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Spare him, for the love of that God you worship ! — Spare him ! "
— Lionel Lincoln, page 122.
LIONEL LINCOLN
OR
THE LEAGUER OF BOSTON
BY
J. FENIMORE COOPER
First let me talk with this philosopher
NEW YORK
JOHN W. LOVELL COMPANY
150 WORTH STREET, CORNER MISSION PLACE
Urtv. Library, UCSartaCwz 1995
TROW'8
PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY,
NEW YORK.
ps
TO
WILLIAM JAY,
OF
BEDFORD, WEST-CHESTER,
ESQUIRE.
MY DEAR JAY,
An unbroken intimacy of four-and-twenty years may justify the pre*?nt
use of your name. A man of readier wit than myself might, on such
a subject, find an opportunity of saying something clever, concerning 'he
exalted services of your father. No weak testimony of mine, however,
can add to a fame that belongs already to posterity : and one like myself,
who has so long known the merits, and has so often experienced the
friendship of the son, can find even better reasons for offering these
Legends to your notice.
Very truly and constantly,
Yours,
THE AUTHOR.
PREFACE.
THE manner in which the author became possessed of
the private incidents, the characters, and the descriptions,
contained in these tales, will, most probably, ever remain
a secret between himself and his publisher. That the
leading events are true, he presumes it is unnecessary to
assert ; for should inherent testimony, to prove that im-
portant point, be wanting, he is conscious that no anony-
mous declaration can establish its credibility.
But while he shrinks from directly yielding his authori-
ties, the author has no hesitation in furnishing all the nega-
:ive testimony in his power.
In the first place, then, he solemnly declares, that no
unknown man, nor wroman, has ever died in his vicinity,
of whose effects he has become the possessor, by either fair
means or foul. No dark-looking stranger, of a morbid
temperament, and of inflexible silence, has ever transmitted
to him a single page of illegible manuscript. Nor has any
landlord furnished him with materials to be worked up into
a book, in order that the profits might go to discharge the
arrearages of a certain consumptive lodger, who made his
exit so unceremoniously as to leave the last item in his ac-
count, his funeral charges.
He is indebted to no garrulous tale-teller for beguiling
the long winter evenings ; in ghosts he has no faith ; he
never had a vision in his life ; and he sleeps too soundly
to dream.
He is constrained to add, that in no "puff," "squib,"
" notice," " article," nor " review," whether in daily, weekly,
monthly, or quarterly publication, has he been able to find
a single hint that his humble powers could improve.
No one regrets this fatality more than himself ; for these
writers generally bring such a weight of imagination to
their several tasks, that, properly improved, might secure
the immortality of any book, by rendering it unintelligible.
6 PREFA CK.
He boldly asserts that he has derived no information from
any of the learned societies — and without fear of contra-
diction ; for why should one so obscure be the exclusive
object of their favors !
Notwithstanding he occasionally is seen in that erudite
and abstemious association, the " Bread -and - Cheese
Lunch," where he is elbowed by lawyers, doctors, jurists,
poets, painters, editors, congressmen, and authors of every
shade and qualification, whether metaphysical, scientific, or
imaginative, he avers, that he esteems the lore which is
there culled, as far too sacred to be used in any work less
dignified than actual history.
Of the colleges it is necessary to speak with reverence ;
though truth possesses claims even superior to gratitude.
He shall dispose of them by simply saying, that they are
entirely innocent of all his blunders ; the little they be-
stowed having long since been forgotten.
He has stolen no images from the deep, natural poetry
of Bryant ! no pungency from the wit of Halleck ; no fe-
licity of expression from the richness of Percival ; no satire
from the caustic pen of Paulding; no periods nor humor
from Irving ; nor any high finish from the attainments ex-
hibited by Verplanck.
At the "soirees" and " coteries des bas bleus " he did
think he had obtained a prize, in the dandies of literature,
who haunt them. But experiment and analysis detected
his error ; as they proved these worthies unfit for any bet-
ter purpose than that which their own instinct had already
dictated.
He has made no impious attempt to rob Joe Miller of
his jokes ; the sentimentalists of their pathos ; nor the
newspaper Homers of their lofty inspirations.
His presumption has not even imagined the vivacity of
the, eastern states ; he has not analyzed the homogeneous
character of the middle ; and he has left the south in the
undisturbed possession of all their saturnine wit.
In short — he has pilfered from no black-letter book, nor
any six-penny pamphlet; his grandmother unnaturally re-
fused her assistance to his labors; and, to speak affirmative-
ly, for once, he wishes to live in peace, and hopes to die in
the fear of God.
INTRODUCTION.
IN this tale there are one or two slight anachronisms:
which, if unnoticed, might, with literal readers, draw some
unpleasant imputations on its veracity — They relate rather
to persons than to things. As they are believed to be
quite in character, connected with circumstances much
more probable than facts, and to possess all the harmony
of poetic coloring, the author is utterly unable to discover
the reason why they are not true.
He leaves the knotty point to the instinctive sagacity of
the critics.
The matter of this "Legend " may be pretty equally di-
vided into that which is publicly, and that which is pri-
vately certain. For the authorities of the latter, the
author refers to the foregoing preface ; but he cannot dis-
pose of the sources whence he has derived the former,
with so little ceremony.
The good people of Boston are aware of the creditable
appearance they make in the early annals of the confeder-
ation, and they neglect no commendable means to per-
petuate the glories of their ancestors. In consequence,
the inquiry after historical facts, is answered, there, by an
exhibition of local publications, that no other town in the
Union can equal. Of these means the author has endeav-
ored to avail himself ; collating with care, and selecting,
as he trusts, with some of that knowledge of men and
things which is necessary to present a faithful picture.
Wherever he may have failed, he has done it honestly.
Fie will not take leave of the " cradle of liberty," with-
out expressing his thanks for the facilities which have been
so freely accorded to his undertaking. If he has not been
visited by aerial beings, and those fair visions that poets
best love to create, he is certain he will not be miscon-
ceived when he says, that he has been honored by the notice
of some resembling those, who first inspired their fancies.
LIONEL LI NCOLN;
OR, THE LEAGUER OF BOSTON.
CHAPTER I.
"My weary soul they seem to soothe,
And, redolent of joy and youth,
To breathe a second spring." — GRAY.
No American can be ignorant of the principal events
that induced the Parliament of Great Britain, in 1774, to
lay those impolitic restrictions on the port of Boston,
which so effectually destroyed the trade of the chief town
in her western colonies. Nor should it be unknown to
any American, how nobly, and with what devotedness to
the great principles of the controversy, the inhabitants of
the adjacent town of Salem refused to profit by the situa-
tion of their neighbors and fellow-subjects. In consequence
of these impolitic measures of the English government,
and of the laudable unanimity among the capitalists of the
times, it became a rare sight to see the canvas of any
other vessels than such as wore the pennants of the king,
whitening the forsaken waters of Massachusetts Bay.
Toward the decline of a day in April, 1775, however,
the eyes of hundreds had been fastened on a distant sail,
which was seen rising from the bosom of the waves, mak-
ing her way along the forbidden track, nnd steering directly
for the mouth of the proscribed haven. With that deep
solicitude in passing events which marked the period, a
large group of spectators was collected on Beacon Hill,
spreading from its conical summit far down the eastern
declivity, all gazing intently on the object of their com-
mon interest. In so large an assemblage, however, there
io LIONEL Lf.VCOL.V.
were those who were excited by very different feelings,
and indulging in wishes directly opposite to each other.
While the decent, grave, but wary citizen was endeavor-
ing to conceal the bitterness of the sensations which
soured his mind, under the appearance of a cold indif-
ference, a few gay young men, who mingled in the throng,
bearing about their persons the trappings of their martial
profession, were loud in their exultations, and hearty in
their congratulations on the prospect of hearing from their
distant homes and absent friends. But the long, loud rolls
of the drums, ascending on the evening air, from the ad-
jacent common, soon called these idle spectators, in a body,
from the spot, when the hill was left to the quiet posses-
sion of those who claimed the strongest right to its enjoy-
ment. It was not, however, a period for open and unre-
served communications. Long before the mists of evening
had succeeded the shadows thrown from the setting sun,
the hill was entirely deserted ; the remainder of the spec-
tators having descended from the eminence, and held their
several courses, singly, silent, and thoughtful, toward the
rows of dusky roofs that covered the lowland, along the
eastern side of the peninsula. Notwithstanding this ap-
pearance of apathy, rumor, which, in times of great ex-
citement, ever finds means to convey its whisperings, when
it dare not bruit its information aloud, was busy in circu-
lating the unwelcome intelligence, that the stranger was
the first of a fleet, bringing stores and reinforcements to
an army already too numerous, and too confident of its
power, to respect the law. No tumult or noise succeeded
this unpleasant annunciation, but the doors of the houses
were sullenly closed, and the windows darkened, as if the
people intended to express their dissatisfaction, alone, by
these silent testimonials of their disgust.
In the meantime the ship had gained the rocky entrance
to the harbor, where, deserted by the breeze, and met by an
adverse tide, she lay inactive, as if conscious of the unwel-
come reception she must receive. The fears of the inhab-
itants of Boston had, however, exaggerated the danger ; for
the vessel, instead of exhibiting the confused and disor-
derly throng of licentious soldiery, which would have
crowded a transport, was but thinly peopled, and her or-
derly decks were cleared of every incumbrance that could
interfere with the comfort of those she did contain. There
was an appearance, in the arrangements of her external
accommodations, which would have indicated to an ob-
LIOXEI. LINCOLN. n
servant eye, that she carried those who claimed the rank,
or possessed the means, of making others contribute
largely to their comforts. The few seamen who navigated
the ship lay extended on different portions of the vessel,
watching the lazy sails as they flapped against the masts,
or indolently bending their looks on the placid waters of
the bay ; while several menials, in livery, crowded around
a young man who was putting his eager inquiries to the
pilot, that had just boarded the vessel off the Graves. The
dress of this youth was studiously neat,' and from the ex-
cessive pains bestowed on its adjustment, it was obviously
deemed, by its wearer, to be in the height of the prevail-
ing customs. From the place where this inquisitive party
stood, nigh the main-mast, a wide sweep of the quarter-
deck was untenanted ; but nearer to the spot where the
listless seaman hung icily over the tiller of the ship, stood
a being of altogether different mould and fashion. He was
a man who would have seemed in the very extremity of
age, had not his quick, vigorous steps, and the glowing,
rapid glances from his eyes, as he occasionally paced the
deck, appeared to deny the usual indications of many years.
His form was bowed, and attenuated nearly to emaciation.
His hair, which fluttered a little wildly around his temples,
was thin, and silvered to the whiteness of at least eighty
winters. Deep furrows, like the lines of great age and
long endured cares united, wrinkled his hollow cheeks, and
rendered the bold haughty outline of his prominent feat-
ures still more remarkable. He was clad in a simple and
somewhat tarnished suit of modest gray, which bore about
it the ill-concealed marks of long and neglected use. When-
ever he turned his piercing look from the shores, he moved
swiftly along the deserted quarter-deck, and seemed en-
tirely engrossed with the force of his own thoughts, his
lips moving rapidly, though no sounds were heard to issue
from a mouth that was habitually silent. He was under
the influence of one of those sudden impulses, in which the
body, apparently, sympathized so keenly with the restless
activity of the mind", when a young man ascended from the
cabin and took his stand among the interested and excited
gazers at the land, on the upper deck. The age of this
gentleman might have been five and twenty. He wore a
military cloak, thrown carelessly across his form, which,
in addition to such parts of his dress as were visible
through its open folds, sufficiently announced that his pro-
fession was that of arms. There was an air of ease
12 LIONEL LIVCOL.Y.
high fashion gleaming about his person, though his speak-
ing countenance, at times, seemed melancholy, if not sad.
On gaining the deck, this young officer, encountering the
eyes of the aged and restless being who trod its planks,
bowed courteously before he turned away to the view, and
in his turn became deeply absorbed in studying its fading
beauties.
The rounded heights of Dorchester were radiant with
the rays of the luminary that had just sunk behind their
crest, and streaks of paler light were playing along the
waters, and gilding the green summits of the islands which
clustered across the mouth of the estuary. Far in the dis-
tance were to be seen the tall spires of the churches, rising
out of the deep shadows of the town, with their vanes glit-
tering in the sunbeams, while a few rays of strong light
were dancing about the black beacon, which reared itself
high above the conical peak, that took its name from the
circumstance of supporting this instrument of alarms.
Several large vessels were anchored among the islands and
before the town, their dark hulls, at each moment, becom-
ing less distinct through the haze of evening, while the
summits of their long lines of masts were yet glowing with
the marks of day. From each of these sullen ships, from
the low fortification which rose above a small island deep
in the bay, and from various elevations in the town itself,
the broad, silky folds of the flag of England were yet wav-
ing in the currents of the passing air. The young man
was suddenly aroused from gazing at this scene, by the
quick reports of the evening guns, and while his eyes were
yet tracing the descent of the proud symbols of the British
power from their respective places of display, he felt his
arm convulsively pressed by the hand of his aged fellow-
passenger.
" Will the day ever arrive," said a low, hollow voice at
his elbow, "when those flags shall be lowered, never to rise
again in this hemisphere ! "
The young soldier turned his quick eyes to the counte-
nance of the speaker, but bent them instantly in embarrass-
ment on the deck, to avoid the keen, searching glance he
encountered in the looks of the other. A long, and, on the
part of the young man, a painful silence succeeded this
remark. At length the youth, pointing to the land, said —
" Tell me, you who are of Boston, and must have
known it so long, the names of all these beautiful places J
see."
LIONEL LINCOLN. 13
" And are you not of Boston, too ? " asked his old com-
panion.
" Certainly by birth, but an Englishman by habit and
education."
" Accursed be the habits, and neglected the education,
which would teach a child to forget its parentage ! " mut-
tered the old man, turning suddenly, and walking away
so rapidly as to be soon lost in the forward parts of the
ship.
For several minutes longer the youth stood absorbed in
his own musings, when, as if recollecting his previous pur-
poses, he called aloud — " Meriton ! "
At the sounds of his voice the curious group around the
pilot instantly separated, and the highly ornamented youth,
before mentioned, approached the officer, with a manner
in which pert familiarity and fearful respect were pecu-
liarly blended. Without regarding the air of the other,
however, or indeed without even favoring him with a
glance, the young soldier continued —
" I desired you to detain the boat which boarded us, in
order to convey me to the town, Mr. Meriton ; see if it be
in readiness."
The valet flew to execute this commission, and in an in-
stant returned with a reply in the affirmative.
" But, sir," he continued, " you will never think of going
in that boat, I feel very much assured, sir."
" Your assurance, Mr. Meriton, is not the least of your
recommendations ; why should I not?"
" That disagreeable old stranger has taken possession of
it, with his mean, filthy bundle of rags ; and "
''And what? you must name a greater evil, to detain
me here, than mentioning the fact that the only gentle-
man in the ship is to be my companion."
" Lord, sir!" said Meriton, glancing his eye upward in
amazement ; " but, sir, surely you know best as to gentil-
ity of behavior — but as to gentility of dress "
" Enough of this," interrupted his master, a little an-
frily ; " the company is such as I am content with ; if you
nd it unequal to your deserts, you have my permission
to remain in the ship until the morning — the presence of
a coxcomb is by no means necessary to my comfort for
one night."
Without regarding the mortification of his disconcerted
valet, the young man passed along the deck to the place
where the boat was in waiting. By the general movement
14 LIO.VEL LINCOLN.
among the indolent menials, and the profound respect
with which he was attended by the master of the ship to
the gangway, it was sufficiently apparent, that, notwith-
standing his youth, it was this gentleman whose presence
had exacted those arrangements in the ship, which have
been mentioned. While all around him, however, were
busy in facilitating the entrance of the officer into the
boat, the aged stranger occupied its principal seat, with
an air of deep abstraction, if not of cool indifference. A
hint from the pliant Meriton, who had ventured to follow
his master, that it would be more agreeable if he would
relinquish his place, was disregarded, and the youth took
a seat by the side of the old man, with a simplicity of man-
ner that his valet inwardly pronounced abundantly de-
grading. As if this humiliation were not sufficient, the
young man, perceiving that a general pause had succeeded
his own entrance, turned to his companion, and courteously
inquired if he were ready to proceed. A silent wave of
the hand was the reply, when the boat shot away from the
vessel, leaving the ship steering for an anchorage in Nan-
tasket.
The measured dash of the oars was uninterrupted by
any voice, while, stemming the tide, they pulled labori-
ously up among the islands ; but by the time they had
reached the castle, the twilight had melted into the softer
beams from a young moon, and the surrounding objects
becoming more distinct, the stranger commenced talking
with that quick and startling vehemence whicli seemed his
natural manner. He spoke of the localities, with the ve-
hemence and fondness of an enthusiast, and with the
familiarity of one who had long known their beauties.
His rapid utterance, however, ceased as they approached
the naked wharves, and he sunk back gloomily in the
boat, as if unwilling to trust his voice on the subject of
his country's wrongs. Thus left to his own thoughts, the
youth gazed, with eager interest, at the long ranges of
buildings, which were now clearly visible to the eye,
though with softer colors and more gloomy shadows. A
few neglected and dismantled ships were lying at different
points ; but the hum of business, the forests of masts, and
the rattling of wheels, which at that early hour should
have distinguished the great mart of the colonies, were
wanting. In their places were to be heard, at intervals,
the sudden bursts of distant, martial music, the riotous
merriment of the soldiery who frequented the taverns at
JJOXEL LIXCOL.V. 15
the water's edge, or the sullen challenges of the sentinels
from the vessels of war, as they vexed the progress of the
few boats, which the inhabitants still used in their ordi-
nary pursuits.
" Here indeed is a change ! " the young officer exclaimed,
as they glided swiftly along this desolate scene ; " even my
recollections, young and fading as they are, recall the dif-
ference !"
The stranger made no reply, but a smile of singular
meaning gleamed across his \van features, imparting, by
the moonlight, to their remarkable expression, a character
of additional wildness. The officer was again silent, nor
did either speak until the boat, having shot by the end of
the long wharf, across whose naked boundaries a sentinel
was pacing his measured path, inclined more to the shore,
and soon reached the place of its destination.
Whatever might have been the respective feelings of the
two passengers, at having thus reached in safety the object
of their tiresome and protracted voyage, they were not ex-
pressed in language. The old man bared his silver locks,
and, concealing his face with his hat, stood as if in deep
mental thanksgiving at the termination of his toil, while
his more youthful companion trod* the wharf on which
they landed with the air of a man whose emotions were
too engrossing for the ordinary use of words.
" Here we must part, sir," the officer at length said ;
" but I trust the acquaintance, which has been thus acci-
dentally formed between us, is not to be forgotten now
there is an end to our common privations."
" It is not in the power of a man whose days, like mine,
are numbered," returned the stranger, " to mock the liber-
ality of his God, by any vain promises that must depend
on time for their fulfilment. I am one, young gentleman,
who has returned from a sad, sad pilgrimage, in the other
hemisphere, to lay his bones in this, his native land ; but
should many hours be granted me, you will hear further of
the man whom your courtesy and kindness have so greatly
obliged."
The officer was sensibly affected by the softened but
solemn manner of his companion, and pressed his wasted
hand fervently as he answered —
" Do ; I ask it as a singular favor ; I know not why, but
you have obtained a command of my feelings that no other
being ever yet possessed — and yet — 'tis a mystery, 'tis like
a dream ! I feel that I not only venerate, but love you ! "
16 LION-EL LINCOLN'.
The old man stepped back, and held the youth at the
length of his arm for a moment, while he fastened on him
a look of glowing interest, and then, raising his hand
slowly, he pointed impressively upward, and said —
" 'Tis from heaven, and for God's own purposes — smother
not the sentiment, boy, but cherish it in your heart's core ! "
The reply of the youth was interrupted by sudden and
violent shrieks, that burst rudely on the stillness of the
place, chilling the very blood of those who heard them,
with their piteousness. The quick and severe blows of a
lash were blended with the exclamations of the sufferer,
and rude oaths, with hoarse execrations, from various
voices, were united in the uproar, which appeared to be at
no great distance. By a common impulse, the whole party
broke away from the spot, and moved rapidly up the wharf
in the direction of the sounds. As they approached the
buildings, a group was seen collected around the man,
who thus broke the charm of evening by his cries, inter-
rupting his wailings with their ribaldry, and encouraging
his tormentors to proceed.
"Mercy, mercy, for -'the sake of the blessed God, have
mercy, and don't kill Job!" again shrieked the sufferer ;
" Job will run your a-'r'nds ! Job is half-witted ! Mercy on
poor Job ! Oh ! you make his flesh creep ! "
" I'll cut the heart from the mutinous knave," interrupted
a hoarse, angry voice, "to refuse to drink the health of his
majesty ! "
"Job does wish him good health — Job loves the king —
only Job don't love rum."
The officer had approached so nigh as to perceive that
the whole scene was one of disorder and abuse, and push-
ing aside the crowd of excited and deriding soldiers, who
composed the throng, he broke at once into the centre of
the circle.
CHAPTER II.
"They'll have me whipped for speaking true ;
Thoul't have me whipped for lying ;
And sometimes I'm whipped for holding my peace.
I had rather be any kind of a thing
Than a fool."— Lear.
" WHAT means this outcry ? " demanded the young man,
arresting the arm of an infuriated soldier, who was inflicting
the blows ; " by what authority is this man thus abused ? "
LIONEL LINCOLN. 17
" By what authority dare you lay hands on a British
grenadier ? " cried the fellow, turning in his fury, and rais-
ing his lash against the supposed townsman. But when,
as the officer stepped aside to avoid the threatened indig-
nity, the light of the moon fell full upon his glittering
dress, through the opening folds of his cloak, the arm of
the brutal soldier was held suspended in air, with the sur-
prise of the discovery.
"Answer, I bid you," continued the young officer, his
frame shaking with passion ; "why is this man tormented,
and of what regiment are ye ? "
"We belong to the grenadiers of the brave 47th, your
honor," returned one of the bystanders, in a humble, dep-
recating tone, " and we was just polishing this 'ere natural,
because as he refuses to drink the health of his majesty."
