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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/39758-8.txt b/39758-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..51bcf69 --- /dev/null +++ b/39758-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,14602 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Matilda Montgomerie, by Major (John) Richardson + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license + + +Title: Matilda Montgomerie + The Prophecy Fulfilled + +Author: Major (John) Richardson + +Release Date: May 22, 2012 [EBook #39758] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MATILDA MONTGOMERIE *** + + + + +Produced by Brian Sogard, Shanna D. Bokoff and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +Transcriber's Note: Bold text denoted by =equal signs=. + + + + +MATILDA MONTGOMERIE; + +OR, + +THE PROPHECY FULFILLED. + + + A TALE OF THE LATE AMERICAN WAR. + BEING THE SEQUEL TO WACOUSTA. + + + By MAJOR RICHARDSON, + AUTHOR OF "WACOUSTA," "HARDSCRABBLE," "ECARTE," ETC., ETC. + + + NEW YORK: + POLLARD & MOSS, + 42 Park Place and 37 Barclay Street. + 1888. + + + +CHAPTER I. + + +At the northern extremity of the small town which bears its name +situated at the head of Lake Erie, stands, or rather stood--for the +fortifications then existing were subsequently destroyed--the small +fortress of Malden. + +Few places in America, or in the world, could, at the period embraced by +our narrative, have offered more delightful associations than that which +we have selected for an opening scene. Amherstburg was at that time one +of the loveliest spots that ever issued from the will of a beneficent +and gorgeous nature, and were the world-disgusted wanderer to have +selected a home in which to lose all memory of conventional and +artificial forms, his choice would assuredly have fallen here. And +insensible, indeed, to the beautiful realities of the sweet wild +solitude that reigned around, must that man have been, who could have +gazed unmoved from the banks of the Erie, on the placid lake beneath his +feet, mirroring the bright starred heavens on its unbroken surface, or +throwing into full relief the snow-white sail and dark hull of some +stately war-ship, becalmed in the offing, and only waiting the rising of +the capricious breeze, to waft her onward on her _then_ peaceful mission +of dispatch. Lost indeed to all perception of the natural must he have +been, who could have listened, without a feeling of voluptuous +melancholy, to the plaintive notes of the whip-poor-will, breaking on +the silence of night, and harmonising with the general stillness of the +scene. How often have we ourselves, in joyous boyhood, lingered amid the +beautiful haunts, drinking in the fascinating song of this strange +night-bird, and revelling in a feeling we were too young to analyze, yet +cherished deeply--yea, frequently, up to this hour, do we in our dreams +revisit scenes no parallel to which has met our view, even in the course +of a life passed in many climes; and on awaking, our first emotion is +regret that the illusion is no more. + +Such was Amherstburg and its immediate vicinity, during the early years +of the present century, and up to the period at which our story +commences. Not, be it understood that even _then_ the scenery itself had +lost one particle of its loveliness, or failed in aught to awaken and +fix the same tender interest. The same placidity of earth and sky and +lake remained, but the poor whip-poor-will, driven from his customary +abode by the noisy hum of warlike preparation, was no longer heard, and +the minds of the inhabitants, hitherto disposed, by the quiet pursuits +of their uneventful lives, to feel pleasure in its song, had eye or ear +for naught beyond what tended to the preservation of their threatened +homes. It was the commencement of the war of 1812. + +Let us, however introduce the reader more immediately to the scene. +Close in his rear, as he stands on the elevated bank of the magnificent +river of Detroit, and about a mile from its point of junction with Lake +Erie, was the fort of Amherstburg, its defences consisting chiefly of +stockade works, flanked, at its several angles, by strong bastions, and +covered by a demi-lune of five guns, so placed as to command every +approach by water. Distant about three hundred yards on his right, was a +large, oblong, square building, resembling in appearance the red, +low-roofed blockhouses peering above the outward defences of the fort. +Surrounding this, and extending to the skirt of the thinned forest, the +original boundary of which was marked by an infinitude of dingy, half +blackened stumps, were to be seen numerous huts or wigwams of the +Indians, from the fires before which arose a smoke that contributed, +with the slight haze of the atmosphere, to envelope the tops of the tall +trees in a veil of blue vapor, rendering them almost invisible. Between +these wigwams and the extreme verge of the thickly wooded banks, which +sweeping in bold curvature for an extent of many miles, brought into +view the eastern extremity of Turkey Island, situated midway between +Amherstburg and Detroit, were to be seen, containing the accumulated +Indian dead of many years, tumuli, rudely executed, it is true, but +picturesquely decorated with such adornments as it is the custom of +these simple mannered people to bestow on the last sanctuaries of their +departed friends. Some three or four miles, and across the water, (for +it is here that the river acquires her fullest majesty of expansion,) is +to be seen the American island of Gros Isle, which, at the period of +which we write, bore few traces of cultivation--scarcely a habitation +being visible throughout its extent--various necks of land, however, +shoot out abruptly, and independently of the channel running between it +and the American main shore, form small bays or harbors in which boats +may always find shelter and concealment. + +Thus far the view to the right of the spectator, whom we assume to be +facing the river. Immediately opposite to the covering demi-lune, and in +front of the fort, appeared, at a distance of less than half a mile, a +blockhouse and battery, crowning the western extremity of the island of +Bois Blanc, one mile in length, and lashed at its opposite extremity by +the waters of Lake Erie, which, at this precise point receives into her +capacious bosom the vast tribute of the noble river connecting her with +the higher lakes. Between this island and the Canadian shore lies the +only navigable channel for ships of heavy tonnage, for although the +waters of the Detroit are of vast depth every where above the island, +they are near their point of junction with the lake, and, in what is +called the American channel, so interrupted by shallows and sandbars, +that no craft larger than those of a description termed "Durham boats," +can effect the passage--on the other hand the channel dividing the +island from the Canadian shore is at once deep and rapid, and capable of +receiving vessels of the largest size. The importance of such a passage +was obvious; but although a state of war necessarily prevented aid from +armed vessels to such forts of the Americans as lay to the westward of +the lake, it by no means effectually cut off their supplies through the +medium of the Durham boats already alluded to. In order to intercept +those, a most vigilant watch was kept by the light gun boats despatched +into the lesser channel for that purpose. + +A blockhouse and battery crowned also the eastern extremity of the +island, and both, provided with a flagstaff for the purpose of +communication by signal with the fort, were far from being wanting in +picturesque effect. A subaltern's command of infantry, and a +bombvadier's of artillery, were the only troops stationed there, and +these were rather to look out for and report the approach of whatever +American boats might be seen stealing along their own channel, than with +any view to the serious defence of a post already sufficiently commanded +by the adjacent fortress. In every other direction the island was +thickly wooded--not a house, not a hut arose, to diversify the wild +beauty of the scene. Frequently, it is true, along the margin of its +sands might be seen a succession of Indian wigwams, and the dusky and +sinewy forms of men gliding round their fires, as they danced to the +monotonous sound of the war dance; but these migratory people seldom +continuing long in the same spot, the island was again and again left to +its solitude. + +Strongly contrasted with this, would the spectator, whom we still +suppose standing on the bank where we first placed him, find the view on +his left. There would he have beheld a small town, composed entirely of +wooden houses variously and not inelegantly painted; and receding +gradually from the river's edge to the slowly disappearing forest, on +which its latest rude edifice reposed. Between the town and the fort, +was to be seen a dockyard of no despicable dimensions, in which the hum +of human voices mingled with the sound of active labor--there too might +be seen, in the deep harbor of the narrow channel that separated the +town from the island we have just described, some half-dozen gallant +vessels bearing the colors of England, breasting with their dark prows +the rapid current that strained their creaking cables in every strand, +and seemingly impatient of the curb that checked them from gliding +impetuously into the broad lake, which, some few hundred yards below, +appeared to court them to her bosom. But although in these might be +heard the bustle of warlike preparation, the chief attention would be +observed to be directed towards a large half finished vessel, on which +numerous workmen of all descriptions were busily employed, evidently +with a view of preparing for immediate service. + +Beyond the town again might be obtained a view of the high and +cultivated banks, sweeping in gentle curve until they at length +terminated in a low and sandy spot, called, from the name of its +proprietor, Elliott's point. This stretched itself towards the eastern +extremity of the island, so as to leave the outlet to the lake barely +wide enough for a single vessel to pass at a time, and that not without +skilful pilotage and much caution. + +Assuming the reader to be now as fully familiar with the scene as +ourselves, let him next, in imagination, people it, as on the occasion +we have chosen for his introduction. It was a warm, sunny day, in the +early part of July. The town itself was as quiet as if the glaive of war +reposed in its sheath, and the inhabitants pursued their wonted +avocations with the air of men who had nothing in common with the active +interest which evidently dominated the more military portions of the +scene. It was clear that among these latter some cause for excitement +existed, for, independently of the unceasing bustle within the +dockyard--a bustle which however had but one undivided object, the +completion and equipment of the large vessel then on the stocks--the +immediate neighborhood of the fort presented evidence of some more than +ordinary interest. The encampment of the Indians on the verge of the +forest, had given forth the great body of their warriors, and these clad +in their gayest apparel, covered with feathers and leggings of bright +colors, decorated with small tinkling bells that fell not inharmoniously +on the ear, as they kept tune to the measured walk of their proud +wearers, were principally assembled around and in front of the large +building we have described as being without, yet adjacent to, the fort. +These warriors might have been about a thousand in number, and +amused themselves variously--(the younger at least)--with +leaping--wrestling--ball-playing--and the foot race--in all which +exercises they are unrivalled. The elders bore no part in these +amusements, but stood, or sat cross-legged on the edge of the bank, +smoking their pipes, and expressing their approbation of the prowess or +dexterity of the victors in the games, by guttural, yet rapidly uttered +exclamations. Mingled with these were some six or seven individuals, +whose glittering costume of scarlet announced them for officers of the +garrison, and elsewhere disposed, some along the banks and crowding the +battery in front of the fort, or immediately round the building, yet +quite apart from their officers, were a numerous body of the inferior +soldiery. + +But although these distinct parties were assembled, to all appearance, +with a view, the one to perform in, the other to witness, the active +sports we have enumerated, a close observer of the movements of all +would have perceived there was something more important in +contemplation, to the enactment of which these exercises were but the +prelude. Both officers and men, and even the participators in the +sports, turned their gaze frequently up the Detroit, as if they expected +some important approach. The broad reach of the wide river, affording an +undisturbed view, as we have stated, for a distance of some nine or ten +miles, where commenced the near extremity of Turkey Island, presented +nothing, however, as yet, to their gaze, and repeatedly were the +telescopes of the officers raised only to fall in disappointment from +the eye. At length a number of small dark specks were seen studding the +tranquil bosom of the river, as they emerged rapidly, one after the +other, from the cover of the island. The communication was made, by him +who first discovered them, to his companions. The elder Indians who sat +near the spot on which the officers stood, were made acquainted with +what even their own sharp sight could not distinguish unaided by the +glass. One sprang to his feet, raised the telescope to his eye, and with +an exclamation of wonder at the strange properties of the instrument, +confirmed to his followers the truth of the statement. The elders, +principally chiefs, spoke in various tongues to their respective +warriors. The sports were abandoned, and all crowded to the bank with +anxiety and interest depicted in their attitudes and demeanor. + +Meanwhile the dark specks upon the water increased momentarily in size. +Presently they could be distinguished for canoes, which, rapidly +impelled, and aided in their course by the swift current, were not long +in developing themselves to the naked eye. These canoes, about fifty in +number, were of bark, and of so light a description, that a man of +ordinary strength might, without undergoing serious fatigue, carry one +for miles. The warriors who now propelled them, were naked in all save +their leggings and waist cloths, their bodies and faces begrimed with +paint: and as they drew near, fifteen was observed to be the complement +of each. They sat by twos on the narrow thwarts; and, with their faces +to the prow, dipped their paddles simultaneously into the stream, with a +regularity of movement not to be surpassed by the most experienced +boat's crew of Europe. In the stern of each sat a chief guiding his bark +with the same unpretending but skilful and efficient paddle, and behind +him drooping in the breezeless air, and trailing in the silvery tide, +was to be seen a long pendant, bearing the red cross of England. + +It was a novel and beautiful sight to behold that imposing fleet of +canoes, apparently so frail in texture that the dropping of a pebble +between the skeleton ribs might be deemed sufficient to perforate and +sink them, yet withal so ingeniously contrived as to bear safely not +only the warriors who formed their crews, but also their arms of all +descriptions, and such light equipment of raiment and necessaries as +were indispensable to men who had to voyage long and far in pursuit of +the goal they were now rapidly attaining. The Indians already encamped +near the fort, were warriors of nations long rendered familiar by +personal intercourse, not only with the inhabitants of the district, but +with the troops themselves; and these, from frequent association with +the whites, had lost much of that fierceness which is so characteristic +of the North American Indian in his ruder state. Among these, with the +more intelligent Hurons, were the remnants of those very tribes of +Shawnees and Delawares whom we have recorded to have borne, half a +century ago, so prominent a share in the confederacy against England, +but who, after the termination of that disastrous war, had so far +abandoned their wild hostility, as to have settled in various points of +contiguity to the forts to which they, periodically, repaired to receive +those presents which a judicious policy so profusely bestowed. + +The reinforcement just arriving was composed principally of warriors who +had never yet pressed a soil wherein civilization had extended her +influence--men who had never hitherto beheld the face of a white, unless +it were that of the Canadian trader, who, at stated periods, penetrated +fearlessly into their wilds for purposes of traffic, and who to the +bronzed cheek that exposure had rendered nearly as swarthy as their own, +united not only the language but so wholly the dress--or rather the +undress of those he visited, that he might easily have been confounded +with one of their own dark-blooded race. So remote, indeed, were the +regions in which some of these warriors had been sought, that they were +strangers to the existence of more than one of their tribes, and upon +these they gazed with a surprise only inferior to what they manifested, +when, for the first time, they marked the accoutrements of the British +soldier, and turned with secret, but acknowledged awe and admiration +upon the frowning fort and stately shipping, bristling with cannon, and +vomiting forth sheets of flame as they approached the shore. In these +might have been studied the natural dignity of man. Firm of step--proud +of mien--haughty and penetrating of look, each leader offered in his own +person a model to the sculptor, which he might vainly seek elsewhere. +Free and unfettered every limb, they moved in the majesty of nature, and +with an air of dark reserve, passed, on landing, through the admiring +crowd. + +There was one of the number, however, and his canoe was decorated with a +richer and a larger flag, whose costume was that of the more civilized +Indians, and who in nobleness of deportment, even surpassed those we +have last named. This was Tecumseh. He was not of the race of either of +the parties who now accompanied him, but of one of the nations, many of +whose warriors were assembled on the bank awaiting his arrival. As the +head chief of the Indians, his authority was acknowledged by all, even +to the remotest of these wild but interesting people, and the result of +the exercise of his all-powerful influence had been the gathering +together of those warriors, whom he had personally hastened to collect +from the extreme west, passing in his course and with impunity, the +several American posts that lay in their way. + +It was amidst the blaze of a united salvo from the demi-lune crowning +the bank, and from the shipping, that the noble chieftain, accompanied +by the leaders of those wild tribes, leaped lightly, yet proudly to the +beach; and having ascended the steep bank by a flight of rude steps cut +out of the earth, finally stood amid the party of officers waiting to +receive them. It would not a little have surprised a Bond street +exquisite of that day to have witnessed the cordiality with which the +dark hand of the savage was successively pressed in the fairer palms of +the English officers, neither would his astonishment have been abated, +on remarking the proud dignity of carriage maintained by the former, in +this exchange of courtesy, as though, while he joined heart to hand +wherever the latter fell, he seemed rather to bestow than to receive a +condescension. + +Had none of those officers ever previously beheld him, the fame of his +heroic deeds had gone sufficiently before the warrior to have insured +him their warmest greeting and approbation, and none could mistake a +form that, even amid those who were a password for native majesty, stood +alone in its bearing; but Tecumseh was a stranger to few. Since his +defeat on the Wabash he had been much at Amherstburg where he had +rendered himself conspicuous by one or two animated and highly eloquent +speeches, having for their object the consolidation of a treaty, in +which the Indian interests were subsequently bound in close union with +those of England; and, up to the moment of his recent expedition, had +cultivated the most perfect understanding with the English chiefs. + +It might, however, be seen that even while pleasure and satisfaction at +a reunion with those he in turn esteemed, flashed from his dark and +eager eye, there was still lurking about his manner that secret jealousy +of distinction, which is so characteristic of the haughty Indian. After +the first warm salutations had passed, he became sensible of the absence +of the English chief; but this was expressed rather by a certain +outswelling of his chest, and the searching glance of his restless eye, +than by any words that fell from his lips. Presently, he whom he sought, +and whose person had hitherto been concealed by the battery on the bank, +was seen advancing towards him, accompanied by his personal staff. In a +moment the shade passed away from the brow of the warrior, and warmly +grasping and pressing, for the second time, the hand of a youth--one of +the group of junior officers among whom he yet stood, and who had +manifested even more than his companions the unbounded pleasure he took +in the chieftain's re-appearance--he moved forward, with an ardor of +manner that was with difficulty restrained by his sense of dignity, to +give them the meeting. + +The first of the advancing party was a tall, martial looking man, +wearing the dress and insignia of a general officer. His rather florid +countenance was eminently fine, if not handsome, offering, in its more +Roman than Grecian contour, a model of quiet, manly beauty; while the +eye beaming with intelligence and candor, gave, in the occasional +flashes which it emitted, indication of a mind of no common order. There +was, notwithstanding, a benevolence of expression about it that blended +(in a manner to excite attention) with a dignity of deportment, as much +the result of habitual self command, as of the proud eminence of +distinction on which he stood. The sedative character of middle age, +added to long acquired military habits, had given a certain rigidity to +his fine form, that might have made him appear to a first observer even +older than he was, but the placidity of a countenance beaming good will +and affability, speedily removed the impression, and, if the portly +figure added to his years, the unfurrowed countenance took from them in +equal proportion. + +At his side, hanging on his arm and habited in naval uniform, appeared +one who, from his familiarity of address with the General, not less than +by certain appropriate badges of distinction, might be known as the +commander of the little fleet then lying in the harbor. Shorter in +person than his companion, his frame made up in activity what it wanted +in height, and there was that easy freedom in his movements which so +usually distinguishes the carriage of the sailor, and which now offered +a remarkable contrast to that rigidity we have stated to have attached, +albeit unaffectedly, to the military commander. His eyes, of a much +darker hue, sparkled with a livelier intelligence, and although his +complexion was also highly florid, it was softened down by the general +vivacity of expression that pervaded his frank and smiling countenance. +The features, regular and still youthful, wore a bland and pleasing +character; while neither, in look, nor bearing, nor word could there be +traced any of that haughty reserve usually ascribed to the "lords of the +sea." There needed no other herald to proclaim him for one who had +already seen honorable service, than the mutilated stump of what had +once been an arm: yet in this there was no boastful display, as of one +who deemed he had a right to tread more proudly because he had chanced +to suffer, where all had been equally exposed, in the performance of a +common duty. The empty sleeve, unostentatiously fastened by a loop from +the wrist to a button of the lapel, was suffered to fall at his side, +and by no one was the deficiency less remarked than by himself. + +The greeting between Tecumseh and these officers, was such as might be +expected from warriors bound to each other by mutual esteem. Each held +the other in the highest honor, but it was particularly remarked that +while the Indian Chieftain looked up to the General with the respect he +felt to be due to him, his address to his companion, whom he now beheld +for the first time, was warmer, and more energetic; and as he repeatedly +glanced at the armless sleeve, he uttered one of those quick ejaculatory +exclamations, peculiar to his race, and indicating, in this instance, +the fullest extent of approbation. The secret bond of sympathy which +chained his interest to the sailor, might have owed its being to another +cause. In the countenance of the latter there was much of that eagerness +of expression, and in the eye that vivacious fire, that flashed, even in +repose, from his own swarthier and more speaking features; and this +assimilation of character might have been the means of producing that +preference for, and devotedness to, the cause of the naval commander, +that subsequently developed itself in the chieftain. In a word, the +General seemed to claim the admiration and the respect of the +Indian--the Commodore, his admiration and friendship. + +The greeting between these generous leaders was brief. When the first +salutations had been interchanged, it was intimated to Tecumseh, through +the medium of an interpreter then in attendance on the General, that a +war-council had been ordered, for the purpose of taking into +consideration the best means of defeating the designs of the Americans, +who, with a view to offensive operations, had, in the interval of the +warrior's absence, pushed on a considerable force to the frontier. The +council, however, had been delayed, in order that it might have the +benefit of his opinions and of his experience in the peculiar warfare +which was about to be commenced. + +Tecumseh acknowledged his sense of the communication with the bold +frankness of the inartificial son of nature, scorning to conceal his +just self-estimate beneath a veil of affected modesty. He knew his own +worth, and while he overvalued not one iota of that worth, so did he not +affect to disclaim a consciousness of the fact--that within his swarthy +chest and active brain, there beat a heart and lived a judgment, as +prompt to conceive and execute as those of the proudest _he_ that ever +swayed the destinies of a warlike people. Replying to the complimentary +invitation of the General, he unhesitatingly said he had done well to +await his arrival, before he determined on the course of action, and +that he should now have the full benefit of his opinions and advice. + +If the chief had been forcibly prepossessed in favor of the naval +commander the latter had not been less interested. Since his recent +arrival to assume the direction of the fleet, Commodore Barclay had had +opportunities of seeing such of the chiefs as were then assembled at +Amherstburg; but great as had been his admiration of several of these, +he had been given to understand they fell far short, in every moral and +physical advantage, of what their renowned leader would be found to +possess, when, on his return from the expedition in which he was +engaged, fitting opportunity should be had of bringing them in personal +proximity. This admission was now made in the fullest sense, and as the +warrior moved away to give the greetings to the several chiefs, and +conduct them to the council hall, the gallant sailor could not refrain +from expressing in the warmest terms to General Brock, as they moved +slowly forward with the same intention, the enthusiastic admiration +excited in him by the person, the manner, and the bearing, of the noble +Tecumseh. + +Again the cannon from the battery and the shipping pealed forth their +thunder. It was the signal for the commencement of the council, and the +scene at that moment was one of the most picturesque that can well be +imagined. The sky was cloudless, and the river, no longer ruffled by the +now motionless barks of the recently arrived Indians, yet obeying the +action of the tide, offered, as it glided onward to the lake, the image +of a flood of quicksilver; while, in the distance that lake itself, +smooth as a mirror, spread far and wide. Close under the bank yet +lingered the canoes, emptied only of their helmsmen (the chiefs of the +several tribes,) while with strange tongues and wilder gestures, the +warriors of these, as they rested on their paddles, greeted the loud +report of the cannon--now watching with eager eye the flashes from the +vessel's sides, and now upturning their gaze, and following with wild +surprise, the deepening volumes of smoke that passed immediately over +their heads, from the guns of the battery, hidden from their view by +the elevated and overhanging bank. Blended with each discharge arose the +wild yell, which they, in such a moment of novel excitement, felt it +impossible to control, and this, answered by the Indians above, and +borne in echo almost to the American shore, had in it something +indescribably grand and startling. On the bank itself the scene was +singularly picturesque. Here were to be seen the bright uniforms of the +British officers, at the head of whom was the tall and martial figure of +General Brock, furthermore conspicuous from the full and drooping +feather that fell gracefully over his military hat, mingled with the +wilder and more fanciful head-dresses of the chiefs. Behind these again, +and sauntering at a pace that showed them to have no share in the +deliberative assembly, whither those we have just named were now +proceeding, amid the roar of artillery, yet mixed together in nearly as +great dissimilarity of garb, were to be seen numbers of the inferior +warriors and of the soldiery--while, in various directions, the games +recently abandoned by the adult Indians were now resumed by mere boys. +The whole picture was one of strong animation, contrasting as it did +with the quiet of the little post on the Island, where some twelve or +fifteen men, composing the strength of the detachment, were sitting or +standing on the battery, crowned, as well as the fort and shipping, and +in compliment to the newly arrived Indians, with the colors of England. + +Such was the scene, varied only as the numerous actors in it varied +their movements, when the event occurred with which we commence our next +chapter. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + +Several hours had passed away in the interesting discussion of their war +plans, and the council was nearly concluded, when suddenly the attention +both of the officers and chiefs was arrested by the report of a single +cannon. From the direction of the sound, it was evident that the shot +had been fired from the battery placed on the southern or lakeward +extremity of the island of Bois Blanc, and as the circumstance was +unusual enough to indicate the existence of some approaching cause for +excitement, several of the younger of both, who, from their youth, had +been prevented from taking any active share in the deliberations of the +day, stole, successively and unobservedly, through the large +folding-doors of the building, which, owing to the great heat of the +weather, had been left open. After traversing about fifty yards of +sward, intersecting the high road, which, running parallel with the +river, separated the council-hall from the elevated bank, the officers +found, collected in groups on the extreme verge of this latter, and +anxiously watching certain movements in the battery opposite to them, +most of the troops and inferior Indians they had left loitering there at +the commencement of the council. These movements were hasty, and as of +men preparing to repeat the shot, the report of which had reached them +from the opposite extremity of the island. Presently the forms, hitherto +intermingled, became separate and stationary--an arm of one was next +extended--then was seen to rise a flash of light, and then a volume of +dense smoke, amid which the loud report found its sullen way, bellowing +like thunder through some blackening cloud, while, from the peculiar +nature of the sound, it was recognised, by the experienced in those +matters, to have proceeded from a shotted gun. + +The war of 1812 had its beginning in the manner thus described. They +were the first shots fired in that struggle, and although at an object +little calculated to inspire much alarm, still, as the first indications +of an active hostility, they were proportionably exciting to those whose +lot it was thus to "break ground," for operations on a larger scale. + +Although many an eager chief had found it difficult to repress the +strong feeling of mingled curiosity and excitement, that half raised him +from the floor on which he sat, the first shot had been heard without +the effect of actually disturbing the assembly from its fair propriety; +but no sooner had the second report, accompanied as it was by the wild +yell of their followers without, reached their ears, than, wholly losing +sight of the dignity attached to their position as councillors, they +sprang wildly up, and seizing the weapons that lay at their side, rushed +confusedly forth, leaving Tecumseh, and two or three only of the more +aged chiefs, behind them. The debate thus interrupted, the council was +adjourned, and soon afterwards General Brock, accompanied by his staff, +and conversing, through his interpreter, with the Shawnee chieftain as +they walked, approached the groups still crowded along the bank of the +river. + +Meanwhile, after the discharge of the last gun, the battery on the +island had been quitted by the officer in command, who, descending to +the beach, preceded by two of his men, stepped into a light skiff that +lay chained to the gnarled root of a tree overhanging the current, and +close under the battery. A few sturdy strokes of the oars soon brought +the boat into the centre of the stream, when the stout, broad-built +figure and carbuncled face of an officer in the uniform of the +forty-first regiment, were successively recognised, as he stood upright +in the stern. + +"What the deuce brings Tom Raymond to us in such a hurry? I thought the +order of the general was that he should on no account leave his post, +unless summoned by signal," observed one of the group of younger +officers who had first quitted the council hall, and who now waited with +interest for the landing of their companion. + +"What brings him here, can you ask?" replied one at the side of the +questioner, and with a solemnity of tone and manner that caused the +whole of the group to turn their eyes upon him, as he mournfully shook +his head. + +"Aye, _what_ brings him here?" repeated more than one voice, while all +closed inquiringly around for information. + +"Why the thing is as clear as the carbuncles on his own face--the boat, +to be sure." And the truism was perpetrated with the same provokingly +ludicrous, yet evidently forced, gravity of tone and manner. + +"Execrable, Middlemore.--Will you never give over that vile habit of +punning?" + +"Detestable!" said another. + +"Ridiculous!" repeated a third. + +"Pshaw! the worst you ever uttered!" exclaimed a fourth, and each, as he +thus expressed himself, turned away with a movement of impatience. + +"That animal, Raymond, grows like a very porpoise," remarked a young +captain, who prided himself on the excessive smallness of his waist. +"Methinks that, like the ground-hogs that abound on his island, he must +fatten on hickory nuts. Only see how the man melts in the noonday sun. +But as you say, Villiers, what can bring him here without an order from +the general? And then the gun last fired. Ha! I have it.--He has +discovered a Yankee boat stealing along through the other channel." + +"No doubt there is _craft_ of some description _in the wind_," pursued +the incorrigible Middlemore, with the same affected unconsciousness. + +"Ha!" returned Captain Molineux, the officer who had commented so freely +upon the fat lieutenant in the boat--"Your pun, infamous as it would be +at the best, is utterly without point now, for there has not been a +breath of wind stirring during the whole morning." + +"Pun, did you say?" exclaimed Middlemore, with well affected surprise at +the charge, "my dear fellow, I meant no pun." + +Further remark was checked by an impatience to learn the cause of +Lieutenant Raymond's abrupt appearance, and the officers approached the +principal group. The former had now reached the shore, and, shuffling up +the bank as fast as his own corpulency and the abruptness of the ascent +would permit, hastened to the general, who stood at some little distance +awaiting the expected communication of the messenger. + +"Well, Mr. Raymond, what is it--what have you discovered from your +post?" demanded the General, who, with those around him, found +difficulty in repressing a smile at the heated appearance of the fat +subaltern, the loud puffing of whose lungs had been audible before he +himself drew near enough to address the chief--"something important, I +should imagine, if we may judge from the haste with which you appear to +have travelled over the short distance that separates us?" + +"Something very important, indeed, General," answered the officer, +touching his undress cap, and speaking huskily from exertion; "there is +a large bark, sir, filled with men, stealing along shore in the American +channel, and I can see nothing of the gun boat that should be stationed +there. A shot was fired from the eastern battery, in the hope of +bringing her to, but, as the guns mounted there are only carronades, the +ball fell short, and the suspicious looking boat crept still closer to +the shore--I ordered a shot from my battery to be tried, but without +success, for, although within range, the boat hugs the land so closely +that it is impossible to distinguish her hull with the naked eye." + +"The gun boat not to be seen, Mr. Raymond?" exclaimed the General; "how +is this, and who is the officer in command of her?" + +"One," quickly rejoined the Commodore, to whom the last query was +addressed, "whom I had selected for that duty for the very vigilance and +desire for service attributed to him by my predecessor--of course I have +not been long enough here, to have much personal knowledge of him +myself." + +"His name?" asked the General. + +"Lieutenant Grantham." + +"Grantham?" repeated the General, with a movement of surprise; "It is +indeed strange that _he_ should forego such an opportunity." + +"Still more strange," remarked the commodore, "that the boat he commands +should have disappeared altogether. Can there be any question of his +fidelity? the Granthams are Canadians, I understand." + +The general smiled, while the young officer who had been noticed so +particularly by Tecumseh on his landing, colored deeply. + +"If," said the former, "the mere circumstance of their having received +existence amid these wilds can make them Canadians, they certainly are +Canadians; but if the blood of a proud race can make them Britons, such +they are. Be they which they may, however, I would stake my life on the +fidelity of the Granthams--still, the cause of this young officer's +absence must be inquired into, and no doubt it will be satisfactorily +explained. Meanwhile, let a second gunboat be detached in pursuit." + +The commodore having given the necessary instructions to a young +midshipman, who attended him in the capacity of an aid-de-camp, and the +general having dismissed Lieutenant Raymond back to his post on the +island, these officers detached themselves from the crowd, and, while +awaiting the execution of the order, engaged in earnest conversation. + +"By Jove, the commodore is quite right in his observation," remarked the +young and affected looking officer, who had been so profuse in his +witticisms on the corpulency of Lieutenant Raymond; "the general may say +what he will in their favor, but this is the result of entrusting so +important a command to a Canadian." + +"What do you mean, sir?" hastily demanded one even younger than +himself--it was the youth already named, whose uniform attested him to +be a brother officer of the speaker. He had been absent for a few +minutes, and only now rejoined his companions, in time to hear the +remark which had just been uttered. + +"What do you mean, Captain Molineux?" he continued, his dark eye +flashing indignation, and his downy cheek crimsoning with warmth. "Why +this remark before me, sir, and wherefore this reflection on the +Canadians?" + +"Why really, Mr. Grantham," somewhat sententiously drawled the captain; +"I do not altogether understand your right to question in this tone--nor +am I accountable for any observations I may make. Let me tell you, +moreover, that it will neither be wise nor prudent in you, having been +received into a British regiment to become the Don Quixotte of your +countrymen." + +"_Received_ into a British regiment, sir! do you then imagine that I, +more than yourself, should feel this a distinction," haughtily returned +the indignant youth. "But, gentlemen, your pardon," checking himself and +glancing at the rest of the group, who were silent witnesses of the +scene; "I confess I do feel the distinction of being admitted into so +gallant a corps--this in a way, however, that must be common to us all. +Again I ask, Captain Molineux," turning to that officer, "the tendency +of the observations you have publicly made in regard to my brother." + +"Your question, Mr. Grantham might, with as much propriety, be addressed +to any other person in the full enjoyment of his senses, whom you see +here, since it is the general topic of conversation; but, as you seem to +require an answer from me particularly, you shall have it. My remark +referred to the absence of the officer in charge of the gun-boat from +the station allotted to him, at a moment when an _armed_ vessel of the +enemy is in sight. Is this the fact, or is it not?" + +"By which remark," returned the other, "you would imply that said +officer is either guilty of gross neglect or--" + +"I draw no inferences, Mr. Grantham, but even if I did, I should be more +borne out by circumstances than you imagine." + +"It is plain you would insinuate that my brother shuns the enemy, +Captain Molineux--You shall answer to me for this insult, sir." + +"As you please, Mr. Grantham, but on one condition only." + +"Name it, sir, name it," said the young officer quickly. + +"That it is satisfactorily proved your brother has _not_ shunned the +enemy." + +Bitter feelings swelled the heart of the enthusiastic Grantham, as +unconsciously touching the hilt of his sword, he replied: "If your hope +of avoidance rest on this, sir, it will be found to hang upon a very +thread indeed." + +The attention of the group where this unpleasant scene had occurred, and +indeed of all parties, was now diverted by the sudden appearance of the +American boat, as, shooting past the head of the island, which had +hitherto concealed her from the view of the assembled crowds, her spars +and white sails became visible in the far distance. A slight and +favorable breeze, blowing off the shore which she still closely hugged, +had now apparently sprung up, and, spreading all her canvass, she was +evidently making every effort to get beyond the reach of the battery +(whither Lieutenant Raymond had returned), under whose range she was +unavoidably impelled by the very wind that favored her advance. Owing to +some temporary difficulty, the gun-boat, just ordered by the commodore +to follow in pursuit, was longer than suited the emergency in getting +under way, and when she had succeeded in so doing, nearly half an hour +elapsed before, owing to the utter absence of wind, as well as the +rapidity of the current, she could be brought by the aid of her long and +cumbrous sweeps to clear the head of the island. The American, now +discovered to have a small detachment of troops on board, had by this +time succeeded in getting out of the range of a fire, which although +well directed had proved harmless, and, using every exertion of oar and +sail, bade fair, favored as she was by the breeze which reached not the +canvass of her enemy, to effect her escape. + +Concern sat on every brow, and was variously expressed--loud yells +marking the fierce disappointment of the Indians, and undisguised +murmurs that of the more disciplined troops. Coupled with this feeling, +among the officers at least, naturally arose the recollection of him to +whose apparent neglect this escape of the enemy was to be attributed, +until at length the conduct of Lieutenant Grantham was canvassed +generally, and with a freedom little inferior to that which, falling +from the lips of Captain Molineux, had so pained his sensitive +brother--with this difference, however, that in this instance they were +the candidly expressed opinions of men arraigning the conduct of one of +their fellows apparently guilty of a gross dereliction from duty, and +not, as in the former they had seemed to be, with any ungenerous +allusion to his fidelity. + +Warmly, and therefore audibly, commented on as was the unaccountable +absence of the officer, by individuals of almost every rank, it was +impossible that many of those observations could escape the attention of +the excited Henry Grantham. Mortified beyond measure at the fact, yet +unable, as he had done before, to stand forth the champion of his +brother's honor, where all (with a very few exceptions, among whom he +had the consolation to find the general) were united in opinion against +him, his situation was most painful. Not that he entertained the +remotest doubt of his brother bearing himself harmlessly through the +ordeal, but that his generous, yet haughty spirit could ill endure the +thought of any human being daring to cherish, much less to cast the +slightest aspersion on his blood. + +Finding it vain to oppose himself to the torrent of openly expressed +opinion, the mortified youth withdrew to a distance, and, hastening +among the rude tumuli we have described, as being scattered about the +edge of the bank, stood watching, with folded arms and heaving chest, +the gradually receding bark of the enemy. Alternately, as he thus gazed, +his dark eye now flashed with the indignation of wounded pride, now +dilated with the exulting consciousness of coming triumph. The assurance +was strong within him, not only that his brother would soon make his +appearance before the assembled groups who had had the cruelty to impugn +his conduct, but that he would do so under circumstances calculated to +change their warm censure into even more vehement applause. Fully +impressed with the integrity of his absent relative, the impetuous and +generous hearted youth paused not to reflect that circumstances were +such as to justify the belief--or at least the doubt--that had been +expressed, even by the most impartial of those who had condemned him. It +seemed to him that others ought to have known and judged him as he +himself did, and he took a secret delight in dwelling on the +self-reproach which he conceived would attach to them, when it should be +found how erroneous had been the estimate formed of his character. + +While he thus gazed, with eyes intently bent upon the river, and +manifesting even a deeper interest as the fleeing bark drew momentarily +nearer to one particular point in the distance, the young officer heard +footsteps approaching him. Hastily dashing away a tear which had been +called up by a variety of emotions, he turned and beheld the Chieftain +Tecumseh, and with him one who, in the full uniform of the British +Staff, united, in his tall and portly figure, the martial bearing of the +soldier to the more polished graces of the habitual courtier. + +"Henry, my noble boy," exclaimed the latter, as he pressed the hand of +the youth, "you must not yield to these feelings. I have marked your +impatience at the observations caused by Gerald's strange absence, but I +have brought you one who is too partial to you both to join in the +condemnation. I have explained every thing to him, and he it was who, +remarking you to be alone, and suspecting the cause, first proposed +coming to rouse you from your reverie." + +Affectionately answering the grasp of his noble looking uncle, Henry +Grantham turned at the same time his eloquent eye upon that of the +chieftain, and, in a few brief but expressive sentences, conveyed, in +the language of the warrior, the gratification he experienced in his +unchanged confidence in the absent officer. + +As he concluded, with a warmth of manner that delighted him to whom he +addressed himself, their hands met for the third time that day. Tecumseh +at length replied, by pointing significantly to the canoes which still +lay floating on the river, unemptied of their warriors, stating at the +same time, that had not his confidence in his young friend been +unbounded, he would long since have despatched those canoes in pursuit; +but he was unwilling the officer should lose any of the credit that must +attach to the capture. "I know," he concluded, "where he is lying like +the red skin in pursuit of the enemy. Be patient, and we shall soon see +him." + +Before Henry Grantham could find time to inquire if the place of ambush +was not the same to which his own hopes, induced by his perfect +knowledge of localities, had, throughout, pointed as the spot most +likely to conceal the hitherto invisible gun boat, his attention, and +that of his immediate companion, was drawn to a scene that carried a +glow of exultation to the bosoms of them all. + +The American boat, long since out of range of the battery, and scudding +with a speed that mocked the useless exertions of those on board of the +second gun boat, who could with difficulty impel her through the +powerful eddy formed by the island, had been gradually edging from her +own shore into the centre of the stream. This movement, however, had the +effect of rendering her more distinguishable to the eye, breasting, as +she did, the rapid stream, as while hugging the land, even when much +nearer, she had been confounded with the dark line of brushwood which +connected the forest with the shore. She had now arrived opposite a neck +of land beyond which ran a narrow, deep creek, the existence of which +was known only to few, and here it chanced that in the exultation of +escape, they gave a cheer that was echoed back from either shore, +hoisting at the same moment the American colors. Scarcely, however, had +this cheer been uttered, when a second and more animating, was heard +from a different point, and presently, dashing into the river, and +apparently issuing from the very heart of the wood, was to be seen the +gun-boat, which had been the subject of so much conversation, every +stitch of her white canvass bellying from the masts, and her dark prow +buried in a wreath of foam created by her own speed. As she neared the +American a column of smoke, followed a second or two later by a dull +report, rose from her bows, enveloping her a moment from the view, and +when next visible she was rapidly gaining on the chase. The yells of the +Indians and the hurrahs of the soldiers gave an indescribable animation +to the scene. + +This was indeed a moment of proud triumph to the heart of Henry +Grantham. He saw his brother not only freed from every ungenerous +imputation, but placed in a situation to win to himself the first +laurels that were to be plucked in the approaching strife. The +"Canadian," as he imagined he had been superciliously termed, would be +the first to reap for Britain's sons the fruits of a war in which those +latter were not only the most prominent actors, but also the most +interested. Already, in the enthusiasm of his imagination, he pictured +to himself the honor and promotion, which bestowed upon his gallant +brother, would be reflected upon himself, and, in the deep excitement of +his feelings, he could not avoid saying aloud, heedless of the presence +of his uncle: + +"Now, Captain Molineux, your only difficulty is removed--my brother has +revenged himself. With me you will have an account to settle on my own +score." + +"What do you mean, Henry?" seriously inquired Colonel D'Egville; "surely +you have not been imprudent enough to engage in a quarrel with one of +your brother officers." + +Henry briefly recounted the conversation which had taken place between +Captain Molineux and himself. + +"Far be it from my intention to check the nice sense of honor which +should be inherent in the breast of every soldier," returned his uncle +impressively, "but you are too sensitive. Henry; Captain Molineux, who +is, moreover, a very young man, may not have expressed himself in the +most guarded manner, but he only repeated what I have been compelled to +hear myself--and from persons not only older, but much higher in rank. +Take my advice, therefore, and let the matter rest where it is; Gerald, +you see, has given the most practical denial to any observations which +have been uttered of a nature derogatory to his honor." + +"True," quickly returned the youth, with a flushing cheek, "Gerald is +sufficiently avenged, but you forget the taunt he uttered against +Canadians!" + +"And if he did utter such taunt, why acknowledge it as such?" calmly +rejoined Colonel D'Egville; "are you ashamed of the name? I too am a +Canadian, but so far from endeavoring to repudiate my American birth, I +feel pride in having received my being in a land where everything +attests the sublimity and magnificence of nature. Look around you, my +nephew, and ask yourself what there is in the wild grandeur of these +scenes to disown. But, ha!"--as he cast his eyes upon the water--"I fear +Gerald will lose his prize after all; the enemy is giving him the Indian +double." + +During the foregoing short conversation, an important change had been +effected in the position of the adverse boats. The shot fired, +apparently with the view of bringing the enemy to, had produced no +favorable result; but no sooner had the gun-boat come abreast of the +chase, than the latter, suddenly clewing up her sails, put her helm +about, and plying every oar with an exertion proportioned to the +emergency, made rapidly for the coast she had recently left. The +intention of the crew was evidently to abandon the unarmed boat, and to +seek safety in the woods. Urged by the rapidity of her own course, the +gun-boat had shot considerably ahead, and when at length she also was +put about, the breeze blew so immediately in her teeth that it was found +impossible to regain the advantage which had been lost. Meanwhile, the +American continued her flight, making directly for the land, with a +rapidity that promised fair to baffle every exertion on the part of her +pursuer. The moment was one of intense interest to the crowd of +spectators who lined the bank. At each instant it was expected the fire +of the gun-boat would open upon the fugitives; but although this was +obviously the course to be adopted, it being apparent a single shot was +sufficient to sink her--not a flash was visible--not a report was heard. +Presently, however, while the disappointment of the spectators from the +bank was rising into murmurs, a skiff filled with men was seen to pull +from the gun-boat in the direction taken by the chase, which was +speedily hidden from view by the point of land from which the latter had +previously been observed to issue. Behind this her pursuer also +disappeared, and after a lapse of a few minutes, pistol and musket shots +were distinguished, although they came but faintly on the ear. These +gradually became more frequent and less distinct, until suddenly there +was a profound pause--then three cheers were faintly heard--and all +again was still. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + +A full half hour had succeeded to these sounds of conflict, and yet +nothing could be seen of the contending boats. Doubt and anxiety now +took the place of the confidence that had hitherto animated the bosoms +of the spectators, and even Henry Grantham--his heart throbbing +painfully with emotions induced by suspense--knew not what inference to +draw from the fact of his brother's protracted absence. Could it be that +the American, defended as she was by a small force of armed men, had +succeeded, not only in defeating the aim of her pursuer, but also in +capturing her. Such a result was not impossible. The enemy against whom +they had to contend yielded to none in bravery; and as the small bark +which had quitted the gun-boat was not one third of the size of that +which they pursued, it followed of necessity, that the assailants must +be infinitely weaker in numbers than the assailed. Still no signal of +alarm was made by the gun-boat, which continued to lie to, apparently in +expectation of the return of the detached portion of her crew. Grantham +knew enough of his brother's character to feel satisfied that he was in +the absent boat, and yet it was impossible to suppose that one so imbued +with the spirit of generous enterprise should have succumbed to his +enemy, after a contest of so short duration, as, from the number of +shots heard, this had appeared to be. That it was terminated, there +could be no doubt. The cheers, which had been followed by an universal +silence, had given evidence of this fact; yet why, in that case, if his +brother had been victorious, was he not already on his return? +Appearances, on the other hand, seemed to induce an impression of his +defeat. The obvious course of the enemy, if successful, was to abandon +their craft, cut off from escape by the gun-boat without, and to make +the best of their way through the woods, to their place of destination, +the American fort of Detroit--and, as neither party was visible, it was +to be feared this object had been accomplished. + +The minds of all were more or less influenced by these doubts, but that +of Henry Grantham was especially disturbed. From the first appearance of +the gun-boat his spirits had resumed their usual tone, for he had looked +upon the fleeing bark as the certain prize of his brother, whose +conquest was to afford the flattest denial to the insinuation that had +been urged against him. Moreover, his youthful pride had exulted in the +reflection that the first halo of victory would play around the brow of +one for whom he could have made every personal sacrifice; and now, to +have those fair anticipations clouded at the very moment when he was +expecting their fullest accomplishment, was almost unendurable. He felt, +also, that, although his resolution was thus made to stand prominently +forth, the prudence of his brother would assuredly be called in +question, for having given chase with so inferior a force, when a single +gun fired into his enemy must have sunk her. In the impatience of his +feelings, the excited young soldier could not refrain from adding his +own censure of the imprudence, exclaiming, as he played his foot +nervously upon the ground: "Why the devil did he not fire and sink her, +instead of following in that nutshell?" + +While he was yet giving utterance to his disappointment, a hasty +exclamation met his ear from the chieftain at his side, who, placing one +hand on the shoulder of the officer, with a familiar and meaning grasp, +pointed, with the fore-finger of the other, in the direction in which +the boats had disappeared. Before Grantham's eye could follow, an +exulting yell from the distant masses of Indians announced an advantage +that was soon made obvious to all. The small dark boat of the pursuing +party was now seen issuing from behind the point, and pulling slowly +towards the gun-boat. In the course of a minute or two afterwards +appeared the American, evidently following in the wake of the former, +and attached by a tow-line to her stern. The yell pealed forth by the +Indians when the second boat came in view, was deafening in the extreme; +and everything became commotion along the bank, while the little fleet +of canoes, which still lay resting on the beach, put off one after the +other to the scene of action. + +Meanwhile, both objects had gained the side of the gun-boat, which, +favored by a partial shifting of the wind, now pursued her course down +the river with expanded sails. Attached to her stern, and following at +quarter cable distance, was to be seen her prize, from which the +prisoners had been removed. + +Informed of the success which had crowned the enterprise of their +officer, the crews of the several vessels in the harbor swelled the +crowd assembled on the bank near the fort, to which point curiosity and +a feeling of interest had moreover brought many of the town's people, so +that the scene finally became one of great animation. + +The gun-boat had now arrived opposite the fort, when the small bark, +which had recently been used in pursuit, was again drawn up to the +quarter. Into this, to the surprise of all, was first lowered a female, +hitherto unobserved; next followed an officer in the blue uniform of the +United States regular army; then another individual, whose garb +announced him as being of the militia, and whose rank as an officer was +only distinguishable from the cockade surmounting his round hat, and an +ornamented dagger thrust into a red morocco belt encircling his waist. +After these came the light and elegant form of one, habited in the +undress of a British naval officer, who, with one arm supported by a +black silk handkerchief, evidently taken from his throat, and suspended +from his neck, and with the other grasping the tiller of the rudder, +stood upright in the boat, which, urged by six stout rowers, now stood +at his command towards the landing place, above which lingered, +surrounded by several officers of either service, General Brock and +Commodore Barclay. + +"Well, Commodore, what think you of your Lieutenant now?" observed the +former to his friend; "the young Canadian you must admit, has nobly +redeemed my pledge. On the score of his fidelity there could exist no +doubt, and as for his courage, you see," pointing to the young man's +arm, "his conquest has not been bloodless to himself, at least." + +"With all my soul do I disclaim the wrong I have done him," was the +emphatic and generous rejoinder. "He is, indeed, a spirited youth; and +well worthy of the favorable report which led me to entrust him with the +command--moreover he has an easy grace of carriage which pleased and +interested me in his favor, when I first saw him. Even now, observe how +courteously he bends himself to the ear of his female prisoner, as if to +encourage her with words of assurance, that she may sustain the presence +and yells of these clamorous beings." + +The boat had now reached the beach, but the difficulty of effecting a +passage, through the band of wild Indians that crowded, yelling, in +every direction, to take a nearer view of the prisoners, would, perhaps, +have proved insurmountable, had it not been for the interference of one +who alone possessed the secret of restraining their lawlessness. +Tecumseh had descended to the beach, eager to be the first to +congratulate his young friend. He pressed the hand promptly extended to +receive his, and then, at a single word, made those give way whose +presence impeded the landing of the party. + +Pursuing their way up the rude steps by which Lieutenant Raymond had +previously descended, the little band of prisoners soon stood in the +presence of the group assembled to receive them. On alighting from the +boat, the youthful captor had been seen to make the tender of his +uninjured arm to the lady, who, however, had rejected it, with a +movement, seemingly of indignant surprise, clinging in the same moment +to her more elderly companion. A titter among the younger officers, at +Gerald Grantham's expense had followed this rejection of his proffered +arm. + +The young sailor was the first to gain the summit of the bank. +Respectfully touching his hat, and pointing to the captives, who +followed a few paces in his rear: + +"General--Commodore," he observed, his cheek flushing with a +consciousness of the gratifying position in which he stood, "I have the +honor to present to you the first fruits of your good fortune. This +gentleman," pointing to the elder officer, "is the commander of the +party, and the lady I believe is----" + +"Certainly a non-combatant on this occasion," interrupted the General, +raising his plumed hat, and bowing to the party alluded to; "Gentlemen," +he pursued, addressing the two officers, "I am sorry we do not meet +exactly on the terms to which we have so long been accustomed; but, +although the fortune of war has made you rather unwilling guests in the +present instance, the rites of hospitality shall not be the less +observed. But Mr. Grantham, you have forgotten to introduce these +officers by name." + +"I plead guilty, General, but the truth is I have neglected to make the +inquiry myself." + +"Major Montgomerie, sir, of the United States Infantry," interposed the +elderly officer, completely set at his ease by the affable and attentive +manner of the British leader. "This young lady is my niece." + +Again the general slightly, but courteously, bowed. "I will not, Major +Montgomerie, pay you the ill timed compliment of expressing pleasure in +seeing you on an occasion like the present, since we must unquestionably +consider you a prisoner of war; but if the young lady your niece, has +any desire to continue her journey to Detroit, I shall feel pleasure in +forwarding her thither under a flag of truce." + +"I thank you much, General, for this mark of your attention," returned +the American; "but I think I may venture to answer for my niece, that +she will prefer remaining with me." + +"Not so, sir;" said a voice deep but femininely soft. "General," she +continued, throwing aside her veil, which had hitherto concealed +features pale even to wanness, "I have the strongest--the most urgent +reasons--for the prosecution of my journey, and gladly do I accept your +offer." + +The earnest manner of her address struck every hearer with surprise, +contrasting as it did, with the unchanging coldness of her look; but the +matter was a source of serious concern to her uncle. He regarded her +with an air of astonishment, not unmixed with displeasure. + +"How is this, Matilda," he asked; "after having travelled thus far into +the heart of this disturbed district would you now leave me?" + +"Major Montgomerie," she pursued, somewhat impatiently, "we are in the +presence of strangers, to whom this discussion must be uninteresting--My +mind is fully made up, and I avail myself of the British General's +offer." + +"Certainly, certainly," observed that officer, somewhat disconcerted by +the scene; "and I can do it the more readily, as it is my intention to +send an instant summons to the garrison of Detroit. Miss Montgomerie +will, however, do well to consider before she decides. If the summons be +not obeyed, another week will see our columns marching to the assault, +and she must be prepared for all the horrors of such an extremity, +aided, as I am compelled to be, (and he glanced at the groups of Indians +who were standing around, but at some distance, looking silently yet +eagerly at the prisoners,) by these wild and ungovernable warriors. +Should she, on the contrary, decide on remaining here with her uncle, +she will be perfectly safe." + +"General," emphatically returned Miss Montgomerie, "were I certain that +the columns to which you allude would not be repulsed whenever they may +venture upon that assault, and were I as certain of perishing beneath +the tomahawk and scalping knife of these savages"--and she looked +fearlessly towards them--"still would my determination remain the same." + +As she concluded, a hectic spot rose to either cheek, lingered there a +moment, and then left it colorless as before. + +"Be it so, Miss Montgomerie, my word is pledged and you shall +go--Grantham, I had intended sending one of my personal staff with the +summons, but, on reflection, you shall be the bearer. As the captor of +the lady, to you shall be awarded the charge of delivering her over to +her friends." + +"Friends!" involuntarily repeated the American, her cheek becoming even +paler than before, and her lips compressed in a way to indicate some +deep and painful emotion. Again she dropped her veil. + +No other notice was taken of the interruption than what the surprised +manner of Major Montgomerie manifested, and the General proceeded; + +"I would ask you, Major Montgomerie, to become my guest while you remain +with us, but I fear that, as a bachelor, I have but indifferent +accommodation to offer to your niece." + +"If Miss Montgomerie will accept it," said Colonel D'Egville, +interposing, "I shall be most happy to afford her the accommodation of a +home until she finally departs for the opposite shore. If the attention +of a family of daughters," he continued, more immediately addressing +himself to the young lady, "can render your temporary sojourn among us +less tedious, you have but to command them." + +So friendly an offer could not well be refused. Miss Montgomerie +inclined her head in acquiescence, and Colonel D'Egville drew her arm +within his own. + +"It were unkind," remarked the general, good-humoredly, "to separate +Major Montgomerie altogether from his niece. Either the young lady must +partake of our rude fare, or we shall consider ourselves included in +your dinner party." + +"You could not confer on me a greater pleasure, General, and indeed I +was about to solicit it. Commodore Barclay, may I hope that so short and +unceremonious an invitation will be excused by the circumstances? Good, +I shall expect you. But there is yet another to be included among our +guests. Gerald, you will not fail to conduct this gentleman, whose name +I have not yet had the pleasure of hearing"--and he looked at the +latter, as if he expected him to announce himself. + +"I fear, sir," observed the young officer, pointedly, "that your dinner +party would be little honored by such an addition. Although he wears the +uniform of an American officer, this person is wholly unworthy of it and +of a seat at your table." + +Every eye was turned with an expression of deep astonishment on the +speaker, and thence upon the form of the hitherto scarcely noticed +militia officer; who, with his head sunk sullenly upon his chest, and an +eye now and then raised stealthily to surrounding objects, made no +attempt to refute, or even to express surprise at, the singular +accusation of his captor. + +"This is strong language to apply to a captive enemy, and that enemy +apparently an officer," gravely remarked the general; "yet I cannot +believe Mr. Grantham to be wholly without grounds for his assertion." + +Before Grantham could reply, a voice in the crowd exclaimed, as if the +utterer had been thrown off his guard, "What--Phil!" + +On the mention of this name, the younger prisoner looked suddenly up +from the earth on which his gaze had been riveted, and cast a rapid +glance around him. + +"Nay, nay, my young friend, do not, as I see you are, feel hurt at my +observation," resumed the general, extending his hand to Gerald +Grantham; "I confess I did at one moment imagine that you had been rash +in your assertion, but from what has this instant occurred, it is +evident your prisoner is known to others as well as to yourself. No +doubt we shall have everything explained in due season. By the bye, of +what nature is your wound? slight, I should say, from the indifference +with which you treat it." + +"Slight, General--far slighter," he continued, coloring, "than the wound +that was sought to be affixed to my fair name in my absence." + +All looked at the speaker, and at each other with surprise, for, as yet, +there could have been no communication to him of the doubts which had +been entertained. + +"Who is it of you all, gentlemen," pursued the young man, with the same +composedness of voice and manner, and turning particularly to the +officers of the forty-first regiment, who were grouped around their +chief, "Who is it, I ask, on whom has devolved the enviable duty of +reporting me as capable of violating my faith as a subject, and my honor +as an officer?" + +There was no reply, although the same looks of surprise were +interchanged; but, as he continued to glance his eye around the circle, +it encountered, either by accident or design, that of Captain Molineux, +on whose rather confused countenance the gaze of Henry Grantham was at +that moment bent with an expression of much meaning. + +"No one answers," continued the youth; "then the sting has been +harmless. But I crave your pardon, General--I am claiming an exemption +from censure which may not be conceded by all. Commodore, how shall I +dispose of my prisoners?" + +"Not so, Mr. Grantham; you have sufficiently established your right to +repose, and I have already issued the necessary instructions. Yet, while +you have nobly acquitted yourself of _your_ duty, let me also perform +_mine_. Gentlemen," he continued, addressing the large circle of +officers, "I was the first to comment on Mr. Grantham's supposed neglect +of duty, and to cast a doubt on his fidelity. That I was wrong I admit, +but right I trust will be my reparation, and whatever momentary pain he +may experience in knowing that he has been thus unjustly judged, it +will, I am sure, be more than compensated for, when he hears that by +General Brock himself his defence was undertaken, even to the pledging +of his own honor. Mr. Grantham," concluded the gallant officer, "how you +have obtained your knowledge of the conversation that passed here during +your absence, is a mystery I will not now pause to inquire into, but I +would fain apologize for the wrong I have done. Have I your pardon?" + +At the commencement of this address, the visible heaving of his full +chest, the curling of his proud lip, and the burning flush of his dark +cheek, betrayed the mortification Gerald felt, in having been placed in +a position to be judged thus unjustly; but, as the commodore proceeded, +this feeling gradually passed away, and when the warm defence of his +conduct by the general was alluded to, closed as the information was +with a request for pardon, his temporary annoyance was banished, and he +experienced only the generous triumph of one who is conscious of having +won his way, through calumny and slander, to the well merited +approbation of all right minded men. + +"Come, come," interposed the general, more touched than he was willing +to appear, by the expressive manner in which the only hand of the +commodore now grasped that of his lieutenant, and perceiving that the +latter was about to reply--"We will defer all further explanation until +a later period. But, before we depart, this person must be disposed of; +Major Montgomerie, excuse my asking if you will be personally +responsible for your fellow prisoner?" + +"Certainly not!" returned the Major quickly, and with something like +alarm at the required responsibility; "that is to say, he does not +belong to the United States regular service, and I know nothing of him. +Indeed, I never saw him before last night, when he joined me with a +verbal message from Detroit." + +Hitherto the individual spoken of had preserved an unbroken silence, +keeping, as we have already shown, his gaze riveted upon the ground, +except at intervals, when he looked around with an eye of suspicion, as +if to measure the distance that separated him from the groups of Indians +in the background. The disclaimer of the major had, however, the effect +of restoring to him the use of his tongue. Casting his uncertain eye on +the gentlemanly person of the latter, he exclaimed, in a tone of +insufferable vulgarity: + +"I'll tell you what it is, Mister Major--you may think yourself a +devilish fine feller, but I guess as how an officer of the Michigan +Militia is just as good and as spry as any blue coat in the United +States rig'lars; so there's that (snapping his fingers) for pretendin' +not to know me." + +An ill-suppressed titter pervaded the group of British officers--the +general alone preserving his _serieux_. + +"May I ask your name?" he demanded. + +"I guess, gin'ril, it's Paul Emilius Theophilus Arnoldi, ensign in the +United States Michigan Militia," was answered with a volubility strongly +in contrast with the preceding silence of the speaker. + +"Then, Mr. Arnoldi, as an officer in the American militia, you shall +enjoy your liberty on parole. I need not, I presume, sir, point out to +you the breach of private honor and national faith consequent on any +violation of that parole." + +"I guess not, gin'ril, for, I take it, the word of a Michigan militia +officer is as good as that of any United States rig'lar as ever stepped +in shoe leather." + +Another very pardonable disposition on the part of the younger officers +to indulge in mirth, was interrupted by the general, desiring a young +aide-de-camp to procure the necessary billet and accommodation for +Ensign Arnoldi. + +These two individuals having moved away in search of the required +lodging, the general, with his staff and prisoner guests, withdrew +towards the fort. Their departure was the signal for the breaking up of +the groups, and all dispersed to their several homes, and in pursuit of +their various duties. The recently arrived Indians were distributed +throughout the encampment, already occupied as we have described, and +the prisoners taken in the morning were provided with suitable +accommodation. + +As Colonel D'Egville was about to enter the gate of the fort, with his +fair charge leaning on his arm, Gerald Grantham approached the party, +with the intention of addressing the general in regard to the prisoner +Arnoldi; but finding him engaged in close conversation with Major +Montgomerie, he lingered, as if awaiting a fitting opportunity to open +the subject. + +While he yet loitered, the eye of Miss Montgomerie met his. What it +expressed we will not venture to describe, but its effect upon the young +officer was profound. The moment before, discouraged by her apparent +reserve, he had stood coldly by, but now startled into animation, he +bent upon her an earnest and corresponding look; then, with a wild +tumult at his heart, which he neither sought to stifle nor to analyze, +and wholly forgetting what had brought him to the spot, he turned and +joined his brother, who, at a short distance, stood awaiting his return. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + +At the garrison mess-table that evening the occurrences of the day +naturally formed a chief topic of conversation; and a variety of +conjectures, more or less probable, regarding the American lady, were +hazarded by the officers to some of whom she had become an object of +curiosity, as she had to others of interest. This conversation, +necessarily _parenthèsed_ with much extraneous matter, in the nature of +rapid demands for solids and liquids, during the interesting period +devoted to the process of mastication, finally assumed a more regular +character when the cloth had been removed, and the attendants retired. + +"Apropos," remarked Captain Granville, who filled the president's chair. +"We ought to have toasted your brother's gallant exploit, Henry; +gentlemen, fill your glasses--all full? Then I will give you the health +of Lieutenant Grantham, of the squadron." + +The toast was responded to by all but Captain Molineux. His glass had +been filled and raised, but its contents remained untasted. + +The omission was too marked not to be noticed by more than one of the +party; Henry Grantham, whose eye had been fixed on Captain Molineux at +the time, of course detected the slight. He sat for some minutes +conversing with an unusual and evidently forced animation; then, +excusing his early departure under the plea of an engagement with his +brother, rose and quitted the mess-room. + +"What have you done with the ugly lout you took charge of, De Courcy?" +inquired Captain Cranstoun, interrupting the short and meaning pause +which had succeeded to Grantham's departure. + +"Why, I calculate, captain," returned the lively aid-de-camp, imitating +the nasal drawl and language which had called up so much mirth, even in +presence of the general--"I calculate as how I have introduced Ensign +Paul, Emilius, Theophilus Arnoldi, of the United States Michigan +Militia, into pretty considerable snug quarters--I have billeted him at +the inn, in which he had scarcely set foot, when his first demand was +for a glass of 'gin sling,' wherewith to moisten his partick'lar damn'd +hot, baked clay." + +"What a vulgar and uncouth animal," observed St. Clair, a Captain of +Engineers--"I am not at all surprised at Major Montgomerie's +disinclination to acknowledge him as a personal acquaintance." + +"It is to be hoped," said De Courcy, "we shall not encounter many such +during the approaching struggle, for, since we have been driven into +this war, it will be a satisfaction to find ourselves opposed to an +enemy rather more chivalrous than this specimen seems to promise." + +"Nay, nay, De Courcy," remarked Captain Granville, "you must not judge +of the American officers of the line by that standard; as, for example, +Major Montgomerie and the person just alluded to. Last winter," he +continued, "there was a continued interchange of hospitalities between +the two posts, and, had you been here to participate in them, you would +have admitted that among the officers of Detroit, there were many very +superior men indeed." + +"Pleasant ball, that last they gave," said Lieutenant Villiers, with a +malicious laugh, and fixing his eyes on the Captain of Grenadiers. + +"The devil take the ball," impatiently retorted Cranstoun, who did not +seem to relish the allusion; "don't talk about it now, man." + +"What was it, Villiers? do pray tell us. Something good, I am sure from +Cranstoun's manner," eagerly asked the aid-de-camp, his curiosity +excited by the general titter that followed the remark. + +"Shall I tell him, Cranstoun?" asked Villiers, in the same bantering +tone. + +"Don't bother me," petulantly returned the other, as, thrusting his long +legs under the table and turning his back upon the questioner, he +joined, or affected to join, in a conversation that was passing, in a +low tone, at his end of the room. + +"I must premise," began Villiers, addressing himself to the attentively +listening De Courcy, "that such is the mania for dancing in this country +scarcely any obstacle is sufficient to deter a Canadian lady, +particularly a French Canadian, from indulging in her favorite +amusement. It is, therefore, by no means unusual to see women drawn in +sleighs over drifting masses of ice, with chasms occasionally occurring +of from fifteen to twenty feet--and that at a moment when, driven by +wind and current, the huge fragments are impelled over each other with a +roar that can only be likened to continuous thunder, forming, in various +directions, hillocks from which the sun's rays are reflected in a +thousand fantastic shades and shapes. On these occasions the sleighs, or +carioles, are drawn, not as otherwise customary, by the fast-trotting +little horses of the country, but by expert natives whose mode of +transportation is as follows: A strong rope is fastened to the extremity +of the shafts, and into this the French Canadian, buried to the chin in +his blanket coat, and provided with a long pole terminating in an iron +hook, harnesses himself, by first drawing the loop of the cord over the +back of his neck, and then passing it under his arms. In this manner +does he traverse the floating ice, stepping from mass to mass with a +rapidity that affords no time for the detached fragment to sink under +the weight with which it is temporarily laden. As the iron-shod runners +obey the slightest impulsion, the draught is light; and the only fatigue +encountered is in the act of bringing the detached bodies together. +Wherever an opening intervenes, the Canadian throws forward his pole, +and, securing the pointed hook in some projection of the floating ice, +drags it towards that on the extreme verge of which he stands. In like +manner he passes on to the next, when the same operation remains to be +performed, until the passage is fully effected. Sometimes it happens +that a chasm of more than ordinary extent occurs, in which case the pole +is unavailable, and then his only alternative is to wait patiently until +some distant mass, moving in a direction to fill up the interstice, +arrives within his reach. In the meanwhile the ice on which he stands +sinks slowly and gradually, until sometimes it quite disappears beneath +the surface of the water." + +"And the women, all this time?" demanded De Courcy, with something of +the nervousness which might be attributed to such a situation. + +"Sit as quietly and as unconcernedly, wrapped in their furs, as if they +were merely taking their customary drive on terra firma," continued +Villiers; "nay, I am persuaded that if they ever entertain an anxiety on +those occasions, it is either lest the absence of one of these +formidable masses should compel them to abandon an enterprise, the bare +idea of entering upon which would give an European woman an attack of +nerves, or that the delayed aid should be a means of depriving them of +one half minute of their anticipated pleasure." + +"Why," interrupted Middlemore, despite of a dozen ohs and ahs--"why, I +say, is Villiers like a man of domestic habits? Do you give it up? +Because he is fond of dwelling on his own premises." + +"Middlemore, when will you renounce that vile habit of punning?" said De +Courcy, with an earnestness of adjuration that excited a general laugh +at his end of the table. "Come, Villiers, never mind his nonsense, for +your premises, although a little long, are not without deep +interest--but what has all this to do with our good friend above?" + +"You shall hear. After a succession of balls last winter, to which the +ladies of either shore were invariably invited, the concluding one was +given by the officers in garrison at Detroit. This was at the very close +of the season, and it chanced that, on the preceding night, the river +had broken up, so that the roar and fracas of crashing ice might have +been likened, during forty-eight hours afterwards, to some terrible +disorganization of nature. Nothing daunted, however, by the +circumstance, many of the Canadian ladies made the usual preparations, +and among others the Miss D'Egvilles." + +Here Villiers paused a moment, and with a significant "hem," sought to +arouse the attention of the grenadier; but Cranstoun, insensible to the +appeal, and perhaps unwilling to listen to a story that occasioned so +much mirth whenever it was repeated, continued with his back immovably +turned towards the speaker. + +"All very well," pursued Villiers; "but we know the adage--'none so deaf +as those who will not hear.' I have said," again turning to De Courcy, +while those who were near listened not without interest to the story, +familiar even as it was to them all, "that the Miss D'Egvilles were of +the party. At that time our friend was doing the amiable to the lively +Julia, although we never could persuade him to confess his penchant; +and, on this occasion, he had attached himself to their immediate +sleigh. Provided, like the Canadians, with poles terminated by an iron +hook at one end and a spike at the other, we made our way after their +fashion, but in quicker time than they possibly could, harnessed as they +were in the sledges. With the aid of these poles, we cleared, with +facility, chasms of from ten to twelve feet, and alighting on our +moccasined feet, seldom incurred much risk of losing our hold. Our ball +dresses were taken in charge by the ladies, so that our chief care was +the safe passage of our own persons. We all arrived without accident, +and passed a delightful evening, the American officers exerting +themselves to give the _coup d'éclat_ to the last ball of the season." + +"Yes," interrupted the incorrigible Middlemore, as he cracked a peccan +nut, "and the balls reserved for us this season will also carry with +them the _coup de grass_." + +"The night," pursued Villiers, no one noticing the interruption save by +an impatient 'pish,' "gave every indication of a speedy break up. The +ice yet floated along in disjoined masses, but with even greater +rapidity than on the preceding day. Two alternatives remained--either to +attempt the crossing before further obstacle should be interposed, or to +remain in Detroit until the river had been so far cleared of the ice as +to admit of a passage in canoes. With our leaping poles, we were not so +much at a loss, but the fear entertained was principally for the safety +of the sleighs. Nothing dismayed, however, by the dangerous appearance +of the river, the ladies, after due deliberation, courageously resolved +on returning without delay, and we accordingly set out on our somewhat +hazardous expedition. + +"Notwithstanding it was, as I have already remarked, the close of +winter, the cold was intense, and we were warmly clad. I do not know if +you have ever seen Cranstoun's huge bear skin coat, (an affirmative nod +was given by De Courcy), well: in this formidable covering had he +encased himself, so that when he quitted the town, surmounted as his +head was moreover with a fur cap, he presented more of the appearance of +a dancing bear than of a human creature. In this guise he attached +himself to the sleigh of the D'Egvilles, which, in crossing, happened to +be the furthest down the river, of the group." + +"What a damn'd long time you are telling that stupid story, Villiers," +at length noticed Cranstoun, wheeling round and regarding the narrator +with a look of ill assumed indifference, "I could have told it myself in +half the time." + +"I am afraid you would not tell it so faithfully," replied Lieutenant +Villiers, amid the loud laugh which was now raised at Cranstoun's +expense. "You see it is so good a thing, I like to make the most of it." + +Here Cranstoun again turned his back upon the party, and Villiers +pursued. + +"The main body of the expedition had got nearly half way across the +river, when suddenly our ears were assailed by moanings, resembling +those of some wild beast, mingled with incessant and ungovernable +laughter. Checking our course, and turning to behold the cause, we +observed, about a hundred yards below us, the sledge of the D'Egvilles, +from which the almost convulsive laughter proceeded, and at a +considerable distance beyond this again, an object the true character of +which we were some time in discovering. + +"It appeared, on subsequent explanation, that Cranstoun, who had been +whispering soft nothings in the ear of Julia D'Egville, (here the +captain was observed to prick his ear without materially altering his +position) hem! Cranstoun, I say, it appeared had also taken it into his +head to give her a specimen of his agility, by an attempt to clear a +space between two masses of ice of somewhat too great a breadth for a +heavy grenadier, buttoned up to the chin in a ponderous bear skin coat. +He succeeded in gaining the opposite piece of ice, but had no sooner +reached it, than he fell, entangled in such a manner in his covering +that he found it impossible to extricate himself. To add to his +disaster, the force of his fall broke off, from the main body, the +section of ice on which he rested. Borne down by the current, in spite +of his vain struggles to free himself, he was unable even to call for +aid, his fingers moreover being so benumbed with cold that he found it +impossible to unbutton the straps which confined his mouth. In this +emergency he could only utter the strange and unintelligible moan which +had reached our ears, and which, mingled with the bursts of laughter +from Julia D'Egville, formed a most incongruous melange. + +"The best of the adventure remains, however, to be told. Numbers of the +peasantry from either shore, provided with poles, guns, and ropes, were +now to be seen rushing towards the half congealed Cranstoun, fully +imagining--nay exclaiming--that it was a wild bear, which, in an attempt +to cross the river, had had its retreat cut off, and was now, from +insensibility, rendered harmless. Disputes even arose in the distance as +to whom the prize should belong, each pursuer claiming to have seen it +first. Nay, more than one gun had been levelled with a view of +terminating all doubt by lodging a bullet in the carcase, when, +fortunately, for the subject in dispute, this proposal was overruled by +the majority, who were more anxious to capture than to slay the supposed +bear. Meanwhile the Canadian, harnessed to the sleigh of the D'Egvilles, +roared out with all his lungs for the two parties to hasten to the +assistance of the drowning British officer. In the confusion produced by +their own voices, however, they did not appear to hear or understand +him; yet all pursued the aim they had in view. Cranstoun's body was so +doubled up that it was impossible for any one, who had not witnessed the +accident, to imagine it anything in nature but a bear; and this +impression, the strange moaning he continued to make, tended to +confirm. + +"The party of Canadians, favored by the nature of their floating +ice-bridges, were the first to come up to him. A desperate effort of his +cramped muscles had enabled Cranstoun to extend one of his legs, at the +moment when they were about to throw a noose round his neck, and this +was the first intimation the astonished peasantry had of their supposed +prize being a human being, instead of the fat bear they had expected. +Poor Cranstoun was of course liberated from his 'durance vile,' but so +chilled from long immersion, that he could not stand without assistance, +and it was not until one of their companions had approached with a +sleigh that he could be removed. He kept his bed three days, as much I +believe from vexation as illness, and has never worn his unlucky bear +skin since; neither has he forgiven Julia D'Egville the laugh she +enjoyed at his expense. Cranstoun," he concluded, "you may turn now, the +story is told." + +But Cranstoun, apparently heedless of the laugh that followed this--as +indeed it did every--narration of the anecdote, was not to be shaken +from his equanimity. He continued silent and unmoved, as if he had not +heard a word of the conclusion. + +"Poor Cranstoun," exclaimed the joyous De Courcy, in a strain of +provoking banter, "what an unfortunate leap that was of yours; and how +delighted you must have felt when you again stepped on terra firma." + +"I don't wonder at his leap being unfortunate," observed Middlemore, all +eyes fixed upon him in expectation of what was to follow, "for Julia +D'Egville can affirm that, while paying his court to her, he had not +chosen a _leap year_." + +While all were as usual abusing the far strained pun, a note was brought +in by the head waiter and handed to the punster. The officer read it +attentively, and then, with an air of seriousness which in him was +remarkable, tossed it across the table to Captain Molineux, who, since +the departure of Henry Grantham, had been sitting with his arms folded, +apparently buried in profound thought, and taking no part either in the +conversation or the laughter which accompanied it. A faint smile passed +over his features, as, after having read, he returned it, with an +assentient nod to Middlemore. Shortly afterwards, availing himself of +the opportunity afforded by the introduction of some fresh topic of +conversation, he quitted his seat, and whispering something in the ear +of Villiers, left the mess room. Soon after, the latter officer +disappeared from the table, and in a few moments his example was +followed by Middlemore. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + +The dinner party at Colonel D'Egville's was composed in a manner to +inspire an exclusive with irrepressible horror. At the suggestion of +General Brock, Tecumseh had been invited, and, with him, three other +celebrated Indian chiefs, whom we beg to introduce to our readers under +their familiar names--Split-log--Round-head--and Walk-in-the-water--all +of the formidable nation of the Hurons. In his capacity of +superintendent of Indian affairs, Colonel D'Egville had been much in the +habit of entertaining the superior chiefs, who, with a tact peculiar to +men of their sedate and serious character, if they displayed few of the +graces of European polish, at least gave no manifestation of an innate +vulgarity. As it may not be uninteresting to the reader to have a slight +sketch of the warriors, we will attempt the portraiture. + +The chief Split-log, who indeed should rather have been named Split-ear, +as we shall presently show, was afflicted with an aldermanic rotundity +of person, by no means common among his race, and was one, who from his +love of ease and naturally indolent disposition, seemed more fitted to +take his seat in the council than to lead his warriors to battle. Yet +was he not, in reality, the inactive character he appeared, and more +than once subsequently he was engaged in expeditions of a predatory +nature, carrying off the customary spoils. We cannot impart a better +idea of the head of the warrior than by stating, that we never recall +that of the gigantic Memnon, in the British Museum, without being +forcibly reminded of Split-log's. The Indian, however, was notorious for +a peculiarity which the Egyptian had not. So enormous a head, seeming to +require a corresponding portion of the several organs, nature had, in +her great bounty, provided him with a nose, which, if it equalled not +that of Smellfungus in length, might, in height and breadth, have +laughed it utterly to scorn. Neither was it a single, but a double +nose--two excrescences, equalling in bulk a moderate sized lemon, and of +the spongy nature of a mushroom, bulging out, and lending an expression +of owlish wisdom to his otherwise heavy features. As on that of the +Memnon, not a vestige of a hair was to be seen on the head of Split-log. +His lips were, moreover, of the same unsightly thickness, while the +elephantine ear had been slit in such a manner, that the pliant +cartilage, yielding to the weight of several ounces of lead which had +for years adorned it, now lay stretched, and coquetting with the brawny +shoulder on which it reposed. Such was the Huron, or Wyandot Chief, +whose cognomen of Split-log had, in all probability, been derived from +his facility in "suiting the action to the word;" for, in addition to +his gigantic nose, he possessed a fist, which in size and strength might +have disputed the palm with Maximilian himself; although his practice +had chiefly been confined to knocking down his drunken wives, instead of +oxen. + +The second Chief, Round-head, who, by the way, was the principal in +reputation after Tecumseh, we find the more difficulty in describing +from the fact of his having had few or none of those peculiarities which +we have, happily for our powers of description, been enabled to seize +hold of in Split-log. His name we believe to have been derived from that +indispensable portion of his frame. His eye was quick, even penetrating, +and his stern brow denoted intelligence and decision of character. His +straight, coal-black hair, cut square over the forehead, fell long and +thickly over his face and shoulders. This, surmounted by a round +slouched hat, ornamented with an eagle's feather, which he ordinarily +wore and had not even now dispensed with, added to a blue capote or +hunting frock, produced a _tout ensemble_, which cannot be more happily +rendered than by a comparison with one of his puritanical sly-eyed +namesakes of the English Revolution. + +Whether our third hero, Walk-in-the-water, derived his name from any +aquatic achievement which could possibly give a claim for its adoption, +we have no means of ascertaining; but certain it is, that in his +features he bore a striking resemblance to the portraits of Oliver +Cromwell. The same small, keen, searching eye, the same iron +inflexibility of feature, together with the long black hair escaping +from beneath the slouched hat, (for Walk-in-the-water, as well as +Round-head, was characterised by an unconscious imitation of the +Rounheads of the Revolution)--all contributed to render the resemblance +as perfect as perfection of resemblance can be obtained, where the +physical, and not the moral, man, forms the ground of contrast. + +Far above these in nobleness of person, as well as in brilliancy of +intellect, was the graceful Tecumseh. Unlike his companions, whose dress +was exceedingly plain, he wore his jerkin or hunting coat of the most +beautifully soft and pliant deer-skin, on which were visible a variety +of tasteful devices, exquisitely embroidered with the stained quills of +the porcupine. A shirt of dazzling whiteness was carefully drawn over +his expansive chest, and in his equally white shawl-turban was placed an +ostrich feather, the prized gift of the lady of the mansion. On all +occasions of festivity, and latterly in the field, he was wont thus to +decorate himself; and never did the noble warrior appear to greater +advantage than when habited in this costume. The contrast it offered to +his swarthy cheek and mobile features, animated as they were by the +frequent flashing of his eagle eye, seldom failed to excite admiration +in the bosoms of all who saw him. + +The half hour that elapsed between the arrival of the several guests and +the announcement of dinner, was passed under the influence of feelings +almost as various in kind as the party itself. Messieurs Split-rock, +Round-head, and Walk-in-the-water, fascinated by the eagles on the +buttons of Major Montgomerie's uniform, appeared to regard that officer +as if they saw no just cause or impediment why certain weapons dangling +at their sides should not be made to perform, and that without delay, an +incision into the cranium of their proprietor. True, there was a +difficulty. The veteran major was partially bald, and wanted the top +knot or scalping tuft, which to a true warrior was indispensable; not +that we mean to insinuate, that either of these chiefs would so far have +forgotten the position in which that gentleman stood, as to have been +tempted into any practical demonstration of hostility: but there was a +restlessness about the eye of each, that--much like the instinct of the +cat, which regards with natural avidity the bird that is suffered to go +at large within his reach, without daring openly to attack it--betrayed +the internal effort it cost them to lose sight of the enemy in the +prisoner and friend of the superintendent. The major, on the other hand, +although satisfied he was under the roof of hospitality, did not at +first appear altogether at his ease, but, while he conversed with the +English officers, turned ever and anon an eye of distrust on the +movements of his swarthy fellow guests. On the arrival of Tecumseh, who, +detained until a late hour by the arrangements he had been making for +the encampment and supplies of his new force, was the last to make his +appearance, the major's doubts passed entirely away. It was impossible +to be in the presence of this chieftain, and fail, even without any +other index to his soul than what the candor of his expression afforded, +to entertain all the security that man may repose on man. He had in him, +it is true, too much of the sincerity of nature, to make anything like a +friendly advance to one of a people on whom he charged all the +misfortunes of his race, and for whom he had avowed an inextinguishable +hostility of heart and purpose; but, unless when this might with strict +propriety be exercised, the spirit of his vengeance extended not; and +not only would he have scorned to harm a fallen foe, but his arm would +have been the first uplifted in his defence. + +Notwithstanding the glance of intelligence which Captain Granville had +remarked, and which we have previously stated to have been directed by +Miss Montgomerie to her captor a few hours before, there was nothing in +her manner during dinner to convey the semblance of a prepossession. +True, that in the tumultuous glow of gratified vanity and dawning love, +Gerald Grantham had executed a toilet, into which, with a view to the +improvement of the advantage he imagined himself to have gained, all the +justifiable coquetry of personal embellishment had been thrown; but +neither the handsome blue uniform with its glittering epaulette, nor the +beautiful hair on which more than usual pains had been bestowed, nor the +sparkling of his dark eye, nor the expression of a cheek, rendered +doubly animated by excitement, nor the interestingly displayed arm _en +écharpe_--none of these attractions, we repeat, seemed to claim even a +partial notice from her they were intended to captivate. Cold, +colorless, passionless, Miss Montgomerie met him with the calmness of an +absolute stranger; and when, with the recollection of the indescribable +look she had bestowed upon him glowing at his heart, Gerald again sought +in her eyes some trace of the expression that had stirred every vein +into transport, he found there indifference the most complete. How great +his mortification was, we will not venture to describe, but the arch and +occasional raillery of his lively cousin, Julia D'Egville, seemed to +denote most plainly that the conqueror and the conquered had exchanged +positions. + +Nor was this surprising; Miss Montgomerie's travelling habit had been +discarded for the more decorative ornaments of a dinner toilet, in +which, however, the most marked simplicity was observed. A plain white +muslin dress gave full development to a person which was of a perfection +that no dress could have disguised. It was the bust of a Venus, united +to a form, to create which would have taxed the imaginative powers of a +Praxiteles--a form so faultlessly moulded, that every movement presented +some new and unpremeditated grace. What added to the surpassing richness +of her beauty was her hair, which, black, glossy, and of eastern +luxuriance, and seemingly disdaining the girlishness of curls, reposed +in broad Grecian bands across a brow, the intellectual expression of +which they contributed to form. Yet never did woman exhibit in her +person and face more opposite extremes of beauty. If the one was +strikingly characteristic of warmth, the other was no less indicative of +coldness. Fair, even to paleness, were her cheek and forehead, which +wore an appearance of almost marble immobility, save when, in moments of +oft recurring abstraction, a slight but marked contraction of the brow +betrayed the existence of a feeling, indefinable indeed to the observer, +but certainly unallied to softness. Still she was beautiful--coldly, +classically, beautiful--eminently calculated to inspire passion, but +seemingly incapable of feeling it. + +The coldness of Miss Montgomerie's manner was no less remarkable. Her +whole demeanor was one of abstraction. It seemed as if heedless, not +only of ceremony, but of courtesy, her thoughts and feelings were far +from the board of whose hospitality she was partaking. Indeed, the very +few remarks she made during dinner referred to the period of departure +of the boat, in which she was to be conveyed to Detroit, and on this +subject she displayed an earnestness, which, even Grantham thought, +might have been suppressed in the presence of his uncle's family. +Perhaps he felt piqued at her readiness to leave him. + +Under these circumstances, the dinner was not, as might be expected, +particularly gay. There was an embarrassment among all, which even the +circulating wine did not wholly remove. Major Montgomerie was nearly as +silent as his niece. Mrs. D'Egville, although evincing all the kindness +of her really benevolent nature--a task in which she was assisted by her +amiable daughters--still felt that the reserve of her guest insensibly +produced a corresponding effect upon herself; while Colonel D'Egville, +gay, polished, and attentive, as he usually was, could not wholly +overcome an apprehension that the introduction of the Indian chiefs had +given offence to both uncle and niece. Still, it was impossible to have +acted otherwise. Independently of his strong personal attachment to +Tecumseh, considerations involving the safety of the province, +threatened as it was, strongly demanded that the leading chiefs should +be treated with the respect due to their station; and moreover, while +General Brock and Commodore Barclay were present, there could be no +ground for an impression that slight was intended. Both these officers +saw the difficulty under which their host labored, and sought by every +gentlemanly attention, to remove whatever unpleasantness might lurk in +the feelings of his American guests. + +The dessert brought with it but little addition to the animation of the +party, and it was a relief to all, when, after a toast proposed by the +general to the "Ladies of America," Mrs. D'Egville made the usual signal +for withdrawing. + +As soon as they had departed, followed a moment or two afterwards by +Tecumseh and Gerald Grantham, Messieurs Split-log, Round-head, and +Walk-in-the-water, deliberately taking their pipe-bowl tomahawks from +their belts, proceeded to fill them with kinni-kinnick, a mixture of +Virginia tobacco and odoriferous herbs, than which no perfume can be +more fragrant. Amid the clouds of smoke puffed from these at the lower +end of the table, where had been placed a supply of whiskey, their +favorite liquor--did Colonel D'Egville and his more civilized guests +quaff their claret; more gratified than annoyed by the savoury +atmosphere wreathing around them, while, taking advantage of the early +departure of the abstemious Tecumseh, they discussed the merits of that +chief, and the policy of employing the Indians as allies, as will be +seen in the following chapter. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + +"What a truly noble looking being!" observed Major Montgomerie, as he +followed with his eye the receding form of the athletic but graceful +Tecumseh. "Do you know, Colonel D'Egville, I could almost forgive your +nephew his success of this morning, in consideration of the pleasure he +has procured me in this meeting." + +Colonel D'Egville looked the gratification he felt at the avowal. "I am +delighted, Major Montgomerie, to hear you say so. My only fear was that, +in making those chieftains my guests at the same moment with yourself +and niece, I might have unconsciously appeared to slight, where slight +was certainly not intended. You must be aware, however, of the rank held +by them among their respective nations, and of their consequent claim +upon the attention of one to whom the Indian interests have been +delegated." + +"My dear sir," interrupted the Major, eager to disclaim, "I trust you +have not mistaken me so far, as to have imputed a reserve of speech and +manner during dinner, to which I cannot but plead guilty, to a +fastidiousness which, situated as I am, (and he bowed to the general and +commodore,) would have been wholly misplaced. My distraction, pardonable +perhaps under all the circumstances, was produced entirely by a +recurrence to certain inconveniences which I felt might arise to me from +my imprisonment. The captive bird," he pursued, while a smile for the +first time animated his very fine countenance, "will pine within its +cage, however gilded the wires which compose it. In every sense, my +experience of to-day only leads me to the expression of a hope, that all +whom the chances of war may throw into a similar position, may meet with +a similar reception." + +"Since," observed the General, "your private affairs are of the +importance you express, Major Montgomerie, you shall depart with your +niece. Perhaps I am rather exceeding my powers in this respect, but, +however this may be, I shall take the responsibility on myself. You will +hold yourself pledged, of course, to take no part against us in the +forthcoming struggle, until you have been regularly exchanged for +whatever officer of your own rank, may happen to fall into the hands of +your countrymen. I shall dispatch an express to the Commander in-Chief, +to intimate this fact, requesting at the same time, that your name may +be put down in the first list for exchange." + +Major Montgomerie warmly thanked the General for his kind offer, of +which he said he should be glad to avail himself, as he did not like the +idea of his niece proceeding without him to Detroit, where she was an +entire stranger. This, he admitted, determined as she had appeared to +be, was one of the unpleasant subjects of his reflection during dinner. + +With a view of turning the conversation, and anxious moreover, to obtain +every information on the subject, the general now inquired in what +estimation Tecumseh was generally held in the United States. + +"Among the more intelligent classes of our citizens, in the highest +possible," was the reply; "but by those who are not so capable of +judging, and who only see, in the indomitable courage and elevated +talents of the patriot hero, the stubborn inflexibility of the mere +savage, he is looked upon far less flatteringly. By all, however, is he +admitted to be formidable without parallel, in the history of Indian +warfare. His deeds are familiar to all, and his name is much such a +bugbear to American childhood, as Marlborough's was in France, and +Napoleon's is in England. It is a source of much regret to our +Government never to have been enabled to conciliate this extraordinary +man." + +"What more feasible," remarked the General, but with a tone and manner +that could not possibly give offence; "had not the difficulty been of +its own creation? Treaty after treaty, you must admit, major, had been +made and violated under various pretexts, while the real motive--the +aggrandizement of territories already embracing a vast portion of their +early possessions--was carefully sought to be concealed from these +unfortunate people. How was it to be expected then that a man, whom the +necessities of his country had raised up to itself in the twofold +character of statesman and warrior--one gifted with a power of analyzing +motives which has never been surpassed in savage life--how, I ask, was +it to be expected that he, with all these injuries of aggression +staring him in the face, should have been won over by a show of +conciliation, which long experience, independently of his matured +judgment, must have assured him was only held forth to hoodwink, until +fitting opportunity should be found for again throwing off the mask." + +"To the charge of violating treaties," returned Major Montgomerie, who +took the opposite argument in perfectly good part, "I fear, general, our +Government must to a certain extent plead guilty--much, however, remains +to be said in excuse. In the first place, it must be borne in mind that +the territory of the United States, unlike the kingdom of Europe, has no +fixed or settled boundary whereby to determine its own relative bearing. +True it is, that we have the Canadas on one portion of our frontier, but +this being a fixed line of demarcation, there can exist no question as +to a mutual knowledge of the territorial claims of both countries. +Unlike that of the old world, however our population is rapidly +progressing, and where are we to find an outlet for the surplus of that +population unless, unwilling as we are to come into collision with our +more civilized neighbors, we can push them forward into the interior. In +almost all the contracts entered into by our Government with the +Indians, large sums have been given for the lands ceded by the latter. +This was at once, of course, a tacit and mutual revocation of any +antecedent arrangements, and if instances have occurred wherein the +sacredness of treaty has been violated, it has only been where the +Indians have refused to part with their lands for the proffered +consideration, and when those lands have been absolutely indispensable +to our agricultural purposes. Then indeed has it been found necessary to +resort to force. That this principle of "might being the right," may be +condemned _in limine_ it is true, but how otherwise, with a +superabundant population, can we possibly act?" + +"A superabundance of territory, I grant you, but surely not of +population," remarked the commodore; "were the citizens of the United +States condensed into the space allotted to Europeans, you might safely +dispense with half the Union at this moment." + +"And what advantages should we then derive from the possession of nearly +a whole continent to ourselves?" + +"Every advantage that may be reaped consistently with common justice. +What would be thought in Europe, if, for instance to illustrate a point, +and assuming these two countries to be in a state of profound peace, +Spain, on the principle of might, should push her surplus population +into Portugal, compelling the latter kingdom to retire back on herself, +and crowd her own subjects into the few provinces that might yet be left +to them." + +"I cannot admit the justice of your remark, commodore," returned Major +Montgomerie, gradually warming into animation; "Both are civilized +powers, holding the same rank and filling nearly the same scale among +the nations of Europe. Moreover, there does not exist the same +difference in the natural man. The uneducated negro is, from infancy and +long custom, doomed to slavery, wherefore should the copper colored +Indian be more free? But my argument points not at their subjection. I +would merely show that, incapable of benefitting by the advantages of +the soil they inherit, they should learn to yield it with a good grace +to those who can. Their wants are few, and interminable woods yet remain +to them, in which their hunting pursuits may be indulged without a fear +of interruption." + +"That it will be long," observed the General, "before, in so vast a +continent, they will be without a final resting place, I readily admit; +but the hardship consists in this--that they are driven from particular +positions to which their early associations lend a preference. What was +it that stirred into a flame, the fierce hostility of Tecumseh but the +determination evinced by your Government to wrest, from the hands of his +tribe, their last remaining favorite haunts on the Wabash?" + +"This cannot be denied, but it was utterly impossible we could forego +the possession of countries bordering so immediately on our settlements. +Had we pushed our colonization further, leaving the tribes of the Wabash +in intermediate occupation, we ran the risk of having our settlers cut +off in detail, at the slightest assumed provocation. Nay, pretexts would +have been sought for the purpose, and the result of this would have been +the very war into which we were unavoidably led. The only difference +was, that, instead of taking up arms to avenge our slaughtered kinsmen, +we anticipated the period that must sooner or later have arrived, by +ridding ourselves of the presence of those from whose hostility we had +everything to apprehend." + +"The expediency of these measures," said the General, "no one, Major, +can of course doubt; the only question at issue is their justice, and in +making this remark it must be obvious there is no particular allusion to +the United States, further than that country serves to illustrate a +general principle. I am merely arguing against the right of a strong +power to wrest from a weaker what may be essential to its own interest, +without reference to the comfort, or wishes, or convenience of the +latter." + +"In such light assuredly do I take it," observed Major Montgomerie, +bowing his sense of the disclaimer. "But to prove to you, general, that +we are only following in the course pursued by every other people of the +world, let us, without going back to the days of barbarism, when the +several kingdoms of Europe were overrun by the strongest, and when your +own country in particular became in turn the prey of Saxons, Danes, +Normans, &c., merely glance our eyes upon those provinces which have +been subjugated by more civilized Europe. Look at South America, for +instance, and then say what we have done that has not been far exceeded +by the Spaniards, in that portion of the hemisphere--and yet, with this +vast difference in the balance, that there the European drove before him +and mercilessly destroyed an unoffending race, while we, on the +contrary, have had fierce hostility and treachery everywhere opposed to +our progress. The Spaniards, moreover, offered no equivalent for the +country subdued; now we have ever done so, and only where that +equivalent has been rejected, have we found ourselves compelled to +resort to force. Look again at the islands of the West Indies, the chief +of which are conquests by England. Where are the people to whom +Providence had originally assigned those countries, until the European, +in his thirst for aggrandizement, on that very principle of might which +you condemn, tore them violently away. Gone, extirpated, until scarce a +vestige of their existence remains, even as it must be, in the course of +time, with the Indians of these wilds--perhaps not in this century or +the next, but soon or late assuredly. These two people--the South +Americans and Caribs--I particularly instance, for the very reason that +they offer the most striking parallel with the immediate subject under +discussion. But shall I go further than this, gentlemen, and maintain +that we, the United States, are only following in the course originally +pointed out to us by England." + +"I should be glad to hear your argument," said the Commodore, drawing +his chair closer to the table. + +"And I," added the General, "consider the position too novel not to feel +interested in the manner in which it will be maintained." + +"I will not exactly say," observed Colonel D'Egville, smiling one of his +blandest smiles, and few men understood the winning art better than +himself, "that Major Montgomerie has the happy talent of making the +worse appear the better cause; but certainly, I never remember to have +heard that cause more ably advocated." + +"More subtly perhaps you would say, Colonel; but seriously, I speak from +conviction alone. It is true, as a citizen of the United States, and +therefore one interested in the fair fame of its public acts, that +conviction may partake in some degree of partial influences; still it is +sincere. But to my argument. What I would maintain is, as I have before +stated, that in all we have done we have only followed the example of +England. For instance, when the colonisation of the Eastern and Southern +states of the Union took place, that is to say, when our common +ancestors first settled in this country, how was their object effected? +Why, by driving from their possessions near the sea, in order to make +room for themselves, those very nations whom we are accused of a desire +to exterminate, as if out of a mere spirit of wantonness. Did either +English or Dutch then hesitate as to what course _they_ should pursue, +or suffer any qualms of conscience to interfere with their colonial +plans? No; as a measure of policy--as a means of security--they sought +to conciliate the Indians, but not the less determined were they to +attain their end. Who, then, among Englishmen, would have thought of +blaming their fellow countrymen, when the object in view was the +aggrandizement of the national power, and the furtherance of individual +interests? While the colonists continued tributary to England they could +do no wrong--they incurred no censure. Each succeeding year saw them, +with a spirit that was _then_ deemed worthy of commendation, pushing +their advantages and extending their possessions, to the utter exclusion +and at the expense of the original possessors of the soil. For this they +incurred no blame. But mark the change: no sooner had the war of the +revolution terminated in our emancipation from the leading strings of +childhood--no sooner had we taken rank among the acknowledged nations of +the world--no sooner had we, in a word, started into existence as an +original people--than the course we had undeviatingly pursued in +infancy, and from which we did not dream of swerving in manhood, became +a subject for unqualified censure. What had been considered laudable +enterprise in the English colonist, became unpardonable ambition in the +American republican; and acts affecting the national prosperity, that +carried with them the approbation of society and good government during +our nonage, were stigmatized as odious and grasping the moment we had +attained our majority." + +"Most ably and eloquently argued, Major," interrupted the general, "and +I fear with rather more truth than we Englishmen are quite willing to +acknowledge: still it must be admitted, that what in the first instance +was a necessity, partook no longer of that character at a later period. +In order to colonize the country originally, it was necessary to select +such portions as were, by their proximity to the sea, indispensable to +the perfection of the plan. If the English colonists drove the Indians +into the interior, it was only for a period. They had still vast tracts +to traverse, which have since, figuratively speaking, been reduced to a +mere span: and their very sense of the difference of the motive--that is +to say, of the difference between him who merely seeks whereon to erect +his dwelling, and him who is anxious to usurp to himself the possession +of an almost illimitable territory--cannot be better expressed than by +the different degrees of enmity manifested against the two several +people. When did the fierceness of Indian hatred blaze forth against the +English colonists, who were limited in their views, as it has since +against the subjects of the United States, who, since the Revolution, +have more than tripled their territorial acquisitions?" + +"Nay, general," replied the American, his lip partially curling with a +smile, indicating consciousness of triumphant argument; "I shall defeat +you on your own ground, and that by going back to a period anterior to +the revolution--to the very period you describe as being characterised +by less intense hostility to your own government." + +"What, for instance, have we seen in modern times, to equal the famous +Indian league, which, under the direction of the celebrated Pontiac, a +chieftain only surpassed by Tecumseh, consigned so many of the European +posts to destruction, along this very line of district, about the middle +of the last century. It has been held up as a reproach to us, that we +have principally subjected ourselves to the rancorous enmity of the +Indians, in consequence of having wrested from them their favorite and +beautiful hunting grounds, (Kentucky in particular,) to which their +early associations had linked them. But to this I answer, that in +Pontiac's time this country was still their own, as well as Ohio, +Louisiana, Indiana, &c., and yet the war of fierce extermination was not +the less waged towards the English; not because these latter had +appropriated their principal haunts, but because they had driven them +from their original possessions near the sea. The hatred of the Indians +has ever been the same towards those who first secured a footing on +their continent, and, although we are a distinct people in the eyes of +the civilized world, still we are the same in those of the natives, who +see in us, not the emancipated American, but merely the descendant of +the original colonist. That their hostility has progressed in proportion +with our extension of territory, I cannot altogether admit, for although +our infant settlements have in a great degree suffered from occasional +irruptions of the savages, when men, women and children, have alike been +devoted to the murderous tomahawk, in no way have our fortresses been +systematically assailed, as during the time of Pontiac." + +"For this," interrupted the general, "there are two obvious reasons. In +the first instance, your fortresses are less isolated than ours were at +that period, and secondly, no such intelligent being as the chieftain +you have named, had started up among the Indian nations until now. What +Tecumseh may not effect in course of time, should he not perish in the +struggle for his country's liberty, ought to be a matter of serious +consideration with your Government." + +"Of his great talents and dauntless determination they are fully aware," +replied the major; "but as I have already said, nothing short, not +merely of giving up all claim to future advantages, but of restoring the +country wrested from him on the Wabash, can ever win him from his +hostility; and this is a sacrifice the Government will never consent to +make." + +At this point of the argument, Messieurs Split-log, Round-head, and +Walk-in-the-water, having finished their kinni-kinnick, and imbibed a +due quantum of whiskey; possibly, moreover, not much entertained by the +conversation that was carried on in a language neither of them +understood but imperfectly, rose to take their leave. They successively +shook hands with the British leaders, then advancing towards Major +Montgomerie, with a guttural "Ugh," so accentuated as to express good +will and satisfaction, tendered their dark palms to that officer also, +muttering as they did something about "good Chemocomon." They then with +becoming dignity withdrew, followed by Colonel D'Egville, who had risen +to conduct them to the door. + +The conversation, thus temporarily interrupted, was resumed on that +officer's return. + +"Admitting the truth of your position, Major Montgomerie," remarked the +Commodore, "that the Government of the United States is justified, both +by expediency and example, in the course it has pursued, it will not at +least be denied, that Tecumseh is, on the very same principle, borne out +in the hatred and spirit of hostility evinced by him towards the +oppressors of his country." + +"Granted," returned the Major, "but this point has no reference to my +argument, which tends to maintain, that in all we have done, we have +been justified by necessity and example." + +"The fact is, however, that this position of things is one unavoidably +growing out of the clashing of adverse interests--the Indians being +anxious to check, we to extend, our dominion and power as a people; and +the causes existing now were in being nearly a century ago, and will, in +all probability continue, until all vestige of Indian existence shall +have passed utterly away. When the French were in the occupancy of the +Canadas, having nothing to gain from them, they cultivated the alliance +and friendship of the several nations, and by fostering their fierce +hostility against the English colonists, rendered them subservient to +their views. To-day the English stand precisely where the French did. +Having little to expect from the Indians but assistance in a case of +need, they behold, and have for years beheld, with anything but +indifference, the struggle continued by the United States which was +commenced by themselves. I hope I shall not be understood as expressing +my own opinion, when I add, that in the United States, the same covert +influence is attributed to the commanders of the British fortresses that +was imputed to the French. Indeed it is a general belief, among the +lower classes particularly, that, in all the wars undertaken against the +American out-posts and settlements, the Indians have been instigated to +the outrage by liberal distributions of money and presents from the +British Government." + +"It will hardly be necessary to deny the justice of such an imputation +to Major Montgomerie," remarked the General, with a smile, "especially +after having disavowed the opinion as his own. The charge is too absurd +for serious contradiction--yet we are not altogether ignorant that such +an impression has gone abroad." + +"Few of the more enlightened of our citizens give into the belief," said +the Major; "still it will give me especial pleasure to have it in my +power to contradict the assertion from the lips of General Brock +himself." + +"That we have entered into a treaty of alliance with the Indians," +observed Colonel D'Egville, "is most certainly true; but it is an +alliance wholly defensive. I must further observe, that in whatever +light the policy of the Government of the United States in its relations +with the Indians, may be privately viewed, we are, under all +circumstances, the last people in the world who should condemn it as +injurious to our public interests, since it has been productive of +results affecting the very existence of these provinces. Had the +American Government studied conciliation rather than extension of +territory, it is difficult to say to what side the great body of the +Indians would, in the impending struggle, have leaned. The possibility +of some such event as the present had not only been foreseen, but +anticipated. It has long been obvious to us that the spirit of +acquisition manifested by the United States, would not confine itself to +its customary channels; but on the contrary, that, not contented with +the appropriation of the hunting grounds of the Indians, it would +finally extend its views to Canada. Such a crisis has long been provided +against. Presents, to a large amount, have certainly been distributed +among the Indians, and not only this, but every courtesy, consistent at +once with our dignity and our interest, has been shown to them. You have +seen, for instance," continued he with a smile, "my three friends who +have just left the room; they are not exactly the happiest specimens of +Indian grace, but they have great weight in the council, and are the +leading men in the alliance to which you alluded, although not wholly +for the same purpose. In the wars of Pontiac--and these are still fresh +in the recollection of certain members of my own family--the English +commanders, with one or two exceptions, brought those disasters upon +themselves. Forgetting that the Indians were a proud people, whom to +neglect was to stir into hatred, they treated them with indifference, if +not with contempt; and dearly did they pay the penalty of their fault. +As we all know, they, with only one exception, were destroyed. In their +fall expired the hostility they themselves had provoked, and time had +wholly obliterated the sense of injustice from the minds of the several +nations. Were we then, with these fearful examples yet fresh in our +recollection, to fall into a similar error? No: a course of conciliation +was adopted, and has been pursued for years; and now do we reap the +fruit of what, after all, is but an act of justifiable policy. In my +capacity of Superintendent of Indian affairs, Major Montgomerie, even +more than as a Canadian brought up among them, I have had opportunities +of studying the characters of the heads of the several nations. The most +bitter enmity animates the bosoms of all against the Government and +people of the United States, from whom, according to their own showing, +they have to record injury upon injury; whereas from us they have +received but benefits. I repeat, this is at once politic and just. What +could Canada have hoped to accomplish in the approaching struggle, had +the conduct of the American Government been such as to have neutralized +the interest we had excited in and for ourselves? She must have +succumbed; and my firm impression is, that at whatever epoch of her +existence, the United States may extend the hand of conquest over these +colonies, with the Indian tribes that are now leagued with us crowding +to her own standard, not all the armies that England may choose to send +to their defence will be able to prevent it." + +"Filling the situation you now occupy, Colonel, there can be no doubt +you are in every way enabled to arrive at a full knowledge of Indian +feelings and Indian interests; and we have but too much reason to fear, +that the strong hatred to the United States you describe as existing on +the part of their several leaders, has had a tendency to unite them more +cordially to the British cause. But your course of observation suggests +another question. Why is it that, with the knowledge possessed by the +British Government of the cruel nature of Indian warfare, it can consent +to enlist them as allies? To prevent their taking up arms against the +Canadas may be well, but in my opinion, (and it is one generally +entertained through the United States,) the influence of the British +authorities should have been confined to neutralizing their services." + +"Nay, Major Montgomerie," observed the General, "it would indeed be +exacting too much to require that we should offer ourselves unresisting +victims to your Government; and what but self-immolation would it be to +abstain from the only means by which we can hope to save these +threatened Provinces? Colonel D'Egville has just said that, with the +Indians opposed to us, Canada would fall. I go farther, and aver that, +without the aid of the Indians, circumstanced as England now is, Canada +must be lost to us. It is a painful alternative, I admit, for that a +war, which is not carried on with the conventional courtesies of +civilized belligerent nations, is little suited to our taste, you will +do us the justice to believe; but by whom have we been forced into the +dilemma? Had we been guilty of rousing the Indian spirit against you, +with a view to selfish advantage; or had we in any way connived at the +destruction of your settlements, from either dread or jealousy of your +too close proximity, then should we have deserved all the odium of such +conduct. But this we unequivocally deny. + +"I would ask you, on the other hand, if you are aware of the great +exertions made by your Government, to induce them to take an active part +in this very war. If not, I can acquaint you that several of the chiefs, +now here, have been strongly urged to declare against us; and, not very +long since, an important council was held among the several tribes, +wherein some few, who had been won over by large bribes, discussed the +propriety of deserting the British cause, in consideration of advantages +which were promised them by the United States. These of course were +overruled by the majority, who expressed the utmost indignation at the +proposal; but the attempt to secure their active services was not the +less made. We certainly have every reason to congratulate ourselves on +its failure." + +"This certainly partakes of the _argumentum ad hominem_," said the +Major, good humoredly; "I do confess, I am aware that, since the idea of +war against England was first entertained, great efforts have been made +to attach the Indians to our interests; and in all probability, had any +other man than Tecumseh presided over their destinies, our Government +would have been successful. I however, for one, am no advocate for their +employment on either side; for it must be admitted they are a terrible +and a cruel enemy, sparing neither age nor sex." + +"Again, Major," returned the General, "do we shield ourselves under our +former plea--that, as an assailed party, we have a right to avail +ourselves of whatever means of defence are within our reach. One of two +things--either we must retain the Indians, who are bound to us in one +common interest, or we must, by discarding them, quietly surrender the +Canadas to your armies. Few will be Quixotic enough to hesitate as to +which of the alternatives we should adopt." + +"And if we should be accused of neglecting the means of preventing +unnecessary cruelty," observed Colonel D'Egville, "the people of the +United States will do us infinite wrong. This very circumstance has been +foreseen and provided against. Without the power to prevent the Indians +from entering upon these expeditions, we have at least done all that +experience and a thorough knowledge of their character admits, to +restrain their vengeance, by the promise of head money. It has been made +generally known to them that every prisoner that is brought in and +delivered up shall entitle the captor to a certain sum. This promise, I +have no doubt, will have the effect, not only of saving the lives of +those who are attacked in their settlements, but also of checking any +disposition to unnecessary outrage in the hour of conflict." + +"The idea is one certainly reflecting credit on the humanity of the +British authorities," returned Major Montgomerie; "but I confess I doubt +its efficacy. We all know the nature of an Indian too well to hope that +in the career of his vengeance, or the full flush of victory, he will +waive his war trophy in consideration of a few dollars. The scalp he may +bring, but seldom a living head with it." + +"It is, I fear, the horrid estimation in which the scalp is held, that +too frequently whets the blades of these people," observed the +Commodore. "Were it not considered a trophy, more lives would be spared; +but an Indian, from all I can understand, takes greater pride in +exhibiting the scalp of a slain enemy, than a knight of ancient times +did in displaying in his helmet the glove that had been bestowed on him +as a mark of favor by his lady-love." + +"After all," said the General, "necessary as it is to discourage it by +every possible mark of disapprobation, I do not see, in the mere act of +scalping, half the horrors usually attached to the practice. The motive +must be considered. It is not the mere desire to inflict wanton torture +that influences the warrior but an anxiety to possess himself of that +which gives undisputed evidence of his courage and success in war. The +prejudice of Europeans is strong against the custom, however, and we +look upon it in a light very different, I am sure from that in which it +is viewed by the Indians themselves. The burnings of prisoners, which +were practised many years ago, no longer continue; and the infliction of +the torture has passed away, so that, after all, Indian cruelty does not +exceed that which is practised even at this day in Europe, and by a +nation bearing high rank among the Catholic powers of Europe. I have +numerous letters, recently received from officers of my acquaintance now +serving in Spain, all of which agree in stating that the mutilations +perpetrated by the Guerilla bands, on the bodies of such of the +unfortunate French detachments as they succeeded in overpowering, far +exceeded anything imputed to the Indians of America; and, as several of +these letters are from individuals who joined the Peninsular Army from +this country, in which they had passed many years, the statement may be +relied on as coming from men who have had more than hearsay knowledge of +both parties." + +Here a tall, fine-looking black, wearing the livery of Colonel +D'Egville, entering to announce that coffee was waiting for them in an +adjoining room--the party rose and retired to the ladies. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + +Many of our readers will doubtless bear in mind the spot called +Elliott's Point, at the western extremity of Lake Erie, to which we have +already introduced them. At a considerable distance beyond that again +(its intermediate shores washed by the silver waves of the Erie) +stretches a second, called also, from the name of its proprietor, +Hartley's Point. Between these two necks are three or four farms; one of +which, and adjoining Hartley's, was, at the period of which we treat, +occupied by an individual of whom, unfortunately for the interests of +Canada, too many of the species had been suffered to take root within +her soil. + +This person had his residence near Hartley's Point. Unlike those however +whose dwellings rose at a distance, few and far between, hemmed in by +the fruits of prosperous agriculture, he appeared to have paid but +little attention to the cultivation of a soil, which in every part was +of exceeding fertility. A rude log hut, situated in a clearing of the +forest, the imperfect work of lazy labor, was his only habitation, and +here he had for years resided without its being known how he contrived +to procure the necessary means of subsistence; yet, in defiance of the +apparent absence of all resources, it was subject of general remark, +that he not only never wanted money, but had been enabled to bestow +something like an education on a son, who had, at the epoch opened by +our narrative, been absent from him upwards of five years. From his +frequent voyages, and the direction his canoe was seen to take, it was +inferred by his immediate neighbors, that he dealt in contraband, +procuring various articles on the American coast, which he subsequently +disposed of in the small town of Amherstburg (one of the principal +English posts) among certain subjects domiciliated there, who were +suspected of no very scrupulous desire to benefit the revenue of the +country. So well and so wisely however, did he cover his operations, +that he had always contrived to elude detection--and, although suspicion +attached to his conduct, in no instance had he openly committed himself. +The man himself, tall, stout, and of a forbidding look, was of a +fearless and resolute character, and if he resorted to cunning, it was +because cunning alone could serve his purposes in a country, the laws of +which were not openly to be defied. + +For a series of years after his arrival, he had contrived to evade +taking the customary oaths of allegiance; but this, eventually awakening +the suspicions of the magistracy, brought him more immediately under +their surveillance, when year after year, he was compelled to a renewal +of the oath, for the imposition of which, it was thought, he owed more +than one of those magistrates a grudge. On the breaking out of the war, +he still remained in undisturbed possession of his rude dwelling, +watched as well as circumstances would permit, it is true, but not so +narrowly as to be traced in his various nocturnal excursions by water. +Nothing could be conceived more uncouth in manner and appearance than +this man--nothing more villanous than the expression of his eye. No one +knew from what particular point of the United States he had come, and +whether Yankee or Kentuckian, it would have puzzled one of that race of +beings, so proverbial fer acumen--a Philadelphia lawyer--to have +determined. + +The day following that of the capture of the American detachment was +just beginning to dawn, as two individuals appeared on the skirt of the +rude clearing in which the hut of the man we have just described, had +been erected. The persons of both these, wrapped in blue military +cloaks, reposed upon the dark foliage in a manner to enable them to +observe, without being themselves seen, all that passed within the +clearing, from the log hut to the sand of the lake shore. There had been +an indication by one of these of a design to step forth from his +concealment into the clearing, and advance boldly towards the house; but +this had been checked by his companion, who, laying his hand upon his +shoulder, arrested the movement, pointing out at the same time, the +leisurely but cautious advance of two men from the hut towards the +shore, on which lay a canoe half drawn up on the sands. Each, on issuing +from the hut, had deposited a rifle against the rude exterior of the +dwelling, the better to enable them to convey a light mast, sail, +paddles, several blankets and a common corn-bag, apparently containing +provisions, with which they proceeded towards the canoe. + +"So," said the taller of the first party, in a whisper, "there is that +d----d rascal Desborough setting out on one of his contraband +excursions. He seems to have a long absence in view, if we may judge +from the contents of his provision sack." + +"Hist," rejoined his companion, "there is more here than meets the eye. +In the first instance, remove the pistols from the case, and be prepared +to afford me assistance, should I require it." + +"What the devil are you going to do?" asked the first speaker, following +however the hint that had been given him, and removing a pair of +duelling pistols from their mahogany case. + +While he was in the act of doing this, his companion had, without +replying, quitted his side, and cautiously and noiselessly advanced to +the hut. In the course of a few minutes he again appeared at the point +whence he had started, grasping in either hand the rifles so recently +deposited there. + +"Well, what is the meaning of this feat? you do not intend, Yankee +fashion, to exchange a long shot with poor Molineux, I hope--if so, my +dear fellow, I cry off, for upon my honor, I cannot engage in anything +that is not strictly orthodox." + +He, thus addressed, could scarcely restrain a laugh at the serious tone +in which his companion expressed himself, as if he verily believed he +had that object in view. + +"Would you not like," he asked, "to be in some degree instrumental in +banishing wholly from the country a man whom we all suspect of treason, +but are compelled to tolerate from inability to prove his guilt--this +same notorious Desborough?" + +"Now that you no longer speak and act in parables, I can understand you. +Of course I should, but what proof of his treason are we to discover in +the mere fact of his departing on what he may choose to call a hunting +excursion? even admitting he is speculating in the contraband, _that_ +cannot banish him; and if it could, we would never descend to become +informers." + +"Nothing of the kind is required of us--his treason will soon unfold +itself, and that in a manner to demand, as an imperative duty, that we +secure the traitor. For this have I removed the rifles which may, in a +moment of desperation, be turned at backwoodsman's odds against our +pistols. Let us steal gently towards the beach, and then you shall +satisfy yourself; but I had nearly forgotten--suppose the other party +should arrive?" + +"Then they must in their turn wait for us. They have already exceeded +their time ten minutes." + +"Look," exclaimed his companion, as he slightly grasped the shoulder on +which his hand had rested, "he is returning for the rifles." + +Only one of the two men now retrod his steps from the beach towards the +hut, but with a more hurried action than before. As he passed where the +friends still lingered, he gave a start of surprise, apparently produced +by the absence of the rifles. A moment's reflection seeming to satisfy +him it was possible his memory had failed him, and that they had been +left within the building, he hurried forward to assure himself. After a +few moments of apparently ineffectual search, he again made his +appearance, making the circuit of the hut to discover his lost weapons, +but in vain; when in the fierceness of his anger, he cried aloud, with a +bitterness that gave earnest of sincerity. + +"By ----. I wish I had the curst British rascal who played me this +trick, on t'other shore--if I wouldn't tuck my knife into his b----y +gizzard, then is my name not Jeremiah Desborough. What the h--ll's to be +done now?" + +Taking advantage of his entrance into the hut, the two individuals, +first described, had stolen cautiously under cover of the forest, until +they arrived at its termination, within about twenty yards of the shore, +where however there was no outward or visible sign of the individual who +had been Desborough's companion. In the bows of the canoe were piled the +blankets, and in the centre was deposited the provision bag that had +formed a portion of their mutual load. The mast had not been hoisted, +but lay extended along the hull, its sail loosened and partially +covering the before-mentioned article of freightage. The bow half of the +canoe pressed the beach, the other lay sunk in the water, apparently in +the manner in which it had first approached the land. + +Still uttering curses, but in a more subdued tone, against "the feller +who had stolen his small bores," the angry Desborough retraced his steps +to the canoe. More than once he looked back to see if he could discover +any traces of the purloiner, until at length his countenance seemed to +assume an expression of deeper cause for concern, than even the loss of +his weapons. + +"Ha, I expect some d----d spy has been on the look out--if so, I must +cut and run I calculate purty soon." + +This apprehension was expressed as he arrived opposite the point where +the forest terminated. A slight rustling among the underwood reduced +that apprehension to certainty. He grasped the handle of his huge knife +that was thrust into the girdle around his loins, and riveting his gaze +on the point whence the sound had proceeded, retreated in that attitude. +Another and more distinct crush of underwood, and he stood still with +surprise, on finding himself face to face, with two officers of the +garrison. + +"We have alarmed you, Desborough," said the younger, as they both +advanced leisurely to the beach. "Do you apprehend danger from our +presence?" + +A keen searching glance flashed from the ferocious eye of the ruffian. +It was but momentary. Quitting his firm grasp of the knife, he suffered +his limbs to relax their tension, and aiming at carelessness, observed +with a smile, that was tenfold more hideous from its being forced: + +"Well now, I guess, who would have expected to see two officers so fur +away from the fort at this early hour of the mornin'?" + +"Ah," said the taller of the two, availing himself of the first opening +to a pun which had been afforded, "we are merely out on a _shooting_ +excursion." + +Desborough gazed doubtingly on the speaker. "Strange sort of a dress +that for shootin' I guess--them cloaks must be a great tanglement in the +bushes." + +"They serve to keep our _arms_ warm," continued Middlemore, perpetrating +another of his execrables. + +"To keep your arms warm! well sure-_ly_, if that arn't droll. It may be +some use to keep the primins dry, I reckon; but I can't see the use of +keepin' the fowlin' pieces warm. Have you met with any game yet, +officers? I expect as how I can point you out a purty spry place for +pattridges and sich like." + +"Thank you, my good fellow; but we have appointed to meet our _game_ +here." + +The dry manner in which this was observed had a visible effect on the +settler. He glanced an eye of suspicion around, to see if other than the +two officers were in view, and it was not without effort that he assumed +an air of unconcern, as he replied: + +"Well, I expect I have been many a long year a hunter, as well as other +things, and yet, dang me if I ever calculated the game would come to me. +It always costs me a purty good chase in the woods." + +"How the fellow _beats_ about the _bush_ to find what _game_ we are +driving at," observed Middlemore, in an under tone, to his companion. + +"Let him alone for that," returned he whom our readers have doubtless +recognised for Henry Grantham. "I will match his punning against your +cunning any day." + +"The truth is, he is _fishing_ to discover our motive for being here, +and to find out if we are in any way connected with the disappearance of +his rifles." + +During this conversation _apart_, the Yankee had carelessly approached +his canoe, and was affecting to make some alteration in the disposition +of the sail. The officers, the younger especially, keeping a sharp +look-out upon his movements, followed at some little distance, until +they, at length, stood on the extreme verge of the sands. Their near +approach seemed to render Desborough impatient. + +"I expect, officers," he said, with a hastiness that, at any other +moment, would have called down immediate reproof, if not chastisement, +"you will only be losin' time here for nothin'; about a mile beyond +Hartley's there'll be plenty of pattridges at this hour, and I am jist +goin to start myself for a little shootin' in the Sandusky river." + +"Than I presume," said Grantham, with a smile, "you are well provided +with silver bullets, Desborough; for, in the hurry of departure, you +seem likely to forget the only medium through which leaden ones can be +made available--not a rifle or a shot-gun do I see." + +The man fixed his eyes for a moment, with a penetrating expression, on +the youth, as if he would have sought a meaning deeper than the words +implied. His reading seemed to satisfy him that all was right. + +"What," he observed, with a leer, half cunning, half insolent, "if I +have hid my rifle near the Sandusky swamp, the last time I hunted +there?" + +"In that case," observed the laughing Middlemore, to whom the +opportunity was irresistible, "you are going out on a _wild goose chase_ +indeed. Your prospects for a good hunt, as you call it, cannot be said +to _be sure as a gun_; for in regard to the latter, you may depend some +one has discovered and _rifled_ it before this." + +"You seem to have laid in a store of provisions for this trip, +Desborough," remarked Henry Grantham; "how long do you purpose being +absent?" + +"I guess three or four days," was the sullen reply. + +"Three or four days! why your bag contains"--and the officer partly +raised a corner of the sail, "provisions for a week, or, at least, for +_two_ for half that period." + +The manner in which the _two_ was emphasised did not escape the +attention of the settler. He was visibly disconcerted, nor was he at all +reassured when the younger officer proceeded: + +"By the bye, Desborough, we saw you leave the hut with a companion--what +has become of him?" + +The settler, who had now recovered his self-possession, met the question +without the slightest show of hesitation: + +"I expect you mean, young man," he said, with insufferable insolence, "a +help as I had from Hartley's farm, to assist gittin' down the things. He +took home along shore when I went back to the hut for the small bores." + +"Oh ho, sir! the rifles are not then concealed near the Sandusky swamp, +I find?" + +For once the wily settler felt his cunning had overreached itself. In +the first fury of his subdued rage, he muttered something amounting to a +desire that he could produce them at that moment, as he would well know +where to lodge the bullets--but, recovering himself, he said aloud: + +"The rale fact is, I've a long gun hid, as I said, near the swamp, but +my small bore I always carry with me--only think, jist as I and +Hartley's help left the hut, I pit my rifle against the outside wall, +not being able to carry it down with the other things, and when I went +back a minute or two after, drot me if some tarnation rascal hadn't +stole it." + +"And if you had the British rascal on t'other shore, you wouldn't be +long in tucking a knife into his gizzard, would you?" asked Middlemore, +in a nearly verbatim repetition of the horrid oath originally uttered by +Desborough. "I see nothing to warrant our interfering with him," he +continued in an under tone to his companion. + +Not a little surprised to hear his words repeated, the man lost somewhat +of his confidence as he replied, "Well now, sure-_ly_, you officers +didn't think nothin' o' that--I expect I was in a mighty rage to find my +small bore gone, and I did curse a little heart_y_, to be sure." + +"The small bore multiplied in your absence," observed Grantham; "when I +looked at the hut there were two." + +"Then may be you can tell me who was the particular d----d rascal that +stole them," said the settler eagerly. + +Middlemore laughed heartily at his companion who observed: + +"The particular d----d rascal who removed, not stole them thence, stands +before you." + +Again the settler looked disconcerted. After a moment's hesitation he +continued, with a forced grin that gave an atrocious expression to his +whole countenance: + +"Well now, you officers are playing a purty considerable spry +trick--it's a good lark, I calculate--but you know, as the saying is, +enough's as good as a feast. Do tell me, Mr. Grantham," and his +discordant voice became more offensive in its effort at a tone of +entreaty, "Do tell me where you've hid my small bore; you little think," +he concluded, with an emphasis then unnoticed by the officers, but +subsequently remembered to have been perfectly ferocious, "what reason I +have to vally it." + +"We never descend to larks of the kind," coolly observed Grantham; "but +as you say you value your rifle, it shall be restored to you on one +condition." + +"And what may that be?" asked the settler, somewhat startled at the +serious manner of the officer. + +"That you show us what your canoe is freighted with. Here in the bows, I +mean." + +"Why," rejoined the Yankee quickly, but, as if without design, +intercepting the officers' near approach, "that bag, I calculate, +contains my provisions, and these here blankets that you see, peepin' +like from under the sail, are what I makes my bed of while out huntin'." + +"And are you quite certain there is nothing under those blankets?--nay +do not protest--you cannot answer for what may have occurred while your +back was turned, on your way to the hut for the rifle." + +"By hell," exclaimed the settler, blusteringly, "were any man to tell +me, Jeremiah Desborough, that there was anythin' beside them blankets in +the canoe, I would lick him into a jelly, even though he could whip his +own weight in wild cats." + +"So is it? Now then, Jeremiah Desborough, although I have never yet +tried to whip my own weight in wild cats, I tell you there is something +more than those blankets; and what is more, I insist upon seeing what +that something is." + +The settler stood confounded. His eye rolled rapidly from one to the +other of the officers, at the boldness and determination of this +language. Singly, he could have crushed Henry Grantham in his gripe, +even as one of the bears of the forest, near the outskirt of which they +stood; but there were two, and while attacking the one, he was sure of +being assailed by the other--nay, what was worse, the neighborhood might +be alarmed. Moreover, although they had kept their cloaks carefully +wrapped around their persons, there could be little doubt that both +officers were armed, not, as they had originally given him to +understand, with fowling pieces, but with (at the present close quarters +at least) far more efficient weapons--pistols. He was relieved from his +embarrassment by Middlemore exclaiming: + +"Nay, do not press the poor devil, Grantham; I dare say the story of his +hunting is all a hum, and that the fact is, he is merely going to earn +an honest penny in one of his free commercial speculations--a little +contraband," pointing his finger to the bows, "is it not, Desborough?" + +"Why now, officer," said the settler, rapidly assuming a dogged air, as +if ashamed of the discovery that had been so acutely made, "you won't +hurt a poor feller for doin' a little in this way. Drot me, these are +hard times, and this here war jist beginnin' quite pits one to one's +shifts." + +"This might do, Desborough, were your present freight an arrival instead +of a departure, but we all know that contraband is imported, not +exported." + +"Mighty cute you are, I guess," replied the settler warily, with +something like the savage grin of the wild cat to which he had so +recently alluded; "but I expect it would be none so strange to have +packed up a few dried hog skins to stow away the goods I am goin' for." + +"I should like to try the effect of a bullet among the skins," said +Grantham, leisurely drawing forth and cocking a pistol, after having +whispered something in the ear of his companion. + +"Nay, officer," said Desborough, now for the first time manifesting +serious alarm, "you sure-_ly_ don't mean to bore a hole through them +innocent skins?" + +"True!" said Middlemore, imitating. "If he fires, the hole will be +something more than _skin_ deep, I reckon--these pistols, to my +knowledge, send a bullet through a two inch plank at twenty paces." + +As Middlemore thus expressed himself, both he and Grantham saw, or +fancied they saw, the blankets slightly agitated. + +"Good place for a _hide_ that!" said the former, addressing his pun to +the settler, on whom it was totally lost, "show us those said skins, my +good fellow, and if we find they are not filled with anything it would +be treason in a professed British subject to export thus clandestinely, +we promise that you shall depart without further hindrance." + +"Indeed, officer," muttered Desborough sullenly and doggedly, "I shan't +do no sich thing. You don't belong to the custom-house, I reckon, and so +I wish you a good day, for I have a considerable long course to run, and +must be movin'." Then seizing the paddles that were lying on the sand, +he prepared to shove the canoe from the beach. + +"Not at least before I have sent a bullet to ascertain the true quality +of your skins," said Grantham, levelling his pistol. + +"Sure-_ly_," said Desborough, as he turned and drew himself to the full +height of his bony and muscular figure, while his eye measured the +officer from head to foot, with a look of concentrated but suppressed +fury, "you wouldn't _dare_ to do this--you wouldn't dare to fire into my +canoe--besides, consider," he said, in a tone somewhat deprecating, +"your bullet may go through her, and you would hardly do a feller the +injury to make him lose the chance of a good cargo." + +"Then why provoke such a disaster by refusing to show us what is beneath +those blankets?" + +"Because it's my pleasure to do so," fiercely retorted the other, "and I +won't show them to no man." + +"Then it is my pleasure to fire," said Grantham. "The injury be on your +own head, Desborough--one--two--" + +At this moment the sail was violently agitated--something, struggling +for freedom, cast the blankets on one side, and presently the figure of +a man stood upright in the bows of the canoe, and gazed around him with +an air of stupid astonishment. + +"What," exclaimed Middlemore, retreating back a pace or two, in +unfeigned surprise; "has that pistol started up, like the ghost in +Hamlet, Ensign Paul Emilius Theophilus Arnoldi, of the United States +Michigan Militia--a prisoner on his parole of honor? and yet attempting +a clandestine departure from the country--how is this?" + +"Not this merely," exclaimed Grantham, "but a traitor to his country, +and a deserter from our service. This fellow," he pursued, in answer to +an inquiring look of his companion, "is a scoundrel, who deserted three +years since from the regiment you relieved. I recognised him yesterday +on his landing, as my brother Gerald, who proposed making his report to +the general this morning, had done before. Let us secure both, +Middlemore; for, thank heaven, we have been enabled to detect the +traitor at last in that which will excuse his final expulsion from the +soil, even if no worse befall him. I have only tampered with him thus +long to render his conviction more complete." + +"Secure me! secure Jeremiah Desborough?" exclaimed the settler, with +rage manifest in the clenching of his teeth and the tension of every +muscle of his iron frame, "and that for jist tryin' to save a +countryman--well, we'll see who'll have the best of it." + +Before Grantham could anticipate the movement, the active and powerful +Desborough had closed with him in a manner to prevent his making use of +his pistol, had he even so desired. In the next instant it was wrested +from him, and thrown far from the spot on which he struggled with his +adversary, but at fearful odds against himself. Henry Grantham, although +well and actively made, was of slight proportion, and yet in boyhood. +Desborough, on the contrary, was in the full force of a vigorous +manhood. A struggle, hand to hand, between two combatants so +disproportioned, could not, consequently, be long doubtful as to its +issue. No sooner had the formidable settler closed with his enemy, than +pressing the knuckles of his iron hand, which met round the body of the +officer, with violence against his spine, he threw him backward with +force upon the sands. Grasping his victim with one hand as he lay upon +him, he seemed, as Grantham afterwards declared, to be groping for his +knife with the other. He was evidently anxious to despatch one enemy, in +order that he might fly to the assistance of his son, for it was he whom +Middlemore, with a powerful effort, had dragged from the canoe to the +beach. While his right hand was still groping far the knife--an object +which the powerful resistance of the yet unsubdued, though prostrate, +officer rendered somewhat difficult of attainment--the report of a +pistol was heard, fired evidently by one of the other combatants. +Immediately the settler looked up to see who was the triumphant party. +Neither had fallen, and Middlemore, if anything, had the advantage of +his enemy; but to his infinite dismay, Desborough beheld a horseman, +evidently attracted by the report of the pistol, urging his course with +the rapidity of lightning, along the firm sands, and advancing with +cries and vehement jesticulations to the rescue. + +Springing with the quickness of thought from his victim, the settler was +in the next moment at the side of Middlemore. Seizing him from behind by +for arm within his nervous grasp, he pressed the latter with such +prodigious force as to cause him to relinquish, by a convulsive +movement, the firm hold he had hitherto kept of his adversary. + +"In, boy, to the canoe for your life," he exclaimed, hurriedly as, +following up his advantage, he spun the officer round, and sent him +tottering to the spot where Grantham lay, still stupified and half +throttled. The next instant saw him heaving the canoe from the shore, +with all the exertion called for by his desperate situation. And all +this was done so rapidly, in so much less time than it will take our +readers to trace it, that before the horseman, so opportunely arriving, +had reached the spot, the canoe, with its inmates, had pushed from the +shore. + +Without pausing to consider the rashness and apparent impracticability +of his undertaking, the strange horseman, checking his rein, and burying +the rowels of his spurs deep into the flanks of his steed, sent him +bounding and plunging into the lake, in pursuit of the fugitives. + +He himself evinced every symptom of one in a state of intoxication. +Brandishing a stout cudgel over his head, and pealing forth a shout of +defiance, he rolled from side to side on his spirited charger, like some +laboring bark careering to the violence of the winds, but ever, like +that bark, regaining an equilibrium that was never thoroughly lost. +Shallow as the lake was at this point for a considerable distance, it +was long before the noble animal lost its footing; and thus had its +rider been enabled to arrive within a few paces of the canoe, at the +very moment when the increasing depth of the water, in compelling the +horse to the less expeditious process of swimming, gave a proportionate +advantage to the pursued. No sooner, however, did the Centaur-like rider +find that he was losing ground, than, again darting his spurs into the +flanks of his charger, he made every effort to reach the canoe. Maddened +by the pain, the snorting beast half rose upon the calm element, like +some monster of the deep, and, making two or three desperate plunges +with his fore feet, succeeded in reaching the stem. Then commenced a +short but extraordinary conflict. Bearing up his horse as he swam, with +the bridle in his teeth, the bold rider threw his left hand upon the +stern of the vessel, and brandishing his cudgel in the right, seemed to +provoke both parties to the combat. Desborough, who had risen from the +stern at his approach, stood upright in the centre, his companion still +paddling at the bows; and between these two a singular contest now +ensued. Armed with the formidable knife which he had about his person, +the settler made the most desperate and infuriated efforts to reach his +assailant; but in so masterly a manner did his adversary use his simple +weapon, that every attempt was foiled, and more than once did the hard +iron-wood descend upon his shoulders, in a manner to be heard from the +shore. Once or twice the settler stooped to evade some falling blow, +and, rushing forward, sought to sever the hand which still retained its +hold of the stern; but, with an activity remarkable in so old a man as +his assailant, for he was upwards of sixty years of age, the hand was +removed--and the settler, defeated in his object, was amply repaid for +his attempt, by a severe collision of his bones with the cudgel. At +length, apparently enjoined by his companion, the younger removed his +paddle, and, standing up also in the canoe, aimed a blow with its +knobbed handle at the head of the horse, at a moment when his rider was +fully engaged with Desborough. The quick-sighted old man saw the action, +and, as the paddle descended, an upward stroke from his own heavy weapon +sent it flying in fragments in the air, while a rapid and returning blow +fell upon the head of the paddler, and prostrated him at length in the +canoe. The opportunity afforded by this diversion, momentary as it was, +was not lost upon Desborough. The horseman, who, in his impatience to +avenge the injury offered to the animal, which seemed to form a part of +himself, had utterly forgotten the peril of his hand; and before he +could return from the double blow that had been so skilfully wielded, to +his first enemy, the knife of the latter had penetrated his hand, which, +thus rendered powerless, now relinquished its grasp. Desborough, whose +object--desperate character as he usually was--seemed now rather to fly +than to fight, availed himself of this advantage to hasten to the bows +of the canoe, where, striding across the body of his insensible +companion, he with a few vigorous strokes of the remaining paddle, urged +the lagging bark rapidly ahead. In no way intimidated by his disaster, +the courageous old man, again brandishing his cudgel, and vociferating +taunts of defiance, would have continued the pursuit; but panting as he +was, not only with the exertion he had made, but under the weight of his +impatient rider, in an element in which he was supported merely by his +own buoyancy, the strength and spirit of the animal began now +perceptibly to fail him, and he turned, despite of every effort to +prevent him, towards the shore. It was fortunate for the former that +there were no arms in the canoe, or neither he nor the horse would, in +all probability, have returned alive; such was the opinion, at least, +pronounced by those who were witnesses of the strange scene, and who +remarked the infuriated but impotent gestures of Desborough, as the old +man, having once more gotten his steed into depth, slowly pursued his +course to the shore, but with the same wild brandishing of his enormous +cudgel, and the same rocking from side to side, until his body was often +at right angles with that of his jaded, but sure-footed beast. As he is, +however, a character meriting rather more than the casual notice we have +bestowed, we shall take the opportunity, while he is hastening to the +discomfited officers on the beach, more particularly to describe him. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + +Nearly midway between Elliott's and Hartley's points, both of which are +remarkable for the low and sandy nature of the soil, the land, raising +gradually towards the centre, assumes a more healthy and arable aspect; +and, on its highest elevation, stood a snug, well cultivated property, +called Girty's farm. From this height, crowned on its extreme summit by +a neat and commodious farm-house, the far reaching sands, forming the +points above-named, are distinctly visible. Immediately in the rear, and +commencing beyond the orchard which surrounded the house, stretched +forestward, and to a considerable distance, a tract of rich and +cultivated soil, separated into strips by zig-zag enclosures, and +offering to the eye of the traveller, in appropriate season, the several +species of American produce, such as Indian corn, buck wheat, &c., with +here and there a few patches of indifferent tobacco. Thus far of the +property, a more minute description of which is unimportant. The +proprietors of this neat little place were a father and son, to the +latter of whom was consigned, for reasons which will appear presently, +the sole management of the farm. Of him we will merely say that, at the +period of which we treat, he was a fine, strapping, dark curley-haired, +white-teethed, red-lipped, broad-shouldered, and altogether comely and +gentle tempered youth, of about twenty, who had, although unconsciously, +monopolized the affections of almost every well favored maiden of his +class, for miles around him--advantages of nature from which had +resulted a union with one of the prettiest of the fair competitors for +connubial happiness. + +The father we may not dismiss so hastily. He was--but, before attempting +the portraiture of his character, we will, in the best of our ability, +sketch his person. + +Let the reader fancy an old man of about sixty, possessed of that +comfortable amptitude of person which is the result rather of a mind at +peace with itself, and undisturbed by worldly care, than of any marked +indulgence in indolent habits. Let him next invest this comfortable +person in a sort of Oxford grey, coarse capote, or frock, of capacious +size, tied closely round the waist with one of those-parti-colored +worsted sashes, we have, on a former occasion described as peculiar to +the bourgeois settlers of the country. Next, suffering the eye to +descend on and admire the rotund and fleshy thigh, let it drop gradually +to the stout and muscular legs, which he must invest in a pair of +closely fitting leathern trowsers, the wide-seamed edges of which are +slit into innumerable small strips, much after the fashion of the +American Indian. When he has completed the survey of the lower +extremities, to which he must not fail to subjoin a foot of +proportionate dimensions, tightly moccasined, and, moreover, furnished +with a pair of old English hunting spurs, the reader must then examine +the head with which this heavy piece of animated machinery is +surmounted. From beneath a coarse felt hat, garnished with an inch-wide +band or ribbon, let him imagine he sees the yet vigorous grey hair, +descending over a forehead not altogether wanting in a certain dignity +of expression, and terminating in a beetling brow, silvered also with +the frost of years, and shadowing a sharp, grey, intelligent eye, the +vivacity of whose expression denotes its possessor to be far in advance, +in spirit, even of his still active and powerful frame. With these must +be connected a snub nose--a double chin, adorned with grizzly honors, +which are borne, like the fleece of the lamb, only occasionally to the +shears of the shearer--and a small, and not unhandsome, mouth, at +certain periods pursed into an expression of irresistible humor, but +more frequently expressing a sense of lofty independence. The grisly +neck, little more or less bared, as the season may demand--a kerchief +loosely tied around the collar of a checkered shirt--and a knotted +cudgel in his hand--and we think our sketch of Simon Girty is complete. + +Nor must the reader picture to himself this combination of animal +properties, either standing, or lying, or walking, or sitting; but in a +measure glued, Centaur-like, to the back of a noble stallion, vigorous, +active, and of a dark chestnut color, with silver mane and tail. In the +course of many years that Simon had resided in the neighborhood, no one +could remember to have seen him stand, or lie, or walk, or sit, while +away from his home, unless absolutely compelled. Both horse and rider +seemed as though they could not exist while separated, and yet +Silvertail (thus was the stallion named) was not more remarkable in +sleekness of coat, soundness of carcase, and fleetness of pace, than his +rider was in the characteristics of corpulency and joviality. + +Simon Girty had passed the greater part of his younger days in America. +He had borne arms in the revolution, and was one of those faithful +loyalists, who preferring rather to abandon a soil which, after all, was +one of adoption, than the flag under which they had been nurtured, had, +at the termination of that contest, passed over into Canada. Having +served in one of those irregular corps, several of which had been +employed with the Indians, during the revolutionary contest, he had +acquired much of the language of these latter, and to this knowledge was +indebted for the situation of interpreter which he had for years +enjoyed. Unhappily for himself, however, the salary attached to the +office was sufficient to keep him in independence, and, to the idleness +consequent on this, (for the duties of an interpreter were only +occasional,) might have been attributed the rapid growth of a vice--an +addiction to liquor--which unchecked indulgence had now ripened into +positive disease. + +Great was the terror that Simon was wont to excite in the good people of +Amherstburg. With Silvertail at his speed he would gallop into the town, +brandishing his cudgel, and reeling from side to side, exhibiting at one +moment the joyous character of a Silenus, at another, as we have already +shown--that of an inebriated Centaur. Occasionally he would make his +appearance, holding his sides convulsed with laughter, as he reeled and +tottered in every direction, but without ever losing his equilibrium. At +other times he would utter a loud shout, and, brandishing his cudgel, +dart at full speed along the streets, as if he purposed singly to carry +the town by (what Middlemore often facetiously called) a _coup de main_. +At these moments were to be seen mothers rushing into the street to look +for, and hurry away, their loitering offspring, while even adults were +glad to hasten their movements, in order to escape collision with the +formidable Simon; not that either apprehended the slightest act of +personal violence from the old man, for he was harmless of evil as a +child, but because they feared the polished hoofs of Silvertail, which +shone amid the clouds of dust they raised as he passed, like rings of +burnished silver. Even the very Indians, with whom the streets were at +this period habitually crowded, were glad to hug the sides of the +houses, while Simon passed; and they who, on other occasions, would have +deemed it in the highest degree derogatory to their dignity to have +stepped aside at the approach of danger, or to have relaxed a muscle of +their stern countenance, would then open a passage with a rapidity which +in them was remarkable, and burst into loud laughter as they fled from +side to side to make way for Simon. Sometimes, on these occasions, the +latter would suddenly check Silvertail, while in full career, and, in a +voice that could be heard from almost every quarter of the little town, +harangue them for half an hour together in their own language, and with +an air of authority that was ludicrous to those who witnessed it--and +must have been witnessed to be conceived. Occasionally a guttural "ugh" +would be responded in mock approval of the speech, but more frequently a +laugh, on the part of the more youthful of his red auditors, was the +only notice taken. His lecture concluded, Simon would again brandish his +cudgel, and vociferate another shout; then betaking himself to the +nearest store, he would urge Silvertail upon the footway, and with a tap +of his rude cudgel against the door, summon whoever was within, to +appear with a glass of his favorite beverage. And this would he repeat, +until he had drained what he called his stirrup cup, at every shop in +the place where the poisonous liquor was vended. + +Were such a character to make his appearance in the Mother Country, +endangering, to all perception, the lives of the Sovereign's liege +subjects, he would, if in London, be hunted to death like a wild beast, +by at least one half of the Metropolitan police; and, if in a provincial +town, would be beset by a posse of constables. No one, however--not even +the solitary constable of Amherstburgh, ever ventured to interfere with +Simon Girty, who was in some degree a privileged character. Nay, strange +as it may appear, notwithstanding his confirmed habit of inebriety, the +old man stood high in the neighborhood, not only with simple but with +gentle, for there were seasons when he evinced himself "a rational +being," and there was a dignity of manner about him, which, added to his +then quietude of demeanor, insensibly interested in his favor, those +even who were most forward to condemn the vice to which he was +unfortunately addicted. Not, be it understood, that in naming seasons of +rationality, we mean seasons of positive abstemiousness; nor can this +well be, seeing that Simon never passed a day of strict sobriety during +the last twenty years of his life. But, it might be said, that his three +divisions of day--morning, noon and night--were characterised by three +corresponding divisions of drunkenness--namely, drunk, drunker, and most +drunk. It was, therefore, in the first stage of his graduated scale, +that Simon appeared in his most amiable and winning, because his least +uproarious, mood. His libations commenced at early morn, and his +inebriety became progressive to the close of the day. To one who could +ride home at night, as he invariably did, after some twelve hours of +hard and continued drinking, without rolling from his horse, it would +not be difficult to enact the sober man in its earlier stages. As his +intoxication was relative to himself, so was his sobriety in regard to +others--and although, at mid-day, he might have swallowed sufficient to +have caused another man to bite the dust, he looked and spoke, and +acted, as if he had been a model of temperance. If he passed a lady in +the street, or saw her at her window Simon Girty's hat was instantly +removed from his venerable head, and his body inclined forward over his +saddle-bow, with all the easy grace of a well-born gentleman, and one +accustomed from infancy to pay deference to woman; nay, this at an hour +when he had imbibed enough of his favorite liquor to have rendered most +men insensible even to their presence. These habits of courtesy, +extended moreover to the officers of the garrison, and such others among +the civilians as Simon felt to be worthy of his notice. His tones of +salutation, at these moments, were soft, his manner respectful, even +graceful; and while there was nothing of the abashedness of the +inferior, there was also no offensive familiarity, in the occasional +conversations held by him with the different individuals, or groups, who +surrounded and accosted him. + +Such was Simon Girty, in the first stage of his inebriety, no outward +sign of which was visible. In the second, his perception became more +obscured, his voice less distinct, his tones less gentle and +insinuating, and occasionally the cudgel would rise in rapid flourish, +while now and then a loud halloo would burst from lungs, which the +oceans of whiskey they had imbibed had not yet, apparently, much +affected. These were infallible indices of the more feverish stage, of +which the gallopings of Silvertail--the vociferations of his master--the +increasing flourishing of the cudgel--the supposed danger of +children--and the consequent alarm of mothers, together with the +harangues to the Indian auditory, were the almost daily results. + +There was one individual, however, in the town of Amherstburgh, of whom, +despite his natural wilfulness of character, Simon Girty stood much in +awe, and that to such a degree, that if he chanced to encounter him in +his mad progress, his presence had the effect of immediately quieting +him. This gentleman was the father of the Granthams, who, although then +filling a civil situation, had formerly been a field officer in the +corps in which Simon had served; and who had carried with him into +private life those qualities of stern excellence for which he had been +remarkable as a soldier--qualities which had won to him the respect and +affection, not only of the little community over which, in the capacity +of its chief magistrate, he had presided, but also of the inhabitants of +the country generally for many miles around. Temperate to an extreme +himself, Major Grantham held the vice of drunkenness in deserved +abhorrence, and so far from sharing the general toleration extended to +the old man, whose originality (harmless as he ever was in his +intoxication,) often proved a motive for encouragement; he never failed, +on encountering him, to bestow his censure in a manner that had an +immediate and obvious effect on the culprit. If Simon, from one end of +the street, beheld Major Grantham approaching at the other, he was wont +to turn abruptly away; but if perchance the magistrate came so +unexpectedly upon him as to preclude the possibility of retreat, he +appeared as one suddenly sobered, and would rein in his horse, fully +prepared for the stern lecture which he was well aware would ensue. + +It afforded no slight amusement to the townspeople, and particularly +the young urchins, who usually looked up to Simon with awe, +to be witnesses of one of those rencontres. In a moment, the +shouting--galloping--rampaging cudgel-wielder was to be seen changed, as +if by some magic power, into a being of almost child-like obedience, +while he listened attentively and deferentially to the lecture of Major +Grantham, whom he both loved and feared. On these occasions, he would +hang his head upon his chest--confess his error--and promise solemnly to +amend his course of life, although it must be needless to add that never +was that promise heeded. Not unfrequently, after these lectures, when +Major Grantham had left him, Simon would turn his horse, and, with his +arms still folded across his chest, suffer Silvertail to pursue his +homeward course, while he himself, silent and thoughtful, and looking +like a culprit taken in the fact, sat steadily in his saddle, without +however venturing to turn his eye either to the right or to the left, as +he passed through the crowd, who, with faces strongly expressive of +mirth, marked their sense of the change which had been produced in the +old interpreter. Those who had seen him thus for the first time, might +have supposed that a reformation in one so apparently touched would have +ensued; but long experience had taught that, although a twinge of +conscience, or more probably fear of, and respect for, the magistrate, +might induce a momentary humiliation, all traces of cause and effect +would have vanished with the coming dawn. + +To the sterling public virtues he boasted, Simon Girty united that of +loyalty in no common degree. A more staunch adherent to the British +crown existed nowhere in the sovereign's dominions; and such was his +devotedness to "King George," that, albeit he could not in all +possibility have made the sacrifice of his love for whiskey, he would +willingly have suffered his left arm to be severed from his body, had +such proof of his attachment to the throne been required. Proportioned +to his love for everything British, arose, as a natural consequence, +his dislike for everything anti-British; and especially for those who +under the guise of allegiance, had conducted themselves in a way to +become objects of suspicion to the authorities. A near neighbor of +Desborough, he had watched him as narrowly as his long indulged habits +of intoxication would permit, and he had been the means of conveying to +Major Grantham much of the information which had induced that +uncompromising magistrate to seek the expulsion of the dangerous +settler--an object which, however, had been defeated by the perjury of +the unprincipled individual, in taking the customary oaths of +allegiance. Since the death of Major Grantham, for whom, notwithstanding +his numerous lectures, he had ever entertained that reverential esteem +which is the result of the ascendancy of the powerful and virtuous mind +over the weak, and not absolutely vicious--and for whose sons he felt +almost a fatherly affection--old Girty had but indifferently troubled +himself about Desborough, who was fully aware of what he had previously +done to detect and expose him, and consequently repaid with usury--an +hostility of feeling which, however, had never been brought to any +practical issue. + +As a matter of course, Simon was of the number of anxious persons +collected on the bank of the river, on the morning of the capture of the +American gun-boat; but, as he was only then emerging from his first +stage of intoxication (which we have already shown to be tantamount to +perfect sobriety in any other person), there had been no time for a +display of those uproarious qualities which characterized the last, and +which, once let loose, scarcely even the presence of the General could +have restrained. With an acuteness, however, which is often to be +remarked in habitual drunkards at moments when their intellect is +unclouded by the confusedness to which they are more commonly subject, +the hawk's eye of the old man had detected several particulars which had +escaped the general attention, and of which he had, at a later period of +the day, retained sufficient recollection to connect with an accidental, +yet important discovery. + +At the moment when the prisoners were landed, he had remarked +Desborough, who had uttered the hasty exclamation already recorded, +stealing cautiously through the surrounding crowd, and apparently +endeavoring to arrest the attention of the younger of the American +officers. An occasional pressing of the spur into the flank of +Silvertail, enabled him to turn as the settler turned, and thus to keep +him constantly in view; until, at length, as the latter approached the +group of which General Brock and Commodore Barclay formed the centre, he +observed him distinctly to make a sign of intelligence to the Militia +Officer, whose eye he at length attracted, and who now bestowed upon him +a glance of hasty and furtive recognition. Curiosity induced Simon to +move Silvertail a little more in advance, in order to be enabled to +obtain a better view of the prisoners; but the latter turning away his +head at the moment, although apparently without design, baffled his +penetration. Still he had a confused and indistinct idea that the person +was not wholly unknown to him. + +When the prisoners had been disposed of, and the crowd dispersed, Simon +continued to linger near the council-house, exchanging greetings with +the newly arrived chiefs, and drinking from whatever whiskey bottle was +offered to him until he at length gave rapid indication of arriving at +his third or grand climacteric. Then were to be heard the loud +shoutings of his voice, and the clattering of Silvertail's hoofs; as +horse and rider flew like lightning past the fort into the town, where a +more than usual quantity of the favorite liquid was quaffed at the +several stores, in commemoration, as he said, of the victory of his +noble boy, Gerald Grantham, and to the success of the British arms +generally throughout the war. + +Among the faults of Simon Girty, was certainly not that of neglecting +the noble animal to whom long habit had deeply attached him. Silvertail +was equally a favorite with the son, who had more than once ridden him +in the occasional races that took place upon the hard sands of the lake +shore, and in which he had borne everything away. As Simon was ever +conscious and collected about this hour, care was duly taken by him that +his horse should be fed, without the trouble to himself of dismounting. +Even as Girty sat in his saddle, Silvertail was in the daily practice of +munching his corn out of a small trough that stood in the yard of the +inn where he usually stopped, while his rider conversed with whoever +chanced to be near him--the head of his cudgel resting on his ample +thigh, and a glass of his favorite whiskey in his other and unoccupied +hand. + +Now it chanced that, on this particular day, Simon neglected to pay his +customary visit to the inn, an omission which was owing rather to the +hurry and excitement occasioned by the stirring events of the morning, +than to any wilful neglect of his steed. Nor was it until some hours +after dark that, seized with a sudden fit of caressing Silvertail, whose +glossy neck he patted, until the tears of warm affection started to his +eyes, he bethought him of the omission of which he had been guilty. +Scarcely was the thought conceived, before Silvertail was again at full +career, and on his way to the inn. The gate stood open, and, as Simon +entered, he saw two individuals retire, as if to escape observation, +within a shed adjoining the stable. Drunk as he was, a vague +consciousness of the truth, connected as it was with his earlier +observation, flashed across the old man's mind; and when, in answer to +his loud hallooing, a factotum, on whom devolved all the numerous +officers of the inn, from waiter down to ostler, made his appearance, +Simon added to his loudly expressed demand for Silvertail's corn, a +whispered injunction to return with a light. During the absence of the +man, he commenced trolling a verse of "Old King Cole," a favorite ballad +with him, and with the indifference of one who believes himself to be +alone. Presently the light appeared, and, as the bearer approached, its +rays fell on the forms of two men, retired into the furthest extremity +of the shed and crouching to the earth as if in concealment, whom Simon +recognised at a glance. He however took no notice of the circumstance to +the ostler, or even gave the slightest indication, by look or movement, +of what he had seen. + +When the man had watered Silvertail and put his corn in the trough, he +returned to the house, and Simon, with his arms folded across his chest, +as his horse crunched his food, listened attentively to catch whatever +conversation might ensue between the loiterers. Not a word however was +uttered, and soon after he saw them emerge from their concealment--step +cautiously behind him--cross the yard towards the gate by which he had +entered--and then disappear altogether. During this movement the old man +had kept himself perfectly still, so that there could be no suspicion +that he had in any way observed them. Nay, he even spoke once or twice +coaxingly to Silvertail, as if conscious only of the presence of that +animal, and, in short, conducted himself in a manner well worthy of the +cunning of a drunken man. The reflections to which this incident gave +rise, had the effect of calling up a desperate fit of loyalty, which he +only awaited the termination of Silvertail's hasty meal to put into +immediate activity. Another shout to the ostler, a second glass +swallowed, the reckoning paid, Silvertail bitted, and away went Simon +once more at his speed through the now deserted town, the road out of +which to his own place, skirted partly the banks of the river, and +partly those of the lake. + +After galloping about a mile, the old man found the feet of Silvertail +burying themselves momentarily deeper in the sands which form the road +near Elliot's Point. Unwilling to distress him, he pulled him up to a +walk, and, throwing the reins upon his neck, folded his arms as usual, +rolling from side to side at every moment, and audibly musing, in the +thick, husky voice that was common to him in inebriety. + +"Yes, by Jove, I am as true and loyal a subject as any in the service of +King George, God bless him (here he bowed his head involuntarily and +with respect), and though, as that poor dear old Grantham used to say, I +do drink a little (hiccup), still there's no great harm in that. It +keeps a man alive. I am the boy, at all events, to scent a rogue. That +was Desborough and his son I saw just now, and the rascals, he! he! +he!--the rascals thought, I suppose, I was too drunk (hiccup), too drunk +to twig them. We shall tell them another tale before the night is over. +D----n such skulking scoundrels, I say. Whoa! Silvertail, whoa!--what do +you see there, my boy, eh?" + +Silvertail only replied by the sharp pricking of his ears, and a side +movement, which seemed to indicate a desire to keep as much aloof as +possible from a cluster of walnut trees, which, interspersed with wild +grape vines, may be seen to this hour, resting in gloomy relief on the +white deep sands that extend considerably in that direction. + +"Never mind, my boy, we shall be at home presently," pursued Simon, +patting the neck of his unquiet companion. "But, no--I had forgotten; we +must give chase to these (hiccup) to these rascals. Now there's that son +Bill of mine fast asleep, I suppose, in the arms of his little wife. +They do nothing but lie in bed, while their poor old father is obliged +to be up at all hours, devising plans for the good of the King's +service, God bless him! But I shall soon (hiccup)--Whoa, Silvertail! +whoa, I say! D----n you, you brute, do you mean to throw me?" + +The restlessness of Silvertail, despite of his rider's caresses, had +been visibly increasing as they approached the dark cluster of walnuts. +Arrived opposite to this, his ears and tail erect, he had evinced even +more than restlessness--alarm: and something, that did not meet the eye +of his rider, caused him to take a sideward spring of several feet. It +was this action that, nearly unseating Simon, had drawn from him the +impatient exclamation just recorded. + +At length the thicket was passed, and Silvertail, recovered from his +alarm, moved forward once more on the bound, in obedience to the well +known whistle of his master. + +"Good speed have they made," again mused Simon, as he approached his +home: "if indeed, as I suspect, it be them who are hiding in yonder +thicket. Silvertail could not have been more than ten minutes finishing +his (hiccup) his corn, and the sands had but little time to warm +beneath his boots when he did start. These Yankees are swift footed +fellows, as I have had good (hiccup) good experience in the old war, +when I could run a little myself like the best of them. But here we are +at last. Whoa, Silvertail, whoa! and now to turn out Bill from his +little wife. Bill, I say, hilloa! hilloa! Bill, hilloa!" + +Long habit, which had taught the old man's truly excellent and exemplary +son the utter hopelessness of his disease, had also familiarized him +with these nightly interruptions to his slumbers. A light was speedily +seen to flash across the chamber in which he slept, and presently the +principal door of the lower building was unbarred, and unmurmuring and +uncomplaining, the half-dressed young man stood in the presence of his +father. Placing the light on the threshold, he prepared to assist him as +usual to dismount, but Simon, contrary to custom, rejected for a time +every offer of the kind. His rapid gallop through the night air, added +to the more than ordinary quantity of whiskey he had that day swallowed, +was now producing its effect, and, while every feature of his +countenance manifested the extreme of animal stupidity, his apprehension +wandered and his voice became almost inarticulate. Without the power to +acquaint his son with the purpose he had in view, and of which he +himself now entertained but a very indistinct recollection, he yet +strove, impelled as he was by his confusedness of intention, to retain +his seat, but was eventually unhorsed and handed over to the care of his +pretty daughter-in-law, whose office it was to dispose of him for the +night, while her husband rubbed down, fed, and otherwise attended to +Silvertail. + +A few hours of sound sleep restored Simon to his voice and his +recollection, when his desire to follow the two individuals he had seen +in the yard of the inn the preceding night, and whom he felt persuaded +he must have passed on the road, was more than ever powerfully revived. +And yet, was it not highly probable that the favorable opportunity had +been lost, and that, taking advantage of the night, they were already +departed from the country, if such (and he doubted it not) was their +intention. "What a cursed fool," he muttered to himself, "to let a +thimbleful of liquor upset me on such an occasion, but, at all events, +here goes for another trial." With the impatient, over-indulged Simon, +to determine on a course of action, was to carry it into effect. + +"Hilloa, Bill! I say, Bill my boy!" he shouted from the chamber next to +that in which his son slept. "Hilloa! Bill, come here directly." + +Bill answered not, but sounds were heard in his room as of one stepping +out of bed, and presently the noise of flint and steel announced that a +light was being struck. In a few minutes the rather jaded-looking youth +appeared at the bedstead of his parent. + +"Bill, my dear boy," said Simon, in a more subdued voice, "did you see +anybody pass last night after I came home? Try and recollect yourself; +did you see two men on the road?" + +"I did, father; just as I had locked the stable door, and was coming in +for the night, I saw two men passing down the road. But why do you ask?" + +"Did you speak to them--could you recognise them?" asked Simon, without +stating his motive for the question. + +"I wished them good night; and one of them gruffly bade me good night +too; but I could not make out who they were, though one did for a +moment strike me to be Desborough, and both were tallish sort of men." + +"You're a lad of penetration, Bill; now saddle me Silvertail as fast as +you can." + +"Saddle Silvertail! Surely, father, you are not going out yet; it's not +daylight." + +"Saddle Silvertail, Bill," repeated the old man, with the air of one +whose mandate was not to be questioned. "But where the devil are you +going, sir?" he added, impatiently. + +"Why to saddle Silvertail, to be sure," said the youth, who was just +closing the door for that purpose. + +"What, and leave me, a miserable old man, to get up without a light? Oh +fie, Bill. I thought you loved your poor old father better than to +neglect him so--there, that will do. Now send in Lucy to dress me." + +The light was kindled, Bill went in and spoke to his wife, then +descended to the stable. A gentle tap at the door of the old +interpreter, and Lucy entered in her pretty night dress, and, half +asleep, half awake, but without a shadow of discontent in her look, +proceeded to assist him in drawing on his stockings, &c. Simon's toilet +was soon completed, and Silvertail being announced as "all ready," he, +without communicating a word of his purpose, issued forth from his home +just as the day was beginning to dawn. + +Although the reflective powers of Girtie had been in some measure +restored by sleep, it is by no means to be assumed he was yet thoroughly +sober. Uncertain in regard to the movements of those who had so strongly +excited his loyal hostility, (and, mayhap, at the moment his curiosity,) +it occurred to him that if Desborough had not already baffled his +pursuit, a knowledge of the movements and intentions of that individual +might be better obtained from an observation of what was passing on the +beach in front of his hut. The object of this reconnaissance was, +therefore, only to see if the canoe of the settler was still on the +shore, and with this object he suffered Silvertail to take the road +along the sands, while he himself, with his arms folded and his head +sunk on his chest, fell into a reverie with which was connected the +manner and the means of securing the disloyal Desborough, should it +happen that he had not yet departed. The accidental discharge of +Middlemore's pistol, at the very moment when Silvertail had doubled a +point that kept the scene of contention from his view, caused him to +raise his eyes, and then the whole truth flashed suddenly upon him. We +have already seen how gallantly he advanced to them, and how madly, and +in a manner peculiarly his own, he sought to arrest the traitor +Desborough in his flight. + +"Sorry I couldn't force the scoundrel back, gentlemen," said Simon, as +he now approached the discomfited officers. "Not much hurt, I hope," +pointing with his own maimed and bleeding hand to the leg of Middlemore, +which that officer, seated on the sand, was preparing to bind with a +silk handkerchief. "Ah, a mere flesh wound, I see. Henry, Henry +Grantham, my poor dear boy, what still alive after the desperate +clutching of that fellow at your throat? But now that we have routed the +enemy--must be off--drenched to the skin. No liquor on the stomach to +keep out the cold, and if I once get an ague fit, its all over with poor +old Simon. Must gallop home, and, while his little wife wraps a bandage +round my hand, shall send down Bill with a litter. Good morning, Mr. +Middlemore, good bye, Henry, my boy." And then, without giving time to +either to reply, the old man applied his spurs once more to the flanks +of Silvertail, who, with drooping mane and tail, resembled a half +drowned rat; and again hallooing defiance to Desborough, who lay to at a +distance, apparently watching the movements of his enemies, he retraced +his way along the sands at full gallop, and was speedily out of sight. + +Scarcely had Girty disappeared, when two other individuals, evidently +officers, and cloaked precisely like the party he had just quitted, +issued from the wood near the hut upon the clearing, and thence upon the +sands--their countenances naturally expressing all the surprise that +might be supposed to arise from the picture now offered to their view. + +"What in the name of Heaven is the meaning of all this?" asked one of +the new comers, as both now rapidly advanced to the spot where +Middlemore was yet employed in coolly binding up his leg, while Henry +Grantham, who had just risen, was gasping with almost ludicrous efforts +to regain his respiration. + +"You must ask the meaning of our friend here," answered Middlemore, with +the low chuckling good-natured laugh that was habitual to him, while he +proceeded with his bandaging. "All I know is, that I came out as a +second, and here have I been made a first--a principal, which, by the +way, is contrary to all my principle." + +"Do be serious for once, Middlemore. How did you get wounded, and who +are those scoundrels who have just quitted you?" anxiously inquired +Captain Molineux, for it was he, and Lieutenant Villiers, who, (the +party already stated to have been expected), had at length arrived. + +"Two desperate fellows in their way, I can assure you," replied +Middlemore, more amused than annoyed at the adventure. "Ensign Paul, +Emilius, Theophilus, Arnoldi, is, I calculate, a pretty considerable +strong ac_tyve_ sort of fellow; and, to judge by Henry Grantham's half +strangled look, his companion lacks not the same qualities. Why, in the +name of all that is precious would you persist in poking your nose into +the rascal's skins, Grantham? The ruffians had nearly made dried skins +of ours." + +"Ha! is that the scoundrel who calls himself Arnoldi," asked Captain +Molineux? "I have heard," and he glanced at Henry Grantham as he spoke, +"a long story of his villainy from his captor within this very hour." + +"Which is your apology, I suppose," said Middlemore, "for having so far +exceeded your appointment, gentlemen." + +"It certainly is," said Lieutenant Villiers, "but the fault was not +ours. We chanced to fall in with Gerald Grantham, on our way here, and +that he detained us, should be a matter of congratulation to us all." + +"Congratulation!" exclaimed Middlemore, dropping his bandage, and +lifting his eyes with an expression of indescribable humor. "Am I then +to think it matter of congratulation that, as an innocent second, I +should have had a cursed piece of lead stuck in my flesh to spoil my +next winter's dancing. And Grantham is to think it matter of +congratulation that, instead of putting a bullet through you, Molineux, +(as I intend he shall when I have finished dressing this confounded leg, +if his nerves are not too much shaken), he should have felt the gripe of +that monster Desborough around his throat, until his eyes seem ready to +start from their sockets, and all this because you did not choose to be +in time. Upon my word, I do not know that it is quite meet that we +should meet you. What say you, Grantham?" + +"I hope," said Captain Molineux with a smile, "your principal will think +as you do, for should he decline the meeting, nothing will afford more +satisfaction to myself." + +Both Grantham and Middlemore looked their utter surprise at the language +thus used by Captain Molineux, but neither of them spoke. + +"If an apology the most ample for my observation of yesterday," +continued that officer, "an apology founded on my perfect conviction of +error, (that conviction produced by certain recent explanations with +your brother), can satisfy you, Mr. Grantham, most sincerely do I make +it. If, however, you hold me to my pledge, here am I of course to redeem +it. I may as well observe to you in the presence of our friends, (and +Villiers can corroborate my statement), that my original intention on +leaving your brother, was to receive your fire and then tender my +apology, but, under the circumstances in which both you and Middlemore +are placed at this moment, the idea would be altogether absurd. Again I +tender my apology, which it will be a satisfaction to me to repeat this +day at the mess table, where I yesterday refused to drink your brother's +health. All I can add is that when you have heard the motives for my +conduct, and learnt to what extent I have been deceived, you will +readily admit that I acted not altogether from caprice." + +"Your apology I accept, Captain Molineux," said Grantham, coming forward +and unhesitatingly offering his hand. "If you have seen my brother, I am +satisfied. Let there be no further question on the subject." + +"So then I am to be the only bulleted man on this occasion," interrupted +Middlemore, with ludicrous pathos--"the only poor devil who is to be +made to remember Hartley's point for ever. But no matter. I am not the +first instance of a second being shot, through the awkward bungling of +his principal, and certainly Grantham you were in every sense the +principal in this affair, for had you taken my advice you would have let +the fellows go to the devil their own way." + +"What! knowing, as I did, that the traitor Desborough had concealed in +his canoe a prisoner on parole--nay, worse, a deserter from our +service--with a view of conveying him out of the country." + +"How did you know it." + +"Because I at once recognised him, through the disguise in which he left +the hut, for what he was. That discovery made, there remained but one +course to pursue." + +"Ah! and coarse work you made of it, with a vengeance," said Middlemore, +"first started him up like a fox from his cover, got the mark of his +teeth, and then suffered him to escape." + +"Is there no chance of following--no means of overtaking them?" said +Captain Molineux--"No, by Heaven," as he glanced his eye from right to +left, "not a single canoe to be seen anywhere along the shore." + +"Following!" echoed Middlemore; "faith the scoundrels would desire +nothing better: if two of us had such indifferent play with them on +terra firma, you may rely upon it that double the number would have no +better chance in one of these rickety canoes. See there how the rascals +lie to within half musket shot, apparently hailing us." + +Middlemore was right. Desborough had risen in the stern of the canoe, +and now, stretched to his full height, called leisurely, through his +closed hands, on the name of Henry Grantham. When he observed the +attention of that officer had, in common with that of his companions, +been arrested, he proceeded at the full extent of his lungs. + +"I reckon, young man, as how I shall pay you out for this, and drot my +skin, if I once twists my fingers round your neck again, if anything on +this side hell shall make me quit it, afore you squeaks your last +squeak. You've druv me from my home, and I'll have your curst blood for +it yet. I'll sarve you as I sarved your old father. You got my small +bore, I expect, and if its any good to you to know that one of its +nineties to the pound sent the old rascal to the devil--why then you +have it from Jeremiah Desborough's own lips, and be d----d to you." + +And, with this horrible admission, the settler again seated himself in +the stern of his canoe, and making good use of his paddle soon scudded +away until his little vessel appeared but as a speck on the lake. + +Henry Grantham was petrified with astonishment and dismay at a +declaration, the full elucidation of which we must reserve for a future +opportunity. The daring confession rang in his ears long after the voice +had ceased, and it was not until a light vehicle had been brought for +Middlemore from Simon's farm, that he could be induced to quit the +shore, where he still lingered, as if in expectation of the return of +the avowed _murderer of his Father_. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + +At the especial invitation of Captain Molineux Gerald Grantham dined at +the garrison mess, on the evening of the day when the circumstances +detailed in our last chapter took place. During dinner the extraordinary +adventure of the morning formed the chief topic of conversation, for it +had become one of general interest, not only throughout the military +circles, but in the town of Amherstburgh itself, in which the father of +the Granthams had been held in an esteem amounting almost to veneration. +Horrible as had been the announcement made by the detected and +discomfited settler to him who now, for the first time, learnt that his +parent had fallen a victim to ruffian vindictiveness, too many years had +elapsed since that event, to produce more than the ordinary emotion +which might be supposed to be awakened by a knowledge rather of the +manner than the fact of his death. Whatever therefore might have been +the pain inflicted on the hearts of the brothers, by this cruel +re-opening of a partially closed wound, there was no other evidence of +suffering than the suddenly compressed lip and glistening eye, whenever +allusion was made to the villain with whom each felt he had a fearful +account to settle. + +Much indeed of the interest of the hour was derived from the animated +account, given by Gerald, of the circumstances which had led to his +lying in ambuscade for the American on the preceding day; and as his +narrative embraces not only the reasons for Captain Molineux's strange +conduct, but other hitherto unexplained facts, we cannot do better than +follow him in his detail: + +"I think it must have been about half past eleven o'clock, on the night +preceding the capture," commenced Gerald, "that, as my gun-boat was at +anchor close under the American shore, at rather more than half a mile +below the farther extremity of Bois Blanc, my faithful old Sambo +silently approached me, while I lay wrapped in my watch-cloak on deck, +calculating the chances of falling in with some spirited bark of the +enemy which would afford me an opportunity of proving the mettle of my +crew. + +"'Massa Geral,' he said, in a mysterious whisper--for old age and long +services in my family have given him privileges which I have neither the +power nor the inclination to check--'Massa Geral,' pulling me by the +collar, 'I dam ib he no go sleep when him ought to hab all him eyes +about him--him pretty fellow to keep watch when Yankee pass him in e +channel.' + +"'A Yankee pass me in the channel!' I would have exclaimed aloud, +starting to my feet with surprise; but Sambo, with ready thought, put +his hand upon my mouth, in time to prevent more than the first word from +being uttered. + +"'Hush! dam him, Massa Geral, ib you make a noise, you no catch him.' + +"'What do you mean, then--what have you seen?' I asked, in the same low +whisper, the policy of which his action had enjoined on me. + +"'Lookee dare, Massa Geral, lookee dare!' + +"Following the direction in which he pointed, I now saw, but very +indistinctly, a canoe in which was a solitary individual stealing across +the lake to the impulsion of an apparently muffled paddle; for her +course, notwithstanding the stillness of the night, was utterly +noiseless. The moon, which is in her first quarter, had long since +disappeared; yet the heavens, although not particularly bright, were +sufficiently dotted with stars to enable me, with the aid of a night +telescope, to discover that the figure, which guided the cautiously +moving bark, had nothing Indian in its outline. The crew of the gun-boat +(the watch only excepted) had long since turned in; and even the latter +lay reposing on the forecastle, the sentinels only keeping the ordinary +lookout. So closely, moreover, did we lay in shore, that but for the +caution of the paddler, it might have been assumed she was too nearly +identified with the dark forest against which her hull and spars +reposed, to be visible. Curious to ascertain her object, I watched the +canoe in silence, as, whether accidentally or with design, I know not, +she made the half circuit of the gun-boat and then bore away in a direct +line for the Canadian shore. A suspicion of the truth now flashed across +my mind, and I resolved without delay to satisfy myself. My first care +was to hasten to the forecastle, and enjoin on the sentinels, who I +feared might see and hail the stranger, the strictest silence. Then +desiring Sambo to prepare the light boat, which I dare say most of you +have remarked to form a part of my Lilliputian command, I proceeded to +arm myself with cutlass and pistols. Thus equipped, I sprang lightly in; +and having again caught sight of the chase, on which I had moreover +directed one of the sentinels to keep a steady eye as long as she was in +sight, desired Sambo to steer as noiselessly as possible in pursuit. For +some time we kept the stranger in view, but whether, owing to his +superior paddling or lighter weight, we eventually lost sight of him. +The suspicion which had at first induced my following, however, served +as a clue to guide me in the direction I should take. I was aware that +the scoundrel Desborough was an object of distrust--I knew that the +strictness of my father, during his magistracy, in compelling him to +choose between taking the oaths of allegiance and quitting the country, +had inspired him with deep hatred to himself and disaffection to the +Government; and I felt that if the spirit of his vengeance had not +earlier developed itself, it was solely because the opportunity and the +power had hitherto been wanting; but that now, when hostilities between +his natural and adopted countries had been declared, there would be +ample room for the exercise of his treason. It was the strong assurance +I felt that he was the solitary voyager on the face of the waters, which +induced me to pursue him; for I had a presentiment that, could I but +track him in his course, I should discover some proof of his guilt, +which would suffice to rid us for ever of the presence of so dangerous a +subject. The adventure was moreover one that pleased me, although +perhaps I was not strictly justified in quitting my gun-boat, especially +as in the urgency of the moment, I had not even thought of leaving +orders with my boatswain, in the event of anything unexpected occurring +during my absence. The sentinels alone were aware of my departure. + +"The course we pursued was in the direction of Hartley's point, and so +correct had been the steering and paddling of the keen-sighted negro, +that when we made the beach, we found ourselves immediately opposite to +Desborough's hut. + +"'How is this, Sambo?' I asked in a low tone, as our canoe grated on the +sand within a few paces of several others that lay where I expected to +find but one--'are all these Desborough's?' + +"'No, Massa Geral--'less him teal him toders, Desborough only got +one--dis a public landin' place.' + +"'Can you tell which is his?' I inquired. + +"'To be sure--dis a one,' and he pointed to one nearly twice the +dimensions of its fellows. + +"'Has it been lately used, Sambo--can you tell?' + +"'I soon find out, Massa Geral.' + +"His device was the most simple and natural in the world, and yet I +confess it was one which I never should have dreamt of. Stooping on the +sands, he passed his hand under the bottom of the canoe, and then +whispered: + +"'Him not touch a water to-night, Massa Geral--him dry as a chip.' + +"Here I was at fault. I began to apprehend that I had been baffled in my +pursuit, and deceived in my supposition. I knew that Desborough had had +for years, one large canoe only in his possession, and it was evident +that this had not been used for the night. I was about to order Sambo to +shove off again, when it suddenly occurred to me, that, instead of +returning from a visit, the suspected settler might have received a +visiter, and I accordingly desired my _fides Achates_ to submit the +remainder of the canoes to the same inspection. + +"After having passed his hand ineffectually over several, he at length +announced, as he stooped over one which I recognised, from a peculiar +elevation of the bow and stern, to be same we had passed. + +"'Dis a one all drippin' wet, Massa Geral. May I nebber see a Hebben ib +he not a same we follow.' + +"A low tapping against the door of the hut, which, although evidently +intended to be subdued, was now, in the silence of night, distinctly +audible, while our whispers on the contrary, mingled as they were with +the crisping sound of the waves rippling on the sands were, at that +distance, undistinguishable. It was evident that I had erred in my +original conjecture. Had it been Desborough himself, living alone as he +did, he would not have knocked for admission where there was no one to +afford it, but would have quietly let himself in. It could then be no +other than a visiter, perhaps a spy from the enemy--and the same to whom +we had given chase. + +"From the moment that the tapping commenced, Sambo and I stood +motionless on the shore, and without trusting our voices again, even to +a whisper. In a little time we heard the door open, and the low voice of +Desborough in conversation with another. Presently the door was shut, +and soon afterwards, through an imperfectly closed shutter on the only +floor of the hut, we could perceive a streak of light reflected on the +clearing in front, as if from a candle or lamp that was stationary. + +"'I tink him dam rascal dat man, Massa Geral,' at length ventured my +companion. 'I 'member long time ago,' and he sighed, 'when Sambo was no +bigger nor dat paddle, one berry much like him. But, Massa Geral, Massa +always tell me nebber talk o' dat.' + +"'A villain he is, I believe, Sambo, but let us advance cautiously and +discover what he is about.' + +"We now stole along the skirt of the forest, until we managed to +approach the window, through which the light was still thrown in one +long, fixed, but solitary ray. It was however impossible to see who were +within, for although the voices of men were distinguishable, their forms +were so placed as not to be visible through the partial opening. + +"The conversation had evidently been some moments commenced. The first +words I heard uttered were by Desborough. + +"'A Commissary boat, and filled with bags of goold eagles, and a +fiftieth part our'n, if we get her clean slick through to Detroit. Well, +drot me, if that ain't worth the trial. Why didn't they try it by land, +boy?' + +"'I reckon, father, that cock wouldn't fight. The Injuns are outlyin' +everywhere to cut off our mails, and the ready is too much wanted to be +thrown away. No, no: the river work's the safest, I take it, for there +they little expect it to come.' + +"The voice of the last speaker excited in me a strong desire to see the +face of Desborough's visiter. Unable, where I stood, to catch the +slightest view of either, I fancied that I might be more successful in +rear of the hut. I therefore moved forward, followed by Sambo, but not +so cautiously as to prevent my feet from crushing a fragment of decayed +wood that lay in my path. + +"A bustle within, and the sudden opening of the door announced that the +noise had been overheard. I held up my finger impressively to Sambo, and +we both remained motionless. + +"'Who the hell's there?' shouted Desborough, and the voice rang like the +blast of a speaking trumpet along the skirt of the forest. + +"'Some raccoon looking out for Hartley's chickens, I expect,' said his +companion, after a short pause. 'There's nothin' human, I reckon, to be +seen movin' at this hour of the night.' + +"'Who the hell's there?' repeated Desborough--still no answer. + +"Again the door was closed, and under cover of the slight noise made by +the settler in doing this, and resuming his seat, Sambo and I +accomplished the circuit of the hut. Here we had an unobstructed view of +the persons of both. A small store room or pantry communicated with that +in which they were sitting at a table, on which was a large flagon, we +knew to contain whiskey, and a couple of japanned drinking cups, from +which, ever and anon, they 'wetted their whistles,' as they termed it, +and whetted their discourse. As they sat each with his back to the inner +wall, or more correctly, the logs of the hut, and facing the door +communicating with the store-room, left wide open, and in a direct line +with the back window at which we had taken our stand, we could +distinctly trace every movement of their features, while, thrown into +the shade by the gloom with which we were enveloped, we ran no risk of +detection ourselves. It is almost unnecessary to observe, after what has +occurred this morning, that the companion of Desborough was no other +than the _soi-disant_ Ensign Paul Emilius Theophilus Arnoldi; or, more +properly, the scoundrel son of a yet more scoundrel father. He wore the +dress in which you yesterday beheld him, but beneath a Canadian blanket +coat, which, when I first saw him in the hut, was buttoned up to the +chin so closely as to conceal everything American about the dress. + +"'Well now, I reckon we must lay our heads to do this job;' said the +son, as he tossed off a portion of the liquid he had poured into his +can. 'There's only that one gun-boat I expect in t'other channel.' + +"'Only one, Phil--do you know who commands it?' + +"'One of them curst Granthams, to be sure. I say, old boy,' and his eye +lighted up significantly as he pointed to the opposite wall. 'I see +you've got the small bore still.' + +"A knowing wink marked the father's sense of the allusion. 'The devil's +in it,' he rejoined, 'if we can't come over that smooth-faced chap some +how or other. Did you see anythin' of him as you come along?' + +"'I reckon I did. Pretty chick he is to employ for a look-out. Why I +paddled two or three times round his gun-boat as it lay 'gin the shore, +without so much as a single livin' soul being on deck to see me.' + +"It is proverbial," continued Grantham, "that listeners never hear any +good of themselves. I paid the common penalty. But if I continued calm, +my companion did not. Partly incensed at what had related to me--but +more infuriated at the declaration made by the son, that he had paddled +several times round the gun-boat, without a soul being on deck to see +him, he drew near to me, his white teeth displaying themselves in the +gloom, as he whispered, but in a tone that betrayed extreme irritation. + +"'What a dam liar rascal, Massa Geral. He nebber go round: I see him +come a down a ribber long afore he see a boat at all.' + +"'Hush, Sambo! hush--not a word,' I returned in the same low whisper. +'The villains are at some treason, and if we stir, we shall lose all +chance of discovering it.' + +"'Me no peak, Massa Geral; but dam him lyin' teef,' he continued to +mutter, 'I wish I had him board a gun-boat.' + +"'A dozen fellers well armed might take the d----d British craft,' +observed Desborough. 'How many men may there be aboard the Commissary?' + +"'About forty, I reckon, under some d----d old rig'lar major. I've got a +letter for him here to desire him to come on, if so be as we gets the +craft out of the way.' + +"'Drot me if I know a better way than to jump slick aboard her,' +returned Desborough, musingly, 'forty genu_ine_ Kaintucks ought to +swallow her up crew and all.' + +"'I guess they would,' returned his companion, 'but they are not +Kaintucks, but only rig'lars; and then agin if they are discovered, one +spry cannon might sink her; and if the eagles go to the bottom we shall +lose our fiftieth. You don't reckon that.' + +"'What the hell's to be done then?' exclaimed Desborough, resorting to +his favorite oath when in doubt. + +"'My plan's already cut and dried by a wiser head nor yours nor mine, as +you shall larn; but first let a feller wet his whistle.' Here they both +drained off another portion of the poison that stood before them. + +"Not to tire you," pursued Grantham, "with a repetition of the oaths and +vulgar and interjectional chucklings that passed between the +well-assorted pair during the disclosure of the plan, I will briefly +state that it was one of the most stupid that could have been conceived, +and reflected but little credit on the stratagetic powers of whoever +originated it. + +"The younger scoundrel, who since his desertion from our service, claims +to be a naturalized citizen of the United States, (his name of +Desborough being changed for that of Arnoldi, and his rank of full +private for that of Ensign of Militia,) had been selected, from his +knowledge of the Canadian shore and his connexion with the disaffected +settler, as a proper person to entrust with a stratagem, having for its +object the safe convoy of a boat with specie, of which the American +garrison, it appears, stands much in need. The renegade had been +instructed to see his father, to whom he was to promise a fiftieth of +the value of the freight, provided he should by any means contrive to +draw the gun-boat from her station. The most plausible plan suggested +was, that he should intimate to me that a prize of value was lying +between Turkey Island and our own shore, which it required but my sudden +appearance to ensure, without even striking a blow. Here a number of +armed boats were to be stationed in concealment in order to take me at a +disadvantage, and even if I avoided being captured, the great aim would +be accomplished--namely, that of getting me out of the way until the +important boat should have cleared the channel running between Bois +Blanc and the American shore, and secreted herself in one of the several +deep creeks which empty themselves into the river. Here she was to have +remained until I had returned to my station, when her passage upward +might be pursued, if not without observation, at least without risk. As +Desborough was known to be suspected by us, it was further suggested +that he should appear to have been influenced in the information +conveyed to me, not by any motives of patriotism, which would have been +in the highest degree misplaced, but by the mere principle of +self-interest. He was to require of me a pledge that, out of the +proceeds of the proposed capture a twentieth share should be his, or, if +I would not undertake to guarantee this from the Government or my own +authority, that I should promise my own eventual share should be divided +with him. This stratagem successful, the younger Desborough was to +repair to the boat which had been lying concealed for the last day or +two, a few miles below me, with an order for her to make the best of her +way during the night if possible. If failing on the other hand, she was +to return to the port whence she had sailed, until a more fitting +opportunity should present itself. + +"This," continued Grantham, after a slight pause, during which the +bottle was again circulated, "was delightful intelligence. Distrustful +as I was of Desborough, I could not have been deceived by this advice, +even had I not thus fortunately become acquainted with the whole of the +design; but now that I knew my man, and could see my way, I at once +resolved to appear the dupe they proposed to make me. Specie, too, for +the payment of the garrison! This was no contemptible prize with which +to commence my career. Besides, the boat was well manned; and although +without cannon, still, in point of military equipment, quite able to +cope with my crew, which did not exceed thirty men. + +"With your knowledge of Desborough's character, it will not surprise you +to learn, although I confess I boiled with indignation at the moment to +hear, that the object of the scoundrels was, with a view to the +gratification of their own private vengeance, not merely to raise a +doubt of my fidelity, but to prefer against me a direct charge of +treason. Thus, in their vulgar language, they argued. If misled by their +representations, I quitted my station on the channel, and fell into the +ambuscade prepared for me near Turkey Island, I raised a suspicion of +the cause of my absence, which might be confirmed by an anonymous +communication; and if, on the other hand, I escaped that ambuscade, the +suspicion would be even stronger, as care would be taken to announce to +the English garrison the fact of my having been bribed to leave the +channel free for the passage of a boat, filled with money and +necessaries for Detroit. My return to my post immediately afterwards +would confirm the assertion; and so perfectly had they, in their wise +conceit, arranged their plans, that a paper was prepared by the son and +handed to his father, for the purpose of being dropped in the way of one +of the officers--the purport of which was an accusation against me, of +holding a secret understanding with the enemy, in proof whereof it was +stated that at an important moment, I should be found absent from my +post. I think I am correct, Captain Molineux." + +"Perfectly," returned that officer--"such indeed were the contents of +the paper which I picked up in my rounds about daylight yesterday +morning, and which I have only again to express my regret that I should +have allowed to make on me even a momentary impression. Indeed, +Grantham, I am sure you will do me the justice to believe, that until we +actually saw the American boat passing, while you were nowhere to be +seen, I never for one moment doubted its being, what it has proved to +be--the falsest and most atrocious of calumnies." + +"Your after doubt was but natural," replied the sailor, "although I +confess I could not help wincing under the thought of its being +entertained. I knew that, on my return, I should be enabled to explain +everything, but yet felt nettled that even my short absence should, as I +knew it must, give rise to any strictures on my conduct. It was that +soreness of feeling which induced my impatient allusion to the subject, +even after my good fortune of yesterday, for I at once detected that the +slanderous paper had been received and commented on; and from the +peculiar glance, I saw Henry direct to you, I was at no loss to discover +into whose hands it had fallen. But to resume. + +"Their plan of action being finally settled, the traitors began to give +indication of separating--the one to hasten and announce to the American +boat the removal of all impediment to her passage upwards--the other to +my gun-boat, in order to play off the falsehood devised for the success +of their stratagem. + +"'Here's damnation to the curst race of Granthams,' said the son, as +raising his tall and lanky body, he lifted the rude goblet to his lips. + +"'Amen,' responded the father, rising also and drinking to the pledge +'and, what's more, here's to the goold eagles that'll repay us for our +job. And now Phil, let's be movin'.' + +"The heavy tread of their feet within the hut as they moved to and fro, +to collect the several articles belonging to the equipment of +Desborough's canoe, promising fair to cover the sound of our footsteps, +I now whispered to Sambo, and we hastily made good our retreat to the +point where we left our skiff. In a few minutes, we were again on the +lake, paddling swiftly but cautiously towards my gun-boat. I had +instructed the sentinels not to hail me on my return, therefore when I +gained the deck, it was without challenge or observation of any kind, +which could denote to those from whom I had so recently parted, that any +one had been absent. + +"Again I had thrown myself upon the deck, and was ruminating on the +singular events of the evening, associating the rich prize, which I now +already looked upon as my own, with the rascality of those who, +imagining me to be their dupe, were so soon to become mine; and moreover +meditating such measures as I fancied most likely to secure a result so +opposite to that which they anticipated, when the loud quick sharp hail +of the sentinels announced that a craft of some kind was approaching. + +"'Want to see the officer,' shouted a voice which I knew to be +Desborough's. 'Somethin' very partick'lar to tell him, I guess.' + +"Permission having been granted, the canoe came rapidly up to the side, +and in the next minute, the tall heavy form of the settler stood +distinctly defined against the lake, as he stepped on the gun-wale of +the boat. + +"It must be needless here to repeat the information of which he was the +bearer," pursued Grantham. "Its purport was, in every sense, what I had +so recently overheard in the hut. + +"'And how am I to know that this tale of yours is correct,' I demanded +when he had concluded, yet in a tone that seemed to admit, I was as much +his dupe as he could reasonably desire. 'You are aware, Desborough, that +your character for loyalty does not stand very high, and this may prove +but a trick to get me out of the way. What good motive can you give for +my believing you?' + +"'The best I calculate as can be,' he unhesitatingly answered, 'and that +is my own interest. I don't make no boast of my loyalty, as you say, to +be sure, Mr. Grantham, but I've an eye like a hawk for the rhino, and I +han't giv' you this piece of news without expectin' a promise that I +shall git a purty considerable sum in eagles, if so be as you succeeds +in wallopin' the prize.' + +"'Walloping--what do you call walloping, man?' + +"'What do I call wallopin'? why licking her slick and clean out, and +gettin' hold of the dust to be sure.' + +"I could have knocked the scoundrel to the deck, for the familiarity of +the grin which accompanied his reply, and as for Sambo, I had more than +once to look him peremptorily into patience. + +"I knew from what had passed between father and son, that, until the +former had communicated with, and impressed a conviction of the accuracy +of his report, upon me, nothing was to be attempted by the boat, the +capture of which was now, for a variety of reasons, an object of weighty +consideration. Whatever violence I did to myself therefore, in +abstaining from a castigation of the traitor. I felt that I could not +hope for success, unless, by appearing implicitly to believe all he had +stated. I thus set suspicion at rest. + +"'A more satisfactory motive for your information you could not have +given me, Desborough,' I at length replied, with a sarcasm which was +however lost upon him, 'and I certainly do you the justice to believe +that to the self-interest you have avowed, we shall be indebted for the +capture of the prize in question. She lies, you say, between Turkey +Island and our own shores.' + +"'I guess as how she does,' replied the settler, with an eagerness that +betrayed his conviction that the bait had taken; 'but Mr. +Grantham.'--and I could detect a lurking sneer, 'I expect at least that +when you have lick'd the prize you will make my loyalty stand a little +higher than it seems to be at this moment, for I guess, puttin' the +dollars out of the question, it's a right loyal act I am guilty of now.' + +"'You may rely upon it, Desborough, you shall have all the credit you +deserve for your conduct on the occasion--that it shall be faithfully +reported on my return, you may take for granted.' Here I summoned all +hands up to weigh anchor and make sail for Turkey Island. 'Now then, +Desborough, unless you wish to be a sharer in our enterprise, the sooner +you leave us the better, for we shall be off immediately.' + +"In obedience to my order, all hands were speedily upon deck, and busied +in earnest preparation. In pleasing assurance that I was as completely +his dupe as could be desired, the villain had now the audacity to demand +from me a written promise that, in consideration of the information +given, five hundred dollars should be paid to him on the disposal of the +prize. This demand (aware as he was--or rather as he purposed--that I +was to play the part of the captured instead of that of the captor), was +intended to lull me into even greater reliance on his veracity. I had +difficulty in restraining my indignation, for I felt that the fellow was +laughing at me in his sleeve; however, the reflection that, in less than +twenty-four hours, the tables would be turned upon him, operated as a +check upon my feelings, and I said with a hurried voice and air: + +"'Impossible. Desborough, I have no time now to give the paper, for as +you perceive we are getting under way--I however, repeat to you my +promise, that if your claims are not attended to elsewhere, you shall +have my share of the profits, if I take this prize within the next eight +and forty hours within the boundary of Turkey Island. Will that content +you?' + +"'I expect as how it must,' returned the secretly delighted, yet +seemingly disappointed settler, as he now prepared to recross the +gun-wale into this canoe; 'but I guess, Mr. Grantham, you might at least +advance a feller a little money out of hand, on the strength of the +prize. Jist say twenty dollars.' + +"'No, Desborough, not one. When the Turkey Island prize is mine, then if +the Government refuse to confirm your claims, we will share equally; but +as I said before, I must first capture her, before I consent to part +with a shilling.' + +"'Well then, I guess I must wait,' and the scoundrel confidently +believing that he had gulled me to his heart's content, stepped heavily +into his canoe, which he directed along the lake shore, while we with +willing sails, glided up the channel and speedily lost him from our +view." + +"A perfect adventure, upon my word!" interrupted De Courcy. + +"What a bold and deliberate scoundrel!" added Captain Granville. "I +confess, Grantham, I cannot but admire the coolness and self-possession +you evinced on this occasion. Had I been there in your stead, I should +have tied the rascal up, given him a dozen or two on the spot, and then +tumbled him head-foremost into the lake." + +"The remainder is soon told," continued Gerald. "On parting from +Desborough, I continued my course directly up the channel, with a view +of gaining a point, where unseen myself, I could observe the movements +of the American boat, which, from all I had heard, I fully expected +would attempt the passage in the course of the following day. My perfect +knowledge of the country suggested to me, as the safest and most secure +hiding place, the creek whence you saw me issue at a moment when it was +supposed the American had altogether escaped. The chief object of the +enemy was evidently to get me out of the channel. That free, it was of +minor importance whether I fell into the ambuscade or not, so that the +important boat could effect the passage unobserved, or at least in +safety. If my gun-boat should be seen returning unharmed from Turkey +Island, the American was to run into the first creek along the shore, +which she had orders to hug until I had passed, and not until I had +again resumed my station in the channel, was she to renew her course +upwards to Detroit, which post it was assumed she would then gain +without difficulty. + +"It was scarcely yet day," continued Grantham, "when I reached and ran +into the creek of which I have just spoken, and which, owing to the +narrowness of the stream and consequent difficulty of waring, I was +obliged to enter stern-foremost. That no time might be lost in getting +her out at the proper moment, I, instead of dropping her anchor, made +the gun-boat fast to a tree; and, desiring the men, with the exception +of the watch, to take their rest as usual, lay quietly awaiting the +advance of the enemy. + +"The gun fired from the lower battery on the island, was the first +intimation we had of the approach of the prize which I had given my +gallant fellows to understand was in reserve for us; and presently +afterwards Sambo, whom I had dispatched on the look out, appeared on the +bank, stating that a large boat, which had been fired at ineffectually, +was making the greatest exertions to clear the channel. A second shot, +discharged from a nearer point, soon after announced that the boat had +gained the head of the island, and might therefore be shortly expected. +In the impatience of my curiosity I sprang to the shore, took the +telescope out of the hands of Sambo, and hastened to climb the tree from +which he had so recently descended. I now distinctly saw the boat, and, +availing herself of the rising and partial breeze, she steered more into +the centre of the stream; and I thought I could observe marks of +confusion and impatience among the groups in front of the fort, whom I +had justly imagined to have been assembled there to witness the arrival +of the canoes we had seen descending the river long before the first gun +was fired." + +"But the chase, and the firing after you doubled the point?" inquired +Captain Granville. "We saw nothing of this." + +"The American, plying his oars with vigor, gave us work enough," +answered the young sailor, "and had made considerable way up the creek, +before we came up with him. An attempt was then made to escape us by +running ashore, and abandoning the boat, but it was too late. Our bow +was almost touching his stern, and in the desperation of the moment, the +American troops discharged their muskets, but with so uncertain an aim, +in consequence of their being closely crowded upon each other, that only +three of my men were wounded by their fire. Before they could load +again, we were enabled to grapple with them hand to hand. A few of my +men had discharged their pistols, in answer to the American volley, +before I had time to interfere to prevent them; but the majority having +reserved theirs, we had now immeasurably the advantage. Removing the +bayonets from their muskets, which at such close quarters were useless, +they continued their contest a short time with these, but the cutlass +soon overpowered them, and they surrendered." + +"And the Major, Grantham; did he behave well on the occasion?" + +"Gallantly. It was the Major that cut down the only man I had +dangerously wounded in the affair, and he would have struck another +fatally, had I not disarmed him. While in the act of doing so, I was +treacherously shot (in the arm only, fortunately,) by the younger +scoundrel, Desborough, whom in turn I saved from Sambo's vengeance, in +order that he might receive a more fitting punishment. And now, +gentlemen, you have the whole history." + +"Yes, as far as regards the men portion," said De Courcy, with a +malicious smile; "but what became of the lady all this while, my +conquering hero? Did you find her playing a very active part in the +skirmish?" + +"Active--no!" replied Gerald, slightly coloring as he remarked all eyes +directed to him at this demand, "but passively courageous she was to a +degree I could not have supposed possible in woman. She sat calm and +collected amid the din of conflict, as if she had been accustomed to the +thing all her life, nor once moved from the seat which she occupied in +the stern, except to make an effort to prevent me from disarming her +uncle. I confess that her coolness astonished me, while it excited my +warmest admiration." + +"I hope it may be nothing beyond admiration," observed the captain of +Grenadiers; "I tell you as a friend, Gerald, I do not like this account +you give of her conduct. A woman who could show no agitation in such a +scene must have either a damn'd cold, or a damn'd black heart, and +there's but little claim to admiration there." + +"Upon my word, Captain Cranstoun," and the handsome features of Gerald +crimsoned with a feeling not unmixed with serious displeasure, "I do not +quite understand you--you appear to assume something between Miss +Montgomerie and myself that should not be imputed to either--and +certainly, not thus publicly." + +"Nonsense, man, there's no use in making a secret of the matter," +returned the positive grenadier. "The subject was discussed after dinner +yesterday, and there was nobody present who didn't agree, that if you +had won her heart you had given your own in exchange." + +"God forbid!" said Henry Grantham with unusual gravity of manner, while +he looked affectionately on the changing and far from satisfied +countenance of his conscious brother, "for I repeat with Captain +Cranstoun, I like her not. Why, I know not; still I like her not, and I +shall be glad, Gerald, when you have consigned her to the place of her +destination." + +"Pooh! pooh! nonsense!" interrupted Captain Granville; "never mind, +Gerald," he pursued, good-humoredly, "she is a splendid girl, and one +that you need not be ashamed to own as a conquest. By heaven, she has a +bust to warm the bosom of an anchorite, and depend upon it, all that +Cranstoun has said arises only from pique that he is not the object +preferred. Those black eyes of hers have set his ice blood upon the +boil, and he would willingly exchange places with you, as I honestly +confess I should." + +Vexed as Gerald certainly felt at the familiar tone the conversation was +now assuming in regard to Miss Montgomerie, and although satisfied that +mere pleasantry was intended, it was not without a sensation of relief +that he found it interrupted by the entrance of the several +non-commissioned officers with their order-books. Soon after the party +broke up. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + + +Before noon, on the following day, the boat that was to convey Major +Montgomerie and his niece to the American shore, pulled up to the +landing-place in front of the fort. The weather, as on the preceding +day, was fine, and the river exhibited the same placidity of surface. +Numerous bodies of Indians were collected on the banks, pointing to and +remarking on the singularity of the white flag which hung drooping at +the stern of the boat. Presently the prisoners were seen advancing to +the bank, accompanied by General Brock, Commodore Barclay, and the +principal officers of the garrison. Major Montgomerie appeared pleased +at the prospect of the liberty that awaited him, while the countenance +of his niece, on the contrary, presented an expression of deep thought, +although it was afterwards remarked by Granville and Villiers, both +close observers of her demeanor, that as her eye occasionally glanced in +the direction of Detroit, it lighted up with an animation strongly in +contrast with the general calm and abstractedness of her manner. All +being now ready, Gerald Grantham, who had received his final +instructions from the General offered his arm to Miss Montgomerie, who, +to all outward appearance, took it mechanically and unconsciously, +although, in the animated look which the young sailor turned upon her in +the next instant, there was evidence the contact had thrilled +electrically to his heart. After exchanging a cordial pressure of the +hand with his gallant entertainers, and reiterating to the General his +thanks for the especial favor conferred upon him, the venerable Major +followed them to the boat. His departure was the signal for much +commotion among the Indians. Hitherto they had had no idea of what was +in contemplation; but when they saw them enter and take their seats in +the boat, they raised one of those terrific shouts which have so often +struck terror and dismay; and brandishing their weapons, seemed ready to +testify their disapprobation by something more than words. It was +however momentary--a commanding voice made itself heard, even amid the +din of their loud yell, and, when silence had been obtained, a few +animated sentences, uttered in a tone of deep authority, caused the +tumult at once to subside. The voice was that of Tecumseh, and there +were few among his race who, brave and indomitable as they were, could +find courage to thwart his will. Meanwhile the boat, impelled by eight +active seamen, urged its way through the silvery current, and in less +than an hour from its departure had disappeared. + +Two hours had elapsed--the General and superior officers had +retired--and the Indians, few by few, had repaired to their several +encampments, except a party of young warriors, who, wrapped in their +blankets and mantles, lay indolently extended on the grass, smoking +their pipes, or producing wild sounds from their melancholy flutes. Not +far from these, sat, with their legs overhanging the edge of the steep +bank, a group of the junior officers of the garrison, who, with that +indifference which characterized their years, were occupied in casting +pebbles into the river, and watching the bubbles that arose to the +surface. Among the number was Henry Grantham, and, at a short distance +from him, sat the old but athletic negro, Sambo, who, not having been +required to accompany Gerald, to whom he was especially attached, had +continued to linger on the bank long after his anxious eye had lost +sight of the boat in which the latter had departed. While thus engaged, +a new direction was given to the interest of all parties by a peculiar +cry, which reached them from a distance over the water, apparently from +beyond the near extremity of the island of Bois Blanc. To the officers +the sound was unintelligible, for it was the first of the kind they had +ever heard; but the young Indians appeared fully to understand its +import. Starting from their lethargy, they sprang abruptly to their +feet; and giving a sharp, answering yell, stamped upon the green turf, +and snuffed the hot air with distended nostrils, like so many wild +horses let loose upon the desert. Nor was the excitement confined to +these, for, all along the line of encampment the same wild notes were +echoed, and forms came bounding again to the front, until the bank was +once more peopled with savages. + +"What was the meaning of that cry, Sambo, and whence came it?" asked +Henry Grantham, who, as well as his companions, had strained his eyes in +every direction, but in vain, to discover its cause. + +"Dat a calp cry, Massa Henry--see he dere a canoe not bigger than a +hick'ry nut," and he pointed with his finger to what in fact had the +appearance of being little larger; "I wish," he pursued, with +bitterness, "dey bring him calp of dem billains Desborough--Dam him +lying tief." + +"Bravo!" exclaimed De Courcy, who, in common with his companions, +recollecting Gerald's story of the preceding day, was at no loss to +understand why the latter epithet had been so emphatically bestowed; "I +see (winking to Henry Grantham) you have not forgiven his paddling round +the gun-boat the other night, while you and the rest of the crew were +asleep, eh, Sambo?" + +"So help me hebben, Obbicer, he no sail around a gun-boat, he dam a +Yankee. He come along a lake like a dam tief in e night and I tell a +Massa Geral--and Massa Geral and me chase him all ober e water--I not +asleep. Massa Courcy," pursued the old man, with pique; "I nebber +sleep--Massa Geral nebber sleep." + +"The devil ye don't," observed De Courcy, quaintly; "then the Lord +deliver _me_ from gun-boat service, I say." + +"Amen!" responded Villiers. + +"Why," asked Middlemore, "do Gerald Grantham and old Frumpy here remind +one of a certain Irish festival? Do you give it up? Because they are +_awake_----" + +The abuse heaped on the pre-eminently vile attempt was unmeasured--Sambo +conceived it a personal affront to himself, and he said, with an air of +mortification and wounded dignity, not unmixed with anger: + +"Sambo poor black nigger--obbicer berry white man, but him heart all ob +a color. He no Frumpy--Massa Geral no like an Irish bestibal. I wonder +he no tick up for a broder, Massa Henry." His agitation here was +extreme. + +"Nonsense, Sambo--don't you see we are only jesting with you?" said the +youth, in the kindest tone--for he perceived that the faithful creature +was striving hard to check the rising tear--"there is not an officer +here who does not respect you for your long attachment to my family, and +none would willingly give you pain; neither should you suppose they +would say anything offensive in regard of my brother Gerald." + +Pacified by this assurance, which was moreover corroborated by several +of his companions, really annoyed at having pained the old man, Sambo +sank once more into respectful silence, still however continuing to +occupy the same spot. During this colloquy the cry had been several +times repeated, and as often replied to from the shore; and now a canoe +was distinctly visible, urging its way to the beach. The warriors it +contained were a scouting party, six in number--four paddling the light +bark, and one at the helm, while the sixth, who appeared to be the +leader, stood upright in the bow, waving from the long pole, to which it +was attached, a human scalp. A few minutes and the whole had landed, and +were encircled on the bank by their eager and inquiring comrades. Their +story was soon told. They had encountered two Americans at some distance +on the opposite shore, who were evidently making the best of their way +through the forest to Detroit. They called upon them to deliver +themselves up, but the only answer was an attempt at flight. The Indians +fired, and one fell dead, pierced by many balls. The other, however, who +happened to be considerably in advance, threw all his energy into his +muscular frame; and being untouched by the discharge that had slain his +companion, succeeded in gaining a dense underwood, through which he +finally effected his escape. The scouts continued their pursuit for +upwards of an hour, but finding it fruitless, returned to the place +where they had left their canoe, having first secured the scalp and +spoils of the fallen man. + +"Dam him, debbel," exclaimed Sambo, who, as well as the officers, had +approached the party detailing their exploit, and had fixed his dark eye +on the dangling trophy--"May I nebber see a hebben ib he not a calp of a +younger Desborough. I know him lying tief by he hair--he all yaller like +a soger's breastplate--curse him rascal (and his white and even teeth +were exhibited in the grin that accompanied the remark,) he nebber more +say he sail round Massa Geral's gun-boat, and Massa Geral and Sambo +sleep." + +"By Jove he is right," said De Courcy. "I recollect remarking the color +of the fellow's hair yesterday, when, on calling for a glass of "gin +sling," at the inn to which I had conducted him, he threw his slouched +hat unceremoniously on the table, and rubbed the fingers of both hands +through his carrotty locks, until they appeared to stand like those of +the Gorgon, perfectly on end." + +"And were there other proof wanting," said Villiers, "we have it here in +the spoil his slayers are exhibiting to their companions. There is the +identical powder horn, bullet pouch, and waist belt, which he wore when +he landed on this very spot." + +"And I," said Middlemore, "will swear by the crooked buckhorn handle of +that huge knife or dagger; for in our struggle on the sands yesterday +morning, his blanket coat came open, and discovered the weapon, on which +I kept a sharp eye during the whole affair. Had he but managed to plant +that monster (and he affected to shudder,) under my middle ribs, then +would it have been all over with poor Middlemore." + +"There cannot be a doubt," remarked Henry Grantham. "With Sambo and De +Courcy, I well recollect the hair, and I also particularly noticed the +handle of his dagger, which, as you perceive, has a remarkable twist in +it." + +All doubt was put to rest by Sambo, who, having spoken with its +possessor for a moment, now returned, bearing the knife, at the +extremity of the handle of which was engraved, on a silver shield, the +letters P. E. T. A. Ens. M. M. + +"Paul Emilius Theophilus Arnoldi, Ensign Michigan Militia," pursued +Grantham, reading. "This, then, is conclusive, and we have to +congratulate ourselves that one at least of two of the vilest scoundrels +this country ever harbored, has at length met the fate he merited." + +"Fate him merit, Massa Henry!" muttered the aged and privileged negro, +with something like anger in his tones, as he returned the knife to the +Indian, "he dam 'serter from a king! No, no he nebber deserb a die like +dis. He ought to hab a rope roun him neck and die him lying tief like a +dog." + +"I guess, however, our friend Jeremiah has got clean slick off," said +Villiers, imitating the tone and language of that individual, "and he, I +take it, is by far the more formidable of the two. I expect that, before +he dies, he will give one of us a long shot yet, in revenge for the fall +of young hopeful." + +"Traitorous and revengeful scoundrel!" aspirated Henry Grantham, as the +recollection of the manner of his father's death came over his mind. "It +is, at least, some consolation to think his villainy has in part met its +reward. I confess, I exult in the death of young Desborough, less even +because a dangerous enemy has been removed, than because in his fall the +heart of the father will be racked in its only assailable point. I trust +I am not naturally cruel, yet do I hope the image of his slain partner +in infamy may ever after revisit his memory, and remind him of his +crime." + +An exclamation of the Indians now drew the attention of the officers to +a boat that came in sight, in the direction in which that of Gerald +Grantham had long since disappeared, and as she drew nearer, a white +flag floating in the stern, became gradually distinguishable. +Expressions of surprise passed among the officers, by whom various +motives were assigned as the cause of the return of the flag of truce, +for that it was their own boat no one doubted, especially as, on +approaching sufficiently near, the blue uniform of the officer who +steered the boat was visible to the naked eye. On a yet nearer approach, +however, it was perceived that the individual in question wore not the +uniform of the British navy, but that of an officer of the American +line, the same precisely, indeed, as that of Major Montgomerie. It was +further remarked that there was no lady in the boat, and that, +independently of the crew, there was besides the officer already named, +merely one individual, dressed in the non-commissioned uniform, who +seemed to serve as his orderly. Full evidence being now had that this +was a flag sent from the American fort, which had, in all probability, +missed Gerald by descending one channel of the river formed by Turkey +Island, while the latter had ascended by the other, the aid-de-camp, De +Courcy, hastened to acquaint General Brock with the circumstance, and to +receive his orders. By the time the American reached the landing-place, +the youth had returned, accompanying a superior officer of the staff. +Both descended the flight of steps leading to the river, when, having +saluted the officer, after a moment or two of conversation, they +proceeded to blindfold him. This precaution having been taken, the +American was then handed over the gun-wale of the boat, and assisted up +the flight of steps by the two British officers on whose arms he leaned. +As they passed through the crowd, on their way to the fort, the ears of +the stranger were assailed by loud yells from the bands of Indians, who, +with looks of intense curiosity and interest, gazed on the passing, and +to them in some degree inexplicable, scene. Startling as was the fierce +cry, the officer pursued his course without moving a muscle of his fine +and manly form, beyond what was necessary to the action in which he was +engaged. It was a position that demanded all his collectedness and +courage, and he seemed as though he had previously made up his mind not +to be deficient in either. Perhaps it was well that he had been +temporarily deprived of sight, for could he have beheld the numerous +tomahawks that were raised towards him in pantomimic representation of +what they would have done had they been permitted, the view would in no +way have assisted his self-possession. The entrance to the fort once +gained by the little party, the clamor began to subside, and the +Indians, by whom they had been followed, returned to the bank of the +river to satisfy their curiosity with a view of those who had been left +in the boat, to which, as a security against all possible outrage, a +sergeant's command had meanwhile been despatched. + +It was in the drawing-room of Colonel D'Egville, that the General, +surrounded by his chief officers, awaited the arrival of the flag of +truce. Into this the American Colonel, for such was his rank, after +traversing the area of the fort that lay between, was now ushered, and, +the bandage being removed, his eye encountered several to whom he was +personally known, and with these such salutations as became the occasion +were exchanged. + +"The flag you bear, sir," commenced the general, after a few moments of +pause succeeding these greetings, "relates, I presume, to the prisoners +so recently fallen into our hands." + +"By no means, General," returned the American, "this is the first +intimation I have had of such fact--my mission is of a wholly different +nature. I am deputed by the officer commanding the forces of the United +States to summon the garrison of Amherstburg, with all its naval +dependencies, to surrender within ten days from this period." + +The General smiled. "A similar purpose seems to have actuated us both," +he observed. "A shorter limit have I prescribed to the officer by whom I +have, this very day, sent a message to General Hull; where, may I ask, +did you pass my flag?" + +"I met with none, General, and yet my boat kept as nearly in the middle +of the stream as possible." + +"Then must ye have passed each other on the opposite sides of Turkey +Island. The officer in charge was moreover accompanied by two of the +prisoners to whom I have alluded--one a field officer in your own +regiment." + +"May I ask who?" interrupted the American quickly, and slightly +coloring. + +"Major Montgomerie." + +"So I suspected. Was the other of my regiment?" + +"The other," said the General, "bears no commission, and is simply a +volunteer in the expedition--one, in short, whose earnest wish to reach +Detroit, was the principal motive for my offering the Major his liberty +on parole." + +"And may I ask the name of this individual, so unimportant in rank, and +yet so filled with ardor in the cause, as to be thus anxious to gain the +theatre of war?" + +"One probably not unknown to you, Colonel, as the niece of your brother +officer--Miss Montgomerie." + +"Miss Montgomerie here!" faltered the American, rising and paling as he +spoke, while he mechanically placed on the table a glass of wine he had +the instant before raised to his lips--"surely it cannot be." + +There was much to excite interest, not only in the changed tone but in +the altered features of the American, as he thus involuntarily gave +expression to his surprise. The younger officers winked at each other, +and smiled their conviction of _une affaire de coeur_--while the senior +were no less ready to infer that they had now arrived at the true secret +of the impatience of Miss Montgomerie to reach the place of her +destination. To the penetrating eye of the General, however, there was +an expression of pain on the countenance of the officer, which accorded +ill with the feeling which a lover might be supposed to entertain, who +had been unexpectedly brought nearer to an object of attachment, and he +kindly sought to relieve his evident embarrassment by remarking: + +"I can readily comprehend your surprise, Colonel. One would scarcely +have supposed that a female could have had courage to brave the dangers +attendant on an expedition of this kind, in an open boat; but Miss +Montgomerie I confess, appears to me to be one whom no danger could +daunt, and whose resoluteness of purpose, once directed, no secondary +object could divert from its original aim." + +Before the officer could reply, Colonel D'Egville, who had absented +himself during the latter part of the conversation, returned, and +addressing the former in terms that proved their acquaintance to have +been of previous date, invited him to partake of some refreshment that +had been prepared for him in an adjoining apartment. This the American +at first faintly declined, on the plea of delay having been prohibited +by his chief; but, on the general jocosely remarking that, sharing their +hospitality on the present occasion would be no barrier to breaking a +lance a week hence, he assented; and, following Colonel D'Egville, +passed through a short corridor into a smaller apartment, where a +copious but hurried refreshment had been prepared. + +The entry of the officers was greeted by the presence of three +ladies--Mrs. D'Egville and her daughters--all of whom received him with +the frank cordiality that bespoke intimacy, while, on the countenance of +one of the latter, might be detected evidences of an interest that had +its foundation in something more than the mere esteem which dictated the +conduct of her mother and sister. If Julia D'Egville was in reality the +laughing, light hearted, creature represented in the mess room +conversation of the officers of the garrison, it would have been +difficult for a stranger to have recognised her in the somewhat serious +girl who now added her greetings to theirs, but in a manner slightly +tinctured with embarrassment. + +The American, who seemed not to notice it, directed his conversation, as +he partook of the refreshment, principally to Mrs. D'Egville, to whom he +spoke various ladies at Detroit, friends of both, who were deep +deplorers of the war and the non-communication which it occasioned; +alluded to the many delightful parties that had taken place, yet were +now interrupted; and to the many warm friendships which had been formed, +yet might by this event be severed for ever. He concluded by presenting +a note from a very intimate friend of the family, to which, he said, he +had been requested to take back a written answer. + +A feeling of deep gratification pervaded the benevolent countenance of +Mrs. D'Egville, as, on perusal, she found that it contained the offer of +an asylum for herself and daughters in case Amherstburgh should be +carried by storm. + +"Excellent, kind hearted friend!" she exclaimed when she had +finished--"this indeed does merit an answer. Need of assistance, +however, there is none, since my noble friend, the General has pledged +himself to anticipate any attempt to make our soil the theatre of +war--still, does it give me pleasure to be enabled to reciprocate her +offer, by promising, in my turn, an asylum against all chances of +outrage on the part of the wild Indians, attached to our cause"--and she +left the room. + +No sooner did the American find himself alone with the sisters, for +Colonel D'Egville had previously retired to the General, than discarding +all reserve, and throwing himself on his knees at the feet of her who +sat next him, he exclaimed in accents of the most touching pathos: + +"Julia, dearest Julia! for this chiefly am I here. I volunteered to be +the bearer of the summons to the British General, in the hope that some +kind chance would give you to my view, and now that fortune, propitious +beyond my utmost expectations, affords me the happiness of speaking to +you whom I had feared never to behold more, oh, tell me that, whatever +be the result of this unhappy war, you will not forget me. For me, I +shall ever cherish you in my heart's core." + +The glow which mantled over the cheek of the agitated girl, plainly told +that this passionate appeal was made to no unwilling ear. Still she +spoke not. + +"Dearest Julia, answer me--the moments of my stay are few, and at each +instant we are liable to interruption. In one word, therefore, may I +hope? In less than a week, many who have long been friends will meet as +enemies. Let me then at least have the consolation to know from your +lips, that whatever be the event, that dearest of all gifts--your love +is unchangeably mine." + +"I do promise, Ernest," faltered the trembling girl. "My heart is yours +and yours for ever--but do not unnecessarily expose yourself," and her +head sank confidingly on the shoulder of her lover. + +"Thank you, dearest," and the encircling arm of the impassioned officer +drew her form closer to his beating heart. "Gertrude, you are witness of +her vow, and before you, under more auspicious circumstances, will I +claim its fulfilment. Oh Julia, Julia, this indeed does recompense me +for many a long hour of anxiety and doubt." + +"And hers too have been hours of anxiety and doubt," said the gentle +Gertrude. "Ever since the war has been spoken of as certain, Julia has +been no longer the gay girl she was. Her dejection has been subject of +remark with all, and such is her dislike to any allusion to the past, +that she never even rallies Captain Cranstoun on his bear-skin adventure +of last winter on the ice." + +"Ah," interrupted the American, "never shall I forget the evening that +preceded that adventure. It was then, dearest Julia, that I ventured to +express the feeling with which you had inspired me. It was then I had +first the delight of hearing from your lips that I need not entirely +despair. I often, often, think of that night." + +"Of course you have not yet received my note, Ernest. Perhaps you will +deem it inconsiderate in me to have written, but I could not resist the +desire to afford you what I conceived would be a gratification, by +communicating intelligence of ourselves." + +"Note! what note! and by whom conveyed?" + +"Have you not heard," inquired Gertrude, warming into animation, "that +the General has sent a flag this morning to Detroit, and, under its +protection, two prisoners captured by my cousin, who is the officer that +conducts them." + +"And to that cousin you have confided the letter?" interrupted the +Colonel, somewhat eagerly. + +"No, not my cousin," said Julia, "but to one I conceived better suited +to the trust. You must know that my father, with his usual hospitality, +insisted on Major Montgomerie and his niece, the parties in question, +taking up their abode with us during the short time they remained." + +"And to Miss Montgomerie you gave your letter," hurriedly exclaimed the +Colonel, starting to his feet, and exhibiting a countenance of extreme +paleness. + +"Good heaven, Ernest! what is the matter? Surely you do not think me +guilty of imprudence in this affair. I was anxious to write to you,--I +imagined you would be glad to hear from me, and thought that the niece +of one of your officers would be the most suitable medium of +communication. I therefore confessed to her my secret, and requested her +to take charge of the letter." + +"Oh, Julia, you have been indeed imprudent. But what said she--how +looked she when you confided to her our secret?" + +"She made no other remark than to ask how long our attachment had +existed, and her look and voice were calm, and her cheek underwent no +variation from the settled paleness observable there since her arrival." + +"And in what manner did she receive her trust?" again eagerly demanded +the Colonel. + +"With a solemn assurance that it should be delivered to you with her own +hand--then, and then only, did a faint smile animate her still but +beautiful features. Yet why all these questions, Ernest? Or, can it +really be? Tell me," and the voice of the young girl became imperative, +"has Miss Montgomerie any claim upon your hand--she admitted to have +known you?" + +"On my honor, none;" impressively returned the Colonel. + +"Oh, what a weight you have removed from my heart, Ernest, but wherefore +you alarm, and wherein consists my imprudence?" + +"In this only, dearest Julia, that I had much rather another than she +had been admitted into your confidence. But as you have acted for the +best, I cannot blame you. Still I doubt not," and the tones of the +American were low and desponding, "that, as she has promised, she will +find means to deliver your note into my own hands--the seal is----?" + +"A fancy one--Andromache disarming Hector." + +"Rise, for Heaven's sake rise," interrupted Gertrude; "here comes +mamma." + +One fond pressure of her graceful form, and the Colonel had resumed his +seat. In the next moment Mrs. D'Egville entered, by one door, and +immediately afterwards her husband by another. The former handed her +note, and during the remarks which accompanied its delivery, gave the +little party--for Gertrude was scarcely less agitated than her +sister--time to recover from their embarrassment. Some casual +conversation then ensued, when the American, despite of Mrs. D'Egville's +declaration that he could not have touched a single thing during her +absence, expressed his anxiety to depart. The same testimonies of +friendly greeting, which had marked his entrance, were exchanged, and, +preceded by his kind host, the Colonel once more gained the apartment +where the General still lingered, awaiting his reappearance. + +Nothing remaining to be added to the answer already given to the +summons, the American, after exchanging salutations with such of the +English officers as were personally known to him, again submitted +himself to the operation of blindfolding; after which he was reconducted +to the beach, where his boat's crew, who had in their turn been supplied +with refreshments, were ready to receive him. As, on his arrival, the +loud yellings of the Indians accompanied his departure, but as these had +been found to be harmless, they were even less heeded than before. +Within two hours, despite of the strong current, the boat had +disappeared altogether from their view. + +Late in that day, the barge of Gerald Grantham returned from Detroit. +Ushered into the presence of the General, the young sailor communicated +the delivery of his charge into the hands of the American Chief, who had +returned his personal acknowledgments for the courtesy. His answer to +the summons, however, was that having a force fully adequate to the +purpose, he was prepared to defend the fort to the last extremity, and +waiving his own original plan of attack, would await the British General +on the defensive, when to the God of Battles should be left the decision +of the contest. To a question on the subject, the young officer added +that he had seen nothing of the American flag of truce, either in going +or returning. + +That night orders were issued to the heads of the different departments, +immediately to prepare _material_ for a short siege; and, an assault at +the termination of the third day. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + +Conformably with the orders of the British General, the siege of the +American fortress was commenced on the day following that of the mutual +exchange of flags. The elevated ground above the village of Sandwich, +immediately opposite to the enemy's fort, was chosen for the erection of +three batteries, from which a well sustained and well directed fire was +kept up for several successive days, yet without effecting any +practicable breach in their defences. One of these batteries, manned +principally by sailors, was under the direction of Gerald Grantham, +whose look-out on duty had been in a great degree rendered unnecessary, +by the advance of the English flotilla up the river, and who had +consequently been appointed to this more active service. + +During the whole of Saturday, the 15th of August, the British guns had +continued to play upon the fort, vomiting shot and shell as from an +exhaustless and angry volcano--and several of the latter falling short, +the town which was of wood had been more than once set on fire. As, +however, it was by no means the intention of the General to do injury to +the inhabitants, no obstacle was opposed to the attempts of the enemy to +get it under, and the flames were as often and as speedily extinguished. +An advanced hour of night at length put an end to the firing, and the +artillery men and seamen, extended on their great-coats and pea-jackets, +in their several embrasures, snatched from fatigue the repose which +their unceasing exertions of the many previous hours had rendered at +once a luxury and a want. + +The battery commanded by Gerald Grantham was the central and most +prominent of the three, and it had been remarked by all--and especially +by the troops stationed in the rear in support of the guns--that his +firing during the day had been the most efficient, many of his shots +going point blank into the hostile fortress, and (as could be distinctly +seen with the telescope) occasioning evident confusion. + +The several officers commanding batteries were now met in that of the +young sailor, and, habited in a garb befitting the rude duty at which +they had presided, were earnestly engaged in discussing the contents of +their haversacks, moistened by occasional drafts of rum and water from +their wooden canteens, and seasoned with frequent reference to the +events of the past day, and anticipations of what the morrow would bring +forth. A lantern, so closed as to prevent all possibility of contact +with the powder that lay strewed about, was placed in the centre of the +circle, and the dim reflexion from this upon the unwashed hands and +faces of the party, begrimed as they were with powder and perspiration, +contributed to give an air of wildness to the whole scene, that found +its origin in the peculiar circumstances of the moment. Nor was the +picture at all lessened in ferocity of effect, by the figure of Sambo in +the back ground, who, dividing his time between the performances of such +offices as his young master demanded, in the course of the frugal meal +of the party, and a most assiduous application of his own white and +shining teeth to a huge piece of venison ham, might, without effort, +have called up the image of some lawless, yet obedient slave, attending +on and sharing in the orgies of a company of buccaniers. + +At length the meal was ended, and each was preparing to depart, with a +view to snatch an hour or two of rest in his own battery, when the +pricked ear and forward-thrown head of the old negro, accompanied by a +quick, "Hush, Massa Geral," stilled them all into attitudes of +expectancy. Presently the sound of muffled oars was heard, and then the +harsh grating, as of a boat's keel upon the sands. + +In the next minute the officers were at their posts; but before they +could succeed in awakening their jaded men, who seemed to sleep the +sleep of death, the sentinel at the first battery had received, in +answer to his hurried challenge, the proper countersign, and, as on +closer inspection it was found that there was only one boat, he knew it +must be their own, and the alarm which had seized them for the security +of their trust passed away. + +They were not long kept in suspense. One individual alone had ascended +from the beach, and now stood among them, habited in a dread-nought +jacket and trousers and round hat. His salutation to each was cordial, +and he expressed in warm terms the approbation he felt at the +indefatigable and efficient manner in which the duty assigned to each +had been conducted. + +"Well, gentlemen," continued the Commodore, (for it was he,) "you have +done famously to-day. Much has been done, but more remains. To-morrow +you must work double tides. At daylight you must re-open with showers of +shot and shell, for it is, during the confusion caused by your fire, +that the General intends crossing his troops and advancing to the +assault. But this is not all--we have some suspicion the enemy may +attempt your batteries this very night, with a view of either spiking +the guns, if they cannot maintain the position, or of turning them, if +they can, on our advancing columns. Now all the troops destined for the +assault are assembled ready to effect their landing at daybreak, and +none can be spared unless the emergency be palpable. What I seek is a +volunteer to watch the movements of the enemy during the remainder of +the night--one (and he looked at Grantham,) whose knowledge of the +country will enable him to approach the opposite coast unseen, and whose +expedition will enable us to have due warning of any hostile attempt." + +"I shall be most happy, sir, to undertake the task, if you consider me +worthy of it," said Grantham, "but----" + +"But what?" interrupted the Commodore, hastily. + +"My only difficulty, sir, is the means. Had I my light canoe here, with +Sambo for my helmsman, I would seek their secret even on their own +shores." + +"Bravo, my gallant fellow," returned the Commodore, again cordially +shaking the hand of his Lieutenant. "This I expected of you, and have +come prepared. I have had the precaution to bring your canoe and paddles +with me--you will find them below in my boat." + +"Then is every difficulty at an end," exclaimed the young sailor +joyously. "And our dress, sir?" + +"No disguise whatever, in case of accidents--we must not have you run +the risk of being hanged for a spy." + +Gerald Grantham having secured his cutlass and pistols, now descended +with the Commodore to the beach, whither Sambo (similarly armed) had +already preceded him. Under the active and vigorous hands of the latter, +the canoe had already been removed from the boat, and now rested on the +sands ready to be shoved off. The final instructions of the Commodore to +his officer, as to the manner of communicating intelligence of any +movement on the part of the Americans having been given, the latter +glided noiselessly from the shore into the stream, while the boat, +resuming the direction by which it had approached, was impelled down the +river with as little noise as possible, and hugging the shore for +greater secrecy, was soon lost both to the eye and to the ear. + +It was with a caution rendered necessary by the presence of the vessels +in the harbor, that Gerald Grantham and his faithful companion, having +gained the middle of the river, now sought to approach nearer to the +shore. The night, although not absolutely gloomy, was yet sufficiently +obscure to aid their enterprize; and notwithstanding they could +distinctly hear the tread of the American sentinels, as they paced the +deck of their flotilla, such was the stillness of Sambo's practised +paddle, that the little canoe glided past them unheard, and, stealing +along the shore, was enabled to gain the farther extremity of the town, +where, however, despite of the most scrupulous inspection, not the +slightest evidence of a collective movement was to be observed. +Recollecting that most of the American boats used for the transport of +their army from the Canadian shore, which they had occupied for some +time, were drawn up on the beach at the opposite end of the town, and +deeming that if any attempt on the batteries was in contemplation, the +troops ordered for that duty would naturally embark at a point whence, +crossing the river considerably above the object of their expedition, +they might drift down with the current, and affect a landing without +noise--he determined to direct his course between the merchantmen and +vessels of war, and pursue his way to the opposite end of the town. The +enterprize, it is true, was bold, and not by any means without hazard; +but Grantham's was a spirit that delighted in excitement, and moreover, +he trusted much to the skill of his pilot, the darkness of the night, +and the seeming repose of the enemy. Even if seen it was by no means +certain he should be taken, for his light skiff could worm its way where +another dared not follow, and as for any shot that might be sent in +pursuit of them, its aim would, in the obscurity of the night, be +extremely uncertain. + +Devoted as the old negro was to Gerald's will, it was but to acquaint +him with his intention, to secure a compliance; although in this case, +it must be admitted, a reluctant one. Cautiously and silently, +therefore, they moved between the line of vessels, keeping as close as +they could to the merchantmen, in which there was apparently no guard, +so that under the shadow of the hulls of these they might escape all +observation from the more watchful vessels of war without. They had +cleared all but one, when the head of the canoe suddenly came foul of +the hawser of the latter, and was by the checked motion brought round, +with her broadside completely under her stern, in the cabin windows of +which, much to the annoyance of our adventurer, a light was plainly +visible. Rising as gently as he could to clear the bow of the light +skiff, he found his head on a level with the windows, and as his eye +naturally fell on all within, his attention was arrested sufficiently to +cause a sign from him to Sambo to remain still. The cabin was spacious, +and filled everywhere with female forms, who were lying in various +attitudes of repose, while the whole character of the arrangements was +such as to induce his belief, that the vessel had been appropriated to +the reception of the families of the principal inhabitants of the place, +and this with a view of their being more secure from outrage from the +Indians on the ensuing day. In the midst of the profound repose in +which, forgetful of the dangers of the morrow, all appeared to be +wrapped, there was one striking exception. At a small table in the +centre of the cabin, sat a figure enveloped in a long and ample dark +cloak, and covered with a slouched hat. There was nothing to indicate +sex in the figure, which might have been taken either for a woman, or +for a youth. It was clear, however, that it wanted in its contour the +proportions of manhood. At the moment when Gerald's attention was first +arrested, the figure was occupied in reading a letter, which was +afterwards sealed with black. The heart of the sailor beat violently, he +knew not wherefore, but before he could explain his feelings ever to +himself, he saw the figure deposit the letter, and remove, apparently +from the bosom of its dress a miniature, on which it gazed intently for +upwards of a minute. The back being turned towards the windows, he could +trace no expression on the countenance, but in the manner there was none +of that emotion, which usually accompanies the contemplation of the +features of a beloved object. Depositing the picture in the folds of its +cloak, the figure rose, and with a caution indicating desire not to +disturb those who slumbered around, moved through the straggling forms +that lay at its feet, and ascending the stairs, finally disappeared from +the cabin. + +Somewhat startled, the young officer hesitated as to what course he +should pursue, for it was evident that if the figure, whoever it might +prove, should come to the stern of the vessel, he and his companion must +be discovered. For a moment he continued motionless, but with ear and +eye keenly on the alert. At length he fancied he heard footsteps, as of +one treading the loose plank that led from the vessel's side to the +wharf. He pushed the canoe lightly along so as to enable him to get +clear of her stern, when glancing his eye in that direction, he saw the +figure, still in the same dress, quit the plank it had been traversing, +and move rapidly along the wharf towards the centre of the town. + +Ruminating on the singularity of what he had observed, our adventurer +now pursued his course up the river, but still without discovering any +evidence of hostile preparation. On the contrary, a deep silence +appeared to pervade every part of the town, the repose of which was the +more remarkable, as it was generally known that the attack on the fort +was to be made on the following day. Arrived opposite the point where +the town terminated, Grantham could distinctly count some twenty or +thirty large boats drawn up on the beach, while in the fields beyond the +drowsy guard evidently stationed there for their protection, and visible +by the dying embers of their watch-fire denoted anything but the +activity which should have governed an enterprize of the nature +apprehended. Satisfied that the information conveyed to his superiors +was incorrect, the young officer dismissed from his mind all further +anxiety on the subject; yet, impelled by recollections well befitting +the hour and the circumstances, he could not avoid lingering near a spot +which tradition had invested with much to excite the imagination and +feeling. It was familiar to his memory, for he had frequently heard it +in boyhood, that some dreadful tragedy had in former days been +perpetrated near this bridge; and he had reason to believe that some of +the actors in it were those whose blood flowed in his young veins. The +extreme pain it seemed to give his parents, however, whenever allusion +was made to the subject, had ever repressed inquiry, and all his +knowledge of these events was confined to what he had been enabled to +glean from the aged Canadians. That Sambo, who was a very old servant of +the family, had more than hear-say acquaintance with the circumstances, +he was almost certain; for he had frequently remarked, when after having +had his imagination excited by the oft-told tale, he felt desirous of +visiting the spot, the negro, obedient in all things else, ever found +some excuse to avoid accompanying him, nor, within his own recollection, +had he once approached the scene. Certain vague allusions of late date, +by the old man, had, moreover, confirmed him in his impression, and he +now called forcibly to mind an observation made by his faithful +attendant on the night of their pursuit of the younger Desborough, which +evidently referred to that period Even on the present occasion, he had +been struck by the urgency with which he contended for a return to their +own shore, without pursuing their course to the extreme end of the town; +nor was his unwillingness to approach the bridge overcome, until Gerald +told him it was the positive order of the Commodore, that they should +embrace the whole of the American lines in their inspection, and even +_then_ it was with a relaxed vigor of arm that he obeyed the instruction +to proceed. + +Determined to sound him as to his knowledge of the fact, Grantham stole +gently from the bow to the stern of the canoe, and he was about to +question him, when the other, grasping his arm with an expressive touch, +pointed to a dark object moving across the road. Gerald turned his head, +and beheld the same figure that had so recently quitted the cabin of the +merchantman. Following its movements, he saw it noiselessly enter into +the grounds of a cottage, opposite an old tannery, where it totally +disappeared. + +A new direction was now given to the curiosity of the sailor. Expressing +in a whisper to Sambo his determination to follow, he desired him to +make for the shore near the tannery, beneath the shadow of which he +might be secure, while he himself advanced, and tracked the movements of +the mysterious wanderer. + +"Oh Massa Geral," urged the old man in the same whisper--his teeth +chattering with fear--"for Hebben's sake he no go ashore. All dis a +place berry bad, and dat no a livin' ting what he see yonder. Do Massa +Geral take poor nigger word, and not go dere affer he ghost." + +"Nay, Sambo, it is no ghost, but flesh and blood, for I saw it in the +brig we were foul of just now; however, be under no alarm. Armed as I +am, I have nothing to fear from one individual, and if I am seen and +pursued in my turn, it is but to spring in again, and before any one can +put off in chase, we shall have nearly reached the opposite shore.--You +shall remain in the canoe if you please, but I most certainly will see +where that figure went." + +"Berry well, Massa Geral," and the old man spoke piquedly, although +partly re-assured by the assurance that it was no ghost. "If he take he +poor nigger wice he do as he like; but I no top in he canoe while he go +and have him troat cut, or carry off by a debbil--I dam if he go, I go +too." + +This energetic rejoinder being conclusive, and in no wise opposed by his +master, the old man made for the shore as desired. Both having +disembarked, a cautious examination was made of the premises, which +tending to satisfy them that all within slumbered, the canoe was +secreted under the shadow of the cottage, the adventurers crossed the +road in the direction taken by the figure--Sambo following close in the +rear of his master, and looking occasionally behind him, not with the +air of one who fears a mortal enemy, but of one rather who shrinks from +collision with a spirit of another world. + +The front grounds of the cottage were separated from the high road by a +fence of open pallisades, in the centre of which was a small gate of the +same description. It was evidently through this latter that the figure +had disappeared, and as its entrance had been effected without effort, +Gerald came to the conclusion, on finding the latter yield to his touch, +that this was the abode of the midnight wanderer. Perhaps some young +American officer, whom intrigue or frolic had led forth in disguise on +an excursion from which he was now returned. His curiosity was therefore +on the point of yielding to the prudence which dictated an immediate +relinquishment of the adventure, when he felt his right arm suddenly +seized in the convulsed and trembling grasp of his attendant. Turning to +ascertain the cause, he beheld as distinctly as the gloom of the night +would permit, the features of the old man worked into an expression of +horror, while trembling in every joint, he pointed to the mound of earth +at the far extremity of the garden, which was known to contain the ashes +of those from whom his imagination had been so suddenly diverted by the +reappearance of the figure. This, owing to the position in which he +stood, had hitherto escaped the notice of the officer, whose surprise +may be imagined, when, looking in the direction pointed out to him, he +beheld the same muffled figure reposing its head, apparently in an +attitude of profound sorrow, against one of the white tomb-stones that +rose perpendicularly from the graves. + +That Sambo feared nothing which emanated not from the world of spirits, +Grantham well knew. It therefore became his first care to dismiss from +the mind of the poor fellow the superstitious alarm that had taken care +of every faculty. From their proximity to the party, this could only be +done by energetic signs, the progress of which was however interrupted +by their mutual attention being diverted by a change in the position of +the figure, which, throwing itself at its length upon the grave, for a +moment or two sobbed audibly. Presently afterwards it rose abruptly, and +wrapping its disguise more closely around it, quitted the mound and +disappeared in the rear of the house. + +The emotion of the figure, in giving evidence of its materiality, had, +more than all the signs of his master, contributed to allay the +agitation of the old negro. When therefore Gerald, urged by his +irrepressible curiosity, in a whisper declared his intention to +penetrate to the rear of the house, he was enabled to answer. + +"For Gorramity's sake, Massa Geral, nebber go dare. Dis a place all +berry bad for he family. Poor Sambo hair white now but when he black +like a quirrel he see all a dis a people kill--" (and he pointed to the +mound) "oh, berry much blood spill here, Massa Geral. It makes a poor +nigger heart sick to tink of it." + +Gerald grasped the shoulder of the old man. "Sambo," he whispered, in +the same low, but in a determined tone, "I have long thought you +acquainted with the history of this place, although you have eluded my +desire for information on the subject. After the admission you have now +made, however, I expect you will tell me all and everything connected +with it. Not now--for I am resolved to see who that singular being is, +who apparently, like myself, feels an interest in these mouldering +bones. As you perceive it is no ghost, but flesh and blood like +ourselves, stay here if you will, until I return; but something more +must I see of this mystery before I quit the spot." + +Without waiting for reply, he gently pushed the unlatched gate before +him. It opened without noise, and quitting the pathway he moved along +the green sward in the direction in which the figure had disappeared. +Love for his master, even more than the superstitious awe he felt on +being left alone, in that memorable spot, at so late an hour, put an end +to the indecision of the old man. Entering and cautiously closing the +gate, he followed in the footsteps of his master, and both in the next +minute were opposite to the mound where the figure had first been +observed. + +As he was about to quit the grass, and enter upon the gravelled walk +that led to the rear of the cottage, he fancied he distinguished a sound +within, similar to that of a door cautiously opening. Pausing again to +listen, he saw a light strongly reflected from an upper window, upon +what had the appearance of a court yard in the rear, and in that light +the dark shadow of a human form. This he at once recognised, from its +peculiar costume to be the mysterious person who had so strongly excited +his curiosity. For a moment or two all was obscurity, when again, but +from a more distant window, the same light and figure were again +reflected. Presently the figure disappeared, but the light still +remained. Impelled by an uncontrollable desire to behold the features, +and ascertain, if possible, the object of this strange wanderer, the +young sailor cast his eye rapidly in search of the means of raising +himself to a level with the window, when, much to his satisfaction, he +remarked immediately beneath, a large water butt which was fully +adequate to the purpose, and near this a rude wooden stool which would +enable him to gain a footing on its edge, without exertion, or noise. It +is true there was every reason to believe that what he had seen was, an +officer belonging to the guard stationed in the adjoining field, who had +his temporary residence in this building, and was now, after the +prosecution of some love adventure returning home; but Gerald could not +reconcile this with the strong emotion he had manifested near the tomb, +and the startling secrecy with which, even when he had entered, he moved +along his own apartments. These contradictions were stimulants to the +gratification of his own curiosity, or interest, or whatever it might +be; and although he could not conceal from himself that he incurred no +inconsiderable risk from observation, by the party itself, the desire to +see into the interior of the apartment and learn something further, rose +paramount to all consideration for his personal safety. His first care +now was to disencumber himself of his shoes and cutlass, which he gave +in charge to Sambo, with directions to the latter to remain stationary +on the sward, keeping a good look-out to guard against surprise. As by +this arrangement his master would be kept in tolerable proximity, the +old negro, whose repugnance to be left alone in that melancholy spot was +invincible, offered no longer an objection, and Gerald, bracing more +tightly round his loins, the belt which contained his pistols, proceeded +cautiously to secure the stool, by the aid of which he speedily found +his feet resting on the edge of the water butt, and his face level with +the window. This, owing to the activity of his professional habits, he +had been enabled to accomplish without perceptible noise. + +The scene that met the fixed gaze of the adventurous officer, was one to +startle and excite in no ordinary degree. The room into which he looked +was square, with deep recesses on the side where he lingered, formed by +the projection of a chimney in which, however, owing to the sultry +season of the year, no traces of recent fire were visible. In the space +between the chimney and wall forming the innermost recess, was placed a +rude uncurtained bed, and on this lay extended, and delineated beneath +the covering, a human form, the upper extremities of which were hidden +from view by the projecting chimney. The whole attitude of repose of +this latter indicated the unconsciousness of profound slumber. On a +small table near the foot, were placed several books and papers, and an +extinguished candle. Leaning over the bed and holding a small lamp which +had evidently been brought and lighted since its entrance, stood the +mysterious figure on whom the interest of Gerald had been so strongly +excited. It seemed to be gazing intently on the features of the sleeper, +and more than once, by the convulsed movements of its form, betrayed +intense agitation. Once it made a motion as if to awaken the person on +whom it gazed, but suddenly changing its purpose, drew from its dress a +letter which Gerald recognised to be that so recently prepared in the +cabin of the brig. Presently both letter and lamp were deposited on the +bed, and in one upraised hand of the figure gleamed the blade of a knife +or dagger, while the left grasped and shook, with an evident view to +arouse, the sleeper. An exclamation of horror, accompanied by a violent +struggle of its limbs, proclaimed reviving consciousness in the latter. +A low wild laugh burst in scorn from the lips of the figure, and the +strongly nerved arm was already descending to strike its assassin blow, +when suddenly the pistol, which Gerald had almost unconsciously cocked +and raised to the window, was discharged with a loud explosion. The +awakened slumberer was now seen to spring from the bed to the floor, and +in the action the lamp was overturned and extinguished; but all struggle +appeared to have ceased. + +Bewildered beyond measure in his reflection, yet secure in the +conviction that he had by this desperate step saved the life of a human +being from the dagger of the assassin, the only object of Gerald now was +to secure himself from the consequences. Springing from his position he +was soon at the side of the startled Sambo, who had witnessed his last +act with inconceivable dismay. Already were the guard in the adjoining +field, alarmed by the report of the pistol, hurrying toward the house, +when they reached the little gate, and some even appeared to be making +for their boats on the beach. With these motives to exertion, neither +Gerald nor the old negro were likely to be deficient in activity. +Bending low as they crossed the road, they managed unperceived to reach +the part of the tannery where their canoe had been secreted, and Sambo +having hastily launched it, they made directly for the opposite shore, +unharmed by some fifteen or twenty shots that were fired at them by the +guard, and drifting down with the current, reached, about an hour before +dawn, the battery from which they had started. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + +At day-break on the morning of Sunday, the 16th of August, the fire from +the batteries was resumed, and with a fury that must have satisfied the +Americans, even had they been ignorant of the purpose, it was intended +to cover some ulterior plan of operation on the part of the British +General. Their own object appeared rather to make preparation of defence +against the threatened assault, than to return a cannonade, which, +having attained its true range, excessively annoyed and occasioned them +much loss. Meanwhile every precaution had been taken to secure the safe +transport of the army. The flotilla, considerably superior at the outset +of the war, to that of the Americans, had worked up the river during the +night, and, anchored in the middle, lay with their broadsides ready to +open upon any force that might appear to oppose the landing of the +troops, while numerous scows, for the transport of a light brigade of +horse artillery, and all the boats and batteaux that could be collected, +added to those of the fleet, lay covering the sands, ready to receive +their destined burdens. At length the embarkation was completed, and the +signal having been given, the several divisions of boats moved off in +the order prescribed to them. Never did a more picturesque scene present +itself to the human eye, than during the half hour occupied in the +transit of this little army. The sun was just rising gloriously and +unclouded, as the first division of boats pushed from the shore, and +every object within the British and American line of operation, tended +to the production of an effect that was little in unison with the +anticipated issue of the whole. Not a breeze ruffled the fair face of +the placid Detroit, through which the heavily laden boats now made their +slow, but certain way; and a spectator who, in utter ignorance of +events, might have been suddenly placed on the Canadian bank, would have +been led to imagine that a fête, not a battle, was intended. Immediately +above the village of Sandwich, and in full view of the American Fort, +lay the English flotilla at anchor, their white sails half clewed up, +their masts decked with gay pendants, and their taffrails with ensigns +that lay drooping over their sterns in the water, as if too indolent to +bear up against the coming sultriness of the day. Below these, +glittering in bright scarlet that glowed not unpleasingly on the silvery +stream, the sun's rays dancing on their polished muskets and +accoutrements, glided, like gay actors in an approaching pageant, the +columns destined for the assault--while further down, and distributed +far and wide over the expanse of water, were to be seen a multitude of +canoes filled with Indian warriors, whose war costume could not, in the +distance, be distinguished from that of the dance--the whole +contributing, with the air of quietude on both shores, and absence of +all opposition on the American especially, to inspire feelings of +joyousness and pleasure, rather than the melancholy consequent on a +knowledge of the final destination of the whole. Nor would the incessant +thunder of the cannon in the distance, have in any way diminished this +impression; for as the volumes of smoke, vomited from the opposing +batteries, met and wreathed themselves together in the centre of the +stream, leaving at intervals the gay colors of England and America +brightly displayed to the view, the impression, to a spectator, would +have been that of one who witnesses the exchange of military honors +between two brave and friendly powers, preparing the one to confer, the +other to receive all the becoming courtesies of a chivalrous +hospitality. If anything were wanting to complete the illusion, the +sound of the early mass bell, summoning to the worship of that God whom +no pageantry of man may dispossess of homage, would amply crown and +heighten the effect of the whole, while the chanting of the hymn of +adoration would appear a part of the worship of the Deity, and of the +pageantry itself. + +Vying each with the other who should first gain the land, the exertions +of the several rowers increased, as the distance to be traversed +diminished, so that many arrived simultaneously at the beach. Forming in +close column of sections as they landed, the regular troops occupied the +road, their right flank resting on the river, while a strong body of +Indians under Round-head, Split-log, and Walk-in-the-water, scouring the +open country beyond, completely guarded their left from surprise. Among +the first to reach the shore, was the gallant General, the planner of +the enterprise, who with his personal staff, crossed the river in the +barge of the Commodore, steered by that officer himself. During the +short period that the columns were delayed for the landing of the +artillery, necessarily slower in their movements, a short conference +among the leaders, to whom were added Tecumseh and Colonel D'Egville, as +to their final operations, took place. Never did the noble Indian appear +to greater advantage than on this occasion. A neat hunting dress, of +smoked deer-skin, handsomely ornamented, covered his fine and athletic +person, while the swarthiness of his cheek and dazzling lustre of his +eye were admirably set off, not only by the snow-white linen which hung +loose and open about his throat, but by a full turban, in which waved a +splendid white ostrich feather, the much prized gift, as we have already +observed, of Mrs. D'Egville. Firmly seated on his long-tailed grey +charger, which he managed with a dexterity uncommon to his race, his +warrior and commanding air might have called up the image of a +Tamerlane, or Genghis Khan, were it not known that, to the more savage +qualities of these, he united others that would lend lustre to the most +civilized potentates. There was, however, that ardor of expression in +his eye which rumor had ascribed to him, whenever an appeal to arms +against the deadly foe of his country was about to be made, that could +not fail to endear him to the soldier hearts of those who stood around, +and to inspire them with a veneration and esteem, not even surpassed by +what they entertained for their own immediate leader, who in his turn, +animated by the inspiriting scene and confident in his own powers, +presented an appearance so anticipatory of coming success, that the +least sanguine could not fail to be encouraged by it. + +It had been arranged that, on the landing of the troops, the flotilla +should again weigh anchor, and approach as near as possible to the +American fort, with a view, in conjunction with the batteries, to a +cross-fire that would cover the approach of the assaulting columns. The +Indians, meanwhile, were to disperse themselves throughout the skirts of +the forest, and, headed by the Chiefs already named, to advance under +whatever they might find in the shape of hedges, clumps of trees, or +fields, sufficiently near to maintain a heavy fire from their rifles on +such force as might appear on the ramparts to oppose the assault--a task +in which they were to be assisted by the brigade of light guns charged +with shrapnel and grape. Tecumseh himself, accompanied by Colonel +D'Egville, was, with the majority of his warriors, to gain the rear of +the town, there to act as circumstances might require. To this, as an +inferior post, the Chieftain had at first strongly objected; but when it +was represented to him that the enemy, with a view to turn the English +flank on the forest side, would probably detach in that direction a +strong force, which he would have the exclusive merit of encountering, +he finally assented; urged to it, as he was, moreover, by the +consideration that his presence would be effectual in repressing any +attempt at massacre, or outrage, of the helpless inhabitants, by his +wild and excited bands. + +The guns being at length disembarked and limbered, everything was now in +readiness for the advance. The horses of the General and his staff had +crossed in the scows appropriated to the artillery, and his favorite +charger, being now brought up by his groom, the former mounted with an +activity and vigor, not surpassed even by the youngest of his +aides-de-camp, while his fine and martial form, towered above those +around him, in a manner to excite admiration in all who beheld him. +Giving his brief instructions to his second in command, he now grasped +and shook the hand of his dark brother in arms, who, putting spurs to +his horse, dashed off with Colonel D'Egville into the open country on +the left, in the direction taken by his warriors, while the General and +his staff, boldly, and without escort, pursued their way along the high +road at a brisk trot. The Commodore in his turn, sprang once more into +his barge, which, impelled by stout hearts and willing hands, was soon +seen to gain the side of the principal vessel of the little squadron, +which, rapidly getting under weigh, had already loosened its sails to +catch the light, yet favorable breeze, now beginning to curl the surface +of the river. + +During all this time, the cannon from our batteries, but faintly +answered by the Americans, had continued to thunder without +intermission, and as the columns drew nearer, each succeeding discharge +came upon the ear with increased and more exciting loudness. Hitherto +the view had been obstructed by the numerous farm houses and other +buildings, that skirted the windings of the road, but when at length the +column emerged into more open ground, the whole scene burst splendidly +and imposingly upon the sight. Within half a mile, and to the left, rose +the American ramparts, surmounted by the national flag, suspended from a +staff planted on the identical spot which had been the scene of the +fearful exploit of Wacousta in former days. Bristling with cannon, they +seemed now to threaten with extermination those who should have the +temerity to approach them, and the men, awed into silence, regarded them +with a certain air of respect. + +Close under the town were anchored the American vessels of war, which, +however, having taken no part in returning the bombardment, had been +left unmolested across the river; and in full view of all, was to be +seen the high ground where the batteries had been erected, and, visible +at such intervals as the continuous clouds of smoke and flashes of fire +would permit, the Union Jack of England floating above the whole; while +in the river and immediately opposite to the point the columns had now +reached, the English flotilla, which had kept pace with their movements, +were already taking up a position to commence their raking fire. + +It was on reaching this point of the road, that the British force, +obedient to the command of the General, who, from a farm-house on the +left, was then examining the American defences, filed off past the house +into a large field, preparatory to forming into column to attack. +Scarcely, however, had the General descended to the field to make his +dispositions, when it was observed that the batteries had suddenly +discontinued their fire, and on looking to ascertain the cause, a white +flag was seen waving on the eminence where the heavy guns just alluded +to had been placed. While all were expressing their surprise at this +unexpected circumstance, De Courcy, who, by the direction of his +General, had remained reconnoitring at the top of the house, announced +that an officer, bearing a smaller white flag, was then descending the +road, with an evident view to a parley. + +"Ah! is it even so?" exclaimed the General with vivacity, as if to +himself. "Quick! my horse--I must go to meet him. Captain Stanley--De +Courcy--mount! St. Julian," turning to his second in command, "finish +what I have begun--let the columns be got ready in the order I have +directed. We may have need of them yet." + +So saying he once more sprang into his saddle, and accompanied by his +young aides-de-camp, galloped past the line of admiring troops, who +involuntarily cheered him as he passed; and quitting the field, +hastened to reach the flag, before the bearer could approach +sufficiently near to make any correct observation respecting his force. + +Nearly twenty minutes of anxious suspense had succeeded the departure of +the officer, when De Courcy again made his appearance at full speed. + +"Hurrah! hurrah!" he shouted, as he approached a group of his more +immediate companions, who were canvassing the probable termination of +this pacific demonstration on the part of the enemy--"the fort is our +own" (then turning to the second in command,) "Colonel St. Julian, it is +the General's desire that the men pile their arms on the ground they +occupy, and refresh themselves with whatever their haversacks contain." + +"How is this, De Courcy?"--"Surely the Americans do not +capitulate?"--"Is it to be child's play, after all?"--were among the +various remarks made to the young aide-de-camp, on his return from the +delivery of the last order. + +"Heaven only knows how, Granville," said the vivacious officer, in reply +to the first querist; "but certainly it is something very like it, for +the General, accompanied by Stanley, has entered the town under the +flag. However, before we discuss the subject further, I vote that we +enter the farm-house, and discuss wherewith to satisfy our own +appetites--I saw a devilish pretty girl just now, one who seemed to have +no sort of objection to a handsome scarlet uniform, whatever her +predilections for a blue with red facings may formerly have been. She +looked so good-naturedly on Stanley and myself, that we should have +ogled her into a breakfast ere this, had not the General sworn he would +not break his fast until he had planted the colors of England on yon +fortress, or failed in the attempt. Of course we, as young heroes, could +not think of eating after that. But come along--nay, Cranstoun, do not +look as if you were afraid to budge an inch without an order in +writing.--I have it in suggestion from Colonel St. Julian, that we go in +and do the best we can." + +They now entered and asked for breakfast, when bread, eggs, milk, fruit, +cider, and whatever the remains of yesterday's meal afforded, were +successively brought forward by the dark-eyed daughter of the farmer, +who, as De Courcy had remarked, seemed by no means indisposed towards +the gay looking invaders of her home. There was a recklessness about the +carriage of most of these, and even a foppery about some, that was +likely to be anything but displeasing to a young girl, who, French +Canadian by birth, although living under the Government of the United +States, possessed all the natural vivacity of character peculiar to the +original stock. Notwithstanding the pertinacity with which her aged +father lingered in the room, the handsome and elegant De Courcy +contrived more than once to address her in an under tone, and elicit a +blush that greatly heightened the brilliant expression of her large +black eyes, and Villiers subsequently declared that he had remarked the +air of joyousness and triumph that pervaded her features, on the young +aide-de-camp promising to return to the farm as soon as the place had +been entered, and leisure afforded him. + +"But the particulars of the flag, De Courcy," said Captain Granville, as +he devoured a hard-boiled turkey egg, which in quantity fully made up +for what it wanted in quality. "When you have finished flirting with +that unfortunate girl, come and seat yourself quietly, and tell us what +passed between the General and the officer who bore it. Why, I thought +you had a devil of an appetite just now." + +"Ah, true!" returned the young man, taking his seat at the rude naked +table which bore their meal. "I had quite forgotten my appetite--_mais +ça viendra en mangent, n'est ce pas?_" and he looked at the young girl. + +"_Plait il, Monsieur?_" + +"Be silent, my daughter, they are not speaking to you," gruffly remarked +her father. + +"The old boy is becoming savage at your attentions," remarked Villiers, +"you will get the girl into a scrape." + +"Bah!" ejaculated De Courcy. "Well, but of the General. Who, think you, +was the bearer of the flag? No other than that fine-looking fellow, +Colonel--what's his name, who came to us the other day." + +"Indeed, singular enough. What said the General to him on meeting?" +asked Henry Grantham. + +"'Well, Colonel,' said he smiling, 'you see I have kept my word. This is +the day on which I promised that we should meet again.'" + +"What answer did he make?" demanded Villiers. + +"'True, General, and most happily have you chosen. But one day sooner, +and we should have dared your utmost in our stronghold. To-day,' and he +spoke in a tone of deep mortification, 'we have not resolution left to +make a show even in vindication of our honor. In a word, I am here to +conduct you to those who will offer terms derogatory at once to our +national character, and insulting to our personal courage.' + +"The General," pursued De Courcy, "respecting the humiliated manner of +the American, again bowed, but said nothing. After a moment of pause, +the latter stated that the Governor and Commander of the fortress were +waiting to receive and confer with him as to the terms of capitulation. +All I know further is, that, attended by Stanley, he has accompanied the +flag into the town, and that, having no immediate occasion for my +valuable services, he sent me back to give to Colonel St. Julian the +order you have heard." + +The deep roll of the drum summoning to fall in, drew them eagerly to +their respective divisions. Captain Stanley, the senior aide-de camp, +was just returned with an order for the several columns to advance and +take up their ground close under the ramparts of the fort. + +It was an interesting and a novel sight, to see the comparatively +insignificant British columns, flanked by the half dozen light guns +which constituted their whole artillery, advance across the field, and +occupy the plain or common surrounding the fort, while the Americans on +the ramparts appeared to regard with indignation and surprise the mere +handful of men to whom they were about to be surrendered. Such a +phenomenon in modern warfare as that of a weak besieging force bearding +a stronger in their hold, might well excite astonishment; and to an +army, thrice as numerous as its captors, occupying a fortress well +provided with cannon, as in this instance, must have been especially +galling. More than one of the officers, as he looked down from his +loftier and more advantageous position, showed by the scowl that +lingered on his brow, how willingly he would have applied the match to +the nearest gun whose proximity to his enemies promised annihilation to +their ranks. But the white flag still waved in the distance, affording +perfect security to those who had confided in their honor, and although +liberty, and prosperity, and glory were the sacrifice, that honor might +not be tarnished. + +At length the terms of capitulation being finally adjusted De Courcy, +who with his brother aid-de-camp, had long since rejoined the General, +came up with instructions for a guard to enter and take possession +preparatory to the Americans marching out. Detachments from the flank +companies, under the command of Captain Granville, with whom were +Middlemore and Henry Grantham, were selected for the duty, and these now +moved forward, with drums beating and colors flying, towards the +drawbridge then lowering to admit them. + +The area of the fort in no way enlarged, and but slightly changed in +appearance, since certain of our readers first made acquaintance with it +in Wacousta, was filled with troops, and otherwise exhibited all the +confusion incident to preparations for an immediate evacuation. These +preparations, however, were made with a savageness of mien by the +irregulars, and a sullen silence by all, that attested how little their +inclination had been consulted in the decision of their Chief. Many an +oath was muttered, and many a fierce glance was cast by the angry +back-woodsmen, upon the little detachment as it pursued its way, not +without difficulty, through the dense masses that seemed rather to +oppose than aid their advance to the occupancy of the several posts +assigned them. + +One voice, deepest and most bitter in its half suppressed execration, +came familiarly on the ear of Henry Grantham, who brought up the rear of +the detachment. He turned quickly in search of the speaker, but, +although he felt persuaded it was Desborough who had spoken, coupling +his own name even with his curses, the ruffian was nowhere to be seen. +Satisfied that he must be within the Fort, and determined if possible, +to secure the murderer who had, moreover, the double crime of treason +and desertion, to be added to his list of offences, the young officer +moved to the head of the detachment when halted, and communicated what +he heard to Captain Granville. Entering at once into the views of his +subaltern, and anxious to make an example of the traitor, yet unwilling +to act wholly on his own responsibility, Captain Granville dispatched an +orderly to Colonel St. Julien to receive his instructions. The man soon +returned with a message to say that Desborough was by all means to be +detained, and secured, until the General, who was still absent, should +determine on his final disposal. + +Meanwhile the sentinels at the several posts having been relieved, and +every thing ready for their departure, the American army, leaving their +arms piled in the area, commenced their evacuation of the Fort, the +artillery and troops of the line taking the lead. Watchfully alive to +the order that had been received, Captain Granville and Henry Grantham +lingered near the gate, regarding, yet with an air of carelessness, +every countenance among the irregular troops as they issued forth. +Hitherto their search had been ineffectual, and to their great surprise, +although the two last of the prisoners were now in the act of passing +them, there was not the slightest trace of Desborough. It was well known +that the fort had no other outlet, and any man attempting to escape over +the ramparts, must have been seen and taken either by the troops or by +the Indians, who in the far distance completely surrounded them. Captain +Granville intimated the possibility of Henry Grantham having been +deceived in the voice, but the latter as pertinaciously declared he +could not be mistaken, for, independently, of his former knowledge of +the man, his tones had so peculiarly struck him on the day when he made +boastful confession of his father's murder, that no time could efface +them from his memory. This short discussion terminated just as the last +few files were passing. Immediately in the rear of these were the +litters, on which were borne such of the wounded as could be removed +from the hospital without danger. These were some thirty in number, and +it seemed to both officers as somewhat singular, that the faces of all +were, in defiance of the heat of the day, covered with the sheets that +had been spread over each litter. For a moment the suspicion occurred to +Grantham, that Desborough might be of the number; but when he reflected +on the impossibility that any of the wounded men could be the same whose +voice had sounded so recently in the full vigor of health in his ear, he +abandoned the idea. Most of the wounded, as they passed, indicated by +low and feeble moaning, the inconvenience they experienced from the +motion to which they were subjected, and more or less expressed by the +contortions of their limbs, the extent of their sufferings. An exception +to this very natural conduct was remarked by Grantham, in the person of +one occupying nearly a central position in the line, who was carried +with difficulty by the litter-men. He lay perfectly at his length, and +without any exhibition whatever of that impatient movement which escaped +his companions. On the watchful eye of Grantham, this conduct was not +lost. He had felt a strong inclination from the first, to uncover the +faces of the wounded men in succession, and had only been restrained +from so doing by the presence of the American medical officer who +accompanied them, whom he feared to offend by an interference with his +charge. Struck as he was however by the remarkable conduct of the +individual alluded to, and the apparently much greater effort with which +he was carried, he could not resist the temptation which urged him to +know more. + +"Stay," he exclaimed to the bearers of the litter, as they were in the +act of passing. The men stopped. "This man, if not dead, is evidently +either dying or fainting--give him air." + +While speaking he advanced a step or two, and now extending his right +hand endeavored gently to pull down the sheet from the head of the +invalid but the attempt was vain. Two strong and nervous arms were +suddenly raised and entwined in the linen, in a manner to resist all his +efforts. + +Grantham glanced an expressive look at Captain Granville. The latter +nodded his head in a manner to show he was understood, then desiring the +litter-men to step out of the line and deposit their burden, he said to +the medical officer with the sarcasm that so often tinged his address. + +"I believe, sir, your charge embraces only the wounded of the garrison. +This dead man can only be an incumbrance to you and it shall be my care +that his body is properly disposed of." + +A signal was made by him to the file of men in his rear, who each +seizing on the covering of the litter, dragged it forcibly off, +discovering in the act the robust and healthy form of Desborough. + +"You may pass on," continued the officer to the remainder of the party. +"This fellow, at once a murderer and a traitor, is my prisoner." + +"Ha!" exclaimed Middlemore, who had all this time been absent on the +duties connected with his guard, and now approached the scene of this +little action for the first time; "what! do I see my friend Jeremiah +Desborough--the prince of traitors, and the most vigorous of wrestlers! +Verily my poor bones ache at the sight of you. How came you to be +caught in this trap my old boy? Better have been out duck-shooting with +the small bores, I reckon." + +But Desborough was in no humor to endure this mirth. Finding himself +discovered, he had risen heavily from the litter to his feet, and now +moved doggedly towards the guard-house, where the men had orders to +confine him. His look still wore the character of ferocity, which years +had stamped there, but with this was mixed an expression that denoted +more of the cowering villain, whom a sudden reverse of fortune may +intimidate, than the dauntless adventurer to whom enterprizes of hazard +are at once a stimulus and a necessity. In short, he was entirely +crest-fallen. + +"Come and see the effect of Gerald's excellent fire," said Middlemore, +when Desborough had disappeared within the guard-room. "I will show you +the room pointed out to me by the subaltern whom I relieved, as that in +which four field officers and three surgeons were killed." + +Preceded by their companion, Captain Granville and Grantham entered the +piazza leading to the officers' rooms, several of which were completely +pierced with twenty-four pound shot, known at once as coming from the +centre battery, which alone mounted guns of that calibre. After +surveying the interior a few moments, they passed into a small passage +communicating with the room in question. On opening the door, all were +painfully struck by the sight which presented itself. Numerous +shot-holes were visible everywhere throughout, while the walls at the +inner extremity of the apartment were completely bespotted with blood +and brains, scarcely yet dry anywhere, and in several places dripping to +the floor. At one corner of the room, and on a mattress, lay the form of +a wounded man, whom the blue uniform and silver epaulettes, that filled +a chair near the head, attested for an American officer of rank. At the +foot of the bed, dressed in black, her long hair floating wildly over +the shoulders, and with a hand embracing one of those of the sufferer, +sat a female, apparently wholly absorbed in the contemplation of the +scene before her. The noise made by the officers on entering had not +caused the slightest change in her position, nor was it until she heard +the foot-fall of Captain Granville, as he advanced for the purpose of +offering his services, that she turned to behold who were the intruders. +The sight of the British uniform appeared to startle her, for she +immediately sprang to her feet, as if alarmed at their presence. It was +impossible they could mistake those features and that face. It was Miss +Montgomerie. He who lay at her feet, was her venerable uncle. He was one +of the field officers who had fallen a victim to Gerald's fire, and the +same ball which had destroyed his companions, had carried away his +thigh, near the hip bone. The surgeons had given him over, and he had +requested to be permitted to die where he lay. His wish had been +attended to, but in the bustle of evacuation, it had been forgotten to +acquaint the officers commanding the British guard that he was there. +The last agonies of death had not yet passed away, but there seemed +little probability that he could survive another hour. + +Perceiving the desperate situation of the respectable officer, Captain +Granville stayed not to question on a subject that spoke so plainly for +itself. Hastening back into the piazza with his subalterns, he reached +the area just as the remaining troops, intended for the occupation of +the fort, were crossing the drawbridge, headed by Colonel St. Julian. To +this officer he communicated the situation of the sufferer, when an +order was given for the instant attendance of the head of the medical +staff. After a careful examination and dressing of the wound, the latter +pronounced the case not altogether desperate. A great deal of blood had +been lost, and extreme weakness had been the consequence, but still the +Surgeon was not without hope that his life might yet be preserved, +although, of course, he would be a cripple for the remainder of his +days. + +It might have been assumed, that the hope yet held out, of preservation +of life on any terms, would have been hailed with some manifestation of +grateful emotion, on the part of Miss Montgomerie; but it was remarked +and commented on, by those who were present, that this unexpectedly +favorable report, so far from being received with gratitude and delight, +seemed to cast a deeper gloom over the spirit of this extraordinary +girl. The contrast was inexplicable. She had tended him at the moment +when he was supposed to be dying, with all the anxious solicitude of a +fond child; and now that there was a prospect of his recovery, there was +a sadness in her manner that told too plainly the discomfort of her +heart. + +"An unaccountable girl!" said Cranstoun, as he sipped his wine that day +after dinner, in the mess-room at Detroit. "I always said she was the +child of the devil." + +"Child of the devil in soul, if you will," observed Granville, "but a +true woman--a beautiful, a superb woman in person at least, did she +appear this morning, when we first entered the room--did she not, +Henry?" + +"Beautiful indeed," was the reply--"yet, I confess, she more awed than +pleased me. I could not avoid, even amid that melancholy scene, +comparing her to a beautiful casket, which, on opening, is found to +contain not a gem of price, but a subtle poison, contact with which is +fatal; or to a fair looking fruit, which, when divided, proves to be +rotten at the core." + +"Allegorical, by all that is good, bad, and indifferent," exclaimed +Villiers. "How devilish severe you are, Henry, upon the pale Venus. It +is hardly fair in you thus to rate Gerald's intended." + +"Gerald's intended! God forbid." + +This was uttered with an energy that startled his companions. Perceiving +that the subject gave him pain, they discontinued allusion to the lady +in question, further than to inquire how she was to be disposed of, and +whether she was to remain in attendance on her uncle. + +In answer, they were informed, that as the Major could not be removed, +orders had been given by the General for every due care to be taken of +him where he now lay, while Miss Montgomerie, yielding to solicitation, +had been induced to retire into the family of the American General in +the town, there to remain until it should be found convenient to have +the whole party conveyed to the next American post on the frontier. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + +It is difficult to imagine that the English General could in any way +have anticipated so easy a conquest. He had no reason to undervalue the +resolution of the enemy, and yet he appears to have been fully sanguine +of the success of his undertaking. Possibly he counted much on his own +decision and judgment, which, added to the confidence reposed in him by +all ranks and branches of the expedition, he might have felt fully +adequate to the overthrow of the mere difficulty arising from +inferiority of numbers. Whatever his motive, or however founded his +expectations of success, the service he performed was eminent, since he +not merely relieved Amherstburgh, the key of Upper Canada, from all +immediate danger, but at a single blow annihilated the American power +throughout that extensive frontier. That this bold measure, powerfully +contrasted as it was with his own previous vacillation of purpose, had +greatly tended to intimidate the American General, and to render him +distrustful of his own resources, there can be little doubt. The +destructive fire from the well-served breaching batteries, was moreover +instanced as an influencing cause of the capitulation; and there can be +no question, that a humane consideration for the defenceless town, +surrounded by hordes of Indians, had much to do with the decision of the +American General. + +In justice to many officers of rank, and to the garrison generally, it +must be admitted that the decision of their leader, if credence might be +given to their looks and language, was anything but satisfactory to +them, and it must be confessed that it must have been mortifying in the +extreme, to have yielded without a blow a fortress so well provided with +the means of defence. What the result would have been had the British +columns mounted to the assault, it is impossible to say. That they would +have done their duty is beyond all question, but there is no reason to +believe the Americans, under a suitable commander, would have failed in +theirs. Superiority of numbers and position was on the one side; a +daring Chief, an ardent desire of distinction, and the impossibility of +retreat without humiliation, on the other. + +In alluding thus to the capitulation of Detroit, we beg not to be +understood as either reflecting on the American character, or doubting +their courage. Question of personal bravery there was none, since no +appeal was made to arms; but the absence of sanguinary event left in +high relief the daring of the British commander, whose promptitude and +genius alone secured to him so important yet bloodless a conquest. Had +he evinced the slightest indecision, or lost a moment in preparing for +action, the American General would have had time to rally, and believing +him to be not more enterprising than his predecessors, would have +recovered from his panic and assumed an attitude at once, more worthy of +his trust, commensurate with his means of defence, and in keeping with +his former reputation. The quick apprehension of his opponent +immediately caught the weakness, while his ready action grappled +intuitively with the advantage it presented. The batteries, as our +narrative has shown, were opened without delay--the flotilla worked up +the river within sight of the fortress--and the troops and Indians +effected their landing in full view of the enemy. In fact, everything +was conducted in a manner to show a determination of the most active and +undoubted description. With what result has been seen. + +It was in the evening of the day of surrender, that the little English +squadron, freighted with the prisoners taken in Detroit, dropped slowly +past Amherstburgh, into Lake Erie. By an article in the capitulation, it +had been stipulated, that the irregular troops should be suffered to +return to their homes, under the condition that they should not again +serve during the war, while those of the line were to be conducted to +the Lower Province, there to remain until duly exchanged. The appearance +as captives of those who had, only a few days before, been comfortably +established on the Sandwich shore, and had caused the country to feel +already some of the horrors of invasion--naturally enough drew forth +most of the inhabitants to witness the sight; and as the Sunday stroll +of the little population of Amherstburgh led in the direction of +Elliot's point, where the lake began, the banks were soon alive with +men, women and children, clad in holiday apparel, moving quickly to keep +up with the gliding vessels, and apparently, although not offensively +exulting in the triumph of that flag, beneath which the dense masses of +their enemies were now departing from their rescued territory. + +Among those whom the passing barks had drawn in unusual numbers to the +river's side, were the daughters of Colonel D'Egville, whose almost +daily practice it was to take the air in that direction, where there was +so much of the sublime beauty of American scenery to arrest the +attention. Something more, however, than that vague curiosity which +actuated the mass, seemed to have drawn the sisters to the bank, and one +who had watched them narrowly must have observed, that their interest +was not divided among the many barks that glided onward to the lake, but +was almost exclusively attracted by one, which now lay to, with her +light bows breasting the current like a swan, and apparently waiting +either for a boat that had been dispatched to the shore, or with an +intention to send one. This vessel was filled in every part with troops +wearing the blue uniform of the American regular army, while those in +advance were freighted with the irregulars and backwoodsmen. + +"Is not this, Julia, the vessel to which the Commodore promised to +promote Gerald, in reward of his gallant conduct last week?" asked the +timid Gertrude, with a sigh, as they stood stationary for a few moments, +watching the issue of the manoeuvre just alluded to. + +"It is, Gertrude," was the answer of one whose fixed eye and abstracted +thought, betokened an interest in the same vessel, of a nature wholly +different from that of her questioner. + +"How very odd, then, he does not come on shore to us. I am sure he must +see us, and it would not take him two minutes to let us know he is +unhurt, and to shake hands with us. It is very unkind of him I think." + +Struck by the peculiar tone in which the last sentence had been uttered +Julia D'Egville turned her eyes full upon those of her sister. The +latter could not stand the inquiring gaze, but sought the ground, while +a conscious blush confirmed the suspicion. + +"Dearest Gertrude," she said, as she drew the clasped arm of her sister +more fondly within her own; "I see how it is; but does he love you in +return. Has he ever told you so, or hinted it. Tell me, my dear girl." + +"Never," faltered the sensitive Gertrude, and she hung her head, to +conceal the tear that trembled in her eye. + +Her sister sighed deeply, and pressed the arm she held more closely +within her own. "My own own sister, for worlds I would not pain you; but +if you would be happy, you must not yield to this preference for our +cousin. Did you not remark how completely he seemed captivated by Miss +Montgomerie? Depend upon it, his affections are centered in her." + +Gertrude made no reply, but tears trickled down her cheeks, as they both +slowly resumed their walk along the beach. Presently the splash of oars +was heard, and turning quickly to discover the cause, Julia saw a boat +leave the vessel, at which they had just been looking, and pull +immediately towards them. In the stern stood an officer in American +uniform, whom the eyes of love were not slow to distinguish, even in the +growing dusk of the evening. + +"It is Ernest," exclaimed the excited girl, forgetting for a moment her +sister in herself. "I thought he would not have departed without seeking +to see me." + +A few strokes of the oars were sufficient to bring the boat to the +shore. The American stepped out, and leaving the boat to follow the +direction of the vessel, now drifting fast with the current towards the +outlet, which the remainder of the flotilla had already passed, pursued +his course along the sands in earnest conversation with the sisters, or +rather with one of them, for poor Gertrude, after the first salutation, +seemed to have lost all inclination to speak. + +"Fate, dearest Julia," said the officer despondingly, "has decreed our +interview earlier than I had expected. However, under all circumstances, +I may esteem myself happy to have seen you at all. I am indebted for +this favor to the officer commanding yonder vessel, in which our +regiment is embarked, for the satisfaction, melancholy as it is, of +being enabled to bid you a temporary farewell." + +"Then are we both indebted to one of my own family for the happiness; +for that it is a happiness, Ernest, I can answer from the depression of +my spirits just now, when I feared you were about to depart without +seeing me at all. The officer in command of your vessel is, or ought to +be, a cousin of our own." + +"Indeeed!--then is he doubly entitled to my regard. But, Julia, let the +brief time that is given us be devoted to the arrangement of plans for +the future. I will not for a moment doubt your faith, after what +occurred at our last interview; but shall I be certain of finding you +here, when later we return to wash away the stain this day's proceedings +have thrown upon our national honor. Forgive me, if I appear to mix up +political feelings, with private grief, but it cannot be denied, (and he +smiled faintly through the mortification evidently called up by the +recollection), that to have one's honor attainted, and to lose one's +mistress in the same day, are heavier taxes on human patience, than it +can be expected a soldier should quietly bear." + +"And when I am yours at a later period, I suppose you will expect me to +be as interested in the national honor, as you are," replied Julia, +anxious to rally him on a subject she felt, could not but be painful to +a man of high feelings, as she fully believed the Colonel to be. "How +are we to reconcile such clashing interests? How am I so far to overcome +my natural love for the country which gave me birth, so to rejoice in +its subjugation by yours; and yet, that seems to be the eventual object +at which you hint. Your plan, if I understand right, is to return here +with an overwhelming army; overrun the province, and make me your +property by right of conquest, while all connected with me, by blood, or +friendship, are to be borne into captivity. If we marry, sir, we must +draw lots which of us shall adopt a new country." + +"Nay, dearest Julia, this pleasantry is unseasonable. I certainly do +intend, provided I am exchanged in time to return here with the army, +which I doubt not will be instantly dispatched to restore our blighted +fame, and then I shall claim you as my own. Will you then hesitate to +become mine? Even as the daughter forsakes the home of her father +without regret, to pass her days with him who is to her father, mother, +all the charities of life, in short--so should she forsake her native +land adopting in preference that to which her husband is attached by +every tie of honor, and of duty. However, let us hope that ere long, the +folly of this war will be seen, and that the result of such perception, +will be a peace founded on such permanent bases, that each shall be +bound, by an equal tie of regard, to the home of the other." + +"Let us hope so," eagerly replied Julia. "But what has become of our +friend, Miss Montgomerie, in all the confusion of this day. Or am I +right in supposing that she and her uncle are of the number of those +embarked in my cousin's vessel?" + +The name of the interesting American, coupled as it was, with that of +one infinitely more dear to her, caused Gertrude for the first time, to +look up in the face of the officer, in expectation of his reply. She was +struck by the sudden paleness that came over his features again, as on +the former occasion, when allusion was made to her at his recent visit +to Amherstburgh. He saw that his emotion was remarked, and sought to +hide it under an appearance of unconcern, as he replied: + +"Neither Miss Montgomerie nor her uncle are embarked. The latter, I +regret to say, has been one of the few victims who have fallen." + +"What! dead--that excellent kind old man--dead," demanded the sisters +nearly in the same breath? + +"No; not dead--but I fear with little hope of life. He was desperately +wounded soon after daybreak this morning, and when I saw him half an +hour afterwards, he had been given over by the surgeons." + +"Poor Major Montgomerie," sighed Gertrude; "I felt when he was here the +other day, that I could have loved him almost as my own father. How +broken-hearted his niece must be at his loss!" + +A sneer of bitterness passed over the fine features of the American as +he replied with emphasis: + +"Nay, dear Gertrude, your sympathies are but ill bestowed. Miss +Montgomerie's heart will scarcely sustain the injury you seem to +apprehend." + +"What mean you, Ernest?" demanded Julia, with eagerness. "How is it that +you judge thus harshly of her character. How, in short, do you pretend +to enter into her most secret feelings, and yet deny all but a general +knowledge of her? What can you possibly know of her heart?" + +"I merely draw my inferences from surmise," replied the Colonel, after a +few moments of pause. "The fact is, I have the vanity to imagine myself +a correct reader of character, and my reading of Miss Montgomerie's has +not been the happiest." + +Julia's look betrayed incredulity. "There is evidently some mystery in +all this," she rejoined; "but I will not seek to discover more than you +choose at present to impart. Later I may hope to possess more of your +confidence. One question more, however, and I have done. Have you seen +her since your return to Detroit, and did she give you my letter?" + +The Colonel made no answer, but produced from his pocket a note, which +Julia at once recognised as her own. + +"Then," said Gertrude, "there was not so much danger after all, in +intrusting it. You seemed to be in a sad way, when you first heard that +it had been given to her." + +"I would have pledged myself for its safe deliverance," added her +sister; "for the promise was too solemnly given to be broken." + +"And solemnly has it been kept," gravely returned the American. "But +hark! already are they hailing the boat, and we must part." + +The time occupied in conversation had brought them down to the extreme +point where the river terminated and the lake commenced. Beyond this lay +a sand bar, which it was necessary to clear before the increasing dusk +of the evening rendered it hazardous. All the other vessels had already +passed it, and were spreading their white sails before the breeze, which +here, unbroken by the island, impelled them rapidly onward. A few +strokes of the oar, and the boat once more touched the beach. Low and +fervent adieus were exchanged, and the American, resuming his station in +the stern, was soon seen to ascend the deck he had so recently quitted. +For a short time the sisters continued to watch the movements of the +vessel, as she in turn having passed, spread all her canvass to the +wind, until the fast fading twilight warning them to depart, they +retraced their steps along the sands to the town. Both were silent and +pensive; and while all around them found subject for rejoicing in the +public events of the day, they retired at an early hour, to indulge at +leisure in the several painful retrospections which related more +particularly to themselves. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + + +If the few weeks preceding the fall of Detroit had been characterised by +much bustle and excitement, those which immediately succeeded were no +less remarkable for their utter inactivity and repose. With the +surrender of the fortress vanished every vestige of hostility in that +remote territory, enabling the sinews of watchfulness to undergo a +relaxation, nor longer requiring the sacrifice of private interests to +the public good. Scarcely had the American prisoners been despatched to +their several destinations, when General Brock, whose activity and +decision were the subject of universal remark, quitted his new conquest, +and again hastened to resume the command on the Niagara frontier, which +he had only left to accomplish what had been so happily achieved. The +Indians, too, finding their services no longer in immediate demand, +dispersed over the country or gave themselves up to the amusement of the +chase, ready, however, to come forward whenever they should be +re-summoned to the conflict; while the Canadians, who had abandoned +their homes to assist in the operations of the war, returned once more +to the cultivation of that soil they had so recently looked upon as +wrested from them for ever. Throughout the whole line of Detroit, on +either shore, the utmost quietude prevailed; and although many of the +inhabitants of the conquered town looked with an eye of national +jealousy on the English flag that waved in security above the fort, they +submitted uncomplainingly to the change, indulging only in secret, yet +without bitterness, in the hope of a not far distant reaction of +fortune, when their own National Stars should once more be in the +ascendant. + +The garrison left at Detroit consisted merely of two companies--those of +Captains Granville and Molineux, which included among their officers +Middlemore, Villiers and Henry Grantham. After the first excitement +produced in the minds of the townspeople by their change of rulers had +passed away, these young men, desirous of society, sought to renew their +intimacy with such of the more respectable families as they had been in +the habit of associating with prior to hostilities; but although in most +instances they were successful, their reception was so different from +what it had formerly been, that they were glad to withdraw themselves +within the rude resources of their own walls. It happened, however, +about this period, that Colonel D'Egville had received a command to +transfer the head of his department from Amherstburg to Detroit, and, +with a view to his own residence on the spot, the large and commodious +mansion of the late Governor was selected for the abode of his family. +With the daughters of that officer the D'Egvilles had long been +intimate, and as the former were to continue under the same roof until +their final departure from Detroit, it was with a mutual satisfaction +the friends found themselves thus closely reunited. Added to this party +were Major Montgomerie (already fast recovering from the effects of his +wound,) and his niece--both of whom only awaited the entire restoration +of the former, to embark immediately for the nearest American port. + +At Colonel D'Egville's it will therefore be supposed the officers passed +nearly all their leisure hours; Molineux and Villiers flirting with the +fair American sisters, until they had nearly been held fast by the +chains with which they dallied, and Middlemore uttering his execrable +puns with a coolness of premeditation that excited the laughter of the +fair part of his auditors, while his companions, on the contrary, +expressed their unmitigated abhorrence in a variety of ways. As for the +somewhat staid Captain Granville, he sought to carry his homage to the +feet of Miss Montgomerie, but the severe and repellant manner in which +she received all his advances, and the look which almost petrified where +it fell, not only awed him effectually into distance, but drew down upon +him the sarcastic felicitations of his watchful brother officers. There +was one, however, on whose attentions her disapprobation fell not, and +Henry Grantham, who played the part of an anxious observer, remarked +with pain that _he_ had been fascinated by her beauty, in a manner which +showed her conquest to be complete. + +The cousins of Gerald Grantham had been in error in supposing him to be +the officer in command of the vessel on board which the lover of Julia +had embarked. His transfer from the gun-boat had taken place, but in +consideration of the fatigue he had undergone during the three +successive days in which he had been employed at the batteries, the +Commodore had directed another officer to take command of the vessel in +question, and charge himself with the custody of the prisoners on board. +Finding himself at liberty until the return of the flotilla from this +duty, the first care of Gerald was to establish himself in lodgings in +Detroit, whence he daily sallied forth to the apartments in the +Governor's house occupied by the unfortunate Major Montgomerie, in whose +situation he felt an interest so much the more deep and lively as he +knew his confinement to have been in some degree the work of his own +hands. All the attention and kindness could effect was experienced by +the respectable Major, who, in return, found himself more and more +attached to his youthful and generous captor. These constant visits to +the uncle naturally brought our hero more immediately into the society +of the niece, but although he had never been able to banish from his +memory the recollection of one look which she had bestowed upon him on a +former occasion, in almost every interview of the sort _now_, she +preserved the same cold distance and reserve which was peculiar to her. + +A week had elapsed in this manner, when it chanced that as they both sat +one evening, about dusk, near the couch of the invalid, the latter, +after complaining of extreme weakness and unusual suffering, expressed +his anxiety at the possibility of his niece being left alone and +unprotected in a strange country. + +It was with a beating pulse and a glowing cheek that Gerald looked up to +observe the effect of this observation on his companion. He was +surprised, nay, hurt, to remark that an expression of almost +contemptuous loathing sat upon her pale but beautiful countenance. He +closed his eyes for a moment in bitterness of disappointment--and when +they again opened and fell upon that countenance, he scarcely could +believe the evidence of his senses. Every feature had undergone a +change. With her face half turned, as if to avoid the observation of her +uncle, she now exhibited a cheek flushed with the expression of +passionate excitement, while from her eye beamed that same unfathomable +expression which had carried intoxication once before to the inmost soul +of the youth. Almost wild with his feelings, it was with difficulty he +restrained the impulse that would have urged him to her feet; but even +while he hesitated, her countenance had again undergone a change, and +she sat cold and reserved and colorless as before. + +That look sealed that night the destiny of Gerald Grantham. The coldness +of the general demeanor of Matilda was forgotten in the ardor of +character which had escaped from beneath the evident and habitual +disguise; and the enthusiastic sailor could think of nothing but the +witchery of that look. To his surprise and joy, the following day, and +ever afterwards, he found that the manner of the American, although +reserved as usual towards others, had undergone a complete change +towards himself. Whenever he appeared alone a smile was his welcome, and +if others were present she always contrived to indemnify him for a +coldness he now knew to be assumed, by conveying unobserved one of those +seductive glances the power of which she seemed so fully to understand. + +Such was the state of things when the D'Egvilles arrived. Exposed to the +observations of more than one anxious friend, it was not likely that a +youth of Gerald's open nature could be long in concealing his +prepossession; and as Matilda, although usually guarded in her general +manner, was observed sometimes to fix her eyes upon him with the +expression of one immersed in deep and speculative thought, the +suspicion acquired a character of greater certainty. + +To Harry Grantham, who doated upon his brother, this attachment was a +source of infinite disquiet; for, from the very commencement, Miss +Montgomerie had unfavorably impressed him. Why he knew not; yet, +impelled by a feeling he was unable to analyze, he deeply lamented that +they had ever become acquainted, infatuated as Gerald appeared by her +attractions. There was another too, who saw with regret the attachment +of Gerald to his fair prisoner. It was Gertrude D'Egville; but her +uncomplaining voice spoke not, even to her beloved sister, of the +anguish she endured--she loved her cousin, but he knew it not; and +although she felt that she was fast consuming with the disappointment +that preyed upon her peace, she had obtained of her sister the promise +that her secret should never reach the ear of its object. + +In this manner passed the months of August and September. October had +just commenced, and with it that beautiful but brief season which is +well known to America as the Indian summer. Anxious to set out on his +return to that home to which his mutilation must confine him for the +future, Major Montgomerie, now sufficiently recovered to admit of his +travelling by water, expressed a desire to avail himself of the +loveliness of the weather, and embark forthwith on his return. + +By the officers whom the hospitality of Colonel D'Egville almost daily +assembled beneath his roof, this announcement was received with dismay, +and especially by Molineux and Villiers, who had so suffered themselves +to be fascinated by the amiable daughters of General H----, as to have +found it necessary to hold a consultation (decided however in the +negative) whether they should or should not tempt them to remain, by +making an offer of their hands. It was also observed that these young +ladies, who at first had been all anxiety to rejoin their parent, +evinced no particular satisfaction in the intimation of speedy departure +thus given to them. Miss Montgomerie, on the contrary, whose anxiety +throughout to quit Detroit had been no less remarkable than her former +impatience to reach it, manifested a pleasure that amounted almost to +exultation; and yet it was observed that, by a strange apparent +contradiction, her preference for Gerald from that moment became more +and more divested of disguise. + +There are few spots in the world, perhaps, that unite so many +inducements to the formation of those sociable little _réunions_ which +come under the denomination of pic-nics as the small islands adorning +most of the American rivers. Owing to the difficulty of procuring summer +carriages, and in some degree to the rudeness of the soil, in the Upper +Province especially, boats are in much more general use; and excursions +on the water are as common to that class "whose only toil is pleasure," +as cockney trips to Richmond, or to any other of the thousand and one +places of resort which have sprung into existence within twenty miles of +the metropolis of England. Not confined, however, to picking daisies for +their sweethearts, as these cockneys do, or carving their vulgar names +on every magnificent tree that spreads its gorgeous arms to afford them +the temporary shelter of a home, the men generally devote themselves, +for a period of the day, to manlier exercises. The woods abounding with +game, and the rivers with fish of the most delicate flavor--the address +of the hunter and the fisher, is equally called into action; since upon +their exertions principally depend the party for the fish and fowl +portion of their rural dinner. Guns and rods are, therefore, as +indispensable a part of the freightage, as the dried venison and bear +hams, huge turkies, pastries, &c. which, together with wines, spirits, +and cider, _ad libitum_, form the mass of alimentary matter. Here is to +be heard neither the impertinent coxcomb of the European self-styled +exclusive, nor the unmeaning twaddle of the daughter of false fashion, +spoiled by the example of the said exclusive, and almost be come a +dowager in silliness, before she has attained the first years of +womanhood. No lack-a-daisical voice, the sex of which it is difficult to +distinguish, is attempted to be raised in depreciation of the party to +which it had been esteemed too great a happiness to be invited the +evening before. The sneer of contempt--the laugh of derision--is nowhere +to be heard; neither is the pallid brow and sunken cheek, the fruit of +late hours and forced excitement, to be seen. Content is in each +heart--the glow of health upon each face. All appear eager to be happy, +pleased with each other, and at ease with themselves. Not that theirs is +the enjoyment of the mere holiday mind, which grasps with undiscerning +avidity at whatever offers to its gratification, but that of those in +whom education, acting on innate good breeding, has imposed a due sense +of the courtesies of life, and on whom fashion has not superseded the +kindlier emotions of nature. + +Several of these pic-nics had taken place among the party at Detroit, +confined, with one or two exceptions, to the officers of the garrison, +and the family of Colonel D'Egville, with their American inmates; and it +was proposed by the former, that a final one should be given a few days +prior to the embarkation in Gerald Grantham's new command, which lay +waiting in the river for the purpose--the Major remaining as hitherto at +home, under the guardianship of the benevolent Mrs. D'Egville, whose +habits of retirement disinclined her to out-door amusement. + +Hitherto their excursions had been principally directed to some of the +smaller islands, which abound in the river nearer Amherstburgh, and +where game being found in abundance, the skill of the officers had more +immediate opportunity for display; but on this excursion, at the casual +suggestion of Miss Montgomerie, Hog Island was selected as the scene of +their day's amusement. Thither, therefore, the boat which contained the +party now proceeded, the ladies costumed in a manner to thread the mazes +of the wood, and the gentlemen in equally appropriate gear, as +sportsmen, their guns and fishing rods being by no means omitted in the +catalogue of orders entrusted to their servants. In the stern of the +boat--the trustworthy coxswain on this occasion--sat old Sambo, whose +skill in the conduct of a helm was acknowledged to be little inferior to +his dexterity in the use of a paddle, and whose authoritative voice, as +he issued his commands in broken English to the boatmen, added, in no +small degree, to the exhilaration of the party. + +To reach Hog Island, it was necessary to pass by the tannery and cottage +already described, which, latter, it will be remembered, had been the +scene of a singular adventure to our hero and his servant on the night +of their reconnoitering the coast, in obedience to the order of the +Commodore. By the extraordinary and almost romantic incidents of that +night, the imagination of Gerald had been deeply impressed, and on +retiring to his rude couch within the battery he had fully made up his +mind to explore further into the mysterious affair, with as little delay +as possible after the expected fall of the American fortress. In the +hurry, confusion, and excitement, of that event however, his original +intention was forgotten; or, rather so far delayed, that it was not +until the third or fourth day of his establishment in the town, that it +occurred to him to institute inquiry. He had accordingly repaired +thither, but finding the house carefully shut up, and totally +uninhabited, had contented himself with questioning the tanner and his +family, in regard to its late inmates, reserving to a future opportunity +the attempt to make himself personally acquainted with all that it +contained. From this man he learnt, that, the house had once been the +property of an aged Canadian, at whose death (supposed to have been +occasioned by violence,) it had passed into the hands of an American, +who led a roving and adventurous life, being frequently away for months +together, and then returning with a canoe, but never continuing for more +than a night or two. That latterly it had been wholly deserted by its +owner, in consequence of which it had been taken possession of, and used +as quarters by the officers of the American guard, stationed at this +part of the town, for the protection of the boats, and as a check upon +the incursions of the Indians. In all this statement, there was every +appearance of truth, but in no part of it did Gerald find wherewith to +elucidate what he himself had witnessed. He described the costume, and +questioned of the mysterious figure, but the only reply he obtained from +the independent tanner, when he admitted to him that he had been so near +a visitor on that occasion, and had seen what he described, was an +expressed regret that he had not been "wide awake when any Brittainer +ventured to set foot upon his grounds, otherwise, tarnation seize him +with all due respect, if he wouldn't a stuck an ounce o' lead in his +liver as quickly as he would tan a hide," a patriotic sentiment in which +it may be supposed our hero in no way coincided. With the tanner's +assurance, however, that no living thing was there at this moment, +Gerald was fain to content himself for the present, fully resolving to +return at another time with Sambo, and effect a forcible entrance into a +place, with which were connected such striking recollections. He had, +however, been too much interested and occupied elsewhere, to find time +to devote to the purpose. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + + +As the boat, which contained the party, pulled by six of the best +oars-men among the soldiers of the garrison, and steered, as we have +shown, by the dexterous Sambo, now glided past the spot, the +recollections of the tradition connected with the bridge drew from +several of the party expressions of sympathy and feigned terror, as +their several humors dictated. Remarking that Miss Montgomerie's +attention appeared to be deeply excited by what she heard, while she +gazed earnestly upon the dwelling in the back ground, Gerald Grantham +thought to interest her yet more, and amuse and startle the rest of the +party, by detailing his extraordinary, and hitherto unrevealed +adventure, on a recent occasion. To this strange tale, as may naturally +be supposed, some of his companions listened with an air of almost +incredulity, nor indeed would they rest satisfied until Sambo, who kept +his eyes turned steadily away from the shore, and to whom appeal was +frequently made by his master, confirmed his statement in every +particular; and with such marks of revived horror in his looks, as +convinced them, Gerald was not playing upon their facility of belief. +The more incredulous his brother officers, the more animated had become +the sailor in his description, and, on arriving at that part of his +narrative which detailed the reappearance and reflection of the +mysterious figure in the upper room, upon the court below, every one +became insensibly fixed in mute attention. From the moment of his +commencing, Miss Montgomerie had withdrawn her gaze from the land, and +fixing it upon her lover, manifested all the interest he could desire. +Her feelings were evidently touched by what she heard, for she grew +paler as Gerald proceeded, while her breathing was suspended, as if +fearful to lose a single syllable he uttered. At each more exciting +crisis of the narrative, she betrayed a corresponding intensity of +attention, until at length, when the officer described his mounting on +the water butt, and obtaining a full view of all within the room, she +looked as still and rigid as if she had been metamorphosed into a +statue. This eagerness of attention, shared as it was, although not to +the same extent perhaps, by the rest of Gerald's auditory, was only +remarkable in Miss Montgomerie, in as much as she was one of too much +mental preoccupation to feel or betray interest in anything, and it +might have been the risk encountered by her lover, and the share he had +borne in the mysterious occurrence, that now caused her to lapse from +her wonted inaccessibility to impressions of the sort. As the +climax of the narrative approached, her interest became deeper, and her +absorption more profound. An involuntary shudder passed over her form, +and a slight contraction of the nerves of her face was perceptible, when +Gerald described to his attentive and shocked auditory, the raising of +the arm of the assassin; and her emotion at length assumed such a +character of nervousness, that when he exultingly told of the rapid +discharge of his own pistol, as having been the only means of averting +the fate of the doomed, she could not refrain from rising suddenly in +the boat, and putting her hand to her side, with the shrinking movement +of one who had been suddenly wounded. + +While in the act of rising she had drawn the cloak, with which, like the +other ladies, she was provided, more closely over her shoulders--Sambo +seemed to have caught some new idea from this action, for furtively +touching Henry Grantham, who sat immediately before him, and on the +right of Miss Montgomerie, he leaned forward and whispered a few +sentences in his ear. + +Meanwhile Miss Montgomerie was not a little rallied on the extreme +susceptibility which had led her as it were to identify herself with the +scene. Gerald remarked that on recovering her presence of mind, she at +first looked as if she fancied herself the subject of sarcasm, and would +have resented the liberty; but finding there was nothing painted in the +manner of those who addressed her, finished by joining, yet with some +appearance of constraint, in the laugh against herself. + +"I confess," she said coloring, "that the strange incident which Mr. +Grantham has related, and which he has so well described, has caused me +to be guilty of a ridiculous emotion. I am not usually startled into the +expression of strong feeling, but there was so much to excite and +surprise in his catastrophe that I could not avoid in some measure +identifying myself with the scene." + +"Nay, Miss Montgomerie," remarked Julia D'Egville, "there can be no +reason why such emotion should be either disavowed or termed ridiculous. +For my part, I own that I cannot sufficiently express my horror of the +wretch who could thus deliberately attempt the life of another. How +lucky was it, Gerald, that you arrived at that critical moment; but have +you no idea--not the slightest--of the person of the assassin or of his +intended victim?" + +"Not the slightest--the disguise of the person was too effectual to be +penetrated, and the face I had not once an opportunity of beholding. + +"Yet," observed Miss Montgomerie, "from your previous description of the +figure, it is by no means a matter of certainty that it was not a woman +you pursued, instead of a man--or, was there anything to betray the +vacillation of purpose which would naturally attend one of our sex in an +enterprise of the kind." + +"What, a woman engage in so unnatural a deed!" remarked Henry +Grantham--"surely, Miss Montgomerie," for he always spoke rather _at_ +than _to_ her--"cannot seek to maintain a supposition so opposed to all +probability--neither will she be so unjust towards herself as to admit +the existence of such monstrous guilt in the heart of another of her +sex." + +"Impossible!" said Gerald. "Whatever might have been my impression when +I first saw the figure in the merchantman--that is to say, if I had then +a doubt in regard to the sex, it was entirely removed, when later I +beheld the unfaltering energy with which it entered upon its murderous +purpose. The hand of woman never could have been armed with such fierce +and unflinching determination as that hand." + +"The emergency of the occasion, it would seem, did not much interfere +with your study of character," observed Miss Montgomerie, with a faint +smile--"but you say you fired--was it with intent to kill the killer?" + +"I scarcely know with what intent myself; but if I can rightly +understand my own impulse, it was more with a view to divert him from +his deadly object, than to slay--and this impression acquires strength +from the fact of my having missed him--I am almost sorry now that I +did." + +"Perhaps," said Miss Montgomerie, "you might have slain one worthier +than him you sought to save. As one of your oldest poets +sings--whatever is is right----" + +"What!" exclaimed the younger Grantham with emphasis, "Can Miss +Montgomerie then form any idea of the persons who figured in that +scene?" + +Most of the party looked at the questioner with surprise. Gerald frowned +and for the first time in his life entertained a feeling of anger +against his brother. In no way moved or piqued by the demand, Miss +Montgomerie calmly replied: + +"I can see no just reason for such inference, Mr. Grantham; I merely +stated a case of possibility, without anything which can refer to the +merit of either of the parties." + +Henry Grantham felt that he was rebuked--but although he could not avoid +something like an apologetical explanation of his remark, he was not the +more favorably disposed towards her who had forced it from him. In this +feeling he was confirmed by the annoyance he felt at having been visited +by the anger of the brother to whom he was so attached. Arrived at Hog +Island, and equipped with their guns and fishing rods, the gentlemen +dispersed in quest of game, some threading the mazes of the wood in +quest of the various birds that frequent the vicinity, others seeking +those points of the island where the dense foliage affords a shade to +the numerous delicately-flavored fish which, luxuriating in the still +deep water, seek relief from the heat of summer. To these latter +sportsmen the ladies of the party principally attached themselves, +quitting them only at intervals to collect pebbles on the sands, or to +saunter about the wood, in search of the wild flowers or fruits that +abounded along its skirt, while the servants busied themselves in +erecting the marquee and making preparation for dinner. + +Among those who went in pursuit of game were the Granthams, who, like +most Canadians, were not only excellent shots, but much given to a sport +in which they had had considerable practice in early boyhood. For a +short time they had continued with their companions; but as the wood +became thicker and their object consequently more attainable by +dispersion, they took a course parallel with the point at which the +fishers had assembled, while their companions continued to move in an +opposite direction. There was an unusual reserve in the manner of the +brothers as they now wound through the intricacies of the wood. Each +appeared to feel that the other had given him cause for displeasure, and +each--unwilling to introduce the subject most at heart--availed himself +with avidity rather of the several opportunities which the starting of +the game afforded for conversation of a general nature. They had gone on +in this manner for some time, and having been tolerably successful in +their sport, were meditating their return to the party on the beach, +when the ear of Gerald was arrested by the drumming of a partridge at a +short distance. Glancing his quick eye in the direction whence the sound +came, he beheld a remarkably fine bird, which, while continuing to beat +its wings violently against the fallen tree on which it was perched, had +its neck outstretched and its gaze intently fixed on some object below. +Tempted by the size and beauty of the bird, Gerald fired and it fell to +the earth. He advanced, stooped, and was in the act of picking it up, +when a sharp and well known rattle was heard to issue from beneath the +log. The warning was sufficient to save him, had he consented even for +an instant to forego his prize; but, accustomed to meet with these +reptiles on almost every excursion of the kind, and never having +sustained any injury from them, he persevered in disengaging the +partridge from some briers with which, in falling, it had got entangled. +Before he could again raise himself, an enormous rattlesnake had darted +upon him, and stung with rage perhaps at being deprived of its victim, +had severely bitten him above the left wrist. The instantaneous pang +that darted throughout the whole limb caused Gerald to utter an +exclamation; and dropping the bird, he sank, almost fainting, on the log +whence his enemy had attacked him. + +The cry of agony reached Henry Grantham as he was carelessly awaiting +his brother's return and at once forgetting their temporary +estrangement, and full of eager love and apprehension--he flew to +ascertain the nature of the injury. To his surprise and horror he +remarked that, although not a minute had elapsed since the fangs of the +reptile had penetrated into the flesh, the arm was already considerably +inflamed and exhibiting then a dark and discolored hue. That a remedy +was at hand he knew but what it was, and how to be applied he was not +aware, the Indians alone being in the possession of the secret. Deeming +that Sambo might have some knowledge of the kind, he now made the woods +echo with the sound of his name, in a manner that could not fail to +startle and alarm the whole of the scattered party. Soon afterwards the +rustling of forms was heard in various directions, as they forced +themselves through the underwood, and the first who came in sight was +Miss Montgomerie, preceded by the old negro. The lamentation of the +latter was intense, and when on approaching his young master, he +discovered the true nature of his accident and confessed his ignorance +of all remedy, he burst into tears, and throwing himself upon the earth +tore his grey woollen hair away, regardless of all entreaty on the part +of Gerald to moderate his grief. Miss Montgomerie now came forward, and +never did sounds of melody fall so harmoniously on the ear, as did her +voice on that of the younger Grantham as she pledged herself to the +cure, on their instant return to the spot where the marquee had been +erected. With this promise she again disappeared, and several others of +the party having now joined them, Gerald, duly supported, once more +slowly retraced his way to the same point. + +"Damn him pattridge," muttered Sambo, who lingered a moment or two in +the rear to harness himself with the apparatus of which his master had +disencumbered his person. "Damn him pattridge," and he kicked the +lifeless bird indignantly with his foot, "you all he cause he dis; what +he hell he do here?" + +This tirade however against the pattridge did not by any means prevent +the utterer from eventually consigning it to its proper destination in +the game bag as the noblest specimen of the day's sport, and thus +burthened he issued from the wood, nearly at the same moment with the +wounded Gerald and his friends. + +The consternation of all parties on witnessing the disaster of the +sailor, whose arm had already swollen to a fearful size, while the wound +itself began to assume an appearance of mortification, was strongly +contrasted with the calm silence of Miss Montgomerie, who was busily +employed in stirring certain herbs which she was boiling over the fire +that had been kindled in the distance for the preparation of the dinner. +The sleeve of the sufferer's shooting jacket had been ripped to the +shoulder by his brother and as he now sat on a pile of cloaks within the +marquee, the rapid discoloration of the white skin, could be distinctly +traced, marking as it did the progress of the deadly poison towards the +vital portion of the system. In this trying emergency all eyes were +turned with anxiety on the slightest movement of her who had undertaken +the cure, and none more eagerly than those of Henry Grantham and +Gertrude D'Egville, the latter of whom, gentle even as she was, could +not but acknowledge a pang of regret that to another, and that other a +favored rival--should be the task of alleviating the anguish and +preserving the life of the only man she had ever loved. + +At length Miss Montgomerie came forward; and never was a beneficent +angel more welcomed than did Henry Grantham welcome her, whom an hour +since he had looked upon with aversion, when with a countenance of +unwonted paleness but confident of success, she advanced towards the +opening of the marquee, to which interest in the sufferer had drawn even +the domestics. All made way for her approach. Kneeling at the side of +Gerald, and depositing the vessel in which she had mixed her +preparation, she took the wounded arm in her own fair hands with the +view, it was supposed, of holding it while another applied the remedy. +Scarcely however had she secured it in a firm grasp when, to the +surprise and consternation of all around, she applied her own lips to +the wound and continued them there in despite of the efforts of Gerald +to withdraw his arm, nor was it until there was already a visible +reduction in the size, and change in the color of the limb that she +removed them. This done she arose and retired to the skirt of the wood +whence she again returned in less than a minute. Even in the short time +that had elapsed, the arm of the sufferer had experienced an almost +miraculous change. The inflammation had greatly subsided, while the +discoloration had retired to the immediate vicinity of the wound, which +in its turn however had assumed a more virulent appearance. From this it +was evident that the suction had been the means of recalling, to the +neighborhood of the injury, such portions of the poison as had expanded, +concentrating all in one mass immediately beneath its surface, and +thereby affording fuller exposure to the action of the final remedy. +This--consisting of certain herbs of a dark color, and spread at her +direction by the trembling hands of Gertrude, on her white +handkerchief--Miss Montgomerie now proceeded to apply, covering a +considerable portion around the orifice of the two small wounds, +inflicted by the fangs of the serpent, with the dense mass of the +vegetable preparation. The relief produced by this was effectual, and in +less than an hour, so completely had the poison been extracted, and the +strength of the arm restored, that Gerald was enabled not merely to +resume his shooting jacket, but to partake, although sparingly of the +meal which followed. + +It may be presumed that the bold action of Miss Montgomerie passed not +without the applause it so highly merited, yet even while applauding, +there were some of the party, and particularly Henry Grantham, who +regarded it with feelings not wholly untinctured with the unpleasant. +Her countenance and figure, as she stood in the midst of the forest, +preparing the embrocation, so well harmonizing with the scene and +occupation; the avidity with which she sucked the open wound of the +sufferer, and the fearless manner in which she imbibed that which was +considered death to others; all this, combined with a general demeanor +in which predominated a reserve deeply shaded with mystery, threw over +the actor and the action an air of the preternatural, occasioning more +of surprise and awe than prepossession. Such, especially, as we have +said, was the impression momentarily, produced on Henry Grantham; but +when he beheld his brother's eye and cheek once more beaming with +returning strength and health, he saw in her but the generous preserver +of that brother's life to whom his own boundless debt of gratitude was +due. It was at this moment that, in the course of conversation on the +subject, Captain Molineux inquired of Miss Montgomerie, what antidote +she possessed against the influence of the poison. Every eye was turned +upon her as she vaguely answered, a smile of peculiar meaning playing +over her lips, that "Captain Molineux must be satisfied with knowing she +bore a charmed life." Then again it was that the young soldier's +feelings underwent another reaction, and as he caught the words and look +which accompanied them, he scarcely could persuade himself she was not +the almost vampire and sorceress that his excited imagination had +represented. + +Not the least deeply interested in the events of the morning, was the +old negro. During their meal, at the service of which he assisted, his +eyes scarcely quitted her whom he appeared to regard with a mingled +feeling of awe and adoration; nay, such was his abstraction that, in +attempting to place a dish of game on the rude table at which the party +sat, he lodged the whole of the contents in the lap of Middlemore, a +clumsiness that drew from the latter an exclamation of horror, followed +however the instant afterwards by Sambo's apology. + +"I beg a pardon, Massa Middlemore," he exclaimed, "I let him fall he +gravey in he lap." + +"Then will you by some means contrive to lap it up?" returned the +officer quaintly. + +Sambo applied his napkin and the dinner proceeded without other +occurrence. Owing to an apprehension that the night air might tend to +renew the inflammation of the wounded arm, the boat was early in +readiness for the return of the party, whose day of pleasure had been in +some manner turned into a day of mourning, so that long before sun set, +they had again reached their respective homes at Detroit. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + + +A few days after the adventure detailed in our last chapter, the +American party, consisting of Major and Miss Montgomerie, and the +daughters of the Governor, with their attendants, embarked in the +schooner, to the command of which Gerald had been promoted. The +destination of the whole was the American port of Buffalo, situate at +the further extremity of the lake, nearly opposite to the fort of Erie; +and thither our hero, perfectly recovered from the effects of his +accident, received instructions to repair without loss of time, land his +charge, and immediately rejoin the flotilla at Amherstburg. + +However pleasing the first, the latter part of the order was by no means +so strictly in consonance with the views and feelings of the new +commander, as might have been expected from a young and enterprising +spirit; but he justified his absence of zeal to himself, in the fact +that there was no positive service to perform; no duty in which he could +have an opportunity of signalizing himself, or rendering a benefit to +his country. + +If, however, the limited period allotted for the execution of his duty +was a source of much disappointment to Gerald, such was not the effect +produced by it on his brother, to whom it gave promise of a speedy +termination of an attachment which he had all along regarded with +disapprobation, and a concern amounting almost to dread. We have seen +that Henry Grantham, on the occasion of his brother's disaster at the +pic-nic, had been wound up into an enthusiasm of gratitude, which had +nearly weaned him from his original aversion; but this feeling had not +outlived the day on which the occurrence took place. Nay, on the very +next morning, he had had a long private conversation with Gerald in +regard to Miss Montgomerie, which, ending as it did, in a partial +coolness, had tended to make him dislike the person who had caused it +still more. It was, therefore, not without secret delight that he +overheard the order for the instant return of the schooner, which, +although conveyed by the Commodore in the mildest manner, was yet so +firm and decided as to admit neither of doubt nor dispute. While the +dangerous American continued a resident at Detroit, there was every +reason to fear that the attachment of his infatuated brother, fed by +opportunity, would lead him to the commission of some irrevocable act of +imprudence; whereas, on the contrary, when she had departed, there was +every probability that continued absence, added to the stirring +incidents of war which might be expected shortly to ensue, would prove +effectual in restoring the tone of Gerald's mind. There was, +consequently, much to please him in the order for departure. Miss +Montgomerie once landed within the American lines, and his brother +returned to his duty, the anxious soldier had no doubt that the feelings +of the latter would resume their wonted channel and that, in his desire +to render himself worthy of glory, to whom he had been originally +devoted, he would forget, at least after a season, all that was +connected with love. + +It was a beautiful autumnal morning when the schooner weighed anchor +from Detroit. Several of the officers of the garrison had accompanied +the ladies on board, and having made fast their sailing boat to the +stern, loitered on deck with the intention of descending the river a few +miles, and then beating up against the current. The whole party were +thus assembled, conversing together and watching the movements of the +sailors, when a boat, in which were several armed men encircling a huge, +raw-boned individual, habited in the fashion of an American +backwoodsman, approached the vessel. This was no other than the traitor +Desborough, who, it will be recollected, was detained and confined in +prison at the surrender of Detroit. He had been put upon his trial for +the murder of Major Grantham, but had been acquitted through want of +evidence to convict, his own original admission being negatived by a +subsequent declaration that he had only made it through a spirit of +bravado and revenge. Still, as the charges of desertion and treason had +been substantiated against him, he was, by order of the commandant of +Amherstburgh, destined for Fort Erie, in the schooner conveying the +American party to Buffalo, with a view to his being sent on to the Lower +Province, there to be disposed of as the General Commanding in Chief +should deem fit. + +The mien of the settler, as he now stepped over the vessel's side, +partook of the mingled cunning and ferocity by which he had formerly +been distinguished. While preparations were being made for his reception +and security below deck, he bent his sinister yet bold glance on each of +the little group in succession, as if he would have read in their +countenances the probable fate that awaited himself. The last who fell +under his scrutiny was Miss Montgomerie, on whom his eye had scarcely +rested when the insolent indifference of his manner seemed to give place +at once to a new feeling. There was intelligence enough in the glance of +both to show that an insensible interest had been created, and yet +neither gave the slightest indication by word of what was passing in the +mind. + +"Well, Mister Jeremiah Desborough," said Middlemore, first breaking the +silence, and in the taunting mode of address he usually adopted towards +the settler, "I reckon as how you'll shoot no wild ducks this season, on +the Sandusky river--not likely to be much troubled with your small bores +now." + +The ruffian gazed at him a moment in silence, evidently ransacking his +brain for something sufficiently insolent to offer in return. At length +he drew his hat slouchingly over one side of his head, folded his arms +across his chest, and squirting a torrent of tobacco juice from his +capacious jaws, exclaimed in his drawling voice: + +"I guess, Mister Officer, as how you're mighty cute upon a fallen +man--but tarnation seize me if I don't expect you'll find some one cuter +still afore long. The sogers all say," he continued, with a low cunning +laugh, "as how you're a bit of a wit, and fond of a play upon words +like. If so, I'll jist try you a little at your own game, and tell you +that I had a thousand to one rather be troubled with my small bores, +than with such a confounded great bore as you are; and now, you may pit +that down as something good in your pun book when you please, and ax me +no more questions." + +Long and fitful was the laughter which burst from Villiers and Molineux +at this bitter retort upon their companion, which they vowed should be +repeated at the mess-table of either garrison, whenever he again +attempted one of his execrables. + +Desborough took courage at the license conveyed by this pleasantry, and +pursued, winking familiarly to Captain Molineux, while he, at the same +time, nodded to Middlemore. + +"Mighty little time, I calculate, had he to think of aggravatin', when I +gripped him down at Hartley's pint that day. If it hadn't been for that +old heathen scoundrel, Girtie, my poor boy Phil, as the Injuns killed, +and me, I reckon, would have sent him and young Grantham to crack their +puns upon the fishes of the lake. How scared they were, sure_ly_." + +"Silence, fellow!" thundered Gerald Grantham, who now came up from the +hold, whither he had been to examine the fastenings prepared for his +prisoner. "How dare you open your lips here?"--then pointing towards the +steps he had just quitted--"descend, sir!" + +Never did human countenance exhibit marks of greater rage than +Desborough's at that moment. His eyes seemed about to start from their +sockets--the large veins of his neck and brow swelled almost to +bursting, and while his lips were compressed with violence, his nervous +fingers played, as with convulsive anxiety to clutch themselves around +the throat of the officer--every thing, in short, marked the effort it +cost him to restrain himself within such bounds as his natural cunning +and prudence dictated. Still, he neither spoke nor moved. + +"Descend, sir, instantly!" repeated Gerald, "or, by Heaven, I will have +you thrown in without further ceremony--descend this moment!" + +The settler advanced, placed one foot upon the ladder, then turned his +eye steadfastly upon the officer. Every one present shuddered to behold +its expression--it was that of fierce, inextinguishable hatred. + +"By hell, you will pay me one day or t'other for this, I reckon," he +uttered in a hoarse and fearful whisper--"every dog has his day--it will +be Jeremiah Desborough's turn next." + +"What! do you presume to threaten, villain?" vociferated Gerald, now +excited beyond all bounds: "here, men, gag me this fellow--tie him neck +and heels, and throw him into the hold, as you would a bag of ballast." + +Several men, with Sambo at their head, advanced for the purpose of +executing the command of their officer, when the eldest daughter of the +Governor, who had witnessed the whole scene, suddenly approached the +latter, and interceded warmly for a repeal of the punishment. Miss +Montgomerie also, who had been a silent observer, glanced significantly +towards the settler. What her look implied no one was quick enough to +detect; but its effect on the culprit was evident--for, without uttering +another syllable, or waiting to be again directed, he moved slowly and +sullenly down the steps that led to his place of confinement. + +Whatever the impressions produced upon the minds of the several +spectators by this incident, they were not expressed. No comment was +made, nor was further allusion made to the settler. Other topics of +conversation were introduced, and it was not until the officers, having +bid them a final and cordial adieu, had again taken to their boats on +their way back to Detroit, that the ladies quitted the deck for the +cabin which had been prepared for them. + +The short voyage down the lake was performed without incident. From the +moment of the departure of the officers, an air of dulness and +abstraction, originating in a great degree in the unpleasantness of +separation--anticipated and past--pervaded the little party. Sensitive +and amiable as were the daughters of the American Governor, it was not +to be supposed that they parted without regret from men in whose society +they had recently passed so many agreeable hours, and for two of whom +they had insensibly formed preferences. Not however that that parting +was to be considered final, for both Molineux and Villiers had promised +to avail themselves of the first days of peace, to procure leave of +absence, and revisit them in their native country. The feeling of +disappointment acknowledged by the sisters, was much more perceptible in +Gerald Grantham and Miss Montgomerie, both of whom became more +thoughtful and abstracted as the period of separation drew nearer. + +It was about ten o'clock on the evening immediately preceding that on +which they expected to gain their destination, that, as Gerald leaned +ruminating over the side of the schooner, then going at the slow rate of +two knots an hour, he fancied he heard voices, in a subdued tone, +ascending apparently from the quarter of the vessel in which Desborough +was confined. He listened attentively for a few moments, but even the +slight gurgling of the water, as it was thrown from the prow, prevented +further recognition. Deeming it possible that the sounds might not +proceed from the place of confinement of the settler, but from the +cabin, which it adjoined, and with which it communicated, he was for a +time undecided whether or not he should disturb the party already +retired to rest by descending and passing into the room occupied by his +prisoner. Anxiety to satisfy himself that the latter was secure, +determined him, and he had already planted a foot on the +companion-ladder, when his further descent was arrested by Miss +Montgomerie, who appeared emerging from the opening, bonneted and +cloaked, as with a view of continuing on deck. + +"What! you, dearest Matilda?" he asked, delightedly, "I thought you had +long since retired to rest." + +"To rest, Gerald!--can you, then, imagine mine is a soul to slumber, +when I know that to-morrow we part--perhaps for ever?" + +"No, by Heaven, not for ever!" energetically returned the sailor, +seizing and carrying the white hand that pressed his own to his +lips--"be but faithful to me, my own Matilda--love me but with one half +the ardor with which my soul glows for you, and the moment duty can be +sacrificed to affection, you may expect again to see me." + +"Duty!" repeated the American, with something like reproach in her tone, +"must the happiness of her you profess so ardently to love, be +sacrificed to a mere cold sense of duty? But you are right--you have +_your_ duty to perform, and I have _mine_. To-morrow we separate, and +for ever!" + +"No, Matilda--not for ever, unless, indeed, such be your determination. +_You_ may find the task to forget an easy one--_I_ never can. +Hope--heart--life--happiness---all are centered in you. Were it not that +honor demands my service to my country, I would fly with you to-morrow, +delighted to encounter every difficulty fortune might oppose, if, by +successfully combating these, I should establish a deeper claim on your +affection. Oh, Matilda!" continued the impassioned youth, "never did I +feel more than at this moment, how devotedly I could be your slave for +ever." + +At the commencement of this conversation, Miss Montgomerie had gently +led her lover towards the outer gangway of the vessel, over which they +both now leaned. As Gerald made the last passionate avowal of his +tenderness, a ray of triumphant expression, clearly visible in the light +of the setting moon, passed over the features of the American. + +"Gerald," she implored earnestly, "oh, repeat me that avowal! Again tell +me that you will be the devoted of your Matilda in _all_ things--Gerald, +swear most solemnly that you will--my every hope of happiness depends +upon it." + +How could he refuse, to such a pleader, the repetition of his +spontaneous vow? Already were his lips opened to swear, before High +Heaven, that, in all things earthly he would obey her will, when he was +interrupted by a well-known voice hastily exclaiming: + +"Who a debbel dat dare?" + +Scarcely had these words been uttered, when they were followed +apparently by a blow, then a bound, and then the falling of a human body +upon the deck. Gently disengaging his companion, who had clung to him +with an air of alarm, Gerald turned to discover the cause of the +interruption. To his surprise, he beheld Sambo, whose post of duty was +at the helm, lying extended on the deck, while at the same moment a +sudden plunge was heard, as of a heavy body falling overboard. The first +impulse of the officer was to seize the helm, with a view to right the +vessel, already swerving from her course, the second, to awaken the +crew, who were buried in sleep on the forecastle. These, with the +habitual promptitude of their nature, speedily obeyed his call, and a +light being brought, Gerald, confiding the helm to one of his best men, +proceeded to examine the condition of Sambo. + +It was evident that the aged negro had been stunned, but whether +seriously injured it was impossible to decide. No external wound was +visible, and yet his breathing was that of one who had received some +severe bodily harm. In a few minutes, however, he recovered his +recollection, and the first words he uttered, as he gazed wildly around, +and addressed his master, were sufficient to explain the whole affair: + +"Damn him debbel, Massa Geral, he get safe off, him billain." + +"Ha, Desborough! it is then so? Quick, put the helm about--two of the +lightest and most active into my canoe, and follow in pursuit. The +fellow is making for the shore, no doubt. Now then, my lads," as two of +the crew sprang into the canoe that had been instantly lowered, "fifty +dollars between you, recollect, if you bring him back." + +Although there needed no greater spur to exertion, than a desire both to +please their officer and to acquit themselves of a duty, the sum offered +was not without its due weight. In an instant the canoe was seen +scudding along the surface of the water towards the shore, and at +intervals, as the anxious Gerald listened, he fancied he could +distinguish the exertions of the fugitive swimmer from those made by the +paddles of his pursuers. For a time all was silent, when, at length, a +deriding laugh came over the surface of the lake, that too plainly told +the settler had reached the shore, and was beyond all chance of capture. +In the bitterness of his disappointment, and heedless of the pleasure +his change of purpose had procured him, Gerald could not help cursing +his folly, in having suffered himself to be diverted from his original +intention of descending to the prisoner's place of confinement. Had this +been done, all might have been well. He had now no doubt that the voices +had proceeded from thence, and he was resolved, as soon as the absent +men came on board, to institute a strict inquiry into the affair. + +No sooner, therefore, had the canoe returned, than all hands were +summoned and questioned, under a threat of severe punishment to whoever +should be found prevaricating as to the manner of the prisoner's escape. +Each positively denied having in any way violated the order which +enjoined that no communication should take place between the prisoner +and the crew, to whom indeed all access was denied, with the exception +of Sambo, entrusted with the duty of carrying the former his meals. The +denial of the men was so straight-forward and clear, that Gerald knew +not what to believe; and yet it was evident that the sounds he had heard +proceeded from human voices. Determined to satisfy himself, his first +care was to descend between the decks, preceded by his boatswain, with a +lantern. At the sternmost extremity of the little vessel there was a +small room used for stores, but which, empty on this trip, had been +converted into a cell for Desborough. This was usually entered from the +cabin; but in order to avoid inconvenience to the ladies, a door had +been effected in the bulk-heads, the key of which was kept by Sambo. On +inspection, this door was found hermetically closed, so that it became +evident, if the key had not been purloined from its keeper, the escape +of Desborough must have been accomplished through the cabin. Moreover, +there was no opening of any description to be found, through which a +knife might be passed to enable him to sever the bonds which confined +his feet. Close to the partition were swung the hammocks of two men, who +had been somewhat dilatory in obeying the summons on deck, and between +whom it was not impossible the conversation, which Gerald had detected, +had been carried on. On re-ascending, he again questioned these men; but +they most solemnly assured him they had not spoken either together or to +others within the last two hours, having fallen fast asleep on being +relieved from their watch. Search was now made in the pockets of Sambo, +whose injury had been found to be a violent blow given on the back of +the head, and whose recovery from stupefaction was yet imperfect. The +key being found, all suspicion of participation was removed from the +crew, who could have only communicated from their own quarter of the +vessel, and they were accordingly dismissed; one half, comprising the +first watch, to their hammocks--the remainder to their original station +on the forecastle. + +The next care of the young Commander was to inspect the cabin, and +institute a strict scrutiny as to the manner in which the escape had +been effected. The door that opened into the prison, stood between the +companion ladder and the recess occupied by the daughters of the +Governor. To his surprise, Gerald found it locked, and the key that +usually remained in a niche near the door, removed. On turning to search +for it, he also noticed, for the first time, that the lamp, suspended +from a beam in the centre of the cabin, had been extinguished. Struck by +these remarkable circumstances, a suspicion, which he would have given +much not to have entertained, forced itself upon his mind. As a first +measure, and that there might be no doubt whatever on the subject, he +broke open the door. Of course it was untenanted. Upon a small table lay +the remains of the settler's last meal, but neither knife nor fork, +both which articles had been interdicted, were to be found. At the foot +of the chair on which he had evidently been seated for the purpose of +freeing himself, lay the heavy cords that had bound his ankles. These +had been severed in two places, and, as was discovered on close +examination, by the application of some sharp and delicate cutting +instrument. Nowhere, however, was this visible. It was evident to Gerald +that assistance had been afforded from some one within the cabin, and +who that some one was, he scarcely doubted. With this impression, fully +formed, he re-entered from the prison, and standing near the curtained +berth occupied by the daughters of the Governor, questioned as to +whether they were aware that his prisoner Desborough had escaped. Both +expressed surprise in so natural a manner, that Gerald knew not what to +think; but when they added that they had not heard the slightest +noise--nor had spoken themselves, nor heard others speak, professing +moreover ignorance that the lamp even had been extinguished, he felt +suspicion converted into certainty. + +It was impossible, he conceived, that a door which stood only two paces +from the bed could be locked and unlocked without their hearing +it--neither was it probable that Desborough would have thought of thus +needlessly securing the place of his late detention. Such an idea might +occur to the aider, but not to the fugitive himself, to whom every +moment must be of the highest importance. Who then could have assisted +him? Not Major Montgomerie, for he slept in the after part of the +cabin--not Miss Montgomerie, for she was upon deck--moreover, had not +one of these, he had so much reason to suspect, interceded for the +fellow only on the preceding day. + +Such was the reasoning of Gerald, as he passed rapidly in review the +several probabilities--but, although annoyed beyond measure at the +escape of the villain, and incapable of believing other than that the +daughters of the Governor had connived at it, his was too gallant by +nature to make such a charge, even by implication, against them. +Although extremely angry, he made no comment whatever on the subject, +but contenting himself with wishing his charge a less than usually +cordial good night, left them to their repose, and once more quitted the +cabin. + +During the whole of this examination, Miss Montgomerie had continued on +deck. Gerald found her leaning over the gangway at which he had left +her, gazing intently on the water, through which the schooner was now +gliding at an increased rate. From the moment of his being compelled to +quit her side to inquire into the cause of Sambo's exclamation and +rapidly succeeding fall, he had not had an opportunity of again +approaching her. Feeling that some apology was due, he hastened to make +one; but, vexed and irritated as he was at the escape of the settler, +his disappointment imparted to his manner a degree of restraint, and +there was less of ardor in his address than he had latterly been in the +habit of exhibiting. Miss Montgomerie remarked it, and sighed. + +"I have been reflecting," she said, "on the little dependence that is to +be placed upon the most flattering illusions of human existence--and +here are you come to afford me a painful and veritable illustration of +my theory." + +"How, dearest Matilda! what mean you?" asked the officer, again warmed +into tenderness by the presence of the fascinating being. + +"Can you ask, Gerald?" and her voice assumed a tone of melancholy +reproach--"recall but your manner--your language--your devotedness of +soul not an hour since--compare these with your present coolness, and +then wonder that I should have reason for regret." + +"Now, Matilda, that coldness arose not from any change in my feelings +towards yourself--I was piqued, disappointed, even angry, at the +extraordinary escape of my prisoner, and could not sufficiently play the +hypocrite to disguise my annoyance." + +"Yet, what had I to do with the man's escape that his offence should be +visited upon me?" she demanded quickly. + +"Can you not find some excuse for my vexation, knowing, as you do, that +the wretch was a vile assassin--a man whose hands have been imbrued in +the blood of my own father?" + +"Was he not acquitted of the charge?" + +"He was--but only from lack of evidence to convict; yet, although +acquitted by the law, not surer is fate than that he is an assassin." + +"You hold assassins in great horror," remarked the American +thoughtfully, "you are right--it is but natural." + +"In horror, said you?--aye, in such loathing that language can supply no +term to express it." + +"And yet you once attempted an assassination yourself. Nay do not start, +and look the image of astonishment. Have you not told me that you fired +into the hut, on the night of your mysterious adventure? What right had +you, if we argue the question on its real merit, to attempt the life of +a being who had never injured you?" + +"What right, Matilda?--every right, human and divine. I sought but to +save a victim from the hands of a midnight murderer." + +"And, to effect this, scrupled not to become a midnight murderer +yourself?" + +"And is it thus you interpret my conduct, Matilda?"--the voice of Gerald +spoke bitter reproach--"can you compare the act of that man with mine, +and hold me no more blameless than him?" + +"Nay, I did not say I blamed you," she returned, gaily, "but the fact +is, you had left me so long to ruminate here alone, that I have fallen +into a mood argumentative, or philosophical--whichsoever you may be +pleased to term it--and I am willing to maintain my proposition, that +you might by possibility have been more guilty than the culprit at whom +you aimed, had your shot destroyed him." + +The light tone in which Matilda spoke dispelled the seriousness which +had begun to shadow the brow of the young commander. "And pray how do +you make this good?" he asked. + +"Suppose, for instance, the slumberer you preserved had been a being of +crime, through whom the hopes, the happiness, the peace of mind, and +above all, the fair fame of the other, had been cruelly and irrevocably +blasted. Let us imagine that he had destroyed some dear friend or +relative of him with whose vengeance you beheld him threatened." + +"Could that be----" + +"Or," interrupted the American in the same careless tone, "that he had +betrayed a wife." + +"Such a man----" + +"Or, what is worse, infinitely worse, sought to put the finishing stroke +to his villainy, by affixing to the name and conduct of his victim +every ignominy and disgrace which can attach to insulted humanity." + +"Matilda," eagerly exclaimed the youth, advancing close to her, and +gazing into her dark eyes, "you are drawing a picture." + +"No, Gerald," she replied calmly, "I am merely supposing a case. Could +you find no excuse for a man acting under a sense of so much +injury?--would you still call him an assassin, if, with such +provocation, he sought to destroy the hated life of one who had thus +injured him?" + +Gerald paused, apparently bewildered. + +"Tell me, dearest Gerald," and her fair and beautiful hand caught and +pressed his--"would you still bestow upon one so injured the degrading +epithet of assassin?" + +"Assassin? most undoubtedly I would. But why this question, Matilda?" + +The features of the American assumed a changed expression; she dropped +the hand she had taken the instant before, and said, disappointedly: + +"I find, then, my philosophy is totally at fault." + +"Wherein, Matilda?" anxiously asked Gerald. + +"In this, that I have not been able to make you a convert to my +opinions." + +"And these are--?" again questioned Gerald, his every pulse throbbing +with intense emotion. + +"Not to pronounce too harshly on the conduct of others, seeing that we +ourselves may stand in much need of lenity of judgment. There might have +existed motives for the action of him whom you designate as an assassin, +quite as powerful as those which led to _your_ interference, and quite +as easily justified to himself." + +"But, dearest Matilda-----" + +"Nay. I have done--I close at once my argument and my philosophy. The +humor is past, and I shall no longer attempt to make the worse appear +the better cause. I dare say you thought me in earnest," she added, with +slight sarcasm, "but a philosophical disquisition between two lovers on +the eve of parting for ever, was too novel and piquant a seduction to be +resisted." + +That "parting for ever" was sufficient to drive all philosophy utterly +away from our hero. + +"For ever, did you say, Matilda?--no, not for ever; yet, how coldly do +you allude to a separation which, although I trust it will be only +temporary, is to me a source of the deepest vexation. You did not +manifest this indifference in the early part of our conversation this +evening." + +"And if there be a change," emphatically yet tenderly returned the +beautiful American, "am _I_ the only one changed? Is your manner _now_ +what it was _then_? Do you already forget at _what_ a moment that +conversation was interrupted?" + +Gerald did not forget; and again, as they leaned over the vessel's side, +his arm was passed around the waist of his companion. + +The hour, the scene, the very rippling of the water--all contributed +to lend a character of excitement to the feelings of the youth. Filled +with tenderness and admiration for the fascinating being who reposed +thus confidingly on his shoulder, he scarcely dared to move, lest in so +doing he should destroy the fabric of his happiness. + +"First watch there, hilloa! rouse up, and be d----d to you, it's two +o'clock." + +Both Gerald and Matilda, although long and silently watching the +progress of the vessel, had forgotten there was any such being as a +steersman to direct her. + +"Good Heaven! can it be so late?" whispered the American, gliding from +her lover; "if my uncle be awake, he will certainly chide me for my +imprudence. Good night, dear Gerald," and drawing her cloak more closely +around her shoulders, she quickly crossed the deck, and descended to the +cabin. + +"What the devil's this?" said the relieving steersman, as, rubbing his +heavy eyes with one hand, he stooped and raised with the other something +from the deck, against which he had kicked in his advance to take the +helm--"why, I'm blest if it arn't the apron off old Sally here. Have you +been fingering Sally's apron, Bill?" + +"Not I, faith!" growled the party addressed. "I've enough to do to steer +the craft, without thinking o' meddling with Sall's apron at this time +o' night." + +"I should like to know who it is that has hexposed the old gal to the +night hair in this here manner," still muttered the other, holding up +the object in question to his closer scrutiny; "it was only this morning +I gave her a pair of bran new apron strings, and helped to dress her +myself. If she doesn't hang fire after this, I'm a Dutchman--that's +all." + +"What signifies jawing, Tom Fluke? I suppose she got unkivered in the +scurry after the Yankee; but bear a hand, and kiver her, unless you wish +a fellow to stay here all night." + +Old Sal, our hearers must know, was no other than the long twenty-four +pounder formerly belonging to Gerald's gun-boat, which, now removed to +his new command, lay amid-ships, and mounted on a pivot, constituted the +whole battery of the schooner. The apron was the leaden covering +protecting the touch-hole, which, having unaccountably fallen off, had +encountered the heavy foot of Tom Fluke, in his advance along the deck. + +The apron was at length replaced. Tom Fluke took the helm, and his +companion departed, as he said, to have a comfortable snooze. + +Gerald, who had been an amused listener of the preceding dialogue, soon +followed, first inquiring into the condition of his faithful Sambo, who, +on examination, was found to have been stunned by the violence of the +blow he had received. This, Gerald doubted not, had been given with the +view of better facilitating Desborough's escape, by throwing the +schooner out of her course, and occasioning a consequent confusion among +the crew, which might have the effect of distracting their attention for +a time from himself. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + + +The following evening, an armed schooner was lying at anchor in the road +stead of Buffalo, at the southern extremity of Lake Erie, and within a +mile of the American shore. It was past midnight--and although the lake +was calm and unbroken as the face of a mirror, a dense fog had arisen +which prevented objects at the head of the vessel from being seen from +the stern. Two men only were visible upon the after-deck; the one lay +reclining upon an arm chest, muffled up in a dread-nought pea jacket, +the other paced up and down hurriedly, and with an air of +pre-occupation. At intervals he would stop and lean over the gangway, +apparently endeavoring to pierce through the fog and catch a glimpse of +the adjacent shore, and, on these occasions, a profound sigh would burst +from his chest. + +"Sambo," he at length exclaimed, addressing the man in the pea-jacket +for the first time. "I shall retire to my cabin, but fail not to call me +an hour before daybreak. Our friends being all landed, there can be +nothing further to detain us here, we will therefore make the best of +our way back to Amherstburg in the morning." + +"Yes, Massa Geral," returned the negro, yawning and half raising his +brawny form from his rude couch with one hand, while he rubbed his heavy +eyes with the knuckles of the other. + +"How is your head to-night?" inquired the officer in a kind tone. + +"Berry well, Massa Geral--but berry sleepy." + +"Then sleep, Sambo; but do not fail to awaken me in time: we shall weigh +anchor the very first thing in the morning, provided the fog does not +continue. By the bye, you superintended the landing of the baggage--was +everything sent ashore?" + +"All, Massa Geral, I see him all pack in he wagon, for he Bubbalo +town--all, except dis here I find in Miss Mungummery cabin under he +pillow." + +As he spoke, the negro quitted his half recumbent position, and drew +from his breast a small clasped pocket book, on a steel entablature +adorning the cover of which, were the initials of the young lady just +named. + +"How is it Sambo, that you had not spoken of this? The pocket book +contains papers that may be of importance; and yet there is now no means +of forwarding it unless I delay the schooner." + +"I only find him hab an hour ago, Massa Geral, when I go to make he beds +and put he cabin to rights," said the old man, in a tone that showed he +felt and was pained by the reproof of his young master. "Dis here too," +producing a small ivory handled penknife, "I find same time in he +Gubbanor daters' bed." + +Gerald extended his hand to receive it, "A penknife in the bed of the +Governor's daughters!" he repeated with surprise. Ruminating a moment he +added to himself, "By heavens, it must be so--it is then as I expected. +Would that I had had this proof of their participation before they +quitted the schooner. Very well, Sambo, no blame can attach to you--go +to sleep my good fellow, but not beyond the time I have given you." + +"Tankee, Massa Geral," and drawing the collar of his pea jacket close +under his ears, the negro again extended himself at his full length upon +the arm chest. + +In the fulness of his indignation at the young ladies' duplicity, he now +came to the resolution of staying the departure of the schooner yet a +few hours, that he might have an opportunity of going ashore himself, +presenting this undoubted evidence of their guilt, and taxing them +boldly with the purpose to which it had been appropriated. Perhaps there +was another secret motive which induced this determination, and that +was, the opportunity it would afford him of again seeing his beloved +Matilda, and delivering her pocket book with his own hand. + +This resolution taken, without deeming it necessary to countermand his +order to Sambo, he placed the knife in a pocket in the breast of his +uniform, where he had already deposited the souvenir; and having retired +to his own cabin, was about to undress himself, when he fancied he could +distinguish through one of the stern windows of the schooner, sounds +similar to those of muffled oars. While he yet listened breathlessly to +satisfy himself whether he had not been deceived, a dark form came +hurriedly, yet noiselessly, down the steps of the cabin. Gerald turned, +and discovered Sambo, who now perfectly awake, indicated by his manner, +he was the bearer of some alarming intelligence. His report confirmed +the suspicion already entertained by himself, and at that moment he +fancied he heard the same subdued sounds but multiplied in several +distinct points. A vague sense of danger came over the mind of the +officer, and although his crew consisted of a mere handful of men, he at +once resolved to defend himself to the last, against whatever force +might be led to the attack. While Sambo hastened to arouse the men, he +girded his cutlass and pistols around his loins, and taking down two +huge blunderbusses from a beam in the ceiling of the cabin, loaded them +heavily with musket balls. Thus armed he sprang once more upon deck. + +The alarm was soon given, and the preparation became general, but +neither among the watch, who slumbered in the forecastle, nor those who +had turned into their hammocks, was there the slightest indication of +confusion. These latter "tumbled up," with no other addition to the +shirts in which they had left their cots, than their trousers, a light +state of costume to which those who were "boxed up" in their pea jackets +and great coats on the forecastle, soon reduced themselves also--not but +that the fog admitted of much warmer raiment, but that their activity +might be unimpeded--handkerchiefed heads and tucked up sleeves, with the +habiliments which we have named, being the most approved fighting dress +in the navy. + +Meanwhile, although nothing could be distinguished through the fog, the +sounds which had originally attracted the notice of the officer and his +trusty servant, increased, despite of the caution evidently used, to +such a degree as to be now audible to all on board. What most excited +the astonishment of the crew, and the suspicion of Gerald, was the +exactness of the course taken by the advancing hosts, in which not the +slightest deviation was perceptible. It was evident that they were +guided by some one who had well studied the distance and bearing of the +schooner from the shore, and as it was impossible to hope that even the +fog would afford them concealment from the approaching enemy, all that +was left them was to make the best defence they could. One other +alternative remained it is true, and this was to cut their cable and +allow themselves to drop down silently out of the course by which the +boats were advancing, but as this step involved the possibility of +running ashore on the American coast, when the same danger of captivity +would await them, Gerald, after an instant's consideration, rejected +the idea, preferring the worthier and more chivalrous dependence on his +own and crew's exertions. + +From the moment of the general arming, the long gun, which we have +already shown to constitute the sole defence of the schooner, was +brought nearer to the inshore gangway, and being mounted on an +elevation, with its formidable muzzle overtopping and projecting above +the low bulwarks, could in an instant be brought to bear on whatever +point it might be found advisable to vomit forth its mass of wrath, +consisting of grape, cannister and chain shot. On this gun, indeed, the +general expectation much depended; for the crew, composed of sixteen men +only, exclusive of petty officers, could hope to make but a poor +resistance, despite all the resolution they might bring into the +contest, against a squadron of well-armed boats, unless some very +considerable diminution in the numbers and efforts of these latter +should be made by "Old Sally," before they actually came to close +quarters. The weakness of the crew was in a great degree attributable to +the schooner having been employed as a cartel--a fact which must +moreover explain the want of caution, on this occasion, on the part of +Gerald, whose reputation for vigilance, in all matters of duty, was +universally acknowledged. It had not occurred to him that the instant he +landed his prisoners, his vessel ceased to be a cartel, and therefore a +fit subject for the enterprise of his enemies, or the probability is, +that in the hour in which he had landed them, he would again have +weighed anchor, and made the best of his way back to Amherstburg. + +"Stand by your gun, men--steady," whispered the officer, as the noise of +many oars immediately abreast, and at a distance of not more than twenty +yards, announced that the main effort of their enemies was about to be +made in that quarter. "Depress a little--there, you have her--now into +them--fire." + +Fiz-z-z-z, and a small pyramid of light rose from the breech of the gun, +which sufficed, during the moment it lasted, to discover three boats +filled with armed men, advancing immediately opposite, while two others +could be seen diverging, apparently one towards the quarter, the other +towards the bows of the devoted little vessel. The crew bent their gaze +eagerly over her side to witness the havoc they expected to ensue among +their enemies. To their surprise and mortification there was no report. +The advancing boats gave three deriding cheers. + +"D----n my eyes, if I didn't say she would miss fire, from having her +breech unkivered last night," shouted the man who held the match, and +who was no other than Tom Fluke. "Quick, here--give us a picker!" + +A picker was handed to him, by one who also held the powder-horn for +priming. + +"It's no use," he pursued, throwing away the wire and springing to the +dock. "She's a spike in the touch-hole, and the devil himself wouldn't +get it out now." + +"A spike!--what mean you?" eagerly demanded Gerald. + +"It's too true, Mr. Grantham," said the boatswain, who had flown to +examine the touch-hole, "there is a great piece of steel in it, and for +all the world like a woman's bodkin, or some such sort of thing." + +"Ah! it all comes o' that wench that was here on deck last night," +muttered the helmsman, who had succeeded Sambo on duty the preceding +night. "I thought I see her fiddlin' about the gun when the chase was +made after the Yankee, although I didn't think to say nothin' about it +when you axed Tom Fluke about Sal's apron." + +Whatever conjecture might have arisen with others, there was no time to +think of, much less to discuss it--the boats were already within a few +yards of the vessel. + +"Steady, men--silence!" commanded Gerald, in a low tone. "Since she has +failed us, we must depend upon ourselves. Down beneath the bulwarks and +move not one of you until they begin to board; then let each man single +his enemy and fire; the cutlass must do the rest." + +The order was obeyed. Each moment brought the crisis of action nearer: +the rowers had discontinued their oars, but the bows of the several +boats could be heard obeying the impetus already given them, and +dividing the water close to the vessel. + +"Now then, Sambo," whispered the officer. At that moment a torch was +raised high over the head of the negro and his master. Its rays fell +upon the first of the three boats, the crews of which were seen standing +up with arms outstretched to grapple with the schooner. Another instant, +and they would have touched. The negro dropped his light. + +Gerald pulled the trigger of his blunderbuss, aimed into the very centre +of the boat. Shrieks, curses and plashings as of bodies falling in the +water, succeeded; and in the confusion occasioned by the murderous fire, +the first boat evidently fell off. + +"Again, Sambo," whispered the officer. A second time the torch streamed +suddenly in air, and the contents of the yet undischarged blunderbuss +spread confusion, dismay and death, into the second boat. + +"Old Sal herself couldn't have done better: pity he hadn't a hundred of +them," growled Tom Fluke, who, although concealed behind the bulwarks, +had availed himself of a crevice near him, to watch the effect produced +by the formidable weapons. + +There was a momentary indecision among the enemy, after the second +destructive fire; it was but momentary. Again they advanced, and closing +with the vessel, evinced a determination of purpose, that, left little +doubt as to the result. A few sprang into the chains and rigging, while +others sought to enter by her bows; but the main effort seemed to be +made at her gangway, at which Gerald had stationed himself with ten of +his best men, the rest being detached to make the best defence they +could, against those who sought to enter in the manner above described. + +Notwithstanding the great disparity of numbers, the little crew of the +schooner had for some time a considerable advantage over their enemies. +At the first onset of these latter, their pistols had been discharged, +but in so random a manner as to have done no injury--whereas the +assailed, scrupulously obeying the order of their commander, fired not a +shot until they found themselves face to face with an enemy; the +consequence of which was that every pistol-ball killed an American, or +otherwise placed him _hors du combat_. Still, in spite of their loss, +the latter was more than adequate to the capture, unless a miracle +should interpose to prevent it; and, exasperated as they were by the +fall of their comrades, their efforts became at each moment more +resolute and successful. A deadly contest had been maintained in the +gangway, from which, however, Gerald was compelled to retire, although +bravely supported by his handful of followers. His force now consisted +merely of five men remaining of his own party, and three of those who +had been detached, who, all that were left alive, had been compelled to +fall back on their commander. How long he would have continued the +hopeless and desperate struggle in this manner is doubtful, had not a +fresh enemy appeared in his rear. These were the crews of two other +boats, who, having boarded without difficulty, now came up to the +assistance of their comrades. So completely taken by surprise was Gerald +in this quarter, that the first intimation he had of his danger was, in +the violent seizure of his sword arm from behind, and a general rush +upon and disarming of the remainder of his followers. On turning to +behold his enemy, he saw with concern the triumphant face of Desborough. + +"Every dog has his day, I guess," huskily chuckled the settler, as by +the glare of several torches which had been suddenly lighted, he was now +seen casting looks of savage vengeance, and holding his formidable knife +threateningly over the head of the officer whom he had grappled. "I +reckon as how I told you it would be Jeremiah Desborough's turn next." + +"Silence, fellow--loose your hold," shouted one, whose authoritative +voice and manner announced him for an officer, apparently the leader of +the boarding party. + +"I regret much, sir," pursued the American commander, seriously, and +turning to Gerald, "that your obstinate defence should have been carried +to the length it has. We were given to understand that ours would not be +an easy conquest, yet little deemed it would have been purchased with +the lives of so many of our force. Still, even while we deplore our +loss, have we hearts to estimate the valor of our foe. I cannot give you +freedom, since the gift is not at my disposal; but at least I may spare +you the pain of surrendering a blade you have so nobly wielded. Retain +your sword, sir." + +Gerald's was not a nature to remain untouched by such an act of +chivalrous courtesy, and he expressed, in brief but pointed terms, his +sense of the compliment. + +Five minutes afterwards Gerald, who had exchanged his trusty cutlass for +the sword he had been so flatteringly permitted to retain, found himself +in the leading boat of the little return squadron, and seated at the +side of his generous captor. + +"I think you said," he observed, "that you had been informed the +conquest of the schooner would not be an easy one. Would it be seeking +too much to know who was your informant." + +The American officer shook his head. "I fear I am not at liberty exactly +to name--but thus much I may venture to state, that the person who has +so rightly estimated your gallantry, is one not wholly unknown to you." + +"This is ambiguous. One question more--were you prepared to expect the +failure of the schooner's principal means of defence, her long gun?" + +"If you recollect the cheer that burst from my fellows at the moment +when the harmless flash was seen ascending, you will require no further +elucidation on that head," replied the American evasively. + +This was sufficient for Gerald. He folded his arms, sank his head upon +his chest, and continued to muse deeply. Soon afterwards the boat +touched the beach, where many of the citizens were assembled to hear +tidings of the enterprize and congratulate the victors. Thence he was +conducted to the neat little inn, which was the only accommodation the +small town, or rather village of Buffalo, at that time afforded. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + + +At the termination of the memorable war of the Revolution--that war, +which, on the one hand, severed the ties that bound the Colonies in +interest and affection with the parent land, and on the other, seemed, +as by way of indemnification, to have riveted the Canadas in closer love +to their adopted mother--hundreds of families who had remained staunch +in their allegiance quitted the American soil, to which they had been +unwillingly transferred, and hastened to close, on one side of the vast +chain of waters that separated the descendants of France from the +descendants of England, the evening of an existence, whose morning and +noon had been passed on the other. Among the number of these was Major +Grantham, who, at the close of the Revolution, had espoused a daughter +(the only remaining child) of Frederick and Madeline De Haldimar, whose +many vicissitudes of suffering prior to their marriage, have been fully +detailed in Wacousta. When, at that period, the different garrisons on +the frontier were given up to the American troops, the several British +regiments crossed over into Canada, and, after a short term of service +in that country, were successively relieved by fresh corps from England. +One of the earliest recalled of these was the regiment of Colonel +Frederick De Haldimar. Local interests, however, attaching his +son-in-law to Upper Canada, the latter had, on the reduction of his +corps, a provincial regiment, well known throughout the war of the +Revolution, for its strength, activity, and good service finally fixed +himself at Amherstburg. + +In the domestic relations of life Major Grantham was exemplary, although +perhaps his rigid notions of right had obtained for him more of the +respect than of the love of those who came within their influence, and +yet no mean portion of both. Tenderly attached to his wife, whom he had +lost when Gerald was yet in his twelfth year, he had not ceased to +deplore her loss; and this perhaps had contributed to nourish a +reservedness of disposition, which, without at all aiming at, or +purposing, such effect, insensibly tended to the production of a +corresponding reserve on the part of his children, that increased with +their years. Indeed, on their mother all the tenderness of their young +hearts had been lavished, and, when they suddenly saw themselves +deprived of her who loved and had been loved by them, with doting +fondness, they felt as if a void had been left in their affections which +the less tender evidences of paternal love were but insufficient wholly +to supply. Still--although not to the same extent--did they love their +father also; and what was wanted in intensity of feeling was more than +made up by the deep, the exalted respect, they entertained for his +principles and conduct. It was with pride they beheld him, not merely +the deservedly idolized of the low, but the respected of the high--the +example of one class, and the revered of another; one whose high +position in the social circle had been attained, less by his striking +exterior advantages than the inward worth that governed every action of +his life, and whose moral character, as completely _sans tâche_ as his +fulfilment of the social duties was proverbially _sans reproche_, could +not fail, in a certain degree, to reflect the respect it commanded upon +themselves. + +As we have before observed, however, all the fervor of their affection +had been centered in their mother, and that was indeed a melancholy +night in which the youths had been summoned to watch the passing away of +her gentle spirit for ever from their love. Isabella De Haldimar had, +from her earliest infancy, been remarkable for her quiet and +contemplative character; and bred amid scenes that brought at every +retrospect recollections of some acted horror, it is not surprising that +the bias given by nature should have been developed and strengthened by +the events that had surrounded her. Not dissimilar in disposition, as +she was not unlike in form, to her mother, she was by that mother +carefully endowed with those gentler attributes of goodness, which, +taking root within a soil so eminently disposed to their reception, +could not fail to render her in after life a model of excellence, both +as a mother and a wife. Notwithstanding, however, this moulding of her +pliant and well-directed mind, there was about her a melancholy, which, +while it gave promise of the devoted affection of the mother, offered +but little prospect of cheerfulness, in an union with one, who, reserved +himself, could not be expected to temper that melancholy by the +introduction of a gaiety that was not natural to him. And yet it was for +this very melancholy, tender and fascinating in her, that Major Grantham +had sought the hand of Isabella De Haldimar; and it was for the very +austerity and reserve of his general manner, more than from the manly +beauty of his tall dark person, that he too had become the object of her +secret choice long before he had proposed for her. + +The austerity which Major Grantham carried with him into public life +was, if not wholly laid aside, at least considerably softened, in the +presence of his wife, and when, later, the birth of two sons crowned +their union, there was nothing left her to desire which it was in the +power of circumstances to bestow. Mrs. De Haldimar had not taken into +account the effect likely to be produced by a separation from +herself--the final severing, as it were, of every tie of blood. Of the +four children who had composed the family of Colonel Frederick De +Haldimar, the two oldest (officers in his own corps) had perished in the +war: the fourth, a daughter, had died young, of a decline: and the loss +of the former especially, who had grown up with her from childhood to +youth, was deeply felt by the sensitive Isabella. With the dreadful +scenes perpetrated at Detroit--scenes in which their family had been the +principal sufferers--the boys had been familiarized by the soldiers of +their father's regiment, who often took them to the several points most +worthy of remark from the incidents connected with them; and, pointing +out the spots on which their uncle Charles and their aunt Clara had +fallen victims to the terrible hatred of Wacousta for their grandfather, +detailed the horrors of those days with a rude fidelity of coloring that +brought dismay and indignation to the hearts of their wondering and +youthful auditors. On these occasions Isabella became the depository of +all they had gleaned. To her they confided, under the same pledge of +secrecy that had been exacted from themselves, every circumstance of +horror connected with those days; nor were they satisfied, until they +had shown her those scenes with which so many dreadful recollections +were associated. + +Thus was the melancholy of Isabella fed by the very silence in which she +was compelled to indulge. Often was her pillow wetted with tears, as she +passed in review the several fearful incidents connected with the tale +in which her brothers had so deeply interested her, and she would have +given worlds at those moments, had they been hers to bestow, to recal to +life and animation the beloved but unfortunate uncle and aunt, to whose +fate, her brothers assured her, even their veteran friends never alluded +without sorrow. Often, too, did she dwell on the share her own fond +mother had borne in those transactions, and the anguish which must have +pierced her heart when first apprized of the loss of her, whom she had +even _then_ loved with all a mother's love. Nay, more than once, while +gazing on the face of the former, her inmost soul given up to the +recollection of all she had endured, first at Michillimackinac, and +afterwards at Detroit, had she unconsciously suffered the tears to +course down her cheeks without an effort to restrain them. Ignorant of +the cause, Mrs. De Haldimar only ascribed this emotion to the natural +melancholy of her daughter's character, and then she would gently chide +her, and seek, by a variety of means, to divert her thoughts into some +lively channel; but she had little success in the attempt to eradicate +reflections already rooted in so congenial a soil. + +Her sister died very young, and she scarcely felt her loss; but when, +subsequently, the vicissitudes of a military life had deprived her for +ever of her beloved brothers, her melancholy increased. It was however +the silent, tearless melancholy, that knows not the paroxysm of +outrageous grief. The quiet resignation of her character formed an +obstacle to the inroads of all vivacious sorrow; yet was her health not +the less effectually undermined by the slow action of her innate +feeling, unfortunately too much fostered by outward influences. By her +marriage and the birth of her sons, whom she loved with all a mother's +fondness, her mental malady had been materially diminished, and indeed +in a great degree superseded, but unhappily, previous to these events, +it had seriously effected her constitution, and produced a morbid +susceptibility of mind and person, that exposed her to be overwhelmed by +the occurrence of any of those afflictions which otherwise she might, +with ordinary fortitude, have endured. When therefore intelligence from +England announced that her parents had both perished in a hurricane on +their route to the West Indies, whither the regiment of Colonel De +Haldimar had been ordered, the shock was too great for her, mentally and +physically enfeebled as she had been, to sustain, and she sank gradually +under this final infliction of Providence. + +Major Grantham beheld with dismay the effect of this blow upon his +beloved wife. Fell consumption had now marked her for her own, and so +rapid was the progress of the disease acting on a temperament already +too much predisposed to its influence, that, in despite of all human +preventives, the sensitive Isabella, before six months had elapsed, was +summoned to a better world. + +We will pass over the deep grief which preyed upon the hearts of the +unfortunate brothers for weeks after they had been compelled to +acknowledge the stern truth that they were indeed motherless. + +It was soon after this event, that the first seeds of disunion began to +spring up between England and the United States, the inevitable results +of which it was anticipated, would be the involving of Canada in the +struggle; and, notwithstanding the explosion did not take place for +several years afterwards, preparations were made on either shore, to an +extent that kept the spirit of enterprise on the alert. + +Inheriting the martial spirit of their family, the inclinations of the +young Granthams led them to the service; and, as their father could have +no reasonable objection to oppose to a choice which promised not merely +to secure his sons in an eligible profession, but to render them in some +degree of benefit to their country, he consented to their views. +Gerald's preference leading him to the navy, he was placed on that +establishment as a midshipman; while Henry, several years later, +obtained, through the influence of their father's old friend General +Brock, an ensigncy in the King's Regiment. + +Meanwhile, Major Grantham, whose reserve appeared to have increased +since the death of his wife, seemed to seek, in the active discharge of +his magisterial duties, a relief from the recollection of the loss he +had sustained; and it was about this period that, in consequence of many +of the American settlers in Canada, having, in anticipation of a rupture +between the two countries, secretly withdrawn themselves to the opposite +shore, his exaction of the duties of British subjects from those who +remained, became more vigorous than ever. + +We have already shown Desborough to have been the most unruly and +disorderly of the worthless set; and as no opportunity was omitted of +compelling him to renew his oath of allegiance, (while his general +conduct was strictly watched), the hatred of the man for the stern +magistrate was daily matured, until at length it grew into an +inextinguishable desire for revenge. + +The chief, and almost only recreation, in which Major Grantham indulged, +was that of fowling. An excellent shot himself, he had been in some +degree the instructor of his sons; and, although, owing to the wooded +nature of the country, the facilities afforded to the enjoyment of his +favorite pursuit in the orthodox manner of a true English sportsman, +were few, still, as game was everywhere abundant, he had continued to +turn to account the advantages that were actually offered. Both Gerald +and Henry had been his earlier companions in the sport, but, of late +years and especially since the death of their mother, he had been in the +habit of going out alone. + +It was one morning in that season of the year when the migratory pigeons +pursue their course towards what are termed the "burnt woods," on which +they feed, and in such numbers as to cover the surface of the heavens, +as with a dense and darkening cloud, that Major Grantham sallied forth +at early dawn, with his favorite dog and gun, and, as was his custom, +towards Hartley's point. Disdaining, as unworthy of his skill, the +myriads of pigeons that everywhere presented themselves, he passed from +the skirt of the forest towards an extensive swamp, in the rear of +Hartley's, which, abounding in golden plover and snipe, usually afforded +him a plentiful supply. On this occasion he was singularly successful, +and, having bagged as many birds as he could conveniently carry, was in +the act of ramming down his last charge, when the report of a shot came +unexpectedly from the forest. In the next instant he was sensible he was +wounded, and, placing his hand to his back, felt it wet with blood. As +there was at the moment several large wild ducks within a few yards of +the spot where he stood, and between himself and the person who had +fired, he at once concluded that he had been the victim of an accident, +and, feeling the necessity of assistance, he called loudly on the unseen +sportsman to come forward to his aid; but, although his demand was +several times repeated, no answer was returned, and no one appeared. +With some difficulty he contrived, after disembarrassing himself of his +game-bag, to reach the farm at Hartley's, where every assistance was +afforded him, and, a waggon having been procured, he was conducted to +his home, when, on examination the wound was pronounced to be mortal. + +On the third day from this event Major Grantham breathed his last, +bequeathing the guardianship of his sons to Colonel D'Egville, who had +married his sister. At this epoch, Gerald was absent with his vessel on +a cruise, but Henry received his parting blessing upon both, accompanied +by a solemn injunction, that they should never be guilty of any act +which could sully the memory, either of their mother or himself. This +Henry promised, in the name of both, most religiously to observe; and, +when Gerald returned, and to his utter dismay beheld the lifeless form +of the parent, whom he had quitted only a few days before in all the +vigor of health, he not only renewed the pledge given by his brother, +but with the vivacity of character habitual to him, called down the +vengeance of Heaven upon his head, should he ever be found to swerve +from those principles of honor, which had been so sedulously inculcated +in him. + +Meanwhile, there was nothing to throw even the faintest light on the +actual cause of Major Grantham's death. On the first probing and +dressing of the wound, the murderous lead had been extracted, and, as it +was discovered to be a rifle ball it was taken for granted that some +Indian, engaged in the chase, had, in the eagerness of pursuit, missed +an intermediate object at which he had taken aim and lodged the ball +accidentally in the body of the old gentleman; and that, terrified at +discovery of the mischief he had done, and perhaps apprehending +punishment, he had hastily fled from the spot, to avoid detection. This +opinion, unanimously entertained by the townspeople, was shared by the +brothers, who knowing the unbounded love and respect of all for their +parent, dreamt not for one moment that his death could have been the +result of premeditation. It was left for Desborough to avow, at a later +period, that he had been the murderer; and with what startling effect on +him, to whom the admission was exultingly made, we have already seen. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + + +Autumn had passed away, and winter, the stern invigorating winter of +beautiful America had already covered the earth with enduring snows, and +the waters with bridges of seemingly eternal ice, and yet no effort had +been made by the Americans to repossess themselves of the country they +had so recently lost. The several garrisons of Detroit and Malden, +reposing under the laurels they had so easily won, made holiday of their +conquest; and, secure in the distance that separated them from the more +populous districts of the Union, seemed to have taken it for granted +that they had played their final part in the active operations of the +war, and would be suffered to remain in undisturbed possession. But the +storm was already brewing in the far distance which, advancing +progressively like the waves of the coming tempest, was destined first +to shake them in their security, and finally to overwhelm them in its +vortex. With the natural enterprise of their character, the Americans +had no sooner ascertained the fall of Detroit, than means slow but +certain, were taken for the recovery of a post, with which, their +national glory was in no slight decree identified. The country whence +they drew their resources for the occasion, were the new states of Ohio +and Kentucky, and one who had previously travelled through those immense +tracts of forests, where the dwelling of the backwoodsman is met with at +long intervals, would have marvelled at the zeal and promptitude with +which these adventurous people, abandoning their homes, and disregarding +their personal interests, flocked to the several rallying points. Armed +and accoutred at their own expense, with the unerring rifle that +provided them with game, and the faithful hatchet that had brought down +the dark forest into ready subjection to their will, their claim upon +the public was for the mere sustenance they required on service. It is +true that this partial independence of the Government whom they served +rather in the character of volunteers, than of conscripts, was in a +great measure fatal to their discipline; but in the peculiar warfare of +the country, absence of discipline was rather an advantage than a +demerit, since when checked, or thrown into confusion, they looked not +for a remedy in the resumption of order, but in the exercise each of his +own individual exertions, facilitated as he was by his general knowledge +of localities, and his confidence in his own personal resources. + +But although new armies were speedily organized--if organized may be +termed those who brought with them into the contest much courage and +devotedness, yet little discipline--the Americans, in this instance, +proceeded with a caution that proved their respect for the British +garrison, strongly supported as it was by a numerous force of Indians. +Within two months after the capitulation of Detroit, a considerable +army, Ohioans and Kentuckians, with some regular infantry, had been +pushed forward as with a view to feel their way; but these having been +checked by the sudden appearance of a detachment from Fort Malden, had +limited their advance to the Miami River, on the banks of which, and on +the ruins of one of the old English forts of Pontiac's days, they had +constructed new fortifications, and otherwise strongly entrenched +themselves. It was a mistake, however, to imagine that the enemy would +be content with establishing himself here. The new fort merely served as +a nucleus for the concentration of such resources of men and warlike +equipment, as were necessary to the subjection, firstly of Detroit, and +afterwards of Fort Malden. Deprived of the means of transport, the +shallow bed of the Miami aiding them but little, it was a matter of no +mean difficulty with the Americans to convey, through several hundred +miles of forest, the heavy guns they required for battering, and as it +was only at intervals this could be effected--the most patient endurance +and unrelaxing perseverance being necessary to the end. From the +inactivity of this force, or rather the confinement of its operations to +objects of defence, the English garrison had calculated on undisturbed +security, at least throughout the winter, if not for a longer period; +but, although it was not until this latter season was far advanced that +the enemy broke up from his entrenchments on the Miami, and pushed +himself forward for the attainment of his final view, the error of +imputing inactivity to him was discovered at a moment when it was least +expected. + +It was during a public ball given at Amherstburg, on the 18th of +January, 1813, that the first intelligence was brought of the advance of +a strong American force, whose object it was supposed was to push +rapidly on to Detroit, leaving Amherstburg behind to be disposed of +later. The officer who brought this intelligence was the fat Lieutenant +Raymond, who, commanding an outpost at the distance of some leagues, had +been surprised, and after a resistance very creditable under the +circumstances, driven in by the American advanced guard with a loss of +nearly half his command. + +Thus was the same consternation produced in the ball-room at +Amherstburg, that at a later period occurred in a similar place of +amusement at Brussels; and although not followed by the same momentous +public results, producing the same host of fluttering fears and +anxieties in the bosoms of the female votaries of Terpsichore. We +believe, however, that there existed some dissimilarity in the several +modes of communication--the Duke of Wellington receiving his, with some +appearance of regard on the part of the communicator for the nerves of +the ladies, while to Colonel St. Julian, commanding at Amherstburg, and +engaged at that moment at the whist-table, the news was imparted in +stentorian tones, which were audible to every one in the adjoining +ball-room. + +But even if his voice had not been heard, the appearance of Lieutenant +Raymond would have justified the apprehension of any reasonable person, +for, in the importance of the moment, he had not deemed it necessary to +make any change in the dress in which he had been surprised and driven +back. Let the reader figure to himself a remarkably fat, ruddy faced +man, of middling age, dressed in a pair of tightly fitting, dread-naught +trowsers, and a shell jacket that had once been scarlet, but now, from +use and exposure, rather resembled the color of brickdust; boots from +which all polish had been taken by the grease employed to render them +snow-proof; a brace of pistols thrust into the black waist belt that +encircled his huge circumference, and from which depended a sword, whose +steel scabbard showed the rust of the rudest bivouac. Let him, moreover, +figure to himself that ruddy, carbuncled face, and nearly as ruddy brow, +suffused with perspiration, although in a desperately cold winter's +night, and the unwashed hands, and mouth, and lips black from the +frequent biting of the ends of cartridges, while ever and anon the +puffed cheeks, in the effort to procure air and relieve the panting +chest, recal the idea of a Bacchus, after one of his most lengthened +orgies--let him figure all this, and if he will add short, curling, +wiry, damp hair, surmounting a head as round as a turnip, a snubby, red, +_retroussé_ nose, and light grey eyes; he will have a tolerable idea of +the startling figure that thus abruptly made its appearance in the +person of Lieutenant Raymond, first among the dancers, and bustlingly +thence into the adjoining card-room. + +At the moment of his entrance, every eye had been turned upon this +strange apparition, while an almost instinctive sense of the cause of +his presence pervaded every breast. Indeed it was impossible to behold +him arrayed in the bivouac garb in which we have described him, +contrasted as it was with the elegant ball dresses of his brother +officers and not attribute his presence to some extraordinary motive; +and as almost every one in the room was aware of his having been absent +on detachment, his mission had been half divined even before he had +opened his lips to Colonel St. Julian, for whom, on entering, he had +hurriedly inquired. + +But when the latter officer was seen soon afterwards to rise from and +leave the card-table, and, after communicating hurriedly with the +several heads of departments, quit altogether the scene of festivity, +there could be no longer a doubt; and, as in all cases of the sort, the +danger was magnified, as it flew from lip to lip, even as the tiny +snow-ball becomes a mountain by the accession it receives in its rolling +course. Suddenly the dance was discontinued, and indeed in time, for the +fingers of the non-combatant musicians, sharing in the general +nervousness, had already given notice, by numerous falsettos, of their +inability to proceed much longer. Bonnets, cloaks, muffs, tippets, +shawls, snow-shoes, and all the paraphernalia of a female winter +equipment peculiar to the country, were brought unceremoniously in, and +thrown _en masse_ upon the deserted benches of the ball-room. Then was +there a scramble among the fair dancers, who, having secured their +respective property, quitted the house; not, however, without a secret +fear, on the part of many, that the first object they should encounter, +on sallying forth, would be a corps of American sharpshooters. To the +confusion within was added the clamor without, arising from swearing +drivers, neighing horses, jingling bells, and jostling sledges. Finally, +the only remaining ladies of the party were the D'Egvilles, whose sledge +had not yet arrived: with these lingered Captain Molineux, Middlemore, +and Henry Grantham, all of whom, having obtained leave of absence for +the occasion, had accompanied them from Detroit. The two former, who had +just terminated one of the old fashioned cotillions, then peculiar to +the Canadas, stood leaning over the chairs of their partners, indulging +in no very charitable comments on the unfortunate Raymond, to whose +inopportune presence at that unseasonable hour they ascribed a host of +most important momentary evils; as, for example, the early breaking up +of the pleasantest ball of the season, the loss of an excellent +anticipated supper that had been prepared for a later hour, and, +although last not least, the necessity it imposed upon them of an +immediate return, that bitter cold night, to Detroit. Near the blazing +wood fire, at their side, stood Henry Grantham, and Captain St. Clair of +the Engineers. The former with his thoughts evidently far away from the +passing scene, the latter joining in the criticisms on Raymond. + +A few moments afterwards Colonel D'Egville entered the room, now +deserted save by the little coterie near the fire-place. Like Lieutenant +Raymond's, his dress was more suited to the bivouac than the ball-room, +and his countenance otherwise bore traces of fatigue. + +His daughters flew to meet him. The officers also grouped around, +desirous to hear what tidings he brought of the enemy, to corroborate +the statement of Raymond. To the great mortification of the latter, it +was now found that he and his little detachment had had all the running +to themselves, and that, while they fancied the whole of the American +army to be close at their heels, the latter had been so kept in check by +the force of Indians, under Colonel D'Egville in person, as to be +compelled to retire upon the point whence the original attack had been +made. They had not followed the broken English outpost more than a mile, +and yet, so convinced of close pursuit had been the latter, that for the +space of six leagues they had scarce relaxed in their retreat. The +information now brought by Colonel D'Egville was, that the Americans had +not advanced a single foot beyond the outpost in question, but, on the +contrary, had commenced constructing a stockade and throwing up +entrenchments. He added, moreover, that he had just dispatched an +express to Sandwich, to General Proctor, communicating the intelligence, +and suggesting the propriety of an attack before they could advance +farther, and favor any movement on the part of the inhabitants of +Detroit. As this counter-movement on our part would require every man +that could be spared from the latter fortress, Colonel D'Egville seemed +to think that before the officers could reach it, its garrison would be +already on the way to join the expedition, which would doubtless be +ordered to move from Amherstburg; and as the same impression appeared to +exist in the mind of Colonel St. Julian, whom he had only just parted +from to proceed in search of his daughters, the latter had taken it upon +himself to determine that they should remain where they were until the +answer, communicating the final decision of General Proctor, should +arrive. + +If the young officers were delighted at the idea of escaping the horror +of an eighteen miles drive, on one of the bitterest nights of the +season, supperless, and at the moment of issuing from a comfortable +ball-room, their annoyance at (what they termed) the pusillanimity of +Raymond, who had come thus unnecessarily in, to the utter annihilation +of their evening's amusement--was in equal proportion. For this, on +their way home, they revenged themselves by every sort of persiflage +their humor could adapt to the occasion, until in the end they +completely succeeded in destroying the good humor of Raymond, who +eventually quitted them under feelings of mortified pride, which excited +all the generous sympathy of the younger Grantham, while it created in +his breast a sentiment of almost wrath against his inconsiderate +companions. Even these latter were at length sensible that they had gone +too far, and, as their better feelings returned, they sought to assure +the offended object of their pleasantry that what they had uttered was +merely in jest; but finding he received these disclaimers in moody +silence, they renewed their attack, nor discontinued it until they +separated for their mutual quarters for the night. + +The following dawn broke in, decked with all the sad and sober grey +peculiar to an American sky in the depth of winter, and, with the first +rising of the almost rayless sun, commenced numerous warlike +preparations, that gave promise to the inhabitants of some approaching +crisis. The event justified their expectation; the suggestion of Colonel +D'Egville had been adopted, and the same express which carried to +General Proctor the information of the advance of the enemy, and the +expulsion of Lieutenant Raymond from his post, was pushed on to Detroit, +with an order for every man who could be spared from that fortress, to +be marched without a moment's delay to Malden. At noon the detachment +had arrived, and the General making his appearance soon after, the +expedition, composed of the strength of the two garrisons, with a few +light guns, and a considerable body of Indians, under the Chief +Round-head, were pushed rapidly across the lake, and the same night +occupied the only road by which the enemy could advance. + +It was a picturesque sight to those who lingered on the banks of the +Detroit, to watch the movement of that mass of guns, ammunition, cars +and sledges, preceding the regular march of the troops, as the whole +crossed the firm but rumbling ice, at the head of the now deserted +Island of Bois Blanc. Nor was this at all lessened in effect by the +wild and irregular movements of the Indians, who, advancing by twos and +threes, but more often singly, and bounding nimbly yet tortuously, along +the vast white field with which the outline of their swarthy forms +contrasted, called up at the outset, the idea of a legion of devils. + +It was during one of the coldest mornings in January, that this little +army bivouaced on the banks of a small rivulet, distant little more than +a league from the position which had been taken up by the Americans. So +unexpected and rapid had been the advance of the expedition, that not +the slightest suspicion appeared to be entertained by the Americans even +of its departure; and from information brought at a late hour by the +Indian scouts, who had been dispatched at nightfall to observe their +motions, it was gathered that, so far from apprehending or being +prepared for an attack, all was quiet in their camp, in which the +customary night-fires were then burning. Thus favored by the false +security of their enemies, the British force, after partaking of their +rude but substantial meal, and preparing their arms, laid themselves +down to rest in their accoutrements and great coats; their heads +reclining on whatever elevation, however small, presented itself, and +their feet half buried in the embers of the fires they had with +difficulty kindled on the frozen ground, from which the snow had been +removed--all sanguine of success, and all more or less endeavoring to +snatch, amid the nipping frost to which their upper persons were +exposed, a few hours of sleep prior to the final advance, which was to +take place an hour before dawn. + +In the midst of the general desolateness of aspect which encompassed +all, there were few privations endured by the men that were not equally +shared by their officers. A solitary and deserted log hut was the only +thing in the shape of a human habitation within the bivouac, and this +had been secured as the headquarters of the General and his staff--all +besides had no other canopy than the clear starry heavens, or, here and +there, the leafless and unsheltering branches of some forest tree--and +yet, around one large and blazing fire, which continued to be fed at +intervals by masses of half-decayed wood, that, divested of their snow, +lay simmering and drying before it, was frequently to be heard the +joyous yet suppressed laugh, and piquant sally, as of men whose spirits +no temporary hardship or concern for the eventful future could +effectually suppress. + +During the whole of the march, Raymond had evinced a seriousness of +demeanor by no means common to him, and although he had made one of the +party in the general bivouac, he had scarcely opened his lips, except to +reply to the most direct questions. A renewed attack at first drew from +him no comment, although it was evident he felt greatly pained; but when +he had finished smoking his cigar, he raised himself, not without +difficulty, from the ground, and began with a seriousness of manner +that, being unusual, not a little surprised them, "Gentlemen, you have +long been pleased to select me as your butt." + +"Of course," hastily interrupted Captain Molineux, hazarding his pun, +"we naturally select you for what you most resemble." + +"Captain Molineux--gentlemen!" resumed Raymond, with greater emphasis. + +"He is getting warm on the subject," observed Middlemore. "Have a care, +Molineux, that the butt does not _churn_ until in the end it becomes the +_butter_." + +"Ha! ha! ha!" vociferated St. Clair, "good, excellent, the best you ever +made, Middlemore." + +"Gentlemen!" persevered Raymond, in a tone, and with a gesture, of +impatience, "this trifling will be deeply regretted by you all +to-morrow; I repeat," he pursued, when he found he had at length +succeeded in procuring silence, "you have long been pleased to select me +as your butt, and while this was confined to my personal appearance, +painful as I have sometimes found your humor, I could still endure it; +but when I perceive those whom I have looked upon as friends and +brothers, casting imputations upon my courage, I may be excused for +feeling offended. You have succeeded in wounding my heart, and some of +you will regret the hour when you did so. Another, perhaps, would adopt +a different course, but I am not disposed to return evil for evil. I +wish to believe, that in all your taunts upon this subject you have +merely indulged your bantering humor--but not the less have you pained +an honest heart. To-morrow will prove that you have grievously wronged +me, and I am mistaken if you will not deeply regret it." + +So saying, he hurried away across the snow towards a distant fire, which +lighted the ruder bivouac of the adjutant and quartermaster, and was +there seen to seat himself with the air of one who has composed himself +for the night. + +"What a silly fellow, to take the thing so seriously!" said Molineux, +half vexed at himself, half moved by the reproachful tone of Raymond's +address. + +"For God's sake, Grantham, call him back. Tell him we are ready to make +any--every atonement for our offence," urged St. Clair. + +"And I will promise never to utter another pun at his expense as long as +I live," added Middlemore. + +But before Henry Grantham, who had been a pained and silent witness of +the scene, and who had already risen with a view to follow the wounded +Raymond, could take a single step on his mission of peace, the low roll +of the drum, summoning to fall in, warned them that the hour of action +had already arrived, and each, quitting his fire, hastened to the more +immediate and pressing duties of assembling his men, and carefully +examining into the state of their appointments. + +In ten minutes from the beating of the _reveillé_--considerably shorn of +its wonted proportions, as the occasion demanded--the bivouac had been +abandoned, and the little army again upon their march. What remained to +be traversed of the space that separated them from the enemy, was an +alternation of plain and open forest, but so completely in +juxtaposition, that the head of the column had time to clear one wood +and enter a second before its rear could disengage itself from the +first. The effect of this, by the dim and peculiar light reflected from +the snow across which they moved, was picturesque in the extreme, nor +was the interest diminished by the utter silence that had pervaded every +part of the little army, the measured tramp of whose march, mingled with +the hollow and unavoidable rumbling of the light guns, being the only +sounds to be heard amid that mass of living matter. The Indians, with +the exception of a party of scouts, had been the last to quit their rude +encampment, and as they now, in their eagerness to get to the front, +glided stealthily by in the deep snows on either side of the more beaten +track by which the troops advanced, and utterly without sound in their +foot-fall they might rather have been compared to spirits of the wilds, +than to human beings. + +The regiment having been told off into divisions, it so happened that +Raymond and Henry Grantham, although belonging to different companies, +now found themselves near each other. The latter had been most anxious +to approach his really good-hearted companion, with a view to soothe his +wounded feelings, and to convey, in the fullest and most convincing +terms, the utter disclaimer of his inconsiderate brother officers, to +reflect seriously on his conduct in the recent retreat--or, indeed, to +intend their observations for anything beyond a mere pleasantry. As, +however, the strictest order had been commanded to be observed in the +march, and Raymond and he happened to be at opposite extremities of the +division, this had been for some time impracticable. A temporary halt +having occurred, just as the head of the column came within sight of the +enemy's fires, Grantham quitted his station on the flank, and hastened +to the head of his division, where he found Raymond with his arms folded +across his chest, and apparently absorbed in deep thought. He tapped him +lightly on the shoulder, and inquired in a tone of much kindness the +subject of his musing. + +Touched by the manner in which he was addressed, Raymond dropped his +arms and grasping the hand of the youth, observed in his usual voice; +"Ah, is it you Henry--Egad, my dear boy, I was just thinking of you--and +how very kind you have always been; never quizzing me as those +thoughtless fellows have done--and certainly never insinuating anything +against my courage--that was too bad, Henry, too bad, I could have +forgiven anything but that." + +"Nay, nay, Raymond," answered his companion, soothingly; "believe me, +neither Molineux, nor Middlemore, nor St. Clair meant anything beyond a +jest. I can assure you they did not, for when you quitted us they asked +me to go in search of you, but the assembly then commencing to beat, I +was compelled to hasten to my company, nor have I had an opportunity of +seeing you until now." + +"Very well, Henry, I forgive them, for it is not in my nature to keep +anger long; but tell them that they should not wantonly wound the +feelings of an unoffending comrade. As I told them, they may regret +their unkindness to me before another sun has set. If so, I wish them no +other punishment." + +"What mean you, my dear Raymond?" + +"Egad! I scarcely know myself, but something tells me very forcibly my +hour is come." + +"Nonsense, this is but the effect of the depression, produced by fatigue +and over excitement, added to the recent annoyance of your feelings." + +"Whatever it proceed from, I had made up my mind to it before we set +out. Henry, my kind good Henry, I have neither friend nor relative on +earth--no one to inherit the little property I possess. In the event of +my falling, you will find the key of my desk in the breast pocket of my +coat. A paper in that desk appoints you my executor. Will you accept the +trust?" + +"Most sacredly, Raymond, will I fulfil every instruction it contains +should I myself survive; but I cannot, will not, bring myself to +anticipate your fall." + +"Move on, move on," passed quickly in a whisper from front to rear of +the column. + +"God bless you, Henry," exclaimed Raymond, again pressing the hand of +the youth--"remember the key." + +"We shall talk of that to-night," was the light reply. "Meanwhile, dear +Raymond, God bless you," and again Grantham fell back to his place in +the rear of the division. + +Five minutes later, and the troops were finally brought up in front of +the enemy. A long line of fires marked the extent of the encampment, +from which even then, the "all's well" of the sentinels could be +occasionally heard. Except these, all profoundly slept, nor was there +anything to indicate they had the slightest suspicion of an enemy being +within twenty miles of them. + +"What glorious cannon work we shall have presently," whispered Villiers +to Molineux, as they were brought together by their stations at the +adjacent extremities of their respective division. "Only mark how the +fellows sleep." + +"The devil take the cannon," muttered Villiers, "the bayonet for me, but +you are right, for see, there go the guns to the front--hark there is a +shot; the sentinels have discovered us at last; and now they are +starting from before their fires, and hastening to snatch their arms." + +Whist, whist, whist, flew three balls successively between their heads. + +"Ha, here they begin to talk to us in earnest, and now to our duty." + +The next moment all was roar, and bustle, and confusion, and death. + +The sun was in the meridian; all sounds of combat had ceased. From the +field, in which the troops had commenced the action, numerous sledges +were seen departing, laden with the dead--the wounded having previously +been sent off. One of these sledges remained stationary at some distance +within the line, where the ravages of death were marked by pools of +blood upon the snow, and at this point were grouped several individuals, +assembled round a body which was about to be conveyed away. + +"By Heavens, I would give the world never to have said an unkind word to +him," observed one, whose arm suspended from a sling, attested he had +not come scatheless out of the action. It was St. Clair, whose great +ambition it had always been to have his name borne among the list of +wounded--provided there were no broken bones in the question. + +"As brave as he was honest-hearted," added a second, "you say, Grantham, +that he forgave us all our nonsense." + +"He did, Molineux. He declared he could not bear resentment against you +long. But still, I fear, he could not so easily forget. He observed to +me, jestingly, just before deploying into line, that he felt his time +was come, but there can be no doubt, from what we all witnessed, that he +was determined from the outset to court his death." + +Captain Molineux turned away, apparently much affected--Middlemore spoke +not, but it was evident he also was deeply pained. Each seemed to feel +that he had been in some degree accessory to the catastrophe, but the +past could not be recalled. The body, covered with blood, exuding from +several wounds, was now placed on the sledge which was drawn off to join +several others just departed, and the lingering officers hastened to +overtake their several companies. + +When the action was at the hottest, one of the small guns in front (all +of which had been fearfully exposed), was left without a single +artilleryman. Availing themselves of this circumstance, the enemy, who +were unprovided with artillery of any description, made a movement as if +to possess themselves of, and turn it against the attacking force, then +closing rapidly to dispute the possession of the breast work which +covered their riflemen. Colonel St. Julian seeing this movement, called +out for volunteers to rescue the gun from its perilous situation. +Scarcely had the words passed his lips when an individual moved forward +from the line, in the direction indicated. It was Lieutenant +Raymond--Exposed to the fire, both of friends and foes, the unfortunate +officer advanced calmly and unconcernedly, in the presence of the whole +line, and before the Americans could succeed in even crossing their +defences, had seized the gun by the drag rope, and withdrawn it under +cover of the English fire. But this gallant act of self-devotedness, was +not without its terrible price. Pierced by many balls, which the +American riflemen had immediately directed at him, he fell dying within +ten feet of the British line, brandishing his sword and faintly shouting +a "huzza," that was answered by his companions with the fierce spirit of +men stung to new exertion, and determined to avenge his fall. + +Thus perished the fat, the plain, the carbuncled, but really +gallant-hearted Raymond--whose intrinsic worth was never estimated until +he had ceased to exist. His fall, and all connected therewith, forms a +sort of episode in our story, yet is it one not altogether without its +moral. A private monument, on which was inscribed all that may soothe +and flatter after death, was erected to his memory by those very +officers whose persiflage, attacking in this instance even his honor as +a soldier, had driven him to seek the fate he found. Of this there could +be no question; for, brave as he unquestionably was, Raymond would not +have acted as if courting death throughout, had he not fully made up his +mind either to gain great distinction or to die under the eyes of those +who had, he conceived, so greatly injured him. It is but justice to add +that, for three days from his death, Middlemore did not utter a single +pun, neither did St. Clair or Molineux indulge in a satirical +observation. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + + +The spring of 1813 had passed nearly away, yet without producing any +renewed effort on the part of the Americans. From information obtained +from the Indian scouts, it however appeared that, far from being +discouraged by their recent disaster, they had moved forward a third +army to the Miami, where they had strongly entrenched themselves, until +fitting opportunity should be found to renew their attempt to recover +the lost district. It was also ascertained that, with a perseverance and +industry peculiar to themselves, they had been occupied throughout the +rigorous winter in preparing a fleet of sufficient force to compete with +that of the British; and that, abandoning the plan hitherto pursued by +his predecessors, the American leader of this third army of invasion +purposed transporting his troops across the lake, instead of running the +risk of being harassed and cut up in an advance by land. To effect this, +it was of course necessary to have the command of the lake, and there +were all the sinews of exertion called into full exercise, to obtain the +desired ascendancy. + +To defeat this intention became now the chief object of the British +General. With the close of winter had ceased the hunting pursuits of the +warriors, so that each day brought with it a considerable accession to +the strength of this wild people, vast numbers of whom had betaken +themselves to their hunting grounds, shortly after the capture of +Detroit. The chiefs of these several nations were now summoned to a +Council, in the course of which it was decided that a formidable +expedition, accompanied by a heavy train of battering artillery, should +embark in batteaux, with a view to the reduction of the American post +established on the Miami--a nucleus around which was fast gathering a +spirit of activity that threatened danger, if not annihilation, to the +English influence in the North Western districts. In the event of the +accomplishment of this design, Detroit and Amherstburg would necessarily +be released from all apprehension, since, even admitting the Americans +could acquire a superiority of naval force on the lake, such superiority +could only be essentially injurious to us, as a means of affording +transport to, and covering the operations of an invading army. If, +however, that already on the Miami could be defeated, and their fortress +razed, it was not probable that a fourth could be equipped and pushed +forward, with a view to offensive operations, in sufficient time to +accomplish anything decisive before the winter should set in. Tecumseh, +who had just returned from collecting new bodies of warriors, warmly +approved the project, and undertook to bring two thousand men into the +field, as his quota of the expedition, the departure of which was +decided for the seventh day from the Council. + +The day on which that Council was held, was characterized by one of +those sudden outbursts of elemental war, so common to the Canadas in +early summer, and which, in awful grandeur of desolation, are frequently +scarcely inferior to the hurricanes of the tropics. The morning had been +oppressively sultry, and there was that general and heavy lethargy of +nature that usually precedes a violent reaction. About noon a small, +dark speck was visible in the hitherto cloudless horizon, and this +presently grew in size until the whole western sky was one dense mass of +threatening black, which eventually spread itself over the entire +surface of the heavens leaving not a hand's breadth anywhere visible. +Presently, amid the sultry stillness that prevailed, there came a slight +breeze over the face of the waters, and then, as if some vast battering +train had suddenly opened its hundred mouths of terror, vomiting forth +showers of grape and other missiles, come astounding thunder-claps, and +forked lightnings, and rain, and hail, and whistling wind--all in such +terrible union, yet such fearful disorder, that man, the last to take +warning, or feel awed by the anger of the common parent, Nature, bent +his head in lowliness and silence to her voice, and awaited tremblingly +the passing away of her wrath. + +Henry Grantham, whose turn of duty had again brought him to Amherstburg, +was in the mess-room of the garrison when the storm was at the fiercest. +Notwithstanding the excitement of the council-scene, at which he had +been present, he had experienced an unusual depression throughout the +day, originating partly in the languid state of the atmosphere, but +infinitely more in the anxiety under which he labored in regard to his +brother, of whom no other intelligence had been received, since his +departure with his prisoners for Buffalo, than what vague rumor, coupled +with the fact of the continued absence of the schooner, afforded. That +the vessel had been captured by the enemy there could be no doubt; but, +knowing as he did, the gallant spirit of Gerald, there was reason to +imagine that he had not yielded to his enemies, before every means of +resistance had been exhausted: and if so, what might not have been the +effect of his obstinacy, if such a term could be applied to unshaken +intrepidity, on men exasperated by opposition and eager for revenge. In +the outset he had admitted his gentle cousin Gertrude to his confidence, +as one most suited, by her docility, to soothe without appearing to +remark on his alarm, but when, little suspecting the true motive of her +agitation, he saw her evince an emotion surpassing his own, and +admitting and giving way to fears beyond any he would openly avow, he +grew impatient and disappointed, and preferring rather to hear the +tocsin of alarm sounded from his own heart than from the lips of +another, he suddenly, and much to the surprise of the affectionate girl, +discontinued all allusion to the subject. But Henry's anxiety was not +the less poignant from being confined within his own breast, and +although it gratified him to find that flattering mention was frequently +made of his brother at the mess-table, coupled with regret for his +absence, it was reserved for his hours of privacy and abstraction to +dwell upon the fears which daily became more harassing and perplexing. + +On the present occasion, even while his brother officers had thought nor +ear but for the terrible tempest that raged without, and at one moment +threatened to bury them beneath its trembling roof, the mind of Henry +was full of his absent brother, whom, more than ever, he now seemed to +regret, from the association of the howling tempest with the wild +element on which he had last beheld him; and so complete at last had +become the ascendancy of his melancholy, that when the storm had been in +some degree stilled, and the rain abated, he took an early leave of his +companions, with a view to indulge in privacy the gloomy feelings by +which he felt himself oppressed. + +In passing through the gate of the fort, on his way into the town, his +attention was arrested by several groups of persons, consisting of +soldiers, Indians, and inhabitants, who, notwithstanding the inclemency +of the hour, were gathered on the high bank in front of the _demi-lune_ +battery, eagerly bending their gaze upon the river. Half curious to know +what could have attracted them in such weather from shelter, Henry +advanced and mingled in the crowd, which gave way at his approach. +Although the fury of the tempest had spent itself, there was still wind +enough to render it a matter of necessary precaution that the bystander +should secure a firm footing on the bank, while the water, violently +agitated and covered with foam, resembled rather a pigmy sea than an +inland river--so unusual and so vast were its waves. The current, +moreover, increased in strength by the sudden swelling of the waters, +dashed furiously down, giving its direction to the leaping billows that +rode impatiently upon its surface; and at the point of intersection by +the island of Bois Blanc, formed so violent an eddy within twenty feet +of the land, as to produce the effect of a whirlpool, while again, +between the island and the Canadian shore, the current, always rapid and +of great force, flew boiling down its channel, and with a violence +almost quadrupled. + +Amid this uproar of the usually placid river, there was but one bark +found bold enough to venture upon her angered bosom, and this, although +but an epitome of those that have subdued the world of waters, and +chained them in subservience to the will of man, now danced gallantly, +almost terrifically, from billow to billow, and, with the feathery +lightness of her peculiar class, seemed borne onward, less by the +leaping waves themselves than by the white and driving spray that +fringed their summits. This bark--a canoe evidently of the smallest +description--had been watched in its progress, from afar, by the groups +assembled on the bank, who had gathered at each other's call, to witness +and marvel at the gallant daring of those who had committed it to the +boiling element. Two persons composed her crew--the one seated in the +stern, and carefully guiding the bark so as to enable her to breast the +threatening waves, which, in quick succession, rose as if to accomplish +her overthrow--the other standing at her bows, the outline of his upper +figure designed against the snow-white sail, and, with his arms folded +across his chest, apparently gazing without fear on the danger which +surrounded him. It was evident, from their manner of conducting the +bark, that the adventurers were not Indians, and yet there was nothing +to indicate to what class of the white family they belonged. Both were +closely wrapped in short, dark-colored pea coats, and their heads were +surmounted with glazed hats--a species of costume that more than +anything else proved their familiarity with the element whose brawling +they appeared to brave with an indifference bordering on madness. + +Such was the position of the parties at the moment when Henry Grantham +gained the bank. Hitherto the canoe, in the broad reach that divided the +island from the American mainland, had had merely the turbulence of the +short heavy waves, and a comparatively modified current, to contend +against. Overwhelming even as these difficulties would have proved to +men less gifted with the power of opposing and vanquishing them, they +were but light in comparison with what was to be overcome. The canoe was +now fast gaining the head of the island, and pursuing a direct course +for the whirlpool already described. The only means of avoiding this was +by closely hugging the shore between which and the violent eddy without, +the water, broken in its impetuosity by the covering headland, presented +a more even and less agitated surface. This headland once doubled, the +safety of the adventurers was ensured, since, although the tremendous +current which swept through the inner channel must have borne them +considerably downwards, still the canoe would have accomplished the +transit below the town in perfect safety. The fact of this opportunity +being neglected, led at once to the inference that the adventurers were +total strangers, and distinct voices were now raised by those on the +bank, to warn them of their danger--but whether it was that they heard +not, or understood not, the warning was unnoticed. Once indeed it seemed +as if he who so ably conducted the course of the bark, had comprehended +and would have followed, the suggestion so earnestly given, for his tiny +sail was seen to flutter for the first time in the wind, as with the +intention to alter his course. But an impatient gesture from his +companion in the bow, who was seen to turn suddenly round and utter +something, (which was however inaudible to those on shore,) again +brought the head of the fragile vessel to her original course, and +onward she went, leaping and bounding, apparently with the design to +clear the whirlpool at a higher point of the river. + +Nothing short of a miracle could now possibly enable the adventurers to +escape being drawn into the boiling vortex; and, during the moments that +succeeded, every heart beat high with fearful expectation as to the +result. At length the canoe came with a sudden plunge into the very +centre of the current, which all the skill of the steersman was +insufficient to enable him to clear. Her bow yawed, her little sail +fluttered--and away she flew, broadside foremost, down the stream, with +as little power of resistance as a feather or a straw. Scarcely had the +eye time to follow her in this peculiar descent, when she was in the +very heart of the raging eddy. For a moment she reeled like a top, then +rolled two or three times over, and finally disappeared altogether. +Various expressions of horror broke from the several groups of whites +and Indians, all of whom had anticipated the catastrophe without the +power of actively interposing. Beyond the advice that was given, not a +word was uttered, but every eye continued fixed on the whirlpool, as +though momentarily expecting to see something issue from its bosom. +After the lapse of a minute, a dark object suddenly presented itself +some twenty yards below, between the island and town. It was the canoe +which, bottom upwards and deprived of its little mast and sail, had +again risen to the surface, and was floating rapidly down with the +current. Presently afterwards two heads were seen nearly at the point +where the canoe had again emerged. They were the unfortunate +adventurers, one of whom appeared to be supporting his companion with +one arm, whilst with the other he dashed away the waters that bore them +impetuously along. The hats of both had fallen off, and as he who +exerted himself so strenuously, rose once or twice in the vigor of his +efforts above the element with which he contended, he seemed to present +the grisly, woolly hair, and the sable countenance of an aged negro. A +vague surmise of the truth now flashed upon the mind of the excited +officer; but when, presently afterwards, he saw the powerful form once +more raised, and in a voice that made itself distinctly heard above the +howling of the wind, exclaim, "Help a dare!" there was no longer a +doubt, and he rushed towards the dock-yard, to gain which the exertions +of the negro were now directed. + +On reaching it, he found both Gerald and his faithful attendant just +touching the shore. Aroused by the cry for help which Sambo had pealed +forth, several of the workmen had quitted the shelter of the +block-houses in which they were lodged, and hastened to the rescue of +him whom they immediately afterwards saw struggling furiously to free +himself and companion from the violent current. Stepping to the +extremity on some loose timber which lay secured to the shore, yet +floating in the river--they threw out poles, one of which Sambo seized +like an enraged mastiff in his teeth, and still supporting the body, and +repelling the water with his disengaged arm, in this manner succeeded in +gaining the land. The crews of the little fleet, which lay armed a +hundred yards lower down, had also witnessed the rapid descent of two +apparently drowning men, and ropes had everywhere been thrown out from +the vessels. As for lowering a boat, it was out of the question; for no +boat could have resisted the violence of the current, even for some +hours after the storm had wholly ceased. + +It may be easily conceived with what mingled emotions the generous +Henry, whose anxiety had been so long excited in regard to his brother's +fate, now beheld that brother suddenly restored to him. Filled with an +affection that was rendered the more intense by the very fact of the +danger from which he had just seen him rescued, he, regardless of those +around and in defiance of his wet and dripping clothes, sprang eagerly +to his embrace, but Gerald received him with a cold--almost averted air. +Suffering, rather than sharing, this mark of fraternal love, he turned +the instant afterward to his servant, and, in a tone of querulousness +said, "Sambo, give me wine." + +Inexpressibly shocked, and not knowing what to think of this conduct, +Henry bent his glance upon the negro. The old man shook his head +mournfully, and even with the dripping spray that continued to fall from +his woolly locks upon his cheeks, tears might be seen to mingle. A +dreadful misgiving came over the mind of the youth, and he felt his +very hair rise thrillingly, as he for a moment admitted the horrible +possibility, that the shock produced by his recent accident had affected +his brother's intellect. Sambo replied to his master's demand, by saying +"there was no wine--the canoe and its contents had been utterly lost." + +All this passed during the first few moments of their landing. The +necessity for an immediate change of apparel was obvious, and Gerald and +his servant were led into the nearest block house, where each of the +honest fellows occupying it was eager in producing whatever his rude +wardrobe afforded. The brothers then made the best of their way, +followed by the negro, to their own abode in the town. + +The evening being damp and chilly, a fire was kindled in the apartment +in which Gerald dined--the same in which both had witnessed the dying +moments of their mother, and Henry those of their father. It had been +chosen by the former, in the height of her malady, for its cheerfulness, +and she had continued in it until the hour of her decease; while Major +Grantham had selected it for his chamber of death for the very reason +that it had been that of his regretted wife. Henry, having already +dined, sat at the opposite extremity of the table watching his brother, +whose features he had so longed to behold once more; yet not without a +deep and bitter feeling of grief, that those features should have +undergone so complete a change in their expression towards himself. +Gerald had thrown off the temporary and ill-fitting vestments exchanged +for his own wet clothing, and now that he appeared once more in his +customary garb, an extraordinary alteration was perceptible in his whole +appearance. Instead of the blooming cheek, and rounded and elegant form, +for which he had always been remarkable, he now offered to the eye of +his anxious brother, an emaciated figure, and a countenance pale even to +wanness--while evidence of much care and inward suffering might be +traced in the stern contraction of his hitherto open brow. There was +also a dryness in his speech that startled and perplexed even more than +the change in his person. The latter might be the effect of +imprisonment, and its anxiety and privation, coupled with the exhaustion +arising from his recent accident; but how was the first to be accounted +for, and wherefore was he, after so long a separation, and under such +circumstances, thus incommunicative and unaffectionate? All these +reflections occurred to the mind of the sensitive Henry, as he sat +watching, and occasionally addressing a remark to, his taciturn brother, +until he became fairly bewildered in his efforts to find a clue to his +conduct. The horrible dread which had first suggested itself of the +partial overthrow of intellect, had passed away, but to this had +succeeded a discovery attended by quite as much concern, although +creating less positive alarm. He had seen, with inexpressible pain, that +Gerald ate but little, seeming rather to loathe his food, while on the +other hand he had recourse more frequently to wine, drinking off bumpers +with greedy avidity, until, yielding at length to the excess of his +potations, he fell fast asleep in the arm-chair he had drawn to the +fire, overcome by the mingled influence of wine, fatigue and drowsiness. + +Bitter were the feelings of Henry Grantham, as thus he gazed upon his +sleeping brother. Fain would he have persuaded himself that the effect +he now witnessed was an isolated instance, and occurring only under the +peculiar circumstances of the moment. It was impossible to recal the +manner in which he had demanded "wine" from their faithful old servant +and friend, and not feel satisfied that the tone proclaimed him one who +had been in the frequent habit of repeating that demand, as the prepared +yet painful manner of the black, indicated a sense of having been too +frequently called upon to administer to it. Alas, thought the +heart-stricken Henry, can it really be, that he whom I have cherished in +my heart of hearts with more than brother's love, has thus fallen? Has +Gerald, formerly as remarkable for sobriety as for every honorable +principle, acquired even during the months I have so wretchedly mourned +his absence, the fearful propensities of the drunkard? The bare idea +overpowered him, and with difficulty restraining his tears, he rose from +his seat, and paced the room for some time in a state of indescribable +agitation. Then again he stopped, and when he looked in the sleeping +face of his unconscious brother, he was more than ever struck by the +strange change which had been wrought in his appearance. Finding that +Gerald still slept profoundly, he took the resolution of instantly +questioning Sambo as to all that had befallen them during their absence, +and ascertaining, if possible, to what circumstance the mystery which +perplexed him was attributable. Opening and reclosing the door with +caution, he hastened to the room which, owing to his years and long and +faithful services, had been set apart for the accommodation of the old +man when on shore. Here he found Sambo, who had dispatched his +substantial meal, busily occupied in drying his master's wet dress +before a large blazing wood fire--and laying out, with the same view, +certain papers, the contents of a pocket-book which had been completely +saturated with water. A ray of satisfaction lighted the dark but +intelligent face of the negro, which the instant before had worn an +expression of suffering, as the young officer, pressing his hand with +warmth, thanked him deeply and fervently for the noble, almost +superhuman, exertions, he had made that day to preserve his brother's +life. + +"Oh, Massa Henry!" was all the poor creature could say in reply, as he +returned the pressure with an emphasis that spoke his profound +attachment to both. Then leaning his white head upon his hand against +the chimney, and bursting into tears--"berry much change, he poor broder +Geral, he not a same at all." + +Here was a sad opening indeed to the subject. The heart of the youth +sank within him, yet feeling the necessity of knowing all connected with +his brother's unhappiness, he succeeded in drawing the old man into +conversation, and finally into a narration of all their adventures, as +far at least as he had personal knowledge, from the moment of their +leaving Detroit in the preceding autumn. + +When, after the expiration of an hour, he returned to the drawing-room, +Gerald was awake, and so far restored by his sound sleep as to be, not +only more communicative, but more cordial towards his brother. He even +reverted to past scenes, and spoke of the mutual events of their youth, +with a cheerfulness bordering on levity; but this pained Henry the more, +for he saw in it but the fruit of a forced excitement--as melancholy in +adoption as pernicious in effect--and his own heart repugned all +participation in so unnatural a gaiety, although he enforced himself to +share it to the outward eye. Fatigue at length compelled Gerald to court +the quiet of his pillow, and, overcome as his senses were with wine, he +slept profoundly until morning. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + + +When they met at breakfast, Henry was more than ever struck and +afflicted by the alteration in his brother's person and manner. All +traces of the last night's excitement had disappeared with the cause, +and pale, haggard and embarrassed, he seemed but the shadow of his +former self, while the melancholy of his countenance had in it something +wild and even fierce. As at their first meeting, his language was dry +and reserved, and he seemed rather impatient of conversation, as though +it interfered with the indulgence of some secret and all absorbing +reflection, while, to Henry's affectionate questioning of his adventures +since they first parted, he replied in the vague unsatisfactory manner +of one who seeks to shun the subject altogether. At another moment, this +apparent prostration of the physical man might have been ascribed to his +long immersion of the preceding day, and the efforts that were necessary +to rescue him from a watery grave; but, from the account Sambo had given +him, Henry had but too much reason to fear that the disease of body and +mind which had so completely encompassed his unfortunate brother, not +only had its being in a different cause, but might be dated from an +earlier period. Although burning with desire to share that confidence +which it grieved him to the soul to find thus unkindly withheld, he made +no effort to remove the cloak of reserve in which his brother had +invested himself. That day they both dined at the garrison mess, and +Henry saw with additional pain, that the warm felicitations of his +brother officers on his return, were received by Gerald with the same +reserve and indifference which had characterized his meeting with him, +while he evinced the same disinclination to enter upon the solicited +history of his captivity, as well as the causes which led to his bold +venture, and consequent narrow escape, of the preceding day. Finding him +thus incommunicative, and not comprehending the change in his manner, +they rallied him; and, as the bottle circulated, he seemed more and more +disposed to meet their raillery with a cheerfulness and good humor that +brought even the color into his sunken cheeks; but when, finally, some +of them proceeded to ask him, in their taunting manner, what he had done +with his old flame and fascinating prisoner, Miss Montgomerie, a deadly +paleness overspread his countenance, and he lost in the moment all power +of disguising his feelings. His emotion was too sudden and too palpable, +not to be observed by those who had unwillingly called it forth, and +they at once, with considerate tact, changed the conversation. Hereupon +Gerald again made an effort to rally, but no one returned to the +subject. Piqued at this conduct, he had more frequent recourse to the +bottle, and laughed and talked in a manner that proved him to be +laboring under the influence of extraordinary excitement. When he took +leave of his brother to retire to rest, he was silent, peevish, +dissatisfied--almost angry. + +Henry passed a night of extreme disquiet. It was evident from what had +occurred at the mess-table in relation to the beautiful American, that +to her was to be ascribed the wretchedness to which Gerald had become a +victim, and he resolved on the following morning to waive all false +delicacy, and throwing himself upon his affection, to solicit his +confidence, and offer whatever counsel he conceived would best tend to +promote his peace of mind. + +At breakfast the conversation turned on the intended movement, which was +to take place within three days, and on this subject Gerald evinced a +vivacity that warmed into eagerness. He had risen early that morning, +with a view to obtain the permission of the commodore to make one of the +detachment of sailors who were to accompany the expedition, and, having +succeeded in obtaining the command of one of the two gun-boats which +were destined to ascend the Miami, and form part of the battering force, +seemed highly pleased. This apparent return to himself might have led +his brother into the belief that his feelings had undergone a reaction, +had he not, unfortunately, but too much reason to know that the +momentary gaiety was the result of the very melancholy which consumed +him. However, it gave him a more favorable opportunity to open the +subject next his heart, and, as a preparatory step, he dexterously +contrived to turn the conversation into the channel most suited to his +purpose. + +The only ill effect arising from Gerald's recent immersion was a sense +of pain in that part of his arm which had been bitten by the +rattlesnake, on the day of the pic-nic to Hog Island, and it chanced +that this morning especially it had a good deal annoyed him, evincing +some slight predisposition to inflammation. To subdue this, Henry +applied with his own hand a liniment which had been recommended, and +took occasion, when he had finished, to remark on the devotedness and +fearlessness Miss Montgomerie had manifested in coming so opportunely to +his rescue--in all probability, thereby preserving his life. + +At the sound of this name Gerald started, and evinced the same +impatience of the subject he had manifested on the preceding day. Henry +keenly remarked his emotion, and Gerald was sensible that he did. + +Both sat for some minutes gazing at each other in expressive silence, +the one as if waiting to hear, the other as if conscious that he was +expected to afford, some explanation of the cause of so marked an +emotion. At length Gerald said and in a tone of deep and touching +despondency, "Henry, I fear you find me very unamiable and much altered, +but indeed I am very unhappy." + +Here was touched the first chord of their sympathies. Henry's, already +on the _élan_, flew to meet this demonstration of returning confidence, +and he replied in a voice broken by the overflowing of his full heart. + +"Oh, my beloved brother, changed must you indeed be, when even the +admission that you are unhappy inspires me with a thankfulness such as I +now feel. Gerald, I entreat, I implore you, by the love we have borne +each other from infancy, to disguise nothing from me. Tell me what it is +that weighs so heavily at your heart. Repose implicit confidence in me +your brother, and let me assist and advise you in your extremity, as my +poor ability will permit. Tell me, Gerald, wherefore are you thus +altered--what dreadful disappointment has thus turned the milk of your +nature into gall?" + +Gerald gazed at him a moment intently. He was much affected, and a +sudden and unbidden tear stole down his pallid cheek. "If _you_ have +found the milk of my nature turned into gall, then indeed am I even more +wretched than I thought myself. But, Henry, you ask me what I cannot +yield--my confidence--and, even were it not so, the yielding would +advantage neither. I am unhappy, as I have said, but the cause of that +unhappiness must ever remain buried here," and he pointed to his breast. +This was said kindly, yet determinedly. + +"Enough, Gerald," and his brother spoke in terms of deep reproach, +"since you persist in withholding your confidence, I will no longer urge +it; but you cannot wonder that I, who love but you alone on earth, +should sorrow as one without hope, at beholding you subject to a grief +so overwhelming as to have driven you to seek refuge from it in an +unhallowed grave." + +"I do not understand you--what mean you?" quickly interrupted Gerald, +raising his head from the hand which supported it at the breakfast-table +while he colored faintly. + +"You cannot well be ignorant of my meaning," pursued Henry in the same +tone, "if you but recur to the circumstances attending your arrival +here." + +"I am still in the dark," continued Gerald, with some degree of +impatience. + +"Because you know not that I am acquainted with all that took place on +the melancholy occasion. Gerald," he pursued, "forgive the apparent +harshness of what I am about to observe--but was it generous--was it +kind in you to incur the risk you did, when you must have known that +your death would have entailed upon me an eternal grief? Was it worthy +of yourself, moreover, to make the devoted follower of your fortunes, a +sharer in the danger you so eagerly and wantonly courted?" + +"Nay, my good brother," and Gerald made an attempt at levity, "you are +indeed an unsparing monitor; but suppose I should offer in reply, that a +spirit of enterprize was upon me on the occasion to which you allude, +and that, fired by a desire to astonish you all with a bold feat, I had +resolved to do what no other had done before me, yet without +apprehending the serious consequences which ensued--or even assuming the +danger to have been so great." + +"All this, Gerald, you might, yet would not say; because, in saying it, +you would have to charge yourself with a gross insincerity; and although +you do not deem me worthy to share your confidence, I still have +pleasure in knowing that my affection will not be repaid with +deceit--however plausible the motives for its adoption may appear--by +the substitution, in short, of that which is not for that which is." + +"A gross insincerity?" repeated Gerald, again slightly coloring. + +"Yes, my brother--I say it not in anger, nor in reproach--but a gross +insincerity it would certainly be. Alas, Gerald, your motives are but +too well known to me. The danger you incurred was incurred wilfully, +wantonly, and with a view to your own destruction." + +Gerald started. The color had again fled from his sunken cheek, and he +was ashy pale. "And _how_ knew you this?" he asked with a trembling +voice. + +"Even, Gerald, as I know that you have been driven to seek in wine that +upbearing against the secret grief which consumes you, which should be +found alone in the fortitude of a strong mind and the consciousness of +an untainted honor. Oh, Gerald, had these been your supporters, you +never would have steeped your reason so far in forgetfulness, as to have +dared what you did on that eventful day. Good Heaven! how little did I +ever expect to see the brother of my love degenerated so far as to +border on the character of the drunkard and the suicide." + +The quick but sunken eyes of the sailor flashed fire; and he pressed his +lips, and clenched his teeth together, as one strongly attempting to +restrain his indignation. It was but the momentary flashing of the +chafed and bruised spirit. + +"You probe me deeply, Henry," he said, calmly and in a voice of much +melancholy. "These are severe expressions for a brother to use; but you +are right--I did seek oblivion of my wretchedness in that whirlpool, as +the only means of destroying the worm that feeds incessantly upon my +heart; but Providence has willed it otherwise--and, morever, I had not +taken the danger of my faithful servant into the account. Had Sambo not +saved me, I must have perished; for I made not the slightest effort to +preserve myself. However, it matters but little, the mere manner of +one's death," he pursued, with increased despondency. "It is easy for +you, Henry, whose mind is at peace with itself and the world, to preach +fortitude and resignation; but, felt you the burning flame which +scorches my vitals, you would acknowledge the wide difference between +theory and practice." + +Henry rose deeply agitated; he went to the door and secured the bolt; +then returning, knelt at his brother's feet. Gerald had one hand +covering his eyes, from which, however, the tears forced themselves +through his closed fingers. The other was seized and warmly pressed in +his brother's grasp. + +"Gerald," he said, in the most emphatic manner, "by the love you ever +bore to our sainted parents, in whose chamber of death I now appeal to +your better feelings--by the friendship that has united our hearts from +youth to manhood--by all and every tie of affection, let me implore you +once more to confide this dreadful grief to me, that I may share it with +you, and counsel you for your good. Oh, my brother, on my bended knees +do I solicit your confidence. Believe me, no mean curiosity prompts my +prayer. I would soothe, console, assist you--aye, even to the very +sacrifice of life." + +The feelings of the sailor were evidently touched, yet he uttered not a +word. His hand still covered his face, and the tears seemed to flow even +faster than before. + +"Gerald," pursued his brother, with bitterness; "I see, with pain, that +I have not your confidence, and I desist--yet answer me one question. +From the faithful Sambo, as you must perceive, I have learnt all +connected with your absence, and from him I have gained that, during +your captivity, you were much with Miss Montgomerie (he pronounced the +name with an involuntary shuddering); all I ask, therefore, is, whether +your wretchedness proceeds from the rejection of your suit, or from any +levity or inconstancy you may have found in her?" + +Gerald raised his head from his supporting hand, and turned upon his +brother a look in which mortified pride predominated over an infinitude +of conflicting emotions. + +"Rejected, Henry, _my_ suit rejected--oh, no! In supposing my grief to +originate with her, you are correct; but imagine not it is because my +suit is rejected--certainly not." + +"Then," exclaimed Henry, with generous emphasis, while he pressed the +thin hand which he held more closely between his own, "Why not marry +her?" + +Gerald started. + +"Yes, marry her," continued Henry; "marry her and be at peace. Oh! +Gerald, you know not what sad agency I attached to that insidious +American from the first moment of her landing on this shore--you know +not how much I have disliked, and still dislike her--but what are all +these considerations when my brother's happiness is at stake? Gerald, +marry her--and be happy." + +"Impossible," returned the sailor, in a feeble voice, and again his +heart sank upon the open palm of his hand. + +"Do you no longer love her, then?" eagerly questioned the astonished +youth. + +Once more Gerald raised his head, and fixed his large, dim eyes full +upon those of his brother. "To madness!" he said, in a voice and with a +look that made Henry shudder. There was a moment of painful pause. The +latter at length ventured to observe: + +"You speak in riddles, Gerald. If you love this Miss Montgomerie to +madness, and are, as you seem to intimate, loved by her in return, why +not, as I have urged, marry her?" + +"Because," replied the sailor, turning paler than before, and almost +gasping for breath, "there is a condition attached to the possession of +her hand." + +"And that is?" pursued Henry, inquiringly, after another long and +painful pause-- + +"My secret," and Gerald pointed significantly to his breast. + +"True," returned Henry, slightly coloring; "I had forgotten--but what +condition, Gerald (and here he spoke as if piqued at the abrupt manner +in which his brother had concluded his half confidence), what condition, +I ask, may a woman entitled to our respect, as well as to our love, +propose, which should be held of more account than that severest of +offences against the Divine will--self-murder? Nay, look not thus +surprised; for have you not admitted that you had guiltily attempted to +throw away your life--to commit suicide, in short--rather than comply +with an earthly condition?" + +"What if in this," returned Gerald, with a smile of bitterness, "I have +preferred the lesser guilt to the greater?" + +"I can understand no condition, my brother, a woman worthy of your +esteem could impose, which should one moment weigh in the same scale +against the inexpiable crime of self-destruction. But, really, all this +mystery so startles and confounds me, that I know not what to +think--what inference to draw." + +"Henry," observed the sailor, with some show of impatience, "considering +your promise not to urge it further, it seems to me you push the matter +to an extremity." + +The youth made no reply, but, raising himself from his knees, moved +towards the door, which he again unbolted. He then walked to the window +at the further end of the apartment. + +Gerald saw that he was deeply pained; and, impatient and angry with +himself, he also rose and paced the room with hurried steps. At length +he stopped, and putting one hand upon the shoulder of his brother, who +stood gazing vacantly from the window, pointed with the other towards +that part of the apartment in which both their parents had breathed +their last. + +"Henry, my kind, good Henry," he said, with a voice faltering with +emotion, "do you recollect the morning when, on our return from school, +we found our young holiday joy changed into heart-breaking and mourning +by the sight of our dying mother?" + +"Remember it, Gerald! aye, even as though it had been yesterday. Oh, my +brother, little did I think at the moment when, with hands closely +clasped together, we sank, overcome with grief, upon our bended knees, +to receive that mother's blessing, a day would ever arrive when the joy +or sorrow of the one should form no portion of the joy or sorrow of the +other." + +"It was there," pursued Gerald, and without noticing the interruption, +"that we solemnly pledged ourselves to do the will and bidding of our +father in all things." + +"Even so, Gerald, I remember it well." + +"And it was there," continued the sailor, with the emphasis of strong +emotion, "that, during my unfortunate absence from the death-bed of our +yet surviving parent, you gave a pledge for _both_, that no action of +our lives should reflect dishonor on his unsullied name." + +"I did. Both in your name and in my own, I gave the pledge--well knowing +that, in that, I merely anticipated your desire." + +"Most assuredly; what then would be your sensations were you to know +that I had violated that sacred obligation?" + +"Deep, poignant, ceaseless regret, that my once noble and high-spirited +brother should have been so lost to respect for his father's memory and +for himself." This was uttered not without deep agitation. + +"You are right, Henry," added Gerald, mournfully; "better, far better, +is it to die than live on in the consciousness of having forfeited all +claim to esteem." + +The young soldier started as if a viper had stung him. "Gerald," he +said, eagerly, "you have not dishonored yourself. Oh no--tell me, my +brother, that you have not." + +"No," was the cold, repulsive answer; "although my peace of mind is +fled," he pursued, rather more mildly, "my honor, thank heaven, remains +as pure as when you first pledged yourself for its preservation." + +"Thanks, my brother, for that. But can it really be possible, that the +mysterious condition attached to Miss Montgomerie's love involves the +loss of honor?" + +Gerald made no answer. + +"And can _you_ really be weak enough to entertain a passion for a woman, +who would make the dishonoring of the fair fame of him she professes to +love the fearful price at which her affection is to be purchased?" + +Gerald seemed to wince at the word "weak," which was rather emphatically +pronounced, and looked displeased at the concluding part of the +sentence. + +"I said not that the condition attached to her _love_," he remarked, +with the piqued expression of a wounded vanity; "her affection is mine, +I know, beyond her own power of control--the condition relates not to +her heart, but to her hand." + +"Alas, my poor infatuated brother. Blinding indeed must be the delusions +of passion, when a nature so sensitive and so honorable shrinks not from +such a connexion. My only surprise is, that, with such a perversion of +judgment you have returned at all." + +"No more of this Henry. It is not in man to control his destiny, and +mine appears to be to love with a fervor that must bear me, ere long, to +my grave. Of this, however, be assured--that, whatever my weakness, or +infatuation, as you may be pleased to call it, _that_ passion shall +never be gratified at the expense of my honor. Deeply--madly as I doat +upon her image, Miss Montgomerie and I have met for the last time." + +Overcome by the emotion with which he had thus expressed himself, Gerald +could not restrain a few burning tears that forced their way down his +hollow cheeks. Henry caught eagerly at this indication of returning +softness, and again essayed, in reference to the concluding declaration +of his brother, to urge upon him the unworthiness of her who had thus +cast her deadly spell upon his happiness. But Gerald could ill endure +the slightest allusion to the subject. + +"Henry," he said, "I have already told you that Miss Montgomerie and I +have parted for ever; but not the less devotedly do I love her. If, +therefore, you would not farther wring a heart already half broken with +affliction, oblige me by never making the slightest mention of her name +in my presence--or ever adverting again to our conversation of this +morning. I am sure, Henry, you will not deny me this." + +Henry offered no other reply than by throwing himself into the arms that +were extended to receive him. The embrace of the brothers was long and +fervent, and, although there was perhaps more of pain than pleasure, in +their mutual sense of the causes which had led to it in the present +instance--still was it productive of a luxury the most heartfelt. It +seemed to both as if the spirits of their departed parents hovered over, +and blessed them in this indication of their returning affection, +hallowing, with their invisible presence, a scene connected with the +last admonitions from their dying lips. When they had thus given vent to +their feelings, although the sense of unhappiness continued +undiminished, their hearts experienced a sensible relief; and when they +separated for the morning, in pursuit of their respective avocations, it +was with a subdued manner on the part of Gerald, and a vague hope with +Henry, that his brother's disease would eventually yield to various +influences, and that other and happier days were yet in store for both. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + + +Meanwhile the preparations for the departure of the expedition for the +Miami were rapidly completing. To the majority of the regular force of +the two garrisons were added several companies of militia, and a +considerable body of Indians, under Tecumseh--the two former portions of +the force being destined to advance by water, the latter by land. The +spring had been unusually early, and the whole of April remarkably warm; +on some occasions sultry to oppressiveness--as for instance on the +morning of the tempest. They were now in the first days of the last week +of that month, and everywhere, quick and luxuriant vegetation had +succeeded to the stubborn barrenness and monotony of winter. Not a +vestige of that dense mass of ice which, three months previously, had +borne them over lake and river, was now to be seen. The sun danced +joyously and sportively on the golden wave, and where recently towered +the rugged surface of the tiny iceberg, the still, calm, unbroken level +of the mirroring lake was only visible. On the beach, just below the +town, and on a line with the little fleet, that lay at anchor between +the island and the main, were drawn up numerous batteaux, ready for the +reception of the troops, while on the decks of two gun-boats, that were +moored a few yards without them, were to be seen the battering train and +entrenching tools intended to accompany the expedition. Opposite to each +batteau was kindled a fire, around which were grouped the _voyageurs_ +composing the crew, some dividing their salt pork or salt fish upon +their bread, with a greasy clasped knife, and quenching the thirst +excited by this with occasional libations from tin cans, containing a +mixture of water and the poisonous distillation of the country, +miscalled whiskey. In other directions, those who had dined sat puffing +the smoke from their dingy pipes, while again, they who had sufficiently +luxuriated on the weed, might be seen sleeping, after the manner of the +Indians, with their heads resting on the first rude pillow that offered +itself, and their feet close upon the embers of the fire on which they +had prepared their meal. The indolence of inactivity was more or less +upon all, but it was the indolence consequent on previous exertion, and +a want of further employment. The whole scene was characteristic of the +peculiar manners of the French Canadian boatmen. + +Since the morning of the long and partial explanation between the +brothers, no further allusion had been made to the forbidden subject. +Henry saw, with unfeigned satisfaction, that Gerald not only abstained +from the false excitement to which he had hitherto had recourse, but +that he apparently sought to rally against his dejection. It is true +that whenever he chanced to surprise him alone, he observed him pale, +thoughtful, and full of care, but, as he invariably endeavored to hide +the feeling at his approach, he argued favorably even from the effort. +Early on the day previous to that of the sailing of the expedition, +Gerald asked leave for a visit of a few hours to Detroit, urging a +desire to see the family of his uncle, who still remained quartered at +that post, and whom he had not met since his return from captivity. This +had been readily granted by the Commodore, in whom the change in the +health and spirits of his young favorite had excited both surprise and +concern, and who, anxious for his restoration, was ready to promote +whatever might conduce to his comfort. He had even gone so far as to +hint the propriety of his relinquishing his intention of accompanying +the expedition, (which was likely to be attended with much privation and +exposure to those engaged in it), and suffering another officer to be +substituted to his command, while he remained at home to recruit his +health. But Gerald heard the well meant proposal with ill disguised +impatience, and he replied with a burning cheek, that if his absence for +a day could not be allowed without inconvenience to the service, he was +ready to submit; but, as far as regarded his making one of the +expedition, nothing short of a positive command should compel him to +remain behind. Finding him thus obstinate, the Commodore good humoredly +called him a silly, wilful, fellow, and bade him have his own way; +however he felt confident that, if he accompanied the Miami expedition +in his then state of health, he never would return from it. + +Gerald submitted it was probable enough he should not, but, although he +deeply felt the kindness of his Commander's motive in wishing him to +remain, he was not the less determined, since the matter was left to his +own choice, to go where his duty led him. Then, promising to be back +long before the hour fixed for sailing the ensuing day, he warmly +pressed the cordially extended hand, and soon afterwards, accompanied by +Sambo, whose skill as a rider was in no way inferior to his dexterity as +a steersman, mounted a favorite horse, and was soon far on his road to +Detroit. + +Towards midnight of that day, two men were observed by the American +tanner to enter by the gate that led into the grounds of the cottage, +and, after lingering for a few moments, near the graves to which +tradition had attached so much of the marvellous, to disappear round the +angle of the building into the court behind. Curiosity induced him to +follow and watch their movements, and, although he could not refrain +from turning his head at least a dozen times, as if expecting at each +moment to encounter some dread inhabitant of the tomb, he at length +contrived to place himself in the very position in which Gerald had +formerly been a witness of the attempt at assassination. From the same +window now flashed a strong light upon the court below, and by this the +features of the officer and his servant were distinctly revealed to the +astonished tanner, who, ignorant of their return, and scarcely knowing +whether he gazed upon the living or the dead, would have fled, had he +not, as he afterwards confessed, been rooted by fear, and a species of +fascination, to the spot. The appearance and actions of the parties +indeed seemed to justify, not only the delusion, but the alarm of the +worthy citizen. Both Gerald and Sambo were disguised in large dark +cloaks, and as the light fell upon the thin person and pale, attenuated, +sunken countenance of the former, he could scarcely persuade himself +this was the living man, who a few months before, rich in beauty and in +health, had questioned him of the very spot in which he now, under such +strange circumstances, beheld him. Nor was the appearance of the negro +more assuring. Filled with the terror that ever inspired him on +approaching this scene of past horrors, his usually dark cheek wore the +dingy paleness characteristic of death in one of his color, while every +muscle, stiff, set, contracted by superstitious fear, seemed to have +lost all power of relaxation. The solemnity moreover of the manner of +both, was in strict keeping with their personal appearance, so that it +can scarcely be wondered that in a mind not the strongest nor the most +free from a belief in the supernatural, a due quantum of awe and alarm +should have been instilled. Fear, however, had not wholly subdued +curiosity, and even while trembling to such a degree that he could +scarcely keep his teeth from chattering, the tanner followed with eager +eye the movements of those he knew not whether to look upon as ghosts or +living beings. The room was exactly in the state in which we last +described it, with this difference merely, that the table, on which the +lamp and books had been placed now lay overturned, as if in the course +of some violent scuffle, and its contents distributed over the floor. +The bed still remained, in the same corner, unmade, and its covering +tossed. It was evident no one had entered the apartment since the night +of the attempted assassination. + +The first act of Gerald, who bore the light, followed closely by Sambo, +was to motion the latter to raise the fallen table. When this was done +he placed his lamp upon it, and sinking upon the foot of the bed, and +covering his eyes with his hands, seemed utterly absorbed in bitter +recollections. The negro, meanwhile, an apparent stranger to the scene, +cast his eyes around him with the shrinking caution of one who finds +himself in a position of danger, and fears to encounter some terrific +sight, then, as if the effort was beyond his power, he drew the collar +of his cloak over his face, and shuffling to get as near as possible to +the bed as though in the act he came more immediately under the +protection of him who sat upon it, awaited, in an attitude of +statue-like immobility, the awakening of his master from his reverie. + +Gerald at length withdrew his hands from his pallid face, on which the +glare of the lamp rested forcibly, and, with a wild look and low, but +imperative voice, bade the old negro seat himself beside him still lower +on the bed. + +"Sambo," he inquired abruptly--"how old were you when the Indian +massacre took place near this spot. You were then, I think I have heard +it stated, the servant of Sir Everard Valletort?" + +The old negro looked aghast. It was long since direct allusion had been +made to his unfortunate master or the events of that period. Questioned +in such a spot, and at such an hour, he could not repress the feeling of +terror conjured up by the allusion. Scarcely daring to exceed a whisper, +he answered. + +"Oh Massa Geral, for Hebben's sake no talkee dat. It berry long time +ago, and break poor nigger heart to tink ob it----" + +"But I insist on knowing," returned Gerald loudly and peremptorily; +"were you old enough to recollect the curse that poor heart-broken +woman, Ellen Halloway, uttered on all our race, and if so what was it?" + +"No, Massa Geral, I no sabby dat. Sambo den only piccaninny, and Sir +Ebbered make him top in he fort--oh berry bad times dat, Massa Geral. +Poor Frank Hallabay he shot fust, because he let he grandfadder out ob +he fort, and den ebery ting go bad--berry bad indeed." + +"But the curse of Ellen Halloway, Sambo, you must have heard of it +surely--even if you were not present at the utterance. Did she not," he +continued, finding that the other replied not: "Did she not pray that +the blood of my great grandfather's children might be spilt on the very +spot that had been moistened with that of her ill-fated husband--and, +that if any of the race should survive, it might be only with a view to +their perishing in some horrible manner. Was not this the case?" + +"Oh yes, Massa Geral, berry bad tongue Ellen, affer he lose he +husband--but, poor ting, he half mad and no sabby what he say. He time +to start for he gun-boat, Massa Geral." + +The part Sambo had sustained in this short dialogue was a forced one. He +had answered almost mechanically, and not altogether without +embarrassment, the few queries that were put to him. Nay, so far was he +governed by surrounding local influences, that the anguish he would, +under other circumstances, have experienced, at this raking up of +recollections he so sedulously avoided, was lost in terror, produced by +his near and midnight propinquity to the fatal theatre of death. His +only idea now was to leave the spot as quickly as he could. + +Gerald had again covered his face with his hands, and appeared to be +laboring under strong agitation of mind. At length he started abruptly +up, and seizing the light, held it forward, stooping over the bed, as if +gazing fixedly on some object within. + +"No," he said with vehemence, "it shall never be. That part of the +malediction, at least, shall _not_ be accomplished. For once shall the +curse of the innocent be unheeded." + +The strange action and words of the excited officer, by no means +contributed to allay the nervousness of the brave but superstitious +negro. He had approached as near as he could to Gerald, without actually +touching him, but when he remarked his abrupt movement, and heard the +sudden outburst feeling which accompanied it, he half fancied he was +apostrophizing some spirit visible only to himself, and shocked and +terrified at this idea, he turned away his head. + +Sambo's alarm was not to terminate here. Scarcely had he bent his glance +upon the window when he beheld two glaring eyes, magnified by his fear +into thrice their natural size, fixed intently on that part of the room +in which they stood. He attempted to cry out, but the sound was stifled +in his throat, and he sank upon his knees, holding up his hands in an +attitude of prayer--his teeth chattering, and his eyes fascinated by +those which had produced in him this paroxysm of terror. Presently he +thought he saw a mouth open, and a row of large and ragged teeth display +themselves in a grin of derision. With a desperate effort he broke the +spell that seemed to enchain every faculty, and called piteously and +imploringly on the name of Gerald. The officer, who had continued gazing +on the untenanted bed in deep abstraction, and seeming forgetfulness of +all surrounding objects, turned hastily round, and was much concerned to +observe the terrified expression of the old man's countenance. Following +the direction of his fixed gaze, he looked toward the window for a +solution of the cause. At that moment a noise was heard without, as of a +falling body. Gerald sprang towards the window, and hastily lifting it, +thrust the lamp through; but nothing was visible, neither was there +sound of footsteps to be heard. + +Before daybreak on the following morning, the poor old negro, whom no +living danger could daunt, had given but too alarming evidence that his +reason was utterly alienated. His ravings were wild and fearful, and +nothing could remove the impression that the face he had beheld was that +of the once terrible Wacousta--the same face which had presented itself, +under such extraordinary circumstances, at the window of the Canadian's +hut, on the night of the departure of his master, Sir Everard Valletort, +and Captain De Haldimer, for Michillimackinac in 1763. Nay, so rooted +was this belief, that, with the fervor of that zeal which had governed +his whole life and conduct towards each succeeding generation of the +family, he prayed and obtained, during a momentary gleam of reason, the +promise of the much shocked Gerald, that he would never again set foot +within the precincts of these fatal grounds. + +Inexpressibly grieved as Gerald was at this sad and unexpected +termination to his adventure, he had no time to linger near his +unfortunate servant. The expedition was to set out in a few hours, and +he had too completely bent his mind upon accompanying it to incur the +slightest chance of a disappointment. Leaving the faithful and +unfortunate creature to the care of his uncle's family, by every member +of whom he was scarcely less loved than by himself, he took the ferry to +the opposite shore within an hour after daybreak, and made such speed +that, when Henry came down to breakfast he found, to his surprise, his +brother already there. + +During his ride, Gerald had had leisure to reflect on the events of the +preceding night, and bitterly did he regret having yielded to a +curiosity which had cost the unfortunate Sambo so much. He judged +correctly that they had been followed in their nocturnal excursion, and +that it was the face of some prying visitant which Sambo's superstitious +dread had transformed into a hideous vision of the past. He recalled the +insuperable aversion the old man had ever entertained to approach or +even make mention of the spot, and greatly did he blame himself for +having persisted in offering a violence to his nature, the extent of +which had been made so fearfully obvious. It brought no consolation to +him to reflect that the spot itself contained nought that should have +produced so alarming an effect on a mind properly constituted. He felt +that, knowing his weakness as he did, he ought not to have trifled with +it, and could not deny to himself, that in enforcing his attendance, +with a view to obtain information on several points connected with the +past, he had been indirectly the destroyer of his reason. There had been +a season when the unhappy sailor would have felt a sorrow even deeper +than he did, but Gerald was indeed an altered being--too much rapt in +himself to give heed to others. + +The painful nature of his reflections, added to the fatigue he had +undergone, had given to his countenance a more than usually haggard +expression. Henry remarked it and inquired the cause, when his brother, +in a few brief sentences, explained all that had occurred during his +absence. Full of affection as he was for the old man, and utterly +unprepared for such a communication, Henry could not avoid expressing +deep vexation that his brother, aware as he was of the peculiar weakness +of their aged friend, should have been inconsiderate enough to have +drawn him thither. Gerald felt the reproof to be just, and for that very +reason grew piqued under it. Pained as he was at the condition of Sambo, +Henry was even more distressed at witnessing the apparent apathy of his +brother for the fate of one who had not merely saved his life on a +recent occasion, but had evinced a devotedness--a love for him--in every +circumstance of life, which seldom had had their parallel in the annals +of human servitude. It was in vain that he endeavored to follow the +example of Gerald, who, having seated himself at the breakfast table, +was silently appeasing an appetite such as he had not exhibited since +his return. Incapable of swallowing his food, Henry paced up and down +the room, violently agitated and sick at heart. It seemed to him as if +Sambo had been a sort of connecting link between themselves and the +departed parents; and now that he was suddenly and fearfully afflicted, +he thought he could see in the vista of futurity a long train of evils +that threw their shadows before, and portended the consummation of some +unknown, unseen affliction, having its origin in the incomprehensible +alienation of his brother's heart from the things of his early love. + +While he was yet indulging in these painful thoughts, the firing of a +gun from the harbor--the signal for the embarkation of the +troops--brought both Gerald and himself to a sense of other +considerations. The latter was the first to quit the house. "Henry," he +said, with much emotion, "God bless you. It is possible that, as our +service lies in different lines, we shall see but little of each other +during this expedition. Of one thing, however, be assured--that although +I am an unhappy man, I am anything but dead to feeling.--Henry," he +continued pressing his hand with warmth, "think not unkindly hereafter +of your poor brother Gerald." A long embrace, in which each, although in +silence, seemed to blend heart with heart, ensued, and both greatly +relieved, as they always were after this generous expansion of their +feelings, separated forthwith whither their respective duties summoned +them. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + + +Seldom has there been witnessed a more romantic or picturesque sight +than that presented by a warlike expedition of batteaux moving across +one of the American lakes, during a season of profound calm. The uniform +and steady pull of the crew, directed in their time by the wild chaunt +of the steersman, with whom they ever and anon join in full chorus--the +measured plash of the oars into the calm surface of the water--the +joyous laugh and rude, but witty, jest of the more youthful and buoyant +of the soldiery, from whom, at such moments, although in presence of +their officers, the trammels of restraint are partially removed--all +these, added to the inspiriting sight of their gay scarlet uniforms, and +the dancing of the sunbeams upon their polished arms, have a tendency to +call up impressions of a wild interest, tempered only by the +recollection that many of those who move gaily on, as if to a +festival--bright in hope as though the season of existence were to last +for ever--may never more set eye upon the scenes they are fast quitting, +with the joyousness produced by the natural thirst of the human heart +for adventure, and a love of change. + +On the second day of its departure from Malden, the expedition, preceded +by the gun-boats, entered the narrow river of the Miami, and, the woods +on either shore being scoured by the Indians, gained without opposition +the point of debarkation. Batteries having, under great difficulties, +been erected on the right bank, immediately opposite to and about six +hundred yards from the American fort, which had been recently and +hurriedly constructed, a heavy and destructive fire was, on the morning +of the third day, opened from them, supported by the gun-boats, one of +which, commanded by Gerald Grantham, had advanced so close to the +enemy's position as to have diverted upon herself the fire which would +else have been directed to the demolition of a British battery, hastily +thrown up on the left bank. The daring manifested by the gallant sailor +was subject of surprise and admiration at once to friends and foes; and +yet, although his boat lay moored within musket shot of the defences, he +sustained but trifling loss. The very recklessness and boldness of his +advance had been the means of his preservation; for, as almost all the +shots from the battery flew over him, it was evident he owed his safety +to the difficulty the Americans found in depressing their guns +sufficiently to bear advantageously upon the boat, which, if anchored +fifty yards beyond, they might have blown out of the water. + +The limits of our story will not admit of a further detail of the +operations of this siege. The object was foiled, and the expedition was +re-embarked and directed against Fort Sandusky, a post of the Americans +situated on the river of that name, and running also into Lake Erie. + +Here, once more, was the British artillery landed, while, under a heavy +fire from the fort, the troops advanced within range, to take possession +of an eminence whereon it was intended to erect the batteries. Two days +were passed in incessant cannonading, but, as at the Miami, without +making the slightest impression. Finding all idea of a practicable +breach hopeless, it was at length resolved that an attempt at assault +should be made; and, with this view, the troops were, on the afternoon +of the second day, ordered to hold themselves in immediate readiness. + +In consequence of the shallowness of the river, it had been found +necessary to moor the gun-boats at a point considerably below, and out +of sight of the fort. Gerald Grantham had obtained permission to leave +his command, and take charge of one of the batteries, which, however, he +relinquished on the day of the assault, having successfully petitioned +to be permitted to join the attack as a volunteer. In the dress of a +grenadier soldier, disabled during the siege, he now joined the party of +animated officers, who, delighted at the prospect of being brought once +more in close contact with their enemies, after so many wearing days of +inaction--were seated at a rude but plentiful repast in Captain +Cranstoun's tent, and indulging in remarks which, although often uttered +without aim or ill-nature, are as often but too bitter subject of after +self-reproach to those who have uttered them. Of those who had +originally set out on the expedition, the only officer of the +Forty-first Regiment absent was Henry Grantham, who, having been +slightly wounded at the Miami, had, much against his inclination, been +ordered back to Amherstburg, in charge of the sick and wounded of the +detachment, and this so suddenly, that he had not had an opportunity of +taking leave of his brother. + +"Ha! Gerald, my fine fellow," exclaimed Captain Molineux, as the youth +now joined their circle, "so you have clapped on the true harness at +last. I always said that your figure became a red jacket a devilish deal +better than a blue. But what new freak is this? Had you not a close +enough berth to Jonathan in the Miami, without running the risk of a +broken head with us to-day in his trenches?" + +"No such good luck is there in store for my juniors, I fancy," replied +Grantham, swallowing off a goblet of wine which had been presented to +him--"but if I do fall, it will be in good company. Although the +American seems to lie quietly within his defences, there is that about +him which promises us rather a hot reception." + +"So much the better," said Villiers; "there will be broken heads for +some of us. Who do you think we have booked for a place to the other +world?" + +Gerald made no answer, but his look and manner implied that he +understood himself to be the party thus favored. + +"Not so," returned Villiers, "we can't afford to spare you yet--besides, +the death of a blue jacket can in no way benefit us. What's the +use of 'a bloody war and a sickly season,' that standard toast +at every West India mess, if the juniors are to go off, and not the +seniors?--Cranstoun's the man we've booked." + +"Captain Cranstoun, I have the honor of wishing you a safe passage, and +speedy promotion in Heaven," said Middlemore, draining off his glass. +"Devilish good port this of yours! By the bye, as you have a better +_port_ in view, you cannot do better than assign over what is left of +this to me." + +"Thank you, Mr. Middlemore," returned Cranstoun, drily yet +good-humoredly, "yet as you are attached to my division, you will +perhaps run just the same risk; and as, perhaps, you will not require +more wine than we have taken to-day, I will pledge you in a last cup a +safe passage to Heaven, where I trust you will find credit for better +qualities than you possess as a punster." + +"What," asked Gerald, with an unfeigned surprise, when the laugh against +Middlemore had subsided, "and is it really in his own wine that you have +all been thus courteously pledging Captain Cranstoun's death?" + +"Even so," said Middlemore, rallying and returning to the attack, "he +invited us all to lunch in his tent, and how could we better repay him +for opening his hampers, than by returning his _spirit scot-free_ and +_unhampered_ to Heaven?" + +"Oh, oh, oh!" ejaculated St. Clair, stopping his ears and throwing up +his eyes; "surely, Mr. Middlemore, if you are not shot this day, it must +be that you were born to be hanged--no man can perpetrate so horrible a +pun, and expect to live." + +"I'm hanged if I am, then," returned the other; "but, talking of being +shot--is there another shot in the locker, Cranstoun---another bottle of +port?" + +"The shot that is reserved for you, will bring you acquainted with +another locker than Cranstoun's, I suspect," said Villiers, "one Mr. +David Jones's locker--hit there, eh?" + +The low roll of a muffled drum suddenly recalled the party from their +trifling to considerations of a graver interest. It was the signal for +forming the columns of attack. In a moment the tone, the air of +ribaldry, was exchanged for a seriousness that befitted the +occasion--and it seemed as if a momentary reproach passed over the minds +of those who had most amused themselves at the expense of Cranstoun, for +each, as he quitted the tent, gave his extended hand to his host, who +pressed it in a manner to show all was forgiven. + +The English batteries had been constructed on the skirt of the wood +surrounding the fort, from which latter they were separated by a meadow +covered with long grass, about six hundred yards across at the narrowest +point. Behind these the columns of attack, three in number, were now +rapidly and silently formed. To that commanded by Captain Cranstoun, on +the extreme left, and intended to assault the fort at the strongest +point, Gerald Grantham had attached himself, in the simple dress, as we +have observed, of a private soldier, and armed with a common musket. In +passing, with the former officer, to take his position in front of the +column, he was struck by the utter want of means for executing with +success the duty assigned to the several divisions. Each column was +provided with a certain number of axemen, selected to act as pioneers; +but not one of the necessary implements was in a condition to be used: +neither had a single fascine or ladder been provided, although it was +well known that a deep ditch remained to be passed before the axes, +inefficient as they were, could be brought into use. + +"Such," said Captain Cranstoun, with a sneer of much bitterness, "are +the pitiful things on which hang the lives of our brave fellows. No +doubt the despatches will say a great deal about the excellent +arrangements for attack--but if you do not fall, Gerald, I hope you will +make a proper representation of the affair. As you belong to the other +service, there is little fear the General can hurt your promotion for +merely speaking the truth. A General, indeed!--who'll say Fortune is not +blind to make a General of such as he?" + +It was not an usual thing for Cranstoun to express himself thus in +regard to his superiors; but he was really vexed at the idea of the +sacrifice of human life that must attend this wantonness of neglect and +imbecility of arrangement. He had moreover taken wine enough, not in any +way to intoxicate, but sufficient to thaw his habitual caution and +reserve. Fearless as his sword, he cared not for his own life; but, +although a strict officer, he was ever attentive to the interests of his +men, who in their turn, admired him for his cool, unflinching courage, +and would have dared anything under the direction of their captain. + +It was evident that the contempt of the sailor for the capacity of the +leader, to whom it was well known all the minute arrangements were +submitted, was not one whit inferior to what was entertained by the +brave and honest Cranstoun. He, however, merely answered, as they both +assumed their places in front, and with the air of one utterly +indifferent to these disadvantages. + +"No matter, Cranstoun, the greater the obstacles we have to contend +against, the more glorious will be our victory. Where you lead, however, +we shall not be long in following." + +"Hem! since it is to be a game of follow-my-leader," said Middlemore, +who had now joined them, "I must not be far behind. A month's pay with +either of you I reach the stockade first." + +"Done, Middlemore, done," eagerly replied Cranstoun, and they joined +hands in confirmation of the bet. + +This conversation had taken place during the interval occupied by the +movements of the right and centre columns along the skirt of the wood, +to equidistant points in the half circle embraced in the plan of attack. +A single blast of the bugle now announced that the furthermost had +reached its place of destination, when suddenly a gun--the first fired +since noon from the English batteries--gave the signal for which all +were now prepared. + +In the next minute the heads of the several columns debouched from the +woods, and, the whole advancing in double quick time, with their arms at +the trail, moved across the meadow in the several directions assigned +them. The space to be traversed by Captain Cranstoun's division was +considerably the shortest of the three; but, on the other hand, he was +opposed to that part of the enemy's defences where there was the least +cover afforded to an assailing force. + +Meanwhile there was an utter repose in the fort, which for some moments +induced the belief that the Americans were preparing to surrender their +trust without a struggle, and loud yells from the Indians, who, from +their cover in the rear, watched the progress of the troops with +admiration and surprise, were pealed forth as if in encouragement to the +latter to proceed. But the American Commander had planned his defence +with skill. No sooner had the several columns got within half musket +shot, than a tremendous fire of musketry and rifles was opened upon them +from two distinct faces of the stockade. Captain Cranstoun's division, +being the nearest, was the first attacked, and suffered considerably +without attempting to return a shot. At the first discharge, the two +leading sergeants, and many of the men, were knocked down; but neither +Cranstoun, nor Middlemore, nor Grantham, were touched. + +"Forward men, forward," shouted the former, brandishing his sword, and +dashing down a deep ravine, that separated them from the trenches. + +"On, my gallant fellows, on!--the left column for ever!" cried +Middlemore, imitating the example of his captain, and, in his eagerness +to reach the ditch first, leaving his men to follow as they could. + +Few of these, however, needed the injunction. Although galled by the +severe fire of the enemy, they followed their leaders down the ravine +with a steadiness worthy of a better result; then climbing up the +opposite ascent, under a shower of bullets, yet, without pulling a +trigger themselves, made for the ditch their officer had already gained. + +Cranstoun, still continuing in advance, was the first who arrived on the +brink. For a moment he paused, as if uncertain what course to pursue, +then, seeing Middlemore close behind him, he leaped in, and striking a +blow of his sabre upon the stockade, called loudly upon the axemen to +follow. While he was yet shouting, a ball from a loop-hole not three +feet above his head, entered his brain, and he fell dead across the +trench. + +"Ha! well have you won your wager, my noble Captain," exclaimed +Middlemore, putting his hand to his chest, and staggering from the +effects of a shot he had that instant received. "You are indeed the +_better_ man" (he continued, excited beyond his usual calm by the +circumstances in which he found himself placed, yet unable to resist his +dominating propensity, even at such a moment,) "and deserve the palm of +honor this day. Forward, men, forward! axemen, do your duty.--Down with +the stockade, my lads, and give them a bellyful of steel." + +Scarcely had he spoken, when a second discharge from the same wall-piece +that had killed Cranstoun passed through his throat. "Forward!" he again +but more faintly shouted, with the gurgling tone of suffocation peculiar +to a wound in that region, then falling headlong into the ditch, was in +the next instant trodden under by the advance of the column who rushed +forward, though fruitlessly, to avenge the deaths of their officers. + +All was now confusion, noise and carnage. Obeying the command of their +leader, the axemen had sprung into the ditch, and, with efforts nerved +by desperation, applied themselves vigorously to the task allotted them. +But as well might they have attempted to raze the foundations of the +globe itself. Incapable from their bluntness of making the slightest +impression on the obstinate wood, the iron at each stroke rebounded off, +leaving to the eye no vestige of where it had rested. Filled with +disappointment and rage, the brave and unfortunate fellows dashed the +useless metal to the earth, and endeavored to escape from the ditch back +into the ravine, where, at least, there was a prospect of supplying +themselves with more serviceable weapons from among their slain +comrades; but the ditch was deep and slimy, and the difficulty of ascent +great. Before they could accomplish it, the Americans opened a fire from +a bastion, the guns of which, loaded with slugs and musket balls, raked +the trench from end to end, and swept away all that came within its +range. This was the first check given to the division of the unfortunate +Cranstoun. Many of the leading sections had leaped, regardless of all +obstacles, into the trench, with a view of avenging their slaughtered +officers; but these, like the axemen, had been carried away by the +discharges from the bastion, and the incessant fire poured upon them +from the loop-holes of the stockade. Despairing of success, without +fascines to fill up the ditch, or a ladder to scale the picketing that +afforded cover to their enemies, there was no alternative, but to remain +and be cut down to a man where they stood, or to retire into the +brushwood that lined the ravine. The latter was finally adopted; but not +before one-third of the column had paid the penalty of their own daring, +and what the brave Cranstoun had sneeringly termed the "General's +excellent arrangements," with their lives. The firing at this time had +now almost wholly ceased between the enemy and the columns on the right +and centre, neither of which had penetrated beyond the ravine, and at a +late hour in the evening the whole were drawn off. + +Meanwhile, steady at his post at the head of the division, Gerald +Grantham had continued to act with the men as though he had been one of +themselves. During the whole course of the advance, he neither joined in +the cheers of the officers, nor uttered word of encouragement to those +who followed. But in his manner there was remarked a quietness of +determination, a sullen disregard of danger, that seemed to denote some +deeper rooted purpose than the mere desire of personal distinction. His +ambition seemed to consist, not in being the first to reach or scale the +fort, but in placing himself wherever the balls of the enemy flew +thickest. There was no enthusiasm in his mien, no excitement in his eye; +neither had his step the buoyancy that marks the young heart wedded to +valorous achievement, but was, on the contrary, heavy, measured, yet +firm. His whole manner and actions, in short, as reported to his +brother, on the return of the expedition, by those who had been near him +throughout the affair, was that of a man who courts not victory but +death. Planted on the brow of the ditch at the moment when Middlemore +fell, he had deliberately discharged his pistol into the loop-hole +whence the shot had been fired; but although, as he seemed to expect, +the next instant brought several barrels to play upon himself, not one +of these had taken effect. A moment after and he was in the ditch, +followed by some twenty or thirty of the leading men of the column, and +advancing towards the bastion, then preparing to vomit forth its fire +upon the devoted axemen. Even here, Fate, or Destiny, or whatever power +it be that wills the nature of the end of man, turned aside the death +with which he already seemed to grapple. At the very moment when the +flash rose from the havoc-dealing gun, he chanced to stumble over the +dead body of a soldier, and fell flat upon his face. Scarcely had he +touched the ground when he was again upon his feet; but even in that +short space of time, he alone, of those who had entered the ditch, had +been left unscathed. Before him came bellying along the damp trench, the +dense smoke from the fatal bastion, as it were a funeral shroud for its +victims; and behind him were to be seen the mangled and distorted forms +of his companions, some dead, others writhing with acute agony, and +filling the air with shrieks, and groans, and prayers for water to +soothe their burning lips, that mingled fearfully yet characteristically, +with the unsubdued roar of small arms. + +It was now, for the first time, that Gerald evinced anything like +excitement, but it was the excitement of bitter disappointment. He saw +those to whom the preservation of life would have been a blessing, cut +down and slaughtered; while he, whose object it was to lay it down for +ever, was, by some strange fatality, wholly exempt. + +The reflections that passed with lightning quickness through his mind, +only served to stimulate his determination the more. Scarcely had the +smoke which had hitherto kept him concealed from the battery, passed +beyond him, when, rushing forward and shouting, "To the bastion, men--to +the bastion!" he planted himself in front of the gun, and not three +yards from its muzzle. Prevented by the dense smoke that choked up the +trench, from ascertaining the extent of execution produced by their +discharge, the American artillerymen, who had again loaded, were once +more on the alert and preparing to repeat it. Already was the match in +the act of descending, which would have blown the unfortunate Gerald to +atoms, when suddenly an officer, whose uniform bespoke him to be of some +rank, and to whose quick eye it was apparent the rash assailant was +utterly unsupported, sprang upon the bastion, and dashing the fuze from +the hand of the gunner, commanded that a small sally-port, which opened +into the trench a few yards beyond the point where he stood, should be +opened, and the brave soldier taken prisoner without harm. So prompt was +the execution of this order, that, before Gerald could succeed in +clambering up the ditch, which, with the instinctive dread of captivity, +he attempted, he was seized by half a dozen soldiers, and by these borne +hurriedly back through the sally-port, which was again closed. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + + +Defeated at every point and with great loss, the British columns had +retired into the bed of the ravine, where, shielded from the fire of the +Americans, they lay several hours shivering with cold and ankle deep in +mud and water; yet consoling themselves with the hope that the renewal +of the assault under cover of the coming darkness, would be attended +with a happier issue. But the gallant General, who appeared in the +outset to have intended they should make picks of their bayonets and +scaling-ladders of each other's bodies, now that a mound sufficient for +the latter purpose could be raised of the slain, had altered his mind, +and alarmed, and mayhap conscience stricken at the profuse and +unnecessary sacrifice of human life which had resulted from the first +wanton attack, adopted the resolution of withdrawing his troops. This +was at length finally effected, and without further loss. + +Fully impressed with the belief that the assailants would not be +permitted to forego the advantages they still possessed in their near +contiguity to the works, without another attempt at escalade, the +Americans had continued calmly at their posts; with what confidence in +the nature of their defences and what positive freedom from danger, may +be inferred from the fact of their having lost but one man throughout +the whole affair, and that one killed immediately through the loop-hole +by the shot that avenged the death of poor Middlemore. When at a late +hour they found that the columns were again in movement, they could +scarcely persuade themselves they were not changing their points of +attack. A very few minutes, however, sufficed to show their error; for, +in the indistinct light of a new moon, the British troops were to be +seen ascending the opposite face of the ravine and in full retreat. Too +well satisfied with the successful nature of their defence, the +Americans made no attempt to follow, but contented themselves with +pouring in a parting volley, which however the obscurity rendered +ineffectual. Soon afterwards the sally-port was again opened, and such +of the unfortunates as yet lingered alive in the trenches were brought +in, and every attention the place could afford paid to their +necessities. + +An advanced hour of the night brought most of the American officers +together in their rude mess-room, where the occurrences of the day were +discussed with an enthusiasm of satisfaction natural to the occasion. +Each congratulated each on the unexpected success, but commendation was +more than usually loud in favor of their leader, to whose coolness and +judgment, in reserving his fire until the approach of the enemy within +pistol shot, was to be attributed the severe loss and consequent check +they had sustained. + +Next became the topic of eulogium the gallantry of those who had been +worsted in all but their honor, and all spoke with admiration of the +devotedness of the two unfortunate officers who had perished in the +trenches--a subject which, in turn, led to a recollection of the brave +soldier who had survived the sweeping discharge from the bastion, and +who had been so opportunely saved from destruction by the Commandant +himself. + +"Captain Jackson," said that officer, addressing one of the few who wore +the regular uniform of the United States army, "I should like much to +converse with this man, in whom I confess, as in some degree the +preserver of his life, I feel an interest. Moreover, as the only +uninjured among our prisoners, he is the one most calculated to give us +information in regard to the actual force of those whom we have this day +had the good fortune to defeat, as well as of the ultimate destination +of the British General. Notes of both these important particulars, if I +can possibly obtain them, I wish to make in a despatch of which I intend +you to be the bearer." + +The Aid-de-camp, for in that capacity was he attached to the person of +Colonel Forrester, immediately quitted the room, and presently +afterwards returned ushering in the prisoner. + +Although Gerald was dressed, as we have said, in the uniform of the +private grenadier, there was that about him which, in defiance of a +person covered from head to foot with the slimy mud of the trenches, and +a mouth black as ink with powder from the cartridges he had bitten, at +once betrayed him for something more than he appeared. + +There was a pause for some moments after he entered. At length Colonel +Forrester inquired, in a voice strongly marked by surprise: + +"May I ask, sir, what rank you hold in the British army?" + +"But that I have unfortunately suffered more from your mud than your +fire," replied Gerald, coolly, and with undisguised bitterness of +manner, "the question would at once be answered by a reference to my +uniform." + +"I understand you, sir; you would have me to infer you are what your +dress, and your dress alone, denotes--a private soldier?" + +Gerald made no answer. + +"Your name, soldier?" + +"My name!" + +"Yes; your name. One possessed of the gallantry we witnessed this day +cannot be altogether without a name." + +The pale cheek of Gerald was slightly tinged. With all his grief, he +still was a man. The indirect praise lingered a moment at his heart, +then passed off with the slight blush that as momentarily dyed his +cheek. + +"My name, sir, is a humble one, and little worthy to be classed with +those who have this day written theirs in the page of honor with their +heart's blood. I am called Gerald Grantham." + +"Gerald Grantham!" repeated the Commandant, musingly, as though +endeavoring to bring back the recollection of such a name. + +The prisoner looked at him steadfastly in return, yet without speaking. + +"Is there another of your name in the British squadron?" continued +Colonel Forrester, fixing his eye full upon his prisoner. + +"There are many in the British squadron whose names are unknown to me," +replied Gerald, evasively, and faintly coloring. + +"Nay," said Colonel Forrester, "that subterfuge more than anything +betrays you. Though not answered, I am satisfied. How we are to account +for seeing a gallant sailor attacking us in our trenches, in the humble +garb of a private soldier, and so out of his own element, I cannot +understand; but the name of Gerald Grantham, coupled with your manner +and appearance, assures us we are making personal acquaintance with one +to whose deeds we are not strangers. Gentlemen," addressing his +officers, "this is the Lieutenant Grantham, whose vessel was captured +last autumn at Buffalo, and of whose gallant defence my cousin, Captain +Edwin Forrester, has spoken so highly. Lieutenant Grantham," he pursued, +advancing and offering his hand, "when I had the happiness to save your +life this day, by dashing aside the fuze that would have been the agent +in your destruction, I saw in you but the brave and humble soldier, whom +it were disgrace not to have spared for so much noble daring. Judge how +great must be my satisfaction to know that I have been the means of +preserving, to his family and country, one whose name stands so high +even in the consideration of his enemies." + +Poor Gerald! how bitter and conflicting must have been his feelings at +that moment. On the one side, touched by the highest evidences of esteem +a brave and generous enemy could proffer--on the other, annoyed beyond +expression at the recollection of an interposition which had thwarted +him in his fondest, dearest hope--that of losing, at the cannon's mouth, +the life he loathed. What had been done in mercy and noble forbearance, +was to him the direst punishment that could be inflicted; yet how was it +possible to deny gratitude for the motive which had impelled his +preservation, or fail in acknowledgment of the appreciation in which he +thus found himself personally held. + +"It would be idle, Colonel Forrester," he said, taking the proffered +hand, "after the manner in which you have expressed yourself, to deny +that I am the officer to whom you allude. I feel deeply these marks of +your regard, although I cannot but consider any little merit that may +attach to me very much overrated by them. My appearance in this dress, +perhaps requires some explanation. Prevented by the shallowness of the +river from co-operating with the array in my gun-boat, and tired of +doing nothing, I had solicited and obtained permission to become one of +the storming party in the quality of volunteer, which of necessity +induced the garb in which you now behold me. You know the rest." + +"And yet, Colonel," said a surly-looking backwoodsman, who sat with one +hand thrust into the bosom of a hunting frock, and the other playing +with the richly ornamented hilt of a dagger, while a round hat, +surmounted by a huge cockade, was perched knowingly over his left ear, +covering, or rather shadowing, little more than one fourth of his +head--"I reckon as how this here sort of thing comes within the spy act. +Here's a commissioned officer of King George, taken not only in our +lines, but in our very trenches in the disguise of a private soger. What +say you, Captain Buckhorn?" turning to one somewhat younger and less +uncouth, who sat next him habited in a similar manner. "Don't you think +it comes within the spy act?" + +Captain Buckhorn, however, not choosing to hazard an opinion on the +subject, merely shrugged his shoulders, puffed his cigar, and looked at +the Colonel as if he expected him to decide the question. + +"As I am a true Tennessee man, bred and born, Major Killdeer," said the +Aid-de-camp Jackson, "I can't see how that can lie. To come within the +spy act, a man must be in plain clothes, or in the uniform of his enemy. +Now, Liftenant Grantham, I take it, comes in the British uniform, and +what signifies a whistle if he wears gold lace or cotton tape, provided +it be stuck upon a scarlet coat, and that in the broad face of day, with +arms in his hand,--aye, and a devil of a desperation to make good use of +them too"--he added, with a good naturedly malicious leer of the eye +towards the subject of his defence. + +"At all events, in my conceit, it's an attempt to undervally himself," +pursued the tenacious Kentuckian Major. "Suppose his name warn't known +as it is, he'd have passed for a private soger, and would have been +exchanged for one, without our being any the wiser; whereby the United +States, service, I calculate, would have lost an officer in the balance +of account." + +"Although there cannot be the slightest difficulty," observed Colonel +Forrester, "in determining on the doubt first started by you, Major +Killdeer I confess, that what you have now suggested involves a question +of some delicacy. In the spirit, although not altogether in the letter, +of your suggestion, I agree; so much so, Mr. Grantham," he added, +turning to Gerald, "that in violence to the inclination I should +otherwise have felt to send you back to your lines, on parole of honor, +I shall be compelled to detain you until the pleasure of my government +be known as to the actual rank in which you are to be looked upon. I +should say that, taken in arms as a combatant without rank, we have no +right to know you as anything else; but as I may be in error, I am sure +you will see how utterly impossible it is for me to take any such +responsibility upon myself, especially after the difficulty you have +just heard started." + +Gerald, who had listened to this discussion with some astonishment, was +not sorry to find the manner of its termination. In the outset he had +not been without alarm that the hero of one hour might be looked upon +and hanged as the spy of the next; and tired as he was of life, much as +he longed to lay it down, his neck had too invincible a repugnance to +anything like contact with a cord to render him ambitious of closing his +existence in that way. He was not at all sorry, therefore, when he found +the surly-looking Major Killdeer wholly unsupported in his sweeping +estimate of what he called the "spy act." The gentlemanly manner of +Colonel Forrester, forming as it did so decided a contrast with the +unpolished--even rude frankness of his second in command was not without +soothing influence upon his mind, and to his last observation he +replied, as he really felt, that any change in his views as to his +disposal could in no way affect him, since it was a matter of total +indifference whether he returned to Amherstburg, or was detained where +he was. In neither case could he actively rejoin the service until duly +exchanged, and this was the only object embraced in any desire he might +entertain of the kind. + +"Still," added the Colonel, "although I may not suffer you to return yet +into Canada, I can see no objection to according you the privilege of +parole of honor, without at all involving the after question of whether +you are to be considered as the soldier or the officer. From this moment +therefore, Mr. Grantham, you will consider yourself a prisoner at large +within the fort--or, should you prefer journeying into the interior, to +sharing the privations and the dullness inseparable from our isolated +position, you are at liberty to accompany Captain Jackson, my +Aid-de-camp, who will leave this within twelve hours, charged with +dispatches for the Governor of Kentucky." + +Gerald had already acknowledged to himself that, if anything could add +to his wretchedness, it would be a compulsory residence in a place not +only destitute itself of all excitement, but calling up, at every hour, +the images of his brave companions in danger--men whom he had known when +the sun of his young hopes shone unclouded, and whom he had survived but +to be made sensible of the curse of exemption from a similar fate; +still, with that instinctive delicacy of a mind whose natural refinement +not even a heavy weight of grief could wholly deaden, he felt some +hesitation in giving expression to a wish, the compliance with which +would, necessarily, separate him from one who had so courteously treated +him, and whom he feared to wound by an appearance of indifference. + +"I think, Mr. Grantham," pursued Colonel Forrester, remarking his +hesitation, "I can understand what is passing in your mind. However I +beg you will suffer no mere considerations of courtesy to interfere with +your inclination. I can promise you will find this place most dismally +dull, especially to one who has no positive duty to perform in it. If I +may venture to recommend, therefore, you will accompany Captain Jackson. +The ride will afford you more subject for diversion than anything we can +furnish here." + +Thus happily assisted in his decision Gerald said, "Since, Sir, you +leave it optional with me, I think I shall avail myself of your kind +offer and accompany Captain Jackson. It is not a very cheering sight," +he pursued, anxious to assign a satisfactory reason for his choice, "to +have constantly before one's eyes the scene of so signal a discomfiture +as that which our arms have experienced this day." + +"And yet," said Colonel Forrester, "despite of that discomfiture, there +was nothing in the conduct of those engaged that should call a blush +into the cheek of the most fastidious stickler for national glory. There +is not an officer here present," he continued, "who is not prepared to +attest with myself, that your column in particular behaved like heroes. +By the way, I could wish to know, but you will use your own discretion +in answering or declining the question, what was the actual strength of +your attacking force?" + +"I can really see no objection to a candid answer to your question, +Colonel," returned Gerald, after a moment's consideration. "Each +division was, I believe, for I cannot state with certainty, little more +than two hundred strong, making in all, perhaps, from six hundred to six +hundred and fifty men. In return, may I ask the number of those who so +effectually repulsed us?" + +"Why I guess only one hundred and fifty, and most all my volunteers," +somewhat exultingly exclaimed Major Killdeer. + +"Only one hundred and fifty men!" repeated Gerald, unable to disguise +his vexation and astonishment. + +"That ere's a poser for him," said the Major, turning and addressing +Captain Buckhorn in an under tone, who replied to him with a wink from +his nearest eye. + +"Even so, Mr. Grantham," replied the Colonel. "One hundred and fifty men +of all arms, save artillery, composed my force at the moment when your +columns crossed the plain. To-night we muster one hundred and +forty-nine." + +"Good Heaven!" exclaimed Gerald warming into excitement, with vexation +and pique, "what a disgraceful affair." + +"Disgraceful, yes--but only in as far as regards those who planned, and +provided (or rather ought to have provided) the means of attack. I can +assure you, Mr. Grantham, that although prepared to defend my post to +the last, when I saw your columns first emerge from the wood, I did not +expect, with my small force, to have been enabled to hold the place one +hour; for who could have supposed that even a school boy, had such been +placed at the head of an army, would have sent forward a storming party, +without either fascines to fill a trench, or ladders to ascend from it +when filled. Had these been provided, there can be no doubt of the +issue, for, to repulse the attempt at escalade in one quarter, I must +have concentrated the whole of my little force--and thereby afforded an +unopposed entrance to the other columns--or even granting my garrison to +have been sufficient to keep two of your divisions in check, there still +remained a third to turn the scale of success against us." + +"I can understand the satisfaction with which you discovered this +wretched bungling on the part of our leaders," remarked Gerald, with +vexation. + +"No sooner had I detected the deficiency," pursued Colonel Forrester, +"than I knew the day would be my own, since the obstacles opposed to +your attempt would admit of my spreading my men over the whole line +embraced within the attack. The result, you see, has justified my +expectation. But enough of this. After the fatigues of the day, you must +require both food and rest. Captain Jackson, I leave it to you to do the +honors of hospitality towards Mr. Grantham, who will so shortly become +your fellow-traveller; and if, when he has performed the ablutions he +seems so much to require, my wardrobe can furnish anything your own +cannot supply to transform him into a backwoodsman (in which garb I +would strongly advise him to travel). I beg it may be put under +contribution without ceremony." + +So saying, Colonel Forrester departed to the rude log-hut that served +him for his head-quarters, first enjoining his uncouth second to keep a +sufficient number of men on the alert, and take such other precautions +as were necessary to guard against surprise--an event, however, of which +little apprehension was entertained, now that the British troops +appeared to have been wholly withdrawn. + +Sick, wearied, and unhappy, Gerald was but too willing to escape to the +solitude of retirement, to refuse the offer which Captain Jackson made +of his own bed, it being his intention to sit up all night in the +mess-room, ready to communicate instantly with the Colonel in the event +of any alarm. + +Declining the pressing invitation of the officers to join in the repast +they were about to make for the first time since the morning, and more +particularly that of Captain Buckhorn, who strongly urged him to "bring +himself to an anchor and try a little of the Wabash," he took a polite +but hasty leave of them all, and was soon installed for the night in the +Aid-de-camp's dormitory. + +It would be idle to say that Gerald never closed his eyes that +night--still more idle would it be to attempt a description of all that +passed through a mind whose extent of wretchedness may be inferred from +his several desperate although unsuccessful, efforts at the utter +annihilation of all thought. When he met Colonel Forrester and his +officers in the mess-room at breakfast, he was dressed, as had been +recommended, in the hunting frock and belt of a backwoodsman; and in +this his gentlemanly figure looked to such advantage as to excite +general attention--so much so, indeed, that Major Killdeer was more than +once detected in eyeing his own heavy person, as if to ascertain if the +points of excellence were peculiar to the dress or to the man. Sick and +dispirited as he was, Gerald felt the necessity of an attempt to rally, +and however the moralist may condemn the principle, there is no doubt +that he was considerably aided in his effort by one or two glasses of +bitters which Captain Buckhorn strongly recommended as being of his +wife's making, and well calculated to put some color into a man's +face--an advantage in which, he truly remarked, Grantham was singularly +deficient. + +Accurate intelligence having been obtained from a party of scouts, who +had been dispatched early in the morning to track their course, that the +British General with his troops and Indians had finally departed, +preparations were made about midday for the interment of the fallen. Two +large graves were accordingly dug on the outer brow of the ravine, and +in these the bodies of the fallen soldiers were deposited, with all the +honors of war. A smaller grave, within the fort, and near the spot where +they so nobly fell, was considerately allotted to Cranstoun and +Middlemore. There was a composedness on the brow of the former that +likened him, even in death, to the living man; while, about the +good-humored mouth of poor Middlemore, played the same sort of +self-satisfied smile that had always been observable there when about to +deliver himself of a sally. Gerald, who had imposed upon himself the +painful duty of attending to their last committal to earth, could not +help fancying that Middlemore must have breathed his last with an +inaudible pun upon his lips--an idea that inexpressibly affected him. +Weighed down with sorrow as was his own soul, he had yet a tear for the +occasion--not that his brave comrades were dead, but that they had died +with so much to attach them to life--while he whose hope was in death +alone, had been chained, as by a curse to an existence compared with +which death was the first of human blessings. + +On the following morning, after an early breakfast, he and Captain +Jackson quitted the fort, Colonel Forrester--who had not failed to +remark that the brusque manner of his aide-de-camp was not altogether +understood by his charge--taking occasion at parting, to assure the +latter that, with all his eccentricity, he was a kind-hearted man, whom +he had selected to be near him more for his personal courage, zeal, and +general liberality of feeling, than for any qualifications of intellect +he possessed. + +The means provided for their transport into the interior were well +assimilated to the dreariness of the country through which they passed. +Two common pack-horses, lean, galled by the saddle, and callous from +long acquaintance with the admonitory influence both of whip and spur, +had been selected by Captain Jackson as the best within the fort. +Neither were the trappings out of keeping with the steeds they decked. +Moth-eaten saddles, almost black with age, beneath which were spread +pieces of dirty blanket to prevent further excoriation of the already +bared and reeking back--bridles, the original thickness of which had +been doubled by the incrustation of mould and dirt that pertinaciously +adhered to them--stirrups and bits, with their accompanying buckles--the +absence of curb chains being supplied by pieces of rope--all afforded +evidence of the wretchedness of resource peculiar to a back settlement +population. Over the hard saddles, however, had been strapped the +blankets which, when the travellers were fortunate enough to meet with a +hut at the close of their day's ride, or, as was more frequently the +case, when compelled to bivouac in the forest before the fire kindled by +the industry of the hardy aide-de-camp, served them as their only couch +of rest, while the small leather valise tied to the pummel of the +saddle, and containing their scanty wardrobe, was made to do the duty of +the absent pillow. The blanket Gerald found to be the greatest advantage +of his grotesque equipment--so much so, indeed, that when compelled, by +the heavy rains which took place shortly after their departure, to make +it serve, after the fashion of a backwoodsman, as a covering for his +loins and shoulders, he was obliged to own that his miseries, great as +they were, were yet susceptible of increase. + +Notwithstanding Captain Jackson had taken what he considered to be the +best of the two Rosinantes for himself. Gerald had no reason to deny the +character for kind-heartedness given of him by Colonel Forrester. +Frequently when winding through some dense forest, or moving over some +extensive plain where nothing beyond themselves told of the existence of +man, his companion would endeavor to divert him from the abstraction and +melancholy in which he was usually plunged, and, ascribing his +melancholy to an unreal cause, seek to arouse him by the consolatory +assurance that he was not the first man who had been taken +prisoner--adding that there was no use in snivelling, as "what was done +couldn't be undone, and no great harm neither, as there was some as +pretty gals in Kaintuck as could be picked out in a day's ride; and that +to a good-looking young fellow like himself, with nothing to do but make +love to them, _that_ ought to be no mean consideration, enabling him, as +it would, to while away the tedium of captivity." At other times he +would launch forth into some wild rhapsody, the invention of the moment, +or seek to entertain his companion with startling anecdotes connected +with his encounters with the Indians on the Wabash, (where he had +formerly served) in the course of which much of the marvellous, to call +it by the most indulgent term, was necessarily mixed up--not perhaps +that he was quite sensible of this himself, but because he possessed a +constitutional proneness to exaggeration that rendered him even more +credulous of the good things he uttered than those to whom he detailed +them. + +But Gerald heard without being amused, and, although he felt thankful +for the intention, was distressed that his abstraction should be the +subject of notice, and his despondency the object of care. To avoid this +he frequently suffered Jackson to take the lead, and, following some +distance in the rear with his arms folded and the reins loose upon the +horse's neck, often ran the risk of having his own neck broken by the +frequent stumbling of the unsure-footed beast. But the Captain as often +returned to the charge, for, in addition to a sincere desire to rally +his companion, he began at length to find it exceedingly irksome to +travel with one who neither spoke himself, nor appeared to enjoy speech +in another; and when he had amused himself with whistling, singing, +hallooing, and cutting a thousand antics with his arms, until he was +heartily tired of each of these several diversions, he would rein in his +horse to suffer Gerald to come up, and, after a conciliating offer of +his rum flask, accompanied by a slice of hung beef that lined the wallet +depending from his shoulder, enter upon some new and strange exploit, of +which he was as usual the hero. Enforced in a degree to make some return +for the bribe offered to his patience, Gerald would lend--all he +could--his ear to the tale; but long before the completion he would give +such evidence of his distraction, as utterly to disconcert the narrator, +and cause him finally to have recourse to one of the interludes above +described. + +In this manner they had journeyed some days, when the rains suddenly +commenced with a violence and continued with a pertinacity, that might +have worn out the cheerfulness of much less impatient spirits than those +of our travellers, who without any other protection than what was +afforded by the blanket tightly girt around the loins, and fastened over +the shoulders in front of the chest, presented an appearance quite as +wild as the waste they traversed. It was in vain that, in order to +promote a more rapid circulation, they essayed to urge their jaded +beasts out of the jog-trot in which they had set out. Accustomed to this +from the time when they first emerged from colthood into horsehood, the +aged steeds, like many aged senators of their day, were determined +enemies to anything like innovation on the long established customs of +their caste; and, although, unlike the said senators, they were made to +bear all the burdens of the state, still did they not suffer themselves +to be driven out of the sluggish habits in which sluggish animals of +every description seem to feel themselves privileged to indulge. Whip +and spur, therefore, were alike applied in vain, as to any accelerated +motion in themselves; but with this advantage at least to their riders, +that while the latter toiled vigorously for an increase of vital warmth +through the instrumentality of their non-complying hacks they found it +where they least seemed to look for it--in the mingled anger and +activity which kept them at the fruitless task. + +It was at the close of one of those long days of wearying travel +throughout a vast and unsheltered plain--where only here and there rose +an occasional cluster of trees, like oases in the desert--that, drenched +to the skin with the steady rain, which commencing at the dawn had +continued without a moment's intermission, they arrived at a small log +hut, situate on the skirt of a forest forming one of the boundaries of +the vast savannah they had traversed. Such was the unpromising +appearance of this apology for a human dwelling, that, under any other +circumstances, even the "not very d----d particular" Jackson, as the +aide-de-camp often termed himself, would have passed it by without +stopping; but after a long day's ride, and suffering from the greatest +evils to which a traveller can well be subjected--cold, wet and +hunger--even so wretched a resting-place as this was not to be despised; +and accordingly a determination was formed to stop there for the night. +On riding up to the door, it was opened to their knock, when a tall +man--apparently its only occupant--came forth, and after viewing the +travellers a moment with a suspicious eye, inquired "what the strangers +wanted?" + +"Why I guess," said Jackson, "it doesn't need much conjuration to tell +that. Food and lodging for ourselves, to be sure, and a wisp of hay and +tether for our horses. Hospitality, in short; and that's what no true +Tennessee man, bred and born, never refused yet--no, not even to an +enemy, such a night as this." + +"Then you must go further in search of it," replied the woodsman, +surlily. "I don't keep no tavern, and han't got no accommodation; and +what's more, I reckon I'm no Tennessee man." + +"But any accommodation will do friend. If you havn't got beds, we'll +sit up all night, and warm our toes at the fire, and spin long yarns, +as they tell in the Eastern sea-ports. Anything but turn a fellow out +such a night as this." + +"But I say, stranger," returned the man fiercely and determinedly, "I +an't got no room any how, and you shan't bide here." + +"Oh, ho, my old cock! that's the ticket, is it? But you'll see whether +an old stager like me is to be turned out of any man's house such a +night as this. I havn't served two campaigns against the Ingins and the +British for nothing; and here I rest for the night." + +So saying, the determined Jackson coolly dismounted from his horse, and +unbuckling the girth, proceeded to deposit the saddle, with the valise +attached to it, within the hut, the door of which still stood open. + +The woodman, perceiving his object, made a movement, as if to bar the +passage; but Jackson with great activity seized him by the wrist of the +left hand, and, all-powerful as the ruffian was, sent him dancing some +few yards in front of the threshold before he was aware of his +intention, or could resist the peculiar _knack_ with which it was +accomplished. The aide-de-camp, meanwhile, had deposited his saddle in a +corner near the fire, and on his return to the door, met the +inhospitable woodsman advancing as if to court a personal encounter. + +"Now, I'll tell you what it is, friend," he said calmly, throwing back +at the same time the blanket that concealed his uniform and--what was +more imposing--a brace of large pistols stuck in his belt. "You'd better +have no nonsense with me, I promise you, or--" and he tapped with the +fore finger of his right hand upon the butt of one of them, with an +expression that could not be misunderstood. + +The woodsman seemed little awed by this demonstration. He was evidently +one on whom it might have been dangerous for one man, however well +armed, to have forced his presence, so far from every other human +habitation; and it is probable that his forbearance then arose from the +fact of there being two opposed to him, for he glanced rapidly from one +to the other, nor was it until he seemed to have mentally decided that +the odds of two to one were somewhat unequal, that he at length withdrew +himself out of the doorway, as if in passive assent to the stay he could +not well prevent. + +"Just so, my old cock," continued Jackson, finding that he had gained +his point, "and when you speak of this again, don't forget to say it was +a true Tennessee man, bred and born, that gave you a lesson in what no +American ever wanted--hospitality to a stranger. Suppose you begin and +make your self useful, by tethering and foddering old spare bones." + +"I reckon as how you've hands as well as me," rejoined the surly +woodsman, "and every man knows the ways of his own beast best. As for +fodder, they'll find it on the skirt of the wood, and where natur' +planted it." + +Gerald meanwhile, finding victory declare itself in favor of his +companion, had followed his example and entered the hut with his saddle. +As he again quitted it, a sudden flash of light from the fire, which +Jackson was then in the act of stirring, fell upon the countenance of +the woodsman who stood without, his arms folded and his brow scowling, +as if planning some revenge for the humiliation to which he had been +subjected. In the indistinct dusk of the evening Grantham had not been +able to remark more than the outline of the figure; but the voice struck +him as one not unknown to him, although somewhat harsher in its tones +than that which his faint recollection of the past supplied. The glance +he had now obtained, momentary as it was, put every doubt to rest. What +his feelings were in recognising in the woodsman the traitor settler of +the Canadas, Jeremiah Desborough, we leave to our readers to infer. