have done this for the man who can serve you only by thrusting his neck
into the hangman's noose?"
She was silent for a little space, and I knew not what emotion it was
that moved her to turn away and cover her face with her hands. But when
she spoke her voice was low and tremulous with pent-up anger, as I
thought.
"Truly, Captain Ireton, you have done a thing to make me hate you--and
myself, as well. But I may not forget my duty, sir."
And with this cruel word she was gone.
XXXIII
IN WHICH I HEAR CHANCEFUL TIDINGS
You are not to suppose that the hazards of this hiding place in my Lord
Cornwallis's headquarters would keep me from sleeping well and soundly.
One of the things a soldier learns soonest is to take his rest when and
as he can; and after peering curiously into the nooks and corners of my
garret to make sure I was alone, I flung myself a-sprawl on the broad
settle and was dropping off into forgetfulness when I heard a tapping at
the wainscot.
It fetched me wide awake with a start, and I was up and weaponed
instantly--having taken the precaution to lay my sword in easy reach
before blowing out the candle. Groping my way cautiously to the secret
door, I crouched and listened. All was silent save for the intermittent
clamor of the wassailers in the room beneath. After waiting a full
minute I opened the door and looked without. The high dormer window in
the end of the corridor made the darkness something less than visible,
and I could see that the passage was empty. But on the floor at my feet
was my supper; a roasted fowl on a server, hot from the spit, with
maize bread and garnishings fit for an epicure.
Since, as an appanage of Appleby Hundred, this was mine own house, and,
by consequence, the fowl was mine, I ate as a hungry man should, making
no scruple on the score of pride. Nor did I forget to be grateful to my
lady; though when I remembered that this was doubtless but another leaf
out of her duty-book, the meat was like to choke me. And it was this
thought that made me resolve thrice over to loose her from the onerous
burden of me so soon as ever the morning light should come to help me
find the way out of my covert prison.
None the less, for all my fine resolves to be astir and off by daybreak,
the sun was shining broadly in at my garret window when I awoke.
Seeing the sun, I tumbled out of my settle-bed, with a malediction on
the sloth that had bound me so fast, and made for the door. But some one
had been before me, entering whilst I slept. On a broken chair were a
basin and ewer, with soap and towels; beside the chair was my
portmanteau; and on a deal box, neatly covered with a linen cloth, was
my breakfast.
You, my dears, who have your maid or man to tell you when your bath is
ready, and to lay out the fresh, clean garments sweet from the
laundering, may wonder that I put away the thought of flight and let the
breakfast cool whilst I shaved and washed and scrubbed, and doffed the
vagabond and donned the gentleman. I did it; did it leisurely, rolling
the privilege as a sweet morsel under my tongue. They say the raiment
never makes the man; 'tis a half-truth only. For in his own regard, at
least, the man is vagabond or gentleman as he may dress the one part or
the other. And I am sure of this; that when I drew up another of the
cast-off chairs to sit at meat, freshly groomed, and clad in the field
uniform of a captain of her Apostolic Majesty's Hussars, I was the
fitter by many transmigrations to cope with fate or any other adversary.
And now, the claims of decency paid in full, and the keen edge of hunger
somewhat dulled, I was free to think of my sweet lady's loving-kindness
to one she hated--and to wonder what she would do and be for one she
loved. As you would guess, there were dregs of bitterness in that cup;
and I was once again set sharp upon relieving her of the burden of me.
Having my Austrian uniform, I was now ready to move in that venture
outlined in part to Colonel Davie; but to set my plan in action I must
first get free of the house unseen by my Lord or any of his suite. How
to do this unaided I could not determine; and, since any fresh
blundering would surely breed new trouble for Margery, I was forced to
wait for her return.
I made sure she would come, if only to be the sooner quit of me; and so
she did, tapping at the wainscot door whilst I was dallying with the
breakfast leavings. 'Twas worth something to see her start of surprise
when I opened to her; but she was far too true a lady to be one thing
to the unwashed vagabond and another to the gentleman-clad.
I gave her good morning, and was beginning in some formal fashion to
thank her for her thoughtful care, when she cut me short.
"'Tis my bounden duty, sir," she said, twanging once again upon that
frayed string. "You are my guest and my--husband; though God knows I
would you were neither."
"_Merci, Madame_," said I; stung so sharply that the retort would out in
spite of everything. "As once before, I am your poor misfortunate
pensioner; but this time you are not less willing to give than I am to
receive."
