A bright, hot sun shone upon us the next morning--the never-to-be-forgotten 6th. There would have been small need for any waking rattle1 of the drums; the sultry heat made all willing to rise from the hard, dry ground, where sleep had been difficult enough even in the cooler darkness. At six o'clock the camp, such as it was, was all astir.
Breakfast was eaten in little groups squatted2 about in the clearing, or in the shade of the trees at its edges, members of families or close neighbors clustering together in parties once more, to share victuals3 prepared by the same housewives--it may be from the same oven or spit. It might well happen that for many of us this was the last meal on earth, for we were within hearing of the heavy guns of the fort, and when three of these should be fired in succession we were to take up our final six-miles' march. But this reflection made no one sad, apparently4. Everywhere you could hear merry converse5 and sounds of laughter. Listening, no one would have dreamed that this body of men stood upon the threshold of so grave an adventure.
I had been up earlier than most of the others, and had gone over to the spot where the horses were tethered. Of these animals there were some dozen, all told, and their appearance showed that they had had a bad night of it with the flies. After I had seen them led to water and safely brought back, and had watched that in the distribution of the scanty6 store of oats my steed had his proper share, I came back to breakfast with the Stone Arabia men, among whom I had many acquaintances. I contributed some sausages and slices of bread and meat, I remember, to the general stock of food, which was spread out upon one of Isaac Paris's blankets. We ate with a light heart, half-lying on the parched7 grass around the extemporized8 cloth. Some of the young farmers, their meal already finished, were up on their feet, scuffling and wrestling in jest and high spirits. They laughed so heartily9 from time to time that Mr. Paris would call out: "Less noise there, you, or we shall not hear the cannon10 from the fort!"
No one would have thought that this was the morning before a battle.
Eight o'clock arrived, and still there had been no signal. All preparations had long since been made. The saddle-horses of the officers were ready under the shade, their girths properly tightened11. Blankets had been rolled up and strapped12, haversacks and bags properly repacked, a last look taken to flints and priming. The supply-wagon13 stood behind where the General's tent had been, all laden14 for the start, and with the horses harnessed to the pole. Still no signal came!
The men began to grow uneasy with the waiting. It had been against the prevalent feeling of impatience15 that we halted here the preceding day, instead of hastening forward to strike the blow. Now every minute's inaction increased this spirit of restlessness. The militiamen's faces--already saturnine17 enough, what with broken rest and three days' stubble of beard--were clouding over with dislike for the delay.
The sauntering to and fro began to assume a general trend toward the headquarters of the Brigadier. I had visited this spot once or twice before during the early morning to offer suggestions or receive commands. I went again now, having it in mind to report to the General the evident impatience of the men. A doubt was growing with me, too, whether we were not too far away to be sure of hearing the guns from the fort--quite six miles distant.
The privacy of the commander was indifferently secured by the posting of sentries18, who guarded a square perhaps forty feet each way. In the centre of this enclosure was a clump19 of high bushes, with one or two young trees, bunched upon the bank of a tiny rivulet20 now almost dried up. Here, during the night, the General's small army-tent had been pitched, and here now, after the tent had been packed on the wagon, he sat, on the only chair in camp, under the shadow of the bushes, within full view of his soldiers. These were by this time gathered three or four deep around the three front sides of the square, and were gradually pushing the sentries in. Five or six officers stood about the General, talking earnestly with him and with one another, and the growing crowd outside the square were visibly anxious to hear what was going on.
I have said before, I think, that I was the only officer of the Continental21 line in the whole party. This fact, and some trifling22 differences between my uniform and that of the militia16 colonels and majors, had attracted notice, not wholly of an admiring sort. I had had the misfortune, moreover, to learn in camp before Quebec to shave every day, as regularly as if at home, with the result that I was probably the only man in the clearing that morning who wore a clean face. This served further to make me a marked man among such of the farmer boys as knew me only by sight. As I pushed my way through the throng23 to get inside the square, I heard various comments by strangers from Canajoharie or Cherry Valley way.
"There goes Schuyler's Dutchman," said one. "He has brought his friseur with him."
"It would have been more to the point if he had brought some soldiers. Albany would see us hang before she would help us," growled24 another.
"Make way for Mynheer," said a rough joker in the crowd, half-laughing, half-scowling. "What they need inside yonder is some more Dutch prudence25. When they have heard him they will vote to go into winter quarters and fight next spring!"
All this was disagreeable enough, but it was wisest to pretend not to hear, and I went forward to the groups around the Brigadier.
