Janice Meredith Part 75

As the speaker finished, he stepped to one side, bringing into view of the porch a woman seated upon the head of a barrel in the cart. A poor army drab, left behind in the evacuation, had been decked out in what Janice instantly recognised as her Mischianza costume; and with hair dressed so that it stood up not less than two feet above her forehead, splashed over with white paint, a drink-coloured face, doubly red in contrast, and bare feet, with an expanse of more than ankle in a similar nakedness below the trousers, she made up in all a figure so droll that under any other circ.u.mstances Janice would have laughed.

"We are escortin' Miss Shy Anna--who ain't really very shy--to see all her friends of The Blended Rose and of The Burning Mountain, an' as we hate airs an' pride, we demands that each give her a kiss. Just make a way for Miss Meredith to come and give her the chaste salute," he ordered of the throng.

"Thou wilt not insist on such a humiliation for my daughter,"

appealed Mrs. Meredith.

"Insult!" cried the leader. "Who dares to say 't ain't an honour to kiss one dressed in such clothes? Give the miss a little help, boys, but gently. Don't do her no harm."

A dozen men were through the gate before the sentence was finished, but outcries and a surge of the mob at this point gave a new bent to the general attention. A horseman from the direction opposite to that from which the crowd had come was spurring, with little heed, through the ma.s.s, and the clamour and movement were due to the commotion he precipitated.

In twenty seconds the rider, who was well coated with dust, and whose horse was lathered with the sweat of fast riding, had come abreast of the cart, and Janice gave a cry of joy. "Oh, Colonel Brereton," she called, "save us, I beg!"

"What are you about?" demanded the new-comer, sternly, of the crowd.

"We 're celebratin' independence," explained he in the cart, "and all we wants of this miss is that she buss her friend Miss Shy Anna. They both is British sympathisers."

"Be off with you, every doodle and rag-tail of you!" ordered the officer, angrily.

"And who are you?" demanded one; and another, emboldened by distance, recommended, "Pull him off his horse."

Twenty hands seized hold of Brereton; but as they did so, the aide, realising his mistake, retrieved it by a sudden change of manner. "I am an aide of General Was.h.i.+ngton," he shouted, "and I bring news of a great battle."

An uproar of questions broke out, drowning every other sound, till, by raising his hand, the aide procured silence.

"I must carry the despatches to Congress; but come with me, and I'll give you the tale the moment they are safe delivered."

With a rush the crowd followed him, as he moved forward, deserting the cart and its occupants, who hastily descended, and hurried after the throng. But Jack was not so forgetful, and turning in his saddle, he called back, "I'll return as soon as I can."

XLIX PLATO vs. CUPID

The patience of the two homeless women was heavily taxed before Brereton returned, but finally, after nearly two hours' waiting, he came, almost running along the street.

"Neither the Congress nor the populace were to be put off,"

he began to explain, ere he was within the gate, "and I have had to retail again and again the story of the fight, and tell 'how our army swore in Flanders.' But I dared not break away from them through fear they would follow me back and force me to play hare to their hounds once more. 'T is a great relief to know that you are safe," Jack declared, as he shook their hands warmly.

"Thanks to you," replied Mrs. Meredith "'T was indeed a mercy of G.o.d that thou cam'st when thou didst."

Pray give my mare, who has done her seventy miles since daylight, some share," laughed the officer, heartily.

"Oh, Colonel Brereton, what do we not owe to you?" exclaimed Janice, warmly.

A few words told their champion of their plight and stirred him to hot anger.

"By heavens!" he growled; "I would that my general were here to curse the beldame, as he did Lee at Monmouth.

Once you are cared for, I'll return and see that she hear one man's opinion of her. Follow me, and I'll soon put you in comfort." Getting a trunk on each shoulder, he set off down the street.

Did I understand thee aright in inferring that General Was.h.i.+ngton so far forgot himself as to use profane language?" asked Mrs. Meredith as they walked.

"Ay, Laus Deo!"

"I can't think of him as doing that," e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Janice.

"'T was glorious to hear him, for he spoke with righteous anger as an angel from heaven might, and his every word was well deserved. Indeed, had I been in command, Lee should have had a file of soldiers before sundown for his conduct."

"What did he?"

