LIBRARY 
 
 University of 
 
 California 
 
 Irvine 
 
 BJ&RTKAND SMJTVHI 
 
 WWWWJBE 
 
 larifi 0&ACH, tf AMP:
 
 v
 
 CHALMETTE
 
 THAT BALCONY CORNER IS EVER TO BE HELD DEAl 
 
 Page 219.
 
 CHALMETTE 
 
 THE HISTORT OF THE ADVEN 
 TURES &f LOVE AFFAIRS OF 
 CAPTAIN ROBE BEFORE fcf 
 DURING THE BATTLE OF NEW 
 ORLEANS: WRITTEN BT HIM- 
 SELF 
 
 BY CLINTON ROSS 
 
 AUTHOR OF "THE SCARLET COAT," "ZULEKA," ETC. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA & LONDON 
 J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 
 
 1898
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1897 
 
 BY 
 J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY
 
 TO 
 
 ADMIRAL ERBEN 
 
 MY DEAR ADMIRAL, You, sir, have borne the American 
 flag on so many seas, in so many affairs, before so many peo 
 ples, that I venture to put your name, distinguished in the 
 service of the United States, before this tale of Chalmette. 
 
 What finer introduction could it have, though indeed but a 
 landsman s tale ? Yet I may hesitate } for who may spin a yarn 
 better than yourself? who knows so well how to fascinate with 
 some rare account? who may see more readily the faults, the 
 incongruities of my attempt ? May I hope that your name will 
 prove the talisman which shall command for " Chalmette" some 
 favor ? 
 
 I am, sir 
 
 Yours faithfully 
 
 CLINTON ROSS 
 
 At NEW YORK, ajth April, 97 

 
 AUTHOR S NOTE 
 
 Three books on cities stand out preeminent for 
 charm of subject and grace of manner, 
 D Amicis s "Constantinople," Stevenson s 
 " Edinboro," and Miss King s " New Orleans;" 
 and to this last I must acknowledge my debt
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 
 
 CHAPTER I PAGI 
 
 Christopher Robe visits Westmore ... 15 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 New Orleans 36 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 Mademoiselle de Renter 59 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 The Letter 65 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 The Pirates of Barataria 75 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 The Ward of Lafitte and Captain Domi 
 nique You 91 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 The Death-Bed of De Eertrand ... 104 
 
 ix
 
 x CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 The Entertainment to bis Majesty s Offi 
 cers no 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 The Diplomacy of Lafitte 119 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 Monsieur Clement 129 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 The Ussuline Sister 143 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 The Entrance of the Prince 156 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 At Madame Demarche s 171 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 Lajitte and the Traitor 1 84 
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 The Escape 198 
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 The Balcony at Madame Demarche s . . 206
 
 CONTENTS xi 
 
 CHAPTER XVII PAGE 
 
 The Fir it Days of the Battle 225 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 The Rivals 232 
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 Other Days of Battle 236 
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 The Eighth of January 240 
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 
 The Quarrel of M. Jean Lafitte and 
 Captain Robe 249
 
 PREFATORY NOTE 
 
 THAT my dear grandfather was one of the 
 first men of his time, I dare say I need not 
 state. The achievements of Christopher Robe 
 are too obvious before those who read the 
 histories of Americans. And so I need not 
 apologize too much for presenting here his 
 own account of his life. Tis, in fact, a mat 
 ter of pride to me to serve him in the poor 
 way of editor. He did so much in these 
 United States, in those days that are now 
 so far away as to be matters of tradition, 
 that his own history of these great events, 
 particularly of General Jackson and the battle 
 of New Orleans and of the pirates of Bara- 
 taria, may be accepted as a book of more 
 than the private interest to us, who are his 
 kin. 
 
 I have followed for the most his own 
 phrasing ; the manuscript is as it was found 
 in the old house by the Potomac. And the
 
 xiy PREFATORY NOTE 
 
 editor has only touched it here and there, 
 with a reverential hand, since he was the 
 most distinguished of her race. I may add 
 here that I have a very vivid memory of him 
 as I saw him when, a girl, I was brought 
 back from Europe to Westmore. My mem 
 ory pictures a stretch of lawn and an old 
 man very well kept, with bright eyes, they 
 were, I believe, intensely black, two great 
 hounds by his side. He paused and ex 
 changed a laughing remark with the little 
 girl who was watching him almost wonder- 
 ingly. For she had seen his name and his 
 picture in a very bad wood-cut in a history 
 of the United States. He was, I remember, 
 a small man, yet he ever carried himself with 
 a certain air which gave him distinction. 
 When younger he was said to have been 
 very muscular, and in his old age he pos 
 sessed an air of great strength. And I am 
 reminded of that portrait of him, taken when 
 he was a general of the Mexican War, 
 which showed him strong and virile; a 
 thin, fine, smooth-shaven face, framed by 
 brown hair ; a short, compact figure ; a hand,
 
 PREFATORY NOTE xv 
 
 slender and nervous, on his sword. He 
 looked every inch like those men of our line 
 of whom Stuart and Peale have left several 
 famous likenesses. 
 
 When the girl saw him that day it was, I 
 think, in 57. He died in 59, before that 
 terrible civil strife which divided our family. 
 The question was never put to him, the 
 Union or the Confederation ? His life ended 
 before that. But he belonged to another 
 splendid period of American history, when 
 our nationality asserted itself lustily, when we 
 were felt as one of the naval powers to be 
 counted on, when Great Britain found it not 
 so easy a matter to force her former colonies 
 back into their parts in the British Empire. 
 Tis a story of many events that may make 
 us feel shame, of incompetency, of poor 
 politics, but out of it all comes the splendid 
 distinction of the American navy and of the 
 fight General Jackson made at New Orleans. 
 
 But I am possibly saying too much of this 
 manuscript of my dear grandfather. I will 
 leave it, without further apology, to speak 
 for itself, as if he himself were talking. And
 
 xvi PREFATORY NOTE 
 
 why, indeed, isn t he? The lines were 
 penned by him, and here on my desk lie the 
 papers as he left them in those last quiet days 
 at Westmore. 
 
 CORNELIA ROBE FENWOLD. 
 
 AT WESTMORE, VIRGINIA, 
 yth April, 1897.
 
 CHALMETTE 
 
 +* 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 CHRISTOPHER ROBE VISITS WESTMORE 
 
 THE writer of this reminiscence heard the 
 great American s Farewell Address ; a little 
 lad that day, standing by his uncle s side, 
 the scene still made an impression that he 
 carried down into other years ; and when in 
 the period of our inefficiency we said Ameri 
 can traditions were lost, when they had 
 won the fights in the West and burned 
 Washington, the man and the lad recalled 
 that other scene. Kit remembers how the 
 uncle and nephew walked together side by 
 side, the elder talking vehemently, as was 
 his habit, recalling what Kit s father had 
 done in the former war. 
 
 " But the navy has done its part well, Kit," 
 he added ; " we were even going to curtail 
 
 5
 
 16 CHALMETTE 
 
 that, in our idea to economize." And Mr. 
 Robe went into a tirade about the ways 
 and means of politicians. Now, as a matter 
 of observation, Kit is sure that the same 
 old tirades are being constantly delivered 
 against politicians and parties. Tis ever a 
 discussion, a quarrel, this struggle we have 
 in the world; and twas the same in 1814 
 as now. What could be better, or worse, 
 than a certain course*? What a villain is 
 that leader ! how are the people bought and 
 sold, or led astray ! how much better were 
 our fathers in their day and generation ! And 
 so the discussion goes on endlessly, and the 
 old world keeps jogging on, jogging on. 
 
 " I think well of your expedition to New 
 Orleans, Kit, but I don t see how Louisiana 
 is to be saved to us. What can Andrew 
 Jackson, indeed, do? It s their last resort, 
 and it s a notice to the Louisianians, take 
 care of yourselves, and we will approve. 
 Think of those veterans of the Peninsula, 
 those leaders who burned the Capitol only 
 the other day ; and I could see the flames 
 rising over the hills. I sat there in the li-
 
 CHALMETTE 17 
 
 brary and wanted to have my legs again, 
 as I used to be before the gout took em 
 away from me. But you ve done passably 
 well, Kit," he added ; " and it s good of you 
 to come around to see me before you go 
 down there." 
 
 Mr. Robe then went on talking about the 
 particulars of the estate, which some day was 
 to be Kit s all, things turning out properly. 
 The Robe name, the Robe career, were 
 the nephew s to follow after him. They 
 paused over Kit s father s portrait as they 
 talked, and Kit looked across to his mother s, 
 which faced it. They died within a year of 
 each other, in 91, when Kit was five. John 
 Robe, the boy s guardian and uncle, looked 
 after him ; he had never married, and Kit 
 appeared to be his main interest, his care. 
 Kit can see him now as they stood there 
 talking together, the best friends in the 
 world ; nothing seemed ever likely to come 
 between them, except one subject : a woman. 
 The uncle knew quite as well as any one 
 that part of the reason for the nephew being 
 at Robe House, on his way down to New
 
 i8 CHALMETTE 
 
 Orleans, was that, as you follow the river, 
 you come to the plantation of the Maurices. 
 The uncle held the Maurices not of so good 
 blood ; and he had his certain fears about 
 Sallie Maurice and Christopher Robe. What 
 good guardian quite approves of one s choice 
 of a woman *? and a father, or an uncle like 
 Kit s, who took a father s place, cherishes" 
 the illusion that no one in the world is quite 
 the equal of their particular boy. Kit recalls 
 how he left him, finding some excuse, and 
 rode with Simon Wesley, his boy, across to 
 the Maurices. 
 
 It was a quiet, charming day, and though 
 Virginia had been stirred and frightened out 
 of her wits by the recent invasion, there was 
 no evidence of unrest or war that moment. 
 The chatter of the fields reached Captain 
 Robe pleasantly ; a rhythm of summer lay 
 about on the slopes. Now and then he had 
 to stop to speak to some darky who was glad 
 indeed to see him back from the wars. And 
 then suddenly, about a turn, he came on her 
 walking by her horse, as his luck would 
 have it.
 
 CHALMETTE 19 
 
 " Sallie," said he, dismounting. 
 
 "Ah, it s Kit," she cried; "Kit, you re 
 back then." 
 
 Sallie Maurice was neither tall nor short ; 
 as Kit remembers that moment, of a rather 
 full figure, an eager, smiling face framed by 
 reddish-brown hair. Now, as she stood by 
 the roadside, her face flushed slightly at the 
 sight of the young captain. Was she glad 
 to see him back? Had she heard he had 
 gained a captaincy at Lundy s Lane? All 
 the little vanities he had about himself and 
 I don t believe he had more than most men 
 asserted themselves. But surely he had 
 never found in his wanderings a prettier, 
 more winsome face than this Virginia maid s, 
 with that rarely piquant grace. He won 
 dered if the two Braytons, Tom and Sam, 
 cousins, proprietors of Westmoreland, 
 were still so persistent suitors as they had 
 been. Was he too late, then *? Had others 
 taken her fancy? For as they stood there 
 our captain was suddenly in a fever of 
 interest. 
 
 "Do you remember when we last met?"
 
 20 CHALMETTE 
 
 said he, sillily enough, looking not at her, 
 but at the river making a broad sweep with 
 splendid grandeur at their feet. The great 
 rivers, the Hudson, the Potomac, the Mis 
 sissippi, seem to typify the strength and 
 virility of the United States. 
 
 "That night at Mrs. Madison s," Sally 
 said, laughing rather mischievously. " Poor 
 Mrs. Madison had such a hard time when 
 they ran away from Washington," she added, 
 as if wishing to change the subject. And 
 
 C/ C2 */ 
 
 then Kit noticed that she looked paler than 
 when he had seen her last. In his pleasure 
 at seeing her face he had not noted that, and 
 now he asked, rather anxiously, 
 
 " Why, where s all your color, old play 
 mate 4 ?" 
 
 But as he said it her face was suffused 
 again with a rush of crimson. 
 
 " I surely have enough now," said she, her 
 eyes bent down, " to please you, sir. Well I 
 may be paler. My uncle says that I am 
 worried." 
 
 " What in the world can worry you *?" he 
 cried ; " a love-affair *?" he added, with at-
 
 CHALMETTE 21 
 
 tempted facetiousness. " Eh, Sallie *? You d 
 become so popular even before I left." 
 
 " I care not for men," she said, with an 
 upward look belying the statement. " If that 
 were all that could bother me, I should not 
 have a care in the world. And how do you 
 do, Simon Wesley ?" she said, calling to the 
 boy. " How well you look, almost as 
 well as your master, the captain." 
 
 " Simon is a soldier," said Kit then, while 
 Simon rolled his eyes and showed his glit 
 tering teeth. 
 
 " He s been in a mile of bullets," the 
 master went on, and Simon turned his white, 
 rolling eyes in a deprecatory smile. 
 
 Yes, what could worry her in all the 
 world ? she who ought not to worry. He 
 had an impulse then and there to begin a 
 course of violent love. He remembered 
 what he had thought of her when he was on 
 the field ; he remembered how they had 
 grown up together ; how he had taught her 
 to sit a horse. He remembered how, before 
 he had gone to the war, she had become a 
 belle of that countryside. Yet, now that
 
 22 CHALMETTE 
 
 he was back at Westmore, now, indeed, 
 those phrases he might have worded seemed 
 far-away and crude. She was not so much 
 the girl he had fancied he was in love with 
 as the simple, honest comrade of other days, 
 the girl who had not been behind in his 
 rough sports ; who could sit a horse, he 
 has recorded that he taught her, and be as 
 fearless as any one of us after the hounds ; 
 who could handle an oar or a sail ; a jolly, 
 Tomboy sort of a girl, who suddenly had 
 settled down into the quieter ways of con 
 scious maidenhood. Quieter, did I say ? Was 
 there ever so great a flirt as Sallie in those 
 days ? as many besides Kit could attest. So 
 they walked on, leading the horses ; and a 
 hound ran out and recognized the returned 
 Kit, and this brought the two back to other 
 matters, of the dogs and the horses, of 
 what had happened at and about Westmore. 
 And the girl was laughing, and Kit was 
 answering her back, when suddenly Sallie 
 sobered and turned to him. 
 
 " How, Kit, about the drinking?" 
 
 Now there had been a time when Kit had
 
 CHALMETTE 23 
 
 been drinking too much, as was not an uncom 
 mon vice among gentlemen in those times. 
 It s a rather easy matter to get to drinking too 
 much, you know ; and it so changes a man. 
 Kit has ever held the theory that you owe it 
 to your fellow-man to be agreeable ; and, so, 
 some drink is a blessing. It raises a man to 
 the level of agreeability. But, then, I fear 
 Kit had it in him to overstep the line. It 
 was so easy a matter to get to a condition 
 where it took ever more to reach that level. 
 
 " I have been rather careful about that," 
 said Kit. " To be sure, you know, a man 
 has to." 
 
 " And are the girls in New York so charm 
 ing 4 ?" said Sallie. 
 
 " I think I ve compared em all with one 
 in Virginia," said our young gentleman, 
 airily. (To this narrator, as he looks back 
 on him, it was as if he were that young 
 man s father ; he can see his mistakes with 
 a great pity, and envy, too. Oh, for the joy 
 life sometimes gave in those days ! Oh, for 
 the old zest of pleasure and of tingling 
 blood ! The narrator feels, after all, that he
 
 24 CHALMETTE 
 
 has become a degenerate from that full- 
 blooded, generous young captain he is com 
 menting on of Mrs. Madison s jolly days, 
 days when formality and regard for old 
 usages still obtained !) 
 
 " Kit, you ve still a tongue for compli 
 ments. I have heard you paid Peggy Waters 
 many when you made such furious love to 
 her in Georgetown." 
 
 " Not I," said Kit. 
 
 " Well, I should like to know if it wasn t," 
 Sallie cried, with a pout. " I know you bet 
 ter than you do yourself where a pretty face 
 is concerned." 
 
 " Well, my lady, what of Lieutenant 
 Wofington, the Englishman?" 
 
 "But I wasn t to blame because he ad 
 mired me," said Sallie. 
 
 "And there s Sam Landers?" 
 
 " He is," said Sallie, " a very nice fellow." 
 
 " Oh, I dare say ! I dare say !" said Kit, in 
 a considerable rage. 
 
 "I tell you what I will agree to, Kit," 
 Sallie said, at last. " I will say no more of 
 Peggy "
 
 CHALMETTE 25 
 
 " If I ll say no more of the others ; there 
 are so many," said Kit, contemptuously. 
 
 " Well, if you talk in that way, Kit, down, 
 Jock !" to the hound, " you needn t come 
 over to-night. We didn t know you were 
 back or else you would have been bidden." 
 
 " And now," said Kit, " there appears to 
 be no chance in the world. I deliberately 
 have closed the door." 
 
 Simon Wesley, lingering far behind, may 
 have wondered or not. Simon was looking 
 down at the Potomac, and now calling to 
 Jock, who remembered him as he did his 
 master. 
 
 " My uncle doubtless would be glad to 
 see you," said Sallie, finally. 
 
 " And not you, Sallie ?" Kit said. " I am 
 only back for the day. I am on my way to 
 New Orleans, to report to Governor Clai- 
 borne, to await General Jackson s orders 
 about a company." 
 
 She suddenly faced him with a look al 
 most of fright in her eyes. 
 
 " You are going to New Orleans, New 
 Orleans of all places ?"
 
 26 CHALMETTE 
 
 "Why not there as well as to another 
 place ?" Kit asked, wondering a bit, and with 
 a sudden access of vanity. 
 
 " Oh, I don t know," said she, hesitatingly. 
 " It is so far away. And, then, they say 
 there ll be fighting." 
 
 "Do you care?" Kit asked, drawing 
 nearer, but she pushed him back with a 
 burst of laughter. 
 
 " Not a bit, you foolish boy, not a 
 bit, I assure you. You are wonderfully 
 vain." 
 
 "Oh, am I?" Kit asked, with some cha 
 grin. " I think I ll say good-by." 
 
 " How foolish our talk sounds ! What s 
 the use of a quarrel when at the best you 
 are here only for a day ?" said Sallie. " No, 
 Kit, you must come over. I shall be sorry 
 if you don t. As for New Orleans, it sug 
 gests something to me. They say it s a very 
 fine city ; and you ll find pleasure and gam 
 ing, as much as you wish. And then 
 there ll be some soldiering, too," she added. 
 " Now I must go in ; and we ll expect you 
 in an hour."
 
 CHALMETTE 27 
 
 The old house stood white and beckoning 
 in its meadow as the two hesitated. Jock 
 was now stretched out at his mistress s feet, 
 her black tugging at the bridle in a thought 
 of the stable. 
 
 " Sallie, dear," Kit began at last. 
 
 " Oh, bother !" she cried, and before he 
 knew it she was in the saddle and up the 
 path, her hat fallen back and a fine tangle 
 of yellow hair swinging a mockery at him ; 
 and he mounted and rode back to West- 
 more, thinking that his talk with his little 
 neighbor had not been exactly satisfactory. 
 He was in a perplexity at himself; he had 
 been at the point of asking her a very serious 
 question, but she wouldn t listen. 
 
 " Where Ve you been ?" asked the master 
 of Westmore as his nephew returned. 
 
 " Over to the Maurices. I met Sallie on 
 the road. I am invited there to-night." 
 
 " Humph !" said John Robe, pausing, and 
 looking his nephew over. " I thought you 
 were here to see me *?" 
 
 " You wouldn t have me rude when I 
 have known Sallie all my life ?" Kit asked.
 
 28 CHALMETTE 
 
 " Oh, no, not rude. Only remember that 
 it s bad blood, bad blood." 
 
 " You always say that, sir," Kit put 
 in. " They re held by others a very old 
 family." 
 
 " They are," said old John Robe ; " they 
 are, to be sure. But it s her blood, you 
 know. She s only half a Maurice." 
 
 " Hers ?" said Kit, for he didn t know such 
 a story. In that countryside, where gossip 
 flew about swiftly enough, there never was a 
 hint of such a complication. " Eh ! what 
 d ye mean, uncle ?" His blood suddenly 
 was warm. He was angered at that uncle 
 for the first time in many a year. 
 
 " Oh, it s nothing, nothing !" John Robe 
 hastened to cry out. " You know he and I 
 are not very good friends." 
 
 Kit knew this very well. They had quar 
 relled and fought a duel years since over a 
 lady who afterwards became Mrs. Maurice. 
 (John Robe probably had lost in that skir 
 mish, and he had remained a bachelor.) The 
 lady in the case was dead these many years ; 
 the hope of the Maurice estate was in Sallie,
 
 CHALMETTE 29 
 
 the daughter of a certain ne er-do-weel 
 brother, his probably was the bad blood of 
 which nobody spoke openly. Kit knew 
 these things, and knowing them he now sat 
 down to pacify his uncle as best he might. 
 And presently they were talking of other 
 matters, of the great Farewell Address they 
 once had heard together, an account of which 
 circumstance makes the opening of this nar 
 rative. 
 
 Kit can see this old gentleman now ; very 
 tall, broad-shouldered, with at his tongue s 
 end reminiscences of all those distinguished 
 Americans of our Revolutionary period, and, 
 indeed, of France at that time. For, still a 
 very young man, John Robe had been one 
 of the commissioners to France, He had 
 known Marie Antoinette in the heyday of 
 her beauty, in the splendor of her position. 
 He had been acquainted with those French 
 gentlemen, whose names are now historical 
 figures, who had ended in the great over 
 throw. The Marquis de la Fayette had been 
 one of his good friends, and it s a matter of 
 some pride with the Robes that when the
 
 30 CHALMETTE 
 
 marquis came to America Westmore was 
 one of the houses he counted it a privilege 
 to visit. But of all the history since, till 
 English and French cruisers began to im 
 press our seamen, and England counted us a 
 country to be brought back to the colony, 
 all this had been of little moment to him, 
 momentous though it had been. He had 
 been content to lead the life of a Virginia 
 country gentleman of that period, looking 
 out more or less for his nephew s future. Kit 
 had been at Yale College in Connecticut, 
 and then he had taken the grand tour, as 
 some Americans did. In those days he was 
 the friend of a certain New York gentleman, 
 since very distinguished in letters, a Mr. 
 Washington Irving ; and Mr. Irving has at 
 tested that there was no better, no finer type 
 of the Virginia gentleman than John Robe. 
 More than a mere country gentleman. Had 
 he not been more or less distinguished in 
 Congress during the Revolutionary period, a 
 staunch adherent of our first great chief? 
 Now, in his older days, he was filled with rare 
 reminiscence of which no one could appre-
 
 CHALMETTE 31 
 
 ciate the fine flavor better than Mr. Irving. 
 Or perhaps Kit may add to this statement of 
 appreciation his nephew s, who hung on his 
 lips with a certain interest that even Sir 
 Walter Scott s famous novels were not able 
 to arouse later. 
 
 Or may I not continue here some descrip 
 tion of Westmore as it was in those days ? 
 Now the old house keeps its distinction as 
 one of the great places in Virginia ; but in 
 those days of Kit s youth it had, as well as 
 the surroundings, the gayety, now gone, the 
 splendid ladies and gentlemen whom we now 
 only read about. And many of them, the 
 most interesting, too, never reached so far as 
 the histories. Kit remembered particularly 
 how he sat listening that evening, and the 
 old servants, with certain deferential grins 
 for the returned young master, passed in and 
 out, till at last came the hour to pay that 
 visit at the Maurices. 
 
 " Well, if you must leave me," said John 
 Robe, rising laboriously, and calling to Alex 
 ander, better Alex, his man, who came in at 
 the master s call.
 
 32 CHALMETTE 
 
 " I m not to be with you long," said John 
 Robe. " And to-morrow you start." 
 
 " To-morrow I start." 
 
 "And yet you persist in going to the 
 Maurices. Eh, a pretty face, a pretty 
 ankle." 
 
 Kit did not gainsay that ; for, indeed, why 
 would he have cared to leave his uncle were 
 it not as the master of Westmore stated*? 
 What other reasons were there, indeed"? 
 Yet, as in the moonshine he rode over to 
 the Maurices, a certain remorse gripped his 
 heart. Why should he be running away 
 from that dear old uncle on this last night ? 
 And memories stirred him, as they will some 
 times ; regrets for what has been, which never 
 may be again. 
 
 At his journey s end he was met by a 
 little old man, who wore a wig, a certain 
 parchment-like face, a manner interested and 
 courtly, a carefulness in dress, a certain sly 
 ness in the eyes that Kit did not like. 
 
 " Sallie will be down directly," said Philip 
 Maurice. " I hear you have distinguished 
 yourself."
 
 CHALMETTE 33 
 
 " Oh, I don t know," the captain replied. 
 " It s easy to get notice in these times." 
 
 " Yes, of some sort or another," the host 
 replied, "very easy. Oh, I hear you are 
 going to New Orleans. Dan !" and a 
 negro servant appeared, "a note I left on 
 my desk. 
 
 " There s a man there of considerable im 
 portance, a rich, influential man, though 
 he has been branded a pirate. Hem ! Mr. 
 Christopher, this is a letter introducing you 
 to Mr. Jean Lantte, of New Orleans." 
 
 " I have heard the name," Kit answered. 
 " Ah, yes, that man !" 
 
 " Oh, it won t hurt you ; he s the most in 
 fluential man in Louisiana, I tell you." 
 
 But Kit was thinking. He himself will 
 tell you later what that name meant. What 
 name, indeed, more influential ? What name 
 more significant for riches gained by illicit 
 means ? And yet Mr. Maurice doubtless was 
 right about the usefulness of such a letter. 
 Kit pocketed it with a bow. And just then 
 the mistress of the house entered, very sweet 
 and pretty in her simple gown. 
 
 3
 
 34 CHALMETTE 
 
 But Kit was not to have her by himself. 
 Sam Landers was expected. And how Sam 
 Landers entered you may like to know ; a 
 rough, good-hearted, red-faced for a hard- 
 drinking fellow ; one of the richest proprie 
 tors in the State. And he was making love 
 to Sallie ? Kit had no more time to say 
 what he might have wished to say. 
 
 Yet he bore away with him a picture of 
 her as she stood against the light from the 
 opened hall-door. 
 
 " I am sorry to have you go, Kit." 
 
 " Good-by, Sallie." 
 
 "You ll do your part?" 
 
 " Oh, I ll try," said he, pressing her hand. 
 " Good-by, Sallie." 
 
 And he rode away to the wars again, to 
 those events which were to so change him ; 
 to the engrossing life outside, beyond that 
 quiet rurality. 
 
 But it s well for a man to hold one girl 
 superior to the others, particularly when she 
 really is so. Such a devotion keeps one 
 sometimes from those errors which leave 
 moral scars.
 
 CHALMETTE 35 
 
 And Kit rode away to the wars again, I 
 have said. What those wars were, what 
 happened to him, how strange things oc 
 curred to him, are not all these things the 
 subjects of this veracious history ? 
 
 And, oh, the old days ! And, oh, the joys 
 of living when the old perplexities, the old 
 defeats, the old victories held our hearts !
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 NEW ORLEANS 
 
 You doubtless know so well the situation* 
 in that year of 1814 that I need not recall 
 the circumstances leading Captain Christo 
 pher Robe to Louisiana. We were then, 
 after some years of tedious war, apparently 
 as little near the end as at the beginning. 
 To be sure, we had established our prestige 
 as a sea-power of the first rank. But it 
 makes Kit s heart sick now to recall all the 
 governmental weaknesses, delays, inappre- 
 ciation of our lack of coast defences, or that 
 military, not civil, training makes the captain, 
 all the follies committed in the name of 
 the United Government. We had not been 
 able to avoid the disgrace of the burning of 
 our Capitol, nor the ravage of its neighbor 
 hood. Nor has there been more than hinted, 
 in describing Kit s little visit to Westmore, 
 36
 
 CHALMETTE 37 
 
 the condition of feeling, the consternation 
 prevailing there. 
 
 Now the whole British armament on our 
 coast was directed against far-away Louisiana, 
 which we had bought so recently from Na 
 poleon, and where there was among the 
 French and the Spanish people small liking 
 for the United States. The government 
 sent down four troops of regulars, placed 
 Commodore Patterson in command of the 
 naval defences, and ordered out the State 
 militia of about a thousand. Then they ap 
 pointed General Andrew Jackson to com 
 mand the Southwest. It had chanced that 
 young Captain Robe had once served with 
 General Jackson and had done a service 
 which the general remembered. Kit always 
 said that under the general s exterior he saw 
 those remarkable abilities which made him 
 one of the most efficient generals, and later, 
 for all his peculiarities, one of the greatest 
 Presidents of the United States. What that 
 particular service was need not be recounted 
 here. A man may not care to repeat vainly 
 what is out of the course of the particular
 
 38 CHALMETTE 
 
 story he is telling. But when Captain Robe 
 applied for service in Louisiana, his imagina 
 tion having been fired by the situation there, 
 General Jackson himself seconded the prop 
 osition, and so it chanced that he was ordered 
 to report at New Orleans to wait further 
 advices. 
 
 Robe has often related how splendid the 
 city seemed after his long journey thither ; 
 how the strange street crowds, so contrasted 
 in color and tongues, affected him ; how he 
 found a gayety, a luxury, an ease of manner, 
 that no part of America afforded the like. 
 He fell easily into the ways of that generous 
 hospitality. For even in the day of fear the 
 Creoles did not forget that life is charming, 
 that one should be gay. He attended many 
 balls and functions, for he had many invita 
 tions, having been well introduced. He 
 listened to the talk in coffee-houses, to reports 
 that many seemed to wish to believe that the 
 red and black Spanish flag would soon again 
 float over the devoted town. 
 
 This General Jackson couldn t defend 
 them, they said ; bah ! a rough frontier fighter
 
 CHALMETTE 39 
 
 against the Peninsular veterans, against the 
 fleet that had fought under Nelson. Twas 
 ridiculous in the extreme. And there would 
 follow ejaculations and a rush of language 
 that Kit couldn t understand. For though 
 our young captain had a fair schooling in 
 Latin, he hardly knew Spanish from French, 
 and so you will find in this account naught 
 but plain English. And what is more, they 
 went on, these English have the Indians, and, 
 horror of horrors ! they will liberate the 
 slaves. And then they would lean forward 
 and tell in English, for our young captain s 
 benefit, fearsome tales of the massacres in 
 San Domingo, where the slaves had risen 
 against their masters. Many a New Orleans 
 family came from San Domingo, and the 
 stories of that horrid affair, of the atrocities 
 committed, of the narrow escapes, were told 
 over again and again. British regulars were 
 at Pensacola. British ships were in the Gulf. 
 Ah, what would happen to this New Or 
 leans, that had passed from Spaniard to 
 Frenchman, from Frenchman to Yankee ! 
 Kit being but a poor writer, being eager
 
 40 CHALMETTE 
 
 to get to his own adventures, must despair of 
 describing all he saw in that interesting city 
 in those exciting days; where fear neither 
 stopped the theatres nor the active challenge 
 of black eyes, to some of whose owners he 
 proceeded to make himself agreeable. That 
 he succeeded it is not for himself to say. 
 
 Of course, to resume his narrative, he re 
 ported, and then delivered some despatches 
 he was bearer of to that distinguished Gov 
 ernor Claiborne, one of the great American 
 names. At Governor Claiborne s he met a 
 certain old acquaintance, a Dennis Cafferty, 
 whom he had known in New Haven. Den 
 nis was a calm, matter-of-fact person ; very 
 honest and strong in every way, who had a 
 certain scorn for this pleasure-loving city. 
 The two friends talked it over many times, 
 Kit defending his point of view, but Dennis 
 came from a family of North of Ireland 
 Presbyterians and stood by his own. 
 
 " Look, Kit, you ll be going about too 
 much," he said. " It s easy to fall here. Yes, 
 easy enough, I know. And you ll end in a 
 duel, I tell ye."
 
 CHALMETTE 41 
 
 Kit only laughed at this, and, being a 
 lover of pleasure and having been brought 
 up to certain easy-going Virginian traditions, 
 he found a rather more congenial companion 
 in a certain young gentleman, a Raoul 
 Deschamps, whom he met at Mrs. Clai- 
 borne s, herself a very charming lady. I am 
 not sure that Kit liked this tall, thin, black- 
 eyed Deschamps so well at first, but they 
 ended by discovering certain tastes in com 
 mon. Kit was not averse to a bit of 
 gaming. You could have that in New Or 
 leans. He was not opposed to attending 
 those wonderful public balls, and Deschamps 
 opened the way. 
 
