spoke:</p> + +<p>"Leave me alone!" he groaned, angrily. "It makes me worse to have you +touch me. Are you not satisfied? I am dying; that ought to be enough +for you."</p> + +<p>"Don't be a fool, Mr. Cross," said Enoch, imperturbably, moving his hand +along the course of the bandage. "We're trying to save your life. I don't +know just why, but we are. Don't make it extra hard for us. All the help +we want from you is for you to hold your jaw."</p> + +<p>"You are going to give me up to your Oneidas!" cried the suffering man, +raising his head by a violent effort at the words, and staring +affrightedly straight ahead of him.</p> + +<p>There, indeed, were the two friendly Indians who had come with me to the +swamp, and had run forward in pursuit of Cross's companions. They had +returned with absolute noiselessness, and stood now some ten feet away +from us, gazing with stolid composure at our group.</p> + +<p>A hideous bunch of fresh scalp-locks dangled from the belt of each, and, +on the bare legs beneath, stains of something darker than vermilion +mingled with the pale ochre that had been rubbed upon the skin. The +savages breathed heavily from their chase, and their black eyes were +fairly aflame with excitement, but they held the muscles of their faces in +an awesome rigidity. They were young men whom pious Samuel Kirkland had +laboriously covered, through years of effort, with a Christian veneering. +If the good dominie could have been there and seen the glances they bent +upon the wounded enemy at our feet, I fear me he would have groaned +in spirit.</p> + +<p>"Keep them off!" shrieked Cross, his head all in a tremble with the +sustained exertion of holding itself up. "I will not be scalped! So help +me God, I will not!"</p> + +<p>The Indians knew enough of English to understand this frantic cry. They +looked at me as much as to say that this gentleman's resolution did not +materially alter the existing situation, the probabilities of which were +all on the other side.</p> + +<p>"Lay your head down, Mr. Cross," said Enoch, almost gently. "Just keep +cool, or you'll bust your bandages off. They won't hurt you till we give +'em the word."</p> + +<p>Still he made fitful efforts to rise, and a faint purplish color came into +his throat and cheeks as he strove excitedly. If Enoch had not held his +arm he would have torn off the plaster from his breast.</p> + +<p>"It shall not be done! I will die now! You shall not save me to be +tortured--scalped--by these devils!"</p> + +<p>I intervened here. "You need fear nothing from these Indians," I said, +bending over him. "Lie back again and calm yourself. We are different from +the brutes in your camp. We pay no price for scalps."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps those are not scalps they have hanging there. It is like your +canting tongue to deny it."</p> + +<p>It was easy to keep my temper with this helpless foe. "These savages have +their own way of making war," I answered, calmly. "They are defending +their own homes against invasion, as well as we are. But we do not bribe +them to take scalps."</p> + +<p>"Why not be honest--you!" he said, disdainfully. "You are going to give me +up. Don't sicken me with preaching into the bargain."</p> + +<p>"Why be silly--you!" I retorted. "Does the trouble we propose taking for +you look like giving you up? What would be easier than to leave you +here--for the wolves, or these Indians here? Instead of that we are going +to carry you all the way to your home. We are going to <i>hide</i> you at +Cairncross, until I can get a parole for you from General Schuyler. <i>Now</i> +will you keep still?"</p> + +<p>He did relapse into silence at this--a silence that was born alike of +mystification and utter weakness.</p> + +<p>Enoch explained to the Oneidas, mainly in their own strange tongue, my +project of conveying this British prisoner, intact so far as hair went, +down the Valley. I could follow him enough to know that he described me as +a warrior of great position and valor; it was less flattering to have him +explain that Cross was also a leading chief, and that I would get a +magnificent ransom by delivering him up to Congress.</p> + +<p>Doubtless it was wise not to approach the Indian mind with less practical +arguments. I saw this, and begged Enoch to add that much of this reward +should be theirs if they would accompany us on our journey.</p> + +<p>"They would be more trouble than they are worth," he said. "They wouldn't +help carry him more than ten minutes a day. If they'll tell me where one +of their canoes is hid, betwixt here and Fort Schuyler, that will +be enough."</p> + +<p>The result was that Enoch got such information of this sort as he desired, +together with the secret of a path near by which would lead us to the +river trail. I cut two buttons from my coat in return, and gave them to +the savages; each being a warranty for eight dollars upon production at my +home, half way between the old and the new houses of the great and +lamented Warraghiyagey, as they had called Sir William Johnson. This done, +and the trifling skin-wound on my arm re-dressed, we lifted Cross upon the +rude litter and started for the trail.</p> + +<p>I seem to see again the spectacle upon which I turned to look for a last +time before we entered the thicket. The sky beyond the fatal forest wore +still its greenish, brassy color, and the clouds upon the upper limits of +this unnatural glare were of a vivid, sinister crimson, like clots of +fresh blood. In the calm gray blue of the twilight vault above, birds of +prey circled, with a horrible calling to one another. No breath of air +stirred the foliage or the bending rushes in the swale. We could hear no +sound from our friends at the head of the ravine, a full half-mile away. +Save for the hideous noises of the birds, a perfect silence rested upon +this blood-soaked oasis of the wilderness. The little brook babbled softly +past us; the strong western light flashed upon the rain-drops among the +leaves. On the cedar-clad knoll the two young Indians stood motionless in +the sunset radiance, watching us gravely.</p> + +<p>We passed into the enfolding depths of the woods, leaving the battle-field +to the furred and feathered scavengers and scalping-knives of the +forest primeval.</p> + +<hr width="80%" size="1" /> + +<p>Our slow and furtive course down the winding river was one long misery. I +recall no other equally wretched five days in my life.