French and English: A Story of the Struggle in America Read online

  Produced by Martin Robb

  French and English:A Story of the Struggle in Americaby Evelyn Everett-Green.

  CONTENTS

  BOOK 1: BORDER WARFARE.Chapter 1: A Western Settler.Chapter 2: Friends In Need.Chapter 3: Philadelphia.Chapter 4: An Exciting Struggle.

  BOOK 2: ROGER'S RANGERS.Chapter 1: A Day Of Vengeance.Chapter 2: Robert Rogers.Chapter 3: The Life Of Adventure.Chapter 4: Vengeance And Disaster.

  BOOK 3: DISASTER.Chapter 1: A Tale Of Woe.Chapter 2: Escape.Chapter 3: Albany.Chapter 4: Ticonderoga.

  BOOK 4: WOLFE.Chapter 1: A Soldier At Home.Chapter 2: Louisbourg.Chapter 3: Victory.Chapter 4: The Fruits Of Victory.

  BOOK 5: WITHIN QUEBEC.Chapter 1: The Impregnable City.Chapter 2: The Defences Of Quebec.Chapter 3: Mariners Of The Deep.Chapter 4: Hostilities.

  BOOK 6: WITHOUT QUEBEC.Chapter 1: In Sight Of His Goal.Chapter 2: Days Of Waiting.Chapter 3: A Daring Design.Chapter 4: In The Hour Of Victory.

  BOOK 7: ENGLISH VICTORS.Chapter 1: A Panic-Stricken City.Chapter 2: Surrender.Chapter 3: Friendly Foes.Chapter 4: The Last.

  Book 1: Border Warfare

  Chapter 1: A Western Settler.

  Humphrey Angell came swinging along through the silent aisles ofthe vast primeval forest, his gun in the hollow of his arm, a heavybag of venison meat hanging from his shoulders.

  A strange, wild figure, in the midst of a strange, wild scene: hisclothes, originally of some homespun cloth, now patched so freelywith dressed deerskin as to leave little of the original material;moccasins on his feet, a beaver cap upon his head, his leather beltstuck round with hunting knives, and the pistol to be used at closequarters should any emergency arise.

  He was a stalwart fellow, as these sons of the forest had need tobe--standing over six feet, and with a muscular development tomatch his stately height. His tawny hair had been darkened byexposure to hot suns, and his handsome face was deeply imbrownedfrom the influences of weather in all seasons. His blue eyes hadthat direct yet far-away look which comes to men who live face toface with nature, and learn to know her in all her moods, and tostudy her caprices in the earning of their daily bread.

  Humphrey Angell was not more than twenty years of age, and he hadlived ten years in the forest. He had come there as a child withhis father, who had emigrated in his young life from England to thesettlement of Pennsylvania, and had afterwards become one of thescattered settlers on the debatable ground between the French andEnglish borders, establishing himself in the heart of the boundlessforest, and setting to work with the utmost zeal and industry togather round himself a little farmstead where he could pass his ownlater years in peace, and leave it for an inheritance to his twosons.

  Humphrey could remember Pennsylvania a little, although the life inthe small democratic township seemed now like a dream to him. Allhis interests centred in the free forest, where he had grown tomanhood. Now and again a longing would come upon him to seesomething of the great, tumultuous, seething world of whoseexistence he was dimly aware. There were times in the long winterevenings when he and his brother, the old father, and the brother'swife would sit round the stove after the children had been put tobed, talking of the past and the future. Then old Angell would tellhis sons of the life he had once led in far-away England, beforethe spirit of adventure drove him forth to seek his fortune in theNew World; and at such times Humphrey would listen with eagerattention, feeling the stirrings of a like spirit within him, andwondering whether the vast walls of the giant forest would for evershut him in, or whether it would be his lot some day to cross theheaving, mysterious, ever-moving ocean of which his father oftenspoke, and visit the country of which he was still proud to callhimself a son.

