Under Morgan we marched to Boston, and a long and weary tramp it seemed,
though in comparison with later ones, I learned to look back upon it as
a pleasant summer's journey. Our uniforms, patterned after Morgan's
habitual dress, consisted of buckskin breeches, leggins and moccasins, a
flannel shirt, over which we usually wore an unbleached linen hunting
shirt, confined with a leathern belt at the waist, and a huntsman's cap
on the band of which was inscribed, "Liberty or Death." From each man's
belt hung a knife, a tomahawk, and a bullet pouch, and each rifleman
carried in his pockets a bullet mold, and a bar of lead; across one
shoulder passed the strap from which hung his powder-horn, and over the
other he carried his rifle with its whittled ramrod of hickory wood.
Our uniforms, our size, and our marksmanship won for us immediate
notoriety and consideration, and not many days were we permitted to be
idle, though it was but comparative idleness we enjoyed, even in camp,
since we were drilled two hours each morning and afternoon, and did our
share of guard duty in the trenches around Boston. In our leisure hours
we taught the Yankees to chew tobacco, and to mold bullets, and learned
in return to rant eloquently upon liberty and natural rights in the
language of Samuel Adams, and John Hancock, and to eat beans baked with
hog middling.
Early in September we were ordered to join Colonel Arnold's command for
a raid into Canada. In addition to our arms, ammunition, and blankets we
must take turns at carrying the light canoes necessary for a part of our
journey, and many miles of our way lay through the tangled undergrowth
of dense forests, or across the treacherous slime of trackless bogs. It
was not long before many of the men were bare footed, half naked, and
weak from insufficient food; for our rifles were soon our dependence for
rations, and game grew scarce as we proceeded northward. Several of the
companies ate their sled dogs with relish. Morgan's men fared better
than the rest, for it was our rule to share equally whatever game we
killed, and we were sure to get a large proportion of all there was to
be found. Moreover, our clothes, being of leather, stood the wear of the
march better than the uniforms of the rest, and many of us could make
rude moccasins of wolf or dog skins.
After two months of toils and privations such as I wonder now we were
able to endure, we reached Quebec with but seven hundred of the thousand
men with whom we had started from Boston. In response to Arnold's daring
summons to fight or surrender, the garrison shut the city's gates in our
faces, and we were compelled to lie in our trenches, and wait for
General Montgomery's reinforcements. On the last day of December, 1775,
in the midst of a blinding snow storm, we attacked Quebec. General
Montgomery soon received the bullet that ended his career, and Colonel
Arnold was wounded shortly after. But for these two untoward
misfortunes, I truly believe we had won the day, and over all Canada and
all British America would now be waving the Stars and Stripes. Be that
as it may, we riflemen came very near to taking Quebec alone and
unsupported, for Morgan took the battery opposed to him, and penetrated
to the very center of the town. Meanwhile, General Montgomery's troops,
broken and disorganized for lack of a leader, and Arnold's, in like
case, were falling back; our opponents were left free to concentrate
their forces upon us, so that, after a fierce resistance, we were
completely surrounded, outnumbered, and compelled to surrender.
We lay in prison at Quebec for nine long months, treated with as much
kindness as is usually accorded to prisoners of war, but chafing like
wild animals in a cage. Captain Morgan told me of the offer, made to him
by one of the garrison officers, that he should be made a colonel in the
British army, if he would but desert "a doomed and hopeless cause," and
of the hot reply he made.
"Sir, I scorn your proposition, and I trust that you will never again
insult me in my present distressed and unfortunate condition, by making
me an offer which plainly implies that you consider me a scoundrel."
At last we were discharged, Captain Morgan on parole, and were carried
in transports to New York. I saw Morgan as he stepped off the boat, in
the brilliant light of a harvest moon, stoop and kiss the soil, and
heard him whisper in a sort of ecstasy, "My country, my country!" My own
heart swelled within me, and I could have done likewise with full
meaning.
