Books: Janice Meredith

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"But when did you arrive?" exclaimed the girl.

"The legions were landed at Hampton Road this morning
and reached camp an hour gone," explained the major. Still
retaining her hand, he turned to Clowes and said, "If I
understood you aright, my Lord, you told me you knew not
where Miss Meredith was to be found?"

"And Miss Meredith will bear me out in the statement,
sir, though I am quite willing that my word should stand by
itself," retorted the commissary, tartly. "Nor am I in the
habit of having it questioned by colonial striplings," he added
insultingly.

"Nor am I--" began Philemon, heatedly; but Janice
checked him by laying her free hand on his arm.

"'T is naught to take umbrage at, Phil," she said dissuadingly,
"and do not by quarrelling over a foolish nothing spoil
my pleasure in seeing you."

"That I'll not," acceded the major, heartily. "Ah,
Janice," he cried, unable to contain himself even before the
baron, "if you knew the thrill your words give me. Are
you truly glad to see me?"

"Yes, Phil, or I would not say so," answered the girl,
ingenuously.

Lord Clowes, a scowl on his face, turned from the two, to
avoid sight of Hennion's look of gladness. This brought him
gazing seaward, and he gave an exclamation. "Ho! What 's
here?"

The two faced about at his question, to see, just appearing
from behind the curve of the land to the southward, a full-rigged
ship, one mass of canvas from deck to spintle-heads,
and with a single row of ports which bespoke the man-of-war.

"'T is a frigate," announced Clowes, "and no doubt sent
to convoy the transports we have been awaiting. Yes; there
comes another. 'T is the fleet, beyond question," he continued,
as the first vessel having opened from the land, the
bowsprit of a second began to appear.

The three stood silent as the two ships towering pyramids of
sails, making them marvels of beauty, swept onward with slow
dignity across the mouth of the York River, at this point
nearly three miles wide, toward the Gloucester shore. Before
they had gone a quarter of a mile, a third and larger vessel
came sweeping into view, her two rows of ports showing her
to be a line-of-battle ship. Barely was she clear of the land
when a string of small flags broke out from her mizzen rigging,
and almost as if by magic, the yard arms of all three vessels
were alive with men, and royals, top gallants, and mainsails
with machine-like precision were dewed up and furled, and
each ship, stripped of all but its topsails, rounded to, with its
head to the wind.

"That is a strange manoeuvre," remarked Philemon. "Why
stop they outside, instead of sailing up the river?"

"They've hove to, no doubt, to wait a pilot, being strangers
to the waters," surmised Clowes, wheeling and looking up the
river townwards. "Ay, there goes some signal from the 'Charon's'
truck," he went on, as the British frigate anchored off the
town displayed three flags at her masthead.

Janice, thankful for the diversion the arrivals had caused,
said something to Philemon in a low voice, and they set out
toward the town. Not noticing the obvious attempt to escape
from his society, or to outward appearance perturbed, the
baron put himself alongside the two, and walked with them
until the custom-house was reached.

"Will you come in, Philemon, and see dadda and mommy?"
questioned the girl, as the three halted at the doorway.

As she spoke, an orderly, who a moment before had come
out of headquarters, made towards the major, and, saluting,
said, "Colonel Tarleton directs that you report at headquarters
without delay, sir."

"My answer is made for me, Janice," sighed Philemon.
"I fear me 't is some vidette duty, and that once
again we are doomed to part, just as I thought my hour had
come. Many more of such disappointments will turn me
from a soldier into a Quaker. However, 't is possible his
Lordship wants but to put some questions, and, if so, I'll be
with you shortly." He crossed the street and entered the
Nelson house.

Shown by the orderly to the room where Cornwallis was, he
found with him his colonel and a man in the uniform of a
naval officer.

"Ah, here he is," said the British general. "Major Hennion,
the three ships which have taken station at the mouth
of the river pay no heed to the 'Charon's 'signals, nor are theirs
to be read by our book, so 't is feared that they are French
ships. As 't is impossible to believe they would thus boldly
venture into the bay if alone, we wish to know if there are
others below. Furnish Lieutenant Foley with a mount, and,
with an escort of a troop, guide him over the road you came
to-day to some spot where a view of the roadstead at Old
Point Comfort is to be commanded." Speaking to the naval
officer, he enjoined, "You will carefully observe any shipping
there may be, sir, and of what force, and report to me with
the least possible delay."