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + + +There was a time, when to have met his father's enemy thus would have +been to have called into activity all the dormant fierceness of Gerald's +nature; but since they had last parted, a new channel had been opened to +his feelings, and the deep and mysterious grief in which we have seen +him shrouded had been of so absorbing and selfish a nature, as to leave +him little consideration for sorrows not his own. The rash impetuosity +of his former character, which had often led him to act even before he +thought, and to resent an injury before it could well be said to have +been offered, had moreover given place to a self-command, the fruit of +the reflective habits and desire of concealment which had made him +latterly almost a stranger to himself. + +Whatever his motives for outwardly avoiding all recognition of the +settler, certain it is that, so far from this, he sought sedulously to +conceal his own identity, by drawing the slouched hat, which formed a +portion of his new equipment, lower over his eyes. Left to do the duties +of the rude hostelry, Captain Jackson and he now quitted the hut, and +leading their jaded, smoking steeds, a few rods off to the verge of the +plain they had so recently traversed, prepared to dispose of them for +the night. Gerald had by this time become too experienced in the mode of +travelling through an American wilderness, not to understand, that he +who expects to find a companion in his horse in the morning must duly +secure him with the tether at night. Following, therefore, the example +of the Aide-de-camp, he applied himself, amid the still pelting rain, to +the not very cleanly task of binding round the fetlock joints of his +steed several yards of untanned hide strips, with which they were +severally provided for the purpose. Each gave his steed a parting slap +on the buttock with the hard bridle. Jackson exclaiming, "Go ye +luxurious beasts--ye have a whole prairie of wet grass to revel in for +the night," and then left them to make the best of their dainty food. + +While returning, Grantham took occasion to observe, that he had reason +to think he knew the surly and inhospitable woodsman, by whom however he +was not desirous of being recognised, and therefore begged as a favor +that Captain Jackson would not, in the course of the night, mention his +name, or even allude to him in any way that could lead to an inference +that he was any other than he seemed, a companion and brother officer of +his own; promising, in conclusion, to give him, in the course of the +next day's journey, some little history of the man which would fully +explain his motives. With this request Jackson unhesitatingly promised +compliance, adding, good-humoredly, that he was not sorry to pledge +himself to anything that would thaw his companion's tongue into +sociability, and render himself, for the first time since their +departure, a listener. Before entering the hut Gerald further observed +in a whisper that, the better to escape recognition, he would, as much +as possible, avoid joining in any conversation which might ensue, and +therefore hoped his companion would not think him rude if he suffered +him to bear the tax. Jackson again promised to keep the attention of the +woodsman directed as much as possible to himself, observing that he +thought Gerald had already, to his cost, discovered he was one not +easily tired out by conversation, should their host be that way +inclined. + +On opening the door of the cabin, they found that the woodsman--or more +properly the settler, as we shall again term him--making a virtue of +necessity, had somewhat changed its interior. A number of fine logs, +sufficient to last throughout the night had been heaped upon the hearth, +and these, crackling and fizzing, and emitting sparks in all the burly +of a hickory wood fire, gave promise of a night of comparative comfort. +Ensconced in the farther corner of the chimney, the settler had already +taken his seat, and, regardless of the entrance of the strangers, (with +his elbows resting on his knees, and his face buried in his large +palms,) kept his eyes fixed upon the fire, as if with a sullen +determination neither to speak nor suffer himself to be questioned. But +the Aide-de-camp was by no means disposed to humor him in his fancy. The +idea of passing some eight or ten consecutive hours in company with two +fellow beings, without calling into full play the bump of loquacity with +which nature had largely endowed him, was, in his view, little better +than the evil from which his perseverance had just enabled him to +escape. Making himself perfectly at home, he unbuckled the wet blanket +from his loins and spreading it, with that of Gerald, to dry upon the +rude floor before the fire, drew forward a heavy uncouth-looking table, +(which, with two or three equally unpolished chairs, formed the whole of +the furniture,) and deposited thereon the wallet or haversack in which +remained a portion of provision. He then secured the last vacant chair, +and taking up a position on the right of the table which lay between +himself and Gerald, let it fall upon the dry clay hearth, with a +violence that caused the settler to quit his attitude of abstraction for +one of anger and surprise. + +"Sorry to disturb you, friend," he said, "but these chairs of yours are +so cursed heavy, there's no handling them decently; 'specially with cold +fingers." + +"Beggars, I reckon, have no right to be choosers," returned the settler; +"the chairs is quite good enough for me--and no one axed you to sit on +'em." + +"I'll tell you what it is, old cock," continued the Aide-de-camp, edging +his seat closer, and giving his host a smart friendly slap upon the +thigh, "this dull life of yours don't much improve your temper. Why, as +I am a true Tennessee man, bred and born, I never set eyes upon such a +crab-apple in all my life--you'd turn a whole dairy of the sweetest milk +that ever came from prairie-grass sour in less than no time. I take it +you must be crossed in love, old boy--eh?" + +"Crossed in hell," returned the settler, savagely; "I reckon as how it +don't consarn you whether I look sour or sweet--what you want is a +night's lodgin', and you've got it--so don't trouble me no more." + +"Very sorry, but I shall," said Jackson, secretly congratulating himself +that, now he had got the tongue of his host in motion, he had a fair +chance of keeping it so. "I must trouble you for some bread, and +whatever else your larder may afford. I'll pay you honestly for it, +friend." + +"I should guess," said the settler, his stern features brightening for +the first time into a smile of irony, "as how a man who had served a +campaign agin the Ingins and another agin the British, might contrive to +do without sich a luxury as bread. You'll find no bread here, I reckon." + +"What, not even a bit of corn bread? Try, my old cock, and rummage up a +crust or two, for hung beef is devilish tight work for the teeth, +without a little bread of some sort for a relish." + +"If you'd ha' used your eyes, you'd ha' seen nothin' like a corn patch +for twenty mile round about this. Bread never entered this hut since I +have been here. I don't eat it." + +"More's the pity," replied Jackson, with infinite drollery; "but though +you may not like it yourself, your friends may." + +"I _have_ no friends--I _wish_ to have no friends!" was the sullen +reply. + +"More's the pity still," pursued the Aide-de-camp. "But what do you live +on, then, old cock, if you don't eat bread?" + +"Human flesh. Take that as a relish to your hung beef." + +Scarcely had the strange expression escaped the settler's lips, when +Jackson, active as a deer, was at the farther end of the hut, one hand +holding the heavy chair as a shield before him, the other placed upon +the butt of one of his pistols. The former at the same moment quitted +his seat, and stretching his tall and muscular form to its utmost +height, burst into a laugh that sounded more like that of some wild +beast than a human being. The involuntary terror produced in his guest +was evidently a source of exultation to him, and he seemed gratified to +think he had at length discovered the means of making himself looked +upon with something like fear. + +On entering the hut, Gerald had taken his seat at the opposite corner of +the fire, yet in such a manner as to admit of his features being shaded +by the projection of the chimney. The customs of the wilderness, +moreover, rendering it neither offensive, nor even worthy of remark, +that he should retain his hat, he had, as in the first instance, drawn +it as much over his eyes as he conceived suited to his purpose of +concealment, without exciting a suspicion of his design; and, as the +alteration in his dress was calculated to deceive into a belief of his +being an American, he had been enabled to observe the settler without +much fear of recognition in return. A great change had taken place in +the manner of Desborough. Ferocious he still was, but it was a ferocity +wholly unmixed with the cunning of his former years, that he now +exhibited. He had evidently suffered much, and there was a stamp of +thought on the heavy countenance that Gerald had never remarked there +before. There was also this anomaly in the man--that while ten years +appeared to have been added to his age, his strength was increased in +the same proportion--a change that made itself evident by the attitude +in which he stood. + +"Why now I take it you must be jesting," at length exclaimed the +Aid-de-camp, doubtingly, dropping at the same time the chair upon the +floor, yet keeping it before him as though not quite safe in the +presence of this self-confessed anthropophagos; "you surely don't mean +to say you kill and pickle every unfortunate traveller that comes by +here. If so, I must apprehend you in the name of the United States +Government." + +"I rather calculate not, Mister," sneered the settler. "Besides, I don't +eat the United States subjects; consequently they've no claim to +interfere." + +"Who the devil do you eat, then?" asked Jackson, gathering courage with +his curiosity, and advancing a pace or two nearer the fire, "or is it +all a hum?" + +The settler approached the fire, stooped a little, and applying his +shoulder to the top of the opening, thrust his right hand and arm up the +chimney. + +"I reckon that's no hum," he said, producing and throwing upon the table +a piece of dark, dry flesh, that resembled in appearance the upper part +of a human arm. "If you're fond of a relisn," he pursued, with a fierce +laugh, "you'll find that mighty well suited to the palate--quite as +sweet as a bit of smok'd venison." + +"Why, you don't really mean to say that's part of a man?" demanded +Jackson, advancing cautiously to the table, and turning over the +shrivelled mass with the point of his dagger. "Why, I declare, its just +the color of my dried beef." + +"But I do though--and what's more, of my own killin' and dryin'. Purty +naturist you must be, not to see that's off an Ingin's arm!" + +"Oh, an Ingin's only, is it?" returned the Aid-de-camp, whose +apprehension began rapidly to subside, now that he had obtained the +conviction that it was not the flesh of a white man. "Well, I'm sure! +who'd have thought it? I take it, old cock, you've been in the wars as +well as myself." + +"A little or so, I reckon, and I expect to be in them agin shortly--as +soon as my stock of food's out. I've only a thigh bone to pick after +this, and then I'm off. But why don't you take your seat at the fire. +There's nothin' so out of the way in the sight of a naked arm, is there? +I reckon, if you're a soger, you must have seen many a one lopped off in +the wars." + +"Yes, friend," said Jackson, altering the position of the table and +placing it between the settler and himself; "a good many lopped off, as +you say, and in a devil of a stew, but not exactly eaten. However, be so +good as to return this to the chimney, and when I've eaten something +from my bag, I'll listen to what you have to say about it." + +"Jist so, and go without my own supper, I suppose, to please you. But +tarnation, while you're eatin' a bit of your hung beef, I'll try a snack +of mine." + +So saying, he deliberately took from the table the dried arm he had +previously flung there, and, removing a large clasp knife from a pocket +beneath his coarse hunting frock, proceeded to help himself to several +thin slices, corresponding precisely in appearance with those which the +Aid-de-camp divided in the same manner. + +Jackson had managed to swallow three or four pieces of his favorite hung +beef with all the avidity of an appetite rendered keen by the absence of +every other stimulant than hunger; but no sooner did he perceive his +host fastening with a degree of fury on his unnatural food, than, sick +and full of loathing, his stomach rejected further aliment, and he was +compelled to desist. During all this time, Grantham, who, although he +had assumed the manner and attitude of a sleeping man, was a watchful +observer of all that passed, neither moved nor uttered a syllable, +except on one occasion to put away from him the food Jackson had +offered. + +"Sorry to see your ride has given you so poor an appetite," said the +settler, with a look expressive of the savage delight he felt in +annoying his visitor, "I reckon that's rather unsavory stuff you've got +there, that you can't eat it without bread. I say, young man," +addressing Grantham, "can't you find no appetite neither, that you sit +there snorin', as if you never meant to wake agin." + +Gerald's head sunk lower on his chest, and his affectation of slumber +became more profound. + +"Try a drop of this," said Jackson, offering his canteen, after having +drank himself, and with a view to distract attention from his companion. +"You seem to have no liquor in the house, and I take it you require +something hot as h--ll, and strong as d--n----n, after that ogre-like +repast of yours." + +The settler seized the can, and raised it to his lips. It contained some +of the fiery whiskey we have already described as the common beverage in +most parts of America. This, all powerful as it was, he drained off as +though it had been water, and with the greedy avidity of one who finds +himself suddenly restored to the possession of a favorite and long +absent drink. + +"Hollo, my friend!" exclaimed the angry Aid-de-camp, who had watched the +rapid disappearance of his "traveller's best companion," as he quaintly +enough termed it, down the capacious gullet of the woodman--and +snatching at the same moment the nearly emptied canteen from his hands. +"I take it, that's not handsome. As I'm a true Tennessee man, bred and +born, it aint at all hospitable to empty off a pint of raw liquor at a +spell, and have not so much as a glass of metheglin to offer in return. +What the h--ll do you suppose we're to do to-morrow for drink, during a +curst long ride through the wood, and not a house of call till nightfall +along the road?" + +The ruffian drew a breath long and heavy in proportion to the draught he +had swallowed, and when his lungs had again recovered their play, +answered, blusteringly, in a voice that betokened incipient +intoxication: + +"Roar me up a saplin', Mister, but you're mighty stingy of the Wabash. I +reckon as how I made you a free offer of my food, and it warn't no fault +of mine if you didn't choose to take it. It would only have been relish +for relish, after all--and that's what I call fair swap." + +"Well, no matter," said Jackson, soothingly; "what's done can't be +undone, therefore I take it its no use argufying--however, my old cock, +when next you get the neck of a canteen of mine 'twixt your lips, I hope +it may do the cockles of your heart good; that's all. But let's hear how +you came by them pieces of nigger's flesh, and how it is you've taken it +into your head to turn squatter here. You seem," glancing around, "to +have no sleeping room to spare, and one may as well sit up and chat, as +have one's bones bruised to squash on the hard boards." + +"It's a sad tale," said the settler gruffly and with a darkening brow, +"and brings bitter thoughts with it; but as the liquor has cheered me up +a bit, I don't much mind if I do tell you how I skivered the varmint. +Indeed," he pursued savagely, "that always gives me a pleasure to think +of, for I owed them a desperate grudge--the bloody red skins and imps of +hell. I was on my way to Detroit, to see the spot once more where my +poor boy Phil lay rootin', and one dark night (for I only ventured to +move at night), I came slick upon two Ingins as was lying fast asleep +before their fire in a deep ravine. The one nearest to me had his face +unkivered, and I knew the varmint for the tall dark Delaweer chief as +made one of the party after poor Phil and me, a sight that made me +thirst for the blood of the heathens as a child for mother's milk. +Well, how do you think I managed them. I calculate you'd never guess. +Why, I stole, as quiet as a fox until I got jist atween them, and then +holdin' a cocked pistol to each breast, I called out in a thunderin' +voice that made the woods ring agin, Kit-chimocomon, which you know, as +you've been in the wars, signifies long knife or Yankee. You'd a laugh'd +fit to split your sides I guess, to see the stupid stare of the devils, +as startin' out of their sleep, they saw a pistol within three inches of +each of 'em. 'Ugh,' says they, as if they did'nt know well whether to +take it as a joke or not. 'Yes, 'ugh' and be damn'd to you,' say's I: +you may go and 'ugh' in hell next--and with that snap went the triggers, +and into their curst carcasses went the balls. The one I killed outright +but t'other, the Delaweer chief, was by a sudden shift only slightly +wounded, and he sprung on his feet and out with his knife. But I had a +knife too, and all a disappointed father's rage to boot, so at it we +went closin' and strikin' with our knives like two fierce fiends of the +forest. It was noble sport sure_ly_. At last the Delaweer fell over the +bleedin' body of his warrior and I top of him. As he fell the knife +dropped from his hand and he could'nt reach it no how, while I still +gripped mine fast. 'Ugh,' he muttered again, as if askin' to know what I +meant to do next. 'Ugh,' and be damned to you once more, say's I--and +the pint of my long knife was soon buried in his black heart. Then, when +I see them both dead I eat my own meal at their fire, for I was +tarnation hungry, and while I was eatin' a thought came across me that +it would be good fun to make smoked meat of the varmint, so when I +tucked it in purty considerably, what with hominy and dried bear's meat, +moistened with a little Wabash I found in the Delaweer chief's canteen, +I set to and regularly quartered them. The trunks I left behind, but the +limbs I packed up in the blankets that had been used to kiver them, I +reckon; and with them slung across my shoulders, like a saddle bag +across a horse, I made tracks through the swamps and the prairies for +this here hut, which I know'd no livin' soul had been nigh for many a +long year. And now," he concluded with a low drunken laugh, "you've the +history of the dried meat. There isn't much left but when all is gone +I'm off to the wars, for I can't find no peace I reckon without my poor +boy Phil." He paused a moment, and then as if suddenly influenced by +some painful recollection, he struck his hand with startling violence +upon the table, and, while every feature of his iron countenance seemed +worked up to a pitch of intensity, added with fearful calmness, "May +God's curse light upon me if I don't have my revenge of them Granthams +yet:--yes," he continued with increased excitement of voice and manner, +while he kicked one of the blazing hickory logs in the chimney with all +the savageness of drunken rage, causing a multitude of sparks to spit +forth as from the anvil of a smith.--"jist so would I kick them both to +hell for having murdered my poor boy." + +"Why, surely, Liftenant Grantham, he can't meant you?" abruptly +questioned the Aid-de-camp, drawing back his chair and resting the palms +of his hands upon his knees, while he fixed his eye keenly and +inquiringly upon Gerald. + +But Gerald had no time to answer him--Scarcely had the name escaped the +lips of the incautious Jackson, when a yell of exultation from the +woodman drew him quickly to his feet, and in the next moment he felt one +hand of his enemy grappling at his throat, while the fingers of the +other were rapidly insinuating themselves into the hair that shadowed +one of his temples, with the evident intention to "gouge" him. Weak and +emaciated as he was, Gerald was soon made sensible of the disproportion +of physical strength thus suddenly brought into the struggle, and as the +savage laugh of the man, as his fingers wound themselves closer and +closer within the clustering hair, proclaimed his advantage, he felt +that his only chance of saving the threatened eye was by having recourse +to some sudden and desperate attempt to free himself from the gripe of +his opponent. Summoning all his strength into one vigorous effort, he +rushed forward upon his enemy with such force, raising himself at the +same time in a manner to throw the whole weight of his person upon him, +that the latter reeled backwards several paces without the power of +resistance, and falling over the table towards which he had been +intentionally propelled, sank with a heavy crash to the floor, still +however retaining his firm hold of his enemy, and dragging him after +him. + +Half throttled, maddened with pain, and even more bitterly stung by a +sense of the humiliating position in which he found himself, the +feelings of Gerald became uncontrollable, until his anxiety to inflict a +mortal injury upon his enemy became in the end as intense as that of the +settler. In their fall the table had been overturned, and with it the +knife which Desborough had used with his horrid repast. As the light +from the blazing fire fell upon the blade, it had once caught the +unassailed eye of the officer, and was the next moment clutched in his +grasp. He raised it with a determination, inspired by the agony he +endured, at once to liberate himself and to avenge his father's murder, +but the idea that there was something assassin-like in the act as +suddenly arrested him, and ere he had time to obey a fresh impulse of +his agony, the knife was forcibly stricken from his hand. A laugh of +triumph burst from the lips of the half intoxicated Desborough, but it +was scarcely uttered before it was succeeded by a yell of pain, and the +hand that had contrived to entwine itself, with resistless force and +terrible intent, in the waving hair of the youth, fell suddenly from its +grasp, enabling its victim at length to free himself altogether and +start once more to his feet. + +Little more than a minute had been passed in the enactment of this +strange scene. The collision, the overthrow, the upraising of the knife +had followed each other in such rapid succession that, until the last +desperate intention of Gerald was formed, the Aid-de-camp had not had +time to interpose himself in any way between the enraged combatants. His +first action had been to strike away the murderous knife with the heavy +butt of one of his pistols, the other to plant such a blow upon the +"gouging" hand of the settler from the same butt, as effectually to +compel him to relinquish his ferocious clutch. In both objects, as we +have seen, he fully succeeded. + +But although his right hand had been utterly disabled by the blow from +Jackson's pistol, the fury of Desborough, fed as it was by the fumes of +the liquor he had swallowed, was too great to render him heedful of +aught but the gratification of his vengeance. Rolling rapidly over to +the point where the knife had fallen he secured it in his left hand, and +then, leaping nimbly to his feet, gathered himself into a spring upon +his unarmed but watchful enemy. But before the bound could be taken, the +active Aid-de-camp, covering Gerald with his body and presenting a +cocked pistol, had again thwarted him in his intention. + +"I say now, old cock, you'd much better be quiet I guess, for them sort +of tantrums won't suit me. If this here Liftenant killed your son why +he'll answer for it later, but I can't let you murder my prisoner in +that flumgustious manner. I'm responsible for him to the United States +Government, therefore just drop that knife clean and slick upon the +floor, and let's have no more of this nonsense for the night." + +But even the cocked pistol had not power to restrain the fierce--almost +brutal--rage of the woodman, whose growing intoxication added fuel to +the fire which the presence of his enemy had kindled in his heart. +Heedless of the determined air and threatening posture of the +Aid-de-camp, he made a bound forward, uttering a sound that resembled +the roar of a wild beast rather than the cry of a human being, and +struck over Jackson's shoulder at the chest of the officer. Gerald, +whose watchful eye marked the danger, had however time to step back and +avoid the blow. In the next moment the Aid-de-camp, overborne by the +violence of the collision, fell heavily backwards upon the rude floor, +and in the fall the pistol went off lodging the ball in the sinewy calf +of Desborough's leg. Stung with acute animal pain, the whole rage of the +latter was now diverted from Gerald to the aid-de-camp, on whom, +assuming the wound to have been intentional, he threw himself with the +fury of a tiger, grappling as he closed with him at his throat. But the +sailor, in his turn, now came to the rescue of his companion, and the +scene for some time, as the whole party struggled together upon the +floor in the broad, red glare of the wood fire, was one of fearful and +desperate character. At length, after an immense effort, and amid the +most horrid imprecations of vengeance upon them, the officers succeeded +in disarming and tying the hands of the settler behind his back, after +which, dragging him to a distant corner of the hut, they secured him +firmly to one of the open and mis-shapen logs which composed its frame. +This done, Jackson divided the little that had been left of his "Wabash" +with his charge, and then stretching himself at his length, with his +feet to the fire and his saddle for a pillow, soon fell profoundly +asleep. + +Too much agitated by the scene which had just passed, Gerald, although +following the example of his companion in stretching himself before the +cheerful fire, was in no condition to enjoy repose. Indeed, whatever his +inclination, the attempt would have been vain, for so dreadful were the +denunciations of Desborough throughout the night, that sleep had no room +to enter even into his thoughts. Deep and appalling were the curses and +threats of vengeance which the enraged settler uttered upon all who bore +the name of Grantham; and with these were mingled lamentations for his +son, scarcely less revolting in their import than the curses themselves. +Nor was the turbulence of the enraged man confined to mere excitement of +language. His large and muscular form struggled in every direction to +free himself from the cords that secured him to the logs, and finding +these too firmly bound to admit of the accomplishment of his end, he +kicked his brawny feet against the floor with all the fury and +impatience of a spirit, quickened into a livelier sense of restraint by +the stimulus of intoxication. At length, exhausted by the efforts he had +made, his struggles and his imprecations became gradually less frequent +and less vigorous, until finally towards dawn they ceased altogether, +and his deep and heavy breathing announced that he slept. + +Accustomed to rise with the dawn, the Aide-de-camp was not long after +its appearance in shaking off the slumber in which he had so profoundly +indulged. The first object that met his eye as he raised himself up in a +sitting posture from his rude bed, was Gerald stooping over the sleeping +Desborough, one hand resting upon his chest, the other holding the +knife already alluded to, while every feature of his face was kindled +into loathing and abhorrence of his prostrate and sleeping enemy. +Startled by the expression he read there, and with the occurrences of +the last night rushing forcibly upon his memory, the Aide-de-camp called +quickly out: + +"Hold, Liftenant Grantham. Well, as I'm a true Tennessee man, bred and +born, may I be most especially d----d, if I'd a thought you'd do so foul +a deed. What! assassinate a sleeping drunken man?" + +"Assassinate, Captain Jackson?" repeated Gerald, raising himself to his +full height, while a crimson flush of indignation succeeded to the +deadly paleness which had overspread his cheek. + +"Yes--assassinate!" returned the Aide-de-camp, fixing his eye upon that +of his prisoner, yet without perceiving that it quailed under his +penetrating glance; "It's an ugly word, I reckon, for you to hear, as it +is for me to speak, but your quarrel last night--your fix just now--that +knife--Liftenant Grantham," and he pointed to the blade which still +remained in the hands of the accused--"surely these things speak for +themselves; and though the fellow has swallowed off all my Wabash, and +be d----d to him, still I shouldn't like to see him murdered in that +sort of way." + +"I cannot blame you, Captain Jackson," said Gerald calmly, his features +resuming their pallid hue. "These appearances, I grant, might justify +the suspicion, horrible as it is, in one who had known more of me than +yourself but was assassination even a virtue, worlds would not tempt me +to assassinate that man--wretch though he be--or even to slay him in +fair and open combat." + +"Then I calculate one night has made a pretty considerable change in +your feelings, Liftenant," retorted the Aide-de-camp. "You were both +ready enough to go at it last night, when I knocked the knife out of +your fist, and broke the knuckles of his gouging hand." + +"I confess," said Gerald, again coloring, "that excessive pain made me +wild, and I should have been tempted to have had recourse to any means +to thwart him in his diabolical purpose. As you have said, however, the +past night has effected a change in my feelings towards the man, and +death from my hand, under any circumstances, is the last thing he has +now to apprehend." Gerald sank his head upon his chest, and sighed +bitterly. + +"Well," said Jackson, "all this is queer enough; but what were you doing +standing over the man just now with that knife, if it was not to harm +him? And as for your countenance, it scowled so savage and passionate, I +was almost afraid to look at it myself." + +"My motive for the action I must beg you to excuse my entering upon," +replied Gerald. "Of this, however, be assured, Captain Jackson, that I +had no intention to injure yon sleeping villain. On the word of an +officer and a gentleman, and by the kindness you have shown me on all +occasions since our journey commenced, do I solemnly assure you this is +the fact." + +"And on the word of an officer, and a true Tennessee man, bred and born +I am bound to believe you," returned the American, much affected. "A man +that could fight so wickedly in the field would never find heart, I +reckon, to stick an enemy in the dark. No, Liftenant Grantham, you were +not born to be an assassin. And now let's be starting--the day has +already broke." + +"And yet," returned Gerald, with a smile of bitter melancholy, as they +hurried towards the spot where they had left their horses, "if any man +ever had reason to act so as to merit the imputation of being such, I +have. In that savage woodsman, Captain Jackson, you have beheld the +murderer--the self-acknowledged murderer of my father." + +"God bless my soul!" cried Jackson dropping the saddle which he carried +and standing still with very amazement. "A pretty fix I've got into, to +be sure. Here's one man accuses another of murdering his son, and +t'other, by way of quits accuses him, in his turn, of murdering his +father. Why, which am I to believe?" + +"Which you please, Captain Jackson," said the sailor coolly, yet +painedly; and he moved forward in pursuit of his horse. + +"Nay, Liftenant Grantham," said the Aid-de-camp, who had again resumed +his burden, and was speedily at the side of his companion, "don't be +offended. I've no doubt the thing's as you say; but you must make +allowance for my ideas, never too much of the brightest, being +conglomerated, after a fashion, by what I have seen and heard, since we +let loose our horses last night upon this prairie." + +"I am not offended, only hurt," replied Gerald, shaking the hand that +was cordially tendered to him, "hurt, that you should doubt my word, or +attach anything to the assertion of that man beyond the mere ravings of +a savage and diseased spirit. Justice to myself demands that I should +explain everything in detail." + +"Now, that's what I call all right and proper," returned the +Aide-de-camp, "and should be done, both for your sake and mine; but we +will leave it till we get once more upon the road and in sight of a +tavern, for it's dry work talking and listening without even so much as +a gum tickler of the Wabash to moisten one's clay." + +They found their horses not far from the spot where they had been left +on the preceding night, and these being speedily untethered and saddled, +the travellers again pursued their route towards the capital of the +state in which they found themselves. As they passed the hut which had +been the scene of so much excitement to both, the voice of Desborough, +whom they had left fast asleep, was heard venting curses and +imprecations upon them both, for having left him there to starve, bound +and incapable of aiding himself. Wretch as the settler was, Gerald could +not reconcile to himself the thought of his being left to perish thus +miserably, and he entreated the Aid-de-camp to enter and divide the +cords. But Jackson declared this to be impolitic, urging as a powerful +reason for declining, the probability of his having fire-arms in the +hut, with which (if released) he might follow and overtake them in their +route, and sacrifice one or the other to his vengeance--an object which +it would be easy to accomplish without his ever being detected. However, +that the villain might have sustenance until some chance traveller +should come later to his assistance, or he could manage to get rid of +his bonds himself, he consented to place within his reach all the dried +meat that had been left of his Indian foes, together with a pail of +water--the latter by way of punishment for having swilled away at his +Wabash in the ungracious manner he had. + +While Jackson was busied in this office of questionable charity, the +rage and disappointment of the settler surpassed what it had hitherto +been. Each vein of his dark brow rose distinctly and swelling from its +surface, and he kicked and stamped with a fury that proclaimed the +bitter tempest raging in his soul. When the Aide-de-camp had again +mounted, his shrieks and execrations became piercing, and for many +minutes after they had entered into the heart of the forest in which the +hut was situated, the shrill sounds continued to ring upon their ears in +accents so fearful, that each felt a sensible relief when they were +heard no more. + +On the evening of the third day after this event, Jackson and our hero, +between whom a long explanation on the subject of the settler had taken +place, alighted at the door of the principal inn in Frankfort, the +capital of Kentucky, which was their ultimate destination. To mine host +Gerald was introduced by his escort with the formality usual on such +occasions in America, and with the earnest recommendation to that most +respectable personage, that, as his own friend, as well as that of +Captain Forrester, every indulgence should be shown to the prisoner that +was not inconsistent with his position. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + + +Few situations in life are less enviable than that of the isolated +prisoner of war. Far from the home of his affections, and compelled by +the absence of all other companionship, to mix with those who, in +manners, feelings, and national characteristics, form, as it were, a +race apart from himself, his recollections, already sufficiently +embittered by the depressing sense of captivity, are hourly awakened by +some rude contrast wounding to his sensibilities, and even though no +source of graver irritation should exist, a thousand petty annoyances, +incident to the position, are magnified by chagrin from mole-hills into +mountains. Such, however, would be the effect produced on one only, who, +thrown by the accident of war into the situation of a captive, should +have no grief more profound, no sorrow deeper seated, than what arose +from the being severed from old, and associated with new and undesired +ties--one to whom life was full of the fairest buds of promise, and +whose impatience of the present was only a burning desire to enter upon +the future. Not so with Gerald Grantham. Time, place, circumstance, +condition, were alike the same--alike indifferent to him. In the +recollection of the scenes he had so lately quitted, and in which his +fairer and unruffled boyhood had been passed, he took no pleasure--while +the future was so enshrouded in gloom, that he shrank from its very +contemplation. So far from trying to wring consolation from +circumstances, his object was to stupify recollection to the uttermost. +He would fain have shut out both the past and the future, contenting +himself as he might with the present; but the thing was impossible. The +worm had eaten into his heart, and its gnawings were too painful, not +poignantly to remind him of the manner in which it had been engendered. + +Upwards of a fortnight had elapsed since his arrival, and yet, although +Captain Jackson, prior to his return to Sandusky, had personally +introduced him to many highly respectable families in Frankfort, he +uniformly abstained from cultivating their acquaintance, until at length +he was, naturally enough, pronounced to be a most disagreeable specimen +of a British officer. Even with the inmates of the hotel, many of whom +were officers of his own age, and with whom he constantly sat down to +the ordinary, he avoided everything approaching to intimacy--satisfying +himself merely with discharging his share of the commonest courtesies +of life. They thought it pride--it was but an effect--an irremediable +effect--of the utter sinking of his sad and broken spirit. The only +distraction in which he eventually took pleasure, or sought to indulge, +was rambling through the wild passes of the chain of wooded hills which +almost encircles the capital of Kentucky, and extends to a considerable +distance in a westerly direction. The dense gloom of these narrow +valleys he had remarked on his entrance by the same route, and feeling +them more in unison with his sick mind than the hum and bustle of a +city, which offered nothing in common with his sympathies, he now +frequently passed a great portion of the day in threading their +mazes--returning, however, at a certain hour to his hotel, conformably +with the terms of his parole. + +On one occasion, tempted by the mellow beauty of the season--it was now +the beginning of October--he had strayed so far, and through passes so +unknown to him, that when the fast advancing evening warned him of the +necessity of returning, he found he had utterly lost his way. Abstracted +as he usually was, he had yet reflection enough to understand that his +parole of honor required he should be at his hotel at an hour which it +would put his speed to the proof to accomplish. Despairing of finding +his way by the circuitous route he had originally taken, and the proper +clue to which he had moreover lost, he determined, familiar as he was +with the general bearings of the capital, to effect his return in a +direct line across the chain of hills already alluded to. The deepening +shadows of the wild scene, as he proposed to ascend that immediately +before him, told that the sun had sunk beneath the horizon, and when he +gained its summit, the last faint corruscations of light were passing +rapidly away in the west. Still, by the indistinct twilight, he could +perceive that at his feet lay a small valley, completely hemmed in by +the circular ridge on which he stood. This traversed, it was but to +ascend the opposite section of the ridge, and his destination would be +gained. Unlike the narrow, rocky passes which divided the hills in every +other direction in which he had previously wandered, this valley was +covered with a luxuriant verdure, and upon this the feet of Gerald moved +inaudibly even to himself. As he advanced more into the centre of the +little plain, he thought he could perceive, at its extremity on the +right, the dark outline of a building--apparently a dwelling-house; and +while he yet hesitated whether he should approach it and inquire his +most direct way to the town, a light suddenly appeared at that point of +the valley for which he was already making. A few minutes sufficed to +bring him to the spot whence the light had issued. It was a small, +circular building, possibly intended for a summer-house, but more +resembling a temple in its construction, and so closely bordering upon +the forest ridge, by a portion of the foliage by which it had previously +been concealed, as to be almost confounded with it. It was furnished +with a single window, the same through which the light now issued, and +this, narrow, elongated, and studded with iron bars, was so placed as to +prevent one even taller than our hero from gazing into the interior, +without the aid of some elevation. But Gerald, independently of his +anxiety to reach the town in time to prevent comment upon his absence, +had no desire to occupy himself with subjects foreign to his object. +Curiosity was a feeling dead within his bosom, and he was preparing, +without once staying his course, to ascend the ridge at the side of the +temple, when he fancied he heard a suppressed groan, as of one suffering +from intense agony. Not the groan, but the peculiar tone in which it +was uttered, arrested his attention, and excited a vague yet stirring +interest in his breast. On approaching closer to the temple, he found +that at its immediate basement the earth had been thrown up into a sort +of mound, which so elevated the footing as to admit of his reaching the +bars of the window with his hands. Active as we have elsewhere shown him +to be, he was not long in obtaining a full view of the interior, when a +scene met his eye which riveted him, as well it might, in utter +astonishment. Upon the rude, uncarpeted floor knelt a female, who, with +clasped and uplifted hands, had her eyes fixed upon a portrait that hung +suspended from the opposite wall--her figure, clad in a loose robe of +black, developing by its attitude a contour of such rich and symmetrical +proportion as might be difficult for the imagination to embody. And who +was the being upon whom his each excited sense now lingered with an +admiration little short of idolatry? One whom, a moment before, he +believed to be still far distant, whom he had only a few months +previously fled from as from a pestilence, and whom he had solemnly +sworn never to behold again--yet whom he continued to love with a +passion that defied every effort of his judgment to subdue, making his +life a wilderness--Matilda Montgomerie! and if her beauty had _then_ had +such surpassing influence over his soul, what was not its effect when he +beheld her _now_, every grace of womanhood exhibited in a manner to +excite admiration the most intense! + +It would be vain to describe all that passed through the mind of Gerald +Grantham, while he thus gazed upon her whose beauty was the rock on +which his happiness had been wrecked. His first impulse had been to fly, +but the fascination which riveted him to the window deprived him of all +power, until eventually, of all the host of feelings that had crowded +tumultuously upon his heart, passion alone remained triumphant. Unable +longer to control his impatience, he was on the point of quitting his +station, for the purpose of knocking and obtaining admission by a door +which he saw opposite to him, when a sudden change in the attitude of +Matilda arrested the movement. + +She had risen, and with her long and dark hair floating over her white +shoulders, now advanced towards the portrait, on which her gaze had +hitherto been so repeatedly turned. This was so placed that Gerald had +not previously an opportunity of remarking more than the indistinct +outline, which proved it to represent a human figure; but as she for a +moment raised the light with one hand, while with the other she covered +it with a veil which had been drawn aside, he distinctly saw that it was +the portrait of an officer dressed in the American uniform; and it even +occurred to him that he had before seen the face, although, in his then +excited state he could not recollect where. Even had he been inclined to +tax his memory, the effort would have been impracticable, for another +direction was now given to his interest. + +On the left and close under the window, stood a rude sofa and ruder +table, the only pieces of furniture which Gerald could observe within +the temple. Upon the former Matilda had now reclined herself, and +placing the candle upon the table at her side, proceeded to unfold and +peruse a letter which she had previously taken from her pocket book. The +same unconsciousness of observation inducing the same unstudiedness of +action, the whole disposition of the form bore a character of +voluptuousness, which the presumed isolation of her who thus exhibited +herself, a model of living grace, alone could justify. But although the +form was full of the eloquence of passion, one had but to turn to the +pale and severe face, to find there was no corresponding expression in +the heart. As heretofore, the brow of the American wore a cast of +thought--only deeper, more decided--and even while her dark eyes flashed +fire, as if in disappointment and anger at sundry passages in the letter +over which she lingered, not once did the slightest color tinge her +cheek, or the gloom dissipate itself from that cold brow. Emotion she +felt, for this her heaving bosom and occasionally compressed lip +betokened. Yet never was contrast more marked than that between the +person and the face of Matilda Montgomerie, as Gerald Grantham then +beheld her. + +On one who had seen her thus for the first time, the cold, calm +countenance of the singular girl, would have acted as a chastener to the +emotions called up by the glowing expression of her faultless form, but +although there was now a character of severity on her features, which +must have checked and chilled the ardent admiration produced by that +form on a mere stranger, Gerald but too well remembered occasions when +the harmony of both had been complete, and when the countenance, rich in +all those fascinations, which, even in her hours of utmost +collectedness, never ceased to attach to the person, had beamed upon him +in a manner to stir his very soul into madness. There were other and +later recollections too, that forced themselves upon his memory; but +these, even though they recalled scenes in which the voluptuous beauty +of Matilda shone paramount, were as blots upon the fair picture of the +past, and he fain would have banished them from his mind for ever. + +The letter on which the American was now engaged, Grantham had +recognised, from its fold and seal, to be one he had written prior to +parting with her, as he had supposed for ever. While he was yet dwelling +on this singularity, Matilda threw the letter upon the table at her +side, and leaning her head upon her hand, seemed as if musing deeply +upon its contents. The contraction of her brow became deeper, and there +was a convulsed pressure of her lips as of one forming some +determination, requiring at once strong moral and physical energy to +accomplish. A cold shudder crept through the veins of Gerald, for too +well did he fancy he could divine what was passing in the soul of that +strange yet fascinating woman. For a moment a feeling of almost loathing +came over his heart, but when, in the next moment, he saw her rise from +the sofa, revealing the most inimitable grace, he burned with impatience +to throw himself, reckless of consequences, at her feet, and to confess +his idolatry. + +After pacing to and fro for some moments, her dark and kindling eye +alone betraying the excitement which her colorless cheek denied, Matilda +again took up the light, and having once more approached the portrait, +was in the act of raising the veil, when a slight noise made by Gerald, +who in his anxiety to obtain a better view of her, had made a change in +his position, arrested her ear; and she turned and fixed her eye upon +the window, not with the disturbed manner of a person who fears +observation, but with the threatening air of one who would punish an +intrusion. + +Holding the light above her head, she advanced firmly across the room, +and stopping beneath the window, fixed her eye steadily and +unshrinkingly upon it. The mind of Gerald had become a chaos of +conflicting and opposite feelings. Only an instant before and he would +have coveted recognition, now his anxiety was to avoid it; but cramped +in his attitude, and clinging as he was compelled, with his face close +to the bars, his only means of doing so was by quitting his position +altogether. He therefore loosened his hold, and dropped himself on the +mound of earth from which he had contrived to ascend, but not so +noiselessly, in the unbroken stillness of the night, as to escape the +keen ear of the American. In the next moment Gerald heard a door open, +and a well known voice demand, in tones which betrayed neither alarm nor +indecision. + +"Who is there?" + +The question was repeated in echo from the surrounding woods, and then +died away in distance. + +"Who of my people," again demanded Matilda, "has dared to follow me here +in defiance of my orders?" + +Another echo of indistinct sounds, and all again was still. + +"Whoever you are, speak," resumed the courageous girl. "Nay," she +pursued more decidedly, as having moved a pace or two from the door, she +observed a human form standing motionless beneath the window. "Think not +to escape me. Come hither slave that I may know you. This curiosity +shall cost you dear." + +The blood of Gerald insensibly chilled at the harsh tone in which these +words were uttered, and had he followed a first impulse he would at once +have retired from the influence of a command, which under all the +circumstances, occurred to him as being of prophetic import. But he had +gazed on the witching beauty of the syren, until judgment and reason had +yielded the rein to passion, and filled with an ungovernable desire to +behold and touch that form once more--even although he should the next +moment tear himself from it for ever--he approached and stood at the +entrance of the temple, the threshold of which Matilda had again +ascended. + +No exclamation of surprise escaped the lips of the ever-collected +American; and yet, for the first time that night, her cheek was suffused +with a deep glow, the effect of which was to give to her whole style of +beauty a character of radiancy. + +"Gerald Grantham!" + +"Yes, Matilda," exclaimed the youth, madly, heedless of the past, while +he riveted his gaze upon her dazzling loveliness with such strong +excitement of expression as to cause her own to sink beneath it, "your +own Gerald--your slave kneels before you," and he threw himself at her +feet. + +"And what punishment does not that slave merit?" she asked in a tone so +different from that in which she had addressed her supposed domestic, +that Gerald could scarcely believe it to be the same. "What reparation +can he make for having caused so much misery to one who loved and +cherished him so well. Oh! Gerald, what days, what nights of misery have +I not passed since you so unkindly left me." As she uttered the last +sentence, she bent herself over the still kneeling form of her lover, +while her long dark hair, falling forward, completely enveloped him in +its luxuriant and waving folds. + +"You will be mine, Matilda," at length murmured the youth, as he sat at +her side on the sofa, to which on rising he had conducted her. + +"Yours, only yours," returned the American, while she bent her face upon +his shoulder. "But you know the terms of our union." + +Had a viper stung him, Gerald could not have recoiled with more dismay +and horror from her embrace. Again the features of Matilda became +colorless, and her brow assumed an expression of care and severity. + +"Then, if not to fulfil that compact, wherefore are you here?" and the +question was put half querulously, half contemptuously. + +"Chance, Destiny, Fate,--call it what you will," cried Gerald, obeying +the stronger impulse of his feelings, and clasping her once more to his +beating heart. "Oh! Matilda, if you knew how the idea of that fearful +condition has haunted me in my thoughts by day, and my dreams by night, +you would only wonder that at this moment I retain my senses, filled as +my soul is with maddening--with inextinguishable love for you." + +"And do you really entertain for me that deep, that excessive passion +you have just expressed," at length observed Matilda, after some moments +of silence, and with renewed tenderness of voice and manner, "and yet +refuse the means by which you may secure me to you for ever?" + +"Matilda," said Gerald, with vehemence, "my passion for you is one which +no effort of my reason can control; but let me not deceive you--it is +_now_ one of the senses." + +An expression of triumph, not wholly unmingled with scorn, animated the +features of Matilda. It was succeeded by one of ineffable tenderness. + +"We will talk of this no more to-night, Gerald, but to-morrow evening, +at the same hour, be here: and our mutual hopes, and fears, and doubts +shall be then realized or disappointed, as the event may show. To-morrow +will determine if, as I cannot but believe, Destiny has sent you to me +at this important hour. It is very singular," she added, as if to +herself, her features again becoming deadly pale, "very singular +indeed!" + +"What is singular, Matilda?" asked Gerald. + +"You shall know all to-morrow," she replied; "but mind," and her dark +eye rested on his with an expression of much tenderness, "that you come +prepared to yield me all I ask." + +Gerald promised that he would, and Matilda expressing a desire to hear +what had so unexpectedly restored him to her presence, he entered into a +detail of all that had befallen him from the moment of their separation. +She appeared to be much touched by the relation, and in return, gave him +a history of what she too had felt and suffered. She moreover informed +him that Major Montgomerie had died of his wounds shortly after their +parting, and that she had now been nearly two months returned to her +uncle's estate at Frankfort, where she lived wholly secluded from +society, and with a domestic establishment consisting of slaves. These +short explanations having been entered into they parted--Matilda to +enter her dwelling, the same which Gerald had marked in outline, in +which numerous lights were now visible, and her lover to make the best +of his way to the town. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + + +Morning dawned, and yet no sleep had visited the eyes of Gerald +Grantham. The image of Matilda floated in his mind, and to the +recollection of her beauty he clung with an aching eagerness of delight, +that attested the extent of its influence over his imagination. Had +there been nothing to tarnish that glorious picture of womanly +perfection, the feelings it called up would have been too exquisite for +endurance; but, alas! with the faultless image came recollections, +against which it required all the force of that beauty to maintain +itself. One ineffaceable spot was upon the soul of that fascinating +being; and though, like the spots on the sun's disk, it was hidden in +the effulgence which surrounded it, still he could not conceal from +himself that it _did_ exist, to deface the symmetry of the whole. It was +his knowledge of that fearful blemish that had driven him to seek in +drunkenness, and subsequently in death, a release from the agonizing +tortures of his mind. Virtue and a high sense of honor had triumphed so +far, as not merely to leave his own soul spotless, but to fly from her +who would have polluted it with crime; yet, although respect and +love--the pure sentiments by which he had originally been +influenced--had passed away, the hour of their departure had been that +of the increased domination of passion, and far from her whose beauty +was ever present to his mind, his imagination had drawn and lingered on +such pictures that, assured as he was they could never be realized, he +finally resolved to court death wherever it might present itself. + +Restored thus unexpectedly to the presence of her who had been the +unceasing subject of his thoughts, and under circumstances so well +calculated to inflame his imagination, it cannot appear wonderful that +Gerald should have looked forward to his approaching interview with +emotions of the intensest kind. How fated, too, seemed the reunion. He +had quitted Matilda with the firm determination never to behold her +more, yet, by the very act of courting that death which would fully have +accomplished his purpose, he had placed himself in the position he most +wished to avoid. Presuming that Major Montgomerie, who had never alluded +to Frankfort as his home, was still with his niece, a resident in the +distant State in which he had left them, he had gladly heard Colonel +Forrester name the Kentucky capital as the place of his destination; +for, deep and maddening as was his passion for Matilda, no earthly +considerations could have induced him voluntarily to have sought her. +Even since his arrival in Frankfort, it had been a source of consolation +to him to feel that he was far removed from her who could have made him +forget that, although the heart may wither and die, while self-esteem +and an approving conscience remain to us, the soul shares not in the +same decay--confesses not the same sting. Could he even have divined +that in the temple to which his curiosity had led him, he should have +beheld the being on whose image he doted, even while he shunned it, he +would have avoided her as a pestilence. + +The result of this terrible struggle of his feelings was a determination +to see her once more--to yield up his whole soul to the intoxication of +her presence, and then, provided she should refuse to unite her fate to +his, unhampered by the terrible condition of past days, to tear himself +from her for ever. + +Strong in this resolution, Gerald, to whom the hours had appeared as +days since his rising, quitted Frankfort about his usual time, and, in +order to avoid observation, took the same retired and circuitous route +by which he had reached the valley the preceding evening. As he +descended into the plain, the light from the window of the temple was +again perceptible. In a few minutes he was in the room. + +"Gerald--my own Gerald," exclaimed Matilda, as, carefully closing the +door after her lover, she threw herself into his embrace. Alas, weak +man! Like the baseless fabric of a dream, disappeared all the lately +formed resolutions of the youth. + +"Yes, Matilda--your own Gerald. Come what will, henceforth I am yours." + +A pause of some moments ensued, during which each felt the beating of +the other's heart. + +"Will you swear it, Gerald?" at length whispered Matilda. + +"I will--I do swear it." + +There was a sudden kindling of the dark eye of the American, and an +outswelling of the full bust, that seemed to betoken exultation in the +power of her beauty; but this was quickly repressed, and, sinking on the +sofa at the side of her lover, her whole countenance was radiant with +the extraordinary expression Gerald had, for the first time, witnessed +while she lingered on the arm of his uncle, Colonel D'Egville. + +"Gerald," she said tenderly, "confirm the oath which is to unite us +heart and soul in one eternal destiny. Swear upon this sacred volume, +that your hand shall avenge the wrongs of your Matilda--of your wife. +Ha! your wife--think of that," she added with sudden energy. + +Gerald caught the book eagerly to his lips. "I swear it Matilda,--he +shall die." + +But scarcely had he sworn, when a creeping chill passed through his +frame. His features lost all their animation, and, throwing away the +book on which the impious oath had been taken, he turned away his face +from Matilda, and sinking his head upon his breast, groaned and wept +bitterly. + +"What! already, Gerald, do you repent? Nay, tell me not that one thus +infirm of purpose, can be strong of passion. You love me not, else would +the wrongs of her you love arm you with the fiercest spirit of vengeance +against him who has so deeply injured her. But if you repent, it is but +to absolve you from the oath, and then the deed must be my own." + +The American spoke in tones in which reproach, expostulation, and +wounded affection, were artfully and touchingly blended, and as she +concluded, she too dropped her head upon her chest and sighed. + +"Nay, Matilda, you do me wrong. It is one thing to swerve from the +guilty purpose to which your too seductive beauty has won my +soul,--another, to mourn as man should mourn, the hour when virtue, +honor, religion, all the nobler principles in which my youth has been +nurtured, have proved too weak to stem the tide of guilty passion. You +say I love you not!" and he laughed bitterly. "What greater proof would +you require than the oath I have just taken?" + +"Its fulfilment," said Matilda impressively. + +"It shall be fulfilled," he returned quickly; "but at least deny me not +the privilege of cursing the hour when crime of so atrocious a dye +could be made so familiar to my soul." + +"Crime is a word too indiscriminately bestowed," said Matilda, after a +momentary pause. "What the weak in mind class with crime, the strong +term virtue." + +"Virtue! what, to spill the blood of a man who has never injured me; to +become a hired assassin, the price of whose guilt is the hand of her who +instigates to the deed? If this be virtue, I am indeed virtuous." + +"Never injured you!" returned the American, while she bent her dark eyes +reproachfully upon those of the unhappy Gerald. "Has he not injured +_me_?--injured beyond all power of reparation, her who is to be the +partner of your life?" + +"Nay, Matilda," and Gerald again passionately caught and enfolded her to +his heart, "that image alone were sufficient to mould me to your will, +even although I had not before resolved. And yet," he pursued, after a +short pause, "how base, how terrible to slay an unsuspecting enemy! +Would we could meet in single combat--and why not? Yes it can, it shall +be so. Fool that I was not to think of it before. Matilda, my own love, +rejoice with me, for there is a means by which your honor may be +avenged, and my own soul unstained by guilt. I will seek this man, and +fasten a quarrel upon him. What say you, Matilda--speak to me, tell me +that you consent." Gerald gasped with agony. + +"Never, Gerald!" she returned, with startling impressiveness, while the +color, which during the warm embrace of her lover had returned to it +once more, fled from her cheek. "To challenge him would be but to ensure +your own doom, for few in the army of the United States equal him in the +use of the pistol or the small sword; and, even were it otherwise," she +concluded, her eye kindling into a fierce expression, "were he the +veriest novice in the exercise of both, my vengeance would be +incomplete, did he not go down to his grave with all his sins on his +head. No, no, Gerald, in the fulness of the pride of existence must he +perish. He must not dream of death until he feels the blow that is aimed +at his heart." + +The agitation of Matilda was profound beyond anything she had ever yet +exhibited. Her words were uttered in tones that betrayed a fixed and +unbroken purpose of the soul, and when she had finished, she threw her +face upon the bosom of her lover, and ground her teeth together with a +force that showed the effect produced upon her imagination by the very +picture of the death she had drawn. + +A pause of some moments ensued. Gerald was visibly disconcerted, and the +arm which encircled the waist of the revengeful woman dropped, as if in +disappointment, at his side. + +"How strange and inconsistent are the prejudices of man," resumed +Matilda, half mournfully, half in sarcasm; "here is a warrior--a spiller +of human life by profession; his sword has been often dyed in the +heart's blood of his fellow man, and yet he shudders at the thought of +adding one murder more to the many already committed. What child-like +weakness!" + +"Murder! Matilda--call you it murder to overcome the enemies of one's +country in fair and honorable combat, and in the field of glory?" + +"Call _you_ it what you will--disguise it under whatever cloak you +may--it is no less murder. Nay, the worst of murders, for you but do the +duty of the hireling slayer. In cold blood, and for a stipend, do you +put an end to the fair existence of him who never injured you in thought +or deed, and whom, under other circumstances, you would perhaps have +taken to your heart in friendship." + +"This is true, but the difference of the motive, Matilda! The one +approved of heaven and of man, the other alike condemned of both." + +"Approved of man, if you will; but that they have the sanction of +heaven, I deny. Worldly policy and social interests alone have drawn the +distinction, making the one a crime, the other a virtue; but tell me not +that an all-wise and just God sanctions and approves the slaying of his +creatures, because they perish, not singly at the will of one man, but +in thousands and tens of thousands at the will of another. What is there +more sacred in the brawls of kings and potentates, that the blood they +cause to be shed in torrents for some paltry breach of etiquette, should +sit more lightly on their souls than the few solitary drops, spilt by +the hand of revenge, on that of him whose existence is writhing under a +sense of acutest injury?" + +The energy with which she expressed herself, communicated a +corresponding excitement to her whole manner and person. Her eye +sparkled and dilated, and the visible heaving of her bosom told how +strongly her own feelings entered into the principles which she had +advocated. Never did her personal beauty shine forth more triumphantly +or seducingly than at the moment when her lips were giving utterance to +sentiments from which the heart recoiled. + +"Oh Matilda," sighed Gerald, "with what subtlety of argument do you seek +to familiarize my soul with crime. But the attempt is vain. Although my +hand is pledged to do your will, my heart must ever mourn its guilt." + +"Foolish Gerald," said Matilda; "why should that seem guilt to you, a +man, which to me, a woman, is but justice; but that unlike me you have +never entered into the calm consideration of the subject. Yes," she +pursued with greater energy, "what you call subtlety of argument is but +force of conviction. For two long years have I dwelt upon the deed, +reasoning, and comparing, until at length each latent prejudice has been +expelled, and to avenge my harrowing wrongs appeared a duty as +distinctly marked as any one contained in the decalogue. You saw me +once, Gerald, when my hand shrank not from what you term the assassin's +blow, and had you not interfered then, the deed would not now remain to +be accomplished." + +"Oh, why did I interfere? why did my evil genius conduct me to such a +scene. Then had I lived at least in ignorance of the fearful act." + +"Nay, Gerald, let it rather be matter of exultation with you that you +did. Prejudiced as you are, this hand (and she extended an arm so +exquisitely formed that one would scarce even have submitted it to the +winds of Heaven) might not seem half so fair, had it once been dyed in +human blood. Besides who so proper to avenge a woman's wrongs upon her +destroyer, as the lover and the husband to whom she has plighted her +faith for ever? No, no, it is much better as it is and fate seems to +have decreed that it should be so, else why the interruption by yourself +on that memorable occasion, and why, after all your pains to avoid me, +this our final union, at a moment when the wretch is about to return to +his native home, inflated with pride and little dreaming of the fate +that awaits him.--Surely, Gerald, you will admit there is something more +than mere chance in this?" + +"About to return," repeated Grantham shuddering. "When, Matilda?" + +"Within a week at the latest--perhaps within three days. Some +unimportant advantage which he has gained on the frontier, has been +magnified by his generous fellow citizens into a deed of heroism, and, +from information conveyed to me, by a trusty and confidential servant, I +find he has obtained leave of absence, to attend a public entertainment +to be given in Frankfort, on which occasion a magnificent sword is to be +presented to him. Never, Gerald," continued Matilda, her voice dropping +into a whisper, while a ghastly smile passed over and convulsed her +lips, "never shall he live to draw that sword. The night of his triumph +is that which I have fixed for mine." + +"An unimportant advantage upon the frontier," asked Gerald eagerly and +breathlessly. "To what frontier, Matilda, do you allude?" + +"The Niagara," was the reply. + +"Are you quite sure of this?" + +"So sure that I have long known he was there," returned Matilda. + +Gerald breathed more freely--but again he questioned: + +"Matilda, when first I saw you last night, you were gazing intently upon +yon portrait, (he pointed to that part of the temple where the picture +hung suspended), and it struck me that I had an indistinct recollection +of the features." + +"Nothing more probable," returned the American, answering his searching +look with one of equal firmness. "You cannot altogether have forgotten +Major Montgomerie." + +"Nay, the face struck me not as his. May I look at it?" + +"Assuredly. Satisfy yourself." + +Gerald quitted the sofa, took up the light, and traversing the room +raised the gauze curtain that covered the painting. It was indeed the +portrait of the deceased Major, habited in full uniform. + +"How strange," he mused, "that so vague an impression should have been +conveyed to my mind last night, when now I recal without difficulty +those well remembered features," Gerald sighed as he recollected under +what different circumstances he had first beheld that face, and dropping +the curtain once more, crossed the room and flung himself at the side of +Matilda. + +"For whom did you take it, if not for Major Montgomerie?" asked the +American after a pause, and again her full dark eye was bent on his. + +"Nay, I scarcely know myself, yet I had thought it had been the portrait +of him I have sworn to destroy." + +There was a sudden change of expression in the countenance of Matilda, +but it speedily passed away, and she said with a faint smile, + +"Whether is it more natural to find pleasure in gazing on the features +of those who have loved, or those who have injured us?" + +"Then whose was the miniature on which you so intently gazed, on that +eventful night at Detroit?" asked Gerald. + +"That," said Matilda quickly, and paling as she spoke--"that was +_his_--I gazed on it only the more strongly to detest the original--to +confirm the determination I had formed to destroy him." + +"If _then_," returned the youth, "why not _now_--may I not see that +portrait, Matilda? May I not acquire some knowledge of the unhappy man +whose blood will so shortly stain my soul?" + +"Impossible," she replied, "The miniature I have since destroyed. While +I thought the original within reach of my revenge, I could bear to gaze +upon it, but no sooner had I been disappointed in my aim, than it became +loathsome to me as the sight of some venomous reptile, and I destroyed +it." This was said with undisguised bitterness. + +Gerald sighed deeply. Again he encircled the waist of his companion and +one of her fair, soft, velvet hands was pressed in his. + +"Matilda," he observed, "deep indeed must be the wrong that would prompt +the heart of woman to so terrible a hatred. When we last parted, you +gave me but an indistinct and general outline of the injury you had +sustained. Tell me now all--tell me everything," he continued with +energy, "that can infuse a portion of the hatred which fills your soul +into mine, that my hand may be firmer--my heart more hardened to the +deed." + +"The story of my wrongs must be told in a few words, for I cannot bear +to linger on it," commenced the American, again turning deadly pale, +while her quivering lips and trembling voice betrayed the excitement of +her feelings. The monster was the choice of my heart--judge how much so +when I tell you that, confiding in _his_ honor, and in the assurance +that our union would take place immediately, I surrendered to him +_mine_. A constant visitor at Major Montgomerie's, whose brother officer +he was, we had ample opportunities of being together. We were looked +upon in society as affianced lovers, and in fact it was the warmest wish +of Major Montgomerie that we should be united. A day had even been fixed +for the purpose, and it wanted, but eight and forty hours of the time, +when an occurrence took place which blasted all prospect of our union +for ever. + +"I have already told you, I think," resumed Matilda, "that this little +temple had been exclusively erected for my own use. Here however my +false lover had constant ingress, and being furnished with a key, was in +the habit of introducing himself at hours when having taken leave of the +family for the evening, he was supposed by Major Montgomerie and the +servants to have retired to his own home. On the occasion to which I +have just alluded, I had understood from him some business, connected +with our approaching marriage, would detain him in the town to an +hour too advanced to admit of his paying me his usual visit. Judge my +surprise, and indeed my consternation, when at a late hour of the night +I heard the lock of the door turn, and saw my lover appear at the +entrance." + +There was a short pause, and Matilda again proceeded. + +"Scarcely had he shown himself, when he again vanished, closing the door +with startling violence. I sprang from the sofa and flew forth after +him, but in vain. He had already departed, and with a heart sinking +under an insurmountable dread of coming evil, I once more entered the +temple, and throwing myself upon the sofa, gave vent to my feelings in +an agony of tears." + +"But why his departure, and whence your consternation?" asked Gerald, +whose curiosity had been deeply excited. + +"I was not alone," resumed Matilda, in a deep and solemn voice. "When he +entered, I was hanging on the neck of another." + +Gerald gave a half start of dismay, his arm dropped from the waist of +the American, and he breathed heavily and quickly. + +Matilda remarked the movement, and a sickly and half scornful smile +passed over her pale features. "Before we last parted, Gerald, I told +you, not only that I was in no way connected with Major Montgomerie by +blood, but that I was the child of obscure parents." + +"What then?" + +"The man on whose neck I hung was my own father." + +"It was Desborough!" said the youth, with an air and in a voice of +extreme anguish. + +"It was," returned Matilda, her face crimsoning as she reluctantly +acknowledged the parentage. "But how knew you it?" + +"Behold the proof!" exclaimed Gerald, with uncontrollable bitterness, as +he drew from his bosom the portrait of a child which, from its striking +resemblance, could be taken for no other than her to whom he now +presented it. + +"This is indeed mine," said Matilda, mournfully. "It was taken for me, +as I have since understood, in the very year when I was laid an orphan +and a stranger at the door of that good man, who, calling himself my +uncle, has been to me through life a more than father. Thank God," she +pursued, with great animation, her large, dark eyes upturned, and +sparkling through the tears that forced themselves upwards, "thank God, +he at least lives not to suffer through the acts of his adopted child. +Where got you this, Gerald?" she proceeded, when, after a short struggle +she had succeeded in overcoming her emotion. + +Gerald, who in his narrative of events, had purposely omitted all +mention of Desborough, now detailed the occurrence at the hut, and +concluded what the reader already knows, by stating that he had observed +and severed from the settler, as he slept heavily on the floor, the +portrait in question, which, added to the previous declaration of +Matilda as to the obscurity of her birth, connected with other +circumstances on board his gun-boat, on his trip to Buffalo, had left an +impression little short of certainty that he was indeed the father of +the woman whom he so wildly loved. + +For some minutes after this explanation there was a painful silence, +which neither seemed anxious to interrupt. At length Gerald asked: + +"But what had a circumstance, so capable of explanation, to do with the +breaking off of your engagement, Matilda? or did he, more proud--perhaps +I should say less debased--than myself, shrink from uniting his fate +with the daughter of a murderer?" + +"True," said Matilda, musingly; "you have said, I think, that he slew +your father. This thirst for revenge, then, would seem hereditary. +_That_ is the only, because it is the noblest, inheritance I would owe +to such a being." + +"But your affair with your lover, Matilda--how terminated that?" +demanded Gerald, with increasing paleness and in a faltering tone. + +"In his falsehood and my disgrace. Early the next morning I sent to him, +and bade him seek me in the temple at the usual hour. He came, but it +was only to blast my hopes--to disappoint the passion of the woman who +doated upon him. He accused me of vile intercourse with a slave, and +almost maddened me with ignoble reproaches. It was in vain that I swore +to him most solemnly, the man he had seen was my father--a being whom +motives of prudence compelled me to receive in private, even though my +heart abhorred and loathed the relationship between us. He treated my +explanation with deriding contempt, bidding me either produce that +father within twenty-four hours, or find some easier fool to persuade, +that one wearing the hue and features of the black, could by human +possibility be the parent of a white woman. Again I explained the +seeming incongruity, by urging that the hasty and imperfect view he had +taken was of a mask, imitating the features of a negro, which my father +had brought with him as a disguise, and which he had hastily resumed on +hearing the noise of the key in the door. I even admitted as an excuse +for seeing him thus clandestinely, the lowly origin of my father and the +base occupation he followed of a treacherous spy, who, residing in the +Canadas, came, for the mere consideration of gold, to sell political +information to the enemies of the country that gave him asylum and +protection. I added that his visit to me was to extort money, under a +threat of publishing our consanguinity, and that dread of his (my +lover's) partiality being decreased by the disclosure, had induced me to +throw my arms, in the earnestness of entreaty, upon his neck, and +implore his secresy; promising to reward him generously for his silence. +I moreover urged him, if he still doubted, to make inquiry of Major +Montgomerie, and ascertain from him whether I was not indeed the niece +of his adoption, and not of his blood. Finally, I humbled myself in the +dust, and, like a fawning reptile, clasped his knees in my arms, +entreating mercy and justice. But no," and the voice of Matilda grew +deeper, and her form became more erect; "neither mercy nor justice dwelt +in that hard heart, and he spurned me rudely from him. Nothing short of +the production of him he persisted in calling my vile paramour, would +satisfy him; but my ignoble parent had received from me the reward of +his secresy, and he had departed once more to the Canadas. And thus," +pursued Matilda, her voice trembling with emotion, "was I made the +victim of the most diabolical suspicion that ever haunted the breast of +man." + +Gerald was greatly affected. His passion for Matilda seemed to increase +in proportion with his sympathy for her wrongs, and he clasped her +energetically to his heart. + +"Finding him resolute in attaching to me the debasing imputation," +pursued the American, "it suddenly flashed upon my mind that this was +but a pretext to free himself from his engagement, and that he was glad +to accomplish his object through the first means that offered. Oh, +Gerald, I cannot paint the extraordinary change that came over my +feelings at this thought! much less give you an idea of the rapidity +with which that change was effected. One moment before, and, although +degraded and unjustly accused, I had loved him with all the ardor of +which a woman's heart is capable: _now_ I hated, loathed, detested him; +and had he sunk at my feet, I would have spurned him from me with +indignation and scorn. I could not but be conscious that the very act of +having yielded myself up to him, had armed my lover with the power to +accuse me of infidelity, and the more I lingered on the want of +generosity such a suspicion implied, the more rooted became my dislike, +the more profound my contempt for him, who could thus repay so great a +proof of confidingness and affection. + +"It was even while I lay grovelling at his feet," pursued Matilda, after +a momentary pause, during which she evinced intense agitation, "that +this sudden change (excited by this most unheard-of injustice) came over +my mind--I rose and stood before him; then asked, in a voice in which no +evidence of passion could be traced, what excuse he meant to make to +Major Montgomerie for having thus broken off his engagement. He started +at my sudden calmness of manner, but said that he thought it might be as +well for my sake to name what I had already stated to him in regard to +the obscurity of my birth, as a plea for his seceding from the +connexion. I told him that, under all the circumstances, I thought this +most advisable, and then, pointing to the door, bade him be gone, and +never, under any pretext whatever, again to insult me with his presence. +When he had departed, I burst into a paroxysm of tears; but they were +tears shed not for the loss of him I now despised, but of wild sorrow at +my unmerited degradation. That conflict over, the weakness had for ever +passed away, and never, since that hour, has tear descended cheek of +mine, associated with the recollection of the villain who had thus dared +to trifle with a heart the full extent of whose passions he has yet to +learn." + +There was a trembling of the whole person of Matilda which told how much +her feelings had been excited by the recollection of what she narrated, +and Gerald, as he gazed upon her beautiful form, could not but wonder at +the apathy of the man who could thus have heartlessly thrown it from him +for ever. + +"Had the injury terminated here," resumed Matilda, "bitter as my +humiliation was, my growing dislike for him who had so ungenerously +inflicted it, might have enabled me to endure it. But, not satisfied +with destroying the happiness of her who had sacrificed all for his +sake, my perfidious lover had yet a blow in reserve for me, compared +with which his antecedent conduct was mercy. Gerald," she continued, as +she pressed his arm with a convulsive grasp, "will you believe that the +monster had the infamy to confide to one of his most intimate +associates, that his rupture with me was occasioned by his having +discovered me in the arms of a slave--of one of those vile beings +communion with whom my soul in any sense abhorred? How shall I describe +the terrible feeling that came over my insulted heart at that moment. +But no, no--description were impossible. This associate--this friend of +his--dared on the very strength of this infamous imputation, to pollute +my ear with his disrespectful passion, and when, in a transport of +contempt and anger, I spurned him from me, he taunted me with that which +I believed confined to the breast, as it had been engendered only in the +suspicion, of my betrayer. Oh! if it be dreadful to be accused by those +whom we have loved in intimacy, how much more is it to know that they +have not had even the common humanity to conceal our supposed weakness +from the world. From that moment revenge took possession of my soul, and +I swore that my destroyer should perish by the hand of her whose +innocence and whose peace he had blasted for ever. + +"Shortly after this event," resumed Matilda, "my base lover was ordered +to join his regiment, then stationed at Detroit. A year passed away, and +during that period my mind pondered unceasingly on the means of +accomplishing my purpose of revenge; and so completely did I devote +myself to a cool and unprejudiced examination of the subject, that what +the vulgar crowd term guilt, appeared to me plain virtue. On the war +breaking out, Major Montgomerie was also ordered to Detroit, and thither +I entreated him to suffer me to accompany him. He consented, for knowing +nothing of the causes which had turned my love into gall, he thought it +not improbable that a meeting with my late lover might be productive of +a removal of his prejudices, and our consequent reunion. Little did he +dream that it was with a view to plunge a dagger into my destroyer's +false heart, that I evinced so much eagerness to undertake so long and +so disagreeable a Journey. + +"Little more remains to be added," pursued Matilda, as she fixed her +dark eyes with a softened expression on those of Gerald, "since with the +occurrences there you are already sufficiently acquainted. Yet there is +one point upon which I would explain myself. When I first became your +prisoner, my mind had been worked up to the highest pitch of +determination, and in my captor I at first beheld but an evil genius who +had interposed himself between me and my just revenge, when on the very +eve of its consummation. Hence my petulance and impatience while in the +presence of your noble General." + +"And whence that look, Matilda, that peculiar glance, which you bestowed +upon me even within the same hour?" + +"Because in your frank and fearless mien I saw that manly honor and +fidelity, the want of which had undone me." + +"Then if so, why the cold, the mortifying reserve, you manifested when +we met at dinner at my uncle's table?" + +"Because I had also recollected that, degraded as I was, I ought not to +seek the love of an honorable man, and that to win you to my interest +would be of no avail, as, separated by the national quarrel, you could +not by any possibility be near to aid me in my plans." + +"Then," said Gerald reproachfully, "it was merely to make me an +instrument of vengeance that you sought me. Unkind Matilda!" + +"Nay, Gerald--recollect, that then I had not learnt to know you as I do +now--I will not deny that when first I saw you, a secret instinct told +me you were one whom I would have deeply loved had I never loved before; +but betrayed and disappointed as I had been, I looked upon all men with +a species of loathing--my kind, good, excellent more than father, +excepted--and yet, Gerald, there were moments when I wished even him +dead" (Gerald started)--"yes! dead--because I knew the anguish that +would crush his heart, if he should ever learn that the false brand of +the assassin had been affixed to the brow of his adopted child." Matilda +sighed profoundly, and then resumed. "Later, however, when the absence +of its object had in some degree abated the keenness of my thirst for +revenge, and when more frequent intercourse had made me acquainted with +the generous qualities of your mind, I loved you, Gerald, although I +would not avow it, with a fervor I had never believed myself a second +time capable of entertaining." + +Again the countenance of Matilda was radiant with the expression just +alluded to by her lover. Gerald gazed at her as though his very being +hung upon the continuance of that fascinating influence, and again he +clasped her to his heart. + +"Matilda! oh, my own betrothed Matilda!" he murmured. + +"Yes, your own betrothed," repeated the American, highly excited, "the +wife of your affection and your choice, who has been held up to calumny +and scorn. Think of that, Gerald; she on whose fond bosom you are to +repose your aching head, she who glories in her beauty only because it +is beauty in your eyes, has been betrayed, accused of a vile passion for +a slave; yet he--the fiend who has done this grievous wrong--he who has +stamped your wife with ignominy, and even published her shame--still +lives. Within a week," she resumed in a voice hoarse from exhaustion, +"yes, within a week, Gerald he will be here--perhaps to deride and +contemn you for the choice you have made." + +"Within a week he dies," exclaimed the youth. "Matilda, come what will, +he dies. Life is death without you, and with you even crime may sit +lightly on my soul. But we will fly far from the habitations of men. The +forest shall be my home, and when the past recurs to me you shall smile +upon me with that smile, look upon me with that look, and I will forget +all. Yes," he pursued, with a fierce excitement snatching up the holy +book, and again carrying it to his lips, "once more I repeat my oath. He +who has thus wronged you, my own Matilda, dies--dies by the hand of +Gerald Grantham--of your affianced husband." + +There was another long embrace, after which the plan of operations was +distinctly explained and decided upon. They then separated for the +night--the infatuated Gerald, with a load of guilt at his heart no +effort of his reason could remove, returning by the route he had +followed on the preceding evening to his residence in the town. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + + +Leaving the lost Gerald for a time to all the horrors of his position, +in which it would be difficult to say whether remorse or passion (each +intensest of its kind) predominated, let us return to the scene where we +first introduced him to the reader, and take a review of the military +events passing in that quarter. + +After the defeat of the British columns at Sandusky, so far from any +renewed attempts being made to interrupt the enemy in his strongholds, +it became a question whether the position on the Michigan frontier could +be much longer preserved. To the perseverance and promptitude of the +Americans, in bringing new armies into the field, we have already had +occasion to allude; but there was another quarter in which their +strength had insensibly gathered, until it eventually assumed an aspect +that carried apprehension to every heart. Since the loss of their +flotilla at Detroit, in the preceding year, the Americans had commenced +with vigour to equip one at Buffalo, which was intended to surpass the +naval force on Lake Erie; and so silently and cautiously had they +accomplished this task, that it was scarcely known at Amherstburg that a +squadron was in the course of preparation, when that squadron, to which +had been added the schooner captured from Gerald Grantham the preceding +autumn, suddenly appeared off the harbor, defying their enemies to the +combat. But the English vessels were in no condition to cope with so +powerful an enemy, and although many a gallant spirit burned to be led +against those who so evidently taunted them, the safety of the garrisons +depended too much on the issue, for that issue to be lightly tempted. + +But misfortune was now beginning to overcast the hitherto fair prospects +of the British arms in the Western District of the Canadas; and what the +taunts of an enemy, triumphing in the consciousness of a superior +numerical force, could not effect, an imperative and miserably +provided-for necessity eventually compelled. Maintaining as they did a +large body of wild and reckless warriors, together with their families, +it may be naturally supposed the excesses of these people were not few; +but it would have required one to have seen, to have believed, the +prodigal waste of which they were often guilty. Acknowledging no other +law than their own will, following no other line of conduct than that +suggested by their own caprice, they had as little respect for the +Canadian inhabitant as they would have entertained for that of the +American enemy. And hence it resulted, that if an Indian preferred a +piece of fresh, to the salted meat daily issued from the commissariat, +nothing was more common than for him to kill the first head of cattle he +found grazing on the skirt of the forest, secure the small portion he +wanted, and leave the remainder to serve as carrion to the birds of prey +of the country. Nay, to such an extent was this wanton spoliation +carried, that instances have repeatedly occurred wherein cattle have +been slain and left to putrify in the sun, merely because a warrior +found it the most convenient mode by which to possess himself of a +powder-horn. All this was done openly--in the broad face of day, and in +the full cognisance of the authorities; yet was there no provision made +to meet the difficulties so guilty a waste was certain eventually to +entail. At length the effect began to make itself apparent, and it was +shortly after the first appearance of the American fleet that the +scarcity of food began to be so severely felt as to compel the English +squadron, at all hazards, to leave the port in search of supplies. + +At this period, the vessel described in the commencement of our story, +as having engaged so much of the interest and attention of all parties, +had just been launched and rigged. Properly armed she was not, for there +were no guns of the description used on ship-board wherewith to arm her; +but now that the occasion became imperative, all nicety was disregarded +in the equipment; and guns that lately bristled from the ramparts of the +fort were soon to be seen protruding their long and unequal necks from +the ports. She was a gallant ship, notwithstanding the incongruity of +her armament, and had her brave crew possessed but the experience of +those who are nursed on the salt waves of ocean, might have fought a +more fortunate fight (a better or a braver was impossible) than she did. +But in the whole of the English fleet there could not be counted +three-score able or experienced seamen; the remainder were children of +the Canadian Lakes, warm with the desire to distinguish themselves in +the eyes of their more veteran European companions, but without the +knowledge to make their enthusiasm sufficiently available. The +Americans, on the contrary, were all sons of the ocean and equally +brave. + +It was a glorious day in September, the beautiful September of Canada, +when the gallant Commodore Barclay sailed with his fleet, ostensibly in +fulfilment of the mission for which it was dispatched, but in reality +under the firm expectation of being provoked to action by his stronger +and better disciplined enemy. To say that he would have sought that +enemy, under the disadvantages beneath which he knew himself to labor, +would be to say that which would reflect little credit on his judgment; +but, although not in a condition to hold forth the flag of defiance, +where there was an inferiority in all but the skill of the leader and +the personal courage of the men, he was not one to shun the battle that +should be forced upon him. Still to him it was an anxious moment, +because the fame of other days hung upon an issue over which no efforts +of his own could hold mastery; and as he gazed at his armless sleeve, he +sighed for the presence of those whose agency had coupled the +recollection of past victory with that mutilated proof of honorable +conduct. He knew, moreover, the magnitude of the stake for which he was +thus compelled to play, and that defeat to him would be the loss of the +whole of the Western District. While the British ascendancy could be +maintained on the lake, there was little fear, lined as the forests were +with Indian warriors, that the Americans would push any considerable +force beyond the boundaries they had assigned themselves at Sandusky and +on the Miami; but a victory once obtained by their fleet, there could be +nothing to oppose the passage of their army in vessels and boats across +the lake. + +Such were the thoughts that filled the mind of the Commodore (in common +with all who calmly reasoned on the subject), as he crossed the bar that +separated him from his enemy; but neither in look, nor word, nor deed, +was there aught to reveal what was passing in the inward man; and when +later the hostile fleet was signalized as bearing down upon them, he +gave his order to prepare for action, in the animated voice of one who +finds certain victory within his reach, and exultingly hastens to secure +it. + +The events of that day the page of history has already recorded, in +terms alike flattering to the conqueror and the conquered. Let it +suffice that the Americans fought with determined bravery, and +eventually triumphed. + +The result of the unlucky contest was, as had been anticipated, to open +a free passage across the lake to the American armies, whose advance by +land had been so repeatedly and effectually checked on former occasions, +as to leave them little inclination for a renewal of an attempt in that +quarter. Now however that they could forward a fleet of boats under +cover of the guns of their squadron, to the very outworks of +Amherstburg, the difficulty was at once removed; and an overwhelming +army of not less than ten thousand men, was speedily assembled near +Sandusky, with a view to the final invasion of Amherstburg and +consequent recapture of Detroit. + +Under these disheartening circumstances--the want of provisions being +daily more and more felt by the troops and inhabitants--it became +necessary to hold a council of war, to determine upon the course that +should be pursued. Accordingly the whole of the chiefs and officers of +the garrison met in the hall already described in the beginning of our +narrative, when it was proposed by General Proctor, at the conclusion of +a speech in which the increasing difficulties and privations of the +garrison were emphatically enumerated, that the fortifications should be +razed to the ground, the dock yards and other public works destroyed, +and the allied forces of English and Indians make the best of their way +by land to join the centre division of the army on the Niagara frontier. + +This was warmly opposed by Tecumseh, but despite his eloquence and +remonstrance, a few days later, and the work of destruction was entered +upon and soon completed. The little British army, scarcely exceeding +eight hundred men of all arms, commenced its march at night, lighted by +the flames of the barracks which had given them shelter for the last +time. As they passed the fort of Detroit the next day, dense columns of +smoke and flame were to be seen rising high in air, from the various +public edifices, affording a melancholy evidence of the destruction +which usually tracks a retreating army. Many an American inhabitant +looked on at the work of destruction, as if he would fain have arrested +the progress of an element which at once defaced the beauty of the town, +and promised much trouble and inconvenience to those whom they knew to +be at hand, for their final deliverance from the British yoke. But the +garrison continued stern spectators of the ruin they had been compelled +to effect, until the flames had attained a power which rendered then +suppression an impossibility; then and then only, did they quit the +scene of conflagration, and embarking in the boats which had been kept +in readiness for their transport, joined their comrades, who waited for +them on the opposite bank. The two garrisons thus united; the whole +preceded by a large body of Indians, were pushed forward to the position +which had been selected on the Thames, and both shores of the Detroit +were left an unresisting conquest to the Americans. + +Meanwhile, these latter had not been slow in profiting by the important +advantages which had crowned their arms on the lake. On the third day +after the retreat of the British garrison from Amherstburg, a numerous +fleet of large boats was discovered from the town pushing for Hartley's +point, under cover of the united squadrons. Unopposed as these were, +their landing was soon effected, and a few hours later the American +stars were to be seen floating over the still smoking ruins of the +British fortress. Emboldened by the unexpected ease with which he had +rendered himself finally master of a position long coveted, the American +General at once resolved to follow and bring his retreating enemy to +action if possible. A force of five thousand men (fifteen hundred of +whom were mounted rifles) was accordingly pushed forward; and so rapid +and indefatigable was the march of these, that they came up with the +retreating columns before they had succeeded in gaining the village, at +which it was purposed that their final stand should be made. The anxiety +of General Proctor to save the baggage waggons containing his own +personal effects, had been productive of the most culpable delay, and at +the moment when his little army should have been under cover of +entrenchments, and in a position which offered a variety of natural +defensive advantages, they found themselves suddenly overtaken by the +enemy in the heart of a thick wood, where, fatigued by the long and +tedious march they had made under circumstances of great privation, they +had scarcely time to form in the irregular manner permitted by their +broken position, before they found themselves attacked with great spirit +and on all sides, by a force more than quadruple their own. The result +may easily be anticipated. Abandoned by their General, who at the very +first outset, drove his spurs into the flanks of his charger and fled +disgracefully from the scene of action, followed by the whole of his +personal staff, the irregularly formed line of the little British army, +was but ill prepared to make effectual resistance to the almost +invisible enemy by whom it was encompassed; and those whom the rifle had +spared, were to be seen, within an hour from the firing of the first +shot, standing conquered and disarmed, between the closing lines of the +victorious Americans. + +But although the English troops (sacrificed as they must be pronounced +to have been, by their incapable leader) fell thus an easy prey to the +overwhelming force brought against them, so did not their Indian allies, +supported and encouraged as these were by the presence of their beloved +Chieftain. It was with a sparkling eye and a glowing cheek that, just as +the English troops had halted to give unequal battle to their pursuers. +Tecumseh passed along the line, expressing in animated language the +delight he felt at the forthcoming struggle, and when he had shaken +hands with most of the officers he moved into the dense forest where his +faithful bands were lying concealed, with a bounding step that proved +not only how much his heart had been set upon the cast, but how +completely he confided in the result. And who shall say what that result +might not have been even notwithstanding the discomfiture of the English +had the heroic Chieftain been spared to his devoted country! But this +was not fated to be. Early in the action he fell by the hand of a +distinguished leader of the enemy, and his death carried, as it could +not fail to do, the deepest sorrow and dismay into the hearts of his +followers, who although they continued the action long after his fall, +and with a spirit that proved their desire to avenge the loss of their +noble leader, it was evident, wanted the directing genius of him they +mourned to sustain them in their effort. For several days after the +action did they continue to hang upon the American rear, as the army +again retired with its prisoners upon Detroit; but each day their attack +became feebler and feebler, announcing that their numbers were fast +dispersing into the trackless region from which they had been brought, +until finally not a shot was to be heard disturbing the night vigils of +the American sentinels. + +With the defeat of the British army, and the death of Tecumseh, perished +the last hope of the Indians to sustain themselves as a people against +the in-roads of their oppressors. Dispirited and dismayed, they retired +back upon the hunting grounds which still remained to them, and there +gave way both to the deep grief with which every heart was overwhelmed +at the loss of their truly great leader, and to the sad anticipations +which the increasing gloom that clouded the horizon of their prospects +naturally induced. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. + + +The interview so fatal in its results to Gerald's long formed +resolutions of virtuous purpose was followed by others of the same +description, and in the course of these, Matilda, profiting by her +knowledge of the past, had the address so to rivet the chains which +fettered the senses of her lover, by a well-timed, although apparently +unintentional display of the beauty which had enslaved him, that so far +from shrinking from the fulfilment of the dreadful obligation he had +imposed upon himself, the resolution of the youth became more confirmed +as the period for its enactment drew nigher. There were moments when, +his passion worked up to intensity by the ever-varying, over-exciting +picture of that beauty, would have anticipated the condition on which he +was to become possessed of it for ever, but on these occasions the +American would assume an air of wounded dignity, sometimes of deep +sorrow; and alluding to the manner in which her former confidence had +been repaid, reproach him with a want of generosity, in seeking to make +her past weakness a pretext for his present advances. + +At length the day arrived when Gerald--the once high, generous and noble +minded Gerald,--was to steep his soul in guilt--to imbrue his hands in +the life blood of a fellow creature. The seducer of Matilda had arrived, +and even in the hotel in which Grantham resided, the entertainment was +to be given by his approving fellow citizens, in commemoration of the +heroism which had won to him golden opinions from every class. It had +already been arranged that the assassination was to take place on the +departure of their victim from the banquet, and consequently at a moment +when, overcome by the fumes of wine, he would be found incapable of +opposing any serious resistance to their design. The better to +facilitate his close and unperceived approach to the unhappy man, a pair +of cloth shoes had been made for her lover by the white hands of +Matilda, with a sort of hood or capuchin of the same material, to +prevent recognition by any one who might accidentally pass him on the +way to the scene of the contemplated murder. Much as Gerald objected to +it, Matilda had peremptorily insisted on being present herself, to +witness the execution of the deed, and the same description of disguise +had been prepared for herself. In this resolution the American, +independently of her desire to fortify the courage of her lover by her +presence, was actuated by another powerful and fearful motive, which +will be seen presently. + +The private residence of the officer was situated in a remote part of +the town, and skirting that point of the circular ridge of hills where +the lights in the habitation of Matilda had attracted the notice of +Gerald, on the first night of his encounter. To one who viewed it from a +distance, it would have seemed that the summit of the wood-crowned ridge +must be crossed before communication could be held between the two +dwellings which lay as it were back to back, on either side of the +formidable barrier; but on a nearer approach, a fissure in the hill +might be observed, just wide enough to admit of a narrow horse track or +foot path, which wound its sinuous course from the little valley into +the open space that verged upon the town, on gaining which the residence +of the American officer was to be seen rising at the distance of twenty +yards. It was in this path, which had been latterly pointed out to him +by his guilty companion, that Gerald was to await the approach of the +intended victim, who on passing his place of concealment, was to be +cautiously followed and stabbed to the heart ere he could gain his door. + +Fallen as was Gerald from his high estate of honor, it was not without a +deep sense of the atrocity of the act he was about to commit, that he +prepared for its accomplishment. It is true that, yielding to the +sophistry of Matilda's arguments, he was sometimes led to imagine the +avenging of her injuries an imperative duty; but such was his view of +the subject only when the spell of her presence was upon him. When +restored to his calmer and more unbiassed judgment, in the solitude of +his own chamber, conscience resumed her sway, and no plausibility of +pretence could conceal from himself that he was about to become that +vilest of beings--a common murderer. There were moments even when the +dread deed to which he had pledged himself appeared in such hideous +deformity, that he fain would have fled on the instant far from the +influence of her who had incited him to its perpetration; but when the +form of Matilda rose to his mental eye, remorse, conscience, every +latent principle of virtue, dissolved away--and although he no longer +sought to conceal from himself that what he meditated was crime of the +blackest dye, his determination to secure entire possession of that +beauty, even at the accursed price of blood, became but the more +resolute and confirmed. + +The night previous to that fixed for the assassination was passed by the +guilty Gerald in a state of dreadful excitement. Large drops fell from +his forehead in agony, and when he arose at a late hour, his pale, +emaciated features, and wavering step, betrayed how little the mind or +the body had tasted of repose. Accustomed, however, as he had latterly +been, to sustain his sinking spirits by artificial means, he was not +long in having recourse to his wonted stimulants. He called for brandy +to deaden the acuteness of his feelings, and give strength to his +tottering limbs; and when he had drank freely of this, he sallied forth +into the forest, where he wandered during the day, without other aim or +purpose than to hide the brand of guilt, which he almost felt upon his +brow, from the curious gaze of his fellow men. It was dark when he +returned to the hotel, and as, on his way to his own private apartment, +he passed the low large room chiefly used as an ordinary, the loud hum +of voices which met his ear, mingled with the drawing of corks and +ringing of glasses, told him that the entertainment provided for his +unconscious victim had already commenced. Moving hastily on, he gained +his own apartment, and summoning one of the domestics, he directed that +his own frugal meal (the first he had tasted that day) should be brought +up. But even for this he had no appetite, and he had recourse once more +to the stimulant for assistance. As the night drew on he grew more +nervous and agitated, yet without at all wavering from his purpose. At +length ten o'clock struck. It was the hour at which he had promised to +issue forth to join Matilda in the path, there to await the passage of +his victim to his home. He cautiously descended the staircase, and, in +the confusion that reigned among the household, all of whom were too +much occupied with the entertainment within to heed the movements of +individuals, succeeded in gaining the street without notice. The room in +which the dinner was given was on the ground floor, and looked through +numerous low windows into the street, through which Gerald must +necessarily pass to reach the place of his appointment. Sounds of loud +revelry mixed with laughter and the strains of music, now issued from +these, attesting that the banquet was at its height, and the wine fast +taking effect on its several participators. + +A momentary feeling of vague curiosity caused the degraded youth to +glance his eye through one of the uncurtained windows upon the scene +within, but scarcely had he caught an indistinct and confused view of +the company, most of whom glittered in the gay trappings of military +uniforms, when a secret and involuntary dread of distinguishing from his +fellows the man whom he was about to slay, caused him as instantaneously +to turn away. Guilty as he felt himself to be, he could not bear the +thought of beholding the features of the individual he had sworn to +destroy. As there were crowds of the humbler citizens of the place +collected round the windows to view the revelry within, neither his +appearance nor his action had excited surprise; nor, indeed, was it even +suspected, habited as he was in the common garments of the country, that +he was other than a native of the town. + +On gaining the narrow pass or lane, he found Matilda wrapped in her +cloak, beneath which she carried the disguise prepared for both. The +moon was in the last quarter, and as the fleecy clouds passed away from +before it, he could observe that the lips and cheek of the American were +almost livid, although her eyes sparkled with deep mental excitement. +Neither spoke, yet then breathing was heavy and audible to each. Gerald +seated himself on a projection of the hill, and removing his shoes, +substituted those which his companion had wrought for him. He then +assumed the hood, and dropping his head between his hands, continued for +some minutes in that attitude, buried in profound abstraction. + +At length Matilda approached him. She seated herself at his side, threw +her arms around his neck, called him in those rich and searching tones +which were peculiarly her own--her beloved and affianced husband; and +bidding him be firm of purpose, as he valued the lives and happiness of +both, placed in his hand a small dagger, the handle of which was richly +mounted in silver. Gerald clutched the naked weapon with a convulsive +grasp, while a hoarse low groan escaped him, and again he sank his head +in silence upon his chest. + +Nearly an hour had passed in this manner, neither seeking to disturb the +thoughts of the other, nor daring to break the profound silence that +every where prevailed around them. At length a distant and solitary +footstep was heard, and Matilda sprang to her feet, and with her head +thrown eagerly forward, while one small foot alone supported the whole +weight of her inclined body, gazed intently out upon the open space, and +in the direction whence the sounds proceeded. + +"He comes, Gerald, he comes!" she at length whispered in a quick tone. + +Gerald, who had also risen, and now stood looking over the shoulder of +the American, was not slow in discovering the tall figure of a man, +whose outline, cloaked even as it was, bespoke the soldier, moving in an +oblique direction towards the building already described. + +"It is he--too well do I know him," continued Matilda, in the same eager +yet almost inaudible whisper, "and mark how inflated with the incense +which has been heaped upon him this night does he appear. His proud step +tells of the ambitious projects of his vile heart. Little does he +imagine that this arm--and she tightly grasped that which held the fatal +dagger--will crush them for ever in the bud. But hist!" + +The officer was now within a few paces of the path, in the gloom of +which the guilty pair found ample concealment, and as he drew nearer and +nearer, their very breathing was stayed to prevent the slightest chance +of a discovery of their presence. Gerald suffered him to pass some yards +beyond the opening, and advanced with long yet cautious strides across +the grass towards his victim. As he moved thus noiselessly along, he +fancied that there was something in the bearing of the figure that +reminded him of one he had previously known, but he had not time to +pause upon the circumstance for the officer was already within ten yards +of his own door, and the delay of a single moment would not only deprive +him of the opportunity on which he had perilled all in this world and in +the next, but expose himself and his companion to the ignominy of +discovery and punishment. + +A single foot of ground now intervened between him and the unhappy +officer, whom wine, or abstraction, or both, had rendered totally +unconscious of his danger. Already was the hand of Gerald raised to +strike the fatal blow--another moment and it would have descended, but +even in the very act he found his arm suddenly arrested. Turning quickly +to see who it was who thus interfered with his purpose, he beheld +Matilda. + +"One moment stay," she said in a hurried voice; "poor were my revenge +indeed, were he to perish not knowing who planned his death." Then in a +hoarser tone, in which could be detected the action of the fiercest +passions of the human mind, "Slanderer--villain--we meet again." + +Startled by the sound of a familiar voice, the officer turned hastily +round, and seeing all his danger at a single glance, made a movement of +his right hand to his side, as if he would have grasped his sword--but +finding no weapon there, he contented himself with throwing his left arm +forward, covered with the ample folds of his cloak, with a view to the +defence of his person. + +"Yes, Forrester," continued Matilda, in the same impassioned voice, "we +meet again, and mark you," pulling back the disguise from Gerald, "'tis +no vile slave, no sable paramour by whose hand you die, villain," she +pursued, her voice trembling with excitement--"my own arm should have +done the deed, but that he whose service I have purchased with the hand +you rejected and despised, once baulked me of my vengeance when I had +deemed it most secure. But enough! To his heart, Gerald, now that in the +fulness of his wine and his ambition, he may the deeper feel the sting +of death--strike to his heart--what! do you falter--do you turn coward?" + +Gerald neither moved nor spoke; his upraised hand had sunk at his side +at the first address of Matilda to her enemy, and the dagger had fallen +from his hand upon the sward, where it might be seen glittering in the +rays of the pale moon. His head was bent upon his chest in abject shame, +and he seemed as one who had suddenly been turned to stone. + +"Gerald, my husband!" urged Matilda, rapidly changing her tone into that +of earnest persuasion, "wherefore do you hesitate? Am I not your wife, +your own wife, and is not yon monster the wretch who has consigned my +fair fame to obloquy for ever--Gerald!" she added, impetuously. + +But the spell had lost its power, and Gerald continued +immoveable--apparently fixed to the spot on which he stood. + +"Gerald, Gerald!" repeated the officer, with the air of one endeavoring +to recollect. + +At the sound of that voice Gerald looked up. The moon was at that moment +unobscured by a single cloud, and as the eyes of the murderer and his +intended victim met, their recognition was mutual and perfect. + +"I had never expected to see Lieutenant Grantham figuring in the +character of an assassin," said Colonel Forrester, in a voice of deep +and bitter reproach, "still less to find his arm raised against the +preserver of his life. This," he continued, as if speaking to himself, +"will be a bitter tale to recount to his family." + +"Almighty God, have mercy!" exclaimed Gerald as, overcome with shame and +misery, he threw himself upon the earth at its full length, his head +nearly touching the feet of the officer. Then clasping his feet--"Oh, +Colonel Forrester, lost, degraded as I am, believe me when I swear that +I knew not against whom my arm was to be directed. Nay, that you live at +this moment is the best evidence of the truth of what I utter, for I +came with a heart made up to murder. But _your_ blood worlds could not +tempt me to spill." + +"I believe you," said the American feelingly. "Well do I know the arts +of the woman who seems to have lured you into the depths of crime; yet +low as you are fallen, Lieutenant Grantham--much as you have disgraced +your country and profession, I cannot think you would willingly have +sought the life of him who saved your own. And now rise, sir, and gain +the place of your abode, before accident bring other eyes than my own to +be witnesses of your shame. We will discourse of this to-morrow. +Meanwhile, be satisfied with my promise that your attempt shall remain a +secret with myself." + +While he spoke, Colonel Forrester made a movement as if to depart. +Aroused by the apprehension of losing her victim, Matilda, who had +hitherto been an impatient listener, called wildly upon Gerald, who had +now risen, to fulfil his compact; but the youth turned from her with a +movement of disgust, exclaiming, with bitterness--"leave me, woman, +leave me!" + +Matilda looked after him for an instant with an expression of intensest +scorn; then springing to, and snatching up the dagger, which lay +glittering a few paces from the spot on which she stood, she advanced +silently, but rapidly upon her retreating enemy. Colonel Forrester had +gained his threshold, and had already knocked for admittance, when he +heard the deep voice of Matilda at his ear, exclaiming, in a triumphant +tone. + +"Think you twice, then, to escape your doom, traitor?" + +Before he could make an attempt to shield himself, the fatal steel had +entered deep into his side. Uttering a groan, he sank senseless on the +steps, whither Gerald, who had watched the action of his companion, had +flown in the hope of arresting the blow. Confused voices, mingled with +the tramp of feet, were now heard within the hall. Presently the door +opened, and a crowd of servants, chiefly black, appeared with lights. +The view of their bleeding master, added to the disguise of Gerald, and +the expression of triumph visible in the pale countenance of Matilda, at +once revealed the truth. By some the former was borne to his apartment, +while the greater portion busied themselves in securing the two latter, +who, however, made not the slightest effort at resistance, but suffered +themselves to be borne, amid hootings and execrations, from the spot. + +The different groups we have described as being gathered together in +front of the hotel, had dispersed on the breaking up of the party, which +Colonel Forrester, in compliment to those who entertained him, had been +one of the last to quit; so that on passing through the streets, not an +idler was found to swell the sable crowd that bore the wretched +prisoners onward to the common prison of the town. Just as they had +arrived at this latter, and a tall and muscular negro, apparently +enjoying some distinction in his master's household, was about to pull +the bell for admission, a man came running breathlessly to the spot, and +communicated to the negro just mentioned a message, in which the name of +Colonel Forrester was distinctly audible to the ear of Gerald. A +retrograde movement was the immediate consequence of this interruption, +and the party came once more upon the open space they had so recently +quitted. Stupified with the excess of abjectness in which he had +continued plunged, from the moment of his discovery of the identity of +his intended victim, Gerald had moved unconsciously and recklessly +whithersoever his conductors led; but now that he expected to be +confronted face to face with the dying man, as the sudden alteration in +the movement of the party gave him reason to apprehend, he felt for the +first time that his position, bitter as it was, might be rendered even +worse. It was a relief to him, therefore, when he found that, instead of +taking the course which led to the residence of Colonel Forrester, the +head of the party, of which Matilda and himself were the centre, +suddenly diverged into the narrow lane which conducted to the residence +of that unhappy woman. Instead, however, of approaching this, Gerald +remarked that they made immediately for the fatal temple. When they had +reached this, the door was opened by the tall negro above described, +who, with a deference in his manner not less at variance with the +occasion than with the excited conduct of the whole party on their way +to the prison, motioned both his prisoners to enter. They did so, and +the lock having been turned and the key removed, they silently +withdrew. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX. + + +Hours passed away without either of the guilty parties finding courage +or inclination to address the other. The hearts of both were too full +for utterance--and yet did they acknowledge no sympathy in common. +Remorse, shame, fear, regret, simultaneously assailed and weighed down +the mind of Gerald. Triumphant vengeance, unmixed with any apprehension +of self, reigned exclusively in the bosom of Matilda. The intense +passion of the former, like a mist that is dissipated before the strong +rays of the sun, had yielded before the masculine and practical display +of the energetic hate of its object, while on the contrary she, whose +beauty of person was now to him a thing without price, acknowledged no +other feeling than contempt for the vacillating character of her +associate. In this only did they agree, that each looked upon each in +the light of a being sunk in crime--steeped in dishonor--and while the +love of the one was turned to almost loathing at the thought, the other +merely wondered how one so feeble of heart had ever been linked to so +determined a purpose. + +The only light admitted into the temple was through the window already +described, and this was so feeble as scarcely to allow of the more +distant objects in the room being seen. Gradually, as the moon sunk +beneath the forest ridge, the gloom increased, until in the end the +darkness became almost profound. At their first entrance Matilda, +enshrouding herself in the folds of her cloak, had thrown herself upon +the sofa; while Gerald continued to pace up and down the apartment with +hurried steps, and in a state of feeling it would be a vain attempt to +describe. It was now for the first time that, uninfluenced by passion, +the miserable young man had leisure to reflect on the past, and the +chain of fatality which had led to his present disgraceful position. He +recollected the conversation he had held with his brother on the day +succeeding his escape from the storm; and as the pledge which had been +given in his name to his dying father, that no action of his life should +reflect dishonor on his family, now occurred to him in all its force, he +groaned in agony of spirit, less in apprehension of the fate that +awaited him, than in sorrow and in shame that that pledge should have +been violated. By a natural transition of his feelings, his imagination +recurred to the traditions connected with his family, and the dreadful +curse which had been uttered by one on whom his ancestor was said to +have heaped injury to the very extinction of reason--and associating as +he did Matilda's visit to the cottage at Detroit, on the memorable night +when he had unconsciously saved the life of Colonel Forrester, with the +fact of her having previously knelt and prayed upon the grave that was +known to cover the ashes of the unhappy maniac, Ellen Halloway, he felt +a shuddering conviction that she was in some way connected with that +wretched woman. In the intenseness of his new desire to satisfy his +doubts--a desire which in itself partook of the character of the +fatality by which he was beset--he overcame the repugnance he had +hitherto felt to enter into conversation with her, and advancing to the +couch, he seated himself upon its edge at her side. + +"Matilda," he said, after a few moments of silence, "by all the love you +once bore me, I conjure you to answer me one question while there is +time." + +"Fool," returned the American, "I never loved you. A soul like mine +feels passion but once. Hitherto I have played a part, but the drama +approaches to a close, and disguise of plot is no longer necessary. +Gerald Grantham, you have been my dupe. You came a convenient puppet to +my hands, and such I used you until the snapped wire proclaimed you no +longer serviceable--no further." + +Shame, anguish, mortification, all the most humiliating sensations +natural to man--for a moment assailed the breast of the unfortunate and +guilty Grantham, rendering him insensible even to the greater evil which +awaited him. In the bitterness of his agony, he struck his clenched hand +against his forehead, uttering curses upon himself for his weakness, in +one breath, and calling upon his God, in the next, to pardon him for his +crime. + +"This is good," said Matilda. "To see you writhe thus, under the wound +inflicted upon your vanity, is some small atonement for the base +violation of your oath; yet what question would you ask, the solution of +which can so much import one about to figure on the scaffold for a crime +he has not even had the courage to commit?" + +The taunting manner in which the concluding part of the sentence was +conveyed, had the effect of restoring Gerald in some degree to himself, +and he said with considerable firmness: + +"What I ask is of yourself--namely, the relationship, if any, you bear +to those who lie within the mound, on which I beheld you kneeling on the +night of your first attempt on Colonel Forrester's life?" + +"The very recollection of that ill-timed intrusion would prevent me from +satisfying your curiosity, did not something whisper to me that, in so +doing, I shall add another pang to those you already experience," +returned the American, with bitter sarcasm. + +"You are right," said Gerald hurriedly. "My miseries need but the +assurance of your connexion with those mouldering bones to be indeed +complete." + +"Then," said Matilda eagerly, and half raising her head, "your cup of +misery may yet admit of increase. My mother and my father's mother both +sleep within that grave." + +"How knew you this?" demanded Gerald quickly. "Instinct could not have +guided you to the spot, and by your own admission you were taken from +the place of your home while yet a mere child." + +"Not instinct, but my father Desborough, pointed out the spot, as he had +long previously acquainted me with the history of my birth." + +"One question more--your grandmother's name?" + +"Mad Ellen she was called, an English soldier's wife, who died in giving +birth to my father--and now that you are answered, leave me." + +"Almighty Providence!" aspirated Gerald in tones of inconceivable agony, +"it is then as I had feared, and this woman has Destiny chosen to +accomplish my ruin." + +He quitted the sofa, and paced up and down the room in a state of mind +bordering on distraction. The past crowded upon his mind in all the +confused manner of a dream, and, amid the chaos of contending feelings +by which he was beset, one idea only was distinct--namely, that the +wretched woman before him had been but the agent of Fate in effecting +his destruction. Strange as it may appear, the idea, so far from +increasing the acerbity of his feelings, had the tendency to soften his +heart towards her. He beheld in her but a being whose actions had been +fated like his own--and although every vestige of passion had fled, even +although her surpassing beauty had lost its subjugating influence, his +heart yearned towards her as one who, wrecked on the same shore, had +some claim to his sympathy and compassion. All that was now left them +was to make their peace with God, since with man their final account +would be so speedily closed; and with a view to impress her with a sense +of the religious aid from which alone they could hope for consolation, +he again seated himself at her side on the edge of the sofa. + +"Matilda," he said, in a voice in which melancholy and sternness were +blended, "we have been the children of guilt--the victims of our own +evil passions; but God is merciful, and if our penitence be sincere, we +may yet be forgiven in Heaven, although on earth there is no hope--even +if after this we could wish to live. Matilda, let us pray together." + +There was no answer--neither did the slightest movement of her form +indicate consciousness that she was addressed. "Matilda," repeated +Gerald--still there was no answer. He placed his hand upon her cheek, +and thought the touch was cold--he caught her hand, it too was cold and +but for the absence of rigidity he would have deemed her dead. + +Scarcely knowing what he did, yet with an indefinable terror at his +heart, he grasped and shook her by the arm, and again, but with greater +vehemence, pronounced her name. + +"Who calls?" she said, in a faint but deep tone, as she raised her head +slowly from the cushion which supported it. "Ha! I recollect. Tell me," +she added more quickly, "was not the blow well aimed. Marked you how the +traitor fell. Villain, to accuse the woman whose only fault was loving +him too well, with ignominious commerce with a slave!" + +"Wretched woman," exclaimed Gerald with solemn emphasis, "instead of +exulting over the evil we have done, let us rather make our peace with +Heaven, during the few hours we have yet to live. Matilda +Desborough--daughter of a murderer; thyself a murderess--the scaffold +awaits us both." + +"Coward--fool--thou liest," she returned with suddenly awakened energy. +"For one so changeling as thyself the scaffold were befitting, but know, +if I save had the heart to do this deed, I have also had the head to +provide against its consequences--see--feel--." + +One of her cold hands was extended in search of Gerald's. They met, and +a vial placed in the palm of the latter, betrayed the secret of her +previous lassitude and insensibility. + +Even amid all the horrors which environed him, and called so largely for +attention to his own personal danger, Gerald was inexpressibly shocked. + +"What! poisoned?" he exclaimed. + +"Yes--poisoned!" she murmured, and her hand again sank heavily at her +side. + +Gerald dashed the vial away from him to the farther end of the +apartment, and taking the cold hand of the unhappy woman, he continued: + +"Matilda--is this the manner in which you prepare yourself to meet the +presence of your God. What! add suicide to murder?" + +But she spoke not--presently the hand he clasped sank heavily from his +touch. Then there was a spasmodic convulsion of the whole frame. Then +there burst a piercing shriek from her lips, as she half raised herself +in agony from the sofa, and then each limb was set and motionless in the +stern rigidity of death. + +While Gerald was yet bending over the body of his unfortunate companion, +shocked, grieved and agitated beyond all expression, the door of the +temple was unlocked, and a man enveloped in a cloak, and bearing a small +dark lantern, suddenly appeared in the opening. He advanced towards the +spot where Gerald, stupified with the events of the past night, stood +gazing upon the corpse, almost unconscious of the presence of the +intruder. + +"A pretty fix you have got into, Liftenant Grantham," said the well +known voice of Jackson, "and I little calculated, when I advised you to +make love to the Kentucky gals to raise your spirits, that they would +lead you into such a deuced scrape as this." + +"Captain Jackson," said Gerald imploringly; "I am sufficiently aware of +all the enormity of my crime, and am prepared to expiate it; but in +mercy spare the bitterness of reproach." + +"Now as I'm a true Tennessee man, bred and born, I meant no reproach, and +why should I, since you could'nt help her doing it, and he pointed to +Matilda, yet you know its sometimes dangerous to be found in bad +company. Every body might'nt believe you so innocent as we do." + +"Innocent! Captain Jackson," exclaimed Gerald, losing sight of all other +feelings in unfeigned surprise--"I cannot say that I quite understand +you." + +"Why, the meaning's plain enough, I take it. Others might be apt, I say, +to think you had something to do with the thing as well as she, and +therefore its just as well you should make yourself scarce. The Colonel +says he would'nt on any account, you should even be suspected." + +"The Colonel says--not suspected," again exclaimed Gerald with +increasing astonishment--then, suddenly recollecting the situation of +the latter--"tell me," he continued, "is Colonel Forrester in danger--is +his life despaired of?" + +"Worth a dozen dead men yet, or you would'nt see me taking the thing so +coolly. The dagger certainly let the daylight into him, but though the +wound was pretty considerably deep, the doctors say its not mortal. He +thinks it might have been worse if you had not come up, and partly +stopped her arm when she struck at him." + +Gerald was deeply affected by what he had just heard. It was evident +that Colonel Forrester had, with a generosity to which no gratitude of +his own could render adequate justice, sought to exonerate him from all +suspicion of participation in the guilty design upon his life, and as he +glanced his eye again for a moment upon the lifeless form of his +companion, he was at once sensible that the only being who could defeat +the benevolent object of his benefactor had now no longer the power to +do so. + +"She sleeps sound enough now," said Jackson, again pointing to the +ill-fated and motionless girl, "but she'll sleep sounder yet before +long, I take it." + +"She will never sleep sounder than at this moment, Captain Jackson," +said Gerald, with solemn emphasis. + +"Why, you don't mean to say she has cheated the hangman, Liftenant." + +As he spoke, Jackson approached the sofa, and turning the light full +upon the face, saw indeed that she was dead. Gerald shuddered as the +rays from the lamp revealed for the first time the appalling change +which had been wrought upon that once beautiful countenance. The open +and finely formed brow was deeply knit, and the features distorted by +the acute agony which had wrung the shriek from her heart at the very +moment of dissolution, were set in a stern expression of despair. The +parted lips were drawn up at the corners in a manner to convey the idea +of the severest internal pain, and there was already a general +discoloration about the mouth, betraying the subtle influences of the +poison which had effected her death. + +Gerald after the first glance, turned away his head in horror from the +view, but the Aide-de-camp remained for some moments calmly regarding +the remains of all that had once been most beautiful in nature. + +"She certainly is not like what she was when Colonel Forrester first +knew her," he said, in the abstracted tone of one talking without +reference to any other auditor than himself; "but this comes of +preferring a nigger to a white man. Such unnatural courses never can +prosper, I take it." + +"Captain Jackson," said Gerald, aroused by his remark, and with great +emphasis of tone, while he laid his hand impressively on the shoulder of +the other, "you do her wrong. Guilty as she has been, fearfully guilty, +but not in the sense you would imply." + +"How do you know this?" asked the Aide-de-camp. + +"From her own solemn declaration at a moment when deception could avail +her not. Even before she swallowed the fatal poison, her horror at the +imputation, which drove her to the perpetration of murder, was expressed +in terms of indignant warmth that belong to truth alone." + +"If this be so," said Jackson, musingly, "she is indeed a much injured +woman, and deep I know will be the regret of Colonel Forrester when he +hears it, for he himself has ever believed her guilty. But come, +Liftenant Grantham, we have no time to lose. The day will soon break, +and I expect you must be a considerable way from Frankfort before +sunrise." + +"I--from Frankfort--before sunrise!" exclaimed Gerald, in perfect +astonishment. + +"Why, it's rather short warning to be sure; but the Colonel thinks you'd +better start before the thing gets wind in the morning; for so many of +the niggers say you wore a sort of a disguise as well as the poor girl, +he fears the citizens may suspect you of something more than an +intrigue, and insult you desperately." + +"Generous, excellent man!" exclaimed Gerald, "how can I ever repay this +most unmerited service?" + +"Why, the best way I take it, is to profit by the offer that is made you +of getting back to Canada as fast as you can." + +"But how is this to be done, and will not the very fact of my flight +confirm the suspicion it is intended to remove?" + +"As for the matter of how it is to be done, Liftenant, I have as slick a +horse waiting outside for you as man ever crossed--one of the fleetest +in Colonel Forrester's stud. Then as for suspicion, he means to set that +at rest, by saying that he has taken upon himself to give you leave to +return on parole to your friends, who wish to see you on a case of life +and death, and now let's be moving." + +Oppressed with the weight of contending feelings, which this generous +conduct had inspired, Gerald waited but to cast a last look upon the +ill-fated Matilda; and then with a slow step and a heavy heart for ever +quitted a scene fraught with the most exciting and the most painful +occurrences of his life. The first rays of early dawn beginning to +develope themselves as they issued from the temple, Jackson extinguished +his lamp, and leading through the narrow pass that conducted to the +town, made the circuit of the ridge of hills until they arrived at a +point where a negro (the same who had led the party that bore Matilda +and himself to the temple) was in waiting, with a horse ready saddled +and the arms and accoutrements of a rifleman. + +The equipment of Gerald was soon completed, and with the shot-bag and +powder-horn slung over his shoulder, and the long rifle in his hand, he +soon presented the appearance of a backwoodsman hastening to the theatre +of war. + +When he had seated himself in the saddle, Jackson drew forth a well +filled purse, which he said he had been directed by Colonel Forrester to +present him with to defray the expenses of his journey to the frontier. + +Deeply affected by this new proof of the favor of the generous American, +Gerald received the purse, saying, as he confided them to the breast of +his hunting frock-- + +"Captain Jackson, tell Colonel Forrester from me, that I accept his +present merely because in doing so I give the best evidences of my +appreciation of _all_ he has done for me on this trying occasion. In his +own heart, however, he must look for the only reward to which this most +noble of actions justly entitles him." + +The frank-hearted Aide-de-camp promised compliance with this parting +message, and after pointing out the route it would be necessary to +follow, warmly pressed the hand of his charge in a final grasp, that +told how little he deemed the man before him capable of the foul +intention with which his soul had been so recently sullied. + +How often during those hours of mad infatuation, when his weakened mind +had been balancing between the possession of Matilda at the price of +crime, and his abandonment of her at that of happiness, had the +observation of the Aide-de-camp, on a former occasion, that he "was +never born to be an assassin," occurred to his mind, suffusing his cheek +with shame and his soul with remorse. Now, too, that conscious of having +fallen in all but the positive commission of the deed, he saw that the +unsuspecting American regarded him merely as one whom accident or +intrigue had made an unwilling witness of the deadly act of a desperate +woman, his feelings were those of profound abasement and self-contempt. + +There was a moment, when urged by an involuntary impulse, he would have +undeceived Captain Jackson as to his positive share in the transaction; +but pride suddenly interposed and saved him from the degradation of the +confession. He returned the pressure of the American's hand with +emphasis, and then turning his horse in the direction which he had been +recommended to take, quitted Frankfort for ever. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI. + + +In October of the same year, a numerous body of Americans, principally +troops of the line, had been collected under the orders of General Van +Rensselaer, and advantage was taken of an extremely dark night to push +them across the river, with a view to the occupation of the commanding +heights above the village of Queenston. In this, favored by +circumstances, the enemy were eminently successful. They carried the +batteries, and at day-break the heights were to be seen covered with +their battalions, before whom were thrown out a considerable body of +riflemen. At the first alarm, the little detachment stationed at +Queenston marched out to dislodge them; but such was the impatient +gallantry of General Brock, who had succeeded to the command on this +line of frontier, that without waiting for the main body from Fort +George to come up, he threw himself at the head of the flank companies +of the Forty-Ninth, and moving forward in double quick time, soon came +within sight of the enemy. + +Among the General's aides-de-camp, was Henry Grantham, who, having +succeeded in making his escape at the fatal defeat of the Moravian +Village, with a few men of his company, had in the absence of his +regiment (then prisoners of war), and from considerations of personal +esteem, been attached as a supernumerary to his staff. With him at this +moment was the light-hearted De Courcy, and as the young men rode a +little in rear of their Chief, they were so rapt in admiration of his +fine form and noble daring (as he still kept dashing onward, far in +advance even of the handful of troops who followed eagerly and rapidly +in his rear), that they utterly forgot the danger to which he was +exposed. + +On arriving at the ascent, the General for a moment reined in his +charger, in order to give time to the rear to close in, then removing +and waving his plumed hat. + +"Hurrah, Forty-Ninth!" he exclaimed, in language suited to those he +addressed. "Up these heights lies our road--on ourselves depends the +victory. Not a shot till we gain the summit--then three cheers for old +England--a volley--and the bayonet must do the rest!" + +So saying, he resumed his hat; and wheeling his horse, once more led his +gallant little band up the hill. + +But it was not likely that the Americans would suffer the approach of so +determined an enemy without attempting to check their progress in the +most efficient manner. Distinguished from those around him by his +commanding air, not less than by the military insignia that adorned him, +the person of the General was at once recognised for one bearing high +rank, and as such became an object of especial attention to the +dispersed riflemen. Shot after shot flew past the undaunted officer, +carrying death into the close ranks that followed noiselessly in his +rear, yet without harming him. At length he was seen by his +aides-de-camp, both of whom had kept their eyes upon him, to reel in his +saddle. An instant brought the young men to his side, De Courcy on his +right and Grantham on his left hand. They looked up into his face. It +was suffused with the hues of death. A moment afterwards and he fell +from his horse, with his head reclining upon the chest of Henry +Grantham. There was a momentary halt in the advancing column; all were +dismayed at the dreadful event. + +De Courcy and Grantham, having abandoned their horses, now bore their +beloved leader to the side of the road, and sought some spot out of +reach of the enemy's fire, where he might breathe his last moments in +peace. + +As Henry Grantham glanced his eye towards an old untenanted building, +that lay some fifty yards off the road, and which he conceived fully +adapted to the purpose, he saw the form of a rifleman partly exposed at +a corner of the building, whose action at the moment was evidently that +of one loading his piece. The idea that this skulking enemy might have +been the same who had given the fatal death-wound to his beloved Chief, +added to the conviction that he was preparing to renew the shot, filled +him with the deepest desire of vengeance. As the bodies of several men, +picked off by the riflemen, lay along the road (one at no great distance +from the spot on which he stood), he hastened to secure the nearest +musket, which, as no shot had been fired by the English, he knew to be +loaded. + +Leaving De Courcy to support the head of the General, the young +Aid-de-camp moved with due caution towards the building; but ere he had +gone ten paces, he beheld the object of his pursuit issue altogether +from the cover of the building, and advance towards him with his rifle +on the trail. More and more convinced that his design was to obtain a +near approach, with a view to a more certain aim, he suddenly halted and +raised the musket to his shoulder. In vain was a shout to desist uttered +by the advancing man--in vain was his rifle thrown aside, as if in token +of the absence of all hostile purposes. The excited Henry Grantham +heeded not the words--saw not the action. He thought only of the danger +of his General, and of his desire to avenge his fall. He fired--the +rifleman staggered, and putting his hand to his breast-- + +"My brother! oh, my unhappy brother!" he exclaimed, and sank senseless +to the earth. + +Who shall tell the horror of the unfortunate young Aide-de-camp, at +recognising in the supposed enemy his long mourned and much loved +Gerald! Motion, sense, life, seemed for the instant annihilated by the +astounding consciousness of the fratricidal act: the musket fell from +his hands, and he who had never known sorrow before, save through those +most closely linked to his warm affections, was now overwhelmed, crushed +by the mountain of despair that fell upon his heart. It was some moments +before he could so far recover from the stupor into which that dear and +well-remembered voice had plunged him, as to perceive the possibility of +the wound not being mortal. The thought acted like electricity upon each +stupified sense and palsied limb; and eager with the renewed hope, he +bounded forward to the spot where lay the unfortunate Gerald, writhing +in his agony. He had fallen on his face, but as Henry approached him, he +raised himself with one hand, and with the other beckoned to his brother +to draw near. + +"Great God, what have I done!" exclaimed the unhappy Henry, throwing +himself, in a paroxysm of despair, upon the body of his bleeding +brother. "Gerald, my own beloved Gerald, is it thus we meet again? Oh! +if you would not kill me, tell me that your wound is not mortal. Assure +me that I am not a fratricide. Oh, Gerald, Gerald! my brother, tell me +that you are not dying." + +A faint smile passed over the pale, haggard features of Gerald: he +grasped the hand of his brother and pressed it fervently, saying: + +"Henry, the hand of fate is visible in all this; therefore condemn not +yourself for that which was inevitable. I knew of the attempt of the +Americans to possess themselves of the heights, and I crossed over with +them under favor of this disguise, determined to find death, combatting +at the side of our gallant General. Detaching myself from the ranks, I +but waited the advance of the British column to remove from my +concealment--you know the rest. But oh, Henry! if you could divine what +a relief it is to me to part with existence, you would not wish the act +undone. This was all I asked: to see you once more--to embrace you--and +to die! Life offered me no hope but this." + +Gerald expressed himself with the effort of one laboring under strong +bodily pain; and as he spoke he again sank exhausted upon the ground. + +"This packet," he continued, taking one from the breast of the +hunting-frock he wore, and handing it to his brother, who, silent and +full of agony, had again raised his head from the ground and supported +it on his shoulder--"this packet, Henry, written at various times during +the last fortnight, will explain all that has passed since we last +parted in the Miami. When I am no more, read it; and while you mourn +over his dishonor, pity the weakness and the sufferings of the unhappy +Gerald." + +Henry was nearly frantic. The hot tears fell from his burning eyes upon +the pale emaciated cheek of his brother, and he groaned in agony. + +"Oh God!" he exclaimed, "how shall I ever survive this blow?--my +brother! oh, my brother! tell me that you forgive me." + +"Most willingly; yet what is there to be forgiven? You took me for an +enemy, and hence alone your error. It was fate, Henry. A dreadful doom +has long been prophesied to the last of our race. We are the last--and +this is the consummation. Let it however console you to think, that +though your hand had not slain me another's would. In the ranks of the +enemy I should have found--Henry, my kind, my affectionate brother--your +hand--there--there--what dreadful faintness at my heart--Matilda, it is +my turn now--Oh, God have mercy, oh----" + +While this scene was passing by the roadside between the unfortunate +brothers, the main body of the British force had come up to the spot +where the General still lay expiring in the arms of De Courcy, and +surrounded by the principal of the medical staff. The majority of these +were of the regiment previously named--veterans who had known and loved +their gallant leader during the whole course of his spotless career, and +more than one rude hand might be seen dashing the tear that started +involuntarily to the eye. As the colors of the Forty-ninth passed before +him, the General made an effort to address some language of +encouragement to his old corps, but the words died away in indistinct +murmurs, and, waving his hand in the direction of the heights, he sank +back exhausted with the effort, and resigned his gallant spirit for +ever. + +For some minutes after life had departed, Henry Grantham continued to +hang over the body of his ill-fated brother, with an intenseness of +absorption that rendered him heedless even of the rapid fire of musketry +in the advance. The sound of De Courcy's voice was the first thing that +seemed to call him to consciousness. De Courcy had heard the cry +uttered by the latter on receiving the fatal shot, and his imagination +had too faithfully portrayed the painful scene that had ensued. A friend +of both brothers, and particularly attached of late to the younger from +the similar nature of their service, he was inexpressibly shocked, but +still cherishing a hope that the wound might not be attended with loss +of life, he expected to find his anticipations realized by some +communication from his friend. Finding however that the one rose not, +and remarking that the demeanor of the other was that of profound +despair, he began at length to draw the most unfavorable conclusion, and +causing the body of his commander to be borne under cover of the +building, until proper means of transport could be found, he hastened to +ascertain the full extent of the tragedy. + +The horror and dismay depicted in his friend's countenance were speedily +reflected on his own, when he saw that the unfortunate Gerald, whose +blood had completely saturated the earth on which he lay, was indeed no +more. Language at such a moment would not only have been superfluous, +but an insult. De Courcy caught and pressed the hand of his friend in +silence. The unfortunate young man pointed to the dead body of his +brother, and burst into tears. While these were yet flowing in a fulness +that promised to give relief to his oppressed heart, a loud shout from +the British ranks arrested the attention of both. The sound seemed to +have an electric effect on the actions of Henry Grantham. For the first +time he appeared conscious there was such a thing as a battle being +fought. + +"De Courcy," he said, starting up, and with sudden animation, "why do we +linger here? The dead"--and he pointed first to the body of the General +in the distance, and then to his brother--"the wretched dead claim no +service from us now." + +"You are right, Henry, our interest in those beloved objects has caused +us to be heedless of our duty to ourselves. Victory is our own--but +alas! how dearly purchased!" + +"How dearly purchased, indeed!" responded Henry, in a tone of such +heart-rending agony as caused his friend to repent the allusion. "De +Courcy, keep this packet, and should I fall, let it be sent to my uncle, +Colonel D'Egville." + +De Courcy accepted the trust, and the young men mounted their horses, +which a Canadian peasant had held for them in the meantime, and dashing +up the ascent, soon found themselves where the action was hottest. + +"Forward! victory!" shouted Henry Grantham, and his sword was plunged +deep into the side of his nearest enemy. The man fell, and writhing in +the last agonies of death, rolled onward to the precipice, and +disappeared for ever from the view. + +The words, the action--had excited the attention of a tall, muscular, +ferocious-looking rifleman, who, hotly pursued by a couple of Indians, +was crossing the open ground at his full speed to join the main body of +his comrades. A ball struck him just as he had arrived within a few feet +of the spot where Henry stood, yet still leaping onward, he made a +desperate blow at the head of the officer with the butt end of his +rifle. A quick movement disappointed the American of his aim, yet the +blow fell so violently on the shoulder, that the stock snapped suddenly +asunder at the small of the butt. Stung with pain, Henry Grantham +turned to behold his enemy. It was Desborough! The features of the +settler expressed the most savage and vindictive passions, as, with the +head of the rifle upraised and clenched in both his iron hands, he was +about to repeat his blow. Ere it could descend Grantham had rushed in +upon him, and his sword, still reeking in the blood it had so recently +spilt, was driven to the very hilt in the body of the settler. The +latter uttered a terrific scream in which all the most infernal of human +passions were wildly blended, and casting aside his rifle, seized the +young officer in his powerful gripe. Then ensued a contest the most +strange and awful, the settler using every endeavor to gain the edge of +the precipice, the other struggling, but in vain, to release himself +from his hold. As if by tacit consent, both parties discontinued the +struggle, and became mere spectators of the scene. + +"Villain!" shouted De Courcy, who saw with dismay the terrible object of +the settler, whose person he had recognised--"if you would have quarter, +release your hold." + +But Desborough, too much given to his revenge to heed the words of the +Aide-de-camp, continued silently, yet with advantage, to drag his victim +nearer and nearer to the fatal precipice; and every man in the British +ranks felt his blood to creep, as he beheld the unhappy officer borne, +notwithstanding a desperate resistance, at each moment nigher to the +brink. + +"For Heaven's sake, men, advance and seize him," exclaimed the terrified +De Courcy, leaping forward to the rescue. + +Acting on the hint, two or three of the most active of the light +infantry rushed from the ranks in the direction taken by the officer. + +Desborough saw the movement, and his exertions to defeat it became, +considering the loss of blood he had sustained from his wounds, almost +herculean. He now stood on the extreme verge of the precipice, where he +paused for a moment as if utterly exhausted by his previous efforts. De +Courcy was now within a few feet of his unhappy friend, who still +struggled ineffectually to free himself, when the settler, suddenly +collecting all his energy into a final and desperate effort, raised the +unfortunate Gerald from the ground, and with a loud and exulting laugh, +dashed his foot violently against the edge of the crag, and threw +himself backward into the hideous abyss. + +Their picked and whitened bones may be seen even to this day, confounded +together and shining through the gloom that pervades every part of the +abyss, and often may be remarked an aged and decrepit negro, seated on a +rock a few feet above them, leaning his elbows upon his knees, and +gazing eagerly as if to distinguish the bones of the one from the bones +of the other. + +AND THUS WAS THE FEARFUL PROPHECY OF ELLEN HALLOWAY, THE MOTHER OF +DESBOROUGH BY WACOUSTA, FULFILLED! + + +THE END. + + + + +ABANDON PHYSIC! + +[Illustration: HEALTH FOOD Co's. GLUTEN SUPPOSITORIES CURE CONSTIPATION +AND PILES.] + + All our Health Food Circulars Free. + 50 Cents by Mail. Sold by Druggists. + + + INTESTINAL TORPOR AND KINDRED EVILS + RELIEVED WITHOUT DRUGS. + +The sufferer from Constipation and Piles should test the GLUTEN +SUPPOSITORIES which cure most cases by INCREASING THE NUTRITION OF THE +PARTS, thus inducing desire and strengthening the power of expulsion. + + +READ THE EVIDENCE. + +Dr. A. W. Thompson, Northampton, Mass., says: "I have tested the Gluten +Suppositories, and consider them valuable, as, indeed, I expected from +the excellence of their theory." + +Dr. Wm. Tod Helmuth declares the Gluten Suppositories to be "the best +remedy for constipation which I have ever prescribed." + +"As Sancho Panza said of sleep, so say I of your Gluten Suppositories: +God bless the man who invented them!"--E. L. Ripley, Burlington, Vt. + +"I have been a constipated dyspeptic for many years, and the effect has +been to reduce me in flesh, and to render me liable to no little nerve +prostration and sleeplessness, especially after preaching or any special +mental effort. The use of Gluten Suppositories, made by the Health Food +Co., 74 Fourth Avenue, New York, has relieved the constipated habit, and +their Gluten and Brain Food have secured for me new powers of digestion, +and the ability to sleep soundly and think clearly. I believe their +food-remedies to be worthy of the high praise which they are receiving +on all sides."--Rev. John H. Paton, Mich. + +"I cannot speak too highly of the Health Food Company's Gluten +Suppositories, as they have been a perfect God-send to me. I believe +them superior to anything ever devised for the relief of constipation +and hemorrhoids. I have suffered from these evils more than twenty +years, and have at last found substantial relief through the use of the +Gluten Suppositories."--Cyrus Bradbury, Hopedale, Mass. + +"I prescribe the Gluten Suppositories almost daily in my practice and am +often astonished at the permanent results obtained."--J. Montfort +Schley, M.D., Professor Physical Diagnosis Woman's Medical College, New +York City. + +"I have used a part of a box and found relief."--Josiah Morris, Salem, +N. J. + +"I have been using them with excellent results."--F. H. Williams, M.D., +Trenton, N. J. + +"Have used a half dozen and never had anything give me so much +satisfaction."--A. P. Charlton, M.D., Jenneville, Pa. + +"I find your Gluten Suppositories an excellent remedy for +constipation."--Charles B. Easeman, 169 Montrose Avenue, Brooklyn. + +"I have used your Gluten Suppositories in my family with great +satisfaction."--S. B. Cowles, President Pacific Bank, Clarks, Nebraska. + +"I have had some very satisfactory experience in the treatment of +constipation with your Wheat Gluten Suppositories."--Charles W. +Benedict, M.D., Findlay, Ohio. + +DESCRIPTIVE CIRCULARS MAILED FREE TO ALL. + + HEALTH FOOD COMPANY. + 74 4th Avenue, New York City. + + + + +A WONDERFUL BOOK. + +MRS. SPARKS OF PARIS. + + A REALISTIC NOVEL. + By A. CURTIS BOND. + + +The history of a hopeless love and a desperate crime; a study of woman +in her better and her worst phase; a stripping of falsity from +femininity, and an insight into the causes that lead woman to passionate +love and the abyss of passionate forgetfulness. One of the most +remarkable and interesting studies of the season; a character-reading +that every one should be familiar with; a psychological and natural +picture of life as it is, but as it is seldom regarded. + +Beautifully written in the style of the best examples of early French +work, a reminder of the diction of Abbé Prevost, with the unjarring ease +of "Manon Lescaut," it has a pleasant rhythmic flow which carries the +reader spell-bound by the unusual interest of its mystery. + + +=ONE VOLUME, 12MO.= + + =Paper Cover, Price 30 Cents.= + =Bound in Cloth Extra, Price $1.00.= + + + POLLARD & MOSS, PUBLISHERS, + 42 Park Place and 37 Barclay St., New York. + +For sale by all book and news dealers, or sent by mail, postage prepaid +upon receipt of the price by the publishers. + + + + +_The Big-Type Editions of_ DICKENS _from $6_ + + + (A) in fifteen volumes, cloth $6 + (B) same, better paper and binding $9 + (C) same as (B), half-calf $18 + (D) in thirty volumes, cloth $15 + (E) same as (D), half-calf $40 + + NEW YORK: + POLLARD & MOSS, + 42 Park Place and 37 Barclay Street. + 1888. + + +[Illustration: "AND SOLOMON DAISY, WITH A LIGHTED LANTERN IN HIS HAND, +DASHED INTO THE ROOM." Barnaby Rudge.] + + +Our New Dickens is the edition of all others for the library. It is +better illustrated and is the largest-faced type used. + + +(DAVID COPPERFIELD) + +was defying my aunt to such a furious extent, that he couldn't keep +straight, but barked himself sideways. The more my aunt looked at him, +the more he reproached her; for, she had lately taken to spectacles, and +for some inscrutable reason he considered the glasses personal. + +Dora made him lie down by her, with a good deal of persuasion; and when +he was quiet, drew one of his long ears through and through her hand, +repeating thoughtfully, "Even little Jip! Oh, poor fellow!" + +"His lungs are good enough," said my aunt gaily, "and his dislikes are +not at all feeble. He has a good many years before him, no doubt. But if +you want a dog to race with, Little Blossom, he has lived too well for +that, and I'll give you one." + +"Thank you, aunt," said Dora, faintly. "But don't, please!" + +"No?" said my aunt, taking off her spectacles. + +"I couldn't have any other dog but Jip," said Dora. "It would be so +unkind to Jip! Besides, I couldn't be such friends with any other dog +but Jip; because he wouldn't have known me before I was married, and +wouldn't have barked at Doady when he first came to our house. I +couldn't care for any other dog but Jip, I am afraid, aunt." + +"To be sure!" said my aunt, patting her cheek again. "You are right." + +"You are not offended," said Dora. "Are you?" + +"Why, what a sensitive pet it is!" cried my aunt, bending over her +affectionately. "To think that I could be offended!" + +"No, no, I didn't really think so," returned Dora; "but I am a little +tired, and it made me silly for a moment--I am always a silly little +thing, you know; but it made me more silly--to talk about Jip. He has +known me in all that has happened to me, haven't you, Jip? And I +couldn't bear to slight him, because he was a little altered--could I, +Jip?" + +Jip nestled closer to his mistress, and lazily licked her hand. + +"You are not so old, Jip, are you, that you'll leave your mistress yet," +said Dora. "We may keep one another company a little longer!" + +My pretty Dora! When she came down to dinner on + + +PARTICULARS + +All these five editions are from the same plates, which are the newest +plates of Dickens; and the printing is good. + +Page 2 of this sheet is a specimen illustration--there are one hundred +and eighty from Cruikshank, Brown (Phiz), Barnard, Stone, Fildes and +Mahoney. + +Page 3 is a specimen type-page. + +The paper this is printed on is the paper of the $6 edition. The other +editions are of superior paper and wider margins. + +All the bindings are unusually plain, even that of the $6 edition. We +wonder that publishers persist in flashy bindings. + +A sample volume (our choice of title) of any edition in cloth will be +sent for (A) 40 cents, by mail 58 cents; (B) 75 cents, by mail 93 cents; +(D) 50 cents, by mail 62 cents. Sets, of course, go cheaper by express. + +The Books are arranged as follows: + + _Vol. I--American Notes, Pictures from Italy, The Mystery of Edwin + Drood, Master Humphrey's Clock, Hunted Down, Holiday Romance and + George Silverman's Explanation--972 pages._ + + _Vol. II--Barnaby Rudge, and Hard Times--978 pages._ + + _Vol. III--Bleak House--950 pages._ + + _Vol. IV--Christmas Stories and Great Expectations--892 pages._ + + _Vol. V--Christmas Books and An Uncommercial Traveller--968 pages._ + + _Vol. VI--David Copperfield--946 pages._ + + _Vol. VII--Dombey & Son--956 pages._ + + _Vol. VIII--Little Dorrit--922 pages._ + + _Vol. IX--Martin Chuzzlewit--926 pages._ + + _Vol. X--Nicholas Nickleby--908 pages._ + + _Vol. XI--Old Curiosity Shop, and Reprinted Pieces--900 pages._ + + _Vol. XII--Oliver Twist, and A Child's History of England--874 + pages._ + + _Vol. XIII--Our Mutual Friend--916 pages._ + + _Vol. XIV--Pickwick Papers--878 pages._ + + _Vol. XV--Sketches by "Boz," and A Tale of Two Cities--916 pages._ + +In the thirty-volume editions each of the above volumes is made into +two. + + + + +THE HEART OF A WOMAN + +MY MARRIAGE + +A DOMESTIC NOVEL + + + =One Volume, 12mo, paper cover, 25 Cents.= + =Bound in extra cloth, full gilt side and back, 50 Cents.= + + +_EXTRACTS OF PRESS NOTICES._ + +"There is a fascination in the pages of this book that, once opened and +begun, will not permit it to be laid aside till the last page is +finished, and the reading of it pays for the time, too."--_Cincinnati +Times._ + +"It is the story of a woman's heart. The woman herself is neither better +nor worse than a thousand others, but every true heart is precious and +worth saving." + +"It is a story of love after marriage; the story of a woman who has +married without love, whose husband has married her with full knowledge +of that fact, but with the conviction that the needed love will come to +the heart of the wife in due time. How it came is what the story is +written to tell. It is told in the first person by the wife, and told +very pleasantly. The novel is an agreeable one to read, full of +sweetness and delicacy, picturesque and graceful in style, and winning +in its tone."--_N. Y. Evening Post._ + +"'My Marriage' is a domestic novel, issued anonymously, but the author, +whoever he or she may be, shows a deep knowledge of life that is more +than theory, and a fine gift of story telling." + + +_The above work sent by mail, postage prepaid, to any part of the United +States or Canada, on receipt of the price._ + + + + +[Illustration] + + =THE + P. & M. 12mos.= + + +The best and most attractively bound series of popular works in every +branch of literature; always commanding a better price for retail sales +than any competing editions in existence, owing to their superior +excellence. Bound in extra cloth, full gilt side and back, with +ornamental ink stamping. + +=Price per volume, only Fifty cents.= + + + = 1. Allan Quatermain.= Haggard. =2. King Solomon's Mines.= Haggard. + = 3. She:= A Mystery. Haggard. =4. East Lynne.= By Mrs. Henry Wood. + = 5. A Modern Circe.= By the "Duchess." =6. Robinson Crusoe.= D. De + Foe. + = 7. Pilgrim's Progress.= Bunyan. =8. Lays of Ancient Rome.= + Macaulay. + = 9. Paul and Virginia.= By St. Pierre. + = 10. Lay of the Last Minstrel, Marmion, and Lady of the Lake.= + = 11. History of Charles XII.= Voltaire. =12. Life of Nelson.= + Southey. + = 13. Classic Tales.= Maria Edgeworth. =14. Vicar of Wakefield.= + Goldsmith. + = 15. The Usurper.= Judith Gautier. =16. Dr. Jacob.= M. B. Edwards. + = 17. Realities of Irish Life.= W. S. Trench. =18. My Marriage.= + = 19. Love's Madness.= Mathilde Blind. =20. The Rose Garden.= Miss + Peard. + = 21. Unawares.= Miss Peard. =22. The Squire's Daughter.= Miss Peard. + = 23. The Crime of Chance.= Miss Peard. =24. Trench's Wives.= + = 25. Dickens' Child's History of England.= + = 26. Irving's Sketch-Book.= =27. Christmas Tales.= Dickens. + = 28. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.= By Jules Verne. + = 29. The Fur Country.= Verne. =30. Five Weeks in a Balloon.= Verne. + = 31. The Mysterious Island.= By Jules Verne. + = 32. Tour of the World in 80 Days.= By Jules Verne. + = 33. Great Expectations.= Dickens. =34. Oliver Twist.= Dickens. + = 35. The Scottish Chiefs.= Porter. =36. Thaddeus of Warsaw.= Porter. + = 37. Children of the Abbey.= By R. M. Roche. + = 38. The Uncommercial Traveller.= By Charles Dickens. + = 39. Arabian Nights' Entertainments.= =40. Jane Eyre.= Bronte. + = 41. Old Curiosity Shop.= Dickens. =42. Ivanhoe.= Sir Walter Scott. + = 43. Christmas Stories.= By Charles Dickens. + = 44. Last of the Mohicans.= By J. Fenimore Cooper. + = 45. John Halifax, Gentleman.= By Miss Mulock. + = 46. Uarda.= By George Ebers. + = 47. A Tale of Two Cities.= By Charles Dickens. + = 48. Romola.= By George Eliot. + = 49. Christmas Books.= By Charles Dickens. + = 50. Æsop's Fables.= + = 51. Russian Fairy Tales.= + = 52. Hauff's Fairy Tales.= Translated by E. L. Stowell. Illustrated. + = 53. Grimm's Popular Tales.= + = 54. The Red Camelia=; or, The Chevalier Casse-Cou. By Fortuné + Du Boisgobey. + = 55. The Search for Ancestors.= By Fortune Du Boisgobey. + = 56. Barnaby Rudge.= By Charles Dickens. + = 57. Edwin Drood.= By Charles Dickens. + = 58. Andersen's Fairy Tales.= + = 59. Gulliver's Travels.= + = 60. The Swiss Family Robinson.= + = 61. Last Days of Pompeii.= + = 62. Picciola and Undine.= + = 63. Rasselas.= By Dr. Johnson. + = 64. A Terrible Temptation.= By Charles Reade. + = 65. Sketches by Boz.= By Charles Dickens. + = 66. As in a Looking-Glass.= (It is upon this novel Mrs. Langtry's + play is based.) + = 67. The Book of Praise.= Selected and Arranged by Roundell Palmer. + = 68. American and Italian Notes.= By Charles Dickens. + = 69. Old Christmas.= By Washington Irving. + = 70. Lafitte=; or, The Pirate of the Gulf. By Prof. J. H. Ingraham. + = 71. Theodore, Child of the Sea=; Adopted Son of Lafitte. By J. H. + Ingraham. + = 72. George Barnwell.= A Novel. By T. S. Surr. + = 73. Hard Times.= By Charles Dickens. + = 74. Christine=; or, Woman's Trials and Triumphs. By Laura J. Curtis. + = 75. Camille=; or, The Fate of a Coquette. By Alexandre Dumas. + = 76. Our Cousin Veronica.= By Miss M. E. Wormeley. + = 77. The Tenant House=; or, Embers from Poverty's Hearthstone. + = 78. Masaniello=; or, The Fisherman's League. By Alexandre Dumas. + = 79. Hot Corn=; or, Street Scenes of New York City Life. By Solon + Robinson. + = 80. Wacousta=; or, The Prophecy. By Maj. Richardson. + = 81. Matilda Montgomerie=; or, The Prophecy Fulfilled. By Maj. + Richardson. + = 82. Tom Brown's School-Days.= By Thomas Hughes. + = 83. Ecarte=; or, The Salons of Paris. By Maj. Richardson. + = 84. Canonbury House=; or, The Queen's Prophecy. By G. W. M. + Reynolds. + = 85. Ada Arundel=; or, The Secret Corridor. By G. W. M. Reynolds. + = 86. Olivia=; or, The Maid of Honor. By G. W. M. Reynolds. + = 87. Hardscrabble=; or, The Fall of Chicago. By Major Richardson. + = 88. The Miser's Will=; or, The Doom of the Poisoner. By G. W. M. + Reynolds. + = 89. The Beggar of Nimes.= A Novel of exciting interest. By Alex. + Dumas. + = 90. The Creole Wife=; or, Secret Register of the Prefect of Police. + By Dumas. + = 91. The Marchioness=; or, A Marriage by Will. By Octave Feuillet. + = 92. Edith Dayton.= A Novel. By J. Gordon Bartlett. + = 93. Scenes from the Note-Book of a New York Surgeon.= + = 94. Out of the Streets.= A Story of New York City Life. By Charles + Gayler. + = 95. Thackeray's Ballads and Poems.= Illustrated. + = 96. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.= By R. L. + Stevenson. + = 97. Rivingston=; or, The Young Hussar. By Prof. J. H. Ingraham. + = 98. Captain Kyd=; or, The Wizard of the Seas. By Prof. J. H. + Ingraham. + = 99. Kate Penrose=; or, Life and its Lessons. By Mrs. Hubbeck. + =100. Jessie Cameron.= A Highland Story. By Lady Rachel Butler. + =101. Rebels and Tories=; or, The Blood of the Mohawk. By J. F. + Cooper. + =102. The Count's Niece=; or, The Veteran of Marengo. By Paul Preston. + +On receipt of the advertised price, =fifty cents per volume=, will send +by mail, postage prepaid, _to any address in the United States_, any of +the =books= enumerated in the above list. Remittances can be made in +two-cent postage-stamps or postal money order. + + + + +The Echo Series. + +A Weekly Library of Standard Fiction. + + +Books marked * are subject to a special discount. + + + =No. 1 Allan Quatermain.= By H. Rider Haggard =.25= + = " 2 King Solomon's Mines.= By H. Rider Haggard =.25= + = " 3 My Marriage.= '_THE HEART OF A WOMAN._' A Domestic + Novel =.25= + = " 4 The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.= By R. + L. Stevenson =.15= + = " 5 She: A History of Adventure.= By H. Rider Haggard =.25= + = " 6 A Modern Circe.= By the "Duchess" =.25= + = " 7 The Red Camellia.= By Fortuné du Boisgobey =.25= + = " 8 As in a Looking-Glass.= By F. C. Philips =.25= + = " 9 The Marchioness; or, A Marriage by Will.= By Octave + Feuillet, author of "The Romance of a Poor + Young Man" =.25= + = " 10 The Search for Ancestors.= By Fortuné du Boisgobey =.25= + = " 11 Dr. Jacob.= A Novel. By M. Betham Edwards =.25= + = " 12 Realities of Irish Life.= By W. Steuart Trench =.25= + = " 13 The Crime of Chance.= By Frances M. Peard =.25= + = " 14 Trench's Wives; or, The Carrington Mystery= =.25= + = " 15 The Rose Garden.= A Love Story. By Frances M. Peard =.25= + = " 16 The Usurper.= By Judith Gautier =.25= + = " 17 Love's Madness; or, The Tarantula's Sting.= A Romance + of Baffled Plot and Wasted Passion. By Mathilde + Blind. =.25= + = " 18 Unawares; or, The Notary's Plot.= By Frances M. + Peard =.25= + = " 19 The Squire's Daughter; or, The Mystery of Thorpe + Regis= =.25= + = " 20 Camille; or, The Lady with the Camellias.= By Dumas =.25= + = " 21 Lafitte; or, The Pirate of the Gulf.= By Prof. J. H. + Ingraham =.25= + = " 22 Christine; or, Woman's Trials and Triumphs.= + By Laura J. Curtis =.25= + = " 23 Out of the Streets.= A Powerful Story of New York + City Life. By Charles Gayler =.25= + = " 24 Christmas Tales.= By Charles Dickens =.25= + = " 25 George Barnwell.= By T. S. Surr =.25= + = " 26 The Tenant House; or, Embers from Poverty's + Hearth-Stone= =.25= + = " 27 Wacousta; or, The Prophecy.= By Richardson =.25= + = " 28 Matilda Montgomerie; or, The Prophecy Fulfilled.= + By Richardson =.25= + = " 29 Our Cousin Veronica; or, Scenes and Adventures + over the Blue Ridge= =.25= + = " 30 Masaniello; or, The Fisherman's League.= + By Alexandre Dumas =.25= + = " 31 Ecarte; or, The Salons of Paris.= By Major + Richardson =.25= + = " 32 Oliver Twist.= By Charles Dickens =.25= + = " 33 Canonbury House; or, The Queen's Prophecy.= By + Reynolds =.25= + = " 34 Ada Arundel; or, The Secret Corridor.= By Reynolds =.25= + = " 35 Olivia; or, The Maid of Honor.= By G. W. M. + Reynolds =.25= + = " 36 The Beggar of Nimes.= By Alexandre Dumas =.25= + = " 37 John Barlow's Ward.= A powerful novel of Society. =.25= + = " 38 Captain Kyd; or, The Wizard of the Seas.= By Prof. + J. H. Ingraham =.25= + = " 39 * The Man Outside.= By Professor Clarence M. + Boutelle. Illus. =.50= + = " 40 * Mrs. Sparks of Paris; or, The Crime at + Vintimiglia.= A Realistic Novel. By A. + Curtis Bond =.30= + = " 41 * Reveries of an Old Maid.= Including her Hints to + Young Men + Intending to Marry. "A perfect Cyclone of Fun." + 40th edition. Illustrated =.30= + = " 42 Hardscrabble; or, The Fate of Chicago.= A Tale of + Indian Warfare. By Major Richardson =.25= + = " 43 Edith Dayton.= A Novel by J. Gordon Bartlett =.25= + = " 44 The Dingy House at Kensington.= An Exciting Novel + of English Life. By Lady Helen Cameron =.25= + = " 45 The Miser's Will; or, The Doom of the Poisoner.= + By Geo. W. M. Reynolds =.25= + = " 46 Mary Glentworth; or, The Forbidden Marriage.= + By Geo. W. M. Reynolds =.25= + = " 47 Jessie Cameron.= A Highland Story of Love and + Adventure. By Lady Rachel Butler =.25= + = " 48 Rory O'More.= A National Romance. By Samuel Lover =.25= + = " 49 Paul Ferroll.= A Novel with a Mystery. =.25= + = " 50 Geoffrey Trethick; or, The Vicar's People.= A Tale + of the Cornish Mines. By George Manville Fenn =.25= + = " 51 Kate Penrose; or, Life and its Lessons.= By Mrs. + Hubback =.25= + = " 52 Hot Corn: Life Scenes in New York.= By Solon + Robinson =.25= + = " 53 Clare's Fantasy; or, A Cry in the Night.= A Novel by + Mary Cruger =.25= + = " 54 Joaquin= (the Claude Duval of California); =or, + The Marauder of the Mines.= =.25= + = " 55 * Mr. Meeson's Will.= By H. Rider Haggard. + Twenty-four full-page illustrations. =.25= + +=POLLARD & MOSS, Publishers, 42 Park Place, New York.= + + + + +THE CRIME OF CHANCE. + + BY + Miss Frances M. Peard, + +Author of "The Rose Garden," "Unawares, or the Notary's Plot," "The +Squire's Daughter, or the Mystery of Thorpe Regis," etc. + + =One Volume, 12mo, paper cover,= =25 Cents.= + =Bound in extra cloth, full gilt side and back,= =50 Cents.= + + +_EXTRACTS FROM PRESS NOTICES._ + +"The book is finely written, and exceptionally high in tone, and shows +in the character of Rachel a keen sense of humor, which reminds the +reader of some of George Eliot's earliest works." + +"It is a story of sadness, love, and ultimate joy, and a thoroughly good +one in its teaching, having the charm of novelty, freshness, and +interest, that few novelists can impart. The 'Crime of Chance' belongs +to the higher type. In some respects it presents not a bad imitation of +the style and fidelity to nature of George Eliot." + +"The characters are firmly, admirably drawn, and the story is one which +must easily appeal to the sympathies of all readers of finer +sensibilities. The two children, the hero, Rachel and Hestor, are +painted with a brush handled with excellent judgment and +skill."--_Traveller._ + +"The 'Crime of Chance' is one of those quiet stories of English country +life that imperceptibly win upon the reader's regard, and finally leaves +him thoroughly fascinated. It opens with a description of an old farm +and its quaint inhabitants, and the impression they make on a little +city boy who, having lost his parents, comes there to live with his +uncle, Mr. Philip Oldfield. Philip Oldfield's sad history is the chief +subject of the book. The remorse that weighs him down, his unhappy love +and seemingly blighted life, are all brought gradually before the +reader, in the most natural and unsensational manner, deeply moving his +sympathies and interest. Some charming bits of nature are sketched in, +rendering the work altogether a most readable and desirable one." + +"The story is English, and has some account of poachers and gypsies, and +uses a little waif from their resorts as an instrument in Philip's +recovery. His character is studied psychologically in the vein and force +Hawthorne showed in the 'Scarlet Letter,' and his posthumous novel. The +description of life and scenery is pleasing, there is no straining after +effect, and the tale has the merit of strong and absorbing interest in +its perusal, and deserves nothing but the highest praise." + + +_The above work sent by mail, postage prepaid, to any part of the United +States or Canada, on receipt of the price._ + + + + +REALITIES OF IRISH LIFE. + +BY W. STEUART TRENCH. + + + =One Volume, 12mo, paper cover, 25 Cents.= + =Bound in extra cloth, full gilt side and back, 50 Cents.= + + +_EXTRACTS FROM PRESS NOTICES._ + +"These sketches of Irish life have attracted much attention and elicited +the highest praise for their fidelity to nature, and the simplicity, +pathos, and power by which they are marked. No recent work has appeared +which so vividly presents the condition of Ireland, suffering under sore +political and social grievances, and distracted by contending factions. +The author has spent his life in intimate acquaintance with the Irish +heart as it beats in the cabins of the poor, and while the stories he +tells of Irish life illustrate sometimes that truth is stranger than +fiction, the reader will find in them a spell of interest which fiction +rarely possesses. We have not in a long time read aught that is more apt +to moisten the eyes than the chapter devoted to the simple story of +'Mary Shea.'"--_Buffalo Courier._ + +"Many of the incidents herein narrated have already been published in +one form or another, but never have they been more effectively related +than here--the history of the Ribbon Code and some of the results of its +system, the outrages perpetrated upon the landlords or their agents, are +dramatically told, and while the faults of the Irish disposition are not +concealed, their virtues are equally revealed, and show the genuine +Irish heart, which is capable of so much that is noble. The book reads +like a novel, full of exciting events and truthful characterization, and +cannot fail to be read with interest by those to whom the question of +the land tenure in Ireland has come to be regarded as one of the most +serious which engages public attention." + +"It is so written that the painful element of Irish life is not +protruded, while there is no glossing of facts or extravagance of +national pride. 'Manly' is the title that best describes its spirit, +while its literary power, expressed without effort or consciousness, +surpasses much of the work of thoroughly-trained skill. It would be well +for Ireland if it had many more within its borders like Mr. Trench, for +in that case it would avoid the neglect and selfishness that cause +distress on the one hand, and the factious and unreasoning bitterness +that result from it on the other." + +"A strongly dramatic series of pictures, the scope of which is apparent +in its title, being founded upon actual observation, and sure to hold +the reader's rapt attention." + + +_The above work sent by mail, postage prepaid, to any part of the United +States or Canada, on receipt of the price._ + + + + +HAGGARD'S NEW BOOK. + +THE ONLY ILLUSTRATED EDITION. + +Mr. Meeson's Will. + +by + +[Illustration: H Rider Haggard] + + WITH TWENTY-FOUR FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS, + _Drawn Expressly for this Edition_, + +By Philip G. Cusachs. + +ONE VOLUME, 12mo, PAPER COVERS, 25 Cents. + +[Illustration: "My word, Miss, but you have a beautiful pair of +shoulders! I never had such a bit of material to work on afore. Hang me +if it ain't almost a pity to mark 'em!"] + +COPYRIGHTED, 1888, BY POLLARD & MOSS. + +The only Profusely Illustrated Edition of this Work in the Market. + +SEND IN YOUR ORDERS AT ONCE, AND IN ORDERING NOTE THE EDITION No. 55, +ECHO SERIES. + + Address POLLARD & MOSS, Publishers, + 42 Park Place and 37 Barclay Street, New York. + + + + +THE CELEBRATED + +SOHMER + +GRAND, SQUARE, AND UPRIGHT + +[Illustration] + +PIANOS + + ARE AT PRESENT THE MOST POPULAR + AND PREFERRED BY THE LEADING ARTISTS. + +The SOHMER Pianos are used in the following Institutions: + + Convent of the Sacred Heart, Manhattanville, N. Y. + Vogt's Conservatory of Music. + Arnold's Conservatory of Music, Brooklyn. + Philadelphia Conservatory of Music. + Villa de Sales Convent, Long Island. + N. Y. Normal Conservatory of Music. + Villa Maria Convent, Montreal. + Vassar College, Poughkeepsie. + And most all of the leading first-class theatres in New York + and Brooklyn. + +THE WONDERFUL BIJOU GRAND + +(lately patented) by =SOHMER= & CO., the Smallest Grand ever +manufactured (length only 5 feet), has created a sensation, among +musicians and artists. The music-loving public will find it in their +interest to call at the warerooms of =SOHMER= & CO. and examine the +various Styles of Grand, Upright, and Square Pianos. The original and +beautiful designs and improvements in Grand and Upright Pianos deserve +special attention. + +_Received First Prize Centennial Exposition, Philadelphia, 1876._ + +_Received First Prize at Exhibition, Montreal, Canada, 1881 and 1882._ + + =SOHMER & CO.=, + MANUFACTURERS OF GRAND, SQUARE, AND UPRIGHT PIANO-FORTES + WAREROOMS: 149, 151, 153, 155 EAST 14th ST., N.Y. + + + + + + * * * * * + +Transcriber's Notes: + +Throughout this work many end-of-line hyphens, either omitted in +printing or no longer visible, were assumed to be present and the +corresponding word-halves rejoined, without further note. + +Many punctuation marks that were mistyped in printing or unreadable +have been changed, without further note. + +Aide-de-camp and Aid-de-camp both used by the author, as are +Amherstburgh and Amherstburg, along with Girty and Girtie. + +It's and its used interchangeably by author; this usage retained. + +Several compound and hyphenated words appear in varying form, for +example "artillery men" and "artillerymen"; "bear skin" and +"bear-skin"; "mid-day" and "midday"; etc. Usage retained. + +Spelling, including possible typographical errors, has been retained +as it appears in the original publication except as follows: + + Page 009: Typo "lappel" changed to "lapel" (button of the lapel) + Page 011: Typo "oppposite" changed to "opposite" (from the + opposite extremity) + Page 014: Typo "Graham" changed to "Grantham" (question, + Mr. Grantham) + Page 015: Typo "Molinex" changed to "Molineux" (Molineux, had + so pained) + Page 015: Duplicate "in" removed (as in the former) + Page 016: Typo "ln" changed to "in" (confidence in his young) + Page 018: Typo "aparent" changed to "apparent" (apparent a + single shot) + Page 021: Extra space in "young ladyyour niece" removed. Space may + have indicated omitted comma + Page 030: Typo "narrration" changed to "narration" (narration + of the anecdote) + Page 049: Punctuation after "coolly observed Grantham" unclear in + the text + Page 052: Typo "padler" changed to "paddler" (paddler, and + prostrated) + Page 053: Typo "he" changed to "the" (fortunate for the former) + Page 056: Typo "unproarious" changed to "uproarious" (because + his least uproarious, mood) + Page 056: Typo "inbibed" changed to "imbibed" (imbibed enough of + his favorite) + Page 063: Usage of punctuation by author intentionally retained + (asked Captain Molineux?) + Page 064: Typo "coroborate" changed to "corroborate" (Villiers can + corroborate) + Page 074: Typo "Desboroug" changed to "Desborough" (Desborough, I + continued) + Page 075: Typo "no" changed to "do" (displeasure, "I do not) + Page 076: Typo "momentry" changed to "momentary"(however momentary--a) + Page 083: Typo "neice" changed to "niece" (his niece, the parties in) + Page 084: Typo "were" changed to "where" (where the General still) + Page 093: Typo "disposess" changed to "dispossess" (may dispossess of + homage,) + Page 094: Typo "anticipiatory" changed to "anticipatory" (so + anticipatory of coming) + Page 094: Typo "shrapnell" changed to "shrapnel" (with shrapnel and + grape.) + Page 098: Typo "idependently" changed to "independently" (mistaken, + for, independently, of) + Page 099: Typo "aparently" changed to "apparently" (apparently much + greater) + Page 100: Typo "mattrass" changed to "mattress" (mattress, lay the + form) + Page 105: Usage of punctuation by author intentionally retained (in + the same breath?) + Page 106: Typo "teminated" changed to "terminated" (where the river + terminated) + Page 106: Typo "depatched" changed to "despatched" (prisoners been + despatched) + Page 112: Typo "preceeded" changed to "proceeded" (proceeded, while + her breathing) + Page 112: Typo "inacessibility" changed to "inaccessibility" (wonted + inaccessibility to impressions) + Page 112: Typo "rediculous" changed to "ridiculous" (guilty of a + ridiculous) + Page 117: Typo "day" changed to "days" (A few days) + Page 122: Typo "add" changed to "and" (from thence, and he) + Page 123: Typo "litttle" changed to "little" (the little dependence) + Page 123: Typo "asumed" changed to "assumed" (her voice assumed) + Page 125: Typo "piqant" changed to "piquant" (piquant a seduction) + Page 125: Typo "contibuted" changed to "contributed" (water--all + contributed) + Page 128: Typo "Manwhile" changed to "Meanwhile" (Meanwhile, although + nothing) + Page 130: Typo "grangway" changed to "gangway" (gangway, from which, + however) + Page 132: Typo "eaaliest" changed to "earliest" (One of the earliest) + Page 136: Typo "Desborrough" changed to "Desborough" (for Desborough + to avow) + Page 143: Typo "posess" corrected to "possess" (property I possess) + Page 144: Typo "ascessory" changed to "accessory" (some degree + accessory) + Page 157: Typo "onrselves" changed to "ourselves" (solemnly pledged + ourselves) + Page 158: Typo "she" changed to "he" ("Henry," he said) + Page 164: Typo "wit" changed to "with" (fast quitting, with) + Page 164: Typo "oject" changed to "object" (siege. The object) + Page 164: Typo "situate" changed to "situated" (the Americans + situated) + Page 166: Typo "morover" changed to "moreover" (He had moreover) + Page 167: Typo "prsceed" changed to "proceed" (the latter to proceed) + Page 168: Typo "alloted" changed to "allotted" (to the task allotted) + Page 171: Omitted word "a" changed to "was a man" + Page 172: Typo "dis" changed to "his" (Gentlemen," addressing his) + Page 173: Typo "Kildeer" changed to "Killdeer" (Killdeer I confess) + Page 174: Typo "since" changed to "Since" (Gerald said, "Since) + Page 174: Typo "your" changed to "you" (to know, but you) + Page 177: Duplicate "what" removed (snivelling, as "what) + Page 178: Typo "accelarated" changed to "accelerated" (vain, as to any + accelerated) + Page 179: Typo "prssive" changed to "passive" (passive assent to the) + Page 181: Typo "posssible" changed to "possible" (possible to + himself,) + Page 184: Typo "deperate" changed to "desperate" (desperate + grudge--the) + Page 185: Typo "grapling" changed to "grappling" (his enemy grappling) + Page 186: Typo "resistence" changed to "resistance" (the power of + resistance) + Page 186: Typo "trottled" changed to "throttled" (throttled, maddened + with pain) + Page 186: Typo "uncontrolable" changed to "uncontrollable" + (uncontrollable, until his anxiety) + Page 186: Typo "assassssin" changed to "assassin" (assassin-like + in the) + Page 187: Typo "beqind" changed to "behind" (behind his back,) + Page 192: Typo "indistnct" changed to "indistinct" (indistinct + outline, which) + Page 192: Typo "exhibted" changed to "exhibited" (who thus exhibited) + Page 193: Typo "Gereld" changed to "Gerald" (noise made by Gerald) + Page 194: Typo "aentence" changed to "sentence" (uttered the last + sentence) + Page 197: Typo "fierceet" changed to "fiercest" (arm you with the + fiercest) + Page 201: Duplicate word "an" removed (an hour too advanced) + Page 203: Typo "admited" changed to "admitted" (admitted as an excuse) + Page 204: Typo "coo" changed to "cool" (myself to a cool) + Page 208: Typo "faught" changed to "fought" (fought with determined + bravery,) + Page 218: Typo "acuse" changed to "accuse" (to accuse the woman) + Page 219: Typo "Tenessee" changed to "Tennessee"; although + "Tenessee" is an historical spelling variation, author uses modern + spelling in all other instances. (Tennessee man, bred and born,) + Page 220: Typo "prefering" changed to "preferring" (this comes of + preferring) + Page 220: Typo "Fankfort" changed to "Frankfort" (Frankfort--before + sunrise!") + Page 220: Typo "fight" changed to "flight" (very fact of my flight) + Page 221: Typo "massage" changed to "message" (with this parting + message,) + Page 222: Typo "Queenstown" changed to "Queenston" (stationed at + Queenston) + Page 224: Typo "Bt" changed to "But" (But oh, Henry!) + Page 226: Typo "efferts" changed to "efforts" (by his previous + efforts) + Page 227: Address at bottom of "47 4th Avenue changed to + "74 4th Avenue"; this matches usage in a previous paragraph, + and 19th century news articles. + Page 235: Typo "Fortune" changed to "Fortuné" (Fortune Du Boisgobey) + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Matilda Montgomerie, by Major (John) Richardson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MATILDA MONTGOMERIE *** + +***** This file should be named 39758-8.txt or 39758-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/9/7/5/39758/ + +Produced by Brian Sogard, Shanna D. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license + + +Title: Matilda Montgomerie + The Prophecy Fulfilled + +Author: Major (John) Richardson + +Release Date: May 22, 2012 [EBook #39758] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MATILDA MONTGOMERIE *** + + + + +Produced by Brian Sogard, Shanna D. Bokoff and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="389" height="600" alt="Book Cover" /> +</div> + + +<h1>MATILDA MONTGOMERIE;<br /> +<span class="small">OR,</span><br /> +<span class="xlarge">THE PROPHECY FULFILLED.</span><br /></h1> + +<p class="p4 center space"><span class="large">A TALE OF THE LATE AMERICAN WAR.</span><br /> +BEING THE SEQUEL TO WACOUSTA.</p> + +<p class="p2 center space"><span class="large">By MAJOR RICHARDSON,</span><br /> +<span class="small">AUTHOR OF "WACOUSTA," "HARDSCRABBLE," "ECARTE," ETC., ETC.</span></p> + +<p class="p4 center space">NEW YORK:<br /> +<span class="large sper">POLLARD & MOSS,</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">42 Park Place and 37 Barclay Street.</span><br /> +<span class="small">1888.</span></p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a><br /><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span></p> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<h2>CONTENTS</h2><p class="left45"> +<a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">CHAPTER XVII.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">CHAPTER XVIII.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">CHAPTER XIX.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XX">CHAPTER XX.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">CHAPTER XXI.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">CHAPTER XXII.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII">CHAPTER XXIII.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV">CHAPTER XXIV.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXV">CHAPTER XXV.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXVI">CHAPTER XXVI.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXVII">CHAPTER XXVII.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXVIII">CHAPTER XXVIII.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIX">CHAPTER XXIX.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXX">CHAPTER XXX.</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXI">CHAPTER XXXI.</a><br /> +<a href="#ads">ADVERTISEMENTS</a><br /> +<a href="#notes">TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES</a><br /> +</p> + +<hr class="chap" /> + + +<h2 class="p4"><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I.</a></h2> + + +<p>At the northern extremity of the small town which bears its name +situated at the head of Lake Erie, stands, or rather stood—for the fortifications +then existing were subsequently destroyed—the small fortress of Malden.</p> + +<p>Few places in America, or in the world, could, at the period embraced by +our narrative, have offered more delightful associations than that which we +have selected for an opening scene. Amherstburg was at that time one of the +loveliest spots that ever issued from the will of a beneficent and gorgeous +nature, and were the world-disgusted wanderer to have selected a home in +which to lose all memory of conventional and artificial forms, his choice would +assuredly have fallen here. And insensible, indeed, to the beautiful realities +of the sweet wild solitude that reigned around, must that man have been, who +could have gazed unmoved from the banks of the Erie, on the placid lake beneath +his feet, mirroring the bright starred heavens on its unbroken surface, +or throwing into full relief the snow-white sail and dark hull of some stately +war-ship, becalmed in the offing, and only waiting the rising of the capricious +breeze, to waft her onward on her <i>then</i> peaceful mission of dispatch. Lost +indeed to all perception of the natural must he have been, who could have +listened, without a feeling of voluptuous melancholy, to the plaintive notes of +the whip-poor-will, breaking on the silence of night, and harmonising with the +general stillness of the scene. How often have we ourselves, in joyous boyhood, +lingered amid the beautiful haunts, drinking in the fascinating song of +this strange night-bird, and revelling in a feeling we were too young to analyze, +yet cherished deeply—yea, frequently, up to this hour, do we in our +dreams revisit scenes no parallel to which has met our view, even in the course +of a life passed in many climes; and on awaking, our first emotion is regret +that the illusion is no more.</p> + +<p>Such was Amherstburg and its immediate vicinity, during the early years +of the present century, and up to the period at which our story commences. +Not, be it understood that even <i>then</i> the scenery itself had lost one particle +of its loveliness, or failed in aught to awaken and fix the same tender interest. +The same placidity of earth and sky and lake remained, but the poor whip-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span>poor-will, +driven from his customary abode by the noisy hum of warlike +preparation, was no longer heard, and the minds of the inhabitants, hitherto +disposed, by the quiet pursuits of their uneventful lives, to feel pleasure in its +song, had eye or ear for naught beyond what tended to the preservation of +their threatened homes. It was the commencement of the war of 1812.</p> + +<p>Let us, however introduce the reader more immediately to the scene. Close +in his rear, as he stands on the elevated bank of the magnificent river of Detroit, +and about a mile from its point of junction with Lake Erie, was the fort +of Amherstburg, its defences consisting chiefly of stockade works, flanked, at +its several angles, by strong bastions, and covered by a demi-lune of five guns, +so placed as to command every approach by water. Distant about three hundred +yards on his right, was a large, oblong, square building, resembling in +appearance the red, low-roofed blockhouses peering above the outward +defences of the fort. Surrounding this, and extending to the skirt of the +thinned forest, the original boundary of which was marked by an infinitude +of dingy, half blackened stumps, were to be seen numerous huts or wigwams +of the Indians, from the fires before which arose a smoke that contributed, +with the slight haze of the atmosphere, to envelope the tops of the tall +trees in a veil of blue vapor, rendering them almost invisible. Between these +wigwams and the extreme verge of the thickly wooded banks, which sweeping +in bold curvature for an extent of many miles, brought into view the +eastern extremity of Turkey Island, situated midway between Amherstburg +and Detroit, were to be seen, containing the accumulated Indian dead of many +years, tumuli, rudely executed, it is true, but picturesquely decorated with +such adornments as it is the custom of these simple mannered people to bestow +on the last sanctuaries of their departed friends. Some three or four +miles, and across the water, (for it is here that the river acquires her fullest +majesty of expansion,) is to be seen the American island of Gros Isle, which, +at the period of which we write, bore few traces of cultivation—scarcely a habitation +being visible throughout its extent—various necks of land, however, +shoot out abruptly, and independently of the channel running between it and +the American main shore, form small bays or harbors in which boats may +always find shelter and concealment.</p> + +<p>Thus far the view to the right of the spectator, whom we assume to be +facing the river. Immediately opposite to the covering demi-lune, and in front +of the fort, appeared, at a distance of less than half a mile, a blockhouse and +battery, crowning the western extremity of the island of Bois Blanc, one mile +in length, and lashed at its opposite extremity by the waters of Lake Erie, +which, at this precise point receives into her capacious bosom the vast tribute +of the noble river connecting her with the higher lakes. Between this island +and the Canadian shore lies the only navigable channel for ships of heavy tonnage, +for although the waters of the Detroit are of vast depth every where +above the island, they are near their point of junction with the lake, and, in +what is called the American channel, so interrupted by shallows and sandbars, +that no craft larger than those of a description termed "Durham boats," can +effect the passage—on the other hand the channel dividing the island from the +Canadian shore is at once deep and rapid, and capable of receiving vessels of +the largest size. The importance of such a passage was obvious; but although +a state of war necessarily prevented aid from armed vessels to such forts of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> +Americans as lay to the westward of the lake, it by no means effectually cut +off their supplies through the medium of the Durham boats already alluded to. +In order to intercept those, a most vigilant watch was kept by the light gun +boats despatched into the lesser channel for that purpose.</p> + +<p>A blockhouse and battery crowned also the eastern extremity of the island, +and both, provided with a flagstaff for the purpose of communication by signal +with the fort, were far from being wanting in picturesque effect. A subaltern's +command of infantry, and a bombvadier's of artillery, were the only troops +stationed there, and these were rather to look out for and report the approach +of whatever American boats might be seen stealing along their own channel, +than with any view to the serious defence of a post already sufficiently commanded +by the adjacent fortress. In every other direction the island was +thickly wooded—not a house, not a hut arose, to diversify the wild beauty of +the scene. Frequently, it is true, along the margin of its sands might be seen +a succession of Indian wigwams, and the dusky and sinewy forms of men +gliding round their fires, as they danced to the monotonous sound of the war +dance; but these migratory people seldom continuing long in the same spot, +the island was again and again left to its solitude.</p> + +<p>Strongly contrasted with this, would the spectator, whom we still suppose +standing on the bank where we first placed him, find the view on his left. +There would he have beheld a small town, composed entirely of wooden +houses variously and not inelegantly painted; and receding gradually from +the river's edge to the slowly disappearing forest, on which its latest rude +edifice reposed. Between the town and the fort, was to be seen a dockyard +of no despicable dimensions, in which the hum of human voices mingled with +the sound of active labor—there too might be seen, in the deep harbor of the +narrow channel that separated the town from the island we have just +described, some half-dozen gallant vessels bearing the colors of England, +breasting with their dark prows the rapid current that strained their creaking +cables in every strand, and seemingly impatient of the curb that checked them +from gliding impetuously into the broad lake, which, some few hundred yards +below, appeared to court them to her bosom. But although in these might +be heard the bustle of warlike preparation, the chief attention would be observed +to be directed towards a large half finished vessel, on which numerous +workmen of all descriptions were busily employed, evidently with a view of +preparing for immediate service.</p> + +<p>Beyond the town again might be obtained a view of the high and cultivated +banks, sweeping in gentle curve until they at length terminated in a low and +sandy spot, called, from the name of its proprietor, Elliott's point. This +stretched itself towards the eastern extremity of the island, so as to leave the +outlet to the lake barely wide enough for a single vessel to pass at a time, and +that not without skilful pilotage and much caution.</p> + +<p>Assuming the reader to be now as fully familiar with the scene as ourselves, +let him next, in imagination, people it, as on the occasion we have chosen for +his introduction. It was a warm, sunny day, in the early part of July. The +town itself was as quiet as if the glaive of war reposed in its sheath, and the +inhabitants pursued their wonted avocations with the air of men who had nothing +in common with the active interest which evidently dominated the more +military portions of the scene. It was clear that among these latter some +cause for excitement existed, for, independently of the unceasing bustle within<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> +the dockyard—a bustle which however had but one undivided object, the completion +and equipment of the large vessel then on the stocks—the immediate +neighborhood of the fort presented evidence of some more than ordinary +interest. The encampment of the Indians on the verge of the forest, had given +forth the great body of their warriors, and these clad in their gayest apparel, +covered with feathers and leggings of bright colors, decorated with small +tinkling bells that fell not inharmoniously on the ear, as they kept tune to the +measured walk of their proud wearers, were principally assembled around and +in front of the large building we have described as being without, yet adjacent +to, the fort. These warriors might have been about a thousand in number, +and amused themselves variously—(the younger at least)—with leaping—wrestling—ball-playing—and +the foot race—in all which exercises they are +unrivalled. The elders bore no part in these amusements, but stood, or sat +cross-legged on the edge of the bank, smoking their pipes, and expressing their +approbation of the prowess or dexterity of the victors in the games, by guttural, +yet rapidly uttered exclamations. Mingled with these were some six or +seven individuals, whose glittering costume of scarlet announced them for +officers of the garrison, and elsewhere disposed, some along the banks and +crowding the battery in front of the fort, or immediately round the building, +yet quite apart from their officers, were a numerous body of the inferior +soldiery.</p> + +<p>But although these distinct parties were assembled, to all appearance, with +a view, the one to perform in, the other to witness, the active sports we have +enumerated, a close observer of the movements of all would have perceived +there was something more important in contemplation, to the enactment of +which these exercises were but the prelude. Both officers and men, and even +the participators in the sports, turned their gaze frequently up the Detroit, as +if they expected some important approach. The broad reach of the wide +river, affording an undisturbed view, as we have stated, for a distance of some +nine or ten miles, where commenced the near extremity of Turkey Island, +presented nothing, however, as yet, to their gaze, and repeatedly were the +telescopes of the officers raised only to fall in disappointment from the eye. +At length a number of small dark specks were seen studding the tranquil +bosom of the river, as they emerged rapidly, one after the other, from the +cover of the island. The communication was made, by him who first discovered +them, to his companions. The elder Indians who sat near the spot on +which the officers stood, were made acquainted with what even their own +sharp sight could not distinguish unaided by the glass. One sprang to his +feet, raised the telescope to his eye, and with an exclamation of wonder at the +strange properties of the instrument, confirmed to his followers the truth of +the statement. The elders, principally chiefs, spoke in various tongues to +their respective warriors. The sports were abandoned, and all crowded to the +bank with anxiety and interest depicted in their attitudes and demeanor.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the dark specks upon the water increased momentarily in size. +Presently they could be distinguished for canoes, which, rapidly impelled, and +aided in their course by the swift current, were not long in developing themselves +to the naked eye. These canoes, about fifty in number, were of bark, +and of so light a description, that a man of ordinary strength might, without +undergoing serious fatigue, carry one for miles. The warriors who now pro<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span>pelled +them, were naked in all save their leggings and waist cloths, their bodies +and faces begrimed with paint: and as they drew near, fifteen was observed +to be the complement of each. They sat by twos on the narrow thwarts; and, +with their faces to the prow, dipped their paddles simultaneously into the +stream, with a regularity of movement not to be surpassed by the most experienced +boat's crew of Europe. In the stern of each sat a chief guiding his +bark with the same unpretending but skilful and efficient paddle, and behind +him drooping in the breezeless air, and trailing in the silvery tide, was to be +seen a long pendant, bearing the red cross of England.</p> + +<p>It was a novel and beautiful sight to behold that imposing fleet of canoes, +apparently so frail in texture that the dropping of a pebble between the skeleton +ribs might be deemed sufficient to perforate and sink them, yet withal +so ingeniously contrived as to bear safely not only the warriors who formed +their crews, but also their arms of all descriptions, and such light equipment +of raiment and necessaries as were indispensable to men who had to voyage +long and far in pursuit of the goal they were now rapidly attaining. The Indians +already encamped near the fort, were warriors of nations long rendered +familiar by personal intercourse, not only with the inhabitants of the district, +but with the troops themselves; and these, from frequent association with the +whites, had lost much of that fierceness which is so characteristic of the North +American Indian in his ruder state. Among these, with the more intelligent +Hurons, were the remnants of those very tribes of Shawnees and Delawares +whom we have recorded to have borne, half a century ago, so prominent a +share in the confederacy against England, but who, after the termination of +that disastrous war, had so far abandoned their wild hostility, as to have settled +in various points of contiguity to the forts to which they, periodically, repaired +to receive those presents which a judicious policy so profusely bestowed.</p> + +<p>The reinforcement just arriving was composed principally of warriors who +had never yet pressed a soil wherein civilization had extended her influence—men +who had never hitherto beheld the face of a white, unless it were that of the +Canadian trader, who, at stated periods, penetrated fearlessly into their wilds +for purposes of traffic, and who to the bronzed cheek that exposure had rendered +nearly as swarthy as their own, united not only the language but so +wholly the dress—or rather the undress of those he visited, that he might +easily have been confounded with one of their own dark-blooded race. So remote, +indeed, were the regions in which some of these warriors had been +sought, that they were strangers to the existence of more than one of their +tribes, and upon these they gazed with a surprise only inferior to what they +manifested, when, for the first time, they marked the accoutrements of the +British soldier, and turned with secret, but acknowledged awe and admiration +upon the frowning fort and stately shipping, bristling with cannon, and vomiting +forth sheets of flame as they approached the shore. In these might have +been studied the natural dignity of man. Firm of step—proud of mien—haughty +and penetrating of look, each leader offered in his own person a model +to the sculptor, which he might vainly seek elsewhere. Free and unfettered +every limb, they moved in the majesty of nature, and with an air of dark reserve, +passed, on landing, through the admiring crowd.</p> + +<p>There was one of the number, however, and his canoe was decorated with a +richer and a larger flag, whose costume was that of the more civilized Indians<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span>, +and who in nobleness of deportment, even surpassed those we have last +named. This was Tecumseh. He was not of the race of either of the parties +who now accompanied him, but of one of the nations, many of whose warriors +were assembled on the bank awaiting his arrival. As the head chief of the +Indians, his authority was acknowledged by all, even to the remotest of these +wild but interesting people, and the result of the exercise of his all-powerful +influence had been the gathering together of those warriors, whom he had +personally hastened to collect from the extreme west, passing in his course +and with impunity, the several American posts that lay in their way.</p> + +<p>It was amidst the blaze of a united salvo from the demi-lune crowning the +bank, and from the shipping, that the noble chieftain, accompanied by the +leaders of those wild tribes, leaped lightly, yet proudly to the beach; and having +ascended the steep bank by a flight of rude steps cut out of the earth, +finally stood amid the party of officers waiting to receive them. It would not +a little have surprised a Bond street exquisite of that day to have witnessed +the cordiality with which the dark hand of the savage was successively pressed +in the fairer palms of the English officers, neither would his astonishment +have been abated, on remarking the proud dignity of carriage maintained by +the former, in this exchange of courtesy, as though, while he joined heart to +hand wherever the latter fell, he seemed rather to bestow than to receive a +condescension.</p> + +<p>Had none of those officers ever previously beheld him, the fame of his heroic +deeds had gone sufficiently before the warrior to have insured him their warmest +greeting and approbation, and none could mistake a form that, even amid +those who were a password for native majesty, stood alone in its bearing; but +Tecumseh was a stranger to few. Since his defeat on the Wabash he had +been much at Amherstburg where he had rendered himself conspicuous by +one or two animated and highly eloquent speeches, having for their object the +consolidation of a treaty, in which the Indian interests were subsequently +bound in close union with those of England; and, up to the moment of his +recent expedition, had cultivated the most perfect understanding with the +English chiefs.</p> + +<p>It might, however, be seen that even while pleasure and satisfaction at a reunion +with those he in turn esteemed, flashed from his dark and eager eye, +there was still lurking about his manner that secret jealousy of distinction, +which is so characteristic of the haughty Indian. After the first warm salutations +had passed, he became sensible of the absence of the English chief; but +this was expressed rather by a certain outswelling of his chest, and the searching +glance of his restless eye, than by any words that fell from his lips. Presently, +he whom he sought, and whose person had hitherto been concealed by +the battery on the bank, was seen advancing towards him, accompanied by +his personal staff. In a moment the shade passed away from the brow of the +warrior, and warmly grasping and pressing, for the second time, the hand of a +youth—one of the group of junior officers among whom he yet stood, and who +had manifested even more than his companions the unbounded pleasure he +took in the chieftain's re-appearance—he moved forward, with an ardor of +manner that was with difficulty restrained by his sense of dignity, to give them +the meeting.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span></p> + +<p>The first of the advancing party was a tall, martial looking man, wearing +the dress and insignia of a general officer. His rather florid countenance was +eminently fine, if not handsome, offering, in its more Roman than Grecian +contour, a model of quiet, manly beauty; while the eye beaming with intelligence +and candor, gave, in the occasional flashes which it emitted, indication +of a mind of no common order. There was, notwithstanding, a benevolence +of expression about it that blended (in a manner to excite attention) with a +dignity of deportment, as much the result of habitual self command, as of the +proud eminence of distinction on which he stood. The sedative character of +middle age, added to long acquired military habits, had given a certain rigidity +to his fine form, that might have made him appear to a first observer even +older than he was, but the placidity of a countenance beaming good will and +affability, speedily removed the impression, and, if the portly figure added to +his years, the unfurrowed countenance took from them in equal proportion.</p> + +<p>At his side, hanging on his arm and habited in naval uniform, appeared one +who, from his familiarity of address with the General, not less than by certain +appropriate badges of distinction, might be known as the commander of the +little fleet then lying in the harbor. Shorter in person than his companion, +his frame made up in activity what it wanted in height, and there was that +easy freedom in his movements which so usually distinguishes the carriage of +the sailor, and which now offered a remarkable contrast to that rigidity we +have stated to have attached, albeit unaffectedly, to the military commander. +His eyes, of a much darker hue, sparkled with a livelier intelligence, and although +his complexion was also highly florid, it was softened down by the +general vivacity of expression that pervaded his frank and smiling countenance. +The features, regular and still youthful, wore a bland and pleasing character; +while neither, in look, nor bearing, nor word could there be traced any of that +haughty reserve usually ascribed to the "lords of the sea." There needed no +other herald to proclaim him for one who had already seen honorable service, +than the mutilated stump of what had once been an arm: yet in this there +was no boastful display, as of one who deemed he had a right to tread more +proudly because he had chanced to suffer, where all had been equally exposed, +in the performance of a common duty. The empty sleeve, unostentatiously +fastened by a loop from the wrist to a button of the lapel, was suffered to +fall at his side, and by no one was the deficiency less remarked than by himself.</p> + +<p>The greeting between Tecumseh and these officers, was such as might be expected +from warriors bound to each other by mutual esteem. Each held the +other in the highest honor, but it was particularly remarked that while the +Indian Chieftain looked up to the General with the respect he felt to be due +to him, his address to his companion, whom he now beheld for the first time, +was warmer, and more energetic; and as he repeatedly glanced at the armless +sleeve, he uttered one of those quick ejaculatory exclamations, peculiar to his +race, and indicating, in this instance, the fullest extent of approbation. The +secret bond of sympathy which chained his interest to the sailor, might have +owed its being to another cause. In the countenance of the latter there was +much of that eagerness of expression, and in the eye that vivacious fire, that +flashed, even in repose, from his own swarthier and more speaking features; +and this assimilation of character might have been the means of producing +that preference for, and devotedness to, the cause of the naval commander, that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> +subsequently developed itself in the chieftain. In a word, the General seemed +to claim the admiration and the respect of the Indian—the Commodore, his +admiration and friendship.</p> + +<p>The greeting between these generous leaders was brief. When the first +salutations had been interchanged, it was intimated to Tecumseh, through the +medium of an interpreter then in attendance on the General, that a war-council +had been ordered, for the purpose of taking into consideration the best +means of defeating the designs of the Americans, who, with a view to offensive +operations, had, in the interval of the warrior's absence, pushed on a considerable +force to the frontier. The council, however, had been delayed, in order +that it might have the benefit of his opinions and of his experience in the +peculiar warfare which was about to be commenced.</p> + +<p>Tecumseh acknowledged his sense of the communication with the bold +frankness of the inartificial son of nature, scorning to conceal his just self-estimate +beneath a veil of affected modesty. He knew his own worth, and +while he overvalued not one iota of that worth, so did he not affect to disclaim +a consciousness of the fact—that within his swarthy chest and active brain, +there beat a heart and lived a judgment, as prompt to conceive and execute as +those of the proudest <i>he</i> that ever swayed the destinies of a warlike people. +Replying to the complimentary invitation of the General, he unhesitatingly +said he had done well to await his arrival, before he determined on the course +of action, and that he should now have the full benefit of his opinions and +advice.</p> + +<p>If the chief had been forcibly prepossessed in favor of the naval commander +the latter had not been less interested. Since his recent arrival to assume the +direction of the fleet, Commodore Barclay had had opportunities of seeing such +of the chiefs as were then assembled at Amherstburg; but great as had been +his admiration of several of these, he had been given to understand they fell +far short, in every moral and physical advantage, of what their renowned +leader would be found to possess, when, on his return from the expedition in +which he was engaged, fitting opportunity should be had of bringing them in +personal proximity. This admission was now made in the fullest sense, and +as the warrior moved away to give the greetings to the several chiefs, and conduct +them to the council hall, the gallant sailor could not refrain from expressing +in the warmest terms to General Brock, as they moved slowly forward +with the same intention, the enthusiastic admiration excited in him by the +person, the manner, and the bearing, of the noble Tecumseh.</p> + +<p>Again the cannon from the battery and the shipping pealed forth their +thunder. It was the signal for the commencement of the council, and the +scene at that moment was one of the most picturesque that can well be +imagined. The sky was cloudless, and the river, no longer ruffled by the now +motionless barks of the recently arrived Indians, yet obeying the action of the +tide, offered, as it glided onward to the lake, the image of a flood of quicksilver; +while, in the distance that lake itself, smooth as a mirror, spread far +and wide. Close under the bank yet lingered the canoes, emptied only of +their helmsmen (the chiefs of the several tribes,) while with strange tongues +and wilder gestures, the warriors of these, as they rested on their paddles, +greeted the loud report of the cannon—now watching with eager eye the flashes +from the vessel's sides, and now upturning their gaze, and following with wild +surprise, the deepening volumes of smoke that passed immediately over their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> +heads, from the guns of the battery, hidden from their view by the elevated +and overhanging bank. Blended with each discharge arose the wild yell, +which they, in such a moment of novel excitement, felt it impossible to control, +and this, answered by the Indians above, and borne in echo almost to the +American shore, had in it something indescribably grand and startling. On +the bank itself the scene was singularly picturesque. Here were to be seen +the bright uniforms of the British officers, at the head of whom was the tall +and martial figure of General Brock, furthermore conspicuous from the full +and drooping feather that fell gracefully over his military hat, mingled with +the wilder and more fanciful head-dresses of the chiefs. Behind these again, +and sauntering at a pace that showed them to have no share in the deliberative +assembly, whither those we have just named were now proceeding, amid +the roar of artillery, yet mixed together in nearly as great dissimilarity of +garb, were to be seen numbers of the inferior warriors and of the soldiery—while, +in various directions, the games recently abandoned by the adult Indians +were now resumed by mere boys. The whole picture was one of strong animation, +contrasting as it did with the quiet of the little post on the Island, +where some twelve or fifteen men, composing the strength of the detachment, +were sitting or standing on the battery, crowned, as well as the fort and shipping, +and in compliment to the newly arrived Indians, with the colors of +England.</p> + +<p>Such was the scene, varied only as the numerous actors in it varied their +movements, when the event occurred with which we commence our next +chapter.</p> + + + + +<h2 class="p4"><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II.</a></h2> + + +<p>Several hours had passed away in the interesting discussion of their war +plans, and the council was nearly concluded, when suddenly the attention both +of the officers and chiefs was arrested by the report of a single cannon. From +the direction of the sound, it was evident that the shot had been fired from the +battery placed on the southern or lakeward extremity of the island of Bois +Blanc, and as the circumstance was unusual enough to indicate the existence +of some approaching cause for excitement, several of the younger of both, +who, from their youth, had been prevented from taking any active share in the +deliberations of the day, stole, successively and unobservedly, through the large +folding-doors of the building, which, owing to the great heat of the weather, had +been left open. After traversing about fifty yards of sward, intersecting the high +road, which, running parallel with the river, separated the council-hall from the +elevated bank, the officers found, collected in groups on the extreme verge of +this latter, and anxiously watching certain movements in the battery opposite +to them, most of the troops and inferior Indians they had left loitering there +at the commencement of the council. These movements were hasty, and as +of men preparing to repeat the shot, the report of which had reached them +from the opposite extremity of the island. Presently the forms, hitherto +intermingled, became separate and stationary—an arm of one was next extended—then +was seen to rise a flash of light, and then a volume of dense smoke,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> +amid which the loud report found its sullen way, bellowing like thunder +through some blackening cloud, while, from the peculiar nature of the sound, +it was recognised, by the experienced in those matters, to have proceeded from +a shotted gun.</p> + +<p>The war of 1812 had its beginning in the manner thus described. They +were the first shots fired in that struggle, and although at an object little calculated +to inspire much alarm, still, as the first indications of an active +hostility, they were proportionably exciting to those whose lot it was thus to +"break ground," for operations on a larger scale.</p> + +<p>Although many an eager chief had found it difficult to repress the strong +feeling of mingled curiosity and excitement, that half raised him from the +floor on which he sat, the first shot had been heard without the effect of actually +disturbing the assembly from its fair propriety; but no sooner had the +second report, accompanied as it was by the wild yell of their followers without, +reached their ears, than, wholly losing sight of the dignity attached to +their position as councillors, they sprang wildly up, and seizing the weapons +that lay at their side, rushed confusedly forth, leaving Tecumseh, and two or +three only of the more aged chiefs, behind them. The debate thus interrupted, +the council was adjourned, and soon afterwards General Brock, accompanied +by his staff, and conversing, through his interpreter, with the Shawnee +chieftain as they walked, approached the groups still crowded along the bank +of the river.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, after the discharge of the last gun, the battery on the island had +been quitted by the officer in command, who, descending to the beach, preceded +by two of his men, stepped into a light skiff that lay chained to the +gnarled root of a tree overhanging the current, and close under the battery. +A few sturdy strokes of the oars soon brought the boat into the centre of the +stream, when the stout, broad-built figure and carbuncled face of an officer +in the uniform of the forty-first regiment, were successively recognised, as he +stood upright in the stern.</p> + +<p>"What the deuce brings Tom Raymond to us in such a hurry? I thought +the order of the general was that he should on no account leave his post, unless +summoned by signal," observed one of the group of younger officers +who had first quitted the council hall, and who now waited with interest for +the landing of their companion.</p> + +<p>"What brings him here, can you ask?" replied one at the side of the +questioner, and with a solemnity of tone and manner that caused the whole +of the group to turn their eyes upon him, as he mournfully shook his head.</p> + +<p>"Aye, <i>what</i> brings him here?" repeated more than one voice, while all +closed inquiringly around for information.</p> + +<p>"Why the thing is as clear as the carbuncles on his own face—the boat, to +be sure." And the truism was perpetrated with the same provokingly ludicrous, +yet evidently forced, gravity of tone and manner.</p> + +<p>"Execrable, Middlemore.—Will you never give over that vile habit of +punning?"</p> + +<p>"Detestable!" said another.</p> + +<p>"Ridiculous!" repeated a third.</p> + +<p>"Pshaw! the worst you ever uttered!" exclaimed a fourth, and each, as he +thus expressed himself, turned away with a movement of impatience.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span></p> + +<p>"That animal, Raymond, grows like a very porpoise," remarked a young +captain, who prided himself on the excessive smallness of his waist. "Methinks +that, like the ground-hogs that abound on his island, he must fatten on +hickory nuts. Only see how the man melts in the noonday sun. But as you +say, Villiers, what can bring him here without an order from the general? +And then the gun last fired. Ha! I have it.—He has discovered a Yankee +boat stealing along through the other channel."</p> + +<p>"No doubt there is <i>craft</i> of some description <i>in the wind</i>," pursued the +incorrigible Middlemore, with the same affected unconsciousness.</p> + +<p>"Ha!" returned Captain Molineux, the officer who had commented so freely +upon the fat lieutenant in the boat—"Your pun, infamous as it would be at +the best, is utterly without point now, for there has not been a breath of wind +stirring during the whole morning."</p> + +<p>"Pun, did you say?" exclaimed Middlemore, with well affected surprise at +the charge, "my dear fellow, I meant no pun."</p> + +<p>Further remark was checked by an impatience to learn the cause of +Lieutenant Raymond's abrupt appearance, and the officers approached the +principal group. The former had now reached the shore, and, shuffling up the +bank as fast as his own corpulency and the abruptness of the ascent would +permit, hastened to the general, who stood at some little distance awaiting the +expected communication of the messenger.</p> + +<p>"Well, Mr. Raymond, what is it—what have you discovered from your +post?" demanded the General, who, with those around him, found difficulty +in repressing a smile at the heated appearance of the fat subaltern, the loud +puffing of whose lungs had been audible before he himself drew near enough +to address the chief—"something important, I should imagine, if we may judge +from the haste with which you appear to have travelled over the short distance +that separates us?"</p> + +<p>"Something very important, indeed, General," answered the officer, touching +his undress cap, and speaking huskily from exertion; "there is a large +bark, sir, filled with men, stealing along shore in the American channel, and +I can see nothing of the gun boat that should be stationed there. A shot was +fired from the eastern battery, in the hope of bringing her to, but, as the guns +mounted there are only carronades, the ball fell short, and the suspicious looking +boat crept still closer to the shore—I ordered a shot from my battery to +be tried, but without success, for, although within range, the boat hugs the +land so closely that it is impossible to distinguish her hull with the naked +eye."</p> + +<p>"The gun boat not to be seen, Mr. Raymond?" exclaimed the General; +"how is this, and who is the officer in command of her?"</p> + +<p>"One," quickly rejoined the Commodore, to whom the last query was addressed, +"whom I had selected for that duty for the very vigilance and desire +for service attributed to him by my predecessor—of course I have not been +long enough here, to have much personal knowledge of him myself."</p> + +<p>"His name?" asked the General.</p> + +<p>"Lieutenant Grantham."</p> + +<p>"Grantham?" repeated the General, with a movement of surprise; "It is +indeed strange that <i>he</i> should forego such an opportunity."</p> + +<p>"Still more strange," remarked the commodore, "that the boat he commands +should have disappeared altogether. Can there be any question of his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> +fidelity? the Granthams are Canadians, I understand."</p> + +<p>The general smiled, while the young officer who had been noticed so particularly +by Tecumseh on his landing, colored deeply.</p> + +<p>"If," said the former, "the mere circumstance of their having received existence +amid these wilds can make them Canadians, they certainly are Canadians; +but if the blood of a proud race can make them Britons, such they are. +Be they which they may, however, I would stake my life on the fidelity of the +Granthams—still, the cause of this young officer's absence must be inquired +into, and no doubt it will be satisfactorily explained. Meanwhile, let a second +gunboat be detached in pursuit."</p> + +<p>The commodore having given the necessary instructions to a young midshipman, +who attended him in the capacity of an aid-de-camp, and the general +having dismissed Lieutenant Raymond back to his post on the island, these +officers detached themselves from the crowd, and, while awaiting the execution +of the order, engaged in earnest conversation.</p> + +<p>"By Jove, the commodore is quite right in his observation," remarked the +young and affected looking officer, who had been so profuse in his witticisms +on the corpulency of Lieutenant Raymond; "the general may say what he will +in their favor, but this is the result of entrusting so important a command to +a Canadian."</p> + +<p>"What do you mean, sir?" hastily demanded one even younger than himself—it +was the youth already named, whose uniform attested him to be a +brother officer of the speaker. He had been absent for a few minutes, and +only now rejoined his companions, in time to hear the remark which had just +been uttered.</p> + +<p>"What do you mean, Captain Molineux?" he continued, his dark eye +flashing indignation, and his downy cheek crimsoning with warmth. "Why +this remark before me, sir, and wherefore this reflection on the Canadians?"</p> + +<p>"Why really, Mr Grantham," somewhat sententiously drawled the captain; +"I do not altogether understand your right to question in this tone—nor am +I accountable for any observations I may make. Let me tell you, moreover, +that it will neither be wise nor prudent in you, having been received into a +British regiment to become the Don Quixotte of your countrymen."</p> + +<p>"<i>Received</i> into a British regiment, sir! do you then imagine that I, more +than yourself, should feel this a distinction," haughtily returned the indignant +youth. "But, gentlemen, your pardon," checking himself and glancing at the +rest of the group, who were silent witnesses of the scene; "I confess I do feel +the distinction of being admitted into so gallant a corps—this in a way, however, +that must be common to us all. Again I ask, Captain Molineux," +turning to that officer, "the tendency of the observations you have publicly +made in regard to my brother."</p> + +<p>"Your question, Mr. Grantham might, with as much propriety, be addressed +to any other person in the full enjoyment of his senses, whom you see here, +since it is the general topic of conversation; but, as you seem to require an +answer from me particularly, you shall have it. My remark referred to the +absence of the officer in charge of the gun-boat from the station allotted to +him, at a moment when an <i>armed</i> vessel of the enemy is in sight. Is this the +fact, or is it not?"</p> + +<p>"By which remark," returned the other, "you would imply that said officer +is either guilty of gross neglect or—"</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I draw no inferences, Mr. Grantham, but even if I did, I should be more +borne out by circumstances than you imagine."</p> + +<p>"It is plain you would insinuate that my brother shuns the enemy, Captain +Molineux—You shall answer to me for this insult, sir."</p> + +<p>"As you please, Mr. Grantham, but on one condition only."</p> + +<p>"Name it, sir, name it," said the young officer quickly.</p> + +<p>"That it is satisfactorily proved your brother has <i>not</i> shunned the enemy."</p> + +<p>Bitter feelings swelled the heart of the enthusiastic Grantham, as unconsciously +touching the hilt of his sword, he replied: "If your hope of avoidance +rest on this, sir, it will be found to hang upon a very thread indeed."</p> + +<p>The attention of the group where this unpleasant scene had occurred, and +indeed of all parties, was now diverted by the sudden appearance of the +American boat, as, shooting past the head of the island, which had hitherto +concealed her from the view of the assembled crowds, her spars and white +sails became visible in the far distance. A slight and favorable breeze, blowing +off the shore which she still closely hugged, had now apparently sprung +up, and, spreading all her canvass, she was evidently making every effort to +get beyond the reach of the battery (whither Lieutenant Raymond had returned), +under whose range she was unavoidably impelled by the very wind +that favored her advance. Owing to some temporary difficulty, the gun-boat, +just ordered by the commodore to follow in pursuit, was longer than suited +the emergency in getting under way, and when she had succeeded in so doing, +nearly half an hour elapsed before, owing to the utter absence of wind, as +well as the rapidity of the current, she could be brought by the aid of her +long and cumbrous sweeps to clear the head of the island. The American, +now discovered to have a small detachment of troops on board, had by this +time succeeded in getting out of the range of a fire, which although well +directed had proved harmless, and, using every exertion of oar and sail, bade +fair, favored as she was by the breeze which reached not the canvass of her +enemy, to effect her escape.</p> + +<p>Concern sat on every brow, and was variously expressed—loud yells marking +the fierce disappointment of the Indians, and undisguised murmurs that +of the more disciplined troops. Coupled with this feeling, among the officers +at least, naturally arose the recollection of him to whose apparent neglect +this escape of the enemy was to be attributed, until at length the conduct of +Lieutenant Grantham was canvassed generally, and with a freedom little inferior +to that which, falling from the lips of Captain Molineux, had so pained +his sensitive brother—with this difference, however, that in this instance they +were the candidly expressed opinions of men arraigning the conduct of one of +their fellows apparently guilty of a gross dereliction from duty, and not, as in +the former they had seemed to be, with any ungenerous allusion to his +fidelity.</p> + +<p>Warmly, and therefore audibly, commented on as was the unaccountable +absence of the officer, by individuals of almost every rank, it was impossible +that many of those observations could escape the attention of the excited +Henry Grantham. Mortified beyond measure at the fact, yet unable, as he +had done before, to stand forth the champion of his brother's honor, where +all (with a very few exceptions, among whom he had the consolation to find +the general) were united in opinion against him, his situation was most painful. +Not that he entertained the remotest doubt of his brother bearing himself +harmlessly through the ordeal, but that his generous, yet haughty spirit<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> +could ill endure the thought of any human being daring to cherish, much less +to cast the slightest aspersion on his blood.</p> + +<p>Finding it vain to oppose himself to the torrent of openly expressed opinion, +the mortified youth withdrew to a distance, and, hastening among the +rude tumuli we have described, as being scattered about the edge of the bank, +stood watching, with folded arms and heaving chest, the gradually receding +bark of the enemy. Alternately, as he thus gazed, his dark eye now flashed +with the indignation of wounded pride, now dilated with the exulting consciousness +of coming triumph. The assurance was strong within him, not +only that his brother would soon make his appearance before the assembled +groups who had had the cruelty to impugn his conduct, but that he would +do so under circumstances calculated to change their warm censure into even +more vehement applause. Fully impressed with the integrity of his absent +relative, the impetuous and generous hearted youth paused not to reflect that +circumstances were such as to justify the belief—or at least the doubt—that +had been expressed, even by the most impartial of those who had condemned +him. It seemed to him that others ought to have known and judged him as +he himself did, and he took a secret delight in dwelling on the self-reproach +which he conceived would attach to them, when it should be found how erroneous +had been the estimate formed of his character.</p> + +<p>While he thus gazed, with eyes intently bent upon the river, and manifesting +even a deeper interest as the fleeing bark drew momentarily nearer to +one particular point in the distance, the young officer heard footsteps approaching +him. Hastily dashing away a tear which had been called up by a +variety of emotions, he turned and beheld the Chieftain Tecumseh, and with +him one who, in the full uniform of the British Staff, united, in his tall and +portly figure, the martial bearing of the soldier to the more polished graces of +the habitual courtier.</p> + +<p>"Henry, my noble boy," exclaimed the latter, as he pressed the hand of the +youth, "you must not yield to these feelings. I have marked your impatience +at the observations caused by Gerald's strange absence, but I have brought +you one who is too partial to you both to join in the condemnation. I have +explained every thing to him, and he it was who, remarking you to be alone, +and suspecting the cause, first proposed coming to rouse you from your +reverie."</p> + +<p>Affectionately answering the grasp of his noble looking uncle, Henry Grantham +turned at the same time his eloquent eye upon that of the chieftain, and, +in a few brief but expressive sentences, conveyed, in the language of the +warrior, the gratification he experienced in his unchanged confidence in the +absent officer.</p> + +<p>As he concluded, with a warmth of manner that delighted him to whom he +addressed himself, their hands met for the third time that day. Tecumseh at +length replied, by pointing significantly to the canoes which still lay floating on +the river, unemptied of their warriors, stating at the same time, that had not +his confidence in his young friend been unbounded, he would long since have +despatched those canoes in pursuit; but he was unwilling the officer should +lose any of the credit that must attach to the capture. "I know," he concluded, +"where he is lying like the red skin in pursuit of the enemy. Be patient, +and we shall soon see him."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span></p> + +<p>Before Henry Grantham could find time to inquire if the place of ambush +was not the same to which his own hopes, induced by his perfect knowledge +of localities, had, throughout, pointed as the spot most likely to conceal +the hitherto invisible gun boat, his attention, and that of his immediate companion, +was drawn to a scene that carried a glow of exultation to the bosoms +of them all.</p> + +<p>The American boat, long since out of range of the battery, and scudding +with a speed that mocked the useless exertions of those on board of the second +gun boat, who could with difficulty impel her through the powerful eddy +formed by the island, had been gradually edging from her own shore into the +centre of the stream. This movement, however, had the effect of rendering +her more distinguishable to the eye, breasting, as she did, the rapid stream, +as while hugging the land, even when much nearer, she had been confounded +with the dark line of brushwood which connected the forest with the shore. +She had now arrived opposite a neck of land beyond which ran a narrow, deep +creek, the existence of which was known only to few, and here it chanced that +in the exultation of escape, they gave a cheer that was echoed back from either +shore, hoisting at the same moment the American colors. Scarcely, however, +had this cheer been uttered, when a second and more animating, was heard +from a different point, and presently, dashing into the river, and apparently +issuing from the very heart of the wood, was to be seen the gun-boat, which +had been the subject of so much conversation, every stitch of her white canvass +bellying from the masts, and her dark prow buried in a wreath of foam +created by her own speed. As she neared the American a column of smoke, +followed a second or two later by a dull report, rose from her bows, enveloping +her a moment from the view, and when next visible she was rapidly gaining +on the chase. The yells of the Indians and the hurrahs of the soldiers gave +an indescribable animation to the scene.</p> + +<p>This was indeed a moment of proud triumph to the heart of Henry Grantham. +He saw his brother not only freed from every ungenerous imputation, +but placed in a situation to win to himself the first laurels that were to be +plucked in the approaching strife. The "Canadian," as he imagined he had +been superciliously termed, would be the first to reap for Britain's sons the +fruits of a war in which those latter were not only the most prominent actors, +but also the most interested. Already, in the enthusiasm of his imagination, +he pictured to himself the honor and promotion, which bestowed upon his +gallant brother, would be reflected upon himself, and, in the deep excitement +of his feelings, he could not avoid saying aloud, heedless of the presence of his +uncle:</p> + +<p>"Now, Captain Molineux, your only difficulty is removed—my brother has +revenged himself. With me you will have an account to settle on my own +score."</p> + +<p>"What do you mean, Henry?" seriously inquired Colonel D'Egville; +"surely you have not been imprudent enough to engage in a quarrel with +one of your brother officers."</p> + +<p>Henry briefly recounted the conversation which had taken place between +Captain Molineux and himself.</p> + +<p>"Far be it from my intention to check the nice sense of honor which should +be inherent in the breast of every soldier," returned his uncle impressively,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> +"but you are too sensitive. Henry; Captain Molineux, who is, moreover, a +very young man, may not have expressed himself in the most guarded manner, +but he only repeated what I have been compelled to hear myself—and +from persons not only older, but much higher in rank. Take my advice, +therefore, and let the matter rest where it is; Gerald, you see, has given the +most practical denial to any observations which have been uttered of a nature +derogatory to his honor."</p> + +<p>"True," quickly returned the youth, with a flushing cheek, "Gerald is +sufficiently avenged, but you forget the taunt he uttered against Canadians!"</p> + +<p>"And if he did utter such taunt, why acknowledge it as such?" calmly rejoined +Colonel D'Egville; "are you ashamed of the name? I too am a +Canadian, but so far from endeavoring to repudiate my American birth, I feel +pride in having received my being in a land where everything attests the +sublimity and magnificence of nature. Look around you, my nephew, and ask +yourself what there is in the wild grandeur of these scenes to disown. But, +ha!"—as he cast his eyes upon the water—"I fear Gerald will lose his prize +after all; the enemy is giving him the Indian double."</p> + +<p>During the foregoing short conversation, an important change had been +effected in the position of the adverse boats. The shot fired, apparently with +the view of bringing the enemy to, had produced no favorable result; but no +sooner had the gun-boat come abreast of the chase, than the latter, suddenly +clewing up her sails, put her helm about, and plying every oar with an exertion +proportioned to the emergency, made rapidly for the coast she had recently +left. The intention of the crew was evidently to abandon the unarmed +boat, and to seek safety in the woods. Urged by the rapidity of her own +course, the gun-boat had shot considerably ahead, and when at length she also +was put about, the breeze blew so immediately in her teeth that it was +found impossible to regain the advantage which had been lost. Meanwhile, +the American continued her flight, making directly for the land, with a rapidity +that promised fair to baffle every exertion on the part of her pursuer. The +moment was one of intense interest to the crowd of spectators who lined the +bank. At each instant it was expected the fire of the gun-boat would open +upon the fugitives; but although this was obviously the course to be adopted, +it being apparent a single shot was sufficient to sink her—not a flash was +visible—not a report was heard. Presently, however, while the disappointment +of the spectators from the bank was rising into murmurs, a skiff filled +with men was seen to pull from the gun-boat in the direction taken by the +chase, which was speedily hidden from view by the point of land from which +the latter had previously been observed to issue. Behind this her pursuer also +disappeared, and after a lapse of a few minutes, pistol and musket shots were +distinguished, although they came but faintly on the ear. These gradually +became more frequent and less distinct, until suddenly there was a profound +pause—then three cheers were faintly heard—and all again was still.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span></p> + + + + +<h2 class="p4"><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III.</a></h2> + + +<p>A full half hour had succeeded to these sounds of conflict, and yet +nothing could be seen of the contending boats. Doubt and anxiety now took +the place of the confidence that had hitherto animated the bosoms of the +spectators, and even Henry Grantham—his heart throbbing painfully with +emotions induced by suspense—knew not what inference to draw from the +fact of his brother's protracted absence. Could it be that the American, +defended as she was by a small force of armed men, had succeeded, not only +in defeating the aim of her pursuer, but also in capturing her. Such a result +was not impossible. The enemy against whom they had to contend yielded to +none in bravery; and as the small bark which had quitted the gun-boat was +not one third of the size of that which they pursued, it followed of necessity, +that the assailants must be infinitely weaker in numbers than the assailed. +Still no signal of alarm was made by the gun-boat, which continued to lie to, +apparently in expectation of the return of the detached portion of her crew. +Grantham knew enough of his brother's character to feel satisfied that he was +in the absent boat, and yet it was impossible to suppose that one so imbued +with the spirit of generous enterprise should have succumbed to his enemy, +after a contest of so short duration, as, from the number of shots heard, this +had appeared to be. That it was terminated, there could be no doubt. The +cheers, which had been followed by an universal silence, had given evidence +of this fact; yet why, in that case, if his brother had been victorious, was he +not already on his return? Appearances, on the other hand, seemed to induce +an impression of his defeat. The obvious course of the enemy, if +successful, was to abandon their craft, cut off from escape by the gun-boat +without, and to make the best of their way through the woods, to their place +of destination, the American fort of Detroit—and, as neither party was visible, +it was to be feared this object had been accomplished.</p> + +<p>The minds of all were more or less influenced by these doubts, but that of +Henry Grantham was especially disturbed. From the first appearance of the +gun-boat his spirits had resumed their usual tone, for he had looked upon the +fleeing bark as the certain prize of his brother, whose conquest was to afford +the flattest denial to the insinuation that had been urged against him. Moreover, +his youthful pride had exulted in the reflection that the first halo of victory +would play around the brow of one for whom he could have made every +personal sacrifice; and now, to have those fair anticipations clouded at the +very moment when he was expecting their fullest accomplishment, was +almost unendurable. He felt, also, that, although his resolution was thus +made to stand prominently forth, the prudence of his brother would assuredly +be called in question, for having given chase with so inferior a force, when a +single gun fired into his enemy must have sunk her. In the impatience of his +feelings, the excited young soldier could not refrain from adding his own censure +of the imprudence, exclaiming, as he played his foot nervously upon the +ground: "Why the devil did he not fire and sink her, instead of following in +that nutshell?"</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span></p> + +<p>While he was yet giving utterance to his disappointment, a hasty exclamation +met his ear from the chieftain at his side, who, placing one hand on the +shoulder of the officer, with a familiar and meaning grasp, pointed, with the +fore-finger of the other, in the direction in which the boats had disappeared. +Before Grantham's eye could follow, an exulting yell from the distant masses +of Indians announced an advantage that was soon made obvious to all. The +small dark boat of the pursuing party was now seen issuing from behind the +point, and pulling slowly towards the gun-boat. In the course of a minute +or two afterwards appeared the American, evidently following in the wake of +the former, and attached by a tow-line to her stern. The yell pealed forth by +the Indians when the second boat came in view, was deafening in the extreme; +and everything became commotion along the bank, while the little fleet of +canoes, which still lay resting on the beach, put off one after the other to the +scene of action.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, both objects had gained the side of the gun-boat, which, favored +by a partial shifting of the wind, now pursued her course down the river with +expanded sails. Attached to her stern, and following at quarter cable distance, +was to be seen her prize, from which the prisoners had been removed.</p> + +<p>Informed of the success which had crowned the enterprise of their officer, +the crews of the several vessels in the harbor swelled the crowd assembled on +the bank near the fort, to which point curiosity and a feeling of interest had +moreover brought many of the town's people, so that the scene finally became +one of great animation.</p> + +<p>The gun-boat had now arrived opposite the fort, when the small bark, which +had recently been used in pursuit, was again drawn up to the quarter. Into +this, to the surprise of all, was first lowered a female, hitherto unobserved; +next followed an officer in the blue uniform of the United States regular +army; then another individual, whose garb announced him as being of the +militia, and whose rank as an officer was only distinguishable from the cockade +surmounting his round hat, and an ornamented dagger thrust into a red +morocco belt encircling his waist. After these came the light and elegant +form of one, habited in the undress of a British naval officer, who, with one arm +supported by a black silk handkerchief, evidently taken from his throat, and +suspended from his neck, and with the other grasping the tiller of the rudder, +stood upright in the boat, which, urged by six stout rowers, now stood at his +command towards the landing place, above which lingered, surrounded by +several officers of either service, General Brock and Commodore Barclay.</p> + +<p>"Well, Commodore, what think you of your Lieutenant now?" observed +the former to his friend; "the young Canadian you must admit, has nobly +redeemed my pledge. On the score of his fidelity there could exist no doubt, +and as for his courage, you see," pointing to the young man's arm, "his conquest +has not been bloodless to himself, at least."</p> + +<p>"With all my soul do I disclaim the wrong I have done him," was the emphatic +and generous rejoinder. "He is, indeed, a spirited youth; and well +worthy of the favorable report which led me to entrust him with the command—moreover +he has an easy grace of carriage which pleased and interested +me in his favor, when I first saw him. Even now, observe how courteously +he bends himself to the ear of his female prisoner, as if to encourage her with +words of assurance, that she may sustain the presence and yells of these clamorous +beings."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span></p> + +<p>The boat had now reached the beach, but the difficulty of effecting a passage, +through the band of wild Indians that crowded, yelling, in every direction, +to take a nearer view of the prisoners, would, perhaps, have proved insurmountable, +had it not been for the interference of one who alone possessed +the secret of restraining their lawlessness. Tecumseh had descended to the +beach, eager to be the first to congratulate his young friend. He pressed the +hand promptly extended to receive his, and then, at a single word, made those +give way whose presence impeded the landing of the party.</p> + +<p>Pursuing their way up the rude steps by which Lieutenant Raymond had +previously descended, the little band of prisoners soon stood in the presence +of the group assembled to receive them. On alighting from the boat, the +youthful captor had been seen to make the tender of his uninjured arm to the +lady, who, however, had rejected it, with a movement, seemingly of indignant +surprise, clinging in the same moment to her more elderly companion. A +titter among the younger officers, at Gerald Grantham's expense had followed +this rejection of his proffered arm.</p> + +<p>The young sailor was the first to gain the summit of the bank. Respectfully +touching his hat, and pointing to the captives, who followed a few paces +in his rear:</p> + +<p>"General—Commodore," he observed, his cheek flushing with a consciousness +of the gratifying position in which he stood, "I have the honor to present +to you the first fruits of your good fortune. This gentleman," pointing to +the elder officer, "is the commander of the party, and the lady I believe +is——"</p> + +<p>"Certainly a non-combatant on this occasion," interrupted the General, +raising his plumed hat, and bowing to the party alluded to; "Gentlemen," he +pursued, addressing the two officers, "I am sorry we do not meet exactly on +the terms to which we have so long been accustomed; but, although the fortune +of war has made you rather unwilling guests in the present instance, the +rites of hospitality shall not be the less observed. But Mr. Grantham, you +have forgotten to introduce these officers by name."</p> + +<p>"I plead guilty, General, but the truth is I have neglected to make the inquiry +myself."</p> + +<p>"Major Montgomerie, sir, of the United States Infantry," interposed the +elderly officer, completely set at his ease by the affable and attentive manner +of the British leader. "This young lady is my niece."</p> + +<p>Again the general slightly, but courteously, bowed. "I will not, Major +Montgomerie, pay you the ill timed compliment of expressing pleasure in seeing +you on an occasion like the present, since we must unquestionably consider +you a prisoner of war; but if the young lady your niece, has any desire to +continue her journey to Detroit, I shall feel pleasure in forwarding her thither +under a flag of truce."</p> + +<p>"I thank you much, General, for this mark of your attention," returned +the American; "but I think I may venture to answer for my niece, that she +will prefer remaining with me."</p> + +<p>"Not so, sir;" said a voice deep but femininely soft. "General," she continued, +throwing aside her veil, which had hitherto concealed features pale +even to wanness, "I have the strongest—the most urgent reasons—for the +prosecution of my journey, and gladly do I accept your offer."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span></p> + +<p>The earnest manner of her address struck every hearer with surprise, contrasting +as it did, with the unchanging coldness of her look; but the matter +was a source of serious concern to her uncle. He regarded her with an air +of astonishment, not unmixed with displeasure.</p> + +<p>"How is this, Matilda," he asked; "after having travelled thus far into the +heart of this disturbed district would you now leave me?"</p> + +<p>"Major Montgomerie," she pursued, somewhat impatiently, "we are in the +presence of strangers, to whom this discussion must be uninteresting—My +mind is fully made up, and I avail myself of the British General's offer."</p> + +<p>"Certainly, certainly," observed that officer, somewhat disconcerted by the +scene; "and I can do it the more readily, as it is my intention to send an instant +summons to the garrison of Detroit. Miss Montgomerie will, however, +do well to consider before she decides. If the summons be not obeyed, another +week will see our columns marching to the assault, and she must be +prepared for all the horrors of such an extremity, aided, as I am compelled to +be, (and he glanced at the groups of Indians who were standing around, but +at some distance, looking silently yet eagerly at the prisoners,) by these wild +and ungovernable warriors. Should she, on the contrary, decide on remaining +here with her uncle, she will be perfectly safe."</p> + +<p>"General," emphatically returned Miss Montgomerie, "were I certain that +the columns to which you allude would not be repulsed whenever they may +venture upon that assault, and were I as certain of perishing beneath the +tomahawk and scalping knife of these savages"—and she looked fearlessly towards +them—"still would my determination remain the same."</p> + +<p>As she concluded, a hectic spot rose to either cheek, lingered there a moment, +and then left it colorless as before.</p> + +<p>"Be it so, Miss Montgomerie, my word is pledged and you shall go—Grantham, +I had intended sending one of my personal staff with the summons, but, +on reflection, you shall be the bearer. As the captor of the lady, to you shall +be awarded the charge of delivering her over to her friends."</p> + +<p>"Friends!" involuntarily repeated the American, her cheek becoming even +paler than before, and her lips compressed in a way to indicate some deep and +painful emotion. Again she dropped her veil.</p> + +<p>No other notice was taken of the interruption than what the surprised +manner of Major Montgomerie manifested, and the General proceeded;</p> + +<p>"I would ask you, Major Montgomerie, to become my guest while you remain +with us, but I fear that, as a bachelor, I have but indifferent accommodation +to offer to your niece."</p> + +<p>"If Miss Montgomerie will accept it," said Colonel D'Egville, interposing, +"I shall be most happy to afford her the accommodation of a home until she +finally departs for the opposite shore. If the attention of a family of +daughters," he continued, more immediately addressing himself to the young +lady, "can render your temporary sojourn among us less tedious, you have +but to command them."</p> + +<p>So friendly an offer could not well be refused. Miss Montgomerie inclined +her head in acquiescence, and Colonel D'Egville drew her arm within his own.</p> + +<p>"It were unkind," remarked the general, good-humoredly, "to separate +Major Montgomerie altogether from his niece. Either the young lady must +partake of our rude fare, or we shall consider ourselves included in your +dinner party."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span></p> + +<p>"You could not confer on me a greater pleasure, General, and indeed I was +about to solicit it. Commodore Barclay, may I hope that so short and unceremonious +an invitation will be excused by the circumstances? Good, I shall +expect you. But there is yet another to be included among our guests. +Gerald, you will not fail to conduct this gentleman, whose name I have not +yet had the pleasure of hearing"—and he looked at the latter, as if he expected +him to announce himself.</p> + +<p>"I fear, sir," observed the young officer, pointedly, "that your dinner party +would be little honored by such an addition. Although he wears the uniform +of an American officer, this person is wholly unworthy of it and of a seat +at your table."</p> + +<p>Every eye was turned with an expression of deep astonishment on the +speaker, and thence upon the form of the hitherto scarcely noticed militia +officer; who, with his head sunk sullenly upon his chest, and an eye now and +then raised stealthily to surrounding objects, made no attempt to refute, or +even to express surprise at, the singular accusation of his captor.</p> + +<p>"This is strong language to apply to a captive enemy, and that enemy apparently +an officer," gravely remarked the general; "yet I cannot believe Mr. +Grantham to be wholly without grounds for his assertion."</p> + +<p>Before Grantham could reply, a voice in the crowd exclaimed, as if the +utterer had been thrown off his guard, "What—Phil!"</p> + +<p>On the mention of this name, the younger prisoner looked suddenly up +from the earth on which his gaze had been riveted, and cast a rapid glance +around him.</p> + +<p>"Nay, nay, my young friend, do not, as I see you are, feel hurt at my observation," +resumed the general, extending his hand to Gerald Grantham; +"I confess I did at one moment imagine that you had been rash in your assertion, +but from what has this instant occurred, it is evident your prisoner is +known to others as well as to yourself. No doubt we shall have everything +explained in due season. By the bye, of what nature is your wound? slight, +I should say, from the indifference with which you treat it."</p> + +<p>"Slight, General—far slighter," he continued, coloring, "than the wound +that was sought to be affixed to my fair name in my absence."</p> + +<p>All looked at the speaker, and at each other with surprise, for, as yet, there +could have been no communication to him of the doubts which had been entertained.</p> + +<p>"Who is it of you all, gentlemen," pursued the young man, with the same +composedness of voice and manner, and turning particularly to the officers of +the forty-first regiment, who were grouped around their chief, "Who is it, I +ask, on whom has devolved the enviable duty of reporting me as capable of +violating my faith as a subject, and my honor as an officer?"</p> + +<p>There was no reply, although the same looks of surprise were interchanged; +but, as he continued to glance his eye around the circle, it encountered, either +by accident or design, that of Captain Molineux, on whose rather confused +countenance the gaze of Henry Grantham was at that moment bent with an +expression of much meaning.</p> + +<p>"No one answers," continued the youth; "then the sting has been harmless. +But I crave your pardon, General—I am claiming an exemption from +censure which may not be conceded by all. Commodore, how shall I dispose +of my prisoners?"</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Not so, Mr. Grantham; you have sufficiently established your right to +repose, and I have already issued the necessary instructions. Yet, while you +have nobly acquitted yourself of <i>your</i> duty, let me also perform <i>mine</i>. Gentlemen," +he continued, addressing the large circle of officers, "I was the +first to comment on Mr. Grantham's supposed neglect of duty, and to cast a +doubt on his fidelity. That I was wrong I admit, but right I trust will be my +reparation, and whatever momentary pain he may experience in knowing that +he has been thus unjustly judged, it will, I am sure, be more than compensated +for, when he hears that by General Brock himself his defence was +undertaken, even to the pledging of his own honor. Mr. Grantham," concluded +the gallant officer, "how you have obtained your knowledge of the +conversation that passed here during your absence, is a mystery I will not +now pause to inquire into, but I would fain apologize for the wrong I have +done. Have I your pardon?"</p> + +<p>At the commencement of this address, the visible heaving of his full chest, +the curling of his proud lip, and the burning flush of his dark cheek, betrayed +the mortification Gerald felt, in having been placed in a position to be judged +thus unjustly; but, as the commodore proceeded, this feeling gradually passed +away, and when the warm defence of his conduct by the general was alluded +to, closed as the information was with a request for pardon, his temporary +annoyance was banished, and he experienced only the generous triumph of one +who is conscious of having won his way, through calumny and slander, to the +well merited approbation of all right minded men.</p> + +<p>"Come, come," interposed the general, more touched than he was willing +to appear, by the expressive manner in which the only hand of the commodore +now grasped that of his lieutenant, and perceiving that the latter was about +to reply—"We will defer all further explanation until a later period. But, +before we depart, this person must be disposed of; Major Montgomerie, excuse +my asking if you will be personally responsible for your fellow prisoner?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly not!" returned the Major quickly, and with something like +alarm at the required responsibility; "that is to say, he does not belong to +the United States regular service, and I know nothing of him. Indeed, I +never saw him before last night, when he joined me with a verbal message +from Detroit."</p> + +<p>Hitherto the individual spoken of had preserved an unbroken silence, keeping, +as we have already shown, his gaze riveted upon the ground, except at +intervals, when he looked around with an eye of suspicion, as if to measure +the distance that separated him from the groups of Indians in the background. +The disclaimer of the major had, however, the effect of restoring to him the +use of his tongue. Casting his uncertain eye on the gentlemanly person of the +latter, he exclaimed, in a tone of insufferable vulgarity:</p> + +<p>"I'll tell you what it is, Mister Major—you may think yourself a devilish +fine feller, but I guess as how an officer of the Michigan Militia is just as +good and as spry as any blue coat in the United States rig'lars; so there's that +(snapping his fingers) for pretendin' not to know me."</p> + +<p>An ill-suppressed titter pervaded the group of British officers—the general +alone preserving his <i>serieux</i>.</p> + +<p>"May I ask your name?" he demanded.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I guess, gin'ril, it's Paul Emilius Theophilus Arnoldi, ensign in the United +States Michigan Militia," was answered with a volubility strongly in contrast +with the preceding silence of the speaker.</p> + +<p>"Then, Mr. Arnoldi, as an officer in the American militia, you shall enjoy +your liberty on parole. I need not, I presume, sir, point out to you the +breach of private honor and national faith consequent on any violation of that +parole."</p> + +<p>"I guess not, gin'ril, for, I take it, the word of a Michigan militia officer is +as good as that of any United States rig'lar as ever stepped in shoe leather."</p> + +<p>Another very pardonable disposition on the part of the younger officers to +indulge in mirth, was interrupted by the general, desiring a young aide-de-camp +to procure the necessary billet and accommodation for Ensign Arnoldi.</p> + +<p>These two individuals having moved away in search of the required lodging, +the general, with his staff and prisoner guests, withdrew towards the fort. +Their departure was the signal for the breaking up of the groups, and all dispersed +to their several homes, and in pursuit of their various duties. The +recently arrived Indians were distributed throughout the encampment, already +occupied as we have described, and the prisoners taken in the morning were +provided with suitable accommodation.</p> + +<p>As Colonel D'Egville was about to enter the gate of the fort, with his fair +charge leaning on his arm, Gerald Grantham approached the party, with the +intention of addressing the general in regard to the prisoner Arnoldi; but +finding him engaged in close conversation with Major Montgomerie, he lingered, +as if awaiting a fitting opportunity to open the subject.</p> + +<p>While he yet loitered, the eye of Miss Montgomerie met his. What it +expressed we will not venture to describe, but its effect upon the young officer +was profound. The moment before, discouraged by her apparent reserve, he +had stood coldly by, but now startled into animation, he bent upon her an +earnest and corresponding look; then, with a wild tumult at his heart, which +he neither sought to stifle nor to analyze, and wholly forgetting what had +brought him to the spot, he turned and joined his brother, who, at a short +distance, stood awaiting his return.</p> + + + + +<h2 class="p4"><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV.</a></h2> + + +<p>At the garrison mess-table that evening the occurrences of the day naturally +formed a chief topic of conversation; and a variety of conjectures, more +or less probable, regarding the American lady, were hazarded by the officers +to some of whom she had become an object of curiosity, as she had to others +of interest. This conversation, necessarily <i>parenthèsed</i> with much extraneous +matter, in the nature of rapid demands for solids and liquids, during the interesting +period devoted to the process of mastication, finally assumed a more +regular character when the cloth had been removed, and the attendants +retired.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Apropos," remarked Captain Granville, who filled the president's chair. +"We ought to have toasted your brother's gallant exploit, Henry; gentlemen, +fill your glasses—all full? Then I will give you the health of Lieutenant +Grantham, of the squadron."</p> + +<p>The toast was responded to by all but Captain Molineux. His glass had +been filled and raised, but its contents remained untasted.</p> + +<p>The omission was too marked not to be noticed by more than one of the +party; Henry Grantham, whose eye had been fixed on Captain Molineux at +the time, of course detected the slight. He sat for some minutes conversing +with an unusual and evidently forced animation; then, excusing his early departure +under the plea of an engagement with his brother, rose and quitted +the mess-room.</p> + +<p>"What have you done with the ugly lout you took charge of, De Courcy?" +inquired Captain Cranstoun, interrupting the short and meaning pause which +had succeeded to Grantham's departure.</p> + +<p>"Why, I calculate, captain," returned the lively aid-de-camp, imitating the +nasal drawl and language which had called up so much mirth, even in presence +of the general—"I calculate as how I have introduced Ensign Paul, +Emilius, Theophilus Arnoldi, of the United States Michigan Militia, into +pretty considerable snug quarters—I have billeted him at the inn, in which +he had scarcely set foot, when his first demand was for a glass of 'gin sling,' +wherewith to moisten his partick'lar damn'd hot, baked clay."</p> + +<p>"What a vulgar and uncouth animal," observed St. Clair, a Captain of Engineers—"I +am not at all surprised at Major Montgomerie's disinclination to +acknowledge him as a personal acquaintance."</p> + +<p>"It is to be hoped," said De Courcy, "we shall not encounter many such +during the approaching struggle, for, since we have been driven into this war, +it will be a satisfaction to find ourselves opposed to an enemy rather more +chivalrous than this specimen seems to promise."</p> + +<p>"Nay, nay, De Courcy," remarked Captain Granville, "you must not judge +of the American officers of the line by that standard; as, for example, Major +Montgomerie and the person just alluded to. Last winter," he continued, +"there was a continued interchange of hospitalities between the two posts, and, +had you been here to participate in them, you would have admitted that +among the officers of Detroit, there were many very superior men indeed."</p> + +<p>"Pleasant ball, that last they gave," said Lieutenant Villiers, with a malicious +laugh, and fixing his eyes on the Captain of Grenadiers.</p> + +<p>"The devil take the ball," impatiently retorted Cranstoun, who did not +seem to relish the allusion; "don't talk about it now, man."</p> + +<p>"What was it, Villiers? do pray tell us. Something good, I am sure from +Cranstoun's manner," eagerly asked the aid-de-camp, his curiosity excited by +the general titter that followed the remark.</p> + +<p>"Shall I tell him, Cranstoun?" asked Villiers, in the same bantering tone.</p> + +<p>"Don't bother me," petulantly returned the other, as, thrusting his long +legs under the table and turning his back upon the questioner, he joined, or +affected to join, in a conversation that was passing, in a low tone, at his end +of the room.</p> + +<p>"I must premise," began Villiers, addressing himself to the attentively +listening De Courcy, "that such is the mania for dancing in this country +scarcely any obstacle is sufficient to deter a Canadian lady, particularly a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> +French Canadian, from indulging in her favorite amusement. It is, therefore, +by no means unusual to see women drawn in sleighs over drifting masses of +ice, with chasms occasionally occurring of from fifteen to twenty feet—and +that at a moment when, driven by wind and current, the huge fragments are +impelled over each other with a roar that can only be likened to continuous +thunder, forming, in various directions, hillocks from which the sun's rays are +reflected in a thousand fantastic shades and shapes. On these occasions the +sleighs, or carioles, are drawn, not as otherwise customary, by the fast-trotting +little horses of the country, but by expert natives whose mode of transportation +is as follows: A strong rope is fastened to the extremity of the +shafts, and into this the French Canadian, buried to the chin in his blanket +coat, and provided with a long pole terminating in an iron hook, harnesses +himself, by first drawing the loop of the cord over the back of his neck, and +then passing it under his arms. In this manner does he traverse the floating +ice, stepping from mass to mass with a rapidity that affords no time for the +detached fragment to sink under the weight with which it is temporarily +laden. As the iron-shod runners obey the slightest impulsion, the draught +is light; and the only fatigue encountered is in the act of bringing the detached +bodies together. Wherever an opening intervenes, the Canadian +throws forward his pole, and, securing the pointed hook in some projection +of the floating ice, drags it towards that on the extreme verge of which he +stands. In like manner he passes on to the next, when the same operation +remains to be performed, until the passage is fully effected. Sometimes it +happens that a chasm of more than ordinary extent occurs, in which case the +pole is unavailable, and then his only alternative is to wait patiently until +some distant mass, moving in a direction to fill up the interstice, arrives within +his reach. In the meanwhile the ice on which he stands sinks slowly and +gradually, until sometimes it quite disappears beneath the surface of the +water."</p> + +<p>"And the women, all this time?" demanded De Courcy, with something +of the nervousness which might be attributed to such a situation.</p> + +<p>"Sit as quietly and as unconcernedly, wrapped in their furs, as if they were +merely taking their customary drive on terra firma," continued Villiers; "nay, +I am persuaded that if they ever entertain an anxiety on those occasions, it is +either lest the absence of one of these formidable masses should compel them +to abandon an enterprise, the bare idea of entering upon which would give an +European woman an attack of nerves, or that the delayed aid should be a +means of depriving them of one half minute of their anticipated pleasure."</p> + +<p>"Why," interrupted Middlemore, despite of a dozen ohs and ahs—"why, +I say, is Villiers like a man of domestic habits? Do you give it up? Because +he is fond of dwelling on his own premises."</p> + +<p>"Middlemore, when will you renounce that vile habit of punning?" said +De Courcy, with an earnestness of adjuration that excited a general laugh at +his end of the table. "Come, Villiers, never mind his nonsense, for your +premises, although a little long, are not without deep interest—but what has +all this to do with our good friend above?"</p> + +<p>"You shall hear. After a succession of balls last winter, to which the +ladies of either shore were invariably invited, the concluding one was given +by the officers in garrison at Detroit. This was at the very close of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> +season, and it chanced that, on the preceding night, the river had broken up, +so that the roar and fracas of crashing ice might have been likened, during +forty-eight hours afterwards, to some terrible disorganization of nature. Nothing +daunted, however, by the circumstance, many of the Canadian ladies +made the usual preparations, and among others the Miss D'Egvilles."</p> + +<p>Here Villiers paused a moment, and with a significant "hem," sought to +arouse the attention of the grenadier; but Cranstoun, insensible to the appeal, +and perhaps unwilling to listen to a story that occasioned so much mirth +whenever it was repeated, continued with his back immovably turned towards +the speaker.</p> + +<p>"All very well," pursued Villiers; "but we know the adage—'none so +deaf as those who will not hear.' I have said," again turning to De Courcy, +while those who were near listened not without interest to the story, familiar +even as it was to them all, "that the Miss D'Egvilles were of the party. At +that time our friend was doing the amiable to the lively Julia, although we +never could persuade him to confess his penchant; and, on this occasion, he +had attached himself to their immediate sleigh. Provided, like the Canadians, +with poles terminated by an iron hook at one end and a spike at the other, +we made our way after their fashion, but in quicker time than they possibly +could, harnessed as they were in the sledges. With the aid of these poles, +we cleared, with facility, chasms of from ten to twelve feet, and alighting on +our moccasined feet, seldom incurred much risk of losing our hold. Our ball +dresses were taken in charge by the ladies, so that our chief care was the safe +passage of our own persons. We all arrived without accident, and passed a +delightful evening, the American officers exerting themselves to give the <i>coup +d'éclat</i> to the last ball of the season."</p> + +<p>"Yes," interrupted the incorrigible Middlemore, as he cracked a peccan nut, +"and the balls reserved for us this season will also carry with them the <i>coup +de grass</i>."</p> + +<p>"The night," pursued Villiers, no one noticing the interruption save by an +impatient 'pish,' "gave every indication of a speedy break up. The ice yet +floated along in disjoined masses, but with even greater rapidity than on the +preceding day. Two alternatives remained—either to attempt the crossing +before further obstacle should be interposed, or to remain in Detroit until the +river had been so far cleared of the ice as to admit of a passage in canoes. +With our leaping poles, we were not so much at a loss, but the fear entertained +was principally for the safety of the sleighs. Nothing dismayed, however, +by the dangerous appearance of the river, the ladies, after due deliberation, +courageously resolved on returning without delay, and we accordingly +set out on our somewhat hazardous expedition.</p> + +<p>"Notwithstanding it was, as I have already remarked, the close of winter, +the cold was intense, and we were warmly clad. I do not know if you have +ever seen Cranstoun's huge bear skin coat, (an affirmative nod was given by +De Courcy), well: in this formidable covering had he encased himself, so that +when he quitted the town, surmounted as his head was moreover with a fur +cap, he presented more of the appearance of a dancing bear than of a human +creature. In this guise he attached himself to the sleigh of the D'Egvilles, +which, in crossing, happened to be the furthest down the river, of the group."</p> + +<p>"What a damn'd long time you are telling that stupid story, Villiers," at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> +length noticed Cranstoun, wheeling round and regarding the narrator with a +look of ill assumed indifference, "I could have told it myself in half the +time."</p> + +<p>"I am afraid you would not tell it so faithfully," replied Lieutenant Villiers, +amid the loud laugh which was now raised at Cranstoun's expense. "You +see it is so good a thing, I like to make the most of it."</p> + +<p>Here Cranstoun again turned his back upon the party, and Villiers pursued.</p> + +<p>"The main body of the expedition had got nearly half way across the river, +when suddenly our ears were assailed by moanings, resembling those of some +wild beast, mingled with incessant and ungovernable laughter. Checking our +course, and turning to behold the cause, we observed, about a hundred yards +below us, the sledge of the D'Egvilles, from which the almost convulsive +laughter proceeded, and at a considerable distance beyond this again, an object +the true character of which we were some time in discovering.</p> + +<p>"It appeared, on subsequent explanation, that Cranstoun, who had been +whispering soft nothings in the ear of Julia D'Egville, (here the captain was +observed to prick his ear without materially altering his position) hem! +Cranstoun, I say, it appeared had also taken it into his head to give her a specimen +of his agility, by an attempt to clear a space between two masses of ice +of somewhat too great a breadth for a heavy grenadier, buttoned up to the +chin in a ponderous bear skin coat. He succeeded in gaining the opposite +piece of ice, but had no sooner reached it, than he fell, entangled in such a +manner in his covering that he found it impossible to extricate himself. To +add to his disaster, the force of his fall broke off, from the main body, the +section of ice on which he rested. Borne down by the current, in spite of his +vain struggles to free himself, he was unable even to call for aid, his fingers +moreover being so benumbed with cold that he found it impossible to unbutton +the straps which confined his mouth. In this emergency he could only +utter the strange and unintelligible moan which had reached our ears, and +which, mingled with the bursts of laughter from Julia D'Egville, formed a +most incongruous melange.</p> + +<p>"The best of the adventure remains, however, to be told. Numbers of the +peasantry from either shore, provided with poles, guns, and ropes, were now +to be seen rushing towards the half congealed Cranstoun, fully imagining—nay +exclaiming—that it was a wild bear, which, in an attempt to cross the +river, had had its retreat cut off, and was now, from insensibility, rendered +harmless. Disputes even arose in the distance as to whom the prize should +belong, each pursuer claiming to have seen it first. Nay, more than one gun +had been levelled with a view of terminating all doubt by lodging a bullet in +the carcase, when, fortunately, for the subject in dispute, this proposal was +overruled by the majority, who were more anxious to capture than to slay +the supposed bear. Meanwhile the Canadian, harnessed to the sleigh of the +D'Egvilles, roared out with all his lungs for the two parties to hasten to the +assistance of the drowning British officer. In the confusion produced by their +own voices, however, they did not appear to hear or understand him; yet all +pursued the aim they had in view. Cranstoun's body was so doubled up that +it was impossible for any one, who had not witnessed the accident, to imagine +it anything in nature but a bear; and this impression, the strange moaning +he continued to make, tended to confirm.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span></p> + +<p>"The party of Canadians, favored by the nature of their floating ice-bridges, +were the first to come up to him. A desperate effort of his cramped muscles +had enabled Cranstoun to extend one of his legs, at the moment when they +were about to throw a noose round his neck, and this was the first intimation +the astonished peasantry had of their supposed prize being a human being, instead +of the fat bear they had expected. Poor Cranstoun was of course liberated +from his 'durance vile,' but so chilled from long immersion, that he could +not stand without assistance, and it was not until one of their companions had +approached with a sleigh that he could be removed. He kept his bed three +days, as much I believe from vexation as illness, and has never worn his unlucky +bear skin since; neither has he forgiven Julia D'Egville the laugh she +enjoyed at his expense. Cranstoun," he concluded, "you may turn now, the +story is told."</p> + +<p>But Cranstoun, apparently heedless of the laugh that followed this—as indeed +it did every—narration of the anecdote, was not to be shaken from his +equanimity. He continued silent and unmoved, as if he had not heard a word +of the conclusion.</p> + +<p>"Poor Cranstoun," exclaimed the joyous De Courcy, in a strain of provoking +banter, "what an unfortunate leap that was of yours; and how delighted +you must have felt when you again stepped on terra firma."</p> + +<p>"I don't wonder at his leap being unfortunate," observed Middlemore, all +eyes fixed upon him in expectation of what was to follow, "for Julia D'Egville +can affirm that, while paying his court to her, he had not chosen a <i>leap +year</i>."</p> + +<p>While all were as usual abusing the far strained pun, a note was brought in +by the head waiter and handed to the punster. The officer read it attentively, +and then, with an air of seriousness which in him was remarkable, tossed it +across the table to Captain Molineux, who, since the departure of Henry +Grantham, had been sitting with his arms folded, apparently buried in profound +thought, and taking no part either in the conversation or the laughter +which accompanied it. A faint smile passed over his features, as, after having +read, he returned it, with an assentient nod to Middlemore. Shortly afterwards, +availing himself of the opportunity afforded by the introduction of some +fresh topic of conversation, he quitted his seat, and whispering something in +the ear of Villiers, left the mess room. Soon after, the latter officer disappeared +from the table, and in a few moments his example was followed by +Middlemore.</p> + + + + +<h2 class="p4"><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V.</a></h2> + + +<p>The dinner party at Colonel D'Egville's was composed in a manner to inspire +an exclusive with irrepressible horror. At the suggestion of General +Brock, Tecumseh had been invited, and, with him, three other celebrated Indian +chiefs, whom we beg to introduce to our readers under their familiar +names—Split-log—Round-head—and Walk-in-the-water—all of the formidable +nation of the Hurons. In his capacity of superintendent of Indian affairs, +Colonel D'Egville had been much in the habit of entertaining the superior<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> +chiefs, who, with a tact peculiar to men of their sedate and serious character, +if they displayed few of the graces of European polish, at least gave no manifestation +of an innate vulgarity. As it may not be uninteresting to the +reader to have a slight sketch of the warriors, we will attempt the portraiture.</p> + +<p>The chief Split-log, who indeed should rather have been named Split-ear, as +we shall presently show, was afflicted with an aldermanic rotundity of person, +by no means common among his race, and was one, who from his love of ease +and naturally indolent disposition, seemed more fitted to take his seat in the +council than to lead his warriors to battle. Yet was he not, in reality, the +inactive character he appeared, and more than once subsequently he was engaged +in expeditions of a predatory nature, carrying off the customary spoils. +We cannot impart a better idea of the head of the warrior than by +stating, that we never recall that of the gigantic Memnon, in the British +Museum, without being forcibly reminded of Split-log's. The Indian, +however, was notorious for a peculiarity which the Egyptian had not. So +enormous a head, seeming to require a corresponding portion of the several +organs, nature had, in her great bounty, provided him with a nose, which, if +it equalled not that of Smellfungus in length, might, in height and breadth, +have laughed it utterly to scorn. Neither was it a single, but a double nose—two +excrescences, equalling in bulk a moderate sized lemon, and of the spongy +nature of a mushroom, bulging out, and lending an expression of owlish +wisdom to his otherwise heavy features. As on that of the Memnon, not a +vestige of a hair was to be seen on the head of Split-log. His lips were, +moreover, of the same unsightly thickness, while the elephantine ear had been +slit in such a manner, that the pliant cartilage, yielding to the weight of several +ounces of lead which had for years adorned it, now lay stretched, and +coquetting with the brawny shoulder on which it reposed. Such was the +Huron, or Wyandot Chief, whose cognomen of Split-log had, in all probability, +been derived from his facility in "suiting the action to the word;" for, +in addition to his gigantic nose, he possessed a fist, which in size and strength +might have disputed the palm with Maximilian himself; although his practice +had chiefly been confined to knocking down his drunken wives, instead of +oxen.</p> + +<p>The second Chief, Round-head, who, by the way, was the principal in reputation +after Tecumseh, we find the more difficulty in describing from the +fact of his having had few or none of those peculiarities which we have, happily +for our powers of description, been enabled to seize hold of in Split-log. +His name we believe to have been derived from that indispensable portion of +his frame. His eye was quick, even penetrating, and his stern brow denoted +intelligence and decision of character. His straight, coal-black hair, cut +square over the forehead, fell long and thickly over his face and shoulders. +This, surmounted by a round slouched hat, ornamented with an eagle's +feather, which he ordinarily wore and had not even now dispensed with, added +to a blue capote or hunting frock, produced a <i>tout ensemble</i>, which cannot be +more happily rendered than by a comparison with one of his puritanical sly-eyed +namesakes of the English Revolution.</p> + +<p>Whether our third hero, Walk-in-the-water, derived his name from any +aquatic achievement which could possibly give a claim for its adoption, we have +no means of ascertaining; but certain it is, that in his features he bore a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> +striking resemblance to the portraits of Oliver Cromwell. The same small, +keen, searching eye, the same iron inflexibility of feature, together with the +long black hair escaping from beneath the slouched hat, (for Walk-in-the-water, +as well as Round-head, was characterised by an unconscious imitation +of the Rounheads of the Revolution)—all contributed to render the resemblance +as perfect as perfection of resemblance can be obtained, where the +physical, and not the moral, man, forms the ground of contrast.</p> + +<p>Far above these in nobleness of person, as well as in brilliancy of intellect, +was the graceful Tecumseh. Unlike his companions, whose dress was exceedingly +plain, he wore his jerkin or hunting coat of the most beautifully soft +and pliant deer-skin, on which were visible a variety of tasteful devices, exquisitely +embroidered with the stained quills of the porcupine. A shirt of +dazzling whiteness was carefully drawn over his expansive chest, and in his +equally white shawl-turban was placed an ostrich feather, the prized gift of the +lady of the mansion. On all occasions of festivity, and latterly in the field, +he was wont thus to decorate himself; and never did the noble warrior appear +to greater advantage than when habited in this costume. The contrast it +offered to his swarthy cheek and mobile features, animated as they were by +the frequent flashing of his eagle eye, seldom failed to excite admiration in the +bosoms of all who saw him.</p> + +<p>The half hour that elapsed between the arrival of the several guests and the +announcement of dinner, was passed under the influence of feelings almost as +various in kind as the party itself. Messieurs Split-rock, Round-head, and +Walk-in-the-water, fascinated by the eagles on the buttons of Major Montgomerie's +uniform, appeared to regard that officer as if they saw no just cause +or impediment why certain weapons dangling at their sides should not be +made to perform, and that without delay, an incision into the cranium of their +proprietor. True, there was a difficulty. The veteran major was partially +bald, and wanted the top knot or scalping tuft, which to a true warrior was indispensable; +not that we mean to insinuate, that either of these chiefs would +so far have forgotten the position in which that gentleman stood, as to have +been tempted into any practical demonstration of hostility: but there was a +restlessness about the eye of each, that—much like the instinct of the cat, +which regards with natural avidity the bird that is suffered to go at large +within his reach, without daring openly to attack it—betrayed the internal +effort it cost them to lose sight of the enemy in the prisoner and friend of the +superintendent. The major, on the other hand, although satisfied he was +under the roof of hospitality, did not at first appear altogether at his ease, +but, while he conversed with the English officers, turned ever and anon an eye +of distrust on the movements of his swarthy fellow guests. On the arrival +of Tecumseh, who, detained until a late hour by the arrangements he had +been making for the encampment and supplies of his new force, was the +last to make his appearance, the major's doubts passed entirely away. It was +impossible to be in the presence of this chieftain, and fail, even without any +other index to his soul than what the candor of his expression afforded, to +entertain all the security that man may repose on man. He had in him, it is +true, too much of the sincerity of nature, to make anything like a friendly advance +to one of a people on whom he charged all the misfortunes of his race, and +for whom he had avowed an inextinguishable hostility of heart and purpose; +but, unless when this might with strict propriety be exercised, the spirit of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> +his vengeance extended not; and not only would he have scorned to harm a +fallen foe, but his arm would have been the first uplifted in his defence.</p> + +<p>Notwithstanding the glance of intelligence which Captain Granville had remarked, +and which we have previously stated to have been directed by Miss +Montgomerie to her captor a few hours before, there was nothing in her manner +during dinner to convey the semblance of a prepossession. True, that in +the tumultuous glow of gratified vanity and dawning love, Gerald Grantham +had executed a toilet, into which, with a view to the improvement of the +advantage he imagined himself to have gained, all the justifiable coquetry of +personal embellishment had been thrown; but neither the handsome blue +uniform with its glittering epaulette, nor the beautiful hair on which more +than usual pains had been bestowed, nor the sparkling of his dark eye, nor +the expression of a cheek, rendered doubly animated by excitement, nor the +interestingly displayed arm <i>en écharpe</i>—none of these attractions, we repeat, +seemed to claim even a partial notice from her they were intended to captivate. +Cold, colorless, passionless, Miss Montgomerie met him with the +calmness of an absolute stranger; and when, with the recollection of the +indescribable look she had bestowed upon him glowing at his heart, Gerald +again sought in her eyes some trace of the expression that had stirred every +vein into transport, he found there indifference the most complete. How +great his mortification was, we will not venture to describe, but the arch and +occasional raillery of his lively cousin, Julia D'Egville, seemed to denote most +plainly that the conqueror and the conquered had exchanged positions.</p> + +<p>Nor was this surprising; Miss Montgomerie's travelling habit had been +discarded for the more decorative ornaments of a dinner toilet, in which, however, +the most marked simplicity was observed. A plain white muslin dress +gave full development to a person which was of a perfection that no dress +could have disguised. It was the bust of a Venus, united to a form, to create +which would have taxed the imaginative powers of a Praxiteles—a form so +faultlessly moulded, that every movement presented some new and unpremeditated +grace. What added to the surpassing richness of her beauty was her +hair, which, black, glossy, and of eastern luxuriance, and seemingly disdaining +the girlishness of curls, reposed in broad Grecian bands across a brow, the +intellectual expression of which they contributed to form. Yet never did +woman exhibit in her person and face more opposite extremes of beauty. If +the one was strikingly characteristic of warmth, the other was no less indicative +of coldness. Fair, even to paleness, were her cheek and forehead, which +wore an appearance of almost marble immobility, save when, in moments of +oft recurring abstraction, a slight but marked contraction of the brow betrayed +the existence of a feeling, indefinable indeed to the observer, but certainly +unallied to softness. Still she was beautiful—coldly, classically, beautiful—eminently +calculated to inspire passion, but seemingly incapable of feeling it.</p> + +<p>The coldness of Miss Montgomerie's manner was no less remarkable. Her +whole demeanor was one of abstraction. It seemed as if heedless, not only +of ceremony, but of courtesy, her thoughts and feelings were far from the +board of whose hospitality she was partaking. Indeed, the very few remarks +she made during dinner referred to the period of departure of the boat, in +which she was to be conveyed to Detroit, and on this subject she displayed +an earnestness, which, even Grantham thought, might have been suppressed +in the presence of his uncle's family. Perhaps he felt piqued at her readiness +to leave him.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span></p> + +<p>Under these circumstances, the dinner was not, as might be expected, particularly +gay. There was an embarrassment among all, which even the +circulating wine did not wholly remove. Major Montgomerie was nearly as +silent as his niece. Mrs. D'Egville, although evincing all the kindness of her +really benevolent nature—a task in which she was assisted by her amiable +daughters—still felt that the reserve of her guest insensibly produced a +corresponding effect upon herself; while Colonel D'Egville, gay, polished, and +attentive, as he usually was, could not wholly overcome an apprehension that +the introduction of the Indian chiefs had given offence to both uncle and niece. +Still, it was impossible to have acted otherwise. Independently of his strong +personal attachment to Tecumseh, considerations involving the safety of the +province, threatened as it was, strongly demanded that the leading chiefs +should be treated with the respect due to their station; and moreover, while +General Brock and Commodore Barclay were present, there could be no +ground for an impression that slight was intended. Both these officers saw the +difficulty under which their host labored, and sought by every gentlemanly +attention, to remove whatever unpleasantness might lurk in the feelings of his +American guests.</p> + +<p>The dessert brought with it but little addition to the animation of the party, +and it was a relief to all, when, after a toast proposed by the general to the +"Ladies of America," Mrs. D'Egville made the usual signal for withdrawing.</p> + +<p>As soon as they had departed, followed a moment or two afterwards by +Tecumseh and Gerald Grantham, Messieurs Split-log, Round-head, and Walk-in-the-water, +deliberately taking their pipe-bowl tomahawks from their belts, +proceeded to fill them with kinni-kinnick, a mixture of Virginia tobacco and +odoriferous herbs, than which no perfume can be more fragrant. Amid the +clouds of smoke puffed from these at the lower end of the table, where had +been placed a supply of whiskey, their favorite liquor—did Colonel D'Egville +and his more civilized guests quaff their claret; more gratified than annoyed +by the savoury atmosphere wreathing around them, while, taking advantage +of the early departure of the abstemious Tecumseh, they discussed the merits +of that chief, and the policy of employing the Indians as allies, as will be seen +in the following chapter.</p> + + + + +<h2 class="p4"><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI.</a></h2> + + +<p>"What a truly noble looking being!" observed Major Montgomerie, as he +followed with his eye the receding form of the athletic but graceful Tecumseh. +"Do you know, Colonel D'Egville, I could almost forgive your nephew his +success of this morning, in consideration of the pleasure he has procured me +in this meeting."