Tarleton

“ I had left the doctor’s house and returned to it in my ordinary clothes. Not a soul in the Domino Club, except the member from whom I had obtained a ticket of admission, could have the least idea of my identity. So far as I could see I was absolutely secure from discovery. But it had been a dangerous game to play, and Tarleton was a dangerous man to play against. With all his kindness for me I trembled at the thought of coming [23] within the range of his uncanny powers of detection. ”

“ Tarleton was compelled to admit that Klein had proved to be an acquisition.
“What did I tell you?” cried Sir Matthew triumphantly. “Trust me to find the right man, Mr. Tarleton, trust me. I always believe in demanding the impossible and I generally get it. If you’re modest, you get left.”
Tarleton could vouch for the truth of this observation, and he disliked the chairman more than ever.
In due course the committee held its first sitting. ”

“ The oldest instance we find is Tarleton, or Dick Tarleton, who, in the sixteenth century, seems to have been common enough to make Bishop Hall allude to him in his “Satyres,” (b. vi., s. 1) —
“O honour far beyond a brazen shrine,
To sit with Tarlton on an ale-post’s sign.”
Tarleton is seen on the trades token of a house in Wheeler Street, Southwark; and it is only within a very few years that this sign has been consigned to oblivion. Richard, or “Dick” Tarleton was a celebrated low-comedy actor, born at Condover in Shropshire, and brought to town in the household of the Earl of Leicester. ”

“ Tarleton made a sally, and took a good many prisoners. By the 17th, however, after vainly waiting for relief by Clinton, which arrived just too late, Cornwallis found it impossible to hold out any longer; terms of capitulation were arranged the following day, and on the 19th Yorktown and Gloucester were surrendered to Washington, and Tarleton returned to England on parole early in 1782.
Tarleton was appointed a lieutenant-colonel of light dragoons on 25 Dec. 1782; and his ambition was now directed to enter parliament. An expert electioneerer, he readily adapted himself to all classes. ”

“ Pursued to his haunts in the marshes of the Pee Dee, he issued from them the moment the pressure was relaxed; and while Sumter and Davy and Pickens, all leaders of note, harassed us on our borders, it was Marion who sapped the foundations of our power, cut off our detachments, and harried our friends to the very gates of Charles Town. Tarleton, whom he had evaded a dozen times, called him the Swamp Fox, and grew dull at his name. But Tarleton could bear no rival, friend or foe, and carried into war a spirit far too bitter. ”

“ Here, when the day was over and Sir Matthew had at last taken his departure, Tarleton would join him. It frequently happened that they did not finish their labours until nearly midnight. On such occasions Tarleton would go to his club to dine, whilst Klein would make his way to some neighbouring restaurant, but after a time the two men seemed to draw nearer to each other, until one day Tarleton suggested that Klein should dine with him. Over a cigar in the club smoking-room, the secretary for the first time expressed himself freely to his colleague. ”

“ TARLETON. All right, Chickabiddy: it's not bad language: it's only Socialism. MRS TARLETON. Well, I wont have any Socialism in my house. TARLETON. [to Gunner] You hear what Mrs Tarleton says. Well, in this house everybody does what she says or out they go. GUNNER. Do you suppose I want to stay? Do you think I would breathe this polluted atmosphere a moment longer than I could help? BENTLEY. [running forward between Lina and Gunner] But what did you mean by what you said about Miss Tarleton and Mr Percival, you beastly rotter, you? GUNNER. [to Tarleton] Oh! is Hypatia your daughter? ”

“ Fierce the hand-to-hand engaging, and the human freshet raging
Of the surging current urging past a dark and bloody shore.
Soon the course of fight was altered; soon they faltered at the leaden
Storm that smote them, and we saw their centre swerve.
Tarleton’s eye flashed fierce in anger; Tarleton’s face began to redden;
Tarleton gave the closing order—“Bring to action the reserve!”
Up the slope his legion thundered, full three hundred; fiercely spurring,
Cheering lustily, they fell upon our flanks ”

