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diff --git a/77341-h/77341-h.htm b/77341-h/77341-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d3c469e --- /dev/null +++ b/77341-h/77341-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,7593 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html lang="en"> + +<head> + +<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> + +<link rel="icon" href="images/img-cover.jpg" type="image/x-cover"> + +<meta charset="utf-8"> + +<title> +The Project Gutenberg eBook of Beatrice of Old York, by E. A. Taylor +</title> + +<style> + +body { color: black; + background: white; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; + text-align: justify } + +p {text-indent: 1.5em } + +p.noindent {text-indent: 0% } + +p.t1 {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 200%; + text-align: center } + +p.t2 {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 150%; + text-align: center } + +p.t2b {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 150%; + font-weight: bold; + text-align: center } + +p.t3 {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 100%; + text-align: center } + +p.t3b {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 100%; + font-weight: bold; + text-align: center } + +p.t4 {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 80%; + text-align: center } + +p.t4b {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 80%; + font-weight: bold; + text-align: center } + +p.t5 {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 60%; + text-align: center } + +h1 { text-align: center } +h2 { text-align: center } +h3 { text-align: center } +h4 { text-align: center } +h5 { text-align: center } + +p.poem {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; } + +p.contents {text-indent: -3%; + margin-left: 5% } + +p.thought {text-indent: 0% ; + letter-spacing: 2em ; + text-align: center } + +p.letter {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10% ; + margin-right: 10% } + +p.footnote {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 80%; + margin-left: 10% ; + margin-right: 10% } + +.smcap { font-variant: small-caps } + +p.transnote {text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 10% ; + margin-right: 10% } + +p.quote {text-indent: 4% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +p.finis { font-size: larger ; + text-align: center ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +p.capcenter { margin-left: 0; + margin-right: 0 ; + margin-bottom: .5% ; + margin-top: 0; + font-weight: normal; + float: none ; + clear: both ; + text-indent: 0%; + text-align: center } + +img.imgcenter { margin-left: auto; + margin-bottom: 0; + margin-top: 1%; + margin-right: auto; } + +</style> + +</head> + +<body> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77341 ***</div> + +<p><br><br></p> + +<p class="capcenter"> +<a id="img-front"></a> +<br> +<img class="imgcenter" src="images/img-front.jpg" alt=""If Miss Bee is willing I can drive her to the Towers.""> +<br> +"If Miss Bee is willing I can drive her to the Towers." +</p> + +<h1> +<br><br> + BEATRICE OF OLD YORK<br> +</h1> + +<p><br></p> + +<p class="t3"> + BY<br> +</p> + +<p class="t2"> + E. A. TAYLOR<br> +</p> + +<p><br><br></p> + +<p class="t3"> + <i>Illustrated by</i><br> + L. A. GOVEY<br> +</p> + +<p><br><br></p> + +<p class="t3"> + TORONTO<br> + THE MUSSON BOOK COMPANY, LIMITED<br> +</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<p class="t4"> + COPYRIGHT, CANADA, 1929<br> +</p> + +<p class="t4"> + THE MUSSON BOOK COMPANY, LTD.<br> + PUBLISHERS TORONTO<br> +</p> + +<p><br><br></p> + +<p class="t4"> + PRINTED IN CANADA<br> + T. H. BEST PRINTING CO., LIMITED<br> + TORONTO, ONT.<br> +</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<p class="t3b"> +CONTENTS +</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<p class="noindent"> +CHAPTER +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +I. <a href="#chap01">How Bee Goode of Boston, came to +England</a> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +II. <a href="#chap02">The Man who Preached in Noah's Ark +and Some of His Hearers</a> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +III. <a href="#chap03">A Voyage to Canada in 1812</a> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +IV. <a href="#chap04">How Ned came to York (Toronto)</a> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +V. <a href="#chap05">How the Americans came to York, April +27, 1813</a> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +VI. <a href="#chap06">How Ned Lost His Good Name and +Vere His Soul</a> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +VII. <a href="#chap07">How Ned Planned to Justify Bee's Faith</a> +in Him +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +VIII. <a href="#chap08">How Ned Had Many Adventures, and +Bee becomes a Woman</a> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +IX. <a href="#chap09">How Ned Won the "Bubble Reputation", +at the Cannon's Mouth</a> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +X. <a href="#chap10">How Vere came to Newark, and Bee +consented to be Betrothed to Him</a> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +XI. <a href="#chap11">Kawque takes a Hand in the Game</a> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +XII. <a href="#chap12">How Bee was Abducted—and the End</a> +</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<p class="t3b"> +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +<a href="#img-front">"If Miss Bee is willing I can drive her to the +Towers."</a> ... <i>Frontispiece</i> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +<a href="#img-037">"Miss Bee," exclaimed Ned, "are you hurt? +What is the matter?"</a> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +<a href="#img-109">"Dropped noiselessly overboard and swam +ashore."</a> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +<a href="#img-152">"Outside in the bitter cold a crowd of women +and children moved about aimlessly."</a> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +<a href="#img-170">"Take that! you coward!"</a> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +<a href="#img-204">"Then on the other side of the tree they saw +her—or her spirit."</a> +</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<p class="t3b"> +BEATRICE OF OLD YORK +</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<p><a id="chap01"></a></p> + +<p class="t2"> +Beatrice of Old York +</p> + +<p><br><br></p> + +<h3> +CHAPTER I. +<br><br> +How Bee Goode, of Boston, Came to England. +</h3> + +<p> +The stage coach from Plymouth to +London had left two passengers at +Liddon, a little manufacturing town +in a dimple of the great chalk downs of +Dorsetshire. Dobson, the coachman with the +big carriage from Haslem Towers looked at +them perplexed. His orders from his +master, Colonel Sir John Haslem, were to meet +the stage. Vere Haslem, Sir John's +fifteen-year-old grandson and heir, had gone to +Plymouth to meet his cousin, Beatrice Haslem, +from York, in the mysterious far-off +Canadas. But Vere was not to be seen, and there +only alighted from the coach an enormous +negress with a scarlet and orange turban +and a small white girl whom Dobson did +not notice for a minute. He was wondering +in horror if this awful-looking savage could +possibly be his master's granddaughter. He +knew that Mary Haslem had made a runaway +marriage with an unknown American +twenty years before, and that her father had +sworn never to forgive her. But she and her +husband were dead, and he had consented +that the Canadian guardians of her youngest +child, Beatrice, should send her to him, +and call her by her mother's name of +Haslem. +</p> + +<p> +Dobson had a vague idea that all Americans +were Red Indians, and thinking that +this black woman might be a variation of the +race, he touched his cap in some trepidation, +saying questioningly: "Miss Beatrice Haslem?" +</p> + +<p> +"I am Miss Bee Goode, of Boston," said +the child by the side of the woman, in a +composed, distinct voice. Dobson looked at +her; a slip of an eleven-year-old girl, +pale-faced beside the rosy English children, and +wearing the miniature woman's dress which +was the fashion of the day—a green stuff +gown, short-sleeved and cut low at the neck, +with its waist-line under her arms, and a +straight, narrow skirt. On her yellow curls +she wore a very large straw bonnet trimmed +with flowers, and tied under her chin with +huge bows of ribbon. Long black lace mitts +and a handbag of gay flowered chintz +completed her costume. +</p> + +<p> +"She's Haslem all right—furren too, +though," thought Dobson embarrassed by +her unchildlike, shrewd, gray eyes. Then he +said aloud, "I was to meet Mr. Vere, and +Miss Beatrice Haslem, Miss." +</p> + +<p> +"I do not like my cousin Vere," said the +child calmly, "and he stayed behind at +Plymouth. Also my name is Goode, and unless +you call me by it I will not go with you to +see my grandfather." +</p> + +<p> +Dobson looked helpless, and a boy came +forward from among the interested spectators +of the little scene. He looked about +fifteen, with a sturdy figure, and honest, +good-tempered face. He wore a tall black +silk hat, and a man's suit of bright blue cloth, +the coat with long flapping tails and a very +high stiff collar. "Dobson," he said, "I have +the pony here, and if Miss Bee is willing I +can drive her to the Towers, while you take +her maid and the baggage. And Dobson, +you needn't mention Mr. Vere not being +here." Then turning to Bee he added formally, +"I am Ned Edgar, at your service, Miss +Bee, I think you may have heard of me." +</p> + +<p> +Ned had thought Bee very homely till he +spoke to her; then he saw her eyes grow +soft in an instant, and her cold little face +flashed with smiles that made her fascinating, +if not lovely. "Oh, I know your father," +she exclaimed, "He is Mr. Edgar, fur-trader, +of York in Upper Canada. I love him and +Mrs. Edgar, your step-mother. I have lived +with them since my mother died; and I was +hoping to meet you when I came here." +</p> + +<p> +So Ned drove Bee through the narrow +streets of the town, pointing out the old +house in its big garden, where he lived with +Dr. Brown, his dead mother's father. "He +is a Friend," said Ned, "but as the Friends +have no meeting house here we go to the +Methodist chapel—that's it there—we call it +Noah's Ark." +</p> + +<p> +"I know Mr. Edgar went to Canada when +you were born and your mother died," said +Bee. "But he never said you were a Methodist; +he don't like them at all." +</p> + +<p> +"I'm not a professor yet," Ned answered, +then had some trouble to explain to Bee +what it meant. The woollen workers of +Liddon were almost all Methodists, while +out of the town the gentry and their farmer +tenants went to the Church of England, the +two classes living entirely separate lives. +Ned went to school with Vere Haslem, and a +friendship had grown between the boys, +partly because it was discouraged by the +elders on both sides. To Sir John, Ned was +a tradesman's son, brought up in the +unspeakable religion of the Quakers, and a +most unfit companion for a Haslem, all of +whom were "soldiers and gentlemen". While +in straight-laced Liddon to become a +professor—to profess conversion—was the one aim +in life. They took their religion very +seriously; classes, preachings, and quarterly +meetings were their only dissipations, and +many heads were shaken over Ned's friendship +with handsome, idle Vere, brought up +to think a gentleman's business was war, his +amusements heavy drinking and hunting, +and his only religion a soldier's code of +honour. And Liddon groaned over Sundays +at the Towers, spent in cock-fighting, +hunting or cards, winding up with the dinner, +where often every man, including the parish +rector, got drunk. +</p> + +<p> +Ned wondered how bright, odd, Bee would +get on with her autocratic grandfather; then +asked how it happened Vere was not with +her. +</p> + +<p> +"I detest the creature," said Bee decidedly. +"He laughed at my name, and went with +some horrid boys to a cock-fight. And as it +was time for the stage to start I came on +with Mammy Chloe and left him." +</p> + +<p> +"Vere generally wriggles out of his +scrapes," said Ned, "and I expect he posted +up after you, but Sir John will be very angry +with him if he knows he didn't obey him and +come with you." +</p> + +<p> +"I don't tell tales," said Bee contemptuously; +then she exclaimed in delighted wonder, +for they had left the town, and driven +through great gates into a wooded park. +</p> + +<p> +It was Haslem Towers, Ned told her, and +Bee forgot to keep up her air of American +indifference to all things English as they +drove up the long winding avenue of glorious +oaks and elms. Large-eyed deer moved +among the trees, and Bee exclaimed again +as she saw a flash of water. They came out +by a little lake where white swans sailed, +and beyond it, flanked by pleasure gardens, +rose a stately pile of white stone—the +Towers. +</p> + +<p> +"The three towers are two hundred feet +high and the newest part of it is three +hundred years old," said Ned. "I don't know +when a Haslem didn't live here." +</p> + +<p> +"Cousin Vere said he would have it all +when grandfather dies," said Bee. "It's too +good for him. Who will have it when he +dies?" +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, he'll grow up and have children most +likely, but just now the next heir is Captain +Percy Haslem. His wife, Mrs. Betty, is staying +at the Towers, and he is visiting there, +for his regiment is marching from Ireland +across England, and is camping to-night in +this neighbourhood." +</p> + +<p> +They went through the great doors into a +vast hall, where Bee was welcomed by Sir +John, a militant looking old gentleman, +sharp-tongued, rather thick-headed, and +very soft-hearted where his own were +concerned. With him was Betty Haslem, a +very pretty young woman, with affectedly +languid manners, and dressed in a +high-waisted, narrow-skirted Empire gown of +flowered muslin. Her fair hair was piled on +the top of her head, and ringlets hung down +on either side. +</p> + +<p> +They were both prepared to be very kind +to a nervous child, but Bee was not at all +shy. She said she had let Ned bring her +because she knew his father, and no one asked +after Vere. Betty's afternoon "dish of tea" +was brought in, with more solid refreshments, +which Ned found he had to sit down +to with Bee. He refused to touch the fruit +pie which was pressed on him, then the sweet +cakes too, while he felt himself growing +furiously red under Betty's disdainful eyes. +</p> + +<p> +"I protest, uncle," she said to Sir John, "I +never knew a boy to refuse everything sweet +before. What ails the creature?" +</p> + +<p> +"He is a Methodist, Betty," said Sir John +dryly, "and I believe that it's one of the +articles of their faith not to eat sugar." +</p> + +<p> +"A Methodist! I hear of them everywhere," +exclaimed Betty. "But I shall die +of curiosity if someone doesn't tell me at +once why the creatures won't eat sweets." +</p> + +<p> +"It is only sugar that Friends and many +Methodists won't eat, Mrs. Haslem," said +Ned flushing. "We are pledged not to taste +sugar or rum till slavery is abolished in our +West Indies. We use honey for sweetening." +</p> + +<p> +"Then you can't make pastry or light +cakes," said Betty; "honey would make them +soggy." +</p> + +<p> +"I have never tasted pie in my life, +Mrs. Haslem," smiled Ned. +</p> + +<p> +"You can when you go to your father in +Canada," said Bee, "for there they get their +sugar out of maple trees, and anyhow Canada +abolished slavery in 1797." +</p> + +<p> +Sir John asked Bee about her voyage, and +she answered directly, "We had a very quick +one, sir, only twenty-seven days. We left +Quebec on July 14 and reached Plymouth +on August 10. There were forty-two ships +in our convoy, with the warship 'Primrose' +to guard us from the wicked French." +</p> + +<p> +Sir John chatted with her, so pleased with +her intelligence and fearlessness, that when +at last she boldly said that she must be +called by her father's name, he only laughed. +"She's too fine for rough handling," he +thought. +</p> + +<p> +"A little thoroughbred all through," he +told Mrs. Betty later, "and a few years of +proper English living will make her ashamed +to own that she had such a scoundrel father. +I'll wager that she's all Haslem, not a low +drop of blood in her. Queer too, when her +father was one of that crew of pirates and +matricides who, with less morals than +savages, fought us under Washington, and +made most of our American colonies into +an infernal Republic. Ay, and now in 1810, +when we're fighting single-handed with that +crowned hyena Bonaparte, all their +sympathy is with those French assassins." +</p> + +<p> +Meanwhile Betty talked to Ned, dropping +her scorn and affection. The boy's +simple manliness had won her respect, and +when he left she shook hands with him, +though Sir John raised his eyebrows. "It's +no kindness, Betty, to give the lower class +ideas above their station," he said. "Ned +will do well unless he thinks he ought to be +better than his birth made him, then he'll +go wrong, mark my words. He's being +educated too much as it is." +</p> + +<p> +"La, uncle," yawned Betty, "it's easy to +see you were born long before the French +Revolution; since that upset nobody really +believes in anything. I'm an atheist in +politics as well as in religion." +</p> + +<p> +"Don't, Betty, before the child. I'm +thankful you are a lady-born." +</p> + +<p> +"And so can't go wrong, eh? Well, I was +taught that as long as a man's not a coward +or liar, everything can be excused, and I +really think Methodism is as excusable as +some things I have been required to overlook +in fine gentlemen. A boy who refuses +sweets for conscience' sake, and won't give +way even when a woman ridicules him can +never be a coward or tell a lie. And if I +were Vere's guardian, I should encourage his +friendship with Ned Edgar." +</p> + +<p> +Sir John frowned, but before he could +retort, Vere, a very handsome boy, came in. +He was followed by Percy Haslem in his +captain's uniform, who, like Betty, his wife, +spoke and moved with affected langour. +</p> + +<p> +Sir John spoke irritatedly to Vere. "How +is it, sir, that you left your cousin to be +brought home by that doctor's boy?" +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, Ned's all right, sir. He met the coach +and claimed Bee because his father was her +guardian in Canada, so I rode over to meet +Cousin Percy." +</p> + +<p> +"Insolence," growled Sir John. "To think +he had such assurance, and I was blaming +you for running off and letting him do it. +Mark my words, it would be a kindness to +give that boy a lesson that would break his +proud spirit, otherwise he'll end on the gallows." +</p> + +<p> +"Don't uncle, before the child!" mimicked +Betty. "You'll frighten her." +</p> + +<p> +"I'm not ever afraid of white men," said +Bee calmly. "I'm only afraid of Red Indians +when they have war paint on. I hate them; +and I despise white men who tell lies." +</p> + +<p> +"Haslem all through," chuckled Sir John, +but Vere flushed angrily. He knew by +instinct that Bee would not tell tales, but he +hated her for her contempt of him, as he had +never hated anyone before. +</p> + +<p> +Sir John was talking to Percy who had +just returned from unhappy south Ireland +to whom England then was too busy to show +justice, much less mercy. His regiment had +been recruited there, and the country was in +such dangerous ferment that all Irish +soldiery had been withdrawn, and English sent +there. Sir John denounced all Irish, +"Traitors and papists!" he growled. "A heavy +hand and the cat o' nine tails is the only +way to keep them down." +</p> + +<p> +"This regiment isn't all Papists, sir," put +in Vere. "A little soldier spoke to me, +saying he was a Methodist, and asking if there +were any 'serious people' near. I told him +that Liddon was the prize serious town in +England, and that it had a Methodist chapel +called Noah's Ark, because only those who +go to it can be saved. I made him think I +was 'serious', and he told me—Cousin Betty, +you'll die of laughing when you hear—he, a +private in the ranks, and Irish at that, +preaches, yes preaches, in the streets, and in +Methodist chapels when the regiment halts +over Sunday near one. He'll be trying to +speak in Noah's Ark to-morrow." +</p> + +<p> +"Impossible," said Sir John angrily. +"Percy, do you know what Vere means?" +</p> + +<p> +"Very much what he says, sir. The man +is George Ferguson, north Irish, born in +Derry. He worked there in a muslin factory +till a year ago, when the hard times caused +by the war threw him out of work. There +was nothing to do anywhere, he had a young +wife, and finding she would be taken on the +strength of the regiment if he enlisted, he +did so, to save them both from starving. He +is a strong Methodist, with a taste for +preaching, and the regiment, who are nearly +all Catholics, nick-named him the Swaddler +Priest." +</p> + +<p> +"The what?" exclaimed Betty. +</p> + +<p> +"Swaddler, my dear. The first Methodist +preacher who went to Ireland in the days of +Mr. Wesley, preached his first sermon on the +text, 'She brought forth her firstborn Son, +and wrapped Him in swaddling clothes', and +Irish Methodists are always called Swaddlers." +</p> + +<p> +"And whenever did you become an authority +on Methodism?" exclaimed Sir John. +</p> + +<p> +"Ferguson has been my servant, sir, and +while I am an infidel myself, I find him +interesting. He can read and write, but he +must have a hard life. He probably thought +that entering the ranks would only mean the +irksomeness of a discipline he had never been +accustomed to, and the possible dangers of +war. He didn't realize he would have to live +in the closest companionship with men of, +unfortunately, our lowest class, and their +brutish tastes must hurt his self-respect. Yet +I have never known him anything but +serenely cheerful. He not only keeps +himself above his surroundings, but he does it +as if the effort were enjoyable, and tries to +preach somewhere each Sunday." +</p> + +<p> +"I should have thought it impossible for a +north Irish Protestant to live in a south +Irish regiment," commented Betty. +</p> + +<p> +"I don't usually know much of what happens +in barracks," said Percy, "but I was +told—not by Ferguson—that when we were in +Dublin he joined some Methodists who were +preaching on the streets, and they gave out +he would speak in their chapel the next +Sunday. His comrades told him they would +whip him if he did, but of course he went, +and coming back, lay down on his cot and +went to sleep quietly. No one disturbed +him; the man who told me said they thought +they might find themselves up against something +bigger than they liked if they did. I +think that men of our people, no matter if +they are unsaintly themselves, respect a +saint. Ferguson lives a strictly correct life, +never touches drink, always does his duty, +and is always cheerful and ready to do a kind +act for a comrade." +</p> + +<p> +"What does the fellow preach about?" +growled Sir John. +</p> + +<p> +"I heard him once speaking just outside +the barracks to a crowd of soldiers and +passers-by, and he spoke so strongly against +swearing, that I refrain from profanity in his +presence, fearing that he might think it his +duty to reprove me if I did." +</p> + +<p> +"What's England coming to," shouted +Sir John, "when a private soldier is allowed +to set himself up as a teacher? The end will +be like when she let cobblers and tinkers +usurp the place of ordained clergymen, and +under that man whose name shall never be +spoken in Haslem Towers while I live, +dipped sacrilegious hands in the blood of her +sainted king, Charles I. And when you allow +a man to go as far as this Ferguson does, +Percy Haslem, you are a traitor to your +king." +</p> + +<p> +"My dear uncle," said the unruffled Percy, +"when Mr. Wesley began his work many +thought as you do, but since then, the Supreme +Being, or Fate, put a full stop to that +period of the world's history by the French +Revolution. Now no one is sure when our +dear lower classes may not demand our +heads; but we are quite sure that we would +rather have a revolution of Bible readers +than of atheists, so we let men like Ferguson +alone." +</p> + +<p class="thought"> +* * * +</p> + +<p> +So Bee spent her first evening at Haslem +Towers, and on the Sunday morning went +with the family to the beautiful old parish +church, which only lacked a preacher and +congregation to make it a perfect place of +worship, for in the pulpit a curate dashed +through the magnificent liturgy, and the +congregation was a handful of farmers and +the Towers' servants. +</p> + +<p> +Bee sat in the great square pew trying to +follow the service as she had learned to in +York with Mrs. Edgar, while Betty lolled in +a corner with a novel, and Vere was studying +out a trick with a pack of cards. Sir John +worshipped by doing nothing whatever, and +only Percy, good-humouredly, thinking Bee +might feel alone, looked at his prayer book +when he remembered it. +</p> + +<p> +In the afternoon Vere slipped off to the +Methodist Sunday School, which he attended +sometimes when his grandfather forgot to +forbid it. He brought home the news that +Ferguson had come to the school and been +asked to speak, which he did so well, that it +was announced he would preach that evening. +"I was with Ned," said Vere, "when +one of the elders asked Ferguson. Dr. Brown +was there too; he looked odd in his drab coat +and broad-brimmed hat by the soldier's +scarlet. Ferguson seemed taken aback. He +said, 'How do you know that I am not an +impostor?' And the elder said directly, 'You +would be the very first I ever met in the +army; a hypocrite could never stand it there. +He would be in torment indeed if he tried +to wear a mask as a soldier among soldiers.' Then +Dr. Brown asked him to have a dish of +tea with them. Methodism is awfully +upsetting. Think of even a Quaker, who is a +doctor, asking a private soldier, the lowest +class of all, to sit down with his wife!" +</p> + +<p> +"Vere," said Betty, "you shall take me to +this ridiculous Noah's Ark to-night. I am +dying to hear this Ferguson creature. We +will take Bee too, and Percy can come to +keep us out of mischief." +</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<p><a id="chap02"></a></p> + +<h3> +CHAPTER II. +<br><br> +The Man Who Preached in Noah's Ark, and<br> +Some of His Hearers. +</h3> + +<p> +Noah's Ark was a big, bare building, +frigid in its lack of adornment or +grace. Two things only made it fit +for a place of worship—one who preached +and those who listened. The woollen +workers of Liddon with their drab-gowned, +prim-bonneted women, filled the hard benches, +women and young children on one side of +the house, and men and boys on the other. +Percy and Vere were seated with Ned and +the doctor, with Betty and Bee just across +the broad aisle. They were fashionably late, +and the whole congregation were singing, +without a touch of instrumental music to +lead the hard strength of their voices— +</p> + +<p> +"Let the house of the Lord be filled with +glory, Hallilujah." +</p> + +<p> +Three times they sang the line, their +voices swelling in a harsh exaltation that +was almost menacing. +</p> + +<p> + "Let the preacher be filled with Thy love,<br> + Hallilujah.<br> + "Let the members be filled with Thy love,<br> + Hallilujah".