"They treat ye harsh, Miss Janice," he remarked sympathetically;

"but 't is an unforgiving world, as I have good

cause to wot."

Janice, who had stooped lower over the patches when first

he spoke, flashed her eyes up for an instant, and then dropped

them again.

"And one is blamed and punished for much that deserves

it not. I' faith, I know one man who stands disgraced to the

woman he loves best, for no better cause than that the depth

of his passion was so boundless that he went to every length to

gain her."

The quilter fitted a red calimanco patch in place, and

studied the effect with intense interest.

"Wouldst like me to carry a message to the prisoner, Miss

Janice?"

"Oh, will you?" murmured the girl, gratefully and eagerly.

"Wilt tell him that I knew nothing of the plan to capture him,

and was only trying to aid his escape? That, after all his

kindness, I would never--"

Here the eager flow of words received a check by the re-entrance

of Mrs. Meredith. Dropping his hand upon the quilting-frame

so that it covered one of the girl's, the commissary

conveyed by a slight pressure a pledge of fulfilment of her wish,

and, after a few moments' passing chat, left the room. Before

a lapse of ten minutes he returned, and took a chair near the

girl.

Glancing at her mother, to see if her eyes wandered from

the sock she was resoling, Janice raised her eyebrows with

furtive inquiry. In answer the baron shook his head.

"'T is a curious commentary on man, "he observed thoughtfully,

"that he always looks on the black side of his fellow-creatures,

and will not believe that they can be honest and

truthful."

"Man is born in sin," responded Mrs. Meredith. "Janice,

that last patch is misplaced; pay heed to thy work."

"I lately had occasion to justify an action to a man," went

on Clowes, "but, no, the scurvy fellow would put no faith in

my words, insisting that the person I sought to clear was covinous

and tricky, and wholly unworthy of trust."

"The thoughts of a man who prefers to think such things,"

broke in Janice, hotly, "are of no moment."

"Ye are quite right, Miss Janice," assented the emissary,

"and I would I'd had the wit to tell him so. 'T is my intention

some day to call him to account for his words."

Further communion on this topic was interrupted by the

incoming of Mr. Meredith, and during the whole day the two

were never alone. His forgiveness partly won by his service,

the commissary ventured to take a seat beside the quilter, and

sought to increase his favour with her by all the arts of tongue

and manner he had at command. As these were manifold,

he saw no reason, as dusk set in, to be dissatisfied with the

day's results. Inexperienced as Janice was, she could not

know that the cooler and less ardent the man, the better he

plays the lover's part; and while she never quite forgot his

previous deceit, nor the trouble into which he had persuaded

her, yet she was thoroughly entertained by what he had to tell

her, the more that under all his words he managed to convey

an admiration and devotion which did not fail to flatter the

girl, even though it stirred in her no response. Entertained

as she might be, her thoughts were not so occupied by the

charm and honey of Lord Clowes's attentions as to pretermit

all dwelling on the aide's opinion of her, and this was shown

when finally an interruption set her free from observation.

It was after nightfall ere there was any variation of the monotonous

quiet; and indeed the tall clock had just announced

the usual bedtime of the family when Clarion's bark made the

squire sit up from his drowse before the fire, and set all listening.

Presently came the now familiar sound of hoof-beat and

sabre-clank; springing to his feet and seizing a candle, Mr.

Meredith was at the front door as a troop trotted in from the

road.

"What cheer?" called the master of Greenwood.

"'T was played to a nicety," answered the voice of Harcourt,

as he threw himself from the saddle. "Sound the

stable call, bugler. Dismount your prisoner, sergeant, and

bring him in," he ordered; and then continued to the host:

"We had the tavern surrounded, Mr. Meredith, ere they so

much as knew, bagged our game, and here we are."

The words served to carry the two to the parlour, and closely

following came a sergeant and trooper, while between them,

clothed in a very soiled dressing-gown and a still dirtier shirt,

in slippers, his queue still undressed, and with hands tied behind

his back, walked the general who but a few hours before

had been boasting of how he was to save the Continental cause.

"If you have pity in you," besought the prisoner, "let me

warm myself. What method of waging war is it which forces

a man to ride thirty miles in such weather in such clothes?

For the sake of former humanity, Mr. Meredith, give me

something hot to drink."

In the excitement and confusion of the new arrivals, Janice

had seen her chance, and, intent upon making her own statement

of justification, she once again stole from the parlour and

into the kitchen, so softly that the occupants of neither room

were aware of escape or advent. She found the prisoner still

tied to his chair, his body and head hanging forward in an

attitude denoting weariness, Sukey engaged in cutting slices

of bacon in probable expectation of demands from the new-comers,

while the single trooper on guard had just opened the

entry door, and was shouting inquiries concerning the success

of the raid to his fellow-dragoons as they passed to the stable.

Acting on a sudden impulse which gave her no time for

consideration, Janice caught the knife from the hand of

Sukey, and, with two hasty strokes, cut the cord where it was

passed through the slats of the chair-back, setting the prisoner

free.

"Fo' de good Lord in hebin--" began the cook, in amazement;

but, as the import of her young mistress's act dawned

upon her, she ran to the fireplace and, catching up a log of

wood, held it out to Brereton.

Owing to his stooping posture, the release of the cords had

caused the aide to fall forward out of the chair; but he instantly

scrambled to his feet, and without so much as a glance behind

him, seized the billet from the hands of the cook and sprang

toward the doorway, reaching it at the moment the dragoon

turned about to learn the cause of the sudden commotion.

Bringing the log down with crushing force on the man's head,

Jack stooped as the man plunged' forward, possessed himself

of his sabre, caught one of the long cavalry capotes from its

hook in the entry, and, banging to the door, vanished in the

outer darkness. There he stood for a moment, listening intently,

apparently in doubt as to his next step; then electing

the bolder course, he threw the coat about his shoulders,

fastened the sabre to his side, and ran to the stable, where

the tired troopers, in the dim light furnished by a solitary

lantern, were now dismounting from their horses. Without

hesitation the aide walked among them, and in a disguised

voice announced: "Colonel Harcourt orders me to look to

his horse."

"Here," called a man, and the fugitive stepped forward

and caught the bridle the trooper threw to him. He stood

quietly while the dragoons one by one led their horses into

the stable, then pulling gently on the reins, he slowly walked

the colonel's horse forward as if to follow their example, but,

turning a little to the left, he passed softly around the side of

the building. Letting down the bars into the next field, he

quickened his pace until the road was reached; swinging himself

into the saddle, he once more spurred northward.

"Poor brute," he remarked, "spent as thou art, we must

make a push for it until beyond Middle-Brook, if I am to

save my bacon. 'T is a hard fate that makes thee serve both

sides by turn, until there is no go left in thee. Luckily, the

other horses are as tired as thou, or my escape would be very

questionable, even though I had wit enough about me to see

to it that I got the officer's mount. Egad, a queer shift it is

that ends with Lee in their hands and me spurring northward

to repeat the general's orders to Sullivan. Who knows but

Mrs. Meredith and the parson may be right in their holding

to foreordination?"

XXXII

UNDER DURANCE

As Brereton slammed the kitchen door behind

him, the girl ran to the assistance of the injured

trooper, only to recoil at sight of the blood flowing

from his mouth and nose, and in uncontrollable horror

and fright she fled to her own room. Here, cowering and

shivering, she crouched on the floor behind her bed, her breath

coming fast and short, as she waited for the sword of vengeance

to fall. Ere many seconds the sounds below told her that the

escape had been discovered, bangings of doors, shouts, bugle

calls, and the clatter of horses' feet each in succession giving

her fresh terror. Yet minute after minute passed without any

one coming to find her, and at last the suspense became so

intolerable that the girl rose and went to the head of the stairs

to listen. From that point of vantage she could hear in the

dining-room the voice of Harcourt sternly asking questions, the

replies to which were so inarticulate and so intermixed with

sobs and wails that Janice could do no more than realise that

the cook was under examination. Harcourt's inquiries, however,

served to reveal that the faithful Sukey was endeavouring

to conceal her young mistress's part in the prisoner's escape;

and as Janice gathered this, the figure which but a moment

before had expressed such fear suddenly straightened, and without

hesitation she ran down the stairs and entered the dining-room

just in time to hear Sukey affirm:--

"I dun it, I tells youse, I dun it, and dat's all I will tells

youse."

"Colonel Harcourt," announced the girl, steadily, "Sukey

did n't do it. I took the knife from her and cut the prisoner

loose before she knew what I had in mind."

"Doan youse believe one word dat chile says," protested

Sukey.

"It is true," urged Janice, as eager to assume the guilt as

five minutes before she had been anxious to escape it; "and if

you want proof, you will find the knife on my bed upstairs."

"Oh, missy, missy!" cried Sukey, "wha' fo' youse tell dat?

Now dey kill youse an' not ole Sukey;" and the sobs of the

slave redoubled as she threw herself on the floor in the intensity

of her grief.

It took but few interrogations on the part of Harcourt to

wring all the truth from the culprit, and ordering her to follow

him to the parlour, he angrily denounced the girl to her parents.

Much to her surprise, she found that this latest enormity called

forth less of an outburst than her previous misconduct, her

father being quite staggered by its daring and seriousness; while

Mrs. Meredith, with a sudden display of maternal tenderness

that Janice had not seen for years, took the girl in her arms,

and tried to soothe and comfort her.

One more friend in need proved to be Clowes, who, when

Harcourt declared that the girl should be carried to Princeton

in the morning, along with Lee, that Lord Cornwallis might

decide as to her punishment, sought to make the officer take

less summary measures, but vainly, except to win the concession

that if Hennion recaptured the prisoner he would take a

less drastic course. The morrow brought a return of the pursuing

party, empty-handed, and in a hasty consultation it was

agreed that the squire should accompany Janice, leaving Mrs.

Meredith under the protection of Philemon,--an arrangement

by no means pleasing to the young lieutenant, and made the

less palatable by the commissary's announcement that he should

retrace his own steps to Princeton in the hope of being of

service to his friends. Philemon's protests were ineffectual,

however, to secure any amendment; and the sleigh, with Brereton's

mare and Joggles to pull it, received the three, and, together

with Lee and the escort, set out for headquarters about

noon.

With the arrival at Nassau Hall, then serving as barracks for

the force centred there, a fresh complication arose, for Colonel

Harcourt learned that Lord Cornwallis, having seen his force

safely in winter quarters at Princeton, Trenton, and Burlington,

had departed the day previous for New York, while General

Grant, who succeeded him, was still at Trenton. Taking the

night to consider what was best to be done, Harcourt made

up his mind to carry his prisoners to New York, a decision

which called forth most energetic protests from the squire,

who had contrived in the doings of the last two days to take

cold, and now asserted that an attack of the gout was beginning.

His pleadings were well seconded by the baron, and

not to harass too much one known to be friendly both to the

cause and to the commander-in-chief, the colonel finally consented

that the fate of Janice should be left to the general in

command. This decided, Lee was once more mounted, and

captive and captors set about retracing their steps, while the

sleigh carried the squire and Janice, under guard, on to

Trenton, Mr. Meredith having elected to make the short

trip to that town rather than await the indefinite return of

Grant.

It was dusk when they reached Trenton, and once more they

were doomed to a disappointment, for the major-general had

departed to Mount Holly. Mr. Meredith's condition, as well as

nightfall, put further travel out of the question, and an appeal

was made to Rahl, the Hessian colonel commanding the brigade

which held the town, to permit them to remain, which, thanks

to the influence of the commissary, was readily granted, on

condition that they could find quarters for themselves.

"No fear," averred the squire, cheerily. "I'll never want

for sup or bed in Trenton while Thomas Drinker lives."

"Ach!" exclaimed the colonel. "Dod iss mein blace ver I

sleeps und eats und drinks. Und all bessitzen you will it

find."

Notwithstanding the warning, the sleigh was driven to the

Drinkers' door, now flanked by a battery of field-pieces, and in

front of which paced sentries, who refused to let them pass.

Their protests served to attract the attention of the inmates,

and brought the trio of Drinkers running to the door; in another

moment the two girls were locked in each other's arms,

while Mr. Meredith put his question concerning possible

hospitality.

"Ay, in with thee all, Friend Lambert," cried Mr. Drinker,

leading the way. "Thou'lt find us pushed into the garret,

and forced to eat at second table, while our masters take

our best, but of what they leave us thou shalt have thy

share."

"Is 't so bad as that?" marvelled Mr. Meredith, as, passing

by the parlour, he was shown into the kitchen, and a chair set

for him before the fire.

"Thee knows the tenets of our faith, and that I accept

them," replied the Quaker. "Yet the last few days have made

me feel that non-resistance--"

"Thomas!" reproved his sister. "Say it not, for when the

curse is o'er, 't will grieve thee to have even thought it."