It was a little after ten o'clock on the following day when a
troop of hot and weary-looking horses and men clattered
along the main street of the town and drew up in front of
headquarters. Throwing himself from the saddle, Major
Hennion hurried into the house. The moment he was in the
presence of Cornwallis, he said: "'T is as you surmised,
general. Between thirty and forty sail stretch from Lynnhaven
Bay to the mouth of the James, and though 't was difficult to
exactly estimate their force, they are mostly men of war, and
some even three-deckers."

"Beyond question 't is the French West India fleet," burst
from Cornwallis. For a moment he was silent, then sternly
demanded, "Where is Lieutenant Foley?"

"The gentlemen of the navy, sir, are more used to oak than
to leather, and we set him such a pace that twelve miles back
he could no longer sit his saddle, and we left him leading his
horse, thinking this information could not be brought you too
soon."

"It but proves the old saying that 'Ill news has wings,'"
replied the earl, steadily, as he walked to the window and
looked out into the garden. Here he stood silently for so
long that finally Hennion spoke.

"I beg your pardon, general," he said, "but am I
dismissed?"

All the reply Cornwallis made him was to ask, "When you
first came amongst us, major, you spoke with the barbaric provincialism
and nasal twang of your countrymen, but in your
years with us you have lost them. Could you upon occasion
resume both?"

"Indeed, my Lord," replied the officer, smiling, "'t is even
yet a constant struggle to keep from it."

"The word you bring must be got to Clinton without question
of fail and with the least possible delay. Are you willing
to volunteer for a service of very great risk?"

"Does your Lordship for a moment question it?"

"Not I. To-night we will try to steal a small sloop out of
the river with a despatch for Clinton; but we must not place
our whole dependence on this means, and a second must be
sent him overland. Get you a meal, sir, and a fresh horse,
and from some civilian or negro procure such clothes as are
fitting for a travelling peddler. I will order you a pack and a
stock of such things as are appropriate from the public stores,
and you shall at once be rowed across the river and must
make your way as best you can northward to New York.
Dost understand?"

"Ay, my Lord," replied Major Hennion, his hand already
on the door-latch.

Left alone, Cornwallis stood for a moment, his lips pressed
together, then summoning an aide, he gave him certain
directions, after which, going to his writing-desk, he pulled
out a drawer and from it took quite a batch of Continental
and State currency. Seating himself at his desk, he laid one
of the notes upon it, and taking his penknife he very neatly
and dexterously split the bill through half its length. Taking
from his pocket a wallet, he drew from it a sheet of paper
covered with numbers and syllables, which was indorsed,
"Cipher No. I." Writing on a scrap of paper a few words,
he then alternately looked at what he had penned and at the
cipher, taking down on one of the inner surfaces of the bill a
series of numbers. Scarcely had he done his task when a
knock came at the door, and in response to his summons a
negress entered.

"'Scuse me, your Lordship," she said with a bob. "De
captain, he say youse done want a leetle flour gum."

"Yes. Give it to me and leave the room," answered the
earl.

Touching his finger in the saucer she had brought, Cornwallis
rubbed it inside the split along the three edges, and
then laying the bill on his desk, he patted the edges where
they had been split, together, wiping them clean with his
handkerchief. Running over the pile of currency, he sorted
out some fifty notes, then taking a sheet of paper, he began a
letter.

Before the earl had finished what he was writing, he was
again interrupted, and the new-comer proved to be Major
Hennion, clothed in an old suit of butternut-coloured linen.
And as if in laying aside his red coat, shorts, and boots he had
as well laid aside military rank, he seemed to have already
reverted to his old slouch.

"Good," exclaimed Cornwallis, as he rose. "Are your
other preparations all made?"

"Every one, general; and my horse and pack are already
at the river-side."

The earl took the pile of sorted bills from his desk and
handed them to Hennion. "There is the money to pay your
way," he said, "all Continental Loan office or Virginia currency,
save one of North Carolina for forty shillings, which on
no account are you to part with, even if any one in the States
to the northward will accept it, for I have split it open and
written within it to Sir Henry Clinton the news I have to tell.
Say to him that a few moments in water will serve to part the
edges where they have been gummed together. I give you
the note, that if you are caught, you may still find some means
to send it on. But lest by mischance it should be lost or
taken from you, and you should yet be able to reach New
York, I have here the words I have written in cipher within
the bill. Have you a good memory?"

"For facts, if not for words, my Lord."

The general took up from his desk the little memorandum
he had written before using his cipher and read out: "An
enemy's fleet within the Capes. Between thirty and forty
ships of war, mostly large." "Spare not your speed, sir, yet
take no unnecessary risk," ended the earl, as he held out his
hand.

As Hennion took it, he said: "I will endeavour not to fail
your Lordship in either respect; in going, however, I have one
favour to crave of you. I leave behind me my promised
bride, Miss Meredith; and I beg of you that she shall not
want for any service that your Lordship can render her, or that
I could do were I but here."

"'T is given," promised the earl, and on the word Hennion
hurried from the room. Crossing the street, he knocked at
the custom-house, and of the servant inquired, "Is Miss
Meredith within?"

"No, sir," replied the soldier.

Where is she?"

"I know not, sir. She left the house an hour ago."

With something suspiciously like an oath, the major turned
away and, hurrying along the street, descended that which
sloped down the bluff to the river. Here stood an officer,
while in the water lay a flatboat which already held, besides
two rowers, a horse and a pair of fat saddle-bags. Without a
word Phil jumped in and the rowers struck their oars into the
water.

At the same time that Major Hennion's party had been
despatched to gain news of the fleet, other troops of Tarleton's
and Simcoe's cavalry had been thrown out on scouting parties
across the peninsula to the James, and the following day they
brought word that the French were busily engaged in landing
troops from their ships at Jamestown, with the obvious intention
of effecting a junction with Lafayette's brigades, which were
at Williamsburg. A council of war was held that evening to
debate whether the British force should not march out and
attack them; but it was recognised that even if they completely
crushed the French and Americans, they had themselves made
escape southward impossible by the care with which they had
destroyed the bridges and ferries in their march into Virginia,
while if they fled northward, they would certainly have to
fight Washington's army long before they could reach New
York. It was therefore unanimously voted that the least hazardous
course was to remain passive in their present position.

Five days after this decision, a deserter from Lafayette's
camp came into the British lines, bringing with him the news
that it was openly talked in Williamsburg that Washington
and Rochambeau, with their armies, were coming to join the
troops already in Virginia. Nor were the British long able to
continue their doubting of his assertions, for a Tory brought in
the same tale, and with it a copy of the "Baltimore Journal,"
which printed the positive statement that the Northern army
was on the march southward and was already arrived at Wilmington.
A second council of war was therefore summoned
to debate once again their difficulties; but ere the general and
field officers had met, a schooner, eluding the French vessels
which blockaded the mouth of the river, arrived from New
York, bringing a despatch from Sir Henry Clinton, in which
he assured the encircled general that the British fleet would
quickly sail to relieve him, and that he himself, with four
thousand men, would follow close upon its heels. The order
for the council was therefore recalled; and Cornwallis turned
the whole energies of the force under his command to
strengthening his lines and in other ways making ready to
resist the gathering storm.

LXI
IN THE TOILS

On the morning of the 6th of October, twelve thousand
American and French soldiers lay encamped
in the form of a broad semi-circle almost a mile
from the British earthworks about Yorktown. Still
nearer, in a deep ravine, above which were some outworks
that had been abandoned by the British on the approach of
the allies, were the outposts; and these, lacking tents, had
hutted themselves with boughs. Intermittently came the roar
of a cannon from the British lines, and those in the hollow
could occasionally see and hear a shell as it screeched past
them overhead; but they gave not one-tenth the heed to
it that they gave to the breakfast they were despatching.
Indeed, their sole grumblings were at the meagreness of the
ration which had been dealt out to them the night before ere
they had been marched forward into their present position;
and as a field officer, coming from the American camp,
descended into the ravine, these found open expression.

"'T is mighty fine fer the ginral ter say in the ginral orders
that he wants us if attacked ter rely on the bagonet," spoke
up one of the murmurers loud enough to make it evident that
he intended the officer to overhear him; "but no troops kin
fight on a shred o' salt pork and a mouthful of collards."

The officer halted, and speaking more to all those within
hearing than to the man, said: "You got as good as any of
the Continental regiments, boys, and better than some."

"That may be, kun'l," answered the complainant, "but
how about the dandies?"

