The Continental Dragoon Part 3

"Girls?" blurted the major, startled out of his meditations.

The old country beau chuckled.

"We all know what's betwixt you and the niece. How about the aunt and me taking a lesson from you two, eh?"

Even the gloomy officer could not restrain a momentary smile.

"What, Mr. Valentine? Do you seriously think of marrying?"

"Why not? I've been married afore, hain't I? What's to hinder?"

"Why, there's the matter of age." Colden rather enjoyed being inconsiderate of people's feelings.

"Oh, the lady is not so old," said the octogenarian, placidly, casting a judicial, but approving look at the commanding figure of Miss Sally.

Then, as he had been for a considerable time on his legs, having walked over from the Hill to the parsonage that afternoon, and as at best his knees bent when he stood, he sat down on the settle by the staircase.

Miss Sally, though she knew it useless to protest further against Elizabeth's caprice, nevertheless felt it her duty to do so, especially as Major Colden would probably carry to the family a report of her att.i.tude towards that caprice.

"Did you ever hear of such rashness, major? A young girl like Elizabeth coming out here in time of war, when this neutral ground between the lines is overridden and foraged to death, and deluged with blood by friend as well as foe? La me! I can't understand her, if she _is_ my sister's child."

"Why, aunt Sally, _you_ stay out here through it all," said Elizabeth, not as much to depreciate the dangers as to give her aunt an opportunity of posing as a very courageous person.

Miss Sally promptly accepted the opportunity. "Oh," said she, with a mien of heroic self-sacrifice, "I couldn't let poor Grace Babc.o.c.k stay at the parsonage with n.o.body but her children; besides I'm not Colonel Philipse's daughter, and who cares whether I'm loyal to the King or not? But a girl like you isn't made for the dangers and privations we've had to put up with out here since the King's troops have occupied New York, and Washington's rebel army has held the country above. I'm surprised the family let her come, or that you'd countenance it by coming with her, major."

"We all opposed it," said Colden, with a sigh. "But--you know Elizabeth!"

"Yes," said Elizabeth herself with cheerful nonchalance, "Elizabeth always has her way. I was hungry for a sight of the place, and the more the old house is in danger, the more I love it. I'm here for a week, and that ends it. The place doesn't seem to have suffered any.

They haven't even quartered troops here."

"Not since the American officers stayed here in the fall o' '76," put in old Mr. Valentine, from the settle. "I reckon you'll be safe enough here, Miss Elizabeth."

"Of course I shall. Why, our troops patrol all this part of the country, Lord Cathcart told us at King's Bridge, and _we_ have naught to fear from them."

"No, the British foragers won't dare treat Philipse Manor-house as they do the homes of some of their loyal friends," said Miss Sally, who was no less proud of her relationship with the Philipses, because it was by marriage and not by blood. "But the horrible "Skinners," who don't spare even the farms of their fellow rebels--"

"Bah!" said Elizabeth. "The sc.u.m of the earth! Williams has weapons here, and with him and the servants I'll defend the place against all the rebel cut-throats in the county."

The major thought to make a last desperate attempt to dissuade Elizabeth from remaining.

"That's all well enough," said he; "but there are the rebel regulars, the dragoons. They'll be raiding down to our very lines, one of these days, if only in retaliation. You know how Lord Cornwallis's party under General Grey, over in Jersey, the other night, killed a lot of Baylor's cavalry,--Mrs. Washington's Light Horse, they called the troop. And the Hessians made a great foray on the rebel families this side the river."

"Ay," chirped old Valentine; "but the American Colonel Butler, and their Major Lee, of Virginia, fell on the Hessian yagers 'tween Dobbs's Ferry and Tarrytown, and killed ever so many of 'em,--and I wasn't sorry for that, neither!"

"Oho!" said Colden, "you belong to the opposition."

"Oh, I'm neither here nor there," replied the old man. "But they say that there Major Lee, of Virginia, is the gallantest soldier in Washington's army. He'd lead his men against the powers of Satan if Washington gave the word. Light Horse Harry, they call him,--and a fine dashing troop o' light horse he commands."

