Part 6 (1/2)

Tishcohantin, the Delaware, was doing most of the talking, pacing back and forth in the middle of the circle holding a string of wampum in his left hand. Croghan said they did that to give their words weight; the number of times the speaker twisted the wampum around his wrist indicated the importance of what he had to say. Also, at least according to the Irishman, the reason the Delaware had that squirrelskin tobacco bag with the pipe sticking out hanging around his neck was to show himself a man of peace. Peace be d.a.m.ned. Not now. Not yet. Peace has to be earned. And you, you blighted heathen, had best say soon if you're for us or against us. I shan't tolerate that icy stare much longer.

Tishcohantin of the Lenape-whom the whites, the Cmokmanuk, called Delaware-had made four loops of wampum around his left wrist. Now he spoke slowly, with no outward emotion, and his steady gaze never left the face of the young Virginian. ”Last winter I warned your people, and the winter before that. Still you English did nothing. For two winters Onontio has come and built his forts in this valley, and you did not listen when I told you what that meant. Now, after you have spent the strength of your warriors coming to this place and divided your forces, three hundred of them here and another hundred left back at your new fort ...” Tishcohantin looked at Croghan, then at Tanaghrisson.

Those two understand my words, but not this young one who is supposed to be the leader, the war sachem. No matter. The others will tell him I have taken his measure. Four hundred men altogether. They say more are on the way, but if they come-and knowing these English, they may not-where will he put them? That p.i.s.sing hole he calls Fort Necessity, which is now a hard journey behind him? If he meant to make a stand at Great Meadows he should have stayed there. Getting this far on the way to his enemy has wrecked his wagons, and they and his heavy guns have made bad paths worse. I know every stupid thing he has done and still he wants me to take up the hatchet to fight for the English against the French. Why should I do that? Why should any of us?

Was.h.i.+ngton stared back, uncomprehending of anything except the question in the red man's eyes. He leaned toward Tanaghrisson. ”Tell him it is my intention to march on and take Fort Duquesne. Tell him we'll rout all the French, all Onontio's soldiers, from this valley. If the Delaware and the others will fight with us, together we will become stronger than before and all can live in peace.”

Tishcohantin began speaking again, before the snake Half King could say anything. Before the boy who wanted to be a war sachem realized that Tishcohantin the Lenape understood his language, though he refused to speak it. ”If you English and the French are going to fight here, this valley will not be safe for our families. We will have to move them to your settlements in the places you call Pennsylvania and Virginia.” He spun around so he was facing the Mingo and the Shawnee. ”And what would our women and children be in those places, those white s.h.i.+tholes where men and women separate themselves from the feel and the smell of the world the Great Spirit made and lose touch with all reality? They will be refugees, strangers without respect. And do these English know anything about hospitality? You all know well that they do not.” Tishcohantin paused for the length of one long breath.

”Once there were Anis.h.i.+nabeg in those places where now only the Cmokmanuk live. It is impossible for Real People and English to live side by side. Little by little they are squeezing the life out of us. They have a sickness these people, a hunger for land. They think they can take possession of the very earth beneath our feet. The French come and trade-sometimes, I admit, they fight and try to kill us-but eventually they go away. The English bring their women and children and they remain. They bring only ruin. Are we to take up the hatchet for them, commit our braves to fight and die, so that afterward they can overrun us? This is a plan without wisdom.”

The face of the Half King remained impa.s.sive, but he read the decision of the others in their eyes. Tishcohantin the Lenape had convinced them. Ayi! Not only would they not fight with Was.h.i.+ngton, they would most likely take up the hatchet for Onontio, who was not dead after all, however hard he, the mighty Tanaghrisson, had tried to kill him.

The Half King flicked a quick glance at Croghan, the Irishman. He knew it as well. It was plain on his face. Would he tell Was.h.i.+ngton? Maybe. Maybe not. But it did not matter whether or not the Virginia sachem knew. It was over. The great plan for removing Onontio from the Ohio Country had failed. Tanaghrisson felt a little s.h.i.+ver deep in his belly, a knowing that was coming to lodge in his gut. It would probably kill him, this knowing. But first he and his would suffer more. May the Great Spirit curse all Cmokmanuk, and forgive us for ever thinking we could live with them in this place.

