Altsheler, Joseph - [Novel 05]

by A Herald Of The West (lit)

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  take the chances of the missiles hurled by the wind, and escape.

  My bones ached as I ran, and in a few seconds I was drenched with the rain, but I kept on with a good heart» and, unchallenged by any soldier, passed out of Washing ton and into the country. I entered the woods first and came then to the river, of which I drank and in which I bathed; then I swam across it, hoping to find our people somewhere on the other side. It was still raining, though the full strength of the hurricane had passed, and the warm soil steamed with the great amount of water that had fallen; my feet sank in the soft earth, and I looked around with a certain despair at the lonely and abandoned country. Cyrus Pendleton undoubtedly had reached Marian in Georgetown, but where they were now was more than I could guess, and finding them looked like a hopeless task. But there was a chance that I might meet some straggler who would give me news of the fugitive Government, and cherishing this belief I plodded on, for it was likely that the fur trader would follow the President.

  I was sure of only one thing, and that was the rain; the clouds were without a break, and the rain came down in steady monotonous sheets that gave no promise of ceasing. My spirits assumed the leaden hue of the sky, but at the end of an hour I hailed with the delight of a shipwrecked sailor the distant sight of a figure in the uni form of an American marine. The man seemed to be waiting for me, and I was sure that he had seen me before I saw him. As I approached I recognised him as the sailor Patterson. He held his drawn cutlass in his hand, and his attitude caused me to look more closely at his face, which seemed unnatural.

  " It's a lucky chance that you've come, Mr. Ten Broeck," he said. " I want you to be my second."

  "Your second?"

  " Yes, I'm going to fight a duel."

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  "With whom? "

  " An old friend of mine; he's close by, though he doesn't know I'm here."

  It was a flash of intuition that told me the man he meant, and from that moment I was as sure of his iden tity as if I had seen him myself.

  " Some British parties then have crossed the river? " I said.

  " Yes, several, hut all are small, as they are merely scouting; ours is not fifty yards away, and there are only two in it."

  " Lead on then, and I'll follow."

  He pushed his way through the hushes, which, soaked with rain, made no noise but a soft rustling as we passed, and in a minute or two we came upon them.

  Allyn, formerly of the Guerriere, was standing under the thick boughs of a large tree, and with him was a British grenadier. I suppose they had become separated from a larger detachment and had sought temporary refuge there from the rain. Their hands flew to their weapons as they saw us approach, but I had covered them with my pistol, which had remained dry in its holster, and they desisted.

  "You don't know me, Lieutenant Allyn," said Pat terson.

  " No, I do not," said Allyn.

  " I served under you on the Guerriere," said Patter son, " and I have ample cause to remember it. I was about to kill you once, to stab you in the back, but Mr. Ten Broeck here saved your life, and now I'll give you a fair chance for it."

  I think he had not recognised me before, as I had been walking through the Virginia mud, and I was cov ered with it. Now he gave a slight nod.

  The sailor told him to draw his sword and fight, and he refused, saying that Patterson was beneath him in rank, whereupon Patterson picked up a handful of mud

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  and threw it in his face. Then he drew his sword and slashed furiously at the sailor. The grenadier and I stepped to one side, and, in the pouring rain and under the sombre clouds which chased each other in battalions across the sky, the two men fought, each with murder in his heart and furious malice burning in his eye.

  I would have stopped it, for I saw that the duel meant death and nothing else, and I did not wish to look on at such things, but it was too late to prevent it now, as to interfere meant only the hampering of one or the other. So the grenadier, who seemed to be a decent fel low, and I drew closer together, following the fight with our eyes as it surged to and fro, forgetting the rain that was drenching us, and that he and I, too, should be enemies.

  The sailor carried the heavier weapon, but Allyn's had the advantage of length, and thus they were on equal terms in arms, as they seemed to be in size and strength. At first it was cut and thrust with such rapidity that we could only follow the gleaming of their polished sword blades, but presently each saw that exhaustion would soon follow such efforts, and though their anger did not abate they fought with more caution and steadiness.

  Back and forth they tramped over the slippery grass and through the sticky mud. The breath of both came heavily and the sweat appeared upon their faces, which were flushed and drawn, but they fought on, their wet clothes flapping about them and the soft earth trampled into a mire by their feet. The rain did not blow in their faces, but came straight down on their heads and gave no advantage to either. The evening was far advanced, and the light, weakened already by the heavy clouds, was waning. The shadow of the dusk fell on the faces of the duellists.

  " Wliich will win?" asked the grenadier, as he stepped a little closer to me with an instinctive feeling of comradeship.

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  " An even chance, I would say."

  So it seemed to me. The officer drove the man back, and then the man drove the officer back, but the arm and eye of each were still steady. Allyn presently made a swift thrust at the sailor's heart. His blade nicked in like lightning, but the sailor, catching the thrust on his cutlass, turned it aside, and his heavy steel flashed back, to be stopped by a parry of equal swiftness and skill. Then they stood apart for a few moments, still drawing deep breaths, but never taking their eyes off each other. The odds on either were not worth a straw.

