The Reckoning Read online

  Produced by Juliet Sutherland and the Online DistributedProofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net

  Elsin Grey.]

  _The_

  RECKONING

  BY

  ROBERT W. CHAMBERS

  AUTHOR OF "CARDIGAN," "THE MAID-AT-ARMS," "THE KING IN YELLOW," ETC.

  NEW YORKA. WESSELS COMPANY1907

  Copyright, 1905, byROBERT W. CHAMBERS

  _Published September, 1905_

  PRESS OFBRAUNWORTH & CO.BOOKBINDERS AND PRINTERSBROOKLYN, N.Y.

  PREFACE

  The author's intention is to treat, in a series of four or fiveromances, that part of the war for independence which particularlyaffected the great landed families of northern New York: the Johnsons,represented by Sir William, Sir John, Guy Johnson, and Colonel Claus;the notorious Butlers, father and son; the Schuylers, Van Rensselaers,and others.

  The first romance of the series, Cardigan, was followed by the second,The Maid-at-Arms. The third in order is not completed. The fourth is thepresent volume.

  As Cardigan pretended to portray life on the baronial estate of SirWilliam Johnson, the first uneasiness concerning the coming trouble, thefirst discordant note struck in the harmonious councils of the LongHouse, so, in The Maid-at-Arms, which followed in order, the authorattempted to paint a patroon family disturbed by the approaching rumbleof battle. That romance dealt with the first serious split in theIroquois Confederacy; it showed the Long House shattered though notfallen; the demoralization and final flight of the great landed familieswho remained loyal to the British Crown; and it struck the key-note tothe future attitude of the Iroquois toward the patriots of thefrontier--revenge for their losses at the battle of Oriskany--and endedwith the march of the militia and Continental troops on Saratoga.

  The third romance, as yet incomplete and unpublished, deals with thewar-path and those who followed it, led by the landed gentry of TryonCounty, and ends with the first solid blow delivered at the Long House,and the terrible punishment of the Great Confederacy.

  The present romance, the fourth in chronological order, picks up thethread at that point.

  The author is not conscious of having taken any liberties with historyin preparing a framework of facts for a mantle of romance.

  ROBERT W. CHAMBERS.

  NEW YORK, _May 26, 1904_.

  CONTENTS

  CHAPTER PAGE

  I.--THE SPY 1

  II.--THE HOUSEHOLD 24

  III.--THE COQ D'OR 44

  IV.--SUNSET AND DARK 67

  V.--THE ARTILLERY BALL 97

  VI.--A NIGHT AND A MORNING 127

  VII.--THE BLUE FOX 164

  VIII.--DESTINY 188

  IX.--INTO THE NORTH 212

  X.--SERMONS IN STONES 239

  XI.--THE TEST 266

  XII.--THENDARA 289

  XIII.--THENDARA NO MORE 313

  XIV.--THE BATTLE OF JOHNSTOWN 336

  XV.--BUTLER'S FORD 366

  TO MY FRIEND

  J. HAMBLEN SEARS

  WHOSE UNSELFISH FRIENDSHIP AND SOUND ADVICE

  I ACKNOWLEDGE IN THIS

  DEDICATION