 " You d reconcile us to Americans, you 
 Virginians," Deschamps said one day after 
 the theatre. New Orleans loved the play 
 then as well as now. 
 
 " I seem to be very well acquainted now," 
 said Kit. " But I haven t presented one of 
 my letters to your great pirate, Lafitte." 
 
 " Ah, that s wrong," said Deschamps, smil 
 ing, and showing his fine white teeth ; " Jean 
 Lafitte is one of the greatest financiers in the
 
 42 CHALMETTE 
 
 world. Why, two-thirds of us in New Or 
 leans owe whatever we have to the trade he 
 has made possible." 
 
 " Governor Claiborne has launched enough 
 proclamations against him. General Jack 
 son has called him a hellish bandit, " quoth 
 Robe. 
 
 " Ugh," said Deschamps. " Don t you 
 know, my Kit, that an opinion is just the 
 color of a man s interest. You say you 
 have a letter for him. Let me see it, 
 pray." 
 
 And Kit handed him the letter from Mr. 
 Maurice to Jean Lafitte : 
 
 " My DEAR SIR, This will introduce to your good 
 favor Mr. Christopher Robe, of the army, who is a 
 neighbor of ours and heir of the Westmore estates, of 
 which you know. 
 
 "Hoping that you maybe well and that your affairs 
 may be as usually prosperous, 
 "I am 
 
 " Yours faithfully, 
 
 " PHILIP MAURICE." 
 
 As Deschamps read it he looked up quickly. 
 " I will take you around there now."
 
 CHALMETTE 43 
 
 " Where ?" asked Kit, wondering ; " he s 
 outlawed." 
 
 " What s the difference ? The govern 
 ment owes too much to him. He s safe 
 enough." 
 
 " But the other brother, Pierre Lafitte, is 
 in prison without bail." 
 
 "What s the difference?" Raoul Des- 
 champs said again. " I know he s here. 
 Don t disregard such an invitation. He s a 
 man to know, the most powerful in New 
 Orleans, a most agreeable gentleman." 
 
 " You remember I am an officer of the 
 United States," Kit said, still hesitating. 
 
 " I don t see that you commit yourself by 
 so simple an affair as a visit," said the other. 
 
 " But I may feel bound to report that I 
 have seen him." 
 
 " They know that well enough, but they 
 don t dare to touch him. You will see a 
 man who has made the trade of the Missis 
 sippi Valley." 
 
 " Well," said Kit, " it s good of you, and, 
 of course, I shall be delighted." 
 
 And they went out into the warm night,
 
 44 CHALMETTE 
 
 where the varied crowd was still pushing, 
 laughing, jesting, with now and then a more 
 serious tone ; such a wonderful crowd as you 
 cannot see of these days : .negro women with 
 bright Madras handkerchiefs ; a finely-dressed 
 gentleman contrasted with a rough sailor, or 
 a trapper, gaunt, in his rough hunting clothes. 
 For New Orleans was not yet asleep, as Kit 
 knew of other nights like this. He had 
 found an elegance, an extravagance he never 
 had before fancied, reaching down into the 
 lower classes. And this night there had 
 been many festivities, three balls, one of the 
 negroes, another of the quadroons, and an 
 other of the gentle folk, which the friends 
 had not attended. 
 
 As they passed on they came across a 
 little party preceded by three sturdy blacks, 
 whose swinging lanterns showed two ladies 
 following, with, at their heels, two chattering 
 maids dangling their mistresses slippers. Kit 
 caught a glimpse of a pretty ankle, of dark, 
 charming eyes, of a low, narrow brow framed 
 by black hair, of a thin, pale face, and a little 
 mouth with enticing lips, wondrous red
 
 CHALMETTE 45 
 
 against the pale face ; the figure rather tall 
 and full. 
 
 How in some first impressions, even by a 
 swinging lantern, do some faces leave them 
 selves fixed in your memory, never to be 
 entirely obliterated from that tablet ! You 
 may pass many thousands a day, and but 
 one, for some strange reason of personality, 
 is recorded clearly by your eyes. 
 
 Deschamps stopped now on the way to 
 that late visit. He was bowing in the most 
 stately manner possible, bending low ; the 
 fashion has gone out now with many good 
 old fashions ; manners began to deteriorate 
 in the degree that formality in dress was 
 given up, with gentlemen s silk stockings and 
 shoes with silver and gold buckles. 
 
 The blacks stopped as if by magic. The 
 elder^-lady greeted Kit s friend very finely, 
 with a smile through her rouge. She was 
 rather old, Kit fancied, and highly colored 
 in complexion, and gowned like a bird of 
 paradise. Her voice came out thin and a bit 
 cracked, in French. In the background the 
 younger lady sent Kit a coquettish smile.
 
 46 CHALMETTE 
 
 Deschamps turned. 
 
 " Madame de Renier, Captain Christopher 
 Robe, the Virginia Robes, and Mademoiselle 
 Marie de Renier." 
 
 Madame bowed graciously, and said in 
 very good English that, indeed, she was 
 glad to meet one of Mr. Deschamps s friends, 
 particularly when he was a Virginia Robe. 
 (Now I wonder if she really ever had heard 
 the name before.) Mademoiselle inclined 
 her pretty, bird-like head and softly giggled. 
 It was, I assure you, a most delightful giggle, 
 like a maiden s light heart bubbling over, 
 and Kit found his mind well fixed on the 
 owner of it. (And all this proves that what 
 Sallie had said about him may have been 
 right. Had she known him better than he 
 knew himself?) Kit thought, at any rate, 
 that Mademoiselle de Renier was a very en 
 ticing person. Madame in the mean time 
 was assuring Mr. Deschamps that she would 
 be delighted to have him bring his friend ; 
 that they would like to have them both 
 down next week for two days on the plan 
 tation.
 
 CHALMETTE 47 
 
 She turned with a bow, ordering her ser 
 vants on. Mademoiselle looked back rogu 
 ishly over her shoulder. And they went on 
 to the accompaniment of swinging lanterns. 
 
 " A deucedly pretty girl," said Kit. 
 
 " Many have thought so much," Mr. 
 Raoul assented. " We ll see more of her. 
 Ah, how she dances ! What eyes she has !" 
 
 " They were interesting," Kit agreed. 
 
 " Now we are to Mr. Lafitte s," said Des- 
 champs. 
 
 Robe will not attempt to describe where 
 the house of that important person that 
 rascal or patriot happened to be. They 
 had a way of numbering streets very badly, 
 or not at all, in New Orleans of those days, 
 and it s sufficient to say that they came to a 
 dwelling of some pretension. Nor was there 
 much caution in admitting them, though 
 there might be a price on the owner s head. 
 The interior was surprising in the luxury of 
 its appointments, though Deschamps whis 
 pered to Kit that he should see the planta 
 tion at the Grande Terre on the Bay of Bar- 
 ataria.
 
 48 CHALMETTE 
 
 Now, while Kit waits to see this man to 
 whom he bore the letter, wondering what 
 the great manager of the Barataria enterprise 
 could be like ; this pirate and outlaw, who 
 yet was declared a polished gentleman, 
 let us pause to describe who he was. 
 
 Do you remember the tales of pirates who 
 infested the Gulf; all those bloody events 
 that boys like to listen to with wide eyes ? 
 Well, a time came when his British Majesty 
 frightened them from their quondam resorts, 
 and they found in the innumerable winding 
 inter ways between the mouth of the Missis 
 sippi and the Bayou La Fourche a locality 
 where their ships could slip in and out. Pro 
 tected by the narrow strip of land, the Grand 
 Terre, was the Bay of Barataria. Here this 
 gentry made a settlement, a refuge, a home, 
 a trading-post. The Mississippi could dis 
 tribute their wares over a continent. Not 
 far away was the city, made up of a mixed 
 population from the four corners of the 
 earth, not too anxious to inquire into meum 
 and tuum. 
 
 In those days two shrewd brothers, Jean
 
 CHALMETTE 49 
 
 and Pierre Lafitte, came from Bayonne to 
 better their fortunes. From blacksmiths, 
 having the sense of trade, they became pro 
 prietors, and from disposing of a cargo for 
 some individual owner, they became the 
 bankers and agents of them all, and directly 
 the managers of the commercial community 
 which grew up around Baratarian Bay, 
 Barataria. 
 
 And how was that merchandise acquired ? 
 Much on the high seas, much from looted 
 merchantmen ; much, indeed, bought some 
 where legitimately, perhaps for the proper 
 coupled with the less considerable profit of 
 paying no duties. There were few families 
 in New Orleans not in some way dependent 
 on that trade, whatever its source, in piracy 
 or in smuggling ; in any view it was lawless 
 enough. No question was made that much, 
 as I have said, was from pirates spoils, even 
 if the Baratarians declared that they were 
 very proper privateers, with papers from the 
 newly-revolted Spanish colonies privileging 
 them to prey on Spanish commerce. Twas 
 a generally-accepted fact that they made no
 
 50 CHALMETTE 
 
 particular distinction about the nationality of 
 the vessel could they get it and scuttle it and 
 leave no soul to tell the story. In Kit s boy 
 hood those who sailed the Gulf ran the con 
 tinual risk of pirates, and we in these days can 
 hardly understand how that part of the world 
 has changed. We cannot fancy the romance, 
 the terror of it then. 
 
 The power and wealth of Barataria be 
 came so prodigious that in 1813, the pre 
 ceding year, Governor Claiborne issued a 
 proclamation denouncing it all. But who 
 minded that? Who gave so lavishly to 
 charity as the two Lafittes? And they 
 walked the streets with their heads high, the 
 very pictures of success. And the ships still 
 brought in wines, silks, slaves, everything, 
 which were as openly auctioned as ever. A 
 British sloop-of-war tried its hand at two 
 of the Baratarian vessels and was vigorously 
 driven away. The Baratarians were prepared 
 to fight, like an independent nationality, as, 
 indeed, made up of all nations, they nearly 
 were. A revenue collector and one of his 
 men were killed. When the governor asked
 
 CHALMETTE 51 
 
 the Legislature for a force to clear out this 
 nest of illicit trade and piracy, the legisla 
 tors remembered scandal ran their master. 
 And now, when Kit paid his visit, the two 
 leaders, Jean and Pierre Lafitte, were crimi 
 nally indicted, Pierre in the calaboose with 
 out bail, and Jean somewhere, a fugitive. A 
 fugitive, did I say? It appeared that this 
 Jean was actually in New Orleans, and here 
 was our captain of the army paying him a 
 visit. The trial was even then going on. 
 The clever Jean had employed celebrated 
 counsel, one no less than the district attor 
 ney, who resigned his position of public 
 prosecutor for a twenty-thousand-dollar fee. 
 Pirates, my dear Louisianians ! These men be 
 patriots, your best citizens, who are building 
 the commercial prestige and greatness of 
 your State. 
 
 Kit, you may be sure, knew these stories, 
 and many more that I have not put down 
 here, and he had hesitated when Mr. Maurice 
 had given him the letter. But now Raoui 
 Deschamps had said that Mr. Jean Lafitte 
 would be in, like any ordinary citizen ; and
 
 52 CHALMETTE 
 
 he was actually awaiting him at this late 
 hour of the evening. Deschamps had sent 
 up his name and Kit s letter, and the ser 
 vant, a suave mulatto, brought back word 
 that his master would see the gentlemen. 
 There was no attempt at evasion. 
 
 What had Kit expected to see in this for 
 midable person ? There entered shortly a* 
 black-haired, black-eyed man, what pene 
 trating, fine, black eyes ! fair-complexioned, 
 splendid-mannered, and attired like any gen 
 tleman of New Orleans back from some 
 occasion. His voice was gentle and per 
 suasive. 
 
 Yes, he had known Mr. Maurice in other 
 days, and he was glad to know any one of 
 Mr. Maurice s friends, particularly when he 
 chanced to be a member of the army which 
 was to defend New Orleans from the enemy. 
 Possibly Kit stared. Was this the outlaw, 
 this proper gentleman, voicing fine, patriotic 
 phrases ? 
 
 " I want to know you all," he went on to 
 the young Virginian. " I want you to be on 
 my side as opposed to the governor s, for,
 
 CHALMETTE 53 
 
 hem ! the governor is mistaken in some 
 things." 
 
 Kit thought he must be. His own re 
 serve thawed. This winning gentleman car 
 ried him outside of himself; and Raoul Des- 
 champs sat in the corner and smiled. 
 
 " The governor must know that I can 
 help him in this crisis, that I have armed 
 men to put in the field," our gentleman went 
 on almost nonchalantly. 
 
 But at the moment there came a great 
 pounding and rattling. The mulatto ser 
 vant rushed in, whispering something to his 
 master, whose voice came out rather fiercely : 
 
 " They have dared !" 
 
 A keen, angry light was in his eyes. 
 
 " They have dared !" said Raoul, rising ; 
 and then he said something rapidly in 
 French. The host nodded, muttered a few 
 words low to Raoul, and then turned to Kit 
 without any change of manner. 
 
 " I regret that our first interview should be 
 so interrupted, Mr. Robe," and he extended 
 his hand and was gone, calm, strong, mas 
 terful.
 
 54 CHALMETTE 
 
 " He is safe enough," said Deschamps then. 
 
 " You mean they are here to arrest him ?" 
 Captain Robe asked. 
 
 " They can t. He has only to step out 
 of a door that opens into the adjoining 
 house, a door they don t know about, and 
 he is among the French. Is there a Creole 
 who would betray Jean Lafitte ? He was 
 here to see his attorney." 
 
 The knocking had stopped ; there was the 
 clatter of feet outside. Voices sounded. 
 Presently there entered Kit s friend, Dennis 
 CafFerty, of the militia, with behind him 
 John Turnbull, a Boston man, on the gov 
 ernor s staff. 
 
 Cafferty paused in some amazement at his 
 friend. 
 
 " He is not here ?" he asked. 
 
 "No, you can t find him," Raoul Des 
 champs said. " I refer you to Mr. Grymes, 
 his lawyer." 
 
 " I think you are right," the other said ; 
 " a foolish undertaking. The sheriff wouldn t 
 do it. The governor thought he would try 
 himself to entrap his old foe."
 
 CHALMETTE 55 
 
 " Well, I am sorry," Deschamps laughed. 
 " We will go with you if you don t mind." 
 
 Outside Cafferty took Kit by the arm. 
 
 " It s indiscreet of you to stand with their 
 party. The fall of Barataria will make some 
 pretty scandals in New Orleans. Remember, 
 your orders may come any time. This may 
 ruin you with General Jackson." 
 
 "Oh, I can care for myself," the Vir 
 ginian retorted with some spirit. " But you 
 are a good fellow, Dennis," he added. 
 
 " You go about too much ; you play too 
 much ; you care too much for pleasure," his 
 friend retorted. 
 
 " Oh, I ll not lose my temper with you. 
 We Robes have always gone our own ways, 
 such as they are. And so long as two-thirds 
 of New Orleans are on the side of the La- 
 fittes, I don t see what difference this can 
 make to me. But, Dennis, be a good fel 
 low ; I m curious. What can they want of 
 me?" 
 
 " Pooh !" said Dennis, " it s their policy to 
 stand well with every man, not knowing 
 when they may wish to use him. As for
 
 56 CHALMETTE 
 
 you, you may influence your uncle s opinion, 
 and your uncle stands well with Congress." 
 
 " I say," Raoul cried out here, " you 
 failed !" 
 
 They were walking in the dim streets with 
 a dozen men of the governor s posse. If the 
 governor were disregarding the municipal au 
 thorities, it wouldn t matter, if he could get 
 Jean Lafitte lodged with his brother Pierre 
 in the calaboose. 
 
 " Yes, we ve failed in several things. 
 Among others, Pierre Lafitte is no longer in 
 jail." 
 
 " Escaped !" Raoul cried in affected sur 
 prise ; for Kit saw that he had known. 
 
 " Yes," said CafTerty, sullenly. " Are you 
 coming with Turnbull and me, Kit ?" 
 
 No, Kit had an engagement with Mr. 
 Deschamps ; and he and Mr. D. went laugh 
 ing away arm in arm. Of course, these vio 
 lations of the law were very serious. But 
 why should you have a wry face and man 
 ners towards those whose hospitality is giving 
 you an agreeable time ? When it came to 
 the point of the United States going down
 
 CHALMETTE 57 
 
 to clear out this Barataria, if Kit had an 
 appointment there, he would go down there 
 cheerfully. But he had not been bred in the 
 school of New England prejudice of Turn- 
 bull and the Irish-Scot s son. He was a 
 Virginian, with a Virginian s liberal views on 
 certain matters. 
 
 And where did they go ? I will not tell 
 you all the places they went to that night. 
 They were, I declare, no worse than most of 
 us ; at least, Kit was not. They found them 
 selves at last over the cards among a crowd 
 of gentlemen, among whom was Mr. Grymes, 
 the lawyer, who told them that he and Mr. 
 Livingston certainly would gain the cases of 
 the Lafittes, at which a cheer ran up. 
 
 " But Jean takes a risk in coming up 
 here ?" one asked. 
 
 * Did he ever refuse a risk ?" another an 
 swered. " It s not fear of New Orleans, but 
 his duty in Barataria, which keeps him 
 there." 
 
 " Jean Lafitte fear the State government ! 
 Why, my friends, he controls that govern 
 ment."
 
 58 CHALMETTE 
 
 As for Kit, I am afraid he lost more than 
 he ought. I am afraid that Simon Wesley 
 bless his honest, white soul in a black body ! 
 put his master to bed tipsy. 
 
 At least, late the next morning Kit awoke 
 with an aching head. And then he fell to 
 thinking of Sallie back there in Virginia. 
 He remembered all he had said, and, if not 
 actually said, implied to her. He felt rather 
 miserable and mean-spirited. But after he 
 had eaten he began to feel better. Memory 
 of Sallie was chased out of his mind, to be 
 replaced by the dark-eyed girl whom he 
 had seen in the flaring lantern-light. He 
 repeated the name, Marie de Renier ; and 
 then he went out to keep an appointment 
 with Raoul. His orders would come soon 
 enough. He would make the most of the 
 pleasures of the gay city. 
 
 And the sun was shining ; and New Or 
 leans was chattering and smiling.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 MADEMOISELLE DE RENTER 
 
 MADEMOISELLE DE RENIER and Robe slipped 
 easily into acquaintanceship. She had a 
 way, inherited from a long line of charming 
 women, of holding men s attention. And, 
 indeed, there was in Kit s time few more 
 entertaining young ladies ; I declare, women 
 are not what they were in his youth, or men 
 either. Tis the fashion to say that you are 
 finer, better now. Well, it may be. Robe 
 does not agree with you. And as for New 
 Orleans, twas a Paris transplanted. The 
 New Orleans of the early part of the cen 
 tury was a surprise, indeed, with its delightful 
 social sophistication. 
 
 I have left Robe in a way that made his 
 friends, Dennis Cafferty and John Turnbull, 
 shake their heads. He was going to the 
 dogs ; he was too often at the gaming-tables ; 
 you could see him now and then with cheeks 
 
 59
 
 60 CHALMETTE 
 
 flushed, his steps a bit unsteady. I am sure 
 it was a case deplorable enough. But it s 
 an ordeal that most of us pass through 
 sooner or later. Possibly we should be 
 purer of heart if we didn t ; but tis the way 
 of life ; and generous, honest souls are caught 
 in this net of pleasure, to be made perhaps, 
 brutal and selfish. Tis occurring every day, 
 and it will to the world s end. You can t 
 legislate it or preach it out ; every man must 
 solve his own problems in his own way. 
 And if the morality were easy in New Orleans 
 then, it was easy in London and in Paris in 
 all conscience. Here, in a land of sunshine 
 and nature s glory, was the old world itself, 
 with little of that hard fight with primeval 
 conditions which made the intrepid strength 
 of New England, the Middle States, and the 
 West. Yet wait for this history s course ; 
 you will find as strong and fine a fight, in 
 volving the greatest self-sacrifice, you will 
 listen to a victory as great, I think, as any 
 Homer ever sang. But here I am anticipat 
 ing, and forgetting that this story is mine only 
 so far as Kit s fortunes were involved with it.
 
 CHALMETTE 61 
 
 You may imagine him very much with 
 the De Reniers, and Mademoiselle bore out 
 the first impression he had of her. She had 
 all the piquancies, the little graces, which 
 may entice a man. She inherited them, 
 indeed. Madame herself was of a very 
 good family, which that atrocious Revolu 
 tion had brought to New Orleans. Madame 
 in her day had her score of suitors, though 
 you might not always suspect it when you 
 saw her in the morning, as Kit did. He 
 passed several days on the De Renier planta 
 tion. He saw a great deal of Mademoiselle 
 with an ever-increasing admiration. The 
 one trouble was that there were too many 
 suitors. Among these was a certain Louis 
 Ronald, a little, agile man of great estate, a 
 celebrated swordsman. At thirty he was 
 said to have killed three men. Our Virginian 
 took a dislike to him from the first ; it was as 
 instinctive as his liking for Mademoiselle. 
 
 And she smiled and encouraged them all. 
 Was there ever such a capricious little flirt ? 
 Was there ever, to be truthful, in the end a 
 more devoted wife ? Those flirtatious dam-
 
 62 CHALMETTE 
 
 sels sometimes have the surest faith. But 
 Mademoiselle passed through many experi 
 ences before she reached that point. 
 
 " How do you like us down here ?" she 
 asked one day, turning her pleading eyes on 
 the Virginian. They were alone for a 
 moment in a delicious glade. You might 
 have fancied a thousand little loves flitting 
 about in the shrubbery. 
 
 " How do I like you ?" said Kit. " I love 
 you." And he tried to take her hand. 
 
 " Oh, fie, Captain Robe," said she, as de 
 mure a damsel as you could wish. " That 
 means nothing, or everything." 
 
 " Or everything," Kit repeated. And just 
 then Monsieur Ronald appeared. 
 
 " Is Monsieur learning French ?" he asked, 
 with a meaning smile. 
 
 Kit bridled a bit. It was his one chagrin 
 that he didn t know French, and he never 
 had time to learn it. You lost so much by 
 not knowing the tongue in New Or 
 leans. 
 
 "Eh, how s the army?" said Ronald 
 affably. Mademoiselle was laughing.
 
 CHALMETTE 63 
 
 " I am still waiting my orders," said Kit, 
 rather stiffly. 
 
 " They say they intend attacking Mobile." 
 
 " Did you ever hear of a Lieutenant Beau 
 mont on one of their ships, the Pensacola ? " 
 said Mademoiselle. 
 
 " Why," said Ronald, for he was not long 
 back from England, " he s to marry Lady 
 Kitty Berford. I know him well." 
 
 Now it was a mystery to Kit why Ronald 
 had been in England. He always suspected 
 the worst of the man. But Raoul Deschamps 
 told him later that Ronald s mother was an 
 Englishwoman. 
 
 " How did you know this English officer, 
 Mademoiselle Marie ?" he asked. 
 
 Mademoiselle sat very still, her face pale 
 and agitated. And Kit wondered why. But 
 Monsieur Ronald took up the conversation. 
 
 " Everybody comes to New Orleans, Mr. 
 Robe, sooner or later, even your good 
 self." 
 
 " Yes, I dare say," Kit said, absently. 
 
 " Why, we had here in 98, the princes 
 themselves running from the guillotine,
 
 64 CHALMETTE 
 
 the Dukes d Orleans, de Montpensier, the 
 Comte de Beaujolais. The way we knew 
 this Mr. Beaumont was that an English 
 frigate, after chasing pirates, put in here a 
 year before the war. He was very nice, 
 Mademoiselle thought." 
 
 " I never liked him," Mademoiselle re 
 torted, a little flush mounting her pale cheeks. 
 
 " Speaking of pirates," Monsieur Ronald 
 went on, " Mr. Grymes has won his case." 
 
 " For the Lafittes," said Mademoiselle, 
 turning. " They give so much for the pub 
 lic balls." 
 
 " He is going to a banquet at Barataria," 
 Ronald went on. 
 
 " That exonerates them," said Kit, rising, 
 for he found three a crowd that moment. 
 
 "You are not going?" Mademoiselle ex 
 postulated, looking up to him. 
 
 But he was. And he bowed stiffly. The 
 rest of that visit he rather avoided her. If 
 he had known, those were the very best tac 
 tics to have adopted. Mademoiselle had a 
 certain common feminine weakness of caring 
 most for those men who avoided her.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE LETTER 
 
 ONE day Mr. Grymes came back with the 
 most wonderful stories of the hospitality he 
 had received at the hands of the Lafittes at 
 Barataria 
 
 " Pirates !" quoth he ; " splendid gentle 
 men, " 
 
 " What has become of your friend Robe ?" 
 he asked of Raoul Deschamps. "Doesn t 
 that fellow play too much ?" 
 
 " Oh, pooh," said Mr. Deschamps ; " he s 
 rich." 
 
 I must state here that gossip has it, I 
 don t vouch for the truth of any gossip, 
 that Mr Grymes had received his twenty 
 thousand dollars fee, but on his return to 
 ward the city had stopped at several planta 
 tions where a quiet little rubber couldn t be 
 refused, and when he reached the city not a 
 penny was left of that fee. Well, Robe has 
 5 65
 
 66 CHALMETTE 
 
 seen many persons turn moralists after certain 
 unfortunate experiences. His friends, Cafferty 
 and Turnbull, might shake their heads, but 
 then it was a tradition that all Southerners 
 were naturally " devils of fellows." 
 
 But, now as he looks back at it all, Robe 
 must confess that he was taking rather a 
 lively pace. The drafts from New Orleans on* 
 Mr. Robe s banker in Baltimore were frequent 
 and thick. As for the young gentlemen of 
 New Orleans, they seemed to find in him one 
 after their own taste, and, indeed, Mademoi 
 selle de Renier was strongly inclined to en 
 courage him, for he began to see that a certain 
 disdain smooths the way to a woman s fancy. 
 
 So there came a gladsome morning when 
 he awoke with a consciousness of jingling 
 coin in his pocket. His head, too, was won 
 drous clear, considering the fact that he had 
 been out rather late. And, as on another 
 morning, he went out to the De Reniers , and 
 they were alone for some moments. 
 
 "Ah," said Mademoiselle, with a sigh, 
 " there are so many pretty girls in New Or 
 leans."
 
 CHALMETTE 67 
 
 "Do you remember what I told you 
 once ?" he asked. 
 
 "Yes," said she, timidly, and he leaned 
 over and kissed her, and as he did he had 
 suddenly a vision of Sallie Maurice. He 
 could see Sallie s eyes in Mademoiselle s, 
 could hear her voice, so that Mademoiselle 
 suddenly drew back. But Robe knew what 
 he had done, and he said again the words 
 with a certain cold formality. He would 
 act it out to the end, he said to himself, with 
 self-pity. Yet what was his acting ? Tears 
 were in her eyes, and then, though he called 
 after her, she was gone from the room. And 
 Kit was like a man who has recovered from 
 a long delirium. He sent word for Mad 
 emoiselle. She begged to be excused. Kit 
 went out into the sunshine of the street and 
 then back to his lodgings, where he wrote two 
 notes, one couched in very formal terms to 
 Madame de Renier, asking for her daughter s 
 hand and stating what his prospects were ; 
 and in the other he made again his declara 
 tion, and, calling Simon Wesley, he ordered 
 him to get a bunch of roses and violets and
 
 68 CHALMETTE 
 
 to present them to Mademoiselle with her 
 note. Simon grinned and went out. He, 
 too, was having rather a pleasant time in 
 New Orleans, though Northern darkies were 
 not much esteemed by their creole fel 
 lows. 
 
 Kit sat very still, looking out of the win 
 dow, but only seeing the face which had* 
 interrupted his love-making. Suddenly he 
 knew himself; he knew it was the Virginia 
 girl, not Mademoiselle. 
 
 Now you will say he should have known 
 from the first that he was, indeed, a very fickle 
 fellow. Well, while he is a hero of mine, I 
 can t defend him. He was ever filled with 
 all the human weaknesses and ficklenesses. 
 
 Now, as he sat there, he noticed on the 
 
 table a letter addressed to him. Picking it 
 
 up, he stared in wonder. It was Sallie s 
 
 4 hand and Sallie s seal. He tore it open and 
 
 read : 
 
 " DEAR KIT, I know all about you. Wasn t I 
 right that day at Westmore ? What if I had believed 
 you ? But I didn t. 
 
 "S. M."
 
 CHALMETTE 69 
 
 That was all. If he had been in a calmer 
 mood he might have been a little vain over 
 Sallie s haste to explain that she didn t care ; 
 that he needn t deceive himself. But I am 
 not sure that would have been a reason for 
 vanity. It s possible for a woman to write 
 such a note without caring at all for a man, 
 that s certain. 
 
 But how did she know? New Orleans 
 was so far away from Virginia. He had 
 been there only three weeks. Or was she 
 referring to some other vagary of his *? He 
 couldn t remember one that would call out 
 her letter. Could she be in New Orleans ? 
 He remembered Philip Maurice s letter to 
 Jean Lafitte. He must know, and he called 
 for a servant of the house. 
 
 " How did this letter get here ?" he asked. 
 
 " A half hour ago, sir ; from the con 
 vent." * 
 
 Without waiting to consider the situation 
 further, he went out hastily. What did that 
 mean *? the convent of the Ursulines. 
 
 I can see him now, as if he were another, 
 as he walked through those streets and stopped
 
 70 CHALMETTE 
 
 at last before that famous building where for 
 ninety years the sisters of Saint Ursula did 
 their sweet, good work. He hesitated for a 
 moment, looking at the stout brick walls. 
 Was she indeed there"? And what had 
 brought her to New Orleans ? He would 
 ask ; he would know. And he gently raised 
 the knocker above the cross. As the porter 
 looked out through the grated opening he 
 asked if a Miss Maurice might be lodged 
 there, and he showed the letter and explained 
 his mission. At last there came word that 
 Sister Madeleine would see him, and pres 
 ently he was before a woman who must have 
 been very beautiful in her time. Now her 
 face had that holy air which the frame gives 
 it, a reminiscence of sorrow which had added 
 to the delicate refinement. 
 
 " Yes, Monsieur," she began ; then, turning 
 to English, "the letter was sent you from 
 here." 
 
 " And is she here ?" 
 
 " No, sir." 
 
 " Has she been ?" 
 
 " Yes."
 
 CHALMETTE 71 
 
 " Where can I find her?" 
 
 " Oh, I cannot tell you that, believe me, 
 sir." 
 
 And suddenly she said : 
 
 " You have a good face, a face that will 
 be strong some day." 
 
 " Thank you, mother," Kit said, bowing 
 humbly ; and as he turned away he carried 
 with him a picture of her calm, heavenly 
 face. He seemed to be called back to his 
 better self all at once. 
 
 And she had been there ? He remembered 
 that the Maurices were Romanists ; he re 
 membered how she had changed color when 
 he had said he was on his way to Louisiana. 
 And then he thought again of the letter to 
 Jean Lafitte. Could that explain it all ? She 
 knew of his attentions to Marie de Renier. 
 Ah, yes, it was now a betrothal. He walked 
 more briskly to get the answer Simon might 
 have brought. Simon was there ; but it was 
 a verbal message, " Mademoiselle de Renier 
 wishes to see Mr. Robe in person." 
 
 Mademoiselle was smiling as he entered ; 
 but the first words she uttered were,
 
 72 CHALMETTE 
 
 " I have torn up that note of yours, and 
 Madame s, ma mere s, too. She didn t see 
 it." 
 
 " I meant it," he began. 
 
 " Why, you didn t at all. If you did you 
 must be prepared to die of a broken heart, 
 for " 
 
 "Why?" he asked. 
 
 " Do you know that story Louis Ronald 
 told, of a Lieutenant Beaumont 1 ?" Her 
 voice rose to a certain tragic intensity. " I 
 loved I love that man. I hate her " 
 
 And Kit remembered that Ronald had said 
 this English lieutenant was betrothed. 
 
 " As for you, dear Mr. Robe, I led you on. 
 I liked you ; I like you ; but love ! it was 
 between us a play ; and it has ended in a jolly 
 friendship." 
 
