When Shemuel left a stricken field it was time for others to think of flight; this I perceived at once when the Weasel came scurrying past and called out to me. Mount followed, lumbering on at full speed; the throng melted and scattered in every direction, and I with them. Trust me, there was fine running done that night in Pittsburg streets, and many a tall fellow worked his legs as legs are seldom worked, for the gentlemen of the Governor’s horse-guards were riding us hard, and we legged it for cover, each fox to his own spinny, each rabbit to the first unstopped earth. Tally-ho! Stole away! Faith, it was merry hunting that night in Pittsburg town, with the towns-people at every window and the town-watch bawling at our heels, and the gentlemen riders pelting down the King’s Road till those who could double back doubled, and walked panting to cover, with as innocent mien as they could muster.
Mount, Renard, Shemuel, and I had crossed the Boundary at respectable speed, and were now headed for the dirty alley which conducted to the rear door of Shemuel’s den, the “Bear and Cubs.” We were about to enter this lane, no longer fearing pursuit — and I remember that Mount was laughing, poking the Weasel in his short-ribs — when, without warning, five men rushed at us in a body, overturning us all save Jack Mount. The next moment we were locked in a struggle; there was not a cry, not an oath, not a sound but the strained gasp and heavy breathing, at first; but presently a piercing yell echoed through the alley, and Shemuel ran squattering into the inn. He had stuck a handful of needles into his assailant’s leg, and the man bounded madly about, while the alley re-echoed with his howls of dismay.
As for me, I found myself clutched by that villain, Wraxall, and I would have shouted with joy had he not held me by the windpipe until I was nigh past all shouting. The creature was powerful; he held me while Toby Tice tried to tie my wrists; but the Weasel fell upon them both and kicked them so heartily that they left me and took to their heels perdu.
And now came the host of the “Bear and Cubs,” lanthorn 252 in one hand, a meat-knife in the other, and after him a tap-boy, an hostler, a frowzy maid, and finally Shemuel, white with fear. But reinforcements had arrived too late — too late to help us take the impudent band, which had fled — too late to bring to life that dark mass lying at the foot of the wall in the filth of the alley.
Mount seized the lanthorn and lowered it beside the shape on the ground.
“His neck is broken,” he said, briefly. It was his quarry; he ought to know.
One by one we took the lanthorn and looked in turn on the dead.
“Greathouse,” whispered Mount, moving the body with his foot.
“Greathouse, eh?” grumbled the host of the “Bear and Cubs.” “Well, he can’t lie here behind my house.” And he caught him by the heels and dragged him to a black spot under a rotten shed. There was a cistern there. I moved away, feeling strangely faint. Mount linked his arm in mine.
Presently there sounded a dull noise under the ground, a shock and thick splashing.
“Greathouse, eh?” muttered the shaggy innkeeper, winking at us. “Well, Greathouse is in a small house behind a pot-house now, and the devil, no doubt, will see that he lands in a hot-house!”
Mount shrugged his shoulders and turned away indifferently. He had done his part; he had no slur for the dead. The Weasel and I followed, and together we traversed the market-square unmolested, and headed for the “Virginia Arms,” discussing the utterly unprovoked attack on us by Butler’s band.
There had been five of them; I had recognized Wraxall and Tice, the Weasel identified Murdy, Shemuel had thrust half his stock of needles into one fellow’s leg, whom I knew to be the man who had supped on his own hatchet, and Mount had sternly accounted for his assailant.
“So Greathouse is dead,” muttered the Weasel.
“One thing is clear: they were after you,” observed Mount, turning on me.
“It is strange,” I said, “that Butler was not there. He 253 must know what it means for him unless he can strike me from behind, because I shall never miss him, face to face.”
I spoke not in boast, nor in angry heat; I meant what I said, and devoutly believed that nothing on earth could shield such a man from the man he had so foully misused.
Coming into Pitt Street we found all empty and dark save for the lanthorn hanging on its pole from every seventh house, and a lone watchman who lifted his light to scan us, but durst not question or stop us, though we bore marks enough of the fray to satisfy any friendly jury of our guilt.
