Shadow of the North — Ch 14: The Virginia Capital, part 2

The circular track was a mile in length, and they would round it twice, start and finish alike being made directly in front of the judges' stand.

The starter, a tall Virginian, finally brought the horses to the line, neck and neck, and they were away.

The whole crowd rose to its feet and shouted approval as they flashed past.

Blenheim was a bay and Cressy was a sorrel, and when they began to turn the curve in the distance Robert saw that bay and sorrel were still neck and neck.

Then he saw them far across the field, and neither yet had the advantage.

Now, Robert understood why the Virginians loved the sport.

The test of a horse's strength and endurance and of a horseman's skill and judgment was thrilling.

Presently he found that he was shouting with the shouting multitude, and sometimes he shouted Cressy and sometimes he shouted Blenheim.

They came around the curve, the finish of the first mile being near, and Robert saw the nose of the sorrel creeping past the nose of the bay.

A shout of triumph came from the followers of Cressy and Cabell, but the partisans of Blenheim and Stuart replied that the race was not yet half run.

Cressy, though it was only in inches, was still gaining.

The sorrel nose crept forward farther and yet a little farther.

When they passed the judges' stand Cressy led by a head and a neck.

Robert, having no favorite before, now felt a sudden sympathy for Blenheim and Stuart, because they were behind, and he began to shout for them continuously, until sorrel and bay were well around the curve on the second mile, when the entire crowd became silent.

Then a sharp shout came from the believers in Blenheim and Stuart.

The bay was beginning to win back his loss.

The Cressy men were silent and gloomy, as Blenheim, drawing upon the stores of strength that had been conserved, continued to gain, until now the bay nose was creeping past the sorrel.

Then the bay was a full length ahead and that sharp shout of triumph burst now from the Blenheim people.

Robert found his feelings changing suddenly, and he was all for Cressy and Cabell.

The joy of the Blenheim people did not last long.

The sorrel came back to the side of the bay, the second mile was half done, and a blanket would have covered the two.

It was yet impossible to detect any sign indicating the winner.

The eyes of Tayoga, sitting beside Robert, sparkled.

The Indians from time unknown had loved ball games and had played them with extraordinary zest and fire.

As soon as they came to know the horse of the white man they loved racing in the same way.

Their sporting instincts were as genuine as those of any country gentleman.

"It is a great race," said Tayoga.

"The horses run well and the men ride well.

Tododaho himself, sitting on his great and shining star, does not know which will win."

"The kind of race I like to see," said Robert.

"Stuart and Cabell were justified in their faith in their horses.

A magnificent pair, Blenheim and Cressy!"

"It has been said, Dagaeoga, that there is always one horse that can run faster than another, but it seems that neither of these two can run faster than the other.

Now, Blenheim thrusts his nose ahead, and now Cressy regains the lead by a few inches.

Now they are so nearly even that they seem to be but one horse and one rider."

"A truly great race, Tayoga, and a prettily matched pair!

Ah, the bay leads!

No, 'tis the sorrel!

Now, they are even again, and the finish is not far away!"

The great crowd, which had been shouting, each side for its favorite, became silent as Blenheim and Cressy swept into the stretch.

Stuart and Cabell, leaning far over the straining necks, begged and prayed their brave horses to go a little faster, and Blenheim and Cressy, hearing the voices that they knew so well, responded but in the same measure.

The heads were even, as if they had been locked fast, and there was still no sign to indicate the winner.

Faster and faster they came, their riders leaning yet farther forward, continually urging them, and they thundered past the stand, matched so evenly that not a hair's breadth seemed to separate the noses of the sorrel and the bay.

"It's a dead heat!"

exclaimed Robert, as the people, unable to restrain their enthusiasm, swarmed over the track, and such was the unanimous opinion of the judges.

Yet it was the belief of all that a finer race was never run in Virginia, and while the horses, covered with blankets, were walked back and forth to cool, men followed them and uttered their admiration.

Stuart and Cabell were eager to run the heat over, after the horses had rested, but the judges would not allow it.

"No!

No, lads!"

said the Governor.

"Be content!

You have two splendid horses, the best in Virginia, and matched evenly.

Moreover, you rode them superbly.

Now, let them rest with the ample share of honor that belongs to each."

Stuart and Cabell, after the heat of rivalry was over, thought it a good plan, shook hands with great warmth three or four times, each swearing that the other was the best fellow in the world, and then with a great group of friends they adjourned to the tavern where huge beakers of punch were drunk.

"And mighty Todadaho himself, although he looks into the future, does not yet know which is the better horse," said Tayoga.