" He's a scornful sinner, that don't fear his Maker," cried
the man in duress, eagerly bending his face, down which
big tears were rolling, towards his protector. "Job loves
the king, but Job don't love rum ! "
The officer turned away from the cruel spectacle, as he
bid the men untie the prisoner. Knives and fingers were
instantly put in requisition, and the man was liberated,
and suffered to resume his clothes. During this operation,
the tumult and bustle, which had so recently distinguished
the riotous scene, were succeeded by a stillness that ren-
dered the hard breathing of the sufferer painfully audible.
" Now sirs, you heroes of the 47th ! " said the young
man, when the victim of their rage was again clad, " know
you this button ? " The soldier, to whom this question
was more particularly addressed, gazed at the extended
arm, and, to his vast discomfiture, he beheld the magical
number of his own regiment reposing on the well-known
white facings that decorated the rich scarlet of the vest-
ment. No one presumed to answer this appeal, and after
an impressive silence of a few moments, he continued —
"Ye are noble 'supporters of the well-earned fame ol
* Wolfe's own ! ' fit successors to the gallant men who con-
quered under the walls of Quebec ! away with ye ; to-
morrow it shall be looked to."
" I hope your honor will remember he refused his maj-
esty's health. I'm sure, sir, that if Colonel Nesbitt was
here himself "
" Dog ! do you dare to hesitate ! go, while you have per-
mission to depart."
The disconcerted soldierv, whose turbulence had thus
1 8 LIONEL LINCOLN.
vanished, as if by enchantment, before the frown of theii
superior, slunk away in a body, a few of the older men
whispering to their comrades the name of the officer, wha
had thus unexpectedly appeared in the midst of them.
The angry eye of the young soldier followed their retiring
forms, while a man of them was visible ; after which, turn-
ing to an elderly citizen, who, supported on a crutch, had
been a spectator of the scene, he asked —
"Know you the cause of the cruel treatment this poor
man has received ? or what in any manner has led to the
violence ? "
"The boy is weak," returned the cripple; "quite an
innocent, who knows but little good, but does no harm.
The soldiers have been carousing in yonder dram-shop,
and they often get the poor lad in with them, and sport
with his infirmity. If these sorts of doings an't checked, I
fear much trouble will grow out of them ! Hard laws from
t'other side of the water, and tarring and feathering on
this, with gentlemen like Colonel Nesbitt at their head,
will "
" It is wisest for us, my friend, to pursue this subject no
further," interrupted the officer. "I belong myself to
'Wolfe's own,' and will endeavor to see justice done in the
matter ; as you will credit when I tell you that I am a
Boston boy. But, though a native, a long absence has
obliterated the marks of the town from my memory ; and I
aTh at a loss to thread these crooked streets. Know you
the dwelling of Mrs. Lechmere ?"
" The house is well known to all in Boston," returned
the cripple, in a voice sensibly altered by the information
that he was speaking to a townsman. " Job, here, does
but little else than run of errands, and he will show you the
way out of gratitude ; won't you, Job ?"
The idiot, — for the vacant eye and unmeaning boyish
countenance of the young man who had just been liber-
ated but too plainly indicated that he was to be included
in that miserable class of human beings, — answered with a
caution and reluctance that were a little remarkable, con-
sidering the recent circumstances.
" Ma'am Lechmere's ! Oh ! yes, Job knows the way,
and could go there blindfolded, if — if "
"If what, you simpleton ! " exclaimed the zealous
cripple.
"Why, if 'twas daylight."
" Blindfolded, and daylight ! do but hear the silly child 1
LIONEL LINCOLN: ig
Come, Job, you must take this gentleman to Tremont
Street, without further words. Tis but just sundown,
boy, and you can go there and be home and in your bed
before the Old South strikes eight ! "
" Yes ; that all depends on which way you go," returned
the reluctant changeling. "Now, I know, neighbor Hop-
per, you couldn't go to Ma'am Lechmere's in an hour, if
you went along Lynn Street, and so along Prince Street,
and back through Snow-Hill ; and especially if you should
stop any time to look at the graves on Copp's."
" Pshaw! the fool is in one of his sulks now, with his
Copp's-Hill, and the graves!" interrupted the cripple,
whose heart had warmed to his youthful townsman, and
who would have volunteered to show the way himself,
had his infirmities permitted the exertion. . " The gentle-
man must call the grenadiers back, to bring the child to
reason."
" 'Tis quite unnecessary to be harsh with the unfortu-
nate lad," said the young soldier ; " my recollections will
probably aid me as I advance ; and should they not, I can
inquire of any passenger I meet."
" If Boston was what Boston has been, you might ask
such a question of a civil inhabitant, at any corner," said
the cripple ; "but it's rare to see many of our people in
the streets at this hour, since the massacre. Besides, it is
Saturday night, you know ; a fit time for these rioters to
choose for their revelries! For that matter, the soldiers
have grown more insolent than ever, since they have met
that disappointment about the cannon down at Salem ;
but I needn't tell such as you what the soldiers are when
they get a little savage."
"I know my comrades but indifferently well, if their
conduct to-night be any specimen of their ordinary de-
meanor, sir," returned the officer ; " but follow, Meriton ;
I apprehend no great difficulty in our path."
The pliant valet lifted the cloak-bag he carried, from the
ground, and they were about to proceed, when the nat-
ural edged himself in a sidelong, slovenly manner, nigher
to the gentleman, and looked earnestly up in his face for
a moment, where he seemed to be gathering confidence to
say — " Job will show the officer Ma'am Lechmere's, if the
officer won't let the grannies catch Job afore he gets off .the
North End ag'in."
" Ah ! " said the young man, laughing, ''there is some-
thing of the cunning of a fool in that arrangement. Well,
20 LIONEL LIXCOLX.
I accept the conditions ; but beware how you take me to
contemplate the graves by moonlight, or I shall deliver
you not only to the grannies, but to the light infantry,
artillery, and all."
With this good-natured threat, the officer followed his
nimble conductor, after taking a friendly leave of the
obliging cripple, who continued his admonitions to the
natural, not to wander from the direct route, while the
sounds of his voice were audible to the retiring party.
The progress of his guide was so rapid as to require the
young officer to confine his survey of the narrow and
crooked streets through which they passed, to extremely
hasty and imperfect glances. No very minute observa-
tion, however, was necessary to perceive that he was led
along one of the most filthy and inferior sections of the
town ; and where, notwithstanding his efforts, he found it
impossible to recall a single feature of his native place to
his remembrance. The complaints of Meriton, who fol-
lowed close at the heels of his master, were loud and fre-
quent, until the gentleman, a little doubting the sincerity
of his intractable conductor, exclaimed —
" Have you nothing better than this to show a townsman,
who has been absent seventeen years, on his return ? Pray
let us go through some better streets than this, if any there
are in Boston which can be called better."
The lad stopped short, and looked up in the face of the
speaker, for an instant, with an air of undisguised amaze-
ment, and then, without replying, he changed the direction
of his route, and after one or two more deviations in his
path, suddenly turning again, he glided up an alley, so
narrow that the passenger might touch the buildings on
either side of him. The officer hesitated an instant to
enter this dark and crooked passage, but perceiving that
his guide was already hid by a bend in the houses, he
quickened his steps, and immediately regained the ground
he had lost. They soon emerged from the obscurity of the
place, and issued on a street of greater width.
" There ! " said Job, triumphantly, when they had effect-
ed this gloomy passage, " does the king live in so crooked
and narrow a street as that ? "
" His majesty must yield the point in your favor," re*
turned the officer.
" Ma'am Lechmere is a grand lady ! " continued the lad,
seemingly following the current of his own fanciful con-
ceits, "and she wouldn'c live in that alley for the world,
LIONEL LINCOLN. 21
though it is narrow, like the road to heaven, as old Nab
says ; I suppose they call it after the Methodies for that
reason."
" I have heard the road you mention termed narrow, cer-
tainly, but it is also called strait" returned the officer, a
little amused with the humor of the lad ; "but forward, the
time is slipping away, and we loiter."
Again Job turned, and moving onward, he led the way,
with swift steps, along another narrow and crooked path,
\vhich, however, better deserved the name of a street, under
the projecting stories of the wooden buildings, which lined
its sides. After following the irregular windings of their
route for some distance, they entered a triangular area, of
a few rods in extent, where Job, disregarding the use of
the narrow walk, advanced directly into the centre of the
open space. Here he stopped once more, and, turning his
vacant face with an air of much seriousness, towards a
building which composed one side of the triangle, he said,
with a voice that expressed his own deep admiration —
>* There— that's the ' Old North ! ' did you ever see such
a meetin'us' afore ? does the king worship God in such a
temple ?"
The officer did not chide the idle liberties of the fool, for
in the antiquated and quaint architecture of the wooden
edifice he recognized one of those early efforts of the
simple, puritan builders, whose rude tastes have been
transmitted to their posterity with so many, deviations in
the style of the same school, but so little of improvement.
Blended with these considerations, were the dawnings of
revived recollections ; and he smiled, as he recalled the
time when he also used to look up at the building with
feelings somewhat allied to the profound admiration of the
idiot. Job watched his countenance narrowly, and easily
mistaking its expression, he extended his arm toward one
of the narrowest of the avenues that entered the area, where
stood a few houses of more than common pretension.
"And there ag'in!" he continued, "there's palaces for
you ! stingy Tommy lived in the one with the pile-axters,
and the flowers hanging to their tops ; and see the crowns
on them too ! stingy Tommy loved crowns, they say ; but
Province'us' wasn't good enough for him, and he lived
here — now they say he lives in one of the king's cup-
boards ! "
" And who was stingy Tommy ? and what right had he
to dwell in Province-House, if he would ?"
32 LIONEL LINCOLN'.
" What right has any governor to live in Province'us' i
because it's the king's! though the people paid for it."
" Pray, sir, excuse me," said Meriton, from behind, " but
do the Americans usually call all their governors stingy
Tommies ? "
The officer turned his head, at this vapid question, from
his valet, and perceived that he had been accompanied
thus far by the aged stranger, who stood at lib elbow, lean-
ing on his staff, studying with close attention the late
dwelling of Hutchinson, while the light of the moon fell,
unobstructed, on the deep lines of his haggard face. Dur-
ing the first surprise of this discovery, he forgot to reply,
and Job took the vindication of his language into his own
hands.
"To be sure they do — they call people by their right
names," he said. " Insygn Peck is called Insygn Peck ;
and you call Deacon Winslow anything but Deacon Win-
slow, and see what a look he'll give you ! and I am Job
Pray, so called ; and why shouldn't a governor be called
stingy Tommy, if he is a stingy Tommy ?"
" Be careful how you speak lightly of the king's repre-
sentative," said the young officer, raising his light cane
with the affectation of correcting the changeling. — " For-
get you that I am a soldier ? "
The idiot shrunk back a little, timidly, and then leering
from under his sunken brow, he answered — •
" I heard you say you were a Boston boy ! "
The gentleman was about to make a playful reply, when
the aged stranger passed quickly before him, and took his
stand at the side of the lad, with a manner so remarkable
for its earnestness, that it entirely changed the current of
his thoughts.
" The young man knows the ties of blood and country,"
the stranger muttered, " and I honor him ! "
It might have been the sudden recollection of the dan-
ger of those allusions, which the officer so well understood,
and to which his accidental association with the singular
being who uttered them had begun to familiarize his ear,
that induced the youth to resume his walk, silently, and in
deep thought, along the street. By this movement, he es-
caped observing the cordial grasp of the hand which the
old stranger bestowed on the idiot, while he muttered a few
more terms of commendation. Job soon took his station
in front, and the whole party moved on again, though with
less rapid strides. As the lad advanced deeper into the
I LIONEL LIXCOLX. *3
town, he evidently wavered once or twice in his choice of
streets, and the officer began to suspect, that the change-
ling contemplated one of his wild circuits, to avoid the
direct route to a house that-he manifestly approached with
great reluctance. Once or twice the young soldier looked
about him, intending to inquire the direction, of the first
passenger he might see ; but the quiet of deep night already
pervaded the place, and not an individual, but those who
accompanied him, appeared in the long ranges of streets
they had passed. The air of the guide was becoming so
dogged, and hestitating, that his follower had just deter-
mined to make an application at one of the doors, when
they emerged from a dark, dirty, and gloomy street on an
open space, of much greater extent than the one they had
so recently left. Passing under the walls of a blackened
dwelling, Job led the way to the centre of a swinging
bridge, which was thrown across an inlet from the harbor,
that extended a short distance, into the area, forming a
shallow dock. Here he took his stand, and allowed the
view of the surrounding objects to work its own effect on
those he had conducted thither. The square was com-
posed of rows of low, gloomy, and irregular houses, most
of which had the appearance of being but little used.
Stretching from the end of the basin, and a little on one
side, a long, narrow edifice, ornamented with pilasters,
perforated with arched windows, and surmounted by a
humble cupola, reared its walls of brick, under the light of
the moon. The story which held the rows of silent, glis-
tening windows, was supported on abutments and arches
of the same material, through the narrow vistas of which
were to be seen the shambles of the common market-place.
Heavy cornices of stone were laid above and beneath the
pilasters, and something more than the unskilful architect-
ure of the dwelling houses they had passed, was affected
throughout the whole structure. While the officer gazed
at this scene, the idiot watched his countenance with a
keenness exceeding his usual observation, until, impatient
at hearing no words of pleasure or of recognition, he ex-
claimed—
" If you don't know Funnel Hall, you are no Boston
boy ! "
" But I do know Faneuil Hall, and I am a Boston boy,"
returned the amused gentleman ; " the place begins to
freshen on my memory, and I now recall the scenes of my
childhood"
24 LIONEL LINCOLN. >
"This, then," said the aged stranger, "is the spot where
liberty has found so many bold advocates ! "
" It would do the king's heart good to hear the people
talk in old Funnel, sometimes," said Job. " I was on the
cornishes, and looked into the winders, the last town-
meetin'-da', and if there was soldiers on the Common, there
was them in the hall that didn't care for them ! "
" All this is very amusing, no doubt," said the officer,
gravely, " but it does not advance me a foot on my way to
Mrs. Lechmere's."
"It is also instructing," exclaimed the stranger; "go
on, child ; I love to hear his simple feelings thus expressed ;
they indicate the state of the public mind."
" Why," said Job, " they were plain spoken, that's all ;
and it would be better for the king to come over, and hear
them — it would pull down his pride, and make him pity
the people, and then he wouldn't think of shutting up Bos-
ton harbor. Suppose he should stop the water from com-
ing in by the Narrows, why, we should get it by Broad
Sound ! and if it didn't come by Broad Sound it would by
Nantasket ! He needn't "think that the Boston folks are
so dumb as to be cheated out of God's water by acts of
Parliament, while old Funnel stands in the Dock Square ! "
Sirrah!" exclaimed the officer, a little angrily, "we
have already loitered until the clocks are striking eight. '
The idiot lost his animation, and lowered in his looks
again, as he answered —
" Well, I told neighbor Hopper there was more ways to
Ma'am Lechmere's than straight forward ! but everybody
knows Job's business better than Job himself ! now you
make me forget the road ; let us go in and ask old Nab ;
she knows the way too well ! "
" Old Nab ! you wilful dolt ! who is Nab, and what have
I to do with any but yourself ? "
" Everybody in Boston knows Abigail Pray."
" What of her ? " asked the startling voice of the stranger ;
" what of Abigail Pray, boy ; is she not honest ? "
"Yes, as poverty can make her," returned the natural,
gloomily ; " now the king has said there shall be no goods
but tea sent to Boston, and the people won't have the
bohea, it's easy living rent-free. — Nab keeps her huckster-
stuff in the old ware'us', and a good place it is too — Job
and his mother have each a room to sleep in, and they say
the king and queen haven't more ! "
While he was speaking, the eyes of his listeners were
LIONEL LINCOLN. 25
drawn by his gestures toward the singular edifice to which
he alluded. Like most of the others adjacent to the
square, it was low, old, dirty, and dark. Its shape was
triangular, a street bounding it on each side, and its ex-
tremities were flanked by as many low hexagonal towers,
which terminated, like the main building itself, in high
pointed roofs, tiled, and capped with rude ornaments.
Long ranges of small windows were to be seen in the dusky
walls, through one of which the light of a solitary candle
was glimmering, the only indication of the presence of life
about the silent and gloomy building.
" Nab knows Ma'am Lechmere better than Job," con-
tinued the idiot, after a moment's pause, "and she will
know whether Ma'am Lechmere will have Job whipped
for bringing company on Saturday night ; though they say
she's so full of scoff ery as to talk, drink tea, and laugh on
that night, just the same as any other time."
" I will pledge myself to her courteous treatment," the
officer replied, beginning to be weary of the fool's delay.
" Let us see this Abigail Pray," cried the aged stranger,
suddenly seizing Job by the arm, and leading him, with a
sort of irresistible power, toward the walls of the building,
through one of the low doors of which they immediately
disappeared.
Thus left on the bridge, with his valet, the young officer
hesitated a single instant how to act ; but yielding to the
secret and powerful interest, which the stranger had suc-
ceeded in throwing around all his movements and opinions,
he bade Meriton await his return, and followed his guide
and the old man into the cheerless habitation of the former.
On passing the outer door, he found himself in a spacious,
but rude apartment, which, from its appearance, as well as
from the few articles of heavy but valueless merchandise it
now contained, would seem to have been used once as a
storehouse. The light drew his steps toward a room in one
of the towers, where, as he approached its open door, he
heard the loud, sharp tones of a woman's voice, exclaim-
ing—
"Where have you been, graceless, this Saturday night!
tagging at the heels of the soldiers, or gazing at the men-
of-war, with their ungodly fashions of music and revelry
at such a time, I dare to say ! and you knew that a ship
was in the bay, and that Madam Lechmere had desired me
to send her the first notice of its arrival. Here have I been
waiting for you to go up toTremont Street since sundown,
26 LIONEL LINCOLN.
with the news, and you are out of call — you, that know so
well who it is she expects ! "
" Don't be cross to Job, mother, for the grannies have
been cutting his back with cords, till the blood runs !
Ma'am Lechmere ! I do believe, mother, that Ma'am Lech-
mere has moved ; for I've been trying to find her house this
hour, because there's a gentleman who landed from the
ship wanted Job to show him the way."
" What means the ignorant boy ! " exclaimed his mother.
^ " He alludes to me," said the officer, entering the apart-
ment ; " I am the person, if any, expected by Mrs. Lech-
mere, and have just landed from the Avon, of Bristol ; but
your son has led me a circuitous path, indeed ; at one time
he spoke of visiting the graves on Copp's Hill."
" Excuse the ignorant and witless child, sir," exclaimed
the matron, eyeing the young man keenly through her
spectacles ; " he knows the way as well as to his own bed, but
he is wilful at times. This will be a joyful night in Tremont
Street ! So handsome, and so stately too"! Excuse me,
young gentleman," she added, raising the candle to his
features with an evident unconsciousness of the act — «-" he
has the sweet smile of the mother, and the terrible eye
of his father ! God forgive us all 'our sins, and make us
happier in another world than in this place of evil and
wickedness ! " As she muttered the latter words, the
woman set aside her candle with an air of singular agita-
tion. Each syllable, notwithstanding her secret intention,
was heard by the officer, across whose countenance there
passed a sudden gloom that doubled its sad expression.
He, however, said —
"You know me, and my family, then ?"
"I was at your birth, young gentleman, and a joyful
birth it was ! but Madam Lechmere waits for the news,
and my unfortunate child shall speedily conduct you to her
door ; she will tell you all that it is proper to know. Job,
you Job, where are you getting to, in that corner ! take
your hat, and show the gentleman to Tremont Street di-
rectly , you know, my son, you love to go to Madam
Lechmere's ! "
"Job would never go, if Job could help it," muttered
the sullen boy; "and if Nab had never gone, 'twould have
been better for her soul."
" Do you dare, disrespectful viper ! " exclaimed the angry
quean, seizing, in the violence of her fury, the tongs, and
threatening the head of her stubborn child.
LIOXEL LINCOLN. 27
" Woman, peace!" said a voice behind.
The dangerous weapon fell from the nerveless hand of
the vixen, and the hues of her yellow and withered coun-
tenance changed to the whiteness of death. She stood
motionless, for near a minute, as if riveted to the spot by
a superhuman power, before she succeeded in muttering,
" who speaks to me ? "
" It is I," returned the stranger, advancing from the
shadow of the door into the dim light of the candle ; "a
man who has numbered ages, and who knows, that as God
loves him, so is he bound to love the children of his loins."
The rigid limbs of the woman lost their stability, in a
tremor that shook every fibre in her body ; she sunk in her
chair, and her eyes rolled from the face of one visitor to that
of the other, while her unsuccessful efforts to utter, denoted
that she had temporarily lost the command of speech.
Job stole to the side of the stranger, in this short interval,
and looking up in his face piteously, he said —
" Don't hurt old Nab — read that good saying to her out
of the Bible, and she'll never strike Job with the tongs
ag'in ; will you, mother ? See her cup, where she hid it
under the towel, when you came in ! Ma'am Lechmere
gives her the p'ison tea to drink, and then Nab is never so
good to Job, as Job would be to mother, if mother was
half-witted, and Job was old Nab."
The stranger considered the moving countenance of the
boy, while he pleaded thus earnestly in behalf of his mother,
with marked attention, and when he had done, he stroked
the head of the natural compassionately, and said —
" Poor, imbecile child ! God has denied the most pre-
cious of his gifts, and yet his spirit hovers around thee ;
for thou canst distinguish between austerity and kindness,
and thou hast learnt to know good from evil. Young man,
see you no moral in this dispensation ? nothing which says
that Providence bestows no gift in vain ; while it points to
the difference between the duty that is fostered by indul-
gence, and that which is extorted by power ? "
The officer avoided the ardent looks of the stranger, and
after an embarrassing pause of a moment, he expressed
his readiness, to the reviving woman, to depart on his way.
The- matron, wrhose eye had never ceased to dwell on the
features of the old man, since her faculties were restored,
arose slowly, and in a feeble voice directed her son to
show the road to Tremont Street. She had acquired, by
long practice a manner that never failed to control, when
30 LIONEL LINCOLN.
pies ! " muttered the officer to himself. — " Here then is
half .a guinea, if you like gold better."
The natural continued kicking a stone about with his
toes, without taking his hands from the pockets where he
wore them ordinarily, with a sort of idle air, as he peered
from under his slouched hat at this renewed offer, an-
swering—
" You wouldn't let the grannies whip Job, and Job
won't take your money."