</p> + +<p>The canoe which Enoch unearthed on our first evening was a small and +fragile affair, in which only one beside the wounded man could be +accommodated. The other must take his way as best he could through the +sprawling tangle of water-alders, wild artichoke, and vines, facing +myriads of flies and an intolerable heat in all the wet places, with their +sweltering luxuriance of rank vegetation. One day of this nearly reduced +me to the condition of our weak and helpless prisoner. I staggered blindly +along toward its close, covered to the knees with black river-mud, my face +and wounded arm stinging with the scratches of poisonous ivy and brambles, +my brain aching savagely, my strength and spirit all gone. I could have +wept like a child from sheer exhaustion when at last I came to the nook on +the little stream where Enoch had planned to halt, and flung myself on +the ground utterly worn out.</p> + +<p>We were somewhat below Fort Schuyler, as near to the first settlements on +the German Flatts as we might with safety venture by daylight. Thereafter +we must hide during the days, and steal down the river at night. Enoch had +a small store of smoked beef; for the rest we ate berries, wild grapes, +and one or two varieties of edible roots which he knew of. We dared not +build a fire.</p> + +<p>Philip Cross passed most of his time, while we lay hiding under cover, in +a drowsy, restless stupor, broken by feverish intervals of nervous +activity of mind which were often very like delirium. The heat, the +fly-pest, and the malarial atmosphere of the dank recesses in which we +lay, all combined to make his days very bad. At night in the canoe, +floating noiselessly down the stream, Enoch said he seemed to suffer less +and to be calmer in his mind. But at no time, for the first three days at +least, did he evince any consciousness that we were doing for him more +than might under the circumstances be expected. His glance seemed +sometimes to bespeak puzzled thoughts. But he accepted all our +ministrations and labors with either the listless indifference of a man +ill unto death, or the composure of an aristocrat who took personal +service and attention for granted.</p> + +<p>After we had passed the Little Falls--which we did on our third night +out--the chief danger from shallows and rifts was over, and Enoch was able +to exchange places with me. It was no great trouble to him, skilful +woodsman that he was, to make his way along the bank even in the dark, +while in the now smooth and fairly broad course I could manage the canoe +well enough.</p> + +<p>The moon shone fair upon us, as our little bark glided down the river. We +were in the deep current which pushes forcefully forward under the new +pressure of the East Canada waters, and save for occasional guidance there +was small need of my paddle. The scene was very beautiful to the eye--the +white light upon the flood, the soft calm shadows of the willowed banks, +the darker, statelier silhouettes of the forest trees, reared black +against the pale sky.</p> + +<p>There is something in the restful radiance of moonlight which mellows +hearts. The poets learned this, ages since; I realized it now, as my +glance fell upon the pallid face in the bow before me. We were looking at +one another, and my hatred of him, nursed through years, seemed suddenly +to have taken to itself wings. I had scarcely spoken to him during the +voyage, other than to ask him of his wound. Now a thousand gentle impulses +stirred within me, all at once, and moved my tongue.</p> + +<p>"Are you out of pain to-night?" I asked him. "The journey is a hard one at +best for a wounded man. I would we could have commanded a larger and more +commodious boat."</p> + +<p>"Oh, ay! So far as bodily suffering goes, I am free from it," he made +answer, languidly. Then, after a little pause, he went on, in a low, +musing voice: "How deathly still everything is! I thought that in the +wilderness one heard always the night-yelping of the wolves. We did at +Cairncross, I know. Yet since we started I have not heard one. It is as if +we were going through a dead country."</p> + +<p>Enoch had explained the reason for this silence to me, and I thoughtlessly +blurted it out.</p> + +<p>"Every wolf for forty miles round about is up at the battle-field," I +said. "It is fairly marvellous how such intelligence spreads among these +brutes. They must have a language of their own. How little we really +understand of the animal creation about us, with all our pride of wisdom! +Even the shark, sailors aver, knows which ship to pursue."</p> + +<p>He shuddered and closed his eyes as I spoke. I thought at first that he +had been seized with a spasm of physical anguish, by the drawn expression +of his face; then it dawned upon me that his suffering was mental.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I dare say they are all there," he said, lifting his voice somewhat. +"I can hear them--see them! Do you know," he went on, excitedly, "all day +long, all night long, I seem to have corpses all about me. They are there +just the same when I close my eyes--when I sleep. Some of them are my +friends; others I do not know, but they all know me. They look at me out +of dull eyes; they seem to say they are waiting for me--and then there are +the wolves!"</p> + +<p>He began shivering at this again, and his voice sank into a piteous +quaver.</p> + +<p>"These are but fancies," I said, gently, as one would speak to a child +awakened in terror by a nightmare. "You will be rid of them once you get +where you can have rest and care."</p> + +<p>It seemed passing strange that I should be talking thus to a man of as +powerful frame as myself, and even older in years. Yet he was so wan and +weak, and the few days of suffering had so altered, I may say refined, his +face and mien, that it was natural enough too, when one thinks of it.</p> + +<p>He became calmer after this, and looked at me for a long time as I paddled +through a stretch of still water, in silence.</p> + +<p>"You must have been well born, after all," he said, finally.</p> + +<p>I did not wholly understand his meaning, but answered:</p> + +<p>"Why, yes, the Van Hoorns are a very good family--noble in some branches, +in fact--and my father had his sheepskin from Utrecht. But what of it?"</p> + +<p>"What I would say is, you have acted in all this like a gentleman."</p> + +<p>I could not help smiling to myself, now that I saw what was in his mind. +"For that matter," I answered, lightly, "it does not seem to me that +either the Van Hoorns or the dead Mauverensens have much to do with it." I +remembered my mother's parting remark to me, and added: "The only Van +Hoorn I know of in the Valley will not be at all pleased to learn I have +brought you back."