She tried to sleep and couldn't. Her brain was on fire.
"I must sleep and look my best!" she laughed softly, buried her face in the pillow and laughed again for joy. How could she sleep with her lover standing2 there alive and strong with his arms clasping her to his heart!
She rose at daylight and threw open her window. The air was crisp with the breath of fall. She watched the sun rise in solemn glory. A division of cavalry4 dashed by, the horses' hoofs5 ringing sharply on the cobble stones, sabres clashing. Behind them came another and another, and in a distant street she heard the rumble6 of big guns, the crack of their drivers' whips and the sharp cries of the men urging the horses to a run.
Something unusual was on foot. The sun was barely up and the whole city seemed quivering with excitement.
She dressed hurriedly, snatched a bite of toast and drank a cup of coffee. In twenty minutes she entered the White House to get her pass to the front. She wouldn't go to the War Department. Stanton was rude and might refuse. The hour was absurd, but she knew that the President rose at daylight and that he would see her at any hour.
She found him seated at his desk alone pretending to eat an egg and drink his coffee from the tray that had been placed before him. His dishevelled hair, haggard look and the pallor of his sorrowful face showed only too plainly that he had not slept.
"You have bad news, Mr. President?" Betty gasped7.
He rose, took her hand and led her to a seat.
"Not yet, dear, but I'm expecting it."
"We lost the battle yesterday?" she eagerly asked.
"Apparently8 not. You may read that. I trust you implicitly9."
He handed her the dispatch he had received from General Pope after the first day's fight at Manassas. Betty read it quickly:
"We fought a terrific battle here yesterday with the combined forces of the enemy, which lasted with continuous fury from daylight until dark, by which time the enemy was driven from the field which we now occupy. The enemy is still in our front, but badly used up. We lost not less than eight thousand men killed and wounded, but from the appearance of the field the enemy lost two to one. The news has just reached me from the front that the enemy is retreating toward the mountains."
Betty looked up surprised:
"Isn't that good news?"
"Nothing to brag10 about. It's the last sentence that worries me——"
"But that seems the best!"
"It might be but for the fact that Jackson is leading that retreat toward the mountains! I've an idea that he will turn up to-day on Pope's rear with Lee's whole army on his heels. Jackson is in the habit of appearing where he's least expected——"
He paused, paced the floor a moment in silence and threw his long arms suddenly upward in a hopeless gesture:
"If God would only give me such a man to lead our armies!"
"Is General McClellan at Alexandria to-day?" Betty suddenly asked.
"I'm wondering myself. He should be on that field with every soldier under his command."
"I've come to ask you for a pass to Alexandria——"
"Then my worst fears are confirmed!" he broke in excitedly. "Your sweetheart's on McClellan's staff—his men will never reach the field in time!"
He dropped into a chair, hurriedly wrote the pass and handed it to Betty.
"God bless you, child. See me when you get back and tell me all you learn of McClellan and his men to-day. The very worst is suspected——"
"You mean?"
"That this delay and deliberate trifling11 with the most urgent and positive orders is little short of treason. Unless his men reach Pope to-day and fight, the Capital may be threatened to-morrow."
"Surely!" Betty protested.
"It's just as I tell you, child, but I'll hope for the best. Be eyes and ears for me to-day and you may help me."
The agony of his face and the deep note of tragedy in his voice had taken the joy out of her heart. She threw the feeling off with an effort.
"What has it all to do with my love!" she cried with a toss of her pretty head as she sprang into the saddle for the gallop12 to Alexandria.
The cool, bracing13 air of this first day of September, 1862, was like wine. The dew was yet heavy on the tall grass by the roadside and a song was singing in her heart that made all other music dumb.
John had dismounted and was standing beside the road, the horse's bridle14 hanging on his arm in the very position he had stood and looked into her soul that day.
She leaped to the ground without waiting for his help and sprang into his arms.
"I like you better with that bronzed look—you're handsomer than ever," she sighed at last.
His answer was another kiss, to which he added:
"No amount of sunburn could make you any prettier, dear—you've been perfect from the first."
"Your General is here?" Betty asked.
"Yes."
"And you can give me the whole day?"
"Every hour—the General is my friend."
The moment was too sweet to allow any shadow to cloud it. The girl yielded to its spell without reserve. They mounted and rode side by side over the hills. And the man poured into her ears the unspoken things he had felt and longed to say in the lonely nights of camp and field. The girl confessed the pain and the longing15 of her waiting.
They mounted the crest16 of a hill and the breeze from the southwest brought the sullen17 boom of a cannon18.
Instinctively19 they drew rein20.
"The battle has begun again," John said casually21.
"It stirs your blood, doesn't it?" she whispered.
A frown darkened his brow:
"Not to-day."
