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Those too large to be entirely included in one exposure are filmed beginning in the upper left hand corner, left to right and top to bottom, as many frames as required. The following diagrams illustrate the method: Un des symboles suivants apparaltra sur la dernidre image de cheque microfiche, selon fe cas: Ie symbole — »- signifie "A SUIVRE ", Ie symbole V signifie "FIN". Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent dtre filmds d des taux de reduction diffdrents. Lorsque Ie document 9St trop grand pour 6tre reproduit en un seul c told in tuch a timple, direct way that it holdi the reader's interest to the end, and gives a most ac- curate pictun of the \\mt»."— Boston Transcript. " Graphic and intensely interesting. . . . The book may be warmly commendej as a good specimen of the fi'^tion diat makes history real and living." — San Francisco ChronicU. The Sun of Saratoga* A Romance of Burgoyne'a Surrendsr. "Taken altogether, ' The Sun of Saratoga * is the best historical novel of American origin that has been written for years, if not, indeed, in a fresh, sj^ple, unpretending, unlabored, manly way, that we have ever road." — Nna York Mail and Exprtss. " ' The Sun of Saratoga' is one of the best bits of his- torical fiction that has appeared for a Ibng time."— Brook- lyn Eagle, " A sprightly and spirited romance, gracefully written in a crisp, fresh style that is simply delightful to read."— FhiiadelfUa Press. D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, NEW YORK. .*\ v; -sw-twiiijwSift! ^|^¥^^*^^^^^t^'^'''^' I- I. A HFRALD OF THE WEST y4N AMERICAN STORY OF 1811-1815 BY JOSEPH A. ALTSHELER AUTHOR OF A lOLDlER OF MANHATTAN, THE SUN OF SAKATOOA, ETC. ''*„:*■ *■: ;;''5''.- ■:■■■■ ..\ r , --y rj- i^^-!:^* NEW YORK D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 1898 .1 ?2- t U^7G 0(ti^ „--,-»• #«VM L He A[JTIIOR'S NOTE. ■1 In this historical romance the hero, who tells his owrt tale, is suppoBwl to speak witli the feeling of a Western American of his time, and not with the colder and more critical judgment of a later day. His attitude toward Europe, and particularly toward Great Britain, is caused / by the events of the War of 1813 and of the years im- mediately preceding it, when the death str iggle of Britain and Bonaparte drew the whole civilized world into war, including the United States, distant and detached though the latter was from the European system. It is admitted by all historians that the rights of weak neutrals, such as the United States then was, received no respect from either of the great contending powers, and the author believes that we had more cause to complain of Great Britain than of France, because Great Britain had more ability, and not more willingness, to do us harm. It is perhaps true also that in the early years of the century the British, as Mr. Ten Broeck remarks in the course of his narrative, showed us the worse and not the better side of their nature; and a careful study of this period confirms the author in his belief that the ill feeling once so widely prevalent in the United States against our mother coun- try, Great Britain, now happily passing away, and per- Mi i ' ".■ ▼1 A HERALD OP THE WEST. hnpfl wholly removed by recent cvcntH, hnd Its orij^ln more in the War of 18l3J and its causes than in the War of Independencu. rerha|)8 if Mr. Ten Uroeck had lived at a later time he would have modilied some of his opinions concerning tiic parent nation. Mr. Ten Uroeck's attitude, moreover, is that of an American of the West, one who distrusts the politics and numners, even the art, of Europe, and fears that his hrcthren of the Kast have been touched a little too much by influences from tiiat source, sacrificing some of tho stronger and greater virtues for the sake of forms and refinement — a belief which many Americans who lived west of the An<'ghanies held at that time. No doubt what ho Buw iu the Ea.st gave him another view of this Bubjcct. •i-Mi^rt^ <*4i«ifcfjie;^^fe*SA»«s!l»T«S>salS«SSS9«* ■ ,'jn fax a-i\ :' liiH -t an irid 1 hJH ich tho md ved ' ubt ■ Ilia f ( '-ymm CONTENTS. cuAFTiK tAam I. — Mr. Clay ib bpbakimq 1 II.— A LADY AND OTIIEBS 14 III. — PkOM the OTUER 8IDK IV. — A MBKTINO BY TUB RIVBK V. — A Cabinet session 47 VI.— The lone cabin S8 VII. — I receive a commission 78 VIII. — A JOURNEY IN TUB WORLD 80 IX. —On a French deck 00 X. — Another side or a Puritan 110 XI.— We see a play 128 XII. — At the duelling ground 188 XIII.— An arrival from thr South 151 XIV. — In the enemy's camp 16S XV. — What we saw in New York Bay .... 188 XVI. — Before the President again 191 XVII. — The first message from the West . . . 197 XVTII. — Converging events 213 XIX. — The apostle of peace 219 XX.— The guns of the Constitution .... 