</p> + +<p>"Nobody will be pleased," he said, gloomily.</p> + +<p>After that it was fit that silence should again intervene, for I could not +gainsay him. He closed his eyes as if asleep, and I paddled on in the +alternate moonlight and shadow.</p> + +<p>The recollection of my mother's words brought with it a great train of +thoughts, mostly bitter. I was bearing home with me a man who was not only +not wanted, but whose presence and continued life meant the annihilation +of all the inchoate hopes and dreams my heart these last two years had fed +upon. It was easy to be civil, even kind, to him in his present helpless, +stricken state; anybody with a man's nature could do that. But it was not +so easy to look resignedly upon the future, from which all light and +happiness were excluded by the very fact that he was alive.</p> + +<p>More than once during this revery, be it stated in frankness, the +reflection came to me that by merely tipping the canoe over I could even +now set everything right. Of course I put the evil thought away from me, +but still it came obstinately back more than once. Under the momentary +spell of this devilish suggestion, I even looked at the form recumbent +before me, and noted how impossible it was that it should ever reach the +bank, once in the water. Then I tore my mind forcibly from the idea, as +one looking over a dizzy height leaps back lest the strange, latent +impulse of suicide shall master him, and fixed my thoughts instead upon +the man himself.</p> + +<p>His talk about my being well born helped me now to understand his +character better than I had before been able to do. I began to realize the +existence in England--in Europe generally, I dare say--of a kind of man +strange to our American ideas, a being within whom long tradition and +sedulous training had created two distinct men--one affable, honorable, +generous, likeable, among his equals; the other cold, selfish, haughty, +and harsh to his inferiors. It struck me now that there had always been +two Philips, and that I had been shown only the rude and hateful one +because my station had not seemed to entitle me to consort with the other.</p> + +<p>Once started upon this explanation, I began to comprehend the whole story. +To tell the truth, I had never understood why this young man should have +behaved so badly as he did; there had been to me always a certain +wantonness of brutality in his conduct wholly inexplicable. The thing was +plainer now. In his own country he would doubtless have made a tolerable +husband, a fair landlord, a worthy gentleman in the eyes of the only class +of people whose consideration he cared for. But over here, in the new +land, all the conditions had been against him. He had drawn down upon +himself and all those about him overwhelming calamity, simply because he +had felt himself under the cursed obligation to act like a "gentleman," as +he called it. His contemptuous dislike of me, his tyrannical treatment of +his wife when she did not fall in with his ambitions, his sulky resort to +dissipation, his fierce espousal of the Tory side against the common +herd--I could trace now the successive steps by which obstinacy had led +him down the fell incline.</p> + +<p>I do not know that I had much satisfaction from this analysis, even when I +had worked it all out. It was worth while, no doubt, to arrive at a +knowledge of Philip's true nature, and to see that under other +circumstances he might have been as good a man as another. But all the +same my heart grew heavy under the recurring thought that the saving of +his life meant the destruction of all worth having in mine.</p> + +<p>Every noiseless stroke of my paddle in the water, bearing him toward home +as it did, seemed to push me farther back into a chill, unknown world of +gloom and desolation. Yet, God help me, I could do no other!</p> + + + + +<h2><a name="36"></a>Chapter XXXVI</h2> + +<h3>A Final Scene in the Gulf which My Eyes Are Mercifully Spared.</h3> + + + +<p>Just before daybreak of the fifth day we stole past the sleeping hamlet of +Caughnawaga, and as the sun was rising over the Schoharie hills I drew up +the canoe into the outlet of Dadanoscara Creek, a small brook which came +down through the woods from the high land whereon Cairncross stood. Our +journey by water was ended.</p> + +<p>Enoch was waiting for us, and helped me lift Cross from the canoe. His +body hung inert in our arms; not even my clumsy slipping on the bank of +the rivulet startled him from the deep sleep in which he had lain for +hours in the boat.</p> + +<p>"I have been frightened. Can he be dying?" I asked.</p> + +<p>Enoch knelt beside him, and put his hand over the patient's heart. He +shook his head dubiously after a moment, and said: "It's tearing along +like a racehorse. He's in a fever--the worst kind. This ain't +sleep--it's stupor."</p> + +<p>He felt the wounded man's pulse and temples. "If you're bent on saving his +life," he added, "you'd better scoot off and get some help. Before we can +make another litter for him, let alone taking him up this creek-bed to +his house, it may be too late. If we had a litter ready, it might be +different. As it is, I don't see but you will have to risk it, and bring +somebody here."</p> + +<p>For once in my life my brain worked in flashes. I actually thought of +something which had not occurred to Enoch!</p> + +<p>"Why not carry him in this canoe?" I asked. "It is lighter than any litter +we could make."</p> + +<p>The trapper slapped his lank, leather-clad thigh in high approval. "By +hokey!" he said, "you've hit it!"</p> + +<p>We sat on the mossy bank, on either side of the insensible Philip, and ate +the last remaining fragments of our store of food. Another day of this and +we should have been forced to shoot something, and light a fire to cook it +over, no matter what the danger. Enoch had, indeed, favored this course +two days before, but I clung to my notion of keeping Cross's presence in +the Valley an absolute secret. His life would have been in deadly peril +hereabouts, even before the battle. How bitterly the hatred of him and his +traitor-fellows must have been augmented by the slaughter of that cruel +ambuscade, I could readily imagine. With what words could I have protected +him against the righteous rage of a Snell, for example, or a Seeber, or +any one of a hundred others who had left kinsmen behind in that fatal +gulch? No! There must be no risk run by meeting any one.</p> + +<p>With the scanty meal finished our rest was at an end. We ought to lose no +time. Each minute's delay in getting the wounded man under a roof, in +bed, within reach of aid and nursing, might be fatal.