The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1905-04-14
THE MASTER OF ApPLEBY|
@===-- BY Francis Lynde. -->
BY Franoi. Lynde.


- N-.NN - tNNNA So" At>f
i took down my fathers sword from ii
deer-horn brackets over the chimney
piece. AMI set myself 10 fine its edgi
and loint with a bit OF Scotch whin
stone II was a good blade; a true oil,
Andrea Fesara got III battle in tn
seventeenth century by. one OF the Not,
bingham IretonS.
L wfletted IL Well and carefully, I
was not that l feared my enemy:
strength Of wrist or tricks of fence;
s1: fighting had been my trade. and h.
is but 4 poor craftsman who looks not
well TO see that his tools are in order
against their time OF using.
CHAPTER-U
WHICH kNITS Up SOME BROKEN
ENDS.
1t was in the autumn of the year 81,
as a was coming of age, that my IA
ther rtade ready to sem me to Eng
la'ra- Himself a conscience exile from
EPISCOPAL Virginia, and a descendant
of those Nottingham Iretons whose
bestrknown son fought stoutly against
CHURCH and king 1nder Oliver Crom-
we'll, he was yet willing to humor my
bent and to use the interest of my
mothers family to enter me in the
kings service.
Accordingly. I took ship at Norfolk
aor home as we called it in those
oaSS, aio SItSt II SloIfuS passage ana
overinuch waiting as my cousins
guest in Lincolnshire. had my pair OF
colors in the Scots Blues. lately home
from garrison duty in the Canadas.
OF the life in barracks of a young
ensign with little wit and les wisdom,
and With more guineas in his purse
than was good for him. the less said
the bette. But of this you may like to
know that, what with a good fathers
example, and some small heritage Of
Puritan decency come down to me
from the sound-hearted old Round
head stock. l won out of hat devils
sponGing- house, an armr in the time
of peace, with somewhat less to my
score than others had to theirs.
III was in this barrack life thai /
came to know Richard Coverdale and
his evil genius, the man Francis Gov
erdale. Coverdale vas an ensign in my
own regiment. and We were sworn
friends from the first. His vas n clean
soul and brave; and it was TO him that
/ owed escape from many of the grosser
chargings on that score o named.
AS for Faiconnet, he was even then a
ruffier and a bully. though he was not
OF the army. He was Il younger son,
and at that time there were two lives
him and the baronetcy; but
with a mothers bedueathings to pur-
chase idleness and to gifd his iniquities
he was a fair example of the jeunesse
SOltC Nj lulS IsiSldIlu, II llDeIlluG, d
Eamester, 81 rakehell; brave as the tiger
Is brave, and to the full as pitiless.
He was a boon companion of the off,
GERS mess: and for a time-and pur-
~pose-posed as Coverdale's friend, and
mine.
Since 1 YOU not tell my poor Dicks
story to Richard Jennifer. 1 may not
set 1T down in cold words here for you.
1t was the age-old tragic comedy of
n false friends treachery and a wom-
ans weakness; a duel, and the wrong
mar stain. AND You may know this:
that Falconnct's most merciful role in
IT was the part he played one chill No
venlber morning when he put Richard
Coverdale TO the wall and ran him
through.
As you have guessed. I was Cover
daie's next friend and second in this
affair, and but for the upsetting news
of the Tyron tyranny in Carolina
news which reached me on the very
day of the meetingI should there and
then have called the slayer to Isis ac-
count.
How my father who. Presbyterian
an Ireton though he was, had always
been Of the kings side. anne to espouse
the cause of the Regulators" as they
called themselves. 1 know not. In my
youthful memories of him he figures as
the feudal ord of his own domain.
more absolute thar many OF the petty
Shhi L L AaliIC rANSi L ~ N1loN II
the German marches. But this, too,
I remember; that while his rule at APP
':pleby Hundred was stern and deSpotic
enough. he. was ever ready to lend a
willing ear to any tale of oppression.
And if what men say Of the tyrant Ty-
roa's tax gatherers and law court rob-
Tbers be no more than half truth. there
was need for any honest gentleman to
oppose them.
What that opposition came to in II
is now a tale twice told. Taken in
arms against the governors authority,
and with an estate well worth receiv-
ing, my father had little justice and
Tess mercy accorded him. With many
others he was outlawed: his estates
Were -declared forfeit: and a few days
1ater. he. with Benjamin Merrill and
our more captivated at the Alamance.
was given some farce of Il trial and
hanged.
When the news of this came to me
You may we'll suppose that l had no
heart to continue In the service OF the
King who could sanction and reward
such villainies as these of the butcher.
William Tyron. So i threw up my lieu
tenants commission in the Blues. took
ship for the continent. and. after wear
ing some half dozen different uniforms
an Germany. was lucky enough to come
at length To se-viceable blows Under
my old field marshal on the Turkish
frontier.
To you of a younger generation.
iotrta III the day OF swift mail coaches
and well lkcut post roads. the slowness
with which our lagEard news trareled
IN that elder time must needs seem past
belief. 1t Was early in the year 10
before I began 10 hear more than vague
campfire tales of the struggle going
on between the colonies and the mother
county; and from that to setting foot
eMcc siore upon the soil of my native
Carolina Was still another year.
What l found upon landing at New
Berne ana saw while riding a jog-trot
thence to the Catawba was a province
Sent and torn by partisan warfare.
Though I came not upon the pa%rtisans
themselves in all that long faring.
there were tianlpied fields and pillagcd
houses eaoagh to serve as milestones:
and in my native Meclienbu-s n mine
full charged, with SLOW mater we'll
alight 70" It's firing.
Charleston had fallen. ard Colonel
Tarleton's outposts We're already wide
spread on the upper waters of the
Hrsaad and the Catawba. Thus it was
shef the first sight which greeted my
eyes when | rode into Queensborough
n~as the familiar trappings of my Old
z.N~ .~1L