 And they shook hands and laughed, in 
 deed, the best of friends ; for he knew she was 
 speaking the truth, and she understood him. 
 She had angled for him and caught him, 
 which satisfied her coquetry ; and now she 
 was pleased to let him go. She confided in 
 him a bit more about Beaumont, to which
 
 CHALMETTE 73 
 
 he listened, while she ended, denying her 
 words with a little stamp of the foot, of 
 course, she wasn t in earnest about that either. 
 Was she trying to gain Robe back by nam 
 ing a rival ? 
 
 That evening Captain Robe received an 
 order to accompany, by Governor Claiborne s 
 request, Captain Cafferty, of the State militia, 
 to examine into the pirates retreat at Bara- 
 taria, and to report to General Jackson at 
 Mobile, where he had been making the de 
 fence of Fort Bowyer. The general knew 
 the quality of Captain Robe s observation on 
 a former occasion. 
 
 Kit remembers a proclamation of the 
 general that was about the city the next 
 day : 
 
 " The base, perfidious Britons have attempted to in 
 vade your country. They had the temerity to attack 
 Fort Bowyer with their incongruous horde of Indians, 
 negroes, and assassins ; they seem to have forgotten 
 that this fort was defended by freemen." 
 
 Reading his instruction, and listening to 
 its interpretation from the military com-
 
 74 CHALMETTE 
 
 mandant of New Orleans, Captain Robe felt 
 very glad that now he had some plain duty. 
 Nor did the fact that he had met Jean La- 
 fitte through the introduction of the Mau 
 rices lessen his zest.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 THE PIRATES OF BARATARIA 
 
 NOT a soul was supposed to know of this 
 expedition, but Robe doubts not in the least 
 that the astute Lafitte was from the first 
 aware of its every detail. He himself saw 
 Raoul Deschamps, of course, without hinting 
 of it, and he made a visit on Mademoiselle, 
 who was very light and gracious and did not 
 once suspect that he was going away. Kit 
 may have wondered what the Virginia young 
 lady would have said to these continual visits. 
 But really he couldn t avoid being polite to 
 Mademoiselle after he had made himself such 
 a fool about her. And then there came the 
 further details of the expedition. Captain 
 Robe made several suggestions, which were 
 accepted as valuable. They must see Jean 
 Lafitte himself, General Jackson had said ; 
 they must look over Barataria as carefully as 
 their chance would permit. Jean Lafitte was 
 
 75
 
 76 CHALMETTE 
 
 not inclined to come to New Orleans at that 
 time ; and his brother Pierre was not a sub 
 stitute for Jean, who controlled the fighting 
 Baratarians. Jean was to be dealt with di 
 rectly. Major Cafferty was to represent the 
 State, and Captain Robe General Jackson 
 himself. They took with them six men, ; 
 seven, indeed, including Simon Wesley, who 
 was an active fellow. 
 
 And at dawn one September morning they 
 put out for Barataria. 
 
 As their sloop went down the river in 
 that scene where nature had been so lavish 
 in colors, in delicious beauty the languor 
 of the day fell over them ; all quite aston 
 ishing to the Virginian, who had not yet 
 become too familiar with that charming 
 scenery. He and Cafferty were now on good 
 terms, and Dennis told over again how he 
 had come to New Orleans and succeeded 
 beyond his expectation. Neither of the two 
 had much complaint to make of success, and 
 Robe could tell a pretty story of what he 
 had done at Lundy s Lane, by the purest 
 chance, he must add in strict frankness.
 
 CHALMETTE 77 
 
 They stopped for lunch at a plantation, 
 whose owner was said not to be in the Bara- 
 tarian interest. While this gentleman, a Mr. 
 Brownell married into a creole family 
 talked, Kit went outside in the hot sunshine. 
 His few weeks of leisure in New Orleans 
 seemed far away, and only one thing piqued, 
 Sallie Maurice s presence in New Orleans, 
 the mystery Sister Madeleine did not choose 
 to explain, or, perhaps, could not in duty to 
 herself. 
 
 " Ah, Captain Robe, how does it chance 
 that you are as far down as here ?" came a 
 sarcastic voice, and he saw Louis Ronald. 
 
 " How do ye do ?" said Kit, coldly, ignor 
 ing the question. " What a charming day !" 
 
 " I fancy that Major CafFerty has some 
 mission of importance," Ronald went on. 
 " You are pointed towards Barataria. Pos 
 sibly there s been a report of a new cargo of 
 blacks." 
 
 " Possibly," said Robe. " You are a friend 
 of Mr. Brownell ?" 
 
 " Mr. Brownell is one of the most popular 
 Americans in Louisiana," Ronald said, easily.
 
 78 CHALMETTE 
 
 " You know Americans are not altogether so. 
 They are still much foreigners to us with 
 French prejudices. You can t uproot in a 
 generation a feeling born in the blood. And 
 then the Spanish annexation feeling is very 
 strong." 
 
 " The British count on that, and the Bara*- 
 tarians, I believe," said Robe, slowly. " It 
 appears to have been a good move to try 
 to stir up the race feeling. I can t believe 
 they will be barbarians enough to free the 
 slaves " 
 
 " All kinds of reports are rife," said Ronald, 
 easily. " But I think General Jackson has 
 his hands full." 
 
 Robe made no reply to this, but after 
 wards, when they were started again, he told 
 Cafferty the talk word for word. (At lun 
 cheon Mr. Brownell had accounted for Ron 
 ald s presence by stating that he had the 
 adjoining plantation.) 
 
 " He is an agent of the Lafittes," Cafferty 
 said ; " two-thirds of the Louisianians are, 
 for that matter. Then there s another party, 
 made up of Northerners, who would like to
 
 CHALMETTE 79 
 
 loot Barataria ; there are so many tales of 
 untold treasures hidden there. Was ever a 
 place where so many adventurers were gath 
 ered ! But as for Ronald, eh, he s a dan 
 gerous fellow. You may believe we re ex 
 pected on the Bay of Barataria." 
 
 " Could he get a word there before us ?" 
 
 " Humph !" Cafferty retorted, " in this laby 
 rinth of water-ways nothing could be easier. 
 But they probably knew it from New Or 
 leans the moment the expedition was decided 
 on. Ours a useless sort of enterprise, too. 
 Those men would dare anything. But last 
 year, you know, a revenue officer and two 
 of his men were killed and the rest held 
 prisoners. To be sure, our visit is amicable 
 enough." 
 
 As they went on Dennis told many stories 
 of Captain s Dominique You and Robert de 
 Bertrand, of whom Robe was to know much. 
 
 They had reached a point in their course 
 where the glimmer of the bay was sparkling 
 blue through the opening of a lagoon, when 
 a voice sang out, " Surrender !" and instantly 
 a dozen boats pushed out from the banks
 
 8o CHALMETTE 
 
 filled with wild, picturesque fellows bearing 
 levelled muskets and bare cutlasses. 
 
 " Not a movement," Dennis sang out to 
 his men in French and English. " There 
 are two score of them." 
 
 The captain of the sloop obeyed by bring 
 ing it to. 
 
 " We have a mission for Mr. Lafitte," 
 Cafferty shouted. 
 
 The others did not answer, but came up 
 laughing and shouting threats in three tongues 
 and piling over the side. 
 
 " I tell you we are not here for the 
 revenues," Cafferty cried in French. 
 
 " My dear captain," said the leader, a little, 
 swarthy fellow, " it makes no difference. 
 We must take possession." 
 
 "You ll suffer for this," Cafferty said. 
 " Your nest will be cleared out." 
 
 " Submit, my dear Monsieur," the leader 
 went on with a certain mockery of urbanity. 
 " What else can you do ? And then let 
 them come down on us. They have been 
 talking of it so long." 
 
 Robe was fidgeting, for he was thinking
 
 CHALMETTE 81 
 
 of drawing his pistols and making a fight for 
 it ; but then his good sense returned. They 
 could but submit meekly. 
 
 " That s all, Cafferty," he said ; " our mis 
 sion will protect us." 
 
 And he looked out at the fierce crew that 
 had captured them, jabbering, as I say, in 
 three tongues, and I know not how many 
 dialects, looking, for all the world like figures 
 in some romantic play, though, to be sure, in 
 plays actors of rough parts are too well clad. 
 And behind all was the luxuriant foliage, the 
 gleaming sun, the shining waters. 
 
 " Your weapons, Messieurs," said the 
 leader, again, bowing politely ; " now we 
 must bind you." 
 
 "Does Mr. Lafitte or Captain Dominique 
 You or Captain de Bertrand know of this ?" 
 Cafferty asked. 
 
 " Who knows ?" laughed the leader. " It 
 may be the order of the Republic of Cartha- 
 gena. As for the captains, they may be 
 sailing the seas over. Eh, Cafferty," for he 
 seemed to know Kit s friend. 
 
 " Eh, Pierre La Roux, you keep on your 
 
 6
 
 82 CHALMETTE 
 
 same high-handed course. But there ll be 
 an end to it, my friend, an end to it," 
 Cafferty cried, his gray eyes flashing, his red 
 hair shaking like a lion s shaggy mane, for 
 his cap had fallen. The captain of the sloop 
 and the escort seemed ready to resist against 
 the numbers of the assailants. But Robe 
 put his hand on his friend s shoulder. 
 
 "Don t be a fool, Dennis. You know 
 I m no coward, but a fool is as bad as one." 
 
 " You re right, man," said Dennis, sud 
 denly calm. " Give up your arms, fellows. 
 We ll have to depend on Mr. Lafitte s 
 mercy." 
 
 " Mr. Lafitte doesn t know of this," La 
 Roux said with his smile ; he seemed to be 
 ever smiling. 
 
 " I think you lie," Dennis retorted. 
 
 "Well, well, what s a lie, Cafferty?" La 
 Roux said, shrugging his shoulders. " I 
 have said it. You may believe me or no, as 
 it pleases you." 
 
 He turned, giving an order in French and 
 repeating it in Spanish, for Captain Robe 
 had begun to distinguish between the two
 
 CHALMETTE 83 
 
 tongues, and, indeed, to gather a smattering of 
 the former. As the order passed, La Roux 
 turned to the prisoners : 
 
 " You must be blindfolded, my friends, 
 and your hands tied behind you." 
 
 " Well, my friend," Captain Robe said at 
 this, " we ll submit ; I ll speak for Major Caf- 
 ferty. But let your leader know that I come 
 from General Jackson, and that he will do 
 well to hear me." 
 
 " Humph," said La Roux, viciously, and 
 then more quietly and with a return of 
 that mocking politeness, " I m the leader 
 here." 
 
 " As you spoke of your lie, * I have said 
 it, " Captain Robe said. " The privateers of 
 Carthagena, if that s what you call yourselves, 
 must respect the condition of envoys." 
 
 "Well-a-day, sir," said La Roux, "we ll 
 consider that afterwards." 
 
 Cafferty stood mute, lest he again should 
 break into anger. 
 
 The men s hands were bound behind them 
 and then they were blindfolded. Simon Wes 
 ley looked pleadingly at his master, his teeth
 
 84 CHALMETTE 
 
 chattering. He expected nothing less than 
 to be shot. 
 
 " Trust to me, Simon," said his master 
 with a nonchalance he himself didn t feel. 
 Cafferty edged to him. 
 
 " My belief is," he said in a low voice, 
 " that one of their vessels is unloading a 
 cargo, maybe slaves, and they don t want 
 us to see it." 
 
 " Silence, gentlemen," came La Roux s 
 voice. " Now it s your turn." 
 
 Captain Robe s hands were bound tightly 
 behind him and the bandage was passed over 
 his eyes. He knew he was being lifted over 
 the side into one of the waiting boats, per 
 haps into the river. But his feet struck the 
 boat bottom, and directly the oar dip began, 
 while a low Spanish song arose amid laugh 
 ter, for the men were well pleased with their 
 capture. Perhaps it was the rhyme of the 
 jolly rover, of the wild life of the high seas. 
 It rose and fell, now in melodious notes, 
 again in a strange, incoherent jingle. And 
 then they were still, save for now and then a 
 muttered word and the oar dip or a bird or
 
 CHALMETTE 85 
 
 brute cry from the thickets. So a half hour 
 must have passed before the boat pushed 
 softly against a muddy beach. 
 
 A hand was thrust under Kit s arms, and 
 he arose and stepped, with that guiding hand, 
 over the side on a plank, and then, without 
 a word, he was led some distance, and finally 
 up a step to a room, and, it seemed, in a 
 long passage. 
 
 " Sit down," said a voice in English. 
 
 As he obeyed, the bandage was removed 
 and he found La Roux s jeering eyes on him, 
 while another untied his hands. The room 
 was large, with small, heavily-barred windows 
 near the ceiling ; furnished with a bundle of 
 clean grass as a bed ; the stool, where he was 
 sitting; a single low door of heavy iron, 
 slightly ajar, showed a dark corridor. 
 
 The fellow who had untied Robe s arms 
 stood as if waiting an order. A pistol was 
 in the sash at his waist, a rough cutlass by 
 his side. His calves and feet were brown 
 and bare. He seemed ready for La Roux s 
 order to end Robe then and there. La Roux 
 himself was dressed in much the same way,
 
 86 CHALMETTE 
 
 save shoes with silver buckles. He regarded 
 the captive with a slight sneer. Robe noted 
 what a handsome young fellow he was, 
 smooth-shaven, with a certain air of breeding, 
 if, as well, of devil-may-care. 
 
 " Ah, that remains with you," said Robe 
 with an affected carelessness, remembering 
 that this was his best manner under the cir- 
 stances. "You might say to Mr. Lafitte 
 that I await his pleasure." 
 
 " Mr. Lafitte will doubtless hear of this," 
 said La Roux with a smile. 
 
 " If he didn t order it," Robe began. 
 
 " If he didn t order it," the little Baratarian 
 said, quietly. " I have tried to make you 
 and Major Cafferty as comfortable as possible 
 by giving you separate rooms. Your men 
 are in the big room. Our calaboose is not 
 so commodious as I should wish." 
 
 " Well, I must wait your or your master s 
 pleasure," Robe said, feeling to know if the 
 documents he bore had not been disturbed. 
 
 " I will see that you have some dinner." 
 
 " Not now," said Robe, rising. " We ate 
 at Mr. BrownelPs, as you doubtless know."
 
 CHALMETTE 87 
 
 He was thinking of his meeting with Louis 
 Ronald. 
 
 " Well, au revoir, my dear captain," said 
 La Roux, turning and motioning the man 
 out. 
 
 Suddenly he faced. 
 
 " At least you are a brave man, Captain 
 Robe, and, if you ll believe me, you have a 
 friend in Pierre La Roux." 
 
 La Roux extended his hand. The sarcastic 
 smile was gone. " No harm will come to 
 you and yours, believe me." 
 
 What could have been stranger than to 
 find all this graceful consideration in an officer 
 of the pirates ? The captive took the thin, 
 nervous hand, moulded like a gentleman s, 
 and their manners were quite as if this 
 were a social occasion. La Roux turned 
 with a slight bow and followed his man. 
 The bolts slipped to their places, and Robe 
 was left to consider the situation. Through 
 the high-barred windows came the mutter of 
 the Louisianian September day. 
 
 "It will be only a detention," Robe 
 thought. "They will take me to Lafitte
 
 88 CHALMETTE 
 
 finally. It is probably, as Cafferty surmised, 
 .because they are unloading a cargo." 
 
 But at that moment there was a low, con 
 fused roar, as of many voices, ever nearer, 
 and Robe could distinguish French and 
 Spanish mingled with half-English jargon. 
 What did it mean? Suddenly two shots 
 rang out in rapid succession. The passage 
 seemed filled with shuffling, pushing men, 
 incoherent cries. 
 
 Robe braced himself against the wall and 
 bared his arms, determined at least to fight. 
 
 The bolts rasped in their sockets. The 
 door was thrown wide on the swearing, jostling 
 crowd, on cutlasses thrust forward, on one 
 tall, sinewy, bare-legged individual who 
 shouted out something in a tongue Robe 
 didn t understand. He must have made a 
 strange picture as he stood there against the 
 brick wall, ready to defend himself. The 
 leader stared at him for a moment and then 
 called back something to the men, whom 
 he had been holding. A half dozen, blear- 
 and red-eyed, rough counterparts of the 
 leader, rushed in at the word and held the
 
 CHALMETTE 89 
 
 cutlass points at the prisoner s breast. Seeing 
 that bare arms had small favor with steel, 
 he folded them and faced his assailants de 
 fiantly, while from the corridor the cries con 
 tinued. The leader motioned the cutlasses 
 down, with a remark that excited laughter. 
 Then, advancing to Robe, he put his hand 
 on his shoulder roughly. Raising his fist, 
 Robe brought the man down. The cutlasses 
 were extended again, but the leader suddenly 
 was on his feet, and, with a leering face, 
 made a motion about his neck, when, with 
 shouts of laughter, the cutlasses were low 
 ered. 
 
 " That means I am to be hung," said Robe, 
 calmly. " Well, be good enough to let me 
 walk out to that end." 
 
 " You re a cool un," said the leader, with 
 a certain admiration. For a certain defer 
 ence instead of resentment had followed 
 Robe s blow. 
 
 " At least you talk English," said the pris 
 oner. 
 
 " I m an Italian, but I ve served on English 
 ships."
 
 90 CHALMETTE 
 
 "An American or English captain will 
 make you walk the plank yet." 
 
 " Maybe," he assented, but showing no 
 greater resentment than such an assault 
 brought out in its leader.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE WARD OF LAFITTE AND CAPTAIN 
 DOMINIQUE YOU 
 
 THEY came, pushing and jostling, laughing 
 and swearing, from the dark passages into the 
 sunny glare of a glade edged by cypresses. 
 
 In the gesticulating throng of drunken 
 men, black, yellow, white, Robe failed to see 
 a single face he remembered as being of his 
 original captors. 
 
 The prisoners were arranged in the middle 
 of the circle ; the crew of the sloop, his and 
 Cafferty s escort of six men, Simon Wesley s 
 dark, chattering face. Cafferty himself seemed 
 as calm as Robe. 
 
 But the men were looking at the half- 
 dozen halters suspended from the trees. They 
 understood that their time had come ; that 
 there was but a step to that eternity which 
 awes, yet which never should make a brave 
 man flinch ; there are so many better and 
 
 9
 
 92 CHALMETTE 
 
 braver than we on that other side. The fear 
 of death to Kit is the fear of reaching that 
 goal by lingering illness. Yet it was a fear 
 some thing to die, as they now seemed likely 
 to, in this far-away piratical nest. They might 
 be avenged, but what would that be to 
 them ? small satisfaction when you may be 
 dead. Life and its sweetness suddenly ap 
 pealed to Robe as never before. He thought 
 of all the pleasures it had given him ; yes, he 
 
 had known a pleasant life; and now 
 
 But he must not let these cattle see that he 
 trembled. 
 
 Some of the motley crew were testing the 
 ropes, looking about for the jeering approval 
 of their comrades. The leader, the man 
 whom Robe had felled, strode into the 
 middle of the circle, bowing mockingly to 
 the prisoners, and addressing his comrades 
 with a speech that excited shouts and more 
 laughter. At the end two men advanced 
 towards Cafferty, to whom the leader pointed. 
 
 " Twill be your turn next, Leonardo," 
 Dennis said defiantly to the leader, who 
 turned and translated this, with many com-
 
 CHALMETTE 93 
 
 ments, to his men. As he was speaking, 
 while the two men with Dennis were pausing 
 to listen, a woman, pale, yellow-haired, fair, 
 suddenly burst through the circle, which 
 opened for her ; the voice paused ; the throng 
 fell suddenly silent as if awed ; the two men 
 by CarTerty slunk away from their prisoner. 
 
 " De Bertrand !" a voice said, shrilly. 
 
 " De Bertrand !" the low shout was re 
 peated. Leonardo himself bent his head. 
 The name De Bertrand was talismanic. And 
 the girl entered there, stood in the circle 
 pale, trembling, her blue eyes flashing ; and 
 her voice was in French : 
 
 " Back to your ships !" she cried. " Back 
 to your ships, wretches ! as you would save 
 your lives." 
 
 And Robe stood there in sheer amazement; 
 for the girl, in a simple gown, such as he had 
 seen her wear many times in Virginia, was 
 she whom he had known as his neighbor, his 
 comrade. He had a memory of her at a 
 dance at Georgetown ; he heard the full, 
 womanly voice, light with laughter. Was 
 this indeed she? this slight, rigid, com-
 
 94 CHALMETTE 
 
 manding figure before whom these men 
 shrank ? And how came she here ? And 
 why should they shrink in fear before her, 
 with that word, De Bertrand, explaining all 
 to them, so little to him ? 
 
 At the moment a short, sturdy, swarthy 
 man ran into the circle. Without a word he 
 drew a pistol from his belt, and with its butt 
 raised advanced to Leonardo, who faced him 
 silently. Neither said a word. But the 
 pistol-butt was raised, and Leonardo fell over 
 like a wooden thing. The new-comer waved 
 his arm, still without a word, and the crowd 
 slunk away as if by magic. Only two turned 
 back and lifted their leader, who lay stunned, 
 perhaps dead. In the confusion the girl in 
 some way disappeared. Robe saw her head 
 in the crowd for a moment, and then it 
 was hidden. His heart beat violently, in his 
 wonder, his surprise, his impulse to rush after 
 her. 
 
 The man who had borne out her demand 
 for the mob s dispersal now called back to 
 some companions, who appeared at a dog 
 trot, headed by La Roux.
 
 CHALMETTE 95 
 
 " I am sorry, Mr. Robe," that worthy 
 said, rushing up to Robe. " They over 
 powered the two men in charge of our cal 
 aboose." 
 
 But he of the effective pistol-butt inter 
 rupted La Roux. 
 
 " Major Cafferty knows me, Mr. Robe," 
 he said. " I am Dominique You, at your 
 very good service. I will take you at once to 
 Mr. Lafitte, who will be pained to hear of 
 these occurrences. They shouldn t have 
 been stopped at first," he said to La Roux. 
 
 " I m to blame, Captain You," La Roux 
 said. 
 
 " Belouche was unloading a cargo," Dom 
 inique You himself said after this mild reproof 
 to La Roux. 
 
 " Belouche s lieutenant, Leonardo, doubt 
 less thought that you were down here for the 
 customs. He s a lawless fellow and a bit 
 crazed by drink. He thought he would 
 give those who interfere with our trade a 
 lesson." 
 
 " And De Bertrand ?" asked Robe. " Who 
 is he, Captain You ?"
 
 96 CHALMETTE 
 
 " Twenty years ago you wouldn t have 
 asked that question, Monsieur. He has done 
 more harm to Spanish commerce than any 
 privateer captain of the Gulf." 
 
 "And Miss Maurice? How came she 
 here ?" 
 
 " She, ah, you knew her in Virginia. 
 She s the ward of Jean Lafitte." 
 
 " The ward of Jean Lafitte !" Robe cried ; 
 " the ward of her uncle, Philip Maurice !" 
 
 " Mr. Lafitte will explain. I can say no 
 more, Mr. Robe," Dominique You went on. 
 " Now, Major CafFerty, your men are quite 
 free. They ll be taken to your sloop and La 
 Roux will see they are entertained." 
 
 Robe was rather fearful that Cafferty would 
 display temper, as, indeed, he had good reason. 
 But the revenue officer, who was at the same 
 time a major of the Louisiana militia, met 
 Dominique You s adroit addresses with a 
 calm politeness. 
 
 As Kit looks back on his first meeting 
 with this remarkable man, Dominique You, 
 he remembers that captain s subsequent 
 career, so strange in contrast with its begin-
 
 CHALMETTE 97 
 
 ning. He remembers the monument to him 
 in New Orleans, and that the city never 
 gave another of its citizens so great a 
 funeral display. And so he feels called on 
 to record his own surprise at this remark 
 able mixture of a man of action and of 
 address. Dominique You never had the 
 subtlety of either of the Lafittes. But the 
 three were by far the most extraordinary men 
 among Kit s acquaintances, barring, perhaps, 
 General Jackson. 
 
 They came out of the woodland into the 
 most charming rural scene ; handsome and 
 well-kept villas, as fine as any about New 
 Orleans ; people coming and going about 
 quiet vocations ; the bay, with its many 
 smaller sails and three large vessels at anchor ; 
 the landing places active ; great warehouses 
 lining the shore. As they passed on, men 
 exchanged salutations with Captain You. 
 Their path led back of this scene of activity, 
 among orange groves, past well-kept farms, 
 and about all was the marvel of light and 
 color, of the sea and land and the cloud- 
 flecked sky. Cafferty pointed out a line of 
 7
 
 98 CHALMETTE 
 
 barges which he said plied constantly be 
 tween the La Fourche and the Mississippi, 
 and Robe began to understand how great 
 was the trade of Barataria; how here was 
 centred much of the commerce of the Mis 
 sissippi Valley. 
 
 They came at last to a house, where Dom 
 inique You exchanged some words with a 
 black servant, and directly were ushered 
 through a hall, as fine in its appointments as 
 any Robe had seen, into a small room where 
 a man sat dictating to a secretary. 
 
 As they entered he arose. Robe saw again 
 Jean Lafitte. 
 
 " This is a pleasure, Captain Robe," said 
 he. " How is our friend, Mr. Deschamps, 
 and Major Cafferty, too ?" 
 
 " I have been apologizing for some indig 
 nities these gentlemen have suffered," Dom 
 inique You said. 
 
 " Ah, that too zealous La Roux !" Lafitte 
 said. 
 
 " No, worse ; Belouche s crew came near 
 hanging em," Captain You continued. 
 
 " Oh, this is atrocious," Mr. Lafitte said,
 
 CHALMETTE 99 
 
 with a fine show of surprise. " How may 
 we apologize enough ? You know we are 
 made up of so many wild characters, it s 
 sometimes unavoidable." 
 
 Mr. Robe assured him that he quite under 
 stood, and he went on to say that he bore 
 some letters from General Jackson himself, 
 while Major Cafferty had like documents 
 from Governor Claiborne. 
 
 " I will read them now if you will excuse 
 me," Lafitte said. 
 
 He handed the papers over to his secre 
 tary, who read the documents in a low tone. 
 Dominique You, as if these had no particular 
 interest to him, rose with a nod and went 
 out. 
 
 At last Lafitte said, 
 
 " As usual, we are summoned to disperse 
 by all authorities. Well, I don t think, 
 we will." 
 
 His voice came out low, positive, while he 
 smiled urbanely on his two visitors. He 
 paused for a moment. 
 
 " It would not be for the interest of 
 Louisiana to have us scattered. Your Gen-
 
 ioo CHALMETTE 
 
 eral Jackson will need us later. I can put 
 five hundred armed men in the field, gen 
 tlemen, men who understand guns, who 
 are not afraid of death, desperate, tried 
 men." 
 
 For another moment he paused, and then 
 began again with a gentle, persuasive voice i 
 
 " Say what you will, to what does New 
 Orleans owe prosperity so much as to the 
 trade of Barataria ? Call us names, but do 
 not forget that we, the leaders, are patriots. 
 Tell that to your General Jackson. Yet 
 wait, there may be something more to say. 
 I will consult with the captains. In the 
 mean time I will try to make up to you for 
 your detention, in some poor way." 
 
 And again he paused, looking the two 
 visitors over shrewdly, as if noting the effect 
 of his words. 
 
 " The courts have decided in our favor. 
 Yet we must be persecuted. Ah, Major 
 CafFerty, I suspect that there are many in 
 New Orleans who would like to be part of 
 an expedition against Barataria. They think 
 we have some riches here."
 
 CHALMETTE 101 
 
 " That is undoubtedly true," Dennis an 
 swered. 
 
 As he spoke a report rang out, such as may 
 be from a ship s gun. 
 
 Lafitte turned to his secretary, who looked 
 a young Spanish student. As he went out 
 hurriedly, the master turned. 
 
 " I must follow him. That gun signifies 
 something." 
 
 " Yes," said Cafferty, when Lafitte had 
 gone. " There s a ship outside, a war 
 ship." 
 
 " It might be one of those privateers." 
 
 " Yes, we can t tell. But I believe it was 
 unexpected." 
 
 " What did Dominique You mean by de 
 scribing Miss Maurice as the ward of Lafitte ? 
 How does she happen to be here ? Why did 
 those fellows stop when she spoke ?" Robe 
 asked. 
 
 Again the gun rang out. 
 
 " The second summons," Caflferty said, 
 eagerly. " As for the girl, you know her ?" 
 
 " She is from the estate adjoining West- 
 more."
 
 102 CHALMETTE 
 
 " It s strange," Dennis said. " Let me 
 think. They said De Bertrand. She is 
 identified with the old pirate in some 
 way." 
 
 " With De Bertrand ?" Robe asked. " How 
 can she be ?" 
 
 The door was pushed open. A black stood 
 outside. 
 
 " I come for the gentleman who represents 
 General Jackson," he said. 
 
 " I am he," Robe said. 
 
 " Come with me, sir," the man said. 
 
 " And I am to leave you, Dennis." 
 
 " I don t see that we can be choosers, 
 at present," Dennis said. And Robe followed 
 the man. 
 
 Outside he noticed a gayly-fitted barge 
 putting out from one of the wharves, and he 
 thought there seemed some excitement in a 
 crowd gathered there since his companion 
 and he had entered the house. A figure in 
 the barge looked Lafitte s. 
 
 " Is that Mr. Lafitte s barge ?" 
 
 " Oui, M sieur," said the negro. 
 
 He led to a house possibly one-eighth of
 
 CHALMETTE 103 
 
 a mile farther. There the door swung back 
 as if they were expected. The guide knocked 
 gently at a door, which opened, and Robe 
 was aware of a great room, dim, for the 
 curtains were closely drawn ; of a bed, where 
 a strange, gaunt figure was propped with 
 pillows.
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE DEATH-BED OF DE BERTRAND 
 
 THE man was very old; his face thin, 
 bony, yet commanding; the eyes sunken, 
 yet searching and bright, with the bright 
 ness approaching death sometimes gives old 
 person s eyes. Now he motioned to a chair, 
 while his voice came out thin, rasping : 
 
 " Ye are from the general and the gov 
 ernor?" 
 
 " Yes, sir," said Robe, involuntarily giving 
 age a tribute. 
 
 " Tell them, then, that ye saw Felix de 
 Bertrand they called me, the English, 
 the Pirate on his dying bed Tell them 
 they must not disregard what I say. And 
 I say, for the good of Louisiana, take Jean 
 Lafitte at his word." 
 
 " I will so report," Robe said, bowing his 
 head, for age and death sat together with him 
 
 in that room. 
 104
 
 CHALMETTE 105 
 
 " And tell them that I repent nothing. 
 My life has been war, war for myself. 
 But when I held the Gulf, at least, my 
 authority was respected. Now Jean Lafitte, 
 a greater man, has taken my place. And I 
 die, not fearing, but ready before God to say, 
 4 1 have done what I have done " 
 
 And Robe bowed his head, realizing how 
 bloody that life had been, how tainted with 
 crime, and yet respecting the bravery ac 
 knowledging it all. The voice had become 
 strong and clear, and now added : 
 
 " That is all, my friend." 
 
 " I will deliver it word for word, as you 
 have said it," Robe said. 
 
 " Eh," said the voice querulously, " word 
 for word. I like youi face, my friend. 
 Give me your hand, if you ll take De Bert- 
 rand s hand." 
 
 As Robe took the cold, bony hand he felt 
 nearer to death than he himself ever had 
 been. And then he heard from the shadow 
 of the bed a low sobbing, and he distinguished 
 a woman s kneeling figure. "Was it she?" 
 he asked.
 
 io6 CHALMETTE 
 
 " Be quiet, lass," said the old man, " you re 
 the last, you and Madeleine." 
 
 " Yes, grandfather." 
 
 And the voice was Sallie Maurice s, the 
 tone that had been his playmate s. 
 
 " Show him out, lass," said De Bertrand. 
 " Let him know that we in Barataria are not 
 without hospitality," 
 
 And the eyes closed, and Robe went to the 
 door, past the three slaves, the man and two 
 women, who stood with bowed heads. 
 
 As he hesitated in the hall, " He told me 
 to follow you," she said 
 
 " And would you not of your own will." 
 
 " No, Christopher Robe." 
 
 " But there has been that between us, 
 though not all spoken, which should have 
 made you, Sallie Maurice." 
 
 " That is so ; Kit. we were playfellows, and 
 you had a right." 
 
 " What right ? Oh, the note you sent me. 
 I understand now ; I was foolish. But that 
 is over, please. It was but a fancy." 
 
