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+The Project Gutenberg EBook The Rangers, By D. P. Thompson
+
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+
+Title: The Rangers
+       [Subtitle: The Tory's Daughter]
+
+Author: D. P. Thompson
+
+Release Date: November 2004  [EBook #6947]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on February 16, 2003]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+
+
+
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RANGERS, BY THOMPSON ***
+
+
+
+This eBook was produced by David Garcia, Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks,
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+THE RANGERS
+
+OR
+
+THE TORY'S DAUGHTER
+
+A TALE
+
+ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE
+
+REVOLUTIONARY HISTORY OF VERMONT
+
+AND THE
+
+NORTHERN CAMPAIGN OF 1777
+
+BY THE AUTHOR OF "THE GREEN MOUNTAIN BOYS"
+
+TWO VOLUMES IN ONE
+
+TENTH EDITION
+
+
+
+
+
+
+VOLUME I.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+On commencing his former work, illustrative of the revolutionary
+history of Vermont,--THE GREEN MOUNTAIN BOYS,--it was the design of
+the author to have embraced the battle of Bennington, and other events
+of historic interest which occurred in the older and more southerly
+parts of the state; but finding, as he proceeded, that the unity and
+interest of his effort would be endangered by embracing so much
+ground, a part of the original design was relinquished, or rather its
+execution was deferred for a new and separate work, wherein better
+justice could be done to the rich and unappropriated materials of
+which his researches had put him in possession. That work, after an
+interval of ten years, and the writing and publishing of several
+intermediate ones, is now presented to the public, and with the single
+remark, that if it is made to possess less interest, as a mere tale,
+than its predecessor, the excuse must be found in the author's greater
+anxiety to give a true historic version of the interesting and
+important events he has undertaken to illustrate.
+
+
+
+
+THE RANGERS;
+
+OR,
+
+THE TORY'S DAUGHTER
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+  "Sing on! sing on! my mountain home,
+   The paths where erst I used to roam,
+   The thundering torrent lost in foam.
+   The snow-hill side all bathed in light,--
+   All, all are bursting on my sight!"
+
+
+
+Towards night, on the twelfth of March, 1775, a richly-equipped double
+sleigh, filled with a goodly company of well-dressed persons of the
+different sexes, was seen descending from the eastern side of the
+Green Mountains, along what may now be considered the principal
+thoroughfare leading from the upper navigable portions of the Hudson
+to those of the Connecticut River. The progress of the travellers was
+not only slow, but extremely toilsome, as was plainly evinced by the
+appearance of the reeking and jaded horses, as they labored and
+floundered along the sloppy and slumping snow paths of the winter
+road, which was obviously now fast resolving itself into the element
+of which it was composed. Up to the previous evening, the dreary reign
+of winter had continued wholly uninterrupted by the advent of his more
+gentle successor in the changing rounds of the seasons; and the snowy
+waste which enveloped the earth would, that morning, have apparently
+withstood the rains and suns of months before yielding entirely to
+their influences. But during the night there had occurred one of those
+great and sudden transitions from cold to heat, which can only be
+experienced in northern climes, and which can be accounted for only on
+the supposition, that the earth, at stated intervals, rapidly gives
+out large quantities of its internal heats, or that the air becomes
+suddenly rarefied by some essential change or modification in the
+state of the electric fluid. The morning had been cloudless; and the
+rising sun, with rays no longer dimly struggling through the dense,
+obstructing medium of the dark months gone by, but, with the restored
+beams of his natural brightness, fell upon the smoking earth with the
+genial warmth of summer. A new atmosphere, indeed, seemed to have been
+suddenly created, so warm and bland was the whole air; while,
+occasionally, a breeze came over the face of the traveller, which
+seemed like the breath of a heated oven. As the day advanced, the sky
+gradually became overcast--a strong south wind sprung up, before whose
+warm puffs the drifted snow-banks seemed literally to be cut down,
+like grass before the scythe of the mower; and, at length, from the
+thickening mass of cloud above, the rain began to descend in torrents
+to the mutely recipient earth. All this, for a while, however,
+produced no very visible effects on the general face of nature; for
+the melting snow was many hours in becoming saturated with its own and
+water from above. Nor had our travellers, for the greater part of the
+day, been much incommoded by the rain, or the thaw, that was in
+silent, but rapid progress around and beneath them; as their vehicle
+was a covered one, and as the hard-trodden paths of the road were the
+last to be affected. But, during the last hour, a great change in the
+face of the landscape had become apparent; and the evidence of what
+had been going on unseen, through the day, was now growing every
+moment more and more palpable. The snow along the bottom of every
+valley was marked by a long, dark streak, indicating the presence of
+the fast-collecting waters beneath. The stifled sounds of rushing
+streams were heard issuing from the hidden beds of every natural rill;
+while the larger brooks were beginning to burst through their wintry
+coverings, and throw up and push on before them the rending ice and
+snow that obstructed their courses to the rivers below, to which they
+were hurrying with increasing speed, and with seemingly growing
+impatience at every obstacle they met in their way. The road had also
+become so soft, that the horses sunk nearly to the flank at almost
+every step, and the plunging sleigh drove heavily along the plashy
+path. The whole mass of the now saturated and dissolving snow, indeed,
+though lying, that morning, more than three feet deep on a level,
+seemed to quiver and move, as if on the point of flowing away in a
+body to the nearest channels.
+
+The company we have introduced consisted of four gentlemen and two
+ladies, all belonging, very evidently, to the most wealthy, and, up to
+that time, the most honored and influential class of society. But
+though all seemed to be of the same caste, yet their natural
+characters, as any physiognomist, at a glance, would have discovered,
+were, for so small a party, unusually diversified. Of the two men
+occupying the front seat, both under the age of thirty, the one
+sitting on the right and acting as driver was tall, showily dressed,
+and of a haughty, aristocratic air; while his sharp features, which
+set out in the shape of a half-moon, the convex outline being
+preserved by a retreating forehead, an aquiline nose, and a chin
+sloping inward, combined to give him a cold, repulsive countenance,
+fraught with expressions denoting selfishness and insincerity. The
+other occupant of the same seat was, on the contrary, a young man of
+an unassuming demeanor, shapely features, and a mild, pleasing
+countenance. The remaining two gentlemen of the party were much older,
+but scarcely less dissimilar in their appearance than the two just
+described. One of them was a gaunt, harsh-featured man, of the middle
+ago, with an air of corresponding arrogance and assumption. The other,
+who was still more elderly, was a thick-set and rather portly
+personage, of that quiet, reserved, and somewhat haughty demeanor,
+which usually belongs to men of much self-esteem, and of an
+unyielding, opinionated disposition. The ladies were both young, and
+in the full bloom of maidenly beauty. But their native characters,
+like those of their male companions, seemed to be very strongly
+contrasted. The one seated on the left was fair, extremely fair,
+indeed; and her golden locks, clustering in rich profusion around her
+snowy neck and temples, gave peculiar effect to the picture-like
+beauty of her face. But her beauty consisted of pretty features, and
+her countenance spoke rather of the affections than of the mind, being
+of that tender, pleading cast, which is better calculated to call
+forth sympathy than command respect, and which, showed her to be one
+of those confiding, dependent persons, whose destinies are in me hands
+of those whom they consider their friends, rather than in their own
+keeping. The other maiden, with an equally fine form and no less
+beautiful features, was still of an entirely different appearance.
+She, indeed, was, to the one first described what the rose, with its
+hardy stem, is to the lily leaning on the surrounding herbage for its
+support; and though less delicately fair in mere complexion, she was
+yet more commandingly beautiful; for there was an expression in the
+bright, discriminating glances of her deep hazel eyes, and in the
+commingling smile that played over the whole of her serene and
+benignant countenance, that told of intellects that could act
+independently, as well as of a heart that glowed with the kindly
+affections.
+
+"Father," said the last described female, addressing the eldest
+gentleman, for the purpose, apparently, of giving a new turn to the
+conversation, which had now, for some time, been lagging,--"father, I
+think you promised us, on starting from Bennington this morning, not
+only a fair day, but a safe arrival at Westminster Court-House, by
+sunset, did you not?"
+
+"Why, yes, perhaps I did," replied the person addressed; "for I know I
+calculated that we should get through by daylight."
+
+"Well, my weatherwise father, to say nothing about this storm, instead
+of the promised sunshine, does the progress, made and now making,
+augur very brightly for the other part of the result?"
+
+"I fear me not, Sabrey," answered the old gentleman, "though, with the
+road as good as when we started, we should have easily accomplished
+it. But who would have dreamed of a thaw so sudden and powerful as
+this? Why, the very road before us looks like a running river! Indeed,
+I think we shall do well to reach Westminster at all to-night. What
+say you, Mr. Peters,--will the horses hold out to do it?" he added,
+addressing the young man of the repulsive look, who had charge of the
+team, us before mentioned.
+
+"They _must_ do it, at all events, Squire Haviland," replied Peters.
+"Sheriff Patterson, here," he continued, glancing at the hard-featured
+man before described, "has particular reasons for being on the ground
+to-night. I must also be there, and likewise friend Jones, if we can
+persuade him to forego his intended stop at Brattleborough; for, being
+of a military turn, we will give him the command of the forces, if he
+will go on immediately with us."
+
+"Thank you, Mr. Peters," replied Jones, smiling. "I do not covet the
+honor of a command, though I should be ready to go on and assist, if I
+really believed that military forces would be needed."
+
+"Military forces needed for what?" asked Haviland, in some surprise.
+
+"Why, have you not heard, Squire Haviland," said the sheriff, "that
+threats have been thrown out, that our coming court would not be
+suffered to sit?"
+
+"Yes, something of the kind, perhaps," replied Haviland,
+contemptuously; "but I looked upon them only as the silly vaporings of
+a few disaffected creatures, who, having heard of the rebellious
+movements in the Bay State, have thrown out these idle threats with
+the hope of intimidating our authorities, and so prevent the holding
+of a court, which they fear might bring too many of them to justice."
+
+"So I viewed the case for a while," rejoined Patterson; "but a few
+days ago, I received secret information, on which I could rely, that
+these disorganizing rascals were actually combining, in considerable
+numbers, with the intention of attempting to drive us from the
+Court-House."
+
+"Impossible! impossible! Patterson," said the squire; "they will never
+be so audacious as to attempt to assail the king's court."
+
+"They are making a movement for that purpose, nevertheless," returned
+the former; "for, in addition to the information I have named, I
+received a letter from Judge Chandler, just as I was leaving my house
+in Brattleborough, yesterday morning, in which the judge stated, that
+about forty men, from Rockingham, came to him in a body, at his house
+in Chester, and warned him against holding the court; and had the
+boldness to tell him, that blood would be shed, if it was attempted,
+especially if the sheriff appeared with an armed posse."
+
+"Indeed! why, I am astonished at their insolence!" exclaimed the
+squire. "But what did the judge tell them?"
+
+"Why the judge, you know, has an oily way of getting along with ugly
+customers," replied the sheriff, with a significant wink; "so he
+thanked them all kindly for calling on him, and gravely told them he
+agreed with them, that no court should be holden at this time. But, as
+there was one case of murder to be tried, he supposed the court must
+come together to dispose of that; after which they would immediately
+adjourn. And promising them that he would give the sheriff directions
+not to appear with any armed assistants, he dismissed them, and sat
+down and wrote me an account of the affair, winding off with giving me
+the directions he had promised, but adding in a postscript, that I was
+such a contrary fellow, that he doubted whether I should obey his
+directions; and he should not be surprised to see me there with a
+hundred men, each with a gun or pistol under his great-coat. Ha ha!
+The judge is a sly one."
+
+"One word about that case of murder, to which you have alluded, Mr.
+Patterson," interposed Jones, after the jeering laugh with which the
+sheriff's account was received by Haviland and Peters, had subsided.
+"I have heard several mysterious hints thrown out by our opponents
+about it, which seemed to imply that the prosecution of the prisoner
+was got up for private purposes; and I think I have heard the name of
+Secretary Brush coupled with the affair. Now, who is the alleged
+murderer? and where and when was the crime committed?"
+
+"The fellow passes by the name of Herriot, though it is suspected that
+this is not his true name," responded the sheriff. "The crime was
+committed at Albany, several years ago, when he killed, or mortally
+wounded, an intimate friend of Mr. Brush."
+
+"Under what circumstances?"
+
+"Why, from what I have gathered, I should think the story might be
+something like this: that, some time previous to the murder, this
+Herriot had come to Albany, got into company above his true place,
+dashed away a while in high life, gambled deeply, and, losing all his
+own money, and running up a large debt to this, and other friends of
+Brush, gave them his obligations and absconded. But coming there
+again, for some purpose, a year or two after, with a large sum of
+money, it was thought, which had been left or given him by a rich
+Spaniard, whose life he had saved, or something of the kind, those
+whom he owed beset him to pay them, or play again. But he refused to
+play, pretending to have become pious, and also held back about paying
+up his old debts. Their debts, however, they determined to have, and
+went to him for that purpose; when an affray arose, and one of them
+was killed by Herriot, who escaped, and fled, it seems, to this
+section of the country, where he kept himself secluded in some hut in
+the mountains, occasionally appear-ing abroad to preach religion and
+rebellion to the people, by which means he was discovered, arrested,
+and imprisoned in Westminster jail, where he awaits his trial at the
+coming term of the court. And I presume he will be convicted and hung,
+unless he makes friends with Brush to intercede for a pardon, which he
+probably might do, if the fellow would disgorge enough of his hidden
+treasures to pay his debts, and cease disaffecting the people, which
+is treason and a hanging matter of itself, for which he, and fifty
+others in this quarter, ought, in justice, to be dealt with without
+benefit of the clergy.--What say you, Squire Haviland?"
+
+"I agree with you fully," replied the squire. "But to return to Judge
+Chandler's communication: what steps have you taken, if any, in order
+to sustain the court in the threatened emergency?"
+
+"Why, just the steps that Chandler knew I should take--sent off one
+messenger to Brush, there on the ground at Westminster; another to
+Rogers, of Kent; and yet another to a trusty friend in Guilford,
+requesting each to be on, with a small band of resolute fellows; while
+I whipped over to Newfane myself, fixed matters there, and came round
+to Bennington to enlist David Redding, and a friend or two more; as I
+did, after I arrived, last night, though I was compelled to leave them
+my sleigh and horses to bring them over, which accounts for my begging
+a passage with you. So, you see, that if this beggarly rabble offer to
+make any disturbance, I shall be prepared to teach them the cost of
+attempting to put down the king's court."
+
+"Things are getting to a strange pass among these deluded people, that
+is certain. I cannot, however, yet believe them so infatuated as to
+take this step. But if they should, decided measures should be
+taken--such, indeed, as shall silence this alarming spirit at once and
+forever."
+
+"I hope," observed Miss Haviland, who had been a silent but attentive
+listener to the dialogue, "I hope no violence is really intended,
+either on the part of the authorities or their opponents. But what do
+these people complain of? There must be some cause, by which they, at
+least, think themselves justified in the movement, surely. Do they
+consider themselves aggrieved by any past decisions of the court?"
+
+"O, there are grumblers enough, doubtless, in that respect," answered
+the sheriff. "And among other things, they complain that their
+property is taken and sold to pay their honest debts, when money is so
+scarce, they say, that they cannot pay their creditors in
+currency--just as if the court could make money for the idle knaves!
+But that is mere pretence. They have other motives, and those, too, of
+a more dangerous character to the public peace."
+
+"And what may those motives be, if it be proper for me to inquire,
+sir?" resumed the fair questioner.
+
+"Why, in the first place," replied the sheriff, "they have an old and
+inveterate grudge against New York, whose jurisdiction they are much
+predisposed to resist. But to this they might have continued to demur
+and submit, as they have done this side of the mountain, had New York
+adopted the resolves of the Continental Congress of last December, and
+come into the _American Association_, as it is called, which has no
+less for its object, in reality, than the entire overthrow of all
+royal authority in this country. But as our colony has nobly refused
+to do this, they are now intent on committing a double treason--that
+of making war on New York and the king too."
+
+"Well, I should have little suspected," remarked Haviland, "that the
+people of this section, who have shown themselves commendably
+conservative, for the most part, had any intention of yielding to the
+mob-laws of Ethan Allen, Warner, and others, who place the laws of New
+York at defiance on the other side of the mountains; and much less
+that they would heed the resolves of that self-constituted body of
+knaves, ignoramuses, and rebels, calling themselves the Continental
+Congress."
+
+"Are you not too severe on that body of men, father?" said Miss
+Haviland, lifting her expressive eye reprovingly to the face of the
+speaker. "I have recently read over a list of the members of the
+Congress; when I noticed among them the names of men, who, but a short
+time since, stood very high, both for learning and worth, as I have
+often heard you say yourself. Now, what has changed the characters of
+these men so suddenly?"
+
+"Why is it, Sabrey," said the old gentleman, with an air of petulance,
+and without deigning any direct answer to the troublesome
+question,--"why is it that you cannot take the opinion of your
+friends, who know so much more than you do about these matters,
+instead of raising, as I have noticed you have lately seemed inclined
+to do, questions which seem to imply doubts of the correctness of the
+measures of our gracious sovereign and his wise ministers?"
+
+"Why, father," replied the other, with an ingenuous, but somewhat
+abashed look, "if I have raised such questions, in relation to the
+quarrel between the colonies and the mother country, I have gone on
+the ground that the party which has the most right on its side would,
+of course, have the best reasons for its measures; and as I have not
+always been able to perceive good reasons for all the king's measures,
+I had supposed you would be proud to give them."
+
+The old gentleman, though evidently disturbed and angry at this reply,
+did not seem inclined to push the debate any further with his
+daughter. The other gentlemen, also, looked rather glum; and for many
+moments not a word was spoken; when the other young lady, who had not
+yet spoken, after glancing round on the gentlemen in seeming
+expectation that those better reasons would be given, at length
+ventured to remark,--
+
+"Well, for my part, it is enough for me that my friends all belong to
+the loyal party; and whatever might be said, I know I should always
+feel that they were in the right, and their opposers in the wrong."
+
+"And in that, Jane, I think you are wise," responded Jones, with an
+approving smile. "The complaints of these disaffected people are based
+on mistaken notions. They are too ill informed, I fear, to appreciate
+the justice and necessity of the measures of our ministers, or to
+understand very clearly what they are quarrelling about."
+
+"Ah, that is it," warmly responded Haviland. "That is what I have
+always said of them. They don't understand their own rights, or what
+is for their own good, and should be treated accordingly. And I think
+some of our leading men miss it in trying to reason with them. Reason
+with them! Ridiculous! As if the common people could understand an
+argument!"
+
+"You are perfectly right, squire," responded Peters, with eager
+promptness. "My own experience among the lower classes fully confirms
+your opinion. My business, for several years past, has brought me
+often in contact with them, in a certain quarter; and I have found
+them not only ignorant of what properly belongs to their own rights
+and privileges, but jealous and obstinate to a degree that is
+excessively annoying."
+
+"Friend Peters probably alludes to his experience in the great
+republic of Guilford," said Jones, archly.
+
+"There and elsewhere," rejoined the former; "though I have seen quite
+enough of republicanism _there_, for my purpose. One year, the party
+outvoting their opponents, and coming into power, upsets every thing
+done by their predecessors. The next year the upsetters themselves get
+upset; and all the measures they had established are reversed for
+others no better; and so they go on from year to year, forever
+quarrelling and forever changing."
+
+"And yet, Peters," resumed Jones, banteringly, "I doubt whether _you_
+have been much the loser by their quarrels."
+
+"How so, Mr. Jones?" asked Haviland, who noticed that Peters had
+answered only by a significant smile.
+
+"Why, you know, Squire Haviland," replied Jones, "that I have been on
+to attend several of the last sessions of your court, as the agent of
+Secretary Fanning, [Footnote: Edward Fanning, secretary to Governor
+Tryon, New York, before the revolution, obtained, by an act of
+favoritism from his master, a grant of the township of Stratton,
+which, in 1780, Fanning having been appointed a colonel of a regiment
+of tories, was confiscated, and re-granted, by the legislature of
+Vermont, to William Williams and others. Kent, afterwards Londonderry,
+which had been granted to James Rogers, who has been introduced, and
+who became a tory officer, was also, in like manner, confiscated and
+re-granted.] to see to his landed interests in this quarter. Well,
+friend Peters, here, who has gone considerably into land speculations
+east of the mountains, you know, had brought, it seems, several suits
+for the possession of lands, mostly in this same Guilford; and among
+the rest, one for a right of land in possession of a sturdy young
+log-roller, whom they called Harry Woodburn, who appeared in court in
+his striped woollen frock, and insisted on defending his own case, as
+he proceeded to do with a great deal of confidence. But when he came
+to produce his deed for the land he contended was his own, it was
+found, to his utter astonishment, to bear a later date than the one
+produced by Peters. This seemed to settle the case against him. But he
+appeared to have no notion of giving up so; and, by favor of court,
+the further hearing of the case was deferred a day or two, to enable
+him to procure the town records, which, he contended, would show the
+priority of his deed. So he posted back to Guilford for the purpose;
+but, on arriving there, found, to his dismay, that the records were
+nowhere to be found. One of the belligerent parties of that town, it
+seems, had broken into the clerk's office, stolen the records, and
+buried them somewhere in the ground. The fellow, therefore, had to
+return, and submit to a judgment against him. Still, however, he clung
+to his case, and obtained a review of it, in expectation that the
+records would be found before the next court. But the poor fellow
+seemed doomed to disappointment. At the next court, no records were
+forthcoming; and though he defended his case with great zeal, he was
+thrown in his suit again; when he concluded, I suppose, to yield to
+his fate without further ado."
+
+"Not by any means," said Peters, in a tone of raillery. "He has
+petitioned for a new trial; and the question is to come on at this
+court."
+
+"Indeed!" exclaimed Jones, laughing. "Well, I must confess I have
+never seen so much dogged determination exhibited in so hopeless a
+case. And I really could not help admiring the fellow's spirit and
+uncultured force of mind, as much misapplied as, of course, I suppose
+it to have been. Your lawyer, Stevens, really appeared, once or twice,
+to be quite annoyed at his home thrusts; while lawyer Knights, or
+Rough-hewn Sam, as they call him, who, either from a sly wish to see
+his friend Stevens bothered, or from a real wish to help Harry,
+volunteered to whisper a few suggestions in his ear occasionally, sat
+by, and laughed out of his eyes, till they ran over with tears, to see
+a court lawyer so hard pushed by a country bumpkin."
+
+"Pooh! you make too much of the fellow," said Peters, with assumed
+contempt. "Why, he is a mere obstinate boor, whose self-will and
+vanity led him to set up and persevere in a defence in which he knows
+there is neither law nor justice."
+
+"And yet, Mr. Peters," observed Miss Haviland, inquiringly, "the young
+man must have known that he was making great expense for himself, in
+obtaining delays and new trials, in the hope that the lost records
+would be found. If he was not very confident those records would have
+established his right, why should he have done this?"
+
+"O, that was a mere pretence about the records altering the case,
+doubtless," replied Peters, with the air of one wishing to hear no
+more on the subject.
+
+"It may have been so," rejoined the former, doubtfully; "but I should
+have hardly inferred it from Mr. Jones's description of the man and
+his conduct."
+
+"Nor I," interposed the other lady, playfully, but with considerable
+spirit. "Mr. Jones has really excited my curiosity by his account of
+this young plough-jogger. I should like to get a sight of
+him--shouldn't you, Sabrey?"
+
+But the latter, though evidently musing on the subject, and mentally
+discussing some unpleasant doubts and inferences which it seemed to
+present to her active mind, yet evaded the question, and turned the
+conversation, by directing the attention of her companion and the rest
+of the company to a distant object in the wild landscape, which here
+opened to their view. This was the tall, rugged mountain, which,
+rising from the eastern shore of the Connecticut, was here, through an
+opening in the trees, seen looming and lifting its snowy crest to the
+clouds, and greeting the gladdened eyes of the way-worn travellers
+with the silent but welcome announcement that they were now within a
+few miles of the great river, and in the still more immediate vicinity
+of their intended halting-place--the thriving little village which was
+then just starting into life, under the auspices of the man from whom
+its name was derived--the enterprising Colonel Brattle, of Massachusetts.
+
+Having now the advantage of a road, which, as it received the many
+concentrating paths of a thicker settlement, here began to be
+comparatively firm, the travellers passed rapidly over the descending
+grounds, and, in a short time, entered the village. As they were
+dashing along towards the village inn, at a full trot, a man, with a
+vehicle drawn by one horse, approaching in an intersecting road from
+the south, struck into the same street a short distance before them.
+His whole equipment was very obviously of the most simple
+character,--a rough board box, resting on four upright wooden pins
+inserted into a couple of saplings, which were bent up in front for
+runners--the whole making what, in New England phrase, is termed a
+_jumper_, constituted his sleigh. And this vehicle was drawn by a long
+switch-tailed young pony, whose unsteady gait, as he briskly ambled
+along the street, pricking up his ears and veering about at every new
+object by the way-side, showed him to be but imperfectly broken. The
+owner of this rude contrivance for locomotion was evidently some young
+farmer from the neighboring country. But although his dress and mode
+of travelling seemed thus to characterize him, yet there was that in
+his personal appearance, as plain as was his homespun garb, which was
+calculated to command at once both attention and respect. And as he
+now rose and stood firmly planted in his sleigh, occasionally looking
+back to watch the motions of the team behind him, with his long,
+toga-like woollen frock drawn snugly over his finely-sloping shoulders
+and well-expanded bust, and closely girt about at the waist by a
+neatly-knotted Indian belt, while the flowing folds below streamed
+gracefully aside in the wind, he displayed one of those compact,
+shapely figures, which the old Grecian sculptors so delighted to
+delineate. And in addition to these advantages of figure, he possessed
+an extremely fine set of features, which were shown off effectively by
+the profusion of short, jetty locks, that curled naturally around his
+white temples and his bold, high forehead.
+
+"Miss McRea--Jane," said Jones, turning round to the amiable girl, and
+tapping her on the shoulder, with the confiding smile and tender
+playfulness of the accepted lover, as he was,--"Jane, you said, I
+think, that you should like to get a sight of that spunky opponent of
+Mr. Peters, whom we were talking of a little while since--did you not?"
+
+"O, yes, yes, to be sure I did," replied the other briskly; "but why
+that question, just at this time?"
+
+"Because, if I do not greatly mistake, that man who is pushing on
+before us, in yon crazy-looking establishment, is the self-same young
+fellow. Is it not so, Peters?"
+
+"I have not noticed him particularly, nor do I care whether it is he
+or not," answered Peters, with an affected indifference, with which
+his uneasy and frowning glances, as he kept his eye keenly fixed on
+the person in question, but illy comported. "Well that is the
+fellow--that is Harry Woodburn, you may rely on it, ladies," rejoined
+Jones, gayly, as he faced about in his seat.
+
+Both young ladies now threw intent and curious glances forward on the
+man thus pointed out to them, till they caught, as they did the next
+moment, a full and fair view of his personal appearance; when they
+turned and looked at each other with expressions of surprise, which
+plainly indicated that the object of their thoughts was quite a
+different person from what they had been led to expect.
+
+"His dress, to be sure, _is_ rather coarse," observed Miss Haviland to
+her companion, in a low tone; "but he is no boor; nor can every one
+boast of--" Here she threw a furtive glance at Peters, when she
+appeared to read something in his countenance which caused her to
+suspend the involuntary comparison which was evidently passing in her
+mind, and to keep her eye fixed on his motions.
+
+The arrogant personage last named, wholly unconscious of this
+scrutiny, now began to incite his horses afresh, frequently applying
+the lash with unwonted severity, and then suddenly curbing them in,
+till the spirited animals became so frantic that they could scarcely
+be restrained from dashing off at a run. The young farmer, in the mean
+while, finding himself closely pressed by those behind him, without
+any apparent disposition on their part to turn out and pass by him,
+now veered partly out of the road, to give the others, with the same
+change in their course to the opposite side, an opportunity, if they
+chose, of going by, as might easily have been done with safety to all
+concerned.
+
+"Mr. Peters!" suddenly exclaimed Miss Haviland, in a tone of energetic
+remonstrance, at the same time catching at his arm, as if to restrain
+him from some intended movement, which her watchful eye had detected.
+
+This appeal, however, which was rather acted than spoken, was
+unheeded, or came too late; for, at that instant, the chafing and
+maddened horses dashed furiously forward, directly over the exposed
+corner of the young man's vehicle, which, under the iron-bound feet of
+the fiercely-treading animals, and the heavy sleigh runners that
+followed, came down with a crash to the ground, leaving him barely
+time to clear himself from the wreck, by leaping forward into the
+snow. Startled by the noise behind him, the frightened pony made a
+sudden but vain effort to spring forward with the still connected
+remains of the jumper, which were, at the instant confined down by the
+passing runners of the large sleigh; when snorting and wild with
+desperation, he reared himself upright on his hinder legs, and fell
+over backwards, striking, with nearly the whole weight of his body,
+upon his doubled neck, which all saw at a glance was broken by the fall.
+
+With eyes flashing with indignation, young Woodburn bounded forward to
+the head of the aggressing team, boldly seized the nearest horse by
+his nostrils and bridle curb, and, in spite of his desperate rearing
+and plunging, under the rapidly applied whip of the enraged driver,
+soon succeeded, by daring and powerful efforts, in bringing him and
+his mate to a stand.
+
+"Let go there, fellow, on your peril!" shouted Peters, choking with
+rage at his defeat in attempting to ride over and escape his bold
+antagonist.
+
+"Not till I know what all this means, sir!" retorted Woodburn, with
+unflinching spirit.
+
+"Detain us if you dare, you young ruffian!" exclaimed the sheriff,
+protruding his harsh visage from one side of the sleigh. "Begone! or I
+will arrest you in the king's name, sir!"
+
+"You will show your warrant for it first, Mr. Sheriff," replied the
+former, turning to Patterson with cool disdain. "I have nothing to do
+with you, sir; but I hold this horse till the outrage I have just
+received is atoned for, or at least explained."
+
+"My good friend," interposed Jones, in a respectful manner, "you must
+not suppose we have designedly caused your disaster. Our horses, which
+are high-mettled, as you see, took a sudden start, and the mischief
+was done before they could be turned or checked."
+
+"Now, let go that horse, will you, scoundrel?" again exclaimed Peters,
+still chafing with anger, but evidently disturbed and uneasy under the
+cold, searching looks of the other.
+
+"Hear me first, John Peters!" replied Woodburn, with the same
+determined manner as before. "I care not for your abusive epithets,
+and have only to say of them, that they are worthy of the source from
+which they proceed. But you have knowingly and wickedly defrauded me
+of my farm; unless I obtain redress, as I little expect, from a court
+which seems so easily to see merits in a rich man's claim. Yes, you
+have defrauded me, sir, out of my hard-earned farm; and there," he
+continued, pointing to his gasping horse,--"there lies nearly half of
+all my remaining property--dead and gone! ay, and by your act, which,
+from signs I had previously noticed, and from the tones of that young
+lady's exclamation at the instant, (and God bless her for a heart
+which could be kind in such company,) I shall always believe was
+wilfully committed. And if I can make good my suspicions and a court
+of law will not give me justice, I will have it elsewhere! There, sir,
+go," he added, relinquishing his hold on the horse, and stepping
+aside,--"go! but remember I claim a future reckoning at your hands!"
+
+The sleigh now passed on to the yard of the inn, where the company
+alighted, and soon disappeared within its doors, leaving the young man
+standing alone in the road, gazing after them with that moody and
+disquieted kind of countenance which usually settles on the face on
+the subsidence of a strong gust of passion.
+
+"Poor pony!" he at length muttered, sadly, as, rousing himself, he now
+turned towards his petted beast, that lay dead in his rude
+harness,--"poor pony! But there is no help for you now, nor for me
+either, I fear, as illy as I can afford to lose you. But it is not so
+much the loss, as the manner--the manner!" he repeated, bitterly, as
+he proceeded to undo the fastenings of the tackle, with the view of
+removing the carcass and the broken sleigh from the road.
+
+While he was thus engaged, a number of men, most of them his townsmen,
+who being, like himself, on their way to court, had stopped at the
+inn, or store, near by, where the noise of the fray had aroused them,
+now came hastening to the spot.
+
+"What is all this, Harry?" exclaimed the foremost, as he came up and
+threw a glance of surprise and concern on the ruins before him.
+
+"You can see for yourselves," was his moody reply, as others now
+arrived, and, with inquiring looks, gathered around him.
+
+"Yes, yes; but how was it done?"
+
+"John Peters, who just drove up to the tavern, yonder, with a load of
+court gentry, run over me--that's all," he answered, with an air that
+showed his feelings to be still too much irritated to be
+communicative.
+
+But the company, among whom he seemed to be a favorite were not to be
+repulsed by a humor for which they appeared to understand how to make
+allowance, but continued to press him with inquiries and soothing
+words, till their manifestations of sympathy and offers of assistance
+had gradually won him into a more cheerful mood; when, throwing off
+his reserve, he thanked them kindly, and frankly related what he knew
+of the affair, the particulars of which obviously produced a deep
+sensation among the listeners. All present, after hearing the recital
+of the facts, and on coupling them with the well-known disposition of
+Peters, and his previous injuries to Woodburn, at once declared their
+belief that the aggression was intentional, and warmly espoused this
+cause of their outraged friend and townsman. A sort of council of war
+was then holden; the affair was discussed and set down as another item
+in the catalogue of injuries and oppressions of which the court party
+had been guilty. Individuals were despatched into all the nearest
+houses, and elsewhere, for the purpose of discovering what evidence
+might be obtained towards sustaining a prosecution. It was soon
+ascertained, however, that no one had seen the fracas, except the
+parties in interest,--all Peters's company being so accounted,--and
+that, consequently, no hope remained of any legal redress. On this,
+some proposed measures of club-law retaliation, some recommended
+reprisals on the same principle, and others to force Peters, as soon
+as he should appear in the street, to make restitution for the loss he
+had occasioned. And so great was the excitement, that had the latter
+then made his appearance,--which, it seemed, he was careful not to
+do,--it is difficult to say what might have been his reception. But
+contrary to the expectations of all, Woodburn, who had been
+thoughtfully pacing up and down the road, a little aloof from the
+rest, during the discussion, now came forward, and, in a firm and
+manly manner, opposed all the propositions which had been made in his
+behalf.
+
+"No," said he, in conclusion, "such measures will not bear thinking
+of. I threatened him myself with something of the kind you have
+proposed. But a little reflection has convinced me I was wrong; for
+should I take this method of obtaining redress, nowever richly he
+might deserve it at my hands, I should but be doing just what I
+condemn in him, and thus place myself on a level with him in his
+despicable conduct. No, we will let him alone, and give him all the
+rope he will take; and if he don't hang for his misdeeds, he will
+doubtless, by his conduct, aid in hastening on the time, which, from
+signs not to be mistaken, cannot, I think, be far distant, when a
+general outbreak will place him, and all like him, who have been
+riding over us here rough-shod for years, in a spot where he and they
+will need as much of our pity as they now have of our hatred and fear."
+
+"Ay, ay," responded several, with significant nods and looks; "that
+time will come, and sooner than they dream of."
+
+"And then," said one, "it will not be with us as it was with one last
+fall; when, just as the winter was coming on, and milk was half our
+dependence for the children, our only cow was knocked off by a winking
+sheriff, for eleven and threepence, to this same Peters."
+
+"Nor as it was with me," said another poorly-clad man of the crowd,
+"when for a debt, which, before it was sued, was only the price of a
+bushel of wheat I bought to keep wife and little ones from starving,
+my pair of two-year-olds and seven sheep were all seized and sold
+under the hammer, for just enough to pay the debt and costs, to Squire
+Gale, the clerk of the court, who is another of those conniving big
+bugs, who are seen going round with the sheriff, at such times, with
+their pockets full of money to buy up the poor man's property for a
+song, though never a dollar will they lend him to redeem it with"
+
+"No, my friends," said a tall, stout, broad-chested man, with a clear,
+frank, and fearless countenance, who, having arrived at the spot as
+Woodburn began to speak, had been standing outside of the crowd,
+silently listening to the remarks of the different speakers,--"no, my
+friends; when the time just predicted arrives, it will no longer be as
+it has been with _any_ of us. We shall _then_, I trust, all be allowed
+to exercise the right which, according to my notions, we have from
+God--that of choosing our own rulers, who, then, would be men from
+among ourselves, knowing something about the wants and wishes of the
+people, and willing to provide for their distresses in times like
+these. I have little to say about individual men, or their acts of
+oppression; for such men and such acts we may expect to see, so long
+as this accursed system of foreign rule is suffered to remain. We had
+better, therefore, not waste much of our ammunition on this or that
+tool of royalty, but save it for higher purposes. And, for this
+reason, I highly approve of the course that my young neighbor,
+Woodburn, has just taken, in _his_ case; although, from what I have
+heard I suspect it was an outrageous one."
+
+"Thank you, thank you, Colonel Carpenter," said Woodburn, coming
+forward and cordially offering the other his hand; "the approbation of
+a man like you more than reconciles me to the course which, I confess,
+cost me a hard struggle to adopt."
+
+"Ay, you were right, Harry," rejoined the former, "though a hard
+matter to bear; and though I am willing this, and all such outrages,
+should go in to swell the cup of our grievances, that it may the
+sooner overflow, yet you were right; and it was spoken, too, like a
+man. But let me suggest, whether you, and all present, had not better
+now disperse. The powers that be will soon have their eyes upon us,
+and I would rather not excite their jealousy, at this time, on account
+of certain measures we have in contemplation, which I will explain to
+you hereafter."
+
+"Your advice is good," returned Woodburn, "and I will see that it is
+followed, as soon as I can find some one to dispose of the body of my
+luckless pony; for then I propose to throw the harness into some
+sleigh, and join such of the company here as are on foot on their way
+to court."
+
+"Put your harness aboard my double sleigh standing in the tavern yard
+yonder, Harry. And I am sorry I have too much of a load to ask you to
+ride yourself. But where shall I leave the arness?"
+
+"At Greenleaf's store, at the river, if you will; for I conclude you
+are bound to Westminster, as well as the rest of us."
+
+"I am, and shall soon be along after you, as I wish to go through
+to-night, if possible, being suspicious of a flood, that may prevent
+me from getting there with a team, by to-morrow. Neither the rain nor
+thaw is over yet, if I can read prognostics. How strong and hot this
+south wind blows! And just cast your eye over on to West River
+mountain, yonder--how rapidly those long, ragged masses of fog are
+creeping up its sides towards the summit! That sign is never failing."
+
+Woodburn's brief arrangements were soon completed; when he and his
+newly-encountered foot companions, each provided with a pair of
+rackets, or snow-shoes,--articles with which foot-travellers, when the
+snow was deep, often, in those times, went furnished,--took up their
+line of march down the road leading to the Connecticut, leaving Peters
+and his company, as well as all others who had teams, refresing
+themselves or their horses at the village inn.
+
+But, before we close this chapter, in order that the reader not versed
+in the antiquarian lore of those times may more clearly understand
+some of the allusions of the preceding pages, and also that he may not
+question the probability that such a company as we have introduced
+should be thus brought together, and be thus on their way to a court
+so far into the interior of a new settlement, it may not be amiss here
+to observe, that the sale and purchase of lands in Vermont at this
+period constituted one of the principal matters of speculation among
+men of property, not only those residing here, but those residing in
+the neighboring colonies, and especially in that of New York; and that
+the frequent controversies, arising out of disputed titles, made up
+the chief business of the court, which, on the erection of a new
+county by the legislature of New York, embracing all the south-eastern
+part of the _Grants_, and known by the name of Cumberland, had here,
+several years before, been established. And it was business of this
+kind, and the personal, in addition to the political, interest they
+had in sustaining a court, the judges of which were themselves said to
+be engaged in these speculations, and therefore expected to favor, as
+far as might be decent, their brother speculators, that led to the
+journey of the present company of loyalists, consisting as before
+seen, of Haviland, a large landholder of Bennington; Peters, an
+unconscientious speculator in the same kind of property, belonging to
+a noted family of tories of that name, residing in Pownal, and an
+adjoining town in New York; and Jones, the agent of Fanning, from the
+vicinity of Fort Edward; the fated Miss McRea, of sad historical
+memory, from the same place, having been induced to come on with her
+lover, at the previous solicitation of her friend, Miss Haviland, to
+join her, her father, and Peters, to whom she was affianced in their
+proposed excursion over the mountains to court.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+  "Now forced aloft, bright bounding through the air
+   Moves the bleak ice, and sheds a dazzling glare;
+   The torn foundations on the surface ride,
+   And wrecks of winter load the downward tide."
+
+
+After travelling a short distance in the road, Woodburn and his
+companions halted, put on their snow-shoes, and, turning out to the
+left into the woods, commenced, with the long, loping step peculiar to
+the racket-shod woodsman, their march over the surface of the
+untrodden snow. The road just named, which formed the usual route from
+the village they had quitted to their place of destination, led first
+directly to the Connecticut, in an easterly direction, and then,
+turning to the north, passed up the river near its western banks, thus
+describing in its course a right angle, at the point of which, resting
+on the river, stood the store of Stephen Greenleaf, the first, and,
+for a while, the only merchant in Vermont; whose buildings, with those
+perhaps of one or two dependants, constituted the then unpromising
+nucleus around which has since grown up the wealthy and populous
+village of East Brattleborough. Such being the course of the travelled
+route, it will readily be seen, that the main object of our foot
+company, in leaving it, was the saving of distance, to be effected by
+striking across this angle to some eligible point on the northern
+road. Arid they accordingly pitched their course so as to enter the
+road near its intersection with the Wantastiquet, or West River,--one
+of the larger tributaries of the Connecticut,--which here comes
+lolling down from the eastern side of the Green Mountains, and pours
+its rock-lashed and rapid waters into the comparatively quiet bosom of
+the ingulfing stream below.
+
+After a walk of about half an hour, through alternating fields and
+forest, they arrived, as they had calculated, at the banks of the
+tributary above named, where it was crossed on the ice by the winter
+road, which, owing to the failure of the rude bridge near the mouth of
+the stream, and the difficulty of descending the bank in its immediate
+vicinity, had been broken out through the adjoining meadow and over
+the river at this point, which was consequently a considerable
+distance above the ordinary place of crossing.
+
+On reaching this spot, it was found that the flood, which, on the high
+grounds, where we have last been taking the reader, was but little
+observable, had made, and was evidently still making, a most rapid
+progress. The rising waters had already forced themselves through the
+small but constantly widening outlets of their strong, imprisoning
+barriers, and were beginning to hurry along, in two dark, turbid
+streams, over the surface of the ice, beneath the opposite banks,
+where it was still too strongly confined to the roots and frozen earth
+to permit of its rising; while the uplifting mass, in the middle of
+the river, had nearly attained the level of the surrounding meadows.
+And, although the main body still remained unbroken, yet the deep,
+dull reports that rose in quick succession to the ear from the
+cracking mass in every direction around, and the sharp, hissing,
+gurgling sounds of the water, which was gushing violently upwards
+through the fast multiplying fissures, together with the visible,
+tremor-like agitation that pervaded the whole, plainly evinced that it
+could not long withstand the tremendous pressure of the laboring
+column of waters beneath.
+
+The travellers, who were not to be turned back by a foot or two of
+water in their path over the ice, so long as the foundation remained
+firm, drew up a long spruce pole from a neighboring fence, and,
+shooting it forward through the first stream of water, passed over
+upon it to the uncovered ice; and then, drawing their spar-bridge to
+the water next the other bank, went through the same process, till
+they had all reached the opposite shore unwet and in safety.
+
+Here they again paused to note the appearance of the disturbed
+elements; for, in addition to the threatening aspect which the river
+was here fast assuming, a slight trembling of the ground began
+occasionally to be perceptible; while unusual sounds seemed to come
+mingling from a distance, with the roaring of the wind and the noise
+of rushing waters, as if earth, air, and water were all joining their
+disturbed forces for some general commotion.
+
+"The water and ice are strangely agitated, it appears to me," observed
+Woodburn to his companions, as they stood looking on the scene before
+them. "See how like a pot the water boils up through that crevice
+yonder! Then hear that swift, lumbering rush of the stream beneath!
+The whole river, indeed, seems fairly to groan, like some huge animal
+confined down by an insupportable burden, from which it is laboring to
+free itself. I have noticed such appearances, I think, when the ice
+was on the point of breaking up; but that can hardly be the case here,
+at present can it?"
+
+"On the point of breaking up, now?" said one of the company in reply.
+"No, indeed! Why, the ice is more than three feet thick, and as sound
+and solid as a rock. Should it rain from this time till to-morrow
+noon, it won't start."
+
+"Well, now, I don't know about that," remarked an observant old
+settler, who had been silently regarding the different portents to
+which we have alluded. "I don't know about the ice staying here twenty
+hours, or even one. This has been no common thaw, that we have had for
+the last six or eight hours, let me tell you."
+
+"And still," observed Woodburn, "I should not think the water high
+enough as yet to cause a breaking up, should you?"
+
+"With a slow rise, and in a still time, perhaps not, Harry. But when
+the water is rising rapidly, as now, and especially if there is a
+strong wind, like this, to increase the motion, as it does either by
+outward pressure, or by forcing the air through the chinks in under
+the ice, I have always noticed that the stream acts on the ice at a
+much less height, and much more powerfully, than when the rise is slow
+and the weather calm."
+
+"Then you look upon the appearances I named as indications that such
+an event is soon to take place here, do you?"
+
+"I do, Harry, much sooner than you are expecting; for the signs you
+name are not the only ones which tell that story, as I will soon
+convince you all, if you will be still and listen a moment."
+
+This remark caused the company to pause and place themselves in a
+listening attitude.
+
+"There," resumed the speaker, pointing up to the bold, shaggy steeps
+of the mountain, which we have before alluded to, and which, from the
+opposite side of the Connecticut, and within a few furlongs from the
+spot where they now stood, rose, half concealed in its "misty shroud,"
+like some huge battlement, to the heavens--"there! do you hear that
+dull roar, with occasionally a crashing sound, away up there among
+those clouds of fog near the top peaks of the mountain?"
+
+"Ay, ay, quite distinctly."
+
+"Well, that is an echo, which, strangely enough, we can hear when we
+can't the original sound, and which is made by the striking up there
+of the roar of the river above us; that of course must be open, having
+already broken up and got the ice in motion somewhere. But hark again!
+Now, don't you hear that rumbling noise? Can't you, now, both hear and
+feel those quick, irregular, deep, jarring sounds?"
+
+"Yes, plainly--very plainly, now--you are right. Sure enough, the ice
+in the river above us is on the move!" responded all, with excited looks.
+
+"To be sure it is; and from the noise it makes, it must be coming down
+upon us with the speed of a race-horse! Let us all to the hills, boys,
+where we can get a fair view of the spectacle."
+
+The company, accordingly, now all ran to gain the top of a neighboring
+swell, which commanded a view of West River for a long distance up the
+stream, as well as one of a considerable reach of the more distant
+Connecticut, both of which views were obstructed, at the spot they had
+just left, by a point of woods and turn in the river in the former
+instance, and by intervening hills in the latter.
+
+Among the many wild and imposing exhibitions of nature, peculiar to
+the mountainous regions of our northern clime, there is no one,
+perhaps, of more fearful magnificence, than that which is sometimes
+presented in the breaking up of one of our large rivers by a winter
+flood; when the ice, in its full strength, enormous thickness, and
+rock-like solidity, is rent asunder, with loud, crashing explosions,
+and hurled up into ragged mountains, and borne onward before the
+raging torrent with inconceivable force and frightful velocity,
+spreading devastation along the banks in its course, and sweeping away
+the strongest fabrics of human power which stand opposed to its
+progress, like the feeble weeds that disappear from the path of a
+tornado.
+
+Such a spectacle, as they reached their proposed stand, now burst on
+the view of the astonished travellers. As far as the eye could reach
+upwards along the windings of the stream, the whole channel was filled
+with the mighty mass of ice, driving down towards them with fearful
+rapidity, and tumbling, crashing, grinding, and forcing its way, as it
+came, with collisions that shook the surrounding forest, and with the
+din and tumult of an army of chariots rushing together in battle.
+Here, tall trees on the bank were beaten down and overwhelmed, or,
+wrenched off at the roots and thrown upwards, were whirled along on
+the top of the rushing volume, like feathers on the tossing wave.
+There, the changing mass was seen swelling up into mountain-like
+elevations, to roll onward a while, and, then gradually sinking away,
+be succeeded by another in another form; while, with resistless front,
+the whole immense moving body drove steadily on, ploughing and rending
+its way into the unbroken sheet of ice before it, which burst,
+divided, and was borne down beneath the boiling flood, or hurled
+upwards into the air, with a noise sometimes resembling the sounds of
+exploding muskets, and sometimes the crash of falling towers.
+
+But the noise of another and similar commotion in an opposite
+direction, now attracted their attention, They turned, and their eyes
+were greeted with a scene, which, though less startling from its
+distance, yet even surpassed, in picturesque grandeur, the one they
+had just been witnessing. Through the whole visible reach of the
+Connecticut, a long, white, glittering column of ice, with its ridgy
+and bristling top towering high above the adjacent banks, was sweeping
+by and onward, like the serried lines of an army advancing to the
+charge; while the broad valley around even back to the summits of the
+far-off hills, was resounding with the deafening din that rose from
+the extended line of the booming avalanche, with the deep rumblings of
+an earthquake mingled with the tumultuous roar of an approaching tempest.
+
+The attention of the company, however, was now drawn from this
+magnificent display of the power of the elements, by an object of more
+immediate interest to their feelings. This was an open double sleigh,
+approaching, on the opposite side of the river, towards the place at
+which they had just crossed over, in the manner we have described. The
+mountain mass of ice that was still forcing its way down the river
+before them, with increasing impetus, was now within three hundred
+yards of the pass, to which those in the sleigh were hastening, with
+the evident design of crossing. And though the latter, owing to a
+point of woods that intervened at a bend in the stream a short
+distance above, could not see the coming ice, yet they seemed aware of
+its dangerous proximity; for, as they now drove down to the edge of
+the water, they paused, and a large man, who appeared to have control
+of the team, rose to his feet, and with words that could not be
+distinguished in the roaring of the wind and the noise from the scene
+above, made an appealing gesture, which was readily understood by our
+foot travellers as an inquiry whether the team would have time to
+cross before the ice reached the spot.
+
+"It is Colonel Carpenter and his company," said Woodburn. "He will
+have no time to spare, but enough, I think, if he instantly improves
+it, to get safely over. He has smart horses, and is anxious to be on
+this side of the river. Let him come."
+
+Accordingly, they returned him encouraging gestures, which being seen
+and understood by him, he instantly whipped up his horses, and,
+forcing them on the ice, soon effected his passage in safety, and
+drove rapidly down the road, leading along the northern bank of the
+stream to Connecticut, the object of his speed being obviously to keep
+forward of the icy flood, which by his progress might otherwise be
+soon obstructed.
+
+"There," resumed Woodburn, breaking the silence with which he and his
+companions had been witnessing the rather hazardous passage of their
+friends,--"there, the colonel is well over; but his is the last sleigh
+to cross this year, unless it be drawn by winged horses."
+
+"Well, winged, or not winged, there is another, it seems, about to
+make the attempt," said one of the company, pointing across the river,
+where a covered double sleigh, with showy equipage was dashing at full
+speed down the road towards the stream.
+
+"It is a hostile craft!" "Peters and his gang!" "We owe them no
+favors!" "Let the enemy take care of themselves!" were the
+exclamations which burst from the recently-incensed group, as all eyes
+were now turned to the spot.
+
+"O, no! no!" exclaimed Woodburn, with looks of the most lively
+concern. "Be they foes or friends, they must not be suffered to enter
+upon that river. Why, the breaking ice has already nearly reached the
+bend, and unless it stops there, that path across the stream, within
+five minutes, will be as traceless as the ocean! Run down to the bank,
+and hail them!" he continued, turning to those around him. "I fear
+they would not listen to me. Will no one go to warn them against an
+attempt which must prove their destruction?" he added, reproachfully
+glancing around him.
+
+"Shall we interfere unasked?" said one, who was smarting under a sense
+of former injuries; "ay, and interfere, too, to save such a man as
+Peters, that he may go on robbing us of our farms?"
+
+"And save such a man as Sheriff Patterson, also, that he may hang the
+innocent and pious Herriot?" said another, bitterly.
+
+"And save them all, that they may keep up the court which will soon
+hang or rob the whole of us?" added a third, in the same spirit.
+
+"O, wrong--wickedly wrong! and, if no one will go, I must," cried
+Woodburn, turning hastily from the spot, and making his way down the
+hill towards the river with all the speed he was master of.
+
+A few seconds sufficed to bring him to the edge of the stream, when,
+in a voice that rose above the roar of the wind and waters around, he
+called on Peters, who was already urging his reluctant and snorting
+horses down the opposite bank into the water, warned him of the
+situation of the ice, and begged him, as he valued the lives of his
+friends, to desist from his perilous attempt.
+
+"Do you think to frighten me?" shouted Peters, who, perceiving the
+speaker to be his despised opponent, became suspicious, as the latter
+had feared, that the warning was but a _ruse_ to prevent him from
+going on that night,--"do you think to frighten me back, liar, when a
+heavy team has just passed safely over before my eyes?"
+
+And, in defiance of the timely caution he had received, and the
+warning sounds, of which his senses might have apprised him, had he
+paused a moment to listen, he furiously applied the whip, and plunged
+madly through the water towards the middle ice But as rapidly as he
+drove, the team had not passed over more than one third of the
+distance across, before he and all with him became fully aware of the
+fearful peril they had so recklessly incurred; for, at this critical
+moment, with awful brunt, the mountain wave of icy ruins came rolling
+round the screening point into full view, and not fifty yards above
+them. A cry of alarm at once burst from every occupant of the menaced
+vehicle and Peters, no less frightened than the rest, suddenly checked
+the horses, with the half-formed design of turning and attempting to
+regain the shore he had just left. But on glancing round, he beheld,
+to his dismay, the ice burst upward from its winter moorings along the
+shore, leaving between them and the bank a dark chasm of whirling
+waters, over which it were madness to think of repassing. At that
+instant, with a deep and startling report, the broad sheet of ice
+confining the agitated river burst asunder parted, and was afloat in a
+hundred pieces around them. Another piercing cry of terror and
+distress issued from the devoted sleigh and Miss Haviland, with an
+involuntary impulse at the fearful shock, leaped out on to the large
+cake of ice on which the sleigh and horses were resting. She seemed
+instantly to perceive her error; but before she could regain the
+sleigh, or even be caught by the extended hands of her friends, the
+frightened horses made a sudden and desperate lunge forward, and, with
+a speed that could neither be checked nor controlled, dashed onward
+over the dissevering mass, leaping from piece to piece of their
+sinking support, and each in turn falling in, to be drawn out by his
+mate, till they reached the shore, and rushed furiously up the bank,
+beyond the sweep of the dreadful torrent from which they had so
+miraculously escaped.
+
+"O God of heaven, have mercy on my daughter!" exclaimed Haviland, in a
+piteous burst of anguish, as he sprang out of the sleigh among the
+company, who, with horror-stricken looks, stood on the bank mutely
+gazing on the fast receding form of the luckless maiden, thus left
+behind, to be borne away, in all human probability, to speedy
+destruction.
+
+For a moment no one stirred or spoke, all standing amazed, and
+seemingly paralyzed at the thought of her awful situation having no
+hope of her rescue, and expecting every instant to see her crushed, or
+ingulfed among the ice that was wildly heaving and tumbling on every
+side around her. But fortunately for her, the broad, solid block, on
+which she had alighted, and on which she continued still to retain her
+stand, was, by the submerged and rising masses beneath, gradually and
+evenly forced upwards to the top of the column, with which it was
+moving swiftly down the current. And there she stood, like a marble
+statue on its pedestal, sculptured for some image of woe, her bonnet
+thrown back from her blanched features, and her loosened hair
+streaming wildly in the wind; while one hand was extended doubtfully
+towards the shore, and the other lifted imploringly to heaven, as if
+in supplication for that aid from above, which she now scarcely hoped
+to receive from her friends below.
+
+"O Sabrey, Sabrey! must you indeed perish?" at length burst
+convulsively from Miss McRea, in the most touching accents of distress.
+
+"Is there no help? Can no one save her?" added the agonized father.
+
+"Yes, save her--save her!" exclaimed Peters, now eagerly addressing
+the men he affected so to despise. "Can't some of you get on to the
+ice there, and bring her off? Five guineas to the man who will do it;
+yes, ten! Quick! run, run, or you'll be too late," he added, turning,
+from one to another, without offering to start himself.
+
+Throwing a look of silent scorn on his contemptible foe, Woodburn,
+having been anxiously casting about him in thought for some means of
+rescuing the ill-fated girl from her impending doom, now, with the air
+of one acting only on his own responsibility, hastily called on his
+companions to follow him, and led the way, with rapid strides, down
+along the banks of the stream, as near the main channel as the water
+and ice, already bursting over the banks into the road, would permit.
+But although he could easily keep abreast of the fair object of his
+anxiety, of whom he occasionally obtained such glimpses through the
+brushwood here lining the banks as to show him that she still retained
+her footing on the same block of ice, which still continued to be
+borne on with the surrounding mass, yet he could perceive no way of
+reaching her--no earthly means by which she could be snatched from the
+terrible doom that seemed so certainly to await her; for along the
+whole extent of the moving ice, and even many rods in advance of it,
+the water, dammed up, and forced from the choked channel, was gushing
+over the banks, and sweeping down by their sides in a stream that
+nothing could withstand. And, to add to the almost utter hopelessness
+with which he was compelled to view her situation, he now soon began
+to be admonished that she was immediately threatened by a danger from
+which she had thus far been so providentially preserved--that of being
+crushed or swallowed up at once in the broken ice. He could perceive,
+from the increasing commotion of the ice around her, that her hitherto
+level and unbroken support was growing every moment more insecure and
+uncertain. And as it rose and fell, or was pitched forward and thrown
+up aslant, in the changing volume, he could plainly hear her piteous
+shrieks, and see her flying from side to side of the plunging body, to
+avoid being hurled into the frightful chasms which were continually
+yawning to receive her.
+
+"Lost! lost!" he uttered with a sigh; "no earthly aid can now avail
+her. But stay! stay!" he continued, as his eye fell on the two or
+three remaining beams or string-pieces of the old bridge still
+extended across the river a short distance below. "If she reaches that
+place alive, and I can but gain the spot in time, I may yet save her.
+O Heaven, help me to the speed and the means of rescuing her from this
+dreadful death!"
+
+And calling loudly to his companions, whom he had already outstripped,
+to come on, he now set forward, with all possible speed, for the place
+which afforded the last chance for the poor girl's rescue. The banks
+of the river, at the point which it was now his object to gain, were
+so much more elevated than those above, that he had little fear of
+finding the path leading on to the bridge obstructed by the water. And
+it had glanced through his mind, as he descried this forgotten spot,
+and saw the remains of the bridge still standing, that the maiden
+might here be assisted to escape on to the bank, or be drawn up by a
+cord, or some other implement, to the top of the bridge, which, being
+high above the ordinary level of the water, would not probably be
+swept away by the ice, at least not till that part of it on which she
+was situated should have passed under it. There was an occupied log-house
+standing but a short distance from the place, and the owner, as
+Woodburn drew near, was, luckily, just making his appearance at the door.
+
+"A rope, a rope! be ready with a rope," shouted Woodburn, pointing to
+the scene of trouble, as soon as he could make himself understood by
+the wondering settler.
+
+The man, after a hurried glance from the speaker to the indicated
+scene, and thence to the bridge below, during which he seemed to
+comprehend the nature of the emergency, instantly disappeared within
+the door. In another moment Woodburn came up, and burst into the
+house, where he found the settler and his wife eagerly running out the
+rope of their bedstead, which had been hastily stripped of the bed and
+clothing, and the fastenings cut, for the purpose. The instant the
+rope was disengaged, was seized by the young man, who, bidding the
+other to follow, rushed out of the house, and bounded forward to the
+bridge, which they both reached just as the unbroken ice was here
+beginning to quake and move from the impulse of the vast body above,
+which, now scarcely fifty paces distant, was driving down, with
+deafening crash, towards them.
+
+"Thank Heaven, she yet lives, and is nearing us!" exclaimed Woodburn,
+as he ran out on to the partially covered beams of the bridge, where
+he could obtain a clear view of the channel above.
+
+She is there, hedged in, though as yet riding securely in the midst of
+that hideous jam, but, if not drawn up here, will be the next moment
+lost among the spreading mass, as it is disgorged into the Connecticut
+here below."
+
+"Shall we throw down an end of the rope for her to catch?" said the
+settler, hastening to Woodburn's side.
+
+"I dare not risk her strength to hold on to it; I must go down
+myself," said Woodburn, hurriedly knotting the two ends of the cord
+round his body. "Now stand by me, my friend. Brace yourself back
+firmly on this string-piece; let me down, and the instant I have
+secured her in my arms, draw us both up together."
+
+"I can let you down; but to draw you both up--" replied the other,
+hesitating at the thought of the hazardous attempt.
+
+"You must try it," eagerly interrupted the intrepid young man, "My
+friends will be here in a moment to aid you. There she comes! be
+ready! Now!"
+
+Accordingly, sliding over the edge of the bridge, Woodburn was
+gradually let down by the strong and steady hands of the settler, till
+he was swinging in the air, on a level with that part of the
+approaching mass on which stood the half-senseless object of his
+perilous adventure. The foremost of the broken ice was now sweeping
+swiftly by, just beneath his feet. Another moment, and she will be
+there! She evidently sees the preparation for her deliverance; a faint
+cry of joy escapes her lips, and her hands are extended towards the
+proffered aid. And now, riding high on the billowy column, she is
+borne on nearer and nearer towards those who wait, in breathless
+silence, for her approach. And now she comes--she is here! She is
+caught in the eager grasp of the brave youth; and, the next instant,
+by the giant effort of the strong man above them, they are together
+drawn up within a few feet of the bending and tottering bridge. But
+with all his desperate exertions, he can raise them no higher, and
+there they hang suspended over the dark abyss of whirling waters that
+had opened in the disrupturing mass beneath, at the instant, as if to
+receive them; while a mountain billow of ice, that must overwhelm them
+with certain destruction, is rolling down, with angry roar, within a
+few rods of the spot. A groan of despair burst from the exhausted man
+at the rope; and his grasp was about to give way.
+
+"Hold on there, an instant! one instant longer!" cried a loud voice on the
+right, where a tall, muscular form was seen bounding forward to the spot.
+
+"Quick, Colonel Carpenter! quick! O, for God's sake, quick!" exclaimed
+the settler, throwing an anguished and beseeching glance over his
+shoulder towards the other.
+
+The next instant, the powerful frame of the new-comer was bending over
+the grasped rope; and, in another, both preservers and preserved were
+on the bridge, from which they had barely time to escape, before it
+was swept away, with a loud crash, and borne off on the top of the
+mighty torrent. They were met on the bank by the companions of
+Woodburn, and the friends of the rescued maiden, who came
+promiscuously running to the spot; when loud and long were the gushing
+acclamations of joy and gratitude that rang wildly up to heaven at the
+unexpected deliverance.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+  "The king can make a belted knight,
+   Confer proud names, and a' that;
+   But pith of sense and pride of worth
+   Are brighter ranks than a' that."
+
+
+The village of Westminster yields, perhaps, in the tranquil and
+picturesque beauty of its location, to few others in New England. In
+addition to the advantage of a situation along the banks of that
+magnificent river, of which our earliest epic poet, Barlow, in his
+liquid numbers, has sung,
+
+  "No watery glades through richer valleys shine,
+   Nor drinks the sea a lovelier wave than thine,"
+
+it stands upon an elevated plain, that could scarcely have been made
+more level had it been smoothed and evened, by the instruments of art,
+to fit it for the arena of some vast amphitheatre, which the place,
+with the aid of a little fancy, may be very easily thought to
+resemble; for, from the principal street, which is nearly a mile in
+extent, broad and beautiful fields sweep away in every direction, till
+they meet, in the distance, that crescent-like chain of hills, by
+which, with the river, the place is enclosed.
+
+It was probably this natural beauty of the place, together with its
+proximity to the old fort at Walpole, at which a military
+establishment was once maintained by the government of New Hampshire
+for the protection of its frontier, that led to the early settlement
+and rapid growth of this charming spot, which, having been entered by
+the pioneers as far back as 1741, continued so to increase and prosper,
+though on the edge of a wilderness unbroken, for many years, for
+hundreds of miles on the north, that, at the opening of the American
+revolution, it was the most populous and best built village in Vermont.
+
+This place, at the period chosen for the beginning of our tale, had
+been, for several years, the seat of justice for all the southern part
+of this disputed territory, under the assumed jurisdiction of New
+York, in which a majority of the inhabitants seemed to have tacitly
+acquiesced. And the most prominent of its public buildings, as might
+be expected, was the Court House, embracing the jail under the same
+roof. This was a spacious square edifice conspicuously located, and of
+very respectable architecture for the times. The village, also,
+contained a meeting-house, school house, and the usual proportion of
+stores and taverns. The whole place, indeed, had now nearly passed
+into the second stage of existence, in American villages, when the
+pioneer log-houses have given place to the more airy and elegant
+framed buildings; and, compared with other towns, which, in this new
+settlement, were then just emerging from the wilderness, it wore quite
+an ancient appearance.
+
+Among the most commodious and handsome of the many respectable
+dwellings which had here been erected, was that of Crean Brush,
+Esquire, colonial deputy secretary of New York, and also an active
+member of the legislature of that colony for this part of her claimed
+territory. This house, at the sessions of the courts, especially, was
+the fashionable place of resort for what was termed the court party
+gentry, and other distinguished persons from abroad. To the interior
+of this well-furnished and affectedly aristocratic establishment, we
+will now repair, in order to resume the thread of our narrative.
+
+In an upper chamber of the house, at a late hour of the same evening
+on which occurred the exciting scenes described in the preceding
+pages, sat the two young ladies, to whom the reader has already been
+introduced, silently indulging in their different reveries before an
+open fire. They had safely arrived in town, about an hour before, with
+all their company, except Jones, who had been left at Brattleborough;
+and having been consigned to the family of this mansion, with whom
+they had formed a previous acquaintance at Albany, where Brush, the
+greater part of the year, resided, and where both of the young ladies
+were educated, they had taken some refreshment, and retired to the
+apartment prepared for their reception. The demeanor of these fair
+companions, always widely different, was particularly so at the
+present moment. Miss Haviland, with her chin gracefully resting on one
+folded hand, and her calm and beautiful, but now deeply-clouded brow,
+shaded by the white, taper fingers of the other, was abstractedly
+gazing into the glowing coals on the hearth before her, while the
+gentle, but less reflective McRea, with a countenance disturbed only
+by the passing emotions of sympathy that occasionally flitted over it,
+as she glanced at the downcast face of her friend, sat quietly
+preparing for bed, by removing her ornaments, and adjusting those
+long, golden tresses, with which, in after times, her memory was
+destined to become associated in the minds of tearful thousands, while
+reading the melancholy history of her tragic fate.
+
+"Come, Sabrey," at length said the latter, soothingly, "come, cheer
+up. I cannot bear to see you so dejected. I would not brood over that
+frightful scene any longer, but, feeling grateful and happy at my
+escape, would dismiss it as soon as possible from my mind."
+
+"I am, Jane," responded the other, partially rousing herself from her
+reverie; "I am both grateful and happy at my providential escape. But
+you are mistaken in supposing it is that scene which disquiets me
+to-night."
+
+"Indeed!" replied the former, with a look of mingled surprise and
+curiosity. "Why, I have been attributing your dejection and absence of
+mind, this evening, to that cause alone. What else can have occurred
+to disturb your thoughts to-night, let me ask?"
+
+"Jane, in confidence, I will tell you," replied Miss Haviland, looking
+the other in the face, and speaking in a low, serious tone. "It is the
+discovery which I have made, or at least think I have, this day, made,
+respecting the true character of one who should command, in the
+relation I stand with him, my entire esteem."
+
+"Mr. Peters? Though of course it is he to whom you allude. But what
+new trait have you discovered in him, to-day, that leads you to
+distrust his character?"
+
+"What I wish I had not; what I still hope I may be deceived in; but
+what, nevertheless, forces itself upon my mind, in spite of all my
+endeavors to resist it. You recollect Mr. Jones's account of the
+lawsuit, in which Mr. Peters succeeded in obtaining the farm of this
+Mr. Woodburn, whose gallant conduct we have all this afternoon
+witnessed?"
+
+"Yes, certainly."
+
+"Well, did you think that story, when rightly viewed, was very
+creditable to Mr. Peters?"
+
+"I am not sure I understood the case sufficiently to judge; did you?"
+
+"Well enough, Jane, with the significant winks that passed between
+Peters and the sheriff, to convince me that an unjust advantage had
+been taken. But perhaps I could have been brought to believe myself
+mistaken in this conclusion, had I seen nothing else to confirm it,
+and lower him still more in my esteem."
+
+"What else _did_ you see?
+
+"An exhibition of malice, Jane, which astonished as much as it pained
+me. That pretended accident, in running over Woodburn, was
+designed--nay, coolly designed."
+
+"Why, Sabrey Haviland! how can you talk, how can you believe, so about
+one whose betrothing ring is now on your finger?"
+
+"It is indeed painful to do so; but truth compels me."
+
+"Might you not have been mistaken?"
+
+"No; I saw the whole movement. I had been watching him some time, and
+I noticed how he prepared those fiery horses of his for a sudden
+spring, and saw the look of malicious exultation accompanying the
+final act. And even now, I shudder to think what guilt he might have
+incurred! Even as it resulted, only in the destruction of property,
+how can I help being shocked at the discovery of a secret disposition
+which could have prompted such a deed? O, how different has been the
+conduct of him who has thus been made the victim of his misusage!"
+
+"Different! Why, what has he done? I was not aware--"
+
+"True, I am reminded that I have not told you. That loquacious
+landlady, where we stopped to dine, told me, as we were coming away,
+that there had been a great excitement among the people in the street,
+about the outrage; and that Peters would certainly have been mobbed,
+if Woodburn had not interfered and prevented it."
+
+"Indeed! I should have hardly expected so much magnanimity in one of
+his class. It was truly a noble return for the injuries he had
+received from Peters."
+
+"Ay, and by this last act of saving my life, he has still more nobly
+revenged himself upon Peters, and upon us all."
+
+"Assisted to save you, I conclude you mean; for I heard Peters tell
+your father, that it was the settler who lived in the house near by,
+and Colonel Carpenter, who finally rescued you."
+
+"Did he tell my father that story, without mentioning Woodburn?" asked
+Miss Haviland, with a look of mingled surprise and displeasure.
+
+"Yes, as he came back to meet us with the news, while we were getting
+round with the sleigh to the spot."
+
+"Well, my father shall know the truth of the case; and Mr. Woodburn,
+though he did not boast of his services, nor even stay to give me an
+opportunity to thank him for what he had done, shall also know that we
+are not insensible to his gallant conduct; for, whatever they may say,
+Jane, I am indebted to him for my life. As dreadful as was my
+situation among that crashing mass of ice, with which I was borne
+onward down the stream, I saw all that was done. He led the way from
+the first, contrived the plan, and with the assistance of the
+hesitating settler, carried it into execution, with a promptitude that
+alone could have saved me. It is true, that we both must have perished
+but for the timely arrival of Colonel Carpenter; but that detracts
+nothing from the merits of Mr. Woodburn, who, as we hung suspended
+over that frightful abyss, I knew and felt, was throwing his life to
+the winds to save mine. O, why could it not have been, as I have often
+said to myself during our cheerless ride this evening,--why could it
+not have been Peters, to perform all that I have this day seen in that
+poor, despised, and persecuted young man?"
+
+"Why, Mr. Peters certainly appeared much alarmed, and anxious that
+something should be done to save you," replied Miss McRea, after a
+thoughtful pause, produced by the words and fervid manner of her
+companion.
+
+"Then why did he leave it to another to save me?" responded the
+former, severely.
+
+"That I do not know, certainly," replied the other; "but he at once
+bestirred himself, and I heard him offer five guineas, and I think he
+doubled the price the next moment, to any one who would go on to the
+ice and bring you off."
+
+"Five guineas!" exclaimed Miss Haviland, starting to her feet, with a
+countenance eloquent with scorn and contempt--"five guineas, and at a
+pinch, ten! What a singular fountain must that be, from which such a
+thought, at such a time, could have flowed! Had it been one of those
+favorite horses, it would have sounded well enough, perhaps, though I
+think he would have offered more. It is well, however, that I now know
+the price at which I am estimated," she added, bitterly.
+
+"It _does_ sound rather strangely, now you have named it," responded
+Miss McRea, abashed at the unexpected construction put on what she had
+communicated, and mortified and half vexed, that every attempt she had
+made to remove her friend's difficulties only made the matter worse:
+"it sounds oddly, to be sure, but I presume he did not mean any thing."
+
+"O, no, I dare say; nor did he do any thing, as I can learn, through
+the whole affair, except attempt to deprive Woodburn of the credit he
+had gained. Jane," she continued, with softened tone, "what would you
+have thought, had you been in my situation, and your lover had acted
+such a part?"
+
+"I should have thought--I don't know what I should have thought,"
+replied the other, with a feeling which showed how quickly the appeal
+had taken effect. "But I should have had no occasion to have any
+thought about it; for I _know_ he would have been the one to save me,
+or die with me. O, I wish Mr. Jones had come on with us, for had he
+been there, so good and so brave as he is, I am sure even you need not
+have become so deeply indebted to this low young fellow."
+
+"Low, Jane, low?" said the former, reprovingly. "Was it low to
+overlook so easily the injury and affront he had received from Peters,
+and then return good for evil? And was it low to rescue me from the
+raging flood, by exertions and risk of life, which would have done
+credit to the first hero in the land?"
+
+"O, no, not that; I did not mean that; for his conduct has been
+generous and noble indeed; and from the first, when I heard Mr.
+Jones's account of him, I was disposed to think highly of the man, for
+one in his situation of life. I only meant that he did not belong to
+our party, but was one of the lower classes of society."
+
+"It is true he may not belong to our party, Jane; but how much should
+that weigh in the argument? Perhaps at this very hour, two thirds of
+the American people would count it as weight to the other part of the
+balance. And even I, trained as I have been by and among the highest
+toned loyalists, wish I could help doubting that our party is the only
+one that has right and reason on its side. And as to the claim of
+belonging to what is called the first society, I can only say that I
+wish many, who are allowed that claim among us, were as worthy of the
+place as I think Woodburn is. I have always loved Justice for her
+beautiful self and hated her opposite; and I never could see how those
+who are guided by her and the kindred virtues, could be accounted low,
+or how, or why, those who lack these qualities could claim to be
+called high. Is it any wonder then, Jane, that I should feel troubled
+and distressed at discoveries which, in my mind, reverse the situation
+that my friends assign to the two individuals of whom we have been
+speaking?"
+
+"O, you are too much of a philosopher for me in all that," replied
+Jane, "Come, be a woman now, Sabrey, and I will discuss the matter
+with you, claiming, perhaps, a little, a very little, of the right of
+the confessor. I can easily understand how painful it would be to have
+doubts of the character of one's lover, and I can also understand,"
+she continued, looking a little archly, "how one, who did not love a
+suitor very hard, could feel grateful--yes, very grateful--to a
+good-looking young man who had behaved gallantly. And I have a good
+mind to half suspect--"
+
+"Hark!" interrupted the other, hurriedly, while a slight tinge became
+visible on her cheek--"hark! did you hear the striking of the house
+clock below? It is telling the hour of midnight. Let us dismiss these
+embarrassing thoughts, and retire to our repose. Your prospects,
+Jane," she continued, rising and speaking in a sad and gently
+expostulatory tone--"your prospects are bright with love and
+happiness; and it will be ungenerous and cruel in you to say aught
+which will deepen the shade that I fear is coming over mine."
+
+"O, I will not, Sabrey," warmly returned the kind-hearted Jane. "I did
+not intend it. Forgive me, do; and we will dismiss the subject for
+something which will give us pleasanter dreams, and then, as you say,
+go to rest and enjoy them."
+
+Leaving these fair friends to their slumbers, disquieted or sweetened
+by the various visions which the incidents of the day had been
+calculated to excite in the bosom of each, we will now repair to a
+lower apartment of the house, to note the doings of a select band of
+court dignitaries there assembled, for a purpose concerning which a
+spectator, at the first glance, might, from the appearances, be at a
+loss to decide whether it was one of revelry or secret consultation,
+so much did it partake of the character of both.
+
+Around a long table, well furnished with wine and glasses, sat a
+select company of gentlemen, whose dress and deportment denoted them
+to be persons of the first consequence. And such, indeed, may be said
+to have been the fact, till the present time, for the party embraced
+the judges and officers of the court, and such of the most stanch and
+influential of their supporters as could be convened for a special
+consultation, which, it was considered, the portents of the times
+demanded. Here was the aristocratic and haughty Brush, the host, and
+leading spirit of the party, with his florid face, cracking his jokes
+and ridiculing "the boorish settlers," in which he was sure to find a
+ready response in the boisterous laugh of Peters and other young
+supporters of the court and loyal party. Here, too, sat the fiery and
+profane Gale, the clerk of the court, with his thin, angular features,
+and forbidding brow, occasionally exploding with his short, bitter,
+barking laugh, as, with many an oath, he dealt out anticipated
+vengeance on all those who should dare cross the path of the
+established authorities. And here also was Chandler, the chief judge
+of the court, with his plausible manners, affectedly sincere look, and
+deferential smile, as he exchanged the whisper and meaning glance with
+his colleague, Judge Sabin, a stern, reserved, and bigoted loyalist,
+or as he nodded approbation to the remarks, whatever they might be, of
+those around him. These with Stearns, a tory lawyer of some note,
+Rogers, a tory land holder, Haviland, and a few others, all leading
+and trusty supporters of the court party, constituted the company, or
+rather the cabinet council, here convened, all of whom, as appeared by
+the entire freedom of their remarks, were fully in each other's
+confidence.
+
+There was one person in the room, however, who had no thought or
+feeling in common with the rest of those present, but who did not
+appear to be deemed by them of sufficient consequence to be
+interrogated in relation to his opinions, or of sufficient capacity to
+comprehend what was said in his presence, at least not to any degree
+which might render it unsafe that he should hear the discussion so
+unreservedly going forward. This person, who was acting in the
+capacity of waiter to the company, being under a temporary engagement
+to the master of the house, to serve him in such work as might be
+wanted about the house and stables, was a youth, of perhaps eighteen,
+of quite an ordinary, and even singular appearance. His figure was low
+and slight, and he was made to appear the more diminutive, perhaps, by
+his dress, which consisted of short trousers, a long, coarse jacket,
+and a flat woollen cap, drawn down to the eyebrows. His hair, hanging,
+in lank locks, to his shoulders, was light and sandy, and his face was
+deeply freckled; while a pair of long, falling eyelashes contributed
+to add still further to the peculiarity of his looks, and to give his
+countenance, with those who did not note the keen, bright orbs that
+occasionally peeped from their usually impenetrable coverts, a sleepy
+and listless appearance. He now sat on the top of a high wood-box,
+placed near one corner of the chimney, with his legs dangling over one
+end of the box, and his head drooping sluggishly towards the fire,
+apparently as unconscious of what was said and done in the room, as
+the little black dog that lay sleeping on the floor beneath his feet.
+
+"Here, Bart," exclaimed Brush, as the company, having dropped the
+discussion of all weighty matters, were now briskly circulating the
+bottle, and beginning to give way to noisy merriment--"here, Bart, you
+sleepy devil, come and snuff these candles. Our chap here," he
+continued, winking archly to those around him--"our chap Bart, or
+Barty Burt, to give the whole of his euphonious name, gentlemen, may
+be considered an excellent specimen of the rebel party, who talk so
+wisely about self-government, sitting under one's own vine and
+fig-tree, and all that sort of thing; for; in the first place, he has
+a great deal of wisdom, handy to be got at, it all lying in his face.
+And then he is so much for self-government that no one can govern him
+in anything. Then again, as to the idea of sitting under a fig-tree, I
+think it is one that Bart would most naturally entertain; for had he a
+tree to sit under, be it fig or bass-wood, and enough to eat, he would
+sit there till he was gray, before he would think of moving."
+
+"Not badly drawn, that similitude," said Stearns, after the burst of
+laughter, by which these remarks were greeted, had a little subsided;
+"but methinks I see a flaw therein, friend Brush: you said our young
+republican's wisdom, alias ideas, all lay in his face; and then, in
+the matter of the fig-tree, you go on to intimate he _has one_
+distinct idea in his head, thereby lessening the force and exactness
+of the comparison, as I think you will allow."
+
+"I crave pardon, gentlemen," cried the secretary; "I should have
+qualified; for, really, I have several times seriously suspected Bart
+to have ideas, or, at least, one whole idea of his own; and if you
+think that is too much to allow the individuals of the party
+generally, with whom I have compared him, why, then I must knock
+under, that's all."
+
+"You are down! you are down, then, Brush!" shouted several, with
+another uproarious burst of laughter.
+
+Bart, the chief butt of this ridicule, in the mean while, was moving
+quietly about the room in performance of his bidden tasks, without
+appearing to notice a word that was uttered; and but for a certain
+rapid twinkling that might have been seen in his eyes, which, as he
+deliberately returned to his seat in the corner, were opened to an
+unusual extent, one would have supposed him utterly insensible to all
+the taunts and jeering laughter of which he had thus publicly been
+made the victim.
+
+"Ah! Patterson, here you are then, at last," exclaimed Gale, as the
+former, with a disturbed and angry countenance, now came pushing his
+way into the midst of the company. "We have done nothing but drink and
+joke since you went out, scarcely; at all events, we have concluded on
+nothing, except to wait and learn the result of your discoveries: so
+now for your report."
+
+"Ay, ay, Mr. Sheriff," responded Brush. "But stay, take breath, and a
+glass of this glorious old Madeira, first. There! now tell us how the
+land lies abroad to-night."
+
+"It lies but little to my liking," growled the Sheriff, with an oath.
+The rascally dogs have altogether stolen the march of us. They have
+been swarming into town all the evening, as thick as bees, while not
+more than a dozen of our flint-and-steel men have yet got on the
+ground. It beats Beelzebub!--"
+
+"Our witnesses," quickly interposed Judge Chandler, bowing with a
+significant smile and cautionary wink, while he threw a sidelong
+glance towards Bart, whom the wary eye of the judge had detected in
+slightly changing his position, so as to bring his ear more directly
+towards the speakers--"our witnesses and quarrelling suitors in court
+you mean, of course?"
+
+"Why, yes--yes, your honor--if you think that necessary," replied
+Patterson, following the direction of the other's glance, and then
+looking inquiringly at Brush, as if to ask whether there was any
+danger to be apprehended from talking before the servant.
+"Pooh--nonsense!" said Brush, readily understanding the mute appeal.
+"Nonsense! You could not make him comprehend what we are talking about
+in six weeks, if you should do your prettiest. Why, the fellow has not
+two ideas above a jackass!--so talk out."
+
+"Well, then," resumed the sheriff, in a lower tone, "I have satisfied
+myself that the rebels are plotting like so many Satans, and are in
+earnest about carrying their threat into execution. Now, the question
+is, what shall be done--yield the point and submit to be turned out of
+the Court House to-morrow, as if we were a pack of unruly boys, or what?"
