WHEREIN THE READER IS INTRODUCED TO TWO WORTHIES WITH WHOM HE IS LIKELY
TO FORM AN INTIMATE ACQUAINTANCE.
It was about two o'clock in the afternoon of a day towards the end of
July, 1780, when Captain Arthur Butler, now holding a brevet, some ten
days old, of major in the continental army, and Galbraith Robinson were
seen descending the long hill which separates the South Garden from the
Cove. They had just left the rich and mellow scenery of the former
district, and were now passing into the picturesque valley of the
latter. It was evident from the travel-worn appearance of their horses,
as well as from their equipments, that they had journeyed many a mile
before they had reached this spot; and it might also have been perceived
that the shifting beauties of the landscape were not totally disregarded
by Butler, at least,--as he was seen to halt on the summit of the hill,
turn and gaze back upon the wood-embowered fields that lay beneath his
eye, and by lively gestures to direct the notice of his companion to the
same quarter. Often, too, as they moved slowly downward, he reined up
his steed to contemplate more at leisure the close, forest-shaded ravine
before them, through which the Cove creek held its noisy way. It was not
so obvious that his companion responded to the earnest emotions which
this wild and beautiful scenery excited in his mind.
Arthur Butler was now in the possession of the vigor of early manhood,
with apparently some eight and twenty years upon his head. His frame was
well proportioned, light and active. His face, though distinguished by a
smooth and almost beardless cheek, still presented an outline of decided
manly beauty. The sun and wind had tanned his complexion, except where a
rich volume of black hair upon his brow had preserved the original
fairness of a high, broad forehead. A hazel eye sparkled under the
shade of a dark lash, and indicated, by its alternate playfulness and
decision, an adventurous as well as a cheerful spirit. His whole
bearing, visage and figure, seemed to speak of one familiar with
enterprise and fond of danger:--they denoted gentle breeding
predominating over a life of toil and privation.
Notwithstanding his profession, which was seen in his erect and
peremptory carriage, his dress, at this time, was, with some slight
exceptions, merely civil. And here, touching this matter of dress, I
have a prefatory word to say to my reader. Although custom, or the
fashion of the story-telling craft, may require that I should satisfy
the antiquarian in this important circumstance of apparel of the days
gone by, yet, on the present occasion, I shall be somewhat chary of my
lore in that behalf;--seeing that any man who is curious on the score of
the costume of the revolution time, may be fully satisfied by studying
those most graphic "counterfeit presentments" of sundry historical
passages of that day, wherewith Colonel Trumbull has furnished this age,
for the edification of posterity, in the great rotunda of the Capitol of
the United States. And I confess, too, I have another reason for my
present reluctance,--as I feel some faint misgiving lest my principal
actor might run the risk of making a sorry figure with the living
generation, were I to introduce him upon the stage in a coat, whose
technical description, after the manner of a botanical formula, might
be comprised in the following summary:--long-waisted--wide-skirted--
narrow-collared--broad-backed--big-buttoned--and large-lapelled;--and
then to add to this, what would be equally outlandish, yellow
small-clothes, and dark-topped boots, attached by a leather strap to the
buttons at the knee,--without which said boots, no gentleman in 1780
ventured to mount on horseback.
But when I say that Captain Butler travelled on his present journey,
habited in the civil costume of a gentleman of the time, I do not mean
to exclude a round hat pretty much of the fashion of the present
day--though then but little used except amongst military men--with a
white cockade to show his party; nor do I wish to be considered as
derogating from that peaceful character when I add that his saddle-bow
was fortified by a brace of horseman's pistols, stowed away in large
holsters, covered with bear skin;--for, in those days, when hostile
banners were unfurled, and men challenged each other upon the highways,
these pistols were a part of the countenance (to use an excellent old
phrase) of a gentleman.