"Well, boy, there is more of gratitude in that than y
.wiser man would always feel ! Come, Meriton, I shall
meet the poor fellow again, arid will not forget this. I
commission you to see the lad better dressed, in the be-
ginning of the week."
" Lord, sir," said the valet, " if it is your pleasure,
most certainly; but I declare I don't know in what style
I should dress such a figure and countenance, to make
anything of them ! "
"Sir, sir," cried the lad, running a few steps after the
officer, who had already proceeded, "if you won't let the
grannies beat Job any more, Job will always show you the
way through Boston ; and run your a'r'nds too ! "
" Poor -fellow ! well, I promise that you shall not be
again abused by any of the soldiery. Good night, my hon-
est friend — let me see you again."
The idiot appeared satisfied with this assurance, for he
immediately turned, and gliding along the street with a
sort of shuffling gait, he soon disappeared round the first
corner. In the meantime the young officer advanced to
the entrance which led into the court-yard of Mrs. Lech-
mere's dwelling. The house was of bricks, and of an ex-
terior altogether more pretending than most of those in
the lower parts of the town. It was heavily ornamented,
in wood, according to the taste of a somewhat earlier day,
and presented a front of seven windows in its two upper
stories, those at the extremes being much narrower than
the others. The lower floor had the same arrangement,
with the exception of the principal door.
Strong lights were shining in many parts of the house,
which gave it, in comparison with the gloomy and dark-
ened edifices in its vicinity, an air of peculiar gayety and
life. The rap of the gentleman was answered instantly
by an old black, dressed in a becoming, and what, for the
colonies, was a rich livery. The inquiry for Mrs. Lech-
mere was successful, and the youth was conducted through
LIONEL. LINCOLN, 31
a hall 6f some dimensions, into an apartment which
opened from one of its sides. This room would be consid-
ered, at the present day, as much too small to contain the
fashion of a country town ; but what importance it wanted
in size, was amply compensated for in the richness and
labor of its decorations. The walls were divided into
compartments, by raised panel-work, beautifully painted
with imaginary landscapes and ruins. The glittering, var-
nished surfaces of these pictures were burdened with armo-
rial bearings, \vhich were intended to illustrate the alli-
ances of the family. Beneath the surbase were smaller
divisions of panels, painted with various architectural de-
vices ; and above it rose, between the compartments, fluted
pilasters of wood with gilded capitals. A heavy wooden,
and highly ornamented cornice, stretched above the whole,
furnishing an appropriate outline to the walls. The use
of carpets was, at that time, but little known in the colo-
nies, though the wealth and station of Mrs. Lechmere would
probably have introduced the luxury, had not her age,
and the nature of the building, tempted her to adhere to
ancient custom. The floor, which shone equally with the
furniture, was tessellated with small alternate squares of
red-cedar and pine, and in the centre were the " saliant
Lions " of Lechmere, attempted by the blazonry of the join-
er. On either side of the ponderous and labored mantel,
were arched compartments, of plainer work, denoting use,
the sliding panels of one of which, being raised, displayed
a buffet, groaning with massive plate. The furniture was old,
rich, and heavy, but in perfect preservation. In the midst
of this scene of colonial splendor, which was rendered as
impressive as possible by the presence of numerous waxen
lights, a lady, far in the decline of life, sat, in formal pro-
priety, on a small settee. The officer had thrown his cloak
into the hands of Meriton, in the hall, and as he advanced
up the apartment, his form appeared in the gay dress of
a soldier, giving to its ease and fine proportions the addi-
tional charm of military garnish. The hard, severe eye of
the lady, sensibly softened with pleased surprise, as it
dwelt on his person for an instant after she arose to re-
ceive her guest ; but the momentary silence was first
broken by the youth, who said—
" I have entered unannounced, for my impatience has
exceeded my breeding, madam, while each step I have
taken in this house recalls the days of my boyhood, and of
my former freedom within its walls."
32 LIONEL LINCOLX.
"My cousin Lincoln!" interrupted the lady, who was
Mrs. Lechmere ; "that dark eye, that smile, nay, your
very step, announces you ! I must have forgotten my poor
brother, and one also who is still so dear to us, not to have
known you a true Lincoln ! "
There was a distance in the manner of both, at meeting,
which might easily have been imparted by the precise for=
mula of the provincial school, of which the lady was so
distinguished a member, but which was not sufficient to
explain the sad expression that suddenly and. powerfully
blended with the young man's smile, as she spoke. The
change, however, was but momentary, and he answered
courteously to her assurances of recognition —
" I have long been taught to expect a second home in
Tremont Street, and I find, by your flattering remem-
brance of myself and parents, dear madam, that my expec-
tations are justified."
The lady was sensibly pleased at this remark, and she suf-
fered a smile to unbend her rigid brow, as she answered —
"A home, certainly, though it be not such an one as the
heir of the wealthy house of Lincoln may have been ac-
customed to dwell in. It would be strange, indeed, could
any, allied to that honorable family, forget to entertain its
representative with due respect."
The youth seemed conscious that quite as much had now
been said as the occasion required, and he raised his head
from bowing respectfully on her hand, with the intention
of changing the subject to one less personal, when his eye
caught a glimpse of the figure of another, and more youth-
ful female, who had been concealed, hitherto, by the
drapery of a window-curtain. Advancing to this young
lady, he said, with a quickness that rather betrayed his
willingness to suspend further compliment —
"And here I see one also, to whom I have the honor of
being related ; Miss Dynevor ? "
" Though it be not my grand-child," said Mrs. Lech-
mere, "it is one who claims an equal affinity to you, Major
Lincoln ; it is Agnes Danforth, the daughter of my late
niece."
" 'Twas my eyes then, and not my feelings, that were mis-
taken," returned the young soldier ; " I hope this lady will
admit my claim to call her cousin ? "
A simple inclination of the body was the only answer he
received, though she did not decline the hand which he
offered with his salutations. After a few more of the usual
LIONEL LINCOLN. 33
expressions of pleasure, and the ordinary inquiries that
succeed such meetings, the party became seated, and a
more regular discourse followed.
tl I am pleased to find you remember us, then, cousin
Lionel," said Mrs. Lechmere ; "we have so little in this re-
mote province that will compare with the mother country,
I had feared no vestiges of the place of your birth could
remain on your mind."
" I find the town greatly altered, it is true, but there are
many places in it which I still remember, though certainly
their splendor is a little diminished, in my eyes, by absence
and a familiarity with other scenes."
" Doubtless, an acquaintance with the British court will
have no tendency to exalt our humble customs in your
imagination ; neither do we possess many buildings to at-
tract the notice of a travelled stranger. There is a tradi-
tion in our family, that your seat in Devonshire is as large
as any dozen edifices in Boston, public or private ; nay, we
are proud of saying, that the king himself is lodged as well
as the head of the Lincoln family, only when at his castle
of Windsor ! "
" Ravenscliffe is certainly a place of some magnitude,"
returned the young man, carelessly, " though you will re-
member his Majesty affects but little state at Kew. I have,
however, spent so little of my time in the country, that I
hardly know its conveniences or its extent."
The old lady bowed with that sort of complacency, which
the dwellers in the colonies were apt to betray, whenever
an allusion was made to the acknowledged importance of
their connections in that country, toward which they all
looked as to the fountain of honor ; and then, as quickly
as if the change in her ideas was but a natural transition
in the subject, she observed —
" Surely Cecil cannot know of the arrival of our kins-
man ! she is not apt to be so remiss in paying attention to
our guests ! "
" She does me the more honor, that she considers me a rel-
ative, and one wrho requires no formality in his reception."
" You are but cousins twice removed," returned the old
lady, a little gravely; "and there is surely no affinity in
that degree which can justify any forgetfulness of the usual
courtesies. You see, cousin Lionel, how much we value
the consanguinity, when it is a subject of pride to the most
remote branches of the family ! "
" I am but little of a genealogist, madam ; though,, if I
a
34 LIONEL LINCOLN.
retain a true impression of what I have heard, Miss Dy«
nevor is of too good blood, in the direct line, to value the
collateral drops of an intermarriage."
" Pardon me, Major Lincoln ; her father, Colonel Dy-
nevor, was certainly an Englishman of an ancient and hon-
orable name, but no family in the realm need scorn an al-
liance with our own. I say our own, cousin Lionel, for I
would never have you forget that I am a Lincoln, and was
the sister of your grandfather."
A little surprised at the seeming contradiction in the
language of the good lady, the young man bowed his head
to the compliment, and cast his eyes at his younger com-
panion with a sort of longing to change the discourse, by
addressing the reserved young woman nigh him, that was
very excusable in one of his sex and years. He had not
time, however, to make more than one or two common-
place remarks, and receive their answers, before Mrs. Lech-
mere said, with some exhibition of staid displeasure against
her grandchild —
" Go, Agnes, and acquaint your cousin of this happy
event. She has been sensibly alive to your safety, during
the whole time consumed by your voyage. We have had
the prayers of the Church, for a ' person gone to sea,' read
each Sunday, since the receipt of your letters announcing
your intention to embark ; and I have been exceedingly
pleased to observe the deep interest with which Cecil
joined in our petitions."
Lionel mumbled a few words of thanks, and leaning
back in his chair, threw his eyes upward, but whether in
pious gratitude or not, we conceive it is not our province
to determine. During the delivery of Mrs. Lechmere's
last speech, and the expressive pantomime that succeeded
it, Agnes Danforth rose and left the room. The door had
been some little time closed before the silence was again
broken; during which Mrs. Lechmere evidently essayed in
vain, once or twice, to speak. Her color, pale and immov-
able as usually seemed her withered look, changed in its (
shades, and her lip trembled involuntarily. She, however,
soon found her utterance, though the first tones of her
voice were choked and husky.
" I may have appeared remiss, cousin Lionel, "she said,
" but there are subjects that can be discussed with pro-
priety only between the nearest relatives. Sir Lionel —
you left him in as good a state of bodily health, I hope, as
his mental iimess will allow ? "
LIONEL LINCOLN. 35
"It is so represented to me."
" You have seen him lately ?"
" Not in fifteen years ; my presence was said to increase
his disorder, and the physicians forbade any more inter-
views. He continues at the private establishment near
town, and, as the lucid intervals are thought to increase,
both in frequency and duration, I often indulge in the
pleasing hope of being restored again to my father. The
belief is justified by his years, which, you know, are yet
under fifty."
A long, and apparently a painful silence, succeeded this
interesting communication ; at length the lady said, with a
tremor in her voice, for which the young man almost rev-
erenced her, as it so plainly bespoke her interest in her
nephew, as well as the goodness of her heart —
" I will thank you for a glass of that water in the buffet.
Pardon me, cousin Lionel, but this melancholy subject
always overcomes me. I will retire a few moments, with
your indulgence, and hasten the appearance of my grand-
child. I pine that you may meet."
Her absence, just at that moment, was too agreeable to
the feelings of Lionel, for him to gainsay her intention ;
though, instead of following Agnes Danforth, who had pre-
ceded her on the same duty, the tottering steps of Mrs.
Lechmere conducted her to a door, which communicated
with her own apartment. For several minutes the young man
trampled on the " saliant lions " of Lechmere, with a rapid-
ity that seemed to emulate their own mimic speed, as he
paced to and fro across the narrow apartment, his eye
glancing vacantly along the labored wainscots, embracing
the argent, azure and purpure fields of the different es-
cutcheons, as heedlessly as if they were not charged with
the distinguishing symbols of so many honorable names.
This mental abstraction was, however, shortly dissipated
by the sudden appearance of one, who had glided into the
room, and advanced to its centre, before he became con-
scious of her presence. A light, rounded, and exquisitely
proportioned female form, accompanied by a youthful and
expressive countenance, with an air in which womanly
grace blended so nicely with feminine delicacy as to cause
each motion and gesture to command respect, at the same
time that it was singularly insinuating, was an object to
suspend, even at a first glance, provided that glance were
by surprise, the steps of a more absent and less courteous
youth than the one we have attempted to describe. Major
36 LIONEL LINCOLN.
Lincoln knew that this young lady could be no other than
Cecil Dynevor, the daughter of a British officer, long since
deceased, by the only child of Mrs. Lechmere, who was
also in her grave ; and, consequently, that she was one to
whom he was so well known by character, and so nearly
allied by blood, as to render it an easy task for a man ac-
customed to the world, as he had been, to remove any little
embarrassments, which might have beset a less practised
youth, by acting as his own usher. This he certainly at-
tempted, and at first with a freedom which his affinity, and
the circumstances, would seem to allow, though it was
chastened by easy politeness. But the restraint visible in
the manner of the lady was so marked, that, by the time
his salutations were ended, and he had handed her to a
seat, the young man felt as much embarrassment as if he
had found himself alone, for the first time, with the woman
wrhom he had been pining, for months, to favor with a very
particular communication. Whether it is that nature has
provided the other sex with a tact for these occasions, or
that the young lady became sensible that her deportment
was not altogether such as was worthy either of herself, or
the guest of her grandmother, she was certainly the first
to relieve the slight awkwardness that was but too apparent
in the commencement of the interview.
" My grandmother has long been expecting this pleas-
ure, Major Lincoln," she said, "and your arrival has been
at a most auspicious moment. The state of the country
grows each day so very alarming, that I have indeed long
urged her to visit our relatives in England, until the dis-
putes shall have terminated."
The tones of an extremely soft and melodious voice, and
a pronunciation quite as exact as if the speaker had ac-
quired the sounds in the English court, and which was en-
tirely free from the slight vernacular peculiarity, which
had offended his ear, in the few words that fell from Agnes
Danforth, certainly aided a native attraction of manner,
which it seemed impossible for the young latly to cast en-
tirely aside.
" You, who are so much of an English woman, would
find great pleasure in the exchange," he answered, " and
if half what I have heard from a fellow passenger, of the
state of the country, be true, I shall be foremost in second-
ing your request. Both Ravenscliffe and the house in
Soho would be greatly at the service of Mrs. Lechmere."
" It was my wish that she would accept the pressing ir*
LION-RL LINCOLN. 37
vitations of my father's relative, Lord Cardonnel, who has
long urged me to pass a few years in his own family. A
separation would be painful to us both, but should my
grandmother, in such an event, determine to take her res-
idence in the dwellings of her ancestors, I could not be
censured for adopting a resolution to abide under the roofs
of mine."
The piercing eye of Major Lincoln fell full upon her
own, as she delivered this intention, and as it dropped on
the floor, the slight smile that played round his lip, was
produced by the passing thought, that the provincial
beauty had inherited so much of her grandmother's pride
of genealogy, as to be willing to impress on his mind, that
the niece of a viscount was superior to the heir of a baro-
netcy. But the quick, burning flush, that instantly passed
across the features of Cecil Dynevor, might have taught
him, that she was acting under the impulse of much deeper
feelings than such an unworthy purpose would indicate.
The effect, however, was such as to make the young man
glad to see Mrs. Lechmere re-enter the room, leaning on
the arm of her niece.
" I perceive, my cousin Lionel," said the lady, as she
moved with a feeble step toward the settee, " that you and
Cecil have found each other out, without the necessity of
any other introduction than the affinity between you. I
surely do not mean the affinity of blood altogether, you
know, for that cannot be said to amount to anything ; but
I believe there exist certain features of the mind that are
transmitted through families quite as distinctly as any
which belong to the countenance."
"Could I flatter myself with possessing the slightest
resemblance to Miss Dynevor, in either of those particu-
lars, I should be doubly proud of the connection," returned
Lionel, while he assisted the good lady to a seat, with a
coolness that sufficiently denoted how little he cared about
the matter.
" But I am not disposed to have my right to claim near
kindred with cousin Lionel at all disputed," cried the
young lady, with sudden animation. "It has pleased our
forefathers to order such—
"Nay. nay, my child," interrupted her grandmother,
"you forget that the term of cousin can only be used in
cases of near consanguinity, and where familiar situations
will excuse it. But Major Lincoln knows, that we in the
colonies are apt to make the most of the language, and
38 LIONEL LINCOLN.
count our cousins almost as far as if we were members of
the Scottish clans. Speaking of the clans reminds me of
the rebellion of '45. It is not thought in England, that
our infatuated colonists will ever be so foolhardy as to
assume their arms in earnest."
" There are various opinions on that subject," said Lionel.
" Most military men scout the idea ; though I find, occa-
sionally, an officer, that has served on this continent, who
thinks not only that the appeal will be made, but that the
struggle will be bloody."
" Why should they not ! " said Agnes Danforth, abruptly;
"they are men, and the English are no more ! "
Lionel turned his looks, in a little surprise, on the
speaker, to whose countenance an almost imperceptible
cast in one eye imparted a look of arch good-nature, that
her manner would seem to contradict, and smiled as he
repeated her words —
" Why should they not, indeed ! I know no other rea-
sons than that it would be both a mad and an unlawful act.
I can assure you that I am not one of those who affect to
undervalue my own countrymen ; for you will remember
that I too am an American."
"I have heard it said that such of our volunteers as
wear uniforms at all," said Agnes, " appear in blue, and
not in scarlet."
" 'Tis his Majesty's pleasure that his 47th foot should
wear this gaudy color," returned the young man, laughing;
" though, for myself, I am quite willing to resign it to the
use of you ladies, and to adopt another, could it well be."
"It might be done, sir."
" In what manner ? "
" By resigning your commission with it."
Mrs. Lechmere had evidently permitted her niece to pro-
ceed thus far, without interruption, to serve some purpose
of her own ; but perceiving that her guest by no means
exhibited the air of pique, which the British officers were
so often weak enough to betray, when the women took
into their hands the defence of their country's honor, she
rang the bell, as she observed —
" Bold language, Major Lincoln ! bold language for a
young lady under twenty. But Miss Danforth is privileged
to speak her mind freely, for some of her father's family
are but too deeply implicated in the unlawful proceedings
of these evil times. We have kept Cecil, however, more
to her allegiance."
LIONEL LINCOLN". 39
"And yet even Cecil has been known to refuse the favor
of her countenance to the entertainments given by the
British officers ! " said Agnes, a little piquantly.
" And would you have Cecil Dynevor frequent balls and
entertainments unaccompanied by a proper chaperon," re-
turned Mrs. Lechmere ; "or is it expected that, at seventy,
I can venture in public to maintain the credit of our family ?
But we keep Major Lincoln from his refreshments with
our idle disputes. Cato, we wait your movements."
Mrs. Lechmere delivered her concluding intimation to
the black in attendance, with an air that partook some-
what of mystery. The old domestic, who, probably from
long practice, understood, more by the expression of her
eye than by any words she had uttered, the wishes of his
mistress, proceeded to close the outer shutters of the win-
dows, and to draw the curtains with the most exact care.
When this duty was performed, he raised a small oval table
from its regular position among the flowing folds of the
drapery that shrouded the deep apertures for light, %and
placed it in front of Miss Dynevor. A salver of massive
silver, containing an equipage of the finest Dresden fol-
lowed, and in a few minutes a hissing urn of the same
precious metal garnished the polished surface of the ma-
hogany. During these arrangements, Mrs. Lechmere and
her guest maintained a general discourse, touching chiefly
on the welfare and condition of certain individuals of their
alliance, in England. Notwithstanding the demand thus
made on his attention, Lionel was able to discover a cer-
tain appearance of mystery and caution in each movement
of the black, as he proceeded leisurely in his duty. Miss
Dynevor permitted the disposition of the tea-table to be
made before her, passively, and her cousin, Agnes Dan-
forth, threw herself back on one of the settees, with a look
that indicated cool displeasure. When the usual compound
was made in two little fluted cups, over whose pure white
a few red and green sprigs were sparingly scattered, the
black presented one containing the grateful beverage to
his mistress, and the other to the stranger.
" Pardon me, Miss Danforth," said Lionel, recollecting
himself after he had accepted the offering ; " I have suf-
fered my sea-breeding to obtain the advantage."
" Enjoy your error, sir, if you can find any gratification
in the indulgence," returned the young lady.
" But I should enjoy it the more, could I see you par«
ticipating in the luxury."
40 LIONEL LINCOLN.
" You have termed the idle indulgence well ; 'tis nothing
but a luxury, and such a one as can be easily dispensed
with ; I thank you, sir, I do not drink tea."
" Surely no lady can forswear her bohea ! be persuaded.1
" I know not how the subtle poison may operate on youf
English ladies, Major Lincoln, but it is no difficult matter
for an American girl to decline the use of a detestable herb,
which is one, among many others, of the causes that is likely
to involve her country and kindred in danger and strife."
The young man, who had really intended no more than
the common civilities due from his sex to the other, bowed
in silence, though, as he turned from her, he could not
forbear looking toward the table to see whether the prin-
ciples of the other young American were quite as rigid.
Cecil sat bending over the salver, playing idly with a curi-
ously wrought spoon, made to represent a sprig of the
plant, whose fragrance had been thus put in requisition
to contribute to his indulgence, while the steam from the
chiryi vessel before her was wreathing in a faint mist
around her polished brow.
"You at least, Miss Dynevor," said Lionel, " appear to
have no dislike to the herb, you breathe its vapor so freely."
Cecil cast a glance at him, which changed the demure
and somewhat proud composure of her countenance into
a look of sudden, joyous humor, that was infinitely more
natural, as she answered laughingly —
" I own a woman's weakness. — I must believe it was tea
that tempted our common mother in Paradise J "
" It would show that the cunning of the serpent has
been transmitted to a later day, could that be proved," said
Agnes, " though the instrument of temptation has lost
some of its virtue."
" How know you that ? " said Lionel, anxious to pursue
the trifling, in order to remove the evident distance which
had existed between them ; " had Eve shut her ears as
rigidly as you close your mouth against the offering, we
might yet nave enjoyed the first gift to our parents."
" Oh, sir, 'tis no such stranger to me as you may imagine
from the indifference I have assumed on the present occa-
sion ; as Job Pray says, Boston harbor is nothing but a
1 big teapot ! ' "
" You know Job Pray, then, Miss Danforth ! " said
Lionel, not a little amused by her spirit.
" Certainly ; Boston is so small, and Job so useful, that
everybody knows the simpleton."
LIONEL LINCOLN 41
" He belongs to a distinguished family, then, for I have
his own assurance that everybody knows his perturbed
mother, Abigail."