"No more dashing, I'll wager, than some of ours," said Elizabeth, whose mood for the moment permitted her to talk with reason and moderation; "not even counting the Germans. And as for leaders, what do you say to Simcoe, of the Queen's Rangers, or Emmerick, or Tarleton, or"--turning to Colden--"your cousin James De Lancey, of this county, major?"

The major, notwithstanding his Toryism, did not enter with enthusiasm into Elizabeth's admiration for these brave young cavalry leaders.

Staten Island and East New Jersey had not offered him as great opportunities for distinction as they had had. It was, therefore, Miss Sally who next spoke.

"Well, Heaven knows there are enough on either side to devastate the land and rob us of comfort and peace. One wakes in the middle of the night, at the clatter of horses riding by like the wind, and wonders whether it's friend or foe, and trembles till they're out of hearing, for fear the door is to be broken in or the house fired. And the sound of shots in the night, and the distant glare of flames when some poor farmer's home is burned over his head!"

"Ay," added Mr. Valentine, "and all the cattle and crops go to the foragers, so it's no use raising any more than you can hide away for your own larder."

Elizabeth was beginning to be bored, and saw nothing to gain from a continuation of these recitals. Doubtless, by this time, her room was lighted and warm. So, thoughtless of Colden, she mounted the first step of the stairway, and said:

"I have no doubt Williams has contrived to hide away enough provisions for _our_ use. So _I_ sha'n't suffer from hunger, and as for Lee's Light Horse, I defy them and all other rebels. Come, aunt Sally!"

She had ascended as far as to the fourth step of the stairway, and Miss Sally was about to follow, when there was heard, above the wind's moaning, another sound of galloping horses. Like the previous similar sound, it came from the north.

Elizabeth stopped and stood on the fourth step. Miss Sally raised her finger to bid silence. Colden's att.i.tude became one of anxious attention, while he dropped his hat on the settle and drew his cloak close about him, so that it concealed his uniform, sword, and pistol.

The galloping continued.

When time came for it to turn off eastward, as it would do should the riders take the road to Mile Square, it did not so. Instead, as the sound unmistakably indicated, it came on down the post-road.

"Hessians, perhaps!" Miss Sally whispered.

"Or De Lancey's Cowboys," said Valentine, but not in a whisper.

Elizabeth cast a sharp look at the old man, as if to show disapproval of his use of the Whigs' nickname for De Lancey's troop. But the octogenarian did not quail.

"They're riding towards the manor-house," he added, a moment later.

"Let us hope they're friends," said Colden, in a tone low and slightly unsteady.

Elizabeth disdained to whisper.

"Maybe it is Lee's Light Horse," she said, in her usual voice, but ironically, addressing Valentine. "In that case we should tremble for our lives, I suppose."

"Whoever they are, they've stopped before the house!" said Miss Sally, in quite a tremble.

There was a noise of horses pawing and snorting outside, of directions being given rapidly, and of two or three horses leaving the main band for another part of the grounds. Then was heard a quick, firm step on the porch floor, and in the same instant a sharp, loud knock on the door.

No one in the hall moved; all looked at Elizabeth.

"A very valiant knock!" said she, with more irony. "It certainly _must_ be Lee's Light Horse. Will you please open the door, Colden?"

"What?" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Colden.

"Certainly," said Elizabeth, turning on the stairway, so as to face the door; "to show we're not afraid."

Jack Colden looked at her a moment demurringly, then went to the door, undid the fastenings, and threw it open, keeping his cloak close about him and immediately stepping back into the shadow.

A handsome young officer strode in, as if 'twere a mighty gust of wind that sent him. He wore a uniform of blue with red facings,--a uniform that had seen service,--was booted and spurred, without greatcoat or cloak. A large pistol was in his belt, and his left hand rested on the hilt of a sword. He swept past Colden, not seeing him; came to a stop in the centre of the hall, and looked rapidly around from face to face.