AT THE "BLUE HERON"
Upon the evening preceding Abner's contemplated return to Kentucky, to
wind up his business there, and to hunt for evidence in regard to the
Page brothers, he strolled down to the "Blue Heron," a tavern in an
adjacent street. Entering the tavern, he found himself in the midst of
rather an exciting scene, occasioned by a bet just made as to the
relative height of two men who were standing leaning on the bar. Both
men were of unusual height. At a casual glance the younger of the two,
a frequenter of the tavern, would appear to be the taller, by reason of
his extreme slenderness of build. The older man was a stranger. The two
took their places in the center of the room, back to back; and it was
then found that the older man was the taller by nearly an inch. Upon
being measured, his exact height was ascertained to be six feet, two
inches.
"Seems like I've shrunk some sence I wuz a young man," said the old
fellow in a jocular tone, as he pocketed the stakes; "for then I
measured six foot, two an' a ha'f, in my sock feet. Thar wuz only one
feller in our reg'ment taller'n me, an' that wuz John Logan--'long
John' we called him to 'stinguish him frum t'other John Logan, who wuz
oncommon tall too, but nigh two inch shorter than 'long John.'"
For a moment Abner was unable to utter a word; then, under cover of the
noise made by the hilarious group standing at the bar, drinking at the
expense of the man who had lost the wager, he drew the old man to one
side, and asked, "Were the two John Logans you speak of related?"
"Not thet I knows on, stranger--yes, sence I come to think on it, they
wuz said to be cousins. I remember, too, thet they hailed frum the same
place--somewhars in Pennsylvany."
"Can you tell me any more about them?" asked Abner, by a mighty effort
managing to control his excitement, and to speak calmly.
"I don't know much uv Jack Logan, as the shorter uv the two wuz
called," replied the stranger, who gave his name as Sam Butler, "'cept
thet he wuz a fine feller, an' a brave soldier who wuz killed on the
same day, in the same fight, as long John wuz. They both fell at
Monmouth Court-house. But I knew long John well. He wuz my messmate an'
marchin' comrid, an' we slept many a night side by side on the ground,
under the same blanket, when we wuz fortunit 'nough to hev blankets to
kiver us. Why, I wuz by his side when he fell, killed by a bullet
through his heart. I drug him offen the field, an' thet night holped
bury him in the trench whar we laid so many uv our men whut lost ther
lives in thet hot, awful fight."
"Where was he from?"
"He wuz borned in Kenelworth, Pennsylvany; but his folks moved 'round
consider'ble. They wuz sort o' sheftless, I should jedge, an' never
stayed long in any place."
"Was he married?"
"He hed a wife in Philadelphy, though I hed never hearn him speak uv
her. After he wuz dead, I found in one uv his pockets a worn letter,
months old, frum her, dated Philadelphy; and I got her word uv his
death, though frum her letter I gethered thet they hedn't been gittin'
on well together, an' thet she 'peared to think he had misused her, an'
keered nothin' fur her. He wuz a reckless, drinkin', high-tempered,
rough feller; but, Lordee! how brave, when it come to fightin'! He
wuzn't feared o' old Nick hisse'f or eny uv his imps."
"What was his wife's name?"
"Blest ef I kin re-collect, stranger. It's twenty-odd year ago, an' you
see, I----"
"Was it Mary?"
"No, I don't think thet wuz it."
"Was it Sarah?"
"Yes, thet's it. Sarah--Sarah Jane, thet's it. I'm pos'tive it wuz
Sarah Jane. Did you know eny uv her people?"
"Yes, I think so," Abner replied, "but I'm still more interested in the
other John Logan."
"Well, sir, ez I said, I knew nothin' uv him, more'n whut I fust told
you; but, stop, Peter Stump wuz his comrid, an' he----"
"Is this Peter Stump living, and, if so, where?" was the next anxious
inquiry.
"Why, yes, he's alive an' a-kickin'; leastways, he wuz last Monday
three weeks ago, when I seen him at Pockville. He lives two mile south
uv thar, on the road to Richmond."
