Altsheler, Joseph - [Novel 05]

by A Herald Of The West (lit)

Then they applauded him, though some of them may have thought that this was putting it rather strong, and he looked around the room, his glance falling upon me. He showed no surprise, but he seemed to threaten me for the first time. I felt sure that something un pleasant was coming. Courtenay and Mercer looked at me in amazement.

  The word martyr seemed to have caught the fancy of the guests for they repeated it, and after the major had settled in his chair and some dishes and the wine had been passed, Otis asked him to tell us abo"ut it. There was no slackness on the part of my kinsman, and rising, that he might be seen and heard the better, he gave me again that swift glance of menace and began his narration, which was so far from the facts that I was astonished at his invention and his boldness in using it, and yet it was told in the most convincing manner. More than once I admired this man's power over himself, though I now saw it used for an evil purpose.

  He told of his residence at Washington as a British official, the sudden and mortal prejudice the Government had taken against him because he was not its admirer, the way in which it then proceeded to spy upon him and to hound him, and at last how it had opened his private mail; made some absurd charges against him, and demanded his departure from Washington, a place that it had given him the greatest pleasure of his life to leave.

  They received this faithful narration with applause and laughter applause for him, laughter for the Presi dent and his Cabinet and the men who were true to their duty. My cousin put one hand upon the hilt of his sword, the other upon the table, and looked around as if

  IN THE ENEMY'S CAMP. 177

  he would mark the different degree of applause he re ceived from each. So looking, his eyes met mine for the third time, and he started as if it had been the first. Then he gazed at me in a cold and arrogant fashion, showing plainly that he meditated some stroke, and wav ing his hand for silence said:

  " Friends, I told you that I was maligned and perse cuted because I happened to love my own country better than the one in which I was a stranger. I have told you also of their plot to defame me, but I have not told you that the chief instrument in the plot was a young man who was more than a spy a traitor, in fact for he was my own blood relative."

  A murmur of condemnation arose, and some said aloud, "Shame!" "What a wretch!" I waited with interest, and also, I think, with some degree of coolness to hear what further he had to say, and I saw that his plan of action was the one likely to be most effective with the men present there. He was not looking at me, but swept the table with his eye, as if he would hold them all in the utmost attention, and I was sure that not one looked away from him.

  " You say ' shame ' rightfully," he continued, " and you call him a wretch truly, for I can not shield him, even if he be my own cousin; but, most amazing of all, such are the swagger and insolence of this young man, he is present here to-night among you, at this table, your guest, the spy of the Washington Government upon you, your words, your actions."

  They cried out to know what he meant, who was the man? He levelled his straight, accusing finger at me, as if I were some great criminal, and his red face blazed.

  " There he is," he said, pointing at me in a manner t hat was indignant and looked most real; " Philip Ten Broeck, my cousin, who has sought to ruin me, who has exposed me to countless humiliations and mortifications, the employee of that Swiss-American, Gallatin a spy

  '178 A HERALD OF THE WEST.

  sent here to take back a false and malicious report of you."

  Everybody looked at me, and many said things which burned in my ears, bringing me to a feeling of dis comfort, but I was not going to let myself be overpow ered, although his sudden change of manner, which formerly had been so conciliatory, was disconcerting. I was preparing to speak, not sure, however, what tone I should adopt, when they began to accuse Mr. Starbuck, inasmuch as he had brought me there, and demanded of him the meaning of an action which seemed so strange. His face, too, had flushed and there was a flash in his eye which betokened rising anger. He sprang to his feet, and I saw that the portly Boston merchant had be come the wild sailor of the Bon Homme Kichard again. Just then I liked the change.

  " This young gentleman, Mr. Ten Broeck, and his comrades came here at my invitation," he said, " and with the knowledge and consent of most of you. That lie is a spy, or his friends are spies, I do not believe. Any charges that you make against him or them, you make against me too."

