CHAPTER XI
A SWORD AND A HORSE PISTOL
We hear much about the "days that tried men's souls";
but what about the souls of women in those same days? Sitting in
the liberal geniality of the nineteenth century's sunset glow, we
insist upon having our grumble at the times and the manners of our
generation; but if we had to exchange places, periods and experiences
with the people who lived in America through the last quarter of
the eighteenth century, there would be good ground for despairing
ululations. And if our men could not bear it, if it would try their
souls too poignantly, let us imagine the effect upon our women.
No, let us not imagine it; but rather let us give full credit to
the heroic souls of the mothers and the maidens who did actually
bear up in the center of that terrible struggle and unflinchingly
help win for us not only freedom, but the vast empire which at this
moment is at once the master of the world and the model toward which
all the nations of the earth are slowly but surely tending.
If Alice was an extraordinary girl, she was not aware of it; nor
had she ever understood that her life was being shaped by extraordinary
conditions. Of course it could not but be plain to her that she
knew more and felt more than the girls of her narrow acquaintance;
that her accomplishments were greater; that she nursed splendid
dreams of which they could have no proper comprehension, but until
now she had never even dimly realized that she was probably capable
of being something more than a mere creole lass, the foster daughter
of Gaspard Roussillon, trader in pelts and furs. Even her most romantic
visions had never taken the form of personal desire, or ambition
in its most nebulous stage; they had simply pleased her fresh and
natural fancy and served to gild the hardness and crudeness of her
life,--that was all.
Her experiences had been almost too terrible for belief, viewed
at our distance from them; she had passed through scenes of incredible
horror and suffering, but her nature had not been chilled, stunted
or hardened. In body and in temper her development had been sound
and beautiful. It was even thus that our great-grandmothers triumphed
over adversity, hardship, indescribable danger. We cannot say that
the strong, lithe, happy- hearted Alice of old Vincennes was the
only one of her kind. Few of us who have inherited the faded portraits
of our revolutionary forbears can doubt that beauty, wit and great
lovableness flourished in the cabins of pioneers all the way from
the Edisto to the Licking, from the Connecticut to the Wabash.
Beverley's advent could not fail to mean a great deal in the life
of a girl like Alice; a new era, as it were, would naturally begin
for her the moment that his personal influence touched her imagination;
but it is well not to measure her too strictly by the standard of
our present taste and the specialized forms of our social and moral
code. She was a true child of the wilderness, a girl who grew, as
the wild prairie rose grew, not on account of innumerable exigencies,
accidents and hardships, but in spite of them. She had blushed unseen,
and had wasted divine sweets upon a more than desert air. But when
Beverley came near her, at first carelessly droning his masculine
monotonies, as the wandering bee to the lonely and lovely rose,
and presently striking her soul as with the wings of Love, there
fell a change into her heart of hearts, and lo! her haunting and
elusive dreams began to condense and take on forms that startled
her with their wonderful splendor and beauty. These she saw all
the time, sleeping or waking; they made bright summer of the frozen
stream and snapping gale, the snowdrifts and the sleet. In her brave
young heart, swelled the ineffable song--the music never yet caught
by syrinx or flute or violin, the words no tongue can speak.
Ah, here may be the secret of that vigorous, brave, sweet life of
our pioneer maids, wives, and mothers. It was love that gave those
tender hearts the iron strength and heroic persistence at which
the world must forever wonder. And do we appreciate those women?
Let the Old World boast its crowned kings, its mailed knights, its
ladies of the court and castle; but we of the New World, we of the
powerful West, let us brim our cups with the wine of undying devotion,
and drink to the memory of the Women of the Revolution, --to the
humble but good and marvelously brave and faithful women like those
of old Vincennes.
But if Alice was being radically influenced by Beverley, he in turn
found a new light suffusing his nature, and he was not unaware that
it came out of her eyes, her face, her smiles, her voice, her soul.
It was the old, well-known, inexplicable, mutual magnetism, which
from the first has been the same on the highest mountain-top and
in the lowest valley. The queen and the milkmaid, the king and the
hind may come together only to find the king walking off with the
lowly beauty and her fragrant pail, while away stalks the lusty
rustic, to be lord and master of the queen. Love is love, and it
thrives in all climes, under all conditions.
