SUNDERING OF HEARTSTRINGS.

It was as if one had risen from the dead, when Robert Walden once more entered the old home.  Father, mother, Rachel, all, had thought of him as lying in a grave unknown,-­having given his life for liberty.  It was a joyful home.  All the town came to shake hands with him.  His father and mother were older, the gray hairs upon their brows more plentiful, and sorrow had left its mark on Rachel’s face; but her countenance was beautiful in its cheerful serenity.

A few days at home, and Robert was once more with the army, commissioned as major upon the staff of General Washington.  Colonel Knox the while was transporting the cannon captured by Ethan Allen at Ticonderoga across the Berkshire Hills to Cambridge-­fifty guns mounted on sleds, drawn by one hundred oxen.

The commander of the army had not forgotten what Major Walden had said about the military value of Dorchester Heights.  The cannon were placed in position, but not till winter was nearly over were the preparations completed for the bombardment of Boston.

When the sun set on the afternoon of March 2d little did Lord Howe and the ten thousand British soldiers imagine what was about to happen.  Suddenly from the highlands of Roxbury, from Cobble Hill, from floating batteries in Charles River, cannon-balls were hurled upon the town.  Bombs exploded in the streets; one in a guardhouse, wounding six soldiers.  The redcoats sprang to their guns, to give shot for shot.  Little sleep could the people get, through the long wearisome Saturday night.  During Sunday the lips of the cannon were silent, but with the coming of night again they thundered.  General Howe was wondering what Mr. Washington was intending to do, not mistrusting there was a long line of ox-carts loaded with picks and spades, bales of hay, and casks filled with stones; the teamsters waiting till Major Walden should give a signal for them to move.

While the cannon were flashing, General Thomas, with two thousand men, marched across the marshes along Dorchester Bay and up the hill overlooking the harbor.  Major Walden gave the signal, and the farmers started their teams,-­those with picks, and spades, and casks following the soldiers; those with hay halting on the marsh land, unloading, and piling the bales in a line so as to screen the passage.  Major Walden, General Rufus Putnam, and Colonel Gridley hastened to the summit of the hill in advance of the troops.  Colonel Gridley marked the lines for a fortification; the soldiers stacked their arms, seized picks and spades, and broke the frozen earth.  The moon was at its full.  From the hill, the soldiers could look down upon the harbor and see the warships and great fleet of transports, with masts and yard-arms outlined in the refulgent light.  Robert expected to see a cannon flash upon the Scarborough, the nearest battleship; but the sentinel pacing the deck heard no sound of delving pick or shovel.  Walden piloted the carts to the top of the hill, and placed the casks in such position that they could be set rolling down the steep at a moment’s notice.  The soldiers chuckled at the thought of the commotion they would make in the ranks of the redcoats, were they to make an assault and suddenly see the casks rolling and tumbling, sweeping all before them!

General Howe was astonished, when daylight dawned, to see an embankment of yellow earth crowning the hill overlooking the harbor.

“The rebels have done more in a night than my army would have done in a month,” he said, after looking at the works with his telescope.  What should he do?  Mr. Washington’s cannon would soon be sending shot and shell upon the warships, the transports, and the town.  The provincials must be driven from the spot at once; otherwise, there could be no safety for the fleet, neither for his army.  He called his officers together in council.

“We must drive the rebels just as we did at Bunker Hill, or they will drive us out of the town.  There is nothing else to be done,” said General Clinton.

General Howe agreed with him.  A battle must be fought, and the sooner the better.  Every moment saw the fortifications growing stronger.  But what would be the outcome of a battle?  Could he embark his army in boats, land at the foot of the hill, climb the steep ascent, and drive the rebels with the bayonet?  At Bunker Hill there was only a rabble,-­regiments without a commander; but now Mr. Washington was in command; his troops were in a measure disciplined.  That he was energetic, far-seeing, and calculating, he could not doubt.  Had he not transported heavy cannon across the country from Lake Champlain to bombard the town?  Evidently Mr. Washington was a man who could bide his time.  Such men were not likely to leave anything at haphazard.  One third of those assaulting Bunker Hill had been cut down by the fire of the rebels.  Could he hope for any less a sacrifice of his army in attacking a more formidable position, with the rebels more securely intrenched?  It was not pleasant to contemplate the possible result, but an assault must be made.