 "Don t touch me. The man I care for 
 shall have no fancies. But" her voice
 
 CHALMETTE 107 
 
 grew calm " he is my mother s father. 
 Sister Madeleine of the Ursulines was my 
 mother s sister. They sent for me when they 
 knew he couldn t be better. My uncle was 
 opposed to it, but I would come." 
 
 " I like you for it." 
 
 " Could I have done else ? My father met 
 my mother, his daughter, in Martinique. 
 And when she died my father brought me 
 to Virginia, where he died of the fever, that 
 is the story, Kit." 
 
 And Kit remembered what his father had 
 said of the bad blood of the Maurices. Why 
 had he never known of that story ? He was 
 to learn later that no one knew of Reginald 
 Maurice s wife as De Bertrand s daughter. 
 
 " You saved my life. You must have 
 cared, the way you rushed out among those 
 rough men," he said. 
 
 " It was Captain You. And then I didn t 
 know you were there. I simply heard that 
 Belouche and his men had started to hang 
 some revenue officers, and I ran down there." 
 
 " Ah, it was daring of you," he said. 
 
 " They know me as a De Bertrand."
 
 io8 CHALMETTE 
 
 " Dear " he began. 
 
 " You must not," she said. 
 
 " I must not wish to take you, in my 
 arms, to tell you " 
 
 " No, no," she said. " I won t hear you 
 talk in that way. And even if I wanted to 
 allow it, I wouldn t, the pirate s grand-, 
 daughter and a Robe of Westmore !" and she 
 laughed softly. 
 
 "You have half-confessed," Kit insisted. 
 " I love you, dear. I love you." 
 
 "And that other girl ?" 
 
 " That girl !" he said. " Who told you "?" 
 
 " Ah, there was something to tell," she 
 cried. " Well, I have very good authority, 
 no less than Mr. Ronald s." 
 
 " That fellow, you know him ?" 
 
 " I think him very nice." 
 
 " Eh, you do ? He will hear from me. 
 Are you safe here, in this place ?" 
 
 " They are my grandfather s people," she 
 said, with a certain ring of pride. 
 
 " And you are Jean Lafitte s ward ?" 
 
 " He manages my grandfather s property," 
 she said. For a moment they were silent.
 
 CHALMETTE 109 
 
 " I wish I could do something," he said. 
 
 " What did I tell you to do when you left 
 Virginia ?" 
 
 " My part." 
 
 "Do it now, in this trouble, this war 
 which will visit us here." 
 
 " Will it please you ?" 
 
 " Yes, as much as anything may." 
 
 A door opened and no less a person than 
 La Roux entered. He glanced from Miss 
 Maurice to Robe. 
 
 " Mr. Lafitte sends for you, sir." 
 
 " You must go," she said. 
 
 " I shall see you again before I leave Bar- 
 ataria." 
 
 " You must not expect that," she said. 
 " They will not let you." 
 
 " Why ?" 
 
 " I don t wish it." 
 
 " You ?" he asked. 
 
 " Yes, I." 
 
 " I shall make you wish it," Robe said. 
 " That is all. There will be another day for 
 us, Sallie." 
 
 And he followed La Roux.
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE ENTERTAINMENT TO HIS MAJESTY S 
 OFFICERS 
 
 " MR. LAFITTE bids you to his board. He 
 has prepared a slight entertainment for some 
 British officers." 
 
 " British officers ?" Robe said. " The guns 
 we heard were from a British vessel ?" 
 
 " From the brig Norfolk." 
 
 What other purpose than one to tempt 
 Lafitte had brought the Norfolk to Barataria ? 
 And he began seriously to consider whether, 
 indeed, if the Lafittes were earnest in their 
 protestations of their allegiance to the United 
 States, it might not be better to accept their 
 propositions. But the delicate question was 
 whether they were in earnest. Yet the words 
 and face of the dying man, for he was sure 
 De Bertrand was dying, carried to Robe s 
 heart a feeling that Lafitte had been so. 
 
 He was taken into a room where he was
 
 CHALMETTE in 
 
 told to make ready for the banquet which 
 was prepared. He was surprised at this 
 haste, but he afterwards learned that the 
 arrangements had been made to impress Caf- 
 ferty and himself, and that the appearance of 
 the British brig was indeed a surprise to 
 Barataria. 
 
 While he expected almost any lavish and 
 barbaric display, the dining-room to which 
 he was taken was surprising. The room 
 might have been in any polite centre. The 
 silver was of the rarest designs, and he was 
 to find the most palatable French and 
 Spanish wines, and game and meats of the 
 varieties afforded by the locality. 
 
 Cafferty was there with a rather puzzled 
 expression, and the three British officers, a 
 grizzled captain who had served with Nelson, 
 Lieutenant the Earl of Burnham, and a fair 
 young lieutenant whose name Robe lost, 
 though he was placed next him at table. 
 
 Lafitte greeted him with the manner of a 
 man of fashion, and certainly his tailor, for 
 he had dressed for the occasion, was excel 
 lent.
 
 112 CHALMETTE 
 
 " You have been to my old friend, De 
 Bertrand," he said. " He can t live." 
 
 " I was much surprised with him," Robe 
 said. " I find his granddaughter and I are 
 old acquaintances." 
 
 " Oh, Miss Maurice," Lafitte said, and he 
 looked at Robe keenly. " I had forgotten 
 that my introduction to you came through 
 Philip Maurice. Now, will you sit down, 
 gentlemen ?" 
 
 From that moment he charmed his guests, 
 who looked on him with wonder. And, 
 in fact, it needs not Kit s testimony to de 
 clare the grace, the wordliness of this man, 
 who, whatever his past, had the most delight 
 ful manners of any gentleman of Kit s ac 
 quaintance. 
 
 " We might be in England," said the 
 young gentleman at Robe s side. " I am not 
 so much surprised, since I have been in New 
 Orleans." 
 
 " Have you ?" said Robe, absently. 
 
 " Yes, before the war. We were chasing 
 pirates. We tried to chase you fellows 
 since, but, I say, you have put up some
 
 CHALMETTE 113 
 
 splendid fights. We appreciate your sail 
 ors." 
 
 " Yes," said Robe, quietly ; " I, too, am 
 proud of them, and when the tribute comes 
 from you it s all the more forcible." 
 
 " Oh, you forced us to it with your Law 
 rences and your Perrys. Nor am I proud of 
 the burning of Washington. I fancy we ll 
 be at you down here directly." 
 
 " Yes," said Robe, " we expect that." 
 
 " You are well divided up, Spaniards for 
 Spain, French for France, and pirates " 
 
 He looked about significantly. 
 
 " I have changed my mind about em. 
 Money gives even pirates a manner, though 
 that man has breeding. I declare, you 
 wouldn t suspect him of the bloody truth. 
 Now isn t it cunning of him ? We are both 
 down here on a mission, I fancy. He lets 
 us see that he is negotiating on both sides 
 and puts up his price. He dines us both 
 together." 
 
 " I wonder if that is the case ?" said 
 Robe. " By the way, you know I lost your 
 name."
 
 114 CHALMETTE 
 
 " I am doing it always myself, Beau 
 mont." 
 
 " And you were in New Orleans before 
 the war? You know Deschamps and the 
 De Reniers ?" 
 
 " You know Mademoiselle Marie !" the 
 young officer cried. 
 
 " I indeed do, and we have talked of you." 
 
 "She remembers me, eh?" 
 
 " I think you made a decided impres 
 sion." 
 
 " Don t flatter me. She s a nice little girl. 
 But isn t this odd, that we should meet? 
 How is she ?" 
 
 " As pretty as ever," said Robe. " I think 
 she always must have been, you know." 
 
 " Well, she was, and when we take your 
 New Orleans I will pay her a visit." 
 
 " Oh, perhaps we will take you up there," 
 said Captain Robe. 
 
 " Oh, well, you have a lot of picked up 
 troops against veterans." 
 
 " Yes, I allow that," said Robe. " It s a 
 grave question." 
 
 But then a sally of the host interrupted
 
 CHALMETTE 115 
 
 this low talk. Robe had taken a great liking 
 to Beaumont. He wondered if he had 
 better tell him of his own sentimental esca 
 pade with Mademoiselle. Oh, that unfortu 
 nate escapade ! And he thought of the girl 
 in the nearby house with the dying chief. 
 
 And that remarkable dinner went on. As 
 Kit recalls it now, he wonders if it is quite 
 believable, though it was his own experience. 
 Yet he finds it written of in the histories, 
 and there are many living to corroborate the 
 story. 
 
 Finally, the cigars were brought. (It 
 must be remarked that the service was ex 
 cellent, the black servants well trained.) 
 
 " I am going to ask Captain Robe and 
 Major Cafferty to leave us here over the 
 cigars," Lafitte said. " It seems there s a 
 little private matter to talk about." 
 
 The British captain looked suspiciously at 
 the Americans as they rose. 
 
 " He s wondering what it all means," said 
 Dennis ; " I am wondering myself. Let s 
 walk down along the whirves, if they don t 
 stop us."
 
 n6 CHALMETTE 
 
 " They are not here to warn them that 
 they will be driven out of Barataria." 
 
 " They are here to bribe them for the 
 British service," Cafferty assented. 
 
 " Yes," said Robe. " Dennis, tell me of 
 De Bertrand." 
 
 " The old pirate ?" 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " Well, I thought everybody knew. The 
 story runs that seventy-five years ago a French 
 merchantman was scuttled, and of all the 
 crew a boy, known as De Bertrand, was 
 saved. Tis a romantic story enough. 
 There was no trace of his parentage. He 
 grew up on the seas. He became the Pirate 
 Bertrand, who was the worst of them all. 
 He made an organization of them before 
 Lafitte s time. And in some way he was 
 always carrying some government s flag as a 
 privateer; he was always escaping positive 
 proof. And now he s old, and, they say, 
 fabulously rich. It s a disgrace to Louisiana 
 that they should be nested here," Dennis 
 ended, in a burst of anger. 
 
 " He had two daughters. I don t know
 
 CHALMETTE 117 
 
 what became of one, but they say the other 
 is a nun of the Ursulines. What did they 
 want of you ?" 
 
 "De Bertrand wanted to see me," Robe 
 said. 
 
 " You saw him, the old pirate ?" 
 
 " He is dying." 
 
 " Dying, eh ? He has made many men 
 die." 
 
 " Yes, he s a dying man. He sent to tell 
 me that General Jackson had better accept 
 Lafitte s offer." 
 
 " That must have been impressive from 
 a dying man," Cafferty remarked. It had 
 impressed Robe, as you know, but he did not 
 mention having seen Miss Maurice there. 
 
 At this moment La Roux came toward 
 them. 
 
 " I am instructed to ask you in here," he 
 said, pointing to a low house, " to await Mr. 
 Lafitte." 
 
 As they followed, Cafferty muttered, 
 " What do you think will be next ?" 
 
 La Roux left them in a room by a win 
 dow, where they had a view of the bay and
 
 u8 CHALMETTE 
 
 the shipping. He did not say a word further, 
 nor did the two attempt to question him as 
 with a nod he left them, closing the door.
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE DIPLOMACY OF LAFITTE 
 
 As they watched at the window, gravely 
 discussing the situation, they saw on a path 
 the three British officers. Suddenly from 
 behind one of the warehouses there rushed 
 out a score of those gesticulating, red-and- 
 white turbaned, bare-legged fellows, such as 
 had seized them ; and the three officers of 
 his Majesty s brig were last seen, righting, 
 and then accepting the inevitable. 
 
 " It s our story over," said Robe. " They 
 have enjoyed Lafitte s hospitality, and now 
 they have a chance to consider another side 
 of the question, pirates or gentlemen ? 
 hem!" 
 
 " I picked out our friend La Roux in the 
 crowd," CarTerty said ; " the same fellow, ex 
 actly. My eyes are good." 
 
 " I wonder, Dennis, why ?" 
 
 119
 
 120 CHALMETTE 
 
 But a slow, modulated voice interrupted, 
 and turning they saw Jean Lafitte, whom 
 they had not noticed enter. 
 
 " His Majesty s officers are receiving the 
 same attention as we," said Robe. 
 
 Lafitte did not attempt to deny his knowl 
 edge of the occurrence, though he lifted his 
 hands in pretended astonishment. 
 
 "Ah, these unruly fellows," he said. 
 " They are continually trying my patience. 
 Now I shall have to explain to the captain 
 of the Norfolk as I did to you. But they 
 can wait for the present. I have now some 
 thing to say to you." 
 
 He paused, and then went on almost ex 
 actly with the same phrasing that he after 
 wards used in a certain well-known letter to 
 Governor Claiborne : 
 
 " Though proscribed in my adopted coun 
 try, I will never miss an opportunity of 
 serving her, or of proving that she has never 
 ceased to be dear to me. I may have evaded 
 the payment of duties to the custom-house, 
 but I never have ceased to be a good citizen, 
 and all my offences, such as they are, have
 
 CHALMETTE 121 
 
 been forced on me by certain vices of the 
 law." 
 
 Cafferty smiled ironically, knowing this 
 phrase-maker better than Robe, who was, in 
 deed, considerably impressed. 
 
 " Now I will show you what this leads 
 to," and he handed Robe a packet of de 
 spatches. " You will find a letter from the 
 British commander at Pensacola." 
 
 " I may show them to Cafferty ?" Robe 
 asked. 
 
 " Of course," said Lafitte, taking a chair 
 and crossing his legs, and awaiting the effect 
 of the papers on his guests with apparent 
 indifference. 
 
 Robe read Cafferty an offer to pay to Jean 
 Lafitte thirty thousand dollars, either in Pen 
 sacola or New Orleans ; to give him an army 
 captaincy ; to secure the enlistment of his 
 men in the British navy. A printed pam 
 phlet accompanied this calling on the Louis- 
 ianians " to rise and liberate their paternal soil 
 from a faithless and imbecile government." 
 
 "You are considering these overtures?" 
 the revenue officer said, at last.
 
 122 CHALMETTE 
 
 " Well, I am not a man to neglect diplo 
 macy. I have told Captain Brown that I 
 must lay the matter before certain of my 
 captains." 
 
 "And you have arrested the British offi 
 cers ?" Cafferty said. 
 
 But Lafitte interrupted with a fine show 
 of scorn : 
 
 " They are my guests, as you are. They 
 shall be freed in a moment. I will escort 
 them to their brig. But, as for these papers, 
 you can see that your enemy considers the 
 Baratarians of some importance." 
 
 " And you ?" Robe asked, slowly. 
 
 " Many of our friends advise the British 
 allegiance. How can you hold this State 
 with the means at your disposal ?" 
 
 " But you, sir ?" 
 
 The man looked at them intently, and 
 then his voice came out again, slow and 
 measured : 
 
 " You may assure the governor and the 
 general that I offer to restore to the State 
 certain citizens, who will be ready to do their 
 utmost for the common defence. The only
 
 CHALMETTE 123 
 
 reward I ask is that a stop be put on the per 
 secution against me and my supporters. Yet, 
 whether my offer be refused or accepted, I 
 will refuse the British." 
 
 The two listeners said nothing, when La 
 fitte added, rather coldly, 
 
 " That is all. I can say no more. Your 
 sloop is ready now." 
 
 " We shall carefully report your words, 
 Mr. Lafitte," Cafferty said. 
 
 " And I for my part will state my 
 belief that your proposition should be 
 accepted," Robe put in. " You say our 
 men are ready. Well, allow me to say 
 that I for one have appreciated your hos 
 pitality." 
 
 Lafitte inclined his head. 
 
 " La Roux," he called, when the door 
 opened, showing that individual, whom Caf 
 ferty thought he had seen in the attack on 
 the British officers. La Roux smiled mock 
 ingly at them. 
 
 " You will escort Captain Robe and Major 
 Cafferty to their sloop, and see that their men 
 are satisfied with their treatment."
 
 124 CHALMETTE 
 
 " I wish, if I may," said Robe, hesitatingly, 
 " to pay my respects to Miss Maurice." 
 
 "Ah, yes, you know Captain de Ber- 
 trand s granddaughter," said Lafitte, quickly. 
 " I first met you through an introduction 
 from Philip Maurice," he added, repeating 
 what he had said at the dinner. 
 
 " Yes, Mr. Lafitte. I suppose " and 
 
 he hesitated. He was going to say that he 
 supposed it was safe for Miss Maurice in 
 Barataria. But he did not commit that 
 indiscretion. 
 
 " La Roux," said Lafitte, slowly, " take 
 Mr. Robe to Captain de Bertrand s. But 
 do not wait there too long. I wish these 
 two to be on the river again before the 
 officers of the Norfolk are released. I shall 
 have to apologize to them." 
 
 "And I am obliged, sir," said Captain 
 Robe, again. " I have told you what my 
 report shall be." 
 
 " And mine, sir," said CafTerty, as they fol 
 lowed La Roux outside. 
 
 " You didn t tell me of this Miss Mau 
 rice ?" he added to his companion.
 
 CHALMETTE 125 
 
 " I really didn t," Robe replied. " She is 
 De Bertrand s granddaughter." 
 
 " And so is part of the Lafitte establish 
 ment. She probably will inherit a consid 
 erable property from De Bertrand. Lafitte 
 looked at you with some dislike when you 
 asked the question." 
 
 " You think that ?" 
 
 44 1 know, and he rarely betrays a thought 
 by look or action. I have been thinking 
 how shrewd he is. He will end, through 
 this war, in getting restored to citizenship." 
 
 They were talking in low tones, La Roux 
 a little ahead of them. At last he stopped 
 before the De Bertrand house. 
 
 " I can let you have ten minutes, sir," La 
 Roux said. " Major CafFerty and I will wait 
 you outside." 
 
 The black servant at the door hesitated 
 when he asked for Miss Maurice, but finally 
 he consented to inquire. He had the strict 
 est orders, he added, that she should see no 
 one at all, save Mr. Lafitte and Mr. Ronald, 
 who was expected from New Orleans. Robe 
 started at this last name. This man had told
 
 126 CHALMETTE 
 
 her of his affair with Mademoiselle de Re- 
 nier, and he was expected here. 
 
 "And more, sir, Captain de Bertrand 
 died a half-hour since." 
 
 Lafitte had not known that when he per 
 mitted the visit. The old man must have 
 died shortly after Robe had left her. 
 
 " Please to give Miss Maurice my sym 
 pathy," he said, in a changed voice. " If she 
 can see me, I should like it. I am Chris 
 topher Robe ; your mistress will know." 
 
 In a few moments the man returned and 
 bade him in. He was conscious that the 
 ten minutes La Roux had allowed him must 
 be near passed. 
 
 She was awaiting him in a room at the 
 right of the hall. Her voice was grave and 
 listless and her eyes sad. 
 
 " I am glad you came again," she said, 
 softly. 
 
 " I wish I might take you away." 
 
 " No, no ; but you can do me a favor in 
 New Orleans. You can go to the Ursulines 
 and see my aunt. I am glad I came here. 
 My instinct about it was right."
 
 CHALMETTE 127 
 
 " Yes, I am sure it was," Robe agreed. 
 But I hate to leave you here." 
 
 " I am as safe here as anywhere in the 
 world. I am in Mr. Lafitte s charge." 
 
 Robe felt jealous of Lafitte ; he was so 
 handsome, so charming ; and there was this 
 Ronald. 
 
 " Ronald is interested in the Baratarians," 
 he said. 
 
 " Yes," she acknowledged. 
 
 " Pardon me," came the black s voice ; 
 " Monsieur La Roux says he must hurry 
 you." 
 
 He took her hand. 
 
 "I shall see you in New Orleans ?" he said. 
 
 " I don t know even that." 
 
 " But I shall keep on telling you what 
 I have." 
 
 " Hush !" she said. " There is that other 
 girl, Kit ?" she added, with a little laugh. 
 
 " Bother that other girl !" he said. " I have 
 a great mind to kiss you, to make you take 
 back your words." 
 
 " And then to think of it," she said, " the 
 pirate s granddaughter "
 
 128 CHALMETTE 
 
 " You foolish girl, you said that once be 
 fore. What do I care for that, or anything ? 
 It s you, you alone." 
 
 " You must go now. You have your 
 duty. They will not let you stay here 
 longer." 
 
 " I will tell them what he told me," Robe 
 said. " I mustn t bother you more now." 
 
 Again he took her hand, which she did 
 not withdraw, and then, leaving her, he went 
 out to La Roux and Cafferty. 
 
 " The captain is dead," said La Roux, 
 awed. 
 
 " The captain is dead," said Robe. 
 
 What would this mean to Sallie Maurice ? 
 what to him, now that she was identified 
 with these lawless men ? Yet he certainly 
 couldn t take her away now. And then he 
 remembered Sister Madeleine, to whom he 
 bore the message. She, perhaps, could tell 
 htm more ; and he would tell her frankly his 
 own position.
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 MONSIEUR CLEMENT 
 
 THE wind, as well as the current, was 
 against them, and the sloop made slow 
 progress. The men were in the best of 
 humors, and had forgotten, in their subse 
 quent reception, the indignities and dangers 
 of the earlier one. Robe was silent. The 
 events of the Baratarian visit seemed like a 
 dream, the strange complications surround 
 ing one whom he had always known. And 
 yet he felt it was all real enough ; and he 
 wondered in apprehension of what the sequel 
 would prove. 
 
 They stopped the first night at Mr. Brow- 
 nell s, who was much interested in the result 
 of their mission, though they were not at 
 liberty to tell him. Robe asked him if he 
 thought that his neighbor, Ronald, had not 
 sent on the word which led to their reception 
 at Barataria. Mr. Brownell said this was 
 9 129
 
 130 CHALMETTE 
 
 probable ; Ronald, like so many others, was 
 hand-in-glove with the Baratarians. 
 
 " His mother was an Englishwoman, and 
 he has lived much in England," said Robe, re 
 membering that story. And he wondered how 
 far Ronald s influence would be exerted to 
 have the Lafittes accept the English proposal. 
 
 " Ronald s wealth, his fame as a duellist, 
 he has killed three men, make him a man 
 to be cultivated by the Lafittes," Brownell 
 said. " Who is there in Louisiana who is 
 not in their interest ? I sometimes ask. They 
 own the Legislature, body and soul, and 
 Cafferty knows you can t get the militia to 
 fight them. Do ye remember the argument 
 once advanced, that it would be fighting 
 France ; that Jean Lafitte had letters-of- 
 marque from Napoleon ?" 
 
 "I shall see the day when the place is 
 burned down," said Cafferty, moodily. 
 
 " The governor has sent out the old proc 
 lamation," said Mr. Brownell ; " five hundred 
 dollars for Jean or Pierre Lafitte s arrest, a 
 thousand for both. They can t put their 
 hands on Pierre this time."
 
 CHALMETTE 131 
 
 " But they have been cleared by the 
 courts !" Robe cried. 
 
 " It s another act," said Brownell. " The 
 news is down here ; a revenue collector, 
 Doane, was shot last week by Lafitte s 
 order." 
 
 " We came near being hung," said Robe ; 
 and he told the story of their own experience 
 with Belouche s crew. Cafferty added the 
 episode of the interruption by De Bertrand s 
 granddaughter and Captain Dominique You 
 when Robe was silent. This news of the 
 death of the collector seemed to stir up Caf 
 ferty considerably, and he swore a little. 
 
 " You mustn t forget the situation and the 
 messages we have to deliver," said Robe. 
 
 But the next afternoon they had a strange 
 adventure, which indicated that Jean Lafitte 
 perhaps did not trust them entirely for a dis 
 passionate representation of his position. 
 
 CafFerty had been asked by Governor 
 Claiborne to stop at the plantation of a 
 Madame Demarche, and to offer to escort 
 Mrs. Claiborne, who was stopping there, to 
 the city. They reached Madame Demarche s
 
 132 CHALMETTE 
 
 about three of the afternoon of the day after 
 leaving Mr. Brownell s, the wind having 
 continued persistently against them. They 
 expected to reach the city about nine that 
 night. 
 
 Robe accompanied Cafferty to the house- 
 door. Dennis remarked that the place seemed 
 deserted. A trim mulatto girl came to the 
 door, it seemed nervously. 
 
 " My respects to Madame, Henriette," 
 Cafferty said. " Is Madame Claiborne 
 here?" 
 
 " Oui, M sieur." 
 
 " Will you announce me and Captain 
 Robe. The governor suggested that I stop 
 here on my way to the city." 
 
 " I will see, M sieur ; they are dining." 
 
 " Don t let us interrupt." 
 
 " I ll see, M sieur," said the girl again. 
 " Come in, Messieurs," she said, return 
 ing. 
 
 It was Madame Demarche who greeted 
 them, also rather embarrassed, Cafferty after 
 wards said from his knowledge of this 
 charming lady.
 
 CHALMETTE 133 
 
 Oh, Madame was going to keep Madame 
 Claiborne another day, another day. 
 
 " Monsieur Clement wishes to see Madame 
 for a moment," said Henriette, at the door. 
 
 Madame begged to be excused and ran 
 out, and returned directly, pale, anxious- 
 eyed. 
 
 " He says I need not fear you. But you 
 are officers?" 
 
 "What may it be, Madame?" Dennis 
 asked. 
 
 " Oh, Monsieur, this Monsieur Clement is 
 Monsieur Jean Lafitte." 
 
 " Jean Lafitte !" Cafferty cried. " We left 
 him at Barataria." 
 
 And Robe, whose ear was more wonted to 
 French, understood. Jean Lafitte here as 
 soon as they ? And then he remembered that 
 Lafitte might have come by a shorter way, 
 for who knew the devious windings of the 
 bayous better than he ? But Madame, hav 
 ing confessed, went on : 
 
 " You won t hurt him, Monsieur Cafferty ; 
 he says you won t, that you have a message 
 from him to the governor. He has a price
 
 134 CHALMETTE 
 
 on his head. And he came here at noon to 
 day. He said he was on his way to the city. 
 I said, Monsieur, you must not go there. 
 You must return at once. Your life, I tell 
 you, is in danger. You know Monsieur 
 Lafitte, he laughed at me, and who should 
 enter just then but my guest, Mrs. Claiborne *? 
 What could I do ? I introduced him as 
 Monsieur Clement, and then I went out of 
 the room and called Henriette. Henriette, 
 said I, Governor Claiborne has put a price 
 on M. Lafitte s head. Any one who delivers 
 him to the government will receive five hun 
 dred dollars, and Monsieur s head will be 
 cut off. Send the servants and the children 
 away. Set the table and wait yourselves, 
 and remember Monsieur is Monsieur Clem 
 ent. Now you come, and he directs me to 
 tell you he is here." 
 
 " He need not fear us till after our report 
 to the governor," said Dennis. 
 
 " I can believe you, Monsieur *?" 
 
 " You can believe me, Madame," Dennis 
 replied. 
 
 Madame then asked them in. Mr. Lafitte
 
 CHALMETTE 135 
 
 recognized them with a nod, and they ad 
 dressed him as M. Clement. Mrs. Claiborne, 
 who never looked more beautiful, she was 
 one of the handsomest women Robe ever 
 knew, seemed much interested in M. 
 Clement, whose talk fairly sped. His wit 
 never was more entertaining, his manner 
 never more delightful, and he seemed to 
 them all a splendid gentleman. 
 
 " You are to escort me back to the city," 
 Mrs. Claiborne said. " Ah, Captain Robe, I 
 have been singing your praises, what is 
 my reward ? to a young lady you are inter 
 ested in." 
 
 " Who may that be, Madame ?" said M. 
 Clement, urbanely. 
 
 " Mademoiselle Marie de Renier," said 
 Madame Claiborne, smiling at Robe, who 
 found himself flushing. He wanted to get a 
 word to Lafitte, and he succeeded while they 
 were waiting for Madame to make ready. 
 
 " I saw Miss Maurice," he said, " thanks 
 to you. And I regretted to learn of Captain 
 de Bertrand s death." 
 
 " Miss Maurice is now in my care," Lafitte
 
 136 CHALMETTE 
 
 returned, curtly, " unless she returns to Mr. 
 Maurice in Virginia. Eh, sir, you seem to 
 have several interests in the sex." 
 
 " Mademoiselle de Renier ?" Robe said. 
 " Oh, that was but women s talk." 
 
 " I saw our friends on board their brig, 
 after due apology," Lafitte went on. " Now 
 I am on my way " 
 
 " To the city ? It s dangerous for you 
 there." 
 
 " Oh, not after your report," he answered. 
 "Ah, here is Madame. I envy the gov 
 ernor." 
 
 The governor s lady and M. Clement 
 seemed to have an interesting parting, and 
 she was loud in her praises of the gentleman 
 she had met, plying the two with questions 
 about him. Why hadn t she known him 
 before ? Wasn t he entertaining ? To all 
 of which Robe and Cafferty agreed, without 
 letting her know that M. Clement was that 
 dangerous outlaw, Jean Lafitte. So they 
 came to the city, Robe very quiet and Mrs. 
 Claiborne doubtless voting him stupid. 
 
 The two accompanied her to the gov-
 
 CHALMETTE 137 
 
 ernor s house. Late as it was, Governor 
 Claiborne was awake and busy. 
 
 " Well ?" he said, turning. 
 
 Cafferty went over their experiences and 
 Robe corroborated them. 
 
 " The British !" the governor cried. " I 
 thought as much. And you saw him, 
 with the price on him, so near as Madame 
 Demarche s, and my wife met him ?" 
 
 " She thinks him a Monsieur Clement." 
 
 " I shall not undeceive her. I ll try to get 
 at her impression. Now what do you advise, 
 Captain Robe?" 
 
 " I would accept his offer," Robe said. 
 
 " And you, major ?" 
 
 " I wouldn t," said Cafferty. " Make no 
 terms with such law violators." 
 
 " We in Louisiana are not in a strong 
 position," said the governor, quietly. " But 
 I ll think about it. Be here at nine in the 
 morning, Captain Robe, and I will give you 
 my conclusions to carry to General Jack 
 son." 
 
 Robe left Cafferty without many words ; 
 he was inclined to quarrel with that worthy s
 
 138 CHALMETTE 
 
 conclusion. Simon Wesley was awaiting 
 him sleepily after the episodes of that ex 
 citing journey. As for the master, though 
 perplexed and troubled about several matters, 
 he fell into dreamless sleep, to be awakened 
 by Simon Wesley about nine in the morn 
 ing. He dressed, ate a light breakfast, and 
 hurried to the governor s. 
 
 In the corridor he met Mrs. Claiborne, 
 who, looking very lovely indeed at this early 
 hour, was talking with a gentleman. Startled, 
 Robe saw that this was no other than La- 
 fitte. 
 
 "Ah, Monsieur, I am charmed to see 
 you," Madame was saying. "You have 
 been announced to my husband ?" 
 
 " With your permission, I am on my way 
 there." 
 
 Robe hesitated. Had Lafitte been bidden 
 to New Orleans by the governor ? Or had 
 the subtle man decided to bring his person 
 ality to bear on the governor *? Robe thought 
 of all this as he hesitated there. Madame s 
 voice reached in on his brief revery. 
 
 " My husband expects you as well as
 
 CHALMETTE 139 
 
 Monsieur Clement," she said, and Robe fol 
 lowed Lafitte. The man had ventured into 
 the lion s den ; he might be seized at any 
 moment. 
 
 The door opened. Lafitte paused on the 
 threshold while his eyes sought the gov 
 ernor s. Robe paused, Madame, looking 
 curiously in, just behind him. 
 
 " Sir," said the man in the doorway, " I 
 am Lafitte." 
 
 Never did a man look up with greater 
 astonishment than did Governor Claiborne. 
 Madame gave a scream, and her hand invol 
 untarily clutched Robe s arm. 
 
 " Sir ?" said the governor, as if not quite 
 understanding. 
 
 " One moment, sir," said Lafitte. " You 
 have put a price on my head *?" 
 
 " On a pirate s head," said Claiborne, study 
 ing his visitor s face. 
 
 Lafitte advanced into the room. Sud 
 denly from his coat he drew two pistols, 
 cocked and primed. 
 
 " I shall do you no harm, Governor Clai 
 borne ; I will not so embarrass Madame.
 
 140 CHALMETTE 
 
 You needn t call on Captain Robe. But I 
 am armed, because if you attempt to detain 
 me, I must try to get to the street. 
 
 " Wait, sir," he added ; " I have come here 
 voluntarily to make a personal offer of my 
 services to this State against the British. My 
 men are disciplined, brave, there are none 
 better in any army. Does the State accept ? 
 or no ?" 
 
