Books: Janice Meredith

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As Philemon opened his mouth to make reply, he was cut
short by the entrance of the commissary, who halted and
frowned as he took in the hand-clasp of the two.

"Humph!" he muttered, and then louder remarked, "Yet
another! Ye'll be pleased to know, sir, that Miss Meredith's
favours mean little. But a month since I caught that fellow
Brereton regaling himself with her lips."

"That's a lie, I know," retorted Philemon, angrily; but as
he glanced at the girl and saw her crimson, he exclaimed,
"You just said you cared for no man!"

"It--it was at a moment when I scarce knew what I did"
faltered Janice, "and--and--now I would not be kissed by
him for anything in the world. I--I am--I was honest in
what I said to you, Philemon."

"I'll believe anything you say, Janice," impulsively replied
the lieutenant, as with unprecedented boldness he raised her
hand to his lips. Then facing Clowes he said: "And I advise
you ter have a care how you speak of Miss Meredith. I'll
not brook hearing her aspersed." With this threat he left the
room.

"I regret to have been an intruder on so tender a scene,"
sneered the commissary; "but I came with information that was
too important to delay. Orders have been issued that all ships
make ready to drop down the river with the tide at daybreak
to-morrow, and 't is said that the army will begin its march
across the Jerseys but a twenty-four hours later. So there is
no time to lose if ye wish to sail with me. The marriage must
take place by candle-light this evening, and we must embark
immediately after."

"Philemon has promised us his aid, Lord Clowes," replied
Mrs. Meredith, "and so we need not trouble thee."

"Hennion! But he must go with his regiment."

"He offers us a place in the baggage train."

"Evidently he has not seen the general orders. Clinton is
too good an officer to so encumber himself; and the orders
are strict that only the women of the regiments be permitted
to march with the army. I take it ye scarce wish to class
yourselves with them, however much it might delight the
soldiery."

"They could scarce treat us worse than thee, Lord Clowes,"
said Mrs. Meredith, indignantly. "Nor do I believe that even
the rank and file would take such advantage of two helpless
women as thou art seeking to do."

"Tush! I may state it o'er plainly; but my intention is
merely to make clear for your own good that ye have no other
option but that I offer ye."

"Any insults would be easier to bear than yours," declared
Janice, indignantly; "and theirs would be for once, while
yours are unending."

"Such folly is enough to make one forswear the whole sex,"
the commissary angrily replied. "Nor am I the man to put up
with such womanish humoursomeness. "I've stood your caprice
till my patience is exhausted; now I'll teach ye what--"

"Heyday!" exclaimed Andre, as a servant threw open the
door and ushered him in. "What have we here? I trust I
am not mal apropos?"

"Far from it," spoke up Janice. "And thou 'rt welcome."

"I come laden with grief and with messages," said Andre, completely
ignoring Clowes' presence. "Mr. Hennion, whom I met
at headquarters, asked me to tell you his request was refused,
that his regiment was even then embarking to cross the Delaware,
and that therefore he could not return, whatever his wish.
The Twenty-sixth is under orders to follow at daybreak to-morrow,
and so we plan an impromptu farewell supper this
evening at my quarters. Will you forgive such brief notice
and help to cheer our sorrow with your presence?"

"With more than pleasure," assented Mrs. Meredith; "and
if 't will not trouble thee, we will avail ourselves of thy escort
even now."

"Would that such trouble were commoner!" responded
Andre, holding open the door.

"Then we'll get our coverings without delay."

Lord Clowes, with a deepened scowl on his face, intercepted
them at the door. "One word in private with these ladies," he
said to the captain. Then, as Andre with a bow passed out first,
he continued, to the women: "I have warned ye that we must
be aboard ship ere ten. Refuse me my will, and ye'll not be able
to rejoin Mr. Meredith. Take my offer, or remain in the city."

"We shall remain," responded Mrs. Meredith.

"With your husband a warden of the seized property of the
rebels, and known to have carried away a ship-load of it? Let
me warn ye that the rebels whom we drove out of Philadelphia
will be in no sweet mood when they return and find what we
have destroyed or carried off. Hast heard how the Bostonians
treated Captain Fenton's wife and fifteen-year-old daughter?
Gentlewomen though they were, the mob pulled them out of
their house, stripped them naked in the public streets, smeared
them with tar and feathers, and then walked them as a spectacle
through the town. And Fenton had done far less to make himself
hated than Mr. Meredith. Consider their fate, and decide
if marriage with me is the greater evil."