"It is well.

Some things should remain to be discovered, else the salt would go out of life."

"That's sound philosophy," said Willet.

"It's the mystery of things that attracts us, and that race ended in the happiest manner possible.

Neither owner can be jealous or envious of the other;

instead they are feeling like brothers."

Then Robert's mind with a sudden rush, went back to St. Luc, and his sense of duty tempted him to speak of his presence to Willet, but he concluded to wait a little.

He looked around for him again, but he did not see him, and he thought it possible that he had now left the dangerous neighborhood of Williamsburg.

As they walked back to their quarters at a tavern Willet informed them that there was to be, two days later, a grand council of provincial governors and high officers at Alexandria on the Potomac, where General Braddock with his army already lay in camp, and he suggested that they go too.

As they were free lances with their authority issuing from Governor Dinwiddie alone, they could do practically as they pleased.

Both Robert and Tayoga were all for it, but in the afternoon they, as well as Willet, were invited to a race dinner to be given at the tavern that evening by Stuart and Cabell in honor of the great contest, in which neither had lost, but in which both had won.

"I suppose," said Willet, "that while here we might take our full share of Virginia hospitality, which is equal to any on earth, because, as I see it, before very long we will be in the woods where so much to eat and drink will not be offered to us.

March and battle will train us down."

The dinner to thirty guests was spread in the great room of the tavern and the black servants of Stuart and Cabell, well trained, dextrous and clad in livery, helped those of the landlord to serve.

The abundance and quality of the food were amazing.

Besides the resources of civilization, air, wood and water were drawn upon for game.

Virginia, already renowned for hospitality, was resolved that through her young sons, Stuart and Cabell, she should do her best that night.

A dozen young British officers were present, and there was much toasting and conviviality.

The tie of kinship between the old country and the new seemed stronger here than in New England, where the England of Cromwell still prevailed, or in New York, where the Dutch and other influences not English were so powerful.

They had begun with the best of feeling, and it was heightened by the warmth that food and drink bring.

They talked with animation of the great adventure, on which they would soon start, as Stuart and Cabell and most of the Virginians were going with Braddock.

They drank a speedy capture of Fort Duquesne, and confusion to the French and their red allies.

Robert, imitating the example of Tayoga, ate sparingly and scarcely tasted the punch.

About eleven o'clock, the night being warm, unusually warm for that early period of spring, and nearly all the guests having joined in the singing, more or less well, of patriotic songs, Robert, thinking that his absence would not be noticed, walked outside in search of coolness and air.

It was but a step from the lights and brilliancy of the tavern to the darkness of Williamsburg's single avenue.

There were no street lanterns, and only a moon by which to see.

He could discern the dim bulk of William and Mary College and of the Governor's Palace, but except near at hand the smaller buildings were lost in the dusk.

A

breeze touched with salt, as if from the sea, was blowing, and its touch was so grateful on Robert's face that he walked on, hat in hand, while the wind played on his cheeks and forehead and lifted his hair.

Then a darker shadow appeared in the darkness, and St. Luc stood before him.

"Why do you come here!

Why do you incur such danger?

Don't you know that I must give warning of your presence?"

exclaimed Robert passionately.

The Frenchman laughed lightly.

He seemed very well pleased with himself, and then he hummed: "Hier sur le pont d'Avignon J'ai oui chanter la belle Lon, la."

"Your danger is great!"

repeated Robert.

"Not as great as you think," said St. Luc.

"You will not protect me.

You will warn the British officers that a French spy is here.

I

read it in your face at the race today, and moreover, I know you better than you know yourself.

I know, too, more about you than you know about yourself.

Did I not warn you in New York to beware of Mynheer Adrian Van Zoon?"

"You did, and I know that you meant me well."

"And what happened?"

"I was kidnapped by a slaver, and I was to have been taken to the coast of Africa, but a storm intervened and saved me.

Perhaps the slaver was acting for Mynheer Van Zoon, but I talked it over with Mr. Hardy and we haven't a shred of proof."

"Perhaps a storm will not intervene next time.

You must look to yourself, Robert Lennox."

"And you to yourself, Chevalier de St. Luc.

I'm grateful to you for the warning you gave me, and other acts of friendship, but whatever your mission may have been in New York I'm sure that one of your errands, perhaps the main one, in Williamsburg, is to gather information for France, and, sir, I should be little of a patriot did I not give the alarm, much as it hurts me to do so."

Robert saw very clearly by the moonlight that the blue eyes of St. Luc were twinkling.

His situation might be dangerous, but obviously he took no alarm from it.