</p> + +<p>It was no light task to get the canoe upon our shoulders, after we had put +in it our guns, covered these with ferns and twigs, and upon these laid +Philip's bulky form, and a very few moments' progress showed that the work +before us was to be no child's play. The conformation of the canoe made it +a rather awkward thing to carry, to begin with. To bear it right side up, +laden as it was, over eight miles of almost continuous ascent, through a +perfectly unbroken wilderness, was as laborious an undertaking as it is +easy to conceive.</p> + +<p>We toiled along so slowly, and the wretched little brook, whose bed we +strove to follow, described such a wandering course, and was so often +rendered fairly impassable by rocks, driftwood, and overhanging thicket, +that when the sun hung due south above us we had covered barely half our +journey, and confronted still the hardest portion of it. We were so +exhausted when this noon hour came, too, that I could make no objection +when Enoch declared his purpose of getting some trout from the brook, and +cooking them. Besides, we were far enough away from the river highway and +from all habitations now to render the thing practically safe. Accordingly +I lighted a small fire of the driest wood to be found, while the trapper +stole up and down the brook, moving with infinite stealth and dexterity, +tracking down fish and catching them with his hands under the stones.</p> + +<p>Soon he had enough for a meal--and, my word! it was a feast for emperors +or angels. We stuffed the pink dainties with mint, and baked them in balls +of clay. It seemed as if I had not eaten before in years.</p> + +<p>We tried to rouse Cross sufficiently to enable him to eat, and in a small +way succeeded; but the effect upon him was scarcely beneficial, it +appeared to us. His fever increased, and when we started out once more +under our burden, the motion inseparable from our progress affected his +head, and he began to talk incoherently to himself.</p> + +<p>Nothing can be imagined more weird and startling than was the sound of +this voice above us, when we first heard it. Both Enoch and I +instinctively stopped. For the moment we could not tell whence the sound +came, and I know not what wild notions about it flashed through my mind. +Even when we realized that it was the fever-loosed tongue of our companion +which spoke, the effect was scarcely less uncanny. Though I could not see +him, the noise of his ceaseless talking came from a point close to my +head; he spoke for the most part in a bold, high voice--unnaturally raised +above the pitch of his recent faint waking utterances. Whenever a fallen +log or jutting bowlder gave us a chance to rest our load without the +prospect of too much work in hoisting it again, we would set the canoe +down, and that moment his lips would close. There seemed to be some occult +connection between the motion of our walking and the activity of his +disordered brain.</p> + +<p>For a long time--of course in a very disconnected way--he babbled about +his mother, and of people, presumably English, of whom I knew nothing, +save that one name, Digby, was that of his elder brother Then there began +to be interwoven with this talk stray mention of Daisy's name, and soon +the whole discourse was of her.</p> + +<p>The freaks of delirium have little significance, I believe, as clews to +the saner courses of the mind, but he spoke only gently in his imaginary +speeches to his wife. I had to listen, plodding wearily along with aching +shoulders under the burden of the boat, to fond, affectionate words +addressed to her in an incessant string. The thread of his ideas seemed to +be that he had arrived home, worn-out and ill, and that he was resting his +head upon her bosom. Over and over again, with tiresome iteration, he kept +entreating plaintively: "You <i>are</i> glad to see me? You do <i>truly</i> forgive +me, and love me?"</p> + +<p>Nothing could have been sadder than to hear him. I reasoned that this +ceaseless dwelling upon the sweets of a tender welcome doubtless reflected +the train of his thoughts during the journey down from the battle-field. +He had forborne to once mention Daisy's name during the whole voyage, but +he must have thought deeply, incessantly of her--in all likelihood with a +great softening of heart and yearning for her compassionate nursing. It +was not in me to be unmoved by this. I declare that as I went painfully +forward, with this strangely pathetic song of passion repeating itself in +my ears, I got fairly away from the habit of mind in which my own love for +Daisy existed, and felt myself only an agent in the working out of some +sombre and exalted romance.</p> + +<p>In Foxe's account of the English martyrs there are stories of men at the +stake who, when a certain stage of the torture was reached, really forgot +their anguish in the emotional ecstasy of the ideas born of that terrible +moment. In a poor and imperfect fashion I approached that same strange +state--not far removed, in sober fact, from the delirium of the man in +the canoe.</p> + +<p>The shadows were lengthening in the woods, and the reddening blaze of the +sun flared almost level in our eyes through the tree-trunks, when at last +we had crossed the water-shed of the two creeks, and stood looking down +into the gulf of which I have so often spoken heretofore.</p> + +<p>We rested the canoe upon a great rock in the mystic circle of ancient +Indian fire worship, and leaned, tired and panting, against its side. My +arm was giving me much pain, and what with insufficient food and feverish +sleep, great immediate fatigue, and the vast nervous strain of these past +six days, I was well-nigh swooning.</p> + +<p>"I fear I can go no farther, Enoch," I groaned. "I can barely keep my feet +as it is."</p> + +<p>The trapper himself was as close to utter exhaustion as one may be and +have aught of spirit left, yet he tried to speak cheerily.</p> + +<p>"Come, come!" he said, "we mustn't give out now, right here at the +finish. Why, it's only down over that bridge, and up again--and there +we are!"</p> + +<p>I smiled in a sickly way at him, and strove to nerve myself manfully for a +final exertion. "Very well," I made answer. "Just a moment's more rest, +and we'll at it again."</p> + +<p>While we stood half reclining against the bowlder, looking with +trepidation at the stiff ascent before us on the farther side of the gulf, +the scene of the old quarrel of our youth suddenly came to my mind.