with these important works wrecked and dismantled, with the destruction of great stores of ammunition and artillery which obviously placed the system of defence in an imperfect condition, with the difficulty of repair and supply which time and distance and insufficiency of transportation rendered insurmountable, with the elation of victory that so dashing an exploit, so thoroughly consummated, must communicate to the confederate troops, an attack by them in force was daily expected. the capture of roanoke city was considered an event of the near future, anticipated with joy or gloom, according to the several interests of the varied population, but in any case regarded as a foregone conclusion. daily the northern trains, heavily laden, bore away passengers who had no wish to become citizens of the southern confederacy. perishable effects, stocks of goods of the order that a battle would endanger or destroy, were shipped to calmer regions. reinforcements came by every train, by every boat, till all the resources of the country were strained to maintain them, and still the southerners had not advanced to the opportunity. it was one of those occasions[pg 293] of the civil war when the hand that took was not strong enough to hold. the confederate force near the town was inadequately supplied to enable it to do more than seize the advantage, which must needs be relinquished. its slim resources admitted of no permanent occupation of the town, and the empty glory of the capture of roanoke city would have been offset by the disastrous necessity of the evacuation of the post. gradually the federal lines were extended until they lay almost as before the raid on the works. the confederate ranks had been depleted to furnish reinforcements to a more practicable point. they were falling back, and now and again sudden sallies brought in prisoners from such a distance as told the story.
the town was once more secure, work was begun on the dismantled fortifications, and daily the question of how so hazardous an enterprise could have been devised and executed revived in interest. the commanding general had not the loss of the town itself to account for, as at one time was probable, but for the destruction of a great store of ammunition, as well as the loss of life, of guns, of the works themselves, representing many thousands of dollars and the labor of regiments. all, however, seemed hardly commensurate with the disaster he would sustain in point of reputation. that such a dashing, destructive exploit could be planned and consummated under his own ceaselessly vigilant eyes[pg 294] appeared little short of the miraculous, and for his own justification he looked needfully into its inception.
it was discovered that there was a natural subterranean passage from the grove of judge roscoe's place to a cellar, a portion of which had constituted the powder magazine on the devrett hill, and that this had been exploded by means of a slow match through the grotto, previously prepared, enabling the raiders to effect their escape. it was further ascertained that julius roscoe, who had led the enterprise, had been in hiding for some time at his father's home, and had been seen as he issued thence covered with blood, evidently fresh from some personal altercation with a federal officer, for weeks a guest in the house. although bruised and bleeding, this officer could offer no account of his wounds save a fall, impossible to have produced them; he had raised no alarm, and had given no report of the presence of an enemy, whose intrusion had wrought such damage and disaster to the union cause.
one detail led to another, each discovery unveiled cognate mysteries, the disclosure of trifles brought forward circumstances of importance. the claim of the sentinel posted at judge roscoe's portico that he had fired the first shot which raised the alarm, evoked the fact that an earlier sentry had told captain baynell that he had heard marching feet—a moving column in the[pg 295] cadenced step, he described it now—near, very near, that murky night, and that captain baynell had waived it away with the suggestion of "a corporal of the guard with the relief"—at that hour!—when the next relief would not be due till nearly midnight,—and had gone back into the parlor, where mrs. gwynn had begun to sing, "her bright smile haunts me still."
this account reminded several of his camp-fellows that, having been in town on leave, they had met that dark night on the turnpike a force marching in column, and naturally thinking this only the removal of federal troops from some point to another, here, so far within the lines, they had quietly stood aside and watched the shadowy progress. nothing amiss had occurred to their minds. the men had all their officers duly in position, and they were marching silently and with great regularity. but by reference to the various written reports, it was easily ascertained that there was no shifting of troops that day, no assignment of a company to any duty which would have taken them out at that hour, no detail reporting for service. still following in the footsteps of this column, something more was learned from a young negro, who had been out to fish that night, which was the delight of the plantation darkey at this season of the year, and had cast his lines from under the bluff near judge roscoe's place; the night being foggy, he had not noticed, till they were very near, the[pg 296] approach of three or four large open boats, filled with soldiers, to judge by the rifles, who were rowing very fast and hard against the current and keeping close in to the shore. when they landed and beached the boats they were very quiet, fell into order, and marched off without a word, except the necessary curt commands. it had never occurred to him to give the alarm. he had taken none. they had rowed so close in to shore, he thought, to avoid such a collision as had happened in the mists earlier in the night, when a large barge was run down by a gunboat and sunk. doubtless if they had passed the picket boats, the misty invisibility of all the surface of the water protected them, but for the most part the patrol of the river pickets was further down-stream. as they had come, so they had gone, and the matter remained a nine days' wonder. the commanding general almost choked when he thought of it.