That night our much-tried hero went once more to the old box in the
garret, and took from it the miniature of his father, and the letter to
Mary, written the night before the battle. With these in his pocket,
Abner the next morning went to Pockville. He had no difficulty in
finding Peter Stump, and was soon in possession of information which
filled him with renewed life and joy. Stump recognized the miniature as
that of his messmate, John (or Jack) Logan. Stump remembered the other
John Logan, and said that in features and sometimes in expression the
two Logans were much alike, but that in complexion and disposition they
were utterly dissimilar. Jack Logan was of dark and sallow complexion,
had curly black hair, and was about six feet, one inch in height. He
was reserved, quiet, sober in his habits, and peaceably inclined. The
other John had a ruddy complexion, hair a shade lighter than his
cousin's, and a temper so fiery and quarrelsome that he was forever in
some broil with his comrades. He was a hard drinker, too, and a
gambler. He was nearly two inches taller than Jack Logan, and was the
tallest man in the regiment. Jack Logan, up to the beginning of the
war, had always lived in Kenelworth, but the other John Logan, although
born in Kenelworth, had lived a wandering life. Other facts which Stump
revealed explained the message in Jack Logan's last letter to Mary.
Stump and Logan had been close friends, and the former had learned from
his friend the reason of the hasty marriage. Mary Hollis, at the time,
was living with her cousins, two old maidens, who were ardent British
sympathizers, and, therefore, did their utmost to prejudice the young
girl against her lover, until he, fearing that if his sweetheart
remained under the influence of her Tory relatives, she would finally
be estranged from him, persuaded her to marry him at once. It was just
after the battles of Trenton and Princeton, and Logan, elated by these
two victories for the American cause, was inclined, like many other
hopeful young patriots, to believe that the war would soon be over. So,
although he knew that for the present he must be separated from his
bride much of the time, and that he was but poorly able to provide for
her, rashly persuaded her to marry him. As the months went by, and the
Continental army, instead of achieving fresh victories, was suffering
loss and increasing hardship, Logan grew more and more remorseful and
unhappy about his young wife and infant son. The night before the
battle of Monmouth, he seemed to have a premonition of his fate on the
morrow, and was more than ever troubled over the future for his wife
and babe. He wrote his wife, asking forgiveness for having persuaded
her into the imprudent marriage, promising that if his life was spared,
he would try to atone to her for all she had suffered, and begging her
in any case to find shelter with her sister until the war would be
over. After Logan was killed, Stump had himself managed to convey this
letter to Mary at Morristown; but he could only stay a few minutes with
her, as his regiment was hurrying eastward. During the Virginia
campaign several years later, when Stump's regiment was with Lafayette
around Yorktown--about twenty miles from Lawsonville--he had intended
to ask for leave of absence, and go to see how it fared with his former
comrade's widow; but, hearing that she had married again and removed to
Kentucky, he did not go to Lawsonville.
When Abner Logan returned to Williamsburg the day after his conference
with Peter Stump, he found a letter from Mason Rogers. Mr. Rogers wrote
that he had questioned several men who had been in the fight at Blue
Licks and who remembered the Page brothers well. The elder brother was
Marshall, the name of the younger was Marcemus. Rogers further wrote
that two women who had been in Bryan Station during the siege and who
were now living in Fayette County, remembered that Marcemus Page, after
his escape from the Indians, had come back to Bryan's for the little
orphan boy whom he took to the mother's people in Virginia. These
witnesses could swear that it was Marshall Page's wife who had died at
the station in August, 1782, while the men were in pursuit of the
Indians. Moreover, one of the women remembered that Marcemus Page had
told her that he intended, after placing Marshall's little stepson in
the care of the boy's Virginia relations, to go on to Maryland. The
woman also said that Marcemus had told her that his own wife, who had
died that spring on the way into Kentucky, was a native of Maryland,
from Charles County.
After hearing what these women said, Rogers, knowing that Barton Stone
was a native of Charles County, Maryland, had then gone to see him.