  He was very angry now, and a glass broke with a crash under his hand. His wrathful little speech put a new phase upon the matter, and some called out to me to say what I had to say for myself, which I was glad to do, waiting only for the opportunity hitherto denied to me.

  Anger and conviction of right often spur one who may not be an orator into a sort of rude eloquence, and the words came to me so fast that I had nothing to do but to arrange them in proper order. I admitted that the man sitting at the head of the table beside the president of the feast was my cousin, a fact that I could not help, and about which I was never con sulted, and of which I was now ashamed; but he, and not I, was the spy; that he had been driven from Wash-

  IN THE ENEMY'S CAMP. 179

  ington because he had been engaged in a hostile bus iness; that I, not he, had been persecuted, and that he, ,not I, was the persecutor. I went on to tell the whole tale, to which they listened with great attention, though I noticed a sneer or an incredulous smile on the face of more than one. Major Northcote had sat down and did not seek to interrupt me, but looked at me with his old ironical smile, which now said plainly: " You are a boy and you are not a match for me in the game of in trigue."

  "What do you say to this, Major Northcote?" asked Mr. Pickering when I had finished.

  " A fabrication," he replied; " very skilfully and clev erly done, I will admit, but still a fabrication. Ask him if he is not travelling in the East in behalf of the Ameri can Government."

  They looked at me, and I am afraid I reddened a little, for I was travelling as he said, though he had in sinuated and managed to put an entirely false meaning upon my action.

  " Certainly," I replied, " but not as a spy of the kind you mean. If you do not believe me, and want to get the facts about Major Northcote, send a trustworthy man of your own to Washington and let him investigate."

  But my partial admission seemed to operate as a proof of guilt.

  " We must request you and your friends, Mr. Mercer and Mr. Courtenay, to withdraw," said Mr. Pickering.

  " No request is needed," said Mercer; " we take great pleasure in withdrawing, and hope that we will not be contaminated by the company we have inadvertently kept. We may not possess as much wisdom as you gen tlemen, but we do not give aid, comfort, and approval to a known enemy, and we hope never to be the traitors that you are."

  They received this little speech, made in the legal way that Mercer affected sometimes, in dead silence, and

  180 A HERALD OF THE WEST.

  we rose, all three of us, burning with anger at the situ ation in which we had been placed.

  " I go with you, gentlemen/' said Jonathan Starbuck, rising with us.

  " Mr. Starbuck was mistaken in his young friends," said one of the Federalists, Tories rather, suavely; " and as we all know it was an honest mistake, we would prefer for him to stay."

  " Mr. Starbuck was not mistaken in his young friends," said the veteran calmly, " but he was mistaken in his old friends. When I came here I had no idea of the relationship Major Northcote bore to Mr. Ten Broeck, and since I have heard the tales of both I prefer to believe Mr. Ten Broeck's. I think you have let party feelings go too far, and I will have noth ing more to do with such plotting against the Govern ment."

  My heart warmed with a great glow toward him, and we stalked out of the room, Mr. Starbuck at our head, the others saying nothing, though Major Northcote fol lowed me with his ironical look, now showing a gleam of triumph also, but so greatly were we upheld by the companionship and approval of Mr. Starbuck that we did not mind, and a little sense of el
ation mingled with our other feelings.

  We went to our room, and Mr. Starbuck followed us there, showing plainly that he was in great trouble of mind and fearing that we would blame him for having led us into an unpleasant trap. I did not like to see an old man begging the pardon of those who were young enough to be his sons, and we disclaimed any feeling of offence against him with all the vigour and emphasis at our command. Thus talking we pacified him, and feel ing in a better humour with ourselves we four took a warm drink together and swore eternal loyalty to the Constitution, the republic, the only true Government on earth, and to the President at Washington, whoever

  IN THE ENEMY'S CAMP. 181

  lie might be, whether Federalist, Republican, or some thing that was neither.