  Yet he loved his forest home and the free, wild life he led. Norwas the element of peril lacking to the daily lot--peril which hadnot found them yet, but which might spring upon them unawares atany moment. For after years of peace and apparent goodwill on thepart of the Indians of the Five Nations, as this tract of debatableland had come to be called, a spirit of ill will and ferocity wasarising again; and settlers who had for years lived in peace andquietness in their lonely homes had been swooped down upon, scalped,their houses burnt, their wives and children tomahawked--the raidbeing so swift and sudden that defence and resistance had alikebeen futile.

  What gave an added horror to this sudden change of policy on thepart of the Indians was the growing conviction throughout thesettlement that it was due to the agency of white men.

  France, not content with the undisputed possession of Canada, andof vast tracts of territory in the west and south which she had nomeans of populating, was bitterly jealous of the English colony inthe east, and, above all; of any attempts which it might make toextend its western border.

  Fighting there had been already. Humphrey had heard rumours ofdisasters to the English arms farther away to the south. He hadheard of Braddock's army having been cut to pieces in its attemptto reach and capture the French Fort Duquesne, and a vagueuneasiness was penetrating to these scattered settlers, who hadhitherto lived in quietness and peace.

  Perhaps had they known more of the spirit of parties beyond theirlimited horizon, they would have been more uneasy still. But habitis an enormous power in a man's life. Humphrey had gone forth intothe forest to kill meat for the family larder three or four days inthe week, in all seasons when the farm work was not speciallypressing. He came back day by day to the low-browed log house, withits patches of Indian corn and other crops, its pleasant sounds oflife, the welcome from the children, the approval of father andbrother if the day had been successful, and the smiles of thehousewife when he displayed the contents of his bag. It was almostimpossible to remember from day to day that peril from the silent,mysterious forest threatened them. They had lived there for tenyears unmolested and at peace; who would care to molest them now?

  And yet Humphrey, who knew the forest so well--its mysterious,interminable depths, its trackless, boundless extent, rolling overhill and valley in endless billows--he knew well how silently, howsuddenly an ambushed foe might approach, spring out from the thick,tangled shelter to do some murderous deed, and in the maze of gianttimber be at once swallowed up beyond all danger of pursuit.

  In the open plains the Indian raids were terrible enough, but thehorrors of uncertainty and ignorance which enveloped the settlersin the forests might well cause the stoutest heart to quail whenonce it became known that the Indians had become their enemies, andthat there was another enemy stirring up the strife, and bribingthe fierce and greedy savages to carry desolation and death intothe settlements of the English colonists.

  Whispers--rumours--had just begun to penetrate into these leafysolitudes; but communication with the outside world was so rarethat the Angell family, who had long been self-supporting, and ableto live without the products of the mother colony away to the east,had scarcely realized the change that was creeping over thecountry. The old man had never seen anything of Indian warfare, andhis sons had had little more experience. They had been peacefuldenizens of the woods, and bore arms for purposes of the chaserather than for self-preservation from human foes, as did the bulkof those dwellers in the woods that fringed the western border ofthe English-speaking colony.

  "We have no enemies; why should we fear?" asked Charles, the elderbrother, a man of placable temperament, a fine worker with the axeor plough, a man of indomitable industry, endurance, and patience,but one who had never shown any desire after adventure or thechances of warfare. He was ten years older than Humphrey; and thebrothers had two sisters now married and settled in the colony. Theyounger brother sometimes
talked of visiting the sisters, andbringing back news of them to the father at home; but Charles neverdesired to leave the homestead. He was a singularly affectionatehusband and father, and had been an excellent son to the fine oldman, who now had his time of ease by the hearth in the winterweather, though during a great part of the year he toiled in thefields with a right good will, and with much of his old fire andenergy.

  Humphrey was nearing home now, and started whistling a favouriteair which generally heralded his approach, and brought the childrentumbling out to meet him in a rush of merry welcome. But there wasno answering hubbub to be heard from the direction of the house, nopatter of little feet, no lowing of kine.

