Peggy Owen at Yorktown Part 37

"I can't understand it," he said dejectedly. "'Tis more like magic than aught else. When I got to the hut last night the sentries were there on duty, but there was no guard. I asked where Samuels was, and was astonished when they declared that I myself had sent him away an hour before. Suspecting something wrong at this I went at once inside the hut, and found it empty. The door was locked, the key in my possession all the time, but Drayton was gone. As near as I can get at it some one impersonated me, and released him. But how came any one by a key? There was a plot on foot yesterday for his rescue. His parting remark to you, Peggy, seemed to indicate that he expected something to happen, but I thought that I had taken every precaution."

"Then he did escape, Clifford?" questioned Peggy eagerly.

"Yes," answered the lad with bitterness. "He escaped. I do not expect you to be sorry, Peggy, but I would almost rather have died than to have it happen while he was in my charge. 'Tis a dire misfortune."

"But not of such gravity as another that hath befallen us, my son," said Colonel Owen coming into the room in time to hear the last remark. "The French fleet hath entered the Chesapeake, and now lies at anchor off the Gloucester sh.o.r.e. Peggy recognized it at once, though I see not how she knew. His lordship hath despatched a courier to find if there are others lower down the bay."

"Why should the coming of the French fleet be of such consequence?"

queried Harriet.

"It shuts off our communication with New York, which means that we can receive neither supplies nor reinforcements from Sir Henry Clinton. If our fleet doth not come to our a.s.sistance we may find ourselves in a desperate situation."

"There is no cause for worry, sir," spoke Clifford. "If we are cut off on the water side, what doth hinder us from retreating through North Carolina to our forces further South?"

"Thee can't," uttered Peggy breathlessly. "I am sorry for thee, Cousin William, and for thy army. Still I am glad that at last the long war may be brought to a close."

"Peggy, just what do you mean?" demanded Colonel Owen sharply.

"I was considering our own forces," answered Peggy who had spoken without thinking. "Would not the Marquis, and General Wayne, and all the militia try to keep thy people from cutting through?"

"'Fore George, they would!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the colonel. "At least they should try. By all the laws of military warfare they should have us surrounded, and if that be the case we are in for a siege. Come, Peggy, you are improving. We shall have a warrior of you yet."

"Don't, Cousin William," cried Peggy. "'Tis not my wisdom at all. I but repeat what I have heard."

"'Tis sound policy, wherever you may have heard it," declared Colonel Owen. "Though I hope for our sakes that the rebels may not enforce it.

Come, my son. We have no time for further loitering."

Roused from his dream of security at last Cornwallis, as had been foreseen, meditated a retreat through the Carolinas. It was too late.

The James River was filled with armed vessels covering the transfer of French troops which had been brought to the a.s.sistance of Lafayette. He reconnoitered Williamsburg, but found it was too strong to be forced.

Cut off in every direction, he now proceeded to strengthen his defenses, sending repeated expresses to Sir Henry Clinton to apprise him of his desperate situation.

The days that ensued were days of anxiety. All sorts of rumors were afloat in the encircled garrison. One stood forth from among the rest and was repeated insistently until at length it crystallized into verity: Washington himself was coming with his army and the allies.

Colonel Owen's face was grave indeed as he confirmed the tidings.

"I cannot understand how the rebel general could slip away from the Hudson with a whole army right under Sir Henry's nose," he complained.

"I know that the commander-in-chief expected an attack, and was preparing for it; for that very reason he should have been more keenly upon the alert. Where were his scouts, his spies, that he did not know what his adversary was doing? Had he no secret service? He grows sluggish, I fear me."

The situation brightened for Cornwallis when part of the English fleet under Admiral Graves took a peep in at the Chesapeake, but only a slight action with the French vessels followed, and then the English ships sailed away to New York. Once more the black cloud lowered, and soon it burst in all its fury over the doomed army. On the twenty-eighth of September the videttes came flying in to report that the combined army of Americans and French were advancing in force. Seeing himself outflanked the British commander withdrew into the town and the inner line of defenses, and began a furious cannonading to prevent the advance of the allies. And now from Sir Henry came the cheering intelligence that the British fleet would soon come to his relief.

Colonel Owen and Clifford were on duty almost constantly, and the two girls were much alone. The servants left precipitately, and the maidens gladly undertook the housework as a relief from anxiety. Soon the firewood gave out, and they were reduced to the necessity of living on uncooked food. Encompa.s.sed on every side there was no opportunity for foraging, and the supplies of the garrison depleted rapidly. But meagerness of rations could be borne better than sound of cannon, although there was as yet no bombardment from the Americans-a state of affairs, however, that did not last long.

On the afternoon of the eighth of October Peggy and Harriet sat on the small portico of the dwelling listening to the cannonading which had been going on all day from the British works.

"Harriet," spoke Peggy abruptly, "does thee remember that father is outside there with the army?"

"Oh, Peggy," gasped her cousin. "How dreadful! Suppose that father, or Clifford, should hurt him? Wouldn't it be awful?"