</p> + +<p>"Do you see that spruce near the top, by the path--the one hanging over +the edge? Five years ago I was going to fight this Philip Cross there, on +that path. My little nigger Tulp ran between us, and he threw him head +over heels to the bottom. The lad has never been himself since."</p> + +<p>"Pretty tolerable fall," remarked Enoch, glancing down the precipitous, +brush-clad wall of rock. "But a nigger lands on his head as a cat does on +her feet, and it only scratches him where it would kill anybody else."</p> + +<p>We resumed our burden now, and made our way with it down the winding path +to the bottom. Here I was fain to surrender once for all.</p> + +<p>"It is no use, Enoch," I said, resolutely. "I can't even try to climb up +there with this load. You must wait here; I will go ahead to Cairncross, +prepare them for his coming, and send down some slaves to fetch him the +rest of the way."</p> + +<hr width="80%" size="1" /> + +<p>The great square mansion reared before me a closed and inhospitable front. +The shutters of all the windows were fastened. Since the last rain no +wheels had passed over the carriage-way. For all the signs of life +visible, Cairncross might have been uninhabited a twelve-month.</p> + +<p>It was only when I pushed my way around to the rear of the house, within +view of the stables and slave quarters, that I learned the place had not +been abandoned. Half a dozen niggers, dressed in their holiday, +church-going raiment, were squatting in a close circle on the grass, +intent upon the progress of some game. Their interest in this was so deep +that I had drawn near to them, and called a second time, before they +became aware of my presence.</p> + +<p>They looked for a minute at me in a perplexed way--my mud-baked clothes, +unshaven face, and general unkempt condition evidently rendering me a +stranger in their eyes. Then one of them screamed: "Golly! Mass' Douw's +ghost!" and the nimble cowards were on their feet and scampering like +scared rabbits to the orchard, or into the basement of the great house.</p> + +<p>So I was supposed to be dead! Curiously enough, it had not occurred to me +before that this would be the natural explanation of my failure to return +with the others. The idea now gave me a queer quaking sensation about the +heart, and I stood stupidly staring at the back balcony of the house, with +my mind in a whirl of confused thoughts. It seemed almost as if I <i>had</i> +come back from the grave.</p> + +<p>While I still stood, faint and bewildered, trying to regain control of my +ideas, the door opened, and a white-faced lady, robed all in black, came +swiftly out upon the porch. It was Daisy, and she was gazing at me with +distended eyes and parted lips, and clinging to the carved balustrade +for support.</p> + +<p>As in a dream I heard her cry of recognition, and knew that she was +gliding toward me. Then I was on my knees at her feet, burying my face in +the folds of her dress, and moaning incoherent nothings from sheer +exhaustion and rapture.</p> + +<p>When at last I could stand up, and felt myself coming back to something +like self-possession, a score of eager questions and as many outbursts of +deep thanksgiving were in my ears--all from her sweet voice. And I had +tongue for none of them, but only looked into her dear face, and patted +her hands between mine, and trembled like a leaf with excitement. So much +was there to say, the sum of it beggared language.</p> + +<p>When finally we did talk, I was seated in a great chair one of the slaves +had brought upon the sward, and wine had been fetched me, and my dear girl +bent gently over me from behind, softly resting my head against her waist, +her hands upon my arms.</p> + +<p>"You shall not look me in the face again," she said--with ah! such +compassionate, tender playfulness--"until I have been told. How did you +escape? Were you a prisoner? Were you hurt?"--and oh! a host of +other things.</p> + +<p>Suddenly the sky seemed to be covered with blackness, and the joy in my +heart died out as by the stroke of death. I had remembered something. My +parched and twitching lips did their best to refuse to form the words:</p> + +<p>"I have brought Philip home. He is sorely wounded. Send the slaves to +bring him from the gulf."</p> + +<p>After a long silence, I heard Daisy's voice, clear and without a tremor, +call out to the blacks that their master had been brought as far as the +gulf beyond, and needed assistance. They started off helter-skelter at +this, with many exclamations of great surprise, a bent and misshapen +figure dragging itself with a grotesque limping gait at their tail.</p> + +<p>I rose from my chair, now in some measure restored to calmness and cold +resolution. In mercy I had been given a brief time of blind happiness--of +bliss without the alloy of a single thought. Now I must be a man, and walk +erect, unflinching, to the sacrifice.</p> + +<p>"Let us go and meet them. It is best," I said. The poor girl raised her +eyes to mine, and their startled, troubled gaze went to my heart. There +must have been prodigious effort in the self-command of her tone to the +slaves, for her voice broke down utterly now, as she faltered:</p> + +<p>"You have--brought--him home! For what purpose? How will this all end? It +terrifies me!"</p> + +<p>We had by tacit consent begun to walk down the path toward the road. It +was almost twilight. I remember still how the swallows wheeled swiftly in +the air about the eaves, and how their twittering and darting seemed to +confuse and tangle my thoughts.</p> + +<p>The situation was too sad for silence. I felt the necessity of talking, of +uttering something which might, at least, make pretence of occupying these +wretched minutes, until I should say:</p> + +<p>"This is your husband--and farewell!"</p> + +<p>"It was clear enough to me," I said. "My duty was plain. I would have +been a murderer had I left him there to die. It was very strange about my +feelings. Up to a certain moment they were all bitter and merciless toward +him. So many better men than he were dead about me, it seemed little +enough that his life should go to help avenge them. Yet when the moment +came--why, I could not suffer it. Not that my heart relented--no; I was +still full of rage against him. But none the less it was my duty to save +his life."</p> + +<p>"And to bring him home to <i>me</i>." She spoke musingly, completing my +sentence.</p> + +<p>"Why, Daisy, would you have had it otherwise? Could I have left him there, +to die alone, helpless in the swamp?"