</p> + +<p>Colonel D'Egville looked the gratification he felt at the avowal. "I am +delighted, Major Montgomerie, to hear you say so. My only fear was that, +in making those chieftains my guests at the same moment with yourself and +niece, I might have unconsciously appeared to slight, where slight was certainly +not intended. You must be aware, however, of the rank held by them +among their respective nations, and of their consequent claim upon the atten<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span>tion +of one to whom the Indian interests have been delegated."</p> + +<p>"My dear sir," interrupted the Major, eager to disclaim, "I trust you have +not mistaken me so far, as to have imputed a reserve of speech and manner +during dinner, to which I cannot but plead guilty, to a fastidiousness which, +situated as I am, (and he bowed to the general and commodore,) would have +been wholly misplaced. My distraction, pardonable perhaps under all the +circumstances, was produced entirely by a recurrence to certain inconveniences +which I felt might arise to me from my imprisonment. The captive bird," he +pursued, while a smile for the first time animated his very fine countenance, +"will pine within its cage, however gilded the wires which compose it. In +every sense, my experience of to-day only leads me to the expression of a +hope, that all whom the chances of war may throw into a similar position, +may meet with a similar reception."</p> + +<p>"Since," observed the General, "your private affairs are of the importance +you express, Major Montgomerie, you shall depart with your niece. Perhaps +I am rather exceeding my powers in this respect, but, however this may be, +I shall take the responsibility on myself. You will hold yourself pledged, of +course, to take no part against us in the forthcoming struggle, until you have +been regularly exchanged for whatever officer of your own rank, may happen +to fall into the hands of your countrymen. I shall dispatch an express to the +Commander in-Chief, to intimate this fact, requesting at the same time, that +your name may be put down in the first list for exchange."</p> + +<p>Major Montgomerie warmly thanked the General for his kind offer, of which +he said he should be glad to avail himself, as he did not like the idea of his +niece proceeding without him to Detroit, where she was an entire stranger. +This, he admitted, determined as she had appeared to be, was one of the unpleasant +subjects of his reflection during dinner.</p> + +<p>With a view of turning the conversation, and anxious moreover, to obtain +every information on the subject, the general now inquired in what estimation +Tecumseh was generally held in the United States.</p> + +<p>"Among the more intelligent classes of our citizens, in the highest possible," +was the reply; "but by those who are not so capable of judging, and who only +see, in the indomitable courage and elevated talents of the patriot hero, the +stubborn inflexibility of the mere savage, he is looked upon far less flatteringly. +By all, however, is he admitted to be formidable without parallel, in +the history of Indian warfare. His deeds are familiar to all, and his name is +much such a bugbear to American childhood, as Marlborough's was in France, +and Napoleon's is in England. It is a source of much regret to our Government +never to have been enabled to conciliate this extraordinary man."</p> + +<p>"What more feasible," remarked the General, but with a tone and manner +that could not possibly give offence; "had not the difficulty been of its own +creation? Treaty after treaty, you must admit, major, had been made and +violated under various pretexts, while the real motive—the aggrandizement of +territories already embracing a vast portion of their early possessions—was +carefully sought to be concealed from these unfortunate people. How was it +to be expected then that a man, whom the necessities of his country had +raised up to itself in the twofold character of statesman and warrior—one +gifted with a power of analyzing motives which has never been surpassed in +savage life—how, I ask, was it to be expected that he, with all these injuries<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> +of aggression staring him in the face, should have been won over by a show +of conciliation, which long experience, independently of his matured judgment, +must have assured him was only held forth to hoodwink, until fitting opportunity +should be found for again throwing off the mask."</p> + +<p>"To the charge of violating treaties," returned Major Montgomerie, who +took the opposite argument in perfectly good part, "I fear, general, our Government +must to a certain extent plead guilty—much, however, remains to be +said in excuse. In the first place, it must be borne in mind that the territory +of the United States, unlike the kingdom of Europe, has no fixed or settled +boundary whereby to determine its own relative bearing. True it is, that we +have the Canadas on one portion of our frontier, but this being a fixed line of +demarcation, there can exist no question as to a mutual knowledge of the territorial +claims of both countries. Unlike that of the old world, however our +population is rapidly progressing, and where are we to find an outlet for the +surplus of that population unless, unwilling as we are to come into collision +with our more civilized neighbors, we can push them forward into the interior. +In almost all the contracts entered into by our Government with the Indians, +large sums have been given for the lands ceded by the latter. This was at +once, of course, a tacit and mutual revocation of any antecedent arrangements, +and if instances have occurred wherein the sacredness of treaty has been violated, +it has only been where the Indians have refused to part with their lands +for the proffered consideration, and when those lands have been absolutely indispensable +to our agricultural purposes. Then indeed has it been found necessary +to resort to force. That this principle of "might being the right," may +be condemned <i>in limine</i> it is true, but how otherwise, with a superabundant +population, can we possibly act?"</p> + +<p>"A superabundance of territory, I grant you, but surely not of population," +remarked the commodore; "were the citizens of the United States condensed +into the space allotted to Europeans, you might safely dispense with half the +Union at this moment."</p> + +<p>"And what advantages should we then derive from the possession of nearly +a whole continent to ourselves?"</p> + +<p>"Every advantage that may be reaped consistently with common justice. +What would be thought in Europe, if, for instance to illustrate a point, and +assuming these two countries to be in a state of profound peace, Spain, on the +principle of might, should push her surplus population into Portugal, compelling +the latter kingdom to retire back on herself, and crowd her own subjects +into the few provinces that might yet be left to them."</p> + +<p>"I cannot admit the justice of your remark, commodore," returned Major +Montgomerie, gradually warming into animation; "Both are civilized powers, +holding the same rank and filling nearly the same scale among the nations of +Europe. Moreover, there does not exist the same difference in the natural +man. The uneducated negro is, from infancy and long custom, doomed to +slavery, wherefore should the copper colored Indian be more free? But my +argument points not at their subjection. I would merely show that, incapable +of benefitting by the advantages of the soil they inherit, they should learn +to yield it with a good grace to those who can. Their wants are few, and interminable +woods yet remain to them, in which their hunting pursuits may be +indulged without a fear of interruption."</p> + +<p>"That it will be long," observed the General, "before, in so vast a conti<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span>nent, +they will be without a final resting place, I readily admit; but the hardship +consists in this—that they are driven from particular positions to which +their early associations lend a preference. What was it that stirred into a +flame, the fierce hostility of Tecumseh but the determination evinced by your +Government to wrest, from the hands of his tribe, their last remaining favorite +haunts on the Wabash?"</p> + +<p>"This cannot be denied, but it was utterly impossible we could forego the +possession of countries bordering so immediately on our settlements. Had we +pushed our colonization further, leaving the tribes of the Wabash in intermediate +occupation, we ran the risk of having our settlers cut off in detail, at the +slightest assumed provocation. Nay, pretexts would have been sought for +the purpose, and the result of this would have been the very war into which +we were unavoidably led. The only difference was, that, instead of taking up +arms to avenge our slaughtered kinsmen, we anticipated the period that must +sooner or later have arrived, by ridding ourselves of the presence of those from +whose hostility we had everything to apprehend."</p> + +<p>"The expediency of these measures," said the General, "no one, Major, can +of course doubt; the only question at issue is their justice, and in making this +remark it must be obvious there is no particular allusion to the United States, +further than that country serves to illustrate a general principle. I am +merely arguing against the right of a strong power to wrest from a weaker +what may be essential to its own interest, without reference to the comfort, or +wishes, or convenience of the latter."</p> + +<p>"In such light assuredly do I take it," observed Major Montgomerie, bowing +his sense of the disclaimer. "But to prove to you, general, that we are +only following in the course pursued by every other people of the world, let +us, without going back to the days of barbarism, when the several kingdoms +of Europe were overrun by the strongest, and when your own country in particular +became in turn the prey of Saxons, Danes, Normans, &c., merely +glance our eyes upon those provinces which have been subjugated by more +civilized Europe. Look at South America, for instance, and then say what +we have done that has not been far exceeded by the Spaniards, in that portion +of the hemisphere—and yet, with this vast difference in the balance, that +there the European drove before him and mercilessly destroyed an unoffending +race, while we, on the contrary, have had fierce hostility and treachery +everywhere opposed to our progress. The Spaniards, moreover, offered no +equivalent for the country subdued; now we have ever done so, and only +where that equivalent has been rejected, have we found ourselves compelled +to resort to force. Look again at the islands of the West Indies, the chief of +which are conquests by England. Where are the people to whom Providence +had originally assigned those countries, until the European, in his thirst for +aggrandizement, on that very principle of might which you condemn, tore +them violently away. Gone, extirpated, until scarce a vestige of their existence +remains, even as it must be, in the course of time, with the Indians of these +wilds—perhaps not in this century or the next, but soon or late assuredly. +These two people—the South Americans and Caribs—I particularly instance, +for the very reason that they offer the most striking parallel with the immediate +subject under discussion. But shall I go further than this, gentlemen, +and maintain that we, the United States, are only following in the course +originally pointed out to us by England."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I should be glad to hear your argument," said the Commodore, drawing +his chair closer to the table.</p> + +<p>"And I," added the General, "consider the position too novel not to feel +interested in the manner in which it will be maintained."</p> + +<p>"I will not exactly say," observed Colonel D'Egville, smiling one of his +blandest smiles, and few men understood the winning art better than himself, +"that Major Montgomerie has the happy talent of making the worse appear +the better cause; but certainly, I never remember to have heard that cause +more ably advocated."</p> + +<p>"More subtly perhaps you would say, Colonel; but seriously, I speak from +conviction alone. It is true, as a citizen of the United States, and therefore one +interested in the fair fame of its public acts, that conviction may partake in +some degree of partial influences; still it is sincere. But to my argument. +What I would maintain is, as I have before stated, that in all we have done +we have only followed the example of England. For instance, when the +colonisation of the Eastern and Southern states of the Union took place, that +is to say, when our common ancestors first settled in this country, how was +their object effected? Why, by driving from their possessions near the sea, in +order to make room for themselves, those very nations whom we are accused +of a desire to exterminate, as if out of a mere spirit of wantonness. Did +either English or Dutch then hesitate as to what course <i>they</i> should pursue, +or suffer any qualms of conscience to interfere with their colonial plans? +No; as a measure of policy—as a means of security—they sought to conciliate +the Indians, but not the less determined were they to attain their end. Who, +then, among Englishmen, would have thought of blaming their fellow countrymen, +when the object in view was the aggrandizement of the national power, +and the furtherance of individual interests? While the colonists continued +tributary to England they could do no wrong—they incurred no censure. Each +succeeding year saw them, with a spirit that was <i>then</i> deemed worthy of commendation, +pushing their advantages and extending their possessions, to the +utter exclusion and at the expense of the original possessors of the soil. For +this they incurred no blame. But mark the change: no sooner had the war +of the revolution terminated in our emancipation from the leading strings of +childhood—no sooner had we taken rank among the acknowledged nations of +the world—no sooner had we, in a word, started into existence as an original +people—than the course we had undeviatingly pursued in infancy, and from +which we did not dream of swerving in manhood, became a subject for unqualified +censure. What had been considered laudable enterprise in the +English colonist, became unpardonable ambition in the American republican; +and acts affecting the national prosperity, that carried with them the approbation +of society and good government during our nonage, were stigmatized +as odious and grasping the moment we had attained our majority."</p> + +<p>"Most ably and eloquently argued, Major," interrupted the general, "and +I fear with rather more truth than we Englishmen are quite willing to +acknowledge: still it must be admitted, that what in the first instance was a +necessity, partook no longer of that character at a later period. In order to +colonize the country originally, it was necessary to select such portions as +were, by their proximity to the sea, indispensable to the perfection of the plan. +If the English colonists drove the Indians into the interior, it was only for a +period. They had still vast tracts to traverse, which have since, figuratively<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> +speaking, been reduced to a mere span: and their very sense of the difference +of the motive—that is to say, of the difference between him who merely seeks +whereon to erect his dwelling, and him who is anxious to usurp to himself the +possession of an almost illimitable territory—cannot be better expressed than +by the different degrees of enmity manifested against the two several people. +When did the fierceness of Indian hatred blaze forth against the English colonists, +who were limited in their views, as it has since against the subjects of +the United States, who, since the Revolution, have more than tripled their +territorial acquisitions?"</p> + +<p>"Nay, general," replied the American, his lip partially curling with a smile, +indicating consciousness of triumphant argument; "I shall defeat you on your +own ground, and that by going back to a period anterior to the revolution—to +the very period you describe as being characterised by less intense hostility +to your own government."</p> + +<p>"What, for instance, have we seen in modern times, to equal the famous +Indian league, which, under the direction of the celebrated Pontiac, a chieftain +only surpassed by Tecumseh, consigned so many of the European posts to +destruction, along this very line of district, about the middle of the last century. +It has been held up as a reproach to us, that we have principally +subjected ourselves to the rancorous enmity of the Indians, in consequence of +having wrested from them their favorite and beautiful hunting grounds, (Kentucky +in particular,) to which their early associations had linked them. But +to this I answer, that in Pontiac's time this country was still their own, as +well as Ohio, Louisiana, Indiana, &c., and yet the war of fierce extermination +was not the less waged towards the English; not because these latter had +appropriated their principal haunts, but because they had driven them from +their original possessions near the sea. The hatred of the Indians has ever +been the same towards those who first secured a footing on their continent, +and, although we are a distinct people in the eyes of the civilized world, still +we are the same in those of the natives, who see in us, not the emancipated +American, but merely the descendant of the original colonist. That their +hostility has progressed in proportion with our extension of territory, I cannot +altogether admit, for although our infant settlements have in a great +degree suffered from occasional irruptions of the savages, when men, women +and children, have alike been devoted to the murderous tomahawk, in no +way have our fortresses been systematically assailed, as during the time of +Pontiac."</p> + +<p>"For this," interrupted the general, "there are two obvious reasons. In the +first instance, your fortresses are less isolated than ours were at that period, +and secondly, no such intelligent being as the chieftain you have named, had +started up among the Indian nations until now. What Tecumseh may not +effect in course of time, should he not perish in the struggle for his country's +liberty, ought to be a matter of serious consideration with your Government."</p> + +<p>"Of his great talents and dauntless determination they are fully aware," +replied the major; "but as I have already said, nothing short, not merely of +giving up all claim to future advantages, but of restoring the country wrested +from him on the Wabash, can ever win him from his hostility; and this is a +sacrifice the Government will never consent to make."</p> + +<p>At this point of the argument, Messieurs Split-log, Round-head, and Walk-in-the-water, +having finished their kinni-kinnick, and imbibed a due quantum<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> +of whiskey; possibly, moreover, not much entertained by the conversation +that was carried on in a language neither of them understood but imperfectly, +rose to take their leave. They successively shook hands with the British +leaders, then advancing towards Major Montgomerie, with a guttural "Ugh," +so accentuated as to express good will and satisfaction, tendered their dark +palms to that officer also, muttering as they did something about "good Chemocomon." +They then with becoming dignity withdrew, followed by Colonel +D'Egville, who had risen to conduct them to the door.</p> + +<p>The conversation, thus temporarily interrupted, was resumed on that officer's +return.</p> + +<p>"Admitting the truth of your position, Major Montgomerie," remarked the +Commodore, "that the Government of the United States is justified, both by +expediency and example, in the course it has pursued, it will not at least be +denied, that Tecumseh is, on the very same principle, borne out in the +hatred and spirit of hostility evinced by him towards the oppressors of his +country."</p> + +<p>"Granted," returned the Major, "but this point has no reference to my +argument, which tends to maintain, that in all we have done, we have been +justified by necessity and example."</p> + +<p>"The fact is, however, that this position of things is one unavoidably growing +out of the clashing of adverse interests—the Indians being anxious to +check, we to extend, our dominion and power as a people; and the causes +existing now were in being nearly a century ago, and will, in all probability +continue, until all vestige of Indian existence shall have passed utterly away. +When the French were in the occupancy of the Canadas, having nothing to +gain from them, they cultivated the alliance and friendship of the several +nations, and by fostering their fierce hostility against the English colonists, +rendered them subservient to their views. To-day the English stand precisely +where the French did. Having little to expect from the Indians but assistance +in a case of need, they behold, and have for years beheld, with anything but +indifference, the struggle continued by the United States which was commenced +by themselves. I hope I shall not be understood as expressing my +own opinion, when I add, that in the United States, the same covert influence +is attributed to the commanders of the British fortresses that was imputed +to the French. Indeed it is a general belief, among the lower classes particularly, +that, in all the wars undertaken against the American out-posts and +settlements, the Indians have been instigated to the outrage by liberal distributions +of money and presents from the British Government."</p> + +<p>"It will hardly be necessary to deny the justice of such an imputation to +Major Montgomerie," remarked the General, with a smile, "especially after +having disavowed the opinion as his own. The charge is too absurd for +serious contradiction—yet we are not altogether ignorant that such an impression +has gone abroad."</p> + +<p>"Few of the more enlightened of our citizens give into the belief," said the +Major; "still it will give me especial pleasure to have it in my power to contradict +the assertion from the lips of General Brock himself."</p> + +<p>"That we have entered into a treaty of alliance with the Indians," observed +Colonel D'Egville, "is most certainly true; but it is an alliance wholly defensive. +I must further observe, that in whatever light the policy of the +Government of the United States in its relations with the Indians, may be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> +privately viewed, we are, under all circumstances, the last people in the world +who should condemn it as injurious to our public interests, since it has been +productive of results affecting the very existence of these provinces. Had the +American Government studied conciliation rather than extension of territory, +it is difficult to say to what side the great body of the Indians would, in the +impending struggle, have leaned. The possibility of some such event as the +present had not only been foreseen, but anticipated. It has long been +obvious to us that the spirit of acquisition manifested by the United States, +would not confine itself to its customary channels; but on the contrary, that, +not contented with the appropriation of the hunting grounds of the Indians, +it would finally extend its views to Canada. Such a crisis has long been provided +against. Presents, to a large amount, have certainly been distributed +among the Indians, and not only this, but every courtesy, consistent at once +with our dignity and our interest, has been shown to them. You have seen, +for instance," continued he with a smile, "my three friends who have just left +the room; they are not exactly the happiest specimens of Indian grace, but +they have great weight in the council, and are the leading men in the alliance +to which you alluded, although not wholly for the same purpose. In the wars +of Pontiac—and these are still fresh in the recollection of certain members of +my own family—the English commanders, with one or two exceptions, +brought those disasters upon themselves. Forgetting that the Indians were +a proud people, whom to neglect was to stir into hatred, they treated them +with indifference, if not with contempt; and dearly did they pay the penalty +of their fault. As we all know, they, with only one exception, were destroyed. +In their fall expired the hostility they themselves had provoked, and time had +wholly obliterated the sense of injustice from the minds of the several nations. +Were we then, with these fearful examples yet fresh in our recollection, to +fall into a similar error? No: a course of conciliation was adopted, and has +been pursued for years; and now do we reap the fruit of what, after all, is +but an act of justifiable policy. In my capacity of Superintendent of Indian +affairs, Major Montgomerie, even more than as a Canadian brought up among +them, I have had opportunities of studying the characters of the heads of the +several nations. The most bitter enmity animates the bosoms of all against +the Government and people of the United States, from whom, according to +their own showing, they have to record injury upon injury; whereas from us +they have received but benefits. I repeat, this is at once politic and just. +What could Canada have hoped to accomplish in the approaching struggle, +had the conduct of the American Government been such as to have neutralized +the interest we had excited in and for ourselves? She must have succumbed; +and my firm impression is, that at whatever epoch of her existence, the United +States may extend the hand of conquest over these colonies, with the Indian +tribes that are now leagued with us crowding to her own standard, not +all the armies that England may choose to send to their defence will be able +to prevent it."</p> + +<p>"Filling the situation you now occupy, Colonel, there can be no doubt you +are in every way enabled to arrive at a full knowledge of Indian feelings and +Indian interests; and we have but too much reason to fear, that the strong +hatred to the United States you describe as existing on the part of their several +leaders, has had a tendency to unite them more cordially to the British +cause. But your course of observation suggests another question. Why is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> +it that, with the knowledge possessed by the British Government of the cruel +nature of Indian warfare, it can consent to enlist them as allies? To prevent +their taking up arms against the Canadas may be well, but in my opinion, +(and it is one generally entertained through the United States,) the influence +of the British authorities should have been confined to neutralizing their +services."</p> + +<p>"Nay, Major Montgomerie," observed the General, "it would indeed be +exacting too much to require that we should offer ourselves unresisting victims +to your Government; and what but self-immolation would it be to abstain +from the only means by which we can hope to save these threatened +Provinces? Colonel D'Egville has just said that, with the Indians opposed +to us, Canada would fall. I go farther, and aver that, without the aid of the +Indians, circumstanced as England now is, Canada must be lost to us. It is +a painful alternative, I admit, for that a war, which is not carried on with the +conventional courtesies of civilized belligerent nations, is little suited to our +taste, you will do us the justice to believe; but by whom have we been forced +into the dilemma? Had we been guilty of rousing the Indian spirit against +you, with a view to selfish advantage; or had we in any way connived at the +destruction of your settlements, from either dread or jealousy of your too +close proximity, then should we have deserved all the odium of such conduct. +But this we unequivocally deny.</p> + +<p>"I would ask you, on the other hand, if you are aware of the great exertions +made by your Government, to induce them to take an active part in this very +war. If not, I can acquaint you that several of the chiefs, now here, have +been strongly urged to declare against us; and, not very long since, an important +council was held among the several tribes, wherein some few, who +had been won over by large bribes, discussed the propriety of deserting the +British cause, in consideration of advantages which were promised them by +the United States. These of course were overruled by the majority, who expressed +the utmost indignation at the proposal; but the attempt to secure +their active services was not the less made. We certainly have every reason +to congratulate ourselves on its failure."</p> + +<p>"This certainly partakes of the <i>argumentum ad hominem</i>," said the Major, +good humoredly; "I do confess, I am aware that, since the idea of war +against England was first entertained, great efforts have been made to attach +the Indians to our interests; and in all probability, had any other man than +Tecumseh presided over their destinies, our Government would have been +successful. I however, for one, am no advocate for their employment on either +side; for it must be admitted they are a terrible and a cruel enemy, sparing +neither age nor sex."</p> + +<p>"Again, Major," returned the General, "do we shield ourselves under our +former plea—that, as an assailed party, we have a right to avail ourselves of +whatever means of defence are within our reach. One of two things—either +we must retain the Indians, who are bound to us in one common interest, or +we must, by discarding them, quietly surrender the Canadas to your armies. +Few will be Quixotic enough to hesitate as to which of the alternatives we +should adopt."</p> + +<p>"And if we should be accused of neglecting the means of preventing unnecessary +cruelty," observed Colonel D'Egville, "the people of the United +States will do us infinite wrong. This very circumstance has been foreseen<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> +and provided against. Without the power to prevent the Indians from entering +upon these expeditions, we have at least done all that experience and a +thorough knowledge of their character admits, to restrain their vengeance, by +the promise of head money. It has been made generally known to them +that every prisoner that is brought in and delivered up shall entitle the captor +to a certain sum. This promise, I have no doubt, will have the effect, not +only of saving the lives of those who are attacked in their settlements, but also +of checking any disposition to unnecessary outrage in the hour of conflict."</p> + +<p>"The idea is one certainly reflecting credit on the humanity of the British +authorities," returned Major Montgomerie; "but I confess I doubt its efficacy. +We all know the nature of an Indian too well to hope that in the +career of his vengeance, or the full flush of victory, he will waive his war +trophy in consideration of a few dollars. The scalp he may bring, but seldom +a living head with it."</p> + +<p>"It is, I fear, the horrid estimation in which the scalp is held, that too frequently +whets the blades of these people," observed the Commodore. "Were +it not considered a trophy, more lives would be spared; but an Indian, from +all I can understand, takes greater pride in exhibiting the scalp of a slain enemy, +than a knight of ancient times did in displaying in his helmet the glove +that had been bestowed on him as a mark of favor by his lady-love."</p> + +<p>"After all," said the General, "necessary as it is to discourage it by every +possible mark of disapprobation, I do not see, in the mere act of scalping, half +the horrors usually attached to the practice. The motive must be considered. +It is not the mere desire to inflict wanton torture that influences the warrior +but an anxiety to possess himself of that which gives undisputed evidence of +his courage and success in war. The prejudice of Europeans is strong against +the custom, however, and we look upon it in a light very different, I am sure +from that in which it is viewed by the Indians themselves. The burnings of +prisoners, which were practised many years ago, no longer continue; and the +infliction of the torture has passed away, so that, after all, Indian cruelty does +not exceed that which is practised even at this day in Europe, and by a nation +bearing high rank among the Catholic powers of Europe. I have numerous +letters, recently received from officers of my acquaintance now serving +in Spain, all of which agree in stating that the mutilations perpetrated by +the Guerilla bands, on the bodies of such of the unfortunate French detachments +as they succeeded in overpowering, far exceeded anything imputed to +the Indians of America; and, as several of these letters are from individuals +who joined the Peninsular Army from this country, in which they had passed +many years, the statement may be relied on as coming from men who have +had more than hearsay knowledge of both parties."</p> + +<p>Here a tall, fine-looking black, wearing the livery of Colonel D'Egville, entering +to announce that coffee was waiting for them in an adjoining room—the +party rose and retired to the ladies.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span></p> + + + + +<h2 class="p4"><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII.</a></h2> + + +<p>Many of our readers will doubtless bear in mind the spot called Elliott's +Point, at the western extremity of Lake Erie, to which we have already introduced +them. At a considerable distance beyond that again (its intermediate +shores washed by the silver waves of the Erie) stretches a second, called +also, from the name of its proprietor, Hartley's Point. Between these two +necks are three or four farms; one of which, and adjoining Hartley's, was, at +the period of which we treat, occupied by an individual of whom, unfortunately +for the interests of Canada, too many of the species had been suffered +to take root within her soil.</p> + +<p>This person had his residence near Hartley's Point. Unlike those however +whose dwellings rose at a distance, few and far between, hemmed in by the +fruits of prosperous agriculture, he appeared to have paid but little attention +to the cultivation of a soil, which in every part was of exceeding fertility. A +rude log hut, situated in a clearing of the forest, the imperfect work of lazy +labor, was his only habitation, and here he had for years resided without its +being known how he contrived to procure the necessary means of subsistence; +yet, in defiance of the apparent absence of all resources, it was subject of general +remark, that he not only never wanted money, but had been enabled to +bestow something like an education on a son, who had, at the epoch opened +by our narrative, been absent from him upwards of five years. From his frequent +voyages, and the direction his canoe was seen to take, it was inferred by +his immediate neighbors, that he dealt in contraband, procuring various articles +on the American coast, which he subsequently disposed of in the small +town of Amherstburg (one of the principal English posts) among certain +subjects domiciliated there, who were suspected of no very scrupulous desire +to benefit the revenue of the country. So well and so wisely however, did he +cover his operations, that he had always contrived to elude detection—and, +although suspicion attached to his conduct, in no instance had he openly committed +himself. The man himself, tall, stout, and of a forbidding look, was +of a fearless and resolute character, and if he resorted to cunning, it was because +cunning alone could serve his purposes in a country, the laws of which +were not openly to be defied.</p> + +<p>For a series of years after his arrival, he had contrived to evade taking the +customary oaths of allegiance; but this, eventually awakening the suspicions +of the magistracy, brought him more immediately under their surveillance, +when year after year, he was compelled to a renewal of the oath, for the imposition +of which, it was thought, he owed more than one of those magistrates a +grudge. On the breaking out of the war, he still remained in undisturbed +possession of his rude dwelling, watched as well as circumstances would permit, +it is true, but not so narrowly as to be traced in his various nocturnal +excursions by water. Nothing could be conceived more uncouth in manner +and appearance than this man—nothing more villanous than the expression +of his eye. No one knew from what particular point of the United States he +had come, and whether Yankee or Kentuckian, it would have puzzled one of +that race of beings, so proverbial fer acumen—a Philadelphia lawyer—to have +determined.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span></p> + +<p>The day following that of the capture of the American detachment was just +beginning to dawn, as two individuals appeared on the skirt of the rude clearing +in which the hut of the man we have just described, had been erected. +The persons of both these, wrapped in blue military cloaks, reposed upon the +dark foliage in a manner to enable them to observe, without being themselves +seen, all that passed within the clearing, from the log hut to the sand of the +lake shore. There had been an indication by one of these of a design to step +forth from his concealment into the clearing, and advance boldly towards the +house; but this had been checked by his companion, who, laying his hand +upon his shoulder, arrested the movement, pointing out at the same time, the +leisurely but cautious advance of two men from the hut towards the shore, on +which lay a canoe half drawn up on the sands. Each, on issuing from the +hut, had deposited a rifle against the rude exterior of the dwelling, the better +to enable them to convey a light mast, sail, paddles, several blankets and a +common corn-bag, apparently containing provisions, with which they proceeded +towards the canoe.</p> + +<p>"So," said the taller of the first party, in a whisper, "there is that d——d +rascal Desborough setting out on one of his contraband excursions. He seems +to have a long absence in view, if we may judge from the contents of his provision +sack."</p> + +<p>"Hist," rejoined his companion, "there is more here than meets the eye. +In the first instance, remove the pistols from the case, and be prepared to afford +me assistance, should I require it."</p> + +<p>"What the devil are you going to do?" asked the first speaker, following +however the hint that had been given him, and removing a pair of duelling +pistols from their mahogany case.</p> + +<p>While he was in the act of doing this, his companion had, without replying, +quitted his side, and cautiously and noiselessly advanced to the hut. In the +course of a few minutes he again appeared at the point whence he had started, +grasping in either hand the rifles so recently deposited there.</p> + +<p>"Well, what is the meaning of this feat? you do not intend, Yankee fashion, +to exchange a long shot with poor Molineux, I hope—if so, my dear fellow, I +cry off, for upon my honor, I cannot engage in anything that is not strictly +orthodox."</p> + +<p>He, thus addressed, could scarcely restrain a laugh at the serious tone in +which his companion expressed himself, as if he verily believed he had that +object in view.</p> + +<p>"Would you not like," he asked, "to be in some degree instrumental in +banishing wholly from the country a man whom we all suspect of treason, but +are compelled to tolerate from inability to prove his guilt—this same notorious +Desborough?"</p> + +<p>"Now that you no longer speak and act in parables, I can understand you. +Of course I should, but what proof of his treason are we to discover in +the mere fact of his departing on what he may choose to call a hunting excursion? +even admitting he is speculating in the contraband, <i>that</i> cannot banish +him; and if it could, we would never descend to become informers."</p> + +<p>"Nothing of the kind is required of us—his treason will soon unfold itself, +and that in a manner to demand, as an imperative duty, that we secure the +traitor. For this have I removed the rifles which may, in a moment of des<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span>peration, +be turned at backwoodsman's odds against our pistols. Let us steal +gently towards the beach, and then you shall satisfy yourself; but I had +nearly forgotten—suppose the other party should arrive?"</p> + +<p>"Then they must in their turn wait for us. They have already exceeded +their time ten minutes."</p> + +<p>"Look," exclaimed his companion, as he slightly grasped the shoulder on +which his hand had rested, "he is returning for the rifles."</p> + +<p>Only one of the two men now retrod his steps from the beach towards the +hut, but with a more hurried action than before. As he passed where the +friends still lingered, he gave a start of surprise, apparently produced by the +absence of the rifles. A moment's reflection seeming to satisfy him it was +possible his memory had failed him, and that they had been left within the +building, he hurried forward to assure himself. After a few moments of apparently +ineffectual search, he again made his appearance, making the circuit of +the hut to discover his lost weapons, but in vain; when in the fierceness of +his anger, he cried aloud, with a bitterness that gave earnest of sincerity.</p> + +<p>"By ——. I wish I had the curst British rascal who played me this trick, +on t'other shore—if I wouldn't tuck my knife into his b——y gizzard, then +is my name not Jeremiah Desborough. What the h—ll's to be done now?"</p> + +<p>Taking advantage of his entrance into the hut, the two individuals, first described, +had stolen cautiously under cover of the forest, until they arrived at +its termination, within about twenty yards of the shore, where however there +was no outward or visible sign of the individual who had been Desborough's +companion. In the bows of the canoe were piled the blankets, and in the +centre was deposited the provision bag that had formed a portion of their +mutual load. The mast had not been hoisted, but lay extended along the +hull, its sail loosened and partially covering the before-mentioned article of +freightage. The bow half of the canoe pressed the beach, the other lay sunk +in the water, apparently in the manner in which it had first approached the +land.</p> + +<p>Still uttering curses, but in a more subdued tone, against "the feller who +had stolen his small bores," the angry Desborough retraced his steps to the +canoe. More than once he looked back to see if he could discover any traces +of the purloiner, until at length his countenance seemed to assume an expression +of deeper cause for concern, than even the loss of his weapons.</p> + +<p>"Ha, I expect some d——d spy has been on the look out—if so, I must cut +and run I calculate purty soon."</p> + +<p>This apprehension was expressed as he arrived opposite the point where the +forest terminated. A slight rustling among the underwood reduced that apprehension +to certainty. He grasped the handle of his huge knife that was +thrust into the girdle around his loins, and riveting his gaze on the point +whence the sound had proceeded, retreated in that attitude. Another and +more distinct crush of underwood, and he stood still with surprise, on finding +himself face to face, with two officers of the garrison.</p> + +<p>"We have alarmed you, Desborough," said the younger, as they both +advanced leisurely to the beach. "Do you apprehend danger from our +presence?"</p> + +<p>A keen searching glance flashed from the ferocious eye of the ruffian. It<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> +was but momentary. Quitting his firm grasp of the knife, he suffered his +limbs to relax their tension, and aiming at carelessness, observed with a smile, +that was tenfold more hideous from its being forced:</p> + +<p>"Well now, I guess, who would have expected to see two officers so fur +away from the fort at this early hour of the mornin'?"</p> + +<p>"Ah," said the taller of the two, availing himself of the first opening to a +pun which had been afforded, "we are merely out on a <i>shooting</i> excursion."</p> + +<p>Desborough gazed doubtingly on the speaker. "Strange sort of a dress +that for shootin' I guess—them cloaks must be a great tanglement in the +bushes."</p> + +<p>"They serve to keep our <i>arms</i> warm," continued Middlemore, perpetrating +another of his execrables.</p> + +<p>"To keep your arms warm! well sure-<i>ly</i>, if that arn't droll. It may be +some use to keep the primins dry, I reckon; but I can't see the use of keepin' +the fowlin' pieces warm. Have you met with any game yet, officers? I expect +as how I can point you out a purty spry place for pattridges and sich +like."</p> + +<p>"Thank you, my good fellow; but we have appointed to meet our <i>game</i> +here."</p> + +<p>The dry manner in which this was observed had a visible effect on the settler. +He glanced an eye of suspicion around, to see if other than the two +officers were in view, and it was not without effort that he assumed an air of +unconcern, as he replied:</p> + +<p>"Well, I expect I have been many a long year a hunter, as well as other +things, and yet, dang me if I ever calculated the game would come to me. It +always costs me a purty good chase in the woods."</p> + +<p>"How the fellow <i>beats</i> about the <i>bush</i> to find what <i>game</i> we are driving +at," observed Middlemore, in an under tone, to his companion.</p> + +<p>"Let him alone for that," returned he whom our readers have doubtless +recognised for Henry Grantham. "I will match his punning against your +cunning any day."</p> + +<p>"The truth is, he is <i>fishing</i> to discover our motive for being here, and +to find out if we are in any way connected with the disappearance of his +rifles."</p> + +<p>During this conversation <i>apart</i>, the Yankee had carelessly approached his +canoe, and was affecting to make some alteration in the disposition of the sail. +The officers, the younger especially, keeping a sharp look-out upon his movements, +followed at some little distance, until they, at length, stood on the +extreme verge of the sands. Their near approach seemed to render Desborough +impatient.</p> + +<p>"I expect, officers," he said, with a hastiness that, at any other moment, +would have called down immediate reproof, if not chastisement, "you will +only be losin' time here for nothin'; about a mile beyond Hartley's there'll +be plenty of pattridges at this hour, and I am jist goin to start myself for a +little shootin' in the Sandusky river."</p> + +<p>"Than I presume," said Grantham, with a smile, "you are well provided +with silver bullets, Desborough; for, in the hurry of departure, you seem +likely to forget the only medium through which leaden ones can be made available—not +a rifle or a shot-gun do I see."</p> + +<p>The man fixed his eyes for a moment, with a penetrating expression, on the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> +youth, as if he would have sought a meaning deeper than the words implied. +His reading seemed to satisfy him that all was right.</p> + +<p>"What," he observed, with a leer, half cunning, half insolent, "if I have +hid my rifle near the Sandusky swamp, the last time I hunted there?"</p> + +<p>"In that case," observed the laughing Middlemore, to whom the opportunity +was irresistible, "you are going out on a <i>wild goose chase</i> indeed. Your +prospects for a good hunt, as you call it, cannot be said to <i>be sure as a gun</i>; +for in regard to the latter, you may depend some one has discovered and <i>rifled</i> +it before this."</p> + +<p>"You seem to have laid in a store of provisions for this trip, Desborough," +remarked Henry Grantham; "how long do you purpose being absent?"</p> + +<p>"I guess three or four days," was the sullen reply.</p> + +<p>"Three or four days! why your bag contains"—and the officer partly raised +a corner of the sail, "provisions for a week, or, at least, for <i>two</i> for half that +period."</p> + +<p>The manner in which the <i>two</i> was emphasised did not escape the attention +of the settler. He was visibly disconcerted, nor was he at all reassured when +the younger officer proceeded:</p> + +<p>"By the bye, Desborough, we saw you leave the hut with a companion—what +has become of him?"</p> + +<p>The settler, who had now recovered his self-possession, met the question +without the slightest show of hesitation:</p> + +<p>"I expect you mean, young man," he said, with insufferable insolence, "a +help as I had from Hartley's farm, to assist gittin' down the things. He took +home along shore when I went back to the hut for the small bores."</p> + +<p>"Oh ho, sir! the rifles are not then concealed near the Sandusky swamp, +I find?"</p> + +<p>For once the wily settler felt his cunning had overreached itself. In the first +fury of his subdued rage, he muttered something amounting to a desire that +he could produce them at that moment, as he would well know where to +lodge the bullets—but, recovering himself, he said aloud:</p> + +<p>"The rale fact is, I've a long gun hid, as I said, near the swamp, but my +small bore I always carry with me—only think, jist as I and Hartley's help +left the hut, I pit my rifle against the outside wall, not being able to carry it +down with the other things, and when I went back a minute or two after, drot +me if some tarnation rascal hadn't stole it."</p> + +<p>"And if you had the British rascal on t'other shore, you wouldn't be long +in tucking a knife into his gizzard, would you?" asked Middlemore, in a +nearly verbatim repetition of the horrid oath originally uttered by Desborough. +"I see nothing to warrant our interfering with him," he continued in an under +tone to his companion.</p> + +<p>Not a little surprised to hear his words repeated, the man lost somewhat +of his confidence as he replied, "Well now, sure-<i>ly</i>, you officers didn't think +nothin' o' that—I expect I was in a mighty rage to find my small bore gone, +and I did curse a little heart<i>y</i>, to be sure."</p> + +<p>"The small bore multiplied in your absence," observed Grantham; "when +I looked at the hut there were two."</p> + +<p>"Then may be you can tell me who was the particular d——d rascal that +stole them," said the settler eagerly.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span></p> + +<p>Middlemore laughed heartily at his companion who observed:</p> + +<p>"The particular d——d rascal who removed, not stole them thence, stands +before you."</p> + +<p>Again the settler looked disconcerted. After a moment's hesitation he +continued, with a forced grin that gave an atrocious expression to his whole +countenance:</p> + +<p>"Well now, you officers are playing a purty considerable spry trick—it's a +good lark, I calculate—but you know, as the saying is, enough's as good as a +feast. Do tell me, Mr. Grantham," and his discordant voice became more +offensive in its effort at a tone of entreaty, "Do tell me where you've hid my +small bore; you little think," he concluded, with an emphasis then unnoticed +by the officers, but subsequently remembered to have been perfectly ferocious, +"what reason I have to vally it."</p> + +<p>"We never descend to larks of the kind," coolly observed Grantham; +"but as you say you value your rifle, it shall be restored to you on one +condition."</p> + +<p>"And what may that be?" asked the settler, somewhat startled at the +serious manner of the officer.</p> + +<p>"That you show us what your canoe is freighted with. Here in the bows, +I mean."</p> + +<p>"Why," rejoined the Yankee quickly, but, as if without design, intercepting +the officers' near approach, "that bag, I calculate, contains my provisions, and +these here blankets that you see, peepin' like from under the sail, are what I +makes my bed of while out huntin'."</p> + +<p>"And are you quite certain there is nothing under those blankets?—nay +do not protest—you cannot answer for what may have occurred while your +back was turned, on your way to the hut for the rifle."</p> + +<p>"By hell," exclaimed the settler, blusteringly, "were any man to tell me, +Jeremiah Desborough, that there was anythin' beside them blankets in the +canoe, I would lick him into a jelly, even though he could whip his own +weight in wild cats."</p> + +<p>"So is it? Now then, Jeremiah Desborough, although I have never yet +tried to whip my own weight in wild cats, I tell you there is something more +than those blankets; and what is more, I insist upon seeing what that +something is."</p> + +<p>The settler stood confounded. His eye rolled rapidly from one to the other +of the officers, at the boldness and determination of this language. Singly, he +could have crushed Henry Grantham in his gripe, even as one of the bears of +the forest, near the outskirt of which they stood; but there were two, and +while attacking the one, he was sure of being assailed by the other—nay, +what was worse, the neighborhood might be alarmed. Moreover, although +they had kept their cloaks carefully wrapped around their persons, there could +be little doubt that both officers were armed, not, as they had originally given +him to understand, with fowling pieces, but with (at the present close quarters +at least) far more efficient weapons—pistols. He was relieved from his embarrassment +by Middlemore exclaiming:</p> + +<p>"Nay, do not press the poor devil, Grantham; I dare say the story of his +hunting is all a hum, and that the fact is, he is merely going to earn an honest +penny in one of his free commercial speculations—a little contraband," pointing +his finger to the bows, "is it not, Desborough?"</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Why now, officer," said the settler, rapidly assuming a dogged air, as if +ashamed of the discovery that had been so acutely made, "you won't hurt +a poor feller for doin' a little in this way. Drot me, these are hard times, and +this here war jist beginnin' quite pits one to one's shifts."</p> + +<p>"This might do, Desborough, were your present freight an arrival instead +of a departure, but we all know that contraband is imported, not exported."</p> + +<p>"Mighty cute you are, I guess," replied the settler warily, with something +like the savage grin of the wild cat to which he had so recently alluded; "but +I expect it would be none so strange to have packed up a few dried hog skins +to stow away the goods I am goin' for."</p> + +<p>"I should like to try the effect of a bullet among the skins," said Grantham, +leisurely drawing forth and cocking a pistol, after having whispered something +in the ear of his companion.</p> + +<p>"Nay, officer," said Desborough, now for the first time manifesting +serious alarm, "you sure-<i>ly</i> don't mean to bore a hole through them innocent +skins?"</p> + +<p>"True!" said Middlemore, imitating. "If he fires, the hole will be something +more than <i>skin</i> deep, I reckon—these pistols, to my knowledge, send a +bullet through a two inch plank at twenty paces."</p> + +<p>As Middlemore thus expressed himself, both he and Grantham saw, or fancied +they saw, the blankets slightly agitated.</p> + +<p>"Good place for a <i>hide</i> that!" said the former, addressing his pun to the +settler, on whom it was totally lost, "show us those said skins, my good +fellow, and if we find they are not filled with anything it would be treason in +a professed British subject to export thus clandestinely, we promise that you +shall depart without further hindrance."</p> + +<p>"Indeed, officer," muttered Desborough sullenly and doggedly, "I shan't +do no sich thing. You don't belong to the custom-house, I reckon, and so I +wish you a good day, for I have a considerable long course to run, and must +be movin'." Then seizing the paddles that were lying on the sand, he prepared +to shove the canoe from the beach.</p> + +<p>"Not at least before I have sent a bullet to ascertain the true quality of your +skins," said Grantham, levelling his pistol.</p> + +<p>"Sure-<i>ly</i>," said Desborough, as he turned and drew himself to the full +height of his bony and muscular figure, while his eye measured the officer +from head to foot, with a look of concentrated but suppressed fury, "you +wouldn't <i>dare</i> to do this—you wouldn't dare to fire into my canoe—besides, +consider," he said, in a tone somewhat deprecating, "your bullet may go +through her, and you would hardly do a feller the injury to make him lose the +chance of a good cargo."</p> + +<p>"Then why provoke such a disaster by refusing to show us what is beneath +those blankets?"</p> + +<p>"Because it's my pleasure to do so," fiercely retorted the other, "and I +won't show them to no man."</p> + +<p>"Then it is my pleasure to fire," said Grantham. "The injury be on your +own head, Desborough—one—two—"</p> + +<p>At this moment the sail was violently agitated—something, struggling for +freedom, cast the blankets on one side, and presently the figure of a man stood +upright in the bows of the canoe, and gazed around him with an air of stupid +astonishment.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span></p> + +<p>"What," exclaimed Middlemore, retreating back a pace or two, in unfeigned +surprise; "has that pistol started up, like the ghost in Hamlet, Ensign Paul +Emilius Theophilus Arnoldi, of the United States Michigan Militia—a prisoner +on his parole of honor? and yet attempting a clandestine departure from the +country—how is this?"</p> + +<p>"Not this merely," exclaimed Grantham, "but a traitor to his country, +and a deserter from our service. This fellow," he pursued, in answer to an +inquiring look of his companion, "is a scoundrel, who deserted three years +since from the regiment you relieved. I recognised him yesterday on his +landing, as my brother Gerald, who proposed making his report to the general +this morning, had done before. Let us secure both, Middlemore; for, +thank heaven, we have been enabled to detect the traitor at last in that which +will excuse his final expulsion from the soil, even if no worse befall him. +I have only tampered with him thus long to render his conviction more complete."</p> + +<p>"Secure me! secure Jeremiah Desborough?" exclaimed the settler, with +rage manifest in the clenching of his teeth and the tension of every muscle of +his iron frame, "and that for jist tryin' to save a countryman—well, we'll +see who'll have the best of it."</p> + +<p>Before Grantham could anticipate the movement, the active and powerful +Desborough had closed with him in a manner to prevent his making use of +his pistol, had he even so desired. In the next instant it was wrested from +him, and thrown far from the spot on which he struggled with his adversary, +but at fearful odds against himself. Henry Grantham, although well and actively +made, was of slight proportion, and yet in boyhood. Desborough, on +the contrary, was in the full force of a vigorous manhood. A struggle, hand +to hand, between two combatants so disproportioned, could not, consequently, +be long doubtful as to its issue. No sooner had the formidable settler closed +with his enemy, than pressing the knuckles of his iron hand, which met +round the body of the officer, with violence against his spine, he threw him +backward with force upon the sands. Grasping his victim with one hand as +he lay upon him, he seemed, as Grantham afterwards declared, to be groping +for his knife with the other. He was evidently anxious to despatch one enemy, +in order that he might fly to the assistance of his son, for it was he +whom Middlemore, with a powerful effort, had dragged from the canoe to the +beach. While his right hand was still groping far the knife—an object which +the powerful resistance of the yet unsubdued, though prostrate, officer rendered +somewhat difficult of attainment—the report of a pistol was heard, fired +evidently by one of the other combatants. Immediately the settler looked up +to see who was the triumphant party. Neither had fallen, and Middlemore, +if anything, had the advantage of his enemy; but to his infinite dismay, Desborough +beheld a horseman, evidently attracted by the report of the pistol, +urging his course with the rapidity of lightning, along the firm sands, and advancing +with cries and vehement jesticulations to the rescue.</p> + +<p>Springing with the quickness of thought from his victim, the settler was in +the next moment at the side of Middlemore. Seizing him from behind by +for arm within his nervous grasp, he pressed the latter with such prodigious +force as to cause him to relinquish, by a convulsive movement, the firm hold +he had hitherto kept of his adversary.</p> + +<p>"In, boy, to the canoe for your life," he exclaimed, hurriedly as, following<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> +up his advantage, he spun the officer round, and sent him tottering to the spot +where Grantham lay, still stupified and half throttled. The next instant saw +him heaving the canoe from the shore, with all the exertion called for by his +desperate situation. And all this was done so rapidly, in so much less time +than it will take our readers to trace it, that before the horseman, so opportunely +arriving, had reached the spot, the canoe, with its inmates, had pushed +from the shore.</p> + +<p>Without pausing to consider the rashness and apparent impracticability of +his undertaking, the strange horseman, checking his rein, and burying the +rowels of his spurs deep into the flanks of his steed, sent him bounding and +plunging into the lake, in pursuit of the fugitives.</p> + +<p>He himself evinced every symptom of one in a state of intoxication. Brandishing +a stout cudgel over his head, and pealing forth a shout of defiance, he +rolled from side to side on his spirited charger, like some laboring bark +careering to the violence of the winds, but ever, like that bark, regaining an +equilibrium that was never thoroughly lost. Shallow as the lake was at this +point for a considerable distance, it was long before the noble animal lost its +footing; and thus had its rider been enabled to arrive within a few paces of +the canoe, at the very moment when the increasing depth of the water, in +compelling the horse to the less expeditious process of swimming, gave a +proportionate advantage to the pursued. No sooner, however, did the Centaur-like +rider find that he was losing ground, than, again darting his spurs +into the flanks of his charger, he made every effort to reach the canoe. Maddened +by the pain, the snorting beast half rose upon the calm element, like +some monster of the deep, and, making two or three desperate plunges with +his fore feet, succeeded in reaching the stem. Then commenced a short but +extraordinary conflict. Bearing up his horse as he swam, with the bridle in +his teeth, the bold rider threw his left hand upon the stern of the vessel, and +brandishing his cudgel in the right, seemed to provoke both parties to the +combat. Desborough, who had risen from the stern at his approach, stood +upright in the centre, his companion still paddling at the bows; and between +these two a singular contest now ensued. Armed with the formidable knife +which he had about his person, the settler made the most desperate and infuriated +efforts to reach his assailant; but in so masterly a manner did his +adversary use his simple weapon, that every attempt was foiled, and more than +once did the hard iron-wood descend upon his shoulders, in a manner to be +heard from the shore. Once or twice the settler stooped to evade some falling +blow, and, rushing forward, sought to sever the hand which still retained +its hold of the stern; but, with an activity remarkable in so old a man as his +assailant, for he was upwards of sixty years of age, the hand was removed—and +the settler, defeated in his object, was amply repaid for his attempt, by a +severe collision of his bones with the cudgel. At length, apparently enjoined +by his companion, the younger removed his paddle, and, standing up also in +the canoe, aimed a blow with its knobbed handle at the head of the horse, at +a moment when his rider was fully engaged with Desborough. The quick-sighted +old man saw the action, and, as the paddle descended, an upward +stroke from his own heavy weapon sent it flying in fragments in the air, while +a rapid and returning blow fell upon the head of the paddler, and prostrated +him at length in the canoe. The opportunity afforded by this diversion, momentary +as it was, was not lost upon Desborough. The horseman, who, in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> +his impatience to avenge the injury offered to the animal, which seemed to +form a part of himself, had utterly forgotten the peril of his hand; and before +he could return from the double blow that had been so skilfully wielded, +to his first enemy, the knife of the latter had penetrated his hand, which, thus +rendered powerless, now relinquished its grasp. Desborough, whose object—desperate +character as he usually was—seemed now rather to fly than to +fight, availed himself of this advantage to hasten to the bows of the canoe, +where, striding across the body of his insensible companion, he with a few +vigorous strokes of the remaining paddle, urged the lagging bark rapidly +ahead. In no way intimidated by his disaster, the courageous old man, again +brandishing his cudgel, and vociferating taunts of defiance, would have continued +the pursuit; but panting as he was, not only with the exertion he had +made, but under the weight of his impatient rider, in an element in which he +was supported merely by his own buoyancy, the strength and spirit of the +animal began now perceptibly to fail him, and he turned, despite of every +effort to prevent him, towards the shore. It was fortunate for the former that +there were no arms in the canoe, or neither he nor the horse would, in all +probability, have returned alive; such was the opinion, at least, pronounced +by those who were witnesses of the strange scene, and who remarked the +infuriated but impotent gestures of Desborough, as the old man, having once +more gotten his steed into depth, slowly pursued his course to the shore, but +with the same wild brandishing of his enormous cudgel, and the same rocking +from side to side, until his body was often at right angles with that of his +jaded, but sure-footed beast. As he is, however, a character meriting rather +more than the casual notice we have bestowed, we shall take the opportunity, +while he is hastening to the discomfited officers on the beach, more particularly +to describe him.</p> + + + + +<h2 class="p4"><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII.</a></h2> + + +<p>Nearly midway between Elliott's and Hartley's points, both of which are +remarkable for the low and sandy nature of the soil, the land, raising gradually +towards the centre, assumes a more healthy and arable aspect; and, on +its highest elevation, stood a snug, well cultivated property, called Girty's +farm. From this height, crowned on its extreme summit by a neat and commodious +farm-house, the far reaching sands, forming the points above-named, +are distinctly visible. Immediately in the rear, and commencing beyond the +orchard which surrounded the house, stretched forestward, and to a considerable +distance, a tract of rich and cultivated soil, separated into strips by zig-zag +enclosures, and offering to the eye of the traveller, in appropriate season, +the several species of American produce, such as Indian corn, buck wheat, &c., +with here and there a few patches of indifferent tobacco. Thus far of the property, +a more minute description of which is unimportant. The proprietors +of this neat little place were a father and son, to the latter of whom was consigned, +for reasons which will appear presently, the sole management of the +farm. Of him we will merely say that, at the period of which we treat, he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> +was a fine, strapping, dark curley-haired, white-teethed, red-lipped, broad-shouldered, +and altogether comely and gentle tempered youth, of about +twenty, who had, although unconsciously, monopolized the affections of almost +every well favored maiden of his class, for miles around him—advantages +of nature from which had resulted a union with one of the prettiest of the fair +competitors for connubial happiness.</p> + +<p>The father we may not dismiss so hastily. He was—but, before attempting +the portraiture of his character, we will, in the best of our ability, sketch +his person.</p> + +<p>Let the reader fancy an old man of about sixty, possessed of that comfortable +amptitude of person which is the result rather of a mind at peace with +itself, and undisturbed by worldly care, than of any marked indulgence in indolent +habits. Let him next invest this comfortable person in a sort of Oxford +grey, coarse capote, or frock, of capacious size, tied closely round the waist +with one of those-parti-colored worsted sashes, we have, on a former occasion +described as peculiar to the bourgeois settlers of the country. Next, suffering +the eye to descend on and admire the rotund and fleshy thigh, let it drop gradually +to the stout and muscular legs, which he must invest in a pair of +closely fitting leathern trowsers, the wide-seamed edges of which are slit into +innumerable small strips, much after the fashion of the American Indian. +When he has completed the survey of the lower extremities, to which he must +not fail to subjoin a foot of proportionate dimensions, tightly moccasined, and, +moreover, furnished with a pair of old English hunting spurs, the reader must +then examine the head with which this heavy piece of animated machinery is +surmounted. From beneath a coarse felt hat, garnished with an inch-wide +band or ribbon, let him imagine he sees the yet vigorous grey hair, descending +over a forehead not altogether wanting in a certain dignity of expression, and +terminating in a beetling brow, silvered also with the frost of years, and +shadowing a sharp, grey, intelligent eye, the vivacity of whose expression denotes +its possessor to be far in advance, in spirit, even of his still active and +powerful frame. With these must be connected a snub nose—a double chin, +adorned with grizzly honors, which are borne, like the fleece of the lamb, +only occasionally to the shears of the shearer—and a small, and not unhandsome, +mouth, at certain periods pursed into an expression of irresistible +humor, but more frequently expressing a sense of lofty independence. The +grisly neck, little more or less bared, as the season may demand—a kerchief +loosely tied around the collar of a checkered shirt—and a knotted cudgel in +his hand—and we think our sketch of Simon Girty is complete.</p> + +<p>Nor must the reader picture to himself this combination of animal properties, +either standing, or lying, or walking, or sitting; but in a measure glued, +Centaur-like, to the back of a noble stallion, vigorous, active, and of a dark +chestnut color, with silver mane and tail. In the course of many years that +Simon had resided in the neighborhood, no one could remember to have seen +him stand, or lie, or walk, or sit, while away from his home, unless absolutely +compelled. Both horse and rider seemed as though they could not exist while +separated, and yet Silvertail (thus was the stallion named) was not more remarkable +in sleekness of coat, soundness of carcase, and fleetness of pace, than +his rider was in the characteristics of corpulency and joviality.</p> + +<p>Simon Girty had passed the greater part of his younger days in America.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> +He had borne arms in the revolution, and was one of those faithful loyalists, +who preferring rather to abandon a soil which, after all, was one of adoption, +than the flag under which they had been nurtured, had, at the termination +of that contest, passed over into Canada. Having served in one of those irregular +corps, several of which had been employed with the Indians, during the +revolutionary contest, he had acquired much of the language of these latter, +and to this knowledge was indebted for the situation of interpreter which he +had for years enjoyed. Unhappily for himself, however, the salary attached +to the office was sufficient to keep him in independence, and, to the idleness +consequent on this, (for the duties of an interpreter were only occasional,) +might have been attributed the rapid growth of a vice—an addiction to liquor—which +unchecked indulgence had now ripened into positive disease.</p> + +<p>Great was the terror that Simon was wont to excite in the good people of +Amherstburg. With Silvertail at his speed he would gallop into the town, +brandishing his cudgel, and reeling from side to side, exhibiting at one moment +the joyous character of a Silenus, at another, as we have already shown—that +of an inebriated Centaur. Occasionally he would make his appearance, +holding his sides convulsed with laughter, as he reeled and tottered in every +direction, but without ever losing his equilibrium. At other times he would +utter a loud shout, and, brandishing his cudgel, dart at full speed along the +streets, as if he purposed singly to carry the town by (what Middlemore often +facetiously called) a <i>coup de main</i>. At these moments were to be seen +mothers rushing into the street to look for, and hurry away, their loitering +offspring, while even adults were glad to hasten their movements, in order to +escape collision with the formidable Simon; not that either apprehended the +slightest act of personal violence from the old man, for he was harmless of +evil as a child, but because they feared the polished hoofs of Silvertail, which +shone amid the clouds of dust they raised as he passed, like rings of burnished +silver. Even the very Indians, with whom the streets were at this period +habitually crowded, were glad to hug the sides of the houses, while Simon +passed; and they who, on other occasions, would have deemed it in the highest +degree derogatory to their dignity to have stepped aside at the approach +of danger, or to have relaxed a muscle of their stern countenance, would then +open a passage with a rapidity which in them was remarkable, and burst into +loud laughter as they fled from side to side to make way for Simon. Sometimes, +on these occasions, the latter would suddenly check Silvertail, while in +full career, and, in a voice that could be heard from almost every quarter of +the little town, harangue them for half an hour together in their own language, +and with an air of authority that was ludicrous to those who witnessed +it—and must have been witnessed to be conceived. Occasionally a guttural +"ugh" would be responded in mock approval of the speech, but more frequently +a laugh, on the part of the more youthful of his red auditors, was the +only notice taken. His lecture concluded, Simon would again brandish his +cudgel, and vociferate another shout; then betaking himself to the nearest +store, he would urge Silvertail upon the footway, and with a tap of his rude +cudgel against the door, summon whoever was within, to appear with a glass +of his favorite beverage. And this would he repeat, until he had drained what +he called his stirrup cup, at every shop in the place where the poisonous +liquor was vended.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span></p> + +<p>Were such a character to make his appearance in the Mother Country, endangering, +to all perception, the lives of the Sovereign's liege subjects, he +would, if in London, be hunted to death like a wild beast, by at least one half +of the Metropolitan police; and, if in a provincial town, would be beset by a +posse of constables. No one, however—not even the solitary constable of +Amherstburgh, ever ventured to interfere with Simon Girty, who was in some +degree a privileged character. Nay, strange as it may appear, notwithstanding +his confirmed habit of inebriety, the old man stood high in the neighborhood, +not only with simple but with gentle, for there were seasons when he +evinced himself "a rational being," and there was a dignity of manner about +him, which, added to his then quietude of demeanor, insensibly interested in +his favor, those even who were most forward to condemn the vice to which he +was unfortunately addicted. Not, be it understood, that in naming seasons of +rationality, we mean seasons of positive abstemiousness; nor can this well be, +seeing that Simon never passed a day of strict sobriety during the last twenty +years of his life. But, it might be said, that his three divisions of day—morning, +noon and night—were characterised by three corresponding divisions of +drunkenness—namely, drunk, drunker, and most drunk. It was, therefore, +in the first stage of his graduated scale, that Simon appeared in his most amiable +and winning, because his least uproarious, mood. His libations commenced +at early morn, and his inebriety became progressive to the close of the +day. To one who could ride home at night, as he invariably did, after some +twelve hours of hard and continued drinking, without rolling from his horse, +it would not be difficult to enact the sober man in its earlier stages. As his +intoxication was relative to himself, so was his sobriety in regard to others—and +although, at mid-day, he might have swallowed sufficient to have caused +another man to bite the dust, he looked and spoke, and acted, as if he had +been a model of temperance. If he passed a lady in the street, or saw her at +her window Simon Girty's hat was instantly removed from his venerable +head, and his body inclined forward over his saddle-bow, with all the easy +grace of a well-born gentleman, and one accustomed from infancy to pay deference +to woman; nay, this at an hour when he had imbibed enough of his +favorite liquor to have rendered most men insensible even to their presence. +These habits of courtesy, extended moreover to the officers of the garrison, +and such others among the civilians as Simon felt to be worthy of his notice. +His tones of salutation, at these moments, were soft, his manner respectful, +even graceful; and while there was nothing of the abashedness of the inferior, +there was also no offensive familiarity, in the occasional conversations held by +him with the different individuals, or groups, who surrounded and accosted +him.</p> + +<p>Such was Simon Girty, in the first stage of his inebriety, no outward sign +of which was visible. In the second, his perception became more obscured, his +voice less distinct, his tones less gentle and insinuating, and occasionally the +cudgel would rise in rapid flourish, while now and then a loud halloo would +burst from lungs, which the oceans of whiskey they had imbibed had not yet, +apparently, much affected. These were infallible indices of the more feverish +stage, of which the gallopings of Silvertail—the vociferations of his master—the +increasing flourishing of the cudgel—the supposed danger of children—and +the consequent alarm of mothers, together with the harangues to the Indian +auditory, were the almost daily results.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span></p> + +<p>There was one individual, however, in the town of Amherstburgh, of whom, +despite his natural wilfulness of character, Simon Girty stood much in awe, +and that to such a degree, that if he chanced to encounter him in his mad progress, +his presence had the effect of immediately quieting him. This gentleman +was the father of the Granthams, who, although then filling a civil situation, +had formerly been a field officer in the corps in which Simon had served; and +who had carried with him into private life those qualities of stern excellence +for which he had been remarkable as a soldier—qualities which had won to +him the respect and affection, not only of the little community over which, in +the capacity of its chief magistrate, he had presided, but also of the inhabitants +of the country generally for many miles around. Temperate to an extreme +himself, Major Grantham held the vice of drunkenness in deserved abhorrence, +and so far from sharing the general toleration extended to the old man, +whose originality (harmless as he ever was in his intoxication,) often proved a +motive for encouragement; he never failed, on encountering him, to bestow +his censure in a manner that had an immediate and obvious effect on the +culprit. If Simon, from one end of the street, beheld Major Grantham +approaching at the other, he was wont to turn abruptly away; but if perchance +the magistrate came so unexpectedly upon him as to preclude the +possibility of retreat, he appeared as one suddenly sobered, and would rein in +his horse, fully prepared for the stern lecture which he was well aware would +ensue.</p> + +<p>It afforded no slight amusement to the townspeople, and particularly the +young urchins, who usually looked up to Simon with awe, to be witnesses of +one of those rencontres. In a moment, the shouting—galloping—rampaging +cudgel-wielder was to be seen changed, as if by some magic power, into a being +of almost child-like obedience, while he listened attentively and deferentially +to the lecture of Major Grantham, whom he both loved and feared. On these +occasions, he would hang his head upon his chest—confess his error—and +promise solemnly to amend his course of life, although it must be needless to +add that never was that promise heeded. Not unfrequently, after these lectures, +when Major Grantham had left him, Simon would turn his horse, and, +with his arms still folded across his chest, suffer Silvertail to pursue his homeward +course, while he himself, silent and thoughtful, and looking like a culprit +taken in the fact, sat steadily in his saddle, without however venturing to turn +his eye either to the right or to the left, as he passed through the crowd, who, +with faces strongly expressive of mirth, marked their sense of the change +which had been produced in the old interpreter. Those who had seen him +thus for the first time, might have supposed that a reformation in one so apparently +touched would have ensued; but long experience had taught that, +although a twinge of conscience, or more probably fear of, and respect for, the +magistrate, might induce a momentary humiliation, all traces of cause and +effect would have vanished with the coming dawn.</p> + +<p>To the sterling public virtues he boasted, Simon Girty united that of +loyalty in no common degree. A more staunch adherent to the British crown +existed nowhere in the sovereign's dominions; and such was his devotedness +to "King George," that, albeit he could not in all possibility have made the +sacrifice of his love for whiskey, he would willingly have suffered his left arm +to be severed from his body, had such proof of his attachment to the throne +been required. Proportioned to his love for everything British, arose, as a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> +natural consequence, his dislike for everything anti-British; and especially for +those who under the guise of allegiance, had conducted themselves in a way +to become objects of suspicion to the authorities. A near neighbor of Desborough, +he had watched him as narrowly as his long indulged habits of +intoxication would permit, and he had been the means of conveying to Major +Grantham much of the information which had induced that uncompromising +magistrate to seek the expulsion of the dangerous settler—an object which, +however, had been defeated by the perjury of the unprincipled individual, in +taking the customary oaths of allegiance. Since the death of Major Grantham, +for whom, notwithstanding his numerous lectures, he had ever entertained +that reverential esteem which is the result of the ascendancy of +the powerful and virtuous mind over the weak, and not absolutely vicious—and +for whose sons he felt almost a fatherly affection—old Girty had but +indifferently troubled himself about Desborough, who was fully aware of what +he had previously done to detect and expose him, and consequently repaid +with usury—an hostility of feeling which, however, had never been brought +to any practical issue.</p> + +<p>As a matter of course, Simon was of the number of anxious persons collected +on the bank of the river, on the morning of the capture of the American +gun-boat; but, as he was only then emerging from his first stage of intoxication +(which we have already shown to be tantamount to perfect sobriety +in any other person), there had been no time for a display of those uproarious +qualities which characterized the last, and which, once let loose, +scarcely even the presence of the General could have restrained. With an +acuteness, however, which is often to be remarked in habitual drunkards at +moments when their intellect is unclouded by the confusedness to which they +are more commonly subject, the hawk's eye of the old man had detected several +particulars which had escaped the general attention, and of which he had, +at a later period of the day, retained sufficient recollection to connect with an +accidental, yet important discovery.</p> + +<p>At the moment when the prisoners were landed, he had remarked Desborough, +who had uttered the hasty exclamation already recorded, stealing +cautiously through the surrounding crowd, and apparently endeavoring to +arrest the attention of the younger of the American officers. An occasional +pressing of the spur into the flank of Silvertail, enabled him to turn as the +settler turned, and thus to keep him constantly in view; until, at length, as +the latter approached the group of which General Brock and Commodore +Barclay formed the centre, he observed him distinctly to make a sign of intelligence +to the Militia Officer, whose eye he at length attracted, and who now +bestowed upon him a glance of hasty and furtive recognition. Curiosity induced +Simon to move Silvertail a little more in advance, in order to be enabled +to obtain a better view of the prisoners; but the latter turning away +his head at the moment, although apparently without design, baffled his penetration. +Still he had a confused and indistinct idea that the person was not +wholly unknown to him.</p> + +<p>When the prisoners had been disposed of, and the crowd dispersed, Simon +continued to linger near the council-house, exchanging greetings with the newly +arrived chiefs, and drinking from whatever whiskey bottle was offered to him +until he at length gave rapid indication of arriving at his third or grand cli<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span>macteric. +Then were to be heard the loud shoutings of his voice, and the +clattering of Silvertail's hoofs; as horse and rider flew like lightning past the +fort into the town, where a more than usual quantity of the favorite liquid +was quaffed at the several stores, in commemoration, as he said, of the victory +of his noble boy, Gerald Grantham, and to the success of the British arms +generally throughout the war.</p> + +<p>Among the faults of Simon Girty, was certainly not that of neglecting the +noble animal to whom long habit had deeply attached him. Silvertail was +equally a favorite with the son, who had more than once ridden him in the +occasional races that took place upon the hard sands of the lake shore, and in +which he had borne everything away. As Simon was ever conscious and +collected about this hour, care was duly taken by him that his horse should +be fed, without the trouble to himself of dismounting. Even as Girty sat in +his saddle, Silvertail was in the daily practice of munching his corn out of a +small trough that stood in the yard of the inn where he usually stopped, while +his rider conversed with whoever chanced to be near him—the head of his +cudgel resting on his ample thigh, and a glass of his favorite whiskey in his +other and unoccupied hand.</p> + +<p>Now it chanced that, on this particular day, Simon neglected to pay his +customary visit to the inn, an omission which was owing rather to the hurry +and excitement occasioned by the stirring events of the morning, than to any +wilful neglect of his steed. Nor was it until some hours after dark that, +seized with a sudden fit of caressing Silvertail, whose glossy neck he patted, +until the tears of warm affection started to his eyes, he bethought him of the +omission of which he had been guilty. Scarcely was the thought conceived, +before Silvertail was again at full career, and on his way to the inn. The gate +stood open, and, as Simon entered, he saw two individuals retire, as if to +escape observation, within a shed adjoining the stable. Drunk as he was, a +vague consciousness of the truth, connected as it was with his earlier observation, +flashed across the old man's mind; and when, in answer to his loud +hallooing, a factotum, on whom devolved all the numerous officers of the inn, +from waiter down to ostler, made his appearance, Simon added to his loudly +expressed demand for Silvertail's corn, a whispered injunction to return with +a light. During the absence of the man, he commenced trolling a verse of +"Old King Cole," a favorite ballad with him, and with the indifference of one +who believes himself to be alone. Presently the light appeared, and, as the +bearer approached, its rays fell on the forms of two men, retired into the furthest +extremity of the shed and crouching to the earth as if in concealment, +whom Simon recognised at a glance. He however took no notice of the circumstance +to the ostler, or even gave the slightest indication, by look or movement, +of what he had seen.</p> + +<p>When the man had watered Silvertail and put his corn in the trough, he +returned to the house, and Simon, with his arms folded across his chest, as +his horse crunched his food, listened attentively to catch whatever conversation +might ensue between the loiterers. Not a word however was uttered, +and soon after he saw them emerge from their concealment—step cautiously +behind him—cross the yard towards the gate by which he had entered—and +then disappear altogether. During this movement the old man had kept himself +perfectly still, so that there could be no suspicion that he had in any way +observed them. Nay, he even spoke once or twice coaxingly to Silvertail, as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> +if conscious only of the presence of that animal, and, in short, conducted himself +in a manner well worthy of the cunning of a drunken man. The reflections +to which this incident gave rise, had the effect of calling up a desperate +fit of loyalty, which he only awaited the termination of Silvertail's hasty +meal to put into immediate activity. Another shout to the ostler, a second +glass swallowed, the reckoning paid, Silvertail bitted, and away went Simon +once more at his speed through the now deserted town, the road out of which +to his own place, skirted partly the banks of the river, and partly those of +the lake.</p> + +<p>After galloping about a mile, the old man found the feet of Silvertail burying +themselves momentarily deeper in the sands which form the road near +Elliot's Point. Unwilling to distress him, he pulled him up to a walk, and, +throwing the reins upon his neck, folded his arms as usual, rolling from side +to side at every moment, and audibly musing, in the thick, husky voice that +was common to him in inebriety.</p> + +<p>"Yes, by Jove, I am as true and loyal a subject as any in the service of +King George, God bless him (here he bowed his head involuntarily and with +respect), and though, as that poor dear old Grantham used to say, I do drink +a little (hiccup), still there's no great harm in that. It keeps a man alive. I +am the boy, at all events, to scent a rogue. That was Desborough and his +son I saw just now, and the rascals, he! he! he!—the rascals thought, I suppose, +I was too drunk (hiccup), too drunk to twig them. We shall tell them +another tale before the night is over. D—n such skulking scoundrels, I say. +Whoa! Silvertail, whoa!—what do you see there, my boy, eh?"</p> + +<p>Silvertail only replied by the sharp pricking of his ears, and a side movement, +which seemed to indicate a desire to keep as much aloof as possible from +a cluster of walnut trees, which, interspersed with wild grape vines, may be +seen to this hour, resting in gloomy relief on the white deep sands that +extend considerably in that direction.</p> + +<p>"Never mind, my boy, we shall be at home presently," pursued Simon, +patting the neck of his unquiet companion. "But, no—I had forgotten; we +must give chase to these (hiccup) to these rascals. Now there's that son Bill +of mine fast asleep, I suppose, in the arms of his little wife. They do nothing +but lie in bed, while their poor old father is obliged to be up at all hours, +devising plans for the good of the King's service, God bless him! But I shall +soon (hiccup)—Whoa, Silvertail! whoa, I say! D—n you, you brute, do +you mean to throw me?"</p> + +<p>The restlessness of Silvertail, despite of his rider's caresses, had been visibly +increasing as they approached the dark cluster of walnuts. Arrived opposite +to this, his ears and tail erect, he had evinced even more than restlessness—alarm: +and something, that did not meet the eye of his rider, caused him to +take a sideward spring of several feet. It was this action that, nearly unseating +Simon, had drawn from him the impatient exclamation just recorded.</p> + +<p>At length the thicket was passed, and Silvertail, recovered from his alarm, +moved forward once more on the bound, in obedience to the well known whistle +of his master.</p> + +<p>"Good speed have they made," again mused Simon, as he approached his +home: "if indeed, as I suspect, it be them who are hiding in yonder thicket. +Silvertail could not have been more than ten minutes finishing his (hiccup)<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> +his corn, and the sands had but little time to warm beneath his boots when he +did start. These Yankees are swift footed fellows, as I have had good (hiccup) +good experience in the old war, when I could run a little myself like the best +of them. But here we are at last. Whoa, Silvertail, whoa! and now to turn +out Bill from his little wife. Bill, I say, hilloa! hilloa! Bill, hilloa!"</p> + +<p>Long habit, which had taught the old man's truly excellent and exemplary +son the utter hopelessness of his disease, had also familiarized him with these +nightly interruptions to his slumbers. A light was speedily seen to flash +across the chamber in which he slept, and presently the principal door of the +lower building was unbarred, and unmurmuring and uncomplaining, the half-dressed +young man stood in the presence of his father. Placing the light on +the threshold, he prepared to assist him as usual to dismount, but Simon, contrary +to custom, rejected for a time every offer of the kind. His rapid gallop +through the night air, added to the more than ordinary quantity of whiskey +he had that day swallowed, was now producing its effect, and, while every +feature of his countenance manifested the extreme of animal stupidity, his +apprehension wandered and his voice became almost inarticulate. Without +the power to acquaint his son with the purpose he had in view, and of which +he himself now entertained but a very indistinct recollection, he yet strove, +impelled as he was by his confusedness of intention, to retain his seat, but was +eventually unhorsed and handed over to the care of his pretty daughter-in-law, +whose office it was to dispose of him for the night, while her husband +rubbed down, fed, and otherwise attended to Silvertail.</p> + +<p>A few hours of sound sleep restored Simon to his voice and his recollection, +when his desire to follow the two individuals he had seen in the +yard of the inn the preceding night, and whom he felt persuaded he must +have passed on the road, was more than ever powerfully revived. And yet, +was it not highly probable that the favorable opportunity had been lost, and +that, taking advantage of the night, they were already departed from the +country, if such (and he doubted it not) was their intention. "What a cursed +fool," he muttered to himself, "to let a thimbleful of liquor upset me on such +an occasion, but, at all events, here goes for another trial." With the +impatient, over-indulged Simon, to determine on a course of action, was to +carry it into effect.</p> + +<p>"Hilloa, Bill! I say, Bill my boy!" he shouted from the chamber next to +that in which his son slept. "Hilloa! Bill, come here directly."</p> + +<p>Bill answered not, but sounds were heard in his room as of one stepping out +of bed, and presently the noise of flint and steel announced that a light was +being struck. In a few minutes the rather jaded-looking youth appeared at +the bedstead of his parent.</p> + +<p>"Bill, my dear boy," said Simon, in a more subdued voice, "did you see +anybody pass last night after I came home? Try and recollect yourself; did +you see two men on the road?"</p> + +<p>"I did, father; just as I had locked the stable door, and was coming in for +the night, I saw two men passing down the road. But why do you ask?"</p> + +<p>"Did you speak to them—could you recognise them?" asked Simon, without +stating his motive for the question.</p> + +<p>"I wished them good night; and one of them gruffly bade me good night +too; but I could not make out who they were, though one did for a moment<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> +strike me to be Desborough, and both were tallish sort of men."</p> + +<p>"You're a lad of penetration, Bill; now saddle me Silvertail as fast as you +can."</p> + +<p>"Saddle Silvertail! Surely, father, you are not going out yet; it's not daylight."</p> + +<p>"Saddle Silvertail, Bill," repeated the old man, with the air of one whose +mandate was not to be questioned. "But where the devil are you going, sir?" +he added, impatiently.</p> + +<p>"Why to saddle Silvertail, to be sure," said the youth, who was just closing +the door for that purpose.</p> + +<p>"What, and leave me, a miserable old man, to get up without a light? Oh +fie, Bill. I thought you loved your poor old father better than to neglect him +so—there, that will do. Now send in Lucy to dress me."</p> + +<p>The light was kindled, Bill went in and spoke to his wife, then descended +to the stable. A gentle tap at the door of the old interpreter, and Lucy +entered in her pretty night dress, and, half asleep, half awake, but without a +shadow of discontent in her look, proceeded to assist him in drawing on his +stockings, &c. Simon's toilet was soon completed, and Silvertail being +announced as "all ready," he, without communicating a word of his purpose, +issued forth from his home just as the day was beginning to dawn.</p> + +<p>Although the reflective powers of Girtie had been in some measure restored +by sleep, it is by no means to be assumed he was yet thoroughly sober. Uncertain +in regard to the movements of those who had so strongly excited his +loyal hostility, (and, mayhap, at the moment his curiosity,) it occurred to him +that if Desborough had not already baffled his pursuit, a knowledge of the +movements and intentions of that individual might be better obtained from an +observation of what was passing on the beach in front of his hut. The object +of this reconnaissance was, therefore, only to see if the canoe of the settler +was still on the shore, and with this object he suffered Silvertail to take the +road along the sands, while he himself, with his arms folded and his head sunk +on his chest, fell into a reverie with which was connected the manner and the +means of securing the disloyal Desborough, should it happen that he had not +yet departed. The accidental discharge of Middlemore's pistol, at the very +moment when Silvertail had doubled a point that kept the scene of contention +from his view, caused him to raise his eyes, and then the whole truth flashed +suddenly upon him. We have already seen how gallantly he advanced to +them, and how madly, and in a manner peculiarly his own, he sought to arrest +the traitor Desborough in his flight.</p> + +<p>"Sorry I couldn't force the scoundrel back, gentlemen," said Simon, as he +now approached the discomfited officers. "Not much hurt, I hope," pointing +with his own maimed and bleeding hand to the leg of Middlemore, which that +officer, seated on the sand, was preparing to bind with a silk handkerchief. +"Ah, a mere flesh wound, I see. Henry, Henry Grantham, my poor dear +boy, what still alive after the desperate clutching of that fellow at your throat? +But now that we have routed the enemy—must be off—drenched to the skin. +No liquor on the stomach to keep out the cold, and if I once get an ague fit, +its all over with poor old Simon. Must gallop home, and, while his little +wife wraps a bandage round my hand, shall send down Bill with a litter. +Good morning, Mr. Middlemore, good bye, Henry, my boy." And then, +without giving time to either to reply, the old man applied his spurs once<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> +more to the flanks of Silvertail, who, with drooping mane and tail, resembled +a half drowned rat; and again hallooing defiance to Desborough, who lay to +at a distance, apparently watching the movements of his enemies, he retraced +his way along the sands at full gallop, and was speedily out of sight.</p> + +<p>Scarcely had Girty disappeared, when two other individuals, evidently officers, +and cloaked precisely like the party he had just quitted, issued from the +wood near the hut upon the clearing, and thence upon the sands—their countenances +naturally expressing all the surprise that might be supposed to arise +from the picture now offered to their view.</p> + +<p>"What in the name of Heaven is the meaning of all this?" asked one of +the new comers, as both now rapidly advanced to the spot where Middlemore +was yet employed in coolly binding up his leg, while Henry Grantham, who +had just risen, was gasping with almost ludicrous efforts to regain his respiration.</p> + +<p>"You must ask the meaning of our friend here," answered Middlemore, with +the low chuckling good-natured laugh that was habitual to him, while he proceeded +with his bandaging. "All I know is, that I came out as a second, and +here have I been made a first—a principal, which, by the way, is contrary to +all my principle."</p> + +<p>"Do be serious for once, Middlemore. How did you get wounded, and who +are those scoundrels who have just quitted you?" anxiously inquired Captain +Molineux, for it was he, and Lieutenant Villiers, who, (the party already +stated to have been expected), had at length arrived.</p> + +<p>"Two desperate fellows in their way, I can assure you," replied Middlemore, +more amused than annoyed at the adventure. "Ensign Paul, Emilius, +Theophilus, Arnoldi, is, I calculate, a pretty considerable strong ac<i>tyve</i> sort +of fellow; and, to judge by Henry Grantham's half strangled look, his companion +lacks not the same qualities. Why, in the name of all that is precious +would you persist in poking your nose into the rascal's skins, Grantham? +The ruffians had nearly made dried skins of ours."</p> + +<p>"Ha! is that the scoundrel who calls himself Arnoldi," asked Captain +Molineux? "I have heard," and he glanced at Henry Grantham as he spoke, +"a long story of his villainy from his captor within this very hour."</p> + +<p>"Which is your apology, I suppose," said Middlemore, "for having so far +exceeded your appointment, gentlemen."</p> + +<p>"It certainly is," said Lieutenant Villiers, "but the fault was not ours. +We chanced to fall in with Gerald Grantham, on our way here, and that he +detained us, should be a matter of congratulation to us all."</p> + +<p>"Congratulation!" exclaimed Middlemore, dropping his bandage, and lifting +his eyes with an expression of indescribable humor. "Am I then to think it +matter of congratulation that, as an innocent second, I should have had a +cursed piece of lead stuck in my flesh to spoil my next winter's dancing. +And Grantham is to think it matter of congratulation that, instead of putting +a bullet through you, Molineux, (as I intend he shall when I have finished +dressing this confounded leg, if his nerves are not too much shaken), he should +have felt the gripe of that monster Desborough around his throat, until his +eyes seem ready to start from their sockets, and all this because you did not +choose to be in time. Upon my word, I do not know that it is quite meet that +we should meet you. What say you, Grantham?"</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I hope," said Captain Molineux with a smile, "your principal will think +as you do, for should he decline the meeting, nothing will afford more satisfaction +to myself."</p> + +<p>Both Grantham and Middlemore looked their utter surprise at the language +thus used by Captain Molineux, but neither of them spoke.</p> + +<p>"If an apology the most ample for my observation of yesterday," continued +that officer, "an apology founded on my perfect conviction of error, (that conviction +produced by certain recent explanations with your brother), can satisfy +you, Mr. Grantham, most sincerely do I make it. If, however, you hold me +to my pledge, here am I of course to redeem it. I may as well observe to you +in the presence of our friends, (and Villiers can corroborate my statement), +that my original intention on leaving your brother, was to receive your fire +and then tender my apology, but, under the circumstances in which both you +and Middlemore are placed at this moment, the idea would be altogether +absurd. Again I tender my apology, which it will be a satisfaction to me to +repeat this day at the mess table, where I yesterday refused to drink your +brother's health. All I can add is that when you have heard the motives for +my conduct, and learnt to what extent I have been deceived, you will readily +admit that I acted not altogether from caprice."</p> + +<p>"Your apology I accept, Captain Molineux," said Grantham, coming forward +and unhesitatingly offering his hand. "If you have seen my brother, I +am satisfied. Let there be no further question on the subject."</p> + +<p>"So then I am to be the only bulleted man on this occasion," interrupted +Middlemore, with ludicrous pathos—"the only poor devil who is to be made +to remember Hartley's point for ever. But no matter. I am not the first instance +of a second being shot, through the awkward bungling of his principal, +and certainly Grantham you were in every sense the principal in this affair, +for had you taken my advice you would have let the fellows go to the devil +their own way."</p> + +<p>"What! knowing, as I did, that the traitor Desborough had concealed in +his canoe a prisoner on parole—nay, worse, a deserter from our service—with +a view of conveying him out of the country."</p> + +<p>"How did you know it."</p> + +<p>"Because I at once recognised him, through the disguise in which he left +the hut, for what he was. That discovery made, there remained but one +course to pursue."</p> + +<p>"Ah! and coarse work you made of it, with a vengeance," said Middlemore, +"first started him up like a fox from his cover, got the mark of his teeth, and +then suffered him to escape."</p> + +<p>"Is there no chance of following—no means of overtaking them?" said +Captain Molineux—"No, by Heaven," as he glanced his eye from right to left, +"not a single canoe to be seen anywhere along the shore."</p> + +<p>"Following!" echoed Middlemore; "faith the scoundrels would desire nothing +better: if two of us had such indifferent play with them on terra firma, +you may rely upon it that double the number would have no better chance +in one of these rickety canoes. See there how the rascals lie to within half +musket shot, apparently hailing us."</p> + +<p>Middlemore was right. Desborough had risen in the stern of the canoe, +and now, stretched to his full height, called leisurely, through his closed +hands, on the name of Henry Grantham. When he observed the attention<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> +of that officer had, in common with that of his companions, been arrested, he +proceeded at the full extent of his lungs.</p> + +<p>"I reckon, young man, as how I shall pay you out for this, and drot my +skin, if I once twists my fingers round your neck again, if anything on this +side hell shall make me quit it, afore you squeaks your last squeak. You've +druv me from my home, and I'll have your curst blood for it yet. I'll sarve +you as I sarved your old father. You got my small bore, I expect, and if its +any good to you to know that one of its nineties to the pound sent the old +rascal to the devil—why then you have it from Jeremiah Desborough's own +lips, and be d——d to you."</p> + +<p>And, with this horrible admission, the settler again seated himself in the +stern of his canoe, and making good use of his paddle soon scudded away until +his little vessel appeared but as a speck on the lake.</p> + +<p>Henry Grantham was petrified with astonishment and dismay at a declaration, +the full elucidation of which we must reserve for a future opportunity. +The daring confession rang in his ears long after the voice had ceased, and it +was not until a light vehicle had been brought for Middlemore from Simon's +farm, that he could be induced to quit the shore, where he still lingered, as if +in expectation of the return of the avowed <i>murderer of his Father</i>.</p> + + + + +<h2 class="p4"><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX.</a></h2> + + +<p>At the especial invitation of Captain Molineux Gerald Grantham dined at +the garrison mess, on the evening of the day when the circumstances detailed +in our last chapter took place. During dinner the extraordinary adventure +of the morning formed the chief topic of conversation, for it had become one +of general interest, not only throughout the military circles, but in the town +of Amherstburgh itself, in which the father of the Granthams had been held +in an esteem amounting almost to veneration. Horrible as had been the announcement +made by the detected and discomfited settler to him who now, +for the first time, learnt that his parent had fallen a victim to ruffian vindictiveness, +too many years had elapsed since that event, to produce more than +the ordinary emotion which might be supposed to be awakened by a knowledge +rather of the manner than the fact of his death. Whatever therefore +might have been the pain inflicted on the hearts of the brothers, by this cruel +re-opening of a partially closed wound, there was no other evidence of suffering +than the suddenly compressed lip and glistening eye, whenever allusion +was made to the villain with whom each felt he had a fearful account to settle.</p> + +<p>Much indeed of the interest of the hour was derived from the animated account, +given by Gerald, of the circumstances which had led to his lying in +ambuscade for the American on the preceding day; and as his narrative embraces +not only the reasons for Captain Molineux's strange conduct, but other +hitherto unexplained facts, we cannot do better than follow him in his detail:</p> + +<p>"I think it must have been about half past eleven o'clock, on the night +preceding the capture," commenced Gerald, "that, as my gun-boat was at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> +anchor close under the American shore, at rather more than half a mile below +the farther extremity of Bois Blanc, my faithful old Sambo silently approached +me, while I lay wrapped in my watch-cloak on deck, calculating the chances +of falling in with some spirited bark of the enemy which would afford me an +opportunity of proving the mettle of my crew.</p> + +<p>"'Massa Geral,' he said, in a mysterious whisper—for old age and long +services in my family have given him privileges which I have neither the +power nor the inclination to check—'Massa Geral,' pulling me by the collar, +'I dam ib he no go sleep when him ought to hab all him eyes about him—him +pretty fellow to keep watch when Yankee pass him in e channel.'</p> + +<p>"'A Yankee pass me in the channel!' I would have exclaimed aloud, +starting to my feet with surprise; but Sambo, with ready thought, put his +hand upon my mouth, in time to prevent more than the first word from being +uttered.</p> + +<p>"'Hush! dam him, Massa Geral, ib you make a noise, you no catch him.'</p> + +<p>"'What do you mean, then—what have you seen?' I asked, in the same +low whisper, the policy of which his action had enjoined on me.</p> + +<p>"'Lookee dare, Massa Geral, lookee dare!'</p> + +<p>"Following the direction in which he pointed, I now saw, but very indistinctly, +a canoe in which was a solitary individual stealing across the lake to +the impulsion of an apparently muffled paddle; for her course, notwithstanding +the stillness of the night, was utterly noiseless. The moon, which is in +her first quarter, had long since disappeared; yet the heavens, although not +particularly bright, were sufficiently dotted with stars to enable me, with the +aid of a night telescope, to discover that the figure, which guided the cautiously +moving bark, had nothing Indian in its outline. The crew of the gun-boat +(the watch only excepted) had long since turned in; and even the latter +lay reposing on the forecastle, the sentinels only keeping the ordinary lookout. +So closely, moreover, did we lay in shore, that but for the caution of +the paddler, it might have been assumed she was too nearly identified with the +dark forest against which her hull and spars reposed, to be visible. Curious +to ascertain her object, I watched the canoe in silence, as, whether accidentally +or with design, I know not, she made the half circuit of the gun-boat +and then bore away in a direct line for the Canadian shore. A suspicion of +the truth now flashed across my mind, and I resolved without delay to satisfy +myself. My first care was to hasten to the forecastle, and enjoin on the +sentinels, who I feared might see and hail the stranger, the strictest silence. +Then desiring Sambo to prepare the light boat, which I dare say most of you +have remarked to form a part of my Lilliputian command, I proceeded to arm +myself with cutlass and pistols. Thus equipped, I sprang lightly in; and +having again caught sight of the chase, on which I had moreover directed one +of the sentinels to keep a steady eye as long as she was in sight, desired Sambo +to steer as noiselessly as possible in pursuit. For some time we kept the +stranger in view, but whether, owing to his superior paddling or lighter +weight, we eventually lost sight of him. The suspicion which had at first induced +my following, however, served as a clue to guide me in the direction +I should take. I was aware that the scoundrel Desborough was an object of +distrust—I knew that the strictness of my father, during his magistracy, in +compelling him to choose between taking the oaths of allegiance and quitting +the country, had inspired him with deep hatred to himself and disaffection to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> +the Government; and I felt that if the spirit of his vengeance had not earlier +developed itself, it was solely because the opportunity and the power had hitherto +been wanting; but that now, when hostilities between his natural and +adopted countries had been declared, there would be ample room for the exercise +of his treason. It was the strong assurance I felt that he was the solitary +voyager on the face of the waters, which induced me to pursue him; for +I had a presentiment that, could I but track him in his course, I should discover +some proof of his guilt, which would suffice to rid us for ever of the +presence of so dangerous a subject. The adventure was moreover one that +pleased me, although perhaps I was not strictly justified in quitting my gun-boat, +especially as in the urgency of the moment, I had not even thought of +leaving orders with my boatswain, in the event of anything unexpected occurring +during my absence. The sentinels alone were aware of my departure.</p> + +<p>"The course we pursued was in the direction of Hartley's point, and so +correct had been the steering and paddling of the keen-sighted negro, that +when we made the beach, we found ourselves immediately opposite to Desborough's +hut.</p> + +<p>"'How is this, Sambo?' I asked in a low tone, as our canoe grated on the +sand within a few paces of several others that lay where I expected to find but +one—'are all these Desborough's?'</p> + +<p>"'No, Massa Geral—'less him teal him toders, Desborough only got one—dis +a public landin' place.'</p> + +<p>"'Can you tell which is his?' I inquired.</p> + +<p>"'To be sure—dis a one,' and he pointed to one nearly twice the dimensions +of its fellows.</p> + +<p>"'Has it been lately used, Sambo—can you tell?'</p> + +<p>"'I soon find out, Massa Geral.'</p> + +<p>"His device was the most simple and natural in the world, and yet I confess +it was one which I never should have dreamt of. Stooping on the sands, he +passed his hand under the bottom of the canoe, and then whispered:</p> + +<p>"'Him not touch a water to-night, Massa Geral—him dry as a chip.'</p> + +<p>"Here I was at fault. I began to apprehend that I had been baffled in my +pursuit, and deceived in my supposition. I knew that Desborough had had +for years, one large canoe only in his possession, and it was evident that this +had not been used for the night. I was about to order Sambo to shove off +again, when it suddenly occurred to me, that, instead of returning from a +visit, the suspected settler might have received a visiter, and I accordingly +desired my <i>fides Achates</i> to submit the remainder of the canoes to the same +inspection.</p> + +<p>"After having passed his hand ineffectually over several, he at length +announced, as he stooped over one which I recognised, from a peculiar elevation +of the bow and stern, to be same we had passed.</p> + +<p>"'Dis a one all drippin' wet, Massa Geral. May I nebber see a Hebben ib +he not a same we follow.'</p> + +<p>"A low tapping against the door of the hut, which, although evidently intended +to be subdued, was now, in the silence of night, distinctly audible, while +our whispers on the contrary, mingled as they were with the crisping sound +of the waves rippling on the sands were, at that distance, undistinguishable. +It was evident that I had erred in my original conjecture. Had it been Desborough +himself, living alone as he did, he would not have knocked for admis<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span>sion +where there was no one to afford it, but would have quietly let himself +in. It could then be no other than a visiter, perhaps a spy from the enemy—and +the same to whom we had given chase.</p> + +<p>"From the moment that the tapping commenced, Sambo and I stood +motionless on the shore, and without trusting our voices again, even to a +whisper. In a little time we heard the door open, and the low voice of Desborough +in conversation with another. Presently the door was shut, and +soon afterwards, through an imperfectly closed shutter on the only floor of the +hut, we could perceive a streak of light reflected on the clearing in front, as +if from a candle or lamp that was stationary.</p> + +<p>"'I tink him dam rascal dat man, Massa Geral,' at length ventured my +companion. 'I 'member long time ago,' and he sighed, 'when Sambo was no +bigger nor dat paddle, one berry much like him. But, Massa Geral, Massa +always tell me nebber talk o' dat.'</p> + +<p>"'A villain he is, I believe, Sambo, but let us advance cautiously and discover +what he is about.'</p> + +<p>"We now stole along the skirt of the forest, until we managed to approach +the window, through which the light was still thrown in one long, fixed, but +solitary ray. It was however impossible to see who were within, for although +the voices of men were distinguishable, their forms were so placed as not to +be visible through the partial opening.</p> + +<p>"The conversation had evidently been some moments commenced. The +first words I heard uttered were by Desborough.</p> + +<p>"'A Commissary boat, and filled with bags of goold eagles, and a fiftieth +part our'n, if we get her clean slick through to Detroit. Well, drot me, if +that ain't worth the trial. Why didn't they try it by land, boy?'</p> + +<p>"'I reckon, father, that cock wouldn't fight. The Injuns are outlyin' +everywhere to cut off our mails, and the ready is too much wanted to be +thrown away. No, no: the river work's the safest, I take it, for there they +little expect it to come.'</p> + +<p>"The voice of the last speaker excited in me a strong desire to see the face +of Desborough's visiter. Unable, where I stood, to catch the slightest view +of either, I fancied that I might be more successful in rear of the hut. I +therefore moved forward, followed by Sambo, but not so cautiously as to prevent +my feet from crushing a fragment of decayed wood that lay in my +path.</p> + +<p>"A bustle within, and the sudden opening of the door announced that the +noise had been overheard. I held up my finger impressively to Sambo, and we +both remained motionless.</p> + +<p>"'Who the hell's there?' shouted Desborough, and the voice rang like the +blast of a speaking trumpet along the skirt of the forest.</p> + +<p>"'Some raccoon looking out for Hartley's chickens, I expect,' said his +companion, after a short pause. 'There's nothin' human, I reckon, to be seen +movin' at this hour of the night.'</p> + +<p>"'Who the hell's there?' repeated Desborough—still no answer.</p> + +<p>"Again the door was closed, and under cover of the slight noise made by +the settler in doing this, and resuming his seat, Sambo and I accomplished +the circuit of the hut. Here we had an unobstructed view of the persons of +both. A small store room or pantry communicated with that in which they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> +were sitting at a table, on which was a large flagon, we knew to contain whiskey, +and a couple of japanned drinking cups, from which, ever and anon, they +'wetted their whistles,' as they termed it, and whetted their discourse. As +they sat each with his back to the inner wall, or more correctly, the logs of the +hut, and facing the door communicating with the store-room, left wide open, +and in a direct line with the back window at which we had taken our stand, +we could distinctly trace every movement of their features, while, thrown into +the shade by the gloom with which we were enveloped, we ran no risk of detection +ourselves. It is almost unnecessary to observe, after what has occurred +this morning, that the companion of Desborough was no other than the <i>soi-disant</i> +Ensign Paul Emilius Theophilus Arnoldi; or, more properly, the +scoundrel son of a yet more scoundrel father. He wore the dress in which +you yesterday beheld him, but beneath a Canadian blanket coat, which, when +I first saw him in the hut, was buttoned up to the chin so closely as to conceal +everything American about the dress.</p> + +<p>"'Well now, I reckon we must lay our heads to do this job;' said the son, +as he tossed off a portion of the liquid he had poured into his can. 'There's +only that one gun-boat I expect in t'other channel.'</p> + +<p>"'Only one, Phil—do you know who commands it?'</p> + +<p>"'One of them curst Granthams, to be sure. I say, old boy,' and his +eye lighted up significantly as he pointed to the opposite wall. 'I see you've +got the small bore still.'</p> + +<p>"A knowing wink marked the father's sense of the allusion. 'The devil's +in it,' he rejoined, 'if we can't come over that smooth-faced chap some how or +other. Did you see anythin' of him as you come along?'</p> + +<p>"'I reckon I did. Pretty chick he is to employ for a look-out. Why I +paddled two or three times round his gun-boat as it lay 'gin the shore, without +so much as a single livin' soul being on deck to see me.'</p> + +<p>"It is proverbial," continued Grantham, "that listeners never hear any good +of themselves. I paid the common penalty. But if I continued calm, my +companion did not. Partly incensed at what had related to me—but more +infuriated at the declaration made by the son, that he had paddled several +times round the gun-boat, without a soul being on deck to see him, he drew +near to me, his white teeth displaying themselves in the gloom, as he whispered, +but in a tone that betrayed extreme irritation.</p> + +<p>"'What a dam liar rascal, Massa Geral. He nebber go round: I see him +come a down a ribber long afore he see a boat at all.'</p> + +<p>"'Hush, Sambo! hush—not a word,' I returned in the same low whisper. +'The villains are at some treason, and if we stir, we shall lose all chance of +discovering it.'</p> + +<p>"'Me no peak, Massa Geral; but dam him lyin' teef,' he continued to mutter, +'I wish I had him board a gun-boat.'</p> + +<p>"'A dozen fellers well armed might take the d——d British craft,' +observed Desborough. 'How many men may there be aboard the Commissary?'</p> + +<p>"'About forty, I reckon, under some d——d old rig'lar major. I've got a +letter for him here to desire him to come on, if so be as we gets the craft out +of the way.'</p> + +<p>"'Drot me if I know a better way than to jump slick aboard her,' returned +Desborough, musingly, 'forty genu<i>ine</i> Kaintucks ought to swallow her up +crew and all.'</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span></p> + +<p>"'I guess they would,' returned his companion, 'but they are not Kaintucks, +but only rig'lars; and then agin if they are discovered, one spry cannon +might sink her; and if the eagles go to the bottom we shall lose our fiftieth. +You don't reckon that.'</p> + +<p>"'What the hell's to be done then?' exclaimed Desborough, resorting to +his favorite oath when in doubt.</p> + +<p>"'My plan's already cut and dried by a wiser head nor yours nor mine, as +you shall larn; but first let a feller wet his whistle.' Here they both drained +off another portion of the poison that stood before them.</p> + +<p>"Not to tire you," pursued Grantham, "with a repetition of the oaths and +vulgar and interjectional chucklings that passed between the well-assorted pair +during the disclosure of the plan, I will briefly state that it was one of the +most stupid that could have been conceived, and reflected but little credit on +the stratagetic powers of whoever originated it.</p> + +<p>"The younger scoundrel, who since his desertion from our service, claims to +be a naturalized citizen of the United States, (his name of Desborough being +changed for that of Arnoldi, and his rank of full private for that of Ensign of +Militia,) had been selected, from his knowledge of the Canadian shore and +his connexion with the disaffected settler, as a proper person to entrust with a +stratagem, having for its object the safe convoy of a boat with specie, of which +the American garrison, it appears, stands much in need. The renegade had +been instructed to see his father, to whom he was to promise a fiftieth of the +value of the freight, provided he should by any means contrive to draw the +gun-boat from her station. The most plausible plan suggested was, that he +should intimate to me that a prize of value was lying between Turkey Island +and our own shore, which it required but my sudden appearance to ensure, +without even striking a blow. Here a number of armed boats were to be +stationed in concealment in order to take me at a disadvantage, and even if I +avoided being captured, the great aim would be accomplished—namely, that +of getting me out of the way until the important boat should have cleared +the channel running between Bois Blanc and the American shore, and secreted +herself in one of the several deep creeks which empty themselves into the +river. Here she was to have remained until I had returned to my station, +when her passage upward might be pursued, if not without observation, at +least without risk. As Desborough was known to be suspected by us, it was +further suggested that he should appear to have been influenced in the information +conveyed to me, not by any motives of patriotism, which would have +been in the highest degree misplaced, but by the mere principle of self-interest. +He was to require of me a pledge that, out of the proceeds of the proposed capture +a twentieth share should be his, or, if I would not undertake to guarantee +this from the Government or my own authority, that I should promise my own +eventual share should be divided with him. This stratagem successful, the +younger Desborough was to repair to the boat which had been lying concealed +for the last day or two, a few miles below me, with an order for her to make +the best of her way during the night if possible. If failing on the other hand, +she was to return to the port whence she had sailed, until a more fitting opportunity +should present itself.</p> + +<p>"This," continued Grantham, after a slight pause, during which the bottle +was again circulated, "was delightful intelligence. Distrustful as I was of +Desborough, I could not have been deceived by this advice, even had I not +thus fortunately become acquainted with the whole of the design; but now<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> +that I knew my man, and could see my way, I at once resolved to appear the +dupe they proposed to make me. Specie, too, for the payment of the garrison! +This was no contemptible prize with which to commence my career. +Besides, the boat was well manned; and although without cannon, still, in +point of military equipment, quite able to cope with my crew, which did not +exceed thirty men.</p> + +<p>"With your knowledge of Desborough's character, it will not surprise you +to learn, although I confess I boiled with indignation at the moment to hear, +that the object of the scoundrels was, with a view to the gratification of their +own private vengeance, not merely to raise a doubt of my fidelity, but to prefer +against me a direct charge of treason. Thus, in their vulgar language, +they argued. If misled by their representations, I quitted my station on the +channel, and fell into the ambuscade prepared for me near Turkey Island, I +raised a suspicion of the cause of my absence, which might be confirmed by +an anonymous communication; and if, on the other hand, I escaped that ambuscade, +the suspicion would be even stronger, as care would be taken to announce +to the English garrison the fact of my having been bribed to leave the +channel free for the passage of a boat, filled with money and necessaries for +Detroit. My return to my post immediately afterwards would confirm the +assertion; and so perfectly had they, in their wise conceit, arranged their +plans, that a paper was prepared by the son and handed to his father, for the +purpose of being dropped in the way of one of the officers—the purport of +which was an accusation against me, of holding a secret understanding with +the enemy, in proof whereof it was stated that at an important moment, I +should be found absent from my post. I think I am correct, Captain Molineux."</p> + +<p>"Perfectly," returned that officer—"such indeed were the contents of the +paper which I picked up in my rounds about daylight yesterday morning, and +which I have only again to express my regret that I should have allowed to +make on me even a momentary impression. Indeed, Grantham, I am sure +you will do me the justice to believe, that until we actually saw the American +boat passing, while you were nowhere to be seen, I never for one moment +doubted its being, what it has proved to be—the falsest and most atrocious of +calumnies."</p> + +<p>"Your after doubt was but natural," replied the sailor, "although I confess +I could not help wincing under the thought of its being entertained. I knew +that, on my return, I should be enabled to explain everything, but yet felt +nettled that even my short absence should, as I knew it must, give rise to any +strictures on my conduct. It was that soreness of feeling which induced my +impatient allusion to the subject, even after my good fortune of yesterday, for +I at once detected that the slanderous paper had been received and commented +on; and from the peculiar glance, I saw Henry direct to you, I was at no loss +to discover into whose hands it had fallen. But to resume.</p> + +<p>"Their plan of action being finally settled, the traitors began to give indication +of separating—the one to hasten and announce to the American boat +the removal of all impediment to her passage upwards—the other to my gun-boat, +in order to play off the falsehood devised for the success of their stratagem.</p> + +<p>"'Here's damnation to the curst race of Granthams,' said the son, as raising +his tall and lanky body, he lifted the rude goblet to his lips.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span></p> + +<p>"'Amen,' responded the father, rising also and drinking to the pledge 'and, +what's more, here's to the goold eagles that'll repay us for our job. And now +Phil, let's be movin'.'</p> + +<p>"The heavy tread of their feet within the hut as they moved to and fro, to +collect the several articles belonging to the equipment of Desborough's canoe, +promising fair to cover the sound of our footsteps, I now whispered to Sambo, +and we hastily made good our retreat to the point where we left our skiff. In +a few minutes, we were again on the lake, paddling swiftly but cautiously towards +my gun-boat. I had instructed the sentinels not to hail me on my return, +therefore when I gained the deck, it was without challenge or observation +of any kind, which could denote to those from whom I had so recently +parted, that any one had been absent.</p> + +<p>"Again I had thrown myself upon the deck, and was ruminating on the +singular events of the evening, associating the rich prize, which I now already +looked upon as my own, with the rascality of those who, imagining me to be +their dupe, were so soon to become mine; and moreover meditating such +measures as I fancied most likely to secure a result so opposite to that which +they anticipated, when the loud quick sharp hail of the sentinels announced +that a craft of some kind was approaching.</p> + +<p>"'Want to see the officer,' shouted a voice which I knew to be Desborough's. +'Somethin' very partick'lar to tell him, I guess.'</p> + +<p>"Permission having been granted, the canoe came rapidly up to the side, +and in the next minute, the tall heavy form of the settler stood distinctly defined +against the lake, as he stepped on the gun-wale of the boat.</p> + +<p>"It must be needless here to repeat the information of which he was the +bearer," pursued Grantham. "Its purport was, in every sense, what I had so +recently overheard in the hut.</p> + +<p>"'And how am I to know that this tale of yours is correct,' I demanded +when he had concluded, yet in a tone that seemed to admit, I was as much +his dupe as he could reasonably desire. 'You are aware, Desborough, that +your character for loyalty does not stand very high, and this may prove but +a trick to get me out of the way. What good motive can you give for my believing +you?'</p> + +<p>"'The best I calculate as can be,' he unhesitatingly answered, 'and that is +my own interest. I don't make no boast of my loyalty, as you say, to be +sure, Mr. Grantham, but I've an eye like a hawk for the rhino, and I han't +giv' you this piece of news without expectin' a promise that I shall git a purty +considerable sum in eagles, if so be as you succeeds in wallopin' the prize.'</p> + +<p>"'Walloping—what do you call walloping, man?'</p> + +<p>"'What do I call wallopin'? why licking her slick and clean out, and gettin' +hold of the dust to be sure.'</p> + +<p>"I could have knocked the scoundrel to the deck, for the familiarity of the +grin which accompanied his reply, and as for Sambo, I had more than once to +look him peremptorily into patience.</p> + +<p>"I knew from what had passed between father and son, that, until the former +had communicated with, and impressed a conviction of the accuracy of +his report, upon me, nothing was to be attempted by the boat, the capture of +which was now, for a variety of reasons, an object of weighty consideration. +Whatever violence I did to myself therefore, in abstaining from a castigation +of the traitor. I felt that I could not hope for success, unless, by appearing im<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span>plicitly +to believe all he had stated. I thus set suspicion at rest.</p> + +<p>"'A more satisfactory motive for your information you could not have given +me, Desborough,' I at length replied, with a sarcasm which was however lost +upon him, 'and I certainly do you the justice to believe that to the self-interest +you have avowed, we shall be indebted for the capture of the prize in +question. She lies, you say, between Turkey Island and our own shores.'</p> + +<p>"'I guess as how she does,' replied the settler, with an eagerness that +betrayed his conviction that the bait had taken; 'but Mr. Grantham.'—and +I could detect a lurking sneer, 'I expect at least that when you have lick'd +the prize you will make my loyalty stand a little higher than it seems to be +at this moment, for I guess, puttin' the dollars out of the question, it's a right +loyal act I am guilty of now.'</p> + +<p>"'You may rely upon it, Desborough, you shall have all the credit you deserve +for your conduct on the occasion—that it shall be faithfully reported on +my return, you may take for granted.' Here I summoned all hands up to +weigh anchor and make sail for Turkey Island. 'Now then, Desborough, +unless you wish to be a sharer in our enterprise, the sooner you leave us the +better, for we shall be off immediately.'</p> + +<p>"In obedience to my order, all hands were speedily upon deck, and busied +in earnest preparation. In pleasing assurance that I was as completely his +dupe as could be desired, the villain had now the audacity to demand from me +a written promise that, in consideration of the information given, five hundred +dollars should be paid to him on the disposal of the prize. This demand +(aware as he was—or rather as he purposed—that I was to play the part of +the captured instead of that of the captor), was intended to lull me into even +greater reliance on his veracity. I had difficulty in restraining my indignation, +for I felt that the fellow was laughing at me in his sleeve; however, the +reflection that, in less than twenty-four hours, the tables would be turned +upon him, operated as a check upon my feelings, and I said with a hurried +voice and air:</p> + +<p>"'Impossible. Desborough, I have no time now to give the paper, for as you +perceive we are getting under way—I however, repeat to you my promise, +that if your claims are not attended to elsewhere, you shall have my share of +the profits, if I take this prize within the next eight and forty hours within +the boundary of Turkey Island. Will that content you?'</p> + +<p>"'I expect as how it must,' returned the secretly delighted, yet seemingly +disappointed settler, as he now prepared to recross the gun-wale into this +canoe; 'but I guess, Mr. Grantham, you might at least advance a feller a +little money out of hand, on the strength of the prize. Jist say twenty dollars.'</p> + +<p>"'No, Desborough, not one. When the Turkey Island prize is mine, +then if the Government refuse to confirm your claims, we will share equally; +but as I said before, I must first capture her, before I consent to part with a +shilling.'</p> + +<p>"'Well then, I guess I must wait,' and the scoundrel confidently believing +that he had gulled me to his heart's content, stepped heavily into his canoe, +which he directed along the lake shore, while we with willing sails, glided up +the channel and speedily lost him from our view."</p> + +<p>"A perfect adventure, upon my word!" interrupted De Courcy.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span></p> + +<p>"What a bold and deliberate scoundrel!" added Captain Granville. "I confess, +Grantham, I cannot but admire the coolness and self-possession you +evinced on this occasion. Had I been there in your stead, I should have tied +the rascal up, given him a dozen or two on the spot, and then tumbled him +head-foremost into the lake."</p> + +<p>"The remainder is soon told," continued Gerald. "On parting from Desborough, +I continued my course directly up the channel, with a view of gaining +a point, where unseen myself, I could observe the movements of the American +boat, which, from all I had heard, I fully expected would attempt the +passage in the course of the following day. My perfect knowledge of the +country suggested to me, as the safest and most secure hiding place, the creek +whence you saw me issue at a moment when it was supposed the American +had altogether escaped. The chief object of the enemy was evidently to get +me out of the channel. That free, it was of minor importance whether I fell +into the ambuscade or not, so that the important boat could effect the passage +unobserved, or at least in safety. If my gun-boat should be seen returning +unharmed from Turkey Island, the American was to run into the first creek +along the shore, which she had orders to hug until I had passed, and not until +I had again resumed my station in the channel, was she to renew her course +upwards to Detroit, which post it was assumed she would then gain without +difficulty.</p> + +<p>"It was scarcely yet day," continued Grantham, "when I reached and ran +into the creek of which I have just spoken, and which, owing to the narrowness +of the stream and consequent difficulty of waring, I was obliged to enter +stern-foremost. That no time might be lost in getting her out at the proper +moment, I, instead of dropping her anchor, made the gun-boat fast to a tree; +and, desiring the men, with the exception of the watch, to take their rest as +usual, lay quietly awaiting the advance of the enemy.</p> + +<p>"The gun fired from the lower battery on the island, was the first intimation +we had of the approach of the prize which I had given my gallant fellows to +understand was in reserve for us; and presently afterwards Sambo, whom I +had dispatched on the look out, appeared on the bank, stating that a large +boat, which had been fired at ineffectually, was making the greatest exertions +to clear the channel. A second shot, discharged from a nearer point, soon +after announced that the boat had gained the head of the island, and might +therefore be shortly expected. In the impatience of my curiosity I sprang to +the shore, took the telescope out of the hands of Sambo, and hastened to +climb the tree from which he had so recently descended. I now distinctly +saw the boat, and, availing herself of the rising and partial breeze, she steered +more into the centre of the stream; and I thought I could observe marks of +confusion and impatience among the groups in front of the fort, whom I had +justly imagined to have been assembled there to witness the arrival of the +canoes we had seen descending the river long before the first gun was fired."</p> + +<p>"But the chase, and the firing after you doubled the point?" inquired Captain +Granville. "We saw nothing of this."</p> + +<p>"The American, plying his oars with vigor, gave us work enough," answered +the young sailor, "and had made considerable way up the creek, before we +came up with him. An attempt was then made to escape us by running +ashore, and abandoning the boat, but it was too late. Our bow was almost +touching his stern, and in the desperation of the moment, the American troops<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> +discharged their muskets, but with so uncertain an aim, in consequence of +their being closely crowded upon each other, that only three of my men were +wounded by their fire. Before they could load again, we were enabled to +grapple with them hand to hand. A few of my men had discharged their +pistols, in answer to the American volley, before I had time to interfere to +prevent them; but the majority having reserved theirs, we had now immeasurably +the advantage. Removing the bayonets from their muskets, which +at such close quarters were useless, they continued their contest a short +time with these, but the cutlass soon overpowered them, and they surrendered."</p> + +<p>"And the Major, Grantham; did he behave well on the occasion?"</p> + +<p>"Gallantly. It was the Major that cut down the only man I had dangerously +wounded in the affair, and he would have struck another fatally, had +I not disarmed him. While in the act of doing so, I was treacherously shot +(in the arm only, fortunately,) by the younger scoundrel, Desborough, whom +in turn I saved from Sambo's vengeance, in order that he might receive +a more fitting punishment. And now, gentlemen, you have the whole history."</p> + +<p>"Yes, as far as regards the men portion," said De Courcy, with a malicious +smile; "but what became of the lady all this while, my conquering hero? +Did you find her playing a very active part in the skirmish?"</p> + +<p>"Active—no!" replied Gerald, slightly coloring as he remarked all eyes +directed to him at this demand, "but passively courageous she was to a degree +I could not have supposed possible in woman. She sat calm and collected amid +the din of conflict, as if she had been accustomed to the thing all her life, nor +once moved from the seat which she occupied in the stern, except to make an +effort to prevent me from disarming her uncle. I confess that her coolness +astonished me, while it excited my warmest admiration."</p> + +<p>"I hope it may be nothing beyond admiration," observed the captain of +Grenadiers; "I tell you as a friend, Gerald, I do not like this account you +give of her conduct. A woman who could show no agitation in such a scene +must have either a damn'd cold, or a damn'd black heart, and there's but little +claim to admiration there."</p> + +<p>"Upon my word, Captain Cranstoun," and the handsome features of Gerald +crimsoned with a feeling not unmixed with serious displeasure, "I do not quite +understand you—you appear to assume something between Miss Montgomerie +and myself that should not be imputed to either—and certainly, not thus +publicly."</p> + +<p>Nonsense, man, there's no use in making a secret of the matter," returned +the positive grenadier. "The subject was discussed after dinner yesterday, +and there was nobody present who didn't agree, that if you had won her heart +you had given your own in exchange."</p> + +<p>"God forbid!" said Henry Grantham with unusual gravity of manner, +while he looked affectionately on the changing and far from satisfied countenance +of his conscious brother, "for I repeat with Captain Cranstoun, I +like her not. Why, I know not; still I like her not, and I shall be glad, +Gerald, when you have consigned her to the place of her destination."</p> + +<p>"Pooh! pooh! nonsense!" interrupted Captain Granville; "never mind, +Gerald," he pursued, good-humoredly, "she is a splendid girl, and one that +you need not be ashamed to own as a conquest. By heaven, she has a bust<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> +to warm the bosom of an anchorite, and depend upon it, all that Cranstoun +has said arises only from pique that he is not the object preferred. Those +black eyes of hers have set his ice blood upon the boil, and he would willingly +exchange places with you, as I honestly confess I should."</p> + +<p>Vexed as Gerald certainly felt at the familiar tone the conversation was now +assuming in regard to Miss Montgomerie, and although satisfied that mere +pleasantry was intended, it was not without a sensation of relief that he found +it interrupted by the entrance of the several non-commissioned officers with +their order-books. Soon after the party broke up.</p> + + + + +<h2 class="p4"><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X.</a></h2> + + +<p>Before noon, on the following day, the boat that was to convey Major +Montgomerie and his niece to the American shore, pulled up to the landing-place +in front of the fort. The weather, as on the preceding day, was fine, +and the river exhibited the same placidity of surface. Numerous bodies of +Indians were collected on the banks, pointing to and remarking on the singularity +of the white flag which hung drooping at the stern of the boat. Presently +the prisoners were seen advancing to the bank, accompanied by General +Brock, Commodore Barclay, and the principal officers of the garrison. Major +Montgomerie appeared pleased at the prospect of the liberty that awaited him, +while the countenance of his niece, on the contrary, presented an expression +of deep thought, although it was afterwards remarked by Granville and Villiers, +both close observers of her demeanor, that as her eye occasionally +glanced in the direction of Detroit, it lighted up with an animation strongly +in contrast with the general calm and abstractedness of her manner. All +being now ready, Gerald Grantham, who had received his final instructions +from the General offered his arm to Miss Montgomerie, who, to all outward +appearance, took it mechanically and unconsciously, although, in the animated +look which the young sailor turned upon her in the next instant, there was +evidence the contact had thrilled electrically to his heart. After exchanging +a cordial pressure of the hand with his gallant entertainers, and reiterating to +the General his thanks for the especial favor conferred upon him, the venerable +Major followed them to the boat. His departure was the signal for much +commotion among the Indians. Hitherto they had had no idea of what was +in contemplation; but when they saw them enter and take their seats in the +boat, they raised one of those terrific shouts which have so often struck terror +and dismay; and brandishing their weapons, seemed ready to testify their +disapprobation by something more than words. It was however momentary—a +commanding voice made itself heard, even amid the din of their loud yell, +and, when silence had been obtained, a few animated sentences, uttered in a +tone of deep authority, caused the tumult at once to subside. The voice was +that of Tecumseh, and there were few among his race who, brave and indomitable +as they were, could find courage to thwart his will. Meanwhile the +boat, impelled by eight active seamen, urged its way through the silvery current, +and in less than an hour from its departure had disappeared.</p> + +<p>Two hours had elapsed—the General and superior officers had retired—and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> +the Indians, few by few, had repaired to their several encampments, except a +party of young warriors, who, wrapped in their blankets and mantles, lay indolently +extended on the grass, smoking their pipes, or producing wild sounds +from their melancholy flutes. Not far from these, sat, with their legs overhanging +the edge of the steep bank, a group of the junior officers of the garrison, +who, with that indifference which characterized their years, were occupied +in casting pebbles into the river, and watching the bubbles that arose to +the surface. Among the number was Henry Grantham, and, at a short distance +from him, sat the old but athletic negro, Sambo, who, not having been +required to accompany Gerald, to whom he was especially attached, had continued +to linger on the bank long after his anxious eye had lost sight of the +boat in which the latter had departed. While thus engaged, a new direction +was given to the interest of all parties by a peculiar cry, which reached them +from a distance over the water, apparently from beyond the near extremity +of the island of Bois Blanc. To the officers the sound was unintelligible, for +it was the first of the kind they had ever heard; but the young Indians +appeared fully to understand its import. Starting from their lethargy, they +sprang abruptly to their feet; and giving a sharp, answering yell, stamped +upon the green turf, and snuffed the hot air with distended nostrils, like so +many wild horses let loose upon the desert. Nor was the excitement confined +to these, for, all along the line of encampment the same wild notes were +echoed, and forms came bounding again to the front, until the bank was once +more peopled with savages.</p> + +<p>"What was the meaning of that cry, Sambo, and whence came it?" asked +Henry Grantham, who, as well as his companions, had strained his eyes in +every direction, but in vain, to discover its cause.</p> + +<p>"Dat a calp cry, Massa Henry—see he dere a canoe not bigger than a +hick'ry nut," and he pointed with his finger to what in fact had the appearance +of being little larger; "I wish," he pursued, with bitterness, "dey bring +him calp of dem billains Desborough—Dam him lying tief."</p> + +<p>"Bravo!" exclaimed De Courcy, who, in common with his companions, +recollecting Gerald's story of the preceding day, was at no loss to understand +why the latter epithet had been so emphatically bestowed; "I see (winking +to Henry Grantham) you have not forgiven his paddling round the gun-boat +the other night, while you and the rest of the crew were asleep, eh, +Sambo?"</p> + +<p>"So help me hebben, Obbicer, he no sail around a gun-boat, he dam a +Yankee. He come along a lake like a dam tief in e night and I tell a Massa +Geral—and Massa Geral and me chase him all ober e water—I not asleep. +Massa Courcy," pursued the old man, with pique; "I nebber sleep—Massa +Geral nebber sleep."</p> + +<p>"The devil ye don't," observed De Courcy, quaintly; "then the Lord deliver +<i>me</i> from gun-boat service, I say."</p> + +<p>"Amen!" responded Villiers.</p> + +<p>"Why," asked Middlemore, "do Gerald Grantham and old Frumpy here +remind one of a certain Irish festival? Do you give it up? Because they +are <i>awake</i>——"</p> + +<p>The abuse heaped on the pre-eminently vile attempt was unmeasured—Sambo +conceived it a personal affront to himself, and he said, with an air of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> +mortification and wounded dignity, not unmixed with anger:</p> + +<p>"Sambo poor black nigger—obbicer berry white man, but him heart all ob +a color. He no Frumpy—Massa Geral no like an Irish bestibal. I wonder +he no tick up for a broder, Massa Henry." His agitation here was extreme.</p> + +<p>"Nonsense, Sambo—don't you see we are only jesting with you?" said the +youth, in the kindest tone—for he perceived that the faithful creature was +striving hard to check the rising tear—"there is not an officer here who does +not respect you for your long attachment to my family, and none would willingly +give you pain; neither should you suppose they would say anything +offensive in regard of my brother Gerald."</p> + +<p>Pacified by this assurance, which was moreover corroborated by several of +his companions, really annoyed at having pained the old man, Sambo sank +once more into respectful silence, still however continuing to occupy the same +spot. During this colloquy the cry had been several times repeated, and as +often replied to from the shore; and now a canoe was distinctly visible, urging +its way to the beach. The warriors it contained were a scouting party, +six in number—four paddling the light bark, and one at the helm, while the +sixth, who appeared to be the leader, stood upright in the bow, waving from +the long pole, to which it was attached, a human scalp. A few minutes and +the whole had landed, and were encircled on the bank by their eager and inquiring +comrades. Their story was soon told. They had encountered two +Americans at some distance on the opposite shore, who were evidently making +the best of their way through the forest to Detroit. They called upon them to +deliver themselves up, but the only answer was an attempt at flight. The +Indians fired, and one fell dead, pierced by many balls. The other, however, +who happened to be considerably in advance, threw all his energy into his +muscular frame; and being untouched by the discharge that had slain his +companion, succeeded in gaining a dense underwood, through which he finally +effected his escape. The scouts continued their pursuit for upwards of an +hour, but finding it fruitless, returned to the place where they had left their +canoe, having first secured the scalp and spoils of the fallen man.</p> + +<p>"Dam him, debbel," exclaimed Sambo, who, as well as the officers, had +approached the party detailing their exploit, and had fixed his dark eye on +the dangling trophy—"May I nebber see a hebben ib he not a calp of a +younger Desborough. I know him lying tief by he hair—he all yaller like a +soger's breastplate—curse him rascal (and his white and even teeth were +exhibited in the grin that accompanied the remark,) he nebber more say he +sail round Massa Geral's gun-boat, and Massa Geral and Sambo sleep."</p> + +<p>"By Jove he is right," said De Courcy. "I recollect remarking the color +of the fellow's hair yesterday, when, on calling for a glass of "gin sling," at +the inn to which I had conducted him, he threw his slouched hat unceremoniously +on the table, and rubbed the fingers of both hands through his +carrotty locks, until they appeared to stand like those of the Gorgon, perfectly +on end."</p> + +<p>"And were there other proof wanting," said Villiers, "we have it here in +the spoil his slayers are exhibiting to their companions. There is the identical +powder horn, bullet pouch, and waist belt, which he wore when he landed on +this very spot."</p> + +<p>"And I," said Middlemore, "will swear by the crooked buckhorn handle +of that huge knife or dagger; for in our struggle on the sands yesterday +morning, his blanket coat came open, and discovered the weapon, on which I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> +kept a sharp eye during the whole affair. Had he but managed to plant that +monster (and he affected to shudder,) under my middle ribs, then would it +have been all over with poor Middlemore."</p> + +<p>"There cannot be a doubt," remarked Henry Grantham. "With Sambo +and De Courcy, I well recollect the hair, and I also particularly noticed +the handle of his dagger, which, as you perceive, has a remarkable twist +in it."</p> + +<p>All doubt was put to rest by Sambo, who, having spoken with its possessor +for a moment, now returned, bearing the knife, at the extremity of the handle +of which was engraved, on a silver shield, the letters P. E. T. A. Ens. M. M.</p> + +<p>"Paul Emilius Theophilus Arnoldi, Ensign Michigan Militia," pursued +Grantham, reading. "This, then, is conclusive, and we have to congratulate +ourselves that one at least of two of the vilest scoundrels this country ever +harbored, has at length met the fate he merited."</p> + +<p>"Fate him merit, Massa Henry!" muttered the aged and privileged negro, +with something like anger in his tones, as he returned the knife to the Indian, +"he dam 'serter from a king! No, no he nebber deserb a die like dis. He +ought to hab a rope roun him neck and die him lying tief like a dog."</p> + +<p>"I guess, however, our friend Jeremiah has got clean slick off," said Villiers, +imitating the tone and language of that individual, "and he, I take it, is +by far the more formidable of the two. I expect that, before he dies, he will +give one of us a long shot yet, in revenge for the fall of young hopeful."</p> + +<p>"Traitorous and revengeful scoundrel!" aspirated Henry Grantham, as the +recollection of the manner of his father's death came over his mind. "It is, at +least, some consolation to think his villainy has in part met its reward. I +confess, I exult in the death of young Desborough, less even because a +dangerous enemy has been removed, than because in his fall the heart of the +father will be racked in its only assailable point. I trust I am not naturally +cruel, yet do I hope the image of his slain partner in infamy may ever after revisit +his memory, and remind him of his crime."</p> + +<p>An exclamation of the Indians now drew the attention of the officers to a +boat that came in sight, in the direction in which that of Gerald Grantham had +long since disappeared, and as she drew nearer, a white flag floating in the +stern, became gradually distinguishable. Expressions of surprise passed +among the officers, by whom various motives were assigned as the cause of the +return of the flag of truce, for that it was their own boat no one doubted, +especially as, on approaching sufficiently near, the blue uniform of the officer +who steered the boat was visible to the naked eye. On a yet nearer approach, +however, it was perceived that the individual in question wore not the uniform +of the British navy, but that of an officer of the American line, the same precisely, +indeed, as that of Major Montgomerie. It was further remarked that +there was no lady in the boat, and that, independently of the crew, there was +besides the officer already named, merely one individual, dressed in the non-commissioned +uniform, who seemed to serve as his orderly. Full evidence +being now had that this was a flag sent from the American fort, which had, in +all probability, missed Gerald by descending one channel of the river formed +by Turkey Island, while the latter had ascended by the other, the aid-de-camp, +De Courcy, hastened to acquaint General Brock with the circumstance, and to +receive his orders. By the time the American reached the landing-place, the +youth had returned, accompanying a superior officer of the staff. Both<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> +descended the flight of steps leading to the river, when, having saluted the +officer, after a moment or two of conversation, they proceeded to blindfold him. +This precaution having been taken, the American was then handed over the +gun-wale of the boat, and assisted up the flight of steps by the two British +officers on whose arms he leaned. As they passed through the crowd, on their +way to the fort, the ears of the stranger were assailed by loud yells from the +bands of Indians, who, with looks of intense curiosity and interest, gazed on +the passing, and to them in some degree inexplicable, scene. Startling as was +the fierce cry, the officer pursued his course without moving a muscle of his +fine and manly form, beyond what was necessary to the action in which he +was engaged. It was a position that demanded all his collectedness and +courage, and he seemed as though he had previously made up his mind not to +be deficient in either. Perhaps it was well that he had been temporarily deprived +of sight, for could he have beheld the numerous tomahawks that were +raised towards him in pantomimic representation of what they would have +done had they been permitted, the view would in no way have assisted his +self-possession. The entrance to the fort once gained by the little party, the +clamor began to subside, and the Indians, by whom they had been followed, +returned to the bank of the river to satisfy their curiosity with a view of those +who had been left in the boat, to which, as a security against all possible outrage, +a sergeant's command had meanwhile been despatched.</p> + +<p>It was in the drawing-room of Colonel D'Egville, that the General, surrounded +by his chief officers, awaited the arrival of the flag of truce. Into +this the American Colonel, for such was his rank, after traversing the area of +the fort that lay between, was now ushered, and, the bandage being removed, +his eye encountered several to whom he was personally known, and with these +such salutations as became the occasion were exchanged.</p> + +<p>"The flag you bear, sir," commenced the general, after a few moments of +pause succeeding these greetings, "relates, I presume, to the prisoners so recently +fallen into our hands."</p> + +<p>"By no means, General," returned the American, "this is the first intimation +I have had of such fact—my mission is of a wholly different nature. +I am deputed by the officer commanding the forces of the United States to +summon the garrison of Amherstburg, with all its naval dependencies, to +surrender within ten days from this period."</p> + +<p>The General smiled. "A similar purpose seems to have actuated us both," +he observed. "A shorter limit have I prescribed to the officer by whom I +have, this very day, sent a message to General Hull; where, may I ask, did +you pass my flag?"</p> + +<p>"I met with none, General, and yet my boat kept as nearly in the middle +of the stream as possible."</p> + +<p>"Then must ye have passed each other on the opposite sides of Turkey +Island. The officer in charge was moreover accompanied by two of the prisoners +to whom I have alluded—one a field officer in your own regiment."</p> + +<p>"May I ask who?" interrupted the American quickly, and slightly coloring.</p> + +<p>"Major Montgomerie."</p> + +<p>"So I suspected. Was the other of my regiment?"</p> + +<p>"The other," said the General, "bears no commission, and is simply a +volunteer in the expedition—one, in short, whose earnest wish to reach<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> +Detroit, was the principal motive for my offering the Major his liberty on +parole."</p> + +<p>"And may I ask the name of this individual, so unimportant in rank, and +yet so filled with ardor in the cause, as to be thus anxious to gain the theatre +of war?"</p> + +<p>"One probably not unknown to you, Colonel, as the niece of your brother +officer—Miss Montgomerie."</p> + +<p>"Miss Montgomerie here!" faltered the American, rising and paling as he +spoke, while he mechanically placed on the table a glass of wine he had the +instant before raised to his lips—"surely it cannot be."</p> + +<p>There was much to excite interest, not only in the changed tone but in the +altered features of the American, as he thus involuntarily gave expression to +his surprise. The younger officers winked at each other, and smiled their +conviction of <i>une affaire de cœur</i>—while the senior were no less ready to +infer that they had now arrived at the true secret of the impatience of Miss +Montgomerie to reach the place of her destination. To the penetrating eye +of the General, however, there was an expression of pain on the countenance +of the officer, which accorded ill with the feeling which a lover might be supposed +to entertain, who had been unexpectedly brought nearer to an object of +attachment, and he kindly sought to relieve his evident embarrassment by +remarking:</p> + +<p>"I can readily comprehend your surprise, Colonel. One would scarcely +have supposed that a female could have had courage to brave the dangers attendant +on an expedition of this kind, in an open boat; but Miss Montgomerie +I confess, appears to me to be one whom no danger could daunt, and whose +resoluteness of purpose, once directed, no secondary object could divert from +its original aim."</p> + +<p>Before the officer could reply, Colonel D'Egville, who had absented himself +during the latter part of the conversation, returned, and addressing the former +in terms that proved their acquaintance to have been of previous date, invited +him to partake of some refreshment that had been prepared for him in an +adjoining apartment. This the American at first faintly declined, on the plea +of delay having been prohibited by his chief; but, on the general jocosely remarking +that, sharing their hospitality on the present occasion would be no +barrier to breaking a lance a week hence, he assented; and, following Colonel +D'Egville, passed through a short corridor into a smaller apartment, where a +copious but hurried refreshment had been prepared.</p> + +<p>The entry of the officers was greeted by the presence of three ladies—Mrs. +D'Egville and her daughters—all of whom received him with the frank cordiality +that bespoke intimacy, while, on the countenance of one of the latter, +might be detected evidences of an interest that had its foundation in something +more than the mere esteem which dictated the conduct of her mother and +sister. If Julia D'Egville was in reality the laughing, light hearted, creature +represented in the mess room conversation of the officers of the garrison, it +would have been difficult for a stranger to have recognised her in the somewhat +serious girl who now added her greetings to theirs, but in a manner +slightly tinctured with embarrassment.</p> + +<p>The American, who seemed not to notice it, directed his conversation, as he +partook of the refreshment, principally to Mrs. D'Egville, to whom he spoke +various ladies at Detroit, friends of both, who were deep deplorers of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> +war and the non-communication which it occasioned; alluded to the many delightful +parties that had taken place, yet were now interrupted; and to the +many warm friendships which had been formed, yet might by this event be +severed for ever. He concluded by presenting a note from a very intimate +friend of the family, to which, he said, he had been requested to take back a +written answer.</p> + +<p>A feeling of deep gratification pervaded the benevolent countenance of Mrs. +D'Egville, as, on perusal, she found that it contained the offer of an asylum +for herself and daughters in case Amherstburgh should be carried by storm.</p> + +<p>"Excellent, kind hearted friend!" she exclaimed when she had finished—"this +indeed does merit an answer. Need of assistance, however, there is +none, since my noble friend, the General has pledged himself to anticipate any +attempt to make our soil the theatre of war—still, does it give me pleasure to +be enabled to reciprocate her offer, by promising, in my turn, an asylum against +all chances of outrage on the part of the wild Indians, attached to our cause"—and +she left the room.</p> + +<p>No sooner did the American find himself alone with the sisters, for Colonel +D'Egville had previously retired to the General, than discarding all reserve, +and throwing himself on his knees at the feet of her who sat next him, he exclaimed +in accents of the most touching pathos:</p> + +<p>"Julia, dearest Julia! for this chiefly am I here. I volunteered to be the +bearer of the summons to the British General, in the hope that some kind +chance would give you to my view, and now that fortune, propitious beyond +my utmost expectations, affords me the happiness of speaking to you whom I +had feared never to behold more, oh, tell me that, whatever be the result of +this unhappy war, you will not forget me. For me, I shall ever cherish you +in my heart's core."</p> + +<p>The glow which mantled over the cheek of the agitated girl, plainly told +that this passionate appeal was made to no unwilling ear. Still she spoke +not.</p> + +<p>"Dearest Julia, answer me—the moments of my stay are few, and at each +instant we are liable to interruption. In one word, therefore, may I hope? +In less than a week, many who have long been friends will meet as enemies. +Let me then at least have the consolation to know from your lips, that whatever +be the event, that dearest of all gifts—your love is unchangeably mine."</p> + +<p>"I do promise, Ernest," faltered the trembling girl. "My heart is yours +and yours for ever—but do not unnecessarily expose yourself," and her head +sank confidingly on the shoulder of her lover.</p> + +<p>"Thank you, dearest," and the encircling arm of the impassioned officer +drew her form closer to his beating heart. "Gertrude, you are witness of her +vow, and before you, under more auspicious circumstances, will I claim its +fulfilment. Oh Julia, Julia, this indeed does recompense me for many a long +hour of anxiety and doubt."</p> + +<p>"And hers too have been hours of anxiety and doubt," said the gentle +Gertrude. "Ever since the war has been spoken of as certain, Julia has been +no longer the gay girl she was. Her dejection has been subject of remark +with all, and such is her dislike to any allusion to the past, that she never +even rallies Captain Cranstoun on his bear-skin adventure of last winter on +the ice."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Ah," interrupted the American, "never shall I forget the evening that +preceded that adventure. It was then, dearest Julia, that I ventured to express +the feeling with which you had inspired me. It was then I had first the +delight of hearing from your lips that I need not entirely despair. I often, +often, think of that night."</p> + +<p>"Of course you have not yet received my note, Ernest. Perhaps you will +deem it inconsiderate in me to have written, but I could not resist the desire +to afford you what I conceived would be a gratification, by communicating intelligence +of ourselves."</p> + +<p>"Note! what note! and by whom conveyed?"</p> + +<p>"Have you not heard," inquired Gertrude, warming into animation, "that +the General has sent a flag this morning to Detroit, and, under its protection, +two prisoners captured by my cousin, who is the officer that conducts +them."</p> + +<p>"And to that cousin you have confided the letter?" interrupted the Colonel, +somewhat eagerly.</p> + +<p>"No, not my cousin," said Julia, "but to one I conceived better suited to +the trust. You must know that my father, with his usual hospitality, insisted +on Major Montgomerie and his niece, the parties in question, taking up their +abode with us during the short time they remained."</p> + +<p>"And to Miss Montgomerie you gave your letter," hurriedly exclaimed +the Colonel, starting to his feet, and exhibiting a countenance of extreme +paleness.</p> + +<p>"Good heaven, Ernest! what is the matter? Surely you do not think me +guilty of imprudence in this affair. I was anxious to write to you,—I imagined +you would be glad to hear from me, and thought that the niece of one +of your officers would be the most suitable medium of communication. I +therefore confessed to her my secret, and requested her to take charge of the +letter."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Julia, you have been indeed imprudent. But what said she—how +looked she when you confided to her our secret?"</p> + +<p>"She made no other remark than to ask how long our attachment had existed, +and her look and voice were calm, and her cheek underwent no variation +from the settled paleness observable there since her arrival."</p> + +<p>"And in what manner did she receive her trust?" again eagerly demanded +the Colonel.</p> + +<p>"With a solemn assurance that it should be delivered to you with her own +hand—then, and then only, did a faint smile animate her still but beautiful +features. Yet why all these questions, Ernest? Or, can it really be? Tell +me," and the voice of the young girl became imperative, "has Miss Montgomerie +any claim upon your hand—she admitted to have known you?"</p> + +<p>"On my honor, none;" impressively returned the Colonel.</p> + +<p>"Oh, what a weight you have removed from my heart, Ernest, but wherefore +you alarm, and wherein consists my imprudence?"</p> + +<p>"In this only, dearest Julia, that I had much rather another than she had +been admitted into your confidence. But as you have acted for the best, I +cannot blame you. Still I doubt not," and the tones of the American were +low and desponding, "that, as she has promised, she will find means to deliver +your note into my own hands—the seal is——?"</p> + +<p>"A fancy one—Andromache disarming Hector."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Rise, for Heaven's sake rise," interrupted Gertrude; "here comes mamma."</p> + +<p>One fond pressure of her graceful form, and the Colonel had resumed his +seat. In the next moment Mrs. D'Egville entered, by one door, and immediately +afterwards her husband by another. The former handed her note, and +during the remarks which accompanied its delivery, gave the little party—for +Gertrude was scarcely less agitated than her sister—time to recover from their +embarrassment. Some casual conversation then ensued, when the American, +despite of Mrs. D'Egville's declaration that he could not have touched a +single thing during her absence, expressed his anxiety to depart. The same +testimonies of friendly greeting, which had marked his entrance, were exchanged, +and, preceded by his kind host, the Colonel once more gained the +apartment where the General still lingered, awaiting his reappearance.</p> + +<p>Nothing remaining to be added to the answer already given to the summons, +the American, after exchanging salutations with such of the English +officers as were personally known to him, again submitted himself to the +operation of blindfolding; after which he was reconducted to the beach, where +his boat's crew, who had in their turn been supplied with refreshments, were +ready to receive him. As, on his arrival, the loud yellings of the Indians accompanied +his departure, but as these had been found to be harmless, they +were even less heeded than before. Within two hours, despite of the strong +current, the boat had disappeared altogether from their view.</p> + +<p>Late in that day, the barge of Gerald Grantham returned from Detroit. +Ushered into the presence of the General, the young sailor communicated the +delivery of his charge into the hands of the American Chief, who had returned +his personal acknowledgments for the courtesy. His answer to the summons, +however, was that having a force fully adequate to the purpose, he was prepared +to defend the fort to the last extremity, and waiving his own original +plan of attack, would await the British General on the defensive, when to the +God of Battles should be left the decision of the contest. To a question on +the subject, the young officer added that he had seen nothing of the American +flag of truce, either in going or returning.</p> + +<p>That night orders were issued to the heads of the different departments, +immediately to prepare <i>material</i> for a short siege; and, an assault at the termination +of the third day.</p> + + + + +<h2 class="p4"><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI.</a></h2> + + +<p>Conformably with the orders of the British General, the siege of the +American fortress was commenced on the day following that of the mutual +exchange of flags. The elevated ground above the village of Sandwich, immediately +opposite to the enemy's fort, was chosen for the erection of three batteries, +from which a well sustained and well directed fire was kept up for +several successive days, yet without effecting any practicable breach in their +defences. One of these batteries, manned principally by sailors, was under +the direction of Gerald Grantham, whose look-out on duty had been in a great +degree rendered unnecessary, by the advance of the English flotilla up the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> +river, and who had consequently been appointed to this more active service.</p> + +<p>During the whole of Saturday, the 15th of August, the British guns had +continued to play upon the fort, vomiting shot and shell as from an exhaustless +and angry volcano—and several of the latter falling short, the town which +was of wood had been more than once set on fire. As, however, it was by +no means the intention of the General to do injury to the inhabitants, no obstacle +was opposed to the attempts of the enemy to get it under, and the +flames were as often and as speedily extinguished. An advanced hour of +night at length put an end to the firing, and the artillery men and seamen, +extended on their great-coats and pea-jackets, in their several embrasures, +snatched from fatigue the repose which their unceasing exertions of the many +previous hours had rendered at once a luxury and a want.</p> + +<p>The battery commanded by Gerald Grantham was the central and most +prominent of the three, and it had been remarked by all—and especially by +the troops stationed in the rear in support of the guns—that his firing during +the day had been the most efficient, many of his shots going point blank into +the hostile fortress, and (as could be distinctly seen with the telescope) occasioning +evident confusion.</p> + +<p>The several officers commanding batteries were now met in that of the +young sailor, and, habited in a garb befitting the rude duty at which they had +presided, were earnestly engaged in discussing the contents of their haversacks, +moistened by occasional drafts of rum and water from their wooden +canteens, and seasoned with frequent reference to the events of the past day, +and anticipations of what the morrow would bring forth. A lantern, so closed +as to prevent all possibility of contact with the powder that lay strewed about, +was placed in the centre of the circle, and the dim reflexion from this upon +the unwashed hands and faces of the party, begrimed as they were with powder +and perspiration, contributed to give an air of wildness to the whole scene, +that found its origin in the peculiar circumstances of the moment. Nor was +the picture at all lessened in ferocity of effect, by the figure of Sambo in the +back ground, who, dividing his time between the performances of such offices +as his young master demanded, in the course of the frugal meal of the party, +and a most assiduous application of his own white and shining teeth to a +huge piece of venison ham, might, without effort, have called up the image of +some lawless, yet obedient slave, attending on and sharing in the orgies of a +company of buccaniers.</p> + +<p>At length the meal was ended, and each was preparing to depart, with a +view to snatch an hour or two of rest in his own battery, when the pricked +ear and forward-thrown head of the old negro, accompanied by a quick, +"Hush, Massa Geral," stilled them all into attitudes of expectancy. Presently +the sound of muffled oars was heard, and then the harsh grating, as of +a boat's keel upon the sands.</p> + +<p>In the next minute the officers were at their posts; but before they could +succeed in awakening their jaded men, who seemed to sleep the sleep of death, +the sentinel at the first battery had received, in answer to his hurried challenge, +the proper countersign, and, as on closer inspection it was found that +there was only one boat, he knew it must be their own, and the alarm which +had seized them for the security of their trust passed away.</p> + +<p>They were not long kept in suspense. One individual alone had ascended<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> +from the beach, and now stood among them, habited in a dread-nought jacket +and trousers and round hat. His salutation to each was cordial, and he +expressed in warm terms the approbation he felt at the indefatigable and +efficient manner in which the duty assigned to each had been conducted.</p> + +<p>"Well, gentlemen," continued the Commodore, (for it was he,) "you have +done famously to-day. Much has been done, but more remains. To-morrow +you must work double tides. At daylight you must re-open with showers of +shot and shell, for it is, during the confusion caused by your fire, that the +General intends crossing his troops and advancing to the assault. But this +is not all—we have some suspicion the enemy may attempt your batteries this +very night, with a view of either spiking the guns, if they cannot maintain +the position, or of turning them, if they can, on our advancing columns. +Now all the troops destined for the assault are assembled ready to effect their +landing at daybreak, and none can be spared unless the emergency be palpable. +What I seek is a volunteer to watch the movements of the enemy during the +remainder of the night—one (and he looked at Grantham,) whose knowledge +of the country will enable him to approach the opposite coast unseen, +and whose expedition will enable us to have due warning of any hostile +attempt."</p> + +<p>"I shall be most happy, sir, to undertake the task, if you consider me worthy +of it," said Grantham, "but——"</p> + +<p>"But what?" interrupted the Commodore, hastily.</p> + +<p>"My only difficulty, sir, is the means. Had I my light canoe here, +with Sambo for my helmsman, I would seek their secret even on their own +shores."</p> + +<p>"Bravo, my gallant fellow," returned the Commodore, again cordially +shaking the hand of his Lieutenant. "This I expected of you, and have come +prepared. I have had the precaution to bring your canoe and paddles with +me—you will find them below in my boat."</p> + +<p>"Then is every difficulty at an end," exclaimed the young sailor joyously. +"And our dress, sir?"</p> + +<p>"No disguise whatever, in case of accidents—we must not have you run +the risk of being hanged for a spy."</p> + +<p>Gerald Grantham having secured his cutlass and pistols, now descended +with the Commodore to the beach, whither Sambo (similarly armed) had +already preceded him. Under the active and vigorous hands of the latter, the +canoe had already been removed from the boat, and now rested on the sands +ready to be shoved off. The final instructions of the Commodore to his officer, +as to the manner of communicating intelligence of any movement on the +part of the Americans having been given, the latter glided noiselessly from the +shore into the stream, while the boat, resuming the direction by which it had +approached, was impelled down the river with as little noise as possible, and +hugging the shore for greater secrecy, was soon lost both to the eye and to +the ear.</p> + +<p>It was with a caution rendered necessary by the presence of the vessels in +the harbor, that Gerald Grantham and his faithful companion, having gained +the middle of the river, now sought to approach nearer to the shore. The +night, although not absolutely gloomy, was yet sufficiently obscure to aid +their enterprize; and notwithstanding they could distinctly hear the tread of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> +the American sentinels, as they paced the deck of their flotilla, such was the +stillness of Sambo's practised paddle, that the little canoe glided past them +unheard, and, stealing along the shore, was enabled to gain the farther extremity +of the town, where, however, despite of the most scrupulous inspection, +not the slightest evidence of a collective movement was to be observed. Recollecting +that most of the American boats used for the transport of their +army from the Canadian shore, which they had occupied for some time, were +drawn up on the beach at the opposite end of the town, and deeming that if +any attempt on the batteries was in contemplation, the troops ordered for that +duty would naturally embark at a point whence, crossing the river considerably +above the object of their expedition, they might drift down with the current, +and affect a landing without noise—he determined to direct his course between +the merchantmen and vessels of war, and pursue his way to the opposite end +of the town. The enterprize, it is true, was bold, and not by any means without +hazard; but Grantham's was a spirit that delighted in excitement, and +moreover, he trusted much to the skill of his pilot, the darkness of the night, +and the seeming repose of the enemy. Even if seen it was by no means +certain he should be taken, for his light skiff could worm its way where +another dared not follow, and as for any shot that might be sent in pursuit +of them, its aim would, in the obscurity of the night, be extremely +uncertain.</p> + +<p>Devoted as the old negro was to Gerald's will, it was but to acquaint him +with his intention, to secure a compliance; although in this case, it must be +admitted, a reluctant one. Cautiously and silently, therefore, they moved between +the line of vessels, keeping as close as they could to the merchantmen, +in which there was apparently no guard, so that under the shadow of the hulls +of these they might escape all observation from the more watchful vessels of +war without. They had cleared all but one, when the head of the canoe +suddenly came foul of the hawser of the latter, and was by the checked motion +brought round, with her broadside completely under her stern, in the cabin +windows of which, much to the annoyance of our adventurer, a light was +plainly visible. Rising as gently as he could to clear the bow of the light skiff, +he found his head on a level with the windows, and as his eye naturally fell +on all within, his attention was arrested sufficiently to cause a sign from him +to Sambo to remain still. The cabin was spacious, and filled everywhere with +female forms, who were lying in various attitudes of repose, while the whole +character of the arrangements was such as to induce his belief, that the vessel +had been appropriated to the reception of the families of the principal inhabitants +of the place, and this with a view of their being more secure from outrage +from the Indians on the ensuing day. In the midst of the profound repose in +which, forgetful of the dangers of the morrow, all appeared to be wrapped, +there was one striking exception. At a small table in the centre of the cabin, +sat a figure enveloped in a long and ample dark cloak, and covered with a +slouched hat. There was nothing to indicate sex in the figure, which might +have been taken either for a woman, or for a youth. It was clear, however, +that it wanted in its contour the proportions of manhood. At the moment +when Gerald's attention was first arrested, the figure was occupied in reading +a letter, which was afterwards sealed with black. The heart of the sailor beat +violently, he knew not wherefore, but before he could explain his feelings ever +to himself, he saw the figure deposit the letter, and remove, apparently from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> +the bosom of its dress a miniature, on which it gazed intently for upwards of +a minute. The back being turned towards the windows, he could trace no +expression on the countenance, but in the manner there was none of that emotion, +which usually accompanies the contemplation of the features of a beloved +object. Depositing the picture in the folds of its cloak, the figure rose, and +with a caution indicating desire not to disturb those who slumbered around, +moved through the straggling forms that lay at its feet, and ascending the +stairs, finally disappeared from the cabin.</p> + +<p>Somewhat startled, the young officer hesitated as to what course he should +pursue, for it was evident that if the figure, whoever it might prove, should +come to the stern of the vessel, he and his companion must be discovered. +For a moment he continued motionless, but with ear and eye keenly on the +alert. At length he fancied he heard footsteps, as of one treading the loose +plank that led from the vessel's side to the wharf. He pushed the canoe +lightly along so as to enable him to get clear of her stern, when glancing his +eye in that direction, he saw the figure, still in the same dress, quit the plank +it had been traversing, and move rapidly along the wharf towards the centre +of the town.</p> + +<p>Ruminating on the singularity of what he had observed, our adventurer +now pursued his course up the river, but still without discovering any +evidence of hostile preparation. On the contrary, a deep silence appeared to +pervade every part of the town, the repose of which was the more remarkable, +as it was generally known that the attack on the fort was to be made on +the following day. Arrived opposite the point where the town terminated, +Grantham could distinctly count some twenty or thirty large boats drawn up +on the beach, while in the fields beyond the drowsy guard evidently stationed +there for their protection, and visible by the dying embers of their watch-fire +denoted anything but the activity which should have governed an enterprize +of the nature apprehended. Satisfied that the information conveyed to his +superiors was incorrect, the young officer dismissed from his mind all further +anxiety on the subject; yet, impelled by recollections well befitting the hour +and the circumstances, he could not avoid lingering near a spot which tradition +had invested with much to excite the imagination and feeling. It was familiar +to his memory, for he had frequently heard it in boyhood, that some +dreadful tragedy had in former days been perpetrated near this bridge; and +he had reason to believe that some of the actors in it were those whose blood +flowed in his young veins. The extreme pain it seemed to give his parents, +however, whenever allusion was made to the subject, had ever repressed +inquiry, and all his knowledge of these events was confined to what he had +been enabled to glean from the aged Canadians. That Sambo, who was a +very old servant of the family, had more than hear-say acquaintance with the +circumstances, he was almost certain; for he had frequently remarked, when +after having had his imagination excited by the oft-told tale, he felt desirous +of visiting the spot, the negro, obedient in all things else, ever found some excuse +to avoid accompanying him, nor, within his own recollection, had he once +approached the scene. Certain vague allusions of late date, by the old man, +had, moreover, confirmed him in his impression, and he now called forcibly to +mind an observation made by his faithful attendant on the night of their pursuit +of the younger Desborough, which evidently referred to that period<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> +Even on the present occasion, he had been struck by the urgency with which +he contended for a return to their own shore, without pursuing their course to +the extreme end of the town; nor was his unwillingness to approach the +bridge overcome, until Gerald told him it was the positive order of the Commodore, +that they should embrace the whole of the American lines in their inspection, +and even <i>then</i> it was with a relaxed vigor of arm that he obeyed the +instruction to proceed.</p> + +<p>Determined to sound him as to his knowledge of the fact, Grantham stole +gently from the bow to the stern of the canoe, and he was about to question +him, when the other, grasping his arm with an expressive touch, pointed to a +dark object moving across the road. Gerald turned his head, and beheld the +same figure that had so recently quitted the cabin of the merchantman. +Following its movements, he saw it noiselessly enter into the grounds of a +cottage, opposite an old tannery, where it totally disappeared.</p> + +<p>A new direction was now given to the curiosity of the sailor. Expressing +in a whisper to Sambo his determination to follow, he desired him to make for +the shore near the tannery, beneath the shadow of which he might be secure, +while he himself advanced, and tracked the movements of the mysterious +wanderer.</p> + +<p>"Oh Massa Geral," urged the old man in the same whisper—his teeth +chattering with fear—"for Hebben's sake he no go ashore. All dis a place +berry bad, and dat no a livin' ting what he see yonder. Do Massa Geral take +poor nigger word, and not go dere affer he ghost."</p> + +<p>"Nay, Sambo, it is no ghost, but flesh and blood, for I saw it in the brig we +were foul of just now; however, be under no alarm. Armed as I am, I have +nothing to fear from one individual, and if I am seen and pursued in my turn, +it is but to spring in again, and before any one can put off in chase, we shall +have nearly reached the opposite shore.—You shall remain in the canoe if you +please, but I most certainly will see where that figure went."</p> + +<p>"Berry well, Massa Geral," and the old man spoke piquedly, although +partly re-assured by the assurance that it was no ghost. "If he take he poor +nigger wice he do as he like; but I no top in he canoe while he go and have +him troat cut, or carry off by a debbil—I dam if he go, I go too."</p> + +<p>This energetic rejoinder being conclusive, and in no wise opposed by his +master, the old man made for the shore as desired. Both having disembarked, +a cautious examination was made of the premises, which tending to satisfy them +that all within slumbered, the canoe was secreted under the shadow of the +cottage, the adventurers crossed the road in the direction taken by the figure—Sambo +following close in the rear of his master, and looking occasionally +behind him, not with the air of one who fears a mortal enemy, but of one +rather who shrinks from collision with a spirit of another world.</p> + +<p>The front grounds of the cottage were separated from the high road by a +fence of open pallisades, in the centre of which was a small gate of the same +description. It was evidently through this latter that the figure had disappeared, +and as its entrance had been effected without effort, Gerald came to +the conclusion, on finding the latter yield to his touch, that this was the abode +of the midnight wanderer. Perhaps some young American officer, whom intrigue +or frolic had led forth in disguise on an excursion from which he was +now returned. His curiosity was therefore on the point of yielding to the +prudence which dictated an immediate relinquishment of the adventure, when<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> +he felt his right arm suddenly seized in the convulsed and trembling grasp of +his attendant. Turning to ascertain the cause, he beheld as distinctly as the +gloom of the night would permit, the features of the old man worked into an +expression of horror, while trembling in every joint, he pointed to the mound +of earth at the far extremity of the garden, which was known to contain the +ashes of those from whom his imagination had been so suddenly diverted by +the reappearance of the figure. This, owing to the position in which he stood, +had hitherto escaped the notice of the officer, whose surprise may be imagined, +when, looking in the direction pointed out to him, he beheld the same muffled +figure reposing its head, apparently in an attitude of profound sorrow, +against one of the white tomb-stones that rose perpendicularly from the +graves.</p> + +<p>That Sambo feared nothing which emanated not from the world of spirits, +Grantham well knew. It therefore became his first care to dismiss from the +mind of the poor fellow the superstitious alarm that had taken care of every +faculty. From their proximity to the party, this could only be done by energetic +signs, the progress of which was however interrupted by their mutual +attention being diverted by a change in the position of the figure, which, +throwing itself at its length upon the grave, for a moment or two sobbed +audibly. Presently afterwards it rose abruptly, and wrapping its disguise +more closely around it, quitted the mound and disappeared in the rear of the +house.</p> + +<p>The emotion of the figure, in giving evidence of its materiality, had, more +than all the signs of his master, contributed to allay the agitation of the old +negro. When therefore Gerald, urged by his irrepressible curiosity, in a +whisper declared his intention to penetrate to the rear of the house, he was +enabled to answer.</p> + +<p>"For Gorramity's sake, Massa Geral, nebber go dare. Dis a place all berry +bad for he family. Poor Sambo hair white now but when he black like a +quirrel he see all a dis a people kill—" (and he pointed to the mound) "oh, +berry much blood spill here, Massa Geral. It makes a poor nigger heart sick +to tink of it."</p> + +<p>Gerald grasped the shoulder of the old man. "Sambo," he whispered, in +the same low, but in a determined tone, "I have long thought you acquainted +with the history of this place, although you have eluded my desire for information +on the subject. After the admission you have now made, however, I +expect you will tell me all and everything connected with it. Not now—for I +am resolved to see who that singular being is, who apparently, like myself, +feels an interest in these mouldering bones. As you perceive it is no ghost, +but flesh and blood like ourselves, stay here if you will, until I return; but +something more must I see of this mystery before I quit the spot."</p> + +<p>Without waiting for reply, he gently pushed the unlatched gate before him. +It opened without noise, and quitting the pathway he moved along the green +sward in the direction in which the figure had disappeared. Love for his +master, even more than the superstitious awe he felt on being left alone, in that +memorable spot, at so late an hour, put an end to the indecision of the old +man. Entering and cautiously closing the gate, he followed in the footsteps +of his master, and both in the next minute were opposite to the mound where +the figure had first been observed.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span></p> + +<p>As he was about to quit the grass, and enter upon the gravelled walk that +led to the rear of the cottage, he fancied he distinguished a sound within, similar +to that of a door cautiously opening. Pausing again to listen, he saw a +light strongly reflected from an upper window, upon what had the appearance +of a court yard in the rear, and in that light the dark shadow of a human +form. This he at once recognised, from its peculiar costume to be the mysterious +person who had so strongly excited his curiosity. For a moment or two +all was obscurity, when again, but from a more distant window, the same light +and figure were again reflected. Presently the figure disappeared, but the +light still remained. Impelled by an uncontrollable desire to behold the features, +and ascertain, if possible, the object of this strange wanderer, the young +sailor cast his eye rapidly in search of the means of raising himself to a level +with the window, when, much to his satisfaction, he remarked immediately +beneath, a large water butt which was fully adequate to the purpose, and near +this a rude wooden stool which would enable him to gain a footing on its edge, +without exertion, or noise. It is true there was every reason to believe that +what he had seen was, an officer belonging to the guard stationed in the adjoining +field, who had his temporary residence in this building, and was now, +after the prosecution of some love adventure returning home; but Gerald +could not reconcile this with the strong emotion he had manifested near the +tomb, and the startling secrecy with which, even when he had entered, he +moved along his own apartments. These contradictions were stimulants to +the gratification of his own curiosity, or interest, or whatever it might be; and +although he could not conceal from himself that he incurred no inconsiderable +risk from observation, by the party itself, the desire to see into the interior of +the apartment and learn something further, rose paramount to all consideration +for his personal safety. His first care now was to disencumber himself +of his shoes and cutlass, which he gave in charge to Sambo, with directions to +the latter to remain stationary on the sward, keeping a good look-out to guard +against surprise. As by this arrangement his master would be kept in tolerable +proximity, the old negro, whose repugnance to be left alone in that melancholy +spot was invincible, offered no longer an objection, and Gerald, +bracing more tightly round his loins, the belt which contained his pistols, proceeded +cautiously to secure the stool, by the aid of which he speedily found +his feet resting on the edge of the water butt, and his face level with the window. +This, owing to the activity of his professional habits, he had been enabled +to accomplish without perceptible noise.</p> + +<p>The scene that met the fixed gaze of the adventurous officer, was one to +startle and excite in no ordinary degree. The room into which he looked +was square, with deep recesses on the side where he lingered, formed by the +projection of a chimney in which, however, owing to the sultry season of the +year, no traces of recent fire were visible. In the space between the chimney +and wall forming the innermost recess, was placed a rude uncurtained bed, +and on this lay extended, and delineated beneath the covering, a human form, +the upper extremities of which were hidden from view by the projecting chimney. +The whole attitude of repose of this latter indicated the unconsciousness +of profound slumber. On a small table near the foot, were placed several +books and papers, and an extinguished candle. Leaning over the bed and +holding a small lamp which had evidently been brought and lighted since its<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> +entrance, stood the mysterious figure on whom the interest of Gerald had been +so strongly excited. It seemed to be gazing intently on the features of the +sleeper, and more than once, by the convulsed movements of its form, betrayed +intense agitation. Once it made a motion as if to awaken the person on whom +it gazed, but suddenly changing its purpose, drew from its dress a letter which +Gerald recognised to be that so recently prepared in the cabin of the brig. +Presently both letter and lamp were deposited on the bed, and in one upraised +hand of the figure gleamed the blade of a knife or dagger, while the left +grasped and shook, with an evident view to arouse, the sleeper. An exclamation +of horror, accompanied by a violent struggle of its limbs, proclaimed +reviving consciousness in the latter. A low wild laugh burst in scorn from +the lips of the figure, and the strongly nerved arm was already descending to +strike its assassin blow, when suddenly the pistol, which Gerald had almost +unconsciously cocked and raised to the window, was discharged with a loud +explosion. The awakened slumberer was now seen to spring from the bed to +the floor, and in the action the lamp was overturned and extinguished; but +all struggle appeared to have ceased.</p> + +<p>Bewildered beyond measure in his reflection, yet secure in the conviction +that he had by this desperate step saved the life of a human being from the +dagger of the assassin, the only object of Gerald now was to secure himself +from the consequences. Springing from his position he was soon at the side +of the startled Sambo, who had witnessed his last act with inconceivable dismay. +Already were the guard in the adjoining field, alarmed by the report +of the pistol, hurrying toward the house, when they reached the little gate, +and some even appeared to be making for their boats on the beach. With +these motives to exertion, neither Gerald nor the old negro were likely to be +deficient in activity. Bending low as they crossed the road, they managed +unperceived to reach the part of the tannery where their canoe had been secreted, +and Sambo having hastily launched it, they made directly for the opposite +shore, unharmed by some fifteen or twenty shots that were fired at them +by the guard, and drifting down with the current, reached, about an hour before +dawn, the battery from which they had started.</p> + + + + +<h2 class="p4"><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII.</a></h2> + + +<p>At day-break on the morning of Sunday, the 16th of August, the fire from +the batteries was resumed, and with a fury that must have satisfied the Americans, +even had they been ignorant of the purpose, it was intended to cover +some ulterior plan of operation on the part of the British General. Their own +object appeared rather to make preparation of defence against the threatened +assault, than to return a cannonade, which, having attained its true range, excessively +annoyed and occasioned them much loss. Meanwhile every precaution +had been taken to secure the safe transport of the army. The flotilla, +considerably superior at the outset of the war, to that of the Americans, had +worked up the river during the night, and, anchored in the middle, lay with +their broadsides ready to open upon any force that might appear to oppose +the landing of the troops, while numerous scows, for the transport of a light<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> +brigade of horse artillery, and all the boats and batteaux that could be collected, +added to those of the fleet, lay covering the sands, ready to receive +their destined burdens. At length the embarkation was completed, and the +signal having been given, the several divisions of boats moved off in the order +prescribed to them. Never did a more picturesque scene present itself to the +human eye, than during the half hour occupied in the transit of this little +army. The sun was just rising gloriously and unclouded, as the first division +of boats pushed from the shore, and every object within the British and +American line of operation, tended to the production of an effect that was little +in unison with the anticipated issue of the whole. Not a breeze ruffled the +fair face of the placid Detroit, through which the heavily laden boats now +made their slow, but certain way; and a spectator who, in utter ignorance of +events, might have been suddenly placed on the Canadian bank, would have +been led to imagine that a fête, not a battle, was intended. Immediately +above the village of Sandwich, and in full view of the American Fort, lay the +English flotilla at anchor, their white sails half clewed up, their masts decked +with gay pendants, and their taffrails with ensigns that lay drooping over +their sterns in the water, as if too indolent to bear up against the coming sultriness +of the day. Below these, glittering in bright scarlet that glowed not +unpleasingly on the silvery stream, the sun's rays dancing on their polished +muskets and accoutrements, glided, like gay actors in an approaching pageant, +the columns destined for the assault—while further down, and distributed +far and wide over the expanse of water, were to be seen a multitude of +canoes filled with Indian warriors, whose war costume could not, in the distance, +be distinguished from that of the dance—the whole contributing, with +the air of quietude on both shores, and absence of all opposition on the American +especially, to inspire feelings of joyousness and pleasure, rather than the +melancholy consequent on a knowledge of the final destination of the whole. +Nor would the incessant thunder of the cannon in the distance, have in any +way diminished this impression; for as the volumes of smoke, vomited from +the opposing batteries, met and wreathed themselves together in the centre of +the stream, leaving at intervals the gay colors of England and America +brightly displayed to the view, the impression, to a spectator, would have +been that of one who witnesses the exchange of military honors between two +brave and friendly powers, preparing the one to confer, the other to receive all +the becoming courtesies of a chivalrous hospitality. If anything were wanting +to complete the illusion, the sound of the early mass bell, summoning to +the worship of that God whom no pageantry of man may dispossess of homage, +would amply crown and heighten the effect of the whole, while the chanting +of the hymn of adoration would appear a part of the worship of the Deity, +and of the pageantry itself.</p> + +<p>Vying each with the other who should first gain the land, the exertions of +the several rowers increased, as the distance to be traversed diminished, so +that many arrived simultaneously at the beach. Forming in close column of +sections as they landed, the regular troops occupied the road, their right flank +resting on the river, while a strong body of Indians under Round-head, Split-log, +and Walk-in-the-water, scouring the open country beyond, completely +guarded their left from surprise. Among the first to reach the shore, was the +gallant General, the planner of the enterprise, who with his personal staff,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> +crossed the river in the barge of the Commodore, steered by that officer himself. +During the short period that the columns were delayed for the landing +of the artillery, necessarily slower in their movements, a short conference +among the leaders, to whom were added Tecumseh and Colonel D'Egville, as +to their final operations, took place. Never did the noble Indian appear to +greater advantage than on this occasion. A neat hunting dress, of smoked +deer-skin, handsomely ornamented, covered his fine and athletic person, while +the swarthiness of his cheek and dazzling lustre of his eye were admirably +set off, not only by the snow-white linen which hung loose and open about +his throat, but by a full turban, in which waved a splendid white ostrich +feather, the much prized gift, as we have already observed, of Mrs. D'Egville. +Firmly seated on his long-tailed grey charger, which he managed with a dexterity +uncommon to his race, his warrior and commanding air might have +called up the image of a Tamerlane, or Genghis Khan, were it not known that, +to the more savage qualities of these, he united others that would lend lustre +to the most civilized potentates. There was, however, that ardor of expression +in his eye which rumor had ascribed to him, whenever an appeal to arms +against the deadly foe of his country was about to be made, that could not +fail to endear him to the soldier hearts of those who stood around, and to inspire +them with a veneration and esteem, not even surpassed by what they +entertained for their own immediate leader, who in his turn, animated by the +inspiriting scene and confident in his own powers, presented an appearance +so anticipatory of coming success, that the least sanguine could not fail to be +encouraged by it.</p> + +<p>It had been arranged that, on the landing of the troops, the flotilla should +again weigh anchor, and approach as near as possible to the American fort, +with a view, in conjunction with the batteries, to a cross-fire that would cover +the approach of the assaulting columns. The Indians, meanwhile, were to +disperse themselves throughout the skirts of the forest, and, headed by the +Chiefs already named, to advance under whatever they might find in the +shape of hedges, clumps of trees, or fields, sufficiently near to maintain a +heavy fire from their rifles on such force as might appear on the ramparts to +oppose the assault—a task in which they were to be assisted by the brigade +of light guns charged with shrapnel and grape. Tecumseh himself, accompanied +by Colonel D'Egville, was, with the majority of his warriors, to gain +the rear of the town, there to act as circumstances might require. To this, as +an inferior post, the Chieftain had at first strongly objected; but when it was +represented to him that the enemy, with a view to turn the English flank on +the forest side, would probably detach in that direction a strong force, which +he would have the exclusive merit of encountering, he finally assented; urged +to it, as he was, moreover, by the consideration that his presence would be +effectual in repressing any attempt at massacre, or outrage, of the helpless inhabitants, +by his wild and excited bands.</p> + +<p>The guns being at length disembarked and limbered, everything was now +in readiness for the advance. The horses of the General and his staff had +crossed in the scows appropriated to the artillery, and his favorite charger, +being now brought up by his groom, the former mounted with an activity and +vigor, not surpassed even by the youngest of his aides-de-camp, while his fine +and martial form, towered above those around him, in a manner to excite admiration +in all who beheld him. Giving his brief instructions to his second<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> +in command, he now grasped and shook the hand of his dark brother in arms, +who, putting spurs to his horse, dashed off with Colonel D'Egville into the +open country on the left, in the direction taken by his warriors, while the +General and his staff, boldly, and without escort, pursued their way along the +high road at a brisk trot. The Commodore in his turn, sprang once more +into his barge, which, impelled by stout hearts and willing hands, was soon +seen to gain the side of the principal vessel of the little squadron, which, +rapidly getting under weigh, had already loosened its sails to catch the light, +yet favorable breeze, now beginning to curl the surface of the river.</p> + +<p>During all this time, the cannon from our batteries, but faintly answered by +the Americans, had continued to thunder without intermission, and as the +columns drew nearer, each succeeding discharge came upon the ear with increased +and more exciting loudness. Hitherto the view had been obstructed +by the numerous farm houses and other buildings, that skirted the windings +of the road, but when at length the column emerged into more open ground, +the whole scene burst splendidly and imposingly upon the sight. Within +half a mile, and to the left, rose the American ramparts, surmounted by the +national flag, suspended from a staff planted on the identical spot which had +been the scene of the fearful exploit of Wacousta in former days. Bristling +with cannon, they seemed now to threaten with extermination those who +should have the temerity to approach them, and the men, awed into silence, +regarded them with a certain air of respect.</p> + +<p>Close under the town were anchored the American vessels of war, which, +however, having taken no part in returning the bombardment, had been left +unmolested across the river; and in full view of all, was to be seen the high +ground where the batteries had been erected, and, visible at such intervals as +the continuous clouds of smoke and flashes of fire would permit, the Union +Jack of England floating above the whole; while in the river and immediately +opposite to the point the columns had now reached, the English flotilla, which +had kept pace with their movements, were already taking up a position to +commence their raking fire.</p> + +<p>It was on reaching this point of the road, that the British force, obedient to +the command of the General, who, from a farm-house on the left, was then +examining the American defences, filed off past the house into a large field, +preparatory to forming into column to attack. Scarcely, however, had the +General descended to the field to make his dispositions, when it was observed +that the batteries had suddenly discontinued their fire, and on looking to ascertain +the cause, a white flag was seen waving on the eminence where the +heavy guns just alluded to had been placed. While all were expressing their +surprise at this unexpected circumstance, De Courcy, who, by the direction of +his General, had remained reconnoitring at the top of the house, announced +that an officer, bearing a smaller white flag, was then descending the road, +with an evident view to a parley.</p> + +<p>"Ah! is it even so?" exclaimed the General with vivacity, as if to himself. +"Quick! my horse—I must go to meet him. Captain Stanley—De Courcy—mount! +St. Julian," turning to his second in command, "finish what I have +begun—let the columns be got ready in the order I have directed. We may +have need of them yet."</p> + +<p>So saying he once more sprang into his saddle, and accompanied by his +young aides-de-camp, galloped past the line of admiring troops, who involun<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span>tarily +cheered him as he passed; and quitting the field, hastened to reach the +flag, before the bearer could approach sufficiently near to make any correct +observation respecting his force.</p> + +<p>Nearly twenty minutes of anxious suspense had succeeded the departure of +the officer, when De Courcy again made his appearance at full speed.</p> + +<p>"Hurrah! hurrah!" he shouted, as he approached a group of his more +immediate companions, who were canvassing the probable termination of this +pacific demonstration on the part of the enemy—"the fort is our own" (then +turning to the second in command,) "Colonel St. Julian, it is the General's +desire that the men pile their arms on the ground they occupy, and refresh +themselves with whatever their haversacks contain."</p> + +<p>"How is this, De Courcy?"—"Surely the Americans do not capitulate?"—"Is +it to be child's play, after all?"—were among the various remarks +made to the young aide-de-camp, on his return from the delivery of the last +order.</p> + +<p>"Heaven only knows how, Granville," said the vivacious officer, in reply to +the first querist; "but certainly it is something very like it, for the General, +accompanied by Stanley, has entered the town under the flag. However, before +we discuss the subject further, I vote that we enter the farm-house, and +discuss wherewith to satisfy our own appetites—I saw a devilish pretty girl +just now, one who seemed to have no sort of objection to a handsome scarlet +uniform, whatever her predilections for a blue with red facings may formerly +have been. She looked so good-naturedly on Stanley and myself, that we +should have ogled her into a breakfast ere this, had not the General sworn he +would not break his fast until he had planted the colors of England on yon +fortress, or failed in the attempt. Of course we, as young heroes, could not +think of eating after that. But come along—nay, Cranstoun, do not look as +if you were afraid to budge an inch without an order in writing.—I have it +in suggestion from Colonel St. Julian, that we go in and do the best we can."</p> + +<p>They now entered and asked for breakfast, when bread, eggs, milk, fruit, +cider, and whatever the remains of yesterday's meal afforded, were successively +brought forward by the dark-eyed daughter of the farmer, who, as De +Courcy had remarked, seemed by no means indisposed towards the gay looking +invaders of her home. There was a recklessness about the carriage of most +of these, and even a foppery about some, that was likely to be anything but +displeasing to a young girl, who, French Canadian by birth, although living +under the Government of the United States, possessed all the natural vivacity +of character peculiar to the original stock. Notwithstanding the pertinacity +with which her aged father lingered in the room, the handsome and elegant +De Courcy contrived more than once to address her in an under tone, and +elicit a blush that greatly heightened the brilliant expression of her large black +eyes, and Villiers subsequently declared that he had remarked the air of joyousness +and triumph that pervaded her features, on the young aide-de-camp +promising to return to the farm as soon as the place had been entered, and +leisure afforded him.</p> + +<p>"But the particulars of the flag, De Courcy," said Captain Granville, as he +devoured a hard-boiled turkey egg, which in quantity fully made up for what +it wanted in quality. "When you have finished flirting with that unfortunate +girl, come and seat yourself quietly, and tell us what passed between the +General and the officer who bore it. Why, I thought you had a devil of an +appetite just now."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Ah, true!" returned the young man, taking his seat at the rude naked +table which bore their meal. "I had quite forgotten my appetite—<i>mais ça +viendra en mangent, n'est ce pas?</i>" and he looked at the young girl.</p> + +<p>"<i>Plait il, Monsieur?</i>"</p> + +<p>"Be silent, my daughter, they are not speaking to you," gruffly remarked +her father.</p> + +<p>"The old boy is becoming savage at your attentions," remarked Villiers, +"you will get the girl into a scrape."</p> + +<p>"Bah!" ejaculated De Courcy. "Well, but of the General. Who, think +you, was the bearer of the flag? No other than that fine-looking fellow, +Colonel—what's his name, who came to us the other day."</p> + +<p>"Indeed, singular enough. What said the General to him on meeting?" +asked Henry Grantham.</p> + +<p>"'Well, Colonel,' said he smiling, 'you see I have kept my word. This is +the day on which I promised that we should meet again.'"</p> + +<p>"What answer did he make?" demanded Villiers.</p> + +<p>"'True, General, and most happily have you chosen. But one day sooner, +and we should have dared your utmost in our stronghold. To-day,' and he +spoke in a tone of deep mortification, 'we have not resolution left to make a +show even in vindication of our honor. In a word, I am here to conduct +you to those who will offer terms derogatory at once to our national character, +and insulting to our personal courage.'</p> + +<p>"The General," pursued De Courcy, "respecting the humiliated manner +of the American, again bowed, but said nothing. After a moment of pause, +the latter stated that the Governor and Commander of the fortress were +waiting to receive and confer with him as to the terms of capitulation. All I +know further is, that, attended by Stanley, he has accompanied the flag into +the town, and that, having no immediate occasion for my valuable services, he +sent me back to give to Colonel St. Julian the order you have heard."</p> + +<p>The deep roll of the drum summoning to fall in, drew them eagerly to their +respective divisions. Captain Stanley, the senior aide-de camp, was just returned +with an order for the several columns to advance and take up their +ground close under the ramparts of the fort.</p> + +<p>It was an interesting and a novel sight, to see the comparatively insignificant +British columns, flanked by the half dozen light guns which constituted +their whole artillery, advance across the field, and occupy the plain or common +surrounding the fort, while the Americans on the ramparts appeared to regard +with indignation and surprise the mere handful of men to whom they were +about to be surrendered. Such a phenomenon in modern warfare as that of a +weak besieging force bearding a stronger in their hold, might well excite astonishment; +and to an army, thrice as numerous as its captors, occupying a +fortress well provided with cannon, as in this instance, must have been +especially galling. More than one of the officers, as he looked down from his +loftier and more advantageous position, showed by the scowl that lingered on +his brow, how willingly he would have applied the match to the nearest gun +whose proximity to his enemies promised annihilation to their ranks. But +the white flag still waved in the distance, affording perfect security to those +who had confided in their honor, and although liberty, and prosperity, and +glory were the sacrifice, that honor might not be tarnished.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span></p> + +<p>At length the terms of capitulation being finally adjusted De Courcy, who +with his brother aid-de-camp, had long since rejoined the General, came up +with instructions for a guard to enter and take possession preparatory to the +Americans marching out. Detachments from the flank companies, under the +command of Captain Granville, with whom were Middlemore and Henry +Grantham, were selected for the duty, and these now moved forward, with +drums beating and colors flying, towards the drawbridge then lowering to +admit them.</p> + +<p>The area of the fort in no way enlarged, and but slightly changed in appearance, +since certain of our readers first made acquaintance with it in Wacousta, +was filled with troops, and otherwise exhibited all the confusion incident to +preparations for an immediate evacuation. These preparations, however, were +made with a savageness of mien by the irregulars, and a sullen silence by all, +that attested how little their inclination had been consulted in the decision of +their Chief. Many an oath was muttered, and many a fierce glance was cast +by the angry back-woodsmen, upon the little detachment as it pursued its +way, not without difficulty, through the dense masses that seemed rather to +oppose than aid their advance to the occupancy of the several posts assigned +them.</p> + +<p>One voice, deepest and most bitter in its half suppressed execration, came +familiarly on the ear of Henry Grantham, who brought up the rear of the detachment. +He turned quickly in search of the speaker, but, although he felt +persuaded it was Desborough who had spoken, coupling his own name even +with his curses, the ruffian was nowhere to be seen. Satisfied that he must +be within the Fort, and determined if possible, to secure the murderer who +had, moreover, the double crime of treason and desertion, to be added to his +list of offences, the young officer moved to the head of the detachment when +halted, and communicated what he heard to Captain Granville. Entering at +once into the views of his subaltern, and anxious to make an example of the +traitor, yet unwilling to act wholly on his own responsibility, Captain Granville +dispatched an orderly to Colonel St. Julien to receive his instructions. +The man soon returned with a message to say that Desborough was by all +means to be detained, and secured, until the General, who was still absent, +should determine on his final disposal.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the sentinels at the several posts having been relieved, and every +thing ready for their departure, the American army, leaving their arms piled +in the area, commenced their evacuation of the Fort, the artillery and troops +of the line taking the lead. Watchfully alive to the order that had been received, +Captain Granville and Henry Grantham lingered near the gate, regarding, +yet with an air of carelessness, every countenance among the irregular +troops as they issued forth. Hitherto their search had been ineffectual, and +to their great surprise, although the two last of the prisoners were now +in the act of passing them, there was not the slightest trace of Desborough. +It was well known that the fort had no other outlet, and any man attempting +to escape over the ramparts, must have been seen and taken either by the +troops or by the Indians, who in the far distance completely surrounded them. +Captain Granville intimated the possibility of Henry Grantham having been +deceived in the voice, but the latter as pertinaciously declared he could not be +mistaken, for, independently, of his former knowledge of the man, his tones +had so peculiarly struck him on the day when he made boastful confession<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> +of his father's murder, that no time could efface them from his memory. This +short discussion terminated just as the last few files were passing. Immediately +in the rear of these were the litters, on which were borne such of the +wounded as could be removed from the hospital without danger. These +were some thirty in number, and it seemed to both officers as somewhat singular, +that the faces of all were, in defiance of the heat of the day, covered +with the sheets that had been spread over each litter. For a moment the +suspicion occurred to Grantham, that Desborough might be of the number; +but when he reflected on the impossibility that any of the wounded men +could be the same whose voice had sounded so recently in the full vigor of +health in his ear, he abandoned the idea. Most of the wounded, as they +passed, indicated by low and feeble moaning, the inconvenience they experienced +from the motion to which they were subjected, and more or less expressed +by the contortions of their limbs, the extent of their sufferings. An +exception to this very natural conduct was remarked by Grantham, in the +person of one occupying nearly a central position in the line, who was carried +with difficulty by the litter-men. He lay perfectly at his length, and without +any exhibition whatever of that impatient movement which escaped his companions. +On the watchful eye of Grantham, this conduct was not lost. He +had felt a strong inclination from the first, to uncover the faces of the wounded +men in succession, and had only been restrained from so doing by the presence +of the American medical officer who accompanied them, whom he feared to +offend by an interference with his charge. Struck as he was however by the +remarkable conduct of the individual alluded to, and the apparently much +greater effort with which he was carried, he could not resist the temptation +which urged him to know more.</p> + +<p>"Stay," he exclaimed to the bearers of the litter, as they were in the act +of passing. The men stopped. "This man, if not dead, is evidently either +dying or fainting—give him air."</p> + +<p>While speaking he advanced a step or two, and now extending his right +hand endeavored gently to pull down the sheet from the head of the invalid +but the attempt was vain. Two strong and nervous arms were suddenly +raised and entwined in the linen, in a manner to resist all his efforts.</p> + +<p>Grantham glanced an expressive look at Captain Granville. The latter +nodded his head in a manner to show he was understood, then desiring the +litter-men to step out of the line and deposit their burden, he said to the medical +officer with the sarcasm that so often tinged his address.</p> + +<p>"I believe, sir, your charge embraces only the wounded of the garrison. +This dead man can only be an incumbrance to you and it shall be my care +that his body is properly disposed of."</p> + +<p>A signal was made by him to the file of men in his rear, who each seizing +on the covering of the litter, dragged it forcibly off, discovering in the act the +robust and healthy form of Desborough.</p> + +<p>"You may pass on," continued the officer to the remainder of the party. +"This fellow, at once a murderer and a traitor, is my prisoner."</p> + +<p>"Ha!" exclaimed Middlemore, who had all this time been absent on the +duties connected with his guard, and now approached the scene of this little +action for the first time; "what! do I see my friend Jeremiah Desborough—the +prince of traitors, and the most vigorous of wrestlers! Verily my poor<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> +bones ache at the sight of you. How came you to be caught in this trap +my old boy? Better have been out duck-shooting with the small bores, I +reckon."</p> + +<p>But Desborough was in no humor to endure this mirth. Finding himself +discovered, he had risen heavily from the litter to his feet, and now moved +doggedly towards the guard-house, where the men had orders to confine him. +His look still wore the character of ferocity, which years had stamped there, +but with this was mixed an expression that denoted more of the cowering +villain, whom a sudden reverse of fortune may intimidate, than the dauntless +adventurer to whom enterprizes of hazard are at once a stimulus and a necessity. +In short, he was entirely crest-fallen.</p> + +<p>"Come and see the effect of Gerald's excellent fire," said Middlemore, when +Desborough had disappeared within the guard-room. "I will show you the +room pointed out to me by the subaltern whom I relieved, as that in which +four field officers and three surgeons were killed."</p> + +<p>Preceded by their companion, Captain Granville and Grantham entered the +piazza leading to the officers' rooms, several of which were completely pierced +with twenty-four pound shot, known at once as coming from the centre battery, +which alone mounted guns of that calibre. After surveying the interior +a few moments, they passed into a small passage communicating with the +room in question. On opening the door, all were painfully struck by the +sight which presented itself. Numerous shot-holes were visible everywhere +throughout, while the walls at the inner extremity of the apartment were +completely bespotted with blood and brains, scarcely yet dry anywhere, and +in several places dripping to the floor. At one corner of the room, and on a +mattress, lay the form of a wounded man, whom the blue uniform and silver +epaulettes, that filled a chair near the head, attested for an American officer +of rank. At the foot of the bed, dressed in black, her long hair floating wildly +over the shoulders, and with a hand embracing one of those of the sufferer, +sat a female, apparently wholly absorbed in the contemplation of the scene +before her. The noise made by the officers on entering had not caused the +slightest change in her position, nor was it until she heard the foot-fall of Captain +Granville, as he advanced for the purpose of offering his services, that she +turned to behold who were the intruders. The sight of the British uniform +appeared to startle her, for she immediately sprang to her feet, as if alarmed +at their presence. It was impossible they could mistake those features and +that face. It was Miss Montgomerie. He who lay at her feet, was her venerable +uncle. He was one of the field officers who had fallen a victim to +Gerald's fire, and the same ball which had destroyed his companions, had +carried away his thigh, near the hip bone. The surgeons had given him over, +and he had requested to be permitted to die where he lay. His wish had +been attended to, but in the bustle of evacuation, it had been forgotten to acquaint +the officers commanding the British guard that he was there. The last +agonies of death had not yet passed away, but there seemed little probability +that he could survive another hour.</p> + +<p>Perceiving the desperate situation of the respectable officer, Captain Granville +stayed not to question on a subject that spoke so plainly for itself. Hastening +back into the piazza with his subalterns, he reached the area just as +the remaining troops, intended for the occupation of the fort, were crossing +the drawbridge, headed by Colonel St. Julian. To this officer he communi<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span>cated +the situation of the sufferer, when an order was given for the instant +attendance of the head of the medical staff. After a careful examination and +dressing of the wound, the latter pronounced the case not altogether desperate. +A great deal of blood had been lost, and extreme weakness had been +the consequence, but still the Surgeon was not without hope that his life +might yet be preserved, although, of course, he would be a cripple for the remainder +of his days.</p> + +<p>It might have been assumed, that the hope yet held out, of preservation of +life on any terms, would have been hailed with some manifestation of grateful +emotion, on the part of Miss Montgomerie; but it was remarked and commented +on, by those who were present, that this unexpectedly favorable report, +so far from being received with gratitude and delight, seemed to cast a +deeper gloom over the spirit of this extraordinary girl. The contrast was inexplicable. +She had tended him at the moment when he was supposed to be +dying, with all the anxious solicitude of a fond child; and now that there was +a prospect of his recovery, there was a sadness in her manner that told too +plainly the discomfort of her heart.</p> + +<p>"An unaccountable girl!" said Cranstoun, as he sipped his wine that day +after dinner, in the mess-room at Detroit. "I always said she was the child of +the devil."</p> + +<p>"Child of the devil in soul, if you will," observed Granville, "but a true +woman—a beautiful, a superb woman in person at least, did she appear this +morning, when we first entered the room—did she not, Henry?"</p> + +<p>"Beautiful indeed," was the reply—"yet, I confess, she more awed than +pleased me. I could not avoid, even amid that melancholy scene, comparing +her to a beautiful casket, which, on opening, is found to contain not a gem of +price, but a subtle poison, contact with which is fatal; or to a fair looking +fruit, which, when divided, proves to be rotten at the core."</p> + +<p>"Allegorical, by all that is good, bad, and indifferent," exclaimed Villiers. +"How devilish severe you are, Henry, upon the pale Venus. It is hardly fair +in you thus to rate Gerald's intended."</p> + +<p>"Gerald's intended! God forbid."</p> + +<p>This was uttered with an energy that startled his companions. Perceiving +that the subject gave him pain, they discontinued allusion to the lady in question, +further than to inquire how she was to be disposed of, and whether she +was to remain in attendance on her uncle.</p> + +<p>In answer, they were informed, that as the Major could not be removed, +orders had been given by the General for every due care to be taken of him +where he now lay, while Miss Montgomerie, yielding to solicitation, had been +induced to retire into the family of the American General in the town, there +to remain until it should be found convenient to have the whole party conveyed +to the next American post on the frontier.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span></p> + + + + +<h2 class="p4"><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII.</a></h2> + + +<p>It is difficult to imagine that the English General could in any way have +anticipated so easy a conquest. He had no reason to undervalue the resolution +of the enemy, and yet he appears to have been fully sanguine of the success +of his undertaking. Possibly he counted much on his own decision and judgment, +which, added to the confidence reposed in him by all ranks and branches +of the expedition, he might have felt fully adequate to the overthrow of the +mere difficulty arising from inferiority of numbers. Whatever his motive, or +however founded his expectations of success, the service he performed was +eminent, since he not merely relieved Amherstburgh, the key of Upper Canada, +from all immediate danger, but at a single blow annihilated the American +power throughout that extensive frontier. That this bold measure, powerfully +contrasted as it was with his own previous vacillation of purpose, had greatly +tended to intimidate the American General, and to render him distrustful of +his own resources, there can be little doubt. The destructive fire from the well-served +breaching batteries, was moreover instanced as an influencing cause of +the capitulation; and there can be no question, that a humane consideration +for the defenceless town, surrounded by hordes of Indians, had much to do +with the decision of the American General.</p> + +<p>In justice to many officers of rank, and to the garrison generally, it must +be admitted that the decision of their leader, if credence might be given to +their looks and language, was anything but satisfactory to them, and it must +be confessed that it must have been mortifying in the extreme, to have yielded +without a blow a fortress so well provided with the means of defence. What +the result would have been had the British columns mounted to the assault, it +is impossible to say. That they would have done their duty is beyond all +question, but there is no reason to believe the Americans, under a suitable +commander, would have failed in theirs. Superiority of numbers and position +was on the one side; a daring Chief, an ardent desire of distinction, and the +impossibility of retreat without humiliation, on the other.</p> + +<p>In alluding thus to the capitulation of Detroit, we beg not to be understood +as either reflecting on the American character, or doubting their courage. +Question of personal bravery there was none, since no appeal was made to +arms; but the absence of sanguinary event left in high relief the daring of the +British commander, whose promptitude and genius alone secured to him so +important yet bloodless a conquest. Had he evinced the slightest indecision, +or lost a moment in preparing for action, the American General would have +had time to rally, and believing him to be not more enterprising than his predecessors, +would have recovered from his panic and assumed an attitude at +once, more worthy of his trust, commensurate with his means of defence, and +in keeping with his former reputation. The quick apprehension of his opponent +immediately caught the weakness, while his ready action grappled +intuitively with the advantage it presented. The batteries, as our narrative has +shown, were opened without delay—the flotilla worked up the river within +sight of the fortress—and the troops and Indians effected their landing in full +view of the enemy. In fact, everything was conducted in a manner to show +a determination of the most active and undoubted description. With what +result has been seen.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span></p> + +<p>It was in the evening of the day of surrender, that the little English +squadron, freighted with the prisoners taken in Detroit, dropped slowly past +Amherstburgh, into Lake Erie. By an article in the capitulation, it had been +stipulated, that the irregular troops should be suffered to return to their +homes, under the condition that they should not again serve during the war, +while those of the line were to be conducted to the Lower Province, there to +remain until duly exchanged. The appearance as captives of those who had, +only a few days before, been comfortably established on the Sandwich shore, +and had caused the country to feel already some of the horrors of invasion—naturally +enough drew forth most of the inhabitants to witness the sight; and +as the Sunday stroll of the little population of Amherstburgh led in the +direction of Elliot's point, where the lake began, the banks were soon alive +with men, women and children, clad in holiday apparel, moving quickly to +keep up with the gliding vessels, and apparently, although not offensively +exulting in the triumph of that flag, beneath which the dense masses of their +enemies were now departing from their rescued territory.</p> + +<p>Among those whom the passing barks had drawn in unusual numbers to +the river's side, were the daughters of Colonel D'Egville, whose almost daily +practice it was to take the air in that direction, where there was so much of +the sublime beauty of American scenery to arrest the attention. Something +more, however, than that vague curiosity which actuated the mass, seemed to +have drawn the sisters to the bank, and one who had watched them narrowly +must have observed, that their interest was not divided among the many barks +that glided onward to the lake, but was almost exclusively attracted by one, +which now lay to, with her light bows breasting the current like a swan, +and apparently waiting either for a boat that had been dispatched to the +shore, or with an intention to send one. This vessel was filled in every part +with troops wearing the blue uniform of the American regular army, while +those in advance were freighted with the irregulars and backwoodsmen.</p> + +<p>"Is not this, Julia, the vessel to which the Commodore promised to promote +Gerald, in reward of his gallant conduct last week?" asked the timid Gertrude, +with a sigh, as they stood stationary for a few moments, watching the +issue of the manœuvre just alluded to.</p> + +<p>"It is, Gertrude," was the answer of one whose fixed eye and abstracted +thought, betokened an interest in the same vessel, of a nature wholly different +from that of her questioner.</p> + +<p>"How very odd, then, he does not come on shore to us. I am sure he +must see us, and it would not take him two minutes to let us know he is +unhurt, and to shake hands with us. It is very unkind of him I think."</p> + +<p>Struck by the peculiar tone in which the last sentence had been uttered +Julia D'Egville turned her eyes full upon those of her sister. The latter +could not stand the inquiring gaze, but sought the ground, while a conscious +blush confirmed the suspicion.</p> + +<p>"Dearest Gertrude," she said, as she drew the clasped arm of her sister +more fondly within her own; "I see how it is; but does he love you in return. +Has he ever told you so, or hinted it. Tell me, my dear girl."</p> + +<p>"Never," faltered the sensitive Gertrude, and she hung her head, to conceal +the tear that trembled in her eye.</p> + +<p>Her sister sighed deeply, and pressed the arm she held more closely within +her own. "My own own sister, for worlds I would not pain you; but if you +would be happy, you must not yield to this preference for our cousin. Did<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> +you not remark how completely he seemed captivated by Miss Montgomerie? +Depend upon it, his affections are centered in her."</p> + +<p>Gertrude made no reply, but tears trickled down her cheeks, as they both +slowly resumed their walk along the beach. Presently the splash of oars was +heard, and turning quickly to discover the cause, Julia saw a boat leave the +vessel, at which they had just been looking, and pull immediately towards +them. In the stern stood an officer in American uniform, whom the eyes of +love were not slow to distinguish, even in the growing dusk of the evening.</p> + +<p>"It is Ernest," exclaimed the excited girl, forgetting for a moment her sister +in herself. "I thought he would not have departed without seeking to see +me."</p> + +<p>A few strokes of the oars were sufficient to bring the boat to the shore. +The American stepped out, and leaving the boat to follow the direction of the +vessel, now drifting fast with the current towards the outlet, which the remainder +of the flotilla had already passed, pursued his course along the sands +in earnest conversation with the sisters, or rather with one of them, for poor +Gertrude, after the first salutation, seemed to have lost all inclination to +speak.</p> + +<p>"Fate, dearest Julia," said the officer despondingly, "has decreed our interview +earlier than I had expected. However, under all circumstances, I may +esteem myself happy to have seen you at all. I am indebted for this favor to +the officer commanding yonder vessel, in which our regiment is embarked, for +the satisfaction, melancholy as it is, of being enabled to bid you a temporary +farewell."</p> + +<p>"Then are we both indebted to one of my own family for the happiness; +for that it is a happiness, Ernest, I can answer from the depression of my +spirits just now, when I feared you were about to depart without seeing me +at all. The officer in command of your vessel is, or ought to be, a cousin of +our own."</p> + +<p>"Indeeed!—then is he doubly entitled to my regard. But, Julia, let the +brief time that is given us be devoted to the arrangement of plans for the +future. I will not for a moment doubt your faith, after what occurred at our +last interview; but shall I be certain of finding you here, when later we return +to wash away the stain this day's proceedings have thrown upon our national +honor. Forgive me, if I appear to mix up political feelings, with private grief, +but it cannot be denied, (and he smiled faintly through the mortification evidently +called up by the recollection), that to have one's honor attainted, and +to lose one's mistress in the same day, are heavier taxes on human patience, +than it can be expected a soldier should quietly bear."</p> + +<p>"And when I am yours at a later period, I suppose you will expect me +to be as interested in the national honor, as you are," replied Julia, anxious +to rally him on a subject she felt, could not but be painful to a man of high +feelings, as she fully believed the Colonel to be. "How are we to reconcile +such clashing interests? How am I so far to overcome my natural love for +the country which gave me birth, so to rejoice in its subjugation by yours; +and yet, that seems to be the eventual object at which you hint. Your plan, +if I understand right, is to return here with an overwhelming army; overrun +the province, and make me your property by right of conquest, while all connected +with me, by blood, or friendship, are to be borne into captivity. If +we marry, sir, we must draw lots which of us shall adopt a new country."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Nay, dearest Julia, this pleasantry is unseasonable. I certainly do intend, +provided I am exchanged in time to return here with the army, which I doubt +not will be instantly dispatched to restore our blighted fame, and then I shall +claim you as my own. Will you then hesitate to become mine? Even as +the daughter forsakes the home of her father without regret, to pass her days +with him who is to her father, mother, all the charities of life, in short—so +should she forsake her native land adopting in preference that to which her +husband is attached by every tie of honor, and of duty. However, let us hope +that ere long, the folly of this war will be seen, and that the result of such +perception, will be a peace founded on such permanent bases, that each shall +be bound, by an equal tie of regard, to the home of the other."</p> + +<p>"Let us hope so," eagerly replied Julia. "But what has become of our +friend, Miss Montgomerie, in all the confusion of this day. Or am I right in +supposing that she and her uncle are of the number of those embarked in my +cousin's vessel?"</p> + +<p>The name of the interesting American, coupled as it was, with that of one +infinitely more dear to her, caused Gertrude for the first time, to look up in +the face of the officer, in expectation of his reply. She was struck by the +sudden paleness that came over his features again, as on the former occasion, +when allusion was made to her at his recent visit to Amherstburgh. He saw +that his emotion was remarked, and sought to hide it under an appearance of +unconcern, as he replied:</p> + +<p>"Neither Miss Montgomerie nor her uncle are embarked. The latter, I +regret to say, has been one of the few victims who have fallen."</p> + +<p>"What! dead—that excellent kind old man—dead," demanded the sisters +nearly in the same breath?</p> + +<p>"No; not dead—but I fear with little hope of life. He was desperately +wounded soon after daybreak this morning, and when I saw him half an hour +afterwards, he had been given over by the surgeons."</p> + +<p>"Poor Major Montgomerie," sighed Gertrude; "I felt when he was here +the other day, that I could have loved him almost as my own father. How +broken-hearted his niece must be at his loss!"</p> + +<p>A sneer of bitterness passed over the fine features of the American as he +replied with emphasis:</p> + +<p>"Nay, dear Gertrude, your sympathies are but ill bestowed. Miss +Montgomerie's heart will scarcely sustain the injury you seem to apprehend."</p> + +<p>"What mean you, Ernest?" demanded Julia, with eagerness. "How is it +that you judge thus harshly of her character. How, in short, do you pretend +to enter into her most secret feelings, and yet deny all but a general knowledge +of her? What can you possibly know of her heart?"</p> + +<p>"I merely draw my inferences from surmise," replied the Colonel, after a +few moments of pause. "The fact is, I have the vanity to imagine myself a +correct reader of character, and my reading of Miss Montgomerie's has not +been the happiest."</p> + +<p>Julia's look betrayed incredulity. "There is evidently some mystery in all +this," she rejoined; "but I will not seek to discover more than you choose +at present to impart. Later I may hope to possess more of your confidence. +One question more, however, and I have done. Have you seen her since your +return to Detroit, and did she give you my letter?"</p> + +<p>The Colonel made no answer, but produced from his pocket a note, which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> +Julia at once recognised as her own.</p> + +<p>"Then," said Gertrude, "there was not so much danger after all, in intrusting +it. You seemed to be in a sad way, when you first heard that it had been +given to her."</p> + +<p>"I would have pledged myself for its safe deliverance," added her sister; +"for the promise was too solemnly given to be broken."</p> + +<p>"And solemnly has it been kept," gravely returned the American. "But +hark! already are they hailing the boat, and we must part."</p> + +<p>The time occupied in conversation had brought them down to the extreme +point where the river terminated and the lake commenced. Beyond this lay a +sand bar, which it was necessary to clear before the increasing dusk of the +evening rendered it hazardous. All the other vessels had already passed it, +and were spreading their white sails before the breeze, which here, unbroken +by the island, impelled them rapidly onward. A few strokes of the oar, and +the boat once more touched the beach. Low and fervent adieus were exchanged, +and the American, resuming his station in the stern, was soon seen +to ascend the deck he had so recently quitted. For a short time the sisters +continued to watch the movements of the vessel, as she in turn having passed, +spread all her canvass to the wind, until the fast fading twilight warning them +to depart, they retraced their steps along the sands to the town. Both were +silent and pensive; and while all around them found subject for rejoicing in +the public events of the day, they retired at an early hour, to indulge at leisure +in the several painful retrospections which related more particularly to +themselves.</p> + + + + +<h2 class="p4"><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV.</a></h2> + + +<p>If the few weeks preceding the fall of Detroit had been characterised by +much bustle and excitement, those which immediately succeeded were no less +remarkable for their utter inactivity and repose. With the surrender of the +fortress vanished every vestige of hostility in that remote territory, enabling +the sinews of watchfulness to undergo a relaxation, nor longer requiring the +sacrifice of private interests to the public good. Scarcely had the American +prisoners been despatched to their several destinations, when General Brock, +whose activity and decision were the subject of universal remark, quitted his +new conquest, and again hastened to resume the command on the Niagara +frontier, which he had only left to accomplish what had been so happily +achieved. The Indians, too, finding their services no longer in immediate demand, +dispersed over the country or gave themselves up to the amusement of +the chase, ready, however, to come forward whenever they should be re-summoned +to the conflict; while the Canadians, who had abandoned their homes +to assist in the operations of the war, returned once more to the cultivation +of that soil they had so recently looked upon as wrested from them for ever. +Throughout the whole line of Detroit, on either shore, the utmost quietude +prevailed; and although many of the inhabitants of the conquered town looked +with an eye of national jealousy on the English flag that waved in security +above the fort, they submitted uncomplainingly to the change, indulging only<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> +in secret, yet without bitterness, in the hope of a not far distant reaction +of fortune, when their own National Stars should once more be in the +ascendant.</p> + +<p>The garrison left at Detroit consisted merely of two companies—those of +Captains Granville and Molineux, which included among their officers Middlemore, +Villiers and Henry Grantham. After the first excitement produced in +the minds of the townspeople by their change of rulers had passed away, these +young men, desirous of society, sought to renew their intimacy with such of +the more respectable families as they had been in the habit of associating +with prior to hostilities; but although in most instances they were successful, +their reception was so different from what it had formerly been, that they +were glad to withdraw themselves within the rude resources of their own +walls. It happened, however, about this period, that Colonel D'Egville had +received a command to transfer the head of his department from Amherstburg +to Detroit, and, with a view to his own residence on the spot, the large and +commodious mansion of the late Governor was selected for the abode of his +family. With the daughters of that officer the D'Egvilles had long been intimate, +and as the former were to continue under the same roof until their final +departure from Detroit, it was with a mutual satisfaction the friends found +themselves thus closely reunited. Added to this party were Major Montgomerie +(already fast recovering from the effects of his wound,) and his niece—both +of whom only awaited the entire restoration of the former, to embark +immediately for the nearest American port.</p> + +<p>At Colonel D'Egville's it will therefore be supposed the officers passed nearly +all their leisure hours; Molineux and Villiers flirting with the fair American +sisters, until they had nearly been held fast by the chains with which they +dallied, and Middlemore uttering his execrable puns with a coolness of +premeditation that excited the laughter of the fair part of his auditors, while +his companions, on the contrary, expressed their unmitigated abhorrence in a +variety of ways. As for the somewhat staid Captain Granville, he sought to +carry his homage to the feet of Miss Montgomerie, but the severe and repellant +manner in which she received all his advances, and the look which almost +petrified where it fell, not only awed him effectually into distance, but drew +down upon him the sarcastic felicitations of his watchful brother officers. +There was one, however, on whose attentions her disapprobation fell not, and +Henry Grantham, who played the part of an anxious observer, remarked with +pain that <i>he</i> had been fascinated by her beauty, in a manner which showed her +conquest to be complete.</p> + +<p>The cousins of Gerald Grantham had been in error in supposing him to be +the officer in command of the vessel on board which the lover of Julia had +embarked. His transfer from the gun-boat had taken place, but in consideration +of the fatigue he had undergone during the three successive days in which +he had been employed at the batteries, the Commodore had directed another +officer to take command of the vessel in question, and charge himself with the +custody of the prisoners on board. Finding himself at liberty until the return +of the flotilla from this duty, the first care of Gerald was to establish himself +in lodgings in Detroit, whence he daily sallied forth to the apartments in the +Governor's house occupied by the unfortunate Major Montgomerie, in whose +situation he felt an interest so much the more deep and lively as he knew his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> +confinement to have been in some degree the work of his own hands. All the +attention and kindness could effect was experienced by the respectable Major, +who, in return, found himself more and more attached to his youthful and +generous captor. These constant visits to the uncle naturally brought our +hero more immediately into the society of the niece, but although he had +never been able to banish from his memory the recollection of one look which +she had bestowed upon him on a former occasion, in almost every interview +of the sort <i>now</i>, she preserved the same cold distance and reserve which was +peculiar to her.</p> + +<p>A week had elapsed in this manner, when it chanced that as they both sat +one evening, about dusk, near the couch of the invalid, the latter, after complaining +of extreme weakness and unusual suffering, expressed his anxiety at +the possibility of his niece being left alone and unprotected in a strange +country.</p> + +<p>It was with a beating pulse and a glowing cheek that Gerald looked up to +observe the effect of this observation on his companion. He was surprised, +nay, hurt, to remark that an expression of almost contemptuous loathing sat +upon her pale but beautiful countenance. He closed his eyes for a moment in +bitterness of disappointment—and when they again opened and fell upon that +countenance, he scarcely could believe the evidence of his senses. Every feature +had undergone a change. With her face half turned, as if to avoid the +observation of her uncle, she now exhibited a cheek flushed with the expression +of passionate excitement, while from her eye beamed that same unfathomable +expression which had carried intoxication once before to the inmost soul +of the youth. Almost wild with his feelings, it was with difficulty he restrained +the impulse that would have urged him to her feet; but even while he +hesitated, her countenance had again undergone a change, and she sat cold +and reserved and colorless as before.</p> + +<p>That look sealed that night the destiny of Gerald Grantham. The coldness +of the general demeanor of Matilda was forgotten in the ardor of character +which had escaped from beneath the evident and habitual disguise; and the +enthusiastic sailor could think of nothing but the witchery of that look. To +his surprise and joy, the following day, and ever afterwards, he found that the +manner of the American, although reserved as usual towards others, had +undergone a complete change towards himself. Whenever he appeared alone +a smile was his welcome, and if others were present she always contrived to +indemnify him for a coldness he now knew to be assumed, by conveying unobserved +one of those seductive glances the power of which she seemed so fully +to understand.</p> + +<p>Such was the state of things when the D'Egvilles arrived. Exposed to the +observations of more than one anxious friend, it was not likely that a youth +of Gerald's open nature could be long in concealing his prepossession; and as +Matilda, although usually guarded in her general manner, was observed sometimes +to fix her eyes upon him with the expression of one immersed in deep +and speculative thought, the suspicion acquired a character of greater certainty.</p> + +<p>To Harry Grantham, who doated upon his brother, this attachment was a +source of infinite disquiet; for, from the very commencement, Miss Montgomerie +had unfavorably impressed him. Why he knew not; yet, impelled by a +feeling he was unable to analyze, he deeply lamented that they had ever be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span>come +acquainted, infatuated as Gerald appeared by her attractions. There +was another too, who saw with regret the attachment of Gerald to his fair +prisoner. It was Gertrude D'Egville; but her uncomplaining voice spoke not, +even to her beloved sister, of the anguish she endured—she loved her cousin, +but he knew it not; and although she felt that she was fast consuming with +the disappointment that preyed upon her peace, she had obtained of her sister +the promise that her secret should never reach the ear of its object.</p> + +<p>In this manner passed the months of August and September. October had +just commenced, and with it that beautiful but brief season which is well known +to America as the Indian summer. Anxious to set out on his return to that +home to which his mutilation must confine him for the future, Major Montgomerie, +now sufficiently recovered to admit of his travelling by water, expressed +a desire to avail himself of the loveliness of the weather, and embark +forthwith on his return.</p> + +<p>By the officers whom the hospitality of Colonel D'Egville almost daily assembled +beneath his roof, this announcement was received with dismay, and +especially by Molineux and Villiers, who had so suffered themselves to be +fascinated by the amiable daughters of General H——, as to have found it necessary +to hold a consultation (decided however in the negative) whether they +should or should not tempt them to remain, by making an offer of their hands. +It was also observed that these young ladies, who at first had been all anxiety +to rejoin their parent, evinced no particular satisfaction in the intimation +of speedy departure thus given to them. Miss Montgomerie, on the contrary, +whose anxiety throughout to quit Detroit had been no less remarkable than +her former impatience to reach it, manifested a pleasure that amounted almost +to exultation; and yet it was observed that, by a strange apparent contradiction, +her preference for Gerald from that moment became more and more +divested of disguise.</p> + +<p>There are few spots in the world, perhaps, that unite so many inducements +to the formation of those sociable little <i>réunions</i> which come under the denomination +of pic-nics as the small islands adorning most of the American +rivers. Owing to the difficulty of procuring summer carriages, and in some +degree to the rudeness of the soil, in the Upper Province especially, boats are +in much more general use; and excursions on the water are as common to +that class "whose only toil is pleasure," as cockney trips to Richmond, or to +any other of the thousand and one places of resort which have sprung into +existence within twenty miles of the metropolis of England. Not confined, +however, to picking daisies for their sweethearts, as these cockneys do, or +carving their vulgar names on every magnificent tree that spreads its gorgeous +arms to afford them the temporary shelter of a home, the men generally devote +themselves, for a period of the day, to manlier exercises. The woods +abounding with game, and the rivers with fish of the most delicate flavor—the +address of the hunter and the fisher, is equally called into action; since +upon their exertions principally depend the party for the fish and fowl portion +of their rural dinner. Guns and rods are, therefore, as indispensable a part of +the freightage, as the dried venison and bear hams, huge turkies, pastries, &c. +which, together with wines, spirits, and cider, <i>ad libitum</i>, form the mass of +alimentary matter. Here is to be heard neither the impertinent coxcomb of the +European self-styled exclusive, nor the unmeaning twaddle of the daughter +of false fashion, spoiled by the example of the said exclusive, and almost be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> +come a dowager in silliness, before she has attained the first years of womanhood. +No lack-a-daisical voice, the sex of which it is difficult to distinguish, +is attempted to be raised in depreciation of the party to which it had been +esteemed too great a happiness to be invited the evening before. The sneer +of contempt—the laugh of derision—is nowhere to be heard; neither is the +pallid brow and sunken cheek, the fruit of late hours and forced excitement, +to be seen. Content is in each heart—the glow of health upon each face. All +appear eager to be happy, pleased with each other, and at ease with themselves. +Not that theirs is the enjoyment of the mere holiday mind, which +grasps with undiscerning avidity at whatever offers to its gratification, but +that of those in whom education, acting on innate good breeding, has imposed +a due sense of the courtesies of life, and on whom fashion has not superseded +the kindlier emotions of nature.</p> + +<p>Several of these pic-nics had taken place among the party at Detroit, confined, +with one or two exceptions, to the officers of the garrison, and the family +of Colonel D'Egville, with their American inmates; and it was proposed +by the former, that a final one should be given a few days prior to the embarkation +in Gerald Grantham's new command, which lay waiting in the +river for the purpose—the Major remaining as hitherto at home, under the +guardianship of the benevolent Mrs. D'Egville, whose habits of retirement disinclined +her to out-door amusement.</p> + +<p>Hitherto their excursions had been principally directed to some of the +smaller islands, which abound in the river nearer Amherstburgh, and where +game being found in abundance, the skill of the officers had more immediate +opportunity for display; but on this excursion, at the casual suggestion of +Miss Montgomerie, Hog Island was selected as the scene of their day's amusement. +Thither, therefore, the boat which contained the party now proceeded, +the ladies costumed in a manner to thread the mazes of the wood, and the +gentlemen in equally appropriate gear, as sportsmen, their guns and fishing +rods being by no means omitted in the catalogue of orders entrusted to their +servants. In the stern of the boat—the trustworthy coxswain on this occasion—sat +old Sambo, whose skill in the conduct of a helm was acknowledged +to be little inferior to his dexterity in the use of a paddle, and whose authoritative +voice, as he issued his commands in broken English to the boatmen, +added, in no small degree, to the exhilaration of the party.</p> + +<p>To reach Hog Island, it was necessary to pass by the tannery and cottage +already described, which, latter, it will be remembered, had been the scene +of a singular adventure to our hero and his servant on the night of their reconnoitering +the coast, in obedience to the order of the Commodore. By the +extraordinary and almost romantic incidents of that night, the imagination of +Gerald had been deeply impressed, and on retiring to his rude couch within +the battery he had fully made up his mind to explore further into the mysterious +affair, with as little delay as possible after the expected fall of the American +fortress. In the hurry, confusion, and excitement, of that event however, +his original intention was forgotten; or, rather so far delayed, that it +was not until the third or fourth day of his establishment in the town, that it +occurred to him to institute inquiry. He had accordingly repaired thither, +but finding the house carefully shut up, and totally uninhabited, had contented +himself with questioning the tanner and his family, in regard to its late inmates, +reserving to a future opportunity the attempt to make himself person<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span>ally +acquainted with all that it contained. From this man he learnt, that, the +house had once been the property of an aged Canadian, at whose death (supposed +to have been occasioned by violence,) it had passed into the hands of an +American, who led a roving and adventurous life, being frequently away for +months together, and then returning with a canoe, but never continuing for +more than a night or two. That latterly it had been wholly deserted by its +owner, in consequence of which it had been taken possession of, and used as +quarters by the officers of the American guard, stationed at this part of the +town, for the protection of the boats, and as a check upon the incursions of +the Indians. In all this statement, there was every appearance of truth, but +in no part of it did Gerald find wherewith to elucidate what he himself had +witnessed. He described the costume, and questioned of the mysterious +figure, but the only reply he obtained from the independent tanner, when he +admitted to him that he had been so near a visitor on that occasion, and had +seen what he described, was an expressed regret that he had not been "wide +awake when any Brittainer ventured to set foot upon his grounds, otherwise, +tarnation seize him with all due respect, if he wouldn't a stuck an ounce o' +lead in his liver as quickly as he would tan a hide," a patriotic sentiment in +which it may be supposed our hero in no way coincided. With the tanner's assurance, +however, that no living thing was there at this moment, Gerald was +fain to content himself for the present, fully resolving to return at another time +with Sambo, and effect a forcible entrance into a place, with which were connected +such striking recollections. He had, however, been too much interested +and occupied elsewhere, to find time to devote to the purpose.</p> + + + + +<h2 class="p4"><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV.</a></h2> + + +<p>As the boat, which contained the party, pulled by six of the best oars-men +among the soldiers of the garrison, and steered, as we have shown, by the +dexterous Sambo, now glided past the spot, the recollections of the tradition +connected with the bridge drew from several of the party expressions of sympathy +and feigned terror, as their several humors dictated. Remarking that +Miss Montgomerie's attention appeared to be deeply excited by what she +heard, while she gazed earnestly upon the dwelling in the back ground, Gerald +Grantham thought to interest her yet more, and amuse and startle the rest +of the party, by detailing his extraordinary, and hitherto unrevealed adventure, +on a recent occasion. To this strange tale, as may naturally be supposed, +some of his companions listened with an air of almost incredulity, nor +indeed would they rest satisfied until Sambo, who kept his eyes turned +steadily away from the shore, and to whom appeal was frequently made by +his master, confirmed his statement in every particular; and with such marks +of revived horror in his looks, as convinced them, Gerald was not playing upon +their facility of belief. The more incredulous his brother officers, the more +animated had become the sailor in his description, and, on arriving at that part +of his narrative which detailed the reappearance and reflection of the mysterious +figure in the upper room, upon the court below, every one became in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span>sensibly +fixed in mute attention. From the moment of his commencing, Miss +Montgomerie had withdrawn her gaze from the land, and fixing it upon her +lover, manifested all the interest he could desire. Her feelings were evidently +touched by what she heard, for she grew paler as Gerald proceeded, while +her breathing was suspended, as if fearful to lose a single syllable he uttered. +At each more exciting crisis of the narrative, she betrayed a corresponding intensity +of attention, until at length, when the officer described his mounting +on the water butt, and obtaining a full view of all within the room, she looked +as still and rigid as if she had been metamorphosed into a statue. This eagerness +of attention, shared as it was, although not to the same extent perhaps, +by the rest of Gerald's auditory, was only remarkable in Miss Montgomerie, +in as much as she was one of too much mental preoccupation to feel or betray +interest in anything, and it might have been the risk encountered by her +lover, and the share he had borne in the mysterious occurrence, that now +caused her to lapse from her wonted inaccessibility to impressions of the sort. +As the climax of the narrative approached, her interest became deeper, and +her absorption more profound. An involuntary shudder passed over her +form, and a slight contraction of the nerves of her face was perceptible, when +Gerald described to his attentive and shocked auditory, the raising of the +arm of the assassin; and her emotion at length assumed such a character of +nervousness, that when he exultingly told of the rapid discharge of his own +pistol, as having been the only means of averting the fate of the doomed, she +could not refrain from rising suddenly in the boat, and putting her hand to +her side, with the shrinking movement of one who had been suddenly +wounded.</p> + +<p>While in the act of rising she had drawn the cloak, with which, like the +other ladies, she was provided, more closely over her shoulders—Sambo seemed +to have caught some new idea from this action, for furtively touching Henry +Grantham, who sat immediately before him, and on the right of Miss Montgomerie, +he leaned forward and whispered a few sentences in his ear.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile Miss Montgomerie was not a little rallied on the extreme susceptibility +which had led her as it were to identify herself with the scene. +Gerald remarked that on recovering her presence of mind, she at first looked +as if she fancied herself the subject of sarcasm, and would have resented the +liberty; but finding there was nothing painted in the manner of those who +addressed her, finished by joining, yet with some appearance of constraint, in +the laugh against herself.</p> + +<p>"I confess," she said coloring, "that the strange incident which Mr. Grantham +has related, and which he has so well described, has caused me to be +guilty of a ridiculous emotion. I am not usually startled into the expression +of strong feeling, but there was so much to excite and surprise in his catastrophe +that I could not avoid in some measure identifying myself with the +scene."</p> + +<p>"Nay, Miss Montgomerie," remarked Julia D'Egville, "there can be no +reason why such emotion should be either disavowed or termed ridiculous. +For my part, I own that I cannot sufficiently express my horror of the wretch +who could thus deliberately attempt the life of another. How lucky was it, +Gerald, that you arrived at that critical moment; but have you no idea—not +the slightest—of the person of the assassin or of his intended victim?"</p> + +<p>"Not the slightest—the disguise of the person was too effectual to be pene<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span>trated, +and the face I had not once an opportunity of beholding.</p> + +<p>"Yet," observed Miss Montgomerie, "from your previous description of the +figure, it is by no means a matter of certainty that it was not a woman you +pursued, instead of a man—or, was there anything to betray the vacillation +of purpose which would naturally attend one of our sex in an enterprise of +the kind."</p> + +<p>"What, a woman engage in so unnatural a deed!" remarked Henry Grantham—"surely, +Miss Montgomerie," for he always spoke rather <i>at</i> than <i>to</i> +her—"cannot seek to maintain a supposition so opposed to all probability—neither +will she be so unjust towards herself as to admit the existence of such +monstrous guilt in the heart of another of her sex."</p> + +<p>"Impossible!" said Gerald. "Whatever might have been my impression +when I first saw the figure in the merchantman—that is to say, if I had then +a doubt in regard to the sex, it was entirely removed, when later I beheld the +unfaltering energy with which it entered upon its murderous purpose. The +hand of woman never could have been armed with such fierce and unflinching +determination as that hand."</p> + +<p>"The emergency of the occasion, it would seem, did not much interfere with +your study of character," observed Miss Montgomerie, with a faint smile—"but +you say you fired—was it with intent to kill the killer?"</p> + +<p>"I scarcely know with what intent myself; but if I can rightly understand +my own impulse, it was more with a view to divert him from his deadly object, +than to slay—and this impression acquires strength from the fact of my having +missed him—I am almost sorry now that I did."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps," said Miss Montgomerie, "you might have slain one worthier +than him you sought to save. As one of your oldest poets sings—whatever +is is right——"</p> + +<p>"What!" exclaimed the younger Grantham with emphasis, "Can Miss +Montgomerie then form any idea of the persons who figured in that +scene?"</p> + +<p>Most of the party looked at the questioner with surprise. Gerald frowned +and for the first time in his life entertained a feeling of anger against his +brother. In no way moved or piqued by the demand, Miss Montgomerie +calmly replied:</p> + +<p>"I can see no just reason for such inference, Mr. Grantham; I merely stated +a case of possibility, without anything which can refer to the merit of either +of the parties."</p> + +<p>Henry Grantham felt that he was rebuked—but although he could not +avoid something like an apologetical explanation of his remark, he was not +the more favorably disposed towards her who had forced it from him. In this +feeling he was confirmed by the annoyance he felt at having been visited by +the anger of the brother to whom he was so attached. Arrived at Hog Island, +and equipped with their guns and fishing rods, the gentlemen dispersed in +quest of game, some threading the mazes of the wood in quest of the various +birds that frequent the vicinity, others seeking those points of the island where +the dense foliage affords a shade to the numerous delicately-flavored fish which, +luxuriating in the still deep water, seek relief from the heat of summer. To +these latter sportsmen the ladies of the party principally attached themselves, +quitting them only at intervals to collect pebbles on the sands, or to saunter +about the wood, in search of the wild flowers or fruits that abounded along its<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> +skirt, while the servants busied themselves in erecting the marquee and making +preparation for dinner.</p> + +<p>Among those who went in pursuit of game were the Granthams, who, like +most Canadians, were not only excellent shots, but much given to a sport in +which they had had considerable practice in early boyhood. For a short time +they had continued with their companions; but as the wood became thicker +and their object consequently more attainable by dispersion, they took a +course parallel with the point at which the fishers had assembled, while their +companions continued to move in an opposite direction. There was an unusual +reserve in the manner of the brothers as they now wound through the intricacies +of the wood. Each appeared to feel that the other had given him cause +for displeasure, and each—unwilling to introduce the subject most at heart—availed +himself with avidity rather of the several opportunities which the +starting of the game afforded for conversation of a general nature. They had +gone on in this manner for some time, and having been tolerably successful +in their sport, were meditating their return to the party on the beach, when +the ear of Gerald was arrested by the drumming of a partridge at a short distance. +Glancing his quick eye in the direction whence the sound came, he +beheld a remarkably fine bird, which, while continuing to beat its wings violently +against the fallen tree on which it was perched, had its neck outstretched +and its gaze intently fixed on some object below. Tempted by the size and +beauty of the bird, Gerald fired and it fell to the earth. He advanced, +stooped, and was in the act of picking it up, when a sharp and well known +rattle was heard to issue from beneath the log. The warning was sufficient +to save him, had he consented even for an instant to forego his prize; but, +accustomed to meet with these reptiles on almost every excursion of the kind, +and never having sustained any injury from them, he persevered in disengaging +the partridge from some briers with which, in falling, it had got entangled. +Before he could again raise himself, an enormous rattlesnake had darted upon +him, and stung with rage perhaps at being deprived of its victim, had severely +bitten him above the left wrist. The instantaneous pang that darted throughout +the whole limb caused Gerald to utter an exclamation; and dropping the +bird, he sank, almost fainting, on the log whence his enemy had attacked him.</p> + +<p>The cry of agony reached Henry Grantham as he was carelessly awaiting +his brother's return and at once forgetting their temporary estrangement, and +full of eager love and apprehension—he flew to ascertain the nature of the injury. +To his surprise and horror he remarked that, although not a minute +had elapsed since the fangs of the reptile had penetrated into the flesh, the +arm was already considerably inflamed and exhibiting then a dark and discolored +hue. That a remedy was at hand he knew but what it was, and how +to be applied he was not aware, the Indians alone being in the possession of +the secret. Deeming that Sambo might have some knowledge of the kind, he +now made the woods echo with the sound of his name, in a manner that could +not fail to startle and alarm the whole of the scattered party. Soon afterwards +the rustling of forms was heard in various directions, as they forced +themselves through the underwood, and the first who came in sight was Miss +Montgomerie, preceded by the old negro. The lamentation of the latter was intense, +and when on approaching his young master, he discovered the true nature +of his accident and confessed his ignorance of all remedy, he burst into +tears, and throwing himself upon the earth tore his grey woollen hair away<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span>, +regardless of all entreaty on the part of Gerald to moderate his grief. Miss +Montgomerie now came forward, and never did sounds of melody fall so harmoniously +on the ear, as did her voice on that of the younger Grantham as +she pledged herself to the cure, on their instant return to the spot where the +marquee had been erected. With this promise she again disappeared, and +several others of the party having now joined them, Gerald, duly supported, +once more slowly retraced his way to the same point.</p> + +<p>"Damn him pattridge," muttered Sambo, who lingered a moment or two in +the rear to harness himself with the apparatus of which his master had disencumbered +his person. "Damn him pattridge," and he kicked the lifeless +bird indignantly with his foot, "you all he cause he dis; what he hell he do +here?"</p> + +<p>This tirade however against the pattridge did not by any means prevent the +utterer from eventually consigning it to its proper destination in the game bag +as the noblest specimen of the day's sport, and thus burthened he issued +from the wood, nearly at the same moment with the wounded Gerald and his +friends.</p> + +<p>The consternation of all parties on witnessing the disaster of the sailor, +whose arm had already swollen to a fearful size, while the wound itself began +to assume an appearance of mortification, was strongly contrasted with +the calm silence of Miss Montgomerie, who was busily employed in stirring +certain herbs which she was boiling over the fire that had been kindled in the +distance for the preparation of the dinner. The sleeve of the sufferer's shooting +jacket had been ripped to the shoulder by his brother and as he now sat +on a pile of cloaks within the marquee, the rapid discoloration of the white +skin, could be distinctly traced, marking as it did the progress of the deadly +poison towards the vital portion of the system. In this trying emergency all +eyes were turned with anxiety on the slightest movement of her who had undertaken +the cure, and none more eagerly than those of Henry Grantham and +Gertrude D'Egville, the latter of whom, gentle even as she was, could not but +acknowledge a pang of regret that to another, and that other a favored rival—should +be the task of alleviating the anguish and preserving the life of the only +man she had ever loved.</p> + +<p>At length Miss Montgomerie came forward; and never was a beneficent +angel more welcomed than did Henry Grantham welcome her, whom an hour +since he had looked upon with aversion, when with a countenance of unwonted +paleness but confident of success, she advanced towards the opening of the +marquee, to which interest in the sufferer had drawn even the domestics. All +made way for her approach. Kneeling at the side of Gerald, and depositing +the vessel in which she had mixed her preparation, she took the wounded +arm in her own fair hands with the view, it was supposed, of holding it while +another applied the remedy. Scarcely however had she secured it in a firm +grasp when, to the surprise and consternation of all around, she applied her +own lips to the wound and continued them there in despite of the efforts of +Gerald to withdraw his arm, nor was it until there was already a visible reduction +in the size, and change in the color of the limb that she removed them. +This done she arose and retired to the skirt of the wood whence she again returned +in less than a minute. Even in the short time that had elapsed, the +arm of the sufferer had experienced an almost miraculous change. The inflammation +had greatly subsided, while the discoloration had retired to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> +immediate vicinity of the wound, which in its turn however had assumed a +more virulent appearance. From this it was evident that the suction had +been the means of recalling, to the neighborhood of the injury, such portions +of the poison as had expanded, concentrating all in one mass immediately beneath +its surface, and thereby affording fuller exposure to the action of the +final remedy. This—consisting of certain herbs of a dark color, and spread +at her direction by the trembling hands of Gertrude, on her white handkerchief—Miss +Montgomerie now proceeded to apply, covering a considerable +portion around the orifice of the two small wounds, inflicted by the fangs of +the serpent, with the dense mass of the vegetable preparation. The relief +produced by this was effectual, and in less than an hour, so completely had +the poison been extracted, and the strength of the arm restored, that Gerald +was enabled not merely to resume his shooting jacket, but to partake, although +sparingly of the meal which followed.</p> + +<p>It may be presumed that the bold action of Miss Montgomerie passed not +without the applause it so highly merited, yet even while applauding, there +were some of the party, and particularly Henry Grantham, who regarded it +with feelings not wholly untinctured with the unpleasant. Her countenance +and figure, as she stood in the midst of the forest, preparing the embrocation, +so well harmonizing with the scene and occupation; the avidity with which +she sucked the open wound of the sufferer, and the fearless manner in which +she imbibed that which was considered death to others; all this, combined +with a general demeanor in which predominated a reserve deeply shaded with +mystery, threw over the actor and the action an air of the preternatural, occasioning +more of surprise and awe than prepossession. Such, especially, as +we have said, was the impression momentarily, produced on Henry Grantham; +but when he beheld his brother's eye and cheek once more beaming +with returning strength and health, he saw in her but the generous preserver +of that brother's life to whom his own boundless debt of gratitude was due. +It was at this moment that, in the course of conversation on the subject, Captain +Molineux inquired of Miss Montgomerie, what antidote she possessed +against the influence of the poison. Every eye was turned upon her as she +vaguely answered, a smile of peculiar meaning playing over her lips, that +"Captain Molineux must be satisfied with knowing she bore a charmed life." +Then again it was that the young soldier's feelings underwent another reaction, +and as he caught the words and look which accompanied them, he +scarcely could persuade himself she was not the almost vampire and sorceress +that his excited imagination had represented.</p> + +<p>Not the least deeply interested in the events of the morning, was the old +negro. During their meal, at the service of which he assisted, his eyes +scarcely quitted her whom he appeared to regard with a mingled feeling of +awe and adoration; nay, such was his abstraction that, in attempting to place +a dish of game on the rude table at which the party sat, he lodged the whole +of the contents in the lap of Middlemore, a clumsiness that drew from the +latter an exclamation of horror, followed however the instant afterwards by +Sambo's apology.</p> + +<p>"I beg a pardon, Massa Middlemore," he exclaimed, "I let him fall he +gravey in he lap."</p> + +<p>"Then will you by some means contrive to lap it up?" returned the officer +quaintly.</p> + +<p>Sambo applied his napkin and the dinner proceeded without other occur<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span>rence. +Owing to an apprehension that the night air might tend to renew the +inflammation of the wounded arm, the boat was early in readiness for the return +of the party, whose day of pleasure had been in some manner turned into +a day of mourning, so that long before sun set, they had again reached their +respective homes at Detroit.</p> + + + + +<h2 class="p4"><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI.</a></h2> + + +<p>A few days after the adventure detailed in our last chapter, the American +party, consisting of Major and Miss Montgomerie, and the daughters of the +Governor, with their attendants, embarked in the schooner, to the command +of which Gerald had been promoted. The destination of the whole was the +American port of Buffalo, situate at the further extremity of the lake, nearly +opposite to the fort of Erie; and thither our hero, perfectly recovered from +the effects of his accident, received instructions to repair without loss of time, +land his charge, and immediately rejoin the flotilla at Amherstburg.</p> + +<p>However pleasing the first, the latter part of the order was by no means so +strictly in consonance with the views and feelings of the new commander, as +might have been expected from a young and enterprising spirit; but he justified +his absence of zeal to himself, in the fact that there was no positive service +to perform; no duty in which he could have an opportunity of signalizing +himself, or rendering a benefit to his country.</p> + +<p>If, however, the limited period allotted for the execution of his duty was a +source of much disappointment to Gerald, such was not the effect produced +by it on his brother, to whom it gave promise of a speedy termination of an +attachment which he had all along regarded with disapprobation, and a concern +amounting almost to dread. We have seen that Henry Grantham, on +the occasion of his brother's disaster at the pic-nic, had been wound up into +an enthusiasm of gratitude, which had nearly weaned him from his original +aversion; but this feeling had not outlived the day on which the occurrence +took place. Nay, on the very next morning, he had had a long private conversation +with Gerald in regard to Miss Montgomerie, which, ending as it did, +in a partial coolness, had tended to make him dislike the person who had +caused it still more. It was, therefore, not without secret delight that he +overheard the order for the instant return of the schooner, which, although +conveyed by the Commodore in the mildest manner, was yet so firm and decided +as to admit neither of doubt nor dispute. While the dangerous American +continued a resident at Detroit, there was every reason to fear that the +attachment of his infatuated brother, fed by opportunity, would lead him to +the commission of some irrevocable act of imprudence; whereas, on the contrary, +when she had departed, there was every probability that continued absence, +added to the stirring incidents of war which might be expected shortly +to ensue, would prove effectual in restoring the tone of Gerald's mind. There +was, consequently, much to please him in the order for departure. Miss +Montgomerie once landed within the American lines, and his brother returned +to his duty, the anxious soldier had no doubt that the feelings of the latter +would resume their wonted channel and that, in his desire to render himself<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> +worthy of glory, to whom he had been originally devoted, he would forget, at +least after a season, all that was connected with love.</p> + +<p>It was a beautiful autumnal morning when the schooner weighed anchor +from Detroit. Several of the officers of the garrison had accompanied the +ladies on board, and having made fast their sailing boat to the stern, loitered +on deck with the intention of descending the river a few miles, and then beating +up against the current. The whole party were thus assembled, conversing +together and watching the movements of the sailors, when a boat, in which +were several armed men encircling a huge, raw-boned individual, habited in the +fashion of an American backwoodsman, approached the vessel. This was no +other than the traitor Desborough, who, it will be recollected, was detained +and confined in prison at the surrender of Detroit. He had been put upon +his trial for the murder of Major Grantham, but had been acquitted through +want of evidence to convict, his own original admission being negatived by a +subsequent declaration that he had only made it through a spirit of bravado +and revenge. Still, as the charges of desertion and treason had been substantiated +against him, he was, by order of the commandant of Amherstburgh, +destined for Fort Erie, in the schooner conveying the American party to Buffalo, +with a view to his being sent on to the Lower Province, there to be disposed +of as the General Commanding in Chief should deem fit.</p> + +<p>The mien of the settler, as he now stepped over the vessel's side, partook +of the mingled cunning and ferocity by which he had formerly been distinguished. +While preparations were being made for his reception and security +below deck, he bent his sinister yet bold glance on each of the little group in +succession, as if he would have read in their countenances the probable fate +that awaited himself. The last who fell under his scrutiny was Miss Montgomerie, +on whom his eye had scarcely rested when the insolent indifference of +his manner seemed to give place at once to a new feeling. There was +intelligence enough in the glance of both to show that an insensible interest +had been created, and yet neither gave the slightest indication by word of what +was passing in the mind.</p> + +<p>"Well, Mister Jeremiah Desborough," said Middlemore, first breaking +the silence, and in the taunting mode of address he usually adopted towards +the settler, "I reckon as how you'll shoot no wild ducks this season, on the +Sandusky river—not likely to be much troubled with your small bores +now."</p> + +<p>The ruffian gazed at him a moment in silence, evidently ransacking his brain +for something sufficiently insolent to offer in return. At length he drew his +hat slouchingly over one side of his head, folded his arms across his chest, and +squirting a torrent of tobacco juice from his capacious jaws, exclaimed in his +drawling voice:</p> + +<p>"I guess, Mister Officer, as how you're mighty cute upon a fallen man—but +tarnation seize me if I don't expect you'll find some one cuter still afore +long. The sogers all say," he continued, with a low cunning laugh, "as how +you're a bit of a wit, and fond of a play upon words like. If so, I'll jist try you +a little at your own game, and tell you that I had a thousand to one rather be +troubled with my small bores, than with such a confounded great bore as you +are; and now, you may pit that down as something good in your pun book +when you please, and ax me no more questions."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span></p> + +<p>Long and fitful was the laughter which burst from Villiers and Molineux +at this bitter retort upon their companion, which they vowed should be repeated +at the mess-table of either garrison, whenever he again attempted one +of his execrables.</p> + +<p>Desborough took courage at the license conveyed by this pleasantry, and +pursued, winking familiarly to Captain Molineux, while he, at the same time, +nodded to Middlemore.</p> + +<p>"Mighty little time, I calculate, had he to think of aggravatin', when I +gripped him down at Hartley's pint that day. If it hadn't been for that old +heathen scoundrel, Girtie, my poor boy Phil, as the Injuns killed, and me, I +reckon, would have sent him and young Grantham to crack their puns upon +the fishes of the lake. How scared they were, sure<i>ly</i>."</p> + +<p>"Silence, fellow!" thundered Gerald Grantham, who now came up from the +hold, whither he had been to examine the fastenings prepared for his prisoner. +"How dare you open your lips here?"—then pointing towards the steps he +had just quitted—"descend, sir!"</p> + +<p>Never did human countenance exhibit marks of greater rage than Desborough's +at that moment. His eyes seemed about to start from their sockets—the +large veins of his neck and brow swelled almost to bursting, and while +his lips were compressed with violence, his nervous fingers played, as with +convulsive anxiety to clutch themselves around the throat of the officer—every +thing, in short, marked the effort it cost him to restrain himself within +such bounds as his natural cunning and prudence dictated. Still, he neither +spoke nor moved.</p> + +<p>"Descend, sir, instantly!" repeated Gerald, "or, by Heaven, I will have +you thrown in without further ceremony—descend this moment!"</p> + +<p>The settler advanced, placed one foot upon the ladder, then turned his eye +steadfastly upon the officer. Every one present shuddered to behold its expression—it +was that of fierce, inextinguishable hatred.</p> + +<p>"By hell, you will pay me one day or t'other for this, I reckon," he uttered +in a hoarse and fearful whisper—"every dog has his day—it will be Jeremiah +Desborough's turn next."</p> + +<p>"What! do you presume to threaten, villain?" vociferated Gerald, now +excited beyond all bounds: "here, men, gag me this fellow—tie him neck and +heels, and throw him into the hold, as you would a bag of ballast."</p> + +<p>Several men, with Sambo at their head, advanced for the purpose of executing +the command of their officer, when the eldest daughter of the Governor, +who had witnessed the whole scene, suddenly approached the latter, and interceded +warmly for a repeal of the punishment. Miss Montgomerie also, who +had been a silent observer, glanced significantly towards the settler. What +her look implied no one was quick enough to detect; but its effect on the culprit +was evident—for, without uttering another syllable, or waiting to be again +directed, he moved slowly and sullenly down the steps that led to his place of +confinement.</p> + +<p>Whatever the impressions produced upon the minds of the several spectators +by this incident, they were not expressed. No comment was made, nor was +further allusion made to the settler. Other topics of conversation were introduced, +and it was not until the officers, having bid them a final and cordial +adieu, had again taken to their boats on their way back to Detroit, that +the ladies quitted the deck for the cabin which had been prepared for +them.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span></p> + +<p>The short voyage down the lake was performed without incident. From +the moment of the departure of the officers, an air of dulness and abstraction, +originating in a great degree in the unpleasantness of separation—anticipated +and past—pervaded the little party. Sensitive and amiable as were the +daughters of the American Governor, it was not to be supposed that they +parted without regret from men in whose society they had recently passed so +many agreeable hours, and for two of whom they had insensibly formed preferences. +Not however that that parting was to be considered final, for both +Molineux and Villiers had promised to avail themselves of the first days of +peace, to procure leave of absence, and revisit them in their native country. +The feeling of disappointment acknowledged by the sisters, was much more +perceptible in Gerald Grantham and Miss Montgomerie, both of whom became +more thoughtful and abstracted as the period of separation drew +nearer.</p> + +<p>It was about ten o'clock on the evening immediately preceding that on which +they expected to gain their destination, that, as Gerald leaned ruminating over +the side of the schooner, then going at the slow rate of two knots an hour, he +fancied he heard voices, in a subdued tone, ascending apparently from the +quarter of the vessel in which Desborough was confined. He listened attentively +for a few moments, but even the slight gurgling of the water, as it was +thrown from the prow, prevented further recognition. Deeming it possible +that the sounds might not proceed from the place of confinement of the settler, +but from the cabin, which it adjoined, and with which it communicated, he +was for a time undecided whether or not he should disturb the party already +retired to rest by descending and passing into the room occupied by his +prisoner. Anxiety to satisfy himself that the latter was secure, determined +him, and he had already planted a foot on the companion-ladder, when his +further descent was arrested by Miss Montgomerie, who appeared emerging +from the opening, bonneted and cloaked, as with a view of continuing on +deck.</p> + +<p>"What! you, dearest Matilda?" he asked, delightedly, "I thought you had +long since retired to rest."</p> + +<p>"To rest, Gerald!—can you, then, imagine mine is a soul to slumber, when +I know that to-morrow we part—perhaps for ever?"</p> + +<p>"No, by Heaven, not for ever!" energetically returned the sailor, seizing +and carrying the white hand that pressed his own to his lips—"be but faithful +to me, my own Matilda—love me but with one half the ardor with which +my soul glows for you, and the moment duty can be sacrificed to affection, you +may expect again to see me."</p> + +<p>"Duty!" repeated the American, with something like reproach in her tone, +"must the happiness of her you profess so ardently to love, be sacrificed to a +mere cold sense of duty? But you are right—you have <i>your</i> duty to perform, +and I have <i>mine</i>. To-morrow we separate, and for ever!"</p> + +<p>"No, Matilda—not for ever, unless, indeed, such be your determination. +<i>You</i> may find the task to forget an easy one—<i>I</i> never can. Hope—heart—life—happiness—-all +are centered in you. Were it not that honor demands my +service to my country, I would fly with you to-morrow, delighted to encounter +every difficulty fortune might oppose, if, by successfully combating these, I +should establish a deeper claim on your affection. Oh, Matilda!" continued +the impassioned youth, "never did I feel more than at this moment, how devo<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span>tedly +I could be your slave for ever."</p> + +<p>At the commencement of this conversation, Miss Montgomerie had gently +led her lover towards the outer gangway of the vessel, over which they both +now leaned. As Gerald made the last passionate avowal of his tenderness, +a ray of triumphant expression, clearly visible in the light of the setting moon, +passed over the features of the American.