From the housetop, Berinthia saw boats from the vessels in the harbor, gathering at Long Wharf.  Drums were beating, troops marching.  Abraham Duncan came with the information that four or five thousand men were to assault the works and drive the provincials pell-mell across the marshes to Roxbury.  At any rate, that was the plan.  He was sure it would be a bloody battle.  Possibly, while General Howe was engaged at Dorchester Heights, Mr. Washington might be doing something else.

Neither General Howe nor any one within the British lines knew just what the provincial commander had planned,-­that the moment the redcoats began the attack, General Israel Putnam, on Cobble Hill, between Charlestown and Cambridge, with four thousand men, would leap into boats, cross the Charles, and land on the Common; that General Nathanael Greene with a large force would advance from Roxbury, and together they would grind the British to powder, like corn in a mill.

It was mid-forenoon when Major Walden escorted General Washington across the marsh land and along the path to Dorchester Heights.  The troops swung their hats and gave a cheer when they saw their commander ascending the hill.  He lifted his hat, and thanked them for having constructed such strong intrenchments in so short a time.

“It is the fifth of March,” he said, “and I am sure you will remember it is the anniversary of the massacre of the Sons of Liberty.”

In Boston drums were beating, regiments marching; but suddenly the wind, which had blown from the west, changed to the east; and the sea waves were rolling up the bay, making it impossible for the Somerset, Scarborough, Boyne, and the other ships, to spread their sails and take position to bombard the works of the rebels; neither could General Howe embark the troops upon the dancing boats.  The clouds were hanging low, and rain falling.  Not till the wind changed and the sea calmed could there be a battle; General Howe must wait.

Night came; the rain was still pouring.  The provincials wrapped their overcoats closely around them, kindled fires, ate their bread and beef, told stories, sang songs, and kept ward and watch through the dreary hours.

Morning dawned; the wind was still east, and the waves rolling in from the sea.  With gloom upon his brow, General Howe with his telescope examined the fortifications.  Could he hope to capture them?  Doubtful.  Exasperating, humiliating, the reflection that Mr. Washington was in a position to compel him to evacuate the town.  Only a few days before, he had written Lord Dartmouth he was in no danger from the rebels; he only wished Mr. Washington would have the audacity to make a movement against him; but now he must pack up and be off, give up what he had held so long, and confess defeat.  What would the king say?  What the people of England?  He did not like to think of what had come.  But he must save the army.  What of the citizens who had maintained their loyalty to the king?  Should he leave them to the tender mercies of the exasperated provincials whose homes had been burned?  He could not do that.  If Theodore Newville, Nathaniel Coffin, or any of the thousand or more wealthy citizens were willing to remain loyal, if they were ready to become aliens and fugitives and exiles, he must do what he could for them.

“What is it, husband?” Mrs. Newville asked as Mr. Newville entered his house, and she beheld his countenance, white, haggard, and woe-begone.

“What has happened, father?” Ruth asked, leading him, trembling and tottering, to his chair.

“It has come,” he gasped, resting his elbows on his knees and covering his face with his hands.

“What has come?” Mrs. Newville inquired.

“The end of the king’s authority in this town.”

“What do you mean?”

“The army is going, and we have got to go.”

“Go where?”

“I don’t know; only we have got to leave this home, never to see it again, and be aliens the rest of our lives,” he said, groaning and sobbing.

“Why must the army go?” Mrs. Newville exclaimed.

“Because General Howe cannot stay.  The provincials are in a position to sink his ships and set the town on fire with their bombs.”

“Can’t General Howe drive Mr. Washington from the hill just as he did at Charlestown?”

“He was going to do it yesterday, but the sea wouldn’t let him, and now it is too late.”

“He must do it, and I will go and tell him so.  Leave our home and become wanderers and vagabonds?  Never!” she cried with flashing eyes.

“It is decided.  Orders have been issued.  The fear is that the provincials may open fire upon the fleet and sink the ships before the army can get away.”

“Why didn’t General Howe take possession of the hill, and prevent the provincials from doing it?”

“The Lord knows, and perhaps General Howe does, but I don’t.  I have seen for some time what might happen, and now we have it.  We have got to go, and God help us.”

Mrs. Newville, overwhelmed, tottered to a chair.

“So this is what Sam Adams and John Hancock have done.  I hate them.  But why must we go?  Why not stay?  We have as good a right to stay as they.  Give up our home?  Never!  Never!”

With flashing eyes, and teeth set firmly together, she rose, and took a step or two as if ready to confront a foe.