Galbraith Robinson was a man of altogether rougher mould. Nature had
carved out, in his person, an athlete whom the sculptors might have
studied to improve the Hercules. Every lineament of his body indicated
strength. His stature was rather above six feet; his chest broad; his
limbs sinewy, and remarkable for their symmetry. There seemed to be no
useless flesh upon his frame to soften the prominent surface of his
muscles; and his ample thigh, as he sat upon horseback, showed the
working of its texture at each step, as if part of the animal on which
he rode. His was one of those iron forms that might be imagined almost
bullet proof. With all these advantages of person, there was a radiant,
broad, good nature upon his face; and the glance of a large, clear, blue
eye told of arch thoughts, and of shrewd, homely wisdom. A ruddy
complexion accorded well with his sprightly, but massive features, of
which the prevailing expression was such as silently invited friendship
and trust. If to these traits be added an abundant shock of yellow,
curly hair, terminating in a luxuriant queue, confined by a narrow
strand of leather cord, my reader will have a tolerably correct idea of
the person I wish to describe.
Robinson had been a blacksmith at the breaking out of the revolution,
and, in truth, could hardly be said to have yet abandoned the craft;
although of late, he had been engaged in a course of life which had but
little to do with the anvil, except in that metaphorical sense of
hammering out and shaping the rough, iron independence of his country.
He was the owner of a little farm in the Waxhaw settlement, on the
Catawba, and having pitched his habitation upon a promontory, around
whose base the Waxhaw creek swept with a regular but narrow circuit,
this locality, taken in connexion with his calling, gave rise to a
common prefix to his name throughout the neighborhood, and he was
therefore almost exclusively distinguished by the sobriquet of Horse
Shoe Robinson. This familiar appellative had followed him into the army.
The age of Horse Shoe was some seven or eight years in advance of that
of Butler--a circumstance which the worthy senior did not fail to use
with some authority in their personal intercourse, holding himself, on
that account, to be like Cassius, an elder, if not a better soldier. On
the present occasion, his dress was of the plainest and most rustic
description: a spherical crowned hat with a broad brim, a coarse grey
coatee of mixed cotton and wool, dark linsey-woolsey trowsers adhering
closely to his leg, hob-nailed shoes, and a red cotton handkerchief tied
carelessly round his neck with a knot upon his bosom. This costume, and
a long rifle thrown into the angle of the right arm, with the breech
resting on his pommel, and a pouch of deer-skin, with a powder horn
attached to it, suspended on his right side, might have warranted a
spectator in taking Robinson for a woodsman, or hunter from the
neighboring mountains.
Such were the two personages who now came "pricking o'er the hill." The
period at which I have presented them to my reader was, perhaps, the
most anxious one of the whole struggle for independence. Without falling
into a long narrative of events which are familiar, at least to every
American, I may recall the fact that Gates had just passed southward, to
take command of the army destined to act against Cornwallis. It was now
within a few weeks of that decisive battle which sent the hero of
Saratoga "bootless home and weather-beaten back," to ponder over the
mutations of fortune, and, in the quiet shades of Virginia, to strike
the balance of fame between northern glory and southern discomfiture. It
may be imagined then, that our travellers were not without some share of
that intense interest for the events "upon the gale," which every where
pervaded the nation. Still, as I have before hinted, Arthur Butler did
not journey through this beautiful region without a lively perception of
the charms which nature had spread around him. The soil of this district
is remarkable for its blood-red hue. The side of every bank glowed in
the sun with this bright vermillion tint, and the new-made furrow,
wherever the early ploughman had scarred the soil, turned up to view the
predominating color. The contrast of this with the luxuriant grass and
the yellow stubble, with the grey and mossy rock, and with the deep
green shade of the surrounding forest, perpetually solicited the notice
of the lover of landscape; and from every height, the eye rested with
pleasure upon the rich meadows of the bottom land--upon the varied
cornfields spread over the hills; upon the adjacent mountains, with
their bald crags peeping through the screen of forest, and especially
upon the broad lines of naked earth that, here and there, lighted up and
relieved, as a painter would say, with its warm coloring, the heavy
masses of shade.
The day was hot, and it was with a grateful sense of refreshment that
our wayfarers, no less than their horses, found themselves, as they
approached the lowland, gradually penetrating the deep and tangled
thicket and the high wood that hung over and darkened the channel of the
small stream which rippled through the valley. Their road lay along this
stream and frequently crossed it at narrow fords, where the water fell
from rock to rock in small cascades, presenting natural basins of the
limpid flood, embosomed in laurel and alder, and gurgling that busy
music which is one of the most welcome sounds to the ear of a wearied
and overheated traveller.
