GREEN-COATS
Nothing stirred on the Drowned Lands as we drove our canoe at top speed
between tall bronzed stalks of rushes and dead water-weeds. Vlaie Water
was intensely blue and patched with golden debris of floating
stuff--shreds of cranberry vine, rotting lily pads, and the like--and in
twenty minutes we floated silently into the Spring Pool, opposite the
Stacking Ridge, where hard earth bordered both shores and where maples
and willows were now in lusty bud.
Two miles away, against Maxon's sturdy bastion, a vast quantity of smoke
was writhing upward in dark and cloudy convolutions. I could not see
Fish House--that oblong, unpainted building a story and a half in
height, with its chimneys of stone and the painted fish weather vane
swimming in the sky. But I was convinced that it was afire.
We beached our canoe and drew it under the shore-reeds, and so passed
rapidly down the right bank of the stream along the quick water, holding
our guns cocked and primed, like hunters ready for a hazard shot at
sight.
There was no snow left; all frost was out of the ground along the
Drowned Lands; and the earth was sopping wet. Everywhere frail green
spears of new grass pricked the dead and matted herbage; and in
sheltered places tiny green leaves embroidered stems and twigs; and I
saw wind-flowers, and violets both yellow and blue, and the amber shoots
of skunk cabbage growing thickly in wet places. The shadbush, too, was
in exquisite white bloom along the stream, and I remember that I saw one
tree in full flower, and a dozen bluejays sitting amid the snowy
blossoms like so many lumps of sapphire.
Now, on the mainland, a clearing showed in the sunshine; and beyond it I
saw a rail fence bounding a field still black and wet from last autumn's
plowing.
We took to the brush and bore to the right, where on firm ground a grove
of ash and butternut forested the ridge, and a sandy path ran through.
I knew this path. Sir William often used it when hunting, and his cows,
kept at Fish House when his two daughters lived there, travelled this
way to and from pasture.
Between us and the Sacandaga lay one of those grassy gulleys where, in
time of flood, back-water from the Sacandaga spread deep.
My Indian and I now lay down and drew our bodies very stealthily toward
the woods' edge, where the setback from the river divided us from Fish
House.
Ahead of us, through the trees, dense volumes of smoke crowded upward
and unfolded into strange, cloudy shapes, and we could hear a loud and
steady crackling noise made by feeding flames.
Presently, through the trees, I saw Fish House all afire, and now only a
glowing skeleton in the sunshine. But the dense smoke came not now from
Fish House, but from three barracks of marsh-hay burning, which vomited
thick smoke into the sky. Near the house some tall piles of hewn logs
were blazing, also a corn-crib, a small barn, and a log farmhouse, where
I think that damned rascal, Wormwood, once lived. And it had been bought
by a tenant of Sir William,--one of the patriot Shews or Helmers, if I
mistake not, who was given favourable advantages to undertake such a
settlement, but now had fled to Johnstown.
Godfrey Shew's own house, just over the knoll to the eastward, was also
on fire: I could see the flames from it and a thin brownish smoke which
belched out black cinders and shreds of charred bark.
I did not see a living creature near these fires, but farther toward the
east clearing I heard voices and the sound of picks and axes; and my
Saguenay and I crept thither along the bank of the flooded hollow.
Very soon I perceived the new earthwork and log-stockade made the
previous summer by our Continentals; and there, to my astonishment, I
saw a motley company of white men and Indians, who were chopping down
the timbers of the palisades, levelling the earthwork with pick and
shovel.
So near were they across the flooded hollow that I recognized Elias
Beacraft, brother to Benjy, who had gone off with McDonald. Also, I saw
and knew Captain James Hare, brother to Lieutenant Henry Hare, of
Butler's regiment; and Henry, also, was there; and Captain Nellis, of
the forester service. Both the Hares and Nellis were dressed in green
uniforms, and there were two other green-coats whom I knew not, but all
busy with their work of destruction, and their axes flashing in the
sunshine.
The others I had, of course, taken for very savages, for they were
feathered and painted and wore Indian dress; but when one of these came
down to the flooded hollow to fill his tin cup and drink, to my horror I
saw that the eyes in that hideously-painted face were a _light blue_!
"Nai! Yengese!" whispered the Yellow Leaf.
The painted Tory was not ten yards from where we lay, and, as I gazed
intently at those hideously daubed features, all at once I knew the man.
