CHAPTER XVII
There are, whose changing lineaments Express each guileless passion of the breast; Where Love, and Hope, and tender-hearted Pity Are seen reflected, as from a mirror's face; But cold experience can veil these hues With looks, invented shrewdly to encompass The cunning purposes of base deceit.
--Duo.
The officer to whose keeping Dunwoodie had committed the peddlertransferred his charge to the custody of the regular sergeant of theguard. The gift of Captain Wharton had not been lost on the youthfullieutenant; and a certain dancing motion that had taken possession ofobjects before his eyes, gave him warning of the necessity of recruitingnature by sleep. After admonishing the noncommissioned guardian ofHarvey to omit no watchfulness in securing the prisoner, the youthwrapped himself in his cloak, and, stretched on a bench before a fire,soon found the repose he needed. A rude shed extended the whole lengthof the rear of the building, and from off one of its ends had beenpartitioned a small apartment, that was intended as a repository formany of the lesser implements of husbandry. The lawless times had,however, occasioned its being stripped of everything of value; and thesearching eyes of Betty Flanagan selected this spot, on her arrival, asthe storehouse for her movables and a sanctuary for her person. Thespare arms and baggage of the corps had also been deposited here; andthe united treasures were placed under the eye of the sentinel whoparaded the shed as a guardian of the rear of the headquarters. A secondsoldier, who was stationed near the house to protect the horses of theofficers, could command a view of the outside of the apartment; and, asit was without window or outlet of any kind, excepting its door, theconsiderate sergeant thought this the most befitting place in which todeposit his prisoner until the moment of his execution. Severalinducements urged Sergeant Hollister to this determination, among whichwas the absence of the washerwoman, who lay before the kitchen fire,dreaming that the corps was attacking a party of the enemy, andmistaking the noise that proceeded from her own nose for the bugles ofthe Virginians sounding the charge. Another was the peculiar opinionsthat the veteran entertained of life and death, and by which he wasdistinguished in the corps as a man of most exemplary piety and holinessof life. The sergeant was more than fifty years of age, and for halfthat period he had borne arms. The constant recurrence of sudden deathsbefore his eyes had produced an effect on him differing greatly fromthat which was the usual moral consequence of such scenes; and he hadbecome not only the most steady, but the most trustworthy soldier in histroop. Captain Lawton had rewarded his fidelity by making himits orderly.
Followed by Birch, the sergeant proceeded in silence to the door of theintended prison, and, throwing it open with one hand, he held a lanternwith the other to light the peddler to his prison. Seating himself on acask, that contained some of Betty's favorite beverage, the sergeantmotioned to Birch to occupy another, in the same manner. The lantern wasplaced on the floor, when the dragoon, after looking his prisonersteadily in the face, observed,--
"You look as if you would meet death like a man; and I have brought youto a spot where you can tranquilly arrange your thoughts, and be quietand undisturbed."
"'Tis a fearful place to prepare for the last change in," said Harvey,gazing around his little prison with a vacant eye.
"Why, for the matter of that," returned the veteran, "it can reckon butlittle in the great account, where a man parades his thoughts for thelast review, so that he finds them fit to pass the muster of anotherworld. I have a small book here, which I make it a point to read alittle in, whenever we are about to engage, and I find it a greatstrengthener in time of need." While speaking, he took a Bible from hispocket, and offered it to the peddler. Birch received the volume withhabitual reverence; but there was an abstracted air about him, and awandering of the eye, that induced his companion to think that alarm wasgetting the mastery of the peddler's feelings; accordingly, he proceededin what he conceived to be the offices of consolation.
"If anything lies heavy on your mind, now is the best time to get rid ofit--if you have done any wrong to anyone, I promise you, on the word ofan honest dragoon, to lend you a helping hand to see them righted."
"There are few who have not done so," said the peddler, turning hisvacant gaze once more on his companion.