Butler said but little to his companion, except now and then to express
a passing emotion of admiration for the natural embellishments of the
region; until, at length, the road brought them to a huge mass of rock,
from whose base a fountain issued forth over a bed of gravel, and soon
lost itself in the brook hard by. A small strip of bark, that some
friend of the traveller had placed there, caught the pure water as it
was distilled from the rock, and threw it off in a spout, some few
inches above the surface of the ground. The earth trodden around this
spot showed it to be a customary halting place for those who journeyed
on the road.
Here Butler checked his horse, and announced to his comrade his
intention to suspend, for a while, the toil of travel.
"There is one thing, Galbraith," said he, as he discounted, "wherein all
philosophers agree--man must eat when he is hungry, and rest when he is
weary. We have now been some six hours on horseback, and as this
fountain seems to have been put here for our use, it would be sinfully
slighting the bounties of providence not to do it the honor of a halt.
Get down, man; rummage your havresac, and let us see what you have
there."
Robinson was soon upon his feet, and taking the horses a little distance
off, he fastened their bridles to the impending branches of a tree; then
opening his saddle-bags, he produced a wallet with which he approached
the fountain, where Butler had thrown himself at full length upon the
grass. Here, as he successively disclosed his stores, he announced his
bill of fare, with suitable deliberation between each item, in the
following terms:
"I don't march without provisions, you see, captain--or major, I suppose
I must call you now. Here's the rear division of a roast pig, and along
with it, by way of flankers, two spread eagles (holding up two broiled
fowls), and here are four slices from the best end of a ham. Besides
these, I can throw in two apple-jacks, a half dozen of rolls, and--"
"Your wallet is as bountiful as a conjurer's bag, sergeant; it is a
perfect cornucopia. How did you come by all this provender?"
"It isn't so overmuch, major, when you come to consider," said Robinson.
"The old landlady at Charlottesville is none of your heap-up,
shake-down, and running-over landladies, and when I signified to her
that we mought want a snack upon the road, she as much as gave me to
understand that there wa'n't nothing to be had. But I took care to make
fair weather with her daughter, as I always do amongst the creatures,
and she let me into the pantry, where I made bold to stow away these few
trifling articles, under the denomination of pillage. If you are fond of
Indian corn bread, I can give you a pretty good slice of that."
"Pillage, Galbraith! You forget you are not in an enemy's country. I
directed you scrupulously to pay for everything you got upon the road. I
hope you have not omitted it to-day?"
"Lord, sir! what do these women do for the cause of liberty but cook,
and wash, and mend!" exclaimed the sergeant. "I told the old Jezebel to
charge it all to the continental congress."
"Out upon it, man! Would you bring us into discredit with our best
friends, by your villanous habits of free quarters?"
"I am not the only man, major, that has been spoiled in his religion by
these wars. I had both politeness and decency till we got to squabbling
over our chimney corners in Carolina. But when a man's conscience begins
to get hard, it does it faster than anything in nature: it is, I may
say, like the boiling of an egg--it is very clear at first, but as soon
as it gets cloudy, one minute more and you may cut it with a knife."
"Well, well! Let us fall to, sergeant; this is no time to argue points
of conscience."
"You seem to take no notice of this here bottle of peach brandy major,"
said Robinson. "It's a bird that came out of the same nest. To my
thinking it's a sort of a file leader to an eatable, if it ar'n't an
eatable itself."
"Peace, Galbraith! it is the vice of the army to set too much store by
this devil brandy."
The sergeant was outwardly moved by an inward laugh that shook his head
and shoulders.
"Do you suppose, major, that Troy town was taken without brandy? It's
drilling and countermarching and charging with the bagnet, all three,
sir. But before we begin, I will just strip our horses. A flurry of cool
air on the saddle spot is the best thing in nature for a tired horse."
Robinson now performed this office for their jaded cattle; and having
given them a mouthful of water at the brook, returned to his post, and
soon began to despatch, with a laudable alacrity, the heaps of provision
before him. Butler partook with a keen appetite of this sylvan repast,
and was greatly amused to see with what relish his companion caused
slice after slice to vanish, until nothing was left of this large supply
but a few fragments.
"You have lost neither stomach nor strength by the troubles, sergeant;
the short commons of Charleston would have gone something against the
grain with you, if you had stayed for that course of diet."
