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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Hardscrabble, by 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
+
+
+Title: Hardscrabble
+       The Fall of Chicago: A Tale of Indian Warfare
+
+Author: John Richardson
+
+
+Release Date: February, 2004 [EBook #5169]
+This file was first posted on May 27, 2002
+Last Updated: March 16, 2018
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HARDSCRABBLE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Gardner Buchanan with help from Charles Franks
+and Distributed Proofers
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+HARDSCRABBLE; OR, THE FALL OF CHICAGO
+
+A TALE OF INDIAN WARFARE
+
+By John Richardson
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+It was on a beautiful day in the early part of the month of April,
+1812, that four persons were met in a rude farm-house, situated on the
+Southern Branch of the Chicago river, and about four miles distant from
+the fort of that name. They had just risen from their humble mid-day
+meal, and three of them were now lingering near the fire-place, filled
+with blazing logs, which, at that early season, diffused a warmth by no
+means disagreeable, and gave an air of cheerfulness to the interior of
+the smoke-discolored building.
+
+He who appeared to be master of the establishment was a tall, good
+looking man of about forty-five, who had, evidently, been long a denizen
+of the forest, for his bronzed countenance bore traces of care and toil,
+while his rugged, yet well-formed hands conveyed the impression of the
+unceasing war he had waged against the gigantic trees of this Western
+land. He was habited in a hunting-frock of grey homespun, reaching about
+half way down to his knee, and trimmed with a full fringe of a somewhat
+darker hue. His trowsers were of the same material, and both were girt
+around his loins by a common belt of black leather, fastened by a plain
+white buckle, into which was thrust a sheath of black leather also,
+containing a large knife peculiar to the backwoodsmen of that day. His
+feet were encased in moccasins, and on his head, covered with strong
+dark hair, was carelessly donned a slouched hat of common black felt,
+with several plaited folds of the sweet grass, of the adjoining prairie
+for a band. He was seemingly a man of strong muscular power, while his
+stern dark eye denoted firmness and daring.
+
+The elder of the two men, to whom this individual stood, evidently,
+in the character of a superior, was a short thick-set person of about
+fifty, with huge whiskers that, originally black, had been slightly
+grizzled by time. His eyebrows were bushy and overhanging, and almost
+concealed the small, and twinkling eyes, which it required the beholder
+to encounter more than once before he could decide their true color to
+be a dark gray. A blanket coat that had once been white, but which
+the action of some half dozen winters had changed into a dirty yellow,
+enveloped his rather full form, around which it was confined by a coarse
+worsted sash of mingled blue and red, thickly studded with minute white
+beads. His trowsers, with broad seams, after the fashion of the Indian
+legging, were of a dark crimson, approaching to a brick-dust color, and
+on his feet he wore the stiff shoe-pack, which, with the bonnet bleu on
+his grizzled head, and the other parts of his dress already described,
+attested him to be what he was--a French Canadian. Close at his heels,
+and moving as he moved, or squatted on his haunches, gazing into the
+face of his master when stationary, was a large dog of the mongrel breed
+peculiar to the country--evidently with wolf blood in his veins.
+
+His companion was of a different style of figure and costume. He was a
+thin, weak-looking man, of middle height, with a complexion that denoted
+his Saxon origin. Very thin brows, retrousse nose, and a light gray
+eye in which might be traced an expression half simple, half cunning,
+completed the picture of this personage, whose lank body was encased in
+an old American uniform of faded blue, so scanty in its proportions that
+the wrists of the wearer wholly exposed themselves beneath the short,
+narrow sleeves, while the skirts only “shadowed not concealed,” that
+part of the body they had been originally intended to cover. A pair of
+blue pantaloons, perfectly in keeping, on the score of scantiness and
+age, with the coat, covered the attenuated lower limbs of the wearer,
+on whose head, moreover, was stuck a conical cap that had all the
+appearance of having been once a portion of the same uniform, and had
+only undergone change in the loss of its peak. A small black leather,
+narrow ridged stock was clasped around his thin, and scare-crow neck,
+and that so tightly that it was the wonder of his companions how
+strangulation had so long been avoided. A dirty, and very coarse linen
+shirt, showed itself partially between the bottom of the stock, and the
+uppermost button of the coat, which was carefully closed, while his feet
+were protected from the friction of the stiff, though nearly worn out,
+military shoes, by wisps of hay, that supplied the absence of the sock.
+This man was about five and thirty.
+
+The last of the little party was a boy. He was a raw-boned lad of about
+fourteen years of age, and of fair complexion, with blue eyes, and an
+immense head of bushy hair, of the same hue, which seemed never to have
+known the use of the comb. His feet were naked, and his trowsers and
+shirt, the only articles of dress upon him at the moment, were of a
+homespun somewhat resembling in color the hunting frock of his master.
+A thick black leather strap was also around his loins--evidently part of
+an old bridle rein.
+
+The two men first described, drew near the fire and lighted their pipes.
+The ex-militaire thrust a quid of tobacco into his cheek, and taking
+up a small piece of pine board that rested against the chimney corner,
+split a portion off this with his jack-knife, and commenced whittling.
+The boy busied himself in clearing the table, throwing occasionally
+scraps of bread and dried venison, which had constituted the chief
+portion of the meal, to the dog, which, however, contrary to custom,
+paid little attention to these marks of favor, but moved impatiently,
+at intervals, to the door, then returning, squatted himself again on his
+haunches, at a short distance from his master, and uttering a low sound
+betwixt a whine and a growl, looked piteously up into his face.
+
+“Vat the devil is de matter wid you, Loup Garou?” remarked the Canadian
+at length, as, removing the pipe from his lips, he stretched his legs,
+and poised himself in his low wood-bottomed chair, putting forth his
+right hand at the same time to his canine follower. “You not eat, and
+you make noise as if you wish me to see one racoon in de tree.”
+
+“Loup Garou don't prate about coons I guess,” drawled the man in
+the faded uniform, without, however, removing his eyes from the very
+interesting occupation in which he was engaged. “That dog I take it, Le
+Noir, means something else--something more than we human critters know.
+By gosh, boss,” looking for the first time at him who stood in that
+position to the rest of the party--“If WE can't smell the varmint, I
+take it Loup Garou does.”
+
+At this early period of civilization, in these remote countries, there
+was little distinction of rank between the master and the man--the
+employer and the employed. Indeed the one was distinguished from the
+other only by the instructions given and received, in regard to certain
+services to be performed. They labored together--took their meals
+together--generally smoked together--drank together--conversed together,
+and if they did not absolutely sleep together, often reposed in the same
+room. There was, therefore, nothing extraordinary in the familiar tone
+in which the ci-devant soldier now addressed him whose hired help he
+was. The latter, however, was in an irritable mood, and he answered
+sharply.
+
+“What have you got into your foolish head now, Ephraim Giles? You do
+nothing but prophesy evil. What varmint do you talk of, and what has
+Loup Garou to do with it? Speak, what do you mean?--if you mean anything
+at all.”
+
+As he uttered this half rebuke, he rose abruptly from his chair, shook
+the ashes from his pipe, and drew himself to his full height, with
+his back to the fire. There had been nothing very remarkable in the
+observation made by the man to whom he had addressed himself, but he was
+in a peculiar state of mind, that gave undue importance to every word,
+sounding, as it did, a vague presentiment of some coming evil, which the
+very singular manner of the dog had created, although he would scarcely
+acknowledge this to himself.
+
+The man made no reply, but continued whittling, humming, at the same
+time, the air of “Yankee Doodle.”
+
+“Answer me, Ephraim Giles,” peremptorily resumed his master; “leave
+off that eternal whittling of yours, if you can, and explain to me your
+meaning.”
+
+“Etarnal whittling! do you call it, Boss? I guess it's no such thing. No
+man knows better nor you, that, if I can whittle the smallest stick in
+creation, I can bring down the stoutest tree as well as ere a fellow
+in Michigan. Work is work--play is play. It's only the difference, I
+reckon, of the axe and the knife.”
+
+“Will you answer my question like a man, and not like a fool, as you
+are?” shouted the other, stooping, and extending his left hand, the
+fingers of which he insinuated into the stock already described, while,
+with a powerful jerk, he both brought the man to his feet, and the blood
+into his usually cadaverous cheek.
+
+Ephraim Giles, half-throttled, and writhing with pain, made a movement
+as if he would have used the knife in a much less innocent manner
+than whittling, but the quick, stern eye of his master, detected the
+involuntary act, and his hand, suddenly relinquishing its hold of the
+collar, grasped the wrist of the soldier with such a vice-like pressure,
+that the fingers immediately opened, and the knife fell upon the hearth.
+
+The violence of his own act, brought Mr. Heywood at once to a sense
+of the undue severity he had exercised towards his servant, and he
+immediately said, taking his hand:
+
+“Ephraim Giles, forgive me, but it was not intended. Yet, I know not how
+it is, the few words you spoke just now made me anxious to know what you
+meant, and I could not repress my impatience to hear your explanation.”
+
+The soldier had never before remarked so much dignity of manner
+about his Boss, as he termed Mr. Heywood, and this fact, added to the
+recollection of the severe handling he had just met with, caused him to
+be a little more respectful in his address.
+
+“Well, I reckon,” he said, picking up his knife, and resuming his
+whittling, but in a less absorbed manner, “I meant no harm, but merely
+that Loup Garou can nose an Injin better than ere a one of us.”
+
+“Nose an Indian better than any one of us! Well, perhaps he can--he sees
+them every day, but what has that to do with his whining and growling
+just now?”
+
+“Well, I'll tell you, Boss, what I mean, more plain-like. You know that
+patch of wood borderin' on the prairie, where you set me to cut, t'other
+day?”
+
+“I do. What of that?”
+
+“Well, then, this mornin' I was cuttin' down as big an oak as ever grew
+in Michigan, when, as it went thunderin' through the branches, with
+noise enough to scare every buffalo within a day's hunt, up started, not
+twenty yards from it's tip, ten or a dozen or so of Injins, all gruntin'
+like pigs, and looking as fierce as so many red devils. They didn't look
+quite pleasant, I calcilate.”
+
+“Indeed,” remarked Mr. Heywood, musingly; “a party of Pottawattamies I
+presume, from the Fort. We all know there is a large encampment of them
+in the neighborhood, but they are our friends.”
+
+“May-be so,” continued Ephraim Giles, “but these varmint didn't look
+over friendly, and then I guess the Pottawattamies don't dress in war
+paint, 'cept when they dance for liquor.”
+
+“And are you quite sure these Indians were in their war paint?” asked
+his master, with an ill-concealed look of anxiety.
+
+“No mistake about it,” replied Giles, still whittling, “and I could
+almost swear, short as the squint was I got of 'em, that they were part
+of those who fought us on the Wabash, two years ago.”
+
+“How so, den, you are here, Gile. If dey wicked Injin, how you keep your
+funny little cap, an' your scalp under de cap?”
+
+This question was asked by the Canadian, who had hitherto, while
+puffing his pipe, listened indifferently to the conversation, but
+whose attention had now become arrested, from the moment that his
+fellow-laborer had spoken of the savages, so strangely disturbed by him.
+
+“Well, I don't exactly know about that, myself,” returned the soldier,
+slightly raising his cap and scratching his crown, as if in recollection
+of some narrowly escaped danger. “I reckon, tho', when I see them slope
+up like a covey of red-legged pattridges, my heart was in my mouth, for
+I looked for nothin' else but that same operation: but I wur just as
+well pleased, when, after talkin' their gibberish, and makin' all sorts
+of signs among themselves, they made tracks towards the open prairie.”
+
+“And why did you not name this, the instant you got home?” somewhat
+sternly questioned Mr. Heywood.
+
+“Where's the use of spilin' a good dinner?” returned the soldier. “It
+was all smokin' hot when I came in from choppin', and I thought it best
+for every man to tuck it in before I said a word about it. Besides, I
+reckon I don't know as they meant any harm, seein' as how they never
+carried off my top-knot;--only it was a little queer they were hid in
+that way in the woods, and looked so fierce when they first jumped up in
+their nasty paint.”
+
+“Who knows,” remarked Mr. Heywood, taking down his rifle from the side
+of the hut opposite to the chimney, and examining the priming, “but
+these fellows may have tracked you back, and are even now, lurking near
+us. Ephraim Giles, you should have told me of this before.”
+
+“And so,” replied the soldier, “I was goin' to, when Loup Garou began
+with his capers. Then it was I gave a parable like, about his scentin'
+the varmint better nor we human critters could.”
+
+“Ephraim Giles,” said Mr. Heywood, sharply, while he fixed his dark eye
+upon him, as if he would have read his inmost soul, “you say that you
+have been a soldier, and fought with our army on the Wabash. Why did you
+leave the service?”
+
+“Because,” drawled the ex-militaire, with a leering expression of
+his eye, “my captin was a bad judge of good men when he had 'em, and
+reckoned I was shammin' when I fell down rale sick, and was left behind
+in a charge made on the Injins at Tippecanoe. I couldn't stand the abuse
+he gave me for this, and so I left him.”
+
+“Cool, indeed,” sneered Mr. Heywood; “now then, Ephraim Giles, hear my
+opinion. Your captain thought you were a coward, for he judged you
+from your conduct. I, too, judge you from your conduct, and have no
+hesitation in pronouncing you to be a rogue or a fool.”
+
+“Well, I want to know!” was the only rejoinder of the man, as he went on
+unconcernedly with his whittling.
+
+“Le Noir,” said his master to the Canadian, who, imitating his example,
+had taken down a long duck gun from the same side of the hut, “take your
+dog with you and reconnoitre in the neighborhood. You speak Indian, and
+if any of these people are to be seen, ascertain who they are and why--”
+
+Here he was interrupted by the gradually approaching sounds of rattling
+deer hoofs, so well known as composing one of the lower ornaments of the
+Indian war-dress, while, at the same moment, the wild moaning of Loup
+Garou, then standing at the front door-way, was renewed even more
+plaintively than before.
+
+Mr. Heywood's cheek blanched. It was not with fear, for he was a
+man incapable of fear in the common acceptation of the word, but
+independently of certain vague apprehensions for others, his mind had
+been in a great degree unhinged by an unaccountable presentiment of
+evil, which instinctively had come over it that day. It was this, that,
+inducing a certain irresoluteness of thought and action, had led him
+into a manifestation of peevish contradiction in his address to Ephraim
+Giles. There are moments, when, without knowing why, the nerves of
+the strongest--the purposes of the wisest, are unstrung--and when it
+requires all our tact and self-possession to conceal from others, the
+momentary weakness we almost blush to admit to ourselves.
+
+But there was no time for reflection. The approach to the door was
+suddenly shaded, and in the next instant the dark forms of three or
+four savages, speedily followed by others, amounting in all to twelve,
+besides their chief, who was in the advance, crossed the threshold,
+and, without uttering a word, either of anger or salutation, squatted
+themselves upon the floor. They were stout, athletic warriors, the
+perfect symmetry of whose persons could not be concealed even by the
+hideous war-paint with which they were thickly streaked--inspiring
+anything but confidence in the honesty or friendliness of their
+intentions. The head of each was shaved and painted as well as his
+person, and only on the extreme crown had been left a tuft of hair,
+to which were attached feathers, and small bones, and other fantastic
+ornaments peculiar to their race--a few of them carried American
+rifles--the majority, the common gun periodically dealt out to the
+several tribes, as presents from the British Government, while all
+had in addition to their pipe-tomahawks the formidable and polished
+war-club.
+
+Such visitors, and so armed, were not of a description to remove the
+apprehensions of the little party in the farm-house. Their very silence,
+added to their dark and threatening looks, created more than mere
+suspicion--a certainty of evil design--and deeply did Mr. Heywood
+deplore the folly of Ephraim Giles in failing to apprise him of his
+meeting with these people, at the earliest moment after his return.
+Had he done so, there might have been a chance, nay, every assurance
+of relief, for he knew that a party from the fort, consisting of a
+non-commissioned officer and six men, were even now fishing not more
+than two miles higher up the river. He was aware that the boy, Wilton,
+was an excellent runner, and that within an hour, at least, he could
+have reached and brought down that party, who, as was their wont, when
+absenting themselves on these fishing excursions, were provided with
+their arms. However, it might not yet be too late, and he determined to
+make the attempt. To call and speak to the boy aside, would, he was
+well aware, excite the suspicions of his unwelcome guests, while it was
+possible that, as they did not understand English, (so at least he took
+it for granted) a communication made to him boldly in their presence,
+would be construed into some domestic order.
+
+“Wilton,” he said calmly to the boy, who stood near the doorway with
+alarm visibly depicted on his countenance, and looking as if he would
+eagerly seize a favorable opportunity of escape, “make all haste to the
+fishing party, and tell Corporal Nixon who commands it, to lose no time
+in pulling down the stream. You will come back with them. Quick, lose
+not a moment.”
+
+Delighted at the order, the boy made no answer, but hatless--shoeless as
+he was, disappeared round the corner of the house. Strange to say, the
+Indians, although they had seemingly listened with attention to Mr.
+Heywood while issuing these directions, did not make the slightest
+movement to arrest the departure of the boy, or even to remark upon
+it--merely turning to their chief, who uttered a sharp and satisfied
+“ugh.”
+
+During all this time, Mr. Heywood and Le Noir stood at some little
+distance from the Indians, and nearly on the spot they had occupied at
+their entrance, the one holding his rifle, the other his duck-gun,
+the butts of both, resting on the floor. At each moment their anxiety
+increased, and it seemed an age before the succor they had sent
+for could arrive. How long, moreover, would these taciturn and
+forbidding-mannered savages wait before they gave some indication of
+overt hostility, and even if nothing were done prior to the arrival of
+the fishing party, would these latter be in sufficient force to awe them
+into a pacific departure? The Indians were twelve in number, exclusive
+of their chief, all fierce and determined. They, with the soldiers,
+nine; for neither Mr. Heywood nor Le Noir seemed disposed to count
+upon any efficient aid from Ephraim Giles, who, during this dumb
+scene, continued whittling before the Indians, apparently as cool and
+indifferent to their presence, as if he had conceived them to be the
+most peaceably disposed persons in the world. He had, however, listened
+attentively to the order given to Wilton by his master, and had not
+failed to remark that the Indians had not, in any way, attempted to
+impede his departure.
+
+“What do you think of these people, Le Noir,” at length asked Mr.
+Heywood, without, however removing his gaze from his visitors. “Can they
+be friendly Pottawattamies?”
+
+“Friendly Pottawattamies! no, sare,” returned the Canadian seriously,
+and shrugging up his shoulders. “Dey no dress, no paint like de
+Pottawattamie, and I not like der black look--no, sare, dey Winnebago.”
+
+He laid a strong emphasis on the last word, and as he expected, a
+general “ugh” among the party attested that he had correctly named their
+tribe.
+
+While they were thus expressing their conjectures in regard to the
+character and intentions of their guests, and inwardly determining to
+sell their lives as dearly as possible if attacked. Ephraim Giles had
+risen from his seat in the corner of the chimney, and with his eyes
+fixed on the stick he was whittling, walked coolly out of the door,
+and sauntered down the pathway leading to the river. But if he had
+calculated on the same indifference to his actions that the Indians had
+manifested towards the boy, he was mistaken. They all watched him keenly
+as he slowly sauntered towards the water, and then, when he had
+got about half way, the chief suddenly springing to his feet, and
+brandishing his tomahawk demanded in broken, but perfectly intelligible
+English, where he was going.
+
+“Well, I want to know,” exclaimed the soldier, turning round, and in a
+tone indicating surprise that he had thus been questioned--“only goin
+over thar,” he continued, pointing to the haystacks on the opposite side
+of the river, around which stood many cattle, “goin I guess to give out
+some grub to the beasts, and I'll he back in no time, to give you
+out some whisky.” Then, resuming his course, he went on whittling as
+unconcernedly as before.
+
+The chief turned to his followers, and a low, yet eager conversation
+ensued. Whether it was that the seeming indifference of the man, or
+his promise of the whisky on his return, or that some other motive
+influenced them, they contented themselves with keeping a vigilant watch
+upon his movements.
+
+Mr. Heywood and the Frenchman exchanged looks of surprise; they could
+not account for the action of Ephraim Giles, for although it was his
+office to cross the river daily for the purpose he had named, it had
+never been at that period of the day. How the Indians could suffer his
+departure, if their intentions were really hostile, it was moreover
+impossible for them to comprehend; and in proportion as the hopes of
+the one were raised by this circumstance, so were those of the other
+depressed.
+
+Mr. Heywood began to think that the suspicions of the Canadian were
+unfounded, and that their guests were, after all, but a party of
+warriors on their way to the Fort, either for purposes of traffic with
+the only merchant residing in its vicinity, or of business with the
+officer commanding. It was not likely, he reasoned, that men coming with
+hostile designs, would have suffered first the boy to be despatched on
+a mission which, obscurely as he had worded his directions, must in
+some measure have been understood by the chief; and, secondly, permitted
+Ephraim Giles to leave the house in the manner just seen--particularly
+when the suspicion entertained by him as well as by Le Noir and himself,
+must have been apparent.
+
+But the Canadian drew no such inference from these facts. Although he
+could not speak the Winnebago language, he was too conversant with the
+customs of the Indians, to perceive, in what they permitted in this
+seeming confidence, anything but guile. He felt assured they had allowed
+the boy to depart on his errand SOLELY that they might have a greater
+number of victims in their power. Nothing was more easy, numerous as
+they were, than to despatch THEM, and then, lying in ambush among the
+trees that skirted the banks, to shoot down every one in the fishing
+boat before a landing could be effected, and preparations made for
+defence; while, in the indifference of their conduct in regard to the
+departure of Ephraim Giles, he saw but a design to disarm suspicion,
+and thus induce them to lay by their arms, the reports of which would
+necessarily alarm the party expected, and so far put them on their
+guard as to defeat their plans. The very appearance of Giles, moreover,
+crossing the water, if seen by the descending boat would, he thought
+they imagined, be a means of lulling the party into security, and thus
+rendering them a more easy prey.
+
+While the master and the servant were thus indulging their opposite
+reflections, without, however, making any intercommunication of them,
+Ephraim Giles, who had now thrust his knife and stick into the pocket
+of his short skirt, shoved off the only canoe that was to be seen, and
+stepping into it, and seizing the paddle, urged it slowly, and without
+the slightest appearance of hurry, to the opposite bank, where, within
+less than ten minutes, he had again hauled it up. Then, as coolly
+ascending the bank, he approached one of the haystacks, and drew from it
+a few handfuls of fodder which he spread upon the ground, continuing to
+do so, as the cattle assembled around, until he had gained the outermost
+haystack bordering immediately upon the wood. This reached, he gave a
+loud yell, which was promptly answered by the Indians, who had continued
+to watch his movements up to the very moment of his disappearance; and
+darting along a narrow path which skirted the wood, ran with all his
+speed towards the Fort. His flight had not lasted five minutes, when the
+reports of several guns, fired from the direction he had just quitted,
+met his ear, and urged him to even greater exertion, until at length,
+haggard and breathless, he gained his destination, and made his way
+to the commanding officer, to whom he briefly detailed the startling
+occurrences he had witnessed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+The Fort of Chicago, at that period, stood upon a portion of the same
+ground occupied by its successor, and was, in fact, a very epitome of
+a fortress. On the western side, two block-houses constituted its
+chief defence, while on the north, a subterranean passage led from the
+parade-ground to the river, near the banks of which it had been erected.
+The uses of this sally port were two-fold--firstly, to afford the
+garrison a supply of water in the event of a siege--secondly, to
+facilitate escape, if necessary. The country around, now the seat of
+fruitfulness and industry, was at that time a wilderness, tenanted only
+by the savage, and by the few daring and adventurous whites who had
+devoted their lives to purposes of traffic, yet whose numbers was so
+small as to induce them, with a view to their safety, to establish
+themselves as near the Fort as possible. Roads, there were none, and
+the half formed trail of the Indian furnished the only means of
+communication between this distant port, and the less thinly-settled
+portions of Michigan. Nor were these journeys of frequent occurrence,
+but performed at long intervals, by the enterprising and the robust
+men--who feared not to encounter privations and hardships--camping at
+night in the woods, or finding a less desirable repose in the squalid
+wigwam of the uncertain Indian.
+
+The mouth of the Chicago River was then nearly half a mile more to the
+southward than it is now. At a short distance from the lake, which gives
+its name to the territory, it soon branched off abruptly to the north,
+and then again, taking another turn, pursued its original westernly
+coarse, and, passing near the Fort, gave to the latter the appearance of
+a slightly elevated peninsula, separated only from the water by a gentle
+declivity of no great extent. On the same side of the river was the
+Government Agency House, and at about a quarter of a mile from that, a
+spot generally used as a place of encampment by the friendly Indians--at
+that moment occupied by a numerous band of Pottawattamies. Immediately
+opposite to the Fort, stood the residence and trading establishment of
+Mr. Mackenzie--a gentleman who had long mixed with the Indians--had
+much influence with, and was highly regarded by them; and, close to his
+abode, lived with his family, consisting of his wife and her sister,
+French Canadians like himself, Ouilmette, one of the most attached of
+his people, and enjoying almost equal popularity with the red men. About
+a quarter of a mile beyond Ouilmettes, and immediately opposite to the
+Pottawattamie encampment, from which it was divided only by the river,
+was another small but neat dwelling. This belonged to Mr. Heywood, and
+was then inhabited by his wife and daughter, whom he would not permit to
+reside at the farm, as well on account of its rudeness of accommodation,
+as of the dread of exposing them, in that remote situation, to the very
+danger which we have seen he had himself so recently encountered.
+
+Such was the civilian population of that sparsely inhabited country in
+1812. Let us now see the strength of its garrison.
+
+For the defence of so distant an outpost, almost cut off, as we have
+already shown, from communication with the more inhabited portions of
+the States, the American government had not thought it requisite
+to provide more than a single company of soldiers, a force utterly
+inadequate to contend in a case of emergency, with the hordes of savages
+that could be collected around them within a few hours, and WEEKS before
+any efficient succor could be obtained. This error, grave at any time,
+in those who sought to extend the influence of their name and arms
+throughout that fertile region which has now, within little more than
+a quarter of a century, become the very head of American commerce and
+navigation, was especially so at this particular epoch, when the
+Indian spirit, stirred to action by the great chief who had so recently
+measured his strength with his hated enemies at Tippecanoe, was likely
+to be aroused on all occasions where facility of conquest seemed to
+present itself. And, yet, that government well knew that there were,
+even at that moment, difficulties existing between themselves and
+Great Britain of a character to lead to an interruption of the friendly
+intercourse that had hitherto subsisted between the two countries,
+and which, if suffered to ripen into hostilities, would necessarily,
+associate many of the Indian tribes with the forces of England, drawing
+down certain destruction on those remoter posts, whose chief reliance on
+immunity from danger, lay, in a great degree, in the array of strength
+they could oppose to their subtle and calculating enemy.
+
+This company, consisting, of seventy-five men--many of them married
+and with families--was under the command of an officer whose conduct
+throughout the eventful and trying scenes about to be recorded, has
+often been the subject of much censure--with what justice our readers
+must determine.
+
+Captain Headley was one of those officers who, without having acquired
+no greater rank at the age of forty than he now possessed, had served
+in the army of the United States from his boyhood, and was, in all the
+minutiae of the service, a strict disciplinarian. He had, moreover,
+acquired habits of deference to authority, which caused him, on all
+necessary occasions, to regulate his conduct by the orders of his
+superiors, and so strongly was this engrafted on his nature, that
+while he possessed mind and energy sufficient to plan the most feasible
+measures himself, his dread of that responsibility which circumstances
+had now forced upon him, induced the utmost disinclination to depart
+from the letter of an instruction once received, and unrevoked.
+
+These, however, were purely faults of his military education. To a
+commanding person and dignified manners, Captain Headley united a mind
+highly cultivated, and feelings and sentiments which could not fail to
+secure the respect even of those who were most ready to condemn that
+caution and prudence of character which so eminently distinguished his
+career as a subordinate soldier. It was well known and conceded that,
+if he erred, the error grew not so much out of his own want of judgment,
+but was rather the fruit of the too great deference to authority which
+led him, implicitly, to adopt the judgment of others. In the private
+relations of life, he was deservedly esteemed, excelling in all those
+higher accomplishments that ensure favor with society, and seldom fail
+to win for their possessor the approbation of women. Such, indeed, had
+been his success in this particular application of the gifts with which
+nature had endowed him, that he had, for some years, been the possessor
+of the affections and the hand of one of the noblest of her sex, whom,
+however, we shall take a later opportunity of introducing to the reader.
+
+The next officer in rank was Lieutenant Elmsley, married also, and about
+ten years the junior of Headley. From causes, which will be explained in
+the coarse of our narrative, the subaltern did not incline to place that
+confidence in the measures and judgment of his captain, which, it has
+been shown, the latter almost invariably accorded to HIS superiors, and
+hence arose feelings, that, without absolutely alienating them--for, in
+their relative military positions this could never be--rendered their
+intercourse daily more and more formal, until, in the end, a sentiment
+almost of enmity prevailed. In a remote garrison like this such an
+evil was the more to be regretted, even while there was the greater
+probability, from absence of serious occupation, of its occurrence.
+
+The junior subaltern was Ensign Ronayne, a high-spirited young
+Southerner, who had now been three years at the post, and within that
+period, had, by his frank demeanor, and handsome person, won the regard
+of all--military and civil--there and in the neighborhood. Enterprising,
+ardent, fearless, and chivalrous, this young man had passed the first
+year of what he, then, considered little short of banishment, in a
+restless desire for adventure; but at the end of that period, came a
+marked change over him, and the spirit that had panted exclusively for
+action, now bent before a gentler and a holier influence.
+
+Last of the officers of this little fort, was the surgeon. Doctor Von
+Vottenberg, who as his name would imply, was a descendant from one of
+the earlier Dutch settlers in the colonies. There was nothing remarkable
+about this gentleman. He was short, stoat, rather of a bilious
+temperament--clever in his profession, and much addicted to compounding
+whisky punch, which he not only brewed, but drank most satisfactorily.
+What other attributes and accomplishments he possessed, the incidents
+herein related must develop.
+
+It has been said that, on its Western side, the Fort was protected by
+two block-houses, while on the northern a sally port communicated
+with the tower. On each side of the sally port were two small stores,
+reserved for the ammunition and arms, and for the provisions and spare
+clothing of the garrison. On the north and south faces, rose a series of
+small low wooden buildings, appropriated to the officers, and capable of
+containing thrice the number now occupying them. The southern face, or
+that which looks towards the locale of the scene described in our last
+chapter, was now the residence of the commanding officer, and of his
+senior subordinate, who, with their families and domestics, tenanted the
+whole of that range of buildings, with the exception of one large room
+in the centre, generally used as a hall of council with the Indians.
+In the other range, precisely similar in construction, were quartered
+Ensign Ronayne and the surgeon Von Vottenberg, who each, however
+occupied but one apartment. The central and largest serving as their
+mess-room. The other half of the building was vacant, or rather had been
+so, until the doctor obtained the permission of the commanding officer
+to use it as a temporary surgery--the hospital being a distinct edifice
+between the two block-houses. These latter, capacious for the size
+of the fort, accommodated the non-commissioned officers and men--the
+company being divided as equally as possible between the two.
+
+Without the whole of these buildings stood a strong stockade, about
+twelve feet high, loop-holed for musquetry, with a bastion at each
+angle, facing the four principal points of the compass, on each of
+which was placed a small gun, that the men had been trained to work. The
+entrance to the fort was from the westward, and in the direction of the
+agency house, which two of these bastions immediately flanked.
+
+The guard consisted of a non-commissioned officer and nine men--three
+sentries being furnished for the necessary duties--one for the stores
+already described--another for the commanding officer's quarters--the
+mess-room and the surgery, and the third for the, southern bastion,
+upon which floated the glorious stars and stripes of the Union. A
+fourth sentry at the gate had been dispensed with, in consequence of
+the proximity to it of the guard-house. This, was a small building
+immediately in front of the hospital, which, with the gate, came
+particularly under the surveillance of the non-commissioned officer of
+the guard.
+
+With the character for strict attention to discipline, which has been
+ascribed to Captain Headley, it will be easily understood that every man
+on duty was expected to be as correct in the execution of its details,
+as though he had been at the Head Quarters of his regiment, or at
+the Seat of Government itself. The utmost regard to dress, and to the
+efficiency of arms was moreover enjoined, and so far did their commander
+feel indisposed to trust the inspection of them to the non-commissioned
+officer of the guard, that, although there were in the Fort, but two
+regimental officers besides himself, he had, from the moment of assuming
+the command, required them alternately to perform the necessary duties;
+superintending the relief of guards, and parading all men off duty and
+out of hospital, in full dress, at least once in the twenty-four hours.
+
+At the outset, this had been a source of much discontent with the men,
+who conceiving that, in that remote region, the rigor of the service
+might be dispensed with, almost openly expressed their desire that
+there might be sent to command them, some officer less severe in his
+exactions. This had been reported to Captain Headley by his senior
+subaltern, from whose manner, while communicating the information, it
+was apparent that he did not wholly disapprove of a remonstrance against
+measures which involved the sacrifice of his own comfort. His superior
+was not slow to remark this, he, however, quietly observed that he was
+not, at his years, and in his responsible position, to be told the duty
+required to be performed by the troops under his command; and that, if
+he perceived any symptoms of insubordination, he would take the proper
+means to suppress it. The lieutenant made no reply, but bit his lip, and
+withdrew. This was the first manifestation of any thing approaching to
+disunion, between these two officers.
+
+Lieutenant Elmsley, although by no means a negligent officer, was no
+disciplinarian. He could not but look upon formal guard mountings and
+parades, in that isolated quarter, as unnecessary--serving only to
+create discontent amongst the men, and to induce them--the unmarried
+especially--to desert, whenever an opportunity presented itself; while,
+bringing the subject more immediately home to himself, he deemed it to
+be a needlessly severe tax upon the only two subalterns of the garrison.
+This, he thought might, situated as they were, have been dispensed with,
+without the slightest inconvenience to the service; and the duty left to
+the superintendence of the non-commissioned part of the force. Hence his
+annoyance with his superior.
+
+But Captain Headley was of a different opinion. He thought that the
+very remoteness of his post, rendered it the more necessary that no
+appearance of carelessness should be remarked by the tribes of Indians,
+who were in the vicinity, and who, however amicable their relations
+THEN with the United States, might later, from caprice or events yet
+unforeseen, take advantage of the slightest negligence, to attempt the
+destruction of all.
+
+Better, he thought, that they who received the pay of the Government,
+for upholding its interests and dignity, should be subject to a frequent
+recurrence of duty--not in itself particularly irksome-than that
+an important post--the nucleus of the future prosperity of the
+State--should be perilled by the absence of that vigilance which ought
+to characterize the soldier. If he allowed to be retrenched, or indeed
+left unemployed, any of that military exhibition, which tends to impress
+upon the many the moral superiority of the few, where, he argued, would
+be their safety in the hour of need; and if those duties were performed
+in a slovenly manner, and without due regard to SCENIC effect, the
+result would be to induce the wily savage to undervalue that superiority
+which discipline chiefly secured to the white warrior. Captain Headley
+was discriminating and observant. He had, more than once, remarked the
+surprise and admiration created among the Indians who had access within
+the stockade, at the promptness and regularity of the system introduced
+into it, and this, of itself, was a sufficient motive to cause him to
+persevere in the course his judgment had adopted.