<br> +</p> + +<p> +</p> + +<p> +Ten verses in all they sang, each consisting +of the triple repeating of one line. Betty +listened with the distaste of an educated music +lover, yet she was oddly fascinated by the +strength that showed in every note of the +shouted hymn. These Methodists hurled +their joy and confidence in God like a +gauntlet of defiance at some unseen foe, and +Percy's blood tingled. He recalled a morning +on the hills of Spain, before the battle of +Vimiero, when he had been with Wellington's +army. There was the same intense +sense of many men held together for one +thing, and swayed absolutely by one man's +words; but here, both the Commander and +Enemy of these Methodists were of the other +world, and according to Percy's arid philosophy, +probably did not exist. He had fed his +mind on Rousseau and Tom Paine, till he +believed the miraculous and supernatural +were scientifically impossible, and he felt +irritated at the very tangible faith of these +people in intangible possibilities. +</p> + +<p> +The congregation were seated again, and +George Ferguson in his regimentals, a splash +of scarlet in that hall of grays and drabs, +stood at the preacher's desk. He was a +slightly built man, about twenty-four, and +in no sense an orator, but he had a good voice +and delivery, and believed so intensely in +what he said that his simple words had a +certain power. +</p> + +<p> +He was telling his own story—"I was born +August 1, 1786, in Derry, Ireland. My +parents were respectable and in comfortable +circumstances, but though members of the +Church of England, had no knowledge of +spiritual things. I was allowed to follow my +own inclination and became very wicked and +profane. The one exception to the godlessness +round me was an aunt—a Methodist—who +grieved at the way I was growing up, +and would talk to me of my soul. So I +became anxious, fearing to lie down to sleep +lest I should wake in hell. I would lie +awake groaning and sobbing, 'Oh, God, have +mercy on me.' I went whenever I could with +my aunt to class meetings and preachings, +and at one I wept openly, saying when +spoken to—'I am so wicked. I am not +washed in the Blood, and I am afraid I shall be +lost. May God have mercy on me.' The +preacher and class prayed with me, and then +he said, laying his hand on my head, 'George, +you will yet go to preach the Gospel to +sinners.' So I obtained grace, and resolved to +turn from my sinful manner of life, being +then seven." +</p> + +<p> +The last words came as a shock to Percy, +who wondered what kind of sinful life could +be lived by a boy under seven in a respectable +home. But the congregation saw nothing +incongruous in it; they shouted "Amens" and +"Hallilujah" as the speaker paused, then +listened, many groaning aloud as he went on to +tell of his "fall from grace". His parents +moved from Derry into the country where +there were no Methodists, and he drifted +with other boys into attending cock-fights, +and horse races on Sundays. At sixteen he +was bound out for three years to learn his +trade at a muslin factory. The hours there +were long, and the work and confinement +very hard to a boy accustomed to the indulgence +of home. "I felt like Israel in Egypt +in bondage under taskmasters," he said +quaintly, "but in my dungeon I saw the +Cloud, the Pillar, the Rock, the quails and +the manna that I had rejected, and I +hungered for them. I joined the Methodist +Society as a probationer, I read the Bible daily +on my knees, I retired for prayer seven times +a day, I fasted entirely every Friday, and +kept close watch over my words and conduct, +hoping to find peace with God. The +persecutions of my shopmates were hot and +heavy, but I was convinced I must be singular, +I felt it was life or death—death to live +after the flesh. Mental distress and severe +fasting reduced me to a skeleton, and my +master kindly sent me home on a visit, but +it was my soul that was suffering, I felt I had +sinned beyond the mercy of God. I was +tempted to give up. If God could not +pardon me I had better know the worst of my +case at once, by putting an end to my miserable +life. I took a rope to an old warehouse +one night, fixed it to a beam, and made a +noose." +</p> + +<p> +He paused dramatically, and his audience +leaned forward with excited faces. All the +colour and passion that raised their lives +from grayness was in the unseen world. The +excitement that outsiders sought in theatre +and lurid novel, in war and gambling for +high stakes, the early Methodist found in +these soul-conflicts with the Enemy. +</p> + +<p> +In a wonderfully soft voice Ferguson +continued, "As clear as if spoken I heard the +words, 'Pray first'. I instantly fell on my +face, crying to God for Christ's sake to have +mercy on me—on vile and wretched me. In +a moment the rock was smitten, and I rested +on Christ. I threw myself in the Blood of +the Atonement crying—'Wash me thoroughly +from my iniquity and cleanse me +from my sin.' In a moment hope took the +place of despair. I had peace with God. I +loved God above all things. Christ was the +altogether lovely." +</p> + +<p> +Ferguson's voice had risen to a shout, he +stamped his feet and clapped his hands in +an ecstasy, as his words rang above the +tumult of the congregation, who were now +jumping up and down in their seats, weeping, +singing, shouting "Hallilujah", clapping +their hands, while some fell on the floor +where they lay rigid as if in a trance. Betty +half rose, then sat very still. Bee was rather +too astonished to be able to think, and Percy +was studying Ferguson's face. Its features +showed the Scotch blood that is the backbone +of Ulster, and a stainless life with +much fasting and prayer, had given it an +intense refinement. There was as little sign +of mental as of moral weakness in it. Percy +told himself the man was self-deluded; but in +his heart he was not quite sure of it. +</p> + +<p> +The congregation quieted enough to +hear the preacher again, and Ferguson +resumed, "I returned to work a new creature. +I thought I was out of Babylon—that the +Enemy had done with me; I expected this +'time of singing birds' to last the whole year. +But the Enemy said to me, 'You are young, +if you tell of this wonderful change people +will not believe you. Keep it to yourself till +you see if you can hold out. If you don't +you may hurt the cause of God'. So— +</p> + +<p> + 'I was brought into thrall, I was stript of<br> + my all,<br> + I was banished from Jesu's face.'"<br> +</p> + +<p> +</p> + +<p> +The audience intent on every phase of this +soul-drama, groaned deeply as they swayed +to and fro in their seats, and Ferguson +lingered over the details of his next three +months of mental agony. "But on June 11, +1805, I secured peace at last. Though I was +in the shop I began at once to praise God +aloud, and my shop mates said, 'The matter +is decided at last, George is quite crazy.'" +</p> + +<p> +Again the joyful tumult rose, and Percy +felt irritated. He lived above the low moral +standards of his day, and he thought it +preposterous to preach that nothing saved a +man but this converting. How could Ferguson +with his intelligence believe that without +salvation he was as low in the sight of +God, as the vilest man on earth? Then he +looked at the boys by him. Ferguson and +the elders were shouting Bible promises +above the "blessed disorder", and urging +penitents to come forward. Ned, white-faced, +and trembling with excitement, but +with determination in his eyes, rose +and held out his hand to Vere. Percy +saw in his cousin's face a reflection of +the whirl of feeling round him, and had a +vision of himself breaking the news to Sir +John that the heir of the Haslems had knelt +at a Methodist penitent bench. Then he +wondered if this mad religion might not give +Vere the moral strength he knew he needed. +On the spur of that thought, he whispered +to the wavering boy, "Ferguson's a straight +man, if you believe what he says, go forward." +</p> + +<p> +But Ned went up alone. All that was +good in Vere clung to Ned, and whatever +sense of peace and strength he knew, he had +met only in Dr. Brown's home, but he felt +he could not face his grandfather's anger, +nor give up in a moment his habits of +idleness, and his drifting into doubtful +pleasures rather than seeking them. +</p> + +<p> +After the meeting the boys stood together, +Ned quivering with the thought that he had +pledged every fibre of his strong young body +forever to the service of the Lord who had +died for him. Vere said eagerly, "I feel as +you do, Ned, but I can't go forward. If you +were in my place—if my grandfather were +yours, you would keep your religion to +yourself for a little while." +</p> + +<p> +And Ned, as was his habit, excused Vere +and believed him. So the boys parted, Ned +joining his grandfather who pressed five +guineas into Ferguson's hand, as he bade him +good-bye, saying, "If ever thee passes this +way again, George, remember my house is +also the home of all weary pilgrims on the +road to Canaan, no matter what the colour of +their coats may be." +</p> + +<p> +The young soldier listened with bowed +head, until he went off, and it was six months +later that a messenger brought Dr. Brown +and Ned a thick letter from Battle Barracks, +Sussex, where Ferguson's regiment was +quartered. Ned's letter was mainly advice +to young Christians, mixed with bits of the +writer's experiences. "In a crowded, noisy +room," Ferguson wrote, "I have learnt the +secret of lying on my cot so shut away in +spirit from my surroundings, that I can hear +the voices that speak to my soul as distinct +as if I was in a solitude." +</p> + +<p> +Ned was walking just outside the town as +he read the letter, and then he met Vere, who +exclaimed excitedly, "Glorious news, Ned! +Sir John's going to get me a commission as +soon as I'm sixteen—next month, and I'll be +off to see life in his Majesty's service." +</p> + +<p> +In spite of his up-bringing in a Quaker +home Ned felt half-envious of his friend's +future, and Vere went on impulsively. +"What are you going to be, Ned? You don't +want to spend your life taking pills to old +women. Of course you couldn't expect your +grandfather to help you to be a soldier, yet +it's the only life for a gentleman. Why +don't you write to your father and tell him +you want to enter the army like me? That +little cat, Bee, talks as if he was quite well +off—almost a gentleman." +</p> + +<p> +Ned did not answer, he really knew nothing +of his father. Certainly very interesting +and valuable presents came to him every +year on his birthday, from far-off York, +where Mr. Edgar lived with the second wife +he had married and her three little boys; +but he seemed to have given his eldest son +entirely up to his grandfather. +</p> + +<p> +So Vere went away, but Ned was far too +loyal to his grandfather to ever think of +appealing to an unknown father against him. +Nevertheless, now that Vere's departure had +broken off all his connection with Haslem +Towers, he began to feel that life at Liddon +was very dull. He saw Bee sometimes when +she rode out with Betty; she was growing +up into a tall girl, but she still smiled at him +with a child's frank friendship. Betty +decidedly refused to forbid this very slight +intercourse, when Sir John grumbled at it, +so he said no more, for Bee had grown very +dear to him. He was content to give her +her own way in calling herself by her father's +name, but he was resolved that some day +she should marry her cousin, Vere, and be +mistress of Haslem Towers. Her refinement +of spirit and high courage, he thought, +might save the unhappy boy, who in the +temptations of an idle garrison life was +showing many signs of moral and mental +weakness; Sir John refused to believe the +worst. "Boys will be boys," he said impatiently +to Betty. "Of course I'll pay his debts +again, and ask no questions; if he sows all +his wild oats now, he'll make all the better +husband for our little maid later. She'll +steady him fast enough, never fear—Bee +Goode, as the minx insists on calling herself, +not bad, eh! She shall be his wife on the +day he is twenty-one, and she will be seventeen." +</p> + +<p> +Betty felt a womanly reluctance to think +of Bee thus sacrificed, yet she went on helping +to train Bee in the ignorance of life that +should make her unable to resist when those +she loved and trusted pushed her skilfully +into marriage. Betty, though a good woman, +was warped by the artificial world in which +she lived; she knew that Bee's parents had +left her nothing; her brother, Eli, five years +older, was with relatives in Boston, but Bee, +when seven, had been adopted by the +Edgars, who had given her up unwillingly to +Sir John. Betty could not imagine any lot +for a girl but marriage; and surely, she +honestly believed, luxury in England, even +with the lowest of husbands, was better than +exile in some howling wilderness. +</p> + +<p> +Bee had not forgotten her American +brother, or her Canadian friends, but she +never heard from either, and she believed +Sir John when he blamed French privateers +for the destruction of the Atlantic mail. +She still wrote sometimes, but as none of +her letters went overseas, her friends there +naturally thought she had forgotten them in +English luxury. Vere, who knew his +grandfather's plan, hated Bee with all his mean +little soul, but never dreamed of refusing to +obey; and Bee, who had not the faintest idea +that she was destined by her kin to be her +cousin's wife, still despised him. Conditions +of thought round her, however, were gradually +bringing her to feel that it was the +bounden duty of the relatives of the heir of +Haslem Towers to make any sacrifice to +save him. +</p> + +<p> +In the big world outside Liddon much +was happening. England, with her industries +crippled, her commerce half-strangled, +and seeing the carrying trade slipping +into American hands, passed the unfortunate +Orders-in-Council proclaiming any ship +that did not touch an English port the +lawful prey of her men-of-war. The answer of +the United States was an immediate threat +of war, should the order not be rescinded. +England, fearing to lose Canada, whom she +could not then defend—she did not imagine +that Canada could defend herself—rescinded +the orders, all of which did not prevent the +States from declaring war on June 18, 1812. +</p> + +<p> +The post that brought the news to Liddon +also brought a letter for Ned from his +father—"Upper Canada will be invaded +before this reaches you," Edgar wrote. "We +have a population of 70,000—both the +Canadas have only 225,000, against the eight +millions of the States, but we mean to keep +the old flag flying. We have 1,500 miles of +frontier to defend, and only 4,000 English +regulars to help us do it. We have appointed +our Governor, General Isaac Brock, as +Commander, and are calling out every man +between eighteen and forty-five. I am going, +and I began this letter meaning to command +you, as my son, to start for Canada at once, +and add one more man to our little army. +My friend, Surgeon Tam, at the Isle of +Wight, would arrange for your passage out. +You may refuse to obey me; I know you belong +to a religion that teaches a man that he +can enjoy the protection of the laws of a +country, and grow rich there, but he must +not fight in its battles. It is a 'sin' for him +to go to war, but quite right to accept the +safe living that other men are dying to +defend. I cannot compel you to obey me, but, +oh my son, won't you give up your religion +and come to be my comrade? I have a wife, +whom you would love if you knew her, and +three little boys; won't you be near to give +them a protection if I fall? No one can +doubt the righteousness of our cause. I +don't deny England has often sinned and +blundered, but no land on earth has sinned +and blundered so seldom as she, and her flag +is the only one that shall ever wave over +Canada—so help us, God! The American +people have been excited by exaggerated +stories of England's claiming the right to +search their ships for deserters from her +navy, but the President and Congress wish +to take our country—our Canada. Will you +come to be a soldier, to help me, your +father?; or is your honour less to you than +this Methodist salvation?" +</p> + +<p> +Silently Ned laid the letter before his +grandfather; the Quaker doctor read it, +looked at the boy keenly, and said quietly—"Thee +means to go, I see, but what of giving +up thy faith?" +</p> + +<p> +"Grandfather, I am a Methodist, not a +Friend. I know some of our people think +with you about war, but others are like +Ferguson, whom you call a good man. I +must go, to show my father that I can; I +must keep my religion, yet fight bravely +beside him. Don't you think I ought to go? +Don't you think Canada is in the right?" +</p> + +<p> +The Quaker looked at him wistfully. Ned +was nineteen, and careful rearing, and the +habits of self-discipline that his rigid faith +taught him, had given both his body and +mind the strength of tempered steel. +Dr. Brown had planned he should be a healer of +wounds and a saver of life, like himself, and +now all this splendid young manhood must +be offered to the Moloch of war. But he +said—"In many ways I admire thy father, +but he is over-hasty in judgment; yet I am +free to think he does right in fighting in this +war, and certainly thee must go as he says. +I know thee will never forsake the rules of thy faith." +</p> + +<p class="thought"> +* * * +</p> + +<p> +Ned, wandering off by himself to say +good-bye to his old life, was amazed, in his +loneliness, to find Bee. She also was alone; +sitting on a stone, in tears. +</p> + +<p> +"Miss Bee," exclaimed Ned, "Are you +hurt? What is the matter?" +</p> + +<p class="capcenter"> +<a id="img-037"></a> +<br> +<img class="imgcenter" src="images/img-037.jpg" alt=""Miss Bee," exclaimed Ned, "are you hurt? What is the matter?""> +<br> +"Miss Bee," exclaimed Ned, "are you hurt? What is the <br> +matter?" +</p> + +<p> +She stood up; a tall slender girl in a +purple serge riding habit and a plumed hat; +not a beauty, but fast developing into a +woman who would have the elusive flaire of +charm. "I came out here by myself—ran +away in fact," she said impulsively. "I +could not bear servants or friends or anyone +near me—I had to cry alone. You are a +Friend; why isn't everybody like you? Why +do they make these awful wars? Do you +know that Sir John has got the War Office +to take him off the retired list and he is +going to Canada, and Vere with him? And +we think Cousin Percy is going too, and he +will take Betty and me. They are going to +fight, and Eli, my brother, I know, will fight +too, on the other side; it is the most +miserable war that ever was." +</p> + +<p> +"Perhaps your brother won't want to +fight," said Ned trying to comfort her. "I +should think many Americans would see +they were in the wrong—." +</p> + +<p> +"You know nothing about it," she interrupted +with flashing eyes. "We only hear +one side here, but I know there is another. +Sir John and Cousin Betty would be so +angry if I said such a thing at home, and I +love them—and I love Eli too." Under her +breath she added, "and I am an American." +</p> + +<p> +She stopped, suddenly realizing her +impulsiveness in confiding in a young man who +was almost a stranger. "But he is one of +those odd people," she thought, "who think +women should preach, and rule, just like +men; and that a man mustn't do anything +that a woman shouldn't." So much Bee had +heard, and she thought Ned's ideas must be +foolish, and rather improper, but interesting. +Ned said nothing, but caught her horse, +which was grazing near. +</p> + +<p> +"Thank you," she said, rather shyly as +she mounted, "for listening to me. I feel +better now." +</p> + +<p> +She galloped off, and Ned looked after +her—"What an odd girl," he thought. "But +she is rather interesting." +</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<p><a id="chap03"></a></p> + +<h3> +CHAPTER III. +<br><br> +A Voyage to Canada in 1812. +</h3> + +<p> +The Isle of Wight with its white chalk +cliffs, and the semi-tropical vegetation +of its valleys, is a paradise among +islands; though in August, 1812, when Ned +landed there and was met by Ferguson, the +babel of screams and howled curses he heard +made him think of an inferno. +</p> + +<p> +Ned had parted with his grandfather at +Southampton, where the Surgeon, Dr. Tam, +a bluff Scot, looked him over, and told him +shortly that he was to go out, forward, on +the troop ship "Lightfoot", with eight +hundred men, which was all that England +could spare to send Canada—and General +Brock had said that ten thousand was the +smallest number with which he could +possibly defend the brave colony. +</p> + +<p> +Ned was too delighted that Ferguson was +one of the eight hundred to mind anything +else, but he looked at his friend startled, as +they came into the deep water harbor of +Ryde, and heard the sound of women +shrieking as if death itself had gripped them. +Ferguson's face paled, "God pity them," he +said. "Only a few women can go with the +regiment to Canada. They have been +chosen by lot—my wife by the good +providence of God drawing a full number—and +you can hear the ones who drew blanks." +</p> + +<p> +They went on board H.M.S. "Lightfoot", +a fine bit of the "wooden walls of old +England." There, all seemed confusion. The +Irish womens' screams were heart-rending +as they were, as gently as possible, forced +back on shore. Ned was glad to follow +Ferguson below, first to the cramped +"married quarters", where he was introduced to +a neat, quiet little woman with a +baby—Mrs. Ferguson. Opening off this smaller cabin +was a wide space "between decks", where the +men's hammocks were hung so close, that a +man who left one when they were all slung +would have to perform an acrobatic feat to +get out, and dress on his knees on the floor +under them. +</p> + +<p> +As Ferguson showed Ned how to sling his +hammock, and told him what he would have +to do, rough voices round them called +mockingly on the "Swaddler". Ferguson +took no notice until big, brown-faced +Dr. Tam, in his uniform, appeared beside him. +He nodded curtly to Ned, and said gruffly +to Ferguson—"Ye'll have to keep your +Swaddling talk to yourself this trip, man. +We are going to have some trouble with this +crowd—they're Papists, too, and we can't +have any religious fights. So you see you +keep your mouth shut. Our new colonel +hasn't any use for preaching soldiers." +</p> + +<p> +Ned was too bewildered by the astounding +unexpectedness of his new surroundings +to be able to think clearly for the moment, +but Dr. Tam shrugged his shoulders as he +went aft to his quarters; Edgar was his +friend, and Edgar had insisted that Ned +should be sent out with the men of this +regiment. "The best of them," growled +Dr. Tam to himself, "are Irish rebels whom +England doesn't dare to send to the Continent, +for fear they might go over to the +French. As to the worst of them, the +regiments that threw them out weren't saints, +but there are a few things that a man can't +stand, and keep the least scrap of decency. +And to think of that boy, who is as innocent +as a girl, being compelled to live among +them for a month! But it's his own father's +doing, and I suppose it was the only thing +to do." +</p> + +<p> +Dr. Tam was a friend of Edgar's, and like +him believed that a man whose religion +condemned war must be a coward; and when +he also held remarkable views on the +equality of women, it showed he was effeminate. +It was to cure Ned of his supposed +weaknesses in one rough lesson, that he was +reconciled to his making the voyage as he +did. +</p> + +<p> +Ned, who had the cheerful temper that +goes with perfect health, decided that his +new companions would probably improve +when he got to know them better, and in +any case he had a good comrade in Ferguson, +so he stayed on deck, enjoying the +novelty of everything. +</p> + +<p> +By now everything was in perfect order. +Screaming women and howling men had +been put out of hearing and sight before the +captain and the officers' ladies who were +cabin passengers, came on board. Ned saw +Chloe's broad black face, a good foil for the +patrician loveliness of Betty beside her; Bee +was with them, and Ned thought—"Vere's +as ass to call her ugly, or even plain; she's +not a beauty like Mrs. Haslem, but she's +sparkling, and radiant. When she's grown +up no one will call her plain." +</p> + +<p> +Then Ned saw some one in whom he was +more interested than in any girl—Vere, with +whom he still corresponded, and whom he +still liked; for all that was good in Vere +showed itself when he wrote to or met Ned; +he valued Ned's good opinion more than any +one's, and if any influence could ever save +Vere, from himself, it would be the quiet +strength of young Ned Edgar. +</p> + +<p> +Vere saw Ned at last, and went to him +amazed—"What on earth are you doing +here?" he exclaimed. +</p> + +<p> +Ned explained, and though the sudden +coldness with which Vere turned away hurt +him a little, he was not surprised, nor much +disappointed in his friend, for he understood +that now less than ever, among his present +companions, would Vere be able to meet him +openly as a friend. +</p> + +<p class="thought"> +* * * +</p> + +<p> +They were off now. At a word, sail after +sail had unfurled, and beautiful under her +enormous spread of white canvas, the +"Lightfoot" "trod the waters like a thing of +life." Ned was fascinated at this manifestation +of drilled power. Every man on the +ship had moved as a part of one great +machine, and his imagination took fire. It +seemed audacious that men should show +such strength. +</p> + +<p> +Ferguson seemed to have guessed his +thoughts, for later when the shores of +England were fading from view, he said—"Look +ahead now, Ned." +</p> + +<p> +Behind them the sun was shining, but +before them the Atlantic rolled, a mighty +heaving waste of gray waves, under a heavy +sky piled with lowering storm clouds. A +heaved-up ridge of water caught the "Lightfoot", +she rose on its height, and slid down +as it passed—a plaything of the sullen sea. +Suddenly she seemed small to Ned, a winged +insect fluttering in the grasp of the terrible +ocean. +</p> + +<p> +"The sea is His, He made it," cried +Ferguson in mingled awe and exaltation, "I am +afraid when I think of His infinite power, +yet this awful God is mine—my Lord and +my Lover," and his voice sank to a thrilling +softness as he said the last word. +</p> + +<p> +By night Ned had forgotten Ferguson and +everything. With most of the unhappy +soldiers he was horribly seasick, faintly +wishing that some enemy might in charity +sink the "Lightfoot" with all on board her. +Even this, however, finally passed. He felt +an interest in living once more and even in +eating again. A few men, Ferguson among +them, remained sick and stayed so all the +voyage, crawling shakily about when the sea +was very smooth, and collapsing at a hint of +rough weather. +</p> + +<p> +Every morning each man received his +rations for the day, cooked meat—salt beef +or pork—pease-pudding, some rice or porridge, +sea biscuits, a little sugar and butter, +a pint of hot cocoa, some rum, and three +quarts of drinking water. The fare was +coarse, but it was wholesome and abundant, +and Ned enjoyed it. +</p> + +<p> +Sells, a ruffianly looking man whose +hammock hung next to his, swore at everything. +</p> + +<p> +"Dog's food, that's what it is," he +growled, "And do you know what they're +eating aft? Every morning there's a dish of +chocolate or coffee, with cakes and biscuits, +and all the butter they like. Then biscuit +and cheese at noon, and a high class dinner +at night with fresh fowls and meat—they've +live sheep, and pigs, and chickens on board +for themselves—and potatoes, and pickles, +and plum-pudding, with porter and wine. +Then they have a supper of coffee and cake, +and preserves, and more wine. Curses on all +rich, I say." +</p> + +<p> +He closed with a stream of profanity +which brought Ferguson, pale and shaken, +to his feet with a stern—"Thou shalt not +take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain." +</p> + +<p> +With an ugly oath Sells knocked him +down, and Ned sprang to his assistance, for +mal-de-mer had left Ferguson too weak to +defend himself, and Sells was beating him +savagely. The crowding men round them, +cursing all "Swaddling interferers", struck +at the two Methodists, yelling the war cries +of persecuted, bitter, Papist Ireland. +Ferguson and Ned were only saved from serious +injury by the prompt interference of the +sergeants, who, however, told Ferguson that +the next time he "preached" and caused a +riot they would report him. +</p> + +<p> +His bruises, and anxiety as to Ferguson, +kept the boy awake for some time that +night. When he slept, at last, he was +almost immediately awakened by a +confusion of frightful sounds. The shriek +of the winds and the pounding of the sea +showed that "no small tempest was upon +them." Frantic voices cried that a mast, or +spar, had fallen, that the captain was killed, +the boats were all swept away, and that the +ship was sinking. Eight hundred +fear-crazed men, with a score of women, all +penned in the pitchy dark, under fastened +hatches, screamed, cursed, and called on the +saints, while the ship seemed to roll nearly +over, and Ned shuddered as he clung to his +hammock and tried to pray. Then through +a lull in the tumult he heard a woman +singing— +</p> + +<p class="poem"> + "Jesus, Lover of my soul, let me to Thy<br> + bosom fly,<br> + While the nearer waters roll, whilst the<br> + tempest still is high."