+
+"Yield!" fiercely exclaimed Gale--"not till my pistol bullets have
+drank the heart's blood of the d----d rascals, first."
+
+"Ay, Gale," responded Brush, "that would be well enough, but for one
+small difficulty, which is, that these demi-savages understand quite
+as much of that kind of play as we do; and so long as they outnumber
+us so greatly, the fun of doing what you would propose might be less
+than talking about it. Let us have Chandler's opinion. What course is
+it best to take, judge?"
+
+"Temporize!" replied the latter, in a low, emphatic tone, and with a
+look of peculiar significance--"temporize till----"
+
+"Till we can help ourselves," said Patterson, taking up the sentence
+where the other left it, or rather finishing in words what had been
+expressed by looks.
+
+"That's just my notion," remarked Stearns. "Let them see and be
+assured that we are for peace, and want nothing but what is right; all
+of which may be said truly. And in this manner, if the thing is well
+managed, their suspicions can be allayed, and we can get possession of
+the Court House as soon as our friends get on, which will be by
+to-morrow noon--will it not Patterson?"
+
+"Yes, unless this cussed flood has carried away all the roads, as well as
+bridges," gruffly replied the sheriff. "Yes, and if these mobbing knaves
+can be kept quiet then, we shall be in a situation to ask no favors."
+
+"And grant none," said Sabin, with cool bitterness.
+
+"You don't learn," asked Chandler, with feigned indifference--"you
+don't learn that the people have brought any offensive implements with
+them, do you, Patterson? It might be done covertly, you know. Has this
+been seen to, by proper measures,--such as examining the straw in the
+bottoms of their sleighs, and the like?"
+
+"Yes, thoroughly," returned the former; "they have brought no arms
+with them, at any rate. We are undoubtedly indebted to your honor's
+skilful management with them at Chester for that."
+
+"Ay, ay," interposed Stearns, "nobody but the judge could have
+executed that piece of diplomacy with the fellows. And no one but he
+can carry out the business successfully now. His honor must be the one
+to undertake it."
+
+"Certainly." "The very man." "He must do it." "They would listen to
+none of us." "The thing is settled, and he must go" unanimously
+responded the company.
+
+"I really feel flattered, gentlemen," replied Chandler, bowing and
+waving his hand towards the company--"highly flattered by your opinion
+of my capacity to negotiate in this delicate affair. But you will
+understand, in case I accede to your wishes, gentlemen," he continued,
+with a look of peculiar meaning--"you will understand that I am to be
+considered, on all hands, as utterly opposed to coercive measures--to
+all--I am understood, I suppose, gentlemen?"
+
+"Yes, yes, judge," returned the others, with knowing winks and laughter,
+"we will all understand that you are opposed to the whole move."
+
+Having thus arranged business for the morrow to their satisfaction,
+these astute personages, who, like their party generally in America,
+at that period, seemed to have acted on an entirely false estimate of
+the intelligence and spirit of the common people, now rose and retired
+to their respective lodgings, inwardly chuckling at their sagacity, in
+being able to concoct what they believed would prove a successful
+scheme of overreaching and putting down their opponents, and, at the
+same time, of establishing their own tottering authority on a basis
+which might bid defiance to all future attempts to overturn it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+  "But here, at least, are arms unchained
+   And souls that thraldom never stained."
+
+
+As soon as the company, described in the preceding chapter, had all
+retired from the room, Brush, bidding Bart to rake up the fire and go
+to bed, proceeded to lock all the outer doors of the house, muttering
+to himself as he did so, "It can't be as Chandler fears, I think,
+about this fellow's going out to blab to-night; but as this will put
+an end to the possibility of his doing it, I may as well make all
+fast, and then there will be no chance for blame for suffering him to
+remain in the room."
+
+So saying, and putting the different keys in his pocket, he at once
+disappeared, on his way to his own apartment. When the sound of his
+retiring footsteps had ceased to be heard, Bart, who had lingered in
+the room, suddenly changed his sleepy, abject appearance for a prompt,
+decisive look and an erect attitude.
+
+"Two ideas above a jackass!--two ideas above a jackass, eh?" he said,
+and slowly repeated, as with flashing eyes he nodded significantly in
+the direction his master had taken. "You may yet find out, Squire Brush,
+that my ears aint sich a disput sight longer than yourn, arter all."
+
+With this he blew out the last remaining light, and groped his way to
+his own humble sleeping-room, in the low attic story of the back
+kitchen. Here, however, he manifested no disposition to go to bed, but
+sitting down upon the side of his miserable pallet, he remained
+motionless and silent for fifteen or twenty minutes, when he began to
+soliloquize: "Jackass!--sleepy devil!--not wit enough to see what they
+are at in six weeks, eh? Barty Burt, you are one of small fishes, it
+is true; but, for all that, you needn't be walloped about at this
+rate, and bamboozled, and swallowed entirely up by the big ones of
+this court-and-king party. You know enough to take care of yourself;
+yes, and at the same time, you can be doing something towards paying
+these gentry for the beautiful compliments you have had from them
+to-night and at other times. The fact is, Bart, you are a rebel
+now--honestly one of them--you feel it in you, and you may as well let
+it out. So here goes for their meeting, if it is to be found, if I am
+hanged for it."
+
+Having, in this whimsical manner, made a sort of manifesto of his
+principles and intentions, as if to give them, with himself, a more
+fixed and definite character, he now rose buttoned up his jacket,
+carefully raised the window of his room, let himself down to the roof
+of a shed beneath it, and from that descended to the ground, with the
+easy and rapid motions of a squirrel engaged in nut-gathering. Here he
+cast a furtive glance around him, and paused some moments, in apparent
+hesitation, respecting the course to be taken to find those of whom he
+was in quest. Soon, however, appearing to come to a determination, he
+struck out into the main street, and, with a quick step, proceeded on,
+perhaps a furlong, when he suddenly stopped short, and exclaimed,
+"Hold up, Bart. What did that sly judge say about searching in folks'
+sleighs, for--what was that word now?--But never mind, it meant guns.
+And what did the sheriff say about a dozen flint-and-steel men having
+come? Put that and that together now, Bart, and see if it don't mean
+that the only guns brought into town to-night are packed away in the
+straw, in the bottom of the sleighs of the court party understrappers?
+Let's go and mouse round their stopping-place a little, Bart. Perhaps
+you'll get more news to carry to the rebels," he added, turning round
+and making towards the tavern at which those in the interests of the
+loyalists were known generally to put up.
+
+On reaching the tavern, and finding all there still and dark, he
+proceeded directly to the barn shed, and commenced a search, which was
+soon rewarded by finding, in the different sleighs about the place,
+twelve muskets, carefully concealed in hay or blankets. With a low
+chuckle of delight at his discovery, Bart took as many as he could
+conveniently carry at one load, and, going with them into the barn,
+thrust them one by one into the hay mow, under the girts and beams, so
+as effectually to conceal them. He then returned for others, and
+continued his employment till the whole were thus disposed of; when he
+left the place, and resumed his walk to the northerly end of the
+village. After pursuing his way through the street, and some distance
+down the road beyond the village, he paused against a low, long
+log-house, standing endwise to the road. This house was occupied by a
+middle-aged, single man, known by the name of Tom Dunning, though
+often called Ditter Dunning, and sometimes Der Ditter, on account of
+his frequent use of these terms as prefixes to his words and
+sentences, arising from a natural impediment of speech. He was a
+hunter by profession, and passed most of his lime in the woods, or
+round the Connecticut in catching salmon, which, at that period, were
+found in the river in considerable numbers, as far up as Bellows
+Falls. Though he mingled but little in society, yet he was known to be
+well informed respecting all the public movements of the times; and it
+was also believed that he had enrolled himself among the far-famed
+band of Green Mountain Boys, and often joined them in their operations
+against the Yorkers, on the other side of the mountains. Very little
+however, was known about the man, except that he was a shrewd resolute
+fellow, extremely eccentric, and perfectly impenetrable to all but the
+few in whom he confided.
+
+Bart, from some remark he had overheard in the street, in the early
+part of the evening, had been led to conclude that the company he now
+sought were assembled at this house. And though he was personally
+unacquainted with the owner, and knew nothing of his principles, yet
+he was resolved to enter and trust to luck to make his introduction,
+if the company were present, and, if not, to rely on his own wit to
+discover whether it were safe to unfold his errand.
+
+As he was approaching the house, Dunning hastily emerged from the
+door, and, advancing with a quick step, confronted him in the path
+with an air which seemed to imply an expectation that his business
+would be at once announced. Bart, who was not to be discomposed by any
+thing of this kind, manifested no hurry to name his errand, and seemed
+to prefer that the other should be the first to break the silence.
+
+"Ditter--seems to me I have seen you somewhere?" at length said
+Dunning, inquiringly.
+
+"Very likely. I have often been there," replied Bart, with the utmost
+gravity.
+
+"Ditter--devil you have! And what did you--der--ditter--find there, my
+foxy young friend?"
+
+"Nothing that I was looking for."
+
+"Der--what was that?"
+
+"The meeting."
+
+"Der--what meeting?"
+
+"The one I'd like to go to, may be."
+
+"You are a bright pup; but--der--don't spit this way; it might be
+der--ditter--dangerous business to me; for you must have been eating
+razors to-night."
+
+"No, I haven't; don't love 'em. But you haven't yet told me where the
+meeting is?"
+
+"Ditter--look here, my little chap," said Dunning, getting impatient
+and vexed that he could not decide whether the other was a knave,
+simpleton, or neither--"ditter--look here;--der--don't your folks want
+you?" Hadn't you better run along now?"
+
+"Reckon I shall, when you tell me where to go and not run against snags."
+
+"Ditter well, der go back the way you come, about ditter as far again
+as half way; der then, ditter turn to the ditter right, then to the
+ditter left, then der--ditter--ditter--ditter--go along! you'll get
+there before I can tell you."
+
+"In no sort of hurry; will wait till you get your mouth off; may be it
+will shoot near the mark arter all."
+
+"Ditter, dog, my cat, if I--der--don't begin to believe you are
+considerable of a critter: and I've half a mind to risk you a piece;
+so come into the house, and, der--let me take a squint at your phiz in
+the light."
+
+Taking no exceptions to the character of the invitation, Bart now
+followed the other into the house, and, sitting down on a bench by the
+fire, began very unconcernedly to whistle, on a low key, the tune of
+Yankee Doodle, which was then just beginning to be considered a
+patriotic air. Dunning, in the mean time, taking a seat in the
+opposite corner, commenced his proposed scrutiny, which he continued,
+with one eye partly closed, and with a certain dubious expression of
+countenance, for some moments, when he observed,
+
+"You are a ditter queer chicken, that's a fact. But I der find now
+that I know you, as the ditter divil did his pigs, by sight; I know
+also the sort of folks you have been living amongst lately; and der
+knowing all that, it's reasonable that I should be a snuffing a little
+for the ditter smell of brimstone. So now if you are a court party
+tory, and come here for mischief, you've got into a place that will
+ditter prove too hot for you; but if, as I rather think, you are, or
+der want to be, something better, and can let us into the shape and
+fix of matters and things over there at ditter head-quarters, you may
+be the chap we would like to see. Ditter speak out therefore, like a
+man, and no more of your ditter squizzling."
+
+After a few more evasive remarks, in which he succeeded in drawing out
+the other more fully, and causing him the more completely to commit
+himself, Bart threw aside all bantering, and proceeded to relate all
+his discoveries relative to the contemplated movement of the court party.
+
+"Ditter devils and dumplings!" exclaimed the hunter, as, with eyes
+sparkling with excitement, he sprang to his feet, as the other finished
+his recital. "This must be made known directly. Come--der follow me,
+and I'll take you to the company you ditter said you wished to see."
+
+So saying, he immediately led the way through a dark entry to a room
+in the rear of the house, which the two now entered; when Bart found
+himself in a company of nearly twenty grave and stern-looking men,
+deliberating in a regularly organized meeting.
+
+"Ditter here, Captain Wright," eagerly commenced Dunning, as he
+entered, addressing the chairman, a prompt, fine-looking man, and the
+leading whig of the village; "here is one," he continued, pointing to
+Bart, "one who brings ditter news that--"
+
+"Esquire Knowlton, of Townsend, has the floor now," said the chairman,
+interrupting the speaker, and directing his attention to a middle-aged
+man of a gentlemanly, intelligent appearance, who was standing on one
+side of the room, having suspended the remarks he was making at the
+entrance of Dunning and his companion.
+
+"As I was remarking, Mr. Chairman," now resumed the gentleman who had
+been thus interrupted in his speech, "the tory party, acting under
+various disguises, have been, for several months past, secretly using
+every means within their reach to strengthen their unrighteous rule in
+this already sadly oppressed section of the country. They aim to bring
+the people into a state of bondage and slavery. When no cash is
+stirring, with which debts can be paid, they purposely multiply suits,
+seize property, which they well know can never be redeemed, and take
+it into their hands, that they may make the people dependent on them,
+and subservient to their party purposes. And just so far as they find
+themselves strengthened by these and other disguised movements, so far
+they betray their intention to curtail all freedom of opinion, and to
+overawe us by open acts of oppression. Here, one man has been thrown
+into prison on the charge of high treason; when all they proved
+against him was the remark, that if the king had signed the Quebec
+bill, he had broken his coronation oath. There, another, a poor
+harmless recluse, as I have ever supposed him, is dragged from his hut
+in the mountains and imprisoned to await his trial for an alleged
+murder, committed long ago, and in another jurisdiction; when his only
+crime, with his prosecutors, probably, is his bold denunciations of
+their tyranny, unless, as some suspect, even a baser motive actuates
+them. They even proclaim, that _all_ who dare question the king's
+right to tax us without our consent, are guilty of high treason and
+worthy of death! For myself, I seek not the suspension of this court
+at this time, on account of the questionable jurisdiction of New York
+merely, but because the court, itself bitterly tory in all its
+branches, is sustained by a colony which refuses to adopt the resolves
+of the Continental Congress, and thereby continues to force upon us
+the royal authority, which our brethren of the other colonies have
+almost every where put down, and which in our case, Heaven knows, is
+not the least deserving the fate it has met elsewhere. And the
+question, then, now comes home to us, Shall we tolerate it any longer?
+The hearts of the people, though their tongues may often be awed into
+silence--the hearts of the people are ready to respond their indignant
+_no_! And I, for one, am ready to join in the cry, and stepping into
+the first rank of the opposers of arbitrary power, breast the storm in
+discharging my duty to my country."
+
+"Amen!" was the deep and general response of the company.
+
+"Mr. Dunning will now be heard," said the chairman, motioning to the
+former to come forward.
+
+"Ditter well, Captain--der--ditter Mr. Moderator, I mean. I, being on
+the watch against ditter interlopers, you know, have just picked up an
+odd coon, here, who ditter seems to have ears in one place and tongue
+in another; and his story is a ditter loud one. But let him tell it in
+his own way. So now, Barty Burt," he continued, going up to the other,
+who stood by the fire, kicking the fore-stick with his usual air of
+indifference; "come forward, and tell the meeting all you have der
+seen and heard, in the ditter camp of the Philistines."
+
+Bart, then, mostly in the way of answers to a series of rapid
+questions, put by the chairman, who seemed to know him, and understand
+the best way of drawing him out,--Bart then related his discoveries to
+his astonished and indignant auditors, giving such imitations of the
+manner of each of the company, whose words he was repeating, as not
+only showed their meaning in its full force, but at once convinced all
+present of the truth of his story.
+
+No sooner had Bart closed, than a half dozen of the company sprang to
+their feet, in their eagerness to express their indignation and
+abhorrence of the bloody plot, which their opponents under the garb of
+peace and fair promises, had, it was now evident, been hatching
+against them.
+
+"Order, gentlemen!" cried the chairman: "I don't wonder you all want
+to denounce the detestable and cowardly conduct of the tyrants. But
+one only can be heard at a time, and Mr. French, I rather think, was
+fairly up first, and he will therefore proceed."
+
+While all others, on hearing this remark of the chairman, resumed
+their seats, the person thus named, as privileged to speak first,
+remained standing. He was a young man, of about twenty-two, of a
+ready, animated appearance, while every look and motion of his ardent
+countenance and restless muscles proclaimed him to be of the most
+sanguine temperament and enthusiastic feelings. An almost unnatural
+excitement was sparkling in his kindling eyes, and a sort of wild,
+fitful, sad, and prophetic air characterized his whole appearance as
+he began.
+
+"It has come at last, then! I knew it was coming. I have felt it for
+months; waking and sleeping, I have felt it. In my dreams I have seen
+blood in the skies, and heard sounds of battle in the air and earth.
+Dreams of themselves, I know, are generally without sign or
+significance; but when the spirit of a dream remains on the mind
+through the waking hours, as it has on mine, I know it has a meaning.
+Something has been hurrying me to be ready for the great event. I
+could not help coming here to-night. I cannot help being here
+to-morrow. The event and the time are at hand! I see it
+now--resistance, and battle, and blood! Let it come! the victims are
+ready; and their blood, poured out on the wood on the altar of
+liberty, will bring down fire from heaven to consume the oppressors!"
+
+There was a short silence among the company, who seemed to pause, in
+surprise and awe at the strange words and manner of the young man,
+which evidently made an impression on his hearers at the time, and
+which were afterwards remembered, and often repeated, at the fireside,
+in recounting his untimely fate."
+
+"Mr. Fletcher," at length observed the chairman, breaking the
+silence--"Mr. Fletcher, of Newfane, is next entitled to speak, I
+believe."
+
+"I rose, Mr. Chairnan," said the latter, a fine specimen of the hardy,
+resolute, and intelligent yeoman of the times--"I rose but to ask
+whether the news just received can be relied on: can it be, that Judge
+Chandler, after his pledge to us at Chester, would be guilty of
+conduct reflecting so deeply on his character as a man?"
+
+"I am not wholly unprepared to believe the story myself," replied the
+chairman; "our young friend here may have his peculiarities; but I
+consider him a thousand times more honest and honorable, than some of
+those whose sly hints and treacherous conduct he has so well
+described."
+
+"Ditter, look here, Mr. Moderator," interposed Dunning. "I was once,
+ditter travelling, in the Bay State, with a friend, when we came
+across a meeting-house with eight sides, and my friend asked me what
+order of architecture I called it. Ditter well, I was fairly treed,
+and couldn't tell. But I should be able to tell now. I should ditter
+call it the Chandler order."
+
+A desultory but animated debate now arose. Various methods of
+accomplishing what appeared to be the settled determination of
+all--that of preventing the sitting of the court--were suggested. Some
+proposed to dismantle or tear down the Court House; others were for
+arming the people, seizing the building, and bidding open defiance to
+their opponents. At this stage of the deliberations, Colonel
+Carpenter, whose character had secured him great influence, rose, and
+requested to be heard.
+
+"From the gathering signs of the times," said he, "we have good reason
+to believe that the smouldering fires of liberty will soon burst forth
+into open revolution throughout these oppressed and insulted colonies.
+Our movements here may lead to the opening scene of the great drama;
+and we must give our foes no advantages by our imprudence. If we are
+the first to appear in arms, it may weaken our cause, while it
+strengthens theirs. Let _them_ be the first to do this--let us place
+_them_ in the wrong, and then, if they have recourse to violence and
+bloodshed, _we_ will act; and no fear but the people will find means
+to arm themselves. Let us, therefore, go into the Court House to-morrow,
+in a body, but without a single offensive implement, and resist
+peacefully, but firmly; and then, if they dare make a martyr, his blood
+will do more for our cause than would now a regiment of rifles."
+
+Although this prudent and far-sighted proposal was for a while
+opposed, by the more ardent and unthinking part of the company, yet it
+was at length adopted by the whole; and having made arrangements to
+carry it into effect, the meeting broke up, and all retired to their
+respective lodgings.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+  "Thou ever strong upon the strongest side"
+
+
+Although many were the anxious consultations, and deep plottings,
+among the belligerent parties within doors, during the fore part of
+the memorable 13th of March, yet it was not till the afternoon of that
+day had considerably advanced, that any indications of the events
+which followed became observable in the streets of Westminster. About
+this time, one of the doors of Crean Brush's guest-filled mansion
+suddenly flew open, and the crouched and cringing form of our humble
+friend Barty Burt, hotly pursued by his recent employer with uplifted
+cane, was seen coming down the steps of the entrance, in flying leaps,
+to the ground.
+
+"There, you infernal booby! please consider this caning and kicking as
+a farewell to my house and employ forever!" exclaimed the enraged
+master, standing in the door-way, and looking down with ineffable
+scorn upon the prostrate person of the ejected Bart, as he lay
+sprawled out upon the spot where he landed, without manifesting any
+disposition to rise.
+
+"I should like to know what I've done criminal, squire?" responded the
+latter, looking back over his shoulder at the other, with a doleful
+grimace.
+
+"What have you done?" sharply retorted Brush. "Why, you impertinent
+puppy, you have done every thing wrong, and nothing right, ever since
+you got your lubberly carcass out of bed, at the fine time of eight
+o'clock this morning! and now, to crown all, in clearing off the
+table, you must go, with your load of meats and half-filled gravy
+dishes, through the parlor, where you had no business to go, and
+there, like a blundering jackass, as you are, you must fall down and
+ruin the best carpet in the house! I've had quite enough of you, sir:
+so up with you there and clear out, you vagabond!"
+
+"Well, I'spose I know what you want," muttered Bart, by way of reply
+to this tirade--"you want to accuse, and drive me away, so you won't
+have to pay me the two crowns you owe me for work, and other things."
+
+"I don't owe you half that sum, you lying lout," returned Brush,
+fiercely. "But to get rid of such a pest, and prevent your going round
+town with that lie in your mouth, I'll give you all you ask; and there
+they are!" he continued, pulling out and disdainfully tossing the
+coins down at the other's feet. "Your dirty rags, if you have any in
+the house, shall be thrown out to you; and then, if you aint off, I'll
+set the dogs on ye."
+
+With this, and an expressive slam of the door behind him, the
+secretary returned into the house; and in a few moments, the sash of a
+garret window was thrown up, and a pair of shoes, a pair of old summer
+pantaloons, a spare coarse shirt, and pair of stockings, were
+successively flung down into the yard, near where the owner was still
+lying, by the hand of a grinning and blushing servant maid, while her
+dainty-fingered master stood by, directing the operation,
+
+"Well, Bart," now soon began to mutter this singular being, in his
+usual manner of addressing himself as a second person, when
+alone--"well, Bart, your plan of getting driv away has worked to a
+shaving. You've got your pay, too, jest in the way you calculated
+would fetch it; yes, all your honest pay, and one crown more; but you
+charged that, you know, when you told him two crowns, as damage for
+the kick and cane lick you got. So that's settled. And as to the other
+accounts against him, and the rest of 'em there, you'll be in a way to
+square all, fore long, guess; for you will be your own rebel, now,
+Bart, you know."
+
+While thus communing with himself, he had slowly, and with many winces
+of affected pain, gathered up his limbs, risen on to his feet,
+pocketed his two crowns, and collected and tied up his clothes. And he
+was now, with a grieved look, as if sorrowing for the loss of his
+home, looking back to the house, where several curious, half-laughing,
+half-pitying countenances were seen peering through the windows to
+witness his departure. He then looked hesitatingly abroad, one way and
+then the other, with the sad and despairing air of one who feels there
+is no place in the wide world where he can find a friendly shelter.
+After this, with a wince and groan at every step, he slowly hobbled
+off up the street, losing his lameness, and converting his groans into
+snickers of low, exulting laughter, as soon as he was out of eye-shot
+of the company he had left behind him.
+
+"Kinder 'pears to me, Bart," he at length said, resuming his
+soliloquy, as he glanced keenly at the tavern, which was the scene of
+his last night's exploit, and which he was now passing--"'pears to me,
+there's a good many heads rather close together in spots, round that
+tory nest over yonder. They act as if they were in a sort of stew
+about something. I wonder if they lost their guns last night, or
+anything, that puts them in such a pucker," he continued with a chuckle.
+"But suppose, Bart, as going this way is only a sham, suppose we now
+haul up here, and edge over there among 'em a little, to learn what
+they are up to, before you go to join the company at the Court House."
+
+On reaching the yard of the tavern, Bart found that the company,
+numbering perhaps twenty in all, had broken from the separate groups
+in which they had been conversing, and had now gathered round one man,
+who, having just come out of the tavern, appeared to be communicating
+to the crowd something that obviously produced considerable sensation.
+This person was a man of the ordinary size, of fair complexion, light
+eyes, and an unsettled and vacillating countenance, rendered the more
+strikingly so, perhaps, by the quick, eager, and restless motions and
+manner by which his whole appearance was characterized. Bart soon
+contrived to work his way into this circle, till he gained a position
+from which he could hear what was said.
+
+"You may rely on what I have told you," said the speaker, as Bart came
+within hearing; "for I have just had it from the sheriff and lawyer
+Stearns. The rebels have been in possession of the Court House about
+an hour, posted sentinels at all the doors, and openly declare, that
+the judges and officers shall never enter to hold another court.
+Nobody dreamed of their daring on such a bold step, or we should have
+been before them in taking possession of the house, even with the
+force we had on the ground. But, thinking it best to go strong-handed,
+the judges concluded they would not go in to open the court till
+enough of friends should arrive to put down all opposition at a blow.
+The rebels think now, doubtless, that they have got an advantage which
+they will be able to maintain. But they will find themselves a little
+mistaken, I fancy; for Patterson says he has now got them in just the
+spot he wanted. This act both he and Stearns decide to be overt
+treason, which will justify him in taking the course he intends,
+unless they yield and scatter, on the first summons. But as they won't
+do that, and our forces will shortly be here, you can all guess what
+we shall now soon see follow," he added, with a significant wink.
+
+"Then why not be getting out our guns at once?" asked one of the company.
+
+"No," resumed the speaker; "the plan is to leave that till the last
+thing before we march upon them, lest the rebels should take alarm and
+go and arm themselves, and we thus thwart our own intention of taking
+them by surprise. You, however, can be kinder carelessly looking up
+clubs for such as may have no arms, and a few axes and crowbars for
+breaking into the Court House, if that should be necessary. But, as I
+said, let the guns remain hid in the sleighs till you have orders to
+take them out. For it is not exactly settled yet whether we shall
+march upon them as soon as our reenforcements arrive, and besiege them
+in the house, or coax them out, and so get possession ourselves. But,
+at any rate, you will have work on hand soon; and if we don't see fun
+before to-morrow morning, my name aint David Redding. But come, let's
+all adjourn to the bar-room, and take a drop to warm us up a little."
+
+Leaving Redding to his despicable task of endeavoring, in compliance
+with the directions of those whose base tool he was, to inflame the
+company he had collected, and work up their feelings to such a pitch
+of enmity and recklessness as should prepare them to imbrue their
+hands in the blood of their neighbors and countrymen, we will now
+proceed to note the conduct of more important personages in the events
+of the day.
+
+While the scene above described was transpiring, Patterson, Gale,
+Stearns, and one or two other tory leaders, who had been consulting at
+this tavern, and making their arrangements for active movements, left
+the house, and, with hasty steps, took their way to the mansion of the
+haughty secretary, which, by his special invitation, at this crisis,
+was made the permanent quarters of the judges and principal officers
+of the court, as well as of his numerous guests.
+
+"Upon the whole, perhaps you are right, Stearns," said Patterson, as
+they were about to enter the house. "We will start off Chandler to the
+Court House to make one of his smooth speeches, and play Sir Plausible
+with the rebel rascals, as agreed on last night, and though he should
+have done it before, yet he may, even now, succeed in flattering them
+to quit the house long enough for us to get possession; if not, we
+will take the other course."
+
+In a few moments after these worthies had disappeared within the
+house, the door was again opened, and Chief Justice Chandler, the man
+to whose singularly compounded character, made up of timidity,
+selfishness, vanity, thirst of power, kindness, and duplicity, or
+rather the conduct that flowed from it, may be mainly attributed the
+bloody tragedy that ensued, now made his appearance in the street. He
+wore a powdered wig, according to the fashion of the times among men
+of his official station, and his whole toilet had evidently been made
+with much attention. Carelessly flirting a light cane in his hand, and
+assuming an air of easy unconcern, he leisurely took his way along the
+street, towards the Court House, bowing low, and blandly smiling to
+every one he met, and often even crossing to the opposite side of the
+street to exchange salutations with the passer-by, to each of whom,
+whatever his party or station, he was sure to say something
+complimentary, and aimed with no little sagacity to reach the peculiar
+feelings and interests of the person addressed.
+
+"This is Mr. French, I believe," he said, turning out of his course to
+speak to the young man introduced in the last chapter, who, with the
+same restless, anxious look he then wore, was unobservantly hurrying
+by the other, on his way to the Court House.
+
+"Yes, yes, sir," replied French, slightly checking his speed, and
+looking back, with a half-surprised, half-vacant expression.
+
+"Ay, I was sure I knew you," rejoined the judge. "How are the times
+with you, Mr. French? You will pardon my freedom, sir, but the great
+interest I take in the success of our enterprising and intelligent
+young men like yourself--But no matter now. I see you are in haste. I
+will not detain you, sir. A very good day to you, Mr. French."
+
+"Well, upon my word, now, here is my friend Colonel Carpenter!" he
+again exclaimed, as, turning from the person he had just saluted with
+such poor success, his quick and wary eye caught sight of the
+gentleman thus addressed coming up behind him. "Most happy to fall in
+with you, colonel," he continued, grasping and warmly shaking the hand
+of the other. "How are your family, sir? Shall I confess it, colonel?
+I have really sometimes greatly envied you."
+
+"Why so, sir?" asked Carpenter, with a little coolness.
+
+"Envied you your well-deserved appellation--that of _Friend of the
+People_, as they call you," replied the judge.
+
+"The people need a friend at this crisis, I think, sir," responded the
+unbought yeoman, with cold dignity.
+
+"If there is one title that I should covet above all others," resumed
+the judge, without appearing to notice the drift of the other's
+remark, "it would be the one I have named. What can be a more truly
+honorable distinction? I have often regretted being so trammelled by
+my station on the bench, as to prevent me from acting as I would
+otherwise like to do. But a judge, you know, colonel, in party times,
+must not act openly on any particular side."
+
+"He had better do that, however, than act _secretly_ on _all_ sides,"
+returned the other, with biting significance.
+
+"O, doubtless, doubtless, sir," rejoined the judge, with a forced
+laugh, but with the air of one perfectly unsuspicious of any intended
+personalities. "Yes, indeed. But, ah!" he continued, slightly
+motioning towards the Court House, against which they had now arrived.
+"What have we here? A public meeting?"
+
+"Quite possible. At all events I think of going in myself," said
+Carpenter, quietly turning from the other into the Court House yard,
+but soon pausing a little, though without looking round, to hear the
+remarks which the other seemed intent on making.
+
+"Indeed! Why, I had not heard of it, else I should have been pleased
+to have dropped in. I came out, be sure, only for a little exercise,
+but----"
+
+Here he paused, in expectation that the other would speak; but finding
+himself disappointed, and left alone in the street, he resumed his
+walk, while his now unguarded countenance very plainly showed the
+disquiet he felt at the rebuffs he had received in his attempts to
+conciliate Colonel Carpenter, and obtain from him an invitation to go
+into the meeting, which, in reality, it was his only object in coming
+out to attend.
+
+While digesting his mortification, and occupied in conjecturing how he
+could have become an object of suspicion among the opponents of the
+court party, as every thing now seemed to indicate, his attention was
+again arrested by the sounds of approaching footsteps; and, looking
+up, his eyes encountered the sarcastic countenance of Tom Dunning,
+who, coming from an opposite direction, was also on his way to join
+the company at the Court House.
+
+"Ah, Mr. Dunning!" exclaimed the judge, starting from his reverie and
+downcast attitude, while his face instantly brightened into smiles
+summoned for the occasion; "right glad to meet you, sir. I have been
+thinking I must engage some such expert and lucky sportsman, as they
+say you are, to catch and send me up a fresh salmon, occasionally. I
+suppose your never-failing spear will be put in requisition again,
+when the spring opens; will it not?"
+
+"Der--yes, your worship, unless I turn my attention to the
+catching--ditter--eels, or other slippery varments," returned the
+hunter, with a sly, significant twinkling of his eyes, as he brushed
+by the rebuked cajoler, and pushed on without waiting for a reply.
+
+The judge did not pursue his walk much farther; but now, soon facing
+about, began, with a quickened step and a look of increasing
+uneasiness, to retrace his way to his quarters.
+
+While those little incidents were occurring in the streets, about one
+hundred sturdy and determined men had collected within the walls of
+the Court House. As the construction of this building was somewhat
+peculiar, for one designed for such purposes, it may be necessary, for
+a clear understanding of the descriptions which follow, to say a few
+words respecting its interior arrangements. The court-room was in the
+upper story, which was all occupied as such, except the east and south
+corners, that had been partitioned off for sleeping apartments. In the
+lower story, there was a wide passage running through the middle of
+the building, with doors at both ends; while the stairs leading up
+into the court room faced the principal entrance, on the north-east
+side of the house. After passing by the stairs, there was a small
+passage leading from the large one, at right angles, and running back
+between prison-rooms, whose doors opened into it. The part of this
+lower story, on the opposite side of the main passage, consisted also
+of two rooms, with doors opening into it, and an entry, or short
+passage, leading out into the street. One of these rooms was used as a
+common, or bar-room, and the other as a sort of parlor, being both
+occupied by the jailer and his family.
+
+Although there had been, for many weeks, a growing disposition among
+the party here assembled to prevent the session of a court avowedly
+acting under royal authority, and spurning all the recommendations of
+Congress, yet there had been no settled intention among them to resort
+to any other than the peaceful measures of petition and remonstrance,
+which they believed would be sufficient to effect the desired result.
+It had been decided, therefore, that the court should be permitted to
+come together; when such representations and arguments were to be laid
+before them, as could not fail, it was supposed, to convince any
+reasonable men of the wisdom of listening to the voice of the people.
+But when, or, the preceding evening, it was discovered, in the way
+before related, and from other sources, that the people had been duped
+by the duplicity of Chandler, and that it was the secret purpose of
+the court, in defiance of all pledges to the contrary, to hold a full
+session, under the protection of an armed force, the hitherto modest
+and quiet spirit of patriotism was at once aroused among this resolute
+little band of revolutionists, and they came to the bold
+determination, as we have before seen, of seizing the Court House in
+advance of their opponents, and holding it till their remonstrances
+should be heard and heeded.
+
+This object, so far as respected the possession of the building, being
+now obtained, the company proceeded to organize and make arrangements
+for maintaining their advantage through the night. Their possession,
+however, was not destined to remain long undisputed. In a short time
+after they had begun to act, their new recruit, Barty Burt, who could
+not forego his desire of remaining among the tories (where we left him
+acting the unsuspected spy on their movements) till they should look
+for their guns, that he might have the pleasure of witnessing their
+discomfiture on discovering their loss, now arrived with news, that
+the latter, as soon as they made the discovery that their arms had
+been abstracted, were thrown into the greatest commotion; and that
+under the direction of Patterson and Gale, both foaming with rage,
+they had hastily collected all the offensive implements they could
+find, with the avowed determination of making an immediate assault on
+their opponents at the Court House. But notwithstanding this startling
+intelligence, no one manifested the least disposition of quitting his
+post. And although there was not a weapon of defence, beyond a cane,
+in the whole company, yet they seemed none the less inclined to
+maintain their position in consequence of the threatening aspect which
+the affair was beginning to assume; but resolving, by acclamation, to
+keep possession of the house till compelled by force of arms to
+relinquish it, they placed a few strong and resolute men as guards at
+every door, and quietly awaited the result. And they were not kept
+long in suspense. In a short time, Patterson and his posse, armed with
+several old muskets, swords, pistols, and clubs, made their
+appearance, and, with many hostile manifestations, came rushing up
+within a few yards of the door. Commanding a halt, the sheriff then,
+in a loud and arrogant tone, summoned the company within to come forth
+and disperse. No voice, however, was heard to respond to the summons.
+Gale, the clerk, then proceeded, upon the intimation of the former, to
+read the king's proclamation to the outward walls of the house, or the
+supposed listeners within, with great form and solemnity.
+
+"Ditter--dickins!" exclaimed Tom Dunning, after listening a moment to
+the reading of the riot act, or proclamation, as it was usually
+called, as, with several others, he stood just within the entrance.
+"Now I wonder if they expect to rout a body of Green Mountain Boys
+with that sort of--ditter--ammunition?"
+
+"There!" fiercely cried Patterson, as the reader concluded his task.
+"There, you d----d rascals, now disperse, or, by Heaven, I will blow a
+lane through ye!"
+
+"Only--ditter--hear that!" again remarked the hunter, contemptuously,
+at the menace and profanity of the haughty officer. "Natural enough,
+though, mayhap, for a bag of wind to blow, if it does any thing.
+He is rather smart at--der--swearing, too, I think. But even at that,
+I guess he would have to haul in his horns a little, if old Ethan
+Allen was here, as I wish he was, to let off a few blasts of
+his--ditter--damnations at him."
+
+Captain Wright, after a brief consultation with the other leaders, now
+coming down from the court-room, opened the door, (Dunning and another
+strong-armed man having hold of it to guard against a rush,) and
+addressed the besiegers.
+
+"Why is all this, gentlemen?" he said, in a respectful, but firm
+manner. "Are you come here for war? _We_ are here for no such purpose,
+ourselves. _We_ came with none other than peaceful intentions. And so
+long as we can say that, and say, also, above all, that we have come
+together with the approbation of the chief judge of your court, who
+has promised us a fair hearing of our grievances; and so long as, in
+direct violation of that judge's pledge to us, you appear here in
+arms, to intimidate us, let me assure you, we shall not disperse under
+your threats. We, however, will permit you to come in, if you will lay
+aside your arms; or we will hold a parley with you as you are."
+
+"D----n your parley!" exclaimed Gale, furiously. "D----n the parley
+with such d----d rascals as you are! I will hold no parley with such
+d----d rascals, but by this!" he added, drawing a pistol, and
+brandishing it towards his opponents.
+
+"Ay! ay!" cried Redding, who, next to the sheriff and clerk, appeared
+to be the most violent and officious among the assailants: "talk about
+being here without arms, and for peace, do ye? when you have stolen a
+dozen of our guns, and have now got them in there among you. Pretty
+fellows, to talk about parley? We will give you a parley that will
+send you all to hell before morning!"
+
+Wright here began a denial of the charge made by the last speaker;
+when he was interrupted by Dunning, who, jogging him said, in an
+undertone,--
+
+"Let 'em-der--believe it. They are such--ditter--cowards, that the
+idea of a dozen guns among us will mike 'em more mannerly than all the
+preaching you could--ditter--do in a month."
+
+Concluding to profit by this suggestion of the sagacious hunter Wright
+now retired within doors, followed by the hisses, curses and all
+manner of abusive epithets, of the assailants.
+
+The besiegers, now finding that the king's proclamation, on whose
+potency for quelling the risings of the rebellious colonists the tory
+authorities, at the commencement of the revolution, seemed to have
+greatly counted, did not annihilate their opponents, and, not seeing
+fit to attempt to carry their threats into execution at present, they
+soon drew off a short distance, and apparently held a consultation.
+While they were thus occupied, a small deputation was sent out to them
+from the Court House, with another offer to hold a conference. But
+their proposals being received with fresh insults and abuse, they
+returned to the house, while Patterson and his forces, evidently
+fearing to venture an attack, with their present strength, on the
+other party, whom they suspected to be armed with the lost guns, now
+moved off to head-quarters, to report progress, and wait for the
+expected reenforcement, to hasten whose arrival, expresses had been
+despatched several hours before.
+
+A short time after the disappearance of Patterson's band. Judge
+Chandler unexpectedly came up to the Court House, wholly unattended,
+and being readily admitted, he at once ascended into the court-room,
+and entered the somewhat surprised, but unmoved assembly, bowing low
+to individuals on the right and left, as he passed on to an unoffered
+seat, with the gratified air of one, who, after many detentions, has
+the satisfaction of getting at length into the company of his friends.
+
+After a rather embarrassing pause, the judge rose, and made a short
+speech, which left his hearers but little the wiser respecting his
+real wishes and intentions, though he had much to say about his
+solicitude for the welfare of the people, and his anxiety that they
+should do nothing to injure their cause. After he was seated, Wright,
+Carpenter, and Knowlton, each in turn, addressed him, stating, in
+general terms, the views and wishes of their party, and reminding him
+of his pledge, that no arms should be brought by the officers of the
+court, the recent violation of which they hoped he would be able to
+explain.
+
+Upon this, the former rejoined, declaring with great assurance, and
+not a little to the surprise of many in the room, that the arms
+complained of had been brought without his knowledge and against his
+express wishes; and he concluded by assuring his friends, as he said
+he was proud to believe he might safely call them, that he would go
+and immediately secure the arms in question; so that the company might
+now retire, in full confidence that their petitions would obtain a
+fair hearing, when the court came together the next morning. The
+speaker then resumed his seat, and glanced persuasively around him for
+some tokens of assent or approbation. But the men, whom he had thus
+undertaken to wheedle, had been taught by experience to heed the
+caution so well recommended by the tuneful Burns,--
+
+  "Beware the tongue that's smoothly hung,"--
+
+and a chilling silence was the only response that greeted him.
+
+"You hear his honor's remarks," observed the chairman, at length
+breaking the ominous silence. "Have you any propositions to make
+before the judge retires?"
+
+Another long interval of deep silence ensued; when Tom Dunning's tall,
+sinewy form, and sharp, bronzed features, screwed up with an expression
+of sly mischief, was seen rising from a back seat in the room.
+
+"Seeing no one else," he said, "seems--ditter--disposed to accept your
+invitation, Mr. Moderator, I don't--ditter--know but I will make a
+small proposition on the occasion. Now, as I take it, we are to remain
+here to-night; and as we have now learned that the judge and the
+people here are the--ditter--best of friends, I would just move, Mr.
+Moderator, that his honor be--der--ditter--invited to take up lodgings
+with us in the Court House to-night, so that, if the enemy comes," he
+added, imitating the manner of the judge, as described by Bart, "he
+can assist us to--ditter--'_temporize--temporize--till_'--"
+
+Here the hunter bobbed down into his seat, while explosive bursts of
+laughter rose from several parts of the room, and a low,
+half-smothered titter ran through the whole assembly, at this sly, but
+cutting allusion to the part last night taken by the double-dealing
+judge, who now sat before them, looking, for the moment, like a
+suddenly detected criminal. He, however, while the chairman was
+calling to order, recovered his command of countenance, and, by the
+time the tumult had subsided into the less noisy expressions of mirth,
+he was smiling as gayly as the rest, and affecting to consider the
+remarks of the stammering humorist as merely a pleasant joke.
+
+"There is no cheating our friend Dunning out of his joke. I perceive,"
+he said, rising and taking up his hat; "and, indeed, I don't know that
+I can blame a hardy woodsman for laughing at the idea of one of our
+in-door and tender professional men, like myself, sleeping on floors
+and benches. I am afraid we deserve it for our effeminacy. Yes, yes, a
+good joke, truly! and a good laughter-moving joke is an excellent
+thing to go to bed upon, they say," he added, as with a merry, gleeful
+look, he bowed himself out of the assembly.
+
+No further comments were offered by any of the company upon the
+communications of this official double-dealer, after his departure;
+for all seemed to think that the single shot of Dunning had rendered
+all further comments on his speech, and his motives in coming there to
+make it, entirely superfluous. And they therefore proceeded, as if
+nothing but an ordinary interruption had occurred, to the business on
+which they were engaged when the judge came in--that of passing some
+fresh resolves expressive of their determination to hold the Court
+House in defiance of the threats of their opponents, and of their now
+settled purpose of no longer submitting, on any conditions, to the
+continuance of a court which had proved itself so corrupt and
+treacherous. After this, and making arrangements for the posting and
+relieving of guards at the doors for the night, a part of the company
+left the house to seek lodgings elsewhere, as the usual hour of rest
+had now arrived.
+
+When the nonplused and disconcerted Chandler left the Court House, he
+rapidly took his way back to his quarters, from which he had been
+started out by Patterson and Gale, to see if he might not be able to
+accomplish by fair words what they had failed to effect by foul.
+Although he had put the best possible face upon the mortifying
+occurrence he had just been compelled to meet, and had made, as he
+believed, a handsome exit from the company, yet he felt keenly
+conscious that he had not only utterly failed in the object of his
+visit, but that much of his late base conduct was known. He perceived
+this in the allusions of Dunning, the pith of which he had affected
+not to understand. He had seen it, he had felt it, in the significant
+and knowing glances that had been exchanged on every side around him,
+and especially in the bitter derisive laugh that had assailed his
+tingling ears. He had also been taught a new lesson in the interview!
+He had seen, in the firm manner and determined looks of those he had
+been confronting--he had seen that which told him of a spirit at work
+among the people, that the loyal party, with all their boasted
+strength, might not long be able to quell. He began now, with the
+instinctive sagacity of the true office-seeker, to perceive the
+possibility, perhaps probability, that the power of dispensing office
+and patronage was about to change hands, and he inwardly trembled for
+his own safety. He found himself, in short, in one of those straits,
+to which men of his character are not unfrequently reduced--that of
+being wholly at a loss to decide which side was most likely to become
+the strongest. Could he have foreseen and decided this, his mind would
+have been comparatively at ease; for he could have then trimmed his
+sails, so as to steer clear of the political breakers which he knew
+were somewhere ahead. Some course, however, he must decide upon; and
+after lamenting his inability to pierce the future, so far as to know
+which party was destined to prevail, and thus secure the important
+advantages that might be derived from shaping his present course
+accordingly, he at length resolved to keep aloof, at present, from
+both parties, believing he had so adroitly managed thus far, that
+whichever side might triumph, he could put in a specious claim of
+having acted with it, in reality, from the first.
+
+And having now made up his mind to this course, he avoided meeting the
+tory leaders again; and, seeking out a safe messenger, and sending him
+to tell them, that "he had left the company at the Court House as he
+found it," and that "a forgotten business engagement had compelled him
+to be absent from their councils for a few hours," he took his way to
+a distant part of the village, where he called on an acquaintance of
+neutral politics. And here becoming much engaged in conversation, and
+feigning to have forgotten the hour of the night, he was at last
+prevailed on to accept, as he did with great seeming reluctance, the
+invitation of his host to tarry till morning.
+
+After Patterson and his minions retreated from the Court House, they
+returned to the tory tavern, and there remained several hours,
+alternately cursing their opponents for rebellious obstinacy in not
+yielding to their commands and menaces, and their expected friends for
+their tardiness in reaching the place. And affairs remaining in this
+situation till a late hour in the evening, they were on the point of
+giving up all thoughts of renewing the attack that night, when the
+long and anxiously looked for reenforcement, consisting of thirty or
+forty armed men, came hurrying on to the ground. The sinking spirits
+and waning courage of the blustering sheriff and his confederates now
+instantly revived; and, exulting that they now had the power to glut
+their vengeance, they resolved on making an immediate assault. And
+after fortifying their courage with liberal potations of brandy, the
+whole party, now swelled, not only by the freshly arrived forces, but
+by Brush, Peters, Stearns, and many others, who had declined joining
+in the first sally, to nearly one hundred men, eagerly set forward to
+the scene of action.
+
+The other party, in the mean time, though still maintaining a watchful
+guard at the doors of the Court House, had yet been so long exempted
+from an attack of their foes, that they were now in but little
+expectation of being any further molested till the next morning. And
+some were lying stretched upon the benches in the court-room, asleep;
+some, with their great-coats under their heads, were reposing on the
+floors of the different passages of the house; while others were
+sitting round the fires, engaged in smoking and conversation.
+
+Among those taking their turns as sentries, at this juncture, were
+Woodburn and Bart, who, with each a stout cane or cudgel in his hand,
+were now stationed at the principal entrance.
+
+"They are coming!" cried Bart, who, having gone out into the street to
+ascertain what might be the noise which they had heard at a distance,
+now came running up, with an excited air to his companion; "they are
+upon us again, with twice as many men as before, and plenty of guns!"
+
+"In with the news!" said Woodburn, as the appearance of the hostile
+party wheeling up towards the Court House the next instant confirmed
+the other's statement--"in with the news, and tell them to man the
+doors, or in two minutes we shall be routed."
+
+Instantly springing into the door, which he unfortunately left open,
+Bart made the announcement to French, who was restlessly moving about
+in the passage, and who repeated the same in a voice which started
+all, both above and below to their feet.
+
+"They are coming for our blood!" he added, in a tone of strange, wild
+glee. "Ay, there they come! I see them levelling their guns in the
+yard! Now for the victims! Let us die like----"
+
+The report of two or three muskets, and the whistling of bullets
+through the passage just over his head, cut short the speaker. A
+moment of breathless silence ensued; when the harsh, ruffian voice of
+Patterson was heard from without,--
+
+"Damn ye, why don't you fire?"
+
+A general discharge of the fire-arms of the assailants, flashing
+fiercely on the surrounding darkness, and sending them deadly missiles
+through the passage, windows, and sides of the house, in every
+direction, instantly followed the ferocious order. And, in the
+expiring light, the fated French was seen to leap into the air; and
+then, spinning giddily round and round an instant, fall, with a low,
+short screech, prostrate on the floor; while mingled groans, rising
+from a half dozen others along the passage, told also the fearful
+effect of the murderous volley.
+
+With the discharge of their arms, the assailing force, guided by their
+torch-bearers, made a rush for the Court House. As they approached the
+door, Woodburn, who had kept his post, unhurt, on one side of the
+steps, sprang forward to dispute their passage, and, after knocking up
+the swords and bayonets that were aimed at his breast, laid about him
+so lustily with his cudgel, that the whole party were, for some
+moments, kept at bay. At length, however, Peters, who was near the
+rear of the hostile column, perceiving it was his hated opponent who
+was disputing the pass so resolutely, stealthily crept round those in
+front, and coming up partly behind his intended victim, with a
+protruded sabre, aimed a deadly lunge at his body, exultingly
+exclaiming with the supposed fatal thrust,--
+
+"There! d----d rebel, take that!"
+
+"And you that!" cried the other, who, having, from a lucky turn in his
+body at the instant, received only a flesh-wound on the inner side of
+his arm, now, with an upward sweep of his cudgel, knocked the sword of
+the detestable assassin twenty feet into the air--"and you that! ay,
+and that!" he added, as, with a quickly repeated blow over the head,
+he sent his foe reeling to the earth.
+
+But the weapon of the intrepid young man being now caught, and his
+body fiercely grappled by four or five of his exasperated foes, he was
+soon disarmed, and, in spite of his desperate struggles, borne into
+the court-house with the crowd, who now rushed furiously along the
+passages, wounding with their swords, and beating down with their guns
+and clubs, without distinction or mercy, all whom they met in their way.
+
+"Guard the doors instantly!" shouted Patterson, who perceived that
+numbers of the vanquished party were retreating through the different
+doors; "don't let another of the d----d rascals escape! And, hallo
+there, jailer! bring on the keys of the prison-rooms; we will cage the
+whole lot, dead or alive, and let 'em be enjoying a few of the fruits
+of their rebellion now, and the blessed anticipations of being hung
+for high treason hereafter."
+
+The obsequious jailer soon appeared with the required keys and the
+doors of both prison-rooms were speedily unlocked and thrown open by
+the directions of the sheriff.
+
+"Now, tumble them in, boys!" resumed the sheriff, with look and tone
+of savage exultation.
+
+Eager to obey, the supple tools of arbitrary power now commenced
+driving all those of their prisoners who had not been too much
+disabled by their wounds to stand, together into the prison-rooms.
+They then seized hold of the wounded, who lay weltering in their blood
+in different parts of the floor of the long passage, and began
+dragging them along by their limbs to the same destination.
+
+"Monster!" exclaimed Woodburn, looking back from the felon's cell
+which he was about to enter, and addressing Redding, who stood
+mimicking, with fiendish glee, the groans and contortions of French,
+as he lay gasping and writhing in mortal agony on the spot where he
+fell, just beyond the short passage dividing the prison-rooms--"monster,"
+he repeated, "would you insult the dying?"
+
+"Yes, d--n you!" savagely interposed Gale, stepping forward; "he has got
+just what he deserved; and I wish there were forty more of you in the
+same predicament. Drag him along in there with the rest of 'em, Redding!"
+
+"Ay, ay," responded Patterson, "in with him! And I can tell the rest
+of them, they had better be saving their pity for themselves, for they
+will all be in hell before to-morrow night!"
+
+It is needless to say that this brutal order was promptly obeyed. And
+when the dying and insensible victim, pierced through head and body,
+and all the wounded, had been drawn in and thrown promiscuously
+together, on the cold, damp floors of the prison-rooms, the keys were
+turned upon them; and their remorseless butchers, making not the least
+provision for the sufferers, by way of medical aid or otherwise,
+returned, after posting a strong guard at the doors, to the tavern or
+the house of Brush, to celebrate their victory in a drunken carousal.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+  "The brand is on their brows,
+     A dark and guilty spot;
+   'Tis ne'er to be erased,
+     'Tis ne'er to be forgot."
+
+
+Whatever may be the result of the present public movement for the
+abolition of capital punishment, and however far future experiments
+may go towards establishing the expediency and safety of such a change
+in criminal jurisprudence, the history of every nation and people will
+show, we believe, the remarkable fact, that ever since Cain stood
+before his Maker with his hands reeking with the blood of his murdered
+brother, and his heart so deeply smitten with the consciousness of
+having justly forfeited his own life by taking the life of another,
+that he could not divest himself of the belief that all men would seek
+to slay him, no one principle has been found to be more deeply
+implanted in the human breast than the desire to see the wilful
+shedding of blood atoned for by the blood of the perpetrator. So
+strong, so active, and so impelling, indeed, seems this principle,
+that no sooner goes forth the dread tale of homicide, than all
+community rise up, as one man, instinctively impressed with the duty
+of hunting down the guilty and bringing them to justice; while the
+guilty themselves seem no less instinctively impressed with the
+abiding consciousness that the doom, which heaven and earth has
+decreed to their crimes, must inevitably overtake them.
+
+Deep and fearful was the excitement, in the hitherto quiet and
+peaceful village of Westminster, as from mouth to mouth, and house to
+house, spread the startling intelligence, that a meeting of unarmed
+citizens, assembled at the Court House, had been assailed, and numbers
+shot down in cold blood by the minions of British authority. The whole
+town was soon in commotion. No loud noise or clamor of voices, it is
+true, was heard proclaiming the deed on the midnight air; but the
+rapid footfalls of men hurrying along the streets, the hastily
+exchanged inquiry, the eager, suppressed tones of those conversing in
+small groups at the corners and by-places around the village, the
+hasty opening and shutting of doors, and the dancing of lights in
+every direction, gave ominous indication of the feeling that had every
+where been awakened, and the secret movement which was everywhere
+afoot among the people.
+
+A small band, who had gathered in the yard of what was called the
+People's Tavern, were listening, with many a demonstration of horror
+and indignation, to the account of one who had escaped from the Court
+House after the tories had got possession.
+
+"Where are our leaders, Morris?" asked one of the listeners, as the
+speaker, a fluent, energetic young man, closed his recital of the
+atrocities he had witnessed. "Did they escape, or are they among the
+wounded and prisoners?"
+
+"Wright and Carpenter had gone off before we were attacked," was the
+reply, "the rest, not among the wounded I have named escaped in the
+confusion, I think, except Dr. Jones, of Buckingham, who was driven
+into the felon's hole with other prisoners; and it may be well that he
+was, perhaps, as those bloodthirsty brutes would have suffered no
+surgeon to be sent for to attend those who are not past help."
+
+"And Tom Dunning, whose rifle we shall need,--what became of him?"
+
+"He got out in the same manner I did. We stood in a dark corner, at
+the head of the stairs, taking note of the proceedings below; when
+that crafty little chap, that joined us from Brush's, came wriggling
+like an eel out from between the legs of the crowding tories, in the
+passage; and, working himself up stairs unnoticed, in the same way,
+beckoned us to follow him, as we did, into the court-room, where, at
+his suggestion, we stripped off the sheets of a bed, in one of those
+corner sleeping cuddies, made a rope, and by it let ourselves down
+through a window to the ground in the rear of the house; when we
+separated, Dunning going home, as he said, to arm himself. But here he
+comes," added the speaker, peering out towards the street, from which
+several forms were dimly seen approaching--"here he comes, and those just
+behind him I should judge to be Carpenter and Fletcher, by their gait."
+
+"Well, Dunning," asked one of the company, as the hunter came striding
+up to the spot, "what is your response to all this?"
+
+"Der-sixty bullets, and a--ditter--pound of powder!" was the stern and
+significant reply of the other, as with one hand he struck his
+rattling bullet-pouch and huge powder-horn, and with the other brought
+down the breech of his rifle with a heavy blow upon the ground.
+
+"That's the man for me!" exclaimed Fletcher, now coming up with Carpenter.
+
+"Ay, Dunning is right!" said Carpenter, with emphasis. "If we hold our
+peace now, the very stones will cry out for vengeance. But talking is
+only a small part of what must be done. We must act. And first of all,
+this tale of murder and outrage must instantly be thrown upon the four
+winds of heaven, and carried into every town in this part of the
+settlement. Who will volunteer to ride express with the news?--news
+which, if I know anything of the spirit of the great mass of our
+people, will be taken as a call to arms, and responded to accordingly."
+
+Several eager voices announced their readiness to start off at once on
+the proposed mission.
+
+"Follow me to the stables, then," resumed the stanch patriot, hastily
+leading the way to the barn, and throwing open a stable door. "There!"
+he continued, pointing to a pair of large, active-looking brutes,
+feeding together in one stall--"there are my two horses--take them.
+Let one of their riders go north, the other south; and spare no
+horse-flesh of mine in an emergency like this; but ride and rally,
+till you have sent the bloody tale to every house and hut this side
+the mountains. And you, Morris and Dunning, accompany me to Captain
+Wright's. More messengers must be despatched west and east, into the
+borders of New Hampshire, and much other business done before morning."
+
+A far different scene, in the mean while, was in progress among the
+inmates of the loyal mansion, which we have before described, and
+which was destined to give shelter that night to the last conclave of
+royal office-holders ever known in the Green Mountains. Although the
+leaders of the court party had returned from the sanguinary scene they
+had enacted, in high exultation at the decisive victory they supposed
+they had achieved over their despised opponents, yet neither their own
+vain boastings, nor the deeply-quaffed wines of their host, could long
+keep up their spirits. Conscience soon began to be busy among them;
+and their hearts waxed faint and fearful at the thought of what they
+had done. They instinctively drew close together, conversed in subdued
+tones, or sat uneasily listening to the sounds that occasionally
+reached them from without. And whatever they might have said to keep
+up their own and each other's courage, it soon became apparent that
+secret misgivings, fears, and forebodings of a coming retribution had
+taken possession of their guilt-smitten bosoms.
+
+And there was another person in that house, to whom the tragical
+events of the night brought deep disquietude; but it was a disquietude
+of quite a different character from that which was experienced by the
+troubled wretches we have named: that person was the _Tory's
+Daughter_--the pure, guileless, and nobleminded Sabrey Haviland.
+
+Having been apprised of the intention of Patterson and his
+confederates to make an assault upon their opponents as soon as the
+expected reinforcements arrived, her anxieties on the subject had
+prevented her from retiring to rest, as her less concerned companion
+did, at the usual hour. And when the startling report of fire-arms
+broke upon the stillness of the night, she was not, like many others
+in the village, at loss to know the cause; and her fears led her to
+divine but too well the fatal result. And after an interval of painful
+suspense, which was terminated by the return of the tory leaders to
+the house, she stole softly out of her chamber to the head of the
+stairs, and there listened with mingled emotions of horror and disgust
+to the boastful recital of their sanguinary deeds, as given by the
+heartless Gale and others, to her father and Judge Sabin, who had
+remained in the house, but who, she perceived with sorrow, were warm
+approvers of all that had been done. But, as revolting to her gentle
+nature as was the general description of the event, the particulars
+the exulting narrators soon proceeded to give were much more so. And
+when she heard them relate the affray between Woodburn and Peters, and
+heard the latter, while making light of his own hurts, boast that he
+had first given the other a thrust with his sword through the body,
+which must finish him before morning; she could listen no longer, but,
+hastily retiring to her room, she walked the apartment for nearly an
+hour in the deepest agitation and distress.
+
+Among the many excellent traits of Miss Haviland's character, a lively
+sense of right and wrong, together with a deep and abiding love of
+truth and justice, unquestionably predominated. So strong and
+controlling, indeed, was this principle in her bosom, that it
+exhibited itself in all her conversation, and seemed to be the
+governing motive of all her actions. And when she had once discovered
+the truth and the right, at which she appeared to arrive with
+intuitive quickness, no wheedling or sophistry could blind her to
+their force; and no inducements could be offered sufficient to cause
+her to waver in their support. And yet this peculiar trait, as deeply
+seated as it was, and as firmly as it was ever exercised, was so
+beautifully tempered by the benevolence of her heart, the equanimity
+of her mind, and the engaging sweetness of her demeanor, that it never
+seemed to impart the least tinge of arrogance to her character, or
+harshness to her manners. On the contrary, she was all gentleness and
+devotion, and ever ready to comply with the wishes of others, when a
+compliance did not contravene, in her opinion, any of the principles
+of even-handed justice; and, in case she felt bound to refuse to yield
+to their requests, her refusal was made and maintained with such mild
+firmness, that none could be offended, none feel inclined to charge
+her with obstinacy or perverseness. She was at this time the mistress
+of her father's household, her exemplary and intellectual mother
+having several years before deceased, and her elder and only sister,
+the year previous, married one of the leading loyalists of Guilford.
+And it had been mainly through the influence of this sister and her
+husband, that she had been induced, the preceding fall, to take the
+step which was destined to cause her years of sorrow and
+perplexity--that of engaging herself in marriage to Peters. She had
+found few or no opportunities of studying this man's character, having
+known him only as a parlor acquaintance, of easy manners and
+considerable intelligence. And although she saw nothing particularly
+objectionable in him, and although she knew that, in point of wealth
+and family distinction, he was considered what is termed a desirable
+match, yet she had entered into the engagement with many misgivings,
+and in compliance rather with the wishes of her friends above named,
+seconded by the urgent request of her father, than in accordance with
+the dictates of her own judgment and inclination. But whatever her
+doubts at that time, or during the months immediately following, they
+had not been sufficient to disturb the usual even tenor of her
+feelings, till she left home on her present excursion, during which,
+as already intimated, she had seen the character of her affianced in a
+new light--a light which showed him to be possessed of traits as
+abhorrent to her feelings, as, to her mind, they were base and
+reprehensible in themselves. And now, to crown all, he had, by an act
+of deliberate, private malice, even according to his own account,
+inflicted a mortal wound on the victim of his former injuries--the man
+who, but the day before, had snatched her, whom the other professed to
+hold as the highest object of his earthly solicitude, from a watery
+grave. It was these painful reflections that were now agitating her
+bosom; for the more she pondered upon the conduct of Peters, the more
+did her heart reject and despise him; and in proportion as her
+feelings rose up against him were her sympathies drawn towards his
+victim, Woodburn, whose noble act had created so strong a claim upon
+her gratitude, and whose character and appearance had alike awakened
+her interest and admiration.
+
+"Is it indeed thus," she at length uttered, as if summing up the
+thoughts that had been passing through her mind, "that he who saved my
+life, at the risk of his own, must die by the hand of one who should
+have been the first to thank and reward him? Ay, and die, too, without
+receiving from me, or mine, one word of acknowledgement, even, of the
+service he so nobly rendered? perhaps the thought of our ingratitude
+is now embittering his dying moments! Can I, should I suffer this so
+to remain?"
+
+Here she relapsed into silence, and, slowly resuming her walk round
+the room, seemed for a while immersed in anxious thought; when she
+suddenly paused, and, after a moment of apparent irresolution, stepped
+to the wall, and gave two or three pulls at the wire connected with
+the servants' bell in the kitchen. In a few minutes the summons was
+answered by the appearance of the chamber-maid.
+
+"Will you go down to the gentlemen's sitting-room," said Miss
+Haviland, "ask out my father, and tell him I would see him a moment in
+my own room?"
+
+The girl disappeared, and, in a short time, Esquire Haviland, with a
+slightly disturbed and anxious air, entered the room, and said,--
+
+"What's the matter, Sabrey? Are you sick to-night, that you are yet up
+and send for me?"
+
+"O, no," replied the other; "nothing of that kind led me to send for
+you, but my wish to make a request which I was unwilling to delay."
+
+The squire cast a somewhat surprised and inquiring look at his
+daughter, but remained silent, while the latter resumed:--
+
+"You recollect that this morning, after apprising you of the extent of
+our obligations to Mr. Woodburn, about which you seem to have been so
+misinformed, I suggested that a personal acknowledgment, with offers
+of some more substantial token of our gratitude, should be immediately
+made to him. Has this been done?"
+
+"No," replied he, with a gathering frown: "having understood the fellow
+was assorting with the rebels in their treasonable plots, I did not feel
+myself bound to seek him in such company Is that all you wish of me?"
+
+"It is not, sir," she answered seriously, and with the air of one
+determined not to be repulsed. "I have accidentally become apprised
+that Mr. Woodburn, in the affray of to-night, has been dangerously
+wounded, and, in this condition, thrust into prison. And, as we have
+now an opportunity of testifying our sense of his services, it is my
+earnest request that you procure his release from prison, for which
+your influence here, I know, is sufficient; that he may be brought out
+to-night and properly attended,"
+
+"Insane girl!" muttered the father, angrily, "what can have put that
+absurd project into your head? Had you been abed hours ago, as you
+ought, instead of being up and prying into the doings of our
+authorities, with which a woman has no concern, I should have been
+spared this exhibition of folly. Why, the wretched fellow is but
+receiving the just deserts of his crimes. He is in prison for high
+treason; and had I the will, which I have not, I could not procure his
+release."
+
+"I cannot believe these opposers of the court will be held to answer
+for such a crime. Indeed, it has occurred to me that the authorities
+themselves may be called to account for firing upon these unarmed men;
+and therefore I still hope you will use your exertions for Woodburn's
+release," urged the fair pleader.
+
+"You are to be the judge what is treason, then, hey? And you are ready
+to side with these daring and desperate fellows and condemn our
+authorities, are you? What assurance! You will hardly persuade me to
+favor your mad projects, I think," harshly retorted the bigoted old
+gentleman.
+
+"You can, at least, go to the prison and return him the
+acknowledgments which our character and credit require of us," still
+persisted the former.
+
+"Well, I shall do no such thing," replied the other, with angry
+impatience; "for I consider the fellow's conduct tonight has wholly
+absolved me from my obligations to him, if I was ever under any," he
+added, rising to depart.
+
+"I do not view it so, father," returned the unmoved girl, in a mild,
+expostulating tone, "and I am sorry for your decision; for, if those
+whose place it more properly is to do this, refuse to perform it, I
+know not why I should not myself undertake the duty."
+
+"You!"
+
+"Yes, father."
+
+"What, to-night?"
+
+"Certainly; another day may be too late."
+
+"Madness and folly! Why, who is to attend you, silly girl?"
+
+"If no gentleman is to be found with courtesy enough to attend me, I
+shall not hesitate to go alone, sir."
+
+"We will see if you do!" exclaimed the old gentleman, looking back
+from the entrance at the other, with an expression of scornful
+defiance--"we will see if you do, madam!" he repeated, closing the
+door after him, and turning the key on his daughter, whom he thus left
+a prisoner in her own room.
+
+As Miss Haviland listened to the springing bolt and her father's
+departing steps, a slight flush overspread her face at the thought of
+the indignity thus put upon her, and she rose, and, after putting her
+hand to the door to assure herself that she was not mistaken,
+proceeded, with a calm, determined air, to a table on one side of the
+room, on which stood the materials for writing; and here, taking pen
+and paper, she seated herself, and addressed a brief note to Woodburn,
+delicately expressing her sense of obligation to him, and concluding
+with the hope that she might soon have it in her power to do something
+towards alleviating his present situation. Having signed, sealed, and
+superscribed the billet, she rose and stood some time hesitating and
+irresolute.
+
+By what means could this note, now it was written, be made to reach
+its destination? Should she again summon the chamber-maid, she
+presumed her father had so managed that the call would not be
+answered; besides, she felt a repugnance to the thought of resorting
+to such means. What other method could then be devised?
+
+While thus casting about her for some expedient for effecting her
+purpose, she thought she heard some one placing a ladder against the
+side of the house, beneath a window, opening from the rear end of the
+passage adjoining her room; and, after listening a moment, she
+distinctly heard the person cautiously ascending. Not being of a timid
+cast, she quickly removed the thick, heavy curtains of the window in
+her room next and very near the one under which the unknown intruder
+was mounting the ladder, and, throwing up the sash, peered out; when,
+to her surprise, she beheld, and at once recognized, the queer-looking
+figure of Barty Burt, standing on the top round of the ladder,
+scratching his head, and giving other tokens of embarrassment at being
+thus unexpectedly caught in this situation.
+
+"Master Bart," said Miss Haviland, who had become somewhat acquainted
+with the other, while supplying her room with fuel, previous to his
+ejection from the house, to which she was knowing, "your appearance,
+at this time, to say the least of it, causes me much surprise."
+
+"I returns the compliment, miss," replied Bart; "so that makes us
+even, and no questions on ither side, don't it?"
+
+"Perhaps not, sir," returned the former, with seriousness: "at all
+events, you should be able to give a good reason for your appearance
+here, under such circumstances: please explain your object."
+
+"And if I don't, you will sing out for the squire, you said? Well, I
+can get down, and off, before he can get here, I reckon," responded
+Bart, in a tone of roguish defiance.
+
+"I did not say I would call Esquire Brush; but, unless you explain----"
+
+"Yes, yes, jest as lieves as not, and will, if you'll keep shut til I
+can run up garret and back."
+
+"Your purpose there, sir?"
+
+"An honest one--only to get my gun up there, which the squire didn't
+have put out for me, when he dismissed me with his high-heeled shoes,
+to-day, and which I darsent name then, fear he'd have that thrown
+down, like my 'tother duds, and break it--only that--and if you'll say
+nothing, and let me whip in, and up to get it, I'll lay it up against
+you, as a great oblige, to be paid for, by a good turn to you some
+time, miss."
+
+"If that is all, go--and I may wish to speak with you when you come back."
+
+So saying, she gently let down the sash, and, withdrawing a little
+from her window, stood awaiting the result; when she soon heard the
+other, with the light and stealthy movements of a cat, enter the
+house, and ascend into the garret, through a small side-door, opening
+from the passage we have named. Scarcely a minute had elapsed before
+she again heard his footsteps stealing back by her door to the window,
+through which he had so noiselessly entered; when, once more raising
+the sash of her own, she found him already standing on the top of the
+ladder where she last saw him, he having effected his ingress and
+egress with such celerity, that but for the light fusil he now held in
+his hand, she would have believed herself mistaken in supposing he had
+entered at all.
+
+"Well, miss, I am waiting for your say so," he said, in a low tone,
+peering warily around him.
+
+"Have you been to the Court House to-night?" hesitatingly asked the other.
+
+"Well, now," replied Bart, hesitating in his turn, "without more token
+for knowing what you're up to, I'll say, may be so and may be no so."
+
+"You need not fear me, Bart," replied Sabrey, conjecturing the cause
+of his hesitation; "I am no enemy of those who have suffered there
+to-night. But do you know Mr. Woodburn?
+
+"Harry, who got you out of that river scrape? Yes, lived in his town
+last summer."
+
+"He is among the wounded and prisoners in jail, it is said?"
+
+"Dreadful true, miss."
+
+"Could you get this small letter to him to-night?" she timidly asked.
+
+"Yes, through the grate; glad to do it, glad of it, twice over,"
+replied Bart, reaching out, and grasping the proffered billet.
+
+"Why, why do you say that?" asked Sabrey, with an air of mingled doubt
+and curiosity.
+
+"Cause, in the first place, you'll now keep my secret of being here;
+and nextly, glad to find there's one among the court folks that feels
+decent about this bloody business. But I must be off. Yes, I'll get it
+to him," said Bart, beginning to descend.
+
+"Say, Barty. Is there any hope that Mr. Woodburn will survive his wounds?"
+
+"Survive? Live, do you mean? O, yes; though the lunge which that--But
+no matter. It was well meant for the heart, and the fellow wan't at all
+to blame that it didn't reach it, instead of the inner part of the arm."
+
+"Indeed!" exclaimed Miss Haviland, in a tone of joyful surprise; which
+the next instant, however, gave way to one of embarrassment. "Why, I
+heard--have written, indeed, under the belief that--and perhaps----Barty,
+I think, on the whole, I will not send that billet now."
+
+As Bart heard these last words of the fair speaker, so inconsistent
+with all which both her words and manner had just expressed, he looked
+up with a stare of surprise to her face, now sufficiently revealed, by
+the glancing light standing near her in the room, to betray its
+varying expressions. But, as he ran his keen gray eyes over her
+hesitating and slightly confused countenance, he soon seemed to read
+the secret cause of her sudden change of purpose, arising from that
+curious and beautiful trait in woman's heart, which, by some gush of
+awakened sympathy, often unfolds all the lurking secrets of the
+breast, but which, when the cause of that sympathy is removed, closes
+up the avenue, and conceals them from view, in the cold reserve of
+shrinking delicacy--the colder and more impenetrable in proportion as
+the disclosure has been complete.
+
+"O, yes, I will carry it," said Bart, pretending to misunderstand the
+other, while he pocketed the billet and began to glide down the ladder.
+
+"No," commenced Miss Haviland; "no, Bart, I said----"
+
+"Yes, yes, I will have it there in a jiffy," interrupted Bart,
+hastening his descent, and the next instant dodging away in the dark
+beneath the foot of the ladder.
+
+"Well, let it go," said the foiled and somewhat mortified maiden to
+herself, after the disappearance of her strange visitor. "If what I
+expressed, when I thought him dying, was right and proper, it cannot
+be very wrong now."
+
+As soon as she had thus reconciled herself to the unexpected turn
+which this matter had taken, Miss Haviland now began to reflect more
+on Bart's motives in coming, at such an hour of the night, for his
+gun; when it, for the first time, occurred to her mind, that he had
+been induced to take this step in consequence of some particular call
+for arms having reference to the events of the evening. Fearing she
+might have done wrong in suffering him to take away the gun, if it was
+to be used for hostile purposes, and anxious to know whether her
+conjectures relative to a rising of the people were well founded, she
+proceeded to an end window of her room, which overlooked a range of
+buildings known to her to be mostly occupied by the opposers of royal
+authority; and removing the curtains and raising the sash, she leaned
+out and listened for any unusual sounds which might reach her from
+without. And it was not long before she became well convinced that her
+apprehensions were not groundless. Some extraordinary movement was
+evidently going on in the village. The low hum of suppressed voices,
+mingled with various sounds of busy preparation, came up, on the dense
+night air, from almost every direction around her. Here, was heard the
+small hammer, the grating file, with the occasional clicking of the
+firelock, undergoing repairs by the use of the instruments just named.
+There, could be distinguished the pecking of flints, the rattling of
+ramrods, and the regularly repeated rapping of bullet-moulds to
+disengage the freshly-cast balls. In other places could be perceived
+the nasty movements of men about the stables, evidently engaged in
+leading out and saddling horses, and making other preparations for
+mounting; and then followed the sounds of the quick, short gallop of
+their steeds, starting off, on express, in various directions, under
+the sharply applied lashes of excited riders, and distinctly revealing
+their different routes out of the village, by the streams of fire that
+flew from their rapidly striking hoofs on the gravelly and frozen
+ground. All, indeed, seemed to be in silent commotion through the
+town. Bart's object in coming for his gun, at such an hour of the
+night, was now sufficiently explained; for the quick and discerning
+mind of Miss Haviland at once told her that the country was indeed
+rising in arms to avenge the atrocities just committed by the party
+among whom were all her relatives and friends; and she shuddered at
+the thought of tomorrow, feeling, as she did, a secret and boding
+consciousness that their downfall, brought about by their arrogance
+and crimes, was now at hand.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+  "A shout as of waters--a long-uttered cry:
+   Hark! hark! how it leaps from the earth to the sky!
+   From the sky to the earth, from the earth to the sea
+   It is grandly reechoed, _We are free, we are free!_"
+
+
+Every thing, the next morning, seemed as quiet and peaceful in the
+village, as if nothing unusual had occurred there. The commotion of
+the preceding night appeared to have wholly subsided. With such
+secrecy and caution, indeed, had the revolutionists managed, that no
+knowledge of their movements had yet reached the ears of any of their
+opponents. And so guarded was their conduct, through the whole
+morning, that the court party leaders, although their spies had early
+been out, prowling round the whole village, were yet kept in entire
+ignorance of all that had transpired among the former during the
+night. Being consequently deceived by the false appearance which every
+thing within the reach of their observation had been made to wear, and
+feeling thus relieved of their last night's guilty fears of a popular
+outbreak, these cruel and dastardly minions of royalty now counted on
+their triumph as complete, and, soon giving way to noisy exultation,
+they began openly to boast of the sanguinary measure by which their
+supposed victory had been achieved. And, about nine o'clock in the
+forenoon, the judges and officers of court, with a select number of
+their most devoted adherents, all in high spirits, and wholly
+unsuspicious of the storm that was silently gathering around them,
+formed a procession at the house of Brush, and, attended by a strong
+armed escort, marched ostentatiously through the street to the Court
+House, and entered the courtroom to commence the session.
+
+After the judges had been ushered to their seats, and while they were
+waiting for the crowd to enter and settle in their places, Chandler,
+who had kept aloof till the procession had begun to form, was seen to
+run his wary and watchful eye several times over the assembly, to
+ascertain whether there were any discoverable indications there
+pointing to any different state of things from the one so confidently
+assumed by his confederates, when he soon appeared to have noted some
+circumstance which caused him suddenly to exchange the bland smile he
+had been wearing for a look of thoughtfulness and concern.
+
+"Do you notice anything unusual in the crowd this morning, Judge
+Sabin?" he said to his colleague, in an anxious whisper as he closed
+his scrutiny.
+
+"No, your honor," replied the other, "unless it be the cheering sight
+of encountering none but friendly faces, instead of the hostile ones,
+which a man would have been led to expect to meet here, after so much
+clamor about popular disaffection.
+
+"Ay," responded the former, with a dubious shake of the head--"ay, but
+that is the very circumstance that puzzles me. Had a portion of the
+assembly been made up of our opponents, quietly mingling with the
+rest, as I had rather hoped, I should have construed it into a token
+of submission; or, had a committee been here to present a petition, or
+a remonstrance or two, I should have been prepared for that, and could
+have managed, by a little encouragement, and a good deal of delay, to
+give every troublesome thing the go-by, till the storm had blown over.
+But this entire absence of the disaffected looks a little suspicious,
+don't it?"
+
+"Why, no," answered the stiff and stolid Sabin; "I can see nothing
+suspicious about it. Indeed, it goes to show me that the rebellion is
+crushed; for, as I presume, the honest but well-meaning part of the
+rebels are ashamed, and their leaders afraid to show their faces here
+to-day, after last night's lesson."
+
+"I hope it may be as you suppose; but I have my doubts in the matter,"
+returned Chandler, with another dissenting shake of the head, as he
+turned away to renew his observations on the company before him.
+
+On resuming his scrutiny, the uneasy judge soon perceived that the
+assembly, during his conversation with his colleague, had received an
+accession of several individuals, whom he recognized as belonging to
+the party whose absence had awakened his suspicions. But the presence
+of these persons, after he had carefully noted their appearance,
+instead of tending to allay only went to confirm, his apprehensions;
+for, as he closely scanned the bearing and countenance of each, and
+marked the assured and determined look and covert smile which spoke of
+anticipated triumph, attended with an occasional expectant glance
+through the windows, he there read, with the instinctive sagacity
+sometimes seen in men of his cast of character, enough to convince
+him, with what he had previously observed, that a movement of a
+dangerous magnitude was somewhere in progress, and soon to be
+developed against the court party. And he instantly resolved to lose
+no time before trimming his sails and preparing to meet the coming
+storm. And the next moment, to the surprise of his colleague and the
+officers of the court, he was on his feet, requesting silence that he
+might address the assembly. He then proceeded to remark on the
+unfortunate occurrences of the previous night, with a show of much
+feeling and regret, and concluded by expressing his disapprobation of
+the course taken in the affair by the sheriff and his abettors, in a
+manner that would have given the highest offence to all implicated,
+had they not believed that the speech was secretly designed only as a
+game on their opponents, whom he might think it expedient to quiet and
+delude a little longer. They, therefore, winked knowingly to each
+other, and remained silent; while the speaker sat down with the mental
+exclamation,--
+
+"There, let it come now! That speech will do to be quoted. I can refer
+them to it as the public expression of my views before I knew what was
+coming."
+
+Having thus placed himself in a position, as he believed, where he
+could easily turn himself to meet any contingency,--where, in case the
+apprehended overthrow of the court party took place, he could easily
+and safely leap the next hour to a favorable, if not a high stand
+among the new dispensers of place and power, or where, should the
+present authorities be able to sustain themselves, he could as easily
+explain away his objectionable doings, and retain his standing among
+them. Having done this, he then turned his attention to the official
+duties of his place, and ordered the crier to give the usual notice,
+that the court was now open for business. This being formally done,
+the court docket was called over, and the causes there entered
+variously disposed of for the time being, by the judges, till they
+came to that of Woodburn versus Peters; which was a petition for a new
+trial for the recovery of the petitioner's alleged farm, that had been
+decided, at the preceding term, to be the property of Peters, on the
+ground and in the manner mentioned in a former chapter.
+
+"Who answers for this Woodburn?" said Sabin, with a contemptuous air.
+Significant glances were exchanged among the tory lawyers and officers
+about the bar at the question, and a malicious smile stole over the
+features of Peters, who had found a seat among them.
+
+"I move the court," said Stearns, the attorney of Peters, "for a
+judgment in favor of my client for his costs, and also for a writ of
+possession of his land, of which he has been so unjustly kept out by
+this vexatious proceeding. And, as the petitioner has not entered his
+appearance according to rule, whereby he tacitly admits that his cause
+cannot be sustained, I will not permit myself to doubt that the court
+will so order, even at this early hour--they certainly have the power
+to do so."
+
+"They have also the power to postpone the hearing, even to the last
+day of the term, before rendering judgment," bluntly interposed
+Knights, a large, plain-looking practitioner at the bar, who had taken
+no active part either for or against the court party.
+
+"We all know how this young man is debarred from appearing here
+to-day; and it seems to me manifestly unjust that any power which
+deprives a man of the opportunity of appearing at court, should render
+judgment against him in consequence of his non-appearance. I would,
+therefore, suggest a delay in this cause. Perhaps, within a short
+time, he will employ counsel, or be liberated."
+
+"And perhaps be hung for treason," said Stearns, in a sneering under-tone.
+
+"Do you answer for him or not, Mr. Knights?" demanded Sabin, impatiently.
+
+"No, your honor; he has not authorized me. I only made a suggestion,"
+answered the former.
+
+"Then judgment must go for Peters," rejoined Sabin, with ill
+suppressed warmth. "Traitors and rebels must look somewhere else for
+favor, beside this court, while I hold a seat here."
+
+"Nobody has yet been convicted of treason, I believe," promptly
+responded Knights, while an expression of indignant scorn flashed over
+his manly and intelligent countenance; "and till such is the case, I
+take it the rights of all have an equal claim on the court. I should
+be pleased to hear the opinion of the chief justice in this matter."
