Chapter 11

When Lafayette and Jeremy returned to the horses, they mounted in silence and the group moved off south. Nothing was said during the four-hour trip to Stillwater.

Lafayette rode alone up the lane to the meetinghouse. His friends watched him from a distance as he dismounted and went inside. Several minutes later the door opened and the boys filed out with Lafayette. The boys wandered off in different directions, clearly headed home. Some passed the mounted men waiting in the lane, but did not speak. Lafayette returned to his friends.

"Did you tell them you are Lafayette?" General Wayne asked.

"No. They do not need to know. It would only create more trouble for Nathanael."

"You didn't ask them to join the army?"

Lafayette smiled. "No. Most of them are too young. They will do whatever their own hearts and minds move them to do."

"Then what the heck did you gain from this, if I may ask?"

Lafayette took a deep breath, he exhaled as he looked up at the sky contemplating Wayne's question. "I learned some new stanzas to Yankee Doodle, but I cannot repeat them to you when I am sober."

Jeremy, Henry and Isak laughed. Jeremy said, "You have to teach them to us, General. It is our song."

Lafayette smiled his dimpled smile. "Have I more penance to perform, Anthony?"

"No. that was it…"

Henry raised his hand cautiously. "Sir, General Greene wishes that you appear before him in Tappan without delay." Henry smiled timidly at Lafayette and shrugged. "I am only the messenger."

Lafayette grinned. "Than we best hurry back. I do not want General Greene angered by my absence."

When the men returned to the river road, they saw a barge docked at the Stillwater ferry, headed down river. The barge's captain recognized Wayne, hailed him and asked if he could give him and his companions a ride after he finished loading his barge with supplies bound for West Point. Wayne agreed. The men dismounted and boarded themselves and their horses on the barge.

"What are you doing up here in the highlands, General Wayne?" the captain asked. "Touring the battlefields?"

"Something like that."

"I fought at Saratoga with Benedict Arnold. Hard to believe that man has gone and run out on us."

"What regiment were you with?" Lafayette asked.

"Morgan's riflemen."

"Did you know a man named Newlin?"

"Sure did. He was a private in my company. Brave man that young Harry Newlin was. He died storming a British redoubt. He fell right in front of me. I had to tell his wife. She's down in Tappan now working in a tavern. It's a darn shame, it is."

The captain looked over Lafayette. "You're no Canadian. I can tell by your accent."

"I am General Lafayette."

The captain's face lit up. "Well, I'll be!" The man held out his hand to shake the young general's. When Lafayette offered his hand, the man grasped it in both of his rough ones. There were tears in the captain's eyes when he said, "I am pleased to meet you, young sir. I want to thank you for all you've done getting us help from France and coming back to fight with us. You're a good friend to this nation and to General Washington."

Lafayette smiled. "Thank you. I am pleased to be here."

"If'n you want I can take you boys up to Saratoga and show you that battlefield."

Lafayette looked at his friends. "That will not be necessary. We must return to headquarters."

"Suit yourselves."

"There is one thing you can do for General Washington, though," Lafayette said. Everyone looked surprised at the young general.

"You name it, sir."

"There are several crates of Madeira wine up there at the Stillwater Meetinghouse." The general pointed to the hill where the white clapboard building set. "Could you send a couple of men to retrieve them? They are smuggled goods. I think it would be best if we claim them for the cause."

The captain grinned. "Well, now that sounds like a good deal to me." He quickly ordered a couple of his workers to run up to the meetinghouse with a couple of wheel barrels. It wasn't long before the men returned with the crates.

The bargemen pushed the barge out into the current with long poles. Once in the middle of the river, it began to move south smoothly and quietly. The sails came to life and quickly filled with the wind blowing strong from the north and the large craft move swiftly downstream.

General Wayne and Lafayette sat down on a pile of bags of flour covered with canvas. "One day, Gilbert," Wayne said quietly, "we will know, you and I, what it feels like to beat the British decisively in the field. We don't need Arnold to show us how."