" You ! " exclaimed Cecil, again, in that sweet, natural voice
that had before startled her auditor ; " what can you know
of poor Job, and his almost equally unfortunate mother ! "
" Now, young ladies, I have you in my snares ! " cried
Lionel ; " you may possibly resist the steams of tea, but
what woman can withstand the impulse of her curiosity !
Not to be too cruel with my fair kinswomen on so short
an acquaintance, however, I will go so far as to acknowl-
edge that I have already had an interview with Mrs. Pray."
The reply which Agnes was about to deliver was inter-
rupted by a slight crash, and on turning they beheld the
fragments of a piece of the splendid set of Dresden, lying
at the feet of Mrs. Lechmere.
" My dear grand-mamma is ill ! " cried Cecil, springing
to the assistance of the old lady. " Hasten, Cato — Major
Lincoln, you are more active — for heaven's sake a glass of
water — Agnes, your salts."
The amiable anxiety of her grandchild was not, how-
ever, so necessary as first appearances wrould have indi-
cated, and Mrs. Lechmere gently put aside the salts,
though she did not decline the glass which Lionel offered
for the second time in so short a period.
" I fear you will mistake me for a sad invalid, cousin
Lionel," said the old lady, when she had become a little
composed ; " but I believe it is this very tea, of which so
much has been said, and which I drink to excess, from
pure loyalty, that unsettles my nerves — I must refrain, like
the girls, though from a very different motive. We are a
people of early hours, Major Lincoln, but you are at home
here, and will pursue your pleasure ; I must, however,
claim an indulgence for threescore-and-ten, and be per-
mitted to wish you a good rest after your voyage. Cato
has his orders to contribute all he can to your comfort."
Leaning on her two assistants, the old lady withdrew,
leaving Lionel to the full possession of the apartment. As
the hour was getting late, and from the compliments they
had exchanged, he did not expect the return of the younger
ladies, he called for a candle, and was shown to his own
room. As soon as the few indispensables, which rendered
a valet necessary to a gentleman of that period, were ob-
served, he dismissed Meriton, and throwing himself in the
bed, courted the sweets of the pillow.
40 LIONEL LINCOLN.
" You have termed the idle indulgence well ; 'tis nothing
but a luxury, and such a one as can be easily dispensed
with ; I thank you, sir, I do not drink tea."
" Surely no lady can forswear her bohea ! be persuaded.1
" I know not how the subtle poison may operate on your
English ladies, Major Lincoln, but it is no difficult matter
for an American girl to decline the use of a detestable herb,
which is one, among many others, of the causes that is likely
to involve her country and kindred in danger and strife."
The young man, who had really intended no more than
the common civilities due from his sex to the other, bowed
in silence, though, as he turned from her, he could not
forbear looking toward the table to see whether the prin-
ciples of the other young American were quite as rigid.
Cecil sat bending over the salver, playing idly with a curi-
ously wrought spoon, made to represent a sprig of the
plant, whose fragrance had been thus put in requisition
to contribute to his indulgence, while the steam from the
chir^a vessel before her was wreathing in a faint mist
around her polished brow.
"You at least, Miss Dynevor," said Lionel, " appear to
have no dislike to the herb, you breathe its vapor so freely."
Cecil cast a glance at him, which changed the demure
and somewhat proud composure of her countenance into
a look of sudden, joyous humor, that was infinitely more
natural, as she answered laughingly —
" I own a woman's weakness.— I must believe it was tea
that tempted our common mother in Paradise J "
" It would show that the cunning of the serpent has
been transmitted to a later day, could that be proved," said
Agnes, "though the instrument of temptation has lost
some of its virtue."
" How know you that ?" said Lionel, anxious to pursue
the trifling, in order to remove the evident distance which
had existed between them ; " had Eve shut her ears as
rigidly as you close your mouth against the offering, we
might yet nave enjoyed the first gift to our parents."
"Oh, sir, 'tis no such stranger to me as you may imagine
from the indifference I have assumed on the present occa-
sion ; as Job Pray says, Boston harbor is nothing but a
* big teapot ! ' '
" You know Job Pray, then, Miss Danforth ! " said
Lionel, not a little amused by her spirit.
" Certainly ; Boston is so small, and Job so useful, that
everybody knows the simpleton."
I
LIONEL LINCOLN-. 41
" He belongs to a distinguished family, then, for I have
his own assurance that everybody knows his perturbed
mother, Abigail."
" You ! " exclaimed Cecil, again, in that sweet, natural voice
that had before startled her auditor ; " what can you know
of poor Job, and his almost equally unfortunate mother ! "
" Now, young ladies, I have you in my snares ! " cried
Lionel; "you may possibly resist the steams of tea, but
what woman can withstand the impulse of her curiosity !
Not to be too cruel with my fair kinswomen on so short
an acquaintance, however, I will go so far as to acknowl-
edge that I have already had an interview with Mrs. Pray."
The reply which Agnes was about to deliver was inter-
rupted by a slight crash, and on turning they beheld the
fragments of a piece of the splendid set of Dresden, lying
at the feet of Mrs. Lechmere.
" My dear grand-mamma is ill ! " cried Cecil, springing
to the assistance of the old lady. " Hasten, Cato — Major
Lincoln, you are more active — for heaven's sake a glass of
water — Agnes, your salts."
The amiable anxiety of her grandchild was not, how-
ever, so necessary as first appearances would have indi-
cated, and Mrs. Lechmere gently put aside the salts,
though she did not decline the glass which Lionel offered
for the second time in so short a period.
" I fear you will mistake me for a sad invalid, cousin
Lionel," said the old lady, when she had become a little
composed ; " but I believe it is this very tea, of which so
much has been said, and which I drink to excess, from
pure loyalty, that unsettles my nerves — I must refrain, like
the girls, though from a very different motive. We are a
people of early hours, Major Lincoln, but you are at home
here, and will pursue your pleasure ; I must, however,
claim an indulgence for threescore-and-ten, and be per-
mitted to wish you a good rest after your voyage. Cato
has his orders to contribute all he can to your comfort."
Leaning on her two assistants, the old lady withdrew,
leaving Lionel to the full possession of the apartment. As
the hour was getting late, and from the compliments they
had exchanged, he did not expect the return of the younger
ladies, he called for a candle, and was shown to his own
room. As soon as the few indispensables, which rendered
a valet necessary to a gentleman of that period, were ob-
served, he dismissed Meriton, and throwing himself in the
bed, courted the sweets of the pillow.
42 LIONEL LINCOLN,
Many incidents, however, had occurred during the day,
that induced a train of thoughts, which for a long time
prevented his attaining the natural rest he sought. After
indulging in long and uneasy reflections on certain events,
too closely connected with his personal feelings to be
lightly remembered, the young man began to muse on his
reception, and on the individuals who had been, as it were,
for the first time, introduced to him.
It was quite apparent, that both Mrs. Lechmere and her
granddaughter were acting their several parts, though
whether in concert or not, remained to be discovered. But
in Agnes Danforth, with all his subtlety, he could perceive
nothing but the plain and direct, though a little blunt, pe-
culiarities of her nature and education. Like most very
young men, who had just been made acquainted with two
youthful females, both of them much superior to the gen-
erality of their sex in personal charms, he fell asleep
musing on their characters. Nor, considering the circum-
stances, will it be at all surprising, when we add that, be-
fore morning, he was dreaming of the Avon, of Bristol, on
board which stout vessel he even thought that he was dis-
cussing a chowder on the Banks of Newfoundland, which
had been unaccountably prepared by the fair hands of
Miss Danforth, 'and which was strangely flavored with tea;
while the Hebe-looking countenance of Cecil Dynevor was
laughing at his perplexities with undisguised good-humor,
and with all the vivacity of girlish merriment.
CHAPTER IV.
"A good portly man, i' faith, and a corpulent."
— King Henrv IV,
THE sun was just stirring the heavy bank of fog, which
had rested on the waters during the night, as Lionel toiled
his way up the side of Beacon-Hill, anxious to catch a
glimpse of his native scenery while it was yet glowing with
the first touch of day. The islands raised their green heads
above the mist, and the wide amphitheatre of hills that en-
circled the bay was still visible, though the vapor was
creeping in places along the valleys — now concealing the
entrance to some beautiful glen, and now wreathing itself
fantastically around a tall spire that told the site of a sub-
urban village. Though the people of the town were
awake and up, yet the sacred character of the day, and the
LIONEL LINCOLN. 43
state of the times, contributed to suppress those sounds
which usually distinguish populous places. The cool nights
and warm days of April had generated a fog more than
usually dense, which was deserting its watery bed, and
stealing insidiously along the land, to unite with the vapors
of the rivers and brooks, spreading a wider curtain before
the placid view. As Lionel stood on the brow of the plat-
form that crowned the eminence, the glimpses of houses
and hills, of towers and ships, of places known and places
forgotten, passed before his vision, through the openings
in the mist, like phantoms of the imagination. The whole
scene, animated and in motion, as it seemed by its changes,
appeared to his excited feelings like a fanciful panorama,
exhibited for his eye alone, when his enjoyment was inter-
rupted by a voice apparently at no great distance. It was
a man singing to a common English air fragments of some
ballad, writh a peculiarly vile nasal cadency. Through the
frequent pauses, he was enabled to comprehend a few
words, which, by their recurrence, were evidently intended
for a chorus to the rest of the production. The reader
will understand the character of the whole from these
lines, which ran as follows :
And they that would be free,
Out they go ;
While the slaves, as you may see,
Stay, to drink their p'ison tea,
Down below !
Lionel, after listening to this expressive ditty for a
moment, followed the direction of the sounds until he en-
countered Job Pray, who was seated on one of the flights
of steps, which aided the ascent to the platform, cracking
a few walnuts on the boards, while he employed those in-
tervals, when his mouth could find no better employment,
in uttering the above-mentioned strains.
" How now, Master Pray ; do you come here to sing
your orisons to the goddess of liberty on a Sunday morn-
ing," cried Lionel ; " or are you the town lark, and for
want of wings, take to this height to obtain an altitude for
your melody ?"
"There's no harm in singing psalm tunes or continental
songs any day in the week," said the lad, without raising
his eyes from his occupation. " Job don't know what a
lark is, but if it belongs to the town, the soldiers are so
thick, they can't keep it on the comfmon."
44 LIONEL LINCOLN.
"And what objection can you have to the soldiers
sessing a corner of your common ? "
" They starve the cows, and then they won't give milk ;
grass is sweet to beasts in the spring of the year."
" But, my life for it, the soldiers don't eat the grass;
your brindles and your blacks, your reds and your whites,
may have the first offering of the spring as usual."
" But Boston cows don't love grass that British soldiers
have trampled on," said the sullen lad.
" This is, indeed, carrying notions of liberty to refine-
ment ! " exclaimed Lionel, laughing.
Job shook his head threateningly, as he looked up and
said, " Don't you let Ralph hear you say anything ag'in
liberty ! "
" Ralph ! who is he, lad ? your genius ! where do you
keep the invisible, that there is danger of his overhearing
what I say ? "
" He's up there in the fog," said Job, pointing signifi-
cantly toward the foot of the beacon, which a dense volume
of vapor was enwrapping, probably attracted up the tall
post that supported the grate.
Lionel gazed at the smoky column for a moment, \vhen
the mists began to dissolve, and amid their evolutions he
beheld the dim figure of his aged fellow passenger. The
old man was still clad in his simple, tarnished vestments of
gray, which harmonized so singularly with the mists as to
impart a look almost ethereal to his wasted form. As the
medium through which he was seen became less cloudy,
his features grew visible, and Lionel could distinguish the
uneasy, rapid glances of his eyes, which seemed to roam
over the distant objects with an earnestness that appeared
to mock the misty veil that was floating before so much of
the view. While Lionel stood fixed to the spot, gazing at
this irregular being with that secret awe which the other
had succeeded in inspiring, the old man waved his hand
impatiently, as if he would cast aside his shroud. At that
instant a bright sunbeam darted into the vapor, illuminat-
ing his person, and melting the mist into thin air. The
anxious, haggard, and severe expression of his countenance
changed at the touch of the ray, and he smiled with a soft-
ness and attraction that thrilled the nerves of the other, as
he called aloud to the sensitive young soldier —
" Come hither, Lionel Lincoln, to the foot of this beacon,
where you may gather warnings, which, if properly heeded,
will guide you through many and great dangers unharmed."
LIONEL LINCOLN. 45
" I am glad you have spoken," said Lionel, advancing to
his side ; "you appeared like a being of another world,
wrapped in that mantle of fog, and I felt tempted to kneel,
and ask a benediction,"
" And am I not a being of another world ! most of my
interests are already in the grave, and I tarry here only for
a space, because there is a great work to be done, which
cannot be performed without me. My view of the world
of spirits, young man, is much clearer and more distinct
than yours of this variable scene at your feet. There is no
mist to obstruct the eye, nor any doubts as to the colors
it presents."
"You are happy, sir, in the extremity of your age, to be
so assured. But I fear your sudden determination last
night subjected you to inconvenience in the tenement of
this changeling."
" The boy is a good boy," said the old man, stroking the
head of the natural complacently; "we understand each
other, Major Lincoln, and that shortens introductions, and
renders communion easy."
"That you feel alike on one subject, I have already dis-
covered ; but there I should think the resemblance and
the intelligence must end."
"The propensities of the mind in its infancy and in its
maturity, are but a span apart," said the stranger ; " the
amount of human knowledge is but to know how much we
are under the dominion of our passions ; and he who has
learned by experience how to smother the volcano, and he
who never felt its fires, are surely fit associates."
Lionel bowed in silence to an opinion so humbling to
the other, and, after a pause of a moment, adverted to their
situation.
" The sun begins to make himself felt, and when he has
driven away these ragged remnants of the fog, we shall see
those places each of us have frequented in his day."
" Shall we find them as we left them, think you ? or will
you see the stranger in possession of the haunts of your
infancy ? "
" Not the stranger, certainly, for we are the subjects of
one king ; children who own a common parent."
" I will not reply that he has proved himself an un-
natural father," said the old man, calmly; "the gentleman
who now fills the British throne is less to be censured than
his advisers, for the oppression of his reign "
" Sir," interrupted Lionel, " if such allusions are made to
46 LIONEL LINCOLtf.
the person of my sovereign, we must separate ; for it ill
becomes a British officer to hear his master mentioned
with levity."
" Levity ! " repeated the other slowly. " It is a fault in«
deed to accompany gray locks and wasted limbs ! but your
jealous watchfulness betrays you into error. I have
breathed in the atmosphere of kings, young man, and know
how to separate the individual and his purpose from the
policy of his government. ' Tis the latter that will sever
this great empire, and deprive the third George of what
has so often and so well been termed ' the brightest jewel
in his crown.' "
" I must leave you, sir," said Lionel ; " the opinions you
so freely expressed during our passage, were on principles
which I can hardly call opposed to our own constitution,
and might be heard, not only without offence, but fre-
quently with admiration ; but this language approaches to
treason ! "
" Go, then," returned the unmoved stranger ; " descend
to yon degraded common, and bid your mercenaries seize
me — ' twill be only the blood of an old man, but ' twill help
to fatten the land ; or send your merciless grenadiers to
torment their victim before the axe shall do its work ; a
man who has lived so long, can surely spare- a little of his
time to the tormentors ! "
" I could have thought, sir, that you might spare such a
reproach to me," said Lionel.
" I do spare it, and I do more ; I forget my years, and
solicit forgiveness. But had you known slavery, as I have
done, in its worst of forms, you would know how to prize
the inestimable blessing of freedom."
" Have you ever known slavery, in your travels, more
closely than in what you deem the violations of principle ? "
" Have I not ? " said the stranger, smiling bitterly ; " I
have known it as man should never know it ; in act and
will. I have lived days, months, and even years, to hear
others coldly declare my wants ; to see others dole out
their meagre pittances .to my necessities, and to hear others
assume the right, to express the sufferings, and to control the
enjoyments of sensibilities that God had given to me only ! "
" To endure such thraldom, you must have fallen into
the power of the infidel barbarians ! "
" Ay ! boy, I thank you for the words ; they were indeed
most worthy of the epithets ! infidels that denied the pre*
cepts of our blessed Redeemer ; and barbarians that treated
LIONEL LINCOLN. 47
one having a soul, and possessing reason like themselves,
as a beast of the field."
" Why didn't you come to Boston, Ralph, and tell that
to the people in Funnel-Hall ? " exclaimed Job ; " ther'd
ha' been a stir about it ! "
" Child, I did come to Boston, again and again, in
thought ; and the appeals that I made to my townsmen
would have moved the very roof of old Faneuil, could they
have been uttered within her walls. But ' twas in vain !
they had the power, and like demons — or rather like misera-
ble men — they abused it."
Lionel, sensibly touched, was about to reply in a suit-
able manner, when he heard a voice calling his own name
aloud, as if the speaker were ascending the opposite ac-
clivity of the hill. The instant the sounds reached his
ears, the old man rose from his seat, on the foundation of
the beacon, and gliding over the brow of the platform, fol-
lowed by Job, they descended into a volume of mist that was
still clinging to the side of the hill, with amazing swiftness.
" Why, Leo ! thou lion in name, and deer in activity I "
exclaimed the intruder, as he surmounted the steep as-
cent, " what can have brought you up into the clouds so
early ! whew — a man needs a New-Market training to scale
such a precipice. But, Leo, my dear fellow, I rejoice to
see you — we knew you were expected in the first ship, and
as I was coming from morning parade^ I met a couple of
grooms in the ' Lincoln green,' you know, leading each a
blooded charger — faith, one of them would have been quite
convenient to climb this accursed hill on — whew and
whew-w, again — well, I knew the liveries at a glance ; as
to the horses, I hope to be better acquainted with them
hereafter. * Pray, sir,' said I, to one of the liveried scoun-
drels, * whom do you serve ? ' ' Major Lincoln, of Ravens-
cliffe, sir,' said he, with a look as impudent as if he could
have said, like you and I, * His sacred majesty, the king.'
That's the answer of the servants of your ten thousand a
year men ! Now, if my fool had been asked such a ques-
tion, his answer would have been, craven dog as he is,
* Captain Polwarth, of the 47th ;' leaving the inquirer, though
it should even be some curious maiden who had taken a
fancy to the tout ensemble of my outline, in utter ignorance
that there is such a place in the world as Polwarth-Hall ! '*
During this voluble speech, which was interrupted by
sundry efforts to regain the breath lost in the ascent,
Lionel shook his friend cordially by the hand, antl at
48 LIONEL LINCOLN-.
tempted to express his own pleasure at the meeting. The?
failure of wind, however, which was a sort of besetting sin
with Captain Polwarth, had now compelled him to pause,
and gave time to Lionel to reply.
" This hill is the last place where I should have expected
to meet you," he said. " I took it for granted you would
not be stirring until nine or ten at least, when it was my
intention to inquire you out, and to give you a call before
I paid my respects to the commander-in-chief."
" Ah ! you may thank his excellency, the * Hon. Thomas
Gage, governor and commander-in-chief in and over the
Province of Massachusetts Bay, and vice-admiral of the
same,' as he styles himself in his proclamations, for this
especial favor ; though, between ourselves, Leo, he is
about as much governor over the Province as he is o\vner
of those hunters you have just landed."
" But why am I to thank him for this interview ?"
" Why ! look about you, and tell me what you behold —
nothing but fog — nay, I see there is a steeple, and yonder is
the smoking sea, and here are the chimneys of Hancock's
house beneath us, smoking too, as if their rebellious mas-
ter were at home, arid preparing his feed ! but everything
in sight is essentially smoky, and there is a natural aver-
sion, in us epicures, to smoke. Nature' dictates that a
man who has as much to do in a day, in carrying himself
about, as your humble servant, should not cut his rest too
abruptly in the morning. But the honorable Thomas,
governor and vice-admiral, etc., has ordered us under arms
with the sun, officers as well as men ! "
" Surely that is no great hardship to a soldier," returned
Lionel ; " and moreover, it seems to agree with you mar-
vellously ! Now I look again, Polwarth, I am amazed !
Surely you are not in a light-infantry jacket ! "
" Certes — what is there in that so wonderful ? " returned
the other, with great gravity. " Don't I become the dress,
or is it the dress which does not adorn me, that you look
ready to die with mirth ? Laugh it out, Leo. I am used
to it these three days — but what is there, after all, so re-
markable in Peter Polwarth's commanding a company of
light infantry ? Am I not just five feet, six and one-eighth
of an inch ? — the precise height ! "
;i You appear to have been so accurate in your longitu-
dinal admeasurement, that you must carry one of Harrison's
timepieces in your pocket ; did it ever suggest itself to you
to use the quadrant also ? "
LINCOLN; 49
" For my latitude ! I understand you, Leo ; because I am
shaped a little like mother earth, does it argue that I cannot
command a light-infantry company ? "
" Ay, even as Joshua commanded the sun. But the stop-
ping oi the planet itself, is not a greater miracle in my
eyes, than to see you in that attire."
"Well, then, the mystery shall be explained ; but first let
us be seated on this beacon," said Captain Polvvarth, estab-
lishing himself with great method in the place so lately
occupied by the attenuated form of the stranger ; " a true
soldier husbands his resources for a time of need ; that word,
husbands, brings me at once to the point — I am in love."
" That is surprising ! "
" But what is much more so, I would fain be married."
" It must be a woman of no mean endowments that
could excite such desires in Captain Polwarth, of the 47th,
and of Polwarth-Hall ! "
"She is a wo man of great qualifications, Major Lincoln,"
said the lover, with a sudden gravity that indicated his
gayety of manner was not entirely natural. " In figure she
may be said to be done to a turn. When she is grave, she
walks with the stateliness of a show beef ; when she runs,
'tis with the activity of a turkey ; and when at rest, I can
only compare her to a dish of venison, savory, delicate,
and what one can never get enough of."
" You have, to adopt your own metaphors, given such a
* rare ' sketch of her person, I am ' burning ' to hear some-
thing of her mental qualifications."
" My metaphors are not poetical, perhaps, but they are
the first that offer themselves to my mind, and they are
natural. Her accomplishments exceed her native gifts
greatly. In the first place, she is witty ; in the second,
she is as impertinent as the devil ; and in the third, as
inveterate a little traitor to King George as there is in all
Boston."