”Why do you return alone?” Tanaghrisson's wife asked. ”Where are the soldiers and the others who left with you?”

”hey are not here.”

”I can see that. Do you think something has happened to my eyes?”

”You have a squirrel's tongue. Click-clack, click-clack and you say nothing. It makes me tired to listen to you. Get everything ready, we are leaving.”

”All of us?” Her husband had brought eighty people here, twelve of them braves, the rest women and children and old people.

”All,” he said.

”A far distance?”

Tanaghrisson shrugged and she knew that meant probably yes.

So. Another journey with cranky children, exhausted elders, no proper cooking fires, and all the other discomforts that went with such treks. At least four of the women with full bellies would have to deliver on the trail, without a proper birthing lodge. Men were stupid, but it was never any different. ”Perhaps you will take just the braves,” she urged, ”leave the rest of us behind to follow some other time.”

”I said all. Can you not understand plain speech?”

Ayi! There was no hope for it now. ”Where are we going?”

He wasn't sure. Aughwick, Croghan's trading post, perhaps. Three days' journey east. Maybe four with the squaws and the children. ”When we get there, you will know where we are. Pack.”

Tanaghrisson turned away and looked at the death trap Was.h.i.+ngton called Fort Necessity. This little thing on the meadow should have told him he'd made a bad bargain as soon as it was built. The notion of a pact with the English to defeat Onontio and make him, Tanaghrisson, the lord of all the war chiefs in the Ohio Country required batde-seasoned allies. Instead he'd a.s.sociated himself with a few ill-trained soldiers in a stockade with split-log walls just a little taller than the Virginia sachem himself. The s.p.a.ce within it was hardly big enough to shelter some weapons and a few tents. A man could walk the whole circle in forty strides.

The runner he'd sent out had brought word a short time before. Five hundred of Onontio's heavily armed soldiers had left Fort Duquesne. And as he'd feared, a hundred Lenape and Mingo marched with them. If Onontio met the Americans in the forest, Was.h.i.+ngton and his men would all die swiftly. If the French came here they would place themselves in the hills that surrounded this meadow and easily kill the forts defenders one by one. Tanaghrisson sighed. The sense of disaster was a physical thing. It s.h.i.+vered in his belly now as it had a few days ago back at Gist's trading post. ”Pack,” he said again. ”I will tell the others.”

His wife looked at him shrewdly. ”You have lost everything you wagered. How did this happen?”

”This Was.h.i.+ngton is a good-natured boy who will someday be a good man, but he has no experience.” Tanaghrisson glanced again at the ill-sited fort with its paltry defenses. ”Worse, he will not listen to those who have.”

Two days later Was.h.i.+ngton got word that Tanaghrisson and his followers-including his dozen braves-had left Great Meadows. He sent a messenger to try and get the Half King to return, but didn't have much hope of success. There were only a couple of Indians with them now, malcontents who preferred to stay rather than leave with their companions, and they were not to be trusted. For all intents and purposes, he and his men were marching on alone. It was hard not to give in to a certain despair. No, he told himself, despair had no place in a heroic life. He was meant for greatness. He had been ordered to rid the Ohio Country of the French and he would do so. But without substantial numbers of Indians to swell his numbers he dare not attack Fort Duquesne. Very well, they would wait for reinforcements from Virginia and Pennsylvania, but not here at Gist's. Exhausted as they were, he would somehow drive the men another six leagues to the trading post at Red Stone Creek, or Red Stone Fort, as some called it. It was sure to be a better place to take a stand.

Only his determination built the additional six leagues of G.o.d-rotting road. And when they got to Red Stone Creek-not a fort after all, just a single fortified building called a blockhouse-it was his will that got the trenches dug to defend their position. He was a madman, compelling the world and everyone in it to do his will, and miraculously perhaps, they obeyed. Two days later everything changed.

”Scout's returned, sir.” The lieutenant jerked his head back toward the Mingo standing a short distance away examining the preparations for battle that had been made in his absence. He did not look impressed.

”Bring him to me.”

The news was straightforward. Six hundred armed men had left Fort Duquesne-five hundred French infantry and a hundred Indians. The Virginians were outnumbered three to two. ”What kind of a force?” Was.h.i.+ngton demanded. ”Do they look as if they're just exploring?”

