Part 38 (1/2)
He heard the sentinel drop the b.u.t.t of his musket heavily against the earth, utter an exclamation and then run toward them. His shout had also been heard at the tavern, and the guests, bareheaded, began to pour out, and look about confusedly to see whence the alarm had come.
Robert looked at the sentinel who was approaching rapidly, and then he turned to see what St Luc would do. But the Frenchman was gone. Near them was a ma.s.s of shrubbery and he believed that he had flitted into it, as silently as the pa.s.sing of a shadow. But the sentinel had caught a glimpse of the dusky figure, and he cried:
”Who was he? What is it?”
”A spy!” replied Robert hastily. ”A Frenchman whom I have seen in Canada! I think he sprang into those bushes and flowers!”
The sentinel and Robert rushed into the shrubbery but nothing was there. As they looked about in the dusk, Robert heard a refrain, distant, faint and taunting:
”Hier sur le pont d'Avignon J'ai oui chanter la belle Lon, la.”
It was only for an instant, then it died like a summer echo, and he knew that St. Luc was gone. An immense weight rolled from him. He had done what he should have done, but the result that he feared had not followed.
”I can find nothing, sir,” said the sentinel, who recognized in Robert one of superior rank.
”Nor I, but you saw the figure, did you not?”
”I did, sir. 'Twas more like a shadow, but 'twas a man, I'll swear.”
Robert was glad to have the sentinel's testimony, because in another moment the revelers were upon him, making sport of him for his false alarm, and a.s.serting that not his eyes but the punch he had drunk had seen a French spy.
”I scarce tasted the punch,” said Robert, ”and the soldier here is witness that I spoke true.”
A farther and longer search was organized, but the Frenchman had vanished into the thinnest of thin air. As Robert walked with Willet and Tayoga back to the tavern, the hunter said:
”I suppose it was St. Luc?”
”Yes, but why did you think it was he?”
”Because it was just the sort of deed he would do. Did you speak with him?”
”Yes, and I told him I must give the alarm. He disappeared with amazing speed and silence.”
Robert made a brief report the next day to Governor Dinwiddie, not telling that St. Luc and he had spoken together, stating merely that he had seen him, giving his name, and describing him as one of the most formidable of the French forest leaders.
”I thank you, Mr. Lennox,” said the Governor. ”Your information shall be conveyed to General Braddock. Yet I think our force will be too great for the wilderness bands.”
On the following day they were at Alexandria on the Potomac, where the great council was to be held. Here Braddock's camp was spread, and in a large tent he met Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia, Governor de Lancey of New York, Governor Sharpe of Maryland, Governor Dobbs of North Carolina and Governor s.h.i.+rley of Ma.s.sachusetts, an elderly lawyer, but the ablest and most energetic of all the governors.
It was the most momentous council yet held in North America, and all the young officers waited with the most intense eagerness the news from the tent. Robert saw Braddock as he went in, a middle-aged man of high color and an obstinate chin. Grosvenor gave him some of the gossip about the general.
”London has many stories of him,” he said. ”He has spent most of his life in the army. He is a gambler, but brave, rough but generous, irritable, but often very kind. Opposition inflames him, but he likes zeal and good service. He is very fond of your young Mr. Was.h.i.+ngton, who, I hear is much of a man.”
The council in the great tent was long and weighty, and well it might have been, even far beyond the wildest thoughts of any of the partic.i.p.ants. These were the beginnings of events that shook not only America but Europe for sixty years. In the tent they agreed upon a great and comprehensive scheme of campaign that had been proposed some time before. Braddock would proceed with his attack upon Fort Duquesne, s.h.i.+rley would see that the forces of New England seized Beausejour and De Lancey would have Colonel William Johnson to move upon Crown Point and then Niagara. Acadia also would be taken. Dinwiddie after s.h.i.+rley was the most vigorous of the governors, and he promised that the full force of Virginia should be behind Braddock. But to s.h.i.+rley was given the great vision. He foresaw the complete disappearance of French power from North America, and, to achieve a result that he desired so much, it was only necessary for the colonists to act together and with vigor. While he recognized in Braddock infirmities of temper and insufficient knowledge of his battlefield, he knew him to be energetic and courageous and he believed that the first blow, the one that he was to strike at Fort Duquesne, would inflict a mortal blow upon France in the New World. In every vigorous measure that he proposed Dinwiddie backed him, and the other governors, overborne by their will, gave their consent.
While Robert sat with his friends in the shade of a grove, awaiting the result of the deliberations in the tent, his attention was attracted by a strong, thick-set figure in a British uniform.
”Colonel Johnson!” he cried, and running forward he shook hands eagerly with Colonel William Johnson.