E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland, Mary Meehan, and the Project
Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
A SOLDIER OF VIRGINIA
A TALE OF COLONEL WASHINGTON AND BRADDOCK'S DEFEAT
BY BURTON EGBERT STEVENSON
1901
TO THE MEMORY OF THE GALLANT MEN WHO FELL WITH DUST OF FAILURE BITTER ONTHEIR LIPS THAT OTHERS MIGHT BE TAUGHT THE LESSON OF THE WILDERNESS
CONTENTS
I. LIEUTENANT ALLEN GROWS INSULTING
II. THE STORY OF FONTENOY
III. IN WHICH I INTRODUCE MYSELF
IV. THE ENDING OF THE HONEYMOON
V. THE SECRET OF A HEART
VI. I AM TREATED TO A SURPRISE
VII. I DECIDE TO BE A SOLDIER
VIII. A RIDE TO WILLIAMSBURG
IX. MY FIRST TASTE OF WARFARE
X. THE FRENCH SCORE FIRST
XI. DREAM DAYS AT RIVERVIEW
XII. DOROTHY MAKES HER CHOICE
XIII. LIEUTENANT ALLEN SHOWS HIS SKILL
XIV. I CHANCE UPON A TRAGEDY
XV. WE START ON A WEARY JOURNEY
XVI. THE END IN SIGHT
XVII. THE LESSON OF THE WILDERNESS
XVIII. DEFEAT BECOMES DISHONOR
XIX. ALLEN AND I SHAKE HANDS
XX. BRADDOCK PAYS THE PRICE
XXI. VIRGINIA BIDS US WELCOME
XXII. A NEW DANGER AT RIVERVIEW
XXIII. THE GOVERNOR SHOWS HIS GRATITUDE
XXIV. A WARNING FROM THE FOREST
XXV. I FIND MYSELF IN A DELICATE SITUATION
XXVI. A DESPERATE DEFENSE
XXVII. I COME INTO MY OWN
XXVIII. AND SO, GOOD-BY
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
"I DO NOT LOVE HIM, TOM"
"FOR SHAME, GENTLEMEN!"
"STEWART, LISTEN!"
THE SAVAGES POURED OVEB THE THRESHOLD
A SOLDIER OF VIRGINIA
CHAPTER I
LIEUTENANT ALLEN GROWS INSULTING
It was not until he sneered at me openly across the board that I felt myself-control slipping from me. "Lieutenant Allen seems to have a pooropinion of the Virginia troops," I said, as calmly as I could.
"Egad, you are right, Lieutenant Stewart," he retorted, his eyes fullon mine. "These two weeks past have I been trying to beat some senseinto the fools, and 'pon my word, 't is enough to drive a man crazy tosee them."
He paused to gulp down a glass of wine, of which I thought he had alreadydrunk too much.
"I saw them this forenoon," cried Preston, who was sitting at Allen'sright, "and was like to die of laughing. Poor Allen, there, was doing hisbest to teach them the manual, and curse me if they didn't hold theirguns as though they burnt their fingers. And when they were ordered to'bout face, they looked like nothing so much as the crowd I saw sixmonths since at Newmarket, trying to get their money on Jason."
The others around the table laughed in concert, and I could not butadmit there was a grain of truth in the c