  Humphrey stopped suddenly short in his whistling, and bent his earforward as though to listen. A faint, muffled, strangled cry seemedto be borne to his ears. Under his bronze his face suddenly grewwhite. He flung the heavy bag from off his back, and grasping hisgun more firmly in his hands, he rushed through the narrow pathway;and came out upon the clearing around the little farmstead.

  In the morning he had left it, smiling in the autumn sunshine, apeaceful, prosperous-looking place, homely, quaint, and bright. Nowhis eyes rested upon a heap of smoking ruins, trampled crops, emptysheds; and upon a still more horrible sight--the remains of mangledcorpses tied to the group of trees which sheltered the porch. Itwas enough to curdle the blood of the stoutest hearted, and freezewith horror the bravest warrior.

  Humphrey was no warrior, but a strong-limbed, tender-hearted youth;and as he looked at the awful scene before him, a blood-red mistseemed to swim before his eyes. He gasped, and clutched at thenearest tree trunk for support. Surely, surely it was some feverdream which had come upon him. It could not, it should not be aterrible reality.

  "Humphrey, Humphrey! help, help!"

  It was the strangled, muffled cry again. The sound woke the youngman from his trance of horror and amazement. He uttered a hoarsecry, which he scarcely knew for his own, and dashed blindlyonwards.

  "Here, here! This way. By the barn! Quick!"

  No need to hasten Humphrey's flying feet. He rushed through thetrampled fields. He gained the clearing about the house and itsbuildings. He reached the spot indicated, and saw a sight he wouldnever forget.

  His brother Charles was tightly, cruelly bound to the stump of atree which had been often used for tethering animals at milkingtime just outside the barn. His clothes were half torn from off hisback, and several gaping, bleeding wounds told of the fight whichhad ended in his capture. Most significant of all was the longsemicircular red line round the brow, where the scalping knife hadplainly passed.

  Humphrey's stout knife was cutting through the cruel cords, evenwhile his horrified eyes were taking in these details.

  When his brother was released, he seemed to collapse for a moment,and fell face downwards upon the ground, a quiver running throughall his limbs, such as Humphrey had seen many a time in some wildcreature stricken with its death wound.

  He uttered a sharp cry of terror and anguish, and averting his eyesfrom the awful sights with which the place abounded, he dashed tothe well, and bringing back a supply of pure cold water, flung itover his brother's prostrate form, laving his face and hands, andholding a small vessel to his parched and swollen lips so that thedraught could trickle into his mouth.

  There was an effort to swallow, a quiver and a struggle, and thewounded man opened his eyes and sat up.

  "Where am I--what is it?" he gasped, draining the cup again andagain, like one who has been near to perish with thirst. "OHumphrey, I have had such an awful dream!"

  Humphrey had so placed his brother that he should not see onopening his eyes that ghastly sight which turned the younger mansick with horror each time his eyes wandered that way.

  Charles saw the familiar outline of the forest, and his brother'sface bending over him. He had for a moment a vague impression ofsomething unspeakably awful and horrible, but at that moment hebelieved that some mischance had befallen himself alone, and thathe had imagined some black, nameless horror in a fevered dream.

  A shiver ran through Humphrey's frame. His blue eyes were dazed anddilated. What answer could he make? He busied himself with dressingthe wounds upon his brother's chest and shoulders, from which theblood still oozed slowly.

  "What is it?" asked Charles once again; "how did I come to behurt?"

  Humphrey made no reply, but a groan burst unawares from his lips.The sound seemed to startle Charles from his momentary calm. Hesuddenly put up his hand to his brow, felt the smart of thesignificant red line left by the scalping knife, and the nextmoment he had sprung to his feet with a sharp, low cry ofunspeakable anguish.

  He faced round then--and looked!

  Humphrey stood beside him shoulder to shoulder, with his arm abouthis brother, lest physical weakness should again overpower him. ButCharles seemed like one turned to stone.

  For perhaps three long minutes he stood thus--speechless,motionless; then a wild cry burst from his lips, accompanied by atorrent of the wildest, fiercest invective--appeals to Heaven forvengeance, threats of undying hatred, undying hostility to thosesavage murderers whose raid had made this fair spot into adesolation so awful.

