CHAPTER VIII
BEFORE THE COUNCIL
"Then call them to our presence. Face to face, And frowning brow to brow, ourselves will hear The accuser and accused freely speak."
--_Richard II._
Monday, Second-day in Quaker parlance, dawned. The intense cold hadabated though the air remained crisp and keen. A venturesome robinperched upon the bare bough of a cherry tree that grew near one of thesitting-room windows, and gave vent to his short and frequent song.Sally called Peggy's attention to him.
"Dost hear what he says?" she cried. "Cheer up! Cheer up! Cheer up!'Tis a harbinger of spring, and flowers, and warmer weather. Who knowsbut that he brings good luck to us too, Peggy?"
Peggy smiled sadly.
"I hope so," she made answer. "But oh! I do wish this interview withthe Council were over."
"And so do I," agreed Sally soberly. "'Twill soon be now, Peggy, forhere comes thy mother to call us to get ready."
"Yes," spoke Mrs. Owen overhearing the words. "David says that as soonas ye have donned your wraps 'twill be time to go."
Peggy and Sally were Quaker maidens, well drilled in art ofself-repression, so they made no scene as they bade their mothersfarewell, and took leave of Nurse Johnson, her son and Robert Dale. Inspite of their training, however, their eyes were wet, and neither wasable to speak for a few moments after they left the house. Then Sallybroke the silence.
"Peggy," she said, "after this I shall always have the greatestsympathy for the poor wretches who are executed. I feel just as thoughI was about to be hanged."
"So do I, Sally. How great a change is wrought by war! A few shortyears ago neither of us thought to be called before the highesttribunal of the state. How happy we were before this awful war withits weary years of fighting came! Then we had no thought of sorrow,and friend was not against friend, misconstruing every act and deed ofkindness."
"I think I would not pursue that line of talk, lassies," commentedDavid Owen who walked in front of them. "See how brightly the sunshines! How blue the sky is! Beyond that azure is One in the hollow ofwhose hand ye are. Have courage."
"Yes, Mr. Owen," gasped Sally, stopping abruptly as they reached thewalk leading to the State House entrance. "Yes; but what hath happenedto the State House? 'Tis so big. I knew not that 'twas so large."
Peggy stopped too and looked up at the State House, which stood sometwenty-five or thirty feet back from the street. It was large, shereflected, its size impressing for the first time in her life witha sense of awe. She had always lived across from the building. Hadloved it, and had been proud of the fact that it was deemed themost imposing edifice in the new world; now its aspect was one offorbidding unfamiliarity. David Owen gave them no time to indulge infears, but hurried them at once along the walk and up the flight offive steps which led to the entry. The door opening into the EastChamber stood ajar. He glanced toward it quickly.
"The Congress is in session," he remarked. "There are matters ofimport before it to-day, I hear. His Excellency meets with it."
Lingering not, though he cast a wishful look toward the room, he ledthem to the second story of the building, pausing presently before thedoor of a chamber on the west side.
"I can go no further with ye," he said sadly. "Ye will have to dependupon yourselves now, but there is naught to fear. Be of good courage,and answer all that is asked of ye with exact truth. And nowfarewell!"
He turned from them abruptly, and went hastily down the stairs asthough he feared that he might give way to emotion. For a brief secondthe maidens stood, and then the door was opened, and the doorkeeperbade them enter. Summoning all her courage, Peggy grasped Sally'shand, and went in.
At this time the government of Pennsylvania differed slightly fromthat of the other states. The old Committee of Safety had merged intowhat was called The Supreme Executive Council. There was an Assembly,which, in session with the Council, elected a Governor who was calledthe President of the state, the Vice-president being elected in thesame manner. The President was Captain-General, and Commander-in-chiefof all of Pennsylvania's forces, and upon the Council devolved theadministrations of all war matters. Its chief executive committeesconstituted a Board of War and a Navy Board. The former had charge ofthe land service; the latter of the water, both under the direction ofthe Council. A very careful and exact account of affairs in the statewas kept by means of ward committees in the cities and districts, andany infraction of measures adopted for the public safety was knownalmost immediately to the Council. It was before this high tribunalthat the girls had to appear.
Peggy's heart sank as they entered the chamber, and she encounteredthe grave glances of the men assembled there. There were not more thana dozen in session, for the Council was a small body. Some of themembers she knew well, others only slightly. They were courteous,kindly men with the best interests of their country at heart, butstern and implacable toward the least infringement of patriotism. Andso the girl's heart beat tumultuously as she advanced timidly towardthe platform upon which the President, Mr. Moore, was seated.
He rose as the trembling maidens paused before him, and stood for amoment looking at them in silence. It seemed to Peggy that his glancesearched every recess of her heart. She grew pale before his intensegaze, and her eyes fell. Sally, on the contrary, seemed to haverecovered her customary composure. She suddenly stood erect, andlooked about her. Presently she saw Mr. Jacob Deering, and smiled agreeting. The old gentleman was visibly uneasy under her glance, andopening his snuff-box he took a huge pinch of snuff.
"Margaret Owen." Peggy started as the unaccustomed appellation fellfrom the lips of the President. "It hath been brought to the attentionof this Council that you have given aid to a prisoner of war. That youhave harbored one of the enemy, and have tried to abet his escape.What have you to answer to this charge?"
"'Tis true," faltered the girl in a low tone.
"When did it occur?"
