“Law, Becky,” Lettice said, at last out of patience, “you fairly provoke me. What is the use of your snivelling and sniffling? There is nothing to be gained by it, and you only draw attention to yourself; that is what you want, I shall believe, if you don’t stop. Look at Sally Weeks, she is as still as a mouse.” Nevertheless, in spite of any effort to make light of the situation, it was a hard ordeal for them all; for instead of reaching their homes that evening, as they had expected, they were all night under guard, and the next morning saw a wan and weary company.
“How much longer shall we be kept here?” Lettice asked her brother, wistfully. But the answer came with the order to remove the prisoners to an old boat. “You are allowed a permit from the admiral to proceed to Queenstown,” they were told, and they did not dare to resent the impertinence of the message.
It was a long and uncomfortable trip which was before them; for with scarcely any food, and with no water at all, after their night of detention, and upon a miserable hulk of a boat, which made but slow progress, it was as forlorn a company as one might wish to see, which at last landed at Queenstown in Chester River. But the effect of this was that not one of the party but felt that when the moment came, he or she would do the utmost to work revenge.
CHAPTER VIII.
First Blood.
“Cockburn is coming!” This was the news that was borne from lip to lip, and Lettice was made to repeat her experience over and over. It must be said that she did rather needlessly enlarge upon the terrors of the occasion when Lutie was the listener, and the eyes of that sable maiden grew bigger and bigger as Lettice described Admiral Cockburn’s appearance: a great big man, as tall as a locust tree, with fiery red hair and blazing eyes and a long beard that blew out like the tail of a comet; so he appeared to Lutie’s vision, her imagination adding hoofs and horns; and he became the theme of Jubal’s perorations, taking the place of “Poly Bonypart” as a bugaboo to scare the children and the more timid girls. And not without reason; for a terrifying account of a raid upon Havre-de-Grâce and other towns in the upper Chesapeake was cause enough for alarm.
It was Birket Dean who came galloping over with news: “Cockburn, with a big force of men, has been playing havoc up in Kent and Cecil counties, and even beyond. Havre-de-Grâce has suffered; every one has been plundered, and the ravagers weren’t satisfied with that, but went up the Sassafras and destroyed Fredericktown and Georgetown. They say that the women pleaded and begged that he would spare their homes, but he refused, and the houses were burned to the ground; and he says he’ll not be satisfied till he has burned every building in Baltimore.”
“Oh, does he mean to go there next?” Lettice asked in excitement.
“They say he doubtless did intend to, but he has heard through his friends among the Peace men that the lookout boats are stationed all the way down the Patapsco, and that there are videttes along the shores of the bay and the river, and besides, the City Brigade will be ready for them. They fired alarm guns in Baltimore and had all the troops out, but the redcoats passed by Annapolis and Baltimore and went to the upper bay. A great many people moved out of the city, I am told.”
“Do you suppose there can really be any danger of their coming here?” Betty asked, holding her baby very closely.