"this is going to be a serious matter for baynell," said colonel ashley, one day. he had called at judge roscoe's partly because he did not wish to break off with abrupt rudeness an acquaintance which he had persisted in forming, and partly because he was not willing in the circumstances that had arisen to seem to shun the house.
judge roscoe was not at home, but mrs. gwynn was in the parlor. ashley had asked her to sing. there was something "delightfully[pg 297] dreary," as he described it, in the searching, romantic, melancholy cadences of her sweet contralto voice. he had not intended to open his heart, but somehow the mood induced by her singing, the quiet of the dim, secluded, cool drawing-rooms, with the old-fashioned, high, stucco ceiling, and the shadowy green gloom of the trees without, prevailed with him, and he spoke upon impulse.
"what matter?" she asked. she had wheeled half around on the piano-stool, and sat, her slim figure in its white dress, delicate and erect, one white arm, visible through the thin fabric, outstretched to the keyboard, the hand toying with resolving chords.
he had been standing beside the piano as she sang, but now, with the air of inviting serious discussion, he seated himself in one of the stiff arm-chairs of the carved rosewood "parlor set" of that day, and replied gravely:——
"his association with julius roscoe."
her eyes widened with genuine amazement.
"it seems," proceeded ashley, slowly, "that a dozen or two of the soldiers, who claimed to have seen a confederate officer on the balcony here, recognized him as julius roscoe, when he reappeared in command of the forces that captured the redoubt. and the surgeon has always insisted that baynell's hurt was a blow, not a fall. there is a good deal of smothered talk in various quarters."
[pg 298]he stroked his mustache contemplatively, looked vaguely about the room, and sighed in a certain disconsolateness.
"i don't understand," said mrs. gwynn, sharply, fixing intent eyes upon him. "how can captain baynell be called in question?"
"oh, the general theory—however well or ill grounded—is that young roscoe was here on a reconnoitring expedition of some sort, or perhaps merely on a visit to his kindred, and that baynell winked at his presence on account of friendship with the family, instead of arresting him, as he should have done. it's an immense pity. baynell is a fine officer."
mrs. gwynn had turned pale with excitement.
"but none of us knew that julius roscoe was in the house!" she exclaimed. she hesitated a moment as the words passed her lips. judge roscoe's reticence on the subject might imply some knowledge of the harbored rebel.
ashley was suddenly tense with energy.
"don't imagine for one moment, my dear madam, that i have any desire to extract information from you. it is no concern of mine how he came or went. i only mention the subject because it is very much on my mind and heart. and i don't see any satisfactory end to it. i have a great respect for baynell as a man, and especially as an artillerist, and somehow in these campaigns i have contrived to get fond of the fellow!—though he is about as stiff, and unresponsive,[pg 299] and prejudiced, and priggish a bundle of animal fibre as ever called himself human."
"why, he doesn't give me that idea," exclaimed leonora, her eyes widening. "he seems unguarded, and impulsive, and ardent."
colonel ashley was very considerably her senior and far too experienced to be ingenuous himself. he made no comment on the conviction her words created within him. he only looked at her in silence, receiving her remark with courteous attention. then he resumed:——
"of course in a civil war there are always some instances of undue leniency,—the pressure of circumstances induces it,—but rarely indeed such as this; it amounts to aiding and abetting the enemy, however unpremeditated. young roscoe could not have secured the means or information for his destructive raid had not baynell permitted him to be housed here. doubtless, however, baynell thought it a mere visit of the boy to his father's family."
"but captain baynell never dreamed that julius roscoe was in the house!" she exclaimed.
"that's just what he says he did—dreamed that he saw him! i can rely on you not to repeat my words. but i have had no confidential talk with him."
"i am sure—i know—they were never together for a moment."