She gave me a look that I could not fathom, and for a flitting instant I
could have sworn there was a mocking smile a-lurk at the back of the
beautiful eyes. Then she went straight to the subject-matter of her
errand, brushing aside the small passage at arms as if it had not been.
"You are in a most perilous situation, Captain Ireton; do you know it?
News of your presence in Charlotte has got abroad, and at this very
moment Tarleton's dragoons are making a house-to-house search for you."
"So; some one has betrayed me?"
She nodded.
"Do you know who it was?"
She nodded again.
I considered of it for a little time, and then said: "I must not be
taken here. Will your--ah--_duty_ stretch the length of showing me an
unwatched door?"
"There are no doors unwatched. You must stay here till nightfall."
"Nay, that I will not. Will you tell me who it was set them on?"
"'Twas a man you hate--and who hates you heartily in return. He saw you
come here last night; he knows you are here now--or guesses it."
I had no right to pry into her confidence as a thief would break into a
house. But I was loath to fight my battle in the dark if she, or any
one, could give me light.
"His name, if you may give it, Mistress Margery. It may point the way
out of this coil."
"'Tis Owen Pengarvin. He was here last night when you came."
Now I remembered the little man in black whom I had seen coming down the
stair whilst I knocked at the door. But this left me in a greater maze
than ever.
"If he knows I am here, why does he let them search elsewhere?"
At this she looked away from me, and I made sure I saw the sweet chin
quiver when she spoke.
"He has reasons of his own; reasons of--of--" but instead of telling me
what they were she broke off to say: "But now you know why all the doors
of this house are under guard."
"Truly," said I; and therewith I fell to pacing up and down the narrow
clear-way in the garret, striving to see how I might come off with
nothing worse than the loss of my burdensome life.
'Twas easy to guess how this shaveling lawyer had discomfited me.
Forewarned is forearmed in any soldier camp; and through his blabbing,
the plan by which I had hoped to lull resentment and forestall suspicion
was nipped in the bud. I saw the far-reaching consequences, and was made
to know how a trapped rat will turn and fight in sheer desperation
whilst the terrier is shaking him to death.
When that leaven began to work in me I was fit for the daringest thing
that offered; so I paused to ask if my Lord Cornwallis were yet in the
house.
"He is writing letters in his bed-room," was her answer.
"If you will show me the way thither I shall be your poor debtor by that
much more."
"I will not--unless you first tell me what you mean to do." She said it
firmly, but now I was fronting death and could be as firm as she.
"If you will not show me the way, I shall find it for myself." So much I
said; but as for telling her that I meant to save his Lordship and all
the others the trouble of running me down, I could not do that.
"You are going to give yourself up," she said; and when I would not deny
it, she darted before me and set her back against the wainscot door.
"'Tis folly, folly!" she cried. "He would but pull the bell-cord and--"
"And give the order that Colonel Tarleton's sentence be executed upon
me, you would say. Be it so. But in that event I can at least clear you
and your father of any complicity in my hiding."
"I say you shall not go!"
What touch of savagery is it in a man that will not suffer him to let a
woman, loved or unloved, stand in the last resort against his will? At
any other time I would have pleaded with her; would have ended, mayhap,
by weakly deferring to her wish. But now--well, you must remember, my
dears, that I was the trapped rat. I took her gently in my arms, set her
aside, and stepped out into the corridor.
I looked for nothing less than a volcano-burst of righteous indignation
to pay me out for this piece of tyranny. But now, as twice or thrice
before, my lady showed me how little a man may know of a woman's moods.
"You need not be so masterful rough with me," she said, with a pouting
of the sweet lips that set me back upon that thought of a wayward child
wanting to be kissed. "If you say I must, I am in duty bound to show you
the way." And so she led on and I followed, in a deeper maze than any
she had ever set me in.
Arrived at a pair of doors in the main passage, she showed me the one
that opened to my Lord's bed-chamber and ran away; ran with her hands to
her face as if to shut out a sight which would not bear looking upon.
I turned my back stiffly upon this newer wonder, pulled myself together
and rapped on the door. A voice within bade me enter; the door opened
under my hand and I stood in the presence of the man who, as I made no
doubt, would shortly summon his guards and have me out to my rope and
tree.
