CHAPTER XII.
HOTEL FLANAGAN AND ITS INTRUDERS.
The position held by the corps of dragoons, we have already said, wasa favorite place of halting with their commander.
A cluster of some half-dozen small and dilapidated[79] buildingsformed what, from the circumstances of two roads intersecting eachother at right angles, was called the Four Corners. As usual, one ofthe most imposing of these edifices had been termed, in the languageof the day, "a house of entertainment for man and beast." On a roughboard, suspended from the gallows-looking post that had supported theancient sign, was written in red chalk, "Elizabeth Flanagan, herhotel," an ebullition[80] of the wit of some of the idle wags of thecorps. The matron was the widow of a soldier who had been killed inthe service, and who, like herself, was a native of a distant island,and had early tried his fortune in the colonies of North America. Sheconstantly migrated with the troops, and it was seldom that theybecame stationary for two days at a time but the little cart of thebustling woman was seen driving into the encampment, loaded with somearticles she conceived would make her presence welcome. With acelerity[81] that seemed almost supernatural, Betty took up her groundand commenced her occupation. Sometimes the cart itself was her shop;at others the soldiers made her a rude shelter of such materials asoffered. But on the present occasion she seized on a vacant buildingand formed what she herself pronounced to be "most illigant lodgings."The men were quartered in the adjacent barns, and the officerscollected in the "Hotel Flanagan," as they facetiously[82] calledheadquarters. Betty was well known to every trooper in the corps,could call each by his Christian or nickname, as best suited herfancy; and although absolutely intolerable to all whom habit had notmade familiar with her virtues, was a general favorite with thesepartisan warriors. Her faults were, a trifling love of liquor,excessive filthiness, a total disregard of all the decencies oflanguage; her virtues, an unbounded love for her adopted country,perfect honesty when dealing on certain known principles with thesoldiery, and a great good-nature. Added to these, Betty had the meritof being the inventor of that beverage which is so well known, at thepresent hour, to all the patriots who make a winter's march betweenthe commercial and the political capitals of this great State, andwhich is distinguished by the name of "cock-tail." Such then was themistress of the mansion, who, reckless of the cold northern blasts,showed her blooming face from the door of the building to welcome thearrival of her favorite, Captain Lawton, and his companion, her masterin surgery.
[Footnote 79: falling into decay.]
[Footnote 80: outburst.]
[Footnote 81: quickness.]
[Footnote 82: jocosely.]
Lawton and his companion now entered the building. A long table, madefrom boards torn from the side of an out-building, was stretchedthrough the middle of the largest apartment, or the bar-room, and onit was a very scanty display of crockery ware. The steams of cookeryarose from an adjoining kitchen, but the principal attraction was ademijohn of fair proportions, which had been ostentatiously placed onhigh by Betty as the object most worthy of notice.
Lawton soon learned that it was teeming with the real amber-coloredjuice of the grape, and had been sent from the Locusts, as an offeringto Major Dunwoodie, from his friend Captain Wharton, of the royalarmy.
The group within were all young men and tried soldiers; in number theywere about a dozen, and their manners and their conversation were astrange mixture of the bluntness of the partisan with the manners ofgentlemen. Some were endeavoring to sleep on the benches which linedthe walls, some were walking the apartments, and others were seated inearnest discussion on subjects connected with the business of theirlives. All this time Dunwoodie sat by himself, gazing at the fire, andlost in reflections which none of his officers presumed to disturb.
A loud summons at the door of the building, and the dragoonsinstinctively caught up their arms to be prepared for the worst.
The door was opened and the Skinners entered, dragging the peddler,bending beneath the load of his pack.
"Which is Captain Lawton?" said the leader of the gang, gazing aroundhim in some little astonishment.
"He waits your pleasure," said the trooper, dryly.
"Then here I deliver to your hands a condemned traitor; this is HarveyBirch, the peddler spy."
Lawton started as he looked his old acquaintance in the face, andturning to the Skinner with a lowering look, he asked:
"And who are you, sir, that speak so freely of your neighbors? But,"bowing to Dunwoodie, "your pardon, sir; here is the commandingofficer; to him you will please address yourself."