<br> +</p> + +<p><br></p> + +<p> +"It's the Swaddler's wife," Ned heard Tim +Kelly, an ignorant Irish giant, groan, "Sure, +it's hitting him has brought this on us. A +man that hits a woman or a priest never has +no luck. Mary! save us all, we're going +now. Boys, ask the Swaddler to pray. Sure, +a heretic priest, if he's a good living man, is +better than none, when it comes to dying." +</p> + +<p> +A hundred voices called to Ferguson, and +men were silent, while between the roars of +the wind the Methodist spoke, the perfect +calmness of his voice reassuring the terrified +people. Bit by bit he shouted the story of +the Man who walked on the sea of Galilee, +and who slept in its wildest storm, only +waking at the prayer of His frightened +companions, to still winds and waves with a +word. +</p> + +<p> +"The "Lightfoot" weathered the storm—thanks +to Ferguson's prayers, Kelly and his +mates believed, and they treated him with +the rough respect which the south Irishman, +lovable and unreasonable, superstitious and +chivalrous, gives to his women and priests. +They tried not to swear in his presence, and +took his reproofs meekly when they forgot +themselves. Sells and the few like him who +were really thorough blackguards dared not +say a word. +</p> + +<p> +"You see, Ned," said Ferguson, "how God +can change the lion into a lamb, and cause +enemies to become friends." +</p> + +<p> +Ned smiled, thinking—"The old Greeks +were right when they said the gods help +those who help themselves." +</p> + +<p> +There was now a dead calm. For several +days the "Lightfoot" lay idle on the sea. +The soldiers' rations were reduced, and as +the calm continued, reduced again. The +drinking water became unspeakably foul. It +was a time of considerable anxiety for the +officers—eight hundred men, illiterate and +coarse-minded, the class that thinks most of +what it eats, were now only half fed. Every +hour they looked for trouble, ready to meet +it with the utmost severity—yet it did not +come. +</p> + +<p> +"I don't understand," said the colonel +over his wine after dinner. "Here's a mob of +Irish recruits who are probably all rebels in +their hearts, and a few score English +blackguards. What's making them behave?" +</p> + +<p> +"A Swaddler named Ferguson from +Ulster, I think, sir," said Dr. Tam. "In +some utterly incomprehensible way he has +managed to mesmerize a crowd of south +Irish into imagining he is a priest. He is +suffering still with sea-sickness, and he lives +on air and saying prayers, but he is always +cheerful, makes jokes on his own privations, +and is so tactful with his religious talk, that +the men are ashamed to complain before +him." +</p> + +<p> +"Hum, I don't believe in Methodists and +these preaching soldiers, but this seems to be +an exceptional case. But why isn't he in +hospital having proper food, if he is as sick +as you say?" +</p> + +<p> +"I wanted him to go, sir, but he didn't." +</p> + +<p> +"Are you in the habit, Doctor, of letting +your patients decide whether they shall obey +your orders or not?" +</p> + +<p> +"As you said, sir, Ferguson is an exceptional +case. Under the circumstances I +thought it best to let him have his way." +</p> + +<p> +"Hum, yes, but we can't have a man like +him sacrificed to keep a rabble in order. I'll +go and see him myself." +</p> + +<p> +So the colonel stood with Percy and +Dr. Tam by the Methodist's hammock. +Ferguson was too weak to rise, but he answered +the colonel's inquiries very cheerfully—"Thank +you, sir, but I have everything I +need and more. I don't have to depend on +food to sustain me while I have the Book +which says 'man shall not live by bread +alone, but by every word that proceedeth +from God'." +</p> + +<p> +"Er, that is, of course the Bible is a very +good book," blurted the Colonel, somewhat +at a loss, "but if you require anything, +mind and let the doctor know." +</p> + +<p> +As they returned to the deck he said +abruptly—"What's that man's record before +he joined us? What's he doing in the ranks +after three years service?" +</p> + +<p> +"His record's all right, sir," answered +Percy, "but he is a Methodist first and a +soldier afterwards. He has spent the bulk +of his time as an officer's servant, preferring +that to being a sergeant, as it gives him +more liberty and more time, to go out and +preach." +</p> + +<p> +"And suppose I object to this regiment +being made a convenience for the Methodist +itinerancy?" +</p> + +<p> +"Seeing the Methodist itinerancy in the +shape of Ferguson is being a great convenience +to us, sir, I don't see the reason for +your objection." +</p> + +<p> +"Well, well, we will see. Doctor, don't let +that man starve himself outright, while he +is shaming the others into not complaining." +</p> + +<p> +Then the welcome wind came, rations +were increased, and on September 17, Ned +saw Canada—Halifax, with the deep green +of the all-embracing forest round her, and +the vivid scarlet of the British flag still +above her forts. +</p> + +<p> +The regiment with its officers, and the +soldiers' wives were packed on the "Herald", +a little 70-gun warship. They sailed up a +mile-wide river, Ned straining his eyes to see +a line of distant hills clothed with the same +unbroken forest. Then the hills were +blotted out by dark driving clouds, and +sheets of rain. The waves rose, and the +"Herald" plunged through a night of storm +and great discomfort to all on board. +Sunshine came with the morning, but the ship +stopped off a rocky mountainous spot, with +no sign of human habitation. Orders were +given, the men took their arms and +knapsacks, the women their children, and all +were landed with much difficulty. +</p> + +<p> +There was no sign of a road anywhere. +They climbed a rugged slope only to descend +on its further side, and find another +and steeper one before them, many of the +men having to get up the worst places on +their hands and knees. Mrs. Ferguson was +being helped by Dr. Tam, and Ned took her +child on his back as they scrambled up the +second hill and slipped down it into a wide +deep bog. +</p> + +<p> +"Sure, and I don't see why we don't present +this country to the Yankees as a gift," +grumbled Tim Kelly. "It's not fit for a +decent Christian to live in. I don't wonder +it hasn't any people. Murder! there's my +shoe gone, and I daren't swear with the +little Swaddler so near." +</p> + +<p> +"Forward," said a voice, and with +demoralized ranks the regiment crawled out +of the mud, leaving many more shoes behind +it. Night came, but there was no halt till it +seemed to Ned that he had spent weeks +falling over bushes and into creeks. At last, +however, the worn-out men were allowed to +rest, and soon forgot their fatigues as they +ate their suppers round huge fires of logs, +and then bivouaced by them. +</p> + +<p> +"I wonder where we are, and if the +enemy is anywhere near?" said Ned as he +lay down by Ferguson, "I guess you are +pretty done up." +</p> + +<p> +"I certainly feel the need of being under +the grace of God," said the Methodist, "to +lay the rough path of my peevish nature +even, and open in my heart a constant +Heaven." +</p> + +<p> +The next day they marched back to the +ship, and soon reached Quebec, the +excursion being an official idea to "break-in" +fresh troops to campaigning in Canada. The +fortress city on the cliff with the many +priests in her streets, and French spoken +everywhere, seemed very foreign to Ned. +</p> + +<p> +"I thought Canada was English," Ferguson +said to him as they went out together. +</p> + +<p> +"And so she is, stranger," said a fine +looking man, who after watching them closely, +stepped up beside them. His speech and +manners showed education, though he wore +a hunting shirt of buckskin, and blue cloth +trousers with fringes on the seams. A skin +cap, beaded moccasins, and a silver-handled +hunting knife in his belt completed his +costume. He went on talking in the same +frankly friendly manner, telling of the first +invasion of Canada, across the Detroit +River, by General Hull, with twenty-five +hundred American troops. +</p> + +<p> +"He sent us a proclamation—'To the +People of Canada'—telling them to choose +between the 'peace, liberty, and security' +he'd give them if they'd hurry in and be +annexed, and the 'war, slavery, and destruction' +they'd get if they didn't.' Canada didn't +seem to want his 'peace and liberty', +especially after he had given us a sample of +them by raiding on the Canadian side. +Then Brock left York with three hundred +regulars, four hundred militia, and five guns, +and near Detroit he met Tecumseh with +seven hundred Shawanese." +</p> + +<p> +"Excuse me," said Ned, "but we don't +know who these people are." +</p> + +<p> +"The Ohio river Indians—they've been +scrapping with the Yankees all along, and +Tecumseh, their chief, thought if we were +fighting them too they might as well join +hands with us." +</p> + +<p> +"I've heard of the Ojibways and Mohawks," +said Ned. "My father is a trader +in York, and he wrote me that Upper Canada +would raise six thousand militia, and her +Indians could send in four thousand men as +well." +</p> + +<p> +"Canadian Indians are all right," said +their friend. "They're under our government +and laws, but Indians don't fight like +white men, and as the Shawanese are only +our allies, we mayn't always be able to +control them. But it will be all right as long as +Brock's at the head of things. On August +15, with only fourteen hundred men, half +of them Indians, he moved to attack Detroit, +and Hull with twenty-five hundred in +a strong fort, capitulated." +</p> + +<p> +"He was a coward," exclaimed Ned. +</p> + +<p> +"Not so fast, son. He had Detroit with +its women and children to think of. He +knew what it would mean if it was stormed +by Indians. In his place I'd have +surrendered to any decent white man." +</p> + +<p> +"Well, that's one victory for us," said Ned. +</p> + +<p> +"We would have had more, but Sir George +Prevost, the Governor-General, made an +armistice with the Yankees. He hoped to +make peace, but they wouldn't meet him, +and only used the time to arm their ships on +the lakes. And now, I suppose I may introduce +myself, I'm James Edgar, of York, and +I'm down here to meet Ned, my son." +</p> + +<p class="thought"> +* * * +</p> + +<p> +After a joyous greeting, Ned was hurried +off by Edgar to the little steamer +"Accommodation", the first of her kind on +Canadian waters. For nineteen shillings she +took them to Montreal, giving them food, +and letting them "berth" with their blankets +among her piles of freight. At Montreal a +score of bateaux—broad, heavily-built +boats—were waiting, and Ned was surprised to +find his father in command of the Indians +and white men in buckskin shirts who +manned them. They were loaded with +ammunition, and meant to run the gauntlet of +the guard the Americans kept on the river +between Montreal and Kingston, blockading +Upper Canada—now Ontario. +</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<p><a id="chap04"></a></p> + +<h3> +CHAPTER IV. +<br><br> +How Ned Came to York (Toronto). +</h3> + +<p> +Ned was standing, nervously alert, his +hands gripping the long rifle that +still seemed strange to them. Before +him was a strip of water, and all round him +was forest—the gorgeous colored autumn +trees of the Thousand Islands. The +Canadians were travelling by night and hiding +by day, for the two American warships that +kept the lake sent their boats out searching +constantly. Ned had been set as sentry by +Tahata, the Mohawk, who was Edgar's +lieutenant, and he was very afraid of failing +to see some one of the little things which +are important on watch duty. +</p> + +<p> +He stared at a boulder jutting out in the +shallow water. A minute ago bushes had +screened its shore side, now they were +certainly further along. With a remembering +of the trees that marched to Macbeth's +castle, Ned gave the bird call Tahata had +taught him for an alarm, and instantly two +lithe brown men appeared at his side. The +suspected bushes stirred, showing part of a +deerskin clad man, and all the Indians' +alert savagery vanished. Muttering, "It +is Kaanah," Edgar's Indian name, they +lounged back to their places. +</p> + +<p> +Edgar stood up, taking the branches out +of the loops in his garments, and walking +lightly, he passed Ned with a smile, and +came to Tahata. "The Long Knives' +(Americans) ship has passed," he said. +"We will go on at dark. And what of the +boy?" +</p> + +<p> +"He has lived with men who did not know +how to see," answered the Indian, "but he +will learn, for he does not make the same +mistake twice." +</p> + +<p> +"I wanted to see if you would notice me," +said Edgar to Ned later. "I did not think +you would be so quick." +</p> + +<p> +There was pride and affection in his voice, +and Ned almost worshipped the father who, +a few weeks before, had been a stranger to +him. So they journeyed on, escaping a +hundred dangers through Edgar's careful +leadership, for he was indeed just such a man as +would be a hero to any boy; and finally +reached Kingston with their cargo—Kingston +with all her flags drooping at half-mast. +</p> + +<p> +Edgar hailed a red-headed young man on +the deck of a smart schooner—the "Susan". +"What's happened, Archy?" he called. +</p> + +<p> +"Pretty bad news, Mr. Edgar. Them +blamed Yankees got across Niagara river +before daylight on October thirteenth. While +our boys were beating them off at Queenston, +a lot more sneaked up the mountain, +took our battery there, and dug themselves +some real smart trenches, then fired down on +us. The York 'Gazette' said they were +'villainous aggressors', and there were a +thousand of them." +</p> + +<p> +"You red-headed blockhead," shouted +Edgar. "Do you mean to say we're half-masting +our flags because we're invaded?" +</p> + +<p> +"Now don't get mad, Mr. Edgar," said the +imperturbable Archy. "We're not invaded. +General Brock started up to rout them out, +but the firing was too hot. It's durned +difficult to run up a mountain with sharpshooters +firing at you from behind logs and earthworks. +He went back, but only to try the +other side with a lot of redcoats. He passed +our boys, and he said, 'Forward, York +Volunteers', and you can bet them volunteers +did go forward." +</p> + +<p> +"I see," said Edgar with sarcastic +resignation. "We won Queenston Heights, and +then put all our flags at half-mast." +</p> + +<p> +"I meant, Mr. Edgar, that General Brock +was shot dead as they charged the second +time, and the boys had to go back. That's +why the Yankees are calling it their victory, +though General Sheaffe took command. He +had fifteen hundred men, half of them +Mohawk Indians, and they went up the heights +in three parties, and smashed the Yankee +lines. The 'Gazette' said 'Our unprincipled +neighbours were totally defeated', but we +hereabouts are only thinking that General +Brock is dead." +</p> + +<p class="thought"> +* * * +</p> + +<p> +So Ned heard the story of Queenston +Heights, a fight which the American +histories record as a "frontier skirmish of no +importance but on the whole in favour of the +Americans," while Canada lauds it as her +great victory, on each 13th of October +raising the flags on her schools and telling her +children how Brock died. His ringing last +command, Toronto has taken as her +watchword—"Forward, York Volunteers!" +</p> + +<p> +And in reality, the American invasion was +little more than a reconnoitre—a test of the +strength of the enemy, and its repulse was +nothing in comparison to Canada's loss in +Brock's death at that time. Yet we do well +to count it a victory, for that tall granite +shaft—Brock's monument on Queenston +Heights—overlooking the gorge of wild +Niagara, is Canada's declaration of independence. +When our gray-coated militia charged +up the heights beside the scarlet-clad +English regulars, we affirmed that this North +American continent was large enough for +the growth of two nations and the flying +of two flags. +</p> + +<p> +Edgar and his party went on board the +"Susan", and Ned was surprised again to +find his father here also in command. The +voyage had its excitements, as Archy +explained to Ned. "Them blamed Yankees +have ships all over the lake. We have some +too, but we haven't, and can't get, a gun +heavier than twelve and eighteen pounders, +while theirs are twenty-four and thirty-two +pounders, which means they can send a heap +heavier shot. I was captured with the +'Susan', going to Kingston this time." +</p> + +<p> +"How did you get away?" said Ned, hoping +for a story. +</p> + +<p> +"I left Niagara just after the battle to +run to Kingston, to meet you, and to take +General Brock's papers and stuff there. +There was a bit of a blow, and the 'Susan' +was caught inshore with a Yankee waiting to +blow us out of the water as we came 'round. +Course, I surrendered. Says the Yankee. +'What ship's that, and what's your lading?' Says +I, 'Susan', Niagara to Kingston, with +General Brock's papers and things'. 'Pass,' +says the Yankee, 'General Brock was all +right, and I'm real sorry he's dead'. And +he dipped his flag to me. That Yankee was +a gentleman and I've known others like him. +I don't like this having to fight with them." +</p> + +<p> +"But you wouldn't let them take Canada?" +</p> + +<p> +"No, sir, you can bet your sweet life that +Canada won't let no Yankee boss her into +changing her flag. They're too blamed +interfering, and old Upper Canada'll fight +while she's got a man left to hold a gun. +Maybe they'll remember not to come in here +again. That's York." +</p> + +<p> +Ned saw a narrow peninsula, curving +round to form the harbor. It was the +promontory that has since become Toronto +Island. The entrance was on the west, +between Gibraltar Point (Hanlan's), with its +lighthouse and blockhouses, and on the +mainland, Fort Toronto, and Western +Battery. These consisted of earthworks and +massive log barracks, armed with a few +small cannon, where the present fort now +stands. +</p> + +<p> +The "Susan" sailed past the forts down a +placid sheet of water. On the right Ned +looked across the low sandbanks of the +peninsula to the lake stretching away to the +horizon. On the left was open ground where +cows grazed, and beyond, the long wall of +the forest. Then they were abreast of +Half-moon Battery (Bathurst Street), where +stood the Governor's "Palace", a big log +house in the form of a half square, with +verandahs round its inner sides, and a garden +shaded by stately oaks. There too were the +quarters, with their magazines and storehouses. +</p> + +<p> +Then came more pasture and the "Susan" +stopped at the wharves, (John Street) east +of which lay the little town of York, with +its nine hundred population, and three +straggling streets—Palace Street (Front), which +had houses only on its north side; King +Street, and Lot (Queen)—then came the +bush again. Yonge had wheat fields on +either side, and was only known because it +ran north into the bush where it became an +Indian trail ending at Georgian Bay, and +down which the natives came with their furs +each spring. All the buildings were of logs +except the two brick houses of parliament, +of which York was inordinately proud. They +stood on open ground by the mouth of the +Don. +</p> + +<p> +Edgar was now wearing his uniform and +sword as a militia major; Tahata was in +elaborately fringed and beaded buckskin, +with silver mounted tomahawk and scalping +knife—and a tall black silk hat! Ned +in the clothes his father had given him, wore +a fine cloth suit and starched much-frilled +shirt, with silk stockings and silver +shoebuckles. He was realizing that Edgar, +militia major, wealthy trader, and member of +the Upper Canada Legislature, was a man +of importance. +</p> + +<p> +As the "Susan" stopped, a pretty woman, +in lavender silk, with a huge bonnet trimmed +with flowers and green gauze, came on +board, and Ned was introduced to his +stepmother, with his half-brothers, three small +boys, between ten and three. Ned and +Susie Edgar liked each other at first sight, +and were glad to leave together for shore, +where Edgar, Tahata and Ned were to go to +the "Palace". It was only a log house +carpeted with skins, but all the formality of a +petty court was observed within. +</p> + +<p> +"General Sheaffe, whom Brock's death has +made our governor, is a Swiss," Edgar told +Ned. "He entered the English service when +his country was over-run by France, and +being bred in a Republic, he seems afraid of +not being formal enough in his position here. +Still a deal of ceremony is good policy with +the Indians. A lot of the trouble they have +had in the States is because the Indians have +imagined an insult in some informality in +council." +</p> + +<p> +After Edgar had made his report to the +coldly formal Sheaffe, and they were going +home, he said to Ned. "Of course you will +join the militia now, in the ranks. You may +wonder that I don't buy you a commission. +I would promise you that I will in one year, +only I know by then you will have earned it." +</p> + +<p> +Still talking Edgar reached his great store, +crammed with goods for Indian trading. +Ned was getting his first sight of the spirit +of the new world, the ignoring of class +distinctions, and the determination to rise. +</p> + +<p> +"This isn't England," Edgar said. "Here +the people own the land and pretty soon will +have the ruling power, and the men whom +they will choose for leaders will be those +who have worked beside them, yet risen by +their own work." +</p> + +<p> +Ned felt chilled. He of all people felt no +shame in humble beginnings, but his father's +standards of value depressed him. He +wondered what he would think of his +Methodism. +</p> + +<p> +Then Ned was taken into the house, built +of logs. It had hall and living-room, the +last with open fireplace, brass andirons and +fender. Tall brass candlesticks stood on the +mantel, the rugs were of fur, and the +furniture rough made, but the sideboard held +a fine array of silver plate, which society +then demanded of every one who would hold +position. Army officers dragged it through +the bush with them, and wealthy traders +proved their station by the amount they +owned. There were books too in the parlor, +which made Ned feel more at home. He +followed his father past the four smaller +bedrooms, and the big guest chamber, +furnished with bunks round its walls, into +the great kitchen, where the family ate and +spent most of their time. Ned noticed a +jug of whiskey with a cup on a small table, +for any one to help himself. Then he sat +down to supper. +</p> + +<p> +The table was loaded with broiled venison, +ham, homemade bread and butter, cheese, +fruit pies, tea for Susie and the children, and +whiskey for the men. On duty Edgar never +touched anything but water, but now he +frowned as Ned refused the whiskey black +Bob handed him. At that time almost all +the house servants in Canada were negroes, +and Susie kept two, Bob and Fanny. +</p> + +<p> +"Don't be a Methodist, Ned," said Edgar. +</p> + +<p> +"I am one, sir." +</p> + +<p> +"Was one," said Edgar coolly. "I let you +come out forward to knock the nonsense out +of you." +</p> + +<p> +Ned wisely said nothing, and the next day +he put on the dark gray uniform of the Canadian +militia, took the oath to serve the king +and obey his officers, being pleased to find +that his captain was Archy, his father's +employee. He enjoyed his new life and threw +himself with such zest into his six hours of +hard drilling a day, that Edgar gave him half +grudging approval, but he was still +unreasonably sore at his son's steady refusal to +drink "like a man." +</p> + +<p> +The war was still going on. Though +American attacks on Lower Canada and +Kingston had been repulsed, and 1812 closed +with Canadian soil still free from the enemy, +and the English flag over Detroit. Yet with +their splendid naval victories the Americans +were confident of conquest. It was the good +seamanship shown in these fights which +caused dismay in England, and filled the +new republic with thoughts of its own +naval supremacy. Canada took the news +stoically; England's hands were too full in +Europe for her to send out further ships. +Certainly England would conquer Napoleon +some day, and till then Canada would "hold +the fort". +</p> + +<p> +In January, 1813, an American force +marched two hundred miles through a +wilderness to retake Detroit. They were +defeated, and Proctor, the English general, +was unable to keep his savage allies from +butchering many of the prisoners who had +surrendered to him. All over the States this +caused justly bitter feeling. Forty dollars +was offered for the scalp of any Indian +fighting in the British ranks. +</p> + +<p> +"Don't speak of that at home," Archy +told Ned. "Women folks are awful easy +scared, and it'll hit your pa." For the +English, to keep their Indian subjects under +better control, had given Indian military rank +to the white men, who like Edgar, had been +elected sub-chiefs. +</p> + +<p class="thought"> +* * * +</p> + +<p> +Ned found Susie interested in other things +than war, when he went home that March +evening. "General Sheaffe is back, Ned," +she exclaimed, "with Bee and her +grandfather, and two companies of regulars. +There's going to be the ball of the season at +the Palace, and I must find out if the +fashions have changed much." +</p> + +<p> +"They always change the same way, Sue," +said Edgar, "less dress and more bonnet. It's +Bonaparte's wife that starts them, and if I +were he I'd suggest that she tie her dress +round her head, and dress the rest of +herself in her bonnet, for a change." +</p> + +<p> +Then a small whirlwind, and Bee was in +the House, in Susie's arms, laughing and +exclaiming over the little boys, and Edgar +welcoming his old friend, Dr. Tam. The +surgeon handed Ned a letter. "From your +Methodist friend, Ferguson," he said, and +Ned hid himself in the lofts above the store, +to read it without interruption. +</p> + +<p> +"After you left us," Ferguson wrote, "we +were ordered to St. Johns, near Montreal. +We had to leave our families behind and had +a severe and tedious march. The country +and people and almost everything seemed +strange, and not one of those I travelled +with knew Canaan's language. But blessed +be God, though I was a stranger and a +pilgrim marching through the 'enchanted +ground', I could now and then snatch a +cluster of pleasant grapes, and see the end +of my toils. +</p> + +<p> +"On February 3, we marched to the Isle of +Maux on Lake Champlain, where there has +been some skirmishing with the enemy." +</p> + +<p> +Ferguson went on with many quotations +from his only reading—the Bible, Hymn +Book, and John Bunyan, going rather fully +into his examination of his own conscience, +as to how a man could be a soldier and yet +"love his enemies". +</p> + +<p> +"I need to consult the Divine Oracle +daily," he wrote, "for it is the soul's +geography, which will show me the path I must +needs take." +</p> + +<p> +As Ned finished the letter, he saw his +father and Dr. Tam come up into the next +room which Edgar had fitted up as a "den", +and sit down to drink together. +</p> + +<p> +"Come in, and take your glass with us," +ordered the half-tipsy Edgar, as Ned tried +to pass the door unseen. +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, come," said Dr. Tam, "even if you +are a Methodist. Lots of them take their +glass, its only their preachers and saints that +set up to be so extra good. Come, you'll +never be a man till you drink." +</p> + +<p> +"You're no Methodist," roared Edgar, as +Ned sat down unwillingly. "What do you +mean by writing to them? Give me that +letter that you got from one of them to-day, +or I'll break your neck." +</p> + +<p> +Ned obeyed, though his eyes flashed. +Edgar read the letter, then burst into a +torrent of oaths. "The canting coward," he +shouted, "to take the king's pay and dare to +talk of loving his enemies! And what's this +gibberish about picking grapes in a Canadian +forest in mid-winter? See here, you'll +give me your word right now to drop this +Methodism, or I'll flog it out of you to-night." +</p> + +<p> +Ned sprang to his feet. "You can do what +you like to me, sir," he said sternly, "for you +are my father, but if you do touch me, I +shall leave your house and never enter it +again." +</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<p><a id="chap05"></a></p> + +<h3> +CHAPTER V +<br><br> +How the Americans Came to York, April 27, 1813. +</h3> + +<p> +"Steady, man," said Dr. Tam, with +his hand on Edgar's arm. "The +laddie's threatening to disinherit +you, instead of waiting for you to do it to +him. Now, listen, I'm an officer in +Ferguson's regiment, and no matter what he puts +in private letters, which are none of my +business, I want to tell you something. +Down at Lake Champlain the Governor-General, +Prevost, visited us. We were to +make an attack on the Yankee camp, and +the night before I heard Ferguson preaching +to the men. He told them that being ready +to die made a man more fit to live. A +Christian soldier can do his duty more +calmly and bravely and be more true to the king +and obedient to his officers. +</p> + +<p> +"He was standing on a box by a camp fire, +with the men all 'round him listening in +deep silence. I saw the colonel come up +with Governor Prevost, who seemed +surprised at a soldier's preaching. The colonel +said to Captain Haslem, who was there—'What +kind of man is Ferguson? Does he +do his duty?'