"It is a little over two months," said Robinson, "since I got away from
them devils; and if it hadn't been for these here wings of mine
(pointing to his legs), I might have been a caged bird to-day."
"You have never told me the story of your escape," said Butler.
"You were always too busy, or too full of your own thoughts, major, for
me to take up your time with such talk," replied the other. "But, if you
would like me to tell you all about it, while you are resting yourself
here on the ground, and have got nothing better to think about, why,
I'll start like old Jack Carter of our mess, by beginning, as he used to
say when he had a tough story ahead, right at the beginning."
"Do so, sergeant, and do it discreetly; but first, swallow that
mouthful, for you don't speak very clear."
"I'll wash down the gutter, major, according to camp fashion and then
my throat will be as clear as the morning gun after sun rise."
And saying this, the tall soldier helped himself to a hearty draught of
cool water mingled in fair proportion with a part of the contents of his
flask, and setting the cup down by his side, he commenced as follows:--
"You was with us, major, when Prevost served us that trick in Georgia,
last year--kept us, you remember, on the look out for him t'other side
of the Savannah, whilst all the time he was whisking of it down to
Charleston."
"You call this beginning at the beginning? Faith, you have started a
full year before your time. Do you think yourself a Polybius or a
Xenophon--who were two famous old fellows, just in your line,
sergeant--that you set out with a history of a whole war."
"I never knew any persons in our line--officers or men--of either of
them names,"--replied Robinson,--"they were nicknames, perhaps;--but I
do know, as well as another, when a thing turns up that is worth notice,
major; and this is one of 'em:--and that's the reason why I make mention
of it. What I was going to say was this--that it was a sign fit for
General Lincoln's consarnment, that these here British should make a
push at Charleston on the tenth of May, 1779, and get beaten, and that
exactly in one year and two days afterwards, they should make another
push and win the town. Now, what was it a sign of, but that they and the
tories was more industrious that year than we were?"
"Granted," said Butler, "now to your story, Mister Philosopher!"
"In what month was it you left us?" inquired the sergeant gravely.
"In March," answered Butler.
"General Lincoln sent you off, as we were told, on some business with
the continental congress: to get us more troops, if I am right. It was a
pity to throw away a good army on such a place--for it wa'nt worth
defending at last. From the time that you set out they began to
shut us in, every day a little closer. First, they closed a door on
one side, and then on t'other: till, at last they sent a sort of
flash-o'-lightning fellow--this here Colonel Tarleton--up to Monk's
corner, which, you know, was our back door, and he shut that up and
double bolted it, by giving Huger a most tremenjious lathering. Now,
when we were shut in, we had nothing to do but look out. I'll tell you
an observation I made, at that time."
"Well."
"Why, when a man has got to fight, it's a natural sort of thing
enough;--but when he has got nothing to eat, it's an onnatural state. I
have hearn of men who should have said they would rather fight than
eat:--if they told truth they would have made honest fellows for our
garrison at Charlestown. First, our vegetables--after that devil took up
his quarters at Monk's corner--began to give out then, our meat; and,
finally, we had nothing left but rice, which I consider neither fish,
flesh, nor good salt herring"----
"You had good spirits, though, sergeant."
"If you mean rum or brandy, major, we hadn't much of that;--but if you
mean jokes and laughs, it must be hard times that will stop them in
camp.--I'll tell you one of them, that made a great hurra on both sides,
where we got the better of a Scotch regiment that was plaguing us from
outside the town. They thought they would make themselves merry with our
starvation--so, they throwed a bomb shell into our lines, that, as it
came along through the air, we saw had some devilment in it, from the
streak it made in daylight; and, sure enough, when we come to look at it
on the ground, we found it filled with rice and molasses--just to show
that these Scotchmen were laughing at us for having nothing to eat.
Well, what do we do but fill another shell with brimstone and hogslard,
and just drop it handsomely amongst the lads from the land o'cakes? Gad,
sir, it soon got to the hearing of the English regiment, and such a
shouting as they sot up from their lines against the Scotchmen! That's
what I call giving as good as they saunt, major--ha ha ha!"
"It wasn't a bad repartee, Galbraith," said Butler, joining in the
laugh. "But go on with your siege."
