NEW DIFFICULTIES OPEN UPON BUTLER.
With the last notes of the reveillee everything was stirring in Innis's
camp. It was a beautiful, fresh morning; a cool breeze swept across the
plain, and each spray and every blade of grass sparkled with the dew;
whilst above, an unclouded firmament gave promise of a rich and
brilliant mid-summer's day. The surrounding forest was alive with the
twittering of birds; and the neighing of horses showed that this portion
of the animal creation partook of the hilarity of the season. From every
little shed or woodland lair, crept forth parties of soldiers, who
betook themselves to their several posts to answer at the rollcall; and
by the time the sun had risen, officers, on horseback and on foot, were
seen moving hurriedly across the open plain, to join the groups of
infantry and cavalry, which were now forming in various quarters for the
purposes of the morning drill. Companies were seen in motion, passing
through the rapid evolutions of the march, the retreat, and the many
exercises of service. Drums were beating, and fifes were piercing the
air with their high notes, and, ever and anon, the trumpet brayed from
the further extremities of the field. Picquet-guards were seen mustering
on the edge of the camp--wearied and night-worn: salutes were exchanged
by the small detachments on service; and, here and there, sentinels
might be descried, stationed at the several outlets of the plain, and
presenting their arms as an officer passed their lines.
The troops that occupied this space were mostly of the irregular kind.
Some were distinguished by ill-fitted and homely uniforms; others were
clad in the common dress of the country, distinguished as soldiers only
by their arms and accoutrements; but amongst them was also a
considerable party of British regulars, clad in the national livery of
scarlet. Amongst the officers, who were in command of the subordinate
departments of this mixed and parti-colored little army, were several
who, from their costume, might be recognised as belonging to the
regiments that had come from the other side of the Atlantic.
Colonel Innis himself was seen upon the parade, directing the movements
of divisions that, under their proper officers, were practising the
customary lessons of discipline. He was a tall, thin man, of an
emaciated complexion, with a countenance of thoughtful severity. A keen
black eye seemed almost to burn within its orb, and to give an
expression of petulant and peevish excitability, like the querulousness
of a sick man. A rather awkward and ungainly person, arrayed in a
scarlet uniform that did but little credit to the tailor-craft employed
in its fabrication, conveyed to the spectator the idea of a man unused
to the pride of appearance that belongs to a soldier by profession; and
would have suggested the conclusion, which the fact itself sustained,
that the individual before him had but recently left the walks of civil
life to assume a military office. His demeanour, however, showed him to
be a zealous if not a skilful officer. He gave close attention to the
duties of his command, and busied himself with scrupulous exactitude in
enforcing the observances necessary to a rigorous system of tactics.
This officer, as we have before hinted, had been an active participator
in the proceedings of the new court of sequestrations at Charleston; and
had rendered himself conspicuous by the fierce and unsparing industry
with which he had brought to the judgment of that tribunal, the imputed
delinquencies of some of the most opulent and patriotic citizens of the
province.
Amongst the cases upon which he had been called into consultation was
that of Arthur Butler, whose possessions being ample, and whose
position, as a rebellious belligerent, being one of "flagrant delict,"
there was but little repugnance, on the part of the judges and their
adviser, to subject him to the severest law of confiscation. The
proceedings, however, had been delayed, not from any tenderness to the
proprietor, but, as it was whispered in the scandal of the day, on
account of certain dissensions, amongst a few prominent servants of the
British crown, as to which of them the privilege of a cheap purchase
should be extended. The matter was still in suspense, with a view (as
that busybody, common rumor, alleged) to reward a particular favorite of
the higher powers with the rich guerdon of these good lands, in
compensation for private and valuable secret services, rendered in a
matter of great delicacy and hazard--no less a service than that of
seducing into the arena of politics and intrigue, an opulent and
authoritative gentleman of Virginia, Mr. Philip Lindsay.
In consequence of the odious nature of the duty which Colonel Innis had
assumed to perform, he became peculiarly hateful to the Whigs; and this
sentiment was in no degree abated when, relinquishing his occupation as
a counsellor to the court at Charleston, he accepted a commission to
command a partisan corps of royalists in the upper country. He was, at
the juncture in which I have exhibited him to my reader, new in his
command, and had not yet "fleshed his maiden sword:" the day, however,
was near at hand when his prowess was to be put to the proof.
