Peggy Owen at Yorktown Part 32

That was not the reason, she told herself miserably. It was plain to her that he had heard from the traitor Arnold who, to add to his infamy, had sought repeatedly to corrupt the men of his former command. Undoubtedly Drayton had been won from his allegiance through his affection for his old leader.

Harriet and Clifford cantered to the gate just as she was entering the door of the dwelling. Harriet called to her gleefully as she dismounted:

"You should have gone with us, Peggy. 'Twas vastly enjoyable. What think you? Lord Cornwallis himself rode with us for a time. He is to dine with father on Monday. Why! what hath happened?" she broke off at sight of her cousin's pale cheeks and woe-filled eyes.

"She hath seen the Yankee captain," exclaimed Clifford joining them. "Is not that the trouble, my cousin?"

"Yes," a.s.sented Peggy drearily. "I saw him, Clifford. Oh!" with sudden enlightenment, "was his desertion what thee was keeping from me?"

"That was it, Peggy. I knew that you would know that he had joined us some time, but I hoped that it could be kept from you until you were stronger."

"Thee is very thoughtful," said Peggy her eyes filling at this kindness.

"Still, Clifford, 'tis as well to know it now. Time could not allay one pang caused by treachery."

"Peggy," said her cousin abruptly, "you talked with him, did you not?"

"Yes, Clifford."

"And do you consider him sincere when he says that the reason for his desertion is that he was sent to serve under the Marquis de Lafayette?"

"No," she returned apathetically. "No, Clifford."

"Ah!" he cried triumphantly. "I thought so. You think with me, then, my little cousin, that the fellow is a spy?"

"A spy?" A light flashed into the girl's eyes, and she looked at him eagerly. It faded as quickly as it came, however, and she shook her head sadly. "He is no spy," she said. "I would he were, so that he was true to liberty."

"Then I beg of you to tell me his true reason for deserting," he urged.

"I like him not; nay, nor do I trust him, yet if he be sincere in renewing his allegiance to our king then I will give o'er my suspicions regarding him."

"I believe that 'twas caused by General Arnold," she told him. "Last spring when he was here in Williamsburg he boasted that John would soon be fighting with him. He hath won him from his duty through his affection, for John loved him greatly. I doubt not his sincerity," she concluded with such anguish in her tones that Harriet was touched.

"He isn't worth a thought, Peggy," she cried. "And what else could you expect from John Drayton?"

"She speaks truth, my cousin," said Clifford. "Desertions occur daily from both sides. Those who are guilty of them are not persons actuated by the highest motives. I would think no more of it."

"Don't," exclaimed the girl struggling for control. "He was my friend.

Thee must not speak of him like that. Oh!" she cried with a burst of tears, "how shall I bear it?"

"Tell her how it occurred, Cliff," suggested Harriet. "She might just as well know all about it."

"Yes, tell me," said Peggy looking up through her tears. "I want to know everything to see if aught can justify him."

"It happened after this manner," began the youth complying with the request with visible reluctance. "After the encounter with the rebels the other day when they were retiring from us under a hot fire, what does this fellow do all at once but dash from among them and come toward us, crying: 'I'm going to cast in my lot with you fellows.'

"This seemed to incense his comrades greatly. They ceased to fire at us and turned their muskets against him. 'Twas marvelous that he escaped unhurt, but he did, and was received with cheers and shouts of admiration by our troops. Odds life!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the youth with grudging approval, "he hath pluck enough when it comes to that, but I like not a turncoat. 'Tis said that my Lord Cornwallis is much taken with him, and hath declared that he would like a regiment like him. Pray heaven that he doth not repent it. I never liked him, you remember, and still less do I regard him now. I shall keep an eye on him."

"I thank thee for telling me about it, Clifford," said Peggy. "I think I will go to my room. I-I am tired."

Seeing that the girl was losing command of herself her cousins permitted her to leave them without further word, and at last Peggy could give way to the sorrow that was overwhelming her.

The sun shone as brightly as of yore; the birds sang sweetly in the tree tops, and flowers blossomed in the meadows; all the world of Nature went on as before. For no act of man affects the immutable laws of the universe, and with indifference to woe, or grief, or breach of trust they fulfil their predestined designs though everything that makes life dear may be slipping from one's grasp. Peggy was wondering dully at this one morning, a few days later, as she went down to breakfast.

"Peggy," exclaimed Harriet startled by the girl's haggard looks, "you will make yourself ill by so much grieving. I doubt that 'tis best for you to keep your room as you do. Remember how you made me shake off the megrims by exertion in Philadelphia? Well, I shall play the physician now, and make you bestir yourself. She should, shouldn't she, father?"