+
+"Although I may have my doubts on this subject, Mr. Knights,"
+graciously replied Chandler, "you could hardly expect me to be guilty
+of so great a discourtesy to my colleague here, as to interfere, after
+the intimation he has just given."
+
+"Make the entry, Mr. Clerk," said Sabin, hastily; "judgment for costs,
+and a writ of possession. _I_ am not troubled with any doubts in the
+matter, and will take the responsibility of the decision."
+
+Scarcely was the cause thus decided before Peters glided up to the
+clerk, and whispered in his ear; when the latter, nodding assentingly,
+opened his desk, and taking out two nicely-folded papers, handed them
+slyly to the other, who, receiving them in the same manner,
+immediately left the court-room and proceeded down stairs. As the
+exulting suitor passed through the crowd gathered round the main
+entrance, he beckoned to a short, thick set, harsh-featured fellow,
+who immediately followed him around a corner of the building.
+
+"Well, Fitch," said Peters, pausing as soon as they were out of the
+reach of observation, "have you done up your business in town, so as
+to be ready for a start for Guilford?"
+
+"Yes; don't know but I have. But you can't have got your decision,
+papers made out, and all, so soon as this?" replied the other.
+
+"All complete!" returned Peters, triumphantly.
+
+"Why, the court has not been in session an hour!"
+
+"True, but I had spoken to Judge Sabin to have my case taken up this
+morning; and, as nobody was authorized to answer for Woodburn, the
+case was disposed of in a hurry. And the clerk, with whom I had also
+arranged matters, had made out the papers before going into court, and
+got them all signed off and ready, in anticipation; and here they are,
+ready for your hands, Mr. Constable."
+
+"Ay, I see; but what is the necessity of serving them so immediately?"
+
+"Why, there's no knowing what may happen, Fitch. If the rebels, in
+revenge for last night's peppering, should send over the mountain for
+old Ethan Allen and his gang to come here to stir up and lead on the
+disaffected, all legal proceedings might be stopped. I know most of
+our folks think, this morning, that the enemy are fairly under foot.
+But Chandler, who is as keen as a fox for smelling out trouble, acts
+to me as if he was frightened; and I think he must have scented
+mischief brewing, somewhere."
+
+"Some say he is a very timorsome man."
+
+"Yes; but watchful and sagacious, and therefore an index not to be
+disregarded."
+
+"May be so. But what are your orders about these papers?"
+
+"With this, the writ of possession, go, in the first place, and turn
+the old woman, his mother, neck and heels, from the house; and then
+get some stiff fellow in for a tenant, rent free the first year, if
+you can do no better, provided he will defend the premises against
+Woodburn, if he escapes unhung. And with this paper, an execution for
+costs, as you will see, seize the fellow's cow and oxen, and all else
+you can find, and sell them as soon as the law will let you.
+
+"Why, you won't leave enough of the fellow for a grease spot."
+
+"Blast him; I don't intend to. But now is the time to do it, before he
+can get out of jail and back there to give fight and trouble us. So
+you fix all these matters about right for me, Fitch and I'll do the
+handsome thing by you when I come over, after the roads get settled,
+in the spring."
+
+"Never fear me, as long as I know what a friend's wishes are," replied
+the constable, with a significant wink, as he stuffed the documents
+into his hat, and bustled off on the detestable mission of his more
+detestable employer.
+
+While Peters and his official minion was thus engaged, Tom Dunning was
+seen coming, with hasty strides, along the road, from the direction of
+his cabin, which was situated without the village, about a half mile
+north of the Court House, from which it would have been visible but
+for the pine thicket by which it was partially enclosed. As the hunter
+was entering the village, he met Morris, hastening up the street, from
+the opposite part of the town.
+
+"Well met," said Morris; "for I was bound to your quarters with a
+message, which----"
+
+"Which I am ditter ready to receive, and give you one, which I started
+to carry to your folks, in return. So, first for yours."
+
+"Mine is, that we are now drawn up, two hundred strong, in the first
+woods south of the village, and are ready to march."
+
+"And mine, that we are der ditto; besides being a hundred better than
+you, all chafing, like ditter tied-up dogs, to be let on."
+
+"I will back, then, to my post with the news; and in less than a half
+hour, tell them, they shall hear our signal of entering the village,
+as agreed, which we will expect you to answer, and then rush on, as
+fast as you please, to effect a junction, as we wheel into the
+court-yard. But stay: have the prisoners been apprized that their
+deliverance is at hand?"
+
+"Yes; I ran up at the time the court ditter went in, and, in the
+bustle, got a chance to tell them through the grate."
+
+"All right; but how are the wounded doing?"
+
+"Ditter well, except French, who is fast going."
+
+"Indeed! Poor fellow! But his blood will now soon be avenged," said
+Morris, as the two now separated and hastened back to their respective
+posts.
+
+After Peters had despatched the constable on his work of legal plunder
+and revenge, he returned to the court-room for the purpose of pressing
+to a hearing some other cases which he had pending against political
+opponents, and which he hoped, through the favor of a biased and
+corrupt court, to curry as easily as the one wherein he had just so
+wickedly triumphed. But he was not permitted to reap any more of his
+despicable advantages; for he found that another, actuated by motives
+no less unworthy than his own, had already gained the attention of the
+court to a case of which he had been the prime mover and complainant.
+This was Secretary Brush; and the trial he had been urging on, through
+Stearns, the acting state's attorney, was that of the alleged
+murderer, to whose somewhat mysterious, as well as suspicious, arrest
+and imprisonment allusion has already been made.
+
+"As you say the witnesses are in court, Mr. Stearns," observed
+Chandler, after a moment's consultation with his colleague, "as all
+the witnesses are here, we have concluded to take up the criminal case
+in question. You may therefore direct the sheriff to bring the
+prisoner into court without delay."
+
+The sheriff, accordingly, left the court-room, and, in a short time,
+reappeared with the prisoner, followed by two armed men, who closely
+guarded and conducted him forward to the criminal's box.
+
+The prisoner was a man of the apparent age of sixty, of rather slight
+proportions of body, but with a large head, and coarse features, that
+seemed to be kept almost constantly in play by a lively, flashing
+countenance, in which meekness and fire, kindness and austerity, were
+curiously blended. As he seated himself, he turned round and faced the
+court with a fearless and even scornful air, but promptly rose, at the
+bidding of the chief judge, to listen to the information, which the
+clerk proceeded to read against him at length, closing by addressing
+to the respondent the usual question as to his guilt or innocence of
+the charge.
+
+"I once," calmly responded the prisoner--"I once knocked up a pistol,
+pointed at my breast by a robber. It went off and killed one of his
+fellows, and----"
+
+"Say, guilty or not guilty?" sternly interrupted the clerk.
+
+"Not guilty, then," answered the other, determined, while going
+through these preliminary forms, that his accusers, the court, and
+audience, should hear what, under other circumstances, he would have
+reserved for the more appropriate time of making his defence, or left
+to his counsel. "Ay, not guilty; and that gentleman," he rapidly
+continued, pointing to Brush, "that gentleman, who has offered to free
+me if I would submit to be robbed, well knows the truth of what I say.
+The witnesses, whom he has suborned, also know it, if they know any
+thing about that luckless affray."
+
+"Liar!" shouted Brush, springing up, in high excitement, as soon as he
+could recover from the surprise and confusion into which this bold and
+unexpected charge had thrown him.
+
+"The man's insane--evidently insane, your honors!" cried Stearns, who,
+in his anxiety to shield his friend Brush, thought not of the effect
+of such a remark.
+
+"I thank the attorney for the government for that admission, may it
+please the court," said Knights, rising, with a sarcastic glance at
+Stearns. "I may wish to make use of it."
+
+"Are you counsel for the prisoner, sir?" sharply demanded the other.
+
+"I am, sir," coolly replied Knights; "and you may find, before we get
+through the trial, that what the prisoner has said, as much out of
+place as it was, is not the only truth to be developed. But before the
+case proceeds any further, I offer a plea to the jurisdiction of this
+court, and at once submit, whether a man can be tried here for an
+offence alleged to have been committed in another county, without a
+special order from the governor for that purpose,"
+
+"That order is obtained and on file, sir. So that learned bubble is
+burst, as will all the rest you can raise in favor of the miserable
+wretch you have stooped to defend," said Stevens, exultingly. "Mr.
+Clerk, pass up that order to the court."
+
+"Are you satisfied now, Mr. Knights?" asked Sabin, with undignified
+feeling, after glancing at the order which had been laid before the
+judges. "Mr. Stearns, proceed with the cause."
+
+But that court, on whom the subservient attorney and his corrupt and
+arrogant friend depended to convict an innocent man of an infamous
+crime, that a private and nefarious object might thereby be
+enforced--that court were now destined to be arrested in their career
+of judicial oppression before they had time to add another stain to
+their already blackened characters: for, at this moment, a deep and
+piercing groan, issuing from one of the prison-rooms beneath,
+resounded through the building so fearfully distinct, as to cause
+every individual of the assembly to start, and even to bring the
+judges and officers of the court to a dead pause in their proceedings.
+A moment of death-like silence ensued; when another and a sharper
+groan of anguish, bursting evidently from the same lips, and swelling
+up to the highest compass of the human voice, and ending in a
+prolonged screech of mortal agony, rang through the apartment, sending
+a thrill of horror to the very hearts of the appalled multitude!
+
+"Who? What? For God's sake, what is that?" exclaimed a dozen eager and
+trembling voices at once, as nearly the whole assembly started to
+their feet, and stood with amazed and perplexed countenances,
+inquiringly gazing at each other.
+
+"Don't your consciences tell you that?" exclaimed the prisoner,
+Herriot, in a loud, fearless voice, running his stern, indignant eye
+over the court, its officers, and leading partisans around the bar.
+"Don't your consciences tell you what it was? Then I will! It was the
+death-screech of the poor murdered French, whose tortured spirit, now
+beyond the reach of your power, went out with that fearful cry which
+has just assailed your guilty ears!"
+
+"Mr. Sheriff! Mr. Sheriff!" sputtered Sabin, boiling with wrath, and
+pointing menacingly to the prisoner.
+
+"Silence, there, blabbing miscreant!" thundered Patterson.
+
+"Ah! No wonder ye want silence, when that name is mentioned," returned
+Herriot, unflinchingly.
+
+Struck dumb with astonishment at the unexpected audacity of the
+prisoner in thus throwing out, in open court, such bold and cutting
+intimations of their guilty conduct, the judges and officers seemed
+perfectly at a loss how to act, or give vent to their maddened
+feelings, for some moments. Soon, however, the most prompt and
+reckless among them found the use of their tongues.
+
+"Shoot him down, Patterson!" exclaimed Brush, with an oath.
+
+"Treason! I charge him with treason, and demand that he be ironed and
+gagged on the spot!" shouted Gale, bringing down his clinched fist
+heavily on the desk before him!
+
+"Yes, high treason; let us re-arrest him, and see if we can hang him
+on that, should he escape on the other charge," chimed in Stearns.
+
+"I have my doubts," began Chandler, who was growing every moment more
+wavering and uneasy.
+
+"No doubts about it," interrupted Sabin, almost choking with rage.
+"I'll not sit here and see the king's authority insulted, and his
+court treated with such contempt and treasonable defiance; and I order
+him instantly in irons--chains--yes, chains, Mr. Sheriff!"
+
+"You can chain the body, but shall not fetter the tongue," responded
+Herriot, in no way dismayed by the threats of his enraged persecutors,
+or their preparations to confine and torture his person; "for I _will_
+speak, and you shall _hear_, ye tyrants! Listen then, ye red-handed
+assassins! The blood of your murdered victim has cried up to God for
+vengeance. The cry has been heard! the unseen hand has already traced
+your doom on the wall! and this day, ay, within this hour," he
+continued, glancing through the window to a dark mass of men, who
+might now be partially discerned drawn up behind the point of woods at
+the north--"ay, within this very hour, that doom shall be fulfilled!
+Hark!" he added, in startling tones, after a momentary pause--"hark!
+do ye hear those signal guns, echoing from post to post, round your
+beleaguered Babylon? Do you hear those shouts? The avengers of blood
+are even now at your doors. Hear, and tremble!"
+
+As the speaker closed his bold denunciations, he descended from the
+bench which he had mounted for the purpose, and, advancing to the
+sheriff and his assistants, now standing mute and doubtful with their
+hastily procured fetters in their hands, he paused, and stood
+confronting them with an ironical smile, and with folded arms, in
+token of his readiness now to submit himself to their hands. But a
+wonderful change had suddenly come over the whole band of these tory
+dignitaries. The dark and angry scowls of mediated revenge, and the
+more fiery expressions of undisguised wrath, which were bent on the
+dauntless old man during the first part of his denunciations, had, by
+the time he made his closing announcement, all given way to looks of
+surprise and apprehension. No one offered to lay hands on him; for, as
+the truth of what he said was every moment more strongly confirmed by
+the increasing tumult without, no one had any thoughts to spare for
+any but himself. And soon the whole assembly broke from their places,
+and, in spite of the loud calls of the officers for silence and order,
+began to cry out in eager inquiries, and run about the room in the
+utmost confusion and alarm. At this juncture, David Redding, who had
+been thus far the most reckless and bloodthirsty tory of all, burst
+into the room, hurriedly exclaiming,--
+
+"The people have risen in arms, and are pouring in upon us, by
+hundreds, from every direction! In five minutes this house will be
+surrounded, and we in their power. Let every man look to his own
+safety! I shall to mine," he added, rushing back down to the front
+door, where, instead of attempting to escape through the back way, as
+he might then have done, he began to shout, "Hurra for Congress!" and,
+"Down with the British court!" at the very top of his voice.
+
+"I resign my commission," cried Chandler, jumping up in great
+trepidation. "Let it be distinctly understood," he repeated, raising
+his voice in his anxiety to be heard--"yes, let it be distinctly
+understood, that I have resigned my commission as judge of this court."
+
+"D----n him! what does he mean by that?" muttered Gale, turning to
+Patterson.
+
+"It means he is going to turn tail, as I always thought he would,--the
+cursed cowardly traitor!" replied the latter, gnashing his teeth. "But
+let him, and that pitiful poltroon of a Redding, go where they please.
+We will see to matters ourselves. I don't believe it is any thing more
+than a mere mob, who will scatter at the first fire. So follow me,
+Gale; and all the rest of ye, that aint afraid of your own shadows,
+follow me, and I'll soon know what can be done."
+
+And, while lawyers and suitors were hastily snatching up their papers,
+and all were making a general rush for the door, in the universal
+panic which had seized them, the boastful sheriff, attended by his
+assistants and the tiger-tempered Gale, pushed his way down stairs,
+shaking his sword over his head, and shouting with all his might,--
+
+"To arms! Every friend to the court and king, to arms! Stand to your
+guns there below, guards, and shoot down every rebel that attempts to
+enter!"
+
+But, when he reached the front entrance, the spectacle which there
+greeted his eyes seemed to have an instant effect in cooling his
+military ardor. There, to his dismay, he beheld drawn up, within
+thirty paces of the door, an organized and well-armed body of more
+than three hundred men; while small detachments, constantly arriving,
+were falling in on the right and left, and extending the wings round
+the whole building. And as the discomfited loyalist ran his eye along
+the line of the broad-breasted and fierce-looking fellows before him,
+and recognized among them the Huntingtons, the Knights, the Stevenses,
+the Baileys, the Brighams, the Curtises, and other stanch and leading
+patriots, from nearly every town bordering on the Connecticut, and saw
+the determined look and the indignant flashing of their countenances,
+he at once read not only the entire overthrow of his party in this
+section of the country, but the individual peril in which he, and his
+abettors in the massacre, now stood before an outraged and excited
+populace.
+
+"What ails your men, Squire Sheriff?" cried Barty Burt, now grown to a
+soldier in the ranks of the assailants, as he pointed tauntingly to
+the company of tory guards who had been stationed in the yard, but who
+now, sharing in the general panic, had thrown down their arms, and
+stood huddled together near the door; "why don't they pick up their
+shooting-irons, and blaze away at the _'d----d rebels,'_ as I think I
+heard you order, just now?"
+
+"And if that won't ditter do," exclaimed the well-known voice of Tom
+Dunning from another part of the ranks, "suppose you ditter read
+another king's proclamation at us: no knowing but we might be ditter
+done for, entirely."
+
+The sheriff waited to hear no more, but hastily retreated into the
+house, followed by a shout of derisive laughter; and his place was the
+next moment occupied by Chandler, who bustled forward to the steps,
+and, in a flustered, supplicatory manner, asked leave to address his
+"_respected fellow-citizens_."
+
+"Short speeches, judge!" impatiently cried Colonel Carpenter, who
+seemed, from his position on horseback among the troops and other
+appearances, to be chief in command--"short speeches, if any. We have
+come here on a business which neither long speeches nor smooth ones
+will prevent us from executing."
+
+The judge, however, could not afford to take this as a repulse; and,
+with this doubtful license, he went on to say, that on hearing, in the
+morning, as he did with astonishment and horror, of the unauthorized
+proceedings of last night, he had denounced the outrage, in an address
+at the opening of the court; and not finding himself supported, he had
+resigned, and left his seat on the bench.
+
+"And now," he added in conclusion, "being freed from the trammels of
+my oath of office, which have lately become so painful to me, I feel
+myself again one of the people, and stand ready to cooperate with them
+in any measure required by the public welfare."
+
+A very faint and scattering shout of applause, in two or three places,
+mingled with hisses and murmurs in others, was the only response with
+which this address was received. But even with this equivocal
+testimony of public feeling towards him, this despicable functionary
+felt gratified. "I _am safe_," said he to himself, with a long-drawn
+breath, as he descended the steps, to watch an opportunity to mingle
+with the party with whom he was now especially anxious to be seen, and
+to whom he was ready to say, in the words of the satirist,--
+
+  "I'm all submission, what you'd have me, make me;
+   The only question is, sirs, will you take me?"
+
+At this moment a sash was thrown up, and the prisoner, Herriot,
+appeared at a window of the court-room above.
+
+"I have been brought up here this morning," he said, shaking back his
+gray locks, and raising his stern, solemn voice to a pitch clearly
+audible to all in the grounds below--"I have been brought here from my
+dungeon to answer to the charge of a foul crime; and both my accusers
+and triers, fleeing even before any one appeared to pursue, have left
+their places, having neither tried nor condemned me. But scorning to
+follow their example, I now appear, to submit myself for a verdict, to
+the rightful source of all power--the people."
+
+"Neither will we condemn thee," cried Knowlton, pursuing the
+scriptural thought of the other; "if thy accusers and judges have left
+thee uncondemned, thou shalt not be condemned by us; at least not by
+me, who have long had my opinions of the character of this
+prosecution."
+
+"As also have I," responded Captain Wright. "I know something of the
+witnesses, on whom, it is said, they depended to convict father
+Herriot; and I would not hang a dog on their testimony. I move,
+therefore, that we here pronounce a verdict of acquittal. Who says, ay?"
+
+"Ay!" promptly responded a dozen voices; and "Ay!" the next instant
+rose in one loud, unanimous shout from the whole multitude.
+
+"A thousand thanks to you, my friends, for your generous confidence in
+my innocence," returned the old man with emotion; "and, thank God,
+your confidence is not misplaced. I was formerly guilty of much, which
+has cost me many bitter tears of repentance; but there is no blood on
+_my_ hands, and I will now return to my hermit hut, from which they
+dragged me, there to pray for the success of the good cause in which
+you are engaged, leaving to you what lesson shall be taught those
+Hamans who have filled these dungeons with the dying and wounded, now
+demanding your care."
+
+The effect of the old man's closing hint was instantly visible on the
+multitude, who decided by acclamation to act upon it without delay;
+and accordingly a score of resolute fellows were detached to proceed
+to the prisons, release their friends, and fill their places, for the
+present, with their murderous oppressors.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+  "----right represt,
+   Will heave with the deep earthquake's fierce unrest,
+   Then fling, with fiery strength, the mountain from its breast"
+
+
+When the besieged tories, who were now mostly crowded together in the
+broad space on the lower floor, saw a column of their assailants
+entering the front door, and advancing upon them with levelled muskets
+to sacrifice them, as they supposed, on the spot, they were seized
+with a fresh and uncontrollable panic, and made such a tremendous rush
+for the back entrance, that the only sentry who happened at that
+moment to be there, was, in spite of all his threats to fire upon
+them, instantly borne down, or thrust aside, by the living torrent
+that now burst through the door; and before a force sufficient to stop
+them could reach the spot, numbers had escaped into the adjoining
+fields, where, scattering in different directions, they commenced
+their disorderly flight, with all the speed which their guilty terrors
+could lend them. The next moment, however, as the cry that the tories
+were escaping was raised, a hundred of their most fleet-footed
+opponents were seen leaping the fences into the fields, and giving
+chase to the frightened fugitives. A scene, in which the ludicrous,
+the novel, the wild, and the fearful, were strangely mingled, now
+ensued; for, although a strong guard still retained their places round
+the Court House, who, with the detachment that had entered as we have
+described, proceeded to take into custody the remaining tories and
+liberate the imprisoned, yet the main body of the revolutionists
+joined in the work of hunting down the flying enemy; those not only
+who had escaped from the Court House in the manner we have named, but
+all concerned in the massacre that could be found secreted or lurking
+about the village; while the exulting shouts of the victors as they
+overtook, seized, and brought to the ground the vanquished; the abject
+cries of the latter for quarter; the reports of muskets fired by
+pursuers over the heads of the pursued, to frighten them to surrender;
+the beating on drums, and the loud clamor of mingling voices,--all
+combined to swell the uproar and confusion of the exciting scene.
+
+"How like the ditter deuse these lawyers do scratch gravel!" exclaimed
+Tom Dunning, as he singled out and gave chase to Stearns and Knights,
+who together were making their way across the fields, in the direction
+of the river, as if life and death hung on their speed. "Ha! ha!"
+continued the tickled hunter, laughing so immoderately at the novel
+spectacle, as greatly to impede his own progress--"ha! ha! ha! ha!
+Why, I der don't believe but what they've got consciences, after all!
+for what else could make their ditter drumsticks fly so?"
+
+But although the hunter, in thus indulging his merriment, suffered
+himself actually to lose ground in the race, yet he had no notion of
+relinquishing the chase, or losing the game; for, conscious of his own
+powers, and thinking lightly of those of the fugitives, he supposed,
+that, as soon as he chose to exert himself, he could easily make the
+race a short one, and as easily capture and lead them back in triumph;
+and he began to think over the jokes he would crack at their expense
+on the way. But the unseen event of the next moment showed him, to his
+vexation, that his inaction, and confidence in his own powers to
+remedy the consequences of it, had cost him all the anticipated
+pleasures of his expected victory. For scarcely had he commenced the
+pursuit in earnest, when the fugitive lawyers reached the bank of the
+river, and at the very place too, as it provokingly happened, where
+his own log-canoe chanced to be moored, and hastily leaping into it,
+they managed with such dexterity and quickness, in handling the oars
+and cutting the fastenings, as to push off, and get fairly out of the
+reach of their pursuer, before he could gain the spot; and his threat
+to fire at them, if they did not return, and the execution of that
+threat the next moment, which sent a bullet skipping over the water
+within a foot of the receding canoe, as he only intended, were all
+without effect in compelling the return of the panic-struck attorneys.
+And the balked pursuer had soon the mortification to see his crafty
+brace of intended captives land in safety on the opposite shore, which
+he had now no means of gaining, and disappear in the dark pine forest
+then lining the eastern bank of the Connecticut at this place.
+
+"Outwitted, by ditter Judas!" exclaimed the hunter, in his vexation.
+"These lawyers, dog 'em! they have so much of the Old Scratcher in
+'em, that they will outdo a fellow at his own trade. However, I've
+done the new state some ditter service, I reckon, seeing I've fairly
+driven such a precious pair of 'em out of it." [Footnote: Knights,
+who, unlike his companion, was no loyalist, appears to have become
+infected with the panic that had seized his loyal associates, in
+common with the whole court party; and, though he had no cause for
+alarm, fled with those who escaped from the Court House, on this
+memorable occasion. It is probable, that owing to his supposed
+interest in the continuance of the court, and consequent unwillingness
+to co-operate in the measures on foot to overthrow it, he was
+purposely kept in ignorance of the movements of the revolutionists,
+and therefore taken wholly by surprise when the storm burst. At all
+events, his speedy return, immediate resumption of his professional
+duties at Brattleborough, and subsequent promotion to the bench,
+abundantly shows that he no less enjoyed the confidence of the
+American party than his two namesakes, and, we believe, relatives,
+whom we have named as present among the assailants, and who were
+afterwards officers in our revolutionary forces. An aged and
+distinguished early settler, to whom the author is indebted for many
+of the incidents he has here delineated, thus writes in relation to
+the particular one in question:--
+
+"I have heard Judge Samuel Knights, who, as chief justice, presided in
+the Supreme Court from 1791 to 1793, describe the trepidation that
+seized them, when, after the massacre, and on the rising of the
+surrounding country, they came to learn the excited state of the
+populace. He related how he and another member of the bar (Stearns, I
+think, who was afterwards attorney secretary of Nova Scotia) hurried
+down to the river, and finding there a boat, (such as was used in
+those times for carrying seines or nets at the shad and salmon fishing
+grounds, which were frequent on both sides the river, below the Great
+Falls,) they paddled themselves across, and lay all day under a log in
+the pine forest opposite the town; and, when night came, went to
+Parson Fessenden's, at Walpole, and obtained a horse, so that, by
+riding and tying, they got out of the country till the storm blew
+over, when Knights returned to Brattleborough."]
+
+With this consolatory reflection, he now turned and retraced his steps
+towards the scene of action. While on his way thither, and soon after
+passing the rear of the building before described as the head-quarters
+of the tory leaders, his attention was arrested by the lamentable
+outcries of some one alternately bawling for help, and begging for
+mercy; when, turning to the spot, he there beheld his associate, Barty
+Burt, astride the haughty owner of the mansion just named, who, with
+dress sadly soiled and disordered, was creeping on his hands and knees
+on the ground, towards his house, which, it appeared, he had nearly
+gained, when he was overtaken, thrown to the ground, and mounted by
+his agile and tormenting captor, who was now taking his whimsical
+revenge for former indignities, by compelling the fallen secretary,
+through the efficacy of a loaded pistol just wrenched from the
+latter's hand, to carry him on his back, in the manner above
+described.
+
+"What the dogs are you ditter doing there, Bart?" said Dunning, with a
+broad grin, as he came up and recognized the secretary in such a
+strange plight and attitude.
+
+"O, nothin very desput; only showing Squire Brush, here the differ
+between to-day and yesterday, that's all," replied Bart kicking and
+spurring, like a boy on some broken-down horse "Get up, here! Gee!
+whoa, Dobbin! Kinder seems to me," he continued to his groaning
+prisoner--"kinder seems to me I heard somebody say,'tother night, that
+Bart Burt wasn't above a jackass. Wonder if I aint above a jackass
+now? only his ears may need pulling and stretching a little," he
+added, suiting the action to the word.
+
+"For God's sake, my good man," said Brush, turning imploringly to
+Dunning, "do relieve me from the clutches of this insatiate imp of
+hell. Let him shoot me, if he will; but don't leave me to be worried,
+and trod into the mud and splosh, like a dog, by the revengeful young
+savage. It is more than flesh and blood can bear."
+
+"Well, now, squire, I wouldn't make such a tearing fuss about this
+little bit of a walloping, after what's happened, if I was you," said
+Bart. "There was our differ about who was the jackass, and sich like,
+that night, you know, which I kinder thought I might as well settle;
+and then, again, there was your good-by, yesterday; but may be I've
+done enough to make that square, too. So I don't care if I let you up,
+now, seeing as how Mr. Dunning has come to take care of your worship,"
+added the speaker, springing nimbly a few paces aside, and facing
+about with presented pistol, as if to keep the other on good behavior.
+
+"What can you want with me, sir?" said the disencumbered secretary to
+the hunter, after gaining his feet and shaking off the mud from his
+bedraggled garments.
+
+"Ditter considerable," replied the other. "In the first place, the
+people want to see you back to the Court House, where you may ditter
+consider yourself invited to go, under my care. They there may have
+the first claim on you."
+
+"Well, if I am a prisoner, let us go there, then," said the
+crestfallen loyalist, relinquishing, with bad grace, his hope of being
+allowed to escape. "But what do you mean by _first claim_ on me?"
+
+"Well, I ditter mean that I have another, when they get through with you."
+
+"Explain yourself, sir."
+
+"I will. You ditter know that your governor has offered a reward of
+fifty pounds for the ditter delivery of Ethan Allen for the gallows,
+under a law got through the York Assembly, principally by one Squire
+Brush. Well I aint a going to ditter fight old Ethan's battles; for he
+can der do that himself. But you may ditter know, also, that Ethan has
+offered the same reward for the governor and you. Now, as we are
+ditter expecting Allen over here, in a few days, I was der thinking, I
+and Bart, here, might as well ditter deliver you up, and claim the
+money." [Footnote: Crean Brush, who procured himself to be elected
+from this county to the New York legislature, for several years, was
+believed to be the main mover of the act of outlawry against Ethan
+Allen and others. He certainly, as chairman of the committee on the
+subject, reported, and recommended the passage of, that notorious
+measure. (See Slade's State Papers.)]
+
+So saying, the hunter, bidding the prisoner to follow, and Bart to
+bring up the rear, marched off in triumph to the Court House; and,
+having delivered over his charge to the guard at the prison doors,
+sallied out into the village in quest of further adventures. Nor was
+he long in meeting with them. After gaining the street, he soon
+perceived a gathering and commotion nearly in front of the mansion
+whose owner he had just taken from the rear; and, on reaching the
+spot, he found a crowd collected round a sleigh, filled with gentlemen
+and ladies, which proved to be that of Peters and his company. It
+appeared that Haviland, who had remained at his quarters that
+forenoon, and had thus become apprised of the rising of the people
+sooner than the mass of his party, had instantly ordered the team to
+be harnessed, and every thing prepared for an immediate departure, as
+soon as Peters should arrive. And the latter, who was among those who
+broke away from the Court House after it was invested, having at
+length reached the house undiscovered, and adopted such disguise in
+dress as the time would permit, they had all jumped into the sleigh,
+(which could still be used better than any other vehicle,) and were
+rapidly driving from the yard, in an attempt to escape from the town,
+when they were recognized and detained by a party of the
+revolutionists. Haviland and Peters had already been seized and taken
+from the sleigh, and would have instantly been forced off to prison,
+but for the entreaties and distress of the females who refused to be
+conducted back to the house, or even to be separated from their
+protectors; Miss Haviland, especially, declaring that if her father
+must go to prison, she would go with him. This had produced a
+momentary delay, during which a sharp altercation had arisen, some
+being for taking the prisoners back to the house, there to be guarded,
+and others strongly insisting on dragging them off, at once, to jail.
+The latter, at length, appeared to prevail, and were on the point of
+forcing the ladies, in spite of all their entreaties, from the sides
+of their protectors, when a man came pushing his way through the
+crowd:--
+
+"For shame! shame! my friends," he cried; "you surely would not molest
+innocent and defenceless females."
+
+"I will tell you what it is, Harry Woodburn," responded one of those
+who were for proceeding to active measures, "when ladies attempt to
+stand between murderers and their deserts, they must expect to be
+molested."
+
+The circumstances of the case were then explained to Woodburn; when
+the crowd, who had been irritated by the threats and arrogant behavior
+of the prisoners, at the outset, again began to cry, "Away with them,
+women and all, if they will have it so--away with them to prison!"
+
+"Men, hear me!" exclaimed Woodburn, planting himself between the
+ladies and the angry crowd. "You see this!" he continued, holding up
+his bandaged and blood-stained arm: "the wound was received in
+defending your cause; and I have but this moment come from the felon's
+hold where I passed the night, for the part I took in the affray. Now,
+have I not earned the right to be heard?"
+
+"Ay, ay, certainly, Harry; go on!" responded several, while the
+silence of the rest denoted a ready acquiescence in the request.
+
+"This, then, is what I would say," resumed the former. "These ladies,
+who are doubtless anxious to escape from a scene of strife which may
+not yet be ended, came from a distance, under the care of this old
+gentleman, whose imprisonment would not only take from them their
+protector, but deprive them, probably, of all present means of
+returning to their home. I propose, therefore, to let him and them
+depart unmolested."
+
+"If the ladies were all--but I don't know about letting this old
+fellow off so easily," said one, exchanging doubtful glances with
+those around him. "He is both tory and Yorker to the eyes."
+
+"Yes," urged another, "and who knows but he was among the murderers
+last night?"
+
+"I have ascertained that he was not among the actors of last night's
+outrage," replied Woodburn.
+
+"Well," rejoined the former, "I know the other was--that upper-crust
+tory by his side there, who was always too proud to wear an old coat
+and hat, till he thought they might help him in skulking away out of
+the reach of punishment."
+
+"I know Peters was there, to my cost; and I had no notion of asking
+any exemption for him," returned Woodburn, with bitterness. "But this
+old gentleman, whatever may be his feelings, has committed none of
+those acts of violence, for which, only, I understand, our leaders
+intend to institute trials. Shall we not, then, let him and his ladies
+proceed, as I proposed?"
+
+Receiving no direct answer to his appeal, the speaker now took two or
+three of the leading opposers aside, and, after conversing with them a
+few moments, returned, and announced to Haviland that he was at
+liberty to depart.
+
+How well and wisely had he read the human heart, who penned the
+scriptural apothegm, "If thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst,
+give him drink; for, in so doing, thou shall heap coals of fire on his
+head"! Haviland, though by nature an honorable man, had yet suffered
+himself to enter deeply into the personal animosities of Peters
+towards Woodburn, which, with his political and aristocratic
+prejudices, had caused him to think of the young man only with
+feelings of contempt and bitterness. And when he witnessed the noble
+conduct of the latter, first in rescuing his daughter from the flood,
+and now so generously interposing in his behalf, it produced that
+struggle between pride and conscience, whose operation is so forcibly
+expressed by the sacred writer just quoted. And, although he could
+bring himself to acknowledge his obligations only by a formal and
+constrained bow, yet the conflicting and painful expressions that were
+seen flitting over his disturbed countenance, as he now returned to
+the sleigh, plainly told how effectually, and with what punished
+feelings, his enmity had been silenced. But not so with his
+single-minded and quickly and justly appreciating daughter. She had no
+prejudices to combat, no pride to conquer; and she, therefore,
+witnessed each new act of her deliverer with as much pleasure as
+gratitude--feelings which sought expression in no parade of words, it
+is true, but in the more meaning and eloquent language of the kindly
+tone and sweetly-beaming countenance. And, in her low-murmured,
+"_Thank you--thank you for all_," as Woodburn handed her to her seat
+in the vehicle, he felt a thousand fold repaid for all he had ventured
+for her sake; while the speaking smile, with which she the next moment
+turned to him, and nodded her adieu, left an impress on his heart
+destined never to be effaced.
+
+While this was transpiring, Peters, who had been standing apart from
+the rest of his company, sullenly looking on, without uttering a word,
+except to bid Haviland go on without him, contrived, without exciting
+any suspicion of his design, to work himself by degrees to the outer
+edge of the crowd, in the direction in which the team was about to
+pass. And, as the sleigh, which was now put in motion, approached him,
+he made a sudden feint of running the opposite way; when, as the crowd
+were confusedly springing forward to head him, he quickly tacked
+about, leaped into the sleigh, and, snatching the reins and whip from
+Haviland's hands, applied the lash so furiously, that the frantic
+horses bounded forward with a speed which carried the receding vehicle
+more than fifty yards on its course, before the balked and confused
+throng could recover themselves, and fairly comprehend what had
+happened. But the sharp, bitter shout of execrations, mingled with
+cries for immediate pursuit, which now rose from the agitated
+multitude, proclaimed at once their hatred of the haughty loyalist,
+and their determination not to suffer him to escape from justice And
+the next instant, a half dozen swift runners, led on by Dunning, shot
+out from the crowd, in the eager chase, like so many arrows speeding
+to the mark. And, notwithstanding the supposed advantages of horses
+over men in a race, and notwithstanding the increased speed with which
+the fugitive team thundered along over the half-bare and uneven
+ground, the pursued had scarcely reached the end of a furlong, before
+the fleet and determined hunter, still in advance of his companions,
+gained the side of the sleigh, leaped up, pounced upon his cringing
+victim, and brought him headlong to the ground, leaving Haviland to
+seize the relinquished reins, check the horses as he best could, and
+proceed on his way unmolested.
+
+"There! you ditter sneak of a runaway tory. You will now go, I der
+rather calculate, where there's no ditter petticoats to shelter you,"
+said Dunning, raising the chapfallen Peters by the collar, and drawing
+him along back, amidst the exulting shouts of the revolutionists, by
+whom he and his friend Brush were then forced away, in no very gentle
+manner, to join their fellow-prisoners, in the same dungeon where the
+victims of their last night's outrage were so unfeelingly and so
+unwisely immured.
+
+A detailed description of the various scenes which here succeeded, in
+the winding up of this local revolution, as it may justly be
+denominated, would occupy too much space for the limits of our tale,
+without evolving any further incident, having much bearing on the
+destinies of those of its personages whose fortunes we design to
+follow. We will now, therefore, sum up, in a few words, the doings of
+the triumphant party, and, with a comment or two of our own, dismiss
+the subject.
+
+In the first place, all the supposed actors and abettors of the
+massacre within reach were seized and secured, excepting Redding and
+one or two others of a like character, who, by their activity in
+assisting to apprehend the fugitive comrades whom they had so meanly
+deserted, and their offers to give evidence against them, had
+purchased an exemption from punishment, and excepting also the
+Janus-faced Chandler, who, by his duplicity, had contributed more than
+any other man, perhaps, towards this catastrophe, but who now
+contrived to make even his iniquities count in his favor. [Footnote:
+As the acts of this notorious personage, whose character we have been
+at considerable pains to ascertain, and accordingly portray, will have
+no further connection with our story, we cannot forbear, before
+dismissing him entirely, giving the reader a short account of his
+subsequent career, and singular end. Although, by his facility of
+accommodating his political principles to those of the majority, and
+his alacrity of tacking about, and mounting, like a squirrel on a
+wheel, so as to be found rising to the top in every revolution or
+counter-revolution of public sentiment, he thus adroitly managed to
+get appointed to some offices of minor importance, under the new state
+government, yet, becoming every year better and better understood, and
+consequently more and more distrusted, he finally sunk into utter
+insignificance and contempt; and, falling into pecuniary
+embarrassments, brought about by a long course of secret fraud in
+selling wild lands, of which he had no titles, he was confined for
+debt in the very building in which the massacre occurred; where, as if
+by the retribution of Heaven for the part he once there acted, he soon
+died, unhonored and unlamented. And, what is still more remarkable,
+his remains were strangely destined to be denied even the respect of a
+common burial. For some exasperated creditor having attached the body,
+and the neighbors, from a notion that prevailed at that time,
+supposing, that by removing the body for a public burial they would
+make themselves liable for his debts, suffered it to remain till it
+became too offensive to be endured, when, at the dark hour of
+midnight, a few individuals went silently to the prison, got the
+putrid mass into some rough box, and drew it on the ground to the
+fence of the neighboring burial-ground; and, having dug a horizontal
+trench under the fence, and a deep pit on the other side, pushed
+through and buried up all that remained of the once noted Chief
+Justice Chandler. An old, decayed oak stump, still standing, is the
+only object that marks the site of his grave.] After this was
+effected, the victors, all but enough to constitute a safe guard, laid
+aside their arms, and resolved themselves into a sort of civil
+convention, to take measures for the trial of the prisoners by some
+mode, which, in the absence of all proper authorities, should answer
+for a legal process. And, as the first step in the matter, a jury of
+inquest, to sit on the dead body of French, was ordered, and a
+committee appointed to see to the empanelling of impartial men, and
+collect evidence and conduct the investigations to be had before them.
+All this being duly accomplished, and the jury bringing in a verdict
+that the deceased came to his death by the discharges of muskets, in
+the hands of Patterson, Gale, and others therein enumerated, all the
+latter, thus designated as the murderers of the unfortunate young man,
+were taken, and, under the authority of another order or decree of the
+convention, marched off, under a strong guard, to the jail in
+Northampton, some forty or fifty miles into the interior of
+Massachusetts, and there confined, to be tried for their lives at the
+next court that should be holden in the county where the offence was
+committed; while a less deeply implicated portion of the prisoners
+were put under bonds to appear at the court to answer to the charges
+of manslaughter and assault, or made to undergo other punishments and
+restrictions immediately imposed by the convention. [Footnote: Among
+the different kinds of sentences imposed on the class of offenders
+here last named, was one dooming Judge Sabin to the limits of his own
+farm, and making it lawful for any one catching him off of it to kill
+him. And so deep was the public indignation against this inveterate
+loyalist and supposed secret abettor of the massacre, that he was
+narrowly watched for the chance of executing the penalty. An aged
+revolutionist, from whom this fact was derived, stated that he had
+lain many a Sunday, with a loaded rifle, in the woods near the judge's
+farm lines, to see if he would not, when coming out to salt his sheep,
+stray over his limits. But the old fellow, he said, was always too
+wary for him.] The actors in the outrage, who comprised nearly all the
+leading members of the British party in that part of the Grants lying
+east of the mountains, having been thus summarily disposed of, the
+people, now taking the government into their own hands, and acting in
+primitive assembly, proceeded to reorganize the county, by the
+appointment of new judges, and all the usual subordinate officers, of
+their own principles, to adopt measures to reduce to submission or
+drive away the remaining loyalists of the county, and, finally, to
+declare themselves alike independent of the government of Great
+Britain and of New York.
+
+Thus terminated this memorable outbreak, which acquired additional
+importance from the fact, that it resulted in the entire subversion of
+British authority in this, the only section among the Green Mountains
+where it ever gained a foothold. And not small the praise, which, in
+view of the circumstances, should be awarded to the hardy spirits by
+whom this miniature revolution was achieved; for, so great was the
+power of patronage exercised by this court, and the influence of those
+enjoying office or immunities under it,--a great majority of whom were
+stanch, and the rest tacit, supporters of the royal cause,--that, till
+the occurrence of this sanguinary affair, it is evident the former had
+but little hope of being able to overthrow this petty local dynasty
+without assistance from abroad. The aged survivors of that stormy
+period inform us, indeed, that but for the massacre of Westminster, it
+would have been difficult to predict whether the opening of the
+revolution, a few months afterwards, would have found, in the section
+in question, a whig or tory majority predominating. But that act of
+murder and madness, which the loyalists here, with the strange
+infatuation attending their doings almost every where else at the
+time, seemed destined to commit, as if to hasten their own overthrow,
+settled their doom.
+
+  "It was the electric flame to fire the hearts
+   Of a true people."
+
+And while it opened the eyes of hundreds of the hitherto acquiescent,
+it armed the opposing with an energy and determination in their cause,
+which at once became irresistible; and when the war-note was
+subsequently sounded by such patriots as Benjamin Carpenter and his
+associates, it found a ready response in every glen and corner of the
+surrounding country, and the hardy settlers seized their arms, and,
+with the cry of _French and vengeance!_ hastened away to the scenes of
+action at Lexington, Ticonderoga, and Bunker Hill.
+
+We are aware that some historians have classed this affair among the
+difficulties and skirmishes growing out of what has usually been
+termed the New York controversy, while others have treated the subject
+in a manner which shows them to be doubtful in what light to place the
+transaction; and, for that reason apparently, they have slid over the
+matter in those general and ambiguous terms so often and reprehensibly
+indulged in by writers at a loss about facts, to conceal their own
+ignorance, or to avoid the responsibility of deciding the point at
+issue. But a careful examination of the subject has led us to the
+conclusion, that the affair in question had little or no connection,
+in reality, with the New York controversy, but that it was wholly of a
+revolutionary character. No resistance to the authority of New York
+had ever been previously made in this section of the Grants; nor did
+the opposers of this court, in any of their remonstrances, or other
+proceedings, either before or after the massacre, assign any reason
+for their doings which can be fairly construed into an objection to
+the jurisdiction of that province, as such; or any otherwise than that
+it had, up to that time, refused to adopt the resolves and
+recommendations of the Continental Congress. On the contrary, all
+their arguments are based on their duty and determination of joining
+their revolting brethren in the other colonies, and, consequently, of
+resisting the longer continuance of British authority among them.
+Such, indeed, is the ground taken by Dr. Jones, in his minute and
+authentic account of the occurrence, in which he was, as we have made
+him in our illustrations, an actor. And even the inscription on the
+tombstone of the ill-fated French, written when the transaction, and
+all its attendant circumstances, were fresh in the minds of all,
+sufficiently proves, if further proof were necessary, that the version
+we have given of the affair is identical with the one generally
+understood and received at the time." [Footnote: The inscription here
+alluded to, which we insert as supporting our position rather than as
+affording any new antiquarian curiosity to many readers, is verbatim
+as follows:--
+
+  "In memory of William French, son of Mr. Nathaniel French,
+   Who was shot at Westminster March y'e 13th 1775 by the hands
+   of Cruel Ministerial tools of George y'e 3d, in the Court
+   House, at 11 o'clock at night, in the 22d year of his age.
+
+  "Here William French his Body lies
+   For murder his blood for vengeance cries
+   King George the third, his tory crew
+   Tha with a bawl his head shot threw
+   For liberty and his country's good
+   He lost his life and dearest blood."]
+
+It was this view of the occurrence which led us to occupy the space we
+have devoted in attempting to illustrate it; for it becomes invested
+with a new interest and new importance, when it is considered, as we
+think it must be, that here was enacted the first scene of the great
+drama that followed; here was shed the first blood, and here fell the
+first martyr, of the American revolution.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+  "They sank till their fair land became a sty
+   Stygian with moral darkness. Heart and mind
+   Debased--dark passions rose, and with red eye,
+   Rushed to their revel; until Freedom, blind
+   And maniac, sought the rest the suicide would find."
+
+
+The traveller of the present day, as he enters the town of Guilford,
+on the southern confines of Vermont, will soon be struck with the
+peculiar appearance of many things around him. Few or no traces of a
+primitive forest are to be seen, while its place is supplied by a
+heavy second growth of woods, sixty or seventy years old, in the midst
+of which the remains of old enclosures and other indications of former
+habitations are not unfrequently observable. On the cleared farms,
+also, may often be seen three or four different clumps of aged
+fruit-trees, scattered about in the nooks and corners of the lot, and
+sometimes extending into the woods, in such a manner as to preclude
+the idea that they could have been planted under any thing like the
+present arrangements of the farm and its buildings. Near these old
+relics of former orchards may likewise generally be perceived some
+levelled spot, remains of old chimneys, traces of cellars, or other
+marks of dwellings long since removed, or fallen to decay. These, with
+many other peculiarities, give to the whole town an aspect nowhere
+else to be seen in Vermont, nor even, perhaps, in any part of New
+England. And if the traveller be of a fanciful turn, he will associate
+the place with the idea of some deserted country, resettled by a new
+race of men; and even if he be a mere matter-of-fact man, he cannot
+fail to perceive that the town must have been originally tenanted
+under a division of lands and an order of things quite different from
+those now existing. And either of these suppositions would be far
+better justified by the facts than most of the speculations of modern
+tourists made in their flying visits through the land, as will be seen
+by a recurrence to the early annals of this town, of which, for the
+purpose of insuring a full understanding of some scenes here about to
+be described, we must be permitted to give a brief outline.
+
+The events connected with the first settlement of the town of
+Guilford, which afterwards became so noted as the stronghold of
+toryism and adherence to the New York supremacy, form a curious
+anomaly even in the anomalous history of Vermont. The territory
+comprising this township appears to have been granted, as early as
+1754, to a company of about fifty persons, by a charter, which, unlike
+that of any other town, empowered the proprietors, in express terms,
+to govern themselves and regulate the concerns of their little
+community, by such laws as the majority should be pleased to enact,
+without being made amenable to any power under heaven, save that which
+might be exercised by the British Parliament. Being thus constituted a
+band of freemen and legislators, at the outset, they soon took
+possession of their chartered piece of wilderness, organized by the
+election of the proper officers of state, and assumed the title of an
+independent republic, which their charter, in fact, created, any
+control of the Parliament of England being as little to be
+apprehended, in their secluded retreat among the wilds of the Green
+Mountains, as that of the Great Mogul of Tartary. And as novel as was
+the idea of a republic at that early period, when "the divine right of
+kings" to govern all men was as little questioned as the divine right
+of Satan to afflict the pious Job of old, this enterprising little
+band of settlers, for many years, appear to have well sustained the
+character they had assumed, not only by carrying out, in all their
+public doings, that essential principle of a republic which makes the
+will of the majority supreme, but by the simplicity of their tastes
+and habits in private life, and their beautiful exemplification of the
+great law of love, that can only be fulfilled towards our neighbors by
+according to them equal rights and privileges with ourselves. At
+length, however, new doctrines began to prevail, and the independent
+character of our little republic was soon, in a good degree,
+forfeited; and that, too, by the very means, it would seem, which had
+been taken to make it flourish and increase. It had been one of the
+conditions of the charter that every grantee should become an actual
+settler, and, within five years, clear and cultivate five acres of
+land, for every fifty purchased. And in accordance with this cunning
+policy for insuring the actual and rapid settlement of the place, the
+township had been laid out in fifty and one hundred acre lots, except
+the governor's right of five hundred acres, which his excellency of
+New Hampshire, in granting Vermont lands, never forgot to reserve for
+his own use, in every township, but which the proprietors generally
+contrived, as in this instance, to have set off on the highest
+mountain in town, considering it but respectful and fitting, as they
+used waggishly to observe, that so elevated a personage should be
+honored with the most elevated location. And the effect of this
+policy, together with the low prices at which the lands were put, and
+other inducements held out to draw in settlers, soon became visible in
+the rapid increase of the population, and consequent improvement of
+the town. So unexampled in these new settlements was its progress,
+indeed, in both the particulars we have just named, that within twenty
+years from the time when the sound of the axe was first heard in its
+woody limits, the inhabitants were found to number nearly three
+thousand; while fields were every where opened in the wilderness, and
+buildings raised in such neighborly contiguity, that the whole town
+presented the appearance of a continuous village. It is not very
+surprising, therefore, that, through such an influx of settlers,
+coming from all parts of the country, and including many interested
+and active partisans of the York jurisdiction, a majority should soon
+be obtained, who were induced to depart from the views of the first
+settlers respecting the independence of their community, and adopt the
+more fashionable form of subordinate government, which prevailed in
+all the towns around them. And accordingly we find them, at their
+annual meeting in 1772, voting the district of Guilford, as they
+termed it, to belong to the county of Cumberland and province of New
+York, and thereupon proceeding to reorganize the town, agreeably to
+the laws of that province. This change, however, does not appear to
+have been followed by any material alteration of their internal
+polity, or to have been productive of any great civil discord, till
+about the time of the opening of the American revolution; when the
+town became the prey of contending factions, of so fierce and lawless
+a character as to convert this once Arcadian abode of virtue,
+simplicity, and rural happiness, into a theatre of violence and social
+disorganization, which never, perhaps, found a parallel within the
+limits of order-loving New England. Sometimes the York party and
+tories,--for, in this town, it so happened that the two were
+identical,--and sometimes the whigs and friends of the new state of
+Vermont, were in the ascendant; while scenes of such disorder and
+outrage were constantly occurring between the belligerent parties,
+that his honor, Judge Lynch, for many years, appears to have been not
+the least among the potentates of this notable republic. Nor was order
+restored to the ill-starred town till after the close of the war; when
+every refractory spirit, whether tory or Yorker, was punished or awed
+into submission by the fiery energy of the iron-heeled Ethan Allen,
+who, then being relieved from the pursuit of more important game, came
+thundering down upon the town with his hundred Green Mountain Boys,
+proclaiming to the disaffected, with demonstrations which they well
+knew how to interpret, that the peaceable and instant submission of
+the place to the new authorities of the land should alone save it from
+being "_made as desolate as the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah_".
+
+It was a dark and gloomy day in April, and the sleety storm was
+beating, in fitful gusts, against the broken and creaking casements,
+and the disjointed, loose, and leaky covering of an old, dilapidated
+log-house, standing by the road-side, in one of the thousand little
+dales, which, with their corresponding hills, so beautifully diversify
+the face of the town we have been describing. But as comfortless as
+this miserable hut was, and as poor and insufficient a protection from
+the elements as it afforded, even for the healthy and robust, it was
+now the only shelter of a sick and destitute woman, the widowed mother
+of Harry Woodburn. The hand of her son's persecutor, as it not
+unfrequently is seen to occur in the history of human oppression, was
+destined to fall even more heavily on her than on him for whom the
+blow was designed. The minion officer, selected by Peters for the
+purpose, had no sooner received his warrants, than, faithful to the
+cruel instructions of his employer, he had repaired post-haste to the
+residence of the absent Woodburn, of which he was authorized to take
+possession, and, with insults and abuse, rudely thrust the lone and
+unprotected occupant out of doors, in despite of all her entreaties
+for mercy, or delay till her son should return, or even for one day,
+to give her an opportunity to find some shelter for her now houseless
+head. He then, with the aid of the three or four ruffian assistants
+enlisted to accompany him, threw all the furniture out of the windows
+or doors into the mud and snow beneath where the whole, consisting of
+crockery and glasses, now half broken by the fall, and beds, linen,
+kettles, chairs, tables, and the like, soon lay piled promiscuously
+together. Having thus driven the terrified and distressed woman from
+the comfortable abode which had formerly cost her and her deceased
+husband so many years of toil to erect and furnish, and having, to add
+to the wrong, either injured or destroyed the greater part of her
+little stock of goods, by the wanton or careless manner in which they
+had been removed, this brutal officer next proceeded to the barn, and
+by virtue of his _copias_ for costs, seized the cow and oxen, the last
+remaining property of the wronged and ruined young man, which, after
+intrusting the present keeping and defence of the premises to two of
+his band, he drove away to another part of the town, to be sold at the
+post, as soon as the forms of the law, respecting notice of the sale,
+could be complied with. The poor widow, half distracted at being thus
+suddenly bereft of house and home, spent the remainder of the day in
+vainly endeavoring to procure some tenement into which she could
+remove with her furniture, or with so much of it as might yet be
+saved. On the next day, however, as a last resort, she obtained and
+accepted the present use of the deserted cabin we have described,
+situated but a short distance from the house from which she had been
+ejected. And into this comfortless place, after several days of
+incessant toil and exposure, she succeeded in getting her damaged
+furniture, but not till her exertions, combined with her anxieties and
+grief, had given rise to a malady which, though not at first very
+threatening, became, each subsequent day, more and more alarmingly
+developed in her overtasked system. In this situation she was found by
+her son, who, being entirely ignorant that any judgment had passed
+against him, and, consequently, little dreaming what was taking place
+at home, had remained at Westminster nearly a week after the massacre,
+attending the public meetings, which, as we have before intimated,
+followed that event; when he returned to Guilford, and, with feelings
+bordering on desperation, learned the extent of his misfortunes. But
+the bitterness of his feelings, as great as it was, at being stripped
+of all his property through such a series of wrongs, soon became
+wholly merged in anxiety and grief for his sick and sorrow-stricken
+parent, and in the exasperating thought that her sickness and
+suffering proceeded from the same source with his other injuries. And
+close and unremitting had been his attentions to her, until the day
+previous to the one on which we have introduced her to the reader;
+when he had been induced to leave for Brattleborough, or other more
+distant towns, to try to obtain money to redeem his stock, which was
+now about to be sold, and which was worth more than double the amount,
+as he had recently ascertained, of the execution on which it had been
+seized. On the morning after his departure, she had become so much
+worse that she was compelled to take to her bed, and despatch her only
+attendant for a doctor. That attendant was Barty Burt, who had come
+down from Westminster with Woodburn, and had been engaged by the
+latter to remain with his mother during his absence. Having thus
+glanced over the events which had occurred previously to the opening
+of this new scene of our story, we will now return to the point we
+left to make the digression.
+
+Slowly, to the suffering invalid, rolled the sad hours away, as with
+thick and labored breathing, she lay tossing upon her rude couch,
+standing behind a blanket-screen, in one corner of her cheerless
+abode. Occasionally she would raise her fevered head from the pillow,
+and seem to listen to catch the sounds of expected footsteps, and her
+languid eye would turn anxiously towards the door; when, after thus
+exerting her senses in vain a few moments, she would sink back upon
+her bed, with a long-drawn, sighing groan, which told alike of
+disappointment and bodily anguish. At length, however, footsteps were
+heard approaching, the door opened, and Barty Burt stilly glided into
+the apartment, and approached the bedside of the sufferer.
+
+"You have come at last, then," said she, lifting her dim eyes to meet
+the face of the other. "It seemed as if you never would arrive. But
+where is the doctor?"
+
+"He will be on afore long, mistress; but I've had a time on't in
+getting round, I tell ye!" replied Bart.
+
+"I am very sorry, if you have had any unexpected trouble on my
+account," meekly observed the invalid; "but what has befallen you?"
+
+"O, nothin," answered the former--"nothin, at least, but what I was
+willing to bear for Harry's sake, who invited me home here till I got
+business, or for yours, who let me be. Though to be stopped and
+bothered, when one is going for the doctor, is worse than I ever
+thought of humans before. But it shows their character--dum 'em!"
+
+"Did they really stop you, knowing your errand?"
+
+"Yes, that they did, mistress. As I was going by the tavern, a mile or
+two up the road yonder, three or four of them torified Yorkers came
+out, and told me I couldn't go for the doctor, nor nowhere else,
+without a pass from one of their committee. So I had to post back more
+than half way, to Squire Ashcrafts, and there had to be questioned a
+long while before he would give me any pass at all. And then again,
+when I got to the doctor's, he said he wanted a pass, too; for he
+darsent go to see a whig woman without one, which I must go and get
+him from Squire Evans, another committee man. Well, finding there was
+no other way to get him started, I went, feeling all the time just
+between crying and fighting. And as soon as I got the bit of paper
+into the doctor's hands, I put for home, leaving him fixing to come
+horseback, which is the reason of my getting here first."
+
+"These are, indeed dreadful times," sighed the widow. "But they cannot
+always remain; for, though God may chastise us a while for our sins,
+yet the rods of the oppressors will surely be broken."
+
+"I'd rather see their necks broken," responded Bart, dryly "When we
+left Westminster, I thought, as much as could be, the tories were all
+used up; but I find 'em down here thicker than ever now, and as sarcy
+and spiteful as a nest of yellow jackets that, like them, have been
+routed in one place and got fixed in another. Blast their picturs, how
+I hate 'em!"
+
+"That is not right, Barty. You should love your enemies. Evil wishes,
+towards those who injure us, are both wicked and foolish."
+
+"I don't understand, mistress."
+
+"Why, Barty, to love is to be happy, as far as circumstances will
+permit; and to hate is but to feel disquieted and miserable. So when
+we keep the command to love our enemies, we obtain a reward which
+often outbalances the evil they inflict on us, or, at least, enables
+us the better to bear it; while, on the contrary, when we hate those
+who injure us, we receive a double evil--the wrong they inflict, and
+the unhappiness created by the exercise of our revengeful passions.
+Did you ever think of that, Barty?"
+
+"No, mum; Harry talks kinder that way, sometimes; but I can't
+understand it, no how."
+
+"With your means of moral instruction, perhaps it is not surprising
+that you should not; so I will drop the subject, and ask you if you
+heard any thing of Harry, while you were gone."
+
+"No, mistress; didn't see nobody that knew he was gone."
+
+"O, when will he return? He has now been gone two long, long days; but
+I must not repine."
+
+"Why, mistress, I kinder guess he'll be along to-night, unless so be
+he's met with considerable bother to get the money, or somethin. He
+must be here afore to-morrow afternoon, when the sale is, you know."
+
+"Yes, I knew the sale was delayed till town meeting day, which is
+to-morrow, I believe; though for what reason they put it off I never
+heard. Harry felt so bitter about the affair, that I thought I would
+not disturb his feelings by making any allusions to the subject. But
+there appeared to be something about it that I didn't understand. Why
+didn't the sale take place last week, as first appointed?"
+
+"For as good a reason as ever a tory officer had for doing any
+thing--or not doing any thing, may be, I should say--in the world,"
+replied Bart with a knowing look.
+
+"What was it?"
+
+"Why, when the day come, he couldn't find any cattle to sell."
+
+"What had become of them?"
+
+"Well, mistress, I don't know how much it is best to say about that,
+considering. But I shouldn't be surprised," continued the speaker,
+while a sly, roguish expression stole over his usually grave,
+impenetrable countenance, "that is, not much surprised, if it turned
+out that two or three of Harry's friends got the cattle out of the
+barn where they were keeping, one dark night, and driv 'em off into
+the woods, near the top of Governor's Mountain, and then backed up hay
+enough to keep 'em a spell; while the company took turns, for a few
+days, in going a hunting over the mountain, so as to come round, once
+in a while, to fodder and see to the creters, for which old Bug-Horn
+paid in milk, on the spot. Now, mind, I haven't said I _knew_ this was
+so, but was only kinder guessing at it; for all that's really known
+about it--that is, out loud--is, that Fitch and his men found the
+cattle up there; and the way they found them was by following up the
+trail made by the hay straws that some one, after a while, grew
+careless enough to scatter from his back-load along the path."
+
+"Did my son have any hand in this affair?" asked the widow, anxiously.
+
+"No, mistress; Harry is so kinder notional about some things, that we
+thought--that is, I guess some thought--it wasn't best to say any
+thing to him about the plan till his cattle were fairly saved."
+
+"I am glad to hear it. I should rather see him deprived of his last
+penny than do a questionable act. We should never do wrong because
+others have done wrong to us."
+
+"There is a differ between your think and mine, I see, mistress. If
+they did wrong in getting away Harry's cattle so, as every body knows
+they did, then the tother of that--getting them back again--must be
+right. But you needn't tell any body what I've said, mistress; for
+they might, perhaps, have Bill Piper and me up, and try to make
+barglary out of it--or simony, I don't know but the law folks would
+call it--the breaking into a log-barn. But hush! Somebody's coming. It
+is the doctor."
+
+Doctor Soper, who now entered, was a small, pug-nosed, chubby man, of
+ostentatious manners, and high pretensions to skill and knowledge in
+his profession; though, in fact, he was but a quack, and of that most
+dangerous class, too, who dip into books rather to acquire learned
+terms than to study principles, and who, consequently, as often as
+otherwise, are found "doctoring to a name," which chance has
+suggested, but which has little connection with the case which is
+engaging their attention.
+
+"Ah, how do you find yourself, madam?" said the doctor, throwing off
+his dripping overcoat, and drawing up a chair towards the head of the
+patient's bed.
+
+"Very ill, doctor," replied the other. "Not so much on account of the
+loss of strength, as yet, as the deeply-seated pain in the chest,
+which, for the last twenty-four hours, has caused me great suffering;
+though, for the last half hour, not so severe."
+
+"Indeed, madam! Well, now for the _diagnosis_ of your disease. I pride
+myself on _diagnostics_. Your wrist, madam, if you please," said the
+doctor, proceeding to feel the pulse of his patient, with an air
+intended for a very professional one. "Tense--frequent--this pulse of
+yours, madam; showing great irritability. Your tongue, now.
+Ay--rubric--dry and streaked; usual _prognostics_ of neuralgy. Pretty
+much made up my mind about your complaint coming along, madam, having
+learned from your lad here something of your troubles and fright on
+losing your home. And I was right, I see. It is _neuralgy_--decidedly
+a _neuralgy_."
+
+"What is that, doctor?"
+
+"Always happy to explain, madam, so as to bring my meaning within the
+comprehension of common minds. _Neuralgy_ madam, is a derangement of
+the nerves. Your disease, precisely."
+
+"Why, I am not at all nervous, sir," responded the patient, looking up
+in surprise.
+
+"You may not think so, madam. Few do, in your case."
+
+"And then, doctor, I have an intense inward fever," persisted the
+other, "and my lungs seem much affected."
+
+"Nervous fever, madam," returned the doctor, too wise to be
+instructed, "and lungs sympathetically affected--that's all. Quiet and
+strengthen the nerves, and all will be right in a short time. I shall
+prescribe _Radix Rhei_, in small doses, _assafoetida, quinine_, and
+brandy bitters of my own pieparing. These, with nourishing food, as
+soon as you can bear it, will speedily restore you, madam."
+
+Having dealt out the prescribed medicines, calculated rather to
+increase than check the poor woman's malady, which was inflammation of
+the lungs, the self-satisfied doctor, swelling with his own
+importance, departed, leaving his patient now to contend with two
+evils, instead of one--a dangerous disease, and the more dangerous
+effects of a quack's prescription.
+
+"What time is it now, Barty?" asked the invalid, with a deep sigh, as
+she awoke from a troubled slumber, into which she had fallen after the
+doctor's departure.
+
+"Why, don't know exactly, mistress," answered Bart, rousing himself
+from the dreamy abstraction in which he had been indulging, as he sat
+looking into the decaying fire--"don't know, exactly; but it has got a
+considerable piece into the night. About nine o'clock, guess; may be
+more."
+
+"Nine o'clock at night, and Harry not yet returned!" sighed the
+invalid. "Well, well, I will complain no more."
+
+"Can I do any thing for you, mistress?" asked her untutored attendant,
+touched at the sad and despondent tone of the other.
+
+"You may bring me in a pitcher of fresh, cold water, with some ice in
+it, if you will, Barty," replied the former. "It seems to me as if
+this inward heat was consuming my vitals, since I took the doctor's
+medicines."
+
+The youth, with noiseless step, then disappeared with his pitcher,
+and, in a few moments, returned with it filled with water and several
+pieces of clear, pure ice, which were heard dashing against its sides.
+
+"How grateful!" said the sick woman, as she took from her lips the
+wooden cup which had been filled and handed her by her attendant, and
+from which she had eagerly drained nearly a pint of the cooling
+beverage at a single draught. "There, now, set the pitcher on the
+table yonder, and raise the largest piece of ice up in sight, so, as I
+lie here, I can look at it. The mere sight of it seems to do me good."
+
+Another dreary hour rolled away in silence, which was broken only by
+the restless motions and occasional suppressed groans of the invalid
+within, and the wailing of the winds and the pattering of the rain
+against the windows without, when a slow, heavy step was heard coming
+up to the house.
+
+"That is he--that is his step!" faintly exclaimed the sick woman,
+partially raising herself in bed, and gazing eagerly towards the door;
+while her pain-contracted features were, for the moment, smoothed by
+the smile of affection and pleasure that now broke over them, like the
+faint electric illumining of a weeping cloud.
+
+The quick ears of the afflicted mother had not deceived her. The next
+instant Harry Woodburn entered the room, and, with a gloomy,
+abstracted air, proceeded to divest himself of his wet coat and muddy
+boots, without uttering a word, or bestowing any thing more than a
+casual glance towards the bed, to which he supposed his mother had
+just retired, as was usual with her, about this hour, and not
+suspecting that she was more indisposed than when he left her. But as
+he now turned and approached the fire, his eyes fell, for the first
+time, on her haggard features when, stopping short, with a look of
+surprise and lively concern, he exclaimed,--
+
+"Mother! are you worse, mother?"
+
+"Yes, Harry, I am very, very sick; and O, how glad I am that you are
+come."
+
+For several moments he said nothing, but stood gazing at her with the
+distressed and stupefied air of one struggling to shut out painful
+apprehensions. At length, however, he aroused himself, and made a few
+hasty inquiries relative to her disorder, and what had been done for
+her; and, having been informed of all that had occurred in his
+absence, and now appearing fully to comprehend the danger of her
+situation, he sat down by her bedside, when his lip soon began to
+quiver, and his strong bosom heave with tumultuous emotions, while
+bitter tears flowed down his manly cheeks, as this crowning blow to
+his misfortunes was brought home to his feelings.
+
+"Had they been content," he said, struggling hard, but vainly, to
+master his feelings--"had they but been content with robbing me of my
+property, I could have borne it; but to be the means, also, of
+murdering my only parent, is more than I can endure. God help me, or I
+shall go mad!"
+
+"Do not--do not be so distressed, my son," said the mother deeply
+touched at this exhibition of feeling, accompanied as it was with such
+a proof of filial affection in her idolized son, and anxious to soothe
+and divert his mind. "I shall recover, if God wills it. Let us, then,
+bow in resignation to his dispensations, and not disturb our feelings
+with unavailing regrets. Come, my dear son, cheer up, and tell me how
+you have succeeded in the object of your journey."
+
+"No success," he replied, gloomily. "No; I have been running from town
+to town since yesterday morning, and have not been able to obtain a
+single dollar. So the cattle must go to satisfy the stolen judgment of
+that insatiable Peters."
+
+At this moment the conversation was arrested by a low rap at the door,
+when, after the customary walk in had been pronounced by Woodburn, the
+door was gently opened, and a tall robust young man, with a frank,
+open countenance, hesitatingly entered.
+
+"Good evening, folks," he said, in a suppressed tone. "I didn't
+exactly know what to do about calling to-night, on account of
+disturbing your mother, Harry; but wishing to know whether you had got
+home, and hear the news if you had, I thought I would venture to rap.
+What is going on up country?"
+
+"Nothing very new, I believe, Mr. Piper."
+
+"Well, what luck about the money, Harry?"
+
+"None--none whatever."
+
+"I am sorry for that. No, I won't lie, now; I am not sorry, Harry; and
+I will tell you why, hereafter. All I wanted to know to-night was,
+whether you had got the wherewith to redeem the cattle, to-morrow
+being the last chance for doing it, you know."
+
+"Yes, I was aware of it, friend Piper; and many thanks for the
+interest you take in my misfortunes. But I cannot redeem the stock. It
+must go: nothing more can be done to save it."
+
+"Well, I don't quite know about that, Harry. I don't know about
+standing by, and seeing a neighbor's property snatched away from him
+on such smuggled papers. But let that turn as it may, the subject
+brings to mind a certain circumstance, which I will name, after first
+asking a question; and that is, whether Peters has not been hung?"
+
+"Peters hung? Why, no; the prisoners are not to be tried till the new
+court we have been appointing at Westminster holds its first session,
+some weeks hence. But why do you ask so strange a question?"
+
+"Well, Harry, by way of answer, I will tell you the circumstance I
+alluded to, which was this: Last night, as I was crossing about town
+drumming up friends to attend the meeting tomorrow, seeing we are
+expecting a hard tussle, I met a man that I could have sworn was John
+Peters, if I had not known the fellow was close in Northampton jail;
+and as it was, I could swear it was his exact shape and appearance.
+Well, knowing it could not be him bodily, it soon struck me that they
+had been hanging off a parcel of them there, Peters among the rest,
+and that this was his ghost, kinder hovering about here to see if his
+affairs were fixed up to his liking."
+
+"Your notion of a ghost, Piper, if you are serious about it, is a11
+nonsense," said Woodburn, who had listened with lively interest to the
+singular story of the other. "Yes, that is nonsense; but it has
+brought to mind a rumor which reached Brattleborough yesterday, that
+all the prisoners at Northampton had been liberated by _habeas corpus_
+from the chief justice of New York, and were now at large. Although
+this was not credited, yet, if you saw Peters here last night, as I
+begin to fear, the story must have been true. And he appears here, at
+this time, for the double purpose of seeing, as you said, whether his
+orders have been carried into execution, and of being present to use
+his corrupting influence at town meeting to-morrow."
+
+"Well, Harry, that's about what I meant; for I saw him sure enough,
+and knew, at once, that we had got to have him against us at town
+meeting, which makes our case rather doubtful. We felt quite sure,
+before this, of being able to carry a majority; and in that case, some
+of us counted on getting a vote to rescue your cattle, or, at least,
+putting them into the hands of our sheriff. [Footnote: During the
+period of anarchy, change, and discord, in this distracted town, each
+of the belligerent parties had their sheriff, or constable, and other
+town officers, and would yield obedience to the officers of their
+opponents only on compulsion, though the officers of the majority were
+not generally resisted, except, perhaps, in matters purely political.]
+And either of these ways would be the means, we thought, of saving
+your property, and, at the same time, be a plaguy sight more lawful
+than any authority they have for selling them. But now there's no
+saying how it will go. I expect hot work there to-morrow; and that
+minds me to ask if you heard whether help from the towns up the river
+is coming down to join us on the occasion?"
+
+"Yes, Tom Dunning came down with me, and he informed me that several
+others were on the way."
+
+"Good. Tom himself, in matter of managing, will be almost a match for
+Peters, whether ghost or no ghost. But where is he?"
+
+"He stopped back at the Liberty Pole tavern."
+
+"All happens right, then. I am bound there myself. We are going to
+hold a little meeting at the Pole, after folks are to bed, to make up
+our plans and arrangements for to-morrow. You can't go, I suppose."
+
+"No, I must not think of it."
+
+"But you will be at town meeting to-morrow?"
+
+"Quite uncertain. In the first place, I ought not to leave my sick
+mother; and in the next, my feelings are in such a state of
+bitterness, that I dare hardly trust myself in such a scene, lest I
+should do that which would cost me months of painful regret. No,
+Piper, in mercy to a desperate man, let me keep away. But here is Bart
+to go, if he choose, both to-night and tomorrow."
+
+"Bart is agreeable to that, if Harry and mistress don't want him,"
+said the person just named, rousing up from the long-silent reverie in
+which he had been sitting before the fire apparently inattentive to
+the conversation of the others, which had been carried on in a low
+tone, at the opposite side of the room. "So here goes for the Pole
+to-night, and meeting to-morrow," he added, taking down his gun from
+the pegs on which it was suspended, near the ceiling above,
+
+"What do you want to do with that, Bart?" asked Woodburn.
+
+"I want it for lining to my coat," replied Bart. "If our coats had all
+been lined in that fashion, the first night there, at Westminster, we
+needn't have had to attend French's funeral, nor you been troubled
+about the papers they got out when you was in jail."
+
+"Bravo, Bart. You see that my coat is not wanting of that kind of
+lining, don't you?" said Piper, throwing open his greatcoat and
+displaying a rifle, as the two now left the house together, on their
+way to the rendezvous of the liberty party.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+  "Agreed in nothing, but t' abolish,
+   Subvert, extirpate, and demolish."
+
+
+"Hurrah for Vermont! hurrah for the new state of Vermont! The victory
+is won, and the town is redeemed! hurrah! hurrah!"
+
+Such were the sounds that rose and rung among the rafters of the
+crowded old log Town House of Guilford, as, for the first time for
+several years, a New Statesman and whig moderator was declared elected
+by a majority of the suffrages of the freemen. The next moment, the
+door was seen vomiting forth its throng of excited victors, who, as
+they reached the open air, joined the crowd eagerly awaiting the
+result at the entrance, and, with them, renewed and reiterated the
+glad shout, till the distant hills responded in loud echoes to the
+roar of the stentorian voices of the triumphant party.
+
+After a fortnight's active exertions on the part of each of the
+opposing parties, in mustering and drilling their respective forces,
+preparatory to the approaching contest, in which both were equally
+confident of victory, though too sensible of the danger of losing it
+to remit any effort, the voters had assembled at one o'clock in the
+afternoon. After spending several hours in a disorderly and wrangling
+debate, in relation to the qualification of voters, which at last
+resulted in rejecting the test required by the charter,--that of being
+a freeholder,-and in permitting every resident to vote, the ballots
+had been taken for moderator, or chairman of the meeting, when, as
+much to the dismay of the tories as the joy of their opponents, it was
+found that victory, in a majority of three, had declared for the
+latter, who thereupon testified their exultation in the uproarious
+manner we have described.
+
+After a while, the noise and tumult within the house was suddenly
+hushed, and the clear, deliberate tones of some new speaker addressing
+the assembly, became audible to those without the building; while the
+attent and eager looks of those who stood listening in the crowded
+pass-way, plainly evinced that some important and exciting subject had
+been introduced. At length the voice ceased, and a new commotion
+ensued within.
+
+"What new movement is that? what is going on in there now, Piper?"
+asked one standing near the door, as one young man came elbowing his
+way out of the house.
+
+"Why, they are on Colonel Carpenter's resolution. Haven't none of you
+here been in there to hear it?" said Piper, turning to the querist and
+other political associates, standing near by.
+
+"No; what is it about?" inquired several of the latter, with interest.
+
+"The York Rule," answered Piper, with an animated air. "The colonel
+offered a resolve that we shake off the York government now,
+henceforth and forever. And this he backed with a speech which would
+have done you good to hear. He went into them, I tell you, like a
+thousand of brick; and not a single tory tongue of 'em all dare wag in
+trying to answer it. They are now beginning to vote on the resolution,
+which, if carried, the colonel intends to follow up by another,
+cutting up all British authority root and branch."
+
+At this moment, they were joined by Tom Dunning, who came hurrying out
+of the house, and, taking Piper aside, said,--
+
+"Do you ditter understand the plan of what's going on there, Piper,
+and the importance to you here, in Guilford, of carrying it?"
+
+"Not fully, perhaps," answered Piper. "I didn't have a chance to talk
+with Carpenter and the other committee before this move was made, and
+don't understand why they did not urge on the election of the other
+town officers, as usual, after making a moderator, instead of getting
+up these resolutions."
+
+"Der well, this is it; they are afraid to ditter try any of the town
+officers on so slim a majority, lest the tory candidates should have
+got some of our voters under their thumbs, by way of debts or other
+obligations, which they will der make use of to get their votes for
+them personally, but won't have 'em pledged for this."
+
+"That is well thought of," responded Piper. "They have indeed got the
+screws on some I know of, and would so threaten 'em with prosecutions,
+that I'm fearful they would get 'em, sure enough. But what's the
+prospect about the resolutions?"
+
+"Well, the colonel thinks, after what has ditter taken place at
+Westminster, that we can carry them; and if we can, it will pretty
+effectually tie 'em up, even if they got their officers. But we der
+don't mean to let 'em. For the plan is, that as soon as we've ditter
+carried the resolves, to dissolve the meeting without making any town
+officers at all, which we think can be carried by the same voters, and
+which if we can ditter do it, with the resolves, will kill Fitch and
+his papers as dead as a ditter dum smelt, and so save the property of
+Harry, and that of all others in the same der situation."
+
+"Good!" exclaimed Piper, with animation; "I see through the move now;
+and we'll go at 'em, and whip 'em out on it; and then if Fitch don't
+give up the cattle, we'll make him, by the course we thought of
+taking, last night, in case we failed electing our officers to-day, or
+of getting any vote on Harry's affair."
+
+"Yes; but we must be ditter lively in getting in the voters. You and
+Bart go in and vote; and I will beat about the bush, here, for more
+help, before I go in; for as they have just admitted some to vote on a
+twenty hours' residence,--as I can ditter swear they did,--I intend to
+vote myself, this time, and have all those from my way der do the
+same," said the hunter, bustling off to muster his forces.
+
+Just as Dunning, who had collected a band of voters, without much
+regard to their qualifications, was pushing into the house at the head
+of his recruits, an outcry was raised within; and, the next moment,
+Bart Burt was seen hastily emerging from the crowd, followed by the
+kicks and cudgel-blows of the tories, through whom he had been
+compelled, to save himself from a rougher handling, to run the
+gauntlet to the door.
+
+"What, in the name of der Tophet, is the meaning of that ditter
+treatment, ye shameless lubbers?" sternly demanded the hunter, shaking
+his stout beech cane over the heads of the fore most of his opponents.
+
+"He deserves it! He is an impostor! He tried to get in his vote when
+he aint over eighteen years old!" shouted several tory voices in reply.
+
+"They let me vote last time without a word," said Bart, facing round
+upon his foes, with a grin of spite and pain; "and so they did John
+Stubbs and Jo Snelling, then and now too; and they aint a day older
+than I be."
+
+"Then we will der have you in, and vote too, if the ditter divil
+stands at the door!" fiercely exclaimed the hunter.
+
+"Let them prove he aint one and twenty," said one of the same party.
+"He wasn't born in these parts, nor does he know himself, I
+understand, where he was born, or how old he is; and until they can
+prove him under age, I motion, blow high or blow low, that we make
+them receive his vote."
+
+"Aye, he shall vote! he shall vote!" shouted a dozen others. "They
+have admitted others under age, and they shall him, whether or no! Let
+them live up to their own rules! Sauce for goose is sauce for gander,
+the world over; they shall take him, they shall take him!"
+
+A hasty consultation was now held, and a plan of operations for
+compelling the opposite party to admit Bart to the polls was soon
+digested. And, in pursuance of this plan, Bart, who was short and
+light of weight, was mounted astride the brawny shoulders of Dunning,
+while Piper, with his burly frame, was placed in front, with a stiff
+cudgel in hand, to act as the battering-ram or entering wedge to the
+crowd of tories, who had closed up the way with their bodies,
+obviously to prevent Bart, or any other whig, indeed, from again
+entering till the ballot-box was turned. Eight or ten stout, resolute
+young men were then selected and formed in column to bring up the
+rear, and give such an impetus to those before them as to force them
+forward in spite of all opposing obstacles, till they reached the
+voters' stand in the house.
+
+"Ditter ready, boys?" now cried Dunning, firmly grasping Bart's legs,
+and glancing over his shoulders to his lusty little band of backers.
+"All ready there, behind, boys? Then go ahead, as if ditter Belzebub
+kicked ye an end!"
+
+At the word, Piper, gathering himself up like a ram for a butting
+match, made a lunge head foremost into the recoiling ranks of the
+tories, and, borne irresistibly forward by the force of the rushing
+phalanx behind, overthrew, prostrated, and shoved aside, all before
+him, till the whole column gained the interior, and came to a halt
+before the ballot-box.
+
+"I protest against that fellow's voting!" exclaimed Peters, approaching
+the stand as Bart, from his lofty seat on Dunning's shoulders, was about
+to put in his vote, which was a simple _yea_ written on a slip of paper,
+and handed up to him by some one stationed near the box to furnish the
+unsupplied. "I protest against such a glaring outrage! He is under age,
+and was very properly driven from the house."
+
+"Prove it! prove it!" shouted several of Bart's friends.
+
+"You can't do it," cried another, "and if you could, two of your party,
+who are under age, have voted already; 'tis a fact; deny it if you can!"
+
+"In with it, Bart!" said Dunning, bending down to give the other a chance.
+
+"Yes, in with it; for he shall vote!" responded the rest.
+
+"He shall not vote!" vociferated Peters; "and if he attempts to do it;
+I'll blow his brains out!" he added, pulling out and levelling a
+pistol. Quick as thought, Bart threw open his over-coat, and, drawing
+from beneath it the light short gun there concealed, cocked, and
+brought it to his shoulder; while the threatening weapon of his foe
+was seen flying to a distant part of the room, from a sudden blow of
+Piper's cudgel, and its disarmed and nonplused owner slinking away out
+of the range of the suspicious-looking barrel still kept aimed at his
+head.
+
+Amidst the loud cries of order, and the heated vociferations of both
+parties, now raised to condemn or defend the transaction, through the
+house, Bart, Dunning, and others of their company, who had not voted,
+now hastily deposited their votes, and retired unmolested.