Great things, of which we had heard but vague rumors, had happened in
our absence. Boston had been evacuated by the enemy, the attack on Fort
Moultrie had failed, and the Declaration of Independence had been
declared by all the thirteen States. On the other hand, General
Washington had been compelled to yield New York to Howe, and to fall
back to New Jersey, and England was making ready to send army after army
across the ocean to conquer her rebellious colonies.
Though my term of enlistment had already expired, I could not go home in
the midst of such stirring events, so I made haste to Morristown, there
reenlisted, and was put to service as special courier to General
Washington. And now, for the first time, I saw the man to whom all
patriotic hearts turned with hope and pride. His soldierly, dignified
bearing, the look of resolute, yet not arrogant self-consciousness upon
his face, his courteous manner, and the perfectly controlled tone of
voice in which he issued a command, or uttered a rebuke, impressed me
with a confidence that made me from that hour sure of our cause. "With
such leaders as Washington, Arnold and Morgan," I thought, with fervid
enthusiasm and pride, "how can we fail to win?"
* * * * *
Not many weeks later my beloved captain, who had been exchanged, and
made a colonel by act of Congress, marched into our camp with one
hundred and eight recruits, most of them from the valley, at his back. I
could hardly wait till he had reported at headquarters before I sought
him.
"'Tis my old comrade, Donald McElroy!" he said, scarcely less moved than
I. "Have you been on duty all this time, lad, with no furlough, no rest?
Ah, many's the time I've told Arnold, that with ten thousand such troops
as my Scotch Irish riflemen, I'd undertake to whip all the armies that
could be sent to these shores."
"I believe you could do it, Colonel," answered I, "but your health, sir?
Are you quite strong again?"
"Never better, lad; even my rheumatism is gone. I've been home, you
know, for five months, and have had nothing but coddling from that good
wife of mine. Six months more of it, and I'd have been unfitted for
further service to my country. My lad, you should marry--how old are
you, sir?"
"In my twenty-third year, Colonel, but as yet I have had no time to look
for a wife," and I blushed like a lass.
"There's yet time enough, without doubt, but a man needs a wife to keep
him from mischief--especially a soldier. I was but a half tamed animal
till Abigail took me in training; ever since I have lived the life of a
gentleman, I hope, and been as happy as a lord. You deserve a good wife,
Donald, and I shall help you to find one, sir."
Despite the embarrassment which such personal interest caused me, I was
greatly pleased to be so noticed by my colonel, and when, a few days
later, he sent for me to tell me that he had named me as one of the
captains who were to command the eight companies of which his regiment
would be composed, I was filled with such joy and pride as I have since
experienced but once--and then upon a very different occasion.
"Donald, lad," said Colonel Morgan, standing at the door of my tent on
an April morning, when the sweet scents and cheerful sounds of early
spring had started a longing in my heart for a look at our valley, "I've
a secret for your ear, and an expedition to propose to you."
"Come in, Colonel," said I, smiling with pleasure of his visit, and
offering my one chair; "I'll be proud to know the secret, and I promise
to keep it well."
"We are shortly to be ordered North to join General Gates, who is to
check the advance of General Burgoyne upon New York, if possible, and
we'll see active service, and mayhap a big battle or two, at last.
Meantime I'm riding home on ten days' furlough, to say good-by to
Abigail, and would you ride with me, I'll grant you leave to go."
"Your invitation is an honor I much appreciate, Colonel, and it will
give me pleasure to go."
"Then be ready, by sun up."
It was about ten o'clock at night, and our horses were stiff jointed,
and without spirit, after three days' hard traveling, when we rode
through the double gates that opened into the driveway circling the lawn
of "Soldier's Rest"--Colonel Morgan's home in Frederick County. The
spacious brick house with its columned porch was in darkness, save for
one brightly lighted room on the left, and a single candle burning in
the hall. Colonel Morgan's spurs and sword clanked noisily on the bare
floor of the hallway, and he called to me, in hearty tones, "Come on,
lad! we'll find Abigail in the red room." As he spoke the door flew
open, warmth and light streamed forth to meet us, and also the sweet
tones of a woman's voice in eager greeting.