 The room fell still. Madame, her hand 
 still unconsciously on Robe s arm, looked 
 from Monsieur Clement this pirate Lafitte ! 
 to her husband, who seemed to be consid 
 ering the situation, to be studying this 
 visitor. 
 
 " I have Major Cafferty s and Captain 
 Robe s report," he said at last. 
 
 " I have nothing to add to that," said La- 
 fitte, slowly, fingering his pistols. 
 
 A moment more passed. 
 
 " Sir," said the governor at last, * I accept/ 
 
 " The men, sir, will be at daylight the day 
 after to-morrow awaiting your orders at 
 Madame Demarche s." 
 
 Lafitte bowed as he finished, and then
 
 CHALMETTE 141 
 
 inclined his head to Madame and walked 
 out. 
 
 " I think," said the governor, " that now, 
 Captain Robe, you can make your report to 
 General Jackson. You will start this morn- 
 ing." 
 
 " Pardon me," said Madame, slowly, her 
 black eyes turning from her husband to 
 Robe ; " you knew, Mr. Robe, that he was 
 Lafitte ?" 
 
 " I knew." 
 
 " And Madame Demarche deceived me, 
 because " 
 
 " Because he had a price on his head," the 
 governor himself explained. 
 
 " He hasn t it now ?" Madame asked. 
 " He is so handsome !" 
 
 "Eh, dear, that pardons a man, or con 
 demns a woman, with a woman. I knew 
 last night that this Monsieur Clement of 
 yours was Monsieur Lafitte." 
 
 " And you never told me ?" 
 
 " I wanted to see what you thought of 
 him as Clement," said the governor. 
 
 " Yet you left me deceived ?" said Madame,
 
 142 CHALMETTE 
 
 with a pout, " you left me deceived. What 
 if he had never appeared here !" 
 
 " Do you think less of him as Lafitte or 
 Clement ?" the governor asked. 
 
 " If," said Madame, reflectingly, " this 
 meeting hadn t taken place, and you had 
 told me he was Lafitte, I should have held 
 him interesting, even as Lafitte. And now- 
 having known him as Clement, again as 
 Lafitte, for haven t you accepted his offer ? 
 I am inclined to think him a very won 
 derful and agreeable man." 
 
 " I must side with you, my dear," said the 
 governor, " though no man in Louisiana has 
 made me more trouble." 
 
 " But wasn t it a delightful adventure !" 
 said Madame, turning to Captain Robe.
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 THE URSULINE SISTER 
 
 MR. RAOUL DESCHAMPS and M. de St. 
 Geme some two hours after this were return 
 ing from their review of the creole company, 
 which M. de St. Geme commanded, when 
 Deschamps saw his friend, Captain Robe. 
 
 " Where have you been *?" Deschamps 
 asked. " Ah, I have missed you. And a 
 certain young lady I know has asked after 
 you. M. de St. Geme, M. Robe," Des 
 champs continued, speaking French, recog 
 nizing Robe s new skill with that tongue. 
 Captain Robe was to know much of this 
 same M. de St. Geme. 
 
 " I have met a friend of hers in Barataria," 
 Robe said. " And you can do me the favor 
 of letting her know that, as I leave the city 
 within an hour for Mobile." 
 
 " Who may that be ?" 
 
 43
 
 144 CHALMETTE 
 
 "You remember a Lieutenant Beaumont 
 you told me about *?" 
 
 "You found a British ship in Barata- 
 ria !" 
 
 " I am told to make it no secret," Robe 
 replied. " The British were approaching La- 
 fitte, and I have the authority of the gover 
 nor to make the statement, with the assurance 
 that he fully believes it Jean Lafitte re 
 jected their propositions." 
 
 M. de St. Geme said he knew that such 
 would be the case. He had every confidence 
 in Jean Lafitte s patriotism ; besides, New Or 
 leans needed the assistance of all her fighting 
 men. 
 
 " But haven t you time to tell Mademoi 
 selle de Renier in person," Deschamps inter 
 rupted, " that her lieutenant was of that ship s 
 company *? But I make a shrewd guess my 
 self that our little friend has forgotten every 
 thing else in thought of Captain Robe." 
 
 " You are mistaken," Robe said, quickly. 
 " Mademoiselle Marie and I understand each 
 other. Do tell her this for me, with my 
 regards. Now one more favor, can you
 
 CHALMETTE 145 
 
 find out if I can see Jean Lafitte ? I believe 
 he must be in New Orleans." 
 
 " With the price on his head," Deschamps 
 said ; " still, that fact once didn t bother him 
 so much. You wish to see him ? I will be 
 at your lodging within the hour. 
 
 Robe thanked him for the trouble and 
 then went to pay the visit on the Ursulines 
 he had promised Miss Maurice. He wanted 
 to see Lafitte again before he left New Or 
 leans ; he did not know when he might 
 return. He wished to talk with Lafitte about 
 De Bertrand s granddaughter, and yet he 
 hardly knew what he could say. Nor was it 
 quite clear to him what he would talk of at 
 the Ursulines beyond the bare news he had 
 to report of Sister Madeleine s father s death. 
 To carry such news is not at the best pleasing, 
 and he thought how he would better word it 
 as he looked in through the grating at the 
 porter. But when, some moments after, he 
 was in Sister Madeleine s presence, he said 
 simply, 
 
 " I am from Barataria. Captain de Ber- 
 trand died three days ago."
 
 146 CHALMETTE 
 
 " You have been there, sir," she said, and 
 then, more slowly, " he is dead, my father." 
 
 And suddenly she knelt down and prayed, 
 and Robe turned away. When he looked 
 up she sat there, calm and still. 
 
 " My niece was there. You know she is 
 my niece ?" 
 
 " Is it safe for her ? Yes, for I bring you 
 her message." 
 
 Then quickly, impulsively, he told his 
 own story, not hiding his faults nor the flirta 
 tion with Mademoiselle de Renier. Sister 
 Madeleine s face seemed to draw the words 
 from him, whether he would or no, seemed 
 to lead him on to this confidence. At last 
 she said, 
 
 " I think you straightforward, honest. I 
 told you that before. But we of the De 
 Bertrands have a heavy burden, a curse." 
 
 " He did not fear it, your father, Felix 
 de Bertrand," he said. 
 
 " No, he was no more afraid of death than 
 he was of men," she said proudly. " I wish 
 I had been with my niece. I did not think 
 his case serious, though he was anxious to
 
 CHALMETTE 147 
 
 have her there. In Virginia you were boy 
 and girl together " 
 
 "And I don t like to have her misunder 
 stand me about my attentions to some one 
 else." he said. 
 
 " Oh, Mademoiselle de Renier," the nun 
 said with a smile ; " she was educated with 
 us." 
 
 " Girls are so stubborn about some fancies 
 they get into their heads," said Kit. 
 
 " You think you understand them ?" said 
 the nun, still smiling. " I will tell her that 
 I like you ; I am rarely wrong. But as for 
 herself, I don t know positively. She has 
 talked to me about taking the veil." 
 
 " Don t let her do that, whatever she may 
 do," Kit said. 
 
 " That is between God and her," said the 
 nun, slowly. " I was ashamed in the world, 
 my father s career made me so, and I 
 found rest here, and in doing God s work, 
 such as I may. But as for her, I have seen 
 little of her, Mr. Robe. She was always in 
 Virginia since the time she was taken from 
 Martinique. She was brought up in igno-
 
 148 CHALMETTE 
 
 ranee of us. She has, I fancy, some of his 
 spirit, the De Bertrand spirit." 
 
 Kit told her of how at Barataria she had 
 ventured to interrupt the crew who intended 
 hanging him and his companions. The nun 
 listened, her chin on her hand. 
 
 " Yes, his spirit." 
 
 " But is she safe there ? What will La- 
 fitte do ? Is he to be trusted ?" 
 
 "She has a great fortune, gained, you 
 know how. I would have none of it 
 from my father. Monsieur Lafitte might 
 wish to arrange her marriage to further 
 best his own plans ; he has done such 
 things. As for her, I don t believe she even 
 knows about the money." 
 
 "And Lafitte ?" 
 
 " You are jealous of him ?" 
 
 " I hardly know." 
 
 " You are not sure of her ?" said the nun, 
 slowly. " No, how can you be ? Yet she 
 rushed among those rough men when she 
 heard you were to be hurt." 
 
 " She would have done that, naturally, for 
 any one."
 
 CHALMETTE 149 
 
 " Yes, perhaps," Sister Madeleine said, as 
 if doubtfully. 
 
 " Then Ronald, Lewis Ronald ?" 
 
 " Monsieur Lafitte might approve of his 
 suit should he press it." 
 
 " He will, I know." 
 
 "Well, Mi. Robe, there is God and the 
 Virgin and the saints, and there is I, to pray 
 to them. You must trust me. I have ac 
 cepted your confidence as you have given it. 
 I don t know what my niece s nature may 
 be. I hope it is not as mine was. I was a 
 wild, wilful girl. Her mother was as differ 
 ent from me as a girl could be. But I will 
 look after her, and the Church is strong in 
 Louisiana. Monsieur Lafitte himself, though 
 he defies the government, will not dare chal 
 lenge it. As for her fancy, whether it be 
 yours or another s or St. Ursula s, only 
 God can decide." 
 
 She pushed her veil further back and 
 looked at him intently. 
 
 " I can say no more on that subject. But 
 there s another, the war. We think about 
 it, we talk about it, even in the convent.
 
 150 CHALMETTE 
 
 War is wicked, brutal. Yet when two sides 
 are striving in that way, a prayer may help, 
 remember." 
 
 She bent her head and drew her veil, and 
 her voice was broken. 
 
 " My father made war. Who knows more 
 of it than I ? And the day may come for 
 New Orleans when the city shall be prayerful 
 for its warriors, a day not so far away." 
 
 " I shall have your good wishes then, and 
 perhaps hers." 
 
 " Mine, yes, Captain Robe, and hers I 
 know." 
 
 He thanked the nun for her good words 
 and went outside the cool place into the 
 brilliant sunshine ; and he felt he was better, 
 stronger for those few words. Besides Sister 
 Madeleine, there was Philip Maurice in Vir 
 ginia. It was not likely that Maurice would 
 let Lafitte decide his own niece s futuie. But 
 what reasons had Robe for feeling that La 
 fitte s course would be against Sallie Mau 
 rice s happiness ? At least, he himself now 
 could do no more ; he would go at once to 
 the general at Mobile.
 
 CHALMETTE 151 
 
 He found Deschamps awaiting him with 
 the same frivolous flow of talk he always 
 had. But his jests now seemed stupid to Robe. 
 
 " How about Jean Lafitte ?" he asked. 
 
 " Neither he nor Pierre is in the city. I 
 can t get you word to him." 
 
 " No matter," said Robe, " and thank you 
 much. No. I m not sorry that I am going 
 to leave your gayeties and your gambling. 
 But don t forget the message to Mademoiselle 
 de Renier." 
 
 "No," said Raoul. "Oh, there s your 
 stupid friend, Cafferty." 
 
 Dennis, big, red-faced, shock-haired, came 
 in. 
 
 " The governor gave his decision ?" he 
 asked. 
 
 " Don t you know it ?" 
 
 " He has accepted our friend s proposal, 
 and has advised General Jackson to do the 
 same." 
 
 " The devil !" said Cafferty. " I mean it s 
 an alliance with the devil." 
 
 Deschamps sat regarding the two and 
 whistling a popular air.
 
 152 CHALMETTE 
 
 " I wish your friends were not all these 
 light-headed Frenchies," said Dennis angrily, 
 but in a low voice. " Well, good luck to 
 you." And he went out. 
 
 " What a brute of a fellow !" Raoul cried 
 when he had gone. But Robe was thinking 
 of Cafferty s strong wish to treat Barataria 
 without mercy. " I am bound to state his 
 side of the question to General Jackson," he 
 said to himself. 
 
 When, some days later, Robe had made his 
 report in full, the general s face seemed to 
 become even more sallow and wrinkled and 
 seamed ; the bushy brows seemed to lower 
 over the fierce, bright eyes ; they seemed 
 to be burning with the inner fire of a 
 strong, passionate nature, of the inflexible 
 will. 
 
 " I agree with Governor Claiborne in 
 some respects. But we must wait and see. 
 I m not sure that we want to agree with the 
 British in their overtures to robbers and pi 
 rates. Besides, they are now making an 
 organization against the Baratarians. Let us 
 wait to see what will happen."
 
 CHALMETTE 153 
 
 " Yet he is sincere, general, this man La- 
 fitte." 
 
 " He s trying to save himself, that s all," 
 the general went on. " I can t stop the ma 
 chinery of the Federal government." 
 
 Not long after, Robe, with the general, 
 heard that the settlement of Barataria had 
 been destroyed, and that only the Lafittes 
 and a few followers had escaped. Commo 
 dore Patterson, Colonel Ross, the comman 
 dant at New Orleans, and Dennis Cafferty 
 had been on this expedition. Robe under 
 stood Cafferty s feelings towards the Barata- 
 rians. What troubled him most was to know 
 whether Miss Maurice had been there. And 
 then one day he had this note : 
 
 " MY DEAR MR. ROBE, I write to let you know 
 that my niece was with me when the expedition against 
 Barataria took place. 
 
 " SISTER MADELEINE." 
 
 That was all ; she said nothing of how 
 Miss Maurice was, and yet Robe felt she had 
 kept her promise to him. This was followed 
 by a letter from Cafferty, who told him of
 
 154 CHALMETTE 
 
 the desolation that had been made in Bara- 
 taria.* Governor Claiborne himself was 
 angry at the turn of affairs, for he had felt 
 himself bound to Jean Lafitte. But the 
 governor had been overruled. CarFerty him 
 self had thrown up his state commission and 
 was enlisted with the United States troops. 
 They had brought back to the city many 
 prisoners and much booty. 
 
 Yet they had found no evidence that the 
 Baratarians had been more than privateers 
 save in one piece of jewelry which had be 
 longed to a lady of New Orleans who had 
 gone to sea seven years before, never to be 
 heard from. And this was insufficient evi 
 dence ; the jewel might have been obtained in 
 many ways. " Still, I believe the worst of 
 them," Cafferty went on. " But where Bara- 
 taria was, where we walked that day, we 
 left a wilderness. We took them entirely 
 by surprise. They supposed we were down 
 there to engage the British. I know you 
 
 * There are those who say that Lafitte s visit to Governor 
 Claiborne was after the destruction of Barataria. CORNELIA ROBE 
 FENWOLD.
 
 CHALMETTE 155 
 
 differ from me on this question, but it had 
 to be done." 
 
 " You think a mistake has been made ?" 
 the general asked of Captain Robe. " They ll 
 be back there." 
 
 " Yes, they ll be back there, but can we 
 get them in our service *?" 
 
 " We ll see, we ll see," the great Tennes- 
 seean said. 
 
 In recording these events, now so long 
 gone, Robe must state that he has not always 
 followed current tradition and history. These 
 things are written as his memory carried 
 them. He does not agree with some of the 
 accepted stories. And one word more here, 
 before we go on to the more important 
 part of the narrative, the names are often 
 not the true ones, and Robe hopes that by 
 no chance he has used for his substitutes any 
 one ever really existent. 
 
 But the narrative must not pause for ex 
 planation. We have, awaiting us, the drama 
 of Chalmette.
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 THE ENTRANCE OF THE PRINCE 
 
 A WEARY man of iron, in frayed trousers, 
 yellowed high boots, a flapping, shabby coat, 
 old leather cap, a thin, very erect figure, a 
 hollow, wrinkled, sallow face, framed by a 
 mat of iron-gray hair, a face expressive of 
 shrewd alertness, of a strong, decisive char 
 acter, such was he, as the well-known story 
 goes, who, on the 2d of December, 1814, 
 trotted up to the Spanish villa at the junction 
 of the Bayou St. John and the Canal Caron- 
 delet, where a breakfast, such as the cooks 
 had worked over, had been prepared for him. 
 And the tired guest, sparing of his words, 
 Robe, who was of the general s escort, re 
 members, asked only for hominy. 
 
 A certain lady took our captain aside. 
 
 "And this is he? the general who is 
 to defend us, this" her voice sank to 
 156
 
 CHALMETTE 157 
 
 contemptuousness " this Kaintuck flatboat- 
 man?" 
 
 " You should see him on another day," 
 the aide said, diplomatically, " You will 
 find him a man entirely different." 
 
 "Oh, I prepared this breakfast," quoth 
 she, despairingly, and crossing her hands. 
 
 " Wait till to-morrow," Robe answered, 
 smiling. 
 
 " A certain young lady has been asking 
 for you," the lady went on. " I am about 
 to censure Monsieur, our host, ah, you 
 understand French now, for deceiving me 
 with this General Jackson. But as for the 
 young lady who has been inquiring so ear 
 nestly about you, can t you fancy her 
 name?" 
 
 " Ah, no," said Kit. " I have been among 
 the fighting men." 
 
 " There are enough of them here. You 
 will find the city all changed. Every man 
 who can serve is in arms. Why, the prison 
 ers are taken from the calaboose ; and as for 
 the blacks, why, they never had so much 
 fun. And Lafitte, he is here from I don t
 
 158 CHALMETTE 
 
 know where, he has been in hiding ; but 
 Captain Dominique You and Belouche are 
 organizing the old band into two companies. 
 And, then, there are men from Tennessee 
 and all the parts of this country in all 
 kinds of costumes. The city is a camp." 
 
 And this interesting lady went on with 
 many little French expletives expressing her 
 appreciation of the situation, her surprise 
 that the leader of all these assembled men 
 was this strange backwoodsman, Andrew 
 Jackson. 
 
 After this breakfast, the general, his tired 
 face somewhat relaxed, rode to General 
 Daniel Clarke s, where the governor, the 
 mayor, and many others met him and 
 looked him over suspiciously. But here a 
 different person was shown. The general 
 rose and made a very effective, if simply 
 worded, speech. 
 
 "My friends, I am here to drive the 
 enemy into the sea, or else to perish." And 
 the interpreter passed the words on. And 
 M. de St. Ge me turned to Robe, " He s a 
 man who makes you believe him."
 
 CHALMETTE 159 
 
 In the midst of this entertainment a mes 
 sage was brought Captain Robe : " Mr. Jean 
 Lafitte wishes to see the general." Robe 
 went below, again astonished at the man s 
 extraordinary daring. 
 
 Jean Lafitte was walking nervously up 
 and down. 
 
 " You are here to offer your services ?" 
 
 " Certainly, sir," Mr. Lafitte replied ; 
 " there s no attempt to disguise my presence 
 here, certainly." 
 
 " I regret," said Robe, " that Barataria has 
 been destroyed. And where, pray, is your 
 ward, Miss Maurice? in Virginia, per 
 haps?" 
 
 "No, at Madame Demarche s planta 
 tion." 
 
 " You wish me to tell the general you are 
 here ?" 
 
 " Yes, captain," said Lafitte, calmly. " I 
 am here to offer my services again. They 
 certainly need them." 
 
 " Yes," Robe said ; " I always have ad 
 vised the acceptance of your offer. I agreed 
 with Governor Claiborne."
 
 160 CHALMETTE 
 
 " I have no fault to find with the governor. 
 He has done as best he could," Jean Lafitte 
 said. 
 
 " And Captain de Bertrand s granddaugh 
 ter?" Robe asked again. 
 
 "No, Monsieur. She is now with my 
 friend, Madame Demarche, as I told you." 
 
 " I will go to speak with the general," Robe 
 said. 
 
 The general was now, with the animation 
 of the occasion, quite a different person from 
 him who, tired and looking it, had entered 
 the city some hours before. 
 
 " The man Jean Lafitte is there," Robe 
 said in a low voice. 
 
 " Eh, to see me ?" 
 
 " To make you the same offer," Robe an 
 swered. 
 
 " I ll see him now," said the general, 
 slowly ; and he followed his aide out of the 
 room, while that eager, critical crowd whis 
 pered about him. But already his strong 
 words had carried a certain conviction. The 
 Creoles had begun to believe in him. 
 
 Robe shall always remember the meeting
 
 CHALMETTE 161 
 
 between General Jackson and the leader of 
 the Baratarians ; Lafitte, courtly, handsome, 
 with a knowledge of men ; the other, homely, 
 uncouth to a certain degree, yet with that 
 same shrewd understanding of humanity and 
 its foibles. 
 
 " Mr. Lafitte ?" said the general. 
 
 "Yes, sir, Jean Lafitte, called the pirate, 
 who is here to offer you five hundred fight 
 ing men, and in Captains Dominique You 
 and Belouche two of the best artillery com 
 manders in the world." 
 
 For five minutes the general seemed to 
 hesitate, but at last he said : 
 
 " Your resolution is honorable, Mr. La 
 fitte. In the stress of these times, when I m 
 told that fifty sail of the British are putting up 
 towards us, I accept, sir. Captain," he added, 
 turning to Robe, " I will ask you to leave us." 
 
 Robe did not see Lafitte again that day ; 
 but when the general returned to General 
 Clarke s reception-room, he paused to say in 
 a low voice to his aide : " I admire your dis 
 crimination. He is the most remarkable 
 man I have ever met."
 
 162 CHALMETTE 
 
 As shortly after the general s carriage drew 
 through the streets, the city seemed wild with 
 enthusiasm. A great crowd rushed along, 
 pushing, shouting plaudits in a half-dozen 
 tongues, a throng as strange and motley as 
 you could imagine, that now held, by the 
 impulse of its fervent nature, this lean, strong- 
 faced man its preserver. And when they 
 reached the headquarters this fervor knew no 
 bounds. The flag had been unfurled and blew 
 there, never to this date ( 1 857) to be replaced 
 by another, the flag of the United States. 
 
 The reception created a sort of response in 
 that impulsive soul, the general. For, after 
 all, he was a man of remarkable impulse, as 
 Robe has observed is the case of many men 
 who are styled geniuses. 
 
 There was at this occasion all of polite 
 New Orleans, the women eager and chatter 
 ing, the men not less inclined to criticise. To 
 them entered a certain gravely self-held gen 
 tleman, a soldier in bearing, quietly mannered, 
 and urbane to a nicety. 
 
 Robe felt a hand on his shoulder, and he 
 turned about to see the young lady who had
 
 CHALMETTE 163 
 
 caused him so much sentimental trouble, 
 Marie de Renier. 
 
 " Is that he ? I thought he was a Ken 
 tucky flatboatman." 
 
 Robe, himself rather surprised at his chief s 
 polite presence, said, 
 
 "Why, yes, indeed; that is our general, 
 Andrew Jackson." 
 
 " Well," said Mademoiselle, with one of 
 her bewitching smiles, " he is a prince." 
 
 And this sentiment was repeated many 
 times after dinner. " You were mistaken. 
 You said a lean, gaunt man appeared, a 
 regular red Indian. Do you know what 
 Marie de Renier says ? he is a prince." 
 Which proves that, like most nervous men, 
 General Jackson could change his demeanor 
 under the spur of excitement. 
 
 But just then Mademoiselle was looking 
 over her former conquest with a deal of 
 attention, wondering, perhaps, if he would 
 show any of the old symptoms of absorption 
 in her entertaining self. 
 
 " You are thinner than you were," she an 
 nounced at last.
 
 164 CHALMETTE 
 
 After a moment she added, 
 
 " I had your news from Raoul, of whom 
 you met at Barataria." 
 
 " The English lieutenant. You should 
 hate em all," he retorted. 
 
 " Who says that I don t ?" she said, with a 
 nervous little laugh. " Ah, there is Louis 
 Ronald. He has a company of his own. I 
 saw him the other day, near Madame De 
 marche s, riding with a yellow-haired girl 
 very pretty, indeed in black. He lied to 
 me about Mr. Beaumont s engagement. I 
 don t like him." 
 
 Robe looked across at the man, who ap 
 parently had done him so small injury, and 
 yet whom he disliked so much. Would this 
 fellow again act the tale-bearer *? Would he 
 carry news to Madame Demarche s guest 
 that he had seen him talking with the pretty 
 De Renier? Raoul came across the room 
 to him, and he left Mademoiselle with a stiff 
 bow across the room to Ronald. He forgot 
 his surroundings. Was it not quite possible 
 that the astute Lafitte intended to marry her 
 to this powerful man, who stood for all that
 
 CHALMETTE 165 
 
 riches and position signified in New Orleans, 
 for the power that Lafitte courted *? 
 
 The next day the favor the general s sec 
 ond and third appearances had made and his 
 bold words of perfect self-confidence had in 
 deed reached through New Orleans. The city 
 believed him with a great belief. French 
 and Spanish joined in the zeal for the de 
 fence. Though the French had small liking 
 for the American, they had a great dislike for 
 England, and, if the Spanish were more luke 
 warm, they, too, were carried away by the 
 contagious enthusiasm. Governor Claiborne 
 had freed the prisoners in the calaboose, as 
 has been said, many of whom were Lafitte s 
 Baratarians. The captains, Dominique You 
 and Belouche, were openly on the streets, as 
 they had been, indeed, before Lafitte s inter 
 view with General Jackson. Lafitte himself 
 was not to be found. It was said that he 
 had gone to look up other of his Baratarians, 
 who had been in hiding since the destruction 
 of their retreat about Grand Terre. Robe 
 had sought him out to make some further 
 inquiries about Miss Maurice, but he failed
 
 i66 CHALMETTE 
 
 to see him. When he called at the Ursu- 
 lines for Sister Madeleine he found that she, 
 too, was somewhere in the country, they 
 did not know exactly where. Yes, she had 
 been at Madame Demarche s with her niece. 
 And Robe, a very busy man in those days, 
 went back to his duties. He saw the stern- 
 faced Cafferty, who gave him more in partic 
 ular the story of the desolation of Grand 
 Terre, made now " a wilderness of wind 
 swept grasses and sinewy reeds, waving away 
 from a thin beach, ever speckled with drift 
 and decaying things, worm-riddled timbers 
 and dead porpoises." * 
 
 And how may Robe describe the anima 
 tion of the city "? There were the blacks as 
 well as the whites, companies of free men of 
 color and of the black refugees from San 
 Domingo who had stood by their white mas 
 ters in the uprising there. There were the 
 trim, constantly parading creole gentlemen, 
 contrasted with the rough fellows making 
 
 * Vide Lafcadio Hearn. I have added it to my grandfather s 
 description. CORNELIA ROBE FENWOLD.
 
 CHALMETTE 167 
 
 General Coffee s famous " dirty shirts." There 
 were Hinds s fine cavalrymen. There were 
 the United States regulars, such as they were 
 in 1814. There were the veterans of other 
 days, formed into a home-guard. And we 
 must not omit the Baratarians, with their red 
 shirts and turbans and bold eyes, the admira 
 tion of all. The very servants, even Robe s 
 Simon Wesley, burnished their masters arms 
 zealously, feeling they, too, were of the affair. 
 And on the fortifications the slaves worked 
 and sang, and held themselves quite impor 
 tant parts of the defence. 
 
 Yes, New Orleans took the occasion with 
 Gallic ardor ; nor must Kit omit the women, 
 from ladies to servants, with snapping black 
 eyes, who watched it all ; the gay gossip, the 
 tattle and flirtation of drawing-room and 
 street. But there was one face that he didn t 
 see at all ; and he wondered about her, with 
 a certain dull pain at his heart. When he 
 saw his aversion, Ronald, he felt that same 
 resentment. For he doubted not that he was 
 often at the Demarche plantation, whence 
 Kit s present duties kept him.
 
 i68 CHALMETTE 
 
 Now, one day Kit believes it was the 
 tenth a messenger brought the news that as 
 far as the glass could carry, in the water be 
 tween Chandeleur and Cat Islands, were sails 
 and sails. And what sails, indeed ! The 
 French Tonnant, captured in the Nile ; the 
 Royal Oak ; the Ramillies ; the Norge ; the 
 Bedford ; the Asia ; the Armida, fifty sails, 
 with a thousand guns ; sailors who had car 
 ried Great Britain s flag triumphant in many 
 and many a fight against the strongest foes in 
 the world. And those vessels brought veter 
 ans of the Peninsula, men who had burned 
 Washington and ravaged Kit s own country 
 side. The messenger s report soon enlarged 
 from many sources went on : Admiral 
 Cochrane had already sent launches, with 
 carronades and manned by a thousand men, 
 sailors and soldiers, to drive the American 
 flag from the lakes. And these were to be 
 met by Lieutenant Catesby Jones s six gun 
 boats and thirty-five guns ! Perhaps they 
 were fighting down there now. 
 
 The mercurial creole continued, dilating 
 on the situation. What have we against such
 
 CHALMETTE 169 
 
 an armament ? An army that didn t have 
 many uniforms among them, the creole 
 fancy was serious over this matter of uni 
 forms ; Fort Philip, down the river, badly kept 
 up ; back of us the Spanish Fort, pretty, to 
 be sure, but what else ? a few batteries more ; 
 the mud fort of Petites Coquilles. But Gen 
 eral Jackson held his peace and said nothing ; 
 he had declared the city should not be taken ; 
 that was sufficient. Yet, you who know the 
 present temper of New Orleans, imagine the 
 chatter then, the lifting eyebrows, the brisk 
 gesticulations. 
 
 Imagine Captain Robe meeting Mademoi 
 selle de Renier of an afternoon, and Madem 
 oiselle whipping a little silver dagger from 
 her bodice. 
 
 " What does that mean *?" he asked. 
 
 " I hear they have a toast," said the young 
 lady, " booty and beauty. If they get here 
 
 " Mademoiselle ended by brandishing 
 
 her dagger. " I am not the only woman in 
 New Orleans so equipped." 
 
 " What if it should be our friend, Mr. 
 Beaumont?"
 
 iyo CHALMETTE 
 
 "I hate him," Mademoiselle cried. "I 
 should rather love you," she added, with a 
 blow from her eyes that made our captain 
 the least embarrassed. Did she after all 
 seriously remember his sentimental ap 
 proaches ? While he jested, he was troubled ; 
 and he heard Mademoiselle s light laughter 
 behind him. What a vain creature is man ; 
 and how well the women know it ! 
 
 As Kit pushed through the bustling street 
 to his quarters, a hand suddenly caught his 
 shoulder. 
 
 " Pardon, captain," said a familiar voice ; 
 and turning, he saw his Baratarian acquaint 
 ance, La Roux. 
 
 " This is for you, captain." 
 
 And he read : 
 
 " Take ten men, and have bearer lead you to Jean 
 Lafitte, whose orders you are to obey, using your 
 discretion. "JACKSON." 
 
 " Where shall I find you ?" Robe asked, 
 turning. 
 
 " I will follow you, captain. I will take 
 you and your men to Mr. Lantte s barges 
 below the city."
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 AT MADAME DEMARCHE S 
 
 THE two barges were close together. La- 
 fitte s whiskered men bent low to their oars ; 
 Robe s followers, for the most part Tennes- 
 seeans, talking, and those who were not oars 
 men nervously fingering their rifles ; the low 
 banks receding ; the outlines of a gunboat 
 of Commodore Patterson close under the 
 opposite shore. 
 
 Lafitte was quiet and reserved, with now 
 and then some word to La Roux. Robe 
 had followed the general s orders literally, 
 and now he had asked no question of the 
 calm, handsome, self-poised man, who, crimi 
 nal or no, commanded respect for his extra 
 ordinary ability, particularly in the way he 
 avoided consequences. Perhaps Lafitte read 
 his thoughts, for he turned to him suddenly 
 with that affable smile which recalled to 
 
 Robe the visit to Grand Terre. 
 
 171
 
 172 CHALMETTE 
 
 " You know General Coffee ? Yes, of 
 course. At a reception he hesitated, but I 
 went up to him, The pirate Lafitte, I an 
 nounced myself." 
 
 " He is a good commander for the men he 
 has, this General Coffee," said Robe. 
 
 " So I wanted him to understand that I 
 was conscious of my position," Lafitte said. 
 " I never enjoyed patronage." 
 
 " You seem plainly enough in our service 
 now," Robe answered. 
 
 " Well, possibly. They my enemies 
 say I am profiting by the condition of things. 
 I may be, Captain Robe." 
 
 And then he turned to give a direction in 
 Spanish ; he had a half-dozen languages at 
 his tongue s end. 
 
 " Lieutenant Jones fought the enemy last 
 night. It was musket to musket, cutlass to 
 cutlass, and hand to hand. Jones cut into 
 the open barges, sinking many. They say 
 the waters were filled with red-coated men. 
 But it ended " 
 
 " They were driven back *?" Robe asked. 
 " This news must just have reached the city."
 
