It was two days later, toward dusk of a gray January day, that we reached the marshy banks of the Arundel River. The tide was on the make, and the steel-gray water brought up to us the fresh, heartening smell of the sea. There was a familiar odor of wood smoke blended with it; and as we followed the river toward its mouth I found myself short of breath, as I ever do when I near my home after an absence.
Cap lifted up his voice and began to bawl about old Benning Wentworth, and Phoebe came back beside me and pushed her hand into the sash of my coat. In no time at all we stood on the little sandy beach across from our garrison house. We could see a light in a window, and hear the far-off barking of a dog; and the plume of smoke that rose from the chimney wavered and flattened itself above the roof as though it had no notion what to do.
It seemed to me I could smell baked beans and new bread mixed with the salt tang of the sea; and I stood on the shore, wavering like the plume of smoke, gawking across the dark water and clutching Phoebe to me. I might have stood there until midnight except for Cap, who blew at the ferry horn as though to blow its insides out.
A new ferry boy came to us, rattling his oars and staring white-eyed at Natanis and Hobomok.
When he had set us across we went around by the kitchen door and Phoebe opened it. My mother, with Ranger at her feet, sat at her spinning wheel, and my muscles tightened at the clicking it made when the door flew open. My sister Cynthia stood by the brick oven holding a bean pot cover in her hand and peering at the beans; while Malary, moaning querulously, prodded at the crusts of brown loaves with a long-handled fork.
At the opening of the door my mother looked up; her eyes widened and widened, as if never in her life could she come to believe that she saw what she saw before her; and then, as her face slowly changed from that blank disbelief and became radiant, I could see it no longer, nor anything else with distinctness, for the room and all it contained grew wavery before me with the wetness in my eyes. I was home again—in Arundel.
… The further adventures of Steven and Phoebe Nason, Cap Huff, Marie de Sabrevois, and other Arundel folk are told in Rabble In Arms, a romance of the Northern Army’s two-year struggle following the defeat at Quebec.
… Richard Nason, the son of Steven and Phoebe, became a sea-captain and took out an American privateer against the British. The tale of his cruises and engagements in British waters, and of his life in Dartmoor Prison is narrated in The Lively Lady, a chronicle of Arundel.
… Daniel Marvin of Arundel, at the outbreak of the War of 1812, was first mate of the barque Olive Branch. How he was taken by the British, imprisoned in the hulks at Chatham, fought his way to freedom, and achieved his ends through the invention and use of the Gangway Pendulum is set forth in Captain Caution, a chronicle of Arundel.
AUTHORITIES
On the Abenaki Indians of New England, on their relations with the early settlers of Maine, and on Indian warfare, magic-making, hunting, folk-lore, and customs: Baxter, Rev. J., Journal of Several Visits to the Indians on the Kennebec River; Bourne, E. F., History of Wells & Kennebunk; Bradbury, C., History of Kennebunkport; Colman, E. L., New England Captives Carried to Canada; Drake, S. G., Book of the Indians and Tragedies of the Wilderness; Hanson, J. W., History of Norridgewock & Canaan and History of Gardiner, Pittston & W. Gardiner; Leland, C. G., Algonquin Legends of New England; Lincoln, Gov. E., Language of the Abenakis; Nash, C., Indians of the Kennebec; Nicolar, J., Life & Traditions of the Red Man; Parkman, F., Half Century of Conflict and Montcalm & Wolfe; Pope, S., Hunting with the Bow & Arrow; Pote, W., Journal During His Captivity in the French & Indian War; Reed, P. M., History of the Lower Kennebec; Remich, D., History of Kennebunk; Vetromile, Father E., The Abenakis & Their History; Whitney, S. H., The,Kennebec Valley; Williamson, W. D., History of Maine; Willis, W., History of Portland, Vol. 2.
On events preceding the Revolution, on Arnold’s expedition through the Maine wilderness, on individuals who participated in the expedition, and on the attack on Quebec: Adams, J. T., Revolutionary New England; Allen, W., Arnold’s Expedition; Arnold, Benedict, Journal and Letters, Maine Historical Society Collections, Series 1, Vol. 1; Arnold, I. N., Life of Benedict Arnold; Codman, J., Arnold’s Expedition to Quebec; Dearborn, Henry, Journal of the Quebec Expedition; Fobes, Simeon, Journal of a Member of Arnold’s Expedition; French, Allen, Siege of Boston; Graham, J., Life of Daniel Morgan; Haskell, C., Diary of Arnold’s Expedition; Hayden, Rev. H. H. (in Magazine of American History, Vol. 13), Gen. Roger Enos: A Lost Chapter of Arnold’s Expedition to Quebec; Henry, J. J., Campaign Against Quebec; Hill, G. C., Life of Benedict Arnold; Hughes, Rupert, George Washington; Lossing, B. J., Field Book of the Revolution: Minnegerode & Waddell, Aaron Burr; Meigs, Return J., Journal of Arnold’s Expedition; Melvin, J., Journal of Expedition to Quebec; Parton, J., Life & Times of Aaron Burr; Senter, Dr. Isaac, Journal on a Secret Expedition to Quebec; Smith, Justin H., Arnold’s March from Cambridge to Quebec; Thavpr. S. Journal Describing the Perils and Sufferings of the Army under Colonel Benedict Arnold.
On life in and about Quebec during the Revolutionary period: Anburey, Lt. Thomas, Travels through the Interior Parts of America, 1776–1781; Henry, J. J., Campaign Against Quebec. The conformation of Quebec in 1775 and the exact route of Arnold’s attack on the Lower Town was reconstructed from a French engineer (manuscript) map supplied by the Library of Congress, and from measurements and surveys made with Lt.-Col. G. E. Marquis of the Dominion Government.
Kenneth Roberts, Arundel
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