The Bride Of Fort Edward: Founded On An Incident Of The Revolution Part 12

_5th Sol_. Ay, ay. A fine thing to get mad about was that when we sat in the door of a moonlight evening and the day's toils were done. It was easy talking then. _Trampled on!_ I will tell you when I was nearest being trampled on, Andros,--when I lay on the ground below there last winter,--on the frozen ground, with the blood running out of my side like a river, and a great high-heeled German walking over my shoulder as if I had been a hickory log. I can tell you, Sir, that other was a moon-s.h.i.+ny sort of a trampling to that. I shall bear to be trampled on in figures the better for it, as long as I live. Between ourselves now----

_4th Sol_. There's no one here.

_5th Sol_. There are voices around that corner, though. Come this way.

[_They pa.s.s on_.

(_Another group of Soldiers_.)

_1st Sol_. Then if nothing else happens, we are off now. Hillo, Martin!

Here we go again--skulking away. Hey? What do you say now? Hey, Mr.

Martin, what do you say now?

_2nd Sol_. (_Advancing_.) What I said before.

_1st Sol_. But where is all this to end, Sir? Tell us that--tell us that.

_3d Sol_. Yes, yes,--tell us that. If you don't see Burgoyne safe in Albany by Friday night, never trust me, Sirs.

_1st Sol_. A bad business we've made of it.

_4th Sol_. Suppose he gets to Albany;--do you think that would finish the war?

_3d Sol_. Well, indeed, I thought that was settled on all hands, Sir. I believe the General himself makes no secret of that.

_4th Sol_. And what becomes of us all then? We shall go back to the old times again, I suppose;--weren't so very bad though, Sam, were they?

_1st Sol_. We have seen worse, I'll own.

_3d Sol_. And what becomes of our young nation here, with its congress and its army, and all these presidents, and generals, and colonels, and aide-de-camps?--wont it look like a great baby-house when the hubbub is over, and the colonies settle quietly down again?

_2nd Sol_. Faith, you take it very coolly. Before that can happen, do you know what must happen to you?

_1st Sol_. Nothing worse than this, I reckon.

_2nd Sol_. (_makes a gesture to denote hanging_.)

_4th Sol_. What would they hang us though? Do you think they would really hang us, John?

_2nd Sol_. Wait and see.

_1st Sol_. Nonsense! nonsense! A few of the ringleaders, Schuyler, and Hanc.o.c.k, and Was.h.i.+ngton, and a few such, they will hang of course,--but for the rest,--we shall have to take the oath anew, and swallow a few duties with our sugar and tea, and----

_2nd Sol_. You talk as if the matter were all settled already.

_1st Sol_. There is no more doubt of it, than that you and I stand here this moment. Why, they are flocking to Skeensborough from all quarters now, and this poor fragment,--this miserable skeleton of an army, which is the only earthly obstacle between Burgoyne and Albany, why, even this is crumbling to pieces as fast as one can reckon. Two hundred less than we were yesterday at this hour, and to-morrow--how many are off to-morrow? Ay, and what are we doing the while? Bowing and retreating, cap in hand, from post to post, from Crown Point to Ticonderoga, from Ticonderoga to Fort Edward, from Fort Edward onward; just showing them down, as it were, into the heart of the land. Let them get to Albany--Ah, let them once get to Albany, they'll need no more of our help then, they'll take care of themselves then and us too.

_2nd Sol_. They'll never get to Albany.

_1st Sol_. Hey?

_2nd Sol_. They'll never get to Albany.

_1st Sol_. What's to hinder them?

_2nd Sol_. We,--yes we,--and such as we, craven-hearted as we are.

They'll never get to Albany until we take them there captives.

_3d Sol_. Then they'll wait till next week, I reckon.

_1st Sol_. Ha ha ha! Ha ha ha! How many prisoners shall we have a-piece, John? How many regiments, I mean? They'll open the windows when we get there, won't they? I hope the sun will s.h.i.+ne that day. How grandly we shall march down the old hill there, with our train behind us. I shall have to borrow a coat of one of them though, they might be ashamed of their captor else.

_3d Sol_. When is this great battle to be, John? This don't look much like it.

_4th Sol_. I think myself, if the General would only give us a chance to fight----

_2nd Sol_. A chance to throw your life away,--he will never give you. A chance to fight, you will have ere long,--doubt it not. Our General might clear his blackened fame, by opposing this force to that,--this day he might;--he will not do it. The time has not yet come. But he will spare no pains to strengthen the army, and prepare it for victory, and the glory he will leave to his rival. Recruits will be pouring in ere long. General Burgoyne's proclamation has weakened us,--General Schuyler will issue one himself to-day.

_1st Sol_. Will he? will he? What will he proclaim?--As to the recruits he gets, I'll eat them all, skin and bone. What will he proclaim? You see what Burgoyne offers us. On the one hand, money and clothing, and protection for ourselves and our families; and on the other, the cord, and the tomahawk, and the scalping-knife. Now, what will General Schuyler set down over against these two columns?--What will he offer us?--To lend us a gun, maybe,--leave to follow him from one post to another, barefooted and starving, and for our pains to be cursed and reviled for cowards from one end of the land to the other. And what will he threaten? Ha, we were cowards indeed, if we feared what he could threaten. What thing in human nature will he speak to?--say.

_2nd Sol_. I will tell you. To that spirit in human nature which resists the wrong, the fiendish wrong threatened there. Ay, in the basest nature that power sleeps, and out of the bosom of Omnipotence there is nothing stronger. It has wakened here once, and this war is its fruit. It slumbers now. Let Burgoyne look to it that he rouse it not himself for us. Let him look to it. For every outrage of those fiendish legions, thank G.o.d.--It lays a finger on the spring of our only strength. _What_ will he offer us? I will tell you.--A chance to live, or to die,--_men_,--ay, to leave a sample of manhood on the earth, that shall wring tears from the selfish of unborn ages, as they feel for once the depths of the slumbering and G.o.dlike nature within them. And Burgoyne,--oh! a coat and a pair of shoes, he offers, and--how many pounds?--Are you men?

_4th Sol_. What do you say, Sam?--Talks like a minister, don't he?

_1st Sol_. Come, come,--there's the drum, boys. You don't bamboozle me again! I've heard all that before.

_3d Sol_. Nor me.--I don't intend to have my wife and children tomahawked,--don't think I can stand that, refugee or not.

_2nd Sol_. Here they come.

(_Other Soldiers enter_.)

_5th Sol_. All's ready, all's ready.

_6th Sol_. (_singing_.)

"_Come blow the shrill bugle, the war dogs are howling_,"--

[_Exeunt_.

DIALOGUE II.