224 XXL— The coming of the foe 228 XXII. — The Bladensburg races 280 XXIII. — A night of defeat S57 XXIV. — The ruler of .a nation 260 XXV.— Over the mountains ....... 282 vii via A HERALD OF THE WEST. I;: 1^' CIIAPTBB XXVI. — Afloat on the sbeat bivees XXVn.— The wait or Andbew Jackson XXVIII. — Sentenced XXIX. — The night battlk . XXX.— At bay XXXI. — The eighth of January, 1815 XXXII. — ^A GIBL IN WHITE ■iSb Piir.c 290 808 816 834 84(t 869 i.: k :^it,-^''i'' J j'lf ' Viiy ^ V ' ' .Im \ Xi II I .il l , . i m i) III lii III i I ) 1 1 fi't#'%^***Si««»4'«*-3^:^-'^^^^^ 300 }08 m t4U ISO ,'^)-:i>^N,li^-i'S':':i^ -.,'r.fnr/:*^-V'^-"^i'^-^-V:. A HERALD OF THE WEST. w CHAPTER I. HB. CLAY IS SPBAKINQ. The look on Major Nc.-thcote's face could not be read with ease. His eyes contracted slightly, and there was a faint twist in the corners of his mouth, but it would not have been fair to say that lie was scoffing; perhaps toler- ance or good-humoured indifference would have been the better way to put it, and such was my conclusion after studying his strong features. He plucked once or twice in a meditative way at his short gray beard, and then said to me: " He speaks well for a stripling." I did not like his use of the word "stripling," and there was, too, a shade in his tone which I thought should not have been there. " He is young," I said, " but not altogether a strip- ling. He is older than either Pitt or Fox, when they be- came famous throughout Europe." "True, true," he said, increasing slightly the con- traction of his eye. " I had forgotten them for the mo- ment. But he has just come out of the woods." " And may not the woods contain wisdom? " He made no reply, but drummed idly with his fingers, the one upon the other, wbUe the look upon his face showed high-bred weariness. His manner annoyed me, and I would have said more, something a litt?e stronger, 1 3 A HERALD OF THE WEST. l)ut he was my kinsman, though a distant one; mo."«over, the music of the speaker's voice filled my cars, and *he logic of his words held my mind. My feelings, as I listened to the senator, were very different from those which seemed to be Major North- cote's, though the reasons were good why his point of view should be unlike mine. To me the speeker seemed a hero and o prophet. Nor was I alone in this tribute to his power. No sound was heard in the chamber save his voice. The senators waited in eager silence for every word that was spoken by the youngest and greatest of them all. Hearing him, I v^as proud that he was a Ken- tuckian, and that I too was one. He stood near the window. The heavy crimson cur- tains were drawn back, and the light, filter) "hatic MR. OLAT IS SPilAKINO. for peace. I could not understand the minds of the New England men. • The old New England senator, then sp«iking, had been eager for armed resistance to all the might of Eng- land over a small matter of taxation forty years before, when we were but a fringe of cofonies on the seaboard; but now that we were an independent nation, with num- bers twice as great, he preached non-resistance and sub- mission, while England armed the Indian tribes against us, impressed our sailors, plundered and confiscated our merchant ships, blockaded all our ports with her fleets, and had even fired into one of our war ships, taking advantage of a condition which rendered her un- able to resist. Yet, with no visible sense of shame, this old man stood there and pleaded for the cause which he had made his, alleging our weakness, the lack of an or- ganized army, and the enormous risks we arould run, al- though forty years before he had takA no thought of these things, when the risks were greater. I looked at the Vice-President to see which side was his choice, but Mr. Clinton gave no sign that he inclined to either. He leaned back in his chair, facing the Sen- ate over which he presided, and his plump red face, with its thick fringe of gray hair, was sunk almost between his shoulders. The coloured lights from tht windows played curious pranks with his broad face, now turning his red cheeks to yellow, tipping his nose with blue, and then giving him a wide band of scarlet across the fore- head. But he listened as if half asleep to all the talk, while his gavel lay motionless in his hand. Mr. Clay had resumed his seat, and was reading some letters a messenger had brought to him. " While it is true that we have suifered wrongs," said the New England senator, "we have every proof now that the peaceful policy is best for us; England has prom- ised to stop the impressment of our seamen and the seizure of our ships." ,li'. u 8 A HBRALD OF THE WEST. I " Do you believe that promise? " asked Mr. Clay from his chair. » " Certaialy," said the New-Englander. " I have just received a letter from New York," said the Kentuckian, "announcing that a fleet of five ships