. The captain said—'He is +always ready for any call; all I ever heard +against him is his preaching, and reproving +the men for swearing.' The Governor said—'I +think we will let him go on then. The +army needs some chaplains.' +</p> + +<p> +"The Yankees were gone when we went +the next day. Our men plundered the farms +quite a bit. I kept my eye on Ferguson, and +saw that he not only never touched a thing, +but kept the men near him better behaved +than they would have been. Now, you let +the lad be till the lake opens. There'll be +stiff fighting then, and if he does his duty +let him have what religion he likes." +</p> + +<p> +Edgar nodded grumpily, and as Ned left +the room, he added, "If he fails I'll send him +off. I've worked too hard to make a name +here to have it disgraced by a Methodist +coward." +</p> + +<p> +He said very little to Ned during the next +two months. On the twenty-fifth of April, +the ice had cleared from Toronto Bay, and +Bee, in her serge habit and plumed hat, sat +very upright on her horse as she rode by Sir +John along the muddy water front to the +wharves. +</p> + +<p> +"They are very slow with those ships," +she remarked, with the air of a naval expert. +"Major Edgar says there is too much red tape." +</p> + +<p> +"Ladies shouldn't talk of war or politics. +The feminine mind cannot understand such +things," but Sir John smiled on Bee with +kindly toleration as he spoke, for he was +very fond of the outspoken, affectionate +girl. Then his face clouded again. Three +ships should have been ready by now, and +only one stood complete—the "Gloucester", +which was then leisurely taking her guns on +board. The second ship was ready for +launching, and men were working hard on +the third. Sir John had not been able to +adapt himself to the new conditions 'round +him, as a younger man might. He was +mainly responsible for the delay with the +ships, for Archy had been recommended to +him as a practical ship-builder, and the +stately baronet had been so scandalized by +Archy's free and easy manners and lack of +grammar, that when that young man pointed +out a score of makeshifts that could be used +on the new ships, and quoted the Americans +as having built a vessel of sixty-six guns at +Sackett's Harbor, eighty days after her first +timbers had been laid, Sir John told him +firmly that such things would not do in +British ship-building. So snubbed him, +that Archy had given no more advice. Work +on the ships had been stopped continually, +while "proper equipments" were being +dragged up the long trail from Quebec. +</p> + +<p> +"Old man means well, and I kinder like +him," Archy told Edgar, "but he's so +stiffened up with pipeclay that he can't move +except according to regulations. I'm +getting sorrier all the time that General +Brock's dead. Them Shawanese at Detroit +wouldn't have acted up so if he'd been round, +and these ships would have got done." +</p> + +<p> +Blake, the pompous captain of the +"Gloucester", came to speak to Sir John, and +Bee, looking round, saw Susie walking with +Ned in his militia uniform, along Palace +Street. Susie looked very pretty in her short +skirted house dress of homespun, with white +collar and a knot of red ribbon, and one of +two young officers riding by stared at her +with impertinent admiration. The other, +who was Vere, pretended not to see Ned, +but as they reached Sir John, Roke, his +friend, remarked, "Pretty thing over there +with the red ribbons." +</p> + +<p> +"That lady is the wife of Major Edgar, +sir," said Sir John coldly. He disliked Roke, +whom he blamed for enticing Vere into the +drinking and gambling bouts which were +continually unfitting him for duty, and +bitterly disappointing his grandfather. +</p> + +<p> +"We don't speak of a lady under a colonel's +wife," said Roke to Vere as they rode on. +"A captain's wife may be a woman, but +under that they are only things; and militia +titles don't count." +</p> + +<p> +Vere laughed, because he was afraid of +being laughed at if he didn't, though he was +secretly disgusted with Roke's coarseness. +Unfortunately, Archy, passing by, heard +the doubtful joke. He repeated it to four +militia men who knew Edgar and his wife +well, adding, "There's a dance to-night at +their Palace place, and Mrs. Edgar will be +there sure, with most of our women. Now I +haven't anything against most of the crowd +they'll meet—a bit too starched for my taste +that's all. But that there Roke doesn't get +to no dance in York with our women, and I +guess you boys will have to help me find +him another engagement for to-night." +</p> + +<p> +The ball was at its height that evening +(and away at the other end of the lake, two +frigates with a dozen transports stood out +from Sackett's Harbour to attack York) +when Sheaffe was asking why Roke was not +there, he having sent for him. +</p> + +<p> +Roke finally entered, smothered in mud +from head to foot. He said that as he drove +to the ball with his servant, five masked men +stopped them. One cut the horse loose and +drove him on. The others lifted the light +cart and turned it over with its occupants +imprisoned beneath it in a deep mud hole. +When they got out, the five had vanished, +but Roke accused Ned and some companions, +for he imagined the young man had resented +his look at Susie. It was easily proved, +however, that Ned had not left home that +evening, and his name was dropped, though Roke +still thought him responsible. +</p> + +<p> +All York talked of Roke's mishap the next +day, and Sheaffe attempted vainly to find +the mysterious five. Then Roke was forgotten, +for at four in the afternoon Gibraltar +Point signalled that the enemy's fleet was in +sight, about twenty miles away, and +approaching them. +</p> + +<p> +York called out her defenders, two hundred +regulars, three hundred militia, and +one hundred Indians. These last were +stationed in little groups in the woods round +Humber Bay, Edgar and Tahata being with +them. The white men spent the night under +arms in Fort Toronto, while in the town the +women buried silver, and tore up linen for +bandages. +</p> + +<p> +Before dawn Ned was hurrying through +the bush with Archy and his company, very +afraid that a queer feeling he had was fear. +Hideous faces daubed in black and white +and blood red, peered at them as they passed. +The Indians were waiting for the fight in +their war-costume of loin-cloth and paint. +Only the chiefs wore buckskin shirts and +leggings, though their faces looked like +demon masks. Suddenly Ned met his father, +dressed as he had seen him first at Quebec, +with a belt of wampum as his badge of office. +Now he only held out his hand, but his grip +and smile steadied Ned's nerves. He felt +that his father believed in him, and it gave +him confidence in himself. +</p> + +<p> +He crouched in the woods by Humber Bay, +watching the enemy's ships. They seemed +very close now, ghostly looking shapes in +the morning twilight. Their boats were +being loaded with troops to land beyond the +range of Fort Toronto's guns. +</p> + +<p> +The boats came in, black shapes on the +dawn-lit water, and from every point in the +woods on the shore came the wildest, most +blood-curdling sound Ned had ever heard—a +long drawn out unearthly yell—the war-whoop +of the Mohawks. At the same time +they fired, not in volleys, but each Indian +picking out his man. Then Fort Toronto +spoke in fire, for the two warships were +nearing the entrance to the harbour. They +answered instantly with their heavier guns, and +a rolling cloud of smoke shut out the sight of +the risen sun from Humber Bay, and the roar +of the cannonading dulled the noise of the +conflict on the shore. A mass of blue-clad +men had landed there, to be met by a savage +scattering fire from the Indians and a sheet +of flame from the ambushed militia. Ned, +for the first time, was firing at living men. +His nervousness had vanished, he forgot his +scruples against war. He fired, loaded, and +fired again, in almost mechanical obedience +to orders. +</p> + +<p> +He stopped firing on command, for out of +the fort came a wave of scarlet tipped with +steel—the regulars were charging with the +bayonet on those blue lines forming on the +shore. +</p> + +<p> +"My happy grandmother!" ejaculated +Archy, "there's something besides starch in +those fellows, swinging into battle like that. +I just hate to fight out in the open; you +see——" +</p> + +<p> +Ned never knew what. The order to +charge came to them, and he was dashing +out of cover at Archy's heels. He gasped +as the man beside him fell in a crumpled +heap, and the bullets whistled past his ears. +Then he forgot himself in that mêleé of +battling men. +</p> + +<p class="thought"> +* * * +</p> + +<p> +The sun, a fierce red ball, gleamed through +the smoke, and by the green woods men in +red coats, men in gray coats, and men in no +coats at all, flung themselves on the blue +lines which wavered, and stumbled backward +into the shallows of the lake. Now +more boats were coming from the ships, the +American general, Pike, standing in the +foremost, as he cheered on his men. +</p> + +<p> +Ned was parted from his companions in +the rush. He sprang over a log, and fired at +an American officer who came at him with +uplifted sword. The man fell, and all the +delirium of battle passed from Ned's brain, +as he stared horror-struck at his fallen foe. +The American was on his feet again, and the +dark blood streaming from his shoulder. He +leaned weakly against a tree, and raised his +sword. Ned looked round and saw a young +Indian, frightful with his naked painted +body and a dripping scalp at his girdle, +levelling his musket at the wounded man. +Instantly Ned was between them—"Stop, +Kawque," he cried to the Indian, "the man is +wounded. He has surrendered." +</p> + +<p> +"I have not," said the American, adding +with biting contempt, "I do not surrender to +a renegade. I prefer to be shot, rather than +massacred as my countrymen were, who +surrendered to yours at Detroit." +</p> + +<p> +Ned heard the Indian move behind him, +and knew in a moment that he would see the +wounded man shot down. Something in the +American's proud eyes gave him an inspiration, +and he cried, "Are you Eli Goode? +I am Ned Edgar, and I know your sister. +For Bee Goode's sake, surrender now." +</p> + +<p> +The American's face changed, as quickly +as Bee's often did. He lowered his sword, +exclaiming, "Bee wrote of you in England." +</p> + +<p> +The Indian glided away, and Eli sank +fainting to the ground again. Ned cut his +coat away, bandaging the wound with a skill +he had learnt from Dr. Brown. He did not +knew that for a few minutes he and Eli had +been alone in the thicket, but that they were +then surrounded by the advancing Americans. +For an instant Ned was covered by a +dozen rifles, which were raised as quickly +as his occupation was discovered. He stood +up very dismayed, but the foremost American +was speaking. "Reckon you took the +captain prisoner, and now we have taken +you, so an exchange will be all right. +Better chase yourself out of this, +stranger." Ned snatched up his rifle and ran. +</p> + +<p> +He was soon back to the woods, where his +friends had retreated. It was now ten +o'clock, and the battle was lost. Fort +Toronto's fortifications had been ruined, and +her guns silenced by the enemy's fire. Her +garrison had left and fallen back on Western +Battery, where the scattered men from +Humber Bay joined them. As Ned came in +he saw the American flag rise over the ruins +of their first fort. Just then he did not love +his enemies at all. +</p> + +<p> +He saw Sir John sitting on his horse as +composed in that hour of defeat and danger +as if he had been on parade. Ned watched +him giving orders to the waiting men +'round him, with a great respect for British +discipline. Then Edgar hurried by, his stern +face softening as he saw his son. He went +to Sir John who sent him on to burn the +ships on the stocks, and wrote another order +for Vere to take to the captain of the +"Gloucester", that she must be blown up. +Then after speaking to the men who were +spiking the guns of Western Battery, he +rode off towards Half-moon Fort where +Sheaffe was waiting. Ned and his +companions followed, plodding along like the +weary defeated men they were. +</p> + +<p> +Outside Western Battery, Pike and the +advancing Americans had halted, summoning +the silent fort. But they got no answer, +the regulars were just leaving, Vere riding +by their captain. Ned saw flames bursting +from the new ships, and immediately after +was thrown to the ground by an explosion +that shook the earth beneath him. The +powder magazine of Western Battery had +blown up—an awful volcano of flame and +smoke, the debris of a fort, and the +high-hurled broken bodies of three hundred men. +</p> + +<p> +Americans, including General Pike, and +English were killed alike, and the explosion +itself was a mystery. Certainly neither army +could have been intentionally responsible +for it, entailing as it did, the lives of so many +men on each side. +</p> + +<p> +Ned picked himself up unhurt, and looked +back in horror. He saw Vere stumble up +from beside his dead horse, and run a few +steps, then fall again, brought down by a +sharpshooter's bullet. Many of the +scattered Americans were sheltering in the +woods. +</p> + +<p> +Only remembering the old schoolboy +friendship, Ned crept from stump to stump, +till he was crouching by Vere in the slender +cover of a pile of brushwood. Vere's face +was drawn, and his eyes, wild with fear, +stared at Ned as he spoke in panting +jerks—"I'm dying, Ned." +</p> + +<p> +"You're not dying, Vere," said Ned, as he +skilfully bandaged the wound. It was in the +leg, dangerously near a large artery. Ned +knew it needed better attention than he +could give, but how was Vere to be got to +Half-moon Fort, across the common swept +by the enemy's fire? Ned knelt down, +managed to get Vere on his back, and praying +the bandage might not slip, stepped out +boldly. Very slowly he walked along beside +the forest in whose shades Death crouched, +but with American chivalry no man fired, +and they reached Half-moon in safety. +</p> + +<p> +There Ned was hailed by Archy. "Hello, +didn't know what had become of you. +We've got to get out of here. The women +from the Palace are in town—Mrs. Haslem +and Miss Bee are at your place and the +Yankees won't hurt anything in petticoats; +Sheaffe and the regulars, and the wounded +in wagons, are making tracks for the Don +bridge, and as the Yankees won't take the +militia prisoners, if they come in and give +their parole, he says we can do as we like. +You can bet your sweet life I ain't going +to give no parole, but I'm not going to +Kingston with Sheaffe either. I'm off to +the bush till I can find a general who does +things, but it'll be all right for you to look +after your redcoat friend." +</p> + +<p> +So the very independent militia captain +went off, with most of his companions, to +look for a commander they approved of. +Ned meanwhile found a surgeon, and helped +put Vere in the last of the hurrying wagons, +that took the wounded past sullen little +York, and crossing the Don bridge, plunged +into the woods along the Quebec Road +(Kingston Highway). Vere sat up and held +out his hand to Ned as the wagon reached +the Don, for Ned was one of the rear guard +who were to fire the bridge, after the retreating +party had crossed. They did this, and +Ned managed to be left on the Toronto side +of the river. Then he made for the woods +behind York, hoping to find his sagacious, +ungrammatical captain. +</p> + +<p> +The smoke from the burning bridge +joined that of the fire by the wharves, +wrapping Edgar, as he stood on the shore, +impatiently waiting for the messenger with the +order that should prevent the capture of the +"Gloucester". The Americans had been +delayed by the confusion following the death +of Pike, but Edgar was expecting to see their +frigates off the wharves every minute. He +had already been once to beg the captain to +blow her up without the order. He could +tell him it had been given, and its non-delivery +was no doubt owing to the messenger's +death in the explosion. But Blake +had declined to take orders—or advice—from +a militia officer, and Edgar had fumed +on shore, to hurry back as his quick eye saw +the enemy's ships advancing slowly through +the smoke. +</p> + +<p> +But Half-moon Battery was empty with +her guns spiked, and without a crew, the +"Gloucester" could not fight. Still her +captain refused to destroy her till the last +minute, and before Edgar could convince +him it had come, the frigates bore +triumphantly down on them, and they were +ignominiously captured. York surrendered +at once, and at two in the afternoon, the +American flag was raised over the town. +The parliament buildings were sacked and +fired, the town escaping by payment of a +money requisition, but the stores were +emptied and many houses robbed of silver, +the enemy getting a spoil, mainly in furs, of +half a million dollars. +</p> + +<p> +The officers of the "Gloucester" were sent +on shore. Only Edgar stayed. A lean +American pointed at him accusingly—"You +are the renegade who called yourself +Kaanah," he cried. +</p> + +<p> +"That is my name in the lodges of the +Mohawks," Edgar answered carelessly. "If +you mean to hang me you have a good +chance." He glanced at the yardarm above +his head, and threw open his collar, adding, +"I am also a British subject, and England +will make you pay for my murder. It would +be nothing else, for you cannot find a man +who can say I have done anything unworthy +of my race." +</p> + +<p> +But the men round him were possessed +by that hate of the Indian which has so +often hurried men of the new world into +thoughtless reprisal, and Edgar would have +died, had not a girl appeared among the +soldiers on the shore. She was holding the +arm of an American officer, white-faced and +with a bandaged shoulder. Eli had got himself +billeted on Susie to protect his sister and +her friends, and he had gone out with Bee +to look for Edgar, whom he knew would be +in danger if recognized among the prisoners. +Bee saw Edgar, and Eli sent her back at +once, going on board himself. "Gentlemen," +he said to Edgar's judges, "fifteen years +ago my father met Mr. Edgar, both travelling +through the Ohio valley. They were +captured by the Shawanese. Mr. Edgar was +spared because he was English, and +Tecumseh was hoping for the friendship of the +English against us. My father was to be +burned at the stake, but Mr. Edgar risked +sharing his fate by pleading and offering +bribes, and instead of both dying, both were +spared, and the Indians named this man +Kaanah, 'One-who-is-a-Friend'. They were +close friends till my father's death, when he +left my only sister to Mr. Edgar's guardianship. +England may have shamed her +civilization by her alliance with savages, but +though as a soldier Mr. Edgar could not +choose his duties, I am certain he has never +been a renegade to his white blood." +</p> + +<p> +Eli's defence of his father's friend was +accepted, and Edgar was sent to the other +prisoners at the palace. It was night now; +in conquered York the women grieved for +their dead, and prayed for their living—the +men who were in the woods, and who would +not surrender. +</p> + +<p> +As Edgar entered the big room where the +English prisoners were, he saw Roke among +them, and heard him saying—"The worst +of all is letting them get the 'Gloucester', +and Sir John gave Ensign Haslem the order +for her captain. I heard him. And I saw +young Haslem being carried to a wagon by +Ned Edgar, and also saw him hold out his +hand to Ned, evidently giving him something. +Now, that order was not delivered, +and as Ned is not among the dead or +prisoners, it means that he ran without +doing what he was ordered." +</p> + +<p> +"You lie," said Edgar promptly. Roke +turned on him angrily, but the other men +interfered. Exhaustion was more responsible +for peace than forebearance, however, +and Roke, with most of the others, was +asleep, when he was awakened some time +later by Edgar. +</p> + +<p> +"I'm going to escape," said the militia +officer briefly, "I know more about this Palace +than the men who think they are guarding +us, and you are going with me. You called +my son a coward, and when we find Ensign +Haslem, and when he says, as I know he +will, that it was not to Ned that he gave the +letter, I shall take great pleasure in shooting +you." +</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<p><a id="chap06"></a></p> + +<h3> +CHAPTER VI. +<br><br> +How Ned Lost His Good Name, and Vere His Soul. +</h3> + +<p> +Two hundred dispirited men straggled +wearily through the slough into which +the spring thaws and rains had turned +the Quebec road. The wagons laden with +the unhappy wounded sank to their axles in +the mud holes, and had to be lifted and +pulled out by the men, many of their +occupants begging to be laid by the roadside +and left to die in peace. Then, too, they were +continually in fear of being attacked by the +American war ships, the road frequently +running on the lake shore. Fortunately for +them, the Americans had crossed the lake +to attack Newark (Niagara-on-the-Lake) +then the wealthiest town in Upper Canada, +with its strong Fort George. +</p> + +<p> +After weary days the little force crossed +the only bridge Kingston had left standing, +and its loosened planks clattered under their +feet. At the news of the fall of York, +Kingston had destroyed every bridge over the +several rivers near her, except one, and that +could easily have been fired had the enemy +landed in the neighbourhood. +</p> + +<p> +Vere had suffered a great deal during the +retreat, but he recovered rapidly in the +pleasant room given him, its windows showing +a varied view of lake and river, and the +harbour where the little war fleet of Lake +Ontario lay, with the shipping that had +escaped the enemy's sweep. As the +barracks and officers' quarters were at the +eastern extremity of the town, he could see +much of Kingston itself, looking sedate and +solid with its many stone buildings. +</p> + +<p> +He was half dozing in pleasant +contemplation of all when Sir John burst in +upon him one morning. "Did you give the +note you were carrying when you were +wounded to Ned Edgar?" he asked sharply. +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, sir. Why do you ask?" gasped +Vere, his lips growing white as he +remembered that in his fear he had forgotten +the note, which lay in his pocket still. +</p> + +<p> +Sir John did not see Vere's face. He had +turned to the window. "I always feared Ned +would come to a bad end," he was muttering. +"He is missing now, and I hope will continue +so—for his father's sake. Major Edgar +came in with Roke this morning." +</p> + +<p> +The deadly horror that had clutched +Vere's heart relaxed its hold, for he did not +fear sin, but punishment. Now he thought +he had done no harm, for Ned was away +somewhere, and might never meet these men +who believed this of him. Then as Sir John +left the room, he limped to the fire place, and +dropped the paper on the flames. He was +called that day before a court of inquiry +into the loss of the "Gloucester", and gave +his false evidence with no more reluctance +than seemed natural in one who had been +Ned's school friend. Edgar listened to him, +his face calm, but his very soul scalded with +the shame he believed Ned had brought upon +him. +</p> + +<p> +A week later Ned stood at the gate of +Kingston Fort. He had lost his way +completely in the woods, and had been found by +a hunting party of Indians, who when they +had got enough game, took it and him to +Kingston. So Ned told his story, +bewildered at the looks of the men who +questioned him. What had he done but try +to join his captain and company? Then +suddenly his arms were jerked behind him +and his wrists shackled with steel. Ned's +eyes flamed, and he felt himself shaken with +fury and resentment. But surely his father +was there, and would never let any injustice +be done him. +</p> + +<p> +He was still looking for Edgar when he +was brought before a court of bleak-eyed +men, who were in hourly expectation of an +attack on Kingston. Newark had sent for +help they could not give—and they were in +no mood to have mercy on anyone who did +not do his duty at such a time. Ned's brain +reeled as he heard the charge against him—of +disobedience and cowardice. In a voice +he did not recognize as his own, he answered, +"I never saw this letter, sir, nor heard of it +till now." +</p> + +<p> +"Enter the plea, 'Not Guilty'," said the +President shortly, as Roke was called, and +told to tell what he had really seen. +</p> + +<p> +"This man is my enemy," said Ned in a +low tone to the officer appointed as his +counsel, "He is saying this in revenge for a +trick he thinks I played on him. If Ensign +Haslem were alive and here he would say +he gave me nothing. We only shook hands." +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, you thought Ensign Haslem was +dead and you could face the rest out," said +the man. "You are certainly a cool one." +</p> + +<p> +Ned did not hear him, Roke had told his +tale and stepped down, and Vere, ghastly +pale and limping, was taking the solemn +oath. Then with no thought but to save +himself, he betrayed the friend who had +saved him—to death. In a low voice but +without hesitation he answered the +questions put him. +</p> + +<p> +Like one in the grip of a ghastly nightmare +Ned looked 'round him. He saw his +father, with eyes that had love frozen in +them. He knew Edgar believed him guilty +too, and he looked despairingly through the +window where the careless sunshine flashed +on the open water under the tender May +sky. Would God, who was so careful of the +spring flowers and nesting birds, let the +clean name he valued far more than life be +taken from him? Was there any God? +</p> + +<p> +The room grew black round him for an +instant, for they were sentencing him to +die—as a coward. The instinct of his blood +made him set his teeth, and force himself to +face them calmly—to walk steadily from the +room, and back to his prison. But something +seemed to give way in his brain, and +when they left him there, chained in the +darkness, he was very near the black bounds +of insanity. +</p> + +<p> +Vere had left the court directly he gave +his evidence, and he looked in blank horror +at Sir John when he heard the sentence, +"You have influence, sir," he panted, "I +thought—I hoped you would help him. He +is not as much to blame as you think, and he +saved me." +</p> + +<p> +"What on earth do you mean?" Sir John +exclaimed irritably. +</p> + +<p> +The truth that would save his soul rose +to Vere's lips, but his coward spirit kept it +from passing them. "I meant he is so +young," he stammered. "I should have +given the note to an older man. And then +if he had not put that bandage on, I should +have bled to death before the surgeon +reached me." +</p> + +<p> +To Sir John, to be born a Haslem meant +that a man could not lie. He had learned +nothing from the old scandal buried in the +graves of his reckless son, and the weak +wicked woman he had married. Dr. Brown +could have warned him that Vere needed the +wisest training, and that drinking would +surely rot the weak moral fibres he had +inherited. Now at twenty he was, even when +quite sober, a decaying soul. +</p> + +<p> +Ned roused from a stupor, as a man +entered his cell. It was Sells, the +blackguard of the "Lightfoot", whom his +regiment had managed to get rid of, and who +was now in the garrison at Kingston. He +felt Sells taking the irons off his legs, and +the memory of everything swept over him +like a flame. He shuddered as if fire had +touched his flesh, then walked out quietly. +A man waiting put his hand on his shoulder, +and led him out of doors into a still night, +where a big moon showed they were in a +stump-filled field outside the fort. +</p> + +<p> +They two were quite alone, and Ned felt +some surprise. His escort's grip tightened +upon his shoulder and he dug