Sustained honor Part 34

Fernando was quite sure she must have lovers by the score. Such a glorious woman as Morgianna could not but have an abundance to choose from.

"You saw Morgianna, Sukey, how did she look?"

"Just as when we left. Not a day older."

"You knew her at sight?"

"Of course; but she didn't know me. I suspect I was a hard-looking case then; for I had just come from the s.h.i.+p and had on my English pea-jacket, and my linen was not the cleanest."

Fernando sat silent for such a long time, that Sukey, who was tired, nodded awhile in silence, then, rolling up in his blanket, lay down under a tree and slept. Fernando still sat gazing into the fire and saying to himself:

"Oh, if it could have been, if it could have been!"

A young woman does a rash thing when she rejects such a warm, manly heart as that of Fernando Stevens. Not all men are capable of such unselfish devotion as his, and Morgianna little dreamed how much she was casting aside.

He was still gazing into the smouldering fire, when Terrence, who had won all the money from the soldier with whom he was playing cards, came to him and said:

"Captain, are ye goin' to spend the night gazing into the fire?"

"No, Terrence; I am not sleepy; but I will lie down."

"Captain, do ye remember the little girl at Mariana five years ago, the one yersilf and the Englishman were about to break heads over?"

"You mean Morgianna Lane, Terrence?"

"To be sure I do. I saw the swate craythur not two months since."

Fernando, who was anything but sleepy, asked:

"Where did you see her, Terrence?"

"In Baltimore. She is prettier than whin you used to stroll over the beach in the moonlight with her."

"Is she married?"

"Divil a bit. I talked with her, and, d'ye belave me, almost the first question she asked me was about yersilf. Aye, Fernando, it was a grand story I told her about ye making a hero of yersilf. I told her how ye defeated Tec.u.mseh and killed the thief with yer own hand, and how ye conquered at Chippewa and Lundy's Lane."

Fernando's heart gave a tremendous bound. Had she really asked about him? Then she had not forgotten him in five long years. Could this be true? Terrence had not the strictest regard for truth, and he might be only telling this out of mischief.

"Terrence, are you telling me the truth?" he asked.

"Ivery blissid word of it is the gospel truth, me frind," Terrence answered. "The little girl still lives at the village beyant Baltimore, and if ye want her, ye kin win her."

"Terrence, you are trifling with me; Morgianna cares nothing for me."

"Don't ye belave it. If she didn't, why did she ask about ye the very first chance she had? Me boy, whin a girl remembers a fellow after five years, it's some sign. Now if ye want that blus.h.i.+n' damsel, lave it all to me."

"Terrence, let us go to sleep, we have a hard march before us to-morrow."

"I take it at yer word, captain."

In less than ten minutes the light-hearted Irishman was buried in slumber.

CHAPTER XVII.

THE CRUISER'S THREAT.

Terrence and Sukey both volunteered to accompany Fernando's detached riflemen in the vigorous campaign which was before them. Fernando's riflemen now numbered one hundred and sixty-two, composed mostly of frontiersmen, all dead shots. Sukey declared that he was in the game and would kill a British officer for every stripe Captain Snipes had caused to be laid on his shoulders.

"There were twelve blows, nine stripes each. Nine times twelve are one hundred and eight."

"And have ye got the job all before ye, Sukey?" asked Terrence.

"I've commenced. Eight have been blotted out. Only a hundred remains,"

Sukey answered solemnly.

No one asked when the eight had been blotted out, but Fernando knew he must have done it while the _Macedonian_ was fighting the American frigate. Sailors, driven to desperation, frequently take advantage of such occasions to wreak vengeance on cruel officers. The boatswain's mate who had flogged Sukey was found dead on the gun deck at the close of the fight.

The American forces were hurried forward to Was.h.i.+ngton, where everything was in the wildest confusion. The contemptible Peace Party had done all by way of ridicule and argument to keep off the war, and were now doing all in their power to prevent its prosecution. General Winder and Commodore Barney were in command of the land and naval forces of the United States, for the defence of Was.h.i.+ngton. In vain Winder had called on the government for more troops and supplies.

When Fernando arrived at Was.h.i.+ngton, Barney had already blown up his flotilla at Pig Point, and with his soldiers and marines joined General Winder.

General Ross, the commander of the British land forces and one of the most active of Wellington's officers, on finding the American flotilla a smoking ruin, marched to upper Marlborough with his troops, where a road led directly to Was.h.i.+ngton City, leaving c.o.c.kburn in charge of the British flotilla. Winder had but three thousand men, most of them undisciplined, to oppose this force; and he prudently retreated toward Was.h.i.+ngton followed by Ross, who, on the 23d of August, was joined by c.o.c.kburn and his seamen.

Uncertain whether Was.h.i.+ngton City or Fort Was.h.i.+ngton was the destination of the enemy, Winder left a force at Bladensburg about four miles from the capitol, and with other troops watched the highways leading in other directions, while he hastened to the city to inform the president that the enemy were camped in ten miles of the capitol.

Neither President Madison nor his cabinet slept that night. Fernando and his riflemen were sent to Bladensburg at midnight, and on the morning of August 24, 1814, a small scouting party sent down the road came back reporting that the British army was on the advance.

Fernando with his riflemen went to meet the enemy and hold them in check as long as possible. About ten o'clock, they came in sight of the advance of the enemy. About two hundred redcoats were led by an officer on horseback.

Sukey saw that officer, and he also saw an old tree about a hundred yards nearer the enemy and twenty paces to the left of the road. From it, one would be in long rifle range of the British.

"Fernando, I want to go there," said Sukey, hugging his long rifle as if it were his dearest friend.

"Go."

He went with arms trailed, stooping as he ran, to keep the enemy from seeing him, and gained the tree, which stood on an eminence that overlooked the narrow valley below. The British saw the Americans and halted. The officer was riding up and down the line giving directions, wholly unconscious of the rifle behind the old tree.

Suddenly a little puff of smoke curled up from where Sukey was crouched, and the crack of a rifle rang out. The officer in his gay uniform dropped his sword and fell from his saddle, while Sukey took a small day book from his pocket and wrote "nine" in it.

Fernando's company fell back to Bladensburg, where he deployed them so as to cover the Americans' line, and awaited the approach of the enemy.

It was afternoon before they advanced, and the skirmishers for ten minutes held them in check, then, as they fell back to the main line, Fernando saw Sukey write "twelve" in his book. The fight began in earnest just below Bladensburg in an old field. The roar of cannon and rattling crash of musketry filled the air. General Winder, who had been in Was.h.i.+ngton the night before, returned just before the battle began.

The militia broke and fled in confusion; and the brave Barney, with Captain Stevens' riflemen, sustained the brunt of the battle, until Barney was severely wounded, when Winder, seeing no hope of winning a victory, ordered a retreat. The troops remaining fell back toward Montgomery Courthouse, in Maryland, leaving the battlefield in possession of the invaders. The battle had lasted more than four hours, and the victory was won at fearful cost, for more than five hundred Britons were dead or wounded on the field, among them several officers of distinction, Sukey had added several numbers in his book.

The president and his secretaries of war and state had come to witness the conflict and give a.s.sistance if possible. When the day was lost, they mounted swift horses and dashed back to the city. Terrence, who had captured the steed of a British officer, overtook the president's advance party. Whipping his horse alongside the president, he cried: