Zounds! the boy hath shown as much solicitude as if it had been Harriet.
I had hard work to convince him that all you needed was rest."
"Clifford hath been most kind, Cousin William," she said. "And so have you all. I could not have been more tenderly cared for at home. Fatigue was all that ailed me, however, and I have now recovered from that."
"Come! that"s good news," cried William Owen. "And now you shall hear something of great import. This son of mine hath quite puffed me up with pride. It seems that Earl Cornwallis wished some boats and stores of the rebels on the Chickahominy River destroyed, and all the cattle thereabouts brought in for the use of the army. He detailed Colonel Simcoe to accomplish the matter. Now mark, Peggy! what does this same Colonel Simcoe do but ask for Captain Williams, Captain Williams, understand, to accompany him, avowing that he was one of the most promising young officers in the army. It seems also that a little skirmish took place between the rebels and Simcoe"s forces in which a certain Captain Williams particularly distinguished himself. Egad! I hear encomiums on all sides as to his conduct. Would that his commission was in his own name!"
"And what do you think, Peggy?" exclaimed Harriet before Peggy could make reply to her cousin. "Your old friend--"
"Harriet," interrupted Clifford warningly. "We agreed not to speak of that."
"What is it, Clifford?" asked Peggy turning to him with alarm. "Hath any of my friends met with injury? Hath any been made a prisoner? Or wounded? Or-or killed?"
"No," he told her kindly. "None of these things has happened. One of your friends took part in the engagement which father has just mentioned. There occurred an incident after the melee which was curious, but "twas nothing that should concern you. I would rather not tell you about it. You will know it soon enough."
"If none of those things happened," she said relieved, "there is naught else that I care about if thee does not wish me to know. Was thy side the victor, my cousin?"
"Yes; though I understand that the rebels claim it also. The loss was quite heavy on both sides for so small an action. You are arrayed for the street, Peggy? Are you going out?"
"To Nurse Johnson"s, Clifford. I saw her son while away, and she would be glad to have news of him," Peggy explained frankly. "I ought to have gone before this."
"I would not go elsewhere, and I were you," he said. "Harriet and I are going for a short ride after parade. Would you like to accompany us?"
"Yes," she replied. "I will not stay long, Clifford."
Peggy started forth with this intention, but it took some little time to reach the cottage so filled were the streets with troops. It seemed to the girl that every foot of ground held a red coat. When she at length arrived at the place it was to find Nurse Johnson out. She would soon be back, she was told, so the girl sat down to wait for her. Finally the good woman made her appearance, but there was so much to tell that it was high noon before the visit was ended.
"I shall miss the ride," mused Peggy pa.s.sing quickly through the tiny orchard to the gate which opened on Palace Street. "I hope that my cousins won"t wait for me, or that they will not be annoyed. Why, John!"
For as she turned from shutting the gate she came face to face with John Drayton.
"Is thee mad," she cried, "to venture here like this? "Tis certain death, John."
"Is anything liable to happen to a fellow who wears such a garb as this in a British camp?" he asked indicating his clothes by a careless gesture.
Peggy"s glance swept him from head to foot. He was clad in the uniform of a British officer, and seemed not at all concerned as to his safety.
An awful suspicion clutched her, and again her gaze took in every detail of that telltale uniform. Then her eyes sought his face and she looked at him searchingly, as though she would read his very soul. Suddenly she leaned forward and touched the red coat fearfully.
"What doth it mean?" she whispered, all her apprehension and doubt contained in the query.
Over Drayton"s face swept a swift indescribable change at her words. He drew a deep breath before answering, and when he spoke his voice held a harshness she had never heard before:
"What doth such a thing usually mean, Peggy?"
"Not, not that, John," she cried piteously. "Thee can"t mean what that uniform says. Thee can"t mean that, John?"
"Just that," he answered tersely.
With a low cry she shrank from him, her eyes wide with horror.
"A deserter! Thou?" she breathed.
"Even I, Peggy."
All the color left her face. She swayed as though about to fall, but when Drayton put forth his arm to support her she waved him back. For a long time Peggy stood so overwhelmed that she could not speak. Then she murmured brokenly:
"But why? Why?"
"I will answer you as I did his lordship," replied the youth clearly.
"When he asked that same question, I said: "My lord, I have served from the beginning of this war. While my commander was an American it was all right, but when I was sent here to be under a Frenchman I thought it time to quit the service.""
"And is that all thy reason?"
"Is it not reason enough, Peggy?"
"No," she cried pa.s.sionately. "It is not. Oh, I see it all! Thee has heard from General Arnold."
"Why should you think that?" Drayton regarded her queerly. "What would hearing from him have to do with my desertion?"
"Everything," she answered wildly. "He hath wooed thee from thy allegiance, as he said he would. "Twas on this very spot that he boasted that not two months would pa.s.s before thee would be fighting by his side. And I defended thee because I believed that naught could turn thee from thy country. Why look thee, John! how short hath been the time since thou wert made a captain! For valor, thee said, at Hobkirk"s Hill."
"That was under Greene," he made answer. "He is not a frog-eating Frenchman."
"Yet that same Frenchman hath left country and family to give his services, his money, his life if necessary to help an alien people in their fight for liberty. And thee cannot fight under such a man because, forsooth, he is French. French," with cutting scorn, "who would not rather be French, English, German, or aught else than an American who would desert his country for so small a thing?"
"Don"t, Peggy," he pleaded. "It-it hurts."
"And I have been so proud of thee," she went on unheeding his plea, her voice thrilling with the intensity of her feeling. "So proud of thee at Middlebrook, when thee was spoken of as a lad of parts. So proud when General Washington himself said he wished the whole army had thy spirit.
I treasured those words, John Drayton. And again I have been proud of thy conduct in battle, and for all thy career, because I thought of thee as my soldier. Oh!" she cried with pa.s.sion, "I would rather thee had died in battle; and yet, from the opening to the close of every campaign I have prayed nightly that thee might be spared."
Drayton adjusted his neck ruffles, and swallowed hard.
"Peggy," he said. "Peggy--" and paused.
"I think my heart will break," she sobbed; and with that last cry she left him standing there.
CHAPTER XXVIII-VERIFIED SUSPICIONS
"The way is long, my children, long and rough, The moors are dreary, the woods are dark; But he that creeps from cradle on to grave, Unskil"d save in the velvet course of fortune, Hath miss"d the discipline of n.o.ble hearts."
-Old Play.
How could he do it? the girl asked herself as she made her way with unseeing eyes back to her cousin"s dwelling. After all his years of service, after enduring hardships that would tax any man"s soul to the utmost, to desert now. What had become of the spirit that had carried him through all that dreadful march through the wilderness to Quebec?
Where was the enthusiasm that had sustained him through the disastrous campaigns of South Carolina? Oh, it was past all belief!
Many patriots, she knew, had come to consider the American cause hopeless; many of the best men were weary of the long war; many also had lost interest because of the French Alliance; but that John Drayton had deserted because he had been sent to serve under the Marquis de Lafayette she could not believe. Had he not told her with exultation at Middlebrook that he was to be in that same Marquis"s corps of light infantry?