The question under debate was, of course, whether we should wait longer for the signal; or, rather, whether it had not been already fired, and the sound failed to reach us on the sultry, heavy air. There were two opinions upon this, and for a time the difference was discussed in amiability26, if with some heat. The General felt positive that if the shots had been fired we must have heard them.
I seem to see him now, the brave old man, as he sat there on the rough stool, imperturbably27 smoking, and maintaining his own against the dissenting28 officers. Even after some of them grew vexed29, and declared that either the signal had been fired or the express had been captured, and that in either case it would be worse than folly30 to longer remain here, he held his temper. Perhaps his keen black eyes sparkled the brighter, but he kept his tongue calm, and quietly reiterated31 his arguments. The beleaguering32 force outside the fort, he said, must outnumber ours two to one. They had artillery33, and they had regular German troops, the best in Europe, not to mention many hundreds of Indians, all well armed and munitioned34. It would be next to impossible to surprise an army thus supplied with scouts35; it would be practically hopeless to attack them, unless we were backed up by a simultaneous sortie in force from the fort. In that, the Brigadier insisted, lay our only chance of success.
"But I say the sortie will be made! They are waiting for us--only we are too far off to hear their signal!" cried one of the impatient colonels.
"If the wind was in the east," said the Brigadier, "that might be the case. But in breathless air like this I have heard the guns from that fort two miles farther back."
"Our messengers may not have got through the lines last night," put in Thomas Spencer, the half-breed. "The swamp back of the fort is difficult travelling, even to one who knows it better than Helmer does, and Butler's Indians are not children, to see only straight ahead of their noses."
"Would it not be wise for Spencer here, and some of our young trappers, or some of Skenandoah's Indians, to go forward and spy out the land for us?" I asked.
"These would do little good now," answered Herkimer; "the chief thing is to know when Gansevoort is ready to come out and help us."
"The chief thing to know, by God," broke forth36 one of the colonels, with a great oath, "is whether we have a patriot37 or a Tory at our head!"
Herkimer's tanned and swarthy face changed color at this taunt38. He stole a swift glance at me, as if to say, "This is what I warned you was to be looked for," and smoked his pipe for a minute in silence.
His brother-in-law, Colonel Peter Bellinger, took the insult less tamely.
"The man who says Honikol Herkimer is a Tory lies," he said, bluntly, with his hand on his sword-hilt, and honest wrath39 in his gray eyes.
"Peace, Peter," said the Brigadier. "Let them think what they like. It is not my affair. My business is to guard the lives of these young men here, as if I were their father. I am a childless man, yet here I am as the parent of all of them. I could not go back again and look their mothers in the eye if I had led them into trouble which could be avoided."
"We are not here to avoid trouble, but rather to seek it," shouted Colonel Cox, angrily.
He spoke40 loud enough to be heard by the throng beyond, which now numbered four-fifths of our whole force, and there rolled back to us from them a loud answering murmur41 of approval. At the sound of this, others came running up to learn what was going on; and the line, hitherto with difficulty kept back by the sentries, was broken in in more than one place. Matters looked bad for discipline, or wise action of any sort.
"A man does not show his bravery by running his head at a stone wall," said the Brigadier, still striving to keep his temper, but rising to his feet as he spoke.
"Will you give the order to go on?" demanded Cox, in a fierce tone, pitched even higher.
"Lead us on!" came loud shouts from many places in the crowd. There was a general pushing in of the line now, and some men at the back, misinterpreting this, began waving their hats and cheering.
"Give us the word, Honikol!" they yelled.
Still Herkimer stood his ground, though with rising color.
"What for a soldier are you," he called out, sharply, "to make mutiny like this? Know you not your duty better?"
"Our duty is to fight, not to sit around here in idleness. At least we are not cowards," broke in another, who had supported Cox from the outset.
"You!" cried Herkimer, all roused at last. "You will be the first to run when you see the British!"
There was no longer any pretence42 of keeping the square. The excited farmers pressed closely about us now, and the clamor was rising momentarily. All thought of order or military grade was gone. Men who had no rank whatever thrust their loud voices into the council, so that we could hear nothing clearly.
There was a brief interchange of further hot words between the Brigadier, Colonel Bellinger, and John Frey on the one side, and the mutinous43 colonels and men on the other. I heard the bitter epithets44 of "Tory" and "coward" hurled45 at the old man, who stood with chin defiant46 in air, and dark eyes ablaze47, facing his antagonists48. The scene was so shameful49 that I could scarce bear to look upon it.
There came a hurly-burly of confusion and tumult50 as the shouts of the crowd grew more vehement51, and one of the refractory52 colonels impetuously drew his sword and half turned as if to give the command himself.