" These are strange recommendations to your favor ! "
" The most infallible of all recommendations. They are
piquant, like savory sauces, which excite the appetite, and
season the dish. Now her treason (for it amounts to that
in fact) is like olives, and gives a gusto to the generous
port of my loyalty. Her impertinence is oil to the cold
salad of my modesty, and her acid wit mingles with the
sweetness of my temperament, in that sort of pleasant com*
bination, with which sweet and sour blend in sherbet."
" It would be idle for me to gainsay the charms of such
50 LIONEL LINCOLN".
a woman," returned Lionel, a good deal amused with th«
droll mixture of seriousness and humor in the other's
manner ; " now for her connection with the light-infantry
— she is not of the light corps of her own sex, Polwarth ? "
"Pardon me, Major Lincoln ; I cannot joke on this sub-
ject. Miss Danforth is of one of the best families in
Boston."
" Danforth ! not Agnes, surely ! "
" The very same!" exclaimed Polwarth, in surprise;
"what do you know of her ? "
"Only that she is a sort of cousin of my own, and that
we are inmates of the same house. We bear equal affinity
to Mrs. Lechmere, and the good lady has insisted that I
shall make my home in Tremont Street."
" I rejoice to hear it ! At all events, our intimacy may
now be improved to some better purpose than eating and
drinking. But to the point — there were certain damnable
innuendoes getting into circulation, concerning my pro-
portions, which I considered it prudent to look down at
once."
" In order to do which, you had only to look thinner."
" And do I not, in this appropriate dress ? To be per-
fectly serious with you, Leo, — for to you I can freely un-
burden myself, — you know what a set we are in the 47th:
let them once fasten an opprobrious term, or a nickname,
on you, and you take it to the grave, be it ever so burden-
some."
"There is a way, certainly, to check ungentleman-like
liberties," said Lionel, gravely.
" Poh ! poh ! a man wouldn't wish to fight about a pound
more or a pound less of fat ! still the name is a great deal,
and first impressions are everything. Now, whoever thinks
of Grand Cairo, as a village ; of the Grand Turk and Great
Mogul, as little boys ; or, who would believe, by hearsay,
that Captain Polwarth, of the light infantry, could weigh
one hundred and eighty ! "
"Add twenty to it."
" Not a pound more, as I am a sinner. I was weighed
in the presence of the whole mess no later than last week,
since when I have rather lost than gained an ounce, fo/
this early rising is no friend to a thriving condition.
'Twas in my nightgown, you'll remember, Leo, for we,
who tally so often, can't afford to throw in boots, and
buckles, and all those sorts of things, like your feather*
weights."
LINCOLN. 51
" But I marvel how Nesbitt was induced to consent to
the appointment," said Lionel ; " he loves a little dis-
play."
" I am your man for that," interrupted the captain ; "we
are embodied you know, and I make more display, if that
be what you require, than any captain in the corps. But
I will whisper a secret in your ear. There has been a nasty
business here, lately, in which the 47th has gained no new
laurels — a matter of tarring and feathering, about an old
rusty musket."
"I have heard something of the affair already," returned
Lionel, " and was grieved to find the men justifying some
of their own brutal conduct last night, by the example of
their commander."
" Mum — 'tis a delicate matter — well, that tar has brought
the colonel into particularly bad odor in Boston, especially
among the women, in whose good graces we are all of us
lower than I have ever known scarlet coats to stand be-
fore. Why, Leo, the Mohairs are altogether the better
men, here ! But there is not an officer in the whole army
who has made more friends in the place than your humble
servant. I have availed myself of my popularity, which
just now is no trifling thing, and partly by promises, and
partly by secret interest, I have the company ; to which,
you know, my rank in the regiment gives me an undoubted
title."
" A perfectly satisfactory explanation ; a most com-
mendable ambition on your part, and a certain symptom
that the peace is not to be disturbed ; for Gage would never
permit such an arrangement, had he any active operations
in his eye."
"Why, there I think you are more than half right ; these
Yankees have been talking, and resolving, and approbating
their resolves, as they call it, these ten years past ; and
what does it all amount to ? To be sure, things grow
worse and worse every day — but Jonathan is an enigma
to me. Now you know, wrhen we were in the cavalry
together — God forgive me the suicide I committed in ex-
changing into the foot, which I never should have done,
could I have found in all England such a thing as an easy
goer, or a safe leaper — but then, if the commons took
offence at a new tax, or a stagnation in business, why, they
got together in mobs, and burnt a house or two, frightened
a magistrate, and perhaps hustled a constable ; then in we
came at a hand gallop, you know, flourished our sword%
52 LIONEL
and scattered the ragged devils to the four winds ; when
the courts did the rest, leaving us a cheap victory at the
expense of a little wind, which was amply compensated by
an increased appetite for dinner. But here it is altogether
a different sort of thing."
"And what are the most alarming symptoms, just now,
in the colonies?" asked Major Lincoln, with a sensible
interest in the subject.
"They refuse their natural aliment to uphold what they
call their principles; the women abjure tea, and the men
abandon their fisheries ! There has been hardly such a
thing as even a wild-duck brought into the market this
spring, in consequence of the Port-Bill, and yet they grow
more stubborn every day. If it should come to blows,
however, thank God we are strong enough to open a pas-
sage for ourselves to any part of the continent where pro-
visions may be plentier ; and I hear more troops are already
on the way."
" If it should come to blows, which heaven forbid/' said
Major Lincoln, "we shall be besieged where we now are."
" Besieged ! " exclaimed Polwarth, in evident alarm ; " if
I thought there was the least prospect of such a calamity,
I would sell out to-morrow. It is bad enough now ; our
mess-table is never decently covered, but' if there should
come a siege, 'twould be absolute starvation. — No, no, Leo,
their minute men, and their long-tailed rabble, would
hardly think of besieging four thousand British soldiers
with a fleet to back them. Four thousand ! if the regi-
ments I hear named are actually on the way, there will be
eight thousand of us — as good men as ever wore "
"Light-infantry jackets," interrupted Lionel. " But
the regiments are certainly coming ; Clinton, Burgoyne,
and Howe, had an audience to take leave on the same day
with myself. The service is exceedingly popular with the
king, and our reception, of course, was most gracious ;
though I thought the eye of royalty looked on me as if it
remembered one or two of my juvenile votes in the house,
on the subject of these unhappy dissensions."
"You voted against the Port-Bill," said Polwarth, "out
of regard to me ? "
"No ; there I joined the ministry. The conduct of the
people of Boston had provoked the measure, and there
were hardly two minds in Parliament on that question."
"Ah ! Major Lincoln, you are a happy man," said the
captain; "a seat in Parliament at five-and-twenty ! {
Z/0JVEX
must think that I should prefer just such an occupation to
all others — the very name is taking ; a seat ! you have two
members for your borough — who fills the second now?"
" Say nothing on that subject, I entreat you," whispered
Lionel, pressing the arm of the other, as he rose ; " 'tis
not filled by him who should occupy it, as you know. —
Shall we descend to the common ? there are many friends
that I could wish to see before the bell calls us to church."
" Yes ; this is a church-going, or, rather, meeting-going
place ; for most of the good people forswear the use of
the word church, as we abjure the supremacy of the pope,"
returned Polwarth, following in his companion's foot-
steps ; " I never think of attending any of •their schism-
shops, for I would any day rather stand sentinel over a
baggage-wagon than stand up to hear one of their pray-
ers. I can do very well at the King's Chapel, as they call
it ; for when I am once comfortably fixed on my knees,
I make out as well as my lord archbishop of Canterbury ;
though it has always been matter of surprise to me, how
any man can find breath to go through their work of a
morning."
They descended the hill, as Lionel replied, and their
forms were soon blended with those of twenty others, who
wore scarlet coats, on the common.
CHAPTER V.
"For us, and for our tragedy,
Here stooping to your clemency,
We beg your hearing patiently." — Hamlet.
WE must, now, carry the reader back a century, in order
to clear our tale of every appearance of ambiguity. Regi-
nald Lincoln was a cadet of an extremely ancient and
wealthy family, whose possessions were suffered to con-
tinue as appendages to a baronetcy, throughout all the
changes which marked the eventful periods of the com
monwealth, and the usurpation of Cromwell. He had
himself, however, inherited little more than a morbid
sensibility, which, even in that age, appeared to be a sort
of heirloom to his family. While still a young man, he
had married a woman to whom he was much attached,
who died in giving birth to her first child. The grief of
the husband took a direction toward religion ; but un-
54 LIONEL
happily, instead of deriving from his researches that
healing consolation, with which our faith abounds, his
mind became soured by the prevalent, but discordant
views of the attributes of the Deity ; and the result of
his conversion was, to leave him an ascetic puritan, and
an obstinate predestinarian. That such a man, finding
but little to connect him with his native country, should
revolt at the impure practices of the court of Charles,
is not surprising ; and, accordingly, though not a,t all
implicated in the guilt of the regicides, he departed for
the religious province of Massachusetts-Bay, in the first
years of the reign of that merry prince.
It was not difficult for a man of the rank and reputed
sanctity of Reginald Lincoln, to obtain both honorable and
lucrative employments in the plantations ; and, after the
first glow of his awakened ardor in behalf of spiritual mat-
ters had a little abated, he failed not to improve a due por-
tion of his time by a commendable attention to temporal
things. To the day of his death, however, he continued a
gloomy, austere, and bigoted religionist, seemingly too re-
gardless of the vanities of this world to permit his pure
imagination to mingle with its dross, even while he sub-
mitted to discharge its visible duties. Notwithstanding
this elevation of mind, his son, at the decease of his father,
found himself in the possession of many goodly effects ;
which were, questionless, the accumulations of a neglected
use during the days of his sublimated progenitor.
Young Lionel so far followed in the steps of his worthy
parent, as to continue gathering honors and riches into
his lap ; though, owing to an early disappointment, and the
inheritance of the "heirloom" already mentioned, it was
late in life before he found a partner to share his happi-
ness. Contrary to all the usual calculations that are made
on the choice of a man of self-denial, he was then united
to a youthful and gay Episcopalian, who had little, beside
her exquisite beauty and good blood, to recommend her.
By this lady he had four children, three sons and a daugh-
ter, when he also was laid in the vault, by the side of his
deceased parent. The eldest of these sons was yet a boy
when he was called to the mother-country, to inherit the
estates and honors of his family. The second, named Reg-
inald, who was bred to arms, married, had a son, and lost
his life in the wilds where he was required to serve, before
he was five-and-twenty. The third was the grandfather of
Agnes Danforth ; and the daughter was Mrs. Lechmere.
LIONEL LINCOLN-. 55
The family of Lincoln, considering the shortness of
their marriages, had been extremely prolific while in the
colonies, according to that wise allotment of Providence,
which ever seems to regulate the functions of our nature
by our wants ; but the instant it was reconveyed to the
populous island of Britain, it entirely lost its reputation
for fruitfulness. Sir Lionel lived to a good age, married,
but died childless ; notwithstanding, when his body lay in
state, it was under a splendid roof, and in halls so ca-
pacious that they would have afforded comfortable shelter
to the whole family of Priam.
By this fatality, it became necessary to cross the Atlan-
tic once more, to find an heir to the wide domains of Rav-
enscliffe, and to one of the oldest baronetcies in the king-
dom.
We have planted and reared this genealogical tree to but
little purpose, if it be necessary to tell the reader that the
individual, who had now become the head of his race, was
the orphan son of the deceased officer. He was married,
and the father of one blooming boy, when this elevation,
which was not unlooked for, occurred. Leaving his wife
and child behind him, Sir Lionel immediately proceeded
to England, to assert his rights and secure his possessions.
As he was the nephew and acknowledged heir of the late in-
cumbent, he met with no opposition to the more important
parts of his claims. Across the character and fortunes of
this gentleman, however, a dark cloud had early passed,
which prevented the common eye from reading the events
of his life, like those of other men, in its open and intelli-
gible movements. After his accession to fortune and rank,
but little was known of him, even by his earliest and most
intimate associates. It was rumored, it is true, that he
had been detained in England, for two years, by a vexa-
tious contention for a petty appendage to his large estates,
a controversy which was, however, known to have been de-
cided in his favor, before he was recalled to Boston by the
sudden death of his wife. This calamity befell him during
the period when the war of '56 was raging in its greatest
violence : a time when the energies of the colonies were
directed to the assistance of the mother-country, who, ac-
cording to the language of the day, was zealously endeav-
oring to defeat the ambitious views of the French, in this
hemisphere ; or, what amounted to the same thing in effect,
in struggling to advance her own.
It was an interesting period, when the mild and peaceful
56 LIONEL LINCOLN.
colonists were seen to shake off their habits of forbearance,
and to enter into the strife with an alacrity and spirit that
soon emulated the utmost daring of their more practised
confederates. To the amazement of all who knew his
fortunes, Sir Lionel Lincoln was seen to embark in many
of the most desperate adventures that distinguished the
war, with a hardihood that rather sought death than
courted honor. He had been, like his father, trained to
arms, but the regiment in which he held the commission
of lieutenant colonel, was serving his master in the most
eastern of his dominions, while the uneasy soldier was thus
rushing from point to point, hazarding his life, and more
than once shedding his blood, in the enterprises that sig-
nalized his war in his most \vestern.
This dangerous career, however, was at length suddenly
and mysteriously checked. By the influence of some pow-
erful agency that was never explained, the baron was in-
duced to take his son, and embark once more for the land
of their fathers, from which the former had never been
known to return. For many years, all those inquiries
which the laudable curiosity of the townsmen and towns-
women of Mrs. Lechmere, prompted them to make, con-
cerning the fate of her nephew, (and we leave each of
our readers to determine their numbers,) were answered by
that lady with the most courteous reserve ; and sometimes
with such exhibitions of emotion, as we have already at-
tempted to describe in her first interview with his son.
But constant dropping will wear away a stone. At first
there were rumors that the baronet had committed treason,
and had been compelled to exchange Ravenscliffe for a less
comfortable dwelling irj, the Tower of London. This report
was succeeded by that of an unfortunate private marriage
with one of the princesses of the house of Brunswick ; but
a reference to the calendars of the day showed, that there
was no lady of a suitable age disengaged ; and this amour,
so creditable to the provinces, was necessarily abandoned.
Finally, the assertion was made, with much more of the
confidence of truth, that the unhappy Sir Lionel was the
tenant of a private mad-house.
The instant this rumor was circulated, a film fell from
every eye, and none were so blind as not to have seen in-
dications of insanity in the baronet long before ; and not
a few were enabled to trace his legitimate right to lunacy
through the hereditary bias of his race. To account for
its sudden exhibition, was a more difficult task and exer*
LIONEL LINCOLN'. 57
cised the ingenuity of an exceedingly ingenious people,
for a long period.
The more sentimental part of the community, such as the
maidens and bachelors, and those votaries of Hymen who
had twice and thrice proved the solacing power of the
god, did not fail to ascribe the misfortune of the baronet
to the unhappy loss of his wife * a lady to whom he was
known to be most passionately attached. A few, the relics
of the good old school, under whose intellectual sway the
incarnate persons of so many godless dealers in necro-
mancy had been made to expiate for their abominations,
pointed to the calamity as a merited punishment on the
backslidings of a family that had once known the true
faith ; while the third, and by no means a small class,
composed of those worthies who braved the elements in
King Street, in quest of filthy lucre, did not hesitate to say,
that the sudden acquisition of vast wealth had driven many
a better man mad. But the time was approaching, when
the apparently irresistible propensity to speculate on the
fortunes of a fellow-creature was made to yield to more
important considerations. The hour soon arrived when the
merchant forgot his momentary interests to look keenly
into the distant effects that were to succeed the move-
ments of the day ; which taught the fanatic the wholesome
lesson, that Providence smiled most beneficently on those
who most merited, by their own efforts, its favors ; and
which even purged the breast of the sentimentalist of its
sickly tenant, to be succeeded by the healthy and enno-
bling passion of love of country.-
It was about this period that the contest for principle
between the Parliament of Great Britain, and the colonies
of North America, commenced, that in time led to those
important results which have established a new era in
political liberty, as well as a mighty empire. A brief glance
at the nature of this controversy may assist in rendering
many of the allusions in this legend more intelligible to
some of its readers.
The increasing wealth of the provinces had attracted the
notice of the English ministry so early as the year 1763.
In that year the first effort to raise a revenue which was to
meet the exigenices of the empire, was attempted by the
passage of a law to impose a duty on certain stamped
paper, which was made necessary to give validity to con-
tracts. This method of raising a revenue was not new
in itself, nor was the imposition heavy in amount. But
58 LIONEL LINCOLN.
the Americans, not less sagacious than wary, perceived
at a glance the importance of the principles involved in
the admission of a right as belonging to any body to
lay taxes, in which they were not represented. The ques-
tion was not without its difficulties, but the direct and
plain argument was clearly on the side of the colonists.
Aware of the force of their reasons, arid perhaps a little
conscious of the strength of their numbers, they approach-
ed the subject with a spirit which betokened this con-
sciousness, but with a coolness that denoted the firmness
of their purpose. After a struggle of nearly two years,
during which the law was rendered completely profitless
by the unanimity among the people, as well as by a
species of good-humored violence that rendered it exceed-
ingly inconvenient, and perhaps a little dangerous, to the
servants of the crown to exercise their obnoxious functions,
the ministry abandoned the measure. But, at the same
time that the law was repealed, the Parliament maintained
its right to bind the colonies in all cases whatsoever, by
recording a resolution to that effect in its journals.
That an empire, whose several parts were separated by
oceans, and whose interests were so often conflicting,
should become unwieldy, and fall, in time, by its own
weight, was an event that all wise men must have ex-
pected to arrive. But, that the Americans did not con-
template such a division at that early day, may be fairly
inferred, if there were no other testimony in the matter,
by the quiet and submission that pervaded the colonies
the instant that the repeal of the stamp act was known.
Had any desire for premature independence existed,
the Parliament had unwisely furnished abundant fuel
to feed the flame, in the very resolution already men-
tioned. But, satisfied with the solid advantages they had
secured, peaceful in their habits, and loyal in their feel-
ings, the colonists laughed at the empty dignity of their
self-constituted rulers, while they congratulated each other
on their own more substantial success. If the besotted
servants of the King had learned wisdom by the past, the
storm would have blown over, and another age would
have witnessed the events which we are about to relate.
Things were hardly suffered, however, to return to their
old channels again, before the ministry attempted to re-
vive their claims by new impositions. The design to raise
a revenue had been defeated in the case of the stamp act,
by the refusal of the colonists to use the paper; but in
LIONEL LINCOLN. 5$
the present instance, expedients were adopted, which, it
was thought, would be more effective — as in the case of
tea, where the duty was paid by the East-India Company
in the first instance, and the exaction was to be made on
the Americans, through their appetites. These new inno-
vations on their rights were met by the colonists with the
same promptitude, but with much more of seriousness
than in the former instances. All the provinces south of
the Great Lakes, acted in concert on this occasion ; and
preparations were made to render not only their remon-
strances and petitions more impressive by a unity of ac-
tion, but their more serious struggles also, should an ap-
peal to force become necessary. The tea was stored or
sent back to England, in most cases, though in the town
of Boston, a concurrence of circumstances led to the vio-
lent measure, on the part of the people, of throwing a
large quantity of the offensive article into the sea. To
punish this act, which took place in the early part of 1774,
the port of Boston was closed, and different laws were
enacted in Parliament, which were intended to bring the
people back to a sense of their dependence on the British
power.
Although the complaints of the colonists were hushed
during the short interval that had succeeded the suspen-
sion of the efforts of the ministry to tax them, the feelings
of alienation which were engendered by the attempt, had
not time to be lost before the obnoxious subject was re-
vived in its new shape. From 1763 to the period of our
tale, all the younger part of the population of the prov-
inces had grown into manhood, but they were no longer
imbued with that profound respect for the mother-coun-
try which had been transmitted from their ancestors, or
with that deep loyalty to the crowrn that usually charac-
terizes a people who view the pageant of royalty through
the medium of distance. Still, those who guided the feel-
ings, and controlled the judgments of the Americans, were
averse to a dismemberment of the empire, a measure
which they continued to believe both impolitic and un-
natural.
In the meantime, though equally reluctant to shed
blood, the adverse parties prepared for that final struggle,
which seemed to be unavoidably approaching. The situa-
tion of the colonies was now so peculiar, that it may be
doubted whether history furnishes a precise parallel.
Their fealty to the prince was everywhere acknowledged,
60 LIONEL LINCOLN-.
while the laws -which emanated from his counsellors were
sullenly disregarded and set at naught. Each province
possessed its distinct government, and in most of them the
political influence of the crown was direct and great ; but
the time had arrived when it was superseded by a moral
feeling that defied the machinations and intrigues of the
ministry. Such of the provincial legislatures as possessed
a majority of the " Sons of Liberty," as they who resisted
the unconstitutional attempts of the ministry were termed,
elected delegates to meet in a general congress to consult
on the ways and means of effecting the common objects.
In one or two provinces, where the inequality of repre-
sentation afforded a different result, the people supplied
the deficiencies by acting in their original capacity. This
body, meeting, unlike conspirators, with the fearless con-
fidence of integrity, and acting under the excitement of a
revolution in sentiment, possessed an influence, which at
a later day, has been denied to their more legally con'
stituted successors. Their recommendations possessed all
the validity of laws, without incurring their odium.
While, as the organ of their fellow-subjects, they still con-
tinued to petition and remonstrate, they did not forget to
oppose, by such means as were then thought expedient,
the oppressive measures of the ministry. •
An association was recommended to the people, for
those purposes that are amply expressed in the three
divisions which were significantly given to the subjects, in
calling them by the several names of " non-importation,"
"non-exportation," and "non-consumption" resolutions.
These negative expedients were all that was constitution-
ally in their power, and, throughout the whole contro-
versy, there had been a guarded care not to exceed the
limits which the laws had affixed to the rights of the sub-
ject. Though no overt act of resistance was committed,
they did not, however, neglect such means as were attain-
able to be prepared for the last evil, whenever it should
arrive.' In this manner a feeling of resentment and dis-
affection was daily increasing throughout the provinces,
while in Massachusetts Bay, the more immediate scene of
our story, the disorder in the body politic seemed to be
inevitably gathering to its head.
The great principles of the controversy had been blend-
ed, in different places, with various causes of local com-
plaint, and in none more than in the town of Boston.