which sailed from thai port throe months ago, loaded with grain for the Baltic, has been seized by the English and confiscated under a pretended violation of their Or- ders in Council, their paper blockade. Does the honour- able senator still preach submission?" Then the debate became hot, the war party increasing in fire, and the resistance of the peace party becoming feebler. " The nation of which you boast so much is a nation of robbers; you have just heard a fresh proof," I said to Major Northcote. " It is a n^ssity," he said excusingly and still with- out anger. " W#can not permit any trade that would contribute to the strength of the arch-villain, Bona- parte." " The robbers' plea of necessity pdded to the robbr-s' practice," I said, wishing to speak plainly. " I am afraid we can not agree on that point," replied Major Northcote smilingly; " and since we can not, the debate prdfcably has ceased to be of interest to us. Sup- pose we go?" I had come only at his request and in order to bring him, since in virtue of my own oflSce I had privileges in the Capitol not always accorded to the public. But I was willing enough to go, and slipping unnoticed from the chamber we sought the air. " An unfriendly visitor might take this as a true type of the nation," said Major Northcote, as he marked the unfinished building, the smoke driven by draughts through the corridors, the loose skylights which dripped water when it rained, and the general air of chill and dis- comfort. \ Ik k gIBk MB. CLAY IS SPEAKING. 9 " You can not expect a nation to come forth finished in a few years, any more than you could expect a building like this to be completed in a few days," I replied. I resented his slur, slight though it was, upon our Capitol. 'I'o me, despite its incompleteness and discom- forts, which would be remedied, it seemed beautiful and grand. He did not reply, and we walked in silence down the new-cut road, which we called Pennsylvania Aven ., between the cabins and clumps of alder bushes toward the White House. The February wind was sharp, and we shivered in our cloaks. The sight of the cabins and the bushes and the mud puddles which gave such point to Major Northcote's remark depressed me, but I wa8 cheered when I looked back at the Capitol. It rose grand and white in the brilliant sunshine, the unfinished portions hidden by the distance, and in its majesty seemed to me to typify the coming greatness of our na- tion, which had fought so hard for its place, and still had a good fight to make. I kept thece thoughts to myself, knowing how Major Northcote would receive them, and we picked our way between the mud puddles down the avenue 'toward the White House. If one did not see completion, one at least jaw effort, for at times we passed brick-kilns and the*emporary huts of the labourers. There was, too, a brisk sound of hammering, and of timbers creaking against timbers as they were lifted into place, which was encouraging and told of future results. I thought once of calling my kinsman's attention to the grandeur of the situation, the swelling hills, the expanse of slope and level, the fine river, but I concluded it would be better not to do so; he would fail to appreciate them, and most likely would reply with some slight sarcasm which would stiag all the more because of its faintness. It had been my purpose to go to my room in the Six Buildings, on the road from the White House to /f> 10 A HERALD OP THE WEST. Georgetown, and prepare a letter for the Kentucky mall. We clerks in the departments had l:)een forced to find tjuarters wIuto vvc could, and WaHhington was not u town of homos then; but, profiting by the advice and influence of some friends, I had fared well and secured a cosy place. Major Northcote, I supposed, was going tc the building occupied by the "'-itish ministry, now without a minister since the departu of the intolerable Jackson, and under the charge of a secretary, but before I could leave him I saw Cyrus Pendleton approaching, the man in whose graces I wished to stand well, though I feared to the contrary just then. He came with the long, easy stride which marks the man of the West, used in the earlier days to walking vast distances through forests impervious to horsemen. Every line, every movement of his tall and spare figure showed strength and the iron ent^urance of the borderer, though ho was fully sixty years of age, and had passed through more hardships than fall to the lot of the ten-thousandth man. He greeted me in a manner marked by cold courtesy and constraint. I had been a favourite with him once when I was a boy, and perhaps I would have been yet had I not paid attentions of some warmth to Marian Pendleton* for whom her father had other and more ambitious designs. I was sorry, too, that he saw me at that moment with Major Northcote, whose opinions were unpopular in Washington, and whose companionship might be considered to my prejudice by Cyrus Pen- dleton, a hater of England, though I might plead the tie of kinship, which is very strong with ua of Ken- tucky. He gave my kinsman a slight nod, a matter for which I did not care, biit I resented a little his cold manner to me, and in a spirit into which perhaps some malice entered I told him of the ships confiscated in the Baltic by the English, and J added that one of those ships was \ • U^ a i w ii - iiu i I MB. CLAY IS SPEAKING. 