For a man who had his physician's personal assurance that there was nothing serious in his case, I recovered my strength with vexatious slowness. There was a very painful and wearing week, indeed, before it became clear to me that I was even convalescent, and thereafter my progress was wofully halting and intermittent2. Perhaps health would have come more rapidly if with every sound of the guns from the platforms, and every rattle3 of the drums outside, I had not wrathfully asked myself, "Of what use is all this now, alas4!"
These bad days were nearing their end when Dr. Teunis one afternoon came in with tidings from home. An express had arrived from Albany, bringing the intelligence that General Wooster was shortly to come with re-enforcements, to take over our headless command. There were many letters for the officers as well, and among these were two for me. The physician made some show of keeping these back from me, but the cousin relented, and I was bolstered5 up in bed to read them.
One was a business epistle from Albany, enclosing a brief memorandum6 of the disposition7 of certain moneys and goods belonging to the English trading company whose agent I had been, and setting my mind at ease concerning what remained of its interests.
The other was a much longer missive, written in my mother's neat, painstaking8 hand, and in my mother's language. My story can be advanced in no better way than by translating freely from the original Dutch document, which I still have, and which shows, if nothing else, that Dame9 Mauverensen had powers of directness and brevity of statement not inherited by her son.
"January 9, A. D. 1776.
"Dearly Beloved Son: This I write, being well and contented10 for the most part, and trusting that you are the same. It is so long since I have seen you--now nearly four years--that your ways are beyond me, and I offer you no advice. People hereabout affect much satisfaction in your promotion11 to be an officer. I do not conceal12 my preference that you should have been a God-fearing man, though you were of humbler station. However, that I surrendered your keeping to a papistical infidel is my own blame, and I do not reproach you.
"The nigger Tulp, whom you sent to me upon your departure for the wars, was more trouble than he was worth, to say nothing of his keep. He was both lame13 and foolish, getting forever in my way, and crying by the hour with fears for your safety. I therefore sent him to his old home, the Cedars14, where, as nobody now does any manner of work (your aunt being dead, and an incapable15 sloven16 having taken her place), he will not get in the way, and where others can help him to weep.
"When Mistress Cross came down to the Cedars last summer, having been deserted17 by her worthless husband, and found Mr. Stewart stricken with paralysis18, I was moved to offer my assistance while they both lay ill. The burden of their illness was so great that your aunt broke down under it, but she did not die until after Mistress Cross had recovered from her fever, and Mr Stewart had regained19 his speech and a small portion of his wits. Mistress Cross was in a fair way to be despoiled20 of all her rightful belongings21, for she brought not so much as a clean smock away with her from her husband's house, and there was there in charge an insolent22 rascal23 named Rab, who, when I demanded the keys and his mistress's chattels24, essayed to turn me away. I lectured him upon his behavior in such terms that he slunk off like a whipped dog, and presently sent to me a servant from whom I received what I came for. She would otherwise have obtained nothing, for, obstinate25 as she is in some matters, she is a timid soul at best, and stands in mortal fear of Rab's malevolence26.
"Mr. Stewart's mind is still in a sad way. He is childish beyond belief, and talks about you as if you were a lad again, and then speaks of foreign matters of which we know nothing, so long past are they, as if they were still proceeding27. In bodily health, he seems now somewhat stronger. I knitted him some woollen stockings, but he would not wear them, saying that they scratched his legs. Mistress Cross might have persuaded him out of this nonsense, but did not see fit to do so. She also humors him in the matter of taking him to the Papist church at Johnstown whenever the roads are open, he having become highly devotional in his second childhood. I was vigorously opposed to indulging this idea of his, which is almost as sinful in her as it is superstitious28 and silly in him; but she would go her own gait, and so she may for all of me.
"She insisted, too, on having one of Adam Wemple's girls in to do the work when your aunt fell ill. I recommended to her the widow of Dirck Tappan, a worthy29 and pious30 woman who could not sleep if there was so much as a speck31 of dust on the floor under her bed, but she would not listen to me, saying that she liked Moll Wemple and wanted her, and that she did not like Dame Tappan and did not want her. Upon this I came home, seeing clearly that my company was not desired longer.
"I send you the stockings which I knitted for Mr. Stewart, and sundry32 other woollen trifles. Your sisters are all well, but the troubles in the Valley take young men's thoughts unduly33 off the subject of marriage. If the committee would only hang John Johnson or themselves, there would be peace, one way or the other, and girls would get husbands again. But all say matters will be worse before they mend.