The girl looked with quick surprise.
"You don't mean it?"
"Certainly. Why get excited when you know the end before it begins."
"You know it?"
"Yes."
"Victory?"
He laughed cynically22:
"Victory for a pompous23 braggart24 who could write that address to an army reflecting on the men who fought Lee and Jackson before Richmond with such desperate courage?"
"You are sure of defeat then?"
"Absolutely."
Betty looked at him with a flush of angry excitement:
"General McClellan is counting on Pope's defeat to-day?"
"Yes."
"Then it's true that he is not really trying to help him?"
"Why should he wish to sacrifice his brave men under the leadership of a fool?"
"He is, in fact, defying the orders of the President, isn't he?"
"You might say that if you strain a point," John admitted.
Again the long roar of guns boomed on the Western horizon, louder, clearer. The dull echoes became continuous now, and the quickening breeze brought the faint din3 from the vast field of death whose blazing smoke covered lines stretched over seven miles.
"Boom-boom-boom, boom!—boom! boom!"
Again they drew rein and listened.
John's brow wrinkled and his right ear was thrown slightly forward.
"Those are our big guns," he said with a smile. "The Confederate artillery25 can't compare with ours—their infantry26 is a terror—stark, dead game fighters——"
"Boom—Boom!—--Boom! Boom! Boom!"
"How do you know those are our guns?" Betty asked with a shiver.
"The rebels have none so large. They'll have some to-night."
Again an angry flush mounted her cheeks:
"You wish them to be captured?"
"It will be a wholesome27 lesson."
Betty leaned closer and grasped his hand with trembling eagerness.
"O John—John, dear, this is madness! General McClellan has been accused of treason already—this surely is the basest betrayal of his country——"
The man shook his head stubbornly:
"No—it's the highest patriotism28. My Commander is brave enough to dare the authorities at Washington for the good of his country. The sooner this farce29 under Pope ends the better—no man of second rate ability can win against the great Generals of the South."
The girl's keen brown eyes looked steadily30 into his and her lips trembled.
"I call it treachery—the betrayal of his country for his selfish ambitions! I'm surprised that you sympathize with him."
John frowned, was silent and then turned to her with a smile:
"Let's not talk about it, dear. The day's too beautiful. We're alone together. This is not your battle—nor mine—it's Pope's—let him fight it out. I love you—that's all I want to think about to-day."
The golden brown curls were slowly shaken:
"It is your battle and it's mine—O John dear, I'm heartsick over it! The President's anguish31 clouded the morning for me, but the thought of you made me forget. Now I'm scared. You've surprised and shocked me."
"Nonsense, dear!" he pleaded.
She looked at him with quick, eager yearning32.
"You love me?" she asked.
"Can you doubt it?"
"With every beat of your heart?"
"Yes."
"Will you do something for me?" she begged.
"What is it?"
"Just for me, because I ask it, John, and you love me?"
"If I can."
"I want you to resign immediately from McClellan's staff, report at the War Department and let the President give you new duties——"
The man shot her a look of angry amazement33:
"You can't mean this?"
Again the soft, warm hand that had slipped its glove grasped his. He could feel her slim, little fingers tremble. She had turned very pale:
"I'm in dead earnest. I love you, dear, with my whole heart, and it's my love that asks this. I can't think of you betraying a solemn trust. The very thought of it cuts me to the quick. If this is true, General McClellan should be court-martialed."
The man's square jaws34 closed with a snap:
"Let them try it if they dare——"
"The President will dare if he believes it his duty."
"Then he'll hear something from the hundred and fifty thousand soldiers who have served under McClellan."
The little hand pressed harder.
"Won't you, for my sake, dear,—just because I'm your sweetheart and you love me?"
The stalwart figure suddenly stiffened35:
"And you could respect a man who would do a thing like that?"
"For my sake?—Yes."
"No, you think you could. But you couldn't. No woman can really love a poltroon36 or a coward."
"I'm not asking you to do a cowardly thing——"
"To desert my leader in a crisis?"
"To wash your hands of treachery and selfish ambitions."
"But it's not true," he retorted. "You mustn't say that. McClellan's a leader of genius—brave, true, manly37, patriotic38."
"I've a nobler ideal of patriotism——"
"Your blundering backwoodsman in the White House?"
"Yes. He has but one thought—that the union shall be saved. He has no other ambition. If McClellan succeeds, he rejoices. If he fails, he is heartbroken. I know that he has defended him against the assaults of his enemies. He has refused to listen to men who assailed39 his loyalty40 and patriotism. This generous faith your Chief is betraying to-day. That you defend him is horrible—O John, dear, I can't—I won't let you stay! You must break your connection with this conspiracy41 of vain ambition. The country is calling now for every true, unselfish man—please!"