For this horrid and grotesque figure, all besmeared with ochre and
indigo, and wearing Indian dress, was none other than an old neighbour
of mine in Tryon County, one George Cuck, who lived near Jan Zuyler and
his two buxom daughters, and who had gone off with Sir John last May.
As I stared at him in ever-rising astonishment and rage, comes another
_blue-eyed Indian_--Barney Cane,--wearing Iroquois paint and feathers,
and all gaudy in his beaded war-dress. And, at his belt, I saw a fresh
scalp hanging by its hair,--_the light brown hair of a white man_!
I could hear Cane speaking with Cuck in English. Beacraft came down to
the water; and Billy Newberry[22] and Hare[22] also came down, both
wearing the uniform of the forester service. And I was astounded to see
Henry Hare back again after his narrow escape at Summer House last
autumn, the night I got my hurt.
[Footnote 22: This same man, William Newberry, a sergeant in Butler's
regiment; and Henry Hare, lieutenant in the same regiment, were caught
inside the American lines, court-martialed, convicted of unspeakable
cruelties, and Were hung as spies by order of General Clinton, July 6th,
1779.]
But he wore no Valley militia disguise now; all these men were in
green-coats, openly flaunting the enemy uniform in County Tryon,--save
only those painted beasts Cuck and Cane.
It was a war party, and it had accomplished a clean job at Fish House;
and now they all were coming down to the flooded hollow and looking
across it where lay the short route west to Summer House.
Presently I heard a great splashing to our left, and saw a skiff and two
green-coats and two Mohawk Indians in it pulling across the back-water.
And these latter were real Mohawks, stripped, oiled, their heads shaved,
and in their battle-paint, who squatted there in the skiff, scanning
with glowing eyes the bank where my Saguenay and I lay concealed.
It was perfectly plain, now, what they meant to do. Beacraft, Cane, and
Cuck went back to the ruined redoubt, and presently returned loaded with
packs. Baggage and rifles were laid in the skiff.
I touched Yellow Leaf on the arm, and we wriggled backward out of sight.
Then, rising, we turned and pulled foot for our canoe.
Now my chiefest anxiety was whether Penelope and Nick had got clean away
and were already well on the road to the Mayfield Block House.
We found our canoe where we had hid it, and we made the still water boil
with our two paddles, so that, although it seemed an age to me, we came
very swiftly to our landing at Summer House Point.
Here we sprang out, seized the canoe, ran with it up the grassy slope,
then continued over the uncut lawn and down the western slope, where
again we launched it and let it swing on the water, held anchored by its
nose on shore.
House, barn, orchard, all were deathly still there in the brilliant
sunshine; I ran to the manger and found it empty of cattle. There were
no fowls to be seen or heard, either. Then I hastened to the sheep-fold.
That, also, was empty.
Perplexed, I ran down to the gates, found them open, and, in the mud of
the Johnstown Road, discovered sheep and cattle tracks, the imprint of
Kaya's sharp-shod hoofs, a waggon mark, and the plain imprint of Nick's
moccasins.
So it was clear enough what he and Penelope had done. A terrible anxiety
seized me, and I wondered how far they had got on the way to Mayfield,
with cattle and sheep to drive ahead of a loaded waggon and one horse.
And now, more than ever, it was certain that my Indian and I must make a
desperate stand here to hold back these marauders until our people were
safe in Mayfield without a shadow of doubt.
The Saguenay had gone to the veranda roof with his rifle, where he could
see any movement by land or water.
I called up to him that the destructives might come by both routes; then
I went to my room, gathered all the lead bars and bags of bullets,
seized our powder keg, and dragged all down to the water, where I stored
everything in the canoe.
That was all I could take, save a sack of ground corn mixed with maple
sugar, a flask of rum, and a bag of dry meat.
These articles, with our fur robes and blankets, a fish-spear, and a
spontoon which I discovered, were all I dared attempt to save.
I stood in the pretty house, gazing desperately about me, sad to leave
this place to flames, furious to realize that this little lodge must
perish, which once was endeared to me because Sir William loved it, and
now had become doubly dear because I had given it to a young girl whom I
loved--and tenderly--yet desired not to become enamoured with.
Sunshine fell through the glazed windows, where chintz curtains stirred
in the wind.
I looked around at the Windsor chairs, the table where we had supped
together so often. I went into Penelope's room and looked at her maple
bed, so white and fresh.
There was a skein of wool yarn on the table. I took it; gazed at it with
new and strange emotions a-fiddling at my throat and twitching eyes and
lips; and placed it in the breast of my hunting shirt.