There is an inevitable and curious protest that comes up unbidden
between lovers; it takes many forms in accordance with particular
circumstances. It is the demand for equality and perfection. Love
itself is without degrees--it is perfect--but when shall it see
the perfect object? It does see it, and it does not see it, in every
beloved being. Beverley found his mind turning, as on a pivot, round
and round upon the thought that Alice might be impossible to him.
The mystery of her life seemed to force her below the line of his
aristocratic vision, so that he could not fairly consider her, and
yet with all his heart he loved her. Alice, on the other hand, had
her bookish ideal to reckon with, despite the fact that she daily
dashed it contemptuously down. She was different from Adrienne Bourcier,
who bewailed the absence of her un-tamable lover; she wished that
Beverley had not, as she somehow viewed it, weakly surrendered to
Hamilton. His apparently complacent acceptance of idle captivity
did not comport with her dream of knighthood and heroism. She had
been all the time half expecting him to do something that would
stamp him a hero.
Counter protests of this sort are never sufficiently vigorous to
take a fall out of Love; they merely serve to worry his temper by
lightly hindering his feet. And it is surprising how Love does delight
himself with being entangled.
Both Beverley and Alice day by day felt the cord tightening which
drew their hearts together--each acknowledged it secretly, but strove
not to evince it openly. Meantime both were as happy and as restlessly
dissatisfied as love and uncertainty could make them.
Amid the activities in which Hamilton was engaged--his dealings
with the Indians and the work of reconstructing the fort--he found
time to worry his temper about the purloined flag. Like every other
man in the world, he was superstitious, and it had come into his
head that to insure himself and his plans against disaster, he must
have the banner of his captives as a badge of his victory. It was
a small matter; but it magnified itself as he dwelt upon it. He
suspected that Alice had deceived him. He sharply questioned Father
Beret, only to be half convinced that the good priest told the truth
when he said that he knew nothing whatever on the subject beyond
the fact that the banner had mysteriously disappeared from under
his floor.
Captain Farnsworth scarcely sympathized with his chief about the
flag, but he was nothing if not anxious to gain Hamilton's highest
confidence. His military zeal knew no bounds, and he never let pass
even the slightest opportunity to show it. Hence his persistent
search for a clue to the missing banner. He was no respecter of
persons. He frankly suspected both Alice and Father Beret of lying.
He would himself have lied under the existing circumstances, and
he considered himself as truthful and trustworthy as priest or maiden.
"I'll get that flag for you," he said to Hamilton, "if
I have to put every man, woman and child in this town on the rack.
It lies, I think, between Miss Roussillon and the priest, although
both insistently deny it. I've thought it over in every way, and
I can't see how they can both be ignorant of where it is, or at
least who got it."
Hamilton, since being treated to that wonderful blow on the jaw,
was apt to fall into a spasm of anger whenever the name Roussillon
was spoken in his hearing. Involuntarily he would put his hand to
his cheek, and grimace reminiscently.
"If it's that girl, make her tell," he savagely commanded.
"Let's have no trifling about it. If it's the priest, then
make him tell, or tie him up by the thumbs. Get that flag, or show
some good reason for your failure. I'm not going to be baffled."
The Captain's adventure with Father Beret came just in time to make
it count against that courageous and bellicose missionary in more
ways than one. Farnsworth did not tell Hamilton or any other person
about what the priest had done to him, but nursed his sore ribs
and his wrath, waiting patiently for the revenge that he meant soon
to take.
Alice heard from Adrienne the story of Farnsworth's conduct and
his humiliating discomfiture at the hands of Father Beret. She was
both indignant and delighted, sympathizing with Adrienne and glorying
in the priest's vigorous pugilistic achievement.
"Well," she remarked, with one of her infectious trills
of laughter, "so far the French have the best of it, anyway!
Papa Roussillon knocked the Governor's cheek nearly off, then Rene
cracked the Irish Corporal's head, and now Father Beret has taught
Captain Farnsworth a lesson in fisticuffs that he'll not soon forget!
If the good work can only go on a little longer we shall see every
English soldier in Vincennes wearing the mark of a Frenchman's blow."