"Every word thou hast spoken, Lord Clowes," replied Mrs.
Meredith, "has tended to make us think so."

"Then may you reap the full measure of your folly," raged
the commissary.

"Come, Janice," said her mother; and the two, without a
parting word, left him. Once upstairs, Janice flung her arms
about Mrs. Meredith's neck.

"Oh, mother," she cried, "please, please forgive me! I
have ever thought you hard and stern to me, but now I know
you are not."

Strive as those at the supper might, they could not make it a
merry meal. The officers, with a sense of defeat at heart, and
feeling that they were abandoning those who had shown them
only kindness, had double cause to feel depressed, while the
ladies, without knowledge of what the future might contain,
could not but be anxious, try their all. And as if these were
not spectres enough at the feast, a question of Mrs. Meredith as
to Mobray added one more gloomy shadow.

"Fred? alas!" one of the officers replied. "He was sold
out, and the poor fellow was lodged in the debtors' prison, as
you know. As we chose not to have them fall into the hands
of the rebels, a general jail delivery was ordered this morning,
which set him at large."

"And what became of him?" asked Janice.

"Would that I could learn!" groaned Andre. "As soon
as I was off duty, I sought for him, but he was not to be heard
of, go to whom I would. Bah! No more of this graveyard
talk. Come, Miss Meredith, I'll give you the subject for a
historical painting. I found of Franklin's possessions not a
little which took my fancy, and such of it as I chose I carry
with me to New York, as fair spoil of war. Prithee, draw a
picture of the old fox as he will appear when he hears of his
loss. 'T will at least give him the opportunity to prove himself
the 'philosopher' he is said to be. I have taken his oil portrait,
and when I get fit quarters again I shall hang it, and
nightly pray that I may live long enough to do the same to the
original. Heaven save me if ever I be captured, though, for I
make little doubt that in his rage he would accord me the very
fate I wish for him!"

When at last the evening's festivities, if such they might be
termed, were over, it was Andre, preceded by a couple of
soldiers with lanterns, who escorted them back to their home,
and at Janice's request he ordered the two men to remain in
the now deserted house.

"They must leave you before daybreak," the officer warned
them; "but they will assure you a quiet night. I would that
you were safe in New York, however, and shall rest uneasy till
I welcome you there. Ladies, you have made many an hour
happier to John Andre," ended the young officer, his voice
breaking slightly. "Some day, God willing, he will endeavour
to repay them."

"Oh, Captain Andre," replied Janice, "'t is we are the
debtors indeed!"

"We'll not quarrel over that at parting," said Andre, forcing
a merry note into his voice. "When this wretched rebellion is
over, and you are well back at Greenwood, and may that be
soon, I will visit you and endeavour to settle debit and credit."

Just as he finished, the sound of drums was heard.

"'T is past tattoo, surely?" Mrs. Meredith questioned with a
start.

"Ay," answered Andre. "'T is the rogue's march they are
ruffling for a would-be deserter who was drum-headed this evening,
and whom they are taking to the State House yard to hang.
Brrew! Was not the gloom of to-night great enough without
that as a last touch to ring in our ears? What a fate for a
soldier who might have died in battle! Farewell, and may it
be but a short au revoir," and, turning, the young officer hurried
away, singing out, in an attempt to be cheery, the soldier's
song:--

"Why, soldiers, why
Should we be melancholy, boys?
Why, soldiers, why,
Whose business 't is to die?
What, sighing? fie!
Drown fear, drink on, be jolly, boys.
'T is he, you, or I!"

XLVIII
A TIME OF TERROR

The Merediths were awakened the next morning by
sounds which told of the movements of troops, and
all day long the regiments were marching to the
river, and as fast as they could be ferried, were
transferred to the Jersey side, the townspeople who, by choice
or necessity, were left behind being helpless spectators meanwhile.
Once again the streets of Philadelphia assumed the
appearance of almost absolute desertion; for as the sun went
down the prudent-minded retired within doors, taking good
heed to bar shutters and bolt doors, and the precaution was
well, for all night long men might be seen prowling about the
streets,--jail-birds, British deserters, and other desperadoes,
tempted by hope of plunder.