  On the morning of the second day thereafter we had the pleasure of reading of the disgraceful conduct of three young men from the West names omitted, in accordance with the custom of the times at a private banquet given by some of the most distinguished and worthy men of Massachusetts, where they had called their elders and betters foul names, had abused the hon est fame of New England, and at last had become so tur bulent that it was necessary to put them out of the room with force. But our names were not there, and we did not care.

  " Hereafter I shall keep away from banquets," said Mercer, " since they bring one only trouble and indi gestion."

  CHAPTEE XV.

  WHAT WE SAW IN NEW YORK BAY.

  THERE was no occasion for me to linger in Boston, since immediately upon my arrival there I had received sufficient proof of the temper of its leading men. The old, invincible spirit of New England seemed to be dead, and though it was New England who clamoured the loudest against our wrongs she would refuse absolutely to try the only cure war. Among the sailors and the countrymen who came in were many who believed with us of the West, but their voices were not heard in the outcry of the more powerful and wealthy classes against the appeal to the sword. So I began the return journey, and Courtenay and Mercer went with me. Wishing to vary our experience we took ship for New York, securing passage on the stout schooner John Hancock, commanded by Captain Benjamin Crowell, a Maine man after our own hearts.

  We had stormy weather rounding Cape Cod, and Courtenay, Mercer, and I suffered much from seasick ness, but in the bright weather following we recovered, and our discouraged spirits rose. The voyage then be came a pleasure, but I do not think that I would like to be a sailor. The land does not slip from under one's feet. We fell into a calm lasting two days, but at the end of that time a good wind sprang up, and, passing around Long Island, we approached Sandy Hook one fine morn ing early in May. We could see already the wooded coasts of New Jersey, fresh with the tender green of 182

  WHAT WE SAW IN NEW YORK BAY.

  young foliage, and the fine haze beyond it which was the effect either of a cloud or the smoke rising from the. many tall chimneys of distant New York. Before us were other ships, their white sails hovering on the blue water. Above us glittered the great globe of the sun. Afar the fisher boats swam in a sea of purple and azure and gold. I was full of joyful anticipations, partly the growth of youth and a splendid day. Moreover, I liked New York, and I was sure that Marian would be there.

  But anxiety and suspense were putting wrinkles and crow's feet into the face of Captain Crowell, and I was astonished at the evident trouble in his manner, for he was not a man who took readily to grief. After some hesitation, since one does not rashly address the captain of a ship on his own deck, I asked him the cause.

  He pointed a finger toward the group of distant ships ahead of us.

  " We are about to run the blockade," he replied. " An American must do it, going from port to port of his own country. See the largest of those ships, the one near the centre."

  I looked, knew, and remembered; the ship was the Guerriere. I could recognise her gleaming white and gold prow, the French fashion of her sides and rigging; and even if these were not sufficient, there flew the hated flag of England.

  " Why, yours is but a coasting schooner from Boston to New York," I said to Captain Crowell in reply to his look.

  " That won't keep her from being searched," he re plied, "and maybe I will lose two or three of my best sailors. We will have to anchor alongside that con founded British ship, under her guns, just as if we were a prize, and stay there as long as she chooses to keep us. To the devil with a government that will stand this, I say!"

  Mercer and Courtenay had joined us.

  184 A HERALD OF THE WEST.

  "Why, it's illegal, contrary to all the laws of na- tions," said Mercer, the lawyer.

  " Which has never kept it from being done, and noth ing will keep it from being done except the twenty-four- pounders of a forty-four, and that's the best law I know of," replied the captain. " Let them give our boys a chance. Do you know what they did in the West Indies when we fought there with France, and how we battered up the Barbary corsairs, though they always had more guns and men than we? Give 'em a chance, and they'll teach that frigate yonder and others like her what.it is to fight with the best men that sail the sea."

  But I belonged to the school of Mr. Jefferson, who believed that in case of war our little navy should be sealed up in port, or otherwise we would lose it. In my mind the majesty of England, backed by a thousand war ships and the memories of the Nile and Trafalgar, was supreme upon the sea.