Then I listened; but my Indian overhead remained silent. So I went on
through the house, and then down to the kitchen, where I saw all sweetly
in order, and pan and china bright; and soupaan still simmering where
Penelope had left it.
There was a bowl of milk there, and the cream thick on it. And she had
set a dozen red apples handy, with flour and spices and a crock of lard
for to fashion a pie, I think.
Slowly I went up stairs and then out the kitchen door, across the grass.
The Saguenay saw me from above and made a sign that all was still quiet
on the Drowned Lands.
So I went to the manger again, and thence to the barn and around the
house.
The lilacs had bursted their buds, and I could see tiny bunches pushing
out on every naked stem where the fragrant, grape-like bunches of bloom
should hang in May.
Then I looked down, and remembered where I had lain in the snow under
these same lilacs, and how there Penelope had bullied me and then
consented to kiss me on the mouth.... And, as I was thinking sadly of
these things,--bang! went my Indian's rifle from the veranda roof.
I sprang out upon the west lawn and saw the powder cloud drifting over
the house, and my Indian, sheltered by the roof, reloading his piece on
one knee.
"By water!" he called out softly, when he saw me.
At that I ran into the house by the front door, which faced south;
closed and bolted the four heavy green shutters in the two rooms on the
ground floor, barred the south door and the west, or kitchen door below;
and sprang up the ladder to the low loft chamber, from whence, stooping,
I crept out of the south-gable window upon the veranda.
This piazza promenade was nearly as high as the eaves. The gable ends of
the roof, in which were windows, faced north and south, but the
promenade ran all around the east end and sides, which, supported by
columns, afforded a fine rifle-platform for defense against a water
attack, and gave us a wide view out over the mysterious Drowned Lands.
It was a vast panorama that lay around us--a great misty amphitheatre
more than a hundred miles in circumference. At our feet lay that immense
marsh of fifteen thousand acres, called the Great Vlaie; mountains
walled the Drowned Lands north, east, west; and to the south stretched a
wilderness of pine and spectral tamaracks.
Lying flat on the roof, and peering cautiously between the spindles of
the railing, I saw, below on the Vlaie Water, the same skiff I had seen
at Fish House.
In the heavy skiff, the gunwales of which were barricaded with their
military packs, lay six green-coats,--Captains Hare and Nellis, Sergeant
Newberry, Beacraft, and two strangers in private's uniform.
They had a white flag set in the prow.
But the two blue-eyed Indians, Barney Cane and George Cuck, were not
with them, nor were the two Mohawks. And in a whisper I bade my Saguenay
go around to the south gable and keep his eye on the gate and the
Johnstown Road on the mainland.
Hare took the white flag from the prow and waved it, the two rowers
continuing up creek and heading toward our landing.
Then I called out to them to halt and back water; and, as they paid no
heed, I fired at their white flag, and knocked the staff and rag out of
Hare's hand without wounding him.
At that two or three cried out angrily, but their rowers ceased and
began to back water hastily; and I, reloading, kept an eye on them.
Then Hare stood up in the skiff and bawled through his hollowed hand:
"Will you parley? Or do you wish to violate a flag?"
"Keep your interval, Henry Hare!" I retorted. "If you have anything to
say, say it from where you are or I'll drill you clean!"
"Is that John Drogue, the Brent-Meester?" he shouted.
"None other," said I. "What brings you to Summer House in such fair
weather, Harry Hare?"
"I wish to land and parley," he replied. "You may blindfold me if you
like."
"When I put out your lights," said I, "it will be a quicker job than
that. What do you wish to do--count our garrison?"
Captain Nellis got up from his seat and replied that he knew how many
people occupied Summer House, and that, desiring to prevent the useless
effusion of blood, he demanded our surrender under promise of kind
treatment.
I laughed at him. "No," said I, "my hair suits my head and I like it
there rather than swinging all red and wet at the girdle of your
blue-eyed Indians."
As I spoke I saw Newberry and Beacraft bring the butts of their rifles
to their shoulders, and I shrank aside as their pieces cracked out
sharply across the water.
Splinters flew from the painted column on the corner of the house; the
green-coats all fell flat in their skiff and lay snug there, hidden by
their packs.
Presently, as I watched, I saw an oar poked out.
Very cautiously somebody was sculling the skiff down stream and across
in the direction of the reeds.