Stone, though but a lad when his family had removed from Charles
County, remembered the Page family. There were two brothers, Marshall
and Marcemus, and Marcemus had married Mary Beale, a cousin of Stone's
mother; and soon afterward had left Maryland with his wife to join his
brother somewhere in Virginia, intending to go on with him to settle in
the backwoods of Kentucky.
After receiving Rogers' letter, Abner Logan lost no time in returning
to Kentucky. The day following his arrival at Cane Ridge, he sent Major
Gilcrest a note asking for an interview. The messenger brought back the
note unopened and the verbal message from Gilcrest declining to hold
any intercourse with Abner or to receive any written communication from
him.
Rogers then advised communicating with the Major through a lawyer, but
Abner felt that he must see Betty before he could decide upon this
course. He contrived, through Aunt Dilsey, to convey a note to the
girl. She wrote back that she would meet him that afternoon at their
former trysting-place. Here, accordingly, the two lovers met, after a
separation of over half a year, and renewed their vows of love and
fealty.
Abner gave Betsy a full account of everything, and consulted with her
as to the best way to communicate with her father; for it was
imperative that Major Gilcrest should immediately be made acquainted
with Abner's true history and his right to the Hite inheritance. Betsy
urged her lover not to place his affairs in the hands of a lawyer until
she had first tried what she could do with her father. She also thought
that her mother, first of all, should be told everything. To this Abner
agreed.
That night Betsy had a long talk with her mother. Poor Mrs. Gilcrest,
who for many years had been oppressed by the dark secret of her early
life, felt now, when she had learned all that her daughter had to
reveal, as if a great burden was lifted from her spirit. She rejoiced
not only in the certainty that her own clandestine marriage was valid,
and that her cousin had been a lawfully wedded wife, but also because
of the knowledge that Abner Logan, whom she had always greatly liked,
was the son of her well-beloved cousin and foster sister, Mary Hollis,
and that he was in every respect a suitable mate for Betsy.
In her relief and joy she felt that she now had courage to confess all
to her husband. The next evening she nerved herself for this ordeal.
Mrs. Gilcrest could not have chosen a less favorable occasion for her
purpose; for Major Gilcrest had just learned, through one of the
servants, that Betsy had met her lover the afternoon before. He was
furiously exasperated that his daughter had thus set at naught his
commands; and he raved in so frenzied a style of disobedience,
deception, and of the infamy of any girl who would hold clandestine
meetings with a man, that poor, cowardly Mrs. Gilcrest's newly acquired
valor evaporated before the fire of her husband's wrath, and she dared
not confess the secret she had withheld during all their married life.
She did, however, intercede for Abner, venturing her conviction that in
birth and character he was fit to wed with Betsy. But the poor creature
was so cowed by her habitual awe of her lord and master, and by his
present irascible temper, as well as by the burden of her own yet
unconfessed secret, that the stammering, incoherent tale she told of
the two John Logans, of the time and place of Mary Hollis' death, and
of Abner's being Andrew Hite's legal heir, was anything but convincing.
Her feeble attempt at explanation and intercession, instead of
softening the obstinate Major, only wrought him up to a still higher
pitch of exasperation.
Mrs. Gilcrest's effort to enlighten her husband having failed, young
Logan engaged an attorney, through whom the lord of Oaklands was
perforce convinced of Abner's legitimacy and right to the Hite
possessions.
But there still remained in the secret drawer of the Major's escritoire
those documentary proofs against "A. D.'s" political integrity, and in
the Major's mind those convictions of the young man's connection with
dangerous Spanish intrigues. More than that, there was the Major's
ingrained obstinacy and his aversion to confessing himself in the
wrong. So that, although he was not unduly covetous of the Hite
inheritance, and although, had he not been so harassed and imbittered
by his daughter's defiance, he would have rejoiced that Abner Logan was
well born and prosperous, just now he was in a humor the reverse of
rejoicing or yielding. Therefore his opposition to Betsy's suitor was
as firm as ever; and the two lovers appeared as far as ever from the
attainment of their hopes.