+
+Such was the condition of affairs at the moment when Ephraim Giles,
+breathless with speed, and fancying the party of Winnebagoes close upon
+his heels, made his entry into the Fort. The news he brought was of a
+nature to assemble the officers, as well as many of the men and women,
+all anxious to hear the details of an occurrence, which now, for
+the first time since their arrival at the Fort, had created serious
+apprehension. But there was one of the party who manifested more
+than ordinary uneasiness. His impatience was great, and, after having
+whispered a few words in the ear of Captain Headley, and received an
+affirmative reply, coupled with an injunction of caution, he left
+the building in haste, and proceeded towards the block-houses, where,
+selecting half a dozen men, and ordering them to arm on the instant, he
+passed with them through the gate--sprang into a large scow which was
+unchained from its moorings, on the bank of the river, and pulled in the
+direction of the house already said to have been occupied by the wife
+and daughter of Mr. Heywood.
+
+Meanwhile, Captain Headley closely interrogated the fugitive as to the
+number and appearance of the Indians who had created all this alarm,
+their probable object in visiting the farm in this seemingly hostile
+manner, and the number of shots he had heard fired. To all these
+questions the soldier, who had now, in some degree, recovered from his
+panic, replied in the usual drawling tone, his stick and knife, which
+had been drawn forth again from his pocket, in which he had deposited
+them in crossing from the farm-house, affording him his usual amusement,
+but nothing, of course, was elicited beyond what has already been
+related. Whether any one had been killed in the house, or the guns
+merely discharged to frighten the fugitive, or that the reports had
+proceeded from the fishing party that had been sent for, with a view to
+alarm the Indians, and deter them from the commission of outrage,
+were surmises that severally occurred to Captain Headley, but without
+enabling him to arrive at any definite opinion. That there was cause for
+apprehension, there was no doubt. The appearance of a band of strange
+Indians in the neighborhood, however small in number, dressed in their
+war-paint, gave earnest of coming trouble, not only through their own
+acts, but through the influence of example on the many other tribes
+whom they had been accustomed to look upon as friends and allies. In the
+midst of these reflections arose a feeling of self-gratulation that he
+had preserved that discipline and strict attention to duty, which, he
+knew, that all must now admit to have been correct, and which, if any
+difficulty did occur, could not fail to prove of the utmost importance.
+
+His first consideration now was the safety of the small fishing party,
+to which allusion has more than once been made in the preceding pages,
+and which it was a source of satisfaction to him to recollect were,
+in accordance with an order never departed from on these and similar
+excursions, furnished with the necessary arms and ammunition, although
+only in their fatigue dress.
+
+“Mr. Elmsley,” he said turning to that officer, who stood waiting his
+orders, “who commands the fishing party?”
+
+“Corporal Nixon, sir,” replied the lieutenant, at once entering into his
+motive for the inquiry, “a brave, but discreet soldier, and one who, I
+am sure, will evince all necessary resolution, should he see anything of
+these Indians. The men who are with him are also fine young fellows, and
+among our best shots.”
+
+“I am glad to hear this,” was the rejoinder, “but still, twelve Indians
+firing from the woods upon half their number in an open boat, and taken
+by surprise, would, I fear, render the activity, courage, and skill of
+these latter but of little avail. My hope is, that Corporal Nixon may
+see nothing of them, but that, on the contrary, if he has been apprised
+by the boy, as the fellow says he was to be, of their presence at
+Heywood's farm, he will make his way back without stopping, or at least,
+use every precaution to conceal himself, until he can drop down under
+cover of the darkness.”
+
+“What, sir,” said the lieutenant, with a surprise he could ill conceal,
+“would you desire him not to afford the necessary succor to Mr. Heywood,
+if, indeed, he should be in time to render any service?”
+
+“Mr. Elmsley,” remarked his captain, somewhat sternly, “my sympathy for
+the fate of those at the farm, is, perhaps quite as strong as yours, but
+I have a higher stake at issue--a higher object than the indulgence of
+personal sympathy. I can ill afford, threatening as appearances are at
+this moment, to risk the lives of six men, the best you say in the fort,
+out of the very small force at my disposal. Nothing must be left undone
+to secure their safety. Order a gun to be fired immediately from the
+southern bastion. It will be distinctly heard by the party, and if not
+already apprised of the existing danger they will at once understand
+the signal. Moreover the report may have the effect of alarming the
+savages.”
+
+Lieutenant Elmsley withdrew to execute the order, and soon after
+the dull booming of a cannon was heard reverberating throughout the
+surrounding woods, and winding its echoes along the waters of the narrow
+and tranquil Chicago. So unusual an event as this excited a good deal
+of speculation, not only among the inmates of the Fort, but among the
+numerous friendly Indians encamped without, who, wholly unacquainted
+with the cause of the alarm, were, by the strict orders of Captain
+Headley, kept ignorant of the information of which Ephraim Giles had
+been the bearer--
+
+That night there was a more than usual vigilance exercised by the
+sentinels, and although the rest of the garrison were exempt from
+extraordinary duty, the watchful and anxious commanding officer slept
+not until dawn.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+At a distance of about two miles above Heywood's farm, and on the
+southern branch of the Chicago, which winds its slightly serpentine
+course between the wood and the prairie. There was at the period of
+which we treat, a small deep bay formed by two adjacent and densely
+wooded points of land, in the cool shades of which the pike, the black
+bass, and the pickerel loved to lie in the heat of summer, and where, in
+early spring, though in less numbers, they were wont to congregate.
+This was the customary fishing spot of the garrison--six men and a
+non-commissioned officer, repairing there almost daily, with their ample
+store of lines and spears, as much, although not avowedly, for their
+own amusement, as for the supply of the officer's table. What remained,
+after a certain division among these, became the property of the
+captors, who, after appropriating to themselves what was necessary for
+their next day's meal, distributed the rest among the non-commissioned,
+and men of the company. As the season advanced, and the fish became
+more plenty, there was little limitation of quantity, for the freight,
+nightly brought home, and taken with the line and spear alone, was
+sufficient to afford every one abundance. In truth, even in the depth
+of winter, there was little privation endured by the garrison--the fat
+venison brought in and sold for the veriest trifle by the Indians--the
+luscious and ample prairie hen, chiefly shot by the officers, and the
+fish we have named, leaving no necessity for consumption of the salt
+food with which it was but indifferently stored.
+
+On the day on which our narrative has commenced, the usual fishing party
+had ascended the river at an early hour, for the newness of the season
+and the shortness of the days rendered it an object that they should be
+on the accustomed haunt as soon as possible. They had left the Fort at
+daylight, passing Heywood's farm at the moment when, for the purpose of
+foddering the cattle on the opposite bank, he, with the boy Wilton, was
+crossing to the very canoe in which Ephraim Giles afterwards made his
+escape--the latter with the Canadian, being engaged in felling trees
+higher up the river.
+
+Arrived at the little bay to which we have just adverted, the boat was
+fastened to the gnarled trunk of a tree, which projected over the
+deep water at the nearest point, and the party, taking with them their
+fishing rods, baits, and haversacks, but leaving their spears and
+muskets in the boat, dispersed themselves at short distances along
+the curve that formed the bay, which, however, was not more than three
+hundred yards in extent, from point to point.
+
+When they first cast their lines into the water, the sun's rays were
+clearly visible through the thick wood in their rear. The early morning,
+too, had been cold--almost frosty--so much so, that the wild ducks,
+which generally evinced a good deal of shyness, NOW, seemingly
+emboldened by the briskness of the atmosphere, could be seen gliding
+about in considerable numbers, about half a mile below them; while the
+fish, on the contrary, as though dissatisfied with the temperature
+of their element, refused to do what the men called “the amiable,” by
+approaching the hook. Their occupation had been continued until long
+past mid-day, during which time not more than a dozen fish had been
+taken. Vexed at his ill luck, for he had not had even a nibble, one
+of the men flung his rod upon the bank, impatiently, and then, seating
+himself on the projecting root of a large tree, declared it was all
+nonsense to play the fool any longer, and that the most sensible thing
+they could do, was to take their dinners--smoke their pipes--and wash
+the whole down with a little of the Monongahela.
+
+“I say, Collins,” remarked the corporal, good-naturedly, “we shall have
+poor fare for the officers' mess, let alone our own, if we all follow
+your example, and give up so soon. But, as you say, it's time to have
+some grub, and we'll try our luck afterwards.”
+
+“Rome wasn't built in a day,” said the man who had been fishing next
+to Collins, and drawing in his line also, “we've a good many hours left
+yet.”
+
+Following the recommendation of the corporal, the rest of the party sat
+down on the edge of the bank, and, opening their haversacks, produced
+each his allowance of corn bread and venison, or salted pork, after
+dispatching which, with the aid of their clasp knives, they took
+a refreshing “horn” from the general canteen that Collins carried
+suspended over his shoulder, and then drew forth and lighted their
+pipes.
+
+As the latter puffed away with a vigor that proved either a preoccupied
+mind, or extreme gratification with the weed, he cast his eyes
+carelessly down the stream, where a large description of duck, called
+by the French natives of the country, the cou rouge, from the color of
+their necks, were disporting themselves as though nothing in the shape
+of a fire arm was near them--now diving--now rising on their feet, and
+shaking their outstretched wings, now chasing each other in limited
+circles, and altogether so apparently emboldened by their immunity from
+interruption, as to come close to the bank, at a distance of little more
+than fifty yards from the spot where he sat.
+
+“It's very ridiculous,” he at length remarked, pouring forth at the same
+time, an unusual volume of smoke, and watching the curling eddies as
+they rose far above his head--“it's very ridiculous, I say, the captin's
+order that we sha'nt fire. Look at them ducks--how they seem to know all
+about it, too!”
+
+“By gosh!” said another, “I've a good notion to fetch my musket, and
+have a slap into them. Shall I, corporal?”
+
+“Certainly not, Green,” was the answer. “If it was known in the Fort I
+had permitted any of the party to fire, I should be broke, if I did'nt
+get picketed for my pains, and none of us would ever get out again.”
+
+“No great harm in that, either,” said the man who had made the novel
+observation that Rome had not been built in a day.
+
+The corporal looked sharply at the last speaker, as if not fully
+comprehending his meaning.
+
+“Jackson means no great harm if we never got out again,” interposed
+Collins, “and I think as he does, for I see no fun in rowing four or
+five miles to fish, and scarcely getting a sight of one.”
+
+“Well, but Collins, that's not always our luck. I'm sure we've had sport
+enough before. It must be because the weather's rather cold today, that
+the fish won't bite.”
+
+“It's of no use his grumbling, Philips,” remarked Corporal Nixon, “we're
+here, not so much for own sport as on a duty for the garrison. Let me
+hear no more of this, Collins.”
+
+“Well, corporal that's true enough,” said Green, “but dash me if it
+isn't temptin' to see them fellows there stealin' upon us, and we
+lookin' on, and doin' nothin'.”
+
+“What fellows do you mean?” inquired the corporal, suddenly starting to
+his feet, and looking down the river.
+
+“Why, them ducks to be sure, see how they come sailin' up to us, as if
+they knowed all about the captin's order--no jumpin' or friskin' now,
+but all of a heap like.”
+
+“Yes, but I say, what's that black looking thing beyond the ducks?”
+ asked one who had not hitherto spoken, pointing his finger.
+
+“Where, where, Weston?” exclaimed one or two voices, and the speakers
+looked in the direction indicated.
+
+“Hang me if it isn't a bear,” said Collins in a low, anxious tone;
+“that's the chap that has sent the ducks so near us. Do let me have a
+crack at him, corporal. He's large enough to supply us all with fresh
+meat for three days, and will make up for the bad fishing. Only one shy,
+corporal, and I engage not to miss him.”
+
+Sure enough, there was, in the centre of the stream, a dark object,
+nearly half a mile distant, which all joined in pronouncing to be a
+bear. It was swimming vigorously across to their aide of the river.
+
+“I think we might take him as he lands,” observed Green. “What say you,
+corporal; I reckon you'll let us try THAT, if you won't let us fire?”
+
+“Stay all where you are,” was the reply. “I can manage him myself with
+a spear, if I can only be in time before he reaches the shore. If not,
+it's no matter, for I won't allow a trigger to be pulled.”
+
+Corporal Nixon was a tall, active, strong-limbed Virginian. He soon
+cleared the space that separated them from the boat, and jumping to the
+stern, seized one of the fishing spears, and then moved on through: the
+wood that densely skirted the bank. But he had not been five minutes
+gone when he again made his appearance, not immediately by the
+half-formed path he had previously taken, but by a slight detour to the
+rear.
+
+“Hist, hist,” he said in an audible whisper, as soon as he saw that
+he was perceived, motioning at the same time with his hand to enjoin
+silence, and concealment. Then, beckoning to Weston to join him; he
+again moved along the path with the light tread of one who fears to
+alarm an object unconscious of interruption.
+
+All had the sense to understand that there was some good reason for
+the caution of the corporal, and with the exception of Weston, who had
+promptly obeyed the signal, busily, but silently resumed their morning's
+occupation.
+
+First, a quarter of an hour, and then minute after minute passed slowly
+away, yet there was no sign of the return of their companions. What
+could be the meaning of this? If the bear had not proved to be too much
+for them, they ought to have killed him, and rejoined them before
+this. Curiosity, nay, apprehension finally overcame the strong sense
+of obedience to orders, which had been literally drilled into them, and
+they all, at the suggestion of Green, dropped their rods on the bank,
+and moved cautiously in the direction that had been taken by the
+corporal and Weston. Great, however, was the surprise of Collins, then a
+little in advance, when, on nearing the spot where the boat lay moored,
+he beheld, not those of who they were in search, but a naked, and
+hideously painted savage, in the very act of untying the rope by which
+the skiff was fastened to the knotted and projecting root of the tree.
+Sensible that there was impending danger, although he knew not of what
+precise kind, inasmuch as there was no Reason to apprehend anything
+hostile from the Indians, with--all of whom around the fort, they had
+always been on friendly terms, he sprang forward to arrest the movement.
+But the distance was several rods, and the savage, alarmed by the
+rustling made among the foliage and brushwood in his rear, now put his
+shoulder to the boat, and, in the next instant would have had it far
+across this stream, had not a hand suddenly protruded from beneath the
+hollow clump of earth on which the tree grew, grasped him firmly by the
+ankle, even while in the act of springing into the forcibly impelled
+skiff. In a moment or two, he grappled tightly with his hands upon the
+bow of the boat, but, finding the pressure on his imprisoned limb too
+great for resistance, he relinquished his hold, falling upon his face
+in the water, from which he was dragged, although without violence, by
+Corporal Nixon, who had emerged from his hiding-place.
+
+When the Indian was suffered to rise, there was a threatening expression
+on his countenance, which, not even the number of those by whom he was
+now surrounded could check, and he made an involuntary motion of his
+hand to his scalping knife, the only weapon with which he was armed,
+that lay in the sheath dangling from his girdle. Seeing, however, that
+there was no hostile disposition manifested by the party, he speedily
+relinquished his first impulse, and stood upright before them with a
+bold, but calm look.
+
+“What you want with boat?” asked the corporal, almost involuntarily, and
+without the slightest expectation that his question would be understood.
+
+“Me want 'em cross,” replied the Indian, pointing to the opposite woods.
+
+“But why you come in bear skin?” and, in his turn, the corporal pointed
+with his finger in the direction in which the supposed bear had been
+seen.
+
+“Ugh!” grunted the savage doggedly, finding that he had been detected in
+his disguise.
+
+“What nation you?--Pottawattamie?”
+
+“Wah! Pottawattamie!”
+
+“Curious enough,” pursued the corporal, addressing himself to his
+comrades. “I don't half like the look of the fellow, but I suppose it's
+all right. We musn't offend him. You chief?”, he continued, pointing
+to a large silver medal suspended over the breast of the athletic and
+well-proportioned Indian.
+
+“Yes, me chief. Pottawattamie chief,” and he made a sign in the
+direction of the Fort, near which the encampment of that tribe lay.
+
+“You friend, then?” remarked the corporal, extending his hand.
+
+“Yes, me friend,” he answered promptly, brightening up and taking the
+proffered hand; “you give 'em boat?”
+
+“Do you see any thing green in my eye?” asked the Virginian, incapable,
+even under the circumstances, of repressing the indulgence of his humor.
+
+But the party questioned, although speaking a little English, was not
+sufficiently initiated in its elegancies to comprehend this; so, he
+merely answered with a “ugh!” while the greater portion of the men
+laughed boisterously, both at the wit of the corporal, and at the
+seeming astonishment it excited.
+
+This mirth by no means suited the humor of the Indian. He felt that
+it was directed towards himself, and again he stood fierce, and with a
+dilating frame before them.
+
+Corporal Nixon at once became sensible of his error. To affront one of
+the friendly chiefs would, he knew, not only compromise the interests
+of the garrison, but incur the severe displeasure of the commanding
+officer, who had always enjoined the most scrupulous abstinence from any
+thing offensive to them.
+
+“I only meant to say,” he added, as he again extended his hand. “I can't
+give 'em boat, White chief,” and he pointed in the direction of the Fort,
+“no let me.”
+
+“Ugh!” exclaimed the Indian, his stern features again brightening up
+with a last hope. “'Spose come with Injin?”
+
+For a moment or two, the corporal hesitated whether or not to put the
+man across, but when he reflected on the singular manner of his advent,
+and other circumstances connected with his appearance among them, his
+customary prudence came to his aid, and while avoiding all ground for
+offence by his mode of refusal, he gave him peremptorily to understand
+that there was an order against his suffering the boat to leave its
+present station.
+
+Again the countenance of the Indian fell, even while his quick eye
+rolled incessantly from one to the other of the group. “You no give 'em
+boat--Injin swim,” he at length observed.
+
+“Just as you please,” answered corporal Nixon. “By and bye, sogers go to
+the Fort--take Injin with 'em.”
+
+“Wah! Injin cross here,” and as he spoke, he sprang again to the bow
+of the boat, and at a single bound cleared the intervening space to the
+very stern.
+
+Several heavy splashes in the water.--a muttered curse from the
+corporal--some confusion among his men, and the savage was seen nearly
+half-way across the river, swimming like an eel to the opposite shore.
+
+“Damn the awkward brute!” exclaimed the former, angrily. “How many
+muskets are there overboard, Jackson?”
+
+“Only three--and two cartouch boxes.”
+
+“ONLY three indeed! I wish the fellow had been at old Nick, instead
+of coming here to create all this confusion. Is the water deep at the
+stern?”
+
+“Nearly a fathom I reckon,” was the reply.
+
+“Then, my lads, you must look out for other fish to-day. Jackson, can
+you see the muskets at the bottom?”
+
+“Not a sign of them, corporal,” answered the man, as lying flat on the
+boat, he peered intently into the water. “The bottom is covered with
+weeds, and I can just see the tails of two large pikes wriggling among
+them. By Gemini, I think if I had my rod here, I could take them both!”
+
+“Never mind them,” resumed the corporal, again delivering himself of a
+little wit; “muskets will be of far more use to us just now than pikes.
+We must fish them up--there will be the devil to pay if we go home
+without them.”
+
+“Then there's no other way than diving for them,” said Jackson, still
+looking downwards. “Not even the glitter of a barrel can I see. They
+must have buried themselves in the weeds. I say, Weston,” slightly
+raising his head and turning his face to the party named, “You're a good
+diver?”
+
+“Yes, and Collins is better than me.”
+
+“Well then, here's at it,” resumed Jackson, rising and commencing to
+strip. “It's only by groping and feeling that we can find the arms, and
+when once we've tumbled on 'em, it will be easy enough to get 'em up
+with one hand, while we swim with the other. We must plunge here from
+the stern,” he added, as the men whom he had named jumped on board and
+commenced stripping themselves.
+
+“How came the Injin to knock the muskets overboard, Corporal?” inquired
+one of the party who had not yet spoken--a fat, portly man, with a long
+hooked nose, and a peaked chin.
+
+“I'm dashed,” replied Nixon, “if I can tell myself, though I was looking
+at him as he jumped from one end of the boat to the other. All I know
+is, the firelocks were propped against the stern of the boat as we
+placed them, with the backs of the cartouch boxes slung under the
+ramrods, and I suppose, for I don't know how else it could be done, that
+instead of alighting on the seat, he must have passed it, and putting
+his foot on the muzzles, tipped them with the weight of his body, head
+over heels into the water.”
+
+“Corporal,” Ventured Collins, as he removed his last garment, “you asked
+that painted chap if he saw anything green in your eye. Now, that's as
+it may be, but hang me, if it wasn't a little green to take him for a
+Pottawattamie?”
+
+“And how do you know he was'nt a Pottawattamie? Who made you a judge of
+Indian flesh?” retorted the corporal, with an air of dissatisfaction.
+
+“Didn't he say he was, and didn't he wear a chiefs medal?”
+
+“Say? Yes, I'll be bound he'd say and wear anything to gull us, but I'm
+sure he's no Pottawattamie. I never seen a Pottawattamie of that build.
+They are tall, thin, skinny, bony fellows--while this chap was square,
+stoat, broad-shouldered, and full of muscle.”
+
+Corporal Nixon pondered a little, because half-convinced, but would not
+acknowledge that he could have been mistaken. “Are you all ready?” he
+at length inquired, anxious, like most men, when driven into a corner on
+one topic, to introduce another.
+
+“All ready,” answered Jackson, taking the first plunge in the direction
+in which he knew the muskets must have fallen.
+
+Before following his example, the others waited for his report. This was
+soon made. He had got hold of one of the muskets, and partly lifted it
+from its bed, but the net-work of strong weeds above it, opposing too
+much resistance, he had been compelled to quit his hold, and came to the
+surface of the water for air.
+
+“Here's for another trial,” shouted Collins, as he made his plunge in
+the same direction. In a few seconds he too, reappeared, bearing in his
+right hand, not a firelock, but the two missing cartouch boxes.
+
+“Better luck next time,” remarked corporal Nixon. “I think my lads, if
+two of you were to separate the weeds with your hands, so as to clear
+each musket, the other might easily bring it up.”
+
+The suggestion of the corporal was at once acted upon, but it was not,
+until after repeated attempts had been made to liberate the arms, from
+their Web-like canopy, that two were finally brought up and placed in
+the boat. The third they groped for in vain, until at length, the men,
+dispirited and tired, declared it was utterly useless to prosecute the
+search, and that the other musket must be given up as lost.
+
+This, however, did not suit the views of the correct corporal. He said,
+pointedly, that he would almost as soon return without his head as
+without his arms, and that the day having been thus far spent without
+the accomplishment of the object for which they were there, he was
+determined to devote the remainder to the search. Not being a bad diver
+himself, although he had not hitherto deemed it necessary to add his
+exertions to those of his comrades, he now stripped, desiring those
+who had preceded him to throw on their shirts and rest themselves for
+another plunge, when he should have succeeded in finding out where the
+missing musket had lodged.
+
+“What's that?” exclaimed Jackson, pointing to a small, dark object, of
+a nearly circular shape, which was floating about half way between the
+surface of the place into which the divers had plunged, and the weeds
+below.
+
+His companions turned their eyes in the direction indicated, but, almost
+immediately after Jackson had spoken, it had disappeared wholly from
+view.
+
+“What did it loot like?” asked the corporal.
+
+“It must have been a mush rat,” returned Jackson, “there's plenty of
+them about here, and I reckon our diving has disturbed the nest.”
+
+Corporal Nixon now took his leap, but some paces farther out from the
+shore than his companions had ventured upon theirs. The direction was
+the right one. Extending his arms as he reached a space entirely free
+from weeds, his right hand encountered the cold barrel of the musket,
+but as he sought to glide it along, in order that he might grasp
+the butt, and thus drag it endwise up, his hand disturbed some hairy
+substance which rested upon the weapon causing it to float slightly
+upwards, until it came in contact with his naked breast. Now, the
+corporal was a fearless soldier whose nerves were not easily shaken, but
+the idea of a nasty mush rat, as they termed it, touching his person in
+this manner, produced in him unconquerable disgust, even while it gave
+him the desperate energy to clutch the object with a nervous grasp, and
+without regard to the chance of being bitten in the act, by the small,
+sharp teeth of the animal. His consternation was even greater when, on
+enclosing it within his rough palm, he felt the whole to collapse, as
+though it had been a heavy air-filled bladder, burst by the compression
+of his fingers. A new feeling-a new chain of ideas now took possession
+of him, and leaving the musket where it was, he rose near the spot from
+which he first started, and still clutching his hairy and undesirable
+prize, threw it from him towards the boat, into the bottom of which it
+fell, after grazing the cheek of Collins.
+
+“Pooh! pooh! pooh,” spluttered the latter, moving as if the action was
+necessary to disembarrass him of the unsightly object no longer there.
+
+A new source of curiosity was now created, not only among the swimmers,
+but the idlers who were smoking their pipes and looking carelessly
+on. All now, without venturing to touch the loathsome looking thing,
+gathered around it endeavoring to ascertain really what it was. “What do
+you make of the creature?” asked corporal Nixon, who, now ascending the
+side of the boat, observed how much the interest of his men had been
+excited.
+
+“I'm sure I can't say,” answered Jackson. “It looks for all the world
+like a rat, only the hair is so long. Dead enough though, for it does
+not budge an inch.”
+
+“Let's see what it is,” said the man with the long hooked nose, and the
+peaked chin.
+
+By no means anxious, however, to touch it with his hands, he took up the
+spear and turned over and over the clammy and motionless mass.
+
+“Just as I thought,” exclaimed the corporal, with a shudder, as the
+weapon unfolding the whole to view, disclosed alternately the moistened
+hair and thick and bloody skin of a human head.
+
+“Gemini,” cried Jackson, “how came this scalp here, it has been freshly
+taken--this very day--yet how could it get here?”
+
+“Depend upon't,” said Green, “that chief that was here just now, could
+tell somethin' about it, if he had a mind.”
+
+“Then he must have had it in his breech-cloth,” remarked the corporal
+seriously, for not a rag besides had he about him. “No, no it couldn't
+be him, and yet it's very strange.”
+
+“Of course it couldn't be him,” maliciously interfered Collins, who had
+so far conquered his first disgust, as to take the object of discussion
+into his own hands, “for you know he was a Pottawattamie, and therefore
+wouldn't scalp for the world.”
+
+“But whose can it be?” resumed Jackson, “and how did it get here, I am
+sure its that of a boy.”
+
+“Could it have floated here from the farm?” half questioned Green
+musingly.
+
+“Somethin' struck me like shots from that quarter, about an hour before
+the Injin swam across, and dash me, now I recollect it, I'm sure I heard
+a cry, just after the corporal left us to go after that bear.”
+
+“Nonsense,” said the Virginian, “how could it float against the stream,
+and as for the shots you think you heard, you most have taken Ephraim
+Giles's axe blows for them. Besides, you couldn't hear shots at that
+distance. If you did, it most be from some of the hunters.”
+
+“But the cry, corporal,” urged Jackson, “what say you to the cry Green
+says he heard when you left us?”
+
+“All stuff; did anybody else hear it besides Green, you were all sitting
+on the bank with him?”
+
+No one answering in the affirmative, Corporal Nixon declared the thing
+to be impossible, or he should have heard it too; nor could he see what
+connection there was between that cry--supposing there had been one--and
+the facts that had come immediately under their own observation.
+
+“Hist,” interrupted Collins, placing one hand upon the speaker's
+shoulder, and with the other directing his attention to what, now seen
+by the whole of the party, was ill calculated to re-assure them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+Stealthily gliding through the fresh and thinly foliaged wood, that
+skirted the opposite shore, yet almost concealed from view, Corporal
+Nixon now beheld the crouching forms of several armed Indians, nearly
+naked, and evidently in war costume. They were following the serpentine
+course necessitated by the interposing trees, and seeking cautiously to
+establish themselves behind cover on the very verge of the bank.
+
+“Back men for your lives, there's nothing friendly there,” exclaimed the
+Virginian the moment that his glance had taken in the scene, “out
+with the arms, and divide the dry ammunition. Collins, you are a smart
+fellow, do you and Green set to work and light a fire, but out of sight,
+and dry the muskets as fast as you can. There are twelve pounds in
+each of the five remaining cartouch boxes, these will do for a spell.
+Jackson, Philips, tree yourselves, while Cass lies flat in the stern,
+and keeps a good look out on the devils, without exposing himself. Now,
+my lads, do all this very quietly, and as if you didn't think there was
+danger at hand. If they see any signs of fear, they will pitch it into
+you directly. As it is, they are only waiting to settle themselves, and
+do it at their leisure.”
+
+“Pity they don't make a general of you, corporal,” remarked Collins, as
+he proceeded quietly with Green to the execution of the duty assigned to
+them. “I guess Washington himself couldn't better command a little army.
+Is your battle order finished, general?”
+
+“None of your nonsense, master Collins, this is no time for jesting.
+Go and dry these arms, and when you have them so that they can send
+a bullet from their throats, join Jackson and Philips in covering the
+boat. Weston and I will take up our first station.”
+
+And in less time than we have taken to describe the cause of the alarm,
+and the instructions given in consequence, the men had hastened to
+execute the several duties assigned to them on shore, while Cass
+remained, not only with a view of showing the Indians that the boat
+was not wholly unguarded, but to be enabled to inform his comrades, who
+could distinctly hear him without rendering any particular elevation
+of the voice necessary, of any important movement on the part of the
+former. This quietude of arrangement on the part of Corporal Nixon had,
+seemingly, been not without effect. It was evident that the Indians
+had no suspicion that they had been seen, and even when the men coolly
+quitted the boat, they showed no impatience indicative of an impression
+that the party were seeking to shield themselves from an impending
+danger.
+
+“This silence is strange enough,” said the corporal to his companion,
+after they had been some minutes secreted in the cavity from which the
+departure of the Indian with the boat had been arrested. “I almost wish
+they would fire a shot, for that would at once tell us how to act, and
+what we are to expect, whether they are friendly Indians or not.”
+
+But no shot was fired, and from the moment when the men quitted the
+boat, and took up their positions, everything had continued silent as
+the grave on the opposite shore, and not the vestige of an Indian could
+be seen.
+
+“But for that scalp,” again remarked the corporal, “I should take
+the party to have been friendly Indians, perhaps just returned from a
+buffalo hunt, and come down to the water to drink. They are surely gone
+again.”
+
+“Look there,” said Weston, in a subdued tone, while he placed his
+hand on the shoulder of his superior, as both lay crouched in their
+hiding-place, “look there, corporal,” and he pointed with his finger to
+the opposite bank. “Do you see that large, blackish log lying near the
+hickory, and with its end towards us?”
+
+“I do--what of it?”
+
+“Well, don't you see something crouching like between the log and the
+tree--something close up to both. See! it moves now a little.”
+
+Corporal Nixon strained his gaze in the direction indicated, but was
+obliged to admit that, although he distinctly enough saw the log and the
+tree, he could not discern any between thing them.
+
+“NOW, do you see it?” again eagerly inquired Weston, as, at that moment,
+the same animal was seen to turn itself within the very limited space
+which had been indicated.
+
+“Yes, I see it now,” replied the Virginian, “but it's as likely to be a
+hog as a man, for anything I can make of that shape; a hog that has been
+filling his skin with hickory nuts, and is but now waking out of his
+sleep. Still, as the Injins were there just now, it may be that if
+they're gone, they've left a spy behind them. We'll soon know how
+matters stand, for it won't do to remain here all night. Cass,”
+ addressing the man in the boat who was seated low in the stern, only
+occasionally taking a sly peep, and immediately withdrawing his head,
+“place your cap on the rudder, and lie flat in the bottom. If they are
+there, and mean to fire at all, they will try their hands at THAT.”
+
+“I hope they are good marksmen, corporal,” replied the man, as raising
+his right arm, he removed his forage cap and placed it so that the upper
+half only could be seen. “I've no great fancy for those rifle bullets,
+and give them a wide berth when I can.”
+
+“Now are you convinced?” asked Weston, addressing the corporal, as both
+distinctly saw the object upon which their attention had been anxiously
+fixed, raise his head and shoulders, while he deliberately rested his
+rifle against the log on his right.
+
+“Close down, Cass--don't move,” enjoined the Virginian; “the bait has
+taken, and we shall have a shot presently.”
+
+Two almost imperceptible jets of spiral smoke, and crack, crack, went
+two rifles, while simultaneously with the report, fell back into the
+boat, the perforated forage cap. Both balls had passed through it,
+and lodged in the heart of the tree to which the skiff was moored, and
+behind which Jackson and Philips had taken their stand.
+
+Evidently believing that they had killed a man, the whole of the band,
+hitherto concealed behind logs and trees, now rose to their feet, and
+uttered a fierce and triumphant yell.
+
+“Devilish good firin', that,” remarked Green, whose face had been
+touched by a splinter of bark torn from the tree by one of the balls.
+
+“Don't uncover yourselves, my lads,” hastily commanded the corporal;
+“all the fellows want now is to see us exposed, that they may have a
+crack at us.”
+
+“We've dried the muskets after a fashion,” said Collins, as he now
+approached Jackson and Philips. “Give us a cartridge, and let's see if
+we can't match the varmint at that sort of work.” Then, having loaded,
+he, without asking the corporal's permission, leaned his musket against
+the tree, and taking a steady aim at the man who had fired from the
+point first noticed by Weston, drew the trigger.
+
+The shot had evidently taken effect, for two other Indians were now
+seen going to the assistance of their comrade, whom they raised from the
+ground (where all had secreted themselves after the yell), and hurried
+to the rear.
+
+A loud cheer burst from the lips of Collins, which was answered
+immediately by the whole of the savages, who, from various contiguous
+points, sprang again to their feet, and vociferating the war-whoop,
+dashed into the river nearly up to their necks, seemingly thirsting to
+overcome the only obstacle which prevented them from getting at their
+desired victims.
+
+But, at the very moment, when several of them were holding their rifles
+aloft with their right hand, securing their powder-horns between their
+teeth, while Corporal Nixon issued to his men injunctions, not to
+pull another trigger until the savages should begin to swim, to the
+astonishment of all, came the sullen and unusual booming of the cannon
+from the Fort.
+
+For a moment, the men, taking their eyes off the sights of their
+muskets, listened attentively for a repetition of the shot, but no
+second report reached their ears.
+
+“That,” said Green, “was a warnin' for us.”
+
+“It was,” observed the corporal. “Had the danger been THERE, they would
+have fired again. Depend upon it, my lads, there's more going on about
+here than we think. So don't throw away your ammunition. Every bullet
+you send must tell!”
+
+“Well, we can but sell our scalps as dearly as possible,” interposed
+Collins, who had again loaded, and was now in the act of raising and
+supporting his, musket against the tree. “But look--see how the fellows
+are stealing off?”
+
+“Don't fire, then, don't fire,” hastily enjoined the corporal. “If they
+will go quietly, let them. We must not lose our time dallying here, but
+make our way back to the Fort. That gun was meant to recall us, as well
+as to warn us, and luckily it has frightened the Indians, so they won't
+care to attack us again.”
+
+Meanwhile the band of Winnebagoes, obeying, as it seemed, the command of
+their leader, whom Collins swore he could identify from his figure, even
+at that distance, to be the man who had attempted to carry off the boat,
+quitted the river for the cover of the woods, and, after an earnest
+consultation, retreated slowly in the direction of the prairie, without
+clamor of any description.
+
+“Well rid of them, if they are gone,” exclaimed the corporal, not a
+little relieved by their departure. “We must keep a sharp look out
+though, and see if they return.”
+
+“How many of them are there?” asked Jackson; “can you give a guess,
+Collins?”
+
+“About a dozen I should say--indeed I counted as many as they passed
+through the small patch of clearing made by Eph. Giles's axe.”
+
+“Can they have started for the farm?” observed the corporal musingly;
+“if so, my lads, we had better get away as soon as possible, for there
+they will find canoes to cross.”