The inhabitants of this place had been distinguished foi
LIONEL LINCOLN. &
an early, open, and fearless resistance to the ministry. An
armed force had long been thought necessary to intimi'
date this spirit, to effect which the troops were drawn
from different parts of the provinces, and concentrated in
this devoted town. Early in 1774, a military man was
placed in the executive chair of the province, and an atti-
tude of more determination was assumed by the govern-
ment. One of the first acts of this gentleman, who held
the high station of lieutenant general, and who com-
manded all the forces of the king in America, was to dis-
solve the colonial assembly. About the same time a new
charter was sent from England, and a material change
was contemplated in the polity of the colonial govern-
ment. From this moment the power of the king, though
it was not denied, became suspended in the province. A
provincial congress was elected, and assembled within
seven leagues of the capital, where they continued, from
time to time, to adopt such measures as the exigencies of
the times were thought to render necessary. Men were
enrolled, disciplined, and armed, as well as the imperfect
means of the colony would allow. These troops, who
were no more than the elite of the inhabitants, had little
else to recommend them besides their spirit, and their
manual dexterity with fire-arms. From the expected
nature of their service, they were not unaptly termed
" minute-men." The munitions of war were seized, and
hoarded with a care and diligence that showed the char-
acter of the impending conflict.
On the other hand, General Gage adopted a similar
course of preparation and prevention, by fortifying himself
in the strong hold which he possessed, and by anticipating
the intentions of the colonists, in their attempts to form
magazines, whenever it was in his power. He had an easy
task in the former, both from the natural situation of the
place he occupied, and the species of force he commanded.
Surrounded by broad and chiefly by deep waters, except
at one extremely narrow point, and possessing its triple
hills, which are not commanded by any adjacent eminen-
ces, the peninsula of Boston could, with a competent gar-
rison, easily be made impregnable, especially when aided
by a superior fleet. The works erected by the English
general were, however, by no means of magnitude ; for it
was well known that the whole park of the colonists could
not exceed some half dozen pieces of field artillery, with a
small battering train that must be entirely composed of
62 LIONEL LINCOLN.
old and cumbrous ship guns. Consequently, when Lionel
arrived in Boston, he found a few batteries thrown up on
the eminences, some of which were intended as much to
control the town as to repel an enemy from without, while
lines were drawn across the neck which communicated
with the main. The garrison consisted of something less
than live thousand men, besides which there was a fluctu-
ating force of seamen and marines, as the vessels of war
arrived and departed.
All this time, there was no other interruption to the in-
tercourse between the town and the country, than such as
unavoidably succeeded the stagnation of trade, and the dis-
trust engendered by the aspect of affairs. Though num-
berless families had deserted their homes, many known
whigs continued to dwell in their habitations, where their
ears were deafened by the sounds of the British drums, and
where their spirits were but too often galled by the sneers
of the officers on the uncouth military preparations of
their countrymen. Indeed, an impression had spread fur-
ther than among the idle and thoughtless youths of the
army, that the colonists were but little gifted with martial
qualities ; and many of their best friends in Europe were
in dread, lest an appeal to force should put the contested
points forever at rest, by proving the incompetency of the
Americans to maintain them to the last extremity.
In this manner, both parties stood at bay ; the people
living in perfect order and quiet, without the administra-
tion of law, sullen, vigilant, and, through their leaders,
secretly alert ; and the army, gay, haughty, and careless
of the consequences, though far from being oppressive or
insolent, until after the defeat of one or two abortive ex-
cursions into the country in quest of arms. Each hour,
however, was rapidly adding to the disaffection on one
side, and to the contempt and resentment on the other,
through numberless public and private causes, that belong
rather to history than to a legend like this. All extraordi-
nary occupations were suspended, and men awaited the
course of things in anxious expectation. It was known
that the Parliament, instead of retracing their political
errors, had imposed new restraints, and, as has been men-
tioned, it was also rumored that regiments and fleets were
on their way to enforce them.
How long a country could exist in such a primeval con-
dition remained to be seen, though it was difficult to say
when or how it was to terminate. The people of the land
LIONEL LINCOLN. 63
appeared to slumber ; but, like vigilant and wary soldiers,
they might be said to sleep on their arms ; while the
troops assumed, each day, more of that fearful prepara-
tion which gives, even to the trained warrior, a more
martial aspect — though both parties still continued to
manifest a becoming reluctance to shed blood.
CHAPTER VI.
"Would he were fatter : — but I fear him not : —
Seldom he smiles ; and smiles in such a sort,
As if he mocked himself, and scorned his spirit
That could be moved to smile at any thing."
— Julius Ccesar.
IN the course of the succeeding week, Lionel acquired
a knowledge of many minor circumstances relating to the
condition of the colonies, which may be easily imagined
as incidental to the times, but which' \vould greatly exceed
our limits to relate. He was received by his brethren
in arms, with that sort of cordiality that a rich, high-
spirited, and free, if not a jovial comrade, was certain of
meeting among men who lived chiefly for pleasure and
appearance. Certain indications of more than usually im-
portant movements were discovered among the troops, the
first day of the week, and his own condition in the army
was in some measure affected by the changes. Instead of
joining his particular regiment, he was ordered to hold
himself in readiness to take a command in the light corps,
which had begun its drill for the service that was peculiar
to such troops. As it was well known that Boston was
Major Lionel's place of nativity, the commander-in-chief,
with the indulgence and kindness of his character, granted
to him, however, a short respite from duty, in order that
he might indulge in the feelings natural to his situation.
It was soon generally understood, that Major Lincoln,
though intending to serve with the army in America,
should the sad alternative of an appeal to arms become
necessary, had permission to amuse himself in such a
manner as he saw fit, for two months from the date of his
arrival. Those who affected to be more wise than com-
mon, saw, or thought they saw, in this arrangement, a deep
laid plan on the part of Gage, to use the influence and
64 LIONEL LINCOLN.
address of the young provincial among his connections
and natural friends, to draw them back to those senti-
ments of loyalty which it was feared so many among them
had forgotten to entertain. But it was the characteristic
of the times to attach importance to trifling incidents, and
to suspect a concealed policy in movements which ema-
nated only in inclination.
There was nothing, however, in the deportment, or man-
ner of life adopted by Lionel, to justify any of these con-
jectures. He continued to dwell in the house of Mrs.
Lechmere, in person, though, unwilling to burden the hos-
pitality of his aunt too heavily, he had taken lodgings in a
dwelling at no great distance, where his servants resided,
and where it was generally understood, that his visits of
ceremony and friendship were to be received. Captain
Polwarth did not fail to complain loudly of this arrange-
ment, as paralyzing at once all the advantages he had an-
ticipated from enjoying the entre to the dwelling of his
mistress, in the right of his friend. But as the establish-
ment of Lionel was supported with much of that liberality
which was becoming in a youth of his large fortune, the
exuberant light-infantry officer found many sources of con-
solation in the change, which could not have existed, had
the staid Mrs. Lechmere presided over the domestic de-
partment. Lionel and Polwarth had been boys together
at the same school, members of the same college at Oxford,
and subsequently, for many years, comrades in the same
corps. Though, perhaps, no two men in their regiment
were more essentially different in mental as well as physical
constitution, yet. by that unaccountable caprice, which
causes us to like our opposites, it is certain that no two
gentlemen in the service were known to be on better terms,
or to maintain a more close and unreserved intimacy. It
is unnecessary to dilate here on this singular friendship :
it occurs every day, between men still more discordant, the
result of accident and habit, and is often, as in the present
instance, cemented by unconquerable good-nature in one
of the parties. For this latter qualification Captain Pol-
warth was eminent, if for no other. It contributed quite
as much as his science in the art of living to the thriving
condition of the corporeal moiety of the man, and it ren-
dered a communion with the less material part at all times
inoffensive, if not agreeable.
On the present occasion, the captain took charge of the
internal economy of Lionel's lodgings, with a zeal which
LIONEL LINCOLN. 6$
he did not even pretend was disinterested. By the rules
of the regiment he was compelled to live nominally with
the mess, where he found his talents and his wishes fet-
tered by divers indispensable regulations, and economical
practices, that could not be easily overleaped ; but with
Lionel, just such an opportunity offered for establishing
rules of his own, and disregarding expenditure, as he had
been long pining for in secret. Though the poor of the
town were, in the absence of employment, necessarily sup-
ported by large contributions of money, clothing, and food,
which were transmitted to their aid from the furthermost
parts of the colonies, the markets were not yet wanting in
all the necessaries of life, to those who enjoyed the means
of purchasing. With this disposition of things, therefore,
he became wrell content, and within the first fortnight after
the arrival of Lionel, it became known to the mess that
Captain Polvvarth took his dinners regularly with his old
friend, Major Lincoln ; though in truth the latter was en-
joying, more than half the time, the hospitality of the
respective tables of the officers of the staff.
In the meantime Lionel cultivated his acquaintance in
Tremont Street, where he still slept, with an interest and
assiduity that the awkwardness of his first interview would
not have taught us to expect. With Mrs. Lechmere, it is
true, he made but little progress in intimacy ; for, equally
formal, though polite, she was at all times enshrouded in a
cloud of artificial, but cold management, that gave him
little opportunity, had he possessed the desire, to break
through the reserve of her calculating temperament. With
his more youthful kinswomen, the case was, however, in a
very few days, entirely reversed. Agnes Danforth, who
had nothing to conceal, began insensibly to yield to the
manliness and grace of his manner, and before the end of
the first week, she maintained the rights of the colonists,
laughed at the follies of the officers, and then acknowledged
her own prejudices, with a familiarity and good-humor
that soon made her, in her turn, a favorite with her Eng-
lish cousin, as she termed Lionel. But he found the
demeanor of Cecil Dynevor much more embarrassing, if
not inexplicable. For days she would be distant, silent,
and haughty, and then again, as it were by sudden im-
pulses, she became easy and natural ; her whole soul
beaming in her speaking eyes, or her innocent and merry
humor breaking through the bounds of her restraint, and
rendering not only herself, but all around her, happy and
66 LIONEL LINCOLN.
delighted. Full many an hour did Lionel ponder on this
unaccountable difference in the manner of this young lady,
at different moments. There was a secret excitement in
the very caprices of her humors, that had a piquant in-
terest in his eyes, and which, aided by her exquisite form
and intelligent face, gradually induced him to become a
more close observer of their waywardness, and consequently
a more assiduous attendant on her movements. In con-
sequence of this assiduity, the manner of Cecil grew, al-
most imperceptibly, less variable, and more uniformly
fascinating, while Lionel, by some unaccountable over-
sight, soon forgot to note its changes, or even to miss the
excitement.
In a mixed society, where pleasure, company, and a
multitude of objects, conspired to distract the attention,
such alterations would be the result of an intercourse for
months, if they ever occurred ; but in a town like Boston,
from which most of those with whom Cecil had once
mingled were already fled, and where, consequently, those
who remained behind lived chiefly for themselves and by
themselves, it was no more than the obvious effect of very
apparent causes. In this manner something like good-
will, if not a deeper interest in each other was happily
effected within that memorable fortnight/which was teem-
ing with events vastly more important in their results than
any that can appertain to the fortunes of a single family.
The winter of 1774-5 had been as remarkable for its
mildness, as the spring was cold and lingering. Like every
season in our changeable climate, however, the chilling
days of March and April were intermingled with some,
when a genial sun recalled the ideas of summer, which, in
their turn, were succeeded by others, when the torrents of
cold rain, that drove before the easterly gales, would seem
to repel every advance toward a milder temperature.
Many of those stormy days occurred in the middle of April,
and during their continuance Lionel was necessarily com-
pelled to keep himself housed.
He had retired from the parlor of Mrs. Lechmere, one
evening when the rain was beating against the windows of
the house, in nearly horizontal lines, to complete some
letters which, before dining, he had commenced to the
agent of his family, in England. On entering his own
apartment, he was startled to find the room, which he had
left vacant, and which he expected to find in the same
state, occupied in a manner that he could not anticipate.
LIONEL LINCOLN. 67
The light of a strong wood fire was blazing on the hearth^
and throwing about, in playful changes, the flickering
shadows of the furniture, and magnifying each object into
some strange and fantastical figure. As he stepped with-
in the door, his eye fell upon one of these shadows, which
extended along the wall, and, bending against the ceiling,
exhibited the gigantic but certain outlines of the human
form. Recollecting that he had left his letters open, and
a little distrusting the discretion of Meriton, Lionel ad-
vanced lightly, for a few feet, so far as to be able to look
round the drapery of his bed, and, to his amazement, per-
ceived that the intruder was not his valet, but the aged
stranger. The old man sat holding in his hand the open
letter which Lionel had been writing, and continued so
deeply absorbed in its contents, that the footsteps of the
other were still disregarded. A large, coarse overcoat,
dripping with water, concealed most of his person, though
the white hairs that strayed about his face, and the deep lines
of his remarkable countenance, could not be mistaken.
" I was ignorant of this unexpected visit," said Lionel,
advancing quickly into the centre of the room, " or I should
not have been so tardy in returning to my apartment,
where, sir, I fear you must have found your time irksome,
with nothing but that scrawl to amuse you."
The old man dropped the paper from before his features,
and betrayed, by the action, the large drops that followed
each other down his hollow cheeks, until they fell even to
the floor. The haughty and displeased look disappeared
from the countenance of Lionel at this sight, and he was
on the point of speaking in a more conciliating manner,
when the stranger, whose eye had not quailed before the
angry frown it encountered, anticipated his intention.
"I comprehend you, Major Lincoln," he said, calmly ;
" but there can exist justifiable reasons for a greater
breach of faith than this, of which you accuse me. : Acci-
dent, and not intention, has put me in possession, here, of
your most secret thoughts on a subject that has deep in-
terest for me. You have urged me often, during our voy-
age, to make you acquainted with all that you most desire
to know ; to which request, as you may remember, I have
ever been silent."
" You have said, sir, that you are master of a secret in
which my feelings, I will acknowledge, are deeply inter-
ested, and I have urged you to remove my doubts by de*
claring the truth ; but I do not perceive "
68 LIONEL LINCOLN.
" How a desire to possess my secret gives me a claim to
inquire into yours, you would say," interrupted the
stranger ; " nor does it. But an interest in your affairs,
that you cannot yet understand, and which is vouched for
by these scalding tears, the first that have fallen in years
from a fountain that I had thought dried, should, and
must, satisfy you."
" It does," said Lionel, deeply affected by the melan-
choly tones of his voice, " it does, it does, and I will listen
to no further explanation on the unpleasant*subject. You
see nothing there, I am sure, of which a son can have rea-
son to be ashamed."
" I see much here, Lionel Lincoln, of which a father
would have reason to be proud," returned the old man.
" It was the filial love which you have displayed in this pa-
per, which has drawn these drops from my eyes ; for he
who has lived as I have done, beyond the age of man, with-
out knowing the love that the parent feels for its offspring,
or which the child bears to the author of its being, must
have outlived his natural sympathies, not to be conscious
of his misfortune, when chance makes him sensible of af-
fections like these."
" You have never been a father, then?" said Lionel, draw-
ing a chair nigh to his aged companion, and seating himself
with an air of powerful interest, that he could not control.
" Have I not told you that I am alone ?" returned the
old man, with a solemn manner. After an impressive
pause, he continued, though his tones were husky and low
— " I have been both husband and parent, in my day, but
' tis so long since, that no selfish tie remains to bind me to
earth. Old age is the neighbor of death, and the chill of
the grave is to be found in its warmest breathings."
"Say not so," interrupted Lionel, "for you do injustice
to your own warm nature — you forget your zeal in behalf
of what you deem these oppressed colonies."
"'Tis no more than the flickering of the dying lamp,
which flares and dazzles most when its source of heat is
nighest to extinction. But though I may not infuse into
your bosom a warmth that I do not possess myself, I can
point out the dangers with which life abounds, and serve
as a beacon, when no longer useful as a pilot. It is for
such a purpose, Major Lincoln, that I have braved the
tempest of to-night."
" Has anything occurred, which, by rendering danger
pressing, can make such an exposure necessary ?"
LIONEL
" Look at me," said the old man, earnestly — " I have seen
most of this flourishing country a wilderness; my recol-
lection goes back into those periods when the savage, and
the beast of the forest, contended with our fathers for
much of that soil which now supports its hundreds of
thousands in plenty ; and my time is to be numbered; not
by years, but by ages. For such a being, think you there
can yet be many months, or weeks, or even days, in store ? "
Lionel dropped his eyes, in embarrassment, to the floor,
as he answered —
" You cannot have very many years, surely, to hope
for ; but with the activity and temperance you possess,
days and months confine you, I trust, in limits much too
small."
" What ! " exclaimed the other, stretching forth a color-
less hand, in which even the prominent veins partook in
the appearance of a general decay of nature ; " with these
wasted limbs, these gray hairs, and this sunken and sepul-
chral cheek, would you talk to me of years ! to me, who
have not the effrontery to petition for even minutes, were
they worth the praver — so long alreadv has been my pro%
bation ! "
" It is certainly time to think of the change, when it ap-
proaches so very near."
" Well, then, Lionel Lincoln, old, feeble, and on the
threshold of eternity as I stand, yet am I not nearer to my
grave than that country, to which you have pledged your
blood, is to a mighty convulsion, which will shake her in-
stitutions to their foundations."
" I cannot admit the signs of the times to be quite so
portentous as your fears would make them," said Lionel,
smiling a little proudly. " Though the worst that is appre-
hended should arrive, England will feel the shock but as
the earth bears an eruption of one of its volcanoes ! But
\ve talk in idle figures, sir : know you anything to justify
the apprehension of immediate danger ? "
The face of the stranger lighted with a sudden and start-
ling gleam of intelligence, and a sarcastic smile passed
across his wan features, as he answered slowly—
" They only have cause to fear who will be the losers
by the change ! A youth who casts off the trammels of
his guardians is not apt to doubt his ability to govern
himself. England has held- these colonies so long in lead-
ing-strings, that she forgets her offspring is able to go
alone."
70 LIONEL LINCOLN.
" Now, sir, you exceed even the wild projects of the most
daring among those who call themselves the * Sons of
Liberty ' — as if liberty existed in any place more favored
or more nurtured than under the blessed constitution of
England! The utmost required is what they term a redress
of grievances, many of which, I must think, exist only in
imagination."
" Was a stone ever known to roll upward ? Let there be
but one drop of American blood spilt in anger, and its stain
will become indelible."
" Unhappily, the experiment has been already tried ; and
yet years have rolled by, while England keeps her footing
and authority good."
" Her authority ! " repeated the old man ; " see you not,
Major Lincoln, in the forbearance of this people, when they
felt themselves in the wrong, the existence of the very prin-
ciples that will render them invincible and unyielding when
right ? But we waste our time — I came to conduct you to
a place where, with your own ears, and with your own
eyes, you may hear and see a little of that spirit which per-
vades the land — You will follow ? "
" Not surely in such a tempest ! "
" This tempest is but a trifle to that which is about to
break upon you, unless you retrace your steps ; but follow,
I repeat ; if a man of my years disregards the night, ought
an English soldier to hesitate ?"
The pride of Lionel was touched ; and remembering an
engagement he had previously made with his aged friend
to accompany him to a scene like this, he made such
changes in his dress as would serve to conceal his profes-
sion, threw on a large cloak to protect his person, and was
about to lead the way himself, when he was aroused by the
voice of the other.
" You mistake the route," he said ,• " this is to be a se-
cret, and I hope a profitable visit — none must know of
your presence ; and if you are a worthy son of your honor-
able father, I need hardly add that my faith is pledged for
your discretion."
" The pledge will be respected, sir," said Lionel, haugh-
tily ; " but in order to see what you wish, we are not to re-
main here ?"
" Follow, then, and be silent," said the old man, turning
and opening the doors which led into a little apartment
lighted by one of those smaller windows, already mentioned
iii describing the exterior of the building. The passage
LIONEL LINCOLN". 71
was dark and narrow ; but, observing the warnings of his
companion, Lionel succeeded in descending, in safety, a
flight of steps which formed a private communication
between the offices of the dwelling and its upper apart-
ments. They paused an instant at the bottom of the
stairs, where the youth expressed his amazement that
a stranger should be so much more familiar with the
building than he who had for so many days made it his
home.
" Have I not often told you," returned the old man, with
a severity in his voice which was even apparent in its sup-
pressed tones, " that I have known Boston for near a'hun-
dred years ! How many edifices like this does it contain,
that I should not have noted its erection ! But follow in
silence, and be prudent."
He now opened a door which conducted them through
one end of the building, into the courtyard in which it was
situated. As they emerged into the open air, Lionel per-
ceived the figure of a man, crouching under the walls, as
if seeking a shelter from the driving rain. The moment
they appeared, this person arose, and followed as they
moved toward the street.
"Are we not watched ? " said Lionel, stopping to face the
unknown ; "whom have we skulking in our footsteps ?"
" Tis the boy," said the old man, — for whom we must
adopt the name of Ralph, which it would appear was the
usual term used by Job when addressing his mother's guest
— " 'tis the boy, and he can do us no harm. God has
granted to him a knowledge between much of what is good,
and that which is evil, though the mind of the child is, at
times, sadly weakened by his bodily ailings. His heart,
however, is with his country, at a moment when she needs
all hearts to maintain her rights."
The young British officer bowed his head to meet the
tempest, and smiled scornfully within the folds of his cloak,
which he drew more closely around his form, as they met
the gale in the open streets of the town. They had passed
swiftly through many narrow and crooked ways, before
another word was uttered between the adventurers. Lio-
nel mused on the singular and indefinable interest that he
took in the movements of his companion, which could
draw him at a time like this from the shelter of Mrs. Lech-
mere's roof, to wander he knew not whither, and on an er-
rand which might even be dangerous to his person. Still
he followed, unhesitatingly ; for with these passing thoughts
72 LIONEL LINCOLN-.
was blended the recollection of the many recent and in-
teresting communications he had held with the old man
during their long and close association in the ship ; nor
was he wanting in a natural interest for all that involved
the safety and happiness of the place of his birth. He kept
the form of his aged guide in his eye, as the other moved
before him, careless of the tempest which beat on his with-
ered frame, and he heard the heavy footsteps of Job in his
rear, who had closed so near his own person as to share, in
some measure, in the shelter of his ample cloak. But no
other living being seemed to have ventured abroad ; and
even the few sentinels they passed, instead of pacing in
front of those doors which it was their duty to guard, were
concealed behind the angles of walls, or sought shelter
under the projections of some favoring roof. At moments
the wind rushed into the narrow avenues of the streets,
along which it swept, with a noise not unlike the hollow
roaring of the sea, and with a violence which was nearly
irresistible. At such times Lionel was compelled to pause,
and even frequently to recede a little from his path, while
his guide, supported by his high purpose, and but little
obstructed by his garments, seemed, to the bewildered im-
agination of his follower, to glide through the night with
a facility that was supernatural. At length the old man,
who had got some distance ahead of his followers, sudden-
ly paused, and allowed Lionel to approach to his side. The
latter observed with surprise, that he had stopped before
the root and stump of a tree, which had once grown on the
borders of the street, and which appeared to have been re-
cently felled.
