The Master of Appleby

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The Master of Appleby

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Title: The Master of Appleby A Novel Tale Concerning Itself in Part with the Great Struggle in the Two Carolinas; but Chiefly with the Adventures Therein of Two Gentlemen Who Loved One and the Same Lady
Author: Francis Lynde

Release Date: February 6, 2006 [eBook #17690]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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THE MASTER OF APPLEBY
A Novel Tale Concerning Itself in Part with the Great Struggle in the Two Carolinas; but Chiefly with the Adventures Therein of Two Gentlemen Who Loved One and the Same Lady
by
FRANCIS LYNDE
Illustrations by T. de Thulstrup

New York Grosset & Dunlap Publishers Copyright 1902 The Bowen-Merrill Company October

TO Mr. Edward G. Richmond OF CHATTANOOGA, TENNESSEE, WHOSE KINDNESS AND ENCOURAGEMENT MUST ALWAYS BE HELD IN LIVELY REMEMBRANCE BY THE AUTHOR THIS BOOK IS GRATEFULLY INSCRIBED

[Illustration: But now I was fronting death and could be as firm as she]

CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I I WHET MY FATHER'S SWORD 1
II KNITS UP SOME BROKEN ENDS 15
III MY ENEMY SCORES FIRST 25
IV MAY BE PASSED OVER LIGHTLY 36
V I LOST WHAT I HAD NEVER GAINED 47
VI RED WRATH MAY HEAL A WOUND 60
VII MY LADY HATH NO PART 75
VIII I TASTE THE QUALITY OF MERCY 88
IX A GOLDEN KEY UNLOCKED A DOOR 98
X A FORLORN HOPE CAME TO GRIEF 107
XI A LIE WAS MADE THE VERY TRUTH 114
XII THE NEWS CAME TO UNWELCOME EARS 129
XIII A PILGRIMAGE BEGINS 141
XIV THE BARONET PLAYED ROUGE-ET-NOIR 150
XV A HATCHET SINGS A MAN TO SLEEP 164
XVI JENNIFER THREW A MAIN WITH DEATH 171
XVII LOVE TOOK TOLL OF FRIENDSHIP 183
XVIII WE HEAR NEWS FROM THE SOUTH 194
XIX A STUMBLING HORSE BROUGHT TIDINGS 207
XX WE STRIVE AS MEN TO RUN A RACE 217
XXI WE KEPT LENTEN VIGILS IN TRINITYTIDE 228
XXII THE FATES GAVE LARGESS OF DESPAIR 235
XXIII WE KEPT THE FEAST OF BITTER HERBS 251
XXIV WE FOUND THE SUNKEN VALLEY 259
XXV UNCANOOLA TRAPPED THE GREAT BEAR 269
XXVI THE CHARRED STICK FOR A GUIDE 279
XXVII A KING'S TROOPER BECAME A WASTREL 287
XXVIII I SADDLE THE BLACK MARE 296
XXIX HAVING DANCED, WE PAY THE PIPER 309
XXX EPHRAIM YATES PRAYED FOR HIS ENEMIES 324
XXXI WE MAKE A FORCED MARCH 336
XXXII I AM BEDDED IN A GARRET 351
XXXIII I HEAR CHANCEFUL TIDINGS 361
XXXIV I MET A GREAT LORD AS MAN TO MAN 369
XXXV I FIGHT THE DEVIL WITH FIRE 376
XXXVI I RODE POST ON THE KING'S BUSINESS 382
XXXVII WHAT BEFELL AT KING'S CREEK 395
XXXVIII WE FIND THE GUN-MAKER 412
XXXIX THE THUNDER OF THE CAPTAINS 418
XL VAE VICTIS 432
XLI I PLAYED THE HOST AT MY OWN FIRESIDE 446
XLII MY LORD HAS HIS MARCHING ORDERS 454
XLIII I DRINK A DISH OF TEA 460
XLIV WE COME TO THE BEGINNING OF THE END 470
XLV WE FIND WHAT WE NEVER SOUGHT 480
XLVI OUR PIECE MISSED FIRE AT HARNDON ACRES 488
XLVII ARMS AND THE MAN 505
XLVIII WE KEPT TRYST AT APPLEBY 517
XLIX A LAWYER HATH HIS FEE 531
L RICHARD COVERDALE'S DEBT WAS PAID 549
LI THE GOOD CAUSE GAINS A CONVERT 562
LII BRINGS US TO THE JOURNEY'S END 573
CHAPTER I
IN WHICH I WHET MY FATHER'S SWORD
The summer day was all but spent when Richard Jennifer, riding express, brought me Captain Falconnet's challenge.
'Twas a dayfall to be marked with a white stone, even in our Carolina calendar. The sun, reaching down to the mountain-girt horizon in the west, filled all the upper air with the glory of its departing, and the higher leaf plumes of the great maples before my cabin door wrought lustrous patterns in gilded green upon a zenith background of turquoise shot with crimson, like the figurings of some rich old tapestries I had once seen in my field-marshal's castle in the Mark of Moravia.
Beyond the maples a brook tinkled and plashed over the stones on its way to the near-by Catawba; and its peaceful brawling, and the evensong of a pair of clear-throated warblers poised on the topmost twigs of one of the trees, should have been sweet music in the ears of a returned exile. But on that matchless bride's-month evening of dainty sunset arabesques and brook and bird songs, I was in little humor for rejoicing.
The road made for the river lower down and followed its windings up the valley; but Jennifer came by the Indian trace through the forest. I can see