CHAPTER XXXII.
A few days after Doctor Jim's going, came the news that Washington hadentered Boston, the troops of the king having given up the defence andsailed away to Halifax. Soon afterward there was bustle in SecondWestings, and camp talk, and military swagger; for a portion of thearmy was moving down to New York, and many men had leave to visit theirhomes in passing; and some, who had enlisted for a short service, hadcome home to get in the crops before reenlisting; and some, grudgingsouls, had come home to stay, saying that it was now the time forothers to sweat and bleed for their country.
Amid all this excitement, which had some effect even upon MistressMehitable, antagonistic though she was to it, the palely brilliantConnecticut spring rushed over the land with promise. Never before, itseemed, did the vanguards of the song-sparrows and thrushes so crowdthe blowing thickets with melody; never before the bright hordes of thedandelions so suddenly and so goldenly over-flood the meadows. But toBarbara the iridescent glory was somehow more sad than gloom. The factthat her cause was everywhere prospering, that success had fallen tothe Continental arms beyond anything that she had dared to hope,brought her no elation. She felt the sorrow that had come into DoctorJohn's life in spite of the big, whimsical gaiety with which he kept itcovered up. She felt the fierce tugging at Mistress Mehitable'sheart-strings, though that thoroughbred little lady never revealed,save by the dark eye-shadows of sleepless nights, the pangs it cost herto be deprived in a day of the lover whom she had been half a lifetimein finding out. Barbara felt, too, the absence of Doctor Jim, whoseemed to her so big and boyish and reckless and unfit to take care ofhimself that he could not fail to get into trouble if not kept at homeand mothered by small women like herself and Aunt Hitty. And most ofall she felt the crushing uncertainty as to Robert.
When summer was approaching high tide, Second Westings grew quietagain, the soldiers being all called back to their colours to makeready the defences of New York. Then, by hard-riding expressmessengers, the tidings flew over the country that Congress atPhiladelphia, on the fourth day of July, had declared independence, andset up a republic to be known as the "United States of America."Second Westings went wild with enthusiasm, and that night there was aterrific consumption of old tar barrels and dry brush. And there was aselect little dinner at Squire Gillig's, to which Barbara and DoctorJohn felt in duty bound to go,--and from which Mistress Mehitable, withan equal devotion to duty, stayed away. She had taken the newsgracefully enough, however, merely suggesting to Barbara and DoctorJohn that possibly all the rejoicing might turn out to be a littlepremature.
Thereafter it seemed to Barbara that events moved furiously, one pieceof vital news following close upon the heels of its predecessor. Earlyin August came word that a great English army for the capture of NewYork was landing at Staten Island. Then, the first tidings ofRobert,--reaching Barbara in a letter from her uncle, whose regimentwas holding Brooklyn. Glenowen wrote that from certain neutrals,country-folk of Long Island, who had no party but their cabbage-patch,he had learned of both Robert Gault and Doctor Jim. Doctor Jim, asrepresenting one of the oldest and most distinguished families ofConnecticut, and himself widely known, had been attached to the staffof the English general, Sir William Howe, while Robert Gault, with therank of captain, was in command of a troop of irregular Loyalist Horse.With the unspeakable relief that these tidings brought her, Barbararegained for a few days her old vivacity, imperiousness, and daring.She tore about the country wildly as of old, on horseback,--no longer,as a rule, on Black Prince, who had grown too sedate to fully fall inwith her caprices, but on a fiery young sorrel which she had bought forherself, choosing it partly for its own qualities, and partly for itsresemblance to Robert's old Narragansett pacer. She resumed hercanoeing on the lake. She sang again her old plantation songs, toDoctor John's accompaniment and Mistress Mehitable's diversion. Sheput a new and gayer ribbon on the neck of the furry "Mr. Grim." Sheeven remembered that the bergamot was in flower, and set herself withinterest to the distilling of her half-forgotten "Water of MarylandMemories," laughing indulgently the while at the girlishly sentimentalname of it. Meantime she was conscious of a curiously divided interestin the war,--conscious that her interest was divided in a fashion thatwould, a year ago, have seemed to her wicked and impossible. Just aspassionately as ever was her heart set upon the triumph of her cause.But she felt an irrational desire that Robert and Doctor Jim should wineach a splendid victory on his own account. She was full of pity thatthey should be on what she held the surely losing side, and she wantedsome measure of glory to be theirs.
