第73章 Chapter (1)
Short and sweet -- or, a curious dialogue between general Marion and captain Snipes, on retaliation.
"No radiant pearls that crested fortune wears, No gem that sparkling hangs in beauty's ears;Not the bright stars that night's blue arch adorn, Nor opening suns that gild the vernal morn, Shine with such lustre as the tear that flows Down virtue's manly cheeks, for others' woes."What gigantic form is that which stalks thus awfully before the eyes of my memory; his face, rough and dark as the cloud of winter, and his eyeballs burning like coals of fire? 'Tis the impetuous captain Snipes. He is just returned from the quarter house near Charleston, where he and captain M'Cauley, with Macdonald and forty men, have recently surprised and cut to pieces a large party of the enemy.
He looks as if the fury of the battle had not yet subsided in his wrathful countenance. His steps are towards Marion, and as he presents a packet, he exclaims in an angry tone, "There, sir, is a Charleston paper. You'll see there how those villains are going on yet.
Not satisfied with all the murders they had committed before, they have gone now and murdered colonel Haynes." Here he gave the heads of that disgraceful act, seasoning his speech every now and then, as he went along, with sundry very bitter imprecations on lord Rawdon.
"Ah shame! shame upon him!" replied the general with a sigh, and shaking his head; "shame upon lord Rawdon!""Shame!" answered captain Snipes, his eyes flashing fire; "shame!
I hope something heavier than shame will light upon him for it soon.
The American officers have sworn never again to give quarter to the British or tories."Marion. God forbid that my countrymen should have taken such an oath as that!
Snipes. Why, general Marion, would you have the enemy go on at this rate, and we take no revenge?
M. Revenge? O yes, to be sure, sir; revenge is sweet, and by all means let us have it; but let it be of the right kind.
S. Of the right kind, sir! what do you call revenge of the right kind?
M. Why, sir, I am for taking that kind of revenge which will make our enemies ashamed of their conduct, and abandon it for ever.
S. Ashamed of their conduct! Monsters! they are not capable of shame.
M. Pshaw! don't talk so, captain Snipes! our enemies, sir, are men, and just such men as we are; and as capable of generous actions, if we will but show them the way.
S. Well then, general Marion, how do you account for that great difference between us and them in point of spirits? We have never yet killed any of their men, except in fair fight, that I have heard of;but they have often murdered ours. Yes, the cowardly rascals! they have often done it, and that in cold blood too.
M. Granted. And I am very glad that when we have had them in our power, we have always treated them so much more generously. But, I suppose the reason of such barbarity on their part, is, they have had, or which is the same thing, have THOUGHT they had greater provocations.
S. They be d--n-d, they and their provocations too! Are not WE the persons who have been invaded, and plundered and murdered by THEM, and not they by us? How then can they have greater provocations?
M. Why, sir, sprung originally from them, and always looked on by them as their children, our turning now and fighting against them, must appear, in their sight, a very great provocation;as great perhaps as that of children fighting against their parents.
And again, our shaking off what they glory in, as the wisest, and freest, and happiest government on earth, must make us seem to them as no better than the vilest traitors and rebels; which cannot otherwise than prove another very great provocation. And again, after having been first settled in this country by them, as they will have it, and afterwards, so long and liberally assisted with their best blood and treasure, in hope that some day or other we should be of service to them; that now, at the very time when, by our immense population, we were just arrived to the so long desired point, to swell their wealth and spread their commerce and arms over the world, we should separate from them, blast all their fond hopes, and throw them back to the former level;this, I say, you will certainly allow, must be a very severe provocation.
Now, sir, putting all these provocations together, and also taking poor human nature into the account, is it to be wondered at, that the British should be so much more angry, and consequently more violent than we?
S. Why, certainly, general Marion, you have always a very fine knack of setting off your arguments. But still, sir, I can't see things in that light. For a man, sir, to go and trump up a pack of claims against me, and all of them because I can't credit him in the abominable extent he wishes, to fall upon me and kill and murder me, as the British and tories have done with us, and we not stop them by revenge! why, my God! sir, it will never do. For, at this rate, whom shall we have living in all this country, in a little time, but the British, and their friends the tories and negroes?
M. My brave captain let me tell you again, I am as anxious to stop them as you can possibly wish me to be; but I am for doing it in what I think the right way. I mean the way of policy and humanity.
S. Policy, sir! can there be policy in letting our best men be murdered by these savages! I'm sure general Washington did not think so.
For, though I am no man of learning myself, yet I have been told by those that are, that, on its being threatened by general Gage to hang an American soldier, he instantly wrote him word, that if he dared to do such a thing, the life of a British soldier should pay for it.
And, it is well known, that he kept the British army and nation too, in a fright for three months together, with the halter constantly around the neck of captain Asgil, expecting every day to be hung for the murder of captain Huddy.
M. True; general Washington did act so. And it was policy to act against a foreign enemy. But our standing with the tories is quite a different case, and requires a very different course.