The Master of Appleby

Richard Jennifer, riding express, br

pper air with the glory of its departing, and the higher leaf plumes of the great maples before my cabin door wrought lustrous patterns in gilded green upon a ze

of a pair of clear-throated warblers poised on the topmost twigs of one of the trees, should have been sweet music in the ears of a returned

hes hung lowest; a pretty figure of a handsome young provincial, clad in fashions three years behind those I had seen in London the winter last past. He rode gentleman-wise, in small-clothes of rough gray woolen and with stout le

man, and the battle of the Great Alamance had left me fatherless. Moreover, I had drunk a cup of wine with him at the Mecklenburg Arms no longer ago than yesterweek-this to a renewal of our early friendship. H

etime of his Majesty's Royal Scots Blues, and late of he

ntlemen. Yet I could scarce restrain a smile. For these upcroppings of courtier etiquette have ever seemed to march but mincingly with the free stri

clapped hat to head and te

Beaumaris, volunteer captain in his Majesty's

ood truth, I was overjoyed to be thus assured that he would fight me fair; that he would not compel me to kill him as one kills a wild beast at bay. For certainly I should have killed him in any event: so much I had promised my poor D

tain Falconnet," I demurred, when I had read the chall

ungster, curtly. "I am not empowered to gi

-morrow morning at sunrise in the oak grove which was once my father's wood field, each man with his own blade. And I give you

himself from his sadd

as King David's bottle in the smoke. Will you give me bite and sup before I mount and ride again? 'Ti

e haste to shout for Darius, and for Tomas to take his horse, and otherwise t

to set before the guest. Also there was a cup of sweet wine, home-pressed from the berries the Indian scuppernong, to wash them down. And afterward, tho

fer unburdened himself of the go

ted from the North in good earnest at last, and we are like to have a taste of the harryings the Jerseymen have ha

s like to have his work cu

fighter; no West Carolinian will gainsay that. But he is neve

b?" I s

though I am just now this redcoat captain's next friend. You know mo

should

else the gossips l

e Baron de Kalb, or with any other of t

m the baron's camp in Virgi

e cloth, Dick, my lad. I've neve

you will, Jack? Surely, you have n

ongress, you mean? 'Ti

or of youthful enthusiasm that made him all the handsomer,

hru

ir. So, in spite of your declarations and your confiscations and your laws against alien landholders, I come back to f

hrugged in

fine a course through these last five upsetting years. How he trims so skilfully no man knows. A short month since, he had General Rutherford and Colonel Sumter as guests at Appleby Hundred; now it is S

. My business in Queensborough was to learn how

e that he had heard aright. Then he clipt my hand and wrung it, b

you, Richard; how comes it that I find you taking your ease at Jennifer House and hobnobbi

, and for a little space only

eek. When my time was done I would have 'listed again; but just at that my father died and

barrassment, and I th

r old enough to stand in his stead. 'Twas more than husba

wind sets, but not she. She is the fiercest little Tory in the two Carolinas, bar none. When I had got Jennifer in order and began to talk of 'listing again, s

ness, but much of human mellowing, that lay behind the home-coming; and my one sweet friend in all that barren life was dead. What wonder, then, if I set this frank-faced Richard in the other Richard's stead, wishing him all the happiness that poor Dick Co

her, Dick

s in pinafores, and I a hobblede

r. Stair was a later

therless; the same little wilful prat-a-pace she has ever been. I would you kn

rs fought to give you leisure," said I, thinking

keen; but now, with the redcoats at our doors, and the Tories sacking and burning in every settlement

med nothing that a curst old campaigner co

of his errand, making some apology for

me a like turn. I had chanced to run afoul of that captain of Hessian pigs, Lauswoulter, at cards, and Falconne

?" I in

nnet was for having us make the duel à outrance. But that's beside the ma

use. I love you none the less for paying your debts

e little enough the manner of its paying.

ght breed gossip-gossip about a tale which I had said should die with Richard Coverdale and be buried

If any ask, you may say he t

fer l

fe carelessly. Do you happen to know that this volunteer cap

true cause of quarrel, but drew rein in time. "I care not if he were the best i

nching story is but a dry crust to offer a friend. You spoke of a lady; who

grossly asperse her. But I know not who she is, nor aught abo

ou

ye

Let me see her through your eyes a

her justice. But she is small, with the airs and graces of a lady of the quality; also, she has witching blue

eaped up with an oath and f

a foul tongue to her, you say? Tell me wh

d. Truly, there is more than this at the back of our quarrel; but of itself it was enough

ery words, Jack,

quarrel

aging back and forth before the fire. "W

to see some peephole in

me, I do assure you; the daughter of the man w

ng to fight for

ld fight Sir Francis Falconnet; aye, and do my best to kill him, too.

ly. "At all events, I'll see this king's voluntee

But you are bound i

om the hearth, and puffed away in silence for a time. W

ther second where he can. If he has aught to say, I shall tell him plain he lied to me a

Fifteen years before, I had left Appleby Hundred and my native provinc

am like to figh

e say, once for all, that his oaths were but the outgushings of a warm and impulsive heart

is king's captain to look elsewhere for his next friend; but to-morrow morning I'll

nd ride away under the low-hanging maples-watched him fairly out of sight in the green and gold

r-horn brackets over the chimney-piece, and set myself to fine its edge and point with a bit of Scotch whinstone. It

st or tricks of fence; but fighting had been my trade, and he is but a poor craftsma