"Affectionately, your mother,
"Katharine Mauverensen."
As I look at this ancient, faded letter, which brought to me in belated and roundabout form the tidings of Mr. Stewart's helpless condition and of Daisy's illness and grief, I can recall that my first impulse was to laugh. There was something so droll34, yet so thoroughly35 characteristic of my honest, bustling36, resolute37, domineering mother in the thing, that its humor for the moment overbalanced the gravity of the news. There was no more helpful, valuable, or good-hearted woman alive than she, provided always it was permitted her to manage and dictate38 everything for everybody. There was no limit to the trouble she would undertake, nothing in the world she would not do, for people who would consent to be done for, and would allow her to dominate all their thoughts and deeds. But the moment they revolted, or showed the weakest inclination39 to do things their own way, she blazed up and was off like a rocket. Her taste for governing was little short of a mania40, and I could see, in my mind's eye, just how she had essayed to rule Daisy, and how in her failure she had written to me, unconsciously revealing her pique41.
Poor Daisy! My thoughts had swung quickly enough from my mother to her, and, once there, persistently42 lingered. She had, then, been at the Cedars since June; she had been very ill, but now was in health again; she was a fugitive43 from her rightful home, and stood in fear of her former servants; she had upon her hands a broken old invalid44, and to all his freaks and foibles was a willing slave; she was the saddened, solitary45 mistress of a large estate, with all its anxieties multiplied a hundred-fold by the fact that these were war-times, that passions ran peculiarly high and fierce all about her, and that her husband's remaining friends, now her bitter foes46 perhaps, were in a desperate state of temper and daring.
From this grewsome revery I roused myself to exclaim: "Teunis, every day counts now. The sooner I get home the better."
"Quite so," said he, with ready sarcasm47. "We will go on snow-shoes to Sorel to-morrow morning."
"No: you know what I mean. I want to----"
"Oh, yes, entirely48 so. We might, in fact, start this evening. The wolves are a trifle troublesome just now, but with a strong and active companion, like you, I should fear nothing."
"Will you cease jesting, Teunis! What I want now is to exhaust all means of gaining strength--to make every hour tell upon the work of my restoration. There is urgent need of me at home. See for yourself!" And I gave him my mother's letter.
My cousin had had from me, during our long camp intercourse49, sufficient details of my early life to enable him to understand all my mother's allusions50. He read the letter through carefully, and smiled. Then he went over it again, and turned grave, and began to look out of the window and whistle softly.
"Well," I asked, impatiently, "what is your judgment51?"
"My judgment is that your mother was, without doubt, the daughter of my great-uncle Baltus. When I was fourteen years old my father put me out of his house because I said that cocoa-nuts grew on trees, he having been credibly52 informed by a sailor that they were dug from the ground like potatoes. Everybody said of my father, when they learned of this: 'How much he is like his uncle, Captain Baltus.' She has the true family piety53, too. The saying in Schenectady used to be: 'The Van Hoorns are a God-fearing people--and they have reason to be.'"
I could not but laugh at this, the while I protested that it was his views upon the tidings in the letter that I wished.
"I agree with you that the sooner you get home the better," he said, seriously. "The troubles in the Valley will be ripe ere long. The letters from Albany, just arrived, are filled, they tell me, with rumors54 of the doings of Johnson. General Schuyler had, at last accounts, gone up toward Johnstown with a regiment55, to discover the baronet's intentions. So get well as fast as you like, and we will be off."
This was easy enough to say, but nearly two months went by before I was judged able to travel. We indeed did not make a start until after General Wooster arrived with more troops, and assumed command. Our return was accomplished56 in the company of the express he sent back with news of his arrival, and his report of the state of affairs in front of Quebec. From our own knowledge this was very bad, what with the mutinous57 character of many of the men, the total absence of subordination, and the bitter jealousies58 which existed among the rival officers. Even above the joy of turning our faces once more toward home, there rose in both of us a sense of relief at cutting loose from an expedition which had done no good, and that, too, at such a sad cost of suffering and bloodshed. It was impossible to have any pride whatever in the adventure, and we had small disposition to look people in the face, or talk with them of the siege and attack. To do them justice, the residents of the sparsely59 settled districts through which we slowly passed were civil enough. But we felt that we were returning like detected impostors, and we had no heart for their courtesies.