his fingers +in convulsively. Ned said quietly—"Is it +necessary to hold me so tightly, sir? I am +not trying to run away." +</p> + +<p> +The sound of his prisoner's voice seemed +to madden the man. With an oath he flung +Ned from him with all his strength. Ned +went down heavily among the limestone +outcroppings, and picked himself up, bruised +and shaken, to face in the moonlight—his +father. +</p> + +<p> +Cursing him with the passion of a man +utterly beside himself, Edgar broke +out—"Why didn't you shoot yourself when you +knew what you had done, instead of coming +here to disgrace yourself, and your brothers +and me? It's that infernal Methodism that's +put the coward taint in your blood." +</p> + +<p> +Ned crimsoned at the attack on his faith, +and answered as passionately as his +father—"Why isn't my word as good as Vere +Haslem's? I tell you I never saw the +letter." +</p> + +<p> +He fell down again before his father's +fist. There was blood on his lips where it +had struck as he rose, and he did not try to +speak again but stood with arms folded. He +was indifferent if Edgar should kill him, +which he seemed quite capable of doing. +</p> + +<p> +"Go," said Edgar thickly, "before I shoot +you. Go to the Yankees, curse them! You're +the worst thing I could wish them to have. I +only bribed your guard to help you to escape +so that your punishment shouldn't disgrace +your brothers. But if I ever meet you on +Canadian soil again, I'll shoot you on sight. +Go, before I do it now." +</p> + +<p> +Ned went blindly into the bush, where a +rough voice called him. He knew nothing +and cared nothing. Coming to the shore, he +was pushed upon a boat which dimly +impressed him as a large schooner, and which +set off at once across the lake. His brain +clearing, he saw she was manned by a score +of men, in the uniforms of both armies, +deserters who instead of leaving one side to +join the other, meant to form a gang with +Sells for the leader, and hide in the woods +near Niagara, plundering all they could. +"And you want me to join you?" said Ned +indifferently, as Sells explained their +intentions to him. +</p> + +<p> +"We'll make you want to. We want +you, for Dr. Tam on the 'Lightfoot' said you +could do a little of his job quite decently. +We won't hurt you if you do as you are told, +and as you seem one of the coward sort, +we'll leave you behind when there's any +fighting going on. We're taking you to mend +hurts, not to make them, and you can amuse +us too—give us a mock Methodist sermon +when we're dull. I wonder what Ferguson +will say when he hears that his pet ran away +in the first battle? I never thought till I +saw you in the court that you were like +that." +</p> + +<p> +In the darkness Ned's fists clenched, but +he did not strike the mocking face before +him. He felt that a blinded Justice had +robbed him of the right to resent insult. So he +answered sullenly, "Any man who was a +coward would be glad to join you." +</p> + +<p> +They took that for his assent, and left him +to pretence of sleep. He lay listening to the +talk of these men who had dropped all +thought of decency and were thieves, and +there came to him the temptation to end his +life. This scum of society was henceforth to +be the only class open to him—no honest +man would ever touch his hand again. Why +not "Curse God and die?" +</p> + +<p> +In Kingston, the next morning, Ned's +escape was discovered, but only Sells was +blamed for helping him, and their names +were posted together as deserters. No one +paid much attention. Across the lake Fort +George, the key to Niagara, was answering +the heavy cannonade of the American fleet. +And on that same day, May 27, the British +war ships with a thousand men on board, left +Kingston to attack Sackett's Harbour, +hoping that the absence of the American fleet +would enable them to capture the naval +stores there. It was a day of double defeat. +In the afternoon a carrier pigeon dropped +into Kingston with a note that said Vincent, +the commander at Fort George, running out +of powder, had retired into the bush after +spiking his guns and firing his stores. The +Americans had not followed him, they +having a very exaggerated idea of the number +of Indians in the British service. They now +held Newark, and the entire Niagara district. +</p> + +<p> +Then the fleet came back from Sackett's +Harbour, leaving three hundred men, dead, +wounded, and missing, behind them. Among +them was Edgar, who had volunteered to +join the landing party, which had been +hemmed in and captured. +</p> + +<p class="capcenter"> +<a id="img-109"></a> +<br> +<img class="imgcenter" src="images/img-109.jpg" alt=""Dropped noiselessly overboard and swam ashore.""> +<br> +"Dropped noiselessly overboard and swam ashore." +</p> + +<p> +And Ned, in the deserters' boat, as the +dark madness that suggested suicide still +held his mind, saw that the shore was near, +and taking a musket, dropped noiselessly +overboard and swam to shore. There he +wandered into the bush, not knowing where, +only avoiding every trail of man, for his +brain had been so weakened by the shock of +his unjust condemnation that he felt he was +too disgraced ever to let any man of any +nation see his face again. He shot some +game, and spent a few days in a tiny +limestone cave, then wandered on restlessly, +sleeping one night in the bush. Waking the +third morning in utter despair, he was +almost surprised to hear himself calling out, +"What shall I do?" +</p> + +<p> +"Be good, that's all," said a clear voice +near him, and he sprang up in alarm, to face +Bee in a homespun skirt and calico +sunbonnet. He heard the sound of chickens and +cow-bells, and saw he was close to York. +</p> + +<p> +"Ned Edgar!" she exclaimed in delight. +"I am so used to have sentries stopping me +everywhere, that when I heard you speak, I +thought I had better say my name, and let +you see me." +</p> + +<p> +"Be good, that's all," repeated Ned, looking +at her with dazed eyes. "But what can +I do good now? Where shall I go?" +</p> + +<p> +Bee gasped, dashed off, and was back in +a minute with a brimming can of milk. +"Drink this," she said severely, and as Ned +obeyed, she added, "You are disgraceful; all +the men I know are. They shoot each other, +and get hurt, and go without proper meals, +when they might be at home doing respectable +work. Do you know a wonderful thing +has happened? Cousin Betty has the dearest +baby in the world, and she is here with +Mamma Edgar, and Eli is taking care of us +all. The baby's name is York—and Cousin +Percy stays with his regiment at Lake +Champlain, or somewhere. If I were he I +would die if I didn't fly home and see my +delicious baby the minute it came. But you +must come to the house with me and have +breakfast." +</p> + +<p> +Revived by the milk, Ned followed Bee into +York; desolate York with the ashes of her +buildings lying black beside the fields no one +had plowed or sown that spring. Ned missed +the military life at the barracks, and the flag +he had always seen over them. The American +forces had left, Bee told him, but their +ships came in constantly, and Eli was there +now. There were few men in the place, no +one came to trade, and the streets looked +forlorn, for the blight of war was on the +land. +</p> + +<p> +Edgar's empty store, with its doors swinging +idly open, gave Ned a shock. His father, +Bee told him was a prisoner of war, but +Susie would be glad to see him. Evidently +the news of his disgrace had not reached +York, but he knew he must not go under his +father's roof, nor eat his bread. He began +to say something of this, but Bee stopped +him. "We will have breakfast out of doors, +and eat what Eli brought." +</p> + +<p> +"You don't understand, Miss Bee, what +my father thinks I am." +</p> + +<p> +"I can guess, I know Papa Edgar, but being +an American I don't see things as he +does. Eli and I have been hoping you would +do it." +</p> + +<p> +"I don't know what you are talking about, +but you certainly don't know the truth, and +you must hear it before we go any further." +</p> + +<p> +Without preface he told her of his arrest +at Kingston, and then the trial. Bee's +bewilderment at the abrupt beginning changed +to horror as he repeated Vere's evidence. +"Poor Vere," she murmured. +</p> + +<p> +"What do you pity him for?" said Ned +roughly, "even if you do think me guilty." +</p> + +<p> +"You? You are strong, you will soon get +over this; it is only a little thing," (Ned +wondered what her idea of serious trouble +was) "but Vere was a traitor to you, and +traitors must go to—to their own place." Her +voice sank to a whisper, but she dared +not say the terrible name. +</p> + +<p> +The straight, strong faith he had accepted +once came back to Ned then. Time seemed +nothing beside eternity, the blundering +injustice of men too little a thing to think of +beside the awful Justice of God, high-throned +in eternal calm. He raised his head +for the first time since they had chained him +at Kingston—"Then you do not think I am +guilty, though Sir John does?" he asked her. +</p> + +<p> +She laughed softly. "You a coward—who +saved my brother!" she exclaimed, and +before he guessed what she meant to do, she +had kissed him on his forehead, flushing a +little as the instinct of a young girl made +itself felt through the impulsive abandon of +a child. "That is what I think of you," she +repeated. "I never kissed any man but Sir +John, and Papa Edgar and Eli before, but I +think I love you nearly as much as Eli, and +I believe in you as much as I do in him. +Now, sit right down here, while I get breakfast." +</p> + +<p> +Ned sat down, but that kiss had given him +back his courage and self-respect; he knew +now what he could do. Then Bee came out +again, followed by Chloe with a tray of +dishes, and Eli with the coffee pot. +</p> + +<p> +So they sat down to their pic-nic meal. +Eli was startled at Ned's white face, and +evident nervous condition, but put it down to +dejection at the British defeats, and weeks +of starving in the bush. He talked about the +weather, and tried to stop Bee when she +started on the war, but that young lady +insisted on talking as she liked. "I hope this +dreadful war is almost over," she said +earnestly. "Upper Canada is conquered except +Kingston and those few men from Fort +George who are in the bush. Brother Eli, +what are you making signs at me for? What +are you trying to make me do?" +</p> + +<p> +"Nothing, I assure you, my dear girl. I +may be able to manage the crew of a ship, +but I know I couldn't one woman, even a +very young one. Do you ever let any body +boss you, Bee?" +</p> + +<p> +"Only Cousin Betty; I have to do all she +says. She made a heap of regulations for +my conduct, and put me on my honour to report +to her when I break one. I always write +my reports in a book and give it in to her. I +made the book myself—its title is 'The sins +of a Lifetime, being the Confessions of Miss +Beatrice Truth Goode, of Boston.' And its +motto is from that dearest Sir Walter +Scott—'High minds most deeply feel thy pangs, +Remorse.' Then I have to sew seams, for +punishment, miles and miles of seams, I am +sure. And now, Ned, I suppose you will +have to lodge at Widow Giles. Mamma +Edgar can't have you in the house after what +your father said, but she will be delighted +that you are looking after the place, we can't +get a man to do anything. I don't understand +the Canadian militia not coming in, +when they know they have only to give their +parole and go to their homes, where now +just women and old men are trying to do the +work; and as they can't put in crops enough, +they will all be starving next winter. I am +so glad you are sensible, and willing to be +friends." +</p> + +<p> +Ned stood up very embarrassed, and +realizing that these friends, the only ones he +seemed to have, were by the unnatural laws +of war his enemies. "Captain Goode," he +said, "I must apologize to you and Miss Bee. +I think I lost my senses in the bush, for I +forgot we were at war till this minute. I +cannot give my parole, so must surrender +myself to you as a prisoner." +</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<p><a id="chap07"></a></p> + +<h3> +CHAPTER VII. +<br><br> +How Ned Planned to Justify Bee's Faith in Him. +</h3> + +<p> +"I don't take prisoners at my table, +Mr. Edgar," said Eli quietly, while the +happy laughter died out of Bee's face +and she looked bleakly at the two young +men. +</p> + +<p> +"But I thought the war was over," she +cried. "Brother Eli, you said that when the +Americans had York and Newark, Upper +Canada would realize that she must change +her flags, and the Canadian militia would all +come in and give their paroles not to fight +any more, and then they would go to their +farms; and now they are all staying in the +bush, and even Ned, who I thought had come +in, says he hasn't. What are you going to do +with him?" +</p> + +<p> +"That is for you to say, Bee, you brought +him in, and I presume you had better let +him go out again. Some more coffee please, +with lots of sugar." +</p> + +<p> +Bee was very silent the rest of the meal, +then she took Ned to see the baby, which +Chloe was nursing. Betty asked Ned eagerly +after her men; she was thinking too much of +Percy, of whose whereabouts they knew +nothing, to notice Ned's embarrassment as +he answered her. Then Bee and Ned were +out in the garden by themselves. +</p> + +<p> +"What are you going to do?" Bee demanded. +</p> + +<p> +"With your permission, Miss Bee, I will +go to our men at Stony Creek, or near. They +have no communication with Kingston, so I +can join them, and hope for a chance to +retrieve my good name." +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, I understand, I suppose you must go +on fighting," she answered with a wan +smile. "Here is a bag of bread, and you +have your gun. Good-bye." +</p> + +<p> +Ned had a long lonely tramp along the +lake shore, till one morning, it was June 6, +he heard at dawn the roar of distant cannon, +and knew the invaders had located, and were +attacking Vincent. All that day he walked +on steadily, feverishly eager to know how +the fight had gone. The long summer day +was ending, when he heard the sounds of +many men near him in the gloom, though +there was no smell of smoke or gleam of a +camp-fire. Ned went on carefully, saw a +redcoated sentry, was challenged by him, +and was the next moment exuberantly +greeted by Tim Kelly. +</p> + +<p> +"Sure, and its the Swaddler's friend," Tim +cried. "Are you asking if he's alive and +well? Just swear a bit, me boy, and he'll be +down on you immediate. No, we're not at +Lake Champlain, we're here, breaking our +hearts entirely marching through woods +that last forever and ever. We left our +women at Montreal, and have been getting +through the forest ever since, talking in +whispers and walking on our tiptoes. +Barring the time we were at Kingston, we've +never been able to light a fire, and my +stomach's about dead with eating uncooked meat +and things, and the Swaddler's real worried +because he can't stop to wash his clothes; if +he'd been a gentleman born, he couldn't hate +being dirty more." +</p> + +<p> +"Were you at Kingston long?" asked Ned +with a great fear in his heart. He had +meant to give an assumed name when he +found the fighting force, but now this was +impossible. And though Tim evidently +knew nothing, his officers might. +</p> + +<p> +"Just long enough for Ferguson to find a +bunch of Swaddlers," said Tim carelessly. +"Do you know, me boy, why the heathen here +paint their faces?" +</p> + +<p> +"I suppose it is their custom," Ned +answered absently. +</p> + +<p> +"It's because these woods are cruel hard +on clothes, me boy, and when a man has only +half of nothing left of his trousers he +naturally paints to hide his blushes." +</p> + +<p class="thought"> +* * * +</p> + +<p> +Ned was passed into the lines, where +Percy met him, and the captain's greeting +told him he was in no fear of discovery as +yet. He was given food, and a large ration +of whiskey, which he refused. +</p> + +<p> +"Look here, young man," said the old +sergeant severely, "do you know you're a +fool? Going without drink's bad for a man's +health, especially when like now he can't get +proper cooked food. We don't want tee-total +fanatics in the army, they'd break down +on a hard march." +</p> + +<p> +"Let him alone, Giles," said Percy's voice +behind them in the dark. "Don't you know +he is a Swaddler, like Ferguson? You know +he never touches liquors, and he has not +broken down through all this hard marching. +I should imagine you would like more +'fanatics' like him, who never grumbles at +anything, and stands the hardest work +better than stronger looking men than himself." +</p> + +<p> +"Stick to your Swaddling, Ned," Percy +added, as the sergeant left them, "you'll +have a lot of temptations here with us, but +don't backslide—I think that is what you +call it. You will do well for yourself if you +keep steady, and you'll do that if you can +keep to what you are now. Do you +remember a man called Sells, on board the +'Lightfoot'? He had some education, but +drink and wild living wrecked his life and he +enlisted. He might have risen then, for he +had the ability to lead men, but drink +brought him into continual disgrace. He's at +Kingston now, too degraded ever to rise +again." +</p> + +<p> +Ned was thankful it was too dark for +Percy to see his face, and he was glad to be +sent on to Ferguson, whose blanket he +shared that night. +</p> + +<p> +"It seems a long time since our first night +in Canada," the Methodist said. "How is it +with you? In all our hard marching I have +seemed to be dwelling in the clefts of the +Rock." +</p> + +<p> +"You were at Kingston?" Ned asked, not +knowing what to say. He longed to confide +in Ferguson, yet dare not compromise him +by letting him know his friend was legally +an escaped criminal. +</p> + +<p> +"Yes," Ferguson answered, "everything +had a warlike appearance there—God and +eternity forgotten. I asked if there were any +Methodists in town, and a peddler told me +of a militia captain who was also a class +leader. The man spoke with a blush, for he +had been one of our travelling preachers, but +had backslidden, and taken up worldly work. +Still he was very kind to me. He introduced +me to the class leader captain, whose +company was like 'a water brook to the +panting hart'. I had been so long away from +any who knew Canaan's language." +</p> + +<p> +"I can't understand why our lives should +be so hard to live some times," Ned spoke +with a bitterness that surprised his friend. +</p> + +<p> +"In the secret of His tabernacle did He +hide me," said Ferguson quietly. "My great +trouble on this march is the injury this army +has done to the farmers on our way. We +have plenty of meat, but not much else to +eat, and the men will steal handfuls of +garden stuff, or slip out and milk a cow. I +have kept from touching anything that was +not paid for, and God has given me favor in +the sight of all. My comrades will not +swear or steal in my presence, and any +privilege I ask of my officers is readily +granted." +</p> + +<p> +Ned slept then till he was awakened by +Ferguson's touch. All round tired men were +sleeping heavily, but a wonderful dawn was +flushing the sky above Lake Ontario, which +was turning from dull gray to the tints of a +pearl shell. Overhead the birds were +calling, and Ferguson had risen in accordance +with the discipline of his church, which bade +a man rise an hour before his work +compelled him to, to read the Bible on his knees, +and pray. Ned had forgotten to pray since +his life had been blasted by a traitor's lie, but +now he knelt by Ferguson, thanking God +for the young girl's kiss that had given him +courage to face his world again. +</p> + +<p> +And now for the chance to clear his name. +At present communication with Kingston +was almost impossible, and if he could win a +name for bravery with Vincent, or with this +column that was marching to his relief, it +might influence the judges who had +misjudged him so. +</p> + +<p> +There was plenty of excitement in their +marching the next few days. The Americans +had discovered the column by now, and knew +that they were going to join Vincent, so the +ships constantly landed parties who lay in +ambush. The regiment never saw its +enemies, there would be a quick spatter of +shot from the green cover, a man or two +would fall, but the angry bayonet charge +that was the prompt answer of the British +found nothing but leaves to use their steel +upon; the woodsmen from Kentucky were +too quick to be caught by these heavy footed +new-comers to the world of lake and bush. +</p> + +<p> +So they came to the bay where to-day our +city of Hamilton stands. Near by, in June, +1813, was the village of Stoney Creek, a +straggling street, outlined by orchards. +Beyond rose Burlington Heights, with the raw +earthworks and log ramparts of Vincent's +entrenchments, and the battle-frayed flag +of England floating above them. +</p> + +<p> +Stoney Creek had a little Methodist +church, the first Ferguson or Ned had seen +in the new world. The needs of war had +pressed it for a hospital, and from its doors +a joyful crowd of bandaged men, Archy +among them, greeted the relief force. +</p> + +<p> +"We're glad to see you all right," said +Archy. "Though we wasn't in no hurry to +get relieved. We beat the Yankees sure on +June sixth, and fought some too. Them +trees show that, I guess." +</p> + +<p> +The trees did, to the men who were now +among the orchards—great branches broken +and trunks scarred everywhere by bullets. +On June sixth the enemy had located +Vincent, and knowing he was without artillery +and almost out of powder, they landed three +thousand men, who camped that night in the +orchards of Stoney Creek. In the morning +they meant to attack, and with the help of +their ship's guns, capture Vincent's army +before the relief column with abundance of +ammunition arrived. +</p> + +<p> +"Blamed foolish of them Yankees," said +Archy. "They oughter have piled everything +they've got on Kingston, and picked us up +any old time. Chasing after us like they are, +makes me think of a man trying to cut a +tree down by taking an axe to its branches. +Kingston's the trunk. If it fell it would +mean Upper Canada was cut off totally." +</p> + +<p> +"We had fourteen hundred men," put in +another man, "and Colonel Harvey who did +some fighting in Egypt with Bonaparte—and +learned to know how to do a few things +too—wanted a night attack, as we had no +powder. He led it, and it was hot and +heavy while it lasted, but cold steel made the +enemy glad to get back to their ships. They +started banging away, but Harvey and his +men were back on the Heights, and the +enemy went back to get reinforcements." +</p> + +<p> +Then Archy saw Ned, and called to him to +know how he came there. "I was lost in the +bush several times, sir," Ned answered, +hoping he did not look as guilty as he felt. +"At last I fell in with the relief column. I +tried to find you when I left York." +</p> + +<p> +"Awful bad habit, Ned, this getting lost +in the bush. When I got in here and +reported myself to General Vincent, he asked +me why I hadn't stayed with Sheaffe and +gone to Kingston. I says, 'My memory's +awful bad, General, I couldn't for the life of +me remember if Kingston was east or west, +so I got here; I guess some folks can't just +help forgetting things.' And he laughed, +'cause I'd come in with the Indian who +brought the note from Sheaffe saying he was +to go to Kingston, and so he knew I knew +that he meant to 'forget' to obey it." +</p> + +<p> +So Ned slipped back to his old place in +Archy's company, and was rather startled to +find himself raised to sergeant. He worked +hard at his duties, but he was oddly silent, +and seemed to shrink away from his friends—so +the men who knew him best, Ferguson, +Archy, and the keen-eyed Percy, thought. +</p> + +<p> +It was a long summer of guerilla +warfare rather than battle. The enemy, +with somewhat unwise generalship, wasted +their forces trying to crush the elusive +British army at the Burlington end of the lake; +it dividing, uniting, and disappearing, trying +to give the enemy the impression at least +treble its numbers. +</p> + +<p> +"Play a waiting game," said Harvey, who +with Fitzgibbons, was the most daring and +popular of the leaders. "Keep the enemy in +complete ignorance of your numbers and +movements, and know everything about +him." It was possible to do this because the +men who defended, had the woods to fall +back on. When attacked they retreated, +while their Indians hung on the enemy's +flanks if they tried to follow, keeping his +men awake all night with war-whoops, and +playing on their nerves. Then the invader +would fall back on the settlements, where +the few men, and every woman and child +was a spy for their men in the bush. The +Americans came and went in sulky desolate +York. They held full possession of the +Niagara district, the oldest settled and richest +part of Upper Canada. There they kept +their men in strict order hoping to make +these obstinate Canadians realize they were +friends, but not even a child could be coaxed +to give a "Yankee" any information, even of +the most harmless kind. +</p> + +<p> +Laura Secord, in the Niagara village of +St. Davids, whose militia husband was a +prisoner of war, cooked in her kitchen for the +American officers who had quartered +themselves in her house, and overheard their +plans to trap Fitzgibbons. She passed the +sentry at her door with a pail to milk her +cow—and instead plunged into the bush, +and walked twenty miles, reaching the men +she sought utterly exhausted, but with the +news that made them able to ambush the +enemy, and win the little battle of Beaver +Dam, on June twenty-fourth. +</p> + +<p> +And because Laura Secord did only what +almost every woman in Upper Canada would +have done in her place, the United States +did not conquer Canada. +</p> + +<p> +A month after Beaver Dam, a party of +officers were dining at Stoney Creek, which +was still Vincent's headquarters. They +were the guests of Archy, who had risen in +rank in the bush fighting, but had not +improved in grammar. The men were +unkempt-looking after their rough living, and +lack of many of the appendages of +civilization. Only Percy wore his patched and +shabby garments with an uneradicable air +of neatness. He and Archy were close +friends now, probably because in all outside +matters they were entirely unlike. The +party ate from silver plate, and tin dishes, +at a table formed by setting two shutters on +three barrels. Their fare was roast beef and +venison in abundance, with a little dark +bread, and a mess of mixed greens. War +was pinching Upper Canada hard, her crops +would be very scanty, and the government +had already bought all the flour to be found, +paying the sometimes unwilling settlers +twenty dollars a barrel, which was considerably +above the market price. Bread was selling +at forty cents a large loaf, and scanty +rations of flour were doled out to the army, +who had to live mainly on meat, the farmers +naturally refusing to sell vegetables, fruit, or +butter at any price, for they had the winter +to look forward to. The Indians brought in +berries and edible greens, and nobody +starved. +</p> + +<p> +Archy was looking doubtfully at the brew +his servant was pouring into cups. "This +here, gentlemen," he said, "is birch bark +tea. I don't think its poison, and I was so +sick of those herb drinks that I thought I'd +try it. If you don't like it, call it a horror of +war." +</p> + +<p> +Desert—a pot of cooked fruit, small +peaches and apples, was on the table, with a +jug of whiskey, and Percy said to the host. +"I trust you came by that fruit honestly. +Ferguson is wearing himself out trying to +head off three thousand irresponsible +vagabonds from picking up green fruit that +doesn't belong to them. I often feel I am the +most virtuous man in the camp, for except +when I dine out, I know I get nothing to eat +but what is paid for." +</p> + +<p> +"It's starch you mean to steal, if you hear +of any," said Archy, laughing. +</p> + +<p> +Percy sighed as he looked at the limp +frills of his shirt. "That is the worst thing +I have to endure," he said. "If I hear of +starch I shall certainly wait till Ferguson is +intent on some other criminal and go out +and steal it myself. Isn't that Ned Edgar +over there? He is certainly making a good +record for himself, though he always looks +to me as if he had something on his mind." +</p> + +<p> +Ferguson thought the same, and bewildered +that Ned seemed avoiding him, he met +him that afternoon by the desecrated chapel, +and