He lifted his hand in firm protest:
"And for that very reason I stand firmly by the man I believe destined42 to save my country."
"You won't change Commanders because I ask it?"
He was silent a moment and a smile played about the corners of his lips:
"Would you change because I asked it?"
"Yes."
"Then come over from Lincoln to McClellan," he laughed.
"And join your group of conspirators—never!"
"Not if I ask it, because I love you?"
"Betty glanced at the stolid43, set face and firm lips."
"Betty glanced at the stolid, set face and firm lips."
Her brown eyes sparkled with anger:
"You'll not find this a joke!"
"That's why I treat it seriously, my dear," was the firm reply. "If I could throw up my position in this war on the sudden impulse of my sweetheart, I'd be ashamed to look a man in the face—and you would despise me!"
"If your Commander succeeds to-day in bringing disaster to our army I'll despise you for aiding him——"
"Let's not discuss it—please, dear!" he begged with a frown.
"As you please," was the cold reply.
They rode on in silence, broken only by the increasing roar of the great guns at Manassas. Betty glanced at the stolid, set face and firm lips. Her anger steadily rose with every throb44 of Pope's cannon. Each low thunder peal45 on the horizon now was a cry for help from dying mangled46 thousands and the man she loved refusing to hear.
Suddenly the picture of his brother flashed before her vision, the high-strung, clean young spirit, chivalrous47, daring, fighting for what he knew to be right—right because right is right, and wrong is wrong.
She looked at John Vaughan with a feeling of fierce anger. Between the two men she preferred the enemy who was fighting in the open to win or die. Her soul went out to Ned in a wave of tender admiration48. Her wrath49 against his brother steadily rose.
Suddenly she drew her rein:
"You need come no further. I'll ride back home alone."
He bit his lips without turning and was silent. She touched her horse with her whip and galloped50 swiftly toward Washington.
The last day of Pope's brief campaign ended in the overwhelming disaster of the second battle of Bull Run. The sound of his cannon reached McClellan's ears, but the organizer of the Army of the Potomac, though ordered to do so, never joined his rival.
Once more the army of the union was hurled51 back on Washington in panic, confusion and appalling52 disaster. Lee and Jackson had crushed Pope's hosts with a rapidity and case that struck terror to the heart of the Nation. General Pope lost fifteen thousand men in a single battle. Lee and Jackson lost less than half as many.
The storm broke over McClellan's head at Washington on his arrival. Stanton and Halleck and Pope accused him of treachery. The hot heads demanded his arrest and trial by court-martial.
The President shook his head, but sadly added:
"He has acted badly toward Pope. He really wanted him to fail."
And then began the search to find the man once more to weld the shattered army into an efficient fighting force.
Abraham Lincoln asked himself this question with a sense of the deepest and most solemn responsibility. He must answer at the bar of his conscience before God and his country. Again he brushed aside every adviser53 inside and outside his Cabinet and determined54 on his choice absolutely alone.
Early on the morning of September 2nd John Vaughan looked from the window of General McClellan's house and saw the giant figure of the President approaching, accompanied by Halleck.
When his aide announced this startling fact, the General coolly said:
"It means my arrest, no doubt. I'm ready. Let them come."
The President was not kept waiting this time. His General was there to receive him.
The rugged55 face was pale and drawn56.
"General McClellan," he began without ceremony, "I have come to ask you to take command of all the returning troops for the defense57 of Washington."
The short, stalwart figure of the General suddenly straightened, his blue eyes flashed with amazement and then softened58 into a misty59 expression. He bowed with dignity and quietly said:
"I accept the position, sir."
"I need not repeat," the President went on, "that I disapprove60 some things you have done. I have made this plain to you. I do this because I believe it's best for our country. I assume its full responsibility and I expect great things of you."
The President bowed and left the astonished General and his still more astonished aide gazing after his long swinging legs returning to the White House.
He had done the most unpopular act of his entire administration. His decision had defied the fiercest popular hostility61. He faced a storm of denunciation which would have appalled62 a less simple and masterful man. The Cabinet meeting which followed the startling news was practically a riot. He listened to all his excited Ministers had to say with patience. When they had spoken their last word of bitter disapproval63 he quietly rose and ended the tumultuous session with two or three sentences which none could answer:
"There is no one in the army who can man these fortifications and lick these troops of ours into shape half as well as he can. McClellan is a great engineer—of the stationary64 type, perhaps. But we must use the tools we have! If he cannot fight himself, at least he excels in making others ready to fight."
He waited for an answer and none came. He had not only averted65 a Cabinet crisis but his remorseless common sense and his unswerving adherence66 to what he saw was best had strengthened his authority over all his councillors.