 CHALMETTE 173 
 
 " La Roux brought it to me, to the gen 
 eral. They closed in on them, beating our 
 crews back, and driving them below. By 
 noon, captain, they held Lake Borgne. Is it 
 an omen of the result ? There are those 
 who consider it may be." 
 
 For a moment Robe felt a suspicion of 
 this ally. What if he should turn against 
 them now ? What if, after all, he had ac 
 cepted the British overtures ? What if, when 
 it came to battle, the Baratarians should be 
 foes in their midst ? But Lafitte s keen eyes 
 were on the Virginian s face, and he read his 
 thoughts as easily as if he had spoken so 
 many words. 
 
 " If it be so, that I am playing false, 
 you will allow that I do it well," Lantte 
 said. 
 
 " I said nothing on that subject," said 
 Robe, starting. 
 
 " I am not a child at understanding a 
 man s thoughts, Captain Robe. And per 
 haps the best answer I may make is that I 
 am here you are here to intercept that 
 very business you think of. The English are
 
 174 CHALMETTE 
 
 at the Isle des Pois, where they suffer from 
 the dews by day, the frosts by night, where 
 they are looking to the approaches to the 
 city. They are deliberating on several plans 
 proposed them." 
 
 " Proposed them, through spies *?" 
 
 " The Spanish fishermen and certain per 
 sons in the Spanish or English interest. La 
 Roux, from sources we know of, has brought 
 news that an English officer, disguised as a 
 fisherman, is to meet a certain gentleman we 
 know of at Madame Demarche s." 
 
 "I know of? Ronald?" Robe asked, 
 showing his own first surmise. 
 
 " No other ; I trusted him. You dis 
 like him," said Lafitte, watching him. 
 " You have surmised it. Instinct isn t a 
 bad guide at times. But I own I trusted 
 him." 
 
 " Yet I thought there was not a creole 
 traitor in Louisiana," the other said. 
 
 " He is partly an Englishman. He hon 
 estly believes that Louisiana would be better 
 under English rule. He was disappointed 
 that I refused the advances made to me.
 
 CHALMETTE 175 
 
 Naturally a monarchist, he prefers England 
 or Spain. He is sincere enough." 
 
 " He was interested in Barataria." 
 
 " Barataria, as Barataria, has ceased to exist. 
 It is a matter now of the United States. I 
 will confess that we Dominique You, Be- 
 louche, and I are fighting for social recog 
 nition. And we will have it. But we prefer 
 it from the United States." 
 
 " Yet they burned your quarters, after the 
 governor s acceptance of your offer, though 
 the governor couldn t have prevented it." 
 
 " Don t you see, man," Lafitte said, frankly, 
 " that it appears better for us to gain the rec 
 ognition of a country which we know can t 
 be conquered, which is nearest the opera 
 tions on the Gulf?" 
 
 " That is the business proposition, broadly 
 put," Robe agreed. " I agree with you that 
 England can t make us colonies again. But 
 as for this Ronald, he is at Madame De 
 marche s *?" 
 
 " Madame is his second cousin." 
 
 " And she knows of this ?" 
 
 " Certainly not ; but Ronald chose it as a
 
 176 CHALMETTE 
 
 quiet place, where he easily could meet the 
 British agent. There are many winding 
 water-ways leading there from the mouth of 
 the Pearl River. I am going there osten 
 sibly to escort Madame to New Orleans. She 
 says her neighbors, the Valleres, are not 
 afraid. Why should she be ? We will 
 keep your men in reserve. We will reach 
 the house by a way. I will inquire about 
 Ronald. The British spies should be here 
 this afternoon." 
 
 " Your ward, Miss Maurice, is there ?" 
 " She insists that she should be here, 
 though Mr. Maurice has twice sent for her 
 to return to Virginia. He is her legal guar 
 dian. I am only an executor under Captain 
 de Bertrand s will." 
 
 Lafitte watched Robe s face as he spoke of 
 her. He did not deny that he had hoped to 
 have her marry Ronald ; he had not expected 
 that Ronald had gone to the extreme of plot 
 ting that La Roux s advices indicated. His 
 object in coming there was to get Ronald and 
 the disguised officers from Admiral Cochrane, 
 together with the Spanish fishermen who
 
 CHALMETTE 177 
 
 escorted them. His Baratarians were to beat 
 about, with their useful knowledge of land 
 and water, while he and Robe were to go 
 openly to the house. 
 
 They carried this plan out in every detail, 
 leaving the one barge with La Roux s half, 
 of the Baratarians and Robe s men in a hid 
 den spot, while the other went on much 
 farther up the river, coming at last to rest 
 under a thick hedge of yucca. Robe fol 
 lowed Lafitte to an out-building, where he 
 gave a peculiar low whistle that did not 
 penetrate far ; but suddenly, from the corner 
 of the house, a bent, white-haired and bearded 
 negro appeared. 
 
 "Eh, M sieur Lafitte," he cried, in that 
 patois which Robe cannot attempt to render, 
 though by this time he understood it fairly 
 well. " Were the officers after M sieur 
 again ?" 
 
 " Tell Henriette to let Madame know that 
 Monsieur wishes to see Madame in the old 
 way. Stay, is Monsieur Ronald about ?" 
 
 Gabriel thought that Monsieur Ronald 
 was walking somewhere with Mademioselle
 
 178 CHALMETTE 
 
 Maurice ; and nodding his head wisely, he 
 turned away. Presently he returned, beckon 
 ing. They were shielded from observation 
 along the little path by the thick, bare 
 branches of a hedge, and at a door Henriette, 
 the mulatto girl of Robe s former visit, 
 awaited them. Henriette carefully had sent 
 away the other servants. Gabriel, who was 
 Henriette s father, guarded the farther end of 
 the path. The girl broke into little exclama 
 tions of pleasure at seeing Monsieur Lafitte. 
 
 "Had the governor turned against Monsieur 
 once more ?" she asked, with the easy famili 
 arity of a servant born to the household. 
 
 As she was speaking, Sallie Maurice rushed 
 out, putting both her hands out to Lafitte. 
 
 " We are so glad to see you." 
 
 And then she noticed Robe, and turned to 
 him rather coldly, he fancied. 
 
 " And you are here, Captain Robe *?" 
 
 " I notice you have not returned to Vir 
 ginia," he said, lamely. 
 
 " After the affair at Barataria my aunt felt 
 it her duty to look after some who were hurt. 
 They were men, though bad men, perhaps ;
 
 CHALMETTE 179 
 
 they had been my grandfather s people. I 
 helped in what I could." 
 
 " They are free from the calaboose, 
 Mademoiselle. They are soldiers of the 
 United States." 
 
 Miss Maurice flushed, and she looked at 
 Robe. 
 
 " They are pardoned *?" she said. 
 
 " They are taken into the service," Robe 
 answered, feeling her coldness. They had 
 entered the room, Robe remembered, where 
 Mrs. Claiborne and Lantte had that play of 
 wit and compliments. Perhaps Lantte, too, 
 remembered it, for he smiled. 
 
 " And Monsieur Ronald, my dear Madem 
 oiselle Sallie *? We heard he was sauntering 
 with you." 
 
 " He will saunter no more with me, Mon 
 sieur, despite your wish." 
 
 " My wish may have changed," Lafitte 
 said, with a meaning glance towards Robe. 
 " Ah, Madame." 
 
 For Madame Demarche had entered, fresh 
 and smiling. 
 
 " How you bring old New Orleans days
 
 i8o CHALMETTE 
 
 to me, Madame," Lafitte said ; " evenings on 
 balconies, gossip, dances " 
 
 " Flirtation," said Madame. " Ah, yes, 
 flirtation, and the subscription balls, to whom 
 none was a more liberal subscriber than 
 Monsieur Jean Lafitte," she added. 
 
 " Those days are gone, but in the period 
 of my outlawry no one was kinder than a 
 certain widow, whose husband had helped 
 me much. She remembered, and now I 
 am here insistent on your returning to 
 New Orleans. The British will be here. 
 You at Villere s and Demarche s and Chal- 
 mette s must leave for New Orleans, you 
 yourself, now, on my barge, which awaits 
 you." 
 
 " We can t." 
 
 " I insist," he said. 
 
 "And when Lafitte insists," Madame re 
 torted, " you obey. It s a proverb." And 
 she courtesied, mockingly. 
 
 Lafitte whispered something. She grew 
 suddenly pale. 
 
 " It can t be so." 
 
 " I know."
 
 CHALMETTE 181 
 
 " Well, if you know." And she started. 
 " We will obey Monsieur, Mademoiselle. 
 We will put a few things together, and leave 
 Henriette to follow with more. We go to 
 the city at once. You will excuse us." 
 
 Sallie Maurice had been standing near 
 Robe, but neither saying a word. For some 
 reason his speech seemed to have deserted 
 him. Now she bowed and followed Madame. 
 
 " You told her of Ronald *?" he asked. 
 
 " I told her I believed there were English 
 spies on her ground. I told her she must 
 obey me." 
 
 " She believed you ?" 
 
 " She never has had reason to doubt me," 
 he said. 
 
 At the moment Madame and Miss Maurice 
 entered, followed by Henriette with some 
 luggage. 
 
 " You want everything to remain the 
 same?" Madame said. 
 
 " Yes, no apparent change. I will receive 
 him when he returns," Lafitte replied. " It s 
 at the old landing, by the back path ?" 
 
 " Yes," said Madame, " I leave the situation
 
 182 CHALMETTE 
 
 to you. Au revoir, Monsieur Robe," and she 
 gave Robe her hand. 
 
 " I dare say," Sallie said, " I may see you 
 in New Orleans." 
 
 " You don t appear to wish to see me," he 
 said. 
 
 But she ignored his remark ; only extended 
 her hand, and left them with yet a dash of 
 red on her cheeks. 
 
 " Why do we remain *?" Robe asked, turn 
 ing to Lafitte. 
 
 " You will see presently." 
 
 At the moment there was a tapping on 
 the door. 
 
 " La Roux." 
 
 "Yes, captain," said La Roux, enter 
 ing. 
 
 " You saw it all ?" 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " How many were there ?" 
 
 " Seven. Two were Englishmen gotten 
 up like the others." 
 
 "You watched till after he had left 
 them ?" 
 
 " Yes, captain. Then, before they knew
 
 CHALMETTE 183 
 
 it, we were down on them. There wasn t a 
 cry." 
 
 " So they are safe in that glade ?" 
 
 " Yes, certainly." 
 
 " And he should be here ?" 
 
 " In five minutes." 
 
 " Madame will be embarked by that time. 
 Do you, La Roux, take the other barge to the 
 place where the prisoners are." 
 
 La Roux nodded and went out, eager, 
 nervous, alert. Has Robe recorded that he 
 was the only one of the Baratarians, save Jean 
 Lafitte himself, who did not wear a beard ; 
 that he had a certain urbane, well-bred air, 
 such as the Lafittes and Dominique You 
 possessed in so remarkable a degree ?
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 LAFITTE AND THE TRAITOR 
 
 IT must have been, to show La Roux s 
 accuracy, exactly five minutes after when 
 Ronald, softly humming to himself, entered 
 the house and turned towards the room 
 where he doubtless expected to find his 
 hostess or Miss Maurice. La Roux had 
 anticipated him by taking a roundabout 
 way, and he had walked slowly with his 
 thoughts, little thinking that the two English 
 officers whom he had just left were prisoners. 
 As he entered, he stopped in amazement, 
 looking from Lafitte to Robe. 
 
 "Oh, Monsieur Lafitte, this is the usual 
 pleasure," he said. "You are always ap 
 pearing, disappearing again. You, too, are 
 paying a visit to our old friend, Madame 
 Demarche." 
 
 " No, and yes. I came to have Madame 
 184
 
 CHALMETTE 185 
 
 go to the city. I have persuaded her. She 
 has started by this time, I believe." 
 
 " Isn t this rather sudden ?" 
 
 " I have reason to believe that some of 
 Admiral Cochrane s men may be here." 
 
 " What !" Ronald said, without moving a 
 muscle, " you believe that they know the 
 water-ways ? It may be, through the fisher 
 men." 
 
 " Yes, and there are others as well. I in 
 tend to have the general send down a con 
 siderable force to watch the bayou and canal 
 leading to this place." 
 
 " Have you any information *?" 
 
 " Some, some," Lafitte went on, like a cat 
 playing with a mouse. " I didn t fully real 
 ize the danger till I was here myself. I 
 could not believe my plain information that 
 there was a Louisianian who might make an 
 exact statement of the number of our forces, 
 of the condition ot the defences." 
 
 " Monsieur !" Ronald said, paling. 
 
 La Roux appeared. 
 
 " I have some papers, captain," he said. 
 
 " Bring them here."
 
 i86 CHALMETTE 
 
 Lafitte unfolded them. 
 
 " Back, La Roux," he said. " Ah, a map 
 of every water-way about here, an accurate 
 map. Yes, and plans of the forts, such as 
 they are." 
 
 Ronald looked from Lafitte to Robe, and 
 then to La Roux. You could see that he 
 understood the situation, and was considering 
 his position. La Roux, though he had been 
 told to return to his men, still hesitated. 
 
 " I have to report that one fellow ran. 
 We couldn t get a fair shot at him. He 
 jumped into the bayou and reached the 
 bushes. We tried to follow him, but were 
 caught in the marsh. He must have been 
 swallowed up." 
 
 " Go, I tell you," Lafitte said, sternly. 
 " Wait me there. I have an interview with 
 Monsieur." 
 
 As La Roux went out, he said, as if 
 meditating the force of every word : 
 
 " Monsieur Ronald, I rarely have been 
 deceived in men. 5 
 
 " No, rarely," sneered the other ; " that has
 
 CHALMETTE 187 
 
 been the measure of your success, Mon 
 sieur." 
 
 " Yes," said Lafitte, slowly, " that may be. 
 I even acknowledge it. But there s another 
 matter. Monsieur, you owe some part of 
 your income to our organization." 
 
 " Yes," said Ronald, looking at him with 
 out a tremor in his voice. " Yes, Monsieur 
 Lafitte." 
 
 " You have said * yes, " Lafitte said. 
 " May I add to my yes that once I had 
 occasion to shoot a man down, nay, twice, 
 after I had taken the management of the 
 affairs of Barataria." 
 
 He looked at Ronald for a moment as if 
 critically. Robe, watching the two, like a 
 spectator at a play, remembered the story of 
 Grambo, the pirate, who, when Lafitte was 
 completing his organization of the privateers 
 and buccaneers of the Gulf, resisted the chief, 
 who shot and killed him in the Great 
 Temple, the place of their trade. And 
 there were many other stories of like kind 
 of this man, who now stood, strong and 
 inflexible, the carelessness of his mannerisms
 
 i88 CHALMETTE 
 
 gone, before this delinquent. For the first 
 time Ronald started nervously, and his hand 
 went involuntarily to his belt. Lafitte 
 laughed with a fine scorn, not himself 
 moving. 
 
 " Bring out your pistol, cocked and 
 primed. I dare you to do it. For, dead- 
 shot though you may be, I don t think you 
 can be quicker than I. For I judge you a 
 mutineer, and the worst. For I trusted you, 
 which I rarely do. There is some fine 
 quality of pretence about you that made 
 me. And you have deceived me. I sup 
 posed that you were following our policy, 
 to stand with the United States." 
 
 " A mistaken policy," said the other, sul 
 lenly. " You entered into it to secure your 
 pardon, but what if England succeeds"? 
 and she will, I know." 
 
 " And Monsieur Ronald s service will be 
 remembered, and Jean Lafitte s refusal will 
 be punished." 
 
 Ronald began to laugh, contemptuously, 
 bitterly. 
 
 " Fool, this is another matter, Admiral
 
 CHALMETTE 189 
 
 Cochrane embarked sixteen hundred men in 
 yesterday s rain. They will be here before 
 you know. The rest will follow. How can 
 Jackson resist them *?" 
 
 " And I ll be confounded with this," said 
 Lafitte, slowly. " You have given the in 
 formation to the spy of the numbers, of the 
 plans of the forts and the works, of the situ 
 ation of the forces." 
 
 He spoke deliberately, as if considering 
 the details of the situation carefully. Then 
 he tore into bits the papers La Roux had 
 brought from the English prisoners, the 
 plans Ronald had furnished them. 
 
 " If what you say may be true, at least 
 they shall not have those papers," he said. 
 
 And then from under his coat he pulled 
 two duelling pistols. 
 
 " I came prepared for this contingency," 
 he said. 
 
 " What do you mean *?" Ronald cried, 
 while the single spectator watched like one 
 fascinated. 
 
 " I am going to concede you the right of 
 your opinion, the right of a gentleman, if
 
 190 CHALMETTE 
 
 as insubordinate to Barataria you should die. 
 I give you a chance, the duel, a good 
 chance, Monsieur, with your skill." 
 
 " I will not fight you, Lafitte. I refuse to 
 fight you." 
 
 " Then, Monsieur, I must be simply the 
 traitor s executioner. I will shoot you down." 
 
 For two moments Ronald deliberated. 
 Perhaps he thought of springing away 
 through the door, but he knew that Lafitte 
 certainly would bring him down. 
 
 " Give me the pistol," he said at last, look 
 ing up grimly. He trusted to his skill, even 
 against Lafitte. 
 
 Here Robe interrupted : 
 
 " This is an impossible situation," he re 
 monstrated. " We have Mr. Ronald here as 
 a prisoner. We must take him to New 
 Orleans and deliver him to the authorities." 
 
 " Monsieur," Lafitte said, turning to him 
 with a gleam of anger, " you will please to 
 hold your tongue. The authorities may 
 have a quarrel with Monsieur Ronald, but I 
 have, too, my private one, which it is my 
 privilege to settle."
 
 CHALMETTE 191 
 
 " I grant you that privilege," said Ronald, 
 calmly. And whatever Robe s dislike of 
 him, his firm belief that he had been mak 
 ing love to Sallie Maurice, he still had to 
 grant him the quality of bravery, of admir 
 able sang-froid. 
 
 " You are to witness this is a duel," said 
 Lafitte. 
 
 " Yes, you are the witness, Monsieur." 
 
 And Robe, awed by something in both 
 men s manner, and himself brought up to 
 respect the code d honneur, said, 
 
 " If you both wish it, I can but 
 agree." 
 
 And then suddenly fear seized him. What 
 if this Ronald should kill Lafitte? How 
 could he repeat the case to his general 1 ? 
 And he felt certain that in that case he 
 should return to the city alone, as he could 
 not protect Ronald from the vengeance of 
 the Baratarians. 
 
 " Yet I believe you are wrong, Mr. La 
 fitte," he added. 
 
 " That is my matter ; you have agreed. 
 Stand by your word," Lafitte retorted.
 
 192 CHALMETTE 
 
 " It is here, then, in this room ?" Ronald 
 asked. 
 
 " Yes, here." 
 
 " I don t care to see the other pistol. I 
 can trust you, Monsieur Lafitte." 
 
 " Thank you, Monsieur," Lafitte said, 
 ironically. " You will please say, calmly, 
 One, two, three, Captain Robe. On the 
 three, Monsieur Ronald." 
 
 " On the three, Monsieur Lafitte," Ronald 
 assented. 
 
 Robe in his day has witnessed some duels ; 
 and he is glad to notice that the practice in 
 these later years is going out of repute, even 
 in the South. He has heard many duelling 
 stories, from that of Sheridan s by candle 
 light in the London tavern to the one be 
 tween Mr. Hamilton and Mr. Burr, which 
 excited so much feeling. He has had sev 
 eral friends killed on the field, among others 
 the brave Captain Decatur. But in his own 
 experience, or in any of these stories, there 
 surely was never anything more impressive 
 than this duel between Lafitte and Ronald, 
 in a room which he associated with women s
 
 CHALMETTE 193 
 
 light talk, where the laughter of Mrs. Clai- 
 borne and Madame Demarche and the 
 presence of Sallie Maurice still seemed to 
 linger. 
 
 " One," he said, fearfully ; " two," after the 
 pause. 
 
 The pistols were levelled and the two men 
 looked straight into each other s eyes, 
 " three." 
 
 The flash came ; Ronald tottered : the 
 report rang ; Ronald s arms flew out, with a 
 rush of blood from his mouth, and he fell in 
 a heap. 
 
 " I have done my duty," Lafitte said, 
 grimly, putting his smoking pistol on the 
 table. 
 
 At the moment a red uniform was pro 
 jected into the doorway, with a crowd of 
 others behind. 
 
 " You are prisoners," came a stout English 
 voice. " The house is surrounded. What s 
 this? a murder?" he added, in some dis 
 may. 
 
 " He brought you here," said Lafitte, turn 
 ing calmly to the officer. * The informer, 
 13
 
 194 CHALMETTE 
 
 sir, has been executed, but he had a chance 
 of his life. It was a duel." 
 
 " He cannot answer," said the lieutenant, 
 leaning over the prostrate Ronald ; " he is 
 dead." 
 
 Robe s eyes followed Lafitte s to the little 
 fragments of paper on the floor ; the informer 
 was dead ; the maps and details he had fur 
 nished were destroyed. Lafitte stepped over 
 to him and whispered : " If they had taken 
 La Roux, we should have heard firing. La 
 Roux has gotten away, or is in hiding with 
 the spies and their crew." 
 
 Robe never saw this strange man so excel 
 lent as in this expression of his belief that he 
 had outmanoeuvred the man he had killed. 
 He, too, seemed to have no regret for his 
 deed. 
 
 " No more words," said the officer, harshly. 
 " Seize them, sergeant." 
 
 Four scarlet-coated men walked over to 
 the prisoners, as a grim-featured sergeant 
 directed. 
 
 "We have these two, Mr. Berden," said 
 the sergeant. " But that major over there
 
 CHALMETTE 195 
 
 and the other man * jumped out of the win 
 dow and reached the woods." 
 
 Then the prisoners knew that the Villere 
 as well as the Demarche house had been sur 
 rounded, that the family there had been 
 taken, but that Major Villere and another 
 person had made a bold dash for liberty, 
 for the chance to warn the city, which was 
 but eight miles away. Lafitte s usually non 
 committal face betrayed a smile of some 
 self-satisfaction. 
 
 " Take the prisoners to the general," the 
 lieutenant said, brusquely, "and I ll finish 
 the search of the premises and look at the 
 dead man." 
 
 " It was a duel," said Robe here. " I am 
 the witness." 
 
 " That s to be decided," the lieutenant 
 answered ; and then, noting the quality of 
 his prisoners, he added, " You ll state the 
 circumstances to General Keane, who doubt 
 less will wish to put some questions to you." 
 
 * fide a short story of the author s in Tomb s Comfanion t 
 11 How New Orleans was Saved."
 
 196 CHALMETTE 
 
 As they were brought outside, Robe re 
 flected again that while the secret information 
 obtained from the Spanish fishermen or others, 
 perhaps from the dead Ronald, had 
 brought the enemy so near the city, they 
 at least did not seem to have La Roux. Yet 
 he remembered that even in the excitement 
 of the last moment of the duel he had heard 
 some rapid shots. Lafitte himself had been 
 oblivious to the sounds. Then La Roux, 
 after all, might be taken. Yet, remembering 
 that Major Villere and some one else, from 
 the sergeant s word to his superior, had made 
 a bold dash for freedom, there was the chance 
 that the shots might be from their pursuers. 
 And even if La Roux and his men were 
 taken, their two English prisoners and their 
 Spanish fishermen crew could not produce 
 the plans which Lafitte through sagacious 
 foresight had destroyed. It was evident, now, 
 that the spies had been sent ahead to confer 
 with Ronald, who doubtless wished to return 
 unobserved to New Orleans, to continue his 
 supply of information. 
 
 These thoughts, which can be put here
 
 CHALMETTE 197 
 
 better to explain the situation, ran through 
 Robe s mind almost in the few seconds be 
 fore they reached the lawn outside the house. 
 And all the fields, back to the orange 
 groves, seemed to be dotted with red-coated 
 men, who were moving along the road on 
 the levee to the upper side of the plantation, 
 where they seemed to be forming, as it proved 
 afterwards, in three columns. And as the 
 two prisoners were brought into the grounds 
 immediately about the Villere manor a small 
 battery was being thrown up. Here, as at 
 Madame Demarche s, were frightened, chat 
 tering crowds of blacks under guard. 
 
 The surprise of both plantations had been 
 the most decided possible ; and the invaders 
 seemed to be making the most of their few 
 moments occupancy. Robe s heart sank. 
 They certainly would push on to the unpre 
 pared city. This doubtless was the van, now 
 waiting for the main body. 
 
 The day, as the histories state and Robe 
 remembers, was December 23, 1814.
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 THE ESCAPE 
 
 THEY were brought into a room where a 
 stout, white-haired man, in plain clothes, 
 was consulting with a taller, black-bearded, 
 uniformed young man. The former was 
 Sir Alexander Cochrane ; the latter, General 
 Keane. 
 
 The sergeant briefly stated the circum 
 stances under which the prisoners had been 
 taken. 
 
 " A murder *?" General Keane asked. 
 
 " No, sir," Lafitte interrupted, " a duel. 
 The man was a Louisianian proprietor who 
 was a spy in our midst." 
 
 " I dare say you call every man a spy who 
 is dissatisfied with Yankee misgovernment," 
 the admiral remarked. " This will be looked 
 into." 
 
 " You may know his name," Lafitte said, 
 
 " one Ronald." 
 198
 
 CHALMETTE 199 
 
 " He !" General Keane exclaimed. 
 
 " As I thought, as I knew, having other 
 certain proofs," Lafitte said. " You may 
 like to know, too, that I, who killed this 
 fellow, am Lafitte, whom you once ap 
 proached." 
 
 Sir Alexander Cochrane wheeled about. 
 
 " You are Lafitte, the pirate ? You are 
 the outlaw who preferred their side to our 
 protection ?" 
 
 " I am Lafitte, the pirate." 
 
 " And this gentleman ?" 
 
 " Christopher Robe, captain in the United 
 States army," Robe answered. 
 
 " And you two deliberately killed this 
 man without process of law ?" 
 
 " Twas, Sir Alexander, through the court 
 of the duel." 
 
 " Well, well, we can t discuss that now, as 
 I have said. D ye mind telling me how 
 much of a force Jackson has ?" 
 
 " Not in the least, general," Lafitte replied ; 
 " twelve thousand men in the city, and four 
 thousand at English Turn." 
 
 Now it had happened that a detail on a
 
 200 CHALMETTE 
 
 reconnoissance had taken four American 
 pickets at the entrance of that bayou, which 
 had brought the English van to the canal 
 and Villere s. And by the merest chance 
 the most extraordinary coincidence these 
 persons, one a Creole gentleman of standing, 
 had stated that General Jackson s force was 
 twelve thousand in the city, and four thou 
 sand at English Turn. So now the admiral 
 and the general exchanged glances. And 
 this coincidence, in fact, saved New Orleans. 
 For General Keane, believing that statements 
 from such different sources must be worthy 
 of belief, did not dare venture farther till he 
 should be strengthened by his complete 
 force. After some further cross-questioning 
 the sergeant was ordered to take the pris 
 oners to a cotton-house which had been 
 selected as a guard-house. After the escape 
 of the two gentlemen from the manor itself 
 the British officers perhaps were not minded 
 to take a further risk there ; or, rather, it 
 seemed fit to herd these two with the com 
 mon prisoners. 
 
 This house stood at a field s edge, with
 
 CHALMETTE 201 
 
 close behind it thick trees and shrubs, cy 
 presses, palmettoes, vines, cane-brakes, a 
 dense tangle descending into a stretch of 
 impassable morass, so far as the British could 
 perceive in their brief occupancy of the place. 
 The worn path to the cotton-house edged 
 this thick growth, and no sentinels had yet 
 been stationed on that side. 
 
 When, about half-way from the manor 
 to the cotton-house, the sergeant and the 
 guards with the prisoners were at a point 
 where the path came nearest the thickly 
 wooded morass, there was a quick crack 
 of rifles. The aim was unerring ; three men 
 fell. Lafitte brought the sergeant down with 
 a blow of the fist, and catching Robe by 
 the shoulder, he said, " That fool, La 
 Roux !" and sprang straight into the bushes. 
 There was a narrow opening before, with 
 here and there broad stretches of water. 
 Shouts and cries followed. Robe was at 
 Lafitte s heels, springing from mound to 
 mound. The tangle would have been inex 
 tricable save to the trained sense which 
 had followed it many times. By this way
 
 202 CHALMETTE 
 
 Lafitte had reached his friend, Madame De 
 marche, on many a day. And now, as he 
 sprang forward, he knew unerringly which 
 mound to take, turning about to warn Robe 
 to follow him carefully or else he would sink 
 in a soft, devouring soil. Behind them there 
 gathered a half-dozen alert figures of those 
 who had been stationed by the keen L a 
 Roux at that point. He had watched the 
 enemy from his hiding ; had seen the selec 
 tion of the cotton-house for a guard-house ; 
 had surmised shrewdly that the two prisoners 
 would be brought that way. And now 
 the cries sank behind them. The soldiers, 
 not knowing where the footholds were, strug 
 gled in what seemed a quicksand, and shortly 
 the fugitives had put half a mile between 
 themselves and their pursuers. Over a simi 
 lar way Major Villere had fled, after hiding 
 in the lucky cypress, of which more later. 
 
 At last they came to a narrow stretch of 
 clear water, perhaps ten feet wide, where 
 to a secure bank the barge was moored. 
 
 " When you told me, captain, to keep the 
 barge in hiding, I brought it here."
 
 CHALMETTE 203 
 
 " Good, La Roux. You said one fellow 
 escaped you in the capture. They might 
 have looked for you in the other place." 
 
 " Yes, I thought that, captain." 
 
 Lafitte scanned the barge-load, Robe s 
 Tennesseeans sharp faces watching them ; 
 the sullen faces of the Spanish fishermen ; the 
 two others, one dark, one fair, of the young 
 Englishmen who had ventured to meet Ron 
 ald. Lafitte smiled grimly. 
 
 " Your men are very near the city, you may 
 like to know. Your luck has been bad." 
 
 " Yes," said one, the fair-haired boy, who 
 looked the gentleman, despite rough clothes ; 
 " but we are prisoners. Still, we shall not be 
 so long." 
 
 " When Admiral Cochrane shall dine in 
 New Orleans," Lafitte said, mockingly. 
 " On, La Roux. This will bring us out four 
 miles below the city." 
 
 The barge was started, the Baratarians 
 gleefully whispering over the rescue, the 
 prisoners moodily silent. 
 
 " You re a fool, La Roux !" Lafitte cried, 
 with a burst of rage, his eyes flashing.
 
 204 CHALMETTE 
 
 " Yes, my captain," said La Roux. 
 
 " You should have gone on and warned 
 the city." 
 
 " And let the English hang you, my cap 
 tain ?" 
 
 " They would have hung the pirate," La- 
 fitte said, as if reflectively ; and he said no 
 more to La Roux. 
 
 And so silently, save for the oar-dip, they 
 wound through a mysterious labyrinth and 
 suddenly on to the river. Robe s thoughts 
 went over the exciting events of that day ; 
 he could hear Miss Maurice s voice, see her 
 eyes. She, at least, was safe by Lafitte s 
 foresight. And then he remembered the 
 episode of Ronald, that duel, the interrup 
 tion, the strange chance of the success of La 
 Roux s shrewd calculation. It was obvious 
 that now the morass would be defended in 
 some way, or else that guard-house aban 
 doned. 
 
 As they neared the city the cathedral bell 
 was tolling out over the waters and the dis 
 tances. 
 
 " They know !" said Robe.
 
 CHALMETTE 205 
 
 " Viller reached here," Lafitte said, la 
 conically. 
 
 Leaving La Roux to look to the prisoners, 
 Lafitte and Robe sprang ashore and ran to 
 wards head-quarters. The streets presented 
 the most animated appearance possible, 
 men rushing to and fro, women calling down 
 from balconies, a kaleidoscope of color and 
 activity. 
 
 As they came into the room they heard 
 the general s voice. 
 
 " Gentlemen," he said, " the British are 
 below ; we must fight them to-night." 
 