Ned could not escape speaking to him. +Ferguson looked sadly into the building, for +the bunks for the sick round its walls had +been made of broken up pulpit, seats, and +communion table. So war had ordered. +</p> + +<p> +"I feel with Habakkuk," Ferguson remarked, +"grieved for the Church lest when +her carved work and hedges are broken +down she should suffer loss. But the breaking +up of a church building like this does not +matter if the members are strong in the +faith. We are to have a meeting to-night in +Father Williams' barn. He is that aged +saint who leans on his staff and worships. +We also need some candles, and though the +good sister who owns this orchard has +plenty, she is prejudiced against soldiers, so +I want you to go to see her, and—" +</p> + +<p> +"I will ask the lady for the candles," said +Ned in a constrained voice, "but I may not +be at your meeting, I may have duties." +</p> + +<p> +He was off then, before the astonished +Ferguson could answer him. Four years in +the army had given the Methodist a +thorough knowledge of the things that lead +many young men astray, but Ned avoided +the reckless set among his comrades, as +much as he was now keeping away from his +Methodist friends; and the little soldier felt +utterly at a loss. +</p> + +<p> +Meanwhile Ned had gone to the big farm +house belonging to the lady who owned the +candles. She was middle-aged and militant +looking and she regarded Ned coldly. "The +regulars are stealing my fruit whenever my +back is turned," she said, "and the militia +have taken eighty fence rails for firewood. +Pray what do you want here? Tell me at +once, and don't be saucy." +</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<p><a id="chap08"></a></p> + +<h3> +CHAPTER VIII. +<br><br> +How Ned Had Many Adventures, and Bee<br> +Becomes a Woman. +</h3> + +<p> +Ned thought a man would have to be +mad or very drunk before he could +be saucy to such a lady, and he +answered in his meekest voice, "We wanted +to hold a prayer meeting, madam, and hoped +you might be so good as to give us some +candles." +</p> + +<p> +"For the land's sake, a prayer meeting! +Not but what you need them badly. But +whoever is going to hold a prayer meeting? +There isn't a chaplain of any sort here." +</p> + +<p> +"We have a soldier preacher, madam, a +Mr. Ferguson." +</p> + +<p> +"What, not one of those soldiers?" Astonishment +and unbelief were in the +lady's tones. +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, madam, he preaches very well too, +and I hope you will come to hear him. He +never steals apples or anything, for he is a +Methodist. And while I admit he is a private +in the ranks, still it doesn't do always to +say 'Can any good come out of Nazareth?'" +</p> + +<p> +She looked at him. His manner was +certainly not what she would have looked +for in a private soldier, and changing her +attitude with feminine quickness, she +said—"Come right in and sit down. Here's a pie +right out of the oven and you must try it. +Not hungry? Nonsense; men, especially +soldiers, always are. Now, tell your +Mr. Ferguson to call on me. If it isn't some trick +of you boys I'll keep you in candles. I'm a +Methodist myself, but its hard not to grow +cold in religion when there's no church, and +war's making everybody wild. My husband +and three boys are all out with the militia—and +they won't quit fighting while there's a +Yankee in Canada. But it's hard on flesh and +blood to see a farm like the one we had here +going to wrack and ruin, without a man to do +a hand's turn. But I shouldn't complain, my +house is filled with officers, and they pay me +well. And the cows, and the stuff the girls +and me did get in, are doing splendid." +</p> + +<p> +From the farm Ned went at once to Archy, +to see if he couldn't be sent out again at +once—to avoid meeting Ferguson—and +found Percy there before him. "How'd you +like to change into the regulars, Ned?" said +Archy briskly. "I hate to lose you, for +you're a kind of reliable—from that first +hour when you were under fire at Humber +Bay, you've been to be depended upon. But +Captain Haslem's going with his company +to try and steal some Yankee flour up Niagara +way, and he'll take you, if you're willing, +and its a good chance for you." +</p> + +<p> +"You would have the rank of sergeant," +said Percy, "and the position of 'Talk Man', +as you call an Indian interpreter; for your +captain says you studied the Indian +dialects with your father last winter in York. +Then we shall have no surgeon with us, +and as Dr. Tam recommends you highly as +an emergency one, I think you can be sure of +getting a commission before six months are +out." +</p> + +<p> +Ned knew Ferguson had been assigned +by Percy to duty with the commissariat and +transport, which would keep him in Stoney +Creek, so he thanked his friends and +accepted. He set off that same day, one of +seventy-five white men, with a dozen Indian +scouts. +</p> + +<p> +They reached the Niagara district, and lay +low in the great forest that filled the back +of the fertile peninsula between the lakes +Erie and Ontario. Before them was the +garden land of Canada, guarded by forts +Erie and George, on the upper and lower +lakes—and both alas held by the triumphant +enemy—fronted by the deep gorge of the +wild Niagara River. For the first time Ned +heard the far-off awful roar of the great +falls, and in a sense he was afraid, for he +understood why the Indians said it was the +voice of God. +</p> + +<p> +But he had little time to think of the +mysterious poetry of the Great Waters. +The party were marching silently across +Niagara in the night. Tiny lights, placed by +brave women in farmhouse windows, told +Percy all he needed to know, and so they +crept down to the shore by Fort Erie, and +seizing boats, put out, as a sentry challenged +them. +</p> + +<p> +"Provision boats from Buffalo," Percy +answered instantly, and so they passed. +</p> + +<p> +Across Niagara River twinkled the lights +of Buffalo and Black Rock, and before them +three ships laden with stores, loomed up +dark as they lay at anchor. The first was +boarded with a savage rush of excited men. +In five minutes she was mastered, and +scudding out into Erie, keeping the other ships +between her and the guns of the fort till she +was out of range. +</p> + +<p> +At dawn the prize was lying in a little +bay. She had landed part of the men, +including Ned and the Indians, with a good +portion of her cargo of flour, when the +10-gun "Hunter", one of the British war-fleet +on Erie, came up. She was to take the boat +and part of the stores to Detroit, that one bit +of American soil to which Canada was +clinging. She felt that she was not quite +conquered while she held it, though her +garrison there were very short of food. +</p> + +<p> +So the war went on that summer, until it +was September; and on Friday, the tenth of +that month—a day to be marked in American +histories—Betty sat in Susie's best room, +feeling depressed. Susie was with her, but +both women were silent, thinking of their +husbands. Susie knew that Edgar had +escaped, had got to Detroit, and then had +heard no more, and so she worked and +suffered as thousands of brave women did in +that olden war. She had herself and her +children to keep on what she could get from +her garden and cows and poultry, for there +was no possibility of getting food from +outside. The Americans, honourable invaders +all, though they knew the women in the +country they occupied must be continually +sending information to the men in the bush, +yet would not punish the captive but +unconquered, towns and villages. They had only +burnt and plundered buildings owned by the +government. But to Susie and Bettie, and +many other women, the worst was the +impossibility of knowing even if their men folk +were living or dead. +</p> + +<p class="thought"> +* * * +</p> + +<p> +One day Chloe was at the door beaming +on them; a small ship had managed to run in +from Kingston; her lading was ammunition +for the men at the west end of the lake, but +she had left a bundle of mail, and a woman +in Quaker-like dress, at York. It was +Mrs. Ferguson, who had just made the risky +journey from Montreal, and she brought a +note from Percy to his wife, asking Betty to +keep her with herself, till his commanders +would allow women to come where he and +the others were fighting. +</p> + +<p> +Betty welcomed her warmly, overjoyed to +hear from her husband, and know him alive +somewhere—though his letter had run the +blockade to Montreal, and back again as far +as York, before it reached her. She had sent +letters by the same boat, hoping he would +get them. +</p> + +<p> +Then Betty read the letter from Sir John +at Kingston. He did not mention Ned, so +Bee was still the only one above Kingston +who knew of the boy's disgrace. Sir John +wrote—"Vere is steadying to his work like +the Haslem and gentleman-born that he is. +He is expecting promotion, and may be sent +to Montreal. I have spoken to him of Bee, +and like his spirit very much, for he is quite +willing to overlook that she is penniless, and +that her mother made a disgraceful marriage +with an American. So I am hoping to +arrange for you and Bee to travel to Kingston +under a flag of truce. The enemy, in spite +of their Infernal and Thrice Damnable +Republicanism, seem to act like gentlemen +whenever our women are concerned. So +you can prepare Bee for her marriage soon. +She is a wilful minx sometimes, but I am +sure she will be overjoyed at the prospect of +being Lady Haslem some day." +</p> + +<p> +Betty was not so sure. She looked out into +the fine rain that had begun to fall, while a +south wind blew, and saw Bee racing home +with the three Edgar boys. Then Bee was +in the room, flushed and laughing, her eyes +shining like stars, and her coarse homespun +frock showing her strong young figure. That +dress had been made from wool off Susie's +sheep, spun and woven in York, for the +women who made the holding of Canada +possible in 1812, had to depend on themselves +for clothing as well as food. +</p> + +<p> +"You do look quite grown-up, Bee," said +Betty. "Next thing you will be thinking of +getting an establishment." +</p> + +<p> +Bee knew that her world had no room for +an unmarried woman, but she said nothing +as Betty went on. "You could be very happy +living with me—and I would love to keep +you—while you are young and handsome—oh, +yes, dear, you are that now—but when +you grew old and faded and sour-tempered, +like all unmarried women do, you would +blame me for not helping you to get +established while you were young enough." +</p> + +<p> +"But nobody wants to marry me," +murmured poor Bee, heartily wishing that +girls did not have to grow up. +</p> + +<p> +"Someone does, Bee, I know there has +been a little against him, but I have just +heard that he is retrieving himself splendidly. +We women have to overlook very much +in men, as long as they are not cowards." +</p> + +<p> +Betty did not mention Vere's name, and +Bee suddenly thought of Ned, poor Ned!—yet +not so poor if a woman like Betty believed +in his innocence. Knowing as she did +what Sir John thought of her mother's +marriage, she never dreamed that he thought of +her (with an American father) as a future +Lady Haslem, but confused at the idea of an +establishment, even with Ned, she turned to +ask Betty what she had heard of him. Then +through the open window the damp wind +brought the terrible sounds of far-off +cannon, and they both forgot marrying and +giving in marriage, as all that day, they and +the other women in York listened with +straining ears to catch the faint sounds that +meant the men they loved might even then +be dying among those thundering guns. +</p> + +<p> +That day the most spectacular, if not the +most important battle of the war was fought. +In a last attempt to break the American hold +on Lake Erie, and save Detroit from starvation, +Barclay, one of Nelson's captains, with +six ships and carrying light guns, put out +against Perry, the young and daring American, +with his nine ships, and doubly heavy +cannon. +</p> + +<p> +The American Lawrence, with her flag +inscribed "Don't give up the ship," led into +battle. It was a battle of seamanship. +Barclay wished to fight at long range where +the better marksmanship of his men might +offset the heavier guns of his enemy, and +Perry meant to come to close quarters. The +Lawrence was soon a wreck, with only +twenty men on board unhurt, and Perry +transferring himself and his flag to the +Niagara, through a storm of shot. Then with +consummate seamanship he brought his fleet +to where their broadsides "tore hulls clean of +masts and decks," and Barclay surrendered +the tiny British fleet—a drove of shattered, +blood-drenched wrecks, laden with the +mangled bodies of one-third of their crews. +</p> + +<p> +"We have met the enemy, and they are +ours," Perry wrote laconically to Congress, +while the United States went wild with joy, +and Washington Irving writing what his +countrymen believed, said, "The last roar of +the cannon that died along Lake Erie's shore +was the expiring note of British domination +on this continent." +</p> + +<p> +But Canada didn't see it that way. Her +people were sorry for the loss of the fleet, +with the guns they could not possibly +replace—and more sorry when Detroit fell, +and two thousand more were added to the +British prisoners of war in the States; but +they thought it no reason for them to "give +up the ship." So, while American newspapers +raged against their stubbornness, they +went on fighting as if nothing had happened. +</p> + +<p> +Perhaps the results of the battle were +more felt in England than Canada. There +men realized that Perry's victory was really +the victory of the best seaman, and it made +them inclined to consider the wisdom of +coming some day to an understanding with +this arrogant young Republic, who seemed +willing—and perhaps was able—to meet +them on the seas they looked on as their +own. +</p> + +<p> +An American letter brought the news at +last to York. It was to Bee, and told of +Edgar being again a prisoner of war, and +that Eli, seriously wounded in the lake fight, +had been brought to Newark, and wanted +his sister to come to him. So Bee and Betty, +with the baby, and Chloe, and Mrs. Ferguson, +sailed across Ontario. Betty was glad +that it was not to Kingston; she was relieved +at Bee's quiet acceptance of the plan to +marry her cousin (as she supposed) but she +did not want to hurry the marriage. Let +Vere show himself to be a man indeed before +this child was given him, she thought. +</p> + +<p> +Bee had forgotten marriage all those +weeks that her brother was in danger. She +told him, "I can't marry an Englishman or +Canadian, when they are trying to kill you." +</p> + +<p> +"I'm not dead yet, Bee, and our father +gave you to the Edgars, for your grandfather +to claim, if he liked, because our mother was +English. But who is wanting to marry you?" +</p> + +<p> +Bee evaded the question, not feeling ready +to tell him of Ned yet. She wondered where +he was, fighting for his country, that was +half hers, and to clear his name. +</p> + +<p class="thought"> +* * * +</p> + +<p> +As for Ned, he was back at Stoney Creek +again, hearing that over-cautious commanders +had again ordered Vincent to retreat to +Kingston, but instead Vincent was staying +there, and sending the regiment that Ned +had come out with, on the "Lightfoot". +Murray, its colonel, was to fortify Twenty-mile +Creek (now St. Catherines) and do all +he could to "annoy the enemy" then holding +Niagara. +</p> + +<p> +Ferguson would go with the regiment, +and the people of Stoney Creek, who had +grown very attached to the soldier-preacher, +and who thought Murray's advance foolhardy, +as the Americans had six thousand +in Niagara, came to church, to hear, as one +pessimist said—"Mr. Ferguson preach his +own funeral sermon." +</p> + +<p> +Ferguson had overheard the words, and he +repeated them as he stood, for the last time, +in his scarlet regimentals, in the pulpit at +Stoney Creek. Then he added in a voice that +rang with all the power of a strong man's +faith: "You may hear of George Ferguson +falling on the field, but he will not be dead. +You have it from his own lips that all is well +with him. The sting of death is removed, +and I know that if this tabernacle of my +body be dissolved, I have a building of God, +a house not made with hands, eternal in the +Heavens." +</p> + +<p class="thought"> +* * * +</p> + +<p> +Murray, carefully reckless, did annoy the +enemy very much. McClure who commanded +at Niagara, demanded more men to +crush the enemy who was continually +attacking his foraging parties. The American +newspapers loudly declared that "It is a +mistake to keep the war in Upper Canada. +We could take Lower Canada without +soldiers. We have only to lead officers into +the lower province, and the disaffected +people will rise round our standard." +</p> + +<p> +Winter came early that year and two +armies were preparing to invade Lower +Canada. Hampton, with five thousand men, was +ordered to bring stores by way of Lake +Champlain and meet Wilkinson. This last +general, with nine thousand men, was to run +the rapids of the St. Lawrence, and make a +dash for Montreal. Kingston would not +dare, they thought, to diminish her scanty +garrison by sending men down the river. +Lake Champlain had been stripped of troops +to aid Upper Canada, and Montreal had only +a few hundred regulars. Every thing +depended on the Lower Canada militia. +</p> + +<p> +Late that October the French-Canadians +came out. They blocked every road that +Hampton could take, and at Chateauguay, +under De Salaberry, on October twenty-fifth, +an army entirely of militia and Indians +ambushed in the woods, so demoralized +Hampton's army, that he decided it was +impossible to get through with his heavy +baggage, and retreated. +</p> + +<p> +Cold and much snow came with November, +but Wilkinson did not mean to stop. +On November fifth, the startled scouts on +the Canadian side saw one of the most +dramatic scenes of the whole war. Between +its snow-covered banks the St. Lawrence +was storming black through the Galops +Rapids, the first below Kingston, and down +that rush of dark water, flecked with spurts +of white foam, hundreds of bateaux, splendidly +handled, were shooting one after another, +laden with thousands of blue-coated +men. +</p> + +<p> +But Kingston did not intend to remain idle. +She sent eight hundred men with a battery, +to do anything they could. They fired on, +and followed the bateaux, which suffered +some loss. The enemy being delayed by +want of provisions, and the landing parties +sent out to forage, found to their dismay +that the French-Canadian farmers had fled, +burning what stores they could not take with +them, and driving off their cattle. +</p> + +<p> +On November tenth, the invaders, suffering +much with cold and hunger, had most of +their force down the Long Sault. Two +thousand men were still above that great +rapid, when a terrific fire was opened on +them from the bank. The only thing to do +was to land and dislodge the enemy. So was +fought the battle of Chrysler's Farm. Eight +hundred men with two cannon, poured a hot +fire from behind the stone farm fences, then +rushed out, and charged the invaders with +flashing bayonets. Leaving many behind +them, the Americans retreated in confusion +to the boats, and ran the rapids. Wilkinson +had just heard of Hampton's defeat, and as +his men were starving, and the fights at +Chrysler's and Chateauguay had taught him +the kind of "welcome" he would get from +Lower Canada, he retired entirely. +</p> + +<p class="thought"> +* * * +</p> + +<p> +An old gray-headed man had command of +the tiny battery at Chrysler's—Sir John +Haslem—and after the victory he went on +to Montreal, where Vere, now a lieutenant, +was stationed. Since Vere's escape through +Ned's condemnation, he had lived carefully, +attending to his duties, and very hard on the +failings of those under him. +</p> + +<p> +"Can't be medium in anything," grumbled +Sir John as he stood in a Montreal ball-room +on Christmas evening watching Vere dancing +with a pretty French-Canadian girl. "A +year ago he was slackness itself, now he +seems to delight in detecting and punishing +slackness in others." +</p> + +<p> +"He'll die by a shot from his own men in +some battle," said the man he spoke to, to +himself, adding aloud, "Hullo, what's the +matter?" +</p> + +<p> +The music had stopped and a man coming +in called to Vere: "Hell's broke loose on the +Niagara frontier, and we're to leave for there +to-night." +</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<p><a id="chap09"></a></p> + +<h3> +CHAPTER IX. +<br><br> +How Ned Won the "Bubble Reputation", at<br> +the Cannon's Mouth. +</h3> + +<p> +Betty thought of hell, the hell of man's +inhumanity to man, as she stood by +her window in Newark, looking down +a street of fire. From a hundred roofs red +flames were bursting. Blue-coated men +rushed out of smoke-shrouded doors with +their arms full of plunder. Outside in the +deep snow and bitter cold, a crowd of women +and children moved about aimlessly, or +stood still as if stupefied by the sight of the +ruin round them. +</p> + +<p class="capcenter"> +<a id="img-152"></a> +<br> +<img class="imgcenter" src="images/img-152.jpg" alt=""Outside in the bitter cold a crowd of women and children moved about aimlessly.""> +<br> +"Outside in the bitter cold a crowd of women and children <br> +moved about aimlessly." +</p> + +<p> +The Americans had feared to stay in +bitterly hostile Niagara after navigation had +stopped, and they could not be helped by +their fleet. Sooner than risk a winter siege +there, they had blown up Forts George and +Erie and were then burning Newark by way +of retaliation. +</p> + +<p> +Betty waited to see what their fate was to +be. Sentries at her door kept the women +from going out or the plunderers from +coming in. At last Eli, who had almost +recovered, came back—"This house will be +spared," he told her formally, "I have +represented it as the home of my sister, an +American, and I came to tell you, you can +take in whom you like. There are one hundred +and fifty families homeless, but you may +have room for the sick. I will see the house +is guarded." +</p> + +<p> +"You will find this burning of Newark is +worse than a crime, it is a blunder," +exclaimed Betty, and in his heart Eli agreed +with her, though he said nothing. +</p> + +<p> +The black, far-rolling smoke of Newark, +gave the alarm at Twenty Mile Creek, and +over nine hundred men—the old Irish +regiment of the "Lightfoot", with a goodly +number of Canadians added to its ranks—marched +hot-foot to rescue, or avenge, if +wrong had been done. The Americans had +all crossed the river, and the sight of the +burnt and plundered homes roused even +Ferguson to militancy. +</p> + +<p> +The men were set to work; they roughly +roofed the cellars to make shelters for the +women and children, and threw up hasty +ramparts on the ruins of Fort George for +themselves. Then the Niagara militia, a +thousand raging men, came in, with their +Indian allies after them. Murray, the colonel, +had no artillery, and very little food, and if +large supplies of food, blankets and other +supplies were not procured soon, the victims +of Newark must starve and freeze in their +cellars. +</p> + +<p> +"And the only place we can get supplies +is from the enemy—across there." Ned was +standing by the Niagara River as he spoke, +to Tim. +</p> + +<p> +"And a sweet little stream it certainly is," +answered the Irishman. +</p> + +<p> +It was night, and huge fires of logs blazed +all along the American side, throwing a +lurid glow across the dark rapid water, and +the ghostly cakes of ice that whirled by. By +the snow-covered banks the ice was +continually forming, and being broken off as +constantly by the swift flowing river. +</p> + +<p> +"It sure will be lovely navigating to cross +it," continued Tim, "and do you know what +we shall be up against on the other side?" +</p> + +<p> +"Two thousand men at Buffalo," Ned +answered. "And four hundred at Fort Niagara, +which has stone bastions, and the best +guns on the river. A hundred men could +easily hold it against a thousand." +</p> + +<p> +For seven nights the log fires threw their +search-lights across the river, and armed +patrols watched, but they saw no movements +on the Canadian side. On the eighth night, +the river was dark. Leonard, commander +of Fort Niagara, having ascertained the +British had no artillery, and feeling sure +they would not attempt to cross the dangerous +river, drew in his pickets, for it was a +bitter night. +</p> + +<p> +On the Canadian side there was a quiet +stir among the men waiting savagely by the +ashes of Newark, a crouching lion. +</p> + +<p> +The regiment marched silently out of the +ruined town and up the river. Not a word +was allowed to be spoken, and commands +were passed down the ranks in whispers. +Ferguson and Ned were together again as +they entered the boats, which crept across +the black river with muffled oars, the tense +excitement of the men keeping them from +feeling the cold. And distant and menacing +sounded the deep thunder of Niagara. +</p> + +<p> +They landed, unseen, at Youngstown, +three miles above Fort Niagara. Here was +the American hospital with its fill of +wounded men. Noiselessly the buildings +were surrounded, and a party entered, the +sight of the hated redcoats telling the +alarmed patients they were prisoners. Two +brave men, convalescents, did not submit. +Ready to die on the chance of being able +to give the alarm, one sprang up the wide +chimney, but was dragged back, promptly +and roughly. The other leaped from a +window, but was overtaken. +</p> + +<p> +"We must go on, to get food and clothes +for Newark," said Ferguson in a low earnest +voice, "but, remember, men, for every deed +we do to-night we must answer to God our +Judge." He went on speaking quietly as +boat after boat touched shore, and the men +crowded near him, listening in respectful +silence, till the word of command sent them +moving silently along the road to Fort +Niagara. +</p> + +<p> +No one saw them, but a man had gone +ahead of them—Sells, the deserter. He had +been stealing cattle on the Canadian side, +till the retreat, when he followed the +Americans across the river. Now he came swiftly +to the fort gate on his crunching snowshoes, +urging the immediate lighting of the +"search-lights" along the river. "I know the +English way," he said to the sergeant-major, +who came out between the massive walls to +see what he had to say. "They'll fool 'round +making mistakes, till the enemy do something +like you did at Newark, then they'll +get serious-mad. Nothing will stop them, +and I shouldn't wonder if they're not +crossing the river now." +</p> + +<p> +"You're scared of them British; I'm not," +said the American with an oath. "If they +cross on a night like this it'll be because they +can walk on the water." +</p> + +<p> +Sells glided away, not many minutes +before the forlorn hope—a hundred men with +scaling ladders, crept round to the back of +the fort where the grim eighteen pounders +frowned. Percy led them, his colonel knowing +that in spite of his affected indolence, his +thoughtful kindness to his men made him a +leader whom the warm hearted Irish would +have followed to certain death. +</p> + +<p> +With the thought of burnt Newark firing +his blood and steeling his nerves, Ned +followed Percy, climbing, scrambling, and +slipping in the ghostly snow light, up the +ladders and across icy, snow-laden roofs. The +sentries were surprised at their posts, and +captured or killed before they could give the +alarm. And there was no stir in the main +buildings of the fort, as the reckless assaulters +dropped into the dark courtyard. +</p> + +<p> +Leonard, the commander, had his quarters +at the village, but most of the officers were in +their mess-room playing whist. "What's +trumps?" one asked. +</p> + +<p> +The room door swung open—"British +bayonets, I think, gentlemen," said Percy, +quietly, and the startled men knew they +were prisoners. +</p> + +<p> +The main body, led by their colonel, and +with Ferguson among them, had seized the +outer works before the main gate, capturing +the sentries, who gave them the password, +which enabled them to reach the gate of the +inner fort without their presence being +known. The bitter cold of the night kept +every one in their warm quarters, with every +door and window closed. +</p> + +<p> +The minutes seemed endless hours as they +waited then, for the signal that would show +their friends were within. Then a single +shot