But Miss Desmond was the victim only of a passing weakness, and I was
permitted to hold her in my arms but for a moment. Then she demanded to
be placed upon the ground, saying that her strength had returned. I
complied of necessity; and turning to the American captain, who was
looking curiously at us, she inquired,--
"Captain, the American force, is it safe?" "Yes, Miss Desmond," he
replied; and I wondered how he knew her. "It is just over the hill
there. The night had been quiet until you came galloping up the hill
with the Englishmen after you."
"Then we are in time!" she cried, in a voice of exultation. "Lose not a
moment, captain. A British force much exceeding our own in strength is
even now stealing upon you."
The message caused much perturbation, as well it might, and a half-dozen
messengers were sent galloping over the hill. Then the captain said,--
"Miss Desmond, you have done much for the cause, but more to-night than
ever before."
But she did not hear him, for she fell over in a faint.
"Water!" I cried. "Some water! She may be dying!"
"Never mind about water," said the captain, dryly. "Here is something
that is much better for woman, as well as for man, in such cases."
He produced a flask, and, raising Miss Desmond's head, poured some fiery
liquid in her mouth. It made her cough, and presently she revived and
sat up. She was very pale, but there was much animation in her eye.
"You have sent the warning, captain, have you not?" she asked, her mind
still dwelling upon the object for which she had come.
"Do not fear, Miss Desmond," said the leader, gravely. "Our people know
now, and they will be ready for the enemy when they come, thanks to your
courage and endurance."
Then he beckoned to me, and we walked a bit up the hill-side, leaving
Miss Desmond sitting on the turf and leaning against a tree.
"A noble woman," said the captain, looking back at her.
"Yes," said I, fervently.
"It was a lucky fortune that gave you such companionship to-night," he
continued.
"Yes," replied I, still with fervor.
"Lieutenant Chester," he said, "that is not the only particular in which
fortune has been kind to you to-night."
"No," I replied, with much astonishment at the patness with which he
spoke my true name.
"I have said," he continued, with the utmost gravity, "that fortune has
been very kind to-night to Lieutenant Robert Chester, of the American
army. I may add that it has been of equal kindness to Lieutenant
Melville, of the British army."
"Who are you, and what are you?" I cried, facing about, "and why do you
speak in such strange fashion?"
"I do not think it is strange at all," he said, a light smile breaking
over his face. "So far as I am concerned, it is a matter of
indifference, Lieutenant Chester or Lieutenant Melville: which shall it
be?"
I saw that it was useless for me to pretend more. He knew me, and was
not to be persuaded that he did not. So I said,--
"Let it be Lieutenant Robert Chester, of the American army. The name and
the title belong to me, and I feel easier with them than with the
others. I have not denied myself. Now, who are you, and why do you know
so much about me?"
"Nor will I deny myself, either," he said, a quiet smile dwelling upon
his face. "I am William Wildfoot, captain of rangers in the American
army."
"What! are you the man who has been incessantly buzzing like a wasp
around the British?" I cried.
"I have done my humble best," he said, modestly; "I even chased you and
your friend Lieutenant Marcel into Philadelphia. For which I must crave
your forgiveness. Your uniforms deceived me; but since then we have
become better acquainted with each other."
"How? I do not understand," I said, still in a maze.
"Perhaps you would know me better if I were to put on a red wig," he
said. "Do not think, Lieutenant Chester, that you and Lieutenant Marcel
are the only personages endowed with a double identity."
I looked at him closely, and I began to have some glimmering of the
truth.
"Yes," he said, when he saw the light of recognition beginning to appear
upon my face, "I am Waters. Strange what a difference a red wig makes in
one's appearance. But I have tried to serve you and your friend well,
and I hope I have atoned for my rudeness in putting you and Lieutenant
Marcel to such hurry when I first saw you. It is true that I have had a
little sport with you. I thought that you deserved it for your rashness,
but I have not neglected your interests. I warned Alloway in the jail
not to know you, and I helped him to escape. I learned about you from
Pritchard, but no one else knows. I bound you, too, in Sir William
Howe's room, but I leave it to you yourself that it was necessary."
His quiet laugh was full of good nature, though there was in it a slight
tinge of pardonable vanity. Evidently this was a man much superior to
the ordinary partisan chieftain.
"Then you too have placed your neck in the noose?" I said.
"Often," he replied. "And I have never yet failed to withdraw it with
ease."
"I have withdrawn mine," I said, "and it shall remain withdrawn."
"Not so," he replied. "Miss Desmond must return to her father and
Philadelphia. It is not fit that she should go alone, and no one but you
can accompany her."
I had believed that nothing could induce me to take up the character of
Lieutenant Melville of the British army again, but I had not thought of
this. I could _not_ leave Miss Desmond to return alone through such
dangers to the city.
"Very well," I said, "I will go back."
"I thought so," returned Wildfoot, with a quick glance at me that
brought the red blood to my face. "But I would advise you to bring Miss
Desmond to the crest of the hill and wait for a while. I must hurry
away, for my presence is needed elsewhere."