When the rest had gone he turned to the young man who knew him best, his Secretary, John Nicolay, and gripped his arm with a big hand which was trembling:
"The most painful duty of my official life, Boy! There has been a design, a purpose in breaking down Pope without regard to the consequences to the country that is atrocious. It's shocking to see and know this, but there is no remedy at present. McClellan has the army with him and I must use him."
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1
pier
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| n.码头；桥墩，桥柱；[建]窗间壁，支柱 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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din
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| n.喧闹声，嘈杂声 | |
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cavalry
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| n.骑兵；轻装甲部队 | |
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hoofs
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| n.（兽的）蹄，马蹄( hoof的名词复数 )v.（兽的）蹄，马蹄( hoof的第三人称单数 ) | |
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rumble
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| n.隆隆声；吵嚷；v.隆隆响；低沉地说 | |
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7
gasped
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| v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要 | |
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8
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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implicitly
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| adv. 含蓄地, 暗中地, 毫不保留地 | |
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brag
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| v./n.吹牛，自夸；adj.第一流的 | |
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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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gallop
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| v./n.(马或骑马等)飞奔；飞速发展 | |
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bracing
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| adj.令人振奋的 | |
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bridle
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| n.笼头，束缚；vt.抑制，约束；动怒 | |
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longing
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| n.（for）渴望 | |
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crest
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| n.顶点；饰章；羽冠；vt.达到顶点；vi.形成浪尖 | |
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sullen
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| adj.愠怒的，闷闷不乐的，(天气等)阴沉的 | |
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cannon
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| n.大炮，火炮；飞机上的机关炮 | |
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instinctively
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| adv.本能地 | |
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rein
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| n.疆绳，统治，支配；vt.以僵绳控制，统治 | |
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casually
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| adv.漠不关心地，无动于衷地，不负责任地 | |
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cynically
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| adv.爱嘲笑地，冷笑地 | |
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pompous
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| adj.傲慢的，自大的；夸大的；豪华的 | |
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braggart
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| n.吹牛者；adj.吹牛的，自夸的 | |
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artillery
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| n.(军)火炮，大炮；炮兵(部队) | |
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infantry
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| n.[总称]步兵(部队) | |
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27
wholesome
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| adj.适合；卫生的；有益健康的；显示身心健康的 | |
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patriotism
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| n.爱国精神，爱国心，爱国主义 | |
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farce
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| n.闹剧，笑剧，滑稽戏；胡闹 | |
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30
steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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anguish
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| n.(尤指心灵上的)极度痛苦，烦恼 | |
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yearning
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| a.渴望的；向往的；怀念的 | |
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amazement
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| n.惊奇，惊讶 | |
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jaws
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| n.口部；嘴 | |
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stiffened
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| 加强的 | |
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poltroon
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| n.胆怯者；懦夫 | |
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manly
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| adj.有男子气概的；adv.男子般地，果断地 | |
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patriotic
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| adj.爱国的，有爱国心的 | |
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39
assailed
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| v.攻击( assail的过去式和过去分词 )；困扰；质问；毅然应对 | |
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40
loyalty
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| n.忠诚，忠心 | |
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41
conspiracy
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| n.阴谋，密谋，共谋 | |
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42
destined
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| adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的 | |
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43
stolid
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| adj.无动于衷的，感情麻木的 | |
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throb
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| v.震颤，颤动；(急速强烈地)跳动，搏动 | |
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45
peal
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| n.钟声；v.鸣响 | |
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46
mangled
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| vt.乱砍（mangle的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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47
chivalrous
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| adj.武士精神的；对女人彬彬有礼的 | |
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admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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49
wrath
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| n.愤怒，愤慨，暴怒 | |
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50
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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51
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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52
appalling
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| adj.骇人听闻的，令人震惊的，可怕的 | |
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adviser
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| n.劝告者，顾问 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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55
rugged
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| adj.高低不平的，粗糙的，粗壮的，强健的 | |
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56
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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defense
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| n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩 | |
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58
softened
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| （使）变软( soften的过去式和过去分词 )； 缓解打击； 缓和； 安慰 | |
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59
misty
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| adj.雾蒙蒙的，有雾的 | |
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60
disapprove
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| v.不赞成，不同意，不批准 | |
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61
hostility
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| n.敌对，敌意；抵制［pl.］交战，战争 | |
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62
appalled
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| v.使惊骇，使充满恐惧( appall的过去式和过去分词)adj.惊骇的；丧胆的 | |
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disapproval
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| n.反对，不赞成 | |
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stationary
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| adj.固定的，静止不动的 | |
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averted
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| 防止，避免( avert的过去式和过去分词 )； 转移 | |
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adherence
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| n.信奉，依附，坚持，固着 | |
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