 In the background stood Major Villere, 
 much torn and bedraggled.
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 THE BALCONY AT MADAME DEMARCHE S 
 
 WHAT Lafitte said to the general, 
 whether, indeed, he explained Ronald s 
 death, is unknown to Robe. But, trust 
 to Jean Lafitte to defend his own position, 
 whatever that might be, General Jackson 
 was deep in talk with the leader of the Bara- 
 tarians. And in that critical moment the 
 general was not inclined to question too 
 closely ways and means. An army he 
 wanted, an army he must have, and a part 
 of it this Lafitte could supply. 
 
 Robe, indeed, had no time to consider the 
 general s talk with Lafitte. For orders were 
 passed swiftly ; every aide was in requisition ; 
 to Bayou Saint John for Planches battalion, 
 to the intrepid Coffee s detachment, to Gentilly 
 for the battalion of blacks. Twas a gallop 
 ing and a rushing through thronged streets. 
 
 Songs joined the cries, and they shouted, at 
 206
 
 CHALMETTE 207 
 
 their lungs best, " La Chant du Depart," 
 " La Marseillaise," and " Yankee Doodle." 
 In these piping times of peace you can t 
 imagine such a scene, the color of it, the 
 excitement of it.* It was fine, and great, 
 and tremendous, as I find those adjectives 
 used in a college essay of my grandson. 
 
 But here Robe must pause to tell of how 
 he saw Major Villere. The story of how 
 the news was brought to New Orleans is not 
 complete without this addition. He jumped 
 from the window, you remember, after the 
 enemy had surrounded his house, gained the 
 woods and the swamp, the same where La 
 Roux made the coup d etat of the escape. 
 But in his case they succeeded in keeping 
 him close in view. So that, closely pushed, 
 he climbed a cypress and lay hid there till 
 suddenly he heard a whining below, and 
 looking down he saw a favorite setter that 
 had followed him. There was but one thing 
 to do ; he descended and killed the dog, his 
 
 * As I have written, my grandfather died before the Rebellion. 
 We in Virginia were to know war in its most terrible aspects. 
 C. R. F.
 
 208 CHALMETTE 
 
 good friend. As he told this story tears were 
 in the brave gentleman s eyes. Twas like 
 the death of a human being ; and, as another 
 has said, not the least of the sacrifices of 
 those times was that poor setter s, who was 
 given to save New Orleans. For the major 
 reached the city, bringing the first warning, 
 since the other gentlemen and we were 
 much behind him. 
 
 In those busy moments Robe snatched the 
 time to visit Demarche s city house. He had 
 looked to see Madame or Miss Maurice or 
 Sister Madeleine among the crowds of the 
 ladies on the balconies, who were watching 
 the scene with animated interest. From a 
 balcony Mademoiselle de Renier had called 
 to him : 
 
 "You will soon be marching, captain," 
 she said. "Ah, we are working so hard, 
 preparing lint and bandages." 
 
 " You expect all to be killed ?" he said. 
 
 " We shall care for you if you are only 
 wounded ; we will weep for you if you are 
 killed," said Mademoiselle, gayly, yet with a 
 touch of seriousness in her sparkling dark
 
 CHALMETTE 209 
 
 eyes. " But what shall we do if they attack 
 us?" 
 
 " That will be, the general said, over 
 our dead bodies. And as for you, Madem 
 oiselle, there s, I ll repeat, that Mr. Beaumont 
 I met at Barataria." 
 
 " Ah, you would tease," said she. " I met 
 this morning a friend of the Demarches, and 
 she was inquiring about you, Monsieur. I 
 have my side of the argument." 
 
 " And where may Madame Demarche s 
 be?" 
 
 " I knew you would ask that question," 
 she cried, " I knew it well. Go there, false 
 one," she went on, with mock solemnity. 
 " You see the house yonder through the 
 trees." 
 
 " Adieu, Mademoiselle." 
 
 " It shall be au revoir," said she, pouting ; 
 " for you will come back and the bands 
 shall play." 
 
 Robe bowed himself away, and then was 
 
 rushing over to see the ladies Lafitte had sent 
 
 from the plantation. He thought over his 
 
 long past acquaintance with Miss Maurice ; 
 
 14
 
 210 CHALMETTE 
 
 how little he could have imagined her relation 
 to these men whom the necessity of war had 
 brought again into the pale of the law. He 
 thought of the seeming incongruity of this 
 young lady, conventionally bred, being 
 brought into the fierce life of these bucca 
 neers ; of how she had come to New Or 
 leans to her grandsire s death-bed ; of how 
 she had seen those things which were for 
 strong men. She at least had not seen Jean 
 Lafitte s vengeance on Ronald. She had 
 been spared that. And yet, now all the hor 
 rors of war might be brought to her, as to 
 the city. As he had these thoughts, he re 
 membered by contrast the old, quiet Vir 
 ginian days, the girl who was ever ready for 
 a ride or a dance, who responded readily 
 and mischievously to light frivolity. Had 
 all these contrasted experiences changed her 
 entirely? Was she that same young girl, 
 or, oh, so different? Had impassable bar 
 riers been raised between them ? He remem 
 bered with a certain satisfaction in the very 
 midst of his gloom that she had twitted 
 him over his attentions to little Mademoiselle
 
 CHALMETTE 211 
 
 de Renier ; and then again how she had said, 
 " The pirate s granddaughter." Yet even if 
 she were of the blood of that mysterious, that 
 terrible old man, she was as far above Robe 
 as the stars above the earth. John Robe 
 might have talked about the bad blood to his 
 nephew. It was she, not her blood, who 
 held the nephew s attention that moment 
 as he walked through the eager, struggling 
 crowd to Madame Demarche s. And there 
 something surprised htm ; something put his 
 heart to beating, for a voice called down : 
 
 " Ah, Kit, I thought you were going to 
 forget us, to leave us for the war without 
 saying good-bye." 
 
 She was leaning over towards him with 
 the old laughter in her face, the girlishness in 
 her eyes. 
 
 " Yes, it would have been very ungracious 
 of you," said Madame, looking him over 
 with her shrewd, kindly eyes, " when it is our 
 battle. We hear we left Demarche just in 
 time ; that they came down on us and on 
 Villere s and Chalmette s. Mr. Lafitte s and 
 your escape was fine, indeed, and Major Vil-
 
 212 CHALMETTE 
 
 lere has just been telling us how he managed 
 to bring the news. He says all the time he 
 was a prisoner in the room he kept repeating : 
 4 They will say that I showed the British the 
 bayou and the canal leading here, because I 
 am a Creole dissatisfied with American rule. 
 Then he took the risk and succeeded in get 
 ting away. You never are sure of your neigh 
 bors, that they may do brave things in an 
 emergency." 
 
 Robe thought of that other whom they 
 had left at Demarche s ; that other who had 
 done what Villere had feared would be said 
 he had done. Did they know of that *? But 
 Madame went on, turning grave : 
 
 " War has been brought home to us. Ah, 
 how many more shall we hear of in these 
 next days ! Louis Ronald, they say, was 
 killed." 
 
 " Yes," said Robe, looking anxiously at 
 the Virginia girl ; and perhaps she, too, was 
 a little paler. The black she wore brought 
 out her fairness, which she had from the 
 Maurices. And he added to Madame, 
 
 " You know ?"
 
 CHALMETTE 213 
 
 " Mr. Lafitte has been here and told us." 
 
 How could he have told of that? and 
 Robe felt himself shuddering. How could 
 he have said, " I killed that man because he 
 was a traitor, killed him, indeed, when he 
 had an equal chance of life in a fair duel, 
 but killed him? I had trusted him thoroughly, 
 and suddenly found my trust in the wrong." 
 Yet Robe was not squeamish about the duel, 
 he has stated again and again ; nor was the 
 proceeding out of keeping with Lafitte s stern 
 character, developed by his command of his 
 lawless followers, a command which had 
 made him in many respects a great captain. 
 
 " It shocked us," Madame went on. " Mr. 
 Lafitte did not tell us the particulars." 
 
 Ah, Lafitte had not told then ! For a 
 moment he was silent. He could not tell. 
 Lafitte had preferred not to tell, that was 
 certain. He personally had no quarrel with 
 Lafitte, with whom he had acted in his own 
 official capacity, that was all ; save dislike in 
 one particular : Lafitte s wish, which he sus 
 pected had been to marry Miss Maurice to 
 Ronald.
 
 214 CHALMETTE 
 
 " It was one of the events of war," he 
 said, non-committally. 
 
 " I never liked that man," Miss Maurice 
 said, slowly. He looked at her quickly. 
 Had she said that for his benefit ? 
 
 " You saw much of him ?" he asked. 
 " You knew him very well ?" 
 
 " No, not very well, to be sure. I might 
 have changed my mind. It is terrible, to 
 think of him as dead. When I came to 
 New Orleans I stopped over with my aunt. 
 He came there with Mr. Lafitte." 
 
 " I had a note from you then," he said, 
 smiling, telling it over again. 
 
 " Yes, yes," she said, flushing ; " it was a 
 silly little note." 
 
 " But I rather liked it," he retorted. 
 
 " There s no accounting for tastes, Kit. I 
 shouldn t say that ; the young lady is very 
 pretty ; I can account for it readily." And 
 she smiled at him as he had not seen her 
 smile since he had left her at Westmore. 
 
 " Oh, that isn t fair," he cried. " I could 
 say those things of you, if I wanted to. 
 You know well enough."
 
 CHALMETTE 215 
 
 " Could you *?" she said. " Could you, 
 about poor Mr. Ronald, perhaps? I saw 
 him in Barataria three times ; in New Orleans 
 once ; at the plantation twice. He at least 
 was always very nice, though I didn t like 
 him particularly, as I said before." 
 
 Madame was watching the two ; perhaps 
 drawing her own conclusions ; she looked 
 very serious ; perhaps her thoughts were in 
 other days, when she had been on a bal 
 cony talking with some young gentleman ; 
 when certain expressions of the eye, of face, 
 certain words, signified, indeed, a deal. Per 
 haps she was thinking of Ronald, whose 
 family had been connected with hers, 
 whom she had known always ; perhaps it 
 was the fear that with all the confidence 
 General Jackson s assurances had gained 
 held New Orleans on that day. We might 
 hope for the best ; we might laugh and pre 
 tend to be brave, but who could tell of the 
 morrow? The British sailors and soldiers 
 had done so much ; had known so much 
 of the discipline of action. Now she rose 
 and left them there on the balcony, a bal-
 
 216 CHALMETTE 
 
 cony Robe always held after a dear, sacred 
 place. 
 
 For some moments they were silent, and 
 then the girl said, looking down, 
 
 "Ah, Kit, you must understand me, I 
 shall think of you in your danger. I shall 
 pray for you, as the nuns of the Ursulines will 
 pray for the success of you all. I can t forget, 
 this fearful day, that we played together." 
 
 "And that is all," he said. "Is it all? 
 Be frank this last day. I thought of you, 
 with gladness and despair, too, when I 
 found that note you sent." 
 
 " Ah," she said, " you thought me jealous." 
 
 " Now, weren t you ? Please to let me 
 believe that you were, and I never can 
 thank you enough, never, dear. No, not 
 a word, not an objection." 
 
 " But," she said, pushing him away, " I am 
 De Bertrand s granddaughter, and you " 
 
 " And who were my people some genera 
 tions back ? Were they much better ? 
 Don t most of the English families date 
 from rough, strong old fellows, who did 
 exactly as Captain de Bertrand ? And what,
 
 CHALMETTE 217 
 
 indeed, is it to you and to me ? You are 
 you, dear. And I, I am a poor, weak chap, 
 whose single virtue is that he knows who the 
 nicest girl in the world is, and that he will 
 try to deserve her." 
 
 When you were in love, did you make a 
 speech like that ? Did not the world seem a 
 finer, better, grander place, -just for her? 
 And if you have not lost the illusion, still, 
 isn t it so through her ? And, after all, for 
 all the pessimists, honesty and truth and 
 simple love are what make the world worth 
 while. With any two of them we can see 
 God ; without them He sometimes may seem 
 an impossibility. 
 
 Now Robe said, and you can fancy how 
 far he had progressed, 
 
 " Tell me truly, Sallie. Was it so much 
 the thought of your mother s family " 
 
 " It was a very good family," she said. 
 " My grandfather, from the way he was 
 found, do you know the story 1 ? showed 
 every evidence of gentle birth. My mother 
 was well bred and educated. My aunt you 
 know."
 
 218 CHALMETTE 
 
 " I know her, and she was kind to me." 
 
 " She likes you," Sallie said, " because she 
 knew I did." 
 
 " But tell me," Robe insisted, " it was not 
 so much the thought of your grandfather s 
 career as " 
 
 " It was a fearful career," she said ; " but, 
 Kit, he was born in it, brought up t*o 
 it " 
 
 " Yes, yes. But it was principally jealousy 
 of Mademoiselle de Renier which made you 
 refuse me." 
 
 " You are odious," she said, "just odious." 
 
 " Well, that letter raised my hopes, and 
 when you saved me from Belouche s 
 crew " 
 
 " It was Dominique You," she said. " It 
 was but common humanity on my part. 
 I have explained before. I think you are 
 vain " 
 
 " I am a bit," he acknowledged. " You 
 have made me so. But you will make me 
 vainer and braver by that acknowledgment." 
 
 " Why, Kit, I never heard of anybody so 
 vain. But, but, you are going away,
 
 CHALMETTE 219 
 
 perhaps to the wars. I don t care, what 
 you may be, dear, and, yes, it was." 
 
 But that scene is not too much to be writ 
 ten about ; Robe has recorded that balcony 
 corner is ever to be held dear, sacred. And 
 all this had taken place in much less time than 
 its telling ; for Robe was but a little time out 
 of the street, with its forming troops. And 
 now he was hurrying to his duty with the feel 
 ing of her lips still on his ; of her arms about 
 him ; of the delicious self-surrender that made 
 her ever the one woman. Nor has he since 
 changed in that opinion. 
 
 As he passed out Madame met him, and 
 she saw it in his eyes. And she, too, smiled, 
 and she took his hand. 
 
 " I congratulate you, my friend. But, 
 you did not tell her of Ronald ?" 
 
 " You know, then ?" he asked, suddenly 
 turned sober. 
 
 " That Jean Lafitte killed him in a duel," 
 she said. " Yes, he told me." 
 
 " And he did not wish her to know ?" 
 
 Suddenly, for all his lover s mood, jealousy 
 shadowed him.
 
 220 CHALMETTE 
 
 " You think she fancied him ? ah, but I 
 see, it is Jean Lafitte who doesn t wish her to 
 know." 
 
 " He still has her property," Madame said. 
 "And after her experiences in Barataria, 
 and since her grandfather was a violent man, 
 he thinks it as well that she should not 
 know." 
 
 " Yes, yes, he wants her good opinion, 
 he fears her bad one." 
 
 " He cares much for her, Monsieur." 
 
 " I am not afraid of him, or the whole 
 world, Madame. Yet it is good of you to 
 tell me this. And you are his friend " 
 
 " Yes, always his friend ; but Mademoiselle 
 Maurice has attracted me singularly. So I 
 have told you. He would be a particularly 
 bad man to thwart you. He doesn t like 
 you any too well." 
 
 " Then why doesn t he show it." 
 
 " Perhaps he is too subtle ; perhaps he 
 might wish to please her. Her uncle in 
 Virginia, Monsieur Maurice, will be down 
 here, after the peace. I shall feel easier 
 when Monsieur Lafitte turns over the prop-
 
 CHALMETTE 221 
 
 erty. Not that he isn t quite trustworthy, 
 no, not in the least ; believe me, I didn t 
 imply that. Outside of the conduct and the 
 interest of his trade, never was a man more 
 trustworthy, Monsieur. He is trustworthy in 
 his accounting to others. You know how 
 well he is esteemed in New Orleans, not 
 withstanding that trade ; how heavily he 
 contributes to the charities ; how fine a man 
 he is. But when he is thwarted, when his 
 passion is aroused, he is a different man. 
 Oh, you know. Well, it s this : I found 
 him talking to me about arranging a mar 
 riage between her and Ronald, because that 
 would bring together two fortunes acquired 
 from the Gulf trade, Ronald s through its 
 Louisianian connection, to be sure, but 
 still in that way. This would continue his 
 use of the two fortunes, this would help 
 his own influence in New Orleans. But 
 suddenly I found him giving up that 
 idea." 
 
 " Perhaps he already distrusted Ronald ?" 
 " Never, till that discovery. And how 
 much was his duel with Ronald caused by a
 
 222 CHALMETTE 
 
 quickly gained dislike of him in the condi 
 tion of suitor?" 
 
 " She did not encourage him, Ron 
 ald?" 
 
 " No, no, no ; not in the least, Captain 
 Robe. But I thought I would tell you. 
 Jean Lafitte is such a strange man, such a 
 fearful man ; so attractive, so unrelenting. 
 My husband was his friend ; he has been 
 mine ever. Yet now, Mademoiselle Mau 
 rice has seemed to me so much like a daugh 
 ter, a daughter I never have had, that I 
 don t want her hurt ; and I thought I would 
 tell you." 
 
 " Thank you, Madame. Monsieur Lafitte 
 has been kindness itself, as you have, in 
 deed ; and I am not afraid of him, in the 
 very least." 
 
 " Well, well, forgive an old woman s 
 fancies, Monsieur, and good fortune to you, 
 and to the battle." 
 
 A low voice called from the balcony. He 
 looked up to catch one last glimpse of her, 
 the particular her. She waved back to 
 him, and her eyes reached to his heart.
 
 CHALMETTE 223 
 
 Some moments after he ran across M. 
 Deschamps and his friend, M. St. Geme. 
 
 " You look surprisingly good-natured," 
 said Deschamps. 
 
 " You have the smile one should carry 
 into battle," said St. Geme. And then the 
 two creole gentlemen fell to their places in 
 a fine body of men, straight, lithe, bearing 
 themselves like soldiers, the Creoles ! And 
 there were Beale s rifles in blue hunting- 
 shirts, good shots all, their weapons over 
 their shoulders. And there were Hinds s 
 cavalry. Then came General Coffee s com 
 mand, a throng of uncouth, unshaven, long 
 haired men, wearing discolored hunting-shirts, 
 coonskin caps, knives and tomahawks in 
 their belts, men who had taken their man 
 nerisms from the Indians themselves. And 
 then were the freemen of color, with behind 
 them a hundred Choctaws in war-paint ; and 
 last the regulars. 
 
 Robe saw these in review beside the gen 
 eral, whom he joined at the gate of Fort 
 Saint Charles. Then, after the schooner 
 " Carolina," Commodore Patterson, began to
 
 224 CHALMETTE 
 
 move with the current, the general put his 
 horse to the canter, followed close by his 
 aides. 
 
 So the army of defence marched to meet 
 those most efficient and distinguished troops, 
 whose van, if not much more, now awaited 
 them about Villere s and Chalmette s, and 
 the fronts of the bayous and canals.
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 THE FIRST DAYS OF THE BATTLE 
 
 WHAT is a man s impression of the days 
 of a great battle and their intense activity? 
 Robe, in recollecting it, hardly knows at all. 
 He had been under fire several times, and he 
 has recorded Lundy s Lane in these pages. 
 The aide s sense of his own duties are rather 
 in confusion. He remembers Hind s dra 
 goons riding out, and turning back after 
 some moments under a brisk volley from the 
 British rifles. He remembers rushing about 
 on various errands ; he remembers the mar 
 shalling along the Rodriguez Canal, perhaps 
 two miles from the enemy. And then there 
 was the long wait, and the darkness rising 
 and enveloping the enemy s lines, where the 
 fires made sharp points of flickering light. 
 An object was stealing down the river, though 
 the enemy did not seem to be clear about it, 
 
 Commodore Patterson s " Carolina." And 
 15 225
 
 226 CHALMETTE 
 
 then there rang out it had all fallen still a 
 strong voice over the waters and fields, 
 " Give them this for the honor of America," 
 and there were points and lines of dancing 
 lights and a persistent thundering. 
 
 Robe had been on an order to General 
 Coffee, whose men were skirting the swamp 
 at the right, awaiting these sounds that came 
 sweeping over the levees and the fields. The 
 general wished to delay a bit, and there must 
 have been an hour before there began an 
 irregular firing ; when to all was a fearsome, 
 human screech and a rushing together of dim 
 figures, who, when they failed to fire because 
 of the short distance, clubbed their muskets, 
 man to man ; the Tennesseeans drawing knives 
 and brandishing tomahawks, which the pris 
 oners taken called a most barbarous method 
 of fighting, as perhaps it was. At the firing 
 distance the superiority of the long American 
 bore over the short English musket was 
 proven that night of the exciting noises. 
 For the " Carolina" kept up its angry 
 fusillades, to which was added this staccato 
 of firing. But before the struggle was at its
 
 CHALMETTE 227 
 
 heat Robe was back at the left with his gen 
 eral. Yet he knew the story as well as those 
 who were in the hottest of it. Twas, to 
 be sure, a most irregular, guerilla fight 
 ing, from the point of view of those trained 
 British, but it gave that night the key of the 
 fight, the skill of American riflemen and 
 gunners. For the British, ordered behind the 
 levee to avoid the " Carolina s" fire, had sal 
 lied out to support their pickets and had been 
 borne back. And when the second division 
 came up the " Carolina s" firing still made 
 the numbers not so unequal. 
 
 The scene blurred ; in vague, scurrying 
 outlines the winter swamp-fog swept over it, 
 making the fires dull, uncertain, and gradually 
 silencing the fighters. 
 
 A number of prisoners were taken, and 
 among them an officer of the Ninety-fifth 
 Rifles, who, on Robe s asking if anything 
 could be done for him, replied, " Return 
 General Jackson my compliments, and say 
 that, as my baggage will reach me in a few 
 days, I shall be able to dispense with his 
 polite attentions." And, indeed, though we
 
 228 CHALMETTE 
 
 had been successful in that first night s sortie, 
 it looked as if this proud British officer 
 might be entirely in the right. Twas to 
 him that Mademoiselle de Renier remarked, 
 " I d rather be the wife of a Tennesseean, 
 roughly clad as he is, than a countess." And 
 Mademoiselle s eyes flashed finely as she de 
 livered that tribute to the good fighters who 
 had marched fifteen hundred miles to be with 
 Jackson at New Orleans. 
 
 But to return to the narrative. The next 
 day was the twenty-fourth, and, as the late 
 dawn came, the " Louisiana," new in the 
 position, joined the " Carolina" in the bom 
 bardment of the camp. We on our side 
 had been working with pick and spade 
 making a line of defence off the bank of the 
 Rodriguez Canal, taking anything we could 
 put our hands on, bits of timber, rails, and 
 some cotton-bales, though very few of the 
 latter were used, contrary to the story. The 
 general had sent to the city the night before 
 for picks and shovels, and nearly every man 
 was at this labor, including the aides. 
 
 And so the twenty-fourth passed, and the
 
 CHALMETTE 229 
 
 next night, a frosty, damp night, the ground 
 cold and moist, leaving even our hardy 
 men shivering, and greatly depressing the 
 enemy, who imagined us five times as 
 strong as we were. But on Christmas morn 
 ing we heard from a spy that Lord Long 
 ford s now famous son, Sir Edward Paken- 
 ham, had arrived, a general who had led 
 the storming at Badajoz, and had been 
 knighted for the charge at Salamanca. As 
 the general urged his men to further endeav 
 ors with their spades and picks, he let drop 
 the first and last expression of fear that Robe 
 heard from his lips during those eventful 
 days. 
 
 He was sitting at a table in the Macarty 
 House (which he had taken for head-quar 
 ters), when Robe heard him say to General 
 Coffee, 
 
 " They may beat us. How can we hold 
 out against soldiers like that?" Then his 
 thin, pale, tired face lit with a smile. " But 
 I guess we ll hold out, Coffee." What Gen 
 eral Coffee said Robe did not hear. But 
 Raoul Deschamps told our captain of a re-
 
 230 CHALMETTE 
 
 port to the effect that if Sir Edward should 
 win, he was to be made Earl of Louisiana, 
 which would have been a very proper title 
 for so brave and notable a success. 
 
 The next day the firing was kept up from 
 the gunboats, but was intermittent from our 
 lines, we being for the most .at our ditch ; yet 
 we noted that a great battery was being put 
 on the levee, and by the next day those 
 guns broke out on Commodore Patterson s 
 vessels, tearing and rending, till suddenly 
 there was a burst of flame and a tremendous 
 report. The " Carolina" had blown up, and 
 it seemed as if the " Louisiana" would share 
 her sister vessel s fate ; by towing she reached 
 a point opposite our camp, when the crew 
 and the men in the works began a cheer, 
 which was echoed from the crowds of ob 
 servers on the banks. For people came from 
 the city and the surrounding country to see 
 the struggle, as if it were some theatrical 
 display. 
 
 " They are moving forward," said the gen 
 eral, who stood, telescope in hand, watching 
 the enemy, " in two columns. Have Cap-
 
 CHALMETTE 231 
 
 tain Dominique You bring a battery to 
 command the road." 
 
 Further orders were passed to cut the 
 levee, to bring forward the infantry, to have 
 the crew of the " Carolina" take charge of 
 one battery. 
 
 Robe found Captain You busied in his 
 position, a score of red-shirted, grimy, and 
 mud-stained followers about him. The aide 
 pointed out the position he was directed to 
 take. The captain shouted an order in 
 French and Spanish. 
 
 " Eh, Captain Robe," said a voice over his 
 shoulder, and turning he saw Jean Lafitte, 
 not the urbane Jean Lafitte, but the dan 
 gerous one.
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 THE RIVALS 
 
 "You saw Mademoiselle," said he, slowly. 
 And Robe, watching him with a sudden dis 
 like, remembered what Madame Demarche 
 had said. 
 
 " Yes, Monsieur Lafitte. And she will be 
 my wife, if I live through this." 
 
 " Is that your decision ?" Lafitte said, with 
 a perceptible sneer. His fine manners were 
 gone ; he was a bit begrimed, like his men. 
 Now Robe and he stood near the gunners, 
 in earnest rivalry. 
 
 " Monsieur," said Lafitte, when Robe did 
 not answer, " I tell you frankly that I shall 
 try to prevent this, yes, I, understand me, 
 Monsieur." 
 
 " And why," Robe asked, " if I have her 
 wish ?" 
 
 " Because " 
 
 232
 
 CHALMETTE 233 
 
 And suddenly Lafitte s voice broke into 
 passion, 
 
 " I am not a man to be trifled with, Cap 
 tain Robe. And I ll tell you what I mean. 
 Why didn t I give my hand to those yon 
 der 1 ?" 
 
 He pointed to the British line. 
 
 " Because," he went on, " there had come 
 into my life my partner s De Bertrand s 
 granddaughter, d ye understand me *? because 
 that reason was added to the others." 
 
 "No, not quite, Monsieur, not quite," 
 Robe said, contemptuously, eying his antago 
 nist from head to toe ; " I don t consider that 
 I understand you." 
 
 Nor did he, indeed ; for this man in 
 passion was so different from what he ordi 
 narily was ; he who was wont to be master 
 ful now lost that self-mastery ; and about 
 them were the singing shot. But Lafitte 
 went on : 
 
 " Of course, I had an object, a weak 
 ness. It was that she would not approve of 
 the position I held. It was she, Monsieur, 
 as much as any other consideration ; she,
 
 234 CHALMETTE 
 
 whose regard I had won in some small de 
 gree, could not think of me as the pirate 
 Lafitte, d ye hear ? It was she, and I do 
 not deny it." 
 
 He paused, his passion seemingly ex 
 pressed by that lurid scene. 
 
 "And yet you, a boy from Virginia, 
 dare to come between us. I ll not have it^ 
 Monsieur ; I ll not have it." 
 
 Robe said : 
 
 "It matters not to me what you will 
 have and what not, Monsieur. The tenor 
 of your talk is extremely distasteful, d you 
 understand ? It is between her and me." 
 
 "If you find it distasteful, there s the 
 alternative, Monsieur," said the other, ad 
 vancing a step, " there s the alternative." 
 
 " I know it, and shall accept it, Monsieur, 
 when your second waits on me," said 
 Robe, bowing. A shell rushed through the 
 sky. He looked at the men working in 
 the mud and dirt, and at Lafitte, their 
 leader. 
 
 " You have heard me," he said, turning on 
 his heel. " You have heard me."
 
 CHALMETTE 235 
 
 But Lafitte did not reply. His chin rested 
 on his hand, looking out over the scene. 
 
 Captain Robe turned and left him, feeling 
 that he hated this man and gladly would 
 meet him.
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 OTHER DAYS OF BATTLE 
 
 IN the morning, clear, frosty, resplendent 
 with the low southeasterly sun, we saw a 
 great mass of scarlet-coated men approach 
 ing, fine, with accurate step, such an ex 
 hibition of military pomp and power as 
 Robe never had seen. And then suddenly 
 was a loud report, and the Chalmette houses 
 were blown up ; a shell had fallen in powder 
 stores. And that obstruction being removed, 
 the splendid, advancing mass saw the stern 
 throats of the Yankee guns, which burst out 
 in a hoarse refrain of terror and destruction. 
 The aide, watching at this moment beside 
 the general in the dormer window of the 
 Macarty house, saw the scarlet coats tumb 
 ling, falling, and yet advancing ; and then it 
 all seemed to bend and fall. 
 
 " This is not the Peninsula, Robe," said 
 236
 
 CHALMETTE 237 
 
 the Tennesseean, turning to the young Vir 
 ginian, of whom he was fond. 
 
 Then there was the New Year s Eve, 1815, 
 and we saw, facing us, three demilunes, equi 
 distant from each other, and many pieces of 
 heavy ordnance, served we knew by the best 
 gunners, who had been trained by the greatest 
 captains. 
 
 Then a scurrying mist hid them from view. 
 
 We were having a parade that day, our 
 uniforms brushed, our accoutrements dili 
 gently polished, the bands playing merrily 
 " Yankee Doodle ;" and they stood expectant 
 behind the fog, which suddenly lifted, when 
 a hail of shot and shells assailed and shook 
 us. 
 
 " To your posts !" came the orders. 
 
 We slipped to our places. The general 
 seemed everywhere, waving his cap, now 
 encouraging one, now the other. And our 
 guns gave them a response. 
 
 " The cotton bales ! the cotton bales !" 
 cried a voice. " Quick, captain !" 
 
 Those unfortunate bales had been lighted 
 by a shot and were blazing. We tumbled
 
 238 CHALMETTE 
 
 them out, and Robe so burnt his right hand 
 that he had to carry it to a surgeon. But 
 our weakness in the burning bales was cor 
 rected. 
 
 And that tremendous cannonading kept 
 up, but the reply was less frequent from the 
 other side, and the smoke rising, we saw their 
 works levelled and men retreating. 
 
 And so day after day passed ; days that 
 wore out the nerves and strength of both 
 sides; fierce, terrible days, leading to the 
 great day. 
 
 On the seventh we heard, somewhat dis 
 mayed, that they had been reinforced by 
 General Lambert with the Seventh Fusiliers 
 and the Forty-third. But some moments 
 after this the Kentuckians, twenty-three hun 
 dred strong, came in. After a march of fif 
 teen hundred miles they, tattered and torn, 
 had reached New Orleans, where the citizens 
 clothed and fed them. 
 
 So our dismay was lessened. On the left 
 bank of the river we had four thousand good 
 and now tried men ; on the right of the river 
 were Generals Coffee and Ross, whose men
 
 CHALMETTE 239 
 
 were knee deep in the water during the day, 
 and at night snatched uncertain sleep at some 
 dry point, or even on a floating log. 
 
 Back of us at intervals of two miles were 
 reserves made up of the less able of us. 
 
 In front we had strengthened our bulwarks 
 and looked carefully to our guns. 
 
 So came the eighth of January, 1815.
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 THE EIGHTH OF JANUARY 
 
 CAPTAIN ROBE, asleep in a ditch, was 
 wakened by a rough shake. An eager face 
 looked down at him. He raised himself, 
 rubbing his eyes. 
 
 " La Roux !" said he, on his feet. 
 
 " Hist, captain," La Roux said ; " don t 
 call out my name that loud. I am, captain, 
 a traitor." 
 
 " A traitor, Monsieur La Roux !" our cap 
 tain cried. 
 
 " Not so loud, Monsieur Captain, not so 
 loud. Would you have me killed ?" 
 
 " No, my good fellow, how absurd ! I 
 never have had anything but kindness at 
 your hands since you made us prisoners at 
 Barataria." 
 