"We got taken, at last," proceeded Horse Shoe, "and surrendered on the
12th of May. Do you know that they condescended to let us go through the
motions of marching outside the lines? Still it was a sorry day to see
our colors tied as fast to their sticks as if a stocking had been drawn
over them. After that, we were marched to the barracks and put into
close confinement."
"Yes, I have heard that; and with heavy hearts--and a dreary prospect
before you, sergeant."
"I shouldn't have minded it much, Major Butler, it was the fortune of
war. But they insulted us as soon as they got our arms from us. It was a
blasted cowardly trick in them to endeavor to wean us from our cause,
which they tried every day; it was seduction, I may say. First, they
told us that Colonel Pinckney and some other officers had gone over; but
that was too onprobable a piece of rascality,--we didn't believe one
word on't. So, one morning Colonel Pinckney axed that we mought be
drawed up in a line in front of the barracks; and there he made us a
speech. We were as silent as so many men on a surprise party. The
colonel said--yes, sir, and right in their very teeth--that it was an
infamious, audacious calamy: that whenever he desarted the cause of
liberty, he hoped they would take him, as they had done some Roman
officer or other--I think one Officious, as I understood the
colonel--you've hearn of him, may be--and tie his limbs to wild horses,
and set them adrift, at full speed, taking all his joints apart, so that
not one traitorious limb should be left to keep company with another. It
was a mighty severe punishment, whoever he mought'a been. The British
officers began to frown--and I saw one chap put his hand upon his sword.
It would have done you good to witness the look the colonel gave him, as
he put his own hand to his thigh to feel if his sword was there--he so
naturally forgot he was a prisoner. They made him stop speaking
howsever, because they gave out that it was perditious language; and so,
they dismissed us--but we let them have three cheers to show that we
were in heart."
"It was like Pinckney," said Butler; "I'll warrant him a true man,
Galbraith."
"I'll thribble that warrant," replied Galbraith, "and afterwards make it
nine. I wish you could have hearn him. I always thought a bugle horn the
best music in the world, till that day. But that day Colonel Charles
Cotesworth Pinckney's voice was sweeter than shawns and trumpets, as the
preacher says, and bugles to boot. I have hearn people tell of speeches
working like a fiddle on a man's nerves, major: but, for my part, I
think they sometimes work like a battery of field-pieces, or a whole
regimental band on a parade day. Howsever, I was going on to tell you,
Colonel Pinckney put a stop to all this parleying with our poor fellows;
and knowing, major, that you was likely to be coming this way, he axed
me if I thought I could give the guard the slip, and make off with a
letter to meet you. Well, I studied over the thing for a while, and then
told him a neck was but a neck any how, and that I could try; and so,
when his letter was ready, he gave it to me, telling me to hide it so
that, if I was sarched, it couldn't be found on my person. Do you see
that foot?" added Horse Shoe, smiling, "it isn't so small but that I
could put a letter between the inside sole and the out, longways, or
even crossways, for the matter of that, and that, without so much as
turning down a corner. Correspondent and accordingly I stitched it in.
The colonel then told me to watch my chance and make off to you in the
Jarseys, as fast as I could. He told me, besides, that I was to stay
with you, because you was likely to have business for me to do."
"That's true, good sergeant."
"There came on a darkish, drizzly evening; and a little before roll
call, at sun set, I borrowed an old forage cloak from Corporal
Green--you mought have remembered him--and out I went towards the lines,
and sauntered along the edge of the town, till I came to one of your
pipe-smoking, gin-drinking Hessians, keeping sentry near the road that
leads out towards Ashley ferry:--a fellow that had no more watch in
him--bless your soul!--as these Dutchmen hav'n't--than a duck on a rainy
day. So, said I, coming up boldly to him, 'Hans, wie gehet es'--'Geh zum
Teufel,' says he, laughing--for he knowed me. That was all the Dutch I
could speak, except I was able to say it was going to rain, so I told
him--'Es will regnen'--which he knowed as well as I did, for it was
raining all the time. I had a little more palaver with Hans, and, at
last, he got up on his feet and set to walking up and down. By this time
the drums beat for evening quarters, and I bid Hans good night; but,
instead of going away, I squatted behind the Dutchman's sentry
box;--and, presently, the rain came down by the bucket full; it got very
dark and Hans was snug under cover. The grand rounds was coming; I could
hear the tramp of feet, and as no time was to be lost, I made a long
step and a short story of it, by just slipping over the lines and
setting out to seek my fortune."