  They began again, and Allyn sought to keep a greater distance, where the superior length of his blade would avail him against the man whom he had bullied and given often in the old times to the lash. For a while he kept the chance, and a swift thrust of his sword, which Patterson could not parry, drew a few drops of blood from the sailor's arm. Allyn's face showed his savage delight at the red drops, which he took to be the signs of victory. But the sailor was not daunted by the break ing of his skin, and his eyes seemed to grow colder and his arm steadier. His skill with the cutlass was sur prising, and the prick in his arm was a spur to him. He shut his teeth now, and, throwing one foot well forward, began to press Allyn with swift blows that the officer needed all his skill for defence to parry, and the blades rang across each other as blow after blow was given and parried and given again.

  I saw then that the sailor had been saving his strength and was the stronger and better swordsman of the two, and Allyn himself must have seen it, for his face grew livid and the fear of death appeared in his eye.

  Neither spoke a word from the beginning of the battle until its end, and there was no sound in the wet forest save the ring of steel, the shuffling of feet over the soft earth, and the broken breathing of the combatants. Thus they fought in the waning light; and as Allyn gave

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  back inch by inch before his enemy, the dusk was not too great to keep me from seeing the fear of death grow in his eyes. I felt sorry for the man, in my soul I did, and despite the dangers of the flashing swords I was about to step forward and interfere, but the grenadier himself, Allyn's own man, divining my intention, put his hand on my arm and said:

  " You can not; you will merely receive a wound your self, and give the advantage to one or the other."

  Allyn made a desperate thrust at the sailor. It was his last chance, for the blade was turned aside, and the next instant the cutlass reached his heart. He sank down in a heap, dying as he had fought, without a word.

  " Good-bye, Mr. Ten Broeck," said the sailor; " I owe you for a favour you did me once, and I wish you luck. Keep straight on
five miles, and you will find the Govern ment of the United States in a little tavern in an apple orchard."

  He turned to go, but seemed to remember something, and said to the British soldier:

  " As for you, you had better follow your army as fast as you can, for it's leaving Washington and hurrying to its ships."

  Then he was gone in the forest. I never saw him again, but I heard years afterward of a petty officer of his name who distinguished himself for gallantry again and again aboard the old Enterprise in her cruises against the West Indian pirates.

  What he said about the English army was true, though we did not know it as a certainty until some time afterward, for its general, Ross, grew alarmed, and his own fears creating an overwhelming hostile force ready to fall upon him and crush him, he fled with his troops from the devastated city, first to Bladensburg, where the dead of both sides yet lay unburied, and, abandoning his wounded there to the care of any Americans that might come, continued his flight with Cockburn to the ships

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  of the British fleet, leaving behind him a scene of wanton outrage and desolation, a picture of fire and blood which often rises up before an American, however much he may feel his kinship with the English, and however fiercely even then the better England condemned the act.

  But of this flight I knew nothing then, save what Patterson had told, and saying to the British soldier that he and I had no quarrel, I suggested that if he would pur sue his army I would pursue my Government.

  " One death is enough," he said, and, saluting me, he went southward. I placed Allyn's hat over his face, cer tain that some farmer would find him the next day and bury him, and hurried on in the direction Patterson had indicated. I came presently into a sort of road through the forest, and, sure that it was the right way, I followed it with diligence and patience, though the night came in half an hour and the rain never ceased to fall.

  It was slow work in the mud and darkness for one who was worn to the bone and near to starvation, but I persevered, and had my reward, for after a long time I saw three or four tiny points of light twinkling through the wet, dark forest, and came presently to an orchard of apple trees, which I knew to be the place designated, for in its centre rose the formless shape of a building of some size. Half a dozen horses hitched to a rail fence neighed as I approached the tavern, or farm house rather, and a man, rushing from some small outbuilding, hailed me in trembling tones, and putting a pistol to my head demanded my name.

  " Down with your pistol," I said; " Fm the American army coming from a glorious field to report a glorious victory to the Government. Is the President in the house there? "

  The man laughed in a hysterical way and went with me to the door.

  " Yes, he's in there."

  I pushed open the door, and entering, opposed by no

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  one, stood in what must have been the chief room of the tavern. It was occupied now by about a dozen men, two or three of whom slept on wooden settees, while the others sat in chairs, their heads leaned against the wall, grim and silent. Most of them wore uniforms spattered with mud. A dim candle burned in a wooden sconce, its flame staggering like the reel of a drunkard, and that was the only light in the room.

  In the muddy, brooding man nearest the door I rec ognised Cyrus Pendleton, new lines added to the multi tude that seamed his face, his eyes sunken and lustreless. I walked up and spoke to him, and he shook hands with me, saying that he was glad to see, me, but speaking with out surprise or curiosity.