If the tempered spirit of the elders spoke thus, it was more

than the warm blood of youth could do, and Tabitha gave a

loose to her woes.

"'T is past endurance!" she cried, "to come and treat us

all as if we were enemies who had no right even to breathe.

They take possession of our houses and turn them into pig-sties

with their filthy German ways; they eat our best and make us

slave for them day and night; they plunder as they please, not

merely our cattle and corn, so that we are forced to beg back

from them the very food we eat, but take as well our horses,

our silver, our clothes, and whatever else happens to please

their fancy. The regiment of Lossberg has at this moment nine

waggon-loads of plunder in the Fremantle barn. No woman is

safe on the streets after sundown, and scarcely so in the day-time,

while night after night the town rings with their drunken

carousals. I told Friend Penrhyn the other night that if he

had the spunk of a house cat he would get something to fight

with, if 't were nothing better than a toasting-fork tied to a stick,

and cross the river to Washington; and so I say to every man

who stays in Trenton. I only wish I were not a female!"

"Hush, Tabitha!" chided Miss Drinker, "'t is God's will

that we suffer as we do, and thee shouldst bow to it."

"I don't believe it 's God's will that we should be turned out

of our rooms and made to live in the garret, or even in the

barns, as some are forced to do; I don't believe it's God's will

that they should have taken our silver tea-service and spoons.

If God is just, He must want Washington to beat them, and so

every man would be doing God's work who went to help him."

Evidently with whatever strength her father and aunt held to

the tenets of their sect, Tabitha's was not sufficiently ingrained

to stand the test of the Hessian occupation.

"Dost think it is God's work to kill fellow-mortals?" expostulated

Miss Drinker. "No more of such talk, child; it is

time we were making ready for supper."

There was, however, very much more talk of this kind over

the hastily improvised meal, and small wonder for it. In a town

of less than a thousand inhabitants, nearly thirteen hundred

troops, with their inevitable camp followers, were forcibly quartered,

filling every house and every barn, to the dire discomfort

of the people. As if this in itself were not enough, the Hessian

soldiery, habituated to the plundering of European warfare, and

who had been sold at so much per head by their royal rulers

to fight another country's battles, brought with them to America

ideas of warfare which might serve to conquer, but would

never serve to pacify, England's colonies. Open and violent

seizure had been made, without regard to the political tenets of

the owner, of every kind of provision; and this had generally

been accompanied with stealthy plundering of much else by the

common soldiery, and, indeed, by some of the officers. Thus,

in every way, despite their submissions and oaths of allegiance

to King George, the Jerseymen were being treated as if they

were enemies.

Of this treatment the Drinker family was a fair example.

Without so much as "by your leave," Colonel Rahl had taken

possession of the first two floors of their house for himself and

the six or seven officers whom he made his boon companions.

Moreover, Mr. Drinker was called upon to furnish food, firewood,

and even forage for them; while his servants were compelled to

labour from morning till night in the service of the new over lords.

When the squire, after his fatiguing day, was compelled,

along with his host and hostess and the girls, to climb two flights

of stairs to an ice-cold garret, his loyalty was little warmer than

the atmosphere; and when the five were further forced to make

the best they could of two narrow trundle-beds, but a brief

time before deemed none too good for the coloured servitors,

with a scanty supply of bedclothes to eke the discomfort, he

became quite of the same mind with Tabitha. Even the most

flaming love of royalty and realm serves not to keep warm toes

extended beyond short blankets at Christmas-tide. It is not

strange that late in December, 1776, all Jersey was mined with

discontent, and needed but the spark of Continental success to

explode.

Clowes had left his friends, after the interview with Rahl, to

quarter himself upon an army acquaintance, and thus knew

nothing of the hardships to which they were subjected. When

he heard in the morning how they had fared, he at once sought

the commander, and by a shrewd exaggeration of the Merediths'

relations with Howe, supplemented by some guineas, secured

the banishment of enough officers from the house to restore to

the Drinkers two of their rooms.

To contribute to their entertainment, as well as to their comfort,

he brought them word that Colonel Rahl, by his favour, bid

them all to a Christmas festival the following day; and when

Mr. and Miss Drinker refused to have aught to do with an unknown

German, and possibly Papistical, if not devilish orgy, he

obtained the rescinding of this veto by pointing out how unwise

it would be to offend a man on whom their comfort for the

winter so much depended.

It was, as it proved, a very novel and wonderful experience

to the girls. After the two o'clock dinner which the invading

force had compelled the town to adopt, the three regiments of

Anspach, Lossberg, and Rahl, and the detachments of the

Yagers and light horse, with beating drums and flying colours,

paraded from one end of the town to the other, ending with a

review immediately in front of the Drinkers' house. Following

this the regimental bands of hautboys played a series of German

airs which the now disbanded rank and file joined in vocally.

Then, as night and snow set in, a general move was made indoors,

at Rahl's quarters, to the parlour, where a tall spruce tree,

brilliant with lighted tallow dips, and decorated with bits of

coloured paper, red-tinted eggs, and not a little of the recent

plunder, drew forth cries of admiration from both Janice and

Tabitha, neither of whom had ever seen the like.

After a due enjoyment of the tree's beauty, the gifts were

distributed; and then the company went to the dining-room,

where the table sagged with the best that barnyard and pantry

could be made to produce, plus a perfect forest of bottles,--

tall, squat, and bulbous. The sight of such goodly plenty was

irresistible, and the cheer and merriment grew apace. The

girls, eagerly served and all the time surrounded by a host of

such officers as could speak English, and in fact by some who,

for want of that language, could only show their admiration by

ardent glances, were vastly set up by the unaccustomed attentions;

the squire felt a new warmth of loyalty creep through his

blood with the draining of each glass; and even Miss Drinker's

sallow and belined spinster face took on a rosy hue and a cheerful

smile as the evening advanced.

A crescendo of enjoyment secured by means of wine is apt

to lack restraint and presently, as the fun grew, it began to

verge on the riotous. The officers pressed about the girls until

the two were separated, and Janice found herself in a corner

surrounded by flushed-faced men who elbowed and almost

wrestled with one another as to which should stand closest to her.

Suddenly one man so far forgot himself as to catch her about

the waist; and but for a prompt ducking of her head as she

struggled to free herself, she would have been forcibly kissed.

Her cries rose above the sounds of conviviality; but even before

the first was uttered, Clowes, who had kept close to her the

whole evening, struck the officer, and the whole room was instantly

in a turmoil, the women screaming, the combatants

locked, others struggling to separate them, and Rahl shouting

half-drunken orders and curses. Just as the uproar was at its

greatest came a loud thundering at the door; and when it was

opened a becloaked dragoon, white with snow, entered and gave

Rahl a despatch. Both the dispute and the conviviality ceased,

as every one paused to learn what the despatch portended.

The commander was by this time so fuddled with drink that

he could not so much as break the seal, much less read the

contents; and the commissary, who for personal reasons had

been drinking lightly, came to his assistance, and read aloud as

follows:--

Burlington, Dec. 25, 1776.

Sir,--By a spy just come in I have word that Mr.

Washington, being informed of our troops having marched into

winter quarters, and having been reinforced by the arrival of a

column under the command of Sullivan, meditates an attack on

some of our posts. I do not believe that in the present state of

the river a crossing is possible, but be assured my information is

undoubtedly true, and in case the ice clears, I advise you to be

upon your guard against an unexpected attack at Trenton.

I am, sir, your most obed't h'ble serv't,

James Grant, Major-General.

"Nein, nein," grunted Rahl, tipsily, "I mineself has vort dat

Vashington's mens hass neider shoes nor blankets, und die mit

cold und hunger. Dey vill not cross to dis side, mooch ice or

no ice, but if dey do, ye prisoners of dem make."

And once more the toasting and merry-making was resumed.

With not a little foresight the three ladies had availed themselves

of the lull to escape from the festival to their own room,

where, not content with locks and bolts, nothing would do Miss

Drinker, as the sounds below swelled in volume and laxity, but

the heavy bureau should be moved against the door as an

additional barrier.

"Our peril is dire," she admonished the girls; "and if to-morrow's

sun finds me escaped unharmed I shall thank Heaven

indeed." Then she proceeded to lecture Janice. "Be assured

thee must have given the lewd creatures some encouragement,

or they would never have dared a familiarity. Not a one

of them showed me the slightest disrespect!"

"Oh, Jan," whispered Tibbie, once they were in bed and

snuggled close together, "if thee hadst been kissed!"

"What then?" questioned the maiden.

"It would be so horrible to be kissed by a man!" declared

the friend.

"Wilt promise to never, never tell?" asked Janice, with bated

breath.

"Cross my heart," vowed Tabitha.

"It--well--I--It is n't as terrible as you 'd think,

Tibbie!"

XXXIII

ANOTHER CHRISTMAS PARTY

At the same hour that the Hessians were parading

through the village streets a horseman was speeding

along the river road on the opposite side of the

Delaware. As he came opposite the town, the blare

of the hautboys sounded faintly across the water, and he checked

his horse to listen for a moment, and then spurred on.

"Ay, prick up your ears," he muttered to his steed. "Your

friends are holding high carnival, and I wonder not that you

long to be with them, 'stead of carrying vain messages in a lost

cause. But for this damned floe of ice you 'd have had your

wish this very night."

A hundred rods brought the rider within sight of the cross-road

at Yardley's Ferry, just as a second horseman issued from

it. The first hastily unbuckled and threw back his holster flap,

even while he pressed his horse to come up with the new arrival;

while the latter, hearing the sound of hoofs, halted and

twisted about in his saddle.

"Well met, Brereton," he called when the space between had

lessened. "I am seeking his Excellency, who, I was told at

Newtown, was to be found at Mackonkey's Ferry. Canst give

me a guidance?"

"You could find your way, Wilkinson, by following the track

of Mercer's brigade. For the last three miles I could have

kept the route, even if I knew not the road, by the bloody footprints.

Look at the stains on the snow."

"Poor fellows!" responded Wilkinson, feelingly.

"Seven miles they've marched to-day, with scarce a sound

boot to a company, and now they'll be marched back with not

so much as a sight of the enemy."

"You think the attack impossible?"

"Impossible!" ejaculated Brereton. "Look at the rush of

ice, man. 'T would be absolute madness to attempt a crossing.

The plan was for Cadwallader's brigade to attack Burlington at

the same time we made our attempt, but I bring word from

there that the river is impassable and the plan abandoned. His

Excellency cannot fight both the British and such weather."

"I thought the game up when my general refused the command

and set out for Philadelphia," remarked Wilkinson.

"Gates is too good a politician and too little of a fighter to

like forlorn hopes," sneered Brereton. "He leaves Washington

to bear the risk, and, Lee being out of the way, sets off at once

to make favour with Congress, hoping, I have little doubt, that

another discomfiture or miscarriage will serve to put him in the

saddle. If we are finally conquered, 't will not be by defeat in

the field, but by the dirty politics with which this nation is riddled,

and which makes a man general because he comes from

the right State, and knows how to wire-pull and intrigue.

Faugh!"

A half-hour served to bring them to their destination, a rude

wooden pier, employed to conduct teams to the ferry-boat.

Now, however, the ice was drifted and wedged in layers and

hummocks some feet beyond its end, and outside this rushed

the river, black and silent, save for the dull crunch of the ice-floes

as they ground against one another in their race down the

stream. On the end of the dock stood a solitary figure watching

a number of men, who, with pick and axe, were cutting

away the lodged ice that blocked the pier, while already a

motley variety of boats being filled with men could be seen at

each point of the shore where the ground ice made embarkation

possible. Along the banks groups of soldiers were clustered

about fires of fence-rails wherever timber or wall offered the

slightest shelter.

Dismounting, the two aides walked to the dock and delivered

their letters to the commander. Taking the papers, Washington

gave a final exhortation to the sappers and miners: "Look

alive there, men. Every minute now is worth an hour to-morrow,"

and, followed by Brereton, walked to the ferry-house

that he might find light with which to read the despatches. By

the aid of the besmoked hall lantern, he glanced hastily through

the two letters. "General Gates leaves to us all the honour to

be gained to-night. Colonel Cadwallader declares it impossible

to get his guns across," he told his aide, without a trace of

emotion in his voice, as he refolded the despatches and handed

them to him. Then his eye flashed with a sudden exultation

as he continued: "It seems there are some in our own force,

as well as the enemy, who need a lesson in winter campaigning."

"Then your Excellency intends to attempt a crossing?"

deprecated Brereton.

"We shall attack Trenton before daybreak, Brereton; and

as we are like to have a cold and wet march, stay you within

doors and warm yourself after your ride. You are not needed,

and there is a good fire in the kitchen."

Brereton, with a disapproving shake of his head, stepped from

the hallway into the kitchen. Only one man was in the room,

and he, seated at the table, was occupied in rolling cartridges.