"You'll bear in mind, Mr. Lennox," he said, "that I'm not asking you to shield me.

Consider me a French spy, if you wish--and you'll not be wholly wrong--and then act as you think becomes a man with a commission as army scout from Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia."

There was a little touch of irony in his voice.

His adventures and romantic spirit was in the ascendant, and it seemed to Robert that he was giving him a dare.

That he would have endured because of his admiration for St. Luc, and also because of his gratitude, but the allusion to his commission from the governor of Virginia recalled him to his sense of duty.

"I can do nothing else!"

he exclaimed.

"'Tis a poor return for the services you have done me, and I tender my apologies for the action I'm about to take.

But guard yourself, St. Luc!"

"And you, Lennox, look well to yourself when Braddock marches!

Every twig and leaf will spout danger!"

His light manner was wholly gone for the moment, and his words were full of menace.

Up the street, a sentinel walked back and forth, and Robert could hear the faint fall of his feet on the sand.

"Once more I bid you beware, St. Luc!"

he exclaimed, and raising his voice he shouted: "A spy!

A spy!"

He heard the sentinel drop the butt of his musket heavily against the earth, utter an exclamation and then run toward them.

His shout had also been heard at the tavern, and the guests, bareheaded, began to pour out, and look about confusedly to see whence the alarm had come.

Robert looked at the sentinel who was approaching rapidly, and then he turned to see what St Luc would do.

But the Frenchman was gone.

Near them was a mass of shrubbery and he believed that he had flitted into it, as silently as the passing of a shadow.

But the sentinel had caught a glimpse of the dusky figure, and he cried: "Who was he?

What is it?"

"A spy!"

replied Robert hastily.

"A Frenchman whom I have seen in Canada!

I think he sprang into those bushes and flowers!"

The sentinel and Robert rushed into the shrubbery but nothing was there.

As they looked about in the dusk, Robert heard a refrain, distant, faint and taunting: "Hier sur le pont d'Avignon J'ai oui chanter la belle Lon, la."

It was only for an instant, then it died like a summer echo, and he knew that St. Luc was gone.

An immense weight rolled from him.

He had done what he should have done, but the result that he feared had not followed.

"I can find nothing, sir," said the sentinel, who recognized in Robert one of superior rank.

"Nor I, but you saw the figure, did you not?"

"I did, sir.

'Twas more like a shadow, but 'twas a man, I'll swear."

Robert was glad to have the sentinel's testimony, because in another moment the revelers were upon him, making sport of him for his false alarm, and asserting that not his eyes but the punch he had drunk had seen a French spy.

"I scarce tasted the punch," said Robert, "and the soldier here is witness that I spoke true."

A farther and longer search was organized, but the Frenchman had vanished into the thinnest of thin air.

As Robert walked with Willet and Tayoga back to the tavern, the hunter said: "I suppose it was St. Luc?"

"Yes, but why did you think it was he?"

"Because it was just the sort of deed he would do.

Did you speak with him?"

"Yes, and I told him I must give the alarm.

He disappeared with amazing speed and silence."

Robert made a brief report the next day to Governor Dinwiddie, not telling that St. Luc and he had spoken together, stating merely that he had seen him, giving his name, and describing him as one of the most formidable of the French forest leaders.

"I thank you, Mr. Lennox," said the Governor.

"Your information shall be conveyed to General Braddock.

Yet I think our force will be too great for the wilderness bands."

On the following day they were at Alexandria on the Potomac, where the great council was to be held.

Here Braddock's camp was spread, and in a large tent he met Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia, Governor de Lancey of New York, Governor Sharpe of Maryland, Governor Dobbs of North Carolina and Governor Shirley of Massachusetts, an elderly lawyer, but the ablest and most energetic of all the governors.

It was the most momentous council yet held in North America, and all the young officers waited with the most intense eagerness the news from the tent.

Robert saw Braddock as he went in, a middle-aged man of high color and an obstinate chin.

Grosvenor gave him some of the gossip about the general.

"London has many stories of him," he said.

"He has spent most of his life in the army.

He is a gambler, but brave, rough but generous, irritable, but often very kind.

Opposition inflames him, but he likes zeal and good service.

He is very fond of your young Mr. Washington, who, I hear is much of a man."

The council in the great tent was long and weighty, and well it might have been, even far beyond the wildest thoughts of any of the participants.

These were the beginnings of events that shook not only America but Europe for sixty years.

In the tent they agreed upon a great and comprehensive scheme of campaign that had been proposed some time before.