  "Marian?" I said.

  " In there; safe, but worn out," he replied, nodding toward a door.

  " Have you told her of Bidwell? "

  " Yes."

  I asked no more about Marian just then, but related the sack of the capital and how I had witnessed it.

  " What a shame! What a disgrace, Philip! " he said. "With a thousand more regular troops we could have beaten them, but those clerks and farmers had to run away! "

  Then his own old spirit flamed up with a suddenness surprising after a depression so great.

  " But we'll have other chances, Phil, my lad," he said, " and we'll beat them yet, for with equal leaders and training and arms we're better than they are, man for man, and we've shown it. What's Washington any way but a village, open to the sea without defences? And what was its taking but a raid of pirates? Never mind, we'll beat them; they haven't met our real soldiers yet."

  He talked in this way for some time, but the others paid no heed and seemed to be sunk in the lethargy of exhaustion and despair. I was able to find some food

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  in the tavern, and when I had eaten it Cyrus Pendleton told me that the President wished to see me.

  " Come as you are/' he said; " you are not a dandy just now, but neither is the President."

  I followed him into an inner room, more brightly lighted than the outer, for it had two tallow candles to the latter's one, though no better off in the matter of furniture. The President sat in a willow rocking chair, his face pale, drawn, and very old. His wife had been dozing on a settee, a piece of ragged carpet serving as a blanket, but she opened her eyes as I entered. Hers was the most spirited and courageous face that I had seen since I left Washington, but she said nothing while I bowed to her and to the President.

  " I am glad to see you here and to know that you are safe, Mr. Ten Broeck," said Mr. Madison, speaking with dignity. " Mr. Gallatin is your very good friend; I am too, I hope, and as you have been of some service to us already we want you to do another thing for us, per haps the greatest of them all."

  I bowed and said nothing, waiting for him to con tinue.

  " This raid upon Washington," said the President, speaking with great emphasis, " is not the most impor tant plan of the British. Washington has no military value, and they know they could not hold it even if it had. But they are organizing a far more powerful ex pedition against a much weaker portion of the coun try, and it is their object to detach it from the Union and keep it forever. We have positive information on that point from our agents abroad, received only yes terday."

  I listened with the deepest attention.

  "The British are going to strike at New Orleans," he continued, " and they think of nothing there but suc cess. Along the Canadian border we have powerful ar mies to face, our troops there will be busy; here in the

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  Chesapeake and Potomac we have the armies and squad rons of Boss and Cockburn to fight. New Orleans is thousands of miles away from the old and populous por tions of the Union. We can send no help from here; it is only the new men beyond the mountains, the Kentucki- ans and Tennesseeans, who can save it. We want them to know of this projected invasion and to meet it. You must start in the morning for Kentucky. I will give you a letter to the Governor of the State, warning him of what we expect, and every hour you save in its delivery will be precious. Can you ride far and fast?"

  I bowed and said nothing, but my heart was throbbing at this fresh trust and my eager desire to be with my brethren of the West and meet the new danger.

  " The backwoodsmen must be raised," he continued, " and when they are raised you can go with them to New Orleans if you choose."

  I would most certainly choose.

  " But don't think that you are too important," he continued with a little smile. " You are not the only man to ride toward the Alleghanies with this news, for the more widely it is spread among us the better. You and Mr. Pendleton, who is to go with you, will be the first to start; see that you are the first to arrive. We have some good horses here, choose the best of them in the morning, and when you start your letter will be ready for you."

  I bowed again and thanked him for the honour of the mission and his trust in me, and started to leave the room.

  "Tell the women of Kentucky," said Mrs. Madison, " that they must send their sons and brothers and hus bands to New Orleans to fight for their country.
Give them that message from me."

  I promised, and hunted a corner in the outer room where I might sleep, feeling so tired that I was forced to leave the preparations for my journey until the morning.

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  I was not surprised that Cyrus Pendleton should be going with me to the West, for with this new danger menacing us his interest and inclination alike would call him there, but as my eyes closed in slumber I wondered dimly what would become of Marian. I was aroused beyond midnight by an alarm that the British were at hand, and as none knew that it was false the President and his wife fled to a little hovel deep in the forest, where they re mained until day.

  I was so much worn that I would have taken the chance and remained where I was, but being a messenger now for the West, and of some importance too, I fancied, I felt that I had no right to run the least risk, and I went out again in the wet, soggy night to follow the President to the hovel. I saw Cyrus Pendleton at the door, and beside him the straight, tall figure of a young woman, wrapped in a long, dark cloak. It was Marian. Even had her face been invisible I would have known her.

  " Philip/' she exclaimed, holding out both her hands. " We did not know what had become of you."

  Her voice showed her joy and her eyes shone in the darkness.

  I took her warm hands in mine and gave them a strong clasp, even though her father looked on. Time and place were not usual, and one did not expect con ventional manners.

  " We have been defeated, Marian," I said.