"Well, Dan'l! what good fortune brought you back so soon? Oh, but it is
good to see your dear face again!" I hung back in the shadow, with a
lump in my throat, while Mrs. Morgan laid her head on her husband's
breast, and was for a moment clasped in his arms.
"Captain McElroy is with me, Abigail," said the Colonel. "Where are you,
Donald?"
"Here, Colonel," said I, stepping into the light.
"It is a pleasure to welcome you to our home, Captain McElroy," in Mrs.
Morgan's kind tones. "I've heard the Colonel speak of you, and of your
family; walk in, and be resting while I have supper served; you are both
hungry and tired, I am sure."
"That we are, Abigail," and the Colonel set me the example of divesting
himself of muddy leggins, spurs, and top coat--"The smell of your coffee
and fried ham has been in my nostrils for two hours past. Donald, she's
the best housekeeper in the Old Dominion," and he smiled proudly upon
the round, comely, beaming little woman, who, as I soon discovered,
deserved all his praise, for she was equal to my own mother as
housewife.
As I followed Mrs. Morgan into the living room, which was brightly
lighted by half a dozen candles in brass candle-sticks with crystal
pendants, and a pile of roaring logs upon the hearth, I realized
suddenly the presence of a very pretty young woman sitting beside a
candle stand, on one side of the fire place, with a piece of needle work
in her hands. She looked up as we entered, then dropped her eyes again
to her work.
"Colonel Morgan, this is my cousin, Nelly Buford, and this is Captain
McElroy, Nelly."
The young lady rose, dropped me a graceful courtesy, then turned and
held out her hand to Colonel Morgan.
"You do not remember me, Cousin Daniel, but I well recall you, and the
day you came to our house to see Cousin Abigail. I had heard of you as a
famous Indian fighter, and I peeped at you through the half open door,
expecting to see a string of scalps around your waist."
"I had no eyes nor ears then for any woman save Abigail," replied
Colonel Morgan, shaking her hand in his hearty fashion, "but I'll never
forget your pretty face again, Cousin Nelly--be sure of that."
She laughed merrily, and her ease of manner indicated that she was as
much used to pretty speeches as she deserved them. There was a witchery
in her laughing hazel eyes, in the curves of her saucy, full lipped
mouth, in the very tendrils of blonde hair which looped and ringed in
riotous fashion about the small pink ears, and low, white brow, which
few men tried to resist. Before we retired that night, I was completely
fascinated. I lay wide awake in spite of my weariness until past
midnight, recalling each curve of her pretty, piquant face, each
modulation of her cooing voice; and then I set over against her many
charms my own awkwardness, the boorishness of my manners, and my
ignorance of everything except camp life and public topics. I longed
ardently for that polish of manner, and that faculty of polite
conversation I had heretofore esteemed so lightly.
There were no girls in our neighborhood near my own age, and I had known
scarcely any other women besides those of our own family, and the
matrons of our church congregation. I had grown up, therefore, like a
maiden, with no temptations, and small knowledge of passion, and later
my mind had been so fully occupied with hunting, studying, Indians, and
public matters, that all the vanities and snares of youth had passed me
by. But nature is not easily starved into subserviency, and upon the
first opportunity takes vengeance for former neglect by more violent and
unreasoning possession.
So madly in love was I with Nelly Buford before another sunset that all
my past was forgotten, and all my future weighed as naught. I cared for
nothing, wished for nothing but to be with her; had no dream or ambition
beyond pleasing her. I blushed when she spoke to me, trembled if her
hand or her dress touched me, and could scarcely refrain from kissing
the handkerchief she now and then let fall, and which I restored to her
with a sense of proud privilege. I scarcely heard the remarks of Mrs.
and Colonel Morgan, but every word Nelly spoke was registered in my mind
and conned over and over like a lesson. When they left me alone with
her, as they often did--for they were daily going about the place
together, to take counsel as to its management during the Colonel's
absence--I experienced a sort of ecstasy which made my blood surge
through my brains, and my heart flutter as if I were frightened.