+
+“Why, sure they can swim across well enough. The river is not so wide as
+to prevent them from doing it on a pinch,” remarked Philips.
+
+“Of course they can,” answered Collins, “but not without having their
+rifles as well soaked as our muskets were a little while ago. I say,
+corporal, I understand now the trick of that cunning chief. He jumped
+upon the arms purposely to overturn them into the river, when he found
+he couldn't get the boat, and all our firelocks over with him.”
+
+“Yes, that WAS a trick,” remarked Jackson, “but, corporal, you havn't
+told us how the dickens that fellow came there, instead of the bear you
+went to spear.”
+
+“There is no time to talk about it, seriously rejoined the Virginian.
+Some night when we are on guard, I will tell you what little I know.
+At present let us see to getting back to our post. Collins, you are the
+crack shot of the party, are you loaded?”
+
+“I am, corporal,” returned the man somewhat self-sufficiently, “have you
+got another Injin for me to sink. If so, just point him out, and if this
+good barrel of Uncle Sam's don't do his job in no time, I'll give up all
+claim to having hit the first fellow.”
+
+“Not just yet,” answered his superior, “but hear my orders. You'll
+follow the path along the bank, and move along carefully, until you
+reach Heywood's stacks. Conceal yourself behind one of them, until we
+come down with the boat, and keep a sharp lookout on all that you see
+passing in and round the farm. Now remember, Collins, not a shot, unless
+it be to save your life, or else you will get us all into a scrape.”
+
+“Never fear me, General Nixon, and he touched his cap with all the
+respect he would have accorded to an officer of that rank. I brought
+one of the imps down, and that, I reckon, is nearly as good work for one
+day, as filling the old boat with fish, or having a slap at them ducks,
+as I wanted this morning. But now I'm off, if I see anything shall I
+halloo out, and let you know there's danger?”
+
+“Not by a long chalk,” returned the corporal. “All I want you to do is
+to keep your tongue in your head and your eyes open. If you see anything
+to alarm you, come back quietly and let us know. We shall be moving down
+close to the bank of the river; and now start.”
+
+Collins threw his musket to the trail, and advanced cautiously, though
+fearlessly, along the scarcely perceptible pathway--interrupted, at
+every third or fourth step by creeping vines that protruded from the
+earth, and rendered it necessary, in order to prevent his tripping,
+that he should raise his feet somewhat in the manner of a horse with the
+string-halt.
+
+He had not proceeded half a mile, when, at an angle of the ill-defined
+path, formed by a point where the river was the narrowest, he was
+started at the sight of a human body lying across his course, evidently
+on its face, though the head was concealed from view by the trunk of a
+large tree that bordered upon the road. His first impulse was to turn
+back and acquaint the corporal with what he had discovered; but a few
+minutes of reflection satisfying him of the ridicule he should incur in
+reporting, without being able to state with accuracy on WHAT, he boldly
+advanced. On approaching it, he found that the body was lifeless, while
+from the red and scalpless head, previously hidden from his view, were
+exuding gouts of thick blood that trickled slowly over the pale features
+of a youth of tender age, the expression of which had been worked up
+into an intensity of terror, and there remained. At a few paces from the
+head, and close upon the edge of the bank, lay a dressed bear skin which
+had evidently been saturated with water, but was now fast drying in the
+air and what little sunlight was occasionally thrown upon it, through
+the dense branches of the forest.
+
+There are situations in which the mind is moved to do that from which in
+cooler moments it would shrink with disgust. It chanced that Collins had
+retained the scalp so singularly found at the bottom of the river, by
+Corporal Nixon, and this circumstance at once determined him.
+
+Instead of hastening by an object so appalling, Collins rested his
+musket against a tree, and taking the scalp from between the ramrod and
+the stock, where he had introduced it, knelt by the body, and spreading
+out the humid skin to its fullest extent, applied it to the bleeding
+excavation. As he had suspected, they corresponded exactly, making all
+due allowance for the time they had been separated, and he had no longer
+a doubt that the mutilated boy was Mr. Heywood's help, Wilton. A much
+more important discovery than this, however, resulted from his vain
+endeavor to recognise the boy from his features, they were so contracted
+by terror, as has already been said, and so covered with blood as to
+be indistinguishable. But on turning him upon his back, and passing his
+hands over his face, Collins was surprised to find that there was not
+that icy chill which he had expected, but on the contrary the faint
+warmth that indicates suspended, animation; and deeper yet was the
+gratification of the rude soldier, when, on opening the shirt and
+placing his hand on the heart of the boy, he felt an occasional
+spasmodic pulsation, denoting that life was not utterly extinct.
+
+With an eagerness to preserve life, strongly in contrast with his recent
+exultation in destroying it, his anxiety for the recovery of the boy was
+almost paternal. Fortunately the latter part of the day had been free
+from the chilliness of the morning, so that, although the naked skull
+must have been some hours exposed, the comparatively bland state of the
+atmosphere gave fair earnest that the brain itself, even if affected,
+had not sustained a mortal injury. Spreading wide the scalp in his open
+palm, Collins now breathed heavily upon it, until it attained what he
+conceived to be the necessary warmth, when gently applying it to the
+denuded crown, to which he fitted it as well as he could, he passed his
+handkerchief, which he had removed from his throat, over it, and under
+the chin of the boy in such a manner as to prevent the chill of the
+approaching night from affecting the injured part. This done, he poured
+through his closed lips a few drops of whisky from the canteen, and
+then raising him gently on his left shoulder, he rose from his stooping
+posture, and seizing in his right hand his musket, which he continued at
+the trail, pursued his route to the haystacks as directed.
+
+In the meantime, Corporal Nixon, with the remainder of the fishing
+party, was slowly descending the river, hugging the eastern shore as
+closely as possible, in order that, if attacked suddenly, they might, on
+the instant, leap into the river, and covering themselves by the boat,
+fight their enemies at less disadvantage. The corporal himself and
+Weston kept a vigilant look out, the one at the bow, the other at the
+stern, while the four remaining men, Jackson, Philips, Green, and Cass
+pulled so noiselessly that the dip of their oars, and their unavoidable
+jar in the row-locks, could not be heard at a distance of more than ten
+yards. At this slow rate much time was necessarily consumed, so that it
+was quite dark when they reached the traverse opposite the farm, where
+Ephraim Giles had crossed some hours before, and whither Collins had
+been dispatched to make observations.
+
+The patience of the latter had been much tried, for it seemed an age
+had elapsed before his comrades made their appearance. The sun was just
+setting as he reached the innermost haystack, and his anxiety for his
+charge had become intense. Seeing the canoe drawn up on the beach, and
+the paddles in it, he had a strong inclination to cross and procure some
+efficient relief for the insensible boy, but the silence that reigned
+around the dwelling awed him, and he checked the natural impulse. Not
+a soul was to be seen, not a voice to be heard, not even the barking of
+Loup Garou, the bleating of a sheep, or the lowing of an ox. What could
+this mean? and was the fate of the boy connected with that of the other
+inmates of the farm? If so, where were they?
+
+Another consideration induced Collins to suppress his first impulse, and
+that was the apprehension that his strange charge would be detained
+by Mr. Heywood, when his only chance of recovery lay in the speedy
+examination, and dressing his injuries by the surgeon of the garrison.
+There was no alternative then, but to wait patiently for the arrival
+of the boat into which the boy could be placed; and so conveyed to the
+fort. Meanwhile, as the night air was becoming chill, and a slight
+fog rising from the water, the considerate soldier did all he could to
+shield his protege from their pernicious effect. Strewing on the ground
+a few armfuls of hay, taken from the nearest of the stacks, around which
+the hungry cattle now gathered, eager for their food, he extended on
+it the yet inanimate form of the youth, embracing the body in order to
+impart to it the benefit of animal heat and in this position, his
+head being slightly raised, eagerly endeavored to discern through the
+darkness not only what might be seen on the opposite shore, but the
+approach of the party in the boat.
+
+The sun had now been down some time, and so dark was it that, in that
+narrow space, obscured by the blending shadows of the tall forests on
+either shore, it was difficult, at five yards distance, to make out
+anything on the water, unaccompanied by light or sound. This silence
+was anything but agreeable to Collins, whose imagination, excited by the
+later occurrences of the day, was filled with, strange misgivings, as he
+looked in vain for the customary lights in the farm-house. The fishing
+party had never been out so late, and yet, at the first fall of
+darkness, they had been accustomed to see the place exhibiting at least
+one light; and the absence of this now caused Collins heartily to wish
+himself in the boat, and safely moored under cover of the fort. Not that
+the soldier was influenced by the apprehension of personal danger, but
+because the deep gloom, the solitude and silence of the scene, coupled
+with his newly-awakened interest in the almost corpse that lay in close
+contact with his person, impressed him with a sort of superstitious
+feeling, not at all lessened by the knowledge that his only companion,
+at that moment, belonged rather to the grave than to the upper earth.
+
+At length his anxiety was relieved. The sound of the oars, cautiously
+pulled, faintly met his ear, and then the boat could be indistinctly
+seen approaching the canoe. To this succeeded a low call uttered by the
+corporal. Collins replied in a similar tone, and then bearing the body
+of the boy, still enveloped in the bear skin, he in less than a minute,
+rejoined his party.
+
+The astonishment of the latter may be conceived on beholding so
+unexpected a sight, nor was their feeling of awe diminished when their
+comrade had briefly related what had occurred since he left them.
+
+“Strange enough, this,” remarked the corporal musingly; “stranger still,
+there's no light in the house. It's neither too early nor too late for
+that. I'll tell you what, my lads, if any thing has happened we must
+know the worst--it will never do to go back to the Fort, without being
+able to give some notion of what took place under our very noses.”
+
+“What would Mr. Ronayne say, if we did?” added Jackson.
+
+“Yes! and what would that sweet young lady, Miss Heywood, think of us,
+if we returned without giving some good news of her father. Why she
+never would look upon us kindly again.”
+
+“Right, Philips,” said Weston, “and I'm sure I'd rather offend the
+captain himself, any day, than do anything to displease her. God grant
+we bring her no bad news.”
+
+“Amen,” said the corporal, gravely, for he, like Collins, had some
+strong misgivings, arising naturally from the utter darkness and silence
+that continued to prevail in and around the farm-house. “Are you all
+loaded? Look to your primings, but make no noise. Somebody must take
+charge of the beat though. Who volunteers to remain, while the rest
+follow me to the house?”
+
+“I do--I'll remain,” said Collins, “one of you can take my musket.”
+
+“What, Collins, do you shirk the thing,” sneered the man with the long
+nose and the peaked chin; “have you had enough to-day, or do you fear
+the ghost of the fellow you knocked over?”
+
+“I fear neither man or ghost, as you well know, Nutcrackers,” warmly
+rejoined Collins, “but I take it, there's no great courage in making a
+fuss about going where there's no enemy to be found. If there has been
+danger in that quarter, I take it, it's passed, and as somebody must
+stop in the boat, why 'not me as well as another?”
+
+“Just so,” said the corporal. “Cass, this is no time to run your rigs.
+You see well enough that Collins wishes to stop behind, on account of
+the boy he hopes to bring to life. Little chance of that, I fear, but
+if he thinks so, it would be unchristian to disappoint him. And now push
+off, but make no noise.”
+
+The order was obeyed. In a few minutes the bow of the boat touched
+the landing-place, when all but Collins, who was at the helm, slipped
+noiselessly ashore. The corporal repeated his instructions--how to act
+under emergency and if separated--and moved along the path leading to
+the house. Meanwhile Collins pulled back into the stream, and remained
+stationary in the centre.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+The farm-house was, as we have said, of very rude construction--such a
+one as could only spring up in so remote a region, and among so sparse a
+population. With the exception of the roof, the frame-work of which had
+been covered with raw buffalo hides, it was built wholly of rough logs,
+notched at the ends in a sort of dove-tail fashion, and when not lying
+closely, filled in with chunks of wood, over which a rude plaster of
+mud had been thrown, so that the whole was rendered almost impervious
+to water, while it ran little risk from the agency of fire. It had
+two rooms on the ground floor--one smaller than the other, used as a
+dormitory, and containing all the clothes or “traps,” as they designated
+them, of the household. The other served as eating-room, parlor, and
+kitchen, and extended over, at least, three-fourths of the area. It was
+provided with two doors--one facing the river and close to the partition
+which divided the rooms--the other occupying a remoter position to the
+rear. The windows of this apartment were two in number, and, equidistant
+from the doors, were considerably elevated above the floor. These
+apertures had been formed by simply sawing a few of the logs, so as to
+complete squares, into which were fitted rude sashes, each containing
+four small panes of a greenish, and by no means, transparent glass, and
+connected by strong leathern hinges. In winter the necessary warmth was
+afforded, by shutters put up and barred from within. The southern gable
+or dormitory, was provided in the centre with one window of similar size
+and construction. The upper floor, a sort of granary and depot for the
+provisions of the family, was ascended by means of a ladder, and through
+a square aperture just large enough to admit with ease the body of a
+man.
+
+There was, in rear of the house, a rather extensive corn-field, and
+beyond the northern gable, where the chimney stood, an orchard yet in
+its infancy, but promising future abundance, while at the opposite, or
+south end of the building, a large but very highly cultivated garden,
+was now undergoing the customary spring process of digging and manuring,
+and indeed on that very morning, Mr. Heywood had been busily engaged in
+this occupation with the boy Wilton, his men being employed, the one in
+field labor, the other as we have seen, in chopping wood.
+
+In the rear of the garden, and opposite to the corn-field, from which it
+was separated by a road leading to the wood, was a tolerably sized barn,
+likewise constructed of rude logs, not, however, filled in. The lower
+part of this was used as a stable; the upper or loft, roofed with bark,
+contained the preceding year's unhusked crop from the corn-field, while
+contiguous to it, and to the rear, was another oblong square building,
+constructed in the same manner, but without loft. This, partitioned and
+covered simply with unhewn logs, served not only as a pen for sheep and
+pigs, but as a roasting-place for the feathered portion of the stock.
+
+The orchard on the one side, and the garden on the other, extended to
+the bank of the river--a zig-zag, or snake-fence separating them from
+the road, in the centre of which, and at about ten feet from the door
+of the dwelling, rose a majestic walnut tree then in early blossom.
+Immediately beyond this tree, was a low enclosure which intersected the
+road, passing across from the kitchen-garden to the orchard, and forming
+the only court or yard upon the premises.
+
+When Corporal Nixon, with his little party, had cautiously advanced
+some few paces towards the house, he caused them to separate, Cass
+and Jackson leaping the fence which bounded the orchard, and Green and
+Philips that of the garden, while he himself, with Weston, pursued
+the pathway in front. The better to be prepared for any sudden attack,
+bayonets had been quietly fixed, and the firelocks at the full cock,
+carried at the trail--this latter precaution after the detached files
+had crossed the fences.
+
+The night, as has already been said, was very dark, and each succeeding
+minute seemed to increase the obscurity, so that it was rather from
+their familiarity with the ground, than from any clear indication of
+correctness of course, that the little band were enabled to preserve
+their necessary unity. At length the tall shadows of the walnut
+tree came suddenly upon the sight of the corporal, but so completely
+absorbing was the darkness in the heavier gloom, that, without being
+aware of it's proximity, he stumbled against the low and slight
+enclosure, which, yielding to the impetus of his motion, feeble even as
+that was, caused him to fall forward on his face, his musket dropping
+from his grasp without, however, going off.
+
+A low growl from a dog succeeded, and before the Virginian could even
+make the attempt to rise, the animal had sprang upon, and fastened his
+teeth into his shoulder, shaking him so violently, that it was not until
+Weston, who had now crossed the enclosure, came up to his assistance,
+guided by the sound of the struggle, that the dog could be made to
+relinquish his hold.
+
+“Loup Garou--Loup Garou, old fellow, what's the matter with you,” said
+the latter coaxingly, as he caressed the neck of the dog, which he had
+identified, and now sought to appease.
+
+Evidently recognising a friend in the utterer of his name, the animal
+turned suddenly around, licked the hand of Weston, and then sent forth a
+long and piteous howl.
+
+“Mercy, what is that?” suddenly exclaimed the corporal, who having
+regained his legs and musket, had moved on a pace or two.
+
+“Where! what?” asked Weston, coming up to his side.
+
+In the darkness before them, there was a deeper darkness that bore the
+indistinct appearance of a human form, lying in a stooping posture close
+to the trunk of the tree.
+
+A vague presentiment of the truth flashed upon the mind of the
+Virginian, who enjoining silence on his companion, advanced close to the
+object, and laid his hand upon it. There could be no longer a doubt.
+The blanket coat, and woollen sash, which he first touched, and then the
+shoe pack, told him in unmistakable language that it was Le Noir, the
+Canadian owner of the dog. He shook him, and twice, in a low voice
+called him by name. But there was no answer, while the body stiff and
+motionless, fully revealed the fate of the unfortunate man.
+
+Meanwhile, Loup Garou, which had followed, squatted himself at the head,
+which was hanging over the front of what they knew, from its handles and
+the peculiar odor, exhaling from it, to be a wheel-barrow filled with
+manure, and then commenced licking--moaning at the same time in a low
+and broken whine.
+
+“What can the dog mean by that?” whispered Weston.
+
+“Don't you hear him licking his dead master's face, and telling his
+sorrow in his own way,” answered the corporal as, in order to assure
+himself, he dropped his hand to the mouth of the dog; but no sooner had
+he done so, than he drew it suddenly back with a shudder of disgust
+and hastily wiped it, clammy with the blood that yet trickled from the
+scalped head of the murdered man.
+
+A low whistle was here given on the left, and a few yards above, that
+startled the Virginian, for it was the signal agreed upon if anything
+suspicious, should be noticed by the other parties. He promptly answered
+it in a different call, and in another minute Green and Philips had
+joined him. “What have you seen?” he inquired, not regarding the
+exclamation of surprise of the new comers, at the unexpected sight
+before them.
+
+“We've seen nothin' its so dark,” answered Green, “but unless the cattle
+have got into the garden, there's somethin' else movin' there. Philips
+and I listened after we heard the dog howl the first time, for we could
+hear as if somethin' like steps were stopped suddenly when he moaned the
+second time we listened again, and thought the same thing.”
+
+“They couldn't be cattle,” added Philips, “for the cattle are all kept
+on the other side.”
+
+“Only the young stock, and them as ain't used about the farm,” remarked
+Weston.
+
+“Well, but what kind of steps were they?” eagerly questioned the
+corporal, whose imagination was filled not more with the danger that
+seemed to be near them, than with the censure of himself he feared he
+should incur, on his return to the fort, for having subjected the party
+to risk. “Surely you can tell between the tread of cattle and the steps
+of men.”
+
+“I should say they, weren't the steps of cattle; they were too light for
+that. Though they couldn't help crushin' the dry sticks and rubbish they
+couldn't help seein' lyin' in the way. Don't you think so Philips?”
+
+“I did, corporal, and so sure did I guess them to be no cattle that it
+was me that whistled.”
+
+“Then there's no use in going farther,” remarked the Virginian gravely.
+“Even if we get to the house, we can't see anything in it for the
+darkness, and the poor fellow shows plain enough that it's to use
+looking out to save Mr. Heywood or Ephraim Giles. Come, my lads, we must
+get back to the boat, and down stream as quick and as quiet as we can.”
+
+Giving his own low whistle of recall, he was answered from the opposite
+direction, and in a few minutes Cass and Jackson made their appearance.
+
+These latter were, briefly questioned whether they had seen anything,
+and great was the anxiety of all when it was known that they had also
+heard in the orchard but in a fainter manner, what had attracted the
+attention of Green and Philips in the garden.
+
+“Why didn't you give the signal then, as directed?”
+
+“Because,” answered Cass, “We weren't quite sure about it, and feared
+the whistle might tell the Injins, if any were near, our whereabouts.”
+
+Scarce had this explanation been given, when the attention of all was
+arrested by a loud clear shout of the corporals' name, evidently uttered
+by Collins.
+
+“Into the house--into the house,” exclaimed the same voice. “The Injins
+are creeping up to you.”
+
+As these words came ringing upon the silence of the night the dull steps
+in rapid advance through the two enclosures were now distinctly heard,
+while the flash of a gun fired in their rear, lighted up the forms of
+three or four savages, gliding up to them by the pathway by which the
+corporal had come.
+
+The danger was imminent, the necessity for securing the important
+position imperative, and without waiting for the order of their
+superior, or even uttering a word, the whole of the party, acting upon
+the caution of Collins, made a rush towards the front entrance of the
+house, which they gained at the very moment when the rattling of the
+snake-fences, and the total overthrow of the slight enclosure, announced
+that their enemies were thus near in pursuit.
+
+Fortunately the door was wide open, so that they had all passed in, when
+the Indians on either flank, as though by previous arrangement, poured
+in their cross fire, towards that common centre, without, however,
+striking anything but the logs.
+
+Terrific and continuous yells succeeded, and well was it that, with cool
+promptitude, the corporal had sought, and found behind the door, where
+he knew they were usually kept, the strong bars, three in number, that
+secured the heavy panels, for as many of the Indians as could find room
+to act together, now applied their shoulders to the frame with such
+violence, that but for those timely safeguards, it must have yielded.
+During more than five minutes they persevered in their efforts, the men
+waiting anxiously in attitude of preparation for the result, when all at
+once they ceased, and their footsteps were heard cautiously retiring.
+
+“Quick, look to the back-door, two of you,” commanded the corporal in
+an eager, but low tone, “they are going round; there, if that is not
+secured we are lost.”
+
+Green and Philips sprang forward towards the point indicated, but the
+latter in his excitement stumbled heavily against something, and fell at
+his length upon the floor, exclaiming: “I've fallen over a dead man, and
+am half drowned in his blood.”
+
+His companion who had escaped this obstruction, had scarcely time to
+assure the corporal that the back door was already barred, a fact which
+he had discovered by dint of feeling, when the latch was first heard
+gently tried, then the door violently assaulted. Another loud and angry
+yell from the Indians announced their disappointment, then several shots
+were fired at the door, and two or three balls could be heard dropping
+and rolling upon the floor, after having passed through the heavy
+planks.
+
+“Safe enough now for a while, my lads,” said the corporal exultingly,
+“and we can have, a little breathing time. Who's got the means of
+striking a light, that we may see where we are, and what we're about?”
+
+“I have,” answered Green, as taking a flint, steel, and tinder from his
+pocket, he, with a couple of strokes, ignited the latter, and approached
+the hearth, which the faint light from the burning “punk” enabled him
+to reach. The fire had long since gone out, but the crisp and blackened
+embers, soon grew under the care of the soldier into light sufficient to
+render objects in the apartment gradually more and more distinguishable.
+
+While this process was going on, the rest, leaning on their muskets,
+were anxiously grouped around the spot where Philips had fallen. At
+first, only the outline of a man of large stature and proportions could
+be seen lying in a cramped position, as if produced by some strong
+convulsive agony, and then when the fire began to kindle and crackle,
+the dress could be distinguished, and then as the light grew brighter,
+the scalpless head, and then the marked and distorted features of the
+murdered master of the house, who lay in a pool of blood that slowly
+trickled along the crevices of the floor. His hands were firmly clenched
+upon the barrel of a rifle which had been broken off at the stock, that
+now lay a few yards beyond, while the features, sternly set in death,
+bore a mingled expression of defiance and resolution. A cut, as from a
+tomahawk had laid open his left temple, while on several parts of his
+body could be seen thick encrustations of blood that had exuded through
+the rent clothing, marking the seat of several stabs and gunshot
+wounds. It was evident that Mr. Heywood had not lost his life without a
+desperate, struggle, for independently of the testimony afforded by his
+broken rifle, which he seemed to have used with fierce determination,
+the heavy table had been overthrown, and the few articles of necessary
+furniture in the room evidently displaced.
+
+“What a tale, this, to carry back,” gravely remarked Weston. “I wouldn't
+take the corporal's stripes to-morrow, and be the first man to tell Miss
+Heywood of it.”
+
+“Supposing we get back at all,” said Cass. “Though we're safe enough for
+the present, I've no notion these devils will let us off go soon.”
+
+“There's no great danger now,” interrupted the corporal. “I defy them,
+if they're not stronger than we saw them this morning, to get into the
+house, with six good firelocks to defend it.”
+
+“But they may set fire to it, and burn us out,” persevered the
+apprehensive man with the hooked nose and the peaked chin; “I've heard
+of those things before.”
+
+“Burn your granny out, Nutcrackers; look at them logs well, and say if
+it would'nt take hell-fire itself to burn 'em through in a month, but
+corporal, had'nt we better divide the ammunition. We don't know, as Cass
+says, what the imps are about, and what trouble they may give us yet.”
+
+“Right, Green, there's nothing like being on the sure side, and so, my
+lads look to the pouches. Weston, there's a candle in that stone bottle
+on the shelf--light it, and put it on the table as soon as you have got
+that on its legs again.”
+
+The examination was soon made. Each small cartouch box, expressly
+made for light excursions, contained, with the exception of the single
+cartridge which Collins had fired, the usual allowance of fifteen
+rounds. Two of these however--those of Green and Philips--had been
+so saturated by long immersion in the water, that they were wholly
+unserviceable. They were therefore emptied and dried, and the deficiency
+supplied from the pouches of their comrades, thus leaving about a dozen
+charges to each man.
+
+“A small stock of ammunition, this, I guess, to stand a long siege on an
+empty belly,” drawled forth Cass.
+
+“Just like you--always croakin',” sneered Green, “and always thinking of
+your belly. Why man, you've more ammunition there, I take it, than ever
+you'll fire away in your life.”
+
+“And if we haven't enough,” said the corporal, going to, and taking down
+and shaking a powder horn, which hung suspended from the wall, that had
+evidently been overlooked by the Indians, “here are a dozen more charges
+at least, and the balls of the cartridges have not, I take it,
+lost their power to drill a hole into a fellow because they've been
+considerably well ducked. But hark! what noise is that--listen!”
+
+A low, grating sound, as of some heavy body rubbing against the ground,
+was now audible at short intervals, to seemed to proceed from the
+southern gable--but not a voice was heard. From the moment when they
+had uttered their cry of disappointment, on finding the back entrance
+secured, the Indians had preserved the utmost silence.
+
+Suddenly a yell, pealed from the direction of the river, caused them
+for the first time to revert to the exposed position of the unfortunate
+Collins.
+
+“Poor fellow,” said Green, dashing away a tear. “I wish he was with us.
+Somehow or other, I feel as if we should all have a better chance in a
+fight, were that lad in the middle of it.”
+
+“We shall never see him more!” gravely observed the Virginian; “That
+shot fired just after he warned us, did his business, depend upon it,
+and if that one didn't, it is not likely the blood-hounds would let him
+off after robbing them of their prey: no, no, poor Collins has lost his
+life in saving us.”
+
+Again the yell was repeated, and from the same quarter. The corporal
+sprang to the ladder which communicated with the loft, and having placed
+it under the window on the front, hastily ascended and looked out, for
+no one had hitherto thought of closing an opening, from which no danger
+was, seemingly, to be apprehended.
+
+The darkness which had been so excessive at the moment of their
+entrance, had greatly diminished--so much so, that he could trace the
+forms of two or three of the warriors who were stooping low, apparently
+engaged with some object lying on the very bank of the river.
+
+“Scalping and mutilating the poor fellow, no doubt,” he muttered
+fiercely to himself, “but here goes to revenge him!”
+
+Forgetting his usual prudence, he, in the strong excitement of the
+moment, drew up the butt of his musket to his shoulder, and as well as
+his cramped position would permit, covered one of the savages, but while
+in the very act of pulling the trigger, they all fell prostrate, and the
+bullet whizzed harmlessly over them. In the next instant a ball, aimed
+at himself, and fired from another quarter, passed through the window,
+grazing the shoulder slightly bitten by Loup Garou, and lodged in the
+opposite logs of the room. A third loud yell followed as the corporal
+drew in his head and disappeared from the window. The Indians evidently
+thought he had been hit, and thus gave utterance to their triumph.
+
+“There's that grating sound again,” remarked Weston.
+
+All now listened, and heard much more distinctly than before the
+peculiar sound. Then followed a scratching and bumping of something
+heavy against the end of the house.
+
+“I have it,” said the Virginian. “They've dragged the ladder from the
+barn, and are trying to fix it under the bedroom window. Cass, do you
+and Philips go in and see what they're doing. But close the door after
+you that they may not pick you off by the light.”
+
+The door was cautiously opened and again shut as soon as the men had
+entered. They looked up at the window, which, in the darkness that
+prevailed around, was distinctly enough visible, but although open,
+nothing met their glance of a nature to startle them, nor could any
+movement be heard without.
+
+“Hold my firelock,” whispered Cass to his companion, “while I try and
+get a look out. I know poor Le Noir's bed is directly under the window,
+and I don't think THAT is too high, if I stand on the pillow.”
+
+He now cautiously groped his way to the bed, on ascending which, being a
+tall man, he found the top of his head to be on a level with the sill
+of the window. This was not sufficient for his purpose, and he sought
+to elevate himself still more. In attempting, with this view, to place
+himself on the head-board, he missed his footing, and fell with some
+force between the head of the bed, and the rode log wall. To his
+dismay, he found that his feet had rested not upon the hard floor of the
+apartment, but upon something soft and yielding, which his imagination,
+strongly excited by the events of the day, led him unhesitatingly to
+conclude, was the flesh of a human body.
+
+“A light corporal--a light!” he shouted, regardless of every thing,
+but his desire to release himself from his present situation. “Bring a
+light. Here's a fellow, who has got hold of me by the leg!”
+
+“Take your musket then and bayonet him,” said Philips, coolly, as he
+pushed towards the struggling man the butt end of his firelock, which
+at length reached his hands. At the same time, Corporal Nixon, rendered
+equally imprudent by the suddenness of the demand for his presence,
+entered, followed by Weston, bearing the candle.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+Nothing can, we conceive, be in worse taste in a fictitious narrative,
+than the wanton introduction of the ludicrous upon the solemn, but when
+in an historical tale these extremes do occur, fidelity forbids the
+suppression of the one, lest it should mar the effect of the other. Such
+is the necessity under which we find ourselves.
+
+The first act of the corporal, on seeing how matters stood, was to pull
+back the bedstead behind which Cass was imprisoned, so as wholly to
+uncover him and his assailant, but the surprise of all may be
+imagined, when, instead of an Indian, with whom they believed him to be
+struggling, they beheld an immense turkey-cock, well known to them all,
+which was partly under the foot of the soldier--partly in a boarded
+drain or reservoir which passed from the apartment into a large hog
+trough, that lay along the wall and daily received the refuse of the
+various meals. The bird, furious with pain, was burying its beak into
+the leg of the soldier, while he, with the butt end of his musket aloft,
+and the bayonet depressed, offered the most burlesque representation of
+St. George preparing to give his mortal thrust to the dragon.
+
+In spite of the danger by which they were beset, it was impossible
+for the men to restrain the indulgence of their humor at this singular
+sight, nor was the disposition at all checked, when they saw the bayonet
+descend and actually transfix the intruder to the floor-causing him to
+droop his head, and thus free Cass from his furious attacks.
+
+“If that's the way you kill your enemies, Nutcrackers, we promise to eat
+them up for you--as many as you like,” and as he spoke, Green advanced
+and seized the dying bird by the throat; but as he pulled it suddenly
+away, a dark human hand was observed to relinquish its hold of the feet,
+and rapidly disappear.
+
+The mirth of the men was now succeeded by a seriousness befitting the
+occasion, for it was clear to all that this occurrence, absurd as it
+was, had been the means of betraying a new plan of the enemy to get into
+the house. If the drain was large enough to admit of the passage of the
+bird--always remarkable for its size--it was highly possible that some
+of the more slightly formed Indians, might force their way through
+it also. They had evidently tried to see if it could be done--the
+turkey-cock having been put forward as a “feeler,” and the necessity of
+either closing the avenue, or weakening their strength by keeping a man
+constantly on the watch, was now obvious.
+
+“Find something to stop up that hole with Cass,” ordered the corporal.
+
+“I can see nothing,” replied the other, after a few moments search,
+“unless we stop it with the bedding.”
+
+“A wise plan that. The Injins would soon set fire to it, and if they
+didn't burn us out, they would soon smoke us out. Either would suit
+their purpose.”
+
+“Let him stuff it with his head, corporal,” interposed Green, “I'm sure
+that's thick enough for a plug.”
+
+“Perhaps there's a head in it already,” suggested Philips, “there was a
+hand just now--the other may have followed.”
+
+“By jingo I'll try,” returned Green, “I'd give a week's grog to be able
+to prick a feller with this playthin'.”
+
+So saying, he knelt upon the floor, and holding his musket in a
+horizontal position, a few inches above it, he gave a furious thrust
+into the aperture. To his astonishment, for notwithstanding his half
+bravado, he had not seriously anticipated such a result, he found the
+advance of his weapon slightly arrested by a yielding body, and even
+had not a sharp cry of pain from the other extremity of the trough,
+satisfied him of the fact, the peculiar sensation he experienced as the
+steel overcame the resistance was sufficient to convince Green, little
+accustomed even as he had been to bayonet men, that the bayonet had
+entered into some soft part of the human body.
+
+To the cry of the wounded man, succeeded a savage and threatening yell
+from the united band, and now re-commenced the grating sound which had
+two or three times before excited the conjectures of the besieged.
+
+“Ah I yell away you devils; that's all the good you'll get,” exclaimed
+Green, exulting at his success; “but don't take so tight a grip of my
+bayonet. I say, Philips, lend us a hand, if I shan't lose my musket with
+that fellow strugglin' like a speared Mascalinga.”
+
+Both now pulled at the firelock, with all their strength. Suddenly the
+resistance ceased, and they fell sideways on the floor, bringing the
+musket with them, but without the bayonet. At the same moment a shot was
+fired into the aperture, and the ball whizzing by the ear of Philips,
+and passing through Green's right leg, lodged in the partition beyond.
+
+“Stand aside, men,” shouted the corporal, “stand from before that hole,
+or we shall be marks in this light for the skulking villains.”
+
+Jackson, who had been dispatched for one of the small round hickory logs
+that lay piled up in a corner near the chimney, now approached with on
+that was just large enough to fit tightly in the aperture. All seized
+it, and taking the precaution to keep their legs out of danger, jammed
+one end into the mouth of the drain, adding afterwards a few heavy blows
+from the axes of Le Noir and Ephraim Giles, which had been found in a
+corner of the room.
+
+“Now then,” said the Virginian, after having examined the small window
+of the bed room, and securely fastened the shutter--“we've not much more
+to fear. They're two to one its true, but I defy them to do us much harm
+before daylight, when, I take it they'll be off, if not sooner.”
+
+“Well, then, corporal,” suggested Green, “I vote that as we're pretty
+safe, and have yet that piece of plunder, we set to work and cook it,
+for I'm devilish hungry, and so I think we must all be, seeing as how
+we hain't had a regular meal the whole day, besides if we rummage the
+place, we may chance to light upon somethin' else. I see the varmint
+have carried off the nice row of venison hams that used to hang up round
+the chimney, but there may be somethin' in the loft.”
+
+“No bad thought that of yours, Green,” answered the corporal, “Cass, you
+killed the bird, you must pluck it and grill it.”
+
+“That's what I call taking it sensibly,” said the latter leaning
+his musket against the wall, and dragging the heavy turkey to the
+kitchen-corner, where seated on the very chair on which poor Mr. Heywood
+had smoked his last pipe, he commenced plucking out the feathers by
+handfuls. “Let fasting without, and feasting within be the word; but
+its mortal dry eating that great he turkey, without something to wash it
+down. I say, Philips, you are a good hand at foraging--don't you think
+you could find out a little of the Wabash there,” and he pointed to the
+loft.