As the craft turned to enter the marsh, I had a fleeting view of the
sculler--only his head and arm--and saw it was Eli Beacraft.
I was perfectly cool when I fired on him. He let go his oar and fell
flat on the bottom of the boat. The echo of my shot died away in
wavering cadences among the shoreward woods; an intense stillness
possessed the place.
Then, of a sudden, Beacraft fell to kicking his legs and screeching, and
so flopped about in the bottom of the boat, like a stranded fish all
over blood.
The boat nosed in between the marsh-grasses and tall sedge, and I could
not see it clearly any more.
But the green-coats in it were no sooner hid than they began firing at
Summer House, and the storm of lead ripped and splintered the gallery
and eaves, tore off shingles, shattered chimney bricks, and rang out
loud on the iron hinges of door and shutter.
I fired a few shots into their rifle-smoke, then lay watching and
waiting, and listening ever for the loud explosion of my Indian's piece,
which would mean that the painted Tories and the Mohawks were stealing
upon us from the mainland.
Every twenty minutes or so the men in the batteau-skiff let off a rifle
shot at Summer House, and the powder-cloud rising among the dead weeds,
pinxters, and button-ball bushes, discovered the location of their
craft.
Sometimes, as I say, I took a shot at the smoke; but time was the
essence of my contract, and God knows it contented me to stand siege
whilst Penelope and Nick, with waggon and cattle, were plodding westward
toward Mayfield.
* * * * *
About four o'clock in the afternoon I was hungry and went to get me a
piece in the pantry.
Then I took Yellow Leaf's place whilst he descended to appease his
hunger.
We ate our bread and meat together on the roof, our rifles lying cocked
across our knees.
"Brother," said I, munching away, "if, indeed, you be, as they say, a
tree-eater, and live on bark and buds when there is no game to kill,
then I think your stomach suffers nothing by such diet, for I want no
better comrade in a pinch, and shall always be ready to bear witness to
your bravery and fidelity."
He continued to eat in silence, scraping away at his hot soupaan with a
pewter spoon. After he had licked both spoon and pannikin as clean as a
cat licks a saucer, he pulled a piece of jerked deer meat in two and
gravely chewed the morsel, his small, brilliant eyes ever roving from
the water to the mainland.
Presently, without looking at me, he said quietly:
"When I was only a poor hunter of the Montagnais, I said to myself, 'I
am a man, yet hardly one.'[23] I learned that a Saguenay was a real man
when my brother told me.
[Footnote 23: Kon-kwe-ha. Literally, "I am a little of a real man."]
"My brother cleared my eyes and wiped away the ancient mist of tears. I
looked; and lo! I found that I was a real man. I was made like other men
and not like a beast to be kicked at and stoned and driven with sticks
flung at me in the forest."
"The Yellow Leaf is a warrior," I said. "The Oneida Anowara[24] bear
witness to scalps taken in battle by the Yellow Leaf. Tahioni, the Wolf,
took no more."
[Footnote 24: "Tortoise," or Noble Clan.]
"Ni-ha-ron-ta-kowa,"[25] said the Saguenay proudly, "onkwe honwe![26]
Yet it was my _white_ brother who cleared my eyes of mist. Therefore,
let him give me a new name--a warrior's name--meaning that my vision is
now clear."
[Footnote 25: He is an Oneida.]
[Footnote 26: "A real man," in Canienga dialect. The Saguenay's Iroquois
is mixed and imperfect.]
"Very well," said I, "your war name shall be Sak-yen-haton!"[27]--which
was as good Iroquois as I could pronounce, and good enough for the
Montagnais to comprehend, it seemed, for a gleam shot from his eyes, and
I heard him say to himself in a low voice: "Haiah-ya! I am a real
warrior now!... Onenh! at last!"
[Footnote 27: "Disappearing Mist"--Sakayen-gwaration.]
A shot came from the water; he looked around contemptuously and smiled.
"My elder brother," said he, "shall we two strip and set our knives
between our teeth, and swim out to scalp those muskrats yonder?"
"And if they fire at us in the water?" said I, amused at his mad
courage, who had once been "hardly a man."
"Then we dive like Tchurako, the mink, and swim beneath the water, as
swims old 'long face' the great wolf-pike![28] Shall we rush upon them
thus, O my elder brother?"
[Footnote 28: Che-go-sis--pickerel. In the Oneida dialect, Ska-ka-lux or
_Bad-eye_.]