+
+Although the portion of the revolutionary party, whose movements we
+have been more particularly describing, acting on the supposed and
+probably actual frauds of their opponents, had thus secured Bart's
+vote, and the votes of two or three others, perhaps equally illegal,
+yet the event soon showed that their policy in so doing was a mistaken
+one, and calculated to defeat the very object they intended to
+promote; for, as will always be the result where one party attempts to
+adopt the wrongful measures of their opponents, the tories, now armed
+with the fact that they had detected the other party in a wrong more
+glaring, because more public, than any they had perpetrated, made use
+of the advantage with such effect as to bring over several, intending
+to support the resolutions, to change their intention, and go against
+them. And, in addition to this, by way of retaliating, and of making
+good at least all the ground lost by the questionable votes forced
+upon them, they brought forward every minor they could find
+approximating the size of a man, and boldly demanded their admittance
+to the polls. An opposition was, indeed, attempted to a measure so
+manifestly illegal, by the leaders of the other party; but they had
+become too much disarmed by the acts of their own partisans to produce
+any sensible effect; and their voices were soon drowned by the clamors
+of the tories, who now admitted the boys by acclamation. This, as will
+be anticipated, decided the contest. On counting the votes, the
+resolution was found to have been rejected by more than a dozen
+majority-a victory which the tories failed not to announce by shouts
+of exultation, which out-thundered those of their opponents in their
+late short-lived triumph. The friends of freedom, being thus caught in
+their own trap, or, at least, worsted by the indiscretion of their own
+friends, now pretty much yielded the contest: while the victorious
+Yorkers and tories had everything in their own way, electing their
+town officers, passing denunciatory and royal resolutions, and
+continuing their discussions unopposed till it was nearly dark, when
+the meeting broke up in noisy confusion.
+
+"Oyez! Oyez! Oyez!" was now heard crying the well-known voice of
+Constable Fitch, as he mounted a stump in the yard; while near by
+stood a gang of his confederates, hedging in Woodburn's cow and oxen,
+which the former had found the means to have on the spot, in readiness
+for the sale, the moment the assembly broke up. "Oyez! A cow and oxen,
+taken on execution, now about to be sold to the highest bidder,
+gentlemen. We will take the oxen first; as fine a yoke as ever drew
+plough Who will give us the first bid? Shan't dwell three minutes. Who
+bids, I say? One pound bid, gentlemen; one pound ten! one pound ten!
+and on Mr. Peters. Who bids higher?"
+
+But, as rapid as had been the constable's movements, he did not, as he
+intended, take the friends of Woodburn by surprise. They had withdrawn
+from the meeting a short time before it dissolved, and met for
+consultation in the rear of the house, where, having arranged their
+plan of operations, they stood awaiting for the proper time to carry
+it into execution.
+
+"There!" exclaimed Dunning, as the constable began to cry the sale in
+the manner we have just described--"there, that is ditter Fitch; he is
+at it! All ready, boys? You, Piper and Bart, with your vials of oil of
+vitriol in your sleeves, ready to uncork on to their ditter tails?"
+
+"Ay, ay!"
+
+"And your ditter snuff to throw into their eyes?"
+
+"Yes, that, too."
+
+"And your guns ditter cocked, and safe under your coats you that are
+to fire?"
+
+"Ay, all right and ready--lead on!"
+
+"Der well, but remember we ditter separate here, so as to come up on
+different sides of the crowd; and mind, don't let off your guns till
+the creatures begin to ditter grow uneasy and der snort and blow."
+
+While Fitch was repeating the bids he had received for the oxen, and
+was about to knock them off to the highest bidder, which still chanced
+to be Peters, he was suddenly told to hold on, by several persons who
+had just at that moment made their appearance in different parts of
+the crowd, and who expressed their wish to bid, as soon as they could
+get up to examine the cattle. Owing to the duskiness, the faces of the
+new comers did not seem to be recognized by the tories, who
+unsuspectingly opened and admitted them to the stand. Quickly availing
+themselves of the opportunity, the former, among the foremost of whom
+were Piper and Bart, now crowded eagerly round the cattle, and, after
+rapidly passing their hands over the cow and each of the oxen a
+moment, and then stepping back, began to banter and bid. Not much
+time, however, was allowed them to do either; for the cattle, all at
+once, became unaccountably restless, at first backing and wheeling
+about in their confined space, and then wildly tossing up their heads,
+snuffing, and assuming the startled and furious appearance generally
+exhibited by this class of animals when about to make a desperate
+effort to break away.
+
+At this critical juncture, the fierce flashes and stunning reports of
+a half dozen muskets burst over the heads of the startled and
+astonished company from various points on the outer edge of the crowd;
+and the next instant the already maddened cattle, with loud snorts,
+leaping over or trampling down all in their way, broke through the
+living hedge of tories around them, and bounded off, with their tails
+thrown aloft, and bellowing in wild affright, in different directions,
+towards the woods, leaving the amazed and broken crowd jostling and
+pitching about with exclamations of surprise, groans of pain, volleys
+of oaths, and shouts of laughter, all mingled in Babel-like confusion.
+
+"'Tis all the work of the cursed rebels!" exclaimed Peters, the first
+to rally and comprehend the affair. "Fitch!" he added, pointing after
+the runaway cattle, "where the devil are your wits, that you don't
+order a pursuit?"
+
+"Yes, pursue and bring 'em back, instantly!" screamed the constable,
+awaking from the stupor and confusion of ideas into which he seemed to
+have been thrown by the strange and unexpected occurrence. "Yes,'tis
+an unlawful rescue--it's a conspiracy! bring back the cattle! seize
+the offenders, every one of 'em! in the king's name I command ye."
+
+Obedient to the call, the obsequious tories instantly rallied for the
+pursuit, and, breaking off into three distinct bands, eagerly set
+forward in the different directions taken by the fugitive cattle, then
+just disappearing over the distant swells, or in the borders of the
+woods. Dunning, Piper and Bart, who, in the mean while, had, unknown
+and unsuspected in the darkness and confusion, stood in the throng,
+keenly watching the result of their plan, no sooner heard the expected
+order of pursuit given, than, separating, like their opponents, and
+each joining a different band of the pursuers, they sprang in before
+the rest, and, by their superior alacrity and speed, soon succeeded in
+taking the lead and finally in completely distancing all others in the
+promiscuous chase. The tories, now soon wholly losing sight of their
+fleet and, as they still supposed, trusty guides in the pursuit,
+became, in a short time, confused and at fault respecting the courses
+to be taken; and, after hallooing and running about the woods and
+pastures at random, nearly an hour, without discovering any traces
+either of the lost cattle or the missing pursuers, at length came
+straggling back to the Town House, and, by way of saving their own
+credit, reported to Fitch, Peters, and the small party remaining
+there, that their swiftest runners were last seen nearly up with the
+cattle, and would soon be in with them, or that the creatures had been
+headed, and were on their way back, in another direction. On this, the
+company waited another hour; when, neither the cattle nor the expected
+pursuers appearing, they began to suspect something amiss; and the
+inquiries and investigations then put afoot soon resulted in the
+mortifying conviction, that the cattle had been overtaken and driven
+off by the same persons who previously had caused them to break away.
+Prompted by the enraged Peters, Fitch then offered a reward for the
+recovery of the cattle and the detection of those who had abducted
+them; when the company separated, to resume the search the next day.
+But although this was done, and the country scoured in every direction
+for several days, yet the search proved wholly fruitless. Not one of
+the cattle was to be found. Nor were the actors in the transaction,
+with any certainty, identified, though the absence of Piper and Bart,
+for some days after the event, caused them to be suspected and marked
+for punishment, when they should again appear abroad.
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+  "Vital spark of heavenly flame!
+   Quit, O quit this mortal frame!
+   Trembling, hoping, lingering, flying,
+   O the pain, the bliss of dying!
+   Cease, fond nature! cease thy strife,
+   And let me languish into life."
+
+
+Perhaps the nearest and dearest, as well as the most interesting tie
+of consanguity, is that existing between mother and son. Who has not
+witnessed the unfailing and unconquerable strength of a mother's love
+for the son of her heart and her vows, cleaving to its object through
+prosperity and through adversity, through honor and through shame,
+with a constancy which never wavers? And what son, especially after
+the thoughtlessness of youth has given place to the reflection of
+maturer years, and experience has taught him the insincerity and
+selfishness of the world--what son has not turned back and lingered,
+with the most grateful emotions, over the pleasing memories of a
+mother's care; pondered with the most heart-felt admiration over the
+deep, pure, and undying nature of a mother's love; realized more and
+more the priceless value of a sentiment so fraught with moral beauty,
+so exalted, so proof against all those considerations of self, those
+temptations of interest, before which all other ties are seen to give
+way, and, while thus realizing, found his yearning bosom oftener and
+oftener prompting him to exclaim with the poet,--
+
+  "Where'er I roam, whatever realms I see,
+   My heart, untravelled, fondly turns to thee."
+
+While the scenes of disorder and tumult we last described, and the
+similar ones that followed, were being enacted among the belligerent
+parties of this misgoverned town, the dutiful and sorrowing Woodburn
+was continuing his attendance on his sick mother, from whose bedside
+no call of business or of pleasure was suffered for a single hour to
+lure him. And well might he have done so, aside even from the dictates
+of filial duty; for she was a woman not only of unaffected piety, but
+of education and intellect; and to her he had been mainly indebted for
+all that was good and elevated in his character. She had emigrated
+with her husband to this town, at an early period of its settlement
+from the vicinity of Boston, where the latter had become so much
+straitened in his pecuniary circumstances, in consequence of being
+surety for an improvident and luckless brother, that he was induced,
+with the hope of bettering his fortunes, to gather up the poor remnant
+of his property, and, with it, remove to the New Hampshire Grant's, at
+that time the Eldorado most in vogue among those seeking new
+countries. Here, having purchased one of the best tracts of land in
+the place, he commenced the slow and laborious process of clearing up
+a new farm. And this Herculean task, which may well be considered the
+work of a man's life, he had, after years of incessant toil and
+privation, nearly succeeded in accomplishing, and begun to catch
+glimpses of easier and brighter days; when he was taken away by
+disease, leaving his property to his wife and son, an only child, then
+drawing towards manhood. And nobly had that son discharged the double
+duty which now devolved upon him,--that of becoming the stay and
+comforter of his widowed mother, and the sole manager of the farm,
+their only dependence. For, while discharging his filial duties in
+such a manner as to gain him the reputation of being a pattern of a
+son, he not only kept good, but, by his industry and enterprise, even
+improved, the property to which he had thus succeeded. And he was fast
+surmounting the difficulties of his situation, and making hopeful
+advances towards a competence, when, in an evil hour, his flourishing
+little establishment attracted the coveting eye of the unconscionable
+Peters, who, owning an adjoining farm, which would be rendered much
+more salable by being united with Woodburn's, undertook, at first, to
+wheedle the young man into a sale, or rather an exchange of his
+valuable farm for another, or wild lands, at false valuations and of
+doubtful titles. But, finding himself wholly mistaken in the character
+of the person whom he thus endeavored to overreach, and consequently
+failing in his attempt, he next began to think of the quibbles of the
+law, as the means of accomplishing his purpose. And having discovered
+some slight irregularity in Woodburn's deed, to begin upon, he then
+resorted to a trick quite fashionable among the corrupt speculators of
+those unsettled times--that of purchasing from some unprincipled
+person, ready, for a small sum, to enter into the fraud, a deed of
+prior date to that of the one to be defeated, with descriptions of
+premises and references to suit the purchaser the worthless assumed
+owner neither knowing nor caring what his deed might convey. Having
+secretly procured a prior deed of Woodburn's farm in this manner,
+Peters could see but one obstacle now in the way of his success, which
+was the town records, embracing that of Woodburn's deed. How was this
+to be disposed of? A bold measure, which could be executed by his
+minions under political pretences, occurred to him; and the result
+was, that part of the town record soon disappeared. Peters then
+commenced an action against Woodburn, to eject him from his farm, the
+course and consequences of which are already known to the reader.
+
+Spring had now come; but its bland and balmy breath brought no relief
+to the suffering widow. From the hour she had been compelled to take
+to her bed, her disease, though sometimes lulled, or raging less
+fiercely than at other times, had never for a moment loosened its
+tenacious grasp. And although her cheerful words, and meek,
+uncomplaining looks, had often misled her anxious son, or, at least,
+prevented him from despairing of her recovery, yet the dry, parched,
+red tongue, the daily return of the bright hectic spot, and the tense,
+hurrying and unvarying beat of the strained pulses, might have told
+him how certainly and rapidly the work of destruction was going on at
+the citadel of life, and better prepared him for the agonizing scene
+which was now to follow.
+
+It was a calm and pleasant evening towards the close of April, and the
+low descending sun was shedding the mellow light of his parting beams
+over the joyful face of reanimating nature. The invalid, during all
+the fore part of the day, had suffered greatly from pain--that general
+and undefinable distress which is so frequently found to be the
+precursor of approaching dissolution. To this had succeeded a sort of
+lethargic sleep, from which it was not easy to arouse her, so that she
+could be made to take any notice of what was passing around her. But
+now she awoke, clear and collected; and, glancing round the room, with
+a sort of pensive animation, met and answered the inquiring and
+solicitous look of her son with an affectionate smile. Presently her
+wandering eye rested on some objects of the landscape, glimpses of
+which she had caught through one of the small patched windows of the
+room, and she faintly observed,--
+
+"How pleasant it appears without! Harry," she continued after a
+thoughtful pause, "could you take out that window before me? I feel a
+desire to look out once more on the green earth and breathe the sweet
+air of spring."
+
+"Yes, mother," said the other, approaching the bed, with a surprised
+and hesitating air; "yes, I could easily do it, I presume; but would
+it be quite safe for you to be exposed to the evening air?"
+
+"Yes, Harry; the time for the exercise of such cares is gone by. You
+need fear no more for me, now, my son," she replied in accents of
+tender sadness.
+
+The son then, with a doubtful and troubled look, proceeded in silence
+to comply with the unexpected request; after which, he gently raised
+the head of the invalid, who, thereupon, gazed long and thoughtfully
+on the variegated landscape, which lay spread out in tranquil beauty
+beneath her dimly-kindling eye.
+
+"How beautiful!" she at length feebly exclaimed, in a tone of
+melancholy rapture--"beautiful of itself, but more beautiful as the
+type of man's destiny after his body has mingled with the dust. The
+scene we here behold, my son, exhibits the resurrection of nature. In
+summer the foliage and blossom expands, in autumn the fruit is
+perfected, and in winter the visible part falls back to earth and
+perishes, leaving the hidden seed or germ to spring forth again into
+another life. So it has been, so it will be, with me. I have had my
+brief summer of life, my still briefer autumn, and now my winter of
+death is at hand, from which I trust to come forth into the more
+glorious spring of life eternal."
+
+"Do not talk thus, mother," responded the son, greatly moved--"do not
+talk thus: you distress me. I trust you may yet recover. You certainly
+look brighter this evening; and I hope another day will find you still
+better."
+
+"No, Harry, not better, as you mean. If I appear brighter, it is but
+the brightness of the last flashing up of the expiring taper. I feel
+that my time is come, and thanks to _Him_ who has prepared my heart to
+hail the event as a relief and a blessing."
+
+"O, my mother, my mother, how can I part with you?"
+
+"My longer sojourn here, my son, would be of little benefit to
+others--even to you: my blessing is worth more than would be my
+further abiding: come and receive it."
+
+The weeping son then knelt down at the bedside, and the mother laying
+her hand on his head, pronounced her blessing and a brief prayer for
+his earthly prosperity and eternal happiness.
+
+For several minutes, the son, overcome by his emotions, remained
+kneeling, with his head, on which still languidly rested the emaciated
+hand of his dying mother, bowed upon the bed-clothes, while the
+latter, sinking back exhausted on her pillow, closed her eyes, and
+seemed to be silently communing with herself. She soon, however,
+aroused herself, and observed,--
+
+"My work is not yet quite done. I have a little more to say before the
+scene closes."
+
+"Say on, mother," said the other, making an effort to calm himself, as
+he now rose, and, taking a seat near, wistfully rivetted his gaze on
+her pallid face. "If you are, indeed, about to leave me forever,
+withhold nothing you feel inclined to communicate; for your dying
+counsels, my dear parent, will be received with pleasure and
+gratitude, and treasured up in heart and memory as the last, best
+lesson of one to whom I am under such countless obligations."
+
+"You have ever acted the part of a dutiful son towards me, Harry; and
+that is always a mother's best reward for her care and affection for
+her offspring. And I know not that I have aught now to say to you, by
+way of counsel for your future guidance, being willing to leave you to
+practise upon the principles I have endeavored to inculcate, and be to
+others what you have been to me. But it was not of that I intended to
+speak. I was about to name some facts connected with our early
+reverses, which, it being always unpleasant to recur to those scenes
+of trial, I think I have never told you, but which, I thought, it
+might, perhaps, some day avail you something to know. You have heard
+us casually speak, I presume, of your uncle Charles Woodburn?"
+
+"I have, mother."
+
+"And you may also be aware that, through his misconduct, we were
+suddenly reduced from the easy competence we once enjoyed to poverty
+and distress."
+
+"I have so understood it, but never knew what kind of misconduct it
+was that led to our misfortunes."
+
+"It was imprudence in speculations, and profligacy in living, and not
+dishonesty, or any intentional wrong to us, as I ever believed; though
+your father, in his desperation when the blow came, would listen to no
+extenuation, but drove him from his presence with bitter reproaches
+and accusations. But your uncle, before leaving the country, as he
+soon after did, sought an interview with me; and, after deploring the
+misfortunes he had brought on my family as well as himself, solemnly
+pledged himself that he would, some day or other, more than compensate
+me or mine for all the losses he had occasioned us. And this is the
+circumstance I wished to tell you; for, though we never received any
+certain information of him, yet something tells me he still is alive,
+and has the means and disposition to fulfil his promise to you
+whenever you may find him, and he recognizes you as the representative
+of his brother's family, of whose location here he probably was never
+apprised. I would suggest to you therefore, the expediency of trying
+to trace him out, and, if you succeed in doing so, make yourself and
+your situation known to him; and, without preferring any claim, leave
+the result with Providence."
+
+"Your suggestion, mother, shall not pass from me unheeded, nor shall I
+fail, in due time, to act upon it; but, at present, I know not if the
+last tie that binds me to this place should be severed--I know not but
+our down-trodden country may have the first claim on my services. Ever
+since the startling news of the massacre of Lexington reached us, a
+sense of the duty of devoting myself to her defence has pressed
+heavily and constantly on my mind. And but for the stronger claim
+which nature and my own feelings have given you, in your situation, to
+my presence and attention, I might, before this, have been with my
+shouldered musket on my way to the scene of action. But even in the
+event of your death, I should hesitate to obey the call if I knew I
+must do it without your sanction."
+
+"I thank you, my son, for your affectionate deference; but you shall
+not go without my sanction. Having conjectured what might be your
+feelings at this dark hour of our country's peril, I was about to
+speak to you on the subject. Yes, Harry, if you think duty calls you
+to the field, in defence of a cause so just and righteous as ours, go.
+You will be under the care of the same Providence there as elsewhere.
+Go, and with a dying mother's blessing, and a prayer of faith for your
+safety and success, do battle manfully for the Heaven-favored side,
+till the oppressor be cast down, and the oppressed go free."
+
+With a heart swelling with conflicting emotions, the young man looked
+up to reply, when his words were arrested on his lips, by the evident
+change that the countenance of the other had suddenly undergone. The
+unnatural animation, which she had exhibited during the conversation,
+had faded away. She lay listless and exhausted, with her eyes nearly
+closed, and her lips slightly moving in secret prayer.
+
+"And now, Lord, what wait I for?" she at length audibly uttered. "But
+I am not to wait," she continued, in a firmer tone after a short
+pause. "The final moment is at hand! Farewell earth! farewell, my son!
+May Heaven's blessings rest on you--on all, and be the offences of all
+forgiven. Ah! the light of day is fading; but O, that brighter light
+which opens those angel forms, with smiling faces, which beckon me
+away! Ready! I come!--I come!"
+
+And thus,--
+
+  "--blessing and blest,
+   In death she went smiling away
+   To the heavenly bosom of rest."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+  "Whene'er your case can be no worse,
+   The desperate is the wiser course."
+
+
+Late in the afternoon, several days subsequent to the melancholy event
+described in the preceding chapter, a mingled company, of some dozens
+of persons, including several town officials, were seen, assembling at
+the Tory Tavern, in Guilford; the object of which appearances seemed
+to indicate to be the holding of a magistrates' court, to try an
+offender who had that morning been arrested, and who now, in custody
+of Constable Fitch, was demurely sitting on a rude bench under an open
+window of the room in which the trial was to be had, and in which the
+two justices composing the court had already seated themselves at a
+table, in readiness, on their part, to commence proceedings. That
+offender was no other than our humble friend, Barty Burt, who had
+lucklessly fallen into one of the snares which had been set for him
+and his suspected companions, round the country, in consequence of the
+part they had acted in spiriting away, in so strange a manner,
+Woodburn's cattle, when about to be sold on town meeting day. He and
+Piper, during the night following that affair, after meeting Dunning
+at an appointed place, and giving him charge of the cattle, which had
+been successfully pursued and there collected, to be driven out of
+that part of the country by the hunter, left town in different
+directions, to avoid the arrest they anticipated, in case they
+remained; Piper going down the river in quest of some temporary
+employment till the storm blew over, and Bart setting off on a fishing
+excursion to Marlboro' Pond, situated in a then nearly unsettled
+section, about ten miles to the north. Here Bart had pursued his sport
+unmolested, many days, occasionally going out to Brattleborough to
+sell his fish and buy provisions, and considering himself in this
+secluded situation perfectly safe from any search which might be made
+for him by the officers of Guilford. But the reward offered by the
+constable for the apprehension of the offenders, who had been soon
+pretty well identified, had put all the tories in the town and
+vicinity on the watch and the result was, that Bart had been seen,
+traced to his retreat, seized and brought back for trial.
+
+Although Bart's general demeanor seemed to show a perfect indifference
+to the fate that now threatened him, yet the quick keen glances with
+which, under that show of indifference, he noted every movement of
+those into whose power he had fallen and the restlesness he exhibited
+when their eyes were not upon him, gave token of no little inward
+perturbation. And it was not without reason that his apprehensions
+were excited; he knew the character and disposition of the two tory
+justices whom he saw taking their seats to try him, and he rightly
+judged that he need not expect either mercy or justice at their hands.
+He had also detected one of the constable's minions, who had been
+despatched to the woods for the purpose, stealing slyly round into the
+horse-shed, on his return, with a half dozen formidable looking green
+beech rods; and he was at no loss to decide for whose back they were
+intended, or by whose ruthless hand they were to be applied.
+
+"You can't go that, Bart," he mentally exclaimed. "You must get away;
+so now put your best contrivances in motion, for I tell you it won't
+do for you to think of standing that pickle."
+
+And as hopeless as, to all appearance, was any attempt to escape his
+captors, who stood round him with loaded pistols in their hands, Bart
+yet confidently counted on being able, in some way or other, to slip
+through their fingers, and avoid the fearful punishment which he knew
+was in store for him, if he remained many hours longer in their hands.
+To effect this, he looked for no aid from others; for experience had
+taught him the value of self-reliance. The whole life of this singular
+being, indeed, had been one which was peculiarly calculated to throw
+him on his own resources, sharpen his wits, and render him fertile in
+expedients. He had been a foundling, and knew no more of his parentage
+than a young ostrich, that springs from the deserted egg in the sand.
+He was left, when an infant, at the door of a poor mechanic, in
+Boston, by the name of Burt, and by him transferred to the almshouse,
+where he was called after the name of his finder, with the pet name of
+Barty, given him by his nurse. Here he was kept till he was four or
+five years old, when he was given to the Shakers, from whom he ran
+away at ten or twelve. From that time, the poor friendless boy became
+a wanderer through the interior country, generally remaining but a few
+months in a place, being driven from each successive home by misusage,
+or for want of profitable work for him to do, or, what was still
+oftener the case, perhaps, for playing off some trick to avenge the
+fancied or real insult he had received, till, after having been kicked
+about the world like a foot-ball, cheated, abused cowed in feeling,
+and become, in consequence, abject, uncouth and singular in manner and
+appearance, he at length reached the situation in the family of the
+haughty loyalist where we found him.
+
+While Bart was thus uneasily revolving the matter of his present
+concern in his mind, and beginning to cast about him for some means of
+escape, the constable was called aside by those who had undertaken to
+manage the prosecution, for the purpose of holding with them a
+consultation, the purport of which, though carried on in a low tone,
+and at some distance, was soon gathered by the quick and practised
+ears of the prisoner. It appeared that the trial was being delayed in
+consequence of the absence of Peters, who was an important witness,
+and who unaccountably failed to make his appearance. And it being
+feared that he might have been waylaid, and detained on the road, by
+some band of the other party, to prevent him from testifying, as all
+knew he was anxious to do, it was settled that Fitch should start
+immediately in search of him to the house which he usually made his
+temporary quarters in another part of the town. Accordingly the
+constable, after putting the prisoner in charge of two stout fellows
+who were in his interest, with orders to guard him closely, and shoot
+him down the instant he should attempt to escape, set forth on his
+mission after Peters. Bart's countenance brightened when he saw the
+savage officer depart, for he believed the absence of the latter would
+greatly increase his chances of escape; and in spite of all the
+threats he had received of being shot, he resolved to improve that
+absence in making the attempt, though the manner of doing so yet
+remained to be decided, by the circumstances which might occur.
+
+In the mean time a trotting-match had been got up in the road in front
+of the tavern, by a small party who had been boasting of the speed and
+other qualities of their horses; and it being now understood that the
+trial was to be delayed till the constable's return, the whole company
+left the house, and went out to the road to witness the performance.
+Bart's keepers not being able, where they stood, to see and hear what
+was going on very distinctly, and being equally desirous with the rest
+to get a favorable stand for that purpose, after renewing the threat
+of shooting him, if lie attempted to run away, took him along with
+them, and entered the line of spectators extended along the road.
+After a few trials among those who began the contest, several new
+competitors led on their horses and entered the lists. By this time
+most of the company began to take a lively interest in the
+performance, taking sides, and betting on the success of the different
+horses now put into the contest. The prisoner having, by this time,
+through dint of persevering in good humor and sociability, in return
+for the abusive epithets, by which all his attempts to converse were,
+for a while, received, succeeded, in a great measure, in disarming his
+keepers of the stern reserve and jealous distrust they at first
+exhibited towards him, he was soon permitted to talk freely, and
+offer, unrebuked, his opinions of the success of the various horses
+about to make a trial, which his previous observation and acquaintance
+with many of them, made during his residence in town the preceding
+year, enabled him to do with considerable sagacity. And his
+predictions being luckily fulfilled in several instances, and
+especially in one in which his most rigid keeper had been saved from
+losing, in a bet, which would have been made but for his timely
+cautions, Bart at length found himself on such a footing of confidence
+and good will with those whom he wished to conciliate, that he thought
+it would now do to commence operations for himself.
+
+"I don't think much of such trotting, myself," said Bart, carelessly,
+as one of the contests afoot had just terminated; "but there is one
+animal I notice here to-day, I should like to bet on."
+
+"What horse is that?" asked the keeper above designated,
+
+"That dapple gray mare hitched over there in the corner of the
+cow-yard yonder," replied Bart, pointing to a small, long tailed pony,
+whose shabby coat of shedding and neglected hair greatly disguised the
+remarkable make of her limbs and other indications of strength and
+activity.
+
+"That creature!" exclaimed the other, contemptuously; "why she aint
+bigger than a good-sized sheep. You may bet if you want to, and lose;
+for there's not a horse on the ground but would beat her."
+
+"Well, for all that, Mr. Sturges," responded Bart, banteringly, "I'll
+not take back what I've said about the nag. And to prove my earnest,
+I'll make you an offer; I'll bet my gun, which you saw me hand the
+landlord for safe keeping when they brought me in--I'll bet my gun
+against your hat, I'll take that creature and out-trot you, with any
+hoss you may choose to bring on."
+
+"Done!" exclaimed Sturges; "but you are contriving this up for a
+chance to get away, you scamp."
+
+"What should I want to get away for?" I haint done nothin: and there's
+a witness here that will swear to a thing or two for me, when the
+trial comes on, guess you'll find; besides, aint you young to ride by
+my side, with a loaded pistol in your hand?"
+
+"Yes, and that aint all; I'll put a bullet through you the instant you
+make the least move to be off."
+
+"I'm agreed to that."
+
+"Well, but will they let you take the colt for the march?"
+
+"Guess so; I'll venture to take her. The boy that rode her here has
+cleared out down to the brook a fishing; but I know him, and think he
+wouldn't object."
+
+"Who owns the colt?"
+
+"Old Turner did, last year, when I lived with him; and the boy is from
+that way, and borrowed her, likely."
+
+"Then you have rode her, have you?" asked Sturges, doubtfully.
+
+"Never rid her with any other boss, but know she can trot faster than
+any thing you can find here; so you may as well back out at once,"
+answered Bart, with apparent indifference.
+
+"Not by a jug-full, sir; but I must look me up a horse, and fix matters
+a little first; and then, if it is thought safe for me to trust you to
+ride, I'll go it," returned the other, with some hesitation.
+
+Sturges then stepped aside with the other keeper, and, after
+consulting with him a few moments, went forward and announced to the
+company the bet offered by the prisoner, and his own intention of
+accepting it, and indulging the fellow in a trial, if they thought
+best, and would assist in measures to prevent the possibility of his
+escape. The proposal was received with shouts of laughter by the
+tories; and eager for the fun they expected to see in so queer a
+contest, they agreed to be answerable for the prisoner's safety, and
+urged on the performance.
+
+The two keepers, now calling in others to take charge of the prisoner,
+while they made their preparations, proceeded to arrange the company
+on both sides of the road, placing men at short intervals along the
+whole line of the course, commencing back about two hundred yards
+south of the tavern, and extending to the sign-post, which, standing
+on the edge of the beaten path in front of the house, had been agreed
+on as the goal. And not satisfied with this precaution, they then
+procured four long, heavy, spruce poles, and, extending them from
+fence to fence across the enclosed road leading from the tavern yard
+northward, formed a barricade five or six feet high, which, with the
+strong, high fences on each side of the whole course, except at the
+starting-point, where no danger was apprehended, seemed to cut off the
+prisoner, even without being guarded, from all possible chance to
+escape on horseback, as it was most feared he would do, after being
+allowed control of the reins.
+
+"There, Bixby!" exclaimed Sturges, exultingly turning to his
+fellow-keeper, as they completed the barricade across the road beyond
+the goal--"there! I would defy the devil to jump over this barrier, or
+any of the fences on the way, as to that matter. So the little rebel
+will hardly escape us by running his horse from the ground, I fancy.
+But we must look out that he don't jump off at the end of the race, or
+before, and cut into the fields. You may therefore station yourself
+somewhere between this and the sign-post; and if he attempts to leap
+from his horse and run, as we fetch up here, shoot him down as you
+would a dog, and charge the blame to me or Fitch; either of us will
+bear it."
+
+Having thus arranged every thing to his satisfaction, Sturges,
+ordering the pony we have described, and the horse he had selected for
+himself, to be brought on, then took charge of his prisoner and rival,
+and conducted him, with great show of mock dignity, and amidst a noisy
+and jeering troop of attendants, to the ground marked off for the
+place of starting, and now designated by the close line of men that
+had been stationed across the road to guard against the prisoner's
+escape in that direction. Bart, in the mean time, seemed perfectly
+indifferent to all these precautions of the tories, as well as the
+gibes and laughter which constantly greeted him on the way, and, on
+reaching the prescribed limit, quietly dropped down on the grass among
+the company, and awaited the coming of the horses with the greatest
+unconcern. The latter soon made their appearance on the ground, and
+were immediately led up and presented to their respective riders.
+
+"Lightfoot!" exclaimed Bart, springing up to receive his chosen pony;
+"do you know me, Lightfoot?"
+
+The animal instantly pricked up her ears, and responded by a sort of
+low, chuckling whinny, by rubbing her nose against his arm, and by
+other demonstrations of recognition and pleasure, which plainly showed
+the two to have been old acquaintances and friends. Bart then,
+stripping off the saddle and handing it to a boy to be carried back to
+the tavern, again went to the head of the pony, and, after patting her
+on her neck, repeated certain words in her ear, which seemed to produce
+the instant effect of arousing her spirit, and making her restless and
+impatient for a start. After going through these and other ceremonies
+of the kind, which seemed greatly to amuse the company, he mounted,
+reined up and announced himself ready for the signal.
+
+After another delay, to indulge the company in the renewed shouts of
+laughter which were called forth by the ludicrous contrast now
+presented in the appearance of the oddly matched competitors, as the
+diminutive and shabby looking prisoner sat awkwardly mounted on his no
+less diminutive and shabby pony, by the side of the portly Sturges and
+his large and finely built horse, the signal was given, and the
+parties set forth amidst the encouraging hurrahs of the crowd. Their
+progress, for a while was nearly equal; and the pony, though very
+unskilfully managed by her seemingly raw and timid rider, continued to
+maintain her place by the side of the horse so fully, as to render the
+result of the contest extremely doubtful. But as they drew near the
+end of the coarse, and the horse, by the renewed incentives of his
+rider, began to gain on her, she suddenly flounced, broke into a
+gallop, shot by the horse, giving him a staggering kick in the chops
+as she passed, and, in spite of the apparent efforts of her rider, to
+bring her up at the goal, plunged on directly towards the fence that
+had been thrown across the road.
+
+"Whoa! whoa!" cried Bart, in tones of distress and affright, still
+appearing to strain every nerve to hold in the ungovernable
+animal--"whoa! whoa! help, or I shall be thrown!"
+
+"Help him there! stop her! seize her by the bits!" shouted Sturges,
+now riding up to the goal to claim the bet.
+
+But the perverse pony, veering about among those approaching on either
+side to seize, or head her, with sundry monitory kicks thrown out
+sidewise towards them as she went, the next moment reached, and, with
+a tremendous leap, cleared the barricade, and landed safely with her
+rider in the open road on the other side. Here Bart hastily made
+another apparent attempt to rein her up; but rearing and spinning
+round on her heels, she again made a plunge forward, and set out in a
+keen run, making the ground smoke beneath her feet as she flew, with
+astonishing speed along the road; while her rider, grasping her mane
+with both hands, and swaying from side to side, as if hardly able to
+keep his seat at that, continued to bawl and screech, at every step,
+"Whoa! whoa! stop her! stop her!" with all his might.
+
+The tories were so completely taken by surprise by these manoeuvres,
+and the unexpected feat of leaping the barricade that Bart and his
+fleet pony were nearly a quarter of a mile off, before they
+sufficiently rallied from their astonishment and confusion to realize
+what had passed; and when they did, hearing his piteous cries for
+help, and expecting every moment to see him hurled headlong from his
+horse, they stood doubtfully looking at him and each other, several
+seconds longer, before they thought of following him. Sturges,
+however, now took the alarm, and, ordering the barricade to be thrown
+down, started off, with those who, like himself, happened to be
+mounted, in pursuit. By this time, the fugitive had passed over an
+intervening swell, which hid him from the view of the pursuers; and
+though their progress was rapid, yet, when they gained the top of the
+swell, which commanded a view of the road till it entered the woods,
+almost a half mile beyond, he was nowhere to be seen. But believing he
+must have gained the woods, they pushed on, in the vain pursuit, about
+a mile farther; when, meeting some townsmen, they ascertained that he
+had not passed in that direction. They then retraced their steps,
+carefully examining every bypath and open spot by the road-side, where
+any ordinary horse could be made to go; but making no discoveries,
+they concluded to return to the tavern for consultation; for they grew
+more and more puzzled to know what to make of the prisoner, or how to
+account for his mysterious escape, some affirming "he must have been
+in league with the devil, as no horse, in a natural state, could have
+leaped that barricade, or have gone off so like a streak of lightning
+after he was over it; and his strange doings with the pony, when he
+first met her, and the bluish appearance that attended him along the
+road as he went off, with such unnatural swiftness," were cited in
+confirmation. But when they reached the tavern, the prisoner, and
+every thing attending his escape, were for the time forgotten in the
+excitement occasioned by the more startling tidings just received. The
+constable had just arrived in great haste announcing that Peters had
+been waylaid, and found murdered in the road, and calling on all to
+turn out to arrest the unknown but suspected perpetrators of the
+horrid deed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+  ----"despair itself grew strong
+  And vengeance fed its torch from wrong"
+
+
+On the same day, and near the same hour, on which Bart so singularly
+and luckily effected his escape from his vindictive enemies, the
+bereft Woodburn left his lonely residence and walked to the graveyard,
+to shed another tear over the freshly-laid turf that covered the
+remains of his sainted mother. Here, as, standing over her grave, he
+reflected on the many excellences of her character, recalled the many
+acts of her kindness and love towards him, never before justly
+appreciated, and, at the same time, thought of the circumstances under
+which she had sickened and died, his tears flowed fast and bitterly.
+While he was still lingering near the sacred spot, immersed in these
+painful reflections, two ladies, from a neighboring cottage, came,
+unperceived by him, along the road leading by the graveyard; when the
+younger of the two, wholly unconscious that any one was within the
+enclosure, left the other to pass on to the next house, and entered
+the yard to amuse herself there till her companion returned. Now
+pausing to read an inscription, and now to pluck a wild violet, she
+slowly wandered towards that part of the yard where Woodburn, still
+screened from her view by a clump of intervening evergreens, was
+pensively reclining against a tomb stone in the vicinity of his
+mother's grave. And here, taking a turn round the shrubbery, she came
+suddenly upon him; and, stopping short in her course, she stood mute
+and confused before him, while her cheeks were mantled with a deep
+blush at the awkwardness of the position in which she unexpectedly
+found herself.
+
+"Miss Haviland!" exclaimed Woodburn, looking up in equal surprise.
+"Excuse me if I am wrong, but, as little as I was expecting it, I
+think it is Miss Haviland whom I am addressing?"
+
+"It is, sir," she replied, in a slightly tremulous voice; "but trust
+you will not think this an intentional intrusion."
+
+"No intrusion, fair lady. You do not rightly interpret my expression,
+which was one of surprise at seeing you here, when I had supposed you
+to be in another part of the country. When I last saw you, I supposed
+you on your return to Bennington."
+
+"I was so at that time. But having recently come over with my father,
+who was journeying to Connecticut, I am now tarrying with a sister in
+this neighborhood till he returns. Your allusion to our parting,
+however, cannot but bring to mind the circumstances connected with our
+meeting, nor fail to admonish me of my great obligations to you, sir,
+which I have never before found a suitable opportunity of personally
+acknowledging. But be assured, Mr. Woodburn, I shall never forget that
+fearful hour; yet sooner far the hour, than the hand that snatched me
+from my seemingly inevitable doom."
+
+"We both may have cause to remember the incidents attendant on that
+journey to Westminster, Miss Haviland; and I, though I did but a
+common duty in assisting you, shall remember them, on more accounts
+than one, I fear but too long."
+
+"If you allude to your difficulties on that journey, and subsequently
+with one with whom we were in company, I can only say, sir, that I
+have heard of them, and all your consequent misfortunes, with the
+deepest regret, scarcely less on account of the author than the victim."
+
+"I could have submitted to my pecuniary losses with a good degree of
+resignation; but, when I think of the crowning act, and the
+consequences that followed it--when I look on that grave," continued
+the speaker, pointing to the fresh mound, with an effort to master his
+emotions, "it is hard to endure."
+
+"Such misfortunes," responded Miss Haviland, visibly touched at his
+distress; "such misfortunes,--injuries, perhaps, I should call
+them,--I am sensible, are not easily forgotten; and I have sometimes
+feared that it too often might be my fate to be associated with them
+in your mind."
+
+"O, no, lady, no," said Woodburn, promptly; "though it were better for
+my happiness, perhaps, if I could," he added, more gloomily; "for who
+will care what may be the feelings of one who is now an outcast,
+without property, family, or friends?"
+
+"Think not thus of yourself, Mr. Woodburn," replied the other, while a
+scarcely perceptible tinge appeared on her fair cheek; "feel not thus.
+You do to yourself, and I doubt not to many others, great injustice;
+certainly to one who can only think of you with the warmest gratitude."
+
+"O, if all were like you, Miss Haviland!" returned Woodburn, with much
+feeling; "so just, so generous, so pure, so beautiful! But I have
+already said too much," he continued checking himself. "I intended not
+to have intimated aught of the thoughts and feelings which have
+obtruded themselves upon me, even before I heard these kind
+expressions. And though what I have said cannot be recalled, yet I
+have no thought of pressing any questions upon you under the
+accidental advantage which your gratitude--other things being the
+same--might give me. I ask for no corresponding impressions--I expect
+none. Being aware of your position, as well as my own, I shall not
+drive you to the unpleasant task of repulsing me. I will repulse my
+self. I will conquer this new enemy, though planted in my own bosom,
+lest it prove more dangerous to my peace than the one with whom I have
+so vainly contended in another rivalry."
+
+She raised her eyes with a look full of maidenly embarrassment,
+indeed, but with an expression more resembling that of sorrow than
+resentment, as she gently replied,--
+
+"I feel additionally grateful to you, Mr. Woodburn, for your delicate
+and generous course under the circumstances in which, as you seem to
+be aware, I am placed. But as I now perceive my companion approaching
+in the road, you will excuse my departure."
+
+"Certainly," said Woodburn; "and you will forgive what has been said
+by one who is so truly the prey of conflicting emotions?"
+
+"O, yes, sir," she answered, looking up with a witching smile, as she
+bowed her adieu; "that is, I will when you do any thing _worthy_ of my
+forgiveness."
+
+Woodburn stood mutely gazing after his lovely visitor till her small
+and graceful figure, floating on in its devious course through the
+diversified grounds in almost fairy lightness, receded from his
+enraptured sight; when he turned away with a sigh to commune with
+himself, try to analyze his feelings, weigh consequences, give Reason
+her rightful sway, and follow her dictates. After a long and deep
+struggle with his feelings, he appeared to come to some determination,
+and, resolutely bringing down a foot on the ground, he exclaimed,--
+
+"No, never! I will not give way to feelings which can only end in
+disappointment and mortification. Begone, enticing vision, begone! I
+will harbor you no longer." And under the impulse of his
+freshly-formed resolution, he abruptly left the spot, and hastened
+through the enclosure to take his way homeward. As he was about to
+pass out into the road, his attention was attracted by the barking of
+a small dog, that, having followed the ladies, and tarried behind on
+their return, seemed to be intent on dragging out something from under
+a broad, flat stone, lying in one corner of the graveyard. Feeling
+some inclination to know what discoveries the dog was making in a spot
+so unpromising of any game that would be likely to attract him,
+Woodbury walked to the spot; when he perceived the animal to be
+eagerly tugging away at some object, which presented the appearance of
+the corners of some old leather-bound book, buried beneath the stone.
+His curiosity being now excited, he stood by and patiently waited to
+see the result. In a few minutes the dog succeeded in dragging out the
+object in question, which proved to be an old record-book, or rather
+the remains of one, for a part of it had been converted by the mice
+into a nest, and the rest was mutilated and falling to pieces. Leaving
+the dog to pursue his object, which was now sufficiently explained,
+Woodburn gathered up the remains of the book and stepped aside to
+examine them. On beating off the dirt and opening the unmutilated
+parts, he soon, and to his great surprise, discovered it to be a
+volume of the town records; the very volume, the loss of which, as he
+believed, had caused his defeat in his lawsuit with Peters. And
+hurriedly running over the leaves, his eye, the next moment, fell on
+the record of his own deed, with the dates precisely as he had contended,
+and standing in a connection which would have proved the priority of his
+title, furnished him a complete defence, and saved him from ruin!
+
+The previous suspicions of Woodburn, respecting the disappearance of
+these records through the agency of Peters, were now confirmed in the
+mind of the former, as certainly as if he had witnessed the act; and
+this aggravating discovery, coming as it did too late to be of any
+benefit to him, and at a moment, too, when his feelings,
+notwithstanding his recent declarations to Miss Haviland, and his
+subsequent resolves, were sore from the insidious workings of
+jealousy, and the revolting thought of the pretensions of his hated
+foe to her hand--this discovery, we say, wrought up his mind, already
+embittered to the last degree of endurance, to a state little short of
+absolute frenzy. And clinching the fragments of the book, which
+contained the proof of the black transaction, in one hand, and
+flourishing the heavy oak cane he had with him in the other, he rushed
+out of the enclosure, and, with a disturbed air and hurrying step,
+took his way towards his desolate home, resolved, that in case he
+found, as he feared, that all chance of legal redress had passed by,
+he would, at least, unsparingly make use of the means, now in his
+power, in trumpeting the villainy of Peters to the world.
+
+In this state of exasperation, after proceeding a short distance he
+unexpectedly and unfortunately encountered the very object of his pent
+indignation, the haughty and hated Peters, who, on horseback, was
+coming up a cross-road on his way to the Tory Tavern, where, as the
+reader has been already apprised, his tools and partisans were
+anxiously awaiting his arrival.
+
+"Ha! here? Then he shall be the first to hear it," muttered Woodburn,
+as with a flashing eye he suddenly turned and sternly confronted the
+other in his path.
+
+"What now, sir?" said Peters, reigning up with a look of surprise not
+unmingled with uneasiness.
+
+"I will tell you what, now, sir," replied Woodburn, in a voice
+quivering with suppressed passion; "your frauds are exposed! Here are
+the remains of those very records you or your tools purloined to
+enable you to accomplish your unhallowed triumph over me, and now just
+found buried in yonder graveyard!"
+
+"Away, sir!" exclaimed Peters, recovering his usual assurance. "I know
+nothing of your crazy jargon: stand aside and let me pass."
+
+"Not till you have looked at the proof of what I assert, or
+acknowledged its correctness," persisted the other, extending his cane
+before the horse with his right hand, and thrusting forward the open
+book with his left. "Here it is; here is the record of my deed--dates
+and all, as I and you, too, sir, well knew them to be. Look at it,
+sir, and restore me my property, or confess yourself a villain!"
+
+At this juncture Peters, who had covertly reversed the loaded whip he
+carried in his hand that he might strike more effectually, suddenly
+rose in his stirrups, and aimed a furious blow at the head of his
+accuser. But as sudden and unexpected as was the dastardly movement,
+Woodburn threw up his cane in time to arrest and parry the descending
+implement, when, quick as thought, he paid back the intended blow with
+a force, of which, in the madness of the moment, he was little
+conscious, full on the exposed head of his antagonist, who, curling
+like a struck bullock beneath the fearful stroke, rolled heavily from
+his saddle to the ground. The exclamation of triumph that rose to the
+lips of the victor died in his throat, as he took a second glance at
+the motionless form and corpse-like aspect of the victim; and,
+recoiling a step, he stood aghast at the thought of what he had done.
+After standing a minute with his eyes rivetted on the face of his
+prostrate foe Woodburn, arousing himself, hurried forward, and,
+raising the head, chafed the temples and wrists a moment, and then
+felt for the pulse, when, finding no signs of life, he suddenly
+relinquished his hold, and with a look of horror and unutterable
+distress, hastily fled from the spot, muttering as he went, "A
+murderer!--to crown the host of misfortunes--a murderer!"
+
+Soon striking off into a deep glade, diverging from the public way, he
+continued his course, with a rapid step and troubled brow, on through
+the woods and back pastures, till he gained, unobserved, the rear of
+his own cabin, when, entering, he threw himself into a chair, and,
+burying his face in his hands, sat many minutes motionless and silent,
+apparently engaged in deep and anxious thought, At length, he arose
+with a more composed look, and proceeded to make up a pack of his
+wardrobe, with such valuables as could be conveniently carried,
+including his mother's Bible. He then fitted his pack to his
+shoulders, took down his gun and ammunition, and, throwing a sorrowful
+farewell glance round the lonely apartment, left the house, and bent
+his course for the woods, in a northerly direction.
+
+After travelling in the woods and unfrequented fields about two miles,
+he came in sight of the point of intersection between the road near
+which he had been holding his course, and a road coming into it from
+the central parts of the town. Here, concluding to pause till the
+approaching darkness should more perfectly screen him, before going
+out into the main thoroughfare leading up the Connecticut, he sat down
+on a log within the border of the woods, and again gave way to the
+remorseful feelings and moody reflections that still painfully
+oppressed him. His meditations, however, were soon disturbed by the
+quick, heavy tread of some animal, which seemed to be approaching in
+the woods, at no great distance behind him. Instantly peering out
+through the thicket in which he had ensconced himself, he soon, to his
+great surprise, descried a horseman descending a difficult ledge,
+leaping old windfalls, and making his way through all the opposing
+obstacles of the forest with wonderful facility, directly towards the
+spot where he stood concealed in the thicket. Knowing that whatever
+might be the object of the person approaching, it would be his wisest
+course to remain in his covert, from which he could not move
+unobserved, and his curiosity being excited by the appearance of a
+horseman in a spot that would have scarcely been deemed passable for a
+wild deer, he kept his stand; and continued to regard the advancing
+figure with the most lively interest. But owing to the thickness of
+the now full-leaved undergrowth, and the duskiness that by this time
+had gathered in the forest, he could only catch occasional glimpses of
+either horse or rider, which enabled him to ascertain nothing more
+than that they both were quite diminutive, and as it struck him,
+rather oddly accoutred. They continued to advance directly towards him
+till within fifty yards of his covert, when the horse, in emerging
+from a clump of bushes, which still enveloped the rider, stopped short,
+and, looking keenly into the thicket, gave a quick, significant snort.
+
+"What's in the wind now, Lightfoot?" said the rider to his horse, as,
+parting the obstructing foliage with his hands, he thrust out his
+head, and disclosed to the surprised and gratified Woodburn the
+well-known visage of his trusty friend, Barty Burt.
+
+"This is, indeed, unexpected, Bart," said Woodburn, stepping out into
+plain view.
+
+"Harry!" exclaimed the other, agreeably surprised in turn; "but are
+you sure there are no more of you there in the bush?" he added, with a
+cautious glance at the thicket.
+
+"Yes, I am alone here," answered the former.
+
+"Well, I vags now!" resumed Bart, drawing a long breath, and riding
+forward--"I vags, if I didn't begin to feel rather ticklish when
+Lightfoot give me that hint to look out for snakes, just now. But the
+case aint quite what it might have been, considering."
+
+"Considering what?"
+
+"I know."
+
+"Of course you do, as well as what brought you here with a horse, in
+so strange a place for a horseback excursion."
+
+"Just so, Harry; same as you know what brought _you_ here with a
+_pack_ on your back, in so queer a route for a journey, when a smooth
+road is so near you."
+
+Well knowing Bart's peculiarities, and that it would be useless to try
+to draw from him the secret of his appearance here until he chose to
+reveal it, Woodburn, while the other dismounted and told his pony to
+be cropping the bushes in the mean time, related all that had
+transpired between himself and the victim of his deeply regretted
+paroxysm of passion, adding, at the close of his gloomy and
+self-accusing recital,--
+
+"I first thought, after reaching my house, that I would return and
+give myself up to the authorities; but knowing, whether Peters should
+live or die, that I should be a doomed man in this part of the
+country, I at length brought myself, perhaps wrongly, to try to get
+out of it undiscovered. And I have now set my course for Boston, to
+join those there gathering for the approaching struggle for liberty.
+And Heaven knows with what pleasure I shall now sacrifice my life in
+her battles."
+
+"Good! that's grand!" warmly responded Bart, who had listened to the
+other with many a _whew_! of surprise at his accompanying expressions
+of self-condemnation for killing an antagonist who struck the first
+blow--"that's grand! Here is what goes with you, Harry; for, between us
+here, I and Lightfoot are clipping it from a predicament, as well as you."
+
+"So I suspected. But what is it? Let us have _your_ story now."
+
+"Well, Harry, in the first place, do you know this critter I call
+Lightfoot?"
+
+"No; at least I don't now remember to have noticed the animal before."
+
+"Well, it is the colt old skin-flint Turner cheated me out of, last year."
+
+"I think you told me something about it, but don't recollect the
+particulars; though I had then no doubt, I believe, but the old man
+wronged you, as I understood you worked very hard for him through the
+season."
+
+"I did, like a niggar--cause he promised to give me this colt, then a
+little snubby three-year-old, for my summer's work, if I would stay
+and work well for him, which I did, as I said. Well, supposing the
+colt was to be mine, without any mistake, I made a sight of her, named
+her Lightfoot, fed her, got her as tame as a dog, then trained her to
+understand certain words and signs, which I at last got her to obey;
+and whether it was to trot, run, or jump fences, she would do it as no
+other critter could. But just as I had got her to mind and love _me_,
+as I did _her_, my time was out; and I went to settle off matters with
+the old man, and tell him I was going to take her off with me,
+when--rot his pictur!--he pretended he had forgot all about his
+promise to let me have her, and forbid my touching her, saying he had
+paid me all I earnt in the old clothes which he urged on to me,
+against my will, and which were not worth one week's work, as true as
+the book, Harry. Well, I couldn't help crying, to be cheated so, and,
+what was worse, to lose Lightfoot. But it did no good. I had to come
+away without her, or any other pay; and, from that time, I haven't
+seen her till to-day."
+
+"But you have not now stole and run away with her, I trust Bart?"
+
+"No; she run away with me," replied Bart, roguishly, as I can prove;
+for I hollered _whoa_ all the time, as loud as I could yell."
+
+"But how came you mounted upon her at all?"
+
+"Well, Harry, that brings me to the worst and best part of my story,
+all in one; and here goes for it."
+
+Bart, in his own peculiar manner, then related, with great accuracy,
+the particulars of his arrest and escape from the tories, as we have
+already described them in the preceding chapter, merely explaining, in
+addition, that Lightfoot well understood the game, and knew she was to
+obey the signs he secretly gave her with his feet and hands, however
+loud he, or others, might cry _whoa_ or any of the terms usually
+addressed to horses. He then proceeded:--
+
+"Well, you see, as soon as I got over the hill, out of sight, I looked
+out for a hard, stony place, where Lightfoot couldn't be tracked; and,
+soon finding one, I leaped her over the fence, and made full speed for
+the woods, which I luckily reached jest in time to wheel round in
+safety, and see them thundering along by, in the road, after me. I
+then took it leisurely off in this direction, contriving to keep
+mostly in the woods, where I had learnt Lightfoot, in riding after the
+cows, last summer, to be as much at home in as in the road."
+
+"And what do you propose to do with this horse now?" asked Woodburn.
+
+"Take her along with me, to be sure, Harry."
+
+"And so make yourself, in law, a horse-thief, eh? Do you expect me to
+join company with such a character?"
+
+"Well, now, Harry, I didn't expect the like of that from you, any
+how," observed Bart, evidently touched at the remark. "The creature is
+honestly mine; and I supposed I had a right to get what was mine away,
+if I could, without going to law, which would help me about as much as
+it has you, I reckon. But supposing that to be law which aint right
+and justice, and so make me out a thief, as you say, how much boot
+could I afford to give you, Harry, to swap predicaments with me? You
+have just called yourself a murderer, which you aint, and me a
+horse-thief, which _I_ aint, any more than you the other. Now, how
+will you swap characters?"
+
+"Bart, you have silenced me. Injustice and oppression have made us
+both outlaws, but not intentionally wrong-doers. Let us still abstain
+from all intentional wrong, however trifling. And that leads me to
+observe, that whatever justification you may have for taking away the
+horse, you probably have none for carrying off the bridle."
+
+"There you are out again, Harry. That bridle, which queerly happened
+to be put on Lightfoot to-day, (as if it was kinder ordered I should
+get the beast,) is the very one I bought last fall, to take her off
+with; but being so worked up, when I left, I forgot to bring it away."
+
+"Upon my word, Bart, you are successful to-day in making defences."
+
+"Always mean to be able to do so, Harry. Nobody has any honest claims
+on me in Guilford, now, nor I any on them. I leave 'em with every
+thing squared, according to my religion.
+
+"Except in the matter of your gun, which you leave--not exactly won by
+your opponent--behind you; do you not?"
+
+"They are welcome to it; much good may it do 'em. It has gone pretty
+much where I calkerlated to get it off--among those who used me the
+worst; though I'd some rather it had gone to Fitch, who hunts some,
+and would be sure to try it."
+
+"That is queer reasoning, Bart."
+
+"Well, there is a head and tail to it, for all that, Harry."
+
+"What are they?"
+
+"Why, the head, or cause, is, that the last time I shot the piece, I
+overloaded it, being for black ducks, and the charge raised a seam, in
+a flaw underside the barrel, which I could blow through. And the tail,
+or consequence, is, that the next man who shoots it will wish he'd
+never seen it, I reckon."
+
+"Ah, Bart, Bart, your religion, as you term it, is a strange one! But
+let us now dismiss the past, and think of the future. If you join me
+for the army, what do you propose to do with your horse--sell her?"
+
+"Sell her? why, I'd as soon sell my daddy, if I had one. No, we'll
+keep her between us. You, and Tom Dunning, and Lightfoot are the only
+friends I have in the world, Harry; and I want we should kinder stick
+together. So I've been thinking up the plan, that we ride and tie, or
+keep along together and foot it by turns, to-night, till we get to
+Westminster, when we will beat up Dunning, and leave Lightfoot with
+him, who can take her to some of his sly places over the mountain, and
+have her kept for us. Then, if one of us gets killed, or any thing, so
+as never to come back, let the other take her; and if both fail to
+come, then let Tom have her for his own."
+
+And Bart's plan being adopted, our two humble, friendless, and nearly
+penniless adventurers left the wood, and entering the northern road,
+set forth on their destination, Woodburn first mounting the pony and
+keeping some hundred yards in advance, and Bart forming the
+rear-guard, under the agreement that the latter, on hearing any bounds
+of pursuit, should utter the cry of the raccoon, when both were to
+plunge into the woods, and remain till the danger had passed by.
+
+After travelling in this manner, and at a rapid rate, about two hours,
+without encountering any thing to excite their apprehension or delay
+their progress, they entered a long reach of unbroken forest, which
+neither of them remembered ever to have passed through. But not being
+able to conceive where they could have turned off from the river road,
+which was their intended route, they continued to move doubtingly
+onwards some miles farther, till the increasing obstructions and
+narrowness of the path, together with the absence of the settlements
+which they knew they must have found before this time on the road up
+the Connecticut, fully convinced Woodburn they had lost their way. And
+he was on the point of proposing to retrace their steps, when,
+descrying a light some distance ahead, emanating, as he supposed, from
+the hut of a new settler, he at once concluded to push on towards it,
+for the purpose of making inquiries of the occupants to ascertain
+their situation. In making for the light, of which, for a while, only
+feeble and occasional glimmerings could be obtained through the dense
+foliage that overhung the devious path, they at length came to an
+apparently well-cultivated opening, containing about a dozen acres, on
+one side of which stood a small, snug-looking stone house, built
+against or near a boldly projecting ledge of rocks. As they approached
+the house, their attention was arrested by the loud and earnest voice
+of a man within, engaged, evidently, in prayer. Concluding that the
+man was at his family evening devotions, which they had no thought of
+disturbing, they left the horse at a little distance from the house,
+and silently drawing near to the door, paused and reverently listened.
+A confused recollection of the supplicant's voice, together with his
+deep and fervid tones, his bold language, and especially the subject
+that seemed then mostly to engross his thoughts, at once awakened the
+interest and rivetted the attention of Woodburn. The great burden of
+his soul was, obviously, the political condition of his country. And,
+after vividly painting the many wrongs she had suffered from her
+haughty oppressors, and warmly setting forth her claims to divine
+assistance, he broke forth, in conclusion,--
+
+"My country! O my injured, oppressed, and down-trodden country! shall
+the cry of thy wrongs go up in vain to Heaven? Will not the God of
+battles hear and help thee, in this the hour of thy peril and of thy
+need? O, wilt thou not, Lord, extend Thy mighty arm in her defence? O,
+teach the proud Britons, now thronging our shores--teach them,
+scoffing Goliahs as they are, that there are young Davids in our land!
+O, bring their counsels to nought! Scatter their fleets by thy
+tempests at sea, and destroy their armies on land! Sweep them off by
+bullet and plague! and--and"--suddenly checking himself, he meekly
+added, "and save their souls; and this, Lord, is all that in
+conscience I can ask for them. Amen."
+
+Woodburn now gently rapped at the door, which, after a slight pause,
+was opened, and Herriot, the late prisoner of the royal court, stood
+before him.
+
+"If this is Harry Woodburn," he said, after scrutinizing the other's
+features a moment, "he is very welcome to my hut. But you are not
+alone?" he added, glancing towards Bart, who stood several paces in
+the background.
+
+"No," replied Woodburn; "I have in company a young man whom you may,
+perhaps, recollect as the messenger that appeared several times at the
+grate of our prison at Westminster, to bring us news of the progress
+of the rising."
+
+"Ah, yes, well do I recollect that goodly youth, and have ever since
+taken a peculiar interest in him. Invite him in. All this is
+opportune, very--very," said Herriot, leading the way into the house.
+
+After the recluse had ushered his guests into the principal room of
+his very simply furnished house, of which he and a servant boy, of
+perhaps fifteen, were the only inmates, he turned to Woodburn, and
+said,--
+
+"As my retreat here in the woods, and the road that leads to it, are
+known to so few, I conclude that your young friend here, Mr. Woodburn,
+acted as your guide on the occasion."
+
+"O, no," replied the other; "we had lost our way, having left the
+river road inadvertently, and were about to turn back, when, catching
+a glimpse of your light, we came on to make inquiries. We neither of
+us knew when we struck into the road leading hither."
+
+"Do you agree to that statement, without any qualification, master
+Bart?" asked the recluse, with a doubting and slightly puzzled air.
+
+"Well, some of it, I reckon," answered Bart, with a look of droll gravity.
+
+"Why, you told me, sir," responded Woodburn, rather sharply "that you
+had never travelled this road before."
+
+"No more I hadn't," replied Bart, composedly; "but I didn't say I
+didn't know where it turned off, for Tom Dunning told me that."
+
+"Bart," said Woodburn, seriously, "though I am not sorry to have
+fallen in with father Herriot, yet, as between you and me, this needs
+explanation. It looks as if you purposely led me astray."
+
+"Well now, Harry, no offence, I hope. The thing was kinder agreed on,
+somehow, that you should come this way, when you left Guilford, which
+was understood would happen soon. If I hadn't fell in with you as I
+did, it was my notion to take Lightfoot here, or at Dunning's, and
+then go back and skulk there somewheres till you was ready to come;
+but finding you and things all coming so handy like, when we got to
+where the road turned off, I thought I'd let you follow me into it, if
+you would, and say nothing till we got here."
+
+"I am still perfectly at a loss how to understand all this, Bart and I
+still wish you would more fully explain it."
+
+"I will take that task upon myself; for I suppose I am somewhat in the
+secret respecting the little plot of your friends," said Herriot,
+going to a chest, and bringing forward a small bag of money. "This has
+been deposited with me for your use and benefit. It is the price of
+your cow and oxen, sold by Dunning to a drover from Rhode Island. The
+sum is, I believe, about fifty dollars, which I now deliver you, as
+your own unquestionable property."
+
+In the explanation that now ensued, it appeared that the cattle, which
+had been rescued by the friends of Woodburn, without his privity, lest
+the scruples it was feared he might entertain should lead him to
+interfere with the plan, were taken that night to the retreat of
+Herriot, who was made acquainted with the whole transaction; and that
+the next day, while Dunning went up the river in search of a
+purchaser, the other, who was not without his scruples, also, about
+sanctioning the procedure, repaired to lawyer Knights for his opinion
+on the subject. And the latter, having been confidentially let into
+the secret, and given it as his decided opinion that the judgment, to
+satisfy which the cattle had been seized, was an illegal and void one,
+and that the cattle so seized might rightfully be taken for the owner,
+without legal process if found out of the hands of the officer, the
+recluse returned and actively cooperated with the hunter; the result
+of which was, that a purchaser was soon found, who paid the money for
+the stock and immediately drove it from the country.
+
+This, to Woodburn, was an unexpected development. And now, after
+hearing the explanation of Herriot, being satisfied of the propriety
+of the course so generously taken by his friends in his behalf, he
+gratefully received the money; and, in turn, while Bart and the
+servant were out caring for the pony, he confidentially disclosed to
+the recluse the painful occurrence of the afternoon which had led to
+his sudden flight from home, and his determination of immediately
+joining the army, concluding by giving the particulars of Bart's
+arrest and singular escape from the tories.
+
+"You have acted wisely, Mr. Woodburn," observed Herriot after
+listening with deep interest to the recital. "Peters may yet recover;
+but should he not, I do not view the act in so criminal a light as
+that in which you yourself have placed it. And in the absence of all
+intention of killing the man, I feel very clear that it is not a deed
+meriting the punishment you would be likely to receive, if you had put
+your fate into the hands of the corrupted witnesses who would probably
+have been brought against you. Yes, you have acted wisely in leaving
+that wicked Babel of toryism, and nobly in devoting yourself to the
+cause of your bleeding country. My blessing and prayers will attend
+you and your young friend, to whom, I trust, you will act the friend
+and adviser he will doubtless need. But come, Harry," he added, taking
+up a light, and making a sign for the other to follow him, "some new
+notions have come into my head since I became acquainted with you and
+your young friend, at Westminster, and knowing of no two persons in
+whom I take greater interest, I have concluded to impart something to
+you in confidence."
+
+So saying, he led the way into the cellar, the bottom of which was
+flagged over with stones of various shapes and sizes; when pointing to
+a broad, flat stone lying near the centre of the room, he asked
+Woodburn to raise it. Wondering what could be the object of so
+unexpected a request, the latter, with considerable effort, succeeded
+in raising the stone to an upright position, and in so doing brought
+to view two small iron-bound casks, standing in a cavity beneath, and
+labelled, in large inky letters, "_Printers Type_."
+
+"Printing, then, was formerly your trade?" said Woodburn, inquiringly,
+perceiving the other not inclined to be the first to speak.
+
+"Well, that is a respectable calling, is it not?" said the other,
+evasively.
+
+"Certainly," replied Woodburn; "but I had not looked for any immediate
+use for such implements in this new settlement."
+
+"The contents of those casks, nevertheless, are of more value than you
+may think them, Harry, and may soon be needed for the public, in the
+times now at hand. But what I wish to say to you is, in the first
+place, that you are not to divulge what you have seen to any one but
+your young friend, and not to him unless you are satisfied he can be
+trusted, or you are about to die. And, in the second place, if you
+hear of my death, both of you are to come here, take possession of
+these casks, and divide the contents equally between you as your own.
+I have now no relative that will appear to claim them. You will also
+find, enclosed in one of the casks, certain documents, which I have
+recently deposited there, explaining my wishes, as well as some
+secrets of my life connected with discoveries lately made by me, that
+interest others besides myself. This you, or the survivor of you two,
+if one should die, will do in case I am taken away. And even if I
+continue to live, my designs will probably not be altered and I shall
+wish to see you both again when you are permitted to return to your
+old homes. And still further, I would say, that should you be in want
+at any time, and will apply to me, I will dispose of enough of this
+property to supply your necessities. Now replace the stone, and let us
+return to the room above."
+
+Woodburn knew not what to make of all this mystery, or affected
+mystery, as he believed it. But knowing the singularities of the man,
+he forebore to ask any questions, and they left the cellar in silence.
+Soon after they had returned, Bart and the servant came in; when a
+frugal meal was set before the travellers. And while the latter were
+occupied in partaking their repast, the recluse procured his writing
+materials, and penning a brief letter, presented it to Woodburn,
+saying, "There is a letter of introduction to a former friend of mine,
+who, I understand, is appointed to an important command in the army
+now mustering at Cambridge. It may be of service to you. And now," he
+added, as his guests rose to depart--"now, my young friends and
+fellow-sufferers from oppression, go--deserve well of your country,
+and desert her not till the British Dagons are all leveled to the
+dust, which may God speedily grant. Amen."
+
+In a few minutes more, our adventurers were on their way. And being
+now invigorated, both in body and mind, by what had occurred during
+their call at the retreat of their mysterious friend they pressed on
+so rapidly, for the next three or four hours, that they arrived at
+Dunning's cabin, in Westminster, just as the first faint flush of
+daylight appeared in the east. Here luckily finding the hunter already
+astir, cooking his breakfast, preparatory to any early start on some
+new excursion, they joined him in his delicious meal, which consisted
+of the rich steaks of a salmon caught the preceding evening. And
+having finished their breakfast, and made the contemplated arrangement
+with Dunning, to take charge of Lightfoot, their now common favorite,
+the last-named person set them across the Connecticut in his log
+canoe; when, looking back from the woody shore of the New Hampshire
+side, they bade a long farewell to the Green Mountains, whose tall,
+blue peaks were then beginning to grow bright in the rays of the
+rising sun, and resolutely plunged into the dark recesses before them.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+VOLUME II.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE RANGERS;
+
+OR,
+
+THE TORY'S DAUGHTER.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+  "We owe no allegiance, we bow to no throne;
+   Our ruler is law, and the law is our own;
+   Our leaders themselves are our own fellow-men,
+   Who can handle the sword, the scythe, or the pen."
+
+
+Vermont was ushered into political existence midst storm and tempest.
+We speak both metaphorically and literally; for it is a curious
+historical fact, that her constitution, the result of the first
+regular movement ever made by her people towards an independent civil
+government, was adopted during the darkest period of the revolution,
+at an hour of commotion and alarm, when the tempest of war was
+actually bursting over her borders and threatening her entire
+subversion. And, as if to make the event the more remarkable, the
+adoption took place amidst a memorable thunder-storm, but for the
+happening of which, at that particular juncture, as will soon appear,
+that important political measure must have been postponed to a future
+period, and a period, too, when the measure, probably, would have been
+defeated, and the blessings of an independent government forever lost,
+owing to the dissensions, which, as soon as the common danger was
+over, New York and New Hampshire combined to scatter among her people.
+The whole history of the settlement and organization of the state,
+indeed, exhibits a striking anomaly when viewed with that of any other
+state in the Union. She may emphatically be called the offspring of
+war and controversy. The long and fierce dispute for her territory
+between the colonies above named had sown her soil with dragon teeth,
+which at length sprang up in a crop of hardy, determined, and
+liberty-loving men, who, instead of joining either of the contending
+parties, soon resolved to take a stand for themselves against both.
+And that stand, when taken, they maintained with a spirit and success,
+to which, considering the discouragements, difficulties, and dangers
+they were constantly compelled to encounter, history furnishes but few
+parallels. But although every step of her progress, from the felling
+of the first tree in her dark wilderness to her final reception into
+the sisterhood of the states, was marked by the severest trials, yet
+the summer of 1777--the period to which the remainder of our tale
+refers--was, for her, far the most gloomy and portentous. And still it
+was a period in which she filled the brightest page of her history,
+and, at the same time, did more than in any other year towards
+insuring her subsequent happy destiny.
+
+In the beginning of this eventful year, the people of Vermont, by
+their delegates in formal convention assembled, had declared
+themselves independent--
+
+  "Independent of all save the mercies of God,"
+
+as the poet, who has furnished us the heading of this chapter, and who
+has so strikingly embodied the feelings of those he describes, has
+significantly expressed it. And having taken measures for publishing
+their declaration to the world, the convention closed their
+proceedings by appointing a committee, selected as combining the most
+happily an acquaintance with form and precedent with a knowledge of
+the ways and wants of the people, to draft a constitution to be
+submitted to a new convention, which the people were invited to call
+for that purpose. In response to that call, a new convention assembled
+at Windsor, in the month of July following, and proceeded, with that
+diligence and scrupulous regard to the employment of their time for
+which the early public bodies of this state were so noted, to take
+into consideration the important instrument now submitted to them as a
+proper basis on which to erect the superstructure of a civil
+government, suited to the genius and necessities of an industrious and
+frugal people--a people who, though keenly jealous of their individual
+rights, and exceedingly restive under all foreign authority, had yet
+declared their willingness, and even their wish, to receive and obey a
+system of legal restraints, if it could be one of their own imposing.
+For five days, from rising to setting sun, this convention employed
+the best energies of their practical and enlightened minds in
+discussing and amending the document before them. But their labors for
+the present, if not forever, had well nigh been lost, for, soon after
+they had assembled, on the sixth day of their session, and while they
+were intently listening to the reading of the instrument for the last
+time before taking a final vote on its adoption their proceedings were
+suddenly brought to a stand by the alarming news, loudly proclaimed by
+a herald, who appeared on his foam-covered horse before their open
+door, that Ticonderoga, the supposed impregnable barrier of frontier
+defence, had fallen, and our scattered troops were flying in every
+direction before a formidable British army, that was sweeping,
+unopposed, along the western border of the state, flanked by a horde
+of merciless savages, from whose fearful irruptions not a dwelling on
+that side of the mountains would probably be spared!
+
+This intelligence, so unexpected and so startling, too nearly
+concerned the members of the convention, not only as patriots, but as
+men, to permit their entire exemption from the general consternation
+and dismay which were every where spreading around them; and many a
+staid heart among them secretly trembled for the fate of the near and
+dear ones left at homes in which the red tomahawk might, even at that
+very moment, be busy at its work of death; while the bosoms of all
+were burning to be freed from their present duties, that they might
+seize the sword or musket and fly to the relief of their endangered
+families, or mingle in the common defence against the haughty invaders
+of their soil. Any further proceedings with the subject on hand, at
+such a moment, were soon perceived to be utterly impossible; and a
+majority f the members began to press eagerly for an immediate
+adjournment. But while a few of their number, sharing less than the
+rest in the general agitation, or being more deeply impressed with the
+importance of accomplishing, at this time, an object now so nearly
+attained, were attempting to resist the current, and prevent any
+action on the motion to adjourn, till time was gained for reflection,
+an unwonted darkness, as if by the special interposition of
+Providence, suddenly fell upon the earth. The lightnings began to
+gleam through the dark and threatening masses of cloud that had
+enveloped the sky, and the long, deep roll of thunder was heard in
+different quarters of the heavens, giving warning of the severe and
+protracted tempest which soon burst over them with a fury that
+precluded all thought of venturing abroad, The prospect of being thus
+confined to the place for some hours, and perhaps the whole day,
+taking from those moving it all inducement for an immediate
+adjournment, they now began to take a cooler view of their situation;
+and soon, by common consent the business on hand was resumed. The
+reading of the constitution was finished; and, while the storm was
+still howling around, and the thunders breaking over them, that
+instrument was adopted, and became the supreme law of the land.
+[Footnote: Through inadvertence arising out of the unsettled state of
+the times, or design among the leaders who might have fears for the
+result, the constitution was never submitted to the people for their
+ratification or rejection; but, no questions ever being raised on
+account of this informality it was acquiesced in as valid and
+binding.]
+
+One thing more remained to be done; and that was, to constitute a
+provisional government to act till the one pointed out by the
+constitution just adopted could be established. This was now effected
+by the appointment of that small body of men since known as the _Old
+Council of Safety _of Vermont, and noted alike for the remarkable
+powers with which they were clothed, and the remarkable manner in
+which those powers were exercised; for, from the nature of the case,
+and the emergency in which these men were called to act, they were
+almost necessarily invested with the extraordinary combination of
+legislative, judicial, and executive power. But this power, absolute
+and dictatorial as it was, they never abused or exercised but for the
+public good; and in this they were cheerfully sustained by the people,
+who felt that they were thus not only sustaining the cause of freedom,
+but the laws which were of their own providing, and which they were
+anxious should be obeyed.
+
+To that unique assembly, of whose origin we have been speaking, we
+propose next to introduce the reader. In obedience to an order of the
+convention, issued at the moment of its hasty dissolution, near the
+close of the memorable day before described, the different members of
+this newly-appointed body, many of whom, it is believed, were also
+members of the one just dissolved, had promptly convened at Arlington.
+But finding themselves here endangered by the near vicinity of the
+enemy, they had adjourned into the more interior town of Manchester,
+within whose barricade of mountains they could proceed with their
+deliberations with little fear of interruption. And here, conscious
+that the eyes of all were turned anxiously upon them, in the
+expectation that they would provide for the safety of the infant
+state, whose destinies had been committed to their hands, they
+commenced the worse than Egyptian task devolving on them--that of
+making adequate provisions for the public defence, while the means
+were almost wholly wanting; for with scarcely the visible means in the
+whole settlements in its then exhausted and unsettled condition, of
+raising and supporting a single company of soldiers, they were
+expected to raise an army. Without the shadow of a public treasury,
+without any credit as a state, and without the power of taxing the
+people,--which, by the constitution just adopted, could only be done
+by the legislature not yet called,--they were required to do that for
+which half a million of money might be needed. Such were the
+difficulties by which they were met at the outset--difficulties which,
+to men of ordinary stamina and mental resources, would have been
+insurmountable. But these were not men of ordinary stamina, either
+moral or mental. They had been selected by the representatives of the
+people for the qualities which would fit them to guide the helm of
+state in this difficult and alarming crisis. And, unshrinkingly
+proceeding to the discharge of their high responsibilities, they soon
+evinced, by their conduct, that the confidence reposed in them had not
+been misplaced; for the glorious results of the field of Bennington,
+and the incessant and harassing warfare on the flanks of the enemy
+which both preceded and followed that event, and which drew forth from
+its despairing leader his best apology for his defeat and surrender,
+were, far more than is generally supposed, the fruits of the combined
+energy and talents of that unequalled little band of patriots and
+statesmen. [Footnote: A finer tribute of praise to the Green Mountain
+Boys could scarcely have been given, than the one involved in
+Burgoyne's letter to Lord Germain, written about the time of the
+battle of Bennington, in which he says, "The Hampshire Grants, a
+country unpeopled, and almost unknown, in the last war, now abounds in
+the most active and the most rebellious race of men on the continent,
+and hangs like a gathering storm on my left."] But the particular time
+we have chosen for lifting the curtain from their secret proceedings
+was at the darkest and most disheartening hour they were doomed to
+experience, and before the united mind of their body had been brought
+to bear on any measure which afforded a reasonable promise of
+auspicious results. The army of Burgoyne was then hovering on their
+borders in its most menacing attitude. Marauding parties were daily
+penetrating the interior, and plundering and capturing the defenceless
+inhabitants, while each day brought the unwelcome news of the
+defection of individuals who had openly gone off to swell the ranks of
+the victorious enemy to whose alarming progress scarcely a show of
+resistance had yet been interposed. Nor was this the end of the
+chapter of trials and discouragements that awaited the council.
+Another blow was to be added, more calculated than all to test their
+firmness and bring home to their bosoms a sense of the perils of the
+crisis, and the necessity of immediate action, unless they should
+conclude to yield at once to the current of destiny which seemed to be
+setting so strongly against them. But let us present the mortifying
+and disgraceful event, to which we last alluded, in another form, in
+which the historic pen, that thus far in this chapter has only been
+employed, may be legitimately aided by the pencil of fancy, while we
+bring the leading individuals of this body to view, and sketch the
+details of a scene as truthful in outline as it was important in result.
+
+The long summer day was drawing to a close. It had been thus far spent
+by the council, as had been the several preceding days of their
+session, in discussing the subject of the ways and means of doing
+something to avert the doom that hung over their seemingly devoted
+state. But up to this hour their deliberations had been wholly
+fruitless. Project after project for the means of raising military
+forces had been brought forward and discussed; and each in turn had
+been thought to be impracticable, and had been consequently abandoned,
+till, wearied with their unavailing labors, and discouraged at the
+dubious prospect before them, they now began to think of giving up
+business for the day, when the door-keeper, with unwonted haste and an
+agitated manner, entered the room, and announced to the astonished
+members of the council the alarming tidings that one of their own
+body, and, until that day, an active participator in their
+discussions, had proved a Judas, and was now, with a band of his
+recreant neighbors, on his way to the British camp. The news fell like
+a thunder-clap on the council, producing, at first, a sensation not
+often witnessed in so grave an assemblage. But no formal comments were
+offered; and, after the commotion had subsided, all sunk into a
+thoughtful silence, which we will improve by our promised introduction
+to the reader of the leading members of the council.
+
+Separated from the rest by a sort of enclosure composed of tables
+strung across one end of the apartment, which was a large upper room
+of an inn, hastily fitted up for the occasion, conspicuously sat the
+president of the council, the venerable Thomas Chittenden, the wise,
+the prudent, and the good, who was to Vermont what Washington was to
+the Union; and who, though not possessing dazzling greatness, had yet
+that rare combination of moral and intellectual qualities which was
+more fortunate for him--good sense, great discretion, firmness,
+honesty of purpose, benevolence, and unvarying equanimity of temper,
+united with a modest and pleasing address. And by the long and
+continued exercise of this golden mean of qualities, he was destined
+to leave behind him an honest, enduring fame--a memorial of good deeds
+and useful every-day examples, to be remembered and quoted, both in
+the domestic circle and in the public assembly, when the far superior
+brilliancy of many a contemporary had passed away and been forgotten.
+He was now something over fifty; but so fine were his physical
+endowments, and so temperate and regular had been his habits, that
+time had scarcely left a trace on his manly brow; and his fair and
+well-moulded features had almost the freshness of youth. And
+notwithstanding the unpretending simplicity of his deportment, and the
+extreme plainness of his dress, the large arm-chair, in which he now
+reclined, furnished probably by some considerate matron of the
+neighborhood for his special convenience, could not have found, in the
+broad land, an occupant who would have filled it with more native
+dignity, or one better fitted to restrain by courteous firmness, and
+by tact guide into safe and appropriate fields of action, the less
+disciplined and more fiery spirits of the body over which he presided.
+
+Let us now take a glance at the more prominent members of this notable
+little band of public conservators. Here, immersed in thought, sat,
+side by side, like brothers, as they were, the two Fays, those
+intelligent, enterprising, and persevering friends of freedom and
+state independence. And there sat the two Robinsons, alike patriotic,
+and active, or able, according to the different spheres of action in
+which they were about to be distinguished--one in the tented field,
+and the other on the bench and in the national councils. In another
+place was seen the short, thick-set form of the uncompromising Matthew
+Lyon, the Irish refugee, who was willing to be sold to pay his passage
+to America, for the sake of getting out of the despotic moral
+atmosphere of the old world, into one where his broad chest, as he was
+wont to say, could expand freely, and where his bold spirit could soar
+unclogged by the trammels of legitimacy. In his eagle eye, in every
+lineament of his clear, ardent, and fearless countenance, indeed,
+might be read the promise of what he was to become--the stern
+democrat, and the well-known champion of the whole right and the
+largest liberty. In contrast to him, near by was seen the tall,
+commanding form, and the firm and thoughtful countenance, of Benjamin
+Carpenter, who had just arrived, with pack and cane, from Guilford,
+from which he had that day come on foot by a route designated by
+marked trees, through the mountain wilderness, nearly thirty miles in
+extent. Farther on, and seated before an open window, was Thomas
+Rowley, the first poet of the Green Mountains. He was here because he
+was a public favorite, a trusty patriot, and something of a statesman.
+But, like most other poets, he was not without his peculiarities of
+temperament, as might have been seen by his manner and movements even
+in this staid assembly; for, as if disgusted with a tedious and
+profitless debate, and determined also not long to be troubled by the
+disconcerting news just announced, he had now evidently cast these
+cares from his mind, to indulge in the more congenial employment of
+gazing out upon the landscape, over which his kindling eye might have
+been seen to wander, till it rested, in rapture, on the broad
+empurpled side and bright summit of the lofty Equinox Mountain, whose
+contrasted magnificence was growing every moment more striking and
+beautiful in the beams of the low-descending sun. On the opposite side
+of the room stood the mild and gentlemanly Nathan Clark, the future
+speaker of the first legislature of Vermont; and by his side, the dark
+and rough-featured Gideon Olin, an embryo member of Congress, was
+leaning against the wall, with a countenance of mingled sternness and
+gloom.