+
+Philips approached the ladder with the intention of making a search, but
+the Virginian checked him.
+
+“Stop a moment,” he said, “until I have had another look out in front.”
+ Thus saying he cautiously ascended to his former position, the view
+from which was much less indistinct than before. The obscurity had, in a
+great degree, passed away, so much so, that all objects within the area
+formed by the enclosures of the garden and the orchard were thrown into
+perceptible relief. His first thought was to cast his glance upon the
+water, hoping, he scarcely knew why, that something might be seen of the
+skiff which had contained the unfortunate Collins. Disappointed in that
+quarter, his eye next turned upon the walnut tree, the white blossoms
+of which had dropped around and upon the spot, where lay the body of the
+ill-fated Le Noir, at whose head was still squatted, as when he had left
+him, his faithful dog. There was much in this trait of devotion on the
+part of the animal which could not fail to awaken sympathy even in
+the roughest heart, and although the corporal was not particularly
+sentimental, he could not but be deeply touched by the contrast forced
+upon him, between the moaning animal and the wild lust for blood which
+reigned in the hearts of their unprovoked assailants. His first impulse
+was to call approvingly to the dog, but the next moment's reflection on
+the folly of such a proceeding stifled the impulse. Then his attention
+was called not only to the perfect immunity from further outrage of the
+victim and his follower, but to the profound silence, and absence of
+danger which seemed to exist in that quarter. That the Indians had not
+departed, although they had not been heard since the yell that followed
+the cry produced by the thrust from Green's bayonet, he felt confident,
+and it now seemed to him that they must be directing their efforts
+against some other part of the building.
+
+No sooner had he admitted this last belief, than he again descended, and
+raising the ladder himself, bore it noiselessly to the spot whence it
+had been removed, then ordering the candle to be extinguished, and the
+embers to be drawn together, so as to deaden the light of the fire, he
+with Green and Weston crept up the ladder, Cass being left to complete
+the preparation of the turkey the best way he could, while Philips and
+Jackson, posted at the back and front doors, listened attentively for
+the slightest sound of danger, which being heard, they were at once to
+warn the party above.
+
+When the corporal had gained the top of the ladder, Green, who was the
+last, having yet his foot on the first step, the former was evidently
+startled by some new danger. But just as he was in the act of springing
+to the upper floor, the ladder, too frail to sustain their united
+weight, snapped suddenly asunder in the middle and fell with some noise,
+thus separating him from his companions.
+
+Regardless of this and having secured his own footing, he now moved
+cautiously towards the opposite end of the loft, where a small opening,
+about two feet in length, and one in height, seemingly intended as
+a ventilator, appeared nearly vertical to the window of the bed-room
+below. Casting his glance downwards through the opening, he beheld five
+or six savages standing grouped together, leaning on their guns, and
+apparently watching some object above them. This, naturally, drew the
+corporal's attention to the same quarter, when to his dismay he found
+that the long ladder usually kept at the barn was now resting against
+the gable of the house, not three feet from the right corner of the
+aperture, through which he gazed. In an instant it occurred to him that
+this had been the work of the Indians, and at once accounted for the
+grating sounds that had so often met his ears that night. There could
+be no doubt that the plan of the enemy now was to enter the roof, which
+could be done by removing part of the raw buffalo hides of which it was
+composed. Indeed it was a slight noise made in the direction of that
+very angle of the roof where the ladder now stood, that had caught his
+attention on first putting his head through the aperture while preceding
+his men. This had suddenly ceased at the moment when the ladder broke
+and fell, nor had there been a repetition of the sound. Still, satisfied
+that some discovery of the true designs of the Indians would result from
+his remaining a little longer, he continued at the opening, which was
+too small to betray his presence if using precaution, while it enabled
+him to observe the movements of the enemy. Soon afterwards he heard them
+speaking in earnest but low tones, as if addressing somebody above them,
+and then a prolonged yell, which was answered by others from the front
+of the house, echoed through the surrounding forests. Even amid the
+horrid discord, the quick ear of the Virginian, now painfully on the
+stretch, caught the same sound that had first attracted his attention.
+It was exactly at the angle of the roof, and only a pace or two from
+him. The peculiar noise was not to be mistaken even by an unpractised
+ear. It was, evidently, that of a knife, not very sharp, cautiously
+cutting through a tough and resisting leather.
+
+The corporal became now more anxious than ever, but this feeling did not
+in the slightest degree, disturb his self-possession, or cause him
+to waver in the resolution he had from the first adopted. He waited
+patiently, until, as he expected, he heard a corner of one of the
+buffalo hides turned up, and beheld reflected, against the back-ground
+of light, thus suddenly introduced, the upper part of a human being,
+whose shorn head, covered on the crown with straight and slightly
+streaming feathers, too plainly indicated his purpose. What a target for
+the bullet--what an object for the bayonet of the soldier, who, had not
+prudence and coolness interposed, had certainly used one or the other.
+But the Virginian had hit upon another, and as he conceived, a better
+plan to get rid of his enemy, and in his fate, of further probable
+annoyance from his ferocious companions. It was not his object to let
+himself be seen, or that the Indians should even suspect that they
+had been detected in this new device, for he was well aware that if he
+fired, or used his bayonet against the man, those below would rush
+up the ladder to succeed him, and by their weight prevent the
+accomplishment of what he had in view; therefore cut off as he in a
+measure was, from his party, it was incumbent on him to adopt the only
+sure means of relief from danger, and that without a moment of delay.
+
+While the Indian, who finding, evidently, that the orifice he had made
+in the roof was not yet large enough for his purpose, had dropped
+the incised portion of the hide, and was again using his knife; the
+Virginian, stooping slightly at the off-side of the window, ascertained
+that the feet of the former were resting on one of the upper steps of
+the ladder. This was what he desired, and all he now wanted was a hard,
+flat substance to fasten on the point of his bayonet. After reflecting
+vainly for a few moments how this was to be attained, he suddenly
+bethought him of his thick-soled ammunition-boots. Removing one of
+these without noise, he pierced the inner leather, by pressing it firmly
+against the point of the bayonet, so as to secure without allowing it to
+pass through. Then, cautiously protruding his musket from the opening,
+he slowly advanced it, until the sole of the boot touched the frame of
+the ladder, not two feet under the round on which the Indian stood.
+Here for a moment he allowed the barrel, concealed by the low depending
+eaves, to rest against the jamb of the aperture. His anxiety was now
+worked up to the highest possible pitch, for he feared, notwithstanding
+his success so far, that something might yet occur to defeat his
+purpose, and thus peril not only his own life, but the lives of the
+whole of the party below. Three minutes he remained in this trying
+position of uncertainty, which seemed to him as so many hours.
+Presently, however, the Indian on the roof, having evidently
+accomplished his task, and believing from the silence that had for some
+time pervaded around, that no one was near him, spoke in a low tone to
+his companions, who now cautiously crept towards the ladder.
+
+This was the moment for action. The Virginian, who, although expecting
+this, had watched their movements with aching interest, now summoned his
+whole strength, and while the first savage below was upon the ladder,
+pushed his musket with such violence against the sole, that it carried
+it rapidly over the corner of the house, before the Indian could find
+presence of mind to throw himself upon the roof--a sudden backward jerk
+of the weapon liberated the bayonet, the extreme point of which only
+had entered the wood, and as the Virginian withdrew this, he could
+distinctly see the unfortunate savages fall headlong from the top of the
+ladder, uttering, as both descended, a fearful cry of dismay, which
+was responded to by fierce yells from the lips of their companions, who
+hastened to their succor.
+
+“Well done, that!” said the corporal, exultingly, and half-aloud
+to himself, as he slapped his thigh, in a manner to denote his own
+self-approval. “That's what I call doing the business as it should be
+done. The attempt,” and he smiled at the conceit, “was not a bootless
+one to us all, though it has been a BOOT LESS one to ME.”
+
+To understand this facetiousness of the Virginian, it must be understood
+that on withdrawing his bayonet, the boot which it had only slightly
+pierced, had slipped from the weapon and fallen to the ground
+simultaneously with the other heavier bodies, whose more marked sound
+had absorbed its own. It therefore escaped the notice of the Indians.
+
+“Hilloa there!” he continued in a louder key; “there's no more danger
+in this quarter, my lads. Show us a light, and if Cass has that turkey
+ready, we'll have some supper. For my part, I'm devilish sharp set.
+Here, Green, take my musket, and give me the candle.”
+
+Surprised at the corporal's unwonted humor, for they had been led to
+apprehend, from the noise made by the falling ladder, and the excitement
+evidently prevailing among the Indians, that some new act of treachery
+was about to be tried by them, the men gathered underneath the opening,
+Green taking his musket from the hands of the Virginian, while in
+return, he mounted on one of the low chairs, and extending his arm far
+above, handed him the light.
+
+After a few minutes search, the corporal appeared again at the mouth of
+the loft, not only with a demijohn half-filled with whisky, but with a
+large loaf of brown bread, and part of a shoulder of dried venison, from
+which nearly one-half had been chipped away in slices. This, indeed, was
+a prize, and the men looked at the articles of necessary supply, as they
+were successively handed down, with an earnestness which denoted, that
+whatever might be their apprehensions of danger from without, they by
+no means coveted fighting on an empty stomach. After having lowered the
+treasures he had been so fortunate as to secure, the Virginian swung
+himself down by his hands, without difficulty, upon the lower floor.
+
+The fire had been again revived, and having ordered Jackson up into the
+loft, to keep watch at the small-window, and apprise him if any attempt
+should be made to replace the ladder, the corporal for the first time
+lighting his pipe, sat down to ruminate on his position, and consider
+the means by which the party were to be taken back to the fort.
+Further serious apprehensions in regard to their safety he did not now
+entertain, for baulked, as the Indians had been, in all their attempts
+to get into the house, he felt persuaded that it was more with a view to
+annoy and alarm, than with any hope of eventual success, that they still
+lingered in the neighborhood. Had they been in a situation to continue
+the siege longer than the morning, the case might have been different.
+But it was obvious that in order to secure their own safety, alarmed as
+they most know the governor would be at the absence of the party under
+his command, they would not remain longer than daylight exposed to the
+chances of being themselves closely assailed from without.
+
+Such was the reasoning of the Virginian, whose greatest source of
+discomfort now was the apprehension of serious reprimand, if not
+something worse, from the austere Captain Headley, whose displeasure, he
+was certain, would be so much the greater on account of the loss of the
+unfortunate Collins. He looked at his watch, but to his great annoyance,
+found that it had stopped, the hour-hand pointing to one o'clock. How
+long it had been run down, he could not tell, but from the time which
+had elapsed since their abandonment of the boat, and arrival in the
+house, he did not think it could be less than four in the morning.
+
+Desirous to satisfy himself by the appearance of the heavens, he arose,
+and with the aid of Green, placed the table under the window commanding
+a view of the river. This being too low, a chair was placed upon it,
+thus affording the corporal the advantage of greater elevation than he
+had derived from the use of the ladder itself.
+
+Everything was again quiet. Not a sound broke the stillness, save the
+howling of a few wolves, which, probably, attracted by the scent of the
+human blood that had been spilt that day, and by the exposed corpse that
+was now strewed with white blossoms from the tree beneath which it lay,
+were, by the increasing light, indistinctly seen on the opposite shore.
+But not their savage cry of hunger alone was heard. Ever and anon, in
+reply to their fierce howling was heard the snappish bark of Loup Garou,
+as, leaping on the body of his unconscious master, he lashed his tail,
+and seemed to bid defiance to those whose errand he seemed so perfectly
+to divine.
+
+“Poor dog! you shall never want a master while I can keep you,” half
+murmured the corporal, as he now turned his gaze upon the water, anxious
+to see if any trace could be found there of the skiff and its missing
+occupant. Nothing, however, came within his view, but just as he was
+preparing to descend from the window, the outline of the boat, for from
+its peculiar shape he easily identified it as their own, riveted his
+attention as it passed quickly up the river, filled with seven or
+eight savages in their war-dress, and having at the bow what had the
+appearance of a pole, from the top of which dangled a human scalp.
+
+“Gone at last,” he exclaimed, after a moment's pause, “but with poor
+Collins' scalp along with them. Cass,” he added, as he sprang to the
+floor, “if that turkey is fit to eat let's have it directly, and you,
+Weston, look about and see if there is any more water to be had. Make
+haste, now, for we shall have to tramp it to the fort as soon as it's
+daylight. The devils are gone and carried off the boat.”
+
+Not less anxious than himself to be once more on their way to the fort,
+which some of them, on entering the house that night, had scarcely hoped
+to reach alive, the men, leaning their muskets against the side of the
+room, assisted in preparing the rude, but grateful meal, of which
+they stood so much in need, and which was to sustain them during the
+short-approaching march. The table having been placed in the centre
+of the room, and on it the demijohn, and bread and venison, Green and
+Weston, the latter of whom had been unsuccessful in his search for
+water, seized each a leg and a wing of the ample turkey, which now
+denuded and disembowelled, Cass had scientifically carved in its raw
+state, and held them in the blaze of the fire, waiting patiently until
+the blackness of the outside should give promise of corresponding warmth
+within. Its slayer held the body of the bird over the fire in a similar
+manner, the poker having been thrust into the abdomen. They all sat, or
+rather stood in a squatting position with their faces to the fire.
+
+“Well, now, I reckon we shall make six considerable shares of this,”
+ drawled Cass, looking fondly at the carcass, which was slowly but
+temptingly spluttering before him at the fire. “Are you any ways
+particular, Green?--what part suits your taste best, Weston--a leg or a
+wing? For my part I always stick to the carcass.”
+
+“Faith, and I like both, and a slice of the breast to boot. I'm just the
+fellow, now the varmints are gone, that could eat all of them.”
+
+“Yes, but you know,” returned the temporary chef de cuisine, “it must be
+share and share alike--there's two legs--two wings and the breast, and
+the back slit in two--that just makes six portions, and we're six men in
+all.”
+
+“Cast lots fiddlestick,” said Green, “what portion do you expect,
+Nutcrackers? unless it's the neck, and the scaly part of the leg, the
+Injin had hold of when you so bravely sent your bayonet through her
+feathers.”
+
+“Well, only think how cunning of the fellows,” remarked Weston, “who'd
+ever have thought they would try that fashion to get in, cramming an
+old turkey before them to clear the way, and get in his craw the first
+bullet that might be sent.”
+
+“Yes, and the tight grip the fellow had of him by the leg. Just look,
+Green, the mark of the devil's hand may be upon him yet. It was the
+right leg, and that's it you have.”
+
+“Bosh! what do you expect me to find there but the marks of your dirty
+paws while plucking him, I'm too devilish hungry for such nonsense,
+Nutcrackers; but show me the Injin that would venture to touch his legs
+now. If I wouldn't mark him, then my name's not Seth Green.”
+
+Scarcely had he finished speaking, when a dark naked human hand was
+slowly protruded over his shoulder, and seized not the leg of the
+turkey, which Green now grasped with unconscious and convulsive energy,
+but a brand from the fire.
+
+In his terror at that strange and unexpected appearance, he dropped the
+body of the bird in the glowing embers, and uttering a faint cry, turned
+half round and beheld what filled him with the deepest dismay: his
+companions, scarcely less terrified than himself, sprang together to
+their feet, with the intention of rushing to their muskets, but all hope
+of recovering them was gone. The savage who had snatched the fire was
+no longer there then, but half a dozen others in their war-paint stood
+between them and their firelocks. It seemed as if they were sensible
+that their very silence inspired more awe and apprehension in the bosoms
+of their defenceless enemies than could have done the most turbulent
+expression of their triumph. They had evidently entered by the back
+door, which was now quite open, and grouped around the body of Mr.
+Heywood, were apparently more interested in the dead than in the living.
+Not a sign was there of the corporal, and Philips stood as if paralyzed,
+leaning, musket in hand, against the opposite entrance.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+Leaving the little party in the dismay occasioned by their new position,
+and that at a moment when they believed themselves secured from further
+interruption or danger, we must now return to the Fort, where their
+long-continued absence, coupled with the startling tidings conveyed by
+Ephraim Giles, had created equal anxiety and apprehension.
+
+It will be recollected that during the examination of the latter, Ensign
+Ronayne had, after communicating with the commanding officer, suddenly
+departed across the river, taking with him a few armed men. The
+destination of this little party was the cottage occupied by Mrs.
+Heywood and her daughter, who, with a woman servant, were the sole
+occupants of a dwelling, simple in construction, but decorated, both
+within and without, by the hand of good taste. It was a low, one-storied
+building, painted white, with green window-blinds and shutters, and a
+verandah of trellis work of the same color, that extended a few feet
+square round the principal entrance. On either side, rose to the roof,
+on parallel lines, and at equal distances, cords of strong twine, on
+which already had began to interlace themselves, the various parasites
+indigenous to the soil, which winter had robbed of their freshness, but
+which a southern sun was now evidently vivifying and re-invigorating.
+A small garden of about half-an-acre, surrounded by a similar
+trellis-work, extended equally in front, and on the sides of the
+house--while the graceful form given to the various beds, and the
+selection of the plants and flowers, which, although still in their
+dormant state, were yet recognizable--testified the refined taste of
+those who had assisted at their culture. The pathway, which was recently
+gravelled from the adjacent sand-hills, ran in a straight line from
+the verandah, toward the little green gate, opening on the front of the
+garden, took a semi-circular sweep on either side, at about one-third
+of the distance from the gate. This form had been given to it for the
+purpose of affording room for the creation of a mound, on the summit
+of which had been placed a small summer-house, octagon in shape, and
+constructed of the same description of trellis-work. The sloping sides
+of the mound itself, were profusely covered with dahlias, rhododendrons,
+geraniums, and other plants of the most select kind--the whole forming,
+when in bloom, a circle of floral magnificence. A short and narrow path,
+just large enough to admit of the passage of one person at a time, led
+to the entrance of the summer-house, which, facing the gate, was also
+shaded from the light and heat of the sun's rays, by closely interlacing
+vines.
+
+At the bottom of this artificial mound, and near the pathway, a small
+spud, such as is used for pruning, was stuck into some earth, newly
+drawn round a splendid tiger lily, and on the handle of the spud, were
+loosely thrown a white silk jacket, a blue velvet cap, and a light pink
+scarf--evidencing that no ordinary gardener had been that day employed
+in bringing into new life the gorgeous beauties of the variegated
+parterre.
+
+“Little did I think,” mused the young officer, as, leaving his party at
+the gate, and hastening towards the cottage, his eye fell upon those
+articles of dress--“little did I imagine when I threw off these things
+a few hours since, to obey a summons to the Fort, that on my return
+to them, it would be with this heavy heart, and as the bearer of these
+tidings--but I must be cautious in my disclosure. Dear girl, here she
+is!”
+
+“Why, Ronayne, what in the name of Heaven is the meaning of all this?
+Are you here to take the castle by storm, with all these armed warriors?
+A few hours since you were a man of peace, and now I behold in you a
+most approved and valiant knight of the true American school. Sword,
+cap, feather, epaulet, blue broad-cloth, and silver. Well it must be
+confessed that you are not a bad imitation of a soldier, in that garb,
+and it is in pity to me, I suppose, that you do not wear it oftener.
+But seriously, Harry, do satisfy my curiosity, and tell me the reason of
+this unusual--manner of visit!”
+
+The question was asked playfully, but in tones replete with sweetness,
+by a tall and elegantly-formed girl, who on turning the further circle
+of the walk, in her approach to her favorite flower-bed, had for the
+first time, beheld the young officer, and the party stationed at the
+gate.
+
+“Nay, dear Maria,” returned the youth, deeply grieved at the thought
+of casting a gloom over the spirits of her who thus rallied him. “I
+am sorry to say my errand is not one of mere parade--I have come to
+announce that which will give you pain; and but that I am charged with
+the agreeable duty of making you a prisoner, I never should have had the
+courage to be the bearer of the intelligence.”
+
+Miss Heywood turned very pale, less at the words even than at the manner
+of the young officer, who it was evident, felt all the weight of the
+task he had undertaken.
+
+“Ronayne,” she said, her voice suddenly assuming a rich melancholy of
+intonation, in strange contrast with her first address, “there is more
+in this than you would acquaint me with. But, tell me,” and she fixed
+her large dark eyes on his--“tell me all. What pain is it you fear to
+occasion me, and how is it connected with my being a prisoner? Ha!” and
+she grasped his arm, and betrayed deep agitation--“surely nothing in my
+father's conduct--”
+
+“No, no, Maria,” returned the youth, quickly, “far from anything of the
+kind, and yet it is of your father I would speak. But have you heard
+nothing since I left you. Have you seen no one?”
+
+“I have heard nothing--seen not a soul from without,” she answered, as
+he tenderly pressed the hand he had taken--“But, Ronayne,” she pursued,
+with melancholy gravity--“a sudden light dawns upon me--my heart
+tells me that some misfortune or other has happened, or is about to
+happen--you say you would speak about my father. You are the bearer of
+ill-news in regard to him. Yes, I know it is so; tell me, Harry,” and
+she looked imploringly up to him, “am I not right?--my father has been
+attacked by Indians, and he has fallen. Oh! you do not deny it!”
+
+“Nay, dearest Maria, I know nothing of the kind, although I will not
+conceal from you that there is danger--you have guessed correctly as to
+the Indians having been at the farm, but little certain is known as to
+the result of their visit. That half idiot Ephraim Giles, has come in
+with some wild story, but I daresay he exaggerates.”
+
+Miss Heywood shook her head doubtingly. “You deceive me, Ronayne--with
+the best intention, but still you deceive me. If you really think the
+rumor be exaggerated, why your own restlessness and seriousness of
+manner? Harry, this is no time for concealment, for I feel that I can
+better bear the truth NOW than LATER. Do not hesitate then to tell me
+all you know.”
+
+“True, my love, this is no time for concealment since such be the state
+of your feelings. I was unwilling to admit my own apprehension on the
+subject, fearing that you might be ill-prepared for the disclosure; but
+after what you have just urged, the blow can never fall less heavily
+than now. You must know, then, that a party of hostile Indians have,
+there is too much reason to fear, used violence toward the inmates of
+the farm-house, but to what extent we have no means of knowing; though
+such is the alarm created by their presence that Headley, who you know
+is the very soul of caution, has ordered every white in the neighborhood
+of the Fort, to be removed for safety within its walls.”
+
+“Would that instead of THAT,” remarked Miss Heywood, with solemnity,
+“he had despatched those soldiers, whom I see there fully armed, to the
+rescue of my poor father. Perhaps he might be saved yet--the house is
+strong, and might be defended for some time, even by a couple of men.”
+
+“And me at their head. Is it not so, Maria?” inquired the youth.
+
+“Yes, and you at their head, dear Ronayne,” repeated Miss Heywood; “to
+no one sooner would I be indebted for my father's safety, as no one
+would, I am sure, more cheerfully attempt his deliverance.”
+
+The young American mused a moment, and then rejoined, despondingly;
+“Were these men at my disposal, Maria, how gladly would I hasten to
+encounter every difficulty, the removal of which would spare your gentle
+bosom those pangs; but you know Headley would never permit it. His
+prudence is a mania, and even were he to yield his consent--let me not
+sustain you with delusive hopes--I fear it would be too late.”
+
+“God's will be done,” she ejaculated, as the large tears fell trickling
+down her pallid cheeks, “but what will become of my poor and now nearly
+death-stricken-mother, when she hears of this?”
+
+“The blow is indeed a fearful one, but act, I pray you, with courage.
+Consider, too, your own safety. No one knows the force of the Indians,
+or how soon they may be here. Go in, dearest, prepare what you may more
+immediately require for a few days, and my men will carry your trunks
+down to the scow which is waiting to receive you.”
+
+“And if I should consent to go, Ronayne, you know my poor mother cannot
+rise from her bed. What do you propose to do with her? To remove her,
+and let her know WHY she is removed, would soon finish the work her
+debilitating disease has begun.”
+
+“I have made every necessary provision,” answered the young officer,
+glad to find that her thoughts could be diverted from the immediate
+source of her sorrow. “Elmsley's wife, to whom I spoke a few hurried
+words on leaving, is even now preparing for your temporary reception,
+and I have thought of an excuse to be given to your mother. You must for
+once in your life use deceit, and say that Van Vottenberg desires her
+presence in the fort, because his duties have become so severe that he
+can no longer absent himself to bestow upon her that professional care
+she so much requires. Nay, look not so incredulous. I am aware that the
+pretext is a meagre one, but I cannot at present think of a better; and
+in her enfeebled state she will not dwell upon the strangeness of the
+plea. Go on then, I entreat you, and desire Catherine to collect what
+you will want, while my men carry to the scow such articles of furniture
+as will be most useful to you in your new quarters. Quick, dear Maria,
+I implore you, there has already been too much time lost, and I expect
+every moment an order from Headley to return immediately.”
+
+Sensible of a pressing emergency. Miss Heywood, with a beating heart,
+regained the cottage, in which so many blissful hours had been passed
+within the last two years, undisturbed by a care for the future, while
+the young officer joining his men, left one to take care of the arms of
+the party, and with the remainder hastened to the house making as little
+noise as possible, in order not to disturb the invalid. Having chosen
+such articles of furniture as he knew Mrs. Elmsley was most deficient
+in, and among these a couch and a couple of easy-chairs (which latter
+indeed were the work of his own hands), they were conveyed to the scow
+in two trips, and then followed three or four trunks into which had been
+thrown, without regard to order, such wearing apparel, and necessaries
+of the toilet as the short period allowed for preparation had permitted
+the agitated girl to put together. The most delicate part of the burden,
+however, yet remained to be removed, and that was the invalid herself.
+Desiring his men to remain without, the youth, whose long and close
+intimacy with the family rendered such a step by no means objectionable,
+entered the apartment of Mrs. Heywood, who had already been prepared
+by her daughter for the removal, and with the assistance of Catherine
+raised the bed on which she lay, and transferred it to a litter brought
+for the occasion. This they carefully bore through the suite of small
+and intervening rooms to the front, where two of the men relieved them,
+Catherine walking at the side, and unnecessarily enjoining caution at
+every step.
+
+“This is, indeed, an unexpected change, Ronayne,” said Miss Heywood,
+sadly, “but this morning, and I was so happy, and now! These poor
+flowers, too (for after having fastened the windows and doors of the
+house, they were now directing their course towards the mound), that
+parterre which cost us so much labor, yes, such sweet labor, must all be
+left to be destroyed by the hand of some ruthless savage. Yet, what do I
+say,” she pursued, in a tone of deep sorrow, “I lament the flowers; yes,
+Ronayne, because they have thriven under your care, and yet, I forget
+that my father perhaps no longer lives; that my beloved mother's death
+may be the early consequence of this removal. Yet think me not selfish.
+Think me not ungrateful. Come what may, you will yet be left to me. No,
+Harry,” and she looked up to him tearfully, “I shall never be utterly
+destitute, while you remain.”
+
+“Bless you, thrice bless you for these sweet avowals of your
+confidence,” exclaimed the youth, suddenly dropping her arm, and
+straining her passionately to his heart. “Yes, Maria, I shall yet remain
+to love, to cherish, to make you forget every other tie in that of
+husband--to blend every relationship in that of one.”
+
+“Nay, Ronayne,” she quickly returned, while the color mounted vividly to
+her cheek, under the earnest ardor of his gaze, “I would not now unsay
+what I have said, and yet I did not intend that my words should exactly
+bear that interpretation--nor is this a moment--”
+
+“But still you will be my wife--tell me, Maria?” and he looked
+imploringly into her own not averted eyes. “You will be the wife, as you
+have long been the friend and companion of your Ronayne--answer me. Will
+you not?”
+
+Her head sank upon his shoulder, and the heaving of her bosom, as she
+gently returned his embrace, alone conveyed the assurance he desired.
+She was deeply affected. She knew the ardent, generous nature of her
+lover, and she felt that every word that had just fallen from his lips,
+tended only to unravel the true emotions of his heart: but soothing as
+was his impassioned language, she deemed it almost criminal, at such a
+moment, to listen to it.
+
+“Nay, dearest Harry,” she said, gently disengaging herself from his
+embrace, “we will be seen. They may wonder at our delay, and send
+somebody back from the scow. Let us proceed.”
+
+“You are right,” replied the young officer, again passing her arm
+through his own, while they continued their route, “excess of happiness
+must not cause me to commit an imprudence so great, as that of suffering
+another to divine the extent. Yet one word more, dear Maria! and ah!
+think how much depends upon your answer. WHEN shall I call you mine?”
+
+“Oh! speak not now of that, Ronayne--consider the position of my
+father--my mother's health.”
+
+“It is for that very reason that I do ask it,” returned the youth.
+“Should Heaven deprive you of the one, as it in some degree threatens
+you with the loss of the other, what shall so well console you as the
+tenderness of him who is blessed with your love?”
+
+“Hush, Harry,” and she fondly pressed his arm--“they will hear you.”
+
+They had now approached the scow, into which the men, having previously
+deposited the furniture and trunks, were preparing to embark the litter
+upon which Mrs. Heywood lay extended, with an expression of resignation
+and repose upon her calm features, that touched the hearts of even
+these rude men. Her daughter, half-reproaching herself for not
+having personally attended to her transport, and only consoled by the
+recollection of the endearing explanation with her lover, which had
+chanced to result from her absence, now tenderly inquired how she had
+borne it, and was deeply gratified to find that the change of air, and
+gentle exercise to which she had been subjected, had somewhat restored
+her. Here was one source of care partly removed, and she felt, if
+possible, increased affection for the youth to whose considerate
+attention was owing this favorable change in the condition of a parent,
+whom she had ever fondly loved.
+
+It was near sunset when Ronayne, who, with the robust Catherine, had
+carefully lifted the invalid into the centre of the scow, reached the
+landing-place below the Fort. Here were collected several of the women
+of the company, and among them Mrs. Elmsley, who had come down to meet
+and welcome those for whose reception she had made every provision the
+hurried notice she had received would permit. The young officer had been
+the first to step on shore, and after he had whispered something in
+her ear, she for a moment communicated with the group of women--then
+advanced to meet Miss Heywood, whom her lover was now handing from the
+scow. She embraced her with a tenderness so unusually affectionate, that
+a vague consciousness of the true cause flashed across the mind of the
+anxious girl, recalling back all that inward grief of soul, which the
+deep emotion of an engrossing love had for a time absorbed.
+
+In less than half-an-hour the fugitives were installed in the council
+hall, and in another small apartment, dividing it from the rooms
+occupied by the Elmsleys. The ensign, having seen that all was arranged
+in a suitable manner in the former, went out to the parade-ground,
+leaving the ladies in charge of their amiable hostess, and of the women
+she had summoned to assist in bearing the latter into the Fort.
+
+On his way to his rooms, he met Captain Headley returning from an
+inspection of the defences. He saluted him, and was in the act of
+addressing him in a friendly and familiar tone, when he was checked by
+the sharply-uttered remark:
+
+“So, sir, you are returned at last. It seems to me that you have been
+much longer absent than was necessary.”
+
+The high spirit of the youth was chafed. “Pardon me, sir,” he answered
+haughtily, “if I contradict you. No one of the least feeling would have
+thought of removing such an invalid as Mrs. Heywood is, without using
+every care her condition required. Have you any orders for me, Captain
+Headley?” he concluded, in a more respectful manner, for he had become
+sensible, the moment after he had spoken, of his error in thus evincing
+asperity under the reproof of his superior.
+
+“You are officer of the guard, I believe, Mr. Ronayne?”
+
+“No, sir, Mr. Elmsley relieved me this morning.”
+
+At that moment the last-named officer came up, on his way to the
+ensign's quarters, when, the same question having been put to him, and
+answered in the affirmative, Captain Headley desired that the moment
+the fishing-party came in they should be reported to him. “And now,
+gentlemen,” he concluded, “I expect you both to be particularly on the
+alert to-night. The absence of that fishing-party distresses me, and I
+would give much that they were back.”
+
+“Captain Headley,” said the ensign, quickly and almost beseechingly,
+“let me pick out a dozen men from the company, and I pledge myself to
+restore the party before mid-day to-morrow. Nay, sir,” seeing strong
+surprise and disapproval on the countenance of the commandant, “I am
+ready to forfeit my commission if I fail--”
+
+“Are you mad, Mr. Ronayne, or do you suppose that I am mad enough to
+entertain such a proposition, and thus weaken my force still more?
+Forfeit your commission if you fail! Why, sir, you would deserve to
+forfeit your commission, if you even succeeded in any thing so wholly
+at variance with military prudence. Gentlemen, recollect what I have
+said--I expect you to use the utmost vigilance to-night, and, Mr.
+Elmsley, fail not instantly to report the fishing-boat.” Thus enjoining,
+he passed slowly on to his quarters.
+
+“D--n your military prudence, and d--n your pompous cold-bloodedness!”
+ muttered the fiery ensign between his teeth--scarcely waiting until his
+captain was out of hearing.
+
+“Hush,” interrupted Elmsley in a whisper. “He will hear you. Ha!” he
+continued after a short pause, during which they moved on towards the
+mess-room, “you begin to find out his amiable military qualities,
+do you! But tell me, Ronayne, what the deuce has put this Quixotic
+expedition into your head? What great interest do you take in these
+fishermen, that you should volunteer to break your shins in the wood,
+this dark night, for the purpose of seeking them, and that on the very
+day when your ladye faire honors these walls, if I may so dignify
+our stockade, with her presence for the first time. Come, come, thank
+Headley for his refusal. When you sit down to-morrow morning, as
+I intend you shall, to a luxurious breakfast of tea, coffee, fried
+venison, and buckwheat-cakes, you will find no reason to complain of his
+adherence to military prudence.”
+
+“Elmsley,” returned his friend, seriously, “I can have no disguise from
+you at such a moment. You know my regard for Maria Heywood, although
+you cannot divine its depth, and could I but be the means of saving her
+father, you can well understand the joy I should feel.”
+
+“Certainly, my dear fellow, but you know as well as myself, that
+there exists not the shadow of a hope of this. That scarecrow, Giles,
+half-witted as he is, tells too straightforward a story.”
+
+“Elmsley,” persisted his friend, “there is every hope--every reasonable
+expectation that he may yet survive. Maria herself first opened my eyes
+to the possibility, for, until then, I had thought as you do; and deeply
+did her words sink in my heart, when she said, reproachfully, that,
+instead of sending a party to escort her, it would have been far better
+to dispatch them to the farm, where her father might, at that moment,
+be sustaining a siege--the house being strong enough to admit of a
+temporary defence, by even a couple of persons.”
+
+“And what said you to that?”
+
+“What could I say? I looked like a fool, and felt like a school-boy
+under the iron rod of a pedagogue--but I resolved.”
+
+“And what did you resolve, my enterprising KNIGHT errant?”
+
+“You have just heard my proposal to the gentleman who piques himself
+upon his military prudence.” returned the youth, with bitter irony.
+
+“Yes, and he refused you. What then?”
+
+“True, and what then,” and he nodded his head impatiently.
+
+“You will sleep upon it, my dear fellow, after we have had a glass of
+the Monongahela, and the pipe. Thus refreshed, you will think better of
+it in the morning.”
+
+“We will have the Monongahela and the pipe, for truly I feel that I
+require something to soothe, if not absolutely to exhilarate me; but no
+sleep for me this night. Elmsley,” he added, more seriously, “you will
+pass me out of the gate?”
+
+“Pass you out of what?” exclaimed the other, starting from the chair on
+which he had thrown himself only the moment before. “What do you mean,
+man?”
+
+“I mean that, as officer of the guard, you alone can pass me through
+after dark, and this service you must render me.”