</p> + +<p>"Gerald," she implored earnestly, "oh, repeat me that avowal! Again +tell me that you will be the devoted of your Matilda in <i>all</i> things—Gerald, +swear most solemnly that you will—my every hope of happiness depends +upon it."</p> + +<p>How could he refuse, to such a pleader, the repetition of his spontaneous +vow? Already were his lips opened to swear, before High Heaven, that, in +all things earthly he would obey her will, when he was interrupted by a well-known +voice hastily exclaiming:</p> + +<p>"Who a debbel dat dare?"</p> + +<p>Scarcely had these words been uttered, when they were followed apparently +by a blow, then a bound, and then the falling of a human body upon the deck. +Gently disengaging his companion, who had clung to him with an air of alarm, +Gerald turned to discover the cause of the interruption. To his surprise, he +beheld Sambo, whose post of duty was at the helm, lying extended on the +deck, while at the same moment a sudden plunge was heard, as of a heavy +body falling overboard. The first impulse of the officer was to seize the helm, +with a view to right the vessel, already swerving from her course, the second, +to awaken the crew, who were buried in sleep on the forecastle. These, with +the habitual promptitude of their nature, speedily obeyed his call, and a light +being brought, Gerald, confiding the helm to one of his best men, proceeded +to examine the condition of Sambo.</p> + +<p>It was evident that the aged negro had been stunned, but whether seriously +injured it was impossible to decide. No external wound was visible, +and yet his breathing was that of one who had received some severe bodily +harm. In a few minutes, however, he recovered his recollection, and the first +words he uttered, as he gazed wildly around, and addressed his master, were +sufficient to explain the whole affair:</p> + +<p>"Damn him debbel, Massa Geral, he get safe off, him billain."</p> + +<p>"Ha, Desborough! it is then so? Quick, put the helm about—two of the +lightest and most active into my canoe, and follow in pursuit. The fellow is +making for the shore, no doubt. Now then, my lads," as two of the crew +sprang into the canoe that had been instantly lowered, "fifty dollars between +you, recollect, if you bring him back."</p> + +<p>Although there needed no greater spur to exertion, than a desire both to +please their officer and to acquit themselves of a duty, the sum offered was +not without its due weight. In an instant the canoe was seen scudding along +the surface of the water towards the shore, and at intervals, as the anxious +Gerald listened, he fancied he could distinguish the exertions of the fugitive +swimmer from those made by the paddles of his pursuers. For a time all +was silent, when, at length, a deriding laugh came over the surface of the lake, +that too plainly told the settler had reached the shore, and was beyond all +chance of capture. In the bitterness of his disappointment, and heedless of +the pleasure his change of purpose had procured him, Gerald could not help<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> +cursing his folly, in having suffered himself to be diverted from his original +intention of descending to the prisoner's place of confinement. Had this been +done, all might have been well. He had now no doubt that the voices had +proceeded from thence, and he was resolved, as soon as the absent men came +on board, to institute a strict inquiry into the affair.</p> + +<p>No sooner, therefore, had the canoe returned, than all hands were summoned +and questioned, under a threat of severe punishment to whoever should +be found prevaricating as to the manner of the prisoner's escape. Each positively +denied having in any way violated the order which enjoined that no +communication should take place between the prisoner and the crew, to whom +indeed all access was denied, with the exception of Sambo, entrusted with the +duty of carrying the former his meals. The denial of the men was so straight-forward +and clear, that Gerald knew not what to believe; and yet it was evident +that the sounds he had heard proceeded from human voices. Determined +to satisfy himself, his first care was to descend between the decks, preceded +by his boatswain, with a lantern. At the sternmost extremity of the +little vessel there was a small room used for stores, but which, empty on this +trip, had been converted into a cell for Desborough. This was usually entered +from the cabin; but in order to avoid inconvenience to the ladies, a door +had been effected in the bulk-heads, the key of which was kept by Sambo. +On inspection, this door was found hermetically closed, so that it became evident, +if the key had not been purloined from its keeper, the escape of Desborough +must have been accomplished through the cabin. Moreover, there was +no opening of any description to be found, through which a knife might be +passed to enable him to sever the bonds which confined his feet. Close to the +partition were swung the hammocks of two men, who had been somewhat +dilatory in obeying the summons on deck, and between whom it was not impossible +the conversation, which Gerald had detected, had been carried on. +On re-ascending, he again questioned these men; but they most solemnly +assured him they had not spoken either together or to others within the last +two hours, having fallen fast asleep on being relieved from their watch. +Search was now made in the pockets of Sambo, whose injury had been found +to be a violent blow given on the back of the head, and whose recovery from +stupefaction was yet imperfect. The key being found, all suspicion of participation +was removed from the crew, who could have only communicated +from their own quarter of the vessel, and they were accordingly dismissed; +one half, comprising the first watch, to their hammocks—the remainder to +their original station on the forecastle.</p> + +<p>The next care of the young Commander was to inspect the cabin, and institute +a strict scrutiny as to the manner in which the escape had been effected. +The door that opened into the prison, stood between the companion +ladder and the recess occupied by the daughters of the Governor. To his surprise, +Gerald found it locked, and the key that usually remained in a niche +near the door, removed. On turning to search for it, he also noticed, for the +first time, that the lamp, suspended from a beam in the centre of the cabin, +had been extinguished. Struck by these remarkable circumstances, a suspicion, +which he would have given much not to have entertained, forced itself +upon his mind. As a first measure, and that there might be no doubt whatever +on the subject, he broke open the door. Of course it was untenanted. +Upon a small table lay the remains of the settler's last meal, but neither knife<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> +nor fork, both which articles had been interdicted, were to be found. At the +foot of the chair on which he had evidently been seated for the purpose of +freeing himself, lay the heavy cords that had bound his ankles. These had +been severed in two places, and, as was discovered on close examination, by +the application of some sharp and delicate cutting instrument. Nowhere, +however, was this visible. It was evident to Gerald that assistance had been +afforded from some one within the cabin, and who that some one was, he +scarcely doubted. With this impression, fully formed, he re-entered from the +prison, and standing near the curtained berth occupied by the daughters of +the Governor, questioned as to whether they were aware that his prisoner +Desborough had escaped. Both expressed surprise in so natural a manner, +that Gerald knew not what to think; but when they added that they had not +heard the slightest noise—nor had spoken themselves, nor heard others speak, +professing moreover ignorance that the lamp even had been extinguished, he +felt suspicion converted into certainty.</p> + +<p>It was impossible, he conceived, that a door which stood only two paces +from the bed could be locked and unlocked without their hearing it—neither +was it probable that Desborough would have thought of thus needlessly securing +the place of his late detention. Such an idea might occur to the aider, +but not to the fugitive himself, to whom every moment must be of the highest +importance. Who then could have assisted him? Not Major Montgomerie, +for he slept in the after part of the cabin—not Miss Montgomerie, for she was +upon deck—moreover, had not one of these, he had so much reason to suspect, +interceded for the fellow only on the preceding day.</p> + +<p>Such was the reasoning of Gerald, as he passed rapidly in review the several +probabilities—but, although annoyed beyond measure at the escape of the +villain, and incapable of believing other than that the daughters of the Governor +had connived at it, his was too gallant by nature to make such a charge, +even by implication, against them. Although extremely angry, he made no +comment whatever on the subject, but contenting himself with wishing his +charge a less than usually cordial good night, left them to their repose, and +once more quitted the cabin.</p> + +<p>During the whole of this examination, Miss Montgomerie had continued on +deck. Gerald found her leaning over the gangway at which he had left her, +gazing intently on the water, through which the schooner was now gliding at +an increased rate. From the moment of his being compelled to quit her side +to inquire into the cause of Sambo's exclamation and rapidly succeeding fall, +he had not had an opportunity of again approaching her. Feeling that some +apology was due, he hastened to make one; but, vexed and irritated as he +was at the escape of the settler, his disappointment imparted to his manner a +degree of restraint, and there was less of ardor in his address than he had latterly +been in the habit of exhibiting. Miss Montgomerie remarked it, and +sighed.</p> + +<p>"I have been reflecting," she said, "on the little dependence that is to be +placed upon the most flattering illusions of human existence—and here are +you come to afford me a painful and veritable illustration of my theory."</p> + +<p>"How, dearest Matilda! what mean you?" asked the officer, again warmed +into tenderness by the presence of the fascinating being.</p> + +<p>"Can you ask, Gerald?" and her voice assumed a tone of melancholy reproach—"recall +but your manner—your language—your devotedness of soul<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> +not an hour since—compare these with your present coolness, and then wonder +that I should have reason for regret."</p> + +<p>"Now, Matilda, that coldness arose not from any change in my feelings +towards yourself—I was piqued, disappointed, even angry, at the extraordinary +escape of my prisoner, and could not sufficiently play the hypocrite to +disguise my annoyance."</p> + +<p>"Yet, what had I to do with the man's escape that his offence should be +visited upon me?" she demanded quickly.</p> + +<p>"Can you not find some excuse for my vexation, knowing, as you do, that +the wretch was a vile assassin—a man whose hands have been imbrued in the +blood of my own father?"</p> + +<p>"Was he not acquitted of the charge?"</p> + +<p>"He was—but only from lack of evidence to convict; yet, although acquitted +by the law, not surer is fate than that he is an assassin."</p> + +<p>"You hold assassins in great horror," remarked the American thoughtfully, +"you are right—it is but natural."</p> + +<p>"In horror, said you?—aye, in such loathing that language can supply no +term to express it."</p> + +<p>"And yet you once attempted an assassination yourself. Nay do not start, +and look the image of astonishment. Have you not told me that you fired +into the hut, on the night of your mysterious adventure? What right had +you, if we argue the question on its real merit, to attempt the life of a being +who had never injured you?"</p> + +<p>"What right, Matilda?—every right, human and divine. I sought but to +save a victim from the hands of a midnight murderer."</p> + +<p>"And, to effect this, scrupled not to become a midnight murderer +yourself?"</p> + +<p>"And is it thus you interpret my conduct, Matilda?"—the voice of Gerald +spoke bitter reproach—"can you compare the act of that man with mine, and +hold me no more blameless than him?"</p> + +<p>"Nay, I did not say I blamed you," she returned, gaily, "but the fact is, +you had left me so long to ruminate here alone, that I have fallen into a mood +argumentative, or philosophical—whichsoever you may be pleased to term it—and +I am willing to maintain my proposition, that you might by possibility +have been more guilty than the culprit at whom you aimed, had your shot +destroyed him."</p> + +<p>The light tone in which Matilda spoke dispelled the seriousness which had +begun to shadow the brow of the young commander. "And pray how do you +make this good?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"Suppose, for instance, the slumberer you preserved had been a being of +crime, through whom the hopes, the happiness, the peace of mind, and above +all, the fair fame of the other, had been cruelly and irrevocably blasted. Let +us imagine that he had destroyed some dear friend or relative of him with +whose vengeance you beheld him threatened."</p> + +<p>"Could that be——"</p> + +<p>"Or," interrupted the American in the same careless tone, "that he had +betrayed a wife."</p> + +<p>"Such a man——"</p> + +<p>"Or, what is worse, infinitely worse, sought to put the finishing stroke to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> +his villainy, by affixing to the name and conduct of his victim every ignominy +and disgrace which can attach to insulted humanity."</p> + +<p>"Matilda," eagerly exclaimed the youth, advancing close to her, and gazing +into her dark eyes, "you are drawing a picture."</p> + +<p>"No, Gerald," she replied calmly, "I am merely supposing a case. Could +you find no excuse for a man acting under a sense of so much injury?—would +you still call him an assassin, if, with such provocation, he sought to destroy +the hated life of one who had thus injured him?"</p> + +<p>Gerald paused, apparently bewildered.</p> + +<p>"Tell me, dearest Gerald," and her fair and beautiful hand caught and +pressed his—"would you still bestow upon one so injured the degrading epithet +of assassin?"</p> + +<p>"Assassin? most undoubtedly I would. But why this question, Matilda?"</p> + +<p>The features of the American assumed a changed expression; she dropped +the hand she had taken the instant before, and said, disappointedly:</p> + +<p>"I find, then, my philosophy is totally at fault."</p> + +<p>"Wherein, Matilda?" anxiously asked Gerald.</p> + +<p>"In this, that I have not been able to make you a convert to my +opinions."</p> + +<p>"And these are—?" again questioned Gerald, his every pulse throbbing +with intense emotion.</p> + +<p>"Not to pronounce too harshly on the conduct of others, seeing that we +ourselves may stand in much need of lenity of judgment. There might have +existed motives for the action of him whom you designate as an assassin, +quite as powerful as those which led to <i>your</i> interference, and quite as easily +justified to himself."</p> + +<p>"But, dearest Matilda——-"</p> + +<p>"Nay. I have done—I close at once my argument and my philosophy. The +humor is past, and I shall no longer attempt to make the worse appear the +better cause. I dare say you thought me in earnest," she added, with slight +sarcasm, "but a philosophical disquisition between two lovers on the eve of +parting for ever, was too novel and piquant a seduction to be resisted."</p> + +<p>That "parting for ever" was sufficient to drive all philosophy utterly away +from our hero.</p> + +<p>"For ever, did you say, Matilda?—no, not for ever; yet, how coldly do you +allude to a separation which, although I trust it will be only temporary, is to +me a source of the deepest vexation. You did not manifest this indifference +in the early part of our conversation this evening."</p> + +<p>"And if there be a change," emphatically yet tenderly returned the beautiful +American, "am <i>I</i> the only one changed? Is your manner <i>now</i> what it +was <i>then</i>? Do you already forget at <i>what</i> a moment that conversation was +interrupted?"</p> + +<p>Gerald did not forget; and again, as they leaned over the vessel's side, his +arm was passed around the waist of his companion.</p> + +<p>The hour, the scene, the very rippling of the water—all contributed to lend +a character of excitement to the feelings of the youth. Filled with tenderness +and admiration for the fascinating being who reposed thus confidingly on his +shoulder, he scarcely dared to move, lest in so doing he should destroy the +fabric of his happiness.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span></p> + +<p>"First watch there, hilloa! rouse up, and be d——d to you, it's two o'clock."</p> + +<p>Both Gerald and Matilda, although long and silently watching the progress +of the vessel, had forgotten there was any such being as a steersman to direct +her.</p> + +<p>"Good Heaven! can it be so late?" whispered the American, gliding from +her lover; "if my uncle be awake, he will certainly chide me for my imprudence. +Good night, dear Gerald," and drawing her cloak more closely +around her shoulders, she quickly crossed the deck, and descended to the +cabin.</p> + +<p>"What the devil's this?" said the relieving steersman, as, rubbing his +heavy eyes with one hand, he stooped and raised with the other something +from the deck, against which he had kicked in his advance to take the helm—"why, +I'm blest if it arn't the apron off old Sally here. Have you been fingering +Sally's apron, Bill?"</p> + +<p>"Not I, faith!" growled the party addressed. "I've enough to do to steer +the craft, without thinking o' meddling with Sall's apron at this time o' +night."</p> + +<p>"I should like to know who it is that has hexposed the old gal to the night +hair in this here manner," still muttered the other, holding up the object in +question to his closer scrutiny; "it was only this morning I gave her a pair +of bran new apron strings, and helped to dress her myself. If she doesn't +hang fire after this, I'm a Dutchman—that's all."</p> + +<p>"What signifies jawing, Tom Fluke? I suppose she got unkivered in the +scurry after the Yankee; but bear a hand, and kiver her, unless you wish a +fellow to stay here all night."</p> + +<p>Old Sal, our hearers must know, was no other than the long twenty-four +pounder formerly belonging to Gerald's gun-boat, which, now removed to his +new command, lay amid-ships, and mounted on a pivot, constituted the whole +battery of the schooner. The apron was the leaden covering protecting the +touch-hole, which, having unaccountably fallen off, had encountered the heavy +foot of Tom Fluke, in his advance along the deck.</p> + +<p>The apron was at length replaced. Tom Fluke took the helm, and his +companion departed, as he said, to have a comfortable snooze.</p> + +<p>Gerald, who had been an amused listener of the preceding dialogue, soon +followed, first inquiring into the condition of his faithful Sambo, who, on examination, +was found to have been stunned by the violence of the blow he had +received. This, Gerald doubted not, had been given with the view of better +facilitating Desborough's escape, by throwing the schooner out of her course, +and occasioning a consequent confusion among the crew, which might have +the effect of distracting their attention for a time from himself.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span></p> + + + + +<h2 class="p4"><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII">CHAPTER XVII.</a></h2> + + +<p>The following evening, an armed schooner was lying at anchor in the road +stead of Buffalo, at the southern extremity of Lake Erie, and within a mile of +the American shore. It was past midnight—and although the lake was calm +and unbroken as the face of a mirror, a dense fog had arisen which prevented +objects at the head of the vessel from being seen from the stern. Two men +only were visible upon the after-deck; the one lay reclining upon an arm chest, +muffled up in a dread-nought pea jacket, the other paced up and down hurriedly, +and with an air of pre-occupation. At intervals he would stop and lean +over the gangway, apparently endeavoring to pierce through the fog and catch +a glimpse of the adjacent shore, and, on these occasions, a profound sigh would +burst from his chest.</p> + +<p>"Sambo," he at length exclaimed, addressing the man in the pea-jacket for +the first time. "I shall retire to my cabin, but fail not to call me an hour before +daybreak. Our friends being all landed, there can be nothing further to +detain us here, we will therefore make the best of our way back to Amherstburg +in the morning."</p> + +<p>"Yes, Massa Geral," returned the negro, yawning and half raising his +brawny form from his rude couch with one hand, while he rubbed his heavy +eyes with the knuckles of the other.</p> + +<p>"How is your head to-night?" inquired the officer in a kind tone.</p> + +<p>"Berry well, Massa Geral—but berry sleepy."</p> + +<p>"Then sleep, Sambo; but do not fail to awaken me in time: we shall weigh +anchor the very first thing in the morning, provided the fog does not continue. +By the bye, you superintended the landing of the baggage—was everything +sent ashore?"</p> + +<p>"All, Massa Geral, I see him all pack in he wagon, for he Bubbalo +town—all, except dis here I find in Miss Mungummery cabin under he +pillow."</p> + +<p>As he spoke, the negro quitted his half recumbent position, and drew from +his breast a small clasped pocket book, on a steel entablature adorning the +cover of which, were the initials of the young lady just named.</p> + +<p>"How is it Sambo, that you had not spoken of this? The pocket book +contains papers that may be of importance; and yet there is now no means of +forwarding it unless I delay the schooner."</p> + +<p>"I only find him hab an hour ago, Massa Geral, when I go to make he beds +and put he cabin to rights," said the old man, in a tone that showed he felt +and was pained by the reproof of his young master. "Dis here too," producing +a small ivory handled penknife, "I find same time in he Gubbanor +daters' bed."</p> + +<p>Gerald extended his hand to receive it, "A penknife in the bed of the +Governor's daughters!" he repeated with surprise. Ruminating a moment +he added to himself, "By heavens, it must be so—it is then as I expected. +Would that I had had this proof of their participation before they quitted the +schooner. Very well, Sambo, no blame can attach to you—go to sleep my +good fellow, but not beyond the time I have given you."</p> + +<p>"Tankee, Massa Geral," and drawing the collar of his pea jacket close +under his ears, the negro again extended himself at his full length upon the +arm chest.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span></p> + +<p>In the fulness of his indignation at the young ladies' duplicity, he now came +to the resolution of staying the departure of the schooner yet a few hours, +that he might have an opportunity of going ashore himself, presenting this undoubted +evidence of their guilt, and taxing them boldly with the purpose to +which it had been appropriated. Perhaps there was another secret motive +which induced this determination, and that was, the opportunity it would afford +him of again seeing his beloved Matilda, and delivering her pocket book +with his own hand.</p> + +<p>This resolution taken, without deeming it necessary to countermand his +order to Sambo, he placed the knife in a pocket in the breast of his uniform, +where he had already deposited the souvenir; and having retired to his own +cabin, was about to undress himself, when he fancied he could distinguish +through one of the stern windows of the schooner, sounds similar to those of +muffled oars. While he yet listened breathlessly to satisfy himself whether +he had not been deceived, a dark form came hurriedly, yet noiselessly, down +the steps of the cabin. Gerald turned, and discovered Sambo, who now perfectly +awake, indicated by his manner, he was the bearer of some alarming intelligence. +His report confirmed the suspicion already entertained by himself, +and at that moment he fancied he heard the same subdued sounds but multiplied +in several distinct points. A vague sense of danger came over the mind +of the officer, and although his crew consisted of a mere handful of men, he at +once resolved to defend himself to the last, against whatever force might be +led to the attack. While Sambo hastened to arouse the men, he girded his +cutlass and pistols around his loins, and taking down two huge blunderbusses +from a beam in the ceiling of the cabin, loaded them heavily with musket balls. +Thus armed he sprang once more upon deck.</p> + +<p>The alarm was soon given, and the preparation became general, but neither +among the watch, who slumbered in the forecastle, nor those who had turned +into their hammocks, was there the slightest indication of confusion. These +latter "tumbled up," with no other addition to the shirts in which they had +left their cots, than their trousers, a light state of costume to which those who +were "boxed up" in their pea jackets and great coats on the forecastle, soon +reduced themselves also—not but that the fog admitted of much warmer raiment, +but that their activity might be unimpeded—handkerchiefed heads and +tucked up sleeves, with the habiliments which we have named, being the most +approved fighting dress in the navy.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, although nothing could be distinguished through the fog, the +sounds which had originally attracted the notice of the officer and his trusty +servant, increased, despite of the caution evidently used, to such a degree as +to be now audible to all on board. What most excited the astonishment of +the crew, and the suspicion of Gerald, was the exactness of the course taken +by the advancing hosts, in which not the slightest deviation was perceptible. +It was evident that they were guided by some one who had well studied the +distance and bearing of the schooner from the shore, and as it was impossible +to hope that even the fog would afford them concealment from the approaching +enemy, all that was left them was to make the best defence they could. +One other alternative remained it is true, and this was to cut their cable and +allow themselves to drop down silently out of the course by which the boats +were advancing, but as this step involved the possibility of running ashore on +the American coast, when the same danger of captivity would await them<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span>, +Gerald, after an instant's consideration, rejected the idea, preferring the +worthier and more chivalrous dependence on his own and crew's exertions.</p> + +<p>From the moment of the general arming, the long gun, which we have +already shown to constitute the sole defence of the schooner, was brought +nearer to the inshore gangway, and being mounted on an elevation, with its +formidable muzzle overtopping and projecting above the low bulwarks, could +in an instant be brought to bear on whatever point it might be found advisable +to vomit forth its mass of wrath, consisting of grape, cannister and +chain shot. On this gun, indeed, the general expectation much depended; +for the crew, composed of sixteen men only, exclusive of petty officers, could +hope to make but a poor resistance, despite all the resolution they might +bring into the contest, against a squadron of well-armed boats, unless some +very considerable diminution in the numbers and efforts of these latter should +be made by "Old Sally," before they actually came to close quarters. The +weakness of the crew was in a great degree attributable to the schooner having +been employed as a cartel—a fact which must moreover explain the want +of caution, on this occasion, on the part of Gerald, whose reputation for vigilance, +in all matters of duty, was universally acknowledged. It had not +occurred to him that the instant he landed his prisoners, his vessel ceased to +be a cartel, and therefore a fit subject for the enterprise of his enemies, or the +probability is, that in the hour in which he had landed them, he would again +have weighed anchor, and made the best of his way back to Amherstburg.</p> + +<p>"Stand by your gun, men—steady," whispered the officer, as the noise of +many oars immediately abreast, and at a distance of not more than twenty +yards, announced that the main effort of their enemies was about to be made +in that quarter. "Depress a little—there, you have her—now into them—fire."</p> + +<p>Fiz-z-z-z, and a small pyramid of light rose from the breech of the gun, +which sufficed, during the moment it lasted, to discover three boats filled with +armed men, advancing immediately opposite, while two others could be seen +diverging, apparently one towards the quarter, the other towards the bows of +the devoted little vessel. The crew bent their gaze eagerly over her side to +witness the havoc they expected to ensue among their enemies. To their +surprise and mortification there was no report. The advancing boats gave +three deriding cheers.</p> + +<p>"D—n my eyes, if I didn't say she would miss fire, from having her breech +unkivered last night," shouted the man who held the match, and who was no +other than Tom Fluke. "Quick, here—give us a picker!"</p> + +<p>A picker was handed to him, by one who also held the powder-horn for +priming.</p> + +<p>"It's no use," he pursued, throwing away the wire and springing to the +dock. "She's a spike in the touch-hole, and the devil himself wouldn't get +it out now."</p> + +<p>"A spike!—what mean you?" eagerly demanded Gerald.</p> + +<p>"It's too true, Mr. Grantham," said the boatswain, who had flown to examine +the touch-hole, "there is a great piece of steel in it, and for all the +world like a woman's bodkin, or some such sort of thing."</p> + +<p>"Ah! it all comes o' that wench that was here on deck last night," mut<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span>tered +the helmsman, who had succeeded Sambo on duty the preceding night. +"I thought I see her fiddlin' about the gun when the chase was made after +the Yankee, although I didn't think to say nothin' about it when you axed +Tom Fluke about Sal's apron."</p> + +<p>Whatever conjecture might have arisen with others, there was no time to +think of, much less to discuss it—the boats were already within a few yards +of the vessel.</p> + +<p>"Steady, men—silence!" commanded Gerald, in a low tone. "Since she +has failed us, we must depend upon ourselves. Down beneath the bulwarks +and move not one of you until they begin to board; then let each man single +his enemy and fire; the cutlass must do the rest."</p> + +<p>The order was obeyed. Each moment brought the crisis of action nearer: +the rowers had discontinued their oars, but the bows of the several boats +could be heard obeying the impetus already given them, and dividing the +water close to the vessel.</p> + +<p>"Now then, Sambo," whispered the officer. At that moment a torch was +raised high over the head of the negro and his master. Its rays fell upon the +first of the three boats, the crews of which were seen standing up with arms +outstretched to grapple with the schooner. Another instant, and they would +have touched. The negro dropped his light.</p> + +<p>Gerald pulled the trigger of his blunderbuss, aimed into the very centre of +the boat. Shrieks, curses and plashings as of bodies falling in the water, +succeeded; and in the confusion occasioned by the murderous fire, the first +boat evidently fell off.</p> + +<p>"Again, Sambo," whispered the officer. A second time the torch streamed +suddenly in air, and the contents of the yet undischarged blunderbuss spread +confusion, dismay and death, into the second boat.</p> + +<p>"Old Sal herself couldn't have done better: pity he hadn't a hundred of +them," growled Tom Fluke, who, although concealed behind the bulwarks, +had availed himself of a crevice near him, to watch the effect produced by the +formidable weapons.</p> + +<p>There was a momentary indecision among the enemy, after the second destructive +fire; it was but momentary. Again they advanced, and closing +with the vessel, evinced a determination of purpose, that, left little doubt as +to the result. A few sprang into the chains and rigging, while others sought +to enter by her bows; but the main effort seemed to be made at her gangway, +at which Gerald had stationed himself with ten of his best men, the rest +being detached to make the best defence they could, against those who sought +to enter in the manner above described.</p> + +<p>Notwithstanding the great disparity of numbers, the little crew of the +schooner had for some time a considerable advantage over their enemies. At +the first onset of these latter, their pistols had been discharged, but in so random +a manner as to have done no injury—whereas the assailed, scrupulously +obeying the order of their commander, fired not a shot until they found themselves +face to face with an enemy; the consequence of which was that every +pistol-ball killed an American, or otherwise placed him <i>hors du combat</i>. +Still, in spite of their loss, the latter was more than adequate to the capture, +unless a miracle should interpose to prevent it; and, exasperated as they +were by the fall of their comrades, their efforts became at each moment more +resolute and successful. A deadly contest had been maintained in the gang<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span>way, +from which, however, Gerald was compelled to retire, although bravely +supported by his handful of followers. His force now consisted merely of +five men remaining of his own party, and three of those who had been detached, +who, all that were left alive, had been compelled to fall back on their +commander. How long he would have continued the hopeless and desperate +struggle in this manner is doubtful, had not a fresh enemy appeared in his +rear. These were the crews of two other boats, who, having boarded without +difficulty, now came up to the assistance of their comrades. So completely +taken by surprise was Gerald in this quarter, that the first intimation he had +of his danger was, in the violent seizure of his sword arm from behind, and +a general rush upon and disarming of the remainder of his followers. On +turning to behold his enemy, he saw with concern the triumphant face of +Desborough.</p> + +<p>"Every dog has his day, I guess," huskily chuckled the settler, as by the +glare of several torches which had been suddenly lighted, he was now seen +casting looks of savage vengeance, and holding his formidable knife threateningly +over the head of the officer whom he had grappled. "I reckon as how +I told you it would be Jeremiah Desborough's turn next."</p> + +<p>"Silence, fellow—loose your hold," shouted one, whose authoritative voice +and manner announced him for an officer, apparently the leader of the boarding +party.</p> + +<p>"I regret much, sir," pursued the American commander, seriously, and +turning to Gerald, "that your obstinate defence should have been carried to +the length it has. We were given to understand that ours would not be an +easy conquest, yet little deemed it would have been purchased with the lives +of so many of our force. Still, even while we deplore our loss, have we hearts +to estimate the valor of our foe. I cannot give you freedom, since the gift is +not at my disposal; but at least I may spare you the pain of surrendering a +blade you have so nobly wielded. Retain your sword, sir."</p> + +<p>Gerald's was not a nature to remain untouched by such an act of chivalrous +courtesy, and he expressed, in brief but pointed terms, his sense of the compliment.</p> + +<p>Five minutes afterwards Gerald, who had exchanged his trusty cutlass for +the sword he had been so flatteringly permitted to retain, found himself in +the leading boat of the little return squadron, and seated at the side of his +generous captor.</p> + +<p>"I think you said," he observed, "that you had been informed the conquest +of the schooner would not be an easy one. Would it be seeking too much to +know who was your informant."</p> + +<p>The American officer shook his head. "I fear I am not at liberty exactly +to name—but thus much I may venture to state, that the person who has so +rightly estimated your gallantry, is one not wholly unknown to you."</p> + +<p>"This is ambiguous. One question more—were you prepared to expect the +failure of the schooner's principal means of defence, her long gun?"</p> + +<p>"If you recollect the cheer that burst from my fellows at the moment when +the harmless flash was seen ascending, you will require no further elucidation +on that head," replied the American evasively.</p> + +<p>This was sufficient for Gerald. He folded his arms, sank his head upon his +chest, and continued to muse deeply. Soon afterwards the boat touched the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> +beach, where many of the citizens were assembled to hear tidings of the enterprize +and congratulate the victors. Thence he was conducted to the neat little +inn, which was the only accommodation the small town, or rather village of +Buffalo, at that time afforded.</p> + + + + +<h2 class="p4"><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII">CHAPTER XVIII.</a></h2> + + +<p>At the termination of the memorable war of the Revolution—that war, +which, on the one hand, severed the ties that bound the Colonies in interest +and affection with the parent land, and on the other, seemed, as by way of +indemnification, to have riveted the Canadas in closer love to their adopted +mother—hundreds of families who had remained staunch in their allegiance +quitted the American soil, to which they had been unwillingly transferred, +and hastened to close, on one side of the vast chain of waters that separated +the descendants of France from the descendants of England, the evening of an +existence, whose morning and noon had been passed on the other. Among +the number of these was Major Grantham, who, at the close of the Revolution, +had espoused a daughter (the only remaining child) of Frederick and Madeline +De Haldimar, whose many vicissitudes of suffering prior to their marriage, have +been fully detailed in Wacousta. When, at that period, the different garrisons +on the frontier were given up to the American troops, the several British +regiments crossed over into Canada, and, after a short term of service in that +country, were successively relieved by fresh corps from England. One of the +earliest recalled of these was the regiment of Colonel Frederick De Haldimar. +Local interests, however, attaching his son-in-law to Upper Canada, the latter +had, on the reduction of his corps, a provincial regiment, well known throughout +the war of the Revolution, for its strength, activity, and good service +finally fixed himself at Amherstburg.</p> + +<p>In the domestic relations of life Major Grantham was exemplary, although +perhaps his rigid notions of right had obtained for him more of the respect +than of the love of those who came within their influence, and yet no mean +portion of both. Tenderly attached to his wife, whom he had lost when +Gerald was yet in his twelfth year, he had not ceased to deplore her loss; and +this perhaps had contributed to nourish a reservedness of disposition, which, +without at all aiming at, or purposing, such effect, insensibly tended to the +production of a corresponding reserve on the part of his children, that increased +with their years. Indeed, on their mother all the tenderness of their young +hearts had been lavished, and, when they suddenly saw themselves deprived +of her who loved and had been loved by them, with doting fondness, they felt +as if a void had been left in their affections which the less tender evidences of +paternal love were but insufficient wholly to supply. Still—although not to +the same extent—did they love their father also; and what was wanted in +intensity of feeling was more than made up by the deep, the exalted respect, +they entertained for his principles and conduct. It was with pride they beheld +him, not merely the deservedly idolized of the low, but the respected of +the high—the example of one class, and the revered of another; one whose +high position in the social circle had been attained, less by his striking exterior<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> +advantages than the inward worth that governed every action of his life, and +whose moral character, as completely <i>sans tâche</i> as his fulfilment of the social +duties was proverbially <i>sans reproche</i>, could not fail, in a certain degree, to +reflect the respect it commanded upon themselves.</p> + +<p>As we have before observed, however, all the fervor of their affection had +been centered in their mother, and that was indeed a melancholy night in +which the youths had been summoned to watch the passing away of her gentle +spirit for ever from their love. Isabella De Haldimar had, from her earliest +infancy, been remarkable for her quiet and contemplative character; and bred +amid scenes that brought at every retrospect recollections of some acted horror, +it is not surprising that the bias given by nature should have been +developed and strengthened by the events that had surrounded her. Not dissimilar +in disposition, as she was not unlike in form, to her mother, she was by +that mother carefully endowed with those gentler attributes of goodness, +which, taking root within a soil so eminently disposed to their reception, could +not fail to render her in after life a model of excellence, both as a mother and +a wife. Notwithstanding, however, this moulding of her pliant and well-directed +mind, there was about her a melancholy, which, while it gave promise +of the devoted affection of the mother, offered but little prospect of cheerfulness, +in an union with one, who, reserved himself, could not be expected to +temper that melancholy by the introduction of a gaiety that was not natural +to him. And yet it was for this very melancholy, tender and fascinating in her, +that Major Grantham had sought the hand of Isabella De Haldimar; and it +was for the very austerity and reserve of his general manner, more than from +the manly beauty of his tall dark person, that he too had become the object +of her secret choice long before he had proposed for her.</p> + +<p>The austerity which Major Grantham carried with him into public life was, +if not wholly laid aside, at least considerably softened, in the presence of his +wife, and when, later, the birth of two sons crowned their union, there was +nothing left her to desire which it was in the power of circumstances to bestow. +Mrs. De Haldimar had not taken into account the effect likely to be produced +by a separation from herself—the final severing, as it were, of every tie of +blood. Of the four children who had composed the family of Colonel Frederick +De Haldimar, the two oldest (officers in his own corps) had perished in the +war: the fourth, a daughter, had died young, of a decline: and the loss of the +former especially, who had grown up with her from childhood to youth, was +deeply felt by the sensitive Isabella. With the dreadful scenes perpetrated at +Detroit—scenes in which their family had been the principal sufferers—the +boys had been familiarized by the soldiers of their father's regiment, who often +took them to the several points most worthy of remark from the incidents +connected with them; and, pointing out the spots on which their uncle Charles +and their aunt Clara had fallen victims to the terrible hatred of Wacousta for +their grandfather, detailed the horrors of those days with a rude fidelity of +coloring that brought dismay and indignation to the hearts of their wondering +and youthful auditors. On these occasions Isabella became the depository of +all they had gleaned. To her they confided, under the same pledge of secrecy +that had been exacted from themselves, every circumstance of horror connected +with those days; nor were they satisfied, until they had shown her those +scenes with which so many dreadful recollections were associated.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span></p> + +<p>Thus was the melancholy of Isabella fed by the very silence in which she +was compelled to indulge. Often was her pillow wetted with tears, as she +passed in review the several fearful incidents connected with the tale in which +her brothers had so deeply interested her, and she would have given worlds +at those moments, had they been hers to bestow, to recal to life and animation +the beloved but unfortunate uncle and aunt, to whose fate, her brothers assured +her, even their veteran friends never alluded without sorrow. Often, +too, did she dwell on the share her own fond mother had borne in those transactions, +and the anguish which must have pierced her heart when first apprized +of the loss of her, whom she had even <i>then</i> loved with all a mother's love. +Nay, more than once, while gazing on the face of the former, her inmost soul +given up to the recollection of all she had endured, first at Michillimackinac, +and afterwards at Detroit, had she unconsciously suffered the tears to course +down her cheeks without an effort to restrain them. Ignorant of the cause, +Mrs. De Haldimar only ascribed this emotion to the natural melancholy of her +daughter's character, and then she would gently chide her, and seek, by a +variety of means, to divert her thoughts into some lively channel; but she +had little success in the attempt to eradicate reflections already rooted in so +congenial a soil.</p> + +<p>Her sister died very young, and she scarcely felt her loss; but when, subsequently, +the vicissitudes of a military life had deprived her for ever of her +beloved brothers, her melancholy increased. It was however the silent, tearless +melancholy, that knows not the paroxysm of outrageous grief. The +quiet resignation of her character formed an obstacle to the inroads of all +vivacious sorrow; yet was her health not the less effectually undermined by +the slow action of her innate feeling, unfortunately too much fostered by outward +influences. By her marriage and the birth of her sons, whom she loved +with all a mother's fondness, her mental malady had been materially diminished, +and indeed in a great degree superseded, but unhappily, previous to these +events, it had seriously effected her constitution, and produced a morbid +susceptibility of mind and person, that exposed her to be overwhelmed by the +occurrence of any of those afflictions which otherwise she might, with ordinary +fortitude, have endured. When therefore intelligence from England announced +that her parents had both perished in a hurricane on their route to the West +Indies, whither the regiment of Colonel De Haldimar had been ordered, the +shock was too great for her, mentally and physically enfeebled as she had +been, to sustain, and she sank gradually under this final infliction of Providence.</p> + +<p>Major Grantham beheld with dismay the effect of this blow upon his beloved +wife. Fell consumption had now marked her for her own, and so rapid +was the progress of the disease acting on a temperament already too much predisposed +to its influence, that, in despite of all human preventives, the +sensitive Isabella, before six months had elapsed, was summoned to a better +world.</p> + +<p>We will pass over the deep grief which preyed upon the hearts of the unfortunate +brothers for weeks after they had been compelled to acknowledge +the stern truth that they were indeed motherless.</p> + +<p>It was soon after this event, that the first seeds of disunion began to spring +up between England and the United States, the inevitable results of which it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> +was anticipated, would be the involving of Canada in the struggle; and, notwithstanding +the explosion did not take place for several years afterwards, +preparations were made on either shore, to an extent that kept the spirit of +enterprise on the alert.</p> + +<p>Inheriting the martial spirit of their family, the inclinations of the young +Granthams led them to the service; and, as their father could have no reasonable +objection to oppose to a choice which promised not merely to secure his +sons in an eligible profession, but to render them in some degree of benefit to +their country, he consented to their views. Gerald's preference leading him +to the navy, he was placed on that establishment as a midshipman; while +Henry, several years later, obtained, through the influence of their father's old +friend General Brock, an ensigncy in the King's Regiment.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, Major Grantham, whose reserve appeared to have increased +since the death of his wife, seemed to seek, in the active discharge of his magisterial +duties, a relief from the recollection of the loss he had sustained; and +it was about this period that, in consequence of many of the American settlers +in Canada, having, in anticipation of a rupture between the two countries, secretly +withdrawn themselves to the opposite shore, his exaction of the +duties of British subjects from those who remained, became more vigorous +than ever.</p> + +<p>We have already shown Desborough to have been the most unruly and +disorderly of the worthless set; and as no opportunity was omitted of compelling +him to renew his oath of allegiance, (while his general conduct was +strictly watched), the hatred of the man for the stern magistrate was daily +matured, until at length it grew into an inextinguishable desire for revenge.</p> + +<p>The chief, and almost only recreation, in which Major Grantham indulged, +was that of fowling. An excellent shot himself, he had been in some degree +the instructor of his sons; and, although, owing to the wooded nature of the +country, the facilities afforded to the enjoyment of his favorite pursuit in the +orthodox manner of a true English sportsman, were few, still, as game was +everywhere abundant, he had continued to turn to account the advantages +that were actually offered. Both Gerald and Henry had been his earlier +companions in the sport, but, of late years and especially since the death of +their mother, he had been in the habit of going out alone.</p> + +<p>It was one morning in that season of the year when the migratory pigeons +pursue their course towards what are termed the "burnt woods," on which +they feed, and in such numbers as to cover the surface of the heavens, as with +a dense and darkening cloud, that Major Grantham sallied forth at early dawn, +with his favorite dog and gun, and, as was his custom, towards Hartley's +point. Disdaining, as unworthy of his skill, the myriads of pigeons that +everywhere presented themselves, he passed from the skirt of the forest towards +an extensive swamp, in the rear of Hartley's, which, abounding in +golden plover and snipe, usually afforded him a plentiful supply. On this occasion +he was singularly successful, and, having bagged as many birds as he +could conveniently carry, was in the act of ramming down his last charge, +when the report of a shot came unexpectedly from the forest. In the next instant +he was sensible he was wounded, and, placing his hand to his back, felt +it wet with blood. As there was at the moment several large wild ducks +within a few yards of the spot where he stood, and between himself and the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> +person who had fired, he at once concluded that he had been the victim of an +accident, and, feeling the necessity of assistance, he called loudly on the unseen +sportsman to come forward to his aid; but, although his demand was several +times repeated, no answer was returned, and no one appeared. With some +difficulty he contrived, after disembarrassing himself of his game-bag, to reach +the farm at Hartley's, where every assistance was afforded him, and, a +waggon having been procured, he was conducted to his home, when, on examination +the wound was pronounced to be mortal.</p> + +<p>On the third day from this event Major Grantham breathed his last, bequeathing +the guardianship of his sons to Colonel D'Egville, who had married +his sister. At this epoch, Gerald was absent with his vessel on a cruise, but +Henry received his parting blessing upon both, accompanied by a solemn injunction, +that they should never be guilty of any act which could sully the +memory, either of their mother or himself. This Henry promised, in the +name of both, most religiously to observe; and, when Gerald returned, and to +his utter dismay beheld the lifeless form of the parent, whom he had quitted +only a few days before in all the vigor of health, he not only renewed the +pledge given by his brother, but with the vivacity of character habitual to +him, called down the vengeance of Heaven upon his head, should he ever be +found to swerve from those principles of honor, which had been so sedulously +inculcated in him.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, there was nothing to throw even the faintest light on the actual +cause of Major Grantham's death. On the first probing and dressing of the +wound, the murderous lead had been extracted, and, as it was discovered to +be a rifle ball it was taken for granted that some Indian, engaged in the chase, +had, in the eagerness of pursuit, missed an intermediate object at which he +had taken aim and lodged the ball accidentally in the body of the old gentleman; +and that, terrified at discovery of the mischief he had done, and perhaps +apprehending punishment, he had hastily fled from the spot, to avoid detection. +This opinion, unanimously entertained by the townspeople, was shared +by the brothers, who knowing the unbounded love and respect of all for their +parent, dreamt not for one moment that his death could have been the result +of premeditation. It was left for Desborough to avow, at a later period, that +he had been the murderer; and with what startling effect on him, to whom +the admission was exultingly made, we have already seen.</p> + + + + +<h2 class="p4"><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX">CHAPTER XIX.</a></h2> + + +<p>Autumn had passed away, and winter, the stern invigorating winter of +beautiful America had already covered the earth with enduring snows, and +the waters with bridges of seemingly eternal ice, and yet no effort had been +made by the Americans to repossess themselves of the country they had +so recently lost. The several garrisons of Detroit and Malden, reposing under +the laurels they had so easily won, made holiday of their conquest; and, secure +in the distance that separated them from the more populous districts of the +Union, seemed to have taken it for granted that they had played their final +part in the active operations of the war, and would be suffered to remain in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> +undisturbed possession. But the storm was already brewing in the far distance +which, advancing progressively like the waves of the coming tempest, +was destined first to shake them in their security, and finally to overwhelm +them in its vortex. With the natural enterprise of their character, the Americans +had no sooner ascertained the fall of Detroit, than means slow but certain, +were taken for the recovery of a post, with which, their national glory +was in no slight decree identified. The country whence they drew their resources +for the occasion, were the new states of Ohio and Kentucky, and one +who had previously travelled through those immense tracts of forests, where +the dwelling of the backwoodsman is met with at long intervals, would have +marvelled at the zeal and promptitude with which these adventurous people, +abandoning their homes, and disregarding their personal interests, flocked to +the several rallying points. Armed and accoutred at their own expense, with +the unerring rifle that provided them with game, and the faithful hatchet that +had brought down the dark forest into ready subjection to their will, their +claim upon the public was for the mere sustenance they required on service. +It is true that this partial independence of the Government whom they served +rather in the character of volunteers, than of conscripts, was in a great measure +fatal to their discipline; but in the peculiar warfare of the country, absence +of discipline was rather an advantage than a demerit, since when +checked, or thrown into confusion, they looked not for a remedy in the resumption +of order, but in the exercise each of his own individual exertions, +facilitated as he was by his general knowledge of localities, and his confidence +in his own personal resources.</p> + +<p>But although new armies were speedily organized—if organized may be +termed those who brought with them into the contest much courage and devotedness, +yet little discipline—the Americans, in this instance, proceeded with +a caution that proved their respect for the British garrison, strongly supported +as it was by a numerous force of Indians. Within two months after the +capitulation of Detroit, a considerable army, Ohioans and Kentuckians, with +some regular infantry, had been pushed forward as with a view to feel their +way; but these having been checked by the sudden appearance of a detachment +from Fort Malden, had limited their advance to the Miami River, on the +banks of which, and on the ruins of one of the old English forts of Pontiac's +days, they had constructed new fortifications, and otherwise strongly entrenched +themselves. It was a mistake, however, to imagine that the enemy +would be content with establishing himself here. The new fort merely served +as a nucleus for the concentration of such resources of men and warlike equipment, +as were necessary to the subjection, firstly of Detroit, and afterwards +of Fort Malden. Deprived of the means of transport, the shallow bed of the +Miami aiding them but little, it was a matter of no mean difficulty with the +Americans to convey, through several hundred miles of forest, the heavy guns +they required for battering, and as it was only at intervals this could be +effected—the most patient endurance and unrelaxing perseverance being necessary +to the end. From the inactivity of this force, or rather the confinement +of its operations to objects of defence, the English garrison had calculated +on undisturbed security, at least throughout the winter, if not for a +longer period; but, although it was not until this latter season was far advanced +that the enemy broke up from his entrenchments on the Miami, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> +pushed himself forward for the attainment of his final view, the error of imputing +inactivity to him was discovered at a moment when it was least expected.</p> + +<p>It was during a public ball given at Amherstburg, on the 18th of January, +1813, that the first intelligence was brought of the advance of a strong American +force, whose object it was supposed was to push rapidly on to Detroit, +leaving Amherstburg behind to be disposed of later. The officer who brought +this intelligence was the fat Lieutenant Raymond, who, commanding an outpost +at the distance of some leagues, had been surprised, and after a resistance +very creditable under the circumstances, driven in by the American advanced +guard with a loss of nearly half his command.</p> + +<p>Thus was the same consternation produced in the ball-room at Amherstburg, +that at a later period occurred in a similar place of amusement at Brussels; +and although not followed by the same momentous public results, producing +the same host of fluttering fears and anxieties in the bosoms of the +female votaries of Terpsichore. We believe, however, that there existed some +dissimilarity in the several modes of communication—the Duke of Wellington +receiving his, with some appearance of regard on the part of the communicator +for the nerves of the ladies, while to Colonel St. Julian, commanding +at Amherstburg, and engaged at that moment at the whist-table, the news +was imparted in stentorian tones, which were audible to every one in the adjoining +ball-room.</p> + +<p>But even if his voice had not been heard, the appearance of Lieutenant Raymond +would have justified the apprehension of any reasonable person, for, in +the importance of the moment, he had not deemed it necessary to make any +change in the dress in which he had been surprised and driven back. Let the +reader figure to himself a remarkably fat, ruddy faced man, of middling age, +dressed in a pair of tightly fitting, dread-naught trowsers, and a shell jacket +that had once been scarlet, but now, from use and exposure, rather resembled +the color of brickdust; boots from which all polish had been taken by the +grease employed to render them snow-proof; a brace of pistols thrust into +the black waist belt that encircled his huge circumference, and from which +depended a sword, whose steel scabbard showed the rust of the rudest bivouac. +Let him, moreover, figure to himself that ruddy, carbuncled face, and +nearly as ruddy brow, suffused with perspiration, although in a desperately +cold winter's night, and the unwashed hands, and mouth, and lips black from +the frequent biting of the ends of cartridges, while ever and anon the puffed +cheeks, in the effort to procure air and relieve the panting chest, recal the idea +of a Bacchus, after one of his most lengthened orgies—let him figure all this, +and if he will add short, curling, wiry, damp hair, surmounting a head as +round as a turnip, a snubby, red, <i>retroussé</i> nose, and light grey eyes; he will +have a tolerable idea of the startling figure that thus abruptly made its appearance +in the person of Lieutenant Raymond, first among the dancers, and +bustlingly thence into the adjoining card-room.</p> + +<p>At the moment of his entrance, every eye had been turned upon this strange +apparition, while an almost instinctive sense of the cause of his presence pervaded +every breast. Indeed it was impossible to behold him arrayed in the +bivouac garb in which we have described him, contrasted as it was with the +elegant ball dresses of his brother officers and not attribute his presence to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> +some extraordinary motive; and as almost every one in the room was aware +of his having been absent on detachment, his mission had been half divined +even before he had opened his lips to Colonel St. Julian, for whom, on entering, +he had hurriedly inquired.</p> + +<p>But when the latter officer was seen soon afterwards to rise from and leave +the card-table, and, after communicating hurriedly with the several heads of +departments, quit altogether the scene of festivity, there could be no longer a +doubt; and, as in all cases of the sort, the danger was magnified, as it flew +from lip to lip, even as the tiny snow-ball becomes a mountain by the accession +it receives in its rolling course. Suddenly the dance was discontinued, +and indeed in time, for the fingers of the non-combatant musicians, sharing in +the general nervousness, had already given notice, by numerous falsettos, of +their inability to proceed much longer. Bonnets, cloaks, muffs, tippets, shawls, +snow-shoes, and all the paraphernalia of a female winter equipment peculiar +to the country, were brought unceremoniously in, and thrown <i>en masse</i> upon +the deserted benches of the ball-room. Then was there a scramble among the +fair dancers, who, having secured their respective property, quitted the house; +not, however, without a secret fear, on the part of many, that the first object +they should encounter, on sallying forth, would be a corps of American sharpshooters. +To the confusion within was added the clamor without, arising from +swearing drivers, neighing horses, jingling bells, and jostling sledges. Finally, +the only remaining ladies of the party were the D'Egvilles, whose +sledge had not yet arrived: with these lingered Captain Molineux, Middlemore, +and Henry Grantham, all of whom, having obtained leave of absence +for the occasion, had accompanied them from Detroit. The two former, who +had just terminated one of the old fashioned cotillions, then peculiar to the +Canadas, stood leaning over the chairs of their partners, indulging in no very +charitable comments on the unfortunate Raymond, to whose inopportune presence +at that unseasonable hour they ascribed a host of most important momentary +evils; as, for example, the early breaking up of the pleasantest ball +of the season, the loss of an excellent anticipated supper that had been prepared +for a later hour, and, although last not least, the necessity it imposed +upon them of an immediate return, that bitter cold night, to Detroit. Near +the blazing wood fire, at their side, stood Henry Grantham, and Captain St. +Clair of the Engineers. The former with his thoughts evidently far away +from the passing scene, the latter joining in the criticisms on Raymond.</p> + +<p>A few moments afterwards Colonel D'Egville entered the room, now deserted +save by the little coterie near the fire-place. Like Lieutenant Raymond's, +his dress was more suited to the bivouac than the ball-room, and his +countenance otherwise bore traces of fatigue.</p> + +<p>His daughters flew to meet him. The officers also grouped around, desirous +to hear what tidings he brought of the enemy, to corroborate the statement +of Raymond. To the great mortification of the latter, it was now found that +he and his little detachment had had all the running to themselves, and that, +while they fancied the whole of the American army to be close at their heels, +the latter had been so kept in check by the force of Indians, under Colonel +D'Egville in person, as to be compelled to retire upon the point whence the +original attack had been made. They had not followed the broken English +outpost more than a mile, and yet, so convinced of close pursuit had been the +latter, that for the space of six leagues they had scarce relaxed in their retreat.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> +The information now brought by Colonel D'Egville was, that the Americans +had not advanced a single foot beyond the outpost in question, but, on the +contrary, had commenced constructing a stockade and throwing up entrenchments. +He added, moreover, that he had just dispatched an express to Sandwich, +to General Proctor, communicating the intelligence, and suggesting the +propriety of an attack before they could advance farther, and favor any movement +on the part of the inhabitants of Detroit. As this counter-movement on +our part would require every man that could be spared from the latter +fortress, Colonel D'Egville seemed to think that before the officers could reach +it, its garrison would be already on the way to join the expedition, which would +doubtless be ordered to move from Amherstburg; and as the same impression +appeared to exist in the mind of Colonel St. Julian, whom he had only just +parted from to proceed in search of his daughters, the latter had taken it upon +himself to determine that they should remain where they were until the answer, +communicating the final decision of General Proctor, should arrive.</p> + +<p>If the young officers were delighted at the idea of escaping the horror of an +eighteen miles drive, on one of the bitterest nights of the season, supperless, +and at the moment of issuing from a comfortable ball-room, their annoyance +at (what they termed) the pusillanimity of Raymond, who had come thus +unnecessarily in, to the utter annihilation of their evening's amusement—was +in equal proportion. For this, on their way home, they revenged themselves +by every sort of persiflage their humor could adapt to the occasion, until in the +end they completely succeeded in destroying the good humor of Raymond, +who eventually quitted them under feelings of mortified pride, which excited +all the generous sympathy of the younger Grantham, while it created in his +breast a sentiment of almost wrath against his inconsiderate companions. +Even these latter were at length sensible that they had gone too far, and, as +their better feelings returned, they sought to assure the offended object of their +pleasantry that what they had uttered was merely in jest; but finding +he received these disclaimers in moody silence, they renewed their attack, +nor discontinued it until they separated for their mutual quarters for the +night.</p> + +<p>The following dawn broke in, decked with all the sad and sober grey peculiar +to an American sky in the depth of winter, and, with the first rising of +the almost rayless sun, commenced numerous warlike preparations, that gave +promise to the inhabitants of some approaching crisis. The event justified +their expectation; the suggestion of Colonel D'Egville had been adopted, and +the same express which carried to General Proctor the information of the advance +of the enemy, and the expulsion of Lieutenant Raymond from his post, +was pushed on to Detroit, with an order for every man who could be spared +from that fortress, to be marched without a moment's delay to Malden. At +noon the detachment had arrived, and the General making his appearance soon +after, the expedition, composed of the strength of the two garrisons, with a +few light guns, and a considerable body of Indians, under the Chief Round-head, +were pushed rapidly across the lake, and the same night occupied the +only road by which the enemy could advance.</p> + +<p>It was a picturesque sight to those who lingered on the banks of the Detroit, +to watch the movement of that mass of guns, ammunition, cars and sledges, +preceding the regular march of the troops, as the whole crossed the firm but +rumbling ice, at the head of the now deserted Island of Bois Blanc. Nor was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> +this at all lessened in effect by the wild and irregular movements of the +Indians, who, advancing by twos and threes, but more often singly, and bounding +nimbly yet tortuously, along the vast white field with which the outline +of their swarthy forms contrasted, called up at the outset, the idea of a legion +of devils.</p> + +<p>It was during one of the coldest mornings in January, that this little army +bivouaced on the banks of a small rivulet, distant little more than a league +from the position which had been taken up by the Americans. So unexpected +and rapid had been the advance of the expedition, that not the slightest suspicion +appeared to be entertained by the Americans even of its departure; +and from information brought at a late hour by the Indian scouts, who had +been dispatched at nightfall to observe their motions, it was gathered that, so +far from apprehending or being prepared for an attack, all was quiet in their +camp, in which the customary night-fires were then burning. Thus favored +by the false security of their enemies, the British force, after partaking of their +rude but substantial meal, and preparing their arms, laid themselves down to +rest in their accoutrements and great coats; their heads reclining on whatever +elevation, however small, presented itself, and their feet half buried in the embers +of the fires they had with difficulty kindled on the frozen ground, from +which the snow had been removed—all sanguine of success, and all more or +less endeavoring to snatch, amid the nipping frost to which their upper persons +were exposed, a few hours of sleep prior to the final advance, which was to +take place an hour before dawn.</p> + +<p>In the midst of the general desolateness of aspect which encompassed all, +there were few privations endured by the men that were not equally shared by +their officers. A solitary and deserted log hut was the only thing in the shape +of a human habitation within the bivouac, and this had been secured as the +headquarters of the General and his staff—all besides had no other canopy +than the clear starry heavens, or, here and there, the leafless and unsheltering +branches of some forest tree—and yet, around one large and blazing fire, +which continued to be fed at intervals by masses of half-decayed wood, that, +divested of their snow, lay simmering and drying before it, was frequently to +be heard the joyous yet suppressed laugh, and piquant sally, as of men whose +spirits no temporary hardship or concern for the eventful future could effectually +suppress.</p> + +<p>During the whole of the march, Raymond had evinced a seriousness of +demeanor by no means common to him, and although he had made one of the +party in the general bivouac, he had scarcely opened his lips, except to reply +to the most direct questions. A renewed attack at first drew from him no +comment, although it was evident he felt greatly pained; but when he had +finished smoking his cigar, he raised himself, not without difficulty, from the +ground, and began with a seriousness of manner that, being unusual, not a +little surprised them, "Gentlemen, you have long been pleased to select me as +your butt."</p> + +<p>"Of course," hastily interrupted Captain Molineux, hazarding his pun, "we +naturally select you for what you most resemble."</p> + +<p>"Captain Molineux—gentlemen!" resumed Raymond, with greater emphasis.</p> + +<p>"He is getting warm on the subject," observed Middlemore. "Have a +care, Molineux, that the butt does not <i>churn</i> until in the end it becomes the +<i>butter</i>."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Ha! ha! ha!" vociferated St. Clair, "good, excellent, the best you ever +made, Middlemore."</p> + +<p>"Gentlemen!" persevered Raymond, in a tone, and with a gesture, of impatience, +"this trifling will be deeply regretted by you all to-morrow; I repeat," +he pursued, when he found he had at length succeeded in procuring silence, +"you have long been pleased to select me as your butt, and while this was +confined to my personal appearance, painful as I have sometimes found your +humor, I could still endure it; but when I perceive those whom I have looked +upon as friends and brothers, casting imputations upon my courage, I may be +excused for feeling offended. You have succeeded in wounding my heart, and +some of you will regret the hour when you did so. Another, perhaps, would +adopt a different course, but I am not disposed to return evil for evil. I wish +to believe, that in all your taunts upon this subject you have merely indulged +your bantering humor—but not the less have you pained an honest heart. +To-morrow will prove that you have grievously wronged me, and I am mistaken +if you will not deeply regret it."</p> + +<p>So saying, he hurried away across the snow towards a distant fire, which +lighted the ruder bivouac of the adjutant and quartermaster, and was there +seen to seat himself with the air of one who has composed himself for the +night.</p> + +<p>"What a silly fellow, to take the thing so seriously!" said Molineux, +half vexed at himself, half moved by the reproachful tone of Raymond's +address.</p> + +<p>"For God's sake, Grantham, call him back. Tell him we are ready to make +any—every atonement for our offence," urged St. Clair.</p> + +<p>"And I will promise never to utter another pun at his expense as long as I +live," added Middlemore.</p> + +<p>But before Henry Grantham, who had been a pained and silent witness of +the scene, and who had already risen with a view to follow the wounded Raymond, +could take a single step on his mission of peace, the low roll of the drum, +summoning to fall in, warned them that the hour of action had already arrived, +and each, quitting his fire, hastened to the more immediate and pressing +duties of assembling his men, and carefully examining into the state of their +appointments.</p> + +<p>In ten minutes from the beating of the <i>reveillé</i>—considerably shorn of its +wonted proportions, as the occasion demanded—the bivouac had been abandoned, +and the little army again upon their march. What remained to be +traversed of the space that separated them from the enemy, was an alternation +of plain and open forest, but so completely in juxtaposition, that the head of +the column had time to clear one wood and enter a second before its rear +could disengage itself from the first. The effect of this, by the dim and peculiar +light reflected from the snow across which they moved, was picturesque +in the extreme, nor was the interest diminished by the utter silence that had +pervaded every part of the little army, the measured tramp of whose march, +mingled with the hollow and unavoidable rumbling of the light guns, being +the only sounds to be heard amid that mass of living matter. The Indians, +with the exception of a party of scouts, had been the last to quit their rude +encampment, and as they now, in their eagerness to get to the front, glided +stealthily by in the deep snows on either side of the more beaten track by +which the troops advanced, and utterly without sound in their foot-fall +they might rather have been compared to spirits of the wilds, than to +human beings.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span></p> + +<p>The regiment having been told off into divisions, it so happened that Raymond +and Henry Grantham, although belonging to different companies, now +found themselves near each other. The latter had been most anxious to approach +his really good-hearted companion, with a view to soothe his wounded +feelings, and to convey, in the fullest and most convincing terms, the utter +disclaimer of his inconsiderate brother officers, to reflect seriously on his conduct +in the recent retreat—or, indeed, to intend their observations for anything +beyond a mere pleasantry. As, however, the strictest order had been commanded +to be observed in the march, and Raymond and he happened to be at +opposite extremities of the division, this had been for some time impracticable. +A temporary halt having occurred, just as the head of the column came +within sight of the enemy's fires, Grantham quitted his station on the flank, +and hastened to the head of his division, where he found Raymond with his +arms folded across his chest, and apparently absorbed in deep thought. He +tapped him lightly on the shoulder, and inquired in a tone of much kindness +the subject of his musing.</p> + +<p>Touched by the manner in which he was addressed, Raymond dropped his +arms and grasping the hand of the youth, observed in his usual voice; "Ah, +is it you Henry—Egad, my dear boy, I was just thinking of you—and how +very kind you have always been; never quizzing me as those thoughtless fellows +have done—and certainly never insinuating anything against my +courage—that was too bad, Henry, too bad, I could have forgiven anything +but that."</p> + +<p>"Nay, nay, Raymond," answered his companion, soothingly; "believe me, +neither Molineux, nor Middlemore, nor St. Clair meant anything beyond a +jest. I can assure you they did not, for when you quitted us they asked me +to go in search of you, but the assembly then commencing to beat, I was +compelled to hasten to my company, nor have I had an opportunity of seeing +you until now."</p> + +<p>"Very well, Henry, I forgive them, for it is not in my nature to keep anger +long; but tell them that they should not wantonly wound the feelings of an +unoffending comrade. As I told them, they may regret their unkindness +to me before another sun has set. If so, I wish them no other punishment."</p> + +<p>"What mean you, my dear Raymond?"</p> + +<p>"Egad! I scarcely know myself, but something tells me very forcibly my +hour is come."</p> + +<p>"Nonsense, this is but the effect of the depression, produced by fatigue and +over excitement, added to the recent annoyance of your feelings."</p> + +<p>"Whatever it proceed from, I had made up my mind to it before we set out. +Henry, my kind good Henry, I have neither friend nor relative on earth—no +one to inherit the little property I possess. In the event of my falling, you +will find the key of my desk in the breast pocket of my coat. A paper in that +desk appoints you my executor. Will you accept the trust?"</p> + +<p>"Most sacredly, Raymond, will I fulfil every instruction it contains +should I myself survive; but I cannot, will not, bring myself to anticipate +your fall."</p> + +<p>"Move on, move on," passed quickly in a whisper from front to rear of the +column.</p> + +<p>"God bless you, Henry," exclaimed Raymond, again pressing the hand of +the youth—"remember the key."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span></p> + +<p>"We shall talk of that to-night," was the light reply. "Meanwhile, dear +Raymond, God bless you," and again Grantham fell back to his place in the +rear of the division.</p> + +<p>Five minutes later, and the troops were finally brought up in front of the +enemy. A long line of fires marked the extent of the encampment, from +which even then, the "all's well" of the sentinels could be occasionally heard. +Except these, all profoundly slept, nor was there anything to indicate they had +the slightest suspicion of an enemy being within twenty miles of them.</p> + +<p>"What glorious cannon work we shall have presently," whispered Villiers +to Molineux, as they were brought together by their stations at the adjacent +extremities of their respective division. "Only mark how the fellows sleep."</p> + +<p>"The devil take the cannon," muttered Villiers, "the bayonet for me, but +you are right, for see, there go the guns to the front—hark there is a shot; +the sentinels have discovered us at last; and now they are starting from before +their fires, and hastening to snatch their arms."</p> + +<p>Whist, whist, whist, flew three balls successively between their heads.</p> + +<p>"Ha, here they begin to talk to us in earnest, and now to our duty."</p> + +<p>The next moment all was roar, and bustle, and confusion, and death.</p> + +<p>The sun was in the meridian; all sounds of combat had ceased. From the +field, in which the troops had commenced the action, numerous sledges were +seen departing, laden with the dead—the wounded having previously been +sent off. One of these sledges remained stationary at some distance within +the line, where the ravages of death were marked by pools of blood upon the +snow, and at this point were grouped several individuals, assembled round a +body which was about to be conveyed away.</p> + +<p>"By Heavens, I would give the world never to have said an unkind word +to him," observed one, whose arm suspended from a sling, attested he had not +come scatheless out of the action. It was St. Clair, whose great ambition it +had always been to have his name borne among the list of wounded—provided +there were no broken bones in the question.</p> + +<p>"As brave as he was honest-hearted," added a second, "you say, Grantham, +that he forgave us all our nonsense."</p> + +<p>"He did, Molineux. He declared he could not bear resentment against you +long. But still, I fear, he could not so easily forget. He observed to me, +jestingly, just before deploying into line, that he felt his time was come, but +there can be no doubt, from what we all witnessed, that he was determined +from the outset to court his death."</p> + +<p>Captain Molineux turned away, apparently much affected—Middlemore +spoke not, but it was evident he also was deeply pained. Each seemed to feel +that he had been in some degree accessory to the catastrophe, but the past +could not be recalled. The body, covered with blood, exuding from several +wounds, was now placed on the sledge which was drawn off to join several +others just departed, and the lingering officers hastened to overtake their several +companies.</p> + +<p>When the action was at the hottest, one of the small guns in front (all of +which had been fearfully exposed), was left without a single artilleryman. +Availing themselves of this circumstance, the enemy, who were unprovided +with artillery of any description, made a movement as if to possess themselves +of, and turn it against the attacking force, then closing rapidly to dispute the +possession of the breast work which covered their riflemen. Colonel St. Julian<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> +seeing this movement, called out for volunteers to rescue the gun from its +perilous situation. Scarcely had the words passed his lips when an individual +moved forward from the line, in the direction indicated. It was Lieutenant +Raymond—Exposed to the fire, both of friends and foes, the unfortunate +officer advanced calmly and unconcernedly, in the presence of the whole line, +and before the Americans could succeed in even crossing their defences, +had seized the gun by the drag rope, and withdrawn it under cover of the +English fire. But this gallant act of self-devotedness, was not without its +terrible price. Pierced by many balls, which the American riflemen had immediately +directed at him, he fell dying within ten feet of the British line, +brandishing his sword and faintly shouting a "huzza," that was answered by +his companions with the fierce spirit of men stung to new exertion, and determined +to avenge his fall.</p> + +<p>Thus perished the fat, the plain, the carbuncled, but really gallant-hearted +Raymond—whose intrinsic worth was never estimated until he had ceased to +exist. His fall, and all connected therewith, forms a sort of episode in our +story, yet is it one not altogether without its moral. A private monument, +on which was inscribed all that may soothe and flatter after death, was erected +to his memory by those very officers whose persiflage, attacking in this instance +even his honor as a soldier, had driven him to seek the fate he found. +Of this there could be no question; for, brave as he unquestionably was, Raymond +would not have acted as if courting death throughout, had he not fully +made up his mind either to gain great distinction or to die under the eyes of +those who had, he conceived, so greatly injured him. It is but justice to add +that, for three days from his death, Middlemore did not utter a single pun, +neither did St. Clair or Molineux indulge in a satirical observation.</p> + + + + +<h2 class="p4"><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX">CHAPTER XX.</a></h2> + + +<p>The spring of 1813 had passed nearly away, yet without producing any +renewed effort on the part of the Americans. From information obtained +from the Indian scouts, it however appeared that, far from being discouraged +by their recent disaster, they had moved forward a third army to the Miami, +where they had strongly entrenched themselves, until fitting opportunity +should be found to renew their attempt to recover the lost district. It was +also ascertained that, with a perseverance and industry peculiar to themselves, +they had been occupied throughout the rigorous winter in preparing a fleet of +sufficient force to compete with that of the British; and that, abandoning the +plan hitherto pursued by his predecessors, the American leader of this third +army of invasion purposed transporting his troops across the lake, instead of +running the risk of being harassed and cut up in an advance by land. To +effect this, it was of course necessary to have the command of the lake, and +there were all the sinews of exertion called into full exercise, to obtain the +desired ascendancy.</p> + +<p>To defeat this intention became now the chief object of the British General. +With the close of winter had ceased the hunting pursuits of the warriors, so +that each day brought with it a considerable accession to the strength of this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> +wild people, vast numbers of whom had betaken themselves to their hunting +grounds, shortly after the capture of Detroit. The chiefs of these several nations +were now summoned to a Council, in the course of which it was decided +that a formidable expedition, accompanied by a heavy train of battering artillery, +should embark in batteaux, with a view to the reduction of the American +post established on the Miami—a nucleus around which was fast gathering +a spirit of activity that threatened danger, if not annihilation, to the English +influence in the North Western districts. In the event of the accomplishment +of this design, Detroit and Amherstburg would necessarily be released +from all apprehension, since, even admitting the Americans could acquire a +superiority of naval force on the lake, such superiority could only be essentially +injurious to us, as a means of affording transport to, and covering the +operations of an invading army. If, however, that already on the Miami could +be defeated, and their fortress razed, it was not probable that a fourth could +be equipped and pushed forward, with a view to offensive operations, in sufficient +time to accomplish anything decisive before the winter should set in. +Tecumseh, who had just returned from collecting new bodies of warriors, +warmly approved the project, and undertook to bring two thousand men into +the field, as his quota of the expedition, the departure of which was decided +for the seventh day from the Council.</p> + +<p>The day on which that Council was held, was characterized by one of those +sudden outbursts of elemental war, so common to the Canadas in early summer, +and which, in awful grandeur of desolation, are frequently scarcely inferior +to the hurricanes of the tropics. The morning had been oppressively +sultry, and there was that general and heavy lethargy of nature that usually +precedes a violent reaction. About noon a small, dark speck was visible in +the hitherto cloudless horizon, and this presently grew in size until the whole +western sky was one dense mass of threatening black, which eventually spread +itself over the entire surface of the heavens leaving not a hand's breadth anywhere +visible. Presently, amid the sultry stillness that prevailed, there came +a slight breeze over the face of the waters, and then, as if some vast battering +train had suddenly opened its hundred mouths of terror, vomiting forth showers +of grape and other missiles, come astounding thunder-claps, and forked +lightnings, and rain, and hail, and whistling wind—all in such terrible union, +yet such fearful disorder, that man, the last to take warning, or feel awed by +the anger of the common parent, Nature, bent his head in lowliness and +silence to her voice, and awaited tremblingly the passing away of her wrath.</p> + +<p>Henry Grantham, whose turn of duty had again brought him to Amherstburg, +was in the mess-room of the garrison when the storm was at the fiercest. +Notwithstanding the excitement of the council-scene, at which he had been +present, he had experienced an unusual depression throughout the day, originating +partly in the languid state of the atmosphere, but infinitely more in the +anxiety under which he labored in regard to his brother, of whom no other +intelligence had been received, since his departure with his prisoners for Buffalo, +than what vague rumor, coupled with the fact of the continued absence +of the schooner, afforded. That the vessel had been captured by the enemy +there could be no doubt; but, knowing as he did, the gallant spirit of Gerald, +there was reason to imagine that he had not yielded to his enemies, before +every means of resistance had been exhausted: and if so, what might not +have been the effect of his obstinacy, if such a term could be applied to un<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span>shaken +intrepidity, on men exasperated by opposition and eager for revenge. +In the outset he had admitted his gentle cousin Gertrude to his confidence, as +one most suited, by her docility, to soothe without appearing to remark on his +alarm, but when, little suspecting the true motive of her agitation, he saw her +evince an emotion surpassing his own, and admitting and giving way to fears +beyond any he would openly avow, he grew impatient and disappointed, and +preferring rather to hear the tocsin of alarm sounded from his own heart than +from the lips of another, he suddenly, and much to the surprise of the affectionate +girl, discontinued all allusion to the subject. But Henry's anxiety +was not the less poignant from being confined within his own breast, and although +it gratified him to find that flattering mention was frequently made of +his brother at the mess-table, coupled with regret for his absence, it was +reserved for his hours of privacy and abstraction to dwell upon the fears +which daily became more harassing and perplexing.</p> + +<p>On the present occasion, even while his brother officers had thought nor ear +but for the terrible tempest that raged without, and at one moment threatened +to bury them beneath its trembling roof, the mind of Henry was full of his +absent brother, whom, more than ever, he now seemed to regret, from the +association of the howling tempest with the wild element on which he had last +beheld him; and so complete at last had become the ascendancy of his melancholy, +that when the storm had been in some degree stilled, and the rain abated, +he took an early leave of his companions, with a view to indulge in privacy +the gloomy feelings by which he felt himself oppressed.</p> + +<p>In passing through the gate of the fort, on his way into the town, his +attention was arrested by several groups of persons, consisting of soldiers, +Indians, and inhabitants, who, notwithstanding the inclemency of the hour, +were gathered on the high bank in front of the <i>demi-lune</i> battery, eagerly +bending their gaze upon the river. Half curious to know what could have +attracted them in such weather from shelter, Henry advanced and mingled in +the crowd, which gave way at his approach. Although the fury of the tempest +had spent itself, there was still wind enough to render it a matter of +necessary precaution that the bystander should secure a firm footing on the +bank, while the water, violently agitated and covered with foam, resembled +rather a pigmy sea than an inland river—so unusual and so vast were its +waves. The current, moreover, increased in strength by the sudden swelling +of the waters, dashed furiously down, giving its direction to the leaping billows +that rode impatiently upon its surface; and at the point of intersection by the +island of Bois Blanc, formed so violent an eddy within twenty feet of the land, +as to produce the effect of a whirlpool, while again, between the island and the +Canadian shore, the current, always rapid and of great force, flew boiling down +its channel, and with a violence almost quadrupled.</p> + +<p>Amid this uproar of the usually placid river, there was but one bark found +bold enough to venture upon her angered bosom, and this, although but an +epitome of those that have subdued the world of waters, and chained them in +subservience to the will of man, now danced gallantly, almost terrifically, from +billow to billow, and, with the feathery lightness of her peculiar class, seemed +borne onward, less by the leaping waves themselves than by the white and +driving spray that fringed their summits. This bark—a canoe evidently of the +smallest description—had been watched in its progress, from afar, by the groups +assembled on the bank, who had gathered at each other's call, to witness and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> +marvel at the gallant daring of those who had committed it to the boiling element. +Two persons composed her crew—the one seated in the stern, and +carefully guiding the bark so as to enable her to breast the threatening waves, +which, in quick succession, rose as if to accomplish her overthrow—the other +standing at her bows, the outline of his upper figure designed against the snow-white +sail, and, with his arms folded across his chest, apparently gazing without +fear on the danger which surrounded him. It was evident, from their +manner of conducting the bark, that the adventurers were not Indians, and +yet there was nothing to indicate to what class of the white family they belonged. +Both were closely wrapped in short, dark-colored pea coats, and their +heads were surmounted with glazed hats—a species of costume that more than +anything else proved their familiarity with the element whose brawling they +appeared to brave with an indifference bordering on madness.</p> + +<p>Such was the position of the parties at the moment when Henry Grantham +gained the bank. Hitherto the canoe, in the broad reach that divided the island +from the American mainland, had had merely the turbulence of the short +heavy waves, and a comparatively modified current, to contend against. +Overwhelming even as these difficulties would have proved to men less gifted +with the power of opposing and vanquishing them, they were but light in +comparison with what was to be overcome. The canoe was now fast gaining +the head of the island, and pursuing a direct course for the whirlpool already +described. The only means of avoiding this was by closely hugging the shore +between which and the violent eddy without, the water, broken in its impetuosity +by the covering headland, presented a more even and less agitated +surface. This headland once doubled, the safety of the adventurers was ensured, +since, although the tremendous current which swept through the inner +channel must have borne them considerably downwards, still the canoe would +have accomplished the transit below the town in perfect safety. The fact of +this opportunity being neglected, led at once to the inference that the adventurers +were total strangers, and distinct voices were now raised by those on +the bank, to warn them of their danger—but whether it was that they heard +not, or understood not, the warning was unnoticed. Once indeed it seemed +as if he who so ably conducted the course of the bark, had comprehended and +would have followed, the suggestion so earnestly given, for his tiny sail was +seen to flutter for the first time in the wind, as with the intention to alter his +course. But an impatient gesture from his companion in the bow, who was +seen to turn suddenly round and utter something, (which was however inaudible +to those on shore,) again brought the head of the fragile vessel to her +original course, and onward she went, leaping and bounding, apparently with +the design to clear the whirlpool at a higher point of the river.</p> + +<p>Nothing short of a miracle could now possibly enable the adventurers to +escape being drawn into the boiling vortex; and, during the moments that +succeeded, every heart beat high with fearful expectation as to the result. At +length the canoe came with a sudden plunge into the very centre of the current, +which all the skill of the steersman was insufficient to enable him to +clear. Her bow yawed, her little sail fluttered—and away she flew, broadside +foremost, down the stream, with as little power of resistance as a feather or a +straw. Scarcely had the eye time to follow her in this peculiar descent, when +she was in the very heart of the raging eddy. For a moment she reeled like<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> +a top, then rolled two or three times over, and finally disappeared altogether. +Various expressions of horror broke from the several groups of whites and +Indians, all of whom had anticipated the catastrophe without the power of +actively interposing. Beyond the advice that was given, not a word was +uttered, but every eye continued fixed on the whirlpool, as though momentarily +expecting to see something issue from its bosom. After the lapse of a +minute, a dark object suddenly presented itself some twenty yards below, between +the island and town. It was the canoe which, bottom upwards and +deprived of its little mast and sail, had again risen to the surface, and was +floating rapidly down with the current. Presently afterwards two heads +were seen nearly at the point where the canoe had again emerged. They were +the unfortunate adventurers, one of whom appeared to be supporting his companion +with one arm, whilst with the other he dashed away the waters that +bore them impetuously along. The hats of both had fallen off, and as he who +exerted himself so strenuously, rose once or twice in the vigor of his efforts +above the element with which he contended, he seemed to present the grisly, +woolly hair, and the sable countenance of an aged negro. A vague surmise +of the truth now flashed upon the mind of the excited officer; but when, +presently afterwards, he saw the powerful form once more raised, and in a +voice that made itself distinctly heard above the howling of the wind, exclaim, +"Help a dare!" there was no longer a doubt, and he rushed towards the +dock-yard, to gain which the exertions of the negro were now directed.</p> + +<p>On reaching it, he found both Gerald and his faithful attendant just touching +the shore. Aroused by the cry for help which Sambo had pealed forth, +several of the workmen had quitted the shelter of the block-houses in which +they were lodged, and hastened to the rescue of him whom they immediately +afterwards saw struggling furiously to free himself and companion from the +violent current. Stepping to the extremity on some loose timber which lay +secured to the shore, yet floating in the river—they threw out poles, one of +which Sambo seized like an enraged mastiff in his teeth, and still supporting +the body, and repelling the water with his disengaged arm, in this manner +succeeded in gaining the land. The crews of the little fleet, which lay armed +a hundred yards lower down, had also witnessed the rapid descent of two apparently +drowning men, and ropes had everywhere been thrown out from the +vessels. As for lowering a boat, it was out of the question; for no boat could +have resisted the violence of the current, even for some hours after the storm +had wholly ceased.</p> + +<p>It may be easily conceived with what mingled emotions the generous Henry, +whose anxiety had been so long excited in regard to his brother's fate, now +beheld that brother suddenly restored to him. Filled with an affection that +was rendered the more intense by the very fact of the danger from which he +had just seen him rescued, he, regardless of those around and in defiance of +his wet and dripping clothes, sprang eagerly to his embrace, but Gerald received +him with a cold—almost averted air. Suffering, rather than sharing, +this mark of fraternal love, he turned the instant afterward to his servant, +and, in a tone of querulousness said, "Sambo, give me wine."</p> + +<p>Inexpressibly shocked, and not knowing what to think of this conduct, +Henry bent his glance upon the negro. The old man shook his head mournfully, +and even with the dripping spray that continued to fall from his woolly +locks upon his cheeks, tears might be seen to mingle. A dreadful misgiving<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> +came over the mind of the youth, and he felt his very hair rise thrillingly, as +he for a moment admitted the horrible possibility, that the shock produced by +his recent accident had affected his brother's intellect. Sambo replied to his +master's demand, by saying "there was no wine—the canoe and its contents +had been utterly lost."</p> + +<p>All this passed during the first few moments of their landing. The necessity +for an immediate change of apparel was obvious, and Gerald and his servant +were led into the nearest block house, where each of the honest fellows occupying +it was eager in producing whatever his rude wardrobe afforded. The +brothers then made the best of their way, followed by the negro, to their own +abode in the town.</p> + +<p>The evening being damp and chilly, a fire was kindled in the apartment in +which Gerald dined—the same in which both had witnessed the dying moments +of their mother, and Henry those of their father. It had been chosen +by the former, in the height of her malady, for its cheerfulness, and she had +continued in it until the hour of her decease; while Major Grantham had selected +it for his chamber of death for the very reason that it had been that of +his regretted wife. Henry, having already dined, sat at the opposite extremity +of the table watching his brother, whose features he had so longed to +behold once more; yet not without a deep and bitter feeling of grief, that +those features should have undergone so complete a change in their expression +towards himself. Gerald had thrown off the temporary and ill-fitting vestments +exchanged for his own wet clothing, and now that he appeared once more +in his customary garb, an extraordinary alteration was perceptible in his whole +appearance. Instead of the blooming cheek, and rounded and elegant form, +for which he had always been remarkable, he now offered to the eye of his +anxious brother, an emaciated figure, and a countenance pale even to wanness—while +evidence of much care and inward suffering might be traced in the +stern contraction of his hitherto open brow. There was also a dryness in his +speech that startled and perplexed even more than the change in his person. +The latter might be the effect of imprisonment, and its anxiety and privation, +coupled with the exhaustion arising from his recent accident; but how was +the first to be accounted for, and wherefore was he, after so long a separation, +and under such circumstances, thus incommunicative and unaffectionate? All +these reflections occurred to the mind of the sensitive Henry, as he sat watching, +and occasionally addressing a remark to, his taciturn brother, until he +became fairly bewildered in his efforts to find a clue to his conduct. The +horrible dread which had first suggested itself of the partial overthrow of intellect, +had passed away, but to this had succeeded a discovery attended by quite +as much concern, although creating less positive alarm. He had seen, with +inexpressible pain, that Gerald ate but little, seeming rather to loathe his food, +while on the other hand he had recourse more frequently to wine, drinking off +bumpers with greedy avidity, until, yielding at length to the excess of his +potations, he fell fast asleep in the arm-chair he had drawn to the fire, overcome +by the mingled influence of wine, fatigue and drowsiness.</p> + +<p>Bitter were the feelings of Henry Grantham, as thus he gazed upon his +sleeping brother. Fain would he have persuaded himself that the effect he now +witnessed was an isolated instance, and occurring only under the peculiar +circumstances of the moment. It was impossible to recal the manner in which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> +he had demanded "wine" from their faithful old servant and friend, and not +feel satisfied that the tone proclaimed him one who had been in the frequent +habit of repeating that demand, as the prepared yet painful manner of the +black, indicated a sense of having been too frequently called upon to administer +to it. Alas, thought the heart-stricken Henry, can it really be, that he whom +I have cherished in my heart of hearts with more than brother's love, has thus +fallen? Has Gerald, formerly as remarkable for sobriety as for every honorable +principle, acquired even during the months I have so wretchedly mourned +his absence, the fearful propensities of the drunkard? The bare idea overpowered +him, and with difficulty restraining his tears, he rose from his seat, +and paced the room for some time in a state of indescribable agitation. Then +again he stopped, and when he looked in the sleeping face of his unconscious +brother, he was more than ever struck by the strange change which had been +wrought in his appearance. Finding that Gerald still slept profoundly, he took +the resolution of instantly questioning Sambo as to all that had befallen them +during their absence, and ascertaining, if possible, to what circumstance the +mystery which perplexed him was attributable. Opening and reclosing the +door with caution, he hastened to the room which, owing to his years and long +and faithful services, had been set apart for the accommodation of the old man +when on shore. Here he found Sambo, who had dispatched his substantial +meal, busily occupied in drying his master's wet dress before a large blazing +wood fire—and laying out, with the same view, certain papers, the contents +of a pocket-book which had been completely saturated with water. A ray of +satisfaction lighted the dark but intelligent face of the negro, which the instant +before had worn an expression of suffering, as the young officer, pressing his +hand with warmth, thanked him deeply and fervently for the noble, almost +superhuman, exertions, he had made that day to preserve his brother's +life.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Massa Henry!" was all the poor creature could say in reply, as he +returned the pressure with an emphasis that spoke his profound attachment to +both. Then leaning his white head upon his hand against the chimney, and +bursting into tears—"berry much change, he poor broder Geral, he not a +same at all."</p> + +<p>Here was a sad opening indeed to the subject. The heart of the youth sank +within him, yet feeling the necessity of knowing all connected with his brother's +unhappiness, he succeeded in drawing the old man into conversation, +and finally into a narration of all their adventures, as far at least as he had +personal knowledge, from the moment of their leaving Detroit in the preceding +autumn.</p> + +<p>When, after the expiration of an hour, he returned to the drawing-room, +Gerald was awake, and so far restored by his sound sleep as to be, not only +more communicative, but more cordial towards his brother. He even reverted +to past scenes, and spoke of the mutual events of their youth, with a cheerfulness +bordering on levity; but this pained Henry the more, for he saw in it +but the fruit of a forced excitement—as melancholy in adoption as pernicious +in effect—and his own heart repugned all participation in so unnatural a +gaiety, although he enforced himself to share it to the outward eye. Fatigue +at length compelled Gerald to court the quiet of his pillow, and, overcome as +his senses were with wine, he slept profoundly until morning.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span></p> + + + + +<h2 class="p4"><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI">CHAPTER XXI.</a></h2> + + +<p>When they met at breakfast, Henry was more than ever struck and afflicted +by the alteration in his brother's person and manner. All traces of the +last night's excitement had disappeared with the cause, and pale, haggard and +embarrassed, he seemed but the shadow of his former self, while the melancholy +of his countenance had in it something wild and even fierce. As at their +first meeting, his language was dry and reserved, and he seemed rather impatient +of conversation, as though it interfered with the indulgence of some secret +and all absorbing reflection, while, to Henry's affectionate questioning of +his adventures since they first parted, he replied in the vague unsatisfactory +manner of one who seeks to shun the subject altogether. At another moment, +this apparent prostration of the physical man might have been ascribed +to his long immersion of the preceding day, and the efforts that were necessary +to rescue him from a watery grave; but, from the account Sambo had given +him, Henry had but too much reason to fear that the disease of body and mind +which had so completely encompassed his unfortunate brother, not only had +its being in a different cause, but might be dated from an earlier period. Although +burning with desire to share that confidence which it grieved him to +the soul to find thus unkindly withheld, he made no effort to remove the cloak +of reserve in which his brother had invested himself. That day they both +dined at the garrison mess, and Henry saw with additional pain, that the warm +felicitations of his brother officers on his return, were received by Gerald with +the same reserve and indifference which had characterized his meeting with +him, while he evinced the same disinclination to enter upon the solicited history +of his captivity, as well as the causes which led to his bold venture, and consequent +narrow escape, of the preceding day. Finding him thus incommunicative, +and not comprehending the change in his manner, they rallied him; +and, as the bottle circulated, he seemed more and more disposed to meet their +raillery with a cheerfulness and good humor that brought even the color into +his sunken cheeks; but when, finally, some of them proceeded to ask him, in +their taunting manner, what he had done with his old flame and fascinating +prisoner, Miss Montgomerie, a deadly paleness overspread his countenance, and +he lost in the moment all power of disguising his feelings. His emotion was +too sudden and too palpable, not to be observed by those who had unwillingly +called it forth, and they at once, with considerate tact, changed the conversation. +Hereupon Gerald again made an effort to rally, but no one returned to +the subject. Piqued at this conduct, he had more frequent recourse to the +bottle, and laughed and talked in a manner that proved him to be laboring +under the influence of extraordinary excitement. When he took leave of his +brother to retire to rest, he was silent, peevish, dissatisfied—almost angry.</p> + +<p>Henry passed a night of extreme disquiet. It was evident from what had +occurred at the mess-table in relation to the beautiful American, that to her +was to be ascribed the wretchedness to which Gerald had become a victim, and +he resolved on the following morning to waive all false delicacy, and throwing +himself upon his affection, to solicit his confidence, and offer whatever counsel +he conceived would best tend to promote his peace of mind.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span></p> + +<p>At breakfast the conversation turned on the intended movement, which was +to take place within three days, and on this subject Gerald evinced a vivacity +that warmed into eagerness. He had risen early that morning, with a view +to obtain the permission of the commodore to make one of the detachment of +sailors who were to accompany the expedition, and, having succeeded in obtaining +the command of one of the two gun-boats which were destined to +ascend the Miami, and form part of the battering force, seemed highly +pleased. This apparent return to himself might have led his brother into the +belief that his feelings had undergone a reaction, had he not, unfortunately, but +too much reason to know that the momentary gaiety was the result of the very +melancholy which consumed him. However, it gave him a more favorable +opportunity to open the subject next his heart, and, as a preparatory step, he +dexterously contrived to turn the conversation into the channel most suited +to his purpose.</p> + +<p>The only ill effect arising from Gerald's recent immersion was a sense of pain +in that part of his arm which had been bitten by the rattlesnake, on the day +of the pic-nic to Hog Island, and it chanced that this morning especially it had +a good deal annoyed him, evincing some slight predisposition to inflammation. +To subdue this, Henry applied with his own hand a liniment which had been +recommended, and took occasion, when he had finished, to remark on the +devotedness and fearlessness Miss Montgomerie had manifested in coming so +opportunely to his rescue—in all probability, thereby preserving his life.</p> + +<p>At the sound of this name Gerald started, and evinced the same impatience +of the subject he had manifested on the preceding day. Henry keenly remarked +his emotion, and Gerald was sensible that he did.</p> + +<p>Both sat for some minutes gazing at each other in expressive silence, the +one as if waiting to hear, the other as if conscious that he was expected to +afford, some explanation of the cause of so marked an emotion. At length +Gerald said and in a tone of deep and touching despondency, "Henry, I +fear you find me very unamiable and much altered, but indeed I am very +unhappy."</p> + +<p>Here was touched the first chord of their sympathies. Henry's, already on +the <i>élan</i>, flew to meet this demonstration of returning confidence, and he replied +in a voice broken by the overflowing of his full heart.</p> + +<p>"Oh, my beloved brother, changed must you indeed be, when even the admission +that you are unhappy inspires me with a thankfulness such as I now +feel. Gerald, I entreat, I implore you, by the love we have borne each other +from infancy, to disguise nothing from me. Tell me what it is that weighs so +heavily at your heart. Repose implicit confidence in me your brother, and let +me assist and advise you in your extremity, as my poor ability will permit. +Tell me, Gerald, wherefore are you thus altered—what dreadful disappointment +has thus turned the milk of your nature into gall?"</p> + +<p>Gerald gazed at him a moment intently. He was much affected, and a sudden +and unbidden tear stole down his pallid cheek. "If <i>you</i> have found the +milk of my nature turned into gall, then indeed am I even more wretched +than I thought myself. But, Henry, you ask me what I cannot yield—my confidence—and, +even were it not so, the yielding would advantage neither. I am +unhappy, as I have said, but the cause of that unhappiness must ever remain +buried here," and he pointed to his breast. This was said kindly, yet determinedly.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Enough, Gerald," and his brother spoke in terms of deep reproach, "since +you persist in withholding your confidence, I will no longer urge it; but you +cannot wonder that I, who love but you alone on earth, should sorrow as one +without hope, at beholding you subject to a grief so overwhelming as to have +driven you to seek refuge from it in an unhallowed grave."</p> + +<p>"I do not understand you—what mean you?" quickly interrupted Gerald, +raising his head from the hand which supported it at the breakfast-table +while he colored faintly.</p> + +<p>"You cannot well be ignorant of my meaning," pursued Henry in the same +tone, "if you but recur to the circumstances attending your arrival here."</p> + +<p>"I am still in the dark," continued Gerald, with some degree of impatience.</p> + +<p>"Because you know not that I am acquainted with all that took place on the +melancholy occasion. Gerald," he pursued, "forgive the apparent harshness +of what I am about to observe—but was it generous—was it kind in you to +incur the risk you did, when you must have known that your death would +have entailed upon me an eternal grief? Was it worthy of yourself, moreover, +to make the devoted follower of your fortunes, a sharer in the danger +you so eagerly and wantonly courted?"</p> + +<p>"Nay, my good brother," and Gerald made an attempt at levity, "you are +indeed an unsparing monitor; but suppose I should offer in reply, that a +spirit of enterprize was upon me on the occasion to which you allude, and that, +fired by a desire to astonish you all with a bold feat, I had resolved to do what +no other had done before me, yet without apprehending the serious consequences +which ensued—or even assuming the danger to have been so great."</p> + +<p>"All this, Gerald, you might, yet would not say; because, in saying it, you +would have to charge yourself with a gross insincerity; and although you do +not deem me worthy to share your confidence, I still have pleasure in knowing +that my affection will not be repaid with deceit—however plausible the +motives for its adoption may appear—by the substitution, in short, of that +which is not for that which is."</p> + +<p>"A gross insincerity?" repeated Gerald, again slightly coloring.</p> + +<p>"Yes, my brother—I say it not in anger, nor in reproach—but a gross insincerity +it would certainly be. Alas, Gerald, your motives are but too well +known to me. The danger you incurred was incurred wilfully, wantonly, and +with a view to your own destruction."</p> + +<p>Gerald started. The color had again fled from his sunken cheek, and +he was ashy pale. "And <i>how</i> knew you this?" he asked with a trembling +voice.</p> + +<p>"Even, Gerald, as I know that you have been driven to seek in wine that upbearing +against the secret grief which consumes you, which should be found alone +in the fortitude of a strong mind and the consciousness of an untainted honor. +Oh, Gerald, had these been your supporters, you never would have steeped +your reason so far in forgetfulness, as to have dared what you did on that +eventful day. Good Heaven! how little did I ever expect to see the brother +of my love degenerated so far as to border on the character of the drunkard +and the suicide."</p> + +<p>The quick but sunken eyes of the sailor flashed fire; and he pressed his lips, +and clenched his teeth together, as one strongly attempting to restrain his indignation. +It was but the momentary flashing of the chafed and bruised +spirit.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span></p> + +<p>"You probe me deeply, Henry," he said, calmly and in a voice of much +melancholy. "These are severe expressions for a brother to use; but you are +right—I did seek oblivion of my wretchedness in that whirlpool, as the only +means of destroying the worm that feeds incessantly upon my heart; but +Providence has willed it otherwise—and, morever, I had not taken the danger +of my faithful servant into the account. Had Sambo not saved me, I must +have perished; for I made not the slightest effort to preserve myself. However, +it matters but little, the mere manner of one's death," he pursued, with +increased despondency. "It is easy for you, Henry, whose mind is at peace +with itself and the world, to preach fortitude and resignation; but, felt you +the burning flame which scorches my vitals, you would acknowledge the +wide difference between theory and practice."</p> + +<p>Henry rose deeply agitated; he went to the door and secured the bolt; +then returning, knelt at his brother's feet. Gerald had one hand covering his +eyes, from which, however, the tears forced themselves through his closed +fingers. The other was seized and warmly pressed in his brother's grasp.</p> + +<p>"Gerald," he said, in the most emphatic manner, "by the love you ever +bore to our sainted parents, in whose chamber of death I now appeal to your +better feelings—by the friendship that has united our hearts from youth to +manhood—by all and every tie of affection, let me implore you once more to +confide this dreadful grief to me, that I may share it with you, and counsel +you for your good. Oh, my brother, on my bended knees do I solicit your +confidence. Believe me, no mean curiosity prompts my prayer. I would +soothe, console, assist you—aye, even to the very sacrifice of life."</p> + +<p>The feelings of the sailor were evidently touched, yet he uttered not a word. +His hand still covered his face, and the tears seemed to flow even faster than +before.</p> + +<p>"Gerald," pursued his brother, with bitterness; "I see, with pain, that I +have not your confidence, and I desist—yet answer me one question. From +the faithful Sambo, as you must perceive, I have learnt all connected with +your absence, and from him I have gained that, during your captivity, you were +much with Miss Montgomerie (he pronounced the name with an involuntary +shuddering); all I ask, therefore, is, whether your wretchedness proceeds from +the rejection of your suit, or from any levity or inconstancy you may have +found in her?"</p> + +<p>Gerald raised his head from his supporting hand, and turned upon his +brother a look in which mortified pride predominated over an infinitude of +conflicting emotions.</p> + +<p>"Rejected, Henry, <i>my</i> suit rejected—oh, no! In supposing my grief to originate +with her, you are correct; but imagine not it is because my suit is rejected—certainly +not."</p> + +<p>"Then," exclaimed Henry, with generous emphasis, while he pressed the +thin hand which he held more closely between his own, "Why not marry +her?"</p> + +<p>Gerald started.</p> + +<p>"Yes, marry her," continued Henry; "marry her and be at peace. Oh! +Gerald, you know not what sad agency I attached to that insidious American +from the first moment of her landing on this shore—you know not how much +I have disliked, and still dislike her—but what are all these considerations +when my brother's happiness is at stake? Gerald, marry her—and be +happy."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Impossible," returned the sailor, in a feeble voice, and again his heart sank +upon the open palm of his hand.</p> + +<p>"Do you no longer love her, then?" eagerly questioned the astonished +youth.</p> + +<p>Once more Gerald raised his head, and fixed his large, dim eyes full upon +those of his brother. "To madness!" he said, in a voice and with a look that +made Henry shudder. There was a moment of painful pause. The latter at +length ventured to observe:</p> + +<p>"You speak in riddles, Gerald. If you love this Miss Montgomerie to +madness, and are, as you seem to intimate, loved by her in return, why not, +as I have urged, marry her?"</p> + +<p>"Because," replied the sailor, turning paler than before, and almost gasping +for breath, "there is a condition attached to the possession of her hand."</p> + +<p>"And that is?" pursued Henry, inquiringly, after another long and painful +pause—</p> + +<p>"My secret," and Gerald pointed significantly to his breast.</p> + +<p>"True," returned Henry, slightly coloring; "I had forgotten—but what +condition, Gerald (and here he spoke as if piqued at the abrupt manner in +which his brother had concluded his half confidence), what condition, I ask, +may a woman entitled to our respect, as well as to our love, propose, which +should be held of more account than that severest of offences against the Divine +will—self-murder? Nay, look not thus surprised; for have you not admitted +that you had guiltily attempted to throw away your life—to commit +suicide, in short—rather than comply with an earthly condition?"</p> + +<p>"What if in this," returned Gerald, with a smile of bitterness, "I have +preferred the lesser guilt to the greater?"</p> + +<p>"I can understand no condition, my brother, a woman worthy of your +esteem could impose, which should one moment weigh in the same scale +against the inexpiable crime of self-destruction. But, really, all this mystery +so startles and confounds me, that I know not what to think—what inference +to draw."</p> + +<p>"Henry," observed the sailor, with some show of impatience, "considering +your promise not to urge it further, it seems to me you push the matter to an +extremity."</p> + +<p>The youth made no reply, but, raising himself from his knees, moved towards +the door, which he again unbolted. He then walked to the window +at the further end of the apartment.</p> + +<p>Gerald saw that he was deeply pained; and, impatient and angry with +himself, he also rose and paced the room with hurried steps. At length he +stopped, and putting one hand upon the shoulder of his brother, who stood +gazing vacantly from the window, pointed with the other towards that part +of the apartment in which both their parents had breathed their last.</p> + +<p>"Henry, my kind, good Henry," he said, with a voice faltering with emotion, +"do you recollect the morning when, on our return from school, we +found our young holiday joy changed into heart-breaking and mourning by +the sight of our dying mother?"</p> + +<p>"Remember it, Gerald! aye, even as though it had been yesterday. Oh, +my brother, little did I think at the moment when, with hands closely clasped +together, we sank, overcome with grief, upon our bended knees, to receive that +mother's blessing, a day would ever arrive when the joy or sorrow of the one<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> +should form no portion of the joy or sorrow of the other."</p> + +<p>"It was there," pursued Gerald, and without noticing the interruption, +"that we solemnly pledged ourselves to do the will and bidding of our father +in all things."</p> + +<p>"Even so, Gerald, I remember it well."</p> + +<p>"And it was there," continued the sailor, with the emphasis of strong emotion, +"that, during my unfortunate absence from the death-bed of our yet +surviving parent, you gave a pledge for <i>both</i>, that no action of our lives should +reflect dishonor on his unsullied name."</p> + +<p>"I did. Both in your name and in my own, I gave the pledge—well knowing +that, in that, I merely anticipated your desire."</p> + +<p>"Most assuredly; what then would be your sensations were you to know +that I had violated that sacred obligation?"</p> + +<p>"Deep, poignant, ceaseless regret, that my once noble and high-spirited +brother should have been so lost to respect for his father's memory and for +himself." This was uttered not without deep agitation.</p> + +<p>"You are right, Henry," added Gerald, mournfully; "better, far better, is +it to die than live on in the consciousness of having forfeited all claim to +esteem."</p> + +<p>The young soldier started as if a viper had stung him. "Gerald," he said, +eagerly, "you have not dishonored yourself. Oh no—tell me, my brother, +that you have not."</p> + +<p>"No," was the cold, repulsive answer; "although my peace of mind is fled," +he pursued, rather more mildly, "my honor, thank heaven, remains as pure +as when you first pledged yourself for its preservation."</p> + +<p>"Thanks, my brother, for that. But can it really be possible, that the +mysterious condition attached to Miss Montgomerie's love involves the loss +of honor?"</p> + +<p>Gerald made no answer.</p> + +<p>"And can <i>you</i> really be weak enough to entertain a passion for a woman, +who would make the dishonoring of the fair fame of him she professes to love +the fearful price at which her affection is to be purchased?"</p> + +<p>Gerald seemed to wince at the word "weak," which was rather emphatically +pronounced, and looked displeased at the concluding part of the sentence.</p> + +<p>"I said not that the condition attached to her <i>love</i>," he remarked, with the +piqued expression of a wounded vanity; "her affection is mine, I know, beyond +her own power of control—the condition relates not to her heart, but to her +hand."</p> + +<p>"Alas, my poor infatuated brother. Blinding indeed must be the delusions +of passion, when a nature so sensitive and so honorable shrinks not from such +a connexion. My only surprise is, that, with such a perversion of judgment +you have returned at all."</p> + +<p>"No more of this Henry. It is not in man to control his destiny, and mine +appears to be to love with a fervor that must bear me, ere long, to my grave. +Of this, however, be assured—that, whatever my weakness, or infatuation, as +you may be pleased to call it, <i>that</i> passion shall never be gratified at the expense +of my honor. Deeply—madly as I doat upon her image, Miss Montgomerie +and I have met for the last time."</p> + +<p>Overcome by the emotion with which he had thus expressed himself, Gerald +could not restrain a few burning tears that forced their way down his hollow<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> +cheeks. Henry caught eagerly at this indication of returning softness, and +again essayed, in reference to the concluding declaration of his brother, to urge +upon him the unworthiness of her who had thus cast her deadly spell upon +his happiness. But Gerald could ill endure the slightest allusion to the +subject.</p> + +<p>"Henry," he said, "I have already told you that Miss Montgomerie and I +have parted for ever; but not the less devotedly do I love her. If, therefore, +you would not farther wring a heart already half broken with affliction, oblige +me by never making the slightest mention of her name in my presence—or +ever adverting again to our conversation of this morning. I am sure, Henry, +you will not deny me this."</p> + +<p>Henry offered no other reply than by throwing himself into the arms that +were extended to receive him. The embrace of the brothers was long and +fervent, and, although there was perhaps more of pain than pleasure, in their +mutual sense of the causes which had led to it in the present instance—still +was it productive of a luxury the most heartfelt. It seemed to both as if the +spirits of their departed parents hovered over, and blessed them in this indication +of their returning affection, hallowing, with their invisible presence, a +scene connected with the last admonitions from their dying lips. When they +had thus given vent to their feelings, although the sense of unhappiness continued +undiminished, their hearts experienced a sensible relief; and when they +separated for the morning, in pursuit of their respective avocations, it was with +a subdued manner on the part of Gerald, and a vague hope with Henry, that +his brother's disease would eventually yield to various influences, and that other +and happier days were yet in store for both.</p> + + + + +<h2 class="p4"><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII">CHAPTER XXII.</a></h2> + + +<p>Meanwhile the preparations for the departure of the expedition for the +Miami were rapidly completing. To the majority of the regular force of the +two garrisons were added several companies of militia, and a considerable body +of Indians, under Tecumseh—the two former portions of the force being destined +to advance by water, the latter by land. The spring had been unusually +early, and the whole of April remarkably warm; on some occasions sultry +to oppressiveness—as for instance on the morning of the tempest. They were +now in the first days of the last week of that month, and everywhere, quick +and luxuriant vegetation had succeeded to the stubborn barrenness and monotony +of winter. Not a vestige of that dense mass of ice which, three months +previously, had borne them over lake and river, was now to be seen. The sun +danced joyously and sportively on the golden wave, and where recently +towered the rugged surface of the tiny iceberg, the still, calm, unbroken level +of the mirroring lake was only visible. On the beach, just below the town, +and on a line with the little fleet, that lay at anchor between the island and +the main, were drawn up numerous batteaux, ready for the reception of the +troops, while on the decks of two gun-boats, that were moored a few yards +without them, were to be seen the battering train and entrenching tools intended +to accompany the expedition. Opposite to each batteau was kindled a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> +fire, around which were grouped the <i>voyageurs</i> composing the crew, some dividing +their salt pork or salt fish upon their bread, with a greasy clasped knife, +and quenching the thirst excited by this with occasional libations from tin +cans, containing a mixture of water and the poisonous distillation of the country, +miscalled whiskey. In other directions, those who had dined sat puffing +the smoke from their dingy pipes, while again, they who had sufficiently +luxuriated on the weed, might be seen sleeping, after the manner of the Indians, +with their heads resting on the first rude pillow that offered itself, and +their feet close upon the embers of the fire on which they had prepared their +meal. The indolence of inactivity was more or less upon all, but it was the indolence +consequent on previous exertion, and a want of further employment. +The whole scene was characteristic of the peculiar manners of the French +Canadian boatmen.</p> + +<p>Since the morning of the long and partial explanation between the brothers, +no further allusion had been made to the forbidden subject. Henry saw, with +unfeigned satisfaction, that Gerald not only abstained from the false excitement +to which he had hitherto had recourse, but that he apparently sought to +rally against his dejection. It is true that whenever he chanced to surprise +him alone, he observed him pale, thoughtful, and full of care, but, as he invariably +endeavored to hide the feeling at his approach, he argued favorably +even from the effort. Early on the day previous to that of the sailing of the +expedition, Gerald asked leave for a visit of a few hours to Detroit, urging a +desire to see the family of his uncle, who still remained quartered at that post, +and whom he had not met since his return from captivity. This had been +readily granted by the Commodore, in whom the change in the health and +spirits of his young favorite had excited both surprise and concern, and who, +anxious for his restoration, was ready to promote whatever might conduce to +his comfort. He had even gone so far as to hint the propriety of his relinquishing +his intention of accompanying the expedition, (which was likely to +be attended with much privation and exposure to those engaged in it), and +suffering another officer to be substituted to his command, while he remained +at home to recruit his health. But Gerald heard the well meant proposal +with ill disguised impatience, and he replied with a burning cheek, that if his +absence for a day could not be allowed without inconvenience to the service, +he was ready to submit; but, as far as regarded his making one of the expedition, +nothing short of a positive command should compel him to remain behind. +Finding him thus obstinate, the Commodore good humoredly called +him a silly, wilful, fellow, and bade him have his own way; however he felt +confident that, if he accompanied the Miami expedition in his then state of +health, he never would return from it.</p> + +<p>Gerald submitted it was probable enough he should not, but, although he +deeply felt the kindness of his Commander's motive in wishing him to remain, +he was not the less determined, since the matter was left to his own choice, to +go where his duty led him. Then, promising to be back long before the hour +fixed for sailing the ensuing day, he warmly pressed the cordially extended +hand, and soon afterwards, accompanied by Sambo, whose skill as a rider was +in no way inferior to his dexterity as a steersman, mounted a favorite horse, +and was soon far on his road to Detroit.</p> + +<p>Towards midnight of that day, two men were observed by the American +tanner to enter by the gate that led into the grounds of the cottage, and, after<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> +lingering for a few moments, near the graves to which tradition had attached +so much of the marvellous, to disappear round the angle of the building into +the court behind. Curiosity induced him to follow and watch their movements, +and, although he could not refrain from turning his head at least a +dozen times, as if expecting at each moment to encounter some dread inhabitant +of the tomb, he at length contrived to place himself in the very position +in which Gerald had formerly been a witness of the attempt at assassination. +From the same window now flashed a strong light upon the court below, and +by this the features of the officer and his servant were distinctly revealed to +the astonished tanner, who, ignorant of their return, and scarcely knowing +whether he gazed upon the living or the dead, would have fled, had he not, as +he afterwards confessed, been rooted by fear, and a species of fascination, to +the spot. The appearance and actions of the parties indeed seemed to justify, +not only the delusion, but the alarm of the worthy citizen. Both Gerald and +Sambo were disguised in large dark cloaks, and as the light fell upon the thin +person and pale, attenuated, sunken countenance of the former, he could +scarcely persuade himself this was the living man, who a few months before, +rich in beauty and in health, had questioned him of the very spot in which he +now, under such strange circumstances, beheld him. Nor was the appearance +of the negro more assuring. Filled with the terror that ever inspired him on +approaching this scene of past horrors, his usually dark cheek wore the dingy +paleness characteristic of death in one of his color, while every muscle, stiff, +set, contracted by superstitious fear, seemed to have lost all power of relaxation. +The solemnity moreover of the manner of both, was in strict keeping +with their personal appearance, so that it can scarcely be wondered that in a +mind not the strongest nor the most free from a belief in the supernatural, a +due quantum of awe and alarm should have been instilled. Fear, however, +had not wholly subdued curiosity, and even while trembling to such a degree +that he could scarcely keep his teeth from chattering, the tanner followed with +eager eye the movements of those he knew not whether to look upon as +ghosts or living beings. The room was exactly in the state in which we last +described it, with this difference merely, that the table, on which the lamp +and books had been placed now lay overturned, as if in the course of some +violent scuffle, and its contents distributed over the floor. The bed still remained, +in the same corner, unmade, and its covering tossed. It was evident +no one had entered the apartment since the night of the attempted assassination.</p> + +<p>The first act of Gerald, who bore the light, followed closely by Sambo, was +to motion the latter to raise the fallen table. When this was done he placed +his lamp upon it, and sinking upon the foot of the bed, and covering his eyes +with his hands, seemed utterly absorbed in bitter recollections. The negro, +meanwhile, an apparent stranger to the scene, cast his eyes around him with +the shrinking caution of one who finds himself in a position of danger, and +fears to encounter some terrific sight, then, as if the effort was beyond his +power, he drew the collar of his cloak over his face, and shuffling to get as near +as possible to the bed as though in the act he came more immediately under +the protection of him who sat upon it, awaited, in an attitude of statue-like +immobility, the awakening of his master from his reverie.</p> + +<p>Gerald at length withdrew his hands from his pallid face, on which the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> +glare of the lamp rested forcibly, and, with a wild look and low, but imperative +voice, bade the old negro seat himself beside him still lower on the +bed.</p> + +<p>"Sambo," he inquired abruptly—"how old were you when the Indian massacre +took place near this spot. You were then, I think I have heard it stated, +the servant of Sir Everard Valletort?"</p> + +<p>The old negro looked aghast. It was long since direct allusion had been +made to his unfortunate master or the events of that period. Questioned in +such a spot, and at such an hour, he could not repress the feeling of terror +conjured up by the allusion. Scarcely daring to exceed a whisper, he answered.</p> + +<p>"Oh Massa Geral, for Hebben's sake no talkee dat. It berry long time ago, +and break poor nigger heart to tink ob it——"</p> + +<p>"But I insist on knowing," returned Gerald loudly and peremptorily; +"were you old enough to recollect the curse that poor heart-broken woman, +Ellen Halloway, uttered on all our race, and if so what was it?"</p> + +<p>"No, Massa Geral, I no sabby dat. Sambo den only piccaninny, and Sir +Ebbered make him top in he fort—oh berry bad times dat, Massa Geral. +Poor Frank Hallabay he shot fust, because he let he grandfadder out ob he +fort, and den ebery ting go bad—berry bad indeed."</p> + +<p>"But the curse of Ellen Halloway, Sambo, you must have heard of it surely—even +if you were not present at the utterance. Did she not," he continued, +finding that the other replied not: "Did she not pray that the blood of my +great grandfather's children might be spilt on the very spot that had been +moistened with that of her ill-fated husband—and, that if any of the race +should survive, it might be only with a view to their perishing in some horrible +manner. Was not this the case?"</p> + +<p>"Oh yes, Massa Geral, berry bad tongue Ellen, affer he lose he husband—but, +poor ting, he half mad and no sabby what he say. He time to start for +he gun-boat, Massa Geral."</p> + +<p>The part Sambo had sustained in this short dialogue was a forced one. He +had answered almost mechanically, and not altogether without embarrassment, +the few queries that were put to him. Nay, so far was he governed by surrounding +local influences, that the anguish he would, under other circumstances, +have experienced, at this raking up of recollections he so sedulously +avoided, was lost in terror, produced by his near and midnight propinquity to +the fatal theatre of death. His only idea now was to leave the spot as quickly +as he could.</p> + +<p>Gerald had again covered his face with his hands, and appeared to be laboring +under strong agitation of mind. At length he started abruptly up, and +seizing the light, held it forward, stooping over the bed, as if gazing fixedly on +some object within.</p> + +<p>"No," he said with vehemence, "it shall never be. That part of the malediction, +at least, shall <i>not</i> be accomplished. For once shall the curse of the +innocent be unheeded."</p> + +<p>The strange action and words of the excited officer, by no means contributed +to allay the nervousness of the brave but superstitious negro. He had approached +as near as he could to Gerald, without actually touching him, but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> +when he remarked his abrupt movement, and heard the sudden outburst +feeling which accompanied it, he half fancied he was apostrophizing some +spirit visible only to himself, and shocked and terrified at this idea, he turned +away his head.</p> + +<p>Sambo's alarm was not to terminate here. Scarcely had he bent his glance +upon the window when he beheld two glaring eyes, magnified by his fear into +thrice their natural size, fixed intently on that part of the room in which they +stood. He attempted to cry out, but the sound was stifled in his throat, and +he sank upon his knees, holding up his hands in an attitude of prayer—his +teeth chattering, and his eyes fascinated by those which had produced in him +this paroxysm of terror. Presently he thought he saw a mouth open, and a +row of large and ragged teeth display themselves in a grin of derision. With +a desperate effort he broke the spell that seemed to enchain every faculty, and +called piteously and imploringly on the name of Gerald. The officer, who had +continued gazing on the untenanted bed in deep abstraction, and seeming forgetfulness +of all surrounding objects, turned hastily round, and was much concerned +to observe the terrified expression of the old man's countenance. Following +the direction of his fixed gaze, he looked toward the window for a solution +of the cause. At that moment a noise was heard without, as of a falling +body. Gerald sprang towards the window, and hastily lifting it, thrust +the lamp through; but nothing was visible, neither was there sound of footsteps +to be heard.</p> + +<p>Before daybreak on the following morning, the poor old negro, whom no +living danger could daunt, had given but too alarming evidence that his reason +was utterly alienated. His ravings were wild and fearful, and nothing could +remove the impression that the face he had beheld was that of the once terrible +Wacousta—the same face which had presented itself, under such extraordinary +circumstances, at the window of the Canadian's hut, on the night of +the departure of his master, Sir Everard Valletort, and Captain De Haldimer, +for Michillimackinac in 1763. Nay, so rooted was this belief, that, with the +fervor of that zeal which had governed his whole life and conduct towards +each succeeding generation of the family, he prayed and obtained, during a +momentary gleam of reason, the promise of the much shocked Gerald, +that he would never again set foot within the precincts of these fatal +grounds.</p> + +<p>Inexpressibly grieved as Gerald was at this sad and unexpected termination +to his adventure, he had no time to linger near his unfortunate servant. +The expedition was to set out in a few hours, and he had too completely bent +his mind upon accompanying it to incur the slightest chance of a disappointment. +Leaving the faithful and unfortunate creature to the care of his uncle's +family, by every member of whom he was scarcely less loved than by himself, +he took the ferry to the opposite shore within an hour after daybreak, +and made such speed that, when Henry came down to breakfast he found, to +his surprise, his brother already there.</p> + +<p>During his ride, Gerald had had leisure to reflect on the events of the preceding +night, and bitterly did he regret having yielded to a curiosity which +had cost the unfortunate Sambo so much. He judged correctly that they had +been followed in their nocturnal excursion, and that it was the face of some +prying visitant which Sambo's superstitious dread had transformed into a +hideous vision of the past. He recalled the insuperable aversion the old man<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> +had ever entertained to approach or even make mention of the spot, and greatly +did he blame himself for having persisted in offering a violence to his nature, +the extent of which had been made so fearfully obvious. It brought no consolation +to him to reflect that the spot itself contained nought that should +have produced so alarming an effect on a mind properly constituted. He felt +that, knowing his weakness as he did, he ought not to have trifled with it, and +could not deny to himself, that in enforcing his attendance, with a view to +obtain information on several points connected with the past, he had been indirectly +the destroyer of his reason. There had been a season when the unhappy +sailor would have felt a sorrow even deeper than he did, but Gerald +was indeed an altered being—too much rapt in himself to give heed to +others.</p> + +<p>The painful nature of his reflections, added to the fatigue he had undergone, +had given to his countenance a more than usually haggard expression. Henry +remarked it and inquired the cause, when his brother, in a few brief sentences, +explained all that had occurred during his absence. Full of affection as he +was for the old man, and utterly unprepared for such a communication, Henry +could not avoid expressing deep vexation that his brother, aware as he was of +the peculiar weakness of their aged friend, should have been inconsiderate +enough to have drawn him thither. Gerald felt the reproof to be just, and +for that very reason grew piqued under it. Pained as he was at the condition +of Sambo, Henry was even more distressed at witnessing the apparent apathy +of his brother for the fate of one who had not merely saved his life on a recent +occasion, but had evinced a devotedness—a love for him—in every circumstance +of life, which seldom had had their parallel in the annals of human servitude. +It was in vain that he endeavored to follow the example of Gerald, +who, having seated himself at the breakfast table, was silently appeasing an +appetite such as he had not exhibited since his return. Incapable of swallowing +his food, Henry paced up and down the room, violently agitated and sick +at heart. It seemed to him as if Sambo had been a sort of connecting link +between themselves and the departed parents; and now that he was suddenly +and fearfully afflicted, he thought he could see in the vista of futurity a long +train of evils that threw their shadows before, and portended the consummation +of some unknown, unseen affliction, having its origin in the incomprehensible +alienation of his brother's heart from the things of his early love.</p> + +<p>While he was yet indulging in these painful thoughts, the firing of a gun +from the harbor—the signal for the embarkation of the troops—brought both +Gerald and himself to a sense of other considerations. The latter was the +first to quit the house. "Henry," he said, with much emotion, "God bless +you. It is possible that, as our service lies in different lines, we shall see but +little of each other during this expedition. Of one thing, however, be assured—that +although I am an unhappy man, I am anything but dead to feeling.—Henry," +he continued pressing his hand with warmth, "think not unkindly +hereafter of your poor brother Gerald." A long embrace, in which +each, although in silence, seemed to blend heart with heart, ensued, and both +greatly relieved, as they always were after this generous expansion of their +feelings, separated forthwith whither their respective duties summoned them.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span></p> + + + + +<h2 class="p4"><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII">CHAPTER XXIII.</a></h2> + + +<p>Seldom has there been witnessed a more romantic or picturesque sight +than that presented by a warlike expedition of batteaux moving across one +of the American lakes, during a season of profound calm. The uniform and +steady pull of the crew, directed in their time by the wild chaunt of the steersman, +with whom they ever and anon join in full chorus—the measured plash +of the oars into the calm surface of the water—the joyous laugh and rude, but +witty, jest of the more youthful and buoyant of the soldiery, from whom, at +such moments, although in presence of their officers, the trammels of restraint +are partially removed—all these, added to the inspiriting sight of their gay +scarlet uniforms, and the dancing of the sunbeams upon their polished arms, +have a tendency to call up impressions of a wild interest, tempered only by +the recollection that many of those who move gaily on, as if to a festival—bright +in hope as though the season of existence were to last for ever—may +never more set eye upon the scenes they are fast quitting, with the joyousness +produced by the natural thirst of the human heart for adventure, and a love +of change.</p> + +<p>On the second day of its departure from Malden, the expedition, preceded +by the gun-boats, entered the narrow river of the Miami, and, the woods on +either shore being scoured by the Indians, gained without opposition the point +of debarkation. Batteries having, under great difficulties, been erected on the +right bank, immediately opposite to and about six hundred yards from the +American fort, which had been recently and hurriedly constructed, a heavy +and destructive fire was, on the morning of the third day, opened from them, +supported by the gun-boats, one of which, commanded by Gerald Grantham, +had advanced so close to the enemy's position as to have diverted upon herself +the fire which would else have been directed to the demolition of a British +battery, hastily thrown up on the left bank. The daring manifested by the +gallant sailor was subject of surprise and admiration at once to friends and +foes; and yet, although his boat lay moored within musket shot of the defences, +he sustained but trifling loss. The very recklessness and boldness of +his advance had been the means of his preservation; for, as almost all the +shots from the battery flew over him, it was evident he owed his safety to the +difficulty the Americans found in depressing their guns sufficiently to bear +advantageously upon the boat, which, if anchored fifty yards beyond, they +might have blown out of the water.</p> + +<p>The limits of our story will not admit of a further detail of the operations +of this siege. The object was foiled, and the expedition was re-embarked and +directed against Fort Sandusky, a post of the Americans situated on the river +of that name, and running also into Lake Erie.</p> + +<p>Here, once more, was the British artillery landed, while, under a heavy fire +from the fort, the troops advanced within range, to take possession of an eminence +whereon it was intended to erect the batteries. Two days were passed +in incessant cannonading, but, as at the Miami, without making the slightest +impression. Finding all idea of a practicable breach hopeless, it was at length +resolved that an attempt at assault should be made; and, with this view, the +troops were, on the afternoon of the second day, ordered to hold themselves +in immediate readiness.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span></p> + +<p>In consequence of the shallowness of the river, it had been found necessary +to moor the gun-boats at a point considerably below, and out of sight of the +fort. Gerald Grantham had obtained permission to leave his command, and +take charge of one of the batteries, which, however, he relinquished on the day +of the assault, having successfully petitioned to be permitted to join the attack +as a volunteer. In the dress of a grenadier soldier, disabled during the siege, +he now joined the party of animated officers, who, delighted at the prospect +of being brought once more in close contact with their enemies, after so many +wearing days of inaction—were seated at a rude but plentiful repast in Captain +Cranstoun's tent, and indulging in remarks which, although often uttered +without aim or ill-nature, are as often but too bitter subject of after self-reproach +to those who have uttered them. Of those who had originally set out +on the expedition, the only officer of the Forty-first Regiment absent was +Henry Grantham, who, having been slightly wounded at the Miami, had, +much against his inclination, been ordered back to Amherstburg, in charge +of the sick and wounded of the detachment, and this so suddenly, that he had +not had an opportunity of taking leave of his brother.</p> + +<p>"Ha! Gerald, my fine fellow," exclaimed Captain Molineux, as the youth +now joined their circle, "so you have clapped on the true harness at last. I +always said that your figure became a red jacket a devilish deal better than a +blue. But what new freak is this? Had you not a close enough berth to +Jonathan in the Miami, without running the risk of a broken head with us +to-day in his trenches?"</p> + +<p>"No such good luck is there in store for my juniors, I fancy," replied +Grantham, swallowing off a goblet of wine which had been presented to him—"but +if I do fall, it will be in good company. Although the American +seems to lie quietly within his defences, there is that about him which promises +us rather a hot reception."</p> + +<p>"So much the better," said Villiers; "there will be broken heads for +some of us. Who do you think we have booked for a place to the other +world?"</p> + +<p>Gerald made no answer, but his look and manner implied that he understood +himself to be the party thus favored.</p> + +<p>"Not so," returned Villiers, "we can't afford to spare you yet—besides, the +death of a blue jacket can in no way benefit us. What's the use of 'a bloody +war and a sickly season,' that standard toast at every West India mess, if the +juniors are to go off, and not the seniors?—Cranstoun's the man we've +booked."</p> + +<p>"Captain Cranstoun, I have the honor of wishing you a safe passage, and +speedy promotion in Heaven," said Middlemore, draining off his glass. +"Devilish good port this of yours! By the bye, as you have a better <i>port</i> in +view, you cannot do better than assign over what is left of this to me."</p> + +<p>"Thank you, Mr. Middlemore," returned Cranstoun, drily yet good-humoredly, +"yet as you are attached to my division, you will perhaps run just the +same risk; and as, perhaps, you will not require more wine than we have +taken to-day, I will pledge you in a last cup a safe passage to Heaven, where +I trust you will find credit for better qualities than you possess as a +punster."</p> + +<p>"What," asked Gerald, with an unfeigned surprise, when the laugh against +Middlemore had subsided, "and is it really in his own wine that you have all<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span> +been thus courteously pledging Captain Cranstoun's death?"</p> + +<p>"Even so," said Middlemore, rallying and returning to the attack, "he invited +us all to lunch in his tent, and how could we better repay him for opening +his hampers, than by returning his <i>spirit scot-free</i> and <i>unhampered</i> to +Heaven?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, oh, oh!" ejaculated St. Clair, stopping his ears and throwing up his +eyes; "surely, Mr. Middlemore, if you are not shot this day, it must be that +you were born to be hanged—no man can perpetrate so horrible a pun, and +expect to live."</p> + +<p>"I'm hanged if I am, then," returned the other; "but, talking of being +shot—is there another shot in the locker, Cranstoun—-another bottle of +port?"</p> + +<p>"The shot that is reserved for you, will bring you acquainted with another +locker than Cranstoun's, I suspect," said Villiers, "one Mr. David Jones's +locker—hit there, eh?"</p> + +<p>The low roll of a muffled drum suddenly recalled the party from their trifling +to considerations of a graver interest. It was the signal for forming the +columns of attack. In a moment the tone, the air of ribaldry, was exchanged +for a seriousness that befitted the occasion—and it seemed as if a momentary +reproach passed over the minds of those who had most amused themselves at +the expense of Cranstoun, for each, as he quitted the tent, gave his extended +hand to his host, who pressed it in a manner to show all was forgiven.</p> + +<p>The English batteries had been constructed on the skirt of the wood surrounding +the fort, from which latter they were separated by a meadow covered +with long grass, about six hundred yards across at the narrowest point. +Behind these the columns of attack, three in number, were now rapidly and +silently formed. To that commanded by Captain Cranstoun, on the extreme +left, and intended to assault the fort at the strongest point, Gerald Grantham +had attached himself, in the simple dress, as we have observed, of a private +soldier, and armed with a common musket. In passing, with the former officer, +to take his position in front of the column, he was struck by the utter want +of means for executing with success the duty assigned to the several divisions. +Each column was provided with a certain number of axemen, selected to act +as pioneers; but not one of the necessary implements was in a condition to +be used: neither had a single fascine or ladder been provided, although it was +well known that a deep ditch remained to be passed before the axes, inefficient +as they were, could be brought into use.</p> + +<p>"Such," said Captain Cranstoun, with a sneer of much bitterness, "are the +pitiful things on which hang the lives of our brave fellows. No doubt the +despatches will say a great deal about the excellent arrangements for attack—but +if you do not fall, Gerald, I hope you will make a proper representation +of the affair. As you belong to the other service, there is little fear the General +can hurt your promotion for merely speaking the truth. A General, +indeed!—who'll say Fortune is not blind to make a General of such as he?"</p> + +<p>It was not an usual thing for Cranstoun to express himself thus in regard +to his superiors; but he was really vexed at the idea of the sacrifice of human +life that must attend this wantonness of neglect and imbecility of arrangement. +He had moreover taken wine enough, not in any way to intoxicate, but +sufficient to thaw his habitual caution and reserve. Fearless as his sword, he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> +cared not for his own life; but, although a strict officer, he was ever attentive +to the interests of his men, who in their turn, admired him for his cool, unflinching +courage, and would have dared anything under the direction of their +captain.</p> + +<p>It was evident that the contempt of the sailor for the capacity of the leader, +to whom it was well known all the minute arrangements were submitted, was +not one whit inferior to what was entertained by the brave and honest Cranstoun. +He, however, merely answered, as they both assumed their places in +front, and with the air of one utterly indifferent to these disadvantages.</p> + +<p>"No matter, Cranstoun, the greater the obstacles we have to contend against, +the more glorious will be our victory. Where you lead, however, we shall +not be long in following."</p> + +<p>"Hem! since it is to be a game of follow-my-leader," said Middlemore, who +had now joined them, "I must not be far behind. A month's pay with either +of you I reach the stockade first."</p> + +<p>"Done, Middlemore, done," eagerly replied Cranstoun, and they joined +hands in confirmation of the bet.</p> + +<p>This conversation had taken place during the interval occupied by the +movements of the right and centre columns along the skirt of the wood, to +equidistant points in the half circle embraced in the plan of attack. A single +blast of the bugle now announced that the furthermost had reached its place +of destination, when suddenly a gun—the first fired since noon from the English +batteries—gave the signal for which all were now prepared.</p> + +<p>In the next minute the heads of the several columns debouched from the +woods, and, the whole advancing in double quick time, with their arms at the +trail, moved across the meadow in the several directions assigned them. The +space to be traversed by Captain Cranstoun's division was considerably the +shortest of the three; but, on the other hand, he was opposed to that part of +the enemy's defences where there was the least cover afforded to an assailing +force.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile there was an utter repose in the fort, which for some moments +induced the belief that the Americans were preparing to surrender their trust +without a struggle, and loud yells from the Indians, who, from their cover in +the rear, watched the progress of the troops with admiration and surprise, +were pealed forth as if in encouragement to the latter to proceed. But the +American Commander had planned his defence with skill. No sooner had the +several columns got within half musket shot, than a tremendous fire of musketry +and rifles was opened upon them from two distinct faces of the stockade. +Captain Cranstoun's division, being the nearest, was the first attacked, and +suffered considerably without attempting to return a shot. At the first discharge, +the two leading sergeants, and many of the men, were knocked down; +but neither Cranstoun, nor Middlemore, nor Grantham, were touched.</p> + +<p>"Forward men, forward," shouted the former, brandishing his sword, and +dashing down a deep ravine, that separated them from the trenches.</p> + +<p>"On, my gallant fellows, on!—the left column for ever!" cried Middlemore, +imitating the example of his captain, and, in his eagerness to reach the ditch +first, leaving his men to follow as they could.</p> + +<p>Few of these, however, needed the injunction. Although galled by the severe +fire of the enemy, they followed their leaders down the ravine with a +steadiness worthy of a better result; then climbing up the opposite ascent,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> +under a shower of bullets, yet, without pulling a trigger themselves, made for +the ditch their officer had already gained.</p> + +<p>Cranstoun, still continuing in advance, was the first who arrived on the +brink. For a moment he paused, as if uncertain what course to pursue, then, +seeing Middlemore close behind him, he leaped in, and striking a blow of his +sabre upon the stockade, called loudly upon the axemen to follow. While he +was yet shouting, a ball from a loop-hole not three feet above his head, entered +his brain, and he fell dead across the trench.</p> + +<p>"Ha! well have you won your wager, my noble Captain," exclaimed Middlemore, +putting his hand to his chest, and staggering from the effects of a shot +he had that instant received. "You are indeed the <i>better</i> man" (he continued, +excited beyond his usual calm by the circumstances in which he found himself +placed, yet unable to resist his dominating propensity, even at such a +moment,) "and deserve the palm of honor this day. Forward, men, forward! +axemen, do your duty.—Down with the stockade, my lads, and give them a +bellyful of steel."</p> + +<p>Scarcely had he spoken, when a second discharge from the same wall-piece +that had killed Cranstoun passed through his throat. "Forward!" he again +but more faintly shouted, with the gurgling tone of suffocation peculiar to a +wound in that region, then falling headlong into the ditch, was in the next instant +trodden under by the advance of the column who rushed forward, though +fruitlessly, to avenge the deaths of their officers.</p> + +<p>All was now confusion, noise and carnage. Obeying the command of their +leader, the axemen had sprung into the ditch, and, with efforts nerved by desperation, +applied themselves vigorously to the task allotted them. But as well +might they have attempted to raze the foundations of the globe itself. Incapable +from their bluntness of making the slightest impression on the obstinate +wood, the iron at each stroke rebounded off, leaving to the eye no vestige of +where it had rested. Filled with disappointment and rage, the brave and +unfortunate fellows dashed the useless metal to the earth, and endeavored to +escape from the ditch back into the ravine, where, at least, there was a prospect +of supplying themselves with more serviceable weapons from among their +slain comrades; but the ditch was deep and slimy, and the difficulty of ascent +great. Before they could accomplish it, the Americans opened a fire from a +bastion, the guns of which, loaded with slugs and musket balls, raked the +trench from end to end, and swept away all that came within its range. This +was the first check given to the division of the unfortunate Cranstoun. Many +of the leading sections had leaped, regardless of all obstacles, into the trench, +with a view of avenging their slaughtered officers; but these, like the axemen, +had been carried away by the discharges from the bastion, and the incessant +fire poured upon them from the loop-holes of the stockade. Despairing of success, +without fascines to fill up the ditch, or a ladder to scale the picketing +that afforded cover to their enemies, there was no alternative, but to remain +and be cut down to a man where they stood, or to retire into the brushwood +that lined the ravine. The latter was finally adopted; but not before one-third +of the column had paid the penalty of their own daring, and what the +brave Cranstoun had sneeringly termed the "General's excellent arrangements," +with their lives. The firing at this time had now almost wholly +ceased between the enemy and the columns on the right and centre, neither of +which had penetrated beyond the ravine, and at a late hour in the evening +the whole were drawn off.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span></p> + +<p>Meanwhile, steady at his post at the head of the division, Gerald Grantham +had continued to act with the men as though he had been one of themselves. +During the whole course of the advance, he neither joined in the cheers of the +officers, nor uttered word of encouragement to those who followed. But in +his manner there was remarked a quietness of determination, a sullen disregard +of danger, that seemed to denote some deeper rooted purpose than the mere +desire of personal distinction. His ambition seemed to consist, not in being +the first to reach or scale the fort, but in placing himself wherever the balls of +the enemy flew thickest. There was no enthusiasm in his mien, no excitement +in his eye; neither had his step the buoyancy that marks the young +heart wedded to valorous achievement, but was, on the contrary, heavy, measured, +yet firm. His whole manner and actions, in short, as reported to his +brother, on the return of the expedition, by those who had been near him +throughout the affair, was that of a man who courts not victory but death. +Planted on the brow of the ditch at the moment when Middlemore fell, he had +deliberately discharged his pistol into the loop-hole whence the shot had been +fired; but although, as he seemed to expect, the next instant brought several +barrels to play upon himself, not one of these had taken effect. A moment +after and he was in the ditch, followed by some twenty or thirty of the leading +men of the column, and advancing towards the bastion, then preparing to vomit +forth its fire upon the devoted axemen. Even here, Fate, or Destiny, or +whatever power it be that wills the nature of the end of man, turned aside the +death with which he already seemed to grapple. At the very moment when +the flash rose from the havoc-dealing gun, he chanced to stumble over the +dead body of a soldier, and fell flat upon his face. Scarcely had he touched +the ground when he was again upon his feet; but even in that short space of +time, he alone, of those who had entered the ditch, had been left unscathed. +Before him came bellying along the damp trench, the dense smoke from the +fatal bastion, as it were a funeral shroud for its victims; and behind him were +to be seen the mangled and distorted forms of his companions, some dead, +others writhing with acute agony, and filling the air with shrieks, and groans, +and prayers for water to soothe their burning lips, that mingled fearfully yet +characteristically, with the unsubdued roar of small arms.</p> + +<p>It was now, for the first time, that Gerald evinced anything like excitement, +but it was the excitement of bitter disappointment. He saw those to +whom the preservation of life would have been a blessing, cut down and +slaughtered; while he, whose object it was to lay it down for ever, was, by +some strange fatality, wholly exempt.</p> + +<p>The reflections that passed with lightning quickness through his mind, only +served to stimulate his determination the more. Scarcely had the smoke +which had hitherto kept him concealed from the battery, passed beyond him, +when, rushing forward and shouting, "To the bastion, men—to the bastion!" +he planted himself in front of the gun, and not three yards from its muzzle. +Prevented by the dense smoke that choked up the trench, from ascertaining +the extent of execution produced by their discharge, the American artillerymen, +who had again loaded, were once more on the alert and preparing to +repeat it. Already was the match in the act of descending, which would have +blown the unfortunate Gerald to atoms, when suddenly an officer, whose uniform +bespoke him to be of some rank, and to whose quick eye it was apparent +the rash assailant was utterly unsupported, sprang upon the bastion, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> +dashing the fuze from the hand of the gunner, commanded that a small sally-port, +which opened into the trench a few yards beyond the point where he +stood, should be opened, and the brave soldier taken prisoner without harm. +So prompt was the execution of this order, that, before Gerald could succeed +in clambering up the ditch, which, with the instinctive dread of captivity, he +attempted, he was seized by half a dozen soldiers, and by these borne hurriedly +back through the sally-port, which was again closed.</p> + + + + +<h2 class="p4"><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV">CHAPTER XXIV.</a></h2> + + +<p>Defeated at every point and with great loss, the British columns had retired +into the bed of the ravine, where, shielded from the fire of the Americans, +they lay several hours shivering with cold and ankle deep in mud and +water; yet consoling themselves with the hope that the renewal of the assault +under cover of the coming darkness, would be attended with a happier issue. +But the gallant General, who appeared in the outset to have intended they +should make picks of their bayonets and scaling-ladders of each other's bodies, +now that a mound sufficient for the latter purpose could be raised of the slain, +had altered his mind, and alarmed, and mayhap conscience stricken at the +profuse and unnecessary sacrifice of human life which had resulted from the +first wanton attack, adopted the resolution of withdrawing his troops. This +was at length finally effected, and without further loss.</p> + +<p>Fully impressed with the belief that the assailants would not be permitted to +forego the advantages they still possessed in their near contiguity to the +works, without another attempt at escalade, the Americans had continued +calmly at their posts; with what confidence in the nature of their defences +and what positive freedom from danger, may be inferred from the fact of their +having lost but one man throughout the whole affair, and that one killed immediately +through the loop-hole by the shot that avenged the death of poor +Middlemore. When at a late hour they found that the columns were again +in movement, they could scarcely persuade themselves they were not changing +their points of attack. A very few minutes, however, sufficed to show their +error; for, in the indistinct light of a new moon, the British troops were to +be seen ascending the opposite face of the ravine and in full retreat. Too well +satisfied with the successful nature of their defence, the Americans made no +attempt to follow, but contented themselves with pouring in a parting volley, +which however the obscurity rendered ineffectual. Soon afterwards the sally-port +was again opened, and such of the unfortunates as yet lingered alive in +the trenches were brought in, and every attention the place could afford paid +to their necessities.</p> + +<p>An advanced hour of the night brought most of the American officers together +in their rude mess-room, where the occurrences of the day were discussed +with an enthusiasm of satisfaction natural to the occasion. Each congratulated +each on the unexpected success, but commendation was more than +usually loud in favor of their leader, to whose coolness and judgment, in reserving +his fire until the approach of the enemy within pistol shot, was to be +attributed the severe loss and consequent check they had sustained.</p> + +<p>Next became the topic of eulogium the gallantry of those who had been<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> +worsted in all but their honor, and all spoke with admiration of the devotedness +of the two unfortunate officers who had perished in the trenches—a subject +which, in turn, led to a recollection of the brave soldier who had survived +the sweeping discharge from the bastion, and who had been so opportunely +saved from destruction by the Commandant himself.</p> + +<p>"Captain Jackson," said that officer, addressing one of the few who wore +the regular uniform of the United States army, "I should like much to converse +with this man, in whom I confess, as in some degree the preserver of his +life, I feel an interest. Moreover, as the only uninjured among our prisoners, +he is the one most calculated to give us information in regard to the actual +force of those whom we have this day had the good fortune to defeat, as well +as of the ultimate destination of the British General. Notes of both these +important particulars, if I can possibly obtain them, I wish to make in a despatch +of which I intend you to be the bearer."</p> + +<p>The Aid-de-camp, for in that capacity was he attached to the person of +Colonel Forrester, immediately quitted the room, and presently afterwards +returned ushering in the prisoner.</p> + +<p>Although Gerald was dressed, as we have said, in the uniform of the private +grenadier, there was that about him which, in defiance of a person covered +from head to foot with the slimy mud of the trenches, and a mouth black +as ink with powder from the cartridges he had bitten, at once betrayed him +for something more than he appeared.</p> + +<p>There was a pause for some moments after he entered. At length Colonel +Forrester inquired, in a voice strongly marked by surprise:</p> + +<p>"May I ask, sir, what rank you hold in the British army?"</p> + +<p>"But that I have unfortunately suffered more from your mud than your +fire," replied Gerald, coolly, and with undisguised bitterness of manner, "the +question would at once be answered by a reference to my uniform."</p> + +<p>"I understand you, sir; you would have me to infer you are what your +dress, and your dress alone, denotes—a private soldier?"</p> + +<p>Gerald made no answer.</p> + +<p>"Your name, soldier?"</p> + +<p>"My name!"</p> + +<p>"Yes; your name. One possessed of the gallantry we witnessed this day +cannot be altogether without a name."</p> + +<p>The pale cheek of Gerald was slightly tinged. With all his grief, he still +was a man. The indirect praise lingered a moment at his heart, then passed +off with the slight blush that as momentarily dyed his cheek.</p> + +<p>"My name, sir, is a humble one, and little worthy to be classed with those +who have this day written theirs in the page of honor with their heart's blood. +I am called Gerald Grantham."</p> + +<p>"Gerald Grantham!" repeated the Commandant, musingly, as though endeavoring +to bring back the recollection of such a name.</p> + +<p>The prisoner looked at him steadfastly in return, yet without speaking.</p> + +<p>"Is there another of your name in the British squadron?" continued Colonel +Forrester, fixing his eye full upon his prisoner.</p> + +<p>"There are many in the British squadron whose names are unknown to +me," replied Gerald, evasively, and faintly coloring.</p> + +<p>"Nay," said Colonel Forrester, "that subterfuge more than anything be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span>trays +you. Though not answered, I am satisfied. How we are to account +for seeing a gallant sailor attacking us in our trenches, in the humble garb of +a private soldier, and so out of his own element, I cannot understand; but +the name of Gerald Grantham, coupled with your manner and appearance, +assures us we are making personal acquaintance with one to whose deeds we +are not strangers. Gentlemen," addressing his officers, "this is the Lieutenant +Grantham, whose vessel was captured last autumn at Buffalo, and of +whose gallant defence my cousin, Captain Edwin Forrester, has spoken so +highly. Lieutenant Grantham," he pursued, advancing and offering his hand, +"when I had the happiness to save your life this day, by dashing aside the +fuze that would have been the agent in your destruction, I saw in you but +the brave and humble soldier, whom it were disgrace not to have spared for +so much noble daring. Judge how great must be my satisfaction to know +that I have been the means of preserving, to his family and country, one +whose name stands so high even in the consideration of his enemies."</p> + +<p>Poor Gerald! how bitter and conflicting must have been his feelings at +that moment. On the one side, touched by the highest evidences of esteem a +brave and generous enemy could proffer—on the other, annoyed beyond expression +at the recollection of an interposition which had thwarted him in his +fondest, dearest hope—that of losing, at the cannon's mouth, the life he +loathed. What had been done in mercy and noble forbearance, was to him +the direst punishment that could be inflicted; yet how was it possible to deny +gratitude for the motive which had impelled his preservation, or fail in acknowledgment +of the appreciation in which he thus found himself personally +held.</p> + +<p>"It would be idle, Colonel Forrester," he said, taking the proffered hand, +"after the manner in which you have expressed yourself, to deny that I am +the officer to whom you allude. I feel deeply these marks of your regard, +although I cannot but consider any little merit that may attach to me very +much overrated by them. My appearance in this dress, perhaps requires some +explanation. Prevented by the shallowness of the river from co-operating +with the array in my gun-boat, and tired of doing nothing, I had solicited and +obtained permission to become one of the storming party in the quality of +volunteer, which of necessity induced the garb in which you now behold me. +You know the rest."</p> + +<p>"And yet, Colonel," said a surly-looking backwoodsman, who sat with one +hand thrust into the bosom of a hunting frock, and the other playing with the +richly ornamented hilt of a dagger, while a round hat, surmounted by a huge +cockade, was perched knowingly over his left ear, covering, or rather shadowing, +little more than one fourth of his head—"I reckon as how this here sort +of thing comes within the spy act. Here's a commissioned officer of King +George, taken not only in our lines, but in our very trenches in the disguise +of a private soger. What say you, Captain Buckhorn?" turning to one somewhat +younger and less uncouth, who sat next him habited in a similar manner. +"Don't you think it comes within the spy act?"</p> + +<p>Captain Buckhorn, however, not choosing to hazard an opinion on the subject, +merely shrugged his shoulders, puffed his cigar, and looked at the Colonel +as if he expected him to decide the question.</p> + +<p>"As I am a true Tennessee man, bred and born, Major Killdeer," said the +Aid-de-camp Jackson, "I can't see how that can lie. To come within the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> +spy act, a man must be in plain clothes, or in the uniform of his enemy. Now, +Liftenant Grantham, I take it, comes in the British uniform, and what signifies +a whistle if he wears gold lace or cotton tape, provided it be stuck upon a +scarlet coat, and that in the broad face of day, with arms in his hand,—aye, +and a devil of a desperation to make good use of them too"—he added, with +a good naturedly malicious leer of the eye towards the subject of his defence.</p> + +<p>"At all events, in my conceit, it's an attempt to undervally himself," pursued +the tenacious Kentuckian Major. "Suppose his name warn't known as +it is, he'd have passed for a private soger, and would have been exchanged for +one, without our being any the wiser; whereby the United States, service, I +calculate, would have lost an officer in the balance of account."</p> + +<p>"Although there cannot be the slightest difficulty," observed Colonel Forrester, +"in determining on the doubt first started by you, Major Killdeer I +confess, that what you have now suggested involves a question of some delicacy. +In the spirit, although not altogether in the letter, of your suggestion, +I agree; so much so, Mr. Grantham," he added, turning to Gerald, "that in +violence to the inclination I should otherwise have felt to send you back to +your lines, on parole of honor, I shall be compelled to detain you until the +pleasure of my government be known as to the actual rank in which you are +to be looked upon. I should say that, taken in arms as a combatant without +rank, we have no right to know you as anything else; but as I may be in +error, I am sure you will see how utterly impossible it is for me to take any +such responsibility upon myself, especially after the difficulty you have just +heard started."</p> + +<p>Gerald, who had listened to this discussion with some astonishment, was +not sorry to find the manner of its termination. In the outset he had not +been without alarm that the hero of one hour might be looked upon and +hanged as the spy of the next; and tired as he was of life, much as he longed +to lay it down, his neck had too invincible a repugnance to anything like contact +with a cord to render him ambitious of closing his existence in that way. +He was not at all sorry, therefore, when he found the surly-looking Major +Killdeer wholly unsupported in his sweeping estimate of what he called the +"spy act." The gentlemanly manner of Colonel Forrester, forming as it did +so decided a contrast with the unpolished—even rude frankness of his second +in command was not without soothing influence upon his mind, and to his +last observation he replied, as he really felt, that any change in his views as to +his disposal could in no way affect him, since it was a matter of total indifference +whether he returned to Amherstburg, or was detained where he was. In +neither case could he actively rejoin the service until duly exchanged, and +this was the only object embraced in any desire he might entertain of the +kind.</p> + +<p>"Still," added the Colonel, "although I may not suffer you to return yet +into Canada, I can see no objection to according you the privilege of parole of +honor, without at all involving the after question of whether you are to be +considered as the soldier or the officer. From this moment therefore, Mr. +Grantham, you will consider yourself a prisoner at large within the fort—or, +should you prefer journeying into the interior, to sharing the privations and +the dullness inseparable from our isolated position, you are at liberty to ac<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span>company +Captain Jackson, my Aid-de-camp, who will leave this within +twelve hours, charged with dispatches for the Governor of Kentucky."</p> + +<p>Gerald had already acknowledged to himself that, if anything could add to +his wretchedness, it would be a compulsory residence in a place not only destitute +itself of all excitement, but calling up, at every hour, the images of his +brave companions in danger—men whom he had known when the sun of his +young hopes shone unclouded, and whom he had survived but to be made +sensible of the curse of exemption from a similar fate; still, with that instinctive +delicacy of a mind whose natural refinement not even a heavy weight of +grief could wholly deaden, he felt some hesitation in giving expression to a +wish, the compliance with which would, necessarily, separate him from one +who had so courteously treated him, and whom he feared to wound by an appearance +of indifference.</p> + +<p>"I think, Mr. Grantham," pursued Colonel Forrester, remarking his hesitation, +"I can understand what is passing in your mind. However I beg you +will suffer no mere considerations of courtesy to interfere with your inclination. +I can promise you will find this place most dismally dull, especially to +one who has no positive duty to perform in it. If I may venture to recommend, +therefore, you will accompany Captain Jackson. The ride will afford +you more subject for diversion than anything we can furnish here."</p> + +<p>Thus happily assisted in his decision Gerald said, "Since, Sir, you leave it +optional with me, I think I shall avail myself of your kind offer and accompany +Captain Jackson. It is not a very cheering sight," he pursued, anxious +to assign a satisfactory reason for his choice, "to have constantly before one's +eyes the scene of so signal a discomfiture as that which our arms have experienced +this day."</p> + +<p>"And yet," said Colonel Forrester, "despite of that discomfiture, there +was nothing in the conduct of those engaged that should call a blush into the +cheek of the most fastidious stickler for national glory. There is not an officer +here present," he continued, "who is not prepared to attest with myself, +that your column in particular behaved like heroes. By the way, I could +wish to know, but you will use your own discretion in answering or declining +the question, what was the actual strength of your attacking +force?"</p> + +<p>"I can really see no objection to a candid answer to your question, Colonel," +returned Gerald, after a moment's consideration. "Each division was, I believe, +for I cannot state with certainty, little more than two hundred strong, +making in all, perhaps, from six hundred to six hundred and fifty men. In +return, may I ask the number of those who so effectually repulsed us?"</p> + +<p>"Why I guess only one hundred and fifty, and most all my volunteers," +somewhat exultingly exclaimed Major Killdeer.</p> + +<p>"Only one hundred and fifty men!" repeated Gerald, unable to disguise his +vexation and astonishment.</p> + +<p>"That ere's a poser for him," said the Major, turning and addressing Captain +Buckhorn in an under tone, who replied to him with a wink from his +nearest eye.</p> + +<p>"Even so, Mr. Grantham," replied the Colonel. "One hundred and fifty +men of all arms, save artillery, composed my force at the moment when +your columns crossed the plain. To-night we muster one hundred and forty-nine."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Good Heaven!" exclaimed Gerald warming into excitement, with vexation +and pique, "what a disgraceful affair."</p> + +<p>"Disgraceful, yes—but only in as far as regards those who planned, and +provided (or rather ought to have provided) the means of attack. I can assure +you, Mr. Grantham, that although prepared to defend my post to the +last, when I saw your columns first emerge from the wood, I did not expect, +with my small force, to have been enabled to hold the place one hour; for +who could have supposed that even a school boy, had such been placed at the +head of an army, would have sent forward a storming party, without either +fascines to fill a trench, or ladders to ascend from it when filled. Had these +been provided, there can be no doubt of the issue, for, to repulse the attempt +at escalade in one quarter, I must have concentrated the whole of my little +force—and thereby afforded an unopposed entrance to the other columns—or +even granting my garrison to have been sufficient to keep two of your divisions +in check, there still remained a third to turn the scale of success against +us."</p> + +<p>"I can understand the satisfaction with which you discovered this wretched +bungling on the part of our leaders," remarked Gerald, with vexation.</p> + +<p>"No sooner had I detected the deficiency," pursued Colonel Forrester, +"than I knew the day would be my own, since the obstacles opposed to your +attempt would admit of my spreading my men over the whole line embraced +within the attack. The result, you see, has justified my expectation. But +enough of this. After the fatigues of the day, you must require both food and +rest. Captain Jackson, I leave it to you to do the honors of hospitality towards +Mr. Grantham, who will so shortly become your fellow-traveller; and +if, when he has performed the ablutions he seems so much to require, my +wardrobe can furnish anything your own cannot supply to transform him +into a backwoodsman (in which garb I would strongly advise him to travel). +I beg it may be put under contribution without ceremony."</p> + +<p>So saying, Colonel Forrester departed to the rude log-hut that served him +for his head-quarters, first enjoining his uncouth second to keep a sufficient +number of men on the alert, and take such other precautions as were necessary +to guard against surprise—an event, however, of which little apprehension +was entertained, now that the British troops appeared to have been +wholly withdrawn.</p> + +<p>Sick, wearied, and unhappy, Gerald was but too willing to escape to the +solitude of retirement, to refuse the offer which Captain Jackson made of his +own bed, it being his intention to sit up all night in the mess-room, ready to +communicate instantly with the Colonel in the event of any alarm.</p> + +<p>Declining the pressing invitation of the officers to join in the repast they +were about to make for the first time since the morning, and more particularly +that of Captain Buckhorn, who strongly urged him to "bring himself to +an anchor and try a little of the Wabash," he took a polite but hasty +leave of them all, and was soon installed for the night in the Aid-de-camp's +dormitory.</p> + +<p>It would be idle to say that Gerald never closed his eyes that night—still +more idle would it be to attempt a description of all that passed through a +mind whose extent of wretchedness may be inferred from his several desperate +although unsuccessful, efforts at the utter annihilation of all thought. When +he met Colonel Forrester and his officers in the mess-room at breakfast, he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> +was dressed, as had been recommended, in the hunting frock and belt of a +backwoodsman; and in this his gentlemanly figure looked to such advantage +as to excite general attention—so much so, indeed, that Major Killdeer was +more than once detected in eyeing his own heavy person, as if to ascertain if +the points of excellence were peculiar to the dress or to the man. Sick and +dispirited as he was, Gerald felt the necessity of an attempt to rally, and +however the moralist may condemn the principle, there is no doubt that he +was considerably aided in his effort by one or two glasses of bitters which +Captain Buckhorn strongly recommended as being of his wife's making, and +well calculated to put some color into a man's face—an advantage in which, he +truly remarked, Grantham was singularly deficient.</p> + +<p>Accurate intelligence having been obtained from a party of scouts, who had +been dispatched early in the morning to track their course, that the British +General with his troops and Indians had finally departed, preparations were +made about midday for the interment of the fallen. Two large graves were +accordingly dug on the outer brow of the ravine, and in these the bodies of +the fallen soldiers were deposited, with all the honors of war. A smaller +grave, within the fort, and near the spot where they so nobly fell, was considerately +allotted to Cranstoun and Middlemore. There was a composedness +on the brow of the former that likened him, even in death, to the living man; +while, about the good-humored mouth of poor Middlemore, played the same +sort of self-satisfied smile that had always been observable there when about +to deliver himself of a sally. Gerald, who had imposed upon himself the painful +duty of attending to their last committal to earth, could not help fancying +that Middlemore must have breathed his last with an inaudible pun upon his +lips—an idea that inexpressibly affected him. Weighed down with sorrow as +was his own soul, he had yet a tear for the occasion—not that his brave comrades +were dead, but that they had died with so much to attach them to life—while +he whose hope was in death alone, had been chained, as by a curse +to an existence compared with which death was the first of human blessings.</p> + +<p>On the following morning, after an early breakfast, he and Captain Jackson +quitted the fort, Colonel Forrester—who had not failed to remark that the +brusque manner of his aide-de-camp was not altogether understood by his +charge—taking occasion at parting, to assure the latter that, with all his eccentricity, +he was a kind-hearted man, whom he had selected to be near him more +for his personal courage, zeal, and general liberality of feeling, than for any +qualifications of intellect he possessed.</p> + +<p>The means provided for their transport into the interior were well assimilated +to the dreariness of the country through which they passed. Two common +pack-horses, lean, galled by the saddle, and callous from long acquaintance +with the admonitory influence both of whip and spur, had been selected by +Captain Jackson as the best within the fort. Neither were the trappings out +of keeping with the steeds they decked. Moth-eaten saddles, almost black +with age, beneath which were spread pieces of dirty blanket to prevent further +excoriation of the already bared and reeking back—bridles, the original thickness +of which had been doubled by the incrustation of mould and dirt that +pertinaciously adhered to them—stirrups and bits, with their accompanying +buckles—the absence of curb chains being supplied by pieces of rope—all afforded +evidence of the wretchedness of resource peculiar to a back settlement<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> +population. Over the hard saddles, however, had been strapped the blankets +which, when the travellers were fortunate enough to meet with a hut at the +close of their day's ride, or, as was more frequently the case, when compelled +to bivouac in the forest before the fire kindled by the industry of the hardy +aide-de-camp, served them as their only couch of rest, while the small leather +valise tied to the pummel of the saddle, and containing their scanty wardrobe, +was made to do the duty of the absent pillow. The blanket Gerald found to +be the greatest advantage of his grotesque equipment—so much so, indeed, +that when compelled, by the heavy rains which took place shortly after their +departure, to make it serve, after the fashion of a backwoodsman, as a covering +for his loins and shoulders, he was obliged to own that his miseries, great as +they were, were yet susceptible of increase.</p> + +<p>Notwithstanding Captain Jackson had taken what he considered to be the +best of the two Rosinantes for himself. Gerald had no reason to deny the +character for kind-heartedness given of him by Colonel Forrester. Frequently +when winding through some dense forest, or moving over some extensive plain +where nothing beyond themselves told of the existence of man, his companion +would endeavor to divert him from the abstraction and melancholy in which +he was usually plunged, and, ascribing his melancholy to an unreal cause, seek +to arouse him by the consolatory assurance that he was not the first man who +had been taken prisoner—adding that there was no use in snivelling, as "what +was done couldn't be undone, and no great harm neither, as there was +some as pretty gals in Kaintuck as could be picked out in a day's ride; and +that to a good-looking young fellow like himself, with nothing to do but make +love to them, <i>that</i> ought to be no mean consideration, enabling him, as it +would, to while away the tedium of captivity." At other times he would +launch forth into some wild rhapsody, the invention of the moment, or seek to +entertain his companion with startling anecdotes connected with his encounters +with the Indians on the Wabash, (where he had formerly served) in the course +of which much of the marvellous, to call it by the most indulgent term, was +necessarily mixed up—not perhaps that he was quite sensible of this himself, +but because he possessed a constitutional proneness to exaggeration that rendered +him even more credulous of the good things he uttered than those to +whom he detailed them.</p> + +<p>But Gerald heard without being amused, and, although he felt thankful for +the intention, was distressed that his abstraction should be the subject of notice, +and his despondency the object of care. To avoid this he frequently +suffered Jackson to take the lead, and, following some distance in the rear with +his arms folded and the reins loose upon the horse's neck, often ran the risk +of having his own neck broken by the frequent stumbling of the unsure-footed +beast. But the Captain as often returned to the charge, for, in addition to a +sincere desire to rally his companion, he began at length to find it exceedingly +irksome to travel with one who neither spoke himself, nor appeared to enjoy +speech in another; and when he had amused himself with whistling, singing, +hallooing, and cutting a thousand antics with his arms, until he was heartily +tired of each of these several diversions, he would rein in his horse to suffer +Gerald to come up, and, after a conciliating offer of his rum flask, accompanied +by a slice of hung beef that lined the wallet depending from his shoulder, +enter upon some new and strange exploit, of which he was as usual the hero. +Enforced in a degree to make some return for the bribe offered to his patience,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> +Gerald would lend—all he could—his ear to the tale; but long before the +completion he would give such evidence of his distraction, as utterly to disconcert +the narrator, and cause him finally to have recourse to one of the interludes +above described.</p> + +<p>In this manner they had journeyed some days, when the rains suddenly +commenced with a violence and continued with a pertinacity, that might have +worn out the cheerfulness of much less impatient spirits than those of our +travellers, who without any other protection than what was afforded by the +blanket tightly girt around the loins, and fastened over the shoulders in front +of the chest, presented an appearance quite as wild as the waste they traversed. +It was in vain that, in order to promote a more rapid circulation, they +essayed to urge their jaded beasts out of the jog-trot in which they had set +out. Accustomed to this from the time when they first emerged from colthood +into horsehood, the aged steeds, like many aged senators of their day, +were determined enemies to anything like innovation on the long established +customs of their caste; and, although, unlike the said senators, they were +made to bear all the burdens of the state, still did they not suffer themselves +to be driven out of the sluggish habits in which sluggish animals of every description +seem to feel themselves privileged to indulge. Whip and spur, therefore, +were alike applied in vain, as to any accelerated motion in themselves; +but with this advantage at least to their riders, that while the latter toiled +vigorously for an increase of vital warmth through the instrumentality of their +non-complying hacks they found it where they least seemed to look for it—in +the mingled anger and activity which kept them at the fruitless +task.</p> + +<p>It was at the close of one of those long days of wearying travel throughout +a vast and unsheltered plain—where only here and there rose an occasional +cluster of trees, like oases in the desert—that, drenched to the skin with the +steady rain, which commencing at the dawn had continued without a moment's +intermission, they arrived at a small log hut, situate on the skirt of a forest +forming one of the boundaries of the vast savannah they had traversed. Such +was the unpromising appearance of this apology for a human dwelling, that, +under any other circumstances, even the "not very d——d particular" Jackson, +as the aide-de-camp often termed himself, would have passed it by without +stopping; but after a long day's ride, and suffering from the greatest evils to +which a traveller can well be subjected—cold, wet and hunger—even so +wretched a resting-place as this was not to be despised; and accordingly a +determination was formed to stop there for the night. On riding up to the +door, it was opened to their knock, when a tall man—apparently its only occupant—came +forth, and after viewing the travellers a moment with a suspicious +eye, inquired "what the strangers wanted?"</p> + +<p>"Why I guess," said Jackson, "it doesn't need much conjuration to tell +that. Food and lodging for ourselves, to be sure, and a wisp of hay and tether +for our horses. Hospitality, in short; and that's what no true Tennessee man, +bred and born, never refused yet—no, not even to an enemy, such a night as +this."</p> + +<p>"Then you must go further in search of it," replied the woodsman, surlily. +"I don't keep no tavern, and han't got no accommodation; and what's more, +I reckon I'm no Tennessee man."</p> + +<p>"But any accommodation will do friend. If you havn't got beds, we'll sit<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span> +up all night, and warm our toes at the fire, and spin long yarns, as they tell +in the Eastern sea-ports. Anything but turn a fellow out such a night as +this."</p> + +<p>"But I say, stranger," returned the man fiercely and determinedly, "I an't +got no room any how, and you shan't bide here."</p> + +<p>"Oh, ho, my old cock! that's the ticket, is it? But you'll see whether an +old stager like me is to be turned out of any man's house such a night as this. +I havn't served two campaigns against the Ingins and the British for nothing; +and here I rest for the night."</p> + +<p>So saying, the determined Jackson coolly dismounted from his horse, and +unbuckling the girth, proceeded to deposit the saddle, with the valise attached +to it, within the hut, the door of which still stood open.</p> + +<p>The woodman, perceiving his object, made a movement, as if to bar the +passage; but Jackson with great activity seized him by the wrist of the left +hand, and, all-powerful as the ruffian was, sent him dancing some few yards +in front of the threshold before he was aware of his intention, or could resist +the peculiar <i>knack</i> with which it was accomplished. The aide-de-camp, +meanwhile, had deposited his saddle in a corner near the fire, and on his return +to the door, met the inhospitable woodsman advancing as if to court a personal +encounter.</p> + +<p>"Now, I'll tell you what it is, friend," he said calmly, throwing back at the +same time the blanket that concealed his uniform and—what was more imposing—a +brace of large pistols stuck in his belt. "You'd better have no nonsense +with me, I promise you, or—" and he tapped with the fore finger of his +right hand upon the butt of one of them, with an expression that could not be +misunderstood.</p> + +<p>The woodsman seemed little awed by this demonstration. He was evidently +one on whom it might have been dangerous for one man, however well armed, +to have forced his presence, so far from every other human habitation; and it +is probable that his forbearance then arose from the fact of there being two +opposed to him, for he glanced rapidly from one to the other, nor was it until +he seemed to have mentally decided that the odds of two to one were somewhat +unequal, that he at length withdrew himself out of the doorway, as if in +passive assent to the stay he could not well prevent.</p> + +<p>"Just so, my old cock," continued Jackson, finding that he had gained his +point, "and when you speak of this again, don't forget to say it was a true +Tennessee man, bred and born, that gave you a lesson in what no American +ever wanted—hospitality to a stranger. Suppose you begin and make your +self useful, by tethering and foddering old spare bones."</p> + +<p>"I reckon as how you've hands as well as me," rejoined the surly woodsman, +"and every man knows the ways of his own beast best. As for fodder, +they'll find it on the skirt of the wood, and where natur' planted it."</p> + +<p>Gerald meanwhile, finding victory declare itself in favor of his companion, +had followed his example and entered the hut with his saddle. As he again +quitted it, a sudden flash of light from the fire, which Jackson was then in the +act of stirring, fell upon the countenance of the woodsman who stood without, +his arms folded and his brow scowling, as if planning some revenge for the +humiliation to which he had been subjected. In the indistinct dusk of the +evening Grantham had not been able to remark more than the outline of the +figure; but the voice struck him as one not unknown to him, although some<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span>what +harsher in its tones than that which his faint recollection of the past +supplied. The glance he had now obtained, momentary as it was, put every +doubt to rest. What his feelings were in recognising in the woodsman the +traitor settler of the Canadas, Jeremiah Desborough, we leave to our readers +to infer.</p> + + + + +<h2 class="p4"><a name="CHAPTER_XXV" id="CHAPTER_XXV">CHAPTER XXV.</a></h2> + + +<p>There was a time, when to have met his father's enemy thus would have +been to have called into activity all the dormant fierceness of Gerald's nature; +but since they had last parted, a new channel had been opened to his feelings, +and the deep and mysterious grief in which we have seen him shrouded had +been of so absorbing and selfish a nature, as to leave him little consideration +for sorrows not his own. The rash impetuosity of his former character, which +had often led him to act even before he thought, and to resent an injury before +it could well be said to have been offered, had moreover given place to a self-command, +the fruit of the reflective habits and desire of concealment which had +made him latterly almost a stranger to himself.</p> + +<p>Whatever his motives for outwardly avoiding all recognition of the settler, +certain it is that, so far from this, he sought sedulously to conceal his own +identity, by drawing the slouched hat, which formed a portion of his new +equipment, lower over his eyes. Left to do the duties of the rude hostelry, +Captain Jackson and he now quitted the hut, and leading their jaded, smoking +steeds, a few rods off to the verge of the plain they had so recently traversed, +prepared to dispose of them for the night. Gerald had by this time become +too experienced in the mode of travelling through an American wilderness, not +to understand, that he who expects to find a companion in his horse in the +morning must duly secure him with the tether at night. Following, therefore, +the example of the Aide-de-camp, he applied himself, amid the still pelting rain, +to the not very cleanly task of binding round the fetlock joints of his steed +several yards of untanned hide strips, with which they were severally provided +for the purpose. Each gave his steed a parting slap on the buttock with the +hard bridle. Jackson exclaiming, "Go ye luxurious beasts—ye have a whole +prairie of wet grass to revel in for the night," and then left them to make the +best of their dainty food.</p> + +<p>While returning, Grantham took occasion to observe, that he had reason +to think he knew the surly and inhospitable woodsman, by whom however he +was not desirous of being recognised, and therefore begged as a favor that +Captain Jackson would not, in the course of the night, mention his name, or +even allude to him in any way that could lead to an inference that he was any +other than he seemed, a companion and brother officer of his own; promising, +in conclusion, to give him, in the course of the next day's journey, some little +history of the man which would fully explain his motives. With this request +Jackson unhesitatingly promised compliance, adding, good-humoredly, that he +was not sorry to pledge himself to anything that would thaw his companion's +tongue into sociability, and render himself, for the first time since their departure, +a listener. Before entering the hut Gerald further observed in a whisper<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> +that, the better to escape recognition, he would, as much as possible, avoid +joining in any conversation which might ensue, and therefore hoped his companion +would not think him rude if he suffered him to bear the tax. Jackson +again promised to keep the attention of the woodsman directed as much as +possible to himself, observing that he thought Gerald had already, to his cost, +discovered he was one not easily tired out by conversation, should their host be +that way inclined.</p> + +<p>On opening the door of the cabin, they found that the woodsman—or more +properly the settler, as we shall again term him—making a virtue of necessity, +had somewhat changed its interior. A number of fine logs, sufficient to last +throughout the night had been heaped upon the hearth, and these, crackling +and fizzing, and emitting sparks in all the burly of a hickory wood fire, gave +promise of a night of comparative comfort. Ensconced in the farther corner +of the chimney, the settler had already taken his seat, and, regardless of the +entrance of the strangers, (with his elbows resting on his knees, and his face +buried in his large palms,) kept his eyes fixed upon the fire, as if with a sullen +determination neither to speak nor suffer himself to be questioned. But the +Aide-de-camp was by no means disposed to humor him in his fancy. The idea +of passing some eight or ten consecutive hours in company with two fellow +beings, without calling into full play the bump of loquacity with which nature +had largely endowed him, was, in his view, little better than the evil from +which his perseverance had just enabled him to escape. Making himself perfectly +at home, he unbuckled the wet blanket from his loins and spreading it, +with that of Gerald, to dry upon the rude floor before the fire, drew forward +a heavy uncouth-looking table, (which, with two or three equally unpolished +chairs, formed the whole of the furniture,) and deposited thereon the wallet or +haversack in which remained a portion of provision. He then secured the last +vacant chair, and taking up a position on the right of the table which lay between +himself and Gerald, let it fall upon the dry clay hearth, with a violence +that caused the settler to quit his attitude of abstraction for one of anger +and surprise.</p> + +<p>"Sorry to disturb you, friend," he said, "but these chairs of yours are so +cursed heavy, there's no handling them decently; 'specially with cold +fingers."</p> + +<p>"Beggars, I reckon, have no right to be choosers," returned the settler; +"the chairs is quite good enough for me—and no one axed you to sit on 'em."</p> + +<p>"I'll tell you what it is, old cock," continued the Aide-de-camp, edging his +seat closer, and giving his host a smart friendly slap upon the thigh, "this dull +life of yours don't much improve your temper. Why, as I am a true Tennessee +man, bred and born, I never set eyes upon such a crab-apple in all my life—you'd +turn a whole dairy of the sweetest milk that ever came from prairie-grass +sour in less than no time. I take it you must be crossed in love, old +boy—eh?"</p> + +<p>"Crossed in hell," returned the settler, savagely; "I reckon as how it don't +consarn you whether I look sour or sweet—what you want is a night's +lodgin', and you've got it—so don't trouble me no more."</p> + +<p>"Very sorry, but I shall," said Jackson, secretly congratulating himself +that, now he had got the tongue of his host in motion, he had a fair chance +of keeping it so. "I must trouble you for some bread, and whatever else your +larder may afford. I'll pay you honestly for it, friend."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I should guess," said the settler, his stern features brightening for the first +time into a smile of irony, "as how a man who had served a campaign agin the +Ingins and another agin the British, might contrive to do without sich a luxury +as bread. You'll find no bread here, I reckon."</p> + +<p>"What, not even a bit of corn bread? Try, my old cock, and rummage up +a crust or two, for hung beef is devilish tight work for the teeth, without a +little bread of some sort for a relish."</p> + +<p>"If you'd ha' used your eyes, you'd ha' seen nothin' like a corn patch for +twenty mile round about this. Bread never entered this hut since I have been +here. I don't eat it."</p> + +<p>"More's the pity," replied Jackson, with infinite drollery; "but though you +may not like it yourself, your friends may."</p> + +<p>"I <i>have</i> no friends—I <i>wish</i> to have no friends!" was the sullen reply.</p> + +<p>"More's the pity still," pursued the Aide-de-camp. "But what do you +live on, then, old cock, if you don't eat bread?"</p> + +<p>"Human flesh. Take that as a relish to your hung beef."</p> + +<p>Scarcely had the strange expression escaped the settler's lips, when Jackson, +active as a deer, was at the farther end of the hut, one hand holding the +heavy chair as a shield before him, the other placed upon the butt of one of +his pistols. The former at the same moment quitted his seat, and stretching +his tall and muscular form to its utmost height, burst into a laugh that +sounded more like that of some wild beast than a human being. The involuntary +terror produced in his guest was evidently a source of exultation to him, +and he seemed gratified to think he had at length discovered the means of making +himself looked upon with something like fear.</p> + +<p>On entering the hut, Gerald had taken his seat at the opposite corner of +the fire, yet in such a manner as to admit of his features being shaded by the +projection of the chimney. The customs of the wilderness, moreover, rendering +it neither offensive, nor even worthy of remark, that he should retain his +hat, he had, as in the first instance, drawn it as much over his eyes as he conceived +suited to his purpose of concealment, without exciting a suspicion of +his design; and, as the alteration in his dress was calculated to deceive into a +belief of his being an American, he had been enabled to observe the settler +without much fear of recognition in return. A great change had taken place +in the manner of Desborough. Ferocious he still was, but it was a ferocity +wholly unmixed with the cunning of his former years, that he now exhibited. +He had evidently suffered much, and there was a stamp of thought on the +heavy countenance that Gerald had never remarked there before. There was +also this anomaly in the man—that while ten years appeared to have been +added to his age, his strength was increased in the same proportion—a change +that made itself evident by the attitude in which he stood.</p> + +<p>"Why now I take it you must be jesting," at length exclaimed the Aid-de-camp, +doubtingly, dropping at the same time the chair upon the floor, yet +keeping it before him as though not quite safe in the presence of this self-confessed +anthropophagos; "you surely don't mean to say you kill and pickle +every unfortunate traveller that comes by here. If so, I must apprehend you +in the name of the United States Government."</p> + +<p>"I rather calculate not, Mister," sneered the settler. "Besides, I don't eat +the United States subjects; consequently they've no claim to interfere."</p> + +<p>"Who the devil do you eat, then?" asked Jackson, gathering courage with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> +his curiosity, and advancing a pace or two nearer the fire, "or is it all a +hum?"</p> + +<p>The settler approached the fire, stooped a little, and applying his shoulder +to the top of the opening, thrust his right hand and arm up the chimney.</p> + +<p>"I reckon that's no hum," he said, producing and throwing upon the table +a piece of dark, dry flesh, that resembled in appearance the upper part of a +human arm. "If you're fond of a relisn," he pursued, with a fierce laugh, +"you'll find that mighty well suited to the palate—quite as sweet as a bit of +smok'd venison."</p> + +<p>"Why, you don't really mean to say that's part of a man?" demanded +Jackson, advancing cautiously to the table, and turning over the shrivelled +mass with the point of his dagger. "Why, I declare, its just the color of my +dried beef."</p> + +<p>"But I do though—and what's more, of my own killin' and dryin'. Purty +naturist you must be, not to see that's off an Ingin's arm!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, an Ingin's only, is it?" returned the Aid-de-camp, whose apprehension +began rapidly to subside, now that he had obtained the conviction that it +was not the flesh of a white man. "Well, I'm sure! who'd have thought it? +I take it, old cock, you've been in the wars as well as myself."</p> + +<p>"A little or so, I reckon, and I expect to be in them agin shortly—as soon +as my stock of food's out. I've only a thigh bone to pick after this, and then +I'm off. But why don't you take your seat at the fire. There's nothin' so +out of the way in the sight of a naked arm, is there? I reckon, if you're a +soger, you must have seen many a one lopped off in the wars."</p> + +<p>"Yes, friend," said Jackson, altering the position of the table and placing +it between the settler and himself; "a good many lopped off, as you say, and +in a devil of a stew, but not exactly eaten. However, be so good as to return +this to the chimney, and when I've eaten something from my bag, I'll listen +to what you have to say about it."</p> + +<p>"Jist so, and go without my own supper, I suppose, to please you. But +tarnation, while you're eatin' a bit of your hung beef, I'll try a snack of +mine."</p> + +<p>So saying, he deliberately took from the table the dried arm he had previously +flung there, and, removing a large clasp knife from a pocket beneath his +coarse hunting frock, proceeded to help himself to several thin slices, corresponding +precisely in appearance with those which the Aid-de-camp divided in +the same manner.</p> + +<p>Jackson had managed to swallow three or four pieces of his favorite hung +beef with all the avidity of an appetite rendered keen by the absence of every +other stimulant than hunger; but no sooner did he perceive his host fastening +with a degree of fury on his unnatural food, than, sick and full of loathing, +his stomach rejected further aliment, and he was compelled to desist. +During all this time, Grantham, who, although he had assumed the manner +and attitude of a sleeping man, was a watchful observer of all that passed, neither +moved nor uttered a syllable, except on one occasion to put away from +him the food Jackson had offered.</p> + +<p>"Sorry to see your ride has given you so poor an appetite," said the settler, +with a look expressive of the savage delight he felt in annoying his visitor, +"I reckon that's rather unsavory stuff you've got there, that you can't eat it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> +without bread. I say, young man," addressing Grantham, "can't you find +no appetite neither, that you sit there snorin', as if you never meant to wake +agin."</p> + +<p>Gerald's head sunk lower on his chest, and his affectation of slumber became +more profound.</p> + +<p>"Try a drop of this," said Jackson, offering his canteen, after having drank +himself, and with a view to distract attention from his companion. "You +seem to have no liquor in the house, and I take it you require something hot +as h—ll, and strong as d—n——n, after that ogre-like repast of yours."</p> + +<p>The settler seized the can, and raised it to his lips. It contained some of +the fiery whiskey we have already described as the common beverage in most +parts of America. This, all powerful as it was, he drained off as though it +had been water, and with the greedy avidity of one who finds himself suddenly +restored to the possession of a favorite and long absent drink.</p> + +<p>"Hollo, my friend!" exclaimed the angry Aid-de-camp, who had watched +the rapid disappearance of his "traveller's best companion," as he quaintly +enough termed it, down the capacious gullet of the woodman—and snatching +at the same moment the nearly emptied canteen from his hands. "I take it, +that's not handsome. As I'm a true Tennessee man, bred and born, it aint +at all hospitable to empty off a pint of raw liquor at a spell, and have not so +much as a glass of metheglin to offer in return. What the h—ll do you suppose +we're to do to-morrow for drink, during a curst long ride through the +wood, and not a house of call till nightfall along the road?"</p> + +<p>The ruffian drew a breath long and heavy in proportion to the draught he +had swallowed, and when his lungs had again recovered their play, answered, +blusteringly, in a voice that betokened incipient intoxication:</p> + +<p>"Roar me up a saplin', Mister, but you're mighty stingy of the Wabash. +I reckon as how I made you a free offer of my food, and it warn't no fault of +mine if you didn't choose to take it. It would only have been relish for relish, +after all—and that's what I call fair swap."</p> + +<p>"Well, no matter," said Jackson, soothingly; "what's done can't be undone, +therefore I take it its no use argufying—however, my old cock, when +next you get the neck of a canteen of mine 'twixt your lips, I hope it may do +the cockles of your heart good; that's all. But let's hear how you came by +them pieces of nigger's flesh, and how it is you've taken it into your head to +turn squatter here. You seem," glancing around, "to have no sleeping room +to spare, and one may as well sit up and chat, as have one's bones bruised to +squash on the hard boards."</p> + +<p>"It's a sad tale," said the settler gruffly and with a darkening brow, "and +brings bitter thoughts with it; but as the liquor has cheered me up a bit, I +don't much mind if I do tell you how I skivered the varmint. Indeed," he +pursued savagely, "that always gives me a pleasure to think of, for I owed +them a desperate grudge—the bloody red skins and imps of hell. I was on my +way to Detroit, to see the spot once more where my poor boy Phil lay rootin', +and one dark night (for I only ventured to move at night), I came slick upon +two Ingins as was lying fast asleep before their fire in a deep ravine. The one +nearest to me had his face unkivered, and I knew the varmint for the tall dark +Delaweer chief as made one of the party after poor Phil and me, a sight that +made me thirst for the blood of the heathens as a child for mother's milk.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> +Well, how do you think I managed them. I calculate you'd never guess. +Why, I stole, as quiet as a fox until I got jist atween them, and then holdin' +a cocked pistol to each breast, I called out in a thunderin' voice that made the +woods ring agin, Kit-chimocomon, which you know, as you've been in the +wars, signifies long knife or Yankee. You'd a laugh'd fit to split your sides I +guess, to see the stupid stare of the devils, as startin' out of their sleep, they +saw a pistol within three inches of each of 'em. 'Ugh,' says they, as if they +did'nt know well whether to take it as a joke or not. 'Yes, 'ugh' and be +damn'd to you,' say's I: you may go and 'ugh' in hell next—and with that +snap went the triggers, and into their curst carcasses went the balls. The one +I killed outright but t'other, the Delaweer chief, was by a sudden shift only +slightly wounded, and he sprung on his feet and out with his knife. But I had +a knife too, and all a disappointed father's rage to boot, so at it we went +closin' and strikin' with our knives like two fierce fiends of the forest. It was +noble sport sure<i>ly</i>. At last the Delaweer fell over the bleedin' body of his +warrior and I top of him. As he fell the knife dropped from his hand and he +could'nt reach it no how, while I still gripped mine fast. 'Ugh,' he muttered +again, as if askin' to know what I meant to do next. 'Ugh,' and be damned +to you once more, say's I—and the pint of my long knife was soon buried in +his black heart. Then, when I see them both dead I eat my own meal at +their fire, for I was tarnation hungry, and while I was eatin' a thought came +across me that it would be good fun to make smoked meat of the varmint, so +when I tucked it in purty considerably, what with hominy and dried bear's +meat, moistened with a little Wabash I found in the Delaweer chief's canteen, +I set to and regularly quartered them. The trunks I left behind, but the limbs +I packed up in the blankets that had been used to kiver them, I reckon; and +with them slung across my shoulders, like a saddle bag across a horse, I made +tracks through the swamps and the prairies for this here hut, which I know'd +no livin' soul had been nigh for many a long year. And now," he concluded +with a low drunken laugh, "you've the history of the dried meat. There +isn't much left but when all is gone I'm off to the wars, for I can't find no +peace I reckon without my poor boy Phil." He paused a moment, and then +as if suddenly influenced by some painful recollection, he struck his hand with +startling violence upon the table, and, while every feature of his iron countenance +seemed worked up to a pitch of intensity, added with fearful calmness, +"May God's curse light upon me if I don't have my revenge of them Granthams +yet:—yes," he continued with increased excitement of voice and manner, +while he kicked one of the blazing hickory logs in the chimney with all +the savageness of drunken rage, causing a multitude of sparks to spit forth as +from the anvil of a smith.—"jist so would I kick them both to hell for having +murdered my poor boy."</p> + +<p>"Why, surely, Liftenant Grantham, he can't meant you?" abruptly questioned +the Aid-de-camp, drawing back his chair and resting the palms of his +hands upon his knees, while he fixed his eye keenly and inquiringly upon +Gerald.</p> + +<p>But Gerald had no time to answer him—Scarcely had the name escaped +the lips of the incautious Jackson, when a yell of exultation from the woodman +drew him quickly to his feet, and in the next moment he felt one hand +of his enemy grappling at his throat, while the fingers of the other were rapidly +insinuating themselves into the hair that shadowed one of his temples, with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> +the evident intention to "gouge" him. Weak and emaciated as he was, Gerald +was soon made sensible of the disproportion of physical strength thus suddenly +brought into the struggle, and as the savage laugh of the man, as his fingers +wound themselves closer and closer within the clustering hair, proclaimed his +advantage, he felt that his only chance of saving the threatened eye was by +having recourse to some sudden and desperate attempt to free himself from the +gripe of his opponent. Summoning all his strength into one vigorous effort, +he rushed forward upon his enemy with such force, raising himself at the same +time in a manner to throw the whole weight of his person upon him, that the +latter reeled backwards several paces without the power of resistance, and +falling over the table towards which he had been intentionally propelled, sank +with a heavy crash to the floor, still however retaining his firm hold of his +enemy, and dragging him after him.</p> + +<p>Half throttled, maddened with pain, and even more bitterly stung by a sense +of the humiliating position in which he found himself, the feelings of Gerald +became uncontrollable, until his anxiety to inflict a mortal injury upon his +enemy became in the end as intense as that of the settler. In their fall the +table had been overturned, and with it the knife which Desborough had used +with his horrid repast. As the light from the blazing fire fell upon the blade, +it had once caught the unassailed eye of the officer, and was the next moment +clutched in his grasp. He raised it with a determination, inspired by the +agony he endured, at once to liberate himself and to avenge his father's murder, +but the idea that there was something assassin-like in the act as suddenly +arrested him, and ere he had time to obey a fresh impulse of his agony, the +knife was forcibly stricken from his hand. A laugh of triumph burst from +the lips of the half intoxicated Desborough, but it was scarcely uttered before +it was succeeded by a yell of pain, and the hand that had contrived to entwine +itself, with resistless force and terrible intent, in the waving hair of the youth, +fell suddenly from its grasp, enabling its victim at length to free himself altogether +and start once more to his feet.</p> + +<p>Little more than a minute had been passed in the enactment of this strange +scene. The collision, the overthrow, the upraising of the knife had followed +each other in such rapid succession that, until the last desperate intention of +Gerald was formed, the Aid-de-camp had not had time to interpose himself in +any way between the enraged combatants. His first action had been to strike +away the murderous knife with the heavy butt of one of his pistols, the other +to plant such a blow upon the "gouging" hand of the settler from the same +butt, as effectually to compel him to relinquish his ferocious clutch. In both +objects, as we have seen, he fully succeeded.</p> + +<p>But although his right hand had been utterly disabled by the blow from +Jackson's pistol, the fury of Desborough, fed as it was by the fumes of the +liquor he had swallowed, was too great to render him heedful of aught but the +gratification of his vengeance. Rolling rapidly over to the point where the +knife had fallen he secured it in his left hand, and then, leaping nimbly to his +feet, gathered himself into a spring upon his unarmed but watchful enemy. +But before the bound could be taken, the active Aid-de-camp, covering Gerald +with his body and presenting a cocked pistol, had again thwarted him in his +intention.</p> + +<p>"I say now, old cock, you'd much better be quiet I guess, for them sort of +tantrums won't suit me. If this here Liftenant killed your son why he'll<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> +answer for it later, but I can't let you murder my prisoner in that flumgustious +manner. I'm responsible for him to the United States Government, +therefore just drop that knife clean and slick upon the floor, and let's have no +more of this nonsense for the night."</p> + +<p>But even the cocked pistol had not power to restrain the fierce—almost +brutal—rage of the woodman, whose growing intoxication added fuel to the +fire which the presence of his enemy had kindled in his heart. Heedless of +the determined air and threatening posture of the Aid-de-camp, he made a +bound forward, uttering a sound that resembled the roar of a wild beast +rather than the cry of a human being, and struck over Jackson's shoulder at +the chest of the officer. Gerald, whose watchful eye marked the danger, had +however time to step back and avoid the blow. In the next moment the Aid-de-camp, +overborne by the violence of the collision, fell heavily backwards +upon the rude floor, and in the fall the pistol went off lodging the ball in the +sinewy calf of Desborough's leg. Stung with acute animal pain, the whole +rage of the latter was now diverted from Gerald to the aid-de-camp, on whom, +assuming the wound to have been intentional, he threw himself with the fury +of a tiger, grappling as he closed with him at his throat. But the sailor, in his +turn, now came to the rescue of his companion, and the scene for some time, +as the whole party struggled together upon the floor in the broad, red glare +of the wood fire, was one of fearful and desperate character. At length, after +an immense effort, and amid the most horrid imprecations of vengeance upon +them, the officers succeeded in disarming and tying the hands of the settler +behind his back, after which, dragging him to a distant corner of the hut, they +secured him firmly to one of the open and mis-shapen logs which composed +its frame. This done, Jackson divided the little that had been left of his +"Wabash" with his charge, and then stretching himself at his length, with +his feet to the fire and his saddle for a pillow, soon fell profoundly asleep.</p> + +<p>Too much agitated by the scene which had just passed, Gerald, although +following the example of his companion in stretching himself before the cheerful +fire, was in no condition to enjoy repose. Indeed, whatever his inclination, +the attempt would have been vain, for so dreadful were the denunciations of +Desborough throughout the night, that sleep had no room to enter even into +his thoughts. Deep and appalling were the curses and threats of vengeance +which the enraged settler uttered upon all who bore the name of Grantham; +and with these were mingled lamentations for his son, scarcely less revolting +in their import than the curses themselves. Nor was the turbulence of the +enraged man confined to mere excitement of language. His large and muscular +form struggled in every direction to free himself from the cords that secured +him to the logs, and finding these too firmly bound to admit of the accomplishment +of his end, he kicked his brawny feet against the floor with all the fury +and impatience of a spirit, quickened into a livelier sense of restraint by the +stimulus of intoxication. At length, exhausted by the efforts he had made, his +struggles and his imprecations became gradually less frequent and less vigorous, +until finally towards dawn they ceased altogether, and his deep and heavy +breathing announced that he slept.</p> + +<p>Accustomed to rise with the dawn, the Aide-de-camp was not long after its +appearance in shaking off the slumber in which he had so profoundly indulged. +The first object that met his eye as he raised himself up in a sitting posture +from his rude bed, was Gerald stooping over the sleeping Desborough, one<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span> +hand resting upon his chest, the other holding the knife already alluded to, +while every feature of his face was kindled into loathing and abhorrence of his +prostrate and sleeping enemy. Startled by the expression he read there, and +with the occurrences of the last night rushing forcibly upon his memory, the +Aide-de-camp called quickly out:</p> + +<p>"Hold, Liftenant Grantham. Well, as I'm a true Tennessee man, bred and +born, may I be most especially d——d, if I'd a thought you'd do so foul a deed. +What! assassinate a sleeping drunken man?"</p> + +<p>"Assassinate, Captain Jackson?" repeated Gerald, raising himself to his +full height, while a crimson flush of indignation succeeded to the deadly paleness +which had overspread his cheek.</p> + +<p>"Yes—assassinate!" returned the Aide-de-camp, fixing his eye upon that +of his prisoner, yet without perceiving that it quailed under his penetrating +glance; "It's an ugly word, I reckon, for you to hear, as it is for me to speak, +but your quarrel last night—your fix just now—that knife—Liftenant Grantham," +and he pointed to the blade which still remained in the hands of the +accused—"surely these things speak for themselves; and though the fellow +has swallowed off all my Wabash, and be d——d to him, still I shouldn't like +to see him murdered in that sort of way."</p> + +<p>"I cannot blame you, Captain Jackson," said Gerald calmly, his features +resuming their pallid hue. "These appearances, I grant, might justify the +suspicion, horrible as it is, in one who had known more of me than yourself +but was assassination even a virtue, worlds would not tempt me to assassinate +that man—wretch though he be—or even to slay him in fair and open +combat."</p> + +<p>"Then I calculate one night has made a pretty considerable change in your +feelings, Liftenant," retorted the Aide-de-camp. "You were both ready +enough to go at it last night, when I knocked the knife out of your fist, and +broke the knuckles of his gouging hand."</p> + +<p>"I confess," said Gerald, again coloring, "that excessive pain made me wild, +and I should have been tempted to have had recourse to any means to thwart +him in his diabolical purpose. As you have said, however, the past night has +effected a change in my feelings towards the man, and death from my hand, +under any circumstances, is the last thing he has now to apprehend." Gerald +sank his head upon his chest, and sighed bitterly.</p> + +<p>"Well," said Jackson, "all this is queer enough; but what were you +doing standing over the man just now with that knife, if it was not to harm +him? And as for your countenance, it scowled so savage and passionate, I +was almost afraid to look at it myself."</p> + +<p>"My motive for the action I must beg you to excuse my entering upon," +replied Gerald. "Of this, however, be assured, Captain Jackson, that I had +no intention to injure yon sleeping villain. On the word of an officer and a +gentleman, and by the kindness you have shown me on all occasions since our +journey commenced, do I solemnly assure you this is the fact."</p> + +<p>"And on the word of an officer, and a true Tennessee man, bred and born +I am bound to believe you," returned the American, much affected. "A man +that could fight so wickedly in the field would never find heart, I reckon, to +stick an enemy in the dark. No, Liftenant Grantham, you were not born +to be an assassin. And now let's be starting—the day has already broke."</p> + +<p>"And yet," returned Gerald, with a smile of bitter melancholy, as they hur<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span>ried +towards the spot where they had left their horses, "if any man ever had +reason to act so as to merit the imputation of being such, I have. In that +savage woodsman, Captain Jackson, you have beheld the murderer—the self-acknowledged +murderer of my father."</p> + +<p>"God bless my soul!" cried Jackson dropping the saddle which he carried +and standing still with very amazement. "A pretty fix I've got into, to be +sure. Here's one man accuses another of murdering his son, and t'other, by +way of quits accuses him, in his turn, of murdering his father. Why, which +am I to believe?"</p> + +<p>"Which you please, Captain Jackson," said the sailor coolly, yet painedly; +and he moved forward in pursuit of his horse.</p> + +<p>"Nay, Liftenant Grantham," said the Aid-de-camp, who had again resumed +his burden, and was speedily at the side of his companion, "don't be offended. +I've no doubt the thing's as you say; but you must make allowance for my +ideas, never too much of the brightest, being conglomerated, after a fashion, +by what I have seen and heard, since we let loose our horses last night upon +this prairie."</p> + +<p>"I am not offended, only hurt," replied Gerald, shaking the hand that was +cordially tendered to him, "hurt, that you should doubt my word, or attach +anything to the assertion of that man beyond the mere ravings of a savage +and diseased spirit. Justice to myself demands that I should explain everything +in detail."</p> + +<p>"Now, that's what I call all right and proper," returned the Aide-de-camp, +"and should be done, both for your sake and mine; but we will leave it till +we get once more upon the road and in sight of a tavern, for it's dry work +talking and listening without even so much as a gum tickler of the Wabash to +moisten one's clay."</p> + +<p>They found their horses not far from the spot where they had been left on +the preceding night, and these being speedily untethered and saddled, the travellers +again pursued their route towards the capital of the state in which they +found themselves. As they passed the hut which had been the scene of so +much excitement to both, the voice of Desborough, whom they had left fast +asleep, was heard venting curses and imprecations upon them both, for having +left him there to starve, bound and incapable of aiding himself. Wretch as the +settler was, Gerald could not reconcile to himself the thought of his being left +to perish thus miserably, and he entreated the Aid-de-camp to enter and divide +the cords. But Jackson declared this to be impolitic, urging as a powerful +reason for declining, the probability of his having fire-arms in the hut, with +which (if released) he might follow and overtake them in their route, and sacrifice +one or the other to his vengeance—an object which it would be easy to +accomplish without his ever being detected. However, that the villain might +have sustenance until some chance traveller should come later to his assistance, +or he could manage to get rid of his bonds himself, he consented to place within +his reach all the dried meat that had been left of his Indian foes, together with +a pail of water—the latter by way of punishment for having swilled away at +his Wabash in the ungracious manner he had.</p> + +<p>While Jackson was busied in this office of questionable charity, the rage +and disappointment of the settler surpassed what it had hitherto been. Each +vein of his dark brow rose distinctly and swelling from its surface, and he +kicked and stamped with a fury that proclaimed the bitter tempest raging in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span> +his soul. When the Aide-de-camp had again mounted, his shrieks and execrations +became piercing, and for many minutes after they had entered into +the heart of the forest in which the hut was situated, the shrill sounds continued +to ring upon their ears in accents so fearful, that each felt a sensible relief +when they were heard no more.</p> + +<p>On the evening of the third day after this event, Jackson and our hero, between +whom a long explanation on the subject of the settler had taken place, +alighted at the door of the principal inn in Frankfort, the capital of Kentucky, +which was their ultimate destination. To mine host Gerald was introduced +by his escort with the formality usual on such occasions in America, and with +the earnest recommendation to that most respectable personage, that, as his +own friend, as well as that of Captain Forrester, every indulgence should be +shown to the prisoner that was not inconsistent with his position.</p> + + + + +<h2 class="p4"><a name="CHAPTER_XXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXVI">CHAPTER XXVI.</a></h2> + + +<p>Few situations in life are less enviable than that of the isolated prisoner of +war. Far from the home of his affections, and compelled by the absence of +all other companionship, to mix with those who, in manners, feelings, and +national characteristics, form, as it were, a race apart from himself, his recollections, +already sufficiently embittered by the depressing sense of captivity, +are hourly awakened by some rude contrast wounding to his sensibilities, and +even though no source of graver irritation should exist, a thousand petty annoyances, +incident to the position, are magnified by chagrin from mole-hills +into mountains. Such, however, would be the effect produced on one only, +who, thrown by the accident of war into the situation of a captive, should +have no grief more profound, no sorrow deeper seated, than what arose from +the being severed from old, and associated with new and undesired ties—one +to whom life was full of the fairest buds of promise, and whose impatience of +the present was only a burning desire to enter upon the future. Not so with +Gerald Grantham. Time, place, circumstance, condition, were alike the same—alike +indifferent to him. In the recollection of the scenes he had so lately +quitted, and in which his fairer and unruffled boyhood had been passed, he +took no pleasure—while the future was so enshrouded in gloom, that he +shrank from its very contemplation. So far from trying to wring consolation +from circumstances, his object was to stupify recollection to the uttermost. +He would fain have shut out both the past and the future, contenting himself +as he might with the present; but the thing was impossible. The worm had +eaten into his heart, and its gnawings were too painful, not poignantly to +remind him of the manner in which it had been engendered.</p> + +<p>Upwards of a fortnight had elapsed since his arrival, and yet, although +Captain Jackson, prior to his return to Sandusky, had personally introduced +him to many highly respectable families in Frankfort, he uniformly abstained +from cultivating their acquaintance, until at length he was, naturally enough, +pronounced to be a most disagreeable specimen of a British officer. Even +with the inmates of the hotel, many of whom were officers of his own age, +and with whom he constantly sat down to the ordinary, he avoided everything +approaching to intimacy—satisfying himself merely with discharging<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> +his share of the commonest courtesies of life. They thought it pride—it was +but an effect—an irremediable effect—of the utter sinking of his sad and broken +spirit. The only distraction in which he eventually took pleasure, or sought +to indulge, was rambling through the wild passes of the chain of wooded hills +which almost encircles the capital of Kentucky, and extends to a considerable +distance in a westerly direction. The dense gloom of these narrow valleys he +had remarked on his entrance by the same route, and feeling them more in +unison with his sick mind than the hum and bustle of a city, which offered +nothing in common with his sympathies, he now frequently passed a great +portion of the day in threading their mazes—returning, however, at a certain +hour to his hotel, conformably with the terms of his parole.</p> + +<p>On one occasion, tempted by the mellow beauty of the season—it was now +the beginning of October—he had strayed so far, and through passes so unknown +to him, that when the fast advancing evening warned him of the necessity +of returning, he found he had utterly lost his way. Abstracted as he +usually was, he had yet reflection enough to understand that his parole of +honor required he should be at his hotel at an hour which it would put his +speed to the proof to accomplish. Despairing of finding his way by the circuitous +route he had originally taken, and the proper clue to which he had +moreover lost, he determined, familiar as he was with the general bearings of +the capital, to effect his return in a direct line across the chain of hills already +alluded to. The deepening shadows of the wild scene, as he proposed to ascend +that immediately before him, told that the sun had sunk beneath the +horizon, and when he gained its summit, the last faint corruscations of light +were passing rapidly away in the west. Still, by the indistinct twilight, he +could perceive that at his feet lay a small valley, completely hemmed in by +the circular ridge on which he stood. This traversed, it was but to ascend the +opposite section of the ridge, and his destination would be gained. Unlike +the narrow, rocky passes which divided the hills in every other direction in +which he had previously wandered, this valley was covered with a luxuriant +verdure, and upon this the feet of Gerald moved inaudibly even to himself. +As he advanced more into the centre of the little plain, he thought he could +perceive, at its extremity on the right, the dark outline of a building—apparently +a dwelling-house; and while he yet hesitated whether he should approach +it and inquire his most direct way to the town, a light suddenly appeared +at that point of the valley for which he was already making. A few +minutes sufficed to bring him to the spot whence the light had issued. It +was a small, circular building, possibly intended for a summer-house, but more +resembling a temple in its construction, and so closely bordering upon the +forest ridge, by a portion of the foliage by which it had previously been concealed, +as to be almost confounded with it. It was furnished with a single +window, the same through which the light now issued, and this, narrow, elongated, +and studded with iron bars, was so placed as to prevent one even taller +than our hero from gazing into the interior, without the aid of some elevation. +But Gerald, independently of his anxiety to reach the town in time to prevent +comment upon his absence, had no desire to occupy himself with subjects +foreign to his object. Curiosity was a feeling dead within his bosom, and he +was preparing, without once staying his course, to ascend the ridge at the side +of the temple, when he fancied he heard a suppressed groan, as of one suffering +from intense agony. Not the groan, but the peculiar tone in which it was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> +uttered, arrested his attention, and excited a vague yet stirring interest in his +breast. On approaching closer to the temple, he found that at its immediate +basement the earth had been thrown up into a sort of mound, which so elevated +the footing as to admit of his reaching the bars of the window with his +hands. Active as we have elsewhere shown him to be, he was not long in +obtaining a full view of the interior, when a scene met his eye which riveted +him, as well it might, in utter astonishment. Upon the rude, uncarpeted +floor knelt a female, who, with clasped and uplifted hands, had her eyes fixed +upon a portrait that hung suspended from the opposite wall—her figure, clad +in a loose robe of black, developing by its attitude a contour of such rich and +symmetrical proportion as might be difficult for the imagination to embody. +And who was the being upon whom his each excited sense now lingered with +an admiration little short of idolatry? One whom, a moment before, he believed +to be still far distant, whom he had only a few months previously fled +from as from a pestilence, and whom he had solemnly sworn never to behold +again—yet whom he continued to love with a passion that defied every effort +of his judgment to subdue, making his life a wilderness—Matilda Montgomerie! +and if her beauty had <i>then</i> had such surpassing influence over his soul, +what was not its effect when he beheld her <i>now</i>, every grace of womanhood +exhibited in a manner to excite admiration the most intense!</p> + +<p>It would be vain to describe all that passed through the mind of Gerald +Grantham, while he thus gazed upon her whose beauty was the rock on which +his happiness had been wrecked. His first impulse had been to fly, but the +fascination which riveted him to the window deprived him of all power, until +eventually, of all the host of feelings that had crowded tumultuously upon his +heart, passion alone remained triumphant. Unable longer to control his impatience, +he was on the point of quitting his station, for the purpose of knocking +and obtaining admission by a door which he saw opposite to him, when a +sudden change in the attitude of Matilda arrested the movement.</p> + +<p>She had risen, and with her long and dark hair floating over her white +shoulders, now advanced towards the portrait, on which her gaze had hitherto +been so repeatedly turned. This was so placed that Gerald had not previously +an opportunity of remarking more than the indistinct outline, which +proved it to represent a human figure; but as she for a moment raised the light +with one hand, while with the other she covered it with a veil which had been +drawn aside, he distinctly saw that it was the portrait of an officer dressed in +the American uniform; and it even occurred to him that he had before seen +the face, although, in his then excited state he could not recollect where. +Even had he been inclined to tax his memory, the effort would have been impracticable, +for another direction was now given to his interest.</p> + +<p>On the left and close under the window, stood a rude sofa and ruder table, +the only pieces of furniture which Gerald could observe within the temple. +Upon the former Matilda had now reclined herself, and placing the candle upon +the table at her side, proceeded to unfold and peruse a letter which she had +previously taken from her pocket book. The same unconsciousness of observation +inducing the same unstudiedness of action, the whole disposition of the +form bore a character of voluptuousness, which the presumed isolation of her +who thus exhibited herself, a model of living grace, alone could justify. But +although the form was full of the eloquence of passion, one had but to turn +to the pale and severe face, to find there was no corresponding expression in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span> +the heart. As heretofore, the brow of the American wore a cast of thought—only +deeper, more decided—and even while her dark eyes flashed fire, as if in +disappointment and anger at sundry passages in the letter over which she lingered, +not once did the slightest color tinge her cheek, or the gloom dissipate +itself from that cold brow. Emotion she felt, for this her heaving bosom and +occasionally compressed lip betokened. Yet never was contrast more marked +than that between the person and the face of Matilda Montgomerie, as Gerald +Grantham then beheld her.</p> + +<p>On one who had seen her thus for the first time, the cold, calm countenance +of the singular girl, would have acted as a chastener to the emotions +called up by the glowing expression of her faultless form, but although there +was now a character of severity on her features, which must have checked and +chilled the ardent admiration produced by that form on a mere stranger, +Gerald but too well remembered occasions when the harmony of both had +been complete, and when the countenance, rich in all those fascinations, which, +even in her hours of utmost collectedness, never ceased to attach to the person, +had beamed upon him in a manner to stir his very soul into madness. There +were other and later recollections too, that forced themselves upon his memory; +but these, even though they recalled scenes in which the voluptuous beauty +of Matilda shone paramount, were as blots upon the fair picture of the past, +and he fain would have banished them from his mind for ever.</p> + +<p>The letter on which the American was now engaged, Grantham had recognised, +from its fold and seal, to be one he had written prior to parting with +her, as he had supposed for ever. While he was yet dwelling on this singularity, +Matilda threw the letter upon the table at her side, and leaning her +head upon her hand, seemed as if musing deeply upon its contents. The contraction +of her brow became deeper, and there was a convulsed pressure of +her lips as of one forming some determination, requiring at once strong moral +and physical energy to accomplish. A cold shudder crept through the veins +of Gerald, for too well did he fancy he could divine what was passing in the +soul of that strange yet fascinating woman. For a moment a feeling of almost +loathing came over his heart, but when, in the next moment, he saw her rise +from the sofa, revealing the most inimitable grace, he burned with impatience +to throw himself, reckless of consequences, at her feet, and to confess his +idolatry.</p> + +<p>After pacing to and fro for some moments, her dark and kindling eye alone +betraying the excitement which her colorless cheek denied, Matilda again took +up the light, and having once more approached the portrait, was in the act of +raising the veil, when a slight noise made by Gerald, who in his anxiety to +obtain a better view of her, had made a change in his position, arrested her +ear; and she turned and fixed her eye upon the window, not with the disturbed +manner of a person who fears observation, but with the threatening air +of one who would punish an intrusion.</p> + +<p>Holding the light above her head, she advanced firmly across the room, and +stopping beneath the window, fixed her eye steadily and unshrinkingly upon +it. The mind of Gerald had become a chaos of conflicting and opposite feelings. +Only an instant before and he would have coveted recognition, now his +anxiety was to avoid it; but cramped in his attitude, and clinging as he was +compelled, with his face close to the bars, his only means of doing so was by +quitting his position altogether. He therefore loosened his hold, and dropped<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> +himself on the mound of earth from which he had contrived to ascend, but +not so noiselessly, in the unbroken stillness of the night, as to escape the keen +ear of the American. In the next moment Gerald heard a door open, and a +well known voice demand, in tones which betrayed neither alarm nor indecision.</p> + +<p>"Who is there?"</p> + +<p>The question was repeated in echo from the surrounding woods, and then +died away in distance.</p> + +<p>"Who of my people," again demanded Matilda, "has dared to follow me +here in defiance of my orders?"</p> + +<p>Another echo of indistinct sounds, and all again was still.</p> + +<p>"Whoever you are, speak," resumed the courageous girl. "Nay," she pursued +more decidedly, as having moved a pace or two from the door, she observed +a human form standing motionless beneath the window. "Think not +to escape me. Come hither slave that I may know you. This curiosity shall +cost you dear."</p> + +<p>The blood of Gerald insensibly chilled at the harsh tone in which these +words were uttered, and had he followed a first impulse he would at once +have retired from the influence of a command, which under all the circumstances, +occurred to him as being of prophetic import. But he had gazed on +the witching beauty of the syren, until judgment and reason had yielded the +rein to passion, and filled with an ungovernable desire to behold and touch +that form once more—even although he should the next moment tear himself +from it for ever—he approached and stood at the entrance of the temple, the +threshold of which Matilda had again ascended.</p> + +<p>No exclamation of surprise escaped the lips of the ever-collected American; +and yet, for the first time that night, her cheek was suffused with a deep glow, +the effect of which was to give to her whole style of beauty a character of +radiancy.</p> + +<p>"Gerald Grantham!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Matilda," exclaimed the youth, madly, heedless of the past, while he +riveted his gaze upon her dazzling loveliness with such strong excitement of +expression as to cause her own to sink beneath it, "your own Gerald—your +slave kneels before you," and he threw himself at her feet.</p> + +<p>"And what punishment does not that slave merit?" she asked in a tone so +different from that in which she had addressed her supposed domestic, that +Gerald could scarcely believe it to be the same. "What reparation can he +make for having caused so much misery to one who loved and cherished him +so well. Oh! Gerald, what days, what nights of misery have I not passed +since you so unkindly left me." As she uttered the last sentence, she bent +herself over the still kneeling form of her lover, while her long dark hair, +falling forward, completely enveloped him in its luxuriant and waving +folds.</p> + +<p>"You will be mine, Matilda," at length murmured the youth, as he sat at +her side on the sofa, to which on rising he had conducted her.</p> + +<p>"Yours, only yours," returned the American, while she bent her face upon +his shoulder. "But you know the terms of our union."</p> + +<p>Had a viper stung him, Gerald could not have recoiled with more dismay +and horror from her embrace. Again the features of Matilda became colorless, +and her brow assumed an expression of care and severity.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Then, if not to fulfil that compact, wherefore are you here?" and the question +was put half querulously, half contemptuously.</p> + +<p>"Chance, Destiny, Fate,—call it what you will," cried Gerald, obeying the +stronger impulse of his feelings, and clasping her once more to his beating +heart. "Oh! Matilda, if you knew how the idea of that fearful condition has +haunted me in my thoughts by day, and my dreams by night, you would +only wonder that at this moment I retain my senses, filled as my soul is with +maddening—with inextinguishable love for you."</p> + +<p>"And do you really entertain for me that deep, that excessive passion you +have just expressed," at length observed Matilda, after some moments of silence, +and with renewed tenderness of voice and manner, "and yet refuse the +means by which you may secure me to you for ever?"</p> + +<p>"Matilda," said Gerald, with vehemence, "my passion for you is one which +no effort of my reason can control; but let me not deceive you—it is <i>now</i> one +of the senses."</p> + +<p>An expression of triumph, not wholly unmingled with scorn, animated the +features of Matilda. It was succeeded by one of ineffable tenderness.</p> + +<p>"We will talk of this no more to-night, Gerald, but to-morrow evening, at +the same hour, be here: and our mutual hopes, and fears, and doubts shall be +then realized or disappointed, as the event may show. To-morrow will determine +if, as I cannot but believe, Destiny has sent you to me at this important +hour. It is very singular," she added, as if to herself, her features again becoming +deadly pale, "very singular indeed!"</p> + +<p>"What is singular, Matilda?" asked Gerald.</p> + +<p>"You shall know all to-morrow," she replied; "but mind," and her dark +eye rested on his with an expression of much tenderness, "that you come prepared +to yield me all I ask."</p> + +<p>Gerald promised that he would, and Matilda expressing a desire to hear +what had so unexpectedly restored him to her presence, he entered into a detail +of all that had befallen him from the moment of their separation. She +appeared to be much touched by the relation, and in return, gave him a history +of what she too had felt and suffered. She moreover informed him that Major +Montgomerie had died of his wounds shortly after their parting, and that she +had now been nearly two months returned to her uncle's estate at Frankfort, +where she lived wholly secluded from society, and with a domestic establishment +consisting of slaves. These short explanations having been entered into +they parted—Matilda to enter her dwelling, the same which Gerald had +marked in outline, in which numerous lights were now visible, and her lover +to make the best of his way to the town.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span></p> + + + + +<h2 class="p4"><a name="CHAPTER_XXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXVII">CHAPTER XXVII.</a></h2> + + +<p>Morning dawned, and yet no sleep had visited the eyes of Gerald Grantham. +The image of Matilda floated in his mind, and to the recollection of +her beauty he clung with an aching eagerness of delight, that attested the +extent of its influence over his imagination. Had there been nothing to tarnish +that glorious picture of womanly perfection, the feelings it called up +would have been too exquisite for endurance; but, alas! with the faultless +image came recollections, against which it required all the force of that beauty +to maintain itself. One ineffaceable spot was upon the soul of that fascinating +being; and though, like the spots on the sun's disk, it was hidden in the effulgence +which surrounded it, still he could not conceal from himself that it <i>did</i> +exist, to deface the symmetry of the whole. It was his knowledge of that +fearful blemish that had driven him to seek in drunkenness, and subsequently +in death, a release from the agonizing tortures of his mind. Virtue and a high +sense of honor had triumphed so far, as not merely to leave his own soul spotless, +but to fly from her who would have polluted it with crime; yet, although +respect and love—the pure sentiments by which he had originally been influenced—had +passed away, the hour of their departure had been that of the +increased domination of passion, and far from her whose beauty was ever present +to his mind, his imagination had drawn and lingered on such pictures +that, assured as he was they could never be realized, he finally resolved to +court death wherever it might present itself.</p> + +<p>Restored thus unexpectedly to the presence of her who had been the +unceasing subject of his thoughts, and under circumstances so well calculated +to inflame his imagination, it cannot appear wonderful that Gerald should have +looked forward to his approaching interview with emotions of the intensest +kind. How fated, too, seemed the reunion. He had quitted Matilda with the +firm determination never to behold her more, yet, by the very act of courting +that death which would fully have accomplished his purpose, he had placed +himself in the position he most wished to avoid. Presuming that Major +Montgomerie, who had never alluded to Frankfort as his home, was still with +his niece, a resident in the distant State in which he had left them, he had +gladly heard Colonel Forrester name the Kentucky capital as the place of his +destination; for, deep and maddening as was his passion for Matilda, no +earthly considerations could have induced him voluntarily to have sought her. +Even since his arrival in Frankfort, it had been a source of consolation to him +to feel that he was far removed from her who could have made him forget that, +although the heart may wither and die, while self-esteem and an approving +conscience remain to us, the soul shares not in the same decay—confesses not +the same sting. Could he even have divined that in the temple to which his +curiosity had led him, he should have beheld the being on whose image +he doted, even while he shunned it, he would have avoided her as a +pestilence.</p> + +<p>The result of this terrible struggle of his feelings was a determination to see +her once more—to yield up his whole soul to the intoxication of her presence, +and then, provided she should refuse to unite her fate to his, unhampered by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span> +the terrible condition of past days, to tear himself from her for ever.</p> + +<p>Strong in this resolution, Gerald, to whom the hours had appeared as days +since his rising, quitted Frankfort about his usual time, and, in order +to avoid observation, took the same retired and circuitous route by which he +had reached the valley the preceding evening. As he descended into the +plain, the light from the window of the temple was again perceptible. In a +few minutes he was in the room.</p> + +<p>"Gerald—my own Gerald," exclaimed Matilda, as, carefully closing the door +after her lover, she threw herself into his embrace. Alas, weak man! Like +the baseless fabric of a dream, disappeared all the lately formed resolutions +of the youth.</p> + +<p>"Yes, Matilda—your own Gerald. Come what will, henceforth I am +yours."</p> + +<p>A pause of some moments ensued, during which each felt the beating of the +other's heart.</p> + +<p>"Will you swear it, Gerald?" at length whispered Matilda.</p> + +<p>"I will—I do swear it."</p> + +<p>There was a sudden kindling of the dark eye of the American, and an +outswelling of the full bust, that seemed to betoken exultation in the power +of her beauty; but this was quickly repressed, and, sinking on the sofa at the +side of her lover, her whole countenance was radiant with the extraordinary +expression Gerald had, for the first time, witnessed while she lingered on the +arm of his uncle, Colonel D'Egville.</p> + +<p>"Gerald," she said tenderly, "confirm the oath which is to unite us heart +and soul in one eternal destiny. Swear upon this sacred volume, that your +hand shall avenge the wrongs of your Matilda—of your wife. Ha! your +wife—think of that," she added with sudden energy.</p> + +<p>Gerald caught the book eagerly to his lips. "I swear it Matilda,—he +shall die."</p> + +<p>But scarcely had he sworn, when a creeping chill passed through his frame. +His features lost all their animation, and, throwing away the book on which +the impious oath had been taken, he turned away his face from Matilda, and +sinking his head upon his breast, groaned and wept bitterly.</p> + +<p>"What! already, Gerald, do you repent? Nay, tell me not that one thus +infirm of purpose, can be strong of passion. You love me not, else would +the wrongs of her you love arm you with the fiercest spirit of vengeance +against him who has so deeply injured her. But if you repent, it is but to absolve +you from the oath, and then the deed must be my own."</p> + +<p>The American spoke in tones in which reproach, expostulation, and wounded +affection, were artfully and touchingly blended, and as she concluded, she too +dropped her head upon her chest and sighed.</p> + +<p>"Nay, Matilda, you do me wrong. It is one thing to swerve from the guilty +purpose to which your too seductive beauty has won my soul,—another, to +mourn as man should mourn, the hour when virtue, honor, religion, all the nobler +principles in which my youth has been nurtured, have proved too weak to +stem the tide of guilty passion. You say I love you not!" and he laughed +bitterly. "What greater proof would you require than the oath I have +just taken?"</p> + +<p>"Its fulfilment," said Matilda impressively.</p> + +<p>"It shall be fulfilled," he returned quickly; "but at least deny me not the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span> +privilege of cursing the hour when crime of so atrocious a dye could be made +so familiar to my soul."</p> + +<p>"Crime is a word too indiscriminately bestowed," said Matilda, after a +momentary pause. "What the weak in mind class with crime, the strong +term virtue."</p> + +<p>"Virtue! what, to spill the blood of a man who has never injured me; to +become a hired assassin, the price of whose guilt is the hand of her who instigates +to the deed? If this be virtue, I am indeed virtuous."</p> + +<p>"Never injured you!" returned the American, while she bent her dark eyes +reproachfully upon those of the unhappy Gerald. "Has he not injured +<i>me</i>?—injured beyond all power of reparation, her who is to be the partner +of your life?"</p> + +<p>"Nay, Matilda," and Gerald again passionately caught and enfolded her to +his heart, "that image alone were sufficient to mould me to your will, even +although I had not before resolved. And yet," he pursued, after a short pause, +"how base, how terrible to slay an unsuspecting enemy! Would we could +meet in single combat—and why not? Yes it can, it shall be so. Fool that I +was not to think of it before. Matilda, my own love, rejoice with me, for +there is a means by which your honor may be avenged, and my own soul unstained +by guilt. I will seek this man, and fasten a quarrel upon him. What +say you, Matilda—speak to me, tell me that you consent." Gerald gasped +with agony.</p> + +<p>"Never, Gerald!" she returned, with startling impressiveness, while the +color, which during the warm embrace of her lover had returned to it once +more, fled from her cheek. "To challenge him would be but to ensure your +own doom, for few in the army of the United States equal him in the use of +the pistol or the small sword; and, even were it otherwise," she concluded, +her eye kindling into a fierce expression, "were he the veriest novice in the +exercise of both, my vengeance would be incomplete, did he not go down to his +grave with all his sins on his head. No, no, Gerald, in the fulness of the pride +of existence must he perish. He must not dream of death until he feels the +blow that is aimed at his heart."</p> + +<p>The agitation of Matilda was profound beyond anything she had ever yet +exhibited. Her words were uttered in tones that betrayed a fixed and unbroken +purpose of the soul, and when she had finished, she threw her face upon +the bosom of her lover, and ground her teeth together with a force that showed +the effect produced upon her imagination by the very picture of the death +she had drawn.</p> + +<p>A pause of some moments ensued. Gerald was visibly disconcerted, and +the arm which encircled the waist of the revengeful woman dropped, as if in +disappointment, at his side.</p> + +<p>"How strange and inconsistent are the prejudices of man," resumed Matilda, +half mournfully, half in sarcasm; "here is a warrior—a spiller of human +life by profession; his sword has been often dyed in the heart's blood of his +fellow man, and yet he shudders at the thought of adding one murder more to +the many already committed. What child-like weakness!"</p> + +<p>"Murder! Matilda—call you it murder to overcome the enemies of one's +country in fair and honorable combat, and in the field of glory?"</p> + +<p>"Call <i>you</i> it what you will—disguise it under whatever cloak you may—it +is no less murder. Nay, the worst of murders, for you but do the duty of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span> +hireling slayer. In cold blood, and for a stipend, do you put an end to the fair +existence of him who never injured you in thought or deed, and whom, +under other circumstances, you would perhaps have taken to your heart in +friendship."</p> + +<p>"This is true, but the difference of the motive, Matilda! The one approved +of heaven and of man, the other alike condemned of both."</p> + +<p>"Approved of man, if you will; but that they have the sanction of heaven, +I deny. Worldly policy and social interests alone have drawn the distinction, +making the one a crime, the other a virtue; but tell me not that an all-wise +and just God sanctions and approves the slaying of his creatures, because they +perish, not singly at the will of one man, but in thousands and tens of thousands +at the will of another. What is there more sacred in the brawls of +kings and potentates, that the blood they cause to be shed in torrents for some +paltry breach of etiquette, should sit more lightly on their souls than the few +solitary drops, spilt by the hand of revenge, on that of him whose existence is +writhing under a sense of acutest injury?"</p> + +<p>The energy with which she expressed herself, communicated a corresponding +excitement to her whole manner and person. Her eye sparkled and +dilated, and the visible heaving of her bosom told how strongly her own feelings +entered into the principles which she had advocated. Never did her +personal beauty shine forth more triumphantly or seducingly than at the +moment when her lips were giving utterance to sentiments from which the +heart recoiled.</p> + +<p>"Oh Matilda," sighed Gerald, "with what subtlety of argument do you +seek to familiarize my soul with crime. But the attempt is vain. Although +my hand is pledged to do your will, my heart must ever mourn its guilt."</p> + +<p>"Foolish Gerald," said Matilda; "why should that seem guilt to you, a +man, which to me, a woman, is but justice; but that unlike me you have never +entered into the calm consideration of the subject. Yes," she pursued with +greater energy, "what you call subtlety of argument is but force of conviction. +For two long years have I dwelt upon the deed, reasoning, and comparing, +until at length each latent prejudice has been expelled, and to avenge my harrowing +wrongs appeared a duty as distinctly marked as any one contained in +the decalogue. You saw me once, Gerald, when my hand shrank not from +what you term the assassin's blow, and had you not interfered then, the deed +would not now remain to be accomplished."</p> + +<p>"Oh, why did I interfere? why did my evil genius conduct me to such a +scene. Then had I lived at least in ignorance of the fearful act."</p> + +<p>"Nay, Gerald, let it rather be matter of exultation with you that you did. +Prejudiced as you are, this hand (and she extended an arm so exquisitely +formed that one would scarce even have submitted it to the winds of Heaven) +might not seem half so fair, had it once been dyed in human blood. Besides +who so proper to avenge a woman's wrongs upon her destroyer, as the lover +and the husband to whom she has plighted her faith for ever? No, no, it is +much better as it is and fate seems to have decreed that it should be so, else +why the interruption by yourself on that memorable occasion, and why, after +all your pains to avoid me, this our final union, at a moment when the wretch +is about to return to his native home, inflated with pride and little dreaming +of the fate that awaits him.—Surely, Gerald, you will admit there is something +more than mere chance in this?"</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span></p> + +<p>"About to return," repeated Grantham shuddering. "When, Matilda?"</p> + +<p>"Within a week at the latest—perhaps within three days. Some unimportant +advantage which he has gained on the frontier, has been magnified by +his generous fellow citizens into a deed of heroism, and, from information conveyed +to me, by a trusty and confidential servant, I find he has obtained leave +of absence, to attend a public entertainment to be given in Frankfort, on which +occasion a magnificent sword is to be presented to him. Never, Gerald," continued +Matilda, her voice dropping into a whisper, while a ghastly smile passed +over and convulsed her lips, "never shall he live to draw that sword. The +night of his triumph is that which I have fixed for mine."</p> + +<p>"An unimportant advantage upon the frontier," asked Gerald eagerly and +breathlessly. "To what frontier, Matilda, do you allude?"</p> + +<p>"The Niagara," was the reply.</p> + +<p>"Are you quite sure of this?"</p> + +<p>"So sure that I have long known he was there," returned Matilda.</p> + +<p>Gerald breathed more freely—but again he questioned:</p> + +<p>"Matilda, when first I saw you last night, you were gazing intently upon +yon portrait, (he pointed to that part of the temple where the picture hung +suspended), and it struck me that I had an indistinct recollection of the features."</p> + +<p>"Nothing more probable," returned the American, answering his searching +look with one of equal firmness. "You cannot altogether have forgotten Major +Montgomerie."</p> + +<p>"Nay, the face struck me not as his. May I look at it?"</p> + +<p>"Assuredly. Satisfy yourself."</p> + +<p>Gerald quitted the sofa, took up the light, and traversing the room raised +the gauze curtain that covered the painting. It was indeed the portrait of the +deceased Major, habited in full uniform.</p> + +<p>"How strange," he mused, "that so vague an impression should have been +conveyed to my mind last night, when now I recal without difficulty those +well remembered features," Gerald sighed as he recollected under what different +circumstances he had first beheld that face, and dropping the curtain +once more, crossed the room and flung himself at the side of Matilda.</p> + +<p>"For whom did you take it, if not for Major Montgomerie?" asked the +American after a pause, and again her full dark eye was bent on his.</p> + +<p>"Nay, I scarcely know myself, yet I had thought it had been the portrait +of him I have sworn to destroy."</p> + +<p>There was a sudden change of expression in the countenance of Matilda, but +it speedily passed away, and she said with a faint smile,</p> + +<p>"Whether is it more natural to find pleasure in gazing on the features of +those who have loved, or those who have injured us?"</p> + +<p>"Then whose was the miniature on which you so intently gazed, on that +eventful night at Detroit?" asked Gerald.</p> + +<p>"That," said Matilda quickly, and paling as she spoke—"that was <i>his</i>—I +gazed on it only the more strongly to detest the original—to confirm the determination +I had formed to destroy him."</p> + +<p>"If <i>then</i>," returned the youth, "why not <i>now</i>—may I not see that portrait, +Matilda? May I not acquire some knowledge of the unhappy man whose +blood will so shortly stain my soul?"</p> + +<p>"Impossible," she replied, "The miniature I have since destroyed. While<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span> +I thought the original within reach of my revenge, I could bear to gaze upon +it, but no sooner had I been disappointed in my aim, than it became loathsome +to me as the sight of some venomous reptile, and I destroyed it." This +was said with undisguised bitterness.</p> + +<p>Gerald sighed deeply. Again he encircled the waist of his companion and +one of her fair, soft, velvet hands was pressed in his.</p> + +<p>"Matilda," he observed, "deep indeed must be the wrong that would +prompt the heart of woman to so terrible a hatred. When we last parted, you +gave me but an indistinct and general outline of the injury you had sustained. +Tell me now all—tell me everything," he continued with energy, "that can +infuse a portion of the hatred which fills your soul into mine, that my hand +may be firmer—my heart more hardened to the deed."</p> + +<p>"The story of my wrongs must be told in a few words, for I cannot bear to +linger on it," commenced the American, again turning deadly pale, while +her quivering lips and trembling voice betrayed the excitement of her feelings. +The monster was the choice of my heart—judge how much so when I tell you +that, confiding in <i>his</i> honor, and in the assurance that our union would take +place immediately, I surrendered to him <i>mine</i>. A constant visitor at Major +Montgomerie's, whose brother officer he was, we had ample opportunities of +being together. We were looked upon in society as affianced lovers, and in +fact it was the warmest wish of Major Montgomerie that we should be united. +A day had even been fixed for the purpose, and it wanted, but eight and forty +hours of the time, when an occurrence took place which blasted all prospect +of our union for ever.</p> + +<p>"I have already told you, I think," resumed Matilda, "that this little +temple had been exclusively erected for my own use. Here however my false +lover had constant ingress, and being furnished with a key, was in the habit +of introducing himself at hours when having taken leave of the family for the +evening, he was supposed by Major Montgomerie and the servants to have retired +to his own home. On the occasion to which I have just alluded, I had +understood from him some business, connected with our approaching marriage, +would detain him in the town to an hour too advanced to admit of +his paying me his usual visit. Judge my surprise, and indeed my consternation, +when at a late hour of the night I heard the lock of the door turn, and +saw my lover appear at the entrance."</p> + +<p>There was a short pause, and Matilda again proceeded.</p> + +<p>"Scarcely had he shown himself, when he again vanished, closing the door +with startling violence. I sprang from the sofa and flew forth after him, but +in vain. He had already departed, and with a heart sinking under an insurmountable +dread of coming evil, I once more entered the temple, and throwing +myself upon the sofa, gave vent to my feelings in an agony of tears."</p> + +<p>"But why his departure, and whence your consternation?" asked Gerald, +whose curiosity had been deeply excited.</p> + +<p>"I was not alone," resumed Matilda, in a deep and solemn voice. "When +he entered, I was hanging on the neck of another."</p> + +<p>Gerald gave a half start of dismay, his arm dropped from the waist of the +American, and he breathed heavily and quickly.</p> + +<p>Matilda remarked the movement, and a sickly and half scornful smile passed +over her pale features. "Before we last parted, Gerald, I told you, not only<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span> +that I was in no way connected with Major Montgomerie by blood, but that +I was the child of obscure parents."</p> + +<p>"What then?"</p> + +<p>"The man on whose neck I hung was my own father."</p> + +<p>"It was Desborough!" said the youth, with an air and in a voice of extreme +anguish.</p> + +<p>"It was," returned Matilda, her face crimsoning as she reluctantly acknowledged +the parentage. "But how knew you it?"</p> + +<p>"Behold the proof!" exclaimed Gerald, with uncontrollable bitterness, as +he drew from his bosom the portrait of a child which, from its striking resemblance, +could be taken for no other than her to whom he now presented +it.</p> + +<p>"This is indeed mine," said Matilda, mournfully. "It was taken for me, as +I have since understood, in the very year when I was laid an orphan and a +stranger at the door of that good man, who, calling himself my uncle, has been +to me through life a more than father. Thank God," she pursued, with great +animation, her large, dark eyes upturned, and sparkling through the tears +that forced themselves upwards, "thank God, he at least lives not to suffer +through the acts of his adopted child. Where got you this, Gerald?" she +proceeded, when, after a short struggle she had succeeded in overcoming her +emotion.</p> + +<p>Gerald, who in his narrative of events, had purposely omitted all mention +of Desborough, now detailed the occurrence at the hut, and concluded what +the reader already knows, by stating that he had observed and severed from +the settler, as he slept heavily on the floor, the portrait in question, which, +added to the previous declaration of Matilda as to the obscurity of her birth, +connected with other circumstances on board his gun-boat, on his trip to Buffalo, +had left an impression little short of certainty that he was indeed the +father of the woman whom he so wildly loved.</p> + +<p>For some minutes after this explanation there was a painful silence, which +neither seemed anxious to interrupt. At length Gerald asked:</p> + +<p>"But what had a circumstance, so capable of explanation, to do with the +breaking off of your engagement, Matilda? or did he, more proud—perhaps +I should say less debased—than myself, shrink from uniting his fate with the +daughter of a murderer?"</p> + +<p>"True," said Matilda, musingly; "you have said, I think, that he slew +your father. This thirst for revenge, then, would seem hereditary. <i>That</i> is +the only, because it is the noblest, inheritance I would owe to such a being."</p> + +<p>"But your affair with your lover, Matilda—how terminated that?" demanded +Gerald, with increasing paleness and in a faltering tone.</p> + +<p>"In his falsehood and my disgrace. Early the next morning I sent to him, +and bade him seek me in the temple at the usual hour. He came, but it was +only to blast my hopes—to disappoint the passion of the woman who doated +upon him. He accused me of vile intercourse with a slave, and almost +maddened me with ignoble reproaches. It was in vain that I swore to him +most solemnly, the man he had seen was my father—a being whom motives +of prudence compelled me to receive in private, even though my heart abhorred +and loathed the relationship between us. He treated my explanation +with deriding contempt, bidding me either produce that father within twenty-four +hours, or find some easier fool to persuade, that one wearing the hue and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span> +features of the black, could by human possibility be the parent of a white +woman. Again I explained the seeming incongruity, by urging that the hasty +and imperfect view he had taken was of a mask, imitating the features of a +negro, which my father had brought with him as a disguise, and which he +had hastily resumed on hearing the noise of the key in the door. I even admitted +as an excuse for seeing him thus clandestinely, the lowly origin of my +father and the base occupation he followed of a treacherous spy, who, residing +in the Canadas, came, for the mere consideration of gold, to sell political information +to the enemies of the country that gave him asylum and protection. +I added that his visit to me was to extort money, under a threat of publishing +our consanguinity, and that dread of his (my lover's) partiality being decreased +by the disclosure, had induced me to throw my arms, in the earnestness +of entreaty, upon his neck, and implore his secresy; promising to reward +him generously for his silence. I moreover urged him, if he still doubted, to +make inquiry of Major Montgomerie, and ascertain from him whether I was +not indeed the niece of his adoption, and not of his blood. Finally, I humbled +myself in the dust, and, like a fawning reptile, clasped his knees in my +arms, entreating mercy and justice. But no," and the voice of Matilda grew +deeper, and her form became more erect; "neither mercy nor justice dwelt in +that hard heart, and he spurned me rudely from him. Nothing short of the +production of him he persisted in calling my vile paramour, would satisfy +him; but my ignoble parent had received from me the reward of his secresy, +and he had departed once more to the Canadas. And thus," pursued Matilda, +her voice trembling with emotion, "was I made the victim of the most diabolical +suspicion that ever haunted the breast of man."</p> + +<p>Gerald was greatly affected. His passion for Matilda seemed to increase in +proportion with his sympathy for her wrongs, and he clasped her energetically +to his heart.</p> + +<p>"Finding him resolute in attaching to me the debasing imputation," pursued +the American, "it suddenly flashed upon my mind that this was but a +pretext to free himself from his engagement, and that he was glad to accomplish +his object through the first means that offered. Oh, Gerald, I cannot +paint the extraordinary change that came over my feelings at this thought! +much less give you an idea of the rapidity with which that change was effected. +One moment before, and, although degraded and unjustly accused, I had loved +him with all the ardor of which a woman's heart is capable: <i>now</i> I hated, +loathed, detested him; and had he sunk at my feet, I would have spurned +him from me with indignation and scorn. I could not but be conscious that +the very act of having yielded myself up to him, had armed my lover with +the power to accuse me of infidelity, and the more I lingered on the want of +generosity such a suspicion implied, the more rooted became my dislike, the +more profound my contempt for him, who could thus repay so great a proof +of confidingness and affection.</p> + +<p>"It was even while I lay grovelling at his feet," pursued Matilda, after a +momentary pause, during which she evinced intense agitation, "that this sudden +change (excited by this most unheard-of injustice) came over my mind—I +rose and stood before him; then asked, in a voice in which no evidence of +passion could be traced, what excuse he meant to make to Major Montgomerie +for having thus broken off his engagement. He started at my sudden +calmness of manner, but said that he thought it might be as well for my sake<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span> +to name what I had already stated to him in regard to the obscurity of my +birth, as a plea for his seceding from the connexion. I told him that, under +all the circumstances, I thought this most advisable, and then, pointing to the +door, bade him be gone, and never, under any pretext whatever, again to insult +me with his presence. When he had departed, I burst into a paroxysm of +tears; but they were tears shed not for the loss of him I now despised, but +of wild sorrow at my unmerited degradation. That conflict over, the weakness +had for ever passed away, and never, since that hour, has tear descended +cheek of mine, associated with the recollection of the villain who had thus +dared to trifle with a heart the full extent of whose passions he has yet to +learn."</p> + +<p>There was a trembling of the whole person of Matilda which told how much +her feelings had been excited by the recollection of what she narrated, and +Gerald, as he gazed upon her beautiful form, could not but wonder at the +apathy of the man who could thus have heartlessly thrown it from him +for ever.</p> + +<p>"Had the injury terminated here," resumed Matilda, "bitter as my humiliation +was, my growing dislike for him who had so ungenerously inflicted it, +might have enabled me to endure it. But, not satisfied with destroying the +happiness of her who had sacrificed all for his sake, my perfidious lover had +yet a blow in reserve for me, compared with which his antecedent conduct was +mercy. Gerald," she continued, as she pressed his arm with a convulsive +grasp, "will you believe that the monster had the infamy to confide to one of +his most intimate associates, that his rupture with me was occasioned by his +having discovered me in the arms of a slave—of one of those vile beings communion +with whom my soul in any sense abhorred? How shall I describe +the terrible feeling that came over my insulted heart at that moment. But +no, no—description were impossible. This associate—this friend of his—dared +on the very strength of this infamous imputation, to pollute my ear with his +disrespectful passion, and when, in a transport of contempt and anger, I +spurned him from me, he taunted me with that which I believed confined to +the breast, as it had been engendered only in the suspicion, of my betrayer. +Oh! if it be dreadful to be accused by those whom we have loved in intimacy, +how much more is it to know that they have not had even the common humanity +to conceal our supposed weakness from the world. From that moment +revenge took possession of my soul, and I swore that my destroyer should +perish by the hand of her whose innocence and whose peace he had blasted +for ever.</p> + +<p>"Shortly after this event," resumed Matilda, "my base lover was ordered +to join his regiment, then stationed at Detroit. A year passed away, and +during that period my mind pondered unceasingly on the means of accomplishing +my purpose of revenge; and so completely did I devote myself to a cool +and unprejudiced examination of the subject, that what the vulgar crowd term +guilt, appeared to me plain virtue. On the war breaking out, Major Montgomerie +was also ordered to Detroit, and thither I entreated him to suffer me to +accompany him. He consented, for knowing nothing of the causes which had +turned my love into gall, he thought it not improbable that a meeting with my +late lover might be productive of a removal of his prejudices, and our consequent +reunion. Little did he dream that it was with a view to plunge a dagger +into my destroyer's false heart, that I evinced so much eagerness to undertake<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span> +so long and so disagreeable a Journey.</p> + +<p>"Little more remains to be added," pursued Matilda, as she fixed her dark +eyes with a softened expression on those of Gerald, "since with the occurrences +there you are already sufficiently acquainted. Yet there is one point upon +which I would explain myself. When I first became your prisoner, my mind +had been worked up to the highest pitch of determination, and in my captor I +at first beheld but an evil genius who had interposed himself between me and +my just revenge, when on the very eve of its consummation. Hence my +petulance and impatience while in the presence of your noble General."</p> + +<p>"And whence that look, Matilda, that peculiar glance, which you bestowed +upon me even within the same hour?"</p> + +<p>"Because in your frank and fearless mien I saw that manly honor and fidelity, +the want of which had undone me."</p> + +<p>"Then if so, why the cold, the mortifying reserve, you manifested when we +met at dinner at my uncle's table?"</p> + +<p>"Because I had also recollected that, degraded as I was, I ought not to seek +the love of an honorable man, and that to win you to my interest would be +of no avail, as, separated by the national quarrel, you could not by any possibility +be near to aid me in my plans."</p> + +<p>"Then," said Gerald reproachfully, "it was merely to make me an instrument +of vengeance that you sought me. Unkind Matilda!"</p> + +<p>"Nay, Gerald—recollect, that then I had not learnt to know you as I do +now—I will not deny that when first I saw you, a secret instinct told me you +were one whom I would have deeply loved had I never loved before; but betrayed +and disappointed as I had been, I looked upon all men with a species +of loathing—my kind, good, excellent more than father, excepted—and yet, +Gerald, there were moments when I wished even him dead" (Gerald started)—"yes! +dead—because I knew the anguish that would crush his heart, if he +should ever learn that the false brand of the assassin had been affixed to the +brow of his adopted child." Matilda sighed profoundly, and then resumed. +"Later, however, when the absence of its object had in some degree abated the +keenness of my thirst for revenge, and when more frequent intercourse had +made me acquainted with the generous qualities of your mind, I loved you, +Gerald, although I would not avow it, with a fervor I had never believed myself +a second time capable of entertaining."</p> + +<p>Again the countenance of Matilda was radiant with the expression just alluded +to by her lover. Gerald gazed at her as though his very being hung upon +the continuance of that fascinating influence, and again he clasped her to +his heart.</p> + +<p>"Matilda! oh, my own betrothed Matilda!" he murmured.</p> + +<p>"Yes, your own betrothed," repeated the American, highly excited, "the +wife of your affection and your choice, who has been held up to calumny and +scorn. Think of that, Gerald; she on whose fond bosom you are to repose +your aching head, she who glories in her beauty only because it is beauty in +your eyes, has been betrayed, accused of a vile passion for a slave; yet he—the +fiend who has done this grievous wrong—he who has stamped your wife +with ignominy, and even published her shame—still lives. Within a week," +she resumed in a voice hoarse from exhaustion, "yes, within a week, Gerald +he will be here—perhaps to deride and contemn you for the choice you +have made."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Within a week he dies," exclaimed the youth. "Matilda, come what +will, he dies. Life is death without you, and with you even crime may sit +lightly on my soul. But we will fly far from the habitations of men. The +forest shall be my home, and when the past recurs to me you shall smile upon +me with that smile, look upon me with that look, and I will forget all. Yes," +he pursued, with a fierce excitement snatching up the holy book, and again +carrying it to his lips, "once more I repeat my oath. He who has thus +wronged you, my own Matilda, dies—dies by the hand of Gerald Grantham—of +your affianced husband."</p> + +<p>There was another long embrace, after which the plan of operations was +distinctly explained and decided upon. They then separated for the night—the +infatuated Gerald, with a load of guilt at his heart no effort of his reason +could remove, returning by the route he had followed on the preceding evening +to his residence in the town.</p> + + + + +<h2 class="p4"><a name="CHAPTER_XXVIII" id="CHAPTER_XXVIII">CHAPTER XXVIII.</a></h2> + + +<p>Leaving the lost Gerald for a time to all the horrors of his position, in +which it would be difficult to say whether remorse or passion (each intensest +of its kind) predominated, let us return to the scene where we first introduced +him to the reader, and take a review of the military events passing in +that quarter.</p> + +<p>After the defeat of the British columns at Sandusky, so far from any renewed +attempts being made to interrupt the enemy in his strongholds, it became +a question whether the position on the Michigan frontier could be much +longer preserved. To the perseverance and promptitude of the Americans, in +bringing new armies into the field, we have already had occasion to allude; +but there was another quarter in which their strength had insensibly gathered, +until it eventually assumed an aspect that carried apprehension to every heart. +Since the loss of their flotilla at Detroit, in the preceding year, the Americans +had commenced with vigour to equip one at Buffalo, which was intended to +surpass the naval force on Lake Erie; and so silently and cautiously had they +accomplished this task, that it was scarcely known at Amherstburg that a +squadron was in the course of preparation, when that squadron, to which had +been added the schooner captured from Gerald Grantham the preceding autumn, +suddenly appeared off the harbor, defying their enemies to the combat. +But the English vessels were in no condition to cope with so powerful an +enemy, and although many a gallant spirit burned to be led against those +who so evidently taunted them, the safety of the garrisons depended too much +on the issue, for that issue to be lightly tempted.</p> + +<p>But misfortune was now beginning to overcast the hitherto fair prospects +of the British arms in the Western District of the Canadas; and what the +taunts of an enemy, triumphing in the consciousness of a superior numerical +force, could not effect, an imperative and miserably provided-for necessity +eventually compelled. Maintaining as they did a large body of wild and reckless +warriors, together with their families, it may be naturally supposed the +excesses of these people were not few; but it would have required one to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span> +have seen, to have believed, the prodigal waste of which they were often guilty. +Acknowledging no other law than their own will, following no other line of +conduct than that suggested by their own caprice, they had as little respect +for the Canadian inhabitant as they would have entertained for that of the +American enemy. And hence it resulted, that if an Indian preferred a piece +of fresh, to the salted meat daily issued from the commissariat, nothing was +more common than for him to kill the first head of cattle he found grazing +on the skirt of the forest, secure the small portion he wanted, and leave the +remainder to serve as carrion to the birds of prey of the country. Nay, to +such an extent was this wanton spoliation carried, that instances have repeatedly +occurred wherein cattle have been slain and left to putrify in the sun, +merely because a warrior found it the most convenient mode by which to possess +himself of a powder-horn. All this was done openly—in the broad face +of day, and in the full cognisance of the authorities; yet was there no provision +made to meet the difficulties so guilty a waste was certain eventually +to entail. At length the effect began to make itself apparent, and it was +shortly after the first appearance of the American fleet that the scarcity of +food began to be so severely felt as to compel the English squadron, at all +hazards, to leave the port in search of supplies.</p> + +<p>At this period, the vessel described in the commencement of our story, as +having engaged so much of the interest and attention of all parties, had just +been launched and rigged. Properly armed she was not, for there were no +guns of the description used on ship-board wherewith to arm her; but now +that the occasion became imperative, all nicety was disregarded in the equipment; +and guns that lately bristled from the ramparts of the fort were soon +to be seen protruding their long and unequal necks from the ports. She was +a gallant ship, notwithstanding the incongruity of her armament, and had her +brave crew possessed but the experience of those who are nursed on the salt +waves of ocean, might have fought a more fortunate fight (a better or a braver +was impossible) than she did. But in the whole of the English fleet there +could not be counted three-score able or experienced seamen; the remainder +were children of the Canadian Lakes, warm with the desire to distinguish +themselves in the eyes of their more veteran European companions, but without +the knowledge to make their enthusiasm sufficiently available. The +Americans, on the contrary, were all sons of the ocean and equally brave.