Janice Meredith Part 93

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

Washington removed his hat and bowed. "Try as we will, count," he said, "we cannot equal your nation in politeness."

In silence he stepped forward to the gun the colonel indicated, and the captain of the piece handed him the loggerhead with a salute and then fell back respectfully.

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

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

As if to prove that the foe was nothing daunted, a solid shot, just topping the redoubt, tore through the middle of the group of generals, scattering sand and pebbles over them.

Colonel Cobb, who stood nearest Washington, turning impulsively, said, "Sir, you are too much exposed here. Had you not better step back a little?"

"If you are afraid, Colonel Cobb," quietly answered Washington, "you have liberty to step back."

By dark three batteries were firing, and all through the night the guns on both sides rained shot and sh.e.l.l at each other. Two more batteries of thirty-two pounders opened fire on the 10th, and by hot shot set fire that evening to the "Charon" frigate, making a sight of marvellous grandeur, for the ship became one ma.s.s of fire from the water's edge to her spintle-heads, all her ports belching flame and each spar and every rope ablaze at the same moment. The morning of the 11th found fifty-two pieces of artillery mounted and hurling a storm of projectiles into the British lines; and that evening, a second parallel was opened, bringing the guns of the besiegers less than three hundred yards from their earthworks, and putting all parts of the town within range. After this was completed, the defensive fire slackened, for every gun with which the garrison sought to make reply was dismounted the moment it was advanced into the embrasure, compelling their withdrawal during daylight hours; and though each night as soon as dark screened them from the accurate gunnery of the Americans, they were restored and the firing renewed, it was done with a feebleness that bespoke discouragement and exhaustion. For two days shot and sh.e.l.l splintered and tore through abattis and fraising, and levelled parapet and ditch, almost unanswered.

To the right of the new parallel, and almost enfilading it by their fire, were two detached redoubts of the British, well in advance of their main lines. To end their destructive cross fire, as well as to complete the invest.i.ture, it was determined to carry them by a.s.sault; and as dark settled down on the evening of the 14th, two storming parties, one of French grenadiers and cha.s.seurs, drawn from the brigade of the Baron de Viomenil and under the command of the Comte de Deuxponts, and the second, of American light infantry, taken from the division of the Marquis de Lafayette and commanded by Alexander Hamilton, were moved out of the trenches, and, followed by strong supporting battalions, were advanced as far as was prudent.

It was while the American forlorn hope was standing at ease, awaiting the signal, that Colonel Brereton came hurrying up to where Hamilton and Laurens were whispering final details.

"I could n't keep out of this," he explained; "and the marquis was good enough to say I might serve as a volunteer."

"The more the merrier," responded Laurens. "Come along with me, Jack. We are to take the fort in the rear, and you shall have your stomach full of fighting, I'll warrant you. Here, put this paper in your hat, if you don't want to be stuck by our own men."

Hamilton, turning from the two, addressed the three battalions.

"Light infantry," he said, "when the council of war reached the decision to carry the works in our front, Baron de Viomenil argued that both should be left to his troops, as the American soldiery could not be depended upon for an a.s.sault.

The commander-in-chief would not disgrace us by yielding to his claim, and 't is for us to prove that he was right. We have shown the French artillerists that we can serve our guns quicker and more accurately; now let us see if we cannot prove ourselves the swifter and steadier at this work. Let the sergeants see to it that each man in his file has a piece of paper in his hat, and that each has removed the flint from his gun. I want you to carry the redoubt without a shot, by the bayonet alone."

A murmur of a.s.sent and applause pa.s.sed along the lines, and then all stood listening for the signal. It was a night of intense darkness, and now, after ten days of unending bombardment, the cannonading had entirely ceased, giving place to a stillness which to ears so long accustomed to the uproar seemed to have a menacing quality in it.

Suddenly a gun boomed loud and clear; and as its echo reverberated out over the river, every man clutched his musket more firmly. Boom! went a second close upon the first, and each soldier drew a deep breath as if to prepare for some exertion. Boom! went a third, and a restless undulation swept along the lines. Boom! for a fourth time roared a cannon, and some of the men laughed nervously. Boom!

rolled out yet a fifth, and the ranks stood tense and rigid, every ear, every sense, straining.

Boom! crashed the sixth gun, and not a man needed the "Forward, light infantry!" of the commander, every one of them being in motion before the order was given. Steadily they advanced in silence, save only for muttered grumbles here and there over the slowness of the pace.

Without warning, out of the blackness came a challenge, "Who goes there?"

Making no answer, the stormers broke into a run and swept forward with a rush.

"Bang!" went a single musket; and had it been fired into a mine, the tremendous uproar that ensued could not have come more instantaneously, for twenty cannon thundered, and the redoubts fairly seemed to spit fire as the defenders'

muskets flashed. High in the air rose rockets, which lit up the whole scene, and for the time they lasted fairly turned the night into day.

As the main and flanking parties swept up to the redoubt, the sappers and miners, who formed the first rank, attacked the abattis with their axes; but the troops, mad with long waiting and fretted by the galling fire of the foe, would not wait, and, pushing them aside, clambering, boosting, and tumbling went over the obstruction. Not pausing to form in the ditch, they scrambled up the parapet and went surging over the crest, pell-mell, upon the British.