+
+By the side of one of the tables, in front of the president, might
+also have been seen the stout, burly frame, and the matter-of-fact and
+business-like countenance, of Paul Spooner, engaged in writing a
+despatch. And as the last, though not as the least, among the
+strongly-contrasted characters of this assembly of whom we propose to
+take note, let us turn to the youthful secretary of the council, Ira
+Allen. So much the junior of his colleagues was he, indeed, that a
+spectator might well have wondered how he came to be selected as one
+of such a sage and elderly body of councillors. But those who procured
+his appointment knew full well why they had done so; and his history
+thenceforward was destined to prove a continued justification of their
+high opinion of him. He was of an active, mercurial turn, and, as
+might have been seen, was not inclined to remain long in one place or
+posture. He had now thrown aside his rapid pen, and, with a quick,
+light step and deeply-cogitating air, was traversing back and forth
+the open space between his table, in front of the president, and the
+closed door of the apartment. Both in form and feature, he was one of
+the handsomest men of his day; while a mind at once versatile, clear,
+and penetrating, with perceptions as quick as light, was stamped on
+his Grecian brow, or found a livelier expression in his lucid black
+eyes and other lineaments of his strikingly intellectual countenance.
+Such as he appeared for the first time on the stage of public action
+was the noted Ira Allen, whose true history, when written, will show
+him to have been, either secretly or openly, the originator, or
+successful prosecutor, of more important political measures, affecting
+the interests and independence of the state, and the issue of the war
+in the Northern Department, than any other individual in Vermont,
+making him, with the many peculiar traits of character he possessed,
+one of the most remarkable men of the times in which he so
+conspicuously figured.
+
+"I have finished, Mr. President," said Spooner, now breaking the
+gloomy silence which had, for an unusual interval, pervaded the
+assembly--"I have finished the despatch, suggested by your honor,
+requiring the attendance of the absent member from the east side of
+the mountain--General Bayley. And having put it into the form of a
+familiar letter, I have ventured to enlarge somewhat on our perplexing
+situation, especially in the matter of the miserable Squire Spencer,
+whose treasonable desertion I little dreamed, when I commenced
+writing, I should have the mortification of announcing." [Footnote:
+The original letter from Paul Spooner to General Jacob Bayley, of
+Newbury, written in council, requiring the attendance of the latter,
+and informing him of Spencer's defection, and the gloomy situation of
+affairs, is still preserved, and affords, notwithstanding the
+disheartening news it communicates, a striking proof of the
+determination of that body to struggle on to the last against the
+mountain of difficulties which, at this dark crisis, seemed to lie
+before them.]
+
+"That is well," responded the president; "and we must look up some
+suitable messenger to convey it to its destination. But I had hoped to
+forward, by the same hand, the despatch requesting the aid and
+co-operation of New Hampshire, which has been deferred till some
+definite action of our own should enable us to inform the council of
+that state what we of the Grants propose to do ourselves towards the
+object for which we invoke their assistance. This they will doubtless
+consider essential to be known, before listening to our call, as
+otherwise they will not know whether they will find among us more
+friends to assist than enemies to impede them. But what can we now
+tell them? I will submit to you, gentlemen of the council," he
+continued, in a kindly expostulating tone--"I will submit to your good
+sense and patriotism, whether it is not now time to adopt some decided
+course to be pursued. We must not be disheartened by a few untoward
+circumstances. Providence not unfrequently frowns on us for our own
+good. And who shall say, in the present instance, that our
+deliberations have not been wisely and kindly rendered of no effect
+till after Spencer's desertion, since, had we adopted a plan of
+operations while he was here, the whole of it, by this time, had been
+in the possession of the British general? But be that as it may, the
+event of this man's apostasy, of itself, instead of making us timid
+and irresolute in action, should but render us more prompt and
+decided. The people, as we all feel painfully conscious, I presume,
+expect much from us. Shall we disappoint them in every thing? Because
+we cannot consistently do all that may be expected, shall we resolve
+to do nothing? I have listened to your objections to levying a general
+tax upon the people, as the means of raising a military force; and,
+with you, I consider them valid; for to infringe the constitution,
+just adopted, by an arbitrary taxation, would be setting a dangerous
+precedent, and one which would come with a bad grace from those of us
+here who helped to adopt it. No; we must resort to other means. We
+can, if we will, borrow, pledging ourselves as individuals, with such
+others as we may find willing to stand sponsors with us, that the
+state shall hereafter pay the debt; or we may resort to voluntary
+contributions. I am aware the people are unable to contribute much. I
+am aware that a great portion of the inhabitants have been driven from
+their homes, and are now living on the hospitality of the rest. But
+for all this, the people can and will cheerfully contribute
+something--more, I think, than we should be willing to require of
+them. I have ten head of cattle, which can be spared for the
+emergency. But am I more patriotic than you, and hundreds of others in
+the settlement? My wife has a valuable gold necklace. Hint to her
+to-day that it is needed for the public service, and, my word for it,
+to-morrow you will find it in the treasury of freedom. But is my wife
+any more public-spirited than yours and many others among us?
+Gentlemen, I await your propositions."
+
+During this moderate, but really well-timed and effective appeal of
+the president, drooping heads began to be raised, perplexed and
+desponding countenances grew brighter, and by the time he had closed,
+several speakers were on their feet, eager to respond.
+
+"Mr. Carpenter has the floor, I think, gentlemen," said the president.
+
+"I rose," said Carpenter, "but to give my hearty response to the
+sentiments of the chair. It _is_ time, _high_ time, for some definite
+and decided action. Less talking and more action shall henceforth be
+_my_ motto. I have not now, it is true, any digested proposition to
+present to the council; but I soon will have one, unless others are
+offered; for, in this emergency, it is little short of a crime to
+dally any longer."
+
+"Ay, action! action!" responded several voices.
+
+"Action let it be, then," said Rowley, the next rising to speak. "If
+it be true, as has been urged, Mr. President, that we cannot raise
+money by general assessment without exceeding our power; and
+disaffecting the people, and that we must depend on voluntary
+contribution, which receivers, appointed for the purpose, may more
+appropriately gather in than ourselves, why are we needed here? I
+will, therefore, make a proposition, which, while it will be obnoxious
+to none of the objections brought against other plans of defence, will
+give gentlemen as much action as they want. I propose, Mr. President,
+that each of us here, before any more of us run away to the enemy,
+seize a standard, repair singly to the different hamlets among our
+mountains, cause the summoning drum to beat for volunteers, and lead
+them, when obtained, to do battle in person with this Jupiter Olympus
+of a British general, who has so nearly annihilated the country by
+proclamation."
+
+"Tom Rowley all over! but a gallant push nevertheless," vivaciously
+exclaimed Samuel Robinson, in an under tone. "And yet, Mr. President,"
+he continued, dropping the jocose, and now rising to speak in
+form--"and yet, if our colleague's spirited proposal could be carried
+into effect, and men be found to volunteer under such military leaders
+as most of us would make,--or if the different towns, as has been
+suggested by others, would order out the militia on our
+requisition,--even then, it appears to me, we should raise a permanent
+and regularly enlisted force, to serve a rallying point or nucleus for
+the militia, or our patriotic friend's army of volunteers. I therefore
+move, as I was about to do when others claimed the floor--I move the
+raising of a regular force, however small our means may compel us to
+make it; and as the smallest to be thought of, I will name one company
+of one hundred men, to be raised and supported by one of the methods
+suggested by the president."
+
+"And I," said Clark, promptly rising--"and I, believing we may venture
+to go a little higher than that, I propose, we have to raise two
+companies of sixty men each."
+
+"No, No!" cried several voices; "one company. Means can be found for
+no more than one."
+
+"Yes, yes! the larger number first, Mr. President! I go for two
+companies," cried others.
+
+"And I go for neither, Mr. President" said Ira Allen stopping short in
+his walk, and turning to the chair. "For I believe the council, on a
+little reflection, will conclude to do something more worthy of the
+character of the Green Mountain Boys, than the raising of the paltry
+force which even the bes' of these propositions involves. And I doubt
+not the means of so doing may be soon and abundantly supplied, without
+infringing the constitution or distressing the people. And I therefore
+move, sir, that this council resolve to raise a full regiment of men,
+forthwith appoint their officers, and take such prompt and speedy
+measures for their enlistment, that, within one week every glen in
+Vermont shall resound with the stir of military preparation."
+
+"Chimerical!" said one, who, in common with the rest of the council,
+seemed to hear, with much surprise, a proposition of this magnitude so
+confidently offered, when the doubt appeared to be whether even the
+comparatively trifling one of Clark would be adopted.
+
+"Impossible, utterly impossible to raise pay for half of them,"
+responded several others.
+
+"Don't let us say that till we are compelled to do so," said the
+patriotic Carpenter, in an encouraging tone. "This proposition jumps
+so well with my wishes, that I would not see it hastily abandoned.
+For, although I confess I do not pretend to see where the requisite
+means are to come from, yet some new light, in this respect, may break
+in upon us by another day. And could we but see our way clear to
+sustain this proposition, we should feel like men again."
+
+"Amen to all that," responded Clark. And as the hour for adjournment
+has now arrived, I move that our young colleague, who offered this
+proposition with so much confidence in the discovery of a way to carry
+it into execution, and who is said to be very fertile in expedients,
+be appointed a committee to devise the ways and means of paying the
+bounties and wages of the regiment he proposes to raise; and that he
+make his report to the council by sunrise to-morrow morning."
+
+"Second that motion, Mr. President" cried Lyon, in his usual full,
+determined tone of voice and strong Irish accent. "I go for the whole
+of Mr. Allen's proposition, means or no means. But the means can,
+must, and shall be found, sir! We will put the gentleman's brains
+under the screws to-night," he continued, jocosely turning to Allen;
+"and if he appears here in the morning empty-handed, he ought to be
+expelled from the council. Ay, and I'll move it, too, by the two bulls
+that redeemed me!" [Footnote: Matthew Lyon, who very soon became much
+noted as a leading partisan in the legislature of Vermont, and
+subsequently more so as member of congress from Kentucky, having, as
+before intimated, been sold to pay his passage from Ireland to
+Connecticut, where he landed, was afterwards redeemed by the payment
+of a pair of bulls to the purchaser, by a gentleman of that state, for
+whom he was permitted to labor, at liberal wages, till this novel kind
+of indebtedness was cancelled. And as this bold and singular man
+entered upon the scenes of life as a successful freeman, he was fond
+of boasting of the romantic manner in which he became one, while the
+expression, "By the two bulls that redeemed me," became his favorite
+oath on all occasions.]
+
+"I accept the terms," replied Allen, bowing pleasantly to the former.
+"Give me a room by myself, pen, ink, paper, and a lamp, and I will
+abide the condition."
+
+"For your lamp, Mr. Allen, as your task is to discover money where
+there is none, I advise you to borrow the wonderful lamp of Aladin,"
+gayly added Rowley, as the question was put, and carried; and the
+council, in a half-serious, half-sportive mood, broke up, and
+separated for the night.
+
+At sunrise, the next morning, as had been proposed, the council
+punctually assembled to receive the promised report of their
+committee. Most of them, from having lodged in the same house, were
+aware that Allen had spent the whole of the intervening time on the
+business which had been committed to his charge; for, hour after hour,
+during that important night, they had heard the sound of his
+footsteps, as he continued to walk his solitary chamber, intensely
+revolving in his teeming mind the vexed question, upon the decision of
+which he felt the last chance of making a successful stand against the
+invaders of the state would probably depend. And this and the
+expectation, which had somehow been generally raised, that he would
+present some feasible plan for carrying out his proposals, the
+character of which no one could conjecture, caused his appearance to
+be awaited with no little curiosity and solicitude. They were not left
+long in suspense; for scarcely had the president called the council to
+order, before Allen came in, holding in his hand an open sheet of
+paper, to which, as the yet undried ink showed, he had just committed
+the result of his night's labor.
+
+"Is the committee, appointed at adjournment last evening prepared to
+make his report?" asked the president.
+
+"Fully, your honor," promptly responded Allen, who accordingly then
+rose and said,--
+
+"My report, Mr. President, consists of two parts. The first comprises
+the nomination of a list of officers, from colonel to subaltern, for a
+regiment, to be styled _The Rangers_. The second part involves the
+subject more particularly committed to me, and proposes the means of
+raising and supporting them. As the first will be useless unless the
+second is adopted, I will submit it without present reading, and
+proceed at once with the second and more important proposition, which,
+after a long and patient consideration of every argument for and
+against the measure, I have concluded to recommend to the council, as
+the best and most effectual means of securing the desired end. And
+that proposition, for the sake of convenience, as regards the action
+of the council on the principle involved, I have thrown into the form
+of the following resolution:--
+
+"Resolved, That by specific decree of this council, and under
+regulations hereafter to be made, the estates, both real and personal,
+of all those who have been, or hereafter may be, identified as tories,
+aiders and abettors of the enemy, within this state, be confiscated
+for the military defence thereof; and that so much of said estates as
+may be needed for the payment of the bounties and wages of the
+regiment now proposed to be raised, be forthwith seized, and within
+ten days sold at the post, for that purpose, by the officers appointed
+by this council to execute its orders and decrees in that behalf."
+
+The speaker, without offering any further remark in explanation or
+defence of the measure he had reported, resumed his seat, and calmly
+awaited the expression of the council. But they were taken by such
+complete surprise by a proposition at that time so entirely new in the
+colonies, so bold and so startling in its character, that, for many
+minutes, not a word or whisper was heard through the hushed assembly,
+whose bowed heads and working countenances showed how deeply their
+minds were engaged in trying to grapple with the momentous subject,
+upon which their action was thus unexpectedly required. At length,
+nowever, low murmurs of doubt or disapproval began to be heard; and
+soon the expressions, "_unprecedented step!_"--"_doubtful policy!_"
+and "_injury to the cause_" became distinguishable among the
+over-prudent in different parts of the room when Matthew Lyon sprang
+to his feet, and, bringing his broad palms together with a loud slap,
+exultingly exclaimed,--
+
+"The child is born, Mr, President! My head has been in a continual
+fog, every hour since we convened, till the present moment; and I
+could see no way by which we could even begin to do all that the
+exigency required, without running against law, or distressing the
+people. But now, thank God, I can see my way out. I can now see, at a
+glance, how all can be speedily and righteously accomplished. I can
+already see a regiment of our brave mountaineers in arms before me, as
+the certain fruits of this bold, bright thought of our sagacious and
+intrepid young colleague. Unprecedented step is it? It may be so with
+us timid republicans but is it so with our enemies, who are this
+moment threatening to crush us, because we object to receive their law
+and precedent? How were they to obtain the lands of the half of
+Vermont, which, it is said, they recently offered the lion-hearted
+Ethan Allen, if he would join them, but by confiscating _our_ estates?
+What has become of the estates of those in their own country, who,
+like ourselves, have rebelled against their government? From time
+immemorial they have been confiscated. Can they complain then, at our
+following a precedent of their own setting? Can they complain because
+_we_ adopt a measure, which, in case we are vanquished, they will not
+be slow to visit on _our_ estates, to say nothing of our necks? Can
+these recreant rascals themselves, who have left their property among
+us, and gone off to help fasten this very government upon us, complain
+at our doing what they will be the first to recommend to be done to
+us, if their side prevails? Where, then, is the doubtful policy of our
+anticipating them in this measure, any more than in seizing one of
+their loaded guns in battle, and turning it against them? Injury to
+the cause, will it be?--Will it injure our cause here, where men are
+daily deserting to the British, in belief that we shall not dare touch
+their property to strike a blow that will deter _all_ the wavering,
+and most others of any property, from leaving us hereafter? Will it
+injure our cause here to have a regiment of regular troops, who will,
+perhaps, draw into the field four times their number, in volunteers?
+If this be an injury, Mr. President, I only wish we may have a few
+more of them; for, with a half dozen such injuries, by the two bulls,
+we would rout Burgoyne's whole army in a fortnight. Yes, Mr.
+President, this measure must go; for it promises every thing to cause,
+and threatens nothing that honest patriots need fear, and had I a
+hundred tongues, they should all wag a good stiff ay for its
+adoption."
+
+"A bold measure, boldly advocated!" next spoke Carpenter. "But as bold
+as it is, Mr. President, I rise not to condemn it, but rather to say,
+that I am determined to meet it fairly, and without fear; and if, when
+I get cool enough to trust myself to make a decision, the objections
+to it appear no more formidable than they now do, I will give it my
+hearty support."
+
+"If the public should call this a desperate remedy, they must recollect
+that it is almost our only one," remarked Olin, in his cool, quiet
+manner. "Nothing venture, nothing have;--let us go for it who dare!"
+
+"Let us _oppose_ it who dare!" warmly responded Lyon. "The measure
+will be a popular one; and let it once be known among the people, as I
+promise gentlemen it shall be, that this proposition was considerately
+recommended to us by a committee we appointed for the purpose--let
+this be known, and who among us has nerve enough to stem the storm of
+popular indignation that will burst on his head, for the timid and
+cowardly policy which led him to go against it?"
+
+"Vermont," added Rowley--"Vermont was the first to show her sister
+states the way to take a British fort; let her also be the first to
+teach them the secret of making tories bear their proportion of the
+burdens of the war. I am already prepared to give the measure my
+support, Mr. President."
+
+Almost every member, in turn, now threw in a few observations. The
+doubts and fears of the more cautious and wavering gradually gave way;
+and it soon became evident that the measure had found too much favor
+with the council to be resisted. Lyon, with his rough and pithy
+eloquence, had broken the ice of timidity at the right moment; and he
+and the originator of the measure, at first the only unhesitating
+members of the assembly, perceiving the gathering current in its
+favor, now warmly followed up their advantage; and, within two hours
+from its introduction, the resolution was adopted. This was
+immediately followed by the passage of the decree named in the
+resolution, specifying the names of those thus far fairly identified
+as openly espousing the British cause in Vermont, and declaring their
+estates forfeited to its use. Allen's proposal to raise a regiment of
+rangers was then, as a matter of course, unanimously carried, and the
+officers he had nominated were, with a few alterations, as unanimously
+appointed. All were now animated with a new spirit. Hope and
+confidence had taken the place of doubt and despondency in their
+bosoms and the remainder of the day was spent in carrying out the
+details of their plan, which all agreed should now be put into
+execution with the greatest possible promptitude and secrecy. In this,
+as soon as the different appointments, made necessary for the
+execution of the decree, were completed by the united action of the
+council, all the members, individually, took an active part. And for
+many hours, they might have been seen sitting round the tables,
+silently and intently engaged with their pens; some in drafting
+despatches to be sent to New Hampshire and Massachusetts, some in
+writing confidential letters, unfolding their plans and asking the
+co-operation of the leading men in the different parts of their own
+state, and some in making out commissions for the military officers,
+or the commissioners and other officers of confiscation, while others
+were out, scattering themselves about town, warily and cautiously
+inquiring out prompt and trusty messengers, to be despatched, as soon
+as it was dark, simultaneously and post-haste, to convey these
+important missives to their different destinations round the country.
+And all being accomplished,--the blow struck, and the machinery put in
+motion,--the council concluded to adjourn, to meet again in a few days
+at Bennington, the interim to be spent by them in repairing to their
+respective spheres of influence among the people, and there taking an
+active part in defending and explaining their measures, and assisting
+to carry them into operation.
+
+Such was the origin of those temporary tribunals in Vermont,
+subsequently termed courts of confiscation, which formed a prominent
+feature in her early history, and which furnished, it is believed, the
+first example of the exercise of this extraordinary power ever known
+in the United Colonies during the revolutionary struggle. And whatever
+may have been the effects of this retributive policy in other states,
+its results here were salutary and important. It put an immediate stop
+to any further espousing of British interests, especially among men of
+property, while, within the astonishingly short space of fifteen days,
+it brought a regiment of men into the field, well armed and prepared
+for instant service,--thus securing those advantages to the defenders
+of liberty, in the peculiar posture of their affairs in which it was
+introduced, and giving that impetus to their military operations,
+without which the brilliant successes that marked the ensuing campaign
+in Vermont could never have been obtained. Of this there can scarcely
+be a doubt. And scarcely less doubt can there be, that the important
+measure in question would not have been brought forward and adopted at
+the crisis, in which alone the advantages it then secured could have
+been denied from us but for its sole projector, the sagacious,
+scheming, and fearless Ira Allen.
+
+Speculative writers have often amused themselves in tracing great
+events to small causes. And in this they have oftentimes so
+wonderfully succeeded, as to show, beyond the power of man to refute,
+some of the most trivial circumstances of life, considered by
+themselves, to have caused the revolutions of empires. Were we to make
+out an instance of this character, to be added to the many other
+remarkable ones which have been noted by the curious, it should be
+done by tracing the independence of America to the measure which Allen
+so boldly projected, as he walked his lonely chamber, on the eventful
+night we have described. The independence of the colonies was, at that
+dark crisis, balancing, as on a pivot; and the success of Burgoyne
+must seemingly have turned the scale against us. The success of
+Burgoyne, at the same time, hung on a pivot also; and the victory of
+Bennington, with all its numberless direct and indirect consequences,
+as now seems generally conceded, turned the scale of his fortunes when
+his success, otherwise, could scarcely have been doubtful. But the
+victory of Bennington would never have been achieved but for the
+decided and energetic movement of Vermont, which alone secured the
+cooperation of New Hampshire, or, at least insured victory, when,
+otherwise, no battle would have been rewarded. And that essential
+movement of Vermont would never have been made but for the bold and
+characteristic project of Ira Allen.
+
+All this, to be sure, is but supposition; but who can gainsay its
+truthfulness?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+  "Say what is woman's heart?--a thing
+   Where all the deepest feelings spring;
+   And what its love?--a ceaseless stream,
+   A changeless star--an endless dream--
+   A smiling flower, that will not die--
+   A beauty and a mystery!"
+
+
+While the scenes last described were occurring at Manchester, in the
+Council of Safety, whose secret and unforeseen action was about to be
+felt in the remotest corners of the state, an athletic, well-formed,
+though plainly-dressed young man, whose fortunes, in common with those
+of hundreds around him, were suddenly and unexpectedly to be affected
+by the movements of that body, might have been seen, in the evening
+twilight, moving, with slow and apparently hesitating steps, across a
+new-mown field, towards a neat and commodious dwelling, situated on
+the main road leading from the town just named, to the south, and near
+where it entered the then fast increasing little village of
+Bennington. Though he wore no regular military uniform, or arms that
+were visible, yet there was that in his gait, manner, and general
+appearance, which indicated the recent occupation of a soldier, while
+the natural cast of his bold, manly features, and the clear, calm, and
+steady expression of his fine countenance, all combined to show him a
+man of coolness and courage; and that, consequently, the seeming
+timidity and indecision of his present movements were attributable to
+some passing doubts respecting the issue of the business on hand, or
+other causes of a similar character, rather than any general want of
+firmness and resolution. After advancing within a stone's throw of the
+house, he turned into a clump of small trees, which, extending along
+the outer border of an unenclosed garden to the north of the
+establishment, had concealed his approach; and here taking a position
+that commanded a view of the front and rear entrances of the house, he
+seemed to await some expected event, with manifestations of
+considerable uneasiness and solicitude. In a few moments, a slight
+stir, as of company taking leave, was heard in the front part of the
+house; and very soon a fashionably-dressed personage of a somewhat
+swaggering deportment, accompanied with many of those supercilious
+airs with which the colonial loyalists of the times often thought to
+dignify their carriage among despised republicans, made his appearance
+in the yard, where, equipped for riding, stood a stout,
+well-conditioned horse, which he approached and led out some distance
+into the road, preparatory to mounting. He then paused, and, with a
+hasty glance around him, covertly drew forth, from a concealed girdle
+apparently, a pair of good-sized pistols, and carefully examined their
+flints and priming; after which he replaced them, and, vaulting into
+his saddle, rode leisurely away along the road leading northward. In
+the mean time, the person first described retained his position within
+his leafy concealment, where, unseen himself, he had seen and watched
+from the first, with keen interest, all the movements of the other,
+whom, at length, he seemed to recognize, with recollections which
+caused him to recoil, and his whole countenance to contract and darken
+with angry and disquieting emotions. He was not allowed much time,
+however, for indulging his disturbed feelings; for scarcely had the
+object of his annoyance disappeared, before his attention was
+attracted by a slight rustling sound somewhere within the garden;
+when, turning his head, the frown that had gathered on his brow
+suddenly gave place to a look of joyful animation, as his eager eye
+caught a glimpse of the light, fluttering drapery of a female, who,
+with soft, rapid tread, was gliding along the outer edge of the
+screening shrubbery towards him. The next instant he was at her side,
+ardently grasping her half-proffered hand, and tenderly gazing into
+her sweetly-confused countenance.
+
+"How grateful," he began, after a broken salutation--"how grateful I
+should be for this obliging attention to the note I sent you,
+soliciting a meeting which--"
+
+"Which my gallant preserver of old will be pretty sure to misconstrue,
+I fear me," interrupted the maiden, with a half-murmured, sportive laugh.
+
+"No, Miss Haviland," he replied, too intent on a serious demonstration
+of his feelings to respond in the same spirit--"no, I am not so
+presuming; nor do I wish to count on the former service, which you so
+magnify, and which has induced you, perhaps, to grant this interview."
+
+"In part, I confess," was the answer to this implied question.
+
+"I suspected--I feared so," he rejoined, despondingly. "Would to
+Heaven you could have acted entirely aside from that motive, and then
+I might have found cause to hope. But now," he added, with suppressed
+emotion--"now--But O, how can I harbor the chilling thought of being
+doomed to love without a return! Say, fairest and best, must this
+indeed be so?"
+
+The downcast look and the quick-heaving bosom were the only reply; and
+the impassioned lover, gathering courage even from these uncertain
+indications, proceeded:--
+
+"Years, eventful years, have passed away, my dear Miss Haviland, since
+your face, like some unexpected vision, first greeted my sight, and
+its image, at the same moment, as a thing not to be resisted, sunk
+deep into my heart. And there, from that hour to this, it has
+constantly remained--remained in spite of all my attempts to exclude
+it; for I struggled hard to banish it, as I had so much reason to do.
+You were the daughter of wealth and prosperity--I the son of poverty
+and misfortune; and, what was more revolting to my pride, you were
+found with my political opponents--my oppressors--nay, in the closest
+connection, apparently, with my bitterest foe. But with all the aid
+which these thoughts and associations were calculated to lend me, I
+struggled in vain. And when I was driven, poor, sorrowing, and
+desperate, from my home, by the wrongs and insults of this same man,
+of whose position towards you I was not left in doubt, I carried that
+image with me. It would not be eradicated; it would not even fade; but
+became more deeply impressed, and grew more and more vivid with time
+and change. In the stirring scenes of military life into which I then
+entered,--in the hour of battle, the exhausting march, the horrors of
+a prisonship, the perilous escape, and the lone wanderings through the
+wilderness, till I again reached the soil of freedom,--in all these,
+the impress remained unweakened, constantly presenting itself to my
+thoughts by day, and shaping my dreams by night. And it was this,
+when, on my return, I came into this quarter, where I had learned our
+scattered troops were rallying, and where I found myself near you--it
+was this that brought me to your father's dwelling--it was this,
+which, in spite of the coldness of my reception by all but yourself,
+urged me to the repeated visit, in which I was driven with insults
+from your house."
+
+"Not by me, Mr. Woodburn," interposed the fair listener, in kindly and
+earnest tones--"not by me, nor by my consent or sanctioning. And it
+was mainly to show you this that I was induced to grant your request
+for this, on my part, I fear, imprudent meeting. No! O, no, sir, I
+have never forgotten--I can never forget--to whom I am indebted for my
+life; and gratitude as well as respect for his general character, will
+ever forbid aught but kind and courteous treatment at my hands. And I
+hope you will make some allowance for my father, who feels so strongly
+that the people, whose cause you espouse, are criminally wrong."
+
+"I do make an allowance," responded Woodburn--"great allowance for his
+imbittered state of mind towards the defenders of the American cause;
+but does that fully account for the course he pursues towards me?"
+
+"To be frank with you, sir, it does not," she replied, after some
+hesitation. "There are those often with my father, who are not
+backward in fanning his prejudices, and perhaps in instigating the
+undeserved treatment you have received. I may be unwise in saying
+this; but justice to all, it appears to me, requires that you should
+be apprised of it. You will not surely make use of this to embroil us?"
+
+"Certainly not; but what you communicate is hardly news to me. I well
+understand that the principal one of those to whom you allude is no
+other than the person who just rode away from your house."
+
+"You saw him, then? I am thankful you did not come in collision with
+him; for he is a man you must avoid. Yes, that was indeed Colonel Peters."
+
+_Colonel_ Peters! _Colonel_, did you call him? Has he, then, actually
+joined the British forces, and received a commission for such a post
+in their army?"
+
+"Yes; but I had supposed this was known, else I might have hesitated
+to disclose it, lest his frequent visits here might implicate my
+father, who, I hope, may be induced to remain neutral in this unhappy
+contest."
+
+"Fear not, fair friend. No advantage shall be taken of this, through
+my means, to the injury of your father. But, tell me, does that
+officious adviser of your father still urge a suit, and plead an
+engagement, of which, I have inferred, you would not be sorry to be
+relieved?"
+
+"He does," answered the maiden, sadly--"he does urge a suit, and
+insist on an engagement, of which he knows I wish to be relieved."
+
+"Why should he do this?"
+
+"Perhaps he counts on the effect of events to reconcile me--events
+which he seems to expect will shortly happen--the complete triumph of
+his cause, the disgrace, banishment, or death of its cpposers, and his
+own elevation thereby to stations which, he thinks no woman will
+refuse to share with him. He counts much also, probably, on the aiding
+influence of my father, who feels warmly interested in his success,
+and believes with the other that he, who is so loyal, while so many of
+his standing are otherwise, cannot fail of reaping a brilliant harvest
+of rewards, which, with the connection they propose, will reflect
+lustre on our family."
+
+"Then it does not occur to them," said Woodburn, with a smile at this
+specimen of that loyal air-castle building in which the tories of the
+revolution seemed to have so extravagantly indulged--"it does not
+occur to them that it is even _possible_ these splendid schemes may
+fail, in the failure of their cause in this country, which has thus,
+in anticipation, been parcelled out into dukedoms and lordships, to
+reward its sanguine adherents?"
+
+"One would think not, from their conversation on the subject," replied
+the other.
+
+"And what thinks _she_, whom they would have so much _interested_ in
+this great issue?" asked Woodburn, encouraged to the question by the
+manner and tone of her last remark. "Has it never occurred to _her_
+mind that their cause, as strong as they deem it, is destined to fail;
+that even this vaunting army, which hangs so menacingly on our
+borders, may be swept away by the vengeance of a wronged, an insulted,
+and now aroused people; and that this despised people have right and
+Heaven on their side; and by the blessings of that Heaven, while they
+do battle in the consciousness of that right, will yet triumph, and
+become an independent nation, to which even her present haughty foe
+will do reverence?"
+
+"It has," replied the maiden, warmly and with emphasis--"it has, Mr.
+Woodburn; and--why should I attempt to conceal it?--and I have
+wished--for I could not help it, though against the feelings, and,
+perhaps, the best interests of a generally kind parent--I have long
+secretly wished, and even prayed, for your success; because I could
+not stifle the conviction of the truth of what you assert respecting
+the wrongs of the American people, and the justice of their cause."
+
+"Sabrey Haviland," exclaimed the surprised and delighted lover, "as
+long as I have respected and loved you, I have never till this moment,
+known you--never half appreciated the worth of your character!"
+
+"What you may appreciate highly, sir, others may as highly condemn,"
+she meekly responded. "I have said more to you than I have ever
+expressed to human being; and I may be wrong--wrong in saying it to
+you--wrong in saying it or believing it at all." "Wrong? O, no, no,
+noble girl!" he rejoined, with increasing animation; "no, you are not
+wrong; you are right--right in your convictions, right in the wish,
+the prayer, and the declaration. Men will honor your honest
+independence, exercised against so much to bias and prejudice, so much
+to tempt and dazzle you; and Heaven will approve and bless you. But
+with such sentiments," he added, in tenderly expostulating
+accents--"with such sentiments, dear lady, will you doom me to plead
+my heart's cause in vain? Will you still adhere to a lover active in
+the work of oppression which you condemn, and reject his rival,
+equally active in the cause you approve and pray for?"
+
+"I see my error, Mr. Woodburn," she replied, with an air of
+self-reproach and of slightly-offended pride, which, however, gave way
+to kindly tones, as she proceeded; "I have unintentionally helped you
+to an argument, while I am constrained to decide that no argument, so
+long as I stand in my present position, must prevail with me. Do not,
+then, O, do not press me with questions like these. You know not the
+extent of my perplexities, and I may not explain. Besides, are these
+the times to engage in such affairs, when the next hour may lead to an
+eternal separation, or place our respective destinies as wide as the
+poles asunder?"
+
+"But will you not allow me even to hope for the future?" still
+persisted the lover.
+
+"Why should I bid you tantalize yourself with hopes so likely to prove
+futile, when nobler thoughts should engross you? Look, Mr. Woodburn,"
+she said, pointing, with charming enthusiasm, towards the distant
+summits of Manchester, then beginning to be dimly visible in the rays
+of the rising moon, "cast your eyes northward! Beneath yon blue
+mountains is gathered the council of your people. There also rolls the
+recruiting drum of your brave Warner, who needs men like you; or if,
+as you intimated, you are waiting to engage in a different corps,
+which your council is expected to raise, would not your attendance
+there be more worthily bestowed, than in adding to the perplexities of
+one already so thickly surrounded with difficulties, and one who, to
+your suit, cannot say yea, while she would be pained to say nay?"
+
+"Cruel girl, but noble in your cruelty!" exclaimed Woodburn, with
+mingled disappointment and admiration. "I will forbear to press my
+suit for the present, but not forever. I will heed the lesson of
+patriotism you have given me, but only to remember my fair prompter
+with deeper devotion."
+
+"Hark!" said the other, starting; "I hear my father's chiding voice in
+the house inquiring for me. I must go. Adieu, Mr. Woodburn. With this
+tendered hand of friendship and gratitude, adieu."
+
+"If it must be so, my precious, my beautiful one, farewell to you, also."
+
+Lips uttered no more, but the mute pause that followed, while eye met
+eye, and hand lingered in hand, was not meaningless. The fond lover
+was not permitted, however, to prolong the entrancing moment, which,
+as the slightly-returned pressure of the small white hand, closely
+imprisoned in his own, told him, had not been reluctantly vouchsafed
+him; for, quickly arousing herself, the maiden broke from his clinging
+grasp, and tripped silenty away, leaving him gazing after her
+retreating form, and listening to the soft and decreasing sounds of
+her light footsteps upon the grass, till the jar of the closing door,
+to which she had directed her devious course, made him feel that he
+was alone, and that the charm of the place was gone.
+
+With a sigh, he turned from the spot, and soon gained the highway;
+when, taking the direction in which his rival and foe had departed, he
+walked musingly onward, heedless alike of the cool and balmly air of
+the evening, or the quietly reposing beauties which the light of a
+full moon, now beginning to peer over the eastern hills, was gradually
+unfolding around him, and intent only on the dreamy images with which
+love and his new-fledged hope seemed conspiring for a while to amuse
+his willing mind. At length, however, a quickened pace, a firmer
+tread, and a prouder bearing, showed that a different and less
+peaceful train of thought was springing up within.
+
+"So this evil genius of mine, it seems," he muttered, "who forever
+appears in my path to snatch from me every prize I set my heart on, is
+secretly an officer in the British service, commissioned, probably, to
+head a regiment of tories, whom he is now by his false statements and
+delusive promises, attempting to gather from the weak and wavering of
+our overawed people. This must be instantly made known. Heavens! what
+effrontery!--to be playing the spy under the garb of pretended
+neutrality, and seducing away the deluded men under our very noses, to
+lead them back to fall with fire and sword on their kindred and
+neighbors! And I am to be the particular object of his vengeance, I
+presume, from the significant hint she gave me to avoid him. Avoid
+him! He shall be spared much trouble to find me if that is what he
+wants. He is now the country's foe, and lawful game with me. I would
+that I could meet him tonight--yes, this night; and if I thought I
+could overtake him--stay, why can't this be done?--only three miles
+start, probably, and on a moderate trot; while my horse is a fleet
+one, and--and--we will try it."
+
+By this time he had reached a log house, and barn of the same
+materials, which formed a small opening on the left side of the road,
+and which was the residence of a recently-married and here settled
+friend, in whose care he had left his horse before proceeding, as on
+the lady's account he did, through the adjoining wood and Haviland's
+broad fields beyond, to the clandestine interview with her that we
+have described. And now turning in towards this rude establishment, he
+hastily proceeded, without calling at the house, directly to the barn,
+that was partially enclosed by one of those close-laid, high, pole
+fences which the settlers usually constructed round their barns to
+protect their flocks against the depredations of wild beasts. Within
+this strong enclosure, the owner's cattle, consisting of a pair of
+oxen, cow, and two or three young creatures of the same species, were
+now quietly chewing their cuds, with those occasional wheezing grunts,
+which with them seem so indicative of animal enjoyment; while in one
+corner stood the horse of which Woodburn was in quest--a little model
+of a creature, of a lively, attent appearance, as now particularly
+manifested by a low, earnest, recognizing whinny, and by instantly
+starting off, in a sort of half trot towards the bars of the
+enclosure, as her master came up on the other side.
+
+"Yes, yes, Lightfoot, you shall go now, and as fast as you desire,
+this time," responded the latter, throwing himself over the bars, and
+patting the animal on the neck, as he passed on to the barn for his
+saddle and bridle.
+
+To equip his willing steed, examine the trusty pistols, which, like
+his foe, he carried about his person, let down, pass through, and
+replace the bars, occupied him but a moment, and he was about
+springing into his saddle, when he was hailed from the house.
+
+"Halloo, there, Woodburn, is that you?" exclaimed a cheerly voice, as
+a stout-built, crank, honest-looking young man, without hat or coat,
+came out of the door, and with a free and careless air made his way
+towards the other; "but what is your hurry? Nothing unpleasant has
+befallen you in your affair over yonder that makes you feel like being
+off in this sly and hasty manner, has there?"
+
+"No, Risdon, not quite so bad as that yet," replied Woodburn, taking
+all in good part.
+
+"How much better, then? Come, Harry, I have taken stones enough out of
+your path, and thrown them into that of your rival there, to earn a
+candid answer to such a question."
+
+"True, sir; but you ask more than I am permitted to know myself. I can
+neither get accepted nor rejected. She, however has given me fresh
+reason to admire her. She is no common girl, friend Risdon."
+
+"There is not a finer or fairer in all the Green Mountains; but what
+is that fresh reason you name?"
+
+"The discovery that at heart she is warmly with us in the good cause."
+
+"That is, you hope, and therefore believe so, eh?"
+
+"I have a much better reason than that, sir, for my assertion. She
+has, within this hour, told me so herself."
+
+"Ah! Well, then, it is indeed so; for Sabrey Haviland never uttered
+aught but perfect truth and sincerity in all her life. Why, God bless
+her for her spunk and independence, living and visiting, as she mostly
+has, from a child, in that circle of high-toned and bitter tories. And
+it argues well for your suit, too, Woodburn, which till now I have
+considered rather an unpromising one; for it tells me that she will
+struggle hard to get free from the fetters which Peters and her father
+have fastened on her, and by which, counting on her high sense of the
+sacredness of all promises and contracts, they suppose have secured
+her beyond the least fear of escape."
+
+"Do you allude to any thing other than the mere consent which she
+formerly gave to Peters's proposals of marriage, and which, I had
+supposed, constituted the only engagement existing between them?"
+
+"Yes, a far stronger case, which I have learned by way of my wife,
+since I last conversed with you on the subject."
+
+"Ah! What is it?" eagerly demanded the lover.
+
+"Why as I gathered it, the case was this," answered the other. "The
+old man, as well as Peters, you know, must always do things, if
+possible, after the English custom; and both thinking more of property
+than women, they got up a regularly-written marriage contract, or
+settlement, by which one bound himself to give the other his daughter,
+with such and such a dowry, and the other to marry the daughter, and
+settle such and such sums on her and her heirs, all to be void in case
+the marriage fell through by fault of the girl. But to provide against
+this, they made another part to the instrument for her to sign, in
+which they made her solemnly promise and covenant to marry Peters, and
+none else; otherwise she was to forfeit her birthright in her father's
+estate. This they somehow or other at last induced her to sign and
+seal thus binding herself hand and foot forever, with but one single
+advantage, which, it seems, she had the wit to get added to the
+contract before she would sign it; and that was, that the time of
+fulfilling the contract, or day of the marriage, was to be left to her."
+
+"What a detestable conspiracy for a father to enter into against the
+rightful liberty and happiness of a daughter!" exclaimed Woodburn,
+after a pause, during which surprise and indignation kept him silent.
+"That, then, explains the hints she has several times thrown out to me
+respecting some peculiar trials and difficulties to which she was
+subjected. But was she of age when she signed that paper?"
+
+"No; but she probably, in her great scrupulousness, would long
+hesitate to break the engagement on account of that, or the fraudulent
+means they doubtless used to draw her into the shameful affair.
+Nevertheless, I would persevere. Her right to stave off the fellow,
+with her known wish to get rid of him, may yet procure her an
+honorable release; or she may be brought to take a different view
+about the binding nature of a promise obtained under such
+circumstances; or, as a last resort, that paper may be got out of his
+possession by some scheme or other. So I think you will worst him in
+the long run, in spite of his present advantages of the father's help,
+his own wealth, and----"
+
+"And his recent promotion," interrupted Woodburn, "which is to be the
+stepping-stone to the dukedom of Vermont, the reward for betraying his
+country, and the glittering bait, which, in anticipation, is already
+held out to this besieged, but bravely resisting, girl!"
+
+"What do you mean, Woodburn?" bluntly said the other, in surprise.
+
+"I mean," replied the former, "that Peters has lately received a
+colonel's commission in the British service, and is even now secretly
+but actively engaged, I suspect, in trying to seduce the people with
+British gold, and raise troops among us to co-operate with Burgoyne."
+
+"You astonish me. Why, the hypocritical rascal has been giving out
+word about here, that, as he had friends and interests on both sides,
+he had concluded to remain neutral! Are you sure you have been
+correctly informed?"
+
+"Quite sure. But while you may conjecture the source of my information,
+remember that it is to work no injury to the family of my informer."
+
+"Ay, I understand, now--'tis true, then; and you are correct, too, in
+your suspicions about his present movements. That will account for the
+existence of the hard dollars that have so strangely made their
+appearance about here within a few days. But will he be suffered to
+prosecute his plans here among us? What better is he than a spy?"
+
+"Nothing."
+
+"He must be nabbed, then; and we will let him find his duke's coronet
+in a crow's nest, on the limb of some old hemlock, to which we will
+soon have him dangling in the air, unless our authorities wish to give
+him a more respectable gallows. What say you to that, Harry?"
+
+"That you are not the first to think of it--that is, so far as to have
+him captured. He rode away from Haviland's in this direction, and at a
+moderate pace, just as I, unperceived by him, reached there, about an
+hour ago, on his way, doubtless, to one of the tory haunts in
+Manchester. My mare has a fleet foot, Risdon; so you now understand
+why I was in a hurry to be off, don't you?"
+
+"I do; but Heavens! Woodburn, you are not going to give chase alone?"
+
+"Yes; no horse but mine probably could overtake him before he reaches
+his associates; besides, since it was hinted to me that he would seek
+my life I am willing to give him a chance to take it, where neither he
+nor I shall have help or witness."
+
+"Are you armed?"
+
+"With dirk and pistols, as he only is."
+
+"A rather hazardous push, Harry. But go, and God prosper you to take
+him, and with him that mischievous document. And one thing more: if
+you live to reach Manchester, tell that Council of Safety, that if
+they don't do something soon, we, the people, will set up for
+ourselves in war-making. I, for one, don't believe I can keep my hands
+off my rifle three days longer."
+
+"Ay, ay," said Woodburn, springing into his saddle. "And now,
+Lightfoot, here is a loose rein for you. Go!" he added, striking with
+his heels the body, and with his hands the mane of the impatient
+animal, that, at these well-understood signs, gave an irregular plunge
+or two ahead, and then shot off like an arrow up the road.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+  "What heroes from the woodland sprung,
+     When, through the fresh-awakened land,
+   The thrilling cry of freedom rung.
+   And to the work of warfare strung
+     The yeoman's iron hand!"
+
+
+Leaving Woodburn to the hot and eager pursuit that patriotism and
+private animosity had prompted him to undertake, we will now precede
+him a few miles on the road, for the purpose of introducing and
+accompanying another old acquaintance, who was also destined to become
+an actor in the wild and stirring adventures of the night.
+
+Near the southern confines of Manchester, about nine o'clock, the same
+evening, a youth of the probable age of twenty, of a sandy complexion,
+and of a rather slight, but evidently tough, wiry frame, with a short
+rifle on his shoulder, and powder-horn and ball-pouch slung at his
+back, was making his solitary way on foot along the main road towards
+the town just mentioned. As he now reached the Batenkill, where the
+stream, here first beginning to find a more peaceful flow, after its
+headlong descent from the Green Mountains, intersected the road, he
+suddenly paused and began to muse, with the air of one who has been
+struck by some new thought tending to divert him from his settled
+purposes; and, slowly passing on to the bridge, which, after the rude
+construction of the times, had been thrown across the river at this
+place, he took a seat on one of the side-timbers, or binders, as they
+were usually termed, and, in accordance with an old and inveterate
+habit, generated probably by the peculiar circumstances of his early
+life, began to commune with himself aloud.
+
+"I wonder what this new business is they want you should do Bart?
+Harry said it was a secret matter when he handed over the paper," he
+continued, pulling out and abstractedly unrolling a small wad of white
+paper, "a kinder private commission, or something, which he would
+explain about, after I had gone and got his letter to the girl, as he
+met me on my way back. But why don't he meet me fore this time? It's
+pesky strange he should hang back in a woman affair so! Why, he would
+go--like enough has gone--but then how could he miss me? O Lord, Bart,
+what a stupid pup! He passed you when you was napping it in the bushes
+at that cool spring! I'll bet my old hat on't! Well, we shan't see
+much more of him to-night, likely, seeing it is love he's doing, and
+such a moon as this holds the candle; and we may as well be trying to
+find out this business without him. So let's be digging out what the
+paper says. Harry and the rest of 'em don't know I can read writing;
+but I can, when driv to it; though I think we won't let 'em know that,
+Bart; for no knowing what cunning things we may find out if they don't
+mistrust it. Now let's look. Why, I can see as plain as day!' he
+added, holding up the writing to the bright moonlight, and beginning
+to spell out the well-known bold and distinct characters of the
+secretary of the council, as follows:--
+
+"TO BARTHOLOMEW BURT:--
+
+"You are hereby appointed by the Council of Safety to go through this
+and the neighboring towns, bordering on the British line of march; to
+spy out the resorts of the tories; to mark and identify all inimical
+persons; to gain all the information that can be obtained respecting
+the movements of the enemy at large; and make report, from time to
+time, to this council or some field officer of our line.
+
+"IRA ALLEN, _Secretary_." [Footnote: Those who may doubt the
+probability that such a commission would be issued by this body, would
+do well to consult that part of the journal of their proceedings, at
+this period, which has been preserved and published, in which will be
+found several similar ones, to serve as specimens of the many
+contained in the part that was lost, and to show how searching were
+the operations of these vigilant guardians of the cause of liberty in
+Vermont, and how various the instruments they made use of to effect
+their objects.]
+
+"Good! grand!" exclaimed the excited soliloquist, starting up and
+snapping his fingers in high glee. "This will be a great thing for
+you, Bart. Yes, and then how gentlemanly and respectful-like it sounds
+to be called Bartholomew, in that way! Bart, we'll go it for them; and
+have a touch of the trade this very night, if you please. But where
+shall we begin? Let's see, now. Why, there's old mother Rose's haunt
+up the great road here, where, I do think, she must hatch out tories,
+same as a hen does chickens, they are so thick about there. Then
+there's Josh Rose courting that up and a coming sort of girl you saw
+at Howard's t'other day, when you called with Harry for a drink of
+water. Now wouldn't the fellow be apt to let out secrets there that we
+could get hold of, and put us on some good scent? Ah! that's it; so
+now up the river for Howard's, as a beginning, hit or miss, Bart."
+
+While this singular genius is proceeding on his proposed destination,
+in the hope of accomplishing something to show himself worthy of the
+curious trust that had been so unexpectedly reposed in him, we will
+occupy the breathing spot, thus afforded in our narrative, in
+apprising the reader, more definitely than we have yet done, of the
+main incidents that had marked the checkered fortunes of the two
+adventurers whom we have now again brought upon the scene of action,
+since we left them.
+
+When Woodburn and Bart left the state, under the circumstances
+described in the closing chapters of our first volume, they proceeded
+directly to Cambridge, where the revolutionary army was then gathering
+for the siege of Boston, enlisted, for two years, into the continental
+service; and actively participated in all the most important movements
+of the army in the campaign that immediately succeeded. They were at
+Bunker Hill, on that memorable day of fire and blood, so glorious for
+the yeoman patriots of New England, and so fearful for her foes,--
+
+  "When first, as at Thermopylae,
+  The battle shout of freemen rose;
+  Firm as their mountains, and as free,
+  They nobly braved encountering foes."
+
+And in the following autumn, they, in the same company, in which
+Woodburn, for bravery and good conduct, had been made a subaltern
+officer, marched with that division of the army which Arnold, with
+almost unequalled energy and fortitude, and amidst privation and
+suffering untold, led through the snow-clad wilderness of morass and
+mountain, to the distant Quebec. And there, in the onset, in which the
+high-souled Montgomery fell, they were together cut off from their
+company and made prisoners; when, after having, for nearly a year and
+a half, endured the sufferings of a British prison-ship, they together
+escaped at Halifax, wandered, half naked and starving, through the
+seemingly interminable forests of Brunswick and Maine, to the American
+settlemens, and finally reached home; not there, however, long to
+repose, but soon to repair, with yet unbroken spirit, to the new scene
+of action, at which their countrymen were beginning to rally to meet
+the formidable invasion of the hitherto victorious Burgoyne.
+
+We will now resume the thread of our narrative. A walk of twenty or
+thirty minutes brought Bart to the log tenement of Howard, who was a
+soldier in the continental service, now absent on duty, having left
+his house and business in charge of his wife a woman no less noted, in
+her neighborhood, for energy in conducting her domestic affairs, than
+for the patriotic spirit with which she espoused the American cause.
+She and her daughter, a rustic beauty of eighteen, of keen
+perceptions, and even rare good sense, when her frolicsome disposition
+would allow her to exercise it, were now the only permanent inmates of
+this secluded cabin, which consisted of but two rooms, with a front
+entrance leading through an entry into either of them, and another
+door at the end of the house opening into the one usually occupied by
+the family as both sitting-room and kitchen.
+
+"A light in both rooms, by the pipers!" exclaimed Bart, as, after
+having cautiously approached, he paused to reconnoitre the house. "The
+fellow is there at his traps, as sure as a gun! Now what's to be done,
+Bart? 'Twon't do to go in and show yourself, and have that torified
+scamp carry away word that you are mousing round the country nights,
+will it? No, but I'll tell you what, if it want for the name of
+sneaking and evesdropping, we would creep round back of the room where
+they be, and hark through the cracks; like enough get a peep, and so
+learn something. But such things they expected of you, didn't they,
+Bart? Must be so, I think. Then suppose we throw the name and blame of
+it on the council, and try it, mister?"
+
+Taking a wide sweep round the house, Bart soon approached that part of
+it, on the back side, in which he rightly conjectured the young people
+were sitting; and gliding up to the wall with steps as noiseless as
+those of a mousing fox, he discovered a crevice between the logs, from
+which the moss calking had fallen out so as to permit a small pencil
+of light to escape. Guided by this, he quickly gained, after applying
+his eye to the aperture, a distinct view of the couple within, and was
+enabled, at the same time, to catch every word of their variously
+modulated conversation. They were seated at different sides of a
+light-stand, on which a candle was burning, she assiduously engaged,
+to all appearance, with her needle on some light sewing work, and he
+diligently, with his penknife, on a pine chip, which he was essaying
+to shape into a human profile, that of his mistress, it might be
+surmised from the sly glances with which he seemed occasionally to
+scan her features. Though now dressed in his smartest fustian, he yet
+appeared awkward and ill at ease; while the timid and hesitating air,
+with which he seemed to regard his fair companion, indicated much
+conscious uncertainty respecting the place he might hold in her
+affections. She, on the contrary, seemed quite self-possessed, and
+wore the air of one not particularly solicitous about pleasing, which
+gave her as much advantage over him in her manner as she obviously
+possessed in her person; for, besides a good form and a wholesome
+roseate bloom, she had one of those polyglot countenances which seem
+almost to supersede the necessity of speaking--a trait she very
+prettily exhibited while listening to the forced hints and innuendoes
+of her lover's conversation, as she occasionally lifted her head, now
+with a blush, now with a smile, and now with a frown, that caused his
+eyes to drop to the floor as quick as those of a rebuked schoolboy.
+Thus far, she had not opened her lips; but now, as her suitor, turning
+in his chair, brought a hitherto shaded arm into view, and displayed
+upon his sleeve a common brass pin, (usually denominated in those days
+the Canada pin, as this article, then almost excluded from the toilet
+by the war, rarely found its way into this section except through the
+intercourse of the tories with that province,) her attention was
+suddenly excited; and turning a sharp and searching look upon him,
+she said,--
+
+"Where have you been lately, Josh?"
+
+"Why?" he replied, evidently surprised at the question and manner of
+the girl.
+
+"That, sir," she responded, significantly pointing to the pin. "Such
+articles don't get here but in one way, in these hard times, which
+compel us to put up with thorns for pins, and half tories for beaux,"
+she added, with a meaning and roguish look.
+
+"Won't you accept it, Vine?" he said, obviously disconcerted but
+pretending not to understand her allusions.
+
+"Not unless you tell me honestly how you got it, sir," she replied,
+decisively.
+
+"O, picked it up somewhere; don't remember now," he evasively answered.
+
+"That, now, is a thumper, I know," she rejoined, with a pretty toss of
+the head. "But you don't put me off so. The fact is Josh, I suspect
+you have been among the tories to-day. Now be honest, and tell me, sir."
+
+And for the next ten minutes the determined girl plied her reluctant
+and perplexed companion, by all the means which her ingenuity could
+invent, to accomplish her object; teasing, coaxing and threatening by
+turns, till, being unable to resist any longer, he replied,--
+
+"Well, I will tell you; and it can't do any hurt either, for they will
+all be out of reach before morning."
+
+"Who will be out of reach?" eagerly demanded the other.
+
+"The men that my brother Samuel enlisted. You knew he had got a
+captain's commission in General Burgoyne's army, I 'spose."
+
+"We heard so; but has Captain Samuel Rose been in town to-day?"
+
+"Yes; for I may as well tell the whole, now I've begun. The captain
+has been all day at the house of brother Asa Rose, who lives out of
+the way, there, in the woods, over beyond the great road, you know.
+Well, he had agreed to meet all he had enlisted in this section there
+at sunset, and lead them off to the British camp, after people were
+abed. I was there just before dark, and saw them; sixteen in all,
+besides the captain, all armed and equipped, and he in full uniform;
+and he looks complete in it, too, I tell you."
+
+"But what was you amoung them there for?"
+
+"O, I wanted to see Sam, and bid him good-by, you know, as he was
+going off, never to come back, for aught I knew; that was all, upon
+honor, now."
+
+"Perhaps it was; but one thing I wish you to understand, Josh Rose,
+and that is, if you take up for that side of the question, openly or
+secretly, your visits here----"
+
+"O, I shan't; no notion on't, not the least in the world; so don't
+worry; though candidly, Vine, I don't believe it's much use for your
+folks to think of standing out any longer. Why, hundreds are joining
+the British every day, and what will be left, in a short time, can do
+nothing towards stopping such an army as Burgoyne's."
+
+"What are left will be apt to try it, I think, sir."
+
+The subject was now dropped; and the girl, after a thoughtful pause,
+commenced on a theme more agreeable to her suitor, and for a short
+time, was unusually sociable and gracious; when she rose, and, carelessly
+remarking she must be excused a moment, left the room, and passed out
+through the front door, with noise enough in opening and closing it to
+leave the other in no doubt as to the direction of her exit.
+
+"Well, Bart, what do you think of that?" whispered our listener to
+himself, as now, on the departure of the girl from the room, he
+withdrew from his peeping-hole. "Now, I pretend to say, I wouldn't
+take a gold guinea for what we have got through that crack, nor two
+either, if our legs will carry us to the village and rally help quick
+enough to have that batch of tories nabbed before they are off. But
+let's jest edge along against the mother's room, and see if there is
+any discovery to be made there, before we start."
+
+Being equally fortunate in finding an opening into the room to which
+his attention was now directed, Bart cautiously peered in; when his
+eye soon fell on the solitary occupant, a fine, resolute-looking
+matron, quietly employed in knitting by the light of a torch stuck in
+one of the stone jambs of the broad fireplace. He, however, had
+scarcely time to note these circumstances before the door was softly
+opened, and the girl who had just left the other room entered on
+tiptoe, and whispered in her mother's ear something that seemed to
+produce an instant effect on the hitherto sedate and listless
+countenance of the latter; for, starting to her feet, she stood gazing
+at the other with a flashing eye, and listening with the keenest
+interest, as some further particulars were added to the communication.
+
+"Are you sure he was not fooling you?" said the mother.
+
+"Very sure," replied the daughter, significantly holding up the Canada
+pin.
+
+"Well, Vine," rejoined the former, with the air of one whose
+resolution is taken, "you whip back to your post the same way you
+came; and see that you keep him here till--say about midnight," she
+added, exchanging a meaning glance with the daughter, whose hand was
+already on the latch to depart.
+
+No sooner had the intermingling tones of conversation in the other
+room apprised the woman that her daughter had there joined the
+unsuspecting suitor, than, hastily seizing bonnet and shawl, she
+noiselessly left the house and glided out into the road. After
+hesitating a moment here, respecting the course she should take,
+apparently, she made up to the log-fence enclosing an adjoining field,
+threw herself over it with the lightness of a boy, and, striking off
+directly west, almost flew over the ground till she reached the
+boundaries of their little opening; when she fearlessly plunged into
+the dark and pathless recesses of the wood lying between her and the
+main road, to which she was evidently directing her course.
+
+"There! just as I told you," muttered Bart, who, inwardly vexed that
+the secret he had been hugging, as exclusively his own should be
+shared by another, for fear measures might be taken to deprive him of
+the sole honor and profit he had promised himself of communicating it,
+had been jealously noting what had occurred. "Just as I told, Bart;
+the old woman has got your story, and there she goes, streaming off
+with it, like the house afire, for the great road, through woods,
+swamp, and all! Well, it's too late to try to stop her now, to save
+her the trouble of going, cause you'd frighten her, likely; besides,
+she'd find out you'd been listening. But we'll follow and keep track
+of her; may be she'll get lost, and we can cut by her; or may be we
+can seem to come kinder accidentally on her, and contrive to get
+employed to do her errand, and so let her go back."
+
+With this resolution, he immediately gave chase; and by occasionally
+pausing, after entering the forest, to listen to the rustling of her
+garments as the intrepid woman rushed through the tangled thickets on
+her way, or the cracking of dry twigs under her rapid tread, he was
+enabled to trace her course and keep within hearing distance, though
+not without exertions which drew forth many an exclamation of surprise
+at the speed with which, at such a time and place, she got over the
+ground. At length, they both reached the opening on the other side of
+the forest opposite to a good-sized house on the main road.
+
+"I vags," exclaimed Bart, pausing and wiping the perspiration from his
+face with his sleeve, as he emerged from the wood, "if the perlite
+Frenchman, they tell of, who thought women had no legs, had followed
+this one through a mile-swamp at the rate she has gone, he would think
+a little different about the matter, I guess. But never mind the
+tramp, Bart, but still keep your eye on her. There she goes smack into
+that house over yonder, which is--let's see, now--Why, that is Major
+Ormsbee's, who, I remember now, Harry told me, was her brother. Well,
+Bart, seeing you are fairly beat in this business, let's work along
+over into the road against the house, and see what comes of it."
+
+Scarcely had Bart gained his proposed situation in a nook of the
+fence, before the major, followed by his son, came bustling out into
+the yard.
+
+"Jock!" he said, hastily turning to his son, "you run to the barn, and
+saddle and bring out my horse, while I slip over to Captain Barney's.
+But who have we here?" he added, espying and approaching Bart. "Who
+are you, friend?"
+
+"Well, you may call me any thing but a tory and I won't complain, major."
+
+"That's right. O, I believe I know you now--the comical chap I have
+seen with Woodburn, at Warner's encampment All right. Glad you happen
+here just at this time--we have business on hand."
+
+"I know it."
+
+"Know it! how? You didn't come with my sister?"
+
+"No; after her; but got at the wrinkle about the gang down yonder
+before she did; and am now on my way to the council, or the camp, with
+the news."
+
+"That I propose to do myself. I have a fleet horse, and it will be
+best I should go with the news myself. Besides, I wish to put you,
+with the few others I can raise hereabouts, on the track at once. You
+shall lose nothing by it; so turn in here, and go with me."
+
+Content with this assurance of an officer known to be in the
+confidence of the council, and quite willing to make one in the
+expected affray, Bart cheerfully complied. And the two hurried on to
+the house the major had named; where, fortunately, they found not only
+the owner, but another fearless patriot, by the name of Purdy, to both
+of whom the news just received was communicated; when a hasty plan was
+devised among them for the capture of Captain Rose and his band of
+recruits, who, it was supposed, had not yet left the neighborhood,
+even if they had started from their place of rendezvous.
+
+The dwelling of Asa Rose, which had been selected by the tory captain
+as a secluded and safe rallying-point for his band, was situated in
+the wood, about three fourths of a mile west of the main road, and the
+residence, thereon, of the old widow Rose, who has been already
+mentioned, and who was the mother of a hopeful brood of either open or
+secret loyalists, as their father, an extensive land-owner, who died
+about the beginning of the war, was before them. This old
+establishment of the Rose family, well known through the country as
+the harboring-place of the disaffected, was a little over a mile from
+the bridge over the river, at the south, and about half that distance
+from the residence of Major Ormsbee, at the north, where our handful
+of spirited friends were now rallying; while from the road, about half
+way between the two, diverged the path, which wound round
+south-westerly to Asa Rose's, and from which the tories were expected
+to emerge on their way out of the neighborhood.
+
+"Here comes Jock with my horse," said the major, taking die reins from
+the boy, a sturdy youth of sixteen, who had not forgotten to bring his
+gun with him. "Well, captain," he continued, leaping into his saddle,
+"you understand the arrangement; three of you to take the path to
+their rendezvous, then to go on to old mother Rose's, and, if they are
+there, give the signal: the long howl of a dog, remember; but if they
+are not there, to join the rest, and scout round, watch and delay them
+while I, on my way, start out Pettibone and others, and send them
+directly through the woods to Asa Rose's to get into the rear All
+understand, do you?"
+
+"Ay, ay, major."
+
+"Well, then, God prosper you all, till I can get on with the platoon
+of Warner's boys for the rescue."
+
+So saying, the major dashed off at full speed towards the village;
+while Barney and his men, with no less spirit, hurried on to their
+respective destinations, in the opposite direction. The place where
+the latter were to separate being soon reached, appearances examined,
+and no discoveries made, the captain, with Purdy and young Ormsbee,
+struck off from the road, and proceeded cautiously along the bushy
+outskirts of the path before mentioned as leading to the supposed
+rendezvous, leaving to Bart the task of going on and reconnoitring the
+old establishment on the main road, at which, it was believed, the
+tories would be sure to call, on their way out, to take a last treat
+from mother Rose's ever-ready bottle, and perhaps some provisions from
+her cupboard, to invigorate them for their long night march to the
+British camp. A short walk now brought Bart in close vicinity to the
+house he was appointed to reconnoitre; when, gliding silently along
+under cover of the fences, tall weeds, and other screening objects, he
+quickly made a circuit round the buildings, contriving, as he did so,
+to peer into the barns, sheds, and even into most of the rooms of the
+capacious old dwelling. He perceived, however, no indications of the
+presence of any but females about the establishment; though, from the
+movements of these, and especially those of the old woman, who was
+busily engaged in cutting up large quantities of bread and cheese, and
+in replenishing her junk bottles, he became satisfied that the
+company, of whom he was in search, were shortly expected. Having made
+these observations, he retired from the house, crossed over the road
+into the opposite field, and was marking out a course for himself
+through the wood, which would intersect the path taken by his
+companions, and enable him to join them somewhere near the tory
+rendezvous, when his ear caught the clattering of horse-hoofs,
+approaching, at a furious pace, up the road from the south, And so
+rapid was the advance of the coming horseman, that Bart had scarcely
+time to gain the covert of a clump of shrubbery standing by the fence,
+over against the house, before the former made his appearance, and,
+turning into the yard, galloped up to an open window, and addressed a
+hasty inquiry to the mistress of the house; when, hardly waiting for
+the negative reply that appeared to be given, he suddenly wheeled
+about, and, regaining the road, pursued his course with renewed speed.
+
+"Why!" exclaimed Bart in surprise, as he caught a view of me man's
+features; "as sure as a gun, it is Harry's old troubler, that he
+thought he'd killed once, and felt so guilty about it, till he heard
+he didn't. But what can the fellow be up to here, in such a hurry,
+just at this time? Don't like the looks on't, exactly, Bart, hasn't
+this tall tory got wind of our movement, somehow, and come on to warn
+the gang, that, not finding here, he has gone to meet? Let's be off
+and try to trace him. But hark! Do you hear that? Another coming from
+the same quarter! yes, and scratching gravel too, like Mars, I should
+think, by the way his horse's feet strike the ground! Here he comes!
+What! it is, by mighty--it's Harry and Lightfoot in full chase! Go it,
+Lightfoot! Catch him, Harry! Stuboy! stuboy!" he added, in low, eager
+shouts of exultation, as the recognized horseman passed, like a flash,
+by his place of concealment.
+
+Springing forward to a small elevation in the field, which commanded a
+broken view of the road to the path before described, and even a small
+portion of the latter, Bart tasked both eye and ear to the utmost, in
+trying to trace the dimly-discerned forms of the receding horsemen,
+now obviously but a short distance asunder, his object being to
+ascertain whether Peters would keep on in the main road, or, as he
+suspected his intention to be, strike into the path to Asa Rose's, and
+try to reach the tories before he should be overtaken. For one moment,
+in which he lost sight of both pursuer and pursued, Bart stood in
+doubt; but the next, the changing direction of the still audible
+sounds, and the slight glimmerings of the sparks from the horse's
+hoofs, now seen extending out in a line nearly at right angles to the
+course they had been pursuing, sufficiently apprised him that his
+suspicions were correct. Waiting, therefore, no longer than to
+ascertain this, he turned and plunged into the wood on his left; and
+taking the course he had already decided on for joining his
+companions, and being now incited to his utmost exertions of speed by
+his anxiety to reach the other road in time to warn Woodburn of the
+trap into which his antagonist was doubtless intending to draw him at
+the tory rendevous, or to be ready to lend any needed assistance in
+case a collision took place between them before reaching it, he made
+his way through the opposing obstacles of the thickets with a
+rapidity, probably, that a wild Indian could not have equalled, till
+he suddenly found himself in the path of which he was in quest, within
+a few rods of the small opening where stood the suspected log-tenement
+of Asa Rose. His first act now was to stoop down and examine the soft
+ground in the road, to ascertain whether Peters and his pursuer had
+passed the place. A moment's inspection, however, confirming him in
+the negative, he rose and bent a listening ear in the direction of
+their expected appearance; but no sounds reached him indicative of
+their approach. While standing here in doubt respecting the course
+next to be pursued, his attention was attracted by a commotion at the
+house; when, stepping forward towards the edge of the opening, he
+caught a glimpse of the whole body of the tories, with their leader at
+their head, just leaving the house and moving silently, and with a
+quick step, in the road towards him. Stealing softly away from his
+post of observation, he retreated rapidly along the path, some hundred
+yards into the wood; when he fortunately encountered Barney and his
+two men, to whom he hastily communicated all the discoveries he had
+made since he left them.
+
+Fearing, from the non-appearance of Peters and his pursuer, of whom,
+strangely, nothing had yet been seen or heard, that the former had
+given the latter the slip in some by-path, which would enable him to
+reach the tories in the rear, or otherwise apprise them of the danger
+of proceeding, Barney instantly adopted the bold resolution of
+attempting the immediate capture of the whole band by stratagem,
+trusting to the firmness and ingenuity of himself and his men to keep,
+or get them forward, till the expected reenforcement should arrive.
+
+"We must multiply ourselves, and then act according to circumstances,"
+he said, after apprising his men of his project, which they eagerly
+seconded.
+
+"I will multiply into a platoon of ten, and be their orderly, if you
+will let me have my own way in the managing of 'em, captain," said
+Bart, entering with great spirit into a plan in which his
+peculiarities so well fitted him for taking a leading part.
+
+"Well, then," replied the other, "take a station in the bushes five or
+six rods ahead; the rest of us will take our coverts here, on
+different sides of the road. You must all act for yourselves, and on
+the hints of the moment; but I will take the lead, and give you such
+clews as the case may require."
+
+Scarcely had this fearless little band settled themselves in their
+respective stations, before the tories, marching in close Indian file,
+made their appearance, and came forward wholly unsuspicious of danger.
+They were permitted to advance unmolested till they were nearly all
+between the two points of ambush; when Captain Barney, stepping partly
+out from his concealment presented his gun, and exclaimed,--
+
+"Stand! Surrender, or die!"
+
+"Halt!" cried the surprised, though not frightened, tory captain, who
+was not only a fine-looking, but cool and capable young
+officer--"halt, till we see what all this means."
+
+"You will soon find out what it means, unless you surrender,'"
+rejoined Barney, in a bold and confident tone. "I give you one minute
+to decide. Attention there!" he continued, as if addressing a numerous
+band of concealed forces--"attention there, right, left, and front
+platoons! Every man at his station and ready for the word!"
+
+Purdy and Ormsbee now made a simultaneous movement in the bushes, on
+the different sides of the road, by stepping about, hitting their guns
+against the trees, and thrusting out the muzzles at various openings
+towards the enemy; while, at the same time, the clicking sounds, as of
+the irregular cocking of a dozen muskets, with as many distinct
+movements of men, apparently, were heard in the direction of Bart's
+concealment in front.
+
+"Stand to your arms!" exclaimed Rose, to his men, who now began to
+show signs of fear and uneasiness.
+
+"Don't all take aim at the captain, you fools!" shouted Bart, from his
+covert, to his men of straw; "don't do that, I tell you! There's
+enough of 'em to furnish each of you a separate mark, nearly. There,
+that looks more like it! All cocked and ready?"
+
+"Hold up there, Sergeant Burt!" cried Barney; "don't fire yet. Let us
+spare their lives if we can. Purdy," he continued, turning to the man
+concealed on his right, "you may give the signal, now, for the reserve
+platoons, in front and rear, to advance, and close up on the road. The
+minute is nearly out, and I perceive we have got to make a
+demonstration before they will surrender."
+
+The signal howl was then accordingly given, and, to the great joy of
+the assailants, immediately answered by Pettibone, who, having reached
+his destination in the rear of the house, and seen the tories
+decamping, was now, with another man, cautiously advancing towards the
+scene of action in the wood; while nearly at the same moment, as it
+strangely happened, the sharp reports of three pistols, fired in quick
+succession, rang through the forest a short distance on the road to
+the north. The noise of fire-arms which, to the assailants, portended
+a rencounter between Peters and Woodburn, and filled them with anxiety
+for the fate of the latter, was token by the tories as an answer of
+the signal from the pretended corps in front, and so completed their
+dismay that some of them threw down their arms, and began to cry out
+for quarter.
+
+"The minute is out; shall we fire, Captain Barney?" exclaimed Bart, in
+a tone of impatience.
+
+"Your answer, Captain Rose," sternly demanded Barney--"your answer
+this instant, or----"
+
+"I yield," said the reluctant tory leader--"We surrender ourselves
+prisoners of war."
+
+"'Tis well, sir," responded the former. "Lay down your arms, then,
+here in the road, advance twenty paces, and wait further orders."
+
+While this order, which was thus given for the double purpose of
+enabling the victors to get between the tories and their guns, and to
+give time for Pettibone and his associate to come up, was being
+carried into effect, Bart, who had been burning with impatience for a
+chance to go to the assistance of his endangered friend. Woodburn,
+slunk noiselessly from his post, and made his way, with all possible
+speed, towards the spot from whence the noise of the firing appeared
+to proceed.
+
+But let us now return to note the issue between the belligerent
+horsemen. Woodburn having come in sight of his antagonist soon after
+crossing the river, and the latter then taking the alarm, the chase
+had proceeded, as witnessed by Bart, till the parties struck into the
+by-road leading to the tory rendezvous; when the former, concluding
+that Peters would not have turned in here without the expectation of
+finding friends and defenders near, now redoubled his exertions to
+overtake him, and bring on an encounter while it would have to be
+decided by individual prowess, and before his foe should reach
+assistance to render the pursuit futile or dangerous. But
+notwithstanding his efforts, he soon lost sight of the other in the
+short turns of the winding and thickly-embowered path which they soon
+entered. Expecting, however, that the next turn in the road would
+reveal the object of his pursuit, be dashed ahead some distance; when,
+becoming satisfied that his antagonist had given him the slip by
+riding out of the road into some nook or side-path in the wood, he
+retraced his way nearly to the opening, vainly endeavoring to discover
+the concealment of the fugitive. Vexed and disappointed at being thus
+balked, Woodburn was on the point of giving up the chase when he
+caught a glimpse of the other, emerging from a thicket into the road,
+not a hundred yards distant, and setting off on a gallop in the
+direction first taken. Incited to fresh exertion, Woodburn now shot
+forward after his flying foe with a velocity which none but a horse
+trained to the rough paths of the wood could equal, and which,
+consequently, soon brought the parties in close vicinity of each
+other. Peters, now seeing no further chance to escape, suddenly pulled
+out a pistol, and, turning in his saddle, discharged it at Woodburn,
+who, wholly unharmed by the badly-aimed instrument, instantly returned
+the fire. The bullet of the latter, grazing the person of the former,
+entered the head of his startled and rearing horse, just back of the
+ears, and, after two or three fearful plunges onward, brought him to
+the ground. Leaping from his falling horse, the desperate loyalist
+gained his feet and discharged another pistol at Woodburn; when,
+perceiving his opponent still unhurt, and about to make a rush upon
+him, he leaped over the body of his dying horse, still floundering in
+the edge of the bushes, and, in the noise thus occasioned, and in the
+screening smoke of his own fire, made good his escape into the forest.
+
+"Come back, miscreant! coward!" shouted Woodburn, dismounting, and
+leaping forward to the place where the other had disappeared--"come
+back, and decide your fate or mine."
+
+But the new-made tory colonel, who was more a coward from conscience
+than nature, in the present instance, perhaps, did not see fit to
+accept the challenge for a further personal combat. And Woodburn,
+judging that any attempt to pursue him in the woods would be useless,
+reluctantly gave up the chase, and turned to go back to his horse;
+when Bart, running up and peering an instant at the dying horse and
+then at his friend, rushed by the latter, and, throwing himself on the
+neck of his loved pony, fell to hugging and fondling her in an ecstasy
+of delight.
+
+"O Lightfoot! Lightfoot!" he exclaimed; "lucky divil that you are, not
+now to be sprawling and kicking, like your tory brother there in the
+bushes! Yes, that you are, Lightfoot; and you shall have an oat-supper
+to-night that would make a horse, laugh, for catching up with the
+rapscallion."
+
+"Bart!" said Woodburn, in surprise; "how did you get wind of this? But
+no matter. You have come too late."
+
+"Know it--couldn't help it, though--had other fish to fry first, that
+musn't cool. Captain Rose and sixteen other tory prisoners are on the
+road here, just below."
+
+"Prisoners! how? By whom taken?"
+
+"O, Captain Barney, and Bart, and I, and Mr Stratagem and one or two
+others"
+
+"What, only three or four of you to seventeen?"
+
+"No; I was a flanking party of ten in the bushes, and sergeant of
+'em--cocked all their guns for 'em, by cocking and uncocking my
+own--talked for 'em all, out of seven corners of my mouth at once, and
+kept 'em from firing till the word, you know. We heard your firing,
+and called you the front-guard; and--and we took 'em--every dog of 'em."
+
+"Bravoes! and no fool of an exploit on your part neither, Bart, if all
+this is so. But are the prisoners secured? Had we not better hasten to
+join the escort?"
+
+"No, two or three more came up just as I left, and there's enough
+now to manage in that quarter; but the advance-guard here must be
+kept up till we get 'em out to the groat road, lest the sneaks slink
+away-into the woods as they pass along the road and slip through our
+fingers as your smart trooper did just now. Let's see--about eight
+strong we will have this guard, I guess. I will be rank and file,
+and you shall be the officer. Come, mount! They'll be poking their
+heads along in sight in a moment. Ay, there they come! Advance-guard!"
+he now added, in a loud, commanding tone, as the slow tread of the
+prisoners, advancing along the devious and closely-embowered path,
+became audible--"advance-guard! Attention the whole! Prepare to
+march!--march!"
+
+And accordingly he then, as Woodburn mounted and rode slowly on
+behind, commenced the enactment of his assumed part, always keeping
+within hearing, but never within distinct view, of the prisoners; now
+jabbering in as many voices as the most expert ventriloquist, and now
+sternly commanding, "_Silence in the ranks!_"--now getting up a
+seeming scuffle among his men, and now driving them, with thwacks and
+curses, to their places; and now again softening his tones and
+cracking jokes with his men,--Smith, Johnson, &c.,--who, in as many
+different tones, were heard to return various sharp and comical
+retorts, which raised shouts of laughter and made the forest ring with
+the sham merriment And thus he proceeded, to the secret amusement of
+the victors all if whom perfectly understood the artifice, till they
+emerged from the woods into the open grounds on the main road, when
+they were met by Major Ormsbee with a small detachment of regular
+soldiers. The tories were then, for the first time, permitted to know
+the smallness of the force that had captured them when, amidst showers
+of gibes and shouts of laughter, at their expense, from the Green
+Mountain Boys, the chapfallen creatures were wheeled into the main
+road, and hurried on at a lively pace to the village of Manchester, to
+be kept as prisoners of war, or tried as spies, as the higher
+authorities there should see fit to decide. [Footnote: This band of
+tories were, the next day after their capture, marched to Arlington,
+where the question was raised, and sharply discussed, whether they
+should be considered as prisoners of war, or tried as spies, the
+latter being insisted on by Mathew Lyon, and some others of the more
+bold and ardent friends of the American cause, who declared that
+Captain Rose, at least, should be tried and hung as a spy. A jury,
+however,--Eli Pettibone, Esq., presiding as civil magistrate,--was
+allowed the prisoner; when, more probably, from sympathy for the manly
+but misguided young officer, whom they had known as a pleasant
+neighbor, than from want of proof, he was acquitted as a spy, and,
+with the rest of his band, removed to Northampton jail as prisoner of
+war. Considerable favor, also, seems to have been extended to the
+other brothers, some of whom married into whig families, through whose
+influence, it is said, they retained their estates, none of the
+extensive Rose property being confiscated, except that of Captain
+Samuel Rose, which is now the residence of the Hon. J. S. Pettibone,
+from whom these particulars have been obtained, his father being one
+of the captors and his uncle the magistrate, above named.]
+
+"Captain Woodburn!" exclaimed the clear, animated voice of one coming
+out of the door of the honored tavern before described, in the village
+of Manchester, as the person thus addressed, who had just arrived with
+those escorting the prisoners, was describing the capture to a crowd
+gathered round him in the yard--"Captain Woodburn, your most obedient!
+I am glad my patience in waiting for your arrival is rewarded by the
+good news which Powell, our landlord here, has just told us you bring.
+But come, sir, a word in your ear, if you please."
+
+Woodburn turned and confronted the bright and smiling countenance of
+Ira Allen, who was beckoning him from the crowd.
+
+"Certainly, Mr. Allen; but why honor me with that appellation?"
+responded the former, stepping aside with the ardent young secretary.
+
+"Because I have the warrant for so doing in my pocket--a captain's
+commission for you, my dear sir, if you will believe me."
+
+"Indeed!"
+
+"Yes, we have done something in the council at last worth talking
+about--voted to raise a regiment of Rangers forthwith, and appointed
+all the commissioned officers, Samuel Herrick heading the list as
+colonel."
+
+"A gallant fellow, who will honor the post. But how about the means of
+paying and supporting such a force? You lately held taxing the people,
+without their consent, too bold a measure, I thought."
+
+"We did, but have nevertheless adopted a bolder one."
+
+"What is it?"
+
+"Decreed the confiscation of the estates of the tories, appointed the
+necessary officers to execute the decree, and despatched messengers to
+them with commissions, instructions, and with orders to put the
+machine immediately into motion. By to-morrow nigh many of those on
+our black list will--"
+
+"Your black list?"
+
+"Yes, already mostly made out for operations. But what is there to
+startle you in that?"
+
+"Nothing; and yet I cannot forbear asking if that list includes one in
+whose family you may guess I feel some interest."
+
+"I fear so, and regret that the proofs are so strong as to require it."
+
+"Could not action in that case be deferred? An angel is pleading with
+him to remain neutral."
+
+"If she were a whig angel, Woodburn, I know not----"
+
+"She is, she is--firmly, devotedly."
+
+"Indeed! Well, for your sake, Woodburn, I am glad of it. And as the
+political hue of petticoats has already been permitted to have an
+influence, in some instances of the kind, in making up the list, it
+may have in this case. But the old man's enmity to our cause is so
+notorious, that I fear his estate must go, though the daughter, if she
+prove true, will not be forgotten on the question of a future
+restoration of her share of the property. But I am neglecting my chief
+business with you. We have fixed your present destination for the
+other side of the mountain, where among your old acquaintances, it was
+thought, you could raise a company most expeditiously."
+
+"But where is the money to come from to pay my recruits: Even in case
+these estates are sold, who among us, these times, has money to
+purchase them?"
+
+"The answer to that question involves a secret which is known to but a
+few of us, and which must not be further revealed. Suffice it that
+there is yet among us abundance of money, besides the British gold
+that is beginning to be scattered along our border to meet our present
+requirements. You will be supplied in season."
+
+"I am content, and ready to depart."
+
+"How soon can you start?"
+
+"This hour, if necessary."
+
+"Retire, then, and obtain a few hours' sleep; but be off before day.
+Here are your commission and instructions, by which you will see that
+your subalterns are to be of your own appointing. Good-night, and God
+speed you on your way. Remember that we expect much of you, and that I
+stand voucher for your good conduct. And remember, also, my dear
+fellow," added the speaker, in a low, confidential tone, "that the
+interests of your fair friend could not be in better keeping."
+
+"You have laid me under deep obligations to you, Mr. Allen for all
+this," began Woodburn, with grateful emotion.
+
+"Yes, to do well; but not a word of thanks will I hear. So off with
+you to your rest. Begone, sir!" said Allen, pushing the other away,
+with that winning smile and kindly playful manner, with which he ever
+so wonderfully contrived to gain the hearts and control the actions of
+all whom he wished to make friends.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+  "It is not much the world can give
+     With all its subtle art;
+   And gold and rank are not the things
+     To satisfy the heart."