"Ho, parson, this is new work for you," greeted Brereton,

giving him a hearty slap on the shoulder. "You are putting

your sulphur and brimstone in concrete form."

"Ay," assented McClave, "and, as befits my calling, properly

combining them with religion."

"How so?" demanded Brereton, taking his position before

the fire.

"You see, man," explained the presbyter, "it occurred to me

that, on so wet a night, 't would be almost impossible for the

troops to keep their cartridges dry, since scarce a one in ten

has a proper cartouch-box; so I set to making some new ones,

and, having no paper, I'm e'en using the leaves of my own

copy of Watts' Hymns."

"A good thought," said Brereton; "and if you will give them

to me I will see to it that they be kept dry and ready for use.

Not that they will need much care; there is small danger that

Watts will ever be anything but dry."

"Tut, tut, man," reproved the clergyman. "Dry or not dry,

he has done God's work in the past, and, with the aid of

Heaven, he'll do it again to-night."

The rumble of artillery at this point warned the aide that the

embarkation was actually beginning, and, hastily catching up

the cartridges already made, he unbuttoned the flannel shirt he

wore and stuffed them in. Throwing his cloak about him, he

hurried out.

The ice had finally been removed, and a hay barge dragged

up to the pier. Without delay two 12-pounders were rolled

upon it, with their complement of men and horses; and, leaving

further superintendence of the embarkation to Greene and

Knox, Washington and his staff took their places between the

guns. Two row galleys having been made fast to the front, the

men in them bent to their oars, and the barge moved slowly

from the shore, its start being the signal to all the other craft to

put off.

The instant the shelter of the land was lost, the struggle with

the elements began. The wind, blowing savagely from the

northeast, swept upon them, and, churning the river into foam,

drove the bitterly cold spray against man and beast. Masses

of ice, impelled by the current and blast, were only kept from

colliding with the boat by the artillerymen, who, with the rammers

and sponges of the guns, thrust them back, while the

bowsmen in the tractive boats had much ado to keep a space

clear for the oars to swing. To make the stress the greater,

before a fifty yards had been compassed the air was filled with

snow, sweeping now one way and now another, quite shutting

out all sight of the shores, and making the rushing current of

the black, sullen river the sole means by which direction could

be judged.

"Damn this weather!" swore Brereton, as an especially

biting sweep of wind and water made him crouch the lower

behind his shivering horse.

"Nothing short of that would serve to put warmth into it,"

asserted Colonel Webb. "You 're not like to obtain your wish,

Jack, though your cursing may put you where you'll long for a

touch of it."

"Thou canst not fright me with threat of hell-fire damnation

on such a night as this, Sam," retorted Brereton.

"Gentlemen," interposed Washington, drily, "let me call

your attention to the General Order of last August, relative to

profane language."

"Can your Excellency suggest any more moderate terms to

apply to such a night?" asked Brereton, with a laugh.

"Be thankful you've something between you and the river,

my boy. Twenty-four years ago this very week I was returning

from a mission to the Ohio, and to cross a river we made a raft

of logs. The ice surged against us so forcibly that I set out my

pole to prevent our being swept down the stream; but the

rapidity of the current threw the raft with so much violence

against the pole that it jerked me out into ten feet of water, and

I was like to have drowned. This wind and sleet seem warm

when I remember that; and had Gates and Cadwallader been

there, the storm and ice of to-night would not have seemed to

them such obstacles. 'T was my first public service," he added

after a slight pause. "Who knows that to-night may not be my

last?"

"'T is ever a possibility," spoke up Webb, "since your Excellency

is so reckless in exposing yourself to the enemy's fire."

Washington shrugged his shoulders. "I am in more danger

from the rear than from the enemy," he said equably.

"Ay," agreed Jack, "but we fight both to-night. Give us

victory at Trenton, and we need not spend thought on Baltimore."

"Congress is too frightened itself--" began Baylor, but a

touch on his arm from the commander-in-chief checked the

indiscreet speech.

Departure had been taken from the Pennsylvania shore before

ten; but ice, wind, and current made the crossing so laborious

and slow that a landing of the first detachment was not effected

till nearly twelve. Then the boats were sent back for their

second load, the advance meanwhile huddling together wherever

there was the slightest shelter from the blast and the hail that

was now cutting mercilessly. Not till three o'clock did the

second division land, and another hour was lost in the formation

of the column. At last, however, the order to march could be

given, and the twenty-four hundred weary, besoaked, and wellnigh

frozen men set off through the blinding storm on the nine-mile

march to Trenton.

At Yardley's Ferry the force divided, Sullivan's division

keeping to the river turnpike, intending to enter Trenton from

the south, while the main division took the cross-road, so as to

come out to the north of the town, the plan being to place the

enemy thus betwixt two fires.

Owing to the delay in crossing the river, it was daylight when

the outskirts of the town were reached, but the falling snow

veiled the advance, and here the column was halted temporarily

to permit of a reconnoissance. While the troops stood at ease

an aide from Sullivan's detachment reported that it had arrived

on the other side of the village, and was ready for the attack,

save that their cartridges were too damp to use.

"Very well, sir," ordered Washington. "Return and tell

General Sullivan he must rely on the bayonet."

"Your Excellency," said Colonel Hand, stepping up, "my

regiment is in the same plight, and our rifles carry no bayonets."

"We kin club both them and the Hessians all the same,"

spoke up a voice from the ranks.

"Here are some dry cartridges," broke in Brereton.

"Let your men draw their charges and reload, Colonel Hand,"

commanded Washington.

In a moment the order to advance was issued, and the column

debouched upon the post road leading toward Princeton. The

first sign of life was a man in a front yard, engaged in cutting

wood; the commander-in-chief, who was leading the advance,

called to him:--

"Which way is the Hessian picket?"

"Find out for yourself," retorted the chopper.

"Speak out, man," roared Webb, hotly, "this is General

Washington."

"God bless and prosper you, sir!" shouted the man. "Follow

me, and I'll show you," he added, starting down the road

at a run. As he came to the house, without a pause, he swung

his axe and burst open the door with a single blow. "Come

on," he shrieked, and darted in, followed by some of the

riflemen.

Leaving them to secure the picket, the regiments went forward,

just as a desultory firing from the front showed that

the alarm had been given by Sullivan's attack. Pushing on,

a sight of the enemy was gained,--a confused mass of men

some three hundred yards away, but in front of them two guns

were already being wheeled into position by artillerists, with

the obvious purpose of checking the advance till the regiments

had time to form.

"Capture the battery!" came the stern voice of the

commander.

"Forward, double quick!" shouted Colonel Hand.

Brereton, putting spurs to his horse, joined in the rush of

men as the regiment broke into a run. "Look Out, Hand!"

he yelled. "They'll be ready to fire before we can get there,

and in this narrow road we'll be cut to pieces. Give them a

dose of Watts."

"Halt!" roared Hand, and then in quick succession came

the orders, "Deploy! Take aim! Fire!"

"Hurrah for the Hymns!" cheered Brereton, as a number of

the gunners and matross men dropped, and the remainder, deserting

the cannon, fell back on the infantry. "Come on!" he

roared, as the Virginia light horse, taking advantage of the

open order, raced the riflemen to the guns. Barely were

they reached, when a mounted officer rode up to the Hessian

regiments and cried: "Forwarts!" waving his sword toward

the cannon.

"We can't hold the guns against them!" yelled Brereton.

"Over with them, men!"

In an instant the soldiers with rifles and the cavalry with

the rammers that had been dropped were clustered about the

cannon, some prying, some lifting, some pulling, and before

the foe could reach them the two pieces of artillery were tipped

over and rolled into the side ditches, the Americans scattering

the moment the guns were made useless to the British.

This gave the Continental infantry in the rear their opportunity,

and they poured in a scathing volley, quickly followed by the

roar of Colonel Forrest's battery, which unlimbered and opened

fire. A wild confusion followed, the enemy advancing, until

the American regiments charged them in face of their volleys.

Upon this they broke, and falling back in disorder, endeavoured

to escape to the east road through an orchard. Checking the

charge, Washington threw Stevens' brigade and Hand's riflemen,

now re-formed, out through the fields, heading them

off. Flight in this direction made impossible, the enemy retreated

toward the town, but the column under Sullivan now

blocked this outlet. Forrest's fieldpieces were pushed forward,

Washington riding with them, utterly unheeding of both the

enemy's fire, though the bullets were burying themselves in

the snow all about him, and of the expostulations of his staff.

Indicating the new position for the guns, he ordered them

loaded with canister.

Colonel Forrest himself stooped to sight one of the 12-pounders,

then cried: "Sir, they have struck."

"Struck!" exclaimed Washington.

"Yes," averred Forrest, exultingly. "Their colours are

down, and they have grounded their arms."

Washington cantered toward the enemy.

"Your Excellency," shouted Baylor, who with the infantry

had been well forward, "the Hessians have surrendered. Here

is Colonel Rahl."

Washington rode to where, supported by two sergeants, the

officer stood, his brilliant uniform already darkened by the

blood flowing from two wounds, and took from his hand the

sword the Hessian commander, with bowed head, due to both

shame and faintness, held out to him.

"Let his wounds receive instant attention," the general ordered.

Wheeling his horse, he looked at the three regiments

of Hessians. "'T is a glorious day for our country, Baylor!"

he said, the personal triumph already forgotten in the greater

one.

XXXIV

HOLIDAY WEEK AT TRENTON

The Christmas revel of the Hessians had held far

into morning hours; and though the ladies so

prudently retired, it was not to sleep, as it proved,

for the uproar put that out of the question. At

last, however, the merry-making ceased by degrees, as man

after man staggered off to his quarters, or succumbing to

drink, merely took a horizontal position in the room of the

festivity, and quiet, quickly succeeded by slumber, descended

upon the household.

To the women it seemed as if the turmoil had but just

ended, ere it began anew. The first alarm was a thundering

on the front door, so violent that the intent seemed to be to

break it down rather than to gain admission from the inside.

Then came a rush of heavy boots pounding upstairs, followed

by a renewal of the ponderous blows on every door, accompanied

now by the stentorian shouting of hasty sentences in

German.

As if the din were not sufficient, Miss Drinker, in her fright

at the assault directed against the barrier to which she had

pinned her own reliance of safety, promptly gave vent to a

series of shrieks, intermixed, when breath failed, with gasping

predictions to the girls as to the fate that awaited them,

scaring the maidens most direfully. Their terror was not

lessened by the growing volume of shouts outside the house,

and by the rub-a-dub-dub of the drums, and the tantara of

the bugles, as the "To arms" was sounded along the village

street. Barely had they heard Rahl and the other officers go

plunging downstairs, when the scattering crack of muskets

began to be heard, swelling quickly into volleys and then into

the unmistakable platoon firing, which bespoke an attack in

force. Finally, and as a last touch to their alarm, came the

roar of artillery, as Forrest's and Knox's batteries opened fire.

The whole conflict took not over thirty-five minutes, but to

the three bedfellows it seemed to last for hours. The silence

that then fell so suddenly proved even more awful, however, and

became quickly so insupportable that Janice was for getting

out of bed to learn its cause, a project that Miss Drinker prohibited.

"I know not what is transpiring," she avowed, "but

whatever the disturbance, our danger is yet to come."

The event verified her opinion, for presently heavy and hurried

footsteps of many men sounded below stairs, terminating

the brief silence. With little delay the tramp of boots came

upstairs, and a loud rap on the door drew a stifled cry from

the spinster as she buried her head under the bedclothes, and

made the two girls clutch each other with fright.

"Open!" called a commanding voice. "Open, I say!" it

repeated, as no answer came. "Batter it in, then!" and at

the order the stocks of two muskets shattered the door panels;

the bureau was tipped over on its face with a crash, and

Brereton, sword in hand, jumped through the breach.

It was an apparently empty room into which the aide

entered, but a mound under the bedclothes told a different tale.

"Here are other Hessian pigs who've drunk more than

they've bled," he sneered, as he tossed back the counterpane

and blankets with his sword-point, thus uncovering

three becapped heads, from each of which issued a scream,

while three pairs of hands wildly clutched the covering.

The nightcaps so effectually disguised the faces that not a

one did the officer recognise in his first hasty glance.

"Ho!" he jeered. "Small wonder the fellow lay abed.

Come, up with you, my Don Juan," he added, prodding Miss

Drinker through the bedclothes with his sword. "'T is no

time for bearded men to lie abed."

"Help, help!" shrieked Janice, and "'T is my aunt!"

cried Tabitha, in unison, but the spinster's fear was quite

forgot in the insulting allusion to the somewhat noticeable

hirsute adornment on her face; sitting up in bed, she pointed

at the door, and sternly ordered, "Cease from insulting gentlewomen,

brute, and leave this chamber!"