XXXIV
HOW I MET A GREAT LORD AS MAN TO MAN
The room in which I found myself was the guest-chamber, furnished
luxuriously, for that day and place, in French-fashioned mahogany and
gilt. The bed was high and richly canopied, as befitted a peer's resting
place; there was a square of Turkish drugget on the floor, a cheerful
fire burning in the chimney arch, and on the small table whereat the
occupant of the guest-room had lately breakfasted, a goodly display of
the Ireton silver.
My Lord was busy at his writing-desk when I entered; but when he looked
up I saw the light of instant recognition in his eye. Never, I think,
did another prisoner at the bar strive harder to read his sentence in
his judge's eyes than I did in that moment of suspense. I liked not much
the look he gave me; but his greeting was affable and kindly enough.
"Ah, Captain Ireton; 'tis you, is it? We are well met, at last. They
told me you were gone to join the rebels, did they not?"
Here was an opening for a bold man, and in a flash I came to the
right-about, choked down the defiance I had meant to hurl at him, and
took quick counsel of cool audacity.
"Indeed, my Lord, I know not what they have told you. In times past, the
king had no truer soldier than I; and when I came across seas 'twas not
to fight against him. But that I have not joined the rebels is no fault
of certain of your Lordship's officers."
"Say you so? But how is this? Surely I am not mistaken. I could be
certain Colonel Tarleton reported your taking as a spy, and his trying
of you. And was there not something about a rescue at the last moment by
a band of these border bravos? But stay; let us have the colonel's story
at first hands. Have the goodness to ring the bell for me, will you,
Captain?"
The crisis was come. A pull at the bell-cord would summon the guard, and
the guard would be sent after Colonel Tarleton. Well, said the demon
Despair, 'tis time you were gone to make room for Richard Jennifer; and
I laid a hand upon the tasseled rope. But when I would have rung, all
the man-pride, of race and of soldier training, rose up to bid me fight
for space to strike one good blow in freedom's cause by way of
leave-taking.
So, as it had been an afterthought, I said: "A word further with you
first, my Lord, and then, if you please, I will call the guard. All you
remember is true, save as to the principal fact. So far from being a spy
in intent, or even a partizan of either side, I was at the time but
newly come into the province, knowing little of the cause of quarrel and
caring still less. But Captain Falconnet and Colonel Tarleton did their
earnest best to make a rebel of me out of hand."
"Ah? But the proof of all this, Captain Ireton."
"The best I can offer is the present fact of my coming to place myself
at your Lordship's disposal, being moved thereto by your Lordship's own
desire expressed in an order sent some weeks since to Sir Francis
Falconnet."
"So?--then you knew of that order?"
"Captain Falconnet showed it to me after I was condemned and the firing
squad was drawn up to snuff me out."
My Lord Charles gave me the courtier smile that so endeared him to his
soldiers,--he was well-loved of his men,--and bade me sit.
"The plot thickens, as Mr. Richardson would say. Let me have your story,
Captain Ireton. I would rejoice to know why Captain Sir Francis
Falconnet saw fit to disobey his orders."
I was clear of the lee shore and the breakers at last, but I was fain to
believe that not Machiavelli himself could hope to weather the storm in
the open. How much or how little did Lord Cornwallis remember of Colonel
Tarleton's report? How explicit had that report been?--was there any
mention in it of my eavesdropping at the conference between Captain John
Stuart and the baronet; of my attempt to warn the over-mountain men
against the Indian-arming? Could I hope to tell his Lordship a tale so
near the truth as to be unassailable by Tarleton and his officers, by
Gilbert Stair and the spiteful little pettifogger, and yet so deftly
garbled as to keep my neck out of the halter for the time being?
All these questions thronged upon me as a mob to pull cool reason from
her seat, and I could only play the part of the trapped rat and snap
back at them. Yet my Lord Cornwallis was waiting for his answer, and a
single moment's hesitation might breed suspicion.
You must forgive me, my dears, if I confess it beyond me to set down
here in measured words the tale I told his Lordship. A lie is a lie, be
it told in never so good a cause; a thing deplorable and not to be
glozed over or boasted of after the fact. So I beg you to let these
quibblings to which I was driven rest in oblivion, figuring to
yourselves that I used all the truth I dared, and that I strove through
it all not wholly to sink the gentleman and the man of honor in the spy.
'Twas but a bridge of glass when all was said; a bridge that carried me
safely over for the moment into my Lord's confidence, yet one which a
pebble flung by any one of a dozen hands might shiver in the dropping of
an eyelid.