Braddock would proceed with his attack upon Fort Duquesne, Shirley would see that the forces of New England seized Beauséjour and De Lancey would have Colonel William Johnson to move upon Crown Point and then Niagara.

Acadia also would be taken.

Dinwiddie after Shirley was the most vigorous of the governors, and he promised that the full force of Virginia should be behind Braddock.

But to Shirley was given the great vision.

He foresaw the complete disappearance of French power from North America, and, to achieve a result that he desired so much, it was only necessary for the colonists to act together and with vigor.

While he recognized in Braddock infirmities of temper and insufficient knowledge of his battlefield, he knew him to be energetic and courageous and he believed that the first blow, the one that he was to strike at Fort Duquesne, would inflict a mortal blow upon France in the New World.

In every vigorous measure that he proposed Dinwiddie backed him, and the other governors, overborne by their will, gave their consent.

While Robert sat with his friends in the shade of a grove, awaiting the result of the deliberations in the tent, his attention was attracted by a strong, thick-set figure in a British uniform.

"Colonel Johnson!"

he cried, and running forward he shook hands eagerly with Colonel William Johnson.

"Why, Colonel!"

he exclaimed, "I didn't dream that you were here, but I'm most happy to see you."

"And I to see you, Mr. Lennox, or Robert, as I shall call you," said Colonel Johnson.

"Alexandria is a long journey from Mount Johnson, but you see I'm here, awaiting the results of this council, which I tell you may have vast significance for North America."

"But why are you not in the tent with the others, you who know so much more about conditions on the border than any man who is in there?"

"I am not one of the governors, Robert, my lad, nor am I General Braddock.

Hence I'm not eligible, but I'm not to be neglected.

I may as well tell you that we are planning several expeditions, and that I'm to lead one in the north."

"And Madam Johnson, and everybody at your home?

Are they well?"

"As well of body as human beings can be when I left.

Molly told me that if I saw you to give you her special love.

Ah, you young blade, if you were older I should be jealous, and then, again, perhaps I shouldn't!"

"And Joseph?"

"Young Thayendanegea?

Fierce and warlike as becomes his lineage.

He demands if I lead an army to the war that he go with me, and he scarce twelve.

What is more, he will demand and insist, until I have to take him.

'Tis a true eagle that young Joseph.

But here is Willet!

It soothes my eyes to see you again, brave hunter, and Tayoga, too, who is fully as welcome."

He shook hands with them both and the Onondaga gravely asked: "What news of my people, Waraiyageh?"

Colonel Johnson's face clouded.

"Things do not go well between us and the vale of Onondaga," he replied.

"The Hodenosaunee complain of the Indian commissioners at Albany, and with justice.

Moreover, the French advance and the superior French vigor create a fear that the British and Americans may lose.

Then the Hodenosaunee will be left alone to fight the French and all the hostile tribes.

Father Drouillard has come back and is working with his converts."

"The nations of the Hodenosaunee will never go with the French," declared Tayoga with emphasis.

"Although the times seem dark, and men's minds may waver for a while, they will remain loyal to their ancient allies.

Their doubts will cease, Waraiyageh, when the king across the sea takes away the power of dealing with us from the Dutch commissioners at Albany, and gives it to you, you who know us so well and who have always been our friend."

Colonel Johnson's face flushed with pleasure.

"Your opinion of me is too high, Tayoga," he said, "but I'll not deny that it gratifies me to hear it."

"Have you heard anything from Fort Refuge, and Colden and Wilton and the others?"

asked Robert.

"An Oneida runner brought a letter just before I left Mount Johnson.

The brave Philadelphia lads still hold the little fortress, and have occasional skirmishes with wandering bands.

Theirs has been a good work, well done."

But while Colonel Johnson was not a member of the council and could not sit with it, he had a great reputation with all the governors, and the next day he was asked to appear before them and General Braddock, where he was treated with the consideration due to a man of his achievements, and where the council, without waiting for the authority of the English king, gave him full and complete powers to treat with the Hodenosaunee, and to heal the wounds inflicted upon the pride of the nations by the commissioners at Albany.

He was thus made superintendent of Indian affairs in North America, and he was also as he had said to lead the expedition against Crown Point.

He came forth from the council exultant, his eyes glowing.

"'Tis even more than I had hoped," he said to Willet, "and now I must say farewell to you and the brave lads with you.

We have come to the edge of great things, and there is no time to waste."

He hastened northward, the council broke up the next day, and the visiting governors hurried back to their respective provinces to prepare for the campaigns, leaving Braddock to strike the first blow.

CHAPTER XV