  Humphrey stood still and silent the while, like one spellbound. Hescarcely knew his brother in this moment of passionate despair andfury. Charles had been a silent, placable man all his life through.Born and bred in the Quaker settlement, till he had taken to thelife of the forest he had been a man of quiet industry and toilrather than a fighter or a talker. A peaceful creed had been his,and he had perhaps never before raised a hand in anger against afellow creature.

  This made the sudden wild and passionate outburst the more strangeand awful to Humphrey. It was almost as though Charles was nolonger the brother he had known all these years, but had beentransformed into a different being by the swift and fearfulcalamity which had swept down upon them during these past fewhours.

  "I will avenge--I swear it! As they have done, so shall it be doneunto them. Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, life for life--is not thatwritten in the Scriptures? The avenger of blood shall follow andovertake. His hand shall not spare, neither his eye pity. Theevildoer shall be rooted out of the land. His place shall be nomore found. Even as they have done, so shall it be done unto them."

  He stopped, and suddenly raised his clasped hands to heaven. Atorrent of words broke from his lips.

  "O God, Thou hast seen, Thine eyes have beheld. If it had been anopen enemy that had done this thing, then could I perchance haveborne it. If it had been the untutored savage, in his ignorantferocity, then would I have left Thee, O Lord, to deal with him--toavenge! But the white brother has risen up against his own fleshand blood. The white man has stood by to see. He has hounded on thesavages! He has disgraced his humanity! O Lord God, give him intomy hands! let me avenge me of mine adversary. Let the ignorantIndian escape if Thou wilt, but grant unto me to slay and slay andslay amid the ranks of the white man, who has sold his soul forgain, and has become more treacherous and cruel than the Indianally whose aid he has invoked. Judge Thou betwixt us, O Lord; lookupon this scene! Strengthen Thou mine arm to the battle, for here Ivow that I will henceforth give my life to this work. I will tillthe fields no more. I will beat my pruning hook into a sword. Iwill slay, and spare not, and Thou, O God of battles, shalt be withme. Thou shalt strengthen mine arm; Thou shalt give unto me thevictory. Thou shalt deliver mine enemy into mine hand. I know it, Isee it! For Thou art God, and I am Thy servant, and I will avengeupon him who has defied Thee this hideous crime upon which Thineeyes have looked!"

  Humphrey stood by silent and awed. An answering thrill was in hisown heart. He had averted his eyes from the ghastly spectacle ofthose charred and mangled corpses; but they turned upon them oncemore at this moment, and he could not marvel at his brother'swords. He, too, had been trained to peaceable thoughts and ways. Hehad hoped that there would soon be an end of these rumours of wars.His immediate forefathers had been men of peace, and he had neverknown
the craving after the excitement of battle.

  Yet as his brother spoke there came upon him a new feeling. He felthis arm tingling; he felt the hot blood surging through his veins.He was conscious that were an enemy to show face at that momentbetween the trees of the forest, he would be ready to spring uponhim like a wild beast, and rend him limb from limb without pity andwithout remorse.

  But the Indians had made off as silently and as swiftly as theyappeared. Not a vestige of the band remained behind. And there waswork for the brothers at that moment of a different sort, and workwhich left its lasting mark upon the memory and even upon thenature of Humphrey Angell.

  Together the brothers dug a deep grave. Reverently they depositedin it all that was left of the mortal remains of those whom theyhad loved so tenderly and well: the kindly house mother, to whoseindustry and thrift so much of their comfort had been due; thelittle, innocent, prattling children and brave little lads, whowere already learning to be useful to father and mother. None ofthem spared--no pity shown to sex or age. All ruthlessly murdered;husband and father forced to watch the horrid spectacle, himself ahelpless prisoner, waiting for his doom.

  Humphrey had not hitherto dared to ask the question which had beenexercising him all the while--how it was that his brother's lifehad been spared. He also wanted to know where the old man theirfather was; for the corpses they had laid in the grave were thoseof Charles's wife and children.