11 mall. find town lence cosy ^ tho ;hout kson, ::ould man eared B the ; vast ivery owed ough ough indth irtesy once ti yet 'arian more ne at were nship Pen- i the Ken- Arhich anner nalice Baltic )8 was \ . the True Blue, on which 1 know ho had shipped n valu- able lot of furs for tho Kussian market. Ho exproHsod no grief at the loss of his goods, but his eyes blazed with anger at the name of tho robber nation, and ho suid that the sooner we declared war upon England and ran tho risk the better it would be for us — a position which ho had taken long ago and defended always. Major Northcote received the attack with his usual calm, and looked at Mr. Pendleton with an air of iron- ical superiority which could not be . ther than galling to any man. Tho two were in strong contrast, each a perfect type of his own: tho Westerner thin, big- boned, alert, clean shaven, darkened by weather, an ac- cent peculiar, dress careless, the whole type new and original; the Loyalist ruddier, European to tho last touch, his attire elegant and careful, his bearing easy, graceful, and indifferent, .the advantage of manners whol- ly on his side, save in the important particular of sin- cerity. " Mr. Pendleton is angry," he said. " There is noth- ing like a personal loss to influence one's political feelings." " Perhaps," said the Westerner with composure; and then to me, " I see, Philip, that you are willing to listen to both sides." It was an allusion to my companionship with Major Northcote, a hint that I might not be faithful to tho West, and, giving me no chance to reply, he walked on with swift steps, an impatience, due no doubt to his en- counter with Major Northcote, showing in his stride. One of his strongest characteristics was his hatred of the English power, which never kept faith with us, and so often fought us with the methods and weapons of sav- ages. Nor was he unlike the other people of the West, as I knew them, who bated the English as the English of Elizabeth's time hated Philip's Spaniards, and for reasons similar in nature. The tide of our dislike of 1 .^■M mmmi 19 A nRRALD OP TIIK WEST. (iront Hritnin was rixing far hi^hur than in the Revolu- tion, and with even fjrcator juHtico. Ah ho walked up tlui Hh)|io leuding toword the Copi- tol I HAW a Hliort, hroad-hackod man, whom I know to be tlu! French ininiHter Senirier, (ivcrtake hin». I could {,'UcsH, loo, liis ol»jt'ct in joininj,' Mr. IVndleton, for tlio Frenchman, like everybody oIhu in WaHliinjjton, was aware thai the Kenliickian waH a man of wealth and in- fluunee, and he wiHJied to urge on in him, uh iu all others, the j^rowinp hoHtility to Britain. It may Heem Htrange, but I felt a bitter resentment toward the Frencliinuri, who was merely Hceking to push 118 along the way wo wished to pc, but it was our busi- ness, and not his, and iiin ir.torference, or that of France, was an impertinence. In fact, wc had little cause to like France then — as little as we had to like England, We owed Franco a debt, but it was in abeyance in those years, and I wished we were strong enough to give Eng- land and France a beating at the same time. The two walked slowly up the steps of the Capitol. The' Frenchman had taken the American by the arm, as if they were friends of a lifetime, and was talking to him earnestly. Thus they passed into the building, and bidding Major Northcote good day I resumed my jour- ney to my quarters. I was a clerk in the Treasury De- partment, one of the two or three that were needed, for we were truly republican in our simplicity then, as I hope we arc yet, but my work being finished' in the morn- ing, Mr. Gallatin had kindly given me leave of absence until the next morning. The day was late, the dusk was beginning to show in the east, but in thjj west the sun was a great blazing ball. The red light feW in broad bands across the river, and its surface shone ak if with fire. The Virginia hills and forests on the other shore were edged with red, and tree and slope glowed alike in tMe shining twilight. The red tints faded into pink, which'in-tura grew dimmer as the - .■„■ \ '!m4i' n ' % ment puHlt busi- ttnce, 3e to land. thoBO pitol. m, as ig to , and jour- ^ De- i, for as I norn- isenco ow in ; ball, ad ita 3 and i tree le red EiB the m,<'mmmm'