"the surgeon says that roscoe's knuckles cut to the bone," commented ashley, with a significant[pg 300] smile. but the triumphs of stultifying mrs. gwynn in conversation were all inadequate to restore his usual serene satisfaction, and once more he looked restlessly about the rooms and sighed.
"what do you think captain baynell was guilty of? permitting an enemy to remain within the lines, perdu, unsuspected, to gather information, and make off with it—conniving at the concealment, and assisting the escape of an enemy? and you call yourself his friend!"
leonora's cheeks were flushed. her voice rang with a tense vibration. she fixed her interlocutor with a challenging eye.
"oh—i don't know what he intended," replied ashley, almost irritably. "doubtless he had some high-minded motive, so intricate that he can never explain it, and nobody else can ever unravel it. i only know he has played the fool,—and i fear he has ruined himself irretrievably."
"but you don't answer my question—what do you think he has done?"
ashley might have responded that his conclusions were not subject to her inquisition. but his suave methods of thought and conduct could not compass this unmannerly retort. moreover, it was a relief to his feelings to canvass the matter so paramount in his mind with an irresponsible woman, rather than with his brother officers, among whom it was rife, thereby sending his speculations and doubts and views abroad as[pg 301] threads to be wrought into the warp and woof of their opinion, and possibly give undue substance and color to the character of the fabric.
"why,—of course this is just my own view,—formed on what i hear from outsiders,—and i think it is the general view. baynell knew the young man was hidden in the house, on a stolen visit to his father, thinking he had no ultimate intentions but to escape at a convenient opportunity. these separations must be very cruel indeed, with no means of communication. baynell, though very wrongfully, might have indulged this concealment from motives of—ah—er—friendship to the family, for young roscoe would undoubtedly have been dealt with as a spy, had he been captured in lurking here. the two may have been more or less associated,—certainly they came together in an altercation that resulted in blows. i think baynell possibly discovered roscoe's scheme, and threatened him with arrest. roscoe knocked him down the stairs and fled from the house to the grotto, considering this safe, for he might have crossed from the balcony to the firs without observation if he had been lucky, as at that time none of us knew that the grotto existed. now these are my conclusions—but for the integrity of the service baynell's acts and his motives must be sifted. they may not bear to an impartial mind even so liberal a construction as this. it is a threatening[pg 302] situation, and i am apprehensive—i am very apprehensive."
mrs. gwynn's hand fell with a discordant crash on the keys of the piano.
"why—why—what can they do to him?" she gasped.
vertnor ashley shied from the subject like a frightened horse.
"ah—oh—ah—er—well," he said, "let us not think of that." he paused abruptly. then, "to forecast the immediate future is enough of disaster. there is already said to be an official investigation on the cards. no doubt charges will be preferred, and he will be brought to a court-martial."
he sighed again, and looked about futilely, as if for suggestion. he rose at length, and with his pleasant, cordial manner and a smile of deprecating apology, he said, "i am afraid my grim subjects do not commend me for a lady's parlor." then with a light change of tone, "so much obliged for that lovely little french song—what is it—quel est cet attrait qui m'attire? i want to be able to distinguish it, for may i not ask for it again some time?" and bowing, and smiling, and prosperous, he took his graceful departure.
mrs. gwynn stood motionless, her eyes on the carpet, her mind almost dazed by the magnitude, by the terrors, of the subjects of her contemplation. she felt she must be more certain;[pg 303] she could not leave this disastrous complication thus. she could not speak to this man, friendly though he had seemed, lest she betray some fact of her own knowledge that might be of disadvantage to another who had meant no ill—nay, she was sure had done no ill. then she was beset by the realization of the sophistry of circumstance. but if circumstance could be adduced against baynell, should it not equally prevail in his favor? when she, knowing naught of the lurking julius, had sent to his hiding-place this federal officer, did not instantly the clamors of discovery resound through the house? she could hear even now in the tones of his voice, steadied and sonorous by the habit of command, sharp and decisive on the air, the words, "you are my prisoner!" twice repeated, that had summoned her, stricken with sudden panic, from her flowers on the library table to the hall, where she saw the balustrade of the stairs still shaking with the concussion of a heavy fall. and as she stood there, another moment—barely a moment—brought the apparition of julius, flying as if for his life, a pistol in his hand, and covered with blood. dreams! who said aught of dreams! this was not the course a man would take who desired to shield a concealed rebel. there was no eye-witness of the altercation. but she, on the lower floor, had heard it all—the swift ascent for the book, the exclamation of amazement, then the stern voice of command, the words of[pg 304] arrest, the impact of the blow, and the clamors of the fall. then the flight; she had seen julius, fleeing for safety, fleeing from the house into the very teeth of the camps.