Nor was Miss Nelly slow to perceive my infatuation, or so little woman
as to fail to take pleasure in it. I think she beguiled me, indeed, with
an audacity she would not have dared to use toward a youth more worldly
wise, or more experienced in the emotions of the heart. I recall one
instance which will illustrate the coquetry which she practiced for my
deeper ensnaring. We were walking through the orchard flush with bloom,
when she stopped beneath a low boughed apple tree, and asked me to pluck
a spray for her, then twisted it into a wreath, and laughingly bade me
crown her queen of May. I took the wreath from her fingers, and would
have dropped it awkwardly upon her blonde curls almost two feet below
me, but she stopped me with a merry laugh, and said in playful tones,
"How stupid you are! The queen must be enthroned before she is crowned.
Help me to a seat upon this curving limb, and then I'll be just high
enough for you to lay the crown upon my sacred head, with due reverence
and solemnity."
I lifted her to the bough she indicated, and when she had settled
herself gracefully, and said with pretty affectation of dignity, "Now,
Sir Knight, the Queen awaits your service," I laid the floral wreath
carefully upon the bright curls, and would have stepped back to admire
its effect, only something in the eyes that met mine, and the perfume
breathing lips, which were on a level with my own, made my head reel,
the blood surge in my ears, and many colored motes float between me and
the canopy of blossom bending over us. In another instant I had kissed
her full upon the lips, and then emboldened by their touch, I threw my
arms about her, and kissed her again and again, upon brow, cheek, eyes
and lips, paying no heed to her commands, and only desisting when she
began tearfully to entreat me.
[Illustration: "I LAID THE FLORAL WREATH CAREFULLY UPON THE BRIGHT
CURLS."]
No sooner was the madness passed than I was deeply penitent, and begged
her forgiveness so humbly that Nelly gracefully consented to pardon me,
on condition that all should be between us as if the incident had never
occurred. My promise was easier given than fulfilled, however, for the
memory of those kisses lingered with me for years, and came near to my
undoing. Yet I never again entirely lost self-control, and all fear of
consequences in a woman's presence. The realization of the strength of
this heretofore unknown force of my nature sobered me and put me on my
guard against myself, in future.
Even Colonel Morgan saw presently my infatuation, and tried to warn me.
"Nelly is a pretty lass, and bewitching enough, in all conscience," he
said to me, one morning as we rode over the place together, "but I fear,
lad, she's a sad coquette, and moreover she's an ardent Tory. It was not
she I meant to pick out for a wife for you, indeed I did not know we
should find her here."
"A Tory? Is she not your wife's cousin?"
"Aye, lad, 'tis only in our valley that all men are patriots. Nelly is a
cousin to my wife, and the families have always been intimate; but the
Bufords live in Philadelphia, are well to do, and strong Tories. The
stringent orders of General Washington against English sympathizers
compelled Nelly's brother to join the British army and Nelly to take
refuge with us--her mother having gone to New York to nurse a sister who
is ill."
Colonel Morgan's warning came too late, however, even if I had been
inclined to mix politics with love, or to think that the fact of a
woman's opinion being adverse to my own made her any the less lovable.
Age and experience are needed to teach a man that congeniality of mind
and temperament count more for happiness in the marriage relation than
the sparkle of a bright eye, or the enchanting curve of a rosy mouth.
But I was disappointed, and ventured that afternoon to sound the depths
of my charmer's disloyalty.
"Colonel Morgan tells me that you are a Tory, Miss Nelly."
"Yes, and why not?"
"I cannot understand how an American citizen can take sides with the
oppressors of our country."