Fearful for their own safety, Mrs. Meredith and Janice
failed not to use every means at hand to guard it, not merely
closing and securing, so far as they were able, every possible
entrance to the house, but as dark came on, their fear
led them to ascend to the garret by a ladder through a trap,
and drawing this up, they closed the entrance. Here they sat
crouched on the bare boards, holding each other, for what
seemed to them immeasurable hours; and such was the intensity
of the nervous anxiety of waiting that it was scarcely added
to, when, toward daybreak, both thought they detected the
tread of stealthy footsteps through the rooms below. Of this
they presently had assurance, for when the pound of horses'
hoofs was heard outside, the intruders, whoever they might be,
were heard to run through the hall and down the stairs with a
haste which proved to the miserable women that more than
they had cause for fear.

Hardly had this sound died away when a loud banging on
the front door reached even their ears, and after several repetitions
new fear was given them by the crashing of wood and
splintering of glass, which told that some one had broken in a
shutter and window to effect an entrance. Once again footsteps
on the stairs were heard, and a man rushed into the room
underneath them and came to a halt.

"Do you find them?" he shouted to some companion,
whose answer could not be heard. "What ho!" he went on
in stentorian voice. Is there any one in this house who
can give me word of a family of Merediths?"

Janice reached forward and raised the trap, but her mother
caught her arm away, and the door fell with a bang.

"'T is all right, mommy," the girl protested. "Didst not
hear the jingle of his spurs? 'T is surely an officer, and we
need not fear any such."

Even as she spoke the trap was raised by a sabre from below.
"Who 's above?" the man demanded, and as Janice
leaned forward and peeked through the opening, he went on,
"I seek--" There he uncovered. "Ah, Miss Meredith,
dark as it is above, I could pick you from a thousand by Colonel
Brereton's description. I was beginning to fear some misfortune
had overtaken you. I am Captain McLane of the light
horse. You can descend without fear."

With a relief that was not to be measured, the two dropped
the ladder into place and descended.

"Is Colonel Brereton here?" asked Mrs. Meredith.

"Not he, or I suspect he'd never have given me the thrice-repeated
charge to make sure of your safety. He is with the
main army, now in full pursuit of the British, and we'll hope
to come up with the rats ere they get safely to their old hole.
Since you are safe I must not tarry, for there is much to--"

"Oh, Captain McLane, can't you stay?" beseeched Janice.
"Do not leave us unprotected. I can't tell you what we have
suffered through thought of possible violence, and even now--"

[Illustration: "Victory!"]

"I will station a trooper at the door," the officer promised;
"but have no fear. Already patrols are established, and within
an hour broadsides will be posted about the city warning all
plunderers or other law-breakers that they will be shot or hanged
on sight. General Arnold, who is given command of the city,
intends there shall be no disturbance, and he is not the man
to have his orders broke."

Set at ease as to their safety, the first concern of the women
was a hastily improvised breakfast from the scantily supplied
larder which Clowes' servants had abandoned to them. In the
kitchen, as well as all over the house, they found ample signs
that pilferers had been at work, for every receptacle had been
thrown open, drawers dragged out, and the floor littered with
whatever the despoilers elected not to take. A month before
Janice would probably have been moved to tears at the discovery
that her "elegant and dashy robing," as well as her
Mischianza costume, had been stolen, but now she scarcely
gave either of them a thought, so grateful was she merely to
feel that they were safe from violence and insult.

In reinstating her own meagre possessions in their proper receptacles,
which was the girls after-breakfast occupation, she
came upon an unfinished silk purse, and this served to bring an
end for a time to the restoration of order, while she sat upon the
floor in a meditative attitude. Presently she laid it on the
bureau with a little sigh and returned to her task. Once this
was completed, she again took the purse, and seating herself, set
about its completion.

Afraid to stir out of doors, and with little to occupy her. the
next three days served to complete the trifle, elaborate and
complicated as the pattern was. Meantime, a steady stream of
Whigs flooded into the city, and from Captain McLane, who
twice dropped in to make sure of their well-being, they learned
that the Continental Congress was about to resume its sessions
in the city. Ocular proof that the rulers of America were assembling
was very quickly brought home to the two, for one
morning Janice, answering a rap of the knocker, opened the
door to the Honourable Joseph Bagby.

"Well, miss. I guess you 're not sorry to see an old friend's
face, are you. now that the dandiprat redcoats you've been
gallivanting with have shown that they prefer running away to
fighting?" was his greeting, as he held out his hand.

Janice, divided in mind by the recollection of his treatment
of them and by her fear of the future, extended her own and
allowed it to be shaken, as the easiest means of escaping the
still more difficult verbal response.

"Are n't you going to ask me in?" inquired the caller, "for
I've got something to say."