"Last Sixth-day."
"Which was Friday, the first day of this month. Was your father athome at the time?"
"Yes," answered Peggy quickly, "but he knew naught of it."
"And did you not know that it was a misdemeanor to succor one of theenemy?"
"Yes, friend; I knew it."
"You knew that 'twas a misdemeanor, and yet unbeknown to your fatheryou still committed it?" he asked, as though amazed at such duplicity."Did you not know that such an act might bring suspicion upon him? Didyou not know that even though he had given good service to the cause,even that would not avail him if he were suspected of abetting aprisoner's escape? Whom can we trust since General Arnold failed us?"
Peggy was too full of emotion to be able to do more than nodacquiescence.
"Then if you knew these things, why did you do this?" he demanded, hisbrow darkening.
"He was my cousin, Clifford Owen," she told him brokenly. "I could notrefuse him shelter in such a storm."
"Clifford Owen? A son of that Colonel Owen who as a prisoner on parolestayed at your house?"
"Yes," answered Peggy.
"A brother to that Mistress Harriet Owen who played the spy with ourarmy at Middlebrook, and who while at your house tried to communicatewith the enemy at New York and was banished for so doing?"
"Yes," answered the girl again.
"And to favor one of these cousins you would do that which might causedoubt to be cast upon your father's patriotism, and bring this friendhere under displeasure of this tribunal? This friend who hath servedus so nobly as nurse."
"Thee must not do anything to Sally," cried Peggy, roused by thisspeech. "I alone am to blame for everything. None knew that I hid mycousin, and Sally helped only because she saw how greatly I wasdistressed lest Clifford should be taken. She did not know him, andonly helped me out of friendship. Ye must do naught to her. There isno one to blame but me."
"And do you justify yourself for involving a loyal friend indifficulty by the mere fact that the prisoner was your cousin?" heasked,
and the cold incisiveness of his tone made the girl shiver."You have said that he was your cousin, Margaret Owen, as though thatwere excuse for disloyalty. Ye have both attended Master Benezet'sschool; while there did ye not read of one Junius Brutus, whosentenced his own sons to death when he found them implicated in aconspiracy against the country?"
"Yes, we read of it," interposed Sally so shrilly that the grave menwho composed the semicircle were startled into keen attention. "Weread of it, Friend Moore; but does thee think their mother would havedone it? I've often wondered where Mistress Junius Brutus was. Had hebeen my husband," with an impressive shake of her curly head, "I'dhave led him a life of it after such an act. 'Twas unnatural andcruel, I think. Of course Peggy hid her cousin. Is she not a female?Think ye that females are made of such stern fiber that a relative,even though he were an enemy, would ask aid and be refused? I don'tbelieve that there is one of ye but what would do the same thing underlike circumstances. Thee has spoken of what I have done for the Cause.Why doesn't thee mention Peggy's services? Didn't she ride in the coldand the storm to inform General Putnam of the spy, Molesworth's plot?Hasn't she worked to keep the hands, and the feet, and the backs ofthe army warm? I don't believe that another girl in the Union hathknit so many mittens and socks, or made so many shirts as Peggy Owenhath. I can't begin to tell all she hath done for the Cause; and yetjust because she hath regard for her kin, which being a woman shecannot help, ye want to convict her of a misdemeanor. 'Tis monstrous!How can she help softness of heart? Hath she not been taught everyFirst-day to do good to them that despitefully use her? When I firstwent into nursing I hated the English intensely, and when the woundedwere brought in I'd attend to our own soldiers first, no matter howbadly the others were hurt. And then one day, Dr. Cochrane said to me:'They're all mothers' sons, Miss Sally. Somewhere, some woman iswaiting and praying for each one of them. Our own boys might be inlike predicament with the enemy. Treat them as you would like our owntreated.' Since then," Sally continued half crying, "I've tended themall alike--American or English, French or Hessian."
"Bless my soul!" ejaculated Jacob Deering, as the maiden's voicebroke. Like a flash she turned upon him.
"Thee has a niece, Kitty, hasn't thee, Friend Deering?" she cried.
"Why, so I have, Miss Sally. So I have."
"And she married an Englishman, didn't she?"
"Yes," he answered with a bewildered air. "Yes, she did."
"Now, Friend Deering," she cried, shaking her finger at him earnestly,"just suppose that Kitty's Englishman had come to thy house forshelter last Sixth-day, when it was so cold and stormy that thee wouldfeel bad if the house cat was left outside? Suppose he had come askingfor shelter? Would thee be any the less a friend to thy country ifthee should listen to the dictates of humanity and give him shelter?"
"Bless my soul!" ejaculated Mr. Deering, again helping himselfliberally to snuff. "Bless my soul!"
"Wouldn't thee give him shelter?" persisted she. "Wouldn't thee,Friend Deering?"
"Zounds! Of course I would," he cried. "Englishman, or not. No matterwhat he was, I would turn no man from my door on such a day."
"Of course thee wouldn't," she cried in a blaze of indignation. "Yetthee and thy fellows here want to indict Peggy and me for the verything ye would do yourselves. Shame on ye!"
"Indict ye!" cried the old gentleman, getting to his feet with theagility of a youth. "Indict ye!" he roared, shaking his fist at thecouncil belligerently. "If any man dares to indict so much as a hairof your pretty heads he shall answer to Jacob Deering."
Peggy Owen and Liberty Page 10