"Truly, you have had a most romantic experience," said his Lordship,
when I had made an end. Then he lay back in his chair and laughed till
the stout body of him shook again. "And all about a little wench of the
provincials. Well, well; Sir Francis was always a sad dog with the
women. But all this was in the early summer, you say; where have you
been since?"
Here was a chance for more romancing, this time of a sort less
dangerous. So I drew breath and plunged again, telling how I had been
carried off by my captor-rescuers; how I had fallen into the hands of
the Indians--not all of whom, I would remind his Lordship, were friendly
to the king; and lastly how I had but lately escaped from the mountain
fastnesses back of Major Ferguson's camp at Gilbert Town. At this point
my Lord interrupted the tale-telling.
"So you know of the major and his doings? I would you had brought me
late news of him. 'Tis a week since his last courier reached us."
This was the moment for the playing of my trump card--the only one I
held. I rose, bowed, took from my pocket that other letter given me by
Colonel Davie and handed it to his Lordship. 'Twas Major Ferguson's last
report, intercepted by one of Davie's vigilant scouting parties.
"Ah!" said my Lord; and I strolled to the window whilst he read the
letter.
When I turned to front him again he was all affability; and I knew I was
safe--for the time, at least.
"The major commends you highly as a good man and a true, Captain
Ireton," he said, and truly the letter did contain a warm-hearted
commendation of "the bearer," whose name, for safety's sake, was
omitted; and not only this, but the writer desired to have his man back
again. Then my Lord added: "You are here to take your old service again,
I assume?"
I hesitated. There be things that even a spy may balk at; and the taking
of the oath of allegiance to the other side I conceived to be one of
them. So I said:
"I have worn many uniforms since I doffed that of King George, my Lord,
and--"
He laughed cheerily. "'But me no buts,' Captain Ireton; once an
Englishman, always an Englishman, you know. I shall assign you to duty
in my own family."
At this I made a bold stroke. "Let it be then as an officer of her
Apostolic Majesty's service, and your Lordship's guest for the time.
Believe me, it is thus I may best serve your--ah--the cause."
"As how?" he would ask.
I smiled and touched the braided jacket of my hussar uniform.
"As an Austrian officer on a tour of observation in the campaign I may
go and come where others may not, and see and hear things which your
Lordship may wish to know. Does your Lordship take me?"
He laughed and rose and clapped me on the shoulder.
"You may call the guard now, Captain, and I will turn you over--not to a
firing squad, but to the tender mercies of our old rascal host who is a
'trimmer' of the devil's own school. If he tries to screw a penny's pay
out of you, as he is like to, put him in arrest."
"It is your Lordship's meaning that I should be quartered here?--in this
house?" I gasped.
"And why not? Ah, my good Captain of Hussars, I have made you my
honorary aide-de-camp and a member of my family so that I may keep an
eye on you. _Comprenez-vous?_"
He said it with a laugh and another hearty hand-clap on my shoulder, and
I would fain take it for a jest. Yet there be playful gibes that hint at
gibbets; and I may confess to you here, my dears, that I left my Lord's
presence with the conviction that my acquittal was but a reprieve
conditioned upon the best of future good behavior. So it took another
turn of the audacity screw to tune me up for the battle royal with
Gilbert Stair and the pettifogger, Owen Pengarvin.
XXXV
IN WHICH I FIGHT THE DEVIL WITH FIRE
With the house guard for a guide I found my host in a box-like den below
stairs; a room with a writing-table, two chairs and a great iron
strong-box for its scanty furnishings.
The old man was sitting at the table when I looked in, his long nose
buried in a musty parchment deed. The light from the single small window
was none too good, but it sufficed to help him recognize me at a glance,
despite the hussar uniform. In a twinkling he put the breadth of the
oaken table between us, hurled the parchment deed into the open
strong-box, slammed to the cover and gave a shrill alarm.
"Ho! you devils without, there! Here he is--I have him! Help! Murder!"
The guard, a burly, bearded Darmstädter, turned on his heel and stood at
attention in the doorway, looking stolidly for his orders, not to the
shrilling master of the house, but to the man who wore a uniform.
"'Tis naught," I said, speaking in German. "He mistakes me for a
_rittmeister_ of the rebels. _Verstehen Sie?_"
The soldier saluted, wheeled and vanished; and I sat down to wait till
the old man's outcry should pause for lack of breath. When my chance
came, I said:
"Calm yourself, Mr. Stair. You are in no present danger greater than
that which you may bring upon yourself. Blot out all the past, if you
please, and consider me now as a member of Lord Cornwallis's military
family seeking quarters in your house by my Lord's express command."