"No," said the man, sullenly, "it is to you I deliver the peddler, andfrom you I claim my reward."
"Are you Harvey Birch?" said Dunwoodie, advancing with an air ofauthority that instantly drove the Skinner to a corner of the room.
"I am," said Birch, proudly.
"And a traitor to your country," continued the major, with sternness;"do you not know that I should be justified in ordering your executionthis night?"
"'Tis not the will of God to call a soul so hastily to his presence,"said the peddler, with solemnity.
"You speak truth," said Dunwoodie; "but as your offence is most odiousto a soldier, so it will be sure to meet with the soldier's vengeance;you die to-morrow."
"'Tis as God wills."
"I have spent many a good hour to entrap the villain," said theSkinner, advancing from his little corner; "and I hope you will giveme a certificate that will entitle us to the reward; 'twas promised tobe paid in gold."
"Major Dunwoodie," said the officer of the day, entering the room,"the patrols report a house to be burnt near yesterday'sbattle-ground."
"'Twas the hut of the peddler," muttered the leader of the gang; "wehave not left him a shingle for shelter; I should have burned itmonths ago, but I wanted his shed for a trap to catch the sly fox in."
"You seem a most ingenious patriot," said Lawton. "Major Dunwoodie, Isecond the request of this worthy gentleman, and crave the office ofbestowing the reward on him and his fellows."
"Take it;--and you, miserable man, prepare for the fate which willsurely befall you before the setting of to-morrow's sun."
"Life offers but little to tempt me with," said Harvey, slowly raisinghis eyes and gazing wildly at the strange faces in the apartment.
"Come, worthy children of America!" said Lawton, "follow and receiveyour reward."
The gang eagerly accepted the invitation, and followed the captaintowards the quarters assigned to his troop.
The officer to whose keeping Dunwoodie had committed the peddler,transferred his charge to the custody of the regular sergeant of theguard. After admonishing the non-commissioned guardian of Harvey toomit no watchfulness in securing the prisoner, the youth wrappedhimself in his cloak, and, stretched on a bench before a fire, soonfound the repose he needed. A rude shed extended the whole length ofthe rear of the building, and from off one end had been partitioned asmall apartment that was intended as a repository for many of thelesser implements of husbandry. The considerate sergeant thought thisthe most befitting place in which to deposit his prisoner until themoment of execution.
Several inducements urged Sergeant Hollister to this determination,among which was the absence of the washerwoman, who lay before thekitchen fire, dreaming that the corps was attacking a party of theenemy, and mistaking the noise that proceeded from her own nose forthe bugles of the Virginians sounding the charge. Another was thepeculiar opinions that the veteran entertained of life and death, andby which he was distinguished in the corps as a man of most exemplarypiety and holiness of life. Captain Lawton had rewarded his fidelityby making him his orderly.
Followed by Birch, the sergeant proceeded in silence to the door ofthe intended prison, and, throwing it open with one hand, he held alantern with the other to light the peddler to his prison.
Harvey thoroughly examined the place in which he was to pass thenight, and saw no means of escape. He buried his face in b
oth hands,and his whole frame shook; the sergeant regarded him closely, took upthe lantern, and, with some indignation in his manner, left him tosorrowful meditations on his approaching fate. Birch sank, inmomentary despair, on the pallet of Betty, while his guardianproceeded to give the necessary instructions to the sentinels for hissafe-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 notget out in the folds of her petticoats." He then continued his walk,giving similar 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 hisdoor heard his loud breathings, which soon rose into the regularcadence of one in deep sleep. The man continued walking his post,musing on an indifference to life which could allow nature itscustomary rest, even on the threshold of the grave.
His meditations were, however, soon interrupted by the approach of thewasherwoman, 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 beforethe fire. The sentinel understood enough of her curses 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 afew minutes Harvey continued to breathe aloud, as if no interruptionhad occurred. The relief[83] arrived at this moment, and at the sametime, the door of the prison was opened and Betty reappeared,staggering back again toward her former quarters.
[Footnote 83: change of sentinel.]