should not baynell know this, the event that preceded the long insensibility which had so blunted his impressions, his recollections? she resolved to confer with judge roscoe. how much he knew of julius roscoe's lurking visit, how much he cared for her to know, she could not be sure. she suspected that old ephraim was fully informed, for without his services the visitor could hardly have been maintained. but neither had been at hand at the moment of discovery, of collision.
when judge roscoe came in she submitted this question to his judgment. to her surprise he did not canvass the matter. he said at once: "by all means captain baynell ought to know this. it would be best to send for him and explain to him what you saw and heard,—the whole occurrence. captain baynell should be made aware of all the details of the actual event that you more nearly than any one else witnessed."
the house in these summer days, with the shutters half closed and the doors all open, seemed more retired, more solitary, than when all the busy life of the place was drawn to the focus of the library fire. she was quite alone, as she traversed the hall and sat down to write at the[pg 305] library table. the "ladies" were playing out of doors, close in to the window under a tree. judge roscoe had business in the town and walked thither leaning rather heavily on his cane, for no news came of acrobat, and somehow he no longer cared to ride the glossy iron-gray that captain baynell still left grazing in his pastures. so still were all the precincts she feared she might not find a messenger as she went out on the latticed gallery searching for old ephraim. but there he sat in the sun in front of the kitchen door. he was not wont to be so silent. he said naught when she handed him the missive with her instructions, but he looked unwilling, with a sort of warning wisdom in his expression, and several times turned the note gingerly in his hand, as if he thought it might explode. he would fain have remonstrated against the renewal of communication with the elements that had brought so much disquiet into the calm life of the old house hitherto. but his lips were sealed so far as the "yankee man" and julius were concerned. and he would maintain that he had never seen or heard of the grotto till indeed it was blown up.
"all dese young folks is a stiff-necked and tarrifyin' generation, an' ef dey will leave ole ephraim in peace, he p'intedly won't pester dem," he said to himself.
therefore, merely murmuring acquiescence, "yes'm, yes'm, yes'm," while he received his[pg 306] orders, he put on his hat which he had hitherto held in his hand, and walked off briskly to the tent of the artillery captain.
the succinct dignified tone of mrs. gwynn's note requesting to see captain baynell at his earliest convenience on a matter of business precluded effectually any false sentimental hopes, had any communication from her been calculated to raise them. he was already mounted, having just returned from afternoon parade; and saying to uncle ephraim that he would wait on mrs. gwynn immediately, he wheeled his horse and forthwith disappeared in the midst of the shadow and sheen of the full-leaved grove.
baynell had changed, changed immeasurably, since she had last seen him. always quiet and sedate, his gravity had intensified to sternness, his dignified composure to a cold, impenetrable reserve, his attentive interest to a sort of wary vigilance, all giving token of the effect wrought in his mental and moral endowment by the knowledge of the suspicions entertained concerning his actions, and the charges that were being formulated against him.
in one sense these had already slain him. his individuality was gone. he would be no more what once he was. his pride, so strong, so vivid, as essential an element of his being as his breath, as his soul, had been done to death. it had been a noble endowment, despite its exactions, and maintained high standards and[pg 307] sought finer issues. it had died with the woe of a thousand deaths, that calumny should touch his name; that accusation could ever find a foothold in his life; that treachery should come to investigation in his deeds.
she rather wondered at his calmness, the self-possession expressed in his manner, his face. he had himself well in hand. he was not nervous. his haggard pallor told what the sleepless hours of self-communing brought to him, yet he was strong enough to confront the future. he would give battle to the false charge, the lying circumstance, the implacable phalanxes of the probabilities. the truth was intrinsically worth fighting for, in any event, and even now his heart could swell with the conviction that the truth could only demonstrate the impeccancy of his official record.
he met her with that grave, conventional, inexpressive courtesy which had always characterized him, and it was a little difficult, in her unusual flutter and agitation, to find a suitable beginning.
she had seated herself in the library at the table where she had written the note, and she was mechanically trifling with an ivory paper-knife, the portfolio and paper still lying before her. he took a chair near at hand and waited, not seeking to inaugurate the conversation.