As for Mount, his shirt and leggings were in rags, for he had played Orlando Furioso to his simple heart’s satisfaction, and now one naked arm peeped coyly from a flapping sleeve, and his great legs twinkled white under the tattered nether-garments. The Weasel, who had a genius for keeping himself neat under distressing circumstances, appeared to be none the worse for wear, but guiltless he could not be, for he carried a soldier’s mitre-cap in his hand and obstinately refused to part with the proof of his valour. As for me, there were some seams which needed a thread, and somebody’s blood on my shirt which water would wash away.
“I went this noon to a tailor-woman on the Buckeye Road, and did command me new deer-skins,” said Mount. “I will borrow their cost of you,” he added, naïvely.
I felt for my money-belt and luckily found it safe. Mount accepted the money cheerfully, promising to show me on the morrow how fine he could be in new clothes, and mourning the fact that his greasy garments had cost him a cruel epithet that day from a maid he had attempted to kiss behind a barn on three minutes’ acquaintance.
“Faith, she mocked me for a tankard-tip and called me pottle-pot,” he said, sadly. “God knows I drink little for my height, and so I told her, too!”
We were already at the “Virginia Arms,” and I took him by the elbow and drew him firmly past the tap-room.
“Are we not to sniff a posset?” he demanded, in injured surprise. But he surrendered without a scene, for the late fighting had cleared his head of alcohol, and we mounted to my chamber, bidding a servant to fetch ink-horn, wax, sand, quill, and three sheets of good, clean paper.
When I had lighted my candle, and the materials for writing had been brought, I sat down on the bed and drew the table up before me.
“What are we to do while you write?” asked Mount, sulkily.
“Keep out o’ mischief and the tap-room,” said I, mending the quill with my hunting-knife.
They stood around rather blankly for a spell while I was composing the first letter, but presently I noticed they had squatted on the floor and were playing at jack-straws with pine splinters from the boards.
My three letters cost me great labour; writing and composition do ever rack me, mind and body, for I know that I spell not as others spell, nor write as I ought to write in the Boston style, and, moreover, those little dots which warn the wise reader that a phrase is ended mean little to me; so I pepper my sheet well with them and trust to God that they fall not on barren soil.
Thus armed with my quill, and doubly armed in the innocence of my ignorance, I made out to accomplish my three letters. The first was this:
“Sir William Johnson, Bart.
“Honoured and beloved Sir, — My mission I have discharged and It hath come to naut. i return to johnsonhall Tomorrow, setting out with Felicity. i, will explane all. War is brocken out, ye Senecas, Lenape, Wyandot, and Showanese dugg up ye hatchett Cresap is fled ye fort and camp burnt Logans famly foully murderd with my duties and respects to Ant Molly and my duties and respectfull affections for you. I have the honnour to subscribe myself your dutyfull deputy and kinsman
“Michael Cardigan
“Cornet, Border Horse.”
My second letter read thus:
“My deer Kinswoman Mistress Warren.
“Deer cozzen, — I write to say that I write to acquaint you that it Is my determination to set out for johnsonhall tomorrow morning therefore Pray be prepared to accompanie me with Black Betty and Your boxes i will command a post-chaise, escort, and h
orses for such is my right as deputy of Sir William. if I ketch enny fools who seek to mate you I will harm them. i will find a suitable husband for you never fear cozzen i sign myself your affectnate cozzen
Michael Cardigan
“Cornet of Border Horse.”
255 My third letter was brief:
“To the Hon: the Earl of Dunmore,
Royal Governor of Virginia, etc.
“My Lord, — My kinswoman Misstress Felicity Warren is my betrothed and She will leave Pitt tomorrow with me and under the escort which it is my right to demand and your lordship’s dutie to furnish, with post-chaise, forage, and provisions. Escort and conveyance should be at the Virginia Arms by noon.
“I have, sir, the honour
to subscribe myself y’r
ob’t servant
“Michael Cardigan
“Special deputy of Sir Wm. Johnson, Bart.,
and cornet in the Royal American Legion of
Border Horse.”
CHAPTER XV
I was awakened shortly after daylight by a hubbub and stirring in the street outside, and I lay in bed, listening, half asleep. About six o’clock the Weasel opened my chamber door, saying that Pittsburg was filling with refugees from the frontier, and that a battalion of militia under Cresap had just left to scout on the Monongahela.