Then her mood suddenly changed from smiling lightness to almost
fierce gravity, and she added:
"Adrienne Bourcier, if Captain Farnsworth ever offers to treat
me as he did you, mark my words, I'll kill him--kill him, indeed
I will! You ought to see me!"
"But he won't dare touch you," said Adrienne, looking
at her friend with round, admiring eyes. "He knows very well
that you are not little and timid like me. He'd be afraid of you."
"I wish he would try it. How I would love to shoot him into
pieces, the hateful wretch! I wish he would."
The French inhabitants all, or nearly all, felt as Alice did; but
at present they were helpless and dared not say or do anything against
the English. Nor was this feeling confined to the Creoles of Vincennes;
it had spread to most of the points where trading posts existed.
Hamilton found this out too late to mend some of his mistakes; but
he set himself on the alert and organized scouting bodies of Indians
under white officers to keep him informed as to the American movements
in Kentucky and along the Ohio. One of these bands brought in as
captive Colonel Francis Vigo, of St. Louis, a Spaniard by birth,
an American by adoption, a patriot to the core, who had large influence
over both Indians and Creoles in the Illinois country.
Colonel Vigo was not long held a prisoner. Hamilton dared not exasperate
the Creoles beyond their endurance, for he knew that the savages
would closely sympathize with their friends of long standing, and
this might lead to revolt and coalition against him,--a very dangerous
possibility. Indeed, at least one of the great Indian chieftains
had already frankly informed him that he and his tribe were loyal
to the Americans. Here was a dilemma requiring consummate diplomacy.
Hamilton saw it, but he was not of a diplomatic temper or character.
With the Indians he used a demoralizing system of bribery, while
toward the whites he was too often gruff, imperious, repellant.
Helm understood the whole situation and was quick to take advantage
of it. His personal relations with Hamilton were easy and familiar,
so that he did not hesitate to give advice upon all occasions. Here
his jovial disposition helped him.
"You'd better let Vigo return to St. Louis," he said.
They had a bowl of something hot steaming between them. "I
know him. He's harmless if you don't rub him too hard the wrong
way. He'll go back, if you treat him well, and tell Clark how strong
you are here and how foolish it would be to think of attacking you.
Clark has but a handful of men, poorly supplied and tired with long,
hard marches. If you'll think a moment you cannot fail to understand
that you'd better be friends with this man Vigo. He and Father Gibault
and this old priest here, Beret, carry these Frenchmen in their
pockets. I'm not on your side, understand, I'm an American, and
I'd blow the whole of you to kingdom come in a minute, if I could;
but common sense is common sense all the same. There's no good to
you and no harm to Clark in mistreating, or even holding this prisoner.
What harm can he do you by going back to Clark and telling him the
whole truth? Clark knew everything long before Vigo reached here.
Old Jazon, my best scout, left here the day you took possession,
and you may bet he got to Kaskaskia in short order. He never fails.
But he'll tell Clark to stay where he is, and Vigo can do no more."
What effect Helm's bold and apparently artless talk had upon Hamilton's
mind is not recorded; but the meager historical facts at command
show that Vigo was released and permitted to return under promise
that he would give no information to the enemy ON HIS WAY to Kaskaskia.
Doubtless this bit of careless diplomacy on the Governor's part
did have a somewhat soothing effect upon a large class of Frenchmen
at Vincennes; but Farnsworth quickly neutralized it to a serious
extent by a foolish act while slightly under the influence of liquor.
He met Father Beret near Roussillon place, and feeling his ribs
squirm at sight of the priest, he accosted him insolently, demanding
information as to the whereabouts of the missing flag.
A priest may be good and true--Father Beret certainly was--and yet
have the strongest characteristics of a worldly man. This thing
of being bullied day after day, as had recently been the rule, generated
nothing to aid in removing a refractory desire from the priest's
heart--the worldly desire to repeat with great increment of force
the punch against Famsworth's lower ribs.
"I order you, sir, to produce that rebel flag," said Farnsworth.
"You will obey forthwith or take the consequences. I am no
longer in the humor to be trifled with. Do you understand?"
"I might be forced to obey you, if I could," said the
priest, drawing his robe about him; "but, as I have often told
you, my son, I do not know where the flag is or who took it. I do
not even suspect any person of taking it. All that I know about
it is the simple fact that it is gone."