“ Her gasp of anguish wrung my very heart-strings.
“No!” I cried. “Don’t give way to such thoughts. You don’t know Tarleton. He is the soul of honour. He is delicacy itself. He won’t ask you one word more than he can help. You need tell him nothing more than that Weathered gave you a number [188] to use in writing to him. You can trust Sir Frank not to ask you what the letters were about.” ”

“ But no partial success could retrieve the fortunes of the day, and, after destroying such of the baggage as could not be carried, Tarleton retired with the remainder unmolested to Hamilton's Ford, near the mouth of Bullock's Creek, on his way to join Cornwallis, then at Turkey Creek, about twenty-five miles from the field of action. The British loss was over four hundred men in killed, wounded, and taken. ”

“ Tarleton. I’ll soon select somebody for you—let me have a look through them. Now, here’s one—this is the sort of man that I like; he telegraphs—he doesn’t write. A man with individuality—an original mind. Try him.”
“Excuse me, Sir Matthew, have you noticed the name?”
Sir Matthew put on his eyeglass and examined the telegram.
“Louis Klein,” he read, “and a very good name too—what’s the matter with it?”
“D’you think it advisable, Sir Matthew, in the present state of public opinion—”
“Public opinion, Mr. Tarleton, means the Press, and that doesn’t concern us. ”

“ Cornwallis had committed the country between Cooper and Wando Rivers to Tarleton's charge, with orders to be continually on the move with the cavalry and infantry of the legion; to watch over the landing-places; obtain intelligence from the town, the Santee River and the back country, and to burn such stores as might fall into his hands rather than risk their being retaken by the enemy. Hearing of the fortuitous assemblage of American troops, Tarleton came suddenly upon them by surprise at Laneau's Ferry. ”

“ Tarleton had a devil of a dinner of it; but he had plenty entertainment by the way, for all the while that we were cooking, and afterwards, when he was making believe to eat, I kept posting him up on Master Case and the beach of Falesá, and he putting questions that showed he was following close.
“Well,” said he at last, “I am afraid you have a dangerous enemy. This man Case is very clever and seems really wicked. ”

“ Tarleton returned with a curl of the lip. “But come, it is time to see if the dead has any evidence to give about himself.”
Thrusting his gold repeater carelessly into his pocket, he deftly stripped the body of its long Inquisitor’s robe. Underneath was revealed an evening suit of fine material and faultless cut with a white silk [48] waistcoat and soft-fronted shirt. They were the clothes of a man of good position, as Sir Frank had said, and a man accustomed to respect himself. A Bohemian would scarcely have troubled to dress himself so carefully beneath a domino. ”

“ Colonel Tarleton, as one of the most resolute and active of the British partisans, was particularly selected by Lord Cornwallis and ordered to march with 1100 men to watch the motions of Morgan, impeded his designs, and keep in awe the district of Ninety-Six, toward which he found a detachment of the American army was moving. The unexpected defeat of Tarleton for a time threw him into the background in the opinion of many of the British officers ”

“ While Tarleton was out on one of his raids, Macdonald, a young Scotchman, one of Marion's men, played a curious trick on an old Tory, who lived in the neighborhood. As soon as he heard that Colonel Tarleton had encamped, he dressed himself in the British uniform, and early in the morning called upon the Tory, and said to him:
3. "Colonel Tarleton sends his compliments, [84] and, knowing you to be a good friend of the king, begs you will send him one of your best horses for a charger, to help drive the rebels out of the country." ”

“ At ten o'clock in the morning, the Americans formed for attack, when it was ascertained that Tarleton, alarmed by the exaggerated stories of some of the survivors of Pyle's corps, who made their way to his camp, had hastened to obey the orders of Cornwallis, just received, and was moving toward the Haw. The Americans pursued him as far as that river, when they halted, and Tarleton, after a narrow escape at the ford, returned in safety to Hillsborough. "Fortune, the capricious goddess," says Lee, "gave us Pyle, and saved Tarleton." ”

