THE BLACK COCKADE
It was two o'clock next day when we rode up to the house where the
Committee of Public Safety held its meetings, dismounted, and entered
the room. Six gentlemen sat at the long table, and the room was
crowded with hangers-on. They were men who stayed behind while the
others went to the war; they fought the fight with their tongues, with
writs of forfeiture for high treason, became great statesmen, and in
time aspired to become members of the committee. How the worthy High
Sheriff regarded them could be seen by the manner in which he brushed
past them to stand before the committee.
"What right have you to talk of liberty and of freedom, if you will
not fight for it? Why are you not with Howard, Gist, Smallwood, and
the other heroes who are making the name of the Maryland Line ring
through the army?" he would ask, and they would turn away.
The burly form and dark, swarthy face of the Chairman dominated the
committee. As we entered and stood before him his dark eyes flashed.
"Do you bring the body of Charles Gordon with you?" he demanded.
"No; I do not. I bring his defiance, instead;" and the High Sheriff
delivered the message of Charles Gordon to the committee.
The committee glanced from one to another, and there was a big stir in
the room. Then the Chairman was on his feet.
"By a thousand devils," he swore, "Charles Gordon shall suffer for
this. I will not stop until the Braes is razed to the ground, and I
have driven him from the province. He is a Tory and a traitor, and a
danger to the peace of the county. He will be up in arms next. Mr.
Sheriff, summon a posse and ride to the Braes and bring us the body of
Charles Gordon, dead or alive."
"You will not accept the invitation to go to the Braes yourself,
then?" asked the High Sheriff gravely, though there was the suggestion
of a smile around the corners of his mouth.
The Chairman hesitated. "No," he said; "it is absolutely necessary for
the welfare of the county of Cecil that we should remain where we are
and not engage in any brawls or tumults, for if we are killed who will
take our places?"
"That is true," said the High Sheriff ironically, "but have you
considered, gentlemen, that Charles Gordon's wife was of the
Nicholsons of Kent, who, as you know, are the leaders of the patriots
in that county? How will they like it when they hear of your burnings
and your razings?"
The Chairman frowned. "You are right," he said; "we must proceed about
it in a legal way, which is slow but sure. Mr. Clerk, institute
proceedings against Charles Gordon for the forfeiture of his lands for
high treason, and meanwhile we will publish him throughout the
province as a Tory and a traitor. We will teach this Charles Gordon
and all Tories what it means to contemn the authority and dignity of
this province and its committee."
And then applause broke out from the crowd; but the High Sheriff, who
left the room with me, shrugged his shoulders and said: "If they had
half of the courage of that Scot they would not be loafing around
here, applauding James Rodolph. I am tired of it; I am going to resign
and go to the front." He was as good as his word, for that very day he
resigned the office of High Sheriff of the county of Cecil, packed his
saddle-bags, gathered some volunteers about him, and rode away to the
North, becoming in time a noted officer. But it was not until the
month of August of that year that I was ready to follow him and felt
equal to the length of the journey. On the night of the day before I
took my departure I called John Cotton and ordered him to saddle Toby.
John Cotton received the order with wide-open eyes, as it was growing
somewhat late.
"Fo' de Lord's sake, Mars Jim, what do you want Toby fo'? It's after
ten o'clock."
"Ask no questions, you black rascal, and bring Toby around in a
hurry."
Then his eyes fell on a cluster of red roses on my table, and a broad
grin crept from ear to ear.
"Sartin, Mars Jim, sartin;" and he was out of the door before my
flying boot could repay the impertinence of that grin. A few minutes
later I slipped out of the house to the stables, and, mounting Toby,
was soon riding out of the silent town, having hit that rascal John
Cotton across the shoulders with my whip for the snickering laugh he
could not restrain as I was riding off.