"'Do you see this remnant of the elm ? " said Ralph, when
the others had stopped also ; " their axes have succeeded
in destroying the mother-plant, but her scions are flourish-
ing throughout the continent ! "
" I do not comprehend you ! " returned Lionel ; " I see
here nothing but the stump of some tree ; surely the min-
isters of the king are not answerable that it stands no
longer ? "
"The ministers of the king are answerable to their mas-
ter, that it has ever become what it is — but speak to the
boy at your side ; he will tell you of its virtues."
Lionel turned towards Job, and perceived by the ob-
scure light of the moon, to his surprise, that the changeling
stood .with his head bared to the storm, regarding the
root with an extraordinary degree of reverence.
LIONEL LINCOLN. 73
" This is all a mystery to me ! " he said ; " what do you
know about this stump to stand in awe of, boy ? "
" Tis the root of ' Liberty-tree,' " said Job, " and 'tis
wicked to pass it without making your manners ! "
" And what has this tree done for liberty, that it has
merited so much respect ? "
"What! why, did you ever see a tree afore this that
could write and give notices of town-meetin'-da's, or that
could tell the people what the king meant to do with the
tea and his stamps !"
" And could this marvellous tree work such miracles?"
"To be sure it could, and it did too — you let stingy Tom-
my think to get above the people with any of his cunning
over night, and you might come here next morning, and
read a warning on the bark of this tree, that would tell all
about it, and how to put down his deviltries, written out
fair, in a hand as good as Master Lovell himself could put
on paper, the best day of his grand scholarship."
" And who put the paper there ? "
" Who ! " exclaimed Job, a little positively ; " why, Lib-
erty came in the night, and pasted it up herself. When
Nab cotildn't get a house to live in, Job used to sleep
under the tree, sometimes ; and many a night has he
seen Liberty, with his own eyes, come and put up the
paper."
"And was it a woman ?"
" Do you think Liberty was such a fool as to come every
time in woman's clothes, to be followed by the rake-helly
soldiers about the streets!" said Job, with great contempt
in his manner. " Sometimes she did, though, and some-
times she didn't ; just as it happened. And Job was in the
tree when old Noll had to give up his ungodly stamps ;
though he didn't do it till the ' Sons of Liberty ' had
chucked his stamp-shop in the dock, and hung him and
Lord Boot together, on the branches of the old Elm ! "
" Hung ! " said Lionel, unconsciously drawing back from
the spot. " Was it ever a gallows ? "
" Yes, for iffigies," said Job, laughing ; " I wish you
could have been here to see how the^old boot, with Satan
sticking out on't, whirled about when they swung it off !
They give the old boy a big shoe to put his cloven huff in ! "
Lionel, who was familiar with the peculiar sound that
his townsmen gave to the letter », now comprehended the
allusion to the Earl of Bute, and, beginning to understand
more clearly the nature of the transactions, and the uses
14 LIONEL LINCOLN.
to which that memorable tree had been applied, he ex-«
pressed his desire to proceed.
The old man had suffered Job to make his own explana*
tions, though not without a curious interest in the effect
they would produce on Lionel ; but the instant the request
was made to advance, he turned, and once more led the
way. Their course was now directed more toward the
wharves ; nor was it long before their conductor turned
into a narrow court, and entered a house of rather mean
appearance, without even observing the formality of an-
nouncing his visit by the ordinary summons of rapping a2
its door. A long, narrow, and dimly-lighted passage con-,
ducted them to a spacious apartment far in the court,
which appeared to have been fitted as a place for the re-
ception of large assemblages of people. In this room
were collected at least a hundred men, seemingly intent on
some object of more than usual interest, by the gravity and
seriousness of demeanor apparent in every countenance.
As it was Sunday, the first impression of Lionel, on en-
tering the room, was that his old friend, who often be-
trayed a keen sensibility on subjects of religion, had
brought him there with a design to listen to some'favorite
exhorter of his own peculiar tenets, and as a tacit reproach
for a neglect of the usual ordinances of that holy day, of
which the conscience of the young mpn suddenly accused
him, on finding himself unexpectedly mingled in such a
throng. But after he had forced his person among a
dense body of men, who stood at the lower end of the
apartment, and became a silent observer of the scene, he
was soon made to perceive his error. The weather had in-
duced all present to appear in sucli garments as were best
adapted to protect them from its fury ; and their exteriors
were rough, and perhaps a little forbidding ; but there was
a composure and decency in the air common to the whole
assembly, which denoted that they were men who pos-
sessed, in a high degree, the commanding quality of self-
respect. A very few minutes sufficed to teach Lionel that
he was in the midst of a meeting collected to discuss ques-
tions connected with the political movements of the times,
though he felt himself a little at a loss to discover the pre-
cise results it was intended to produce. To every ques-
tion there were one or two speakers, men who expressed
their ideas in a familiar manner, and with the peculiar
tones and pronunciation of the province, that left no room
to believe them to be orators of a higher character than
LIONEL LINCOLN. 75
the mechanics and tradesmen of the town. Most, if not all
of them, wore an air of deliberation and coldness that
would have rendered their sincerity in the cause they had
apparently espoused a little equivocal, but for occasional
expressions of coarse, and sometimes biting, invective that
they expended on the ministers of the crown, and for the
perfect and firm unanimity that was manifested, as each
expression of the common feeling was taken, after the
manner of deliberative bodies, Certain resolutions, in
which the most respectful remonstrances were singularly
blended with the boldest assertions of constitutional prin-
ciples, were read and passed without a dissenting voice,
though with a calmness that indicated no very strong ex-
citement. Lionel was peculiarly struck with the language
of these written opinions, which were expressed with a
purity, and sometimes with an elegance of style, which
plainly showed that the acquaintance of the sober artisan
with the instrument through whose periods he was blun-
dering was quite recent, and far from being very intimate.
The eyes of the young soldier wandered from face to face,
with a strong desire to detect the secret movers of the
scene he was witnessing ; nor was he long without select-
ing one individual as an object peculiarly deserving of his
suspicions. It was a man apparently but just entering into
middle age, of an appearance, both in person and in such
parts of his dress as escaped from beneath his overcoat,
that denoted him to be of a class altogether superior to
the mass of the assembly. A deep but manly respect was
evidently paid to this gentleman by those who stood near-
est to his person ; and once or twice there were close and
earnest communications passing between him and the
more ostensible leaders of the meeting, which roused the
suspicions of Lionel in the manner related. Notwith-
standing the secret dislike that the English officer sud-
denly conceived against a man that he fancied wras thus
abusing his powers, by urging others to acts of insubor-
dination, he could not conceal from himself the favorable
impression made by the open, fearless, and engaging
countenance of the stranger. Lionel was so situated as to
be able to keep his person, which was partly concealed by
the taller forms that surrounded him, in constant view ;
nor was it long before his earnest and curious gaze caught
the attention of the other. Glances of marked meaning
were exchanged between them during the remainder of
the evening, until the chairman announced that the ob«
y6 LIONEL LINCOLN.
jects of the convocation were accomplished, and dissolved
the meeting.
Lionel raised himself from his reclining attitude against
the wall, and submitted to be carried by the current of
human bodies into the dark passage, through which he
had entered the room. Here he lingered a moment, with
a view to recover his lost companion, and with a secret
wish to scan more narrowly the proceedings of the man,
whose air and manner had so long chained his attention.
The crowd had sensibly diminished before he was aware
that few remained beside himself, nor would he then have
discovered that he was likely to become an object of sus-
picion to those few, had not a voice at his elbow recalled
his recollection.
" Does Major Lincoln meet his countrymen to-night as
one who sympathizes in their wrongs, or as the favored
and prosperous officer of the crown ?" asked the very man
for whose person he had so long been looking in vain.
" Is sympathy with the oppressed incompatible with
loyalty to my prince ?" demanded Lionel.
"That it is not," said the stranger, in a friendly accent,
" is apparent from the conduct of many gallant English-
men among us, who espouse our cause. — but we claim
Major Lincoln as a countryman."
" Perhaps, sir, it would be indiscreet just now to disavow
that title, let my dispositions be as they may," returned
Lionel, smiling a little haughtily ; " this may not be as se-
cure a spot in which to avow one's sentiments, as the town
common, or the palace of St. James."
** Had the king been present to-night, Major Lincoln,
would he have heard a single sentence opposed to that
constitution, which has declared him a member too sacred
to be offended ? "
"Whatever may have been the legality of your senti-
ments, sir, they surely have not been expressed in lan-
guage altogether fit for a royal ear."
" It may not have been adulation, or even flattery, but
it is truth — a quality no less sacred than the rights of
kings."
"This is neither a place nor an occasion, sir," said the
young soldier, quickly, " to discuss the rights of our com-
mon master ; but if, as from your manner and your lan-
guage I think not improbable, we should meet hereafter
in a higher sphere, you will not find me at a loss to vindi-
cate his claims."
LIONEL LINCOLN. 77
The stranger smiled with meaning, and as he bowed be-
fore he fell back and was lost in the darkness of the pas-
sage, he replied —
" Our fathers have often met in such society, I believe ;
God forbid that their sons should ever encounter in a less
friendly manner."
Lionel, now finding himself alone, groped his way into
the street, where he perceived Ralph and the changeling
in waiting for his appearance. Without demanding the
cause of the other's delay, the old man proceeded by the
side of his companions, with the same indifference to the
tempest as before, toward the residence of Mrs. Lechmere.
"You have now had some evidence of the spirit that
pervades this people," said Ralph, after a few moments of
silence ; " think you still there is no danger that the vol-
cano will explode ? "
" Surely everything I have heard and seen to-night con-
firms such an opinion." returned Lionel. " Men on the
threshold of rebellion seldom reason so closely, and with
such moderation. Why, the very fuel for the combustion,
the rabble themselves, discuss their constitutional princi-
ples, and keep under the mantle of law, as though they
were a club of learned Templars."
" Think you that the fire will burn less steadily, because
what you call the fuel has been prepared by the seasoning
of time ? " returned Ralph. " But this comes from send-
ing a youth into a foreign land for his education ! The
boy rates his sober and earnest countrymen on a level with
the peasants of Europe."
So much Lionel was able to comprehend ; but notwith-
standing the old man muttered vehemently to himself for
some time longer, it was in a tone too indistinct for his ear
to understand his meaning. When they arrived in a
part of the town, with which Lionel was familiar, his aged
guide ppinted out his way, and took his leave, saying —
" I see that nothing but the last, and dreadful argument
of force, will convince you of the purpose of the Ameri-
cans to resist their oppressors. God avert the evil hour!
but when it shall come, as come it must, you will learn
your error, young man, and, I trust, will not disregard the
natural ties of country and kindred."
Lionel would have spoken in reply, but the rapid steps
of Ralph rendered his wishes vain ; for, before he had time
for utterance, his emaciated form was seen gliding, like an
immaterial being, through the sheets of driving rain,
78 LIONEL LINCOLN*.
was soon lost to the eye, as it vanished in the dim shaded
of night, followed by the more substantial frame of tha
idiot.
CHAPTER VII.
" Sergeant, you shall. Thus are poor servitors
When others sleep upon their quiet beds,
Constrained to watch in darkness, rain and cold."
—King Henry VI.
Two or three days of fine, balmy, spring weather suc-
ceeded to the storm, during which Lionel saw no more of
his aged fellow- voyager. Job, however, attached himself
to the British soldier with a confiding helplessness that
touched the heart of his young protector, who gathered
from the circumstances a just opinion of the nature of the
abuses that the unfortunate changeling was frequently
compelled to endure from the brutal soldiery. Meriton
performed the functions of master of the wardrobe to the
lad, by Lionel's express commands, with evident disgust,
but with manifest advantage to the external appearance,
if with no very sensible evidence of additional comfort to
his charge. During this short period, the slight impres-
sion made on Lionel by the scene related in the preced-
ing chapter, faded before the cheerful changes of the sea-
son, and the increasing interest which he felt in the society
of his youthful kinswomen. Polwarth relieved him from
all cares of a domestic nature, and the peculiar shade of
sadness, which at times had been so very perceptible in
his countenance, was changed to a look of a more bright-
ening and cheerful character. Polwarth and Lionel had
found an officer, who had formerly served in the same regi-
ment with them in the British Islands, in command of a
company of grenadiers, which formed part of the garrison
of Boston. This gentleman, an Irishman, of the name of
M'Fuse, was qualified to do great honor to the culinary
skill of the officer of light-infantry, by virtue of a keen
natural gusto for whatever possessed the inherent proper-
ties of a savory taste, though utterly destitute of any of
that remarkable scientific knowledge, which might be said
to distinguish the other in the art. He was, in consequence
of this double claim on the notice of Lionel, a frequent
guest at the nightly banquets prepared by Polwarth. Ac-
LIONEL LINCOLN. 79
cordingly, we find him, on the evening of the third day in
the week, seated with his two friends, around a board
plentifully garnished by the care of that gentleman, on the
preparations for which more than usual skill had been ex-
erted, if the repeated declarations of the disciple of Helio-
gabalus, to that effect, were entitled to any ordinary credit.
" In short, Major Lincoln," said Polwarth, in continuance
of his favorite theme, while seated before the table, "a
man may live any where, provided he possesses food — in
England, or out of England, it matters not. Raiment may
be necessary to appearance, but food is the only indispens-
able that nature has imposed on the animal world, and, in
my opinion, there is a sort of obligation on every man to
be satisfied, who has wherewithal to appease the cravings
of his appetite. — Captain M'Fuse, I will thank you to cut
that sirloin with the grain."
" What matters it, Polly," said the captain of grenadiers^
with a slight Irish accent, and with the humor of his
countrymen strongly depicted in his fine, open, manly
features, <; which way a bit of meat is divided, so there be
enough to allay the cravings of the appetite, you will re-
member ! "
" It is a collateral assistance to nature that should never
be neglected," returned Polwarth, whose gravity and se-
riousness at his banquets were not easily disturbed ; " it
facilitates mastication and aids digestion, two considera-
tions of great importance to military men, sir, who have
frequently such little time for the former, and no rest after
their meals to complete the latter."
" He reasons like an army contractor, who wishes to
make one ration do the work of two, when transportation
is high," said M'Fuse, wnnking to Lionel. "According to
your principles, then, Polly, a potato is your true cam-
paigner, for that is a cr'ature you may cut any way with-
out disturbing the grain, provided the article be a little
m'aly."
" Pardon me, Captain M'Fuse," said Polwarth, " a potato
should be broken, and not cut at all — there is no vegetable
more used, and less understood than the potato."
"And is it you, Pater Polwarth, of Nesbitt's light-infan*
try," interrupted the grenadier, laying down his knife and
fork with an air of infinite humor, "that will tell Dennis
M'Fuse how to carve a potato ! I will yield to the right of
an Englishman over the chivalry of an ox, your sirloins,
and your lady-rumps, if you please, but in my own country,
8o LIOXEL LI.VCOLX.
one end of every farm is a bog, and the other a potato-field
—'tis an Irishman's patrimony that you are making so
free with, sir ! "
" The possession of a thing, and the knowledge how to
use it, are two very different properties "
" Give me the property of possession, then," again in-
terrupted the ardent grenadier, " especially when a morsel
of the green island is in dispute ; and trust an old soldier
of the Royal Irish to carve his own enjoyments. Now I'll
wager a month's pay, and that to me is as much as if the
major should say, Done for a thousand, that you can't tell
how many dishes can be made, and are made every day in
Ireland, out of so simple a thing as a potato."
" You roast and boil ; and use them in stuffing tame
birds, sometimes, and "
"All old woman's cookery!" interrupted M'Fuse, with
an affectation of great contempt in his manner. — " Now,
sir, we have them with butter, and without butter — that
counts two ; then we have the fruit p'aled ; and "
" Impaled," said Lionel, laughing. u I believe this nice
controversy must be referred to Job, who is amusing him-
self in the corner there, I see, with the very subject of the
dispute transfixed on his fork in the latter condition."
" Or suppose, rather," said M'Fuse, "as'it is a matter to
exercise the judgment of Solomon, we make a potato
umpire of master Seth Sage, yonder, who should have
some of the wisdom of the royal Jew, by the sagacity of
his countenance as well as of his name."
" Don't you call Seth r'yal," said Job, suspending his
occupation on the vegetable. "The king is r'yal and
fla'nty, but neighbor Sage lets Job come in and eat, like
a Christian."
" That lad there is not altogether without reason, Major
Lincoln," said Polwarth ; " on the contrary, he discovers
an instinctive knowledge of good from evil, by favoring us
with his company at the hour of meals."
" The poor fellow finds but little at home to tempt him
to remain there, I fear," said Lionel ; " and as he was one
of the first acquaintances I made on returning to my native
land, I have desired Mr. Sage to admit him at all proper
hours ; and especially, Polwarth, at those times when he
can have an opportunity of doing homage to your skill."
" I am glad to see him," said Polwarth ; " for I love an
uninstructed palate, as much as I admire naivete in a
woman. — Be so good as to favor me with a cut from tha
LIONEL LINCOLN-. 8r
breast of that wild goose, M'Fuse — not quite so far for-
ward, if you please ; your migratory birds are apt to be
tough about the wing — but simplicity in eating is, after all,
the great secret of life ; that and a sufficiency of food."
"You may be right this time," replied the grenadier,
laughing ; " for this fellow made one of the flankers of the
flock, and did double duty in wheeling, I believe, or I have
got him against the grain too ! But, Polly, you have not
told us how you improve in your light infantry exercises
of late."
By this time Polwarth had made such progress in the
essential part of his meal as to have recovered in some
measure his usual tone of good-nature, and he answered
with less gravity —
" If Gage does not work a reformation in our habits, he
will fag us all to death. I suppose you know, Leo, that
all the flank companies are relieved from the guards to
learn a new species of exercise. They call it relieving us,
but the only relief I find in the matter, is when we lie down
to fire — there is a luxurious moment or two then, I must
confess ! "
" I have known the fact, any time these ten days, by
your meanings," returned Lionel ; " but what do you argue
from this particular exercise, Captain M'Fuse? Does Gage
contemplate more than the customary drills ? "
" You question me now, sir, on a matter in which I am
uninstructed," said the grenadier ; " I am a soldier, and
obey my orders, without pretending to inquire into their
objects or merits ; all I know is, that both grenadiers and
light-infantry are taken from the guards ; and that we
travel over a good deal of solid earth each day, in the way
of marching and counter-marching, to the manifest discom-
fiture and reduction of Polly, there, who loses flesh as fast
as he gains ground."
" Do you think so, Mac ?" cried the delighted captain of
light-infantry ; " then I have not all the detestable motion
in vain. They have given us little Harry Skip as a drill
officer, who, I believe, has the most restless foot of any
man in his Majesty's service. Do you join with me in
opinion, master Sage? you seem to meditate on the sub-
ject as if it had some secret charm."
The individual to whom Polwarth addressed this ques-
tion, and who has been already named, was standing with
a plate in his hand, in an attitude that bespoke close atten-
tion, with a sudden and deep interest in the discourse,
6
82 LIONEL LINCOLN.
though his eyes were bent on the floo^r, and his face was
averted as if, while listening earnestly, he had a particular
desire to be unnoticed. He was the owner of the house
in which Lionel had taken his quarters. His family had
been some time before removed into the country, under
the pretence of his inability to maintain them in a place
destitute of business and resources, like Boston ; but he
remained himself, for the double purpose of protecting
his property and serving his guests. This man partook,
in no small degree, of the qualities, both of person and
mind, which distinguish a large class among his country-
men. In the former, he was rather over than under the
middle stature ; was thin, angular, and awkward, but pos-
sessing an unusual proportion of sinew and bone. His
eyes were small, black, and scintillating, and it was not easy
to fancy that the intelligence they manifested was un-
mingled with a large proportion of shrewd cunning. The
rest of his countenance was meagre, sallow, and rigidly
demure. Thus called upon, on a sudden, by Polwarth for
an opinion, Seth answered, with the cautious reserve with
which he invariably delivered himself—
" The adjutant is an uneasy man ; but that, I suppose,
is so much the better for a light-infantry officer. Captain
Polwarth must find it considerable jading to keep the step,
now the general has ordered these new doings with the
soldiers."
"And what may be your opinion of these doings, as you
call them, Mr. Sage?" asked M'Fuse ; "you, who are a
man of observation, should understand your countrymen ;
will they fight ? "
"A rat will fight if the cats pen him," said Seth, without
raising his eyes from his occupation.
" But do the Americans conceive themselves to be
penned ?"
"Why, that is pretty much as people think, captain ; the
country was in great touse about the stamps and the tea,
but I always said such folks as didn't give their notes-of-
hand, and had no great relish for anything more than
country food, wouldn't find themselves cramped by the
laws, after all."
" Then you see no great oppression in being asked to
pay your bit of a tax, master Sage," cried the grenadier,
"to maintain such a worthy fellow as myself in a decent
equipage to fight your battles."
"Why, as to that, captain, I suppose we can do pretty
LIONEL LINCOLN; 83
much the whole of our own fighting, when occasion calls ;
though I don't think there is much stomach for such do-
ings among the people, without need."
" But what do you think the * Committee of Safety/ and
your * Sons of Liberty,' as they call themselves, really
mean, by their parades of i minute-men,' their gathering
of provisions, carrying off the cannon, and such other
formidable and appalling preparations — ha ! honest Seth ?
do they think to frighten British soldiers with the roll of a
drum, or are they amusing themselves, like boys in the
holidays, with playing war ? "
" I should conclude," said Seth, with undisturbed gravity
and caution, "that the people are pretty much engaged,
and in earnest."