“We cannot stay,” said Mr. Newville.  “We have given our allegiance to the king; I have held office under the crown, and the Great and General Court will confiscate my estate, and we shall be beggars.  More than that, I probably shall be seized and thrown into jail.  There’s no knowing what they will do.  Possibly my lifeless body may yet dangle from the gallows, where murderers have paid the penalty of their crimes.”

Mrs. Newville wrung her hands, and gave way to sobs and moans.  Ruth had stood a silent spectator, but sat down now by her mother, put an arm around her, and wiped away the tears coursing down her cheeks.

“I haven’t told you all,” said Mr. Newville.  “General Howe threatens to burn the town if Mr. Washington opens fire upon the ships.”

“General Howe threatens that?” exclaimed Mrs. Newville.

“Yes; John Scollay and several of us have asked General Robertson to intercede with Howe.  He has done so, but Howe will make no promise.  He has permitted a flag of truce to go out to Mr. Washington to let him know if the British are molested he will set the town on fire.  If Mr. Washington is the kind-hearted man they say he is, probably he will not make an attack.  He wants to compel Howe to get out and to have the town spared.  We are not the only ones who will suffer, but everybody who has stood for the king will have to go or take the consequences when the provincials march in.  They will be implacable in their retaliation for the burning of Charlestown and Falmouth, and for the destruction of the Old North Meetinghouse, the desecration of the Old South, and the pulling down of hundreds of houses.  They will confiscate the property of every one who has adhered to the crown, and make them beggars, or send them out of the Province, or perhaps do both.  We may as well look the matter squarely in the face, for we have got to face it.”

It was spoken with quivering lips.  Several vessels had been designated on which the friends of the king might embark for Halifax, the only port near at hand where they could find refuge.  He looked around the room, gazed mournfully at the portraits of his ancestors on the walls, at the rich mahogany furniture, the mirrors above the mantel reflecting the scene.  In the dining-room was the buffet with its rich furnishings.  Upon the stairs was the clock, its pendulum swinging as it had swung since the days of his boyhood.  Upon the sideboard were the tea-urns used on many convivial afternoons and evenings.  Whichever way he turned he saw that which had contributed to his ease, comfort, and happiness.  Looking out of the window, he saw the buds were beginning to swell upon the trees under the genial rays of the sun.  The bluebirds and robins had arrived and were singing in the garden.  A few more days and the grass would be springing fresh and green, the asparagus throwing up its shoots, the cherry-trees white with blooms, the lilacs and roses perfuming the air; but never again was he to sit beneath the vine-clad arbor as he had sat in former years, listening to Nature’s symphony rehearsed by singing birds; never again was he to see the coming of ecstatic life in bud and blossom.  He must bid farewell forever to all the enchanting scenes, pull up by the roots, as it were, all cherished things.  What should he take?  What leave behind?  There would be little room on shipboard for the richly carved mahogany chairs, sideboard, sofa, portraits of his ancestors.  What use would he have for them in exile?  How dispose of them?  Who would purchase them?  No one.  How would he live in a foreign land?  How occupy his time?  His mansion was his own; he was possessor of other houses and lands, but all would be seized.  He could take his silver plate, his gold and silver coin; not much else.

“Oh dear! oh dear! has it come to this!” Mrs. Newville exclaimed, “when we might have been far away, having everything heart could wish!”

She cast a reproachful look upon Ruth.

“Oh, if you had only done as I wanted!”

A gentle hand wiped the tears from the mother’s face.

“Mother, dear, the past is gone, never to return.  If it were to come again, bringing Lord Upperton, my answer to him would be as it was.  We will let that pass.  I know your every thought has been for my welfare and happiness.  I trust I have not been ungrateful for all you have done for me and for all you thought to do.  I have not seen things as you have seen them.  You have been loyal to King George; you could hardly do otherwise with father holding an office under the crown.  I have given my sympathies to the provincials, because I believe they are standing for what is right.  My heart has gone out to one who, I doubt not, is over on yonder hill in arms against the king.  I know the greatness of his love, that he will be always true to me, as I shall be to him.”

The hand was still wiping away the tears; she was sitting between her father and mother, and laid the other hand upon the father’s palm.

“Through these winter nights, dear father and mother, while hearing the cannon and the bursting shells, I have been looking forward to this hour which has come at last.”

Tears stood in her eyes, and her voice became tremulous.

“We have come to the parting hour.  You will go, but I shall stay,-­stay to save the house, so that, by and by, when the heat of passion has cooled, and the fire of hate is only ashes, when the war is over and peace has come, as come it will, you can return to the old home.”