"I did n't know that you would want to," faltered Janice,
making entrance for him. "Mommy will be gla--will be in
the parlour," she said, leading the way to that room.

Without circumlocution, Bagby went at the object of his call
the moment the equally embarrassing meeting with Mrs. Meredith
was over.

"I came up to town," he announced," to 'tend Congress,
of which I'm now a member;" and here the speaker paused
as if to let the new dignity come home to his hearers. "Did n't
I tell you I was a rising man? But I had another object in
view in being so prompt, and that was to have a talk with you
to see if we can 't arrange things. 'T is n't given to every girl
to marry a Congressman, eh, miss?"

"I--I--suppose not," stammered Janice, frightened, yet
with an intense desire to laugh.

"Before I say anything as to that," went on Bagby, "I want
to tell you that I've been a good friend of yours. Old Hennion,
who 's come out hating your dad the worst way, was for introducing
a bill in Assembly last session declaring his lands forfeited,
but I told him I'd not have it."

"'T is but a duty man owes to prevent evil deeds," said Mrs.
Meredith.

"We are very grateful, Mr. Bagby," Janice thought it was
necessary to add, with not a little surprise in her voice.

"That's what I guessed you'd be," said the legislator.
"Says I to myself, 'They've made a mistake as to the side
they took but when they see that the British is beat, they'll do
most anything to put themselves right again and save their
property.' Now, if Miss Janice will marry me, there is n't any
reason why you should n't all come back to Greenwood and live
as fine as a fivepence."

"We should not be willing to give thee our daughter, Mr.
Bagby, even were she."

"But I am--for the compliment you offer, sir, I thank you,"
interjected Janice.

"Now, you just listen to reason," protested Joe. "You
must n't think it 's only the property I'm set on. I've made a
swipe of money in the last year--nigh forty thousand dollars--
Continental--so I can afford to marry whom I like; and though
I own that thirty thousand acres is no smouch of land, yet I'm
really soft on Miss Janice, and would marry her even if she
had n't money, now that I've got some of my own."

"It can make no difference, Mr. Bagby," replied the mother.
"Neither her father nor I would consent to her wedding thee,
and I know her wishes accord with ours."

Joe, with a somewhat bewildered face and a decidedly awkward
movement, picked up his hat. "It don't seem possible,"
he said, "that you'll throw away all that property; for, of
course, I'm not going to stand between you and old Hennion
when you show yourselves so unfriendly."

"'T is in the hands of One who knows best."

Bagby went to the door. "The Assembly meets on the
twenty-eighth," he remarked, "and I promised some of the
members I'd quit Congress to 'tend the early part of the session,
so I've got to go back to Trenton in three days. If you change
your mind before then, let me know."

"Oh, mommy," groaned the girl the moment the door closed,
"I wish there were no such things in the world as lovers!"
Then she told a yet greater untruth: "Or would that I had
been born as plain as Tibbie's aunt!"

"'T is ingratitude to speak thus, child. Hast already forgot
the help Philemon tried to give us, and what we owe to
Colonel Brereton?"

The girl made no response for a little, then said hurriedly,
"Mommy, dost think dadda, and wouldst thou wish me to wed
Colonel Brereton, provided 't would save us our lands and let
us live in peace at Greenwood?"

"I know not what to say, Janice. It would be a deliverance,
indeed, from a future black with doubt and trouble; but thy
father holds to his promise to Philemon, and I question if he'd
ever consent to have a rebel for a son-in-law. Nor do we
know that Colonel Brereton was not but speaking in jest when
he said what he did at Greenwood."

"He meant it, mommy," answered the daughter, "for--for
at grave risk he stole into Philadelphia last April to see me;
and then he vowed he could save us from the Whigs if--if--"

"And wouldst thou wed him willingly?" asked the mother,
when Janice lapsed into silence with the sentence unfinished.

With eyes on the floor and cheeks all aflame, the girl answered:
"I--I scarce know, mommy. At times when I am
with him I feel dreadfully excited and frightened--though
never in the way I am with Lord Clowes--and want to get
away; but the moment he is gone I--I wish him back, if only
he would do but what I'd have him--and yet I like him for--
for having his own way--as he always does--though I know
he'd do mine if--if I asked him."

"Janice, canst thou not speak less lightly and foolishly?"
chided Mrs. Meredith. "If thou lovest the man, say so without
such silly maunderings, which are most unbefitting of thy years."