rang out, followed by a scattering +musket fire, and a tumult of noise—shouting +men, English cheers, and the screams of the +women in the married quarters, mingling +with the sound of running feet. +</p> + +<p> +Like hounds unleashed the waiting men +went forward, carrying the gate with a +rush—the leaders asking themselves if the little +advance guard had been able to capture the +yard batteries. If not, in a minute the +deadly six pounders would open on the mass of the +invaders penned within the high yard walls. +</p> + +<p> +But with their officers prisoners, the +bewildered Americans had only fired from their +barrack windows at the redcoats running +across the snowy yard. Many of them fell, +but a dozen were beside the coveted guns, +when the main force surged through the +gate. +</p> + +<p> +Ned, feeling strangely breathless and +giddy with a bullet in his side, sat on the +ground behind the guns, as his wildly +cheering friends came in. They charged the +barracks, where every window was ablaze with +rifle fire. And from somewhere behind, a +score of blue clad men dashed on the guns, +fighting hand to hand with their defenders. +</p> + +<p> +"Hold the guns," said the young English +lieutenant. +</p> + +<p> +"Hold the guns, for five minutes," cried +Ned springing up, forgetting wounds. The +pieces were covered with a tangle of fiercely +fighting men, but they were not fired. +</p> + +<p> +Ned remembered being struck down with +a clubbed rifle, and with a last effort threw +himself on the nearest gun, clinging desperately +to its breech. There was a blank, then +some one was trying gently to drag his +arms apart. He resisted for the moment, +and Tim's voice said coaxingly, "If you're +not killed entirely, leave go to oblige me. +I've got to carry you out of this, and it'll +break my heart sure if you want me to take +that gun you seem so attached to as well." +</p> + +<p> +Ned relaxed limply, and was carried in to +where the wounded of both armies lay, with +Ferguson and a few helpers doing the little +they could for them, as the surgeons had not +yet come up. The fort was in quiet +possession of the English. Only the women, to +whom no one paid any attention, still +screamed dismally—"The British and the +Indians! They'll murder us! They'll scalp +us all!" +</p> + +<p> +A redcoated sentry stood by the gate, the +color of his uniform not visible to the man +who galloped up. Leonard had heard the +few shots fired, and supposing there was a +riot in the garrison rode up to see to it. +Challenged by the sentry, he gave the +countersign, and was instantly ordered to +dismount. +</p> + +<p> +"You thundering blockhead," cried the +enraged American. "Can't you see I am the +commanding officer?" +</p> + +<p> +"Dismount, sir," repeated the man as he +levelled his musket, "I am a British +soldier." +</p> + +<p> +The dumfounded officer obeyed, and was +escorted to the slightly wounded English +colonel, to whom he formally surrendered +the fort. +</p> + +<p> +"Sure, and this is the lucky day of my +life," exclaimed Tim as he suddenly entered +the hospital. "There'll be promotions for +those who are looking for them, and plunder +for the lot of us. For the love of Heaven +somebody give me a sack. They've unlocked +the stores, and we can plunder till daylight. +There's food enough for twenty armies, and +heaps of merchandise sorts of things, that'll +sell for a lot in Upper Canada now—needles +and pins and everything. It's too bad that +even a heretic priest can't plunder." +</p> + +<p> +Ferguson's helpers all followed Tim as he +went off with his sack, and Ned roused +himself from the dull aching stupor that +wrapped his senses. "Don't stay here just for +me," he said faintly to the Methodist, "This +isn't like plundering private property." +</p> + +<p> +"You heard what Tim said," smiled Ferguson, +"I must live up to my priestly reputation, +though I would like to take something, +this time, for I am a poor man, yet it +wouldn't do." +</p> + +<p> +Morning came; the quartermaster took +possession of all the stores that were not in +the sacks of Tim and his comrades, and +Dr. Tam was at his ghastly work of probing and +operating—for this was before the mercy of +chloroform. Ned, waiting his turn on the +surgeon's terrible table, heard Ferguson +saying to the colonel—"We need, sir, to show +by our lives, our gratitude to God for the +mercy of our victory last night; for it was a +most foolhardy venture." +</p> + +<p> +The officer looked at the fortifications, as +he answered, "Yes, Ferguson, that's true. +And I ought to be a better man than I am, +I know; so thank you kindly for your advice." +</p> + +<p> +Then the colonel entered the hospital to +ask Dr. Tam's permission to speak to Ned +before he passed under the surgeon's hands; +and his words were a tonic that helped the +young soldier through the ordeal of having +his exhausted, fevered body probed for the +ball in his side. He had won his commission, +and when he left hospital it would be as an +officer—an ensign. +</p> + +<p> +Prisoners, plunder, wounded, and even the +smaller guns, were all carried across the +river that day, and the most daring and +successful raid of the war was ended by serving +out food and blankets to the people of +Newark. +</p> + +<p> +But as soon as Canadian Niagara knew of +the capture of the fort, another raid had been +made. The militia and Indians had crossed +the river and flung themselves furiously on +the enemy's countryside. Fortunately the +people had all fled up to Buffalo, but +Lewiston, Youngstown, and three other villages +below the Falls were fired, and everything +found was carried off. Very unwillingly the +raiders obeyed Murray's signal for their +recall to their own side of the river. He +expected the force from Buffalo would be +coming down to cut them off, but the Americans +made no attempt to cross the river. +</p> + +<p> +After nearly two weeks of delirium and +fever, Ned awoke in a wonderfully comfortable +bed, in Betty's house in Newark, which +had been requisitioned as a hospital, and the +first thing he saw was Ferguson being carried +in, his drawn face showing that he was +suffering greatly. +</p> + +<p> +"It is an answer to prayer," said the +Methodist faintly, "God is very good to me." +</p> + +<p> +"Cook was carrying a kettle of boiling +water across the yard, and slipped down, and +threw it all on a sentry's feet, which sentry +was Ferguson, sir," one of the bearers +explained to Dr. Tam, as he dressed the badly +scalded feet. +</p> + +<p> +"It was a special providence," murmured +Ferguson, "We had orders to go up the river, +and crossing above the Falls, drive off the +enemy's troops, which our scouts say, are +badly disorganized and with no decent +officers, and burn Black Rock and Buffalo. I +had a struggle in my mind as to what I +should do. It was not Christian to commit +these greater enormities in retaliation for +what we had suffered; so I cast my burden +on the Lord, and He opened this way of +escape." +</p> + +<p> +Ned made no response, and the Methodist +added—"Did you quit belonging to us, +because you thought religion was too +unfashionable to profess, when you were called +an officer and a gentleman?" +</p> + +<p> +"You had no right to say that to me," +Ned cried, adding instantly, "No, no, but a +man has wronged me, and I cannot forgive +him, which you will not think Christian." +</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<p><a id="chap10"></a></p> + +<h3> +CHAPTER X +<br><br> +How Vere Came to Newark, and Bee<br> +Consented to be Betrothed to Him. +</h3> + +<p> +It was the last day of 1813 when the raid +that Ferguson had escaped joining was +made, and Buffalo and Black Rock went +up in flames. Fortunately the terrified inhabitants +had fled, when their troops retreated—it +is not very clear why—but everything they +left was destroyed or carried off. And so +1813 ended, with black ashes strewn on +either side of Niagara River, and a blacker +hate in the hearts of Americans and +Canadians alike. +</p> + +<p> +Bee shivered, not with cold, but at the +thought of the hate of war, as she left the +house one brilliantly cold January day. She +meant to take a long sledge drive by herself, +and think things over. Like many others on +both sides, the war hurt her cruelly, because +in many ways it was so like a civil war. Yet +after seeing the burning of Newark, she +could not blame the savage retaliation from +the Canadian side, and she could not hate +Ned, or Betty and Sir John, with whom her +brother had been quite willing to leave +her—"But," she thought, "I cannot possibly be +happy, or think of marrying a Canadian till +this war is over, without anyone I love +getting killed." +</p> + +<p> +Then she saw Ned. He had left the house +for the first time, to try a short walk, but he +had over-rated his strength, and he was +staggering, when a cutter drew up beside +him, and he looked into Bee's bright face, as +she said—"Oh, dear, how foolish men are. +When you wanted to go out, why didn't you +let someone know, and we would have taken +you out. Get in here now." +</p> + +<p> +"Just back to the house, please, Miss Bee," +said Ned as he obeyed and sat down among +the soft, thick furs. "Your guardians would +not allow you to be with me a moment, if +they knew what you do of me—what I told +you at York—Miss Bee, what are you +doing?" +</p> + +<p> +For the wilful girl had let the spirited +horse go, and they were flying out of ruined +Newark, and away across the open country, +where the keen air thrilled Ned like wine. +Her horse kept Bee's hands full, but she +looked round at Ned for a moment as she +spoke, and he wondered that he had never +noticed how bright and soft her eyes were. +"Listen," she said, "of course I never +repeated what you told me, but I know Cousin +Betty suspects something—I thought you +must have written and told her—and she +doesn't mind at all. She said that women +must always overlook a few things in a man, +and I'm sure I can overlook you being +accused of a crime you did not commit." +</p> + +<p> +Ned gasped, realizing that there was a big +misunderstanding somewhere—but he was +so desperately lonely. Shut in with his +secret, it was hard for him to refuse the +sweet comradeship of this warm-hearted +girl. +</p> + +<p> +"Miss Bee," he began gravely, "you must +have mistaken Mrs. Haslem. I believe Sir +John will reach Newark to-day, and when he +sees my name marked for honour, he may +consent that I receive pardon for what I did +not do; but I know I shall lose all other +rewards; I shall doubtless be allowed to +fight in the ranks till the end of the war, and +afterwards I can find something to do. I +know my father will never forgive me, and I +will never go back to Dr. Brown with this +stain on my name. You should not ride out +with me like this." +</p> + +<p> +Ned spoke with all the bitterness that had +been fermenting in his brain so long, and +with his hot hands clenched under the furs. +Then a small hand, that was cool and very +firm was suddenly laid on them, and its +touch calmed Ned strangely—"You know +very well that I will be your friend till +death," said Bee Goode. +</p> + +<p> +Behind them at Newark, Sir John and +Vere had arrived, and the baronet sent Vere +off to find Bee, while he talked over Ned's +case with the Niagara officers. +</p> + +<p> +Vere rode off, greatly disturbed to know +that Ned had not deserted with Sells, and +dropped forever out of his world. He hated +him with all his weak, unwholesome nature, +and then he saw him, in the sledge with the +girl his grandfather had determined he +should marry. +</p> + +<p> +In a moment he was beside them, shouting +with an oath—"I thought your dirty +American blood would show some time, you minx! +What spy work are you plotting with this +deserter?" +</p> + +<p class="capcenter"> +<a id="img-170"></a> +<br> +<img class="imgcenter" src="images/img-170.jpg" alt=""Take that! you coward!""> +<br> +"Take that! you coward!" +</p> + +<p> +Instantly Bee was on her feet, and with +the strength of anger, struck him across the +face with her whip—"Take that, you +coward," she cried, "and never dare to speak +to me again." Then turning her horse she +drove home in a storm of jangling bells and +flying hoofs. +</p> + +<p> +She left Ned at the hospital door, and +went to find Chloe waiting with her one silk +dress—blue with a white flower pattern. +</p> + +<p> +"Missy must dress up fine to-night," said +the old nurse. "Mr. Vere is here, the +gentleman who is to marry you, honey." +</p> + +<p> +Bee thought Chloe was mad for a moment, +but when the woman repeated what Betty +had told her, she understood the mistake +she had made at York. +</p> + +<p> +"But I won't dress, I'll stay in my room, +and lock the door while that cowardly liar is +in the house," she cried. "And to-night we +will run away, you and I to my brother." +</p> + +<p> +"We can't, honey," said Chloe +sympathetically. "There's miles of snow and +burnt houses, and soldiers who would stop +us, and that almighty wild river that nobody +can't get over nohow. Let me dress you, +honey, and make you look pretty, then you +can go down and ask Mr. Percy to help +you—he's here now." +</p> + +<p> +Percy had not seen Bee since he left her, +a slip of a girl, to go on to York, a year +before, and for an instant he hardly recognized +this silk-robed, pale-faced young woman, +with her haughty poise, and flashing eyes. +Then she was speaking to him, passionately +and impulsively, repeating what Ned had +told her at York, until he said, so sternly +that she started at him—"That's enough, +Bee, this is the first time you have shown +yourself untrue to the Haslem name, let it +be the last. Vere has his faults, but no man +of our family could be a coward or lie." +</p> + +<p> +"My name is Goode, sir," said Bee, at +white heat now, "and I am sorry that I am +half a Haslem if their family pride makes +them blind to the vices of a relative. Sir, I +demand that you send me across to my +brother—to my father's people." +</p> + +<p> +"Bee!" exclaimed Betty aghast, but Percy, +after a keen look at the girl, said slowly and +sternly—"I have just come from considering +Ned Edgar's case. If he admits to having +been afraid to deliver the note at York, +we can pardon his panic—seeing what his +record has been since—on his first day under +fire, unless he persists in this attempt to +smirch the name of another man." +</p> + +<p> +Bee read a threat to Ned in the emphasis +Percy put on his last words, and she forgot +herself, thinking of Ned's possible danger. +Then in came Sir John, furious, for Vere +had given him his version of the red welt on +his face, but the angry words on the old +man's lips were checked as he saw the child +he had left at York shot up into young +womanhood—"Bless me," he exclaimed, "I +didn't know you." +</p> + +<p> +She made a mocking little courtesy to him. +"My cousin did not know me either, it would +seem, sir. I met a sick soldier and was +driving him home, when Vere met us and spoke +insultingly to me; I hope sir, you will say I +did right to strike him." +</p> + +<p> +"Bless me," Sir John repeated helplessly. +"I don't know what the world is coming to." +</p> + +<p> +He was relieved at hearing the summons +to dinner then, the dinner which was to +publicly announce the betrothal of Vere and +Bee. Such family arrangements for the +marriage of young people who hardly knew +one another were not uncommon then, and +the guests did not pay particular attention +to the sulky boy, who felt that he hated this +"Yankee girl," as he called her in his heart, +who had so openly shown that she was on +his enemy's side. And the girl herself, who +in white-faced silence heard her grandfather's +speech, felt trapped, believing that if +she resisted it meant further injustice and +suffering for Ned. +</p> + +<p> +The evening was almost over when Archy +got Bee away by herself. "I thought you +would like to know about Ned," he said +bluntly. "He just wouldn't say anything, +only that him or Vere Haslem was a blamed +liar, and we could decide which it was." +</p> + +<p> +"What are you going to do with him?" +</p> + +<p> +"Because of what he did here, he will be +pardoned for what he did, or didn't, at +York." +</p> + +<p> +"Then you don't think he is guilty?" +</p> + +<p> +"Not so fast, young lady. I don't know, +and the only way to find out, is to wait and +watch them both. The liar will act the +coward and lie again, sure." +</p> + +<p> +"You may have to wait a long time for +that; and while you are watching both, you +treat Vere Haslem as if he were innocent, +and Ned as if he were guilty. You are +cruelly hard on him." +</p> + +<p> +"There's a heap of hard things in life; one +of them is that the day we clear Ned, we +break Sir John's heart." +</p> + +<p class="thought"> +* * * +</p> + +<p> +And Bee, who remembered that she loved +her grandfather, shivered. +</p> + +<p> +She had not expected to sleep that night, +but health and youth asserted themselves +and she rested well, and woke in the sunny +morning feeling that somehow things could +not be as bad as she had thought them in the +night. She was greatly helped to this +comparative cheerfulness by a talk she heard +under her window, where Ferguson was +energetically telling Kawque, the Mohawk +scout, the story of Ned and Vere. The +Indian grunted such emphatic assent to +Ferguson's belief in his friend, that Bee was +half comforted. At least Ned had true +friends. +</p> + +<p> +Ferguson's friendship was doubly warm +now that he knew the reason for Ned's +"backsliding", and it helped the boy through +the ordeal of returning to his comrades, +reduced in rank. +</p> + +<p> +Ferguson had ridden home with Percy +that evening, and the men had scattered to +their messes, busy getting supper and +preparing for the night. Each mess consisted +of about a dozen men who divided the work +among them, the non-commissioned officers +always being exempt. Ned, to whom no one +had yet spoken, picked up a pail to fetch +water, washing to take his part in the work +before he was ordered to by the sergeant. +But Tim snatched the pail from him. +</p> + +<p> +"Me Swaddler friend," he said earnestly, +"unless you are wishful to go back to +hospital immediate, you won't try to work +round this mess." +</p> + +<p> +Perplexed, Ned looked at his sergeant, but +that man only said, "Better put off arguing +with Tim for a few years, Ned, you haven't +the weight to stand up to him yet." +</p> + +<p> +So Ned knew he had been tried and +acquitted by a very powerful court—the +opinion of the men among whom he lived. +After hearing of Ned's condemnation at +Kingston the regiment had talked of nothing +else for a week. They had also compared +notes with a company just arrived, and +decided which man had lied. Now with rough +delicacy they let Ned know what their +verdict had been, and that they knew his +reduction was only temporary. +</p> + +<p class="thought"> +* * * +</p> + +<p> +Betty had moved to St. Davids, a village +by Queenston Heights, where Percy and +Sir John came often, and Vere seldom. He +managed to find duties, any duties, to keep +him from meeting the fiancée he now detested. +And still Sir John delighted in Bee's +brightness, and believed that in practically +forcing her to marry Vere he was doing the +best for the girl he really loved, and for the +family whose honour was rooted in his heart. +</p> + +<p> +Spring came, and there was some skirmishing +on Lake Ontario. Erie was entirely +in American hands. But on land there were +only a few raids by the Americans, who had +a new general, Winfield Scott, who was +carefully training the army with which he +meant to take Upper Canada that summer. +If he did not, he well knew Canada would +not be taken at all, for England was making +peace with France. Earnestly Canadians +were praying that peace might be made with +the United States also, though they were as +ready as ever to fight if the American flag +should again be carried across their border +by armed men. +</p> + +<p> +A breathless June evening Bee stood alone +in Betty's garden, thinking that July was +very near, and feeling desperately afraid. +Betty had spoken to her very decidedly—"Of +course you will marry Vere in three +weeks." To herself she said, "The boy is +steady enough now, and this wretched +business of Ned Edgar's refusing to take back +his shameful lie that Vere never gave him +the letter, makes it all the more necessary +that we should stand by him." +</p> + +<p> +Alone in the hot June dusk Bee shivered. +She was too young and too affectionate to be +able to defy Sir John and Betty, and as she +helplessly prayed for some one who could +advise her, a man who walked noiselessly as +an Indian, came beside her, and she held out +her hands to him with a little cry of joy. +"Papa Edgar; you have escaped! But you +are so thin!" +</p> + +<p> +"Prisons aren't palaces," said Edgar +indifferently, "In the winter there was no fire +and in the summer no air, below decks, +where we were. We lay on the bare planking. +But down in Montreal harbour, our +prisoners were on similar other prison hulks +so I had nothing to complain of—it was the +fortune of war. At last Tahata came one +night and helped me to escape." +</p> + +<p> +Edgar bore his enemies no grudge for his +rough prison—he lived in a rough age—it +was really the memory of Ned that had aged +him, and he tried fiercely to stop Bee when +she mentioned his name. He still thought +him with Sells the deserter. But the girl +insisted on telling him all, and the light of her +faith in his son kindled hope in his heart +again. Ned might be, nay, must be, soon +proved innocent. Then another thought +made him exclaim, "But you must not marry +this villain, child." +</p> + +<p> +"You will help me not to, sir," said Bee +confidently as she clung to him, and Edgar +frowned to himself. He was on duty, scouting +with his Indians, and he had snatched +only a moment to speak to his one-time +ward. He knew he was helpless to aid her; +he could not possibly take her from the +Haslems. Then among the bushes he saw +the dark face of Kawque the scout. +</p> + +<p> +Kawque was to stay at St. Davids, and +used to quick thinking and daring action, +Edgar spoke reassuring farewell as on +sudden impulse he went to the Indian. +</p> + +<p> +The first thing he had meant to tell the +Mohawk was unnecessary. Kawque was +quite sure already of Ned's innocence, and +Edgar looked visibly younger as he heard +what Kawque could tell him—"Blessings on +that Methodist after all," he thought, then +spoke earnestly to the Indian about Bee. +Kawque nodded; he never wasted words. +</p> + +<p> +"Bee Goode not marry till you say so, all +right," he said decidedly. +</p> + +<p> +And so Edgar went off, not stopping to +think that the methods of an Iroquois +warrior in preventing a formally arranged +aristocratic wedding might prove startling. +</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<p><a id="chap11"></a></p> + +<h3> +CHAPTER XI. +<br><br> +Kawque Takes a Hand in the Game. +</h3> + +<p> +It was the morning of Sunday, July 3, +1814; Ferguson was preaching in Warner's +Chapel (the third Methodist church +erected in Upper Canada), at St. Davids, +when, like a hideous spectre of advancing +war, Kawque stood in the doorway, +half-naked, and frightful in his war-paint. +</p> + +<p> +"The Longknives have crossed the river," +he cried, for his hard black eyes picked +Percy out among the congregation. Gliding +toward him, he gave him the note calling him +to a council of war. All the congregation +were running out, the women to bury silver, +and the men to prepare their arms in readiness +for the summons which would soon call +them out. +</p> + +<p> +Percy said a few words to his wife, then +rode off, to look round as Ferguson trotted +his mount after him—"You have not been +sent for yet, Ferguson," said Percy, "and I +wonder your religion lets you travel on +Sunday when you are not compelled to." +</p> + +<p> +"Render unto Caesar the things that are +Caesar's, sir." +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, certainly have it your own way, but +now I want you to take my keys. We are +going to have the most desperate fighting of +this war, and I have made you my executor +in my will. You can see that my trunk, now +at Fort George, goes to Mrs. Haslem, some +plate and a considerable sum in gold are in +it." +</p> + +<p> +That Sunday morning seven thousand +Americans entered the Niagara peninsula, +and supported by the gun boats of Lake Erie, +took Fort Erie. Their plans were to surround +and capture the army of the defence—instead +of chasing it into the bush—also +taking Fort George. Then with the +co-operation of the Lake Ontario fleet they +meant to seize and fortify Burlington +Heights. The plan was a good one, but to +keep it from being carried out, were fourteen +hundred regulars, sixteen hundred militia, +and three hundred Indians, stationed in +Niagara itself. Behind them, Burlington and +York had been stripped of men to make their +numbers what they were. Behind them too, +round Burlington and York were the ripening +wheat fields, that must be saved unless +Upper Canada was to be starved into +surrender the next winter. Kingston had sent +her fleet to blockade Sackett's Harbour, and +was herself blockaded by the American gun +boats of Lake Ontario. In Lower Canada +the enemy had massed a huge army at Lake +Champlain, and every available man and gun +on the Canadian side had been called out to +guard the roads to Montreal. +</p> + +<p> +On Monday evening, July fourth, Ned +stood, once more a sentry, by Chippewa +Creek, the little river that enters the Niagara +a few miles above the Falls. Two miles +away was the enemy's camp, strongly +entrenched with a breastwork of logs. The +British position was also good, among +sheltering trees, with the rapid stream in +front, crossed by only one bridge. Both +leaders were hoping the other would attack. +</p> + +<p> +It grew dark, and Ned, straining his ears +to catch the sounds ahead, felt depressed. +He did not like the stories he had heard of +the new Commander, the haughty Marquis +of Tweedsdale, and the memory of all that +he had been robbed of, came to him, hurting +him fiercely. +</p> + +<p> +Then a dark, silent figure rose before him, +and he challenged sharply. It was Kawque, +the scout, and as he had not the password +Ned called for an escort to take him in. +</p> + +<p> +There was a noise of trampling horses, as +Riall and Tweedsdale with their staff rode +by. They stopped when the scout was +brought to them, and Ned heard Kawque's +laconic report—"Long Knives too strong. +Twice too many for you to attack. Got +thirty-six cannon." +</p> + +<p> +The two leaders spoke together, Riall +apparently urging something on his companion +to which Tweedsdale answered in his loud +harsh voice—"Nonsense, these Yankees are +a pack of untrained cowards. Are we to +sulk here for fear of a mob of scape-gallows +and prison men? They will never stand +against a bayonet charge." +</p> + +<p> +"That means we'll go out and attack, only +cowards would want to wait here for them," +Ned heard Vere's voice say gleefully, as the +leaders rode on. Ned's face darkened as his +enemy passed, riding as if in triumph over +him, and something more like a curse than a +prayer rose to his lips. +</p> + +<p> +"Why not shoot him?" Kawque whispered +softly in the young sentry's ear, "You hate, +eh? for he took these"—he touched Ned's +sleeve where the sergeant's stripes had +been—"they were to you as the scalps you had +taken with your hand from the enemy." +</p> + +<p> +"Shooting's too good for the cur," said +Ned fiercely, adding, angry with himself, +"Get out of here, Kawque, you've no business +hanging 'round talking to me." +</p> + +<p> +Kawque went off, thinking, "Shooting's +too good, eh? he means he wants to kill +slowly." +</p> + +<p> +Alone again, Ned repeated his fierce +prayer for vindication. +</p> + +<p> +In the morning of July fifth, the English +drums beat to arms, and soon after, twelve +hundred regulars in three solid columns, +with Tweedsdale leading, crossed the Chippewa, +strict orders being given that the men +must reserve their fire until command. +</p> + +<p> +There was, however, a sharp rattle of +musketry fire from both sides. The +Canadian militia were crouching behind stumps, +and crawling through the long grass in front +of the English position, and as the columns +moved forward, Ned marching by Ferguson, +recognized Archy directing the movements +of his men. Though Ned did not know it, +Edgar had also reached the camp the night +before, and was now behind with the +Indians. The demands of war had not +allowed him to seek his son. +</p> + +<p> +Suddenly