  Charles noted his questioning glance around when the grave hadreceived its victims, and he pointed to the smoking ruins of thehouse.

  "He lies there. They bound him in his chair. They tied the babedown in his cradle. They set fire to the house. Heaven send thatthe reek choked them before the fire touched them! They lie yonderbeneath the funeral pyre--our venerable sire and my bonny, laughingbabe!"

  He stopped short, choked by a sudden rush of tears; and Humphrey,flinging down his spade, threw himself along the ground in aparoxysm of unspeakable anguish, choking sobs breaking from him,the unaccustomed tears raining down his cheeks.

  The brothers wept together. Perhaps those tears saved Charles fromsome severe fever of the brain. He wept till he was perfectlyexhausted, and at last his condition of prostration so far arousedHumphrey that he was forced into action.

  He half lifted, half dragged his brother into one of the emptybarns, where he laid him down upon some straw. He rolled up his owncoat for a pillow, and after hastily finishing the filling in ofthe grave, he went back into the forest for his game bag, andhaving kindled a fire, cooked some of the meat, and forced hisbrother to eat and drink. It was growing dark by that time, and theblackness of the forest seemed to be swallowing them up.

  A faint red glow still came from the direction of the burninghomestead, where the fire still smouldered amid the smoking ruins.Humphrey closed the door of the barn, to shut out the sight andalso the chill freshness of the autumn night.

  He lay down upon the straw beside his brother, worn out in body andmind. But there could be no thought of sleep for either man thatnight; the horror was too pressing and ever present, and anguishlay like a physical load upon their hearts.

  The silence was full of horror for both; in self defence Humphreybegan to speak.

  "When was it, Charles? I was in the forest all day, and I saw andheard nothing. The silence was never broken save by the accustomedsounds of the wild creatures of the wood. No war party came my way.When was it?"

  "At the noontide meal. We had all gathered within doors. There wasnone to give warning of danger. Suddenly and silently as ghoststhey must have filed from out the forest. We were alreadysurrounded and helpless before the first wild war whoop broke uponour ears!"

  Charles put up his hands as though to shut out that awful yell, theechoes of which rang so long in the ears of those who had heard it.Humphrey shivered, and his hands clinched themselves nervouslytogether.

  "Why was I not here to fight and to die?"

  "Better to live--and to avenge their blood!" answered Charles, witha gleam lighting his sunken eyes. He was silent awhile, and thenwent on with his narrative.

  "It was not a fight; it was only a slaughter! The children rushedscreaming from the house, escaping the first rush of the paintedsavages when they burst in upon us. But there were others outside,who hacked and slashed them as they passed. I had only my huntingknife in my belt. I stood before Ellen, and I fought like tendemons! God is witness that I did all that one man could. But whatavail against scores of such foes? Three corpses were heaped at mythreshold. I saw them carrying away many others dead or wounded,Our father fought too; and Ellen backed into the corner where thegun stood, and with her own hands she shot down two of the savages.

  "Would to heaven she had shot at the white one, who was tenfoldmore of a fiend! But he shall not escape--he shall not escape! Ishall know his face when I see it next. And I will not go down tothe grave till he and I have stood face to face once more, when Iam not bound and helpless, but a free man with weapons in my hand.That day will come; I read it in the book of fate. The Lord God,unto whom vengeance belongeth, He will cause it to come to pass!"

  Humphrey was afraid of these wild outbursts, as likely to bring onfever; and yet he could not but desire to know more.

  "A white man? Nay, brother; that is scarce to be believed. A whiteman to league himself to such deeds as these!"

  "A white man--a Frenchman. For I called upon him in our tongue, andhe answered me in the same, but with that halting accent which Iknow belongs to the sons of France. Moreover, he made no secret ofit. He called us dogs of English, who were robbers of the soilwhere none had right to penetrate save the subjects of his royalmaster. He swore that they would make an end of us, root andbranch; and he laughed when he saw the Indians cutting down thelittle ones, and covering their tender bodies with cruel wounds;nor had he any pity upon the one white woman; and when I raved uponhim and cursed him, he laughed back, and said he had no power toallay the fury of the savages. Those who would preserve themselvessafe should retire within the bounds of the colony to which theybelong. France would have an end of encroachment, and the Indianswere her friends, and would help her to drive out the common foe!"