+
+
+The day following the occurrences noted in the preceding chapter was
+an eventful one to the Haviland family, developing circumstances
+calculated to hasten the crisis to which the conflicting feelings and
+conduct of the father and daughter had been for some time silently
+tending, and to give a new turn to their respective destinies.
+
+It was late in the afternoon. No event had thus far during the day
+occurred to mar the usual tranquillity of the family; and Haviland,
+yet uninformed of the untoward affair which befell his party the last
+evening at Manchester, and little dreaming of the bold and decisive
+measures adopted by the Council of Safety, was seated at a table in
+his usual sitting-room, examining, with a satisfied and triumphant
+air, a map of New York, on which he was tracing out the intended route
+of the British army in its hitherto victorious way from the St.
+Lawrence to Albany. At length he began to muse aloud, partly to
+himself, apparently, and partly to his daughter, who, with a pensive
+brow, was seated at an open window in the same room, quietly engaged
+with her needle-work.
+
+"As soon as General Burgoyne can clear the road of the trees and other
+obstructions, with which the rebels, in their impotent spite, have
+filled it, so that he can move on to the Hudson, how that grand army
+will sweep away the feeble and undisciplined bands that may venture to
+oppose its victorious march! And when a junction of the British armies
+is formed at Albany, what can this infatuated people think of doing
+then? With the north completely cut off from the south, as will then
+be the case, what can these two sections, which together can hardly
+raise a respectable force, do, when thus divided and prevented from
+all concert and cooperation? Ay, what will they do then? Come,
+Sabrey," he added, turning with an exulting air to his daughter,
+"perhaps you, who appear to have so high an opinion of rebel
+prowess--perhaps you can answer the question?"
+
+"I may be better prepared to answer the question, perhaps when I see
+the junction you anticipate really effected. Burgoyne has not reached
+Albany yet," replied the other, with playful significance.
+
+"Be sure not; but what is to prevent him? What force can the rebels
+oppose that he will not scatter like chaff before the wind? None! I
+tell you, girl, their doom is sealed!"
+
+"It might be, if they would consent to let you fight their battles for
+them, father. But the battle which they are preparing to give Burgoyne
+they will choose to fight themselves, I imagine. A few Bunker Hill
+lessons, on his way, might materially alter the general's prospects."
+
+"Bunker Hill? Pooh! Why, we routed them even there behind their
+breastworks. Besides, we never had so fine an army as this in the
+field before. I only wish I was as sure of some good commission in
+Burgoyne's army, as I am that he will march triumphantly through to
+Albany, and thus bring this unnatural war to a close."
+
+
+"Would you think of going into that army, father, should you receive
+such an appointment?" asked the daughter, in a tone of surprise and
+expostulation.
+
+"Why, I should be proud to be there, Sabrey, in an army that contains
+so much of the first talents and chivalry of England."
+
+At this stage of the conversation, a man rode up to the door, and,
+dismounting and entering the house, handed to Mr. Haviland, after
+inquiring his name, a gorgeously-sealed packet.
+
+Haviland, after examining the seal a moment, bowed low to the
+stranger, and inquiringly observed,--
+
+"From General Burgoyne, I believe?"
+
+The messenger, nodding in the affirmative, and saying he was directed
+to wait for an answer, the former broke open the missive, and found in
+it, by singular coincidence, an answer to the prayer he had a few
+moments before indirectly uttered a commission, or appointment in the
+commissary department of the British army. After perusing the paper a
+second time, he turned, and, with a consequential air, handed it to
+his daughter, whose countenance instantly fell AS she glanced over the
+suspected contents.
+
+"You cannot seriously think of accepting this appointment father," she
+said, with a look of concern; "you cannot think of leaving your quiet
+and comfortable home, and engaging, at your age, in the fatigues and
+dangers of the camp?"
+
+"Why not, Sabrey?" replied the other, reprovingly. "From my knowledge
+of the country, I can be of great use in procuring the supplies which
+the army will need, as the general doubtless foresaw; and I consider
+it my duty to the king to lend my feeble aid when called. The post is
+not, it is true, a very high one; but it is honorable and lucrative,
+and I shall accept it."
+
+'If this is Miss Sabrey Haviland, I have a letter for her also,' here
+interposed the messenger, rising and presenting the letter in question.
+
+Sabrey broke open the proffered letter, which proved to be from her
+friend Miss McRea, and ran thus:--
+
+"You remember your promise, Sabrey, to visit me the first opportunity.
+That opportunity now occurs. Captain Jones and other friends have
+presented your father's name at head-quarters for promotion; and he
+has now, I am informed, received an appointment. If he accepts, as I
+am sure he will, I hope you will accompany him, and remain with me. I
+have just received one of those letters so precious to me: he says the
+army will probably move on to Fort Edward next week, the obstructions
+in the road being mostly removed; so that, by the time you arrive, I
+shall probably be enabled to introduce you to the beautiful and
+accomplished ladies of whom he has so much to say,--such as the
+Countess of Reidesel, Lady Harriet Ackland, and others, who accompany
+their husbands in the campaign. But you will perhaps say that he is
+interested in praising these ladies for the love and heroism which
+prompt them to brave such fatigues and dangers for the sake of their
+lords, since he is warmly urging me to consent to an immediate union,
+that I may follow their example. He says, in his last letter,--and I
+think truly,--that I cannot long remain where I am, in a section which
+he evidently anticipates, will soon become a frightful scene of strife
+and bloodshed; and that I must therefore go away with my friends, and
+leave him, perhaps forever, or put myself under his protection in the
+army. And he seems hurt that I hesitate in a choice of the
+alternatives. On the other hand, my connections and friends here think
+it would be little short of madness in me to yield to my lover's
+proposal. The people about here are greatly alarmed at the expected
+approach of the British army, which is known to be accompanied by a
+large body of Indians, Many are already removing and nearly all
+preparing to go The crisis hastens, and yet I am undecided. Prudence
+points one way, love the other. What shall I do? O Sabrey what shall I
+do? Should you come on with your father, I think I should feel a
+confidence in going with you to the British encampment. Come then, my
+friend, come quickly, for I feel as if I could not go on without
+friends, and especially a female friend, to accompany me; while, at
+the same time, I feel as if some irresistible destiny would compel me
+to the attempt. And yet why would I hesitate to take any step which
+_he_ advises? Why refuse to share with him any dangers which _he_ may
+encounter? And why should my anticipations of the future, which have
+never, till recently, during my happy intimacy with Mr. Joes, been so
+bright and blissful, be clouded now? I know not; I know not why it
+should be so; but lately my bosom has become disturbed by strange
+misgivings, and my mind perplexed by dark and undefined apprehensions.
+I must not, however, indulge them; and your presence, I know, would
+entirely dissipate them. I repeat, therefore, come, and that quickly.
+Adieu.
+
+  "Yours, truly,
+  JANE McREA."
+
+The messenger in waiting, having been invited into another room to
+partake of some refreshment, and the father and daughter being thus
+left again by themselves, the latter now handed the other for his
+perusal the affectionate but too truly boding letter of her fated friend.
+
+"And what answer do you intend to return to this kind and pressing
+invitation of your friend, Sabrey?" asked Haviland, after attentively
+reading the epistle.
+
+"That I do not think it advisable to accept it, at this time, father,"
+answered the girl.
+
+"Why not advisable?" asked the other, in a censorious tone. "I see
+nothing to object to in the step, going, as you will, under the
+protection of a father; while it will introduce you to a circle which
+few American girls can ever reach."
+
+"I feel quite willing to forego the honor of such an introduction,"
+coolly returned the daughter. "And were it otherwise, the very letter
+that brings me the invitations unfolds enough to deter me from the
+undertaking."
+
+"You wholly mistake your friend's meaning," responded the former. "Her
+apprehensions are merely the natural effect of maiden timidity. I
+think, as her lover seems to do, that the safest place for her is with
+the British army. So I think it will be for you; for I know not what
+punishment will be inflicted on these settlements for their rebellious
+and treasonable conduct And it is my wish to separate myself and
+family from them, before the day of reckoning arrives. I shall,
+therefore, expect you to attend me."
+
+As the daughter was about to reply a domestic came in and announced
+the arrival of Colonel Peters; and the latter, the next moment, with a
+dark and sullen brow, unceremoniously entered the apartment. He did
+not, however, deign immediately to unfold the cause of his evident
+ill-humor, but contented himself with listening to the news, which the
+elated Haviland was prompt to impart in relation to his own promotion,
+the invitation received by his daughter to accompany him to the army
+or its vicinity, and his thus far rejected advice to her to accede to
+the proposal. The cold countenance of Peters brightened with selfish
+delight at the recital; for in the old gentleman's appointment, his
+determination to accept it, and his intention of taking his daughter
+with him, if she could be so persuaded, the former saw the triumph of
+his machinations to involve the family inextricably in the royal
+cause. But that triumph would not be complete, unless the daughter,
+whose predilections for Woodburn and the American cause were more than
+suspected, could be kept within the scope of loyal influence. He
+therefore secretly resolved that, if her father left the settlement to
+join the army, she should not be left behind, but should be induced or
+compelled to accompany him. He consequently was not slow to add his
+advice and entreaties to those of the father. This he did for a while
+with some show of respect and kindness; but finding her still
+immovable, he at length became irritated, and assumed a tone of
+dictation so inconsistent with the natural delicacy of a lover, that
+she declined any further conversation with him on the subject.
+
+"Where will you go, perverse and blinded girl?" now interposed the
+father, reproachfully. "You would not stay here alone and unprotected,
+would you?"
+
+"I should not hesitate to do so on account of any molestation which
+_American_ troops would offer me," replied Sabrey, with a significant
+emphasis on the word American. "And should others approach, I would go
+to my connections on the other side of the mountains."
+
+"Miss Haviland may have her private reasons for wishing to remain in
+this section of the country," said Peters, with an ill-suppressed
+sneer, turning to the father.
+
+"Will you please explain your meaning, sir?" demanded the girl with
+spirit.
+
+"I mean," replied Peters, "that she who would hold clandestine
+meetings with one whom her father has seen fit to eject from his
+house, might see the advantage of remaining where her interviews could
+be enjoyed without molestation."
+
+"Sabrey Haviland, is that true?" asked the old gentleman with a
+gathering frown.
+
+"She will hardly deny, I think," said Peters, "that the fellow was
+here soon after I left last night. At all events, he was seen to leave
+the premises in pursuit of me. By whom he was informed of the
+direction I took, I know not; but I know he overtook me, beset me like
+a ruffian, and shot my horse by a ball intended for the rider."
+
+"Is all that true, I repeat?" again fiercely demanded Haviland of his
+daughter, in a burst of rage.
+
+But without deigning one word of reply either to the insulting
+insinuations of Peters, or the angry and ill-timed demand of her
+father, Sabrey, with cheeks glowing with offended delicacy and just
+indignation, rose from her seat, and was about to leave the apartment,
+when her step was arrested by the altered voice of her father, who,
+quickly becoming sensible of the harshness of his conduct from its
+visible effects, now spoke to her in a softened and more expostulatory
+tone.
+
+"Surely, Sabrey, you are not going to deny my right, as a parent, to
+question you, or at least ask you for an explanation respecting
+charges which have the appearance of involving your character?"
+
+"I might not," said she, coolly, but respectfully; "and indeed, I
+should not, at another time, have refused to answer your question so
+far as I could, however harshly it was put to me; but I must still
+decline to do so in this presence!" she added, glancing towards the
+abashed Peters, with an air of scorn to which her usually serene and
+benignant countenance never before, perhaps, gave expression.
+
+"Perhaps, Miss Haviland," said Peters, stung by the remark and manner
+of the other, and now rallying for the revenge to which such minds are
+prone to resort--"perhaps Miss Haviland, on a little more reflection,
+may be willing to acknowledge that I, also, am not wholly without a
+right to ask for an explanation in an affair which she seems to admit
+requires one."
+
+"I am not aware, sir," promptly responded the maiden, so much aroused
+by the cool arrogance of the other, as to forget her determination to
+hold no more conversation with him--"I am not aware, sir, of having
+admitted any necessity of an explanation And had I done so, I should
+be very far from acknowledging your right to require it of me."
+
+"It is possible," rejoined the former in the same strain--"it is
+possible Miss Haviland may be willing to qualify her last remark a
+little, when she is reminded of the existence of a certain marriage
+contract, to which she voluntarily became a party."
+
+"I need no prompting to make me mindful of that evidence of my
+youthful indiscretion, sir," responded Miss Haviland; "nor should I be
+likely to forget the particular provisions of an instrument, the
+thought of which has cost me, as my entreaties to be released from it
+should have apprised you, so many painful regrets. But, while mindful
+of all this, I have yet to be informed of the provision which, till
+the contract is consummated, gives you any control over my actions, or
+right to require me to account for or explain them."
+
+"If the instrument, which I have somewhere about me, I believe,"
+replied the other, with his usual cold indifference, as he took the
+document from his pocket, and began, with a businesslike air, to
+glance over the contents--"if the instrument does not express, or
+rather if it is not admitted to presuppose and give me, any of the
+rights I have named till it is consummated, then it is time that I
+should insist on its consummation, which, as few others would have
+done, I have so long forborne to urge."
+
+"I perfectly agree with Colonel Peters," interposed Mr. Haviland,
+catching at the last suggestion in his growing alarm for the success
+of his favorite scheme, which the unexpected state of feeling here
+displayed taught him might be endangered, if not speedily consummated.
+"I perfectly agree with him, that this business has already been
+sufficiently delayed; and I think, as the family is now about to break
+up, that the final ceremony had better be performed before we go, or,
+at the farthest, when we reach the army, where, as Sabrey would
+perhaps prefer, it might take place at the same time as that of her
+friend, who is similarly situated."
+
+"You forget," said the maiden, now freshly aroused at this combined
+attempt to make her forego her last remaining privilege in the
+abhorrent negotiation--"you both forget that the very instrument, by
+which you claim to dispose of my hand, expressly leaves to me, and to
+me only, the right and privilege of deciding upon the time for that
+ceremony, by which you would now, it seems, so summarily consummate
+your unmanly scheme. And thank Heaven!" she continued, turning to the
+nonplused suitor with an air of decision and fearlessness which the
+excitement of insulted feeling could only have given her--"thank
+Heaven, I had the forethought to insist on a privilege now so precious
+to me; for let me assure you, sir, that distant will be the day when
+_I_ shall fix on a time for consummating a contract, wrung from
+girlish inexperience, to gratify selfish ambition or mistaken views in
+the first place, and now claimed to hold me like a sold article of
+merchandise, for the use and control of one whose feelings, principles,
+and whole character are every way uncongenial with my own."
+
+"What!--how!" exclaimed the irritated and evidently astonished
+Haviland, who, in his obtuseness, even now, could not perceive what
+objection his daughter could have to a match esteemed by him so
+advantageous. "What can this mean? Why, the girl must be demented! You
+to decide on the time! Why, reasonable time is all that was meant by
+that, if it is not so expressed!"
+
+"That is all; nothing more," eagerly chimed in Peters.
+
+"If a part of the instrument is to be construed differently from what
+is expressed, and as you choose, why not other parts, and as I
+choose?" calmly asked the unmoved girl. "If so, then its power to bind
+me shall cease with this hour."
+
+"What folly!" again exclaimed the old gentleman, balked and chafing
+worse than before. "Why, don't the infatuated girl know that, to say
+nothing about losing prospects which no other young lady in the
+country would reject--that by marrying any other man, she will forfeit
+her birthright in my estate, and make herself, as she will deserve to
+be, a beggar?"
+
+"I have no thought of marrying any other man while in my present
+embarrassing position," quickly retorted the former, with an offended
+air. "But should I wish to do so, I should hardly be deterred from it
+by either of the considerations you have just named, I think. And,
+indeed, if the mercenary and ambitious motives, which you would have
+actuate me, were alone to be my guide in such a step, I could see but
+little temptation for the sacrifice in the honors and wealth which are
+so much to depend on a triumph that, for all your boasts, I believe
+will never be accomplished; while the failure, if the same justice is
+meted out to you which you seem to be meditating for others, will
+leave you with a branded name, and no estate here to give or withhold."
+
+"Silence! audacious girl," exclaimed the baffled loyalist, unable
+longer to endure the calm but scorching rebuke involved in the reply
+of his daughter. "I will listen to no more of your railings. This
+comes of being allowed to mingle with an ignorant, rebellious populace.
+But that evil shall, at least, be remedied. You will attend me to the
+army, where, I trust, your eyes may soon be opened to your folly."
+
+"You may perhaps compel me to go, sir," responded the still unawed
+maiden; "but if you do so, let me warn you against all hope of thereby
+rendering my feelings less repugnant to the scheme we have been
+discussing, or of changing my views of the cause in which you are
+about to embark; for I will now openly declare, what I have often
+before left you to infer, that I have no sympathies for those who come
+to oppress and enslave my country; nor will I ever aid or sanction
+their ignoble purposes--not even to the withholding any intelligence I
+may gain of their movements, which may avert disaster or peril from
+our struggling people."
+
+"Hurrah for the tory's daughter!" now burst on the ears of the
+astonished group, from a band of armed men standing immediately
+beneath the open but thickly vine-clad windows without, whither, it
+seemed, they had approached unperceived, and thus become unintentional
+listeners to the last part of the foregoing dialogue, which they were
+still hesitating to break in upon, when their admiration of the heroic
+girl's declarations led to the irrepressible burst of applause just
+mentioned--"Hurrah for the tory's daughter! She shall be remembered
+for that!"
+
+The party within instantly rose to their feet at so strange and
+unexpected a salutation. Peters, aware, from the experience of the
+last night, that his capture was sought, was the first, as might be
+expected, to take the alarm. With a hasty step towards the window, and
+an equally hasty glance through the screening foliage at the
+new-comers, he hurriedly retreated through a door leading to the rear
+of the house. Haviland, scarcely less alarmed, though having no
+conception of the main object of the visit, advanced, with evident
+perturbation, to the front door, when he was met at the threshold by
+the secretary of the Council of Safety, who, bowing politely, proceeded
+to apologize for the noisy outbreak of his attendants, which, contrary
+to his wishes, he said, had been made to announce his arrival.
+
+"Attendants, sir?" exclaimed Haviland, casting a flurried glance at
+the file of soldiers in the yard--"attendants--armed men led up here
+to my door? Who are they? What is then business, and yours, sir? This
+affair needs explanation, sir."
+
+"Well, sir, if so, I am here to give it," composedly replied Allen.
+"But, as you appear somewhat agitated, let us walk in and talk over
+the matter calmly."
+
+Mechanically complying with the suggestion, Haviland turned and led
+the way into the room, where his daughter still stood, mutely awaiting
+the development; when the secretary, after bowing with marked respect
+to Miss Haviland, with whom, it appeared, he was slightly acquainted,
+resumed,--
+
+"The Council of Safety, sir, having determined on defending the state
+to the last extremity, in the present crisis, have perceived, with
+deep regret, that there are those in our midst who hesitate not either
+to take up arms against their countrymen, or, what is no better,
+secretly to aid the enemy, and harbor and conceal in their houses
+hostile emissaries, trying to seduce our people. And not perceiving
+the policy or justice of longer permitting their cause thus to be
+endangered, the council have decided on a measure for promptly
+remedying the evil--a measure which they had less hesitation in
+adopting, as they believed, from the repeated threats of the
+loyalists, they would only be anticipating their opponents by
+inflicting penalties, that, in case of the conquest of this country,
+will be visited on themselves. They have passed a solemn decree, sir,
+to confiscate, for the public use, all the estates of both of the
+classes of loyalists I have named, among one of which, at least, they
+have abundant proof, I regret to say, to warrant them in classing
+Esquire Haviland. And they direct me to permit him to take one of the
+horses, lately his own, and depart, with the least possible delay, for
+the British camp, where, they think, he more properly belongs."
+
+The arrogant loyalist, who had hitherto looked upon the Council of
+Safety with utter contempt for either their powers or their
+efficiency, was now perfectly thunderstruck at the announcement of so
+bold and unexpected a measure; and, for some moments, his mouth seemed
+wholly sealed against any remonstrance to a step which, not for public
+good, but for his own aggrandizement, he was conscious of intending to
+recommend to the British government in relation to the estates of the
+leading rebels, and especially those of the treasonable body by whom,
+as had just been so truthfully told him, his selfish designs had now
+been anticipated. Soon rallying, however, he wrathfully muttered,--
+
+"They dare not do it; their audacity will not carry them to that
+length. But if they do," he continued, with louder and more menacing
+tones--"if they do attempt to carry out their plundering purposes, I
+will bring down upon them, within eight and forty hours, a British
+force that will give them enough to do to take care of themselves and
+their own property, without meddling with that of others."
+
+"That is what we supposed you would be glad to do, in any case,"
+quietly responded Allen. "It but swells the proof against you, and
+goes to confirm the justice of the decree."
+
+"O, do not say any more, father," interposed Miss Haviland, with much
+feeling. "Do not, I beg of you, further and more inextricably involve
+yourself. You know how gladly I would have saved you from this; how
+often warned you of the consequences of persisting in your course.
+Perhaps it is not too late to retract, even now. Who knows but the
+council, who have done this but from a sense of duty to their country,
+and with no ill will against you personally, may yet be induced, if
+you will send in a pledge of neutrality, to reverse their sentence as
+regards you, and still leave you in possession of your property and a
+quiet home? I myself, feeble girl as I am, would go before them to
+intercede for you; and perhaps this gentleman would assist me," she
+added, with an appealing glance to Allen.
+
+"Most gladly," replied the latter, touched at the magnanimity of the
+girl, in her distress--"most gladly, and with great hope of success."
+
+"Do you hear that, father?" said the other, eagerly; "do you hear what
+I feel--I know--may yet be done for you? Then do not reject my
+petition, but retract, and give up your intention of joining these
+invaders of your country."
+
+"No," replied the old gentleman, after a moment of apparent
+wavering--"no, never! Let the plunderers take possession of my estate
+here for the short time they will be enabled to hold it, if they will.
+To-morrow morning I start for the British camp."
+
+"It is as I feared," observed Allen, turning to the daughter; "but
+your efforts to rescue your father, Miss Haviland, and the noble stand
+you have taken on this occasion and before, are, let me assure you,
+appreciated by myself, and will not fail to be so by those of more
+controlling influence. And although this property will, in a few days,
+be sold by those duly appointed, and now here to guard and dispose of
+it, yet the government, which has the power to confiscate, will have
+the power to restore; and I have no fears that your own interests will
+eventually be made to suffer by a measure which may now appear as
+harsh to you as it appeared necessary to the upright and patriotic men
+who felt themselves constrained to adopt it. In this you may trust, I
+think, as regards the future. As for the present, I am only empowered
+to offer you an asylum in some friendly family of the neighborhood,
+with ample means of support, or, if you prefer, a safe conveyance,
+with a female attendant, should you desire it, to any family in a more
+distant part of the state."
+
+"My daughter will probably go with me, sir," said Haviland,
+resentfully.
+
+"No, father," said the girl, firmly; "that army is no proper place for
+a young lady and especially one of my views. I shall for the present,
+go into the family of our neighbor Risdon; but in a few days, I will
+gratefully accept of Mr. Allen's offer of a conveyance, and, as I
+proposed to you a short time ago, go to my connections on the other
+side of the mountains."
+
+"Your wishes will be attended to in this or any other respect as soon
+as you shall please to signify them, Miss Haviland," said the
+secretary, as, bowing a respectful adieu, he now departed with part of
+his armed attendants, for other and similar visits which remained to
+be accomplished that night among the unsuspecting tories of that
+vicinity.
+
+Within an hour or two after the departure of Allen, or as soon as the
+growing darkness would enable a skulker to approach unseen, a man, who
+was of the latter description evidently, might have been discovered
+slowly and cautiously making a circuit round the house, but at so
+respectable distance from it as to escape the observation of the guard
+now stationed at three or four commanding points about the premises.
+When he had reached a point nearly opposite to the back door, he
+ventured up to the border of the intervening garden, and gave a low,
+significant whistle. After a momentary silence, a slight rustling was
+heard in a thick patch of corn occupying a portion of the garden, and
+Peters, who, it will be recollected, passed out in this direction, and
+who, perceiving his retreat cut off by men already posted in the
+fields, had here lain concealed till now, cautiously emerged from his
+covert, and came forward to the spot where the other stood awaiting
+his approach.
+
+"Well, Redding," said Peters, in a low voice, as he came up "when I
+asked you this morning to come here to Haviland's to-night to see me,
+before I went to the army, I didn't exactly expect you would have to
+call me out of a corn patch to receive my orders. But how came you to
+know or suspect I was here? You have not ventured in there, I take it?"
+he added, leading the way into the field, which the guard had now left.
+
+"No," replied the other; "I caught a glimpse of the fellows in the
+yard as I came in sight, and, mistrusting what was to pay from what I
+had just heard of their movements this forenoon in Manchester, and
+other towns thereabouts I struck off across the pasture, where I luckily
+encountered the old squire, who walked out there, after the leader of
+the gang had left, and who told me of your concealment, and all."
+
+"Yes, he came to the back door, here, the first chance he could get,
+to see if I had escaped, when, contriving to apprise him where I was,
+I had got a moment's talk with him just before. But what have you
+heard about their movements in other places to-day?"
+
+"Why, I met Asa Rose going post-haste to warn our friends in this
+direction to be on their guard. He says they have seized on the
+estates of all the Rose family, and every other leading loyalist, as
+far as they could hear, in all that section; and, in several
+instances, put the owners themselves under guard. What do you say to
+all that, colonel?"
+
+"Glad of it. Though an act of lawlessness and audacity which I did not
+once dream of their attempting, and which, even now, they will not
+dare to carry out, should they have time to do so before their brief
+career is arrested, yet I am glad the rebel fools have done it; for,
+between you and me, Redding, I have had my doubts whether the British
+government, which is ever too merciful, would take their estates from
+them, when we come to subdue them, as you know we have talked; but now
+vengeance will be swift and certain. Their estates will all be seized
+and given to the deserving."
+
+"Ay, that's it!" exclaimed the perfidious minion, with a chuckle of
+satisfaction; "it will give us our revenge, and at the same time
+supply us with the needful. I have a good many scores to settle with
+the people about here; and I know of the farm of a certain rebel that
+I shall ask for my share, as I think I justly may, seeing how active
+I've been this summer.
+
+"Yes, yes," replied Peters, rather impatiently; "but there must be no
+more wavering and turning with you. What you ask you must earn,
+remember."
+
+"You see if I don't! only name what you would have me do, colonel!"
+eagerly responded the other.
+
+"Well, I will now," said the former, coming to a halt. "Yes, as we
+are, by this time, fairly out of reach and hearing of these foiled
+rebels, who have so kindly yielded me a pass through this side of
+their watch, thinking, doubtless, that I could not have been in the
+house when they surrounded it, but should be there this evening--yes,
+I will give you my orders now, which will embrace a fresh item or two
+above what I intended before some of the occurrences of this
+afternoon. Well, in the first place, you are to proceed to Castleton,
+and join the northern company there collected and ready for operations
+at the Remington rendezvous, You will then become the guide and
+assistant of the leader of that force, which is to move on to some
+secret and safe place, to be selected by you (as you know the
+localities, and the leader don't) in the woods near the Twenty Mile
+Encampment, where, acting is the advanced corps of our planned
+expedition to the Connecticut by that route, they will remain
+concealed as much as possible, till further orders, watching all
+movements of the rebels, and drawing in every trusty loyalist that can
+be approached. And mark me, Redding, while there, or elsewhere,
+remember, that accursed Woodburn is a doomed man, and is to be taken,
+if found, and kept for my disposal. And I have another order, which
+must be left still more to your especial management. Haviland's
+daughter, with whom you know, I suppose, how I am situated, has got
+some dangerous notions into her head, and, refusing to hear to her
+father, who wishes her to go with him to the army, has determined to
+go to her relatives, over the mountain, in a carriage the rebels have
+promised to provide her. She will be along that road, probably, soon
+after you get to your rendezvous. She must be stopped, and conducted,
+with good treatment, mind you, back, through some secret route, to the
+British camp, where her father, though he knows nothing of my plan,
+will be glad to receive and keep her. And now I will be off to my
+horse, which I luckily left at the house of a friend, on the cross
+road, about a mile to the west of us."
+
+"Will you go far on your journey to-night?"
+
+"About seven miles, to the house of another friend, where I am to be
+joined by the squire in the morning, and, with him, proceed directly
+to the army."
+
+"How soon are we to hear from you?"
+
+"Within ten days, or sooner. I shall, with all possible despatch,
+organize and prepare the force designed for the purpose; when I shall
+sweep on through Arlington and Manchester, and, after teaching them a
+few lessons in that quarter, proceed at once to join you. There! you
+now know all; go, and remember that secrecy and vengeance are the
+watchwords."
+
+"Ay, ay; I am your man for all that, colonel," responded the heartless
+tool, as the two now separated to depart on their different destinations.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+  "What nearer foe is lurking in the glade?--
+   But joy! Columbia's friends are trampling through the shade!"
+
+
+One of the earliest and most noted of the houses of public
+entertainment in Vermont was that of Captain John Coffin, situated in
+the north part of Cavendish, on the old military road, cut out in the
+French wars, by the energetic General Amherst, with a regiment of New
+Hampshire Boys, and extending from Number Four, as Charleston on the
+Connecticut was then called, to the fortresses on Lake Champlain. This
+tavern, at the time of the revolution, being on the very outskirts of
+the settlements on the east side of the Green Mountains, was long the
+general resort of the soldier and the common wayfarer for rest and
+refreshment, before and after passing over the long and dreary route
+of mountain wilderness lying between the eastern and western
+settlements of the state. And to the soldier, especially, it was a
+favorite haven; the more so, doubtless, from the congenial character
+of its frank, fearless, patriotic, but blunt and unpolished landlord,
+whose substantial cheer and hearty welcome, money or no money usually
+caused him to be looked upon as a friend, as well as a good
+entertainer. To this then widely-known establishment we will now
+repair, to note the occurrences next to be related in the progress of
+our story.
+
+On a dark and cloudy afternoon, about ten days after the events
+related in the last chapter, a company of five persons were assembled
+in the rudely finished bar-room of the inn just described. Of these,
+three were strangers, or pretended strangers, to the house and each
+other; having dropped in at different intervals during the afternoon.
+Of the two others, one was the landlord, whose burly frame, rough,
+open features, and fear-nought countenance need have left none in
+doubt of either the physical or moral traits which experience proved
+he possessed. The other, a somewhat tall, thin, gaunt man, of a
+weather-beaten visage, and a sort of sly, scrutinizing look, was an
+old acquaintance of the reader. As of old, his large powder-horn and
+ball-pouch were slung under his left arm, and his long, heavy rifle,
+standing by his side, was resting on the sill of the open window
+beneath which he had seated himself, so as to enable him to note what
+might be passing without as well as within. The manner in which the
+latter and the landlord occasionally exchanged glances, implied a
+previous and familiar acquaintance, the usual manifestations of which
+seemed to be repressed by the presence of the three guests first
+named, who were evidently objects of the secret suspicion of the
+former. But all this, for some time, might have passed unheeded by any
+but close observers; for few remarks, and those of the briefest and
+most common-place kind, were offered; and an inclination for silence
+and reserve was manifest among the company.
+
+A circumstance at length occurred, however, which quickly awakened the
+landlord from his apparent apathy, and brought some of the leading
+characteristics of the man at once into view. A very large and
+powerfully-made black dog, which belonged to the house, had just
+marched into the room, and laid down to sleep in the middle of the
+floor; when one of the strangers, whom we have noticed, in returning
+from the bar, where he had been for a drink of water, trod on the
+animal's tail, either through accident or design--probably the
+latter;--at least the landlord seemed to suspect so; for his
+countenance instantly flashed with indignation, and, turning abruptly
+to the aggressor, he said,--
+
+"What was that done for, sir?"
+
+"Done for?" replied the other, indifferently. "Why, it was done
+because the dog was in my way. If he don't want his tail trod on, he
+must keep out from under foot; that's all."
+
+"Well, sir," rejoined the former, in no gentle tones, "I don't know
+who you are; but whether whig or tory, gentle or simple, I shall just
+take the liberty to tell you, that if I was sure you did that
+intentionally, I would pull your ears for you; for, if any living
+being has a good right to remain undisturbed, and do as he likes in
+this house, it is that dog. Roarer, come here, my old friend," he
+added, turning to fondle the creature, that now, dropping the menacing
+attitude he had assumed towards the aggressing stranger, came up and
+thrust his huge snout into his master's lap. "Yes, old fellow, while I
+live, you shall never want a friend to avenge your wrongs, though I
+have to fight a regiment to do it! And aint I right in that, Dunning?"
+he still further remarked, turning to the hunter.
+
+"Der yes, if needful," replied the latter; "but the ditter dog. I'm
+thinking, would ask no favors, if you would give him leave to der do
+his own work on meddlers.
+
+"O, that wouldn't do, you know, Tom," rejoined the former, "for, if I
+but said the word, Roarer would tear him in shoestrings, as quick as
+you could say Jack Roberson! No I'll settle the hash myself. And I am
+now ready to hear the fellow's explanation," he added, again turning
+sternly to the aggressor.
+
+But the last-named questionable personage, not relishing the course
+matters were taking, now, in a subdued and altered tone promptly
+disclaimed any intention of touching the dog, and expressed his regret
+at what had happened.
+
+"O, that's enough," said Coffin, instantly cooling off. "All right
+now, Roarer. You may lie down again, sir," he continued, waving away
+the dog, that had faced round, and still stood suspiciously eyeing the
+offender. "Yes, that's enough; we'll call the matter settled. But by
+way of explaining to you, who are strangers, what I have said about
+that dog's claims to my friendship and protection, I must tell you a
+story, which will show you how much the noble creature is deserving at
+my hands.
+
+"Six years ago, the seventh day of last March, as I was returning from
+the settlements on Otter Creek, a distance of from twenty to thirty
+miles, through the then entire wilderness, with the snow nearly five
+feet deep on a level, and the weather so cold and stormy, that I was
+compelled to travel with great-coat on, as well as snow-shoes, I
+undertook to cross one of the ponds in Plymouth on the ice, which I
+supposed perfectly sound and safe for any thing that could be got on
+to it. But for some reason or other, there seemed to have been one
+place, concealed from view by the snow, so thin and spongy, that the
+moment I stepped upon it, I went down some feet below the surface into
+the water, while the snow and broken ice at once closed over me. And
+although I succeeded in forcing my way up through the slush, and
+getting my head above water, yet I soon found it, hampered as I was
+with snow-shoes and great-coat, impossible to get out. As sure as I
+tried to raise myself by the treacherous support at the sides, so sure
+was it to give way, and precipitate me back into the water. But still
+I struggled on, till chilled to the vitals, so benumbed that I could
+scarcely move a limb, and growing weaker and weaker at every effort, I
+could do no more; and I saw myself gradually sinking for the last
+time. O heavens! who can describe my sensations--who conceive the
+thousand thoughts that flashed through my mind at that horrible
+moment! But just as I was on the point of giving up in despair, I
+caught a glimpse of my dog (that had taken a circuit wide from me
+after some game) coming on to the pond. I raised one faint shout--it
+was all I could do,--and, though nearly a half mile off, he heard it,
+and came on, with monstrous bounds, to the spot. In a moment he was
+there; and, after giving me one look,--I can never forget that
+look,--he slid down to the very verge of the hole to try to assist me.
+With a struggle, I made out to raise one hand out of the water within
+his reach. He seized the cuff of my coat, and, drawing back with the
+seeming strength of a draught-horse, he, with one pull, brought me
+half out of the water. With a desperate effort on my part, and another
+on his, the next instant I was lying helpless, but safe, on the ice,
+while the dog fairly howled aloud for joy! I said safe; for as
+hopeless as some might have viewed my situation, even then, wet,
+benumbed, nearly dead with cold and exhaustion, and many miles from
+any human help or habitation, as I was, yet rallying every energy I
+had left me, and rolling, kicking, and pawing, to put my blood in
+motion, and regain the use of my limbs, I soon got on to my feet;
+when, seizing my gun, that I had hurled aside as I went down, I made
+for a dry tree in sight, fired into a spot of spunk I luckily found on
+one side of it, kindled a fire, warmed and dried myself, set forward
+again, and reached home that night; but with feelings towards that
+dog, sir, that I can never know towards any other created being--not
+even, in some respects, towards my wife and children. Yes, sir; I will
+not only fight, but, if need be, die for him."
+
+While the captain was relating his oft-told but truthful adventure
+with his justly-prized dog, the quick eye of Dunning caught, through
+the window, a glimpse of a recognized form, approaching in the road
+from the east; and slipping out unnoticed from the room, he beckoned
+the approaching personage round the corner of the house, and when
+safely out of the hearing and observation of those in the bar-room, he
+turned to the other, and said,--
+
+"Der devil's in the wind, Captain Harry!"
+
+"How so? Have you discovered the suspected rendezvous?"
+
+"Der yes; and more too."
+
+"Indeed! where is it?"
+
+"Ditter deep in the thickets, on the west side of the pond nearest the
+great road over the mountains."
+
+"Ah, ha! but their numbers? any more, probably, than the small club we
+supposed?"
+
+"Der double, and then the ditter double of that, if it don't make more
+than twenty."
+
+"You surprise me, Dunning. Are you sure?"
+
+"Sure as that I am der talking to Captain Woodburn."
+
+"Impossible! It must be some secret meeting of the disaffected in this
+quarter."
+
+"Der not that, but a regularly armed force, and, with the ditter
+exception of two or three about-home tories, may be, all strange
+faces, including a sprinkling of red skins, brought along with them
+for ditter decency's sake, I suppose."
+
+"But how could such a force get so far into the interior undetected?
+How dare they venture on so hazardous a movement? and what can be
+their designs in so doing?"
+
+"Der here is something that ditter tells a rather loud story about
+that; at least, as to the matter of intentions," said the hunter, by
+way of reply, taking a crumpled paper from his cap and handing it to
+the other.
+
+Woodburn took the paper, and eagerly ran over its contents; which to
+his astonishment he found to be a copy of an order from General
+Burgoyne to Colonel Peters, detailing the plan of an expedition, to be
+conducted by the latter, with one hundred loyalists and a company of
+Indians, by way of the head waters of Otter Creek, across the
+mountains to Connecticut River, where this force was to be joined by
+the loyal troops from Rhode Island, and directing him "to scour the
+country, levy contributions, take hostages, make prisoners of all
+civil and military officers acting under Congress, collect horses,
+and, after proceeding down the river as far as Brattleborough, return
+to the great road to Albany." [Footnote: The document here quoted was
+brought to General Stark on his advance through Vermont; and there can
+be but little doubt of its genuineness; as it afterwards came out, in
+the trial of Burgoyne in the British Parliament, that such an
+expedition was actually started, but subsequently changed for that of
+Bennington. How considerable a portion of the whole intended force
+penetrated into the interior is not ascertained. But we have the
+authority of the oldest inhabitants for asserting, that a portion of
+this force did cross over the mountains, and some of them even reached
+Springfield; when, owing to the unexpected movements they found going
+on among the people, and the rumored advance of Stark, all, who were
+not taken, speedily decamped.]
+
+"How did this get into your hands, Dunning?" demanded the surprised
+and excited officer, as soon as he had mastered the contents.
+
+"Der well, having crept along near the edge of the pond within ten or
+twelve rods of their camp, I was lying in the bushes for discoveries;
+when ditter one of 'em--their leader, I suppose--came down to the
+pond, for observation, likely; and, while peering up and down the
+shore, a gust of wind blew his hat off into the water. But though he
+regained his ditter hit and disappeared, I soon saw a piece of white
+paper blowing along in the water towards me. After a while, it reached
+the sort of point where I was, and lodging against a bush, I secured
+it, and found it this same thing. What do you think of it, captain?"
+
+"Why, it unfolds a plan too bold for credence."
+
+"Not too bold for _my_ ditter credence, captain."
+
+"Then you think it no feint?"
+
+"Der no, sir, but a regular bred expedition, which they mean to push
+as soon as more force arrives. I have been ditter watching things a
+little since I got at this wrinkle. They have spies out in every
+direction. 'Tis not an hour since I espied a fellow peering from the
+corner of the woods up yonder, who, I think, must be that treacherous
+ditter devil, David Redding, and there are three now in the bar-room
+of the same kidney."
+
+"Ah! well, all this may be. Such an expedition may have been set afoot
+at the instigation of such fellows as Spencer, who, having left the
+Council of Safety before any thing was done, and while its distracted
+counsels seemed to preclude all prospect that any thing would be done
+for the defence of the state. Ay, that is it; and little dreaming of
+what has since transpired, Peters, who is probably behind, with the
+main force, has sent forward this as a sort of pioneer corps, who,
+coming over a route now mostly deserted by our people, have penetrated
+here nearly to the Twenty Mile Encampment, without once suspecting
+what is going on through the rest of the state. But that is a secret,
+which, thanks to the prompt patriotism shown by our young men in
+enlisting, we shall now soon be able to teach them; for my company is
+already nearly full; and, if you have notified the recruits you
+enlisted. Sergeant Dunning, they will all be here for mustering by
+to-morrow night."
+
+"All done, as in der duty bound, captain; and six of my men said they
+would be here this evening."
+
+"Indeed! there will be almost enough of us, if your six recruits all
+get in, to make a pounce upon this nest of vipers to-night Let's see;
+six--you, myself, and Captain Coffin, and----"
+
+"And der Bart, if he comes; ditter don't you expect him along here
+to-night?"
+
+"I do. Miss Haviland, according to the letter of Mr. Allen, who wrote
+some days ago, to apprise me of her coming, would have started, I
+calculate, this morning; and Bart, whom I immediately despatched to
+act as her guard on the way, will of course come with her. They will
+probably arrive before long, now--unless----" and the speaker suddenly
+paused at the new and startling thought that now seemed to occur to him.
+
+"Unless," said Dunning, guessing the thoughts of the other and taking
+up the supposition--"unless beset by some of this crew, who are
+ordered to take prisoners and hostages. But der stay; didn't I catch
+the glimmer of a distant horseman then?" he continued, pointing along
+the partially wooded road to the west. "There! that was a clearer
+view; and, by the ditter darting kind of gait of the horse, I should
+think it might be Lightfoot, and the short rider the critter we've
+been talking about."
+
+The hunter's eye had not misled him; for in a few minutes the horseman
+emerged from the forest into open view, and confirmed the conjecture
+that had just been made respecting his identity. As he neared the
+house, perceiving Woodburn and Dunning beckoning to him from behind
+the buildings, he threw himself from his saddle, leaped over the
+fence, and approached them.
+
+"The news, sir? What is it? Speak!" eagerly exclaimed Woodburn, as
+Bart, with a downcast and troubled look, drew near.
+
+"Bad as need to be, consarn it!" replied the latter, with an air of
+mingled vexation and self-reproach. "But I couldn't help it."
+
+"Help what? What has happened? Where is the lady?" rapidly asked the
+alarmed and impatient lover.
+
+"Taken prisoner by the tories, as I guessed 'em. She and Vine Howard,
+that come with her, and the boy that drove 'em."
+
+"How? when? where?"
+
+"Why, as we were coming down this side the mountain, and when nearly
+to the bottom, five or six fellows, with guns, rushed out of the bush,
+seized the horse, pulled out the women, and hurried them off with two
+of their number into the woods towards the pond; while the rest made a
+push to take me, who was riding just behind. But firing a pistol in
+their faces, and giving Lightfoot my stiffest sign, we dashed through
+or over them, and escaped, with their bullets whistling after us, one
+after another, till we were out of reach."
+
+"These ladies shall be rescued before I sleep, or I will perish in the
+attempt," said Woodburn, with stern emphasis. "Let us arm and set
+forward immediately with the best force we can raise."
+
+"There is a thing or two to be ditter done first, it strikes me,"
+observed Dunning, with his usual coolness; "that is, if we don't want
+enemies both before and behind us, on the way."
+
+"What is that, Dunning?"
+
+"Secure those three chaps in the bar-room, or they'll be ditter sure
+either to be on our heels, or get there before us to raise the alarm
+of our coming."
+
+"Are they armed, think you?"
+
+"With ditter knives only, I'm thinking--their guns may have been left
+in the point of woods yonder, in charge of the spy I named, who, now I
+ditter think on't, ought to be taken about the same time, for fear of
+some secret signal being given."
+
+The suggestions of Dunning, who, as the reader will already have
+inferred, had been made a sergeant in Woodburn's company of Rangers,
+were at once approved by his superior, who accordingly, as the first
+step, despatched him and Bart to the woods, where the man conjectured
+to be in charge of the arms of his comrades was supposed to be
+concealed. After waiting till the two others might have had time to
+gain the woods in question, Woodburn left his stand, and, passing
+round to the front of the house, boldly marched into the bar-room,
+where the three suspected personages still sat listening to the
+stories with which the landlord, who suspected what was in progress,
+seemed intent on amusing them. They, however, now seemed suddenly to
+lose all interest in the recital going on, and, after exchanging
+uneasy and significant glances, simultaneously rose to depart.
+
+"You are my prisoners, gentlemen," said Woodburn, stepping before them
+and presenting a cocked pistol.
+
+For a moment, the surprised tories stood mute in alarm and doubt,
+alternately glancing from their armed opponent to the landlord, and
+from the latter to the door and windows, as if weighing the chances
+and means of escape. But, the next instant, two of them suddenly
+turned, and drawing and flourishing their knives behind them, sprang
+for the open windows, with the intention of leaping through them.
+
+"At 'em, Roarer!" exclaimed Coffin, seizing one escaping tory by the
+leg, and hurling him back with stunning effect upon the floor.
+
+The dog was but little behind his master in drawing back, by a grip in
+his clothes, the other to the floor, where he was glad to lie without
+offering further resistance to the grim and growling conqueror
+standing over him. The third, in the mean while, not daring to stir
+lest a worse fate should befall him, standing as he was directly
+before the muzzle of Woodburn's pistol, and seeing the situation of
+his comrades, immediately submitted; when all, giving up their
+concealed arms, now quietly yielded themselves as prisoners.
+
+In a few minutes after the surrender of the tories, their guns were
+brought in by Dunning and Bart, who found them at the suspected place,
+though the traitor, Redding, whom they identified, had just taken the
+alarm, and was seen retreating over a distant knoll as they came up to
+the spot.
+
+The prisoners being left in charge of the landlord's oldest boy, who
+was armed for the purpose, and the dog Roarer, the rest of the company
+now retired to another part of the house, to devise measures for the
+rescue of the fair captives, for which a preliminary step only had as
+yet been taken. Having at length fixed on the plan of operations which
+they believed most promising of auspicious results, they immediately
+commenced their hasty preparations for the bold adventure. And
+Dunning's six recruits luckily arriving in season, the whole company,
+now consisting of ten resolute woodsmen, and led on by a man fully
+resolved to succeed or perish, set forward, a little after sunset, for
+the scene of action, which was several miles distant from the tavern.
+According to the plan that had been adopted, two men were to proceed
+to the eastern shore of the pond, take a log canoe, and, under cover
+of the darkness, row silently over to some point beyond, but near the
+tory encampment; and, after making what discoveries they could
+respecting the situation of the captives, lie in ambush and await the
+operations of the rest of the company, who were to proceed round by
+the road, enter the woods, and gain a post on the other side of the
+encampment, and, by a feigned attack, draw off the tories, and thus
+afford the former a favorable moment to rush from their concealment
+and release the captives. And if they found this impracticable, they
+were then to shout aloud the watchword, _To the rescue!_ when both
+parties of the assailants were to make an earnest and desperate onset
+on the foe. Dunning and Bart, from their known sagacity and skill as
+woodsmen and coolness and intrepidity in action, were the two men
+selected to undertake the more difficult and hazardous part first
+mentioned.
+
+After a rapid and silent march of about an hour, the company reached
+the vicinity of the pond, just as the last suffusions of an obscured
+twilight disappeared in the west, and halted a few minutes, that the
+different parts of the plan might be repeated and clearly understood
+by all before separating.
+
+"Remember the arrangement, boys," said Woodburn, addressing Dunning
+and Bart, in a voice which betrayed the intense solicitude he felt in
+the event at issue. "Recollect the first and main object is to release
+and get off the ladies, and if this can be done within the hour we
+will give you for the purpose, as it possibly may be, before we make
+any demonstrations in front, so much the better; if not, proceed in
+the manner agreed on. And may Heaven favor the innocent, whose cause,
+remember, is mostly in your hands."
+
+With this the company separated, and each party proceeded to their
+different destinations. We will follow the two intrusted with the most
+difficult part of the enterprise.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+  "The first that hears
+   Shall be the first to bleed."
+
+
+The hunter, followed by his young comrade, now leaving the rest of the
+band to proceed to their contemplated stand by the main road, struck
+off into the woods to the right, and, with silent and rapid steps, led
+the way to the south-eastern shore of the pond. Here finding, as he
+seemed to have expected, a capacious canoe, dug out from the trunk of
+some huge pine, he drew it forth from its concealment, beneath a mass
+of fallen trees projecting over the bank, and, bidding Bart enter with
+the oars, and placing one knee on the stern, with a grasp on the
+sides, gave a push with his foot from the shore, which sent his rude
+craft surging out far into the open expanse of water before him.
+Before applying the oars, however, and while the canoe continued to
+move under the impulse it had thus received, its occupants employed
+themselves in bending their heads to the water, and listening for any
+sounds that might indicate the presence of others abroad on the pond.
+The night, as it was yet moonless, and as the sky was overclouded, was
+consequently a dark one; and the adventurers could distinguish little
+else but the dark outlines of the Green Mountains, that rose high in
+the western heavens, casting, by their huge shadows, an impenetrable
+pall of darkness over the intervening space beneath, from which not a
+sound rose to the ear, save an occasional short croak of some
+waterfowl, or the low, sullen dash of the waters along the shores.
+
+"Nothing out on the pond, guess, but loons, ducks, and sich like,"
+quietly observed Bart, raising himself from his listening attitude;
+"nor can I make out any sounds from the nest of 'em you say there is
+over on the shore yonder. Ma'be they've pulled up stakes and are off
+with their traps, the wimin folks and all--shouldn't wonder, single bit."
+
+"Now I reason a little ditter different," replied the sergeant. "They
+may be getting oneasy and suspicious, because their spies we took
+there at Coffin's don't return; and so keep still, and put out their
+fires, lest the absent ones be dogged back, and their rendezvous thus
+discovered; but I der don't believe the company would clear out till
+they knew what become of them. They are still there, I'm apt to think;
+so we will now put forward--first up north a piece, on this side, and
+then across and down to a little cove there is near their encampment."
+
+So saying, Dunning took up one of the oars, and, with long vigorous,
+but noiseless strokes, sent the boat rapidly ahead; while the other
+took a position most favorable for a lookout. In this manner, and
+taking turns at the oar, they soon, by the course they had marked out
+for themselves, reached the western side of the pond, and, heading
+round, moved cautiously along the shore towards the hostile
+encampment.
+
+"Ah! there! one--two--yes, three camp fires, T can der catch glimmers
+of occasionally," softly exclaimed Dunning, rising up in the boat, and
+peering ahead for observation. "I was right--the ditter rapscallions
+are there, snug in their quarters, but had wit enough to build their
+fires behind logs, or something, so as not to be seen from 'tother
+side. We are within the ditter matter of three hundred yards of 'em,
+now; so carefully, Bart, and don't let your oar graze the boat, or any
+thing, to give out the least sound; for they've ears, it's der
+probable, as well as we."
+
+A short time now sufficed to bring them to the small cove, at which
+the hunter had proposed to land. Here, under the screen of an
+impervious tangle of brushwood and fallen tree tops, which intervened
+between them and the foe, they drew up their boat on to the shore.
+They then, after taking off their shoes, which they left in the canoe,
+carefully crawled up the bank, passed round the thicket, and paused to
+listen. The sounds of voices conversing in low tones in one spot, the
+slow steps of a sentinel in another, and the snoring of some hard
+sleeper in a third, were soon detected by the quick ears of the
+anxious listeners.
+
+"As I thought," whispered Dunning, putting his mouth close to the ear
+of the other: "the head ones are ditter suspicious, and watchful; but
+we must try what can be done--at least to find the spot where they've
+put the gals. There's a ditter old shanty I used to camp in, about
+fifty yards ahead; and as that is probably the best they've got, I've
+been thinking they may have cooped 'em in there. Suppose you, who are
+lightest and smallest, creep forward to it, for ditter discoveries. I
+will follow half way, and wait."
+
+Without demurring to the suggestion, Bart immediately set forward, on
+his hands and knees, in the direction indicated by his companion.
+Carefully removing every dry twig and leaf from each place where he
+wished to bear his weight, and moving as noiselessly as the preying
+cat along the ground, he made his way onward till he had gone far
+enough, as he judged, to reach the expected shanty; when he paused to
+listen and reconnoitre. But now all seemed perfectly still. Not the
+slightest sound of any kind reached his ears; while it had, in some
+unaccountable manner, suddenly become so pitchy dark that he could not
+distinguish a single object before him. And he began to feel confused
+and doubtful about proceeding, when, by the action of those secret and
+undefinable sympathies, perhaps, by which, it is said, we sometimes
+become apprised of the presence of others before we are informed by
+the senses, he all at once became impressed with the idea that some
+person was near him. He therefore strained his senses to the utmost in
+trying to discover what objects might be before or around him; but
+all, for a while, to no purpose. In a short time, however, his ear
+caught the sound of a deep sigh, the softness of which told him it
+came from a female, within a few feet of him. With a palpitating
+heart, he now doubtfully attempted to move forward, when he suddenly
+perceived his head on the point of coming in contact with some broad,
+high obstacle, which seemed to rise like a wall before him, Surprised,
+and still more confused than before, he retreated a few paces, and
+looked upward, to try to make out the nature of the obstacle before
+him; when he discovered it to be the backside of the very shanty of
+which he was in search. The strange darkness, which had so suddenly
+overshadowed him, and which was caused by the obstruction of the
+skylight by this rude structure, being now explained, and every thing
+made clear to his mind, he cautiously moved round towards the front of
+the shanty, to find the entrance, no longer doubting that those he
+sought were within. On reaching the front corner, so as to enable him
+to peer round it on that side, he soon made out the entrance; but
+directly across it, to his disappointment, he discovered the
+half-recumbent form of a man, with a musket leaning on his shoulder.
+After a few hurried observations, in which he discovered, by the
+decaying fires before them several other shanties or tents among the
+trees, a few rods in front, Bart again slunk back to the spot he had
+just left, and was about to retrace his way to his companion, when a
+new thought occurred to him, and, moving up to the back of the shanty,
+which was formed by broad pieces of thick bark standing slantingly
+against a pole supported by crotches, and, placing his mouth to a
+crack, softly whispered the names of the captives, and turned his ear
+to the spot to catch the hoped-for response. For the first moment, all
+was still but the next, the catching of a long-suspended breath, and
+even, as he thought, the rapid beatings of a fluttering bosom, became
+audible. Presently a slight movement, as of a cautiously changed
+posture, was heard within; and the next instant a pair of soft lips
+came in contact with his ear at the crevice, articulating, in sounds
+scarcely above the slightest murmur of the air,--
+
+"Who speaks my name?"
+
+"Bart," replied the other. "You know what I'm after. Can one of the
+barks between us be removed without alarming your keeper?"
+
+"I fear--but he seems asleep--try it," was the measured and hesitating
+reply.
+
+After slightly essaying several of the pieces of the bark he wished to
+remove, he at length commenced operations at the bottom of one of
+them, and gently forcing it aside, inch by inch, in a short time
+effected an opening sufficient, as he judged, for the egress of the
+captives, and that too, he felt confident, without attracting the
+attention of the dozing guard.
+
+"Now feel your way out; and, without stirring a twig or leaf creep on
+after me," whispered Bart.
+
+And receding a few paces from the opening, he paused to await the
+result. In a moment he had the satisfaction of perceiving a female
+form slowly emerging from the narrow passage into the open air without.
+
+Supposing her companion to be immediately behind, he now, with a
+whispered word of encouragement, led the way from the spot. With
+frequent pauses, both to assure himself that he was followed by his
+charge, and to listen for any stir among the foe that should indicate
+a discovery of the escape, he continued to creep forward till he
+encountered Dunning, when, the latter taking the lead, they all moved
+on, one after another, in the same cautious manner as before, and soon
+reached the landing in safety; out as they emerged from the bushes,
+and the hunter turned to congratulate the ladies on their escape, it
+was now, for the first time, discovered that but one of them was
+present.
+
+"Bart, how is this? ditter tell me--where is the other?" demanded
+Dunning, in a tone of disappointment and vexation.
+
+But Bart, equally disappointed and perplexed, was mute; and the lady,
+who proved to be Miss Howard, replied,--
+
+"Miss Haviland, if not retaken, is now wandering in the woods."
+
+"Der wandering in ditter woods, and you not with her?" again demanded
+the former with an air of mingled surprise and reproach.
+
+"Yes sir, but I did not intend to desert her," promptly replied the
+girl. "Perceiving we were not watched very closely by the man they put
+over us, she and I had thought of a plan of escaping into the woods
+and getting round into the road. And while he was talking with
+another, that he had stepped forward a little ways to meet, we slipped
+out undiscovered, and gained a thicket; when finding I had left my
+shawl, I, contrary to Miss Haviland's advice, I will own, ventured
+back to get it, and was detected, just as I was leaving the shanty a
+second time, and her absence discovered. This made a stir among them,
+and they ordered off scouts after her along the pond towards the road,
+which was the way I pointed when they were threatening me if I didn't
+tell. But she must have heard all and escaped."
+
+"Escaped! ditter deuse of an escape that; for a woman to get out into
+a forest full of Indians in search of her," replied the still
+unreconciled hunter. "But what course has she der taken, think ye, gal?"
+
+"The one we planned, likely; and that was, to take a wide sweep round
+their camp, gain the road, and make for the tavern, which she said was
+not far off," replied the other.
+
+"Well," said Dunning, in a more mollified tone, "though der dogs is in
+the luck, to be sure, yet half a loaf is better than none. We must
+save what we have got; so into the canoe there with ye, gal; and you,
+Bart, take her across, der find Harry, whom I'd ditter rather you
+would meet first, and tell him you have left me this side to go in
+search of the other, who, if found, can most likely be got to the road
+as well the way she set out as this, in the shape things now stand."
+
+Although this conversation scarcely occupied a minute, and although,
+while the hunter was yet speaking, Bart and his fair friend were in
+their respective positions in the boat, which instantly shot out
+silently and swiftly into the pond, under the vigorous push given it
+by the former, yet the event showed that they had been none too speedy
+in their movements; for, at that instant, a sudden bustle in the tory
+encampment, which was quickly followed by the confused sounds of
+voices making rapid inquiries and giving orders, together with the
+stealthy tread of approaching footsteps, apprised the fugitives that
+not only was their escape discovered, but probably also the direction
+they had taken.
+
+"Der narve it, narve it, Bart! The ditter divils are after ye!"
+shouted the hunter, hastily retreating from the shore and disappearing
+in the nearest thicket.
+
+And scarcely had he gained a covert before his place was occupied by
+four or five of the enemy, who came rushing down to the water; when,
+discovering the receding boat, then not fifty yards distant, the
+acting leader of the band fiercely exclaimed "Put about there instantly,
+and come ashore, or we'll fire and kill every person in the boat!"
+
+"O, but you'll kill us if we come back," replied Bart, splashing round
+his oar as if turning the boat, which in fact was going swiftly ahead.
+
+"No, we won't," responded the leader, deceived by the apparent
+simplicity of the reply; "but be quick, or we fire!"
+
+"Well, seeing you aint going to hurt us," said the former, carelessly
+while at the same time directing, in a whisper, the girl to throw
+herself close on the bottom of the canoe, he silently, but with all
+his might, bent himself to the oar.
+
+"Why," said the leader, after a short and doubtful pause, as he peered
+out in the darkness at the dimly-seen boat--"why, aint the fellow
+still moving ahead? He is, confound him: fire!"
+
+"Let drive, then!" sung out Bart, with the greatest _sang froid_, as
+he hastily cast himself down in the boat.
+
+The next instant several bullets struck the boat, or whistled over it,
+as the fierce flashings and deafening reports of as many exploding
+muskets burst from the shore with startling effect on the darkness and
+silence of night.
+
+"I vown! but that an't so bad shooting as might be, in the dark so,"
+exclaimed Bart, hastily springing up and seizing his oar. "They are
+more at the business than I thought 'em; and we may as well be a
+little further off afore they have time to load and fire agin, guess,"
+he added, suddenly changing the direction of the beat from the course
+it had been taking, and plying the oar with an energy which showed
+rather less indifference to his proximity to the hostile marksmen
+behind him than his words might seem to imply.
+
+The tories, in the mean while, who had foolishly all discharged their
+pieces at once, fell to loading again as fast as was possible for them
+to do in the dark. But before any of them was ready to fire, the last
+traces of the fugitive boat had vanished from their view.
+
+They were, however, after giving vent to their vexation in a volley of
+curses upon the fellow who had thus outwitted them, in getting beyond
+controlling distance, preparing to fire again, at random, in the
+direction in which the canoe was last seen moving, when their
+attention was suddenly arrested by firing in the woods a short
+distance to the south, which seemed to be an exchange of shots between
+their pickets and some enemy assailing them from that direction. They
+therefore hurried back to their companions, and with them rallied to
+make a stand against the force which all supposed was about to storm
+their encampment. But to their agreeable disappointment, though an
+occasional shot continued to be directed towards them by persons who
+seemed to be lurking in the distant thickets, no tangible force made
+its appearance for the firing which had so alarmed them, and caused
+them to call in all their scouts within hearing, and make every
+preparation for a desperate resistance, was, as the reader will have
+already imagined, but the feint made by Woodburn's party, who, hearing
+the reports of the guns discharged at the escaping canoe, and partly
+divining the cause, had advanced from their concealment, and begun to
+make the diversion agreed on at the outset. But not receiving the
+signal promised, in case help was needed, and feeling doubtful how to
+act, most of them fell back, and ceased operations, till Bart, who
+had, in the mean time, reached the shore, and, with the fearless girl
+he had released, hastened round to their post, arrived and informed
+them of all that had occurred. On receiving this aggravating
+intelligence, Woodburn, now almost frantic with disappointment and
+anxiety, instantly withdrew to the road with all his band, except two
+left to keep the enemy in a state of alarm; when they all, including
+even the heroic Vine Howard, immediately scattered in different
+directions through the dark forest in anxious search for the luckless
+Miss Haviland, to whom we will now return, for the purpose of
+following her in the wild and perillous adventures she was destined to
+encounter on that eventful night.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+  "Unshrinking from the storm,
+     Well have ye borne your part,
+   With woman's fragile form,
+     But more than manhood's heart"--_Whittier_
+
+
+The observation is no less true than trite, that no one knows till he
+has tried it, what he can do or endure. And as just as is the remark
+in a general application, it is, we apprehend, more strikingly so when
+applied to the gentler sex; for, from the position they occupy in
+social life, their powers of action or endurance are so seldom fully
+put to the test, that they are generally far less conscious than men
+of what deeds they might accomplish or what degree of suffering they
+might endure, in emergencies calculated to call forth the highest
+energies of their physical and moral natures. And if there be any
+disparity between the number of heroes and heroines in the world, such
+emergencies as we have named are only wanting, we believe, to make up
+any deficiency that may be found in the latter.
+
+When Miss Haviland ascertained that her too venturous companion had
+been intercepted and retaken, in the manner mentioned in the preceding
+chapter, she for a moment greatly hesitated whether to return and
+yield herself again to her captors, or persevere in her attempt to
+escape. But, beginning to suspect the true source of the present
+misfortune, which, if her suspicions were just, pointed only at
+herself, and thinking that her escape would soon lead to the voluntary
+release of her companion, she quickly decided on the latter
+alternative, and glided noiselessly away into the depths of the forest.
+
+After proceeding in a direct course from the camp to such a distance
+as should preclude the possibility that any ordinary sound made in
+walking through the woods would reach her captors, unless they were in
+actual pursuit behind, of which her often strained senses had as yet
+given her no evidence, she turned short to the south, and, in
+pursuance of the hasty plan formed by herself and companion at the
+outset, now made her way, as fast as the darkness and the usual
+obstacles of the woods would permit, towards the road, her only guide
+being the parallel swells of land, which, running north and south,
+rose, as she had luckily noticed before dark, in successive lifts up
+the mountain to the west. Still hearing no sounds of pursuit, she
+began to entertain strong hopes that she should be permitted to reach
+the road unmolested. In this, however, she was doomed to be
+disappointed; for, in a short time, a cracking, as of dry twigs under
+the tread of some one stealthily advancing, arrested her attention,
+and brought her to a stand. Fortunately, no part of her dress was
+sufficiently light-colored to betray her. And, having nothing to fear
+from this, and believing that, by placing herself in close contact
+with some natural object, she might still have a good chance to be
+passed undetected, she glided to the nearest tree, and, placing her
+back to the side opposite to the suspected foe, awaited his approach
+in breathless silence. Presently he came up, and, after pausing a
+moment within a few yards of her, apparently to listen and
+reconnoitre, he passed by so near as to graze the bark of the tree
+behind which she stood, and moved carelessly on some distance before
+again pausing to repeat his _reconnoissance_.
+
+She drew a long breath; but, before she dared move from her stand, the
+sounds of other approaching feet reached her ears. And soon two more
+men, evidently on the same search, passed by her, at different
+distances to the east, and, like the first one, bent their courses
+northward. After waiting till all sound of their receding steps had
+wholly died away, she again moved forward, and soon had the
+satisfaction of finding herself in the road, but a short distance from
+the spot where, a few hours before, she and her attendant had been
+captured. It remained now to get beyond the tory encampment. Could she
+be permitted to pass down the mountain, in the road, but a half mile,
+she might then consider the danger mostly over, and proceed on to the
+tavern in comparative safety. And, though aware that this portion of
+the way might be scarcely less dangerous than any she had passed over,
+yet, tempted by the facility with which it could be accomplished in
+the road, she resolved to make the attempt, and accordingly, with a
+guarded but rapid step, began to move down the sloping way before her.
+But she had proceeded but a short distance, when she was startled by
+the loud report of firearms in the direction of the tory encampment,
+which, as already described, were, just at that moment, being
+discharged at the escaping canoe. While pausing in doubt at the
+meaning of this unexpected outbreak, the random firing of Woodburn's
+party which we noted as soon following that of the tories, now burst
+from the forest a little before her on the left, and greatly in
+creased her perplexity. Suddenly conceiving the idea, from these
+circumstances, that the tories had been assailed in their rear, and
+were now retreating towards her, and this notion being the next moment
+confirmed by the glimpses she caught of a dark form emerging from the
+bushes on the left, whom she mistook for a foe, she hastily turned and
+fled, in agitation and alarm, into the opposite forest bordering the
+road on the south, having thus approached within a few rods of the
+very men who were in search of her, and thus unconsciously eluded
+their friendly grasp. Though intending soon to turn her course
+eastward, so as to come out again into the road at such a point as
+should place her beyond any danger of a recapture, yet, urged by her
+fears lest her foes should cross the road and overtake her, she
+pressed on so far into the depths of the woods, that when she paused
+to change her course, she became confused and doubtful respecting the
+direction she should take to regain the road in the manner she had
+proposed. She had now no further knowledge of the make of the land, or
+the situation of the hills, by which she could be guided. But at
+length, fixing on a course which she thought most likely to be the
+right one, she again set forward, slowly picking her way through the
+swampy and tangled tract of forest into which she seemed now to have
+entered. In this manner she pursued her dubious course onward nearly
+an hour, every moment expecting that the next would bring her out into
+the road. At length she fell in with a small stream, which she rightly
+judged to be one of the brooks running into Black River, and which,
+from what she knew of the course of that river, she supposed would
+lead nearly in the direction she sought to go. But on stooping down to
+feel the current, she, to her great surprise, found it running in a
+course directly opposite from what she expected. Scarcely knowing now
+which way to direct her steps, she passed over the stream, and, with a
+sense of desolation, growing out of the thought that she was lost in
+the depths of the wilderness, which she had never before experienced,
+wandered on, and on, for several of the successive hours of that dark
+and dismal night. At last she came to the top of a high swell, where,
+the new aspect presented in the slope of the forest before her
+naturally causing her to pause, she dropped down upon an old mossy log
+to rest her worn and wearied frame, and try to collect her confused
+and scattered faculties. While here endeavoring to rally her sinking
+spirits, and compose her thoughts so as to look more coolly on her
+situation, she began to discern, through the openings of the foliage,
+the dark outlines of a high mountain, rising, at the distance of two
+or three miles, directly in front of her. It now occurred to her that,
+like other persons lost in the woods, of whom she had heard, she might
+have been, all this time, wandering in a circle, and that the mountain
+before her might be the very one she supposed she had left far behind
+her, west of the tory encampment. If this supposition should prove
+correct, the long-sought road must lie somewhere between her and the
+mountain in view, and a little more perseverance in that direction
+would consequently put an end to those perplexities which were now
+becoming more painful and dread than any sensations she had
+experienced from the pursuit of her enemies. Encouraged by the gleam
+of hope which this thought imparted to her almost despairing mind, she
+started up, and again nerved herself for the task of meeting the many
+difficulties which she knew, at the best, yet remained to be overcome.
+It had, by this time, in consequence of a scattering of the clouds, or
+the rising of a waning moon, become perceptibly lighter, and, for the
+next hour, her progress was much more direct and easy. By this time,
+she came to a spot in the forest which was sufficiently open to give
+her another and fairer view of the mountain she had been approaching.
+She looked upon its dark sides a moment, and the pleasant delusion
+under which she had been laboring wholly vanished from her mind. She
+saw it could not be the mountain she had hoped to find it, nor indeed
+any she had ever seen; and she again gave herself up as lost, perhaps,
+irretrievably lost, far away and deep in the dark recesses of a
+howling wilderness, from which she might never be extricated. And yet
+her usual firmness did not wholly forsake her. "_Is not your life of
+more value than many sparrows_ in the sight of Him who careth for
+all?" she mentally exclaimed; and she was calmed and comforted by the
+ready affirmative which her faith responded.
+
+While casting about her in doubt respecting the next step to be taken,
+she discovered traces of what was evidently once an imperfect road, or
+path, which seemed to extend through a partial opening towards the
+mountain. Thinking it might possibly lead to some human habitation, or
+at least to some place preferable to the open forest for rest and
+shelter till the return of daylight, she resolved to follow it. As she
+proceeded on, she began to detect marks of the woodman's or hunter's
+axe in the trees, here entirely cut down, and there girdled, or
+denuded of their bark as high as the hand could reach. These
+indications of the former presence of men appeared to grow more
+frequent as she went on; and at length she came out into a small
+opening in the forest in the midst of which stood a roughly-constructed
+log-house, or shanty, with a regularly-formed bark roof still standing.
+The remains of smaller and less durable shanties were also visible in
+the vicinity of the former. [Footnote: Colonel Hawks, while traversing
+the wilderness of Vermont, in the French wars, with a regular force,
+among whom was the then Captain John Stark, once encamped near the foot
+of the mountain, in the south part of Cavendish, where the incident we
+are narrating is supposed to have occurred. The mountain still bears
+the name of Hawks's Mountain, and the traces of the encampment, it is
+said are still visible.]
+
+With a cautious and hesitating step, Miss Haviland drew near to this
+rude structure, and at once perceived, by the appearance of the
+unguarded loop-hole window, and the open entrance, before which the
+untrodden wild weeds were growing, that it was untenanted. Approaching
+still nearer, and peering into the window, she discovered, in one
+corner of the deserted apartment, a comfortable-looking bed, composed
+of branches of the hemlock, which she rightly concluded had been
+collected and used by hunters, who occasionally made the place their
+quarters for the night. Immediately concluding to avail herself of the
+advantages which this shelter and primitive couch seemed to promise
+for obtaining the rest her exhausted system so much needed, she
+entered, and, throwing herself down on the soft and yielding boughs,
+soon surrendered herself to the influence of the grateful repose, and
+fell asleep. She was soon, however, awakened--by what she knew not,
+unless by the feeling of uneasiness and apprehension, by which she now
+found herself unaccountably agitated. She had heard, or read, of those
+mysterious intimations, by which, it is said, we sometimes
+instinctively become apprised of impending danger, when there is no
+apparent cause for apprehension, and when reason utters no warning. If
+such instances ever in reality occurred, this might be one of them; or
+the impression might have been unconsciously received from actual
+sounds, which came from foes now secretly lurking near, and which, as
+it is known often to be the case, had fallen on her slumbering ear,
+and disturbed and troubled, without fully awakening her. But whatever
+the cause of the strange foreboding, the effect soon became too strong
+and exciting to permit her longer to remain passive. And she arose to
+examine the apartment, and see what precautions could be taken to
+render it more safe against the intrusion of enemies, whether they
+should come in the shape of men or wild beasts. On approaching the
+entrance, she discovered, standing by the side of it against the wall
+a sort of rough door made of long cuts of thick bark, confined by
+withes to two cross-pieces, and intended, evidently, as there were no
+contrivances for hanging it, to be set up against the entrance on the
+inside as a barrier against the cold, or the unwelcome intrusion of
+any thing from without. But it had become so water-soaked and heavy,
+and the end on which it stood so firmly set in the ground, that she
+found, on making the attempt, her strength unequal to the task of
+removing it. And she turned away to look for other means of protecting
+herself from danger. Casting her eyes upward, she perceived, lying
+loose on the beams, or rather poles, extending across the room above,
+several long pieces of bark, which had been left there, probably, when
+the roof, of the same material, was constructed. And it immediately
+occurred to her, that, if she could mount this loft, she might so
+dispose of herself there as to escape the observation of any human
+intruders, and, at the same time, be out of reach of any wild beasts
+that should enter the room below. Accordingly, going to one corner,
+she began to mount by stepping on the projecting sides of the logs in
+the two converging walls, and soon succeeded in reaching the loft, and
+forming, from the bark, a piece of flooring sufficiently strong and
+broad to bear her weight and screen her person from observation. Upon
+this she extended herself, face downwards, with her eyes placed to a
+small aperture, to enable her to see what might happen in the room
+below, and silently, but with highly excited expectation, awaited the
+event. But what event did she expect? She could not tell; and yet she
+was wholly unable to divest herself of the continually intruding idea
+that something fearful was about to occur; and impelled by the
+singular apprehension, she could not help listening for sounds which
+might herald the approaching evil. For some time, however, no sounds
+reached her ears, except those low, mingled murmurs which are peculiar
+to the forest in the stillness of night. But at length her quickened
+organs were greeted by some noise which she knew was not a fancied
+one; and the next moment the sound of human footsteps became
+distinctly audible. Presently she heard voices at the door, and then
+saw two dark forms cautiously entering the room below. After walking
+around the apartment and thrusting the muzzles of their guns into
+corners, with the apparent purpose of ascertaining whether any one was
+concealed within, they approached the pile of boughs before described,
+and gave vent to their satisfaction at finding so good a bed, in a
+short, guttural _ugh!_ which proclaimed them, to the trembling
+listener above, to be Indians, and of those, doubtless, who had been
+sent out in pursuit of her. They then proceeded to draw up the old
+door and barricade the entrance after which they set their guns
+against the wall, and camped down on the bed in the corner.
+
+It would be difficult to describe the sensations with which the
+hapless girl witnessed what had occurred; and these, with the fear of
+what might still be in store for her, nearly filled the measure of her
+distress and perplexity; for although she had thus far escaped
+observation, and although she soon had the satisfaction of knowing, by
+the heavy and measured breathing which reached her ears, that her foes
+had sunk into a deep sleep, yet how was she, even now, to avoid
+falling into their merciless hands? Should she attempt to descend and
+escape through the window, could she effect her purpose without being
+heard and detected? She feared not. And should she remain in her
+present situation till daylight, would her terrible visitors then
+awaken and depart without discovering her? This alternative appeared
+to her even less promising than the other. And yet one of the two
+courses must be adopted. Which should it be? While anxiously
+reflecting on the subject, fresh noises in the woods arrested her
+attention. These were also the sounds of footsteps, but evidently not
+those of any human prowler. With a light, quick pat, pat, pat, the
+animal came up to the door, paused, and snuffed the air through the
+crevices. He then moved along to the window, reared himself on his
+hind legs, thrust in his nose, and after giving two or three quick,
+eager snuffs there also, withdrew, and trotted off, at a moderate
+pace, a short distance into the forest, where he appeared to come to a
+sudden halt. The next moment, the long, unearthly howl of a wolf rose
+shrill and tremulous from the spot, and died slowly away, in strange,
+wild cadences, among the echoing mountains around. Sabrey
+instinctively shuddered at the fearful sound, but instantly turned her
+attention to the sleeping Indians, whom she expected to hear rousing
+up and rushing out with their guns after the insidious prowler. But
+they, to her surprise, snored on, unconscious of the danger. The howl
+was soon repeated, when short, faint responses, in the same shrill,
+savage modulations, became audible in every direction in the
+surrounding forest. These answering cries, growing more distinct and
+loud every moment, in their evident approach to the spot where the
+first signal howl was given, now fully apprised the agitated listener
+of the fearful character of the scene which was likely soon to occur
+beneath or around her. In an incredibly short space of time, the
+gathering troop of famished monsters seemed to be arriving and
+arranging themselves under their invoking leader to be led on to the
+promised prey. And soon the trampling of multitudinous feet evinced
+that they were in motion and cautiously advancing towards the house.
+The next moment, they all appeared to have assembled under the window,
+and paused as if to plan the mode of attack. After a brief interval,
+in which no sounds could be distinguished but the low, suppressed
+snuffling of the troop for the scented prey, a large wolf leaped up
+into the narrow aperture paused a second and then quickly thrusting
+his balanced body forward, dropped noiselessly down on the ground
+floor within. Another, and another, and another, followed in rapid
+succession, till more than half a score of the gaunt, grim monsters
+had landed inside, and silently arranged themselves in a row before
+the bed of their intended victims, who still strangely slept on. One
+more fearful pause succeeded, in which the greedy band seemed to be
+eagerly eyeing the fated sleepers, and marking out portions of their
+bodies for the deadly gripe; when suddenly springing forward, they all
+fiercely pounced upon the victims, and, with the seeming noise of a
+thousand wrangling fiends, mingled with the sharp, short, half-stifled
+screeches of human agony, that were heard in the hideous din, seized,
+throttled, and tore them, limb from limb, to pieces, and bore off the
+dissevered parts, munching and snarling, to different corners of the
+room. The noise now for a short time subsided, and nothing was heard
+but the low, broken growls of the cannibal troop, as they busily
+craunched the bones, and tore the flesh on which they were raking
+their horrid feast. Then followed the fierce and noisy encounters for
+the decreasing fragments, till none were left worth contending for.
+
+At this juncture, two of the half-glutted but still ravenous gang,
+relinquishing the well-picked bones on which they had been laboring,
+rose, and, advancing into the middle of the room, stood a moment
+listlessly viewing the operations of the rest; when they suddenly
+started, and, turning slowly round and round, began busily to snuff
+the air, and throw their noses upward in search of some fresh game
+that appeared now to have struck their keen olfactories. The
+affrighted maiden, who had been witnessing this hideous scene from her
+hitherto unsuspected concealment above, with blood curdling in horror
+at the sights and sounds that reached her recoiling senses, now
+shuddered in fresh alarm; for she but too well understood what this
+new and fearfully-significant movement of the wolves portended. And,
+instinctively withdrawing her face from her loop-hole of observation,
+she hastily drew herself up in the middle of her frail support, so as
+to be as far as possible out of the reach of her expected assailants.
+But they at once detected the slight sounds occasioned by her
+movement, and, now guided by two senses instead of one, instantly
+began to gnash their teeth, and, with wild howls, to leap upward after
+their newly-discovered prey. And although her position was more than
+seven feet from the ground,--a height which, it might be supposed,
+could not have been reached by this class of animals in a
+perpendicular leap,--yet so desperate had the present gang become by
+the taste of human blood, that they soon, in their determined and
+constantly-repeated efforts, began to strike and seize the beams with
+their teeth, by which they would hang suspended a moment, and then
+drop back again to the ground for another trial. The terrified maiden
+now gave herself up as lost, and tried to quell the tumult of her
+frenzied feelings, that she might meet her approaching fate, as
+dreadful as it was, with calmness and resignation. But the terrific
+noise of her maddened assailants, as they leaped up, snapping,
+snarling, and howling, in demoniac chorus, and made nearer and nearer
+approaches every moment to her person, once more aroused her natural
+instinct for self-preservation; and she arose, and, standing upon her
+feet, involuntarily bent over one end of her support to catch a view
+of what was passing below.
+
+In withdrawing her shrinking gaze from the fiercely upheaving heads
+and fiery eyeballs which there greeted her, she espied the guns of the
+Indians still standing against the wall, almost directly beneath her,
+with the muzzles extending upward within the reach of her arm. With
+the rapid process of thought which danger is known often to beget, a
+new plan of deliverance, suggested by the discovery just made, was
+instantly formed and digested in her mind. And in its pursuance, she
+drew a white handkerchief from her pocket, and, hastily folding it
+together, threw it down to the farthest corner of the room below. As
+she had anticipated, the whole gang rushed after it. And instantly
+seizing the opportunity thus afforded to execute her design, she
+hastily balanced herself on the edge of the bark the most nearly over
+the guns, reached down her arm, grasped one of the muzzles, and drew
+up the heavy weapon, just in time to escape the baffled brutes as they
+came bounding back, with redoubled howls of rage and disappointment,
+to the spot. Too much accustomed, in the new settlement in which she
+had been mostly reared, to the sight and even handling of fire-arms
+not to know how to use them, she cocked the piece, and, again
+advancing to the edge of her platform, pointed down into the thickest
+of the infuriated pack, and fired. One wild, piercing yelp followed
+the deafening explosion, and, the next instant, all the survivors of
+the hushed and frightened gang were heard scrambling through the
+window, and scattering and fleeing off with desperate speed into the
+surrounding forest. With the last sounds of the retreating steps of
+the wolves, and with the relief which a returning sense of safety
+brought to the over-wrought feelings of the maiden, all her strength
+gave way, and, sinking down, weak and helpless as an infant, she
+sobbed out, in the broken murmurs of an overflowing heart, her
+gratitude to Heaven for her deliverance from the horrid death from
+which she had so narrowly escaped. For a while she could only tremble
+and weep; but at length the violence of her emotions began gradually
+to subside, exhausted nature would be cheated no longer, and she sunk
+into slumber, too sound, happily, to permit her to dream over the
+fearful scenes of the past.
+
+When she awoke, it was broad daylight, and all was quiet within, while
+without the birds were chanting their morning melodies. At first she
+could scarcely believe that the scene she had passed through was not
+the distempered imaginings of some frightful dream. But there, on the
+blood-stained floor beneath her, lay the carcass of a dead wolf, and
+the scattered bones of the slain Indians, to attest the dreadful
+reality. Hastening down from the loft into the room, and averting her
+eyes from the revolting spectacle, she hurried forward with a shudder
+to the door, effected an opening sufficient for her egress, and rushed
+out into the open air, of which she now drew a long, grateful
+inhalation, more expressive than words of the deep sense of inward
+pleasure she experienced in being freed from this den of horrors.
+
+Believing that, by the advantages daylight would now afford her, she
+might be able to retrace her way to the road, she immediately sought
+out and entered the old path by which she had approached the cabin;
+and this serving to indicate the general course she must pursue to
+accomplish her purpose, she followed it back to the end, and then
+passed on through the forest in the same direction. She had proceeded
+but a short distance, however, before she was startled by the
+unexpected appearance of a man advancing through the thick intervening
+undergrowth directly towards her. As she was about to strike out
+obliquely into the forest to avoid him, her steps were arrested by his
+voice calling out to her.