“Leave you behind, Ruth!”

“Yes, mother.”

“To be insulted and abused by the hateful rebels!  Never!”

“I shall not be insulted.  I am sure I shall be kindly treated.  Do you think my old friends will do anything to annoy me?  Why should they, when they know that I myself am a rebel?  Mr. Sam Adams has always been my good friend.  Have I not sat in his lap in my girlhood?  Are not Lucy Flucker Knox, Dorothy Quincy, and Abigail Smith Adams my friends?  Has not Mr. John Hancock danced with me?  Have I done anything that should cause them to turn against me?  Pompey and Phillis will be here to care for me.  And now, dear father, I have one or two requests to make.  This is your house, but I want you to give it to me,-­make out a deed and execute it in my name; and one thing more, I want you to give me a bill of sale of Pompey and Phillis, so that I shall be absolute mistress here.  When the Colonies, by their valor and the righteousness of their cause, have become independent of the king, when the last cannon has been fired, in God’s good time you will come back and find me here in the old home.”

Mr. Newville sat in silence a moment, then put his arm around her and drew her to him.

“Oh Ruth, daughter, you are dearer to me this moment than ever before.  Your clear vision has seen what I have not been able to see,-­till now,-­the possible end of this conflict.  The provincials are stronger than I supposed them to be, the disaffection wider, and the king is weaker than I thought.  It never seemed possible that an army of ten thousand men could be forced to evacuate this town, but so it is, and I must go.  I will not be so selfish as to ask you to go.  I know your love has gone out to Robert Walden.  I have no right to ask you to thrust a sword into your own loving heart.  I do not doubt he will protect you with all the strength of a noble manhood.  This house shall be yours, together with Pompey and Phillis, who will be as dutiful to you as they have been to your mother and me.  You speak of our coming back, but when we once leave this house we never shall behold it again; nor shall we ever look again upon your face unless you come where we may be.  Where that will be, God only knows; we shall be fugitives and wanderers without a home.  Your mother and I will not long need an earthly home.  Such a wound as this goes down deep into our souls, Ruth.”

He could say no more, but hid his face in his hands to hide the agony of a breaking heart.

“Father, have you forgotten who it is that feeds the ravens and cares for the sparrows?  Will He not care for you?  Of one thing you may be sure, so soon as it is possible to do so I shall seek you wherever you may be:  and now we will prepare for your going.”

She kissed the tears from his face, cheered the desponding mother, and began to select whatever would most contribute to their comfort.

Abraham Duncan, as he walked the streets, beheld men with haggard faces and women wringing their hands and giving way to lamentations.  In their loyalty to the king, they never had dreamed that the provincials could compel a disciplined army to quit the town.  They had been informed that with the opening of spring the rebels would be scattered to the winds.  In their loyalty they had organized themselves into militia and received arms from General Howe to fight for King George.  As by a lightning flash all had been changed.  Those who had thus organized knew they would be despised by the provincials and hardly dealt with; that houses and lands would be seized and sold to make restitution for the burning of Charlestown and buildings torn down in Boston.  They who had lived in affluence, who had delightful homes on the slopes of Beacon Hill, must leave them.  All dear old things must be sacrificed and family ties ruthlessly sundered.  Fathers had sons whose sympathies were with the provincials; mothers, other than Mrs. Newville, had daughters whose true loves were marshaled under flags floating on Dorchester Heights.  Had not Colonel Henry Knox sighted the cannon which sent the ball whirling towards the early home of his loving wife, the home where her father and mother and sisters were still living, which they must leave?  The sword drawn on Lexington Common was severing tender heartstrings.

There was a hurly-burly in the streets,-­drums beating, soldiers marching, a rumbling of cannon and wagons, the removal of furniture.  Eleven hundred men and women were preparing to bid farewell to their native land and homes.

The final hour came.  Pompey had seen the trunks and boxes safely stowed upon the ship in which Mr. and Mrs. Newville, Nathaniel Coffin, the king’s receiver-general, and Thomas Flucker were to find passage.  With a cane to steady his tottering steps, Mr. Newville took a last look of the home where his life had been passed; the house in which his eyes first saw the light; where a mother, many years in her grave, had caressed him; where a father had guided his toddling steps; the home to which he had brought his bride in the bloom of a beautiful maidenhood; where Ruth had come to them as the blessing of God to make the house resound with prattle and laughter, and fill it with the sunlight of her presence; make it attractive by her grace and beauty,-­the soul beauty that looked out from loving eyes and became, as it were, a benediction.  He was to go, she to stay.  God above would be her guardian.