Absurd as it was, the wild idea began to inflame me, and I was seriously
considering our chances at twilight to accomplish such a business, when,
of a sudden, I saw on the mainland an officer of the Indian Department,
who bore a white rag on the point of his hanger and waved it toward the
house.
He came across the Johnstown Road to our gate, but made no motion to
open it, and stood there slowly waving his white flag and waiting to be
noticed and hailed.
"Keep your rifle on that man," I whispered to my Indian, "for I shall go
down to the orchard and learn what are the true intentions of these
green-coats and blue-eyed Indians. Find a rest for your piece, hold
steadily, and kill that flag if I am fired on."
I saw him stretch out flat on his belly and rest his rifle on the
veranda rail. Then I crawled into the garret, descended through the
darkened house, and, unbolting the door, went out and down across the
grass to the orchard.
"What is your errand?" I called out, "you flag there outside our gate?"
"Is that you, John Drogue?" came a familiar voice.
I took a long look at him from behind my apple tree, and saw it was Jock
Campbell, one of Sir John's Highland brood and late a subaltern in the
Royal Provincials.
And that he should come here in a green coat with these murderous
vagabonds incensed me.
"What do you want, Jock Campbell!" I demanded, controlling my temper.
"I want a word with you under a flag!"
"Say what you have to say, but keep outside that gate!" I retorted.
"John Drogue," says he, "we came here to burn Summer House, and mean to
do it. We know how many you have to defend the place----"
"Oh, do you know that? Then tell me, Jock, if you truly possess the
information."
"Very well," said he calmly. "You are two white men, a Montagnais dog,
and a girl. And pray tell me, sir, how long do you think you can hold us
off?"
"Well," said I, "if you are as thrifty with your skins as you have been
all day, then we should keep this place a week or two against you."
"What folly!" he exclaimed hotly. "Do you think to prevail against us?"
"Why, I don't know, Jock. Ask Beacraft yonder, who hath a bullet in his
belly. He's wiser than he was and should offer you good counsel."
"I offer you safe conduct if you march out at once!" he shouted.
"I offer you one of Beacraft's pills if you do not instantly about face
and march into the bush yonder!" I replied.
At that he dashed the flag upon the road and shook his naked sword at
me.
"Your blood be on your heads!" he bawled. "I can not hold my Indians if
you defy them longer!"
"Well, then, Jock," said I, "I'll hold 'em for you, never fear!"
He strode to the fence and grasped it.
"Will you march out? Shame on you, Stormont, who are seduced by this
Yankee rabble o' rebels when your place is with Sir John and with the
loyal gentlemen of Tryon!
"For the last time, then, will you parley and march out? Or shall I give
you and your Caughnawaga wench to my Indians?"
I walked out from behind my tree and drew near the fence, where he was
standing, his sword hanging from one wrist by the leather knot.
"Jock Campbell," said I, "you are a great villain. Do you lay aside your
hanger and your pistols, and I will set my rifle here, and we shall soon
see what your bragging words are worth."
At that he drove his sword into the earth, but, as I set my rifle
against a tree, he lifted his pistol and fired at me, and I felt the
wind of the bullet on my right cheek.
Then he snatched his sword and was already vaulting the gate, when my
Saguenay's bullet caught him in mid-air, and he fell across the top rail
and slid down on the muddy road outside.
Then, for the first time, I saw the two real Mohawks where they lay in
ambush in the bush. One of them had risen to a kneeling position, and I
saw the red flash of his piece and saw the smoke blot out the
tree-trunk.
For a second I held my fire; then saw them both on the ground under the
alders across the road, and fired very carefully at the nearest one.
He dropped his gun and let out a startling screech, tried to get up off
the ground, screeching all the while; then lay scrabbling on the dead
leaves.
I stepped behind an apple tree, primed and reloaded in desperate haste,
and presently drew the fire of the other Indian with my cap on my
ramrod.
Then, as I ran to the gate, my Saguenay rushed by me, leaping the fence
at a great bound, and I saw his up-flung hatchet sparkle, and heard it
crash through bone.
I shouted for him to come back, but when he obeyed he had two Mohawk
scalps,[29] and came reluctantly, glancing down at Campbell where he lay
still breathing on the muddy road, and darting an uncertain glance at
me.
[Footnote 29: In October, 1919, the author talked to a farmer and his
son, who, a few days previously, while digging sand to mend the
Johnstown road at this point, had disinterred two skeletons which had
been buried there. From the shape of the skulls, it is presumed that the
remains were Indian.]
