Victory at Yorktown: A Novel Read Online Free PDF

us to fight on, knowing the treatment we would receive if ever we were to lay down our arms, were defenseless, and threw ourselves on his mercy and that of his hirelings.”
    “Both sides are ravaging the land,” Allen said. “You get the same reports we do out of the South. How the war is being fought there. Farms burned, men hanged in their own front yards, women and children driven out as refugees.”
    “If you were not there it would not be happening,” Peter retorted sharply. “Allen, there’s no sense in arguing that. We’re seven hundred miles away. Neither you nor I have or would take part in such things.
    “Up here, instead, one of our generals is suborned, turns traitor, and tries to sell out our entire army. What your army could not win through honorable warfare, your side now tries to win through bribery and backstabbing.”
    There was no denying the truth of that and Allen fell silent.
    “Were you part of it? Did you know about it?” Peter asked sharply.
    “I am under a flag of truce,” Allen replied a bit defensively. “You know I cannot answer that. Nor would I.”
    Yes, he did know. It was his job to know as the Loyalist officer responsible for intelligence gathering in the region. He had been one of the last to see Andre before he had departed on his fatal mission. He had begged him to show caution, warning that it could be a trap, and to stay in uniform concealed under a cloak in case he was captured. At least then he would have some grounds to argue that he should be treated as a prisoner of war rather than a spy. Andre had smiled, even laughed, patted him on the shoulder and said he would be back in little more than a day, and within the week the war along the Hudson would be all but over.
    There were several minutes of tense silence until Allen finally broke it.
    “My family. They are behind your lines. Have you heard anything about them?”
    Peter seemed to relent slightly.
    “I was home in Trenton early this spring, carrying a dispatch from the general to Congress and stopped over. Your brother is prospering.” He paused. “Of course.”
    “And my parents?”
    “They’re alive, though I doubt they will ever recover from the death of your brother, James.”
    Allen stiffened with that. James had gone with the Continentals at the start of the war, and had died of exposure after the battle for Trenton back in ’76. Allen had been captured in that fight, helped carry his dying brother back when Washington and his men withdrew across the Delaware after their stunning victory, and then helped them to bury James the following day.
    He knew it was Peter’s and James’s comrades who had personally appealed to Washington and convinced the general to have him paroled and exchanged through the lines because of his young brother’s sacrifice.
    “They can’t find the grave. They want to return him to the family plot,” Peter sighed.
    “After this is over, I know where to find him,” Allen whispered. “I marked the spot well, remember I helped to dig his grave alongside you.”
    “It’s all washed away now. Looks like a potter’s field, with several hundred sunken-in holes now. You can’t tell one from the other. Perhaps it’s best he stays with his comrades anyhow. I think he’d prefer that.”
    Allen lowered his head.
    “I still can’t believe you went Tory,” Peter finally sighed, a sharp edge to his voice. Your brother died on our side. We were once friends. You love this land as much as I do. I still cannot believe seeing you in that damn uniform.”
    Allen looked over at him sharply.
    “Yes, I do love this land as much as you do, and I ask you this: If you win, then what? You know history as well as I. Nearly all revolutions end in just replacing one ruler with another, often far worse. The king made mistakes, but was it really all that bad as compared to how you might fare and suffer under another ruler afterward?”
    Peter looked at him sharply.
    “We have General