I asked him whether messengers had brought me answers to my letters from Lord Dunmore and Miss Warren, and he replied in the negative and shut the door.
About seven I arose and dressed, standing by the window and looking out over the square. The streets of Fort Pitt were lively enough at this early hour; apparently since daybreak hundreds of refugees, men, women, and toddling infants, fleeing from the red scourge on the outer frontiers, had been coming into Pittsburg town. Many were almost naked, proving their dire peril and hasty night retreat, some drove a few sheep or calves, some carried geese or chickens in their arms, others, more fortunate, guided oxen yoked to wagons, on which were piled bedding, kettles, dishes, and what poor household furniture they dared linger to gather before leaving their homes to the Cayugas and their fields to the timber wolf.
At dawn, when the vanguard of this wretched procession had first appeared, straggling through Pittsburg streets, the town-watch took charge of the dazed fugitives and found shelter for them in the fortress; but, as the town awoke and rubbed its eyes to find the streets swarming with exhausted strangers dragging their numbed limbs or sitting on steps and porches, the people threw open their doors and took the outcasts to their firesides. But the houses of the Samaritans were filled to overflow ere the cloaked watchman had called his last hour:
“Four o’clock! A sweet June morning and sad tidings from the frontier!”
And, as the fugitive creatures still came creeping in past the fortress, the double guard was called out and squads told off to conduct the unfortunates to the barracks, court-house, “Governor’s Hall,” market-sheds, and finally into the churches. And it was pitiful to see them making their way painfully into the square, where many sat down on the turf, and some fell down in the street, and others slept, leaning upright against fences and trees, clasping some poor household relic to their breasts.
Bareheaded children lay slumbering on stone steps; young women, with infants at suck, sat dumb and vacant-eyed on the ground, too weak to reply to those who offered aid. Haggard men, dragging their rifles, turned sunken, perplexed eyes, slowly answering in monosyllables, as though stunned by the swift ruin which had overwhelmed them.
And the story repeated was always the same: burning and butchery everywhere; the frontier a charred, blood-soaked desert; homes, crops, cattle, the very soil itself had gone roaring up in smoke, and all behind was blackness — hopeless, unutterable devastation.
The living fled, the dead lay where they had fallen — and the dead were many. Scarcely a family but had lost a child or a father; few of the aged escaped; neighbours had fallen under hatchet and knife; friends had disappeared.
To and fro the good people of Pitt hastened on their errands of pity; others, having done their part, gathered in groups discussing openly the riot of the previous evening and the scenes in “Governor’s Hall.”
It was, truly enough, not the first time that Pittsburg streets had been filled with fugitives from the far frontiers; but last night’s riot was the first which had ever disturbed the little town, although there had been a disturbance when, early in the week, a runner from Cresap came in to announce the fate of Logan’s children and the rising of the Cayugas.
But this new outbreak was very different: people and soldiers had come to blows; blood had flowed, although nobody exactly understood for what reason it had been shed. Patched pates and plastered cheeks were plentiful about the streets; there were rumours, too, of tragedies, but these rumours proved baseless when the morning wore away. As for the death of 258 Greathouse, nobody suspected it, because nobody, except Dunmore and his followers, was aware that Greathouse had fled to Fort Pitt. It is probable that even Wraxall and Murdy and Tice supposed that Greathouse had escaped from us, and that he was somewhere in close cover, waiting an opportunity to rejoin them.
There appeared to be no effort on the part of the town-watch or of the soldiers to arrest any citizen whose body or apparel bore marks of the conflict. Citizens and soldiers eyed each other askance, but apparently without rancour or malice, like generous adversaries who appreciate a fight for its own sake, and respect each other for stout blows given and returned.
Certainly neither could complain of the scarcity of knocks. Scores of noddles had been laid open by citizens’ cudgels or by the brass buckles on the soldiers’ belts; scores of pates bore brave bumps and pretty protuberances, coyly hiding under patches that exhaled the aroma of vinegar. Many a respectable wig knew its rightful owner no longer; many a pair of spectacles had been gathered into Shemuel’s basket; many, many hats had vanished into memory, probably, however, to reappear, peddled by this same Shemuel, when safe opportunity offered and peace once more smiled her commercial smile.
