The Little Red Foot Part 24

SUMMER HOUSE POINT

The sun in my eyes and the noise of drums awoke me, where, relieved on post by Nick, I had been sleeping on the veranda.

Beyond the orchard on the Johnstown road, mounted officers in blue and buff were riding amid undulating ranks of moving muskets; and I knew that the Continental Line had arrived at Summer House Point, and was glad of it.

As I shook loose my blanket and stood up, black Flora and Colas came up from their kitchen below ground, and seemed astonished to see me still there.

"Is your mistress awake?" I demanded. But they did not know; so I bade Flora go inside and awaken Lady Johnson. Then I went down to the well in the orchard, where Nick stood sentry, looking through the blossoming boughs at what was pa.s.sing on the mainland road beyond the Point.

It was a soft, sunny morning, and a pleasant scent from the apple bloom, which I remember was full o' bees.

Through the orchard, on the small peninsula, now came striding toward us a dozen or more officers of the regiments of Colonels Dayton and Livingston, all laughing together and seeming very merry; and some, as they pa.s.sed under the flowering branches, plucked twigs of white and pink flowers and made themselves nosegays.

Their major, who seemed to know me as an officer, though I did not know him, called out in high good humour:

"Well, my lord Northesk, did you and your rangers arrive in time to close the cage on our pretty bird?"

"Yes, sir," said I, reddening, and not pleased.

"Lady Johnson is here then?"

"Yes, Major."

At that instant the front door opened and Lady Johnson came out quickly and stood on the veranda, the sun striking across her pallid face, which paleness was more due to her condition than to any fear of our soldiery.

She was but partly robed, and that hastily; her hair all unpowdered and undressed, and only a levete of China silk flung about her girlish figure, and making still more evident her delicate physical condition.

But in her eyes I saw storms a-brewing, and her lips and features went white as she stood there, clenching and unclenching one hand, and still a little blinded by the sun in her face.

We all had uncovered before her, bowing very low; and, if she noticed me at first, I am not certain, but she gave our Major such a deadly stare that it checked his speech and put him clean out o' countenance, leaving him a-twiddling his sword-knot and dumb as a fish.

"What does this mean?" said she, her lip trembling with increasing pa.s.sion. "Have you come here to arrest me?"

And, as n.o.body replied, she stamped her bare foot in its silken chamber-shoe, like any angry child in petty fury when disobliged.

"Is it not enough," she continued, "that you drive my unhappy husband out of his own house, but you must presently follow me here to mock and insult me? What has our family done to merit this outrage?"

Our Major, astonished and out o' countenance, attempted a civil word to calm her, but she swept us all with scornful eyes and stamped her foot again in such anger that her shoe fell off and landed on the gra.s.s.

"Our only crime is loyalty to a merciful and Christian King!" she cried, paying no heed to the shoe. "Our punishment is that we are like to be hunted as they hunt wild beasts! By a pack of rebels, too! Shame, gentlemen! Is this worthy even of embattled shop-keepers?"

"Madame, I beg you----"

But she had no patience to listen.

"You have forced me out of my home in Johnstown," she said bitterly, "and I thought to find refuge under this poor roof. But now you come hunting me here! Very well, gentlemen, I leave you in possession and go to Fish House. And if you hunt me out o' Fish House, I shall go on, G.o.d knows where!--for I do not choose to endure the insult with which your mere presence here affronts me!"

I had picked up her silk shoe and now went to her with it, where she stood on the veranda, biting at her lip, and her eyes all a-glitter with angry tears.

"For G.o.d's sake, madam," said I, "do not use us so harshly. We mean no insult and no harm----"

"John Drogue," she said with a great sob, "I have loved you as a brother, but I had rather see you dead there on this violated threshold than know that the Laird of Northesk is become a rebel to his King!"

I knelt down and drew the shoe over her bare foot. Then I stood up and took her hand, laying it very gently upon my arm. She suffered me to lead her into the house--to the door of her bedroom, where Claudia, already dressed, took her from me.

"Oh, John, John," she sobbed, "what is this pack o' riff-raff doing here with their cobbler majors and carpenter colonels--all these petty shop-keepers in uniform who come from filthy Boston to ride over us?"

Claudia's eyes were very bright, but without any trace of fear or anger.

"What troops are these, Jack?" she inquired coolly. "And do they really come here to make prisoners of two poor women?"

I told her that these soldiers formed a mixed battalion from the commands of Colonels Dayton and Livingston, and that they would encamp for the present within sight of the Summer House.

"Do you mean that Polly and I are prisoners?" she repeated incredulously.

"I'm afraid I do mean that, Claudia," said I.

At the word "prisoner" Lady Johnson flamed:

"Are you not ashamed, Jack Drogue, to tell me to my face such barbarous news!" she cried. "You, a gentleman, to consort with vulgar bandits who make prisoners of women! What do you think of your Boston friends now?

What do you think of your blacksmith generals and 'pothecary colonels----"

"Polly! Be silent!" entreated Claudia, shaking her arm. "Is this a decent manner to conduct when the fortune of war fails to suit your tastes?"

And to me: "No one is like to harm us, I take it. We are not in personal danger, are we?"

"Good Lord!" said I, mortified that she should even ask me.

"Well, then!" she said in a lively voice to Lady Johnson, who had turned her back on me in sullen rage, "it will be but a few days at worst, Polly. These rebel officers are not ogres. No! So in Heaven's name let us make the best of this business--until Mr. Washington graciously permits us to go on to Albany or to New York."

"I shall not go thither!" stormed Lady Johnson, pacing her chamber like a very child in the tantrums; "I shall not deign to inhabit any city which is held by dirty rebels----"

"But we shall drive them out first!" insisted Claudia, with an impudent look at me. "Surely, dear, Albany will soon be a proper city to reside in; General Howe has said it;--and so we had best address a polite letter to Mr. Washington, requesting a safe conduct thither and a flag----"

"I shall not write a syllable to the arch-rebel Washington!" stormed Lady Johnson. "And I tell you plainly, Jack, I expect to have my throat cut before this shameful business is ended!"

"You had best conduct sensibly, both of you," said I bluntly; "for I'm tired of your airs and vapours; and Colonel Dayton will stand no nonsense from either of you!"

"John!" faltered Lady Johnson, "do--do you, too, mean to use us brutally?"

"I merely beg you to consider what you say before you say it, Polly Johnson! You speak to a rebel of 'dirty' rebels and 'arch' rebels; you conduct as though we, who hold another opinion than that entertained by you, were the sc.u.m and offscouring of the earth."

"I meant it not as far as it concerns you, John Drogue," she said with another sob.

"Then be pleased to trim your speech to my brother officers," said I, still hotly vexed by her silly behaviour. "We went to Johnstown to take your husband because we believe he has communicated with Canada. And it was proper of us to do so.

"We came here to detain you until some decent arrangement can be made whereby you shall have every conceivable comfort and every reasonable liberty, save only to do us a harm by communicating with your friends who are our enemies.