"Zounds!" burst out Jack, in his amazement; then he

turned and roared to the gaping and snickering soldiers,

"Get out of here, every doodle of you, and be--to

you!" Keeping his back to the bed, he said, "I pray your

pardon, ma'am, for disturbing you; our spies assured us that

only Hessian officers slept here."

"Go!" commanded the offended and unrelenting old

maid.

The officer took a step toward the door, halted, and remarked

savagely, "Our positions are somewhat reversed,

Miss Meredith. 'T is poetic justice, indeed, which threatens

you a taste of the captivity you schemed in my behalf; 'he

cries best who cries last.'"

"I had naught to do with thy captivation!" protested

Janice, indignantly, "though thou wouldst not believe me;

and but for me thou'dst still be a prisoner."

"A well-dressed-up tale, but told too late to gain credence,"

sneered the officer. "You made a cully of me once. I defy

you to ever again."

"A man who thinks such vile thoughts is welcome to them,"

retorted the girl, proudly.

"Dost intend to put a finish to thy intrusion upon the privacy

of females?" objurgated Miss Drinker; and at the question

Brereton flung out of the room without more words.

The ladies made a hasty toilet, and descended to the

kitchen, to find the maids deep in the preparation of breakfast,

while standing near the fire was a coloured man in a

brown livery who ducked low to Janice as he grinned a

recognition.

"Oh!" exclaimed the girl, and then, "How's Blueskin?"

"Lor' bless de chile, she doan forget ole Willium nor dat

horse," chuckled the darkey. "Dat steed, miss, hardly git a

good feed now once a week, but he knows dat he carries his

Excellency, an' dat de army 's watchin' him, an' he make

believe he chock full of oats all de time. He jus' went offen

his head when Ku'nel Forrest's guns wuz a-bustin' de Hessians

all to pieces dis mornin', an' de way he dun arch his neck

an' swish his tail when Gin'l Howe give up his sword made de

enemy stare."

"You'll purvey my compliments to his Highness, Mr. Lee,"

requested the cook, "an' 'spress to him de mortification we

'speriences at being necessitated to tender him his tea outen

de elegantest ob best Japan. 'Splain to him dat we 'se a real

quality family, an' regularly accustomed to de finest ob plate,

till de Hessians depredated it."

"Is this for General Washington?" questioned Janice, with

sudden interest in the tray upon which the cook had placed a

china tea-service, some hot corn bread, and a rasher of bacon.

"Yes, miss," explained William. "His Excellency 's in de

parlour, a-lookin' over de papers of de dead gin'l, an' he say

see if I kian't git him some breakfast."

"Oh," begged the girl, eagerly, "may n't I take it to

him?"

"Dat yo' may, honey," acceded the black, yielding to the

spell of the lass. "Massa allus radder see a pooty face dan

black ole Billy's. Jus' yo' run along with it, chile, an' s'prise

him."

Catching up the waiter, the maiden carried it to the parlour,

which she entered after knocking, in response to Washington's

behest. The general looked up from the paper he was conning

and instantly smiled a recognition to the girl.

"You are not rid of us yet, you see, Miss Janice," he

said.

"Nor wish to be, your Excellency," vouched the girl, as she

set the tray on the table.

"I remember thy wish for our cause when last we met,"

went on the commander, "and who knows but it has served

us in good stead this very morning? I had the vanity that

day to think thy interest was for the general, but I have just

unravelled it to its true source."

"Indeed," protested Janice, sorely puzzled by his words,

"'t was only thy--"

"Nay, nay, my dear," chided Washington, smiling pleasantly;

"'t is nothing to be ashamed of, and I ought to have

suspected that thy interest was due to some newer and brighter

blade than an old one like myself. He is a lucky fellow to

have won so charming a maid, and one brave enough to take

such risk for him."

"La, your Excellency," stammered the girl, completely

mystified, "I know not what you mean!"

Still smiling, Washington set down the tea he was now

drinking and selected a paper from a pile on the table. "I

have just been perusing Colonel Harcourt's report to General

Grant, in reference to the traitorous conduct of one Janice

Meredith, spinster, and it has informed me of much that

Colonel Brereton chose to withhold, though he pretended to

make me a full narration. The sly beau said 't was the cook

cut him loose, Miss Janice."

"Oh, prithee, General Washington," beseeched a very

blushing young lady, "wilt please favour me by letting Colonel

Brereton--who is less than nothing to me--read the

report?"

"Thou takest strange ways to prove thy lack of interest,"

rejoined the general, his eyes merry at the seeming contradiction.

"'T is indeed not as thou surmisest," protested Janice,

redder than ever; "but Colonel Brereton thought I was concerned

in his captivation, and would not believe a message I

sent to him, and but just since he has cruelly insulted me, and

so I want him to learn how shamefully he has misjudged me,

so that he shall feel properly mean and low."

"That he shall," Washington assented, "and every man

should be made to feel the same who lacks faith in your face,

Miss Janice. The rascal distinguished himself in this morning's

affair, so I let him bear my despatches and the Hessian

standard to Congress; however, as soon as he returns he shall

smart for his sins, be assured. But, my dear," and here the

eyes of the speaker twinkled, "when due punishment has

been meted out, remember that forgiveness is one of your

sex's greatest excellences." Washington took the hand of

the girl and bent over it. "Now leave me, for we have

much to attend to before we can set to getting our prisoners

across the river, out of the reach of their friends."

Twenty-four hours later the village which had been so over-burdened

with soldiers was stripped as clear of them as if

there were not one in the land. It took a day to get the

thousand prisoners safely beyond the Delaware, and three

more were spent in giving the Continentals a much-needed

rest from the terrible exposure and fatigue they had under-gone;

but this done, Washington once more crossed the river

and reoccupied Trenton, induced to take the risk by the word

brought to him that the militia of New Jersey, driven to desperation

by the British occupation, and heartened by the success

of Trenton, were ready to rise if they had but a fighting

point about which to rally.

The expectation proved erroneous, for the presence of the

little force at Trenton was more than offset by the prompt

mobilisation of all the British troops in the State at Princeton,

and the hurrying of Cornwallis, with reinforcements, from

New York, to resume the command. As Washington's army

mustered less than five thousand, one-third of whom were raw

Pennsylvania militia, while that of the British general when

concentrated exceeded eight thousand, the prudent elected to

stay safely within doors and await the result of the coming

conflict before deciding whether they should forget their recently

signed oaths of allegiance and cast in their lot with the

Continental cause.

Yet another difficulty, too, beset the commander-in-chief.

The terms of the New England regiments expired on the last

day of the year, and though the approach of the enemy made

a speedy action certain, the men refused to re-enlist, or even

to serve for a fortnight longer. Such was the desperate plight

of the general that he finally offered them a bounty if they

would but remain for six weeks, and, after much persuasion,

more than half of them consented to stay the brief time. The

army chest being wholly without funds, Washington pledged

his personal fortune to the payment of the bounty, though in

private he spoke scornfully of the regiments' "noble example"

and "extraordinary attachment to their country," the fighting

spirit too strong within him to enable him to understand

desertion of the cause at such an hour. Quite a number,

even, who took the bounty, deserted the moment the money

was received.

Cornwallis lost not a moment, once his troops were gathered,

in seeking vengeance for Trenton; and on January 2 spies

brought word to Washington that the British were approaching

in force by the Princeton post-road. A detachment was

at once thrown forward to meet their advance, and for several

hours every inch of ground was hotly contested. Then, the

main body of the enemy having come up, the Americans fell

back on their reserves, and the whole Continental army retreated

through the village and across the bridge over Assanpink

Creek,--a tributary stream emptying into the Delaware

just east of Trenton. Here the troops were ranged along the

steep banks to renew the contest, the batteries being massed

at the bridge and at the two fords, and some desultory firing

occurred. But it was now dark, and Cornwallis's troops having

marched fifteen miles, the commander postponed the attack

till the morrow, and the two armies bivouacked for the night

on opposite sides of the brook, within a hundred and fifty

yards of each other.

"My Lord," protested Sir William Erskine, when the order

to encamp was given, "may not the enemy escape under

cover of the night?"

"Where to?" demanded Cornwallis. "This time there

will be no crossing of the Delaware, for we are too close on

their heels; and if they retreat down the river, we can fight

them when we please. A little success has undone Mr.

Washington, and the fox is at last run to cover."

While at supper, the British commander was informed by

an orderly that two civilians desired word with him, and

without leaving the table he granted an audience.

"A petticoat, eh?" he muttered, as a man and woman

entered the room; and then as the lady pushed back her

calash, he ordered: "A chair for Miss Meredith, sergeant."

The girl seated, he went on: "Sir William spoke of you to

me just as I was leaving New York, and instructed me, if you

were findable, to send you to New York. I' faith, the general

had more to say of your coming than he had of my teaching

Mr. Washington a lesson. He told me to put you under

charge of Lord Clowes without delay."

"But he was captivated," announced Mr. Drinker.

"So I learned at Princeton; therefore the matter must

await my return."

"I have come with the young lady, my Lord," spoke up Mr.

Drinker, "to ask thy indulgence in behalf of herself and her

father."

"Yes, Lord Cornwallis," said Janice, finding her tongue

and eager to use it. "We came here to see General Grant,

but he was away, and dadda had a slight attack of the gout,

from a cold he took, and then he very rashly drank too much

at Colonel Rahl's party, and that swelled his foot so that he's

lain abed ever since, till to-day, when we thought to set out

for Brunswick; but the snow having melted, our sleigh could

not travel, and every one expecting a battle wanted to get out

of town themselves, so we could get no carriage, nor even a

cart." Here Miss Meredith paused for breath with which to

go on.

"Friend Meredith," said Mr. Drinker, taking up the explanation,

"though not able to set foot to the ground, conceives

that he can travel on horseback by easy riding; and

rather than risk remaining in a town that is like to be the scene

of to-morrow's unrighteous slaughter, he hopes thee will grant

him permission and a pass to return to Brunswick."

"There will be no fight in the town to-morrow," asserted

Cornwallis; "but there may be some artillery firing before we

can carry their position, so 't is no place for non-combatants,

much less women. You can't do better than get back to

Greenwood, where later I'll arrange to fulfil Sir William's

orders. Make out a pass for two, Erskine. When do you

wish to start, Miss Meredith?"

"Dadda said we'd get away before daylight, so as to be

well out of town before the battle began."

"Wisely thought. The second brigade lies at Maidenhead

and the fourth at Princeton; and as both have orders to join

me, you'll meet them on the road. This paper, however,

will make all easy."

"Thank you," said the girl, gratefully, as she took the pass.

"Didst see Mr. Washington when he was in town?"

inquired the earl of Mr. Drinker.

"Not I," replied the Quaker; "but friend Janice had word

with him."

"You seem to play your cards to stand well with both commanders,

Miss Meredith," intimated the officer, a little

ironically. "Did the rebel general seem triumphant over his

easy victory?"

"He said naught about it to me," answered Janice.

"Within a few hours he'll learn the difference between

British regulars and half-drunk Hessians." Cornwallis glanced

out of the window to where, a quarter of a mile away, could be

seen the camp-fires of the Continental force burning brightly.

"He 'd best have done his bragging while he could."

XXXV

THE "STOLE AWAY"

It was barely four o'clock the following morning when,

after a breakfast by candle-light, the squire and Janice,

the former only with much assistance and many groans,

mounted Joggles and Brereton's mare. Mr. Drinker

rode with them through the village, on his way to join the

Misses Drinker, who, two days before, on the first warning of

a conflict, had been sent away to a friend's, as would Janice

have been also, had she not insisted on staying with her

father. At the crossroads, therefore, after a due examination

of their passes by the picket, adieux were made, and the

guests, with many thanks, turned north on the Princeton post-road,

while the host trotted off on the Pennington turnpike.

It was still dark when, an hour later, the riders reached

Maidenhead, to find the second brigade of the British clustered

about their camp-fires; but in the moment's delay,

while the officer of the day was scrutinising the safe-conduct,

the drums beat the reveille, and the village street was alive

with breakfast preparations as father and daughter were permitted

to resume their journey. It was a clear, cold morning,

and as the twilight slowly brightened into sunshine, the whole

landscape glistened radiantly with a heavy hoar-frost that for

the moment gleamed and shimmered as if the face of the

country had been rubbed with some phosphorescent substance,

or as if the riders were viewing it through prism glasses.

"Oh, dadda, isn't it beautiful?" exclaimed Janice, delightedly,

as they rode down the hill to the bridge over Stony

Creek.

"What? Where?" demanded that worthy, looking about

in all directions.

"The fields, and the trees, and--"

"Can't ye keep your thoughts from gadding off on such

nonsense, Jan?" cavilled her father, fretfully, his gouty foot

putting him in anything but a sweet mood. "One would

think ye had never seen pasture or woodland be--Ho!"

he ejaculated, interrupting his reproof, "what 's that sound?"