”They come to fight.” The Mingo's gaze kept traveling the perimeter of the encampment, taking in the shallow trenches and the spent men. ”Soldiers and braves all with many scalps at their belt. And big guns. Bigger than those.” He gestured toward the swivel guns the Virginians had brought with them at such cost. ”Much bigger.”

Was.h.i.+ngton turned away so neither the officer nor the savage would see his struggle. He'd proved he had the potential for greatness simply by getting this far. But force of will could not deflect grape and chain. It would not turn away cannonb.a.l.l.s, or s.h.i.+eld men from musket fire. When Was.h.i.+ngton turned back, the Mingo was walking away, planning to disappear into the forest most likely, but the lieutenant was still awaiting his orders. ”Tell the men to prepare to leave. We are returning to Fort Necessity.”

”Now, sir? The boys are very tired, they-”

”They are alive. I intend they should remain that way. Now, Lieutenant. In fact, sooner.”

Back at Great Meadows Was.h.i.+ngton a.s.sembled his men in the open fields and waited to engage the enemy. When the French arrived they dispersed themselves in the surrounding trees and raked his lines with musket fire. The Virginians retreated to the shallow trenches surrounding Fort Necessity. And then, sweet Christ Jesus, it poured down with rain. Sheets of it. The trenches filled with water and the enfilading fire never let up.

Some ten hours after the engagement began a boy-he was barely fifteen-whom Was.h.i.+ngton had made a corporal a few days before crawled on his belly through the mud to the trench where the colonel had positioned himself. ”The troops, sir. They got into the rum. A good number's pretty drunk.”

”I can suggest no immediate remedy for inebriation, Corporal. And under the circ.u.mstances there's nothing we can do to point out the error of their ways, but they will be disciplined when this is over” b.l.o.o.d.y hard to blame them for wanting liquor to ease the terror, but there would be a few hours respite fairly soon. Was.h.i.+ngton's eyes raked the horizon. It was eight o'clock and the dusk was thickening; soon it would be too dark for shooting. And with sunrise, who knew ... maybe the rain would stop. Maybe the reinforcements would come.

”Yes, sir. But it's the b.l.o.o.d.y rain, sir. The boys' muskets is soaked; they won't fire. Not if they ain't dried and cleaned. And the screw that cleans 'em, sir, we've only two of those between all of us.”

”There's little I can-”

”Monsieur le Colonel Was.h.i.+ngton!” The voice from the trees thundered over the sodden meadow like the summons of the Archangel Gabriel. ”Monsieur le Colonel, can you hear me?”

b.l.o.o.d.y h.e.l.l! If he stood up he'd be a sure target. But glory demanded action. Was.h.i.+ngton got to his feet. The young corporal grabbed at his sleeve and tried to haul him back down. ”No, sir! Don't! It's not full dark. They can still see you, sir.”

Was.h.i.+ngton shook him off. ”I am in command of the Virginia Regiment, Corporal. I quite mean for them to see me.” Then he stood as tall as his more than six feet allowed, with both hands cupped to his mouth so they'd be sure to know exactly the direction of the shout. ”I am right here, sir! And I can hear you quite plainly.”

”Eh bien, mon Colonel. Do you wish perhaps to negotiate?”

Sweet Christ Jesus. Maybe they wouldn't all die in this G.o.dforsaken mud.

”His name is Captain de Villiers, Colonel Was.h.i.+ngton. He says he is the brother of the French lieutenant. The one who was-The one who died last month in the glen. Joseph Coulon de Villiers de Jumonville.”

”Yes, I remember his name quite well.” The storeroom was the driest place in the stockade, but it leaked like a sieve. And there was only one flickering candle to read by. ”This bit here,” Was.h.i.+ngton thrust the doc.u.ment closer to the Frenchspeaking captain he'd sent to do the negotiating. ”What does this mean?”

”Those are the terms, Colonel. We are offered the honors of war. We can leave with our arms if we agree to withdraw from the Ohio Country and pledge not to return within a year. We have to repatriate their prisoners, sir, and leave two officers as hostages at Fort Duquesne. I'll stay behind, sir. And I'm sure there's another-”

”Why such generous terms, Captain? Have you any idea?” Blast and d.a.m.nation. Did this de Villiers know something he did not?