  The Guerriere lay almost at the mouth of the bay. What had become of her consort, the large frigate, I did not know, though I supposed that she was in mischief wherever she might be. Around her lay a little fleet of American merchantmen, two or three from European ports. All had been searched by the Briton, or would be, and, as we supposed she would, she signalled for us to stop, and stop we did, since there was no recourse. I was familiar already with the sight of the Guerriere, and this was only another insult and injury added to the list we owed to her and the country whose flag she carried England.

  A boat containing an officer and half dozen men left the Guerriere and pulled for us.

  " Don't you know him? " asked Courtenay, who stood beside me.

  " Know whom ? "

  " The English officer, the man commanding the. boat."

  WHAT WE SAW IN NEW YORK BAY. 185

  The officer turned his face at that moment and I recognised Allyn, the lieutenant whose efforts to recap ture the sailor, Patterson, we had defeated. He was coming now to search the ship on which we were pas sengers, and I felt some apprehension, since the arrogance and presumption of the British naval officers at that time passes the belief of the present day, and I knew that he did not like me, nor without cause either.

  Captain Crowell stood on the deck to receive the lieutenant, his hands in his pocket, face and manner sur ly. I knew that he would rather have met the English man cutlass in hand, and that here was another in whom dwelled the spirit of the Bon Homme Richard.

  Allyn and four of his men climbed upon the deck. Looking across at the Guerriere I saw that we lay di rectly under her guns, and if she chose she could blow us into chips with a single broadside.

  Allyn demanded the name of the ship and her cap tain.

  " The schooner John Hancock, with a mixed cargo from Boston to New York," replied Crowell, " and I am her captain, Benjamin Crowell, of Portland, Maine, damn you! "

  Allyn's face flushed and he made a gesture of anger.

  " Oaths are out of place, Captain Crowell," he said, " and they may do you harm."

  " I happen to be standing upon my own deck, in one of our own ports," replied the captain. " My country and yours are not at war. Why shouldn't I pitch you into the sea for threatening me? What right have you here?"

  " There is my right," said Allyn, turnipg and point ing to the guns of the Guerriere.

  " You speak truly," I said, stepping forward. " That is your right, and your only right."

  He had not seen me until then, but he did not betray 13

  186 A HERALD OF THE WEST.

  any surprise, although hi
s eye lighted up with a gleam that seemed to me marvellously like exultation.

  "It is you, is it, Ten Broeck, my fine fellow?" he said, and there was much in his manner that puzzled me.

  " Yes, it is I, Mr. Ten Broeck," I said, putting emphasis upon the " Mr.," and I want to tell you, Lieutenant Allyn, that you are engaged in a monstrous business. You will push the patience of the American Government too far."

  " Impossible," he replied sneeringly.

  " Overconfidence is as bad as the lack of it," I replied.

  " That's enough, Ten Broeck," he said in a sharp, insolent tone, as if he were a superior speaking to an inferior. " Captain Crowell, I suspected that you had English sailors on board, and it has proved to be the truth. I must take this fine, strapping fellow, Ten Broeck, who deserted from the Leander two years ago. Pipe up your crew, and let's see what others you have. Fall in there, Ten Broeck, behind my men."

  His look was full of malignant triumph, but I be lieved I could defeat his attempt, which was of unex ampled audacity. So believing, I held myself in reserve and the captain spoke first for me.

  " Mr. Ten Broeck is a passenger aboard my ship," he said, amazed, as he had a right to be, at the lieutenant's words, " and has been in the service of the Government at Washington, if he is not now."

  " That's a specious tale that he has told you, Cap tain Crowell," replied Allyn smoothly, "and, of course, you are not to blame, but I know him to be a deserting^ English sailor from the Leander, and he will have to fill out his unexpired time aboard the Guerriere."

  " I think not," said Mercer, stepping forward, a smile showing upon his smooth, thin face. " There is a law against such things. Your attempt comes in con flict with one of the greatest principles of international law."