  Humphrey set his teeth and clinched his hands. The old instinctivehatred of centuries between French and English, never really dead,now leaped into life in his breast. He had heard plenty of talkduring his boyhood of France's boundless pretensions with regard tothe great New World of the West, and how she sought, by the simpleprocess of declaring territory to be hers, to extend her power overmillions of miles of the untrodden plains and forests, which shecould never hope to populate. He had laughed with others at theseclaims, and had thought little enough of them when with father andbrother he set out for the western frontier.

  There was then peace between the nations. Nor had it entered intothe calculations of the settlers that their white brethren wouldstir up the friendly Indians against them, and bring havoc anddestruction to their scattered dwellings. That was a method ofwarfare undreamed of a few years back; but it was now becoming aterrible reality.

  "But your life was spared?" said Humphrey at last; "and yet thescalping-knife came very close to doing its horrid work."

  "Yes: they spared me--he spared me--when he had made me suffer whatwas tenfold worse than death; yet I wot well he only thought toleave me to a lingering death of anguish, more terrible than thatof the scalping knife! They knew not that I had any to come to mysuccour. When he drew off the howling Indians and left me bound tothe stump, he thought he left me to perish of starvation andburning thirst. It was no mercy that he showed me--rather arefinement of cruelty. I begged him to make an end of my wretchedlife; but he smiled, and bid me a mocking farewell.

  "Great God of heaven and earth, look down and avenge me of mineadversary! I trust there are not many such fiends in human shapeeven in the ranks of the jealous and all-grasping French. But ifthere be, may it be mine to carry death and desolation into theirranks! May they be driven forth from this fair land which they havehelpe
d to desolate! May death and destruction come swiftly uponthem; and when they fall, let them rise up no more!"

  "Amen!" said Humphrey solemnly; and the brothers sat in silence fora great while, the gloom hiding them the one from the other, thoughthey knew that their hearts were beating in sympathy.

  "The war has broken out," said Humphrey at last. "We can perchancefind our place in the ranks of those who go to drive out theoppressive race, whose claims are such as English subjects will nottolerate."

  "Ay, there will be fighting, fighting, fighting now till they aredriven forth, and till England's flag waves proudly over this greatland!" cried Charles, with a strange confidence and exultation inhis tones. "England will fight, and I will fight with her. I willslay and slay, and spare not; and I will tell this tale to allwherever I go. I will hunt out mine enemy until I compass hisdeath. They have despoiled me of home, of wife, of children. Theyhave taken away all the joy of life. The light of my eyes is gone.Henceforth I have but one thing to live for. I bare my swordagainst France. Against her will I fight until the Lord gives usthe victory. The world shall know, and all ears shall tingle at thetale which I will tell. There shall be no quarter, no pity forthose who use such means as those which have left me what I amtonight!"

  Humphrey could not marvel at the intensity of the ferocity inCharles's tones. It sounded strange in one of so gentle andplacable a nature; but he had cause--he had cause!

  "Think you that the man was other than one of those wild fellowswho run from all law and order in the townships and become denizensof the wood, and little better than the wild Indians themselves?We. have heard of these coureurs de bois, as they are called. Thereare laws passed against them, severe and restrictive, by their ownpeople. Perchance it were scarce just to the French to credit themwith all that this man has done."

  "Peace, Humphrey," was the stern reply. "We know that the Frenchare inciting the Indians against our peaceful settlers, and thatwhat has happened here today is happening in other places along ourscattered frontier. The work is the work of France, and againstFrance will I fight till she is overthrown. I have sworn it. Seeknot to turn me from my purpose. I will fight, and fight, and fighttill I see her lying in the dust, and till I have met mine enemyface to face and have set my foot upon his neck. God has heard myvow; He will fight for me till it be fulfilled."