"True--'tis natural to sin; but it sometimes happens that a man doeswhat at other times he may be sorry for. One would not wish to die withany very heavy sin on his conscience, after all."
Harvey had by this time thoroughly examined the place in which he was topass the night, and saw no means of escape. But as hope is ever the lastfeeling to desert the human breast, the peddler gave the dragoon more ofhis attention, fixing on his sunburned features such searching looks,that Sergeant Hollister lowered his eyes before the wild expressionwhich he met in the gaze of his prisoner.
"I have been taught to lay the burden of my sins at the feet of mySavior," replied the peddler.
"Why, yes--all that is well enough," returned the other. "But justiceshould be done while there is opportunity. There have been stirringtimes in this country since the war began, and many have been deprivedof their rightful goods I oftentimes find it hard to reconcile even mylawful plunder to a tender conscience."
"These hands," said the peddler, stretching forth his meager, bonyfingers, "have spent years in toil, but not a moment in pilfering."
"It is well that it is so," said the honest-hearted soldier, "and, nodoubt, you now feel it a great consolation. There are three great sins,that, if a man can keep his conscience clear of, why, by the mercy ofGod, he may hope to pass muster with the saints in heaven: they arestealing, murdering, and desertion."
"Thank God!" said Birch, with fervor, "I have never yet taken the lifeof a fellow creature."
"As to killing a man in lawful battle, that is no more than doing one'sduty. If the cause is wrong, the sin of such a deed, you know, falls onthe nation, and a man receives his punishment here with the rest of thepeople; but murdering in cold blood stands next to desertion as a crimein the eye of God."
"I never was a soldier, therefore never could desert," said the peddler,resting his face on his hand in a melancholy attitude.
"Why, desertion consists of more than quitting your colors, though thatis certainly the worst kind; a man may desert his country in the hourof need."
Birch buried his face in both his hands, and his whole frame shook; thesergeant regarded him closely, but good feelings soon got the better ofhis antipathies, and he continued more mildly,--
"But still that is a sin which I think may be forgiven, if sincerelyrepented of; and it matters but little when or how a man dies, so thathe dies like a Christian and a man. I recommend you to say your prayers,and then to get some rest, in order that you may do both. There is nohope of your being pardoned; for Colonel Singleton has sent down themost positive orders to take your life whenever we met you. No,no--nothing can save you."
"You say the truth," cried Birch. "It is now too late--I have destroyedmy only safeguard. But _he_ will do my memory justice at least."
"What safeguard?" asked the sergeant, with awakened curiosity.
"'Tis nothing," replied the peddler, recovering his natural manner, andlowering his face to avoid the earnest looks of his companion.
"And who is he?"
"No one," added Harvey, anxious to say no more.
"Nothing and no one can avail but little now," said the sergeant, risingto go. "Lay yourself on the blanket of Mrs. Flanagan, and get a littlesleep; I will call you betimes in the morning; and from the bottom of mysoul I wish I could be of some service to you, for I dislike greatly tosee a man hung up like a dog."
"Then _you_ might save me from this ignominious death," said Birch,springing to his feet, and catching the dragoon by the arm. "And, oh!what will I not give you in reward!"
"In what manner?" asked the sergeant, looking at him in surprise.
"See," said the peddler, producing several guineas from his p
erson;"these are nothing to what I will give you, if you will assist meto escape."
"Were you the man whose picture is on the gold, I would not listen tosuch a crime," said the trooper, throwing the money on the floor withcontempt. "Go--go, poor wretch, and make your peace with God; for it isHe only that can be of service to you now."
The sergeant took up the lantern, and, with some indignation in hismanner, he left the peddler to sorrowful meditations on his approachingfate. Birch sank, in momentary despair, on the pallet of Betty, whilehis guardian proceeded to give the necessary instructions to thesentinels for his safe-keeping.
Hollister concluded his injunctions to the man in the shed, by saying,"Your life will depend on his not escaping. Let none enter or quit theroom till morning."
"But," said the trooper, "my orders are, to let the washerwoman pass inand out, as she pleases."