+
+“Why! where are you going? Single-handed like Jack the Giant Killer to
+deliver, not a beautiful damsel from the fangs of a winged monster, but
+a tough old backwoodsman from the dark paws of the savage?”
+
+“Elmsley,” again urged the ensign, “you forget that Mr. Heywood is the
+father of my future wife.”
+
+“Ah! is it come to that at last. Well, I am right glad of it. But,
+my dear Ronayne,” taking and cordially pressing his hand, “forgive my
+levity. I only sought to divert you from your purpose. What I can do for
+you, I will do; but tell me what it is you intend.”
+
+“Yet, Elmsley, before we enter further into the matter, do you not think
+that you will incur the serious displeasure of Military Prudence?”
+
+“If he discovers that you are gone, certainly; and I cannot see how it
+can be otherwise; he will be in the fidgets all night, and probably
+ask for you; but even if not THEN, he will miss you on parade in the
+morning.”
+
+“And what will be the consequence to you? Answer me candidly, I
+entreat.”
+
+“Then, candidly, Ronayne, the captain likes me not well enough to pass
+lightly over such a breach of duty. The most peremptory orders have,
+since the arrival of this startling news, been given not to allow any
+one to leave the fort, and (since you wish me to be sincere) should I
+allow you to pass, it will go hard with my commission.”
+
+“How foolish of me not to have thought of that before! How utterly
+stupid to ask that which I ought to have known myself; but enough,
+Elmsley. I abandon the scheme altogether. You shall never incur that
+risk for me.”
+
+“Yet understand me,” resumed the other, “if you really think that there
+is a hope of its proving more than a mere wild goose chase, I will
+cheerfully incur that risk; but on my honor, Ronayne, I myself feel
+convinced that nothing you can do will avail.”
+
+“Not another word on the subject,” answered his friend; “here is what
+will banish all care, at least for the present.”
+
+His servant had just entered, and deposited on the mess-table hot and
+cold water, sugar, lime-juice, pipes, tobacco, and tumblers; when the
+two officers with Von Vottenberg who had just come in from visiting Mr.
+Heywood, sat down to indulge their social humors. Whilst the latter,
+according to custom, mixed the punch, which when made was pronounced
+to be his chef d'oeuvre, Elmsley amused himself with cutting up the
+tobacco, and filling the pipes. The ensign, taking advantage of their
+occupation, indulged himself in a reverie that lasted until the beverage
+had been declared ready.
+
+The presence of the doctor, acting as a check upon the further allusion
+by the friends to the topic that had hitherto engrossed their attention,
+the little conversation that ensued was of a general nature, neither of
+them, however, cared much to contribute to it, so that the doctor
+found and pronounced them for that evening anything but entertaining
+companions. He, however, consoled himself with copious potations from
+the punch-bowl, and filled the room with dense clouds of smoke, that
+were in themselves, sufficient to produce the drowsiness that Ronayne
+pleaded in excuse of his taciturnity.
+
+After his second glass, Elmsley, reminding the ensign that he expected
+him as well as the punch-brewer to breakfast with him in the morning at
+eight o'clock precisely, took his departure for the guard room, for the
+night.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+It was about seven o'clock on the morning succeeding the occurrences
+detailed in the preceding chapters, that Lieutenant Elmsley waited on
+the commanding officer, to relate that the fishing boat was at length in
+sight. These tidings were communicated as Captain Headley was preparing
+to sit down to breakfast--a refreshment, to which the fatigue of mind
+and body he had undergone during the night had not a little disposed
+him. True, however, to his character, he stayed not for the meal, but
+instantly arose, and taking his telescope accompanied the subaltern to
+the flagstaff battery, whence the best view of the river was commanded.
+
+“Any thing to report, Mr. Elmsley; but I presume not, or it scarcely
+would have been necessary for me to ask the question?”
+
+“Nothing, sir, of any consequence,” replied the lieutenant after a
+moment's hesitation, “beyond a slight altercation that took place
+between a drunken Pottawattamie and the sergeant of the guard--but it
+was of a nature too trivial to disturb you about.”
+
+“What was it, Mr. Elmsley?” inquired his superior, abruptly turning to
+him.
+
+“The Indian who had probably been lying dead drunk during the day within
+the Fort, and had evidently just awakened from his sleep, was anxious
+to go to his encampment, but the sergeant, strictly obeying the order
+he had received from me, refused to open the gate, which seemed to annoy
+the Indian very much. At that moment I came up. I knew well of course
+that the order was not meant to extend rigidly to our Indian friends,
+the great mass of whom might be offended by the detention of one of
+their number, and I desired the sergeant to pass him through. Was I
+right, sir?”
+
+“Perfectly, Mr. Elmsley; we must not offend those of the Indian tribes
+that are disposed to be friendly toward us, for no one knows how soon
+we may require their aid. The official advices I have received not only
+from Detroit but from Washington are of a nature to induce apprehension
+of hostilities between Great Britain and the United States; therefore,
+it would, as you justly observe, and just now particularly, be
+extremely bad policy to offend those whom it is so much our interest to
+conciliate. Still you ought to have reported the circumstance to me, and
+not acted on your own responsibility.”
+
+Lieutenant Elmsley bit his lip, and could scarcely control a movement of
+impatience. “I am glad, however, sir,” he resumed after a pause,
+“that you find no fault with my conduct; I confess I had some little
+uneasiness on that score, for with you I felt that I had no right to
+assume the responsibility, but I knew that you had retired to your
+rooms, and I was unwilling to disturb you.”
+
+“You ought to have known, Mr. Elmsley, that where duty is concerned I
+can never be disturbed. However, no matter. What you did was correctly
+done; only in future, fail not to make your report. The slightest
+unauthorized step might be a false one, and that, under all the
+circumstances, is to be avoided.”
+
+Whatever the subaltern thought of the seeming self-sufficiency which had
+dictated the concluding part of the lecture of the commanding officer,
+he made no further observation, and both in silence pursued the
+remainder of their short route to the bastion.
+
+Many of the men, dressed and accoutred for the morning parade, which
+usually took place at about nine o'clock, were grouped around, and
+anxiously watching the approach of the boat, as of something they had
+despaired of ever again beholding. Captain Headley drew his telescope to
+the proper focus, and after looking through it a few minutes--remarked--
+
+“Thank Heaven, all is right--they are all there, although it is quite
+unaccountable to me how they could have been detained until this
+morning. And, oh! it seems they have taken a heavy draught of fish, for,
+although I cannot see the bottom of the boat, their feet are raised as
+if to prevent crushing or injuring something beneath them. But hold!
+there is something wrong, too. I do not see the usual number of muskets
+piled in the stern. How can this be, Mr. Elmsley?”
+
+“Perhaps there is not the same number of men,” suggested the
+lieutenant--“some of them, for causes connected with their detention,
+may be coming by land.”
+
+“Not at all. There are seven men. I think seven men compose the fishing
+party; do they not?”
+
+“Six men, besides the non-commissioned officer; yes, sir.”
+
+“I can make out Corporal Nixon, for he is steering and facing me, but
+for the others, I do not know them well enough to distinguish. Here, Mr.
+Elmsley, take the glass, and try what you can make of them.”
+
+The lieutenant gazed through the glass a moment, and then pronounced
+name after name, as the men severally came under the range of the lens.
+“Yes, sir, as you say, there is Corporal Nixon steering--then, with,
+their backs to us, and pulling, are first, Collins, then Green, then
+Jackson, then Weston, then Cass, and then Philips. But what they have
+in the bottom of the boat, for I now can see that plain enough, is not
+fish, sir, but a human body, and a dog crouched at its side. Yes! it is
+indeed the Frenchman's dog--Loup Garou.”
+
+“Well, I want to know!” exclaimed Ephraim Giles, who had ascended the
+bastion, and now stood amid the group of men, “I take it, that if that's
+Loup Garou, his master can't be far off. I never knowed them to be
+separate.”
+
+“Yes, sir, that is certainly a dead body,” pursued the
+lieutenant--“somebody killed at the farm, no doubt. Have you any orders
+for the direction of the party, when they land, sir?” he inquired, as he
+handed back the glass to the captain.
+
+“Just desire the drum to beat to parade,” was the answer. “It wants only
+a few minutes of guard-mounting, and by the time the men have fallen in,
+and the roll is called, the boat will be here. Where is Mr. Ronayne?”
+
+“I have not seen him this morning, sir, but believe that he is in his
+own rooms. He, however, knows the hour, and doubtless will be here
+presently.”
+
+“When the men have fallen in, come and report to me,” said the captain,
+as he descended from the bastion, and proceeded to his own quarters, to
+eat his untasted breakfast.
+
+The lieutenant touched his cap in assent, and then, having despatched
+a man with orders to the temporary drum-major, crossed over to the
+apartments of the ensign, anxious not only to excuse himself for not
+being able to receive his friend to his own breakfast, at the hour
+he had named, but to prepare him for the reception of the body of Mr.
+Heywood, which he doubted not, was that now on its way for interment at
+his own house.
+
+On entering the mess-room, in which they had taken their punch, the
+previous evening, everything bore evidence of a late debauch. Ashes and
+tobacco were liberally strewed upon the table, while around the empty
+bowl, were, in some disorder, pipes and glasses--one of each emptied
+of all but the ashes and sediment--the other two only half-smoked,
+half-full, and standing amid a pool of wet, which had evidently been
+spilt by a not very steady hand. The windows were closed, so that the
+smoke clung to what little furniture there was in the room, and the
+whole scent of the place was an abominable compound of stale tobacco and
+strong whisky.
+
+A loud snoring in the room on his right attracted his attention. He knew
+that it was Von Vottenberg's, and he entered to see what had kept him
+in bed until that late hour. The surgeon, only half-undressed, was fast
+asleep, not within, but on the outside of the bed-clothes. Somewhat
+disgusted at the sight, for Elmsley was comparatively abstemious, he
+shook him not very gently, when the doctor, opening his eyes with a
+start, half-rose upon his elbow. “Ha!” he exclaimed, “I know you mean
+to say that breakfast is waiting; I had forgotten all about it, old
+fellow.”
+
+“I mean nothing of the kind,” was the reply, “but I recommend you to
+lose no time in dressing and turning out. The men are already on parade,
+and if Captain Headley, finding that you are absent, tends over here
+to inquire the cause, I would not give much for your future chances of
+swallowing whisky-punch within the walls of Chicago.”
+
+“Eh? what! what!” spluttered the surgeon, as he jumped up, drew on his
+boots, dipped his face in a basin of water, and hastily completed his
+toilet. In less than five minutes he was on parade.
+
+Meanwhile, Lieutenant Elmsley, after giving this warning, had passed
+again through the mess-room, and knocked at Ronayne's door. But there
+was no answer.
+
+“Hilloa, Ronayne,” he called loudly, as he turned the handle of the
+latch, “are YOU in bed too?”
+
+But no Ronayne was there. He looked at the bed--like the doctor's, it
+had been laid upon, but no one had been within the clothes.
+
+What was the meaning of this? After a few moments of delay, he flew back
+to Von Vottenberg's room, but the latter was already gone. Retracing his
+steps, he met Ronayne's servant entering at the mess-room door.
+
+“Where is your master?” he inquired. “How is it that he is not in his
+room--has not been in bed?”
+
+“Not been in bed?” repeated the lad, with surprise. “Why, sir, he told
+me last night that he was very drowsy and should lie late; and, that
+he mightn't be disturbed, he desired me to sleep in one of the
+block-houses. I was only to wake him in time for guard-mounting, and as
+it wants but ten minutes to that, I am just come to call him.”
+
+“Clean out the mess-room directly--open the windows, and pat every thing
+in order,” said the lieutenant, fearing that Captain Headley might, on
+hearing of the absence of the young officer, pay his quarters a visit in
+search of some clue to the cause. “I see it all,” he mused, as he moved
+across the parade-ground. “He would not, generous fellow, get me into a
+scrape, by making me privy to his design, and to avoid the difficulty of
+the gate, has got over the pickets somewhere--yet, if so, he must have
+had a rope, and assistance of some kind, for he never could have crossed
+them without. Yet, where can he be gone, and what could he have expected
+to result from his mad scheme? Had he waited until now, he would have
+known by the arrival of the fishing-party with their sad charge, how
+utterly useless was all this risk.”
+
+“Well, Mr. Elmsley,” said the captain, who now appeared at the front of
+his own door, fully dressed for parade, and preparing to issue forth in
+all the stateliness of command.
+
+“The parade is formed, sir,” remarked the lieutenant, confusedly, “but I
+cannot find the officer of the guard.”
+
+“Sir!” exclaimed Captain Headley.
+
+“I cannot find Mr. Ronayne, sir--I have myself been over to his
+quarters, and looked into his bed-room, but it is clear that he has not
+been in bed all night.”
+
+“What is the meaning of all this? Send Doctor Von Vottenberg here
+immediately.”
+
+And lucky was it for that gentleman that the officer who now desired his
+attendance on the commandant had roused him from that Lethean slumber in
+which he had been, only a few minutes before, so luxuriously indulging.
+
+“Doctor Von Vottenberg,” commenced the captain, as soon as that official
+made his appearance before him; “you are quartered with Mr. Ronayne.
+Have you seen any thing of him last night or this morning--no evasion,
+nay,” seeing that the doctor's brow began to be overclouded, “I mean no
+attempt to shield the young man by a suppression of the truth.”
+
+“I certainly saw him last night, Captain Headley, but not at a very
+late hour. We took a glass or two of punch, and smoked a couple of pipes
+together, but we both went to bed early, and for my part, I know that I
+slept so soundly as to have heard nothing--seen nothing, until I got up
+this morning.”
+
+The doctor spoke truly as to the time of their retirement to rest, for
+the ensign had left him early in the night, while he had found his way
+to his own bed, early in the morning.
+
+“The boat is nearing the landing-place, sir,” reported the sergeant of
+the guard, who now came up, and more immediately addressed Lieutenant
+Elmsley.
+
+This information, for the moment, banished the subject under discussion.
+“Let the men pile their arms,” ordered Captain Headley; “and when this
+is done, Mr. Elmsley, follow me to the landing-place.”
+
+In a few minutes both officers were there. The boat was within fifty
+yards, when the subaltern joined his captain; and the oarsmen, evidently
+desirous of doing their best in the presence of the commanding officer,
+were polling silently and with a vigor that soon brought it to its
+accustomed berth.
+
+“What body is that, Corporal Nixon?” inquired the latter, “and how is it
+that you are only here this morning?”
+
+“Sir,” answered the corporal, removing one of his hands from the
+steer-oar, and respectfully touching his cap, “it's poor Le Noir, the
+Frenchman, killed by the Injins yesterday, and as for our absence, it
+couldn't be helped, sir; but it's a long report I have to make, and
+perhaps, captain, you would like to hear it more at leisure than I can
+tell it here.”
+
+By this time the men had landed from the boat, leaving the Canadian to
+be disposed of afterwards as the commanding officer might direct. The
+quick eye of the latter immediately detected the slight limping of
+Green, whose wound had become stiff from neglect, cold, and the cramped
+position in which he had been sitting in the boat.
+
+“What is the matter with this man?” he inquired of the corporal. “What
+makes him walk so stiffly?”
+
+“Nothing much the matter, captain,” was the indifferent reply. “It's
+only a ball he got in his leg in the scrimmage last night.”
+
+“Ha! the first gun-shot wound that has come under my treatment during
+the three long years I have been stationed here. Quick, my fine fellow,
+take yourself to the hospital, and tell the orderly to prepare my
+instruments for probing.”
+
+“Scrimmage last night; what do you mean, Corporal Nixon--whom had you
+the scrimmage with?”
+
+These remarks fell at the same moment from the lips of the commander
+and those of the surgeon, the latter rubbing his hands with delightful
+anticipation of the treat in store for him.
+
+“With the Indians, captain,” replied Nixon; “the Indians that attacked
+Mr. Heywood's farm.”
+
+“Captain Headley,” interrupted the lieutenant, with unusual deference of
+manner, for he was anxious that no further reference should be made to
+the subject in presence of the invalids and women, who, attracted by
+the news of the arrival of the boat, had gathered around, partly from
+curiosity, partly for the purpose of getting their expected supply of
+fish, “do you not think it better to examine Corporal Nixon first, and
+then the others in turn?”
+
+“Very true, Mr. Elmsley, I will examine them separately in the
+orderly-room to see how far their statements agree; yet one question
+you can answer here, corporal. You say that it is the body of Le Noir,
+killed by the Indians. Where is Mr. Heywood, then?”
+
+The generous Elmsley felt faint, absolutely sick at heart on hearing
+this question; the very object he had in view in proposing this private
+examination was thereby threatened with discomfiture.
+
+“Mr. Heywood has been carried off by the Indians,” calmly replied the
+corporal, yet perceptibly paling as he spoke.
+
+“Indeed! this is unfortunate. Let the men go to their barracks, and
+there remain until I send for them,” ordered the commandant. “You,
+corporal, will come to me at the orderly-room, in half an hour from
+this. That will be sufficient time for you to clean yourself, and take
+your breakfast. None of your party, I presume, have had their breakfast
+yet?”
+
+“No, your honor,” answered Green, who seemed to fancy that his wound
+gave him the privilege of a little license in the presence of his chief,
+“not unless an old turkey, the grandfather of fifty broods, and as tough
+as shoe-leather, can be called a breakfast.”
+
+Captain Headley looked at the speaker sternly, but took no other notice
+of what he, evidently, deemed a very great liberty, than to demand how
+he presumed to disobey the order of the surgeon. Then desiring him to
+proceed forthwith to the hospital and have his leg dressed, he himself
+withdrew after postponing the parade to one o'clock.
+
+“And are you sure, Nixon, that Mr. Heywood has been carried off by the
+Indians,” asked Lieutenant Elmsley, the revulsion of whose feelings on
+hearing the corporal's answer to the question put by Captain Headley
+had been in striking contrast with what he had experienced only a moment
+before; “are you quite sure of this?”
+
+The interrogatory was put, immediately after the commanding officer had
+retired, doubtingly, in a low tone, and apart from the rest of the men.
+
+“I saw them carry him off myself, sir,” again deliberately said the
+corporal. “The whole of the party saw it too.”
+
+“Enough, enough,” pursued the lieutenant, in a friendly tone. “I believe
+you, Nixon. But another question. Were you joined last night by any one
+of the regiment? recollect yourself.”
+
+The corporal declaring that nothing in the shape of an American uniform
+had come under his notice, since he departed from the Fort the preceding
+evening, the officer next turned his attention to the boat.
+
+“What are you fumbling about there, Collins?” he asked, rather
+sharply--“Why do you not go and join your mess?” This was said as the
+rest of the party were now in the act of moving off with their muskets
+and fishing apparatus.
+
+“Poor fellow!” interposed the corporal, “he is not himself to-day; but
+I am sure, Mr. Elmsley, you will not be hard upon him, when I tell
+you that, but for him, there wouldn't be a man of us here of the whole
+party.”
+
+“Indeed!” exclaimed the lieutenant, not a little surprised at the
+information; “but we shall hear all about that presently; yet what is he
+fidgetting about at the bottom of the bow of the boat?”
+
+“There's another body there, sir, besides Le Noir's. It's that of the
+poor boy at Heywood's--an Indian scalped him and left him for dead.
+Collins, who put a bullet into the same fellow, not an hour afterwards,
+found the boy by accident, while retreating from the place where we had
+the first scrimmage with the red devils. He was still breathing, and he
+took every pains to recover him, but the cold night air was too much for
+him, and he died in the poor fellow's arms.”
+
+“Well, this is a strange night's adventure, or rather series of
+adventures,” remarked the lieutenant half aside to himself. “Then, I
+suppose,” he resumed, more immediately addressing the corporal, “he has
+brought the body of the boy to have him interred with Le Noir?”
+
+“Just so, sir, for he mourns him as if he had been his own child,”
+ answered Nixon, as the officer departed--“here, Loup Garou, Loup Garou,”
+ and he whistled to the dog. “Come along, old fellow, and get some
+breakfast.”
+
+But Loup Garou would not stir at the call of his new master. Sorrow was
+the only feast in which he seemed inclined to indulge, and he continued
+to crouch near the body of the Canadian as impassible and motionless as
+if he was no longer of earth himself.
+
+“Come along, Collins,” gently urged the Virginian, approaching the boat,
+where the former was still feeling the bosom of the dead boy in the vain
+hope of finding that life was not yet extinct. “It's no use thinking
+about it; you have done your duty as a soldier, and as a good man, but
+you see he is gone, and there is no help for it. By and by, we will bury
+them both together; but come along now. The dog will let nobody near
+them.”
+
+“Dash me, corporal, if I ever felt so queer in my life!” answered
+Collins, in a melancholy tone, strongly in contrast with his habitual
+brusque gaiety; “but, as you say, it's no use. The poor lad is dead
+enough at last, and my only comfort now is to bury him, and sometimes
+look at his grave.”
+
+The half-hour given by Captain Headley to the men to clean themselves
+and eat their breakfasts, afforded his subaltern ample time to take his
+own, which had all this time been waiting. When he readied his rooms he
+found that he had another ordeal to go through. Mrs. Elmsley was already
+at the bead of the table, and pouring out the coffee, with Miss Heywood
+seated on her left--the latter very pale, and having evidently passed
+a sleepless night. As the officer entered the room, a slight flush
+overspread her features, for she looked as if she expected him to be
+accompanied by another, but when he hastily unbuckled his sword, and
+placed it, with his cap, on a side-table, desiring his wife to lose no
+time in pouring out the coffee, as he must be off again immediately, she
+felt, she knew not wherefore, very sick at heart, and became even paler
+than before. Nor was she at all re-assured by the tone of commiseration
+in which, after drawing a chair to her side, and affectionately pressing
+her hand, he inquired after her own and her mother's health.
+
+“Why, George,” said Mrs. Elmsley, who remarked this change in her
+friend, and in some degree divined the cause, “where are Mr. Ronayne and
+the doctor? You told me last night they were to breakfast here--and see,
+one, two, three, four, five cups (pointing at each with her finger),
+I have prepared accordingly. Indeed, I scarcely think this young lady
+would have made her appearance at the breakfast-table, had she not
+expected to meet--who was it, my dear?” and she turned an arch look upon
+her friend--“ah! I know now--Von Vottenberg.”
+
+“Nay, I have no more need of disguise from your husband than from
+yourself, Margaret,” replied Miss Heywood, her coloring cheek in a
+measure contradicting her words--“it was Harry Ronayne I expected; but,”
+ she added, with a faint smile, “do not imagine I am quite so romantic as
+not to be able to take my breakfast, because he is not present to
+share it; therefore if you please, I also will trouble you for a cup of
+coffee.”
+
+“All in good time,” remarked Mrs. Elmsley. “I dare say, Ronayne is
+engaged in some duty which has prevented him from keeping his engagement
+as punctually as he could have desired. We shall certainly see him
+before the breakfast things are removed.”
+
+“It seems to me,” said her husband, who was taking his meal with the
+appetite of any other than a hungry man, and even with a shade of
+vexation on his features, “that you all appear to be very much in the
+dark here. Why, Margaret, have you not heard what has occurred during
+the night, as well as this morning?”
+
+“How should I have heard any thing, George?” replied Mrs. Elmsley.
+“I have seen no one since you went out this morning--who could have
+communicated news from without? Surely you ought to know that. Will you
+have more coffee?”
+
+“No, thank you--I have no appetite for coffee or for any thing else. I
+almost wish I had not come. Dear Maria,” he added, impetuously, taking
+Miss Heywood's hand in his own; “I know you have a noble--a courageous
+heart, and can bear philosophically what I have to tell you.”
+
+“I can bear much,” was the reply, accompanied by a forced smile, that
+was contradicted by the quivering of the compressed lip; “and if I could
+not, I find I must begin to learn. Yet what can you have to tell me, my
+dear Mr. Elmsley, more than I already divine--my poor father--” and the
+tears started from her eyes.
+
+“Ha! there at least, I have comfort for you--although there has been sad
+work at the farm--the fishing-party have come in with the bodies of
+poor Le Noir and the boy Wilton, but they all say that Mr. Heywood was
+carried off a prisoner by the Indians.”
+
+“Carried off a prisoner,” repeated Miss Heywood, a sudden glow animating
+her pale features--“oh! Elmsley, thank you for that. There is still a
+hope then?”
+
+“There is indeed a hope; but, dearest Miss Heywood, why must I heal with
+one hand and wound with the other. If I give comparative good news of
+your father, there is another who ought to be here, and whose absence at
+this moment is to me at once a pain and a mystery.”
+
+“You mean Harry Ronayne?” she said, hesitatingly, but without
+manifesting surprise.
+
+“Where the foolish fellow has gone,” he continued, “I do not know, but
+he has disappeared from the Fort, nor has he left the slightest clue by
+which he may be traced.”
+
+“Does Captain Headley know this?” she inquired, recollecting, that part
+of the conversation that had passed between them the preceding day, in
+reference to the succor that might have been afforded at the farm.
+
+“He does. I made the report of Ronayne's absence to him personally, and
+the doctor was summoned to state if he had seen any thing of him. He,
+however, was as ignorant as a man, who had been drunk during the night,
+and was not yet quite sober in the morning, could well be. The captain
+was as much surprised as displeased, but further inquiry was delayed on
+the sergeant of the guard coming up and announcing the near approach of
+the boat containing the fishing-party.”
+
+“Tell me, dear Mr. Elmsley,” said Miss Heywood, after a few moments of
+seeming reflection; “what is your own opinion of the matter? How do
+you account--or have you at all endeavored to account for Ronayne's
+absence?”
+
+“I can easily understand the cause,” he replied, “but confound me if I
+can attempt to divine the means he took to accomplish his object.”
+
+He then proceeded to relate the circumstances of his proposal to Captain
+Headley--the abrupt refusal he had met with--his subsequent application
+to himself to pass him out of the gate, and the final abandonment of his
+request when he found that his acquiescence would seriously compromise
+him, as officer of the guard.
+
+“Noble Harry!” thought Miss Heywood--“your confusion, your vexation
+of yesterday, arose from not being able to follow your own generous
+impulses: but now I fully understand the resolve you secretly made--and
+all for my sake. Do not think me very romantic,” she said aloud to Mr.
+Elmsley, “but really, Margaret, I cannot despair that all will yet, and
+speedily, be well. The only fear I entertain is that the strict Captain
+Headley may rebuke him in terms that will call up all the fire of
+his nature, and induce a retort that may prove a source of serious
+misunderstanding--unless, indeed, the greatness of the service rendered,
+plead his justification.”
+
+“Now that we are on the subject, dear Miss Heywood,” remarked Elmsley,
+“let me once for all disabuse you of an impression which I fear you
+entertain--or is it so? Do you think that Ronayne has had an opportunity
+of joining the party at the farm?”
+
+“Certainly, I do,” she answered, gravely, “or why should he have gone
+forth? Pray do not rob me of what little comfort, in expectation, I have
+left.”
+
+“That he went forth madly and single-handed for the purpose, I can
+believe--nay, I am sure of it; but I grieve to add that he has not been
+seen there.”
+
+“This, indeed, is strange,” she returned in faltering tones, and with
+ill-disguised emotion, for, hitherto she had been sustained by the
+belief that he was merely lingering behind the party, in order to
+satisfy himself of facts, the detail of which could not fail to be
+satisfactory to her ear. “How know you this?”
+
+“I questioned Corporal Nixon, who commanded the party, and who apprised
+me of Mr. Heywood's having been carried off by the Indians, for I
+was deeply anxious, as you may presume, to know what had become of my
+friend--and this far less even for my own sake than for yours.”
+
+“And his answer was?” and there was deep melancholy in the question.
+
+“That no American uniform had come under his notice during his absence
+from the Fort, save those of the party he commanded. These, as far as I
+can recollect, were his precise words.”
+
+“Mr. Elmsley,” said a sentry, who now appeared at the door of the
+breakfast-parlor, “Captain Headley waits for you in the orderly room.”
+
+“Is Corporal Nixon there?” asked the lieutenant.
+
+“He is, sir.”
+
+“Good, Dixon, I shall be there immediately.”
+
+“God bless you,” he continued, to Miss Heywood, when the man had
+departed. “We shall, perhaps, elicit from him, something that will throw
+light upon the obscure part of this matter. Margaret, do not leave the
+dear girl alone, but cheer up her spirits, and make her hope for the
+best.”
+
+So saying, he shook her hand affectionately, pushed back his chair from
+the table, and resuming his cap and sword, left the friends together,
+promising to return as soon as the examination of the man should be
+concluded.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+Mr. Heywood's history may be told in a few words. He was the son of an
+officer who had served in one of the American partizan corps, during the
+Revolution, and had been killed at the attack made by General Green upon
+the stronghold of Ninety-Six, in the South. At that time he was a mere
+youth, and found himself a few years after, and at the age of eighteen,
+without fortune, and wholly dependent upon his own resources. The war
+being soon ended, his naturally enterprising disposition, added to great
+physical strength, induced him to unite himself with one of the many
+bands of adventurers that poured into the then, wilds of Kentucky,
+where, within five years, and by dint of mere exertion and industry,
+he amassed money enough to enable him to repair to Charleston, in South
+Carolina, and espouse a lady of considerable landed property, with
+whom he had formed a partial engagement, prior to his entering on that
+adventurous life. The only fruit of this union was a daughter, and here,
+as far as fortune was concerned, they might have enjoyed every comfort
+in life, for Mrs. Heywood's property was principally situated in the
+neighborhood, but her husband was of too restless a nature to content
+himself with a sedentary life. He had at the outset embarked in
+commerce--the experience of a few years, however, convincing him that
+he was quite unsuited to such pursuits, he had the good sense to
+abandon them before his affairs could be involved. He next attempted the
+cultivation of the estate, but this failing to afford him the excitement
+he craved, he suddenly took leave of his family, and placing every thing
+under the control of a manager, once more obeyed the strong impulse,
+which urged him again to Kentucky. Here, following as a passion the
+occupation of his earlier years, he passed several seasons, scarcely
+communicating during that period, with his amiable and gentle wife, for
+whom, however, as well as for his daughter--now fifteen years of age,
+and growing rapidly into womanhood--he was by no means wanting in
+affection. Nor was his return home THEN purely a matter of choice.
+Although neither quarrelsome nor dissipated in his habits, he had had
+the misfortune to kill, in a duel, a young lawyer of good family who had
+accompanied him to Kentucky, and had consequently fled. Great exertions
+were made by the relatives of the deceased to have him arrested on the
+plea that the duel, the result of a tavern dispute, had been unfair
+on the part of the survivor. As there was some slight ground for this
+charge, the fact of Mr. Heywood's flight afforded increased presumption
+of his guilt, and such was the publicity given to the matter by his
+enemies, that the rumor soon reached Charleston, and finally, the ears
+of his family.
+
+Revealing, in this extremity, his true position to his wife, Mr. Heywood
+declared it to be his intention either to cross the sea, or to
+bury himself forever in the remotest civilized portion of their own
+continent, leaving her however, to the undisturbed possession of the
+property she had brought him, which would of course descend to their
+child.
+
+But Mrs. Heywood would not listen to the proposal. Although she had much
+to complain of, and to pain her, all recollection of the past faded from
+her memory, when she beheld her husband in a position of danger, and
+even in some degree of humiliation, for she was not ignorant that even
+in the eyes of people not over scrupulous, ineffaceable infamy attaches
+to the man, who, in a duel, aims with unfair deliberation at the life
+of his opponent; and anxious to satisfy herself that such a stain rested
+not on the father of her child, she conjured him to tell her if such
+really was the case. He solemnly denied the fact, although he admitted
+there were certain appearances against him, which, slight as they were,
+his enemies had sought to deepen into proofs--and in the difficulty of
+disproving these lay his chief embarrassment.
+
+The tone--the manner--the whole demeanor of Mr. Heywood carried
+conviction with his denial, and his wife at once expressed her
+determination to renounce for his sake, all those local ties and
+associations by which she had been surrounded from childhood, and follow
+his fortunes, whithersoever they might lead. This, she persisted, she
+was the more ready and willing to do, because her daughter's education
+having been some months completed, under the best masters, there was
+now no anxiety on her account, other than what might arise from her own
+sense of the contemplated change.
+
+Maria Heywood was accordingly summoned to the consultation--made
+acquainted with her father's position, and the necessity for his instant
+departure from that section of the country--and finally told that with
+her it rested to decide, not only whether he should go alone, but if
+they accompanied him, whether it should be to Europe, or to the Far
+West.
+
+“Rest with me to decide!” exclaimed the warm-hearted girl as she threw
+herself into her mother's arms. “Oh, how good of you both thus to
+consult me, whose duty it is to obey. But do not think that it is any
+privation for me to leave this. I cannot claim the poor merit of the
+sacrifice. I have no enjoyment in cities. Give me the solitude of
+nature, books, and music, and I will live in a wigwam without regret.”
+
+“Dear enthusiast,” said Mrs. Heywood, pressing her fondly to her heart;
+“I knew well in what spirit would be your answer. You decide then for
+the Far West?”
+
+“Oh, yes, dear mamma! the Far West for me--no Europe. Give me the tall,
+dense forests of our own noble land! I desire no other home--long have I
+pictured to myself the vast lakes--the trackless woods and the boundless
+prairies of that region of which I have read so much, and now,” she
+concluded, with exaltation, “my fondest wishes will be realized, and
+I shall pass my life in the midst of them. But, dear papa, to what
+particular spot do we go?”
+
+“To Chicago, my noble girl! It is the remotest of our Western
+possessions, and quite a new country. There I may hope to pass unheeded,
+but how will you, dear Maria, endure being buried alive there, when so
+many advantages await you here?”
+
+“Only figuratively, papa,” she replied with a pensive smile stealing
+over her fine intellectual features. “Have no fear for me on that score,
+for depend upon it, with so much natural beauty to interest, it will
+be my own fault, if I suffer myself to be buried alive. What think you,
+dear mamma?”
+
+“I think with you, my child,” replied Mrs. Heywood, looking approvingly
+at her daughter, “that it is our duty, as it assuredly will be our
+pleasure to accompany your father wherever he may go.”
+
+It was now arranged that Mr. Heywood, furnished with a considerable sum
+of money in gold, should set out alone on the following night for
+their new destination, and make the necessary preparations for their
+reception, while his wife, through her agent, should endeavor to dispose
+of the estate. As it would require some time for this, and as the
+arrangements at Chicago could not well be completed within several
+months, it was settled that they should meet at Albany, early in the
+following autumn, where they should proceed to take possession of their
+new abode. For his better security and freedom from interruption, Mr.
+Heywood, while travelling, was to assume a feigned name, but his own was
+to be resumed immediately after his arrival at Chicago, for neither he
+nor his family could for a moment think of increasing the suspicion of
+guilt, by continuing a name that was not their own; and, finally, as a
+last measure of precaution, the free servants of the establishment, had,
+with the exception of Catharine, whom they were to take with them, been
+discharged, while a purchaser having fortunately been found, the slaves,
+with the estate, were handed over to a new master, proverbial for his
+kindness to that usually oppressed race. By these means they found
+themselves provided with funds more than adequate to all their future
+wants, the great bulk of the sum arising from the sale of the estate
+being vested in two of the most stable banks of the Union.
+
+With the money he took with him, carefully deposited in his saddlebags,
+for he performed the whole of the journey on horseback, Mr. Heywood had
+caused the cottage already described, to be built and furnished from
+Detroit, in what, at that period, and so completely at the ultima thule
+of American civilization, was considered a style of great luxury. He
+had, however, shortly prior to his setting out for Albany, purchased
+several hundred acres of land, about two miles up the Southern branch of
+the Chicago, leaving instructions with Le Noir, whom he had engaged for
+a long term of service, to erect upon it a log building and outhouses.