That morning I had reckoned with my host of the “Virginia Arms.” As he appeared somewhat uneasy about the reckoning of Jack Mount and the Weasel, I settled that, too, my means permitting me.
However, I observed to Rolfe that the friends of liberty ought to trust each other implicitly, and he answered that they did, especially when cash payments were made.
“Is that the Boston creed?” I asked, scornfully.
“I guess it is,” said he, with a shrewd wink.
I began to detest the fellow, and was curt with him as he left my room; but, when Cade Renard strolled in a few moments later, I was astonished to learn that this same James Rolfe had aided Mount to throw the tea-chests into the sea, and had beggared himself in contributing to every secret patriotic society in Boston.
That was my first lesson in ethics. I began to understand 259 why it was that generous people turned niggards when it came to paying tuppence tax on tea; how a man might exact what was his due and yet be no miser; and how he might beggar himself nor stain his name as a spendthrift.
“He’ll lend me what he has,” said the Weasel, sitting down to lace his hunting-shirt; “but he would be unpleasant if I attempted to escape from here without a reckoning. I am glad you paid; we have no money. We were speaking of tapping our fat Tory magistrate again—”
“Taking the road?” I exclaimed.
“No, taking the judge’s purse. He is so fat, positively he disgusts us.”
I looked at the little man in horror. He returned my gaze mildly, and tied the leather laces under his chin.
“If,” said I, stiffly, “you or Mount require money, I beg you will borrow it from me, as long as we travel together. Also,” I continued, angrily, “you may as well know that I do not care to figure with you and Jack Mount in any book or ballad or pamphlet decorated with a picture of a gallows!”
“Do you suppose we like that picture either?” asked the Weasel, in astonishment. “Why, Mr. Car
digan, that picture is perfectly repulsive to us.”
“Then why do you take the King’s highway?” I asked, blankly.
“You are hurting my feelings,” said the Weasel. “Why do you use such terms? Besides, we discriminate; we only offer ourselves some slight recompense for the disgust which overpowers us when we meet with fat Tory magistrates on a moonlit highway.”
I stared at him, indignant at the levity with which he used me; but after a moment I was obliged to believe that he intended no levity, for never had I seen such guileless innocence in any features. Clearly the man’s past sorrows had been too much for his mind. He was simple.
There was little profit in continuing the subject; if Renard and Mount chose to justify their reputations I could not prevent them. As far as I was concerned they had proved kindly and loyal, and, now that I was so soon to part with them, I desired to do so in gratitude and friendship.
It was already past eight o’clock by the Weasel’s large 260 silver watch, and still no reply came to me from either Dunmore or Silver Heels. Renard and I looked out of the window, watching the soldiers conducting the homeless frontier families to the barracks. We spoke of last night’s riot, computing the casualties suffered by the soldiers and wondering what proclamation Dunmore would issue, or if he would have the courage to issue any, considering how the people had shown their detestation of him.
“If you were not a deputy of Sir William Johnson, Dunmore would have jailed you for what you said,” observed the Weasel. “You have cast the last grain into the scales and they have tipped him out, repudiated and dishonoured. Hic jacet Dunmoreus, in articulo mortis. But Walter Butler lives, friend Michael. Beware, sir! Latet anguis in herba! — there lies the snake perdu!”
“Who are you, Weasel?” I asked, curiously. “Truly, you are smoother in Latin than am I; but I confess myself disguised in this hunting-shirt, whereas you wear it to the manner born. Yet, I swear you are no forest-runner withal.”
“I was born a gentleman,” said the Weasel, simply. “I read the classics for my pleasure — but I am forgetting, Mr. Cardigan, I am forgetting so many, many things. It is sixteen years now since I met with my trouble — sixteen years to forget in — and that with a mind which is not quite clear, sir, not quite clear. However, I have remembered enough Latin to entertain you, and that is something, after all, if it is not an answer to your question.”
Works of Robert W Chambers Page 108