"Well done, sergeant! You were ever good at these pranks."
"But that wasn't all," continued Robinson. "As the prime file leader of
mischief would have it, outside of the lines I meets a cart with a man
to drive it, and two soldiers on foot, by way of guard.
"The first I was aware of it, was a hallo, and then a bagnet to my
breast. I didn't ask for countersigns, for I didn't mean to trade in
words that night; but, just seizing hold of the muzzle of the piece, I
twisted it out of the fellow's hand, and made him a present of the
butt-end across his pate. I didn't want to hurt him, you see, for it
wa'n't his fault that he stopped me. A back-hander brought down the
other, and the third man drove off his cart, as if he had some suspicion
that his comrades were on their backs in the mud. I didn't mean to
trouble a peaceable man with my compliments, but on the contrary, as the
preacher says, I went on my way rejoicing."
"You were very considerate, sergeant; I entirely approve of your
moderation. As you are a brave man, and have a natural liking for
danger, this was a night that, doubtless, afforded you great
satisfaction."
"When danger stares you in the face," replied Horse Shoe, "the best way
is not to see it. It is only in not seeing of it, that a brave man
differs from a coward: that's my opinion. Well, after that I had a hard
time of it. I was afraid to keep up the Neck road, upon account of the
sodgers that was upon it; so I determined to cross the Ashley, and make
for the Orangeburg district. When I came to the ferry, I was a little
dubious about taking one of the skiffs that was hauled up, for fear of
making a noise; so I slipped off my shoe that had your letter, and put
it betwixt my teeth and swum the river. I must have made some splashing
in the water--although I tried to muffle my oars, too, for first, I
heard a challenge from the ferry-house, and then the crack of a musket:
but it was so dark you couldn't see an egg on your own nose. There was a
little flustering of lights on the shore, and a turnout of the guard,
may be; but, I suppose, they thought it was a sturgeon, or some such
beast, and so made no more of it; and I got safe to the other bank."
"Faithfully and bravely, sergeant!"
"For the first three or four days the chances were all against me. The
whole country was full of tories, and it wasn't safe to meet a man on
the road: you couldn't tell whether he was friend or enemy. I durstn't
show my face in day-time at all, but lay close in the swamps; and when
it began to grow dark, I stole out, like a wolf, and travelled across
the fields, and along the by-ways."
"You had a good stomach to bear it, sergeant."
"A good stomach enough, but not much in it. I'll tell you another
observation I made; when a man travels all night long on an empty
stomach, he ought either to fill it next morning or make it smaller."
"And how is that to be managed, friend Horse Shoe?"
"Indian fashion," replied the sergeant. "Buckle your belt a little
tighter every two or three hours. A man may shrivel his guts up to the
size of a pipe stem. But I found a better way to get along than by
taking in my belt"----
"Now, for another stratagem!"
"I commonly, about dark, crept as near to a farm house as I mought
venture to go; and, putting on a poor mouth, told the folks I had a
touch of the small-pox, and was dying for a little food. They were
Christians enough to give me a dish of bread and milk, or something of
that sort, and cowards enough to keep so much out of the way, as not to
get a chance to look me in the face. They laid provisions on the ground,
and then walked away while I came up to get them. Though I didn't think
much of the fashion I was waited on, and had sometimes to quarrel with a
bull-dog for my supper, I don't believe I ever ate with a better
appetite in my life. The first bread of freedom, no matter how coarse, a
man eats after his escape from prison, is the sweetest morsel in nature.
And I do think it is a little pleasanter when he eats it at the risk of
his life."
Butler nodded his head.
"Well, after this," continued Horse Shoe, "I had like to have lost all
by another mishap. My course was for the upper country, because the
nearer I got to my own home the better I was acquainted with the people.