"Well, let her then; but be careful that this wily peddler does not getout in the folds of her petticoats." He then continued his walk, givingsimilar orders to each of the sentinels near the spot.
For some time after the departure of the sergeant, silence prevailedwithin the solitary prison of the peddler, until the dragoon at his doorheard his loud breathings, which soon rose into the regular cadence ofone in a deep sleep. The man continued walking his post, musing on anindifference to life which could allow nature its customary rest, evenon the threshold of the grave. Harvey Birch had, however, been a nametoo long held in detestation by every man in the corps, to suffer anyfeelings of commiseration to mingle with these reflections of thesentinel; for, notwithstanding the consideration and kindness manifestedby the sergeant, there probably was not another man of his rank in thewhole party who would have discovered equal benevolence to the prisoner,or who would not have imitated the veteran in rejecting the bribe,although probably from a less worthy motive. There was something ofdisappointed vengeance in the feelings of the man who watched the doorof the room on finding his prisoner enjoying a sleep of which he himselfwas deprived, and at his exhibiting such obvious indifference to theutmost penalty that military rigor could inflict on all his treason tothe cause of liberty and America. More than once he felt prompted todisturb the repose of the peddler by taunts and revilings; but thediscipline he was under, and a secret sense of shame at the brutality ofthe act, held him in subjection.
His meditations were, however, soon interrupted by the appearance ofthe washerwoman, who came staggering through the door that communicatedwith the kitchen, muttering execrations against the servants of theofficers, who, by their waggery, had disturbed her slumbers before thefire. The sentinel understood enough of her maledictions to comprehendthe case; but all his efforts to enter into conversation with theenraged woman were useless, and he suffered her to enter her roomwithout explaining that it contained another inmate. The noise of herhuge frame falling on the bed was succeeded by a silence that was sooninterrupted by the renewed respiration of the peddler, and within a fewminutes Harvey continued to breathe aloud, as if no interruption hadoccurred. The relief arrived at this moment.
The sentinel, who felt nettled at the contempt of the peddler, aftercommunicating his orders, while he was retiring, exclaimed to hissuccessor,--
"You may keep yourself warm by dancing, John; the peddler spy has tunedhis fiddle, you hear, and it will not be long before Betty will strikeup, in her turn."
The joke was followed by a general laugh from the party, who marched onin performance of their duty. At this instant the door of the prison wasopened, and Betty reappeared, staggering back again toward herformer quarters.
"Stop," said the sentinel, catching her by her clothes; "are you surethe spy is not in your pocket?"
"Can't you hear the rascal snoring in my room, you dirty blackguard?"sputtered Betty, her whole frame shaking with rage. "And is it so yewould sarve a dacent famale, that a man must be put to sleep in the roomwid her, ye rapscallion?"
"Pooh! Do you mind a fellow who's to be hanged in the morning? You seehe sleeps already; to-morrow he'll take a longer nap."
"Hands off, ye villain," cried the washerwoman, relinquishing a smallbottle that the trooper had succeeded in wresting from her. "But I'llgo to Captain Jack, and know if it's orders to put a hang-gallows spy inmy room; aye, even in my widowed bed, you tief!"
"Silence, old Jezebel!" said the fellow with a laugh, taking the bottlefrom his mouth to breathe, "or you will wake the gentleman. Would youdisturb a man in his last sleep?"
"I'll awake Captain Jack, you reprobate villain, and bring him here tosee me righted; he will punish ye all, for imposing on a dacent widowedbody, you marauder!"
With these words, which only extorted a laugh from the sentinel, Bettystaggered round the end of the building, and made the best of her waytowards the quarters of her favorite, Captain John Lawton, in search ofredress. Neither the officer nor the woman, however, appeared during thenight, and nothing further occurred to disturb the repose of thepeddler, who, to the astonishment of the different sentinels, continuedby his breathing to manifest how little the gallows could affecthis slumbers.