“ Nearly two hundred of Tarleton's horse, and among them the haughty Tarleton himself, retreated in dismay from the field, riding over their comrades and involving them in hopeless confusion. The Americans gained the two field-pieces, and Colonel Howard, coming up with a large body of infantry, and summoning 104them to surrender, they laid down their arms on the field. The rout of the British was complete; a more signal victory our forces had never obtained. Washington and his horse followed the flying foe for several hours ”

“ I want you, when your husband, Lady Haigh, and your brother, Miss Ross, and the rest of us, are all away on an expedition, and perhaps there’s not a man in the station but Tarleton, to go on just as usual—to sew and read, and go out for your rides as if you hadn’t the faintest anxiety to trouble you. While we are away doing the work, you’ll have to represent us here, and impress the natives. ”

“ From my first reunion with Isora, I had avoided all the former objects and acquaintances in which my time had been so charmingly employed. Tarleton was the first to suffer by my new pursuit. “What has altered you?” said he; “you drink not, neither do you play. The women say you are grown duller than a Norfolk parson, and neither the Puppet Show nor the Water Theatre, the Spring Gardens nor the Ring, Wills’s nor the Kit Cat, the Mulberry Garden nor the New Exchange, witness any longer your homage and devotion. What has come over you?—speak!” ”

“ The alibi stood firm.
Tarleton drew out his watch as though to consult it before deciding what to do next. Suddenly he snapped out, “There is no mistake, I suppose? Her ladyship couldn’t have been in London on Wednesday night?”
The man was taken off his guard, and if he had been lying he could hardly have failed to show some confusion. But the only feeling he manifested was one of resentment at the question.
[158] “I’m positive of what I say, sir. But her ladyship hasn’t authorized me to answer questions about her movements.”
The consultant put on the air of a man who has made a slip. ”

“ What a pity young Bentley is not a painter! Tarleton meditating on his destiny. Not in a toga. Not in the trappings of the tragedian or the philosopher. In plain coat and trousers: a man like any other man. And beneath that coat and trousers a human soul. Tarleton's Underwear! [He goes out gravely into the vestibule] . MRS TARLETON. [fondly] I suppose it's a wife's partiality, Lord Summerhays; but I do think John is really great. I'm sure he was meant to be a king. My father looked down on John, because he was a rate collector, and John kept a shop. ”

“ Cornwallis laughed. "Where are your wits this morning, gentlemen? If he be loyal and true, the despatches will go safe enough. If, on the other hand, he be a rebel and a spy, he will doubtless tamper with them; but in that case he will none the less ride straight enough to Major Ferguson's headquarters in the West."
"H'm; your Lordship is still too deep for me," said Tarleton's second in command. "If he be a rebel and a spy, why, in God's name, should he carry your Lordship's letters to any but some rag-tag colonel of his own kidney?" ”

“ She and Mr. Tarleton called each other by name, and he was very civil to her seemingly. But I thought little of that; they can always find civility for a Kanaka, it’s us white men they lord it over. Besides, I didn’t want much Tarleton just then. I was going to do my pitch.
“Uma,” said I, “give us your marriage certificate.” She looked put out. “Come,” said I, “you can trust me. Hand it up.”
She had it about her person, as usual; I believe she thought it was a pass to heaven, and if she died without having it handy she would go to hell. ”

“ With difficulty Tarleton supplied the places of the lost horses. At the close of the month of March the whole force crossed Ashley river, and ground was broken within eight hundred yards of the enemy's works. By a skilful movement Tarleton surprised three regiments of the enemy's horse (Pulaski's legion, Washington's horse, and Bland's or White's dragoons) on 14 April, at Bigging Bridge, near Monk's Corner, and again on 6 May at Lenew's Ferry, and destroyed them, capturing all their stores and baggage and four hundred horses. He was thus enabled to horse his legion in an efficient manner. ”

“ I could follow Tarleton’s reasoning, of course, but I could not imagine how he meant to proceed.
“These claws must have been brought home, according to my idea, by a sportsman and traveller of experience, who knew the ways of the natives, and was able to baffle them. Men of that class are not very numerous, and most of them have published books of their travels. I am going to spend the rest of the morning in going to the libraries and publishers; and I want you to spend it in the Natural History Museum at South Kensington.” ”