A Soldier of Virginia - Burton Egbert Stevenson
It was the custom for the first class, the year of its graduation, to
attend the second of the grand assemblies given by the governor while the
House of Burgesses was in session, and we had been looking forward to the
event with no small anticipation. Many of us, myself among the number,
had ordered suits from London for the occasion, and I thought that I
looked uncommon well as I arrayed myself that night before the glass.
Such is the vanity of youth, for I have since been assured many times by
one who saw me that I was a very ordinary looking fellow. Half a dozen of
us, the better to gather courage, went down Duke of Gloucester Street arm
in arm toward the governor's palace with its great lantern alight to
honor the occasion, and mounted the steps together,--our trifling over
our toilets had made us late,--and as we entered the high doorway, did
our best to look as though a great assembly was an every-day event to us.
A moment later, I saw a sight which took my breath away.
It was only a girl of seventeen--but such a girl! Can I describe her as I
close my eyes and see her again before me? No, I cannot trust my pen, nor
would any such description do her justice; for her charm lay not in
beauty only, but in a certain rare, sweet girlishness, which seemed to
form a nimbus round her. Yet was her beauty worth remarking, too; and I
have loved to think that, while others saw that only, I, looking with
more perceptive eyes, saw more truly to her heart. I did not reason all
this out at the first; I only stood and stared at her amazed, until some
one knocking against me brought me to my senses. There were a dozen men
about her, and one of these I saw with delight was Dr. Price, our
registrar at the college, a benign old man, who could deny me nothing. I
waited with scarce concealed impatience until he turned away from the
group, and then I was at his side in an instant.
"Dr. Price," I whispered eagerly, "will you do me the favor of presenting
me to that young lady?"
"Why, bless my soul!" he exclaimed, looking at me over his glasses in
astonishment, "you seem quite excited. Which young lady?"
"The one you have just left," I answered breathlessly.
He looked at me quizzically for a moment, and laughed to himself as
though I had uttered a joke.
"Why, certainly," he said. "Come with me."
I could have kissed his hand in my gratitude, as he turned back toward
the group. I followed a pace behind, and felt that my hands were
trembling. The group opened a little as we approached, and in a moment we
were before her.
"Miss Randolph," said Dr. Price, "here is a young gentleman who has just
begged of me the favor of an introduction. Permit me to present Mr.
Thomas Stewart."
"Why, 'pon my word," cried that young lady, "'t is cousin Tom!" and as I
stood gaping at her like a fool, in helpless bewilderment, she came to me
and gave me her hand with the prettiest grace in the world.
CHAPTER VII
I DECIDE TO BE A SOLDIER
Now who would have thought that in three short years the red-cheeked girl
whom I had left at Riverview, and of whom I had never thought twice,
could have grown into this brown-eyed fairy? Certainly not I, and my
hopeless astonishment must have been quite apparent, for Mistress Dorothy
laughed merrily as she looked at me.
"Come, cousin," she cried, "you look as though you saw a ghost. I assure
you I am not a ghost, but very substantial flesh and blood."
"'Twas not of a ghost I was thinking," I said, recovering my wits a
little under the magic of her voice, which I thought the sweetest I had
ever heard, "but of the three Graces, and methought I saw a fourth."
She gazed at me a moment with bright, intent eyes, the faintest touch of
color in her cheek. Then she smiled--a smile that brought two tiny
dimples into being--oh, such a smile! But there--why weary you with
telling what I felt? You have all felt very like it when you gazed into a
certain pair of eyes,--or if you have not, you will some day,--and if you
never do, why, God pity you!
She laid her hand on my arm and turned to the group about us.
"Gentlemen," she said, with a little curtsy, "I know you will excuse us.
My cousin Tom and I have not seen each other these three years, and have
a hundred things to say;" and so I walked off with her, my head in the
air, and my heart beating madly, the proudest man in the colony, I dare
say, and with as good cause, too, as any.
Dorothy led the way, for I was too blinded with joy to see where I was
going, and with a directness which showed acquaintance with the great
house, proceeded to a corner under the stair which had a bit of tapestry
before it that quite shut us out from interruption. She sat down opposite
me, and I pinched my arm to make sure I was not dreaming.
"Why, Tom," she cried, with a little laugh, as she saw me wince at the
pain, "you surely do not think yourself asleep?"
"I know not whether 't is dreaming or enchantment," said I; "but sleep or
sorcery, 't is very pleasant and I trust will never end."
"What is it that you think enchantment, Tom?" she asked.