That scrummaging character, Tarleton, you may have hearn, scampered off,
as soon as ever Charlestown was taken, after Colonel Abraham Buford, who
was on his way down to the city when the news was fotch him of our
surrender. Buford accordingly came to the right about, to get out of
harm's way as fast as he could, and Tarleton followed close on his
heels. Think of that devil, major, trying to catch a man a hundred
miles away! It was a brazen hearted thing! considering, besides, that
Buford had a good regiment with him. When nobody thought it anything
more than a brag, sure enough, he overhauls Buford yonder at the
Waxhaws--onawares, you may say--and there he tore him all to pieces.
They say it was a bloody cruel sight, to see how these English troopers
did mangle the poor fellows. I doubt there wasn't fair play. But, major,
that Tarleton rides well and is a proper soldier, take him man to man.
It so happened that as I was making along towards Catawba, who should I
come plump upon, but Tarleton and his lads, with their prisoners, all
halting beside a little run to get water!"
"Again in trouble, sergeant! Truly you have had full measure of
adventures!"
"I was pretty near nonplushed, major," said Horse Shoe, with a broad
laugh, "but I thought of a stratagem. I let fall my under jaw, and sot
my eyes as wild as a madman, and twisted my whole face out of joint--and
began to clap my hands, and hurra for the red coats, like a natural
fool. So, when Tarleton and two or three of his people came to take
notice of me, they put me down for a poor idiot that had been turned
adrift."
"Did they hold any discourse with you?"
"A good deal; and, just to try me, they flogged me with the flats of
their swords; but I laughed and made merry when they hurt me worst, and
told them I thanked them for their politeness. There were some of our
people amongst the prisoners, that I knew, and I was mortally afeard
they would let on, but they didn't. Especially, there was Seth Cuthbert,
from Tryon, who had both of his hands chopped off in the fray at the
Waxhaws; he was riding double behind a trooper, and he held up the
stumps just to let me see how barbarously he was mangled. I was dubious
they would see that he knowed me, but he took care of that. Bless your
soul, major! he saw my drift in the first shot of his eye. Thinking that
they mought take it into their noddles to carry me along with them back,
I played the quarest trick that I suppose ever a man thought of; it
makes me laugh now to tell it. I made a spring that fetched me right
upon the crupper of Colonel Tarleton's horse, which sot him to kicking
and flirting at a merry rate; and, whilst the creature was floundering
as if a hornet had stung him, I took the colonel's cap and put it upon
my own head, and gave him mine. And after I had vagaried in this sort of
way for a little while, I let the horse fling me on the ground. You
would have thought the devils would have died a laughing. And the
colonel himself, although at first he was very angry, couldn't help
laughing likewise. He said that I was as strange a fool as he ever saw,
and that it would be a pity to hurt me. So he threw me a shilling, and,
whilst they were all in good humor, I trudged away."
"It was a bold experiment, and might be practised a thousand times
without success. If I did not know you, Robinson, to be a man of truth,
as well as courage, I should scarce believe this tale. If any one,
hereafter, should tell your story, he will be accounted a
fiction-monger."
"I do not boast, Major Butler; and, as to my story, I care very little
who tells it. Every trick is good in war. I can change my face and voice
both, so that my best friends shouldn't know me: and, in these times, I
am willing to change every thing but my coat, and even that, if I have a
witness to my heart, and it will serve a turn to help the country. Am I
not right?"
"No man ever blames another for that, sergeant, and if ever you should
be put to the trial, you will find friends enough to vouch for your
honesty."
"When I got away from Tarleton it wasn't long before I reached my own
cabin. There I mustered my horse and gun, and some decent clothes; and
after a good sleep, and a belly full of food, I started for the north,
as fast as I could, with my letter. I put it into your own hands, and
you know the rest."
"This will be a good tale for a winter night," said Butler, "to be told
hereafter, in a snug chimney corner, to your wife and children, when
peace, as I trust it may, will make you happy in the possession of both.
Your embassy has had marvellous good luck so far. I hope it may prove a
happy omen for our future enterprise. Now it is my turn, Galbraith, to
tell you something of our plans. Colonel Pinckney has apprised me of the
state of things in the upper country. Our good friend Clarke there
meditates an attempt to regain Augusta and Ninety-six; and we have
reason to believe that some levies will be made by our confederates in
Virginia and elsewhere. My business is to co-operate in this
undertaking; and as it was essential I should have the guidance of some
man acquainted with that country--some good soldier, true and
trusty--the colonel has selected you to accompany me. These red coats
have already got possession of all the strongholds; and the tories, you
know, swarm in the country, like the locusts of Egypt. I stand in need,
sergeant, of a friend with a discreet head and a strong arm. I could not
have picked out of the army a better man than Sergeant Galbraith
Robinson. Besides, Horse Shoe," he added, putting his hand gently upon
the sergeant's shoulder, "old acquaintance has bred an affection between
us."