"But I--I don't love Colonel Brereton, mommy," protested
the girl; "and I never could, after his--after knowing that he
once gave his love to that--"

"And art thou so foolish, Janice," demanded her mother, "as
to pretend that thou dost not care for him?"

"Really it--it would only be for you and dadda, and to save
the property, mommy," persisted Janice.

"Then why didst thou draw back from Lord Clowes and
Bagby?" asked the mother, sternly.

"But I--I could never have--have--Oh, mommy, there
is a cart just stopped at the door, and I'll see what is wanted,--
an excuse conveniently present for the flustered maiden to
escape an explanation.

As it proved, the arrival of the cart was of very material
moment, for by the time Janice was at the door a lean-visaged
woman had been helped from it, and her salutation was anything
but promising.

"Who are you. that you are in my house?" she demanded,
and then entered the hall, and, womanlike, would not listen to
the explanations that both Janice and her mother sought to
make. "Be off with you at once!" she ordered. "I'll not
have you here a minute. My son died of fever and starvation
in a freezing prison last winter while you made free of his
mother's home not a half-mile away. Be thankful I don't have
you arrested for the rent, or hound the people into treating you
Tory snakes as you deserve. No, you shall not stay to get
your clothes; into the street I'll bundle them when I have
got them together, and there you'll find them. Out with
you!"

Janice was for obeying, but Mrs. Meredith refused positively
to leave without packing. Hastily their scanty belongings were
bestowed in the two little leathern trunks they had brought
originally from Greenwood; these they dragged to the porch,
and, sitting upon them, held debate as to their next step.

Ere they had been able to hit upon some escape from the
nonplus, their attention was distracted by a rabble of men,
women, and boys, who suddenly swept around a corner and
flooded down the street toward them. With a premonition of
coming evil, Janice sprang to the knocker, and rapped desperately,
but their evictor paid no attention to the appeal. In a
moment the mob, which numbered not less than a thousand
people, reached the steps, hissing, hooting. and caterwauling,
and from the din rose such cries as: "Tory, Tory!" "Turn-coats!"
"Where are the bloody-backs?" "Ain't we draggle-tails now?"

"Order!" shouted a man in a cart pulled by some of the
crowd, for which a way was made by all so that it could be
wheeled up to the sidewalk opposite where the two women,
holding each other's hands, were despairingly facing the crowd.
"Remember, I passed my oath to General Arnold that there 'ud
be no violence; an' if we don't keep it, the troops will be down
on us. an' some on you will spend a night in the guard-house"

"Hooray!" cheered some one, and the mass echoed the
cry.

The spokesman turned to the Merediths. "We know'd the
Fourth o' July ain't no joyous day to you-alls, so we've done
our bestest to keep you from thinkin' of it by bringin' some
one to call on you. Ain't you glad to see again your old friend,
Miss Shy Anna?"

As the speaker finished, he stepped to one side, bringing
into view of the porch a woman seated upon the head of a
barrel in the cart. A poor army drab, left behind in the evacuation,
had been decked out in what Janice instantly recognised
as her Mischianza costume; and with hair dressed so that
it stood up not less than two feet above her forehead, splashed
over with white paint, a drink-coloured face, doubly red in contrast,
and bare feet, with an expanse of more than ankle in a
similar nakedness below the trousers, she made up in all a
figure so droll that under any other circumstances Janice would
have laughed.

"We are escortin' Miss Shy Anna--who ain't really very
shy--to see all her friends of The Blended Rose and of
The Burning Mountain, an' as we hate airs an' pride, we
demands that each give her a kiss. Just make a way for Miss
Meredith to come and give her the chaste salute," he ordered
of the throng.

"Thou wilt not insist on such a humiliation for my daughter,"
appealed Mrs. Meredith.

"Insult!" cried the leader. "Who dares to say 't ain't an
honour to kiss one dressed in such clothes? Give the miss a
little help, boys, but gently. Don't do her no harm."

A dozen men were through the gate before the sentence was
finished, but outcries and a surge of the mob at this point gave
a new bent to the general attention. A horseman from the
direction opposite to that from which the crowd had come was
spurring, with little heed, through the mass, and the clamour
and movement were due to the commotion he precipitated.

In twenty seconds the rider, who was well coated with dust,
and whose horse was lathered with the sweat of fast riding, had
come abreast of the cart, and Janice gave a cry of joy. "Oh,
Colonel Brereton," she called, "save us, I beg!"

"What are you about?" demanded the new-comer, sternly,
of the crowd.