The partisan was like a war-horse sniffing the battle; and, leaving Miss
Desmond, myself, and two good, fresh horses on the hill-top, he hastened
away. I was not averse to waiting, for I expected that a sharp skirmish
would occur. I had little fear for the Americans now, for in a night
battle, where the assaulted are on their guard, an assailing force is
seldom successful, even though its superiority in arms and numbers be
great.
From the hill-top we saw a landscape of alternate wood and field, amid
which many lights twinkled. A hum and murmur came up to us and told me
that the Americans were profiting by their warning and would be ready
for the enemy.
"You can now behold the result of your ride," I said to Miss Desmond,
who stood by my side, gazing with intent eyes upon the scene below,
which was but half hidden by the night. She was completely recovered, or
at least seemed to be so, for she stood up, straight, tall, and
self-reliant.
"We were just in time," she said.
"But in good time," I added.
"I suppose we shall see a battle," she said. "I confess it has a strange
attraction for me. Perhaps it is because I am not near enough to mark
its repellent phases."
She made no comment upon my British uniform and my apparent British
character. She did not appear to remark anything incongruous in my
appearance there, and it was not a subject that I cared to raise.
"See, the fighting must have begun," she said, pointing to a strip of
wood barely visible in the night.
Some streaks of flame had leaped up, and we heard a distant rattle which
I knew must be the small arms at work. Then there was a lull for a
moment, followed by a louder and a longer crackle, and a line of fire,
flaming up and then sinking in part, ran along the edge of the woods and
across the fields. Through this crackle came a steady rub-a-dub,
rub-a-dub.
"That is the beat of the drums," I said to Miss Desmond, who turned an
inquiring face to me. "The drum is the soldier's conscience, I suppose,
for it is always calling upon him to go forward and fight."
I spoke my thoughts truly, for the drum has always seemed to me to be a
more remorseless war-god than the cannon. With its steady and tireless
thump, thump, it calls upon you, with a voice that will not be hushed,
to devote yourself to death. "Come on! Come on! Up to the cannon! Up to
the cannon!" it says. It taunts you and reviles you. Give this drum to a
ragamuffin of a little boy, and he catches its spirit, and he goes
straight forward with it and commands you to follow him. It was so at
Long Island when the Maryland brigade sacrificed itself and held back
the immense numbers of the enemy until our own army could escape. A
scrap of a boy stood on a hillock and beat a drum as tall as himself,
calling upon the Maryland men to stand firm and die, until a British
cannon-ball smashed his drum, and a British grenadier hoisted him over
his shoulder with one hand and carried him away. There is a league
between the drum and the cannon. The drum lures the men up to the
cannon, and then the monster devours them.
Above the crackle rose the louder notes of the field-pieces, and then I
thought I heard the sound of cheering, but I was not sure. We could see
naught of this dim and distant battle but the flame of its gunpowder.
The night was too heavy for any human figure to appear in its just
outline; and I saw that I would have to judge of its progress by the
shifting of the line of fire. The British attack was delivered from the
left, and the blaze of the musketry extended along a line about a
half-mile in length. Though while the light was leaping high at one
place it might be sinking low at another, yet this line was always
clearly defined, and we could follow its movements well enough.
The line was stationary for full fifteen minutes, and from that
circumstance we could tell that the Americans had profited well by the
warning and were ready to receive the attack. Still, the action was
sharper and contested with more vigor than I had expected. Having made
the attack, the British seemed disposed to persist in it for a while at
least. But presently the line of fire began to bend back towards the
west at the far end.
"The British are retreating!" exclaimed Miss Desmond.
"At one point, so it would seem," I said.
"Yes, and at other points too," she cried. "See, the centre of the fiery
line bends back also."
This was true, for the centre soon bent back so far that the whole line
was curved like a bow. Then the eastern end yielded also, and soon was
almost hidden in some woods, where it made but a faint quivering among
the trees. In truth, along the whole line the fire was dying. The
sputter of the musketry was but feeble and scarce heard, and even the
drum seemed to lose spirit and call but languidly for slaughter.
"The battle is nearly over, is it not?" asked Miss Desmond.
"Yes," I replied, "though we could scarce call it a battle. Skirmish is
a better name. I think that line of fire across there will soon fade out
altogether."
I chanced to be a good prophet in this instance, for in five minutes the
last flash had gone out and there was naught left but a few echoes. It
was clear that the British had suffered repulse and had withdrawn, and
it was not likely that the Americans would follow far, for such an
undertaking would expose them to destruction.
I now suggested to Miss Desmond that it would be the part of wisdom for
us to begin our return to Philadelphia, and we were preparing for
departure, when we heard the approach of horsemen, and in a moment or
two Wildfoot and three of his men approached. "It was not a long
affair," said the leader, "though there was some smart skirmishing for a
while. When they found that we were ready, and rather more than willing,
they soon drew off, and they are now on the march for Philadelphia. I
tell you again, Miss Desmond, that you have ridden bravely to-night, and
this portion of the American army owes its salvation to you."