+This he had been induced to do from that aching desire for physical
+exertion which had been familiar to him from boyhood, and which he felt
+could never be sufficiently indulged within the limited compass of the
+little village itself--subjected as he must be to the observation of the
+curious and the impertinent. He returned from Albany after a few months'
+absence, in the autumn of 1809, bringing with him his friends who
+occupied the cottage, while he himself obtained their assent that he
+should inhabit the farm house, completed soon after his return. Here
+he cut with his own hands, many a cord of the wood that his servants
+floated down in rafts, not only for his own family, but to supply the
+far more extensive wants of the garrison, with which, however, he
+had little or no intercourse, beyond that resulting from his business
+relations.
+
+Such was the condition of things at the period at which our narrative
+has opened. Maria Heywood had now been three years an occupant of the
+cottage, and within that time solitude and habits of reflection had
+greatly matured her mind, as years had given every womanly grace to her
+person. The past had also tended much to form her character, upon which
+the development of physical beauty so often depends. At her first debut
+into society at Charleston, in her fourteenth year--an age that would
+have been considered premature, but for the rapidity with which form
+and intellect are known to ripen in that precocious climate--she had
+received, but listened with indifference to the vapid compliments of men
+whose shallowness she was not slow to detect, and whose homage conveyed
+rather a fulsome tribute to her mere personal beauty, than a correct
+appreciation of her heart and understanding. Not that it is to be
+inferred that she prided herself unduly upon this latter, but because it
+was by that standard of conduct chiefly, that she was enabled to judge
+of the minds of those who evinced so imperfect a knowledge of the female
+heart, when, emerging from the gaiety of girlhood, it passes into the
+earnestness of womanly feeling.
+
+But although cold--almost repellant to all who had poured their
+ephemeral and seldom varying homage in her ear--no woman's heart ever
+beat with more kind--more generous--more devoted sentiments, than her
+own. Possessed of a vivid imagination, which the general quietude of her
+demeanor in a great degree disowned, she had already sketched within her
+glowing mind her own beau ideal, whose image was a talisman to deaden
+her heart against the influence of these soulless realities.
+
+With such sentiments as these had Maria Heywood cheerfully consented to
+accompany her parents to that secluded spot, from which there was little
+probability of a speedy return; but solitude, so far from weakening the
+strong impressions that had entwined themselves around her heart, from
+the moment of her emancipation from childhood, only served to invest
+them with new power. The more her feelings repined--the more expanded
+her intellect--the stronger became the sense of absence of one who could
+enter into, and in some degree, give a direction to all her thoughts
+and emotions--sharing with her the rich fruit that springs from the
+consciousness of kindred associations of mind. But this was the secret
+of her own heart--of the heart of one whose personal attractions were
+well suited to the rich and overflowing character of her soul, and
+who had now attained that age which gives eloquent expression to every
+movement of the ripely moulded form.
+
+Above the middle size, the figure of Maria Heywood was at once
+gracefully and nobly formed. Her face, of a chiselled oval, was of
+a delicate olive tint, which well harmonized with eyes of a lustrous
+hazel, and hair of glossy raven black. A small mouth, bordered by lips
+of coral fulness, disclosed, when she smiled, teeth white and even;
+while a forehead, high for her sex, combined with a nose, somewhat more
+aquiline than Grecian, to give dignity to a countenance that might,
+otherwise, have exhibited a character of voluptuous beauty. Yet,
+although her features, when lighted up by vivacity or emotion, were
+radiant with intelligence; their expression when in repose was of a
+pensive cast, that, contrasted with her general appearance, gave to it
+a charm, addressed at once to sense and sentiment, of which it is
+impossible, by description, to give an adequate idea. A dimpled cheek,
+an arm, hand and foot, that might have served the statuary as a model,
+completed a person which, without exaggeration, might be deemed almost,
+if not wholly faultless.
+
+The habits of Mr. Heywood were of that peculiar nature--his desire of
+isolation from every thing that could be called society was so obvious,
+that for the first year of the residence of the family at Chicago,
+scarcely any intercourse had been maintained between the inmates of the
+cottage and the officers' wives; and it was only on the occasion of
+the commanding officer giving a party, to celebrate the anniversary of
+American Independence on the following year, that the first approach
+to an acquaintance had been made. It had been deemed by him a matter of
+duty to invite all of the few American families that were settled in the
+neighborhood, and of course the Heywoods were of the number. On the same
+principle of conventionalism the invitation was accepted, and not slight
+was the surprise of the ladies of the garrison, when they found in the
+secluded occupants of the cottage, to whom they had assigned a doubtful
+position in society, those to whom no effort of their own prejudice
+could refuse that correct estimate, which quiet dignity without
+ostentation, is ever certain to command.
+
+At the announcement of the names of Mrs. and Miss Heywood, the somewhat
+stately Mrs. Headley was disposed to receive with hauteur the inmates of
+the cottage, but no sooner had Maria Heywood, accompanied by her gentle
+mother, entered the apartment with the easy and composed air of one to
+whom the drawing-room is familiar, than all her prejudices vanished, and
+with a heart warming towards her, as though she, had been the cherished
+sister of her love, she arose, pressed her hand affectionately and
+welcomed her to the Fort with the sincerity of a generous and elevated
+nature, anxious to repair its own wrong.
+
+From that period, both by the wife of the commandant, and by Mrs.
+Elmsley--the only two ladies in the garrison, Maria Heywood was as much
+liked and courted, as she had previously been disregarded. To deny that
+the noble girl did in some measure exult in this change, would be to
+do wrong to the commendable pride of a woman, who feels that the unjust
+prejudice which had cast a false shadow over her recent life, has
+at last been removed, and that the value, of which she was modestly
+conscious, began to be appreciated.
+
+It was at this party that her acquaintance with the young Southerner had
+commenced, and it is needless to trace the gradual rise of an attachment
+which similarity of tastes had engendered. Naturally of an ardent
+disposition, the youth had, as we have remarked on a previous occasion,
+hitherto loved to indulge in the excitement of the wild sports of the
+forest and the prairie, as the only present means of giving freedom
+to that spirit of enterprise, so usually wedded to the generous and
+unoccupied mind; but, from the period of his acquaintance with Maria
+Heywood, a total change had come over his manner of life. The hunt--the
+chase--and the cup that so often succeeded, were now almost wholly
+abandoned, and his only delight NOW in excursions was to ride with her
+across the prairie, or to pull her in his light skiff either along the
+shores of the Michigan, or through the various branches of the river,
+contemplating the beautiful Heavens by moonlight, and indulging in
+speculations, which were not more the fruit of romantic temperament,
+than of the intensity of Love. He had, moreover, four dogs trained
+to draw her in a light sledge of his own device and construction, in
+winter. In these rambles she was usually accompanied either by Mrs.
+Headley, or by the wife of his friend and brother subaltern, and after
+the invigorating exercise of the day, his evenings, whenever he could
+absent himself from the Fort, were devoted within the cottage to books,
+magic, and the far more endearing interchange of the resources of their
+gifted minds. In summer there were other employments of a domestic
+character, for in addition to their rides, walks, and excursions on the
+water, both found ample scope for the indulgence of their partiality for
+flowers, in the taste for practical horticulture possessed by Ronayne,
+under whose care had grown the luxuriant beauty which every where
+pervaded the little garden, and made it to the grateful girl a paradise
+in miniature.
+
+Thus had passed nearly two years, and insensibly, without a word of love
+having been breathed, each felt all the security which a consciousness
+of being beloved alone could yield, and that assurance imparted to their
+manner and address when alone a confiding air, the more endearing from
+the silence of their lips. But although no word uttered by themselves
+proclaimed the existence of the secret and holy compact, not only were
+they fully sensible of it themselves, but it was obvious to all--even to
+the least observant of the garrison, and many were there, both among the
+soldiers and their wives--by all of whom the young ensign was liked for
+his openness and manliness of character--who expressed a fervent hope
+that the beautiful and amiable Miss Heywood would soon become the bride
+of their favorite officer. This it was, which had led the men of the
+fishing-party to express in their way, their sorrow for the young lady,
+when she should hear of the events at the farm-house, even while passing
+their rude encomiums on the sweetness of disposition of her, whom they
+already regarded as the wife of their young officer.
+
+It was nearly noon, and Lieutenant Elmsley had not yet made his
+appearance with the promised report. Maria Heywood had, after passing an
+hour with her mother, returned to the breakfast-room, which it will be
+recollected opened immediately upon the barrack-square. Her friend being
+engaged with her domestic affairs, which every lady was at that period
+in a measure compelled to superintend, she had thrown herself (still in
+her morning dishabille) on a couch with a book in her hand, but with a
+mind wholly distracted from the subject of its pages. After continuing
+some time thus, a prey to nervous anxiety, as much the result of
+Elmsley's long absence as of her former fears, the sound of the fifes
+and drums fell startlingly, she knew not wherefore, upon her ear and
+drew her to the door. The men were falling in, and in the course of a
+few minutes the little line was formed a few yards to her left, with its
+flanks resting on either range of building, so that the mess-room door,
+then open, was distinctly visible in front. At the same moment, Captain
+Headley and the lieutenant, followed by Corporal Nixon and the other
+men of the fishing-party--Green only excepted--passed out of the orderly
+room on her right, moved across, and took up their position in front of
+the parade.
+
+“God bless me, Maria, what is that, or is it his ghost!” suddenly and
+unguardedly exclaimed Mrs. Elmsley, who had that moment joined her
+friend--placing her arm at the same time round her waist.
+
+“What do you mean, Mar--” but before Maria Heywood could complete her
+sentence, all power of speech was taken from her in the emotion with
+which she regarded what, after a momentary glance, met her view.
+
+It was her lover, fully equipped for parade, and walking towards the
+men with a calm and deliberate step, which seemed to evince total
+unconsciousness that any thing unusual had happened.
+
+“Here is a chair, my love--you really tremble as if the man was a ghost.
+Now then, we shall have a scene between him and our amiable commandant.”
+
+“God forbid!” tremulously answered the almost bewildered girl; “I am the
+cause of all.”
+
+“You! Stuff, Maria. What nonsense you talk, for a sensible girl. How
+should you be the cause? but, positively, Ronayne can never have been
+away from the Fort.”
+
+“Do you think so, Margaret?”
+
+“I am sure of it. Only look at him. He is as spruce as if he had only
+just come out of a band-box. But hush, not a word. There, that's a dear.
+Lean your head against my shoulder. Don Bombastes speaks!”
+
+“No sign of Mr. Ronayne yet?” demanded Captain Headley, his back turned
+to the slowly advancing officer, whose proximity not one of the men
+seemed inclined to announce, possibly because they feared rebuke for
+insubordination. Mr. Elmsley, he pursued to that officer, who, acting
+on a significant half-glance from his friend, was silent also as to his
+approach. “Let a formal report of his absence without leave, be made to
+me immediately after the parade has been dismissed.”
+
+“Nay, sir,” said the ensign, in his ordinary voice and close in the ear
+of the speaker, “not as having been absent from duty, I trust. I am
+not aware that I have ever missed a guard or a parade yet, without your
+leave.”
+
+At the first sound of his voice, the surprised commandant had turned
+quickly round, and there encountered the usual deferential salute of his
+subordinate.
+
+“But, Mr. Ronayne, what means this? Where, sir, have you been? and, if
+not absent, why thus late? Do you know that the men have already been
+paraded, and that when required for your guard, you were not to be
+found?”
+
+“The fatigues of the night, Captain Headley,” returned the young
+officer, with some hesitation of manner; “the incessant watching--surely
+there--”
+
+“I knew he had not been out of the Fort. Courage, Maria! was audible to
+the men who were nearest to the speaker, from Elmsley's doorway.
+
+“I know what you would urge, Mr. Ronayne,” remarked the captain; “you
+would offer this in plea for your late appearance. I make all due
+allowance in the matter; but, let me tell you, sir, that an officer
+who thoroughly understands his duty, and consults the interests of
+the service, would make light of these matters, in cases of strong
+emergency.”
+
+“Poor Ronayne!” sighed Maria, to her friend. “This is terrible to his
+proud spirit. In presence of the whole of the men, too!”
+
+“I told you, my dear, there would be a row, but never fear--Elmsley
+be there. See, he is looking significantly at us, as if to call our
+attention to what is passing.”
+
+The lieutenant had been no less astonished than the captain, at the
+unexpected appearance of Ronayne--even more so, indeed--because he had
+observed, without, however, remarking on it, the cool and unhastened
+pace at which he moved along the square, from the direction of the
+mess-room. “Now it is coming,” he thought, and half-murmured to himself,
+as he saw the crimson gathering on his brow, during the last harsh
+address of his superior.
+
+“Captain Headley,” said the young man, drawing himself up to his full
+height, and somewhat elevating his voice, for he had remarked there were
+other and dearer eyes upon him, than those immediately around. “I WILL
+NOT be spoken to in this manner, before the men. If you think I have
+been guilty of a breach of duty or of discipline, I am prepared to meet
+your charges before the proper tribunal, but you shall not take the
+liberty of thus addressing me in public parade. My sword, sir,” and he
+unbuckled it, and offered the handle, “is at, your disposal, but I deny
+your further right.”
+
+“No, no, no!” shouted several men from the ranks
+
+“No, no, no!” repeated almost every man of the fishing-party, in even
+more energetic tones, while the commanding officer was glancing his eye
+keenly and rapidly along the little line, to detect those who had set
+the example of insubordination.
+
+“Ugh! wah! good soger!” came from one of a small party of Indians in the
+rear, as the disconcerted captain turned, frowningly, from the men in
+front to those who had followed him from the orderly room, and now stood
+grouped on the inner flank.
+
+“What is the meaning of all this?” he cried, in a loud and angry voice.
+
+“Am I braved in my own command, and by my own men? Mr. Elmsley, who are
+these Indians, and how came they in?”
+
+“They are a part of the encampment without, sir. There was no order
+given against their admission this morning, besides it is Winnebeg, and
+you have said that the gates of the Fort was to be open to him at all
+hours.”
+
+“Ah! Winnebeg, my friend, how do you do. I did not know it was you or
+your people. You know you are always welcome.”
+
+“How do, gubbernor,” answered the chief, coming round from the rear of
+the line, and taking the proffered hand--“'Spose not very angry now--him
+good warrior--him good soger,” and he pointed to the young subaltern.
+
+“Ensign Ronayne is, no doubt, very sensible to your good opinion,”
+ remarked the captain, with evident pique; “but, Winnebeg, as I am sure
+you never allow a white man to interfere with you, when you find fault
+with your young chiefs, you must let me do the same.”
+
+“What find him fault for?” asked the chief, with some surprise; “brave
+like a devil!”
+
+“Captain Headley,” interposed the ensign, with some impatience, “am I to
+surrender my sword, or resume my duty?”
+
+But the captain either could not, or would not give a direct answer.
+“Can you give me a good reason, Mr. Ronayne, why I should not receive
+your sword? Do you deny that you have been guilty of neglect of duty?”
+
+“In what?” was the brief demand.
+
+“In being absent from the Fort, without leave, sir.”
+
+“Indeed! To substantiate that, you must bring proofs, Captain Headley.
+Who,” and he looked around him, as if challenging his accuser, “pretends
+to have seen me beyond these defences?”
+
+The commandant was for some moments at a loss, for he had not
+anticipated this difficulty. At length he resumed. “Was it not to be
+absent without leave, that, when the guard was all ready to be marched
+off, you were not to be found?”
+
+“Had the guard been marched off, or the parade even formed, I should of
+course, have come justly under your censure, Captain Headley; but it was
+not so--you ordered the parade and guard-mounting for a later hour. I am
+here at that hour.”
+
+“Hem!” returned the commandant, who was in some degree obliged to admit
+the justice of the remark; “you defend yourself more in the spirit of a
+lawyer, than of a soldier, Mr. Ronayne, but all this difficulty is soon
+set at rest. I require but your simple denial that you have been absent
+from the Fort, within the last twenty-four hours. That given, I shall be
+satisfied.”
+
+“And that, sir,” was the firm reply of the youth, “I am not disposed to
+give. I am not much versed in military prudence, Captain Headley,” he
+pursued, after a few moments' pause, and in a tone of slight irony,
+which that officer did not seem to perceive, “but at least sufficient to
+induce me to reserve what I have to say for my defence. You have charged
+me, sir, with having been absent from the Fort without leave; and it is
+for you to prove that fact before a competent authority.”
+
+“March off your guard, Mr. Ronayne,” was the abrupt rejoinder of the
+commandant, for he liked not the continuation of a scene in which the
+advantage seemed not to rest with him, but with the very party whom he
+had sought to chasten; “Mr. Elmsley dismiss the parade. I had intended
+promoting on the spot, Corporal Nixon and private Collins for their
+conduct yesterday, but the gross insubordination I have just seen, has
+caused me to change my mind. Neither shall have the rank intended, until
+the guilty parties are named. I give until the hour of parade to-morrow
+for their production, and if, by that time, their names are not laid
+before me, no such promotion shall take place while I command the
+garrison. Dismiss the men, sir. Here, Winnebeg, my good fellow, you have
+come at a good moment. I have dispatches to send to Detroit this very
+evening, and I know no one I can trust so well as yourself.”
+
+“Good,” was the answer, “Winnebeg always ready to do him order--no angry
+more, gubbernor, with young chief,” pointing to the ensign, as he moved
+off with his small guard. “Dam good soger--you see dis?” and he touched
+his scalping-knife with his left hand, and looked very significantly.
+
+“No, Winnebeg, not angry any more,” was the reply; “but how do you know
+him to be good soger? What has your scalping-knife to do with it?”
+
+“Winnebeg know all,” said the chief gravely, as he laid his heavy hand
+upon the shoulder of the commandant, “but can't tell. Young chief say
+no, and Winnebeg love young chief.”
+
+This remark forcibly struck Captain Headley, and brought back to his
+mind, certain recollections. He, however, asked no further question, but
+pointed, as they moved in the direction of his own apartments, towards
+the sun, showing by his gesture that it was not too early to take the
+mid-day dram.
+
+“Where the devil have you been, man, and with what confounded impudence
+you got through the scrape,” was remarked at a distant part of the same
+ground, and at the same moment with the conversation just given.
+
+“How is Maria?” eagerly asked Ronayne. “When shall I see her?”
+
+“Well enough to hear all that passed between you and Military Prudence,”
+ returned his friend; “but that is no answer to my question.”
+
+“There was nothing like braving it,” answered the other evasively; “but
+I say, Elmsley, I am devilish hungry, that breakfast you invited me to
+last night is over long ago, of course.” This last sentence was uttered
+in a mock piteous tone.
+
+“Just what I was going to speak about, my dear boy. We have had number
+ONE, but before half an hour, we shall be seated at number TWO. When
+your sergeant has relieved his sentries, come over and you will find a
+piping hot breakfast.”
+
+“Will it be quite consistent with military prudence to leave my guard
+so soon, after the lecture I have had?” remarked the ensign, with a
+smile--“but, ah! I had nearly forgotten. Elmsley, I must say a few words
+to you before I go in, and a better opportunity cannot be afforded than
+while we are walking from this to your place. Just go then, and order
+the breakfast as you propose, and return here. I shall have completed
+the arrangements of the guard by that time, and all that I have to ask
+of you, can be answered as we go along.”
+
+“I hope it is no great secret you have to impart,” returned the
+lieutenant, “for I am a sad hand at the mysterious, and shall be sure to
+tell my wife, if I do not tell Maria.”
+
+“Not you--you will tell neither, but au revoir.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+At the moment when Ensign Ronayne removed his sword, with the intention
+of handing it to his commanding officer, in anticipation of the arrest
+which he expected, Maria Heywood, little conversant with those military
+formalities, and apprehending from the previous high tone of her lover,
+that something fearful was about to occur, had not absolutely fainted,
+but become so agitated, that Mrs. Elmsley was induced to take her back
+to the sofa, on which she had previously been reclining. As she was
+leaving her chair, Mrs. Headley, whose attention had also been arrested
+by the loud and angry voice of her husband, came from her own door
+and joined the little group, anxiously inquiring the cause of the
+disturbance without.
+
+In a few brief sentences, and as correctly as she was able, Mrs. Elmsley
+explained to her the circumstances, and although her attentive auditor
+offered no very pointed remark, it was evident from her manner that
+she deeply deplored that strict military punctilio, which had led the
+husband whom she both loved and esteemed, to place himself in a false
+position with his own force--for that it was a false position in some
+degree, to provoke insubordination, and yet be without the power to
+punish it, she had too much good sense not to perceive. She felt the
+more annoyed, because she had on more than one occasion, observed that
+there was not that unanimity between her husband and Lieutenant Elmsley,
+which she conceived ought to exist between parties so circumstanced--a
+commander of a remote post, and his second in command, on whose mutual
+good understanding, not only the personal security of all might depend,
+but the existence of those social relations, without which, their
+isolated position involved all the unpleasantness of a voluntary
+banishment. This had ever been to her a source of regret, and she had on
+several occasions, although in the most delicate and unobtrusive manner,
+hinted at the fact; but the man who doated upon her, and to whom, in all
+other respects, her desire was law, evinced so much inflexibility in all
+that appertained to military etiquette, that she had never ventured
+to carry her allusions beyond the light commentary induced by casual
+reference to the subject.
+
+If then she lamented that unfortunate coolness, if not absolute
+estrangement, which existed between Lieutenant Elmsley and her husband,
+bow much more acutely did she feel the difficulty of the position now,
+when the only other responsible officer of the garrison--and that a
+young man of high feeling and accomplishment, whom she had ever liked
+and admired--was fast being led into the same antagonism. Nay, what
+rendered the matter more painful to her, was the fact of the latter
+being the lover, or perhaps the affianced of a girl, whom she regarded
+with a fervor not often felt by one woman for another, and for whose
+interests she could have made every sacrifice, not affecting those of
+her husband.
+
+Such were the women who were now seated on the ottoman, engaged more
+in their own reflections, than in conversation, when Lieutenant Elmsley
+entered the room, announcing that the truant would shortly be in for
+breakfast, which, he requested, might be instantly prepared in the usual
+manner, only adding thereto a couple of bottles of claret.
+
+“Ah! pardon me, Mrs. Headley,” he added, somewhat stiffly, as his wife
+left the room to issue the necessary orders, “I did not see you, or I
+should have been rather more ceremonious in my domestic communications.”
+
+Mrs. Headley slightly colored. She was sensible that pique towards her
+husband, and a belief that she wholly shared his sentiments, had induced
+this rather sarcastic speech.
+
+“By no means, Mr. Elmsley. I trust you will not put ME down as a
+stranger, whatever your disposition to others.”
+
+There was a significance in the manner in which this was said, that
+deeply touched the lieutenant, and his tone immediately changed.
+
+“Then, I take you at your word,” he said. “It is a long time since I
+have had the pleasure of seeing you here, and you must positively join
+our second breakfast. I know Captain Headley is engaged with Winnebeg,
+whom he purposes sending off this evening with despatches, so that you
+will not be missed for at least an hour. There, look at Miss Heywood's
+imploring look--she pleads with her eyes in my favor, although there is
+no chance, it appears, of getting a word from her lips.”
+
+“Nay,” remarked the other, who had rallied from her late despondency,
+on hearing the object of the breakfast; “you are very unreasonable, Mr.
+Elmsley. You do not deserve that I should speak to you to-day, and I am
+not quite sure that I shall.”
+
+“And pray, fair lady, why not? Wherein have I had the misfortune to
+offend?”
+
+“Ah! do you forget? You promised to bring me a certain report of certain
+occurrences, and yet instead of that, not a word have you condescended
+to address to me until this moment.”
+
+“I plead guilty,” he answered deprecatingly, “but pray for a suspension
+of sentence, until the return of one through whose influence I hope to
+obtain your pardon! I go now,” he whispered, “to lead him to your feet.”
+
+“Well, what is the great question you have to put to me?” said the
+lieutenant to his friend, whom he had rejoined, and with whom he now
+returned slowly towards the house--“one involving a case of life and
+death it might be imagined, from the long face you put on when alluding
+to the matter.”
+
+“Nay, not exactly that, but still involving a good deal. Tell me
+frankly, Elmsley, has Miss Heywood heard any further account of the
+events at the farm-house?”
+
+“She has heard the report brought in by Nixon and the rest of the
+fishing-party.”
+
+“And what was that, I pray you?” eagerly returned the ensign.
+
+“That Mr. Heywood had been carried off by the Indians.”
+
+“From whom did she hear it?”
+
+“It was I who told her, on the strength of what the corporal reported,
+not only to myself, but to Captain Headley.”
+
+“You are a considerate fellow, Elmsley,” said his friend, warmly
+pressing his hand. “I thank you for that, and now that the great
+question, as you term it, is answered, I am quite ready for the promised
+breakfast. Did these fellows bring home any fish? I have a great fancy
+for fish this morning.”
+
+“No; they brought home dead men,” and the lieutenant looked searchingly
+into the face of his companion, dwelling on every word, moreover, as if
+he would convey that he (Ronayne), knew perfectly well what freight the
+boat had brought to the Fort.
+
+Further remark was prevented by their arrival at their destination--the
+front-door being open, and revealing the little party within. The first
+upon, whom the young officer's eye fell, was Mrs. Headley, of whose
+intended presence, his friend had not thought of apprising him. Still
+smarting under a keen sense of the severity of reproof of his commanding
+officer, and falling into the common error of involving the wife in the
+unamiability of the husband, Ronayne would have retired, even at the
+risk of losing his breakfast, and, what was of far more moment to him,
+of delaying his meeting with her to whom his every thought was devoted.
+But when Mrs. Headley, who had remarked the movement, came forward to
+the door, and gave him her hand with all the warmth and candor of her
+noble nature, the pique vanished from his mind, and in an instant,
+he, like Elmsley, evinced that devotion and regard for her, which her
+fascinating manner could not fail to inspire.
+
+The sense of constraint being thus banished by the only one whose
+presence had occasioned it, the party, after a few minutes low
+conversation between the lovers, sat down gaily to a meal--half-break
+fast, half-luncheon, at which the most conspicuous actor was the lately
+reprimanded ensign.
+
+“Really, Mr. Ronayne, you must have met with a perfect chapter of
+adventures during your absence last night. You have devoured the last
+four fresh eggs, my cook says, there were in the house--three limbs of a
+prairie fowl, and nearly the half of a young bear ham. Do, pray, tell
+us where you have been to gain such an appetite? Indeed you must--I am
+dying to know.”
+
+“My dear Mrs. Elmsley,” he replied, coloring, “where should I have been
+but in the Fort?”
+
+“True! where SHOULD you have been, indeed; but this is not the point,
+my hungry gentleman. Where WERE you? If I was, I KNOW WHO,” she added,
+significantly, “I should have my suspicions, unless, indeed, you have
+already confessed within the few minutes you have been in the room.”
+
+“Nay, do not imagine I have so much influence over the truant, as to
+compel him to the confessional,” said Maria Heywood. “I assure you I am
+quite as much in the dark as any one present.”
+
+“Come, Mr. Ronayne, recount your adventures,” added Mrs. Headley.
+“Recollect you are not on parade now, or exactly before the sternest
+Court of Inquiry in the world, and should therefore, entertain no dread
+of punishment on your self-conviction.”
+
+“Thus urged and encouraged,” said the ensign, during one of the short
+pauses of his knife and fork, which, in truth, he had handled as much
+to study what he should say, as to satisfy his hunger; “who could resist
+such pleading, were there really any thing to communicate; but I am
+quite at a loss to conceive why so general an opinion seems to prevail
+that I have been out of the Fort, and in quest of adventure. Why not
+rather ascribe my tardiness at parade to some less flattering cause--a
+head-ache--fatigue from night-watching--indolence, or even a little
+entetement, arising from the denial of a very imprudent request I made
+to Captain Headley last evening, to allow me the command of a detachment
+for a particular purpose. Pardon me, I have made quite a speech, but
+indeed you compel me.”
+
+“Let us drown this inquisition in a bumper of claret,” interposed
+Elmsley, coming to the assistance of his friend, whose motive for thus
+parrying inquiry into his conduct, he thought he could divine. “I say,
+my dear fellow, you may wish yourself a head-ache--fatigue--indolence,
+or even a little entetement every morning of your life, if it is to be
+cured in this manner. This is some of the most splendid Lafayette that
+ever found its way into these western wilds. Look well at it. It is of
+the clearest, the purest blood of the grape--taste it again. A bottle of
+it will do you no harm if you had twenty guards in charge.”
+
+As he had desired and expected, the introduction of his remarks on
+the wine proved not only a means of changing the conversation, but of
+causing the ladies to withdraw from the table, round which they had been
+sitting, rather to keep the young officer company, than to participate
+in the repast themselves. Mrs. Headley was the first to move.
+
+“Give me your arm, and see me home,” she said carelessly, to Ronayne,
+who now having finished his breakfast, had also risen. “Do not be
+jealous, my dear Miss Heywood, but you will later know, if you do
+not know already, that the wife of the commanding officer always
+appropriates to herself, the handsomest unmarried young officer of the
+regiment.”
+
+Both Ronayne and his betrothed were too quick of apprehension not to
+perceive, under this light gaiety, a deep interest, and a desire to
+convey to them both, that, if unhappily, there did not exist a cordial
+understanding between her husband and the former, in matters purely
+military, and in relation to subjects which should have no influence
+over private life, she was by no means, a party to the disunion.
+
+“Not very difficult to choose between the handsomest and the cleverest
+of the unmarried officers of the garrison of Chicago,” replied Maria
+Heywood with an effort at cheerfulness; “therefore, Mr. Ronayne, I
+advise you not to be too much elated by Mrs. Headley's compliment. After
+that caution, I think you may be trusted with her.”
+
+“What a noble creature, and what a pity she has so cold and pompous a
+husband,” remarked Lieutenant Elmsley, as Mrs. Headley disappeared from
+the door-way. “I never knew her so well as this morning, and upon my
+word, Margaret, were both HE and YOU out of the way, I should be greatly
+tempted to fall in love with her.”
+
+“You would act wisely if you did, George; I have always thought most
+highly of her. She is, it is true, a little reserved in manner, but that
+I am sure comes wholly from a certain restraint, imposed upon her by
+her husband's formality of character. I say I am sure of this, for there
+have been occasions when I have seen her exhibit a warmth of address, as
+different from her general demeanor, as light is from shadow.”
+
+“Perhaps Headley has systematically drilled her into the particular
+bearing that ought to be assumed by the wife of the commandant of a
+garrison.”
+
+“Nay, George! that is not generous, but I know you are not serious in
+what you say. You judge Mrs. Headley better, and that she is not a
+woman to be so drilled. She has too much good sense, despite all
+her partiality for her husband, to allow herself to be improperly
+influenced, where her judgment condemns; and although, as his wife, she
+must necessarily act in concert with him, it by no means follows that
+she approves unreservedly, all that he does.”
+
+“You are a dear, noble creature yourself!” exclaimed the gratified
+Elmsley, as he fondly embraced his wife. “There is nothing I love so
+much as to see one woman warm in the defence of another--one so seldom
+meets with that sort of thing. What, Maria, tears?”
+
+“Yes--tears of pleasure!” she answered earnestly, as she held her
+handkerchief to her eyes--“tears of joy to see so much generosity of
+feeling among those whom I have so much reason to esteem and admire. You
+are right,” she pursued, addressing Mrs. Elmsley, “she is indeed a noble
+woman. Perhaps I may justly be accused of a little partiality, for I
+never can forget the frank and cordial proffers of friendship with which
+she received me on the first night of my appearance here.”
+
+“Ha! Von Vottenberg to the rescue!” exclaimed Elmsley, with sudden
+animation, as the stout figure of the former shaded the door-way. “Well,
+doctor, have you passed away in the evaporation produced by fright, the
+violent head-ache you were suffering from this morning? If not, try that
+claret. It is capital stuff, and a tumbler of it will make up for the
+breakfast you have lost.”
+
+“Faith, and there is no breakfast lost, that I can perceive,” chuckled
+the doctor, seating himself unceremoniously at the table, and commencing
+upon the remains of the bear ham, and prairie hen.
+
+“I fear the tea and coffee are cold,” said Mrs. Elmsley; “let me get
+some hot for you?”
+
+“By no means, my dear Mrs. Elmsley, I could not think of such slops with
+generous claret at my elbow. Nay, do not look offended. Your tea and
+coffee are always of the best, but they do not just now, suit my taste.
+Miss Heywood, how do you do this morning? How is your gentle mother?
+I have called expressly to see her. Elmsley, where is that runaway,
+Ronayne?”
+
+And where indeed was he? They had not walked more than three or four
+paces, when Mrs. Headley, after some little hesitation, addressed him
+thus:--
+
+“Mr. Ronayne, notwithstanding your evident desire to conceal the fact,
+I can plainly see that you were not within the Fort last night. I can
+fully comprehend that your motive for absenting yourself, has been
+praiseworthy, but you must also admit that the reproof you met with this
+morning, was not altogether undeserved. Pray do not start or look grave,
+for, believe me, I am speaking to you only as a friend--indeed it was to
+have the opportunity of convincing you that I am such, that I asked you
+to escort me.”
+
+“Really, Mrs. Headley,” interrupted the young officer, little divining
+to what all this was to tend, and feeling not altogether at his ease,
+from the abruptness with which the subject had been introduced, “I feel
+as I ought, the interest you profess to take in me, but how is that
+connected either with my asserted absence, or the reproof it entailed?”
+
+“It is so far connected with it, that I wish to point out the means by
+which any unpleasant result may be avoided!”
+
+“Unpleasant result! Mrs. Headley?”
+
+“Yes, unpleasant result, for I have too good an opinion of you not
+to believe that any thing tending to destroy the harmony of our very
+limited society, would be considered such by you.”
+
+“I am all attention, Madam. Pray, proceed.”
+
+“The pithiness of your manner does not afford me much encouragement yet
+I will not be diverted from my purpose, even by that. You have had the
+Commandant's lecture,” she continued, with an attempt at pleasantry,
+“and now you must prepare yourself for (pardon the coinage of the term)
+that of the Commandantess.”
+
+“The plot thickens,” said the ensign, somewhat sharply--“both the
+husband and the wife. Jupiter Tonans and Juno the Superb in judgment
+upon poor me in succession. Ah! that is too bad. But seriously, Mrs.
+Headley, I shall receive with all due humility, whatever castigation you
+may choose to inflict.”
+
+“No castigation I assure you, Ronayne, but wholesome advice from one,
+who, recollect, is nearly old enough to be your mother. However, you
+shall hear and then decide for yourself.”
+
+“Although,” she pursued, after a short pause, “we women are supposed to
+know nothing of those matters, it would be difficult, in a small place
+like this, to be ignorant of what is going on. Hence it is that I have
+long since remarked, with pain and sorrow, the little animosity which
+exists between Headley and yourself--(I will not introduce Mr. Elmsley's
+name, because what I have to say has no immediate reference to him), and
+the almost daily widening breach. Now, Ronayne, I would appeal to your
+reason. Place yourself for a moment in my husband's position. Consider
+his years, nearly double your own--his great responsibility and the
+peculiar school of discipline in which he has been brought up. Place
+yourself, I repeat, in his position, and decide what would be your
+sentiments if, in the conscientious discharge of your duty, you thought
+yourself thwarted by those very men--much your juniors both in years and
+military experience--on whose co-operation you had every fair reason to
+rely.”
+
+“You have, my dear Mrs. Headley, put the case forcibly yet simply.”