"Yes," assented the officer. "We sent the French regiments
all the flour and fresh meat the commissaries could lay
hands on, I grant you. Is there one of you who would have
kept it from them for his own benefit?"

"P'raps not," acknowledged another, "but that don't make
it any the less unfairsome."

"Remember they come to help us, and are really our
guests. Nor are they accustomed to the privation we know
too well. General Washington has surety that you can fight
on an empty stomach, for you've done it many a time, but he
is not so certain of the French."

The remark was greeted with a general laugh, which seemed
to dissipate the grievance.

"Lord!" exclaimed a corporal; "them fine birds do need
careful tending."

"'T ain't ter be wondered at thet the Frenchies is so keerful
ter bring their tents with 'em," remarked a third. "Whatever
would happen ter one o' them Soissonnais fellers, with his
rose-coloured facings an' his white an' rose feathers, if he
had ter sleep in a bowery along o' us? Some on 'em looks so
pretty, thet it don't seem right ter even trust 'em out in a heavy
dew." As he ended, the speaker looked down at his own
linen overalls. "T ain't no shakes they laughs a bit at us an
won't believe we are really snogers."

"'T is for us to make them laugh the other way before
we've done Cornwallis's business," remarked the officer.
"But make up your minds to one thing, boys, if their caps
are full of feathers and their uniforms more fit for a ball-room
than for service, these same fine-plumaged birds can fight; and
there must be no lagging if we are to prove ourselves their
betters, or even their equals."

"We'll show 'em what the Jarsey game-cocks kin do, an
don't you be afeared, kun'l."

As the assertion was made, a group of officers appeared on
the brow of the ravine, and the colonel turned and went forward
to meet them as they descended.

"How far in advance are your pickets, Colonel Brereton?"
one of them asked.

"About three hundred paces, your Excellency."

"And is the ground open?" demanded a second of the
party, with a markedly French accent.

"There is some timber cover, General du Portail, but 't is
chiefly open and rolling."

"We wish, sir, to advance as far as can be safely effected,"
said Washington, "and shall rely on you for guidance."

"This way, sir," answered Brereton; and the whole party
ascended out of the hollow through a side ravine which
brought them into a clump of poplars occupied by a party of
skirmishers, and which commanded a view of the British
earthworks. Halting at the edge of the timber, glasses were
levelled, and each man began a study of the enemy's lines.
Scarcely had they taken position when a puff of smoke rose
from one of the redoubts, and a shell came screeching towards
them, passing high enough to cut the branches of the trees over
their heads, and bringing them falling among the group. A
minute later a solid shot struck directly in their front, causing
all except the commander-in-chief to fall back out of sight
among the trees; but he, apparently unmoved by the danger,
calmly continued observing the enemies' works, and though
directly in their view, for some reason they did not fire again.

When Washington finally turned about and rejoined the
group, he said to Brereton: "Keep your men, sir, as they are
at present disposed, out of sight of the batteries, till evening;
then push your pickets forward as close to the town as they
can venture, with orders to fall back, unless attacked, only with
daylight. Last night the British put outside their lines a number
of blacks stricken with the small-pox; you will order your
skirmishers, therefore, to fire on them if they endeavour to repeat
the attempt, for even the dictates of humanity cannot allow us
to jeopardise the health of our army. Hold your regiment in
readiness to move out at nightfall in support of the pioneers
who will begin breaking ground this evening. Further and
specific orders will reach you later through the regular
channels."

It was already dark when Brereton, guiding General du
Portail and the engineers, once more came out upon the plain.
Following after them were a corps of sappers and miners, regiments
detailed as pioneers, carrying intrenching tools, regiments
armed as usual, to support them if attacked, and carts
loaded with bags of sand, empty barrels, fascines, and gabions.
Advancing cautiously, each man keeping touch with the one
in front of him, they went forward until within six hundred
yards of the British position. Without delay, by means of
lanterns which were screened from the foe by being carried in
half-barrels, the engineering tapes were laid down, and with
pick and shovel the fatigue party went to work, the eagerness
of the men being such that, despite of orders, the men from
the supporting regiments, leaving their muskets in charge of
their fellow-soldiers, would join in the toil. Nor did their
colonels reprove them for this; but, on the contrary, Brereton,
finding six men from one company engaged in rolling a large
rock out of the ditch and to the top of the rapidly waxing pile
of earth in its rear, said approvingly: "Well done, boys.
I've a wager with the Marquis de Chastellux that an American
battery fires the first shot, and I see you intend that I shall
win the bet."