"What could it be but you?" I retorted, and she smiled the slyest little
smile in the world. "I swear that when I entered that door ten minutes
since, I was wide awake as any man, but the moment I clapt eyes on you, I
lost all sense of my surroundings, and have since trod on air."
"Oh, what do you think it can be?" she questioned, pretending to look
mightily concerned, "Do you think it is the fever, Tom?"
But I was far past teasing.
"To think that you should be Dorothy!" I said. "I may call you Dorothy,
may I not?"
"Why, of course you may!" she cried. "Are we not cousins, Tom?"
What a thrill it gave me to hear her call me Tom! Of course we were not
cousins, but I fancy all the tortures of the Inquisition could not at
that moment have made me deny the relationship. Well, we talked and
talked. Of what I said, I have not the slightest remembrance,--it was all
foolish enough, no doubt,--but Dorothy told me how her mother had been
managing the estate, greatly assisted by the advice of a Major
Washington, living ten miles up the river at Mount Vernon; how her
brother James had been tutored by my old preceptor, but showed far
greater liking for his horse and cocks than for his books; and how Mr.
Washington had come to Riverview a month before to propose that Mistress
Dorothy accompany him and his mother and sister to Williamsburg, and how
her mother had consented, and the flurry there was to get her ready, and
how she finally was got ready, and started, and reached Williamsburg, and
had been with the Washingtons for a week, and had attended the first
assembly, which accounted for her knowing the house so well, and had had
a splendid time.
"And who was it you sat with here last time, Dorothy?" I asked, for I
could not bear that she should connect this place with any one but me.
"Let me see," and the sly minx seemed to hesitate in the effort at
recollection. "Was it Mr. Burke? No, I was with him on the veranda. Was
it Mr. Forsythe? No. Ah, I have it!" and she paused a moment to prolong
my agony. "It was with Betty Washington; she had something to tell me
which must be told at once, and which was very private. But what a
great goose you are, to be sure. Do you know, Tom, I had no idea that
melancholy boy I saw sometimes at Riverview would grow into such
a--such a"--
"Such a what, Dorothy?" I asked, as she hesitated.
"Such a big, overgrown fellow, with all his heart in his face. What a
monstrous fine suit that is you have on, Tom!"
The jade was laughing at me, and here was I, who was a year her senior
and twice her size, sitting like an idiot, red to the ears. In faith, the
larger a man is, the more the women seem tempted to torment him; but on
me she presently took pity, and as the fiddles tuned up in the great
ballroom, she led the way thither and permitted me to tread a minuet with
her. Of course there were a score of others eager to share her dances,
but she was more kind to me than I deserved, and in particular, when the
fiddles struck up "High Betty Martin," threw herself upon my arm and
laughed up into my face in the sheer joy of living. But between the
dances I had great opportunity of being jealous, and spent the time
moping in a corner, where, as I reviewed her talk, the frequency of her
mention of Mr. Washington occurred to me, and at the end of five minutes
I had conceived a desperate jealousy of him.
"How old is this Mr. Washington?" I asked, when I had managed to get by
her side again.
"Not yet twenty-two," she answered, and then as she saw my gloomy face,
she burst into a peal of laughter. "He is adorable," she continued, when
she had regained her breath. "Not handsome, perhaps, but so courtly, so
dignified, so distinguished. I can't imagine why he is not here to-night,
for he is very fond of dancing. Do you know, I fancy Governor Dinwiddie
has selected him for some signal service, for it was at his invitation
that Mr. Washington came to Williamsburg. He is just the kind of man one
would fix upon instinctively to do anything that was very dangerous or
very difficult."
"I dare say," I muttered, biting my lips with vexation, and avoiding
Dorothy's laughing eyes. I was a mere puppy, or I should have known that
a woman never praises openly the man she loves.
"I am sure you will admire him when you meet him," she continued, "as I
am determined you shall do this very night. He is a neighbor, you know,
and I'll wager that when you come to live at Riverview, you will be
forever riding over to Mount Vernon."
"Oh, doubtless!" I said, between my teeth, and I longed to have Mr.
Washington by the throat. "How comes it I heard nothing of him when I was
at Riverview?"
"'Tis only since last year he has been there," she answered. "The estate
belonged to his elder brother, Lawrence, who died July a year ago, and
Major Washington has since then been with his mother, helping her in its
management. Before that time, he had been over the mountains surveying
all that western country, and then to the West Indies, where he had the
smallpox, because he would not break a promise to dine with a family
where it was. But what is the matter? You seem quite ill."
