Part 29 (1/2)
”I must go, and if you'll pardon me for saying it, sir, you won't wish in your heart that I would stay. You'd be ashamed of me, if I were to do so.”
Mr. Huysman made no answer, but puffed a little harder on his pipe. Very soon he sent for Master Alexander McLean, and that thin dry man, coming at once, shook hands with Robert, released his hand, seized and shook it a second and a third time with more energy than ever. Mr. McLean, an undemonstrative man, had never been known to do such a thing before, and he was never known to do it again. Master Jacobus regarded him with staring eyes.
”Alexander iss stirred! He iss stirred mightily to make such a display of emotion,” he said under his breath.
”Robert ha.s.s been away on an island all by himself, eight or nine months or more,” he added, aloud.
”And of course,” said Master McLean, who had recovered his usual calm, ”he forgot all his cla.s.sical learning while he was there. I do not know where his island is, but desert islands are not conducive to a n.o.ble education.”
”On the contrary, sir,” said Robert, ”I learned more about good literature when I was there than I ever did anywhere else, save when I sat under you.”
”'Tis clearly impossible. In such a place you could make no advancement in learning save by communing with yourself.”
”Nevertheless, sir, happy chance gave me a supply of splendid books. I had Shakespeare, Marlowe, Beaumont and Fletcher, translations of Homer and of other great Greeks and Latins.”
Mr. McLean's frosty eyes beamed.
”What a wonderful opportunity!” he said. ”Eight or nine months on a desert island with the best of the cla.s.sics, and n.o.body to disturb you!
No such chance will ever come to me, I fear. Which book of the Iliad is the finest, Robert?”
”The first, I think. 'Tis the n.o.ble opening, the solemn note of tragedy that enchains the attention of us all.”
”Well answered. But I wish to make a confession to you and Jacobus, one that would shock nearly all scholars, yet I think that I must speak it out, to you two at least, before I die. There are times when my heart warms to the Odyssey more than it does to the Iliad. The personal appeal is stronger in the Odyssey. There is more romance, more charm. The interest is concentrated in Ulysses and does not scatter as it does in the Iliad, where Hector is undoubtedly the most sympathetic figure. And the coming home of Ulysses arouses emotion more than anything in the Iliad. Now, I have made my confession--I suppose there is something in the life of every man that he ought to hide--but be the consequences what they may I am glad I have made it.”
Mr. McLean rose from his chair and then sat down again. Twice that day he had been shaken by emotion as never before, once by the return of the lad whom he loved, risen from the dead, and once by the confession of a terrible secret that had haunted him for years.
”When I was on the island I reread both books in excellent translations,” said Robert, the utmost sympathy showing in his voice, ”and I confess, sir, though my opinion is a poor one, that it agrees with yours. Moreover, sir, you have said it ahead of me. I shall maintain it, whenever and wherever it is challenged.”
Mr. McLean's frosty blue eyes gleamed again, and his sharp strong chin set itself at a firm defiant angle. It was clear that he was relieved greatly.
”Have a pipe, Alexander,” said Master Jacobus. ”A good pipe is a splendid fortifier of both body and soul, after a great crisis.”
Mr. McLean accepted a pipe and smoked it with methodical calm. Robert saw that a great content was settling upon both him and Mr. Huysman, and, presently, the burgher began to tell him news of vital importance, news that they had not known even in Boston when he left. It seemed that the Albany men had channels through Canada itself, by which they learned quickly of great events in the enemy's camp.
”Wolfe with his fleet and army will be in the Gulf of St. Lawrence very soon,” said Master Jacobus, ”and by autumn they will certainly appear before Quebec. Whatever happens there it will not be another Duquesne, nor yet a Ticonderoga. You must know, Robert, that the great merchants of the great ports get the best of information from England and from France too, because it is to their interest to do so. Mr. Pitt iss a great minister, the greatest that England ha.s.s had in centuries, a very great man.”
”Colonel Strong said the same, sir.”
”Colonel Strong ha.s.s the same information that we have. He iss one of our group. And the new general, Wolfe, iss a great man too. Young and sickly though he may be, he ha.s.s the fire, the genius, the will to conquer, to overcome everything that a successful general must have. I feel sure that he will be more than a match for Montcalm, and so does Alexander. As you know, Robert, Wolfe iss not untried. He was the soul of the Louisbourg attack last year. People said the taking of the place was due mostly to him, and they've called him the 'Hero of Louisbourg.'”
”You almost make me wish, sir, that I had accepted the offer of Captain Whyte and had gone on to Louisbourg.”
”Do not worry yourself. If you find Willet and Tayoga, as you will, you can reach Quebec long before Wolfe can achieve much. He ha.s.s yet to gather his forces and go up the St. Lawrence. Armies and fleets are not moved in a day.”
”Do you know what Rogers' immediate duties are?”
”I do not, but I think he iss to help the movement that General Amherst is going to conduct with a strong force against Ticonderoga and Crown Point. Oh, Mr. Pitt ha.s.s a great plan as becomes a great man, and Canada will be a.s.sailed on all sides. I hear talk too that Rogers will also be sent to punish the St. Francis Indians who have ravaged the border.”
They talked a while longer, and Robert listened, intent, eager. The burgher and the schoolmaster had the vision of statesmen. They were confident that England and the colonies would achieve complete success, that all defeats and humiliations would be wiped away by an overwhelming triumph. Their confidence in Pitt was wonderful. That sanguine and mighty mind had sent waves of energy and enthusiasm to the farthest limits of the British body politic, whether on one side of the Atlantic or the other, and it was a singular, but true, fact, that the wisest were those who believed in him most.
Mr. McLean went away, after a while, and Robert took a walk in the town, renewing old acquaintances and showing to them how one could really rise from the dead, a very pleasant task. Yet he longed with all his soul for the forest, and his comrades of the trail. His condition of life on the island had been mostly mental. It had been easy there to subsist. His physical activities had not been great, save when he chose to make them so, and now he swung to the other extreme. He wished to think less and to act more, and he shared with Mr. Huysman and Mr. McLean the belief that the coming campaign would win for England and her colonies a complete triumph.