"My ride was nothing more than every American woman owes to her
country," replied Miss Desmond.
"True," replied Wildfoot, "though few would have had the courage to pay
the debt. But I have come back mainly to say that some of my scouts have
brought in Lieutenant Belfort, sorely bruised, but not grievously hurt,
and that he will have no opportunity to tell the English of your ride
to-night, Miss Desmond, at least not until he is exchanged."
I had forgotten all about Belfort, and his capture was a lucky chance
for both of us. As for the other Englishmen who had pursued us, I had no
fear that they would recognize me, even if they saw me in the daylight,
and they had seen me but dimly in a hot and flurried pursuit.
Captain Wildfoot raised his hat to us with all the courtesy of a
European nobleman and rode away with his men, while we turned our horses
towards Philadelphia, and were soon far from the hill on which we had
stood and witnessed the battle's flare. Miss Desmond knew the way much
better than I did, and I followed her guidance, though we rode side by
side.
"You do not ask me to keep this matter a secret," I said, at length,
when we had ridden a mile or more in silence.
"Is not your own safety as much concerned as mine?" she asked, looking
with much meaning at my gay British uniform.
"Is that the only reason you do not ask me to speak of it?" I said,
still bent upon going deeper into the matter.
"Will you speak of it when I ask you not to do so?" she said.
I did not expect such a question, but I replied in the negative with
much haste. But presently I said, thinking to compliment her, that,
however my own sympathies might be placed, I must admit that she had
done a very brave deed, and that I could not withhold my admiration. But
she replied with some curtness that Captain Wildfoot had said that
first,--which was true enough, though I had thought it as early as he.
Had it been any other woman, I would have inferred from her reply that
her vanity was offended. But it was not possible to think such a thing
of Mary Desmond on that night.
"Have you any heart for this task?" she asked me, with much suddenness,
a few minutes later.
"What task?" I replied, surprised.
"The task that the king has set for his army,--the attempt to crush the
Colonies," she replied.
There was much embarrassment in the question for me, and I sought to
take refuge in compliment.
"That you are enlisted upon the other side, Miss Desmond," I replied,
"is enough to weaken the attachment of any one to the king's service."
"This is not a drawing-room," she replied, looking at me with clear
eyes, "nor has the business which we have been about to-night any savor
of the drawing-room. Let us then drop such manner of speech."
She was holding me at arm's length, but I made some rambling, ambiguous
reply, to the effect that a soldier should have no opinions, but should
do what he is told to do,--which, though a very good argument, does not
always appease one's conscience. But she did not press the question
further,--which was a relief to me.
When we became silent again, my thoughts turned back to our successful
ride. On the whole, I had cause for lightness of feeling. Aided by
chance or luck, I had come out of difficulties wondrous well. Within a
very short space I had seen our people twice triumph over the British,
and I exulted much because of it.
I think I had good reason for my exultation aside from the gain to our
cause from these two encounters. While accusing us of being boasters,
the British had quite equalled us at anything of that kind. I think it
was their constant assumption of superiority, rather more than the tea
at the bottom of Boston Harbor, that caused the war. Then they came over
and said we could not fight. They are much better informed on that point
now, though I will admit that they showed their own courage and
endurance too.
Our return journey was not prolific of events. The night seemed to have
exhausted its fruitfulness before that time. When we were within a short
distance of the British lines, Miss Desmond pointed to a low farmhouse
almost hidden by some trees.
"That is my retreat for the present," she said. "It was from that house
I started, and I will return to it. For many reasons, I cannot be seen
riding into Philadelphia with you at this hour."
"But are the inhabitants of that house friends of yours?" I asked, in
some protest.
"They can be trusted to the uttermost," she replied briefly. "They have
proved it. You must not come any farther with me. I have a pass and I
can come into the city when I wish without troublesome explanations."
"Then I will leave you," I replied, "since I leave you in safety; but I
hope you will not forget that we have been friends and allies on this
expedition."
"I will not forget it," she said. Then she thanked me and rode away, as
strong and upright and brave as ever. I watched her until she entered
the trees around the house and disappeared. Then, although I might have
fled to the American camp, I turned towards Philadelphia, a much wiser
man than I was earlier in the night.
Some of the stragglers were coming into the city already, and it was not
difficult for me, with my recent practice in lying, to make satisfactory
explanation concerning myself. I told a brave tale about being captured
by the rebels in the rush, my escape afterwards, and my futile attempts
to rejoin the army. Then I passed on to my quarters.
In the course of the day the entire detachment, save those who had been
killed or wounded in the skirmish, returned, and I learned that Sir
William was much mortified at the complete failure of the expedition. He
could not understand why the rebels were in such a state of readiness. I
was very uneasy about Marcel, but he rejoined me unharmed, although he
admitted that he had been in much trepidation several times in the
course of the night.