"Yes, Anthony. Wake me when we reach West Point." The young general appeared exhausted. He lay back and quickly fell asleep. The bargeman found some blankets. He threw a couple over Lafayette and handed the others to the other men. Everyone found a place to curl up and get some rest.

When the barge stopped at West Point, Lafayette awoke and rubbed his eyes. He had slept all night down the river. It was dawn and the light was creeping over the large cliffs above them. The blue sky above was streaked by gray pink tinged clouds. The snowstorm had passed, the temperature of the air was warmer.

The group disembarked and thanked the captain, allowing him to get to the business of unloading his haul. They rode up the perimeter road that took them to the summit and General Wayne's headquarters. In Wayne's tent, as coffee was served to the weary travelers, Lafayette immediately set about writing a note and pulled out his seal to stamp it.

"What is so all important for you to be sealing this morning, Gilbert?" Wayne asked.

"I have a debt I must pay. Do you know the commander of the Maine regiment that is stationed here?"

"Sure. That would be Ornsley."

Lafayette folded the note and stuffed it in one of the leather gloves. "He has a man in his regiment whose name is Ansel Grouper. I must give these gloves back to him."

"Gilbert, they're just a pair of gloves for pete's sake."

"I would have been in trouble without them, Anthony. The private did me a great service in my moment of weakness. I promised I would return them."

Wayne shook his head and slapped Lafayette on the back. "It is your way, Gilbert. I will take you to his commander right now if you wish."

Major Ornsley delivered the gloves to Ansel Grouper as General Lafayette instructed. He stood and waited, knowing it was more than a pair of gloves he was handing the private.

Ansel smiled at his commander. "Those are my gloves I gave General Lafayette when I didn't know it was him." Ansel reached for the gloves and started to pull them on his hands. It was then, he discovered the folded piece of paper. "What's this? A thank you note?" Ansel unfolded the paper and gasped as he read. "By all that is merciful, the good marquis has seen fit to write me a bank billet equal to twice my salary for two years." Ansel sat down abruptly on his hard cot. "Dear God in Heaven…the wife…the babies…" Ansel began to sob uncontrollably.

His Major put a hand on his shoulder. "The good marquis, indeed."

General Wayne accompanied General Lafayette back to Tappan along with The Yankee Doodle Society. Lafayette told him he didn't need him to do so, but Wayne insisted. When they reached Tappan, they went immediately to the inn. While the others waited in the tavern, Lafayette ran up the stairs to change into his uniform.

Sally walked up to their table. "General Wayne, I see you found General Lafayette." She chuckled. "Where did you have to go, Ticonderoga?"

Wayne's eyes widened. "Sally, let's just say we found him and leave it at that."

The barmaid shrugged and put a pitcher of ale on the table for the men with a bowl of cheese and crackers. When Lafayette returned down the stairs, all eyes were drawn to the handsome dashing young officer. His sword tapped his boot as he descended the stair much calmer than he had gone up. Everyone in the tavern, complete strangers to Lafayette, moved to shake his hand and say 'hello' to the young hero. No one asked him where he had been. As he sat down next to General Wayne, who offered him a tankard of ale, Lafayette held his hand up and said, "No thanks. I have sworn off alcohol for a while."

General Wayne laughed. "I figured as much." Wayne shoved the bowl of cheese towards Lafayette, who shook his head and pushed it back across the table. Wayne grinned. "Is fainting from hunger to be part of your strategy with Greene?

"I am not hungry."

Wayne shrugged. "You ready to face old man Greene?"

"He's no older than you."

"Yes, but relative to you we are both old men."

Jeremy, Isak and Henry chuckled.

"I have entertained these boys in your absence, Gilbert," Wayne said.

"Thank you, Anthony."

"Do I still have to follow your order to jump in the Hudson and swim with the fishes?"

Lafayette looked shocked at Wayne. "I said that?"

"Don't try that innocent act on me, Lafayette. You were not that drunk."