"It is nothing," I said, after a moment. "It was the smallpox which
killed my father and my mother."
"Pardon me," and her hand was on mine for an instant. Indeed, the shudder
which always shook me whenever I heard that dread infection mentioned had
already passed. "He has the rank of major," she continued, hoping
doubtless to distract my thoughts, "because he has been appointed
adjutant-general of one of the districts, but somehow we rarely call him
major, for he says he does not want the title until he has done something
to deserve it."
"He seems a very extraordinary man," I said gloomily, "to have done so
much and to be yet scarce twenty-two."
"He is an extraordinary man," cried Dorothy, "as you will say when you
meet him. A word of caution, Tom," she added, seeing my desperate plight,
and relenting a little. "Say nothing to him of the tender passion, for he
has lately been crossed in love, and is very sore about it. A certain
Mistress Cary, to whom he was paying court, hath rejected him, and
wounded him as much in his self-esteem as in his love, which, I fancy,
was not great, but which, on that account, he is anxious to have appear
even greater, as is the way with men."
"Trust me," said I, with a great lightening of the heart; "I shall be
very careful not to wound him, Dorothy."
"Pray, why dost thou smile so, Tom?" she asked, her eyes agleam. "Is it
that there is a pair of bright eyes here in Williamsburg which you are
dying to talk about? Well, I will be your confidante."
"Oh, Dorothy!" I stammered, but my tongue refused to utter the thought
which was in my heart,--that there was only one pair of eyes in the whole
world I cared for, and that I was looking into them at this very moment.
"Ah, you blush, you stammer!" cried my tormentor. "Come, I'll wager
there's a pretty maid. Tell me her name, Tom."
I looked at her and gripped my hands at my side. If only this crowd
was not about us--if only we were alone together somewhere--I would be
bold enough.
"And why do you look so savage, Tom?" she asked, and I could have sworn
she had read my thought. "You are not angry with me already! Why, you
have known me scarce an hour!"
I could endure no more, and I reached out after her, heedless of the time
and of the place. Doubtless there would have been great scandal among
the stately dames who surrounded us, but that she sprang away from me
with a little laugh and ran plump into a man who had been hastening
toward her. The sight of her in the arms of a stranger brought me to my
senses, and I stopped dead where I was.
"'Tis Mr. Washington!" she cried, looking up into his face, and as he set
her gently on her feet, she held out her hand to him. He raised it to his
lips with a courtly grace I greatly envied. "Mr. Washington, this is my
cousin, Thomas Stewart."
"I am very happy to meet Mr. Stewart," he said, and he grasped my
hand with a heartiness which warmed my heart. I had to look up to
meet his eyes, for he must have been an inch or two better than six
feet in height, and of a most commanding presence. His eyes were
blue-gray, penetrating, and overhung by a heavy brow, his face long
rather than broad, with high, round cheekbones and a large mouth,
which could smile most agreeably, or--as I was afterward to
learn--close in a firm, straight line with dogged resolution. At this
moment his face was luminous with joy, and he was plainly laboring
under some intense emotion.
"Where is my mother, Dolly?" he asked. "I have news for her."
"She is in the reception hall with the governor's wife," she answered.
"But may we not have your news, Mr. Washington?"
He paused and looked back at her a moment.
"'T is all settled," he said, "and I am to start at once."
"I was right, then!" she cried, her eyes sparkling in sympathy with
his. "I was just telling cousin Tom I believed the governor had a
mission for you."
"Well, so he has, and I got my papers not ten minutes since. You could
never guess my destination."
"Boston? New York? London?" she questioned, but he shook his head at
each, smiling evermore broadly.
"No, 't is none of those. 'T is Venango."
"Venango?" cried Dorothy. "Where, in heaven's name, may that be?" Nor was
I any the less at a loss.
"'T is a French outpost in the Ohio country," answered Washington, "and
my mission, in brief, is to warn the French off English territory."
Dorothy gazed at him, eyes wide with amazement. There was something in
the speaker's words and look which fired my blood.
"You will need companions, will you not, Major Washington?" I asked.
He smiled in comprehension, as he met my eyes.
"Only two or three, Mr. Stewart. Two or three guides and a few Indians
will be all."
My disappointment must have shown in my face, for he gave me his
hand again.