The words were but spoken when the front files of a regiment

just topping the hill across the brook came in view and

descended the road at quick step to the bridge, their gay

scarlet uniforms, flying colours, and shining gun barrels adding

still more to the brilliancy.

"Halt!" was the order to the troops as they came up to

the riders, and the officer took the pass that the squire held

out to him. "What hour left you Trenton?" he demanded.

"Four o'clock."

"And heard you any firing after leaving?" asked Colonel

Mawhood, eagerly.

"Not a sound."

"I fear none the less that the fighting will be all over ere

the Seventeenth can get there, much more the Fortieth and

Fifty-fifth," he grumbled, as he returned the paper. "Attention!

Sections, break off! Forward--march!"

The order, narrowing the column, allowed the squire and

Janice to ride on and cross the bridge. On the other side of

the stream a by-road joined the turnpike, and as Janice glanced

along it, she gave a cry of surprise. "Look, dadda," she

prompted, "there are more troops!"

"Ay," acceded Mr. Meredith, "'t is the rest of the brigade

just coming in view."

"But that leads not from Princeton," observed Janice.

"'T is the roundabout way to Trenton that joins the river road

on the other side of Assanpink Creek. And, oh, dadda, look

at the uniforms! Is 't not the hunting shirt of the Continental

riflemen?"

"Gadsbodikins, if the lass is not right!" grunted the squire,

when he had got on his glasses. "What the deuce do they

here?"

An equal curiosity apparently took possession of the British

colonel, for when the Seventeenth had breasted the hill to a

point where the American advance could be seen, the regiment

was hastily halted, and in another moment, reversing

direction, returned on its route at double quick, its commander

supposing the force in sight a mere detachment

which he could capture or cut to pieces, and little recking

that Washington's whole army, save for a guard to keep their

camp-fires burning, had stolen away in the night from the

superior force of British at Trenton, with the object of attacking

the fourth brigade at Princeton.

"By heavens!" snorted the squire, in alarm. "Quicken

thy pace, Jan. We are out of the frying-pan and into the fire

with a vengeance." Then as the horses were put to a trot,

he howled with the pain the motion caused his swathed foot.

"Spur on to Princeton, Jan. The pace is more than I can

bear, and I'll turn off into this orchard for safety," he

moaned, as he indicated a slope to the right of the road.

"I'll not leave thee, dadda," protested the girl, as she

guided the mare over the let-down bars of the fence, through

which her father put Joggles, and in a moment both horses

were climbing the declivity under the bare apple-trees.

The squire's knowledge of warfare was never likely to win

him honour, for with vast circumspection he had selected the

strongest strategic position of the region; and though his back

to the British and the rising land in his front prevented him

from realising it, both commanders, with the quick decision

of trained officers, put their forces to a run, in the endeavour

to occupy the hill. The Continental riflemen, having the

advantage of light accoutrements and little baggage, were

successful; and just as the two riders reached the crest, it was

covered by green and brown shirted men.

"Get to the rear!" stormed an officer at the pair; while,

without stopping to form, the men poured in a volley at the

charging British, who, halting, returned the fire, the bullets

hurtling and whistling about the non-combatants in a way

that made the squire forget the agonies of his gout in the

danger of his position.

Ere the riflemen could reload, the Seventeenth, with fixed

bayonets, were upon them, and the two American regiments,

having no defensive weapon, broke and fled in every direction.

A mounted officer rode forward and attempted to stay the

flight of the riflemen, then fell wounded from his horse. As

he came to the ground, Janice and her father found themselves

once more on the other side of the conflict, as the

charging British swept by them; and the girl screamed as

she saw two of the soldiers rush to where the wounded man

lay, and repeatedly thrust their bayonets into him, though she

was ignorant that it was Washington's old companion in arms,

General Mercer.

As the riflemen fell back down the hill, Washington in person

headed two regiments of Pennsylvania militia, supported by a

couple of pieces of artillery from the right flank to cover the

fugitives. Although conscious by now that he had no mere

detachment to fight, Colonel Mawhood, with admirable coolness,

ordered the recall sounded, and re-forming his regiment,

led a charge against the new foe. Seeing the Seventeenth

advancing at double quick, in the face of the guns, so fearlessly

and steadily, the militia wavered, and were on the point

of deserting the battery, when Washington spurred forward,

thus placing himself between the two lines of soldiers. His

splendid and reckless courage steadied the raw militia; they

gave a cheer and levelled their muskets just as the Seventeenth

halted and did the same. Within thirty yards of the enemy,

and well in advance of his own men, Washington stood exposed

to both volleys as the two lines fired, and for a moment

he was lost to view in the smoke which, blown about

him, united in one dense cloud. Slowly the mass lifted, revealing

both general and horse unhurt, and at the sight the

Pennsylvania regiments cheered once more.

The time lost by the British in halting and firing proved

fatal to the capture of the guns. Hand's riflemen, advancing,

threw in a deadly, scattering fire of trained sharpshooters,

while two regiments under Hitchcock came forward at a run.

One moment the Seventeenth held its ground, then broke and

fled toward the road, leaving behind them two brass cannon.

For four miles the fugitives were pursued, and many prisoners

were taken.

Musketry on the right showed the day not yet won, however,

the Fifty-fifth having pressed forward upon hearing the fusillade,

and but for the check it met from a New England

brigade would have come to the aid of its friends. The flight

of the Seventeenth enabled Washington to mass his force

against the new arrival; and it was driven in upon the Fortieth,

and then both fell back into the town, taking possession of the

college building, with the evident hope of finding in its walls

protection sufficient to make a successful stand. But when

the Continental artillery was brought up and wheeled into

position, at the first shot the British abandoned the stronghold

and fled in disorder along the road leading to Brunswick, hotly

pursued by a force which Washington joined.

"It's a fine fox chase, my boys!" he shouted to the men,

in the excitement of the moment.

Brereton, who was riding within hearing, called something

to a bugler; and the man, halting in the race, put his trumpet

to his lips and blew a fanfare.

"There are others can sound the 'Stole Away,' your Excellency,"

shouted Jack, triumphantly. "That insult is paid in

kind."

The Continental soldiers were too exhausted by their long

night march and their morning fight to follow the fugitives far,

the more that the English, by throwing away their guns, knap-sacks,

and other accoutrements, and by being far less fatigued,

were easily able to outstrip their pursuers. Perceiving this, the

general ordered the bugles to sound the recall, and the men

fell back on Princeton village.

"With five hundred fresh troops, or a proper force of light

horse, we could have captured every man of them," groaned

Brereton, "and probably have seized Brunswick, with all its

stores."

Washington nodded his head in assent. "'T is idle to repine,"

he said calmly, "because the measure of our success

might have been greater. The troops have marched well and

fought well."

"What is more," declared Webb, "a twelve hours ago, the

enemy thought us in a cul-de-sac. We have not merely

escaped, but turned our flight into a conquest. How they

will grit their teeth when they find themselves outgeneralled!"

"Less a couple of hundred prisoners to boot," chimed in

Brereton, pointing at the village green, where the captives

were being collected.

"Your Excellency," reported General Greene, as Washington

came up to the college building, "we have found a store of

shoes and blankets in the college, and all of the papers of the

Lord Cornwallis and General Grant."

"Look to them, Brereton, and report to me at once if there

is anything needing instant attention," directed Washington.

Jack, tossing his reins to a soldier, followed Greene into

Nassau Hall, and was quickly running over the bundles of

papers which the British, with more prudence than prescience,

had for safety left behind. Presently he came upon a great

package of signed oaths of allegiance, which he was shoving to

one side as of no immediate importance, when the name signed

at the bottom of the uppermost one caught his eye.

"Oh, Joe, Joe!" he laughed, taking up the paper, "is

this thy much-vaunted love of freedom?" Glancing at the

second, he added, "And Esquire Hennion! Well, they deserve

it not; but I'll do the pair a harmless service all the

same, merely for old-time days," he muttered, as he folded up

the two broadsides and stuffed them into his pocket.

While the aide was thus engaged, Washington rode over to

inspect the prisoners. Here it was to discover the squire and

Janice, the former having been made a prize of by a more

zealous than sagacious militiaman. Giving directions to march

the prisoners at once under guard to Morristown, the commander

turned to the girl.

"Thou 'rt not content to give us thy good wishes, Miss

Janice," he said, motioning to the guard to let the two go free,

"but addest the aid of thy presence as well."

"And were within an ace of getting shot thereby," complained

the squire, still not entirely over his fright. "Egad,

general, we were right between the shooting at one minute,

and heard the bullets shrieking all about us."

"But so was his Excellency, dadda," protested Janice.

"Oh, General Washington," she added, "when you rode up

so close to the British, and I saw them level their guns, I was

like to have fell off my horse with fear for you."

"Ay," remarked the squire, for once unprecedentedly diplomatic.

"The lass stood her own peril as steadily as ever I

did, but she turned white as a feather when the infantry fired

at you, and, woman-like, burst into tears the moment the smoke

had lifted enough to show you still unhurt."

"And now has tears in her eyes because I was not shot, I

suppose," Washington responded, with a smiling glance at the

maiden.

"No, your Excellency," denied the girl, in turn smiling

through the tears. "But dadda is quite wrong: 't was not

anxiety for you that made me weep, but fear that they might

have killed Blueskin!"

Washington laughed at the girl's quip. "It seems my

vanity is so great that I am doomed ever to mistake the source

of your interest. Come," he added, "the last time we met I

was beholden to you for a breakfast. Let me repay the kindness

by giving you a meal. One of my family reports that the

lunch of the officers' mess of the Fortieth was just on the table

at the provost's house when our movements gave them other

occupation. 'T is fair plunder, and I bid you to share in it."

During the repast the father and daughter told how they had

come to be mixed in the conflict, and the squire grumbled

over the prospect before him.

"I've no place to go but Greenwood, and now they threat

to take my lass to New York over this harebrain scrape

she's got us all into."

"'T would be gross ingratitude," asserted Washington, "if

we let Miss Meredith suffer for her service to us, and 't is a

simple matter to save her. Get me pen, ink, and a blank

parole, Baylor."

The paper brought, Washington filled in a few words in his

flowing script, and then placed it before the girl. "Sign

here," he told her, and when it was done he took back the

document. "You are now a prisoner of war, released on

parole, Miss Janice," he explained, "and pledged not to go

more than ten miles from Greenwood without first applying to

me for permission. Furthermore, upon due notice, you are

again to render yourself my captive."

Janice, with a shy glance, which had yet the touch of impertinence

that was ingrain in her, replied, "I was that the

first time I met your Excellency, and have been so ever

since."

An end was put to the almost finished meal at this point by

the clatter of hoots, followed by the hurried entrance of

Brereton. "General St. Clair sends word, sir, that a column

of British is advanced as far as Stony Brook, and is--"

There the aide caught sight of Janice, and stopped speaking

in his surprise.

"Go on, sir!" ordered Washington, sternly.

"And is driving in our skirmishes. He has report that 't is

the first of the whole English army, which is pressing on by

forced marches."

"'T is time, then, that we were on the wing," asserted the

general, rising. "Colonel Webb, tell General St. Clair to hold

the enemy in check as long as he can. You, Baylor, direct

Colonel Forrest to plant his guns on the green, to cover the

rearguard. General Greene, let the army file off on the road

to Somerset Court-house."

The orders given, he turned to make his farewell to Janice.

"This time Lord Cornwallis did not cheat us of our meal,

though he prevents our lingering long at table. You should

know best, sir," he said to the esquire, "what course to pursue,

but I advise you to start for Greenwood without delay,

for there will be some skirmishing through the town, and

the British commander is not likely to be in the best of

moods."

"We'll be off at once," assented Mr. Meredith.

"Then Miss Janice will allow me the office of mounting

her," solicited the general, as they all went to the door. "Is

not that Colonel Brereton's mare?" he continued, as the

orderly brought up the horses.

"Yes, your Excellency," stammered Janice. "'T was by a

strange chance--"

"No doubt, no doubt--" interrupted Washington, smiling.

"Belike he wants her back," intimated the squire, glancing

anxiously at the aide, who stood, with folded arms, watching

the scene.

"I think he'll not grudge the loan, in consideration of the

rider," insinuated Washington. "The more that Congress

has just voted him a sword and horse for his conduct at

Trenton. How is it, Brereton?"

With a shrug of the shoulders Jack muttered, "'T is no

time to demand her back, got though she was by a trick,"

and walked away.

"You have not shown him the paper?" questioned Janice,

as she settled herself in the saddle.

"No, my child," replied Washington. "He returned from

Baltimore only last evening, and there has been no time since.

But rest easy, he shall see it. Keep good wishes for us, and

fare thee well."

Two hours later the British marched into Princeton. But

the Continental forces had made good their retreat, and all

that was left to their pursuers was to march on wearily to

Brunswick to save the broken regiments and the magazines

that had been lost in spite of them, had Washington possessed

but a few fresh troops. The English general had been out-manoeuvred,

his best brigade cut to pieces, and the army he

had thought to annihilate was safe among the hills of New

Jersey.