Albany was reached at last, and there the news that the British had evacuated60 Boston put us in better spirits. The spring was backward, but it was April by the calendar if not by the tree-buds and gardens, and busy preparations for the season's campaign were going forward. General Schuyler took me into his own house, and insisted upon my having a full fortnight's rest, telling me that I needed all my strength for the work he had in mind for me. The repose61 was in truth grateful, after the long and difficult journey I had performed in my enfeebled condition; and what with books and pictures, and the journals of events that had transpired62 during my long absence, and the calls of friends, and the careful kindness of the General and his good wife, I ought to have felt myself indeed happy.
But in some senses it was to me the most vexatious fortnight of the whole spring, for no hour of it all passed in which I was not devoured63 with anxiety to be among my own people again. The General was so pre-occupied and burdened with the stress of public and martial64 business, always in his case carried on for the most part under the embarrassment65 of recurring66 illness, that I shrank from questioning him, and the fear haunted me that it was his intention to send me away again without a visit to my old home. It is true that I might have pleaded an invalid's privileges, but I was really well enough to work with prudence67, and I could not offer to shirk duty at such a time.
But in his own good time the General relieved my mind and made me ashamed that I had ever doubted his considerateness. After breakfast one morning--it was the first, I remember, upon which I wore the new uniform with which I had been forced to replace the rags brought from Quebec--he called me to him in his library, and unfolded to me his plans:
"John Johnson lied to me last January, when I went up there, disarmed68 his Scotchmen, and took his parole. He lied to me here in March, when he came down and denied that he was receiving and despatching spies through the woods to and from Canada. The truth is not in him. During the past month much proof has come to my hands of his hiding arms and powder and lead near the Hall, and of his devil's work among the Mohawks, whom he plots day and night to turn against us. All this time he keeps a smooth tongue for us, but is conspiring70 with his Tory neighbors, and with those who followed Guy to Canada, to do us a mischief71. Now that General Washington is master at Boston, and affairs are moving well elsewhere, there is no reason for further mincing72 of matters in Tryon County. It is my purpose to send Colonel Dayton to Johnstown with part of his regiment, to settle the thing once for all. He will have the aid of Herkimer's militia73 if he needs them, and will arrest Sir John, the leaders of his Scotch69 followers74, and all others, tenants75 and gentlemen alike, whose freedom is a threat to the neighborhood. In short, he will stamp out the whole wasps76 nest.
"You know the Valley well, and your people are there. It is the place for you just now. Here is your commission as major. But you are still attached to my staff. I lend you merely to the Tryon County committee. You will go with Dayton as far as you like--either to Caughnawaga or some near place--perhaps your old home would suit you best. Please yourself. You need not assist in the arrests at Johnstown; that might be painful to you. But after Dayton's return with his prisoners you will be my representative in that district. You have four days in which to make ready. I see the prospect77 pleases you. Good! To-morrow we will discuss it further."
When I got outside I fairly leaped for joy.
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1
crestfallen
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| adj. 挫败的，失望的，沮丧的 | |
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intermittent
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| adj.间歇的，断断续续的 | |
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3
rattle
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| v.飞奔，碰响；激怒；n.碰撞声；拨浪鼓 | |
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4
alas
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| int.唉(表示悲伤、忧愁、恐惧等) | |
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bolstered
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| v.支持( bolster的过去式和过去分词 )；支撑；给予必要的支持；援助 | |
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memorandum
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| n.备忘录，便笺 | |
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disposition
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| n.性情，性格；意向，倾向；排列，部署 | |
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painstaking
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| adj.苦干的；艰苦的，费力的，刻苦的 | |
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dame
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| n.女士 | |
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contented
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| adj.满意的，安心的，知足的 | |
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promotion
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| n.提升，晋级；促销，宣传 | |
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conceal
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| v.隐藏，隐瞒，隐蔽 | |
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lame
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| adj.跛的，(辩解、论据等)无说服力的 | |
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cedars
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| 雪松，西洋杉( cedar的名词复数 ) | |
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incapable
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| adj.无能力的，不能做某事的 | |
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sloven
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| adj.不修边幅的 | |
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deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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paralysis
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| n.麻痹(症)；瘫痪(症) | |
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regained
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| 复得( regain的过去式和过去分词 )； 赢回； 重回； 复至某地 | |
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despoiled
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| v.掠夺，抢劫( despoil的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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belongings
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| n.私人物品，私人财物 | |
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insolent
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| adj.傲慢的，无理的 | |
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rascal
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| n.流氓；不诚实的人 | |
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chattels
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| n.动产，奴隶( chattel的名词复数 ) | |
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obstinate
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| adj.顽固的，倔强的，不易屈服的，较难治愈的 | |
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malevolence