</p> + +<p>"I have not said you were not right, Douw," she answered, with saddened +slowness. "But I am trying to think. It is so hard to realize--coming like +this. I was told you were both dead. His name was reported in their camp, +yours among our people. And now you are both here--and it is all so +strange, so startling--and what is right seems so mingled and bound up +with what is cruel and painful! Oh, I cannot think! What will come of it? +How will it all end?"</p> + +<p>"We must not ask how it will end!" I made answer, with lofty decision. +"That is not our affair. We can but do our duty--what seems clearly +right--and bear results as they come. There is no other way. You ought to +see this."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I ought to see it," she said, slowly and in a low, distressed voice.</p> + +<p>As she spoke there rose in my mind a sudden consciousness that perhaps my +wisdom was at fault. How was it that I--a coarse-fibred male animal, +returned from slaughter, even now with the blood of fellow-creatures on my +hands--should be discoursing of duty and of good and bad to this pure and +gentle and sweet-souled woman? What was my title to do this?--to rebuke +her for not seeing the right? Had I been in truth generous? Rather had I +not, in the purely selfish desire to win my own self-approbation, brought +pain and perplexity down upon the head of this poor woman? I had thought +much of my own goodness--my own strength of purpose and self-sacrifice and +fidelity to duty. Had I given so much as a mental glance at the effect of +my acts upon the one whom, of all others, I should have first guarded from +trouble and grief?</p> + +<p>My tongue was tied. Perhaps I had been all wrong. Perhaps I should not +have brought back to her the man whose folly and obstinacy had so +well-nigh wrecked her life. I could no longer be sure. I kept silence, +feeling indirectly now that her woman's instinct would be truer and better +than my logic. She was thinking; she would find the real right and wrong.</p> + +<p>Ah, no! To this day we are not settled in our minds, we two old people, as +to the exact balance between duty and common-sense in that strange +question of our far-away youth.</p> + +<p>There broke upon our ears, of a sudden, as we neared the wooded crest of +the gulf, a weird and piercing scream--an unnatural and repellent yell, +like a hyena's horrid hooting! It rose with terrible distinctness from the +thicket close before us. As its echoes returned, we heard confused sounds +of other voices, excited and vibrant.</p> + +<p>Daisy clutched my arm, and began hurrying me forward, impelled by some +formless fear of she knew not what.</p> + +<p>"It is Tulp," she murmured, as we went breathlessly on. "Oh, I should have +kept him back! Why did I not think of it?"</p> + +<p>"What about Tulp?" I asked, with difficulty keeping beside her in the +narrow path. "I had no thought of him. I did not see him. He was not among +the others, was he?"</p> + +<p>"He has gone mad!"</p> + +<p>"What--Tulp, poor boy? Oh, not as bad as that, surely! He has been strange +and slow of wit for years, but--"</p> + +<p>"Nay, the tidings of your death--you know I told you we heard that you +were dead--drove him into perfect madness. I doubt he knew you when you +came. Only yesterday we spoke of confining him, but poor old father +pleaded not. When you see Tulp, you shall decide. Oh! what has happened? +Who is this man?"</p> + +<p>In the path before us, some yards away, appeared the tall, gaunt form of +Enoch, advancing slowly. In the dusk of the wooded shades behind him +huddled the group of slaves. They bore nothing in their hands. Where was +the canoe? They seemed affrighted or oppressed by something out of the +common, and Enoch, too, wore a strange air. What could it mean?</p> + +<p>When Enoch saw us he lifted his hand in a warning gesture.</p> + +<p>"Have her go back!" he called out, with brusque sharpness.</p> + +<p>"Will you walk back a little?" I asked her. "There is something here we do +not understand. I will join you in a moment.</p> + +<p>"For God's sake, what is it, Enoch?" I demanded, as I confronted him. +"Tell me quick."</p> + +<p>"Well, we've had our five days' tussle for nothing, and you're minus a +nigger. That's about what it comes to."</p> + +<p>"Speak out, can't you! Is he dead? What was the yell we heard?"</p> + +<p>"It was all done like a flash of lightning. We were coming up the side +nighest us here--we had got just where that spruce, you know, hangs +over--when all at once that hump-backed nigger of yours raised a scream +like a painter, and flung himself head first against the canoe. Over it +went, and he with it--rip, smash, plumb to the bottom!"</p> + +<p>The negroes broke forth in a babel of mournful cries at this, and +clustered about us. I grew sick and faint under this shock of fresh +horrors, and was fain to lean on Enoch's arm, as I turned to walk back to +where I had left Daisy. She was not visible as we approached, and I closed +my eyes in abject terror of some further tragedy.</p> + +<p>Thank God, she had only swooned, and lay mercifully senseless in the tall +grass, her waxen face upturned in the twilight.</p> + + + + +<h2><a name="37"></a>Chapter XXXVII</h2> + +<h3>The Peaceful Ending of It All.</h3> + + + +<p>In the general paralysis of suffering and despair which rested now upon +the Valley, the terrible double tragedy of the gulf passed almost unnoted. +Women everywhere were mourning for the husbands, sons, lovers who would +never return. Fathers strove in vain to look dry-eyed at familiar places +which should know the brave lads--true boys of theirs--no more. The play +and prattle of children were hushed in a hundred homes where some honest +farmer's life, struck fiercely at by a savage or Tory, still hung in the +dread balance. Each day from some house issued forth the procession of +death, until all our little churchyards along the winding river had more +new graves than old--not to speak of that grim, unconsecrated God's-acre +in the forest pass, more cruel still to think upon. And with all this to +bear, there was no assurance that the morrow might not bring the torch and +tomahawk of invasion to our very doors.</p> + +<p>So our own strange tragedy had, as I have said, scant attention. People +listened to the recital, and made answer: "Both dead at the foot of the +cliff, eh? Have you heard how William Seeber is to-day?" or "Is it true +that Herkimer's leg must be cut off?"