"Confound the fox!" stormed Cornwallis. "Can I never

come up with him?"

"He 's got safe off twice, my lord; the third time is proverbial,

and the odds must turn," urged Erskine.

"Pray Heaven that some day we may catch him in a cul-de-sac

from which there can be no retreat."

XXXVI

BETWIXT MILLSTONES

The reunion of the Merediths was so joyful a one

that little thought was taken of the course of public

events. Nor were they now in a position easily to

learn of them. Philemon and his troop had

hastened to rejoin at the first news of the British reverses,

the remaining farm servants had one by one taken advantage

of the anarchy of the last eight months secretly to desert, or

boldly enlist, the squire's gout prevented his going abroad,

and the quiet was too great a boon to both Mrs. Meredith and

Janice to make them wish for anything but its continuance.

If there was peace at Greenwood, it was more than could

be said for the rest of the land. The Continental success at

Princeton, small though it was in degree, worked as a leaven,

and excited a ferment throughout the State. Every Whig

whom the British successes had for a moment made faint-hearted,

every farmer whose crops or stock had been seized,

every householder on whom troops had been quartered, even

Joe Bagby and the Invincibles took guns from their hiding-places

and, forming themselves into parties, joined Washington's

army in the Jersey hills about Morristown, or, acting on

their own account, boldly engaged the British detachments

and stragglers wherever they were encountered. Withdrawn

as the Merediths might be, the principal achievements were

too important not to finally reach them, and by infinite filtration

they heard of how the Waldeckers had been attacked at

Springfield and put to flight, how the British had abandoned

Hackensack and Newark without waiting for the assaults, and

how at Elizabethtown they had been surprised and captured.

Less than a month from the time that the royal army had

practically held the Jerseys, it was reduced to the mere possession

of Brunswick, Amboy, and Paulus Hook, and every

picket or foraging party sent out from these points was almost

certain of a skirmish.

It was this state of semi-blockade which gave the Merediths

their next taste of war's alarums. Late in February a company

of foot and a half troop of horse, with a few waggons, made

their appearance on the river road, and halted opposite the

gate of Greenwood. Painful as was the squire's foot, this

sight was sufficient to make him bear the agony of putting it

to the ground, and bring him limping to the door.

"How now! For what are ye come?" he shouted at a

detachment which was already filing through the gate.

At the call, two officers who had been seemingly engaged

in a discussion, rode toward the porch, and the moment

they were within speaking distance one of them began an

explanation.

"I was just a-tellin' Captain Plunkett that we'd done a

mighty bad stroke this mornin', but that this 'ud be a worse

one, for--"

"Why, it 's Phil!" cheerfully exclaimed Mr. Meredith.

"Welcome, lad, and all the more that I feared 't was another

call the thieving Whigs were about to pay my cribs and barn.

Where have ye been, lad? But, rather, in with ye and your

friend," he said, interrupting his own question, as the other

officer approached, "and tell your errand over a bottle where

there's more warmth."

"It's such a mighty sorry errand, squire," replied Philemon,

with evident reluctance, and reddening, "that it won't take

many words ter tell. We was sent out yestere'en toward

Somerset Court-house, a-foragin', and this mornin' as we was

returnin', we was set upon by the rebels."

"Devil burn it!" muttered the captain, "what do you call

such mode of warfare? At Millstone Ford, where they attacked

us, they scattered like sheep as we deployed for a

charge. But the moment we were on the march in column,

ping, ping, ping from every bit of cover, front, flank, and rear,

and each bullet with a billet at that, no matter what the distance.

Not till we reached Middle Brook did their stinging

fire cease."

"And 'stead of bringin' into Brunswick forty carts of food

and forage, and a swipe of cattle," groaned Philemon, "we

has only four waggon-loads of wounded ter show for our

raid."

"With the post nigh to short commons," went on Plunkett.

"Therefore, Mr. Meredith, we are put to the necessity of

taking a look at your barn and granaries.

"What!" roared the squire, incredulously, yet with a wrath

in his voice that went far to show that conviction rather than

disbelief was his true state of mind. "'T is impossible that

British regulars will thieve like the rebels."

Both the officers flushed, and Philemon began a faltering

explanation and self-exculpation, but he was cut short by his

superior saying sharply: "Tush, sir, such language will not

make us deal the more gently with your cribs; so if you 'd

save something, mend your speech."

"I done my best, squire," groaned Philemon, "ter dissuade

Captain Plunkett, but General Grant's orders was not

ter come back without a train."

"Then at least ye'll have the grace to pay for what ye

take? Ye'll be no worse than the rebel, that I'll lay to."

"Ay, and so we should, could we pay in the same worthless

brown paper. In truth, sir, 't was General Howe's and

the commissary's orders that nothing that we seize was to

be paid for, so if thou hast a quarrel 't is with those whom Mr.

Hennion says are thy good friends. Here 's a chance, therefore,

to exhibit the loyalty which the lieutenant has been dinging

into my ears for the last half-mile."

"Belza burn the lot of ye!" was the squire's prompt expression

of his loyalty.

Neither protests nor curses served, however, to turn the

marauders from their purpose. Once again the outbuildings

and store-rooms of Greenwood were ransacked and swept

clear of their goodly plenty, and once again, as if to deepen

the sense of injury, the stable was made to furnish the means

with which the robbery was to be completed.

While the troops were still scattered and occupied in piling

the loot upon the sleighs and sledges, a volley of something

more potent than the squire's oaths and objurgations interrupted

them. From behind the garden hedgerow of box

came a discharge of guns, and a dozen of the foraging party,

including both the captain and the lieutenant of foot, fell. A

moment of wild confusion followed, some of the British rushing

to where the troopers' steeds were standing, and, throwing

themselves into the saddles, found safety in flight, while the

rest sought shelter in the big barn. Here Lieutenant Hennion

succeeded in rallying them into some order, but it was

to find that numbers of the infantry had left their muskets,

and that many of the light horse were without their sabres,

both having been laid aside to expedite the work.

Not daring offensive operations with such a force, the young

officer, aided by the one subaltern, made the best disposition

possible for defence, trusting to hold the building until the

fugitives should return with aid from Brunswick. Those who

had their muskets were stationed at the few windows, while

the dragoons with drawn swords were grouped about the door,

ready to resist an attack.

The Jersey militia had too often experienced the effectiveness

of British bayonets and sabres to care to face them, and

so they continued behind the hedge, and coolly reloaded their

guns. Yet they, as well as their opponents, understood that

time was fighting against them, and as soon as it became obvious

that those in the barn intended no sortie they assumed

the initiative.

The first warning of this to the besieged was another volley,

which sent bullets through the windows and the crack in the

door, without doing the slightest injury. At the same moment

four men trailing their rifles appeared from behind the hedge,

and, scattering and dodging as they ran, made for the cow

yard. Two of the infantry who guarded the window that over-looked

this movement, thrust out their muskets and fired; but

neither of their shots told, for the moment they appeared five

flashes came from the hedge, and one of the defenders, as his

hand pressed the trigger, was struck in the forehead by a rifle

ball, and, staggering sidewise, he clutched his comrade's gun,

so that it sent its bullet skyward. Before new men could take

their places, the four runners had leaped the low fence and

dashed across the yard to the shelter under the barn.

Knowing that they must be dislodged, the lieutenant commanded

that the manure trap should be raised and a number

of the dragoons drop down it; but no sooner had one started

to swing himself through the opening than a gun cracked below,

and the man, relaxing his hold, fell lifeless on his face.

Another, not pausing to drop, jumped. He landed in a heap,

but was on his feet in a flash, only to fall backward with a

bullet through his lung. The rest hung back, unwilling to

face such certain death, though their officers struck them with

the flat of their swords.

Another moment developed the object of the attack, for

through the trap-door suddenly shone a red light, and with it

came the sound of crackling faggots. A cry of terror broke

from the British, and there was a wild rush for the door, which

many hands joined in throwing open. As it rolled back a

dozen guns spoke, and the seven exposed men fell in a confused

heap at the opening,--a lesson sharp enough to turn the

rest to right about.

All pretence of discipline disappeared at once, the men

ceasing to pay the slightest heed to their officers; and one,

panic-stricken with fear, threw off his coat and, fairly tearing

his shirt from his back, tied it to his bayonet and waved it

through the door. Hennion, with an oath, sprang forwards,

caught the gun and wrenched it out of the fellow's hands, at

the same moment stretching him flat with a blow in the neck;

but as he did so one of the troopers behind him cut the

officer down with his sabre. The subaltern of foot who rushed

to help his superior was caught and held by two of the men,

and the officers thus disposed of, the white flag was once

more held through the doorway.

At the very instant that this was accomplished, the fire

below found some crevice in the flooring under the hay, and

in a trice the mow burst into spitting and crackling flame.

With the holder of the white flag at their head, the men

dashed through the doorway, those with arms tossing them

away, and most of them throwing themselves flat upon the

ground, with the double purpose of signalling their surrender

and of escaping the bullets that might greet their exit.

In a moment they were the centre of a hundred men, who,

but for their guns, might have been taken for a lot of farmers

and field hands. One alone wore a military hat with a

cockade, and it was he who demanded in a voice of self-importance:--

"Have you surrendered, and where is your commanding

officer?"

"Yes," shouted a dozen of the British, while the three men

still holding the subaltern dragged him forward, without releasing

their hold on his arms.

"Give up your sword, then," demanded the wearer of the

cockade.

"I'll die first!" protested the young fellow,--a lad of not

over seventeen at most,--still struggling with his soldiers.

"You'll not see an officer coerced by his own men, sir," he

sobbed, as another of the soldiers caught him by the wrist and

twisted his sword from his hand.

"A mighty good lesson it is for your stinking British

pride," was the retort of the militia officer, as he accepted

the sword. "I guess you 're the kind of man we've been

looking for to make an example of. We'll teach you what

murdering our generals and plundering our houses come to--

eh, men?"

"Hooray fer Joe Bagby!" shouted one of the conquerors.

"Some of you tie the prisoners, except him, two and two,

and start them down the road at double quick," ordered Captain

Bagby. "Collect all the guns and sabres and throw

them on the sledges. Look alive there, for we've no time to

lose. Well, squire, what do you want?" he demanded, as he

turned and found the latter's hand on his sleeve.

"I've to thank ye for arriving in the nick o' time to save

me from being plundered," said Mr. Meredith, speaking as if

he were taking a dose of medicine. "Now can't ye set to

and save my outbuildings from taking fire?"

"Harkee, squire, replied Joe, dropping his voice to a confidential

pitch, while at the same time leading his interlocutor

aside out of hearing. "The sledges and what they hold is our

prize, captivated from the British in a fair fight, yet we'll get

around that if you'll say the right word."

"And what 's that?" queried the squire.

"You know as well as I what 't is. The sledges are yours,

and we'll do our prettiest to prevent the stables and cribs

from catching, if you'll but say what I want said as to Miss

Janice."

"I'd see her in her grave first."

"Some of you fellows start those sleighs and sledges up the

road!" shouted Bagby. "Now then, have you got that

officer ready?"

"He ain't ready, but we is, cap," answered one of the

little group about the prisoner.

"Up with him, then!" ordered Bagby. "See-saw 's the

word: down goes Mercer, up goes a bloody-back."

At the command, half a dozen men pulled on a rope which

had been passed over the bough of a tree, and the young subaltern

was swung clear of the ground. He struggled so

fiercely for a moment that the cords which bound his wrists

parted and he was able to clutch the rope above his head in a

desperate attempt to save himself. It was useless, for instantly

two rifles were levelled and two bullets sent through him; his

hands relaxing, he hung limply, save for a slight muscular

quiver.

"If your friends, the British, come back, you can tell them

that 's only the beginning," Bagby told the squire. "And

look out for yourself, or it 's what will come to you. Now

then, fellows, fall in," he called. "The line of retreat is to

Somerset Court-house, and you are to guard the prisoners and

the provisions if you can, but scatter if attacked in force.

March!"

The motley company, without pretence of order, set off on

their long, weary night tramp through the snow. Behind

them the flame of the barn, now towering sixty feet in the air,

made the whole scene bright with colour, save where the swinging

body of the lad threw a shifting shadow across a stretch of

untrampled snow.

XXXVII

BLUES AND REDS

As the squire still stood gloomily staring, now at the

departing Whigs, now at the blazing barn, and now

at his stable and other buildings, Clarion, who had

taken a great interest in the last hour's doings,

suddenly pricked up his ears and then ran forward to a snow-drift

within a few yards of the burning building. Here he

halted and gave vent to a series of loud yelps. Limping forward,

the squire heard his name called in a faint voice, and the

next instant discovered Philemon hidden in the snow.