"I thank you for your offer, Mr. Stewart," he said earnestly. "Believe
me, if it were possible, I should ask no better companion. But do not
despair. I have little hope the French will heed the warning, and 't
will then be a question of arms. In such event, there will be great need
of brave and loyal men, and you will have good opportunity to see the
country beyond the mountains. But I must find my mother, and tell her of
my great good fortune."
I watched him as he strode away, and I fancy there was a new light in my
eyes,--certainly there was a new purpose in my heart. For I had been
often sadly puzzled as to what I should do when once I was out of
college. I had no mind to become an idler at Riverview, but was
determined to win myself a place in the world. Yet when I came to look
about me, I saw small prospect of success. The professions--the law,
medicine, and even the church--were overrun with vagabonds who had
brought them so low that no gentleman could think of earning a
livelihood--much less a place in the world--by them. Trade was equally
out of the question, for there was little trade in the colony, and that
in the hands of sharpers. But Mr. Washington's words had opened a new
vista. What possibilities lay in the profession of arms! And my
resolution was taken in an instant,--I would be a soldier. I said nothing
of my resolve to Dorothy, fearing that she would laugh at me, as she
doubtless would have done, and the remainder of the evening passed very
quickly. Dorothy presented me to Mrs. Washington, a stately and beautiful
lady, who spoke of her son with evident love and pride. He had been
called away, she said, for he had much to do, and thus reminded, I
remembered that it was time for me also to depart. Before I went, I
obtained permission from Mrs. Washington to call and see her next
day,--Dorothy standing by with eyes demurely downcast, as though she did
not know it was she and she only whom I hoped to see.
"I am very sorry I teased you, cousin Tom," she said very softly, as I
turned to her to say goodnight. "Your eagerness to go with Mr. Washington
pleased me mightily. It is just what I should have done if I were a man.
Good-night," and before I could find my tongue, she was again at Mrs.
Washington's side.
I made my way back to my room at the college, and went to bed, but it
seemed to me that the night, albeit already far spent, would never pass.
Sleep was out of the question, and I tossed from side to side, thinking
now of Dorothy, now of my new friend and his perilous expedition over the
Alleghenies, now of my late resolve. It was in no wise weakened in the
morning, as so many resolves of youth are like to be, and so soon as I
had dressed and breakfasted, I sought out the best master of fence in the
place,--a man whose skill had won him much renown, and who for three or
four years past, finding life on the continent grown very unhealthy, had
been imparting such of it as he could to the Virginia gentry,--and
insisted that he give me a lesson straightway.
He gave me a half hour's practice, for the most part in quatre and
tierce,--my A B C's, as it were,--and the ease with which he held me off
and bent his foil against my breast at pleasure chafed me greatly, and
showed me how much I had yet to learn, besides making me somewhat less
vain of my size and strength. For my antagonist was but a small man, and
yet held me at a distance with consummate ease, and twisted my foil from
my hand with a mere turn of his wrist. Still, he had the grace to commend
me when the bout was ended, and I at once arranged to take two lessons
daily while I remained in Williamsburg.
It was ten o'clock when I turned my steps toward the house where the
Washingtons were stopping, and, with much inward trepidation, walked up
to the door and knocked. In a moment I was in the presence of the ladies,
Mrs. Washington receiving me very kindly, and Dorothy looking doubly
adorable in her simple morning frock. But I was ill at ease, and the
sound of voices in an adjoining room increased my restlessness.
"Do you not see what it is, madam?" cried Dorothy, at last. "He has no
wish for the society of women this morning. He has gone mad like the
rest of them. He is dying to talk of war and the French and expeditions
over the mountains, as Mr. Washington and his friends are doing. Is it
not so, sir?"
"Indeed, I cannot deny it," I said, with a very red face. "I am immensely
interested in Major Washington's expedition."
Mrs. Washington smiled kindly and bade Dorothy take me to the gentlemen,
which she did with a wicked twinkle in her eye that warned me I should
yet pay dear for my effrontery. Mr. Washington and half a dozen friends
were seated about the room, talking through clouds of tobacco smoke of
the coming expedition. There were George Fairfax, and Colonel Nelson, and
Judge Pegram, and three or four other gentlemen, to all of whom I was
introduced. The host waved me to a pile of pipes and case of
sweet-scented on the table, and I was soon adding my quota to the clouds
which enveloped us, and listening with all my ears to what was said.
It had been agreed that the start should be made at once, the party
meeting at Will's Creek, where the Ohio company had a station, and
proceeding thence to Logstown, and so on to Venango, or, if necessary, to
the fort on French Creek. How my cheeks burned as I thought of that
journey through the wilderness and over the mountains, and how I longed
to be of the party! But I soon saw how impossible this was, for Mr.