Colonel Owen looked up from his place at the head of the table and regarded the maiden disapprovingly.

"Peggy is a foolish little girl," he remarked with some sharpness.

"Captain Drayton hath returned to his true allegiance, and I see no reason why such a show of grief should be deemed necessary. 'Tis not only unseemly, but vastly indelicate as well. As for action, not only she but all of us will have to move whether we choose or not. The army goes on the march again to-morrow."

"Where, father?" asked Harriet in surprise. "Is 't not a sudden determination on his lords.h.i.+p's part?"

"Somewhat. He hath received an express from General Sir Henry Clinton which says that all movements of the rebel general indicate a determination to attack New York City. Was.h.i.+ngton hath been joined by the French troops, and the activities of the allies denote a settled purpose which hath alarmed Sir Henry for the safety of the city.

Therefore, he desires the earl to send him some troops, which will leave his lords.h.i.+p too weak to hold this place. In consequence we are off to-morrow for Portsmouth across the James. Zounds!" he burst forth grumblingly. "I don't mind campaigning in seasonable weather, but this hot climate makes a move of any sort an exertion not to be undertaken save by compulsion."

"Must we go, father?" pouted Harriet, "Could you not get leave of absence, and continue here? We are so comfortable."

"Stay here to become a prisoner of war, my dear?" questioned her father sarcastically. "Methought you were abreast of war news sufficiently to know that that boy general of a Frenchman hath kept within a dozen miles of us of late. The army will scarcely be out of here before he marches in. Egad! but he needs a lesson. His lords.h.i.+p merely laughs when I tell him so, and declares that the boy cannot escape him. He will attend to him in time. Nay, Harriet; we shall have to go, though I confess to a strong disinclination to move."

The occupation of Williamsburg by the army under Cornwallis lasted nine days; that of Portsmouth was little more than thrice that time, for upon the engineers reporting that the site was one that could not be fortified the British general put his troops aboard such s.h.i.+pping as he could gather and transferred them bodily to Yorktown. Here he set the army and the negroes who had followed them to laying out lines of earthworks, that he might hold the post with the reduced number of troops that would be left him after detaching the reinforcements needed by Clinton. And now ensued a pause in the daily excitements and operations of the Virginia campaign.

Yorktown was not much more than a village. It had been an emporium of trade before the Revolution, while Williamsburg was the capital of the state. The site of the town was beautiful in the extreme, stretching from east to west on the south side of the n.o.ble York River, a small distance above where the river empties into Chesapeake Bay.

Both Peggy and Harriet rejoiced in the change, and much of their time was spent on the high point of land to the east of the village which gave outlook upon Chesapeake Bay, gazing at the wide expanse of water.

Upon several of these occasions Peggy encountered Drayton, but the two merely looked at each other without speaking, the girl with eyes full of reproach, the youth with an expression that was unfathomable. Harriet now began to twit her unmercifully upon her change of att.i.tude toward him.

"It is too amusing," she said one day after one of these chance meetings. "You were such friends at Middlebrook, Peggy, and now you will not speak to him. All because he hath come to the conclusion that the king hath the right of it."

"I have already told him how I feel anent the matter," answered Peggy with a sigh. "There is no more to be said."

"Would I had been a mouse to have heard it," laughed Harriet. "Clifford hath not even yet learned to trust him, though father chides him for his feeling, and is disposed to make much of the captain. I think my brother hath never got over the fear that he may have been in favor with me.

'Tis all vastly entertaining."

"Treachery never seems amusing to me," remarked Peggy quietly.

"I don't think I should term taking sides with the king treachery,"

retorted her cousin. "It seems to me that 'tis the other way. You, and others with Whiggish notions, are the traitors. 'Tis an unnatural rebellion."

"'Tis idle to speak so, Harriet, and useless to discuss it. We shall never agree on the subject, and therefore what purpose is served by talking of it?"

"Only this," rejoined Harriet mischievously, turning to note the effect of her words upon her cousin: "we were speaking of Captain Drayton, were we not? Well, Peggy, you will have to get over your feeling toward him, for father hath invited him to dine with us to-morrow."

"Oh, Harriet!" gasped Peggy. "Why did he?"

"Because he thinks both you and Clifford need a lesson in politeness.

Clifford, because of his suspicions, and you because you do not speak to him."

"Oh!" said Peggy in pained tones. "Would that he had not asked him.

'Twas thoughtless in Cousin William."