</p> + +<p>It was a glorious day in September, the beautiful September of Canada, when +the gallant Commodore Barclay sailed with his fleet, ostensibly in fulfilment +of the mission for which it was dispatched, but in reality under the firm expectation +of being provoked to action by his stronger and better disciplined +enemy. To say that he would have sought that enemy, under the disadvantages +beneath which he knew himself to labor, would be to say that which +would reflect little credit on his judgment; but, although not in a condition +to hold forth the flag of defiance, where there was an inferiority in all but the +skill of the leader and the personal courage of the men, he was not one to +shun the battle that should be forced upon him. Still to him it was an anxious +moment, because the fame of other days hung upon an issue over which +no efforts of his own could hold mastery; and as he gazed at his armless +sleeve, he sighed for the presence of those whose agency had coupled the recollection +of past victory with that mutilated proof of honorable conduct. +He knew, moreover, the magnitude of the stake for which he was thus com<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span>pelled +to play, and that defeat to him would be the loss of the whole of the +Western District. While the British ascendancy could be maintained on the +lake, there was little fear, lined as the forests were with Indian warriors, that +the Americans would push any considerable force beyond the boundaries they +had assigned themselves at Sandusky and on the Miami; but a victory once +obtained by their fleet, there could be nothing to oppose the passage of their +army in vessels and boats across the lake.</p> + +<p>Such were the thoughts that filled the mind of the Commodore (in common +with all who calmly reasoned on the subject), as he crossed the bar that separated +him from his enemy; but neither in look, nor word, nor deed, was +there aught to reveal what was passing in the inward man; and when later +the hostile fleet was signalized as bearing down upon them, he gave his order +to prepare for action, in the animated voice of one who finds certain victory +within his reach, and exultingly hastens to secure it.</p> + +<p>The events of that day the page of history has already recorded, in terms +alike flattering to the conqueror and the conquered. Let it suffice that the +Americans fought with determined bravery, and eventually triumphed.</p> + +<p>The result of the unlucky contest was, as had been anticipated, to open a +free passage across the lake to the American armies, whose advance by land +had been so repeatedly and effectually checked on former occasions, as to leave +them little inclination for a renewal of an attempt in that quarter. Now however +that they could forward a fleet of boats under cover of the guns of their +squadron, to the very outworks of Amherstburg, the difficulty was at once +removed; and an overwhelming army of not less than ten thousand men, +was speedily assembled near Sandusky, with a view to the final invasion of +Amherstburg and consequent recapture of Detroit.</p> + +<p>Under these disheartening circumstances—the want of provisions being +daily more and more felt by the troops and inhabitants—it became necessary +to hold a council of war, to determine upon the course that should be pursued. +Accordingly the whole of the chiefs and officers of the garrison met in the hall +already described in the beginning of our narrative, when it was proposed by +General Proctor, at the conclusion of a speech in which the increasing difficulties +and privations of the garrison were emphatically enumerated, that the +fortifications should be razed to the ground, the dock yards and other public +works destroyed, and the allied forces of English and Indians make the best +of their way by land to join the centre division of the army on the Niagara +frontier.</p> + +<p>This was warmly opposed by Tecumseh, but despite his eloquence and remonstrance, +a few days later, and the work of destruction was entered upon +and soon completed. The little British army, scarcely exceeding eight hundred +men of all arms, commenced its march at night, lighted by the flames of +the barracks which had given them shelter for the last time. As they passed +the fort of Detroit the next day, dense columns of smoke and flame were to +be seen rising high in air, from the various public edifices, affording a melancholy +evidence of the destruction which usually tracks a retreating army. +Many an American inhabitant looked on at the work of destruction, as if he +would fain have arrested the progress of an element which at once defaced the +beauty of the town, and promised much trouble and inconvenience to those +whom they knew to be at hand, for their final deliverance from the British +yoke. But the garrison continued stern spectators of the ruin they had been<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span> +compelled to effect, until the flames had attained a power which rendered then +suppression an impossibility; then and then only, did they quit the scene of +conflagration, and embarking in the boats which had been kept in readiness +for their transport, joined their comrades, who waited for them on the opposite +bank. The two garrisons thus united; the whole preceded by a large +body of Indians, were pushed forward to the position which had been selected +on the Thames, and both shores of the Detroit were left an unresisting conquest +to the Americans.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, these latter had not been slow in profiting by the important +advantages which had crowned their arms on the lake. On the third day +after the retreat of the British garrison from Amherstburg, a numerous fleet +of large boats was discovered from the town pushing for Hartley's point, +under cover of the united squadrons. Unopposed as these were, their landing +was soon effected, and a few hours later the American stars were to be seen +floating over the still smoking ruins of the British fortress. Emboldened by +the unexpected ease with which he had rendered himself finally master of a +position long coveted, the American General at once resolved to follow and +bring his retreating enemy to action if possible. A force of five thousand men +(fifteen hundred of whom were mounted rifles) was accordingly pushed forward; +and so rapid and indefatigable was the march of these, that they came +up with the retreating columns before they had succeeded in gaining the village, +at which it was purposed that their final stand should be made. The anxiety +of General Proctor to save the baggage waggons containing his own personal +effects, had been productive of the most culpable delay, and at the moment when +his little army should have been under cover of entrenchments, and in a position +which offered a variety of natural defensive advantages, they found themselves +suddenly overtaken by the enemy in the heart of a thick wood, where, +fatigued by the long and tedious march they had made under circumstances of +great privation, they had scarcely time to form in the irregular manner permitted +by their broken position, before they found themselves attacked with +great spirit and on all sides, by a force more than quadruple their own. The +result may easily be anticipated. Abandoned by their General, who at the +very first outset, drove his spurs into the flanks of his charger and fled disgracefully +from the scene of action, followed by the whole of his personal staff, +the irregularly formed line of the little British army, was but ill prepared to +make effectual resistance to the almost invisible enemy by whom it was encompassed; +and those whom the rifle had spared, were to be seen, within an +hour from the firing of the first shot, standing conquered and disarmed, between +the closing lines of the victorious Americans.</p> + +<p>But although the English troops (sacrificed as they must be pronounced to +have been, by their incapable leader) fell thus an easy prey to the overwhelming +force brought against them, so did not their Indian allies, supported and +encouraged as these were by the presence of their beloved Chieftain. It was +with a sparkling eye and a glowing cheek that, just as the English troops +had halted to give unequal battle to their pursuers. Tecumseh passed along +the line, expressing in animated language the delight he felt at the forthcoming +struggle, and when he had shaken hands with most of the officers he +moved into the dense forest where his faithful bands were lying concealed, +with a bounding step that proved not only how much his heart had been set<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span> +upon the cast, but how completely he confided in the result. And who shall +say what that result might not have been even notwithstanding the discomfiture +of the English had the heroic Chieftain been spared to his devoted +country! But this was not fated to be. Early in the action he fell by the +hand of a distinguished leader of the enemy, and his death carried, as it could +not fail to do, the deepest sorrow and dismay into the hearts of his followers, +who although they continued the action long after his fall, and with a spirit +that proved their desire to avenge the loss of their noble leader, it was evident, +wanted the directing genius of him they mourned to sustain them in their effort. +For several days after the action did they continue to hang upon the +American rear, as the army again retired with its prisoners upon Detroit; but +each day their attack became feebler and feebler, announcing that their numbers +were fast dispersing into the trackless region from which they had been +brought, until finally not a shot was to be heard disturbing the night vigils +of the American sentinels.</p> + +<p>With the defeat of the British army, and the death of Tecumseh, perished +the last hope of the Indians to sustain themselves as a people against the in-roads +of their oppressors. Dispirited and dismayed, they retired back upon +the hunting grounds which still remained to them, and there gave way both +to the deep grief with which every heart was overwhelmed at the loss of their +truly great leader, and to the sad anticipations which the increasing gloom +that clouded the horizon of their prospects naturally induced.</p> + + + + +<h2 class="p4"><a name="CHAPTER_XXIX" id="CHAPTER_XXIX">CHAPTER XXIX.</a></h2> + + +<p>The interview so fatal in its results to Gerald's long formed resolutions of +virtuous purpose was followed by others of the same description, and in the +course of these, Matilda, profiting by her knowledge of the past, had the +address so to rivet the chains which fettered the senses of her lover, by a well-timed, +although apparently unintentional display of the beauty which had enslaved +him, that so far from shrinking from the fulfilment of the dreadful obligation +he had imposed upon himself, the resolution of the youth became +more confirmed as the period for its enactment drew nigher. There were +moments when, his passion worked up to intensity by the ever-varying, +over-exciting picture of that beauty, would have anticipated the condition on +which he was to become possessed of it for ever, but on these occasions the +American would assume an air of wounded dignity, sometimes of deep sorrow; +and alluding to the manner in which her former confidence had been repaid, +reproach him with a want of generosity, in seeking to make her past weakness +a pretext for his present advances.</p> + +<p>At length the day arrived when Gerald—the once high, generous and noble +minded Gerald,—was to steep his soul in guilt—to imbrue his hands in the +life blood of a fellow creature. The seducer of Matilda had arrived, and even +in the hotel in which Grantham resided, the entertainment was to be given +by his approving fellow citizens, in commemoration of the heroism which had +won to him golden opinions from every class. It had already been arranged +that the assassination was to take place on the departure of their victim from +the banquet, and consequently at a moment when, overcome by the fumes of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span> +wine, he would be found incapable of opposing any serious resistance to their +design. The better to facilitate his close and unperceived approach to the unhappy +man, a pair of cloth shoes had been made for her lover by the white +hands of Matilda, with a sort of hood or capuchin of the same material, to +prevent recognition by any one who might accidentally pass him on the way +to the scene of the contemplated murder. Much as Gerald objected to it, +Matilda had peremptorily insisted on being present herself, to witness the +execution of the deed, and the same description of disguise had been prepared +for herself. In this resolution the American, independently of her desire to +fortify the courage of her lover by her presence, was actuated by another +powerful and fearful motive, which will be seen presently.</p> + +<p>The private residence of the officer was situated in a remote part of the +town, and skirting that point of the circular ridge of hills where the lights in +the habitation of Matilda had attracted the notice of Gerald, on the first night +of his encounter. To one who viewed it from a distance, it would have seemed +that the summit of the wood-crowned ridge must be crossed before communication +could be held between the two dwellings which lay as it were back to +back, on either side of the formidable barrier; but on a nearer approach, a +fissure in the hill might be observed, just wide enough to admit of a narrow +horse track or foot path, which wound its sinuous course from the little valley +into the open space that verged upon the town, on gaining which the residence +of the American officer was to be seen rising at the distance of twenty yards. +It was in this path, which had been latterly pointed out to him by his guilty +companion, that Gerald was to await the approach of the intended victim, who +on passing his place of concealment, was to be cautiously followed and stabbed +to the heart ere he could gain his door.</p> + +<p>Fallen as was Gerald from his high estate of honor, it was not without a +deep sense of the atrocity of the act he was about to commit, that he prepared +for its accomplishment. It is true that, yielding to the sophistry of Matilda's +arguments, he was sometimes led to imagine the avenging of her injuries an +imperative duty; but such was his view of the subject only when the spell of +her presence was upon him. When restored to his calmer and more unbiassed +judgment, in the solitude of his own chamber, conscience resumed her sway, +and no plausibility of pretence could conceal from himself that he was about +to become that vilest of beings—a common murderer. There were moments +even when the dread deed to which he had pledged himself appeared in such +hideous deformity, that he fain would have fled on the instant far from the +influence of her who had incited him to its perpetration; but when the form +of Matilda rose to his mental eye, remorse, conscience, every latent principle +of virtue, dissolved away—and although he no longer sought to conceal from +himself that what he meditated was crime of the blackest dye, his determination +to secure entire possession of that beauty, even at the accursed price of +blood, became but the more resolute and confirmed.</p> + +<p>The night previous to that fixed for the assassination was passed by the +guilty Gerald in a state of dreadful excitement. Large drops fell from his +forehead in agony, and when he arose at a late hour, his pale, emaciated features, +and wavering step, betrayed how little the mind or the body had tasted +of repose. Accustomed, however, as he had latterly been, to sustain his +sinking spirits by artificial means, he was not long in having recourse to his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span> +wonted stimulants. He called for brandy to deaden the acuteness of his +feelings, and give strength to his tottering limbs; and when he had drank +freely of this, he sallied forth into the forest, where he wandered during the +day, without other aim or purpose than to hide the brand of guilt, which he +almost felt upon his brow, from the curious gaze of his fellow men. It was +dark when he returned to the hotel, and as, on his way to his own private +apartment, he passed the low large room chiefly used as an ordinary, the loud +hum of voices which met his ear, mingled with the drawing of corks and ringing +of glasses, told him that the entertainment provided for his unconscious +victim had already commenced. Moving hastily on, he gained his own apartment, +and summoning one of the domestics, he directed that his own frugal +meal (the first he had tasted that day) should be brought up. But even for +this he had no appetite, and he had recourse once more to the stimulant for +assistance. As the night drew on he grew more nervous and agitated, +yet without at all wavering from his purpose. At length ten o'clock struck. +It was the hour at which he had promised to issue forth to join Matilda in the +path, there to await the passage of his victim to his home. He cautiously descended +the staircase, and, in the confusion that reigned among the household, +all of whom were too much occupied with the entertainment within to heed +the movements of individuals, succeeded in gaining the street without notice. +The room in which the dinner was given was on the ground floor, and looked +through numerous low windows into the street, through which Gerald must +necessarily pass to reach the place of his appointment. Sounds of loud revelry +mixed with laughter and the strains of music, now issued from these, attesting +that the banquet was at its height, and the wine fast taking effect on its several +participators.</p> + +<p>A momentary feeling of vague curiosity caused the degraded youth to glance his +eye through one of the uncurtained windows upon the scene within, but scarcely +had he caught an indistinct and confused view of the company, most of whom +glittered in the gay trappings of military uniforms, when a secret and involuntary +dread of distinguishing from his fellows the man whom he was about to +slay, caused him as instantaneously to turn away. Guilty as he felt himself +to be, he could not bear the thought of beholding the features of the individual +he had sworn to destroy. As there were crowds of the humbler citizens of the +place collected round the windows to view the revelry within, neither his appearance +nor his action had excited surprise; nor, indeed, was it even suspected, +habited as he was in the common garments of the country, that he was +other than a native of the town.</p> + +<p>On gaining the narrow pass or lane, he found Matilda wrapped in her cloak, +beneath which she carried the disguise prepared for both. The moon was in +the last quarter, and as the fleecy clouds passed away from before it, he could +observe that the lips and cheek of the American were almost livid, although +her eyes sparkled with deep mental excitement. Neither spoke, yet then +breathing was heavy and audible to each. Gerald seated himself on a projection +of the hill, and removing his shoes, substituted those which his companion +had wrought for him. He then assumed the hood, and dropping his head +between his hands, continued for some minutes in that attitude, buried in profound +abstraction.</p> + +<p>At length Matilda approached him. She seated herself at his side, threw<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span> +her arms around his neck, called him in those rich and searching tones which +were peculiarly her own—her beloved and affianced husband; and bidding him +be firm of purpose, as he valued the lives and happiness of both, placed in his +hand a small dagger, the handle of which was richly mounted in silver. +Gerald clutched the naked weapon with a convulsive grasp, while a hoarse low +groan escaped him, and again he sank his head in silence upon his chest.</p> + +<p>Nearly an hour had passed in this manner, neither seeking to disturb the +thoughts of the other, nor daring to break the profound silence that every +where prevailed around them. At length a distant and solitary footstep was +heard, and Matilda sprang to her feet, and with her head thrown eagerly forward, +while one small foot alone supported the whole weight of her inclined +body, gazed intently out upon the open space, and in the direction whence the +sounds proceeded.</p> + +<p>"He comes, Gerald, he comes!" she at length whispered in a quick tone.</p> + +<p>Gerald, who had also risen, and now stood looking over the shoulder of the +American, was not slow in discovering the tall figure of a man, whose outline, +cloaked even as it was, bespoke the soldier, moving in an oblique direction +towards the building already described.</p> + +<p>"It is he—too well do I know him," continued Matilda, in the same eager +yet almost inaudible whisper, "and mark how inflated with the incense which +has been heaped upon him this night does he appear. His proud step tells of +the ambitious projects of his vile heart. Little does he imagine that this arm—and +she tightly grasped that which held the fatal dagger—will crush them +for ever in the bud. But hist!"</p> + +<p>The officer was now within a few paces of the path, in the gloom of which +the guilty pair found ample concealment, and as he drew nearer and nearer, +their very breathing was stayed to prevent the slightest chance of a discovery +of their presence. Gerald suffered him to pass some yards beyond the +opening, and advanced with long yet cautious strides across the grass towards +his victim. As he moved thus noiselessly along, he fancied that there was +something in the bearing of the figure that reminded him of one he had previously +known, but he had not time to pause upon the circumstance for the +officer was already within ten yards of his own door, and the delay of a single +moment would not only deprive him of the opportunity on which he had +perilled all in this world and in the next, but expose himself and his companion +to the ignominy of discovery and punishment.</p> + +<p>A single foot of ground now intervened between him and the unhappy officer, +whom wine, or abstraction, or both, had rendered totally unconscious of his +danger. Already was the hand of Gerald raised to strike the fatal blow—another +moment and it would have descended, but even in the very act he +found his arm suddenly arrested. Turning quickly to see who it was who thus +interfered with his purpose, he beheld Matilda.</p> + +<p>"One moment stay," she said in a hurried voice; "poor were my revenge +indeed, were he to perish not knowing who planned his death." Then in a +hoarser tone, in which could be detected the action of the fiercest passions of +the human mind, "Slanderer—villain—we meet again."</p> + +<p>Startled by the sound of a familiar voice, the officer turned hastily round, +and seeing all his danger at a single glance, made a movement of his right hand +to his side, as if he would have grasped his sword—but finding no weapon +there, he contented himself with throwing his left arm forward, covered with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span> +the ample folds of his cloak, with a view to the defence of his person.</p> + +<p>"Yes, Forrester," continued Matilda, in the same impassioned voice, "we +meet again, and mark you," pulling back the disguise from Gerald, "'tis no +vile slave, no sable paramour by whose hand you die, villain," she pursued, her +voice trembling with excitement—"my own arm should have done the deed, +but that he whose service I have purchased with the hand you rejected and despised, +once baulked me of my vengeance when I had deemed it most secure. +But enough! To his heart, Gerald, now that in the fulness of his wine and his +ambition, he may the deeper feel the sting of death—strike to his heart—what! +do you falter—do you turn coward?"</p> + +<p>Gerald neither moved nor spoke; his upraised hand had sunk at his side at +the first address of Matilda to her enemy, and the dagger had fallen from his +hand upon the sward, where it might be seen glittering in the rays of the pale +moon. His head was bent upon his chest in abject shame, and he seemed as +one who had suddenly been turned to stone.</p> + +<p>"Gerald, my husband!" urged Matilda, rapidly changing her tone into that +of earnest persuasion, "wherefore do you hesitate? Am I not your wife, +your own wife, and is not yon monster the wretch who has consigned my fair +fame to obloquy for ever—Gerald!" she added, impetuously.</p> + +<p>But the spell had lost its power, and Gerald continued immoveable—apparently +fixed to the spot on which he stood.</p> + +<p>"Gerald, Gerald!" repeated the officer, with the air of one endeavoring to +recollect.</p> + +<p>At the sound of that voice Gerald looked up. The moon was at that moment +unobscured by a single cloud, and as the eyes of the murderer and his +intended victim met, their recognition was mutual and perfect.</p> + +<p>"I had never expected to see Lieutenant Grantham figuring in the character +of an assassin," said Colonel Forrester, in a voice of deep and bitter reproach, +"still less to find his arm raised against the preserver of his life. This," +he continued, as if speaking to himself, "will be a bitter tale to recount to his +family."</p> + +<p>"Almighty God, have mercy!" exclaimed Gerald as, overcome with shame +and misery, he threw himself upon the earth at its full length, his head nearly +touching the feet of the officer. Then clasping his feet—"Oh, Colonel Forrester, +lost, degraded as I am, believe me when I swear that I knew not against +whom my arm was to be directed. Nay, that you live at this moment is the +best evidence of the truth of what I utter, for I came with a heart made up to +murder. But <i>your</i> blood worlds could not tempt me to spill."</p> + +<p>"I believe you," said the American feelingly. "Well do I know the arts +of the woman who seems to have lured you into the depths of crime; yet +low as you are fallen, Lieutenant Grantham—much as you have disgraced +your country and profession, I cannot think you would willingly have sought +the life of him who saved your own. And now rise, sir, and gain the place of +your abode, before accident bring other eyes than my own to be witnesses of +your shame. We will discourse of this to-morrow. Meanwhile, be satisfied +with my promise that your attempt shall remain a secret with myself."</p> + +<p>While he spoke, Colonel Forrester made a movement as if to depart. +Aroused by the apprehension of losing her victim, Matilda, who had hitherto +been an impatient listener, called wildly upon Gerald, who had now risen, to +fulfil his compact; but the youth turned from her with a movement of dis<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span>gust, +exclaiming, with bitterness—"leave me, woman, leave me!"</p> + +<p>Matilda looked after him for an instant with an expression of intensest +scorn; then springing to, and snatching up the dagger, which lay glittering a +few paces from the spot on which she stood, she advanced silently, but rapidly +upon her retreating enemy. Colonel Forrester had gained his threshold, and +had already knocked for admittance, when he heard the deep voice of Matilda +at his ear, exclaiming, in a triumphant tone.</p> + +<p>"Think you twice, then, to escape your doom, traitor?"</p> + +<p>Before he could make an attempt to shield himself, the fatal steel had entered +deep into his side. Uttering a groan, he sank senseless on the steps, +whither Gerald, who had watched the action of his companion, had flown in +the hope of arresting the blow. Confused voices, mingled with the tramp of +feet, were now heard within the hall. Presently the door opened, and a +crowd of servants, chiefly black, appeared with lights. The view of their +bleeding master, added to the disguise of Gerald, and the expression of triumph +visible in the pale countenance of Matilda, at once revealed the truth. +By some the former was borne to his apartment, while the greater portion +busied themselves in securing the two latter, who, however, made not the +slightest effort at resistance, but suffered themselves to be borne, amid hootings +and execrations, from the spot.</p> + +<p>The different groups we have described as being gathered together in front +of the hotel, had dispersed on the breaking up of the party, which Colonel +Forrester, in compliment to those who entertained him, had been one of the +last to quit; so that on passing through the streets, not an idler was found to +swell the sable crowd that bore the wretched prisoners onward to the common +prison of the town. Just as they had arrived at this latter, and a tall and +muscular negro, apparently enjoying some distinction in his master's household, +was about to pull the bell for admission, a man came running breathlessly +to the spot, and communicated to the negro just mentioned a message, +in which the name of Colonel Forrester was distinctly audible to the ear of +Gerald. A retrograde movement was the immediate consequence of this interruption, +and the party came once more upon the open space they had so +recently quitted. Stupified with the excess of abjectness in which he had +continued plunged, from the moment of his discovery of the identity of his +intended victim, Gerald had moved unconsciously and recklessly whithersoever +his conductors led; but now that he expected to be confronted face to face +with the dying man, as the sudden alteration in the movement of the party +gave him reason to apprehend, he felt for the first time that his position, bitter +as it was, might be rendered even worse. It was a relief to him, therefore, +when he found that, instead of taking the course which led to the residence of +Colonel Forrester, the head of the party, of which Matilda and himself were +the centre, suddenly diverged into the narrow lane which conducted to the +residence of that unhappy woman. Instead, however, of approaching this, +Gerald remarked that they made immediately for the fatal temple. When +they had reached this, the door was opened by the tall negro above described, +who, with a deference in his manner not less at variance with the occasion +than with the excited conduct of the whole party on their way to the prison, +motioned both his prisoners to enter. They did so, and the lock having been +turned and the key removed, they silently withdrew.</p> <p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span></p> + + + + +<h2 class="p4"><a name="CHAPTER_XXX" id="CHAPTER_XXX">CHAPTER XXX.</a></h2> + + +<p>Hours passed away without either of the guilty parties finding courage +or inclination to address the other. The hearts of both were too full for +utterance—and yet did they acknowledge no sympathy in common. Remorse, +shame, fear, regret, simultaneously assailed and weighed down the mind of +Gerald. Triumphant vengeance, unmixed with any apprehension of self, +reigned exclusively in the bosom of Matilda. The intense passion of the +former, like a mist that is dissipated before the strong rays of the sun, had +yielded before the masculine and practical display of the energetic hate of its +object, while on the contrary she, whose beauty of person was now to him a +thing without price, acknowledged no other feeling than contempt for the vacillating +character of her associate. In this only did they agree, that each +looked upon each in the light of a being sunk in crime—steeped in dishonor—and +while the love of the one was turned to almost loathing at the thought, +the other merely wondered how one so feeble of heart had ever been linked to +so determined a purpose.</p> + +<p>The only light admitted into the temple was through the window already +described, and this was so feeble as scarcely to allow of the more distant objects +in the room being seen. Gradually, as the moon sunk beneath the forest +ridge, the gloom increased, until in the end the darkness became almost profound. +At their first entrance Matilda, enshrouding herself in the folds of her +cloak, had thrown herself upon the sofa; while Gerald continued to pace up +and down the apartment with hurried steps, and in a state of feeling it would +be a vain attempt to describe. It was now for the first time that, uninfluenced +by passion, the miserable young man had leisure to reflect on the past, and +the chain of fatality which had led to his present disgraceful position. He +recollected the conversation he had held with his brother on the day succeeding +his escape from the storm; and as the pledge which had been given in his +name to his dying father, that no action of his life should reflect dishonor on +his family, now occurred to him in all its force, he groaned in agony of spirit, +less in apprehension of the fate that awaited him, than in sorrow and in shame +that that pledge should have been violated. By a natural transition of his +feelings, his imagination recurred to the traditions connected with his family, +and the dreadful curse which had been uttered by one on whom his ancestor +was said to have heaped injury to the very extinction of reason—and associating +as he did Matilda's visit to the cottage at Detroit, on the memorable +night when he had unconsciously saved the life of Colonel Forrester, with the +fact of her having previously knelt and prayed upon the grave that was known +to cover the ashes of the unhappy maniac, Ellen Halloway, he felt a shuddering +conviction that she was in some way connected with that wretched woman. +In the intenseness of his new desire to satisfy his doubts—a desire which in itself +partook of the character of the fatality by which he was beset—he overcame +the repugnance he had hitherto felt to enter into conversation with +her, and advancing to the couch, he seated himself upon its edge at her +side.</p> + +<p>"Matilda," he said, after a few moments of silence, "by all the love +you once bore me, I conjure you to answer me one question while there +is time."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Fool," returned the American, "I never loved you. A soul like mine +feels passion but once. Hitherto I have played a part, but the drama approaches +to a close, and disguise of plot is no longer necessary. Gerald Grantham, +you have been my dupe. You came a convenient puppet to my hands, +and such I used you until the snapped wire proclaimed you no longer serviceable—no +further."</p> + +<p>Shame, anguish, mortification, all the most humiliating sensations natural +to man—for a moment assailed the breast of the unfortunate and guilty Grantham, +rendering him insensible even to the greater evil which awaited him. +In the bitterness of his agony, he struck his clenched hand against his forehead, +uttering curses upon himself for his weakness, in one breath, and calling +upon his God, in the next, to pardon him for his crime.</p> + +<p>"This is good," said Matilda. "To see you writhe thus, under the wound +inflicted upon your vanity, is some small atonement for the base violation of +your oath; yet what question would you ask, the solution of which can so +much import one about to figure on the scaffold for a crime he has not even +had the courage to commit?"</p> + +<p>The taunting manner in which the concluding part of the sentence was conveyed, +had the effect of restoring Gerald in some degree to himself, and he +said with considerable firmness:</p> + +<p>"What I ask is of yourself—namely, the relationship, if any, you bear to +those who lie within the mound, on which I beheld you kneeling on the night +of your first attempt on Colonel Forrester's life?"</p> + +<p>"The very recollection of that ill-timed intrusion would prevent me from +satisfying your curiosity, did not something whisper to me that, in so doing, I +shall add another pang to those you already experience," returned the +American, with bitter sarcasm.</p> + +<p>"You are right," said Gerald hurriedly. "My miseries need but the +assurance of your connexion with those mouldering bones to be indeed +complete."</p> + +<p>"Then," said Matilda eagerly, and half raising her head, "your cup of +misery may yet admit of increase. My mother and my father's mother both +sleep within that grave."</p> + +<p>"How knew you this?" demanded Gerald quickly. "Instinct could not +have guided you to the spot, and by your own admission you were taken from +the place of your home while yet a mere child."</p> + +<p>"Not instinct, but my father Desborough, pointed out the spot, as he had +long previously acquainted me with the history of my birth."</p> + +<p>"One question more—your grandmother's name?"</p> + +<p>"Mad Ellen she was called, an English soldier's wife, who died in giving +birth to my father—and now that you are answered, leave me."</p> + +<p>"Almighty Providence!" aspirated Gerald in tones of inconceivable agony, +"it is then as I had feared, and this woman has Destiny chosen to accomplish +my ruin."</p> + +<p>He quitted the sofa, and paced up and down the room in a state of mind +bordering on distraction. The past crowded upon his mind in all the confused +manner of a dream, and, amid the chaos of contending feelings by which he +was beset, one idea only was distinct—namely, that the wretched woman before +him had been but the agent of Fate in effecting his destruction. Strange +as it may appear, the idea, so far from increasing the acerbity of his feelings,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span> +had the tendency to soften his heart towards her. He beheld in her but a +being whose actions had been fated like his own—and although every vestige +of passion had fled, even although her surpassing beauty had lost its subjugating +influence, his heart yearned towards her as one who, wrecked on the +same shore, had some claim to his sympathy and compassion. All that was +now left them was to make their peace with God, since with man their final +account would be so speedily closed; and with a view to impress her with a +sense of the religious aid from which alone they could hope for consolation, he +again seated himself at her side on the edge of the sofa.</p> + +<p>"Matilda," he said, in a voice in which melancholy and sternness were +blended, "we have been the children of guilt—the victims of our own evil +passions; but God is merciful, and if our penitence be sincere, we may yet be +forgiven in Heaven, although on earth there is no hope—even if after this we +could wish to live. Matilda, let us pray together."</p> + +<p>There was no answer—neither did the slightest movement of her form indicate +consciousness that she was addressed. "Matilda," repeated Gerald—still +there was no answer. He placed his hand upon her cheek, and thought +the touch was cold—he caught her hand, it too was cold and but for the absence +of rigidity he would have deemed her dead.</p> + +<p>Scarcely knowing what he did, yet with an indefinable terror at his heart, +he grasped and shook her by the arm, and again, but with greater vehemence, +pronounced her name.</p> + +<p>"Who calls?" she said, in a faint but deep tone, as she raised her head +slowly from the cushion which supported it. "Ha! I recollect. Tell me," +she added more quickly, "was not the blow well aimed. Marked you how +the traitor fell. Villain, to accuse the woman whose only fault was loving him +too well, with ignominious commerce with a slave!"</p> + +<p>"Wretched woman," exclaimed Gerald with solemn emphasis, "instead of +exulting over the evil we have done, let us rather make our peace with +Heaven, during the few hours we have yet to live. Matilda Desborough—daughter +of a murderer; thyself a murderess—the scaffold awaits us both."</p> + +<p>"Coward—fool—thou liest," she returned with suddenly awakened energy. +"For one so changeling as thyself the scaffold were befitting, but know, if I +save had the heart to do this deed, I have also had the head to provide against +its consequences—see—feel—."</p> + +<p>One of her cold hands was extended in search of Gerald's. They met, and +a vial placed in the palm of the latter, betrayed the secret of her previous lassitude +and insensibility.</p> + +<p>Even amid all the horrors which environed him, and called so largely +for attention to his own personal danger, Gerald was inexpressibly shocked.</p> + +<p>"What! poisoned?" he exclaimed.</p> + +<p>"Yes—poisoned!" she murmured, and her hand again sank heavily at her +side.</p> + +<p>Gerald dashed the vial away from him to the farther end of the apartment, +and taking the cold hand of the unhappy woman, he continued:</p> + +<p>"Matilda—is this the manner in which you prepare yourself to meet the +presence of your God. What! add suicide to murder?"</p> + +<p>But she spoke not—presently the hand he clasped sank heavily from his +touch. Then there was a spasmodic convulsion of the whole frame. Then<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span> +there burst a piercing shriek from her lips, as she half raised herself in agony +from the sofa, and then each limb was set and motionless in the stern rigidity +of death.</p> + +<p>While Gerald was yet bending over the body of his unfortunate companion, +shocked, grieved and agitated beyond all expression, the door of the temple +was unlocked, and a man enveloped in a cloak, and bearing a small dark lantern, +suddenly appeared in the opening. He advanced towards the spot +where Gerald, stupified with the events of the past night, stood gazing upon +the corpse, almost unconscious of the presence of the intruder.</p> + +<p>"A pretty fix you have got into, Liftenant Grantham," said the well known +voice of Jackson, "and I little calculated, when I advised you to make love to +the Kentucky gals to raise your spirits, that they would lead you into such a +deuced scrape as this."</p> + +<p>"Captain Jackson," said Gerald imploringly; "I am sufficiently aware of +all the enormity of my crime, and am prepared to expiate it; but in mercy +spare the bitterness of reproach."</p> + +<p>"Now as I'm a true Tennessee an, bred and born, I meant no reproach, +and why should I, since you could'nt help her doing it, and he pointed to +Matilda, yet you know its sometimes dangerous to be found in bad company. +Every body might'nt believe you so innocent as we do."</p> + +<p>"Innocent! Captain Jackson," exclaimed Gerald, losing sight of all +other feelings in unfeigned surprise—"I cannot say that I quite understand +you."</p> + +<p>"Why, the meaning's plain enough, I take it. Others might be apt, I say, +to think you had something to do with the thing as well as she, and therefore +its just as well you should make yourself scarce. The Colonel says he +would'nt on any account, you should even be suspected."</p> + +<p>"The Colonel says—not suspected," again exclaimed Gerald with increasing +astonishment—then, suddenly recollecting the situation of the latter—"tell +me," he continued, "is Colonel Forrester in danger—is his life despaired +of?"</p> + +<p>"Worth a dozen dead men yet, or you would'nt see me taking the thing so +coolly. The dagger certainly let the daylight into him, but though the wound +was pretty considerably deep, the doctors say its not mortal. He thinks it +might have been worse if you had not come up, and partly stopped her arm +when she struck at him."</p> + +<p>Gerald was deeply affected by what he had just heard. It was evident that +Colonel Forrester had, with a generosity to which no gratitude of his own +could render adequate justice, sought to exonerate him from all suspicion of +participation in the guilty design upon his life, and as he glanced his eye again +for a moment upon the lifeless form of his companion, he was at once sensible +that the only being who could defeat the benevolent object of his benefactor +had now no longer the power to do so.</p> + +<p>"She sleeps sound enough now," said Jackson, again pointing to the ill-fated +and motionless girl, "but she'll sleep sounder yet before long, I take +it."</p> + +<p>"She will never sleep sounder than at this moment, Captain Jackson," said +Gerald, with solemn emphasis.</p> + +<p>"Why, you don't mean to say she has cheated the hangman, Liftenant."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span></p> + +<p>As he spoke, Jackson approached the sofa, and turning the light full upon +the face, saw indeed that she was dead. Gerald shuddered as the rays from +the lamp revealed for the first time the appalling change which had been +wrought upon that once beautiful countenance. The open and finely formed +brow was deeply knit, and the features distorted by the acute agony which +had wrung the shriek from her heart at the very moment of dissolution, were +set in a stern expression of despair. The parted lips were drawn up at the +corners in a manner to convey the idea of the severest internal pain, and there +was already a general discoloration about the mouth, betraying the subtle influences +of the poison which had effected her death.</p> + +<p>Gerald after the first glance, turned away his head in horror from the view, +but the Aide-de-camp remained for some moments calmly regarding the remains +of all that had once been most beautiful in nature.</p> + +<p>"She certainly is not like what she was when Colonel Forrester first knew +her," he said, in the abstracted tone of one talking without reference to any +other auditor than himself; "but this comes of preferring a nigger to a white +man. Such unnatural courses never can prosper, I take it."</p> + +<p>"Captain Jackson," said Gerald, aroused by his remark, and with great +emphasis of tone, while he laid his hand impressively on the shoulder of the +other, "you do her wrong. Guilty as she has been, fearfully guilty, but not +in the sense you would imply."</p> + +<p>"How do you know this?" asked the Aide-de-camp.</p> + +<p>"From her own solemn declaration at a moment when deception could avail +her not. Even before she swallowed the fatal poison, her horror at the imputation, +which drove her to the perpetration of murder, was expressed in +terms of indignant warmth that belong to truth alone."</p> + +<p>"If this be so," said Jackson, musingly, "she is indeed a much injured +woman, and deep I know will be the regret of Colonel Forrester when he +hears it, for he himself has ever believed her guilty. But come, Liftenant +Grantham, we have no time to lose. The day will soon break, and I expect +you must be a considerable way from Frankfort before sunrise."</p> + +<p>"I—from Frankfort—before sunrise!" exclaimed Gerald, in perfect astonishment.</p> + +<p>"Why, it's rather short warning to be sure; but the Colonel thinks you'd +better start before the thing gets wind in the morning; for so many of the +niggers say you wore a sort of a disguise as well as the poor girl, he fears the +citizens may suspect you of something more than an intrigue, and insult you +desperately."</p> + +<p>"Generous, excellent man!" exclaimed Gerald, "how can I ever repay this +most unmerited service?"</p> + +<p>"Why, the best way I take it, is to profit by the offer that is made you of +getting back to Canada as fast as you can."</p> + +<p>"But how is this to be done, and will not the very fact of my flight confirm +the suspicion it is intended to remove?"</p> + +<p>"As for the matter of how it is to be done, Liftenant, I have as slick a +horse waiting outside for you as man ever crossed—one of the fleetest in Colonel +Forrester's stud. Then as for suspicion, he means to set that at rest, by +saying that he has taken upon himself to give you leave to return on parole to +your friends, who wish to see you on a case of life and death, and now let's +be moving."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span></p> + +<p>Oppressed with the weight of contending feelings, which this generous conduct +had inspired, Gerald waited but to cast a last look upon the ill-fated +Matilda; and then with a slow step and a heavy heart for ever quitted a +scene fraught with the most exciting and the most painful occurrences of his +life. The first rays of early dawn beginning to develope themselves as they +issued from the temple, Jackson extinguished his lamp, and leading through +the narrow pass that conducted to the town, made the circuit of the ridge of +hills until they arrived at a point where a negro (the same who had led the +party that bore Matilda and himself to the temple) was in waiting, with a +horse ready saddled and the arms and accoutrements of a rifleman.</p> + +<p>The equipment of Gerald was soon completed, and with the shot-bag and +powder-horn slung over his shoulder, and the long rifle in his hand, he soon +presented the appearance of a backwoodsman hastening to the theatre of +war.</p> + +<p>When he had seated himself in the saddle, Jackson drew forth a well filled +purse, which he said he had been directed by Colonel Forrester to present him +with to defray the expenses of his journey to the frontier.</p> + +<p>Deeply affected by this new proof of the favor of the generous American, +Gerald received the purse, saying, as he confided them to the breast of his +hunting frock—</p> + +<p>"Captain Jackson, tell Colonel Forrester from me, that I accept his present +merely because in doing so I give the best evidences of my appreciation of <i>all</i> +he has done for me on this trying occasion. In his own heart, however, he +must look for the only reward to which this most noble of actions justly +entitles him."</p> + +<p>The frank-hearted Aide-de-camp promised compliance with this parting +message, and after pointing out the route it would be necessary to follow, +warmly pressed the hand of his charge in a final grasp, that told how little +he deemed the man before him capable of the foul intention with which his +soul had been so recently sullied.</p> + +<p>How often during those hours of mad infatuation, when his weakened mind +had been balancing between the possession of Matilda at the price of crime, +and his abandonment of her at that of happiness, had the observation of the +Aide-de-camp, on a former occasion, that he "was never born to be an assassin," +occurred to his mind, suffusing his cheek with shame and his soul with +remorse. Now, too, that conscious of having fallen in all but the positive +commission of the deed, he saw that the unsuspecting American regarded him +merely as one whom accident or intrigue had made an unwilling witness of +the deadly act of a desperate woman, his feelings were those of profound +abasement and self-contempt.</p> + +<p>There was a moment, when urged by an involuntary impulse, he would +have undeceived Captain Jackson as to his positive share in the transaction; +but pride suddenly interposed and saved him from the degradation of the confession. +He returned the pressure of the American's hand with emphasis, +and then turning his horse in the direction which he had been recommended +to take, quitted Frankfort for ever.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span></p> + + + + +<h2 class="p4"><a name="CHAPTER_XXXI" id="CHAPTER_XXXI">CHAPTER XXXI.</a></h2> + + +<p>In October of the same year, a numerous body of Americans, principally +troops of the line, had been collected under the orders of General Van Rensselaer, +and advantage was taken of an extremely dark night to push them +across the river, with a view to the occupation of the commanding heights +above the village of Queenston. In this, favored by circumstances, the enemy +were eminently successful. They carried the batteries, and at day-break the +heights were to be seen covered with their battalions, before whom were +thrown out a considerable body of riflemen. At the first alarm, the little +detachment stationed at Queenston marched out to dislodge them; but such +was the impatient gallantry of General Brock, who had succeeded to the command +on this line of frontier, that without waiting for the main body from +Fort George to come up, he threw himself at the head of the flank companies +of the Forty-Ninth, and moving forward in double quick time, soon came +within sight of the enemy.</p> + +<p>Among the General's aides-de-camp, was Henry Grantham, who, having +succeeded in making his escape at the fatal defeat of the Moravian Village, +with a few men of his company, had in the absence of his regiment (then +prisoners of war), and from considerations of personal esteem, been attached +as a supernumerary to his staff. With him at this moment was the light-hearted +De Courcy, and as the young men rode a little in rear of their Chief, +they were so rapt in admiration of his fine form and noble daring (as he still +kept dashing onward, far in advance even of the handful of troops who followed +eagerly and rapidly in his rear), that they utterly forgot the danger to +which he was exposed.</p> + +<p>On arriving at the ascent, the General for a moment reined in his charger, +in order to give time to the rear to close in, then removing and waving his +plumed hat.</p> + +<p>"Hurrah, Forty-Ninth!" he exclaimed, in language suited to those he addressed. +"Up these heights lies our road—on ourselves depends the victory. +Not a shot till we gain the summit—then three cheers for old England—a +volley—and the bayonet must do the rest!"</p> + +<p>So saying, he resumed his hat; and wheeling his horse, once more led his +gallant little band up the hill.</p> + +<p>But it was not likely that the Americans would suffer the approach of so +determined an enemy without attempting to check their progress in the most +efficient manner. Distinguished from those around him by his commanding +air, not less than by the military insignia that adorned him, the person of the +General was at once recognised for one bearing high rank, and as such became +an object of especial attention to the dispersed riflemen. Shot after shot flew +past the undaunted officer, carrying death into the close ranks that followed +noiselessly in his rear, yet without harming him. At length he was seen by +his aides-de-camp, both of whom had kept their eyes upon him, to reel in his +saddle. An instant brought the young men to his side, De Courcy on his +right and Grantham on his left hand. They looked up into his face. It was +suffused with the hues of death. A moment afterwards and he fell from his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span> +horse, with his head reclining upon the chest of Henry Grantham. There +was a momentary halt in the advancing column; all were dismayed at the +dreadful event.</p> + +<p>De Courcy and Grantham, having abandoned their horses, now bore their +beloved leader to the side of the road, and sought some spot out of reach of +the enemy's fire, where he might breathe his last moments in peace.</p> + +<p>As Henry Grantham glanced his eye towards an old untenanted building, +that lay some fifty yards off the road, and which he conceived fully adapted +to the purpose, he saw the form of a rifleman partly exposed at a corner of +the building, whose action at the moment was evidently that of one loading +his piece. The idea that this skulking enemy might have been the same who +had given the fatal death-wound to his beloved Chief, added to the conviction +that he was preparing to renew the shot, filled him with the deepest desire +of vengeance. As the bodies of several men, picked off by the riflemen, lay +along the road (one at no great distance from the spot on which he stood), +he hastened to secure the nearest musket, which, as no shot had been fired by +the English, he knew to be loaded.</p> + +<p>Leaving De Courcy to support the head of the General, the young Aid-de-camp +moved with due caution towards the building; but ere he had gone ten +paces, he beheld the object of his pursuit issue altogether from the cover of +the building, and advance towards him with his rifle on the trail. More and +more convinced that his design was to obtain a near approach, with a view to +a more certain aim, he suddenly halted and raised the musket to his shoulder. +In vain was a shout to desist uttered by the advancing man—in vain was his +rifle thrown aside, as if in token of the absence of all hostile purposes. The +excited Henry Grantham heeded not the words—saw not the action. He +thought only of the danger of his General, and of his desire to avenge his +fall. He fired—the rifleman staggered, and putting his hand to his breast—</p> + +<p>"My brother! oh, my unhappy brother!" he exclaimed, and sank senseless +to the earth.</p> + +<p>Who shall tell the horror of the unfortunate young Aide-de-camp, at recognising +in the supposed enemy his long mourned and much loved Gerald! +Motion, sense, life, seemed for the instant annihilated by the astounding consciousness +of the fratricidal act: the musket fell from his hands, and he who +had never known sorrow before, save through those most closely linked to +his warm affections, was now overwhelmed, crushed by the mountain of despair +that fell upon his heart. It was some moments before he could so far +recover from the stupor into which that dear and well-remembered voice had +plunged him, as to perceive the possibility of the wound not being mortal. +The thought acted like electricity upon each stupified sense and palsied limb; +and eager with the renewed hope, he bounded forward to the spot where lay +the unfortunate Gerald, writhing in his agony. He had fallen on his face, +but as Henry approached him, he raised himself with one hand, and with the +other beckoned to his brother to draw near.</p> + +<p>"Great God, what have I done!" exclaimed the unhappy Henry, throwing +himself, in a paroxysm of despair, upon the body of his bleeding brother. +"Gerald, my own beloved Gerald, is it thus we meet again? Oh! if you +would not kill me, tell me that your wound is not mortal. Assure me that I +am not a fratricide. Oh, Gerald, Gerald! my brother, tell me that you are +not dying."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span></p> + +<p>A faint smile passed over the pale, haggard features of Gerald: he grasped +the hand of his brother and pressed it fervently, saying:</p> + +<p>"Henry, the hand of fate is visible in all this; therefore condemn not +yourself for that which was inevitable. I knew of the attempt of the Americans +to possess themselves of the heights, and I crossed over with them under +favor of this disguise, determined to find death, combatting at the side of our +gallant General. Detaching myself from the ranks, I but waited the advance +of the British column to remove from my concealment—you know the +rest. But oh, Henry! if you could divine what a relief it is to me to part +with existence, you would not wish the act undone. This was all I asked: +to see you once more—to embrace you—and to die! Life offered me no hope +but this."</p> + +<p>Gerald expressed himself with the effort of one laboring under strong +bodily pain; and as he spoke he again sank exhausted upon the ground.</p> + +<p>"This packet," he continued, taking one from the breast of the hunting-frock +he wore, and handing it to his brother, who, silent and full of agony, had +again raised his head from the ground and supported it on his shoulder—"this +packet, Henry, written at various times during the last fortnight, will +explain all that has passed since we last parted in the Miami. When I am no +more, read it; and while you mourn over his dishonor, pity the weakness and +the sufferings of the unhappy Gerald."</p> + +<p>Henry was nearly frantic. The hot tears fell from his burning eyes upon +the pale emaciated cheek of his brother, and he groaned in agony.</p> + +<p>"Oh God!" he exclaimed, "how shall I ever survive this blow?—my brother! +oh, my brother! tell me that you forgive me."</p> + +<p>"Most willingly; yet what is there to be forgiven? You took me for an +enemy, and hence alone your error. It was fate, Henry. A dreadful doom +has long been prophesied to the last of our race. We are the last—and this +is the consummation. Let it however console you to think, that though your +hand had not slain me another's would. In the ranks of the enemy I should +have found—Henry, my kind, my affectionate brother—your hand—there—there—what +dreadful faintness at my heart—Matilda, it is my turn now—Oh, +God have mercy, oh——"</p> + +<p>While this scene was passing by the roadside between the unfortunate +brothers, the main body of the British force had come up to the spot where +the General still lay expiring in the arms of De Courcy, and surrounded by +the principal of the medical staff. The majority of these were of the regiment +previously named—veterans who had known and loved their gallant leader +during the whole course of his spotless career, and more than one rude hand +might be seen dashing the tear that started involuntarily to the eye. As the +colors of the Forty-ninth passed before him, the General made an effort to address +some language of encouragement to his old corps, but the words died +away in indistinct murmurs, and, waving his hand in the direction of the +heights, he sank back exhausted with the effort, and resigned his gallant +spirit for ever.</p> + +<p>For some minutes after life had departed, Henry Grantham continued to +hang over the body of his ill-fated brother, with an intenseness of absorption +that rendered him heedless even of the rapid fire of musketry in the advance. +The sound of De Courcy's voice was the first thing that seemed to call him<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span> +to consciousness. De Courcy had heard the cry uttered by the latter on receiving +the fatal shot, and his imagination had too faithfully portrayed the +painful scene that had ensued. A friend of both brothers, and particularly +attached of late to the younger from the similar nature of their service, he was +inexpressibly shocked, but still cherishing a hope that the wound might not +be attended with loss of life, he expected to find his anticipations realized by +some communication from his friend. Finding however that the one rose not, +and remarking that the demeanor of the other was that of profound despair, +he began at length to draw the most unfavorable conclusion, and causing the +body of his commander to be borne under cover of the building, until proper +means of transport could be found, he hastened to ascertain the full extent of +the tragedy.</p> + +<p>The horror and dismay depicted in his friend's countenance were speedily +reflected on his own, when he saw that the unfortunate Gerald, whose blood +had completely saturated the earth on which he lay, was indeed no more. +Language at such a moment would not only have been superfluous, but an +insult. De Courcy caught and pressed the hand of his friend in silence. The +unfortunate young man pointed to the dead body of his brother, and burst +into tears. While these were yet flowing in a fulness that promised to give +relief to his oppressed heart, a loud shout from the British ranks arrested the +attention of both. The sound seemed to have an electric effect on the actions +of Henry Grantham. For the first time he appeared conscious there was such +a thing as a battle being fought.</p> + +<p>"De Courcy," he said, starting up, and with sudden animation, "why do +we linger here? The dead"—and he pointed first to the body of the General +in the distance, and then to his brother—"the wretched dead claim no service +from us now."</p> + +<p>"You are right, Henry, our interest in those beloved objects has caused us +to be heedless of our duty to ourselves. Victory is our own—but alas! how +dearly purchased!"</p> + +<p>"How dearly purchased, indeed!" responded Henry, in a tone of such heart-rending +agony as caused his friend to repent the allusion. "De Courcy, +keep this packet, and should I fall, let it be sent to my uncle, Colonel +D'Egville."</p> + +<p>De Courcy accepted the trust, and the young men mounted their horses, +which a Canadian peasant had held for them in the meantime, and dashing up +the ascent, soon found themselves where the action was hottest.</p> + +<p>"Forward! victory!" shouted Henry Grantham, and his sword was plunged +deep into the side of his nearest enemy. The man fell, and writhing in the +last agonies of death, rolled onward to the precipice, and disappeared for ever +from the view.</p> + +<p>The words, the action—had excited the attention of a tall, muscular, +ferocious-looking rifleman, who, hotly pursued by a couple of Indians, was +crossing the open ground at his full speed to join the main body of his comrades. +A ball struck him just as he had arrived within a few feet of the spot +where Henry stood, yet still leaping onward, he made a desperate blow at the +head of the officer with the butt end of his rifle. A quick movement disappointed +the American of his aim, yet the blow fell so violently on the shoulder, +that the stock snapped suddenly asunder at the small of the butt.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span> +Stung with pain, Henry Grantham turned to behold his enemy. It was +Desborough! The features of the settler expressed the most savage and vindictive +passions, as, with the head of the rifle upraised and clenched in both +his iron hands, he was about to repeat his blow. Ere it could descend +Grantham had rushed in upon him, and his sword, still reeking in the blood +it had so recently spilt, was driven to the very hilt in the body of the settler. +The latter uttered a terrific scream in which all the most infernal of human +passions were wildly blended, and casting aside his rifle, seized the young officer +in his powerful gripe. Then ensued a contest the most strange and awful, +the settler using every endeavor to gain the edge of the precipice, the other +struggling, but in vain, to release himself from his hold. As if by tacit consent, +both parties discontinued the struggle, and became mere spectators of the +scene.</p> + +<p>"Villain!" shouted De Courcy, who saw with dismay the terrible object +of the settler, whose person he had recognised—"if you would have quarter, +release your hold."</p> + +<p>But Desborough, too much given to his revenge to heed the words of the +Aide-de-camp, continued silently, yet with advantage, to drag his victim nearer +and nearer to the fatal precipice; and every man in the British ranks felt his +blood to creep, as he beheld the unhappy officer borne, notwithstanding a +desperate resistance, at each moment nigher to the brink.</p> + +<p>"For Heaven's sake, men, advance and seize him," exclaimed the terrified +De Courcy, leaping forward to the rescue.</p> + +<p>Acting on the hint, two or three of the most active of the light infantry +rushed from the ranks in the direction taken by the officer.</p> + +<p>Desborough saw the movement, and his exertions to defeat it became, considering +the loss of blood he had sustained from his wounds, almost herculean. +He now stood on the extreme verge of the precipice, where he paused for a +moment as if utterly exhausted by his previous efforts. De Courcy was now +within a few feet of his unhappy friend, who still struggled ineffectually to free +himself, when the settler, suddenly collecting all his energy into a final and +desperate effort, raised the unfortunate Gerald from the ground, and with +a loud and exulting laugh, dashed his foot violently against the edge of the +crag, and threw himself backward into the hideous abyss.</p> + +<p>Their picked and whitened bones may be seen even to this day, confounded +together and shining through the gloom that pervades every part of the +abyss, and often may be remarked an aged and decrepit negro, seated on a rock +a few feet above them, leaning his elbows upon his knees, and gazing eagerly +as if to distinguish the bones of the one from the bones of the other.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">And thus was the fearful prophecy of Ellen Halloway, the +mother of Desborough by Wacousta, fulfilled!</span></p> + +<p class="p2 center"> +THE END.<br /> +</p> <p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span></p> + + + + +<h2 class="p6"><a name="ads" id="ads">ABANDON PHYSIC!</a></h2> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/illus002.jpg" width="600" height="337" alt="Gluten Suppositories" title="" /></div> +<p class="caption">HEALTH FOOD Co's. 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J.</p> + +<p>"Have used a half dozen and never had anything give me so much satisfaction."—<span class="smcap">A. +P. Charlton</span>, M.D., Jenneville, Pa.</p> + +<p>"I find your Gluten Suppositories an excellent remedy for constipation."—<span class="smcap">Charles +B. Easeman</span>, 169 Montrose Avenue, Brooklyn.</p> + +<p>"I have used your Gluten Suppositories in my family with great satisfaction."—<span class="smcap">S. +B. Cowles</span>, President Pacific Bank, Clarks, Nebraska.</p> + +<p>"I have had some very satisfactory experience in the treatment of constipation +with your Wheat Gluten Suppositories."—<span class="smcap">Charles W. Benedict</span>, M.D., Findlay, +Ohio.</p> + +<p class="center">DESCRIPTIVE CIRCULARS MAILED FREE TO ALL.</p> + +<p class="left45"><span class="large">HEALTH FOOD COMPANY.</span><br /> +<b>74 4th Avenue, New York City.</b></p> + <p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span></p> + + + + +<p class="p6 center xlarge">A WONDERFUL BOOK.</p> + +<h2>MRS. SPARKS OF PARIS.</h2> + +<p class="large center p2">A REALISTIC NOVEL.</p> + +<p class="large sper center">By A. CURTIS BOND.</p> + + +<p>The history of a hopeless love and a desperate crime; a +study of woman in her better and her worst phase; a stripping +of falsity from femininity, and an insight into the causes +that lead woman to passionate love and the abyss of passionate +forgetfulness. One of the most remarkable and interesting +studies of the season; a character-reading that every +one should be familiar with; a psychological and natural +picture of life as it is, but as it is seldom regarded.</p> + +<p>Beautifully written in the style of the best examples of +early French work, a reminder of the diction of Abbé Prevost, +with the unjarring ease of "Manon Lescaut," it has a pleasant +rhythmic flow which carries the reader spell-bound by the +unusual interest of its mystery.</p> + + +<p class="center"><br /><b>ONE VOLUME, 12MO.</b></p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="sparks ad"> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><b>Paper Cover, Price</b></td> + <td class="tdl"><b>30 Cents.</b></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><b>Bound in Cloth Extra, Price</b></td> + <td class="tdl"><b>$1.00.</b></td> +</tr> +</table> + + +<p class="center space"><span class="large">POLLARD & MOSS, PUBLISHERS,</span><br /> +<b>42 Park Place and 37 Barclay St., New York.</b></p> + +<p>For sale by all book and news dealers, or sent by mail, postage prepaid +upon receipt of the price by the publishers.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span></p> + + + + + +<h2 class="p6 space"><i>The Big-Type Editions</i><br /> +<i>of</i><br /> +<span class="xlarge">DICKENS</span><br /> +<i>from $6</i></h2> + + +<div class="p4"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="dickens ad"> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">(A)</td> + <td class="tdl">in fifteen volumes, cloth</td> + <td class="tdl">$6</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">(B)</td> + <td class="tdl">same, better paper and binding</td> + <td class="tdl">$9</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">(C)</td> + <td class="tdl">same as (B), half-calf</td> + <td class="tdl">$18</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">(D)</td> + <td class="tdl">in thirty volumes, cloth</td> + <td class="tdl">$15</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl">(E)</td> + <td class="tdl">same as (D), half-calf</td> + <td class="tdl">$40</td> +</tr> +</table></div> + +<p class="p6 center space"> +NEW YORK:<br /> +<span class="sper">POLLARD & MOSS,</span><br /> +42 Park Place and 37 Barclay Street.<br /> +<span class="small">1888.</span><br /></p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter p6"> +<img src="images/illus003.jpg" width="500" height="406" alt="Scene from Dickens" /> +</div> +<p class="caption">"AND SOLOMON DAISY, WITH A LIGHTED LANTERN IN HIS HAND, DASHED INTO THE ROOM." +Barnaby Rudge.</p> + + +<p>Our <span class="smcap">New Dickens</span> is the edition of all others for the library. +It is better illustrated and is the largest-faced type used.</p> <p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span></p> + +<p class="center large p4">DAVID COPPERFIELD</p> + +<blockquote><p>was defying my aunt to such a furious extent, that he +couldn't keep straight, but barked himself sideways. +The more my aunt looked at him, the more he reproached +her; for, she had lately taken to spectacles, and for +some inscrutable reason he considered the glasses personal.</p> + +<p>Dora made him lie down by her, with a good deal of +persuasion; and when he was quiet, drew one of his +long ears through and through her hand, repeating +thoughtfully, "Even little Jip! Oh, poor fellow!"</p> + +<p>"His lungs are good enough," said my aunt gaily, +"and his dislikes are not at all feeble. He has a good +many years before him, no doubt. But if you want a +dog to race with, Little Blossom, he has lived too well +for that, and I'll give you one."</p> + +<p>"Thank you, aunt," said Dora, faintly. "But don't, +please!"</p> + +<p>"No?" said my aunt, taking off her spectacles.</p> + +<p>"I couldn't have any other dog but Jip," said Dora. +"It would be so unkind to Jip! Besides, I couldn't be +such friends with any other dog but Jip; because he +wouldn't have known me before I was married, and +wouldn't have barked at Doady when he first came to +our house. I couldn't care for any other dog but Jip, I +am afraid, aunt."</p> + +<p>"To be sure!" said my aunt, patting her cheek again. +"You are right."</p> + +<p>"You are not offended," said Dora. "Are you?"</p> + +<p>"Why, what a sensitive pet it is!" cried my aunt, +bending over her affectionately. "To think that I could +be offended!"</p> + +<p>"No, no, I didn't really think so," returned Dora; +"but I am a little tired, and it made me silly for a moment—I +am always a silly little thing, you know; but it +made me more silly—to talk about Jip. He has known +me in all that has happened to me, haven't you, Jip? +And I couldn't bear to slight him, because he was a little +altered—could I, Jip?"</p> + +<p>Jip nestled closer to his mistress, and lazily licked +her hand.</p> + +<p>"You are not so old, Jip, are you, that you'll leave +your mistress yet," said Dora. "We may keep one another +company a little longer!"</p> + +<p>My pretty Dora! When she came down to dinner on</p></blockquote><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span></p> + + +<p class="large center p2">PARTICULARS</p> + +<p>All these five editions are from the same plates, which +are the newest plates of Dickens; and the printing is good.</p> + +<p>Page 2 of this sheet is a specimen illustration—there are +one hundred and eighty from Cruikshank, Brown (Phiz), +Barnard, Stone, Fildes and Mahoney.</p> + +<p>Page 3 is a specimen type-page.</p> + +<p>The paper this is printed on is the paper of the $6 +edition. The other editions are of superior paper and wider +margins.</p> + +<p>All the bindings are unusually plain, even that of the $6 +edition. We wonder that publishers persist in flashy +bindings.</p> + +<p>A sample volume (our choice of title) of any edition in +cloth will be sent for (A) 40 cents, by mail 58 cents; +(B) 75 cents, by mail 93 cents; (D) 50 cents, by mail +62 cents. Sets, of course, go cheaper by express.</p> + +<p>The Books are arranged as follows:</p> + +<blockquote><p><i>Vol. I—American Notes, Pictures from Italy, The Mystery of Edwin +Drood, Master Humphrey's Clock, Hunted Down, Holiday Romance +and George Silverman's Explanation—972 pages.</i></p> + +<p><i>Vol. II—Barnaby Rudge, and Hard Times—978 pages.</i></p> + +<p><i>Vol. III—Bleak House—950 pages.</i></p> + +<p><i>Vol. IV—Christmas Stories and Great Expectations—892 pages.</i></p> + +<p><i>Vol. V—Christmas Books and An Uncommercial Traveller—968 +pages.</i></p> + +<p><i>Vol. VI—David Copperfield—946 pages.</i></p> + +<p><i>Vol. VII—Dombey & Son—956 pages.</i></p> + +<p><i>Vol. VIII—Little Dorrit—922 pages.</i></p> + +<p><i>Vol. IX—Martin Chuzzlewit—926 pages.</i></p> + +<p><i>Vol. X—Nicholas Nickleby—908 pages.</i></p> + +<p><i>Vol. XI—Old Curiosity Shop, and Reprinted Pieces—900 pages.</i></p> + +<p><i>Vol. XII—Oliver Twist, and A Child's History of England—874 +pages.</i></p> + +<p><i>Vol. XIII—Our Mutual Friend—916 pages.</i></p> + +<p><i>Vol. XIV—Pickwick Papers—878 pages.</i></p> + +<p><i>Vol. XV—Sketches by "Boz," and A Tale of Two Cities—916 pages.</i></p></blockquote> + +<p>In the thirty-volume editions each of the above volumes +is made into two.</p> <p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span></p> + + + + +<p class="center large p6">THE HEART OF A WOMAN</p> + +<h2><span class="smcap p2">My Marriage</span></h2> + +<p class="center large">A DOMESTIC NOVEL</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="marriage ad"> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><b>One Volume, 12mo, paper cover,</b></td> + <td class="tdl"><b>25 Cents.</b></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><b>Bound in extra cloth, full gilt side and back,</b></td> + <td class="tdl"><b>50 Cents.</b></td> +</tr> +</table> + + +<p class="center p2"><i>EXTRACTS OF PRESS NOTICES.</i></p> + +<p>"There is a fascination in the pages of this book that, once opened and +begun, will not permit it to be laid aside till the last page is finished, and +the reading of it pays for the time, too."—<i>Cincinnati Times.</i></p> + +<p>"It is the story of a woman's heart. The woman herself is neither better +nor worse than a thousand others, but every true heart is precious and +worth saving."</p> + +<p>"It is a story of love after marriage; the story of a woman who has +married without love, whose husband has married her with full knowledge +of that fact, but with the conviction that the needed love will come to the +heart of the wife in due time. How it came is what the story is written to +tell. It is told in the first person by the wife, and told very pleasantly. +The novel is an agreeable one to read, full of sweetness and delicacy, +picturesque and graceful in style, and winning in its tone."—<i>N. Y. Evening +Post.</i></p> + +<p>"'My Marriage' is a domestic novel, issued anonymously, but the +author, whoever he or she may be, shows a deep knowledge of life that is +more than theory, and a fine gift of story telling."</p> + + +<p class="center"><i>The above work sent by mail, postage prepaid, to any part of the United States +or Canada, on receipt of the price.</i></p> <p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span></p> + + + + +<div class="figcenter p6"> +<img src="images/illus004.jpg" width="395" height="500" alt="fairy tale book" /> +</div> + + +<p class="center"><b>THE</b></p> +<h2>P. & M. 12mos.</h2> + +<p>The best and most attractively +bound series of popular works in +every branch of literature; always +commanding a better price for retail +sales than any competing editions +in existence, owing to their +superior excellence. Bound in extra +cloth, full gilt side and back, +with ornamental ink stamping.</p> + + +<p class="center"><b>Price per volume, only +Fifty cents.</b></p> + + +<p> +<b>1. Allan Quatermain.</b> Haggard. <b>2. King Solomon's Mines.</b> Haggard.<br /> +<b>3. She:</b> A Mystery. Haggard. <b>4. East Lynne.</b> By Mrs. Henry Wood.<br /> +<b>5. A Modern Circe.</b> By the "Duchess." <b>6. Robinson Crusoe.</b> D. De Foe.<br /> +<b>7. Pilgrim's Progress.</b> Bunyan. <b>8. Lays of Ancient Rome.</b> Macaulay.<br /> +<b>9. Paul and Virginia.</b> By St. Pierre.<br /> +<b>10. Lay of the Last Minstrel, Marmion, and Lady of the Lake.</b><br /> +<b>11. History of Charles XII.</b> Voltaire. <b>12. Life of Nelson.</b> Southey.<br /> +<b>13. Classic Tales.</b> Maria Edgeworth. <b>14. Vicar of Wakefield.</b> Goldsmith.<br /> +<b>15. The Usurper.</b> Judith Gautier. <b>16. Dr. Jacob.</b> M. B. Edwards.<br /> +<b>17. Realities of Irish Life.</b> W. S. Trench. <b>18. My Marriage.</b><br /> +<b>19. Love's Madness.</b> Mathilde Blind. <b>20. The Rose Garden.</b> Miss Peard.<br /> +<b>21. Unawares.</b> Miss Peard. <b>22. The Squire's Daughter.</b> Miss Peard.<br /> +<b>23. The Crime of Chance.</b> Miss Peard. <b>24. Trench's Wives.</b><br /> +<b>25. Dickens' Child's History of England.</b><br /> +<b>26. Irving's Sketch-Book.</b> <b>27. Christmas Tales.</b> Dickens.<br /> +<b>28. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.</b> By Jules Verne.<br /> +<b>29. The Fur Country.</b> Verne. <b>30. Five Weeks in a Balloon.</b> Verne.<br /> +<b>31. The Mysterious Island.</b> By Jules Verne.<br /> +<b>32. Tour of the World in 80 Days.</b> By Jules Verne.<br /> +<b>33. Great Expectations.</b> Dickens. <b>34. Oliver Twist.</b> Dickens.<br /> +<b>35. The Scottish Chiefs.</b> Porter. <b>36. Thaddeus of Warsaw.</b> Porter.<br /> +<b>37. Children of the Abbey.</b> By R. M. Roche.<br /> +<b>38. The Uncommercial Traveller.</b> By Charles Dickens.<br /> +<b>39. Arabian Nights' Entertainments.</b> <b>40. Jane Eyre.</b> Bronte.<br /> +<b>41. Old Curiosity Shop.</b> Dickens. <b>42. Ivanhoe.</b> Sir Walter Scott.<br /> +<b>43. Christmas Stories.</b> By Charles Dickens.<br /> +<b>44. Last of the Mohicans.</b> By J. Fenimore Cooper.<br /> +<b>45. John Halifax, Gentleman.</b> By Miss Mulock.<br /> +<b>46. Uarda.</b> By George Ebers.<br /> +<b>47. A Tale of Two Cities.</b> By Charles Dickens.<br /> +<b>48. Romola.</b> By George Eliot.<br /> +<b>49. Christmas Books.</b> By Charles Dickens.<br /> +<b>50. Æsop's Fables.</b><br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span><b>51. Russian Fairy Tales.</b><br /> +<b>52. Hauff's Fairy Tales.</b> Translated by E. L. Stowell. Illustrated.<br /> +<b>53. Grimm's Popular Tales.</b><br /> +<b>54. The Red Camelia</b>; or, The Chevalier Casse-Cou. By Fortuné Du Boisgobey.<br /> +<b>55. The Search for Ancestors.</b> By Fortune Du Boisgobey.<br /> +<b>56. Barnaby Rudge.</b> By Charles Dickens.<br /> +<b>57. Edwin Drood.</b> By Charles Dickens.<br /> +<b>58. Andersen's Fairy Tales.</b><br /> +<b>59. Gulliver's Travels.</b><br /> +<b>60. The Swiss Family Robinson.</b><br /> +<b>61. Last Days of Pompeii.</b><br /> +<b>62. Picciola and Undine.</b><br /> +<b>63. Rasselas.</b> By Dr. Johnson.<br /> +<b>64. A Terrible Temptation.</b> By Charles Reade.<br /> +<b>65. Sketches by Boz.</b> By Charles Dickens.<br /> +<b>66. As in a Looking-Glass.</b> (It is upon this novel Mrs. Langtry's play is based.)<br /> +<b>67. The Book of Praise.</b> Selected and Arranged by Roundell Palmer.<br /> +<b>68. American and Italian Notes.</b> By Charles Dickens.<br /> +<b>69. Old Christmas.</b> By Washington Irving.<br /> +<b>70. Lafitte</b>; or, The Pirate of the Gulf. By Prof. J. H. Ingraham.<br /> +<b>71. Theodore, Child of the Sea</b>; Adopted Son of Lafitte. By J. H. Ingraham.<br /> +<b>72. George Barnwell.</b> A Novel. By T. S. Surr.<br /> +<b>73. Hard Times.</b> By Charles Dickens.<br /> +<b>74. Christine</b>; or, Woman's Trials and Triumphs. By Laura J. Curtis.<br /> +<b>75. Camille</b>; or, The Fate of a Coquette. By Alexandre Dumas.<br /> +<b>76. Our Cousin Veronica.</b> By Miss M. E. Wormeley.<br /> +<b>77. The Tenant House</b>; or, Embers from Poverty's Hearthstone.<br /> +<b>78. Masaniello</b>; or, The Fisherman's League. By Alexandre Dumas.<br /> +<b>79. Hot Corn</b>; or, Street Scenes of New York City Life. By Solon Robinson.<br /> +<b>80. Wacousta</b>; or, The Prophecy. By Maj. Richardson.<br /> +<b>81. Matilda Montgomerie</b>; or, The Prophecy Fulfilled. By Maj. Richardson.<br /> +<b>82. Tom Brown's School-Days.</b> By Thomas Hughes.<br /> +<b>83. Ecarte</b>; or, The Salons of Paris. By Maj. Richardson.<br /> +<b>84. Canonbury House</b>; or, The Queen's Prophecy. By G. W. M. Reynolds.<br /> +<b>85. Ada Arundel</b>; or, The Secret Corridor. By G. W. M. Reynolds.<br /> +<b>86. Olivia</b>; or, The Maid of Honor. By G. W. M. Reynolds.<br /> +<b>87. Hardscrabble</b>; or, The Fall of Chicago. By Major Richardson.<br /> +<b>88. The Miser's Will</b>; or, The Doom of the Poisoner. By G. W. M. Reynolds.<br /> +<b>89. The Beggar of Nimes.</b> A Novel of exciting interest. By Alex. Dumas.<br /> +<b>90. The Creole Wife</b>; or, Secret Register of the Prefect of Police. By Dumas.<br /> +<b>91. The Marchioness</b>; or, A Marriage by Will. By Octave Feuillet.<br /> +<b>92. Edith Dayton.</b> A Novel. By J. Gordon Bartlett.<br /> +<b>93. Scenes from the Note-Book of a New York Surgeon.</b><br /> +<b>94. Out of the Streets.</b> A Story of New York City Life. By Charles Gayler.<br /> +<b>95. Thackeray's Ballads and Poems.</b> Illustrated.<br /> +<b>96. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.</b> By R. L. Stevenson.<br /> +<b>97. Rivingston</b>; or, The Young Hussar. By Prof. J. H. Ingraham.<br /> +<b>98. Captain Kyd</b>; or, The Wizard of the Seas. By Prof. J. H. Ingraham.<br /> +<b>99. Kate Penrose</b>; or, Life and its Lessons. By Mrs. Hubbeck.<br /> +<b>100. Jessie Cameron.</b> A Highland Story. By Lady Rachel Butler.<br /> +<b>101. Rebels and Tories</b>; or, The Blood of the Mohawk. By J. F. Cooper.<br /> +<b>102. The Count's Niece</b>; or, The Veteran of Marengo. By Paul Preston.<br /> +</p> + +<p>On receipt of the advertised price, <b>fifty cents per volume,</b> +will send by mail, postage prepaid, <i>to any address in the United States</i>, any of the <b>books</b> +enumerated in the above list. Remittances can be made in two-cent postage-stamps or +postal money order.</p> <p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span></p> + + + + +<h2 class="p6 xlarge">The Echo Series.</h2> + +<p class="smcap p2 center large">A Weekly Library of Standard Fiction.</p> + + +<p class="p2">Books marked * are subject to a special discount.</p> + + +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Echo Series Ad"> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><b>No. 1</b></td> + <td class="tdl"><b>Allan Quatermain.</b> By H. Rider Haggard</td> + <td class="tdl"><b>.25</b></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><b>" 2</b></td> + <td class="tdl"><b>King Solomon's Mines.</b> By H. Rider Haggard</td> + <td class="tdl"><b>.25</b></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><b>" 3</b></td> + <td class="tdl"><b>My Marriage.</b> '<i>THE HEART OF A WOMAN.</i>' A Domestic Novel</td> + <td class="tdl"><b>.25</b></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><b>" 4</b></td> + <td class="tdl"><b>The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.</b> By R. L. Stevenson</td> + <td class="tdl"><b>.15</b></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><b>" 5</b></td> + <td class="tdl"><b>She: A History of Adventure.</b> By H. Rider Haggard</td> + <td class="tdl"><b>.25</b></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><b>" 6</b></td> + <td class="tdl"><b>A Modern Circe.</b> By the "Duchess"</td> + <td class="tdl"><b>.25</b></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><b>" 7</b></td> + <td class="tdl"><b>The Red Camellia.</b> By Fortuné du Boisgobey</td> + <td class="tdl"><b>.25</b></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><b>" 8</b></td> + <td class="tdl"><b>As in a Looking-Glass.</b> By F. C. Philips</td> + <td class="tdl"><b>.25</b></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><b>" 9</b></td> + <td class="tdl"><b>The Marchioness; or, A Marriage by Will.</b> By Octave Feuillet, author of "The Romance of a Poor Young Man"</td> + <td class="tdl"><b>.25</b></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><b>" 10</b></td> + <td class="tdl"><b>The Search for Ancestors.</b> By Fortuné du Boisgobey</td> + <td class="tdl"><b>.25</b></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><b>" 11</b></td> + <td class="tdl"><b>Dr. Jacob.</b> A Novel. By M. Betham Edwards</td> + <td class="tdl"><b>.25</b></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><b>" 12</b></td> + <td class="tdl"><b>Realities of Irish Life.</b> By W. Steuart Trench</td> + <td class="tdl"><b>.25</b></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><b>" 13</b></td> + <td class="tdl"><b>The Crime of Chance.</b> By Frances M. Peard</td> + <td class="tdl"><b>.25</b></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><b>" 14</b></td> + <td class="tdl"><b>Trench's Wives; or, The Carrington Mystery</b></td> + <td class="tdl"><b>.25</b></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><b>" 15</b></td> + <td class="tdl"><b>The Rose Garden.</b> A Love Story. By Frances M. Peard</td> + <td class="tdl"><b>.25</b></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><b>" 16</b></td> + <td class="tdl"><b>The Usurper.</b> By Judith Gautier</td> + <td class="tdl"><b>.25</b></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><b>" 17</b></td> + <td class="tdl"><b>Love's Madness; or, The Tarantula's Sting.</b> A Romance of Baffled Plot and Wasted Passion. By Mathilde Blind.</td> + <td class="tdl"><b>.25</b></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><b>" 18</b></td> + <td class="tdl"><b>Unawares; or, The Notary's Plot.</b> By Frances M. Peard</td> + <td class="tdl"><b>.25</b></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><b>" 19</b></td> + <td class="tdl"><b>The Squire's Daughter; or, The Mystery of Thorpe Regis</b></td> + <td class="tdl"><b>.25</b></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><b>" 20</b></td> + <td class="tdl"><b>Camille; or, The Lady with the Camellias.</b> By Dumas</td> + <td class="tdl"><b>.25</b></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><b>" 21</b></td> + <td class="tdl"><b>Lafitte; or, The Pirate of the Gulf.</b> By Prof. J. H. Ingraham</td> + <td class="tdl"><b>.25</b></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><b>" 22</b></td> + <td class="tdl"><b>Christine; or, Woman's Trials and Triumphs.</b> By Laura J. Curtis</td> + <td class="tdl"><b>.25</b></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><b>" 23</b></td> + <td class="tdl"><b>Out of the Streets.</b> A Powerful Story of New York City Life. By Charles Gayler</td> + <td class="tdl"><b>.25</b></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><b>" 24</b></td> + <td class="tdl"><b>Christmas Tales.</b> By Charles Dickens</td> + <td class="tdl"><b>.25</b></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><b>" 25</b></td> + <td class="tdl"><b>George Barnwell.</b> By T. S. Surr</td> + <td class="tdl"><b>.25</b></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><b>" 26</b></td> + <td class="tdl"><b>The Tenant House; or, Embers from Poverty's Hearth-Stone</b></td> + <td class="tdl"><b>.25</b></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><b>" 27</b></td> + <td class="tdl"><b>Wacousta; or, The Prophecy.</b> By Richardson</td> + <td class="tdl"><b>.25</b></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><b>" 28</b></td> + <td class="tdl"><b>Matilda Montgomerie; or, The Prophecy Fulfilled.</b> By Richardson</td> + <td class="tdl"><b>.25</b></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><b>" 29</b></td> + <td class="tdl"><b>Our Cousin Veronica; or, Scenes and Adventures over the Blue Ridge</b></td> + <td class="tdl"><b>.25</b></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><b>" 30</b></td> + <td class="tdl"><b>Masaniello; or, The Fisherman's League.</b> By Alexandre Dumas</td> + <td class="tdl"><b>.25</b></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><b>" 31</b></td> + <td class="tdl"><b>Ecarte; or, The Salons of Paris.</b> By Major Richardson</td> + <td class="tdl"><b>.25</b></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><b>" 32</b></td> + <td class="tdl"><b>Oliver Twist.</b> By Charles Dickens</td> + <td class="tdl"><b>.25</b></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><b>" 33</b></td> + <td class="tdl"><b>Canonbury House; or, The Queen's Prophecy.</b> By Reynolds</td> + <td class="tdl"><b>.25</b></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><b>" 34</b></td> + <td class="tdl"><b>Ada Arundel; or, The Secret Corridor.</b> By Reynolds</td> + <td class="tdl"><b>.25</b></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><b>" 35</b></td> + <td class="tdl"><b>Olivia; or, The Maid of Honor.</b> By G. W. M. Reynolds</td> + <td class="tdl"><b>.25</b></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><b>" 36</b></td> + <td class="tdl"><b>The Beggar of Nimes.</b> By Alexandre Dumas</td> + <td class="tdl"><b>.25</b></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><b>" 37</b></td> + <td class="tdl"><b>John Barlow's Ward.</b> A powerful novel of Society.</td> + <td class="tdl"><b>.25</b></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><b>" 38</b></td> + <td class="tdl"><b>Captain Kyd; or, The Wizard of the Seas.</b> By Prof. J. H. Ingraham</td> + <td class="tdl"><b>.25</b></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><b>" 39</b></td> + <td class="tdl"><b>* The Man Outside.</b> By Professor Clarence M. Boutelle. Illus.</td> + <td class="tdl"><b>.50</b></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><b>" 40</b></td> + <td class="tdl"><b>* Mrs. Sparks of Paris; or, The Crime at Vintimiglia.</b> A Realistic Novel. By A. Curtis Bond</td> + <td class="tdl"><b>.30</b></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><b>" 41</b></td> + <td class="tdl"><b>* Reveries of an Old Maid.</b> Including her Hints to Young Men Intending to Marry. "A perfect Cyclone of Fun." 40th edition. Illustrated</td> + <td class="tdl"><b>.30</b></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><b>" 42</b></td> + <td class="tdl"><b>Hardscrabble; or, The Fate of Chicago.</b> A Tale of Indian Warfare. By Major Richardson</td> + <td class="tdl"><b>.25</b></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><b>" 43</b></td> + <td class="tdl"><b>Edith Dayton.</b> A Novel by J. Gordon Bartlett</td> + <td class="tdl"><b>.25</b></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><b>" 44</b></td> + <td class="tdl"><b>The Dingy House at Kensington.</b> An Exciting Novel of English Life. By Lady Helen Cameron</td> + <td class="tdl"><b>.25</b></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><b>" 45</b></td> + <td class="tdl"><b>The Miser's Will; or, The Doom of the Poisoner.</b> By Geo. W. M. Reynolds</td> + <td class="tdl"><b>.25</b></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><b>" 46</b></td> + <td class="tdl"><b>Mary Glentworth; or, The Forbidden Marriage.</b> By Geo. W. M. Reynolds</td> + <td class="tdl"><b>.25</b></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><b>" 47</b></td> + <td class="tdl"><b>Jessie Cameron.</b> A Highland Story of Love and Adventure. By Lady Rachel Butler</td> + <td class="tdl"><b>.25</b></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><b>" 48</b></td> + <td class="tdl"><b>Rory O'More.</b> A National Romance. By Samuel Lover</td> + <td class="tdl"><b>.25</b></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><b>" 49</b></td> + <td class="tdl"><b>Paul Ferroll.</b> A Novel with a Mystery.</td> + <td class="tdl"><b>.25</b></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><b>" 50</b></td> + <td class="tdl"><b>Geoffrey Trethick; or, The Vicar's People.</b> A Tale of the Cornish Mines. By George Manville Fenn</td> + <td class="tdl"><b>.25</b></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><b>" 51</b></td> + <td class="tdl"><b>Kate Penrose; or, Life and its Lessons.</b> By Mrs. Hubback</td> + <td class="tdl"><b>.25</b></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><b>" 52</b></td> + <td class="tdl"><b>Hot Corn: Life Scenes in New York.</b> By Solon Robinson</td> + <td class="tdl"><b>.25</b></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><b>" 53</b></td> + <td class="tdl"><b>Clare's Fantasy; or, A Cry in the Night.</b> A Novel by Mary Cruger</td> + <td class="tdl"><b>.25</b></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><b>" 54</b></td> + <td class="tdl"><b>Joaquin</b> (the Claude Duval of California); <b>or, The Marauder of the Mines.</b></td> + <td class="tdl"><b>.25</b></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><b>" 55</b></td> + <td class="tdl"><b>* Mr. Meeson's Will.</b> By H. Rider Haggard. Twenty-four full-page illustrations.</td> + <td class="tdl"><b>.25</b></td> +</tr> +</table> + +<p class="center"><b>POLLARD & MOSS, Publishers, 42 Park Place, New York.</b></p> + <p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span></p> + + + + +<h2><span class="small space p6">THE</span><br /> + +CRIME OF CHANCE.</h2> + +<p class="center">BY</p> + +<p class="large center"><span class="smcap">Miss Frances M. Peard</span>,</p> + +<p class="center">Author of "The Rose Garden," "Unawares, or the Notary's Plot," "The +Squire's Daughter, or the Mystery of Thorpe Regis," etc.</p> + + +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="crime of chance ad"> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><b>One Volume, 12mo, paper cover,</b></td> + <td class="tdr"><b>25 Cents.</b></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><b>Bound in extra cloth, full gilt side and back,</b></td> + <td class="tdr"><b>50 Cents.</b></td> +</tr> +</table> + + +<p class="center"><br /><i>EXTRACTS FROM PRESS NOTICES.</i></p> + +<p>"The book is finely written, and exceptionally high in tone, and shows +in the character of Rachel a keen sense of humor, which reminds the reader +of some of George Eliot's earliest works."</p> + +<p>"It is a story of sadness, love, and ultimate joy, and a thoroughly good +one in its teaching, having the charm of novelty, freshness, and interest, +that few novelists can impart. The 'Crime of Chance' belongs to the +higher type. In some respects it presents not a bad imitation of the style +and fidelity to nature of George Eliot."</p> + +<p>"The characters are firmly, admirably drawn, and the story is one which +must easily appeal to the sympathies of all readers of finer sensibilities. +The two children, the hero, Rachel and Hestor, are painted with a brush +handled with excellent judgment and skill."—<i>Traveller.</i></p> + +<p>"The 'Crime of Chance' is one of those quiet stories of English country +life that imperceptibly win upon the reader's regard, and finally leaves him +thoroughly fascinated. It opens with a description of an old farm and its +quaint inhabitants, and the impression they make on a little city boy who, +having lost his parents, comes there to live with his uncle, Mr. Philip +Oldfield. Philip Oldfield's sad history is the chief subject of the book. The +remorse that weighs him down, his unhappy love and seemingly blighted +life, are all brought gradually before the reader, in the most natural and unsensational +manner, deeply moving his sympathies and interest. Some +charming bits of nature are sketched in, rendering the work altogether a +most readable and desirable one."</p> + +<p>"The story is English, and has some account of poachers and gypsies, and +uses a little waif from their resorts as an instrument in Philip's recovery. +His character is studied psychologically in the vein and force Hawthorne +showed in the 'Scarlet Letter,' and his posthumous novel. The description +of life and scenery is pleasing, there is no straining after effect, and the tale +has the merit of strong and absorbing interest in its perusal, and deserves +nothing but the highest praise."</p> + + +<p class="center"><i>The above work sent by mail, postage prepaid, to any part of the United States +or Canada, on receipt of the price.</i></p> <p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span></p> + + + + +<h2 class="p6"><span class="large">REALITIES OF</span><br /> +IRISH LIFE.</h2> + +<p class="center large">BY W. STEUART TRENCH.</p> + + +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Irish Life Ad"> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><b>One Volume, 12mo, paper cover,</b></td> + <td class="tdr"><b>25 Cents.</b></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><b>Bound in extra cloth, full gilt side and back,</b></td> + <td class="tdr"><b>50 Cents.</b></td> +</tr> +</table> + + +<p class="center"><i>EXTRACTS FROM PRESS NOTICES.</i></p> + +<p>"These sketches of Irish life have attracted much attention and elicited +the highest praise for their fidelity to nature, and the simplicity, pathos, +and power by which they are marked. No recent work has appeared which +so vividly presents the condition of Ireland, suffering under sore political +and social grievances, and distracted by contending factions. The author +has spent his life in intimate acquaintance with the Irish heart as it beats +in the cabins of the poor, and while the stories he tells of Irish life illustrate +sometimes that truth is stranger than fiction, the reader will find in them a +spell of interest which fiction rarely possesses. We have not in a long time +read aught that is more apt to moisten the eyes than the chapter devoted to +the simple story of 'Mary Shea.'"—<i>Buffalo Courier.</i></p> + +<p>"Many of the incidents herein narrated have already been published in +one form or another, but never have they been more effectively related than +here—the history of the Ribbon Code and some of the results of its system, +the outrages perpetrated upon the landlords or their agents, are dramatically +told, and while the faults of the Irish disposition are not concealed, their +virtues are equally revealed, and show the genuine Irish heart, which is +capable of so much that is noble. The book reads like a novel, full of exciting +events and truthful characterization, and cannot fail to be read with +interest by those to whom the question of the land tenure in Ireland has +come to be regarded as one of the most serious which engages public attention."</p> + +<p>"It is so written that the painful element of Irish life is not protruded, +while there is no glossing of facts or extravagance of national pride. +'Manly' is the title that best describes its spirit, while its literary power, +expressed without effort or consciousness, surpasses much of the work of +thoroughly-trained skill. It would be well for Ireland if it had many more +within its borders like Mr. Trench, for in that case it would avoid the +neglect and selfishness that cause distress on the one hand, and the factious +and unreasoning bitterness that result from it on the other."</p> + +<p>"A strongly dramatic series of pictures, the scope of which is apparent +in its title, being founded upon actual observation, and sure to hold the +reader's rapt attention."</p> + + +<p class="center"><i>The above work sent by mail, postage prepaid, to any part of the United States +or Canada, on receipt of the price.</i></p> + <p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span></p> + + + +<p class="p6 center large">HAGGARD'S NEW BOOK.</p> + +<p class="center"><b>THE ONLY ILLUSTRATED EDITION.</b></p> + +<h2>Mr. Meeson's Will.</h2> + +<p class="center">by</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/illus005.jpg" width="600" height="170" alt="Haggard signature" /> +</div> + + +<p class="center large"><b>WITH TWENTY-FOUR FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS,</b><br /> +<span class="small"><i>Drawn Expressly for this Edition,</i></span><br /> +<span class="smcap">By Philip G. Cusachs</span>.<br /> +ONE VOLUME, 12mo, PAPER COVERS, 25 Cents. +</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/illus006.jpg" width="700" height="492" alt="Mr. Meeson's Will" /> +</div> +<p class="caption">"My word, Miss, but you have a beautiful pair of shoulders! I never had such a bit of +material to work on afore. Hang me if it ain't almost a pity to mark 'em!"</p> + +<p class="center small">COPYRIGHTED, 1888, BY POLLARD & MOSS.<br /> +<span class="large">The only Profusely Illustrated Edition of this Work in the Market.</span></p> + +<p class="center large"><b>SEND IN YOUR ORDERS AT ONCE, AND IN ORDERING NOTE +THE EDITION No. 55, ECHO SERIES.</b></p> + +<p class="center"> +Address <span class="sper"> POLLARD & MOSS, Publishers,</span><br /> +<span class="left45">42 Park Place and 37 Barclay Street, New York.</span><br /> +</p> + + <p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span></p> + + +<h2 class="p6 space">THE CELEBRATED<br /> +<span class="xxlarge">SOHMER</span><br /> +GRAND, SQUARE, AND UPRIGHT</h2> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/illus007.jpg" width="600" height="470" alt="Sohmer Piano" /> +</div> + +<p class="center large">PIANOS<br /> +ARE AT PRESENT THE MOST POPULAR<br /> +AND PREFERRED BY THE LEADING ARTISTS.<br /></p> + +<p class="center"><b>The SOHMER Pianos are used in the +following Institutions:</b></p> + +<p> +Convent of the Sacred Heart, Manhattanville, N. Y.<br /> +Vogt's Conservatory of Music.<br /> +Arnold's Conservatory of Music, Brooklyn.<br /> +Philadelphia Conservatory of Music.<br /> +Villa de Sales Convent, Long Island.<br /> +N. Y. Normal Conservatory of Music.<br /> +Villa Maria Convent, Montreal.<br /> +Vassar College, Poughkeepsie.<br /> +And most all of the leading first-class theatres in <span class="smcap">New York</span> and <span class="smcap">Brooklyn</span>.<br /> +</p> + +<p class="center"><br /><b>THE WONDERFUL BIJOU GRAND</b></p> + +<p>(lately patented) by <b><big>SOHMER</big></b> & CO., +the <span class="smcap">Smallest Grand</span> ever manufactured +(length only 5 feet), has created a sensation, +among musicians and artists. The music-loving +public will find it in their interest to +call at the warerooms of <b><big>SOHMER</big></b> +& CO. and examine the various Styles of +Grand, Upright, and Square Pianos. The +original and beautiful designs and improvements +in Grand and Upright Pianos deserve +special attention.</p> + +<p class="center"> +<i>Received First Prize Centennial Exposition, Philadelphia, 1876.</i><br /> + +<i>Received First Prize at Exhibition, Montreal, Canada, 1881 and 1882.</i> +</p> +<p class="center large">SOHMER & CO.,<br /></p> +<p class="center"> +MANUFACTURERS OF GRAND, SQUARE, AND UPRIGHT PIANO-FORTES<br /> +WAREROOMS: 149, 151, 153, 155 EAST 14th ST., N.Y.<br /> +</p> + + + +<h2 class="p6"><a name="notes" id="notes">Transcriber's Notes:</a></h2> + +<p>Throughout this work many end-of-line hyphens, either omitted in +printing or no longer visible, were assumed to be present and the +corresponding word-halves rejoined, without further note.</p> + +<p>Many punctuation marks that were mistyped in printing or unreadable +have been changed, without further note.</p> + +<p>Aide-de-camp and Aid-de-camp both used by the author, +as are Amherstburgh and Amherstburg, along with Girty and Girtie.</p> + +<p>It's and its used interchangeably by author; this usage retained.</p> + +<p>Several compound and hyphenated words appear in varying form, for +example "artillery men" and "artillerymen"; "bear skin" and +"bear-skin"; "mid-day" and "midday"; etc. Usage retained.</p> + +<p>Spelling, including possible typographical errors, has been retained +as it appears in the original publication except as follows:</p> + +<ul> +<li><p>Page 009: Typo "lappel" changed to "lapel" (button of the lapel)</p></li> +<li><p>Page 011: Typo "oppposite" changed to "opposite" (from the opposite extremity)</p></li> +<li><p>Page 014: Typo "Graham" changed to "Grantham" (question, Mr. Grantham)</p></li> +<li><p>Page 015: Typo "Molinex" changed to "Molineux" (Molineux, had so pained)</p></li> +<li><p>Page 015: Duplicate "in" removed (as in the former)</p></li> +<li><p>Page 016: Typo "ln" changed to "in" (confidence in his young)</p></li> +<li><p>Page 018: Typo "aparent" changed to "apparent" (apparent a single shot)</p></li> +<li><p>Page 021: Extra space in "young ladyyour niece" removed. Space may have indicated omitted comma</p></li> +<li><p>Page 030: Typo "narrration" changed to "narration" (narration of the anecdote)</p></li> +<li><p>Page 049: Punctuation after "coolly observed Grantham" unclear in the text</p></li> +<li><p>Page 052: Typo "padler" changed to "paddler" (paddler, and prostrated)</p></li> +<li><p>Page 053: Typo "he" changed to "the" (fortunate for the former)</p></li> +<li><p>Page 056: Typo "unproarious" changed to "uproarious" (because his least uproarious, mood)</p></li> +<li><p>Page 056: Typo "inbibed" changed to "imbibed" (imbibed enough of his favorite)</p></li> +<li><p>Page 063: Usage of punctuation by author intentionally retained (asked Captain Molineux?)</p></li> +<li><p>Page 064: Typo "coroborate" changed to "corroborate" (Villiers can corroborate)</p></li> +<li><p>Page 074: Typo "Desboroug" changed to "Desborough" (Desborough, I continued)</p></li> +<li><p>Page 075: Typo "no" changed to "do" (displeasure, "I do not)</p></li> +<li><p>Page 076: Typo "momentry" changed to "momentary"(however momentary--a)</p></li> +<li><p>Page 083: Typo "neice" changed to "niece" (his niece, the parties in)</p></li> +<li><p>Page 084: Typo "were" changed to "where" (where the General still)</p></li> +<li><p>Page 093: Typo "disposess" changed to "dispossess" (may dispossess of homage,)</p></li> +<li><p>Page 094: Typo "anticipiatory" changed to "anticipatory" (so anticipatory of coming)</p></li> +<li><p>Page 094: Typo "shrapnell" changed to "shrapnel" (with shrapnel and grape.)</p></li> +<li><p>Page 098: Typo "idependently" changed to "independently" (mistaken, for, independently, of)</p></li> +<li><p>Page 099: Typo "aparently" changed to "apparently" (apparently much greater)</p></li> +<li><p>Page 100: Typo "mattrass" changed to "mattress" (mattress, lay the form)</p></li> +<li><p>Page 105: Usage of punctuation by author intentionally retained (in the same breath?)</p></li> +<li><p>Page 106: Typo "teminated" changed to "terminated" (where the river terminated)</p></li> +<li><p>Page 106: Typo "depatched" changed to "despatched" (prisoners been despatched)</p></li> +<li><p>Page 112: Typo "preceeded" changed to "proceeded" (proceeded, while her breathing)</p></li> +<li><p>Page 112: Typo "inacessibility" changed to "inaccessibility" (wonted inaccessibility to impressions)</p></li> +<li><p>Page 112: Typo "rediculous" changed to "ridiculous" (guilty of a ridiculous)</p></li> +<li><p>Page 117: Typo "day" changed to "days" (A few days)</p></li> +<li><p>Page 122: Typo "add" changed to "and" (from thence, and he)</p></li> +<li><p>Page 123: Typo "litttle" changed to "little" (the little dependence)</p></li> +<li><p>Page 123: Typo "asumed" changed to "assumed" (her voice assumed)</p></li> +<li><p>Page 125: Typo "piqant" changed to "piquant" (piquant a seduction)</p></li> +<li><p>Page 125: Typo "contibuted" changed to "contributed" (water--all contributed)</p></li> +<li><p>Page 128: Typo "Manwhile" changed to "Meanwhile" (Meanwhile, although nothing)</p></li> +<li><p>Page 130: Typo "grangway" changed to "gangway" (gangway, from which, however)</p></li> +<li><p>Page 132: Typo "eaaliest" changed to "earliest" (One of the earliest)</p></li> +<li><p>Page 136: Typo "Desborrough" changed to "Desborough" (for Desborough to avow)</p></li> +<li><p>Page 143: Typo "posess" corrected to "possess" (property I possess)</p></li> +<li><p>Page 144: Typo "ascessory" changed to "accessory" (some degree accessory)</p></li> +<li><p>Page 157: Typo "onrselves" changed to "ourselves" (solemnly pledged ourselves)</p></li> +<li><p>Page 158: Typo "she" changed to "he" ("Henry," he said)</p></li> +<li><p>Page 164: Typo "wit" changed to "with" (fast quitting, with)</p></li> +<li><p>Page 164: Typo "oject" changed to "object" (siege. The object)</p></li> +<li><p>Page 164: Typo "situate" changed to "situated" (the Americans situated)</p></li> +<li><p>Page 166: Typo "morover" changed to "moreover" (He had moreover)</p></li> +<li><p>Page 167: Typo "prsceed" changed to "proceed" (the latter to proceed)</p></li> +<li><p>Page 168: Typo "alloted" changed to "allotted" (to the task allotted)</p></li> +<li><p>Page 171: Omitted word "a" changed to "was a man" </p></li> +<li><p>Page 172: Typo "dis" changed to "his" (Gentlemen," addressing his)</p></li> +<li><p>Page 173: Typo "Kildeer" changed to "Killdeer" (Killdeer I confess)</p></li> +<li><p>Page 174: Typo "since" changed to "Since" (Gerald said, "Since)</p></li> +<li><p>Page 174: Typo "your" changed to "you" (to know, but you)</p></li> +<li><p>Page 177: Duplicate "what" removed. (snivelling, as "what)</p></li> +<li><p>Page 178: Typo "accelarated" changed to "accelerated" (vain, as to any accelerated)</p></li> +<li><p>Page 179: Typo "prssive" changed to "passive" (passive assent to the)</p></li> +<li><p>Page 181: Typo "posssible" changed to "possible" (possible to himself,)</p></li> +<li><p>Page 184: Typo "deperate" changed to "desperate" (desperate grudge--the)</p></li> +<li><p>Page 185: Typo "grapling" changed to "grappling" (his enemy grappling)</p></li> +<li><p>Page 186: Typo "resistence" changed to "resistance" (the power of resistance)</p></li> +<li><p>Page 186: Typo "trottled" changed to "throttled" (throttled, maddened with pain)</p></li> +<li><p>Page 186: Typo "uncontrolable" changed to "uncontrollable" (uncontrollable, until his anxiety)</p></li> +<li><p>Page 186: Typo "assassssin" changed to "assassin" (assassin-like in the)</p></li> +<li><p>Page 187: Typo "beqind" changed to "behind" (behind his back,)</p></li> +<li><p>Page 192: Typo "indistnct" changed to "indistinct" (indistinct outline, which)</p></li> +<li><p>Page 192: Typo "exhibted" changed to "exhibited" (who thus exhibited)</p></li> +<li><p>Page 193: Typo "Gereld" changed to "Gerald" (noise made by Gerald)</p></li> +<li><p>Page 194: Typo "aentence" changed to "sentence" (uttered the last sentence)</p></li> +<li><p>Page 197: Typo "fierceet" changed to "fiercest" (arm you with the fiercest)</p></li> +<li><p>Page 201: Duplicate word "an" removed (an hour too advanced)</p></li> +<li><p>Page 203: Typo "admited" changed to "admitted" (admitted as an excuse)</p></li> +<li><p>Page 204: Typo "coo" changed to "cool" (myself to a cool)</p></li> +<li><p>Page 208: Typo "faught" changed to "fought" (fought with determined bravery,)</p></li> +<li><p>Page 218: Typo "acuse" changed to "accuse" (to accuse the woman)</p></li> +<li><p>Page 219: Typo "Tenessee" changed to "Tennessee"; although "Tenessee" is an historical spelling variation, author uses modern spelling in all other instances. (Tennessee man, bred and born,)</p></li> +<li><p>Page 220: Typo "prefering" changed to "preferring" (this comes of preferring)</p></li> +<li><p>Page 220: Typo "Fankfort" changed to "Frankfort" (Frankfort--before sunrise!")</p></li> +<li><p>Page 220: Typo "fight" changed to "flight" (very fact of my flight)</p></li> +<li><p>Page 221: Typo "massage" changed to "message" (with this parting message,)</p></li> +<li><p>Page 222: Typo "Queenstown" changed to "Queenston" (stationed at Queenston)</p></li> +<li><p>Page 224: Typo "Bt" changed to "But" (But oh, Henry!)</p></li> +<li><p>Page 226: Typo "efferts" changed to "efforts" (by his previous efforts)</p></li> +<li><p>Page 227: Address at bottom of "47 4th Avenue changed to "74 4th Avenue"; this matches usage in a previous paragraph, and 19th century news articles.</p></li> +<li><p>Page 235: Typo "Fortune" changed to "Fortuné" (Fortune Du Boisgobey)</p></li></ul> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Matilda Montgomerie, by Major (John) Richardson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MATILDA MONTGOMERIE *** + +***** This file should be named 39758-h.htm or 39758-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/9/7/5/39758/ + +Produced by Brian Sogard, Shanna D. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license + + +Title: Matilda Montgomerie + The Prophecy Fulfilled + +Author: Major (John) Richardson + +Release Date: May 22, 2012 [EBook #39758] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MATILDA MONTGOMERIE *** + + + + +Produced by Brian Sogard, Shanna D. Bokoff and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +Transcriber's Note: Bold text denoted by =equal signs=. + + + + +MATILDA MONTGOMERIE; + +OR, + +THE PROPHECY FULFILLED. + + + A TALE OF THE LATE AMERICAN WAR. + BEING THE SEQUEL TO WACOUSTA. + + + By MAJOR RICHARDSON, + AUTHOR OF "WACOUSTA," "HARDSCRABBLE," "ECARTE," ETC., ETC. + + + NEW YORK: + POLLARD & MOSS, + 42 Park Place and 37 Barclay Street. + 1888. + + + +CHAPTER I. + + +At the northern extremity of the small town which bears its name +situated at the head of Lake Erie, stands, or rather stood--for the +fortifications then existing were subsequently destroyed--the small +fortress of Malden. + +Few places in America, or in the world, could, at the period embraced by +our narrative, have offered more delightful associations than that which +we have selected for an opening scene. Amherstburg was at that time one +of the loveliest spots that ever issued from the will of a beneficent +and gorgeous nature, and were the world-disgusted wanderer to have +selected a home in which to lose all memory of conventional and +artificial forms, his choice would assuredly have fallen here. And +insensible, indeed, to the beautiful realities of the sweet wild +solitude that reigned around, must that man have been, who could have +gazed unmoved from the banks of the Erie, on the placid lake beneath his +feet, mirroring the bright starred heavens on its unbroken surface, or +throwing into full relief the snow-white sail and dark hull of some +stately war-ship, becalmed in the offing, and only waiting the rising of +the capricious breeze, to waft her onward on her _then_ peaceful mission +of dispatch. Lost indeed to all perception of the natural must he have +been, who could have listened, without a feeling of voluptuous +melancholy, to the plaintive notes of the whip-poor-will, breaking on +the silence of night, and harmonising with the general stillness of the +scene. How often have we ourselves, in joyous boyhood, lingered amid the +beautiful haunts, drinking in the fascinating song of this strange +night-bird, and revelling in a feeling we were too young to analyze, yet +cherished deeply--yea, frequently, up to this hour, do we in our dreams +revisit scenes no parallel to which has met our view, even in the course +of a life passed in many climes; and on awaking, our first emotion is +regret that the illusion is no more. + +Such was Amherstburg and its immediate vicinity, during the early years +of the present century, and up to the period at which our story +commences. Not, be it understood that even _then_ the scenery itself had +lost one particle of its loveliness, or failed in aught to awaken and +fix the same tender interest. The same placidity of earth and sky and +lake remained, but the poor whip-poor-will, driven from his customary +abode by the noisy hum of warlike preparation, was no longer heard, and +the minds of the inhabitants, hitherto disposed, by the quiet pursuits +of their uneventful lives, to feel pleasure in its song, had eye or ear +for naught beyond what tended to the preservation of their threatened +homes. It was the commencement of the war of 1812. + +Let us, however introduce the reader more immediately to the scene. +Close in his rear, as he stands on the elevated bank of the magnificent +river of Detroit, and about a mile from its point of junction with Lake +Erie, was the fort of Amherstburg, its defences consisting chiefly of +stockade works, flanked, at its several angles, by strong bastions, and +covered by a demi-lune of five guns, so placed as to command every +approach by water. Distant about three hundred yards on his right, was a +large, oblong, square building, resembling in appearance the red, +low-roofed blockhouses peering above the outward defences of the fort. +Surrounding this, and extending to the skirt of the thinned forest, the +original boundary of which was marked by an infinitude of dingy, half +blackened stumps, were to be seen numerous huts or wigwams of the +Indians, from the fires before which arose a smoke that contributed, +with the slight haze of the atmosphere, to envelope the tops of the tall +trees in a veil of blue vapor, rendering them almost invisible. Between +these wigwams and the extreme verge of the thickly wooded banks, which +sweeping in bold curvature for an extent of many miles, brought into +view the eastern extremity of Turkey Island, situated midway between +Amherstburg and Detroit, were to be seen, containing the accumulated +Indian dead of many years, tumuli, rudely executed, it is true, but +picturesquely decorated with such adornments as it is the custom of +these simple mannered people to bestow on the last sanctuaries of their +departed friends. Some three or four miles, and across the water, (for +it is here that the river acquires her fullest majesty of expansion,) is +to be seen the American island of Gros Isle, which, at the period of +which we write, bore few traces of cultivation--scarcely a habitation +being visible throughout its extent--various necks of land, however, +shoot out abruptly, and independently of the channel running between it +and the American main shore, form small bays or harbors in which boats +may always find shelter and concealment. + +Thus far the view to the right of the spectator, whom we assume to be +facing the river. Immediately opposite to the covering demi-lune, and in +front of the fort, appeared, at a distance of less than half a mile, a +blockhouse and battery, crowning the western extremity of the island of +Bois Blanc, one mile in length, and lashed at its opposite extremity by +the waters of Lake Erie, which, at this precise point receives into her +capacious bosom the vast tribute of the noble river connecting her with +the higher lakes. Between this island and the Canadian shore lies the +only navigable channel for ships of heavy tonnage, for although the +waters of the Detroit are of vast depth every where above the island, +they are near their point of junction with the lake, and, in what is +called the American channel, so interrupted by shallows and sandbars, +that no craft larger than those of a description termed "Durham boats," +can effect the passage--on the other hand the channel dividing the +island from the Canadian shore is at once deep and rapid, and capable of +receiving vessels of the largest size. The importance of such a passage +was obvious; but although a state of war necessarily prevented aid from +armed vessels to such forts of the Americans as lay to the westward of +the lake, it by no means effectually cut off their supplies through the +medium of the Durham boats already alluded to. In order to intercept +those, a most vigilant watch was kept by the light gun boats despatched +into the lesser channel for that purpose. + +A blockhouse and battery crowned also the eastern extremity of the +island, and both, provided with a flagstaff for the purpose of +communication by signal with the fort, were far from being wanting in +picturesque effect. A subaltern's command of infantry, and a +bombvadier's of artillery, were the only troops stationed there, and +these were rather to look out for and report the approach of whatever +American boats might be seen stealing along their own channel, than with +any view to the serious defence of a post already sufficiently commanded +by the adjacent fortress. In every other direction the island was +thickly wooded--not a house, not a hut arose, to diversify the wild +beauty of the scene. Frequently, it is true, along the margin of its +sands might be seen a succession of Indian wigwams, and the dusky and +sinewy forms of men gliding round their fires, as they danced to the +monotonous sound of the war dance; but these migratory people seldom +continuing long in the same spot, the island was again and again left to +its solitude. + +Strongly contrasted with this, would the spectator, whom we still +suppose standing on the bank where we first placed him, find the view on +his left. There would he have beheld a small town, composed entirely of +wooden houses variously and not inelegantly painted; and receding +gradually from the river's edge to the slowly disappearing forest, on +which its latest rude edifice reposed. Between the town and the fort, +was to be seen a dockyard of no despicable dimensions, in which the hum +of human voices mingled with the sound of active labor--there too might +be seen, in the deep harbor of the narrow channel that separated the +town from the island we have just described, some half-dozen gallant +vessels bearing the colors of England, breasting with their dark prows +the rapid current that strained their creaking cables in every strand, +and seemingly impatient of the curb that checked them from gliding +impetuously into the broad lake, which, some few hundred yards below, +appeared to court them to her bosom. But although in these might be +heard the bustle of warlike preparation, the chief attention would be +observed to be directed towards a large half finished vessel, on which +numerous workmen of all descriptions were busily employed, evidently +with a view of preparing for immediate service. + +Beyond the town again might be obtained a view of the high and +cultivated banks, sweeping in gentle curve until they at length +terminated in a low and sandy spot, called, from the name of its +proprietor, Elliott's point. This stretched itself towards the eastern +extremity of the island, so as to leave the outlet to the lake barely +wide enough for a single vessel to pass at a time, and that not without +skilful pilotage and much caution. + +Assuming the reader to be now as fully familiar with the scene as +ourselves, let him next, in imagination, people it, as on the occasion +we have chosen for his introduction. It was a warm, sunny day, in the +early part of July. The town itself was as quiet as if the glaive of war +reposed in its sheath, and the inhabitants pursued their wonted +avocations with the air of men who had nothing in common with the active +interest which evidently dominated the more military portions of the +scene. It was clear that among these latter some cause for excitement +existed, for, independently of the unceasing bustle within the +dockyard--a bustle which however had but one undivided object, the +completion and equipment of the large vessel then on the stocks--the +immediate neighborhood of the fort presented evidence of some more than +ordinary interest. The encampment of the Indians on the verge of the +forest, had given forth the great body of their warriors, and these clad +in their gayest apparel, covered with feathers and leggings of bright +colors, decorated with small tinkling bells that fell not inharmoniously +on the ear, as they kept tune to the measured walk of their proud +wearers, were principally assembled around and in front of the large +building we have described as being without, yet adjacent to, the fort. +These warriors might have been about a thousand in number, and +amused themselves variously--(the younger at least)--with +leaping--wrestling--ball-playing--and the foot race--in all which +exercises they are unrivalled. The elders bore no part in these +amusements, but stood, or sat cross-legged on the edge of the bank, +smoking their pipes, and expressing their approbation of the prowess or +dexterity of the victors in the games, by guttural, yet rapidly uttered +exclamations. Mingled with these were some six or seven individuals, +whose glittering costume of scarlet announced them for officers of the +garrison, and elsewhere disposed, some along the banks and crowding the +battery in front of the fort, or immediately round the building, yet +quite apart from their officers, were a numerous body of the inferior +soldiery. + +But although these distinct parties were assembled, to all appearance, +with a view, the one to perform in, the other to witness, the active +sports we have enumerated, a close observer of the movements of all +would have perceived there was something more important in +contemplation, to the enactment of which these exercises were but the +prelude. Both officers and men, and even the participators in the +sports, turned their gaze frequently up the Detroit, as if they expected +some important approach. The broad reach of the wide river, affording an +undisturbed view, as we have stated, for a distance of some nine or ten +miles, where commenced the near extremity of Turkey Island, presented +nothing, however, as yet, to their gaze, and repeatedly were the +telescopes of the officers raised only to fall in disappointment from +the eye. At length a number of small dark specks were seen studding the +tranquil bosom of the river, as they emerged rapidly, one after the +other, from the cover of the island. The communication was made, by him +who first discovered them, to his companions. The elder Indians who sat +near the spot on which the officers stood, were made acquainted with +what even their own sharp sight could not distinguish unaided by the +glass. One sprang to his feet, raised the telescope to his eye, and with +an exclamation of wonder at the strange properties of the instrument, +confirmed to his followers the truth of the statement. The elders, +principally chiefs, spoke in various tongues to their respective +warriors. The sports were abandoned, and all crowded to the bank with +anxiety and interest depicted in their attitudes and demeanor. + +Meanwhile the dark specks upon the water increased momentarily in size. +Presently they could be distinguished for canoes, which, rapidly +impelled, and aided in their course by the swift current, were not long +in developing themselves to the naked eye. These canoes, about fifty in +number, were of bark, and of so light a description, that a man of +ordinary strength might, without undergoing serious fatigue, carry one +for miles. The warriors who now propelled them, were naked in all save +their leggings and waist cloths, their bodies and faces begrimed with +paint: and as they drew near, fifteen was observed to be the complement +of each. They sat by twos on the narrow thwarts; and, with their faces +to the prow, dipped their paddles simultaneously into the stream, with a +regularity of movement not to be surpassed by the most experienced +boat's crew of Europe. In the stern of each sat a chief guiding his bark +with the same unpretending but skilful and efficient paddle, and behind +him drooping in the breezeless air, and trailing in the silvery tide, +was to be seen a long pendant, bearing the red cross of England. + +It was a novel and beautiful sight to behold that imposing fleet of +canoes, apparently so frail in texture that the dropping of a pebble +between the skeleton ribs might be deemed sufficient to perforate and +sink them, yet withal so ingeniously contrived as to bear safely not +only the warriors who formed their crews, but also their arms of all +descriptions, and such light equipment of raiment and necessaries as +were indispensable to men who had to voyage long and far in pursuit of +the goal they were now rapidly attaining. The Indians already encamped +near the fort, were warriors of nations long rendered familiar by +personal intercourse, not only with the inhabitants of the district, but +with the troops themselves; and these, from frequent association with +the whites, had lost much of that fierceness which is so characteristic +of the North American Indian in his ruder state. Among these, with the +more intelligent Hurons, were the remnants of those very tribes of +Shawnees and Delawares whom we have recorded to have borne, half a +century ago, so prominent a share in the confederacy against England, +but who, after the termination of that disastrous war, had so far +abandoned their wild hostility, as to have settled in various points of +contiguity to the forts to which they, periodically, repaired to receive +those presents which a judicious policy so profusely bestowed. + +The reinforcement just arriving was composed principally of warriors who +had never yet pressed a soil wherein civilization had extended her +influence--men who had never hitherto beheld the face of a white, unless +it were that of the Canadian trader, who, at stated periods, penetrated +fearlessly into their wilds for purposes of traffic, and who to the +bronzed cheek that exposure had rendered nearly as swarthy as their own, +united not only the language but so wholly the dress--or rather the +undress of those he visited, that he might easily have been confounded +with one of their own dark-blooded race. So remote, indeed, were the +regions in which some of these warriors had been sought, that they were +strangers to the existence of more than one of their tribes, and upon +these they gazed with a surprise only inferior to what they manifested, +when, for the first time, they marked the accoutrements of the British +soldier, and turned with secret, but acknowledged awe and admiration +upon the frowning fort and stately shipping, bristling with cannon, and +vomiting forth sheets of flame as they approached the shore. In these +might have been studied the natural dignity of man. Firm of step--proud +of mien--haughty and penetrating of look, each leader offered in his own +person a model to the sculptor, which he might vainly seek elsewhere. +Free and unfettered every limb, they moved in the majesty of nature, and +with an air of dark reserve, passed, on landing, through the admiring +crowd. + +There was one of the number, however, and his canoe was decorated with a +richer and a larger flag, whose costume was that of the more civilized +Indians, and who in nobleness of deportment, even surpassed those we +have last named. This was Tecumseh. He was not of the race of either of +the parties who now accompanied him, but of one of the nations, many of +whose warriors were assembled on the bank awaiting his arrival. As the +head chief of the Indians, his authority was acknowledged by all, even +to the remotest of these wild but interesting people, and the result of +the exercise of his all-powerful influence had been the gathering +together of those warriors, whom he had personally hastened to collect +from the extreme west, passing in his course and with impunity, the +several American posts that lay in their way. + +It was amidst the blaze of a united salvo from the demi-lune crowning +the bank, and from the shipping, that the noble chieftain, accompanied +by the leaders of those wild tribes, leaped lightly, yet proudly to the +beach; and having ascended the steep bank by a flight of rude steps cut +out of the earth, finally stood amid the party of officers waiting to +receive them. It would not a little have surprised a Bond street +exquisite of that day to have witnessed the cordiality with which the +dark hand of the savage was successively pressed in the fairer palms of +the English officers, neither would his astonishment have been abated, +on remarking the proud dignity of carriage maintained by the former, in +this exchange of courtesy, as though, while he joined heart to hand +wherever the latter fell, he seemed rather to bestow than to receive a +condescension. + +Had none of those officers ever previously beheld him, the fame of his +heroic deeds had gone sufficiently before the warrior to have insured +him their warmest greeting and approbation, and none could mistake a +form that, even amid those who were a password for native majesty, stood +alone in its bearing; but Tecumseh was a stranger to few. Since his +defeat on the Wabash he had been much at Amherstburg where he had +rendered himself conspicuous by one or two animated and highly eloquent +speeches, having for their object the consolidation of a treaty, in +which the Indian interests were subsequently bound in close union with +those of England; and, up to the moment of his recent expedition, had +cultivated the most perfect understanding with the English chiefs. + +It might, however, be seen that even while pleasure and satisfaction at +a reunion with those he in turn esteemed, flashed from his dark and +eager eye, there was still lurking about his manner that secret jealousy +of distinction, which is so characteristic of the haughty Indian. After +the first warm salutations had passed, he became sensible of the absence +of the English chief; but this was expressed rather by a certain +outswelling of his chest, and the searching glance of his restless eye, +than by any words that fell from his lips. Presently, he whom he sought, +and whose person had hitherto been concealed by the battery on the bank, +was seen advancing towards him, accompanied by his personal staff. In a +moment the shade passed away from the brow of the warrior, and warmly +grasping and pressing, for the second time, the hand of a youth--one of +the group of junior officers among whom he yet stood, and who had +manifested even more than his companions the unbounded pleasure he took +in the chieftain's re-appearance--he moved forward, with an ardor of +manner that was with difficulty restrained by his sense of dignity, to +give them the meeting. + +The first of the advancing party was a tall, martial looking man, +wearing the dress and insignia of a general officer. His rather florid +countenance was eminently fine, if not handsome, offering, in its more +Roman than Grecian contour, a model of quiet, manly beauty; while the +eye beaming with intelligence and candor, gave, in the occasional +flashes which it emitted, indication of a mind of no common order. There +was, notwithstanding, a benevolence of expression about it that blended +(in a manner to excite attention) with a dignity of deportment, as much +the result of habitual self command, as of the proud eminence of +distinction on which he stood. The sedative character of middle age, +added to long acquired military habits, had given a certain rigidity to +his fine form, that might have made him appear to a first observer even +older than he was, but the placidity of a countenance beaming good will +and affability, speedily removed the impression, and, if the portly +figure added to his years, the unfurrowed countenance took from them in +equal proportion. + +At his side, hanging on his arm and habited in naval uniform, appeared +one who, from his familiarity of address with the General, not less than +by certain appropriate badges of distinction, might be known as the +commander of the little fleet then lying in the harbor. Shorter in +person than his companion, his frame made up in activity what it wanted +in height, and there was that easy freedom in his movements which so +usually distinguishes the carriage of the sailor, and which now offered +a remarkable contrast to that rigidity we have stated to have attached, +albeit unaffectedly, to the military commander. His eyes, of a much +darker hue, sparkled with a livelier intelligence, and although his +complexion was also highly florid, it was softened down by the general +vivacity of expression that pervaded his frank and smiling countenance. +The features, regular and still youthful, wore a bland and pleasing +character; while neither, in look, nor bearing, nor word could there be +traced any of that haughty reserve usually ascribed to the "lords of the +sea." There needed no other herald to proclaim him for one who had +already seen honorable service, than the mutilated stump of what had +once been an arm: yet in this there was no boastful display, as of one +who deemed he had a right to tread more proudly because he had chanced +to suffer, where all had been equally exposed, in the performance of a +common duty. The empty sleeve, unostentatiously fastened by a loop from +the wrist to a button of the lapel, was suffered to fall at his side, +and by no one was the deficiency less remarked than by himself. + +The greeting between Tecumseh and these officers, was such as might be +expected from warriors bound to each other by mutual esteem. Each held +the other in the highest honor, but it was particularly remarked that +while the Indian Chieftain looked up to the General with the respect he +felt to be due to him, his address to his companion, whom he now beheld +for the first time, was warmer, and more energetic; and as he repeatedly +glanced at the armless sleeve, he uttered one of those quick ejaculatory +exclamations, peculiar to his race, and indicating, in this instance, +the fullest extent of approbation. The secret bond of sympathy which +chained his interest to the sailor, might have owed its being to another +cause. In the countenance of the latter there was much of that eagerness +of expression, and in the eye that vivacious fire, that flashed, even in +repose, from his own swarthier and more speaking features; and this +assimilation of character might have been the means of producing that +preference for, and devotedness to, the cause of the naval commander, +that subsequently developed itself in the chieftain. In a word, the +General seemed to claim the admiration and the respect of the +Indian--the Commodore, his admiration and friendship. + +The greeting between these generous leaders was brief. When the first +salutations had been interchanged, it was intimated to Tecumseh, through +the medium of an interpreter then in attendance on the General, that a +war-council had been ordered, for the purpose of taking into +consideration the best means of defeating the designs of the Americans, +who, with a view to offensive operations, had, in the interval of the +warrior's absence, pushed on a considerable force to the frontier. The +council, however, had been delayed, in order that it might have the +benefit of his opinions and of his experience in the peculiar warfare +which was about to be commenced. + +Tecumseh acknowledged his sense of the communication with the bold +frankness of the inartificial son of nature, scorning to conceal his +just self-estimate beneath a veil of affected modesty. He knew his own +worth, and while he overvalued not one iota of that worth, so did he not +affect to disclaim a consciousness of the fact--that within his swarthy +chest and active brain, there beat a heart and lived a judgment, as +prompt to conceive and execute as those of the proudest _he_ that ever +swayed the destinies of a warlike people. Replying to the complimentary +invitation of the General, he unhesitatingly said he had done well to +await his arrival, before he determined on the course of action, and +that he should now have the full benefit of his opinions and advice. + +If the chief had been forcibly prepossessed in favor of the naval +commander the latter had not been less interested. Since his recent +arrival to assume the direction of the fleet, Commodore Barclay had had +opportunities of seeing such of the chiefs as were then assembled at +Amherstburg; but great as had been his admiration of several of these, +he had been given to understand they fell far short, in every moral and +physical advantage, of what their renowned leader would be found to +possess, when, on his return from the expedition in which he was +engaged, fitting opportunity should be had of bringing them in personal +proximity. This admission was now made in the fullest sense, and as the +warrior moved away to give the greetings to the several chiefs, and +conduct them to the council hall, the gallant sailor could not refrain +from expressing in the warmest terms to General Brock, as they moved +slowly forward with the same intention, the enthusiastic admiration +excited in him by the person, the manner, and the bearing, of the noble +Tecumseh. + +Again the cannon from the battery and the shipping pealed forth their +thunder. It was the signal for the commencement of the council, and the +scene at that moment was one of the most picturesque that can well be +imagined. The sky was cloudless, and the river, no longer ruffled by the +now motionless barks of the recently arrived Indians, yet obeying the +action of the tide, offered, as it glided onward to the lake, the image +of a flood of quicksilver; while, in the distance that lake itself, +smooth as a mirror, spread far and wide. Close under the bank yet +lingered the canoes, emptied only of their helmsmen (the chiefs of the +several tribes,) while with strange tongues and wilder gestures, the +warriors of these, as they rested on their paddles, greeted the loud +report of the cannon--now watching with eager eye the flashes from the +vessel's sides, and now upturning their gaze, and following with wild +surprise, the deepening volumes of smoke that passed immediately over +their heads, from the guns of the battery, hidden from their view by +the elevated and overhanging bank. Blended with each discharge arose the +wild yell, which they, in such a moment of novel excitement, felt it +impossible to control, and this, answered by the Indians above, and +borne in echo almost to the American shore, had in it something +indescribably grand and startling. On the bank itself the scene was +singularly picturesque. Here were to be seen the bright uniforms of the +British officers, at the head of whom was the tall and martial figure of +General Brock, furthermore conspicuous from the full and drooping +feather that fell gracefully over his military hat, mingled with the +wilder and more fanciful head-dresses of the chiefs. Behind these again, +and sauntering at a pace that showed them to have no share in the +deliberative assembly, whither those we have just named were now +proceeding, amid the roar of artillery, yet mixed together in nearly as +great dissimilarity of garb, were to be seen numbers of the inferior +warriors and of the soldiery--while, in various directions, the games +recently abandoned by the adult Indians were now resumed by mere boys. +The whole picture was one of strong animation, contrasting as it did +with the quiet of the little post on the Island, where some twelve or +fifteen men, composing the strength of the detachment, were sitting or +standing on the battery, crowned, as well as the fort and shipping, and +in compliment to the newly arrived Indians, with the colors of England. + +Such was the scene, varied only as the numerous actors in it varied +their movements, when the event occurred with which we commence our next +chapter. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + +Several hours had passed away in the interesting discussion of their war +plans, and the council was nearly concluded, when suddenly the attention +both of the officers and chiefs was arrested by the report of a single +cannon. From the direction of the sound, it was evident that the shot +had been fired from the battery placed on the southern or lakeward +extremity of the island of Bois Blanc, and as the circumstance was +unusual enough to indicate the existence of some approaching cause for +excitement, several of the younger of both, who, from their youth, had +been prevented from taking any active share in the deliberations of the +day, stole, successively and unobservedly, through the large +folding-doors of the building, which, owing to the great heat of the +weather, had been left open. After traversing about fifty yards of +sward, intersecting the high road, which, running parallel with the +river, separated the council-hall from the elevated bank, the officers +found, collected in groups on the extreme verge of this latter, and +anxiously watching certain movements in the battery opposite to them, +most of the troops and inferior Indians they had left loitering there at +the commencement of the council. These movements were hasty, and as of +men preparing to repeat the shot, the report of which had reached them +from the opposite extremity of the island. Presently the forms, hitherto +intermingled, became separate and stationary--an arm of one was next +extended--then was seen to rise a flash of light, and then a volume of +dense smoke, amid which the loud report found its sullen way, bellowing +like thunder through some blackening cloud, while, from the peculiar +nature of the sound, it was recognised, by the experienced in those +matters, to have proceeded from a shotted gun. + +The war of 1812 had its beginning in the manner thus described. They +were the first shots fired in that struggle, and although at an object +little calculated to inspire much alarm, still, as the first indications +of an active hostility, they were proportionably exciting to those whose +lot it was thus to "break ground," for operations on a larger scale. + +Although many an eager chief had found it difficult to repress the +strong feeling of mingled curiosity and excitement, that half raised him +from the floor on which he sat, the first shot had been heard without +the effect of actually disturbing the assembly from its fair propriety; +but no sooner had the second report, accompanied as it was by the wild +yell of their followers without, reached their ears, than, wholly losing +sight of the dignity attached to their position as councillors, they +sprang wildly up, and seizing the weapons that lay at their side, rushed +confusedly forth, leaving Tecumseh, and two or three only of the more +aged chiefs, behind them. The debate thus interrupted, the council was +adjourned, and soon afterwards General Brock, accompanied by his staff, +and conversing, through his interpreter, with the Shawnee chieftain as +they walked, approached the groups still crowded along the bank of the +river. + +Meanwhile, after the discharge of the last gun, the battery on the +island had been quitted by the officer in command, who, descending to +the beach, preceded by two of his men, stepped into a light skiff that +lay chained to the gnarled root of a tree overhanging the current, and +close under the battery. A few sturdy strokes of the oars soon brought +the boat into the centre of the stream, when the stout, broad-built +figure and carbuncled face of an officer in the uniform of the +forty-first regiment, were successively recognised, as he stood upright +in the stern. + +"What the deuce brings Tom Raymond to us in such a hurry? I thought the +order of the general was that he should on no account leave his post, +unless summoned by signal," observed one of the group of younger +officers who had first quitted the council hall, and who now waited with +interest for the landing of their companion. + +"What brings him here, can you ask?" replied one at the side of the +questioner, and with a solemnity of tone and manner that caused the +whole of the group to turn their eyes upon him, as he mournfully shook +his head. + +"Aye, _what_ brings him here?" repeated more than one voice, while all +closed inquiringly around for information. + +"Why the thing is as clear as the carbuncles on his own face--the boat, +to be sure." And the truism was perpetrated with the same provokingly +ludicrous, yet evidently forced, gravity of tone and manner. + +"Execrable, Middlemore.--Will you never give over that vile habit of +punning?" + +"Detestable!" said another. + +"Ridiculous!" repeated a third. + +"Pshaw! the worst you ever uttered!" exclaimed a fourth, and each, as he +thus expressed himself, turned away with a movement of impatience. + +"That animal, Raymond, grows like a very porpoise," remarked a young +captain, who prided himself on the excessive smallness of his waist. +"Methinks that, like the ground-hogs that abound on his island, he must +fatten on hickory nuts. Only see how the man melts in the noonday sun. +But as you say, Villiers, what can bring him here without an order from +the general? And then the gun last fired. Ha! I have it.--He has +discovered a Yankee boat stealing along through the other channel." + +"No doubt there is _craft_ of some description _in the wind_," pursued +the incorrigible Middlemore, with the same affected unconsciousness. + +"Ha!" returned Captain Molineux, the officer who had commented so freely +upon the fat lieutenant in the boat--"Your pun, infamous as it would be +at the best, is utterly without point now, for there has not been a +breath of wind stirring during the whole morning." + +"Pun, did you say?" exclaimed Middlemore, with well affected surprise at +the charge, "my dear fellow, I meant no pun." + +Further remark was checked by an impatience to learn the cause of +Lieutenant Raymond's abrupt appearance, and the officers approached the +principal group. The former had now reached the shore, and, shuffling up +the bank as fast as his own corpulency and the abruptness of the ascent +would permit, hastened to the general, who stood at some little distance +awaiting the expected communication of the messenger. + +"Well, Mr. Raymond, what is it--what have you discovered from your +post?" demanded the General, who, with those around him, found +difficulty in repressing a smile at the heated appearance of the fat +subaltern, the loud puffing of whose lungs had been audible before he +himself drew near enough to address the chief--"something important, I +should imagine, if we may judge from the haste with which you appear to +have travelled over the short distance that separates us?" + +"Something very important, indeed, General," answered the officer, +touching his undress cap, and speaking huskily from exertion; "there is +a large bark, sir, filled with men, stealing along shore in the American +channel, and I can see nothing of the gun boat that should be stationed +there. A shot was fired from the eastern battery, in the hope of +bringing her to, but, as the guns mounted there are only carronades, the +ball fell short, and the suspicious looking boat crept still closer to +the shore--I ordered a shot from my battery to be tried, but without +success, for, although within range, the boat hugs the land so closely +that it is impossible to distinguish her hull with the naked eye." + +"The gun boat not to be seen, Mr. Raymond?" exclaimed the General; "how +is this, and who is the officer in command of her?" + +"One," quickly rejoined the Commodore, to whom the last query was +addressed, "whom I had selected for that duty for the very vigilance and +desire for service attributed to him by my predecessor--of course I have +not been long enough here, to have much personal knowledge of him +myself." + +"His name?" asked the General. + +"Lieutenant Grantham." + +"Grantham?" repeated the General, with a movement of surprise; "It is +indeed strange that _he_ should forego such an opportunity." + +"Still more strange," remarked the commodore, "that the boat he commands +should have disappeared altogether. Can there be any question of his +fidelity? the Granthams are Canadians, I understand." + +The general smiled, while the young officer who had been noticed so +particularly by Tecumseh on his landing, colored deeply. + +"If," said the former, "the mere circumstance of their having received +existence amid these wilds can make them Canadians, they certainly are +Canadians; but if the blood of a proud race can make them Britons, such +they are. Be they which they may, however, I would stake my life on the +fidelity of the Granthams--still, the cause of this young officer's +absence must be inquired into, and no doubt it will be satisfactorily +explained. Meanwhile, let a second gunboat be detached in pursuit." + +The commodore having given the necessary instructions to a young +midshipman, who attended him in the capacity of an aid-de-camp, and the +general having dismissed Lieutenant Raymond back to his post on the +island, these officers detached themselves from the crowd, and, while +awaiting the execution of the order, engaged in earnest conversation. + +"By Jove, the commodore is quite right in his observation," remarked the +young and affected looking officer, who had been so profuse in his +witticisms on the corpulency of Lieutenant Raymond; "the general may say +what he will in their favor, but this is the result of entrusting so +important a command to a Canadian." + +"What do you mean, sir?" hastily demanded one even younger than +himself--it was the youth already named, whose uniform attested him to +be a brother officer of the speaker. He had been absent for a few +minutes, and only now rejoined his companions, in time to hear the +remark which had just been uttered. + +"What do you mean, Captain Molineux?" he continued, his dark eye +flashing indignation, and his downy cheek crimsoning with warmth. "Why +this remark before me, sir, and wherefore this reflection on the +Canadians?" + +"Why really, Mr. Grantham," somewhat sententiously drawled the captain; +"I do not altogether understand your right to question in this tone--nor +am I accountable for any observations I may make. Let me tell you, +moreover, that it will neither be wise nor prudent in you, having been +received into a British regiment to become the Don Quixotte of your +countrymen." + +"_Received_ into a British regiment, sir! do you then imagine that I, +more than yourself, should feel this a distinction," haughtily returned +the indignant youth. "But, gentlemen, your pardon," checking himself and +glancing at the rest of the group, who were silent witnesses of the +scene; "I confess I do feel the distinction of being admitted into so +gallant a corps--this in a way, however, that must be common to us all. +Again I ask, Captain Molineux," turning to that officer, "the tendency +of the observations you have publicly made in regard to my brother." + +"Your question, Mr. Grantham might, with as much propriety, be addressed +to any other person in the full enjoyment of his senses, whom you see +here, since it is the general topic of conversation; but, as you seem to +require an answer from me particularly, you shall have it. My remark +referred to the absence of the officer in charge of the gun-boat from +the station allotted to him, at a moment when an _armed_ vessel of the +enemy is in sight. Is this the fact, or is it not?" + +"By which remark," returned the other, "you would imply that said +officer is either guilty of gross neglect or--" + +"I draw no inferences, Mr. Grantham, but even if I did, I should be more +borne out by circumstances than you imagine." + +"It is plain you would insinuate that my brother shuns the enemy, +Captain Molineux--You shall answer to me for this insult, sir." + +"As you please, Mr. Grantham, but on one condition only." + +"Name it, sir, name it," said the young officer quickly. + +"That it is satisfactorily proved your brother has _not_ shunned the +enemy." + +Bitter feelings swelled the heart of the enthusiastic Grantham, as +unconsciously touching the hilt of his sword, he replied: "If your hope +of avoidance rest on this, sir, it will be found to hang upon a very +thread indeed." + +The attention of the group where this unpleasant scene had occurred, and +indeed of all parties, was now diverted by the sudden appearance of the +American boat, as, shooting past the head of the island, which had +hitherto concealed her from the view of the assembled crowds, her spars +and white sails became visible in the far distance. A slight and +favorable breeze, blowing off the shore which she still closely hugged, +had now apparently sprung up, and, spreading all her canvass, she was +evidently making every effort to get beyond the reach of the battery +(whither Lieutenant Raymond had returned), under whose range she was +unavoidably impelled by the very wind that favored her advance. Owing to +some temporary difficulty, the gun-boat, just ordered by the commodore +to follow in pursuit, was longer than suited the emergency in getting +under way, and when she had succeeded in so doing, nearly half an hour +elapsed before, owing to the utter absence of wind, as well as the +rapidity of the current, she could be brought by the aid of her long and +cumbrous sweeps to clear the head of the island. The American, now +discovered to have a small detachment of troops on board, had by this +time succeeded in getting out of the range of a fire, which although +well directed had proved harmless, and, using every exertion of oar and +sail, bade fair, favored as she was by the breeze which reached not the +canvass of her enemy, to effect her escape. + +Concern sat on every brow, and was variously expressed--loud yells +marking the fierce disappointment of the Indians, and undisguised +murmurs that of the more disciplined troops. Coupled with this feeling, +among the officers at least, naturally arose the recollection of him to +whose apparent neglect this escape of the enemy was to be attributed, +until at length the conduct of Lieutenant Grantham was canvassed +generally, and with a freedom little inferior to that which, falling +from the lips of Captain Molineux, had so pained his sensitive +brother--with this difference, however, that in this instance they were +the candidly expressed opinions of men arraigning the conduct of one of +their fellows apparently guilty of a gross dereliction from duty, and +not, as in the former they had seemed to be, with any ungenerous +allusion to his fidelity. + +Warmly, and therefore audibly, commented on as was the unaccountable +absence of the officer, by individuals of almost every rank, it was +impossible that many of those observations could escape the attention of +the excited Henry Grantham. Mortified beyond measure at the fact, yet +unable, as he had done before, to stand forth the champion of his +brother's honor, where all (with a very few exceptions, among whom he +had the consolation to find the general) were united in opinion against +him, his situation was most painful. Not that he entertained the +remotest doubt of his brother bearing himself harmlessly through the +ordeal, but that his generous, yet haughty spirit could ill endure the +thought of any human being daring to cherish, much less to cast the +slightest aspersion on his blood. + +Finding it vain to oppose himself to the torrent of openly expressed +opinion, the mortified youth withdrew to a distance, and, hastening +among the rude tumuli we have described, as being scattered about the +edge of the bank, stood watching, with folded arms and heaving chest, +the gradually receding bark of the enemy. Alternately, as he thus gazed, +his dark eye now flashed with the indignation of wounded pride, now +dilated with the exulting consciousness of coming triumph. The assurance +was strong within him, not only that his brother would soon make his +appearance before the assembled groups who had had the cruelty to impugn +his conduct, but that he would do so under circumstances calculated to +change their warm censure into even more vehement applause. Fully +impressed with the integrity of his absent relative, the impetuous and +generous hearted youth paused not to reflect that circumstances were +such as to justify the belief--or at least the doubt--that had been +expressed, even by the most impartial of those who had condemned him. It +seemed to him that others ought to have known and judged him as he +himself did, and he took a secret delight in dwelling on the +self-reproach which he conceived would attach to them, when it should be +found how erroneous had been the estimate formed of his character. + +While he thus gazed, with eyes intently bent upon the river, and +manifesting even a deeper interest as the fleeing bark drew momentarily +nearer to one particular point in the distance, the young officer heard +footsteps approaching him. Hastily dashing away a tear which had been +called up by a variety of emotions, he turned and beheld the Chieftain +Tecumseh, and with him one who, in the full uniform of the British +Staff, united, in his tall and portly figure, the martial bearing of the +soldier to the more polished graces of the habitual courtier. + +"Henry, my noble boy," exclaimed the latter, as he pressed the hand of +the youth, "you must not yield to these feelings. I have marked your +impatience at the observations caused by Gerald's strange absence, but I +have brought you one who is too partial to you both to join in the +condemnation. I have explained every thing to him, and he it was who, +remarking you to be alone, and suspecting the cause, first proposed +coming to rouse you from your reverie." + +Affectionately answering the grasp of his noble looking uncle, Henry +Grantham turned at the same time his eloquent eye upon that of the +chieftain, and, in a few brief but expressive sentences, conveyed, in +the language of the warrior, the gratification he experienced in his +unchanged confidence in the absent officer. + +As he concluded, with a warmth of manner that delighted him to whom he +addressed himself, their hands met for the third time that day. Tecumseh +at length replied, by pointing significantly to the canoes which still +lay floating on the river, unemptied of their warriors, stating at the +same time, that had not his confidence in his young friend been +unbounded, he would long since have despatched those canoes in pursuit; +but he was unwilling the officer should lose any of the credit that must +attach to the capture. "I know," he concluded, "where he is lying like +the red skin in pursuit of the enemy. Be patient, and we shall soon see +him." + +Before Henry Grantham could find time to inquire if the place of ambush +was not the same to which his own hopes, induced by his perfect +knowledge of localities, had, throughout, pointed as the spot most +likely to conceal the hitherto invisible gun boat, his attention, and +that of his immediate companion, was drawn to a scene that carried a +glow of exultation to the bosoms of them all. + +The American boat, long since out of range of the battery, and scudding +with a speed that mocked the useless exertions of those on board of the +second gun boat, who could with difficulty impel her through the +powerful eddy formed by the island, had been gradually edging from her +own shore into the centre of the stream. This movement, however, had the +effect of rendering her more distinguishable to the eye, breasting, as +she did, the rapid stream, as while hugging the land, even when much +nearer, she had been confounded with the dark line of brushwood which +connected the forest with the shore. She had now arrived opposite a neck +of land beyond which ran a narrow, deep creek, the existence of which +was known only to few, and here it chanced that in the exultation of +escape, they gave a cheer that was echoed back from either shore, +hoisting at the same moment the American colors. Scarcely, however, had +this cheer been uttered, when a second and more animating, was heard +from a different point, and presently, dashing into the river, and +apparently issuing from the very heart of the wood, was to be seen the +gun-boat, which had been the subject of so much conversation, every +stitch of her white canvass bellying from the masts, and her dark prow +buried in a wreath of foam created by her own speed. As she neared the +American a column of smoke, followed a second or two later by a dull +report, rose from her bows, enveloping her a moment from the view, and +when next visible she was rapidly gaining on the chase. The yells of the +Indians and the hurrahs of the soldiers gave an indescribable animation +to the scene. + +This was indeed a moment of proud triumph to the heart of Henry +Grantham. He saw his brother not only freed from every ungenerous +imputation, but placed in a situation to win to himself the first +laurels that were to be plucked in the approaching strife. The +"Canadian," as he imagined he had been superciliously termed, would be +the first to reap for Britain's sons the fruits of a war in which those +latter were not only the most prominent actors, but also the most +interested. Already, in the enthusiasm of his imagination, he pictured +to himself the honor and promotion, which bestowed upon his gallant +brother, would be reflected upon himself, and, in the deep excitement of +his feelings, he could not avoid saying aloud, heedless of the presence +of his uncle: + +"Now, Captain Molineux, your only difficulty is removed--my brother has +revenged himself. With me you will have an account to settle on my own +score." + +"What do you mean, Henry?" seriously inquired Colonel D'Egville; "surely +you have not been imprudent enough to engage in a quarrel with one of +your brother officers." + +Henry briefly recounted the conversation which had taken place between +Captain Molineux and himself. + +"Far be it from my intention to check the nice sense of honor which +should be inherent in the breast of every soldier," returned his uncle +impressively, "but you are too sensitive. Henry; Captain Molineux, who +is, moreover, a very young man, may not have expressed himself in the +most guarded manner, but he only repeated what I have been compelled to +hear myself--and from persons not only older, but much higher in rank. +Take my advice, therefore, and let the matter rest where it is; Gerald, +you see, has given the most practical denial to any observations which +have been uttered of a nature derogatory to his honor." + +"True," quickly returned the youth, with a flushing cheek, "Gerald is +sufficiently avenged, but you forget the taunt he uttered against +Canadians!" + +"And if he did utter such taunt, why acknowledge it as such?" calmly +rejoined Colonel D'Egville; "are you ashamed of the name? I too am a +Canadian, but so far from endeavoring to repudiate my American birth, I +feel pride in having received my being in a land where everything +attests the sublimity and magnificence of nature. Look around you, my +nephew, and ask yourself what there is in the wild grandeur of these +scenes to disown. But, ha!"--as he cast his eyes upon the water--"I fear +Gerald will lose his prize after all; the enemy is giving him the Indian +double." + +During the foregoing short conversation, an important change had been +effected in the position of the adverse boats. The shot fired, +apparently with the view of bringing the enemy to, had produced no +favorable result; but no sooner had the gun-boat come abreast of the +chase, than the latter, suddenly clewing up her sails, put her helm +about, and plying every oar with an exertion proportioned to the +emergency, made rapidly for the coast she had recently left. The +intention of the crew was evidently to abandon the unarmed boat, and to +seek safety in the woods. Urged by the rapidity of her own course, the +gun-boat had shot considerably ahead, and when at length she also was +put about, the breeze blew so immediately in her teeth that it was found +impossible to regain the advantage which had been lost. Meanwhile, the +American continued her flight, making directly for the land, with a +rapidity that promised fair to baffle every exertion on the part of her +pursuer. The moment was one of intense interest to the crowd of +spectators who lined the bank. At each instant it was expected the fire +of the gun-boat would open upon the fugitives; but although this was +obviously the course to be adopted, it being apparent a single shot was +sufficient to sink her--not a flash was visible--not a report was heard. +Presently, however, while the disappointment of the spectators from the +bank was rising into murmurs, a skiff filled with men was seen to pull +from the gun-boat in the direction taken by the chase, which was +speedily hidden from view by the point of land from which the latter had +previously been observed to issue. Behind this her pursuer also +disappeared, and after a lapse of a few minutes, pistol and musket shots +were distinguished, although they came but faintly on the ear. These +gradually became more frequent and less distinct, until suddenly there +was a profound pause--then three cheers were faintly heard--and all +again was still. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + +A full half hour had succeeded to these sounds of conflict, and yet +nothing could be seen of the contending boats. Doubt and anxiety now +took the place of the confidence that had hitherto animated the bosoms +of the spectators, and even Henry Grantham--his heart throbbing +painfully with emotions induced by suspense--knew not what inference to +draw from the fact of his brother's protracted absence. Could it be that +the American, defended as she was by a small force of armed men, had +succeeded, not only in defeating the aim of her pursuer, but also in +capturing her. Such a result was not impossible. The enemy against whom +they had to contend yielded to none in bravery; and as the small bark +which had quitted the gun-boat was not one third of the size of that +which they pursued, it followed of necessity, that the assailants must +be infinitely weaker in numbers than the assailed. Still no signal of +alarm was made by the gun-boat, which continued to lie to, apparently in +expectation of the return of the detached portion of her crew. Grantham +knew enough of his brother's character to feel satisfied that he was in +the absent boat, and yet it was impossible to suppose that one so imbued +with the spirit of generous enterprise should have succumbed to his +enemy, after a contest of so short duration, as, from the number of +shots heard, this had appeared to be. That it was terminated, there +could be no doubt. The cheers, which had been followed by an universal +silence, had given evidence of this fact; yet why, in that case, if his +brother had been victorious, was he not already on his return? +Appearances, on the other hand, seemed to induce an impression of his +defeat. The obvious course of the enemy, if successful, was to abandon +their craft, cut off from escape by the gun-boat without, and to make +the best of their way through the woods, to their place of destination, +the American fort of Detroit--and, as neither party was visible, it was +to be feared this object had been accomplished. + +The minds of all were more or less influenced by these doubts, but that +of Henry Grantham was especially disturbed. From the first appearance of +the gun-boat his spirits had resumed their usual tone, for he had looked +upon the fleeing bark as the certain prize of his brother, whose +conquest was to afford the flattest denial to the insinuation that had +been urged against him. Moreover, his youthful pride had exulted in the +reflection that the first halo of victory would play around the brow of +one for whom he could have made every personal sacrifice; and now, to +have those fair anticipations clouded at the very moment when he was +expecting their fullest accomplishment, was almost unendurable. He felt, +also, that, although his resolution was thus made to stand prominently +forth, the prudence of his brother would assuredly be called in +question, for having given chase with so inferior a force, when a single +gun fired into his enemy must have sunk her. In the impatience of his +feelings, the excited young soldier could not refrain from adding his +own censure of the imprudence, exclaiming, as he played his foot +nervously upon the ground: "Why the devil did he not fire and sink her, +instead of following in that nutshell?" + +While he was yet giving utterance to his disappointment, a hasty +exclamation met his ear from the chieftain at his side, who, placing one +hand on the shoulder of the officer, with a familiar and meaning grasp, +pointed, with the fore-finger of the other, in the direction in which +the boats had disappeared. Before Grantham's eye could follow, an +exulting yell from the distant masses of Indians announced an advantage +that was soon made obvious to all. The small dark boat of the pursuing +party was now seen issuing from behind the point, and pulling slowly +towards the gun-boat. In the course of a minute or two afterwards +appeared the American, evidently following in the wake of the former, +and attached by a tow-line to her stern. The yell pealed forth by the +Indians when the second boat came in view, was deafening in the extreme; +and everything became commotion along the bank, while the little fleet +of canoes, which still lay resting on the beach, put off one after the +other to the scene of action. + +Meanwhile, both objects had gained the side of the gun-boat, which, +favored by a partial shifting of the wind, now pursued her course down +the river with expanded sails. Attached to her stern, and following at +quarter cable distance, was to be seen her prize, from which the +prisoners had been removed. + +Informed of the success which had crowned the enterprise of their +officer, the crews of the several vessels in the harbor swelled the +crowd assembled on the bank near the fort, to which point curiosity and +a feeling of interest had moreover brought many of the town's people, so +that the scene finally became one of great animation. + +The gun-boat had now arrived opposite the fort, when the small bark, +which had recently been used in pursuit, was again drawn up to the +quarter. Into this, to the surprise of all, was first lowered a female, +hitherto unobserved; next followed an officer in the blue uniform of the +United States regular army; then another individual, whose garb +announced him as being of the militia, and whose rank as an officer was +only distinguishable from the cockade surmounting his round hat, and an +ornamented dagger thrust into a red morocco belt encircling his waist. +After these came the light and elegant form of one, habited in the +undress of a British naval officer, who, with one arm supported by a +black silk handkerchief, evidently taken from his throat, and suspended +from his neck, and with the other grasping the tiller of the rudder, +stood upright in the boat, which, urged by six stout rowers, now stood +at his command towards the landing place, above which lingered, +surrounded by several officers of either service, General Brock and +Commodore Barclay. + +"Well, Commodore, what think you of your Lieutenant now?" observed the +former to his friend; "the young Canadian you must admit, has nobly +redeemed my pledge. On the score of his fidelity there could exist no +doubt, and as for his courage, you see," pointing to the young man's +arm, "his conquest has not been bloodless to himself, at least." + +"With all my soul do I disclaim the wrong I have done him," was the +emphatic and generous rejoinder. "He is, indeed, a spirited youth; and +well worthy of the favorable report which led me to entrust him with the +command--moreover he has an easy grace of carriage which pleased and +interested me in his favor, when I first saw him. Even now, observe how +courteously he bends himself to the ear of his female prisoner, as if to +encourage her with words of assurance, that she may sustain the presence +and yells of these clamorous beings." + +The boat had now reached the beach, but the difficulty of effecting a +passage, through the band of wild Indians that crowded, yelling, in +every direction, to take a nearer view of the prisoners, would, perhaps, +have proved insurmountable, had it not been for the interference of one +who alone possessed the secret of restraining their lawlessness. +Tecumseh had descended to the beach, eager to be the first to +congratulate his young friend. He pressed the hand promptly extended to +receive his, and then, at a single word, made those give way whose +presence impeded the landing of the party. + +Pursuing their way up the rude steps by which Lieutenant Raymond had +previously descended, the little band of prisoners soon stood in the +presence of the group assembled to receive them. On alighting from the +boat, the youthful captor had been seen to make the tender of his +uninjured arm to the lady, who, however, had rejected it, with a +movement, seemingly of indignant surprise, clinging in the same moment +to her more elderly companion. A titter among the younger officers, at +Gerald Grantham's expense had followed this rejection of his proffered +arm. + +The young sailor was the first to gain the summit of the bank. +Respectfully touching his hat, and pointing to the captives, who +followed a few paces in his rear: + +"General--Commodore," he observed, his cheek flushing with a +consciousness of the gratifying position in which he stood, "I have the +honor to present to you the first fruits of your good fortune. This +gentleman," pointing to the elder officer, "is the commander of the +party, and the lady I believe is----" + +"Certainly a non-combatant on this occasion," interrupted the General, +raising his plumed hat, and bowing to the party alluded to; "Gentlemen," +he pursued, addressing the two officers, "I am sorry we do not meet +exactly on the terms to which we have so long been accustomed; but, +although the fortune of war has made you rather unwilling guests in the +present instance, the rites of hospitality shall not be the less +observed. But Mr. Grantham, you have forgotten to introduce these +officers by name." + +"I plead guilty, General, but the truth is I have neglected to make the +inquiry myself." + +"Major Montgomerie, sir, of the United States Infantry," interposed the +elderly officer, completely set at his ease by the affable and attentive +manner of the British leader. "This young lady is my niece." + +Again the general slightly, but courteously, bowed. "I will not, Major +Montgomerie, pay you the ill timed compliment of expressing pleasure in +seeing you on an occasion like the present, since we must unquestionably +consider you a prisoner of war; but if the young lady your niece, has +any desire to continue her journey to Detroit, I shall feel pleasure in +forwarding her thither under a flag of truce." + +"I thank you much, General, for this mark of your attention," returned +the American; "but I think I may venture to answer for my niece, that +she will prefer remaining with me." + +"Not so, sir;" said a voice deep but femininely soft. "General," she +continued, throwing aside her veil, which had hitherto concealed +features pale even to wanness, "I have the strongest--the most urgent +reasons--for the prosecution of my journey, and gladly do I accept your +offer." + +The earnest manner of her address struck every hearer with surprise, +contrasting as it did, with the unchanging coldness of her look; but the +matter was a source of serious concern to her uncle. He regarded her +with an air of astonishment, not unmixed with displeasure. + +"How is this, Matilda," he asked; "after having travelled thus far into +the heart of this disturbed district would you now leave me?" + +"Major Montgomerie," she pursued, somewhat impatiently, "we are in the +presence of strangers, to whom this discussion must be uninteresting--My +mind is fully made up, and I avail myself of the British General's +offer." + +"Certainly, certainly," observed that officer, somewhat disconcerted by +the scene; "and I can do it the more readily, as it is my intention to +send an instant summons to the garrison of Detroit. Miss Montgomerie +will, however, do well to consider before she decides. If the summons be +not obeyed, another week will see our columns marching to the assault, +and she must be prepared for all the horrors of such an extremity, +aided, as I am compelled to be, (and he glanced at the groups of Indians +who were standing around, but at some distance, looking silently yet +eagerly at the prisoners,) by these wild and ungovernable warriors. +Should she, on the contrary, decide on remaining here with her uncle, +she will be perfectly safe." + +"General," emphatically returned Miss Montgomerie, "were I certain that +the columns to which you allude would not be repulsed whenever they may +venture upon that assault, and were I as certain of perishing beneath +the tomahawk and scalping knife of these savages"--and she looked +fearlessly towards them--"still would my determination remain the same." + +As she concluded, a hectic spot rose to either cheek, lingered there a +moment, and then left it colorless as before. + +"Be it so, Miss Montgomerie, my word is pledged and you shall +go--Grantham, I had intended sending one of my personal staff with the +summons, but, on reflection, you shall be the bearer. As the captor of +the lady, to you shall be awarded the charge of delivering her over to +her friends." + +"Friends!" involuntarily repeated the American, her cheek becoming even +paler than before, and her lips compressed in a way to indicate some +deep and painful emotion. Again she dropped her veil. + +No other notice was taken of the interruption than what the surprised +manner of Major Montgomerie manifested, and the General proceeded; + +"I would ask you, Major Montgomerie, to become my guest while you remain +with us, but I fear that, as a bachelor, I have but indifferent +accommodation to offer to your niece." + +"If Miss Montgomerie will accept it," said Colonel D'Egville, +interposing, "I shall be most happy to afford her the accommodation of a +home until she finally departs for the opposite shore. If the attention +of a family of daughters," he continued, more immediately addressing +himself to the young lady, "can render your temporary sojourn among us +less tedious, you have but to command them." + +So friendly an offer could not well be refused. Miss Montgomerie +inclined her head in acquiescence, and Colonel D'Egville drew her arm +within his own. + +"It were unkind," remarked the general, good-humoredly, "to separate +Major Montgomerie altogether from his niece. Either the young lady must +partake of our rude fare, or we shall consider ourselves included in +your dinner party." + +"You could not confer on me a greater pleasure, General, and indeed I +was about to solicit it. Commodore Barclay, may I hope that so short and +unceremonious an invitation will be excused by the circumstances? Good, +I shall expect you. But there is yet another to be included among our +guests. Gerald, you will not fail to conduct this gentleman, whose name +I have not yet had the pleasure of hearing"--and he looked at the +latter, as if he expected him to announce himself. + +"I fear, sir," observed the young officer, pointedly, "that your dinner +party would be little honored by such an addition. Although he wears the +uniform of an American officer, this person is wholly unworthy of it and +of a seat at your table." + +Every eye was turned with an expression of deep astonishment on the +speaker, and thence upon the form of the hitherto scarcely noticed +militia officer; who, with his head sunk sullenly upon his chest, and an +eye now and then raised stealthily to surrounding objects, made no +attempt to refute, or even to express surprise at, the singular +accusation of his captor. + +"This is strong language to apply to a captive enemy, and that enemy +apparently an officer," gravely remarked the general; "yet I cannot +believe Mr. Grantham to be wholly without grounds for his assertion." + +Before Grantham could reply, a voice in the crowd exclaimed, as if the +utterer had been thrown off his guard, "What--Phil!" + +On the mention of this name, the younger prisoner looked suddenly up +from the earth on which his gaze had been riveted, and cast a rapid +glance around him. + +"Nay, nay, my young friend, do not, as I see you are, feel hurt at my +observation," resumed the general, extending his hand to Gerald +Grantham; "I confess I did at one moment imagine that you had been rash +in your assertion, but from what has this instant occurred, it is +evident your prisoner is known to others as well as to yourself. No +doubt we shall have everything explained in due season. By the bye, of +what nature is your wound? slight, I should say, from the indifference +with which you treat it." + +"Slight, General--far slighter," he continued, coloring, "than the wound +that was sought to be affixed to my fair name in my absence." + +All looked at the speaker, and at each other with surprise, for, as yet, +there could have been no communication to him of the doubts which had +been entertained. + +"Who is it of you all, gentlemen," pursued the young man, with the same +composedness of voice and manner, and turning particularly to the +officers of the forty-first regiment, who were grouped around their +chief, "Who is it, I ask, on whom has devolved the enviable duty of +reporting me as capable of violating my faith as a subject, and my honor +as an officer?" + +There was no reply, although the same looks of surprise were +interchanged; but, as he continued to glance his eye around the circle, +it encountered, either by accident or design, that of Captain Molineux, +on whose rather confused countenance the gaze of Henry Grantham was at +that moment bent with an expression of much meaning. + +"No one answers," continued the youth; "then the sting has been +harmless. But I crave your pardon, General--I am claiming an exemption +from censure which may not be conceded by all. Commodore, how shall I +dispose of my prisoners?" + +"Not so, Mr. Grantham; you have sufficiently established your right to +repose, and I have already issued the necessary instructions. Yet, while +you have nobly acquitted yourself of _your_ duty, let me also perform +_mine_. Gentlemen," he continued, addressing the large circle of +officers, "I was the first to comment on Mr. Grantham's supposed neglect +of duty, and to cast a doubt on his fidelity. That I was wrong I admit, +but right I trust will be my reparation, and whatever momentary pain he +may experience in knowing that he has been thus unjustly judged, it +will, I am sure, be more than compensated for, when he hears that by +General Brock himself his defence was undertaken, even to the pledging +of his own honor. Mr. Grantham," concluded the gallant officer, "how you +have obtained your knowledge of the conversation that passed here during +your absence, is a mystery I will not now pause to inquire into, but I +would fain apologize for the wrong I have done. Have I your pardon?" + +At the commencement of this address, the visible heaving of his full +chest, the curling of his proud lip, and the burning flush of his dark +cheek, betrayed the mortification Gerald felt, in having been placed in +a position to be judged thus unjustly; but, as the commodore proceeded, +this feeling gradually passed away, and when the warm defence of his +conduct by the general was alluded to, closed as the information was +with a request for pardon, his temporary annoyance was banished, and he +experienced only the generous triumph of one who is conscious of having +won his way, through calumny and slander, to the well merited +approbation of all right minded men. + +"Come, come," interposed the general, more touched than he was willing +to appear, by the expressive manner in which the only hand of the +commodore now grasped that of his lieutenant, and perceiving that the +latter was about to reply--"We will defer all further explanation until +a later period. But, before we depart, this person must be disposed of; +Major Montgomerie, excuse my asking if you will be personally +responsible for your fellow prisoner?" + +"Certainly not!" returned the Major quickly, and with something like +alarm at the required responsibility; "that is to say, he does not +belong to the United States regular service, and I know nothing of him. +Indeed, I never saw him before last night, when he joined me with a +verbal message from Detroit." + +Hitherto the individual spoken of had preserved an unbroken silence, +keeping, as we have already shown, his gaze riveted upon the ground, +except at intervals, when he looked around with an eye of suspicion, as +if to measure the distance that separated him from the groups of Indians +in the background. The disclaimer of the major had, however, the effect +of restoring to him the use of his tongue. Casting his uncertain eye on +the gentlemanly person of the latter, he exclaimed, in a tone of +insufferable vulgarity: + +"I'll tell you what it is, Mister Major--you may think yourself a +devilish fine feller, but I guess as how an officer of the Michigan +Militia is just as good and as spry as any blue coat in the United +States rig'lars; so there's that (snapping his fingers) for pretendin' +not to know me." + +An ill-suppressed titter pervaded the group of British officers--the +general alone preserving his _serieux_. + +"May I ask your name?" he demanded. + +"I guess, gin'ril, it's Paul Emilius Theophilus Arnoldi, ensign in the +United States Michigan Militia," was answered with a volubility strongly +in contrast with the preceding silence of the speaker. + +"Then, Mr. Arnoldi, as an officer in the American militia, you shall +enjoy your liberty on parole. I need not, I presume, sir, point out to +you the breach of private honor and national faith consequent on any +violation of that parole." + +"I guess not, gin'ril, for, I take it, the word of a Michigan militia +officer is as good as that of any United States rig'lar as ever stepped +in shoe leather." + +Another very pardonable disposition on the part of the younger officers +to indulge in mirth, was interrupted by the general, desiring a young +aide-de-camp to procure the necessary billet and accommodation for +Ensign Arnoldi. + +These two individuals having moved away in search of the required +lodging, the general, with his staff and prisoner guests, withdrew +towards the fort. Their departure was the signal for the breaking up of +the groups, and all dispersed to their several homes, and in pursuit of +their various duties. The recently arrived Indians were distributed +throughout the encampment, already occupied as we have described, and +the prisoners taken in the morning were provided with suitable +accommodation. + +As Colonel D'Egville was about to enter the gate of the fort, with his +fair charge leaning on his arm, Gerald Grantham approached the party, +with the intention of addressing the general in regard to the prisoner +Arnoldi; but finding him engaged in close conversation with Major +Montgomerie, he lingered, as if awaiting a fitting opportunity to open +the subject. + +While he yet loitered, the eye of Miss Montgomerie met his. What it +expressed we will not venture to describe, but its effect upon the young +officer was profound. The moment before, discouraged by her apparent +reserve, he had stood coldly by, but now startled into animation, he +bent upon her an earnest and corresponding look; then, with a wild +tumult at his heart, which he neither sought to stifle nor to analyze, +and wholly forgetting what had brought him to the spot, he turned and +joined his brother, who, at a short distance, stood awaiting his return. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + +At the garrison mess-table that evening the occurrences of the day +naturally formed a chief topic of conversation; and a variety of +conjectures, more or less probable, regarding the American lady, were +hazarded by the officers to some of whom she had become an object of +curiosity, as she had to others of interest. This conversation, +necessarily _parenthesed_ with much extraneous matter, in the nature of +rapid demands for solids and liquids, during the interesting period +devoted to the process of mastication, finally assumed a more regular +character when the cloth had been removed, and the attendants retired. + +"Apropos," remarked Captain Granville, who filled the president's chair. +"We ought to have toasted your brother's gallant exploit, Henry; +gentlemen, fill your glasses--all full? Then I will give you the health +of Lieutenant Grantham, of the squadron." + +The toast was responded to by all but Captain Molineux. His glass had +been filled and raised, but its contents remained untasted. + +The omission was too marked not to be noticed by more than one of the +party; Henry Grantham, whose eye had been fixed on Captain Molineux at +the time, of course detected the slight. He sat for some minutes +conversing with an unusual and evidently forced animation; then, +excusing his early departure under the plea of an engagement with his +brother, rose and quitted the mess-room. + +"What have you done with the ugly lout you took charge of, De Courcy?" +inquired Captain Cranstoun, interrupting the short and meaning pause +which had succeeded to Grantham's departure. + +"Why, I calculate, captain," returned the lively aid-de-camp, imitating +the nasal drawl and language which had called up so much mirth, even in +presence of the general--"I calculate as how I have introduced Ensign +Paul, Emilius, Theophilus Arnoldi, of the United States Michigan +Militia, into pretty considerable snug quarters--I have billeted him at +the inn, in which he had scarcely set foot, when his first demand was +for a glass of 'gin sling,' wherewith to moisten his partick'lar damn'd +hot, baked clay." + +"What a vulgar and uncouth animal," observed St. Clair, a Captain of +Engineers--"I am not at all surprised at Major Montgomerie's +disinclination to acknowledge him as a personal acquaintance." + +"It is to be hoped," said De Courcy, "we shall not encounter many such +during the approaching struggle, for, since we have been driven into +this war, it will be a satisfaction to find ourselves opposed to an +enemy rather more chivalrous than this specimen seems to promise." + +"Nay, nay, De Courcy," remarked Captain Granville, "you must not judge +of the American officers of the line by that standard; as, for example, +Major Montgomerie and the person just alluded to. Last winter," he +continued, "there was a continued interchange of hospitalities between +the two posts, and, had you been here to participate in them, you would +have admitted that among the officers of Detroit, there were many very +superior men indeed." + +"Pleasant ball, that last they gave," said Lieutenant Villiers, with a +malicious laugh, and fixing his eyes on the Captain of Grenadiers. + +"The devil take the ball," impatiently retorted Cranstoun, who did not +seem to relish the allusion; "don't talk about it now, man." + +"What was it, Villiers? do pray tell us. Something good, I am sure from +Cranstoun's manner," eagerly asked the aid-de-camp, his curiosity +excited by the general titter that followed the remark. + +"Shall I tell him, Cranstoun?" asked Villiers, in the same bantering +tone. + +"Don't bother me," petulantly returned the other, as, thrusting his long +legs under the table and turning his back upon the questioner, he +joined, or affected to join, in a conversation that was passing, in a +low tone, at his end of the room. + +"I must premise," began Villiers, addressing himself to the attentively +listening De Courcy, "that such is the mania for dancing in this country +scarcely any obstacle is sufficient to deter a Canadian lady, +particularly a French Canadian, from indulging in her favorite +amusement. It is, therefore, by no means unusual to see women drawn in +sleighs over drifting masses of ice, with chasms occasionally occurring +of from fifteen to twenty feet--and that at a moment when, driven by +wind and current, the huge fragments are impelled over each other with a +roar that can only be likened to continuous thunder, forming, in various +directions, hillocks from which the sun's rays are reflected in a +thousand fantastic shades and shapes. On these occasions the sleighs, or +carioles, are drawn, not as otherwise customary, by the fast-trotting +little horses of the country, but by expert natives whose mode of +transportation is as follows: A strong rope is fastened to the extremity +of the shafts, and into this the French Canadian, buried to the chin in +his blanket coat, and provided with a long pole terminating in an iron +hook, harnesses himself, by first drawing the loop of the cord over the +back of his neck, and then passing it under his arms. In this manner +does he traverse the floating ice, stepping from mass to mass with a +rapidity that affords no time for the detached fragment to sink under +the weight with which it is temporarily laden. As the iron-shod runners +obey the slightest impulsion, the draught is light; and the only fatigue +encountered is in the act of bringing the detached bodies together. +Wherever an opening intervenes, the Canadian throws forward his pole, +and, securing the pointed hook in some projection of the floating ice, +drags it towards that on the extreme verge of which he stands. In like +manner he passes on to the next, when the same operation remains to be +performed, until the passage is fully effected. Sometimes it happens +that a chasm of more than ordinary extent occurs, in which case the pole +is unavailable, and then his only alternative is to wait patiently until +some distant mass, moving in a direction to fill up the interstice, +arrives within his reach. In the meanwhile the ice on which he stands +sinks slowly and gradually, until sometimes it quite disappears beneath +the surface of the water." + +"And the women, all this time?" demanded De Courcy, with something of +the nervousness which might be attributed to such a situation. + +"Sit as quietly and as unconcernedly, wrapped in their furs, as if they +were merely taking their customary drive on terra firma," continued +Villiers; "nay, I am persuaded that if they ever entertain an anxiety on +those occasions, it is either lest the absence of one of these +formidable masses should compel them to abandon an enterprise, the bare +idea of entering upon which would give an European woman an attack of +nerves, or that the delayed aid should be a means of depriving them of +one half minute of their anticipated pleasure." + +"Why," interrupted Middlemore, despite of a dozen ohs and ahs--"why, I +say, is Villiers like a man of domestic habits? Do you give it up? +Because he is fond of dwelling on his own premises." + +"Middlemore, when will you renounce that vile habit of punning?" said De +Courcy, with an earnestness of adjuration that excited a general laugh +at his end of the table. "Come, Villiers, never mind his nonsense, for +your premises, although a little long, are not without deep +interest--but what has all this to do with our good friend above?" + +"You shall hear. After a succession of balls last winter, to which the +ladies of either shore were invariably invited, the concluding one was +given by the officers in garrison at Detroit. This was at the very close +of the season, and it chanced that, on the preceding night, the river +had broken up, so that the roar and fracas of crashing ice might have +been likened, during forty-eight hours afterwards, to some terrible +disorganization of nature. Nothing daunted, however, by the +circumstance, many of the Canadian ladies made the usual preparations, +and among others the Miss D'Egvilles." + +Here Villiers paused a moment, and with a significant "hem," sought to +arouse the attention of the grenadier; but Cranstoun, insensible to the +appeal, and perhaps unwilling to listen to a story that occasioned so +much mirth whenever it was repeated, continued with his back immovably +turned towards the speaker. + +"All very well," pursued Villiers; "but we know the adage--'none so deaf +as those who will not hear.' I have said," again turning to De Courcy, +while those who were near listened not without interest to the story, +familiar even as it was to them all, "that the Miss D'Egvilles were of +the party. At that time our friend was doing the amiable to the lively +Julia, although we never could persuade him to confess his penchant; +and, on this occasion, he had attached himself to their immediate +sleigh. Provided, like the Canadians, with poles terminated by an iron +hook at one end and a spike at the other, we made our way after their +fashion, but in quicker time than they possibly could, harnessed as they +were in the sledges. With the aid of these poles, we cleared, with +facility, chasms of from ten to twelve feet, and alighting on our +moccasined feet, seldom incurred much risk of losing our hold. Our ball +dresses were taken in charge by the ladies, so that our chief care was +the safe passage of our own persons. We all arrived without accident, +and passed a delightful evening, the American officers exerting +themselves to give the _coup d'eclat_ to the last ball of the season." + +"Yes," interrupted the incorrigible Middlemore, as he cracked a peccan +nut, "and the balls reserved for us this season will also carry with +them the _coup de grass_." + +"The night," pursued Villiers, no one noticing the interruption save by +an impatient 'pish,' "gave every indication of a speedy break up. The +ice yet floated along in disjoined masses, but with even greater +rapidity than on the preceding day. Two alternatives remained--either to +attempt the crossing before further obstacle should be interposed, or to +remain in Detroit until the river had been so far cleared of the ice as +to admit of a passage in canoes. With our leaping poles, we were not so +much at a loss, but the fear entertained was principally for the safety +of the sleighs. Nothing dismayed, however, by the dangerous appearance +of the river, the ladies, after due deliberation, courageously resolved +on returning without delay, and we accordingly set out on our somewhat +hazardous expedition. + +"Notwithstanding it was, as I have already remarked, the close of +winter, the cold was intense, and we were warmly clad. I do not know if +you have ever seen Cranstoun's huge bear skin coat, (an affirmative nod +was given by De Courcy), well: in this formidable covering had he +encased himself, so that when he quitted the town, surmounted as his +head was moreover with a fur cap, he presented more of the appearance of +a dancing bear than of a human creature. In this guise he attached +himself to the sleigh of the D'Egvilles, which, in crossing, happened to +be the furthest down the river, of the group." + +"What a damn'd long time you are telling that stupid story, Villiers," +at length noticed Cranstoun, wheeling round and regarding the narrator +with a look of ill assumed indifference, "I could have told it myself in +half the time." + +"I am afraid you would not tell it so faithfully," replied Lieutenant +Villiers, amid the loud laugh which was now raised at Cranstoun's +expense. "You see it is so good a thing, I like to make the most of it." + +Here Cranstoun again turned his back upon the party, and Villiers +pursued. + +"The main body of the expedition had got nearly half way across the +river, when suddenly our ears were assailed by moanings, resembling +those of some wild beast, mingled with incessant and ungovernable +laughter. Checking our course, and turning to behold the cause, we +observed, about a hundred yards below us, the sledge of the D'Egvilles, +from which the almost convulsive laughter proceeded, and at a +considerable distance beyond this again, an object the true character of +which we were some time in discovering. + +"It appeared, on subsequent explanation, that Cranstoun, who had been +whispering soft nothings in the ear of Julia D'Egville, (here the +captain was observed to prick his ear without materially altering his +position) hem! Cranstoun, I say, it appeared had also taken it into his +head to give her a specimen of his agility, by an attempt to clear a +space between two masses of ice of somewhat too great a breadth for a +heavy grenadier, buttoned up to the chin in a ponderous bear skin coat. +He succeeded in gaining the opposite piece of ice, but had no sooner +reached it, than he fell, entangled in such a manner in his covering +that he found it impossible to extricate himself. To add to his +disaster, the force of his fall broke off, from the main body, the +section of ice on which he rested. Borne down by the current, in spite +of his vain struggles to free himself, he was unable even to call for +aid, his fingers moreover being so benumbed with cold that he found it +impossible to unbutton the straps which confined his mouth. In this +emergency he could only utter the strange and unintelligible moan which +had reached our ears, and which, mingled with the bursts of laughter +from Julia D'Egville, formed a most incongruous melange. + +"The best of the adventure remains, however, to be told. Numbers of the +peasantry from either shore, provided with poles, guns, and ropes, were +now to be seen rushing towards the half congealed Cranstoun, fully +imagining--nay exclaiming--that it was a wild bear, which, in an attempt +to cross the river, had had its retreat cut off, and was now, from +insensibility, rendered harmless. Disputes even arose in the distance as +to whom the prize should belong, each pursuer claiming to have seen it +first. Nay, more than one gun had been levelled with a view of +terminating all doubt by lodging a bullet in the carcase, when, +fortunately, for the subject in dispute, this proposal was overruled by +the majority, who were more anxious to capture than to slay the supposed +bear. Meanwhile the Canadian, harnessed to the sleigh of the D'Egvilles, +roared out with all his lungs for the two parties to hasten to the +assistance of the drowning British officer. In the confusion produced by +their own voices, however, they did not appear to hear or understand +him; yet all pursued the aim they had in view. Cranstoun's body was so +doubled up that it was impossible for any one, who had not witnessed the +accident, to imagine it anything in nature but a bear; and this +impression, the strange moaning he continued to make, tended to +confirm. + +"The party of Canadians, favored by the nature of their floating +ice-bridges, were the first to come up to him. A desperate effort of his +cramped muscles had enabled Cranstoun to extend one of his legs, at the +moment when they were about to throw a noose round his neck, and this +was the first intimation the astonished peasantry had of their supposed +prize being a human being, instead of the fat bear they had expected. +Poor Cranstoun was of course liberated from his 'durance vile,' but so +chilled from long immersion, that he could not stand without assistance, +and it was not until one of their companions had approached with a +sleigh that he could be removed. He kept his bed three days, as much I +believe from vexation as illness, and has never worn his unlucky bear +skin since; neither has he forgiven Julia D'Egville the laugh she +enjoyed at his expense. Cranstoun," he concluded, "you may turn now, the +story is told." + +But Cranstoun, apparently heedless of the laugh that followed this--as +indeed it did every--narration of the anecdote, was not to be shaken +from his equanimity. He continued silent and unmoved, as if he had not +heard a word of the conclusion. + +"Poor Cranstoun," exclaimed the joyous De Courcy, in a strain of +provoking banter, "what an unfortunate leap that was of yours; and how +delighted you must have felt when you again stepped on terra firma." + +"I don't wonder at his leap being unfortunate," observed Middlemore, all +eyes fixed upon him in expectation of what was to follow, "for Julia +D'Egville can affirm that, while paying his court to her, he had not +chosen a _leap year_." + +While all were as usual abusing the far strained pun, a note was brought +in by the head waiter and handed to the punster. The officer read it +attentively, and then, with an air of seriousness which in him was +remarkable, tossed it across the table to Captain Molineux, who, since +the departure of Henry Grantham, had been sitting with his arms folded, +apparently buried in profound thought, and taking no part either in the +conversation or the laughter which accompanied it. A faint smile passed +over his features, as, after having read, he returned it, with an +assentient nod to Middlemore. Shortly afterwards, availing himself of +the opportunity afforded by the introduction of some fresh topic of +conversation, he quitted his seat, and whispering something in the ear +of Villiers, left the mess room. Soon after, the latter officer +disappeared from the table, and in a few moments his example was +followed by Middlemore. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + +The dinner party at Colonel D'Egville's was composed in a manner to +inspire an exclusive with irrepressible horror. At the suggestion of +General Brock, Tecumseh had been invited, and, with him, three other +celebrated Indian chiefs, whom we beg to introduce to our readers under +their familiar names--Split-log--Round-head--and Walk-in-the-water--all +of the formidable nation of the Hurons. In his capacity of +superintendent of Indian affairs, Colonel D'Egville had been much in the +habit of entertaining the superior chiefs, who, with a tact peculiar to +men of their sedate and serious character, if they displayed few of the +graces of European polish, at least gave no manifestation of an innate +vulgarity. As it may not be uninteresting to the reader to have a slight +sketch of the warriors, we will attempt the portraiture. + +The chief Split-log, who indeed should rather have been named Split-ear, +as we shall presently show, was afflicted with an aldermanic rotundity +of person, by no means common among his race, and was one, who from his +love of ease and naturally indolent disposition, seemed more fitted to +take his seat in the council than to lead his warriors to battle. Yet +was he not, in reality, the inactive character he appeared, and more +than once subsequently he was engaged in expeditions of a predatory +nature, carrying off the customary spoils. We cannot impart a better +idea of the head of the warrior than by stating, that we never recall +that of the gigantic Memnon, in the British Museum, without being +forcibly reminded of Split-log's. The Indian, however, was notorious for +a peculiarity which the Egyptian had not. So enormous a head, seeming to +require a corresponding portion of the several organs, nature had, in +her great bounty, provided him with a nose, which, if it equalled not +that of Smellfungus in length, might, in height and breadth, have +laughed it utterly to scorn. Neither was it a single, but a double +nose--two excrescences, equalling in bulk a moderate sized lemon, and of +the spongy nature of a mushroom, bulging out, and lending an expression +of owlish wisdom to his otherwise heavy features. As on that of the +Memnon, not a vestige of a hair was to be seen on the head of Split-log. +His lips were, moreover, of the same unsightly thickness, while the +elephantine ear had been slit in such a manner, that the pliant +cartilage, yielding to the weight of several ounces of lead which had +for years adorned it, now lay stretched, and coquetting with the brawny +shoulder on which it reposed. Such was the Huron, or Wyandot Chief, +whose cognomen of Split-log had, in all probability, been derived from +his facility in "suiting the action to the word;" for, in addition to +his gigantic nose, he possessed a fist, which in size and strength might +have disputed the palm with Maximilian himself; although his practice +had chiefly been confined to knocking down his drunken wives, instead of +oxen. + +The second Chief, Round-head, who, by the way, was the principal in +reputation after Tecumseh, we find the more difficulty in describing +from the fact of his having had few or none of those peculiarities which +we have, happily for our powers of description, been enabled to seize +hold of in Split-log. His name we believe to have been derived from that +indispensable portion of his frame. His eye was quick, even penetrating, +and his stern brow denoted intelligence and decision of character. His +straight, coal-black hair, cut square over the forehead, fell long and +thickly over his face and shoulders. This, surmounted by a round +slouched hat, ornamented with an eagle's feather, which he ordinarily +wore and had not even now dispensed with, added to a blue capote or +hunting frock, produced a _tout ensemble_, which cannot be more happily +rendered than by a comparison with one of his puritanical sly-eyed +namesakes of the English Revolution. + +Whether our third hero, Walk-in-the-water, derived his name from any +aquatic achievement which could possibly give a claim for its adoption, +we have no means of ascertaining; but certain it is, that in his +features he bore a striking resemblance to the portraits of Oliver +Cromwell. The same small, keen, searching eye, the same iron +inflexibility of feature, together with the long black hair escaping +from beneath the slouched hat, (for Walk-in-the-water, as well as +Round-head, was characterised by an unconscious imitation of the +Rounheads of the Revolution)--all contributed to render the resemblance +as perfect as perfection of resemblance can be obtained, where the +physical, and not the moral, man, forms the ground of contrast. + +Far above these in nobleness of person, as well as in brilliancy of +intellect, was the graceful Tecumseh. Unlike his companions, whose dress +was exceedingly plain, he wore his jerkin or hunting coat of the most +beautifully soft and pliant deer-skin, on which were visible a variety +of tasteful devices, exquisitely embroidered with the stained quills of +the porcupine. A shirt of dazzling whiteness was carefully drawn over +his expansive chest, and in his equally white shawl-turban was placed an +ostrich feather, the prized gift of the lady of the mansion. On all +occasions of festivity, and latterly in the field, he was wont thus to +decorate himself; and never did the noble warrior appear to greater +advantage than when habited in this costume. The contrast it offered to +his swarthy cheek and mobile features, animated as they were by the +frequent flashing of his eagle eye, seldom failed to excite admiration +in the bosoms of all who saw him. + +The half hour that elapsed between the arrival of the several guests and +the announcement of dinner, was passed under the influence of feelings +almost as various in kind as the party itself. Messieurs Split-rock, +Round-head, and Walk-in-the-water, fascinated by the eagles on the +buttons of Major Montgomerie's uniform, appeared to regard that officer +as if they saw no just cause or impediment why certain weapons dangling +at their sides should not be made to perform, and that without delay, an +incision into the cranium of their proprietor. True, there was a +difficulty. The veteran major was partially bald, and wanted the top +knot or scalping tuft, which to a true warrior was indispensable; not +that we mean to insinuate, that either of these chiefs would so far have +forgotten the position in which that gentleman stood, as to have been +tempted into any practical demonstration of hostility: but there was a +restlessness about the eye of each, that--much like the instinct of the +cat, which regards with natural avidity the bird that is suffered to go +at large within his reach, without daring openly to attack it--betrayed +the internal effort it cost them to lose sight of the enemy in the +prisoner and friend of the superintendent. The major, on the other hand, +although satisfied he was under the roof of hospitality, did not at +first appear altogether at his ease, but, while he conversed with the +English officers, turned ever and anon an eye of distrust on the +movements of his swarthy fellow guests. On the arrival of Tecumseh, who, +detained until a late hour by the arrangements he had been making for +the encampment and supplies of his new force, was the last to make his +appearance, the major's doubts passed entirely away. It was impossible +to be in the presence of this chieftain, and fail, even without any +other index to his soul than what the candor of his expression afforded, +to entertain all the security that man may repose on man. He had in him, +it is true, too much of the sincerity of nature, to make anything like a +friendly advance to one of a people on whom he charged all the +misfortunes of his race, and for whom he had avowed an inextinguishable +hostility of heart and purpose; but, unless when this might with strict +propriety be exercised, the spirit of his vengeance extended not; and +not only would he have scorned to harm a fallen foe, but his arm would +have been the first uplifted in his defence. + +Notwithstanding the glance of intelligence which Captain Granville had +remarked, and which we have previously stated to have been directed by +Miss Montgomerie to her captor a few hours before, there was nothing in +her manner during dinner to convey the semblance of a prepossession. +True, that in the tumultuous glow of gratified vanity and dawning love, +Gerald Grantham had executed a toilet, into which, with a view to the +improvement of the advantage he imagined himself to have gained, all the +justifiable coquetry of personal embellishment had been thrown; but +neither the handsome blue uniform with its glittering epaulette, nor the +beautiful hair on which more than usual pains had been bestowed, nor the +sparkling of his dark eye, nor the expression of a cheek, rendered +doubly animated by excitement, nor the interestingly displayed arm _en +echarpe_--none of these attractions, we repeat, seemed to claim even a +partial notice from her they were intended to captivate. Cold, +colorless, passionless, Miss Montgomerie met him with the calmness of an +absolute stranger; and when, with the recollection of the indescribable +look she had bestowed upon him glowing at his heart, Gerald again sought +in her eyes some trace of the expression that had stirred every vein +into transport, he found there indifference the most complete. How great +his mortification was, we will not venture to describe, but the arch and +occasional raillery of his lively cousin, Julia D'Egville, seemed to +denote most plainly that the conqueror and the conquered had exchanged +positions. + +Nor was this surprising; Miss Montgomerie's travelling habit had been +discarded for the more decorative ornaments of a dinner toilet, in +which, however, the most marked simplicity was observed. A plain white +muslin dress gave full development to a person which was of a perfection +that no dress could have disguised. It was the bust of a Venus, united +to a form, to create which would have taxed the imaginative powers of a +Praxiteles--a form so faultlessly moulded, that every movement presented +some new and unpremeditated grace. What added to the surpassing richness +of her beauty was her hair, which, black, glossy, and of eastern +luxuriance, and seemingly disdaining the girlishness of curls, reposed +in broad Grecian bands across a brow, the intellectual expression of +which they contributed to form. Yet never did woman exhibit in her +person and face more opposite extremes of beauty. If the one was +strikingly characteristic of warmth, the other was no less indicative of +coldness. Fair, even to paleness, were her cheek and forehead, which +wore an appearance of almost marble immobility, save when, in moments of +oft recurring abstraction, a slight but marked contraction of the brow +betrayed the existence of a feeling, indefinable indeed to the observer, +but certainly unallied to softness. Still she was beautiful--coldly, +classically, beautiful--eminently calculated to inspire passion, but +seemingly incapable of feeling it. + +The coldness of Miss Montgomerie's manner was no less remarkable. Her +whole demeanor was one of abstraction. It seemed as if heedless, not +only of ceremony, but of courtesy, her thoughts and feelings were far +from the board of whose hospitality she was partaking. Indeed, the very +few remarks she made during dinner referred to the period of departure +of the boat, in which she was to be conveyed to Detroit, and on this +subject she displayed an earnestness, which, even Grantham thought, +might have been suppressed in the presence of his uncle's family. +Perhaps he felt piqued at her readiness to leave him. + +Under these circumstances, the dinner was not, as might be expected, +particularly gay. There was an embarrassment among all, which even the +circulating wine did not wholly remove. Major Montgomerie was nearly as +silent as his niece. Mrs. D'Egville, although evincing all the kindness +of her really benevolent nature--a task in which she was assisted by her +amiable daughters--still felt that the reserve of her guest insensibly +produced a corresponding effect upon herself; while Colonel D'Egville, +gay, polished, and attentive, as he usually was, could not wholly +overcome an apprehension that the introduction of the Indian chiefs had +given offence to both uncle and niece. Still, it was impossible to have +acted otherwise. Independently of his strong personal attachment to +Tecumseh, considerations involving the safety of the province, +threatened as it was, strongly demanded that the leading chiefs should +be treated with the respect due to their station; and moreover, while +General Brock and Commodore Barclay were present, there could be no +ground for an impression that slight was intended. Both these officers +saw the difficulty under which their host labored, and sought by every +gentlemanly attention, to remove whatever unpleasantness might lurk in +the feelings of his American guests. + +The dessert brought with it but little addition to the animation of the +party, and it was a relief to all, when, after a toast proposed by the +general to the "Ladies of America," Mrs. D'Egville made the usual signal +for withdrawing. + +As soon as they had departed, followed a moment or two afterwards by +Tecumseh and Gerald Grantham, Messieurs Split-log, Round-head, and +Walk-in-the-water, deliberately taking their pipe-bowl tomahawks from +their belts, proceeded to fill them with kinni-kinnick, a mixture of +Virginia tobacco and odoriferous herbs, than which no perfume can be +more fragrant. Amid the clouds of smoke puffed from these at the lower +end of the table, where had been placed a supply of whiskey, their +favorite liquor--did Colonel D'Egville and his more civilized guests +quaff their claret; more gratified than annoyed by the savoury +atmosphere wreathing around them, while, taking advantage of the early +departure of the abstemious Tecumseh, they discussed the merits of that +chief, and the policy of employing the Indians as allies, as will be +seen in the following chapter. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + +"What a truly noble looking being!" observed Major Montgomerie, as he +followed with his eye the receding form of the athletic but graceful +Tecumseh. "Do you know, Colonel D'Egville, I could almost forgive your +nephew his success of this morning, in consideration of the pleasure he +has procured me in this meeting." + +Colonel D'Egville looked the gratification he felt at the avowal. "I am +delighted, Major Montgomerie, to hear you say so. My only fear was that, +in making those chieftains my guests at the same moment with yourself +and niece, I might have unconsciously appeared to slight, where slight +was certainly not intended. You must be aware, however, of the rank held +by them among their respective nations, and of their consequent claim +upon the attention of one to whom the Indian interests have been +delegated." + +"My dear sir," interrupted the Major, eager to disclaim, "I trust you +have not mistaken me so far, as to have imputed a reserve of speech and +manner during dinner, to which I cannot but plead guilty, to a +fastidiousness which, situated as I am, (and he bowed to the general and +commodore,) would have been wholly misplaced. My distraction, pardonable +perhaps under all the circumstances, was produced entirely by a +recurrence to certain inconveniences which I felt might arise to me from +my imprisonment. The captive bird," he pursued, while a smile for the +first time animated his very fine countenance, "will pine within its +cage, however gilded the wires which compose it. In every sense, my +experience of to-day only leads me to the expression of a hope, that all +whom the chances of war may throw into a similar position, may meet with +a similar reception." + +"Since," observed the General, "your private affairs are of the +importance you express, Major Montgomerie, you shall depart with your +niece. Perhaps I am rather exceeding my powers in this respect, but, +however this may be, I shall take the responsibility on myself. You will +hold yourself pledged, of course, to take no part against us in the +forthcoming struggle, until you have been regularly exchanged for +whatever officer of your own rank, may happen to fall into the hands of +your countrymen. I shall dispatch an express to the Commander in-Chief, +to intimate this fact, requesting at the same time, that your name may +be put down in the first list for exchange." + +Major Montgomerie warmly thanked the General for his kind offer, of +which he said he should be glad to avail himself, as he did not like the +idea of his niece proceeding without him to Detroit, where she was an +entire stranger. This, he admitted, determined as she had appeared to +be, was one of the unpleasant subjects of his reflection during dinner. + +With a view of turning the conversation, and anxious moreover, to obtain +every information on the subject, the general now inquired in what +estimation Tecumseh was generally held in the United States. + +"Among the more intelligent classes of our citizens, in the highest +possible," was the reply; "but by those who are not so capable of +judging, and who only see, in the indomitable courage and elevated +talents of the patriot hero, the stubborn inflexibility of the mere +savage, he is looked upon far less flatteringly. By all, however, is he +admitted to be formidable without parallel, in the history of Indian +warfare. His deeds are familiar to all, and his name is much such a +bugbear to American childhood, as Marlborough's was in France, and +Napoleon's is in England. It is a source of much regret to our +Government never to have been enabled to conciliate this extraordinary +man." + +"What more feasible," remarked the General, but with a tone and manner +that could not possibly give offence; "had not the difficulty been of +its own creation? Treaty after treaty, you must admit, major, had been +made and violated under various pretexts, while the real motive--the +aggrandizement of territories already embracing a vast portion of their +early possessions--was carefully sought to be concealed from these +unfortunate people. How was it to be expected then that a man, whom the +necessities of his country had raised up to itself in the twofold +character of statesman and warrior--one gifted with a power of analyzing +motives which has never been surpassed in savage life--how, I ask, was +it to be expected that he, with all these injuries of aggression +staring him in the face, should have been won over by a show of +conciliation, which long experience, independently of his matured +judgment, must have assured him was only held forth to hoodwink, until +fitting opportunity should be found for again throwing off the mask." + +"To the charge of violating treaties," returned Major Montgomerie, who +took the opposite argument in perfectly good part, "I fear, general, our +Government must to a certain extent plead guilty--much, however, remains +to be said in excuse. In the first place, it must be borne in mind that +the territory of the United States, unlike the kingdom of Europe, has no +fixed or settled boundary whereby to determine its own relative bearing. +True it is, that we have the Canadas on one portion of our frontier, but +this being a fixed line of demarcation, there can exist no question as +to a mutual knowledge of the territorial claims of both countries. +Unlike that of the old world, however our population is rapidly +progressing, and where are we to find an outlet for the surplus of that +population unless, unwilling as we are to come into collision with our +more civilized neighbors, we can push them forward into the interior. In +almost all the contracts entered into by our Government with the +Indians, large sums have been given for the lands ceded by the latter. +This was at once, of course, a tacit and mutual revocation of any +antecedent arrangements, and if instances have occurred wherein the +sacredness of treaty has been violated, it has only been where the +Indians have refused to part with their lands for the proffered +consideration, and when those lands have been absolutely indispensable +to our agricultural purposes. Then indeed has it been found necessary to +resort to force. That this principle of "might being the right," may be +condemned _in limine_ it is true, but how otherwise, with a +superabundant population, can we possibly act?" + +"A superabundance of territory, I grant you, but surely not of +population," remarked the commodore; "were the citizens of the United +States condensed into the space allotted to Europeans, you might safely +dispense with half the Union at this moment." + +"And what advantages should we then derive from the possession of nearly +a whole continent to ourselves?" + +"Every advantage that may be reaped consistently with common justice. +What would be thought in Europe, if, for instance to illustrate a point, +and assuming these two countries to be in a state of profound peace, +Spain, on the principle of might, should push her surplus population +into Portugal, compelling the latter kingdom to retire back on herself, +and crowd her own subjects into the few provinces that might yet be left +to them." + +"I cannot admit the justice of your remark, commodore," returned Major +Montgomerie, gradually warming into animation; "Both are civilized +powers, holding the same rank and filling nearly the same scale among +the nations of Europe. Moreover, there does not exist the same +difference in the natural man. The uneducated negro is, from infancy and +long custom, doomed to slavery, wherefore should the copper colored +Indian be more free? But my argument points not at their subjection. I +would merely show that, incapable of benefitting by the advantages of +the soil they inherit, they should learn to yield it with a good grace +to those who can. Their wants are few, and interminable woods yet remain +to them, in which their hunting pursuits may be indulged without a fear +of interruption." + +"That it will be long," observed the General, "before, in so vast a +continent, they will be without a final resting place, I readily admit; +but the hardship consists in this--that they are driven from particular +positions to which their early associations lend a preference. What was +it that stirred into a flame, the fierce hostility of Tecumseh but the +determination evinced by your Government to wrest, from the hands of his +tribe, their last remaining favorite haunts on the Wabash?" + +"This cannot be denied, but it was utterly impossible we could forego +the possession of countries bordering so immediately on our settlements. +Had we pushed our colonization further, leaving the tribes of the Wabash +in intermediate occupation, we ran the risk of having our settlers cut +off in detail, at the slightest assumed provocation. Nay, pretexts would +have been sought for the purpose, and the result of this would have been +the very war into which we were unavoidably led. The only difference +was, that, instead of taking up arms to avenge our slaughtered kinsmen, +we anticipated the period that must sooner or later have arrived, by +ridding ourselves of the presence of those from whose hostility we had +everything to apprehend." + +"The expediency of these measures," said the General, "no one, Major, +can of course doubt; the only question at issue is their justice, and in +making this remark it must be obvious there is no particular allusion to +the United States, further than that country serves to illustrate a +general principle. I am merely arguing against the right of a strong +power to wrest from a weaker what may be essential to its own interest, +without reference to the comfort, or wishes, or convenience of the +latter." + +"In such light assuredly do I take it," observed Major Montgomerie, +bowing his sense of the disclaimer. "But to prove to you, general, that +we are only following in the course pursued by every other people of the +world, let us, without going back to the days of barbarism, when the +several kingdoms of Europe were overrun by the strongest, and when your +own country in particular became in turn the prey of Saxons, Danes, +Normans, &c., merely glance our eyes upon those provinces which have +been subjugated by more civilized Europe. Look at South America, for +instance, and then say what we have done that has not been far exceeded +by the Spaniards, in that portion of the hemisphere--and yet, with this +vast difference in the balance, that there the European drove before him +and mercilessly destroyed an unoffending race, while we, on the +contrary, have had fierce hostility and treachery everywhere opposed to +our progress. The Spaniards, moreover, offered no equivalent for the +country subdued; now we have ever done so, and only where that +equivalent has been rejected, have we found ourselves compelled to +resort to force. Look again at the islands of the West Indies, the chief +of which are conquests by England. Where are the people to whom +Providence had originally assigned those countries, until the European, +in his thirst for aggrandizement, on that very principle of might which +you condemn, tore them violently away. Gone, extirpated, until scarce a +vestige of their existence remains, even as it must be, in the course of +time, with the Indians of these wilds--perhaps not in this century or +the next, but soon or late assuredly. These two people--the South +Americans and Caribs--I particularly instance, for the very reason that +they offer the most striking parallel with the immediate subject under +discussion. But shall I go further than this, gentlemen, and maintain +that we, the United States, are only following in the course originally +pointed out to us by England." + +"I should be glad to hear your argument," said the Commodore, drawing +his chair closer to the table. + +"And I," added the General, "consider the position too novel not to feel +interested in the manner in which it will be maintained." + +"I will not exactly say," observed Colonel D'Egville, smiling one of his +blandest smiles, and few men understood the winning art better than +himself, "that Major Montgomerie has the happy talent of making the +worse appear the better cause; but certainly, I never remember to have +heard that cause more ably advocated." + +"More subtly perhaps you would say, Colonel; but seriously, I speak from +conviction alone. It is true, as a citizen of the United States, and +therefore one interested in the fair fame of its public acts, that +conviction may partake in some degree of partial influences; still it is +sincere. But to my argument. What I would maintain is, as I have before +stated, that in all we have done we have only followed the example of +England. For instance, when the colonisation of the Eastern and Southern +states of the Union took place, that is to say, when our common +ancestors first settled in this country, how was their object effected? +Why, by driving from their possessions near the sea, in order to make +room for themselves, those very nations whom we are accused of a desire +to exterminate, as if out of a mere spirit of wantonness. Did either +English or Dutch then hesitate as to what course _they_ should pursue, +or suffer any qualms of conscience to interfere with their colonial +plans? No; as a measure of policy--as a means of security--they sought +to conciliate the Indians, but not the less determined were they to +attain their end. Who, then, among Englishmen, would have thought of +blaming their fellow countrymen, when the object in view was the +aggrandizement of the national power, and the furtherance of individual +interests? While the colonists continued tributary to England they could +do no wrong--they incurred no censure. Each succeeding year saw them, +with a spirit that was _then_ deemed worthy of commendation, pushing +their advantages and extending their possessions, to the utter exclusion +and at the expense of the original possessors of the soil. For this they +incurred no blame. But mark the change: no sooner had the war of the +revolution terminated in our emancipation from the leading strings of +childhood--no sooner had we taken rank among the acknowledged nations of +the world--no sooner had we, in a word, started into existence as an +original people--than the course we had undeviatingly pursued in +infancy, and from which we did not dream of swerving in manhood, became +a subject for unqualified censure. What had been considered laudable +enterprise in the English colonist, became unpardonable ambition in the +American republican; and acts affecting the national prosperity, that +carried with them the approbation of society and good government during +our nonage, were stigmatized as odious and grasping the moment we had +attained our majority." + +"Most ably and eloquently argued, Major," interrupted the general, "and +I fear with rather more truth than we Englishmen are quite willing to +acknowledge: still it must be admitted, that what in the first instance +was a necessity, partook no longer of that character at a later period. +In order to colonize the country originally, it was necessary to select +such portions as were, by their proximity to the sea, indispensable to +the perfection of the plan. If the English colonists drove the Indians +into the interior, it was only for a period. They had still vast tracts +to traverse, which have since, figuratively speaking, been reduced to a +mere span: and their very sense of the difference of the motive--that is +to say, of the difference between him who merely seeks whereon to erect +his dwelling, and him who is anxious to usurp to himself the possession +of an almost illimitable territory--cannot be better expressed than by +the different degrees of enmity manifested against the two several +people. When did the fierceness of Indian hatred blaze forth against the +English colonists, who were limited in their views, as it has since +against the subjects of the United States, who, since the Revolution, +have more than tripled their territorial acquisitions?" + +"Nay, general," replied the American, his lip partially curling with a +smile, indicating consciousness of triumphant argument; "I shall defeat +you on your own ground, and that by going back to a period anterior to +the revolution--to the very period you describe as being characterised +by less intense hostility to your own government." + +"What, for instance, have we seen in modern times, to equal the famous +Indian league, which, under the direction of the celebrated Pontiac, a +chieftain only surpassed by Tecumseh, consigned so many of the European +posts to destruction, along this very line of district, about the middle +of the last century. It has been held up as a reproach to us, that we +have principally subjected ourselves to the rancorous enmity of the +Indians, in consequence of having wrested from them their favorite and +beautiful hunting grounds, (Kentucky in particular,) to which their +early associations had linked them. But to this I answer, that in +Pontiac's time this country was still their own, as well as Ohio, +Louisiana, Indiana, &c., and yet the war of fierce extermination was not +the less waged towards the English; not because these latter had +appropriated their principal haunts, but because they had driven them +from their original possessions near the sea. The hatred of the Indians +has ever been the same towards those who first secured a footing on +their continent, and, although we are a distinct people in the eyes of +the civilized world, still we are the same in those of the natives, who +see in us, not the emancipated American, but merely the descendant of +the original colonist. That their hostility has progressed in proportion +with our extension of territory, I cannot altogether admit, for although +our infant settlements have in a great degree suffered from occasional +irruptions of the savages, when men, women and children, have alike been +devoted to the murderous tomahawk, in no way have our fortresses been +systematically assailed, as during the time of Pontiac." + +"For this," interrupted the general, "there are two obvious reasons. In +the first instance, your fortresses are less isolated than ours were at +that period, and secondly, no such intelligent being as the chieftain +you have named, had started up among the Indian nations until now. What +Tecumseh may not effect in course of time, should he not perish in the +struggle for his country's liberty, ought to be a matter of serious +consideration with your Government." + +"Of his great talents and dauntless determination they are fully aware," +replied the major; "but as I have already said, nothing short, not +merely of giving up all claim to future advantages, but of restoring the +country wrested from him on the Wabash, can ever win him from his +hostility; and this is a sacrifice the Government will never consent to +make." + +At this point of the argument, Messieurs Split-log, Round-head, and +Walk-in-the-water, having finished their kinni-kinnick, and imbibed a +due quantum of whiskey; possibly, moreover, not much entertained by the +conversation that was carried on in a language neither of them +understood but imperfectly, rose to take their leave. They successively +shook hands with the British leaders, then advancing towards Major +Montgomerie, with a guttural "Ugh," so accentuated as to express good +will and satisfaction, tendered their dark palms to that officer also, +muttering as they did something about "good Chemocomon." They then with +becoming dignity withdrew, followed by Colonel D'Egville, who had risen +to conduct them to the door. + +The conversation, thus temporarily interrupted, was resumed on that +officer's return. + +"Admitting the truth of your position, Major Montgomerie," remarked the +Commodore, "that the Government of the United States is justified, both +by expediency and example, in the course it has pursued, it will not at +least be denied, that Tecumseh is, on the very same principle, borne out +in the hatred and spirit of hostility evinced by him towards the +oppressors of his country." + +"Granted," returned the Major, "but this point has no reference to my +argument, which tends to maintain, that in all we have done, we have +been justified by necessity and example." + +"The fact is, however, that this position of things is one unavoidably +growing out of the clashing of adverse interests--the Indians being +anxious to check, we to extend, our dominion and power as a people; and +the causes existing now were in being nearly a century ago, and will, in +all probability continue, until all vestige of Indian existence shall +have passed utterly away. When the French were in the occupancy of the +Canadas, having nothing to gain from them, they cultivated the alliance +and friendship of the several nations, and by fostering their fierce +hostility against the English colonists, rendered them subservient to +their views. To-day the English stand precisely where the French did. +Having little to expect from the Indians but assistance in a case of +need, they behold, and have for years beheld, with anything but +indifference, the struggle continued by the United States which was +commenced by themselves. I hope I shall not be understood as expressing +my own opinion, when I add, that in the United States, the same covert +influence is attributed to the commanders of the British fortresses that +was imputed to the French. Indeed it is a general belief, among the +lower classes particularly, that, in all the wars undertaken against the +American out-posts and settlements, the Indians have been instigated to +the outrage by liberal distributions of money and presents from the +British Government." + +"It will hardly be necessary to deny the justice of such an imputation +to Major Montgomerie," remarked the General, with a smile, "especially +after having disavowed the opinion as his own. The charge is too absurd +for serious contradiction--yet we are not altogether ignorant that such +an impression has gone abroad." + +"Few of the more enlightened of our citizens give into the belief," said +the Major; "still it will give me especial pleasure to have it in my +power to contradict the assertion from the lips of General Brock +himself." + +"That we have entered into a treaty of alliance with the Indians," +observed Colonel D'Egville, "is most certainly true; but it is an +alliance wholly defensive. I must further observe, that in whatever +light the policy of the Government of the United States in its relations +with the Indians, may be privately viewed, we are, under all +circumstances, the last people in the world who should condemn it as +injurious to our public interests, since it has been productive of +results affecting the very existence of these provinces. Had the +American Government studied conciliation rather than extension of +territory, it is difficult to say to what side the great body of the +Indians would, in the impending struggle, have leaned. The possibility +of some such event as the present had not only been foreseen, but +anticipated. It has long been obvious to us that the spirit of +acquisition manifested by the United States, would not confine itself to +its customary channels; but on the contrary, that, not contented with +the appropriation of the hunting grounds of the Indians, it would +finally extend its views to Canada. Such a crisis has long been provided +against. Presents, to a large amount, have certainly been distributed +among the Indians, and not only this, but every courtesy, consistent at +once with our dignity and our interest, has been shown to them. You have +seen, for instance," continued he with a smile, "my three friends who +have just left the room; they are not exactly the happiest specimens of +Indian grace, but they have great weight in the council, and are the +leading men in the alliance to which you alluded, although not wholly +for the same purpose. In the wars of Pontiac--and these are still fresh +in the recollection of certain members of my own family--the English +commanders, with one or two exceptions, brought those disasters upon +themselves. Forgetting that the Indians were a proud people, whom to +neglect was to stir into hatred, they treated them with indifference, if +not with contempt; and dearly did they pay the penalty of their fault. +As we all know, they, with only one exception, were destroyed. In their +fall expired the hostility they themselves had provoked, and time had +wholly obliterated the sense of injustice from the minds of the several +nations. Were we then, with these fearful examples yet fresh in our +recollection, to fall into a similar error? No: a course of conciliation +was adopted, and has been pursued for years; and now do we reap the +fruit of what, after all, is but an act of justifiable policy. In my +capacity of Superintendent of Indian affairs, Major Montgomerie, even +more than as a Canadian brought up among them, I have had opportunities +of studying the characters of the heads of the several nations. The most +bitter enmity animates the bosoms of all against the Government and +people of the United States, from whom, according to their own showing, +they have to record injury upon injury; whereas from us they have +received but benefits. I repeat, this is at once politic and just. What +could Canada have hoped to accomplish in the approaching struggle, had +the conduct of the American Government been such as to have neutralized +the interest we had excited in and for ourselves? She must have +succumbed; and my firm impression is, that at whatever epoch of her +existence, the United States may extend the hand of conquest over these +colonies, with the Indian tribes that are now leagued with us crowding +to her own standard, not all the armies that England may choose to send +to their defence will be able to prevent it." + +"Filling the situation you now occupy, Colonel, there can be no doubt +you are in every way enabled to arrive at a full knowledge of Indian +feelings and Indian interests; and we have but too much reason to fear, +that the strong hatred to the United States you describe as existing on +the part of their several leaders, has had a tendency to unite them more +cordially to the British cause. But your course of observation suggests +another question. Why is it that, with the knowledge possessed by the +British Government of the cruel nature of Indian warfare, it can consent +to enlist them as allies? To prevent their taking up arms against the +Canadas may be well, but in my opinion, (and it is one generally +entertained through the United States,) the influence of the British +authorities should have been confined to neutralizing their services." + +"Nay, Major Montgomerie," observed the General, "it would indeed be +exacting too much to require that we should offer ourselves unresisting +victims to your Government; and what but self-immolation would it be to +abstain from the only means by which we can hope to save these +threatened Provinces? Colonel D'Egville has just said that, with the +Indians opposed to us, Canada would fall. I go farther, and aver that, +without the aid of the Indians, circumstanced as England now is, Canada +must be lost to us. It is a painful alternative, I admit, for that a +war, which is not carried on with the conventional courtesies of +civilized belligerent nations, is little suited to our taste, you will +do us the justice to believe; but by whom have we been forced into the +dilemma? Had we been guilty of rousing the Indian spirit against you, +with a view to selfish advantage; or had we in any way connived at the +destruction of your settlements, from either dread or jealousy of your +too close proximity, then should we have deserved all the odium of such +conduct. But this we unequivocally deny. + +"I would ask you, on the other hand, if you are aware of the great +exertions made by your Government, to induce them to take an active part +in this very war. If not, I can acquaint you that several of the chiefs, +now here, have been strongly urged to declare against us; and, not very +long since, an important council was held among the several tribes, +wherein some few, who had been won over by large bribes, discussed the +propriety of deserting the British cause, in consideration of advantages +which were promised them by the United States. These of course were +overruled by the majority, who expressed the utmost indignation at the +proposal; but the attempt to secure their active services was not the +less made. We certainly have every reason to congratulate ourselves on +its failure." + +"This certainly partakes of the _argumentum ad hominem_," said the +Major, good humoredly; "I do confess, I am aware that, since the idea of +war against England was first entertained, great efforts have been made +to attach the Indians to our interests; and in all probability, had any +other man than Tecumseh presided over their destinies, our Government +would have been successful. I however, for one, am no advocate for their +employment on either side; for it must be admitted they are a terrible +and a cruel enemy, sparing neither age nor sex." + +"Again, Major," returned the General, "do we shield ourselves under our +former plea--that, as an assailed party, we have a right to avail +ourselves of whatever means of defence are within our reach. One of two +things--either we must retain the Indians, who are bound to us in one +common interest, or we must, by discarding them, quietly surrender the +Canadas to your armies. Few will be Quixotic enough to hesitate as to +which of the alternatives we should adopt." + +"And if we should be accused of neglecting the means of preventing +unnecessary cruelty," observed Colonel D'Egville, "the people of the +United States will do us infinite wrong. This very circumstance has been +foreseen and provided against. Without the power to prevent the Indians +from entering upon these expeditions, we have at least done all that +experience and a thorough knowledge of their character admits, to +restrain their vengeance, by the promise of head money. It has been made +generally known to them that every prisoner that is brought in and +delivered up shall entitle the captor to a certain sum. This promise, I +have no doubt, will have the effect, not only of saving the lives of +those who are attacked in their settlements, but also of checking any +disposition to unnecessary outrage in the hour of conflict." + +"The idea is one certainly reflecting credit on the humanity of the +British authorities," returned Major Montgomerie; "but I confess I doubt +its efficacy. We all know the nature of an Indian too well to hope that +in the career of his vengeance, or the full flush of victory, he will +waive his war trophy in consideration of a few dollars. The scalp he may +bring, but seldom a living head with it." + +"It is, I fear, the horrid estimation in which the scalp is held, that +too frequently whets the blades of these people," observed the +Commodore. "Were it not considered a trophy, more lives would be spared; +but an Indian, from all I can understand, takes greater pride in +exhibiting the scalp of a slain enemy, than a knight of ancient times +did in displaying in his helmet the glove that had been bestowed on him +as a mark of favor by his lady-love." + +"After all," said the General, "necessary as it is to discourage it by +every possible mark of disapprobation, I do not see, in the mere act of +scalping, half the horrors usually attached to the practice. The motive +must be considered. It is not the mere desire to inflict wanton torture +that influences the warrior but an anxiety to possess himself of that +which gives undisputed evidence of his courage and success in war. The +prejudice of Europeans is strong against the custom, however, and we +look upon it in a light very different, I am sure from that in which it +is viewed by the Indians themselves. The burnings of prisoners, which +were practised many years ago, no longer continue; and the infliction of +the torture has passed away, so that, after all, Indian cruelty does not +exceed that which is practised even at this day in Europe, and by a +nation bearing high rank among the Catholic powers of Europe. I have +numerous letters, recently received from officers of my acquaintance now +serving in Spain, all of which agree in stating that the mutilations +perpetrated by the Guerilla bands, on the bodies of such of the +unfortunate French detachments as they succeeded in overpowering, far +exceeded anything imputed to the Indians of America; and, as several of +these letters are from individuals who joined the Peninsular Army from +this country, in which they had passed many years, the statement may be +relied on as coming from men who have had more than hearsay knowledge of +both parties." + +Here a tall, fine-looking black, wearing the livery of Colonel +D'Egville, entering to announce that coffee was waiting for them in an +adjoining room--the party rose and retired to the ladies. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + +Many of our readers will doubtless bear in mind the spot called +Elliott's Point, at the western extremity of Lake Erie, to which we have +already introduced them. At a considerable distance beyond that again +(its intermediate shores washed by the silver waves of the Erie) +stretches a second, called also, from the name of its proprietor, +Hartley's Point. Between these two necks are three or four farms; one of +which, and adjoining Hartley's, was, at the period of which we treat, +occupied by an individual of whom, unfortunately for the interests of +Canada, too many of the species had been suffered to take root within +her soil. + +This person had his residence near Hartley's Point. Unlike those however +whose dwellings rose at a distance, few and far between, hemmed in by +the fruits of prosperous agriculture, he appeared to have paid but +little attention to the cultivation of a soil, which in every part was +of exceeding fertility. A rude log hut, situated in a clearing of the +forest, the imperfect work of lazy labor, was his only habitation, and +here he had for years resided without its being known how he contrived +to procure the necessary means of subsistence; yet, in defiance of the +apparent absence of all resources, it was subject of general remark, +that he not only never wanted money, but had been enabled to bestow +something like an education on a son, who had, at the epoch opened by +our narrative, been absent from him upwards of five years. From his +frequent voyages, and the direction his canoe was seen to take, it was +inferred by his immediate neighbors, that he dealt in contraband, +procuring various articles on the American coast, which he subsequently +disposed of in the small town of Amherstburg (one of the principal +English posts) among certain subjects domiciliated there, who were +suspected of no very scrupulous desire to benefit the revenue of the +country. So well and so wisely however, did he cover his operations, +that he had always contrived to elude detection--and, although suspicion +attached to his conduct, in no instance had he openly committed himself. +The man himself, tall, stout, and of a forbidding look, was of a +fearless and resolute character, and if he resorted to cunning, it was +because cunning alone could serve his purposes in a country, the laws of +which were not openly to be defied. + +For a series of years after his arrival, he had contrived to evade +taking the customary oaths of allegiance; but this, eventually awakening +the suspicions of the magistracy, brought him more immediately under +their surveillance, when year after year, he was compelled to a renewal +of the oath, for the imposition of which, it was thought, he owed more +than one of those magistrates a grudge. On the breaking out of the war, +he still remained in undisturbed possession of his rude dwelling, +watched as well as circumstances would permit, it is true, but not so +narrowly as to be traced in his various nocturnal excursions by water. +Nothing could be conceived more uncouth in manner and appearance than +this man--nothing more villanous than the expression of his eye. No one +knew from what particular point of the United States he had come, and +whether Yankee or Kentuckian, it would have puzzled one of that race of +beings, so proverbial fer acumen--a Philadelphia lawyer--to have +determined. + +The day following that of the capture of the American detachment was +just beginning to dawn, as two individuals appeared on the skirt of the +rude clearing in which the hut of the man we have just described, had +been erected. The persons of both these, wrapped in blue military +cloaks, reposed upon the dark foliage in a manner to enable them to +observe, without being themselves seen, all that passed within the +clearing, from the log hut to the sand of the lake shore. There had been +an indication by one of these of a design to step forth from his +concealment into the clearing, and advance boldly towards the house; but +this had been checked by his companion, who, laying his hand upon his +shoulder, arrested the movement, pointing out at the same time, the +leisurely but cautious advance of two men from the hut towards the +shore, on which lay a canoe half drawn up on the sands. Each, on issuing +from the hut, had deposited a rifle against the rude exterior of the +dwelling, the better to enable them to convey a light mast, sail, +paddles, several blankets and a common corn-bag, apparently containing +provisions, with which they proceeded towards the canoe. + +"So," said the taller of the first party, in a whisper, "there is that +d----d rascal Desborough setting out on one of his contraband +excursions. He seems to have a long absence in view, if we may judge +from the contents of his provision sack." + +"Hist," rejoined his companion, "there is more here than meets the eye. +In the first instance, remove the pistols from the case, and be prepared +to afford me assistance, should I require it." + +"What the devil are you going to do?" asked the first speaker, following +however the hint that had been given him, and removing a pair of +duelling pistols from their mahogany case. + +While he was in the act of doing this, his companion had, without +replying, quitted his side, and cautiously and noiselessly advanced to +the hut. In the course of a few minutes he again appeared at the point +whence he had started, grasping in either hand the rifles so recently +deposited there. + +"Well, what is the meaning of this feat? you do not intend, Yankee +fashion, to exchange a long shot with poor Molineux, I hope--if so, my +dear fellow, I cry off, for upon my honor, I cannot engage in anything +that is not strictly orthodox." + +He, thus addressed, could scarcely restrain a laugh at the serious tone +in which his companion expressed himself, as if he verily believed he +had that object in view. + +"Would you not like," he asked, "to be in some degree instrumental in +banishing wholly from the country a man whom we all suspect of treason, +but are compelled to tolerate from inability to prove his guilt--this +same notorious Desborough?" + +"Now that you no longer speak and act in parables, I can understand you. +Of course I should, but what proof of his treason are we to discover in +the mere fact of his departing on what he may choose to call a hunting +excursion? even admitting he is speculating in the contraband, _that_ +cannot banish him; and if it could, we would never descend to become +informers." + +"Nothing of the kind is required of us--his treason will soon unfold +itself, and that in a manner to demand, as an imperative duty, that we +secure the traitor. For this have I removed the rifles which may, in a +moment of desperation, be turned at backwoodsman's odds against our +pistols. Let us steal gently towards the beach, and then you shall +satisfy yourself; but I had nearly forgotten--suppose the other party +should arrive?" + +"Then they must in their turn wait for us. They have already exceeded +their time ten minutes." + +"Look," exclaimed his companion, as he slightly grasped the shoulder on +which his hand had rested, "he is returning for the rifles." + +Only one of the two men now retrod his steps from the beach towards the +hut, but with a more hurried action than before. As he passed where the +friends still lingered, he gave a start of surprise, apparently produced +by the absence of the rifles. A moment's reflection seeming to satisfy +him it was possible his memory had failed him, and that they had been +left within the building, he hurried forward to assure himself. After a +few moments of apparently ineffectual search, he again made his +appearance, making the circuit of the hut to discover his lost weapons, +but in vain; when in the fierceness of his anger, he cried aloud, with a +bitterness that gave earnest of sincerity. + +"By ----. I wish I had the curst British rascal who played me this +trick, on t'other shore--if I wouldn't tuck my knife into his b----y +gizzard, then is my name not Jeremiah Desborough. What the h--ll's to be +done now?" + +Taking advantage of his entrance into the hut, the two individuals, +first described, had stolen cautiously under cover of the forest, until +they arrived at its termination, within about twenty yards of the shore, +where however there was no outward or visible sign of the individual who +had been Desborough's companion. In the bows of the canoe were piled the +blankets, and in the centre was deposited the provision bag that had +formed a portion of their mutual load. The mast had not been hoisted, +but lay extended along the hull, its sail loosened and partially +covering the before-mentioned article of freightage. The bow half of the +canoe pressed the beach, the other lay sunk in the water, apparently in +the manner in which it had first approached the land. + +Still uttering curses, but in a more subdued tone, against "the feller +who had stolen his small bores," the angry Desborough retraced his steps +to the canoe. More than once he looked back to see if he could discover +any traces of the purloiner, until at length his countenance seemed to +assume an expression of deeper cause for concern, than even the loss of +his weapons. + +"Ha, I expect some d----d spy has been on the look out--if so, I must +cut and run I calculate purty soon." + +This apprehension was expressed as he arrived opposite the point where +the forest terminated. A slight rustling among the underwood reduced +that apprehension to certainty. He grasped the handle of his huge knife +that was thrust into the girdle around his loins, and riveting his gaze +on the point whence the sound had proceeded, retreated in that attitude. +Another and more distinct crush of underwood, and he stood still with +surprise, on finding himself face to face, with two officers of the +garrison. + +"We have alarmed you, Desborough," said the younger, as they both +advanced leisurely to the beach. "Do you apprehend danger from our +presence?" + +A keen searching glance flashed from the ferocious eye of the ruffian. +It was but momentary. Quitting his firm grasp of the knife, he suffered +his limbs to relax their tension, and aiming at carelessness, observed +with a smile, that was tenfold more hideous from its being forced: + +"Well now, I guess, who would have expected to see two officers so fur +away from the fort at this early hour of the mornin'?" + +"Ah," said the taller of the two, availing himself of the first opening +to a pun which had been afforded, "we are merely out on a _shooting_ +excursion." + +Desborough gazed doubtingly on the speaker. "Strange sort of a dress +that for shootin' I guess--them cloaks must be a great tanglement in the +bushes." + +"They serve to keep our _arms_ warm," continued Middlemore, perpetrating +another of his execrables. + +"To keep your arms warm! well sure-_ly_, if that arn't droll. It may be +some use to keep the primins dry, I reckon; but I can't see the use of +keepin' the fowlin' pieces warm. Have you met with any game yet, +officers? I expect as how I can point you out a purty spry place for +pattridges and sich like." + +"Thank you, my good fellow; but we have appointed to meet our _game_ +here." + +The dry manner in which this was observed had a visible effect on the +settler. He glanced an eye of suspicion around, to see if other than the +two officers were in view, and it was not without effort that he assumed +an air of unconcern, as he replied: + +"Well, I expect I have been many a long year a hunter, as well as other +things, and yet, dang me if I ever calculated the game would come to me. +It always costs me a purty good chase in the woods." + +"How the fellow _beats_ about the _bush_ to find what _game_ we are +driving at," observed Middlemore, in an under tone, to his companion. + +"Let him alone for that," returned he whom our readers have doubtless +recognised for Henry Grantham. "I will match his punning against your +cunning any day." + +"The truth is, he is _fishing_ to discover our motive for being here, +and to find out if we are in any way connected with the disappearance of +his rifles." + +During this conversation _apart_, the Yankee had carelessly approached +his canoe, and was affecting to make some alteration in the disposition +of the sail. The officers, the younger especially, keeping a sharp +look-out upon his movements, followed at some little distance, until +they, at length, stood on the extreme verge of the sands. Their near +approach seemed to render Desborough impatient. + +"I expect, officers," he said, with a hastiness that, at any other +moment, would have called down immediate reproof, if not chastisement, +"you will only be losin' time here for nothin'; about a mile beyond +Hartley's there'll be plenty of pattridges at this hour, and I am jist +goin to start myself for a little shootin' in the Sandusky river." + +"Than I presume," said Grantham, with a smile, "you are well provided +with silver bullets, Desborough; for, in the hurry of departure, you +seem likely to forget the only medium through which leaden ones can be +made available--not a rifle or a shot-gun do I see." + +The man fixed his eyes for a moment, with a penetrating expression, on +the youth, as if he would have sought a meaning deeper than the words +implied. His reading seemed to satisfy him that all was right. + +"What," he observed, with a leer, half cunning, half insolent, "if I +have hid my rifle near the Sandusky swamp, the last time I hunted +there?" + +"In that case," observed the laughing Middlemore, to whom the +opportunity was irresistible, "you are going out on a _wild goose chase_ +indeed. Your prospects for a good hunt, as you call it, cannot be said +to _be sure as a gun_; for in regard to the latter, you may depend some +one has discovered and _rifled_ it before this." + +"You seem to have laid in a store of provisions for this trip, +Desborough," remarked Henry Grantham; "how long do you purpose being +absent?" + +"I guess three or four days," was the sullen reply. + +"Three or four days! why your bag contains"--and the officer partly +raised a corner of the sail, "provisions for a week, or, at least, for +_two_ for half that period." + +The manner in which the _two_ was emphasised did not escape the +attention of the settler. He was visibly disconcerted, nor was he at all +reassured when the younger officer proceeded: + +"By the bye, Desborough, we saw you leave the hut with a companion--what +has become of him?" + +The settler, who had now recovered his self-possession, met the question +without the slightest show of hesitation: + +"I expect you mean, young man," he said, with insufferable insolence, "a +help as I had from Hartley's farm, to assist gittin' down the things. He +took home along shore when I went back to the hut for the small bores." + +"Oh ho, sir! the rifles are not then concealed near the Sandusky swamp, +I find?" + +For once the wily settler felt his cunning had overreached itself. In +the first fury of his subdued rage, he muttered something amounting to a +desire that he could produce them at that moment, as he would well know +where to lodge the bullets--but, recovering himself, he said aloud: + +"The rale fact is, I've a long gun hid, as I said, near the swamp, but +my small bore I always carry with me--only think, jist as I and +Hartley's help left the hut, I pit my rifle against the outside wall, +not being able to carry it down with the other things, and when I went +back a minute or two after, drot me if some tarnation rascal hadn't +stole it." + +"And if you had the British rascal on t'other shore, you wouldn't be +long in tucking a knife into his gizzard, would you?" asked Middlemore, +in a nearly verbatim repetition of the horrid oath originally uttered by +Desborough. "I see nothing to warrant our interfering with him," he +continued in an under tone to his companion. + +Not a little surprised to hear his words repeated, the man lost somewhat +of his confidence as he replied, "Well now, sure-_ly_, you officers +didn't think nothin' o' that--I expect I was in a mighty rage to find my +small bore gone, and I did curse a little heart_y_, to be sure." + +"The small bore multiplied in your absence," observed Grantham; "when I +looked at the hut there were two." + +"Then may be you can tell me who was the particular d----d rascal that +stole them," said the settler eagerly. + +Middlemore laughed heartily at his companion who observed: + +"The particular d----d rascal who removed, not stole them thence, stands +before you." + +Again the settler looked disconcerted. After a moment's hesitation he +continued, with a forced grin that gave an atrocious expression to his +whole countenance: + +"Well now, you officers are playing a purty considerable spry +trick--it's a good lark, I calculate--but you know, as the saying is, +enough's as good as a feast. Do tell me, Mr. Grantham," and his +discordant voice became more offensive in its effort at a tone of +entreaty, "Do tell me where you've hid my small bore; you little think," +he concluded, with an emphasis then unnoticed by the officers, but +subsequently remembered to have been perfectly ferocious, "what reason I +have to vally it." + +"We never descend to larks of the kind," coolly observed Grantham; "but +as you say you value your rifle, it shall be restored to you on one +condition." + +"And what may that be?" asked the settler, somewhat startled at the +serious manner of the officer. + +"That you show us what your canoe is freighted with. Here in the bows, I +mean." + +"Why," rejoined the Yankee quickly, but, as if without design, +intercepting the officers' near approach, "that bag, I calculate, +contains my provisions, and these here blankets that you see, peepin' +like from under the sail, are what I makes my bed of while out huntin'." + +"And are you quite certain there is nothing under those blankets?--nay +do not protest--you cannot answer for what may have occurred while your +back was turned, on your way to the hut for the rifle." + +"By hell," exclaimed the settler, blusteringly, "were any man to tell +me, Jeremiah Desborough, that there was anythin' beside them blankets in +the canoe, I would lick him into a jelly, even though he could whip his +own weight in wild cats." + +"So is it? Now then, Jeremiah Desborough, although I have never yet +tried to whip my own weight in wild cats, I tell you there is something +more than those blankets; and what is more, I insist upon seeing what +that something is." + +The settler stood confounded. His eye rolled rapidly from one to the +other of the officers, at the boldness and determination of this +language. Singly, he could have crushed Henry Grantham in his gripe, +even as one of the bears of the forest, near the outskirt of which they +stood; but there were two, and while attacking the one, he was sure of +being assailed by the other--nay, what was worse, the neighborhood might +be alarmed. Moreover, although they had kept their cloaks carefully +wrapped around their persons, there could be little doubt that both +officers were armed, not, as they had originally given him to +understand, with fowling pieces, but with (at the present close quarters +at least) far more efficient weapons--pistols. He was relieved from his +embarrassment by Middlemore exclaiming: + +"Nay, do not press the poor devil, Grantham; I dare say the story of his +hunting is all a hum, and that the fact is, he is merely going to earn +an honest penny in one of his free commercial speculations--a little +contraband," pointing his finger to the bows, "is it not, Desborough?" + +"Why now, officer," said the settler, rapidly assuming a dogged air, as +if ashamed of the discovery that had been so acutely made, "you won't +hurt a poor feller for doin' a little in this way. Drot me, these are +hard times, and this here war jist beginnin' quite pits one to one's +shifts." + +"This might do, Desborough, were your present freight an arrival instead +of a departure, but we all know that contraband is imported, not +exported." + +"Mighty cute you are, I guess," replied the settler warily, with +something like the savage grin of the wild cat to which he had so +recently alluded; "but I expect it would be none so strange to have +packed up a few dried hog skins to stow away the goods I am goin' for." + +"I should like to try the effect of a bullet among the skins," said +Grantham, leisurely drawing forth and cocking a pistol, after having +whispered something in the ear of his companion. + +"Nay, officer," said Desborough, now for the first time manifesting +serious alarm, "you sure-_ly_ don't mean to bore a hole through them +innocent skins?" + +"True!" said Middlemore, imitating. "If he fires, the hole will be +something more than _skin_ deep, I reckon--these pistols, to my +knowledge, send a bullet through a two inch plank at twenty paces." + +As Middlemore thus expressed himself, both he and Grantham saw, or +fancied they saw, the blankets slightly agitated. + +"Good place for a _hide_ that!" said the former, addressing his pun to +the settler, on whom it was totally lost, "show us those said skins, my +good fellow, and if we find they are not filled with anything it would +be treason in a professed British subject to export thus clandestinely, +we promise that you shall depart without further hindrance." + +"Indeed, officer," muttered Desborough sullenly and doggedly, "I shan't +do no sich thing. You don't belong to the custom-house, I reckon, and so +I wish you a good day, for I have a considerable long course to run, and +must be movin'." Then seizing the paddles that were lying on the sand, +he prepared to shove the canoe from the beach. + +"Not at least before I have sent a bullet to ascertain the true quality +of your skins," said Grantham, levelling his pistol. + +"Sure-_ly_," said Desborough, as he turned and drew himself to the full +height of his bony and muscular figure, while his eye measured the +officer from head to foot, with a look of concentrated but suppressed +fury, "you wouldn't _dare_ to do this--you wouldn't dare to fire into my +canoe--besides, consider," he said, in a tone somewhat deprecating, +"your bullet may go through her, and you would hardly do a feller the +injury to make him lose the chance of a good cargo." + +"Then why provoke such a disaster by refusing to show us what is beneath +those blankets?" + +"Because it's my pleasure to do so," fiercely retorted the other, "and I +won't show them to no man." + +"Then it is my pleasure to fire," said Grantham. "The injury be on your +own head, Desborough--one--two--" + +At this moment the sail was violently agitated--something, struggling +for freedom, cast the blankets on one side, and presently the figure of +a man stood upright in the bows of the canoe, and gazed around him with +an air of stupid astonishment. + +"What," exclaimed Middlemore, retreating back a pace or two, in +unfeigned surprise; "has that pistol started up, like the ghost in +Hamlet, Ensign Paul Emilius Theophilus Arnoldi, of the United States +Michigan Militia--a prisoner on his parole of honor? and yet attempting +a clandestine departure from the country--how is this?" + +"Not this merely," exclaimed Grantham, "but a traitor to his country, +and a deserter from our service. This fellow," he pursued, in answer to +an inquiring look of his companion, "is a scoundrel, who deserted three +years since from the regiment you relieved. I recognised him yesterday +on his landing, as my brother Gerald, who proposed making his report to +the general this morning, had done before. Let us secure both, +Middlemore; for, thank heaven, we have been enabled to detect the +traitor at last in that which will excuse his final expulsion from the +soil, even if no worse befall him. I have only tampered with him thus +long to render his conviction more complete." + +"Secure me! secure Jeremiah Desborough?" exclaimed the settler, with +rage manifest in the clenching of his teeth and the tension of every +muscle of his iron frame, "and that for jist tryin' to save a +countryman--well, we'll see who'll have the best of it." + +Before Grantham could anticipate the movement, the active and powerful +Desborough had closed with him in a manner to prevent his making use of +his pistol, had he even so desired. In the next instant it was wrested +from him, and thrown far from the spot on which he struggled with his +adversary, but at fearful odds against himself. Henry Grantham, although +well and actively made, was of slight proportion, and yet in boyhood. +Desborough, on the contrary, was in the full force of a vigorous +manhood. A struggle, hand to hand, between two combatants so +disproportioned, could not, consequently, be long doubtful as to its +issue. No sooner had the formidable settler closed with his enemy, than +pressing the knuckles of his iron hand, which met round the body of the +officer, with violence against his spine, he threw him backward with +force upon the sands. Grasping his victim with one hand as he lay upon +him, he seemed, as Grantham afterwards declared, to be groping for his +knife with the other. He was evidently anxious to despatch one enemy, in +order that he might fly to the assistance of his son, for it was he whom +Middlemore, with a powerful effort, had dragged from the canoe to the +beach. While his right hand was still groping far the knife--an object +which the powerful resistance of the yet unsubdued, though prostrate, +officer rendered somewhat difficult of attainment--the report of a +pistol was heard, fired evidently by one of the other combatants. +Immediately the settler looked up to see who was the triumphant party. +Neither had fallen, and Middlemore, if anything, had the advantage of +his enemy; but to his infinite dismay, Desborough beheld a horseman, +evidently attracted by the report of the pistol, urging his course with +the rapidity of lightning, along the firm sands, and advancing with +cries and vehement jesticulations to the rescue. + +Springing with the quickness of thought from his victim, the settler was +in the next moment at the side of Middlemore. Seizing him from behind by +for arm within his nervous grasp, he pressed the latter with such +prodigious force as to cause him to relinquish, by a convulsive +movement, the firm hold he had hitherto kept of his adversary. + +"In, boy, to the canoe for your life," he exclaimed, hurriedly as, +following up his advantage, he spun the officer round, and sent him +tottering to the spot where Grantham lay, still stupified and half +throttled. The next instant saw him heaving the canoe from the shore, +with all the exertion called for by his desperate situation. And all +this was done so rapidly, in so much less time than it will take our +readers to trace it, that before the horseman, so opportunely arriving, +had reached the spot, the canoe, with its inmates, had pushed from the +shore. + +Without pausing to consider the rashness and apparent impracticability +of his undertaking, the strange horseman, checking his rein, and burying +the rowels of his spurs deep into the flanks of his steed, sent him +bounding and plunging into the lake, in pursuit of the fugitives. + +He himself evinced every symptom of one in a state of intoxication. +Brandishing a stout cudgel over his head, and pealing forth a shout of +defiance, he rolled from side to side on his spirited charger, like some +laboring bark careering to the violence of the winds, but ever, like +that bark, regaining an equilibrium that was never thoroughly lost. +Shallow as the lake was at this point for a considerable distance, it +was long before the noble animal lost its footing; and thus had its +rider been enabled to arrive within a few paces of the canoe, at the +very moment when the increasing depth of the water, in compelling the +horse to the less expeditious process of swimming, gave a proportionate +advantage to the pursued. No sooner, however, did the Centaur-like rider +find that he was losing ground, than, again darting his spurs into the +flanks of his charger, he made every effort to reach the canoe. Maddened +by the pain, the snorting beast half rose upon the calm element, like +some monster of the deep, and, making two or three desperate plunges +with his fore feet, succeeded in reaching the stem. Then commenced a +short but extraordinary conflict. Bearing up his horse as he swam, with +the bridle in his teeth, the bold rider threw his left hand upon the +stern of the vessel, and brandishing his cudgel in the right, seemed to +provoke both parties to the combat. Desborough, who had risen from the +stern at his approach, stood upright in the centre, his companion still +paddling at the bows; and between these two a singular contest now +ensued. Armed with the formidable knife which he had about his person, +the settler made the most desperate and infuriated efforts to reach his +assailant; but in so masterly a manner did his adversary use his simple +weapon, that every attempt was foiled, and more than once did the hard +iron-wood descend upon his shoulders, in a manner to be heard from the +shore. Once or twice the settler stooped to evade some falling blow, +and, rushing forward, sought to sever the hand which still retained its +hold of the stern; but, with an activity remarkable in so old a man as +his assailant, for he was upwards of sixty years of age, the hand was +removed--and the settler, defeated in his object, was amply repaid for +his attempt, by a severe collision of his bones with the cudgel. At +length, apparently enjoined by his companion, the younger removed his +paddle, and, standing up also in the canoe, aimed a blow with its +knobbed handle at the head of the horse, at a moment when his rider was +fully engaged with Desborough. The quick-sighted old man saw the action, +and, as the paddle descended, an upward stroke from his own heavy weapon +sent it flying in fragments in the air, while a rapid and returning blow +fell upon the head of the paddler, and prostrated him at length in the +canoe. The opportunity afforded by this diversion, momentary as it was, +was not lost upon Desborough. The horseman, who, in his impatience to +avenge the injury offered to the animal, which seemed to form a part of +himself, had utterly forgotten the peril of his hand; and before he +could return from the double blow that had been so skilfully wielded, to +his first enemy, the knife of the latter had penetrated his hand, which, +thus rendered powerless, now relinquished its grasp. Desborough, whose +object--desperate character as he usually was--seemed now rather to fly +than to fight, availed himself of this advantage to hasten to the bows +of the canoe, where, striding across the body of his insensible +companion, he with a few vigorous strokes of the remaining paddle, urged +the lagging bark rapidly ahead. In no way intimidated by his disaster, +the courageous old man, again brandishing his cudgel, and vociferating +taunts of defiance, would have continued the pursuit; but panting as he +was, not only with the exertion he had made, but under the weight of his +impatient rider, in an element in which he was supported merely by his +own buoyancy, the strength and spirit of the animal began now +perceptibly to fail him, and he turned, despite of every effort to +prevent him, towards the shore. It was fortunate for the former that +there were no arms in the canoe, or neither he nor the horse would, in +all probability, have returned alive; such was the opinion, at least, +pronounced by those who were witnesses of the strange scene, and who +remarked the infuriated but impotent gestures of Desborough, as the old +man, having once more gotten his steed into depth, slowly pursued his +course to the shore, but with the same wild brandishing of his enormous +cudgel, and the same rocking from side to side, until his body was often +at right angles with that of his jaded, but sure-footed beast. As he is, +however, a character meriting rather more than the casual notice we have +bestowed, we shall take the opportunity, while he is hastening to the +discomfited officers on the beach, more particularly to describe him. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + +Nearly midway between Elliott's and Hartley's points, both of which are +remarkable for the low and sandy nature of the soil, the land, raising +gradually towards the centre, assumes a more healthy and arable aspect; +and, on its highest elevation, stood a snug, well cultivated property, +called Girty's farm. From this height, crowned on its extreme summit by +a neat and commodious farm-house, the far reaching sands, forming the +points above-named, are distinctly visible. Immediately in the rear, and +commencing beyond the orchard which surrounded the house, stretched +forestward, and to a considerable distance, a tract of rich and +cultivated soil, separated into strips by zig-zag enclosures, and +offering to the eye of the traveller, in appropriate season, the several +species of American produce, such as Indian corn, buck wheat, &c., with +here and there a few patches of indifferent tobacco. Thus far of the +property, a more minute description of which is unimportant. The +proprietors of this neat little place were a father and son, to the +latter of whom was consigned, for reasons which will appear presently, +the sole management of the farm. Of him we will merely say that, at the +period of which we treat, he was a fine, strapping, dark curley-haired, +white-teethed, red-lipped, broad-shouldered, and altogether comely and +gentle tempered youth, of about twenty, who had, although unconsciously, +monopolized the affections of almost every well favored maiden of his +class, for miles around him--advantages of nature from which had +resulted a union with one of the prettiest of the fair competitors for +connubial happiness. + +The father we may not dismiss so hastily. He was--but, before attempting +the portraiture of his character, we will, in the best of our ability, +sketch his person. + +Let the reader fancy an old man of about sixty, possessed of that +comfortable amptitude of person which is the result rather of a mind at +peace with itself, and undisturbed by worldly care, than of any marked +indulgence in indolent habits. Let him next invest this comfortable +person in a sort of Oxford grey, coarse capote, or frock, of capacious +size, tied closely round the waist with one of those-parti-colored +worsted sashes, we have, on a former occasion described as peculiar to +the bourgeois settlers of the country. Next, suffering the eye to +descend on and admire the rotund and fleshy thigh, let it drop gradually +to the stout and muscular legs, which he must invest in a pair of +closely fitting leathern trowsers, the wide-seamed edges of which are +slit into innumerable small strips, much after the fashion of the +American Indian. When he has completed the survey of the lower +extremities, to which he must not fail to subjoin a foot of +proportionate dimensions, tightly moccasined, and, moreover, furnished +with a pair of old English hunting spurs, the reader must then examine +the head with which this heavy piece of animated machinery is +surmounted. From beneath a coarse felt hat, garnished with an inch-wide +band or ribbon, let him imagine he sees the yet vigorous grey hair, +descending over a forehead not altogether wanting in a certain dignity +of expression, and terminating in a beetling brow, silvered also with +the frost of years, and shadowing a sharp, grey, intelligent eye, the +vivacity of whose expression denotes its possessor to be far in advance, +in spirit, even of his still active and powerful frame. With these must +be connected a snub nose--a double chin, adorned with grizzly honors, +which are borne, like the fleece of the lamb, only occasionally to the +shears of the shearer--and a small, and not unhandsome, mouth, at +certain periods pursed into an expression of irresistible humor, but +more frequently expressing a sense of lofty independence. The grisly +neck, little more or less bared, as the season may demand--a kerchief +loosely tied around the collar of a checkered shirt--and a knotted +cudgel in his hand--and we think our sketch of Simon Girty is complete. + +Nor must the reader picture to himself this combination of animal +properties, either standing, or lying, or walking, or sitting; but in a +measure glued, Centaur-like, to the back of a noble stallion, vigorous, +active, and of a dark chestnut color, with silver mane and tail. In the +course of many years that Simon had resided in the neighborhood, no one +could remember to have seen him stand, or lie, or walk, or sit, while +away from his home, unless absolutely compelled. Both horse and rider +seemed as though they could not exist while separated, and yet +Silvertail (thus was the stallion named) was not more remarkable in +sleekness of coat, soundness of carcase, and fleetness of pace, than his +rider was in the characteristics of corpulency and joviality. + +Simon Girty had passed the greater part of his younger days in America. +He had borne arms in the revolution, and was one of those faithful +loyalists, who preferring rather to abandon a soil which, after all, was +one of adoption, than the flag under which they had been nurtured, had, +at the termination of that contest, passed over into Canada. Having +served in one of those irregular corps, several of which had been +employed with the Indians, during the revolutionary contest, he had +acquired much of the language of these latter, and to this knowledge was +indebted for the situation of interpreter which he had for years +enjoyed. Unhappily for himself, however, the salary attached to the +office was sufficient to keep him in independence, and, to the idleness +consequent on this, (for the duties of an interpreter were only +occasional,) might have been attributed the rapid growth of a vice--an +addiction to liquor--which unchecked indulgence had now ripened into +positive disease. + +Great was the terror that Simon was wont to excite in the good people of +Amherstburg. With Silvertail at his speed he would gallop into the town, +brandishing his cudgel, and reeling from side to side, exhibiting at one +moment the joyous character of a Silenus, at another, as we have already +shown--that of an inebriated Centaur. Occasionally he would make his +appearance, holding his sides convulsed with laughter, as he reeled and +tottered in every direction, but without ever losing his equilibrium. At +other times he would utter a loud shout, and, brandishing his cudgel, +dart at full speed along the streets, as if he purposed singly to carry +the town by (what Middlemore often facetiously called) a _coup de main_. +At these moments were to be seen mothers rushing into the street to look +for, and hurry away, their loitering offspring, while even adults were +glad to hasten their movements, in order to escape collision with the +formidable Simon; not that either apprehended the slightest act of +personal violence from the old man, for he was harmless of evil as a +child, but because they feared the polished hoofs of Silvertail, which +shone amid the clouds of dust they raised as he passed, like rings of +burnished silver. Even the very Indians, with whom the streets were at +this period habitually crowded, were glad to hug the sides of the +houses, while Simon passed; and they who, on other occasions, would have +deemed it in the highest degree derogatory to their dignity to have +stepped aside at the approach of danger, or to have relaxed a muscle of +their stern countenance, would then open a passage with a rapidity which +in them was remarkable, and burst into loud laughter as they fled from +side to side to make way for Simon. Sometimes, on these occasions, the +latter would suddenly check Silvertail, while in full career, and, in a +voice that could be heard from almost every quarter of the little town, +harangue them for half an hour together in their own language, and with +an air of authority that was ludicrous to those who witnessed it--and +must have been witnessed to be conceived. Occasionally a guttural "ugh" +would be responded in mock approval of the speech, but more frequently a +laugh, on the part of the more youthful of his red auditors, was the +only notice taken. His lecture concluded, Simon would again brandish his +cudgel, and vociferate another shout; then betaking himself to the +nearest store, he would urge Silvertail upon the footway, and with a tap +of his rude cudgel against the door, summon whoever was within, to +appear with a glass of his favorite beverage. And this would he repeat, +until he had drained what he called his stirrup cup, at every shop in +the place where the poisonous liquor was vended. + +Were such a character to make his appearance in the Mother Country, +endangering, to all perception, the lives of the Sovereign's liege +subjects, he would, if in London, be hunted to death like a wild beast, +by at least one half of the Metropolitan police; and, if in a provincial +town, would be beset by a posse of constables. No one, however--not even +the solitary constable of Amherstburgh, ever ventured to interfere with +Simon Girty, who was in some degree a privileged character. Nay, strange +as it may appear, notwithstanding his confirmed habit of inebriety, the +old man stood high in the neighborhood, not only with simple but with +gentle, for there were seasons when he evinced himself "a rational +being," and there was a dignity of manner about him, which, added to his +then quietude of demeanor, insensibly interested in his favor, those +even who were most forward to condemn the vice to which he was +unfortunately addicted. Not, be it understood, that in naming seasons of +rationality, we mean seasons of positive abstemiousness; nor can this +well be, seeing that Simon never passed a day of strict sobriety during +the last twenty years of his life. But, it might be said, that his three +divisions of day--morning, noon and night--were characterised by three +corresponding divisions of drunkenness--namely, drunk, drunker, and most +drunk. It was, therefore, in the first stage of his graduated scale, +that Simon appeared in his most amiable and winning, because his least +uproarious, mood. His libations commenced at early morn, and his +inebriety became progressive to the close of the day. To one who could +ride home at night, as he invariably did, after some twelve hours of +hard and continued drinking, without rolling from his horse, it would +not be difficult to enact the sober man in its earlier stages. As his +intoxication was relative to himself, so was his sobriety in regard to +others--and although, at mid-day, he might have swallowed sufficient to +have caused another man to bite the dust, he looked and spoke, and +acted, as if he had been a model of temperance. If he passed a lady in +the street, or saw her at her window Simon Girty's hat was instantly +removed from his venerable head, and his body inclined forward over his +saddle-bow, with all the easy grace of a well-born gentleman, and one +accustomed from infancy to pay deference to woman; nay, this at an hour +when he had imbibed enough of his favorite liquor to have rendered most +men insensible even to their presence. These habits of courtesy, +extended moreover to the officers of the garrison, and such others among +the civilians as Simon felt to be worthy of his notice. His tones of +salutation, at these moments, were soft, his manner respectful, even +graceful; and while there was nothing of the abashedness of the +inferior, there was also no offensive familiarity, in the occasional +conversations held by him with the different individuals, or groups, who +surrounded and accosted him. + +Such was Simon Girty, in the first stage of his inebriety, no outward +sign of which was visible. In the second, his perception became more +obscured, his voice less distinct, his tones less gentle and +insinuating, and occasionally the cudgel would rise in rapid flourish, +while now and then a loud halloo would burst from lungs, which the +oceans of whiskey they had imbibed had not yet, apparently, much +affected. These were infallible indices of the more feverish stage, of +which the gallopings of Silvertail--the vociferations of his master--the +increasing flourishing of the cudgel--the supposed danger of +children--and the consequent alarm of mothers, together with the +harangues to the Indian auditory, were the almost daily results. + +There was one individual, however, in the town of Amherstburgh, of whom, +despite his natural wilfulness of character, Simon Girty stood much in +awe, and that to such a degree, that if he chanced to encounter him in +his mad progress, his presence had the effect of immediately quieting +him. This gentleman was the father of the Granthams, who, although then +filling a civil situation, had formerly been a field officer in the +corps in which Simon had served; and who had carried with him into +private life those qualities of stern excellence for which he had been +remarkable as a soldier--qualities which had won to him the respect and +affection, not only of the little community over which, in the capacity +of its chief magistrate, he had presided, but also of the inhabitants of +the country generally for many miles around. Temperate to an extreme +himself, Major Grantham held the vice of drunkenness in deserved +abhorrence, and so far from sharing the general toleration extended to +the old man, whose originality (harmless as he ever was in his +intoxication,) often proved a motive for encouragement; he never failed, +on encountering him, to bestow his censure in a manner that had an +immediate and obvious effect on the culprit. If Simon, from one end of +the street, beheld Major Grantham approaching at the other, he was wont +to turn abruptly away; but if perchance the magistrate came so +unexpectedly upon him as to preclude the possibility of retreat, he +appeared as one suddenly sobered, and would rein in his horse, fully +prepared for the stern lecture which he was well aware would ensue. + +It afforded no slight amusement to the townspeople, and particularly +the young urchins, who usually looked up to Simon with awe, +to be witnesses of one of those rencontres. In a moment, the +shouting--galloping--rampaging cudgel-wielder was to be seen changed, as +if by some magic power, into a being of almost child-like obedience, +while he listened attentively and deferentially to the lecture of Major +Grantham, whom he both loved and feared. On these occasions, he would +hang his head upon his chest--confess his error--and promise solemnly to +amend his course of life, although it must be needless to add that never +was that promise heeded. Not unfrequently, after these lectures, when +Major Grantham had left him, Simon would turn his horse, and, with his +arms still folded across his chest, suffer Silvertail to pursue his +homeward course, while he himself, silent and thoughtful, and looking +like a culprit taken in the fact, sat steadily in his saddle, without +however venturing to turn his eye either to the right or to the left, as +he passed through the crowd, who, with faces strongly expressive of +mirth, marked their sense of the change which had been produced in the +old interpreter. Those who had seen him thus for the first time, might +have supposed that a reformation in one so apparently touched would have +ensued; but long experience had taught that, although a twinge of +conscience, or more probably fear of, and respect for, the magistrate, +might induce a momentary humiliation, all traces of cause and effect +would have vanished with the coming dawn. + +To the sterling public virtues he boasted, Simon Girty united that of +loyalty in no common degree. A more staunch adherent to the British +crown existed nowhere in the sovereign's dominions; and such was his +devotedness to "King George," that, albeit he could not in all +possibility have made the sacrifice of his love for whiskey, he would +willingly have suffered his left arm to be severed from his body, had +such proof of his attachment to the throne been required. Proportioned +to his love for everything British, arose, as a natural consequence, +his dislike for everything anti-British; and especially for those who +under the guise of allegiance, had conducted themselves in a way to +become objects of suspicion to the authorities. A near neighbor of +Desborough, he had watched him as narrowly as his long indulged habits +of intoxication would permit, and he had been the means of conveying to +Major Grantham much of the information which had induced that +uncompromising magistrate to seek the expulsion of the dangerous +settler--an object which, however, had been defeated by the perjury of +the unprincipled individual, in taking the customary oaths of +allegiance. Since the death of Major Grantham, for whom, notwithstanding +his numerous lectures, he had ever entertained that reverential esteem +which is the result of the ascendancy of the powerful and virtuous mind +over the weak, and not absolutely vicious--and for whose sons he felt +almost a fatherly affection--old Girty had but indifferently troubled +himself about Desborough, who was fully aware of what he had previously +done to detect and expose him, and consequently repaid with usury--an +hostility of feeling which, however, had never been brought to any +practical issue. + +As a matter of course, Simon was of the number of anxious persons +collected on the bank of the river, on the morning of the capture of the +American gun-boat; but, as he was only then emerging from his first +stage of intoxication (which we have already shown to be tantamount to +perfect sobriety in any other person), there had been no time for a +display of those uproarious qualities which characterized the last, and +which, once let loose, scarcely even the presence of the General could +have restrained. With an acuteness, however, which is often to be +remarked in habitual drunkards at moments when their intellect is +unclouded by the confusedness to which they are more commonly subject, +the hawk's eye of the old man had detected several particulars which had +escaped the general attention, and of which he had, at a later period of +the day, retained sufficient recollection to connect with an accidental, +yet important discovery. + +At the moment when the prisoners were landed, he had remarked +Desborough, who had uttered the hasty exclamation already recorded, +stealing cautiously through the surrounding crowd, and apparently +endeavoring to arrest the attention of the younger of the American +officers. An occasional pressing of the spur into the flank of +Silvertail, enabled him to turn as the settler turned, and thus to keep +him constantly in view; until, at length, as the latter approached the +group of which General Brock and Commodore Barclay formed the centre, he +observed him distinctly to make a sign of intelligence to the Militia +Officer, whose eye he at length attracted, and who now bestowed upon him +a glance of hasty and furtive recognition. Curiosity induced Simon to +move Silvertail a little more in advance, in order to be enabled to +obtain a better view of the prisoners; but the latter turning away his +head at the moment, although apparently without design, baffled his +penetration. Still he had a confused and indistinct idea that the person +was not wholly unknown to him. + +When the prisoners had been disposed of, and the crowd dispersed, Simon +continued to linger near the council-house, exchanging greetings with +the newly arrived chiefs, and drinking from whatever whiskey bottle was +offered to him until he at length gave rapid indication of arriving at +his third or grand climacteric. Then were to be heard the loud +shoutings of his voice, and the clattering of Silvertail's hoofs; as +horse and rider flew like lightning past the fort into the town, where a +more than usual quantity of the favorite liquid was quaffed at the +several stores, in commemoration, as he said, of the victory of his +noble boy, Gerald Grantham, and to the success of the British arms +generally throughout the war. + +Among the faults of Simon Girty, was certainly not that of neglecting +the noble animal to whom long habit had deeply attached him. Silvertail +was equally a favorite with the son, who had more than once ridden him +in the occasional races that took place upon the hard sands of the lake +shore, and in which he had borne everything away. As Simon was ever +conscious and collected about this hour, care was duly taken by him that +his horse should be fed, without the trouble to himself of dismounting. +Even as Girty sat in his saddle, Silvertail was in the daily practice of +munching his corn out of a small trough that stood in the yard of the +inn where he usually stopped, while his rider conversed with whoever +chanced to be near him--the head of his cudgel resting on his ample +thigh, and a glass of his favorite whiskey in his other and unoccupied +hand. + +Now it chanced that, on this particular day, Simon neglected to pay his +customary visit to the inn, an omission which was owing rather to the +hurry and excitement occasioned by the stirring events of the morning, +than to any wilful neglect of his steed. Nor was it until some hours +after dark that, seized with a sudden fit of caressing Silvertail, whose +glossy neck he patted, until the tears of warm affection started to his +eyes, he bethought him of the omission of which he had been guilty. +Scarcely was the thought conceived, before Silvertail was again at full +career, and on his way to the inn. The gate stood open, and, as Simon +entered, he saw two individuals retire, as if to escape observation, +within a shed adjoining the stable. Drunk as he was, a vague +consciousness of the truth, connected as it was with his earlier +observation, flashed across the old man's mind; and when, in answer to +his loud hallooing, a factotum, on whom devolved all the numerous +officers of the inn, from waiter down to ostler, made his appearance, +Simon added to his loudly expressed demand for Silvertail's corn, a +whispered injunction to return with a light. During the absence of the +man, he commenced trolling a verse of "Old King Cole," a favorite ballad +with him, and with the indifference of one who believes himself to be +alone. Presently the light appeared, and, as the bearer approached, its +rays fell on the forms of two men, retired into the furthest extremity +of the shed and crouching to the earth as if in concealment, whom Simon +recognised at a glance. He however took no notice of the circumstance to +the ostler, or even gave the slightest indication, by look or movement, +of what he had seen. + +When the man had watered Silvertail and put his corn in the trough, he +returned to the house, and Simon, with his arms folded across his chest, +as his horse crunched his food, listened attentively to catch whatever +conversation might ensue between the loiterers. Not a word however was +uttered, and soon after he saw them emerge from their concealment--step +cautiously behind him--cross the yard towards the gate by which he had +entered--and then disappear altogether. During this movement the old man +had kept himself perfectly still, so that there could be no suspicion +that he had in any way observed them. Nay, he even spoke once or twice +coaxingly to Silvertail, as if conscious only of the presence of that +animal, and, in short, conducted himself in a manner well worthy of the +cunning of a drunken man. The reflections to which this incident gave +rise, had the effect of calling up a desperate fit of loyalty, which he +only awaited the termination of Silvertail's hasty meal to put into +immediate activity. Another shout to the ostler, a second glass +swallowed, the reckoning paid, Silvertail bitted, and away went Simon +once more at his speed through the now deserted town, the road out of +which to his own place, skirted partly the banks of the river, and +partly those of the lake. + +After galloping about a mile, the old man found the feet of Silvertail +burying themselves momentarily deeper in the sands which form the road +near Elliot's Point. Unwilling to distress him, he pulled him up to a +walk, and, throwing the reins upon his neck, folded his arms as usual, +rolling from side to side at every moment, and audibly musing, in the +thick, husky voice that was common to him in inebriety. + +"Yes, by Jove, I am as true and loyal a subject as any in the service of +King George, God bless him (here he bowed his head involuntarily and +with respect), and though, as that poor dear old Grantham used to say, I +do drink a little (hiccup), still there's no great harm in that. It +keeps a man alive. I am the boy, at all events, to scent a rogue. That +was Desborough and his son I saw just now, and the rascals, he! he! +he!