Then I heard Herkimer, too incensed53 to longer control himself, cry: "If you will have it so, the blood be on your heads." He sprang upon the stool at this, waved his sword, and shouted so that all the eight hundred could hear:
"VORW?RTS!"
The tall pines themselves shook with the cheer which the yeomen raised.
There was a scramble54 on the instant for muskets55, bags, and belongings56. To rush was the order. We under-officers caught the infection, and with no dignity at all hurried across the clearing to our horses. We cantered back in a troop, Barent Coppernol leading the Brigadier's white mare57 at a hand-gallop by our side. Still trembling with excitement, yet perhaps somewhat reconciled to the adventure by the exultant58 spirit of the scene before him, General Herkimer got into the saddle, and watched closely the efforts of the colonels, now once more all gratified enthusiasm, to bring their eager men into form. It had been arranged that Cox with his Canajoharie regiment59 should have the right of the line, and this body was ready and under way in less time, it seemed, than I have taken to write of it. The General saw the other three regiments60 trooped, told Visscher to bring the supply-wagon with the rear, and then, with Isaac Paris, Jelles Fonda, and myself, galloped61 to the head of the column, where Spencer and Skenandoah with the Oneida Indians were.
So marching swiftly, and without scouts, we started forth at about nine in the morning.
The road over which we hurried was as bad, even in those hot, dry days of August, as any still to be found in the Adirondacks. The bottom-lands of the Mohawk Valley, as is well known, are of the best farming soil in the world, but for that very reason they make bad roads. The highway leading to the fort lay for the most part over low and springy land, and was cut through the thick beech62 and hemlock63 forest almost in a straight line, regardless of swales and marshy64 places. These had been in some instances bridged indifferently by corduroys of logs, laid the previous spring when Gansevoort dragged up his cannon for the defence of the fort, and by this time too often loose and out of place. We on horseback found these rough spots even more trying than did the footmen; but for all of us progress was slow enough, after the first excitement of the start had passed away.
There was no outlook at any point. We were hedged in everywhere by walls of foliage65, of mossy tree-trunks covered with vines, of tangled66 undergrowth and brush. When we had gained a hill-top, nothing more was to be seen than the dark-brown band of logs on the gully bottom before us, and the dim line of road losing itself in a mass of green beyond.
Neither Herkimer nor Paris had much to say, as we rode on in the van. Major Fonda made sundry67 efforts to engage them in talk, as if there had been no recent dispute, no harsh words, no angry recriminations, but without special success. For my part, I said nothing whatever. Surely there was enough to think of, both as to the miserable68 insubordination of an hour back, and as to what the next hour might bring.
We had passed over about the worst of these patches of corduroy road, in the bottom of a ravine between two hills, where a little brook69, dammed in part by the logs, spread itself out over the swampy70 soil on both sides. We in the van had nearly gained the summit of the farther eminence71, and were resting for the moment to see how Visscher should manage with his wagon in the rear. Colonel Cox had also turned in his saddle, some ten yards farther down the hill, and was calling back angrily to his men to keep in the centre of the logs and not tip them up by walking on the ends.
While I looked Barent Coppernol called out to me: "Do you remember? This is where we camped five years ago."
Before I could answer I heard a rifle report, and saw Colonel Cox fall headlong upon the neck of his horse.
There was a momentary72 glimpse of dark forms running back, a strange yell, a shot or two--and then the gates of hell opened upon us.