</p> + +<p>In those first few days there was little enough heart to measure or boast +of the grandeur of the fight our simple Valley farmers had waged, there in +the ambushed ravine of Oriskany. Still less was there at hand information +by the light of which the results of that battle could be estimated. +Nothing was known, at the time of which I write, save that there had been +hideous slaughter, and that the invaders had forborne to immediately +follow our shattered forces down the Valley. It was not until much +later--until definite news came not only of St. Leger's flight back to +Canada, but of the capture of the whole British army at Saratoga--that the +men of the Mohawk began to comprehend what they had really done.</p> + +<p>To my way of thinking, they have ever since been unduly modest about this +truly historic achievement. As I wrote long ago, we of New York have +chosen to make money, and to allow our neighbors to make histories. Thus +it happens that the great decisive struggle of the whole long war for +Independence--the conflict which, in fact, made America free--is suffered +to pass into the records as a mere frontier skirmish. Yet, if one will but +think, it is as clear as daylight that Oriskany was the turning-point of +the war. The Palatines, who had been originally colonized on the upper +Mohawk by the English to serve as a shield against savagery for their own +Atlantic settlements, reared a barrier of their own flesh and bones, there +at Oriskany, over which St. Leger and Johnson strove in vain to pass. That +failure settled everything. The essential feature of Burgoyne's plan had +been that this force, which we so roughly stopped and turned back in the +forest defile, should victoriously sweep down our Valley, raising the Tory +gentry as they progressed, and join him at Albany. If that had been done, +he would have held the whole Hudson, separating the rest of the colonies +from New England, and having it in his power to punish and subdue, first +the Yankees, then the others at his leisure.</p> + +<p>Oriskany prevented this! Coming as it did, at the darkest hour of +Washington's trials and the Colonies' despondency, it altered the face of +things as gloriously as does the southern sun rising swiftly upon the +heels of night. Burgoyne's expected allies never reached him; he was +compelled, in consequence, to surrender--and from that day there was no +doubt who would in the long-run triumph.</p> + +<p>Therefore, I say, all honor and glory to the rude, unlettered, great +souled yeomen of the Mohawk Valley, who braved death in the wildwood gulch +at Oriskany that Congress and the free Colonies might live.</p> + +<p>But in these first few days, be it repeated, nobody talked or thought much +of glory. There were too many dead left behind--too many maimed and +wounded brought home--to leave much room for patriotic meditations around +the saddened hearth-stones. And personal grief was everywhere too deep and +general to make it possible that men should care much about the strange +occurrence by which Philip and Tulp lost their lives together in the gulf.</p> + +<p>I went on the following day to my mother, and she and my sister Margaret +returned with me to Cairncross, to relieve from smaller cares, as much as +might be, our poor dear girl. All was done to shield both her and the +stricken old gentleman, our common second father, from contact with +material reminders of the shock that had fallen upon us, and as soon as +possible afterward they were both taken to Albany, out of reach of the +scene's sad suggestions.</p> + +<p>From the gulf's bottom, where Death had dealt his double stroke, the +soldier's remains were borne one way, to his mansion; the slave's the +other, to his old home at the Cedars. Between their graves the turbulent +stream still dashes, the deep ravine still yawns. For years I could not +visit the spot without hearing, in and above the ceaseless shouting of the +waters, poor mad Tulp's awful death-scream.</p> + +<p>During the month immediately following the event, my time was closely +engaged in public work. It was my melancholy duty to go up to the Falls to +represent General Schuyler and Congress at the funeral of brave old +Brigadier Nicholas Herkimer, who succumbed to the effects of an unskilful +amputation ten days after the battle. A few days later I went with Arnold +and his relieving force up the Valley, saw the siege raised and the flood +of invasion rolled back, and had the delight of grasping Peter Gansevoort, +the stout commander of the long-beleaguered garrison, once more by the +hand. On my return I had barely time to lease the Cedars to a good tenant, +and put in train the finally successful efforts to save Cairncross from +confiscation, when I was summoned to Albany to attend upon my chief. It +was none too soon, for my old wounds had broken out again, under the +exposure and travail of the trying battle week, and I was more fit for a +hospital than for the saddle.</p> + +<p>I found the kindliest of nursing and care in my old quarters in the +Schuyler mansion. It was there, one morning in January of the new year +1778, that a quiet wedding breakfast was celebrated for Daisy and me; and +neither words nor wishes could have been more tender had we been truly the +children of the great man, Philip Schuyler, and his good dame. The exact +date of this ceremony does not matter; let it be kept sacred within the +knowledge of us two old people, who look back still to it as to the +sunrise of a new long day, peaceful, serene, and almost cloudless, and not +less happy even now because the ashen shadows of twilight begin gently to +gather over it.</p> + +<p>Though the war had still the greater half of its course to run, my part +thereafter in it was far removed from camp and field. No opportunity came +to me to see fighting again, or to rise beyond my major's estate. Yet I +was of as much service, perhaps, as though I had been out in the thick of +the conflict; certainly Daisy was happier to have it so.</p> + +<p>Twice during the year 1780 did we suffer grievous material loss at the +hands of the raiding parties which malignant Sir John Johnson piloted into +the Valley of his birth. In one of these the Cairncross mansion was rifled +and burned, and the tenants despoiled and driven into the woods. This +meant a considerable monetary damage to us; yet our memories of the place +were all so sad that its demolition seemed almost a relief, particularly +as Enoch, to whom we had presented a freehold of the wilder part of the +grant, that nearest the Sacondaga, miraculously escaped molestation.