"Everything that an honourable man should not," answered the aide, warmly. "Finding that Gates had lost favour with Congress, and had failed in his attempt to supplant Was.h.i.+ngton, he at once resumed his old intriguing. But, worse still, once we were across the Delaware and in full cry after the British, he persisted in the Council of War in a.s.serting that 't would he madness to bring on a general engagement, and that we should keep at a comfortable distance and merely annoy them by detachment,--counsel that would have done credit to the most honourable Society of Midwives, and to them only, and which could mean naught but that he did not wish my general to reap the glory of defeating the British. Voted down, my fine gentleman at first refused the command of the advance; but once he saw that the attack had promise of success, he a.s.serted his claim as senior officer to command it, only, it would seem, with the object of preventing its success, for at the moment of going into action he predicted to Lafayette that our troops could not stand against the British, and instead of supporting those engaged, he allowed them to be thrown into confusion and was the first to join in the retreat which he himself had brought about. 'T was at this moment, when he was actually heading the rout, that my general cantered up to him and demanded, 'By G.o.d, sir, what is the meaning of this disorderly retreat?'

Lee began a stuttering explanation that did n't explain, so his Excellency repeated his question. 'You know that the attack was contrary to my advice and opinion,' stammered Lee, and then Was.h.i.+ngton thundered out, 'Then you should not have insisted on the command. You're a d.a.m.ned poltroon!' And 't was what the whole army thought and wanted said."

"'T is too bad General Was.h.i.+ngton was beat," sighed Janice.

"That he was not," answered Brereton, triumphantly.

"When we rode up, not a one of us but thought the day lost, but the general, with a quickness and decision I never before saw in him, grasped the situation, rallied the broken regiments, seized on a strong piece of ground, and not merely checked the British advance, but drove them back on their reserves, where, after nightfall, they were glad enough to sneak away, leaving their wounded and dead behind them. But for Lee's cowardice, or treachery, as I believe it to be, they 'd have never reached the protection of their fleet at Sandy Hook. Yet one benefit of his conduct will be that 't will end all talk of making him commander-in-chief. In seeking to injure his Excellency, he has but compa.s.sed his own discrediting, and the cabal against my general in Congress will break down for very lack of a possible successor. We did more than beat the English at Monmouth."

The tale served to bring the trio to the City tavern, where Brereton led the way at once to a room on the second floor, and deposited the two trunks.

"You'll have no more than time to freshen yourselves for dinner, and we'll leave talk till we've eaten that," he suggested, as he picked up a pair of saddlebags and left the room.

"Oh, mommy," sighed Janice, rejoicefully, "is n't it a relief to be told what to do, and not have to worry one's self?

He did n't make us think once."

Their self-chosen guardian was equally decisive as to the future, when the subject was taken up after the meal. "I must stay here two days for some despatches Congress wishes me to bear, and 't is fortunate, for I shall have time to procure a second horse and a pillion, so that you may journey with me."

"Whither?"

"To Brunswick."

"I suppose there is naught else left for us," said Mrs. Meredith, doubtingly, "but we have little reason to feel secure there."

"Do not give yourself a moment's discomposure or dolour.

We shall find the army there; but, better still, I possess a means to secure your safety, whether it remains or no."

"And what is that?" inquired Mrs. Meredith, eagerly, while Janice, feeling her cheeks begin to burn, suddenly sprang to her feet, with a pretended interest in something to be seen from one of the windows, which enabled her to turn her back to the table.

"By good luck I have a hold over both Esquire Hennion and Bagby, and I'll threat them that unless they let you live at peace I'll use it."

Janice came back to the table. "'T was only the rounds,"

she remarked with a note of half surprise, half puzzlement, in her voice, which was not lost to her mother's ears.

"Art thou as sure as thou wert, Janice," Mrs. Meredith asked, once they were in their room again, "that Colonel Brereton wishes to wed thee?"

"I--I thought--he said he did," replied the girl, hanging her head with mortification; "but he may have changed his mind."

"I fear me, child, that thy vanity, which has ever led thee to give too much heed to the pretty speeches of men, has misled thee in this instance."

Janice's doubt grew in the next two days, for by not a word or act did the aide even hint that such a hope was present in his thoughts. Their every need was his care, and all his spare time was pa.s.sed in their company; but his manner conveyed only the courtesy of the friend, and never the tenderness of the lover. Even when the maiden presented him with the silk purse to which she had given so many hours of toil, his thanks, though warm, were distinctly platonic. Both piqued and humiliated at his conduct, the girl was glad enough when, on the morning of the third day, they set out on their journey, and she almost welcomed the advent of Bagby, who overtook them as they were taking their noon baiting at Bristol, and who made the afternoon ride with them.

Another familiar face greeted them, as, toward nightfall, they rode into Trenton and drew rein in front of the Drinkers' house, whither the ladies had asked to be taken; for ere Janice had been lifted from the horse's back, or Mrs. Meredith had descended from the pillion, they were accosted by Squire Hennion.