But I told him with an oath that it would be an insult to me if he
touched a white man's hair in my presence; and he opened the gate and
came inside like a great, sullen dog from whom I had snatched a bone of
his own digging.
Very cautiously we retreated through the orchard to the house, entered,
and climbed again to the roof.
And from there we saw that, in our absence, the boat had been rowed to
our landing, and that its occupants were now somewhere on the mainland,
doubtless preparing to assault the place as soon as dusk offered them
sufficient cover.
Well, the game was nearly up now. Our people should have arrived by this
time at Mayfield with sheep, cattle, and waggon. We had remained here to
the limit of safety, and there was no hope of aid in time to save our
skins or this house from destruction.
The sun was low over the forest when, at length, we crept out of the
house and stole down to our canoe.
We made no sound when we embarked, and our craft glided away under the
rushes, driven by cautiously-dipped paddles which left only silent
little swirls on the dark and glassy stream.
Up Mayfield Creek we turned, which, above, is not fair canoe-water save
at flood; but now the spring melting filled it brimfull, and a heavy
current set into Vlaie Water so that there was labour ahead for us; and
we bent to it as dusk fell over the Drowned Lands.
* * * * *
It was not yet full dark when, over my shoulder, I saw a faint rose
light in the north. And I knew that Summer House was on fire.
Then, swiftly the rosy light grew to a red glow, and, as we watched, a
great conflagration flared in the darkness, mounting higher, burning
redder, fiercer, till, around us, vague smouldering shadows moved, and
the water was touched with ashy glimmerings.
Summer House was all afire, and the infernal light touched us even here,
painting our features and the paddle-blades, and staining the dark water
with a prophecy of blood.
* * * * *
It was a long and irksome paddle, what with floating trees we
encountered and the stream over its banks and washing us into sedge and
brush and rafts of weed in the darkness. Again and again, checked by
some high dam of drifted windfall, we were forced to make a swampy
carry, waist high through bog and water.
Often, so, we were forced to rest; and we sat silent, panting,
skin-soaked in the chilly night air, gazing at the distant fire, which,
though now miles away, seemed so near. And I could even see trees black
against the blaze, and smoke rolling turbulently, and a great whirl of
sparks mounting skyward.
It was long past midnight when I hailed the picket at the grist-mill and
drove our canoe shoreward into the light of a lifted lantern.
"Is Nick Stoner in?" I called out.
"All safe!" replied somebody on shore.
A dark figure came down to the water and took hold of our bow to steady
us.
"Summer House and Fish House are burned," said I, climbing out stiffly.
"Aye," said the soldier, "and what of Fonda's Bush, Mr. Drogue?"
"What!" I exclaimed, startled.
"Look yonder," said he.
I scarce know how I managed to stumble up the bushy bank. And then, when
I came out on level land near the block house, I saw fire to the
southeast, and the sky crimson above the forest.
"My God!" I stammered, "Fonda's Bush is all afire!"
There was a red light toward Frenchman's Creek, too, but where Fonda's
Bush should lie a vast sea of fire rose and ebbed and waxed and faded
above the forest.
"Were any people left there?" I asked.
"None, sir."
"Thank God," I said. But my heart was desolate, for now my house of logs
that I had builded and loved was gone; my glebe destroyed; all my toil
come to naught in the distant mockery of those shaking flames. All I had
in the world was gone save for my slender funds in Albany.
"Where are my friends?" said I to a soldier.
"At the Block House, sir, and very anxious concerning you. They have not
long been in, but Nick Stoner is all for going back to Summer House to
discover your whereabouts, and has been beating up recruits for a flying
scout."
Even as he spoke, I saw Nick come up the road with a torch, and called
out to him.
"Where have you been, John Drogue?" said he, coming to me and laying a
hand on my shoulder.
"Is Penelope safe?" I asked.
"She is as safe as are any here in Mayfield. Is it Summer House that
burns in the north, or only the marsh hay?"
"The whole place is afire," said I. "A dozen green-coats, blue-eyed
Indians, and two real ones, burnt Fish House and attacked us at Summer
House. I saw and knew Jock Campbell, Henry Hare, Billy Newberry, Barney
Cane, Eli Beacraft, and George Cuck. My Saguenay mortally wounded Jock.
He's lying on the road. He tomahawked a Canienga, too, and took his
scalp and another's."