Mrs. Newville walked as in a daze from parlor to chamber, from dining-room to hall and kitchen.  Was she awake or dreaming?  Must she leave her home,-­the home that had been so blissful, so hospitable?  Was she never again to welcome a guest to that table, never hear the merry chatter of voices in parlor or garden?  Oh, if Sam Adams and John Hancock had only been content to let things go on as they always had gone!  If Ruth had only accepted Lord Upperton’s suit!  Why couldn’t she?  What ought she to take, what would she most need?  What sort of accommodations would they find at Halifax?  Why couldn’t Ruth go with them?  It was the questioning of a mind stunned by the sudden stroke; of a spirit all but crushed by the terrible calamity.

“I have put in everything I could think of that will in any way make you comfortable, mother dear,” said Ruth, mentioning the articles.

“I’ve put up some jelly and jam for ye, missus,” said Phillis.

Berinthia Brandon and Abraham Duncan came to bid them farewell, and to help Ruth prepare for their departure.

It was Ruth’s strong arm that upheld her mother as they slowly walked the street on their way to the ship.  It was a mournful spectacle.  Not they alone, but Mr. Shrimpton and Mary, Nathaniel Coffin and wife and John, and a hundred of Ruth’s acquaintances were on the wharf preparing to go on board the ships.

“This is what has come from Sam Adams’s meddling,” said Mr. Shrimpton.  “May the Devil take him and John Hancock.  They ought to be hanged, and I hope King George will yet have a chance to string ’em up-­curse ’em!  I’d like to see ’em dangling from the gibbet, and the crows picking their bones,” he said, smiting his fists together, walking to and fro.

He was bidding farewell to home,-­to the house in which he was born.  He had farms in the county, wide reaches of woodland, fields, and pastures.  The provincials would confiscate them.  In his declining years all his property was to slip through his fingers, and he was to totter in penury to his grave.

“I shall enlist in the service of the king and fight ’em,” said John Coffin, who had shown his loyalty by accompanying General Howe to the battle of Bunker Hill.

“And I hope you’ll have a chance to put a bullet through the carcass of Sam Adams,” said Mr. Shrimpton.

It was his daughter’s hand that guided him over the gang-plank to the deck of the Queen Charlotte.

“Let me put this muffler round your neck; the air is chill and you are shivering,” said Mary, gently leading him.

With chattering teeth and curses on his lips for those whom he regarded as authors of his misfortunes, Abel Shrimpton, led by his daughter, descended the winding stairs to the cabin of the ship.

“Here are the rugs and shawls, mother, and here is the wolf-skin, father, to wrap around you,” said Ruth.

They were in the stifling cabin, the departing loyalists sitting as in a daze, stupefied, stunned by the sudden calamity, wondering if it were not a horrid dream.

To Mary Shrimpton and Ruth Newville it was no phantom, no hallucination, but a reality, an exigency, demanding calm reflection, wise judgment, and prompt, decisive action.  They had talked it over,-­each in the other’s confidence.

“You must go and I will stay; you will care for them all; I will look after things here.  This war will not last always.  You will all come back some time,” said Ruth, her abiding faith rising supreme above the agony of the parting.

“I will care for them,” had been the calm reply of Mary.

“Oh, missus!  I can’t bear to have ye go, you’s been good to me always.  I’se packed a luncheon for ye,” said Phillis, kneeling upon the floor, clasping the knees of her departing mistress, crying and sobbing.

“Oh, massa and missus, old Pomp can’t tell ye how good ye’ve been to him.  He’ll be good to Miss Ruth.  He’ll pray for de good Lord to bless ye, every night, as he always has,”-­the benediction of the slave kneeling by Phillis’s side.

Long and tender was the last embrace of the mother and daughter,-­of the father and his beloved child.  With tears blinding her eyes, with tottering steps, Ruth passed across the gang-plank.  A sailor drew it in, and unloosed the cable.  The vessel swung with the tide from its moorings, the jib and mainsail filled with the breeze, and glided away.  The weeping crowd upon its deck saw Ruth standing upon the wharf, her countenance serene, pure, and peaceful, with tears upon her face, gazing at the receding ship.  Those around her beheld her steady herself against the post which had held the cable, standing there till the Queen Charlotte was but a white speck dotting the landscape in the lower harbor, then walking with faltering steps to her desolate home.