"Arrah, 't is in yez pocket aready, colonel," cried one of
the sappers. "Sure, how kin a Frinchman expect to bate us
whin nary ground-hog nor baver, the aither av thim, is theer in
his counthry to tache him how to work wid earth an' timber?"

So well was the night spent that when morning dawned the
British found a long line of new earthworks stretched along
their front; and though instantly their guns began cannonading
them, the men were now protected and could dig on,
unheeding of the fire. Indeed, such was the enthusiasm that
when at six o'clock the order came for the regiments to fall
in, and it was found that they were to be replaced by fresh
troops, there was open grumbling. "'T is we did the work,"
complained a sergeant, "and now them fellows who slept all
night will steal the glory."

"Not a bit of it, boys," denied Brereton, as he was passing
down the lines preparatory to giving the order of march.
"There are still redoubts to be made and the guns are not up
yet. 'T will come our turn in the trenches again before they
are."

Their commander spoke wittingly, for two days it took to
get the trenches, and the redoubts thrown out in advance of
them, completed, and the heavy siege-guns were not moved
forward until after dark on the 8th. All night long and the
most of the following morning the men toiled, placing them in
position, paying no attention to the unceasing thunder of the
British guns, unless to stop momentarily and gaze with admiration
at the shells, each with its tail of fire, as they curved
through the air, or to crack a joke over some one which flew
especially near.

"Bark away," laughed one, as he affectionately patted a
twenty-four pounder just moved into its position, while shaking
his other fist toward Yorktown. "Scold while ye kin, for 't is
yer last chance. Like men, we've sat silent for nine days, an' let
ye, like women, do the talkin', but it 's to-morrow mornin' ye'll
find that, if we've kept still, it 's not been for want of a tongue."

It was noon when Brereton came hurrying into the battery
to find the men sleeping among the guns, where they had
dropped after their hard labour.

"How is it, Jack?" questioned the officer in command.

"General du Portail has reported the battery completed, and
he tells me we've beat the French by at least two hours."

A wild yell of joy broke from one of the apparently unconscious
men, bringing most of the sleepers scrambling to
their feet and grasping for their weapons. "I said they could
never dig in them clothes!" he cried.

"'T is however to be another 'Gentlemen of the guards,
fire first,'" went on Brereton. "General Washington, as a
compliment to the French, has decided that their guns shall
fire the first shot."

A growl came from the captain of the nearest cannon. "I
promised the old gal," he muttered discontentedly, his hand
on his thirty-two pounder, "that she should begin it, an'
she's sighted to knock over that twelve pounder that 's been
teasin' us, or may I never fire gun agin."

"She'll do it just as well on the second shot," said Colonel
Lamb, "and who cares which fires first, since we've beat them."

It was three o'clock when Washington and Rochambeau,
accompanied by their staffs, came out of the covert-way which
permitted entrance and egress to a French redoubt, from the
trenches in its rear, and infantry and gunners came to the
"present."

"Votre Excellence," said Colonel d'Aboville, saluting, "moi
cannoniers vous implorent de leur donner l'honneur immortel
en mettant feu au premier coup de cannon."

Washington, realizing that the speech was addressed to him,
turned to Rochambeau with a helpless and questioning look.

"Zay desire zat your Excellency does zem ze honneur to
fire ze first gun," explained the French general.

Washington removed his hat and bowed. "Try as we will,
count," he said, "we cannot equal your nation in politeness."
In silence he stepped forward to the gun the colonel indicated,
and the captain of the piece handed him the loggerhead with
a salute and then fell back respectfully.

Washington touched the red-hot iron to the port fire;
there was a puff of smoke, a deafening crash; and the great
gun gave a little jump, as if for joy. A thousand pairs of eyes
strained after the solid shot as it flew, then as it disappeared
over the British earthworks and was heard to go tearing its
way through some wall a great shout went up from one end of
the lines of the allies, to the other.

Instantly came the roar of the other five cannon, and two
ten-inch mortars echoed their thunder by sending ten-inch
shells curving high in the air. Ere they descended one of the
guns peeping from a British redoubt rose on end and disappeared;
raising another cheer. At last the siege was
begun.