"Quarters in my house?--ye're a damned rebel spy!" he cried. "I'll
denounce ye to my Lord for what ye are. Ho! ye rascals, I say!"
"Peace!" I commanded, sternly; "this is but child's folly. No man in the
British army would arrest me at your behest. Ring the bell and summon
your factor lawyer. I would have a word or two in private with both of
you."
He dropped into a chair, and I could see the sweat standing in great
beads on his wrinkled forehead.
"D' ye--d' ye mean to kill us both?" he gasped.
"Not if I can help it. But some better understanding is needful, and we
will have it here and now, once for all. Will you ring, or shall I?"
He made no move to reach the bell-cord, and I rang for him. A grinning
black boy came to the door, and seeing that Mr. Gilbert Stair was beyond
giving the order, I gave it myself.
"Find Master Pengarvin and send him here quickly. Tell him Mr. Stair
wants him."
There was a short interval of waiting and then the lawyer came. Being
but a little wisp of a man, all malignance and no courage, he would have
fled when he saw me. But I caught him by the collar and sent him
scurrying around the table to keep his master company.
"Now, then; how much or how little have you two blabbed of the doings at
Appleby Hundred some weeks since?" I demanded. "Speak out, and quickly."
'Twas the lawyer who obeyed, and now he was the trapped rat to snap
blindly in despair.
"You will hang higher than Haman when the dragoons find you," he gritted
out.
"On your information?"
"On mine and Mr. Stair's."
"Ye lie!" shrieked the miser. "I tell't ye to keep hands off, ye
bletherin' little deevil, ye!"
"Never mind," said I; "what's done is done. But it must be undone, and
that swiftly and thoroughly. Lie out of it to Colonel Tarleton and the
others as you will; Captain John Stuart and the baronet are not here to
contradict you, and you are the only witnesses. Knock together some
story that will hold water and lose no time about it. Do you
understand?"
Seeing he was not to be put to the wall and spitted on the spot, the
lawyer recovered himself.
"'Tis not the criminal at the bar who dictates terms, Captain Ireton,"
he said, with his hateful smirk. "You are under sentence of death, and
that by a court lawful enough in war time."
"You refuse?" I said.
He shrugged.
"Speaking for myself, I shall leave no stone unturned to bring you to
book, Captain,--when it suits my purpose."
I was loath to go to extremities with either of them; but my bridge of
glass must be defended at all hazards.
"You would best reconsider, Mr. Pengarvin. At this present moment I am
of my Lord Cornwallis's military family and I have his confidence. A
word from me will put you both in arrest as persons whose loyalty in
times past has been somewhat more than blown upon."
"Bah!" said the pettifogger. "Bluster is a good dog, but Holdfast is the
better. You can prove nothing, as you well know. Moreover, with your own
neck in a noose you dare not mess and meddle with other men's affairs."
"Dare not, you say? I'll tell you what I may dare, Master Attorney. If
you are not disposed to meet me half way in this matter, I shall go to
my Lord, tell him how I have been cheated out of my estate, declare the
marriage with Mistress Margery, and see that you get your just deserts.
And you may rest assured that this soldier-earl will right me, come what
may."
'Twas a bold stroke, the boldest of any I had made that morning; but I
was wholly unprepared for its effect upon the lawyer. His rage was like
that of some venomous little animal, a thing to make an onlooker shudder
and draw back.
"Never!" he hissed; "never, I say! I'll kill her first--I'll--" He
choked in the very exuberance of his malignance, and his face was like
the face of a man in a fit.
'Twas then that I saw the pointing of his villainy and knew what Margery
had meant when she said that for reasons of his own he was holding my
betrayal in abeyance. He was Falconnet's successor and my rival. This
little reptile aspired to be the master of my father's acres and the
husband of my dear lady! And his holding off from denouncing me at once
was also explained. Taking it for granted that the wife would bargain
for the husband's life, he had made a whip of his leniency to flog
Margery into subjection.
My determination was taken upon the instant. There was no safety for
Margery whilst this plotting pettifogger was at large, and I stepped to
the door and called the sentry. The Darmstädter came back and I pointed
to the lawyer. Then, indeed, the furious little madman found his tongue
and shrilled out his defiance.