"I am a man that can eat my allowance, major," said Robinson, with an
awkward diffidence at hearing the encomium just passed upon him, "and
that's a matter that doesn't turn to much profit in an empty country.
But I think I may make bold to promise, that you are not like to suffer,
if a word or a blow from me would do you any good."
"Your belt may be serviceable in two ways in this expedition, Horse
Shoe: it may be buckled closer in scant times, and will carry a sword in
dangerous ones."
"May I ask, major," inquired Horse Shoe, "since you have got to talking
of our business, what has brought us so high up the country, along here?
It seems to me that the lower road would have been nearer."
"Suppose I say, Galbraith," replied Butler, with animation, "that there
is a bird nestles in these woods, I was fond of hearing sing, would it
be unsoldier-like, think you, to make a harder ride and a larger circuit
for that gratification?"
"Oh! I understand, major," said Horse Shoe, laughing, "whether it be
peace or whether it be war, these women keep the upper hand of us men.
For my part, I think it's more natural to think of them in war than in
peace. For, you see, the creatures are so helpless, that if a man don't
take care of them, who would? And then, when a woman's frightened, as
she must be in these times, she clings so naturally to a man! It stands
to reason!"
"You will keep my counsel, Galbraith," interrupted Butler, "I have a
reason which, perhaps, you may know by and by, why you should not speak
of any thing you may see or hear. And now, as we have spent a good hour
in refreshment, sergeant, make our horses ready. We'll take the road
again."
Robinson promised caution in all matters that might be committed to his
charge, and now set himself about saddling the horses for the journey.
Whilst he was engaged in this occupation, Butler was startled to hear
the sergeant abruptly cry out--"You devil, Captain Peter Clinch! what
are you about?" and, looking hastily around, saw no one but the trusty
squire himself, who was now sedately intent upon thrusting the bit into
his horse's mouth,--a liberty which the animal seemed to resent by
sundry manifestations of waywardness.
"To whom are you talking, Galbraith?"
"Only to this here contrary, obstropolous beast, major."
"What name did you call him by?" inquired Butler.
"Ha, ha, ha! was it that you was listening too?" said Horse Shoe. "I
have christened him Captain Peter--sometimes Captain Peter Clinch. I'll
tell you why. I am a little malicious touching the name of my horse.
After the surrender of Charlestown, our regiment was put in the charge
of a provost marshal, by the name of Captain Clinch, and his first name
was Peter. He was a rough, ugly, wiry-haired fellow, with no better
bowels than a barrel of vinegar. He gave us all sorts of ill usage,
knowing that we wa'n't allowed to give him the kind of payment that such
an oncomfortable fellow desarved to get. If ever I had met him again,
major, _setters parbus_--as Lieutenant Hopkins used to say--which is
lingo, I take it, for a fair field, I would'a cudgelled his pate for
him, to the satisfaction of all good fellows. Well, when I got home, I
gave his name to my beast, just for the pleasure of thinking of that
hang-gallows thief, every time I had occasion to give the creetur a dig
in the ribs, or lay a blow across his withers! And yet he is a most an
excellent horse, major, and a hundred times more of a gentleman than his
namesake,--though he is a little hard-headed too--but that he larnt from
me. It really seems to me that the dumb beast thinks his name a
disgrace, as he has good right, but has got used to it. And, besides, I
hear that the cross-grained, growling dog of a captain has been killed
in a scuffle since I left Charlestown, so now I consider my horse a sort
of tombstone with the ugly sinner's name on it; and as I straddle it
every day you see, that's another satisfaction."
"Well, sergeant, there are few men enjoy their revenge more
good-humoredly than you. So, come, straddle your tombstone again, and
make the bones beneath it jog."
In good glee, our travellers now betook themselves once more to the
road.