"I'm bad hurt, squire," he groaned; "but I made out to

crawl from the barn."

"Gadsbodikins!" exclaimed Mr. Meredith. "Why, Phil, I

e'en forgot ye for the moment. Here 's a pass, indeed. And

none but women and a one-legged man to help ye, now ye re

found."

It took the whole household to carry Philemon indoors,

and as it was impossible, in the squire's legless and horseless

condition, to send for aid, Mrs. Meredith became the surgeon.

The wound proved to be a shoulder cut, serious only from the

loss of blood it had entailed, and after it was washed and

bandaged the patient was put to bed. Daylight had come by

the time this had been accomplished, and the squire was a

little cheered to find that the snow on the roofs of his farm

buildings had prevented the sparks of the barn from igniting

them.

Twenty-four hours elapsed before help came to the household,

and then it was in the form of Harcourt's dragoons.

From Tarleton it was learned that the fugitives, on their

arrival at Brunswick, asserted that Washington's whole army

had attacked them, and was in full advance upon the post,--

news which had kept the whole force under arms for hours, and

prevented any attempt to come to the assistance of the detachment.

When the major learned that eighty picked troops had

been killed or captured by a hundred raw militia, his language

was more picturesque than quotable. There was nothing to be

done, however; and after they had vowed retaliation for the

subaltern, buried the dead, and the surgeon had looked at

Phil's wound and approved of Mrs. Meredith's treatment, the

squadron rode back to Brunswick.

This and other like experiences served to teach the English

that it was not safe to send out foraging parties, and for a

time active warfare practically ceased. The Continental forces,

reduced at times to less than a thousand men, were not strong

enough to attack the enemy's posts, and the British, however

much they might grumble over a fare of salt food, preferred it

to fresher victuals when too highly seasoned with rifle bullets.

The Merediths were somewhat better provided, Sukey's

store-rooms proving to have many an unransacked cupboard,

while the farmers in the vicinity, however bare they had

apparently been stripped, were able, when money was offered,

to supply poultry, eggs, milk, and many other comforts, which

through lack of stock and labour Greenwood could no longer

furnish.

His wound was therefore far from an ill to the lieutenant of

horse, since it not merely relieved him from the stigma of the

surrender, but saved him from the privation of the poor food

and cramped quarters his fellow troopers were enduring at

Brunswick. Nor did he count as the least advantage the tendance

that Janice, half by volition and half by compulsion, gave

him. When at last he was able to come downstairs, the days

were none too long as he sat and watched her nimble fingers

sew, or embroider, or work at some other of her tasks.

One drawback there was to this joy. In spite of strict

orders against straggling, many a red-coated officer risked

punishment for disobedience, and capture by the enemy, by

sneaking through the pickets and spending long hours at

Greenwood. Though Phil's service had given him much more

tongue and assurance than of yore, he was still unable to cope

with them; and, conscious that he cut but a poor figure to the

girl when they were present, he was at times jealous and

quarrelsome.

Twice he laid his anxieties and desires before the squire

and begged for an immediate wedding, but that worthy was by

no means as ready as once he had been; for while convinced

of the eventual success of the British, he foresaw unsettled

times in the immediate future, and knew that the marriage of

his girl to an officer of the English army was a serious if not

decisive step. Yet delay was all he wished, being too honest

a man to even think of breaking faith with the young fellow;

and finally one evening, when he had become genial over a

due, or rather undue, amount of Madeira and punch, he was

won over by Philemon's earnest persuasions, and declared that

the wedding should take place before the British broke up

their winter quarters and marched to Philadelphia.

The next morning the squire had no remembrance of his

evening's pledge, but he did not seek to cry off from it when

reminded by Philemon. Mrs. Meredith was called into conclave,

and then Janice was summoned and told of the edict.

"And now, lass, thou hast got thyself and us into more than

one scrape," ended the father, "so come and give thy dad a

kiss to show that thou 'rt cured of thy wrong-headedness and

will do as thy mother and I wish."

Without a word Janice went to her father and kissed him;

then she flung her arms about his neck, buried her head in his

shoulder, and burst into tears.

The squire had been quite prepared for the conduct of two

years previous and had steeled himself to enforce obedience,

but this contrary behaviour took him very much aback.

"Why, Jan," he expostulated, "this is no way to carry on

when a likely young officer bespeaks ye in marriage. Many 's

the maid would give her left hand to--"

"But I don't love him," sobbed the girl.

"And who asked if thou didst, miss?" inquired her mother,

who by dint of nursing Phil had become his strong partisan.

"Dost mean to put thy silly whims above thy parents'

judgments?"

"But you would n't do as your father wished, and married

dadda," moaned Janice.

"A giddy, perverse child I was," retorted Mrs. Meredith;

"and another art thou, to fling the misbehaviour in thy

mother's face."

"Nay, nay, Patty--" began the squire; but whether he was

stepping forward in defence of his wife or his daughter he was

not permitted to say, for Mrs. Meredith continued:--

"We'll set the wedding for next Thursday, if that suits thee,

Philemon?"

"You can't name a day too soon for me, marm," assented

Philemon, eagerly; "and as I just hearn the sound of hoofs

outside, 't is likely some officers has arrived, and I'll speak ter

them so 's ter get word ter the chaplain, and ter my regiment.

You need n't be afraid, Miss Janice, that 't won't be done in

high style. Like as not, General Grant will put the whole post

under arms." In truth, the lover was not at his ease, and was

glad enough for an excuse which took him from the room.

Nor was he less eager to announce his success to his comrades,

hoping it would put an end to their attentions to his bride.

"Then ye'll do as I bid ye, Jan?" questioned her father.

"Yes, dadda," Janice assented dutifully, while striving to

stifle her sobs. "I--I've been a--a--wicked creature, I

know, and now I'll do as you and mommy tell me."

If Philemon had been made uneasy by the girl's tears, her

manner during the balance of the day did not tend to make

him happier. Her sudden gravity and silence were so marked

that his fellow-officers who had come to supper, and who did

not know the true situation, rallied them both on Miss Meredith's

loss of spirits.

"I' faith," declared Sir Frederick Mobray, moved perhaps

by twinges of the little green monster, "but for the lieutenant's

word I'd take oath 't was a funeral we were to attend, and

issue orders for the casing of colours and muffling of drums.

In the name of good humour, Mr. Meredith, have in the spirits,

and I'll brew a punch that shall liquidate the gloom."

After one glass of the steaming drink, the ladies, as was

the custom, rose to leave the room. At the door Janice was

intercepted by Peg, with word that Sukey wished to advise

with her anent some matter, so the maid did not follow her

mother, but turned and entered the kitchen.

The cook was not in view; but as the girl realised the fact,

a cloaked man suddenly stepped from behind the chimney

breast, and before the scream that rose to Janice's lips could

escape, a firm hand was laid on them. Yet, even in the moment

of surprise, the girl was conscious that, press as the fingers

might, there was still an element of caress in their touch.

"I seem doomed to fright you, Miss Meredith," said

Brereton, "but, indeed, 't is not intentional. Twice in the

last week I've tried to gain speech of you without success,

and so to-night have taken desperate means." He took his

hand from her mouth. "This time I know myself safe in

your hands. Ah, Miss Janice, wilt not forgive me the suspicion?

for not one easy hour have I had since I knew how I

had wronged you. I was sent to eastward with despatches to

the New England governors, or nothing would have kept me

from earlier seeking you to crave a pardon."

"Yet thou wouldst not believe me, sir, when I sent thee

word."

"Sent me word, when?"

"By Lord Clowes."

"Clowes?"

"Yes. The morning after you were captivated."

"Not one word did he speak to me from the moment I

was trapped until--until you, like a good angel, as now I

know, came to my rescue." He bowed his head and pressed

his lips upon the palm of her hand.

The girl was beginning an explanation when a loud laugh

from the dining-room recalled to her the danger. "You

must not stay," she protested, as she caught away her hand,

which the aide had continued holding. "There are five--"

"I know it," interrupted Jack; "and if you 'd not come to

me, I'd have burst in on them rather than have my third

ride futile."

"Oh, go; please go!" begged the girl, his reckless manner

adding yet more to her alarm.

"Say that you forgive me," pleaded the officer, catching

her hands.

"Yes, yes, anything; only go!" besought Janice, as a second

laugh from the dining-room warned her anew of the peril.

Jack stooped and kissed each hand in turn, but even as he

did so one of the officers in the next room bawled:--

"Here 's a toast to Leftenant Hennion and his bride,--

hip, hip, hip, bumpers!"

Janice felt herself caught by both shoulders, with all the

tenderness gone from the touch.

"What does that mean?" the aide demanded, his face

very close to her own.

The girl, with bowed head, partly in shame, and partly to

escape the blazing eyes which fairly burned her own, replied:

"I am to marry Mr. Hennion next Thursday."

"Willingly?" burst from her questioner, as if the word

were shot from a bomb.

"No."

"Then you'll do nothing of the kind," denied Brereton,

with a sudden gaiety of voice. "My horse is hid in the

woods by the river; but say the word, and you shall be under

Lady Washington's protection at Morristown before daylight."

"And what then?" questioned the girl.

"Then? Why, a marriage with me the moment you'll

give me ay."

"But I care no more for you than I do for Mr. Hennion;

and even--"

"But I'll make you care for me," interrupted Jack, ardently.

"And even if I did," concluded Janice, "you yourself

helped to teach me what the world thinks of elopements."

"Ah, don't let--don't deny--"

"No, once for all; and release me, sir, I beg."

"Not till you swear to me that this accursed wedding is

not to take place till Thursday."

"Of course not."

"And where is it to be?"

"At the church in Brunswick."

"And is the looby with his regiment or staying here?"

"Here."

Brereton laughed gaily, and more loudly than was prudent.

"A bet and a marvel," he bantered: "a barley-corn to Miss

Janice Meredith, that the sweetest, most bewitching creature

in the world lacks a groom on her wedding day! I must not

tarry, for 't is thirty miles to Morristown, and three days is

none too much time for what I would do. Farewell," Jack

ended, once more catching her hands and kissing them. He

hurriedly crossed the room, but as he laid hold of the latch

he as suddenly turned and strode back to the maid. "Has

he ever kissed you?" he demanded, with a savage scowl on

his face.

"Never!" impulsively cried the girl, while the colour flooded

into her cheeks.

"Bless him for a cold-blooded icicle!" joyfully exclaimed

the officer; and before Janice could realise his intention she

was caught in his arms and fervently kissed. The next

moment a door slammed, and he was gone, leaving the girl

leaning for very want of breath against the chimney side,

with redder cheeks than ever.

The colour still lingered the next morning to such an extent

that it was commented upon by both her parents, who found

in it proof that she was now reconciled to their wishes. Had

they been closer observers, they would have noticed that

several times in the course of the day it waxed or waned

without apparent reason, that their daughter was singularly

restless, and that any sound out of doors caused her to start

and listen. Not even the getting out and trying on of her

wedding gown seemed to interest her. Yet nothing occurred

to break the usual monotony of the life.

Her state of nervous expectancy on the second day was

shown when the inevitable contingent of English officers

arrived a little before dinner; for as they appeared without

previous warning in the parlour door, Janice gave a scream,

which startled Philemon, who was relying upon but two legs

of his chair, into a pitch over backward, and brought the

squire's gouty foot to the floor with a bump and a wail of

pain.

"Body o' me!" ejaculated one of the new-corners. "Dost

take us for Satan himself, that ye greet us so?"

"Tush, man!" corrected Mobray. "Miss Meredith could

not see under our cloaks, and so, no doubt, thought us rebels.

Who wouldn't scream at the prospect of an attack of the

Continental blue devils--eh, Miss Janice?"

"Better the blue devils," retorted Janice, "than a scarlet

fever."

"Hah, hah!" laughed a fellow-officer. "'T was you got

us into that, Sir Frederick. Lieutenant Hennion, your first

task after to-morrow's ceremony is plain and clear.

"Would that I had the suppression of this rebellion!" groaned

the baronet, "'stead of one which fights us with direst cold and

hunger, to say nothing of the scurvy and the putrid fever."

For the next few hours cold and hunger and disease were

not in evidence, however; and it took little persuasion from

the squire, who dearly loved jovial company, to induce the

visitors to stay on to tea, and then to supper.

While they were enjoying the latter, the interruption Janice

had expected came at last. In the midst of the cheer, the

hall door was swung back so quietly that no one observed it,

and only when he who opened it spoke did those at table

realise the new arrival. Then the sight of the blue uniform

with buff facings brought every officer to his feet and set

them glancing cornerward, to where their side arms were

stood.

"I grieve to intrude upon so mirthful a company," apologised

the new arrival, bowing. "But knowing of the unstinted

hospitality of Greenwood, I made bold, Mrs. Meredith, to

tell a friend that we could scarce fail of a welcome." Brereton

turned to say, "This way, Harry, after thou'st disposed

thy cloak and hat," and entered the room.

