I was so sleepy and tired that I practically fell from my horse when we
reached quarters; but I had slept only three or four hours when a
messenger from General Washington himself came to me, bearing
instructions for me to go to John Desmond's house in Philadelphia with
ten armed men and bring what he would give. I was to show Mr. Desmond a
sealed order which the messenger brought.
The armed men were waiting, and I rode at their head to John Desmond's
house, wondering what the nature of my errand could be. Yet my ill-humor
at being awakened so early had vanished when I found where I was to go.
It was Mr. Desmond's residence, not his counting-house, and I found him
in the parlor, where I gave him a note. He was not alone. He sat at one
side of a wide table and on the other side was a man whom I knew to be a
trusted aide of General Washington. Between them lay a heap of shining
gold of English and French coinage, and they were counting it. It was a
fine yellow heap, one of the most luscious sights that I had beheld in a
long time, and my eyes lingered over it.
"It is this that you are to take," said Mr. Desmond, with a smile, and
indicating the gold, when he had read my sealed order.
"For what is it?" I could not restrain myself from asking.
"For the cause," he replied. "It is the contribution of some of
Philadelphia's merchants and bankers to the Continental army. They have
awaited this opportunity a long time."
I suspected that his own contribution was the largest of all, and such I
afterwards found to be the truth.
"It is well to be exact," continued Mr. Desmond, "and so we are counting
it in order that Captain Reade here may give us a receipt for the exact
amount. It will take us more than a half hour yet to finish the task,
and you might walk into the garden while you are waiting."
He indicated the way, and going into the garden I found Mary Desmond
there. She wore June roses on her shoulder, their pink and red gleaming
against her white dress, and her face was bright. The charm of her eyes
did not depart in the daylight.
"So you have come back unharmed," she said. "But you have returned
early."
"We have not fought the battle yet," I replied.
"But you look worn," she said. "Have you not seen service?"
"Yes," I replied, "I have spent a night on duty with Wildfoot."
"I might have known," she replied, as she laughed. "That man never
sleeps--at least not in the night. He is always seeking to do something
for our cause, which may have friends more powerful, but never better."
"I know it," I replied earnestly.
We walked on between the flower beds. It was just such another garden as
that at the Tory's house, in which we had talked at cross-purposes after
our night's ride, but somehow we seemed to understand each other much
better here. The atmosphere was different.
I began to tell her of our night with Wildfoot, and first of our visit
to the lonely house where Mother Melrose challenged the Hessian. Her
eyes filled and grew tender.
"I know her well," she said, "and she is as loyal and true as Wildfoot
himself. She has been one of the links in our chain of communication
with the American army, as perhaps Wildfoot told you. I have left
messages there myself more than once, and sometimes I have urged her to
go away to a safer place. But she seems never to be afraid in that
lonely house!"
I looked with admiration at this young girl who spoke with such praise
of another's bravery, but was unconscious of her own.
"But if Mrs. Melrose should be afraid there," I said, "should not you be
afraid to ride alone, at night, in our service through the dangerous
forests?"
"I never thought of that," she replied simply. "I had ridden all about
Philadelphia before the war, and I knew the country. It seemed easy for
me to go, and I was sure that none would ever suspect me, I claimed to
be such an ardent Tory, and I seemed to be all that I claimed. Then we
needed friends in Philadelphia."
"In truth we found the best," I replied with earnestness.
She blushed, but did not look wholly displeased.
"You flatter like a courtier, Lieutenant Chester," she said, "and this
is too grave a time for flattery."
"But were you never afraid?" I persisted.
"Once I was," she said, "when some horsemen, I know not whether they
were soldiers or robbers, pursued me. They followed me five miles; but
my horse was too swift, and when they saw the lights of the picket they
turned back. I had a pass from Sir William Howe, but I know that my hand
trembled when I showed it to the sentinels. I was too ill to leave our
house the next day, but I went again a week afterward."
I looked with increasing wonder and admiration at the slender figure
that could dare so much. If our women even were so brave, surely our
cause could not fail!
"Why did you talk so strangely to me when we met for the first time
after that night's ride together?" I asked. "Why did you seem to have
forgotten it or to pretend that it had never been?"
"I did not know who and what you were as well then as I do now; Captain
Wildfoot did not tell me," she replied. "One, perforce, had to be
cautious then, Lieutenant Chester."
"But were you not afraid that I would betray you after that ride we took
together."
"I was sure you would not do so."
"Why?"
She looked me directly in the eyes for a moment, and then turned her
face away. But she was not so quick that I did not see the red coming
into her cheeks.
We walked on among the roses in the golden sunshine, and the time was
all too short for me.
"Will you not wish me success in the coming battle?" I asked, when they
called me to take the gold.
"Yes, and you may wear my colors, if they will last long enough," she
said. She took one of the roses from her shoulder, and pinned it on my
coat. As she bent her head over the rose, silken strands of her hair
blew in my face.
I forgot myself then, but I have no excuse for it now. I bent down
suddenly and kissed her. She sprang away from me, uttering a little cry,
and her cheeks were flaming red.
"Mary," I said, "I don't ask any forgiveness. I kissed you because I
could not help myself. You were not afraid that I would betray you after
that ride to the American army, and it was because you knew that I loved
you. No, I would not have betrayed you even had I been Lieutenant
Melville, the British officer that I seemed to be. But much as I loved
you then, I love you more now. Mary, will you marry me?"
An elusive smile came into her eyes, as she made me a pretty bow, and
replied: "Lieutenant Melville of Newton-on-the-Hill, Staffordshire,
England, I thank you for your offer, but I have resolved never to marry
an Englishman."
Then, before I could stay her, she ran into the house. But she had left
her rose with me, and I did not despair.
I carried the gold to General Washington, and our main force pressed
forward a little later in pursuit of the British army.