Washington's companions must needs be hardened men, accustomed to the
perils of the forest and acquainted with the country. A bowl of punch was
brought, and after discussing this, the company separated, though not
till all of them had wrung Mr. Washington's hand and wished him a quick
journey. I was going with the others, when he detained me.
"I wish a word with you, Mr. Stewart," he said. "I shall have to leave
for Mount Vernon at once, and make the trip as rapidly as possible, in
order to prepare for this expedition. May I ask if it would be possible
for you to accompany my mother and Miss Dolly home when their visit here
is ended, which will be in about a week's time?"
"Certainly," I answered warmly, "I shall be only too glad to be of
service to you and to them, Mr. Washington," and I thought with tingling
nerves that Dorothy and I could not fail to be thrown much together.
So it was arranged, and that afternoon he set out for Mount Vernon,
whence he would go direct to Will's Creek. His mother cried a little
after he was gone, so Dorothy told me, but she was proud of her boy, as
she had good cause to be, and appeared before the world with smiling
face. The week which followed flew by like a dream. I took my lesson
with the foils morning and evening, and soon began to make some progress
in the art. As much time as Dorothy would permit, I spent with her, and
in one of our talks she told me that she had drawn from her mother by
much questioning the story of my father's marriage and of the quarrel
which followed.
"When I heard," she concluded, "how Riverview might have been yours but
for that unhappy dispute,"--so Mrs. Stewart had not told the whole truth,
and I smiled grimly to myself,--"I saw how unjustly and harshly we had
always used you, and I made up my mind to be very good to you when next
we met, as some slight recompense."
"And is it for that only you are kind to me, Dorothy?" I asked. "Is it
not a little for my own sake?"
"Hoity-toity," she cried, "an you try me too far, I shall withdraw my
favor altogether, sir. My cheeks burn still when I think what might have
happened at the ball the other night, when you so far forgot yourself as
to grab at me like a wild Indian. 'Twas well I had my wits about me."
"But, indeed, Dorothy," I protested, "'twas all your fault. You had
plagued me beyond endurance."
"I fear you are a very bold young man," she answered pensively, and when
I would have proved the truth of her assertion, sent me packing.
So the week passed, the day came when we were to leave Williamsburg, and
at six o'clock one cool October morning, the great coach of the
Washingtons rolled westward down the sandy street, the maples casting
long shadows across the road. And on the side where Mistress Dorothy sat,
I was riding at the window.
CHAPTER VIII
A RIDE TO WILLIAMSBURG
I was received civilly enough at Riverview, and soon determined to remain
there until Major Washington returned from the west. My aunt treated me
with great consideration, doubtless because she feared to anger me, and I
soon fell into the routine of the estate. My cousin James, a roystering
boy of fourteen, was not yet old enough to be covetous, and he and I were
soon friends. Dorothy treated me as she had always done, with a hearty
sisterly affection, which gave me much uneasiness, 't was so unlike my
own, and I was at some pains to point out to her that we were not
cousins, nor, indeed, any relation whatsoever. In return for which she
merely laughed at me.
By great good fortune, I found among the overseers on my aunt's estate a
man who had been a soldier of fortune in the Old World until some
escapade had driven him to seek safety in the colonies, and with my
aunt's permission, I secured him to teach me what he knew of the practice
of arms, a tutelage which he entered upon with fine enthusiasm. He was
called Captain Paul on the plantation,--a little, wiry man, with fierce
mustaches and flashing eyes, greatly feared by the negroes, though he
always treated them kindly enough, so far as I could see. He claimed to
be an Englishman,--certainly he spoke the language as well as any I ever
heard,--but his dark eyes and swarthy skin bespoke the Spaniard or
Italian, and his quickness with the foils the French. A strain of all
these bloods I think he must have had, but of his family he would tell me
nothing, nor of the trouble which had brought him over-sea. But of his
feats of arms he loved to speak,--and they were worth the telling. He had
been with Plelo's heroic little band of Frenchmen before Dantzic, where a
hundred deeds of valor were performed every day, and with Broglie before
Parma, where he had witnessed the rout of the Austrians. For hours
together I made him recount to me the story of his campaigns, and when he
grew weary of talking and I of listening, we had a round with the rapier,
or a bout with the sword on horseback, and as the weeks passed, I found I
was gaining some small proficiency. He drilled me, too, in another
exercise which he thought most important, that of shooting from horseback
with the pistol.