"Did _you_ mark any of the dirty crew?" demanded Nick.
"I shot Beacraft and one Mohawk. How many are we at the Block House?"
"A full company to hold it safe," said he, gloomily. "Do you know that
Fonda's Bush is burning?"
"Yes."
After a silence I said: "Who commands here? I think we ought to move
toward Johnstown this night. I don't know how many green-coats have come
to the Sacandaga, but it must have been another detachment that is
burning Fonda's Bush."
As I spoke a Continental Captain followed by a Lieutenant came up in the
torch-light; and I gave him his salute and rendered an account of what
had happened on the Drowned Lands.
He seemed deeply disturbed but told me he had orders to defend the
Mayfield Fort. He added, however, that if I must report at Johnstown he
would give me a squad of musket-men as escort thither.
"Yes, sir," said I, "my report should not be delayed. But I have Nick
Stoner and an Indian, and apprehend no danger. So if I may beg a dish of
porridge for my little company, and dry my clothing by your block-house
fire-place, I shall set out within the hour."
He was very civil,--a tall, haggard, careworn man, whose wife and
children lived at Torloch, and their undefended situation caused him
deep anxiety.
So I walked to the Fort, Nick and my Indian following; and presently saw
Penelope on the rifle-platform of the stockade, among the soldiers.
She was gazing at the fiery sky in the north when I caught sight of her
and called her name.
For a moment she bent swiftly down over the pickets as though to pierce
the dark where my voice came from; then she turned, and was descending
the ladder when I entered by the postern.
As I came up she took my shoulders between both hands, but said nothing,
and I saw she had trouble to speak.
"Yes," said I, "there is bad news for you. Your pretty Summer House is
no more, Penelope."
"Oh," she stammered, "did you--did you suppose it was the loss of a
house that has driven me out o' my five senses?"
"Are your sheep and cattle safe?" I asked in sudden alarm.
"My God," she breathed, and stood with her face in both hands, there at
the foot of the ladder under the April stars.
"What is it frightens you?" I asked.
Her hands fell to her side and she looked at me: "Nothing, sir....
Unless it be myself," she said calmly. "Your clothing is wet and you are
shivering. Will you come into the fort?"
We went in. I remembered how I had seen her there that night, nearly a
year ago, and all the soldiers gathered around to entertain her, whilst
she supped on porridge and smiled upon them over her yellow bowl's edge,
like a very child.
The few soldiers inside rose respectfully. A sergeant drew a settle to
the blazing fire; a soldier brought us soupaan and a gill of rum. Nick
came in with the Saguenay, and they both squatted down in their blankets
before the fire, grave as a pair o' cats; and there they ate their fill
of porridge at our feet, and blinked at the blaze and smoked their clays
in silence.
I told Penelope that we must travel this night to Johnstown, it being my
duty to give an account of what had happened, without delay.
"There can be no danger to us on the road," said I, "but the thought of
leaving you here in this fort disturbs me."
"What would I do here alone?" she asked.
"What will you do alone in Johnstown?" I inquired in turn.
At the same time I realized that we both were utterly homeless; and that
in Johnstown our shelter must be a tavern, or, if danger threatened, the
fortified jail called Johnstown Fort.
"You will not abandon me, will you, sir?" she asked, touching my sleeve
with the pretty confidence of a child.
"Why, no," said I. "We can lodge at Jimmy Burke's Tavern. And there is
Nick to give us countenance--and a most respectable Indian."
"Is it scandalous for me to go thither in your company?"
"What else is there for us to do?"
"I should go to Albany," said she, "as soon as may be. And I am resolved
to do so and to seek out Mr. Fonda and disembarrass you of any further
care for me."
"It is no burden," said I; "but I do not know where I shall be sent, now
that the war is come to Tryon County. And--I can not bear to think of
you alone and unprotected, living the miserable life of a refugee in the
women's quarters at Johnstown Fort."
"Does solicitude for my welfare truly occupy your thoughts, sir?"
"Why, yes, and naturally. Are we not close friends and comrades in
misfortune, Penelope?"
"I counted it no misfortune to live at Summer House."
"No, nor I.... I was very happy there.... Alas for your pretty
cottage!--poor little chatelaine of Summer House!"
"John Drogue?"
"I hear you."
"Did you suppose I ever meant to take that gift of you?"
