THE PASSING OF YEARS
Then came a long period when it seemed almost as if peace had settled
over the land, so seldom did the rattle of musket fire or the angry
flash of guns break the quiet repose of the Jersey plains and farms.
Far across the marshes lay New York, and behind its walls and the
broad sweep of the waters the British army rested safe, while the army
of the patriots, scattered among the forests, woods, and hills of
Jersey and New York, lived, like Robin Hood's followers of old, and
waited while the wheel of fortune turned.
A year went by, when at the taking of Paulus Hook I first heard news
of the welfare of the Tory and the maid, since the night of the
Monmouth retreat.
It was after an all-night march through the marshes of Jersey, often
breast-high in the water, that we made a silent, deadly charge with
the bayonet on the enemy's fort, and carried it before the sun had
risen.
We were retiring rapidly, after securing our prisoners, when one of my
men called to me: "Captain, here's one of those Highland chiefs
knocked on the head."
I went to him and found that it was Farquharson, who had received an
ugly blow on the head from a clubbed musket.
A little whiskey between his teeth and water on his face revived him,
and I was able, with the help of several men, to carry him along with
our party.
We made good our retreat, and when several days later I was in the
main camp of the army, I went to the quarters where the prisoners were
detained, and there I again met Farquharson.
"Captain," said he, smiling, for he had almost recovered from his
wound, "there is no entering a contest against you; fortune is always
on your side."
"My turn will come," I answered; "but is there anything I can do for
you?"
"I am afraid not, unless you bribe the guards to let me escape."
"That would be clear against the articles of war," I replied. We fell
to talking, and then it was I heard of the Tory and his daughter.
"It was about Christmas time," said Farquharson, "that the King sent a
message over the sea, granting him a pardon for the part he had taken
in '45, for you know he was out then. The Sea Raven was about to
clear in a week for Glasgow, and a sudden longing seemed to seize him
to see once more the dash of the waters through the Braes of Mar and
the heather-crowned hills of old Aberdeen; and so, within a week, they
had sailed away; and as he left he said to me: 'A revolt drove me from
old Scotland; another sends me back again. I wonder where fortune will
end my days.' It is a strange fortune that has followed him through
life."
"It is, indeed," I replied.
So they sailed away over the seas, gone back to their own land and
people; and between that land and mine burned high the flame of war.
But through the flame and across the broad stretch of the waters, I
saw the form of the maid beckoning me on, and though my hope was
well-nigh gone, I buckled tight my sword-belt and doggedly went
on,--went on, through the long march to the southward, the toil, the
hunger, and the defeat of the Camden campaign.
The great triumph of Eutaw Springs and Cowpens, as we drove back
Cornwallis from the hill country to the shore, rolled back the tide of
invasion and drowned it in the sea.
A year went by, bringing me adventures not a few, and with the
adventures came wounds and honours; and when there came the news of
the leaguer of Yorktown, it found me a full Colonel in the army of the
South.
It was not my fortune to be present at that last great feat of our
arms, when the great General struck the blow that freed us for ever
from the tyranny of the King.
But when the news came down to us in the savannahs of the South we
hailed it with joy, for we saw once more before us the quiet, smiling
fields of Maryland, with the ease and comfort and plenty of it all
that awaited but our coming to repay us for the years of strife and
blood.
And then at last came the order for us to take up the homeward march.
The men took up the trail with as jaunty a step as when they first
marched to the northward, long years before. The gay uniforms were
faded and gone; rags and tatters had taken their places, while of the
brave banner that was flung to the breeze at the Head of Elk nothing
remained but the staff and a few ribbons that flaunted therefrom.
But every tatter told the tale of a fight where the shot and shell had
torn it as it waved above the charging line, the deadly struggle of
the hand to hand, or marked the slow and sullen retreat.
The men themselves were hardy and bronzed; from their ragged caps to
their soleless shoes they bore the stamp of veterans. They showed the
signs of their training in the angry school of war; wide indeed was
the difference between the gay volunteers of '76 and the hardy
veterans of '82. We swung along in our homeward march with a right
goodwill, and at last came to the broad Potomac and saw the hills of
Maryland beyond.
Now the river itself to the low water-line of the southern bank is
within the boundaries of Maryland. Wishing to be the first across the
line, I rode my horse in to the saddle-girths, and let him drink
thereof.
A day later brought us to Annapolis, where we received the thanks of
the State authorities, and with all due form and ceremony obtained our
discharge and then dispersed to our homes.
That very day I took a canoe, and, crossing the bay, found myself
again on the steps of Fairlee.
Once more my mother leaned on my arm, and, looking up at her tall,
broad-shouldered son, with his epaulets of a Colonel, bronzed face,
and hardy bearing, seemed proud and happy.