Father Beret's manner and voice were very mild, but there must have
been a hint of sturdy defiance somewhere in them. At all events
Farnsworth was exasperated and fell into a white rage. Perhaps it
was the liquor he had been drinking that made him suddenly desperate.
"You canting old fool!" he cried, "don't lie to me
any longer; I won't have it. Don't stand there grinning at me. Get
that flag, or I'll make you."
"What is impossible, my son, is possible to God alone. Apud
homines hoc impossible est, apud Deum autem omnia possibilia sunt."
"None of your Jesuit Latin or logic to me--I am not here to
argue, but to command. Get that flag. Be in a hurry about it, sir."
He whipped out his sword, and in his half drunken eyes there gathered
the dull film of murderous passion.
"Put up your weapon, Captain; you will not attack an unarmed
priest. You are a soldier, and will not dare strike an old, defenceless
man."
"But I will strike a black-robed and black-hearted French rebel.
Get that flag, you grinning fool!"
The two men stood facing each other. Father Beret's eyes did not
stir from their direct, fearless gaze. What Farnsworth had called
a grin was a peculiar smile, not of merriment, a grayish flicker
and a slight backward wrinkling of the cheeks. The old man's arms
were loosely crossed upon his sturdy breast.
"Strike if you must," he said very gently, very firmly.
"I never yet have seen the man that could make me afraid."
His speech was slightly sing-song in tone, as it would have been
during a prayer or a blessing.
"Get the flag then!" raged Farnsworth, in whose veins
the heat of liquor was aided by an unreasoning choler.
"I cannot," said Father Beret.
"Then take the consequences!"
Farnsworth lifted his sword, not to thrust, but to strike with its
flat side, and down it flashed with a noisy whack. Father Beret
flung out an arm and deftly turned the blow aside. It was done so
easily that Farnsworth sprang back glaring and surprised.
"You old fool!" he cried, leveling his weapon for a direct
lunge. "You devilish hypocrite!"
It was then that Father Beret turned deadly pale and swiftly crossed
himself. His face looked as if he saw something startling just beyond
his adversary. Possibly this sudden change of expression caused
Farnsworth to hesitate for a mere point of time. Then there was
the swish of a woman's skirts; a light step pattered on the frozen
ground, and Alice sprang between the men, facing Farnsworth. As
she did this something small and yellow,-- the locket at her throat,--fell
and rolled under her feet. Nobody saw it.
In her hand she held an immense horse pistol, which she leveled
in the Captain's face, its flaring, bugle-shaped muzzle gaping not
a yard from his nose. The heavy tube was as steady as if in a vise.
"Drop that sword!"
That was all she said; but her finger was pressing the trigger,
and the flint in the backward slanting hammer was ready to click
against the steel. The leaden slugs were on the point of leaping
forth.
"Drop that sword!"
The repetition seemed to close the opportunity for delay.
Farnsworth was on his guard in a twinkling. He set his jaw and uttered
an ugly oath; then quick as lightning he struck sidewise at the
pistol with his blade. It was a move which might have taken a less
alert person than Alice unawares; but her training in sword-play
was ready in her wrist and hand. An involuntary turn, the slightest
imaginable, set the heavy barrel of her weapon strongly against
the blow, partly stopping it, and then the gaping muzzle spat its
load of balls and slugs with a bellow that awoke the drowsy old
village.
Farnsworth staggered backward, letting fall his sword. There was
a rent in the clothing of his left shoulder. He reeled; the blood
spun out; but he did not fall, although he grew white.
Alice stood gazing at him with a look on her face he would never
forget. It was a look that changed by wonderful swift gradations
from terrible hate to something like sweet pity. The instant she
saw him hurt and bleeding, his countenance relaxing and pale, her
heart failed her. She took a step toward him, her hand opened, and
with a thud the heavy old pistol fell upon the ground beside her.
Father Beret sprang nimbly to sustain Farnsworth, snatching up the
pistol as he passed around Alice.
"You are hurt, my son," he gently said, "let me help
you." He passed his arm firmly under that of Farnsworth, seeing
that the Captain was unsteady on his feet.
"Lean upon me. Come with me, Alice, my child, I will take him
into the house."
