“I think my heart will break,” she sobbed; and with that last cry she left him standing there.
CHAPTER XXVIII—VERIFIED SUSPICIONS
| “The way is long, my children, long and rough, The moors are dreary, the woods are dark; But he that creeps from cradle on to grave, Unskil’d save in the velvet course of fortune, Hath miss’d the discipline of noble hearts.” —Old Play. |
How could he do it? the girl asked herself as she made her way with unseeing eyes back to her cousin’s dwelling. After all his years of service, after enduring hardships that would tax any man’s soul to the utmost, to desert now. What had become of the spirit that had carried him through all that dreadful march through the wilderness to Quebec? Where was the enthusiasm that had sustained him through the disastrous campaigns of South Carolina? Oh, it was past all belief!
Many patriots, she knew, had come to consider the American cause hopeless; many of the best men were weary of the long war; many also had lost interest because of the French Alliance; but that John Drayton had deserted because he had been sent to serve under the Marquis de Lafayette she could not believe. Had he not told her with exultation at Middlebrook that he was to be in that same Marquis’s corps of light infantry?
That was not the reason, she told herself miserably. It was plain to her that he had heard from the traitor Arnold who, to add to his infamy, had sought repeatedly to corrupt the men of his former command. Undoubtedly Drayton had been won from his allegiance through his affection for his old leader.
Harriet and Clifford cantered to the gate just as she was entering the door of the dwelling. Harriet called to her gleefully as she dismounted:
“You should have gone with us, Peggy. ’Twas vastly enjoyable. What think you? Lord Cornwallis himself rode with us for a time. He is to dine with father on Monday. Why! what hath happened?” she broke off at sight of her cousin’s pale cheeks and woe-filled eyes.
“She hath seen the Yankee captain,” exclaimed Clifford joining them. “Is not that the trouble, my cousin?”
“Yes,” assented Peggy drearily. “I saw him, Clifford. Oh!” with sudden enlightenment, “was his desertion what thee was keeping from me?”