"This is a newcomer in the scene; it is usual, you know, for strangers to be introduced; I am Captain Lawton, of the Virginia horse."
"And I, sir, am Captain Wharton, of his Majesty"s 60th regiment of foot," returned Henry, bowing stiffly, and recovering his natural manner.
The countenance of Lawton changed instantly, and his a.s.sumed quaintness vanished. He viewed the figure of Captain Wharton, as he stood proudly swelling with a pride that disdained further concealment, and exclaimed with great earnestness,-
"Captain Wharton, from my soul I pity you!"
"Oh! then," cried the father in agony, "if you pity him, dear sir, why molest him? He is not a spy; nothing but a desire to see his friends prompted him to venture so far from the regular army in disguise. Leave him with us; there is no reward, no sum, which I will not cheerfully pay."
"Sir, your anxiety for your friend excuses your language," said Lawton, haughtily; "but you forget I am a Virginian, and a gentleman." Turning to the young man, he continued, "Were you ignorant, Captain Wharton, that our pickets have been below you for several days?"
"I did not know it until I reached them, and it was then too late to retreat," said Wharton sullenly. "I came out, as my father has mentioned, to see my friends, understanding your parties to be at Peekskill, and near the Highlands, or surely I would not have ventured."
"All this may be very true; but the affair of Andre has made us on the alert. When treason reaches the grade of general officers, Captain Wharton, it behooves the friends of liberty to be vigilant."
Henry bowed to this remark in distant silence, but Sarah ventured to urge something in behalf of her brother. The dragoon heard her politely, and apparently with commiseration; but willing to avoid useless and embarra.s.sing pet.i.tions, he answered mildly,-
"I am not the commander of the party, madam; Major Dunwoodie will decide what must be done with your brother; at all events he will receive nothing but kind and gentle treatment."
"Dunwoodie!" exclaimed Frances, with a face in which the roses contended for the mastery with the paleness of apprehension. "Thank G.o.d! then Henry is safe!"
Lawton regarded her with a mingled expression of pity and admiration; then shaking his head doubtingly, he continued,-
"I hope so; and with your permission, we will leave the matter for his decision."
The color of Frances changed from the paleness of fear to the glow of hope. Her dread on behalf of her brother was certainly greatly diminished; yet her form shook, her breathing became short and irregular, and her whole frame gave tokens of extraordinary agitation. Her eyes rose from the floor to the dragoon, and were again fixed immovably on the carpet-she evidently wished to utter something but was unequal to the effort. Miss Peyton was a close observer of these movements of her niece, and advancing with an air of feminine dignity, inquired,-
"Then, sir, we may expect the pleasure of Major Dunwoodie"s company shortly?"
"Immediately, madam," answered the dragoon, withdrawing his admiring gaze from the person of Frances. "Expresses are already on the road to announce to him our situation, and the intelligence will speedily bring him to this valley; unless, indeed, some private reasons may exist to make a visit particularly unpleasant."
"We shall always be happy to see Major Dunwoodie."
"Oh! doubtless; he is a general favorite, May I presume on it so far as to ask leave to dismount and refresh my men, who compose a part of his squadron?"
There was a manner about the trooper that would have made the omission of such a request easily forgiven by Mr. Wharton, but he was fairly entrapped by his own eagerness to conciliate, and it was useless to withhold a consent which he thought would probably be extorted; he therefore made the most of necessity, and gave such orders as would facilitate the wishes of Captain Lawton.
The officers were invited to take their morning"s repast at the family breakfast table, and having made their arrangements without, the invitation was frankly accepted. None of the watchfulness, which was so necessary to their situation, was neglected by the wary partisan. Patrols were seen on the distant hills, taking their protecting circuit around their comrades, who were enjoying, in the midst of danger, a security that can only spring from the watchfulness of discipline and the indifference of habit.
The addition to the party at Mr. Wharton"s table was only three, and they were all of them men who, under the rough exterior induced by actual and arduous service, concealed the manners of gentlemen. Consequently, the interruption to the domestic privacy of the family was marked by the observance of strict decorum. The ladies left the table to their guests, who proceeded, without much superfluous diffidence, to do proper honors to the hospitality of Mr. Wharton.
At length Captain Lawton suspended for a moment his violent attacks on the buckwheat cakes, to inquire of the master of the house, if there was not a peddler of the name of Birch who lived in the valley at times.
"At times only, I believe, sir," replied Mr. Wharton, cautiously. "He is seldom here; I may say I never see him."