+ returned the ensign, who had listened with marked deference to the whole
+of her remonstrance. “In such a case I should feel no slight annoyance,
+but why imagine that I have sought to thwart Captain Headley?”
+
+“Was it not apparently to thwart him--bear in mind I speak to you
+dispassionately and as a friend--to refuse in the presence of the whole
+garrison this morning to account for your absence of last night, which
+might have been easily explained, had you been so disposed?”
+
+“But, my dear Mrs. Headley, why is it persisted in, that I was
+absent--and even if such were the case, might not I have had a good
+reason for refusing to commit myself by the avowal.”
+
+“Admitting this, could you have maintained your position without, in a
+measure, setting his authority at defiance--thus encouraging the men to
+do the same. Was this right, I ask? Was this officer-like?”
+
+“Well, no, perhaps not. I blush not to make the admission to YOU, for
+indeed, there is no resisting so bewitching a master in petticoats. Yet,
+what would you have me do?”
+
+“Ah, now, I begin to entertain some hope of you,” she replied, in a
+gayer tone, placing her hand at the same time familiarly on his shoulder
+and looking approvingly in his face. “Ronayne, you are engaged--perhaps
+will shortly become the husband of the noble girl, whom I love even as
+though she were my own daughter--yes,” she repeated energetically, as
+she felt his grateful pressure of her hand, “even as though she were
+my own daughter--nay, you know I like yourself for your open, although
+rather too impetuous character. Do you then think that feeling this it
+can be any other than a source of deep pain and vexation to me, to see
+those in whom I feel so much interest, alienated from each other--in
+some degree even mutually hating and hated?”
+
+“Yet, what would you have me to do, my dear Mrs. Headley? Some
+concession I suppose, must be made. Any thing in honor and in reason
+will I do for your sake,” returned the young officer, deeply touched by
+her manner and language.
+
+“This I wish you to do, Ronayne. Take the first favorable opportunity,
+either while on guard to-day, or when relieved to-morrow, to see Headley
+privately, and by such language as you well know how to use, remove
+the unfavorable impression you have left on his mind--depend upon
+it, although extremely cold and inflexible when apparently braved, my
+husband has a warm and generous--aye, a noble heart, and will freely
+grant what is frankly solicited. Bear in mind, moreover, Ronayne, that
+it is no humiliation to admit error when conscious of having committed
+it; and if this be so in the social relations of life, how much less
+derogatory is it in a military sense.”
+
+“Say no more, dearest Mrs. Headley, since it is your wish, I will go, no
+matter what the reception I encounter; and any further rebuke I may meet
+with, I will cheerfully endure for your sake.”
+
+“Now then, Ronayne, you are once more yourself, the generous,
+high-minded boy, in whom I delighted, even as a mother would delight
+in her son, when you first arrived here about three years ago. Yet,
+recollect that not only _I_ shall be gratified and benefitted by this,
+but YOU and YOURS. Let but this unhappy discord terminate, and we shall
+then be what soldiers and those connected with them, ought ever to
+be--one undivided family. And now, for the present, farewell.”
+
+“God bless you!” fervently exclaimed the ensign, as he took his leave
+of the graceful and noble wife of the commanding officer, with emotions
+that fully testified the effect produced upon him by her generous
+confidence and candor.
+
+From the frequent reference made by Mrs. Headley to her own riper years,
+one might have been induced to consider her rather in the decline of
+life; but such was not the case. Her splendid and matronly figure might
+indeed have impressed the superficial observer with the belief that she
+had numbered more than forty summers, but the unchained and luxuriant
+hair--the white, even and perfect teeth--the rich, full lip, and
+unwrinkled brow, and smooth and brilliant cheek, would not have
+permitted the woman most jealous of her charms, could such have been
+found, to pronounce her more than six-and-thirty, which was, indeed, her
+age. It was a source of gratification to her to consider and represent
+herself as older than she really was; and if she had any peculiarity--a
+weakness it could not be called--it was that of loving to look upon
+those younger persons who claimed a place in her friendship and esteem,
+as though she actually stood in the maternal relation to them. This
+may have, in some degree, arisen from the fact of her having ever been
+childless herself.
+
+As Ronayne approached Elmsley's house on his return, a remarkably
+handsome and noble-looking Indian--quite a youth--was leaning against
+the frame of the door, and according to the simple habit of his race,
+indulging his curiosity by looking at, and admiring all that he beheld
+within. Elmsley himself had gone out, but Von Vottenberg, still seated
+at the breakfast-table, was discussing, with its remains, the now nearly
+finished claret, while Mrs. Elmsley and Maria Heywood were seated on
+the sofa opposite to the door, passing their whispered remarks on the
+Indian, whose softened dark glances occasionally fell with intense
+admiration on the former, when he fancied the act unseen, but as
+instantly were withdrawn, when he perceived that it was observed.
+
+Mrs. Elmsley was endeavoring to dissipate the dejection of her friend
+by rallying her, as the young officer came to the door, on the evidently
+new conquest she had made. The Indian turned to look at the intruder
+upon his pleasant musings, when a “wah!” expressive of deep satisfaction
+escaped him, and at the same moment, Ronayne grasped, and cordially
+shook his hand.
+
+“Ha! there is his formidable rival, and seemingly his friend,” whispered
+Mrs. Elmsley, in the ear of Maria--“handsome fellows, both of them, so
+much so, that were I single, like you, I should have some difficulty in
+choosing between them.”
+
+As she uttered these words, a sharp and unaccountable pang, sudden and
+fleeting as electricity, shot through the frame of her friend. The blood
+suddenly receded from her cheek, and then rapidly returning, suffused it
+with a burning heat.
+
+“What is the matter, my love? Are you ill, you looked so pale just now?”
+ tenderly inquired Mrs. Elmsley.
+
+“I cannot account for what I experienced. It was a feeling different
+from any I had ever known before--a strange, wild, and inexplicable
+dread of I know not what. But it has passed away. Take no notice of it,
+dear, before Ronayne.”
+
+“Mrs. Elmsley,” said the latter, almost using force to induce the
+modest-looking young Indian to enter the room, “will you allow me first
+to introduce my friend Waunangee to you, and then to give him a glass
+of claret? Forgive the liberty I take, but I confess a good deal of
+obligation to him, and would fain do the civil in return.”
+
+“Indeed! what a set speech for a glass of wine. Give it to him by all
+means, if it is only for his beautiful eyes--that is to say, if the
+doctor has left any--or stay, I will get another bottle.”
+
+“By no means,” returned the young officer, “this unconscionable man has
+just left about half a tumbler foil, and I do not intend he shall have
+more. Waunangee,” he pursued, after filling and presenting him with the
+glass, “that is the lady of the house,” pointing to Mrs. Elmsley, “you
+must drink to her health.”
+
+“And dis you handsome squaw,” remarked the Indian, a moment or two after
+having tossed off the wine, which quickly circulated through his veins.
+“Dis you wife!” he repeated, throwing his expressive eyes upon Miss
+Heywood, while a rich glow lighted up his dark, but finely formed
+features.
+
+“Hush!” said Ronayne, making a sign to intimate that he was not to
+indulge in such observations.
+
+But even the small quantity of wine he had taken was acting potently on
+the fast animating Indian. “Dis no you squaw--dis Waunangee squaw,” he
+said, with strong excitement of manner. “Waunangee, see him beautiful,
+Waunangee got warm heart--love him very much!”
+
+“Tolerably well for a modest youth!” exclaimed the laughing Mrs.
+Elmsley. “Who would have thought that one with those soft black eyes,
+more fitted for a woman than a man, would hazard so glowing a speech,
+after an acquaintance of barely five minutes?”
+
+“Who says Chicago doesn't abound in adventure?” sneered Von Vottenberg,
+as he arose and passed into the apartment of his patient. “I shall
+certainly write a book about this when I get back into the civilized
+world, and entitle it 'The Loves of the Handsome Waunangee, and the
+Beautiful American.'”
+
+“You had better write 'The Loves of the Fat Von Vottenberg, and his
+Mistress, Whisky Punch,'” remarked Ronayne, peevishly, for in spite of
+himself, he felt annoyed at an observation, which he thought delicacy
+might have spared. “Come, Waunangee, my good friend, we must go.”
+
+But the young Indian was not so easily led. “Waunangee have him first
+dis nice squaw,” he said, with all that show of dogged obstinacy which
+so usually distinguishes his race, when under the influence of liquor,
+and bent upon the attainment of a particular object.
+
+“Hear me, Waunangee,” replied the other, placing his hand upon
+his shoulder, and now, that Mrs. Elmsley only was present with his
+affianced, feeling less scruple in explaining to the young savage--“that
+is my squaw--my wife.”
+
+“Why you no tell him so?” asked the youth, gravely, and with an air of
+reproach, while, at the same time, he fixed his soft and melancholy eyes
+upon Miss Heywood. “Waunangee love officer's squaw--but Waunangee good
+heart. Shake him hand, my friend,” he continued, walking up to her, and
+tendering his own, while, singular as it seemed to all, a tear dimmed
+his eye, and stole down his cheek. “'Spose no Waunangee wife--you
+Waunangee's friend?”
+
+The generous but trembling girl, shook cordially the hand that rested
+in her own, and assured the youth, in a way easily intelligible to
+him, that, as the friend of her husband, and she blushed deeply, as the
+moment afterwards she became sensible she had used a word, she could not
+but feel to be premature, she would always regard him with friendship
+and esteem.
+
+“What a nice little scene we might get up out of this morning's
+adventure,” said the ever gay Mrs. Elmsley, as Waunangee, after having
+shaken hands with herself, departed with Ronayne. “Really, my dear,
+he is a fine looking, and certainly a warm-hearted fellow, that
+Wau--Wan--what's his name, Maria?”
+
+“Waunangee. I know not how it is, Margaret, or why--I should attach so
+much importance to the thing, but if ever those glimpses of the future,
+called presentiments, had foundation in truth, that young Indian is
+destined to exercise some sort of influence over my fate.”
+
+“You do not mean that he is to supplant Ronayne, I hope,” returned her
+friend, trying to laugh her oat of the serious mood, in which she seemed
+so much inclined to indulge.
+
+“How can you speak so, Margaret? No, my presentiment is of a different
+character. But it is very foolish and silly to allow the feeling to
+weigh with me. I will try to think more rationally. Say nothing of this,
+however, and least of all to Ronayne.”
+
+“Not a word, dearest. Good bye for the present. I must look after the
+dinner. You know who dines with us.”
+
+A look expressive of the deep sense she entertained of the consideration
+of her friend, was the only commentary of Miss Heywood, as she passed
+into her mother's apartment.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+It was now the middle of May. A month had elapsed since the events
+detailed in the preceding chapters. The recollection of the outrage at
+Heywood's farm, committed early in April was fast dying away, save
+in the bosoms of those more immediately interested in the fate of its
+proprietor, and apprehensions of a repetition of similar atrocities
+had, in a great measure, ceased. A better understanding between the
+commanding officer and his subordinates--the result of a long private
+interview, which Ensign Ronayne had had with the former, on the morning
+after his promise to Mrs. Headley, followed by an apology on parade
+that day, had arisen. Corporal Nixon was now Sergeant Nixon--Collins had
+succeeded to him, and Le Noir and the boy--Catholic and Protestant--had
+been buried in one grave. Ephraim Giles filled the office of factotum
+to Von Vottenberg, whose love of whisky punch, was, if possible, on the
+increase. Winnebeg, the bearer of confidential despatches, announcing
+the hostile disposition and acts of certain of the Winnebagoes, had not
+returned, and Waunangee, who, recovered from the fumes of the claret,
+had, in an earnest manner, expressed to Ronayne contrition for
+the liberty he had taken with Miss Heywood, had departed from the
+neighborhood, no one knew whither. Harmony, in a word, had been some
+days restored in the Fort, and the only thing that detracted from the
+general contentment, was the uncertainty attending the fate of Mr.
+Heywood--regretted less, however, for his own sake, than for that of
+his amiable daughter, who vainly sought to conceal from her friends,
+the anxiety induced by an absence, the duration of which it was utterly
+impossible to divine. As for Mrs. Heywood, she was still in ignorance,
+so well had things been managed by the Elmsleys, that any of the fearful
+scenes had occurred. She still believed her husband to be at the farm.
+
+But, as it was not likely she could much longer remain in ignorance of
+what had been the subject of conversation with every one around her,
+it was advised by Von Vottenberg, that, as the warmth of spring was now
+fully developed, and all dread of the Indians resuming their hostile
+visit, at an end, she should be conveyed back to the cottage, the pure
+air around which, was much more likely to improve her health, than
+the confined atmosphere of the Fort. She had accordingly been removed
+thither early in May, accompanied by her daughter and Catherine.
+
+Ronayne, of course, become once more a daily visitor, and soon beneath
+his hand, the garden began again to assume the beautiful garb it had
+worn at that season, for the last two years. The interviews of the
+lovers here, freed from the restraints imposed upon them while in the
+Fort, had resumed that fervent character which had marked them on the
+afternoon of the day when they so solemnly interchanged their vows of
+undying faith. They now no longer merely looked their love. They spoke
+of it--drank in the sweet avowal from each others lips, and luxuriated
+in the sweet pleasure it imparted. They were as the whole world to each
+other, and although language could not convey a warmer expression of
+their feelings, than had already gone forth from their lips, still was
+the repetition replete with a sweetness that never palled upon the ear.
+Like the man who never tires of gazing upon his gold, so did they
+never tire of the treasures of the expressed love, that daily grew more
+intense in their hearts. And yet, notwithstanding this utter devotedness
+of soul--notwithstanding her flattering heart confessed in secret the
+fullest realization of those dreams which had filled and sustained her
+in early girlhood--albeit the assurance the felt that, in Ronayne, she
+had found the impersonation of the imaginings of her maturer life, still
+whenever he urged her in glowing language to name the day when she would
+become his wife, she evaded an answer, not from caprice, but because she
+would not bring to him a heart clouded by the slightest tinge of that
+anxiety with which ignorance of her father's fate, could not fail to
+shade it. A painful circumstance which happened about that period, at
+length, however, brought affairs to a crisis.
+
+It was a lovely evening towards the close of May, and after a somewhat
+sultry morning which had been devoted to a ride on horseback along the
+lakeshore--Mrs. Headley and Mrs. Elmsley, who had accompanied them,
+having returned home, that Ronayne and his betrothed sat in the little
+summer-house already described. Mrs. Heywood who had been so far
+recovered from her weakness by the change of air, as to take slight
+exercise in the garden, supported by her daughter, and the young
+officer, had on this occasion expressed a wish to join them, in order
+that she might inhale the soft breeze that blew from the south, and
+enjoy once more the scenery of the long reach of the river, which wound
+its serpentine course from the direction of the farm. To this desire no
+other objection was offered, than what was suggested by her companions,
+from an apprehension that the fatigue of the ascent would be too great
+for her. She, however, persisted in her wish, declaring that she felt
+herself quite strong enough--an assertion for which her returning color
+gave some evidence. They ceased to oppose her. It was the first time
+the invalid had been in the summer-house, since the same period the
+preceding spring, and naturally associating the recollection of her
+husband, with the familiar objects in the distance, she took her
+daughter's hand, and said in a low and husky voice, that proved how much
+she had overrated her own strength:
+
+“How is it, Maria, my love, that we have seen nothing of your father,
+lately? I have never known him, since we have been in this part of the
+country, to be so long absent from us at one time.”
+
+“Nay, dear mamma,” returned the pained girl, the tears starting to her
+eyes, in spite of her efforts to restrain them, “I do not exactly know
+what can detain him. Perhaps he is not at the farm,” and here her tears
+forced their way--“you know, dearest mamma, that he is very fond of long
+hunting excursions.”
+
+“Yes, but, my child, why do you weep? Surely there is nothing in that to
+produce such emotion. He will soon be back again.”
+
+“Oh! yes, I hope so. Forgive me, my dear mamma, but I have a very bad
+head-ache, and never felt more nervous than I do this evening. Perhaps
+it is the effect of my ride in the heat of the sun. Shall we go on. It
+is nearly sunset, and I dread your being exposed to the night-air.”
+
+“Oh! it is so delicious,” softly returned the invalid; “I feel as if I
+had not lived for the last twelve months, until now. Only a little
+while longer, shall I not, Mr. Ronayne? Perhaps I may never have an
+opportunity of ascending to this summer-house again.”
+
+During this short conversation, trifling in itself, but conveying, under
+the circumstances, so much subject for deep and painful reflections,
+the young officer had evinced much restlessness of manner, yet without
+interposing any other remark than to join Miss Heywood's entreaties that
+her mother would suffer herself to be conducted home, before the dew
+should begin to fall. In order, moreover, as much as possible to leave
+them uninterrupted in the indulgence of their feelings, he had from the
+first risen, and stood with his back to them, within the entrance of the
+summer house, and was now, with a view to drown their conversation to
+his own ear, whistling to Loup Garou, sitting on his haunches outside
+the garden-gate, looking fixedly at him.
+
+Touched by the account he had received of the fidelity of the dog, he,
+had, with the consent of Sergeant Nixon, who was glad to secure for his
+favorite so kind a protector, become possessed of him from the moment of
+his return home; and time, which had in some degree blunted the sorrow
+of the animal for the loss of one master, rendered equally keen his
+instinct of attachment for the other. Within the month he had been his,
+every care had been taken by Ronayne himself, as well as by his servant,
+to wean the mourner from the grave of Le Noir, on which, for the first
+few days, he had lain, absorbed in grief--refusing all food, until,
+yielding at length to the voice of kindness, his memory of the past
+seemed to have faded wholly away.
+
+Ronayne, however, from a fear of exciting unpleasant recollections
+in those who were not ignorant of the former position of the dog, had
+endeavoured as much as possible, to prevent him from crossing the river
+during his visits to the cottage; but, within the last four or five
+days, Loup Garou would not thus be kept back, and when expelled from the
+boat, had swam across, taking up his station at the gate, beyond which,
+however, he did not presume to pass, as if sensible that the delicate
+parterres within, were interdicted ground, and there generally lay
+squatted with his nose resting on the grass, between his outstretched
+fore-paws, until his master came forth on his return home.
+
+The unexpected and encouraging whistle of the latter on this occasion,
+which had been given in pure unconsciousness, caused him to prick
+his ears, and uttering a sharp cry, he sprang over the gate, bounding
+rapidly towards the eminence on which his master stood. About half-way
+between its base and the summit, there was a beautiful rose-bush which
+had been planted by Ronayne, and from which he had plucked two flowers,
+for the mother and daughter, during the ascent, and presented with
+a hand that was observed by Maria Heywood to tremble, and a cheek
+unwontedly pale.
+
+On arriving opposite the rose-tree, the animal suddenly stopped, and
+putting his nose to the ground close under it, and sniffing almost
+furiously, uttered a prolonged and melancholy howl, while, with his
+fore-paws he began to scratch up the loose earth around, regardless of
+the voice of his master, who renewed his whistling, and called upon him
+almost angrily to desist.
+
+Alarmed at this perseverance of action, the ensign descended to the
+spot--laid hands on Loup Garou, and sought to remove him, but the
+animal, strong of neck--full in the chest--and on the present occasion,
+under the influence of furious impulse, was not to be restrained.
+
+The moaning of the dog--the descent-the corrective voice of his master,
+and the seeming struggle of both to attain opposite purposes, naturally
+attracted the attention of those above, and they both rose and neared
+to the doorway Ronayne had so recently quitted. Their horror may well
+be imagined when, on looking down, they found that the dog had
+already uncovered a human body, which, though disfigured and partially
+decomposed, filial and conjugal affection too clearly distinguished as
+the father of the one, the husband of the other!
+
+Uttering a feeble shriek, Mrs. Heywood fell insensible within the
+threshold of the summer-house, while her daughter, less overwhelmed, but
+with feelings impossible to describe, stooped and chafed her mother's
+temples, and notwithstanding a horrid thought, which, despite her own
+will, shot through her mind, that the man to whom she had given every
+affection of her heart, was in some degree connected with this horrid
+spectacle, she called vehemently to him for assistance.
+
+The situation of the perplexed officer was scarcely less painful. On
+the one hand, feeling all the necessity of retaining his grasp of Loup
+Garou, as the only means of preventing him from further uncovering of
+the body--on the other, urged by the summons of her, whom he knew, from
+her very manner, to be in possession of this fearful secret, his mind
+become a perfect chaos, and large drops of perspiration streamed from
+his brow. In this irritating dilemma, a sudden transport of rage took
+possession of his heart, and seizing Loup Garou with both his hands, he
+so compressed them around his throat, that the dog, already exhausted
+with his exertions, was half-strangled before being raised with a
+frantic effort, and dashed with violence upon the body he had so
+unhappily been instrumental in discovering.
+
+Scarcely had this been done--a low moaning from Loup Garou, as if
+reproaching him for the act, alone denoting that he breathed, when the
+ensign flew up the steps of the summer-house, and regardless of the
+involuntary half-shudder of his betrothed, as he approached, caught the
+insensible invalid in his arms, and so carrying her, that her eyes, if
+she should open them, could not encounter the horrid spectacle below,
+again rapidly descended, and hurried towards the house. Maria Heywood,
+on passing the rose-tree so recently prized, but now so abhorrent to her
+sight, could not resist a strong impulse to look upon the mysteries so
+strangely unveiled, but although the twilight had not yet passed away,
+nothing could be seen but the displaced earth, and stretched over the
+excavation he himself had made, the motionless body of the dog.
+
+Sick at heart, and with wild and unconnected images floating through her
+heated brain, she followed almost mechanically to the cottage.
+
+This was no time for ceremony. When answering the loud ring, Catherine
+appeared hurriedly at the door, Ronayne bore his inanimate charge into
+her bedroom, and in silence and deep grief, sought, by every means in
+his power, to restore her. But all his efforts proving vain, he, in a
+state of mind difficult to describe, tore a leaf from his pocket-book,
+wrote a few hurried lines to Elmsley, requesting him to allow his
+wife to come over immediately with Von Vottenberg, and when they had
+departed, to call upon Captain Headley and explain the cause of his
+absence. This note he gave to Catherine, with instructions to cross in
+the boat which was waiting for himself, and to return with Mrs. Elmsley,
+or if she did not come, with the doctor.
+
+When left together, beside the insensible body of Mrs. Heywood, the
+lovers experienced for the first time, a feeling of restraint, for in
+the hearts of both, were passing thoughts which neither seemed desirous
+of imparting. But, Maria Heywood, gentle as she was, was not of a
+character long to endure the state of uncertainty under which she
+labored. The strange wild apprehensions which had arisen, she knew
+not how or why, had so preyed upon her quiet, that suspense became
+intolerable, and at length, addressing her lover in a voice, never more
+melancholy or touching than at that moment, and looking at him with
+an expression of deep sadness, while the large tears trickled down her
+cheeks.
+
+“Ronayne, you know--you must have known--your whole conduct throughout
+this affair, proves you must have known of my poor father's death, and
+of his rude--almost insulting burial in that fatal spot. How he came
+hither, you best can tell. Oh! Harry, it is very cruel thus to have
+reposed the confidence of the entire soul, and then to have been
+disappointed. This cruel discovery will be the means of destroying my
+peace forever, unless you give the explanation which alone can restore
+our confidence in each other--yet how can I, with these glaring truths
+before my eyes, expect that you will?”
+
+“Insulting burial! oh, Maria, I feel that I never loved you more than
+now when you would break my heart with this unkindness.” He bent his
+head upon the same pillow, upon which reclined the unconscious head of
+the mother of the woman whom he so ardently loved, and wept tears of
+bitterness and sorrow.
+
+“I cannot stand this, Ronayne, dear Ronayne, whatever you be--whatever
+you may have done, I love you with all the ardor of the most devoted
+soul! But,” she continued, more composedly, “forgive me, if my feelings
+and my judgment are at issue. One question I must ask, cost what it may,
+for I cannot longer endure this agony of suspense--no, for your sake
+I cannot endure it. How is it that you have always made a secret--a
+mystery even to me, of the motive of your absence on that fatal night
+succeeding the massacre at the firm.”
+
+“Dear Maria. I can well forgive the question in the excitement which
+must have been produced in you by the startling events of this evening.”
+
+“Ronayne,” she mournfully interrupted--“your sudden interference with
+the dog--your struggle with him--nay, your very manner of speaking now,
+convince me that you knew my father lay buried beneath that rose-tree.
+In candor, answer me. Yes or no.”
+
+“And, admitting I had had that knowledge, Maria--can you imagine no good
+reason for my forbearing all allusion to the subject?”
+
+“Yet, why conceal the fact from one who had supposed you could have
+no concealment from her--and then again, how am I to reconcile the
+circumstance of my poor father having been reported to be a prisoner--a
+report which, sanctioned by yourself, left me not utterly hopeless--and
+the fact of his burial here--evidently with your knowledge.”
+
+“Maria,” returned Ronayne, impressively, and with an expression of much
+pain at the remark, “as I have already said, I can make every allowance,
+in recollection of the painful scene of which I have, in some degree,
+been the cause, but is it generous--is it quite appreciating my
+character and my feelings towards yourself, to doubt that I had intended
+from the first, and at a fitting moment, to explain every thing to you?”
+
+Again was the confidence of the generous girl established, and with
+almost passionate warmth, she exclaimed. “Oh! Ronayne, forgive--forgive
+me, but this melancholy--this harrowing occurrence has made me so far
+not myself--that I almost hate myself. Tell me, dear Ronayne, do you
+forgive me?”
+
+“Yes, from the bottom of my soul, do I forgive you, and yet, dearest,
+there is nothing to forgive, for how could it be otherwise, than that
+your poor and sorely tried heart should be subjected to wild imaginings
+inexplicable to yourself. The ordeal to which you have been submitted,
+is a severe one, but I am sure your oppressed heart will be greatly
+lightened when you shall have been in possession of the truth connected
+with this most melancholy affair--your regard for me, will if possible,
+be even greater than before. Pardon this seeming vanity. I make the
+assertion because I know it will not a little console you, under this
+terrible infliction.”
+
+It was a strange sight, that of these lovers, hitherto so devoted and
+now only temporarily half-doubting, talking of the fate of one parent
+while leaning over the apparent death-bed of the other.
+
+“Ronayne, dear Ronayne, I am satisfied--fully, wholly satisfied, and
+as you observe, the assurance which you have now given me, will form my
+chief support under this double affliction,” and she pointed, weeping,
+to her mother, whose scarcely perceptible breathing alone attested that
+she lived.
+
+“Maria,” he said tenderly and gravely, as he took her hand in his, over
+the invalid--“the hour of your promise is come--the fate of your father
+is known--would that it had been less abruptly revealed--and were other
+inducement to keep it wanting, is it not to be found here? But at this
+moment I will ask nothing which you may feel reluctance in granting.
+To-morrow we will speak of this again--to-morrow you shall know how much
+I have sought--how much I have risked--to soften the pang which I knew
+would, soon or late be inflicted on her whom I so love.”
+
+“Generous--kind--considerate Ronayne, I can fully understand you, yet,
+ah! what must you think of me, who could for a moment doubt your power
+to explain every act of your life, however ambiguous in appearance. But
+what is that paper you have taken from your pocket-book?”
+
+“One that I have long designed for your perusal. It was written a few
+days after the events at the farm, and I have since then frequently
+determined to place it in your hands in order that, in the sacredness of
+solitude, you might indulge in the bitter tears its few pages will wring
+from you; but too selfish--yes, selfish, and severely am I punished for
+it--to suffer the joy of the hour to be broken in upon by sadness, I
+have hitherto delayed putting you in possession of that which, if only
+communicated a day earlier, would have spared us this painful scene. But
+I hear footsteps approaching. They must be those of Mrs. Elmsley and the
+doctor, with Catherine. Be not surprised, dearest, if I leave you soon
+after they enter, for I have something to do this evening which will
+require my presence in the Fort. Early in the morning, however, I shall
+be here.”
+
+“I understand well what demands your presence elsewhere,” she returned
+with a look of deep gratitude and love. “Oh! Ronayne, whatever may
+happen,” and the tears streamed down her pale face, as she pointed to
+her mother--“hear me declare that whatever you may ask of me one month
+hence, I shall not consider myself justified in refusing.”
+
+Scarcely had he time to impress upon her lips his deep but chastened
+sense of happiness, when the party expected, entered the room--Von
+Vottenberg immediately applying himself to an examination of the
+patient, whose condition, it was evident from his unusually grave look,
+he conceived to be highly critical.
+
+Dreading to hear his opinion pronounced in the presence of his
+betrothed, and the more so, because he had in some degree been its
+cause, the young officer, after having warmly shaken hands with Mrs.
+Elmsley, whom he thanked for her prompt attention, urged her to do all
+in her power to soothe Maria, to whom, at parting, he also offered his
+hand, while his eye was eloquent with the feelings he could not well
+openly express.
+
+He first directed his course towards the rose-bush, and approached it
+with a feeling almost similar to what would have been experienced by
+him, had he been the actual murderer of Mr. Heywood. Loup Garou was
+sitting crouched near the head and was so far recovered as to growl
+rather fiercely at him, as he approached. On hearing the voice of his
+master, not in anger but in conciliation, he arose, slightly wagged his
+tail, and came forward slowly and crouching, as if in dread of further
+punishment, his lip uncurled, showing all his upper teeth, and with a
+short, quick sneeze, peculiar to his half-wolf-blooded race.
+
+Calling gently to the animal, he preceded him to the gate, desiring him
+to wait there until he returned--an injunction evidently understood by
+the dog, which, crouching down in his accustomed posture, ventured not
+to move. With the small spud, already alluded to, and then near the
+rose-tree, he put back in small quantities the displaced earth, until
+the ghastly face, indistinctly seen in the star-light, was again wholly
+hidden from view. This done, he approached the bank of the river,
+followed by the dog, and gave a shrill whistle, which, without being
+answered, speedily brought over the boat in which he now embarked for
+the opposite shore.
+
+His first care was to seek Elmsley, who, as officer of the guard, was
+up accoutred for duty, and was now looking over an old “Washington
+Intelligencer,” that had been read at least a dozen times before, while
+he smoked his pipe and sipped from a bowl of whisky punch, which Von
+Vottenberg had just finished brewing, when so suddenly summoned to the
+cottage.
+
+After Ronayne had detailed to his friend the occurrences of the evening,
+and communicated his views, they both issued forth to the guard-room,
+where Sergeant Nixon happened to be upon duty. With the latter, a brief
+conversation was held by Ronayne, ending with an injunction for him to
+come to Lieutenant Elmsley's quarters and announce to him (the former),
+when certain arrangements which had been agreed upon, were completed.
+
+Returned to the abode of the latter, the young officer required no very
+great pressing to induce him to join his superior in the beverage, to
+which anxiety of mind not less than fatigue of body had so much disposed
+him, yet of which both partook moderately. While so employed, and
+awaiting the appearance of the sergeant, Ronayne, who had now no motive
+for further mystery or concealment, detailed at the request of his
+friend, but in much more succinct terms than he had done in the paper
+he had handed to Maria Heywood, the circumstances connected with his
+absence from the Fort, on the night of the attack upon the farm, and the
+means taken by him to attain the object in which he had been thwarted by
+Captain Headley.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+“You dam Yankee, stop Injin when him go wigwam,” commenced Ronayne,
+rising at the same time and imitating the action of one unsteady from
+intoxication. “'Spose tell him gubbernor?”
+
+“Ah! you horrid wretch--I see it all now, yet could I have been so
+imposed upon? You then were the pretended drunken Indian I let out that
+night? Upon my word, Master Ronayne. I never will forgive you for that
+trick.”
+
+“Yes you will, old fellow. It was the only way to save you from a
+scrape, but I confess I have often since laughed in my sleeve at the
+recollection of the manner in which I deceived you.”
+
+“Hang me if you didn't play your part to admiration, but the best of the
+jest is, that on reporting the circumstance to Headley, on the following
+morning, he said I had acted perfectly right; so had you known this when
+you had that scene on the parade, you might have pleaded his sanction.
+However, all that is over. Now then for your adventure.”
+
+“The tale is soon told,” began Ronayne. “On the evening when you and
+Von Vottenberg were so busy, the one in concocting his whisky-punch--the
+other in cutting up the Virginia, I was sacking my brain for a means
+to accomplish my desire to reach the farm, where I had a strong
+presentiment, from the lateness of the hour, without bringing any
+tidings of them, the fishing-party were, with Mr. Heywood and his
+people, in a state of siege, and I at length decided on what seemed to
+me to be the only available plan. I was not sorry to see you leave
+after taking your second glass, for I knew that I should have little
+difficulty in sewing up the doctor, whose tumbler I repeatedly
+filled, and made him drink off after sundry toasts, while he did not
+perceive--or was by no means sorry if he did--that I merely sipped
+from my own. When I thought he had swallowed enough to prevent him from
+interfering with my project, I bade him good night and left him, knowing
+well that in less than ten minutes he would be asleep. Instead, however,
+of going to bed, I hastened at once to preliminaries, having first
+got rid of my servant whom I did not wish to implicate, by making him
+acquainted with my intended absence. But tell me, did you examine my
+room at all the next day?”
+
+“I did.”
+
+“And found nothing missing?”
+
+“Nothing. I scouted everywhere, and found only yourself wanting--the bed
+unrumpled, and everything in perfect bachelor order.”
+
+“And that leather dress, my dear fellow, in which I once paid a visit
+to the camp of Winnebeg, from whose squaw, indeed, I had bought it. You
+know it generally hangs against the wall at the foot of my bed.”
+
+“Ah! now I recollect, that was not there certainly, although I did not
+notice its absence then--so then, that was the dress you went out in,
+and I such a goose as not to remark it.”
+
+“Because you know that I had had the precaution to throw a blanket over
+it in the most approved Pottawattamie style, while my features were
+colored with gambouge and Indian ink.”
+
+“Well, say no more about that--I am ashamed to have been so taken in by
+a Johnny Raw. We will now suppose you kicked out of the Fort. Did I not
+kick you out,” he added humorously, “and say, begone, you drunken dog,
+and never show your ugly face here again!”
+
+“On the contrary,” returned his junior in the same mocking strain,
+“you were but too glad to be civil when I threatened you with the
+'gubbernor!'”
+
+“Once out of the Fort,” he gravely continued, “my course was plain. I
+immediately went to the wigwam of Winnebeg, whom I found seated, with
+his toes almost in the embers of an expiring fire, and smoking his last
+pipe previous to wrapping himself up for the night in his blanket.
+You may imagine his surprise, when, after some little difficulty, he
+recognized in that garb, and at that hour, particularly after the events
+of the day, with which he had been made acquainted by Mr. Frazer, before
+the latter, with his family, took refuge in the Fort. Still, true to the
+dignified reserve of his race, he concealed as much as possible what
+was passing in his mind, and made me sit by his side, near which, I
+have omitted to say, was an extremely handsome young Indian, whom he
+presented to me as his son, and then bade me tell him the object of my
+visit.
+
+“Of course I knew enough of Indian etiquette to be satisfied that
+I should gain by not attempting to hurry matters, and I accordingly
+suppressed my own impatience while taking a few whiffs from the pipe he
+courteously offered to me. Winnebeg then received it back, and while he
+sat with his eyes fixed intently on the fire, puffed away in an attitude
+of profound attention which encouraged me to proceed.
+
+“When he had heard all I had to say in regard to the fears I entertained
+for the absent party--for I did not confine my profession of interest to
+ONE--my vain application to the commandant, and my strong reliance
+upon him to send a party of his young men with me to the farm, his eye
+suddenly kindled--his countenance assumed a more animated expression,
+and removing the pipe from his lips, and puffing forth a more than usual
+volume of smoke, he cordially shook my hands, saying something in Indian
+to his son, who immediately sprang to his feet, and disappeared from the
+tent.