</p> + +<p>But it was a genuine affliction when, later in the year, Sir John +personally superintended the burning down of the dear old Cedars, the home +of our youth. If I were able to forgive him all other harm he has wrought, +alike to me and to his neighbors, this would still remain obstinately to +steel my heart against him, for he knew that we had been good to his wife, +and that we loved the place better than any other on earth. We were very +melancholy over this for a long time, and, to the end of his placid days +of second childhood passed with us, we never allowed Mr. Stewart to learn +of it. But even here there was the recompense that the ruffians, though +they crossed the river and frightened the women into running for safety to +the woods, did not pursue them, and thus my mother and sisters, along with +Mrs. Romeyn and others, escaped. Alas! that the Tory brutes could not also +have forborne to slay on his own doorstep my godfather, honest old +Douw Fonda!</p> + +<p>There was still another raid upon the Valley the ensuing year, but it +touched us only in that it brought news of the violent death of Walter +Butler, slain on the bank of the East Canada Creek by the Oneida chief +Skenandoah. Both Daisy and I had known him from childhood, and had in the +old times been fond of him. Yet there had been so much innocent blood +upon those delicate hands of his, before they clutched the gravel on the +lonely forest stream's edge in their death-grasp, that we could scarcely +wish him alive again.</p> + +<p>Our first boy was born about this time--a dark-skinned, brawny man-child +whom it seemed the most natural thing in the world to christen Douw. He +bears the name still, and on the whole, though he has forgotten all the +Dutch I taught him, bears it creditably.</p> + +<p>In the mid-autumn of the next year--it was in fact the very day on which +the glorious news of Yorktown reached Albany--a second little boy was +born. He was a fair-haired, slender creature, differing from the other as +sunshine differs from thunder-clouds. He had nothing like the other's +breadth of shoulders or strength of lung and limb, and we petted him +accordingly, as is the wont of parents.</p> + +<p>When the question of his name came up, I sat, I remember, by his mother's +bedside, holding her hand in mine, and we both looked down upon the tiny, +fair babe nestled upon her arm.</p> + +<p>"Ought we not to call him for the dear old father--give him the two names, +'Thomas' and 'Stewart'?" I asked.</p> + +<p>Daisy stroked the child's hair gently, and looked with tender melancholy +into my eyes.</p> + +<p>"I have been thinking," she murmured, "thinking often of late--it is all +so far behind us now, and time has passed so sweetly and softened so much +our memories of past trouble and of the--the dead--I nave been thinking, +dear, that it would be a comfort to have the lad called Philip."</p> + +<p>I sat for a long time thus by her side, and we talked more freely than we +had ever done before of him who lay buried by the ruined walls of +Cairncross. Time had indeed softened much. We spoke of him now with gentle +sorrow--as of a friend whose life had left somewhat to be desired, yet +whose death had given room for naught but pity. He had been handsome and +fearless and wilful--and unfortunate; our minds were closed against any +harsher word. And it came about that when it was time for me to leave the +room, and I bent over to kiss lightly the sleeping infant, I was glad in +my heart that he was to be called Philip. Thus he was called, and though +the General was his godfather at the old Dutch church, we did not conceal +from him that the Philip for whom the name was given was another. It was +easily within Schuyler's kindly nature to comprehend the feelings which +prompted us, and I often fancied he was even the fonder of the child +because of the link formed by his name with his parents' time of grief and +tragic romance.</p> + +<p>In truth, we all made much of this light-haired, beautiful, imperious +little boy, who from the beginning quite cast into the shade his elder and +slower brother, the dusky-skinned and patient Douw. Old Mr. Stewart, in +particular, became dotingly attached to the younger lad, and scarce could +bear to have him out of sight the whole day long. It was a pretty +spectacle indeed--one which makes my old heart yearn in memory, even +now--to see the simple, soft-mannered, childish patriarch gravely +obeying the whims and freaks of the boy, and finding the chief delight of +his waning life in being thus commanded. Sometimes, to be sure, my heart +smote me with the fear that poor quiet Master Douw felt keenly underneath +his calm exterior this preference, and often, too, I grew nervous lest our +fondness was spoiling the younger child. But it was not in us to +resist him.</p> + +<p>The little Philip died suddenly, in his sixth year, and within the month +Mr. Stewart followed him. Great and overpowering as was our grief, it +seemed almost perfunctory beside the heart-breaking anguish of the old +man. He literally staggered and died under the blow.</p> + +<hr width="80%" size="1" /> + +<p>There is no story in the rest of my life. The years have flowed on as +peacefully, as free from tempest or excitement, as the sluggish waters of +a Delft canal. No calamity has since come upon us; no great trial or large +advancement has stirred the current of our pleasant existence. Having +always a sufficient hold upon the present, with means to live in comfort, +and tastes not leading into venturesome ways for satisfaction, it has come +to be to us, in our old age, a deep delight to look backward together. We +seem now to have walked from the outset hand in hand. The joys of our +childhood and youth spent under one roof--the dear smoky, raftered roof, +where hung old Dame Kronk's onions and corn and perfumed herbs--are very +near to us. There comes between this scene of sunlight and the not less +peaceful radiance of our later life, it is true, the shadow for a time of +a dark curtain. Yet, so good and generous a thing is memory, even this +interruption appears now to have been but of a momentary kind, and has for +us no harrowing side. As I wrote out the story, page by page, it seemed to +both of us that all these trials, these tears, these bitter feuds and +fights, must have happened to others, not to us--so swallowed up in +happiness are the griefs of those young years, and so free are our hearts +from scars.</p> +<br /> +<br /> +<hr /> +<br /> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of In the Valley, by Harold Frederic + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN THE VALLEY *** + +***** This file should be named 9787-h.htm or 9787-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/9/7/8/9787/ + +Produced by Project Gutenberg Distributed Proofreaders + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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