Saratoga by David Garland Read Free Book Online

Rainham a moment's thought."
    "Liar!"
    "Stop calling me names."
    "Then stop provoking me," said Caffrey with a good-humored grin. "At the very least, you might admit that the lady interested you."
    "I confess it freely."
    "Then I'll satisfy your curiosity."
    "What do you mean?"
    "I'll ask Polly to see what she can discover," said Caffrey, smacking away a mosquito that tried to land on his chin. "She has a gift for picking up gossip. I know that Polly won't be able to meet this lady on equal terms, but Miss Rainham will be traveling with a maid.
She's
the person that Polly might get to know."
    Though he made some token protest against it, Skoyles found the offer appealing. Polly Bragg had been with Caffrey for over a year now, and she had proved herself to be loyal and discreet. If nothing else, she could find out more detail about Elizabeth Rainham, and Skoyles was interested in any scrap of information about her. He would certainly not get such information from Featherstone or from any other source.
    "There's no need for Polly to do this," said Skoyles, pretending to be indifferent to the notion. "Leave well alone, Tom."
    "I'm always ready to help a friend."
    "Supposing that he doesn't want to be helped?"
    "Then I'll tell him that he can't fool me," said Caffrey genially. "I know you too well, Jamie. I've seen that light in your eye before, and the only thing that can put it there is a beautiful woman."
    On the first night when his army assembled at Cumberland Point, General Burgoyne elected to sleep aboard his ship. Most people believed that he wanted to stay clear of the mosquito-infested swampland, but there were a few whispers that he might have another reason for wishing to remain afloat. The sound of female laughter was heard from within his cabin. When he came ashore next day to inspect his troops, there was a jaunty optimism about Burgoyne. It gave the soldiers heart.
    At four o'clock on the morning of June 24, the order for general march was beaten on the drums and the men clambered into their bateaux. Two cannon boomed aboard the
Maria
to signal departure. As the sun was coming up, they rowed away from Cumberland Bay. Wearing brilliant war paint and bright feathers, the Indians led the way in birchbark canoes that held thirty or more, paddling rhythmically and skimming over the placid water with apparent ease. Then came a succession of bateaux, four abreast, containing regulars in scarlet coats with white breeches and waistcoats, as well as light infantry in black leather caps and red waistcoats, grenadiers in their heavy bearskin hats, and Canadians in Indian attire. It was a striking show of military power.
    Behind the massed ranks of troops came the gunboats with their blue-clad artillerymen, their guns glinting proudly on deck. The
Royal George
and the
Inflexible
came next, their progress slowed by the massive booms they had in tow. Two dark-hulled frigates, the
Maria
and the
Carleton
, took their turn in the procession and, astern of them, was the first British brigade in scarlet coats, faced with yellow, red, or white. Three pinnaces followed, each bearing a general. John Burgoyne was in the central craft, flanked by William Phillips and Lieutenant General Friedrich von Riedesel, Baron Eisenbach, commander of the German contingent, a short and rather portly man in his late thirties.
    Riedesel's troops rowed in serried ranks behind him—infantrymen in dark blue coats, white breeches, and waistcoats, and jägers in green with red cuffs and facings. Officers sported plumed caps, while the grenadiers, in contrast to their British counterparts, wore tall miter caps with shiny metal plates on the front of them that acted as so many mirrors in the sunlight. Even when propelling their bateaux, the Germans somehow looked supremely controlled, a well-drilled professional force that was watched with interest and wonder by the sutlers and camp followers bringing up the rear.
    It was an awesome sight, an army on the move