Part 35 (1/2)

Allan was entirely hospitable. ”Certainly, sir! Spread your cloak just there--the wind will blow the smoke the other way. Well, we'll all be glad to see the army!”

”What are you reading?”

Allan showed him. ”Humph!--

Its pa.s.sions will rock thee As the storms rock the ravens on high; Bright reason will mock thee--

Well--we all know the man was a seer.”

He laid the book down upon the grey cloak lined with red and sat with his chin in his hand, staring at the fire. Some moments elapsed before he spoke; then, ”You have known Richard Cleave for a long time?”

”Yes. Ever since we were both younger than we are now. I like him better than any one I know--and I think he's fond of me.”

”He seems to have warm friends.”

”He has. He's true as steel, and big-minded. He's strong-thewed--in and out.”

”A little clumsily simple sometimes, do you not think? Lawyer and soldier grafted on Piers Ploughman, and the seams not well hidden? I would say there's a lack of grace--”

”I have not noticed it,” said Allan dryly. ”He's a very good leader.”

The other smiled, though only with the lips. ”Oh, I am not decrying him!

Why should I? I have heard excellent things of him. He is a favourite, is he not, with General Jackson?”

”I don't think that General Jackson has favourites.”

”At least, he is no longer in disfavour. I remember toward the close of the Romney expedition--”

”Oh, that!” said Allan, ”that was nothing.” He put down his pipe. ”Let me see if I can explain to you the ways of this army. You don't know General Jackson as we do, who have been with him ever since a year ago and Harper's Ferry! In any number of things he's as gentle as a woman; in a few others he--isn't. In some things he's like iron. He's rigid in his discipline, and he'll tolerate no shade of insubordination, or disobedience, or neglect of duty. He's got the defect of his quality, and sometimes he'll see those things where they are not. He doesn't understand making allowances or forgiving. He'll rebuke a man in general orders, hold him up--if he's an officer--before the troops, and all for something that another general would hardly notice! He'll make an officer march without his sword for whole days in the rear of his regiment, and all for something that just a reprimand would have done for! As you say, he made the very man we're talking of do that from Bloomery Gap to Romney--and n.o.body ever knew why. Just the other day there were some poor fools of twelve-month men in one of our regiments who concluded they didn't want to reenlist. They said they'd go home and cried out for their discharge. And they had forgotten all about the conscription act that Congress had just pa.s.sed. So, when the discharge was refused they got dreadfully angry, and threw down their arms. The colonel went to the general, and the general almost put him under arrest. 'Why does Colonel Grigsby come to me to learn how to deal with mutineers? Shoot them where they stand.'--Kernstown, too. There's hardly a man of the Stonewall that doesn't think General Garnett justified in ordering that retreat, and yet look at Garnett! Under arrest, and the commanding general preferring charges against him! Says he did not wait for orders, lost the battle and so on. With Garnett it is a deadly serious matter--rank and fame and name for courage all in peril--”

”I see. But with Richard Cleave it was not serious?”

”Not in the least. These smaller arrests and censures--not even the best can avoid them. I shouldn't think they were pleasant, for sometimes they are mentioned in reports, and sometimes they get home to the womenfolk.

But his officers understand him by now, and they keep good discipline, and they had rather be led by Stonewall Jackson than by an easier man.

As for Richard Cleave, I was with him on the march to McDowell and he looked a happy man.”

”Ah!”

The conversation dropped. The scout, having said his say, easily relapsed into silence. His visitor, half reclining upon his cloak beneath an old, gnarled tree, was still. The firelight played strangely over his face, for now it seemed the face of one man, now that of another. In the one aspect he looked intent, as though in his mind he mapped a course. In the other he showed only weariness, dashed with something tragic--a handsome, brooding, melancholy face. They stayed like this for some time, the fire burning before them, the moon flooding the forest, the owl hooting from his hole in some decaying tree.

At last, however, another sound intruded, a very low, subdued sound like a distant ground swell or like thunder without resonance. It grew; dull yet, it became deep. Allan knocked the ashes from his pipe. ”That is a sound,” he said, ”that when you have once heard you don't forget. The army's coming.”

Stafford rose. ”I must get back to General Ewell! Thank you, Gold, for your hospitality.”

”Not at all! Not at all!” said Allan heartily. ”I am glad that I could put that matter straight for you. It would blight like black frost to have Stonewall Jackson's hand and mind set against you--and Richard Cleave is not the least in that predicament!”

The Army of the Valley, advance and main column, and rearguard, artillery and wagon train, came down the moon-lighted road, having marched twenty miles since high noon. On either hand stretched pleasant pastures, a running stream, fair woods. Company by company the men left the road, were halted, stacked arms, broke ranks. Cessation from motion was sweet, sweet the feel of turf beneath their feet. They had had supper three hours before; now they wanted sleep, and without much previous ado they lay down and took it--Stonewall Jackson's ”foot cavalry” sleeping under the round moon, by Mt. Solon.

At the mill there was a meeting and a conference. A figure in an old cloak and a shabby forage cap dismounted, ungracefully enough, from a tired nag, and crossed the uncovered porch to the wide mill door. There he was met by his future trusty and trusted lieutenant--”dear d.i.c.k Ewell.” Jackson's greeting was simple to baldness. Ewell's had the precision of a captain of dragoons. Together they entered the small mill office, where the aides placed lights and writing materials, then withdrew. The generals sat down, one on this side of the deal table, one on that. Jackson took from his pocket a lemon, very deliberately opened a knife, and, cutting the fruit in two, put one half of the sour treasure to his lips. Ewell fidgeted, then, as the other sucked on, determined to set the ball rolling. ”d.a.m.n me, general! if I am not glad to have the pleasure at last--”

Jackson sent across the table a grey-blue glance, then gently put down one half of the lemon and took up the other. ”Why the deuce should he look at me in that d.a.m.ned reproachful fas.h.i.+on?” thought Ewell. He made another start. ”There's a d.a.m.ned criss-cross of advices from Richmond.