"That is strange, too," said the trooper, looking at the disconcerted host intently, "considering he is your next neighbor; he must be quite domestic, sir; and to the ladies it must be somewhat inconvenient. I doubt not that that muslin in the window seat cost twice as much as he would have asked them for it."
Mr. Wharton turned in consternation, and saw some of the recent purchases scattered about the room.
The two subalterns struggled to conceal their smiles; but the captain resumed his breakfast with an eagerness that created a doubt, whether he ever expected to enjoy another. The necessity of a supply from the dominion of Dinah soon, however, afforded another respite, of which Lawton availed himself.
"I had a wish to break this Mr. Birch of his unsocial habits, and gave him a call this morning," he said. "Had I found him within, I should have placed him where he would enjoy life in the midst of society, for a short time at least."
"And where might that be, sir?" asked Mr. Wharton, conceiving it necessary to say something.
"The guardroom," said the trooper, dryly.
"What is the offense of poor Birch?" asked Miss Peyton, handing the dragoon a fourth dish of coffee.
"Poor!" cried the captain. "If he is poor, King George is a bad paymaster."
"Yes, indeed," said one of the subalterns, "his Majesty owes him a dukedom."
"And congress a halter," continued the commanding officer commencing anew on a fresh supply of the cakes.
"I am sorry," said Mr. Wharton, "that any neighbor of mine should incur the displeasure of our rulers."
"If I catch him," cried the dragoon, while b.u.t.tering another cake, "he will dangle from the limbs of one of his namesakes."
"He would make no bad ornament, suspended from one of those locusts before his own door," added the lieutenant.
"Never mind," continued the captain; "I will have him yet before I"m a major."
As the language of the officers appeared to be sincere, and such as disappointed men in their rough occupations are but too apt to use, the Whartons thought it prudent to discontinue the subject. It was no new intelligence to any of the family, that Harvey Birch was distrusted and greatly hara.s.sed by the American army. His escapes from their hands, no less than his imprisonments, had been the conversation of the country in too many instances, and under circ.u.mstances of too great mystery, to be easily forgotten. In fact, no small part of the bitterness expressed by Captain Lawton against the peddler, arose from the unaccountable disappearance of the latter, when intrusted to the custody of two of his most faithful dragoons.
A twelvemonth had not yet elapsed, since Birch had been seen lingering near the headquarters of the commander in chief, and at a time when important movements were expected hourly to occur. So soon as the information of this fact was communicated to the officer whose duty it was to guard the avenues of the American camp, he dispatched Captain Lawton in pursuit of the peddler.
Acquainted with all the pa.s.ses of the hills, and indefatigable in the discharge of his duty, the trooper had, with much trouble and toil, succeeded in effecting his object. The party had halted at a farmhouse for the purposes of refreshment, and the prisoner was placed in a room by himself, but under the keeping of the two men before mentioned; all that was known subsequently is, that a woman was seen busily engaged in the employments of the household near the sentinels, and was particularly attentive to the wants of the captain, until he was deeply engaged in the employments of the supper table.
Afterwards, neither woman nor peddler was to be found. The pack, indeed, was discovered open, and nearly empty, and a small door, communicating with a room adjoining to the one in which the peddler had been secured, was ajar.
Captain Lawton never could forgive the deception; his antipathies to his enemies were not very moderate, but this was adding an insult to his penetration that rankled deeply. He sat in portentous silence, brooding over the exploit of his prisoner, yet mechanically pursuing the business before him, until, after sufficient time had pa.s.sed to make a very comfortable meal, a trumpet suddenly broke on the ears of the party, sending its martial tones up the valley, in startling melody. The trooper rose instantly from the table, exclaiming,-
"Quick, gentlemen, to your horses; there comes Dunwoodie," and, followed by his officers, he precipitately left the room.
With the exception of the sentinels left to guard Captain Wharton, the dragoons mounted, and marched out to meet their comrades.
None of the watchfulness necessary in a war, in which similarity of language, appearance, and customs rendered prudence doubly necessary, was omitted by the cautious leader. On getting sufficiently near, however, to a body of horse of more than double his own number, to distinguish countenances, Lawton plunged his rowels into his charger, and in a moment he was by the side of his commander.
The ground in front of the cottage was again occupied by the horse; and observing the same precautions as before, the newly arrived troops hastened to partic.i.p.ate in the cheer prepared for their comrades.
CHAPTER VI
And let conquerors boast Their fields of fame-he who in virtue arms A young warm spirit against beauty"s charms, Who feels her brightness, yet defies her thrall, Is the best, bravest conqueror of them all.
-MOORE.