Have you ever ridden by the silent river after the night has fallen,
and when it is far advanced? The great trees, rising far above you
like the vaulted arch of a cathedral, overhanging the path down which
you ride; the smooth flowing waters of the river, the towering dark
mass on the farther shore, and over all the glorious moon shining
down flooding everything with its silvery light, weird and fantastic,
glinting now like polished steel upon the waters, now deepening the
shadows of the forest, or flooding again with its glorious radiance
some wide and sweeping stretch of water. And then, the unearthly
silence of it all, the mournful howl of the wolf in the hills, and the
piercing shrill cry of the wildcat, like that of a child tortured by
the demons of hell; then the horror of its beauty, its stillness and
its loneliness, comes over you; nervous chills become distinctly
apparent, and you put spurs to your horse and ride on more rapidly,
and the night is broken first by your whistle and then by your song.
So it was, as I rode by the banks of the Elk, that night in early
August, and my voice rang across the waters, as I sang the old
Highland ballad:
The Gordons cam', and the Gordons ran,
And they were stark and steady,
And aye the word among them a'
Was, Gordons, keep you ready.
A ballad that I heard a young girl sing one day not long before. Thus
the length of my ride passed quickly away until Toby felt the soft
grass under his feet as I rode silently across the lawn. Her window
was high, it is true, but it was open to admit the fresh, cool breeze
from the bay, and then I had not thrown quoits in my youth not to be
able to surmount so small a difficulty. So I fastened a black cockade
amid the blood-red of the roses, and, rising in my stirrups, threw
them firmly and gently, and saw them rise in the air, top the
window-sill, and fall with a slight thud upon the floor. I did not
wait for more, but turned and rode away; but it seemed to me that as I
gained the shadow of the forest and looked back I saw the faint
suggestion of a girlish form standing at the open window. I looked
once again and rode on.
When morning came, I bade good-bye to my mother, mounted my black colt
Toby, and rode away to join the Maryland Line, which was marching now
from Boston, to meet the British before New York. As that day I
crossed the line into the province of Delaware, I saw nailed to a
great oak the proclamation of the Committee of Public Safety,
denouncing Charles Gordon as a Tory and a traitor, and calling upon
all persons to have no dealings with him, either in public or private,
at their peril. And thus it was at every cross-roads in the county of
Cecil, and in all the counties to the south and west, the edict had
gone forth.
Now in Maryland, as I have said before, we love, above all else,
courage in a man, and so I rode under the oak, and tore down the
proclamation, for I knew the courage of Charles Gordon, Tory though he
was. I knew also that the proceedings of forfeiture had been
instituted against him in the High Court of the Province, and that ere
I set foot on the soil of Maryland again, he would be driven from the
province, and it was for this that I paid this courtesy to the courage
of an enemy, as I left my native plains behind me.
It was a long road for a lad, but the people received me with open
arms and urged me on when I told them whither I was riding. After
several days of travelling along the shore of the Delaware and across
the low-lying plains of New Jersey, I came to the banks of the Hudson,
and saw across the water the great city of New York, its clustering
houses and steeples. And then it was not long before I was on the
ferry that conveyed me across the river, and heard the sharp ring of
the pavement under my horse's feet as I rode toward the great common
where lay the encampment of the troops. It was near twelve o'clock
when I came to the camp of the patriots and asked my way of an officer
to the quarters of the Maryland Line.
"You must be a stranger," he said, "or you would know that the
Maryland Line always has the place of honour in the camp;" and he
showed me where their quarters lay.
I felt aglow with pride when I heard this tribute to my countrymen. I
thanked him and rode on. A few minutes later I was among them. The
great voice of the Captain was giving me greeting; Dick Ringgold's
hand was on my shoulder, as he took charge of me; and many of my kith
and kin, old friends and neighbours who belonged to that famous
corps, came forward to greet and welcome me to the camp. Thus, after
many days of sickness and of travel, I took my place among the men who
were about to face the great storm. True, at the time quiet reigned
all along our front, which lay over beyond the heights of Brooklyn;
but hot work was soon expected, as the British fleet had been seen in
the offing, and it was only a question of time when the army would be
landed and the attack begun.