+
+"Don't be alarmed at a friend, young lady," he said, in a plausible
+manner, as he came forward and stopped at a respectful distance--"don't
+be alarmed at my appearance at all; for you are the one, I take it,
+that we are searching for. It is Miss Haviland, is it not?"
+
+"Yes, sir," replied the latter, looking doubtfully at the man whom she
+thought she had somewhere before seen--"yes, that is my name; but as
+there may be both friends and foes out in search of me, you will
+excuse me for saying that I do not know to which of these you belong."
+
+"True, true," said the other, in a wheedling tone--"true; I don't
+blame you for being a little cautious. So I must tell you that, living
+in these parts, and being acquainted with Captain Woodburn, I
+volunteered, when I heard you were lost last night, to go with the
+rest in search of you. And being now so lucky as to find you, I will
+conduct you out to Coffin's--four or five miles from this, I
+suppose--where your friends are anxiously waiting to see or get word
+of you."
+
+Although our heroine was not exactly pleased with the manner and
+countenance of the man, yet the charm of the name of Woodburn, to whom
+he had so artfully referred, restored her confidence, and she at once
+and thankfully accepted of his proffered guidance, little suspecting
+that she had yielded herself to the most subtle of her foes--the
+deceitful and treacherous David Redding!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+  "Then marched the brave from rocky steep,
+     From mountain river, swift and cold.
+   The borders of the stormy deep,
+   The vales where gathered waters sleep,
+     Bent up the strong and bold."--_Bryant_
+
+
+The bold and decisive measures of the Council of Safety had by this
+time begun to manifest themselves in results little anticipated by the
+adherents of the royal cause in Vermont. The latter, emboldened both
+by the presence of a powerful British army on their borders, and the
+doubts and difficulties which, for a while, were known to have
+embarrassed and rendered ineffectual the deliberations of their
+opponents, had become so assured and confident of an easy conquest,
+that in some sections they proceeded openly in the work of enlistment,
+and in others pushed forward their parties into the very heart of the
+interior, before perceiving their error; while, by their
+representations at headquarters, they completely deceived Burgoyne and
+his advisers respecting the true state of feeling that animated the
+bosoms of the great mass of the people--a fact made abundantly
+evident, not only by the subsequent confessions of that general, but
+by all his operations at the time, and especially that of the
+short-sighted expedition, which we have before shown him to have
+planned and set afoot, under Peters, to the Connecticut River. It was
+no wonder, therefore, that when they now suddenly discovered the whole
+state in motion--armed men springing up in every glen, nook, and
+corner of the Green Mountains, and concentrating to join another no
+less unexpected, and no less formidable force, which was understood to
+be rapidly advancing from New Hampshire--it was no wonder they were
+taken wholly by surprise, and slunk silently away to their retreats,
+or immediately fled to the British army, whom they still neglected to
+undeceive.
+
+It was about one week subsequent to the events last recited; and the
+interim had been marked with little, as far as immediately concerned
+the action of our story, and those of its personages to whom we must
+now return--with very little to which pen can do justice, except what
+the reader's imagination probably has already anticipated; for though
+thrilling events may be described with a good degree of adequacy,
+there are yet certain states of high wrought feeling that language can
+never but feebly portray. The search for the lost maiden, on the
+eventful night of her capture and escape, had been, as the reader will
+have inferred, as vain and fruitless as it was agonizing to her lover,
+and anxious to all. The renewal of the search next day, till
+afternoon, had been no better rewarded. More force having then
+arrived, the tory encampment was assailed, but found empty of
+occupants, who had, some hours before, scattered and fled. Still
+unwilling to relinquish his object, Woodburn, with a small party of
+his friends, continued his efforts in wider ranges through the forest,
+which, on the third morning, brought him to the cabin in which her
+most fearful trials had occurred; when the dead wolf, the remnants of
+the slain Indians, not yet wholly carried off by the foxes or
+returning wolves, the guns, the torn and blood-stained earth, and,
+above all, the white shreds of some part of female apparel, discolored
+and scattered round the room, told a tale, that, in spite of the
+entreaties of his sympathizing friends, who deemed the evidence not
+yet wholly conclusive, drove the appalled lover, in a frenzy of grief
+and horror, from the dreadful scene.
+
+It was about a week, as we have said, after that night of adventure
+and excitement. Three companies of the newly-enlisted regiment of
+Rangers, embracing all the recruits yet raised on the east side of the
+mountains, were paraded in the road before Coffin's tavern, while
+their officers were standing listless on the grass in front, and
+occasionally throwing inquiring glances along the road to the east, as
+if awaiting some expected arrival from that quarter. At length
+Woodburn, on whose brow rested an air of gloomy sternness, advanced,
+and calling his sergeant and scoutmaster, Dunning, to his side, in a
+low tone, imparted to him some private order or suggestion; when the
+latter, beckoning from the ranks his and the reader's old
+acquaintance, Bill Piper, who was also a subaltern in the same
+company, the two laid aside their guns and equipments, and proceeded
+leisurely down the road, the way in which the attention of all seemed
+directed. After proceeding about a quarter of a mile, they came to a
+turn in the road, which, now becoming invisible from the tavern, led
+down a long hill, and entered an extended piece of woods nearly
+another quarter of a mile distant.
+
+"Well," said Dunning, here pausing and casting his eyes forward to the
+woods, "they der don't seem to make their appearance yet. I ditter
+think they must have halted there by the brook to drink and rest a
+little so we will stop at this point, where we can see both ways; and
+when the troops begin to show themselves, we'll then give the signal."
+
+With this, they threw themselves down in the cool shade of a tree by
+the way side, and, for a while, yielded themselves to that listless,
+dreamy mood, which reclining in the shade, after exercise, on a warm
+day, almost invariably induces.
+
+"Dunning," said Piper, at length rousing up a little, and drawing from
+his pocket a well-filled leathern purse, which he carelessly chinked
+against his upraised knee, by way of preliminary--"Dunning, it is a
+mystery to me where all this stuff comes from. Six weeks ago, it was
+thought there were scarcely a thousand hard dollars, except what was
+in tory families, in all the _Grants_. Now, there must be well on to
+that sum even in our own company, every recruit having been paid his
+bounty and month's advance pay, in silver or gold, on the spot. Where
+does it come from?"
+
+"From the sales of the der tory estates, of which they have been
+making a clean sweep, you know," replied the other.
+
+"Yes, yes, we all know that, I suppose; but where do the purchasers of
+these estates get the money to buy with?" rejoined the former.
+
+"I never ditter catechized them about it," said the hunter, evasively.
+
+"Nor I," remarked Piper; "but I have lately heard a curious story
+about the matter. They say there has been a sort of homespun-looking
+old fellow, that nobody seems to know, following the commissioners of
+sales round, from place to place, with an old horse and cart,
+seemingly loaded with wooden ware, or some such kind of gear, for
+peddling; and that he has bid off a great part of all the farms, and
+stock on them, which have been sold, paying down for them on the spot
+in hard money, which they say he carries about with him tied up in old
+stockings, and hid away in his load of trumpery. Some mistrust he is a
+Jew; and some are afraid he is a British agent, not only buying up
+farms, but also the Council of Safety, who are also strangely full of
+money these days."
+
+"That last would prove a rather ditter tough bargain for him and his
+masters, I reckon," responded the hunter, dryly.
+
+"Yes, that is all nonsense, no doubt," observed Piper. "But still it
+is a mystery to my mind, how money, that a short time ago was so
+scarce, should now all at once be so plenty; and that was the reason I
+raised the question before you, who generally know pretty near what is
+going on among our head men, and who, I thought likely, could easily
+explain this secret."
+
+"No," said the other; "no, Bill; there might be der trouble about
+that. When a state secret falls into my ears, it is not so easy to get
+it out of my mouth. I've got an impediment in my ditter speech, you
+know," he added, with a slight twinkle of the eye.
+
+"Your mouth goes off well enough on some public matters, I find,"
+remarked Piper, with an air fluctuating between a miff and a laugh.
+
+"Der yes, to say, for instance, that the decree to confiscate and sell
+the tory estates was a ditter righteous one--has worked like a
+charm--called out the rusty dollars from their hiding-places thick as
+der bumblebees in June--ditter drove off the blue devils from among
+the people, and raised a regiment of men in less than three weeks!"
+
+"Ah! and a fine regiment, too, it will be. I long to see it all
+wrought together, for I don't know a tenth of them--men or
+officers--not even our colonel."
+
+"Herrick? Well, I can't der quite say I should know him now; but he is
+a ditter go-ahead fellow, who loves the smell of gunpowder nearly as
+well as Seth Warner himself, whose pupil he is in the trade. We shall
+have the pleasure of seeing him in a few minutes, probably, as Coffin
+told me he passed along here night before last, on the way to _Number
+Four_, to come on with Stark. _That_ may be told without ditter mischief."
+
+"And so may another thing, perhaps, which I should like to know, Dunning."
+
+"Der what is that, Bill?"
+
+"Why, you know that Bart, the night after we discovered the place
+where we supposed the girl was destroyed, disappeared, and has not
+been here since. Where have they sent him, and what after?"
+
+"Piper, you are as brave as a lion, and as strong as a horse, der
+doubtless; but your tongue may ditter need training, for all that.
+Still, as you mean right, and will probably learn to bridle that
+unruly member only by practice, I will, for once, put you to the
+trial. Bart has gone a spy to the British camp. Though Harry, in his
+despair, would for a while believe nothing but that she was der dead,
+or worse, yet, as I and others, putting all things together, hoped and
+reasoned ditter different, in part, and thought she might not have
+been killed there, but retaken; and, for fear of pursuit, hurried off
+directly to the British, he concluded to despatch Bart to his friend
+Allen, of the Council, to take advice, and then proceed in some
+disguise or other, right into the lion's den--ascertain whether the
+girl was there--and, after ditter learning what he could about the
+enemy's movements, return with the news."
+
+"Well, I'll be chunked if the project wan't a bold one! But if any
+creature on earth can carry it out, it is Bart; and he will, unless
+they get word from this quarter that such a fellow is among them. Ah!
+I now see the need of a close mouth on the subject, and will keep one,
+thanking you kindly, Dunning, for your caution and confidence."
+
+"It will be all right, I presume, Bill, now you perceive Bart's neck
+may depend on your ditter discretion. But who have we there?" added
+the speaker, pointing down the road towards the woods.
+
+While Dunning and Piper were thus engrossed in conversation, two men,
+on foot, had emerged from the woods and approached within a hundred
+yards, before attracting the attention of the former. They were
+without coats, or in their shirt sleeves, as, in common parlance, is
+the phrase for such undress; and, having handkerchiefs tied round
+their heads, and carrying in their hands rough sticks, picked up by
+the way-side, for canes, they presented an appearance, as they
+leisurely came along up the ascending road, with occasional glances
+back towards the woods, that left Dunning and his companion wholly in
+doubt, while attempting to decide who or what they were.
+
+"Now, who knows," said the wary hunter, "but they may be der tory
+spies, hanging round the skirts of Stark's army, and intending soon to
+be off cross-lots to the British, to report his progress. I'll ditter
+banter them a little, at all hazards, before we let 'em pass."
+
+But as the strangers drew near, their appearance grew less and less
+like that of the ordinary footpads for whom they had been taken; and
+there was something in their bearing which considerably shook, though
+it did not wholly alter, the hunter's intention to banter them. One
+was a strongly-built, broad-chested man, with a high head, hardy brown
+features, and a countenance betokening much cool energy and decision
+of character. The other was rather less stocky, and slightly taller,
+of quicker motions, but withal a prompt, resolute-looking person.
+
+"Well, my friends," said the former, coming up and pausing before the
+expectant Rangers, with an air that seemed to challenge conversation,
+"this is Coffin's tavern here ahead, I suppose. Will the captain be
+pleased, think ye, to see a little company about this time?"
+
+"Der yes," replied Dunning, eyeing the speaker with a curious, half
+doubtful and half quizzing expression. "Yes, if of the right sort, he
+wont ditter cry, I reckon. But the captain is sometimes rather
+particular--for instance, if you should happen to be tories----"
+
+"Tories!--do we look like tories?" demanded the former glancing to his
+companion with a droll, surprised look.
+
+"Why der no," replied the hunter, a little abashed, "I ditter think not."
+
+"Well, I had hoped not," rejoined the man. "But who are you, my
+friend--one of the Green Mountain Boys, that we hear so much about?"
+
+"Not far from the mark, sergeant, or commissary, or whatever is your
+ditter title; for you belong to the army that's at hand, I take it?"
+said Dunning.
+
+"O, yes," briskly returned the other, again looking at his companion,
+and joining him in a merry laugh. "Yes, I am one of them, and mean to
+have a hand in stirring up Burgoyne, when we reach him, I assure you."
+
+"That's right, commissary!" exclaimed Dunning. "You are a der chap of
+some pluck, I'll warrant it. I begin to ditter like you. What shall I
+call your name, friend?"
+
+"My name is John Stark, if you will allow," replied the stranger, with
+an amused look.
+
+"John Stark? Why, that's your der general's name!" said the hunter,
+incredulously. "Come, come, friend, you are ditter gumming me. I have
+seen John Stark--Captain Stark, that was then--now general--the same
+that was bought back by our folks for a white pony--ditter dog cheap,
+too, as the British will find, before he is der done with them, or I
+mistake the amount of fight that's in the critter, amazingly."
+[Footnote: When General Stark was exposed for sale in Montreal, by the
+Indians, by whom he had been captured in the French war, and some of
+his countrymen were trying in vain to make his savage master set a
+price on him, an English gentleman happened to ride by on a handsome
+white pony, which so greatly struck the Indian's fancy, that, pointing
+after the coveted animal, he exclaimed, "Ah! ugh! me take that you get
+him." Whereupon the gentleman was followed, the pony purchased, and,
+with it, the captive Stark redeemed.]
+
+"Thank you, sir!" heartily exclaimed the former, now evidently as much
+gratified as amused at what he heard. "In behalf of that same John
+Stark, I thank you, sir, for your good opinion of him. But where, my
+good fellow," he continued, with at look of lively interest, "where
+did you ever fall in with Captain Stark?"
+
+"Why, in the old war, when he der marched through here with Colonel
+Hawk, I ditter acted as the colonel's guide over the mountains to
+Otter Creek. Stark, as I've said, was one of the captains, though I
+wasn't much with him, to be sure," replied the hunter, becoming more
+doubtful and puzzled every moment, at the turn matters were taking.
+
+"Ah! yes, yes,--our hunter guide on that rough march! I remember now.
+Well, well, the fault is not wholly on one side after all!" said the
+other, musingly.
+
+"Der--der--ditter how? der--ditter--" began Dunning opening his eyes
+with an uneasy stare.
+
+"This is General Stark, my boys," here quickly interposed the other
+gentleman. "I see by your badges that you belong to the Rangers. I am
+your colonel, Herrick, and this the general himself, who, by way of
+relief from a long ride in the saddle, threw off his uniform, like
+myself, down in the woods yonder, and walked on, while the troops were
+halting to refresh a moment, and recover from the effects of their
+march in this scalding heat, before they made their appearance at your
+rendezvous. They will now be on the move shortly."
+
+"Der--der--ditter--" cried the confused hunter, rising hurriedly to
+his feet, and lifting his cap, in a tremor of respectful deprecation,
+before the general, while his tongue began to trip and fly in the vain
+attempt to get out an apology--"der--der--ditter--ditter--ditter--"
+
+"Never mind, my brave fellow!" exclaimed Stark, with a hearty slap on
+the other's shoulder; "never mind a mistake so naturally growing out
+of our unmilitary guise. No offence, even had your remarks been less
+pleasant. But you, sir!--why, you have paid me the greatest compliment
+I ever had in my life!"
+
+"No--no offence whatever to either of us," added Herrick. "But yonder
+come the columns of our friends and helpers from New Hampshire. If you
+are here to give notice of their approach, as I suppose, make the
+signal, and back to your post. And here, general," he continued,
+pointing to two fine-looking and gayly caparisoned horses, now led up
+by waiters, with the coats, swords, sashes, and great military cocked
+hats of the denuded officers swinging on their arms--"here, general,
+come our horses and uniforms. Let us rig up before a worse mistake
+shall befall us."
+
+With a curious mixture of chagrin and gratification at what had just
+occurred, the two Rangers now made the appointed signal, and hurried
+back to join their companions in arms at the tavern. And in a few
+minutes, the fine little brigade of the hardy and resolute New
+Hampshire Boys, headed by their intrepid leader, now equipped in
+imposing regimentals, and mounted on his curvetting charger, came
+pouring along the plain in all the pomp of martial array, and were
+received by the customary military salutes, and the reiterated cheers
+of their congenial welcomers of the Green Mountains.
+
+The hour that succeeded was a bustling and a joyous one. The
+greetings, the introductions, the mutual compliments for deeds done at
+Ticonderoga and Bunker Hill, and the merry jokes given and taken, as
+the mingling forces partook of the good cheer prepared for the whole
+at the expense of the public or patriotic individuals, together with
+the strong community of feeling that agitated their bosoms in view of
+a common object to be accomplished, and common dangers to be
+encountered,--all combined to render the scene one of no ordinary
+interest and animation. At length, the drums of the different
+companies began to beat to arms, and the soldiers were seen gathering
+at their respective stands, preparatory to the march of the combined
+forces across the mountains.
+
+At this juncture, a single horseman came galloping along the road from
+the west; and, the next moment, Ira Allen, the active and untiring
+secretary of the Council of Safety, with a countenance betokening good
+or exciting news, rode up to the door, and, throwing himself from the
+saddle, turned to receive the greetings of his acquaintances gathering
+round him. With a significant look and gesture to Woodburn to follow,
+he led the way to an unoccupied room, at length found in the crowded
+tavern.
+
+"What news do you bring, Mr. Allen?" said Woodburn, with an effort at
+calmness, as soon as the two were by themselves.
+
+"That which will scatter the blackest part of that cloud on your brow,
+I trust, my dear fellow," replied Allen, with an animated and exulting
+air. "Here, look at this!" he added, pulling out and presenting a
+small and closely-folded letter.
+
+With trembling eagerness, Woodburn seized the missive, and, with a
+glance at the well-known hand of the superscription, "To Captain
+Woodburn, or Mr. Allen, of the Council," opened it, and read as
+follows:--
+
+"I am at the British head-quarters--not exactly a prisoner but
+evidently a closely-watched personage, having reached here with my
+captors, after a forced and fatiguing journey, which however, was not
+made unpleasant by any disrespectful treatment. Although the party, to
+whom I became a prisoner, have been frightened back or recalled, and
+the expedition, of which they were the advance, given up, yet I think
+it my duty to say that another, and much more formidable one, is in
+agitation against Bennington. I hope our people will be prepared for
+it, and show these haughty Britons that they do not deserve the name
+of the undisciplined rabble of poltroons and cowards by which I here
+daily hear them branded. S. H."
+
+We will not attempt to describe the emotions of Woodburn on the
+occasion. But the letter disclosed that which involved more momentous
+interests than those merely that concerned the individual feelings of
+a lover. And it was soon concluded to lay it before General Stark,
+who, with Colonel Herrick, was then called in, the letter shown, and
+all the attending circumstances, past and present, so far as concerned
+the public to know, fully explained.
+
+Mean while the troops were drawn up, in marching order, before the
+tavern, and stood wondering why their general did not appear, or, at
+least, give order for the column to move onward.
+
+At length, however, the long expected leader, attended by those with
+whom he had been in consultation, made his appearance at the door, and
+ordered the horses of those who were to travel mounted to be led forward.
+
+"There's something more than common on John Stark's mind," whispered a
+tall New Hampshire Boy, to his fellow in the ranks. "See how his eyes
+snap! I am an old neighbor of his, you know, and can read him like a
+book. I shouldn't be surprised if we heard from him soon; for he an't
+one of those that like to keep chawing on a thing that makes him feel,
+but wants to out with it, and always will, unless he has good reason for
+a close mouth. Yes, I'll bet a goose we hear from him before we start."
+
+The speaker had conjectured rightly. Stark was heard to say to Allen,--
+
+"Mount and ride along against the centre there, sir, where you can
+best be heard. We must have it; for, besides preparing their minds for
+what they probably must soon meet, it will make a battle cry for your
+boys and mine as potent, for aught we can tell, as was the name of
+Joan of Arc among the Frenchmen."
+
+The officers, with Allen, then sprung into their saddles; and as the
+latter reached his allotted post, and faced round to the lines, the
+general commanded attention, and added,--
+
+"My men, let me introduce you to Mr. Allen, the patriotic secretary of
+the Vermont Council of Safety, and say that I hold myself voucher for
+the truth of what he shall tell you. Listen to his communication."
+
+The secretary, now bowing respectfully to the attentive and already
+prepossessed ranks before him, began by saying that among the recreant
+few of any note in the Green Mountains, who had basely deserted their
+country and joined the enemy, there was one who had a daughter of whom
+he was wholly unworthy. The speaker then proceeded to relate Miss
+Haviland's noble stand for the American cause, from which she was not
+to be allured or driven by all the inducements and menaces held out by
+a tory father and lover, both of whom had received royal
+commissions--her absolute refusal to go with them, on their late
+departure for the British army, and her more recent capture and
+abduction, while on her way to her friends, by the probable
+instigation of the rejected lover, and with the connivance, perhaps,
+of the father; all of which was concluded by reading the letter just
+received, it was added, by a trusty messenger, who had gone in
+disguise to the enemy's camp to receive it, and who had now returned
+to keep open the important communication.
+
+"Men of New Hampshire!" now cried Stark, in a loud, animated voice, as
+with flashing eyes he glanced over the throng of upturned and excited
+faces before him, "is it any wonder the Green Mountain Boys are so
+gallant and brave in fighting for their wives and sweethearts, when
+such is a specimen? Will you join them in defence of their homes and
+country, and help fulfil this matchless girl's expectations when we
+meet that taunting foe at Bennington, as by God's favor we will? If
+so, then let it now be told in three cheers for _the good cause_, and
+as many more as you please for _The Tory's Daughter!_"
+
+The next instant, as the bidden drummers brought their sticks to the
+bounding parchment of their instruments with blows that seemingly
+would have thrown their arms from their shoulders, a thousand men were
+seen leaping wildly into the air, and giving their patriotic response
+in a round of cheers that rent the ringing heavens above, and shook
+the startled wilderness for miles around them.
+
+"Order in the ranks!" at length broke in the deep, stern voice of the
+general, as the last cheer was dying away. "Prepare to march! March!"
+
+And the excited troops could scarcely be kept in their places as, with
+the stirring strains of lively fife and rattling drum, they went
+rushing and pouring along on their way to the seat of war.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+  "In dreams the haughty Briton bore
+   The trophies of a conqueror."
+
+
+The scene of our story changes to the vicinity of the Hudson, to which
+the eyes of millions were now turned as the theatre of approaching
+events, on which hung, perhaps, the great issue of the American
+revolution. Although both parties seemed to look upon the matter at
+stake as one of immense magnitude, yet far different were the views
+and feelings which, at this time, pervaded the two opposing armies.
+The British, flushed by their successes, and confident in that
+strength before which every opposing obstacle had thus far given way,
+were looking down with little other than absolute contempt on the
+American forces in their front, believing them wholly incapable,
+either from numbers or courage, of opposing any serious resistance to
+their march, when they chose to move forward. And here thus lay their
+proud and infatuated chief for weeks, dreaming of coronets, frittering
+away the time in feasting with his officers, and indulging himself and
+them in all the follies which characterized their gay and licentious
+camp. On the other hand, the Americans, deeply sensible of the
+consequence of suffering their enemies to effect their contemplated
+junction at Albany, were vigilant, active, and determined. Though
+firmly resolved to dispute the way of the invader to the death when
+they must, they yet preferred, for a while, the policy of embarrassing
+and impeding him, rather than openly exposing themselves to his
+attacks. Whole brigades were therefore employed in the work of
+destroying the bridges, blocking up the roads with fallen trees, and
+putting every possible obstruction in the way of his advance, so that
+his delay, where he now lay at Fort Ann, might be protracted till a
+sufficient force could be gathered to meet him with a more reasonable
+hope of success.
+
+And every hour that hope waxed stronger and stronger. Every day
+brought fresh accessions of strength to their self-devoted bands, and
+every gale wafted to their gladdened ears the sounds of the warlike
+preparations of an aroused and indignant people gathering from afar to
+the rescue; and they began to breathe more freely while they thought,
+as with trembling solicitude they still did, of the fearful meeting
+that must now soon follow.
+
+At the time which we have selected for opening the scene that forms
+the next connecting link in the chain of our tale although the road
+had been at length opened, and a few detachments thrown forward to the
+Hudson, the main part of the British army still lay at Fort Ann; where
+their long lines of tents, marked, at intervals, by the colors of the
+different regiments flying from their slender flagstaffs, were now
+seen stretching, a city of canvas, over the plain. A little apart from
+this imposing array stood a small number of dwelling-houses of
+different sizes, irregularly scattered along on both sides of the road
+towards the south, over the largest of which floated the broad British
+flag, proclaiming it the head-quarters of the commander-in-chief. The
+next, in size and commodiousness, among these various structures,--all
+now occupied by the general officers and other favored personages of
+the army,--was a large, low farmhouse, which the intermingling devices
+of the British and Hanoverian flags, conspicuously displayed from the
+roof, denoted to be the quarters of General Reidesel, suite, and
+well-known family. This last building seemed now to be the principal
+point of attraction. Gayly dressed officers and ladies were seen
+entering the doors, or standing inside at the open windows; while the
+sounds of the familiar greetings, lively sallies, and merry laughter
+of the assembled and assembling company, sufficiently indicated the
+convivial character of the scene about to be enacted within. Let us
+enter. Around a long and richly-furnished table, in the principal
+apartment, were just seated those who deemed themselves the _elite_ of
+that boastful army. Its notorious chief, the weak and wise,
+vain-glorious and energetic Burgoyne, occupied the post of honor, at
+the head, and the fair hostess, the amiable, learned, and vivacious
+Countess of Reidesel, the foot of the table: while, at the sides, were
+ranged, according to the prevailing notions of precedence, the
+variously-ranked individuals composing the rest of the company, among
+whom, with other officers of less note, were Generals Reidesel and
+Frazier, Major Ackland and his devoted wife, together with several
+Americans, including the elated Esquire Haviland and his beautiful
+daughter. The latter who, sorely against her inclinations, had been
+prevailed on, or rather constrained, by her father to attend him to
+the entertainment, was seated by the side of Lady Ackland, to whom she
+seemed shrinkingly to cling as a sort of shield against the fierce
+glances she was compelled to encounter from the eyes of those whom it
+was there counted treason to repulse.
+
+The feast proceeded. With the constant bandying of compliment, joke,
+and repartee, among the merry and self-satisfied lordlings who assumed
+the right of engrossing the conversation, course after course came and
+passed in rapid succession, till a sufficient variety of viands and
+other substantial esculents had been served to warrant the introduction
+of the lighter delicacies of the dessert. But still there seemed to be
+a saving of appetite, a looking for some expected dish that had not yet
+made its appearance, on the part of several of the guests, and especially
+on that of the pompous votary of Mars, who had been installed master of
+the ceremonies, and who at length ventured to say,--
+
+"I had looked, my lady hostess, to have seen, ere this, among your
+many other delectables, the fulfilment of your ladyship's promise
+gracing the table, in the shape of the blackbird pie, wherewith we
+were to be regaled, at your entertainment, if your polite note of
+invitation was rightly read and interpreted."
+
+"O, the blackbird pie!" replied the countess, with a sprightly air and
+a charming touch of the German brogue. "I was waiting to be reminded
+of that; for there is a condition, which I wish to propose to your
+excellency, before the promised extra can make its appearance."
+
+"Ah! What is that, my incomparable cateress?" asked the former.
+
+"Why, only that you carve and serve the pie to the company yourself,
+mon general," archly replied the countess.
+
+"A challenge to your chivalry, general, which no true knight can
+refuse to accept," cried Frazier and others.
+
+"I yield me, and accede to the condition," said Burgoyne, gracefully
+waving his jewelled hand, and joining in the general laugh.
+
+"It is well," said the countess, with a finely-assumed air of mock
+gravity, as she raised her exquisite little table bell, which now,
+under her rapidly-plied fingers, sent its sharp jingle through the
+house.
+
+The next moment, a liveried servant, whose countenance seemed slyly
+gleaming with some suppressed merriment, was seen advancing with a broad,
+deep dish, tastefully crowned by the swelling crust of snow-white pastry,
+which tightly enclosed the supposed contents beneath.
+
+At a motion of the indicating finger of the hostess, the tempting dish
+was brought forward, and carefully placed on the table before the
+many-titled carver, amid a shower of compliments to the distinguished
+artificer of so fine an edible structure, from him and many others of
+the admiring company. The general now rose, and, intent only on a
+dexterous performance of the duties of his new vocation, gave a
+preliminary flourish of knife and fork, and dashed into the middle of
+the pie; when lo! through the rent thus made in the imprisoning crust,
+out flew half a score of live blackbirds, which, fluttering up and
+scattering over the dodging heads of the astonished guests, made for
+the open windows, and escaped, with loud chirping cries, to their
+native meadows! At first, a slight exclamation from the gentlemen, a
+half shriek from the ladies, then a momentary pause, and then one
+universal burst of uproarious laughter, followed this strange
+_denouement_ of the little plot of the playful countess. She, it
+appeared, had engaged a fowler to bring her a couple of dozens of
+blackbirds, which, by a net, he had taken, and brought to her alive;
+when, keeping part as they were, she contrived up the scheme to amuse
+and surprise her guests here described, and, slaying the rest, made of
+them a veritable pie, that was now brought forward, and partaken, with
+great gusto, by the delighted company.
+
+At length the cloth was removed, and the table replenished with
+bottles and glasses. Then followed the usual round of toasts--"the
+health of the king,"--"the invincibility of British arms,"--"success
+to the present expedition,"--and, with many a deriding epithet,
+"confusion to the rebels and their ragged army."
+
+"Fill, gentlemen," said Burgoyne, after the subjects above named had
+been sufficiently exhausted--"fill up your glasses once more; for, in
+descanting on the public responsibilities and glory of the soldier,
+let us not be unmindful of those private felicities which are to
+reward his prowess. I give you," he added, with a significant glance
+at our heroine--"I give you, ladies and gentlemen, the health and
+happiness of our two loyal American officers, Colonel Peters and
+Captain Jones, the prospective bridegrooms of the double wedding of
+to-morrow, extremely regretting that _both_ of the fair participants
+of the happy occasion, instead of one, are not here to give the
+beautiful response of their blushes to the sentiment."
+
+As the lively applause with which this toast was received and drank
+was subsiding, the ladies, to the great relief of the astonished and
+confused Miss Haviland, now rose and retired to another apartment.
+Here, pleading some excuse for an immediate departure, Sabrey hurried
+out through a back way, and escaped unperceived to her father's
+quarters, a small adjoining cottage, where she had lodged since his
+arrival in camp, and where she now secluded herself, to endeavour to
+fathom the plot which the unexpected and unwarranted announcement just
+indirectly made, together with some other circumstances of recent
+occurrence, plainly told was in progress to in snare her.
+
+But it may here be necessary, for a clear understanding of some things
+which have preceded, and others which may follow, to revert briefly to
+the experience of the luckless maiden since placed in her present
+uncongenial and embarrassing position.
+
+When Miss Haviland, on the termination of her compulsory journey,
+arrived at the outposts of the British army, she was conducted, by the
+order of some one evidently apprised of her coming immediately to her
+father's quarters. The old gentleman, at the somewhat awkward meeting
+that now took place between them, seemed both surprised and gratified
+at seeing her there; and though his manner betrayed a sort of guilty
+embarrassment arising, perhaps, from the consciousness of his former
+harshness to her, he yet at once, and pointedly, disclaimed having had
+any agency in her abduction, which he laid to the chances of war; to
+which, he contended, her perverse and unadvised conduct had been the
+means of exposing her. Peters, also, who soon made his appearance,
+joined in the disclaimer; and tendering some empty apologies for what
+had happened, which, he said, grew out of the mistake of a subordinate
+officer in construing an order in relation to taking hostages from the
+enemy, in certain cases, offered to convey her back, if she chose it,
+as soon as found consistent with her safety. The offer, however, was
+never repeated; and his own conduct very soon belied his assertions,
+and convinced her of the truth of her suspicions from the first, that
+he was the sole instigator of the outrage she had received, and that
+it was still his purpose to detain her and keep her in a position
+which would enable him the more effectually to prosecute his designs;
+for although in the few formal calls he continued to make at the
+house, he never pressed his suit, but seemed rather to avoid the
+subject, as if determined to afford her no opportunity to repeat her
+former refusals, she yet quickly perceived that he was busy at his
+intrigues to bring about, by the agency of others and by secret
+management, what by himself, or by any open and honorable means, he
+despaired of accomplishing. All this, from day to day, unfolded itself
+in the renewed importunities and reproaches of her father, the added
+entreaties of Jones, the lover of Miss McRea, then soon expected in
+the British camp to be married, in the reports which had been put in
+circulation to place her in a false light,--that of a perverse and
+coquettish girl,--in the efforts made to force her into social
+parties, where the opinions of all were obviously forestalled, and
+especially in the contrived introductions she was compelled to undergo
+to those who had evidently been enlisted as intercessors, among whom
+were some whose ambiguous conduct often greatly annoyed, and, at
+times, even filled her bosom with perplexity and alarm.
+
+Such was the position of the unhappy girl at the time of her reluctant
+attendance as one of the guests of the merry party we have described.
+Although annoyed, sickened, and disgusted at what she had daily
+witnessed, and vexed and indignant at the contemptible artifices and
+intrigues of Peters, which, however intended, were beginning to be the
+means of exposing her to new trials, yet, till what took place at that
+party, she had entertained no serious apprehension that any attempt
+would be made to coerce her into a marriage which she had so decidedly
+repudiated.
+
+But the announcement which had just been so strangely made coming as
+it did from so powerful a personage, and one, at the same time, whose
+equivocal behavior, when she had casually met him, had excited her
+deepest aversion, now gave her to understand that such an attempt was
+indeed about to be made by the assumed arbiters of her fate, and that
+her resistance to the contemplated scheme, should she be able to make
+one against the overawing influence that was about to be brought to
+bear upon her, and even her acquiescence, she feared, was to be
+followed by persecutions, from the thought of which she shrunk with
+dismay. She might have taken that announcement, perhaps, as a mere
+ruse, as in part it really was, got up to place her in a predicament
+in which most females would yield rather than become the principal
+actor in the scene that would follow further resistance; or she might
+have viewed the whole as a contemptible fabrication, but for a
+circumstance of that morning's occurrence. Captain Jones had called
+and apprised her that he was about sending an escort to Fort Edward
+for his betrothed, informed her that the next morning was appointed
+for his wedding, and concluded by making his last appeal to induce her
+to consent to be united to Peters at the same time.
+
+And it was this occurrence, in connection with the former, that had so
+thoroughly alarmed her.
+
+While pondering on the means and chances of escaping the threatened
+destiny, she perceived from her window that the company at Reidesel's
+had broken up, and were scattering to their respective quarters. And
+presently her father entered her room, and after announcing that he
+had been honored by the commander-in-chief with a mission to
+Skenesboro', from which he should not be able to return till late at
+night, presented her a sealed billet, and immediately departed. With a
+trembling hand she opened the suspected missive and read,--
+
+"Miss Haviland will pardon the mistake involved in the sentiment
+delivered at Lady Reidesel's table. Its author, however, cannot but
+think that the full arrangement which he had supposed to have been
+already settled may still be effected in season. And he therefore
+proposes, if Miss H. will permit, a call for friendly intercession, at
+twilight this evening."
+
+With a flushed and flashing countenance the offended maiden instantly
+sprang to her feet, and paced the room several minutes in silent
+agitation. Her naturally mild spirit was at length evidently aroused
+for some decided action; and the manner in which it was to be
+commenced appeared soon to be determined in her mind.
+
+"Ay, and the step, as bold as it may be, shall first be taken," she
+said, as, preparing to leave the house, her burning thoughts began to
+press for utterance. "Ay, if it will not avail me, in bringing aid to
+escape from this den of iniquity, or protection to remain, it shall,
+at least, serve as a proclamation of villany, which shall yet be heard
+in every house and hamlet of the American people!"
+
+The next moment she was in the street; and, with hurried step making
+her way to General Reidesel's quarters. Instantly seeking a private
+interview with the readily assenting countess, she frankly and without
+reserve told the whole story of her wrongs, and implored assistance in
+escaping the toils that had been spread for her, or, at least, the
+protecting shield of an influence which should enable her to withstand
+them. And the effect of her forceful recital soon showed her that she
+had not over-estimated the discernment and magnanimity of the noble
+lady she was addressing.
+
+"Well, that is right, my bonny rebel, as they call you!" said the
+countess, encouragingly. "And it is the spirit in a woman which I
+like, and which I will have no hand in repressing. Yes, I see clearly,
+now, what I half suspected before--the man who had you brought here,
+where he could more surely noose you, is repugnant even to the misery;
+and some of those he has been fool enough to enlist as intercessors,
+are still more dreaded. Ah! wicked, wicked Briton! But, do you know,
+he is king here and that it is treason to talk, and worse treason to
+try to thwart him?"
+
+"I have greatly feared so, my lady."
+
+"What, then, do you propose to do, wherein I could befriend you?"
+
+"Leave the army before night."
+
+"Have you a carriage at command, and a protector?"
+
+"I have, strictly speaking, neither, madam."
+
+"Then how can you go?"
+
+"On foot, and alone, unless I chance to engage one to attend me in the
+character of a servant."
+
+"You are a brave one, my young lady. But they will be likely to detain
+you at the outposts."
+
+"I had supposed so, and therefore came here with the hope that, after
+you had heard my story, you might be moved to prevail on your husband
+to give me a pass."
+
+"O girl, girl! No, no, he would not dare to do it, after finding out
+the cause, which he must first know," exclaimed the lady, in a tone of
+kindly remonstrance. "He would dare do no such thing. But _I_ would,
+in such a case; indeed I would! And, stay, let me see!" she continued,
+rising and opening the general's desk. "Here are several passes which
+he keeps for occasions of hurry, all signed off and ready, except
+inserting the name of the bearer. O, what shall I do? I am tempted to
+write your name in one, and trust to your honor and shrewdness to
+shield me, in case of your failure, from exposure and blame."
+
+"Will your hand-writing be acknowledged, madam?"
+
+"O, yes, I don't hesitate on that account; for I often fill up the
+general's passes under his direction."
+
+"O, then, dear madam, as I know you would do by a daughter, do by
+me--trust to my discretion, and hesitate no longer."
+
+The good-hearted countess soon yielded, and our heroine, with tears of
+gratitude, mutely imprinted a farewell kiss on her cheek, and departed
+with the coveted pass in her pocket.
+
+When Miss Haviland reached her chamber, she seated herself by an open,
+but partially curtained window, where, unseen her self, she could
+easily note what was passing in the street below, to which her
+attention seemed somewhat anxiously directed. She had been but a few
+minutes at her post of observation, before she was apprised, by the
+hooting of boys, and the gibes and laughter of the idling soldiers,
+with whom the street, at this hour, was commonly thronged, that some
+unusual spectacle was approaching. And peering forward through the
+folds of the curtains, she beheld, amidst a slowly-advancing crowd, a
+meanly clad, simple looking country youth wearing a ragged broad-brim,
+and mounted on an unsightly, donkey-like beast, whose long tail and
+mane were stuck full of briers, and whose hair, lying in every
+direction, seemed besmeared with mange and dirt; all combining to give
+both horse and rider a most ungainly and poverty-struck appearance.
+The fellow was trying to peddle apples, which he carried in an old
+pair of panniers swung across his pony's back and which seemed to be
+bought mostly by the boys, who with them were pelting him and his
+cringing pony, to the great mirth of the bystanders. While the crowd,
+and the object of their attention, were thus engaged, at a little
+distance, an officer, who was passing, paused near the house, and,
+calling a couple of soldiers to his side, said to them,--
+
+"Keep your eyes on that fellow with the scurvy pony yonder, and if you
+notice any thing suspicious in his movements, arrest him. It appears
+to me I have seen him in almost too many places to-day."
+
+An expression of concern passed over Sabrey's countenance, as she
+heard these words, and she gave an involuntary glance to the object
+thus pointed out, who, as she thought from his appearance, had also
+heard the order himself, or at least guessed its import. But instead
+of making off, as she expected, he spurred up his pony, and, coming
+directly up to the officer, asked him, with an air of confiding
+simplicity, to buy some of his apples, which he said were "eny most
+ripe, and grand for pies."
+
+"Who are you, fellow?" said the officer, without heeding the other's
+request.
+
+"Who I be? I am Jo Wilkins. But aint you going to buy some of the
+apples?" persisted the former.
+
+"Blast your apples!" impatiently replied the officer; "that is not
+what I want of you. Where do you live?"
+
+"Up in the edge of Arlington, when I'm tu hum--next house to uncle
+Jake's great burnt piece there, you know," answered the other; "but
+these ap----"
+
+"Whom are you for? King or Congress?" interrupted the officer.
+
+"Who be Congus? I don't know him," said the former, with a doubtful
+stare.
+
+"Well, then, whom do you fight for?" resumed the somewhat mollified
+officer.
+
+"Don't fight for nobody tu our house,--cause dad's a Quaker--but then
+if you'd buy--"
+
+"Yes, yes; but you must tell me honestly, what you came here for
+to-day, and who sent you, my lad?"
+
+"Why, dad sent me to sell the apples, 'cause he wants the money to buy
+some rye with. But I've been all round, and aint sell'd half, they
+kept bothering me so. And now its time to go hum, and nobody won't buy
+'em!" said the speaker, with a doleful tone, and evident signs of
+snivelling.
+
+"Well, well, my honest lad," responded the commiserating and now
+satisfied officer; don't mind it--nobody wants to harm you. There is
+half a crown to pay you for my part of the bothering.
+
+"Why, you going to buy 'em all?" eagerly asked the other, as, with a
+grin of delight, he clutched the precious metal.
+
+"No, no," said the former, kindly. "I don't wish for any of your
+apples--they are too green, though they may do for cooking. You would
+be most likely to sell them in some of these houses."
+
+"Well, now, I vown! I never thought of that! jest's likely's not I
+mought, you!" exclaimed the fellow, brightening up. "Good mind to go
+right straight into this ere house and try it--will, by golly!" he
+added, leaping nimbly from his pony, swinging his panniers on his arm,
+and hurrying off round for the back door.
+
+"Don't molest the poor simpleton any more, but disperse to your
+quarters," said the officer, now waving his ratan to the scattering
+crowd, and resuming his walk up the street.
+
+Waiting no longer than to hear this order, and see that it was about
+to be obeyed by the crowd, Sabrey hurried down to the kitchen, where
+she encountered the object of her solicitude standing within the door,
+holding up the half crown between the fingers of one hand, and
+snapping those of the other, with a look that needed no interpreting.
+
+"Your disguise, Bart," said the maiden, looking at the other with a
+smile--"your disguise is so perfect, or rather, the new character, in
+which you this time appear, has been so well acted, that had it not
+been the afternoon you set for your third appearance, I should have
+never known you. I think you make a better Quaker boy than you did a
+crazy man last time, or buffoon and tumbler the first one. But what
+have you been able to gather, to-day?"
+
+"Pretty much all that's afoot, guess. The movement on Bennington is
+begun. Peters's corps of tories and Indians have gone on to Cambridge;
+and he, who is off to the lake, to-day, to consult with Skene and
+others about the expedition, is to follow some time to-morrow, as is
+the German regiment picked out to the service. Got at it all, think?"
+
+"Nearly. It is the plan, however, I understand, that when the stores
+are secured at Bennington, the troops are to proceed to Manchester,
+make prisoners of all the Council of Safety, and others of the
+principal men whom they can find, and return through Arlington."
+
+"They've got to get there, first, guess, and then catch 'em
+afterwards. But have you fixed out a letter about that and other
+things, ready for me to take? I'm aching to be off with the news."
+
+"No, Bart. I have just discovered plots to entrap me that have made me
+resolve to die before I will remain here any longer. My old
+persecutor, and others a thousand times more powerful, are in league
+against me."
+
+"The girl that killed the wolf would stand the racket against big bugs
+and all, rather guess, if she tried it. Don't know, though, being
+about woman matters so."
+
+"Ay, sir, to a woman there are human monsters more terrible than all
+the wolves of the forest. And I am determined on at tempting to escape
+from this place without another hour's delay with you, if you will
+permit."
+
+"Yes, glad to go into it; and by Captain Harry's request, I was a
+going to propose the same thing myself, even without your new reasons.
+But this getting you off before dark, which you name, may be rather
+ticklish, miss. How did you think to manage it?"
+
+"Look at this, sir!" said Sabrey, exhibiting her permit by way of
+reply. "Signed by a man whose authority, I think, will not be
+questioned, and allowing me, with my servant, to pass through the
+lines to my friends in the country. I engage you to act as that
+servant, Bart."
+
+"I vags, now if that aint lucky!" exclaimed the former, with
+glistening eyes. "Yes, lucky enough, whether it come by ploughing with
+heifers or steers. But let's see a bit, though. How will my turning
+servant to a lady, all at once, tally with the stories I've been
+telling,--that is, till we get beyond all who heard 'em? Don't know
+about that. But look here, miss!" he added, beckoning the other to the
+window. "Do you see that tall old pine, standing alone, nearly in a
+line with the road, a mile or so off there, at the south?"
+
+"Yes, very clearly."
+
+"Well, that tree, which is beyond, and out of sight of the last
+pickets, stands near a house where a widow woman lives, who washes
+fine clothes for some of the officers, but wants to keep in with all
+sides, and so asks no questions and tells no stories. My saddle and
+fixings are hard by there, in the bushes. Now, suppose I go on there
+alone, and be scrubbing up Lightfoot, and feeding her with these
+apples, to pay her for playing Quaker so well. Can you get on to that
+place by the help of the pass, and tell straight stories, if questioned,
+about your servant being at the wash-woman's, fixing things?"
+
+"If you think it wisest, as it may be, I will try, and be there within
+an hour, if not detained. If I am, do not desert me, Bart, but return
+to this kitchen at dusk."
+
+"Agreed! But you'll go it without the ifs, I reckon," said Bart,
+swinging his panniers to his shoulder, and departing with full
+confidence in his ability to effect an escape perilous to them both,
+but made much more so to him by the new charge to had so cheerfully
+undertaken.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+  "But a gloom fell o'er their way,
+   A fearful wall went ey'"
+
+
+Fortunately for Miss Haviland, all those who had been enlisted to act
+as spies upon her movements happened, that afternoon, to be absent, or
+busily engaged in a quarter of the encampment from which all view of
+her proposed path of escape was intercepted by intervening buildings.
+Much to her relief, therefore, on setting out on her perilous journey,
+she was permitted to pass forward through the street unquestioned, and
+without exciting any particular observation. And when she arrived at
+the outpost, the soldier on duty, with a bare glance at her offered
+pass, respectfully motioned her to proceed on her way. A short walk
+then brought her to the house to which she had been directed; and
+here, finding every thing in readiness, she immediately mounted the
+now strangely-improved pony, and, with her trusty attendant on foot,
+set forward, at a quick pace, in the main road leading from the lake
+to Fort Edward. Their way was now mostly through a deep forest, and
+over a road which every where exhibited evidence with what
+perseverance and skill the Americans had labored to destroy and block
+it up, and with what incredible exertions it had been reopened by
+their opponents, wholly untaught in the easiest modes of accomplishing
+the Herculean task. In some places, long causeys over miry morasses
+had been entirely torn up, and every log of which they were composed
+drawn off beyond the means of recovery; and, in others, streams had
+been dammed up, causing extensive overflows, or turned from their
+natural channels, and thus made to wash out impassable gulfs. Every
+bridge had disappeared, and all the surrounding timber rendered
+useless for constructing more; while, for mile after mile, one
+continued mass of gnarled and crooked trees, here pitched together in
+seemingly inextricable tangles, and there piled mountains high, had
+been felled into the road, which even now had scarcely been made
+passable by the toiling thousands who, for weeks, had been employed
+upon it. In consequence of this, and the time spent in making circuits
+round in the woods to avoid parties of the enemy, who were seasonably
+discovered by the wary guide to be still at work, in several places,
+in trying to improve some of the worst portions of the road, the
+progress of our heroine was slow and obscure. And it was not till
+after a dreary and fatiguing ride of several hours, that she and her
+attendant began to emerge into the more open country bordering the
+Hudson.
+
+"Now, miss," said Bart, falling in by the side of the maiden, and
+speaking in a low, cautionary tone--"now we are coming out on to the
+river, and at a spot that I feel kinder shyish of."
+
+"On what account, Bart?" asked the other, with a glance of concern.
+
+"Well, it's for a reason I have, and then one or two more on top of
+that," replied the former, with his usual indirectness. "In the first
+place, it is a sort of a torified neighborhood about there which may
+hold those more likely to mistrust and snap us up than the
+regular-built enemy, who may, some of 'em, be there too, likely; as a
+regiment, or so, have already gone on, by this same road, to Fort
+Edward, which is not a great ways beyond."
+
+"Is there no way to avoid going through the place?" asked Sabrey.
+
+"That is what I'm thinking about," replied Bart, musing. "But one
+thing is certain, you must be got somewhere, and a little
+reconnoitring be done, before we try to go through or round the pesky
+place. Now, here on the left is a pine thicket, that reaches along,
+and comes to a point, very near this Sandy Hill place, as they call
+it; and by entering the woods, and keeping on in a line with the road,
+we both might gain a spot, in that point, where we could safely see
+enough of what is going on there to judge of the rest."
+
+"I am unacquainted with the locality, and the character of the
+inhabitants, and shall, therefore, be wholly guided by you," responded
+Sabrey, reining up in compliance with the motions, rather than the
+words, of the other. "But what means have you had of ascertaining what
+you suggest respecting the place?"
+
+"Why, I came this route the last spying trip I made," replied the
+former; "and being afoot--crazy folks don't ride, you know--I kinder
+naturally kept going back and forward and calling at places on the
+road to inquire for swamp angels, or blue dogs I had lost, or some
+sich-like whimseys, till I managed to fine out who and what lived in
+most every house, all the way to Bennington. It is a tory concern of a
+place, and a sort of rendezvous for those running away from our parts.
+One fellow, of the last sort, came plaguy nigh knowing me; and would,
+forzino if I hadn't suddenly gone into a fit, to screw my features out
+of his acquaintance. Yes, we may as well be turning in here, I am
+thinking."
+
+In accordance with the plan just suggested, Miss Haviland now turned
+her willing steed, and plunged directly into the dark forest bordering
+the road on the left. Here following her guide, who kept some rods in
+advance to select and point out the places affording the most feasible
+route through the thick undergrowth, she slowly, and with no little
+personal inconvenience, made her way forward in the proposed
+direction, till she at length succeeded in reaching the desired
+station, which was the top of a low, woody bluff, commanding, from
+some portions of it, a near and distinct view of the hamlet, in the
+opening below, of which the intended _reconnaissance_ was to be made.
+Bart, now assisting the maiden to dismount, and directing her
+attention to a mossy hillock at hand, as an eligible seat or bed for
+resting herself, turned the pony loose to crop the bushes, and
+disappeared to commence his observations. In a few minutes he
+returned, and, having reported the discovery of a safe and easy route
+for passing to the east of the public road, as far as it might be
+necessary to avoid it, proceeded to reconnoitre the houses below. And
+taking a well-screened seat on a log, lying on the verge of the bluff,
+he looked long and intently.
+
+"Well, sir, what discoveries are you making there?" at length asked
+Sabrey, wondering at his prolonged silence.
+
+"Why, nothing very alarming, be sure," replied the other. "The place
+looks as if it was deserted, except one house; but there's something
+going on about that which I don't somehow seem to understand. Suppose
+you throw a few of those evergreen vines near you over your head and
+shoulders, to prevent your dress from attracting notice, and come here
+to help me read out the puzzle."
+
+In compliance with the unexpected suggestion, the maiden instantly
+rose, and, preparing herself, as directed, cautiously advanced and
+seated herself at his side. The road they had recently quitted was in
+plain view, a little distance to the right, and continued distinctly
+visible as it swept round towards the broad Hudson, whose tranquil
+surface was gleaming with the reflected brightness of the
+low-descending sun. On each side of the road, till it disappeared over
+a distant swell, were scattered, at irregular intervals, the dwellings
+to which allusion has been made. Among the nearest and most
+respectable of these, stood, in a retired situation considerably to
+the east of the highway, the house presenting the questionable
+appearances to which Hart's attention had been directed. On one side
+of the spacious yard or lawn, in front of this building, stood, tied
+to a post, and impatiently pawing the ground, a noble-looking horse,
+equipped with a richly-caparisoned side-saddle; while near by, under
+the fence, sat, patiently smoking their pipes, three Indians, one of
+whom, as was evident by their contrasted bearing and accoutrements,
+was a chief, and the other two his attendants. Near the principal
+entrance was drawn up a two-horse team, having the appearance of
+awaiting the reception of persons about to depart on some journey. At
+length the family, consisting evidently of father, mother, and their
+children, slowly, and in seeming mournful silence, issued from the
+door, and approached the wagon, when the former, lifting the latter
+into the seats, again turned an anxious look towards the house, and,
+with his companion whose handkerchief was frequently applied to her
+eyes, stood lingering and hesitating, as if reluctant to part with
+some object of their solicitude still remaining behind. Presently the
+agitated couple returned to the door, and, with gestures of grief and
+supplication, appeared to be making a last appeal to one standing just
+within the entrance, whose partially disclosed form, and white
+fluttering decorations, proclaimed her to be a gayly-dressed female.
+
+"It acts some like a funeral there," observed Bart, doubtfully; "but
+then those Indians, that seem to be waiting for some one--and that
+horse with the lady's saddle on him, which they appear to have the
+care of, and which looks, by the trim, like a British army
+horse--and----"
+
+"Bart, do you know who lives there?" interrupted Sabrey, with a sudden
+start.
+
+"A tory," replied the other; "but not a fighting one, I gathered.
+That's him and his wife standing before the door, I take it. His name
+is Me--something."
+
+"Merciful Heaven!" exclaimed Sabrey. "I understand it all now. That
+lady, in the door, is dressed for her wedding--those before her are
+her brother and sister-in-law, pleading with her to go with them,
+instead of taking the questionable step she is evidently meditating.
+O, that I dared rush down to the side of her well-judging friends, and
+join them in dissuading her from listening to the ill-timed summons of
+her lover, and especially from going with such, an escort as the
+infatuated man appears to have sent for her!"
+
+Although Miss Haviland was wholly unprepared for here finding the
+residence of her friend, Jane McRea, which she had supposed to be in
+another and more distant locality, yet her quick perceptions, in
+combining the past and present circumstances, had not misled her. It
+was, indeed, that lovely and hapless girl, passing through the last
+trial she was destined ever to be conscious of undergoing,--that of
+the distracting conflict of emotions produced by being now finally
+compelled to decide between the behests of prudence and of
+love,--between the advice and entreaties of confessedly kind and
+judicious relatives, and the opposing counsels and impassioned
+importunities of an idolized lover. Deeply and anxiously, that
+afternoon, had the thought of her situation engrossed the mind of our
+heroine, who both expected and dreaded to meet her on the
+way--expected, because her coming had been announced; and dreaded, not
+only on account of the pain it would occasion to witness her
+disappointment, and resist her entreaties, but also on account of the
+danger of the unintentional betrayal which would be likely to attend a
+meeting with that guileless creature of the affections and her
+probable escort. And it was now with the mingled emotions naturally
+called up by the associations of former friendship, the contrast
+between the circumstances of the past and present, together with fears
+and anxieties for the future, that Sabrey, after a few brief
+explanations to her attendant, resumed her observations of the scene
+before her, which she hoped, might still result in the triumph of
+wisdom over the delusive pleadings of love.
+
+At length, she who had now become the principal object of solicitude
+in the family group, to which the attention of our concealed
+spectators had been directed, followed, with slow and hesitating
+steps, her still importuning friends into the yard, where, in her
+bridal robes of vestal white, and with her rich profusion of bright
+and wavy tresses hanging like a golden cloud over her shoulders, she
+stood at once a vision of loveliness and an object of commiseration.
+Again and again did those friends appear to renew their entreaties, at
+which the agitated girl seemed sometimes to waver, and at others to
+reply only with her tears; till at length the former, evidently
+wearied with their fruitless attempts, and despairing of success,
+ascended their vehicle, and drove off at a rapid pace, along the road
+to the south, without turning their heads to look behind them. Once,
+as she stood, like one bound by some fatal spell to the spot,
+wistfully gazing after the receding wagon, a momentary relenting
+appeared to come over the wretched maiden. She irresolutely ran
+forward a few paces, and, imploringly stretching forth her white arms,
+uttered a faint, sobbing cry of, "_Come back! O, come back!_" But the
+late appeal, which would have so gladdened the hearts of those for
+whom it was intended, was destined to be unheeded. The cry was lost in
+the din of their rattling wheels, as they urged on their horses, as if
+anxious to escape from the painful scene. And the poor girl, dropping
+her arms, and turning hopelessly away to a small tree near by, leaned
+against the trunk for support, and, for a while, seemed to yield
+herself wholly a prey to the wild grief which now burst forth from the
+dreadful conflict of emotions that was rending her distracted bosom.
+At length she appeared to be slowly regaining her self-possession, and
+now soon fully arousing herself, she advanced towards the Indians,
+and, by signs, signified her readiness to attend them. With eager
+alacrity, the horse was led up for her to the door-step; when, lightly
+throwing herself into the saddle, she immediately set forth along the
+road to the north, preceded by the chief, and followed by his dusky
+assistants.
+
+"Well, the poor thing has settled it at last," observed Bart, drawing
+a long breath. "But I aint so sure that those red characters, who
+appear to feel so crank at having got her started, will be allowed to
+get far with their prize, without seeing trouble."
+
+"Why, sir?" asked Sabrey, wiping away the sympathetic tears that had
+started to her cheeks at what she had been witnessing--"why do you
+make such a remark?"
+
+"Well, it may not amount to any thing, be sure," replied the other.
+"But having had one eye on the lookout, during this affair at the
+house, I noticed, a while ago, some five or six scores, slying along
+on the other bank of the river, over there, and crossing in a boat,
+and entering the woods on this side. By their appearance, I think they
+must be Continentals from our army below; and if it is these Indians
+they have been spying out, and are after, they will waylay them along
+here somewhere, likely."
+
+"O, if they could but take her from these creatures, and send her to
+her friends!" said the former, with emotion.
+
+"Yes, but I hope they won't attempt it," said Bart; "for if these
+Redskins, who are probably to have a smart price for getting her safe
+to camp, should find themselves about to be robbed of her, there's no
+telling what they would do."
+
+At this juncture, their attention was arrested by the sounds of
+footsteps approaching in the road from the north; and, the next
+moment, a second party of Indians, headed by a tall, fierce looking
+chief, emerged into view, and advanced nearly to the edge of the
+woods; when the chief, beholding the other party coming on with their
+charge, suddenly halted, and stood awaiting their approach, with an
+air of doubt and disappointment, and with looks that plainly bespoke
+his jealous fears of losing the reward, which, it appeared, the
+short-sighted lover, in his impatience at the delay that had occurred,
+had offered him also to bring off his betrothed. The bold and arrogant
+air of the newly-arrived party, standing in the middle of the road,
+and seemingly intending to dispute the path, caused the others, as
+they now came up, to pause, as if for parley or explanation; when a
+fierce and angry debate arose between the rival chiefs, in which the
+new comer, with dark scowls and menacing gestures, demanded the
+exclusive possession of the lady, which the other, at first mildly,
+and then in a tone of defiance, persisted in refusing. At length the
+latter, under the pretence of wishing to obtain water, but with the
+real object, probably, of avoiding a collision till some compromise
+could be effected, approached the alarmed maiden, and led her horse
+out into a little opening in the bushes on the left, where a cool and
+inviting spring was seen bursting from beneath the wide-spreading
+roots of a stately pine-tree standing in the background; and here
+leaving her under the shade of the tree, still sitting on her horse,
+he and his attendants gathered round the spring for the purpose of
+quenching their thirst. At this instant, white streams of smoke,
+followed by the startling reports of muskets, suddenly burst from a
+neighboring thicket, and the band of concealed scouts, with
+challenging hurrahs, were seen springing from their coverts, and
+rapidly gliding from tree to tree towards the spot. The astonished and
+unprepared Indians, who had escaped death only by the distance from
+which the missiles of their assailants had been discharged upon them,
+all, with one accord, slunk instantly away into the surrounding
+bushes.
+
+Scarcely had they disappeared, however, before the tall chief, whose
+ill-omened appearance and conduct we have noted, again darted out into
+the opening; when, with a quick, wild glance around him, and a yell of
+fiendish triumph, he rapidly whirled his arm aloft, and, the next
+instant, the glittering tomahawk was seen, like a shooting gleam of
+light, swiftly speeding its way on its death-doing errand.
+
+One solitary, piercing shriek, suddenly cut short, and sinking into an
+appalling groan, rose from the fatal spot; while the white robes of
+the victim, like the ruffled pinions of some struck bird, came
+fluttering to the ground. The deed was done and the spirit of the
+beauteous and unfortunate Jane McRea had left its mangled tenement and
+fled forever! [Footnote: From the various published accounts of the
+massacre of Miss McRea, we have followed, in our illustrations of that
+melancholy tragedy, as far as our limits and plan permitted us to
+carry them, the one deemed by us the most probable. By way of
+finishing the details of the horrible scene, however, it may be proper
+here to state, that Captain Jones, the strangely infatuated lover,
+having despatched, for the reward of a barrel of rum, one party of
+Indians after her, and then a second one, for the same reward, had
+started to meet her, when, encountering the murderer with the scalp,
+which he recognized by the peculiar color and length of the hair, he
+hastened, in a state bordering on absolute distraction, to the fatal
+scene. A British officer, with a few attendants, had, in the mean
+time, removed the corpse to a wagon by the road side, and was guarding
+it, when the lover arrived to claim it. But his lamentations were so
+terrible, and his conduct so frantic, that it was deemed advisable to
+remove him, and bury the remains from his sight. From that hour, the
+bereaved lover was an altered and ruined man. And he died soon after,
+as there is every reason to believe, of a broken heart.]
+
+A momentary pause ensued; when, amidst the intermingling shouts and
+cries of murder and vengeance, that now burst from both scouts and
+Indians, the fiend-like perpetrator of the foul deed, who had been
+seen to leap forward towards his fallen victim with his
+scalping-knife, bounded back into the road, and, there holding up and
+shaking the gory trophy at his rival, immediately plunged into the
+forest and disappeared. The next moment a detachment of British
+cavalry, who had been sent out to intercept the scouts, came
+thundering down the road, and put an end to the tumult. Turning away
+in horror from the spot, now made dangerous by the presence of the
+British, who, on seeing what was done, and learning the facts, soon
+began to scatter in all directions after the murderer, Miss Haviland
+and her guide hastily resumed their journey by the route which the
+latter had discovered for avoiding the road, and which they pursued
+till dark, when, arriving at the house of a family in the interest of
+the American cause, they found a comfortable shelter for the night,
+and the repose so much needed to counteract the effect of the
+agitating events of the day on our heroine, and fortify her for the
+trials yet in store for her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+  "Still on? Have not the forest gloom,
+   The taunt of foes, the threatened doom,
+     Shaken thy courage yet?"
+
+
+The indefatigable Bart, after seeing the object of his greatest
+solicitude in safety for the night, that of his next, his loved
+Lightfoot, well stabled and fed, and, lastly, his own wants supplied,
+determined, with his usual caution and forethought, on making a little
+tour of observation to Fort Edward, now some miles in the rear, for
+the purpose of gathering what new intelligence could be gained
+respecting the movements of the enemy, which might both enhance the
+value of his budget of news to carry home, and enable him to shape his
+course more understandingly and safely on the morrow. Accordingly, in
+the new disguise of a barefooted, bareheaded, coatless farmer's boy,
+with a basket of green corn to sell for roasting slung on his arm, he
+proceeded on foot to the recently-established rendezvous of the enemy
+at the place above named, and boldly entered their encampment. Here he
+soon made discoveries that filled him with uneasiness, and, finally,
+those which thoroughly alarmed him for his own and the safety of his
+charge. The whole camp was in a state of bustle and commotion. Colonel
+Baum, in anticipation of the time fixed for his march, had just
+arrived with his appointed force, and was intending, after allowing
+his troops a short respite, to press immediately forward that night on
+the contemplated expedition. Bands of painted Indians, who had also
+arrived from the main army since dark, were feasting and drinking in
+grim revelry, or enacting the frightful war-dance, on the outskirts of
+the encampment. Parties of tories were constantly coming in from the
+surrounding towns, receiving arms, and departing to their different
+allotted stations, to act as pickets to the force about to advance, or
+as scouts to scour the country along the road to the south. And at
+last, to crown all, Peters and Haviland, with a small number of
+attendants, all bearing, on their bespattered persons, evidence of
+hard and rapid travelling, rode hurriedly into camp, and announced
+that a dangerous spy had, that afternoon, been at the head-quarters of
+the main army audaciously abducted a young lady, and with her escaped
+in this direction, for the arrest of which a handsome reward should be
+paid.
+
+"It is time you and I was jogging, Bart," muttered the unsuspected
+personage within hearing, who deemed himself not the least interested
+in this unexpected announcement, as he gradually edged himself out of
+the camp, and made his way, with unusual haste, back to his quarters
+for the night.
+
+Scarcely had the first faint suffusions of morning light begun to be
+distinguishable in the chambers of the east, before the well-recruited
+Lightfoot stood pawing at the door, as if impatient to receive and
+bear off her precious burden from the scene of danger. In a few
+minutes, the fair fugitive, in answer to the summons of her vigilant
+attendant, came forth, evidently refreshed by her repose, and, in a
+good measure, recovered from the shock occasioned by the sad and
+fearful spectacles of yesterday. Without any allusions to the
+startling discoveries he had made since they parted for the night,
+other than the quiet remark that he had ascertained that it might not
+be wholly safe for them to proceed any longer in the main road, Bart
+assisted the lady to mount, and led the way on their now doubly
+difficult and hazardous flight. Striking off obliquely to the left,
+into a partially cleared pine plain, and then, after thus proceeding a
+while, again turning to the right, they directed their course forward
+in a line parallel to the great thoroughfare to the south, but at a
+sufficient distance from it to insure them against the observation of
+all who might be passing therein, or scouting along its borders. And
+on, on, now through open fields, and now through dense forests, now
+through splashy pools, or rapid rivers, and now over sharp pitches or
+deep ravines, now in cross-roads or cow-paths, and now in trackless
+thickets, now over fenny moors, and now along the rocky declivities of
+mountains,--on, on, did they pursue their toilsome and weary way
+through the seemingly interminable hours of all the first half of that
+eventful day.
+
+At length, however, believing themselves many miles beyond the
+rendezvous of Peters's corps, who were understood to have been
+selected as the pioneers of the expedition, they emerged from the
+woods, and fell into the main road leading up the winding Walloomscoik
+to the village of Bennington. Greatly rejoiced that, at last, she
+could be permitted to travel in a smooth road with some assurance of
+safety, and encouraged by the prospect of soon reaching the friends
+and acquaintance of her old neighborhood, from whom she was confident
+of a cordial welcome, our heroine now rode on with lightened feelings
+and renewed spirits. But she soon perceived, by the manner of her
+guide, as he examined the appearances of the road, as he went on, and
+occasionally cast uneasy glances before and behind him, that he did
+not consider it yet time to rejoice. And soon he stopped short, and
+observed,--
+
+"There are too many tracks in this road for my liking, and not of the
+right kind to read well, either."
+
+"I hope you will indulge in no unnecessary alarms, Bart," said the
+other, reluctant to leave the road, as she supposed he was about to
+advise. "You, who yesterday manifested little uneasiness, to-day, when
+we are farther removed from danger, have appeared extremely cautious
+and apprehensive, I have thought. Why such a change, while the reverse
+would seem so much more rational?"
+
+"Well, miss, the question is not so onnatural as it might be, I
+reckon," replied the former; "and I have been expecting you'd wonder
+some why I led you on such a jaunt as we've had. But the fact was,
+your chance of getting off has been a little scaly, to-day, to say
+nothing of the shadow of a rope that's been round my own neck in the
+mean time."
+
+"I cannot comprehend you, Bart," said the maiden, with a look of
+surprise and concern.
+
+"Spose so; for I have held in, cause I thought I wouldn't worry your
+mind till needful, which it may be now; so I'll tell you the whole
+kink," replied Bart, proceeding to relate his last night's
+discoveries, and then adding,--
+
+"Now a party of the enemy--for I saw a moccason track just now, and
+none on our side would be in such company as that means--a party of
+'em have gone on before us; and my notion is, that we strike off
+through this bushy pasture to the left."
+
+"Let us do so, then, if such is our situation, and that without a
+moment's delay," cried Sabrey, in alarm at the unexpected disclosure.
+
+"Well, perhaps it an't best to fret about it, jest at this minute,"
+responded the imperturbable guide--"I kinder want to make an
+observation or two, before we start," he added, ascending an elevation
+near by, which commanded a view of the road both ways for a
+considerable distance.
+
+After glancing along the road in front, a moment, he turned and bent
+his searching gaze in the other direction, where he soon appeared to
+discover something that both interested and disturbed him.
+
+"It is, by Herod! it is the whole main body, Germans and all, at their
+rations, within a mile of us, and their pickets on the move in this
+direction!" he at length exclaimed, hastily quitting his post of
+observation.
+
+Hurrying down to the side of the startled maiden, he sprang to the
+nearest length of the fence, here enclosing the road, and grappling,
+with main strength, the topmost of the heavy poles of which it was
+composed, soon effected a breach sufficiently low to allow the horse
+to leap over without endangering the seat of the rider.
+
+"Here, go it, Lightfoot! gently! there you are! Now off with ye, as if
+the divil was at your heels!" cried Bart, as the horse, with her fair
+burden, dashed lightly through the breach, and cantered off in the
+direction indicated by the finger of her master.
+
+Pausing to replace the fence, lest the opening should attract the
+notice of those coming on behind, Bart rapidly followed, and, in
+another minute, the fugitives were safely screened from observation by
+the thick foliage of the different clumps of bushes, which they
+managed to keep between them and the road they had just quitted.
+
+"There is a house," said Bart, musingly, after they had proceeded a
+while in silence--"there is a house about half a mile ahead, and
+nearly the same distance from the great road, with woods between,
+which is a place I called at when I came down, and which I had been
+all along calculating to turn off to, for a short stop, as we might
+shape our course to do now, if not somewhat risky."
+
+"A little rest and refreshment would certainly be very acceptable,"
+said the other, "if it could be safely obtained. Who lives there?"
+
+"Well, some folks."
+
+"Loyalists?"
+
+"Tories, d'ye mean? No, not by a jug full."
+
+"Who are they, then, sir?"
+
+"The man," said Bart, glancing up to his wondering companion, with an
+odd air of shyness, as he provokingly persisted in his evasions--"the
+man is one of Warner's sergeants, and a sort of relation to somebody
+that I thought likely would be visiting at his house by this time.
+And--and I guess we'll venture there, considering," he added, suddenly
+dashing some distance ahead, under pretence of pointing out the way
+After winding their course a while among the variously grouped little
+thickets that studded the old pasture, they at length entered a tall
+forest of maple, which the incisions in the trees, together with the
+marks of an old boiling-place, that they soon reached, proclaimed to
+be the sugar orchard, belonging, probably, to the establishment they
+were seeking. And, now falling into a beaten path, they soon
+perceived, by the glimpses of an opening which they occasionally
+caught through the trees, that they were drawing near to the object of
+their search. The serpentine course of the path, however, and the
+undergrowth, so thick as to be nearly impervious to the sight,
+prevented any direct view of the opening; and they passed on without
+any very exact notions of propinquity till a sudden turn of the path
+brought them unexpectedly to the edge of the wood, and in full view of
+the house, not a hundred yards distant; when, to their astonishment
+and dismay, they beheld the place in possession of a large party of
+the enemy. Bart instantly caught the bridle, and was turning the horse
+for the purpose of fleeing back into the forest, when five or six
+armed men sprang out from the bushes behind and around them, cutting
+off their retreat in every direction. And the next moment they were
+prisoners to the minions of the vindictive Peters.
+
+Bart's quick eye had told him, at a glance, that there was no chance
+for him to escape; and, before his natural looks could be noted, he
+had become transformed into a lout of so stolid and inoffensive an
+appearance, that his captors seemed greatly disappointed, and
+evidently entertained doubts whether he could be the one they supposed
+they were about to secure. And it was not till his pale and trembling
+fellow-prisoner had been conducted off on her horse some rods, that
+they could make him seem to comprehend that he was a prisoner, and
+must go with them. He then burst out into a piteous fit of weeping,
+and, passively receiving the kicks and cuffs of his keepers to get him
+in motion, went bawling along, like a whipped schoolboy, towards the
+house.
+
+"I thought 'twould be jes so!" he exclaimed, between his sobs and
+outcries. "I most knowed when that man hired father to have me go to
+show the woman the way--I most knowed she was running away, and would
+get me into some scrape. Then the man, like enough, had done
+something, so he darsent go any furder with her. And now they'll lay
+it at to me--boo-hoo! oo-oo-oo!"
+
+"Conduct the lady into the house!" said the officer in command, as the
+prisoners were led into the yard--"conduct her into the house, and set
+a guard round it, till orders can be got from the colonel. And as to
+this bawling devil," he continued, turning with a scrutinizing, but
+somewhat staggered look, to the blubbering Bart, "take him to the
+barn, where I just noticed some good cords, bind him hand and foot,
+and guard him closely, he will make less noise within an hour from
+now, I fancy."
+
+"But, your honor," began one of the scouts who had brought in the
+prisoners--
+
+"Yes, yes," interrupted the other, "I have just been informed of his
+pretences; but there's an even chance that he is shamming, and the
+fellow we want, after all. Do as I have ordered."
+
+Bart was now led into the open barn, which stood facing the yard, and
+projecting in the rear over a steep bank, making from the floor, on
+the back side, that was also open, a perpendicular fall of nearly a
+dozen feet. He was then ordered to sit down in the middle of the
+floor, when two of the half dozen keepers who had him in charge, with
+many a half taunting, half pitying joke at his doleful whimpering,
+carelessly proceeded to prepare the cords for binding him, while the
+rest laid aside their guns, and went searching about the barn for
+eggs, all, notwithstanding the caution of their commander, being
+evidently so much impressed with the idea of his innocence as to
+disarm them of the vigilance usually exercised on such occasions. At
+this juncture, just as the two men, one standing before and the other
+behind him, were in the act of stooping to take his legs and arms,
+Bart started to his feet with the suddenness of thought, and giving
+the one in his rear a paralyzing kick in the pit of his stomach,
+grappled round the legs of the other, and, bearing him, in spite of
+all his struggles, across the floor, leaped with him from the verge to
+the earth below. Managing to keep uppermost in the descent, Bart, as
+the man struck heavily on the ground, leaped unhurt from the senseless
+body, and, with the speed of a wild deer, made his way to the nearest
+point of woods, which he fortunately reached just in time to avoid the
+volley of bullets that was sent after him by the rallying guard from
+whom he had so strangely escaped. While the balked tories, in the
+general commotion that now ensued, were giving vent to their rage and
+mortification, in cursing one another and the more particular object
+of their wrath, whom they concluded it was useless to pursue, a long,
+shrill whistle was heard issuing from another point of the forest, to
+which it was thought the escaped prisoner could not have had time to
+pass round. Scarcely had the sound died away, when a movement,
+accompanied by a low snorting, was heard in the high-fenced cow-yard,
+into which Lightfoot had been turned for safe keeping. The whistle was
+soon repeated, and the next moment the sagacious animal was seen
+rearing herself nearly upright in the air, and then, with a prodigious
+leap, throwing herself over the fence into the field beyond. Although
+the tories, for a while, as little comprehended this movement of the
+pony, as they did, at first, that of her master, yet they raised the
+alarm that the horse had broken away; and a dozen men threw down their
+guns, and ran out into the field to head her, but, dashing at and
+through them, like a mad Fury, she bounded off at full speed, and soon
+disappeared in the woods in the direction in which the whistling had
+been heard, leaving the baffled pursuers and their associates now
+fully to perceive how completely they had all been outwitted and
+outdone by both horse and master.
+
+Much of our happiness is the result of contrast. A slight alleviation,
+unexpectedly springing out of a disheartening misfortune, not
+unfrequently affords a comparative pleasure more keenly appreciated
+than unalloyed blessings arising out of the ordinary circumstances of
+life. The pleasure of Miss Haviland was equalled only by her surprise,
+when, on entering the house, she found her former fellow-prisoner, the
+sprightly and fearless Vine Howard, a transient but favored inmate,
+whose presence here now fully explained the enigmatical language of
+Bart, on the way, while it soon raised a shrewd suspicion of the cause
+of the awkward shyness he had exhibited in making his partial and
+roundabout revelations. Their mutual salutations, inquiries, and
+explanations, had scarcely been exchanged, before they were called to
+the window by an outcry and commotion among the tories without; when
+they had the unspeakable satisfaction of witnessing the escape of
+Bart, for whose situation and fate they had both, from different
+causes, felt the deepest commiseration and the most gloomy
+apprehensions.
+
+"Now," said the animated Vine, as she turned exultingly away from the
+gratifying scene that had opened by the escape of Bart, and closed by
+that of his pony--"now, Sabrey, if they will let you remain here till
+dark, I will see what _I_ can do towards effecting _your_ escape,
+which, to be candid about it, I mainly came here to favor. But whether
+you escape, remain, or are dragged back to the British camp, I will
+not this time be separated from you."
+
+The proffered assistance of the spirited girl, however, at least so
+far as related to the contemplated attempt to escape by night, was not
+destined to be called in requisition. In a short time, a messenger was
+seen to arrive; upon which the whole party of tories commenced
+preparations for an immediate departure. Presently a closely covered
+vehicle, drawn by one horse, appeared coming from the main road, and
+approaching the door. The next moment, the officer, whom we have
+already noted, entered the house, and told Miss Haviland she was
+required to depart.
+
+"This young lady attends me, if I am compelled to go, sir," said
+Sabrey, firmly, pointing to Vine, who instantly advanced and locked
+her arm within that of the former, by way of confirming the assertion.
+
+"Such are not my orders," responded the officer, with an air of slight
+perplexity.
+
+"Then I go not with you alive, sir," said Miss Haviland, with calm
+determination.
+
+"Nor will I be separated from _her_, by you, while I am living," added
+Vine, with no less spirit.
+
+"Well, well, ladies, you must have your own way, I suppose. But be
+prompt; the carriage waits for you," replied the officer, stepping
+back to the door.
+
+In a few minutes more, the ladies presented themselves at the door,
+and, without accepting the offered assistance of their summoner,
+entered the unoccupied vehicle, which was now immediately put in
+motion, and conducted on in the rear of the main column of the tories,
+who had already commenced their march towards the great road. As they
+emerged from the short piece of forest through which their way now
+led, the exciting spectacle of a large body of troops, moving in
+military array along the road, accompanied by the hum of mingling
+voices, the steady tramp of men and horses, the rattling of tumbrels,
+and the heavy rumbling of artillery, unexpectedly burst upon the
+senses of the startled maidens. Baum's select and finely-equipped
+regiment of Germans and British occupied the front, and Peter's motley
+corps of tories and Indians the rear of the long-extended column. As
+the head of the detachment in possession of the fair prisoners reached
+the road, they came to a halt, when, after waiting till the corps to
+which they belonged had mostly passed by, they, to the agreeable
+disappointment of the girls, turned in, and moved on with the rest
+towards that little anticipated scene of defeat and death from which
+so few of them were destined to return.
+
+"By this time," observed Vine to her thoughtful companion after they
+had concluded the remarks which the novelty of their situation
+naturally elicited--"by this time, Bart, at the rate he will be likely
+to ride, has nearly reached Bennington, now less than ten miles
+distant; and in another hour after, if the news he carries has the
+effect on our army there that I anticipate from what I learned when I
+came down, these fellows will be met on the way by a force which they
+cannot be expecting to see. Can they, do you suppose?"
+
+"I think not," replied Sabrey, "or we should have been sent back at
+once, to the British camp, as we expected; but, believing he shall
+meet with no serious opposition, and probably fearing I should find
+some means to escape, if sent back, my magnanimous persecutor
+concludes to drag me round with him and his minions, that I may be
+watched more closely, till, having completed his anticipated triumphs,
+he is ready to return."
+
+"But where _is_ Peters?" asked the other; "where _is_ that remarkable
+gentleman _now_, that he don't present himself here, to pay his
+respects or make his apologies, or assure you of your safety, or frame
+some story by the way of accounting for his conduct, or at least, of
+smoothing the matter? One would suppose the fellow would want to say
+_something_ on the occasion."
+
+"Yes," replied the former; "but he wishes to see me as little as I do
+him, I presume. Should he find it impossible to avoid me, however, he
+would probably come up boldly, and say my detention was a mistake of
+his subaltern; or that he only directed it to afford me a safe escort
+to my friends in the Grants."
+
+"There would be a deal of love in such doings."
+
+"He entertains none; not one particle now, if he ever did, for me, Vine."
+
+"What the deuse, then, does he want with you?"
+
+"Indeed, I hardly know myself."
+
+"Marry you?"
+
+"If he does still aim at that, it is with no honorable motives, I have
+had some strange suspicions lately, and I feel but too thankful at
+this prospect of a battle, for I shall cheerfully meet all dangers I
+may encounter from the flying bullets of our people for my chance of a
+release."
+
+"Chance, Sabrey? Why, I know our side will get the victory, when we
+shall be made prisoners to--well, to about the right sort of fellows,
+probably," added the girl, with a merry laugh.
+
+The conversation was here interrupted by the scattering reports of
+musketry somewhere in front, which instantly threw the whole line into
+commotion. An immediate halt was commanded, and the troops hastily
+formed in order of battle, as well as the ground would permit.