"Anthony, I think of you as a brother, mon frère? Please forgive me. I never meant to hurt you." The young general looked mournfully at Jeremy, Isak and Henry. "I never meant to hurt any of you. I was not thinking straight. I am sorry I caused you all so much concern and an unwanted trip in a snowstorm." He looked especially at Henry who wasn't smiling. Lafayette dropped his head. "I said things I did not mean, I did things I should not have done, can you all forgive me?"

"Oh, now that's good!" Wayne smirked. "It might work on General Greene. And if it doesn't work…you always have the Madeira wine."

Lafayette looked up sheepishly. Jeremy and Isak busted out laughing, leaving Henry puzzled. They didn't stop laughing for a good two minutes.

"Gilbert, the way I see it," Wayne said, "you really didn't do anything wrong until you reached the Stillwater Meetinghouse. What possessed you to encourage those boys to rebel against their fathers?"

"The devil?" he suggested.

"Too easy. Try again."

"They told me their fathers were loyalists."

"Mmmm…better, but…if I put the shoe on the other foot and think about some loyalist renegade turning my boy against me, why I'd--"

"I told you I was not thinking straight. I thought of my father-in-law glaring at me with those judgmental eyes of his."

Wayne's eyebrows peaked. "You did it to get back at your father-in-law?"

Lafayette leaned forward and rested his arms on the table. "I have no excuse, Anthony. I cannot explain my behavior. I do not know what to say to General Greene or General Washington." Lafayette suddenly caught his breath.

"What's wrong, sir?" Jeremy asked.

"I still have to explain all of this to my father-in-law. Mon Dieu." The general put his head down on the table.

Wayne slapped the younger general on the back. "Don't worry, he won't kill you. You're still the father of his grandchildren."

"Non, the treason. Arnold's treason. I have to write Vergennes and my family and the King…Mon Dieu."

"Let Washington or Franklin do it."

Lafayette shook his head. "They have to hear it from me."

"Gilbert, that sounds like self-punishment to me. I don't think you need anyone's reprimand as you do a bully job of it all by yourself." General Wayne stood up and grabbed Lafayette by the collar pulling him up and off the table. "Come on. Let's not keep Greene waiting any longer. You've had enough practice."

At General Greene's headquarters, Lafayette went into Greene's office alone and shut the door behind him. General Wayne, Jeremy, Isak and Henry waited in the parlor in front of a warm fire.

"General Greene won't actually yell at him will he?" Isak asked.

"If it were me, he'd be yelling, but at Lafayette, probably not. He is a volunteer after all. I don't think he will be sent home."

The boys laughed.

"I suspect," Wayne said, "Greene is filling him in on whatever story he told Washington, advising him on how to broach the subject of his disappearance with Washington and maybe discussing what to do to still the town of Stillwater. I am sure he will also ask our young general why he did it, if only out of curiosity."

Henry jerked his head up straight. "Ah! Now I understand the reference to the Madeira wine."

"Henry, I am worried about you," Jeremy said. "Has the cold frozen your brain? You are not usually so slow."

"Madeira wine is General Washington's favorite drink. General Lafayette can offer it as an atonement for his momentary…slip…into acting his true age."

"Mr. Abington," General Wayne said, "You're a pretty smart fella. I think you hit the peg on the head with that theory. Moreover, you are being very kind in your judgment of General Lafayette's recent behavior. I wish I could receive such kind judgment when I…slip."

Jeremy chuckled. "They just call you 'mad' and let it go don't they?" Jeremy said with his tongue in his cheek.

General Wayne laughed heartily. "I am only 'Mad Anthony' on the battlefield." The general picked at the loose threads of the upholstery on the arm of his chair. "I've garnered a few other 'choice' nicknames off the battlefield, which I do not care to repeat."

"One of those appellants must be 'good friend,'" Henry said. "You certainly were one to General Lafayette these last few days."

"Nah. I may have been the one pushing from behind, but it was you boys that brought him back. I was very impressed with your courage to face him under the circumstances."

"Jeremy's 'golden tongue' did the trick," Isak said.

"What did you say to him, Jeremy?" Wayne asked.

"A little of this, a little of that, and probably way too much. I think he followed me off of Ticonderoga to shut me up."

Everyone laughed.