Alice picked up the Captain's sword and led the way.
It was all done so quickly that Farnsworth, in his half dazed condition,
scarcely realized what was going on until he found himself on a
couch in the Roussillon home, his wound (a jagged furrow plowed
out by slugs that the sword's blade had first intercepted) neatly
dressed and bandaged, while Alice and the priest hovered over him
busy with their careful ministrations.
Hamilton and Helm were, as usual, playing cards at the former's
quarters when a guard announced that Mademoiselle Roussillon wished
an audience with the Governor.
"Bring the girl in," said Hamilton, throwing down his
cards and scowling darkly.
"Now you'd better be wise as a serpent and gentle as a dove,"
remarked Helm. "There is something up, and that gun-shot we
heard awhile ago may have a good deal to do with it. At any rate,
you'll find kindness your best card to play with Alice Roussillon
just at the present stage of the game."
Of course they knew nothing of what had happened to Farnsworth;
but they had been discussing the strained relations between the
garrison and the French inhabitants when the roar of Alice's big-
mouthed pistol startled them. Helm was slyly beating about to try
to make Hamilton lose sight of the danger from Clark's direction.
To do this he artfully magnified the insidious work that might be
done by the French and their Indian friends should they be driven
to desperation by oppressive or exasperating action on the part
of the English.
Hamilton felt the dangerous uncertainty upon which the situation
rested; but, like many another vigorously self-reliant man, he could
not subordinate his passions to the dictates of policy. When Alice
was conducted into his presence he instantly swelled with anger.
It was her father who had struck him and escaped, it was she who
had carried off the rebel flag at the moment of victory.
"Well, Miss, to what do I owe the honor of this visit?"
he demanded with a supercilious air, bending a card between his
thumb and finger on the rude table.
She stood before him tall and straight, well bundled in furs. She
was not pale; her blood was too rich and brilliant for that; but
despite a half-smile and the inextinguishable dimples, there was
a touch of something appealingly pathetic in the lines of her mouth.
She did not waver or hesitate, however, but spoke promptly and distinctly.
"I have come, Monsieur, to tell you that I have hurt Captain
Farnsworth. He was about to kill Father Beret, and I shot him. He
is in our house and well cared for. I don't think his wound is bad.
And--" here she hesitated at last and let her gaze fall,--"so
here I am." Then she lifted her eyes again and made an inimitable
French gesture with her shoulders and arms. "You will do as
you please, Monsieur, I am at your mercy."
Hamilton was astounded. Helm sat staring phlegmatically. Meantime
Beverley entered the room and stopped hat in hand behind Alice.
He was flushed and evidently excited; in fact, he had heard of the
trouble with Farnsworth, and seeing Alice enter the floor of Hamilton's
quarters he followed her in, his heart stirred by no slight emotion.
He met the Governor's glare and parried it with one of equal haughtiness.
The veins on his forehead swelled and turned dark. He was in a mood
to do whatever desperate act should suggest itself.
When Hamilton fairly comprehended the message so graphically presented
by Alice, he rose from his seat by the fire.
"What's this you tell me?" he blurted. "You say you've
shot Captain Farnsworth?"
"Oui, Monsieur"
He stared a moment, then his features beamed with hate.
"And I'll have you shot for it, Miss, as sure as you stand
there in your silly impudence ogling me so brazenly!"
He leaned toward her as he spoke and sent with the words a shock
of coarse, passionate energy from which she recoiled as if expecting
a blow to follow it.
An irresistible impulse swept Beverley to Alice's side, and his
attitude was that of a protector. Helm sprang up.
A Lieutenant came in and respectfully, but with evident over- haste,
reported that Captain Farnsworth had been shot and was at Roussillon
place in care of the surgeon.
"Take this girl into custody. Confine her and put a strong
guard over her."
In giving the order Hamilton jerked his thumb contemptuously toward
Alice, and at the same time gave Beverley a look of supreme defiance
and hatred. When Helm began to speak he turned fiercely upon him
and stopped him with:
"None of your advice, sir. I have had all I want of it. Keep
your place or I'll make you."
Then to Beverley:
"Retire, sir. When I wish to see you I'll send for you. At
present you are not needed here."