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收听单词发音
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1
rattle
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| v.飞奔，碰响；激怒；n.碰撞声；拨浪鼓 | |
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2
squatted
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| v.像动物一样蹲下( squat的过去式和过去分词 )；非法擅自占用（土地或房屋）；为获得其所有权；而占用某片公共用地。 | |
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3
victuals
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| n.食物；食品 | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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converse
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| vi.谈话，谈天，闲聊；adv.相反的，相反 | |
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6
scanty
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| adj.缺乏的，仅有的，节省的，狭小的，不够的 | |
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7
parched
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| adj.焦干的；极渴的；v.（使）焦干 | |
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8
extemporized
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| v.即兴创作，即席演奏( extemporize的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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9
heartily
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| adv.衷心地，诚恳地，十分，很 | |
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10
cannon
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| n.大炮，火炮；飞机上的机关炮 | |
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11
tightened
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| 收紧( tighten的过去式和过去分词 )； （使）变紧； （使）绷紧； 加紧 | |
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12
strapped
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| adj.用皮带捆住的，用皮带装饰的；身无分文的；缺钱；手头紧v.用皮带捆扎(strap的过去式和过去分词)；用皮带抽打；包扎；给…打绷带 | |
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13
wagon
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| n.四轮马车，手推车，面包车；无盖运货列车 | |
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14
laden
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| adj.装满了的；充满了的；负了重担的；苦恼的 | |
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15
impatience
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| n.不耐烦，急躁 | |
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16
militia
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| n.民兵，民兵组织 | |
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saturnine
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| adj.忧郁的，沉默寡言的，阴沉的，感染铅毒的 | |
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sentries
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| 哨兵，步兵( sentry的名词复数 ) | |
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clump
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| n.树丛，草丛；vi.用沉重的脚步行走 | |
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rivulet
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| n.小溪，小河 | |
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continental
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| adj.大陆的，大陆性的，欧洲大陆的 | |
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trifling
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| adj.微不足道的；没什么价值的 | |
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23
throng
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| n.人群，群众；v.拥挤，群集 | |
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24
growled
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| v.（动物）发狺狺声， （雷）作隆隆声( growl的过去式和过去分词 )；低声咆哮着说 | |
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25
prudence
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| n.谨慎，精明，节俭 | |
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26
amiability
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| n.和蔼可亲的，亲切的，友善的 | |
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imperturbably
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| adv.泰然地，镇静地，平静地 | |
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28
dissenting
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| adj.不同意的 | |
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29
vexed
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| adj.争论不休的；（指问题等）棘手的；争论不休的问题；烦恼的v.使烦恼( vex的过去式和过去分词 )；使苦恼；使生气；详细讨论 | |
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30
folly
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| n.愚笨，愚蠢，蠢事，蠢行，傻话 | |
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31
reiterated
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| 反复地说，重申( reiterate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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32
beleaguering
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| v.围攻( beleaguer的现在分词 )；困扰；骚扰 | |
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33
artillery
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| n.(军)火炮，大炮；炮兵(部队) | |
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34
munitioned
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| v.给某部门提供军火( munition的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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35
scouts
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| 侦察员[机，舰]( scout的名词复数 )； 童子军； 搜索； 童子军成员 | |
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36
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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patriot
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| n.爱国者，爱国主义者 | |
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38
taunt
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| n.辱骂，嘲弄；v.嘲弄 | |
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39
wrath
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| n.愤怒，愤慨，暴怒 | |
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40
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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41
murmur
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| n.低语，低声的怨言；v.低语，低声而言 | |
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42
pretence
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| n.假装，作假；借口，口实；虚伪；虚饰 | |
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43
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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44
epithets
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| n.（表示性质、特征等的）词语( epithet的名词复数 ) | |
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45
hurled
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| v.猛投，用力掷( hurl的过去式和过去分词 )；大声叫骂 | |
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46
defiant
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| adj.无礼的，挑战的 | |
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47
ablaze
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| adj.着火的，燃烧的；闪耀的，灯火辉煌的 | |
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48
antagonists
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| 对立[对抗] 者，对手，敌手( antagonist的名词复数 )； 对抗肌； 对抗药 | |
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49
shameful
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| adj.可耻的，不道德的 | |
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50
tumult
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| n.喧哗；激动，混乱；吵闹 | |
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51
vehement
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| adj.感情强烈的；热烈的；(人)有强烈感情的 | |
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52
refractory
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| adj.倔强的，难驾驭的 | |
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53
incensed
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| 盛怒的 | |
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54
scramble
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| v.爬行，攀爬，杂乱蔓延，碎片，片段，废料 | |
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55
muskets
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| n.火枪，（尤指）滑膛枪( musket的名词复数 ) | |
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56
belongings
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| n.私人物品，私人财物 | |
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57
mare
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| n.母马，母驴 | |
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58
exultant
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| adj.欢腾的，狂欢的，大喜的 | |
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59
regiment
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| n.团，多数，管理；v.组织，编成团，统制 | |
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regiments
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| （军队的）团( regiment的名词复数 )； 大量的人或物 | |
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61
galloped
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| （使马）飞奔，奔驰( gallop的过去式和过去分词 )； 快速做[说]某事 | |
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62
beech
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| n.山毛榉；adj.山毛榉的 | |
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63
hemlock
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| n.毒胡萝卜，铁杉 | |
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64
marshy
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| adj.沼泽的 | |
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65
foliage
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| n.叶子，树叶，簇叶 | |
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66
tangled
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| adj. 纠缠的，紊乱的 动词tangle的过去式和过去分词 | |
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67
sundry
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| adj.各式各样的，种种的 | |
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68
miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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69
brook
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| n.小河，溪；v.忍受，容让 | |
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70
swampy
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| adj.沼泽的，湿地的 | |
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71
eminence
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| n.卓越，显赫；高地，高处；名家 | |
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momentary
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| adj.片刻的，瞬息的；短暂的 | |
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