"That is such stuff as Colonel Morgan and all you self-styled patriots
talk--saying nothing of the ingratitude of turning against our mother
land that has lavished her treasures and the blood of her sons, to plant
and protect these colonies; nor of the absurd folly of thinking there
can be aught else but defeat, and years of poverty before us, as the
fruit of this rebellion. Great Britain is sure to win in the end, and
then, sir, mayhap you'll be glad of a friend at court. It were well to
treat me courteously, and my views with respect while I am forced thus
to take refuge among you--the day may come when I can return the favor,"
and Miss Nelly's eyes flashed, and she held her small self very erect in
her chair. I had thought her all gayety and softness, and this evidence
of spirit made her but the more charming to me.
"At all events let us not quarrel," I begged. "I trust I am not so
narrow minded as to be unable to recognize that there may be something
to say on the side of England, especially since it is the tyranny of
King George and not the will of the people which oppresses us. But I can
never agree with your views nor admit the probability of your prophecy.
Should the patriots win, as they will, I may have an opportunity to show
my appreciation of the offer you have just made me. Meantime, while we
await results, let us declare a truce--do not spoil my brief holiday by
withdrawing your smiles."
"Since you put it so gallantly, I must consent--truce for the present,
alliance for the future."
"Then I dread nothing the future holds for me--even defeat would be
tolerable with your favor to soften it."
"You may hold my yarn, Sir Blarney," she laughed; "no need to tell me
there's Irish blood in your veins."
So I held her yarn, and delayed the winding process all I could, that
she might be the longer over her task, and her soft finger tips touch my
hands the oftener in untangling the threads I snarled. So our first
quarrel resulted in my more certain entanglement in the net of Nelly's
wiles.
* * * * *
The sense of loneliness and regret, of distaste for the life of hardship
before me that oppressed me, as we took horse to return to camp, was
entirely new to me. So quickly had a week of ease and luxury, of woman's
society, and idle trifling enervated me! I was too far gone even to have
proper contempt for myself, and rode all morning by Colonel Morgan's
side, silent and morose, answering his cheerful talk with rude
monosyllables.
"Look here, my lad," said the Colonel, after a while, "I fear your
holiday has done you harm, rather than good. I meant to give you a brief
rest and change that would hearten you for the work before you, and, if
instead I've led you into a snare, Donald, I'm very sorry."
"What snare, Colonel Morgan?" I enquired somewhat haughtily.
"The snare that a pretty woman's face and a frivolous woman's mind has
laid for many a strong man before you, Captain McElroy," answered
Colonel Morgan, "but I obtrude neither admonition nor advice, sir," and
he spurred his horse forward and rode on in front of me.
The "Captain McElroy" brought me to my senses, for I was not used to
hearing anything but "Donald" and "lad" from his lips. I felt heartily
ashamed of myself, and presently spurred to his side, and humbly begged
his pardon.
"I forgive you without stint, lad," he answered me; "your feelings are
very natural, and 'tis hardly my privilege to preach to any young man,
for my own youth was reckless and dissipated. But I can say with
knowledge that there is no influence a young man needs so much to dread
as that of his own ungoverned passions, and none he should so carefully
guard against. You've heard the old hymn:--
'Lo, on a narrow neck of land
'Twixt Heaven and Hell I stand';
"Well, if there's a single situation in life these words describe it is
that point in a young man's life when he makes his first clear decision
between right and desire, between yielding himself the sport of youthful
inclinations, and following the clean path of duty. When the time comes
for you to win honestly a good woman's love, she will be very proud and
glad to know that you can offer her an unsullied manhood. It's the one
thing that ever comes between Abigail and me:--that even yet I'm ashamed
to tell her some of the episodes of my youth."
"Thank you, Colonel! I shall try to remember your words."
Remembering was easy enough, but making application was more difficult.
I could not see, then, that Colonel Morgan's caution applied to my
infatuation for Nelly, further than to put me on my guard against
letting that infatuation interfere with my steadfastness and courage as
a soldier. I took the warning to heart, therefore, only so far as to set
my face sternly toward my duty again. Its true application was made
clear to me, almost too late.