The English Lieutenant saluted his commander, bowed respectfully
to Alice and said:
"Come with me, Miss, please."
Helm and Beverley exchanged a look of helpless and enquiring rage.
It was as if they had said: "What can we do? Must we bear it?"
Certainly they could do nothing. Any interference on their part
would be sure to increase Alice's danger, and at the same time add
to the weight of their own humiliation.
Alice silently followed the officer out of the room. She did not
even glance toward Beverley, who moved as if to interfere and was
promptly motioned back by the guard. His better judgement returning
held him from a rash and futile act, until Hamilton spoke again,
saying loudly as Alice passed through the door:
"I'll see who's master of this town if I have to shoot every
French hoyden in it!"
"Women and children may well fear you, Colonel Hamilton,"
said Beverley. "That young lady is your superior."
"You say that to me, sir!"
"It is the best I could possibly say of you."
"I will send you along with the wench if you do not guard your
language. A prisoner on parole has no license to be a blackguard."
"I return you my parole, sir, I shall no longer regard it as
binding," said Beverley, by a great effort, holding back a
blow; "I will not keep faith with a scoundrel who does not
know how to be decent in the presence of a young girl. You had better
have me arrested and confined. I will escape at the first opportunity
and bring a force here to reckon with you for your villainy. And
if you dare hurt Alice Roussillon I will have you hanged like a
dog!"
Hamilton looked at him scornfully, smiling as one who feels safe
in his authority and means to have his own way with his victim.
Naturally he regarded Beverley's words as the merest vaporings of
a helpless and exasperated young man. He saw very clearly that love
was having a hand in the affair, and he chuckled inwardly, thinking
what a fool Beverley was.
"I thought I ordered you to leave this room," he said
with an air and tone of lofty superiority, "and I certainly
mean to be obeyed. Go, sir, and if you attempt to escape, or in
any way break your parole, I'll have you shot."
"I have already broken it. From this moment I shall not regard
it. You have heard my statement. I shall not repeat it. Govern yourself
accordingly."
With these words Beverley turned and strode out of the house, quite
beside himself, his whole frame quivering.
Hamilton laughed derisively, then looked at Helm and said:
"Helm, I like you; I don't wish to be unkind to you; but positively
you must quit breaking in upon my affairs with your ready-made advice.
I've given you and Lieutenant Beverley too much latitude, perhaps.
If that young fool don't look sharp he'll get himself into a beastly
lot of trouble. You'd better give him a talk. He's in a way to need
it just now."
"I think so myself," said Helm, glad to get back upon
fair footing with the irascible Governor. "I'll wait until
he cools off somewhat, and then I can manage him. Leave him to me."
"Well, come walk with me to see what has really happened to
Farnsworth. He's probably not much hurt, and deserves what he's
got. That girl has turned his head. I think I understand the whole
affair. A little love, a little wine, some foolishness, and the
wench shot him."
Helm genially assented; but they were delayed for some time by an
officer who came in to consult with Hamilton on some pressing Indian
affairs. When they reached Roussillon place they met Beverley coming
out; but he did not look at them. He was scarcely aware of them.
A little way outside the gate, on going in, he had picked up Alice's
locket and broken chain, which he mechanically put into his pocket.
It was all like a dream to him, and yet he had a clear purpose.
He was going away from Vincennes, or at least he would try, and
woe be to Hamilton on his coming back. It was so easy for an excited
young mind to plan great things and to expect success under apparently
impossible conditions. Beverley gave Jean a note for Alice; it was
this that took him to Roussillon place; and no sooner fell the night
than he shouldered a gun furnished him by Madame Godere, and guided
by the woodsman's fine craft, stole away southward, thinking to
swim the icy Wabash some miles below, and then strike across the
plains of Illinois to Kaskaskia.
It was a desperate undertaking; but in those days desperate undertakings
were rather the rule than the exception. Moreover, love was the
leader and Beverley the blind follower. Nothing could daunt him
or turn him back, until he found an army to lead against Hamilton.
It seems but a romantic burst of indignation, as we look back at
it, hopelessly foolish, with no possible end but death in the wilderness.
Still there was a method in love's madness, and Beverley, with his
superb physique, his knowledge of the wilderness and his indomitable
self-reliance, was by no means without his fighting chance for success.