"i sent for you, captain baynell, because i have heard something—there are rumors—"
[pg 308]he did not take the word from her, nor help her out. he sat quietly waiting.
"in short, i think you ought to know that i overheard all that passed between you and julius roscoe on the stairs that morning."
captain baynell's rejoinder surprised her.
"then he was really in the house?" he said meditatively.
"oh, yes,—though i did not know it till he dashed past me in the hall. two minutes had not elapsed since you had left me here standing by the table."
she detailed the circumstances, and when she had finished speaking he thanked her simply, and said that the facts would be of value to him.
"i thought you ought to know them, hearing colonel ashley describe the various rumors afloat—but, but these—they—they will soon die out?" she looked at him appealingly.
he did not answer immediately. then—
"i shall be court-martialled," he said succinctly.
her heart seemed almost to stand still in the presence of this great threat, yet she strove against its menace.
"of course i know this is serious, and must trouble all your friends," she said vaguely. "but doubtless—doubtless there will be an acquittal."
"it is a matter of liberty, and life itself," he[pg 309] said. "but i do not care for either,—i deprecate the reflections on my character as a soldier." he hesitated for one moment, then broke out with sudden passion, "i care for the jeopardy of my honor—my sacred honor!"
there was an interval of stillness so long that a slant of the sunset light might seem to have moved on the floor. the soft babble of the voices of the children came in at the open window; the mocking-bird's jubilance rose from among the magnolia blooms outside. the great bowl on the table was full of roses, and she eyed their magnificence absently, seeing nothing, remembering all that ashley had said, and realizing how difficult it would be to convince even him, with all his friendly good-will, of the simplicity of the motives that had precipitated the real events, so grimly metamorphosed in the monstrous mischances of war.
"oh—" she cried suddenly, with a poignant accent, "that this should have fallen upon you in the house of your friends! we can never forgive ourselves, and you can never forgive us!"
"there is nothing to forgive," he said heartily; "i have no grievance against this kind roof. i could not expect judge roscoe to betray his own son, and deliver him up to capture, to death as a spy—because i happened to be here, a temporary guest. and i could not expect the young man to voluntarily surrender—for my convenience. no—i blame no one."
[pg 310]"you are magnanimous!" exclaimed mrs. gwynn, her luminous gray eyes shining through tears as she looked at him.
"only omniscience could have foreseen and guarded against this disastrous complication of adverse circumstances. but the results are serious enough to justify doubt and provoke investigation. knowing the simple truth, it seems a little difficult to see how it can fail to be easily established—it is the imputation that afflicts me. i am not used to contemplate myself as a traitor—with my motives."
"oh, it is so unjust—so rancorously untrue! you arrested him the moment you saw him—although he was in judge roscoe's house. you must have known that he was judge roscoe's son."
"i recognized him from his portrait—" baynell checked himself. he would not have liked to say how often, with what jealous appraisement of its manly beauty and interest of suggestion, he had studied the portrait of julius on the parlor wall, knowing him as a man who had loved leonora gwynn, and fearing him as a man whom possibly leonora gwynn loved.
"but i was obliged to arrest him on the spot—why, i was in honor bound."
his face suddenly fell—in this most intimate essential of true gentlemanhood, in this dearest requisition of a soldier's faith, that is yet the commonest principle of the humblest campaigner,[pg 311] he was held to have failed, in point of honor. he was held to have paltered and played a double part, to have betrayed alike his country, the fair name of his corps, and his own unsullied record. and this was the fiat of fair-minded men, comrades, countrymen, to be expressed in the preferred charges.
bankrupt in all he held dear, he shrank from seeming to beg the sheer empty bounty of her sympathy. he hardly cared to face these reflections in her presence. he arose to go, and it was with composed, conventional courtesy, as inexpressive as if he were some casual friendly caller, that he took his leave, resolutely ignoring all the tragedy of the situation.
the next day came the news that charges having been duly preferred he had been placed in arrest to await the action of the general court-martial to be assembled in the town.