+Glancing over the line in front, from the small elevation on which
+they chanced to have stopped, the girls perceived that the head of the
+column had reached the banks of the stream that here crossed the road,
+and were rapidly deploying into the fields, to the right and left, to
+be prepared to receive their yet invisible foe. The bridge over the
+stream had just been torn up, and its scattered wrecks were seen
+floating down the stream below. While Baum was hurrying forward his
+artillery to the front, a body of about two hundred Americans emerged
+from their coverts in the bushes, some distance from the opposite bank
+and, with an ominous shout of defiance, discharged their guns and
+disappeared over the hill beyond, before the slow Germans who alone
+were yet near enough to do any execution with muskets, were ready to
+return a single shot. A strong guard of pickets, consisting of tories
+and Indians, were now sent forward to ford the stream, and keep watch
+of their retreating assailants while the few wounded and dying
+wretches who had experienced the effects of American marksmanship were
+carried back in hastily-constructed litters to a house in the rear,
+affording the shocked maidens, as they were borne by groaning and
+writhing in their agony a sad and sickening foretaste of the fearful
+scene of blood and carnage they were destined soon to witness. As soon
+as the bridge was repaired by the engineers, who were occupied nearly
+two hours in rendering it passable, the column was put in motion, and
+again moved forward, but much slower and more cautiously than before;
+for there was something in the manner of this attack, as unimportant
+as it was, and even in the shouts of their assailants, that had
+disturbed the minds, and cast a visible shade of thoughtfulness over
+the countenances, of these hitherto self-confident and boastful
+invaders of the Green Mountains. For the next three or four miles,
+however, they moved on unmolested; when, coming to a hamlet of
+log-houses scattered along the highway on both sides of the stream,
+that, here again crossing the road, wound through a smooth meadow of
+considerable extent, the word _Halt! halt!_ rang loudly, and from
+company to company, through the line, with an emphasis and
+significance that instantly apprised all that trouble was at hand. The
+next moment all were in commotion, hurry, and alarm. Amidst the
+furious beating of the rallying drums, and the mingling clamor of
+dictating voices, the cannon were detached from the horses, run
+forward, and unlimbered; the fences on each side of the road were
+levelled to the ground, and the whole force rapidly thrown into battle
+array, the tories taking position in the meadow on the right, and the
+regulars on the more elevated grounds to the left of the road, there
+to await the foe, understood to be approaching in unexpected strength
+just beyond the thick copse which terminated the opening on the east.
+While this was transpiring, the officer who had before taken charge of
+Miss Haviland and her friend came forward, and, summoning them from
+their carriage, hurried them to a large, strongly-built log-house,
+around which a company of tories had been posted, when, bidding them
+enter and take care of themselves, he hastened back to his post, to
+take part in repelling the menaced onset. Neither that day nor the
+next, however, was destined to be the one which was to cover the
+untrained freemen of New England with the deathless laurels of
+Bennington. Stark, after marching out into the open field, offering
+battle, and vainly manoeuvring to draw the enemy from their
+advantageous ground, retired about a mile, and encamped for the night,
+leaving Baum to intrench himself in his chosen position, and despatch
+expresses to Burgoyne to apprise him of his unexpectedly perilous
+situation, and ask for reenforcement.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+  "Sad was the year, by proud oppression driven,
+     When transatlantic liberty arose,
+   Not in the sunshine and the smile of Heaven,
+     But wrapped in whirlwinds, and begirt with woes,
+     Amidst the strife of fratricidal foes."--_Campbell._
+
+
+The house, into which our heroine and her attendant had been ushered
+for safe keeping during the expected conflict, was divided into two
+compartments, and separately occupied by a couple of young farmers,
+and their still more youthful and recently espoused wives, twin
+sisters, by the names of Mary and Martha. But as happy a social circle
+as these close and interesting ties should have continued to render
+the inmates, the fiend of discord, with the approach of the opposing
+armies, had just entered in among them. One of the young men was a
+whig, and the other a tory; and the wives had very naturally adopted
+the predilections of their respective husbands. The young men had, as
+yet, however, taken no active part in the public quarrel; and, while
+the war was at a distance, their difference of opinion had not been
+permitted very essentially to disturb their friendly intercourse. But
+now, as the war was brought to their door, the sight of the two
+hostile armies, coming together for deadly conflict on the great issue
+in which their hitherto repressed sympathies were oppositely enlisted,
+had aroused the demon of contention in their friendly bosoms. The
+boastful assumptions of the tory, uttered in his excitement at
+beholding the imposing display of the British forces around him, were
+promptly met by the counter predictions of the other. Retort,
+recrimination, and darkly-hinted menaces followed, till jealousy and
+rancor seemed completely to have usurped the place of all those
+fraternal feelings that lately blessed their peaceful abode.
+
+Such was the painful and ill-omened scene which was passing in the
+apartment of the brother who had espoused the cause of his country,
+where both families were assembled to witness the anticipated battle,
+when the unexpected entrance of the girls put an end to the
+altercation; and it soon after being announced that the Americans had
+retreated, the tory, followed by his wife, retired with an exulting
+sneer, to his own room, leaving the fair strangers, as it happily
+chanced, to the care and more congenial companionship of the young
+patriot and his warmly sympathizing Martha, who now kindly supplied
+their wants, and then conducted them to their attic chamber, where, it
+being now nearly dark, they immediately betook themselves to their
+homely but grateful couch. And, overcome by the fatigues and harrowing
+anxieties of the day, they soon fell asleep, expecting to be roused in
+the morning by the din of the battle, which they felt confident was
+yet to take place before the invaders would be permitted to advance
+farther on their boasted mission of plunder and outrage.
+
+But the next day was to be marked by the battle of the elements,
+rather than of men. The morning was ushered in by a storm of unusual
+violence. And as the day advanced, so seemed to increase the power of
+the tempest. The black, flying clouds, deeply enshrouding the mountain
+tops, and dragging the summits of the low, woody hills around, closer
+and closer begirt the darkened earth. Heavier and heavier dashed the
+deluging torrents against the smitten herbage of the field, and the
+trembling habitations of men; and louder and louder roared the wind,
+as it went howling and raging over the vexed wilderness, as if in
+mockery of the intended conflict of the feeble creatures of earth, who
+now stood shrinking and shivering in its rain-freighted blasts.
+
+Miss Haviland and her friend, in the mean time, closely kept their
+little chamber; and as little enviable as were their sensations under
+the terrors which the tempest, as it roared around the rocked
+dwelling, naturally inspired, it was soon with feelings of
+thankfulness that they found themselves permitted to remain even there
+unmolested; for their ears were continually shocked, and their
+liveliest apprehensions often excited, by the profane vociferations,
+the noisy ribaldry, and lawless conduct of the tories, who, driven
+from their drenched tents, which afforded them but a feeble protection
+against the fury of the storm, had crowded into the lower rooms of the
+house, where, half stifled, and jostled for want of space, they filled
+up the stairway, and repeatedly attempted to force open the fastened
+door of the trembling inmates of the apartment above. But the latter
+were at length permitted to experience a temporary relief from this
+source of annoyance and apprehension. Towards night the tempest
+lulled, and the rain abated, when the tories left the house, and
+joined in the universal rejoicing of the troops of the encampment,
+that the discomforts and sufferings of the storm were over. It soon
+became manifest, however, that they had been relieved of one evil only
+to be disturbed by another. In a short time, the American scouting
+parties began to show themselves on the border of the field in various
+directions around the encampment. Presently, the sharp crack of the
+rifle, followed by the whistling of bullets, and the fall of one of
+their number, in the midst of the startled camp, apprised them of the
+danger of remaining longer inactive. And Baum, astonished at the
+temerity of his foes, and scarcely less so at their evident ability to
+do execution with small arms at such a distance, instantly issued
+orders to fit out parties of tories and Indians, to go and dislodge
+them. At this juncture, the girls received a visit from their friendly
+hostess, who, with a troubled look, entered their room, and, after
+telling them that she and her sister had been, like themselves, little
+else than prisoners in the other chamber, proceeded to inform them
+that her husband, impressed with a sense of duty to his country, had
+secretly stolen off, during the preceding night, to the American camp;
+and that his tory brother-in-law, from whom she had contrived to
+conceal her husband's absence through the morning, had just discovered
+the fact, and, with bitter imprecations, seized his gun and rushed out
+to join the parties fitting out to fight his countrymen. Scarcely
+waiting to finish her hurried communication, the agitated woman
+hurried down and joined her no less excited sister in the yard, to
+witness the expected encounter of the opposing skirmishers; while
+Sabrey and Vine, sharing with the sisters, though less keenly,
+perhaps, in the interest of the event, took post at their window,
+which commanded a clear view of the scene of action, and looked forth
+for the same purpose.
+
+A company of tories were cautiously stealing along a low, bushy vale,
+towards the most westerly of the opposite woody points, from which the
+firing had proceeded. On the extreme right of the field, under a clump
+of tall evergreens, was seen the encampment of the Indians, who were
+in lively commotion, and evidently preparing to join in the meditated
+sally. One, whose stature, accoutrements, and bearing denoted him to
+be a chief, and principal leader of the band, appeared to be actively
+engaged in giving orders, and pointing out the course to be taken to
+reach some designated station in the woods. But just as the whole
+party were beginning to file away in their usual fashion, their steps
+were suddenly arrested by a rapid discharge of rifle-shots, that burst
+upon them from behind an old bush fence on the border of the forest,
+about a hundred yards to the east; when the tall chief, and three or
+four of his followers, in different parts of their line, were seen
+leaping wildly into the air, and then pitching headlong to the earth,
+to rise no more. The next instant, every dark form had vanished, and
+their places of refuge were only distinguishable by the occasional
+reports of their guns, as the protracted skirmish gradually receded
+within the depths of the forest.
+
+Meanwhile, the tories had proceeded on their destination undiscovered,
+till they reached the termination of their screening ridge on the
+left, which brought them within fifty yards of the bushy point where
+the largest party of their opponents lay concealed, unsuspicious of
+any immediate attack. Here the former made a brief pause, when they
+rushed forward with a loud shout, and, after a rapid exchange of
+shots, and a brief hand to hand conflict, drove the others from their
+ground, and compelled them to flee across the intervening opening to
+the opposite jungle, for protection. A cry of exultation now burst
+from the lips of the wife of the tory, as she witnessed this
+successful onset of her husband's party, and, crowing over her
+disappointed sister, she began to treat the insignificant result as
+the certain precursor of the speedy flight of the whole rebel army.
+But her triumph was of short duration; for, almost the next moment,
+the discomfited party, in conjunction with the band of their
+associates, to whose covert they had retreated, sallied out, and,
+returning impetuously to the charge, sent a fatal shower of bullets
+into the huddled ranks of the unprepared tories, and soon routed them
+entirely from the woods, from which they were seen flying, in wild
+disorder, towards the encampment. The rallying wife of the whig now,
+in turn, broke out in retaliatory exclamations of joy and exultation.
+But her triumphs, also, were destined to be cut short as speedily as
+those of her equally thoughtless sister, but in a different, and far
+more sorrowful manner.
+
+A man, bearing the lifeless body of one of the slain on his shoulders,
+now emerged into view, and came hurriedly staggering along over the
+field, directly towards the house. The instant the careless eye of the
+elated Martha fell on the approaching figure, it became fixed as if
+enchained by a spell. The half-uttered word she was speaking suddenly
+died on her faltering tongue. An instinctive shudder seemed to run
+over her; and, for nearly a minute, she stood gazing in motionless
+silence.
+
+"What is that? O! what is that?" at length burst sharply from her
+blanched lips.
+
+But no one answered; and she again relapsed into the same ominous
+silence, and continued gazing with the same burning intensity, till
+the man, with a look of conscience-smitten agony, came up, and laying
+down his burden on the grass, gently turned it over, and presented to
+her the face of her slain husband; when shriek after shriek broke, in
+quick and startling succession, from her convulsed bosom, and she was
+carried, in a state of wild and fearful frenzy, into the house. The
+homicide was the tory husband, who, having met his victim in the
+fight, and acting, as he averred, under an irresistible impulse, had
+singled out and slain one, whom, the next moment, he would have given
+worlds to have been able to bring to life. [Footnote: The scene here
+introduced is drawn from an incident belonging to the local history of
+the battle of Bennington, and is but one among the many sad and
+touching occurrences which tradition has preserved as connected with
+that memorable conflict.]
+
+The scattered forces of the sky now again began to collect, the rain
+to descend, and the angry winds to roar through the surrounding
+forest, compelling both the assailed and assailants to retire from the
+fields and woods to their respective places of rendezvous for shelter.
+And soon night closed over the scene, and shrouded every object from
+view with its Egyptian darkness.
+
+Widely different were the feelings and impressions which the events of
+that afternoon had imparted to the troops of the two opposing armies.
+The advantages gained, though not very important or decisive, had yet
+been almost wholly on the side of the Americans. Their different
+parties of scouts and skirmishers, who, with the first slackening of
+the storm, had filled the woods in every direction around the British
+encampment, had slain or disabled, in the various encounters of the
+day, more than thirty of their opponents, and, among them, two Indian
+chiefs, whose destruction caused a rejoicing proportioned to the
+exasperation which their presence here had occasioned. And the effect
+of the whole had been to banish the last remaining doubts of success
+from their bosoms, and make them long for the hour when they should be
+permitted to meet the foe in regular battle. The losses and defeats of
+the royal forces, on the other hand, had proportionally depressed
+their feelings, and filled them with dark forebodings of the fate
+which was in store for them. Nor did these feelings, in conjunction
+with the natural effect of the gloom and physical discomforts of their
+situation, long fail of a characteristic manifestation among the
+contrasted bands of that fated army. And strange and fearful were the
+sights and sounds which their encampment exhibited during the night of
+storm and darkness that followed. The sullen oaths and outlandish
+grumbling of the Germans, delving and splashing away at their
+unfinished intrenchments,--the noisy execrations of the exasperated
+tories moving restlessly about from tent to tent, and swearing revenge
+for the losses,--the sputtering of the Canadians,--the frightful
+whooping of the discontented savages, as their dark forms were seen
+darting about in the flickering light of their camp fires, and
+finally, the groans and blaspheming curses of the poor wretches who
+had been wounded in the skirmishes of the day, all mingling with the
+wailing of the wind, and the ceaseless pattering of the rain, combined
+to form a scene as wild and dismal as language could well paint, or
+even imagination conceive, and throw over this devoted spot of earth
+more of the air of the regions of the damned, than of the abodes of
+human beings.
+
+But what, in the mean while, were the thoughts and sensations of the
+hapless maiden, whose fate and fortune seemed to have become so
+strangely involved in the movements and scenes we have been
+describing? To her the day had been but a varying scene of gloom and
+wretchedness--of maidenly terror and painful excitement. And night had
+come only to be made still more hideous by its accumulated horrors.
+Shuddering at the strange and appalling sounds, that constantly
+assailed her recoiling senses from without, and pained and distressed
+at the ceaseless wailing of the bereaved and heart-broken wife
+within--often startled and alarmed at the noisy intrusions of the
+heartless tories in the room below, and their frequent threats, and
+even occasional attempts to get into her apartment above, and tortured
+by the anxieties, suspense, and apprehension she felt respecting the
+fate for which she might be reserved, independent of the more
+immediately-menaced evils around her, she lay, hour after hour, during
+the first watches of that fearful night, tremblingly clinging to her
+less-troubled companion, and earnestly praying for death, or the
+approach of morning, to relieve her from some of the horrors of her
+situation. But at length her exhausted system yielded to the
+requirements of nature, and her senses became locked, and her cares
+lost, in the forgetfulness of slumber.
+
+She and her attendant were awakened, the next morning, by the reveille
+of the clangorous brass drums of the Hessians, and the mingling hum of
+the stirring camp around them. Attiring themselves with that haste
+which, whether required or not, is usually consequent on a state of
+great anxiety, they ran to the window and glanced out over the
+landscape. But what a contrast with what it yesterday presented! The
+black storm-cloud, that had so closely brooded over the earth, had
+been rolled away, and the cerulean vault above was as calm and
+cloudless as if storm and tempest had never disfigured its beautiful
+expanse. The air was full of balmy sweetness; and soon the golden sun,
+slowly mounting over the eastern hills, poured down his floods of
+light upon the varigated landscape, transforming the still-weeping
+forest into a sea of glittering diamonds, converting the hitherto
+unnoticed openings on the surrounding hill-sides into bright spots of
+smiling verdure, and adding a brighter tint to the yellow fields of
+waving grain, that stood ripening in the valley, soon to be trod and
+trampled by other than peaceful reapers' feet:--
+
+  "For here, far other harvest here
+     Than that which peasant's scythe demands,
+     Was gathered in by sterner hands,
+   With musket, blade, and spear."
+
+Slowly rolled the bright hours of that calm and beautiful morning
+away, as Miss Haviland, with her attendant, sat by the window, often
+and anxiously glancing along the road to the east, to catch a glimpse
+of that army, in whose movements all her hopes were centred, making
+its expected advance. But it came not. No American--not even a scout
+or skirmisher--any where made his appearance; and no signs of a battle
+were visible in any quarter, unless they might be gathered from the
+busy labors of the British troops in putting their arms in order, or
+the unusual stillness and the air of anxious suspense that seemed to
+pervade their whole encampment. Noon came; and still all remained
+quiet as before. That hour, and the next, also, passed away with the
+same ominous stillness; and the desponding girl began seriously to
+fear, that the Americans had indeed retreated from the vicinity, and
+left her and the country alike at the mercy of the foe. But just as
+this depressing thought was taking possession of her mind, a sound
+reached her ears from afar, that caused her suddenly to start to her
+feet with a look of joy and animation that, for weeks, had been a
+stranger to her countenance.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+  "Death to him who forges
+   Fetters, fetters for the free!"--_Eastman_.
+
+
+"Did you hear that?" exclaimed the maiden, with flushed cheek and
+kindling eye.
+
+"Hear what?" asked her surprised and wondering companion, who had
+heard nothing to warrant so sudden a change in the other's demeanor.
+
+"That sound from the forest yonder," answered Sabrey, pointing over to
+the wood bordering the opening to the south. "But hush! listen! it may
+be repeated. There--didn't you hear it then?"
+
+"I heard nothing but the hooting of an old owl over there What do you
+make out of that?" responded Vine, still surprised and doubtful.
+
+"I make much out of it: but let us listen further," answered the other.
+
+They did so; and presently the same slow, solemn hoot of the bird just
+named rose more loud and distinct than before. And scarcely had the
+last sound died away in its peculiar melancholy cadence, when the
+solitary report of a musket sent its echoing peal over the valley from
+the forest in the opposite direction.
+
+"There! the story is told," exclaimed Sabrey, exultingly. "Three hoots
+of the owl is the secret watchword of the Rangers. The admirable
+imitation we have just heard was doubtless given by him who
+communicated to me this fact, and gave me a specimen of his faculty of
+making the sound as we were coming through the woods in our recent
+flight. It here shows, unless I greatly err, that his regiment is
+passing round to the rear of the enemy; while the gun we have just
+heard must proceed, I think, from some other force going round through
+the woods on the opposite side,--these sounds being a concerted
+interchange of signals to apprise each other and General Stark of the
+progress they have made towards the appointed station. In fifteen
+minutes, this camp may discover itself surrounded and assailed on all
+sides by men who know what they are fighting for. Then Vine then comes
+the struggle we have been praying to witness. O, may Heaven prosper
+the defenders of their homes, and enable them to triumph over their
+haughty foes."
+
+The conjectures of Miss Haviland respecting the plan of attack which
+the Americans had adopted were well founded. Colonel Herrick, with his
+brave and spirited regiment of Rangers, had been despatched through
+the woods to the rear of the enemy, where he was to be joined by
+nearly an equal force of militia, under the command of Colonel
+Nichols, coming through the forest, also, in an opposite direction;
+while the remaining and larger portion of the army was to advance in
+front, in time to commence with the former the general attack. And, in
+a short time, the long, deep roll of drums, swelling louder and louder
+on the breeze, announced that Stark, with the main body, was in
+motion, and rapidly approaching along the road from the east.
+
+Quickly every part of the British camp was in lively commotion. And
+the hasty mounting of field-officers, the flying of the scattered
+troops to their respective standards, the furious beating of the drums
+to arms, and the deep, stern words of command, mingling with the
+rattling of steel, and other sounds of hostile preparation, all
+plainly told that they were at length aroused to the conviction that
+their opponents in front were coming down in full force upon their
+encampment; and that something more might now be required to insure
+their safety, than the empty vaunting, and the supposed intimidating
+display, of British uniforms and brass cannon, which had thus far
+marked the expedition, and constituted its only achievements. And
+scarcely had the different divisions of their motley army become
+arrayed and fixed in their line of battle, which consisted of the
+regulars within their strong field-works on the elevated plain on the
+left, and the Canadians and tories behind their more imperfect
+defences stretching from the former across the meadow on the
+right--scarcely had this been done, before their line of pickets,
+which had been placed among the trees at the eastern termination of
+the field, suddenly broke from their station, and came disorderly
+rushing back to the encampment. Presently a dark body of men in motion
+began to be perceptible through the openings of the wood along the
+line of the winding road; and, in a moment more, Stark's noble little
+brigade of sturdy and resolute peasant warriors came pouring into the
+field.
+
+Wheeling in beautiful order into battle array, they came to a halt in
+the open plain near the border of the woods. Stark, then advancing,
+rode slowly along the front of the line, and, at length pausing, ran
+his practised eye collectedly over the firmly-standing ranks and
+dauntless faces before him; when, raising his massive form to its full
+length, he raised his glittering sword, and pointed to the hostile
+lines.
+
+"Yonder, my men," he said, in a voice whose clear, deep, and ringing
+tones, in the stillness which at the moment prevailed, distinctly
+reached the attent organs of our fair listeners--"yonder, my brave
+men, stand the red-coats, your own and your country's foe--their army
+a mongrel crew of Hessian hirelings, fighting for eight-pence a day,
+or thereabouts; of tories, who come to ravage and enslave the land
+that gave them birth; and lastly, of Indians, dreaming of scalps and
+plunder! Are you not better men? Have you not nobler objects? Call you
+not yourselves freemen, with hearts to defend your homes and country?
+If so, then let your deeds this day prove it to the world! As for
+myself, my resolution is taken,--the field and foe is ours by set of
+sun, or Molly Stark this night will sleep a widow."
+
+Three hearty cheers, bursting spontaneously from the listening ranks
+before him, told the gratified leader that he had not overrated the
+spirit and enthusiasm of the men to whom his brief but effective
+appeal had been addressed.
+
+The British forces, in the mean time, awaited the approach of their
+opponents in silence. Baum even forebore to open upon them with his
+cannon, in the delusive hope that they would prove to be one of the
+large bodies of friendly inhabitants, who, he had been assured, would
+rise up in arms to join his standard as he advanced into the interior.
+His suspense, however, was soon ended. A scattering volley of
+musketry, followed by a distant shout, rose from the woods in rear of
+the station occupied by the Indians. And suddenly the whole body of
+the savages, contrary to their usual custom, quitted the woods, and
+came rushing into the camp of their allies with manifestations of the
+greatest surprise and dismay. The next moment, Herrick, at the head of
+his long files of Rangers, emerged into the open field, rapidly formed
+them into column, and advanced towards the rear of the enemy's
+intrenchments; while, at the same time, Nichols and his corps were
+seen approaching from the forest in an opposite direction, to form the
+contemplated junction, and move on with the former to the combined
+assault. The moment the Indians obtained a view of both these forces,
+and perceived they were converging together so as to form a continuous
+line of battle along the rear, they began to manifest the greatest
+uneasiness and alarm. And heir innate dread of being surrounded soon
+becoming too strong for the restraints of discipline, they broke from
+their position, and, like a flock of wild horses, commenced a
+tumultuous flight across the field towards the woods in open space
+between the two approaching forces of their opponents, who, quickly
+changing fronts, poured in upon them a rapid succession of destructive
+volleys. A fierce shout now burst from the ranks of the assailants;
+and, when the smoke rose, a line of dark, lifeless forms marked the
+green field nearly to the woods; others were seen crawling, like
+wounded reptiles, to the nearest coverts; while all the rest of the
+savage foe had disappeared forever from the field. Herrick and Nichols
+having now resumed their march, and Stark put his corps in motion, the
+three divisions, with two small flanking detachments, despatched along
+the woods to the right and left of the main body, all moved steadily
+on to the different points of attack. They were not permitted,
+however, to advance far unmolested; for suddenly every part of the
+royal lines became wrapped in clouds of mingling smoke and flame;
+while the heavens and earth seemed rent by the deafening crash of
+exploding muskets, and the jarring concussions of cannon, which
+instantly followed. Unmoved, however, by the tremendous outbreak, the
+American forces all moved steadily and rapidly forward till the forms
+of their opponents could be discerned beneath the lifting smoke, when
+they poured in a storm of fire and lead which told with dreadful
+effect on the shrinking lines before them. The general fire thus
+fatally delivered was speedily returned; and the battle now commencing
+in fearful earnest in every part of the field, both armies became so
+deeply concealed in the whirling clouds of smoke, which enveloped
+them, that the opposing forces could be distinguished only in the
+fierce gleams of musketry and the broader blaze of cannon that burst
+incessantly along the lines, filling, with the mingled uproar of a
+thousand thunders, the rocking valley and reverberating mountains
+around.
+
+In the mean while, our heroine and her companion, who, at the first
+shock of this terrible onset, had shrunk back in consternation from
+view of the scene, sat listening on their humble couch to the fearful
+din that assailed their recoiling senses in every direction around
+them from without, with feelings which can be far more easily imagined
+than described. For more than an hour, while the battle continued to
+rage with increasing violence, and showers of bullets were heard every
+moment striking and burying themselves in the logs composing the walls
+of their seemingly devoted shelter, the amazed and trembling girls
+remained in the same position, dreading to look out upon the field,
+lest their eyes should be greeted with the sight of the death and
+carnage which they full well knew must there be going on to a fearful
+extent among both friends and foes. But Sabrey's increasing anxiety
+for the result, at length, mastering all other considerations, she
+arose, and, against the remonstrances of her companion, advanced
+towards the window.
+
+"How awful!" she exclaimed, as she glanced out on the terrific
+conflict.
+
+"Too awful to witness, unless there were some use in so doing,"
+responded Vine. "If we were permitted to mingle in the fight with our
+friends, I, for one, would be willing to brave all the horrors of the
+battle for the good I might do; but, as this cannot be, why should we
+expose ourselves to danger so uselessly? Now, I do entreat you,
+Sabrey, to venture no farther," she continued, as the former, reaching
+the window, leaned forward for a full view of the scene. "Step back
+from that dangerous spot; don't you hear the bullets rattling, like
+hail, round the building?"
+
+"Yes, but there is no danger where I stand, I presume, but if there
+were, I could no longer forbear watching the issue of a contest in
+which my own fate, as well as that of friends, is so deeply involved,"
+replied Sabrey, with desperate calmness, as she continued to rivet her
+gaze on the field below.
+
+"If you will look, then," said the other, "tell me what you see going
+on."
+
+"I will," answered the former, "as far as I can distinguish any
+movements. But, at present, both sides are so completely concealed in
+the smoke that enshrouds them, that I can only discern dark forms in
+active motion along the lines, as the blaze of their fire-arms reveals
+portions of their ranks. The struggle, however, is evidently a
+dreadful one! In that continued, deafening crash which you hear,
+flames and smoke seem to be vomited forth from the earth, as if from
+the mouth of a volcano."
+
+"There seems to be less firing now," observed Vine, after listening in
+silence a few minutes. "Can you perceive any new movements afoot?
+Can't you distinguish any of the words of command, or any thing that
+is said among that uproar of voices, which, between the booming of the
+cannon, once in a while, plainly reaches my ears?"
+
+"Ay," returned the other, intently bending her ear towards the scene
+of action--"ay, I think I can, now. Hark! I hear one voice in
+particular, rising loud over all others; but it is the voice of one in
+prayer, invoking the God of battles to strike with the free and aid in
+bringing down quick destruction on their foes. How mightily he cries
+to Heaven for succor and success!"
+
+"Where is he? among the rest in the fight?"
+
+"No, not directly in the battle, I should think, but a little aloof,
+in the rear of this end of the American lines. There! I can now
+distinguish his form coming obliquely out of the smoke in this
+direction."
+
+"Who is he?"
+
+"I know not; but he seems a venerable old man, and his long, white
+locks are streaming in the wind, as, with a grasped musket in his
+hands, and the cry of _The sword of the Lord and Gideon_ on his lips,
+he rushes towards the foe."
+
+"What! to encounter them alone?"
+
+"Yes, alone, and in advance of all others. Now he takes his stand in
+front of a group of tories partially concealed by the bushes on the
+bank of the stream. There! he raises his gun, and crying, God have
+mercy on your soul, fires, and his victim pitches headlong to the
+ground. They return his fire, but harm him not; and he again raises
+his gun, and, with the same prayer for mercy on the soul of the foeman
+he has singled out, fires, and another tory falls heavily to the
+earth. Mercy! they are now rushing forward to slay the old man! But
+now they are met by a party of the Americans, running forward with
+shouts, _For the rescue of Father Herriot_! Both sides fire; and again
+all are enveloped in the cloud of smoke that rolls over them."
+
+"Father Herriot--Father Herriot," said Vine, musingly. "I have heard a
+great deal said about one they call Father Herriot, lately; but can he
+be here fighting?"
+
+"Why, who and what is he, that he should not be here?" asked the other.
+
+"A sort of preacher, I believe," answered Vine, "but rich enough to
+have bought several large tory estates; though where he came from, or
+how he got so much hard money as he seems to have, nobody can tell."
+
+A fresh and general outbreak between the opposing lines here
+interrupted the conversation, and turned Sabrey's attention again to
+the field. And for nearly another fearful hour did she keep her stand
+at the window, heedless of the danger from the bullets which were
+whistling round her head, and unable, in the agonizing anxiety she
+felt for the result, to withdraw her eyes from that dread field, where
+the continued thunders of the artillery and musketry, shaking the
+solid earth along the line of conflict proclaimed the battle to be
+still raging with unabated fury.
+
+At length, a brisk breeze sprang up in the north-west, and the battle
+cloud rolled heavily away before it from the field, disclosing, not
+only the relative positions of the opposing forces, but the awful
+picture of carnage that every where strewed the blackened earth.
+Mutually anxious to avail themselves of this opportunity to ascertain
+each other's situation, both parties at once suspended operations, for
+the purpose of obtaining observations which should enable them to
+resume the battle with more deadly effect. The deafening roar of
+musketry which, for nearly two hours, had shaken the embattled plain
+like one continued peal of thunder, was now heard rolling away, in
+dying echoes, among the far-off hills, leaving only the monotonous din
+of the martial music, kept up to drown the cries of the wounded, and
+the heavy booming of Baum's artillery, that still maintained its
+regular fire on the hill, though only to send--as it now became
+evident it had done from the first--its iron missiles high and
+harmlessly over the heads of the Americans, into the tops of the
+crashing forest beyond.
+
+"Is the battle over?" asked Vine, as the noise of fire-arms thus
+subsided.
+
+"No--that is, I conclude not," hesitatingly answered the other, still
+more closely rivetting her anxious gaze on the unfolding scene before
+her. "No, I think not--I trust not; for the British yet remain
+unconquered."
+
+"Can you see them now?"
+
+"Yes; the wind is driving away the smoke, and both armies are now fast
+becoming visible."
+
+"Do our men maintain their ground?"
+
+"Ay, and more. They have advanced almost to the hostile intrenchments;
+and there they stand face to face with their foes; and with ranks less
+thinned, thank Heaven, than I should think possible after withstanding
+so long the dreadful fire to which they have been exposed; though I
+can distinguish the forms of many poor fellows stretched upon the
+earth."
+
+"And have not the ranks of the enemy suffered also?"
+
+"Severely, it is evident. The ground along their lines as far as I can
+see, and especially that part opposite to the station occupied by the
+Rangers, whom I can distinguish by their green uniform, is thickly
+strown with the bodies of the slain. And if our men could see the
+destruction they have caused behind those intrenchments to encourage
+them! But stay! what means that commotion? Can it be?" Heaven forbid!
+But it is so. They fly!"
+
+"Who fly?" eagerly demanded Vine.
+
+"The Americans--Stark's division--and all is lost, when one more
+effort might have given them the victory! If my feeble voice could but
+reach them, I would rush out and raise it, though I perished in the
+attempt!" rapidly exclaimed the heroic girl, agonized at the thought
+that her countrymen were actually retreating from a field she believed
+so nearly won. "Ay, and who knows but I might be heard, or, at least,
+understood?" she added, glancing hurriedly through the window to the
+grounds round the house, to see what might be there to prevent her
+from trying to put her half-formed resolution into execution.
+
+In looking out, with this object, her eye fell on the rude portico
+running along that side of the house, the narrow, flat roof of which
+rose to within a few feet of her window. And, suddenly changing her
+purpose, she hastily tore out the fastenings of the window, removed
+the sashes, and leaped down upon the roof of the portico, and stood in
+open view of the greater partion of both armies. But still regardless
+of her exposure, she advanced to the verge of the roof, and, turning
+towards the Americans, waved high her kerchief, and essayed to lift
+her voice over the tumult in words which, she hoped, would catch their
+attention and arrest their supposed flight. But the Americans, who had
+only fallen back a short distance to avoid the now unobstructed aim of
+the enemy, and prepare for a fresh onset, had already come to a stand,
+but were at first too busily engaged in loading their guns, and
+watching the motions of their foes, to observe her. The tories,
+however, whose forces were posted in the more immediate vicinity,
+instantly noted her appearance, and pointed her out to their officers,
+who, at once, appeared to read her intentions. And the next moment
+Colonel Peters, now for the first time presenting himself to her sight
+since her recapture, rode up; and, with a countenance flushed with
+suppressed passion, commanded her to retire within the house. A look
+of ineffable scorn was the only reply the maiden vouchsafed to give
+him, while she redoubled her exertions to attract the attention of his
+opponents. Stung by this public exhibition of her disdain, and
+defiance of his commands, the tory chief hastily raised a pistol
+towards her, and, in a fierce and menacing tone, demanded an immediate
+compliance with his orders.
+
+"God have mercy on your soul!" was at that instant heard issuing from
+a covert near the American lines, in the well-known voice of Father
+Herriot. With the exclamation came the report of a musket, and at the
+same time a bullet struck and shattered in his hand the raised pistol
+of the dastardly Peters, who, casting away the remnant of the weapon
+to which he had been indebted only for his life, hastily wheeled and
+galloped back to his post barely escaping the shower of balls that, as
+he had rightly anticipated, was sent after him from the nearest of his
+foes.
+
+But although the maiden had failed at the onset to attract the
+attention of the Americans by her attempt, as she had designed, yet
+the incident, to which the bold step she had taken gave rise, more
+effectually subserved her purpose. The firing had at once drawn all
+eyes to the spot. Presently the low hum of questioning voices was
+heard running through the American lines, while many an uplifted hand
+was seen pointing to her conspicuous form, as, still undeterred from
+her purpose, she stood waving her signal kerchief towards them. And
+the next moment the loud and cheering cry, _Forward, to the rescue of
+the Tory's Daughter!_ burst from the Rangers, and was speedily caught
+up and echoed in lively acclamations, from detachment to detachment,
+through the whole encircling lines of the assailing army, which, with
+one impulse, now threw itself forward towards the foe. And, unmoved by
+the tremendous but hasty and misdirected fire that every where met
+them on the way, they swept onward like an avalanche to the very foot
+of the tory intrenchments; when, pausing only to pour in their
+devouring volleys, they mounted the works, and raising their clubbed
+muskets, dashed down, with shouts of defiance, upon the recoiling
+ranks of the amazed and panic-stricken foe, who, unable to withstand
+the force and fury of the onset, instantly gave way and threw down
+their arms, or scattered and fled in every direction.
+
+Astonished and alarmed at beholding all his outworks so suddenly and
+unexpectedly stormed and carried, Baum seemed immediately to have
+resolved on a desperate effort to retrieve the fortunes of the day.
+And in a few minutes he was seen at the head of a long column of his
+grenadiers, issuing from his intrenchments on the hill, and bearing
+down with hasty step on the assailing forces below. But the next
+moment, that imposing column, with its luckless leader, disappeared
+before the enfilading fire of the death-dealing Rangers, like
+frost-work before the breath of a furnace; while, nearly at the same
+time, an upleaping cloud of smoke and flame, followed by the shock of
+an exploding ammunition wagon within the principal works, completed
+the only signal of encouragement that was wanted by the already
+flushed assailants to decide them on an immediate attempt for the
+completion of their triumph. And before the dull roar of the explosion
+was lost among the echoing hills, the deep-toned voice of the intrepid
+Stark, ever eagle-eyed to see, and prompt to seize, an advantage, was
+heard rising over the tumult, in ordering the final assault, which,
+having leaped from his horse, and sprung forward to the head of a
+forming column, he was the next moment seen, with the air of a roused
+lion, leading on in person. In one minute more, all the various
+forces, not required to guard the prisoners already taken, were in
+motion, and, with flashing eyes, and rapid, determined tread, charging
+up the ascending grounds towards the different sides of the doomed
+redoubt; in another, they were furiously rushing over the embankments,
+and pouring their bristling columns in resistless streams down upon
+the weakened and dismayed forces of the Germans and British in the
+enclosure. Then succeeded the rapid, scattering reports of pistols and
+musketry, the sounds of fiercely-clashing steel, and the wild cries of
+those struggling hand to hand in deadly contest, and the wilder
+shrieks of the wounded, all rising in mingled uproar from the spot.
+Then all was hushed in a momentary stillness; and then rose the long,
+loud shout of a thousand uniting voices, pealing forth to the heavens
+the exulting acclamations of victory!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+  "The strife, that for a while did fail,
+   Now trebly thundering, swelled the gale."--_Scott_.
+
+
+Like the rapidly-flitting scenes of some dioramic exhibition passed
+the crowding events of the next half hour before the half-bewildered
+senses of our heroine. The sudden appearance of Woodburn in the now
+deserted yard of her prison-house, whither, the moment the battle was
+won, he had hastened, with the usual anxiety of the lover made intense
+by the distracting fear that she might have been carried off by the
+escaping tories,--his eager inquiries for her presence and
+safety,--her own involuntary but silent response to his calls, by
+rushing out to meet him, and placing herself under his coveted
+protection,--the hurried congratulations that passed between
+them,--the complimentary greetings of the gallant hero of the day, and
+other distinguished persons soon gathering around her and her fair
+companion, as they stood shrinking from the admiration and applause
+which the conduct of one, and the position of both, had called forth
+from the lips of all,--their welcome escape from the embarrassing
+scene, in a carriage, under the guidance of Bart, to whom they were
+given in charge by Woodburn, as he hastily departed, at the head of a
+chosen band of followers, in pursuit of Peters, and a body of tories
+that were discovered to have escaped,--the passage of the vehicle
+through the contested field, ploughed up by artillery, blackened by
+the fire and smoke of battle, and strewed with the dying and the dead,
+among whom the busy groups of the dismissed soldiery were every where
+scattered in pursuit of their different objects--here to collect
+plunder from their slain enemies, and there to minister to the
+wounded, or search among the fallen for missing comrades,--all these
+followed so rapidly upon a victory, the sudden announcement of which
+had nearly overpowered her with joyful surprise, that it was not till
+she and her companion had passed beyond the confines of the
+battle-field, and entered upon the comparatively solitary road leading
+towards the village of Bennington, to which they were now directing
+their course, that she could realize her happy deliverance. Then, for
+the first time during that terrible day, the woman in her prevailed,
+and she melted into tears. But they were the tears of joy and
+gratitude, that she and her native land, whose immediate fate had so
+singularly become interwoven with her own, had alike been permitted to
+triumph. We must, however, leave her and her friend to indulge their
+overflowing feelings, and listen to the recitals of the no less happy
+Bart, who had been in the hottest of the fight, while they pursue
+their unmolested way to their present destination--we must now leave
+them, and return once more to the field of battle, where the dismissed
+troops were still busily engaged in gathering up the trophies of war,
+preparing refreshments, and exulting over the glorious result of the
+conflict, little dreaming of any further appearance of the enemy after
+so signal a defeat.
+
+But hark! What means that heavy firing which suddenly comes echoing
+over the forest from the west? Does it portend only some skirmish on
+the line of the retreat, where a portion of the foe have come to a
+stand to shield the rest, or favor their escape? No; it is the booming
+of the deep-mouthed cannon, and not those of the defeated forces; for
+they have left all theirs behind them. While every eye and ear,
+through the hushed field, were turned in anxious perplexity towards
+the ominous sounds, a horseman came dashing at full speed along the
+wood-begirt road from that direction, loudly proclaiming, as he drew
+near, the startling intelligence, that the broken and flying bands of
+the enemy had been met and rallied by a reenforcement of five hundred
+fresh veteran troops, well supplied with artillery; and the whole,
+making a more formidable army than the first, and evidently resolved
+to retrieve the lost credit of the day, and revenge themselves on the
+victors, were rapidly approaching, and within two miles of the place!
+
+The next moment the loud and quickly repeated cry of "To arms! to
+arms!" rang far and wide over the field. Then followed the rapid roll
+of the alarm drums, the rattling of hastily-grasped muskets, the
+trampling of hurrying feet, and the confused clamor of voices; while
+the scattered and commingling bands of the surprised troops were seen
+throwing down their plunder, or leaving the half-partaken meal, and
+flying, in all directions, to their respective rallying points, to be
+ready to meet the menaced onset, and die, or keep the field they had
+so gloriously won. But notwithstanding the spirit and alacrity with
+which the troops responded to the call, so rapid was the advance of
+the enemy, that, before Stark, with all his energy, could collect much
+more than half his former forces, refit them with ammunition, and
+bring them into line, the British, led on by the cool and experienced
+Breyman, and driving before them the detachment of Americans sent in
+pursuit of the fugitives, came pouring onto the field; and,
+immediately throwing themselves into battle array, opened a tremendous
+fire, with cannon and small arms, upon the half-formed lines of their
+opponents, gathering to dispute their passage in front. The Americans
+returned the fire, which, though partial and irregular, was yet so
+well directed as to put a temporary check upon the advance of the foe.
+But the latter, seeing the unprepared condition of the former, and
+becoming confident of an easy victory, were soon again upon the
+advance; while Stark, destroying the breastworks that had sheltered
+the foe in the first action, as far as the time would permit, and
+dragging the captured cannon along with him, slowly fell back,
+continuing to make his dispositions, and pour, from time to time, as
+he went, his well-aimed volleys upon the thinning ranks of his
+pursuers. At length, however, he took his stand, resolved, in despite
+of all his disadvantages, to make a final and desperate effort to
+regain the lost mastery of the field. But closer and closer pressed
+the exulting and determined foe; and, although well and bravely did
+his weakened and exhausted men repel the fierce charges of their
+assailants, yet it soon became evident that they could not long
+withstand the repeated assaults of those heavy and disciplined columns
+upon their unequal lines. Both the men and their officers began to
+exchange doubtful and despairing glances; and even their bold and
+unyielding chief was seen to look uneasily around him. But at that
+critical juncture, when the fate of the free seemed trembling
+doubtfully in the balance, an inspiring shout rose from the copse-wood
+bordering the road in the rear. And the next moment, the far-famed
+regiment of Green Mountain Boys, whose earlier arrival had been
+prevented by the storm of the preceding day, emerged into view; and,
+led on by the chivalrous Warner on his fiery charger, that would know
+no other rider,[Footnote: It may be interesting, to the antiquarian at
+least, to learn that the splendid war-horse, which Warner was known to
+have rode in all his battles, could neither be mounted nor managed by
+any except the colonel and his son, then a lad of sixteen or
+seventeen, who attended his father in the service mainly on that
+account. This fact I have from the lips of Colonel W.'s second son,
+now living in Lower Canada.] advanced with rapid and resolute tread
+directly to the scene of action.
+
+"Warm work, warm work here, Colonel Warner," said Stark, as the other
+dashed up to his side for his orders.
+
+"Ay, general; but we will make it still warmer for the Red coats, at
+least, if you will give us a chance at them in front of your line,"
+promptly responded the gallant officer.
+
+"That chance you shall have, with the thanks of my exhausted troops,
+to whom, and myself, your presence, at this time, my brave friend,
+could scarcely be more welcome," said Stark, with a frankness and
+cordiality of manner which attested the pleasure he felt at the
+other's timely arrival.
+
+"Thank you--thank you, general," replied Warner, galloping back to his
+regiment, and commanding their attention.
+
+"Soldiers," he exclaimed, in his clear, trumpet tones throwing back
+his tall, superb form, and displaying his noble and beautifully-arched
+brow,--"my brave soldiers, shall this be _our_ battle, and _our_
+victory?"
+
+A deafening cheer was the affirmative response.
+
+"In God's name, on, then!" he resumed, in a voice of thunder--"on, and
+avenge yourselves for country's wrongs, and for your flogging at
+Hubbardton."
+
+In eager obedience to the welcome command of their idolized leader,
+who now led the way, with flashing eyes and waving sword, they all
+swept on through the opening ranks of their loudly-cheering companions
+in arms, rapidly deployed into line, and, the next instant, wrapped
+themselves in the flame and smoke of their own fire, which burst, with
+an almost single report, into the very faces of the astonished foe,
+whose ranks went down by scores before the leaden blast of that
+terrible volley. And, by the time they had recovered from the shock of
+the unexpected assault, the relieved and encouraged forces of Stark,
+now strengthened by the arrival of additional numbers of the scattered
+militia, and formed into new and more effective combinations, returned
+with, fresh ardor to the contest. And, as the different detachments,
+moving resolutely on, with flying colors and rattling drums, to the
+various points of attack assigned them in front and around the hostile
+squares, reached their allotted stations, they successively poured in
+their withering volleys till the rebounding plain trembled and shook
+beneath the tumult and thunders of a conflict, to which, in obstinacy
+and sanguinary fierceness, few engagements on record afford a
+parallel. On one side was discipline, with revenge, the hope of
+reward, and the fear of the disgrace attending defeat, to incite them,
+to action On the other side, the stake was home and liberty; and these
+as the trained officers of Europe soon found to their astonishment
+often more than compensated for the lack of discipline and military
+experience; for, in contending for a stake of such individual moment,
+every man in the ranks of freedom, though frequently wholly untrained,
+and in battle for the first time in his life, at once became a
+warrior, fighting as if the whole responsibility of the issue of the
+battle rested on his own shoulders. And, in every part of the field,
+deeds were performed by nameless peasants rivalling the most daring
+exploits of heroes. Here a company of raw militia might be seen
+rushing upon a detached column of British veterans, firing in their
+faces, and, for want of bayonets, knocking them down with clubbed
+muskets. There old men and boys, with others who, like them, had come
+unarmed and as spectators of the battle, would spring forward after
+some retreating band, seize the muskets of the slain, and engage,
+muzzle to muzzle, with the hated foe. The intrepid Stark, harboring no
+thought but of victory, and as regardless of exposure as the
+unconscious charger that bore him through the leaden storm, was every
+where to be seen; now heading an onset--now dashing off to rouse or
+rally a faltering column, and now leaping from his horse to show his
+inexperienced men how to load and fire the captured cannon; while
+Warner and Herrick, fit men to second the efforts of such a chief,
+were constantly storming, like raging lions, in the smoke and fire of
+the hottest of the fight; here breasting, with their brave and
+unflinching regiments, the desperate assault, and there, in turn,
+leading on the resistless charge.
+
+Thus, with the tide of war alternately surging to and fro, like the
+wild waves of the ocean lashed by contending winds, continued to rage
+this fierce and sanguinary conflict, till the sun went down in the
+semblant blood with which the smoke of battle had enshrouded him.
+
+But now, soon an unusual commotion, attended with new and rapid
+movements, was observable among the contending forces of the field.
+Presently an exulting shout rose from the American lines; and the
+enemy were seen at all points to be giving way. Their retreat,
+however, though rapid, was yet, for a while, conducted with order; and
+they repeatedly turned and made desperate efforts to resist the fiery
+tide that, with gathering impetus, was rolling after them. But vain
+and fruitless were all their attempts; for, while their whole rear was
+wasting with frightful rapidity, under the terrible volleys which were
+poured upon it, in one incessant blaze, by the hotly pursuing
+squadrons of Stark and Warner, a strong detachment of the heroic
+Rangers, under the daring lead of the now half-maddened Woodburn
+rushed forward and fell upon their flank with a fury that threw their
+pierced and staggering columns into such disorder and confusion as to
+destroy their last indulged hope of escaping in a body from their
+infuriated pursuers. And, the next moment, their whole force broke,
+and, abandoning their cannon and baggage, fled in a tumultuous rout
+from the field, some escaping along the road, some yielding themselves
+prisoners on the way, and others, to avoid their outstripping
+pursuers, seeking refuge in the surrounding forest. But neither road,
+nor field, nor forest, were this time permitted to afford many of them
+the means of escape, or shield them from the harassing pursuit of the
+exasperated Americans, who, in furiously-charging columns, overthrew,
+shot down, or captured, all their broken and flying bands within
+reach, in the road and open grounds, or in small parties, or singly,
+closely followed and boldly encountered them in the woods, whose dark
+recesses soon resounded with the scattering fire, the clashing steel,
+and the hurrying shout, of the pursued and pursuing combatants.
+
+But of the scores of promiscuous conflicts and personal encounters
+which marked the _finale_ of this memorable triumph and made so
+conspicuous the prowess of the heroic men by whom it was achieved, it
+were in vain for us, within our limits, to attempt a description.
+There was one of these encounters, however, which the approaching
+development of our story requires to be more particularly noted. And,
+for this purpose, we will now change the scene to a wild glen, far
+within the depths of the forest, where, hedged in by an impassable
+morass in front, and steep ledges of rocks on either side, a gang of a
+half dozen of the fugitive tories, headed by an officer in British
+uniform, had turned round with the desperate ferocity of wild beasts,
+to give battle to the indefatigable pursuers, who had followed them
+from the battle-field with a vigilance and speed from which there was
+no escape, and with such demonstrations of marksmanship as had already
+told fatally on nearly half their numbers on the way. But those
+pursuers, as wary as they were brave and untiring, with the double
+object of concealing the inequality of their numbers, which were but
+four, and securing the advantages that a choice of positions in all
+sylvan contests especially affords, had instantly fallen back to a
+line of hastily-selected coverts, stretching across the gorge, and had
+now become wholly invisible to their advancing foes, who soon paused
+in turn, and, shielding themselves behind the bodies of trees stood
+eagerly peering out to catch sight of the objects of their aim.
+Suddenly the sharp report of a rifle burst from a bush-covered cleft
+in the rocks nearly abreast of one of the exposed flanks of the
+tories; and the tallest of their number, with a wild start, and
+half-uttered oath, floundered into the bushes and fell. The next
+moment, our old acquaintance, Bart Burt, who, having conveyed the
+ladies to their destination, had sped back to the battle-field in time
+to participate in the last part of the final action, was seen
+stealthily creeping round the point of the ledge, from which the fatal
+shot had issued, and approaching the leader of the concealed
+assailants, who, as the reader may have already anticipated, was no
+other than Captain Woodburn.
+
+"Bart," said the latter, "you have executed my order as no other man
+could. But whom have you slain? Not Peters?"
+
+"No--couldn't get him in range; but did as well, though--may be
+better--fixed out the only one whose aim I was 'fraid of--the big,
+fierce-looking whelp that shot father Herriot, in our last sally in
+the field; the same that made that bullet-hole in your coat on the way
+here; and the same, too, who would have finished me, likely, but for
+the glancing of his bullet on a bush before me. But I have settled all
+the grudges at a blow, now."
+
+"You have done bravely; but did you discover who they are--any of them
+besides the leader, Peters?"
+
+"Yes, two of 'em, who are, as Dunning and Piper surmised, Dave Redding
+and Tiger Fitch, that beauty of a constable, who bothered us so in old
+times, at Guilford. He's now some kind of an officer among 'em, guess;
+and, dead or alive, I'm bound to have him; though, if you've any
+particular plan, captain, I'll follow it, instead of going round to
+'tother ledge for another pick of the flock."
+
+"I have one; and that is, to draw their fire, or most of it, and then
+rush upon them. You may creep on, then, to Dunning and Piper, and,
+with them, contrive and execute some plan to effect that object, and I
+will stand here ready to order, and lead the charge, at the favoring
+moment."
+
+Bart now, with the noiseless tread of a cat, rapidly glided away into
+the bushes and disappeared on his errand. In a few minutes, the
+cracking of sticks, as if under the pressure of cautiously moving
+feet, was heard in a thicket of bushes within full range of the guns
+of the tories, who, now safely ensconced behind the new coverts, to
+which, in alarm at Bart's fatal shot, they had betaken themselves,
+instantly turned their attention in that direction, and, levelling
+their pieces, keenly watched for the expected exposure of the persons
+of some of their opponents. Soon the dim outlines of two or three
+apparently human forms could be traced in the thicket, rising up one
+after another, with the quick hesitating motions of men intent on a
+stealthy _reconnaissance_ of the objects before them. And, the next
+moment, every tory, but one, sent the contents of his gun at these
+supposed forms of the lurking besiegers. But instead of beholding, as
+they had anticipated, the riddled bodies of the dreaded foe dropping
+to the earth, they soon discovered, to their astonishment and dismay,
+that the empty coats and caps, which the outwitting Rangers had raised
+on their ramrods over their prostrate persons, were the only
+sufferers.
+
+"Der--der--der--ditter ready!" shouted Dunning, in a voice which at
+last went off like the terminating clap of a rattling thunder peal, as
+he and his two associates leaped, coatless, from the ground, to be
+prepared for the instant execution of the expected order.
+
+"On, then, and suffer not a wretch of them to escape you alive!"
+exclaimed their impatient leader in reply, dashing forward himself,
+and leading in the headlong onset which they all now made on the foe.
+
+Taken by complete surprise by this rapid and unexpected movement of
+the assailants, now bursting upon them with cocked and levelled
+rifles, the dismayed tories, at first, made no attempts at escape or
+resistance; while part of then threw down their half-loaded guns, and
+stepped out from their coverts.
+
+"Surrender at discretion, or take the consequence!" sternly cried
+Woodburn, pausing within twenty yards of the tory leader.
+
+"We are in your power, sir, I suppose," replied Peters evasively, and
+in a tone of affected submission, as, avoiding the burning gaze of the
+other, he threw a significant glance to the tory who had reserved his
+charge at the fruitless fire just made by the rest of his party.
+
+In an instant, the gun of the latter, who still stood behind a tree
+shielding him, as he supposed, from the other Rangers, was levelled at
+Woodburn, whose attention was too intently fixed on his chief foe to
+notice the movement. But before the finger of the assassin was
+permitted to tighten on the trigger, a bullet from the unerring rifle
+of the watchful Dunning had pierced his brain, and his gun, as he fell
+over backwards, exploded harmlessly into the air. Three of the tories,
+however, taking advantage of the momentary confusion occasioned by the
+noise and smoke of the guns, made a desperate spring for the
+surrounding thickets and succeeded in breaking through the line of
+their assailants, three of whom instantly gave chase, leaving Woodburn
+to cope alone with the rival foe, whom he had vainly sought through
+the day to confront in battle. Peters threw a quick, furtive glance
+around him; and, for an instant, seemed hesitating whether he should
+attempt to follow the example of the rest of his band; but another
+glance at the watchful and menacing eye of his opponent gleaming at
+him over the barrel of the deadly rifle, taught the folly of any such
+attempt, and, throwing down his weapons, he said,--
+
+"I yield myself a prisoner of war, sir."
+
+"A prisoner of war!" exclaimed Woodburn, repeating the words of the
+other, in a tone of bitter scorn. "After signifying your submission,
+and then instigating an attempt to shoot me, you hope to be received
+as a prisoner of war, do you? Villain!" he added, advancing and
+presenting the muzzle of his piece within a yard of the other's
+breast--"villain, your last claim to mercy is forfeited!"
+
+"You would not slay an unarmed man, and a prisoner, would you?" said
+Peters, recoiling, and casting an uneasy glance at his opponent.
+
+"Yes," replied the former, with increasing sternness, "if, like you,
+in defiance of all the rules of war as well as honor, he would do the
+same to me the first moment he had it in his power. No submission
+shields the life of an outlaw from any one disposed to take it. But
+you shall have one minute for uttering your last request, if you have
+any such to make."
+
+Being now thoroughly alarmed by the words, as well as the demeanor of
+his incensed captor, the once haughty loyalist fell on his knees, and
+humbly besought the other to spare his life.
+
+"Live, then, wretch!" said Woodburn, at length moved to both pity and
+contempt by the entreaties and abject manner of the former--"live
+then, if you choose it, to be dealt with as a traitor and a spy, by
+men who will award you your deserts with more coolness, doubtless,
+than I should have done, but with no less certainty."
+
+"O, spare me from that," pleaded the abased supplicant, with redoubled
+earnestness. "Kill me on the spot, if you will; but spare me from that
+fate. Allow me to be delivered up as a prisoner of war, and I will
+consent to any thing--yield any thing you wish. I will ensure you, by
+my influence at the British camp, any advantage in a future exchange
+of prisoners you may ask; and----"
+
+"Peace! miserable craven!" interrupted Woodburn. "I could promise you
+no exemption, if I would, from a punishment which our exasperated
+people will justly say you have brought upon your own head."
+
+"And I will also," resumed Peters, encouraged by the somewhat softened
+tone, and slightly hesitating manner of the other--"I will also
+relinquish all claims, and forego all interference, in matters that
+may have stood in the way of your private interests and wishes."
+
+"I will make no pledges, nor grant, nor receive any terms, at your
+dictation, sir," said the former, haughtily.
+
+"I will trust to your magnanimity to a fallen foe," then, rejoined
+Peters, rightly appreciating, for once, the character of his conqueror.
+"Here, take this," he continued, drawing a carefully-preserved document
+from his pocket, and extending it towards the other--"take it, and
+deliver it to the one whom it most concerns. Tell her it was voluntarily
+relinquished, and that I will trouble her no more."
+
+As small as was the measure of credit which Woodburn's judgment told
+him should be accorded to the motives prompting this unexpected course
+in his old enemy, it nevertheless quickly banished every vindictive
+feeling from his generous bosom; and after a momentary hesitation, he
+took the proffered document, glanced at its contents, and silently
+deposited it among his other papers. But soon growing jealous of
+himself lest he should compromit the policy which his superiors might
+deem it just and wise, under the sanction of the stern rules of war,
+to enforce, he restrained himself from making any immediate reply.
+And, the next moment, he was relieved from what apparent necessity
+there might be for so doing, by the approach of the first of the
+returning Rangers.
+
+"Where is your prisoner, Piper?" he asked, turning to the latter, now
+coming up.
+
+"He would not be taken alive, sir; and the order was to let none
+escape in that condition," replied the broad-chested subaltern with a
+significant look.
+
+"In order, then, that you go not home empty-handed," rejoined
+Woodburn, "I will give you charge of _my_ prisoner, Colonel Peters
+here, whom you will conduct to Bennington Meeting-House, whither the
+prisoners of the day were ordered, and whence you will deliver him to
+the officer in command as a prisoner of war--at least for the present;
+for any doubt that may arise about his final disposal can be settled
+hereafter."
+
+"Der well, captain," exclaimed Dunning, whose tall, gaunt form, in the
+rear of his prisoner, the infamous David Redding, whom it had been his
+lot to capture, was now seen emerging from a thicket near by--"here is
+one, about whom we shan't be bothered with der doubts, a great while,
+if his captor can have his say."
+
+"Aha!--but what _is_ your say about him, sergeant?" said Woodburn,
+smiling.
+
+"Der well," replied the other, "I say, if the ditter devil don't take
+him from a traitor's gallows, then we may just as well have no devil."
+
+"I shall not be the one to gainsay you in that, sergeant," responded
+Woodburn. "But hark! what is the uproar yonder?" he added, pointing
+out into the woods in a direction from whence the sound of an
+occasional stiff _whack!_ followed by groans, curses, and calls for
+protection, were now heard to issue.
+
+On turning their eyes towards the spot, the company beheld Bart, with
+his rifle in one hand, and a long beechen switch in the other, driving
+in before him the whilom constable, Fitch, who was chafing, like a
+chained bear, under the lash which his catechizing captor was
+administering every few yards on the way.
+
+"Why are you so rough with him, Bart?" expostulated Woodburn, as they
+came up.
+
+"Well, captain, I have a reasonable wherefore for it--may be,"
+answered the former, gravely.
+
+"What is it?" asked the other.
+
+"Why," replied the imperturbable Bart, "perhaps I don't remember, and
+perhaps I do, how a chap of about my size sat sweating near two cool
+hours, at the sight of an ugly-looking bunch of beech rods, that a
+certain constable had ordered for his back. And as 'twas no fault of
+his that the matter wasn't carried out at the time, and, as I always
+thought there was a mistake made as to the one whose back ought to
+take it, I felt rather bound to have the order executed now, and in a
+manner to set all to rights between us."
+
+"Well, well, boys," said Woodburn, with a good-humored smile, "you
+must all be indulged in your notions, I suppose, at such a glorious
+hour as this. But you may now be moving on with your prisoners to the
+field, and thence by the road to Bennington. Business calls me there
+by a nearer route, and at a quicker pace. You shall find good cheer
+awaiting your arrival."
+
+So saying, he struck off rapidly from the rest, and soon disappeared
+in the forest.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+
+  "Sing it where forests wave,--
+     From mountain to the sea,
+   And o'er each hero's grave,--
+     Sing, sing, the land is free."
+
+
+It was evening; and all that met the eye was joy and animation in the
+little village of Bennington, in which, not only the great body of the
+opposing armies, either as conquerors or prisoners, but the best
+portion of the patriotism, wisdom, and beauty of young Vermont, were
+now congregated. There her statesmen and sages--many of whom had
+mingled in the strife of the day--were gathered to rejoice over a
+result which their own heads, and hearts, and hands, through the
+anxious days and nights of the preceding month, had been unceasingly
+engaged in securing for their country and their homes. There, too, the
+old men and striplings, drawn from all the neighboring settlements by
+the ominous sounds which had reached them from the distant
+battlefield, and there the maids and matrons, whose solicitude for the
+near and dear ones, supposed to be engaged in the conflict, would not
+permit them to stay behind, were all found mingling with the victors,
+and participating in their exultations. Bright lights were streaming
+from every window, or dancing in every direction in the streets; while
+the smiling faces and animated voices, everywhere seen and heard among
+the commingling throng, seemed to tell only of a scene of universal
+joy and triumph. But as joyous and lively as was the scene, in its
+predominating features, it was yet not without its painful contrasts.
+The broken sob, or the low wail of sorrow, was heard rising sadly on
+the night air, in every interval that occurred in the more boisterous
+but irrepressible manifestations which characterized the hour. And,
+even in the same dwellings, these two contrasted phases in war's
+exciting but melancholy picture were not unfrequently presented; for,
+while in one room might be heard the notes of joy and exultation, in
+another might be distinguished the stifled groan of some wounded
+soldier, or the lamentations of the bereaved over the body of a slain
+relative.
+
+Among the most noted of the class last mentioned was the late
+residence of Esquire Haviland, situated in the outskirts of the
+village, and recently occupied as the quarters of the officers of the
+Rangers, on the invitation of the patriotic but singular and
+mysterious man, who, at its sale by the commissioners of confiscation,
+had purchased the establishment, among several others of a valuable
+description thus sold in this section of the country. To this
+residence, the scene of a former portion of our story, we will now
+once more, and for the last time, repair.
+
+While in one part of the building the officers just named, with other
+distinguished persons, were engaged in discussing the incidents of the
+day, in another and more retired apartment, on a pillowed couch, lay
+the wounded Father Herriot, who, having been stricken down in the last
+moments of the battle, as before intimated, had been borne hither to
+complete the willing sacrifice he had made of his life to the cause of
+his country. On a small table, within his reach, lay several
+documents, which were fresh from the hand of that ready writer, the
+accomplished secretary of the Council of Safety, who had just left the
+apartment. And around his bedside stood those in whom all his private
+interests and sympathies had been for some time secretly concentrated,
+though to two of them personally unknown till a few hours before, when
+he had beer brought in wounded and committed to their care. Those
+persons were Henry Woodburn, Bart Burt, Sabrey Haviland, and Vine
+Howard, who, ignorant of his particular wishes or intentions, and
+wondering why the presence of all of them should be desired at the
+same time, had been summoned to his bedside to hear his last
+communication and receive his blessing.
+
+"My prayer is answered," said Herriot, after looking round
+affectionately a while upon his expectant auditors, who, at his
+request, after the room was cleared of other company, had advanced to
+his bedside. "My last prayer has been to be permitted to see all of
+you, in whose personal welfare I have been led to take a peculiar
+interest, assembled before me while life and reason remained, so that
+I could commune with you; and the prayer has been graciously answered.
+Still, when, at the close of our first, and, as we all then supposed,
+final triumph to-day, Miss Haviland, with her friend, at my request,
+was conveyed here to her former home, of which I had become the
+purchaser, I then thought to have met you all here this evening under
+circumstances in which I could have actively shared with you in the
+rejoicings that our victory so naturally calls forth, as well as in
+the happiness, which, as far as regards you, I believed I could
+superadd by my own acts. But He who holds the fate of individuals, as
+well as that of armies, in his hands, has seen fit to deny me such
+participation; and _He doeth all things well_."
+
+"Your wound is not necessarily a mortal one, Father Herriot and I
+trust you may yet live to enjoy the fruits of a victory you have
+contributed so much by your bravery to win," observed Woodburn,
+feelingly.
+
+"That may not be. I feel the destroyer busily at work here,
+undermining the citadel," responded the other, placing his hand on
+that part of his chest where the bullet had entered. "But I regret not
+having made the poor sacrifice of my life for so righteous a cause.
+And though I shall not live to see the happiness I would be the means
+of imparting, yet the wish and the duty of doing what I proposed to
+that end remains to be fulfilled, and for this purpose I have
+requested your presence."
+
+The speaker here paused, as if at a loss how he should open the
+subject which seemed to rest on his mind. But at length he resumed:--
+
+"Miss Haviland, what you have done and suffered for the cause, in
+which you so nobly took your stand, is known to many. The part you
+have acted in the events of this day is known to still more; but have
+not those events had a bearing on your happiness beyond what would
+arise from the bare liberation of your person?"
+
+"They have, sir," replied the maiden, frankly, but with an air of
+surprise at the unexpected question.
+
+"And have I been correctly informed, by the person who has just left
+us, and who has long been my confidential friend and adviser, that, by
+the relinquishment of a certain contract, you are now left free to
+bestow your hand on one whose character and feelings may be more
+congenial with your own?"
+
+"Why am I questioned in so unusual a manner, and by one so much a
+stranger?" asked the former, in a half-remonstrating, half-beseeching
+tone.
+
+"I knew," rejoined the other, "that you, as well as the rest of those
+present, might, at first, wonder why and how I should have kept myself
+apprised, as I confess I have long done, of all that concerned the
+individual interests, and even inclinations, as far as could be
+conjectured, of each of you. And I know, also, that my ways are not
+like those of other men. But cannot you trust to the motives of a
+dying man, and let him proceed in his own manner?"
+
+"I can--I will, Father Herriot," answered Sabrey, touched by the
+appeal. "And I will not affect to misunderstand you. I have been freed
+from fetters under which I have suffered--perhaps unnecessarily--both
+persecution and embarrassment of feeling. And I am thankful," she
+continued, throwing a grateful glance to Woodburn--"greatly thankful
+for that generous forbearance by which this was effected without
+bloodshed. Yes, I am free, doubly free; but whoever takes me," she
+added, slightly coloring, "must now receive a penniless bride."
+
+"Perhaps not," said Herriot, musingly--"perhaps not. But I did not
+mean to be understood as imposing any conditions to the act I was
+about to perform, after ascertaining your entire deliverance from the
+power and supposed claims of one whom I deem a bad man, as well as a
+foe to his country. Here, deserving girl," he continued, taking up one
+of the documents from the table and extending it towards her, "here is
+a deed of gift, from me to you, of all this, which was your father's
+estate. Take it; it is freely given and worthily bestowed."
+
+Surprise at an act as unexpected as it was munificent, kept all mute
+for some seconds; when Sabrey, whose sensibilities were too deeply
+moved to permit her to speak, threw upon the donor a look which her
+grateful emotions made more eloquent than any language she could have
+summoned for a reply; and then, turning, she silently extended her
+hand to Woodburn, with the deed still laying across the open palm.
+
+"Which?--the hand or the paper?" asked the latter, in a low tone, and
+with a slightly apprehensive air.
+
+"Either, or both," replied the maiden, as a blush stole over her
+conscious cheek.
+
+"The hand, then," exclaimed the delighted lover, grasping the coveted
+prize, and bearing it in triumph to his lips.
+
+"It is all right; but no words," said Herriot, making a motion for
+silence to Woodburn, who was about to address him--"no words. I have
+much to say--let me proceed. Bart," he continued, after a thoughtful
+pause, as he turned to the young man who had stood mutely noting the
+proceedings with a puzzled look--"Bart, do you remember the old Rose
+Homestead, which was confiscated, and also purchased by me?"
+
+"Well, yes," replied Bart, looking up with an inquiring, doubtful
+expression--"yes, for as many as two several reasons, or more," he
+added, with one glance to Woodburn, and another, and more significant
+one, to Vine, who was standing demurely at his side.
+
+"Would you like it for your own?" asked the former.
+
+"My own!" exclaimed Bart, casting an incredulous but searching look at
+the other's countenance, in which, however, he read something that at
+once changed his demeanor; and, in a softened and respectful tone, he
+replied to the question, "Yes, Father Herriot, as soon as the smell of
+toryism got fairly out of it, I would like it grandly, that's a fact."
+
+"It is yours, then, as this deed will show," said Herriot, handing to
+the surprised and hesitating young man the instrument in question; "it
+is yours; but have you no one to share it with you?"
+
+"Well, don't know exactly, but may be the chap that helped me fix up
+my spy disguises, and gave me so many good hints for ferreting out the
+tories, won't object much to that, seeing we have had considerably the
+start of the captain and his lady here, in the way of finished
+bargains," replied Bart, turning, with an expression of droll gravity,
+to the blooming girl at his side, who, thereupon, with an arch and
+blushful smile, placed her hand in his, which had been extended to
+receive it.
+
+"Who are you, Father Herriot?" exclaimed the now completely surprised
+Woodburn; "who are you, to take such an interest in us, and bestow on
+us gifts so valuable, with so little hope, as you can have, of any
+adequate return?"
+
+"Listen, and you shall be answered," replied Herriot; "for the time
+has now arrived when you all should know the relation in which we
+stand to each other; and I know not but I have already delayed the
+disclosure of this fact too long. Perhaps I should have made it, as I
+had nearly done, when, at the breaking out of the war, you and Bart
+visited my hermit cabin in the vicinity of the Connecticut. But when I
+found you about to embark in the cause of liberty, for which I stood
+ready to make any sacrifice, I concluded to defer it, lest the
+discovery, which I had but then just made myself, should turn you from
+a service that I thought none were at liberty to withhold. I
+therefore, after communicating to you enough to lead you, in case of
+my death, to all the knowledge I wished you to obtain, encouraged you
+on your way. And it has all, doubtless, been for the best; for who
+knows but your individual exertions were needed to turn the scale
+which has been so long trembling at equipoise? But the events of this
+day," continued the patriot, kindling at the thought--"the events of
+this day, which will be memorable through all, time, have turned that
+scale in favor of American freedom. I read it with a prophetic eye,
+which is made for me too clear for error or misconception. Our
+avenging armies will henceforth go on conquering and to conquer, till
+the last vestige of British usurpation is swept from the land."
+
+Here the speaker paused a while to recover from his exhaustion, and
+indulge his mental vision, apparently, with the enrapturing glimpses
+he was catching of the future destiny of his country. But soon
+arousing himself from his reverie, he resumed,--
+
+"Harry Woodburn, you had once a paternal uncle?"
+
+"I have been told so," was the reply.
+
+"Who, by his folly and wickedness, disgraced himself and ruined your
+father," proceeded the former.
+
+"I had such an uncle," responded Woodburn, with an expression of
+gathering interest and surprise; "or, rather, I had an uncle, who,
+though not a bad man, was, I have understood, at one time, a very
+indiscreet one; and, by his indiscretion, lost his own property, and
+deeply involved that of my father. But I do not feel to condemn him as
+much as your words imply you expect I should."
+
+"Or as he has always condemned himself," rejoined Herriot, with an air
+of deep self-abasement. "But I thank God for giving me the means, and
+the will, for making ample restitution to such as remain of my injured
+brother's family, or of my own. Harry, I am that uncle. I am the
+erring Charles Woodburn."
+
+"I am surprised, deeply surprised," said the other; "for, attributing
+the interest you have taken in me to other causes, I have, till within
+a few minutes, been totally unprepared for such a revelation. And now
+it seems as if it could not be. You could not have much resembled my
+father, and you bear another name."
+
+"I did not strikingly resemble my more staid brother, in person or
+character," responded the former, meekly; "and my reasons for assuming
+another name are explained by the circumstances under which you first
+saw me, the accused of a revolting crime, of which, as I then
+declared, I was never guilty. And this the wicked men, who combined
+against me, and hunted me out, even in this new settlement, full well
+knew. But they knew, also, that I had somewhere at command the large
+amount of money that had been left me by a wealthy and heirless
+gentleman, whom I had previously rescued from death. Are you now
+satisfied that I am the man I claim to be, and, as such, willing to
+acknowledge me?"
+
+"Fully, now--not only satisfied of the identity, but willing, nay,
+proud to acknowledge the relationship," said Woodburn, with warmth and
+rising emotion. "Nor is this all, my uncle, my friend! The acts you
+have just performed will ever--"
+
+"Enough, enough!" interrupted the former; "but let me go on. I have
+still another and more humiliating duty to perform. Bart," he
+continued, turning, with an agitated countenance, to the young man,
+"as forsaken and guideless as you have been, many a parent has had a
+less deserving offspring. And had you not done more for yourself than
+he, who should have been your protector and guide, has done for you,
+you had been less than nothing among men. But listen; for the story of
+your origin, which, thus far, has been as a sealed book to you, must
+now be disclosed Your father contracted a private, but legal marriage,
+with a woman, who, as the world falsely esteemed it, was below him in
+station; and, in his pride, he refused to acknowledge her, and, having
+squandered the property that should have been applied to her support,
+absconded from the country. In after years, however, conscience drove
+him back, but only to find her dying of destitution and a broken
+heart, and to learn from her last words that the offspring of their
+connection, a male infant, had been thrown unacknowledged on the
+charity of the public. Aroused by a new sense of duty, he diligently
+sought for the child--followed it from its first lodgment to its next
+asylum in the city; from that to another in the country; and then,
+through various shifts and wanderings, till the trace was lost far in
+the interior; when he gave up the search, and again left the country.
+In the process of time, he once more returned to New England, in
+altered circumstances, and located himself in this settlement, where
+he soon met with a youth, whose countenance so strikingly resembled
+that of his deceased wife, as to put him instantly on inquiry and
+research, which, in a few weeks, resulted in supplying the broken
+chain of evidence, and in identifying the youth as his lost son. Bart,
+you were, and still are, that son. I was, and still am, that father.
+Do I die, my much injured son, acknowledged and forgiven?"
+
+The young man was too deeply affected by his surprise and emotion to
+utter a word in reply; but tears, which all the wrongs and hardships
+he had endured had failed to wring from him, now stole out on his
+sunburnt cheeks, testifying, not only his gratification at the
+discovery, but that the slumbering fountain of a naturally generous
+nature was now effectually stirred within his bosom. And the speaker,
+seeming satisfied with the answer which this evidence implied, soon
+proceeded:--
+
+"Little more now remains to be imparted. You remember, Harry, that at
+the visit at my cabin, to which I have already alluded, I showed you
+two small casks, labelled '_Printers Type_,' concealed under a stone
+in the cellar?"
+
+"I do; and the impression they caused of the absurdity of bringing
+that kind of property into our new settlement," replied the other.
+
+"They were so marked for greater security," resumed the former; "for
+they contained silver coin, and, at that time, nearly all the property
+I possessed. Of these, one has been recently appropriated to the
+purchase of confiscated estates, whenever a lack of money in others
+was likely to prevent a sale at a fair value. The other remains in the
+same spot. And this, and the rest of my property, except what I have
+just conveyed, and except, also, bequests of small farms to Dunning
+and Piper, for their friendship to you, and faithfulness to the cause,
+you will find, by my will here on the table, to be equally divided
+between you, my son and nephew. And now," he added, in a faltering
+tone, and in accents of touching tenderness, "now, my children, having
+said all I wished to communicate, I will commend you to our common
+Parent above. Kneel and receive my blessing."
+
+Hand in hand, and side by side, with the fair sharers of their gushing
+sympathies, the young men now reverently knelt around the dying
+patriot, and bowed their faces beneath his outspread hands to receive
+the proffered blessing, which was then pronounced with much fervor,
+but with the last words he was destined ever to utter; for after
+waiting a while after he had ceased to speak, the tearful group gently
+removed his hands from their heads, and arose to be greeted by a face
+pale in death.
+
+
+
+
+CONCLUSION.
+
+On a summer afternoon, nearly a year after the occurrence of the
+events last described, there was an unusual gathering in the village
+of Bennington. As early as one o'clock, multitudes of people were seen
+pouring in by every road leading into the place from the surrounding
+country, and filling up the streets with a promiscuous crowd of all
+ages, sexes, and conditions. And as the hour of two approached, the
+commotion increased to a degree which plainly showed that some crisis
+was at hand; and soon the dense throng, gathered in the vicinity of
+the Green Mountain Tavern, then the principal place of public resort,
+broke away into groups and companies, and began to flock towards a
+newly-erected gallows, standing, at no great distance, on the
+neighboring common. Here arranging themselves, as they came up, in a
+circle round the ill-omened structure, they assumed the attitude of
+spectators awaiting the advent of some promised spectacle.
+
+Presently a clamor rose from the outer part of the crowd, as, with the
+exclamations, "_There comes the new Overseer of the Tories!_"
+[Footnote: The Overseer of the Tories, an officer peculiar to the
+times, and perhaps to the locality, was one to whom was intrusted the
+general surveillance and control of that class of persons, to prevent
+them from communicating with the British, and see that they did not
+pass over the limits of the farms, or town lines, within which, under
+various penalties, they were doomed to remain, unless called out by
+such officer for some public service, such as clearing out the
+highways, &c., to which they were held subject.] "_There comes Dunning
+and his gang of beauties!_" They pointed to a column of some dozens of
+variously-clad, dejected-looking men, headed by a well-armed officer
+in the continental uniform, just coming round a corner into view, and
+advancing towards the spot.
+
+"Der open there to the right and left!" cried the commander of this
+unique company, as he marched them up to the crowd. "Make way for
+Mother Britain's ditter darlings! The coming sight is as much for
+their der benefit as your ditter fun. There, halt!" he continued,
+bringing the submissive creatures into their allotted place. "Now, the
+first one of you that attempts to sneak away hem the sight, takes a
+der pistol bullet. So face the music without flinching. It will ditter
+do you good."
+
+Scarcely had this transpired before the crowd, whose attention, for
+the moment, was too much engrossed to notice the approach of the
+principal procession, now close at hand, was again thrown into
+commotion by the sound of a muffled drum, followed by the loud cry of,
+"_Clear the way for the prisoner and his escort!_" in a voice whose
+well-known tones never fell unheeded on the ears of a Green Mountain
+assemblage. With magic quickness, a clear space opened through the
+ranks of the receding throng, in the direction of this fresh summons,
+when the first object that met the eye was the towering form of Ethan
+Allen, mounted on a large black horse; he having recently returned
+from his captivity, and been appointed, in the quaint language of his
+commission, "_to conduct, in behalf of the state, the trial and
+execution of that inimical person, David Redding_" [Footnote: David
+Redding, the only person ever executed in Vermont for political
+offences, was, after changing two or three times from the American to
+the British cause, and two trials, hanged July 17, 1777. at 2 o'clock,
+P. M.] Next to Allen came the prisoner, riding in an ox-cart, and
+sitting between two armed men, who were acting as his special guards.
+Then followed a company of soldiers, under the command of another of
+our old acquaintances Bill Piper, who had been promoted to a captaincy
+in a volunteer service then recently projected; while the president,
+secretary, and members of the Council of Safety, succeeded by a band
+of private citizens, brought up the rear of the procession. On
+reaching its destination, the team was brought to a stand immediately
+beneath the gallows, which was a naked cross-tree, set into the ground
+like a sign-post, and wholly unprovided with platform, or other of the
+usual adjuncts of such structures. The prisoner was then ordered to
+stand up in the cart, when the noose at the end of the rope, dangling
+from the arm above, was securely adjusted round his neck, and every
+thing made ready for the awful moment.
+
+Ira Allen, having mounted some object at hand, then addressed the
+people in an eloquent exhortation on the duty and policy of a faithful
+and unwavering adherence to the cause of the country, which he
+enforced by giving a rapid sketch of the character and career of the
+wretched traitor before them, as contrasted with those who had been
+true to that cause, and especially those who had captured him.
+
+"Of the four brave men," he said, in conclusion, "who, at such odds
+and risk, pursued and took the prisoner and his party, on that
+glorious occasion, two are present, and in positions which amply
+testify the high estimation that has been placed on their gallant
+conduct. The others, the two Woodburns, who remained in the city,
+are--as I learn from letters I have recently seen from them or their
+scarcely less heroic young wives, left to conduct the affairs of their
+respective homes--now in New Jersey, acting under the eye of their
+beloved Washington, whose confidence in them in their different
+spheres of action--one as the honored colonel of a regiment and the
+other as the most trusty and adroit manager in the secret
+service--they consider their sufficient reward, and one that was only
+wanting to crown that which, on the eve of our memorable battle here,
+they received in their wives, and the wealth obtained through the
+romantic disclosures of their dying relative, the lamented Father
+Herriot. And of the party taken alive by those gallant men, the tory
+leader, Peters, was exchanged for several of our imprisoned officers,
+and at a bargain which secured us advantages not to be obtained by
+stretching his worthless neck; and he has retired into Canada, to sink
+into insignificance, despised and hated by those whom his
+misrepresentations respecting the alleged easy conquest of our state
+so completely deceived. Fitch, after having ransomed himself by the
+payment of all he could raise, offered through his fear of a fate to
+which, after all, he probably would not have been condemned, sneaked
+back to his old haunts in Guilford, where he perished miserably by the
+hand of one whom former wrongs, committed in acts of official cruelty
+and extortion, had made desperate. And the other, and last of the
+infamous trio, now stands before us, to make atonement for his crimes
+by an ignominious death on the gallows."
+
+When the speaker had concluded, the prisoner, after glancing around
+him, with that fitful, furtive, and restless expression, which at all
+times so strongly marked his countenance, turned to Ethan Allen, and
+meekly begged permission to address the multitude.
+
+"Why--yes," hesitatingly replied the rough old hero, who had been
+sitting upon his horse, moodily looking at his watch lying in his
+broad palm, and occasionally exhibiting signs of impatience at the
+length of his more wordy young brother's remarks--"yes, it may be
+right enough, that you should have your say unless you want to preach
+some more of your damnable tory doctrines to the people. But be short,
+sir. Your hour is nearly up; and I do not intend that the earth shall
+be polluted by your living presence one moment beyond the time."
+
+Immediately availing himself of this ungracious permission, the
+prisoner turned, shrinkingly, towards the crowd, and said,--
+
+"All you who hear me, I hope, will take warning by my miserable
+end--an end to which I have been brought, in my opinion only by my
+inconstancy. In the first place, I adhered to my oath allegiance, and
+supported the king; but, finding myself in danger, I enrolled myself
+under the new state, and went for the authority of Congress.
+Conscience, however, quickly carried me lack to the royal cause, which
+I again supported a while; and then, being over-persuaded by my
+neighbors, I came out once more openly for the state, and went for it
+till the approach of Burgoyne emboldened me to risk another change,
+and go for my old master. But, being soon taken in arms, I must now
+untimely perish. It is, therefore, my advice to you all--never
+fluctuate as I have done; but you who are for the States, stick by the
+States; and you who are for the king, stick by the king, and prove--"
+
+"And so," fiercely interrupted old Ethan--"so you would have an
+interminable war, would you? Take your treason along with you to
+Tophet, ye doubly-damned miscreant! I will have no more of it here.
+Teamster, drive on the cart!"
+
+The teamster did so; and the next moment the traitor Redding was
+launched into eternity.
+
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RANGERS BY THOMPSON ***
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