"Why--why, yes! I gave it! Even now I have the deed to the land and
shall convey it to you. And one day, God willing, a new cottage shall be
built----"
"Then you must build it, John Drogue, for the land is yours and I never
meant to take it of you, and never shall.... And I thank you,--and am
deeply beholden--and touched in my heart's deep depths--that you have
offered this to me.... Because you desired me to be respectable, and
well considered by men.... And you wished me to possess substance which
I lacked--so that none could dare use me lightly and without
consideration.... And I promise you that I have learned my lesson. You
have schooled me well, Mr. Drogue.... And if for no other reason save
respect for you, and gratitude, I promise you I shall so conduct
hereafter that you shall have no reason to think contemptuously of me."
"I never held you in contempt."
"Yes; when I stole your horse; and when you deemed me easy--and proved
me so----"
"I meant it not that way!" said I, reddening.
"Yet it was so, John Drogue. I was not difficult. I meant no harm, but
had not sense enough to know harm when it approached me!... And so I
thank you for schooling me. But I never could have taken any gift from
you."
After a silence I rose and went into the officer's quarters.
The Continental Captain was lying on his trundle-bed, but got up and
sent two men to harness Kaya to our waggon.
I told him I should leave all stores and provisions with him, and asked
if he would look after our sheep and cattle and fowls until they could
be fetched to Johnstown and cared for there.
He was a most kindly man, and promised to care for our creatures, saying
that the eggs and milk would be welcome to his garrison, and that if he
took a lamb or two he would pay for it on demand.
So when our waggon drove up in the darkness outside, he came and took
leave of us all very kindly, saying he hoped that Penelope would be safe
in Johnstown, and that the raiders would soon be driven out of the
Sacandaga.
I gave him our canoe, for which he seemed grateful.
Then I helped Penelope into the waggon, got in myself and took the
reins. Nick and the Saguenay vaulted into the box and lay down on our
pile of furs and blankets.
And so we drove out of the stockade and onto the Johnstown Road,
Penelope in a wolf-robe beside me, and both her hands clasped around my
left arm.
"Are you a-chill?" I asked.
"I do not know what ails me," she murmured, "but--the world is so vast
and dark.... and God is so far--so far----"
"You are unhappy."
"No."
"You grieve for somebody?"
"No, I do not grieve."
"Are you lonesome?"
"I do not know if I am.... I do not know why I tremble so.... The world
is so dark and vast.... I am so small a thing to be alone in it.... It
is the war, perhaps, that awes me. It seems so near now. Alas for the
battles to be fought!--the battles in the North.... Where you shall be,
John Drogue."
"You said that once before."
"Yes. I saw you there against a cannon's rising cloud.... And a white
shape near you."
"You said it was Death," I reminded her.
"Death or a bride.... I did not wish to see that vision. I never desire
to see such things."
"Pooh! Do you really believe in dreams, Penelope?"
"There were strange uniforms there," she murmured, "--not red-coats."
"Oh; green-coats!"
"No. I never saw the like. I never saw such soldiery in England or in
France or in America."
"They were only dream soldiers," said I gaily. "So now you must laugh a
little, and take heart, Penelope, because if we two have been made
homeless this night by fire, still we are young, and in health, and have
all life before us. Come, then! Shall we be melancholy? And if there are
to be battles in the North, why, there will be battles, and some must
die and some survive.
"So, in the meanwhile, shall we be merry?"
"If you wish, sir."
"Excellent! Sing me a pretty French song--low voiced--in my ear,
Penelope, whilst I guide my horse."
"What song, sir?"
"What you will."
So, holding my arm with both her hands, she leaned close to me on the
jolting seat and placed her lips at my ear; and sang "Malbrook," as we
drove toward Johnstown through the dark forest under the April stars.
Something hot touched my cheek.
"Why, Penelope!" said I, "are you weeping?"
She shook her head, rested her forehead a moment against my shoulder,
and, sitting so, strove to continue--
"Il ne--ne reviendra--"
Her voice sank to a tremulous whisper and she bowed her face in her two
hands and rested so in silence, her slender form swaying with the
swaying waggon.
It was plain to me that the child was afeard. The shock of flight, the
lurid tokens of catastrophe in the heavens, the alarming rumours in
those darkening hours, anxiety, suspense, all had contributed to shake a
heart both gentle and courageous.
For in the thickening gloom around us a very murk of murder seemed to
brood over this dark and threatened land, seeming to grow more sinister
and more imminent as the fading crimson in the northern heavens paled to
a sickly hue in the first faint pallor of the coming dawn.