+
+“After a lapse of time which seemed to me as an age, the youth
+re-appeared with a dozen young warriors, all armed and decked in their
+war paint. They remained grouped round the entrance for a few minutes,
+while Waunangee changed his own dress, and Winnebeg provided me with a
+rifle, tomahawk and scalping-knife. Thus accoutred I took the lead with
+the former, and after cautiously creeping through the encampment, passed
+along the skirt of the wood that almost overhung the river. We moved off
+at a quick walk, but soon our pace increased to a half-run, so anxious
+were we all to get to the farm.
+
+“We had not proceeded more than half-way when we saw a small boat, which
+I immediately distinguished as that belonging to the fishing-party,
+slowly descending the river. The Indians simultaneously, and as if
+governed by one common instinct, dropped flat on the ground, as I
+supposed to remain unseen until the boat should come opposite to them,
+while I, uncertain by whom it was occupied, and anxious to ascertain,
+after whispering a few words to Waunangee, moved cautiously in advance
+along the shore. When I had crept up about fifty yards, I could
+distinctly see that it was one of our men, and I immediately hailed to
+know who he was, and where the remainder of the party were.
+
+“Scarcely had he answered 'Collins,' and commenced a few words of
+explanation of the cause of his being there and alone, when the forms
+of two Indians, which I fancied I had before detected creeping along the
+shore, regulating their stealthy progress by that of the boat, started
+into full height, and silently bounded towards me--one a little in
+advance of the other. The moment was critical. They were not twenty
+paces from me, and I have often since wondered at the presence of mind
+I preserved. It occurred to me that they would not commit the imprudence
+of using firearms so near the Fort, and that steel only would be
+resorted to by them. This suggested my own course. Throwing my rifle
+upon the beach in order that Collins, who was now pulling for the
+shore, might seize and use it as occasion should require, I grasped the
+scalping-knife in my left hand, and with my tomahawk in my right, did
+not wait for the attack, but rushed upon the foremost Indian, for I knew
+that my only chance of success lay in the killing or disabling of one
+before his comrade could come up. At the same time, both to apprise
+Waunangee of my position, and to daunt my adversaries, I uttered one of
+these tremendous yells, you know I so well can imitate, and receiving
+the blow of his tomahawk upon my own, thrown up in true military guard,
+plunged my knife into his body with such suddenness and force, that
+on examining it afterwards, I found that at least half an inch of the
+tapering handle had followed the blade. The savage fell dead without
+uttering a groan, a sight which, instead of checking the advance of his
+companion, rather urged him to revenge his fall. He had now come up
+with me, brandishing his tomahawk, when I put myself again on my guard,
+purposing to use my knife as I had done before, but at the very moment
+when the descent of his weapon was expected by me, he was suddenly
+seized from behind, raised from his feet, and thrown upon the ground.
+This was the act of Collins, who had gained the shore just after the
+first Indian fell, and had flown to my assistance.
+
+“At the same moment, Waunangee, who, with his warriors had started up
+on hearing my loud yell of defiance, came quickly to the spot, and
+they were not a little astounded to see an Indian, whom they instantly
+pronounced to be a Winnebago, lying motionless at my feet, nor was their
+respect for me at all lessened, when on handing my scalping-knife from
+one to the other, they perceived what a proficient I was in the use of
+their own favorite weapon.
+
+“Of course I was not silly enough to detract from my own glory, by
+admitting that it was as much the result of accident as of design.
+They made signs for me to scalp him, but having no particular desire to
+possess this trophy of my successful hand to hand encounter, one of the
+young men asked me to waive my right in his favor. This I did, and
+the scalp of the Winnebago was soon dangling from his waist. The other
+spoils I did not object to, and his rifle, tomahawk, and knife are
+now in Winnebago's tent, until there offers a favorable opportunity of
+bringing them to my quarters. But to proceed.
+
+“So much time had been passed in the examination of the body of the
+slain Winnebago, that his comrade had found ample time to escape. The
+Pottawattamies had not seen him, and Collins, after having temporarily
+disabled him, had run up to afford me further assistance, on seeing
+advancing in the rear, those whom he took to be of the same hostile
+party. Thus left unwatched, the savage had managed to creep away into
+the wood, and when attention was at length drawn to him, he was not to
+be seen.
+
+“When Collins had explained the position of the party at the farm, whose
+danger, on finding himself of no service there, he was then on his way
+to report, I proposed to Waunangee that half of his warriors should
+ascend by land, while the remainder with himself, accompanied me in
+the boat. We accordingly separated, and made what haste we could to our
+destination--the party on shore regulating their progress by that of the
+boat. During the descent my anxiety was very great, for my whole soul
+was bent upon the attainment of one object--that of restoring Mr.
+Heywood unharmed to his family. But the absence of all sound indicating
+conflict was by no means favorable, and I had already begun to fear that
+the silence which prevailed, was but the result of victory on the part
+of the hostile band who had departed, when suddenly the loud,
+fierce yell of disappointment which burst from them, as I have since
+understood, when a ladder by which they attempted to enter was thrown
+from the roof by Nixon, rang encouragingly upon my ear, and urged me to
+increased exertion. Our progress, however, was by no means proportioned
+to my anxiety, for somehow or other, only two oars were in the boat,
+and, as the Indians did not much care or know how to pull in time, the
+task devolved wholly upon Collins and myself. At length, just as the day
+was beginning to dawn, we reached the farm-house, about a hundred yards
+beyond which we put in and landed, making a detour by the barn, so as
+to meet the remainder of our little force in the rear, and thus to place
+the enemy, if actually surrounding the house, between two fires.
+
+“After waiting, however, some little time, and finding every thing
+quiet, my apprehensions increased, for, although not the sign of a
+Winnebago could be seen, so profound was the stillness within, that
+I began to think the whole of the party had been either captured or
+murdered. Suddenly, however, while hesitating as to the course to be
+pursued--for I feared that if the party were all right, and the enemy
+departed, they might fire upon us as we approached--I saw a man in
+American undress uniform, whom I had no difficulty in recognizing as
+Corporal Nixon, issue from the back of the house with a basket in his
+hands, and turning the corner with an appearance of much caution, make
+hastily for the river. Directing Waunangee, whose two bands had now
+joined, and were then lying closely concealed in the barn, to enter the
+house as cautiously and noiselessly as possible, I hastened after Nixon,
+from whom, after recovering from his first fright at finding himself
+unarmed, and in the power of one whom he naturally took for one of his
+recent assailants, I received a brief account of all that had occurred.
+On entering the house with him, shortly afterwards, what a contrast was
+present--on the one hand the ludicrous--the horrible on the other.
+
+“Close within the doorway lay the dead body of Mr. Heywood--”
+
+“The dead body of Mr. Heywood!” exclaimed Elmsley, starting from his
+chair in almost dismay at the intelligence. “How comes it, Ronayne, that
+you have never spoken of this before?”
+
+“No interruption, Elmsley--hear me to the close--close within the
+doorway, I repeat, lay the dead body of Mr. Heywood--his face much
+disfigured--and his large frame almost rigid in a pool of clotted blood.
+Imagine what a sight this was to me, whose sole object and hope it
+had been to restore the father in safety to the daughter, although at
+intervals during the route, I had more than once dreaded something of
+the sort. Stupefied at the spectacle, I felt my heart to sicken, as the
+idea of the grief by which Maria would be overwhelmed when this sad
+tale should be revealed to her, rose to my imagination. But even then my
+presence of mind did not desert me, and I already determined on what was
+to be done. In some degree consoled by this, I raised my glance from the
+body to observe what further atrocity had been committed. Three or four
+Indians were grouped around, evidently regarding the corpse with deep
+interest, for Mr. Heywood had often hunted with them, and given them
+refreshments when stopping to rest at his place, while on their way
+to the Fort laden with game. Further on the great body of Waunangee's
+people were standing leaning on their rifles, and enjoying the mistake
+of three of our fellows, who naturally taking them, from the great
+resemblance of dress, to be their enemies who had obtained an entrance,
+were holding aloft, in an attitude of defiance--one a huge poker thrust
+through the carcass of an enormous bird, and two others a blackened leg
+and wing, evidently belonging to the same animal, which they ever and
+anon brandished over their heads, while their eyes were rivetted on the
+dusky forms before them. The wooden partition sustained their muskets,
+from which the interposing Indians had cut them off, and against the
+front door of the house, which was closed and barred, leaned the only
+armed man of the party, deprived, however, of all power of action.”
+
+“What a scene for some American Hogarth!” interrupted the lieutenant,
+“and how graphically you have described it. I can see the picture before
+me now.”
+
+“I confess,” answered Ronayne, “I could not even, amid all my own
+painful feelings, suppress a smile at its extreme absurdity, for the
+appearance of three men seeking to defend themselves from what they
+believed to be fierce and blood-thirsty enemies, with the burnt carcass
+and limbs of an old turkey-cock, was such a burlesque on the chivalrous,
+that, knowing as I did how little their supposed enemy was to be
+dreaded, I could not suppress thoughts which, while they forced
+themselves upon me, I was angry at allowing myself to entertain. To
+understand the scene fully, you must have looked on it yourself. Had
+I recounted this to you yesterday, or even this morning, I could have
+filled up the picture more grotesquely, and yet not less truly. But
+now I have too great a weight on my spirits to give more than a simple
+sketch.
+
+“At the announcement of my name and purpose, the statue at the door
+became suddenly disenchanted--the legs and wings fell--a man dropped
+lightly from the loft, musket in hand, and Cass only, with his gaze
+intently fixed on the mocking savages before him, of whom he took me
+indeed to be one, continued his defensive attitude with the poker, nor
+was it until I had advanced and taken his weapon from him, amid the loud
+laughter of the young Indians, that he finally came to his senses. And
+yet, after all, poor devil, his distrust was but natural.
+
+“No time was to be lost. While some of the men were, according to my
+instructions, wrapping in a blanket the body of Mr. Heywood, after
+removing from it what blood they could, and the others bore to the
+boat the unfortunate Le Noir, whom I had not at first distinguished, so
+completely had he been covered over by his dog and walnut blossoms, I
+took the corporal aside, and explained to him how important it was that
+nothing should be known at the Fort of the fate of Mr. Heywood. On
+his asking what he should say if questioned, I desired him (with some
+hesitation, I confess, for I knew I was setting a bad example to the
+men, which only the peculiar circumstances of the case could justify),
+to give an evasive answer, and say that the Indians had carried him off
+with them, which indeed would be the fact, as I intended him to be borne
+away by the party I had brought. I told him, moreover, that at a fitting
+opportunity, I would explain every thing to Captain Headley, and take
+all the responsibility upon myself.
+
+“On his promptly saying that he would, I added that the men of his party
+should be made acquainted with my wish, and asked if I might depend upon
+their secrecy. He replied that there was not a man among them who did
+not so love Miss Heywood, as to run the risk of any punishment, rather
+than utter one word that could be the means of giving her pain, and that
+while on the way down he would take care to warn them.
+
+“Elmsley, I was touched at this--almost to tears--for it was a source
+of proud yet tender pleasure to me--much more so than I can express--to
+know that Maria was so great a favorite with these rude-hearted fellows.
+Assured that every thing was right, I told the corporal to embark his
+men immediately, and pull for the Fort, while I, with Waunangee and his
+Indians proceeded by land with the body of Mr. Heywood.
+
+“'Don't you think, sir,' said the corporal, hesitatingly, as he prepared
+to execute my orders--'don't you think it would be well for the ladies'
+sake that they should not be reminded of the name of this place, more
+than can be helped?'
+
+“'Undoubtedly, Nixon, but what do you mean?'
+
+“'Why, sir, I mean that as poor Mr. Heywood never can be here again,
+it would be better nothing should be left to remind them of the bloody
+doings of yesterday.'
+
+“'And what other name would you give it?' I asked.
+
+“'If it was left to me, Mr. Ronayne,' replied the corporal; 'I would
+call it HARDSCRABBLE, on account of the hard struggle the fellows must
+have had with Mr. Heywood, judging from his wounds and his broken rifle,
+before they mastered him.'
+
+“'Then, HARDSCRABBLE be it,' I said, 'not that I can really see it will
+make much difference in calling the thing to mind, yet it would scarcely
+be fair to deny to you, who have so bravely defended the place, the
+privilege of giving it a new name, if the old one is to be abandoned.'
+
+“'Thank you, sir,' returned Nixon, 'but if you hadn't come to our
+assistance, I don't know what the upshot might have been, I suspect
+that fellow whose comrade you killed, sent them off sooner than they
+intended.'
+
+“'No more of that, Nixon--and now do you remember what you are to say
+when you get back to the Fort?'
+
+“'I do, sir, and every man shall be told to say as I do--but about the
+new name, Mr. Ronayne,' he pursued, returning, after he had gone a few
+paces, 'do you think, sir, Mrs. Heywood will consent to it?'
+
+“'My good fellow,' I answered, 'recollect that Mrs. Heywood must know
+nothing about it--at least for the present. I will settle all that
+later. In the mean time, as you have called it HARDSCRABBLE, so let it
+remain.'
+
+“And HARDSCRABBLE that scene of blood is called to this hour.
+
+“I had at first apprehended,” pursued Ronayne, “that the Indians would
+evince disinclination to carry the body so long a distance, or even at
+all, but on Waunangee explaining my desire, they all to my surprise,
+expressed even eagerness to meet my wishes, for, as he assured me, the
+young men looked upon me as a great warrior who had achieved a deed of
+heroism that might procure the distinction of a chief, and entitling me
+to their services in all things.
+
+“I certainly thought my honors cheaply enough purchased; however I was
+but too glad to appropriate to myself the respect and good-will which
+the killing of the Winnebago had entailed--and matters were soon
+arranged.
+
+“The body having been removed outside, and the doors secured as well as,
+under the circumstances, could be done, one of the warriors cut from a
+tree in the adjacent wood, a semi-circular piece of tough and flexible
+bark, about six feet in length, and in the hollow of this, the murdered
+father of Maria Heywood, already swathed tightly in a blanket, was
+placed. A long pole was then passed through the equidistant loops of
+cord that encircled the whole, and two of the Indians having, with the
+assistance of their companions, raised it upon their shoulders, it was
+thus borne--the parties being relieved at intervals--over the two long
+miles of road that led to the skirt of the woods near the encampment.
+Here the body of Indians stopped, while Waunangee and myself repaired to
+the tent of his father, who no sooner had heard detailed by his son the
+account of my Winnebago killing practice of the preceding evening, than
+he overwhelmed me with congratulations, and looked proudly on the knife,
+still stained with a spot or two of blood, which I returned to him, and
+which he restored to its usual resting-place on his hip.
+
+“Perceiving that Winnebeg was, like his young men, ready to do any thing
+for me. I explained to him my desire to convey the body of Mr. Heywood
+across the river, and bury him secretly in his own grounds, but that
+it was necessary, in order to do this effectually, that he and his son
+should go with me, and by some circuitous route. Entering at once into
+my views, he said he would show me a place where we could cross without
+being seen either from the Fort or from his own encampment, and then led
+the way back to the wood where the party were still waiting.
+
+“The rest is soon told. Dismissing the young men into the encampment.
+Winnebeg, with his son, bore the body within the skirt of the wood,
+until we reached a bend of the river hidden from observation, where
+a canoe with paddles was drawn up on the beach. There we crossed,
+and going round to the rear of the cottage, entered the garden, and
+proceeded to the upper end, where at the summer house, near a favorite
+rose-tree of Maria's, I dug with my own hands a hasty grave, in which
+Winnebeg and Waunangee placed the body--its only coffin being the bark
+that was swathed around it. Of course I always intended to disinter it
+at some future, but not distant period, and bestow upon it the usual
+rites of burial.
+
+“This painful task accomplished, and the soil having been carefully
+replaced, so as to leave no inequality of surface, I accompanied
+my friends back by the same route, and about nine o'clock left the
+Pottawattamie encampment with them and a few other warriors of the
+tribe for the Fort, which in the crowd I entered without difficulty or
+creating suspicion. Watching my opportunity, I stole to the rear of my
+bed-room--opened and entered the window--changed my dress, and made my
+appearance on parade as you saw.”
+
+“All is ready, sir,” said Sergeant Nixon, entering just as he had
+concluded, and before Elmsley could offer any remark on this singular
+adventure--“the coffin is in the scow, and Corporal Collins, Green and
+Philips are there also with their shovels, ropes, and picks. If Mr.
+Elmsley will give me permission,” and he touched his cap to that
+officer. “I will go too, sir.”
+
+“As sergeant of the guard--no, Nixon, my good fellow, that will never
+do. The three men you have named, are, with myself, quite enough. Be
+on the look-out though, to let us in on our return. Have you provided a
+dark lantern?”
+
+“Yes, sir, Collins has the lantern belonging to the guard house.”
+
+“Good. I will follow you in a moment, Elmsley,” he continued, rising and
+draining off his half-emptied glass, “lend me your prayer-book. I wish
+that you could be present at this dismal ceremony, but of course that is
+wholly out of the question.”
+
+“It is, indeed, my dear fellow. It would never do for us both to be
+absent. Not only ourselves but the men would be brought into the scrape,
+for you know Headley always sleeps with one eye open.”
+
+“I do not like to do any thing clandestinely,” remarked the
+ensign--“particularly after our reconciliation with him. Moreover, it
+is, as you say, in some degree compromising the men and myself with
+them. I have a great mind before I start to see and explain every thing
+to Headley, and obtain his sanction to my absence.”
+
+“Nonsense,” returned his friend, “he will never know it; besides it
+is possible that he may refuse to let you go before morning, and your
+object is, of course, to have every thing finished to-night. Take my
+advice; go without speaking to him on the subject, and if your remorse
+of conscience,” and he smiled archly, “be so great afterwards, as to
+deprive you of more rest and appetite than you lost after killing that
+poor devil of a Winnebago, go to him as you did before--confess that
+you have again been a naughty boy--ask his pardon, and I am sure he will
+forgive the crime.”
+
+“Well, I believe you are right. Be it so. Adieu, I shall be back within
+a couple of hours at the latest.”
+
+“If you do, you will in all probability find me still poring over this
+old Intelligencer, which is full of rumors of approaching war with the
+British.”
+
+“I shall be more inclined to hug my pillow,” replied the ensign as
+he departed, “for I must again cross to the cottage, and be back here
+before guard-mounting to-morrow.”
+
+Within ten minutes the party--two of them having borne the empty coffin,
+and the corporal the necessary implements, stood near the rose-tree in
+the garden. The body of Mr. Heywood was disinterred--the bark in which
+it lay wound round with many folds of a large sheet, and placed in the
+coffin, which after being screwed down, was deposited in a grave dug at
+least five feet under the surface. Then commenced the burial service,
+which was read by the young officer in a slow and impressive tone, and
+by the light of the shaded lantern, which, falling obliquely upon the
+forms of the men, discovered them standing around the grave--one foot
+resting on the edge--the other drawn back, as they awaited the signal
+to lower their almost offensive burden into its last resting-place. At
+length the prayers for the dead were ended, and the grave was carefully
+filled up, leaving as before, no inequality, but too deep to attract the
+scent of Loup Garou. Then after having dug up a few small roots of the
+sweet briar, and placed them at intervals on the newly-turned earth.
+Ronayne crossed with his little party to the Fort, glad to obtain a few
+hours of that repose, for which the harassing events of the day had so
+much predisposed him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+The fourth of July 1812, was a more than usual gala-day in the little
+Fort of Chicago, for in addition to the National Jubilee, there was to
+be celebrated one of a private, yet not less interesting nature. On that
+evening Ensign Ronayne was to espouse, in the very room in which he had
+first been introduced to her the woman he had so long and so ardently
+loved, and who, her mother having after a severe struggle become
+convalescent, had conformably to her promise, yielded a not reluctant
+consent to his proposal that this day of general joy, should be that of
+the commencement of their own happiness.
+
+At that remote period, and in the absence of duly ordained clergymen,
+it was customary for marriages to be performed by the Governors of
+Districts and by commanding officers of distant Forts, and these,
+perfectly legal, were subsequently as inclination, or scruple of
+conscience induced, celebrated in the usual manner. The early marriages
+of British subjects in Canada, soon after its conquest from the French,
+as well as many of those of the colonies now known as the United States,
+took place in this manner, and the custom had been continued until
+increased population provided the means of securing that spiritual
+comfort, which it must, of course, have been impossible for one dressed
+in a red coat instead of a black one, to impart.
+
+But neither Maria Heywood or Ronayne stood much on this punctilio.
+Provided the ceremony was legal, and according to the customs of
+the country, it mattered little who married them--the governor of
+a district--the commandant of a garrison, or a Gretna Green
+blacksmith--had they felt at all disposed to avail themselves of the
+services of the latter.
+
+It was a lovely day, and every thing seemed to smile upon the denizens
+of that region, from the early dawn until the setting of the sun.
+Officers and men were in their brightest uniforms--the women and
+children in their holiday dresses. A splendid new Star Spangled
+Banner--the work of Maria Heywood's hands--floated in the dazzling rays
+of the sun, upon the southern bastion of the Fort. Joy and pride sat on
+every brow. They exulted at the recollection of that hardly won freedom
+from injustice, which was that day to be celebrated for the thirty-sixth
+time.
+
+At noon the cannon thundered forth their bursts of rejoicing. This was
+the signal for the numerous Pottawattamies outside, all of whom had
+decked themselves for the occasion, to approach nearer to the Fort. On
+the glacis they discharged their guns and rifles, and seemed to have
+but one spirit with the allies to whom they appeared to have devoted
+themselves. Winnebeg, however, though long expected, had not yet
+returned, and nothing yet had been seen of Waunangee, since his
+departure on the day following the little incident which occurred in
+Elmsley's apartments.
+
+Contrary to that unnatural etiquette which enjoins that two betrothed
+persons, who are expected to be inseparable after marriage, should never
+show themselves together in public immediately before, Ronayne had after
+parade ascended the rampart, with Maria Heywood leaning upon his arm,
+occasionally glancing at the group of gaily-costumed Indians, who were
+amusing themselves on the green, but oftener admiring the lovely
+view, softened by distance, which was presented in various points, and
+particularly towards the farm--the theatre of events which the otherwise
+happy girl, could not at that moment avoid bringing to her recollection.
+
+While gazing in that direction, her eye fell upon the form of a young
+Indian who was leaning against the corner of the picketed bastion on her
+left, in the shallow, dry, and grass-covered ditch that surrounded
+it. At first her glance caught an indistinct human form dressed in the
+Indian garb, but as her gaze settled on the object, her surprise was
+great to recognise Waunangee, who was even then looking at her with
+the same softened and eloquent expression, which had given her so much
+anxiety on a former occasion. The impression produced upon her was
+exactly what it had been then--indescribable--inexplicable to herself.
+
+“What is the matter, my love?” inquired Ronayne tenderly, and pressing
+her arm to his heart--“what fixes your attention below?” then seeing the
+Indian himself. “Ah! Waunangee, my friend!” he exclaimed, “where have
+you been all this time? Come round to the gate and shake hands with my
+wife.”
+
+“No, no, no, do not call him up, Ronayne--you cannot think how much the
+presence of that Indian troubles me.”
+
+“Nay, dearest Maria, you are not yourself. Why continue this strong
+dislike against the poor fellow? I thought you had quite forgiven him.”
+
+Was it accident--was it modesty, or was it a consciousness that his
+presence was not desired by at least one of the parties, that prevented
+the young Indian from obeying the summons of the officer. Whatever the
+cause, he assumed a serious mein, and playing one of those melancholy
+airs which so often, at that time, might be heard proceeding from the
+rude flute of their race, walked slowly away.
+
+“I fear you have offended him, Maria. Oh! if you knew--”
+
+“Ronayne--dearest Harry!” interrupted his betrothed--“I have never said
+anything of this before to you, because, after all, it is but an
+idle fancy, yet I cannot divest myself of the idea that this Indian,
+interesting and prepossessing as he is, is somehow or other connected
+with my future fate. Nay,” as the young officer smiled in playful
+mockery, “you may ridicule my presentiment, which is, I confess, so
+much at variance with good sense, that I almost blush to introduce the
+subject, but still I cannot banish the impression.”
+
+“Then, I will assist you in doing so, dearest, even though at the risk
+of re-opening a newly-closed wound,” remarked her lover, with deep
+affection of manner. “In my narrative of those events, hastily thrown
+together, which I gave you on that memorable night, when I suffered for
+a period, almost the torments of the damned, I did not, it seems to me,
+name the young Indian, who, with his father, so greatly aided me on my
+return to the farm, and even bore upon his shoulders the sacred charge.”
+
+“No, Harry, you did not,” quickly rejoined Maria Heywood; “but I know
+now whom you mean. It was Waunangee.”
+
+“It was,” said the ensign--“I know your knowledge of that fact will
+change your feelings towards him.”
+
+“They are changed--even at this moment, and henceforth I shall be to him
+as a sister. Ah! how ungrateful must I have appeared to the poor
+fellow. I shall conquer this silly weakness: I have misunderstood my own
+impressions, and it must have been that I have mistaken the influence
+Waunangee has had for that which is to be. Call him up now, Ronayne, and
+I will cheerfully give him my hand, and promise to love him as a brother
+in return for the devotion he has evinced, not less for you than for my
+poor father.”
+
+“Time enough, repentant sinner,” returned the young officer, at the
+same time casting his glance rapidly over the group of Indians, who were
+amusing themselves at various athletic games. “I can see nothing of him.
+Your evident displeasure,” he added playfully, “has destroyed his peace,
+as indeed you might have known from that plaintive ditty. However,
+dearest girl, I shall see him soon, and make him promise to be present
+this evening at the nuptials of his friend and sister. Nay, if I had not
+engaged Elmsley, I should insist on his being my bridesman.”
+
+The only notice taken of this sally was a faint smile from his
+companion, who now descended with him from the rampart and proceeded to
+the apartments of Mrs. Elmsley, where her mother and herself had once
+more been visitors for the last few days. Here they separated to meet
+again in the evening--Ronayne directing his attention to his various
+duties, and looking out at intervals for his young Indian friend.
+
+It was night. No accident had occurred beyond the laceration of two of
+Ephraim Giles's fingers, who having that day been presented with a
+new suit by the doctor--the fac-simile in fashion of the old--had been
+whittling almost in front of one of the guns when discharged, and
+lost, with the skin of his finger, both his stick and his knife. The
+sultriness of the day had been succeeded by a cool and refreshing air.
+Gaiety and content every where prevailed, and many were the voices--male
+and female--that exclaimed, as allusion was made to the ceremony all
+knew, to be in progress: “God bless them, and make them happy, as they
+deserve to be.” A large tub of whisky-punch, the gift of the commanding
+officer, had been brewed by Von Vottenberg, for their mid-day revel, and
+this, all had been unanimous in pronouncing the best medicine the doctor
+had ever administered to them; and now in small social messes, seated
+round their rude tables, covered with tin goblets, and pitchers of the
+same metal--the mothers with their children at their side or upon their
+knees, and the fathers and unmarried men puffing clouds of smoke from
+their short pipes--which they filled from two others placed on an
+elevated settle--one in each block house--which the happy Ronayne had
+given them on the occasion.
+
+Even the guard was moderately supplied, and the sentries alone, pacing
+to and fro in their limited walk, felt the bitterness of privation, as
+they counted the minutes that must elapse before they could join in the
+festivities which the loud voice and ringing laugh, occasionally wafted
+to their ears, told them were in progress.
+
+In the rooms of the commanding officer there was more than the usual
+manifestation of the anniversary. All had dined at an early hour, but
+a large side-board that stood in one corner of the council room--always
+fitted up on these occasions--was covered with vases containing wines,
+liqueurs, juleps, and punches of various kinds--the latter the work
+of the indefatigable son of Esculapius, and of these the host and his
+guests partook freely, in commemoration of the day. At the opposite end
+of the room had been raised a sort of tribune for the orator of the day,
+but as it was intended the address should be impromptu, no name had been
+mentioned, nor could any one know, until the moment when the majority of
+voices should select him on whom the office was to devolve. In the fear
+entertained by each that he should be the party selected, the glass, to
+impart the necessary courage, was not spared. But he who was not in the
+room, or of the number of those devoted to the punch-bowl was the person
+chosen. As if by one impulsive consent, Ronayne, who was seated in the
+inner room, and discoursing of any thing but politics to his betrothed,
+found himself loudly called upon--knew it was in vain to object--and
+reluctantly rose in obedience to the summons.
+
+“Come young gentleman,” said Captain Headley, entering with an air of
+gaiety by no means usual to him, “you are, it appears, in all things,”
+ and he bowed significantly to Maria Heywood, “the chosen of the
+evening--but recollect,” he added, as he drew his arm through his own,
+and proceeded towards the larger apartment where Ronayne was awaited,
+“as you acquit yourself of YOUR duty, so shall I of MINE.”
+
+“I shall do my best, sir,” replied the youth, in the same light tone,
+“but of the two orations, I know which will be the best suited to my own
+taste.”
+
+The other ladies, with the exception of Mrs. Heywood, had also risen,
+and now stood grouped near Captain Headley, who, with Maria Heywood on
+his arm, leaned against the door-way separating the two rooms--while
+Ronayne, amid cheers and congratulations, made his way to the tribune,
+at the farther end of the apartment.
+
+His address was necessarily not long--for independently of the
+impatience he could not but entertain at that moment of all subjects but
+that nearest his heart, he was by no means ambitious of making a display
+of his powers of elocution. Yet, notwithstanding this, he treated
+his theme in so masterly a manner, and in such perfectly good taste,
+omitting all expressions of that rancor towards Great Britain, which
+forms so leading a feature in American orations on this occasion, and
+yet reflecting honor on the land of his birth--alluding, moreover,
+to the high position even then occupied by the nation, and the future
+greatness which he predicted, from its laws, its institutions, and
+peculiar form of government, awaited it--that Maria Heywood could not
+fail to experience a secret pride in the warm, and evidently sincere
+acclamation of the little party present, attesting as they did, their
+estimate of the worth of him, who in another hour, would be her own for
+life.
+
+As Ronayne descending from the tribune, passed to the other side of the
+room, he looked out of the door which had been left open, not more
+on account of the heat, than to afford the men and their families an
+opportunity of hearing the discourse thus delivered--almost the first
+person who came under his glance was Waunangee, for whose admission
+he had given orders to the serjeant of the guard, and who now, in
+compliance with his pressing entreaty, had attended. He was becomingly
+dressed in deer skin, richly embroidered, pliant and of a clear brown
+that harmonized well with the snowy whiteness of his linen shirt,
+which was fastened with silver brooches, while on the equally decorated
+leggins, he wore around the ankle, strings of minute brass bells. On his
+head floated the rich plumage of various rare birds, but no paint was
+visible beyond the slightest tint of vermilion on the very top of each
+cheek-bone, rendering even more striking the expression of his soft dark
+eyes.
+
+Beckoning to him, Ronayne drew the young Indian within the door, which
+had he not accidentally distinguished him in the crowd, he was quite too
+modest to enter alone. Then drawing his arm through his own, he led him,
+coloring and embarrassed at the novelty of the scene, to the place where
+Captain Headley was still lingering with his charge. The moment they
+were near enough, the latter held out her hand to Waunangee, and with
+all the warmth of her generous nature, pressed that which he extended.
+The young Indian colored more deeply even than before--his hand trembled
+in hers--and the look of thankfulness which he bent upon her, in return
+for this unmistakable confidence, had all the touching melancholy of
+expression which she had remarked in them at their first meeting. Again
+a mingled sentiment of confusion and distrust suffused the cheek,
+and for a moment oppressed the spirit of Maria Heywood in despite of
+herself, and she almost wished Waunangee had not returned. The thought
+however, was momentary. She felt the folly, the injustice of her
+feelings, and anxious to atone for them, she nervously--almost
+convulsively grasped the hand of the Indian, carried it to her lips,
+and said in her full, sweet and earnest tones, that he must ever be her
+brother as she would ever be his sister.
+
+“And now,” said Captain Headley to the young officer, “what reward do
+you expect for your maiden oration? What shall it be, Miss Heywood?”
+
+“I will spare her the trouble of an answer,” interposed Ronayne, as
+he took the arm which had just disengaged itself from that of the
+commandant, and placed it within his own, “until you have set your seal
+to the priceless gift,” and his eyes looked all the intensity of his
+feeling; “I part not with it again.”
+
+“Every thing is ready is the next room,” answered Captain Headley--“go
+in. When I have announced that the ceremony is about to take place, I
+shall hasten to give you the dear girl for life,” and imprinting a kiss
+upon her brow, he passed on to those who were paying their homage to the
+punch-bowl, and discussing the merits of the oration just delivered.
+
+It was with a flushed cheek, and a beating heart that Maria Heywood was
+led by Ronayne, radiant with hope and joy, to the little table covered
+with plain, white linen, and illuminated by half a dozen tall candles,
+behind which the commanding officer had placed himself on an elevated
+estrade.
+
+All of the guests were grouped around, a little in the rear, while
+Lieutenant Elmsley stood on the right hand of his friend, and his wife
+on the left of the betrothed. Next to her, in an arm chair, which,
+provided with rollers, was easily moved, Mrs. Heywood--and with her
+beautiful arms reposing on the high back of this, stood Mrs. Headley in
+graceful attitude, watching the ceremony with almost maternal interest.
+Immediately behind Ronayne, from whom he evidently did not like to be
+separated, stood Waunangee, with an air of deep dejection, yet casting
+glances rapidly from one to the other of his two friends.
+
+When the young officer, after having formally received the bride from
+her mother, whose strength barely permitted her to rise and go through
+that part of the ceremony, proceeded to place the ring upon the finger
+of his wife, it fell, either from nervousness or accident upon the
+matted floor. Quick as thought, Waunangee, who had now his whole
+attention bent upon the passing scene, stooped, picked it up, and
+attempted to place it on the finger, still extended, for which it was
+designed.
+
+“Gently, Waunangee, my good fellow,” said the officer, piqued not less
+at his own awkwardness at such a moment, than at the outre act of the
+youth, from whom he rather unceremoniously took it--“the husband only
+does this.”
+
+“Wah!” involuntarily exclaimed the other, his cheek becoming brighter,
+and his eyes kindling into sudden fierceness, while his hand intuitively
+clutched the handle of his knife--yet the moment afterwards relinquished
+it. The motion had been so quick, indeed, that only Mr. Headley and the
+bride herself had noticed it.
+
+Still fascinated as it were by the novel scene, Waunangee moved not
+away, but the expression of his eyes had wholly changed. There was no
+longer to be remarked there the great melancholy of the past--but the
+wild restless, flashing glance that told of strong excitement within.
+
+When immediately afterwards they knelt, and had their hands joined by
+Captain Headley, Waunangee bent eagerly forward, as if apprehensive of
+losing the slightest part of the ceremonial, but when at the conclusion,
+Ronayne saluted his wife in the usual manner, his cheek became suddenly
+pale as its native hue would permit, and with folded arms and proud
+attitude he withdrew slowly from the place he had hitherto occupied, to
+mingle more with the crowd behind.
+
+When Ronayne, who, remembering the little incident of the ring, and the
+possible pique Waunangee might feel, turned to look for him, that he
+might again present his bride in her new character, he was no where
+to be seen, nor was he ever again beheld within the precincts of that
+stockade.
+
+And under those singular and somewhat ominous circumstances, were the
+long-delayed nuptials of Harry Ronayne and Maria Heywood--the great
+favorites of the garrison--celebrated to the joy of all within the Fort
+of Chicago.
+
+
+END
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Hardscrabble, by John Richardson
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