--the rascals thought, I suppose, I was too drunk (hiccup), too drunk +to twig them. We shall tell them another tale before the night is over. +D----n such skulking scoundrels, I say. Whoa! Silvertail, whoa!--what do +you see there, my boy, eh?" + +Silvertail only replied by the sharp pricking of his ears, and a side +movement, which seemed to indicate a desire to keep as much aloof as +possible from a cluster of walnut trees, which, interspersed with wild +grape vines, may be seen to this hour, resting in gloomy relief on the +white deep sands that extend considerably in that direction. + +"Never mind, my boy, we shall be at home presently," pursued Simon, +patting the neck of his unquiet companion. "But, no--I had forgotten; we +must give chase to these (hiccup) to these rascals. Now there's that son +Bill of mine fast asleep, I suppose, in the arms of his little wife. +They do nothing but lie in bed, while their poor old father is obliged +to be up at all hours, devising plans for the good of the King's +service, God bless him! But I shall soon (hiccup)--Whoa, Silvertail! +whoa, I say! D----n you, you brute, do you mean to throw me?" + +The restlessness of Silvertail, despite of his rider's caresses, had +been visibly increasing as they approached the dark cluster of walnuts. +Arrived opposite to this, his ears and tail erect, he had evinced even +more than restlessness--alarm: and something, that did not meet the eye +of his rider, caused him to take a sideward spring of several feet. It +was this action that, nearly unseating Simon, had drawn from him the +impatient exclamation just recorded. + +At length the thicket was passed, and Silvertail, recovered from his +alarm, moved forward once more on the bound, in obedience to the well +known whistle of his master. + +"Good speed have they made," again mused Simon, as he approached his +home: "if indeed, as I suspect, it be them who are hiding in yonder +thicket. Silvertail could not have been more than ten minutes finishing +his (hiccup) his corn, and the sands had but little time to warm +beneath his boots when he did start. These Yankees are swift footed +fellows, as I have had good (hiccup) good experience in the old war, +when I could run a little myself like the best of them. But here we are +at last. Whoa, Silvertail, whoa! and now to turn out Bill from his +little wife. Bill, I say, hilloa! hilloa! Bill, hilloa!" + +Long habit, which had taught the old man's truly excellent and exemplary +son the utter hopelessness of his disease, had also familiarized him +with these nightly interruptions to his slumbers. A light was speedily +seen to flash across the chamber in which he slept, and presently the +principal door of the lower building was unbarred, and unmurmuring and +uncomplaining, the half-dressed young man stood in the presence of his +father. Placing the light on the threshold, he prepared to assist him as +usual to dismount, but Simon, contrary to custom, rejected for a time +every offer of the kind. His rapid gallop through the night air, added +to the more than ordinary quantity of whiskey he had that day swallowed, +was now producing its effect, and, while every feature of his +countenance manifested the extreme of animal stupidity, his apprehension +wandered and his voice became almost inarticulate. Without the power to +acquaint his son with the purpose he had in view, and of which he +himself now entertained but a very indistinct recollection, he yet +strove, impelled as he was by his confusedness of intention, to retain +his seat, but was eventually unhorsed and handed over to the care of his +pretty daughter-in-law, whose office it was to dispose of him for the +night, while her husband rubbed down, fed, and otherwise attended to +Silvertail. + +A few hours of sound sleep restored Simon to his voice and his +recollection, when his desire to follow the two individuals he had seen +in the yard of the inn the preceding night, and whom he felt persuaded +he must have passed on the road, was more than ever powerfully revived. +And yet, was it not highly probable that the favorable opportunity had +been lost, and that, taking advantage of the night, they were already +departed from the country, if such (and he doubted it not) was their +intention. "What a cursed fool," he muttered to himself, "to let a +thimbleful of liquor upset me on such an occasion, but, at all events, +here goes for another trial." With the impatient, over-indulged Simon, +to determine on a course of action, was to carry it into effect. + +"Hilloa, Bill! I say, Bill my boy!" he shouted from the chamber next to +that in which his son slept. "Hilloa! Bill, come here directly." + +Bill answered not, but sounds were heard in his room as of one stepping +out of bed, and presently the noise of flint and steel announced that a +light was being struck. In a few minutes the rather jaded-looking youth +appeared at the bedstead of his parent. + +"Bill, my dear boy," said Simon, in a more subdued voice, "did you see +anybody pass last night after I came home? Try and recollect yourself; +did you see two men on the road?" + +"I did, father; just as I had locked the stable door, and was coming in +for the night, I saw two men passing down the road. But why do you ask?" + +"Did you speak to them--could you recognise them?" asked Simon, without +stating his motive for the question. + +"I wished them good night; and one of them gruffly bade me good night +too; but I could not make out who they were, though one did for a +moment strike me to be Desborough, and both were tallish sort of men." + +"You're a lad of penetration, Bill; now saddle me Silvertail as fast as +you can." + +"Saddle Silvertail! Surely, father, you are not going out yet; it's not +daylight." + +"Saddle Silvertail, Bill," repeated the old man, with the air of one +whose mandate was not to be questioned. "But where the devil are you +going, sir?" he added, impatiently. + +"Why to saddle Silvertail, to be sure," said the youth, who was just +closing the door for that purpose. + +"What, and leave me, a miserable old man, to get up without a light? Oh +fie, Bill. I thought you loved your poor old father better than to +neglect him so--there, that will do. Now send in Lucy to dress me." + +The light was kindled, Bill went in and spoke to his wife, then +descended to the stable. A gentle tap at the door of the old +interpreter, and Lucy entered in her pretty night dress, and, half +asleep, half awake, but without a shadow of discontent in her look, +proceeded to assist him in drawing on his stockings, &c. Simon's toilet +was soon completed, and Silvertail being announced as "all ready," he, +without communicating a word of his purpose, issued forth from his home +just as the day was beginning to dawn. + +Although the reflective powers of Girtie had been in some measure +restored by sleep, it is by no means to be assumed he was yet thoroughly +sober. Uncertain in regard to the movements of those who had so strongly +excited his loyal hostility, (and, mayhap, at the moment his curiosity,) +it occurred to him that if Desborough had not already baffled his +pursuit, a knowledge of the movements and intentions of that individual +might be better obtained from an observation of what was passing on the +beach in front of his hut. The object of this reconnaissance was, +therefore, only to see if the canoe of the settler was still on the +shore, and with this object he suffered Silvertail to take the road +along the sands, while he himself, with his arms folded and his head +sunk on his chest, fell into a reverie with which was connected the +manner and the means of securing the disloyal Desborough, should it +happen that he had not yet departed. The accidental discharge of +Middlemore's pistol, at the very moment when Silvertail had doubled a +point that kept the scene of contention from his view, caused him to +raise his eyes, and then the whole truth flashed suddenly upon him. We +have already seen how gallantly he advanced to them, and how madly, and +in a manner peculiarly his own, he sought to arrest the traitor +Desborough in his flight. + +"Sorry I couldn't force the scoundrel back, gentlemen," said Simon, as +he now approached the discomfited officers. "Not much hurt, I hope," +pointing with his own maimed and bleeding hand to the leg of Middlemore, +which that officer, seated on the sand, was preparing to bind with a +silk handkerchief. "Ah, a mere flesh wound, I see. Henry, Henry +Grantham, my poor dear boy, what still alive after the desperate +clutching of that fellow at your throat? But now that we have routed the +enemy--must be off--drenched to the skin. No liquor on the stomach to +keep out the cold, and if I once get an ague fit, its all over with poor +old Simon. Must gallop home, and, while his little wife wraps a bandage +round my hand, shall send down Bill with a litter. Good morning, Mr. +Middlemore, good bye, Henry, my boy." And then, without giving time to +either to reply, the old man applied his spurs once more to the flanks +of Silvertail, who, with drooping mane and tail, resembled a half +drowned rat; and again hallooing defiance to Desborough, who lay to at a +distance, apparently watching the movements of his enemies, he retraced +his way along the sands at full gallop, and was speedily out of sight. + +Scarcely had Girty disappeared, when two other individuals, evidently +officers, and cloaked precisely like the party he had just quitted, +issued from the wood near the hut upon the clearing, and thence upon the +sands--their countenances naturally expressing all the surprise that +might be supposed to arise from the picture now offered to their view. + +"What in the name of Heaven is the meaning of all this?" asked one of +the new comers, as both now rapidly advanced to the spot where +Middlemore was yet employed in coolly binding up his leg, while Henry +Grantham, who had just risen, was gasping with almost ludicrous efforts +to regain his respiration. + +"You must ask the meaning of our friend here," answered Middlemore, with +the low chuckling good-natured laugh that was habitual to him, while he +proceeded with his bandaging. "All I know is, that I came out as a +second, and here have I been made a first--a principal, which, by the +way, is contrary to all my principle." + +"Do be serious for once, Middlemore. How did you get wounded, and who +are those scoundrels who have just quitted you?" anxiously inquired +Captain Molineux, for it was he, and Lieutenant Villiers, who, (the +party already stated to have been expected), had at length arrived. + +"Two desperate fellows in their way, I can assure you," replied +Middlemore, more amused than annoyed at the adventure. "Ensign Paul, +Emilius, Theophilus, Arnoldi, is, I calculate, a pretty considerable +strong ac_tyve_ sort of fellow; and, to judge by Henry Grantham's half +strangled look, his companion lacks not the same qualities. Why, in the +name of all that is precious would you persist in poking your nose into +the rascal's skins, Grantham? The ruffians had nearly made dried skins +of ours." + +"Ha! is that the scoundrel who calls himself Arnoldi," asked Captain +Molineux? "I have heard," and he glanced at Henry Grantham as he spoke, +"a long story of his villainy from his captor within this very hour." + +"Which is your apology, I suppose," said Middlemore, "for having so far +exceeded your appointment, gentlemen." + +"It certainly is," said Lieutenant Villiers, "but the fault was not +ours. We chanced to fall in with Gerald Grantham, on our way here, and +that he detained us, should be a matter of congratulation to us all." + +"Congratulation!" exclaimed Middlemore, dropping his bandage, and +lifting his eyes with an expression of indescribable humor. "Am I then +to think it matter of congratulation that, as an innocent second, I +should have had a cursed piece of lead stuck in my flesh to spoil my +next winter's dancing. And Grantham is to think it matter of +congratulation that, instead of putting a bullet through you, Molineux, +(as I intend he shall when I have finished dressing this confounded leg, +if his nerves are not too much shaken), he should have felt the gripe of +that monster Desborough around his throat, until his eyes seem ready to +start from their sockets, and all this because you did not choose to be +in time. Upon my word, I do not know that it is quite meet that we +should meet you. What say you, Grantham?" + +"I hope," said Captain Molineux with a smile, "your principal will think +as you do, for should he decline the meeting, nothing will afford more +satisfaction to myself." + +Both Grantham and Middlemore looked their utter surprise at the language +thus used by Captain Molineux, but neither of them spoke. + +"If an apology the most ample for my observation of yesterday," +continued that officer, "an apology founded on my perfect conviction of +error, (that conviction produced by certain recent explanations with +your brother), can satisfy you, Mr. Grantham, most sincerely do I make +it. If, however, you hold me to my pledge, here am I of course to redeem +it. I may as well observe to you in the presence of our friends, (and +Villiers can corroborate my statement), that my original intention on +leaving your brother, was to receive your fire and then tender my +apology, but, under the circumstances in which both you and Middlemore +are placed at this moment, the idea would be altogether absurd. Again I +tender my apology, which it will be a satisfaction to me to repeat this +day at the mess table, where I yesterday refused to drink your brother's +health. All I can add is that when you have heard the motives for my +conduct, and learnt to what extent I have been deceived, you will +readily admit that I acted not altogether from caprice." + +"Your apology I accept, Captain Molineux," said Grantham, coming forward +and unhesitatingly offering his hand. "If you have seen my brother, I am +satisfied. Let there be no further question on the subject." + +"So then I am to be the only bulleted man on this occasion," interrupted +Middlemore, with ludicrous pathos--"the only poor devil who is to be +made to remember Hartley's point for ever. But no matter. I am not the +first instance of a second being shot, through the awkward bungling of +his principal, and certainly Grantham you were in every sense the +principal in this affair, for had you taken my advice you would have let +the fellows go to the devil their own way." + +"What! knowing, as I did, that the traitor Desborough had concealed in +his canoe a prisoner on parole--nay, worse, a deserter from our +service--with a view of conveying him out of the country." + +"How did you know it." + +"Because I at once recognised him, through the disguise in which he left +the hut, for what he was. That discovery made, there remained but one +course to pursue." + +"Ah! and coarse work you made of it, with a vengeance," said Middlemore, +"first started him up like a fox from his cover, got the mark of his +teeth, and then suffered him to escape." + +"Is there no chance of following--no means of overtaking them?" said +Captain Molineux--"No, by Heaven," as he glanced his eye from right to +left, "not a single canoe to be seen anywhere along the shore." + +"Following!" echoed Middlemore; "faith the scoundrels would desire +nothing better: if two of us had such indifferent play with them on +terra firma, you may rely upon it that double the number would have no +better chance in one of these rickety canoes. See there how the rascals +lie to within half musket shot, apparently hailing us." + +Middlemore was right. Desborough had risen in the stern of the canoe, +and now, stretched to his full height, called leisurely, through his +closed hands, on the name of Henry Grantham. When he observed the +attention of that officer had, in common with that of his companions, +been arrested, he proceeded at the full extent of his lungs. + +"I reckon, young man, as how I shall pay you out for this, and drot my +skin, if I once twists my fingers round your neck again, if anything on +this side hell shall make me quit it, afore you squeaks your last +squeak. You've druv me from my home, and I'll have your curst blood for +it yet. I'll sarve you as I sarved your old father. You got my small +bore, I expect, and if its any good to you to know that one of its +nineties to the pound sent the old rascal to the devil--why then you +have it from Jeremiah Desborough's own lips, and be d----d to you." + +And, with this horrible admission, the settler again seated himself in +the stern of his canoe, and making good use of his paddle soon scudded +away until his little vessel appeared but as a speck on the lake. + +Henry Grantham was petrified with astonishment and dismay at a +declaration, the full elucidation of which we must reserve for a future +opportunity. The daring confession rang in his ears long after the voice +had ceased, and it was not until a light vehicle had been brought for +Middlemore from Simon's farm, that he could be induced to quit the +shore, where he still lingered, as if in expectation of the return of +the avowed _murderer of his Father_. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + +At the especial invitation of Captain Molineux Gerald Grantham dined at +the garrison mess, on the evening of the day when the circumstances +detailed in our last chapter took place. During dinner the extraordinary +adventure of the morning formed the chief topic of conversation, for it +had become one of general interest, not only throughout the military +circles, but in the town of Amherstburgh itself, in which the father of +the Granthams had been held in an esteem amounting almost to veneration. +Horrible as had been the announcement made by the detected and +discomfited settler to him who now, for the first time, learnt that his +parent had fallen a victim to ruffian vindictiveness, too many years had +elapsed since that event, to produce more than the ordinary emotion +which might be supposed to be awakened by a knowledge rather of the +manner than the fact of his death. Whatever therefore might have been +the pain inflicted on the hearts of the brothers, by this cruel +re-opening of a partially closed wound, there was no other evidence of +suffering than the suddenly compressed lip and glistening eye, whenever +allusion was made to the villain with whom each felt he had a fearful +account to settle. + +Much indeed of the interest of the hour was derived from the animated +account, given by Gerald, of the circumstances which had led to his +lying in ambuscade for the American on the preceding day; and as his +narrative embraces not only the reasons for Captain Molineux's strange +conduct, but other hitherto unexplained facts, we cannot do better than +follow him in his detail: + +"I think it must have been about half past eleven o'clock, on the night +preceding the capture," commenced Gerald, "that, as my gun-boat was at +anchor close under the American shore, at rather more than half a mile +below the farther extremity of Bois Blanc, my faithful old Sambo +silently approached me, while I lay wrapped in my watch-cloak on deck, +calculating the chances of falling in with some spirited bark of the +enemy which would afford me an opportunity of proving the mettle of my +crew. + +"'Massa Geral,' he said, in a mysterious whisper--for old age and long +services in my family have given him privileges which I have neither the +power nor the inclination to check--'Massa Geral,' pulling me by the +collar, 'I dam ib he no go sleep when him ought to hab all him eyes +about him--him pretty fellow to keep watch when Yankee pass him in e +channel.' + +"'A Yankee pass me in the channel!' I would have exclaimed aloud, +starting to my feet with surprise; but Sambo, with ready thought, put +his hand upon my mouth, in time to prevent more than the first word from +being uttered. + +"'Hush! dam him, Massa Geral, ib you make a noise, you no catch him.' + +"'What do you mean, then--what have you seen?' I asked, in the same low +whisper, the policy of which his action had enjoined on me. + +"'Lookee dare, Massa Geral, lookee dare!' + +"Following the direction in which he pointed, I now saw, but very +indistinctly, a canoe in which was a solitary individual stealing across +the lake to the impulsion of an apparently muffled paddle; for her +course, notwithstanding the stillness of the night, was utterly +noiseless. The moon, which is in her first quarter, had long since +disappeared; yet the heavens, although not particularly bright, were +sufficiently dotted with stars to enable me, with the aid of a night +telescope, to discover that the figure, which guided the cautiously +moving bark, had nothing Indian in its outline. The crew of the gun-boat +(the watch only excepted) had long since turned in; and even the latter +lay reposing on the forecastle, the sentinels only keeping the ordinary +lookout. So closely, moreover, did we lay in shore, that but for the +caution of the paddler, it might have been assumed she was too nearly +identified with the dark forest against which her hull and spars +reposed, to be visible. Curious to ascertain her object, I watched the +canoe in silence, as, whether accidentally or with design, I know not, +she made the half circuit of the gun-boat and then bore away in a direct +line for the Canadian shore. A suspicion of the truth now flashed across +my mind, and I resolved without delay to satisfy myself. My first care +was to hasten to the forecastle, and enjoin on the sentinels, who I +feared might see and hail the stranger, the strictest silence. Then +desiring Sambo to prepare the light boat, which I dare say most of you +have remarked to form a part of my Lilliputian command, I proceeded to +arm myself with cutlass and pistols. Thus equipped, I sprang lightly in; +and having again caught sight of the chase, on which I had moreover +directed one of the sentinels to keep a steady eye as long as she was in +sight, desired Sambo to steer as noiselessly as possible in pursuit. For +some time we kept the stranger in view, but whether, owing to his +superior paddling or lighter weight, we eventually lost sight of him. +The suspicion which had at first induced my following, however, served +as a clue to guide me in the direction I should take. I was aware that +the scoundrel Desborough was an object of distrust--I knew that the +strictness of my father, during his magistracy, in compelling him to +choose between taking the oaths of allegiance and quitting the country, +had inspired him with deep hatred to himself and disaffection to the +Government; and I felt that if the spirit of his vengeance had not +earlier developed itself, it was solely because the opportunity and the +power had hitherto been wanting; but that now, when hostilities between +his natural and adopted countries had been declared, there would be +ample room for the exercise of his treason. It was the strong assurance +I felt that he was the solitary voyager on the face of the waters, which +induced me to pursue him; for I had a presentiment that, could I but +track him in his course, I should discover some proof of his guilt, +which would suffice to rid us for ever of the presence of so dangerous a +subject. The adventure was moreover one that pleased me, although +perhaps I was not strictly justified in quitting my gun-boat, especially +as in the urgency of the moment, I had not even thought of leaving +orders with my boatswain, in the event of anything unexpected occurring +during my absence. The sentinels alone were aware of my departure. + +"The course we pursued was in the direction of Hartley's point, and so +correct had been the steering and paddling of the keen-sighted negro, +that when we made the beach, we found ourselves immediately opposite to +Desborough's hut. + +"'How is this, Sambo?' I asked in a low tone, as our canoe grated on the +sand within a few paces of several others that lay where I expected to +find but one--'are all these Desborough's?' + +"'No, Massa Geral--'less him teal him toders, Desborough only got +one--dis a public landin' place.' + +"'Can you tell which is his?' I inquired. + +"'To be sure--dis a one,' and he pointed to one nearly twice the +dimensions of its fellows. + +"'Has it been lately used, Sambo--can you tell?' + +"'I soon find out, Massa Geral.' + +"His device was the most simple and natural in the world, and yet I +confess it was one which I never should have dreamt of. Stooping on the +sands, he passed his hand under the bottom of the canoe, and then +whispered: + +"'Him not touch a water to-night, Massa Geral--him dry as a chip.' + +"Here I was at fault. I began to apprehend that I had been baffled in my +pursuit, and deceived in my supposition. I knew that Desborough had had +for years, one large canoe only in his possession, and it was evident +that this had not been used for the night. I was about to order Sambo to +shove off again, when it suddenly occurred to me, that, instead of +returning from a visit, the suspected settler might have received a +visiter, and I accordingly desired my _fides Achates_ to submit the +remainder of the canoes to the same inspection. + +"After having passed his hand ineffectually over several, he at length +announced, as he stooped over one which I recognised, from a peculiar +elevation of the bow and stern, to be same we had passed. + +"'Dis a one all drippin' wet, Massa Geral. May I nebber see a Hebben ib +he not a same we follow.' + +"A low tapping against the door of the hut, which, although evidently +intended to be subdued, was now, in the silence of night, distinctly +audible, while our whispers on the contrary, mingled as they were with +the crisping sound of the waves rippling on the sands were, at that +distance, undistinguishable. It was evident that I had erred in my +original conjecture. Had it been Desborough himself, living alone as he +did, he would not have knocked for admission where there was no one to +afford it, but would have quietly let himself in. It could then be no +other than a visiter, perhaps a spy from the enemy--and the same to whom +we had given chase. + +"From the moment that the tapping commenced, Sambo and I stood +motionless on the shore, and without trusting our voices again, even to +a whisper. In a little time we heard the door open, and the low voice of +Desborough in conversation with another. Presently the door was shut, +and soon afterwards, through an imperfectly closed shutter on the only +floor of the hut, we could perceive a streak of light reflected on the +clearing in front, as if from a candle or lamp that was stationary. + +"'I tink him dam rascal dat man, Massa Geral,' at length ventured my +companion. 'I 'member long time ago,' and he sighed, 'when Sambo was no +bigger nor dat paddle, one berry much like him. But, Massa Geral, Massa +always tell me nebber talk o' dat.' + +"'A villain he is, I believe, Sambo, but let us advance cautiously and +discover what he is about.' + +"We now stole along the skirt of the forest, until we managed to +approach the window, through which the light was still thrown in one +long, fixed, but solitary ray. It was however impossible to see who were +within, for although the voices of men were distinguishable, their forms +were so placed as not to be visible through the partial opening. + +"The conversation had evidently been some moments commenced. The first +words I heard uttered were by Desborough. + +"'A Commissary boat, and filled with bags of goold eagles, and a +fiftieth part our'n, if we get her clean slick through to Detroit. Well, +drot me, if that ain't worth the trial. Why didn't they try it by land, +boy?' + +"'I reckon, father, that cock wouldn't fight. The Injuns are outlyin' +everywhere to cut off our mails, and the ready is too much wanted to be +thrown away. No, no: the river work's the safest, I take it, for there +they little expect it to come.' + +"The voice of the last speaker excited in me a strong desire to see the +face of Desborough's visiter. Unable, where I stood, to catch the +slightest view of either, I fancied that I might be more successful in +rear of the hut. I therefore moved forward, followed by Sambo, but not +so cautiously as to prevent my feet from crushing a fragment of decayed +wood that lay in my path. + +"A bustle within, and the sudden opening of the door announced that the +noise had been overheard. I held up my finger impressively to Sambo, and +we both remained motionless. + +"'Who the hell's there?' shouted Desborough, and the voice rang like the +blast of a speaking trumpet along the skirt of the forest. + +"'Some raccoon looking out for Hartley's chickens, I expect,' said his +companion, after a short pause. 'There's nothin' human, I reckon, to be +seen movin' at this hour of the night.' + +"'Who the hell's there?' repeated Desborough--still no answer. + +"Again the door was closed, and under cover of the slight noise made by +the settler in doing this, and resuming his seat, Sambo and I +accomplished the circuit of the hut. Here we had an unobstructed view of +the persons of both. A small store room or pantry communicated with that +in which they were sitting at a table, on which was a large flagon, we +knew to contain whiskey, and a couple of japanned drinking cups, from +which, ever and anon, they 'wetted their whistles,' as they termed it, +and whetted their discourse. As they sat each with his back to the inner +wall, or more correctly, the logs of the hut, and facing the door +communicating with the store-room, left wide open, and in a direct line +with the back window at which we had taken our stand, we could +distinctly trace every movement of their features, while, thrown into +the shade by the gloom with which we were enveloped, we ran no risk of +detection ourselves. It is almost unnecessary to observe, after what has +occurred this morning, that the companion of Desborough was no other +than the _soi-disant_ Ensign Paul Emilius Theophilus Arnoldi; or, more +properly, the scoundrel son of a yet more scoundrel father. He wore the +dress in which you yesterday beheld him, but beneath a Canadian blanket +coat, which, when I first saw him in the hut, was buttoned up to the +chin so closely as to conceal everything American about the dress. + +"'Well now, I reckon we must lay our heads to do this job;' said the +son, as he tossed off a portion of the liquid he had poured into his +can. 'There's only that one gun-boat I expect in t'other channel.' + +"'Only one, Phil--do you know who commands it?' + +"'One of them curst Granthams, to be sure. I say, old boy,' and his eye +lighted up significantly as he pointed to the opposite wall. 'I see +you've got the small bore still.' + +"A knowing wink marked the father's sense of the allusion. 'The devil's +in it,' he rejoined, 'if we can't come over that smooth-faced chap some +how or other. Did you see anythin' of him as you come along?' + +"'I reckon I did. Pretty chick he is to employ for a look-out. Why I +paddled two or three times round his gun-boat as it lay 'gin the shore, +without so much as a single livin' soul being on deck to see me.' + +"It is proverbial," continued Grantham, "that listeners never hear any +good of themselves. I paid the common penalty. But if I continued calm, +my companion did not. Partly incensed at what had related to me--but +more infuriated at the declaration made by the son, that he had paddled +several times round the gun-boat, without a soul being on deck to see +him, he drew near to me, his white teeth displaying themselves in the +gloom, as he whispered, but in a tone that betrayed extreme irritation. + +"'What a dam liar rascal, Massa Geral. He nebber go round: I see him +come a down a ribber long afore he see a boat at all.' + +"'Hush, Sambo! hush--not a word,' I returned in the same low whisper. +'The villains are at some treason, and if we stir, we shall lose all +chance of discovering it.' + +"'Me no peak, Massa Geral; but dam him lyin' teef,' he continued to +mutter, 'I wish I had him board a gun-boat.' + +"'A dozen fellers well armed might take the d----d British craft,' +observed Desborough. 'How many men may there be aboard the Commissary?' + +"'About forty, I reckon, under some d----d old rig'lar major. I've got a +letter for him here to desire him to come on, if so be as we gets the +craft out of the way.' + +"'Drot me if I know a better way than to jump slick aboard her,' +returned Desborough, musingly, 'forty genu_ine_ Kaintucks ought to +swallow her up crew and all.' + +"'I guess they would,' returned his companion, 'but they are not +Kaintucks, but only rig'lars; and then agin if they are discovered, one +spry cannon might sink her; and if the eagles go to the bottom we shall +lose our fiftieth. You don't reckon that.' + +"'What the hell's to be done then?' exclaimed Desborough, resorting to +his favorite oath when in doubt. + +"'My plan's already cut and dried by a wiser head nor yours nor mine, as +you shall larn; but first let a feller wet his whistle.' Here they both +drained off another portion of the poison that stood before them. + +"Not to tire you," pursued Grantham, "with a repetition of the oaths and +vulgar and interjectional chucklings that passed between the +well-assorted pair during the disclosure of the plan, I will briefly +state that it was one of the most stupid that could have been conceived, +and reflected but little credit on the stratagetic powers of whoever +originated it. + +"The younger scoundrel, who since his desertion from our service, claims +to be a naturalized citizen of the United States, (his name of +Desborough being changed for that of Arnoldi, and his rank of full +private for that of Ensign of Militia,) had been selected, from his +knowledge of the Canadian shore and his connexion with the disaffected +settler, as a proper person to entrust with a stratagem, having for its +object the safe convoy of a boat with specie, of which the American +garrison, it appears, stands much in need. The renegade had been +instructed to see his father, to whom he was to promise a fiftieth of +the value of the freight, provided he should by any means contrive to +draw the gun-boat from her station. The most plausible plan suggested +was, that he should intimate to me that a prize of value was lying +between Turkey Island and our own shore, which it required but my sudden +appearance to ensure, without even striking a blow. Here a number of +armed boats were to be stationed in concealment in order to take me at a +disadvantage, and even if I avoided being captured, the great aim would +be accomplished--namely, that of getting me out of the way until the +important boat should have cleared the channel running between Bois +Blanc and the American shore, and secreted herself in one of the several +deep creeks which empty themselves into the river. Here she was to have +remained until I had returned to my station, when her passage upward +might be pursued, if not without observation, at least without risk. As +Desborough was known to be suspected by us, it was further suggested +that he should appear to have been influenced in the information +conveyed to me, not by any motives of patriotism, which would have been +in the highest degree misplaced, but by the mere principle of +self-interest. He was to require of me a pledge that, out of the +proceeds of the proposed capture a twentieth share should be his, or, if +I would not undertake to guarantee this from the Government or my own +authority, that I should promise my own eventual share should be divided +with him. This stratagem successful, the younger Desborough was to +repair to the boat which had been lying concealed for the last day or +two, a few miles below me, with an order for her to make the best of her +way during the night if possible. If failing on the other hand, she was +to return to the port whence she had sailed, until a more fitting +opportunity should present itself. + +"This," continued Grantham, after a slight pause, during which the +bottle was again circulated, "was delightful intelligence. Distrustful +as I was of Desborough, I could not have been deceived by this advice, +even had I not thus fortunately become acquainted with the whole of the +design; but now that I knew my man, and could see my way, I at once +resolved to appear the dupe they proposed to make me. Specie, too, for +the payment of the garrison! This was no contemptible prize with which +to commence my career. Besides, the boat was well manned; and although +without cannon, still, in point of military equipment, quite able to +cope with my crew, which did not exceed thirty men. + +"With your knowledge of Desborough's character, it will not surprise you +to learn, although I confess I boiled with indignation at the moment to +hear, that the object of the scoundrels was, with a view to the +gratification of their own private vengeance, not merely to raise a +doubt of my fidelity, but to prefer against me a direct charge of +treason. Thus, in their vulgar language, they argued. If misled by their +representations, I quitted my station on the channel, and fell into the +ambuscade prepared for me near Turkey Island, I raised a suspicion of +the cause of my absence, which might be confirmed by an anonymous +communication; and if, on the other hand, I escaped that ambuscade, the +suspicion would be even stronger, as care would be taken to announce to +the English garrison the fact of my having been bribed to leave the +channel free for the passage of a boat, filled with money and +necessaries for Detroit. My return to my post immediately afterwards +would confirm the assertion; and so perfectly had they, in their wise +conceit, arranged their plans, that a paper was prepared by the son and +handed to his father, for the purpose of being dropped in the way of one +of the officers--the purport of which was an accusation against me, of +holding a secret understanding with the enemy, in proof whereof it was +stated that at an important moment, I should be found absent from my +post. I think I am correct, Captain Molineux." + +"Perfectly," returned that officer--"such indeed were the contents of +the paper which I picked up in my rounds about daylight yesterday +morning, and which I have only again to express my regret that I should +have allowed to make on me even a momentary impression. Indeed, +Grantham, I am sure you will do me the justice to believe, that until we +actually saw the American boat passing, while you were nowhere to be +seen, I never for one moment doubted its being, what it has proved to +be--the falsest and most atrocious of calumnies." + +"Your after doubt was but natural," replied the sailor, "although I +confess I could not help wincing under the thought of its being +entertained. I knew that, on my return, I should be enabled to explain +everything, but yet felt nettled that even my short absence should, as I +knew it must, give rise to any strictures on my conduct. It was that +soreness of feeling which induced my impatient allusion to the subject, +even after my good fortune of yesterday, for I at once detected that the +slanderous paper had been received and commented on; and from the +peculiar glance, I saw Henry direct to you, I was at no loss to discover +into whose hands it had fallen. But to resume. + +"Their plan of action being finally settled, the traitors began to give +indication of separating--the one to hasten and announce to the American +boat the removal of all impediment to her passage upwards--the other to +my gun-boat, in order to play off the falsehood devised for the success +of their stratagem. + +"'Here's damnation to the curst race of Granthams,' said the son, as +raising his tall and lanky body, he lifted the rude goblet to his lips. + +"'Amen,' responded the father, rising also and drinking to the pledge +'and, what's more, here's to the goold eagles that'll repay us for our +job. And now Phil, let's be movin'.' + +"The heavy tread of their feet within the hut as they moved to and fro, +to collect the several articles belonging to the equipment of +Desborough's canoe, promising fair to cover the sound of our footsteps, +I now whispered to Sambo, and we hastily made good our retreat to the +point where we left our skiff. In a few minutes, we were again on the +lake, paddling swiftly but cautiously towards my gun-boat. I had +instructed the sentinels not to hail me on my return, therefore when I +gained the deck, it was without challenge or observation of any kind, +which could denote to those from whom I had so recently parted, that any +one had been absent. + +"Again I had thrown myself upon the deck, and was ruminating on the +singular events of the evening, associating the rich prize, which I now +already looked upon as my own, with the rascality of those who, +imagining me to be their dupe, were so soon to become mine; and moreover +meditating such measures as I fancied most likely to secure a result so +opposite to that which they anticipated, when the loud quick sharp hail +of the sentinels announced that a craft of some kind was approaching. + +"'Want to see the officer,' shouted a voice which I knew to be +Desborough's. 'Somethin' very partick'lar to tell him, I guess.' + +"Permission having been granted, the canoe came rapidly up to the side, +and in the next minute, the tall heavy form of the settler stood +distinctly defined against the lake, as he stepped on the gun-wale of +the boat. + +"It must be needless here to repeat the information of which he was the +bearer," pursued Grantham. "Its purport was, in every sense, what I had +so recently overheard in the hut. + +"'And how am I to know that this tale of yours is correct,' I demanded +when he had concluded, yet in a tone that seemed to admit, I was as much +his dupe as he could reasonably desire. 'You are aware, Desborough, that +your character for loyalty does not stand very high, and this may prove +but a trick to get me out of the way. What good motive can you give for +my believing you?' + +"'The best I calculate as can be,' he unhesitatingly answered, 'and that +is my own interest. I don't make no boast of my loyalty, as you say, to +be sure, Mr. Grantham, but I've an eye like a hawk for the rhino, and I +han't giv' you this piece of news without expectin' a promise that I +shall git a purty considerable sum in eagles, if so be as you succeeds +in wallopin' the prize.' + +"'Walloping--what do you call walloping, man?' + +"'What do I call wallopin'? why licking her slick and clean out, and +gettin' hold of the dust to be sure.' + +"I could have knocked the scoundrel to the deck, for the familiarity of +the grin which accompanied his reply, and as for Sambo, I had more than +once to look him peremptorily into patience. + +"I knew from what had passed between father and son, that, until the +former had communicated with, and impressed a conviction of the accuracy +of his report, upon me, nothing was to be attempted by the boat, the +capture of which was now, for a variety of reasons, an object of weighty +consideration. Whatever violence I did to myself therefore, in +abstaining from a castigation of the traitor. I felt that I could not +hope for success, unless, by appearing implicitly to believe all he had +stated. I thus set suspicion at rest. + +"'A more satisfactory motive for your information you could not have +given me, Desborough,' I at length replied, with a sarcasm which was +however lost upon him, 'and I certainly do you the justice to believe +that to the self-interest you have avowed, we shall be indebted for the +capture of the prize in question. She lies, you say, between Turkey +Island and our own shores.' + +"'I guess as how she does,' replied the settler, with an eagerness that +betrayed his conviction that the bait had taken; 'but Mr. +Grantham.'--and I could detect a lurking sneer, 'I expect at least that +when you have lick'd the prize you will make my loyalty stand a little +higher than it seems to be at this moment, for I guess, puttin' the +dollars out of the question, it's a right loyal act I am guilty of now.' + +"'You may rely upon it, Desborough, you shall have all the credit you +deserve for your conduct on the occasion--that it shall be faithfully +reported on my return, you may take for granted.' Here I summoned all +hands up to weigh anchor and make sail for Turkey Island. 'Now then, +Desborough, unless you wish to be a sharer in our enterprise, the sooner +you leave us the better, for we shall be off immediately.' + +"In obedience to my order, all hands were speedily upon deck, and busied +in earnest preparation. In pleasing assurance that I was as completely +his dupe as could be desired, the villain had now the audacity to demand +from me a written promise that, in consideration of the information +given, five hundred dollars should be paid to him on the disposal of the +prize. This demand (aware as he was--or rather as he purposed--that I +was to play the part of the captured instead of that of the captor), was +intended to lull me into even greater reliance on his veracity. I had +difficulty in restraining my indignation, for I felt that the fellow was +laughing at me in his sleeve; however, the reflection that, in less than +twenty-four hours, the tables would be turned upon him, operated as a +check upon my feelings, and I said with a hurried voice and air: + +"'Impossible. Desborough, I have no time now to give the paper, for as +you perceive we are getting under way--I however, repeat to you my +promise, that if your claims are not attended to elsewhere, you shall +have my share of the profits, if I take this prize within the next eight +and forty hours within the boundary of Turkey Island. Will that content +you?' + +"'I expect as how it must,' returned the secretly delighted, yet +seemingly disappointed settler, as he now prepared to recross the +gun-wale into this canoe; 'but I guess, Mr. Grantham, you might at least +advance a feller a little money out of hand, on the strength of the +prize. Jist say twenty dollars.' + +"'No, Desborough, not one. When the Turkey Island prize is mine, then if +the Government refuse to confirm your claims, we will share equally; but +as I said before, I must first capture her, before I consent to part +with a shilling.' + +"'Well then, I guess I must wait,' and the scoundrel confidently +believing that he had gulled me to his heart's content, stepped heavily +into his canoe, which he directed along the lake shore, while we with +willing sails, glided up the channel and speedily lost him from our +view." + +"A perfect adventure, upon my word!" interrupted De Courcy. + +"What a bold and deliberate scoundrel!" added Captain Granville. "I +confess, Grantham, I cannot but admire the coolness and self-possession +you evinced on this occasion. Had I been there in your stead, I should +have tied the rascal up, given him a dozen or two on the spot, and then +tumbled him head-foremost into the lake." + +"The remainder is soon told," continued Gerald. "On parting from +Desborough, I continued my course directly up the channel, with a view +of gaining a point, where unseen myself, I could observe the movements +of the American boat, which, from all I had heard, I fully expected +would attempt the passage in the course of the following day. My perfect +knowledge of the country suggested to me, as the safest and most secure +hiding place, the creek whence you saw me issue at a moment when it was +supposed the American had altogether escaped. The chief object of the +enemy was evidently to get me out of the channel. That free, it was of +minor importance whether I fell into the ambuscade or not, so that the +important boat could effect the passage unobserved, or at least in +safety. If my gun-boat should be seen returning unharmed from Turkey +Island, the American was to run into the first creek along the shore, +which she had orders to hug until I had passed, and not until I had +again resumed my station in the channel, was she to renew her course +upwards to Detroit, which post it was assumed she would then gain +without difficulty. + +"It was scarcely yet day," continued Grantham, "when I reached and ran +into the creek of which I have just spoken, and which, owing to the +narrowness of the stream and consequent difficulty of waring, I was +obliged to enter stern-foremost. That no time might be lost in getting +her out at the proper moment, I, instead of dropping her anchor, made +the gun-boat fast to a tree; and, desiring the men, with the exception +of the watch, to take their rest as usual, lay quietly awaiting the +advance of the enemy. + +"The gun fired from the lower battery on the island, was the first +intimation we had of the approach of the prize which I had given my +gallant fellows to understand was in reserve for us; and presently +afterwards Sambo, whom I had dispatched on the look out, appeared on the +bank, stating that a large boat, which had been fired at ineffectually, +was making the greatest exertions to clear the channel. A second shot, +discharged from a nearer point, soon after announced that the boat had +gained the head of the island, and might therefore be shortly expected. +In the impatience of my curiosity I sprang to the shore, took the +telescope out of the hands of Sambo, and hastened to climb the tree from +which he had so recently descended. I now distinctly saw the boat, and, +availing herself of the rising and partial breeze, she steered more into +the centre of the stream; and I thought I could observe marks of +confusion and impatience among the groups in front of the fort, whom I +had justly imagined to have been assembled there to witness the arrival +of the canoes we had seen descending the river long before the first gun +was fired." + +"But the chase, and the firing after you doubled the point?" inquired +Captain Granville. "We saw nothing of this." + +"The American, plying his oars with vigor, gave us work enough," +answered the young sailor, "and had made considerable way up the creek, +before we came up with him. An attempt was then made to escape us by +running ashore, and abandoning the boat, but it was too late. Our bow +was almost touching his stern, and in the desperation of the moment, the +American troops discharged their muskets, but with so uncertain an aim, +in consequence of their being closely crowded upon each other, that only +three of my men were wounded by their fire. Before they could load +again, we were enabled to grapple with them hand to hand. A few of my +men had discharged their pistols, in answer to the American volley, +before I had time to interfere to prevent them; but the majority having +reserved theirs, we had now immeasurably the advantage. Removing the +bayonets from their muskets, which at such close quarters were useless, +they continued their contest a short time with these, but the cutlass +soon overpowered them, and they surrendered." + +"And the Major, Grantham; did he behave well on the occasion?" + +"Gallantly. It was the Major that cut down the only man I had +dangerously wounded in the affair, and he would have struck another +fatally, had I not disarmed him. While in the act of doing so, I was +treacherously shot (in the arm only, fortunately,) by the younger +scoundrel, Desborough, whom in turn I saved from Sambo's vengeance, in +order that he might receive a more fitting punishment. And now, +gentlemen, you have the whole history." + +"Yes, as far as regards the men portion," said De Courcy, with a +malicious smile; "but what became of the lady all this while, my +conquering hero? Did you find her playing a very active part in the +skirmish?" + +"Active--no!" replied Gerald, slightly coloring as he remarked all eyes +directed to him at this demand, "but passively courageous she was to a +degree I could not have supposed possible in woman. She sat calm and +collected amid the din of conflict, as if she had been accustomed to the +thing all her life, nor once moved from the seat which she occupied in +the stern, except to make an effort to prevent me from disarming her +uncle. I confess that her coolness astonished me, while it excited my +warmest admiration." + +"I hope it may be nothing beyond admiration," observed the captain of +Grenadiers; "I tell you as a friend, Gerald, I do not like this account +you give of her conduct. A woman who could show no agitation in such a +scene must have either a damn'd cold, or a damn'd black heart, and +there's but little claim to admiration there." + +"Upon my word, Captain Cranstoun," and the handsome features of Gerald +crimsoned with a feeling not unmixed with serious displeasure, "I do not +quite understand you--you appear to assume something between Miss +Montgomerie and myself that should not be imputed to either--and +certainly, not thus publicly." + +"Nonsense, man, there's no use in making a secret of the matter," +returned the positive grenadier. "The subject was discussed after dinner +yesterday, and there was nobody present who didn't agree, that if you +had won her heart you had given your own in exchange." + +"God forbid!" said Henry Grantham with unusual gravity of manner, while +he looked affectionately on the changing and far from satisfied +countenance of his conscious brother, "for I repeat with Captain +Cranstoun, I like her not. Why, I know not; still I like her not, and I +shall be glad, Gerald, when you have consigned her to the place of her +destination." + +"Pooh! pooh! nonsense!" interrupted Captain Granville; "never mind, +Gerald," he pursued, good-humoredly, "she is a splendid girl, and one +that you need not be ashamed to own as a conquest. By heaven, she has a +bust to warm the bosom of an anchorite, and depend upon it, all that +Cranstoun has said arises only from pique that he is not the object +preferred. Those black eyes of hers have set his ice blood upon the +boil, and he would willingly exchange places with you, as I honestly +confess I should." + +Vexed as Gerald certainly felt at the familiar tone the conversation was +now assuming in regard to Miss Montgomerie, and although satisfied that +mere pleasantry was intended, it was not without a sensation of relief +that he found it interrupted by the entrance of the several +non-commissioned officers with their order-books. Soon after the party +broke up. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + + +Before noon, on the following day, the boat that was to convey Major +Montgomerie and his niece to the American shore, pulled up to the +landing-place in front of the fort. The weather, as on the preceding +day, was fine, and the river exhibited the same placidity of surface. +Numerous bodies of Indians were collected on the banks, pointing to and +remarking on the singularity of the white flag which hung drooping at +the stern of the boat. Presently the prisoners were seen advancing to +the bank, accompanied by General Brock, Commodore Barclay, and the +principal officers of the garrison. Major Montgomerie appeared pleased +at the prospect of the liberty that awaited him, while the countenance +of his niece, on the contrary, presented an expression of deep thought, +although it was afterwards remarked by Granville and Villiers, both +close observers of her demeanor, that as her eye occasionally glanced in +the direction of Detroit, it lighted up with an animation strongly in +contrast with the general calm and abstractedness of her manner. All +being now ready, Gerald Grantham, who had received his final +instructions from the General offered his arm to Miss Montgomerie, who, +to all outward appearance, took it mechanically and unconsciously, +although, in the animated look which the young sailor turned upon her in +the next instant, there was evidence the contact had thrilled +electrically to his heart. After exchanging a cordial pressure of the +hand with his gallant entertainers, and reiterating to the General his +thanks for the especial favor conferred upon him, the venerable Major +followed them to the boat. His departure was the signal for much +commotion among the Indians. Hitherto they had had no idea of what was +in contemplation; but when they saw them enter and take their seats in +the boat, they raised one of those terrific shouts which have so often +struck terror and dismay; and brandishing their weapons, seemed ready to +testify their disapprobation by something more than words. It was +however momentary--a commanding voice made itself heard, even amid the +din of their loud yell, and, when silence had been obtained, a few +animated sentences, uttered in a tone of deep authority, caused the +tumult at once to subside. The voice was that of Tecumseh, and there +were few among his race who, brave and indomitable as they were, could +find courage to thwart his will. Meanwhile the boat, impelled by eight +active seamen, urged its way through the silvery current, and in less +than an hour from its departure had disappeared. + +Two hours had elapsed--the General and superior officers had +retired--and the Indians, few by few, had repaired to their several +encampments, except a party of young warriors, who, wrapped in their +blankets and mantles, lay indolently extended on the grass, smoking +their pipes, or producing wild sounds from their melancholy flutes. Not +far from these, sat, with their legs overhanging the edge of the steep +bank, a group of the junior officers of the garrison, who, with that +indifference which characterized their years, were occupied in casting +pebbles into the river, and watching the bubbles that arose to the +surface. Among the number was Henry Grantham, and, at a short distance +from him, sat the old but athletic negro, Sambo, who, not having been +required to accompany Gerald, to whom he was especially attached, had +continued to linger on the bank long after his anxious eye had lost +sight of the boat in which the latter had departed. While thus engaged, +a new direction was given to the interest of all parties by a peculiar +cry, which reached them from a distance over the water, apparently from +beyond the near extremity of the island of Bois Blanc. To the officers +the sound was unintelligible, for it was the first of the kind they had +ever heard; but the young Indians appeared fully to understand its +import. Starting from their lethargy, they sprang abruptly to their +feet; and giving a sharp, answering yell, stamped upon the green turf, +and snuffed the hot air with distended nostrils, like so many wild +horses let loose upon the desert. Nor was the excitement confined to +these, for, all along the line of encampment the same wild notes were +echoed, and forms came bounding again to the front, until the bank was +once more peopled with savages. + +"What was the meaning of that cry, Sambo, and whence came it?" asked +Henry Grantham, who, as well as his companions, had strained his eyes in +every direction, but in vain, to discover its cause. + +"Dat a calp cry, Massa Henry--see he dere a canoe not bigger than a +hick'ry nut," and he pointed with his finger to what in fact had the +appearance of being little larger; "I wish," he pursued, with +bitterness, "dey bring him calp of dem billains Desborough--Dam him +lying tief." + +"Bravo!" exclaimed De Courcy, who, in common with his companions, +recollecting Gerald's story of the preceding day, was at no loss to +understand why the latter epithet had been so emphatically bestowed; "I +see (winking to Henry Grantham) you have not forgiven his paddling round +the gun-boat the other night, while you and the rest of the crew were +asleep, eh, Sambo?" + +"So help me hebben, Obbicer, he no sail around a gun-boat, he dam a +Yankee. He come along a lake like a dam tief in e night and I tell a +Massa Geral--and Massa Geral and me chase him all ober e water--I not +asleep. Massa Courcy," pursued the old man, with pique; "I nebber +sleep--Massa Geral nebber sleep." + +"The devil ye don't," observed De Courcy, quaintly; "then the Lord +deliver _me_ from gun-boat service, I say." + +"Amen!" responded Villiers. + +"Why," asked Middlemore, "do Gerald Grantham and old Frumpy here remind +one of a certain Irish festival? Do you give it up? Because they are +_awake_----" + +The abuse heaped on the pre-eminently vile attempt was unmeasured--Sambo +conceived it a personal affront to himself, and he said, with an air of +mortification and wounded dignity, not unmixed with anger: + +"Sambo poor black nigger--obbicer berry white man, but him heart all ob +a color. He no Frumpy--Massa Geral no like an Irish bestibal. I wonder +he no tick up for a broder, Massa Henry." His agitation here was +extreme. + +"Nonsense, Sambo--don't you see we are only jesting with you?" said the +youth, in the kindest tone--for he perceived that the faithful creature +was striving hard to check the rising tear--"there is not an officer +here who does not respect you for your long attachment to my family, and +none would willingly give you pain; neither should you suppose they +would say anything offensive in regard of my brother Gerald." + +Pacified by this assurance, which was moreover corroborated by several +of his companions, really annoyed at having pained the old man, Sambo +sank once more into respectful silence, still however continuing to +occupy the same spot. During this colloquy the cry had been several +times repeated, and as often replied to from the shore; and now a canoe +was distinctly visible, urging its way to the beach. The warriors it +contained were a scouting party, six in number--four paddling the light +bark, and one at the helm, while the sixth, who appeared to be the +leader, stood upright in the bow, waving from the long pole, to which it +was attached, a human scalp. A few minutes and the whole had landed, and +were encircled on the bank by their eager and inquiring comrades. Their +story was soon told. They had encountered two Americans at some distance +on the opposite shore, who were evidently making the best of their way +through the forest to Detroit. They called upon them to deliver +themselves up, but the only answer was an attempt at flight. The Indians +fired, and one fell dead, pierced by many balls. The other, however, who +happened to be considerably in advance, threw all his energy into his +muscular frame; and being untouched by the discharge that had slain his +companion, succeeded in gaining a dense underwood, through which he +finally effected his escape. The scouts continued their pursuit for +upwards of an hour, but finding it fruitless, returned to the place +where they had left their canoe, having first secured the scalp and +spoils of the fallen man. + +"Dam him, debbel," exclaimed Sambo, who, as well as the officers, had +approached the party detailing their exploit, and had fixed his dark eye +on the dangling trophy--"May I nebber see a hebben ib he not a calp of a +younger Desborough. I know him lying tief by he hair--he all yaller like +a soger's breastplate--curse him rascal (and his white and even teeth +were exhibited in the grin that accompanied the remark,) he nebber more +say he sail round Massa Geral's gun-boat, and Massa Geral and Sambo +sleep." + +"By Jove he is right," said De Courcy. "I recollect remarking the color +of the fellow's hair yesterday, when, on calling for a glass of "gin +sling," at the inn to which I had conducted him, he threw his slouched +hat unceremoniously on the table, and rubbed the fingers of both hands +through his carrotty locks, until they appeared to stand like those of +the Gorgon, perfectly on end." + +"And were there other proof wanting," said Villiers, "we have it here in +the spoil his slayers are exhibiting to their companions. There is the +identical powder horn, bullet pouch, and waist belt, which he wore when +he landed on this very spot." + +"And I," said Middlemore, "will swear by the crooked buckhorn handle of +that huge knife or dagger; for in our struggle on the sands yesterday +morning, his blanket coat came open, and discovered the weapon, on which +I kept a sharp eye during the whole affair. Had he but managed to plant +that monster (and he affected to shudder,) under my middle ribs, then +would it have been all over with poor Middlemore." + +"There cannot be a doubt," remarked Henry Grantham. "With Sambo and De +Courcy, I well recollect the hair, and I also particularly noticed the +handle of his dagger, which, as you perceive, has a remarkable twist in +it." + +All doubt was put to rest by Sambo, who, having spoken with its +possessor for a moment, now returned, bearing the knife, at the +extremity of the handle of which was engraved, on a silver shield, the +letters P. E. T. A. Ens. M. M. + +"Paul Emilius Theophilus Arnoldi, Ensign Michigan Militia," pursued +Grantham, reading. "This, then, is conclusive, and we have to +congratulate ourselves that one at least of two of the vilest scoundrels +this country ever harbored, has at length met the fate he merited." + +"Fate him merit, Massa Henry!" muttered the aged and privileged negro, +with something like anger in his tones, as he returned the knife to the +Indian, "he dam 'serter from a king! No, no he nebber deserb a die like +dis. He ought to hab a rope roun him neck and die him lying tief like a +dog." + +"I guess, however, our friend Jeremiah has got clean slick off," said +Villiers, imitating the tone and language of that individual, "and he, I +take it, is by far the more formidable of the two. I expect that, before +he dies, he will give one of us a long shot yet, in revenge for the fall +of young hopeful." + +"Traitorous and revengeful scoundrel!" aspirated Henry Grantham, as the +recollection of the manner of his father's death came over his mind. "It +is, at least, some consolation to think his villainy has in part met its +reward. I confess, I exult in the death of young Desborough, less even +because a dangerous enemy has been removed, than because in his fall the +heart of the father will be racked in its only assailable point. I trust +I am not naturally cruel, yet do I hope the image of his slain partner +in infamy may ever after revisit his memory, and remind him of his +crime." + +An exclamation of the Indians now drew the attention of the officers to +a boat that came in sight, in the direction in which that of Gerald +Grantham had long since disappeared, and as she drew nearer, a white +flag floating in the stern, became gradually distinguishable. +Expressions of surprise passed among the officers, by whom various +motives were assigned as the cause of the return of the flag of truce, +for that it was their own boat no one doubted, especially as, on +approaching sufficiently near, the blue uniform of the officer who +steered the boat was visible to the naked eye. On a yet nearer approach, +however, it was perceived that the individual in question wore not the +uniform of the British navy, but that of an officer of the American +line, the same precisely, indeed, as that of Major Montgomerie. It was +further remarked that there was no lady in the boat, and that, +independently of the crew, there was besides the officer already named, +merely one individual, dressed in the non-commissioned uniform, who +seemed to serve as his orderly. Full evidence being now had that this +was a flag sent from the American fort, which had, in all probability, +missed Gerald by descending one channel of the river formed by Turkey +Island, while the latter had ascended by the other, the aid-de-camp, De +Courcy, hastened to acquaint General Brock with the circumstance, and to +receive his orders. By the time the American reached the landing-place, +the youth had returned, accompanying a superior officer of the staff. +Both descended the flight of steps leading to the river, when, having +saluted the officer, after a moment or two of conversation, they +proceeded to blindfold him. This precaution having been taken, the +American was then handed over the gun-wale of the boat, and assisted up +the flight of steps by the two British officers on whose arms he leaned. +As they passed through the crowd, on their way to the fort, the ears of +the stranger were assailed by loud yells from the bands of Indians, who, +with looks of intense curiosity and interest, gazed on the passing, and +to them in some degree inexplicable, scene. Startling as was the fierce +cry, the officer pursued his course without moving a muscle of his fine +and manly form, beyond what was necessary to the action in which he was +engaged. It was a position that demanded all his collectedness and +courage, and he seemed as though he had previously made up his mind not +to be deficient in either. Perhaps it was well that he had been +temporarily deprived of sight, for could he have beheld the numerous +tomahawks that were raised towards him in pantomimic representation of +what they would have done had they been permitted, the view would in no +way have assisted his self-possession. The entrance to the fort once +gained by the little party, the clamor began to subside, and the +Indians, by whom they had been followed, returned to the bank of the +river to satisfy their curiosity with a view of those who had been left +in the boat, to which, as a security against all possible outrage, a +sergeant's command had meanwhile been despatched. + +It was in the drawing-room of Colonel D'Egville, that the General, +surrounded by his chief officers, awaited the arrival of the flag of +truce. Into this the American Colonel, for such was his rank, after +traversing the area of the fort that lay between, was now ushered, and, +the bandage being removed, his eye encountered several to whom he was +personally known, and with these such salutations as became the occasion +were exchanged. + +"The flag you bear, sir," commenced the general, after a few moments of +pause succeeding these greetings, "relates, I presume, to the prisoners +so recently fallen into our hands." + +"By no means, General," returned the American, "this is the first +intimation I have had of such fact--my mission is of a wholly different +nature. I am deputed by the officer commanding the forces of the United +States to summon the garrison of Amherstburg, with all its naval +dependencies, to surrender within ten days from this period." + +The General smiled. "A similar purpose seems to have actuated us both," +he observed. "A shorter limit have I prescribed to the officer by whom I +have, this very day, sent a message to General Hull; where, may I ask, +did you pass my flag?" + +"I met with none, General, and yet my boat kept as nearly in the middle +of the stream as possible." + +"Then must ye have passed each other on the opposite sides of Turkey +Island. The officer in charge was moreover accompanied by two of the +prisoners to whom I have alluded--one a field officer in your own +regiment." + +"May I ask who?" interrupted the American quickly, and slightly +coloring. + +"Major Montgomerie." + +"So I suspected. Was the other of my regiment?" + +"The other," said the General, "bears no commission, and is simply a +volunteer in the expedition--one, in short, whose earnest wish to reach +Detroit, was the principal motive for my offering the Major his liberty +on parole." + +"And may I ask the name of this individual, so unimportant in rank, and +yet so filled with ardor in the cause, as to be thus anxious to gain the +theatre of war?" + +"One probably not unknown to you, Colonel, as the niece of your brother +officer--Miss Montgomerie." + +"Miss Montgomerie here!" faltered the American, rising and paling as he +spoke, while he mechanically placed on the table a glass of wine he had +the instant before raised to his lips--"surely it cannot be." + +There was much to excite interest, not only in the changed tone but in +the altered features of the American, as he thus involuntarily gave +expression to his surprise. The younger officers winked at each other, +and smiled their conviction of _une affaire de coeur_--while the senior +were no less ready to infer that they had now arrived at the true secret +of the impatience of Miss Montgomerie to reach the place of her +destination. To the penetrating eye of the General, however, there was +an expression of pain on the countenance of the officer, which accorded +ill with the feeling which a lover might be supposed to entertain, who +had been unexpectedly brought nearer to an object of attachment, and he +kindly sought to relieve his evident embarrassment by remarking: + +"I can readily comprehend your surprise, Colonel. One would scarcely +have supposed that a female could have had courage to brave the dangers +attendant on an expedition of this kind, in an open boat; but Miss +Montgomerie I confess, appears to me to be one whom no danger could +daunt, and whose resoluteness of purpose, once directed, no secondary +object could divert from its original aim." + +Before the officer could reply, Colonel D'Egville, who had absented +himself during the latter part of the conversation, returned, and +addressing the former in terms that proved their acquaintance to have +been of previous date, invited him to partake of some refreshment that +had been prepared for him in an adjoining apartment. This the American +at first faintly declined, on the plea of delay having been prohibited +by his chief; but, on the general jocosely remarking that, sharing their +hospitality on the present occasion would be no barrier to breaking a +lance a week hence, he assented; and, following Colonel D'Egville, +passed through a short corridor into a smaller apartment, where a +copious but hurried refreshment had been prepared. + +The entry of the officers was greeted by the presence of three +ladies--Mrs. D'Egville and her daughters--all of whom received him with +the frank cordiality that bespoke intimacy, while, on the countenance of +one of the latter, might be detected evidences of an interest that had +its foundation in something more than the mere esteem which dictated the +conduct of her mother and sister. If Julia D'Egville was in reality the +laughing, light hearted, creature represented in the mess room +conversation of the officers of the garrison, it would have been +difficult for a stranger to have recognised her in the somewhat serious +girl who now added her greetings to theirs, but in a manner slightly +tinctured with embarrassment. + +The American, who seemed not to notice it, directed his conversation, as +he partook of the refreshment, principally to Mrs. D'Egville, to whom he +spoke various ladies at Detroit, friends of both, who were deep +deplorers of the war and the non-communication which it occasioned; +alluded to the many delightful parties that had taken place, yet were +now interrupted; and to the many warm friendships which had been formed, +yet might by this event be severed for ever. He concluded by presenting +a note from a very intimate friend of the family, to which, he said, he +had been requested to take back a written answer. + +A feeling of deep gratification pervaded the benevolent countenance of +Mrs. D'Egville, as, on perusal, she found that it contained the offer of +an asylum for herself and daughters in case Amherstburgh should be +carried by storm. + +"Excellent, kind hearted friend!" she exclaimed when she had +finished--"this indeed does merit an answer. Need of assistance, +however, there is none, since my noble friend, the General has pledged +himself to anticipate any attempt to make our soil the theatre of +war--still, does it give me pleasure to be enabled to reciprocate her +offer, by promising, in my turn, an asylum against all chances of +outrage on the part of the wild Indians, attached to our cause"--and she +left the room. + +No sooner did the American find himself alone with the sisters, for +Colonel D'Egville had previously retired to the General, than discarding +all reserve, and throwing himself on his knees at the feet of her who +sat next him, he exclaimed in accents of the most touching pathos: + +"Julia, dearest Julia! for this chiefly am I here. I volunteered to be +the bearer of the summons to the British General, in the hope that some +kind chance would give you to my view, and now that fortune, propitious +beyond my utmost expectations, affords me the happiness of speaking to +you whom I had feared never to behold more, oh, tell me that, whatever +be the result of this unhappy war, you will not forget me. For me, I +shall ever cherish you in my heart's core." + +The glow which mantled over the cheek of the agitated girl, plainly told +that this passionate appeal was made to no unwilling ear. Still she +spoke not. + +"Dearest Julia, answer me--the moments of my stay are few, and at each +instant we are liable to interruption. In one word, therefore, may I +hope? In less than a week, many who have long been friends will meet as +enemies. Let me then at least have the consolation to know from your +lips, that whatever be the event, that dearest of all gifts--your love +is unchangeably mine." + +"I do promise, Ernest," faltered the trembling girl. "My heart is yours +and yours for ever--but do not unnecessarily expose yourself," and her +head sank confidingly on the shoulder of her lover. + +"Thank you, dearest," and the encircling arm of the impassioned officer +drew her form closer to his beating heart. "Gertrude, you are witness of +her vow, and before you, under more auspicious circumstances, will I +claim its fulfilment. Oh Julia, Julia, this indeed does recompense me +for many a long hour of anxiety and doubt." + +"And hers too have been hours of anxiety and doubt," said the gentle +Gertrude. "Ever since the war has been spoken of as certain, Julia has +been no longer the gay girl she was. Her dejection has been subject of +remark with all, and such is her dislike to any allusion to the past, +that she never even rallies Captain Cranstoun on his bear-skin adventure +of last winter on the ice." + +"Ah," interrupted the American, "never shall I forget the evening that +preceded that adventure. It was then, dearest Julia, that I ventured to +express the feeling with which you had inspired me. It was then I had +first the delight of hearing from your lips that I need not entirely +despair. I often, often, think of that night." + +"Of course you have not yet received my note, Ernest. Perhaps you will +deem it inconsiderate in me to have written, but I could not resist the +desire to afford you what I conceived would be a gratification, by +communicating intelligence of ourselves." + +"Note! what note! and by whom conveyed?" + +"Have you not heard," inquired Gertrude, warming into animation, "that +the General has sent a flag this morning to Detroit, and, under its +protection, two prisoners captured by my cousin, who is the officer that +conducts them." + +"And to that cousin you have confided the letter?" interrupted the +Colonel, somewhat eagerly. + +"No, not my cousin," said Julia, "but to one I conceived better suited +to the trust. You must know that my father, with his usual hospitality, +insisted on Major Montgomerie and his niece, the parties in question, +taking up their abode with us during the short time they remained." + +"And to Miss Montgomerie you gave your letter," hurriedly exclaimed the +Colonel, starting to his feet, and exhibiting a countenance of extreme +paleness. + +"Good heaven, Ernest! what is the matter? Surely you do not think me +guilty of imprudence in this affair. I was anxious to write to you,--I +imagined you would be glad to hear from me, and thought that the niece +of one of your officers would be the most suitable medium of +communication. I therefore confessed to her my secret, and requested her +to take charge of the letter." + +"Oh, Julia, you have been indeed imprudent. But what said she--how +looked she when you confided to her our secret?" + +"She made no other remark than to ask how long our attachment had +existed, and her look and voice were calm, and her cheek underwent no +variation from the settled paleness observable there since her arrival." + +"And in what manner did she receive her trust?" again eagerly demanded +the Colonel. + +"With a solemn assurance that it should be delivered to you with her own +hand--then, and then only, did a faint smile animate her still but +beautiful features. Yet why all these questions, Ernest? Or, can it +really be? Tell me," and the voice of the young girl became imperative, +"has Miss Montgomerie any claim upon your hand--she admitted to have +known you?" + +"On my honor, none;" impressively returned the Colonel. + +"Oh, what a weight you have removed from my heart, Ernest, but wherefore +you alarm, and wherein consists my imprudence?" + +"In this only, dearest Julia, that I had much rather another than she +had been admitted into your confidence. But as you have acted for the +best, I cannot blame you. Still I doubt not," and the tones of the +American were low and desponding, "that, as she has promised, she will +find means to deliver your note into my own hands--the seal is----?" + +"A fancy one--Andromache disarming Hector." + +"Rise, for Heaven's sake rise," interrupted Gertrude; "here comes +mamma." + +One fond pressure of her graceful form, and the Colonel had resumed his +seat. In the next moment Mrs. D'Egville entered, by one door, and +immediately afterwards her husband by another. The former handed her +note, and during the remarks which accompanied its delivery, gave the +little party--for Gertrude was scarcely less agitated than her +sister--time to recover from their embarrassment. Some casual +conversation then ensued, when the American, despite of Mrs. D'Egville's +declaration that he could not have touched a single thing during her +absence, expressed his anxiety to depart. The same testimonies of +friendly greeting, which had marked his entrance, were exchanged, and, +preceded by his kind host, the Colonel once more gained the apartment +where the General still lingered, awaiting his reappearance. + +Nothing remaining to be added to the answer already given to the +summons, the American, after exchanging salutations with such of the +English officers as were personally known to him, again submitted +himself to the operation of blindfolding; after which he was reconducted +to the beach, where his boat's crew, who had in their turn been supplied +with refreshments, were ready to receive him. As, on his arrival, the +loud yellings of the Indians accompanied his departure, but as these had +been found to be harmless, they were even less heeded than before. +Within two hours, despite of the strong current, the boat had +disappeared altogether from their view. + +Late in that day, the barge of Gerald Grantham returned from Detroit. +Ushered into the presence of the General, the young sailor communicated +the delivery of his charge into the hands of the American Chief, who had +returned his personal acknowledgments for the courtesy. His answer to +the summons, however, was that having a force fully adequate to the +purpose, he was prepared to defend the fort to the last extremity, and +waiving his own original plan of attack, would await the British General +on the defensive, when to the God of Battles should be left the decision +of the contest. To a question on the subject, the young officer added +that he had seen nothing of the American flag of truce, either in going +or returning. + +That night orders were issued to the heads of the different departments, +immediately to prepare _material_ for a short siege; and, an assault at +the termination of the third day. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + +Conformably with the orders of the British General, the siege of the +American fortress was commenced on the day following that of the mutual +exchange of flags. The elevated ground above the village of Sandwich, +immediately opposite to the enemy's fort, was chosen for the erection of +three batteries, from which a well sustained and well directed fire was +kept up for several successive days, yet without effecting any +practicable breach in their defences. One of these batteries, manned +principally by sailors, was under the direction of Gerald Grantham, +whose look-out on duty had been in a great degree rendered unnecessary, +by the advance of the English flotilla up the river, and who had +consequently been appointed to this more active service. + +During the whole of Saturday, the 15th of August, the British guns had +continued to play upon the fort, vomiting shot and shell as from an +exhaustless and angry volcano--and several of the latter falling short, +the town which was of wood had been more than once set on fire. As, +however, it was by no means the intention of the General to do injury to +the inhabitants, no obstacle was opposed to the attempts of the enemy to +get it under, and the flames were as often and as speedily extinguished. +An advanced hour of night at length put an end to the firing, and the +artillery men and seamen, extended on their great-coats and pea-jackets, +in their several embrasures, snatched from fatigue the repose which +their unceasing exertions of the many previous hours had rendered at +once a luxury and a want. + +The battery commanded by Gerald Grantham was the central and most +prominent of the three, and it had been remarked by all--and especially +by the troops stationed in the rear in support of the guns--that his +firing during the day had been the most efficient, many of his shots +going point blank into the hostile fortress, and (as could be distinctly +seen with the telescope) occasioning evident confusion. + +The several officers commanding batteries were now met in that of the +young sailor, and, habited in a garb befitting the rude duty at which +they had presided, were earnestly engaged in discussing the contents of +their haversacks, moistened by occasional drafts of rum and water from +their wooden canteens, and seasoned with frequent reference to the +events of the past day, and anticipations of what the morrow would bring +forth. A lantern, so closed as to prevent all possibility of contact +with the powder that lay strewed about, was placed in the centre of the +circle, and the dim reflexion from this upon the unwashed hands and +faces of the party, begrimed as they were with powder and perspiration, +contributed to give an air of wildness to the whole scene, that found +its origin in the peculiar circumstances of the moment. Nor was the +picture at all lessened in ferocity of effect, by the figure of Sambo in +the back ground, who, dividing his time between the performances of such +offices as his young master demanded, in the course of the frugal meal +of the party, and a most assiduous application of his own white and +shining teeth to a huge piece of venison ham, might, without effort, +have called up the image of some lawless, yet obedient slave, attending +on and sharing in the orgies of a company of buccaniers. + +At length the meal was ended, and each was preparing to depart, with a +view to snatch an hour or two of rest in his own battery, when the +pricked ear and forward-thrown head of the old negro, accompanied by a +quick, "Hush, Massa Geral," stilled them all into attitudes of +expectancy. Presently the sound of muffled oars was heard, and then the +harsh grating, as of a boat's keel upon the sands. + +In the next minute the officers were at their posts; but before they +could succeed in awakening their jaded men, who seemed to sleep the +sleep of death, the sentinel at the first battery had received, in +answer to his hurried challenge, the proper countersign, and, as on +closer inspection it was found that there was only one boat, he knew it +must be their own, and the alarm which had seized them for the security +of their trust passed away. + +They were not long kept in suspense. One individual alone had ascended +from the beach, and now stood among them, habited in a dread-nought +jacket and trousers and round hat. His salutation to each was cordial, +and he expressed in warm terms the approbation he felt at the +indefatigable and efficient manner in which the duty assigned to each +had been conducted. + +"Well, gentlemen," continued the Commodore, (for it was he,) "you have +done famously to-day. Much has been done, but more remains. To-morrow +you must work double tides. At daylight you must re-open with showers of +shot and shell, for it is, during the confusion caused by your fire, +that the General intends crossing his troops and advancing to the +assault. But this is not all--we have some suspicion the enemy may +attempt your batteries this very night, with a view of either spiking +the guns, if they cannot maintain the position, or of turning them, if +they can, on our advancing columns. Now all the troops destined for the +assault are assembled ready to effect their landing at daybreak, and +none can be spared unless the emergency be palpable. What I seek is a +volunteer to watch the movements of the enemy during the remainder of +the night--one (and he looked at Grantham,) whose knowledge of the +country will enable him to approach the opposite coast unseen, and whose +expedition will enable us to have due warning of any hostile attempt." + +"I shall be most happy, sir, to undertake the task, if you consider me +worthy of it," said Grantham, "but----" + +"But what?" interrupted the Commodore, hastily. + +"My only difficulty, sir, is the means. Had I my light canoe here, with +Sambo for my helmsman, I would seek their secret even on their own +shores." + +"Bravo, my gallant fellow," returned the Commodore, again cordially +shaking the hand of his Lieutenant. "This I expected of you, and have +come prepared. I have had the precaution to bring your canoe and paddles +with me--you will find them below in my boat." + +"Then is every difficulty at an end," exclaimed the young sailor +joyously. "And our dress, sir?" + +"No disguise whatever, in case of accidents--we must not have you run +the risk of being hanged for a spy." + +Gerald Grantham having secured his cutlass and pistols, now descended +with the Commodore to the beach, whither Sambo (similarly armed) had +already preceded him. Under the active and vigorous hands of the latter, +the canoe had already been removed from the boat, and now rested on the +sands ready to be shoved off. The final instructions of the Commodore to +his officer, as to the manner of communicating intelligence of any +movement on the part of the Americans having been given, the latter +glided noiselessly from the shore into the stream, while the boat, +resuming the direction by which it had approached, was impelled down the +river with as little noise as possible, and hugging the shore for +greater secrecy, was soon lost both to the eye and to the ear. + +It was with a caution rendered necessary by the presence of the vessels +in the harbor, that Gerald Grantham and his faithful companion, having +gained the middle of the river, now sought to approach nearer to the +shore. The night, although not absolutely gloomy, was yet sufficiently +obscure to aid their enterprize; and notwithstanding they could +distinctly hear the tread of the American sentinels, as they paced the +deck of their flotilla, such was the stillness of Sambo's practised +paddle, that the little canoe glided past them unheard, and, stealing +along the shore, was enabled to gain the farther extremity of the town, +where, however, despite of the most scrupulous inspection, not the +slightest evidence of a collective movement was to be observed. +Recollecting that most of the American boats used for the transport of +their army from the Canadian shore, which they had occupied for some +time, were drawn up on the beach at the opposite end of the town, and +deeming that if any attempt on the batteries was in contemplation, the +troops ordered for that duty would naturally embark at a point whence, +crossing the river considerably above the object of their expedition, +they might drift down with the current, and affect a landing without +noise--he determined to direct his course between the merchantmen and +vessels of war, and pursue his way to the opposite end of the town. The +enterprize, it is true, was bold, and not by any means without hazard; +but Grantham's was a spirit that delighted in excitement, and moreover, +he trusted much to the skill of his pilot, the darkness of the night, +and the seeming repose of the enemy. Even if seen it was by no means +certain he should be taken, for his light skiff could worm its way where +another dared not follow, and as for any shot that might be sent in +pursuit of them, its aim would, in the obscurity of the night, be +extremely uncertain. + +Devoted as the old negro was to Gerald's will, it was but to acquaint +him with his intention, to secure a compliance; although in this case, +it must be admitted, a reluctant one. Cautiously and silently, +therefore, they moved between the line of vessels, keeping as close as +they could to the merchantmen, in which there was apparently no guard, +so that under the shadow of the hulls of these they might escape all +observation from the more watchful vessels of war without. They had +cleared all but one, when the head of the canoe suddenly came foul of +the hawser of the latter, and was by the checked motion brought round, +with her broadside completely under her stern, in the cabin windows of +which, much to the annoyance of our adventurer, a light was plainly +visible. Rising as gently as he could to clear the bow of the light +skiff, he found his head on a level with the windows, and as his eye +naturally fell on all within, his attention was arrested sufficiently to +cause a sign from him to Sambo to remain still. The cabin was spacious, +and filled everywhere with female forms, who were lying in various +attitudes of repose, while the whole character of the arrangements was +such as to induce his belief, that the vessel had been appropriated to +the reception of the families of the principal inhabitants of the place, +and this with a view of their being more secure from outrage from the +Indians on the ensuing day. In the midst of the profound repose in +which, forgetful of the dangers of the morrow, all appeared to be +wrapped, there was one striking exception. At a small table in the +centre of the cabin, sat a figure enveloped in a long and ample dark +cloak, and covered with a slouched hat. There was nothing to indicate +sex in the figure, which might have been taken either for a woman, or +for a youth. It was clear, however, that it wanted in its contour the +proportions of manhood. At the moment when Gerald's attention was first +arrested, the figure was occupied in reading a letter, which was +afterwards sealed with black. The heart of the sailor beat violently, he +knew not wherefore, but before he could explain his feelings ever to +himself, he saw the figure deposit the letter, and remove, apparently +from the bosom of its dress a miniature, on which it gazed intently for +upwards of a minute. The back being turned towards the windows, he could +trace no expression on the countenance, but in the manner there was none +of that emotion, which usually accompanies the contemplation of the +features of a beloved object. Depositing the picture in the folds of its +cloak, the figure rose, and with a caution indicating desire not to +disturb those who slumbered around, moved through the straggling forms +that lay at its feet, and ascending the stairs, finally disappeared from +the cabin. + +Somewhat startled, the young officer hesitated as to what course he +should pursue, for it was evident that if the figure, whoever it might +prove, should come to the stern of the vessel, he and his companion must +be discovered. For a moment he continued motionless, but with ear and +eye keenly on the alert. At length he fancied he heard footsteps, as of +one treading the loose plank that led from the vessel's side to the +wharf. He pushed the canoe lightly along so as to enable him to get +clear of her stern, when glancing his eye in that direction, he saw the +figure, still in the same dress, quit the plank it had been traversing, +and move rapidly along the wharf towards the centre of the town. + +Ruminating on the singularity of what he had observed, our adventurer +now pursued his course up the river, but still without discovering any +evidence of hostile preparation. On the contrary, a deep silence +appeared to pervade every part of the town, the repose of which was the +more remarkable, as it was generally known that the attack on the fort +was to be made on the following day. Arrived opposite the point where +the town terminated, Grantham could distinctly count some twenty or +thirty large boats drawn up on the beach, while in the fields beyond the +drowsy guard evidently stationed there for their protection, and visible +by the dying embers of their watch-fire denoted anything but the +activity which should have governed an enterprize of the nature +apprehended. Satisfied that the information conveyed to his superiors +was incorrect, the young officer dismissed from his mind all further +anxiety on the subject; yet, impelled by recollections well befitting +the hour and the circumstances, he could not avoid lingering near a spot +which tradition had invested with much to excite the imagination and +feeling. It was familiar to his memory, for he had frequently heard it +in boyhood, that some dreadful tragedy had in former days been +perpetrated near this bridge; and he had reason to believe that some of +the actors in it were those whose blood flowed in his young veins. The +extreme pain it seemed to give his parents, however, whenever allusion +was made to the subject, had ever repressed inquiry, and all his +knowledge of these events was confined to what he had been enabled to +glean from the aged Canadians. That Sambo, who was a very old servant of +the family, had more than hear-say acquaintance with the circumstances, +he was almost certain; for he had frequently remarked, when after having +had his imagination excited by the oft-told tale, he felt desirous of +visiting the spot, the negro, obedient in all things else, ever found +some excuse to avoid accompanying him, nor, within his own recollection, +had he once approached the scene. Certain vague allusions of late date, +by the old man, had, moreover, confirmed him in his impression, and he +now called forcibly to mind an observation made by his faithful +attendant on the night of their pursuit of the younger Desborough, which +evidently referred to that period Even on the present occasion, he had +been struck by the urgency with which he contended for a return to their +own shore, without pursuing their course to the extreme end of the town; +nor was his unwillingness to approach the bridge overcome, until Gerald +told him it was the positive order of the Commodore, that they should +embrace the whole of the American lines in their inspection, and even +_then_ it was with a relaxed vigor of arm that he obeyed the instruction +to proceed. + +Determined to sound him as to his knowledge of the fact, Grantham stole +gently from the bow to the stern of the canoe, and he was about to +question him, when the other, grasping his arm with an expressive touch, +pointed to a dark object moving across the road. Gerald turned his head, +and beheld the same figure that had so recently quitted the cabin of the +merchantman. Following its movements, he saw it noiselessly enter into +the grounds of a cottage, opposite an old tannery, where it totally +disappeared. + +A new direction was now given to the curiosity of the sailor. Expressing +in a whisper to Sambo his determination to follow, he desired him to +make for the shore near the tannery, beneath the shadow of which he +might be secure, while he himself advanced, and tracked the movements of +the mysterious wanderer. + +"Oh Massa Geral," urged the old man in the same whisper--his teeth +chattering with fear--"for Hebben's sake he no go ashore. All dis a +place berry bad, and dat no a livin' ting what he see yonder. Do Massa +Geral take poor nigger word, and not go dere affer he ghost." + +"Nay, Sambo, it is no ghost, but flesh and blood, for I saw it in the +brig we were foul of just now; however, be under no alarm. Armed as I +am, I have nothing to fear from one individual, and if I am seen and +pursued in my turn, it is but to spring in again, and before any one can +put off in chase, we shall have nearly reached the opposite shore.--You +shall remain in the canoe if you please, but I most certainly will see +where that figure went." + +"Berry well, Massa Geral," and the old man spoke piquedly, although +partly re-assured by the assurance that it was no ghost. "If he take he +poor nigger wice he do as he like; but I no top in he canoe while he go +and have him troat cut, or carry off by a debbil--I dam if he go, I go +too." + +This energetic rejoinder being conclusive, and in no wise opposed by his +master, the old man made for the shore as desired. Both having +disembarked, a cautious examination was made of the premises, which +tending to satisfy them that all within slumbered, the canoe was +secreted under the shadow of the cottage, the adventurers crossed the +road in the direction taken by the figure--Sambo following close in the +rear of his master, and looking occasionally behind him, not with the +air of one who fears a mortal enemy, but of one rather who shrinks from +collision with a spirit of another world. + +The front grounds of the cottage were separated from the high road by a +fence of open pallisades, in the centre of which was a small gate of the +same description. It was evidently through this latter that the figure +had disappeared, and as its entrance had been effected without effort, +Gerald came to the conclusion, on finding the latter yield to his touch, +that this was the abode of the midnight wanderer. Perhaps some young +American officer, whom intrigue or frolic had led forth in disguise on +an excursion from which he was now returned. His curiosity was therefore +on the point of yielding to the prudence which dictated an immediate +relinquishment of the adventure, when he felt his right arm suddenly +seized in the convulsed and trembling grasp of his attendant. Turning to +ascertain the cause, he beheld as distinctly as the gloom of the night +would permit, the features of the old man worked into an expression of +horror, while trembling in every joint, he pointed to the mound of earth +at the far extremity of the garden, which was known to contain the ashes +of those from whom his imagination had been so suddenly diverted by the +reappearance of the figure. This, owing to the position in which he +stood, had hitherto escaped the notice of the officer, whose surprise +may be imagined, when, looking in the direction pointed out to him, he +beheld the same muffled figure reposing its head, apparently in an +attitude of profound sorrow, against one of the white tomb-stones that +rose perpendicularly from the graves. + +That Sambo feared nothing which emanated not from the world of spirits, +Grantham well knew. It therefore became his first care to dismiss from +the mind of the poor fellow the superstitious alarm that had taken care +of every faculty. From their proximity to the party, this could only be +done by energetic signs, the progress of which was however interrupted +by their mutual attention being diverted by a change in the position of +the figure, which, throwing itself at its length upon the grave, for a +moment or two sobbed audibly. Presently afterwards it rose abruptly, and +wrapping its disguise more closely around it, quitted the mound and +disappeared in the rear of the house. + +The emotion of the figure, in giving evidence of its materiality, had, +more than all the signs of his master, contributed to allay the +agitation of the old negro. When therefore Gerald, urged by his +irrepressible curiosity, in a whisper declared his intention to +penetrate to the rear of the house, he was enabled to answer. + +"For Gorramity's sake, Massa Geral, nebber go dare. Dis a place all +berry bad for he family. Poor Sambo hair white now but when he black +like a quirrel he see all a dis a people kill--" (and he pointed to the +mound) "oh, berry much blood spill here, Massa Geral. It makes a poor +nigger heart sick to tink of it." + +Gerald grasped the shoulder of the old man. "Sambo," he whispered, in +the same low, but in a determined tone, "I have long thought you +acquainted with the history of this place, although you have eluded my +desire for information on the subject. After the admission you have now +made, however, I expect you will tell me all and everything connected +with it. Not now--for I am resolved to see who that singular being is, +who apparently, like myself, feels an interest in these mouldering +bones. As you perceive it is no ghost, but flesh and blood like +ourselves, stay here if you will, until I return; but something more +must I see of this mystery before I quit the spot." + +Without waiting for reply, he gently pushed the unlatched gate before +him. It opened without noise, and quitting the pathway he moved along +the green sward in the direction in which the figure had disappeared. +Love for his master, even more than the superstitious awe he felt on +being left alone, in that memorable spot, at so late an hour, put an end +to the indecision of the old man. Entering and cautiously closing the +gate, he followed in the footsteps of his master, and both in the next +minute were opposite to the mound where the figure had first been +observed. + +As he was about to quit the grass, and enter upon the gravelled walk +that led to the rear of the cottage, he fancied he distinguished a sound +within, similar to that of a door cautiously opening. Pausing again to +listen, he saw a light strongly reflected from an upper window, upon +what had the appearance of a court yard in the rear, and in that light +the dark shadow of a human form. This he at once recognised, from its +peculiar costume to be the mysterious person who had so strongly excited +his curiosity. For a moment or two all was obscurity, when again, but +from a more distant window, the same light and figure were again +reflected. Presently the figure disappeared, but the light still +remained. Impelled by an uncontrollable desire to behold the features, +and ascertain, if possible, the object of this strange wanderer, the +young sailor cast his eye rapidly in search of the means of raising +himself to a level with the window, when, much to his satisfaction, he +remarked immediately beneath, a large water butt which was fully +adequate to the purpose, and near this a rude wooden stool which would +enable him to gain a footing on its edge, without exertion, or noise. It +is true there was every reason to believe that what he had seen was, an +officer belonging to the guard stationed in the adjoining field, who had +his temporary residence in this building, and was now, after the +prosecution of some love adventure returning home; but Gerald could not +reconcile this with the strong emotion he had manifested near the tomb, +and the startling secrecy with which, even when he had entered, he moved +along his own apartments. These contradictions were stimulants to the +gratification of his own curiosity, or interest, or whatever it might +be; and although he could not conceal from himself that he incurred no +inconsiderable risk from observation, by the party itself, the desire to +see into the interior of the apartment and learn something further, rose +paramount to all consideration for his personal safety. His first care +now was to disencumber himself of his shoes and cutlass, which he gave +in charge to Sambo, with directions to the latter to remain stationary +on the sward, keeping a good look-out to guard against surprise. As by +this arrangement his master would be kept in tolerable proximity, the +old negro, whose repugnance to be left alone in that melancholy spot was +invincible, offered no longer an objection, and Gerald, bracing more +tightly round his loins, the belt which contained his pistols, proceeded +cautiously to secure the stool, by the aid of which he speedily found +his feet resting on the edge of the water butt, and his face level with +the window. This, owing to the activity of his professional habits, he +had been enabled to accomplish without perceptible noise. + +The scene that met the fixed gaze of the adventurous officer, was one to +startle and excite in no ordinary degree. The room into which he looked +was square, with deep recesses on the side where he lingered, formed by +the projection of a chimney in which, however, owing to the sultry +season of the year, no traces of recent fire were visible. In the space +between the chimney and wall forming the innermost recess, was placed a +rude uncurtained bed, and on this lay extended, and delineated beneath +the covering, a human form, the upper extremities of which were hidden +from view by the projecting chimney. The whole attitude of repose of +this latter indicated the unconsciousness of profound slumber. On a +small table near the foot, were placed several books and papers, and an +extinguished candle. Leaning over the bed and holding a small lamp which +had evidently been brought and lighted since its entrance, stood the +mysterious figure on whom the interest of Gerald had been so strongly +excited. It seemed to be gazing intently on the features of the sleeper, +and more than once, by the convulsed movements of its form, betrayed +intense agitation. Once it made a motion as if to awaken the person on +whom it gazed, but suddenly changing its purpose, drew from its dress a +letter which Gerald recognised to be that so recently prepared in the +cabin of the brig. Presently both letter and lamp were deposited on the +bed, and in one upraised hand of the figure gleamed the blade of a knife +or dagger, while the left grasped and shook, with an evident view to +arouse, the sleeper. An exclamation of horror, accompanied by a violent +struggle of its limbs, proclaimed reviving consciousness in the latter. +A low wild laugh burst in scorn from the lips of the figure, and the +strongly nerved arm was already descending to strike its assassin blow, +when suddenly the pistol, which Gerald had almost unconsciously cocked +and raised to the window, was discharged with a loud explosion. The +awakened slumberer was now seen to spring from the bed to the floor, and +in the action the lamp was overturned and extinguished; but all struggle +appeared to have ceased. + +Bewildered beyond measure in his reflection, yet secure in the +conviction that he had by this desperate step saved the life of a human +being from the dagger of the assassin, the only object of Gerald now was +to secure himself from the consequences. Springing from his position he +was soon at the side of the startled Sambo, who had witnessed his last +act with inconceivable dismay. Already were the guard in the adjoining +field, alarmed by the report of the pistol, hurrying toward the house, +when they reached the little gate, and some even appeared to be making +for their boats on the beach. With these motives to exertion, neither +Gerald nor the old negro were likely to be deficient in activity. +Bending low as they crossed the road, they managed unperceived to reach +the part of the tannery where their canoe had been secreted, and Sambo +having hastily launched it, they made directly for the opposite shore, +unharmed by some fifteen or twenty shots that were fired at them by the +guard, and drifting down with the current, reached, about an hour before +dawn, the battery from which they had started. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + +At day-break on the morning of Sunday, the 16th of August, the fire from +the batteries was resumed, and with a fury that must have satisfied the +Americans, even had they been ignorant of the purpose, it was intended +to cover some ulterior plan of operation on the part of the British +General. Their own object appeared rather to make preparation of defence +against the threatened assault, than to return a cannonade, which, +having attained its true range, excessively annoyed and occasioned them +much loss. Meanwhile every precaution had been taken to secure the safe +transport of the army. The flotilla, considerably superior at the outset +of the war, to that of the Americans, had worked up the river during the +night, and, anchored in the middle, lay with their broadsides ready to +open upon any force that might appear to oppose the landing of the +troops, while numerous scows, for the transport of a light brigade of +horse artillery, and all the boats and batteaux that could be collected, +added to those of the fleet, lay covering the sands, ready to receive +their destined burdens. At length the embarkation was completed, and the +signal having been given, the several divisions of boats moved off in +the order prescribed to them. Never did a more picturesque scene present +itself to the human eye, than during the half hour occupied in the +transit of this little army. The sun was just rising gloriously and +unclouded, as the first division of boats pushed from the shore, and +every object within the British and American line of operation, tended +to the production of an effect that was little in unison with the +anticipated issue of the whole. Not a breeze ruffled the fair face of +the placid Detroit, through which the heavily laden boats now made their +slow, but certain way; and a spectator who, in utter ignorance of +events, might have been suddenly placed on the Canadian bank, would have +been led to imagine that a fete, not a battle, was intended. Immediately +above the village of Sandwich, and in full view of the American Fort, +lay the English flotilla at anchor, their white sails half clewed up, +their masts decked with gay pendants, and their taffrails with ensigns +that lay drooping over their sterns in the water, as if too indolent to +bear up against the coming sultriness of the day. Below these, +glittering in bright scarlet that glowed not unpleasingly on the silvery +stream, the sun's rays dancing on their polished muskets and +accoutrements, glided, like gay actors in an approaching pageant, the +columns destined for the assault--while further down, and distributed +far and wide over the expanse of water, were to be seen a multitude of +canoes filled with Indian warriors, whose war costume could not, in the +distance, be distinguished from that of the dance--the whole +contributing, with the air of quietude on both shores, and absence of +all opposition on the American especially, to inspire feelings of +joyousness and pleasure, rather than the melancholy consequent on a +knowledge of the final destination of the whole. Nor would the incessant +thunder of the cannon in the distance, have in any way diminished this +impression; for as the volumes of smoke, vomited from the opposing +batteries, met and wreathed themselves together in the centre of the +stream, leaving at intervals the gay colors of England and America +brightly displayed to the view, the impression, to a spectator, would +have been that of one who witnesses the exchange of military honors +between two brave and friendly powers, preparing the one to confer, the +other to receive all the becoming courtesies of a chivalrous +hospitality. If anything were wanting to complete the illusion, the +sound of the early mass bell, summoning to the worship of that God whom +no pageantry of man may dispossess of homage, would amply crown and +heighten the effect of the whole, while the chanting of the hymn of +adoration would appear a part of the worship of the Deity, and of the +pageantry itself. + +Vying each with the other who should first gain the land, the exertions +of the several rowers increased, as the distance to be traversed +diminished, so that many arrived simultaneously at the beach. Forming in +close column of sections as they landed, the regular troops occupied the +road, their right flank resting on the river, while a strong body of +Indians under Round-head, Split-log, and Walk-in-the-water, scouring the +open country beyond, completely guarded their left from surprise. Among +the first to reach the shore, was the gallant General, the planner of +the enterprise, who with his personal staff, crossed the river in the +barge of the Commodore, steered by that officer himself. During the +short period that the columns were delayed for the landing of the +artillery, necessarily slower in their movements, a short conference +among the leaders, to whom were added Tecumseh and Colonel D'Egville, as +to their final operations, took place. Never did the noble Indian appear +to greater advantage than on this occasion. A neat hunting dress, of +smoked deer-skin, handsomely ornamented, covered his fine and athletic +person, while the swarthiness of his cheek and dazzling lustre of his +eye were admirably set off, not only by the snow-white linen which hung +loose and open about his throat, but by a full turban, in which waved a +splendid white ostrich feather, the much prized gift, as we have already +observed, of Mrs. D'Egville. Firmly seated on his long-tailed grey +charger, which he managed with a dexterity uncommon to his race, his +warrior and commanding air might have called up the image of a +Tamerlane, or Genghis Khan, were it not known that, to the more savage +qualities of these, he united others that would lend lustre to the most +civilized potentates. There was, however, that ardor of expression in +his eye which rumor had ascribed to him, whenever an appeal to arms +against the deadly foe of his country was about to be made, that could +not fail to endear him to the soldier hearts of those who stood around, +and to inspire them with a veneration and esteem, not even surpassed by +what they entertained for their own immediate leader, who in his turn, +animated by the inspiriting scene and confident in his own powers, +presented an appearance so anticipatory of coming success, that the +least sanguine could not fail to be encouraged by it. + +It had been arranged that, on the landing of the troops, the flotilla +should again weigh anchor, and approach as near as possible to the +American fort, with a view, in conjunction with the batteries, to a +cross-fire that would cover the approach of the assaulting columns. The +Indians, meanwhile, were to disperse themselves throughout the skirts of +the forest, and, headed by the Chiefs already named, to advance under +whatever they might find in the shape of hedges, clumps of trees, or +fields, sufficiently near to maintain a heavy fire from their rifles on +such force as might appear on the ramparts to oppose the assault--a task +in which they were to be assisted by the brigade of light guns charged +with shrapnel and grape. Tecumseh himself, accompanied by Colonel +D'Egville, was, with the majority of his warriors, to gain the rear of +the town, there to act as circumstances might require. To this, as an +inferior post, the Chieftain had at first strongly objected; but when it +was represented to him that the enemy, with a view to turn the English +flank on the forest side, would probably detach in that direction a +strong force, which he would have the exclusive merit of encountering, +he finally assented; urged to it, as he was, moreover, by the +consideration that his presence would be effectual in repressing any +attempt at massacre, or outrage, of the helpless inhabitants, by his +wild and excited bands. + +The guns being at length disembarked and limbered, everything was now in +readiness for the advance. The horses of the General and his staff had +crossed in the scows appropriated to the artillery, and his favorite +charger, being now brought up by his groom, the former mounted with an +activity and vigor, not surpassed even by the youngest of his +aides-de-camp, while his fine and martial form, towered above those +around him, in a manner to excite admiration in all who beheld him. +Giving his brief instructions to his second in command, he now grasped +and shook the hand of his dark brother in arms, who, putting spurs to +his horse, dashed off with Colonel D'Egville into the open country on +the left, in the direction taken by his warriors, while the General and +his staff, boldly, and without escort, pursued their way along the high +road at a brisk trot. The Commodore in his turn, sprang once more into +his barge, which, impelled by stout hearts and willing hands, was soon +seen to gain the side of the principal vessel of the little squadron, +which, rapidly getting under weigh, had already loosened its sails to +catch the light, yet favorable breeze, now beginning to curl the surface +of the river. + +During all this time, the cannon from our batteries, but faintly +answered by the Americans, had continued to thunder without +intermission, and as the columns drew nearer, each succeeding discharge +came upon the ear with increased and more exciting loudness. Hitherto +the view had been obstructed by the numerous farm houses and other +buildings, that skirted the windings of the road, but when at length the +column emerged into more open ground, the whole scene burst splendidly +and imposingly upon the sight. Within half a mile, and to the left, rose +the American ramparts, surmounted by the national flag, suspended from a +staff planted on the identical spot which had been the scene of the +fearful exploit of Wacousta in former days. Bristling with cannon, they +seemed now to threaten with extermination those who should have the +temerity to approach them, and the men, awed into silence, regarded them +with a certain air of respect. + +Close under the town were anchored the American vessels of war, which, +however, having taken no part in returning the bombardment, had been +left unmolested across the river; and in full view of all, was to be +seen the high ground where the batteries had been erected, and, visible +at such intervals as the continuous clouds of smoke and flashes of fire +would permit, the Union Jack of England floating above the whole; while +in the river and immediately opposite to the point the columns had now +reached, the English flotilla, which had kept pace with their movements, +were already taking up a position to commence their raking fire. + +It was on reaching this point of the road, that the British force, +obedient to the command of the General, who, from a farm-house on the +left, was then examining the American defences, filed off past the house +into a large field, preparatory to forming into column to attack. +Scarcely, however, had the General descended to the field to make his +dispositions, when it was observed that the batteries had suddenly +discontinued their fire, and on looking to ascertain the cause, a white +flag was seen waving on the eminence where the heavy guns just alluded +to had been placed. While all were expressing their surprise at this +unexpected circumstance, De Courcy, who, by the direction of his +General, had remained reconnoitring at the top of the house, announced +that an officer, bearing a smaller white flag, was then descending the +road, with an evident view to a parley. + +"Ah! is it even so?" exclaimed the General with vivacity, as if to +himself. "Quick! my horse--I must go to meet him. Captain Stanley--De +Courcy--mount! St. Julian," turning to his second in command, "finish +what I have begun--let the columns be got ready in the order I have +directed. We may have need of them yet." + +So saying he once more sprang into his saddle, and accompanied by his +young aides-de-camp, galloped past the line of admiring troops, who +involuntarily cheered him as he passed; and quitting the field, +hastened to reach the flag, before the bearer could approach +sufficiently near to make any correct observation respecting his force. + +Nearly twenty minutes of anxious suspense had succeeded the departure of +the officer, when De Courcy again made his appearance at full speed. + +"Hurrah! hurrah!" he shouted, as he approached a group of his more +immediate companions, who were canvassing the probable termination of +this pacific demonstration on the part of the enemy--"the fort is our +own" (then turning to the second in command,) "Colonel St. Julian, it is +the General's desire that the men pile their arms on the ground they +occupy, and refresh themselves with whatever their haversacks contain." + +"How is this, De Courcy?"--"Surely the Americans do not +capitulate?"--"Is it to be child's play, after all?"--were among the +various remarks made to the young aide-de-camp, on his return from the +delivery of the last order. + +"Heaven only knows how, Granville," said the vivacious officer, in reply +to the first querist; "but certainly it is something very like it, for +the General, accompanied by Stanley, has entered the town under the +flag. However, before we discuss the subject further, I vote that we +enter the farm-house, and discuss wherewith to satisfy our own +appetites--I saw a devilish pretty girl just now, one who seemed to have +no sort of objection to a handsome scarlet uniform, whatever her +predilections for a blue with red facings may formerly have been. She +looked so good-naturedly on Stanley and myself, that we should have +ogled her into a breakfast ere this, had not the General sworn he would +not break his fast until he had planted the colors of England on yon +fortress, or failed in the attempt. Of course we, as young heroes, could +not think of eating after that. But come along--nay, Cranstoun, do not +look as if you were afraid to budge an inch without an order in +writing.--I have it in suggestion from Colonel St. Julian, that we go in +and do the best we can." + +They now entered and asked for breakfast, when bread, eggs, milk, fruit, +cider, and whatever the remains of yesterday's meal afforded, were +successively brought forward by the dark-eyed daughter of the farmer, +who, as De Courcy had remarked, seemed by no means indisposed towards +the gay looking invaders of her home. There was a recklessness about the +carriage of most of these, and even a foppery about some, that was +likely to be anything but displeasing to a young girl, who, French +Canadian by birth, although living under the Government of the United +States, possessed all the natural vivacity of character peculiar to the +original stock. Notwithstanding the pertinacity with which her aged +father lingered in the room, the handsome and elegant De Courcy +contrived more than once to address her in an under tone, and elicit a +blush that greatly heightened the brilliant expression of her large +black eyes, and Villiers subsequently declared that he had remarked the +air of joyousness and triumph that pervaded her features, on the young +aide-de-camp promising to return to the farm as soon as the place had +been entered, and leisure afforded him. + +"But the particulars of the flag, De Courcy," said Captain Granville, as +he devoured a hard-boiled turkey egg, which in quantity fully made up +for what it wanted in quality. "When you have finished flirting with +that unfortunate girl, come and seat yourself quietly, and tell us what +passed between the General and the officer who bore it. Why, I thought +you had a devil of an appetite just now." + +"Ah, true!" returned the young man, taking his seat at the rude naked +table which bore their meal. "I had quite forgotten my appetite--_mais +ca viendra en mangent, n'est ce pas?_" and he looked at the young girl. + +"_Plait il, Monsieur?_" + +"Be silent, my daughter, they are not speaking to you," gruffly remarked +her father. + +"The old boy is becoming savage at your attentions," remarked Villiers, +"you will get the girl into a scrape." + +"Bah!" ejaculated De Courcy. "Well, but of the General. Who, think you, +was the bearer of the flag? No other than that fine-looking fellow, +Colonel--what's his name, who came to us the other day." + +"Indeed, singular enough. What said the General to him on meeting?" +asked Henry Grantham. + +"'Well, Colonel,' said he smiling, 'you see I have kept my word. This is +the day on which I promised that we should meet again.'" + +"What answer did he make?" demanded Villiers. + +"'True, General, and most happily have you chosen. But one day sooner, +and we should have dared your utmost in our stronghold. To-day,' and he +spoke in a tone of deep mortification, 'we have not resolution left to +make a show even in vindication of our honor. In a word, I am here to +conduct you to those who will offer terms derogatory at once to our +national character, and insulting to our personal courage.' + +"The General," pursued De Courcy, "respecting the humiliated manner of +the American, again bowed, but said nothing. After a moment of pause, +the latter stated that the Governor and Commander of the fortress were +waiting to receive and confer with him as to the terms of capitulation. +All I know further is, that, attended by Stanley, he has accompanied the +flag into the town, and that, having no immediate occasion for my +valuable services, he sent me back to give to Colonel St. Julian the +order you have heard." + +The deep roll of the drum summoning to fall in, drew them eagerly to +their respective divisions. Captain Stanley, the senior aide-de camp, +was just returned with an order for the several columns to advance and +take up their ground close under the ramparts of the fort. + +It was an interesting and a novel sight, to see the comparatively +insignificant British columns, flanked by the half dozen light guns +which constituted their whole artillery, advance across the field, and +occupy the plain or common surrounding the fort, while the Americans on +the ramparts appeared to regard with indignation and surprise the mere +handful of men to whom they were about to be surrendered. Such a +phenomenon in modern warfare as that of a weak besieging force bearding +a stronger in their hold, might well excite astonishment; and to an +army, thrice as numerous as its captors, occupying a fortress well +provided with cannon, as in this instance, must have been especially +galling. More than one of the officers, as he looked down from his +loftier and more advantageous position, showed by the scowl that +lingered on his brow, how willingly he would have applied the match to +the nearest gun whose proximity to his enemies promised annihilation to +their ranks. But the white flag still waved in the distance, affording +perfect security to those who had confided in their honor, and although +liberty, and prosperity, and glory were the sacrifice, that honor might +not be tarnished. + +At length the terms of capitulation being finally adjusted De Courcy, +who with his brother aid-de-camp, had long since rejoined the General, +came up with instructions for a guard to enter and take possession +preparatory to the Americans marching out. Detachments from the flank +companies, under the command of Captain Granville, with whom were +Middlemore and Henry Grantham, were selected for the duty, and these now +moved forward, with drums beating and colors flying, towards the +drawbridge then lowering to admit them. + +The area of the fort in no way enlarged, and but slightly changed in +appearance, since certain of our readers first made acquaintance with it +in Wacousta, was filled with troops, and otherwise exhibited all the +confusion incident to preparations for an immediate evacuation. These +preparations, however, were made with a savageness of mien by the +irregulars, and a sullen silence by all, that attested how little their +inclination had been consulted in the decision of their Chief. Many an +oath was muttered, and many a fierce glance was cast by the angry +back-woodsmen, upon the little detachment as it pursued its way, not +without difficulty, through the dense masses that seemed rather to +oppose than aid their advance to the occupancy of the several posts +assigned them. + +One voice, deepest and most bitter in its half suppressed execration, +came familiarly on the ear of Henry Grantham, who brought up the rear of +the detachment. He turned quickly in search of the speaker, but, +although he felt persuaded it was Desborough who had spoken, coupling +his own name even with his curses, the ruffian was nowhere to be seen. +Satisfied that he must be within the Fort, and determined if possible, +to secure the murderer who had, moreover, the double crime of treason +and desertion, to be added to his list of offences, the young officer +moved to the head of the detachment when halted, and communicated what +he heard to Captain Granville. Entering at once into the views of his +subaltern, and anxious to make an example of the traitor, yet unwilling +to act wholly on his own responsibility, Captain Granville dispatched an +orderly to Colonel St. Julien to receive his instructions. The man soon +returned with a message to say that Desborough was by all means to be +detained, and secured, until the General, who was still absent, should +determine on his final disposal. + +Meanwhile the sentinels at the several posts having been relieved, and +every thing ready for their departure, the American army, leaving their +arms piled in the area, commenced their evacuation of the Fort, the +artillery and troops of the line taking the lead. Watchfully alive to +the order that had been received, Captain Granville and Henry Grantham +lingered near the gate, regarding, yet with an air of carelessness, +every countenance among the irregular troops as they issued forth. +Hitherto their search had been ineffectual, and to their great surprise, +although the two last of the prisoners were now in the act of passing +them, there was not the slightest trace of Desborough. It was well known +that the fort had no other outlet, and any man attempting to escape over +the ramparts, must have been seen and taken either by the troops or by +the Indians, who in the far distance completely surrounded them. Captain +Granville intimated the possibility of Henry Grantham having been +deceived in the voice, but the latter as pertinaciously declared he +could not be mistaken, for, independently, of his former knowledge of +the man, his tones had so peculiarly struck him on the day when he made +boastful confession of his father's murder, that no time could efface +them from his memory. This short discussion terminated just as the last +few files were passing. Immediately in the rear of these were the +litters, on which were borne such of the wounded as could be removed +from the hospital without danger. These were some thirty in number, and +it seemed to both officers as somewhat singular, that the faces of all +were, in defiance of the heat of the day, covered with the sheets that +had been spread over each litter. For a moment the suspicion occurred to +Grantham, that Desborough might be of the number; but when he reflected +on the impossibility that any of the wounded men could be the same whose +voice had sounded so recently in the full vigor of health in his ear, he +abandoned the idea. Most of the wounded, as they passed, indicated by +low and feeble moaning, the inconvenience they experienced from the +motion to which they were subjected, and more or less expressed by the +contortions of their limbs, the extent of their sufferings. An exception +to this very natural conduct was remarked by Grantham, in the person of +one occupying nearly a central position in the line, who was carried +with difficulty by the litter-men. He lay perfectly at his length, and +without any exhibition whatever of that impatient movement which escaped +his companions. On the watchful eye of Grantham, this conduct was not +lost. He had felt a strong inclination from the first, to uncover the +faces of the wounded men in succession, and had only been restrained +from so doing by the presence of the American medical officer who +accompanied them, whom he feared to offend by an interference with his +charge. Struck as he was however by the remarkable conduct of the +individual alluded to, and the apparently much greater effort with which +he was carried, he could not resist the temptation which urged him to +know more. + +"Stay," he exclaimed to the bearers of the litter, as they were in the +act of passing. The men stopped. "This man, if not dead, is evidently +either dying or fainting--give him air." + +While speaking he advanced a step or two, and now extending his right +hand endeavored gently to pull down the sheet from the head of the +invalid but the attempt was vain. Two strong and nervous arms were +suddenly raised and entwined in the linen, in a manner to resist all his +efforts. + +Grantham glanced an expressive look at Captain Granville. The latter +nodded his head in a manner to show he was understood, then desiring the +litter-men to step out of the line and deposit their burden, he said to +the medical officer with the sarcasm that so often tinged his address. + +"I believe, sir, your charge embraces only the wounded of the garrison. +This dead man can only be an incumbrance to you and it shall be my care +that his body is properly disposed of." + +A signal was made by him to the file of men in his rear, who each +seizing on the covering of the litter, dragged it forcibly off, +discovering in the act the robust and healthy form of Desborough. + +"You may pass on," continued the officer to the remainder of the party. +"This fellow, at once a murderer and a traitor, is my prisoner." + +"Ha!" exclaimed Middlemore, who had all this time been absent on the +duties connected with his guard, and now approached the scene of this +little action for the first time; "what! do I see my friend Jeremiah +Desborough--the prince of traitors, and the most vigorous of wrestlers! +Verily my poor bones ache at the sight of you. How came you to be +caught in this trap my old boy? Better have been out duck-shooting with +the small bores, I reckon." + +But Desborough was in no humor to endure this mirth. Finding himself +discovered, he had risen heavily from the litter to his feet, and now +moved doggedly towards the guard-house, where the men had orders to +confine him. His look still wore the character of ferocity, which years +had stamped there, but with this was mixed an expression that denoted +more of the cowering villain, whom a sudden reverse of fortune may +intimidate, than the dauntless adventurer to whom enterprizes of hazard +are at once a stimulus and a necessity. In short, he was entirely +crest-fallen. + +"Come and see the effect of Gerald's excellent fire," said Middlemore, +when Desborough had disappeared within the guard-room. "I will show you +the room pointed out to me by the subaltern whom I relieved, as that in +which four field officers and three surgeons were killed." + +Preceded by their companion, Captain Granville and Grantham entered the +piazza leading to the officers' rooms, several of which were completely +pierced with twenty-four pound shot, known at once as coming from the +centre battery, which alone mounted guns of that calibre. After +surveying the interior a few moments, they passed into a small passage +communicating with the room in question. On opening the door, all were +painfully struck by the sight which presented itself. Numerous +shot-holes were visible everywhere throughout, while the walls at the +inner extremity of the apartment were completely bespotted with blood +and brains, scarcely yet dry anywhere, and in several places dripping to +the floor. At one corner of the room, and on a mattress, lay the form of +a wounded man, whom the blue uniform and silver epaulettes, that filled +a chair near the head, attested for an American officer of rank. At the +foot of the bed, dressed in black, her long hair floating wildly over +the shoulders, and with a hand embracing one of those of the sufferer, +sat a female, apparently wholly absorbed in the contemplation of the +scene before her. The noise made by the officers on entering had not +caused the slightest change in her position, nor was it until she heard +the foot-fall of Captain Granville, as he advanced for the purpose of +offering his services, that she turned to behold who were the intruders. +The sight of the British uniform appeared to startle her, for she +immediately sprang to her feet, as if alarmed at their presence. It was +impossible they could mistake those features and that face. It was Miss +Montgomerie. He who lay at her feet, was her venerable uncle. He was one +of the field officers who had fallen a victim to Gerald's fire, and the +same ball which had destroyed his companions, had carried away his +thigh, near the hip bone. The surgeons had given him over, and he had +requested to be permitted to die where he lay. His wish had been +attended to, but in the bustle of evacuation, it had been forgotten to +acquaint the officers commanding the British guard that he was there. +The last agonies of death had not yet passed away, but there seemed +little probability that he could survive another hour. + +Perceiving the desperate situation of the respectable officer, Captain +Granville stayed not to question on a subject that spoke so plainly for +itself. Hastening back into the piazza with his subalterns, he reached +the area just as the remaining troops, intended for the occupation of +the fort, were crossing the drawbridge, headed by Colonel St. Julian. To +this officer he communicated the situation of the sufferer, when an +order was given for the instant attendance of the head of the medical +staff. After a careful examination and dressing of the wound, the latter +pronounced the case not altogether desperate. A great deal of blood had +been lost, and extreme weakness had been the consequence, but still the +Surgeon was not without hope that his life might yet be preserved, +although, of course, he would be a cripple for the remainder of his +days. + +It might have been assumed, that the hope yet held out, of preservation +of life on any terms, would have been hailed with some manifestation of +grateful emotion, on the part of Miss Montgomerie; but it was remarked +and commented on, by those who were present, that this unexpectedly +favorable report, so far from being received with gratitude and delight, +seemed to cast a deeper gloom over the spirit of this extraordinary +girl. The contrast was inexplicable. She had tended him at the moment +when he was supposed to be dying, with all the anxious solicitude of a +fond child; and now that there was a prospect of his recovery, there was +a sadness in her manner that told too plainly the discomfort of her +heart. + +"An unaccountable girl!" said Cranstoun, as he sipped his wine that day +after dinner, in the mess-room at Detroit. "I always said she was the +child of the devil." + +"Child of the devil in soul, if you will," observed Granville, "but a +true woman--a beautiful, a superb woman in person at least, did she +appear this morning, when we first entered the room--did she not, +Henry?" + +"Beautiful indeed," was the reply--"yet, I confess, she more awed than +pleased me. I could not avoid, even amid that melancholy scene, +comparing her to a beautiful casket, which, on opening, is found to +contain not a gem of price, but a subtle poison, contact with which is +fatal; or to a fair looking fruit, which, when divided, proves to be +rotten at the core." + +"Allegorical, by all that is good, bad, and indifferent," exclaimed +Villiers. "How devilish severe you are, Henry, upon the pale Venus. It +is hardly fair in you thus to rate Gerald's intended." + +"Gerald's intended! God forbid." + +This was uttered with an energy that startled his companions. Perceiving +that the subject gave him pain, they discontinued allusion to the lady +in question, further than to inquire how she was to be disposed of, and +whether she was to remain in attendance on her uncle. + +In answer, they were informed, that as the Major could not be removed, +orders had been given by the General for every due care to be taken of +him where he now lay, while Miss Montgomerie, yielding to solicitation, +had been induced to retire into the family of the American General in +the town, there to remain until it should be found convenient to have +the whole party conveyed to the next American post on the frontier. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + +It is difficult to imagine that the English General could in any way +have anticipated so easy a conquest. He had no reason to undervalue the +resolution of the enemy, and yet he appears to have been fully sanguine +of the success of his undertaking. Possibly he counted much on his own +decision and judgment, which, added to the confidence reposed in him by +all ranks and branches of the expedition, he might have felt fully +adequate to the overthrow of the mere difficulty arising from +inferiority of numbers. Whatever his motive, or however founded his +expectations of success, the service he performed was eminent, since he +not merely relieved Amherstburgh, the key of Upper Canada, from all +immediate danger, but at a single blow annihilated the American power +throughout that extensive frontier. That this bold measure, powerfully +contrasted as it was with his own previous vacillation of purpose, had +greatly tended to intimidate the American General, and to render him +distrustful of his own resources, there can be little doubt. The +destructive fire from the well-served breaching batteries, was moreover +instanced as an influencing cause of the capitulation; and there can be +no question, that a humane consideration for the defenceless town, +surrounded by hordes of Indians, had much to do with the decision of the +American General. + +In justice to many officers of rank, and to the garrison generally, it +must be admitted that the decision of their leader, if credence might be +given to their looks and language, was anything but satisfactory to +them, and it must be confessed that it must have been mortifying in the +extreme, to have yielded without a blow a fortress so well provided with +the means of defence. What the result would have been had the British +columns mounted to the assault, it is impossible to say. That they would +have done their duty is beyond all question, but there is no reason to +believe the Americans, under a suitable commander, would have failed in +theirs. Superiority of numbers and position was on the one side; a +daring Chief, an ardent desire of distinction, and the impossibility of +retreat without humiliation, on the other. + +In alluding thus to the capitulation of Detroit, we beg not to be +understood as either reflecting on the American character, or doubting +their courage. Question of personal bravery there was none, since no +appeal was made to arms; but the absence of sanguinary event left in +high relief the daring of the British commander, whose promptitude and +genius alone secured to him so important yet bloodless a conquest. Had +he evinced the slightest indecision, or lost a moment in preparing for +action, the American General would have had time to rally, and believing +him to be not more enterprising than his predecessors, would have +recovered from his panic and assumed an attitude at once, more worthy of +his trust, commensurate with his means of defence, and in keeping with +his former reputation. The quick apprehension of his opponent +immediately caught the weakness, while his ready action grappled +intuitively with the advantage it presented. The batteries, as our +narrative has shown, were opened without delay--the flotilla worked up +the river within sight of the fortress--and the troops and Indians +effected their landing in full view of the enemy. In fact, everything +was conducted in a manner to show a determination of the most active and +undoubted description. With what result has been seen. + +It was in the evening of the day of surrender, that the little English +squadron, freighted with the prisoners taken in Detroit, dropped slowly +past Amherstburgh, into Lake Erie. By an article in the capitulation, it +had been stipulated, that the irregular troops should be suffered to +return to their homes, under the condition that they should not again +serve during the war, while those of the line were to be conducted to +the Lower Province, there to remain until duly exchanged. The appearance +as captives of those who had, only a few days before, been comfortably +established on the Sandwich shore, and had caused the country to feel +already some of the horrors of invasion--naturally enough drew forth +most of the inhabitants to witness the sight; and as the Sunday stroll +of the little population of Amherstburgh led in the direction of +Elliot's point, where the lake began, the banks were soon alive with +men, women and children, clad in holiday apparel, moving quickly to keep +up with the gliding vessels, and apparently, although not offensively +exulting in the triumph of that flag, beneath which the dense masses of +their enemies were now departing from their rescued territory. + +Among those whom the passing barks had drawn in unusual numbers to the +river's side, were the daughters of Colonel D'Egville, whose almost +daily practice it was to take the air in that direction, where there was +so much of the sublime beauty of American scenery to arrest the +attention. Something more, however, than that vague curiosity which +actuated the mass, seemed to have drawn the sisters to the bank, and one +who had watched them narrowly must have observed, that their interest +was not divided among the many barks that glided onward to the lake, but +was almost exclusively attracted by one, which now lay to, with her +light bows breasting the current like a swan, and apparently waiting +either for a boat that had been dispatched to the shore, or with an +intention to send one. This vessel was filled in every part with troops +wearing the blue uniform of the American regular army, while those in +advance were freighted with the irregulars and backwoodsmen. + +"Is not this, Julia, the vessel to which the Commodore promised to +promote Gerald, in reward of his gallant conduct last week?" asked the +timid Gertrude, with a sigh, as they stood stationary for a few moments, +watching the issue of the manoeuvre just alluded to. + +"It is, Gertrude," was the answer of one whose fixed eye and abstracted +thought, betokened an interest in the same vessel, of a nature wholly +different from that of her questioner. + +"How very odd, then, he does not come on shore to us. I am sure he must +see us, and it would not take him two minutes to let us know he is +unhurt, and to shake hands with us. It is very unkind of him I think." + +Struck by the peculiar tone in which the last sentence had been uttered +Julia D'Egville turned her eyes full upon those of her sister. The +latter could not stand the inquiring gaze, but sought the ground, while +a conscious blush confirmed the suspicion. + +"Dearest Gertrude," she said, as she drew the clasped arm of her sister +more fondly within her own; "I see how it is; but does he love you in +return. Has he ever told you so, or hinted it. Tell me, my dear girl." + +"Never," faltered the sensitive Gertrude, and she hung her head, to +conceal the tear that trembled in her eye. + +Her sister sighed deeply, and pressed the arm she held more closely +within her own. "My own own sister, for worlds I would not pain you; but +if you would be happy, you must not yield to this preference for our +cousin. Did you not remark how completely he seemed captivated by Miss +Montgomerie? Depend upon it, his affections are centered in her." + +Gertrude made no reply, but tears trickled down her cheeks, as they both +slowly resumed their walk along the beach. Presently the splash of oars +was heard, and turning quickly to discover the cause, Julia saw a boat +leave the vessel, at which they had just been looking, and pull +immediately towards them. In the stern stood an officer in American +uniform, whom the eyes of love were not slow to distinguish, even in the +growing dusk of the evening. + +"It is Ernest," exclaimed the excited girl, forgetting for a moment her +sister in herself. "I thought he would not have departed without seeking +to see me." + +A few strokes of the oars were sufficient to bring the boat to the +shore. The American stepped out, and leaving the boat to follow the +direction of the vessel, now drifting fast with the current towards the +outlet, which the remainder of the flotilla had already passed, pursued +his course along the sands in earnest conversation with the sisters, or +rather with one of them, for poor Gertrude, after the first salutation, +seemed to have lost all inclination to speak. + +"Fate, dearest Julia," said the officer despondingly, "has decreed our +interview earlier than I had expected. However, under all circumstances, +I may esteem myself happy to have seen you at all. I am indebted for +this favor to the officer commanding yonder vessel, in which our +regiment is embarked, for the satisfaction, melancholy as it is, of +being enabled to bid you a temporary farewell." + +"Then are we both indebted to one of my own family for the happiness; +for that it is a happiness, Ernest, I can answer from the depression of +my spirits just now, when I feared you were about to depart without +seeing me at all. The officer in command of your vessel is, or ought to +be, a cousin of our own." + +"Indeeed!--then is he doubly entitled to my regard. But, Julia, let the +brief time that is given us be devoted to the arrangement of plans for +the future. I will not for a moment doubt your faith, after what +occurred at our last interview; but shall I be certain of finding you +here, when later we return to wash away the stain this day's proceedings +have thrown upon our national honor. Forgive me, if I appear to mix up +political feelings, with private grief, but it cannot be denied, (and he +smiled faintly through the mortification evidently called up by the +recollection), that to have one's honor attainted, and to lose one's +mistress in the same day, are heavier taxes on human patience, than it +can be expected a soldier should quietly bear." + +"And when I am yours at a later period, I suppose you will expect me to +be as interested in the national honor, as you are," replied Julia, +anxious to rally him on a subject she felt, could not but be painful to +a man of high feelings, as she fully believed the Colonel to be. "How +are we to reconcile such clashing interests? How am I so far to overcome +my natural love for the country which gave me birth, so to rejoice in +its subjugation by yours; and yet, that seems to be the eventual object +at which you hint. Your plan, if I understand right, is to return here +with an overwhelming army; overrun the province, and make me your +property by right of conquest, while all connected with me, by blood, or +friendship, are to be borne into captivity. If we marry, sir, we must +draw lots which of us shall adopt a new country." + +"Nay, dearest Julia, this pleasantry is unseasonable. I certainly do +intend, provided I am exchanged in time to return here with the army, +which I doubt not will be instantly dispatched to restore our blighted +fame, and then I shall claim you as my own. Will you then hesitate to +become mine? Even as the daughter forsakes the home of her father +without regret, to pass her days with him who is to her father, mother, +all the charities of life, in short--so should she forsake her native +land adopting in preference that to which her husband is attached by +every tie of honor, and of duty. However, let us hope that ere long, the +folly of this war will be seen, and that the result of such perception, +will be a peace founded on such permanent bases, that each shall be +bound, by an equal tie of regard, to the home of the other." + +"Let us hope so," eagerly replied Julia. "But what has become of our +friend, Miss Montgomerie, in all the confusion of this day. Or am I +right in supposing that she and her uncle are of the number of those +embarked in my cousin's vessel?" + +The name of the interesting American, coupled as it was, with that of +one infinitely more dear to her, caused Gertrude for the first time, to +look up in the face of the officer, in expectation of his reply. She was +struck by the sudden paleness that came over his features again, as on +the former occasion, when allusion was made to her at his recent visit +to Amherstburgh. He saw that his emotion was remarked, and sought to +hide it under an appearance of unconcern, as he replied: + +"Neither Miss Montgomerie nor her uncle are embarked. The latter, I +regret to say, has been one of the few victims who have fallen." + +"What! dead--that excellent kind old man--dead," demanded the sisters +nearly in the same breath? + +"No; not dead--but I fear with little hope of life. He was desperately +wounded soon after daybreak this morning, and when I saw him half an +hour afterwards, he had been given over by the surgeons." + +"Poor Major Montgomerie," sighed Gertrude; "I felt when he was here the +other day, that I could have loved him almost as my own father. How +broken-hearted his niece must be at his loss!" + +A sneer of bitterness passed over the fine features of the American as +he replied with emphasis: + +"Nay, dear Gertrude, your sympathies are but ill bestowed. Miss +Montgomerie's heart will scarcely sustain the injury you seem to +apprehend." + +"What mean you, Ernest?" demanded Julia, with eagerness. "How is it that +you judge thus harshly of her character. How, in short, do you pretend +to enter into her most secret feelings, and yet deny all but a general +knowledge of her? What can you possibly know of her heart?" + +"I merely draw my inferences from surmise," replied the Colonel, after a +few moments of pause. "The fact is, I have the vanity to imagine myself +a correct reader of character, and my reading of Miss Montgomerie's has +not been the happiest." + +Julia's look betrayed incredulity. "There is evidently some mystery in +all this," she rejoined; "but I will not seek to discover more than you +choose at present to impart. Later I may hope to possess more of your +confidence. One question more, however, and I have done. Have you seen +her since your return to Detroit, and did she give you my letter?" + +The Colonel made no answer, but produced from his pocket a note, which +Julia at once recognised as her own. + +"Then," said Gertrude, "there was not so much danger after all, in +intrusting it. You seemed to be in a sad way, when you first heard that +it had been given to her." + +"I would have pledged myself for its safe deliverance," added her +sister; "for the promise was too solemnly given to be broken." + +"And solemnly has it been kept," gravely returned the American. "But +hark! already are they hailing the boat, and we must part." + +The time occupied in conversation had brought them down to the extreme +point where the river terminated and the lake commenced. Beyond this lay +a sand bar, which it was necessary to clear before the increasing dusk +of the evening rendered it hazardous. All the other vessels had already +passed it, and were spreading their white sails before the breeze, which +here, unbroken by the island, impelled them rapidly onward. A few +strokes of the oar, and the boat once more touched the beach. Low and +fervent adieus were exchanged, and the American, resuming his station in +the stern, was soon seen to ascend the deck he had so recently quitted. +For a short time the sisters continued to watch the movements of the +vessel, as she in turn having passed, spread all her canvass to the +wind, until the fast fading twilight warning them to depart, they +retraced their steps along the sands to the town. Both were silent and +pensive; and while all around them found subject for rejoicing in the +public events of the day, they retired at an early hour, to indulge at +leisure in the several painful retrospections which related more +particularly to themselves. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + + +If the few weeks preceding the fall of Detroit had been characterised by +much bustle and excitement, those which immediately succeeded were no +less remarkable for their utter inactivity and repose. With the +surrender of the fortress vanished every vestige of hostility in that +remote territory, enabling the sinews of watchfulness to undergo a +relaxation, nor longer requiring the sacrifice of private interests to +the public good. Scarcely had the American prisoners been despatched to +their several destinations, when General Brock, whose activity and +decision were the subject of universal remark, quitted his new conquest, +and again hastened to resume the command on the Niagara frontier, which +he had only left to accomplish what had been so happily achieved. The +Indians, too, finding their services no longer in immediate demand, +dispersed over the country or gave themselves up to the amusement of the +chase, ready, however, to come forward whenever they should be +re-summoned to the conflict; while the Canadians, who had abandoned +their homes to assist in the operations of the war, returned once more +to the cultivation of that soil they had so recently looked upon as +wrested from them for ever. Throughout the whole line of Detroit, on +either shore, the utmost quietude prevailed; and although many of the +inhabitants of the conquered town looked with an eye of national +jealousy on the English flag that waved in security above the fort, they +submitted uncomplainingly to the change, indulging only in secret, yet +without bitterness, in the hope of a not far distant reaction of +fortune, when their own National Stars should once more be in the +ascendant. + +The garrison left at Detroit consisted merely of two companies--those of +Captains Granville and Molineux, which included among their officers +Middlemore, Villiers and Henry Grantham. After the first excitement +produced in the minds of the townspeople by their change of rulers had +passed away, these young men, desirous of society, sought to renew their +intimacy with such of the more respectable families as they had been in +the habit of associating with prior to hostilities; but although in most +instances they were successful, their reception was so different from +what it had formerly been, that they were glad to withdraw themselves +within the rude resources of their own walls. It happened, however, +about this period, that Colonel D'Egville had received a command to +transfer the head of his department from Amherstburg to Detroit, and, +with a view to his own residence on the spot, the large and commodious +mansion of the late Governor was selected for the abode of his family. +With the daughters of that officer the D'Egvilles had long been +intimate, and as the former were to continue under the same roof until +their final departure from Detroit, it was with a mutual satisfaction +the friends found themselves thus closely reunited. Added to this party +were Major Montgomerie (already fast recovering from the effects of his +wound,) and his niece--both of whom only awaited the entire restoration +of the former, to embark immediately for the nearest American port. + +At Colonel D'Egville's it will therefore be supposed the officers passed +nearly all their leisure hours; Molineux and Villiers flirting with the +fair American sisters, until they had nearly been held fast by the +chains with which they dallied, and Middlemore uttering his execrable +puns with a coolness of premeditation that excited the laughter of the +fair part of his auditors, while his companions, on the contrary, +expressed their unmitigated abhorrence in a variety of ways. As for the +somewhat staid Captain Granville, he sought to carry his homage to the +feet of Miss Montgomerie, but the severe and repellant manner in which +she received all his advances, and the look which almost petrified where +it fell, not only awed him effectually into distance, but drew down upon +him the sarcastic felicitations of his watchful brother officers. There +was one, however, on whose attentions her disapprobation fell not, and +Henry Grantham, who played the part of an anxious observer, remarked +with pain that _he_ had been fascinated by her beauty, in a manner which +showed her conquest to be complete. + +The cousins of Gerald Grantham had been in error in supposing him to be +the officer in command of the vessel on board which the lover of Julia +had embarked. His transfer from the gun-boat had taken place, but in +consideration of the fatigue he had undergone during the three +successive days in which he had been employed at the batteries, the +Commodore had directed another officer to take command of the vessel in +question, and charge himself with the custody of the prisoners on board. +Finding himself at liberty until the return of the flotilla from this +duty, the first care of Gerald was to establish himself in lodgings in +Detroit, whence he daily sallied forth to the apartments in the +Governor's house occupied by the unfortunate Major Montgomerie, in whose +situation he felt an interest so much the more deep and lively as he +knew his confinement to have been in some degree the work of his own +hands. All the attention and kindness could effect was experienced by +the respectable Major, who, in return, found himself more and more +attached to his youthful and generous captor. These constant visits to +the uncle naturally brought our hero more immediately into the society +of the niece, but although he had never been able to banish from his +memory the recollection of one look which she had bestowed upon him on a +former occasion, in almost every interview of the sort _now_, she +preserved the same cold distance and reserve which was peculiar to her. + +A week had elapsed in this manner, when it chanced that as they both sat +one evening, about dusk, near the couch of the invalid, the latter, +after complaining of extreme weakness and unusual suffering, expressed +his anxiety at the possibility of his niece being left alone and +unprotected in a strange country. + +It was with a beating pulse and a glowing cheek that Gerald looked up to +observe the effect of this observation on his companion. He was +surprised, nay, hurt, to remark that an expression of almost +contemptuous loathing sat upon her pale but beautiful countenance. He +closed his eyes for a moment in bitterness of disappointment--and when +they again opened and fell upon that countenance, he scarcely could +believe the evidence of his senses. Every feature had undergone a +change. With her face half turned, as if to avoid the observation of her +uncle, she now exhibited a cheek flushed with the expression of +passionate excitement, while from her eye beamed that same unfathomable +expression which had carried intoxication once before to the inmost soul +of the youth. Almost wild with his feelings, it was with difficulty he +restrained the impulse that would have urged him to her feet; but even +while he hesitated, her countenance had again undergone a change, and +she sat cold and reserved and colorless as before. + +That look sealed that night the destiny of Gerald Grantham. The coldness +of the general demeanor of Matilda was forgotten in the ardor of +character which had escaped from beneath the evident and habitual +disguise; and the enthusiastic sailor could think of nothing but the +witchery of that look. To his surprise and joy, the following day, and +ever afterwards, he found that the manner of the American, although +reserved as usual towards others, had undergone a complete change +towards himself. Whenever he appeared alone a smile was his welcome, and +if others were present she always contrived to indemnify him for a +coldness he now knew to be assumed, by conveying unobserved one of those +seductive glances the power of which she seemed so fully to understand. + +Such was the state of things when the D'Egvilles arrived. Exposed to the +observations of more than one anxious friend, it was not likely that a +youth of Gerald's open nature could be long in concealing his +prepossession; and as Matilda, although usually guarded in her general +manner, was observed sometimes to fix her eyes upon him with the +expression of one immersed in deep and speculative thought, the +suspicion acquired a character of greater certainty. + +To Harry Grantham, who doated upon his brother, this attachment was a +source of infinite disquiet; for, from the very commencement, Miss +Montgomerie had unfavorably impressed him. Why he knew not; yet, +impelled by a feeling he was unable to analyze, he deeply lamented that +they had ever become acquainted, infatuated as Gerald appeared by her +attractions. There was another too, who saw with regret the attachment +of Gerald to his fair prisoner. It was Gertrude D'Egville; but her +uncomplaining voice spoke not, even to her beloved sister, of the +anguish she endured--she loved her cousin, but he knew it not; and +although she felt that she was fast consuming with the disappointment +that preyed upon her peace, she had obtained of her sister the promise +that her secret should never reach the ear of its object. + +In this manner passed the months of August and September. October had +just commenced, and with it that beautiful but brief season which is +well known to America as the Indian summer. Anxious to set out on his +return to that home to which his mutilation must confine him for the +future, Major Montgomerie, now sufficiently recovered to admit of his +travelling by water, expressed a desire to avail himself of the +loveliness of the weather, and embark forthwith on his return. + +By the officers whom the hospitality of Colonel D'Egville almost daily +assembled beneath his roof, this announcement was received with dismay, +and especially by Molineux and Villiers, who had so suffered themselves +to be fascinated by the amiable daughters of General H----, as to have +found it necessary to hold a consultation (decided however in the +negative) whether they should or should not tempt them to remain, by +making an offer of their hands. It was also observed that these young +ladies, who at first had been all anxiety to rejoin their parent, +evinced no particular satisfaction in the intimation of speedy departure +thus given to them. Miss Montgomerie, on the contrary, whose anxiety +throughout to quit Detroit had been no less remarkable than her former +impatience to reach it, manifested a pleasure that amounted almost to +exultation; and yet it was observed that, by a strange apparent +contradiction, her preference for Gerald from that moment became more +and more divested of disguise. + +There are few spots in the world, perhaps, that unite so many +inducements to the formation of those sociable little _reunions_ which +come under the denomination of pic-nics as the small islands adorning +most of the American rivers. Owing to the difficulty of procuring summer +carriages, and in some degree to the rudeness of the soil, in the Upper +Province especially, boats are in much more general use; and excursions +on the water are as common to that class "whose only toil is pleasure," +as cockney trips to Richmond, or to any other of the thousand and one +places of resort which have sprung into existence within twenty miles of +the metropolis of England. Not confined, however, to picking daisies for +their sweethearts, as these cockneys do, or carving their vulgar names +on every magnificent tree that spreads its gorgeous arms to afford them +the temporary shelter of a home, the men generally devote themselves, +for a period of the day, to manlier exercises. The woods abounding with +game, and the rivers with fish of the most delicate flavor--the address +of the hunter and the fisher, is equally called into action; since upon +their exertions principally depend the party for the fish and fowl +portion of their rural dinner. Guns and rods are, therefore, as +indispensable a part of the freightage, as the dried venison and bear +hams, huge turkies, pastries, &c. which, together with wines, spirits, +and cider, _ad libitum_, form the mass of alimentary matter. Here is to +be heard neither the impertinent coxcomb of the European self-styled +exclusive, nor the unmeaning twaddle of the daughter of false fashion, +spoiled by the example of the said exclusive, and almost be come a +dowager in silliness, before she has attained the first years of +womanhood. No lack-a-daisical voice, the sex of which it is difficult to +distinguish, is attempted to be raised in depreciation of the party to +which it had been esteemed too great a happiness to be invited the +evening before. The sneer of contempt--the laugh of derision--is nowhere +to be heard; neither is the pallid brow and sunken cheek, the fruit of +late hours and forced excitement, to be seen. Content is in each +heart--the glow of health upon each face. All appear eager to be happy, +pleased with each other, and at ease with themselves. Not that theirs is +the enjoyment of the mere holiday mind, which grasps with undiscerning +avidity at whatever offers to its gratification, but that of those in +whom education, acting on innate good breeding, has imposed a due sense +of the courtesies of life, and on whom fashion has not superseded the +kindlier emotions of nature. + +Several of these pic-nics had taken place among the party at Detroit, +confined, with one or two exceptions, to the officers of the garrison, +and the family of Colonel D'Egville, with their American inmates; and it +was proposed by the former, that a final one should be given a few days +prior to the embarkation in Gerald Grantham's new command, which lay +waiting in the river for the purpose--the Major remaining as hitherto at +home, under the guardianship of the benevolent Mrs. D'Egville, whose +habits of retirement disinclined her to out-door amusement. + +Hitherto their excursions had been principally directed to some of the +smaller islands, which abound in the river nearer Amherstburgh, and +where game being found in abundance, the skill of the officers had more +immediate opportunity for display; but on this excursion, at the casual +suggestion of Miss Montgomerie, Hog Island was selected as the scene of +their day's amusement. Thither, therefore, the boat which contained the +party now proceeded, the ladies costumed in a manner to thread the mazes +of the wood, and the gentlemen in equally appropriate gear, as +sportsmen, their guns and fishing rods being by no means omitted in the +catalogue of orders entrusted to their servants. In the stern of the +boat--the trustworthy coxswain on this occasion--sat old Sambo, whose +skill in the conduct of a helm was acknowledged to be little inferior to +his dexterity in the use of a paddle, and whose authoritative voice, as +he issued his commands in broken English to the boatmen, added, in no +small degree, to the exhilaration of the party. + +To reach Hog Island, it was necessary to pass by the tannery and cottage +already described, which, latter, it will be remembered, had been the +scene of a singular adventure to our hero and his servant on the night +of their reconnoitering the coast, in obedience to the order of the +Commodore. By the extraordinary and almost romantic incidents of that +night, the imagination of Gerald had been deeply impressed, and on +retiring to his rude couch within the battery he had fully made up his +mind to explore further into the mysterious affair, with as little delay +as possible after the expected fall of the American fortress. In the +hurry, confusion, and excitement, of that event however, his original +intention was forgotten; or, rather so far delayed, that it was not +until the third or fourth day of his establishment in the town, that it +occurred to him to institute inquiry. He had accordingly repaired +thither, but finding the house carefully shut up, and totally +uninhabited, had contented himself with questioning the tanner and his +family, in regard to its late inmates, reserving to a future opportunity +the attempt to make himself personally acquainted with all that it +contained. From this man he learnt, that, the house had once been the +property of an aged Canadian, at whose death (supposed to have been +occasioned by violence,) it had passed into the hands of an American, +who led a roving and adventurous life, being frequently away for months +together, and then returning with a canoe, but never continuing for more +than a night or two. That latterly it had been wholly deserted by its +owner, in consequence of which it had been taken possession of, and used +as quarters by the officers of the American guard, stationed at this +part of the town, for the protection of the boats, and as a check upon +the incursions of the Indians. In all this statement, there was every +appearance of truth, but in no part of it did Gerald find wherewith to +elucidate what he himself had witnessed. He described the costume, and +questioned of the mysterious figure, but the only reply he obtained from +the independent tanner, when he admitted to him that he had been so near +a visitor on that occasion, and had seen what he described, was an +expressed regret that he had not been "wide awake when any Brittainer +ventured to set foot upon his grounds, otherwise, tarnation seize him +with all due respect, if he wouldn't a stuck an ounce o' lead in his +liver as quickly as he would tan a hide," a patriotic sentiment in which +it may be supposed our hero in no way coincided. With the tanner's +assurance, however, that no living thing was there at this moment, +Gerald was fain to content himself for the present, fully resolving to +return at another time with Sambo, and effect a forcible entrance into a +place, with which were connected such striking recollections. He had, +however, been too much interested and occupied elsewhere, to find time +to devote to the purpose. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + + +As the boat, which contained the party, pulled by six of the best +oars-men among the soldiers of the garrison, and steered, as we have +shown, by the dexterous Sambo, now glided past the spot, the +recollections of the tradition connected with the bridge drew from +several of the party expressions of sympathy and feigned terror, as +their several humors dictated. Remarking that Miss Montgomerie's +attention appeared to be deeply excited by what she heard, while she +gazed earnestly upon the dwelling in the back ground, Gerald Grantham +thought to interest her yet more, and amuse and startle the rest of the +party, by detailing his extraordinary, and hitherto unrevealed +adventure, on a recent occasion. To this strange tale, as may naturally +be supposed, some of his companions listened with an air of almost +incredulity, nor indeed would they rest satisfied until Sambo, who kept +his eyes turned steadily away from the shore, and to whom appeal was +frequently made by his master, confirmed his statement in every +particular; and with such marks of revived horror in his looks, as +convinced them, Gerald was not playing upon their facility of belief. +The more incredulous his brother officers, the more animated had become +the sailor in his description, and, on arriving at that part of his +narrative which detailed the reappearance and reflection of the +mysterious figure in the upper room, upon the court below, every one +became insensibly fixed in mute attention. From the moment of his +commencing, Miss Montgomerie had withdrawn her gaze from the land, and +fixing it upon her lover, manifested all the interest he could desire. +Her feelings were evidently touched by what she heard, for she grew +paler as Gerald proceeded, while her breathing was suspended, as if +fearful to lose a single syllable he uttered. At each more exciting +crisis of the narrative, she betrayed a corresponding intensity of +attention, until at length, when the officer described his mounting on +the water butt, and obtaining a full view of all within the room, she +looked as still and rigid as if she had been metamorphosed into a +statue. This eagerness of attention, shared as it was, although not to +the same extent perhaps, by the rest of Gerald's auditory, was only +remarkable in Miss Montgomerie, in as much as she was one of too much +mental preoccupation to feel or betray interest in anything, and it +might have been the risk encountered by her lover, and the share he had +borne in the mysterious occurrence, that now caused her to lapse from +her wonted inaccessibility to impressions of the sort. As the +climax of the narrative approached, her interest became deeper, and her +absorption more profound. An involuntary shudder passed over her form, +and a slight contraction of the nerves of her face was perceptible, when +Gerald described to his attentive and shocked auditory, the raising of +the arm of the assassin; and her emotion at length assumed such a +character of nervousness, that when he exultingly told of the rapid +discharge of his own pistol, as having been the only means of averting +the fate of the doomed, she could not refrain from rising suddenly in +the boat, and putting her hand to her side, with the shrinking movement +of one who had been suddenly wounded. + +While in the act of rising she had drawn the cloak, with which, like the +other ladies, she was provided, more closely over her shoulders--Sambo +seemed to have caught some new idea from this action, for furtively +touching Henry Grantham, who sat immediately before him, and on the +right of Miss Montgomerie, he leaned forward and whispered a few +sentences in his ear. + +Meanwhile Miss Montgomerie was not a little rallied on the extreme +susceptibility which had led her as it were to identify herself with the +scene. Gerald remarked that on recovering her presence of mind, she at +first looked as if she fancied herself the subject of sarcasm, and would +have resented the liberty; but finding there was nothing painted in the +manner of those who addressed her, finished by joining, yet with some +appearance of constraint, in the laugh against herself. + +"I confess," she said coloring, "that the strange incident which Mr. +Grantham has related, and which he has so well described, has caused me +to be guilty of a ridiculous emotion. I am not usually startled into the +expression of strong feeling, but there was so much to excite and +surprise in his catastrophe that I could not avoid in some measure +identifying myself with the scene." + +"Nay, Miss Montgomerie," remarked Julia D'Egville, "there can be no +reason why such emotion should be either disavowed or termed ridiculous. +For my part, I own that I cannot sufficiently express my horror of the +wretch who could thus deliberately attempt the life of another. How +lucky was it, Gerald, that you arrived at that critical moment; but have +you no idea--not the slightest--of the person of the assassin or of his +intended victim?" + +"Not the slightest--the disguise of the person was too effectual to be +penetrated, and the face I had not once an opportunity of beholding. + +"Yet," observed Miss Montgomerie, "from your previous description of the +figure, it is by no means a matter of certainty that it was not a woman +you pursued, instead of a man--or, was there anything to betray the +vacillation of purpose which would naturally attend one of our sex in an +enterprise of the kind." + +"What, a woman engage in so unnatural a deed!" remarked Henry +Grantham--"surely, Miss Montgomerie," for he always spoke rather _at_ +than _to_ her--"cannot seek to maintain a supposition so opposed to all +probability--neither will she be so unjust towards herself as to admit +the existence of such monstrous guilt in the heart of another of her +sex." + +"Impossible!" said Gerald. "Whatever might have been my impression when +I first saw the figure in the merchantman--that is to say, if I had then +a doubt in regard to the sex, it was entirely removed, when later I +beheld the unfaltering energy with which it entered upon its murderous +purpose. The hand of woman never could have been armed with such fierce +and unflinching determination as that hand." + +"The emergency of the occasion, it would seem, did not much interfere +with your study of character," observed Miss Montgomerie, with a faint +smile--"but you say you fired--was it with intent to kill the killer?" + +"I scarcely know with what intent myself; but if I can rightly +understand my own impulse, it was more with a view to divert him from +his deadly object, than to slay--and this impression acquires strength +from the fact of my having missed him--I am almost sorry now that I +did." + +"Perhaps," said Miss Montgomerie, "you might have slain one worthier +than him you sought to save. As one of your oldest poets +sings--whatever is is right----" + +"What!" exclaimed the younger Grantham with emphasis, "Can Miss +Montgomerie then form any idea of the persons who figured in that +scene?" + +Most of the party looked at the questioner with surprise. Gerald frowned +and for the first time in his life entertained a feeling of anger +against his brother. In no way moved or piqued by the demand, Miss +Montgomerie calmly replied: + +"I can see no just reason for such inference, Mr. Grantham; I merely +stated a case of possibility, without anything which can refer to the +merit of either of the parties." + +Henry Grantham felt that he was rebuked--but although he could not avoid +something like an apologetical explanation of his remark, he was not the +more favorably disposed towards her who had forced it from him. In this +feeling he was confirmed by the annoyance he felt at having been visited +by the anger of the brother to whom he was so attached. Arrived at Hog +Island, and equipped with their guns and fishing rods, the gentlemen +dispersed in quest of game, some threading the mazes of the wood in +quest of the various birds that frequent the vicinity, others seeking +those points of the island where the dense foliage affords a shade to +the numerous delicately-flavored fish which, luxuriating in the still +deep water, seek relief from the heat of summer. To these latter +sportsmen the ladies of the party principally attached themselves, +quitting them only at intervals to collect pebbles on the sands, or to +saunter about the wood, in search of the wild flowers or fruits that +abounded along its skirt, while the servants busied themselves in +erecting the marquee and making preparation for dinner. + +Among those who went in pursuit of game were the Granthams, who, like +most Canadians, were not only excellent shots, but much given to a sport +in which they had had considerable practice in early boyhood. For a +short time they had continued with their companions; but as the wood +became thicker and their object consequently more attainable by +dispersion, they took a course parallel with the point at which the +fishers had assembled, while their companions continued to move in an +opposite direction. There was an unusual reserve in the manner of the +brothers as they now wound through the intricacies of the wood. Each +appeared to feel that the other had given him cause for displeasure, and +each--unwilling to introduce the subject most at heart--availed himself +with avidity rather of the several opportunities which the starting of +the game afforded for conversation of a general nature. They had gone on +in this manner for some time, and having been tolerably successful in +their sport, were meditating their return to the party on the beach, +when the ear of Gerald was arrested by the drumming of a partridge at a +short distance. Glancing his quick eye in the direction whence the sound +came, he beheld a remarkably fine bird, which, while continuing to beat +its wings violently against the fallen tree on which it was perched, had +its neck outstretched and its gaze intently fixed on some object below. +Tempted by the size and beauty of the bird, Gerald fired and it fell to +the earth. He advanced, stooped, and was in the act of picking it up, +when a sharp and well known rattle was heard to issue from beneath the +log. The warning was sufficient to save him, had he consented even for +an instant to forego his prize; but, accustomed to meet with these +reptiles on almost every excursion of the kind, and never having +sustained any injury from them, he persevered in disengaging the +partridge from some briers with which, in falling, it had got entangled. +Before he could again raise himself, an enormous rattlesnake had darted +upon him, and stung with rage perhaps at being deprived of its victim, +had severely bitten him above the left wrist. The instantaneous pang +that darted throughout the whole limb caused Gerald to utter an +exclamation; and dropping the bird, he sank, almost fainting, on the log +whence his enemy had attacked him. + +The cry of agony reached Henry Grantham as he was carelessly awaiting +his brother's return and at once forgetting their temporary +estrangement, and full of eager love and apprehension--he flew to +ascertain the nature of the injury. To his surprise and horror he +remarked that, although not a minute had elapsed since the fangs of the +reptile had penetrated into the flesh, the arm was already considerably +inflamed and exhibiting then a dark and discolored hue. That a remedy +was at hand he knew but what it was, and how to be applied he was not +aware, the Indians alone being in the possession of the secret. Deeming +that Sambo might have some knowledge of the kind, he now made the woods +echo with the sound of his name, in a manner that could not fail to +startle and alarm the whole of the scattered party. Soon afterwards the +rustling of forms was heard in various directions, as they forced +themselves through the underwood, and the first who came in sight was +Miss Montgomerie, preceded by the old negro. The lamentation of the +latter was intense, and when on approaching his young master, he +discovered the true nature of his accident and confessed his ignorance +of all remedy, he burst into tears, and throwing himself upon the earth +tore his grey woollen hair away, regardless of all entreaty on the part +of Gerald to moderate his grief. Miss Montgomerie now came forward, and +never did sounds of melody fall so harmoniously on the ear, as did her +voice on that of the younger Grantham as she pledged herself to the +cure, on their instant return to the spot where the marquee had been +erected. With this promise she again disappeared, and several others of +the party having now joined them, Gerald, duly supported, once more +slowly retraced his way to the same point. + +"Damn him pattridge," muttered Sambo, who lingered a moment or two in +the rear to harness himself with the apparatus of which his master had +disencumbered his person. "Damn him pattridge," and he kicked the +lifeless bird indignantly with his foot, "you all he cause he dis; what +he hell he do here?" + +This tirade however against the pattridge did not by any means prevent +the utterer from eventually consigning it to its proper destination in +the game bag as the noblest specimen of the day's sport, and thus +burthened he issued from the wood, nearly at the same moment with the +wounded Gerald and his friends. + +The consternation of all parties on witnessing the disaster of the +sailor, whose arm had already swollen to a fearful size, while the wound +itself began to assume an appearance of mortification, was strongly +contrasted with the calm silence of Miss Montgomerie, who was busily +employed in stirring certain herbs which she was boiling over the fire +that had been kindled in the distance for the preparation of the dinner. +The sleeve of the sufferer's shooting jacket had been ripped to the +shoulder by his brother and as he now sat on a pile of cloaks within the +marquee, the rapid discoloration of the white skin, could be distinctly +traced, marking as it did the progress of the deadly poison towards the +vital portion of the system. In this trying emergency all eyes were +turned with anxiety on the slightest movement of her who had undertaken +the cure, and none more eagerly than those of Henry Grantham and +Gertrude D'Egville, the latter of whom, gentle even as she was, could +not but acknowledge a pang of regret that to another, and that other a +favored rival--should be the task of alleviating the anguish and +preserving the life of the only man she had ever loved. + +At length Miss Montgomerie came forward; and never was a beneficent +angel more welcomed than did Henry Grantham welcome her, whom an hour +since he had looked upon with aversion, when with a countenance of +unwonted paleness but confident of success, she advanced towards the +opening of the marquee, to which interest in the sufferer had drawn even +the domestics. All made way for her approach. Kneeling at the side of +Gerald, and depositing the vessel in which she had mixed her +preparation, she took the wounded arm in her own fair hands with the +view, it was supposed, of holding it while another applied the remedy. +Scarcely however had she secured it in a firm grasp when, to the +surprise and consternation of all around, she applied her own lips to +the wound and continued them there in despite of the efforts of Gerald +to withdraw his arm, nor was it until there was already a visible +reduction in the size, and change in the color of the limb that she +removed them. This done she arose and retired to the skirt of the wood +whence she again returned in less than a minute. Even in the short time +that had elapsed, the arm of the sufferer had experienced an almost +miraculous change. The inflammation had greatly subsided, while the +discoloration had retired to the immediate vicinity of the wound, which +in its turn however had assumed a more virulent appearance. From this it +was evident that the suction had been the means of recalling, to the +neighborhood of the injury, such portions of the poison as had expanded, +concentrating all in one mass immediately beneath its surface, and +thereby affording fuller exposure to the action of the final remedy. +This--consisting of certain herbs of a dark color, and spread at her +direction by the trembling hands of Gertrude, on her white +handkerchief--Miss Montgomerie now proceeded to apply, covering a +considerable portion around the orifice of the two small wounds, +inflicted by the fangs of the serpent, with the dense mass of the +vegetable preparation. The relief produced by this was effectual, and in +less than an hour, so completely had the poison been extracted, and the +strength of the arm restored, that Gerald was enabled not merely to +resume his shooting jacket, but to partake, although sparingly of the +meal which followed. + +It may be presumed that the bold action of Miss Montgomerie passed not +without the applause it so highly merited, yet even while applauding, +there were some of the party, and particularly Henry Grantham, who +regarded it with feelings not wholly untinctured with the unpleasant. +Her countenance and figure, as she stood in the midst of the forest, +preparing the embrocation, so well harmonizing with the scene and +occupation; the avidity with which she sucked the open wound of the +sufferer, and the fearless manner in which she imbibed that which was +considered death to others; all this, combined with a general demeanor +in which predominated a reserve deeply shaded with mystery, threw over +the actor and the action an air of the preternatural, occasioning more +of surprise and awe than prepossession. Such, especially, as we have +said, was the impression momentarily, produced on Henry Grantham; but +when he beheld his brother's eye and cheek once more beaming with +returning strength and health, he saw in her but the generous preserver +of that brother's life to whom his own boundless debt of gratitude was +due. It was at this moment that, in the course of conversation on the +subject, Captain Molineux inquired of Miss Montgomerie, what antidote +she possessed against the influence of the poison. Every eye was turned +upon her as she vaguely answered, a smile of peculiar meaning playing +over her lips, that "Captain Molineux must be satisfied with knowing she +bore a charmed life." Then again it was that the young soldier's +feelings underwent another reaction, and as he caught the words and look +which accompanied them, he scarcely could persuade himself she was not +the almost vampire and sorceress that his excited imagination had +represented. + +Not the least deeply interested in the events of the morning, was the +old negro. During their meal, at the service of which he assisted, his +eyes scarcely quitted her whom he appeared to regard with a mingled +feeling of awe and adoration; nay, such was his abstraction that, in +attempting to place a dish of game on the rude table at which the party +sat, he lodged the whole of the contents in the lap of Middlemore, a +clumsiness that drew from the latter an exclamation of horror, followed +however the instant afterwards by Sambo's apology. + +"I beg a pardon, Massa Middlemore," he exclaimed, "I let him fall he +gravey in he lap." + +"Then will you by some means contrive to lap it up?" returned the +officer quaintly. + +Sambo applied his napkin and the dinner proceeded without other +occurrence. Owing to an apprehension that the night air might tend to +renew the inflammation of the wounded arm, the boat was early in +readiness for the return of the party, whose day of pleasure had been in +some manner turned into a day of mourning, so that long before sun set, +they had again reached their respective homes at Detroit. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + + +A few days after the adventure detailed in our last chapter, the +American party, consisting of Major and Miss Montgomerie, and the +daughters of the Governor, with their attendants, embarked in the +schooner, to the command of which Gerald had been promoted. The +destination of the whole was the American port of Buffalo, situate at +the further extremity of the lake, nearly opposite to the fort of Erie; +and thither our hero, perfectly recovered from the effects of his +accident, received instructions to repair without loss of time, land his +charge, and immediately rejoin the flotilla at Amherstburg. + +However pleasing the first, the latter part of the order was by no means +so strictly in consonance with the views and feelings of the new +commander, as might have been expected from a young and enterprising +spirit; but he justified his absence of zeal to himself, in the fact +that there was no positive service to perform; no duty in which he could +have an opportunity of signalizing himself, or rendering a benefit to +his country. + +If, however, the limited period allotted for the execution of his duty +was a source of much disappointment to Gerald, such was not the effect +produced by it on his brother, to whom it gave promise of a speedy +termination of an attachment which he had all along regarded with +disapprobation, and a concern amounting almost to dread. We have seen +that Henry Grantham, on the occasion of his brother's disaster at the +pic-nic, had been wound up into an enthusiasm of gratitude, which had +nearly weaned him from his original aversion; but this feeling had not +outlived the day on which the occurrence took place. Nay, on the very +next morning, he had had a long private conversation with Gerald in +regard to Miss Montgomerie, which, ending as it did, in a partial +coolness, had tended to make him dislike the person who had caused it +still more. It was, therefore, not without secret delight that he +overheard the order for the instant return of the schooner, which, +although conveyed by the Commodore in the mildest manner, was yet so +firm and decided as to admit neither of doubt nor dispute. While the +dangerous American continued a resident at Detroit, there was every +reason to fear that the attachment of his infatuated brother, fed by +opportunity, would lead him to the commission of some irrevocable act of +imprudence; whereas, on the contrary, when she had departed, there was +every probability that continued absence, added to the stirring +incidents of war which might be expected shortly to ensue, would prove +effectual in restoring the tone of Gerald's mind. There was, +consequently, much to please him in the order for departure. Miss +Montgomerie once landed within the American lines, and his brother +returned to his duty, the anxious soldier had no doubt that the feelings +of the latter would resume their wonted channel and that, in his desire +to render himself worthy of glory, to whom he had been originally +devoted, he would forget, at least after a season, all that was +connected with love. + +It was a beautiful autumnal morning when the schooner weighed anchor +from Detroit. Several of the officers of the garrison had accompanied +the ladies on board, and having made fast their sailing boat to the +stern, loitered on deck with the intention of descending the river a few +miles, and then beating up against the current. The whole party were +thus assembled, conversing together and watching the movements of the +sailors, when a boat, in which were several armed men encircling a huge, +raw-boned individual, habited in the fashion of an American +backwoodsman, approached the vessel. This was no other than the traitor +Desborough, who, it will be recollected, was detained and confined in +prison at the surrender of Detroit. He had been put upon his trial for +the murder of Major Grantham, but had been acquitted through want of +evidence to convict, his own original admission being negatived by a +subsequent declaration that he had only made it through a spirit of +bravado and revenge. Still, as the charges of desertion and treason had +been substantiated against him, he was, by order of the commandant of +Amherstburgh, destined for Fort Erie, in the schooner conveying the +American party to Buffalo, with a view to his being sent on to the Lower +Province, there to be disposed of as the General Commanding in Chief +should deem fit. + +The mien of the settler, as he now stepped over the vessel's side, +partook of the mingled cunning and ferocity by which he had formerly +been distinguished. While preparations were being made for his reception +and security below deck, he bent his sinister yet bold glance on each of +the little group in succession, as if he would have read in their +countenances the probable fate that awaited himself. The last who fell +under his scrutiny was Miss Montgomerie, on whom his eye had scarcely +rested when the insolent indifference of his manner seemed to give place +at once to a new feeling. There was intelligence enough in the glance of +both to show that an insensible interest had been created, and yet +neither gave the slightest indication by word of what was passing in the +mind. + +"Well, Mister Jeremiah Desborough," said Middlemore, first breaking the +silence, and in the taunting mode of address he usually adopted towards +the settler, "I reckon as how you'll shoot no wild ducks this season, on +the Sandusky river--not likely to be much troubled with your small bores +now." + +The ruffian gazed at him a moment in silence, evidently ransacking his +brain for something sufficiently insolent to offer in return. At length +he drew his hat slouchingly over one side of his head, folded his arms +across his chest, and squirting a torrent of tobacco juice from his +capacious jaws, exclaimed in his drawling voice: + +"I guess, Mister Officer, as how you're mighty cute upon a fallen +man--but tarnation seize me if I don't expect you'll find some one cuter +still afore long. The sogers all say," he continued, with a low cunning +laugh, "as how you're a bit of a wit, and fond of a play upon words +like. If so, I'll jist try you a little at your own game, and tell you +that I had a thousand to one rather be troubled with my small bores, +than with such a confounded great bore as you are; and now, you may pit +that down as something good in your pun book when you please, and ax me +no more questions." + +Long and fitful was the laughter which burst from Villiers and Molineux +at this bitter retort upon their companion, which they vowed should be +repeated at the mess-table of either garrison, whenever he again +attempted one of his execrables. + +Desborough took courage at the license conveyed by this pleasantry, and +pursued, winking familiarly to Captain Molineux, while he, at the same +time, nodded to Middlemore. + +"Mighty little time, I calculate, had he to think of aggravatin', when I +gripped him down at Hartley's pint that day. If it hadn't been for that +old heathen scoundrel, Girtie, my poor boy Phil, as the Injuns killed, +and me, I reckon, would have sent him and young Grantham to crack their +puns upon the fishes of the lake. How scared they were, sure_ly_." + +"Silence, fellow!" thundered Gerald Grantham, who now came up from the +hold, whither he had been to examine the fastenings prepared for his +prisoner. "How dare you open your lips here?"--then pointing towards the +steps he had just quitted--"descend, sir!" + +Never did human countenance exhibit marks of greater rage than +Desborough's at that moment. His eyes seemed about to start from their +sockets--the large veins of his neck and brow swelled almost to +bursting, and while his lips were compressed with violence, his nervous +fingers played, as with convulsive anxiety to clutch themselves around +the throat of the officer--every thing, in short, marked the effort it +cost him to restrain himself within such bounds as his natural cunning +and prudence dictated. Still, he neither spoke nor moved. + +"Descend, sir, instantly!" repeated Gerald, "or, by Heaven, I will have +you thrown in without further ceremony--descend this moment!" + +The settler advanced, placed one foot upon the ladder, then turned his +eye steadfastly upon the officer. Every one present shuddered to behold +its expression--it was that of fierce, inextinguishable hatred. + +"By hell, you will pay me one day or t'other for this, I reckon," he +uttered in a hoarse and fearful whisper--"every dog has his day--it will +be Jeremiah Desborough's turn next." + +"What! do you presume to threaten, villain?" vociferated Gerald, now +excited beyond all bounds: "here, men, gag me this fellow--tie him neck +and heels, and throw him into the hold, as you would a bag of ballast." + +Several men, with Sambo at their head, advanced for the purpose of +executing the command of their officer, when the eldest daughter of the +Governor, who had witnessed the whole scene, suddenly approached the +latter, and interceded warmly for a repeal of the punishment. Miss +Montgomerie also, who had been a silent observer, glanced significantly +towards the settler. What her look implied no one was quick enough to +detect; but its effect on the culprit was evident--for, without uttering +another syllable, or waiting to be again directed, he moved slowly and +sullenly down the steps that led to his place of confinement. + +Whatever the impressions produced upon the minds of the several +spectators by this incident, they were not expressed. No comment was +made, nor was further allusion made to the settler. Other topics of +conversation were introduced, and it was not until the officers, having +bid them a final and cordial adieu, had again taken to their boats on +their way back to Detroit, that the ladies quitted the deck for the +cabin which had been prepared for them. + +The short voyage down the lake was performed without incident. From the +moment of the departure of the officers, an air of dulness and +abstraction, originating in a great degree in the unpleasantness of +separation--anticipated and past--pervaded the little party. Sensitive +and amiable as were the daughters of the American Governor, it was not +to be supposed that they parted without regret from men in whose society +they had recently passed so many agreeable hours, and for two of whom +they had insensibly formed preferences. Not however that that parting +was to be considered final, for both Molineux and Villiers had promised +to avail themselves of the first days of peace, to procure leave of +absence, and revisit them in their native country. The feeling of +disappointment acknowledged by the sisters, was much more perceptible in +Gerald Grantham and Miss Montgomerie, both of whom became more +thoughtful and abstracted as the period of separation drew nearer. + +It was about ten o'clock on the evening immediately preceding that on +which they expected to gain their destination, that, as Gerald leaned +ruminating over the side of the schooner, then going at the slow rate of +two knots an hour, he fancied he heard voices, in a subdued tone, +ascending apparently from the quarter of the vessel in which Desborough +was confined. He listened attentively for a few moments, but even the +slight gurgling of the water, as it was thrown from the prow, prevented +further recognition. Deeming it possible that the sounds might not +proceed from the place of confinement of the settler, but from the +cabin, which it adjoined, and with which it communicated, he was for a +time undecided whether or not he should disturb the party already +retired to rest by descending and passing into the room occupied by his +prisoner. Anxiety to satisfy himself that the latter was secure, +determined him, and he had already planted a foot on the +companion-ladder, when his further descent was arrested by Miss +Montgomerie, who appeared emerging from the opening, bonneted and +cloaked, as with a view of continuing on deck. + +"What! you, dearest Matilda?" he asked, delightedly, "I thought you had +long since retired to rest." + +"To rest, Gerald!--can you, then, imagine mine is a soul to slumber, +when I know that to-morrow we part--perhaps for ever?" + +"No, by Heaven, not for ever!" energetically returned the sailor, +seizing and carrying the white hand that pressed his own to his +lips--"be but faithful to me, my own Matilda--love me but with one half +the ardor with which my soul glows for you, and the moment duty can be +sacrificed to affection, you may expect again to see me." + +"Duty!" repeated the American, with something like reproach in her tone, +"must the happiness of her you profess so ardently to love, be +sacrificed to a mere cold sense of duty? But you are right--you have +_your_ duty to perform, and I have _mine_. To-morrow we separate, and +for ever!" + +"No, Matilda--not for ever, unless, indeed, such be your determination. +_You_ may find the task to forget an easy one--_I_ never can. +Hope--heart--life--happiness---all are centered in you. Were it not that +honor demands my service to my country, I would fly with you to-morrow, +delighted to encounter every difficulty fortune might oppose, if, by +successfully combating these, I should establish a deeper claim on your +affection. Oh, Matilda!" continued the impassioned youth, "never did I +feel more than at this moment, how devotedly I could be your slave for +ever." + +At the commencement of this conversation, Miss Montgomerie had gently +led her lover towards the outer gangway of the vessel, over which they +both now leaned. As Gerald made the last passionate avowal of his +tenderness, a ray of triumphant expression, clearly visible in the light +of the setting moon, passed over the features of the American. + +"Gerald," she implored earnestly, "oh, repeat me that avowal! Again tell +me that you will be the devoted of your Matilda in _all_ things--Gerald, +swear most solemnly that you will--my every hope of happiness depends +upon it." + +How could he refuse, to such a pleader, the repetition of his +spontaneous vow? Already were his lips opened to swear, before High +Heaven, that, in all things earthly he would obey her will, when he was +interrupted by a well-known voice hastily exclaiming: + +"Who a debbel dat dare?" + +Scarcely had these words been uttered, when they were followed +apparently by a blow, then a bound, and then the falling of a human body +upon the deck. Gently disengaging his companion, who had clung to him +with an air of alarm, Gerald turned to discover the cause of the +interruption. To his surprise, he beheld Sambo, whose post of duty was +at the helm, lying extended on the deck, while at the same moment a +sudden plunge was heard, as of a heavy body falling overboard. The first +impulse of the officer was to seize the helm, with a view to right the +vessel, already swerving from her course, the second, to awaken the +crew, who were buried in sleep on the forecastle. These, with the +habitual promptitude of their nature, speedily obeyed his call, and a +light being brought, Gerald, confiding the helm to one of his best men, +proceeded to examine the condition of Sambo. + +It was evident that the aged negro had been stunned, but whether +seriously injured it was impossible to decide. No external wound was +visible, and yet his breathing was that of one who had received some +severe bodily harm. In a few minutes, however, he recovered his +recollection, and the first words he uttered, as he gazed wildly around, +and addressed his master, were sufficient to explain the whole affair: + +"Damn him debbel, Massa Geral, he get safe off, him billain." + +"Ha, Desborough! it is then so? Quick, put the helm about--two of the +lightest and most active into my canoe, and follow in pursuit. The +fellow is making for the shore, no doubt. Now then, my lads," as two of +the crew sprang into the canoe that had been instantly lowered, "fifty +dollars between you, recollect, if you bring him back." + +Although there needed no greater spur to exertion, than a desire both to +please their officer and to acquit themselves of a duty, the sum offered +was not without its due weight. In an instant the canoe was seen +scudding along the surface of the water towards the shore, and at +intervals, as the anxious Gerald listened, he fancied he could +distinguish the exertions of the fugitive swimmer from those made by the +paddles of his pursuers. For a time all was silent, when, at length, a +deriding laugh came over the surface of the lake, that too plainly told +the settler had reached the shore, and was beyond all chance of capture. +In the bitterness of his disappointment, and heedless of the pleasure +his change of purpose had procured him, Gerald could not help cursing +his folly, in having suffered himself to be diverted from his original +intention of descending to the prisoner's place of confinement. Had this +been done, all might have been well. He had now no doubt that the voices +had proceeded from thence, and he was resolved, as soon as the absent +men came on board, to institute a strict inquiry into the affair. + +No sooner, therefore, had the canoe returned, than all hands were +summoned and questioned, under a threat of severe punishment to whoever +should be found prevaricating as to the manner of the prisoner's escape. +Each positively denied having in any way violated the order which +enjoined that no communication should take place between the prisoner +and the crew, to whom indeed all access was denied, with the exception +of Sambo, entrusted with the duty of carrying the former his meals. The +denial of the men was so straight-forward and clear, that Gerald knew +not what to believe; and yet it was evident that the sounds he had heard +proceeded from human voices. Determined to satisfy himself, his first +care was to descend between the decks, preceded by his boatswain, with a +lantern. At the sternmost extremity of the little vessel there was a +small room used for stores, but which, empty on this trip, had been +converted into a cell for Desborough. This was usually entered from the +cabin; but in order to avoid inconvenience to the ladies, a door had +been effected in the bulk-heads, the key of which was kept by Sambo. On +inspection, this door was found hermetically closed, so that it became +evident, if the key had not been purloined from its keeper, the escape +of Desborough must have been accomplished through the cabin. Moreover, +there was no opening of any description to be found, through which a +knife might be passed to enable him to sever the bonds which confined +his feet. Close to the partition were swung the hammocks of two men, who +had been somewhat dilatory in obeying the summons on deck, and between +whom it was not impossible the conversation, which Gerald had detected, +had been carried on. On re-ascending, he again questioned these men; but +they most solemnly assured him they had not spoken either together or to +others within the last two hours, having fallen fast asleep on being +relieved from their watch. Search was now made in the pockets of Sambo, +whose injury had been found to be a violent blow given on the back of +the head, and whose recovery from stupefaction was yet imperfect. The +key being found, all suspicion of participation was removed from the +crew, who could have only communicated from their own quarter of the +vessel, and they were accordingly dismissed; one half, comprising the +first watch, to their hammocks--the remainder to their original station +on the forecastle. + +The next care of the young Commander was to inspect the cabin, and +institute a strict scrutiny as to the manner in which the escape had +been effected. The door that opened into the prison, stood between the +companion ladder and the recess occupied by the daughters of the +Governor. To his surprise, Gerald found it locked, and the key that +usually remained in a niche near the door, removed. On turning to search +for it, he also noticed, for the first time, that the lamp, suspended +from a beam in the centre of the cabin, had been extinguished. Struck by +these remarkable circumstances, a suspicion, which he would have given +much not to have entertained, forced itself upon his mind. As a first +measure, and that there might be no doubt whatever on the subject, he +broke open the door. Of course it was untenanted. Upon a small table lay +the remains of the settler's last meal, but neither knife nor fork, +both which articles had been interdicted, were to be found. At the foot +of the chair on which he had evidently been seated for the purpose of +freeing himself, lay the heavy cords that had bound his ankles. These +had been severed in two places, and, as was discovered on close +examination, by the application of some sharp and delicate cutting +instrument. Nowhere, however, was this visible. It was evident to Gerald +that assistance had been afforded from some one within the cabin, and +who that some one was, he scarcely doubted. With this impression, fully +formed, he re-entered from the prison, and standing near the curtained +berth occupied by the daughters of the Governor, questioned as to +whether they were aware that his prisoner Desborough had escaped. Both +expressed surprise in so natural a manner, that Gerald knew not what to +think; but when they added that they had not heard the slightest +noise--nor had spoken themselves, nor heard others speak, professing +moreover ignorance that the lamp even had been extinguished, he felt +suspicion converted into certainty. + +It was impossible, he conceived, that a door which stood only two paces +from the bed could be locked and unlocked without their hearing +it--neither was it probable that Desborough would have thought of thus +needlessly securing the place of his late detention. Such an idea might +occur to the aider, but not to the fugitive himself, to whom every +moment must be of the highest importance. Who then could have assisted +him? Not Major Montgomerie, for he slept in the after part of the +cabin--not Miss Montgomerie, for she was upon deck--moreover, had not +one of these, he had so much reason to suspect, interceded for the +fellow only on the preceding day. + +Such was the reasoning of Gerald, as he passed rapidly in review the +several probabilities--but, although annoyed beyond measure at the +escape of the villain, and incapable of believing other than that the +daughters of the Governor had connived at it, his was too gallant by +nature to make such a charge, even by implication, against them. +Although extremely angry, he made no comment whatever on the subject, +but contenting himself with wishing his charge a less than usually +cordial good night, left them to their repose, and once more quitted the +cabin. + +During the whole of this examination, Miss Montgomerie had continued on +deck. Gerald found her leaning over the gangway at which he had left +her, gazing intently on the water, through which the schooner was now +gliding at an increased rate. From the moment of his being compelled to +quit her side to inquire into the cause of Sambo's exclamation and +rapidly succeeding fall, he had not had an opportunity of again +approaching her. Feeling that some apology was due, he hastened to make +one; but, vexed and irritated as he was at the escape of the settler, +his disappointment imparted to his manner a degree of restraint, and +there was less of ardor in his address than he had latterly been in the +habit of exhibiting. Miss Montgomerie remarked it, and sighed. + +"I have been reflecting," she said, "on the little dependence that is to +be placed upon the most flattering illusions of human existence--and +here are you come to afford me a painful and veritable illustration of +my theory." + +"How, dearest Matilda! what mean you?" asked the officer, again warmed +into tenderness by the presence of the fascinating being. + +"Can you ask, Gerald?" and her voice assumed a tone of melancholy +reproach--"recall but your manner--your language--your devotedness of +soul not an hour since--compare these with your present coolness, and +then wonder that I should have reason for regret." + +"Now, Matilda, that coldness arose not from any change in my feelings +towards yourself--I was piqued, disappointed, even angry, at the +extraordinary escape of my prisoner, and could not sufficiently play the +hypocrite to disguise my annoyance." + +"Yet, what had I to do with the man's escape that his offence should be +visited upon me?" she demanded quickly. + +"Can you not find some excuse for my vexation, knowing, as you do, that +the wretch was a vile assassin--a man whose hands have been imbrued in +the blood of my own father?" + +"Was he not acquitted of the charge?" + +"He was--but only from lack of evidence to convict; yet, although +acquitted by the law, not surer is fate than that he is an assassin." + +"You hold assassins in great horror," remarked the American +thoughtfully, "you are right--it is but natural." + +"In horror, said you?--aye, in such loathing that language can supply no +term to express it." + +"And yet you once attempted an assassination yourself. Nay do not start, +and look the image of astonishment. Have you not told me that you fired +into the hut, on the night of your mysterious adventure? What right had +you, if we argue the question on its real merit, to attempt the life of +a being who had never injured you?" + +"What right, Matilda?--every right, human and divine. I sought but to +save a victim from the hands of a midnight murderer." + +"And, to effect this, scrupled not to become a midnight murderer +yourself?" + +"And is it thus you interpret my conduct, Matilda?"--the voice of Gerald +spoke bitter reproach--"can you compare the act of that man with mine, +and hold me no more blameless than him?" + +"Nay, I did not say I blamed you," she returned, gaily, "but the fact +is, you had left me so long to ruminate here alone, that I have fallen +into a mood argumentative, or philosophical--whichsoever you may be +pleased to term it--and I am willing to maintain my proposition, that +you might by possibility have been more guilty than the culprit at whom +you aimed, had your shot destroyed him." + +The light tone in which Matilda spoke dispelled the seriousness which +had begun to shadow the brow of the young commander. "And pray how do +you make this good?" he asked. + +"Suppose, for instance, the slumberer you preserved had been a being of +crime, through whom the hopes, the happiness, the peace of mind, and +above all, the fair fame of the other, had been cruelly and irrevocably +blasted. Let us imagine that he had destroyed some dear friend or +relative of him with whose vengeance you beheld him threatened." + +"Could that be----" + +"Or," interrupted the American in the same careless tone, "that he had +betrayed a wife." + +"Such a man----" + +"Or, what is worse, infinitely worse, sought to put the finishing stroke +to his villainy, by affixing to the name and conduct of his victim +every ignominy and disgrace which can attach to insulted humanity." + +"Matilda," eagerly exclaimed the youth, advancing close to her, and +gazing into her dark eyes, "you are drawing a picture." + +"No, Gerald," she replied calmly, "I am merely supposing a case. Could +you find no excuse for a man acting under a sense of so much +injury?--would you still call him an assassin, if, with such +provocation, he sought to destroy the hated life of one who had thus +injured him?" + +Gerald paused, apparently bewildered. + +"Tell me, dearest Gerald," and her fair and beautiful hand caught and +pressed his--"would you still bestow upon one so injured the degrading +epithet of assassin?" + +"Assassin? most undoubtedly I would. But why this question, Matilda?" + +The features of the American assumed a changed expression; she dropped +the hand she had taken the instant before, and said, disappointedly: + +"I find, then, my philosophy is totally at fault." + +"Wherein, Matilda?" anxiously asked Gerald. + +"In this, that I have not been able to make you a convert to my +opinions." + +"And these are--?" again questioned Gerald, his every pulse throbbing +with intense emotion. + +"Not to pronounce too harshly on the conduct of others, seeing that we +ourselves may stand in much need of lenity of judgment. There might have +existed motives for the action of him whom you designate as an assassin, +quite as powerful as those which led to _your_ interference, and quite +as easily justified to himself." + +"But, dearest Matilda-----" + +"Nay. I have done--I close at once my argument and my philosophy. The +humor is past, and I shall no longer attempt to make the worse appear +the better cause. I dare say you thought me in earnest," she added, with +slight sarcasm, "but a philosophical disquisition between two lovers on +the eve of parting for ever, was too novel and piquant a seduction to be +resisted." + +That "parting for ever" was sufficient to drive all philosophy utterly +away from our hero. + +"For ever, did you say, Matilda?--no, not for ever; yet, how coldly do +you allude to a separation which, although I trust it will be only +temporary, is to me a source of the deepest vexation. You did not +manifest this indifference in the early part of our conversation this +evening." + +"And if there be a change," emphatically yet tenderly returned the +beautiful American, "am _I_ the only one changed? Is your manner _now_ +what it was _then_? Do you already forget at _what_ a moment that +conversation was interrupted?" + +Gerald did not forget; and again, as they leaned over the vessel's side, +his arm was passed around the waist of his companion. + +The hour, the scene, the very rippling of the water--all contributed +to lend a character of excitement to the feelings of the youth. Filled +with tenderness and admiration for the fascinating being who reposed +thus confidingly on his shoulder, he scarcely dared to move, lest in so +doing he should destroy the fabric of his happiness. + +"First watch there, hilloa! rouse up, and be d----d to you, it's two +o'clock." + +Both Gerald and Matilda, although long and silently watching the +progress of the vessel, had forgotten there was any such being as a +steersman to direct her. + +"Good Heaven! can it be so late?" whispered the American, gliding from +her lover; "if my uncle be awake, he will certainly chide me for my +imprudence. Good night, dear Gerald," and drawing her cloak more closely +around her shoulders, she quickly crossed the deck, and descended to the +cabin. + +"What the devil's this?" said the relieving steersman, as, rubbing his +heavy eyes with one hand, he stooped and raised with the other something +from the deck, against which he had kicked in his advance to take the +helm--"why, I'm blest if it arn't the apron off old Sally here. Have you +been fingering Sally's apron, Bill?" + +"Not I, faith!" growled the party addressed. "I've enough to do to steer +the craft, without thinking o' meddling with Sall's apron at this time +o' night." + +"I should like to know who it is that has hexposed the old gal to the +night hair in this here manner," still muttered the other, holding up +the object in question to his closer scrutiny; "it was only this morning +I gave her a pair of bran new apron strings, and helped to dress her +myself. If she doesn't hang fire after this, I'm a Dutchman--that's +all." + +"What signifies jawing, Tom Fluke? I suppose she got unkivered in the +scurry after the Yankee; but bear a hand, and kiver her, unless you wish +a fellow to stay here all night." + +Old Sal, our hearers must know, was no other than the long twenty-four +pounder formerly belonging to Gerald's gun-boat, which, now removed to +his new command, lay amid-ships, and mounted on a pivot, constituted the +whole battery of the schooner. The apron was the leaden covering +protecting the touch-hole, which, having unaccountably fallen off, had +encountered the heavy foot of Tom Fluke, in his advance along the deck. + +The apron was at length replaced. Tom Fluke took the helm, and his +companion departed, as he said, to have a comfortable snooze. + +Gerald, who had been an amused listener of the preceding dialogue, soon +followed, first inquiring into the condition of his faithful Sambo, who, +on examination, was found to have been stunned by the violence of the +blow he had received. This, Gerald doubted not, had been given with the +view of better facilitating Desborough's escape, by throwing the +schooner out of her course, and occasioning a consequent confusion among +the crew, which might have the effect of distracting their attention for +a time from himself. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + + +The following evening, an armed schooner was lying at anchor in the road +stead of Buffalo, at the southern extremity of Lake Erie, and within a +mile of the American shore. It was past midnight--and although the lake +was calm and unbroken as the face of a mirror, a dense fog had arisen +which prevented objects at the head of the vessel from being seen from +the stern. Two men only were visible upon the after-deck; the one lay +reclining upon an arm chest, muffled up in a dread-nought pea jacket, +the other paced up and down hurriedly, and with an air of +pre-occupation. At intervals he would stop and lean over the gangway, +apparently endeavoring to pierce through the fog and catch a glimpse of +the adjacent shore, and, on these occasions, a profound sigh would burst +from his chest. + +"Sambo," he at length exclaimed, addressing the man in the pea-jacket +for the first time. "I shall retire to my cabin, but fail not to call me +an hour before daybreak. Our friends being all landed, there can be +nothing further to detain us here, we will therefore make the best of +our way back to Amherstburg in the morning." + +"Yes, Massa Geral," returned the negro, yawning and half raising his +brawny form from his rude couch with one hand, while he rubbed his heavy +eyes with the knuckles of the other. + +"How is your head to-night?" inquired the officer in a kind tone. + +"Berry well, Massa Geral--but berry sleepy." + +"Then sleep, Sambo; but do not fail to awaken me in time: we shall weigh +anchor the very first thing in the morning, provided the fog does not +continue. By the bye, you superintended the landing of the baggage--was +everything sent ashore?" + +"All, Massa Geral, I see him all pack in he wagon, for he Bubbalo +town--all, except dis here I find in Miss Mungummery cabin under he +pillow." + +As he spoke, the negro quitted his half recumbent position, and drew +from his breast a small clasped pocket book, on a steel entablature +adorning the cover of which, were the initials of the young lady just +named. + +"How is it Sambo, that you had not spoken of this? The pocket book +contains papers that may be of importance; and yet there is now no means +of forwarding it unless I delay the schooner." + +"I only find him hab an hour ago, Massa Geral, when I go to make he beds +and put he cabin to rights," said the old man, in a tone that showed he +felt and was pained by the reproof of his young master. "Dis here too," +producing a small ivory handled penknife, "I find same time in he +Gubbanor daters' bed." + +Gerald extended his hand to receive it, "A penknife in the bed of the +Governor's daughters!" he repeated with surprise. Ruminating a moment he +added to himself, "By heavens, it must be so--it is then as I expected. +Would that I had had this proof of their participation before they +quitted the schooner. Very well, Sambo, no blame can attach to you--go +to sleep my good fellow, but not beyond the time I have given you." + +"Tankee, Massa Geral," and drawing the collar of his pea jacket close +under his ears, the negro again extended himself at his full length upon +the arm chest. + +In the fulness of his indignation at the young ladies' duplicity, he now +came to the resolution of staying the departure of the schooner yet a +few hours, that he might have an opportunity of going ashore himself, +presenting this undoubted evidence of their guilt, and taxing them +boldly with the purpose to which it had been appropriated. Perhaps there +was another secret motive which induced this determination, and that +was, the opportunity it would afford him of again seeing his beloved +Matilda, and delivering her pocket book with his own hand. + +This resolution taken, without deeming it necessary to countermand his +order to Sambo, he placed the knife in a pocket in the breast of his +uniform, where he had already deposited the souvenir; and having retired +to his own cabin, was about to undress himself, when he fancied he could +distinguish through one of the stern windows of the schooner, sounds +similar to those of muffled oars. While he yet listened breathlessly to +satisfy himself whether he had not been deceived, a dark form came +hurriedly, yet noiselessly, down the steps of the cabin. Gerald turned, +and discovered Sambo, who now perfectly awake, indicated by his manner, +he was the bearer of some alarming intelligence. His report confirmed +the suspicion already entertained by himself, and at that moment he +fancied he heard the same subdued sounds but multiplied in several +distinct points. A vague sense of danger came over the mind of the +officer, and although his crew consisted of a mere handful of men, he at +once resolved to defend himself to the last, against whatever force +might be led to the attack. While Sambo hastened to arouse the men, he +girded his cutlass and pistols around his loins, and taking down two +huge blunderbusses from a beam in the ceiling of the cabin, loaded them +heavily with musket balls. Thus armed he sprang once more upon deck. + +The alarm was soon given, and the preparation became general, but +neither among the watch, who slumbered in the forecastle, nor those who +had turned into their hammocks, was there the slightest indication of +confusion. These latter "tumbled up," with no other addition to the +shirts in which they had left their cots, than their trousers, a light +state of costume to which those who were "boxed up" in their pea jackets +and great coats on the forecastle, soon reduced themselves also--not but +that the fog admitted of much warmer raiment, but that their activity +might be unimpeded--handkerchiefed heads and tucked up sleeves, with the +habiliments which we have named, being the most approved fighting dress +in the navy. + +Meanwhile, although nothing could be distinguished through the fog, the +sounds which had originally attracted the notice of the officer and his +trusty servant, increased, despite of the caution evidently used, to +such a degree as to be now audible to all on board. What most excited +the astonishment of the crew, and the suspicion of Gerald, was the +exactness of the course taken by the advancing hosts, in which not the +slightest deviation was perceptible. It was evident that they were +guided by some one who had well studied the distance and bearing of the +schooner from the shore, and as it was impossible to hope that even the +fog would afford them concealment from the approaching enemy, all that +was left them was to make the best defence they could. One other +alternative remained it is true, and this was to cut their cable and +allow themselves to drop down silently out of the course by which the +boats were advancing, but as this step involved the possibility of +running ashore on the American coast, when the same danger of captivity +would await them, Gerald, after an instant's consideration, rejected +the idea, preferring the worthier and more chivalrous dependence on his +own and crew's exertions. + +From the moment of the general arming, the long gun, which we have +already shown to constitute the sole defence of the schooner, was +brought nearer to the inshore gangway, and being mounted on an +elevation, with its formidable muzzle overtopping and projecting above +the low bulwarks, could in an instant be brought to bear on whatever +point it might be found advisable to vomit forth its mass of wrath, +consisting of grape, cannister and chain shot. On this gun, indeed, the +general expectation much depended; for the crew, composed of sixteen men +only, exclusive of petty officers, could hope to make but a poor +resistance, despite all the resolution they might bring into the +contest, against a squadron of well-armed boats, unless some very +considerable diminution in the numbers and efforts of these latter +should be made by "Old Sally," before they actually came to close +quarters. The weakness of the crew was in a great degree attributable to +the schooner having been employed as a cartel--a fact which must +moreover explain the want of caution, on this occasion, on the part of +Gerald, whose reputation for vigilance, in all matters of duty, was +universally acknowledged. It had not occurred to him that the instant he +landed his prisoners, his vessel ceased to be a cartel, and therefore a +fit subject for the enterprise of his enemies, or the probability is, +that in the hour in which he had landed them, he would again have +weighed anchor, and made the best of his way back to Amherstburg. + +"Stand by your gun, men--steady," whispered the officer, as the noise of +many oars immediately abreast, and at a distance of not more than twenty +yards, announced that the main effort of their enemies was about to be +made in that quarter. "Depress a little--there, you have her--now into +them--fire." + +Fiz-z-z-z, and a small pyramid of light rose from the breech of the gun, +which sufficed, during the moment it lasted, to discover three boats +filled with armed men, advancing immediately opposite, while two others +could be seen diverging, apparently one towards the quarter, the other +towards the bows of the devoted little vessel. The crew bent their gaze +eagerly over her side to witness the havoc they expected to ensue among +their enemies. To their surprise and mortification there was no report. +The advancing boats gave three deriding cheers. + +"D----n my eyes, if I didn't say she would miss fire, from having her +breech unkivered last night," shouted the man who held the match, and +who was no other than Tom Fluke. "Quick, here--give us a picker!" + +A picker was handed to him, by one who also held the powder-horn for +priming. + +"It's no use," he pursued, throwing away the wire and springing to the +dock. "She's a spike in the touch-hole, and the devil himself wouldn't +get it out now." + +"A spike!--what mean you?" eagerly demanded Gerald. + +"It's too true, Mr. Grantham," said the boatswain, who had flown to +examine the touch-hole, "there is a great piece of steel in it, and for +all the world like a woman's bodkin, or some such sort of thing." + +"Ah! it all comes o' that wench that was here on deck last night," +muttered the helmsman, who had succeeded Sambo on duty the preceding +night. "I thought I see her fiddlin' about the gun when the chase was +made after the Yankee, although I didn't think to say nothin' about it +when you axed Tom Fluke about Sal's apron." + +Whatever conjecture might have arisen with others, there was no time to +think of, much less to discuss it--the boats were already within a few +yards of the vessel. + +"Steady, men--silence!" commanded Gerald, in a low tone. "Since she has +failed us, we must depend upon ourselves. Down beneath the bulwarks and +move not one of you until they begin to board; then let each man single +his enemy and fire; the cutlass must do the rest." + +The order was obeyed. Each moment brought the crisis of action nearer: +the rowers had discontinued their oars, but the bows of the several +boats could be heard obeying the impetus already given them, and +dividing the water close to the vessel. + +"Now then, Sambo," whispered the officer. At that moment a torch was +raised high over the head of the negro and his master. Its rays fell +upon the first of the three boats, the crews of which were seen standing +up with arms outstretched to grapple with the schooner. Another instant, +and they would have touched. The negro dropped his light. + +Gerald pulled the trigger of his blunderbuss, aimed into the very centre +of the boat. Shrieks, curses and plashings as of bodies falling in the +water, succeeded; and in the confusion occasioned by the murderous fire, +the first boat evidently fell off. + +"Again, Sambo," whispered the officer. A second time the torch streamed +suddenly in air, and the contents of the yet undischarged blunderbuss +spread confusion, dismay and death, into the second boat. + +"Old Sal herself couldn't have done better: pity he hadn't a hundred of +them," growled Tom Fluke, who, although concealed behind the bulwarks, +had availed himself of a crevice near him, to watch the effect produced +by the formidable weapons. + +There was a momentary indecision among the enemy, after the second +destructive fire; it was but momentary. Again they advanced, and closing +with the vessel, evinced a determination of purpose, that, left little +doubt as to the result. A few sprang into the chains and rigging, while +others sought to enter by her bows; but the main effort seemed to be +made at her gangway, at which Gerald had stationed himself with ten of +his best men, the rest being detached to make the best defence they +could, against those who sought to enter in the manner above described. + +Notwithstanding the great disparity of numbers, the little crew of the +schooner had for some time a considerable advantage over their enemies. +At the first onset of these latter, their pistols had been discharged, +but in so random a manner as to have done no injury--whereas the +assailed, scrupulously obeying the order of their commander, fired not a +shot until they found themselves face to face with an enemy; the +consequence of which was that every pistol-ball killed an American, or +otherwise placed him _hors du combat_. Still, in spite of their loss, +the latter was more than adequate to the capture, unless a miracle +should interpose to prevent it; and, exasperated as they were by the +fall of their comrades, their efforts became at each moment more +resolute and successful. A deadly contest had been maintained in the +gangway, from which, however, Gerald was compelled to retire, although +bravely supported by his handful of followers. His force now consisted +merely of five men remaining of his own party, and three of those who +had been detached, who, all that were left alive, had been compelled to +fall back on their commander. How long he would have continued the +hopeless and desperate struggle in this manner is doubtful, had not a +fresh enemy appeared in his rear. These were the crews of two other +boats, who, having boarded without difficulty, now came up to the +assistance of their comrades. So completely taken by surprise was Gerald +in this quarter, that the first intimation he had of his danger was, in +the violent seizure of his sword arm from behind, and a general rush +upon and disarming of the remainder of his followers. On turning to +behold his enemy, he saw with concern the triumphant face of Desborough. + +"Every dog has his day, I guess," huskily chuckled the settler, as by +the glare of several torches which had been suddenly lighted, he was now +seen casting looks of savage vengeance, and holding his formidable knife +threateningly over the head of the officer whom he had grappled. "I +reckon as how I told you it would be Jeremiah Desborough's turn next." + +"Silence, fellow--loose your hold," shouted one, whose authoritative +voice and manner announced him for an officer, apparently the leader of +the boarding party. + +"I regret much, sir," pursued the American commander, seriously, and +turning to Gerald, "that your obstinate defence should have been carried +to the length it has. We were given to understand that ours would not be +an easy conquest, yet little deemed it would have been purchased with +the lives of so many of our force. Still, even while we deplore our +loss, have we hearts to estimate the valor of our foe. I cannot give you +freedom, since the gift is not at my disposal; but at least I may spare +you the pain of surrendering a blade you have so nobly wielded. Retain +your sword, sir." + +Gerald's was not a nature to remain untouched by such an act of +chivalrous courtesy, and he expressed, in brief but pointed terms, his +sense of the compliment. + +Five minutes afterwards Gerald, who had exchanged his trusty cutlass for +the sword he had been so flatteringly permitted to retain, found himself +in the leading boat of the little return squadron, and seated at the +side of his generous captor. + +"I think you said," he observed, "that you had been informed the +conquest of the schooner would not be an easy one. Would it be seeking +too much to know who was your informant." + +The American officer shook his head. "I fear I am not at liberty exactly +to name--but thus much I may venture to state, that the person who has +so rightly estimated your gallantry, is one not wholly unknown to you." + +"This is ambiguous. One question more--were you prepared to expect the +failure of the schooner's principal means of defence, her long gun?" + +"If you recollect the cheer that burst from my fellows at the moment +when the harmless flash was seen ascending, you will require no further +elucidation on that head," replied the American evasively. + +This was sufficient for Gerald. He folded his arms, sank his head upon +his chest, and continued to muse deeply. Soon afterwards the boat +touched the beach, where many of the citizens were assembled to hear +tidings of the enterprize and congratulate the victors. Thence he was +conducted to the neat little inn, which was the only accommodation the +small town, or rather village of Buffalo, at that time afforded. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + + +At the termination of the memorable war of the Revolution--that war, +which, on the one hand, severed the ties that bound the Colonies in +interest and affection with the parent land, and on the other, seemed, +as by way of indemnification, to have riveted the Canadas in closer love +to their adopted mother--hundreds of families who had remained staunch +in their allegiance quitted the American soil, to which they had been +unwillingly transferred, and hastened to close, on one side of the vast +chain of waters that separated the descendants of France from the +descendants of England, the evening of an existence, whose morning and +noon had been passed on the other. Among the number of these was Major +Grantham, who, at the close of the Revolution, had espoused a daughter +(the only remaining child) of Frederick and Madeline De Haldimar, whose +many vicissitudes of suffering prior to their marriage, have been fully +detailed in Wacousta. When, at that period, the different garrisons on +the frontier were given up to the American troops, the several British +regiments crossed over into Canada, and, after a short term of service +in that country, were successively relieved by fresh corps from England. +One of the earliest recalled of these was the regiment of Colonel +Frederick De Haldimar. Local interests, however, attaching his +son-in-law to Upper Canada, the latter had, on the reduction of his +corps, a provincial regiment, well known throughout the war of the +Revolution, for its strength, activity, and good service finally fixed +himself at Amherstburg. + +In the domestic relations of life Major Grantham was exemplary, although +perhaps his rigid notions of right had obtained for him more of the +respect than of the love of those who came within their influence, and +yet no mean portion of both. Tenderly attached to his wife, whom he had +lost when Gerald was yet in his twelfth year, he had not ceased to +deplore her loss; and this perhaps had contributed to nourish a +reservedness of disposition, which, without at all aiming at, or +purposing, such effect, insensibly tended to the production of a +corresponding reserve on the part of his children, that increased with +their years. Indeed, on their mother all the tenderness of their young +hearts had been lavished, and, when they suddenly saw themselves +deprived of her who loved and had been loved by them, with doting +fondness, they felt as if a void had been left in their affections which +the less tender evidences of paternal love were but insufficient wholly +to supply. Still--although not to the same extent--did they love their +father also; and what was wanted in intensity of feeling was more than +made up by the deep, the exalted respect, they entertained for his +principles and conduct. It was with pride they beheld him, not merely +the deservedly idolized of the low, but the respected of the high--the +example of one class, and the revered of another; one whose high +position in the social circle had been attained, less by his striking +exterior advantages than the inward worth that governed every action of +his life, and whose moral character, as completely _sans tache_ as his +fulfilment of the social duties was proverbially _sans reproche_, could +not fail, in a certain degree, to reflect the respect it commanded upon +themselves. + +As we have before observed, however, all the fervor of their affection +had been centered in their mother, and that was indeed a melancholy +night in which the youths had been summoned to watch the passing away of +her gentle spirit for ever from their love. Isabella De Haldimar had, +from her earliest infancy, been remarkable for her quiet and +contemplative character; and bred amid scenes that brought at every +retrospect recollections of some acted horror, it is not surprising that +the bias given by nature should have been developed and strengthened by +the events that had surrounded her. Not dissimilar in disposition, as +she was not unlike in form, to her mother, she was by that mother +carefully endowed with those gentler attributes of goodness, which, +taking root within a soil so eminently disposed to their reception, +could not fail to render her in after life a model of excellence, both +as a mother and a wife. Notwithstanding, however, this moulding of her +pliant and well-directed mind, there was about her a melancholy, which, +while it gave promise of the devoted affection of the mother, offered +but little prospect of cheerfulness, in an union with one, who, reserved +himself, could not be expected to temper that melancholy by the +introduction of a gaiety that was not natural to him. And yet it was for +this very melancholy, tender and fascinating in her, that Major Grantham +had sought the hand of Isabella De Haldimar; and it was for the very +austerity and reserve of his general manner, more than from the manly +beauty of his tall dark person, that he too had become the object of her +secret choice long before he had proposed for her. + +The austerity which Major Grantham carried with him into public life +was, if not wholly laid aside, at least considerably softened, in the +presence of his wife, and when, later, the birth of two sons crowned +their union, there was nothing left her to desire which it was in the +power of circumstances to bestow. Mrs. De Haldimar had not taken into +account the effect likely to be produced by a separation from +herself--the final severing, as it were, of every tie of blood. Of the +four children who had composed the family of Colonel Frederick De +Haldimar, the two oldest (officers in his own corps) had perished in the +war: the fourth, a daughter, had died young, of a decline: and the loss +of the former especially, who had grown up with her from childhood to +youth, was deeply felt by the sensitive Isabella. With the dreadful +scenes perpetrated at Detroit--scenes in which their family had been the +principal sufferers--the boys had been familiarized by the soldiers of +their father's regiment, who often took them to the several points most +worthy of remark from the incidents connected with them; and, pointing +out the spots on which their uncle Charles and their aunt Clara had +fallen victims to the terrible hatred of Wacousta for their grandfather, +detailed the horrors of those days with a rude fidelity of coloring that +brought dismay and indignation to the hearts of their wondering and +youthful auditors. On these occasions Isabella became the depository of +all they had gleaned. To her they confided, under the same pledge of +secrecy that had been exacted from themselves, every circumstance of +horror connected with those days; nor were they satisfied, until they +had shown her those scenes with which so many dreadful recollections +were associated. + +Thus was the melancholy of Isabella fed by the very silence in which she +was compelled to indulge. Often was her pillow wetted with tears, as she +passed in review the several fearful incidents connected with the tale +in which her brothers had so deeply interested her, and she would have +given worlds at those moments, had they been hers to bestow, to recal to +life and animation the beloved but unfortunate uncle and aunt, to whose +fate, her brothers assured her, even their veteran friends never alluded +without sorrow. Often, too, did she dwell on the share her own fond +mother had borne in those transactions, and the anguish which must have +pierced her heart when first apprized of the loss of her, whom she had +even _then_ loved with all a mother's love. Nay, more than once, while +gazing on the face of the former, her inmost soul given up to the +recollection of all she had endured, first at Michillimackinac, and +afterwards at Detroit, had she unconsciously suffered the tears to +course down her cheeks without an effort to restrain them. Ignorant of +the cause, Mrs. De Haldimar only ascribed this emotion to the natural +melancholy of her daughter's character, and then she would gently chide +her, and seek, by a variety of means, to divert her thoughts into some +lively channel; but she had little success in the attempt to eradicate +reflections already rooted in so congenial a soil. + +Her sister died very young, and she scarcely felt her loss; but when, +subsequently, the vicissitudes of a military life had deprived her for +ever of her beloved brothers, her melancholy increased. It was however +the silent, tearless melancholy, that knows not the paroxysm of +outrageous grief. The quiet resignation of her character formed an +obstacle to the inroads of all vivacious sorrow; yet was her health not +the less effectually undermined by the slow action of her innate +feeling, unfortunately too much fostered by outward influences. By her +marriage and the birth of her sons, whom she loved with all a mother's +fondness, her mental malady had been materially diminished, and indeed +in a great degree superseded, but unhappily, previous to these events, +it had seriously effected her constitution, and produced a morbid +susceptibility of mind and person, that exposed her to be overwhelmed by +the occurrence of any of those afflictions which otherwise she might, +with ordinary fortitude, have endured. When therefore intelligence from +England announced that her parents had both perished in a hurricane on +their route to the West Indies, whither the regiment of Colonel De +Haldimar had been ordered, the shock was too great for her, mentally and +physically enfeebled as she had been, to sustain, and she sank gradually +under this final infliction of Providence. + +Major Grantham beheld with dismay the effect of this blow upon his +beloved wife. Fell consumption had now marked her for her own, and so +rapid was the progress of the disease acting on a temperament already +too much predisposed to its influence, that, in despite of all human +preventives, the sensitive Isabella, before six months had elapsed, was +summoned to a better world. + +We will pass over the deep grief which preyed upon the hearts of the +unfortunate brothers for weeks after they had been compelled to +acknowledge the stern truth that they were indeed motherless. + +It was soon after this event, that the first seeds of disunion began to +spring up between England and the United States, the inevitable results +of which it was anticipated, would be the involving of Canada in the +struggle; and, notwithstanding the explosion did not take place for +several years afterwards, preparations were made on either shore, to an +extent that kept the spirit of enterprise on the alert. + +Inheriting the martial spirit of their family, the inclinations of the +young Granthams led them to the service; and, as their father could have +no reasonable objection to oppose to a choice which promised not merely +to secure his sons in an eligible profession, but to render them in some +degree of benefit to their country, he consented to their views. +Gerald's preference leading him to the navy, he was placed on that +establishment as a midshipman; while Henry, several years later, +obtained, through the influence of their father's old friend General +Brock, an ensigncy in the King's Regiment. + +Meanwhile, Major Grantham, whose reserve appeared to have increased +since the death of his wife, seemed to seek, in the active discharge of +his magisterial duties, a relief from the recollection of the loss he +had sustained; and it was about this period that, in consequence of many +of the American settlers in Canada, having, in anticipation of a rupture +between the two countries, secretly withdrawn themselves to the opposite +shore, his exaction of the duties of British subjects from those who +remained, became more vigorous than ever. + +We have already shown Desborough to have been the most unruly and +disorderly of the worthless set; and as no opportunity was omitted of +compelling him to renew his oath of allegiance, (while his general +conduct was strictly watched), the hatred of the man for the stern +magistrate was daily matured, until at length it grew into an +inextinguishable desire for revenge. + +The chief, and almost only recreation, in which Major Grantham indulged, +was that of fowling. An excellent shot himself, he had been in some +degree the instructor of his sons; and, although, owing to the wooded +nature of the country, the facilities afforded to the enjoyment of his +favorite pursuit in the orthodox manner of a true English sportsman, +were few, still, as game was everywhere abundant, he had continued to +turn to account the advantages that were actually offered. Both Gerald +and Henry had been his earlier companions in the sport, but, of late +years and especially since the death of their mother, he had been in the +habit of going out alone. + +It was one morning in that season of the year when the migratory pigeons +pursue their course towards what are termed the "burnt woods," on which +they feed, and in such numbers as to cover the surface of the heavens, +as with a dense and darkening cloud, that Major Grantham sallied forth +at early dawn, with his favorite dog and gun, and, as was his custom, +towards Hartley's point. Disdaining, as unworthy of his skill, the +myriads of pigeons that everywhere presented themselves, he passed from +the skirt of the forest towards an extensive swamp, in the rear of +Hartley's, which, abounding in golden plover and snipe, usually afforded +him a plentiful supply. On this occasion he was singularly successful, +and, having bagged as many birds as he could conveniently carry, was in +the act of ramming down his last charge, when the report of a shot came +unexpectedly from the forest. In the next instant he was sensible he was +wounded, and, placing his hand to his back, felt it wet with blood. As +there was at the moment several large wild ducks within a few yards of +the spot where he stood, and between himself and the person who had +fired, he at once concluded that he had been the victim of an accident, +and, feeling the necessity of assistance, he called loudly on the unseen +sportsman to come forward to his aid; but, although his demand was +several times repeated, no answer was returned, and no one appeared. +With some difficulty he contrived, after disembarrassing himself of his +game-bag, to reach the farm at Hartley's, where every assistance was +afforded him, and, a waggon having been procured, he was conducted to +his home, when, on examination the wound was pronounced to be mortal. + +On the third day from this event Major Grantham breathed his last, +bequeathing the guardianship of his sons to Colonel D'Egville, who had +married his sister. At this epoch, Gerald was absent with his vessel on +a cruise, but Henry received his parting blessing upon both, accompanied +by a solemn injunction, that they should never be guilty of any act +which could sully the memory, either of their mother or himself. This +Henry promised, in the name of both, most religiously to observe; and, +when Gerald returned, and to his utter dismay beheld the lifeless form +of the parent, whom he had quitted only a few days before in all the +vigor of health, he not only renewed the pledge given by his brother, +but with the vivacity of character habitual to him, called down the +vengeance of Heaven upon his head, should he ever be found to swerve +from those principles of honor, which had been so sedulously inculcated +in him. + +Meanwhile, there was nothing to throw even the faintest light on the +actual cause of Major Grantham's death. On the first probing and +dressing of the wound, the murderous lead had been extracted, and, as it +was discovered to be a rifle ball it was taken for granted that some +Indian, engaged in the chase, had, in the eagerness of pursuit, missed +an intermediate object at which he had taken aim and lodged the ball +accidentally in the body of the old gentleman; and that, terrified at +discovery of the mischief he had done, and perhaps apprehending +punishment, he had hastily fled from the spot, to avoid detection. This +opinion, unanimously entertained by the townspeople, was shared by the +brothers, who knowing the unbounded love and respect of all for their +parent, dreamt not for one moment that his death could have been the +result of premeditation. It was left for Desborough to avow, at a later +period, that he had been the murderer; and with what startling effect on +him, to whom the admission was exultingly made, we have already seen. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + + +Autumn had passed away, and winter, the stern invigorating winter of +beautiful America had already covered the earth with enduring snows, and +the waters with bridges of seemingly eternal ice, and yet no effort had +been made by the Americans to repossess themselves of the country they +had so recently lost. The several garrisons of Detroit and Malden, +reposing under the laurels they had so easily won, made holiday of their +conquest; and, secure in the distance that separated them from the more +populous districts of the Union, seemed to have taken it for granted +that they had played their final part in the active operations of the +war, and would be suffered to remain in undisturbed possession. But the +storm was already brewing in the far distance which, advancing +progressively like the waves of the coming tempest, was destined first +to shake them in their security, and finally to overwhelm them in its +vortex. With the natural enterprise of their character, the Americans +had no sooner ascertained the fall of Detroit, than means slow but +certain, were taken for the recovery of a post, with which, their +national glory was in no slight decree identified. The country whence +they drew their resources for the occasion, were the new states of Ohio +and Kentucky, and one who had previously travelled through those immense +tracts of forests, where the dwelling of the backwoodsman is met with at +long intervals, would have marvelled at the zeal and promptitude with +which these adventurous people, abandoning their homes, and disregarding +their personal interests, flocked to the several rallying points. Armed +and accoutred at their own expense, with the unerring rifle that +provided them with game, and the faithful hatchet that had brought down +the dark forest into ready subjection to their will, their claim upon +the public was for the mere sustenance they required on service. It is +true that this partial independence of the Government whom they served +rather in the character of volunteers, than of conscripts, was in a +great measure fatal to their discipline; but in the peculiar warfare of +the country, absence of discipline was rather an advantage than a +demerit, since when checked, or thrown into confusion, they looked not +for a remedy in the resumption of order, but in the exercise each of his +own individual exertions, facilitated as he was by his general knowledge +of localities, and his confidence in his own personal resources. + +But although new armies were speedily organized--if organized may be +termed those who brought with them into the contest much courage and +devotedness, yet little discipline--the Americans, in this instance, +proceeded with a caution that proved their respect for the British +garrison, strongly supported as it was by a numerous force of Indians. +Within two months after the capitulation of Detroit, a considerable +army, Ohioans and Kentuckians, with some regular infantry, had been +pushed forward as with a view to feel their way; but these having been +checked by the sudden appearance of a detachment from Fort Malden, had +limited their advance to the Miami River, on the banks of which, and on +the ruins of one of the old English forts of Pontiac's days, they had +constructed new fortifications, and otherwise strongly entrenched +themselves. It was a mistake, however, to imagine that the enemy would +be content with establishing himself here. The new fort merely served as +a nucleus for the concentration of such resources of men and warlike +equipment, as were necessary to the subjection, firstly of Detroit, and +afterwards of Fort Malden. Deprived of the means of transport, the +shallow bed of the Miami aiding them but little, it was a matter of no +mean difficulty with the Americans to convey, through several hundred +miles of forest, the heavy guns they required for battering, and as it +was only at intervals this could be effected--the most patient endurance +and unrelaxing perseverance being necessary to the end. From the +inactivity of this force, or rather the confinement of its operations to +objects of defence, the English garrison had calculated on undisturbed +security, at least throughout the winter, if not for a longer period; +but, although it was not until this latter season was far advanced that +the enemy broke up from his entrenchments on the Miami, and pushed +himself forward for the attainment of his final view, the error of +imputing inactivity to him was discovered at a moment when it was least +expected. + +It was during a public ball given at Amherstburg, on the 18th of +January, 1813, that the first intelligence was brought of the advance of +a strong American force, whose object it was supposed was to push +rapidly on to Detroit, leaving Amherstburg behind to be disposed of +later. The officer who brought this intelligence was the fat Lieutenant +Raymond, who, commanding an outpost at the distance of some leagues, had +been surprised, and after a resistance very creditable under the +circumstances, driven in by the American advanced guard with a loss of +nearly half his command. + +Thus was the same consternation produced in the ball-room at +Amherstburg, that at a later period occurred in a similar place of +amusement at Brussels; and although not followed by the same momentous +public results, producing the same host of fluttering fears and +anxieties in the bosoms of the female votaries of Terpsichore. We +believe, however, that there existed some dissimilarity in the several +modes of communication--the Duke of Wellington receiving his, with some +appearance of regard on the part of the communicator for the nerves of +the ladies, while to Colonel St. Julian, commanding at Amherstburg, and +engaged at that moment at the whist-table, the news was imparted in +stentorian tones, which were audible to every one in the adjoining +ball-room. + +But even if his voice had not been heard, the appearance of Lieutenant +Raymond would have justified the apprehension of any reasonable person, +for, in the importance of the moment, he had not deemed it necessary to +make any change in the dress in which he had been surprised and driven +back. Let the reader figure to himself a remarkably fat, ruddy faced +man, of middling age, dressed in a pair of tightly fitting, dread-naught +trowsers, and a shell jacket that had once been scarlet, but now, from +use and exposure, rather resembled the color of brickdust; boots from +which all polish had been taken by the grease employed to render them +snow-proof; a brace of pistols thrust into the black waist belt that +encircled his huge circumference, and from which depended a sword, whose +steel scabbard showed the rust of the rudest bivouac. Let him, moreover, +figure to himself that ruddy, carbuncled face, and nearly as ruddy brow, +suffused with perspiration, although in a desperately cold winter's +night, and the unwashed hands, and mouth, and lips black from the +frequent biting of the ends of cartridges, while ever and anon the +puffed cheeks, in the effort to procure air and relieve the panting +chest, recal the idea of a Bacchus, after one of his most lengthened +orgies--let him figure all this, and if he will add short, curling, +wiry, damp hair, surmounting a head as round as a turnip, a snubby, red, +_retrousse_ nose, and light grey eyes; he will have a tolerable idea of +the startling figure that thus abruptly made its appearance in the +person of Lieutenant Raymond, first among the dancers, and bustlingly +thence into the adjoining card-room. + +At the moment of his entrance, every eye had been turned upon this +strange apparition, while an almost instinctive sense of the cause of +his presence pervaded every breast. Indeed it was impossible to behold +him arrayed in the bivouac garb in which we have described him, +contrasted as it was with the elegant ball dresses of his brother +officers and not attribute his presence to some extraordinary motive; +and as almost every one in the room was aware of his having been absent +on detachment, his mission had been half divined even before he had +opened his lips to Colonel St. Julian, for whom, on entering, he had +hurriedly inquired. + +But when the latter officer was seen soon afterwards to rise from and +leave the card-table, and, after communicating hurriedly with the +several heads of departments, quit altogether the scene of festivity, +there could be no longer a doubt; and, as in all cases of the sort, the +danger was magnified, as it flew from lip to lip, even as the tiny +snow-ball becomes a mountain by the accession it receives in its rolling +course. Suddenly the dance was discontinued, and indeed in time, for the +fingers of the non-combatant musicians, sharing in the general +nervousness, had already given notice, by numerous falsettos, of their +inability to proceed much longer. Bonnets, cloaks, muffs, tippets, +shawls, snow-shoes, and all the paraphernalia of a female winter +equipment peculiar to the country, were brought unceremoniously in, and +thrown _en masse_ upon the deserted benches of the ball-room. Then was +there a scramble among the fair dancers, who, having secured their +respective property, quitted the house; not, however, without a secret +fear, on the part of many, that the first object they should encounter, +on sallying forth, would be a corps of American sharpshooters. To the +confusion within was added the clamor without, arising from swearing +drivers, neighing horses, jingling bells, and jostling sledges. Finally, +the only remaining ladies of the party were the D'Egvilles, whose sledge +had not yet arrived: with these lingered Captain Molineux, Middlemore, +and Henry Grantham, all of whom, having obtained leave of absence for +the occasion, had accompanied them from Detroit. The two former, who had +just terminated one of the old fashioned cotillions, then peculiar to +the Canadas, stood leaning over the chairs of their partners, indulging +in no very charitable comments on the unfortunate Raymond, to whose +inopportune presence at that unseasonable hour they ascribed a host of +most important momentary evils; as, for example, the early breaking up +of the pleasantest ball of the season, the loss of an excellent +anticipated supper that had been prepared for a later hour, and, +although last not least, the necessity it imposed upon them of an +immediate return, that bitter cold night, to Detroit. Near the blazing +wood fire, at their side, stood Henry Grantham, and Captain St. Clair of +the Engineers. The former with his thoughts evidently far away from the +passing scene, the latter joining in the criticisms on Raymond. + +A few moments afterwards Colonel D'Egville entered the room, now +deserted save by the little coterie near the fire-place. Like Lieutenant +Raymond's, his dress was more suited to the bivouac than the ball-room, +and his countenance otherwise bore traces of fatigue. + +His daughters flew to meet him. The officers also grouped around, +desirous to hear what tidings he brought of the enemy, to corroborate +the statement of Raymond. To the great mortification of the latter, it +was now found that he and his little detachment had had all the running +to themselves, and that, while they fancied the whole of the American +army to be close at their heels, the latter had been so kept in check by +the force of Indians, under Colonel D'Egville in person, as to be +compelled to retire upon the point whence the original attack had been +made. They had not followed the broken English outpost more than a mile, +and yet, so convinced of close pursuit had been the latter, that for the +space of six leagues they had scarce relaxed in their retreat. The +information now brought by Colonel D'Egville was, that the Americans had +not advanced a single foot beyond the outpost in question, but, on the +contrary, had commenced constructing a stockade and throwing up +entrenchments. He added, moreover, that he had just dispatched an +express to Sandwich, to General Proctor, communicating the intelligence, +and suggesting the propriety of an attack before they could advance +farther, and favor any movement on the part of the inhabitants of +Detroit. As this counter-movement on our part would require every man +that could be spared from the latter fortress, Colonel D'Egville seemed +to think that before the officers could reach it, its garrison would be +already on the way to join the expedition, which would doubtless be +ordered to move from Amherstburg; and as the same impression appeared to +exist in the mind of Colonel St. Julian, whom he had only just parted +from to proceed in search of his daughters, the latter had taken it upon +himself to determine that they should remain where they were until the +answer, communicating the final decision of General Proctor, should +arrive. + +If the young officers were delighted at the idea of escaping the horror +of an eighteen miles drive, on one of the bitterest nights of the +season, supperless, and at the moment of issuing from a comfortable +ball-room, their annoyance at (what they termed) the pusillanimity of +Raymond, who had come thus unnecessarily in, to the utter annihilation +of their evening's amusement--was in equal proportion. For this, on +their way home, they revenged themselves by every sort of persiflage +their humor could adapt to the occasion, until in the end they +completely succeeded in destroying the good humor of Raymond, who +eventually quitted them under feelings of mortified pride, which excited +all the generous sympathy of the younger Grantham, while it created in +his breast a sentiment of almost wrath against his inconsiderate +companions. Even these latter were at length sensible that they had gone +too far, and, as their better feelings returned, they sought to assure +the offended object of their pleasantry that what they had uttered was +merely in jest; but finding he received these disclaimers in moody +silence, they renewed their attack, nor discontinued it until they +separated for their mutual quarters for the night. + +The following dawn broke in, decked with all the sad and sober grey +peculiar to an American sky in the depth of winter, and, with the first +rising of the almost rayless sun, commenced numerous warlike +preparations, that gave promise to the inhabitants of some approaching +crisis. The event justified their expectation; the suggestion of Colonel +D'Egville had been adopted, and the same express which carried to +General Proctor the information of the advance of the enemy, and the +expulsion of Lieutenant Raymond from his post, was pushed on to Detroit, +with an order for every man who could be spared from that fortress, to +be marched without a moment's delay to Malden. At noon the detachment +had arrived, and the General making his appearance soon after, the +expedition, composed of the strength of the two garrisons, with a few +light guns, and a considerable body of Indians, under the Chief +Round-head, were pushed rapidly across the lake, and the same night +occupied the only road by which the enemy could advance. + +It was a picturesque sight to those who lingered on the banks of the +Detroit, to watch the movement of that mass of guns, ammunition, cars +and sledges, preceding the regular march of the troops, as the whole +crossed the firm but rumbling ice, at the head of the now deserted +Island of Bois Blanc. Nor was this at all lessened in effect by the +wild and irregular movements of the Indians, who, advancing by twos and +threes, but more often singly, and bounding nimbly yet tortuously, along +the vast white field with which the outline of their swarthy forms +contrasted, called up at the outset, the idea of a legion of devils. + +It was during one of the coldest mornings in January, that this little +army bivouaced on the banks of a small rivulet, distant little more than +a league from the position which had been taken up by the Americans. So +unexpected and rapid had been the advance of the expedition, that not +the slightest suspicion appeared to be entertained by the Americans even +of its departure; and from information brought at a late hour by the +Indian scouts, who had been dispatched at nightfall to observe their +motions, it was gathered that, so far from apprehending or being +prepared for an attack, all was quiet in their camp, in which the +customary night-fires were then burning. Thus favored by the false +security of their enemies, the British force, after partaking of their +rude but substantial meal, and preparing their arms, laid themselves +down to rest in their accoutrements and great coats; their heads +reclining on whatever elevation, however small, presented itself, and +their feet half buried in the embers of the fires they had with +difficulty kindled on the frozen ground, from which the snow had been +removed--all sanguine of success, and all more or less endeavoring to +snatch, amid the nipping frost to which their upper persons were +exposed, a few hours of sleep prior to the final advance, which was to +take place an hour before dawn. + +In the midst of the general desolateness of aspect which encompassed +all, there were few privations endured by the men that were not equally +shared by their officers. A solitary and deserted log hut was the only +thing in the shape of a human habitation within the bivouac, and this +had been secured as the headquarters of the General and his staff--all +besides had no other canopy than the clear starry heavens, or, here and +there, the leafless and unsheltering branches of some forest tree--and +yet, around one large and blazing fire, which continued to be fed at +intervals by masses of half-decayed wood, that, divested of their snow, +lay simmering and drying before it, was frequently to be heard the +joyous yet suppressed laugh, and piquant sally, as of men whose spirits +no temporary hardship or concern for the eventful future could +effectually suppress. + +During the whole of the march, Raymond had evinced a seriousness of +demeanor by no means common to him, and although he had made one of the +party in the general bivouac, he had scarcely opened his lips, except to +reply to the most direct questions. A renewed attack at first drew from +him no comment, although it was evident he felt greatly pained; but when +he had finished smoking his cigar, he raised himself, not without +difficulty, from the ground, and began with a seriousness of manner +that, being unusual, not a little surprised them, "Gentlemen, you have +long been pleased to select me as your butt." + +"Of course," hastily interrupted Captain Molineux, hazarding his pun, +"we naturally select you for what you most resemble." + +"Captain Molineux--gentlemen!" resumed Raymond, with greater emphasis. + +"He is getting warm on the subject," observed Middlemore. "Have a care, +Molineux, that the butt does not _churn_ until in the end it becomes the +_butter_." + +"Ha! ha! ha!" vociferated St. Clair, "good, excellent, the best you ever +made, Middlemore." + +"Gentlemen!" persevered Raymond, in a tone, and with a gesture, of +impatience, "this trifling will be deeply regretted by you all +to-morrow; I repeat," he pursued, when he found he had at length +succeeded in procuring silence, "you have long been pleased to select me +as your butt, and while this was confined to my personal appearance, +painful as I have sometimes found your humor, I could still endure it; +but when I perceive those whom I have looked upon as friends and +brothers, casting imputations upon my courage, I may be excused for +feeling offended. You have succeeded in wounding my heart, and some of +you will regret the hour when you did so. Another, perhaps, would adopt +a different course, but I am not disposed to return evil for evil. I +wish to believe, that in all your taunts upon this subject you have +merely indulged your bantering humor--but not the less have you pained +an honest heart. To-morrow will prove that you have grievously wronged +me, and I am mistaken if you will not deeply regret it." + +So saying, he hurried away across the snow towards a distant fire, which +lighted the ruder bivouac of the adjutant and quartermaster, and was +there seen to seat himself with the air of one who has composed himself +for the night. + +"What a silly fellow, to take the thing so seriously!" said Molineux, +half vexed at himself, half moved by the reproachful tone of Raymond's +address. + +"For God's sake, Grantham, call him back. Tell him we are ready to make +any--every atonement for our offence," urged St. Clair. + +"And I will promise never to utter another pun at his expense as long as +I live," added Middlemore. + +But before Henry Grantham, who had been a pained and silent witness of +the scene, and who had already risen with a view to follow the wounded +Raymond, could take a single step on his mission of peace, the low roll +of the drum, summoning to fall in, warned them that the hour of action +had already arrived, and each, quitting his fire, hastened to the more +immediate and pressing duties of assembling his men, and carefully +examining into the state of their appointments. + +In ten minutes from the beating of the _reveille_--considerably shorn of +its wonted proportions, as the occasion demanded--the bivouac had been +abandoned, and the little army again upon their march. What remained to +be traversed of the space that separated them from the enemy, was an +alternation of plain and open forest, but so completely in +juxtaposition, that the head of the column had time to clear one wood +and enter a second before its rear could disengage itself from the +first. The effect of this, by the dim and peculiar light reflected from +the snow across which they moved, was picturesque in the extreme, nor +was the interest diminished by the utter silence that had pervaded every +part of the little army, the measured tramp of whose march, mingled with +the hollow and unavoidable rumbling of the light guns, being the only +sounds to be heard amid that mass of living matter. The Indians, with +the exception of a party of scouts, had been the last to quit their rude +encampment, and as they now, in their eagerness to get to the front, +glided stealthily by in the deep snows on either side of the more beaten +track by which the troops advanced, and utterly without sound in their +foot-fall they might rather have been compared to spirits of the wilds, +than to human beings. + +The regiment having been told off into divisions, it so happened that +Raymond and Henry Grantham, although belonging to different companies, +now found themselves near each other. The latter had been most anxious +to approach his really good-hearted companion, with a view to soothe his +wounded feelings, and to convey, in the fullest and most convincing +terms, the utter disclaimer of his inconsiderate brother officers, to +reflect seriously on his conduct in the recent retreat--or, indeed, to +intend their observations for anything beyond a mere pleasantry. As, +however, the strictest order had been commanded to be observed in the +march, and Raymond and he happened to be at opposite extremities of the +division, this had been for some time impracticable. A temporary halt +having occurred, just as the head of the column came within sight of the +enemy's fires, Grantham quitted his station on the flank, and hastened +to the head of his division, where he found Raymond with his arms folded +across his chest, and apparently absorbed in deep thought. He tapped him +lightly on the shoulder, and inquired in a tone of much kindness the +subject of his musing. + +Touched by the manner in which he was addressed, Raymond dropped his +arms and grasping the hand of the youth, observed in his usual voice; +"Ah, is it you Henry--Egad, my dear boy, I was just thinking of you--and +how very kind you have always been; never quizzing me as those +thoughtless fellows have done--and certainly never insinuating anything +against my courage--that was too bad, Henry, too bad, I could have +forgiven anything but that." + +"Nay, nay, Raymond," answered his companion, soothingly; "believe me, +neither Molineux, nor Middlemore, nor St. Clair meant anything beyond a +jest. I can assure you they did not, for when you quitted us they asked +me to go in search of you, but the assembly then commencing to beat, I +was compelled to hasten to my company, nor have I had an opportunity of +seeing you until now." + +"Very well, Henry, I forgive them, for it is not in my nature to keep +anger long; but tell them that they should not wantonly wound the +feelings of an unoffending comrade. As I told them, they may regret +their unkindness to me before another sun has set. If so, I wish them no +other punishment." + +"What mean you, my dear Raymond?" + +"Egad! I scarcely know myself, but something tells me very forcibly my +hour is come." + +"Nonsense, this is but the effect of the depression, produced by fatigue +and over excitement, added to the recent annoyance of your feelings." + +"Whatever it proceed from, I had made up my mind to it before we set +out. Henry, my kind good Henry, I have neither friend nor relative on +earth--no one to inherit the little property I possess. In the event of +my falling, you will find the key of my desk in the breast pocket of my +coat. A paper in that desk appoints you my executor. Will you accept the +trust?" + +"Most sacredly, Raymond, will I fulfil every instruction it contains +should I myself survive; but I cannot, will not, bring myself to +anticipate your fall." + +"Move on, move on," passed quickly in a whisper from front to rear of +the column. + +"God bless you, Henry," exclaimed Raymond, again pressing the hand of +the youth--"remember the key." + +"We shall talk of that to-night," was the light reply. "Meanwhile, dear +Raymond, God bless you," and again Grantham fell back to his place in +the rear of the division. + +Five minutes later, and the troops were finally brought up in front of +the enemy. A long line of fires marked the extent of the encampment, +from which even then, the "all's well" of the sentinels could be +occasionally heard. Except these, all profoundly slept, nor was there +anything to indicate they had the slightest suspicion of an enemy being +within twenty miles of them. + +"What glorious cannon work we shall have presently," whispered Villiers +to Molineux, as they were brought together by their stations at the +adjacent extremities of their respective division. "Only mark how the +fellows sleep." + +"The devil take the cannon," muttered Villiers, "the bayonet for me, but +you are right, for see, there go the guns to the front--hark there is a +shot; the sentinels have discovered us at last; and now they are +starting from before their fires, and hastening to snatch their arms." + +Whist, whist, whist, flew three balls successively between their heads. + +"Ha, here they begin to talk to us in earnest, and now to our duty." + +The next moment all was roar, and bustle, and confusion, and death. + +The sun was in the meridian; all sounds of combat had ceased. From the +field, in which the troops had commenced the action, numerous sledges +were seen departing, laden with the dead--the wounded having previously +been sent off. One of these sledges remained stationary at some distance +within the line, where the ravages of death were marked by pools of +blood upon the snow, and at this point were grouped several individuals, +assembled round a body which was about to be conveyed away. + +"By Heavens, I would give the world never to have said an unkind word to +him," observed one, whose arm suspended from a sling, attested he had +not come scatheless out of the action. It was St. Clair, whose great +ambition it had always been to have his name borne among the list of +wounded--provided there were no broken bones in the question. + +"As brave as he was honest-hearted," added a second, "you say, Grantham, +that he forgave us all our nonsense." + +"He did, Molineux. He declared he could not bear resentment against you +long. But still, I fear, he could not so easily forget. He observed to +me, jestingly, just before deploying into line, that he felt his time +was come, but there can be no doubt, from what we all witnessed, that he +was determined from the outset to court his death." + +Captain Molineux turned away, apparently much affected--Middlemore spoke +not, but it was evident he also was deeply pained. Each seemed to feel +that he had been in some degree accessory to the catastrophe, but the +past could not be recalled. The body, covered with blood, exuding from +several wounds, was now placed on the sledge which was drawn off to join +several others just departed, and the lingering officers hastened to +overtake their several companies. + +When the action was at the hottest, one of the small guns in front (all +of which had been fearfully exposed), was left without a single +artilleryman. Availing themselves of this circumstance, the enemy, who +were unprovided with artillery of any description, made a movement as if +to possess themselves of, and turn it against the attacking force, then +closing rapidly to dispute the possession of the breast work which +covered their riflemen. Colonel St. Julian seeing this movement, called +out for volunteers to rescue the gun from its perilous situation. +Scarcely had the words passed his lips when an individual moved forward +from the line, in the direction indicated. It was Lieutenant +Raymond--Exposed to the fire, both of friends and foes, the unfortunate +officer advanced calmly and unconcernedly, in the presence of the whole +line, and before the Americans could succeed in even crossing their +defences, had seized the gun by the drag rope, and withdrawn it under +cover of the English fire. But this gallant act of self-devotedness, was +not without its terrible price. Pierced by many balls, which the +American riflemen had immediately directed at him, he fell dying within +ten feet of the British line, brandishing his sword and faintly shouting +a "huzza," that was answered by his companions with the fierce spirit of +men stung to new exertion, and determined to avenge his fall. + +Thus perished the fat, the plain, the carbuncled, but really +gallant-hearted Raymond--whose intrinsic worth was never estimated until +he had ceased to exist. His fall, and all connected therewith, forms a +sort of episode in our story, yet is it one not altogether without its +moral. A private monument, on which was inscribed all that may soothe +and flatter after death, was erected to his memory by those very +officers whose persiflage, attacking in this instance even his honor as +a soldier, had driven him to seek the fate he found. Of this there could +be no question; for, brave as he unquestionably was, Raymond would not +have acted as if courting death throughout, had he not fully made up his +mind either to gain great distinction or to die under the eyes of those +who had, he conceived, so greatly injured him. It is but justice to add +that, for three days from his death, Middlemore did not utter a single +pun, neither did St. Clair or Molineux indulge in a satirical +observation. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + + +The spring of 1813 had passed nearly away, yet without producing any +renewed effort on the part of the Americans. From information obtained +from the Indian scouts, it however appeared that, far from being +discouraged by their recent disaster, they had moved forward a third +army to the Miami, where they had strongly entrenched themselves, until +fitting opportunity should be found to renew their attempt to recover +the lost district. It was also ascertained that, with a perseverance and +industry peculiar to themselves, they had been occupied throughout the +rigorous winter in preparing a fleet of sufficient force to compete with +that of the British; and that, abandoning the plan hitherto pursued by +his predecessors, the American leader of this third army of invasion +purposed transporting his troops across the lake, instead of running the +risk of being harassed and cut up in an advance by land. To effect this, +it was of course necessary to have the command of the lake, and there +were all the sinews of exertion called into full exercise, to obtain the +desired ascendancy. + +To defeat this intention became now the chief object of the British +General. With the close of winter had ceased the hunting pursuits of the +warriors, so that each day brought with it a considerable accession to +the strength of this wild people, vast numbers of whom had betaken +themselves to their hunting grounds, shortly after the capture of +Detroit. The chiefs of these several nations were now summoned to a +Council, in the course of which it was decided that a formidable +expedition, accompanied by a heavy train of battering artillery, should +embark in batteaux, with a view to the reduction of the American post +established on the Miami--a nucleus around which was fast gathering a +spirit of activity that threatened danger, if not annihilation, to the +English influence in the North Western districts. In the event of the +accomplishment of this design, Detroit and Amherstburg would necessarily +be released from all apprehension, since, even admitting the Americans +could acquire a superiority of naval force on the lake, such superiority +could only be essentially injurious to us, as a means of affording +transport to, and covering the operations of an invading army. If, +however, that already on the Miami could be defeated, and their fortress +razed, it was not probable that a fourth could be equipped and pushed +forward, with a view to offensive operations, in sufficient time to +accomplish anything decisive before the winter should set in. Tecumseh, +who had just returned from collecting new bodies of warriors, warmly +approved the project, and undertook to bring two thousand men into the +field, as his quota of the expedition, the departure of which was +decided for the seventh day from the Council. + +The day on which that Council was held, was characterized by one of +those sudden outbursts of elemental war, so common to the Canadas in +early summer, and which, in awful grandeur of desolation, are frequently +scarcely inferior to the hurricanes of the tropics. The morning had been +oppressively sultry, and there was that general and heavy lethargy of +nature that usually precedes a violent reaction. About noon a small, +dark speck was visible in the hitherto cloudless horizon, and this +presently grew in size until the whole western sky was one dense mass of +threatening black, which eventually spread itself over the entire +surface of the heavens leaving not a hand's breadth anywhere visible. +Presently, amid the sultry stillness that prevailed, there came a slight +breeze over the face of the waters, and then, as if some vast battering +train had suddenly opened its hundred mouths of terror, vomiting forth +showers of grape and other missiles, come astounding thunder-claps, and +forked lightnings, and rain, and hail, and whistling wind--all in such +terrible union, yet such fearful disorder, that man, the last to take +warning, or feel awed by the anger of the common parent, Nature, bent +his head in lowliness and silence to her voice, and awaited tremblingly +the passing away of her wrath. + +Henry Grantham, whose turn of duty had again brought him to Amherstburg, +was in the mess-room of the garrison when the storm was at the fiercest. +Notwithstanding the excitement of the council-scene, at which he had +been present, he had experienced an unusual depression throughout the +day, originating partly in the languid state of the atmosphere, but +infinitely more in the anxiety under which he labored in regard to his +brother, of whom no other intelligence had been received, since his +departure with his prisoners for Buffalo, than what vague rumor, coupled +with the fact of the continued absence of the schooner, afforded. That +the vessel had been captured by the enemy there could be no doubt; but, +knowing as he did, the gallant spirit of Gerald, there was reason to +imagine that he had not yielded to his enemies, before every means of +resistance had been exhausted: and if so, what might not have been the +effect of his obstinacy, if such a term could be applied to unshaken +intrepidity, on men exasperated by opposition and eager for revenge. In +the outset he had admitted his gentle cousin Gertrude to his confidence, +as one most suited, by her docility, to soothe without appearing to +remark on his alarm, but when, little suspecting the true motive of her +agitation, he saw her evince an emotion surpassing his own, and +admitting and giving way to fears beyond any he would openly avow, he +grew impatient and disappointed, and preferring rather to hear the +tocsin of alarm sounded from his own heart than from the lips of +another, he suddenly, and much to the surprise of the affectionate girl, +discontinued all allusion to the subject. But Henry's anxiety was not +the less poignant from being confined within his own breast, and +although it gratified him to find that flattering mention was frequently +made of his brother at the mess-table, coupled with regret for his +absence, it was reserved for his hours of privacy and abstraction to +dwell upon the fears which daily became more harassing and perplexing. + +On the present occasion, even while his brother officers had thought nor +ear but for the terrible tempest that raged without, and at one moment +threatened to bury them beneath its trembling roof, the mind of Henry +was full of his absent brother, whom, more than ever, he now seemed to +regret, from the association of the howling tempest with the wild +element on which he had last beheld him; and so complete at last had +become the ascendancy of his melancholy, that when the storm had been in +some degree stilled, and the rain abated, he took an early leave of his +companions, with a view to indulge in privacy the gloomy feelings by +which he felt himself oppressed. + +In passing through the gate of the fort, on his way into the town, his +attention was arrested by several groups of persons, consisting of +soldiers, Indians, and inhabitants, who, notwithstanding the inclemency +of the hour, were gathered on the high bank in front of the _demi-lune_ +battery, eagerly bending their gaze upon the river. Half curious to know +what could have attracted them in such weather from shelter, Henry +advanced and mingled in the crowd, which gave way at his approach. +Although the fury of the tempest had spent itself, there was still wind +enough to render it a matter of necessary precaution that the bystander +should secure a firm footing on the bank, while the water, violently +agitated and covered with foam, resembled rather a pigmy sea than an +inland river--so unusual and so vast were its waves. The current, +moreover, increased in strength by the sudden swelling of the waters, +dashed furiously down, giving its direction to the leaping billows that +rode impatiently upon its surface; and at the point of intersection by +the island of Bois Blanc, formed so violent an eddy within twenty feet +of the land, as to produce the effect of a whirlpool, while again, +between the island and the Canadian shore, the current, always rapid and +of great force, flew boiling down its channel, and with a violence +almost quadrupled. + +Amid this uproar of the usually placid river, there was but one bark +found bold enough to venture upon her angered bosom, and this, although +but an epitome of those that have subdued the world of waters, and +chained them in subservience to the will of man, now danced gallantly, +almost terrifically, from billow to billow, and, with the feathery +lightness of her peculiar class, seemed borne onward, less by the +leaping waves themselves than by the white and driving spray that +fringed their summits. This bark--a canoe evidently of the smallest +description--had been watched in its progress, from afar, by the groups +assembled on the bank, who had gathered at each other's call, to witness +and marvel at the gallant daring of those who had committed it to the +boiling element. Two persons composed her crew--the one seated in the +stern, and carefully guiding the bark so as to enable her to breast the +threatening waves, which, in quick succession, rose as if to accomplish +her overthrow--the other standing at her bows, the outline of his upper +figure designed against the snow-white sail, and, with his arms folded +across his chest, apparently gazing without fear on the danger which +surrounded him. It was evident, from their manner of conducting the +bark, that the adventurers were not Indians, and yet there was nothing +to indicate to what class of the white family they belonged. Both were +closely wrapped in short, dark-colored pea coats, and their heads were +surmounted with glazed hats--a species of costume that more than +anything else proved their familiarity with the element whose brawling +they appeared to brave with an indifference bordering on madness. + +Such was the position of the parties at the moment when Henry Grantham +gained the bank. Hitherto the canoe, in the broad reach that divided the +island from the American mainland, had had merely the turbulence of the +short heavy waves, and a comparatively modified current, to contend +against. Overwhelming even as these difficulties would have proved to +men less gifted with the power of opposing and vanquishing them, they +were but light in comparison with what was to be overcome. The canoe was +now fast gaining the head of the island, and pursuing a direct course +for the whirlpool already described. The only means of avoiding this was +by closely hugging the shore between which and the violent eddy without, +the water, broken in its impetuosity by the covering headland, presented +a more even and less agitated surface. This headland once doubled, the +safety of the adventurers was ensured, since, although the tremendous +current which swept through the inner channel must have borne them +considerably downwards, still the canoe would have accomplished the +transit below the town in perfect safety. The fact of this opportunity +being neglected, led at once to the inference that the adventurers were +total strangers, and distinct voices were now raised by those on the +bank, to warn them of their danger--but whether it was that they heard +not, or understood not, the warning was unnoticed. Once indeed it seemed +as if he who so ably conducted the course of the bark, had comprehended +and would have followed, the suggestion so earnestly given, for his tiny +sail was seen to flutter for the first time in the wind, as with the +intention to alter his course. But an impatient gesture from his +companion in the bow, who was seen to turn suddenly round and utter +something, (which was however inaudible to those on shore,) again +brought the head of the fragile vessel to her original course, and +onward she went, leaping and bounding, apparently with the design to +clear the whirlpool at a higher point of the river. + +Nothing short of a miracle could now possibly enable the adventurers to +escape being drawn into the boiling vortex; and, during the moments that +succeeded, every heart beat high with fearful expectation as to the +result. At length the canoe came with a sudden plunge into the very +centre of the current, which all the skill of the steersman was +insufficient to enable him to clear. Her bow yawed, her little sail +fluttered--and away she flew, broadside foremost, down the stream, with +as little power of resistance as a feather or a straw. Scarcely had the +eye time to follow her in this peculiar descent, when she was in the +very heart of the raging eddy. For a moment she reeled like a top, then +rolled two or three times over, and finally disappeared altogether. +Various expressions of horror broke from the several groups of whites +and Indians, all of whom had anticipated the catastrophe without the +power of actively interposing. Beyond the advice that was given, not a +word was uttered, but every eye continued fixed on the whirlpool, as +though momentarily expecting to see something issue from its bosom. +After the lapse of a minute, a dark object suddenly presented itself +some twenty yards below, between the island and town. It was the canoe +which, bottom upwards and deprived of its little mast and sail, had +again risen to the surface, and was floating rapidly down with the +current. Presently afterwards two heads were seen nearly at the point +where the canoe had again emerged. They were the unfortunate +adventurers, one of whom appeared to be supporting his companion with +one arm, whilst with the other he dashed away the waters that bore them +impetuously along. The hats of both had fallen off, and as he who +exerted himself so strenuously, rose once or twice in the vigor of his +efforts above the element with which he contended, he seemed to present +the grisly, woolly hair, and the sable countenance of an aged negro. A +vague surmise of the truth now flashed upon the mind of the excited +officer; but when, presently afterwards, he saw the powerful form once +more raised, and in a voice that made itself distinctly heard above the +howling of the wind, exclaim, "Help a dare!" there was no longer a +doubt, and he rushed towards the dock-yard, to gain which the exertions +of the negro were now directed. + +On reaching it, he found both Gerald and his faithful attendant just +touching the shore. Aroused by the cry for help which Sambo had pealed +forth, several of the workmen had quitted the shelter of the +block-houses in which they were lodged, and hastened to the rescue of +him whom they immediately afterwards saw struggling furiously to free +himself and companion from the violent current. Stepping to the +extremity on some loose timber which lay secured to the shore, yet +floating in the river--they threw out poles, one of which Sambo seized +like an enraged mastiff in his teeth, and still supporting the body, and +repelling the water with his disengaged arm, in this manner succeeded in +gaining the land. The crews of the little fleet, which lay armed a +hundred yards lower down, had also witnessed the rapid descent of two +apparently drowning men, and ropes had everywhere been thrown out from +the vessels. As for lowering a boat, it was out of the question; for no +boat could have resisted the violence of the current, even for some +hours after the storm had wholly ceased. + +It may be easily conceived with what mingled emotions the generous +Henry, whose anxiety had been so long excited in regard to his brother's +fate, now beheld that brother suddenly restored to him. Filled with an +affection that was rendered the more intense by the very fact of the +danger from which he had just seen him rescued, he, regardless of those +around and in defiance of his wet and dripping clothes, sprang eagerly +to his embrace, but Gerald received him with a cold--almost averted air. +Suffering, rather than sharing, this mark of fraternal love, he turned +the instant afterward to his servant, and, in a tone of querulousness +said, "Sambo, give me wine." + +Inexpressibly shocked, and not knowing what to think of this conduct, +Henry bent his glance upon the negro. The old man shook his head +mournfully, and even with the dripping spray that continued to fall from +his woolly locks upon his cheeks, tears might be seen to mingle. A +dreadful misgiving came over the mind of the youth, and he felt his +very hair rise thrillingly, as he for a moment admitted the horrible +possibility, that the shock produced by his recent accident had affected +his brother's intellect. Sambo replied to his master's demand, by saying +"there was no wine--the canoe and its contents had been utterly lost." + +All this passed during the first few moments of their landing. The +necessity for an immediate change of apparel was obvious, and Gerald and +his servant were led into the nearest block house, where each of the +honest fellows occupying it was eager in producing whatever his rude +wardrobe afforded. The brothers then made the best of their way, +followed by the negro, to their own abode in the town. + +The evening being damp and chilly, a fire was kindled in the apartment +in which Gerald dined--the same in which both had witnessed the dying +moments of their mother, and Henry those of their father. It had been +chosen by the former, in the height of her malady, for its cheerfulness, +and she had continued in it until the hour of her decease; while Major +Grantham had selected it for his chamber of death for the very reason +that it had been that of his regretted wife. Henry, having already +dined, sat at the opposite extremity of the table watching his brother, +whose features he had so longed to behold once more; yet not without a +deep and bitter feeling of grief, that those features should have +undergone so complete a change in their expression towards himself. +Gerald had thrown off the temporary and ill-fitting vestments exchanged +for his own wet clothing, and now that he appeared once more in his +customary garb, an extraordinary alteration was perceptible in his whole +appearance. Instead of the blooming cheek, and rounded and elegant form, +for which he had always been remarkable, he now offered to the eye of +his anxious brother, an emaciated figure, and a countenance pale even to +wanness--while evidence of much care and inward suffering might be +traced in the stern contraction of his hitherto open brow. There was +also a dryness in his speech that startled and perplexed even more than +the change in his person. The latter might be the effect of +imprisonment, and its anxiety and privation, coupled with the exhaustion +arising from his recent accident; but how was the first to be accounted +for, and wherefore was he, after so long a separation, and under such +circumstances, thus incommunicative and unaffectionate? All these +reflections occurred to the mind of the sensitive Henry, as he sat +watching, and occasionally addressing a remark to, his taciturn brother, +until he became fairly bewildered in his efforts to find a clue to his +conduct. The horrible dread which had first suggested itself of the +partial overthrow of intellect, had passed away, but to this had +succeeded a discovery attended by quite as much concern, although +creating less positive alarm. He had seen, with inexpressible pain, that +Gerald ate but little, seeming rather to loathe his food, while on the +other hand he had recourse more frequently to wine, drinking off bumpers +with greedy avidity, until, yielding at length to the excess of his +potations, he fell fast asleep in the arm-chair he had drawn to the +fire, overcome by the mingled influence of wine, fatigue and drowsiness. + +Bitter were the feelings of Henry Grantham, as thus he gazed upon his +sleeping brother. Fain would he have persuaded himself that the effect +he now witnessed was an isolated instance, and occurring only under the +peculiar circumstances of the moment. It was impossible to recal the +manner in which he had demanded "wine" from their faithful old servant +and friend, and not feel satisfied that the tone proclaimed him one who +had been in the frequent habit of repeating that demand, as the prepared +yet painful manner of the black, indicated a sense of having been too +frequently called upon to administer to it. Alas, thought the +heart-stricken Henry, can it really be, that he whom I have cherished in +my heart of hearts with more than brother's love, has thus fallen? Has +Gerald, formerly as remarkable for sobriety as for every honorable +principle, acquired even during the months I have so wretchedly mourned +his absence, the fearful propensities of the drunkard? The bare idea +overpowered him, and with difficulty restraining his tears, he rose from +his seat, and paced the room for some time in a state of indescribable +agitation. Then again he stopped, and when he looked in the sleeping +face of his unconscious brother, he was more than ever struck by the +strange change which had been wrought in his appearance. Finding that +Gerald still slept profoundly, he took the resolution of instantly +questioning Sambo as to all that had befallen them during their absence, +and ascertaining, if possible, to what circumstance the mystery which +perplexed him was attributable. Opening and reclosing the door with +caution, he hastened to the room which, owing to his years and long and +faithful services, had been set apart for the accommodation of the old +man when on shore. Here he found Sambo, who had dispatched his +substantial meal, busily occupied in drying his master's wet dress +before a large blazing wood fire--and laying out, with the same view, +certain papers, the contents of a pocket-book which had been completely +saturated with water. A ray of satisfaction lighted the dark but +intelligent face of the negro, which the instant before had worn an +expression of suffering, as the young officer, pressing his hand with +warmth, thanked him deeply and fervently for the noble, almost +superhuman, exertions, he had made that day to preserve his brother's +life. + +"Oh, Massa Henry!" was all the poor creature could say in reply, as he +returned the pressure with an emphasis that spoke his profound +attachment to both. Then leaning his white head upon his hand against +the chimney, and bursting into tears--"berry much change, he poor broder +Geral, he not a same at all." + +Here was a sad opening indeed to the subject. The heart of the youth +sank within him, yet feeling the necessity of knowing all connected with +his brother's unhappiness, he succeeded in drawing the old man into +conversation, and finally into a narration of all their adventures, as +far at least as he had personal knowledge, from the moment of their +leaving Detroit in the preceding autumn. + +When, after the expiration of an hour, he returned to the drawing-room, +Gerald was awake, and so far restored by his sound sleep as to be, not +only more communicative, but more cordial towards his brother. He even +reverted to past scenes, and spoke of the mutual events of their youth, +with a cheerfulness bordering on levity; but this pained Henry the more, +for he saw in it but the fruit of a forced excitement--as melancholy in +adoption as pernicious in effect--and his own heart repugned all +participation in so unnatural a gaiety, although he enforced himself to +share it to the outward eye. Fatigue at length compelled Gerald to court +the quiet of his pillow, and, overcome as his senses were with wine, he +slept profoundly until morning. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + + +When they met at breakfast, Henry was more than ever struck and +afflicted by the alteration in his brother's person and manner. All +traces of the last night's excitement had disappeared with the cause, +and pale, haggard and embarrassed, he seemed but the shadow of his +former self, while the melancholy of his countenance had in it something +wild and even fierce. As at their first meeting, his language was dry +and reserved, and he seemed rather impatient of conversation, as though +it interfered with the indulgence of some secret and all absorbing +reflection, while, to Henry's affectionate questioning of his adventures +since they first parted, he replied in the vague unsatisfactory manner +of one who seeks to shun the subject altogether. At another moment, this +apparent prostration of the physical man might have been ascribed to his +long immersion of the preceding day, and the efforts that were necessary +to rescue him from a watery grave; but, from the account Sambo had given +him, Henry had but too much reason to fear that the disease of body and +mind which had so completely encompassed his unfortunate brother, not +only had its being in a different cause, but might be dated from an +earlier period. Although burning with desire to share that confidence +which it grieved him to the soul to find thus unkindly withheld, he made +no effort to remove the cloak of reserve in which his brother had +invested himself. That day they both dined at the garrison mess, and +Henry saw with additional pain, that the warm felicitations of his +brother officers on his return, were received by Gerald with the same +reserve and indifference which had characterized his meeting with him, +while he evinced the same disinclination to enter upon the solicited +history of his captivity, as well as the causes which led to his bold +venture, and consequent narrow escape, of the preceding day. Finding him +thus incommunicative, and not comprehending the change in his manner, +they rallied him; and, as the bottle circulated, he seemed more and more +disposed to meet their raillery with a cheerfulness and good humor that +brought even the color into his sunken cheeks; but when, finally, some +of them proceeded to ask him, in their taunting manner, what he had done +with his old flame and fascinating prisoner, Miss Montgomerie, a deadly +paleness overspread his countenance, and he lost in the moment all power +of disguising his feelings. His emotion was too sudden and too palpable, +not to be observed by those who had unwillingly called it forth, and +they at once, with considerate tact, changed the conversation. Hereupon +Gerald again made an effort to rally, but no one returned to the +subject. Piqued at this conduct, he had more frequent recourse to the +bottle, and laughed and talked in a manner that proved him to be +laboring under the influence of extraordinary excitement. When he took +leave of his brother to retire to rest, he was silent, peevish, +dissatisfied--almost angry. + +Henry passed a night of extreme disquiet. It was evident from what had +occurred at the mess-table in relation to the beautiful American, that +to her was to be ascribed the wretchedness to which Gerald had become a +victim, and he resolved on the following morning to waive all false +delicacy, and throwing himself upon his affection, to solicit his +confidence, and offer whatever counsel he conceived would best tend to +promote his peace of mind. + +At breakfast the conversation turned on the intended movement, which was +to take place within three days, and on this subject Gerald evinced a +vivacity that warmed into eagerness. He had risen early that morning, +with a view to obtain the permission of the commodore to make one of the +detachment of sailors who were to accompany the expedition, and, having +succeeded in obtaining the command of one of the two gun-boats which +were destined to ascend the Miami, and form part of the battering force, +seemed highly pleased. This apparent return to himself might have led +his brother into the belief that his feelings had undergone a reaction, +had he not, unfortunately, but too much reason to know that the +momentary gaiety was the result of the very melancholy which consumed +him. However, it gave him a more favorable opportunity to open the +subject next his heart, and, as a preparatory step, he dexterously +contrived to turn the conversation into the channel most suited to his +purpose. + +The only ill effect arising from Gerald's recent immersion was a sense +of pain in that part of his arm which had been bitten by the +rattlesnake, on the day of the pic-nic to Hog Island, and it chanced +that this morning especially it had a good deal annoyed him, evincing +some slight predisposition to inflammation. To subdue this, Henry +applied with his own hand a liniment which had been recommended, and +took occasion, when he had finished, to remark on the devotedness and +fearlessness Miss Montgomerie had manifested in coming so opportunely to +his rescue--in all probability, thereby preserving his life. + +At the sound of this name Gerald started, and evinced the same +impatience of the subject he had manifested on the preceding day. Henry +keenly remarked his emotion, and Gerald was sensible that he did. + +Both sat for some minutes gazing at each other in expressive silence, +the one as if waiting to hear, the other as if conscious that he was +expected to afford, some explanation of the cause of so marked an +emotion. At length Gerald said and in a tone of deep and touching +despondency, "Henry, I fear you find me very unamiable and much altered, +but indeed I am very unhappy." + +Here was touched the first chord of their sympathies. Henry's, already +on the _elan_, flew to meet this demonstration of returning confidence, +and he replied in a voice broken by the overflowing of his full heart. + +"Oh, my beloved brother, changed must you indeed be, when even the +admission that you are unhappy inspires me with a thankfulness such as I +now feel. Gerald, I entreat, I implore you, by the love we have borne +each other from infancy, to disguise nothing from me. Tell me what it is +that weighs so heavily at your heart. Repose implicit confidence in me +your brother, and let me assist and advise you in your extremity, as my +poor ability will permit. Tell me, Gerald, wherefore are you thus +altered--what dreadful disappointment has thus turned the milk of your +nature into gall?" + +Gerald gazed at him a moment intently. He was much affected, and a +sudden and unbidden tear stole down his pallid cheek. "If _you_ have +found the milk of my nature turned into gall, then indeed am I even more +wretched than I thought myself. But, Henry, you ask me what I cannot +yield--my confidence--and, even were it not so, the yielding would +advantage neither. I am unhappy, as I have said, but the cause of that +unhappiness must ever remain buried here," and he pointed to his breast. +This was said kindly, yet determinedly. + +"Enough, Gerald," and his brother spoke in terms of deep reproach, +"since you persist in withholding your confidence, I will no longer urge +it; but you cannot wonder that I, who love but you alone on earth, +should sorrow as one without hope, at beholding you subject to a grief +so overwhelming as to have driven you to seek refuge from it in an +unhallowed grave." + +"I do not understand you--what mean you?" quickly interrupted Gerald, +raising his head from the hand which supported it at the breakfast-table +while he colored faintly. + +"You cannot well be ignorant of my meaning," pursued Henry in the same +tone, "if you but recur to the circumstances attending your arrival +here." + +"I am still in the dark," continued Gerald, with some degree of +impatience. + +"Because you know not that I am acquainted with all that took place on +the melancholy occasion. Gerald," he pursued, "forgive the apparent +harshness of what I am about to observe--but was it generous--was it +kind in you to incur the risk you did, when you must have known that +your death would have entailed upon me an eternal grief? Was it worthy +of yourself, moreover, to make the devoted follower of your fortunes, a +sharer in the danger you so eagerly and wantonly courted?" + +"Nay, my good brother," and Gerald made an attempt at levity, "you are +indeed an unsparing monitor; but suppose I should offer in reply, that a +spirit of enterprize was upon me on the occasion to which you allude, +and that, fired by a desire to astonish you all with a bold feat, I had +resolved to do what no other had done before me, yet without +apprehending the serious consequences which ensued--or even assuming the +danger to have been so great." + +"All this, Gerald, you might, yet would not say; because, in saying it, +you would have to charge yourself with a gross insincerity; and although +you do not deem me worthy to share your confidence, I still have +pleasure in knowing that my affection will not be repaid with +deceit--however plausible the motives for its adoption may appear--by +the substitution, in short, of that which is not for that which is." + +"A gross insincerity?" repeated Gerald, again slightly coloring. + +"Yes, my brother--I say it not in anger, nor in reproach--but a gross +insincerity it would certainly be. Alas, Gerald, your motives are but +too well known to me. The danger you incurred was incurred wilfully, +wantonly, and with a view to your own destruction." + +Gerald started. The color had again fled from his sunken cheek, and he +was ashy pale. "And _how_ knew you this?" he asked with a trembling +voice. + +"Even, Gerald, as I know that you have been driven to seek in wine that +upbearing against the secret grief which consumes you, which should be +found alone in the fortitude of a strong mind and the consciousness of +an untainted honor. Oh, Gerald, had these been your supporters, you +never would have steeped your reason so far in forgetfulness, as to have +dared what you did on that eventful day. Good Heaven! how little did I +ever expect to see the brother of my love degenerated so far as to +border on the character of the drunkard and the suicide." + +The quick but sunken eyes of the sailor flashed fire; and he pressed his +lips, and clenched his teeth together, as one strongly attempting to +restrain his indignation. It was but the momentary flashing of the +chafed and bruised spirit. + +"You probe me deeply, Henry," he said, calmly and in a voice of much +melancholy. "These are severe expressions for a brother to use; but you +are right--I did seek oblivion of my wretchedness in that whirlpool, as +the only means of destroying the worm that feeds incessantly upon my +heart; but Providence has willed it otherwise--and, morever, I had not +taken the danger of my faithful servant into the account. Had Sambo not +saved me, I must have perished; for I made not the slightest effort to +preserve myself. However, it matters but little, the mere manner of +one's death," he pursued, with increased despondency. "It is easy for +you, Henry, whose mind is at peace with itself and the world, to preach +fortitude and resignation; but, felt you the burning flame which +scorches my vitals, you would acknowledge the wide difference between +theory and practice." + +Henry rose deeply agitated; he went to the door and secured the bolt; +then returning, knelt at his brother's feet. Gerald had one hand +covering his eyes, from which, however, the tears forced themselves +through his closed fingers. The other was seized and warmly pressed in +his brother's grasp. + +"Gerald," he said, in the most emphatic manner, "by the love you ever +bore to our sainted parents, in whose chamber of death I now appeal to +your better feelings--by the friendship that has united our hearts from +youth to manhood--by all and every tie of affection, let me implore you +once more to confide this dreadful grief to me, that I may share it with +you, and counsel you for your good. Oh, my brother, on my bended knees +do I solicit your confidence. Believe me, no mean curiosity prompts my +prayer. I would soothe, console, assist you--aye, even to the very +sacrifice of life." + +The feelings of the sailor were evidently touched, yet he uttered not a +word. His hand still covered his face, and the tears seemed to flow even +faster than before. + +"Gerald," pursued his brother, with bitterness; "I see, with pain, that +I have not your confidence, and I desist--yet answer me one question. +From the faithful Sambo, as you must perceive, I have learnt all +connected with your absence, and from him I have gained that, during +your captivity, you were much with Miss Montgomerie (he pronounced the +name with an involuntary shuddering); all I ask, therefore, is, whether +your wretchedness proceeds from the rejection of your suit, or from any +levity or inconstancy you may have found in her?" + +Gerald raised his head from his supporting hand, and turned upon his +brother a look in which mortified pride predominated over an infinitude +of conflicting emotions. + +"Rejected, Henry, _my_ suit rejected--oh, no! In supposing my grief to +originate with her, you are correct; but imagine not it is because my +suit is rejected--certainly not." + +"Then," exclaimed Henry, with generous emphasis, while he pressed the +thin hand which he held more closely between his own, "Why not marry +her?" + +Gerald started. + +"Yes, marry her," continued Henry; "marry her and be at peace. Oh! +Gerald, you know not what sad agency I attached to that insidious +American from the first moment of her landing on this shore--you know +not how much I have disliked, and still dislike her--but what are all +these considerations when my brother's happiness is at stake? Gerald, +marry her--and be happy." + +"Impossible," returned the sailor, in a feeble voice, and again his +heart sank upon the open palm of his hand. + +"Do you no longer love her, then?" eagerly questioned the astonished +youth. + +Once more Gerald raised his head, and fixed his large, dim eyes full +upon those of his brother. "To madness!" he said, in a voice and with a +look that made Henry shudder. There was a moment of painful pause. The +latter at length ventured to observe: + +"You speak in riddles, Gerald. If you love this Miss Montgomerie to +madness, and are, as you seem to intimate, loved by her in return, why +not, as I have urged, marry her?" + +"Because," replied the sailor, turning paler than before, and almost +gasping for breath, "there is a condition attached to the possession of +her hand." + +"And that is?" pursued Henry, inquiringly, after another long and +painful pause-- + +"My secret," and Gerald pointed significantly to his breast. + +"True," returned Henry, slightly coloring; "I had forgotten--but what +condition, Gerald (and here he spoke as if piqued at the abrupt manner +in which his brother had concluded his half confidence), what condition, +I ask, may a woman entitled to our respect, as well as to our love, +propose, which should be held of more account than that severest of +offences against the Divine will--self-murder? Nay, look not thus +surprised; for have you not admitted that you had guiltily attempted to +throw away your life--to commit suicide, in short--rather than comply +with an earthly condition?" + +"What if in this," returned Gerald, with a smile of bitterness, "I have +preferred the lesser guilt to the greater?" + +"I can understand no condition, my brother, a woman worthy of your +esteem could impose, which should one moment weigh in the same scale +against the inexpiable crime of self-destruction. But, really, all this +mystery so startles and confounds me, that I know not what to +think--what inference to draw." + +"Henry," observed the sailor, with some show of impatience, "considering +your promise not to urge it further, it seems to me you push the matter +to an extremity." + +The youth made no reply, but, raising himself from his knees, moved +towards the door, which he again unbolted. He then walked to the window +at the further end of the apartment. + +Gerald saw that he was deeply pained; and, impatient and angry with +himself, he also rose and paced the room with hurried steps. At length +he stopped, and putting one hand upon the shoulder of his brother, who +stood gazing vacantly from the window, pointed with the other towards +that part of the apartment in which both their parents had breathed +their last. + +"Henry, my kind, good Henry," he said, with a voice faltering with +emotion, "do you recollect the morning when, on our return from school, +we found our young holiday joy changed into heart-breaking and mourning +by the sight of our dying mother?" + +"Remember it, Gerald! aye, even as though it had been yesterday. Oh, my +brother, little did I think at the moment when, with hands closely +clasped together, we sank, overcome with grief, upon our bended knees, +to receive that mother's blessing, a day would ever arrive when the joy +or sorrow of the one should form no portion of the joy or sorrow of the +other." + +"It was there," pursued Gerald, and without noticing the interruption, +"that we solemnly pledged ourselves to do the will and bidding of our +father in all things." + +"Even so, Gerald, I remember it well." + +"And it was there," continued the sailor, with the emphasis of strong +emotion, "that, during my unfortunate absence from the death-bed of our +yet surviving parent, you gave a pledge for _both_, that no action of +our lives should reflect dishonor on his unsullied name." + +"I did. Both in your name and in my own, I gave the pledge--well knowing +that, in that, I merely anticipated your desire." + +"Most assuredly; what then would be your sensations were you to know +that I had violated that sacred obligation?" + +"Deep, poignant, ceaseless regret, that my once noble and high-spirited +brother should have been so lost to respect for his father's memory and +for himself." This was uttered not without deep agitation. + +"You are right, Henry," added Gerald, mournfully; "better, far better, +is it to die than live on in the consciousness of having forfeited all +claim to esteem." + +The young soldier started as if a viper had stung him. "Gerald," he +said, eagerly, "you have not dishonored yourself. Oh no--tell me, my +brother, that you have not." + +"No," was the cold, repulsive answer; "although my peace of mind is +fled," he pursued, rather more mildly, "my honor, thank heaven, remains +as pure as when you first pledged yourself for its preservation." + +"Thanks, my brother, for that. But can it really be possible, that the +mysterious condition attached to Miss Montgomerie's love involves the +loss of honor?" + +Gerald made no answer. + +"And can _you_ really be weak enough to entertain a passion for a woman, +who would make the dishonoring of the fair fame of him she professes to +love the fearful price at which her affection is to be purchased?" + +Gerald seemed to wince at the word "weak," which was rather emphatically +pronounced, and looked displeased at the concluding part of the +sentence. + +"I said not that the condition attached to her _love_," he remarked, +with the piqued expression of a wounded vanity; "her affection is mine, +I know, beyond her own power of control--the condition relates not to +her heart, but to her hand." + +"Alas, my poor infatuated brother. Blinding indeed must be the delusions +of passion, when a nature so sensitive and so honorable shrinks not from +such a connexion. My only surprise is, that, with such a perversion of +judgment you have returned at all." + +"No more of this Henry. It is not in man to control his destiny, and +mine appears to be to love with a fervor that must bear me, ere long, to +my grave. Of this, however, be assured--that, whatever my weakness, or +infatuation, as you may be pleased to call it, _that_ passion shall +never be gratified at the expense of my honor. Deeply--madly as I doat +upon her image, Miss Montgomerie and I have met for the last time." + +Overcome by the emotion with which he had thus expressed himself, Gerald +could not restrain a few burning tears that forced their way down his +hollow cheeks. Henry caught eagerly at this indication of returning +softness, and again essayed, in reference to the concluding declaration +of his brother, to urge upon him the unworthiness of her who had thus +cast her deadly spell upon his happiness. But Gerald could ill endure +the slightest allusion to the subject. + +"Henry," he said, "I have already told you that Miss Montgomerie and I +have parted for ever; but not the less devotedly do I love her. If, +therefore, you would not farther wring a heart already half broken with +affliction, oblige me by never making the slightest mention of her name +in my presence--or ever adverting again to our conversation of this +morning. I am sure, Henry, you will not deny me this." + +Henry offered no other reply than by throwing himself into the arms that +were extended to receive him. The embrace of the brothers was long and +fervent, and, although there was perhaps more of pain than pleasure, in +their mutual sense of the causes which had led to it in the present +instance--still was it productive of a luxury the most heartfelt. It +seemed to both as if the spirits of their departed parents hovered over, +and blessed them in this indication of their returning affection, +hallowing, with their invisible presence, a scene connected with the +last admonitions from their dying lips. When they had thus given vent to +their feelings, although the sense of unhappiness continued +undiminished, their hearts experienced a sensible relief; and when they +separated for the morning, in pursuit of their respective avocations, it +was with a subdued manner on the part of Gerald, and a vague hope with +Henry, that his brother's disease would eventually yield to various +influences, and that other and happier days were yet in store for both. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + + +Meanwhile the preparations for the departure of the expedition for the +Miami were rapidly completing. To the majority of the regular force of +the two garrisons were added several companies of militia, and a +considerable body of Indians, under Tecumseh--the two former portions of +the force being destined to advance by water, the latter by land. The +spring had been unusually early, and the whole of April remarkably warm; +on some occasions sultry to oppressiveness--as for instance on the +morning of the tempest. They were now in the first days of the last week +of that month, and everywhere, quick and luxuriant vegetation had +succeeded to the stubborn barrenness and monotony of winter. Not a +vestige of that dense mass of ice which, three months previously, had +borne them over lake and river, was now to be seen. The sun danced +joyously and sportively on the golden wave, and where recently towered +the rugged surface of the tiny iceberg, the still, calm, unbroken level +of the mirroring lake was only visible. On the beach, just below the +town, and on a line with the little fleet, that lay at anchor between +the island and the main, were drawn up numerous batteaux, ready for the +reception of the troops, while on the decks of two gun-boats, that were +moored a few yards without them, were to be seen the battering train and +entrenching tools intended to accompany the expedition. Opposite to each +batteau was kindled a fire, around which were grouped the _voyageurs_ +composing the crew, some dividing their salt pork or salt fish upon +their bread, with a greasy clasped knife, and quenching the thirst +excited by this with occasional libations from tin cans, containing a +mixture of water and the poisonous distillation of the country, +miscalled whiskey. In other directions, those who had dined sat puffing +the smoke from their dingy pipes, while again, they who had sufficiently +luxuriated on the weed, might be seen sleeping, after the manner of the +Indians, with their heads resting on the first rude pillow that offered +itself, and their feet close upon the embers of the fire on which they +had prepared their meal. The indolence of inactivity was more or less +upon all, but it was the indolence consequent on previous exertion, and +a want of further employment. The whole scene was characteristic of the +peculiar manners of the French Canadian boatmen. + +Since the morning of the long and partial explanation between the +brothers, no further allusion had been made to the forbidden subject. +Henry saw, with unfeigned satisfaction, that Gerald not only abstained +from the false excitement to which he had hitherto had recourse, but +that he apparently sought to rally against his dejection. It is true +that whenever he chanced to surprise him alone, he observed him pale, +thoughtful, and full of care, but, as he invariably endeavored to hide +the feeling at his approach, he argued favorably even from the effort. +Early on the day previous to that of the sailing of the expedition, +Gerald asked leave for a visit of a few hours to Detroit, urging a +desire to see the family of his uncle, who still remained quartered at +that post, and whom he had not met since his return from captivity. This +had been readily granted by the Commodore, in whom the change in the +health and spirits of his young favorite had excited both surprise and +concern, and who, anxious for his restoration, was ready to promote +whatever might conduce to his comfort. He had even gone so far as to +hint the propriety of his relinquishing his intention of accompanying +the expedition, (which was likely to be attended with much privation and +exposure to those engaged in it), and suffering another officer to be +substituted to his command, while he remained at home to recruit his +health. But Gerald heard the well meant proposal with ill disguised +impatience, and he replied with a burning cheek, that if his absence for +a day could not be allowed without inconvenience to the service, he was +ready to submit; but, as far as regarded his making one of the +expedition, nothing short of a positive command should compel him to +remain behind. Finding him thus obstinate, the Commodore good humoredly +called him a silly, wilful, fellow, and bade him have his own way; +however he felt confident that, if he accompanied the Miami expedition +in his then state of health, he never would return from it. + +Gerald submitted it was probable enough he should not, but, although he +deeply felt the kindness of his Commander's motive in wishing him to +remain, he was not the less determined, since the matter was left to his +own choice, to go where his duty led him. Then, promising to be back +long before the hour fixed for sailing the ensuing day, he warmly +pressed the cordially extended hand, and soon afterwards, accompanied by +Sambo, whose skill as a rider was in no way inferior to his dexterity as +a steersman, mounted a favorite horse, and was soon far on his road to +Detroit. + +Towards midnight of that day, two men were observed by the American +tanner to enter by the gate that led into the grounds of the cottage, +and, after lingering for a few moments, near the graves to which +tradition had attached so much of the marvellous, to disappear round the +angle of the building into the court behind. Curiosity induced him to +follow and watch their movements, and, although he could not refrain +from turning his head at least a dozen times, as if expecting at each +moment to encounter some dread inhabitant of the tomb, he at length +contrived to place himself in the very position in which Gerald had +formerly been a witness of the attempt at assassination. From the same +window now flashed a strong light upon the court below, and by this the +features of the officer and his servant were distinctly revealed to the +astonished tanner, who, ignorant of their return, and scarcely knowing +whether he gazed upon the living or the dead, would have fled, had he +not, as he afterwards confessed, been rooted by fear, and a species of +fascination, to the spot. The appearance and actions of the parties +indeed seemed to justify, not only the delusion, but the alarm of the +worthy citizen. Both Gerald and Sambo were disguised in large dark +cloaks, and as the light fell upon the thin person and pale, attenuated, +sunken countenance of the former, he could scarcely persuade himself +this was the living man, who a few months before, rich in beauty and in +health, had questioned him of the very spot in which he now, under such +strange circumstances, beheld him. Nor was the appearance of the negro +more assuring. Filled with the terror that ever inspired him on +approaching this scene of past horrors, his usually dark cheek wore the +dingy paleness characteristic of death in one of his color, while every +muscle, stiff, set, contracted by superstitious fear, seemed to have +lost all power of relaxation. The solemnity moreover of the manner of +both, was in strict keeping with their personal appearance, so that it +can scarcely be wondered that in a mind not the strongest nor the most +free from a belief in the supernatural, a due quantum of awe and alarm +should have been instilled. Fear, however, had not wholly subdued +curiosity, and even while trembling to such a degree that he could +scarcely keep his teeth from chattering, the tanner followed with eager +eye the movements of those he knew not whether to look upon as ghosts or +living beings. The room was exactly in the state in which we last +described it, with this difference merely, that the table, on which the +lamp and books had been placed now lay overturned, as if in the course +of some violent scuffle, and its contents distributed over the floor. +The bed still remained, in the same corner, unmade, and its covering +tossed. It was evident no one had entered the apartment since the night +of the attempted assassination. + +The first act of Gerald, who bore the light, followed closely by Sambo, +was to motion the latter to raise the fallen table. When this was done +he placed his lamp upon it, and sinking upon the foot of the bed, and +covering his eyes with his hands, seemed utterly absorbed in bitter +recollections. The negro, meanwhile, an apparent stranger to the scene, +cast his eyes around him with the shrinking caution of one who finds +himself in a position of danger, and fears to encounter some terrific +sight, then, as if the effort was beyond his power, he drew the collar +of his cloak over his face, and shuffling to get as near as possible to +the bed as though in the act he came more immediately under the +protection of him who sat upon it, awaited, in an attitude of +statue-like immobility, the awakening of his master from his reverie. + +Gerald at length withdrew his hands from his pallid face, on which the +glare of the lamp rested forcibly, and, with a wild look and low, but +imperative voice, bade the old negro seat himself beside him still lower +on the bed. + +"Sambo," he inquired abruptly--"how old were you when the Indian +massacre took place near this spot. You were then, I think I have heard +it stated, the servant of Sir Everard Valletort?" + +The old negro looked aghast. It was long since direct allusion had been +made to his unfortunate master or the events of that period. Questioned +in such a spot, and at such an hour, he could not repress the feeling of +terror conjured up by the allusion. Scarcely daring to exceed a whisper, +he answered. + +"Oh Massa Geral, for Hebben's sake no talkee dat. It berry long time +ago, and break poor nigger heart to tink ob it----" + +"But I insist on knowing," returned Gerald loudly and peremptorily; +"were you old enough to recollect the curse that poor heart-broken +woman, Ellen Halloway, uttered on all our race, and if so what was it?" + +"No, Massa Geral, I no sabby dat. Sambo den only piccaninny, and Sir +Ebbered make him top in he fort--oh berry bad times dat, Massa Geral. +Poor Frank Hallabay he shot fust, because he let he grandfadder out ob +he fort, and den ebery ting go bad--berry bad indeed." + +"But the curse of Ellen Halloway, Sambo, you must have heard of it +surely--even if you were not present at the utterance. Did she not," he +continued, finding that the other replied not: "Did she not pray that +the blood of my great grandfather's children might be spilt on the very +spot that had been moistened with that of her ill-fated husband--and, +that if any of the race should survive, it might be only with a view to +their perishing in some horrible manner. Was not this the case?" + +"Oh yes, Massa Geral, berry bad tongue Ellen, affer he lose he +husband--but, poor ting, he half mad and no sabby what he say. He time +to start for he gun-boat, Massa Geral." + +The part Sambo had sustained in this short dialogue was a forced one. He +had answered almost mechanically, and not altogether without +embarrassment, the few queries that were put to him. Nay, so far was he +governed by surrounding local influences, that the anguish he would, +under other circumstances, have experienced, at this raking up of +recollections he so sedulously avoided, was lost in terror, produced by +his near and midnight propinquity to the fatal theatre of death. His +only idea now was to leave the spot as quickly as he could. + +Gerald had again covered his face with his hands, and appeared to be +laboring under strong agitation of mind. At length he started abruptly +up, and seizing the light, held it forward, stooping over the bed, as if +gazing fixedly on some object within. + +"No," he said with vehemence, "it shall never be. That part of the +malediction, at least, shall _not_ be accomplished. For once shall the +curse of the innocent be unheeded." + +The strange action and words of the excited officer, by no means +contributed to allay the nervousness of the brave but superstitious +negro. He had approached as near as he could to Gerald, without actually +touching him, but when he remarked his abrupt movement, and heard the +sudden outburst feeling which accompanied it, he half fancied he was +apostrophizing some spirit visible only to himself, and shocked and +terrified at this idea, he turned away his head. + +Sambo's alarm was not to terminate here. Scarcely had he bent his glance +upon the window when he beheld two glaring eyes, magnified by his fear +into thrice their natural size, fixed intently on that part of the room +in which they stood. He attempted to cry out, but the sound was stifled +in his throat, and he sank upon his knees, holding up his hands in an +attitude of prayer--his teeth chattering, and his eyes fascinated by +those which had produced in him this paroxysm of terror. Presently he +thought he saw a mouth open, and a row of large and ragged teeth display +themselves in a grin of derision. With a desperate effort he broke the +spell that seemed to enchain every faculty, and called piteously and +imploringly on the name of Gerald. The officer, who had continued gazing +on the untenanted bed in deep abstraction, and seeming forgetfulness of +all surrounding objects, turned hastily round, and was much concerned to +observe the terrified expression of the old man's countenance. Following +the direction of his fixed gaze, he looked toward the window for a +solution of the cause. At that moment a noise was heard without, as of a +falling body. Gerald sprang towards the window, and hastily lifting it, +thrust the lamp through; but nothing was visible, neither was there +sound of footsteps to be heard. + +Before daybreak on the following morning, the poor old negro, whom no +living danger could daunt, had given but too alarming evidence that his +reason was utterly alienated. His ravings were wild and fearful, and +nothing could remove the impression that the face he had beheld was that +of the once terrible Wacousta--the same face which had presented itself, +under such extraordinary circumstances, at the window of the Canadian's +hut, on the night of the departure of his master, Sir Everard Valletort, +and Captain De Haldimer, for Michillimackinac in 1763. Nay, so rooted +was this belief, that, with the fervor of that zeal which had governed +his whole life and conduct towards each succeeding generation of the +family, he prayed and obtained, during a momentary gleam of reason, the +promise of the much shocked Gerald, that he would never again set foot +within the precincts of these fatal grounds. + +Inexpressibly grieved as Gerald was at this sad and unexpected +termination to his adventure, he had no time to linger near his +unfortunate servant. The expedition was to set out in a few hours, and +he had too completely bent his mind upon accompanying it to incur the +slightest chance of a disappointment. Leaving the faithful and +unfortunate creature to the care of his uncle's family, by every member +of whom he was scarcely less loved than by himself, he took the ferry to +the opposite shore within an hour after daybreak, and made such speed +that, when Henry came down to breakfast he found, to his surprise, his +brother already there. + +During his ride, Gerald had had leisure to reflect on the events of the +preceding night, and bitterly did he regret having yielded to a +curiosity which had cost the unfortunate Sambo so much. He judged +correctly that they had been followed in their nocturnal excursion, and +that it was the face of some prying visitant which Sambo's superstitious +dread had transformed into a hideous vision of the past. He recalled the +insuperable aversion the old man had ever entertained to approach or +even make mention of the spot, and greatly did he blame himself for +having persisted in offering a violence to his nature, the extent of +which had been made so fearfully obvious. It brought no consolation to +him to reflect that the spot itself contained nought that should have +produced so alarming an effect on a mind properly constituted. He felt +that, knowing his weakness as he did, he ought not to have trifled with +it, and could not deny to himself, that in enforcing his attendance, +with a view to obtain information on several points connected with the +past, he had been indirectly the destroyer of his reason. There had been +a season when the unhappy sailor would have felt a sorrow even deeper +than he did, but Gerald was indeed an altered being--too much rapt in +himself to give heed to others. + +The painful nature of his reflections, added to the fatigue he had +undergone, had given to his countenance a more than usually haggard +expression. Henry remarked it and inquired the cause, when his brother, +in a few brief sentences, explained all that had occurred during his +absence. Full of affection as he was for the old man, and utterly +unprepared for such a communication, Henry could not avoid expressing +deep vexation that his brother, aware as he was of the peculiar weakness +of their aged friend, should have been inconsiderate enough to have +drawn him thither. Gerald felt the reproof to be just, and for that very +reason grew piqued under it. Pained as he was at the condition of Sambo, +Henry was even more distressed at witnessing the apparent apathy of his +brother for the fate of one who had not merely saved his life on a +recent occasion, but had evinced a devotedness--a love for him--in every +circumstance of life, which seldom had had their parallel in the annals +of human servitude. It was in vain that he endeavored to follow the +example of Gerald, who, having seated himself at the breakfast table, +was silently appeasing an appetite such as he had not exhibited since +his return. Incapable of swallowing his food, Henry paced up and down +the room, violently agitated and sick at heart. It seemed to him as if +Sambo had been a sort of connecting link between themselves and the +departed parents; and now that he was suddenly and fearfully afflicted, +he thought he could see in the vista of futurity a long train of evils +that threw their shadows before, and portended the consummation of some +unknown, unseen affliction, having its origin in the incomprehensible +alienation of his brother's heart from the things of his early love. + +While he was yet indulging in these painful thoughts, the firing of a +gun from the harbor--the signal for the embarkation of the +troops--brought both Gerald and himself to a sense of other +considerations. The latter was the first to quit the house. "Henry," he +said, with much emotion, "God bless you. It is possible that, as our +service lies in different lines, we shall see but little of each other +during this expedition. Of one thing, however, be assured--that although +I am an unhappy man, I am anything but dead to feeling.--Henry," he +continued pressing his hand with warmth, "think not unkindly hereafter +of your poor brother Gerald." A long embrace, in which each, although in +silence, seemed to blend heart with heart, ensued, and both greatly +relieved, as they always were after this generous expansion of their +feelings, separated forthwith whither their respective duties summoned +them. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + + +Seldom has there been witnessed a more romantic or picturesque sight +than that presented by a warlike expedition of batteaux moving across +one of the American lakes, during a season of profound calm. The uniform +and steady pull of the crew, directed in their time by the wild chaunt +of the steersman, with whom they ever and anon join in full chorus--the +measured plash of the oars into the calm surface of the water--the +joyous laugh and rude, but witty, jest of the more youthful and buoyant +of the soldiery, from whom, at such moments, although in presence of +their officers, the trammels of restraint are partially removed--all +these, added to the inspiriting sight of their gay scarlet uniforms, and +the dancing of the sunbeams upon their polished arms, have a tendency to +call up impressions of a wild interest, tempered only by the +recollection that many of those who move gaily on, as if to a +festival--bright in hope as though the season of existence were to last +for ever--may never more set eye upon the scenes they are fast quitting, +with the joyousness produced by the natural thirst of the human heart +for adventure, and a love of change. + +On the second day of its departure from Malden, the expedition, preceded +by the gun-boats, entered the narrow river of the Miami, and, the woods +on either shore being scoured by the Indians, gained without opposition +the point of debarkation. Batteries having, under great difficulties, +been erected on the right bank, immediately opposite to and about six +hundred yards from the American fort, which had been recently and +hurriedly constructed, a heavy and destructive fire was, on the morning +of the third day, opened from them, supported by the gun-boats, one of +which, commanded by Gerald Grantham, had advanced so close to the +enemy's position as to have diverted upon herself the fire which would +else have been directed to the demolition of a British battery, hastily +thrown up on the left bank. The daring manifested by the gallant sailor +was subject of surprise and admiration at once to friends and foes; and +yet, although his boat lay moored within musket shot of the defences, he +sustained but trifling loss. The very recklessness and boldness of his +advance had been the means of his preservation; for, as almost all the +shots from the battery flew over him, it was evident he owed his safety +to the difficulty the Americans found in depressing their guns +sufficiently to bear advantageously upon the boat, which, if anchored +fifty yards beyond, they might have blown out of the water. + +The limits of our story will not admit of a further detail of the +operations of this siege. The object was foiled, and the expedition was +re-embarked and directed against Fort Sandusky, a post of the Americans +situated on the river of that name, and running also into Lake Erie. + +Here, once more, was the British artillery landed, while, under a heavy +fire from the fort, the troops advanced within range, to take possession +of an eminence whereon it was intended to erect the batteries. Two days +were passed in incessant cannonading, but, as at the Miami, without +making the slightest impression. Finding all idea of a practicable +breach hopeless, it was at length resolved that an attempt at assault +should be made; and, with this view, the troops were, on the afternoon +of the second day, ordered to hold themselves in immediate readiness. + +In consequence of the shallowness of the river, it had been found +necessary to moor the gun-boats at a point considerably below, and out +of sight of the fort. Gerald Grantham had obtained permission to leave +his command, and take charge of one of the batteries, which, however, he +relinquished on the day of the assault, having successfully petitioned +to be permitted to join the attack as a volunteer. In the dress of a +grenadier soldier, disabled during the siege, he now joined the party of +animated officers, who, delighted at the prospect of being brought once +more in close contact with their enemies, after so many wearing days of +inaction--were seated at a rude but plentiful repast in Captain +Cranstoun's tent, and indulging in remarks which, although often uttered +without aim or ill-nature, are as often but too bitter subject of after +self-reproach to those who have uttered them. Of those who had +originally set out on the expedition, the only officer of the +Forty-first Regiment absent was Henry Grantham, who, having been +slightly wounded at the Miami, had, much against his inclination, been +ordered back to Amherstburg, in charge of the sick and wounded of the +detachment, and this so suddenly, that he had not had an opportunity of +taking leave of his brother. + +"Ha! Gerald, my fine fellow," exclaimed Captain Molineux, as the youth +now joined their circle, "so you have clapped on the true harness at +last. I always said that your figure became a red jacket a devilish deal +better than a blue. But what new freak is this? Had you not a close +enough berth to Jonathan in the Miami, without running the risk of a +broken head with us to-day in his trenches?" + +"No such good luck is there in store for my juniors, I fancy," replied +Grantham, swallowing off a goblet of wine which had been presented to +him--"but if I do fall, it will be in good company. Although the +American seems to lie quietly within his defences, there is that about +him which promises us rather a hot reception." + +"So much the better," said Villiers; "there will be broken heads for +some of us. Who do you think we have booked for a place to the other +world?" + +Gerald made no answer, but his look and manner implied that he +understood himself to be the party thus favored. + +"Not so," returned Villiers, "we can't afford to spare you yet--besides, +the death of a blue jacket can in no way benefit us. What's the +use of 'a bloody war and a sickly season,' that standard toast +at every West India mess, if the juniors are to go off, and not the +seniors?--Cranstoun's the man we've booked." + +"Captain Cranstoun, I have the honor of wishing you a safe passage, and +speedy promotion in Heaven," said Middlemore, draining off his glass. +"Devilish good port this of yours! By the bye, as you have a better +_port_ in view, you cannot do better than assign over what is left of +this to me." + +"Thank you, Mr. Middlemore," returned Cranstoun, drily yet +good-humoredly, "yet as you are attached to my division, you will +perhaps run just the same risk; and as, perhaps, you will not require +more wine than we have taken to-day, I will pledge you in a last cup a +safe passage to Heaven, where I trust you will find credit for better +qualities than you possess as a punster." + +"What," asked Gerald, with an unfeigned surprise, when the laugh against +Middlemore had subsided, "and is it really in his own wine that you have +all been thus courteously pledging Captain Cranstoun's death?" + +"Even so," said Middlemore, rallying and returning to the attack, "he +invited us all to lunch in his tent, and how could we better repay him +for opening his hampers, than by returning his _spirit scot-free_ and +_unhampered_ to Heaven?" + +"Oh, oh, oh!" ejaculated St. Clair, stopping his ears and throwing up +his eyes; "surely, Mr. Middlemore, if you are not shot this day, it must +be that you were born to be hanged--no man can perpetrate so horrible a +pun, and expect to live." + +"I'm hanged if I am, then," returned the other; "but, talking of being +shot--is there another shot in the locker, Cranstoun---another bottle of +port?" + +"The shot that is reserved for you, will bring you acquainted with +another locker than Cranstoun's, I suspect," said Villiers, "one Mr. +David Jones's locker--hit there, eh?" + +The low roll of a muffled drum suddenly recalled the party from their +trifling to considerations of a graver interest. It was the signal for +forming the columns of attack. In a moment the tone, the air of +ribaldry, was exchanged for a seriousness that befitted the +occasion--and it seemed as if a momentary reproach passed over the minds +of those who had most amused themselves at the expense of Cranstoun, for +each, as he quitted the tent, gave his extended hand to his host, who +pressed it in a manner to show all was forgiven. + +The English batteries had been constructed on the skirt of the wood +surrounding the fort, from which latter they were separated by a meadow +covered with long grass, about six hundred yards across at the narrowest +point. Behind these the columns of attack, three in number, were now +rapidly and silently formed. To that commanded by Captain Cranstoun, on +the extreme left, and intended to assault the fort at the strongest +point, Gerald Grantham had attached himself, in the simple dress, as we +have observed, of a private soldier, and armed with a common musket. In +passing, with the former officer, to take his position in front of the +column, he was struck by the utter want of means for executing with +success the duty assigned to the several divisions. Each column was +provided with a certain number of axemen, selected to act as pioneers; +but not one of the necessary implements was in a condition to be used: +neither had a single fascine or ladder been provided, although it was +well known that a deep ditch remained to be passed before the axes, +inefficient as they were, could be brought into use. + +"Such," said Captain Cranstoun, with a sneer of much bitterness, "are +the pitiful things on which hang the lives of our brave fellows. No +doubt the despatches will say a great deal about the excellent +arrangements for attack--but if you do not fall, Gerald, I hope you will +make a proper representation of the affair. As you belong to the other +service, there is little fear the General can hurt your promotion for +merely speaking the truth. A General, indeed!--who'll say Fortune is not +blind to make a General of such as he?" + +It was not an usual thing for Cranstoun to express himself thus in +regard to his superiors; but he was really vexed at the idea of the +sacrifice of human life that must attend this wantonness of neglect and +imbecility of arrangement. He had moreover taken wine enough, not in any +way to intoxicate, but sufficient to thaw his habitual caution and +reserve. Fearless as his sword, he cared not for his own life; but, +although a strict officer, he was ever attentive to the interests of his +men, who in their turn, admired him for his cool, unflinching courage, +and would have dared anything under the direction of their captain. + +It was evident that the contempt of the sailor for the capacity of the +leader, to whom it was well known all the minute arrangements were +submitted, was not one whit inferior to what was entertained by the +brave and honest Cranstoun. He, however, merely answered, as they both +assumed their places in front, and with the air of one utterly +indifferent to these disadvantages. + +"No matter, Cranstoun, the greater the obstacles we have to contend +against, the more glorious will be our victory. Where you lead, however, +we shall not be long in following." + +"Hem! since it is to be a game of follow-my-leader," said Middlemore, +who had now joined them, "I must not be far behind. A month's pay with +either of you I reach the stockade first." + +"Done, Middlemore, done," eagerly replied Cranstoun, and they joined +hands in confirmation of the bet. + +This conversation had taken place during the interval occupied by the +movements of the right and centre columns along the skirt of the wood, +to equidistant points in the half circle embraced in the plan of attack. +A single blast of the bugle now announced that the furthermost had +reached its place of destination, when suddenly a gun--the first fired +since noon from the English batteries--gave the signal for which all +were now prepared. + +In the next minute the heads of the several columns debouched from the +woods, and, the whole advancing in double quick time, with their arms at +the trail, moved across the meadow in the several directions assigned +them. The space to be traversed by Captain Cranstoun's division was +considerably the shortest of the three; but, on the other hand, he was +opposed to that part of the enemy's defences where there was the least +cover afforded to an assailing force. + +Meanwhile there was an utter repose in the fort, which for some moments +induced the belief that the Americans were preparing to surrender their +trust without a struggle, and loud yells from the Indians, who, from +their cover in the rear, watched the progress of the troops with +admiration and surprise, were pealed forth as if in encouragement to the +latter to proceed. But the American Commander had planned his defence +with skill. No sooner had the several columns got within half musket +shot, than a tremendous fire of musketry and rifles was opened upon them +from two distinct faces of the stockade. Captain Cranstoun's division, +being the nearest, was the first attacked, and suffered considerably +without attempting to return a shot. At the first discharge, the two +leading sergeants, and many of the men, were knocked down; but neither +Cranstoun, nor Middlemore, nor Grantham, were touched. + +"Forward men, forward," shouted the former, brandishing his sword, and +dashing down a deep ravine, that separated them from the trenches. + +"On, my gallant fellows, on!--the left column for ever!" cried +Middlemore, imitating the example of his captain, and, in his eagerness +to reach the ditch first, leaving his men to follow as they could. + +Few of these, however, needed the injunction. Although galled by the +severe fire of the enemy, they followed their leaders down the ravine +with a steadiness worthy of a better result; then climbing up the +opposite ascent, under a shower of bullets, yet, without pulling a +trigger themselves, made for the ditch their officer had already gained. + +Cranstoun, still continuing in advance, was the first who arrived on the +brink. For a moment he paused, as if uncertain what course to pursue, +then, seeing Middlemore close behind him, he leaped in, and striking a +blow of his sabre upon the stockade, called loudly upon the axemen to +follow. While he was yet shouting, a ball from a loop-hole not three +feet above his head, entered his brain, and he fell dead across the +trench. + +"Ha! well have you won your wager, my noble Captain," exclaimed +Middlemore, putting his hand to his chest, and staggering from the +effects of a shot he had that instant received. "You are indeed the +_better_ man" (he continued, excited beyond his usual calm by the +circumstances in which he found himself placed, yet unable to resist his +dominating propensity, even at such a moment,) "and deserve the palm of +honor this day. Forward, men, forward! axemen, do your duty.--Down with +the stockade, my lads, and give them a bellyful of steel." + +Scarcely had he spoken, when a second discharge from the same wall-piece +that had killed Cranstoun passed through his throat. "Forward!" he again +but more faintly shouted, with the gurgling tone of suffocation peculiar +to a wound in that region, then falling headlong into the ditch, was in +the next instant trodden under by the advance of the column who rushed +forward, though fruitlessly, to avenge the deaths of their officers. + +All was now confusion, noise and carnage. Obeying the command of their +leader, the axemen had sprung into the ditch, and, with efforts nerved +by desperation, applied themselves vigorously to the task allotted them. +But as well might they have attempted to raze the foundations of the +globe itself. Incapable from their bluntness of making the slightest +impression on the obstinate wood, the iron at each stroke rebounded off, +leaving to the eye no vestige of where it had rested. Filled with +disappointment and rage, the brave and unfortunate fellows dashed the +useless metal to the earth, and endeavored to escape from the ditch back +into the ravine, where, at least, there was a prospect of supplying +themselves with more serviceable weapons from among their slain +comrades; but the ditch was deep and slimy, and the difficulty of ascent +great. Before they could accomplish it, the Americans opened a fire from +a bastion, the guns of which, loaded with slugs and musket balls, raked +the trench from end to end, and swept away all that came within its +range. This was the first check given to the division of the unfortunate +Cranstoun. Many of the leading sections had leaped, regardless of all +obstacles, into the trench, with a view of avenging their slaughtered +officers; but these, like the axemen, had been carried away by the +discharges from the bastion, and the incessant fire poured upon them +from the loop-holes of the stockade. Despairing of success, without +fascines to fill up the ditch, or a ladder to scale the picketing that +afforded cover to their enemies, there was no alternative, but to remain +and be cut down to a man where they stood, or to retire into the +brushwood that lined the ravine. The latter was finally adopted; but not +before one-third of the column had paid the penalty of their own daring, +and what the brave Cranstoun had sneeringly termed the "General's +excellent arrangements," with their lives. The firing at this time had +now almost wholly ceased between the enemy and the columns on the right +and centre, neither of which had penetrated beyond the ravine, and at a +late hour in the evening the whole were drawn off. + +Meanwhile, steady at his post at the head of the division, Gerald +Grantham had continued to act with the men as though he had been one of +themselves. During the whole course of the advance, he neither joined in +the cheers of the officers, nor uttered word of encouragement to those +who followed. But in his manner there was remarked a quietness of +determination, a sullen disregard of danger, that seemed to denote some +deeper rooted purpose than the mere desire of personal distinction. His +ambition seemed to consist, not in being the first to reach or scale the +fort, but in placing himself wherever the balls of the enemy flew +thickest. There was no enthusiasm in his mien, no excitement in his eye; +neither had his step the buoyancy that marks the young heart wedded to +valorous achievement, but was, on the contrary, heavy, measured, yet +firm. His whole manner and actions, in short, as reported to his +brother, on the return of the expedition, by those who had been near him +throughout the affair, was that of a man who courts not victory but +death. Planted on the brow of the ditch at the moment when Middlemore +fell, he had deliberately discharged his pistol into the loop-hole +whence the shot had been fired; but although, as he seemed to expect, +the next instant brought several barrels to play upon himself, not one +of these had taken effect. A moment after and he was in the ditch, +followed by some twenty or thirty of the leading men of the column, and +advancing towards the bastion, then preparing to vomit forth its fire +upon the devoted axemen. Even here, Fate, or Destiny, or whatever power +it be that wills the nature of the end of man, turned aside the death +with which he already seemed to grapple. At the very moment when the +flash rose from the havoc-dealing gun, he chanced to stumble over the +dead body of a soldier, and fell flat upon his face. Scarcely had he +touched the ground when he was again upon his feet; but even in that +short space of time, he alone, of those who had entered the ditch, had +been left unscathed. Before him came bellying along the damp trench, the +dense smoke from the fatal bastion, as it were a funeral shroud for its +victims; and behind him were to be seen the mangled and distorted forms +of his companions, some dead, others writhing with acute agony, and +filling the air with shrieks, and groans, and prayers for water to +soothe their burning lips, that mingled fearfully yet characteristically, +with the unsubdued roar of small arms. + +It was now, for the first time, that Gerald evinced anything like +excitement, but it was the excitement of bitter disappointment. He saw +those to whom the preservation of life would have been a blessing, cut +down and slaughtered; while he, whose object it was to lay it down for +ever, was, by some strange fatality, wholly exempt. + +The reflections that passed with lightning quickness through his mind, +only served to stimulate his determination the more. Scarcely had the +smoke which had hitherto kept him concealed from the battery, passed +beyond him, when, rushing forward and shouting, "To the bastion, men--to +the bastion!" he planted himself in front of the gun, and not three +yards from its muzzle. Prevented by the dense smoke that choked up the +trench, from ascertaining the extent of execution produced by their +discharge, the American artillerymen, who had again loaded, were once +more on the alert and preparing to repeat it. Already was the match in +the act of descending, which would have blown the unfortunate Gerald to +atoms, when suddenly an officer, whose uniform bespoke him to be of some +rank, and to whose quick eye it was apparent the rash assailant was +utterly unsupported, sprang upon the bastion, and dashing the fuze from +the hand of the gunner, commanded that a small sally-port, which opened +into the trench a few yards beyond the point where he stood, should be +opened, and the brave soldier taken prisoner without harm. So prompt was +the execution of this order, that, before Gerald could succeed in +clambering up the ditch, which, with the instinctive dread of captivity, +he attempted, he was seized by half a dozen soldiers, and by these borne +hurriedly back through the sally-port, which was again closed. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + + +Defeated at every point and with great loss, the British columns had +retired into the bed of the ravine, where, shielded from the fire of the +Americans, they lay several hours shivering with cold and ankle deep in +mud and water; yet consoling themselves with the hope that the renewal +of the assault under cover of the coming darkness, would be attended +with a happier issue. But the gallant General, who appeared in the +outset to have intended they should make picks of their bayonets and +scaling-ladders of each other's bodies, now that a mound sufficient for +the latter purpose could be raised of the slain, had altered his mind, +and alarmed, and mayhap conscience stricken at the profuse and +unnecessary sacrifice of human life which had resulted from the first +wanton attack, adopted the resolution of withdrawing his troops. This +was at length finally effected, and without further loss. + +Fully impressed with the belief that the assailants would not be +permitted to forego the advantages they still possessed in their near +contiguity to the works, without another attempt at escalade, the +Americans had continued calmly at their posts; with what confidence in +the nature of their defences and what positive freedom from danger, may +be inferred from the fact of their having lost but one man throughout +the whole affair, and that one killed immediately through the loop-hole +by the shot that avenged the death of poor Middlemore. When at a late +hour they found that the columns were again in movement, they could +scarcely persuade themselves they were not changing their points of +attack. A very few minutes, however, sufficed to show their error; for, +in the indistinct light of a new moon, the British troops were to be +seen ascending the opposite face of the ravine and in full retreat. Too +well satisfied with the successful nature of their defence, the +Americans made no attempt to follow, but contented themselves with +pouring in a parting volley, which however the obscurity rendered +ineffectual. Soon afterwards the sally-port was again opened, and such +of the unfortunates as yet lingered alive in the trenches were brought +in, and every attention the place could afford paid to their +necessities. + +An advanced hour of the night brought most of the American officers +together in their rude mess-room, where the occurrences of the day were +discussed with an enthusiasm of satisfaction natural to the occasion. +Each congratulated each on the unexpected success, but commendation was +more than usually loud in favor of their leader, to whose coolness and +judgment, in reserving his fire until the approach of the enemy within +pistol shot, was to be attributed the severe loss and consequent check +they had sustained. + +Next became the topic of eulogium the gallantry of those who had been +worsted in all but their honor, and all spoke with admiration of the +devotedness of the two unfortunate officers who had perished in the +trenches--a subject which, in turn, led to a recollection of the brave +soldier who had survived the sweeping discharge from the bastion, and +who had been so opportunely saved from destruction by the Commandant +himself. + +"Captain Jackson," said that officer, addressing one of the few who wore +the regular uniform of the United States army, "I should like much to +converse with this man, in whom I confess, as in some degree the +preserver of his life, I feel an interest. Moreover, as the only +uninjured among our prisoners, he is the one most calculated to give us +information in regard to the actual force of those whom we have this day +had the good fortune to defeat, as well as of the ultimate destination +of the British General. Notes of both these important particulars, if I +can possibly obtain them, I wish to make in a despatch of which I intend +you to be the bearer." + +The Aid-de-camp, for in that capacity was he attached to the person of +Colonel Forrester, immediately quitted the room, and presently +afterwards returned ushering in the prisoner. + +Although Gerald was dressed, as we have said, in the uniform of the +private grenadier, there was that about him which, in defiance of a +person covered from head to foot with the slimy mud of the trenches, and +a mouth black as ink with powder from the cartridges he had bitten, at +once betrayed him for something more than he appeared. + +There was a pause for some moments after he entered. At length Colonel +Forrester inquired, in a voice strongly marked by surprise: + +"May I ask, sir, what rank you hold in the British army?" + +"But that I have unfortunately suffered more from your mud than your +fire," replied Gerald, coolly, and with undisguised bitterness of +manner, "the question would at once be answered by a reference to my +uniform." + +"I understand you, sir; you would have me to infer you are what your +dress, and your dress alone, denotes--a private soldier?" + +Gerald made no answer. + +"Your name, soldier?" + +"My name!" + +"Yes; your name. One possessed of the gallantry we witnessed this day +cannot be altogether without a name." + +The pale cheek of Gerald was slightly tinged. With all his grief, he +still was a man. The indirect praise lingered a moment at his heart, +then passed off with the slight blush that as momentarily dyed his +cheek. + +"My name, sir, is a humble one, and little worthy to be classed with +those who have this day written theirs in the page of honor with their +heart's blood. I am called Gerald Grantham." + +"Gerald Grantham!" repeated the Commandant, musingly, as though +endeavoring to bring back the recollection of such a name. + +The prisoner looked at him steadfastly in return, yet without speaking. + +"Is there another of your name in the British squadron?" continued +Colonel Forrester, fixing his eye full upon his prisoner. + +"There are many in the British squadron whose names are unknown to me," +replied Gerald, evasively, and faintly coloring. + +"Nay," said Colonel Forrester, "that subterfuge more than anything +betrays you. Though not answered, I am satisfied. How we are to account +for seeing a gallant sailor attacking us in our trenches, in the humble +garb of a private soldier, and so out of his own element, I cannot +understand; but the name of Gerald Grantham, coupled with your manner +and appearance, assures us we are making personal acquaintance with one +to whose deeds we are not strangers. Gentlemen," addressing his +officers, "this is the Lieutenant Grantham, whose vessel was captured +last autumn at Buffalo, and of whose gallant defence my cousin, Captain +Edwin Forrester, has spoken so highly. Lieutenant Grantham," he pursued, +advancing and offering his hand, "when I had the happiness to save your +life this day, by dashing aside the fuze that would have been the agent +in your destruction, I saw in you but the brave and humble soldier, whom +it were disgrace not to have spared for so much noble daring. Judge how +great must be my satisfaction to know that I have been the means of +preserving, to his family and country, one whose name stands so high +even in the consideration of his enemies." + +Poor Gerald! how bitter and conflicting must have been his feelings at +that moment. On the one side, touched by the highest evidences of esteem +a brave and generous enemy could proffer--on the other, annoyed beyond +expression at the recollection of an interposition which had thwarted +him in his fondest, dearest hope--that of losing, at the cannon's mouth, +the life he loathed. What had been done in mercy and noble forbearance, +was to him the direst punishment that could be inflicted; yet how was it +possible to deny gratitude for the motive which had impelled his +preservation, or fail in acknowledgment of the appreciation in which he +thus found himself personally held. + +"It would be idle, Colonel Forrester," he said, taking the proffered +hand, "after the manner in which you have expressed yourself, to deny +that I am the officer to whom you allude. I feel deeply these marks of +your regard, although I cannot but consider any little merit that may +attach to me very much overrated by them. My appearance in this dress, +perhaps requires some explanation. Prevented by the shallowness of the +river from co-operating with the array in my gun-boat, and tired of +doing nothing, I had solicited and obtained permission to become one of +the storming party in the quality of volunteer, which of necessity +induced the garb in which you now behold me. You know the rest." + +"And yet, Colonel," said a surly-looking backwoodsman, who sat with one +hand thrust into the bosom of a hunting frock, and the other playing +with the richly ornamented hilt of a dagger, while a round hat, +surmounted by a huge cockade, was perched knowingly over his left ear, +covering, or rather shadowing, little more than one fourth of his +head--"I reckon as how this here sort of thing comes within the spy act. +Here's a commissioned officer of King George, taken not only in our +lines, but in our very trenches in the disguise of a private soger. What +say you, Captain Buckhorn?" turning to one somewhat younger and less +uncouth, who sat next him habited in a similar manner. "Don't you think +it comes within the spy act?" + +Captain Buckhorn, however, not choosing to hazard an opinion on the +subject, merely shrugged his shoulders, puffed his cigar, and looked at +the Colonel as if he expected him to decide the question. + +"As I am a true Tennessee man, bred and born, Major Killdeer," said the +Aid-de-camp Jackson, "I can't see how that can lie. To come within the +spy act, a man must be in plain clothes, or in the uniform of his enemy. +Now, Liftenant Grantham, I take it, comes in the British uniform, and +what signifies a whistle if he wears gold lace or cotton tape, provided +it be stuck upon a scarlet coat, and that in the broad face of day, with +arms in his hand,--aye, and a devil of a desperation to make good use of +them too"--he added, with a good naturedly malicious leer of the eye +towards the subject of his defence. + +"At all events, in my conceit, it's an attempt to undervally himself," +pursued the tenacious Kentuckian Major. "Suppose his name warn't known +as it is, he'd have passed for a private soger, and would have been +exchanged for one, without our being any the wiser; whereby the United +States, service, I calculate, would have lost an officer in the balance +of account." + +"Although there cannot be the slightest difficulty," observed Colonel +Forrester, "in determining on the doubt first started by you, Major +Killdeer I confess, that what you have now suggested involves a question +of some delicacy. In the spirit, although not altogether in the letter, +of your suggestion, I agree; so much so, Mr. Grantham," he added, +turning to Gerald, "that in violence to the inclination I should +otherwise have felt to send you back to your lines, on parole of honor, +I shall be compelled to detain you until the pleasure of my government +be known as to the actual rank in which you are to be looked upon. I +should say that, taken in arms as a combatant without rank, we have no +right to know you as anything else; but as I may be in error, I am sure +you will see how utterly impossible it is for me to take any such +responsibility upon myself, especially after the difficulty you have +just heard started." + +Gerald, who had listened to this discussion with some astonishment, was +not sorry to find the manner of its termination. In the outset he had +not been without alarm that the hero of one hour might be looked upon +and hanged as the spy of the next; and tired as he was of life, much as +he longed to lay it down, his neck had too invincible a repugnance to +anything like contact with a cord to render him ambitious of closing his +existence in that way. He was not at all sorry, therefore, when he found +the surly-looking Major Killdeer wholly unsupported in his sweeping +estimate of what he called the "spy act." The gentlemanly manner of +Colonel Forrester, forming as it did so decided a contrast with the +unpolished--even rude frankness of his second in command was not without +soothing influence upon his mind, and to his last observation he +replied, as he really felt, that any change in his views as to his +disposal could in no way affect him, since it was a matter of total +indifference whether he returned to Amherstburg, or was detained where +he was. In neither case could he actively rejoin the service until duly +exchanged, and this was the only object embraced in any desire he might +entertain of the kind. + +"Still," added the Colonel, "although I may not suffer you to return yet +into Canada, I can see no objection to according you the privilege of +parole of honor, without at all involving the after question of whether +you are to be considered as the soldier or the officer. From this moment +therefore, Mr. Grantham, you will consider yourself a prisoner at large +within the fort--or, should you prefer journeying into the interior, to +sharing the privations and the dullness inseparable from our isolated +position, you are at liberty to accompany Captain Jackson, my +Aid-de-camp, who will leave this within twelve hours, charged with +dispatches for the Governor of Kentucky." + +Gerald had already acknowledged to himself that, if anything could add +to his wretchedness, it would be a compulsory residence in a place not +only destitute itself of all excitement, but calling up, at every hour, +the images of his brave companions in danger--men whom he had known when +the sun of his young hopes shone unclouded, and whom he had survived but +to be made sensible of the curse of exemption from a similar fate; +still, with that instinctive delicacy of a mind whose natural refinement +not even a heavy weight of grief could wholly deaden, he felt some +hesitation in giving expression to a wish, the compliance with which +would, necessarily, separate him from one who had so courteously treated +him, and whom he feared to wound by an appearance of indifference. + +"I think, Mr. Grantham," pursued Colonel Forrester, remarking his +hesitation, "I can understand what is passing in your mind. However I +beg you will suffer no mere considerations of courtesy to interfere with +your inclination. I can promise you will find this place most dismally +dull, especially to one who has no positive duty to perform in it. If I +may venture to recommend, therefore, you will accompany Captain Jackson. +The ride will afford you more subject for diversion than anything we can +furnish here." + +Thus happily assisted in his decision Gerald said, "Since, Sir, you +leave it optional with me, I think I shall avail myself of your kind +offer and accompany Captain Jackson. It is not a very cheering sight," +he pursued, anxious to assign a satisfactory reason for his choice, "to +have constantly before one's eyes the scene of so signal a discomfiture +as that which our arms have experienced this day." + +"And yet," said Colonel Forrester, "despite of that discomfiture, there +was nothing in the conduct of those engaged that should call a blush +into the cheek of the most fastidious stickler for national glory. There +is not an officer here present," he continued, "who is not prepared to +attest with myself, that your column in particular behaved like heroes. +By the way, I could wish to know, but you will use your own discretion +in answering or declining the question, what was the actual strength of +your attacking force?" + +"I can really see no objection to a candid answer to your question, +Colonel," returned Gerald, after a moment's consideration. "Each +division was, I believe, for I cannot state with certainty, little more +than two hundred strong, making in all, perhaps, from six hundred to six +hundred and fifty men. In return, may I ask the number of those who so +effectually repulsed us?" + +"Why I guess only one hundred and fifty, and most all my volunteers," +somewhat exultingly exclaimed Major Killdeer. + +"Only one hundred and fifty men!" repeated Gerald, unable to disguise +his vexation and astonishment. + +"That ere's a poser for him," said the Major, turning and addressing +Captain Buckhorn in an under tone, who replied to him with a wink from +his nearest eye. + +"Even so, Mr. Grantham," replied the Colonel. "One hundred and fifty men +of all arms, save artillery, composed my force at the moment when your +columns crossed the plain. To-night we muster one hundred and +forty-nine." + +"Good Heaven!" exclaimed Gerald warming into excitement, with vexation +and pique, "what a disgraceful affair." + +"Disgraceful, yes--but only in as far as regards those who planned, and +provided (or rather ought to have provided) the means of attack. I can +assure you, Mr. Grantham, that although prepared to defend my post to +the last, when I saw your columns first emerge from the wood, I did not +expect, with my small force, to have been enabled to hold the place one +hour; for who could have supposed that even a school boy, had such been +placed at the head of an army, would have sent forward a storming party, +without either fascines to fill a trench, or ladders to ascend from it +when filled. Had these been provided, there can be no doubt of the +issue, for, to repulse the attempt at escalade in one quarter, I must +have concentrated the whole of my little force--and thereby afforded an +unopposed entrance to the other columns--or even granting my garrison to +have been sufficient to keep two of your divisions in check, there still +remained a third to turn the scale of success against us." + +"I can understand the satisfaction with which you discovered this +wretched bungling on the part of our leaders," remarked Gerald, with +vexation. + +"No sooner had I detected the deficiency," pursued Colonel Forrester, +"than I knew the day would be my own, since the obstacles opposed to +your attempt would admit of my spreading my men over the whole line +embraced within the attack. The result, you see, has justified my +expectation. But enough of this. After the fatigues of the day, you must +require both food and rest. Captain Jackson, I leave it to you to do the +honors of hospitality towards Mr. Grantham, who will so shortly become +your fellow-traveller; and if, when he has performed the ablutions he +seems so much to require, my wardrobe can furnish anything your own +cannot supply to transform him into a backwoodsman (in which garb I +would strongly advise him to travel). I beg it may be put under +contribution without ceremony." + +So saying, Colonel Forrester departed to the rude log-hut that served +him for his head-quarters, first enjoining his uncouth second to keep a +sufficient number of men on the alert, and take such other precautions +as were necessary to guard against surprise--an event, however, of which +little apprehension was entertained, now that the British troops +appeared to have been wholly withdrawn. + +Sick, wearied, and unhappy, Gerald was but too willing to escape to the +solitude of retirement, to refuse the offer which Captain Jackson made +of his own bed, it being his intention to sit up all night in the +mess-room, ready to communicate instantly with the Colonel in the event +of any alarm. + +Declining the pressing invitation of the officers to join in the repast +they were about to make for the first time since the morning, and more +particularly that of Captain Buckhorn, who strongly urged him to "bring +himself to an anchor and try a little of the Wabash," he took a polite +but hasty leave of them all, and was soon installed for the night in the +Aid-de-camp's dormitory. + +It would be idle to say that Gerald never closed his eyes that +night--still more idle would it be to attempt a description of all that +passed through a mind whose extent of wretchedness may be inferred from +his several desperate although unsuccessful, efforts at the utter +annihilation of all thought. When he met Colonel Forrester and his +officers in the mess-room at breakfast, he was dressed, as had been +recommended, in the hunting frock and belt of a backwoodsman; and in +this his gentlemanly figure looked to such advantage as to excite +general attention--so much so, indeed, that Major Killdeer was more than +once detected in eyeing his own heavy person, as if to ascertain if the +points of excellence were peculiar to the dress or to the man. Sick and +dispirited as he was, Gerald felt the necessity of an attempt to rally, +and however the moralist may condemn the principle, there is no doubt +that he was considerably aided in his effort by one or two glasses of +bitters which Captain Buckhorn strongly recommended as being of his +wife's making, and well calculated to put some color into a man's +face--an advantage in which, he truly remarked, Grantham was singularly +deficient. + +Accurate intelligence having been obtained from a party of scouts, who +had been dispatched early in the morning to track their course, that the +British General with his troops and Indians had finally departed, +preparations were made about midday for the interment of the fallen. Two +large graves were accordingly dug on the outer brow of the ravine, and +in these the bodies of the fallen soldiers were deposited, with all the +honors of war. A smaller grave, within the fort, and near the spot where +they so nobly fell, was considerately allotted to Cranstoun and +Middlemore. There was a composedness on the brow of the former that +likened him, even in death, to the living man; while, about the +good-humored mouth of poor Middlemore, played the same sort of +self-satisfied smile that had always been observable there when about to +deliver himself of a sally. Gerald, who had imposed upon himself the +painful duty of attending to their last committal to earth, could not +help fancying that Middlemore must have breathed his last with an +inaudible pun upon his lips--an idea that inexpressibly affected him. +Weighed down with sorrow as was his own soul, he had yet a tear for the +occasion--not that his brave comrades were dead, but that they had died +with so much to attach them to life--while he whose hope was in death +alone, had been chained, as by a curse to an existence compared with +which death was the first of human blessings. + +On the following morning, after an early breakfast, he and Captain +Jackson quitted the fort, Colonel Forrester--who had not failed to +remark that the brusque manner of his aide-de-camp was not altogether +understood by his charge--taking occasion at parting, to assure the +latter that, with all his eccentricity, he was a kind-hearted man, whom +he had selected to be near him more for his personal courage, zeal, and +general liberality of feeling, than for any qualifications of intellect +he possessed. + +The means provided for their transport into the interior were well +assimilated to the dreariness of the country through which they passed. +Two common pack-horses, lean, galled by the saddle, and callous from +long acquaintance with the admonitory influence both of whip and spur, +had been selected by Captain Jackson as the best within the fort. +Neither were the trappings out of keeping with the steeds they decked. +Moth-eaten saddles, almost black with age, beneath which were spread +pieces of dirty blanket to prevent further excoriation of the already +bared and reeking back--bridles, the original thickness of which had +been doubled by the incrustation of mould and dirt that pertinaciously +adhered to them--stirrups and bits, with their accompanying buckles--the +absence of curb chains being supplied by pieces of rope--all afforded +evidence of the wretchedness of resource peculiar to a back settlement +population. Over the hard saddles, however, had been strapped the +blankets which, when the travellers were fortunate enough to meet with a +hut at the close of their day's ride, or, as was more frequently the +case, when compelled to bivouac in the forest before the fire kindled by +the industry of the hardy aide-de-camp, served them as their only couch +of rest, while the small leather valise tied to the pummel of the +saddle, and containing their scanty wardrobe, was made to do the duty of +the absent pillow. The blanket Gerald found to be the greatest advantage +of his grotesque equipment--so much so, indeed, that when compelled, by +the heavy rains which took place shortly after their departure, to make +it serve, after the fashion of a backwoodsman, as a covering for his +loins and shoulders, he was obliged to own that his miseries, great as +they were, were yet susceptible of increase. + +Notwithstanding Captain Jackson had taken what he considered to be the +best of the two Rosinantes for himself. Gerald had no reason to deny the +character for kind-heartedness given of him by Colonel Forrester. +Frequently when winding through some dense forest, or moving over some +extensive plain where nothing beyond themselves told of the existence of +man, his companion would endeavor to divert him from the abstraction and +melancholy in which he was usually plunged, and, ascribing his +melancholy to an unreal cause, seek to arouse him by the consolatory +assurance that he was not the first man who had been taken +prisoner--adding that there was no use in snivelling, as "what was done +couldn't be undone, and no great harm neither, as there was some as +pretty gals in Kaintuck as could be picked out in a day's ride; and that +to a good-looking young fellow like himself, with nothing to do but make +love to them, _that_ ought to be no mean consideration, enabling him, as +it would, to while away the tedium of captivity." At other times he +would launch forth into some wild rhapsody, the invention of the moment, +or seek to entertain his companion with startling anecdotes connected +with his encounters with the Indians on the Wabash, (where he had +formerly served) in the course of which much of the marvellous, to call +it by the most indulgent term, was necessarily mixed up--not perhaps +that he was quite sensible of this himself, but because he possessed a +constitutional proneness to exaggeration that rendered him even more +credulous of the good things he uttered than those to whom he detailed +them. + +But Gerald heard without being amused, and, although he felt thankful +for the intention, was distressed that his abstraction should be the +subject of notice, and his despondency the object of care. To avoid this +he frequently suffered Jackson to take the lead, and, following some +distance in the rear with his arms folded and the reins loose upon the +horse's neck, often ran the risk of having his own neck broken by the +frequent stumbling of the unsure-footed beast. But the Captain as often +returned to the charge, for, in addition to a sincere desire to rally +his companion, he began at length to find it exceedingly irksome to +travel with one who neither spoke himself, nor appeared to enjoy speech +in another; and when he had amused himself with whistling, singing, +hallooing, and cutting a thousand antics with his arms, until he was +heartily tired of each of these several diversions, he would rein in his +horse to suffer Gerald to come up, and, after a conciliating offer of +his rum flask, accompanied by a slice of hung beef that lined the wallet +depending from his shoulder, enter upon some new and strange exploit, of +which he was as usual the hero. Enforced in a degree to make some return +for the bribe offered to his patience, Gerald would lend--all he +could--his ear to the tale; but long before the completion he would give +such evidence of his distraction, as utterly to disconcert the narrator, +and cause him finally to have recourse to one of the interludes above +described. + +In this manner they had journeyed some days, when the rains suddenly +commenced with a violence and continued with a pertinacity, that might +have worn out the cheerfulness of much less impatient spirits than those +of our travellers, who without any other protection than what was +afforded by the blanket tightly girt around the loins, and fastened over +the shoulders in front of the chest, presented an appearance quite as +wild as the waste they traversed. It was in vain that, in order to +promote a more rapid circulation, they essayed to urge their jaded +beasts out of the jog-trot in which they had set out. Accustomed to this +from the time when they first emerged from colthood into horsehood, the +aged steeds, like many aged senators of their day, were determined +enemies to anything like innovation on the long established customs of +their caste; and, although, unlike the said senators, they were made to +bear all the burdens of the state, still did they not suffer themselves +to be driven out of the sluggish habits in which sluggish animals of +every description seem to feel themselves privileged to indulge. Whip +and spur, therefore, were alike applied in vain, as to any accelerated +motion in themselves; but with this advantage at least to their riders, +that while the latter toiled vigorously for an increase of vital warmth +through the instrumentality of their non-complying hacks they found it +where they least seemed to look for it--in the mingled anger and +activity which kept them at the fruitless task. + +It was at the close of one of those long days of wearying travel +throughout a vast and unsheltered plain--where only here and there rose +an occasional cluster of trees, like oases in the desert--that, drenched +to the skin with the steady rain, which commencing at the dawn had +continued without a moment's intermission, they arrived at a small log +hut, situate on the skirt of a forest forming one of the boundaries of +the vast savannah they had traversed. Such was the unpromising +appearance of this apology for a human dwelling, that, under any other +circumstances, even the "not very d----d particular" Jackson, as the +aide-de-camp often termed himself, would have passed it by without +stopping; but after a long day's ride, and suffering from the greatest +evils to which a traveller can well be subjected--cold, wet and +hunger--even so wretched a resting-place as this was not to be despised; +and accordingly a determination was formed to stop there for the night. +On riding up to the door, it was opened to their knock, when a tall +man--apparently its only occupant--came forth, and after viewing the +travellers a moment with a suspicious eye, inquired "what the strangers +wanted?" + +"Why I guess," said Jackson, "it doesn't need much conjuration to tell +that. Food and lodging for ourselves, to be sure, and a wisp of hay and +tether for our horses. Hospitality, in short; and that's what no true +Tennessee man, bred and born, never refused yet--no, not even to an +enemy, such a night as this." + +"Then you must go further in search of it," replied the woodsman, +surlily. "I don't keep no tavern, and han't got no accommodation; and +what's more, I reckon I'm no Tennessee man." + +"But any accommodation will do friend. If you havn't got beds, we'll +sit up all night, and warm our toes at the fire, and spin long yarns, +as they tell in the Eastern sea-ports. Anything but turn a fellow out +such a night as this." + +"But I say, stranger," returned the man fiercely and determinedly, "I +an't got no room any how, and you shan't bide here." + +"Oh, ho, my old cock! that's the ticket, is it? But you'll see whether +an old stager like me is to be turned out of any man's house such a +night as this. I havn't served two campaigns against the Ingins and the +British for nothing; and here I rest for the night." + +So saying, the determined Jackson coolly dismounted from his horse, and +unbuckling the girth, proceeded to deposit the saddle, with the valise +attached to it, within the hut, the door of which still stood open. + +The woodman, perceiving his object, made a movement, as if to bar the +passage; but Jackson with great activity seized him by the wrist of the +left hand, and, all-powerful as the ruffian was, sent him dancing some +few yards in front of the threshold before he was aware of his +intention, or could resist the peculiar _knack_ with which it was +accomplished. The aide-de-camp, meanwhile, had deposited his saddle in a +corner near the fire, and on his return to the door, met the +inhospitable woodsman advancing as if to court a personal encounter. + +"Now, I'll tell you what it is, friend," he said calmly, throwing back +at the same time the blanket that concealed his uniform and--what was +more imposing--a brace of large pistols stuck in his belt. "You'd better +have no nonsense with me, I promise you, or--" and he tapped with the +fore finger of his right hand upon the butt of one of them, with an +expression that could not be misunderstood. + +The woodsman seemed little awed by this demonstration. He was evidently +one on whom it might have been dangerous for one man, however well +armed, to have forced his presence, so far from every other human +habitation; and it is probable that his forbearance then arose from the +fact of there being two opposed to him, for he glanced rapidly from one +to the other, nor was it until he seemed to have mentally decided that +the odds of two to one were somewhat unequal, that he at length withdrew +himself out of the doorway, as if in passive assent to the stay he could +not well prevent. + +"Just so, my old cock," continued Jackson, finding that he had gained +his point, "and when you speak of this again, don't forget to say it was +a true Tennessee man, bred and born, that gave you a lesson in what no +American ever wanted--hospitality to a stranger. Suppose you begin and +make your self useful, by tethering and foddering old spare bones." + +"I reckon as how you've hands as well as me," rejoined the surly +woodsman, "and every man knows the ways of his own beast best. As for +fodder, they'll find it on the skirt of the wood, and where natur' +planted it." + +Gerald meanwhile, finding victory declare itself in favor of his +companion, had followed his example and entered the hut with his saddle. +As he again quitted it, a sudden flash of light from the fire, which +Jackson was then in the act of stirring, fell upon the countenance of +the woodsman who stood without, his arms folded and his brow scowling, +as if planning some revenge for the humiliation to which he had been +subjected. In the indistinct dusk of the evening Grantham had not been +able to remark more than the outline of the figure; but the voice struck +him as one not unknown to him, although somewhat harsher in its tones +than that which his faint recollection of the past supplied. The glance +he had now obtained, momentary as it was, put every doubt to rest. What +his feelings were in recognising in the woodsman the traitor settler of +the Canadas, Jeremiah Desborough, we leave to our readers to infer. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + + +There was a time, when to have met his father's enemy thus would have +been to have called into activity all the dormant fierceness of Gerald's +nature; but since they had last parted, a new channel had been opened to +his feelings, and the deep and mysterious grief in which we have seen +him shrouded had been of so absorbing and selfish a nature, as to leave +him little consideration for sorrows not his own. The rash impetuosity +of his former character, which had often led him to act even before he +thought, and to resent an injury before it could well be said to have +been offered, had moreover given place to a self-command, the fruit of +the reflective habits and desire of concealment which had made him +latterly almost a stranger to himself. + +Whatever his motives for outwardly avoiding all recognition of the +settler, certain it is that, so far from this, he sought sedulously to +conceal his own identity, by drawing the slouched hat, which formed a +portion of his new equipment, lower over his eyes. Left to do the duties +of the rude hostelry, Captain Jackson and he now quitted the hut, and +leading their jaded, smoking steeds, a few rods off to the verge of the +plain they had so recently traversed, prepared to dispose of them for +the night. Gerald had by this time become too experienced in the mode of +travelling through an American wilderness, not to understand, that he +who expects to find a companion in his horse in the morning must duly +secure him with the tether at night. Following, therefore, the example +of the Aide-de-camp, he applied himself, amid the still pelting rain, to +the not very cleanly task of binding round the fetlock joints of his +steed several yards of untanned hide strips, with which they were +severally provided for the purpose. Each gave his steed a parting slap +on the buttock with the hard bridle. Jackson exclaiming, "Go ye +luxurious beasts--ye have a whole prairie of wet grass to revel in for +the night," and then left them to make the best of their dainty food. + +While returning, Grantham took occasion to observe, that he had reason +to think he knew the surly and inhospitable woodsman, by whom however he +was not desirous of being recognised, and therefore begged as a favor +that Captain Jackson would not, in the course of the night, mention his +name, or even allude to him in any way that could lead to an inference +that he was any other than he seemed, a companion and brother officer of +his own; promising, in conclusion, to give him, in the course of the +next day's journey, some little history of the man which would fully +explain his motives. With this request Jackson unhesitatingly promised +compliance, adding, good-humoredly, that he was not sorry to pledge +himself to anything that would thaw his companion's tongue into +sociability, and render himself, for the first time since their +departure, a listener. Before entering the hut Gerald further observed +in a whisper that, the better to escape recognition, he would, as much +as possible, avoid joining in any conversation which might ensue, and +therefore hoped his companion would not think him rude if he suffered +him to bear the tax. Jackson again promised to keep the attention of the +woodsman directed as much as possible to himself, observing that he +thought Gerald had already, to his cost, discovered he was one not +easily tired out by conversation, should their host be that way +inclined. + +On opening the door of the cabin, they found that the woodsman--or more +properly the settler, as we shall again term him--making a virtue of +necessity, had somewhat changed its interior. A number of fine logs, +sufficient to last throughout the night had been heaped upon the hearth, +and these, crackling and fizzing, and emitting sparks in all the burly +of a hickory wood fire, gave promise of a night of comparative comfort. +Ensconced in the farther corner of the chimney, the settler had already +taken his seat, and, regardless of the entrance of the strangers, (with +his elbows resting on his knees, and his face buried in his large +palms,) kept his eyes fixed upon the fire, as if with a sullen +determination neither to speak nor suffer himself to be questioned. But +the Aide-de-camp was by no means disposed to humor him in his fancy. The +idea of passing some eight or ten consecutive hours in company with two +fellow beings, without calling into full play the bump of loquacity with +which nature had largely endowed him, was, in his view, little better +than the evil from which his perseverance had just enabled him to +escape. Making himself perfectly at home, he unbuckled the wet blanket +from his loins and spreading it, with that of Gerald, to dry upon the +rude floor before the fire, drew forward a heavy uncouth-looking table, +(which, with two or three equally unpolished chairs, formed the whole of +the furniture,) and deposited thereon the wallet or haversack in which +remained a portion of provision. He then secured the last vacant chair, +and taking up a position on the right of the table which lay between +himself and Gerald, let it fall upon the dry clay hearth, with a +violence that caused the settler to quit his attitude of abstraction for +one of anger and surprise. + +"Sorry to disturb you, friend," he said, "but these chairs of yours are +so cursed heavy, there's no handling them decently; 'specially with cold +fingers." + +"Beggars, I reckon, have no right to be choosers," returned the settler; +"the chairs is quite good enough for me--and no one axed you to sit on +'em." + +"I'll tell you what it is, old cock," continued the Aide-de-camp, edging +his seat closer, and giving his host a smart friendly slap upon the +thigh, "this dull life of yours don't much improve your temper. Why, as +I am a true Tennessee man, bred and born, I never set eyes upon such a +crab-apple in all my life--you'd turn a whole dairy of the sweetest milk +that ever came from prairie-grass sour in less than no time. I take it +you must be crossed in love, old boy--eh?" + +"Crossed in hell," returned the settler, savagely; "I reckon as how it +don't consarn you whether I look sour or sweet--what you want is a +night's lodgin', and you've got it--so don't trouble me no more." + +"Very sorry, but I shall," said Jackson, secretly congratulating himself +that, now he had got the tongue of his host in motion, he had a fair +chance of keeping it so. "I must trouble you for some bread, and +whatever else your larder may afford. I'll pay you honestly for it, +friend." + +"I should guess," said the settler, his stern features brightening for +the first time into a smile of irony, "as how a man who had served a +campaign agin the Ingins and another agin the British, might contrive to +do without sich a luxury as bread. You'll find no bread here, I reckon." + +"What, not even a bit of corn bread? Try, my old cock, and rummage up a +crust or two, for hung beef is devilish tight work for the teeth, +without a little bread of some sort for a relish." + +"If you'd ha' used your eyes, you'd ha' seen nothin' like a corn patch +for twenty mile round about this. Bread never entered this hut since I +have been here. I don't eat it." + +"More's the pity," replied Jackson, with infinite drollery; "but though +you may not like it yourself, your friends may." + +"I _have_ no friends--I _wish_ to have no friends!" was the sullen +reply. + +"More's the pity still," pursued the Aide-de-camp. "But what do you live +on, then, old cock, if you don't eat bread?" + +"Human flesh. Take that as a relish to your hung beef." + +Scarcely had the strange expression escaped the settler's lips, when +Jackson, active as a deer, was at the farther end of the hut, one hand +holding the heavy chair as a shield before him, the other placed upon +the butt of one of his pistols. The former at the same moment quitted +his seat, and stretching his tall and muscular form to its utmost +height, burst into a laugh that sounded more like that of some wild +beast than a human being. The involuntary terror produced in his guest +was evidently a source of exultation to him, and he seemed gratified to +think he had at length discovered the means of making himself looked +upon with something like fear. + +On entering the hut, Gerald had taken his seat at the opposite corner of +the fire, yet in such a manner as to admit of his features being shaded +by the projection of the chimney. The customs of the wilderness, +moreover, rendering it neither offensive, nor even worthy of remark, +that he should retain his hat, he had, as in the first instance, drawn +it as much over his eyes as he conceived suited to his purpose of +concealment, without exciting a suspicion of his design; and, as the +alteration in his dress was calculated to deceive into a belief of his +being an American, he had been enabled to observe the settler without +much fear of recognition in return. A great change had taken place in +the manner of Desborough. Ferocious he still was, but it was a ferocity +wholly unmixed with the cunning of his former years, that he now +exhibited. He had evidently suffered much, and there was a stamp of +thought on the heavy countenance that Gerald had never remarked there +before. There was also this anomaly in the man--that while ten years +appeared to have been added to his age, his strength was increased in +the same proportion--a change that made itself evident by the attitude +in which he stood. + +"Why now I take it you must be jesting," at length exclaimed the +Aid-de-camp, doubtingly, dropping at the same time the chair upon the +floor, yet keeping it before him as though not quite safe in the +presence of this self-confessed anthropophagos; "you surely don't mean +to say you kill and pickle every unfortunate traveller that comes by +here. If so, I must apprehend you in the name of the United States +Government." + +"I rather calculate not, Mister," sneered the settler. "Besides, I don't +eat the United States subjects; consequently they've no claim to +interfere." + +"Who the devil do you eat, then?" asked Jackson, gathering courage with +his curiosity, and advancing a pace or two nearer the fire, "or is it +all a hum?" + +The settler approached the fire, stooped a little, and applying his +shoulder to the top of the opening, thrust his right hand and arm up the +chimney. + +"I reckon that's no hum," he said, producing and throwing upon the table +a piece of dark, dry flesh, that resembled in appearance the upper part +of a human arm. "If you're fond of a relisn," he pursued, with a fierce +laugh, "you'll find that mighty well suited to the palate--quite as +sweet as a bit of smok'd venison." + +"Why, you don't really mean to say that's part of a man?" demanded +Jackson, advancing cautiously to the table, and turning over the +shrivelled mass with the point of his dagger. "Why, I declare, its just +the color of my dried beef." + +"But I do though--and what's more, of my own killin' and dryin'. Purty +naturist you must be, not to see that's off an Ingin's arm!" + +"Oh, an Ingin's only, is it?" returned the Aid-de-camp, whose +apprehension began rapidly to subside, now that he had obtained the +conviction that it was not the flesh of a white man. "Well, I'm sure! +who'd have thought it? I take it, old cock, you've been in the wars as +well as myself." + +"A little or so, I reckon, and I expect to be in them agin shortly--as +soon as my stock of food's out. I've only a thigh bone to pick after +this, and then I'm off. But why don't you take your seat at the fire. +There's nothin' so out of the way in the sight of a naked arm, is there? +I reckon, if you're a soger, you must have seen many a one lopped off in +the wars." + +"Yes, friend," said Jackson, altering the position of the table and +placing it between the settler and himself; "a good many lopped off, as +you say, and in a devil of a stew, but not exactly eaten. However, be so +good as to return this to the chimney, and when I've eaten something +from my bag, I'll listen to what you have to say about it." + +"Jist so, and go without my own supper, I suppose, to please you. But +tarnation, while you're eatin' a bit of your hung beef, I'll try a snack +of mine." + +So saying, he deliberately took from the table the dried arm he had +previously flung there, and, removing a large clasp knife from a pocket +beneath his coarse hunting frock, proceeded to help himself to several +thin slices, corresponding precisely in appearance with those which the +Aid-de-camp divided in the same manner. + +Jackson had managed to swallow three or four pieces of his favorite hung +beef with all the avidity of an appetite rendered keen by the absence of +every other stimulant than hunger; but no sooner did he perceive his +host fastening with a degree of fury on his unnatural food, than, sick +and full of loathing, his stomach rejected further aliment, and he was +compelled to desist. During all this time, Grantham, who, although he +had assumed the manner and attitude of a sleeping man, was a watchful +observer of all that passed, neither moved nor uttered a syllable, +except on one occasion to put away from him the food Jackson had +offered. + +"Sorry to see your ride has given you so poor an appetite," said the +settler, with a look expressive of the savage delight he felt in +annoying his visitor, "I reckon that's rather unsavory stuff you've got +there, that you can't eat it without bread. I say, young man," +addressing Grantham, "can't you find no appetite neither, that you sit +there snorin', as if you never meant to wake agin." + +Gerald's head sunk lower on his chest, and his affectation of slumber +became more profound. + +"Try a drop of this," said Jackson, offering his canteen, after having +drank himself, and with a view to distract attention from his companion. +"You seem to have no liquor in the house, and I take it you require +something hot as h--ll, and strong as d--n----n, after that ogre-like +repast of yours." + +The settler seized the can, and raised it to his lips. It contained some +of the fiery whiskey we have already described as the common beverage in +most parts of America. This, all powerful as it was, he drained off as +though it had been water, and with the greedy avidity of one who finds +himself suddenly restored to the possession of a favorite and long +absent drink. + +"Hollo, my friend!" exclaimed the angry Aid-de-camp, who had watched the +rapid disappearance of his "traveller's best companion," as he quaintly +enough termed it, down the capacious gullet of the woodman--and +snatching at the same moment the nearly emptied canteen from his hands. +"I take it, that's not handsome. As I'm a true Tennessee man, bred and +born, it aint at all hospitable to empty off a pint of raw liquor at a +spell, and have not so much as a glass of metheglin to offer in return. +What the h--ll do you suppose we're to do to-morrow for drink, during a +curst long ride through the wood, and not a house of call till nightfall +along the road?" + +The ruffian drew a breath long and heavy in proportion to the draught he +had swallowed, and when his lungs had again recovered their play, +answered, blusteringly, in a voice that betokened incipient +intoxication: + +"Roar me up a saplin', Mister, but you're mighty stingy of the Wabash. I +reckon as how I made you a free offer of my food, and it warn't no fault +of mine if you didn't choose to take it. It would only have been relish +for relish, after all--and that's what I call fair swap." + +"Well, no matter," said Jackson, soothingly; "what's done can't be +undone, therefore I take it its no use argufying--however, my old cock, +when next you get the neck of a canteen of mine 'twixt your lips, I hope +it may do the cockles of your heart good; that's all. But let's hear how +you came by them pieces of nigger's flesh, and how it is you've taken it +into your head to turn squatter here. You seem," glancing around, "to +have no sleeping room to spare, and one may as well sit up and chat, as +have one's bones bruised to squash on the hard boards." + +"It's a sad tale," said the settler gruffly and with a darkening brow, +"and brings bitter thoughts with it; but as the liquor has cheered me up +a bit, I don't much mind if I do tell you how I skivered the varmint. +Indeed," he pursued savagely, "that always gives me a pleasure to think +of, for I owed them a desperate grudge--the bloody red skins and imps of +hell. I was on my way to Detroit, to see the spot once more where my +poor boy Phil lay rootin', and one dark night (for I only ventured to +move at night), I came slick upon two Ingins as was lying fast asleep +before their fire in a deep ravine. The one nearest to me had his face +unkivered, and I knew the varmint for the tall dark Delaweer chief as +made one of the party after poor Phil and me, a sight that made me +thirst for the blood of the heathens as a child for mother's milk. +Well, how do you think I managed them. I calculate you'd never guess. +Why, I stole, as quiet as a fox until I got jist atween them, and then +holdin' a cocked pistol to each breast, I called out in a thunderin' +voice that made the woods ring agin, Kit-chimocomon, which you know, as +you've been in the wars, signifies long knife or Yankee. You'd a laugh'd +fit to split your sides I guess, to see the stupid stare of the devils, +as startin' out of their sleep, they saw a pistol within three inches of +each of 'em. 'Ugh,' says they, as if they did'nt know well whether to +take it as a joke or not. 'Yes, 'ugh' and be damn'd to you,' say's I: +you may go and 'ugh' in hell next--and with that snap went the triggers, +and into their curst carcasses went the balls. The one I killed outright +but t'other, the Delaweer chief, was by a sudden shift only slightly +wounded, and he sprung on his feet and out with his knife. But I had a +knife too, and all a disappointed father's rage to boot, so at it we +went closin' and strikin' with our knives like two fierce fiends of the +forest. It was noble sport sure_ly_. At last the Delaweer fell over the +bleedin' body of his warrior and I top of him. As he fell the knife +dropped from his hand and he could'nt reach it no how, while I still +gripped mine fast. 'Ugh,' he muttered again, as if askin' to know what I +meant to do next. 'Ugh,' and be damned to you once more, say's I--and +the pint of my long knife was soon buried in his black heart. Then, when +I see them both dead I eat my own meal at their fire, for I was +tarnation hungry, and while I was eatin' a thought came across me that +it would be good fun to make smoked meat of the varmint, so when I +tucked it in purty considerably, what with hominy and dried bear's meat, +moistened with a little Wabash I found in the Delaweer chief's canteen, +I set to and regularly quartered them. The trunks I left behind, but the +limbs I packed up in the blankets that had been used to kiver them, I +reckon; and with them slung across my shoulders, like a saddle bag +across a horse, I made tracks through the swamps and the prairies for +this here hut, which I know'd no livin' soul had been nigh for many a +long year. And now," he concluded with a low drunken laugh, "you've the +history of the dried meat. There isn't much left but when all is gone +I'm off to the wars, for I can't find no peace I reckon without my poor +boy Phil." He paused a moment, and then as if suddenly influenced by +some painful recollection, he struck his hand with startling violence +upon the table, and, while every feature of his iron countenance seemed +worked up to a pitch of intensity, added with fearful calmness, "May +God's curse light upon me if I don't have my revenge of them Granthams +yet:--yes," he continued with increased excitement of voice and manner, +while he kicked one of the blazing hickory logs in the chimney with all +the savageness of drunken rage, causing a multitude of sparks to spit +forth as from the anvil of a smith.--"jist so would I kick them both to +hell for having murdered my poor boy." + +"Why, surely, Liftenant Grantham, he can't meant you?" abruptly +questioned the Aid-de-camp, drawing back his chair and resting the palms +of his hands upon his knees, while he fixed his eye keenly and +inquiringly upon Gerald. + +But Gerald had no time to answer him--Scarcely had the name escaped the +lips of the incautious Jackson, when a yell of exultation from the +woodman drew him quickly to his feet, and in the next moment he felt one +hand of his enemy grappling at his throat, while the fingers of the +other were rapidly insinuating themselves into the hair that shadowed +one of his temples, with the evident intention to "gouge" him. Weak and +emaciated as he was, Gerald was soon made sensible of the disproportion +of physical strength thus suddenly brought into the struggle, and as the +savage laugh of the man, as his fingers wound themselves closer and +closer within the clustering hair, proclaimed his advantage, he felt +that his only chance of saving the threatened eye was by having recourse +to some sudden and desperate attempt to free himself from the gripe of +his opponent. Summoning all his strength into one vigorous effort, he +rushed forward upon his enemy with such force, raising himself at the +same time in a manner to throw the whole weight of his person upon him, +that the latter reeled backwards several paces without the power of +resistance, and falling over the table towards which he had been +intentionally propelled, sank with a heavy crash to the floor, still +however retaining his firm hold of his enemy, and dragging him after +him. + +Half throttled, maddened with pain, and even more bitterly stung by a +sense of the humiliating position in which he found himself, the +feelings of Gerald became uncontrollable, until his anxiety to inflict a +mortal injury upon his enemy became in the end as intense as that of the +settler. In their fall the table had been overturned, and with it the +knife which Desborough had used with his horrid repast. As the light +from the blazing fire fell upon the blade, it had once caught the +unassailed eye of the officer, and was the next moment clutched in his +grasp. He raised it with a determination, inspired by the agony he +endured, at once to liberate himself and to avenge his father's murder, +but the idea that there was something assassin-like in the act as +suddenly arrested him, and ere he had time to obey a fresh impulse of +his agony, the knife was forcibly stricken from his hand. A laugh of +triumph burst from the lips of the half intoxicated Desborough, but it +was scarcely uttered before it was succeeded by a yell of pain, and the +hand that had contrived to entwine itself, with resistless force and +terrible intent, in the waving hair of the youth, fell suddenly from its +grasp, enabling its victim at length to free himself altogether and +start once more to his feet. + +Little more than a minute had been passed in the enactment of this +strange scene. The collision, the overthrow, the upraising of the knife +had followed each other in such rapid succession that, until the last +desperate intention of Gerald was formed, the Aid-de-camp had not had +time to interpose himself in any way between the enraged combatants. His +first action had been to strike away the murderous knife with the heavy +butt of one of his pistols, the other to plant such a blow upon the +"gouging" hand of the settler from the same butt, as effectually to +compel him to relinquish his ferocious clutch. In both objects, as we +have seen, he fully succeeded. + +But although his right hand had been utterly disabled by the blow from +Jackson's pistol, the fury of Desborough, fed as it was by the fumes of +the liquor he had swallowed, was too great to render him heedful of +aught but the gratification of his vengeance. Rolling rapidly over to +the point where the knife had fallen he secured it in his left hand, and +then, leaping nimbly to his feet, gathered himself into a spring upon +his unarmed but watchful enemy. But before the bound could be taken, the +active Aid-de-camp, covering Gerald with his body and presenting a +cocked pistol, had again thwarted him in his intention. + +"I say now, old cock, you'd much better be quiet I guess, for them sort +of tantrums won't suit me. If this here Liftenant killed your son why +he'll answer for it later, but I can't let you murder my prisoner in +that flumgustious manner. I'm responsible for him to the United States +Government, therefore just drop that knife clean and slick upon the +floor, and let's have no more of this nonsense for the night." + +But even the cocked pistol had not power to restrain the fierce--almost +brutal--rage of the woodman, whose growing intoxication added fuel to +the fire which the presence of his enemy had kindled in his heart. +Heedless of the determined air and threatening posture of the +Aid-de-camp, he made a bound forward, uttering a sound that resembled +the roar of a wild beast rather than the cry of a human being, and +struck over Jackson's shoulder at the chest of the officer. Gerald, +whose watchful eye marked the danger, had however time to step back and +avoid the blow. In the next moment the Aid-de-camp, overborne by the +violence of the collision, fell heavily backwards upon the rude floor, +and in the fall the pistol went off lodging the ball in the sinewy calf +of Desborough's leg. Stung with acute animal pain, the whole rage of the +latter was now diverted from Gerald to the aid-de-camp, on whom, +assuming the wound to have been intentional, he threw himself with the +fury of a tiger, grappling as he closed with him at his throat. But the +sailor, in his turn, now came to the rescue of his companion, and the +scene for some time, as the whole party struggled together upon the +floor in the broad, red glare of the wood fire, was one of fearful and +desperate character. At length, after an immense effort, and amid the +most horrid imprecations of vengeance upon them, the officers succeeded +in disarming and tying the hands of the settler behind his back, after +which, dragging him to a distant corner of the hut, they secured him +firmly to one of the open and mis-shapen logs which composed its frame. +This done, Jackson divided the little that had been left of his "Wabash" +with his charge, and then stretching himself at his length, with his +feet to the fire and his saddle for a pillow, soon fell profoundly +asleep. + +Too much agitated by the scene which had just passed, Gerald, although +following the example of his companion in stretching himself before the +cheerful fire, was in no condition to enjoy repose. Indeed, whatever his +inclination, the attempt would have been vain, for so dreadful were the +denunciations of Desborough throughout the night, that sleep had no room +to enter even into his thoughts. Deep and appalling were the curses and +threats of vengeance which the enraged settler uttered upon all who bore +the name of Grantham; and with these were mingled lamentations for his +son, scarcely less revolting in their import than the curses themselves. +Nor was the turbulence of the enraged man confined to mere excitement of +language. His large and muscular form struggled in every direction to +free himself from the cords that secured him to the logs, and finding +these too firmly bound to admit of the accomplishment of his end, he +kicked his brawny feet against the floor with all the fury and +impatience of a spirit, quickened into a livelier sense of restraint by +the stimulus of intoxication. At length, exhausted by the efforts he had +made, his struggles and his imprecations became gradually less frequent +and less vigorous, until finally towards dawn they ceased altogether, +and his deep and heavy breathing announced that he slept. + +Accustomed to rise with the dawn, the Aide-de-camp was not long after +its appearance in shaking off the slumber in which he had so profoundly +indulged. The first object that met his eye as he raised himself up in a +sitting posture from his rude bed, was Gerald stooping over the sleeping +Desborough, one hand resting upon his chest, the other holding the +knife already alluded to, while every feature of his face was kindled +into loathing and abhorrence of his prostrate and sleeping enemy. +Startled by the expression he read there, and with the occurrences of +the last night rushing forcibly upon his memory, the Aide-de-camp called +quickly out: + +"Hold, Liftenant Grantham. Well, as I'm a true Tennessee man, bred and +born, may I be most especially d----d, if I'd a thought you'd do so foul +a deed. What! assassinate a sleeping drunken man?" + +"Assassinate, Captain Jackson?" repeated Gerald, raising himself to his +full height, while a crimson flush of indignation succeeded to the +deadly paleness which had overspread his cheek. + +"Yes--assassinate!" returned the Aide-de-camp, fixing his eye upon that +of his prisoner, yet without perceiving that it quailed under his +penetrating glance; "It's an ugly word, I reckon, for you to hear, as it +is for me to speak, but your quarrel last night--your fix just now--that +knife--Liftenant Grantham," and he pointed to the blade which still +remained in the hands of the accused--"surely these things speak for +themselves; and though the fellow has swallowed off all my Wabash, and +be d----d to him, still I shouldn't like to see him murdered in that +sort of way." + +"I cannot blame you, Captain Jackson," said Gerald calmly, his features +resuming their pallid hue. "These appearances, I grant, might justify +the suspicion, horrible as it is, in one who had known more of me than +yourself but was assassination even a virtue, worlds would not tempt me +to assassinate that man--wretch though he be--or even to slay him in +fair and open combat." + +"Then I calculate one night has made a pretty considerable change in +your feelings, Liftenant," retorted the Aide-de-camp. "You were both +ready enough to go at it last night, when I knocked the knife out of +your fist, and broke the knuckles of his gouging hand." + +"I confess," said Gerald, again coloring, "that excessive pain made me +wild, and I should have been tempted to have had recourse to any means +to thwart him in his diabolical purpose. As you have said, however, the +past night has effected a change in my feelings towards the man, and +death from my hand, under any circumstances, is the last thing he has +now to apprehend." Gerald sank his head upon his chest, and sighed +bitterly. + +"Well," said Jackson, "all this is queer enough; but what were you doing +standing over the man just now with that knife, if it was not to harm +him? And as for your countenance, it scowled so savage and passionate, I +was almost afraid to look at it myself." + +"My motive for the action I must beg you to excuse my entering upon," +replied Gerald. "Of this, however, be assured, Captain Jackson, that I +had no intention to injure yon sleeping villain. On the word of an +officer and a gentleman, and by the kindness you have shown me on all +occasions since our journey commenced, do I solemnly assure you this is +the fact." + +"And on the word of an officer, and a true Tennessee man, bred and born +I am bound to believe you," returned the American, much affected. "A man +that could fight so wickedly in the field would never find heart, I +reckon, to stick an enemy in the dark. No, Liftenant Grantham, you were +not born to be an assassin. And now let's be starting--the day has +already broke." + +"And yet," returned Gerald, with a smile of bitter melancholy, as they +hurried towards the spot where they had left their horses, "if any man +ever had reason to act so as to merit the imputation of being such, I +have. In that savage woodsman, Captain Jackson, you have beheld the +murderer--the self-acknowledged murderer of my father." + +"God bless my soul!" cried Jackson dropping the saddle which he carried +and standing still with very amazement. "A pretty fix I've got into, to +be sure. Here's one man accuses another of murdering his son, and +t'other, by way of quits accuses him, in his turn, of murdering his +father. Why, which am I to believe?" + +"Which you please, Captain Jackson," said the sailor coolly, yet +painedly; and he moved forward in pursuit of his horse. + +"Nay, Liftenant Grantham," said the Aid-de-camp, who had again resumed +his burden, and was speedily at the side of his companion, "don't be +offended. I've no doubt the thing's as you say; but you must make +allowance for my ideas, never too much of the brightest, being +conglomerated, after a fashion, by what I have seen and heard, since we +let loose our horses last night upon this prairie." + +"I am not offended, only hurt," replied Gerald, shaking the hand that +was cordially tendered to him, "hurt, that you should doubt my word, or +attach anything to the assertion of that man beyond the mere ravings of +a savage and diseased spirit. Justice to myself demands that I should +explain everything in detail." + +"Now, that's what I call all right and proper," returned the +Aide-de-camp, "and should be done, both for your sake and mine; but we +will leave it till we get once more upon the road and in sight of a +tavern, for it's dry work talking and listening without even so much as +a gum tickler of the Wabash to moisten one's clay." + +They found their horses not far from the spot where they had been left +on the preceding night, and these being speedily untethered and saddled, +the travellers again pursued their route towards the capital of the +state in which they found themselves. As they passed the hut which had +been the scene of so much excitement to both, the voice of Desborough, +whom they had left fast asleep, was heard venting curses and +imprecations upon them both, for having left him there to starve, bound +and incapable of aiding himself. Wretch as the settler was, Gerald could +not reconcile to himself the thought of his being left to perish thus +miserably, and he entreated the Aid-de-camp to enter and divide the +cords. But Jackson declared this to be impolitic, urging as a powerful +reason for declining, the probability of his having fire-arms in the +hut, with which (if released) he might follow and overtake them in their +route, and sacrifice one or the other to his vengeance--an object which +it would be easy to accomplish without his ever being detected. However, +that the villain might have sustenance until some chance traveller +should come later to his assistance, or he could manage to get rid of +his bonds himself, he consented to place within his reach all the dried +meat that had been left of his Indian foes, together with a pail of +water--the latter by way of punishment for having swilled away at his +Wabash in the ungracious manner he had. + +While Jackson was busied in this office of questionable charity, the +rage and disappointment of the settler surpassed what it had hitherto +been. Each vein of his dark brow rose distinctly and swelling from its +surface, and he kicked and stamped with a fury that proclaimed the +bitter tempest raging in his soul. When the Aide-de-camp had again +mounted, his shrieks and execrations became piercing, and for many +minutes after they had entered into the heart of the forest in which the +hut was situated, the shrill sounds continued to ring upon their ears in +accents so fearful, that each felt a sensible relief when they were +heard no more. + +On the evening of the third day after this event, Jackson and our hero, +between whom a long explanation on the subject of the settler had taken +place, alighted at the door of the principal inn in Frankfort, the +capital of Kentucky, which was their ultimate destination. To mine host +Gerald was introduced by his escort with the formality usual on such +occasions in America, and with the earnest recommendation to that most +respectable personage, that, as his own friend, as well as that of +Captain Forrester, every indulgence should be shown to the prisoner that +was not inconsistent with his position. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + + +Few situations in life are less enviable than that of the isolated +prisoner of war. Far from the home of his affections, and compelled by +the absence of all other companionship, to mix with those who, in +manners, feelings, and national characteristics, form, as it were, a +race apart from himself, his recollections, already sufficiently +embittered by the depressing sense of captivity, are hourly awakened by +some rude contrast wounding to his sensibilities, and even though no +source of graver irritation should exist, a thousand petty annoyances, +incident to the position, are magnified by chagrin from mole-hills into +mountains. Such, however, would be the effect produced on one only, who, +thrown by the accident of war into the situation of a captive, should +have no grief more profound, no sorrow deeper seated, than what arose +from the being severed from old, and associated with new and undesired +ties--one to whom life was full of the fairest buds of promise, and +whose impatience of the present was only a burning desire to enter upon +the future. Not so with Gerald Grantham. Time, place, circumstance, +condition, were alike the same--alike indifferent to him. In the +recollection of the scenes he had so lately quitted, and in which his +fairer and unruffled boyhood had been passed, he took no pleasure--while +the future was so enshrouded in gloom, that he shrank from its very +contemplation. So far from trying to wring consolation from +circumstances, his object was to stupify recollection to the uttermost. +He would fain have shut out both the past and the future, contenting +himself as he might with the present; but the thing was impossible. The +worm had eaten into his heart, and its gnawings were too painful, not +poignantly to remind him of the manner in which it had been engendered. + +Upwards of a fortnight had elapsed since his arrival, and yet, although +Captain Jackson, prior to his return to Sandusky, had personally +introduced him to many highly respectable families in Frankfort, he +uniformly abstained from cultivating their acquaintance, until at length +he was, naturally enough, pronounced to be a most disagreeable specimen +of a British officer. Even with the inmates of the hotel, many of whom +were officers of his own age, and with whom he constantly sat down to +the ordinary, he avoided everything approaching to intimacy--satisfying +himself merely with discharging his share of the commonest courtesies +of life. They thought it pride--it was but an effect--an irremediable +effect--of the utter sinking of his sad and broken spirit. The only +distraction in which he eventually took pleasure, or sought to indulge, +was rambling through the wild passes of the chain of wooded hills which +almost encircles the capital of Kentucky, and extends to a considerable +distance in a westerly direction. The dense gloom of these narrow +valleys he had remarked on his entrance by the same route, and feeling +them more in unison with his sick mind than the hum and bustle of a +city, which offered nothing in common with his sympathies, he now +frequently passed a great portion of the day in threading their +mazes--returning, however, at a certain hour to his hotel, conformably +with the terms of his parole. + +On one occasion, tempted by the mellow beauty of the season--it was now +the beginning of October--he had strayed so far, and through passes so +unknown to him, that when the fast advancing evening warned him of the +necessity of returning, he found he had utterly lost his way. Abstracted +as he usually was, he had yet reflection enough to understand that his +parole of honor required he should be at his hotel at an hour which it +would put his speed to the proof to accomplish. Despairing of finding +his way by the circuitous route he had originally taken, and the proper +clue to which he had moreover lost, he determined, familiar as he was +with the general bearings of the capital, to effect his return in a +direct line across the chain of hills already alluded to. The deepening +shadows of the wild scene, as he proposed to ascend that immediately +before him, told that the sun had sunk beneath the horizon, and when he +gained its summit, the last faint corruscations of light were passing +rapidly away in the west. Still, by the indistinct twilight, he could +perceive that at his feet lay a small valley, completely hemmed in by +the circular ridge on which he stood. This traversed, it was but to +ascend the opposite section of the ridge, and his destination would be +gained. Unlike the narrow, rocky passes which divided the hills in every +other direction in which he had previously wandered, this valley was +covered with a luxuriant verdure, and upon this the feet of Gerald moved +inaudibly even to himself. As he advanced more into the centre of the +little plain, he thought he could perceive, at its extremity on the +right, the dark outline of a building--apparently a dwelling-house; and +while he yet hesitated whether he should approach it and inquire his +most direct way to the town, a light suddenly appeared at that point of +the valley for which he was already making. A few minutes sufficed to +bring him to the spot whence the light had issued. It was a small, +circular building, possibly intended for a summer-house, but more +resembling a temple in its construction, and so closely bordering upon +the forest ridge, by a portion of the foliage by which it had previously +been concealed, as to be almost confounded with it. It was furnished +with a single window, the same through which the light now issued, and +this, narrow, elongated, and studded with iron bars, was so placed as to +prevent one even taller than our hero from gazing into the interior, +without the aid of some elevation. But Gerald, independently of his +anxiety to reach the town in time to prevent comment upon his absence, +had no desire to occupy himself with subjects foreign to his object. +Curiosity was a feeling dead within his bosom, and he was preparing, +without once staying his course, to ascend the ridge at the side of the +temple, when he fancied he heard a suppressed groan, as of one suffering +from intense agony. Not the groan, but the peculiar tone in which it +was uttered, arrested his attention, and excited a vague yet stirring +interest in his breast. On approaching closer to the temple, he found +that at its immediate basement the earth had been thrown up into a sort +of mound, which so elevated the footing as to admit of his reaching the +bars of the window with his hands. Active as we have elsewhere shown him +to be, he was not long in obtaining a full view of the interior, when a +scene met his eye which riveted him, as well it might, in utter +astonishment. Upon the rude, uncarpeted floor knelt a female, who, with +clasped and uplifted hands, had her eyes fixed upon a portrait that hung +suspended from the opposite wall--her figure, clad in a loose robe of +black, developing by its attitude a contour of such rich and symmetrical +proportion as might be difficult for the imagination to embody. And who +was the being upon whom his each excited sense now lingered with an +admiration little short of idolatry? One whom, a moment before, he +believed to be still far distant, whom he had only a few months +previously fled from as from a pestilence, and whom he had solemnly +sworn never to behold again--yet whom he continued to love with a +passion that defied every effort of his judgment to subdue, making his +life a wilderness--Matilda Montgomerie! and if her beauty had _then_ had +such surpassing influence over his soul, what was not its effect when he +beheld her _now_, every grace of womanhood exhibited in a manner to +excite admiration the most intense! + +It would be vain to describe all that passed through the mind of Gerald +Grantham, while he thus gazed upon her whose beauty was the rock on +which his happiness had been wrecked. His first impulse had been to fly, +but the fascination which riveted him to the window deprived him of all +power, until eventually, of all the host of feelings that had crowded +tumultuously upon his heart, passion alone remained triumphant. Unable +longer to control his impatience, he was on the point of quitting his +station, for the purpose of knocking and obtaining admission by a door +which he saw opposite to him, when a sudden change in the attitude of +Matilda arrested the movement. + +She had risen, and with her long and dark hair floating over her white +shoulders, now advanced towards the portrait, on which her gaze had +hitherto been so repeatedly turned. This was so placed that Gerald had +not previously an opportunity of remarking more than the indistinct +outline, which proved it to represent a human figure; but as she for a +moment raised the light with one hand, while with the other she covered +it with a veil which had been drawn aside, he distinctly saw that it was +the portrait of an officer dressed in the American uniform; and it even +occurred to him that he had before seen the face, although, in his then +excited state he could not recollect where. Even had he been inclined to +tax his memory, the effort would have been impracticable, for another +direction was now given to his interest. + +On the left and close under the window, stood a rude sofa and ruder +table, the only pieces of furniture which Gerald could observe within +the temple. Upon the former Matilda had now reclined herself, and +placing the candle upon the table at her side, proceeded to unfold and +peruse a letter which she had previously taken from her pocket book. The +same unconsciousness of observation inducing the same unstudiedness of +action, the whole disposition of the form bore a character of +voluptuousness, which the presumed isolation of her who thus exhibited +herself, a model of living grace, alone could justify. But although the +form was full of the eloquence of passion, one had but to turn to the +pale and severe face, to find there was no corresponding expression in +the heart. As heretofore, the brow of the American wore a cast of +thought--only deeper, more decided--and even while her dark eyes flashed +fire, as if in disappointment and anger at sundry passages in the letter +over which she lingered, not once did the slightest color tinge her +cheek, or the gloom dissipate itself from that cold brow. Emotion she +felt, for this her heaving bosom and occasionally compressed lip +betokened. Yet never was contrast more marked than that between the +person and the face of Matilda Montgomerie, as Gerald Grantham then +beheld her. + +On one who had seen her thus for the first time, the cold, calm +countenance of the singular girl, would have acted as a chastener to the +emotions called up by the glowing expression of her faultless form, but +although there was now a character of severity on her features, which +must have checked and chilled the ardent admiration produced by that +form on a mere stranger, Gerald but too well remembered occasions when +the harmony of both had been complete, and when the countenance, rich in +all those fascinations, which, even in her hours of utmost +collectedness, never ceased to attach to the person, had beamed upon him +in a manner to stir his very soul into madness. There were other and +later recollections too, that forced themselves upon his memory; but +these, even though they recalled scenes in which the voluptuous beauty +of Matilda shone paramount, were as blots upon the fair picture of the +past, and he fain would have banished them from his mind for ever. + +The letter on which the American was now engaged, Grantham had +recognised, from its fold and seal, to be one he had written prior to +parting with her, as he had supposed for ever. While he was yet dwelling +on this singularity, Matilda threw the letter upon the table at her +side, and leaning her head upon her hand, seemed as if musing deeply +upon its contents. The contraction of her brow became deeper, and there +was a convulsed pressure of her lips as of one forming some +determination, requiring at once strong moral and physical energy to +accomplish. A cold shudder crept through the veins of Gerald, for too +well did he fancy he could divine what was passing in the soul of that +strange yet fascinating woman. For a moment a feeling of almost loathing +came over his heart, but when, in the next moment, he saw her rise from +the sofa, revealing the most inimitable grace, he burned with impatience +to throw himself, reckless of consequences, at her feet, and to confess +his idolatry. + +After pacing to and fro for some moments, her dark and kindling eye +alone betraying the excitement which her colorless cheek denied, Matilda +again took up the light, and having once more approached the portrait, +was in the act of raising the veil, when a slight noise made by Gerald, +who in his anxiety to obtain a better view of her, had made a change in +his position, arrested her ear; and she turned and fixed her eye upon +the window, not with the disturbed manner of a person who fears +observation, but with the threatening air of one who would punish an +intrusion. + +Holding the light above her head, she advanced firmly across the room, +and stopping beneath the window, fixed her eye steadily and +unshrinkingly upon it. The mind of Gerald had become a chaos of +conflicting and opposite feelings. Only an instant before and he would +have coveted recognition, now his anxiety was to avoid it; but cramped +in his attitude, and clinging as he was compelled, with his face close +to the bars, his only means of doing so was by quitting his position +altogether. He therefore loosened his hold, and dropped himself on the +mound of earth from which he had contrived to ascend, but not so +noiselessly, in the unbroken stillness of the night, as to escape the +keen ear of the American. In the next moment Gerald heard a door open, +and a well known voice demand, in tones which betrayed neither alarm nor +indecision. + +"Who is there?" + +The question was repeated in echo from the surrounding woods, and then +died away in distance. + +"Who of my people," again demanded Matilda, "has dared to follow me here +in defiance of my orders?" + +Another echo of indistinct sounds, and all again was still. + +"Whoever you are, speak," resumed the courageous girl. "Nay," she +pursued more decidedly, as having moved a pace or two from the door, she +observed a human form standing motionless beneath the window. "Think not +to escape me. Come hither slave that I may know you. This curiosity +shall cost you dear." + +The blood of Gerald insensibly chilled at the harsh tone in which these +words were uttered, and had he followed a first impulse he would at once +have retired from the influence of a command, which under all the +circumstances, occurred to him as being of prophetic import. But he had +gazed on the witching beauty of the syren, until judgment and reason had +yielded the rein to passion, and filled with an ungovernable desire to +behold and touch that form once more--even although he should the next +moment tear himself from it for ever--he approached and stood at the +entrance of the temple, the threshold of which Matilda had again +ascended. + +No exclamation of surprise escaped the lips of the ever-collected +American; and yet, for the first time that night, her cheek was suffused +with a deep glow, the effect of which was to give to her whole style of +beauty a character of radiancy. + +"Gerald Grantham!" + +"Yes, Matilda," exclaimed the youth, madly, heedless of the past, while +he riveted his gaze upon her dazzling loveliness with such strong +excitement of expression as to cause her own to sink beneath it, "your +own Gerald--your slave kneels before you," and he threw himself at her +feet. + +"And what punishment does not that slave merit?" she asked in a tone so +different from that in which she had addressed her supposed domestic, +that Gerald could scarcely believe it to be the same. "What reparation +can he make for having caused so much misery to one who loved and +cherished him so well. Oh! Gerald, what days, what nights of misery have +I not passed since you so unkindly left me." As she uttered the last +sentence, she bent herself over the still kneeling form of her lover, +while her long dark hair, falling forward, completely enveloped him in +its luxuriant and waving folds. + +"You will be mine, Matilda," at length murmured the youth, as he sat at +her side on the sofa, to which on rising he had conducted her. + +"Yours, only yours," returned the American, while she bent her face upon +his shoulder. "But you know the terms of our union." + +Had a viper stung him, Gerald could not have recoiled with more dismay +and horror from her embrace. Again the features of Matilda became +colorless, and her brow assumed an expression of care and severity. + +"Then, if not to fulfil that compact, wherefore are you here?" and the +question was put half querulously, half contemptuously. + +"Chance, Destiny, Fate,--call it what you will," cried Gerald, obeying +the stronger impulse of his feelings, and clasping her once more to his +beating heart. "Oh! Matilda, if you knew how the idea of that fearful +condition has haunted me in my thoughts by day, and my dreams by night, +you would only wonder that at this moment I retain my senses, filled as +my soul is with maddening--with inextinguishable love for you." + +"And do you really entertain for me that deep, that excessive passion +you have just expressed," at length observed Matilda, after some moments +of silence, and with renewed tenderness of voice and manner, "and yet +refuse the means by which you may secure me to you for ever?" + +"Matilda," said Gerald, with vehemence, "my passion for you is one which +no effort of my reason can control; but let me not deceive you--it is +_now_ one of the senses." + +An expression of triumph, not wholly unmingled with scorn, animated the +features of Matilda. It was succeeded by one of ineffable tenderness. + +"We will talk of this no more to-night, Gerald, but to-morrow evening, +at the same hour, be here: and our mutual hopes, and fears, and doubts +shall be then realized or disappointed, as the event may show. To-morrow +will determine if, as I cannot but believe, Destiny has sent you to me +at this important hour. It is very singular," she added, as if to +herself, her features again becoming deadly pale, "very singular +indeed!" + +"What is singular, Matilda?" asked Gerald. + +"You shall know all to-morrow," she replied; "but mind," and her dark +eye rested on his with an expression of much tenderness, "that you come +prepared to yield me all I ask." + +Gerald promised that he would, and Matilda expressing a desire to hear +what had so unexpectedly restored him to her presence, he entered into a +detail of all that had befallen him from the moment of their separation. +She appeared to be much touched by the relation, and in return, gave him +a history of what she too had felt and suffered. She moreover informed +him that Major Montgomerie had died of his wounds shortly after their +parting, and that she had now been nearly two months returned to her +uncle's estate at Frankfort, where she lived wholly secluded from +society, and with a domestic establishment consisting of slaves. These +short explanations having been entered into they parted--Matilda to +enter her dwelling, the same which Gerald had marked in outline, in +which numerous lights were now visible, and her lover to make the best +of his way to the town. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + + +Morning dawned, and yet no sleep had visited the eyes of Gerald +Grantham. The image of Matilda floated in his mind, and to the +recollection of her beauty he clung with an aching eagerness of delight, +that attested the extent of its influence over his imagination. Had +there been nothing to tarnish that glorious picture of womanly +perfection, the feelings it called up would have been too exquisite for +endurance; but, alas! with the faultless image came recollections, +against which it required all the force of that beauty to maintain +itself. One ineffaceable spot was upon the soul of that fascinating +being; and though, like the spots on the sun's disk, it was hidden in +the effulgence which surrounded it, still he could not conceal from +himself that it _did_ exist, to deface the symmetry of the whole. It was +his knowledge of that fearful blemish that had driven him to seek in +drunkenness, and subsequently in death, a release from the agonizing +tortures of his mind. Virtue and a high sense of honor had triumphed so +far, as not merely to leave his own soul spotless, but to fly from her +who would have polluted it with crime; yet, although respect and +love--the pure sentiments by which he had originally been +influenced--had passed away, the hour of their departure had been that +of the increased domination of passion, and far from her whose beauty +was ever present to his mind, his imagination had drawn and lingered on +such pictures that, assured as he was they could never be realized, he +finally resolved to court death wherever it might present itself. + +Restored thus unexpectedly to the presence of her who had been the +unceasing subject of his thoughts, and under circumstances so well +calculated to inflame his imagination, it cannot appear wonderful that +Gerald should have looked forward to his approaching interview with +emotions of the intensest kind. How fated, too, seemed the reunion. He +had quitted Matilda with the firm determination never to behold her +more, yet, by the very act of courting that death which would fully have +accomplished his purpose, he had placed himself in the position he most +wished to avoid. Presuming that Major Montgomerie, who had never alluded +to Frankfort as his home, was still with his niece, a resident in the +distant State in which he had left them, he had gladly heard Colonel +Forrester name the Kentucky capital as the place of his destination; +for, deep and maddening as was his passion for Matilda, no earthly +considerations could have induced him voluntarily to have sought her. +Even since his arrival in Frankfort, it had been a source of consolation +to him to feel that he was far removed from her who could have made him +forget that, although the heart may wither and die, while self-esteem +and an approving conscience remain to us, the soul shares not in the +same decay--confesses not the same sting. Could he even have divined +that in the temple to which his curiosity had led him, he should have +beheld the being on whose image he doted, even while he shunned it, he +would have avoided her as a pestilence. + +The result of this terrible struggle of his feelings was a determination +to see her once more--to yield up his whole soul to the intoxication of +her presence, and then, provided she should refuse to unite her fate to +his, unhampered by the terrible condition of past days, to tear himself +from her for ever. + +Strong in this resolution, Gerald, to whom the hours had appeared as +days since his rising, quitted Frankfort about his usual time, and, in +order to avoid observation, took the same retired and circuitous route +by which he had reached the valley the preceding evening. As he +descended into the plain, the light from the window of the temple was +again perceptible. In a few minutes he was in the room. + +"Gerald--my own Gerald," exclaimed Matilda, as, carefully closing the +door after her lover, she threw herself into his embrace. Alas, weak +man! Like the baseless fabric of a dream, disappeared all the lately +formed resolutions of the youth. + +"Yes, Matilda--your own Gerald. Come what will, henceforth I am yours." + +A pause of some moments ensued, during which each felt the beating of +the other's heart. + +"Will you swear it, Gerald?" at length whispered Matilda. + +"I will--I do swear it." + +There was a sudden kindling of the dark eye of the American, and an +outswelling of the full bust, that seemed to betoken exultation in the +power of her beauty; but this was quickly repressed, and, sinking on the +sofa at the side of her lover, her whole countenance was radiant with +the extraordinary expression Gerald had, for the first time, witnessed +while she lingered on the arm of his uncle, Colonel D'Egville. + +"Gerald," she said tenderly, "confirm the oath which is to unite us +heart and soul in one eternal destiny. Swear upon this sacred volume, +that your hand shall avenge the wrongs of your Matilda--of your wife. +Ha! your wife--think of that," she added with sudden energy. + +Gerald caught the book eagerly to his lips. "I swear it Matilda,--he +shall die." + +But scarcely had he sworn, when a creeping chill passed through his +frame. His features lost all their animation, and, throwing away the +book on which the impious oath had been taken, he turned away his face +from Matilda, and sinking his head upon his breast, groaned and wept +bitterly. + +"What! already, Gerald, do you repent? Nay, tell me not that one thus +infirm of purpose, can be strong of passion. You love me not, else would +the wrongs of her you love arm you with the fiercest spirit of vengeance +against him who has so deeply injured her. But if you repent, it is but +to absolve you from the oath, and then the deed must be my own." + +The American spoke in tones in which reproach, expostulation, and +wounded affection, were artfully and touchingly blended, and as she +concluded, she too dropped her head upon her chest and sighed. + +"Nay, Matilda, you do me wrong. It is one thing to swerve from the +guilty purpose to which your too seductive beauty has won my +soul,--another, to mourn as man should mourn, the hour when virtue, +honor, religion, all the nobler principles in which my youth has been +nurtured, have proved too weak to stem the tide of guilty passion. You +say I love you not!" and he laughed bitterly. "What greater proof would +you require than the oath I have just taken?" + +"Its fulfilment," said Matilda impressively. + +"It shall be fulfilled," he returned quickly; "but at least deny me not +the privilege of cursing the hour when crime of so atrocious a dye +could be made so familiar to my soul." + +"Crime is a word too indiscriminately bestowed," said Matilda, after a +momentary pause. "What the weak in mind class with crime, the strong +term virtue." + +"Virtue! what, to spill the blood of a man who has never injured me; to +become a hired assassin, the price of whose guilt is the hand of her who +instigates to the deed? If this be virtue, I am indeed virtuous." + +"Never injured you!" returned the American, while she bent her dark eyes +reproachfully upon those of the unhappy Gerald. "Has he not injured +_me_?--injured beyond all power of reparation, her who is to be the +partner of your life?" + +"Nay, Matilda," and Gerald again passionately caught and enfolded her to +his heart, "that image alone were sufficient to mould me to your will, +even although I had not before resolved. And yet," he pursued, after a +short pause, "how base, how terrible to slay an unsuspecting enemy! +Would we could meet in single combat--and why not? Yes it can, it shall +be so. Fool that I was not to think of it before. Matilda, my own love, +rejoice with me, for there is a means by which your honor may be +avenged, and my own soul unstained by guilt. I will seek this man, and +fasten a quarrel upon him. What say you, Matilda--speak to me, tell me +that you consent." Gerald gasped with agony. + +"Never, Gerald!" she returned, with startling impressiveness, while the +color, which during the warm embrace of her lover had returned to it +once more, fled from her cheek. "To challenge him would be but to ensure +your own doom, for few in the army of the United States equal him in the +use of the pistol or the small sword; and, even were it otherwise," she +concluded, her eye kindling into a fierce expression, "were he the +veriest novice in the exercise of both, my vengeance would be +incomplete, did he not go down to his grave with all his sins on his +head. No, no, Gerald, in the fulness of the pride of existence must he +perish. He must not dream of death until he feels the blow that is aimed +at his heart." + +The agitation of Matilda was profound beyond anything she had ever yet +exhibited. Her words were uttered in tones that betrayed a fixed and +unbroken purpose of the soul, and when she had finished, she threw her +face upon the bosom of her lover, and ground her teeth together with a +force that showed the effect produced upon her imagination by the very +picture of the death she had drawn. + +A pause of some moments ensued. Gerald was visibly disconcerted, and the +arm which encircled the waist of the revengeful woman dropped, as if in +disappointment, at his side. + +"How strange and inconsistent are the prejudices of man," resumed +Matilda, half mournfully, half in sarcasm; "here is a warrior--a spiller +of human life by profession; his sword has been often dyed in the +heart's blood of his fellow man, and yet he shudders at the thought of +adding one murder more to the many already committed. What child-like +weakness!" + +"Murder! Matilda--call you it murder to overcome the enemies of one's +country in fair and honorable combat, and in the field of glory?" + +"Call _you_ it what you will--disguise it under whatever cloak you +may--it is no less murder. Nay, the worst of murders, for you but do the +duty of the hireling slayer. In cold blood, and for a stipend, do you +put an end to the fair existence of him who never injured you in thought +or deed, and whom, under other circumstances, you would perhaps have +taken to your heart in friendship." + +"This is true, but the difference of the motive, Matilda! The one +approved of heaven and of man, the other alike condemned of both." + +"Approved of man, if you will; but that they have the sanction of +heaven, I deny. Worldly policy and social interests alone have drawn the +distinction, making the one a crime, the other a virtue; but tell me not +that an all-wise and just God sanctions and approves the slaying of his +creatures, because they perish, not singly at the will of one man, but +in thousands and tens of thousands at the will of another. What is there +more sacred in the brawls of kings and potentates, that the blood they +cause to be shed in torrents for some paltry breach of etiquette, should +sit more lightly on their souls than the few solitary drops, spilt by +the hand of revenge, on that of him whose existence is writhing under a +sense of acutest injury?" + +The energy with which she expressed herself, communicated a +corresponding excitement to her whole manner and person. Her eye +sparkled and dilated, and the visible heaving of her bosom told how +strongly her own feelings entered into the principles which she had +advocated. Never did her personal beauty shine forth more triumphantly +or seducingly than at the moment when her lips were giving utterance to +sentiments from which the heart recoiled. + +"Oh Matilda," sighed Gerald, "with what subtlety of argument do you seek +to familiarize my soul with crime. But the attempt is vain. Although my +hand is pledged to do your will, my heart must ever mourn its guilt." + +"Foolish Gerald," said Matilda; "why should that seem guilt to you, a +man, which to me, a woman, is but justice; but that unlike me you have +never entered into the calm consideration of the subject. Yes," she +pursued with greater energy, "what you call subtlety of argument is but +force of conviction. For two long years have I dwelt upon the deed, +reasoning, and comparing, until at length each latent prejudice has been +expelled, and to avenge my harrowing wrongs appeared a duty as +distinctly marked as any one contained in the decalogue. You saw me +once, Gerald, when my hand shrank not from what you term the assassin's +blow, and had you not interfered then, the deed would not now remain to +be accomplished." + +"Oh, why did I interfere? why did my evil genius conduct me to such a +scene. Then had I lived at least in ignorance of the fearful act." + +"Nay, Gerald, let it rather be matter of exultation with you that you +did. Prejudiced as you are, this hand (and she extended an arm so +exquisitely formed that one would scarce even have submitted it to the +winds of Heaven) might not seem half so fair, had it once been dyed in +human blood. Besides who so proper to avenge a woman's wrongs upon her +destroyer, as the lover and the husband to whom she has plighted her +faith for ever? No, no, it is much better as it is and fate seems to +have decreed that it should be so, else why the interruption by yourself +on that memorable occasion, and why, after all your pains to avoid me, +this our final union, at a moment when the wretch is about to return to +his native home, inflated with pride and little dreaming of the fate +that awaits him.--Surely, Gerald, you will admit there is something more +than mere chance in this?" + +"About to return," repeated Grantham shuddering. "When, Matilda?" + +"Within a week at the latest--perhaps within three days. Some +unimportant advantage which he has gained on the frontier, has been +magnified by his generous fellow citizens into a deed of heroism, and, +from information conveyed to me, by a trusty and confidential servant, I +find he has obtained leave of absence, to attend a public entertainment +to be given in Frankfort, on which occasion a magnificent sword is to be +presented to him. Never, Gerald," continued Matilda, her voice dropping +into a whisper, while a ghastly smile passed over and convulsed her +lips, "never shall he live to draw that sword. The night of his triumph +is that which I have fixed for mine." + +"An unimportant advantage upon the frontier," asked Gerald eagerly and +breathlessly. "To what frontier, Matilda, do you allude?" + +"The Niagara," was the reply. + +"Are you quite sure of this?" + +"So sure that I have long known he was there," returned Matilda. + +Gerald breathed more freely--but again he questioned: + +"Matilda, when first I saw you last night, you were gazing intently upon +yon portrait, (he pointed to that part of the temple where the picture +hung suspended), and it struck me that I had an indistinct recollection +of the features." + +"Nothing more probable," returned the American, answering his searching +look with one of equal firmness. "You cannot altogether have forgotten +Major Montgomerie." + +"Nay, the face struck me not as his. May I look at it?" + +"Assuredly. Satisfy yourself." + +Gerald quitted the sofa, took up the light, and traversing the room +raised the gauze curtain that covered the painting. It was indeed the +portrait of the deceased Major, habited in full uniform. + +"How strange," he mused, "that so vague an impression should have been +conveyed to my mind last night, when now I recal without difficulty +those well remembered features," Gerald sighed as he recollected under +what different circumstances he had first beheld that face, and dropping +the curtain once more, crossed the room and flung himself at the side of +Matilda. + +"For whom did you take it, if not for Major Montgomerie?" asked the +American after a pause, and again her full dark eye was bent on his. + +"Nay, I scarcely know myself, yet I had thought it had been the portrait +of him I have sworn to destroy." + +There was a sudden change of expression in the countenance of Matilda, +but it speedily passed away, and she said with a faint smile, + +"Whether is it more natural to find pleasure in gazing on the features +of those who have loved, or those who have injured us?" + +"Then whose was the miniature on which you so intently gazed, on that +eventful night at Detroit?" asked Gerald. + +"That," said Matilda quickly, and paling as she spoke--"that was +_his_--I gazed on it only the more strongly to detest the original--to +confirm the determination I had formed to destroy him." + +"If _then_," returned the youth, "why not _now_--may I not see that +portrait, Matilda? May I not acquire some knowledge of the unhappy man +whose blood will so shortly stain my soul?" + +"Impossible," she replied, "The miniature I have since destroyed. While +I thought the original within reach of my revenge, I could bear to gaze +upon it, but no sooner had I been disappointed in my aim, than it became +loathsome to me as the sight of some venomous reptile, and I destroyed +it." This was said with undisguised bitterness. + +Gerald sighed deeply. Again he encircled the waist of his companion and +one of her fair, soft, velvet hands was pressed in his. + +"Matilda," he observed, "deep indeed must be the wrong that would prompt +the heart of woman to so terrible a hatred. When we last parted, you +gave me but an indistinct and general outline of the injury you had +sustained. Tell me now all--tell me everything," he continued with +energy, "that can infuse a portion of the hatred which fills your soul +into mine, that my hand may be firmer--my heart more hardened to the +deed." + +"The story of my wrongs must be told in a few words, for I cannot bear +to linger on it," commenced the American, again turning deadly pale, +while her quivering lips and trembling voice betrayed the excitement of +her feelings. The monster was the choice of my heart--judge how much so +when I tell you that, confiding in _his_ honor, and in the assurance +that our union would take place immediately, I surrendered to him +_mine_. A constant visitor at Major Montgomerie's, whose brother officer +he was, we had ample opportunities of being together. We were looked +upon in society as affianced lovers, and in fact it was the warmest wish +of Major Montgomerie that we should be united. A day had even been fixed +for the purpose, and it wanted, but eight and forty hours of the time, +when an occurrence took place which blasted all prospect of our union +for ever. + +"I have already told you, I think," resumed Matilda, "that this little +temple had been exclusively erected for my own use. Here however my +false lover had constant ingress, and being furnished with a key, was in +the habit of introducing himself at hours when having taken leave of the +family for the evening, he was supposed by Major Montgomerie and the +servants to have retired to his own home. On the occasion to which I +have just alluded, I had understood from him some business, connected +with our approaching marriage, would detain him in the town to an +hour too advanced to admit of his paying me his usual visit. Judge my +surprise, and indeed my consternation, when at a late hour of the night +I heard the lock of the door turn, and saw my lover appear at the +entrance." + +There was a short pause, and Matilda again proceeded. + +"Scarcely had he shown himself, when he again vanished, closing the door +with startling violence. I sprang from the sofa and flew forth after +him, but in vain. He had already departed, and with a heart sinking +under an insurmountable dread of coming evil, I once more entered the +temple, and throwing myself upon the sofa, gave vent to my feelings in +an agony of tears." + +"But why his departure, and whence your consternation?" asked Gerald, +whose curiosity had been deeply excited. + +"I was not alone," resumed Matilda, in a deep and solemn voice. "When he +entered, I was hanging on the neck of another." + +Gerald gave a half start of dismay, his arm dropped from the waist of +the American, and he breathed heavily and quickly. + +Matilda remarked the movement, and a sickly and half scornful smile +passed over her pale features. "Before we last parted, Gerald, I told +you, not only that I was in no way connected with Major Montgomerie by +blood, but that I was the child of obscure parents." + +"What then?" + +"The man on whose neck I hung was my own father." + +"It was Desborough!" said the youth, with an air and in a voice of +extreme anguish. + +"It was," returned Matilda, her face crimsoning as she reluctantly +acknowledged the parentage. "But how knew you it?" + +"Behold the proof!" exclaimed Gerald, with uncontrollable bitterness, as +he drew from his bosom the portrait of a child which, from its striking +resemblance, could be taken for no other than her to whom he now +presented it. + +"This is indeed mine," said Matilda, mournfully. "It was taken for me, +as I have since understood, in the very year when I was laid an orphan +and a stranger at the door of that good man, who, calling himself my +uncle, has been to me through life a more than father. Thank God," she +pursued, with great animation, her large, dark eyes upturned, and +sparkling through the tears that forced themselves upwards, "thank God, +he at least lives not to suffer through the acts of his adopted child. +Where got you this, Gerald?" she proceeded, when, after a short struggle +she had succeeded in overcoming her emotion. + +Gerald, who in his narrative of events, had purposely omitted all +mention of Desborough, now detailed the occurrence at the hut, and +concluded what the reader already knows, by stating that he had observed +and severed from the settler, as he slept heavily on the floor, the +portrait in question, which, added to the previous declaration of +Matilda as to the obscurity of her birth, connected with other +circumstances on board his gun-boat, on his trip to Buffalo, had left an +impression little short of certainty that he was indeed the father of +the woman whom he so wildly loved. + +For some minutes after this explanation there was a painful silence, +which neither seemed anxious to interrupt. At length Gerald asked: + +"But what had a circumstance, so capable of explanation, to do with the +breaking off of your engagement, Matilda? or did he, more proud--perhaps +I should say less debased--than myself, shrink from uniting his fate +with the daughter of a murderer?" + +"True," said Matilda, musingly; "you have said, I think, that he slew +your father. This thirst for revenge, then, would seem hereditary. +_That_ is the only, because it is the noblest, inheritance I would owe +to such a being." + +"But your affair with your lover, Matilda--how terminated that?" +demanded Gerald, with increasing paleness and in a faltering tone. + +"In his falsehood and my disgrace. Early the next morning I sent to him, +and bade him seek me in the temple at the usual hour. He came, but it +was only to blast my hopes--to disappoint the passion of the woman who +doated upon him. He accused me of vile intercourse with a slave, and +almost maddened me with ignoble reproaches. It was in vain that I swore +to him most solemnly, the man he had seen was my father--a being whom +motives of prudence compelled me to receive in private, even though my +heart abhorred and loathed the relationship between us. He treated my +explanation with deriding contempt, bidding me either produce that +father within twenty-four hours, or find some easier fool to persuade, +that one wearing the hue and features of the black, could by human +possibility be the parent of a white woman. Again I explained the +seeming incongruity, by urging that the hasty and imperfect view he had +taken was of a mask, imitating the features of a negro, which my father +had brought with him as a disguise, and which he had hastily resumed on +hearing the noise of the key in the door. I even admitted as an excuse +for seeing him thus clandestinely, the lowly origin of my father and the +base occupation he followed of a treacherous spy, who, residing in the +Canadas, came, for the mere consideration of gold, to sell political +information to the enemies of the country that gave him asylum and +protection. I added that his visit to me was to extort money, under a +threat of publishing our consanguinity, and that dread of his (my +lover's) partiality being decreased by the disclosure, had induced me to +throw my arms, in the earnestness of entreaty, upon his neck, and +implore his secresy; promising to reward him generously for his silence. +I moreover urged him, if he still doubted, to make inquiry of Major +Montgomerie, and ascertain from him whether I was not indeed the niece +of his adoption, and not of his blood. Finally, I humbled myself in the +dust, and, like a fawning reptile, clasped his knees in my arms, +entreating mercy and justice. But no," and the voice of Matilda grew +deeper, and her form became more erect; "neither mercy nor justice dwelt +in that hard heart, and he spurned me rudely from him. Nothing short of +the production of him he persisted in calling my vile paramour, would +satisfy him; but my ignoble parent had received from me the reward of +his secresy, and he had departed once more to the Canadas. And thus," +pursued Matilda, her voice trembling with emotion, "was I made the +victim of the most diabolical suspicion that ever haunted the breast of +man." + +Gerald was greatly affected. His passion for Matilda seemed to increase +in proportion with his sympathy for her wrongs, and he clasped her +energetically to his heart. + +"Finding him resolute in attaching to me the debasing imputation," +pursued the American, "it suddenly flashed upon my mind that this was +but a pretext to free himself from his engagement, and that he was glad +to accomplish his object through the first means that offered. Oh, +Gerald, I cannot paint the extraordinary change that came over my +feelings at this thought! much less give you an idea of the rapidity +with which that change was effected. One moment before, and, although +degraded and unjustly accused, I had loved him with all the ardor of +which a woman's heart is capable: _now_ I hated, loathed, detested him; +and had he sunk at my feet, I would have spurned him from me with +indignation and scorn. I could not but be conscious that the very act of +having yielded myself up to him, had armed my lover with the power to +accuse me of infidelity, and the more I lingered on the want of +generosity such a suspicion implied, the more rooted became my dislike, +the more profound my contempt for him, who could thus repay so great a +proof of confidingness and affection. + +"It was even while I lay grovelling at his feet," pursued Matilda, after +a momentary pause, during which she evinced intense agitation, "that +this sudden change (excited by this most unheard-of injustice) came over +my mind--I rose and stood before him; then asked, in a voice in which no +evidence of passion could be traced, what excuse he meant to make to +Major Montgomerie for having thus broken off his engagement. He started +at my sudden calmness of manner, but said that he thought it might be as +well for my sake to name what I had already stated to him in regard to +the obscurity of my birth, as a plea for his seceding from the +connexion. I told him that, under all the circumstances, I thought this +most advisable, and then, pointing to the door, bade him be gone, and +never, under any pretext whatever, again to insult me with his presence. +When he had departed, I burst into a paroxysm of tears; but they were +tears shed not for the loss of him I now despised, but of wild sorrow at +my unmerited degradation. That conflict over, the weakness had for ever +passed away, and never, since that hour, has tear descended cheek of +mine, associated with the recollection of the villain who had thus dared +to trifle with a heart the full extent of whose passions he has yet to +learn." + +There was a trembling of the whole person of Matilda which told how much +her feelings had been excited by the recollection of what she narrated, +and Gerald, as he gazed upon her beautiful form, could not but wonder at +the apathy of the man who could thus have heartlessly thrown it from him +for ever. + +"Had the injury terminated here," resumed Matilda, "bitter as my +humiliation was, my growing dislike for him who had so ungenerously +inflicted it, might have enabled me to endure it. But, not satisfied +with destroying the happiness of her who had sacrificed all for his +sake, my perfidious lover had yet a blow in reserve for me, compared +with which his antecedent conduct was mercy. Gerald," she continued, as +she pressed his arm with a convulsive grasp, "will you believe that the +monster had the infamy to confide to one of his most intimate +associates, that his rupture with me was occasioned by his having +discovered me in the arms of a slave--of one of those vile beings +communion with whom my soul in any sense abhorred? How shall I describe +the terrible feeling that came over my insulted heart at that moment. +But no, no--description were impossible. This associate--this friend of +his--dared on the very strength of this infamous imputation, to pollute +my ear with his disrespectful passion, and when, in a transport of +contempt and anger, I spurned him from me, he taunted me with that which +I believed confined to the breast, as it had been engendered only in the +suspicion, of my betrayer. Oh! if it be dreadful to be accused by those +whom we have loved in intimacy, how much more is it to know that they +have not had even the common humanity to conceal our supposed weakness +from the world. From that moment revenge took possession of my soul, and +I swore that my destroyer should perish by the hand of her whose +innocence and whose peace he had blasted for ever. + +"Shortly after this event," resumed Matilda, "my base lover was ordered +to join his regiment, then stationed at Detroit. A year passed away, and +during that period my mind pondered unceasingly on the means of +accomplishing my purpose of revenge; and so completely did I devote +myself to a cool and unprejudiced examination of the subject, that what +the vulgar crowd term guilt, appeared to me plain virtue. On the war +breaking out, Major Montgomerie was also ordered to Detroit, and thither +I entreated him to suffer me to accompany him. He consented, for knowing +nothing of the causes which had turned my love into gall, he thought it +not improbable that a meeting with my late lover might be productive of +a removal of his prejudices, and our consequent reunion. Little did he +dream that it was with a view to plunge a dagger into my destroyer's +false heart, that I evinced so much eagerness to undertake so long and +so disagreeable a Journey. + +"Little more remains to be added," pursued Matilda, as she fixed her +dark eyes with a softened expression on those of Gerald, "since with the +occurrences there you are already sufficiently acquainted. Yet there is +one point upon which I would explain myself. When I first became your +prisoner, my mind had been worked up to the highest pitch of +determination, and in my captor I at first beheld but an evil genius who +had interposed himself between me and my just revenge, when on the very +eve of its consummation. Hence my petulance and impatience while in the +presence of your noble General." + +"And whence that look, Matilda, that peculiar glance, which you bestowed +upon me even within the same hour?" + +"Because in your frank and fearless mien I saw that manly honor and +fidelity, the want of which had undone me." + +"Then if so, why the cold, the mortifying reserve, you manifested when +we met at dinner at my uncle's table?" + +"Because I had also recollected that, degraded as I was, I ought not to +seek the love of an honorable man, and that to win you to my interest +would be of no avail, as, separated by the national quarrel, you could +not by any possibility be near to aid me in my plans." + +"Then," said Gerald reproachfully, "it was merely to make me an +instrument of vengeance that you sought me. Unkind Matilda!" + +"Nay, Gerald--recollect, that then I had not learnt to know you as I do +now--I will not deny that when first I saw you, a secret instinct told +me you were one whom I would have deeply loved had I never loved before; +but betrayed and disappointed as I had been, I looked upon all men with +a species of loathing--my kind, good, excellent more than father, +excepted--and yet, Gerald, there were moments when I wished even him +dead" (Gerald started)--"yes! dead--because I knew the anguish that +would crush his heart, if he should ever learn that the false brand of +the assassin had been affixed to the brow of his adopted child." Matilda +sighed profoundly, and then resumed. "Later, however, when the absence +of its object had in some degree abated the keenness of my thirst for +revenge, and when more frequent intercourse had made me acquainted with +the generous qualities of your mind, I loved you, Gerald, although I +would not avow it, with a fervor I had never believed myself a second +time capable of entertaining." + +Again the countenance of Matilda was radiant with the expression just +alluded to by her lover. Gerald gazed at her as though his very being +hung upon the continuance of that fascinating influence, and again he +clasped her to his heart. + +"Matilda! oh, my own betrothed Matilda!" he murmured. + +"Yes, your own betrothed," repeated the American, highly excited, "the +wife of your affection and your choice, who has been held up to calumny +and scorn. Think of that, Gerald; she on whose fond bosom you are to +repose your aching head, she who glories in her beauty only because it +is beauty in your eyes, has been betrayed, accused of a vile passion for +a slave; yet he--the fiend who has done this grievous wrong--he who has +stamped your wife with ignominy, and even published her shame--still +lives. Within a week," she resumed in a voice hoarse from exhaustion, +"yes, within a week, Gerald he will be here--perhaps to deride and +contemn you for the choice you have made." + +"Within a week he dies," exclaimed the youth. "Matilda, come what will, +he dies. Life is death without you, and with you even crime may sit +lightly on my soul. But we will fly far from the habitations of men. The +forest shall be my home, and when the past recurs to me you shall smile +upon me with that smile, look upon me with that look, and I will forget +all. Yes," he pursued, with a fierce excitement snatching up the holy +book, and again carrying it to his lips, "once more I repeat my oath. He +who has thus wronged you, my own Matilda, dies--dies by the hand of +Gerald Grantham--of your affianced husband." + +There was another long embrace, after which the plan of operations was +distinctly explained and decided upon. They then separated for the +night--the infatuated Gerald, with a load of guilt at his heart no +effort of his reason could remove, returning by the route he had +followed on the preceding evening to his residence in the town. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + + +Leaving the lost Gerald for a time to all the horrors of his position, +in which it would be difficult to say whether remorse or passion (each +intensest of its kind) predominated, let us return to the scene where we +first introduced him to the reader, and take a review of the military +events passing in that quarter. + +After the defeat of the British columns at Sandusky, so far from any +renewed attempts being made to interrupt the enemy in his strongholds, +it became a question whether the position on the Michigan frontier could +be much longer preserved. To the perseverance and promptitude of the +Americans, in bringing new armies into the field, we have already had +occasion to allude; but there was another quarter in which their +strength had insensibly gathered, until it eventually assumed an aspect +that carried apprehension to every heart. Since the loss of their +flotilla at Detroit, in the preceding year, the Americans had commenced +with vigour to equip one at Buffalo, which was intended to surpass the +naval force on Lake Erie; and so silently and cautiously had they +accomplished this task, that it was scarcely known at Amherstburg that a +squadron was in the course of preparation, when that squadron, to which +had been added the schooner captured from Gerald Grantham the preceding +autumn, suddenly appeared off the harbor, defying their enemies to the +combat. But the English vessels were in no condition to cope with so +powerful an enemy, and although many a gallant spirit burned to be led +against those who so evidently taunted them, the safety of the garrisons +depended too much on the issue, for that issue to be lightly tempted. + +But misfortune was now beginning to overcast the hitherto fair prospects +of the British arms in the Western District of the Canadas; and what the +taunts of an enemy, triumphing in the consciousness of a superior +numerical force, could not effect, an imperative and miserably +provided-for necessity eventually compelled. Maintaining as they did a +large body of wild and reckless warriors, together with their families, +it may be naturally supposed the excesses of these people were not few; +but it would have required one to have seen, to have believed, the +prodigal waste of which they were often guilty. Acknowledging no other +law than their own will, following no other line of conduct than that +suggested by their own caprice, they had as little respect for the +Canadian inhabitant as they would have entertained for that of the +American enemy. And hence it resulted, that if an Indian preferred a +piece of fresh, to the salted meat daily issued from the commissariat, +nothing was more common than for him to kill the first head of cattle he +found grazing on the skirt of the forest, secure the small portion he +wanted, and leave the remainder to serve as carrion to the birds of prey +of the country. Nay, to such an extent was this wanton spoliation +carried, that instances have repeatedly occurred wherein cattle have +been slain and left to putrify in the sun, merely because a warrior +found it the most convenient mode by which to possess himself of a +powder-horn. All this was done openly--in the broad face of day, and in +the full cognisance of the authorities; yet was there no provision made +to meet the difficulties so guilty a waste was certain eventually to +entail. At length the effect began to make itself apparent, and it was +shortly after the first appearance of the American fleet that the +scarcity of food began to be so severely felt as to compel the English +squadron, at all hazards, to leave the port in search of supplies. + +At this period, the vessel described in the commencement of our story, +as having engaged so much of the interest and attention of all parties, +had just been launched and rigged. Properly armed she was not, for there +were no guns of the description used on ship-board wherewith to arm her; +but now that the occasion became imperative, all nicety was disregarded +in the equipment; and guns that lately bristled from the ramparts of the +fort were soon to be seen protruding their long and unequal necks from +the ports. She was a gallant ship, notwithstanding the incongruity of +her armament, and had her brave crew possessed but the experience of +those who are nursed on the salt waves of ocean, might have fought a +more fortunate fight (a better or a braver was impossible) than she did. +But in the whole of the English fleet there could not be counted +three-score able or experienced seamen; the remainder were children of +the Canadian Lakes, warm with the desire to distinguish themselves in +the eyes of their more veteran European companions, but without the +knowledge to make their enthusiasm sufficiently available. The +Americans, on the contrary, were all sons of the ocean and equally +brave. + +It was a glorious day in September, the beautiful September of Canada, +when the gallant Commodore Barclay sailed with his fleet, ostensibly in +fulfilment of the mission for which it was dispatched, but in reality +under the firm expectation of being provoked to action by his stronger +and better disciplined enemy. To say that he would have sought that +enemy, under the disadvantages beneath which he knew himself to labor, +would be to say that which would reflect little credit on his judgment; +but, although not in a condition to hold forth the flag of defiance, +where there was an inferiority in all but the skill of the leader and +the personal courage of the men, he was not one to shun the battle that +should be forced upon him. Still to him it was an anxious moment, +because the fame of other days hung upon an issue over which no efforts +of his own could hold mastery; and as he gazed at his armless sleeve, he +sighed for the presence of those whose agency had coupled the +recollection of past victory with that mutilated proof of honorable +conduct. He knew, moreover, the magnitude of the stake for which he was +thus compelled to play, and that defeat to him would be the loss of the +whole of the Western District. While the British ascendancy could be +maintained on the lake, there was little fear, lined as the forests were +with Indian warriors, that the Americans would push any considerable +force beyond the boundaries they had assigned themselves at Sandusky and +on the Miami; but a victory once obtained by their fleet, there could be +nothing to oppose the passage of their army in vessels and boats across +the lake. + +Such were the thoughts that filled the mind of the Commodore (in common +with all who calmly reasoned on the subject), as he crossed the bar that +separated him from his enemy; but neither in look, nor word, nor deed, +was there aught to reveal what was passing in the inward man; and when +later the hostile fleet was signalized as bearing down upon them, he +gave his order to prepare for action, in the animated voice of one who +finds certain victory within his reach, and exultingly hastens to secure +it. + +The events of that day the page of history has already recorded, in +terms alike flattering to the conqueror and the conquered. Let it +suffice that the Americans fought with determined bravery, and +eventually triumphed. + +The result of the unlucky contest was, as had been anticipated, to open +a free passage across the lake to the American armies, whose advance by +land had been so repeatedly and effectually checked on former occasions, +as to leave them little inclination for a renewal of an attempt in that +quarter. Now however that they could forward a fleet of boats under +cover of the guns of their squadron, to the very outworks of +Amherstburg, the difficulty was at once removed; and an overwhelming +army of not less than ten thousand men, was speedily assembled near +Sandusky, with a view to the final invasion of Amherstburg and +consequent recapture of Detroit. + +Under these disheartening circumstances--the want of provisions being +daily more and more felt by the troops and inhabitants--it became +necessary to hold a council of war, to determine upon the course that +should be pursued. Accordingly the whole of the chiefs and officers of +the garrison met in the hall already described in the beginning of our +narrative, when it was proposed by General Proctor, at the conclusion of +a speech in which the increasing difficulties and privations of the +garrison were emphatically enumerated, that the fortifications should be +razed to the ground, the dock yards and other public works destroyed, +and the allied forces of English and Indians make the best of their way +by land to join the centre division of the army on the Niagara frontier. + +This was warmly opposed by Tecumseh, but despite his eloquence and +remonstrance, a few days later, and the work of destruction was entered +upon and soon completed. The little British army, scarcely exceeding +eight hundred men of all arms, commenced its march at night, lighted by +the flames of the barracks which had given them shelter for the last +time. As they passed the fort of Detroit the next day, dense columns of +smoke and flame were to be seen rising high in air, from the various +public edifices, affording a melancholy evidence of the destruction +which usually tracks a retreating army. Many an American inhabitant +looked on at the work of destruction, as if he would fain have arrested +the progress of an element which at once defaced the beauty of the town, +and promised much trouble and inconvenience to those whom they knew to +be at hand, for their final deliverance from the British yoke. But the +garrison continued stern spectators of the ruin they had been compelled +to effect, until the flames had attained a power which rendered then +suppression an impossibility; then and then only, did they quit the +scene of conflagration, and embarking in the boats which had been kept +in readiness for their transport, joined their comrades, who waited for +them on the opposite bank. The two garrisons thus united; the whole +preceded by a large body of Indians, were pushed forward to the position +which had been selected on the Thames, and both shores of the Detroit +were left an unresisting conquest to the Americans. + +Meanwhile, these latter had not been slow in profiting by the important +advantages which had crowned their arms on the lake. On the third day +after the retreat of the British garrison from Amherstburg, a numerous +fleet of large boats was discovered from the town pushing for Hartley's +point, under cover of the united squadrons. Unopposed as these were, +their landing was soon effected, and a few hours later the American +stars were to be seen floating over the still smoking ruins of the +British fortress. Emboldened by the unexpected ease with which he had +rendered himself finally master of a position long coveted, the American +General at once resolved to follow and bring his retreating enemy to +action if possible. A force of five thousand men (fifteen hundred of +whom were mounted rifles) was accordingly pushed forward; and so rapid +and indefatigable was the march of these, that they came up with the +retreating columns before they had succeeded in gaining the village, at +which it was purposed that their final stand should be made. The anxiety +of General Proctor to save the baggage waggons containing his own +personal effects, had been productive of the most culpable delay, and at +the moment when his little army should have been under cover of +entrenchments, and in a position which offered a variety of natural +defensive advantages, they found themselves suddenly overtaken by the +enemy in the heart of a thick wood, where, fatigued by the long and +tedious march they had made under circumstances of great privation, they +had scarcely time to form in the irregular manner permitted by their +broken position, before they found themselves attacked with great spirit +and on all sides, by a force more than quadruple their own. The result +may easily be anticipated. Abandoned by their General, who at the very +first outset, drove his spurs into the flanks of his charger and fled +disgracefully from the scene of action, followed by the whole of his +personal staff, the irregularly formed line of the little British army, +was but ill prepared to make effectual resistance to the almost +invisible enemy by whom it was encompassed; and those whom the rifle had +spared, were to be seen, within an hour from the firing of the first +shot, standing conquered and disarmed, between the closing lines of the +victorious Americans. + +But although the English troops (sacrificed as they must be pronounced +to have been, by their incapable leader) fell thus an easy prey to the +overwhelming force brought against them, so did not their Indian allies, +supported and encouraged as these were by the presence of their beloved +Chieftain. It was with a sparkling eye and a glowing cheek that, just as +the English troops had halted to give unequal battle to their pursuers. +Tecumseh passed along the line, expressing in animated language the +delight he felt at the forthcoming struggle, and when he had shaken +hands with most of the officers he moved into the dense forest where his +faithful bands were lying concealed, with a bounding step that proved +not only how much his heart had been set upon the cast, but how +completely he confided in the result. And who shall say what that result +might not have been even notwithstanding the discomfiture of the English +had the heroic Chieftain been spared to his devoted country! But this +was not fated to be. Early in the action he fell by the hand of a +distinguished leader of the enemy, and his death carried, as it could +not fail to do, the deepest sorrow and dismay into the hearts of his +followers, who although they continued the action long after his fall, +and with a spirit that proved their desire to avenge the loss of their +noble leader, it was evident, wanted the directing genius of him they +mourned to sustain them in their effort. For several days after the +action did they continue to hang upon the American rear, as the army +again retired with its prisoners upon Detroit; but each day their attack +became feebler and feebler, announcing that their numbers were fast +dispersing into the trackless region from which they had been brought, +until finally not a shot was to be heard disturbing the night vigils of +the American sentinels. + +With the defeat of the British army, and the death of Tecumseh, perished +the last hope of the Indians to sustain themselves as a people against +the in-roads of their oppressors. Dispirited and dismayed, they retired +back upon the hunting grounds which still remained to them, and there +gave way both to the deep grief with which every heart was overwhelmed +at the loss of their truly great leader, and to the sad anticipations +which the increasing gloom that clouded the horizon of their prospects +naturally induced. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. + + +The interview so fatal in its results to Gerald's long formed +resolutions of virtuous purpose was followed by others of the same +description, and in the course of these, Matilda, profiting by her +knowledge of the past, had the address so to rivet the chains which +fettered the senses of her lover, by a well-timed, although apparently +unintentional display of the beauty which had enslaved him, that so far +from shrinking from the fulfilment of the dreadful obligation he had +imposed upon himself, the resolution of the youth became more confirmed +as the period for its enactment drew nigher. There were moments when, +his passion worked up to intensity by the ever-varying, over-exciting +picture of that beauty, would have anticipated the condition on which he +was to become possessed of it for ever, but on these occasions the +American would assume an air of wounded dignity, sometimes of deep +sorrow; and alluding to the manner in which her former confidence had +been repaid, reproach him with a want of generosity, in seeking to make +her past weakness a pretext for his present advances. + +At length the day arrived when Gerald--the once high, generous and noble +minded Gerald,--was to steep his soul in guilt--to imbrue his hands in +the life blood of a fellow creature. The seducer of Matilda had arrived, +and even in the hotel in which Grantham resided, the entertainment was +to be given by his approving fellow citizens, in commemoration of the +heroism which had won to him golden opinions from every class. It had +already been arranged that the assassination was to take place on the +departure of their victim from the banquet, and consequently at a moment +when, overcome by the fumes of wine, he would be found incapable of +opposing any serious resistance to their design. The better to +facilitate his close and unperceived approach to the unhappy man, a pair +of cloth shoes had been made for her lover by the white hands of +Matilda, with a sort of hood or capuchin of the same material, to +prevent recognition by any one who might accidentally pass him on the +way to the scene of the contemplated murder. Much as Gerald objected to +it, Matilda had peremptorily insisted on being present herself, to +witness the execution of the deed, and the same description of disguise +had been prepared for herself. In this resolution the American, +independently of her desire to fortify the courage of her lover by her +presence, was actuated by another powerful and fearful motive, which +will be seen presently. + +The private residence of the officer was situated in a remote part of +the town, and skirting that point of the circular ridge of hills where +the lights in the habitation of Matilda had attracted the notice of +Gerald, on the first night of his encounter. To one who viewed it from a +distance, it would have seemed that the summit of the wood-crowned ridge +must be crossed before communication could be held between the two +dwellings which lay as it were back to back, on either side of the +formidable barrier; but on a nearer approach, a fissure in the hill +might be observed, just wide enough to admit of a narrow horse track or +foot path, which wound its sinuous course from the little valley into +the open space that verged upon the town, on gaining which the residence +of the American officer was to be seen rising at the distance of twenty +yards. It was in this path, which had been latterly pointed out to him +by his guilty companion, that Gerald was to await the approach of the +intended victim, who on passing his place of concealment, was to be +cautiously followed and stabbed to the heart ere he could gain his door. + +Fallen as was Gerald from his high estate of honor, it was not without a +deep sense of the atrocity of the act he was about to commit, that he +prepared for its accomplishment. It is true that, yielding to the +sophistry of Matilda's arguments, he was sometimes led to imagine the +avenging of her injuries an imperative duty; but such was his view of +the subject only when the spell of her presence was upon him. When +restored to his calmer and more unbiassed judgment, in the solitude of +his own chamber, conscience resumed her sway, and no plausibility of +pretence could conceal from himself that he was about to become that +vilest of beings--a common murderer. There were moments even when the +dread deed to which he had pledged himself appeared in such hideous +deformity, that he fain would have fled on the instant far from the +influence of her who had incited him to its perpetration; but when the +form of Matilda rose to his mental eye, remorse, conscience, every +latent principle of virtue, dissolved away--and although he no longer +sought to conceal from himself that what he meditated was crime of the +blackest dye, his determination to secure entire possession of that +beauty, even at the accursed price of blood, became but the more +resolute and confirmed. + +The night previous to that fixed for the assassination was passed by the +guilty Gerald in a state of dreadful excitement. Large drops fell from +his forehead in agony, and when he arose at a late hour, his pale, +emaciated features, and wavering step, betrayed how little the mind or +the body had tasted of repose. Accustomed, however, as he had latterly +been, to sustain his sinking spirits by artificial means, he was not +long in having recourse to his wonted stimulants. He called for brandy +to deaden the acuteness of his feelings, and give strength to his +tottering limbs; and when he had drank freely of this, he sallied forth +into the forest, where he wandered during the day, without other aim or +purpose than to hide the brand of guilt, which he almost felt upon his +brow, from the curious gaze of his fellow men. It was dark when he +returned to the hotel, and as, on his way to his own private apartment, +he passed the low large room chiefly used as an ordinary, the loud hum +of voices which met his ear, mingled with the drawing of corks and +ringing of glasses, told him that the entertainment provided for his +unconscious victim had already commenced. Moving hastily on, he gained +his own apartment, and summoning one of the domestics, he directed that +his own frugal meal (the first he had tasted that day) should be brought +up. But even for this he had no appetite, and he had recourse once more +to the stimulant for assistance. As the night drew on he grew more +nervous and agitated, yet without at all wavering from his purpose. At +length ten o'clock struck. It was the hour at which he had promised to +issue forth to join Matilda in the path, there to await the passage of +his victim to his home. He cautiously descended the staircase, and, in +the confusion that reigned among the household, all of whom were too +much occupied with the entertainment within to heed the movements of +individuals, succeeded in gaining the street without notice. The room in +which the dinner was given was on the ground floor, and looked through +numerous low windows into the street, through which Gerald must +necessarily pass to reach the place of his appointment. Sounds of loud +revelry mixed with laughter and the strains of music, now issued from +these, attesting that the banquet was at its height, and the wine fast +taking effect on its several participators. + +A momentary feeling of vague curiosity caused the degraded youth to +glance his eye through one of the uncurtained windows upon the scene +within, but scarcely had he caught an indistinct and confused view of +the company, most of whom glittered in the gay trappings of military +uniforms, when a secret and involuntary dread of distinguishing from his +fellows the man whom he was about to slay, caused him as instantaneously +to turn away. Guilty as he felt himself to be, he could not bear the +thought of beholding the features of the individual he had sworn to +destroy. As there were crowds of the humbler citizens of the place +collected round the windows to view the revelry within, neither his +appearance nor his action had excited surprise; nor, indeed, was it even +suspected, habited as he was in the common garments of the country, that +he was other than a native of the town. + +On gaining the narrow pass or lane, he found Matilda wrapped in her +cloak, beneath which she carried the disguise prepared for both. The +moon was in the last quarter, and as the fleecy clouds passed away from +before it, he could observe that the lips and cheek of the American were +almost livid, although her eyes sparkled with deep mental excitement. +Neither spoke, yet then breathing was heavy and audible to each. Gerald +seated himself on a projection of the hill, and removing his shoes, +substituted those which his companion had wrought for him. He then +assumed the hood, and dropping his head between his hands, continued for +some minutes in that attitude, buried in profound abstraction. + +At length Matilda approached him. She seated herself at his side, threw +her arms around his neck, called him in those rich and searching tones +which were peculiarly her own--her beloved and affianced husband; and +bidding him be firm of purpose, as he valued the lives and happiness of +both, placed in his hand a small dagger, the handle of which was richly +mounted in silver. Gerald clutched the naked weapon with a convulsive +grasp, while a hoarse low groan escaped him, and again he sank his head +in silence upon his chest. + +Nearly an hour had passed in this manner, neither seeking to disturb the +thoughts of the other, nor daring to break the profound silence that +every where prevailed around them. At length a distant and solitary +footstep was heard, and Matilda sprang to her feet, and with her head +thrown eagerly forward, while one small foot alone supported the whole +weight of her inclined body, gazed intently out upon the open space, and +in the direction whence the sounds proceeded. + +"He comes, Gerald, he comes!" she at length whispered in a quick tone. + +Gerald, who had also risen, and now stood looking over the shoulder of +the American, was not slow in discovering the tall figure of a man, +whose outline, cloaked even as it was, bespoke the soldier, moving in an +oblique direction towards the building already described. + +"It is he--too well do I know him," continued Matilda, in the same eager +yet almost inaudible whisper, "and mark how inflated with the incense +which has been heaped upon him this night does he appear. His proud step +tells of the ambitious projects of his vile heart. Little does he +imagine that this arm--and she tightly grasped that which held the fatal +dagger--will crush them for ever in the bud. But hist!" + +The officer was now within a few paces of the path, in the gloom of +which the guilty pair found ample concealment, and as he drew nearer and +nearer, their very breathing was stayed to prevent the slightest chance +of a discovery of their presence. Gerald suffered him to pass some yards +beyond the opening, and advanced with long yet cautious strides across +the grass towards his victim. As he moved thus noiselessly along, he +fancied that there was something in the bearing of the figure that +reminded him of one he had previously known, but he had not time to +pause upon the circumstance for the officer was already within ten yards +of his own door, and the delay of a single moment would not only deprive +him of the opportunity on which he had perilled all in this world and in +the next, but expose himself and his companion to the ignominy of +discovery and punishment. + +A single foot of ground now intervened between him and the unhappy +officer, whom wine, or abstraction, or both, had rendered totally +unconscious of his danger. Already was the hand of Gerald raised to +strike the fatal blow--another moment and it would have descended, but +even in the very act he found his arm suddenly arrested. Turning quickly +to see who it was who thus interfered with his purpose, he beheld +Matilda. + +"One moment stay," she said in a hurried voice; "poor were my revenge +indeed, were he to perish not knowing who planned his death." Then in a +hoarser tone, in which could be detected the action of the fiercest +passions of the human mind, "Slanderer--villain--we meet again." + +Startled by the sound of a familiar voice, the officer turned hastily +round, and seeing all his danger at a single glance, made a movement of +his right hand to his side, as if he would have grasped his sword--but +finding no weapon there, he contented himself with throwing his left arm +forward, covered with the ample folds of his cloak, with a view to the +defence of his person. + +"Yes, Forrester," continued Matilda, in the same impassioned voice, "we +meet again, and mark you," pulling back the disguise from Gerald, "'tis +no vile slave, no sable paramour by whose hand you die, villain," she +pursued, her voice trembling with excitement--"my own arm should have +done the deed, but that he whose service I have purchased with the hand +you rejected and despised, once baulked me of my vengeance when I had +deemed it most secure. But enough! To his heart, Gerald, now that in the +fulness of his wine and his ambition, he may the deeper feel the sting +of death--strike to his heart--what! do you falter--do you turn coward?" + +Gerald neither moved nor spoke; his upraised hand had sunk at his side +at the first address of Matilda to her enemy, and the dagger had fallen +from his hand upon the sward, where it might be seen glittering in the +rays of the pale moon. His head was bent upon his chest in abject shame, +and he seemed as one who had suddenly been turned to stone. + +"Gerald, my husband!" urged Matilda, rapidly changing her tone into that +of earnest persuasion, "wherefore do you hesitate? Am I not your wife, +your own wife, and is not yon monster the wretch who has consigned my +fair fame to obloquy for ever--Gerald!" she added, impetuously. + +But the spell had lost its power, and Gerald continued +immoveable--apparently fixed to the spot on which he stood. + +"Gerald, Gerald!" repeated the officer, with the air of one endeavoring +to recollect. + +At the sound of that voice Gerald looked up. The moon was at that moment +unobscured by a single cloud, and as the eyes of the murderer and his +intended victim met, their recognition was mutual and perfect. + +"I had never expected to see Lieutenant Grantham figuring in the +character of an assassin," said Colonel Forrester, in a voice of deep +and bitter reproach, "still less to find his arm raised against the +preserver of his life. This," he continued, as if speaking to himself, +"will be a bitter tale to recount to his family." + +"Almighty God, have mercy!" exclaimed Gerald as, overcome with shame and +misery, he threw himself upon the earth at its full length, his head +nearly touching the feet of the officer. Then clasping his feet--"Oh, +Colonel Forrester, lost, degraded as I am, believe me when I swear that +I knew not against whom my arm was to be directed. Nay, that you live at +this moment is the best evidence of the truth of what I utter, for I +came with a heart made up to murder. But _your_ blood worlds could not +tempt me to spill." + +"I believe you," said the American feelingly. "Well do I know the arts +of the woman who seems to have lured you into the depths of crime; yet +low as you are fallen, Lieutenant Grantham--much as you have disgraced +your country and profession, I cannot think you would willingly have +sought the life of him who saved your own. And now rise, sir, and gain +the place of your abode, before accident bring other eyes than my own to +be witnesses of your shame. We will discourse of this to-morrow. +Meanwhile, be satisfied with my promise that your attempt shall remain a +secret with myself." + +While he spoke, Colonel Forrester made a movement as if to depart. +Aroused by the apprehension of losing her victim, Matilda, who had +hitherto been an impatient listener, called wildly upon Gerald, who had +now risen, to fulfil his compact; but the youth turned from her with a +movement of disgust, exclaiming, with bitterness--"leave me, woman, +leave me!" + +Matilda looked after him for an instant with an expression of intensest +scorn; then springing to, and snatching up the dagger, which lay +glittering a few paces from the spot on which she stood, she advanced +silently, but rapidly upon her retreating enemy. Colonel Forrester had +gained his threshold, and had already knocked for admittance, when he +heard the deep voice of Matilda at his ear, exclaiming, in a triumphant +tone. + +"Think you twice, then, to escape your doom, traitor?" + +Before he could make an attempt to shield himself, the fatal steel had +entered deep into his side. Uttering a groan, he sank senseless on the +steps, whither Gerald, who had watched the action of his companion, had +flown in the hope of arresting the blow. Confused voices, mingled with +the tramp of feet, were now heard within the hall. Presently the door +opened, and a crowd of servants, chiefly black, appeared with lights. +The view of their bleeding master, added to the disguise of Gerald, and +the expression of triumph visible in the pale countenance of Matilda, at +once revealed the truth. By some the former was borne to his apartment, +while the greater portion busied themselves in securing the two latter, +who, however, made not the slightest effort at resistance, but suffered +themselves to be borne, amid hootings and execrations, from the spot. + +The different groups we have described as being gathered together in +front of the hotel, had dispersed on the breaking up of the party, which +Colonel Forrester, in compliment to those who entertained him, had been +one of the last to quit; so that on passing through the streets, not an +idler was found to swell the sable crowd that bore the wretched +prisoners onward to the common prison of the town. Just as they had +arrived at this latter, and a tall and muscular negro, apparently +enjoying some distinction in his master's household, was about to pull +the bell for admission, a man came running breathlessly to the spot, and +communicated to the negro just mentioned a message, in which the name of +Colonel Forrester was distinctly audible to the ear of Gerald. A +retrograde movement was the immediate consequence of this interruption, +and the party came once more upon the open space they had so recently +quitted. Stupified with the excess of abjectness in which he had +continued plunged, from the moment of his discovery of the identity of +his intended victim, Gerald had moved unconsciously and recklessly +whithersoever his conductors led; but now that he expected to be +confronted face to face with the dying man, as the sudden alteration in +the movement of the party gave him reason to apprehend, he felt for the +first time that his position, bitter as it was, might be rendered even +worse. It was a relief to him, therefore, when he found that, instead of +taking the course which led to the residence of Colonel Forrester, the +head of the party, of which Matilda and himself were the centre, +suddenly diverged into the narrow lane which conducted to the residence +of that unhappy woman. Instead, however, of approaching this, Gerald +remarked that they made immediately for the fatal temple. When they had +reached this, the door was opened by the tall negro above described, +who, with a deference in his manner not less at variance with the +occasion than with the excited conduct of the whole party on their way +to the prison, motioned both his prisoners to enter. They did so, and +the lock having been turned and the key removed, they silently +withdrew. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX. + + +Hours passed away without either of the guilty parties finding courage +or inclination to address the other. The hearts of both were too full +for utterance--and yet did they acknowledge no sympathy in common. +Remorse, shame, fear, regret, simultaneously assailed and weighed down +the mind of Gerald. Triumphant vengeance, unmixed with any apprehension +of self, reigned exclusively in the bosom of Matilda. The intense +passion of the former, like a mist that is dissipated before the strong +rays of the sun, had yielded before the masculine and practical display +of the energetic hate of its object, while on the contrary she, whose +beauty of person was now to him a thing without price, acknowledged no +other feeling than contempt for the vacillating character of her +associate. In this only did they agree, that each looked upon each in +the light of a being sunk in crime--steeped in dishonor--and while the +love of the one was turned to almost loathing at the thought, the other +merely wondered how one so feeble of heart had ever been linked to so +determined a purpose. + +The only light admitted into the temple was through the window already +described, and this was so feeble as scarcely to allow of the more +distant objects in the room being seen. Gradually, as the moon sunk +beneath the forest ridge, the gloom increased, until in the end the +darkness became almost profound. At their first entrance Matilda, +enshrouding herself in the folds of her cloak, had thrown herself upon +the sofa; while Gerald continued to pace up and down the apartment with +hurried steps, and in a state of feeling it would be a vain attempt to +describe. It was now for the first time that, uninfluenced by passion, +the miserable young man had leisure to reflect on the past, and the +chain of fatality which had led to his present disgraceful position. He +recollected the conversation he had held with his brother on the day +succeeding his escape from the storm; and as the pledge which had been +given in his name to his dying father, that no action of his life should +reflect dishonor on his family, now occurred to him in all its force, he +groaned in agony of spirit, less in apprehension of the fate that +awaited him, than in sorrow and in shame that that pledge should have +been violated. By a natural transition of his feelings, his imagination +recurred to the traditions connected with his family, and the dreadful +curse which had been uttered by one on whom his ancestor was said to +have heaped injury to the very extinction of reason--and associating as +he did Matilda's visit to the cottage at Detroit, on the memorable night +when he had unconsciously saved the life of Colonel Forrester, with the +fact of her having previously knelt and prayed upon the grave that was +known to cover the ashes of the unhappy maniac, Ellen Halloway, he felt +a shuddering conviction that she was in some way connected with that +wretched woman. In the intenseness of his new desire to satisfy his +doubts--a desire which in itself partook of the character of the +fatality by which he was beset--he overcame the repugnance he had +hitherto felt to enter into conversation with her, and advancing to the +couch, he seated himself upon its edge at her side. + +"Matilda," he said, after a few moments of silence, "by all the love you +once bore me, I conjure you to answer me one question while there is +time." + +"Fool," returned the American, "I never loved you. A soul like mine +feels passion but once. Hitherto I have played a part, but the drama +approaches to a close, and disguise of plot is no longer necessary. +Gerald Grantham, you have been my dupe. You came a convenient puppet to +my hands, and such I used you until the snapped wire proclaimed you no +longer serviceable--no further." + +Shame, anguish, mortification, all the most humiliating sensations +natural to man--for a moment assailed the breast of the unfortunate and +guilty Grantham, rendering him insensible even to the greater evil which +awaited him. In the bitterness of his agony, he struck his clenched hand +against his forehead, uttering curses upon himself for his weakness, in +one breath, and calling upon his God, in the next, to pardon him for his +crime. + +"This is good," said Matilda. "To see you writhe thus, under the wound +inflicted upon your vanity, is some small atonement for the base +violation of your oath; yet what question would you ask, the solution of +which can so much import one about to figure on the scaffold for a crime +he has not even had the courage to commit?" + +The taunting manner in which the concluding part of the sentence was +conveyed, had the effect of restoring Gerald in some degree to himself, +and he said with considerable firmness: + +"What I ask is of yourself--namely, the relationship, if any, you bear +to those who lie within the mound, on which I beheld you kneeling on the +night of your first attempt on Colonel Forrester's life?" + +"The very recollection of that ill-timed intrusion would prevent me from +satisfying your curiosity, did not something whisper to me that, in so +doing, I shall add another pang to those you already experience," +returned the American, with bitter sarcasm. + +"You are right," said Gerald hurriedly. "My miseries need but the +assurance of your connexion with those mouldering bones to be indeed +complete." + +"Then," said Matilda eagerly, and half raising her head, "your cup of +misery may yet admit of increase. My mother and my father's mother both +sleep within that grave." + +"How knew you this?" demanded Gerald quickly. "Instinct could not have +guided you to the spot, and by your own admission you were taken from +the place of your home while yet a mere child." + +"Not instinct, but my father Desborough, pointed out the spot, as he had +long previously acquainted me with the history of my birth." + +"One question more--your grandmother's name?" + +"Mad Ellen she was called, an English soldier's wife, who died in giving +birth to my father--and now that you are answered, leave me." + +"Almighty Providence!" aspirated Gerald in tones of inconceivable agony, +"it is then as I had feared, and this woman has Destiny chosen to +accomplish my ruin." + +He quitted the sofa, and paced up and down the room in a state of mind +bordering on distraction. The past crowded upon his mind in all the +confused manner of a dream, and, amid the chaos of contending feelings +by which he was beset, one idea only was distinct--namely, that the +wretched woman before him had been but the agent of Fate in effecting +his destruction. Strange as it may appear, the idea, so far from +increasing the acerbity of his feelings, had the tendency to soften his +heart towards her. He beheld in her but a being whose actions had been +fated like his own--and although every vestige of passion had fled, even +although her surpassing beauty had lost its subjugating influence, his +heart yearned towards her as one who, wrecked on the same shore, had +some claim to his sympathy and compassion. All that was now left them +was to make their peace with God, since with man their final account +would be so speedily closed; and with a view to impress her with a sense +of the religious aid from which alone they could hope for consolation, +he again seated himself at her side on the edge of the sofa. + +"Matilda," he said, in a voice in which melancholy and sternness were +blended, "we have been the children of guilt--the victims of our own +evil passions; but God is merciful, and if our penitence be sincere, we +may yet be forgiven in Heaven, although on earth there is no hope--even +if after this we could wish to live. Matilda, let us pray together." + +There was no answer--neither did the slightest movement of her form +indicate consciousness that she was addressed. "Matilda," repeated +Gerald--still there was no answer. He placed his hand upon her cheek, +and thought the touch was cold--he caught her hand, it too was cold and +but for the absence of rigidity he would have deemed her dead. + +Scarcely knowing what he did, yet with an indefinable terror at his +heart, he grasped and shook her by the arm, and again, but with greater +vehemence, pronounced her name. + +"Who calls?" she said, in a faint but deep tone, as she raised her head +slowly from the cushion which supported it. "Ha! I recollect. Tell me," +she added more quickly, "was not the blow well aimed. Marked you how the +traitor fell. Villain, to accuse the woman whose only fault was loving +him too well, with ignominious commerce with a slave!" + +"Wretched woman," exclaimed Gerald with solemn emphasis, "instead of +exulting over the evil we have done, let us rather make our peace with +Heaven, during the few hours we have yet to live. Matilda +Desborough--daughter of a murderer; thyself a murderess--the scaffold +awaits us both." + +"Coward--fool--thou liest," she returned with suddenly awakened energy. +"For one so changeling as thyself the scaffold were befitting, but know, +if I save had the heart to do this deed, I have also had the head to +provide against its consequences--see--feel--." + +One of her cold hands was extended in search of Gerald's. They met, and +a vial placed in the palm of the latter, betrayed the secret of her +previous lassitude and insensibility. + +Even amid all the horrors which environed him, and called so largely for +attention to his own personal danger, Gerald was inexpressibly shocked. + +"What! poisoned?" he exclaimed. + +"Yes--poisoned!" she murmured, and her hand again sank heavily at her +side. + +Gerald dashed the vial away from him to the farther end of the +apartment, and taking the cold hand of the unhappy woman, he continued: + +"Matilda--is this the manner in which you prepare yourself to meet the +presence of your God. What! add suicide to murder?" + +But she spoke not--presently the hand he clasped sank heavily from his +touch. Then there was a spasmodic convulsion of the whole frame. Then +there burst a piercing shriek from her lips, as she half raised herself +in agony from the sofa, and then each limb was set and motionless in the +stern rigidity of death. + +While Gerald was yet bending over the body of his unfortunate companion, +shocked, grieved and agitated beyond all expression, the door of the +temple was unlocked, and a man enveloped in a cloak, and bearing a small +dark lantern, suddenly appeared in the opening. He advanced towards the +spot where Gerald, stupified with the events of the past night, stood +gazing upon the corpse, almost unconscious of the presence of the +intruder. + +"A pretty fix you have got into, Liftenant Grantham," said the well +known voice of Jackson, "and I little calculated, when I advised you to +make love to the Kentucky gals to raise your spirits, that they would +lead you into such a deuced scrape as this." + +"Captain Jackson," said Gerald imploringly; "I am sufficiently aware of +all the enormity of my crime, and am prepared to expiate it; but in +mercy spare the bitterness of reproach." + +"Now as I'm a true Tennessee man, bred and born, I meant no reproach, and +why should I, since you could'nt help her doing it, and he pointed to +Matilda, yet you know its sometimes dangerous to be found in bad +company. Every body might'nt believe you so innocent as we do." + +"Innocent! Captain Jackson," exclaimed Gerald, losing sight of all other +feelings in unfeigned surprise--"I cannot say that I quite understand +you." + +"Why, the meaning's plain enough, I take it. Others might be apt, I say, +to think you had something to do with the thing as well as she, and +therefore its just as well you should make yourself scarce. The Colonel +says he would'nt on any account, you should even be suspected." + +"The Colonel says--not suspected," again exclaimed Gerald with +increasing astonishment--then, suddenly recollecting the situation of +the latter--"tell me," he continued, "is Colonel Forrester in danger--is +his life despaired of?" + +"Worth a dozen dead men yet, or you would'nt see me taking the thing so +coolly. The dagger certainly let the daylight into him, but though the +wound was pretty considerably deep, the doctors say its not mortal. He +thinks it might have been worse if you had not come up, and partly +stopped her arm when she struck at him." + +Gerald was deeply affected by what he had just heard. It was evident +that Colonel Forrester had, with a generosity to which no gratitude of +his own could render adequate justice, sought to exonerate him from all +suspicion of participation in the guilty design upon his life, and as he +glanced his eye again for a moment upon the lifeless form of his +companion, he was at once sensible that the only being who could defeat +the benevolent object of his benefactor had now no longer the power to +do so. + +"She sleeps sound enough now," said Jackson, again pointing to the +ill-fated and motionless girl, "but she'll sleep sounder yet before +long, I take it." + +"She will never sleep sounder than at this moment, Captain Jackson," +said Gerald, with solemn emphasis. + +"Why, you don't mean to say she has cheated the hangman, Liftenant." + +As he spoke, Jackson approached the sofa, and turning the light full +upon the face, saw indeed that she was dead. Gerald shuddered as the +rays from the lamp revealed for the first time the appalling change +which had been wrought upon that once beautiful countenance. The open +and finely formed brow was deeply knit, and the features distorted by +the acute agony which had wrung the shriek from her heart at the very +moment of dissolution, were set in a stern expression of despair. The +parted lips were drawn up at the corners in a manner to convey the idea +of the severest internal pain, and there was already a general +discoloration about the mouth, betraying the subtle influences of the +poison which had effected her death. + +Gerald after the first glance, turned away his head in horror from the +view, but the Aide-de-camp remained for some moments calmly regarding +the remains of all that had once been most beautiful in nature. + +"She certainly is not like what she was when Colonel Forrester first +knew her," he said, in the abstracted tone of one talking without +reference to any other auditor than himself; "but this comes of +preferring a nigger to a white man. Such unnatural courses never can +prosper, I take it." + +"Captain Jackson," said Gerald, aroused by his remark, and with great +emphasis of tone, while he laid his hand impressively on the shoulder of +the other, "you do her wrong. Guilty as she has been, fearfully guilty, +but not in the sense you would imply." + +"How do you know this?" asked the Aide-de-camp. + +"From her own solemn declaration at a moment when deception could avail +her not. Even before she swallowed the fatal poison, her horror at the +imputation, which drove her to the perpetration of murder, was expressed +in terms of indignant warmth that belong to truth alone." + +"If this be so," said Jackson, musingly, "she is indeed a much injured +woman, and deep I know will be the regret of Colonel Forrester when he +hears it, for he himself has ever believed her guilty. But come, +Liftenant Grantham, we have no time to lose. The day will soon break, +and I expect you must be a considerable way from Frankfort before +sunrise." + +"I--from Frankfort--before sunrise!" exclaimed Gerald, in perfect +astonishment. + +"Why, it's rather short warning to be sure; but the Colonel thinks you'd +better start before the thing gets wind in the morning; for so many of +the niggers say you wore a sort of a disguise as well as the poor girl, +he fears the citizens may suspect you of something more than an +intrigue, and insult you desperately." + +"Generous, excellent man!" exclaimed Gerald, "how can I ever repay this +most unmerited service?" + +"Why, the best way I take it, is to profit by the offer that is made you +of getting back to Canada as fast as you can." + +"But how is this to be done, and will not the very fact of my flight +confirm the suspicion it is intended to remove?" + +"As for the matter of how it is to be done, Liftenant, I have as slick a +horse waiting outside for you as man ever crossed--one of the fleetest +in Colonel Forrester's stud. Then as for suspicion, he means to set that +at rest, by saying that he has taken upon himself to give you leave to +return on parole to your friends, who wish to see you on a case of life +and death, and now let's be moving." + +Oppressed with the weight of contending feelings, which this generous +conduct had inspired, Gerald waited but to cast a last look upon the +ill-fated Matilda; and then with a slow step and a heavy heart for ever +quitted a scene fraught with the most exciting and the most painful +occurrences of his life. The first rays of early dawn beginning to +develope themselves as they issued from the temple, Jackson extinguished +his lamp, and leading through the narrow pass that conducted to the +town, made the circuit of the ridge of hills until they arrived at a +point where a negro (the same who had led the party that bore Matilda +and himself to the temple) was in waiting, with a horse ready saddled +and the arms and accoutrements of a rifleman. + +The equipment of Gerald was soon completed, and with the shot-bag and +powder-horn slung over his shoulder, and the long rifle in his hand, he +soon presented the appearance of a backwoodsman hastening to the theatre +of war. + +When he had seated himself in the saddle, Jackson drew forth a well +filled purse, which he said he had been directed by Colonel Forrester to +present him with to defray the expenses of his journey to the frontier. + +Deeply affected by this new proof of the favor of the generous American, +Gerald received the purse, saying, as he confided them to the breast of +his hunting frock-- + +"Captain Jackson, tell Colonel Forrester from me, that I accept his +present merely because in doing so I give the best evidences of my +appreciation of _all_ he has done for me on this trying occasion. In his +own heart, however, he must look for the only reward to which this most +noble of actions justly entitles him." + +The frank-hearted Aide-de-camp promised compliance with this parting +message, and after pointing out the route it would be necessary to +follow, warmly pressed the hand of his charge in a final grasp, that +told how little he deemed the man before him capable of the foul +intention with which his soul had been so recently sullied. + +How often during those hours of mad infatuation, when his weakened mind +had been balancing between the possession of Matilda at the price of +crime, and his abandonment of her at that of happiness, had the +observation of the Aide-de-camp, on a former occasion, that he "was +never born to be an assassin," occurred to his mind, suffusing his cheek +with shame and his soul with remorse. Now, too, that conscious of having +fallen in all but the positive commission of the deed, he saw that the +unsuspecting American regarded him merely as one whom accident or +intrigue had made an unwilling witness of the deadly act of a desperate +woman, his feelings were those of profound abasement and self-contempt. + +There was a moment, when urged by an involuntary impulse, he would have +undeceived Captain Jackson as to his positive share in the transaction; +but pride suddenly interposed and saved him from the degradation of the +confession. He returned the pressure of the American's hand with +emphasis, and then turning his horse in the direction which he had been +recommended to take, quitted Frankfort for ever. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI. + + +In October of the same year, a numerous body of Americans, principally +troops of the line, had been collected under the orders of General Van +Rensselaer, and advantage was taken of an extremely dark night to push +them across the river, with a view to the occupation of the commanding +heights above the village of Queenston. In this, favored by +circumstances, the enemy were eminently successful. They carried the +batteries, and at day-break the heights were to be seen covered with +their battalions, before whom were thrown out a considerable body of +riflemen. At the first alarm, the little detachment stationed at +Queenston marched out to dislodge them; but such was the impatient +gallantry of General Brock, who had succeeded to the command on this +line of frontier, that without waiting for the main body from Fort +George to come up, he threw himself at the head of the flank companies +of the Forty-Ninth, and moving forward in double quick time, soon came +within sight of the enemy. + +Among the General's aides-de-camp, was Henry Grantham, who, having +succeeded in making his escape at the fatal defeat of the Moravian +Village, with a few men of his company, had in the absence of his +regiment (then prisoners of war), and from considerations of personal +esteem, been attached as a supernumerary to his staff. With him at this +moment was the light-hearted De Courcy, and as the young men rode a +little in rear of their Chief, they were so rapt in admiration of his +fine form and noble daring (as he still kept dashing onward, far in +advance even of the handful of troops who followed eagerly and rapidly +in his rear), that they utterly forgot the danger to which he was +exposed. + +On arriving at the ascent, the General for a moment reined in his +charger, in order to give time to the rear to close in, then removing +and waving his plumed hat. + +"Hurrah, Forty-Ninth!" he exclaimed, in language suited to those he +addressed. "Up these heights lies our road--on ourselves depends the +victory. Not a shot till we gain the summit--then three cheers for old +England--a volley--and the bayonet must do the rest!" + +So saying, he resumed his hat; and wheeling his horse, once more led his +gallant little band up the hill. + +But it was not likely that the Americans would suffer the approach of so +determined an enemy without attempting to check their progress in the +most efficient manner. Distinguished from those around him by his +commanding air, not less than by the military insignia that adorned him, +the person of the General was at once recognised for one bearing high +rank, and as such became an object of especial attention to the +dispersed riflemen. Shot after shot flew past the undaunted officer, +carrying death into the close ranks that followed noiselessly in his +rear, yet without harming him. At length he was seen by his +aides-de-camp, both of whom had kept their eyes upon him, to reel in his +saddle. An instant brought the young men to his side, De Courcy on his +right and Grantham on his left hand. They looked up into his face. It +was suffused with the hues of death. A moment afterwards and he fell +from his horse, with his head reclining upon the chest of Henry +Grantham. There was a momentary halt in the advancing column; all were +dismayed at the dreadful event. + +De Courcy and Grantham, having abandoned their horses, now bore their +beloved leader to the side of the road, and sought some spot out of +reach of the enemy's fire, where he might breathe his last moments in +peace. + +As Henry Grantham glanced his eye towards an old untenanted building, +that lay some fifty yards off the road, and which he conceived fully +adapted to the purpose, he saw the form of a rifleman partly exposed at +a corner of the building, whose action at the moment was evidently that +of one loading his piece. The idea that this skulking enemy might have +been the same who had given the fatal death-wound to his beloved Chief, +added to the conviction that he was preparing to renew the shot, filled +him with the deepest desire of vengeance. As the bodies of several men, +picked off by the riflemen, lay along the road (one at no great distance +from the spot on which he stood), he hastened to secure the nearest +musket, which, as no shot had been fired by the English, he knew to be +loaded. + +Leaving De Courcy to support the head of the General, the young +Aid-de-camp moved with due caution towards the building; but ere he had +gone ten paces, he beheld the object of his pursuit issue altogether +from the cover of the building, and advance towards him with his rifle +on the trail. More and more convinced that his design was to obtain a +near approach, with a view to a more certain aim, he suddenly halted and +raised the musket to his shoulder. In vain was a shout to desist uttered +by the advancing man--in vain was his rifle thrown aside, as if in token +of the absence of all hostile purposes. The excited Henry Grantham +heeded not the words--saw not the action. He thought only of the danger +of his General, and of his desire to avenge his fall. He fired--the +rifleman staggered, and putting his hand to his breast-- + +"My brother! oh, my unhappy brother!" he exclaimed, and sank senseless +to the earth. + +Who shall tell the horror of the unfortunate young Aide-de-camp, at +recognising in the supposed enemy his long mourned and much loved +Gerald! Motion, sense, life, seemed for the instant annihilated by the +astounding consciousness of the fratricidal act: the musket fell from +his hands, and he who had never known sorrow before, save through those +most closely linked to his warm affections, was now overwhelmed, crushed +by the mountain of despair that fell upon his heart. It was some moments +before he could so far recover from the stupor into which that dear and +well-remembered voice had plunged him, as to perceive the possibility of +the wound not being mortal. The thought acted like electricity upon each +stupified sense and palsied limb; and eager with the renewed hope, he +bounded forward to the spot where lay the unfortunate Gerald, writhing +in his agony. He had fallen on his face, but as Henry approached him, he +raised himself with one hand, and with the other beckoned to his brother +to draw near. + +"Great God, what have I done!" exclaimed the unhappy Henry, throwing +himself, in a paroxysm of despair, upon the body of his bleeding +brother. "Gerald, my own beloved Gerald, is it thus we meet again? Oh! +if you would not kill me, tell me that your wound is not mortal. Assure +me that I am not a fratricide. Oh, Gerald, Gerald! my brother, tell me +that you are not dying." + +A faint smile passed over the pale, haggard features of Gerald: he +grasped the hand of his brother and pressed it fervently, saying: + +"Henry, the hand of fate is visible in all this; therefore condemn not +yourself for that which was inevitable. I knew of the attempt of the +Americans to possess themselves of the heights, and I crossed over with +them under favor of this disguise, determined to find death, combatting +at the side of our gallant General. Detaching myself from the ranks, I +but waited the advance of the British column to remove from my +concealment--you know the rest. But oh, Henry! if you could divine what +a relief it is to me to part with existence, you would not wish the act +undone. This was all I asked: to see you once more--to embrace you--and +to die! Life offered me no hope but this." + +Gerald expressed himself with the effort of one laboring under strong +bodily pain; and as he spoke he again sank exhausted upon the ground. + +"This packet," he continued, taking one from the breast of the +hunting-frock he wore, and handing it to his brother, who, silent and +full of agony, had again raised his head from the ground and supported +it on his shoulder--"this packet, Henry, written at various times during +the last fortnight, will explain all that has passed since we last +parted in the Miami. When I am no more, read it; and while you mourn +over his dishonor, pity the weakness and the sufferings of the unhappy +Gerald." + +Henry was nearly frantic. The hot tears fell from his burning eyes upon +the pale emaciated cheek of his brother, and he groaned in agony. + +"Oh God!" he exclaimed, "how shall I ever survive this blow?--my +brother! oh, my brother! tell me that you forgive me." + +"Most willingly; yet what is there to be forgiven? You took me for an +enemy, and hence alone your error. It was fate, Henry. A dreadful doom +has long been prophesied to the last of our race. We are the last--and +this is the consummation. Let it however console you to think, that +though your hand had not slain me another's would. In the ranks of the +enemy I should have found--Henry, my kind, my affectionate brother--your +hand--there--there--what dreadful faintness at my heart--Matilda, it is +my turn now--Oh, God have mercy, oh----" + +While this scene was passing by the roadside between the unfortunate +brothers, the main body of the British force had come up to the spot +where the General still lay expiring in the arms of De Courcy, and +surrounded by the principal of the medical staff. The majority of these +were of the regiment previously named--veterans who had known and loved +their gallant leader during the whole course of his spotless career, and +more than one rude hand might be seen dashing the tear that started +involuntarily to the eye. As the colors of the Forty-ninth passed before +him, the General made an effort to address some language of +encouragement to his old corps, but the words died away in indistinct +murmurs, and, waving his hand in the direction of the heights, he sank +back exhausted with the effort, and resigned his gallant spirit for +ever. + +For some minutes after life had departed, Henry Grantham continued to +hang over the body of his ill-fated brother, with an intenseness of +absorption that rendered him heedless even of the rapid fire of musketry +in the advance. The sound of De Courcy's voice was the first thing that +seemed to call him to consciousness. De Courcy had heard the cry +uttered by the latter on receiving the fatal shot, and his imagination +had too faithfully portrayed the painful scene that had ensued. A friend +of both brothers, and particularly attached of late to the younger from +the similar nature of their service, he was inexpressibly shocked, but +still cherishing a hope that the wound might not be attended with loss +of life, he expected to find his anticipations realized by some +communication from his friend. Finding however that the one rose not, +and remarking that the demeanor of the other was that of profound +despair, he began at length to draw the most unfavorable conclusion, and +causing the body of his commander to be borne under cover of the +building, until proper means of transport could be found, he hastened to +ascertain the full extent of the tragedy. + +The horror and dismay depicted in his friend's countenance were speedily +reflected on his own, when he saw that the unfortunate Gerald, whose +blood had completely saturated the earth on which he lay, was indeed no +more. Language at such a moment would not only have been superfluous, +but an insult. De Courcy caught and pressed the hand of his friend in +silence. The unfortunate young man pointed to the dead body of his +brother, and burst into tears. While these were yet flowing in a fulness +that promised to give relief to his oppressed heart, a loud shout from +the British ranks arrested the attention of both. The sound seemed to +have an electric effect on the actions of Henry Grantham. For the first +time he appeared conscious there was such a thing as a battle being +fought. + +"De Courcy," he said, starting up, and with sudden animation, "why do we +linger here? The dead"--and he pointed first to the body of the General +in the distance, and then to his brother--"the wretched dead claim no +service from us now." + +"You are right, Henry, our interest in those beloved objects has caused +us to be heedless of our duty to ourselves. Victory is our own--but +alas! how dearly purchased!" + +"How dearly purchased, indeed!" responded Henry, in a tone of such +heart-rending agony as caused his friend to repent the allusion. "De +Courcy, keep this packet, and should I fall, let it be sent to my uncle, +Colonel D'Egville." + +De Courcy accepted the trust, and the young men mounted their horses, +which a Canadian peasant had held for them in the meantime, and dashing +up the ascent, soon found themselves where the action was hottest. + +"Forward! victory!" shouted Henry Grantham, and his sword was plunged +deep into the side of his nearest enemy. The man fell, and writhing in +the last agonies of death, rolled onward to the precipice, and +disappeared for ever from the view. + +The words, the action--had excited the attention of a tall, muscular, +ferocious-looking rifleman, who, hotly pursued by a couple of Indians, +was crossing the open ground at his full speed to join the main body of +his comrades. A ball struck him just as he had arrived within a few feet +of the spot where Henry stood, yet still leaping onward, he made a +desperate blow at the head of the officer with the butt end of his +rifle. A quick movement disappointed the American of his aim, yet the +blow fell so violently on the shoulder, that the stock snapped suddenly +asunder at the small of the butt. Stung with pain, Henry Grantham +turned to behold his enemy. It was Desborough! The features of the +settler expressed the most savage and vindictive passions, as, with the +head of the rifle upraised and clenched in both his iron hands, he was +about to repeat his blow. Ere it could descend Grantham had rushed in +upon him, and his sword, still reeking in the blood it had so recently +spilt, was driven to the very hilt in the body of the settler. The +latter uttered a terrific scream in which all the most infernal of human +passions were wildly blended, and casting aside his rifle, seized the +young officer in his powerful gripe. Then ensued a contest the most +strange and awful, the settler using every endeavor to gain the edge of +the precipice, the other struggling, but in vain, to release himself +from his hold. As if by tacit consent, both parties discontinued the +struggle, and became mere spectators of the scene. + +"Villain!" shouted De Courcy, who saw with dismay the terrible object of +the settler, whose person he had recognised--"if you would have quarter, +release your hold." + +But Desborough, too much given to his revenge to heed the words of the +Aide-de-camp, continued silently, yet with advantage, to drag his victim +nearer and nearer to the fatal precipice; and every man in the British +ranks felt his blood to creep, as he beheld the unhappy officer borne, +notwithstanding a desperate resistance, at each moment nigher to the +brink. + +"For Heaven's sake, men, advance and seize him," exclaimed the terrified +De Courcy, leaping forward to the rescue. + +Acting on the hint, two or three of the most active of the light +infantry rushed from the ranks in the direction taken by the officer. + +Desborough saw the movement, and his exertions to defeat it became, +considering the loss of blood he had sustained from his wounds, almost +herculean. He now stood on the extreme verge of the precipice, where he +paused for a moment as if utterly exhausted by his previous efforts. De +Courcy was now within a few feet of his unhappy friend, who still +struggled ineffectually to free himself, when the settler, suddenly +collecting all his energy into a final and desperate effort, raised the +unfortunate Gerald from the ground, and with a loud and exulting laugh, +dashed his foot violently against the edge of the crag, and threw +himself backward into the hideous abyss. + +Their picked and whitened bones may be seen even to this day, confounded +together and shining through the gloom that pervades every part of the +abyss, and often may be remarked an aged and decrepit negro, seated on a +rock a few feet above them, leaning his elbows upon his knees, and +gazing eagerly as if to distinguish the bones of the one from the bones +of the other. + +AND THUS WAS THE FEARFUL PROPHECY OF ELLEN HALLOWAY, THE MOTHER OF +DESBOROUGH BY WACOUSTA, FULFILLED! + + +THE END. + + + + +ABANDON PHYSIC! + +[Illustration: HEALTH FOOD Co's. GLUTEN SUPPOSITORIES CURE CONSTIPATION +AND PILES.] + + All our Health Food Circulars Free. + 50 Cents by Mail. Sold by Druggists. + + + INTESTINAL TORPOR AND KINDRED EVILS + RELIEVED WITHOUT DRUGS. + +The sufferer from Constipation and Piles should test the GLUTEN +SUPPOSITORIES which cure most cases by INCREASING THE NUTRITION OF THE +PARTS, thus inducing desire and strengthening the power of expulsion. + + +READ THE EVIDENCE. + +Dr. A. W. Thompson, Northampton, Mass., says: "I have tested the Gluten +Suppositories, and consider them valuable, as, indeed, I expected from +the excellence of their theory." + +Dr. Wm. Tod Helmuth declares the Gluten Suppositories to be "the best +remedy for constipation which I have ever prescribed." + +"As Sancho Panza said of sleep, so say I of your Gluten Suppositories: +God bless the man who invented them!"--E. L. Ripley, Burlington, Vt. + +"I have been a constipated dyspeptic for many years, and the effect has +been to reduce me in flesh, and to render me liable to no little nerve +prostration and sleeplessness, especially after preaching or any special +mental effort. The use of Gluten Suppositories, made by the Health Food +Co., 74 Fourth Avenue, New York, has relieved the constipated habit, and +their Gluten and Brain Food have secured for me new powers of digestion, +and the ability to sleep soundly and think clearly. I believe their +food-remedies to be worthy of the high praise which they are receiving +on all sides."--Rev. John H. Paton, Mich. + +"I cannot speak too highly of the Health Food Company's Gluten +Suppositories, as they have been a perfect God-send to me. I believe +them superior to anything ever devised for the relief of constipation +and hemorrhoids. I have suffered from these evils more than twenty +years, and have at last found substantial relief through the use of the +Gluten Suppositories."--Cyrus Bradbury, Hopedale, Mass. + +"I prescribe the Gluten Suppositories almost daily in my practice and am +often astonished at the permanent results obtained."--J. Montfort +Schley, M.D., Professor Physical Diagnosis Woman's Medical College, New +York City. + +"I have used a part of a box and found relief."--Josiah Morris, Salem, +N. J. + +"I have been using them with excellent results."--F. H. Williams, M.D., +Trenton, N. J. + +"Have used a half dozen and never had anything give me so much +satisfaction."--A. P. Charlton, M.D., Jenneville, Pa. + +"I find your Gluten Suppositories an excellent remedy for +constipation."--Charles B. Easeman, 169 Montrose Avenue, Brooklyn. + +"I have used your Gluten Suppositories in my family with great +satisfaction."--S. B. Cowles, President Pacific Bank, Clarks, Nebraska. + +"I have had some very satisfactory experience in the treatment of +constipation with your Wheat Gluten Suppositories."--Charles W. +Benedict, M.D., Findlay, Ohio. + +DESCRIPTIVE CIRCULARS MAILED FREE TO ALL. + + HEALTH FOOD COMPANY. + 74 4th Avenue, New York City. + + + + +A WONDERFUL BOOK. + +MRS. SPARKS OF PARIS. + + A REALISTIC NOVEL. + By A. CURTIS BOND. + + +The history of a hopeless love and a desperate crime; a study of woman +in her better and her worst phase; a stripping of falsity from +femininity, and an insight into the causes that lead woman to passionate +love and the abyss of passionate forgetfulness. One of the most +remarkable and interesting studies of the season; a character-reading +that every one should be familiar with; a psychological and natural +picture of life as it is, but as it is seldom regarded. + +Beautifully written in the style of the best examples of early French +work, a reminder of the diction of Abbe Prevost, with the unjarring ease +of "Manon Lescaut," it has a pleasant rhythmic flow which carries the +reader spell-bound by the unusual interest of its mystery. + + +=ONE VOLUME, 12MO.= + + =Paper Cover, Price 30 Cents.= + =Bound in Cloth Extra, Price $1.00.= + + + POLLARD & MOSS, PUBLISHERS, + 42 Park Place and 37 Barclay St., New York. + +For sale by all book and news dealers, or sent by mail, postage prepaid +upon receipt of the price by the publishers. + + + + +_The Big-Type Editions of_ DICKENS _from $6_ + + + (A) in fifteen volumes, cloth $6 + (B) same, better paper and binding $9 + (C) same as (B), half-calf $18 + (D) in thirty volumes, cloth $15 + (E) same as (D), half-calf $40 + + NEW YORK: + POLLARD & MOSS, + 42 Park Place and 37 Barclay Street. + 1888. + + +[Illustration: "AND SOLOMON DAISY, WITH A LIGHTED LANTERN IN HIS HAND, +DASHED INTO THE ROOM." Barnaby Rudge.] + + +Our New Dickens is the edition of all others for the library. It is +better illustrated and is the largest-faced type used. + + +(DAVID COPPERFIELD) + +was defying my aunt to such a furious extent, that he couldn't keep +straight, but barked himself sideways. The more my aunt looked at him, +the more he reproached her; for, she had lately taken to spectacles, and +for some inscrutable reason he considered the glasses personal. + +Dora made him lie down by her, with a good deal of persuasion; and when +he was quiet, drew one of his long ears through and through her hand, +repeating thoughtfully, "Even little Jip! Oh, poor fellow!" + +"His lungs are good enough," said my aunt gaily, "and his dislikes are +not at all feeble. He has a good many years before him, no doubt. But if +you want a dog to race with, Little Blossom, he has lived too well for +that, and I'll give you one." + +"Thank you, aunt," said Dora, faintly. "But don't, please!" + +"No?" said my aunt, taking off her spectacles. + +"I couldn't have any other dog but Jip," said Dora. "It would be so +unkind to Jip! Besides, I couldn't be such friends with any other dog +but Jip; because he wouldn't have known me before I was married, and +wouldn't have barked at Doady when he first came to our house. I +couldn't care for any other dog but Jip, I am afraid, aunt." + +"To be sure!" said my aunt, patting her cheek again. "You are right." + +"You are not offended," said Dora. "Are you?" + +"Why, what a sensitive pet it is!" cried my aunt, bending over her +affectionately. "To think that I could be offended!" + +"No, no, I didn't really think so," returned Dora; "but I am a little +tired, and it made me silly for a moment--I am always a silly little +thing, you know; but it made me more silly--to talk about Jip. He has +known me in all that has happened to me, haven't you, Jip? And I +couldn't bear to slight him, because he was a little altered--could I, +Jip?" + +Jip nestled closer to his mistress, and lazily licked her hand. + +"You are not so old, Jip, are you, that you'll leave your mistress yet," +said Dora. "We may keep one another company a little longer!" + +My pretty Dora! When she came down to dinner on + + +PARTICULARS + +All these five editions are from the same plates, which are the newest +plates of Dickens; and the printing is good. + +Page 2 of this sheet is a specimen illustration--there are one hundred +and eighty from Cruikshank, Brown (Phiz), Barnard, Stone, Fildes and +Mahoney. + +Page 3 is a specimen type-page. + +The paper this is printed on is the paper of the $6 edition. The other +editions are of superior paper and wider margins. + +All the bindings are unusually plain, even that of the $6 edition. We +wonder that publishers persist in flashy bindings. + +A sample volume (our choice of title) of any edition in cloth will be +sent for (A) 40 cents, by mail 58 cents; (B) 75 cents, by mail 93 cents; +(D) 50 cents, by mail 62 cents. Sets, of course, go cheaper by express. + +The Books are arranged as follows: + + _Vol. I--American Notes, Pictures from Italy, The Mystery of Edwin + Drood, Master Humphrey's Clock, Hunted Down, Holiday Romance and + George Silverman's Explanation--972 pages._ + + _Vol. II--Barnaby Rudge, and Hard Times--978 pages._ + + _Vol. III--Bleak House--950 pages._ + + _Vol. IV--Christmas Stories and Great Expectations--892 pages._ + + _Vol. V--Christmas Books and An Uncommercial Traveller--968 pages._ + + _Vol. VI--David Copperfield--946 pages._ + + _Vol. VII--Dombey & Son--956 pages._ + + _Vol. VIII--Little Dorrit--922 pages._ + + _Vol. IX--Martin Chuzzlewit--926 pages._ + + _Vol. X--Nicholas Nickleby--908 pages._ + + _Vol. XI--Old Curiosity Shop, and Reprinted Pieces--900 pages._ + + _Vol. XII--Oliver Twist, and A Child's History of England--874 + pages._ + + _Vol. XIII--Our Mutual Friend--916 pages._ + + _Vol. XIV--Pickwick Papers--878 pages._ + + _Vol. XV--Sketches by "Boz," and A Tale of Two Cities--916 pages._ + +In the thirty-volume editions each of the above volumes is made into +two. + + + + +THE HEART OF A WOMAN + +MY MARRIAGE + +A DOMESTIC NOVEL + + + =One Volume, 12mo, paper cover, 25 Cents.= + =Bound in extra cloth, full gilt side and back, 50 Cents.= + + +_EXTRACTS OF PRESS NOTICES._ + +"There is a fascination in the pages of this book that, once opened and +begun, will not permit it to be laid aside till the last page is +finished, and the reading of it pays for the time, too."--_Cincinnati +Times._ + +"It is the story of a woman's heart. The woman herself is neither better +nor worse than a thousand others, but every true heart is precious and +worth saving." + +"It is a story of love after marriage; the story of a woman who has +married without love, whose husband has married her with full knowledge +of that fact, but with the conviction that the needed love will come to +the heart of the wife in due time. How it came is what the story is +written to tell. It is told in the first person by the wife, and told +very pleasantly. The novel is an agreeable one to read, full of +sweetness and delicacy, picturesque and graceful in style, and winning +in its tone."--_N. Y. Evening Post._ + +"'My Marriage' is a domestic novel, issued anonymously, but the author, +whoever he or she may be, shows a deep knowledge of life that is more +than theory, and a fine gift of story telling." + + +_The above work sent by mail, postage prepaid, to any part of the United +States or Canada, on receipt of the price._ + + + + +[Illustration] + + =THE + P. & M. 12mos.= + + +The best and most attractively bound series of popular works in every +branch of literature; always commanding a better price for retail sales +than any competing editions in existence, owing to their superior +excellence. Bound in extra cloth, full gilt side and back, with +ornamental ink stamping. + +=Price per volume, only Fifty cents.= + + + = 1. Allan Quatermain.= Haggard. =2. King Solomon's Mines.= Haggard. + = 3. She:= A Mystery. Haggard. =4. East Lynne.= By Mrs. Henry Wood. + = 5. A Modern Circe.= By the "Duchess." =6. Robinson Crusoe.= D. De + Foe. + = 7. Pilgrim's Progress.= Bunyan. =8. Lays of Ancient Rome.= + Macaulay. + = 9. Paul and Virginia.= By St. Pierre. + = 10. Lay of the Last Minstrel, Marmion, and Lady of the Lake.= + = 11. History of Charles XII.= Voltaire. =12. Life of Nelson.= + Southey. + = 13. Classic Tales.= Maria Edgeworth. =14. Vicar of Wakefield.= + Goldsmith. + = 15. The Usurper.= Judith Gautier. =16. Dr. Jacob.= M. B. Edwards. + = 17. Realities of Irish Life.= W. S. Trench. =18. My Marriage.= + = 19. Love's Madness.= Mathilde Blind. =20. The Rose Garden.= Miss + Peard. + = 21. Unawares.= Miss Peard. =22. The Squire's Daughter.= Miss Peard. + = 23. The Crime of Chance.= Miss Peard. =24. Trench's Wives.= + = 25. Dickens' Child's History of England.= + = 26. Irving's Sketch-Book.= =27. Christmas Tales.= Dickens. + = 28. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.= By Jules Verne. + = 29. The Fur Country.= Verne. =30. Five Weeks in a Balloon.= Verne. + = 31. The Mysterious Island.= By Jules Verne. + = 32. Tour of the World in 80 Days.= By Jules Verne. + = 33. Great Expectations.= Dickens. =34. Oliver Twist.= Dickens. + = 35. The Scottish Chiefs.= Porter. =36. Thaddeus of Warsaw.= Porter. + = 37. Children of the Abbey.= By R. M. Roche. + = 38. The Uncommercial Traveller.= By Charles Dickens. + = 39. Arabian Nights' Entertainments.= =40. Jane Eyre.= Bronte. + = 41. Old Curiosity Shop.= Dickens. =42. Ivanhoe.= Sir Walter Scott. + = 43. Christmas Stories.= By Charles Dickens. + = 44. Last of the Mohicans.= By J. Fenimore Cooper. + = 45. John Halifax, Gentleman.= By Miss Mulock. + = 46. Uarda.= By George Ebers. + = 47. A Tale of Two Cities.= By Charles Dickens. + = 48. Romola.= By George Eliot. + = 49. Christmas Books.= By Charles Dickens. + = 50. AEsop's Fables.= + = 51. Russian Fairy Tales.= + = 52. Hauff's Fairy Tales.= Translated by E. L. Stowell. Illustrated. + = 53. Grimm's Popular Tales.= + = 54. The Red Camelia=; or, The Chevalier Casse-Cou. By Fortune + Du Boisgobey. + = 55. The Search for Ancestors.= By Fortune Du Boisgobey. + = 56. Barnaby Rudge.= By Charles Dickens. + = 57. Edwin Drood.= By Charles Dickens. + = 58. Andersen's Fairy Tales.= + = 59. Gulliver's Travels.= + = 60. The Swiss Family Robinson.= + = 61. Last Days of Pompeii.= + = 62. Picciola and Undine.= + = 63. Rasselas.= By Dr. Johnson. + = 64. A Terrible Temptation.= By Charles Reade. + = 65. Sketches by Boz.= By Charles Dickens. + = 66. As in a Looking-Glass.= (It is upon this novel Mrs. Langtry's + play is based.) + = 67. The Book of Praise.= Selected and Arranged by Roundell Palmer. + = 68. American and Italian Notes.= By Charles Dickens. + = 69. Old Christmas.= By Washington Irving. + = 70. Lafitte=; or, The Pirate of the Gulf. By Prof. J. H. Ingraham. + = 71. Theodore, Child of the Sea=; Adopted Son of Lafitte. By J. H. + Ingraham. + = 72. George Barnwell.= A Novel. By T. S. Surr. + = 73. Hard Times.= By Charles Dickens. + = 74. Christine=; or, Woman's Trials and Triumphs. By Laura J. Curtis. + = 75. Camille=; or, The Fate of a Coquette. By Alexandre Dumas. + = 76. Our Cousin Veronica.= By Miss M. E. Wormeley. + = 77. The Tenant House=; or, Embers from Poverty's Hearthstone. + = 78. Masaniello=; or, The Fisherman's League. By Alexandre Dumas. + = 79. Hot Corn=; or, Street Scenes of New York City Life. By Solon + Robinson. + = 80. Wacousta=; or, The Prophecy. By Maj. Richardson. + = 81. Matilda Montgomerie=; or, The Prophecy Fulfilled. By Maj. + Richardson. + = 82. Tom Brown's School-Days.= By Thomas Hughes. + = 83. Ecarte=; or, The Salons of Paris. By Maj. Richardson. + = 84. Canonbury House=; or, The Queen's Prophecy. By G. W. M. + Reynolds. + = 85. Ada Arundel=; or, The Secret Corridor. By G. W. M. Reynolds. + = 86. Olivia=; or, The Maid of Honor. By G. W. M. Reynolds. + = 87. Hardscrabble=; or, The Fall of Chicago. By Major Richardson. + = 88. The Miser's Will=; or, The Doom of the Poisoner. By G. W. M. + Reynolds. + = 89. The Beggar of Nimes.= A Novel of exciting interest. By Alex. + Dumas. + = 90. The Creole Wife=; or, Secret Register of the Prefect of Police. + By Dumas. + = 91. The Marchioness=; or, A Marriage by Will. By Octave Feuillet. + = 92. Edith Dayton.= A Novel. By J. Gordon Bartlett. + = 93. Scenes from the Note-Book of a New York Surgeon.= + = 94. Out of the Streets.= A Story of New York City Life. By Charles + Gayler. + = 95. Thackeray's Ballads and Poems.= Illustrated. + = 96. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.= By R. L. + Stevenson. + = 97. Rivingston=; or, The Young Hussar. By Prof. J. H. Ingraham. + = 98. Captain Kyd=; or, The Wizard of the Seas. By Prof. J. H. + Ingraham. + = 99. Kate Penrose=; or, Life and its Lessons. By Mrs. Hubbeck. + =100. Jessie Cameron.= A Highland Story. By Lady Rachel Butler. + =101. Rebels and Tories=; or, The Blood of the Mohawk. By J. F. + Cooper. + =102. The Count's Niece=; or, The Veteran of Marengo. By Paul Preston. + +On receipt of the advertised price, =fifty cents per volume=, will send +by mail, postage prepaid, _to any address in the United States_, any of +the =books= enumerated in the above list. Remittances can be made in +two-cent postage-stamps or postal money order. + + + + +The Echo Series. + +A Weekly Library of Standard Fiction. + + +Books marked * are subject to a special discount. + + + =No. 1 Allan Quatermain.= By H. Rider Haggard =.25= + = " 2 King Solomon's Mines.= By H. Rider Haggard =.25= + = " 3 My Marriage.= '_THE HEART OF A WOMAN._' A Domestic + Novel =.25= + = " 4 The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.= By R. + L. Stevenson =.15= + = " 5 She: A History of Adventure.= By H. Rider Haggard =.25= + = " 6 A Modern Circe.= By the "Duchess" =.25= + = " 7 The Red Camellia.= By Fortune du Boisgobey =.25= + = " 8 As in a Looking-Glass.= By F. C. Philips =.25= + = " 9 The Marchioness; or, A Marriage by Will.= By Octave + Feuillet, author of "The Romance of a Poor + Young Man" =.25= + = " 10 The Search for Ancestors.= By Fortune du Boisgobey =.25= + = " 11 Dr. Jacob.= A Novel. By M. Betham Edwards =.25= + = " 12 Realities of Irish Life.= By W. Steuart Trench =.25= + = " 13 The Crime of Chance.= By Frances M. Peard =.25= + = " 14 Trench's Wives; or, The Carrington Mystery= =.25= + = " 15 The Rose Garden.= A Love Story. By Frances M. Peard =.25= + = " 16 The Usurper.= By Judith Gautier =.25= + = " 17 Love's Madness; or, The Tarantula's Sting.= A Romance + of Baffled Plot and Wasted Passion. By Mathilde + Blind. =.25= + = " 18 Unawares; or, The Notary's Plot.= By Frances M. + Peard =.25= + = " 19 The Squire's Daughter; or, The Mystery of Thorpe + Regis= =.25= + = " 20 Camille; or, The Lady with the Camellias.= By Dumas =.25= + = " 21 Lafitte; or, The Pirate of the Gulf.= By Prof. J. H. + Ingraham =.25= + = " 22 Christine; or, Woman's Trials and Triumphs.= + By Laura J. Curtis =.25= + = " 23 Out of the Streets.= A Powerful Story of New York + City Life. By Charles Gayler =.25= + = " 24 Christmas Tales.= By Charles Dickens =.25= + = " 25 George Barnwell.= By T. S. Surr =.25= + = " 26 The Tenant House; or, Embers from Poverty's + Hearth-Stone= =.25= + = " 27 Wacousta; or, The Prophecy.= By Richardson =.25= + = " 28 Matilda Montgomerie; or, The Prophecy Fulfilled.= + By Richardson =.25= + = " 29 Our Cousin Veronica; or, Scenes and Adventures + over the Blue Ridge= =.25= + = " 30 Masaniello; or, The Fisherman's League.= + By Alexandre Dumas =.25= + = " 31 Ecarte; or, The Salons of Paris.= By Major + Richardson =.25= + = " 32 Oliver Twist.= By Charles Dickens =.25= + = " 33 Canonbury House; or, The Queen's Prophecy.= By + Reynolds =.25= + = " 34 Ada Arundel; or, The Secret Corridor.= By Reynolds =.25= + = " 35 Olivia; or, The Maid of Honor.= By G. W. M. + Reynolds =.25= + = " 36 The Beggar of Nimes.= By Alexandre Dumas =.25= + = " 37 John Barlow's Ward.= A powerful novel of Society. =.25= + = " 38 Captain Kyd; or, The Wizard of the Seas.= By Prof. + J. H. Ingraham =.25= + = " 39 * The Man Outside.= By Professor Clarence M. + Boutelle. Illus. =.50= + = " 40 * Mrs. Sparks of Paris; or, The Crime at + Vintimiglia.= A Realistic Novel. By A. + Curtis Bond =.30= + = " 41 * Reveries of an Old Maid.= Including her Hints to + Young Men + Intending to Marry. "A perfect Cyclone of Fun." + 40th edition. Illustrated =.30= + = " 42 Hardscrabble; or, The Fate of Chicago.= A Tale of + Indian Warfare. By Major Richardson =.25= + = " 43 Edith Dayton.= A Novel by J. Gordon Bartlett =.25= + = " 44 The Dingy House at Kensington.= An Exciting Novel + of English Life. By Lady Helen Cameron =.25= + = " 45 The Miser's Will; or, The Doom of the Poisoner.= + By Geo. W. M. Reynolds =.25= + = " 46 Mary Glentworth; or, The Forbidden Marriage.= + By Geo. W. M. Reynolds =.25= + = " 47 Jessie Cameron.= A Highland Story of Love and + Adventure. By Lady Rachel Butler =.25= + = " 48 Rory O'More.= A National Romance. By Samuel Lover =.25= + = " 49 Paul Ferroll.= A Novel with a Mystery. =.25= + = " 50 Geoffrey Trethick; or, The Vicar's People.= A Tale + of the Cornish Mines. By George Manville Fenn =.25= + = " 51 Kate Penrose; or, Life and its Lessons.= By Mrs. + Hubback =.25= + = " 52 Hot Corn: Life Scenes in New York.= By Solon + Robinson =.25= + = " 53 Clare's Fantasy; or, A Cry in the Night.= A Novel by + Mary Cruger =.25= + = " 54 Joaquin= (the Claude Duval of California); =or, + The Marauder of the Mines.= =.25= + = " 55 * Mr. Meeson's Will.= By H. Rider Haggard. + Twenty-four full-page illustrations. =.25= + +=POLLARD & MOSS, Publishers, 42 Park Place, New York.= + + + + +THE CRIME OF CHANCE. + + BY + Miss Frances M. Peard, + +Author of "The Rose Garden," "Unawares, or the Notary's Plot," "The +Squire's Daughter, or the Mystery of Thorpe Regis," etc. + + =One Volume, 12mo, paper cover,= =25 Cents.= + =Bound in extra cloth, full gilt side and back,= =50 Cents.= + + +_EXTRACTS FROM PRESS NOTICES._ + +"The book is finely written, and exceptionally high in tone, and shows +in the character of Rachel a keen sense of humor, which reminds the +reader of some of George Eliot's earliest works." + +"It is a story of sadness, love, and ultimate joy, and a thoroughly good +one in its teaching, having the charm of novelty, freshness, and +interest, that few novelists can impart. The 'Crime of Chance' belongs +to the higher type. In some respects it presents not a bad imitation of +the style and fidelity to nature of George Eliot." + +"The characters are firmly, admirably drawn, and the story is one which +must easily appeal to the sympathies of all readers of finer +sensibilities. The two children, the hero, Rachel and Hestor, are +painted with a brush handled with excellent judgment and +skill."--_Traveller._ + +"The 'Crime of Chance' is one of those quiet stories of English country +life that imperceptibly win upon the reader's regard, and finally leaves +him thoroughly fascinated. It opens with a description of an old farm +and its quaint inhabitants, and the impression they make on a little +city boy who, having lost his parents, comes there to live with his +uncle, Mr. Philip Oldfield. Philip Oldfield's sad history is the chief +subject of the book. The remorse that weighs him down, his unhappy love +and seemingly blighted life, are all brought gradually before the +reader, in the most natural and unsensational manner, deeply moving his +sympathies and interest. Some charming bits of nature are sketched in, +rendering the work altogether a most readable and desirable one." + +"The story is English, and has some account of poachers and gypsies, and +uses a little waif from their resorts as an instrument in Philip's +recovery. His character is studied psychologically in the vein and force +Hawthorne showed in the 'Scarlet Letter,' and his posthumous novel. The +description of life and scenery is pleasing, there is no straining after +effect, and the tale has the merit of strong and absorbing interest in +its perusal, and deserves nothing but the highest praise." + + +_The above work sent by mail, postage prepaid, to any part of the United +States or Canada, on receipt of the price._ + + + + +REALITIES OF IRISH LIFE. + +BY W. STEUART TRENCH. + + + =One Volume, 12mo, paper cover, 25 Cents.= + =Bound in extra cloth, full gilt side and back, 50 Cents.= + + +_EXTRACTS FROM PRESS NOTICES._ + +"These sketches of Irish life have attracted much attention and elicited +the highest praise for their fidelity to nature, and the simplicity, +pathos, and power by which they are marked. No recent work has appeared +which so vividly presents the condition of Ireland, suffering under sore +political and social grievances, and distracted by contending factions. +The author has spent his life in intimate acquaintance with the Irish +heart as it beats in the cabins of the poor, and while the stories he +tells of Irish life illustrate sometimes that truth is stranger than +fiction, the reader will find in them a spell of interest which fiction +rarely possesses. We have not in a long time read aught that is more apt +to moisten the eyes than the chapter devoted to the simple story of +'Mary Shea.'"--_Buffalo Courier._ + +"Many of the incidents herein narrated have already been published in +one form or another, but never have they been more effectively related +than here--the history of the Ribbon Code and some of the results of its +system, the outrages perpetrated upon the landlords or their agents, are +dramatically told, and while the faults of the Irish disposition are not +concealed, their virtues are equally revealed, and show the genuine +Irish heart, which is capable of so much that is noble. The book reads +like a novel, full of exciting events and truthful characterization, and +cannot fail to be read with interest by those to whom the question of +the land tenure in Ireland has come to be regarded as one of the most +serious which engages public attention." + +"It is so written that the painful element of Irish life is not +protruded, while there is no glossing of facts or extravagance of +national pride. 'Manly' is the title that best describes its spirit, +while its literary power, expressed without effort or consciousness, +surpasses much of the work of thoroughly-trained skill. It would be well +for Ireland if it had many more within its borders like Mr. Trench, for +in that case it would avoid the neglect and selfishness that cause +distress on the one hand, and the factious and unreasoning bitterness +that result from it on the other." + +"A strongly dramatic series of pictures, the scope of which is apparent +in its title, being founded upon actual observation, and sure to hold +the reader's rapt attention." + + +_The above work sent by mail, postage prepaid, to any part of the United +States or Canada, on receipt of the price._ + + + + +HAGGARD'S NEW BOOK. + +THE ONLY ILLUSTRATED EDITION. + +Mr. Meeson's Will. + +by + +[Illustration: H Rider Haggard] + + WITH TWENTY-FOUR FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS, + _Drawn Expressly for this Edition_, + +By Philip G. Cusachs. + +ONE VOLUME, 12mo, PAPER COVERS, 25 Cents. + +[Illustration: "My word, Miss, but you have a beautiful pair of +shoulders! I never had such a bit of material to work on afore. Hang me +if it ain't almost a pity to mark 'em!"] + +COPYRIGHTED, 1888, BY POLLARD & MOSS. + +The only Profusely Illustrated Edition of this Work in the Market. + +SEND IN YOUR ORDERS AT ONCE, AND IN ORDERING NOTE THE EDITION No. 55, +ECHO SERIES. + + Address POLLARD & MOSS, Publishers, + 42 Park Place and 37 Barclay Street, New York. + + + + +THE CELEBRATED + +SOHMER + +GRAND, SQUARE, AND UPRIGHT + +[Illustration] + +PIANOS + + ARE AT PRESENT THE MOST POPULAR + AND PREFERRED BY THE LEADING ARTISTS. + +The SOHMER Pianos are used in the following Institutions: + + Convent of the Sacred Heart, Manhattanville, N. Y. + Vogt's Conservatory of Music. + Arnold's Conservatory of Music, Brooklyn. + Philadelphia Conservatory of Music. + Villa de Sales Convent, Long Island. + N. Y. Normal Conservatory of Music. + Villa Maria Convent, Montreal. + Vassar College, Poughkeepsie. + And most all of the leading first-class theatres in New York + and Brooklyn. + +THE WONDERFUL BIJOU GRAND + +(lately patented) by =SOHMER= & CO., the Smallest Grand ever +manufactured (length only 5 feet), has created a sensation, among +musicians and artists. The music-loving public will find it in their +interest to call at the warerooms of =SOHMER= & CO. and examine the +various Styles of Grand, Upright, and Square Pianos. The original and +beautiful designs and improvements in Grand and Upright Pianos deserve +special attention. + +_Received First Prize Centennial Exposition, Philadelphia, 1876._ + +_Received First Prize at Exhibition, Montreal, Canada, 1881 and 1882._ + + =SOHMER & CO.=, + MANUFACTURERS OF GRAND, SQUARE, AND UPRIGHT PIANO-FORTES + WAREROOMS: 149, 151, 153, 155 EAST 14th ST., N.Y. + + + + + + * * * * * + +Transcriber's Notes: + +Throughout this work many end-of-line hyphens, either omitted in +printing or no longer visible, were assumed to be present and the +corresponding word-halves rejoined, without further note. + +Many punctuation marks that were mistyped in printing or unreadable +have been changed, without further note. + +Aide-de-camp and Aid-de-camp both used by the author, as are +Amherstburgh and Amherstburg, along with Girty and Girtie. + +It's and its used interchangeably by author; this usage retained. + +Several compound and hyphenated words appear in varying form, for +example "artillery men" and "artillerymen"; "bear skin" and +"bear-skin"; "mid-day" and "midday"; etc. Usage retained. + +Spelling, including possible typographical errors, has been retained +as it appears in the original publication except as follows: + + Page 009: Typo "lappel" changed to "lapel" (button of the lapel) + Page 011: Typo "oppposite" changed to "opposite" (from the + opposite extremity) + Page 014: Typo "Graham" changed to "Grantham" (question, + Mr. Grantham) + Page 015: Typo "Molinex" changed to "Molineux" (Molineux, had + so pained) + Page 015: Duplicate "in" removed (as in the former) + Page 016: Typo "ln" changed to "in" (confidence in his young) + Page 018: Typo "aparent" changed to "apparent" (apparent a + single shot) + Page 021: Extra space in "young ladyyour niece" removed. Space may + have indicated omitted comma + Page 030: Typo "narrration" changed to "narration" (narration + of the anecdote) + Page 049: Punctuation after "coolly observed Grantham" unclear in + the text + Page 052: Typo "padler" changed to "paddler" (paddler, and + prostrated) + Page 053: Typo "he" changed to "the" (fortunate for the former) + Page 056: Typo "unproarious" changed to "uproarious" (because + his least uproarious, mood) + Page 056: Typo "inbibed" changed to "imbibed" (imbibed enough of + his favorite) + Page 063: Usage of punctuation by author intentionally retained + (asked Captain Molineux?) + Page 064: Typo "coroborate" changed to "corroborate" (Villiers can + corroborate) + Page 074: Typo "Desboroug" changed to "Desborough" (Desborough, I + continued) + Page 075: Typo "no" changed to "do" (displeasure, "I do not) + Page 076: Typo "momentry" changed to "momentary"(however momentary--a) + Page 083: Typo "neice" changed to "niece" (his niece, the parties in) + Page 084: Typo "were" changed to "where" (where the General still) + Page 093: Typo "disposess" changed to "dispossess" (may dispossess of + homage,) + Page 094: Typo "anticipiatory" changed to "anticipatory" (so + anticipatory of coming) + Page 094: Typo "shrapnell" changed to "shrapnel" (with shrapnel and + grape.) + Page 098: Typo "idependently" changed to "independently" (mistaken, + for, independently, of) + Page 099: Typo "aparently" changed to "apparently" (apparently much + greater) + Page 100: Typo "mattrass" changed to "mattress" (mattress, lay the + form) + Page 105: Usage of punctuation by author intentionally retained (in + the same breath?) + Page 106: Typo "teminated" changed to "terminated" (where the river + terminated) + Page 106: Typo "depatched" changed to "despatched" (prisoners been + despatched) + Page 112: Typo "preceeded" changed to "proceeded" (proceeded, while + her breathing) + Page 112: Typo "inacessibility" changed to "inaccessibility" (wonted + inaccessibility to impressions) + Page 112: Typo "rediculous" changed to "ridiculous" (guilty of a + ridiculous) + Page 117: Typo "day" changed to "days" (A few days) + Page 122: Typo "add" changed to "and" (from thence, and he) + Page 123: Typo "litttle" changed to "little" (the little dependence) + Page 123: Typo "asumed" changed to "assumed" (her voice assumed) + Page 125: Typo "piqant" changed to "piquant" (piquant a seduction) + Page 125: Typo "contibuted" changed to "contributed" (water--all + contributed) + Page 128: Typo "Manwhile" changed to "Meanwhile" (Meanwhile, although + nothing) + Page 130: Typo "grangway" changed to "gangway" (gangway, from which, + however) + Page 132: Typo "eaaliest" changed to "earliest" (One of the earliest) + Page 136: Typo "Desborrough" changed to "Desborough" (for Desborough + to avow) + Page 143: Typo "posess" corrected to "possess" (property I possess) + Page 144: Typo "ascessory" changed to "accessory" (some degree + accessory) + Page 157: Typo "onrselves" changed to "ourselves" (solemnly pledged + ourselves) + Page 158: Typo "she" changed to "he" ("Henry," he said) + Page 164: Typo "wit" changed to "with" (fast quitting, with) + Page 164: Typo "oject" changed to "object" (siege. The object) + Page 164: Typo "situate" changed to "situated" (the Americans + situated) + Page 166: Typo "morover" changed to "moreover" (He had moreover) + Page 167: Typo "prsceed" changed to "proceed" (the latter to proceed) + Page 168: Typo "alloted" changed to "allotted" (to the task allotted) + Page 171: Omitted word "a" changed to "was a man" + Page 172: Typo "dis" changed to "his" (Gentlemen," addressing his) + Page 173: Typo "Kildeer" changed to "Killdeer" (Killdeer I confess) + Page 174: Typo "since" changed to "Since" (Gerald said, "Since) + Page 174: Typo "your" changed to "you" (to know, but you) + Page 177: Duplicate "what" removed (snivelling, as "what) + Page 178: Typo "accelarated" changed to "accelerated" (vain, as to any + accelerated) + Page 179: Typo "prssive" changed to "passive" (passive assent to the) + Page 181: Typo "posssible" changed to "possible" (possible to + himself,) + Page 184: Typo "deperate" changed to "desperate" (desperate + grudge--the) + Page 185: Typo "grapling" changed to "grappling" (his enemy grappling) + Page 186: Typo "resistence" changed to "resistance" (the power of + resistance) + Page 186: Typo "trottled" changed to "throttled" (throttled, maddened + with pain) + Page 186: Typo "uncontrolable" changed to "uncontrollable" + (uncontrollable, until his anxiety) + Page 186: Typo "assassssin" changed to "assassin" (assassin-like + in the) + Page 187: Typo "beqind" changed to "behind" (behind his back,) + Page 192: Typo "indistnct" changed to "indistinct" (indistinct + outline, which) + Page 192: Typo "exhibted" changed to "exhibited" (who thus exhibited) + Page 193: Typo "Gereld" changed to "Gerald" (noise made by Gerald) + Page 194: Typo "aentence" changed to "sentence" (uttered the last + sentence) + Page 197: Typo "fierceet" changed to "fiercest" (arm you with the + fiercest) + Page 201: Duplicate word "an" removed (an hour too advanced) + Page 203: Typo "admited" changed to "admitted" (admitted as an excuse) + Page 204: Typo "coo" changed to "cool" (myself to a cool) + Page 208: Typo "faught" changed to "fought" (fought with determined + bravery,) + Page 218: Typo "acuse" changed to "accuse" (to accuse the woman) + Page 219: Typo "Tenessee" changed to "Tennessee"; although + "Tenessee" is an historical spelling variation, author uses modern + spelling in all other instances. (Tennessee man, bred and born,) + Page 220: Typo "prefering" changed to "preferring" (this comes of + preferring) + Page 220: Typo "Fankfort" changed to "Frankfort" (Frankfort--before + sunrise!") + Page 220: Typo "fight" changed to "flight" (very fact of my flight) + Page 221: Typo "massage" changed to "message" (with this parting + message,) + Page 222: Typo "Queenstown" changed to "Queenston" (stationed at + Queenston) + Page 224: Typo "Bt" changed to "But" (But oh, Henry!) + Page 226: Typo "efferts" changed to "efforts" (by his previous + efforts) + Page 227: Address at bottom of "47 4th Avenue changed to + "74 4th Avenue"; this matches usage in a previous paragraph, + and 19th century news articles. + Page 235: Typo "Fortune" changed to "Fortune" (Fortune Du Boisgobey) + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Matilda Montgomerie, by Major (John) Richardson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MATILDA MONTGOMERIE *** + +***** This file should be named 39758.txt or 39758.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/9/7/5/39758/ + +Produced by Brian Sogard, Shanna D. 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