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| n.恶意，狠毒 | |
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proceeding
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| n.行动，进行，(pl.)会议录，学报 | |
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superstitious
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| adj.迷信的 | |
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worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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pious
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| adj.虔诚的；道貌岸然的 | |
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speck
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| n.微粒，小污点，小斑点 | |
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sundry
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| adj.各式各样的，种种的 | |
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unduly
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| adv.过度地，不适当地 | |
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droll
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| adj.古怪的，好笑的 | |
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thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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bustling
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| adj.喧闹的 | |
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resolute
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| adj.坚决的，果敢的 | |
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dictate
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| v.口授；(使)听写；指令，指示，命令 | |
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inclination
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| n.倾斜；点头；弯腰；斜坡；倾度；倾向；爱好 | |
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mania
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| n.疯狂；躁狂症，狂热，癖好 | |
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pique
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| v.伤害…的自尊心，使生气 n.不满，生气 | |
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persistently
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| ad.坚持地；固执地 | |
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fugitive
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| adj.逃亡的，易逝的；n.逃犯，逃亡者 | |
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invalid
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| n.病人，伤残人；adj.有病的，伤残的；无效的 | |
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solitary
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| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
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foes
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| 敌人，仇敌( foe的名词复数 ) | |
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sarcasm
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| n.讥讽，讽刺，嘲弄，反话 （adj.sarcastic） | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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intercourse
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| n.性交；交流，交往，交际 | |
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allusions
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| 暗指，间接提到( allusion的名词复数 ) | |
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51
judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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52
credibly
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| ad.可信地；可靠地 | |
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53
piety
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| n.虔诚，虔敬 | |
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54
rumors
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| n.传闻( rumor的名词复数 )；[古]名誉；咕哝；[古]喧嚷v.传闻( rumor的第三人称单数 )；[古]名誉；咕哝；[古]喧嚷 | |
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55
regiment
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| n.团，多数，管理；v.组织，编成团，统制 | |
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56
accomplished
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| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
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mutinous
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| adj.叛变的，反抗的；adv.反抗地，叛变地；n.反抗，叛变 | |
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58
jealousies
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| n.妒忌( jealousy的名词复数 )；妒羡 | |
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59
sparsely
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| adv.稀疏地；稀少地；不足地；贫乏地 | |
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60
evacuated
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| 撤退者的 | |
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repose
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| v.(使)休息；n.安息 | |
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transpired
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| （事实，秘密等）被人知道( transpire的过去式和过去分词 )； 泄露； 显露； 发生 | |
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63
devoured
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| 吞没( devour的过去式和过去分词 )； 耗尽； 津津有味地看； 狼吞虎咽地吃光 | |
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64
martial
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| adj.战争的，军事的，尚武的，威武的 | |
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embarrassment
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| n.尴尬；使人为难的人(事物)；障碍；窘迫 | |
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recurring
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| adj.往复的，再次发生的 | |
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67
prudence
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| n.谨慎，精明，节俭 | |
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68
disarmed
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| v.裁军( disarm的过去式和过去分词 )；使息怒 | |
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69
scotch
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| n.伤口，刻痕；苏格兰威士忌酒；v.粉碎，消灭，阻止；adj.苏格兰(人)的 | |
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70
conspiring
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| 密谋( conspire的现在分词 )； 搞阴谋； （事件等）巧合； 共同导致 | |
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mischief
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| n.损害，伤害，危害；恶作剧，捣蛋，胡闹 | |
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72
mincing
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| adj.矫饰的；v.切碎；切碎 | |
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militia
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| n.民兵，民兵组织 | |
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74
followers
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| 追随者( follower的名词复数 )； 用户； 契据的附面； 从动件 | |
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tenants
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| n.房客( tenant的名词复数 )；佃户；占用者；占有者 | |
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76
wasps
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| 黄蜂( wasp的名词复数 )； 胡蜂； 易动怒的人； 刻毒的人 | |
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prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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