"Yes," a.s.sented Peggy paling. "Or if he should hurt them."

"There is not so much danger of that," said Harriet. "Clifford said that while they seemed to be throwing up earthworks there had been no big guns mounted, and he did not believe that the rebels had many. 'Twould be a great task to transport heavy ordnance from the Hudson."

"But they have had the a.s.sistance of the French fleet," reminded Peggy.

"Thee should know by this time, Harriet, that if General Washington undertakes aught, he does it thoroughly. I fear we shall find soon that he hath brought all his artillery."

As if to confirm her words there came at this moment a deafening crash, a tearing, screeching sound, as a solid shot tore through the upper story of the house. The two maidens sprang to their feet, clasping each other in terror. Long after Peggy learned that it was Washington himself who had fired the shot. Instantly the roar of cannon and mortars followed. The earth trembled under the thunder. The air was filled with shot and sh.e.l.l, and roar of artillery. The bombardment of the town had begun, and Earl Cornwallis had received his first salutation.

In the midst of the commotion Clifford came running.

"Get to the caves," he shouted. "Ye must not stay here."

Panic-stricken, the girls hastened after him to the bluff over the river in the side of which caves had been dug in antic.i.p.ation of this very event.

"You should not be here, Peggy," said the youth when they had reached the protection of the dugout. "If you wish I will try to get a flag to send you outside. 'Tis no place for a rebel." This last he spoke with some bitterness.

"And leave me alone, Peggy?" cried Harriet in dismay. "Oh, you would not!"

"No, Harriet," answered Peggy who in truth would have preferred almost any place to Yorktown at that moment. "I will not leave thee if thee wishes me to stay."

"Then ye must go over to Gloucester Point," cried the lad. "'Tis said that all the women and children are to be sent there."

"No," said Harriet decidedly. "We will stay right here. We will be safe, and I will not leave you and father. Why, you both might be killed, or wounded."

And from this stand neither Clifford nor her father could move her. The time that followed was one to try the stoutest heart. The houses of the village were honeycombed by shot. Scenes of horror were enacted which pa.s.sed all description. Shot and sh.e.l.l rained without cessation day and night. Horses, for lack of forage, were slain by hundreds, and the girls had no means of finding out if their own pets were included in the slaughter. The shrieks and groans of the wounded mingled with the roar of artillery, and added to the awfulness. And nearer, ever nearer, approached the allies. The first parallel[[7]] of the Americans was opened and pa.s.sed.

From the outlying redoubts the British were forced backward, and the second parallel opened. The situation was becoming desperate. The defenses were crumbling under the heavy, unceasing fire. Abattis, and parapet, and ditch were splintered, and torn, and leveled. The garrison was losing many men, and closer still came the patriots. The end was fast approaching. The Hector of the British army was opposed by a leader who never left anything to chance.

And in the caves there was no occupation to relieve the tension, save that of watching the sh.e.l.ls. Peggy and Harriet stood at the entrance of their dugout on the evening of the eleventh of October engaged in this diversion. Sometimes the sh.e.l.ls of the besieging army overreached the town and fell beyond the bluff into the river, and bursting, threw up great columns of water. In the darkness the bombs appeared like fiery meteors with blazing tails. Suddenly from out of the clouds of smoke and night a red-hot sh.e.l.l soared, curved, and fell upon the "Charon," the British ship lying in the river. Almost instantly the vessel was enwrapped in a torrent of fire which spread with vivid brightness among the rigging, and ran with amazing rapidity to the top of the masts. From water edge to truck the vessel was in flames. The "Guadalupe," lying near by, together with two other smaller ships, caught fire also, and all the river blazed in a magnificent conflagration. About and above them was fire and smoke, while cannon belched thunder and flame.

"Oh, this awful war! This awful war!" shrieked Harriet suddenly. "I shall go mad, Peggy."

Peggy drew her back within the cave. "Let us not look longer, Harriet,"

she said soothing the girl as she would a child. "I hope, I believe that it will not last. How can it go on? Oh, Harriet, Harriet! we could bear anything if it were quiet for only a little while."

"At first," sobbed Harriet, "I thought I could not bear for the British to be beaten; but now if only father and Clifford are spared, I care not."

It was near the end now. After a gallant sortie by which the English regained a redoubt from the French only to lose it again, and after an attempt to cut through on the Gloucester side of the river Cornwallis gave way to despair. On the morning of the seventeenth Clifford came to the cave. He was haggard, disheveled, and grimy with powder. Tears were streaming from his eyes, and his appearance was so woebegone that the maidens ran to him with cries of alarm.

"Harriet," he cried, flinging himself on the ground with a sob, "it's all over! They are beating the parley."

----- [7] Parallel-a line of entrenchments parallel to those of the British.

CHAPTER x.x.xII-"LIGHTS OUT"

"Oh! these were hours when thrilling joy repaid A long, long course of darkness, doubts, and fears- The heartsick faintness of the hope delay'd, The waste, the woe, the bloodshed, and the tears, That tracked with terror six long rolling years."