"Odds my life!" burst out the baronet, as the second

interloper, garbed in Continental dragoon uniform, entered

and bowed respectfully to the company. "What 's to pay

here?"

"But nay," went on Brereton, "I see your table is already

filled, so we'll not inconvenience you by our intrusion. Perhaps,

however, Miss Janice will fill us each a glass from you

bowl of punch. 'T is a long ride to Morristown, and a stirrup

cup will not be amiss. Yet stay again. Let me first puff off

my friend to you. Ladies and gentleman, Captain Henry

Lee, better known as Light Horse Harry."

"May I perish, but this impudence passes belief!" gasped

one of the officers. "Dost think thou 'rt not prisoners?"

"Ho, Jack! I told thee thy harebrainedness and love of

adventure would get us into the suds yet," spoke up Lee.

"Then the ninety light horse whom we left surrounding the

house are thy troops?" he questioned laughingly, of the four

officers.

"Devil pick your bones, the two of you!" swore Mobray.

"Wast not enough that we should be so confoundedly gapped,

but you must come with the bowl but half emptied. Hast

thou no bowels for gentlemen and fellow-officers?"

"Fooh!" quizzed Brereton. "Pick up the bowl and down

with it at a gulp, man. Never let it be said that an officer of

the Welsh Fusileers made bones of a half-full--" There the

speaker caught himself short, and suddenly turned his back

on the table.

"Whom have we here?" demanded the baronet. "By

Heavens, Charlie, who'd think--Does Sir William know

of--?"

"'S death!" cried Jack, facing about, and meeting the

questioner eye to eye. "Canst not hold thy tongue,

man?" Then he went on less excitedly: "I am Leftenant-Colonel

John Brereton, aide-de-camp to his Excellency

General Washington."

For a moment Sir Frederick stood speechless, then he held

out his hand, saying: "And a good fellow, I doubt not, despite

a bad trade. Fair lady," he continued after the handshake,

"since we are doomed for the moment to be captives

of some one other than thee, help to cheer us in the exchange

by filling us each a parting glass. Come, Charlie, canst give

us one of thy old-time toasts?"

Brereton laughed, as he took a glass from the girl. "'T is

hardly possible, with ladies present, to fit thy taste, Fred.

However, here goes: Honour, fame, love, and wealth may

desert us, but thirst is eternal."

"Even in captivity, thank a kind Providence," ejaculated

one of the officers, as he set down his drained tumbler.

"Now, gentlemen, boots and saddles, an' it please you,"

suggested Lee, politely.

"Thee'll not force a wounded man to take such exposure,"

protested Mrs. Meredith. "Lieutenant Hennion--"

Brereton carried on the speech: "Can drink punch and

study divinity. I'll warrant he's not so near to death's door

but he can bear one-half the ride of our poor starved troopers

and beasts."

"Farewell, Miss Janice," groaned the baronet; "'t was thy

beauty baited this trap."

Jack lingered a moment after Lee and the prisoners had

passed into the hallway.

"Can I have a moment's word with you apart, Miss Meredith?"

he asked.

"Most certainly not," spoke up the squire, recovering from

the dumbness into which the rapid occurrences of the last

three minutes had reduced him. "If ye have aught to say

to my lass, out with it here."

"'T is--'t is just a word of farewell."

"I like not thy farewells," answered the girl, colouring.

"For once we agree, Miss Janice," replied the officer,

boldly; "and did it rest with me, there should never be

another." He bowed, and went to the door. "Mr. Meredith,"

he said, "I've stolen a husband from your daughter.

'T is a debt I am ready to pay on demand."

XXXVIII

BLACK AND WHITE

How much the squire would have grieved over the

capture of his almost son-in-law was never known,

for events gave him no opportunity. Spring was

now come, and with it the breaking up of winter

quarters. The moment the roads were passable, the garrison

of Brunswick, under the command of Cornwallis, marched up

the Raritan to Middle Brook, driving back into the Jersey hills

a detachment of the Continental army. In turn Washington's

whole force was moved to the support of his advance, but the

British had fallen back once more to their old position. Early

in June, Howe himself arrived at Brunswick, bringing with

him heavy reinforcements, and first threatened a movement

toward the Delaware, hoping to draw Washington from his

position; but the latter, surmising that his opponent would

never dare to jeopardise his communications, was not to be

deceived. Disappointed in this, the British faced about

quickly, and tried to surprise the Americans by a quick

march upon their encampment, only to find them posted

along a strong piece of ground, fully prepared for a conflict.

Although the British outnumbered the Continentals almost

twice over, the deadly shooting of the latter had been so often

experienced that Howe dared not assault their position, and

after a few days of futile waiting, his army once more fell back

on Brunswick, crossed the Raritan to Amboy, and then was

ferried across to Staten Island. Washington, by holding his

force in a menacing position, without either marching or

attacking, had saved not merely his troops, but Philadelphia

as well; and Howe learned that if the capital was to be captured,

it could not be by the direct march of his command

across the Jerseys, but must be by the far slower way of conveying

it by ships to the southward.

Before the campaign opened, Mr. Meredith had been loud

and frequent in complaints over his lack of stock and labour

with which to cultivate his farm. Had he been better situated,

however, it is probable that his groans would have been

multiplied fivefold, for he would have seen whatever he did

rendered useless by this march and counter-march of belligerents.

Thrice the tide of war rolled over Greenwood; and

though there was not so much as a skirmish within hearing of

the homestead, the effects were almost as serious to him and to

his tenantry. When the British finally evacuated the Jerseys,

scarce a fence was to be found standing in Middlesex County,

having in the two months' manoeuvring been taken for camp-fires,

and the frames of many an outbuilding had been used

for similar purposes.

The depleted larders of Greenwood, together with the small

prospect of replenishing them from his own farm, drove the

squire to the necessity of pressing his tenants for the half.

yearly rentals. Whatever his needs, the attempt to collect

them was thoroughly unwise; Mr. Meredith, as a fact, being

in better fortune than many of his tenants, for they had seen

their young crops ridden over, or used as pasture, by the

cavalry of both sides, and were therefore not merely without

means of paying rent, but were faced by actual want for their

own families. The surliness or threats with which the squire's

demands were met should have proven to him their impolicy;

but if to the simple-minded landlord a debt was a debt and

only a debt, he was quickly to learn that there are various

ways of payment. No sooner had the Continental army followed

Howe across the Raritan, and thus left the country-side

to the government, or lack of government, of its own people,

than the tenants united in a movement designed to secure

what might legally be termed a stay of proceedings, and which

possessed the unlegal advantage of being at once speedy and

effective.

One night in July the deep sleep of the master of Greenwood

was interrupted by a heavy hand being laid on his

shoulder, and ere he could blink himself into effective eyesight,

he was none too politely informed by the spokesman

of four masked men who had intruded into his conjugal

chamber, that he was wanted below. While still dazed, the

squire was pulled, rather than helped, out of bed, and Mrs.

Meredith, who tried to help him resist, was knocked senseless

on the floor. Down the stairs and out of the house he was

dragged, his progress being encouraged by such cheering

remarks as, "We'll teach you what Toryism comes ter."

"Where 's them tools of old George you've been a-feeding,

now?" "Want your rents, do you? Well, pay day's

come."

On the lawn were a number of men similarly masked,

grouped about a fire over which was already suspended the

tell-tale pot. To this the squire was carried, his night-shirt

roughly torn from his back; and while two held him, a coating

of the hot tar was generously applied with a broom, amid

screams of pain from the unfortunate, echoed in no minor

key by Janice and the slave servants, all of whom had been

wakened by the hubbub. Meantime, one of the law-breakers

had returned to the house, and now reappeared with Mrs.

Meredith's best feather-bed, which was hastily slashed open

with knives, and the squire ignominiously rolled in the feathers,

transforming that worthy at once to an appearance akin

to an ill-plucked fowl of mammoth proportions.

Although, as already noted, the fences had disappeared

from the face of the land, with the same timeliness which

had been shown in the production of the mattress, a rail was

now introduced upon the scene, and the miserable object

having been hoisted thereon, four men lifted it to their

shoulders. A slight delay ensued while the squire's ankles

were tied together, and then, with the warning to him that,

"If yer don't sit right and hold tight, ye'll enjoy yer ride

with yer head down and yer toes up," the men started off at

a trot down the road. Sharing the burden by turns, the

squire was carried to Brunswick, where, daylight having

come, he was borne triumphantly twice round the green,

amid hoots and yells from a steadily growing procession, and

then was finally ferried across the river and dumped on the

opposite bank with the warning from the spokesman that

worse would come to him if he so much as dared show his

face again within the county.

Lack of apparel and an endeavour to revive Mrs. Meredith

had kept Janice within doors during the actual tarring and

feathering; but so soon as the persecutors set off for Brunswick,

the girl left her now conscious though still dizzy mother, hastily

dressed, and started in pursuit, the alarm for her father quite

overcoming her dread of the masked rioters. Try her best,

they had too long a start to be overtaken, and when she

reached the village, it was to learn from a woman to whom

she appealed for information what Mr. Meredith's fate had

been. Still suffering the keenest anxiety, the girl went to the

ferryman's house, and begged to be rowed across the river, but

he shook his head.

"Cap' Bagby 's assoomed command, ontil we gits resottled,

an' his orders wuz thet no one wuz ter be ferried onless they

hez a pass; so, ef yer set on followin' yer dad, it 's him yer

must see. I guess he ain't far from the tavern."

This proved a correct inference, for Joe, glass in hand, was

sitting on a bench near the doorway, watching and quizzing

the publican as that weather-cock laboured to unscrew the rings

which suspended his sign in the air.

"Who 's name are you going to paint in this time, Si?" he

questioned, as the girl came within hearing.

The tavern-keeper, having freed the sign-board from the

support, descended with it. "This 'ere tavern's got tew git

along without no sign," he said, as he mopped his brow. "I'm

jus' wore out talkin' first on one side o' my mouth, an' next on

t' other."

"You ain't tired, I guess, of lining first one pocket and then

the other?" surmised Bagby.

"'T ain't fer yer tew throw that in my teeth," retorted the

publican. "It 's little money o' yours has got intew my

pocket, Joe, often as yer treat yerself an' the rest."

Janice went up to the captain. "Mr. Bagby, I want to go

across the river to my father, and--" so far she spoke steadily,

her head held proudly erect; but then, worn out with the

anxiety, the fatigue, and the heat, her self-control suddenly

deserted her, and she collapsed on the bench and began to sob.

"Now, miss," expostulated Bagby, "there is n't any call to

take on so." He took the girl's hand in his own. "Here,

take some of my swizzle. 'T will set you right up."

Before the words had passed his lips, Janice had jerked her

hand away and was on her feet. "Don't you dare touch me,"

she said, her eyes flashing.

"I was only trying to comfort you," asserted Joe, while the

tavern loungers gave vent to various degrees of laughter.

"Then let me go to my father."

"Can't for a moment," answered Bagby, angrily. "He 's

shown himself inimical to his country, and we must n't on no

account allow communications with the enemy. That 's the

rule as laid down in the general orders, and in a Congress

resolution."

Bagby's voice, quite as much as his words, told the girl that

argument was useless, and without further parley she walked

away. She had not gone ten paces when the publican overtook

her and asked:--

"Say, miss, where be yer a-goin'?"

"Home," answered Janice.

"Then come yer back an' rest a bit in the settin'-room, an'

I'll have my boy hitch up an' take yer thar. 'T is a mortal

warm day, an' I calkerlate yer've walked your stent." He

put his hand kindly on her arm, and the girl obediently turned

about and entered the tavern.

"You are very kind," she said huskily.

"That's all right," he replied. "The squire 's done me a

turn now an' agin, an' then quality 's quality, though 't ain't fer

the moment havin' its way."

While she awaited the harnessing, Bagby came into the

room.

"I wanted to say something to you, miss, but I guessed it

might fluster you with all the boys about," he said. "Has the

squire ever told you anything concerning a scheme I proposed

to him?"

"No," Janice replied, coldly.

"Well, perhaps he would have, if he could have seen forward

a little further. It's being far-seeing that wins, miss." The

speaker paused, as if he expected a response, but getting none,

he continued, "Would you like to see him home, and everything

quiet and easy again?"

"Oh!" said the girl, starting to her feet. "I'd give anything

if--"

"Now we're talking," interjected the captain, quite as

eagerly. "Only say that you'll be Mrs. Bagby, and back he

is before sundown, and I'll see to it that he is n't troubled no

more."

Janice had stepped forward impulsively, but she shrank back

at his words as if he had struck her; then without a word she

walked from the room, went to where the cart was being got

ready, and rested a trembling hand upon it, as if in need of

support, while her swift breathing bespoke the intensity of her

emotion.