Ferguson looked up, shouting +joyously—"Glory to God, I am saved." +</p> + +<p> +Percy, walking a little in advance, looked +back, and smiled. "What's the matter now, +Ferguson?" +</p> + +<p> +"Glory to God," repeated the lively +Methodist, "my soul is so happy." +</p> + +<p> +"I suppose that means that you know you +will be killed to-day and so reach Heaven?" +</p> + +<p> +"No, sir, I won't fall to-day, but I am +assured I shall be wounded." +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, you have it all arranged, I see. I +hope it wasn't against your conscience to +ask that you might get a light one." +</p> + +<p> +Archy kneeling by a log, looked up as they +passed. "Guess that's why you fellows don't +think you need be afraid of anything," he +shouted, "seeing you've got a real live +Methodist preacher in your ranks." +</p> + +<p> +The three little columns were out in the +open now, their close formation, and the +bright scarlet of their uniforms, making it +almost impossible for the enemy's marksmen +to miss a shot. They had broken into a +run, with their bayonets flashing, when the +Americans, loading with buckshot and cartridges, +swept their front ranks with a death +blast of fire. +</p> + +<p> +Ned saw Percy stagger, and Ferguson +spring to his side. For a moment Percy +leaned heavily on the soldier, then steadied +himself, changing his sword to his left hand, +as he called to his men. None faltered; they +halted at the word of command, to fire, then +dashed on again, till only a hundred yards +from the enemy, who were holding their +fire—till then. +</p> + +<p> +Then again death flashed from the unseen +rifles, and now the invader's cannon spoke +also, belching forth death. When the smoke +cleared the brave scarlet lines were gone, +only scattered groups were on the field, but +not till the bugles behind them called +"retreat", did they turn to go back, and they +carried most of their wounded with them. +</p> + +<p> +Amid the terrible fire that stopped them, +Ned saw Ferguson's musket fall from his +hand, and his friend's right arm hang useless. +Still the Methodist kept his place till they all +turned. He was nearly fainting from loss of +blood when they re-crossed the Chippewa, +and Ned was able to bandage his arm roughly +with a silk handkerchief. The bone was +not broken, but badly grazed by a ball that +had passed through it just below the elbow, +and it held possibilities of danger if not +dressed properly by a surgeon. But no +surgeon had come with the army, which was +now in all the confusion of breaking camp. +Tweedsdale's reckless, foolish charge had +cost five hundred out of the twelve who made +it, and Riall was afraid of the Americans +attacking his sorely diminished force. They +did not, however, for they had no idea of the +smallness of his numbers, nor the extent of +his loss. The British were now in hurried +retreat, to the heights of Queenston, +dragging their cannon, and with their wounded +in wagons. It was an excessively hot day. +In the excitement of the fighting, and the +hurry of starting off, no one had time to +think of thirst, but now as they marched +along, within sight and sound of an inland +ocean of fresh water roaring through the +upper rapids, they, and especially the +wounded, suffered frightfully for water. And +because just above the rapids the enemy's +gun boats were watching, the men were +ordered not to leave their ranks in the shelter +of the woods. +</p> + +<p> +"A curse on their orders," gasped a soldier +by Ned, whose face was as red as his coat. +"I'm a going to have a drink if I die for it." +</p> + +<p> +He made a dash for the river, a stone's +throw. An officer called to him angrily to +come back instantly, but crazed with thirst, +he only yelled out an oath, knelt down to +drink at the water's edge—and the next +moment was downed by an American bullet. +No one else tried to reach the river, though +they stared at the water with tortured eyes, +as they trudged along in the heat. +</p> + +<p> +Many of the wounded were raving in +delirium. Ferguson, too weak to walk, was +suffering torments jolted along in the rough +wagon. "Water," he panted at last, half +unconscious, "A mouthful of water!" +</p> + +<p> +Percy, whose injured shoulder did not +prevent him from riding on his horse, came to +the side of the wagon, as he heard him. +"Take a little rum from my flask," he urged, +offering it, and the Methodist took it—the +only time in his military life when he tasted +liquor. +</p> + +<p> +At midnight the sullen army reached +St. Davids. Percy took the exhausted Ferguson +to his wife, to stay, while he rode on to +the hospital at Fort George. The army +passed St. Davids, and entrenched itself at +Queenston, where it waited, on very short +rations, and wondering why the enemy did +not come on. +</p> + +<p> +But the Americans did not wish to leave +the support of the Lake Erie gun boats until +they were sure their Ontario fleet were in +Niagara River. Ned was at Queenston, +while Edgar was still with the Indians, who +were acting as pickets in the woods near +the Falls. +</p> + +<p> +Two days after the battle, Vere rode to +St. Davids, and as he spoke to Betty, Indian +scouts ran through the village, calling that +the Americans were coming, destroying the +country as they came. Cattle and poultry +were killed and burnt, fields and gardens +trampled down. Only dwelling houses with +women and children in them were untouched. +</p> + +<p> +Ferguson was in no condition to travel, +but as to stay meant the prison-hulks at +Sackett's Harbour, he went off through the +woods, guided by Kawque. Vere had his +horse, but leaving it with Chloe for a +minute he ran up to the room the Fergusons +used. From its window he saw an American +patrol riding in, and picking up a rifle he +fired at them, emptying a saddle. Then +leaping downstairs, he mounted and tore down +the road. +</p> + +<p> +Ten minutes later, the house was +surrounded, and its occupants questioned by an +angry American officer. "I can see there +have been men in this house," he said to +Betty. "Now unless you will tell me which +roads they took through the woods, I shall +hold you guilty of firing on my men." +</p> + +<p> +"You must know," Betty answered calmly, +"that as a loyal Englishwoman I cannot +give you any correct information, and as a +Christian I cannot tell you anything false." +</p> + +<p> +To the credit of their blood, there is no +instance of women being mishandled by the +men of either side during the war in Canada, +and the officer answered shortly, "In five +minutes, if you do not speak I shall fire your +house." +</p> + +<p> +"It is only what I must expect," said +Betty, "but I pray you, sir, watch that the +fire does not spread. Everything is so hot +and dry." +</p> + +<p> +With nothing saved but the clothes they +had on, Bee and Chloe with Betty and +Mrs. Ferguson, who both held their children, +stood on the road, not knowing which way +to go, for the fire did spread, and every house +in pretty St. Davids went down. +</p> + +<p> +Meanwhile of the two men who left +St. Davids, Ferguson had been taken by +Kawque safely to the Queenston lines, and Ned +drove him to Fort George. Evidently a bit +of lead was still in his arm, for it was terribly +swollen and painful, and almost black. Ned +had to go back at once, so he left Ferguson +at the hospital—a horror of war. +</p> + +<p> +"You inexpressible idiot," roared the +doctor. "Why didn't you ask for me at once? +Thought others were worse than you, eh? +Well if you had not always lived as you have, +this arm would have to come off at once, but +now there's a chance." +</p> + +<p> +Meanwhile as Ferguson lay on his fevered +bed, and the men at Queenston saw the +smoke of St. Davids go up, Kawque going +towards the Americans to scout, came across +a trail which showed him that Vere in his +hasty flight from St. Davids, had taken a +wrong turning and gone into the deep bush. +A moment Kawque thought, then went +swiftly after Ned's enemy, until a mêleé of +horse and foot marks, and broken underbrush +told him a struggle had taken place +in the woods. Vere had been captured, so +much Kawque guessed, but his captors were +not any Indians, the Mohawk knew, and yet +he was sure the Americans had not +advanced that far. +</p> + +<p> +Silently now as a snake, Kawque glided +through the underbrush until he came to a +hut, where men whom he recognized as +Sell's gang, deserters from both armies, +were standing round Vere, who with his +hands tied behind him, was foaming with +rage. +</p> + +<p> +Then a man in a ragged red coat—Sells +himself—stepped forward, and laughed in +his face—"I too was a gentleman once, until +your damned grandfather had me flogged, +at Kingston; I'd kill you now in revenge, +only the Yankees are hotfoot after us—we +did a bit of plundering among the Canucks—and +the last man of us will be hanged if we +can't give them the slip. See here, the +Yankee leader is Eli Goode; we know his +sister's at St. Davids, with a nigger woman, +and two of us are going there disguised as +Indians to get her, and then I guess her +brother will sing another tune. It's up to +you to tell us where she is." +</p> + +<p> +Vere had plenty of animal courage in the +excitement of battle, but when he saw the +preparations for his torture by the +miscreants, his soul was afraid, yet he had +enough English instinct to answer Sells +bravely, with a curse, though the degenerate +within him whispered, "Why suffer for a +Yankee girl?" +</p> + +<p><br><br><br></p> + +<p><a id="chap12"></a></p> + +<h3> +CHAPTER XII. +<br><br> +How Bee was Abducted—and the End. +</h3> + +<p> +A tornado of flame was sweeping +over St. Davids, and women with +their children stumbled through the +burning, choking fog of smoke. Betty's +little household were still standing +helplessly together by the ruins of their cottage, +when two men, in the war-paint of the +Mohawks, leaped out of the smoke, seized Bee, +and vanished with her in the fog. Chloe +rushed after them screaming, while the other +two women, cumbered with the babies they +carried, could do nothing. +</p> + +<p> +Then more men, in Indian dress and paint, +were round them, roughly demanding their +names. They were gone too, in the smoke +and confusion, as some Americans rode up, +and Betty implored them to rescue Bee. +</p> + +<p> +"Madam," said their officer coldly, "our +Indians are still the other side of the river. +The Mohawk devils are in your pay, not +ours. You had better look among the +British lines for the girl." +</p> + +<p> +For endless miles now, it seemed, Betty +and Mrs. Ferguson tramped the hot roads, +with the other refugees of St. Davids. At +last they reached Queenston, and Percy. He +himself had been about to set out for +St. Davids with Dr. Tam, a wagon, and two +men—Ned and Tim Kelly. The Americans had +told them to send, under a flag of truce, and +fetch the sick and injured from the burnt +village. +</p> + +<p> +So they rode off, Ned stunned to think +that Bee was abducted, and probably by men +worse than any savages—Sells' gang of +deserters. They heard nothing of Bee at +St. Davids, though some of Sells' men had been +seen near disguised as Indians, and an +American company, with Eli Goode in +command, was out searching for them. +</p> + +<p> +They were returning when Kawque met +them; he first whispered to Ned—"Come +and mock your enemy. He is a prisoner in +the woods, and you can taunt him, telling +him he can never ride with the British +soldiers again, for he whined when he +thought Sells would torture him, and he told +where Bee Goode was, that they might steal +her." +</p> + +<p> +With his black eyes glittering, the Mohawk +repeated his story to Percy, and without +a word the four men left the wagon, and +followed the Indian to the hut. It was +empty except for a man who lay bound face +down on a bench, the upper part of his body +covered with a blanket. He did not seem +conscious, but groaned deeply as Tim cut +the ropes, and brought water. Ned did nothing +but look with loathing upon his enemy's +disgrace. +</p> + +<p> +Percy took hold of the blanket to lift it, +but Vere, speaking for the first time, though +he kept his face hidden, cried, "Don't touch +it. Don't touch me. I can't bear it." +</p> + +<p> +"Dr. Tam is just behind us," said Percy. +Then signing the others to go out, he added +fiercely, "and you betrayed Bee, to save your +skin?" +</p> + +<p> +Vere cringed at the savagery in his tone. +"They burnt me for hours," he whispered +faintly. "At last I did not know what I said." +</p> + +<p> +Percy moved back quickly to keep himself +from striking a wounded man, then as +Dr. Tam came in, he went out. Ned was waiting +to speak to him. "We are wasting time, sir," +he said crisply, "Kawque says he can follow +Sells' trail, but he is afraid of being killed +by the American soldiers if he goes alone +and they capture him. Will you let me go +with him? We can leave plenty of marks +for Captain Goode to follow, and as she was +only stolen this morning we might even be +able to rescue her, before she is harmed." +</p> + +<p> +"Go certainly," said Percy in an unsteady +voice, for his soul was sick at the thought of +Vere's cowardice. +</p> + +<p> +With a gesture of farewell Ned turned +from him, and followed Kawque into the +bush. Knowing that the only way to keep +himself quiet and sane was to work hard, he +set the pace through the brush at a rate that +made Kawque look at him admiringly. The +Mohawk was a primitive man, he understood +strength, but not weakness. +</p> + +<p> +Dr. Tam came out, and Percy asked—"Are +his injuries likely to be fatal, doctor?" +</p> + +<p> +Dr. Tam smiled grimly. "When I was a +lad at college, Major Haslem, we had an +awful way of initiating freshmen. We ought +to have been expelled for it. We stripped +the victim to his waist, and tied him, while +we heated irons red-hot before his eyes, and +told him we were going to do some fancy +marking on his back with them. Then we +blindfolded him, and brought out some raw +meat and sealing wax. We dug the iron +into the meat holding it at his back, for him +to smell, and hear too, the flesh scorching +under them, while we touched his skin with +the hot wax—and I've known strong lads to +faint away. Suggestion, just suggestion." +</p> + +<p> +"Doctor," cried Percy, irritably, "what are +you telling me this for?" +</p> + +<p> +"Because Sells must have learnt some college +hazing tricks. That's what he did to +our man in there. Vere Haslem has a couple +of skin burns that usually he wouldn't have +sworn at for more than a minute. I kicked +him, and told him to get up and put on his +clothes." +</p> + +<p> +Vere was on his feet, dressed, and just +fastening on his sword when Percy came in. +"Give that to me," the older man said. +</p> + +<p> +"When it is known you were not captured +by the enemy," he continued, "you will be +marked 'missing', and inquiries will be made. +You must stop here, and I will bring you +plain clothes and money. Then you can cross +the river, and get to France as soon as you +can. You must take another name there, and +I will see you are provided with funds. +Kawque and Dr. Tam will tell all that happened +here, and I will ask that the Court which +condemned Ned Edgar at Kingston re-open +the case, and consider what your word as a +witness is worth." +</p> + +<p> +So the cup Vere had filled once for +another, came back to him. Leaning against +the side of the hut he saw the world of +military trappings and music that his soul loved, +slip away from him forever. +</p> + +<p class="thought"> +* * * +</p> + +<p> +That evening, Edgar with Tahata, the +Mohawk chief, and a dozen Indians, went +recklessly out to seek for his son, and his +one-time ward, Bee Goode. At midnight +they were challenged by an American picket, +and Edgar went forward with a white +handkerchief tied on his sword. "I am looking +for a girl whom Sells' gang has stolen," he +said. "If you will let us pass, I give you my +word, to return and surrender as your +prisoner, as soon as I have found her—Bee +Goode." +</p> + +<p> +"Major Edgar," said Eli's voice in the +darkness, "I think we can both forget the +war for a little while—till we find Bee +Goode. I shall be very glad of your help, +and we can go on together." +</p> + +<p> +For a week they pressed after the gang, +wondering that they never saw a trace of +the marks Ned and Kawque were to leave +for them to follow. Edgar and Eli were +afraid to put what they feared into words, +but Tahata said bluntly—"We are on the +Sells' gang trail, getting near him, yes; but +Kawque never passed here; maybe him and +Ned find Sells' camp first night, and creep +in to get the girl, and—", Tahata finished +his sentence with a significant gesture of his +tomahawk. Edgar thought he would never +see his son again, and an agony of remorse +and sorrow swept over him. +</p> + +<p class="thought"> +* * * +</p> + +<p> +It was a hot, dark night in the vast +unexplored forest that covered all the country +back of the lake fronts. The allies, united +to save Bee, Canadian, American, and +Mohawk, were camped round their fire, and +their chiefs, Edgar, Eli, and Tahata, sat +apart in council. Said Edgar—"We have +found the man's stronghold, and he knows +we are here, yet he does not send any +word—evidently he does not hold Bee." +</p> + +<p> +"In other words," said Eli hoarsely, "she +is dead in his hands before this, either by the +mercy of God, or the—the handling of men." +</p> + +<p> +"We live, we are men, we can attack and +do justice upon him," said Tahata the +Mohawk, sententiously. +</p> + +<p class="capcenter"> +<a id="img-204"></a> +<br> +<img class="imgcenter" src="images/img-204.jpg" alt=""Then on the other side of the tree they saw her--or her spirit.""> +<br> +"Then on the other side of the tree they saw her—or her spirit." +</p> + +<p> +Then on the other side of the fire they saw +her—or her spirit. In the beaded buckskin +bravery of an Indian belle, with white +feathers in her hair, she smiled at them, still +the light-hearted girl who had never received +anything but knightly treatment from any +man. And behind her in the shadows they +saw the faces of Ned, Chloe, and Kawque. +</p> + +<p> +"Papa Edgar, and Brother Eli, don't you +know me?" she cried; and coming round the +fire, she touched them with warm human +hands, talking quickly as she told how after +hearing Vere betray her, Kawque with a +friend had rushed off to St. Davids. The +place was on fire, Sells was close behind and +the Americans coming. Kawque had no +time to explain, he snatched the girl away, +telling her who he was as Chloe caught up +to them. Then because they were cut off +from getting to the English lines, the other +Indian took Bee to the Mohawk village deep +in the forest, leaving Kawque to tell Bee's +friends; but wishing the unhappy Vere to +bear the full weight of Percy's anger, the +scout said nothing of Bee till he was alone in +the bush with Ned. Then they had gone to +fetch the girl, and brought her after her +brother's party. +</p> + +<p> +In silent thanksgiving Eli kissed his sister, +and Edgar looked at Ned, standing up very +straight in the fire-glow—"Will you—can +you, shake hands?" he said huskily, holding +out his own. +</p> + +<p> +Ned clasped it instantly, knowing that his +honour among men was restored. +</p> + +<p> +Leaving Bee and Chloe carefully hidden, +the men then went on to attack, capture—and +dispose of Sells' gang, with the rough +justice of the wild. +</p> + +<p> +It was Sir John of whom Bee was thinking +when Eli came to tell her that he was about +to start for the American lines. Would she +come with him, or stay, to be a Canadian, +among Canadians? +</p> + +<p> +"Must you go," she said brokenly, "to +fight Ned—and Papa Edgar?" There was +white pain in her face, for like many another +woman on the Canadian-American border, +her heart was torn by the horror of this +almost civil war. She clung to him +pathetically, as though afraid to let him go. +</p> + +<p> +"I must go to my grandfather," she half +whispered. "I know no one can comfort him +now, still he did love me, and I must go to +him." +</p> + +<p> +"Take care of her," said Eli briefly, as he +left, and he looked at Ned, not Edgar. +</p> + +<p> +For a week Bee and her friends travelled +through the thick bush, and then on Sunday, +July twenty-fourth, they rested, hearing +far-off the thunder of Niagara. It was here that +to the keen hearing of the Indians came the +sound of church bells ringing a frantic +alarm, and hastily they broke camp, to push +on, guessing their meaning—a fresh advance +of the invader. +</p> + +<p> +And away in Niagara Sir John was still in +ignorance of his shame, although it was three +weeks since Vere had disappeared. Believing +him to be a prisoner and comparatively safe, +his whole anxiety was for his little grand-daughter. +</p> + +<p> +That torridly hot Monday afternoon, July +twenty-fifth, Sir John sat on his horse, stiffly +correct, in a little graveyard near the Falls. +Behind was a gray church, and all round the +cemetery ran a stone wall where berry +bushes grew thick. In front, the ground +sloped down to a road—Lundy's Lane—with +thick orchards of apple and peach on +either side. +</p> + +<p> +The previous Sunday had been one of +alarm in Niagara. A week before the enemy +had fallen back on Chippewa, and the British +had followed as far as the Falls. Then +Winfield Scott managed to deceive them so +completely as to his intentions, that Riall +sent twelve hundred men under Drummond +to Fort George. Only sixteen hundred were +still with him at Lundy's Lane; Sir John was +watching as his little battery clattered in +among the gravestones, and the guns took +position where they could sweep the road. +</p> + +<p> +Then in came Fitzgibbons' men with their +famous bush-fighting leader, and news—five +thousand Americans were marching from +Chippewa. Riall ordered a retreat to +Queenston, and half his force had started +when the enemy came down Lundy's Lane. +It was an unpremeditated battle on both +sides. The British were trying to get away, +and the enemy thought they were at Queenston. +Scott, however, attacked instantly, +afraid they might escape into the bush, +hurling his men up the hill to where the battle +flag of England waved over the church, and +the guns vomited death above the graves of +the quiet dead. +</p> + +<p> +For half an hour the battery had the battle +to itself. The blue-coated men dashed +forward, crouching behind the cemetery wall +to fire a volley through the bushes, then +springing across, rushed on the gunners. +Now the rest of the army were back in position, +and the battle raged. Men fired at men +a stone's throw off their musket muzzles, or +fought savagely hand to hand with clubbed +guns and the deadly bayonet. +</p> + +<p> +Sir John was wounded. Half-stunned, he +was pulled from under his dead horse, and +saw Percy. "How goes it?" he murmured +with faint eagerness. +</p> + +<p> +"Drummond is back with his twelve +hundred, sir. Marched to Fort George and +back without stopping; did the last mile on +a run too, in this heat. The enemy has +brought his guns into action, you can hear +them. Our left is smashed up, and General +Riall is captured. But I guess we can stick +it out. Can I do anything for you? We have +no water." +</p> + +<p> +"No, I can hear it all going over the +Falls," said Sir John, wandering a little. "I +would like to know that Bee was safe." +</p> + +<p> +Percy left him in the church and went out. +There was a lull in the fighting. It was now +nine o'clock at night, and the battle had +lasted since six. The moon had risen, +throwing a pale light on the dead and wounded +heaped among the graves and down the hill, +and all along the road between the orchards. +The heat was terrific, no coolness having +come with the night, and neither army had +a drop of water. The fighting men, many of +whom had been marching all day, suffered +intolerably with thirst, and the wounded, +torn with the frightful bayonet and scorching +in an inferno of heat and pain, soon grew +delirious. +</p> + +<p> +The moon was hidden by clouds, and in +the black darkness out flashed the enemy's +guns into the orchards. From both sides +came charging crowds of wildly yelling men +upon the British centre, where their guns +sent back a flaming answer. Men fired +wherever they saw fire, then closed into the +dark with their foes. All order was lost. +Lundy's Lane and the graveyard hill, were +covered with men fighting with sword and +pistol, stabbing with shortened bayonet, and +clenching like wild beasts. +</p> + +<p> +The British guns were captured, but the +Americans could neither fire nor move them, +such was the fury of the mob of men that +threw themselves upon them. And above all, +the crash of musketry, and the yells and +whoops of the fighting men, rose the +screaming of the wounded. +</p> + +<p class="thought"> +* * * +</p> + +<p> +Almost under the feet of plunging, crazy +horses; knocked down more than once by +excited men; with bullets whistling round her, +Bee stumbled through the dark with a pail +of water. Other women were there too, on +the same attempt at mercy. The few men +who had seen them ordered them back +instantly, but being women they did not obey. +</p> + +<p> +A fitful gleam of moonlight showed men +twisting on the ground before her, and she +knelt to put water to the pitiful lips. Then +she had a glimpse of Ned, fighting furiously +with his clubbed musket. Someone pushed +her into the wreck of the church, and there +she found her grandfather. +</p> + +<p> +"Thank God, you are safe, little Bee," he +said, roused to a last flash of consciousness +by her voice. +</p> + +<p> +"Happy man," murmured Percy, as they +laid him, bleeding with a dozen wounds, by +the dead baronet, "he need never know of +Vere now." +</p> + +<p> +The battle of Lundy's Lane had ended, as +suddenly as it began. +</p> + +<p class="thought"> +* * * +</p> + +<p> +Scott, with the captured British general +and guns, retreated back to Buffalo, where +he reported that he had won the battle, but +that to follow up his victory, he must have a +far larger army, to overcome the savage +resistance of the Canadians. +</p> + +<p> +But there were no more invasions of Canada, +for the battleships of England were off +the American coast. In vain the Tzar of +Russia offered to arbitrate; Washington +was burnt on August twenty-fourth. The +English were driven back from Baltimore, +but made raids on the shores of the +Democrat States, who were blamed for the +invasion of Canada. +</p> + +<p> +At last, on December twenty-fourth, 1814, +peace was signed at Ghent, no word being +said in its articles about the "Right to +Search," which had been used as a cry to +incite the American people to war, but without +steamer or telegraph it was weeks before +the news could cross the Atlantic, and the +bloody battle of New Orleans, an English +defeat, was fought in the January after peace +was signed. +</p> + +<p> +York raised her flags in joyful thanksgiving, +and Percy saw them as he sat up for +the first time. Haslem Towers stood empty, +in England, and men talked of the "wicked +baronet" somewhere abroad. Percy intended +to make his home in Canada, and he +was very disappointed that Ferguson would +not stay with him. Instead of remaining +as the trusted servant of a man he had +always liked with high wages and sure +provision for his old age, the Methodist had +heard the call of the nation that was being +born in Canada. He longed to be a preacher +to the men who had fought so well for an +earthly country at Lundy's Lane and many a +fight before. So he applied to Conference, +and they were about to advance the money +to buy his discharge, and then accept him as +one of their itinerant preachers. +</p> + +<p> +Ned was in the old pasture, tramping +through the snow, and thinking of the +summer morning when he had crept there, with +his spirit broken, and a girl had healed him +by her kiss of faith. Eli was with him, he +had returned to take his sister back to +Boston, if she would come. +</p> + +<p> +"But I am not surprised that she refuses," +Eli was saying. "She was so young when +she went to Canada to live, and Canada is +so loyal to the British flag. If we had only +known your real feelings we would never +have fought you. May the peace between us +endure." +</p> + +<p> +Then Ned spoke, but not of politics, and +Eli smiled—"My father trusted your father +with my sister, so I cannot do less than trust +her to you. The Haslems are willing, so the +only person whose consent you need is—Bee +Goode." +</p> + +<p><br><br><br><br></p> + +<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77341 ***</div> +</body> + +</html> + |