Such was the person into whose hands Arthur Butler had now fallen.
After the morning exercises of the camp were finished, and the men were
dismissed to prepare their first repast, the principal officers returned
to the colonel's head-quarters in the farm-house, where, it will be
remembered, Butler had been delivered by the escort that had conducted
him from Blackstock's. The prisoner had slept soundly during the whole
night; and now, as the breakfast hour drew nigh, he had scarcely awaked
and put on his clothes, before he heard an inquiry, made by some one
below, of the orderly on duty, whether the Whig officer was yet in a
condition to be visited; and, in the next moment, the noise of
footsteps, ascending the stair towards his chamber, prepared him to
expect the entrance of the person who had asked the question.
A British officer, in full uniform, of a graceful and easy carriage,
neat figure, and of a countenance that bespoke an intelligent and
cultivated mind, made his appearance at the door. He was apparently of
five or six and thirty years of age; and whilst he paused a moment, as
with a purpose to apologize for the seeming intrusion, Butler was struck
with the air of refined breeding of the individual before him.
"Major Butler, I understand, of the Continental army?" said the
stranger. "The unpleasant nature of the circumstances in which you are
placed, I hope will excuse the trespass I have committed upon your
privacy. Captain St. Jermyn, of his Majesty's army, and lately an
aide-de-camp of Lord Rawdon."
Butler bowed coldly, as he replied:
"To meet a gentleman, as your rank and name both import, is a privilege
that has not been allowed me of late. Without knowing wherefore, I have
been waylaid and outraged by bravoes and ruffians. You, perhaps, sir,
may be able to afford me some insight into the causes of this
maltreatment."
"Even if it were proper for me to hold discourse with you on such a
subject, I could only speak from common report," replied the officer. "I
know nothing of your seizure, except that, by the common chances of war,
you have fallen into the hands of the ruling authorities of the
province, and you will, doubtless, as a soldier, appreciate my motives
for declining any reference to the circumstances in which you have been
found. My visit is stimulated by other considerations, amongst which is
foremost a desire to mitigate the peculiarly uncomfortable captivity to
which I am sorry to learn you have been subjected."
"I thank you," replied Butler, "for the intention with which your good
offices are proffered; but you can render me no service that I should
value so much as that of informing me why I have been brought hither, at
whose suggestion, and for what purpose."
"I will be plain with you, Major Butler. Your situation demands
sympathy, however inexorably the present posture of our affairs may
require the decrees of stern justice, in respect to yourself, to be
executed. I feel for you, and would gladly aid you to any extent which
my duty might allow, in averting the possible calamity that may hang
over you. You are known as a gentleman of consideration and influence in
the colonies. I may further add, as a brave and venturesome soldier. You
are believed to have, more boldly than wisely, enterprised the
accomplishment of certain schemes against the safety of his majesty's
acknowledged government in this province; besides having committed other
acts in violation of a faith plighted for you by those who had full
authority to bind you, thus bringing yourself within the penalties
appropriate to the violation of a military parole, if not within those
of treason itself."
"He lies in his throat," cried Butler, "who charges me with forfeiture
of plighted word or honor, in any action of my life. That I have arrayed
myself against what you are pleased to term his majesty's acknowledged
government in this province, I am proud to confess, here in the midst of
your bands, and will confess it again at your judgment seat; but if
aught be said against me that shall be intended to attaint my honor as a
gentleman, I will, in the same presence and before God, throw the lie in
the teeth of my accuser. Aye, and make good my word, now or hereafter,
wheresoever it may be allowed me to meet the slanderer."
"I do not condemn your warmth," said St. Jermyn, calmly, "in a matter
that so deeply stirs your self-esteem; and only desire now to second it
in all things wherein an honorable enemy may claim the support of those
who themselves value a good name. The authorities of this post have
considerately resolved to give you the benefit of a court of inquiry.
And I hope you will take it as it was meant, in all kindness to you,
that I have come, before the communication of an official order, to
apprise you that charges will be duly exhibited against you, and a trial
be instantly had. If you will accept of my services, feeble and
inadequate as they may be, I would gladly tender them to afford you such
facilities as the pressure of the present emergency may allow."