But the next news that came dashed her spirits. It told of the battleof Long Island, and the defeat of the Continentals by the orderedBritish lines. It told of the panic flight of patriot regiments. Ittold of General Washington's retreat from Long Island and entrenchingof the army at New York. A few days later came a letter to Barbarafrom Glenowen,--whose regiment had stood firm and suffered heavily,--inwhich he said that he did not think it would be possible to hold NewYork with the troops at Washington's command, and that there woulddoubtless soon be a further retreat to some position beyond the Harlem.The letter made no mention of Doctor Jim,--which caused Barbara toremind Mistress Mehitable that no news was good news,--but it spokewith somewhat bitter praise of Robert Gault. It said that Robert'slittle squadron of mad Tories had gone through the Continental rankslike flame, irresistible and deadly, and had done more than anythingelse to cause the breaking of Putnam's lines. Robert had had his horseshot under him, and his hat shot off, but had himself, as report said,escaped without a scratch, though with a much diminished troop. As shewas reading this out to Mistress Mehitable, all at once and to her deepmortification her scrupulously matter-of-fact voice thrilled and broke.Mistress Mehitable shot her a glance of swift understanding andsympathy, and then pretended that she had noticed nothing unusual.Barbara coughed, and went on. But her voice had become unmanageable.With an impatient gesture and a toss of her head she handed over theletter.
"You'll have to read it yourself, honey! It upsets me to hear of ourpoor fellows beaten like this!" she cried, hypocritically.
"Of course, dear, I quite understand!" replied Mistress Mehitable,keeping her eyes strictly upon the letter, that she might the moreeasily seem deceived.
A few days later, Glenowen's prediction was fulfilled, and the newsthat came to Second Westings was of Washington's hasty retreat from NewYork to the Harlem Heights, leaving his artillery and heavy baggagebehind. Then for a month there was expectancy, and to Barbara in herquiet green land it seemed marvellous that the two armies could liefacing each other in this way, day after day, and not be stirred todecisive action. She wondered how their nerves could bear the strainof such waiting.
The bright September dragged by in drowsy fashion, and October ran onin its blue and golden-brown; and then the word that came was of yetanother retreat. The British had enlarged their narrow borders, andWashington had drawn back to the line of the Bronx, where he fortifiedhimself strongly so as to hold the roads leading inland. Would henever stop retreating, questioned Barbara, anxiously, echoing the crythat went up all over the infant Union. "I think not, dear!" respondedMistress Mehitable, cheerfully. But Doctor John, who understood theconditions, declared that this Fabian policy was the only sound one,while the Continental troops were getting seasoned and learning thearts of war. Even while this teaching was being digested, came word ofthe fierce battle of White Plains, where the two armies, in numbersclosely matched, long held each other by the throat without decisiveadvantage. When, two days later, the Continentals again withdrew, thistime to hasty entrenchments at New Castle, Doctor John had hard work toconvince Barbara that this long-drawn-out and bloody struggle was notan American defeat. For days thereafter word kept coming in, tellingof the losses on both sides, and supplying vivid details; and theblinds of mourning were drawn down in more than one modest SecondWestings home. A brief message came from Glenowen, saying that he wassafe and well. But
of Doctor Jim no word; of Robert not a word. AndBarbara and Mistress Mehitable durst not meet each other's eyes lesteither should read therein, and cry aloud, the fear in the other'sheart.
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