 " Yes, and I liked you, Monsieur, from 
 
 the first, from the first. And she " 
 
 240
 
 CHALMETTE 241 
 
 He bent his head and spoke almost as if 
 ashamed. 
 
 " I was brought up to our trade, as our 
 great Captain de Bertrand was. I never 
 knew aught else, Monsieur, till Monsieur 
 Jean Lafitte persuaded me to give up the 
 work at sea for that he had to do at Bara- 
 taria. Since then I have been for the most 
 in Louisiana. My father had naught to 
 say to me ; my mother was a Carthaginian 
 woman, whom he discarded. Yet blood is 
 thicker than water, Monsieur ; she is of my 
 line " 
 
 " She ?" asked Robe, almost bewildered. 
 " You can t mean " 
 
 " Yes, your Mademoiselle Maurice is my 
 half-niece, Monsieur. I am Captain de 
 Bertrand s natural son. And " 
 
 " You are her relative," Robe said, taking 
 the little man s thin, narrow hand. 
 
 "Yes, Monsieur, her relative. And I 
 have eyes. Jean Lafitte has thought too 
 much of her, I know. And you think much 
 of her, Monsieur. And I say, because a 
 hurt to you would be a hurt to her, I say, 
 
 16
 
 242 CHALMETTE 
 
 have a care, Monsieur Captain. Jean Lafitte 
 can strike." 
 
 For a moment he paused, and the irreg 
 ular firing along th e lines timed Robe s 
 thoughts. 
 
 " Have a care, Monsieur !" 
 
 And La Roux vanished into the gloom 
 that was lighting with the day. 
 
 He meant then that his leader would do 
 Robe a harm. Robe laughed, and yet in 
 some way was concerned. Yet what harm, 
 should he wish it, could Lafitte do ? He had 
 challenged him and had received no response. 
 In his busy days he had no chance of seeing 
 him. But La Roux knew his master ; and 
 La Roux had warned him. He would have 
 his eyes opened. 
 
 And the dawn was over the works, and a 
 great scarlet line was marching on, on, a 
 blaze of rockets before ; the assault had 
 come at last ; there was Gibbs s and Keane s 
 divisions, and Sir Edward himself close 
 under our lines, and our guns were belching 
 out, belching out. And the general s voice 
 sounded shrill and commanding :
 
 CHALMETTE 243 
 
 " Stand to your guns ! See that every 
 shot tells !" 
 
 And again Robe heard him, 
 
 " Give it to them, boys !" 
 
 What an uproar, what a furious pandemo 
 nium ! the whole line seemed to be pelting 
 fire. The Tennesseeans, keen, alert, stood on 
 the wall, not minding their exposure, in 
 deed, making every shot tell. 
 
 The red, human mass shook and waved, 
 and yet came on, till they seemed not two 
 hundred yards away. 
 
 " Fire ! Fire !" Robe heard the shout. 
 
 And with what precision of perfect dis 
 cipline was that order obeyed ! A line of 
 men would fall, to be replaced by another. 
 And we followed our general s order to the 
 letter, not wasting a shot. Never has Robe 
 seen a more fearful nor yet a more splendid 
 sight. He could see no less a personage 
 than Sir Edward himself leading a regiment 
 of Highlanders close behind, the Forty- 
 fourth, as it was to prove. On they came, 
 men dropping here and there, perhaps some 
 rising again, but, for the most, staying there,
 
 244 CHALMETTE 
 
 crushed by that storm of fire and lead. For 
 the Tennesseeans were unerring in their aim, 
 not a shot failing. Twas a marksmanship 
 that gained Napoleon s commendation. And 
 the Baratarians and the crews of the " Car 
 olina" and the " Louisiana" were as sure at 
 their big guns. Robe saw the brave Sir 
 Edward s horse s fall, and he mounted a little 
 pony a young officer offered him. And the 
 column kept on. But no endurance could 
 meet that dreadful fire. The column was 
 broken and cast down. You could almost 
 hear in your imagination the voices of the 
 officers. But again they rose with a stern 
 defiance, their lips framing their Highland 
 cries. The conquerors of many a field were 
 not to be so beaten back by these wild, un 
 couth men they saw on the bulwarks. Toss 
 ing aside knapsacks and useless equipments, 
 they advanced again. One at least had a 
 charmed life, brandishing his sword, a fine, 
 smooth-faced man, proud in his strength and 
 his determination. A sharpshooter cursed 
 lustily ; his skill seemed to fail him. That 
 leader and a half-dozen others were to the
 
 CHALMETTE 245 
 
 parapet s foot ; the young officer with a spring 
 was on the top, calling back to his followers ; 
 and then with a convulsive leap he fell over 
 into Captain Robe s arms. And Robe laid 
 him down and felt a sob in his own heart. 
 And he turned again to his duty. For that was 
 the day when there could be no pause, no rest. 
 
 And still they were advancing, and still 
 were being cut down, like a great field of 
 poppies bending under the scythe. 
 
 " That was Pakenham," said M. St. Geme, 
 excitedly, in Robe s ear. Yes, Pakenham 
 had fallen, than whom no leader was ever 
 braver. But the disorganized force again 
 seemed to rally, again bore onward with 
 British sullenness. Again an officer is on 
 the parapet, and CarTerty, who is at that 
 point, telling him he is too brave to die. 
 "Tell my commander I fell on your para 
 pet," Major Wilkinson, says and dies. And 
 back there they are breaking, the survivors, 
 for whole regiments have been swept away. 
 And the reserve comes up only to cover what 
 is a sorry, despairful, angry flight from those 
 fearful guns and rifles.
 
 246 CHALMETTE 
 
 " How long d ye think it has been ?" 
 Cafferty asks Robe. 
 
 " Two hours;" said the other, " two hours 
 easily." 
 
 " Why, man, it s been just twenty-five 
 minutes." 
 
 The smoke scurried about and hid the field. 
 Our firing slackened, and you could hear in 
 English and French, as the hot, grimy men 
 felt their success. And the bands burst out 
 with a great clamor of "Hail, Columbia." 
 But as the scurrying smoke left the field, we 
 turned from exultation almost to dismay. 
 Such a field as that Robe never may see 
 again, such a crime of war ! For a quarter 
 of a mile bodies were packed together, some 
 still, some trying to crawl away. And these 
 were the fine, smoothly-shaven soldiers of 
 the King of Great Britain, our cousins in 
 blood and tradition. 
 
 Presently a trumpeter appears, a private 
 with a white flag, an officer beside him. 
 Captain Robe is detailed to meet him. 
 
 " I have this letter for General Jackson," 
 says the officer.
 
 CHALMETTE 247 
 
 " I will deliver it, sir," and Robe pauses. 
 " I never could have imagined greater stub 
 bornness, to rush on in the face of that fire." 
 
 " Sir Edward is dead ; General Keane and 
 General Gibbs badly wounded," says the 
 officer. " My God, sir, it s terrible, horrible ! 
 But we must have time to bury our dead. 
 Across the river it went better with us." 
 
 Robe bows an acknowledgment to that 
 little pardonable pride ; a brave man s suffer 
 ing touches even the victor ; we so easily 
 might have been the conquered. 
 
 Our general reads the letter carefully, with 
 no exultation in his manner. 
 
 " Call the officer s attention, Captain Robe, 
 to the fact that the sender of this note has 
 not designated his authority." 
 
 The letter comes back shortly, duly signed: 
 
 " John Lambert, Commander-in-Chief of 
 His Majesty s forces in Louisiana." 
 
 And we go down to help them, to assist 
 as best we can, while the armistice lasts. 
 
 All that afternoon was taken up with those 
 gruesome details. It was hard to think these 
 men were dead. Our prisoners and wounded
 
 248 CHALMETTE 
 
 were sent to the city, where already a young 
 creole gentleman had ridden wildly in, shout 
 ing: 
 
 " Victory ! Victory !" 
 
 And why a victory ! If those fighters had 
 known the peace had been signed before the 
 fight began, the lives of two thousand six 
 hundred men had been saved on the British 
 and a score on our side. A pity, indeed, you 
 say. Ah, yes, a pity. But, then, the prestige 
 of our arms was established ; we gave it back 
 to them for the burning of Washington. 
 Yet, Robe is an old man now, his fine en 
 thusiasms are gone, and it seems as if the 
 price of our glory was too costly. He 
 remembers that night when by flaring 
 torches the dead were buried by hundreds in 
 the garden of Viller^ s.* 
 
 * [My dear grandfather with his usual modesty fails to relate 
 what everybody knows, that, aide though he was, he led a most 
 decisive little charge on one of the earlier days, which, indeed, 
 gained him his colonelcy. His extreme reticence in speaking 
 about his own personal achievements is provoking to his editor, 
 who knows that even in the Battalion d Orleans, so distinguished 
 on the Day of Chalmette, there was no braver, more efficient 
 officer than Christopher Robe. C. R. F.]
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 
 THE QUARREL OF M. JEAN LAFITTE 
 AND CAPTAIN ROBE 
 
 WHAT Robe has to relate now in his own 
 story is indeed most exasperating. For to 
 go through a great battle without a scar, and 
 then to have a wound from another dastardly 
 cause certainly is not distinguishing, and 
 one may cry out on such a fate. The openly 
 avowed antagonism of Jean Lafitte has been 
 told of in that little less than remarkable talk 
 our captain had with Lafitte when one day 
 carrying an order to Captain Dominique You. 
 The warning and extraordinary statement of 
 La Roux had followed. But in the activity 
 of those busy, tired days there had been little 
 time to consider what these things meant. 
 Would Lafitte, out of some pique and jeal 
 ousy, after he had confessed that the Virginia 
 
 girl had partly induced his course of action, 
 
 249
 
 250 CHALMETTE 
 
 would he descend to some low rascal s 
 means of revenge *? Yet the man s character 
 was made up of so many different qualities ; 
 those of the fine gentleman, those of the 
 leader of buccaneers. In gaining his position 
 he had used all the means a desperate man 
 may. So you cannot say that what Robe 
 here has to tell for the first time was so sur 
 prising. 
 
 Twas the night of the eighth. General 
 Jackson, much chagrined at a most disgrace 
 ful retreat made by ours on the right bank 
 of the river, had sent Captain Robe with an 
 escort of three men to investigate the causes. 
 Now, as the captain was stepping into the 
 boat there came a shot from somewhere ; it 
 might have been a chance shot ; it might 
 have been purposeful. For who could tell, 
 in that body of men we had many from 
 conditions that are hard to imagine in these 
 days of the United States. 
 
 Did you ever know what it is to have a 
 wound? Robe was to have another in 
 Mexico, years after ; that was in battle ; 
 this, too, perhaps, was in battle. The armis-
 
 CHALMETTE 251 
 
 tice was already ended. But, however it 
 came, Robe was shot, though he knew not 
 how. It was as if some frightful blow had 
 been struck him : there was a faintness, and 
 consciousness passed. Nor did he know 
 himself until many days after; and he 
 awoke in a still, white room, where all that 
 was heard was a clock ticking and a voice 
 intoning a negro melody. His strength was 
 not even equal to raising his voice, and 
 gradually his eyes closed again ; and there 
 were looking down on him a quadroon, red- 
 turbaned, and a white-headed old man, who 
 was saying, 
 
 " He will be better now, Mademoiselle. 
 The fever has passed." 
 
 And there answered another voice, low 
 and musical ; and the eyes he wished to see 
 looked down into his. And he wished to 
 speak, but she said, " Hush, dear," and she 
 bent over and kissed him. 
 
 And then after some more hours he said, 
 " Is it you, indeed, Sallie ? I thought I was 
 far away in a swamp, and they were fighting, 
 fighting. It was horrible."
 
 252 CHALMETTE 
 
 " It is I, Kit, dear. But it was a glorious 
 victory." 
 
 Then he began to understand, to remem 
 ber it all, from first to last ; and then he 
 thought of Lafitte s face as he had talked 
 with him that time by the guns. And then 
 came all those reflections with which this 
 chapter begins, about Lafitte s character. 
 Had the Baratarian leader been behind that 
 shot out of the gloom ? Had the warning 
 of La Roux been well founded ? And one 
 day he asked her, how many things they 
 were to talk of as he lay there ! how many 
 confidences and confessions they were to ex 
 change ! 
 
 " How did I get here, dear ? It is Madame 
 Demarche s, isn t it?" 
 
 " Yes, Madame Demarche s, in the city. 
 Do you not suppose I inquired about you, 
 Kit ? Oh, how we worried when those guns 
 sounded all day, day after day, till it 
 came to the last day. That morning the 
 Ursulines put over their chapel the image of 
 Our Lady of Prompt Succor, and prayed 
 to her, and she and God heard, even if
 
 CHALMETTE 253 
 
 you be a Protestant, Kit, you must allow. 
 And, indeed, all the city prayed. 
 
 " But when the wounded were brought in 
 we all tried what we could do to help, and no 
 one worked better than that little Marie de 
 Renier you made love to so furiously, Kit." 
 
 " I have confessed it," said he. 
 
 " Oh, have you ? But hush, don t talk. 
 Every house in New Orleans was turned into 
 a hospital, and every woman into a nurse, 
 and we have tried to take care of those poor, 
 brave fellows whom we defeated. But among 
 all I was expecting, whom do you think ? 
 Can t you imagine, Kit ? Then Mr. Lafitte 
 came here very calm and serious, and he 
 asked to have you brought here. He said 
 you had been shot and were delirious. And 
 he had you brought here, looking to you 
 very carefully, Kit." 
 
 " Jean Lafitte ! Jean Lafitte !" the invalid 
 said. Had he wronged the man, then ? 
 
 " No one could have been more thought 
 ful ; no one could have done more for you." 
 
 And Robe was silent, wondering over his 
 false suspicions.
 
 254 CHALMETTE 
 
 " That was five weeks ago, Monsieur 
 Robe," she said, smiling at him. " And you 
 were very, very ill, a fearful fever. And 
 what you raved about would fill a book. 
 And I discovered that you were jealous." 
 
 " Of Lafitte <?" 
 
 " Yes, of him. You told all your secrets." 
 
 " And you still believe in me, Sallie ?" 
 
 " Oh, I like you as well, though I was 
 shocked once or twice. No matter, dear ; 
 but you must get rid of these notions about 
 Mr. Lafitte. No one in the world could 
 have been, could be, nicer to you and to 
 me." 
 
 " Five weeks," said Robe ; " I have been 
 here all that time." He did not wish to say 
 more that moment about the Raratarian. 
 Rut Sallie continued the subject with a great 
 show of interest. 
 
 " And all the Raratarians have been par 
 doned, and Captain Dominique You has 
 been publicly thanked by General Jackson 
 for his service at the guns. Listen, Kit, to 
 this proclamation by the President." 
 
 She took a paper from a table and read :
 
 CHALMETTE 255 
 
 " Offenders who have refused to become 
 associates of the enemy in war upon the 
 most seducing terms of invitation, and who 
 have aided to repel this hostile invasion of 
 the territory of the United States, can no 
 longer be considered as othei than objects 
 of general forgiveness." 
 
 She threw the sheet down and looked at 
 the invalid. 
 
 " Isn t that fine *? And it puts me in not so 
 bad a position before your uncle." 
 
 " I consult you and myself on that point," 
 Robe said, " no other soul in the world." 
 
 He was thinking of what Lafitte had said 
 in that moment of self-revealing passion, 
 that he partly had taken his position because 
 that would please Captain de Bertrand s 
 granddaughter. And then she was really in 
 a degree responsible for the pardon of Bara- 
 taria, for the good service we ill could have 
 spared on the Day of Chalmette ; a woman 
 in this case, then, and she so finely charming. 
 Was it true that he who had given to Ronald 
 the fair chance of the duel could have re 
 sorted to an assassin s way, out of that
 
 256 CHALMETTE 
 
 same self-confessed passion ? And why then 
 had he brought his wounded enemy direct 
 to her whom it was all about ? Why had 
 he been to such particular pains to atone for 
 what he had done, if he, indeed, had done 
 it ? It seemed, after all, little likely that he 
 had. The burden of evidence was the other 
 way. 
 
 "And if there is any question of Mr. 
 Lafitte s full social recognition, you must 
 know that he has been asked to serve with 
 M. de St. Geme, whose name itself is a pass 
 port, as second in a duel. And, oh, Kit, you 
 have missed so many balls, so many dances !" 
 
 " You are in the spirit of dancing, I notice," 
 he said, " which you weren t some time ago." 
 
 " You have made me so," she said, " by 
 getting better." 
 
 " And that is worth having been very ill to 
 hear." And he said some things which need 
 not be written here. 
 
 " Was the army well received ?" he asked, 
 at last. 
 
 " Well received ; I should say so," Sallie 
 went on. " Poor boy, I could no more enjoy
 
 CHALMETTE 257 
 
 it than you could. But I will tell you about 
 it. They put up an arch in the Place d Armes. 
 And then they had the handsomest women 
 in New Orleans, you know how handsome 
 they can be, you susceptible Kit. One was 
 Liberty, the other Justice, standing by the 
 pillars at each side of the arch. At their 
 sides two children held laurel wreaths. Then 
 from the arch to the cathedral there were two 
 lines of your beauties, Kit, with behind each 
 one an upright lance with the arms of a State 
 or a Territory. Flowers and evergreens were 
 about the arch, you know, and extended in 
 festoons from lance point to lance point and 
 over the street to the cathedral, where the 
 door was finely decorated with flowers. This 
 was January twenty-third, you know, Kit." 
 " And I lost myself on the eighth." 
 " On the great eighth, Kit, dear, which all 
 this celebration was about." 
 
 " Well, such a crowd ! Ah, if you could 
 have seen it. Then the general, ugly and 
 handsome all at once, I saw him from the 
 balcony, came into the city by the river 
 gate, his staff behind him, save one import 
 17
 
 258 CHALMETTE 
 
 tant member, dear Kit, who was struggling 
 with his wound and the fever. Then the 
 guns roar ; they made me shudder, thinking 
 how many were killed by them on the eighth ; 
 and the bands are a-playing, and the people 
 black and white are shouting ; and the 
 cherubs at the arch s foot are crowning him 
 with a laurel wreath. Then he passes under 
 the arch, and is met by Louisiana, who says 
 something like, Hail, hero ! don t you know, 
 my Christopher? It was a prettily worded 
 speech, they say. Then when he descends, 
 all the United States, the beauties, Kit, throw 
 flowers for him to walk on ; and at the 
 cathedral door stands the Abbe Dubourg, 
 with a line of priests behind ; and the abbe 
 makes a speech, and the general replies, they 
 say, as if he had done nothing at all, as 
 if anybody could have saved New Orleans, 
 which I thought very modest and proper. 
 Then he goes into the cathedral and the 
 Battalion d Orleans behind him, and the Te 
 Deum rises grandly, Madame Demarche 
 says ; and after all is over there are dinners, 
 and in the evening fireworks and balls,
 
 CHALMETTE 259 
 
 such balls ! Marie de Renier says. She is 
 very much followed up by a Lieutenant 
 Beaumont,* one of the prisoners ; you may 
 not like to hear, Kit." 
 
 " I am terribly troubled," he said, " ter 
 ribly, dear Sallie. And you went to no balls, 
 Sallie ?" 
 
 " You were ill, Kit," she said ; and there 
 was some more said, which need not be 
 written here. 
 
 And as the invalid grew stronger there 
 came others with many stories, Cafferty, 
 Deschamps, M. de St. Geme, Captain Domi 
 nique You, even General Jackson himself, 
 who told his aide of the victory very mod 
 estly indeed ; what a shame Sir Edward 
 Pakenham s death was ! what a masterly 
 retreat General Lambert made ! 
 
 Then one day came John Robe, of West- 
 more, who, despite his gout, had journeyed 
 to see his nephew, of whom he seemed quite 
 proud. Now may Robe state that his uncle 
 
 * Mademoiselle de Renier married this Lieutenant later Ad 
 miral Beaumont, and later Earl of Rutven. C. R. F.
 
 260 CHALMETTE 
 
 was not so strenuous in his opposition to his 
 marriage when he heard that Miss Maurice 
 had inherited a great fortune. Tis strange 
 how riches will destroy a prejudice, how even 
 very good men of lineage to be very proud 
 of will swallow their prejudices when a 
 fortune is concerned ; * how Kit s uncle for 
 got the bad blood of Miss Maurice. And, 
 indeed, weren t these piratical folk all par 
 doned ? 
 
 And among others there came to see the 
 convalescent a certain little fellow, La Roux. 
 
 " I m sorry," said he ; "I told you to be 
 careful." 
 
 " You don t mean that it really was Jean 
 Lafitte who shot me, or caused me to be 
 shot ?" 
 
 " I certainly do," La Roux said. " But 
 you through her will become in some sense 
 my kin. So I warned you, but too late, 
 Monsieur, too late." 
 
 " I seem to be recovering," said Robe. 
 
 * I may state that my grandmother s fortune was always 
 liberally spent in charities. It was quite dissipated by my family 
 in trying to support the cause of the Confederacy. C. R. F.
 
 CHALMETTE 261 
 
 "Oh, well-a-day, he was sorry for it, 
 after it was done. Yes, sorry. Good-bye, 
 captain." 
 
 And the young man extended his hand, 
 which Robe pressed. 
 
 " You are going away ?" 
 
 " I am going again into the service of 
 Carthagena." 
 
 "Into the Gulf trade?" Robe asked. 
 " Why, when you are well out of it ?" 
 
 " Ask why the bird flies ?" La Roux said. 
 " My nature, captain, the nature my father 
 gave me. And I never have betrayed my 
 position, never, save this once to you, and 
 that s a question of kinship. Good-bye, 
 Captain Robe." 
 
 And he went out, leaving Robe thought 
 ful. Yet scarcely had he gone before the 
 door opened, and Madame Demarche came 
 in, in her usual bustling way. 
 
 " He is quite able to see you, Monsieur, 
 my dear Monsieur." 
 
 And there stood Jean Lafitte, extremely 
 well tailored, his face firm, strong, suave, 
 repeating polite commonplaces to the
 
 262 CHALMETTE 
 
 invalid. But when Madame had gone, he 
 turned quickly, his eyes flashing, and he 
 said: 
 
 " You have, Captain Robe, satisfaction to 
 ask of me?" 
 
 Robe studied him for a moment. 
 
 " You shot me, or had me shot, Mon 
 sieur Lafitte?" 
 
 " Yes, yes." 
 
 " Why then afterward did you try to save 
 my life ?" 
 
 " It was for her, not for you ; I knew it 
 would hurt her." 
 
 " It was true, what you told me, that 
 her position led you or influenced you in 
 refusing the British overtures ?" 
 
 " Quite true, Monsieur." 
 
 " Monsieur Lafitte," said Robe then, " I 
 have no quarrel with you. You are a 
 strange man, a strange combination of 
 one given to a rascal s methods and of a 
 gentleman. You have served her, and you 
 have served me ; and you have served the 
 United States. You have done me one 
 injury, tis true. But, as the aggrieved party,
 
 CHALMETTE 263 
 
 tis for me to prove the quarrel. Monsieur, 
 I have no quarrel with you." 
 
 " I am obliged, Monsieur," Lafitte said, 
 bowing ; and he went out of the room. 
 
 A few moments after the door opened and 
 Sallie Maurice was there. 
 
 " Mr. Lafitte bade you good-bye ?" she 
 said. 
 
 " Yes," he said. " Why ?" 
 
 " He has left New Orleans, he says, for 
 ever. He goes to Galveston." 
 
 "Are you sorry, dear*?" Robe asked, 
 almost if not quite suspiciously. 
 
 " Why, Kit, I believe you are jealous 
 now," she said, leaning towards him. And 
 here was another episode that need not be 
 recorded here. 
 
 But neither of those two saw Lafitte again. 
 Both he and his brother Pierre disappeared 
 from New Orleans in the hey-day of their 
 reputation. Jean afterwards was engaged in 
 privateering at Galveston and about the Gulf, 
 where he boasted of carrying again Cartha 
 ginian letters of marque, and there s a report 
 that he died an admiral in that service. It
 
 264 CHALMETTE 
 
 was asserted that in his latter years he became 
 very boldly unscrupulous ; that he did not 
 hesitate to commit serious crimes. Robe 
 often asked Dominique You about him. 
 Captain You remained in New Orleans, 
 where he died in prosperity and the enjoy 
 ment of an excellent civic reputation. But 
 of the brothers Lafitte and of La Roux he 
 would say nothing. And, however unscrupu 
 lous Lafitte may have been, he turned over 
 religiously to Philip Maurice all the great De 
 Bertrand property, consisting very largely of 
 valuable estates in city and country. 
 
 Tis, my children, a far cry to those times, 
 when buccaneering so considerably influenced 
 the history of an American Commonwealth ; 
 when the mighty battle of Chalmette was 
 fought and won. 
 
 THE END.
 
 BY 
 
 ANNE HOLLINGSWORTH WHARTON. 
 
 Through Colonial Doorways. 
 
 With a number of colonial illustrations from drawings specially made 
 for the work. I2mo. Cloth, $1.25. 
 
 " It is a pleasant retrospect of fashionable New York and Philadelphia 
 society during and immediately following the Revolution ; for there was a Four 
 Hundred even in those days, and some of them were Whigs and some were 
 Tories, but all enjoyed feasting and dancing, of which there seemed to be no 
 limit. And this little book tells us about the belles of the Philadelphia meschi- 
 anza, who they were, how they dressed, and how they flirted with Major Andr6 
 and other officers in Sir William Howe s wicked employ." Philadelphia Record. 
 
 Colonial Days and Dames. 
 
 With numerous illustrations. I2mo. Cloth, $1.25. 
 
 " In less skilful hands than those of Anne Hollingsworth Wharton s, thes* 
 craps of reminiscences from diaries and letters would prove but dry bones. But 
 she has made them so charming that it is as if she had taken dried roses from an 
 old album and freshened them into bloom and perfume. Each slight paragraph 
 from a letter is framed in historical sketches of local affairs or with some account 
 of the people who knew the letter writers, or were at least of their date, and there 
 are pretty suggestions as to how and why such letters were written, with hints of 
 love affairs, which lend a rose-colored veil to what were probably every-day 
 Blatters in colonial families." Pittsburg Bulletin. 
 
 For sale by all Booksellers, or will be sent, post-paid, upon receipt of price, 
 
 J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY, Publishers, 
 
 PHILADELPHIA.
 
 Mrs. A. L. Wister s Translations. 
 
 I2mo. Cloth, $1.00 per volume. 
 
 COUNTESS ERIKA S APPRENTICESHIP By Ossip Schubin. 
 
 "O THOU, MY AUSTRIA!" By Ossip Schubin. 
 
 ERLACH COURT By Ossip Schubin. 
 
 THE ALPINE FAY By E. Werner. 
 
 THE OWL S NEST By E. Marlitt. 
 
 PICKED UP IN THE STREETS By H. Schobert. 
 
 SAINT MICHAEL By E. Werner. 
 
 VIOLETTA By Ursula Zoge von Manteufel. 
 
 THE I.ADY WITH THE RUBIES By E. Marlitt. 
 
 VAIN FOREBODINGS By E. Oswald. 
 
 A PENNILESS GIRL By W. Heimburg. 
 
 QUICKSANDS By Adolph Streckfuss. 
 
 BANNED AND BLESSED By E. Werner. 
 
 A NOBLE NAME By Claire von Glumer. 
 
 FROM HAND TO HAND By Golo Raimund. 
 
 SEVERA By E. Hartner. 
 
 A NEW RACE By Golo Raimund. 
 
 THE EICHHOFS By Moritz von Reichenbach. 
 
 CASTLE HOHENWALD By Adolph Streckfuss. 
 
 MARGARETHE By E. Juncker. 
 
 Too RICH By Adolph Streckfuss. 
 
 A FAMILY FEUD By L,udwig Harder. 
 
 THE GREEN GATE By Ernst Wichert. 
 
 ONLY A GIRL By Wilhelmine von Hillern. 
 
 WHY DID HE NOT DIE ? By Ad. von Volckhauser. 
 
 HULDA By Fanny Lewald. 
 
 THE BAILIFF S MAID By E. Marlitt. 
 
 IN THE SCHILLINGSCOURT By E. Marlitt. 
 
 COUNTESS GISELA ; By E. Marlitt. 
 
 AT THE COUNCILLOR S By E. Marlitt. 
 
 THE SECOND WIFE By E. Marlitt. 
 
 THE OLD MAM SELLE S SECRET By E. Marlitt. 
 
 GOLD ELSIE By E. Marlitt. 
 
 THE LITTLE MOORLAND PRINCESS By E. Marlitt. 
 
 " Mrs. A. L. Wister, through her many translations of novels from the Ger 
 man, has established a reputation of the highest order for literary judgment, and for 
 a long time her name upon the title-page of such a translation has been a sufficient 
 guarantee to the lovers of fiction of a pure and elevating character, that the novel 
 \vould be a cherished home favorite. This faith in Mrs. Wister is fully justified by 
 the fact that among her more than thirty translations that have been published by 
 Lippincott s there has not been a single disappointment. And to the exquisite 
 judgment of selection is to be added the rare excellence of her translations, which 
 has commanded the admiration of literary and linguistic scholars." Boston Homt 
 Journal. 
 
 j. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY, PHILADELPHIA.
 
 By Mrs. Lindon W. Bates. 
 
 Bunch-Grass Stories. 
 
 I2mo. Cloth, $1.25. 
 
 There is uncommon freshness, like a wind from the wide plains, 
 in these tales called Bunch- Grass Stories. They are the work of a 
 writer who observes and seizes the picturesque traits in every land 
 where fortune happens to call her, and her travels have evidently 
 been many and far away. She has, likewise, much reading, which 
 she puts to good account in stories that impart the ring of truth to 
 classic episodes. 
 
 A Blind Lead, 
 
 Vh.e Story of a JVIine- 
 I2mo. Cloth, $1.25. 
 
 "A Blind Lead Is certainly a powerful book. We took k up Indifferently 
 enough, but we had read a few pages only before we found it was no ordinary 
 work by no ordinary writer. A good deal of skill is shown in the drawing of char 
 acter. There are no dull pages, and the interest is continuous from the first chapter 
 to the last." Boston Advertiser. 
 
 A Nameless Wrestler. 
 
 I2mo. Paper, 50 cents; cloth, l.oo. 
 
 " Her story, A Blind Lead, was very promising, and it is followed by an 
 extremely interesting tale, A Nameless Wrestler. Here is something outside the 
 hackneyed course of fiction fresh, strong, fascinating, dramatic, and wholesome 
 scenes laid in an unfamiliar country, though our own, and characters human enough 
 to be all the more interesting because touched with strange traits by virtue of en 
 vironment." Detroit Tribune. 
 
 J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY, PHILADELPHIA.
 
 Fate at the Door. 
 
 A NOVEL. 
 
 By Jessie Van Zile Belden. 
 
 I2mo. Paper, 50 cents ; crushed buckram, ornamental, $1.00. 
 
 "The story is decidedly clever, and the semi-flirtatious relations of society 
 men and women are admirably, wittily described." Boston Literary World. 
 
 " This is a story of more than a little originality, a thoughtful and well-told 
 story." Boston Courier. 
 
 " An admirably written story, instinct with ethical suggestion." Philadelphia 
 Press. 
 
 " There is a true womanliness about this story of the social world that leaves a 
 delightful impression upon the reader." Boston Herald. 
 
 " Each page is turned with regret, since it brings one nearer to the end of the 
 charming book." Amusement Gazette, Cleveland, Ohio. 
 
 " It is one of those novels one is glad to have read, one which is remembered 
 for a long time, and one which thoroughly awakens the emotions." New Ytrk 
 World. 
 
 " This is a strong, pathetic, eloquent little story, and one which will be remem 
 bered by its readers long after many more pretentious novels have passed to the 
 limbo of things forgotten. Fate at the Door is not a book to be allowed to go 
 unread." News, Charleston, S. C. 
 
 "To make its treatment perfectly effective, a story treating with the problem 
 of platonic love requires high literary skill and great delicacy, and these Mrs. 
 Belden has displayed to a remarkable height of genius. This novel alone entitles 
 her to rank among the finest and most interesting writers of the day." Boston 
 Home Journal. 
 
 " A very interesting story, in which the movement is quick and effective and 
 the characters are well handled. It is a story of misplaced affection which could 
 be placed elsewhere without difficulty or risk of repulsion if it were not restrained 
 by strong moral convictions." Buffalo Commercial. 
 
 J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY, PHILADELPHIA.
 
 A 000 551574