"To be tried! when, and for what? If the charge is that I carry on open
war against those who are in the habit of calling me and my compatriots
rebels--I am ready to confess the charge. What need of court or trial?"
"There are graver and more serious offences than that imputed to you,"
said St. Jermyn.
"When am I to be informed of them, and to what do they tend?"
"You will hear them this morning; when, I am sorry to add, the nature of
our military operations also enforces the necessity of your trial."
"You can be of little service, if that be true," returned Butler,
thoughtfully. "My cause can only be defended by my country, long after I
am made the victim of this unrighteous procedure."
"There is one alternative," said St. Jermyn, with some hesitation in his
manner, "which a mature deliberation upon your relations as a
subject,--pardon me, for I do not deem this ill-timed rebellion to have
obliterated them--may present to your mind."
"Speak it," said Butler, vehemently; "speak out the base thought that is
rising to your lip, if you dare. Prisoner as I am, I will avenge the
insult on the spot with the certainty of loss of life. The alternative
you suggest, is to dishonor me and all who are dear to me by the foul
opprobrium of treason to my country. You would have me, I suppose,
renounce the cause to which I have dedicated my life, and take shelter
with the recreants that have crowded under the banner of St. George?"
"Hold! remember, sir, that you are a prisoner," said St. Jermyn, with
great coolness; and then after a pause, he added with a sigh: "I will
not wound, by further converse, the exaggerated and delusive sense of
honor which is too fatally predominant in your breast, and, as I have
found it, in the breasts of many of your misguided countrymen. I came to
serve you, not to excite your feelings; and I will now, even in your
displeasure, serve you as far as the occasion may afford me means: I
pray you, call on me without reserve. For the present, believe me, in
pain and sorrow I take my leave."
With these words, the officer retired.
Butler paced to and fro through his narrow chamber for some minutes, as
his mind revolved the extraordinary and unexpected disclosures which had
been made to him in this short visit. A thousand conjectures rose into
his thoughts as to the nature of the supposed charges that were to be
brought against him. He minutely retraced all the incidents of his late
adventures, to ascertain how it was possible to found upon them an
accusation of violated faith, or to pervert them into an imputation of
treason against the present doubtful and disputed authority of the
self-styled conquerors of Carolina. If his attempt to join Clarke was
treason, it could be no less treason in the followers of Gates to array
themselves against the royal army; and, that every prisoner hereafter
taken in battle was to be deemed a traitor to the contested power of
Cornwallis, seemed to be a pretension too absurd for the most inveterate
partisans to assert. There was nothing in this review of his actions
that the most ingenious malice could pervert into an offence punishable
by the laws of war, by other rigor than such as might be inflicted upon
an ordinary prisoner taken in arms. Still, there were unhappy doubts of
some secret treachery that rose to his reflections: the perfidy of
Adair, manifestly the effect of a bribe; the ambuscade promoted and
managed by James Curry; the bloody purpose of the brutal gang who
captured him, frustrated only by the accidental fray in which Blake was
wounded. Then the "doubtful givings out" which fell from the lips of
some of the soldiers at Blackstock's, of his case still being one of
life and death; the insinuation of the savage Habershaw, at the same
place, conveyed in the threat of twisted hemp; the knowledge which his
present keepers affected to have of his rank and consequence, of his
past life and present aims; and, above all, his being brought for
immediate trial, in a matter affecting his life, before the very man,
now in the capacity of a military commander, who had heretofore been
active in promoting the design of confiscating his estate. All these
considerations, although unconnected with any circumstance of specific
offence within his knowledge, led him into the most anxious and
melancholy forebodings as to the result of this day's proceedings.
"I am doomed to fall," he said, "under some secret stroke of vengeance,
and my country is to have in my case another stirring appeal against the
enormity of that iron rule that seeks to bow her head into the dust. So
be it! The issue is in the hand of God, and my fate may turn to the
account of the establishment of a nation's liberty. Oh, Mildred, I
tremble to think of thee! Heaven grant, my girl, that thy fortitude may
triumph over the martyrdom of him that loves thee better than his
life!"