Brereton, sword in hand, had half sprung, half been tossed upon the row of barrels filled with earth which topped the breastworks, only to face a bayonet which one of the garrison lunged up at him. A sharp p.r.i.c.k he felt in his chest; but as in the quick thought of danger he realised his death moment, the weapon, instead of being driven home, was jerked back, and the soldier who had thrust with it cried:--

"Charlie!"

"Fred!" exclaimed Jack, and the two men caught each other by the hand and stood still while the invaders poured past them over the barrels.

It was Mobray who spoke first. "Oh, Charlie!" he almost sobbed, "one misery at least has been saved me! My G.o.d!

You bleed."

"A pin-p.r.i.c.k only, Fred. But what does this mean? You!

and in the ranks."

"Ay, and for three years desperately seeking a death which will not come!"

"And the Fusileers?"

"Hold this redoubt. Oh, Charlie, to think that your sword should ever be raised against the old regiment!"

As Mobray spoke, came a cry from the garrison, "We yield!" and the clatter of their weapons could be heard as they were grounded, or were thrown to the earth.

"Quick!" cried Brereton, fairly hauling Sir Frederick to where he stood. "Run, Fred! At least, you shall be no prisoner." Jack gave him a last squeeze of the hand and a shove, which sent his friend fairly staggering down into the ditch.

Mobray sprang through a break in the abattis, but had not run ten feet when he turned and shouted back something which the thundering of the artillery prevented Brereton from entirely hearing, but the words he distinguished were sufficient to make him catch at the barrels for support, for they were:--

"Janice Meredith ... Yorktown ... point of death ... small-pox."

For a moment Brereton stood in a kind of daze; but as the full horror of Mobray's words came home to him, he groaned.

Turning, he plunged down into the fortress with a look of a man bereft, and striding to the commander cried, "For G.o.d's sake, Hamilton, give me something to do!"

"The very man I wanted," replied the little colonel.

"Carry word to the marquis that the redoubt is ours, and that the supports may advance."

Dashing out of the now open sally port, Jack ran at his top speed, and within two minutes delivered the report to General de Lafayette.

"Ah, mes braves," e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the marquis, triumphantly.

"My own countreemen they thought they would not it do, and now my boys, they have the fort before Deuxponts has his," he went on, as he pointed into the darkness, out of which could be seen the flash of muskets. "Ah, we will teach the baron a lesson. Colonel Barber," he ordered, turning to his aide, "ride at your best quickness to General Viomenil; tell him, with my compliments, that our fort, it is ours, and that we can give him the a.s.sistance, if he needs it."

The help was not needed, for in five minutes the second outpost was also in the possession of the allies. Working parties were at once thrown forward, and before morning the two captured positions were connected with and made part of the already established parallel.

The fall of these two redoubts in turn opened an enfilading fire on the British, and in desperation, just before dawn on the 15th a sortie was made, and the French were driven out of one of the batteries, and the guns spiked but the advantage could not be held against the reserves that came up at the first alarm, and they were in turn forced out at the point of the bayonet.

On the morning of the 16th almost a hundred heavy guns and mortars were in position; and for twenty-four hours the whole peninsula trembled, as they poured a torrent of destructive, direct, and raking fire, at the closest range, into the weakened defences and crumbling town, with scarcely pretence of resistance from the hemmed in and exhausted British, every shot which especially told being greeted with cheers from the trenches of the allies.

One there was in the uniform of a field officer, who never cheered, yet who, standing in a recklessly exposed position, staringly followed each solid shot as it buried itself in the earthworks, or, pa.s.sing over them, was heard to strike in the town, and each sh.e.l.l, as it curved upwards and downwards in its great arc. Sometimes the explosion of the latter would throw fragments of what it destroyed in the air,--earth, shingles, bricks, and even human limbs,--raising a cry of triumph from those who served the piece, but he only pressed his lips the more tightly together, as if enduring some torture.

Nor could he be persuaded to leave his place for food or sleep, urge who would, but with careworn face and haggard eyes never left it for thirty hours. Occasionally, when for a minute or two there would come an accidental break in the firing, his lips could be seen to move as if he were speaking to himself. Not one knew why he stood there following each shot so anxiously, or little recked that, when there was not one to fasten his attention, he saw instead a pair of dark eyes shadowed by long lashes, delicately pencilled eyebrows, a low fore-head surmounted by a wealth of darkest brown hair, a little straight nose, cheeks scarcely ever two minutes the same tint, and lips that, whether they spoke or no, wooed as never words yet did. And as each time the vision flashed out before him, he would half mutter, half sob a prayer:--

"Oh, G.o.d, rob her of her beauty if you will, but do not let disease or shot kill her."

It was he, watching as no other man in all those lines watched, who suddenly, a little after ten o'clock on the morning of the 17th, shouted:--

"Cease firing!"

Every man within hearing turned to him, and then looked to where his finger pointed.

On the top of a British redoubt stood a red-coated drummer, to the eye beating his instrument, but the sound of it was drowned in the roar of the guns. As the order pa.s.sed from battery to battery, the thunder gradually ceased, and all that could be heard was the distant riffle of the single drum, sounding "The Parley." Once the cessation of the firing was complete, an officer, whose uniform and accoutrements flashed out brilliantly as the eastern sun shone on them, mounted the works, and standing beside the drummer slowly waved a white flag.