"To do what?" demanded the Irishman; "to forge
their own chains, that we may fetter them in truth ? "
"Why, seeing that they have burnt the stamps, and
thrown the tea into the harbor," returned Seth, "and,
since that, have taken the management into their own
hands, I should rather conclude that they have pretty
much determined to do what they think best."
Lionel and Polwarth laughed aloud, and the former ob-
served—
" You appear not to come to conclusions with our host,
Captain M'Fuse, notwithstanding so much is determined.
Is it well understood, Mr. Sage, that large reinforcements
are coming to the colonies, and to Boston in particular ? "
" Why, yes," returned Seth ; "it seems to be pretty gen-
erally contemplated on."
"And what is the result of these contemplations?"
Seth paused a moment, as if uncertain whether he was
master of the other's meaning, before he replied —
"Why, as the country is considerably engaged in the
business, there are some who think, if the ministers don't
open the port, that it will be done without much further
words by the people."
" Do you know," said Lionel, gravely, " that such an at-
tempt would lead directly to a civil war ? "
" I suppose it is safe to calculate that such doings
would bring on disturbances," returned his phlegmatic
host.
"And you speak of it, sir, as a thing not to be depre-
cated, or averted by every possible means in the power of
the nation ! "
" If the port is opened, and the right to tax given up,"
84 LIONEL L1XCOL.\\
said Seth, calmly, " I can find a man in Boston, who'll en-
gage to let them draw all the blood that will be spilt, from
his own veins, for nothing."
" And who may that redoubtable individual be, Master
Sage ? " cried M'Fuse ; " your own plethoric person ? — How
now, Doyle, to what am I indebted for the honor of this
visit ? "
This sudden question was put by the captain of grena-
diers to the orderly of his own company, who at that in-
stant filled the door of the apartment with his huge frame,
in the attitude of military respect, as if about to address his
officer.
"Orders have come down, sir, to parade the men at
half an hour after tattoo, and to be in readiness for active
service."
The three gentlemen rose together from their chairs at
this intelligence, while M'Fuse exclaimed — "A night
march ! Pooh ! We are to be sent back to garrison-duty I
suppose ; the companies in the line grow sleepy, and wish
a relief — Gage might have taken a more suitable time,
than to put gentlemen on their march so soon after such
a feast as this of yours, Polly."
" There is some deeper meaning to so extraordinary an
order," interrupted Lionel; "there goes the tap of the
tattoo, this instant ! Are no other troops but your com-
pany ordered to parade ?"
" The whole battalion is under the same orders, your
honor, and so is the battalion of light-infantry ; I was
commanded to report it so to Captain Polwarth, if I saw
him."
"This bears some meaning, gentlemen," said Lionel,
" and it is necessary to be looked to. If either corps leaves
the town to-night, I will march with it as a volunteer ; for
it is my business, just now, to examine into the state of
the country."
"That we shall march to-night, is sure, your honor,"
added the sergeant, with the confidence of an old soldier ;
"but how far, or on what road, is known only to the offi-
cers of the staff ; though the men think we are to go out
by the colleges."
"And what has put so learned an opinion in their silly
heads ? " demanded his captain.
" One of the men who has been on leave, has jnst got in,
and reports that a squad of gentlemen from the army
dined near them, your honor, and that as night set in they
LIONEL LINCOLN. 85
mounted and began to patrol the roads in that direction.
He was met and questioned by four of them as he crossed
the flats."
"All this confirms my conjectures," cried Lionel —
" there is a man who might now prove of important ser-
vice— Job — where is the simpleton, Meriton?"
" He was called out, sir, a minute since, and has left the
house."
" Then send in Mr. Sage," continued the young man,
musing as he spoke. A moment after it was reported to
him that Seth had strangely disappeared also.
" Curiosity has led him to the barracks," said Lionel,
" where duty calls you, gentlemen. I will despatch a little
business, and join you there in an hour; you cannot inarch
short of that time."
The bustle of a general departure succeeded. Lionel
threw his cloak into the arms of Meriton, to whom he
delivered his orders, took his arms, and, making his
apologies to his guests, he left the house with the manner
of one who saw a pressing necessity to be prompt. M'Fuse
proceeded to equip himself with the deliberation of a sol-
dier who was too much practised to be easily disconcerted.
Notwithstanding his great deliberation, the delay of Pol-
warth, however, eventually vanquished the patience of the
grenadier, who exclaimed, on hearing the other repeat, for
the fourth time, an order concerning the preservation of
certain viands, to which he appeared to cling in spirit,
after a carnal separation was directed by fortune.
" Poh ! poh ! man," exclaimed the Irishman, " why will
you bother yourself on the eve of a march, with such
epicurean propensities ! It's the soldier who should show
your hermits and anchorites an example of mortification ;
besides, Polly, this affectation of care and provision is the
less excusable in yourself, — you, who have been well aware
that we were to march on a secret expedition this very
night on which you seem so much troubled."
" I ! " exclaimed Polwarth ; "as I hope to eat another
meal, I am as ignorant as the meanest corporal in the
army of the whole transaction — why do you suspect other*
wise
" Trifles tell the old campaigner when and where the
blow is to be struck," returned M'Fuse, coolly drawing his
military overcoat tighter to his large frame ; " have I not,
with my own eyes, seen you, within the hour, provision a
certain captain of light-infantry after a very heavy fashion t
86 LIONEL LINCOLN.
Damn it, man, do you think I have served these five-and-
twenty years, and do not know that when a garrison begins
to fill its granaries, it expects a siege ? "
" I have paid no more than a suitable compliment to the
entertainment of Major Lincoln," returned Polwarth ; "but
so far from having had any very extraordinary appetite, I
have not found myself in a condition to do all the justice
I could wish to several of the dishes. — Mr. Meriton, I will
thank you to have the remainder of that bird sent down to
the barracks, where my man will receive it ; and, as it may
be a long march, and a hungry one, add the tongue, and a
fowl, and some of the ragout ; we can warm it up at any
farm-house — we'll take the piece of beef, Mac — Leo has a
particular taste for a cold cut ; and you might put up the
ham, also ; it will keep better than anything else, if we
should be out long — and — and — I believe that will do,
Meriton."
" I am as much rejoiced to hear it as I should be to haar
a proclamation of war read at Charing-Cross," cried M'Fuse
— "you should have been a commissary, Polly — nature
meant you for an army sutler ! "
"Laugh as you will, Mac," returned the good-humored
Polwarth ; " I shall hear your thanks when we halt for
breakfast ; but I attend you now."
As they left the house, he continued, " I hope Gage
means no more than to push us a little in advance with a
view to protect the foragers and the supplies of the army
— such a situation wrould have very pretty advantages ;
for a system might be established that would give the mess
of the light corps the choice of the whole market."
" Tis a mighty preparation about some old iron gun,
which would cost a man his life to put a match to," re-
turned M'Fuse, cavalierly; " for my part, Captain Pol-
warth, if we are to fight these colonists at all, I would do
the thing like a man, and allow the lads to gather together
a suitable arsenal, that when we come to blows, it may be
a military affair — as it now stands, I should be ashamed, as
I am a soldier and an Irishman, to bid my fellows pull a
trigger, or make a charge, on a set of peasants, whose fire-
arms look more like rusty water-pipes than muskets, and
who have half a dozen cannon with touch-holes that a man
may put his head in, with muzzles just large enough to
throw marbles."
<k I don't know, Mac," said Polwarth, while they dili-
gently pursued their way toward the quarters of their
Li ONE L LINCOLN. Sy
men ; " even a marble may destroy a man's appetite for
his dinner ; and the countrymen possess a great advantage
over us in commanding the supplies — the difference in
equipments would not more than balance the odds."
" I wish to disturb no gentleman's opinion on matters of
military discretion, Captain Polwarth," said the grenadier,
with an air of high martial pride ; " but I take it there ex-
ists a material difference between a soldier and a butcher,
though killing be a business common to both — I repeat,
sir, I hope that this secret expedition is for a more worthy
object than to deprive those poor devils, with whom we
are about to fight, of the means of making a good battle ;
and I add, sir, that such is sound military doctrine, without
regarding who may choose to controvert it."
" Your sentiments are generous and manly, Mac ; but,
after all, there is both a physical and moral obligation on
every man to eat ; and if starvation be the consequence of
permitting your enemies to bear arms, it becomes a solemn
duty to deprive them of their weapons — no — no — I will
support Gage in such a measure, at present, as highly mil-
itary."
"And he is much obliged to you, sir, for your support,"
returned the other — " I apprehend, Captain Polwarth,
whenever the Lieutenant-General Gage finds it necessary
to lean on any one for extraordinary assistance, he will re-
member that there is a regiment called the Royal Irish in
the country, and that he is not entirely ignorant of the
qualities of the people of his own nation. — You have done
well, Captain Polwarth, to choose the light-infantry ser-
vice— they are a set of foragers, and can help themselves ,
but the grenadiers, thank God, love to encounter men, and
not cattle, in the field."
How long the good-nature of Polwarth would have en-
dured the increasing taunts of the Irishman, who was ex-
asperating himself, gradually, by his own arguments, there
is no possibility of determining; for their arrival at. the
Darracks put an end to the controversy and to the feelings
it was beginning to engender.
88 LIONEL LINCOLN.
CHAPTER VIII.
" Preserve thy sighs, unthrifty girl !
To purify the air ;
Thy tears to thread, instead of pearl,
On bracelets of thy hair." — DAVENANT.
LIONEL might have blushed to acknowledge the secret
and inexplicable influence which his unknown and myste-
rious friend, Ralph, had obtained over his feelings, but
which induced him, on leaving his own quarters thus
hastily, to take his way into the lower parts of the town, in
quest of the residence of Abigail Pray. He had not vis-
ited the sombre tenement of this woman since the night of
his arrival, but its proximity to the well-known town-hall,
as well as the quaint architecture of the building itself, had
frequently brought its exterior^under his observation, in
the course of his rambles through the place of his nativity.
A guide being, consequently, unnecessary, he took the
most direct and frequented route to the dock square.
When Lionel issued into the street, he found a deep dark-
ness already enveloping the peninsula of Boston, as if nat-
ure had lent herself to the secret designs of the British
commandant. The fine strain of a shrill fife was playing
among the naked hills of the place, accompanied by the oc-
casional and measured taps of the sullen drum ; and, at
moments, the full, rich notes of the horns would rise from
the common, and, borne on the night-air, sweep along the
narrow streets, causing the nerves of the excited young
soldier to thrill with a stern pleasure, as he stepped proudly
along. The practised ear, however, detected no other
sounds in the music than the usual nightly signal of rest ;
and when the last melting strains of the horns seemed to
be lost in the clouds, a stillness fell upon the town, like
the* deep and slumbering quiet of midnight. He paused a
moment before the gates of Province-House, and, after
examining, with an attentive eye, the windows of the build-
ing, he spoke to the grenadier, who had stopped in his
short walk, to note the curious stranger.
"You should have company within, sentinel," he said,
"by the brilliant light from those windows."
The rattling of Lionel's side-arms, as he pointed with his
hand in the direction of the illuminated apartment, taught
LIONEL LINCOLN. 89
the soldier that he was addressed by his superior, and he
answered respectfully —
" It does not become one such as I to pretend to know
much of what his betters do, your honor ; but I stood be-
fore the quarters of General Wolfe the very night we went
up to the Plains of Abram ; and I think an old soldier can
tell when a movement is at hand, without asking his su-
periors any impertinent questions."
" I suppose, from your remark, the general holds a coun-
cil to-night?" said Lionel.
" No one has gone in, sir, since I have been posted," re-
turned the sentinel, "but the lieutenant-colonel of the loth,
that great Northumbrian lord, and the old major of ma-
rines ; a great war-dog is that old man, your honor, and it
is not often he comes to Province-House for nothing."
"A good-night to you, my old comrade," said Lionel,
walking away ; " 'tis probably some consultation concern-
ing the new exercises that you practise."
The grenadier shook his head, as if unconcerned, and
resumed his march with his customary steadiness. A very
few minutes now brought Lionel before the low door of
Abigail Pray, where he again stopped, struck with the
contrast between the gloomy, dark, and unguarded thresh-
old over which he was about to pass, and the gay portal
he had just left. Urged, however, by his feelings, the
young man paused but a moment before he tapped lightly
for admission. After repeating his summons, and hearing
no reply, he lifted the latch, and entered the building with-
out further ceremony. The large and vacant apartment,
in which he found himself, was silent and dreary as the
still streets he had quitted. Groping his way toward the
little room in the tower, where he had met the mother of
Job, as before related, Lionel found that apartment also
tenantless, and dark. He was turning, in disappointment
to quit the place, when a feeble ray fell from the loft of the
building, and settled on the foot of a rude ladder which
formed the means of communication with its upper apart-
ments. Hesitating a single moment now to decide, he then
yielded to his anxiety, and ascended to the floor above,
with steps as light as extreme caution could render them.
Like the basement, the building was subdivided here, into
a large, open ware-room, and a small, rudely-finished
apartment in each of its towers. Following the rays from
a candle, he stood on the threshold of one of these little
rooms, in which he found the individual of whom he was
90 LIONEL LINCOLN.
in quest. The old man was seated on the only broken
chair which the loft contained, and before him, on the
simple bundle of straw which would seem, by the garments
thrown loosely over the pile, to be intended as his place
of rest, lay a large map, spread for inspection, which his
glazed and sunken eyes appeared to be intently engaged
in marking. Lionel hesitated again, while he regarded the
white hairs which fell across the temples of the stranger,
as he bowed his head in his employment, imparting a wild
and melancholy expression to his remarkable countenance,
and seeming to hallow their possessor by the air of great
age and attendant care that they imparted.
" I have come to seek you," the young man at length
said, "since you no longer deem me worthy of your
care."
"You come too late," returned Ralph, without betraying
the least emotion at the suddenness of the interruption, or
even raising his eyes from the map he studied so intently;
" too late at least to avert calamity, if not to learn wisdom
from its lessons."
"You know, then, of the secret movements of the
night ? "
"Old age, like mine, seldom sleeps," returned Ralph,
looking for the first time at his visitor ; " for the eternal
night of death promises a speedy repose. I, too, served an
apprenticeship in my youth to your trade of blood."
" Your watchfulness and experience have then detected
the signs of preparation in the garrison ? Have they also
discovered the objects, and probable consequences of the
enterprise ? "
" Both ; Gage weakly thinks to crush the germ of liberty,
which has already quickened in the land, by lopping its
feeble branches, when it is rooted in the hearts of the
people. He thinks that bold thoughts can be humbled by
the destruction of magazines."
" It is then only a measure of precaution that he is
about to take ? "
The old man shook his head mournfully as he an-
swered—
" It will prove a measure of blood."
"I intend to accompany the detachment into the coun-
try," said Lionel — "it will probably take post at some
little distance in the interior, and it will afford me a fit-
ting opportunity to make those inquiries which you know
are so near my heart, and in which you have promised to
LIONEL LINCOLN'. 91
assist — it is to consult on the means, that I have now
sought you."
The countenance of the stranger seemed to lose its
character of melancholy reflection, as Lionel spoke, and
his eyes moved, vacant and unmeaning, over the naked
rafters above him, passing in their wanderings across the
surface of the unheeded map again, until they fell full upon
the face of the astonished youth, where they remained
settled for more than a minute, fixed in the glazed, riveted
look of death. The lips of Lionel had already opened in
anxious inquiry, when the expression of life shot again
into the features of Ralph, with the suddenness, and with
an appearance of the physical reality with which light
flashes from the sun when emerging from a cloud.
" You are ill ! " Lionel exclaimed.
" Leave me," said the old man, " leave me."
" Surely not at such a moment, and alone."
"I bid you leave me — we 'Shall meet, as you desire, in
the country."
" You would then have me accompany the troops, and
expect your coming ?"
" Both."
" Pardon me," said Lionel, dropping his eyes in embar-
rassment, and speaking with hesitation, " but your present
abode, and the appearance of your attire, is an evidence
that old age has come upon you when you are not alto-
gether prepared to meet its sufferings."
" You would offer me money ? "
" By accepting it, I shall become the obliged party.''
" When my wants exceed my means, young man, your
offer shall be remembered. Go, now ; there is no time for
delay."
" But I would not leave you alone ; the woman, the
termagant, is better than none ! "
"She is absent."
" And the boy — the changeling has the feelings of hu-
manity, and would aid you in an extremity."
" He is better employed than in propping the steps of a
useless old man. — Go, then, I entreat — I command, sir,
that you leave me."
The firm, if not haughty manner, in which the other
repeated his desire, taught Lionel that he had nothing
more to expect at present, and he obeyed reluctantly, by
slowly leaving the apartment ; and as soon as he had de-
scended the ladder, he began to retrace his steps toward
92 LIONEL LINCOLN1.
his own quarters. In crossing the light drawbridge
thrown over the narrow dock, already mentioned, his con-
templations were first disturbed by the sounds of voices,
at no great distance, apparently conversing in tones that
were not intended to be heard by every ear. It was a
moment when each unusual incident was likely to induce
inquiry, and Lionel stopped to examine two men, who, at
a little distance, held their secret and suppressed commu-
nications. He had, however, paused but an instant, when
the whisperers separated ; one walking leisurely up the
centre of the square, entering under one of the arches of
the market-place, and the other coming directly across the
bridge on which he himself was standing.
" What, Job, do I find you here, whispering and plotting
in the Dock-square ! " exclaimed Lionel ; " what secrets
can you have, that require the cover of night ? "
"Job lives there, in the old ware'us'," said the lad sullen-
ly— "Nab has plenty of house-room, now the king won't
let the people bring in their goods."
" But whither are you going ? into the water ? surely the
road to your bed cannot be through the town dock."
" Nab wants fish to eat, as well as a ruff to keep off the
rain," said Job, dropping lightly from the bridge into a
small canoe, which was fastened to one of its posts, " and
now the king has closed the harbor, the fish have to come
up in the dark ; for come they will ; Boston fish an't to be
shut out by acts of Parliament ! "
" Poor lad ! " exclaimed Lionel, " return to your home
and your bed ; here is money to buy food for your mother,
if she suffers — you will draw a shot from some of the sen-
tinels by going about the harbor thus at night."
"Job can see a ship farther than a ship can see Job,"
returned the other ; " and if they should kill Job, they
needn't think to shoot a Boston boy without some stir."
Further dialogue was precluded ; the canoe gliding
along the outer dock into the harbor, with a stillness and
swiftness that showed the idiot was not ignorant of the
business which he had undertaken. Lionel resumed his
walk, and was passing the head of the square, when he
encountered, face to face, under the light of a lamp, the
man whose figure he had seen but a minute before to issue
from beneath the town-hall. A mutual desire to ascertain
the identity of each other drew them together.
"We meet again, Major Lincoln!" said the interesting
stranger Lionel remembered to have seen at the political
LIONEL LINCOLN.
93
meeting. " Our interviews appear ordained to occur in
secret places."
" And Job Pray would seem to be the presiding spirit,"
returned the young soldier. " You parted from him but
now ? "
" I trust, sir," said the stranger gravely, " that this is not
a land, nor have we fallen on times, when and where an
honest man dare not say that he has spoken to whom he
pleases."
" Certainly, sir, it is not for rne to prohibit the inter-
course," returned Lionel. "You spoke of our fathers;
mine is well known to you, it would seem, though to me
you are a stranger."
"And may be so yet a little longer," said the other,
" though I think the time is at hand when men will be
known in their true characters ; until then, Major Lincoln,
I bid you adieu."
Without waiting for any reply, the stranger took a dif-
ferent direction from that which Lionel was pursuing, and
walked away with the swiftness of one who was pressed
with urgent business. Lionel soon ascended into the up-
per part of the town, with the intention of going into Tre-
mont Street, to communicate his design to accompany the
expedition. It was now apparent to the young man, that
a rumor of the contemplated movement of the troops was
spreading secretly, but swiftly, among the people. He
passed several groups of earnest and excited townsmen,
conferring together at the corners of the streets, from some
of whom he overheard the startling intelligence that the
neck, the only approach to the place by land, was closed
by a line of sentinels ; and that guard-boats from the ves-
sels of war were encircling the peninsula in a manner to
intercept the communication with the adjacent country.
Still no indications of a military alarm could be discovered,
though, at times, a stifled hum, like the notes of busy
preparation, was borne along by the damp breezes of the
night, and mingled with those sounds of a spring evening,
which increased as he approached the skirts of the dwell-
ings. In Tremont Street Lionel found no appearance of
that excitement, which was spreading so rapidly in the old
and lower parts of the town. He passed into his own room
without meeting any of the family, and having completed
his brief arrangements, he was descending to inquire for
his kinswoman, when the voice of Mrs. Lechmere, proceed-
ing from a small apartment, appropriated to her own use,
94 LIONEL LINCOLN'.
arrested his steps. Anxious to take leave in person, ho
approached the half-open door, and would have asked per-
mission to enter, had not his eye rested on the person of
Abigail Pray, who was in earnest conference with the mis-
tress of the mansion.
" A man aged, and poor, say you ? " observed Mrs. Lech
mere, at that instant.
"And one that seems to know all," interrupted Abigail,
glancing her eyes about with the expression of supersti-
tious terror.
"All !" echoed Mrs. Lechmere, her lip trembling more
with apprehension than age ; " and he arrived with Majoi
Lincoln, say you ? "
" In the same ship ; and it seems that heaven has or-
dained that he shall dwell with me in my poverty, as a
punishment for my great sins ! "
" But why do you tolerate his presence, if it be irksome,"
said Mrs. Lechmere; "you are at least the mistress of
your own dwelling."
" It has pleased God that my home shall be the home of
any who are so miserable as to need one. He has the same
right to live in the warehouse that I have."
" You have the rights of a woman, and of first posses-
sion," said Mrs. Lechmere, with that unyielding severity of
manner, that Lionel had often observed before ; " I would
turn him into the street, like a dog."
" Into the street ! " repeated Abigail, again looking
about her in secret terror ; " speak lower, Madam Lech-
mere, for the love of heaven — I dare not even look at him —
he reminds me of all I have ever known, and of all the
evil I have ever done, by his scorching eye — and yet I
cannot tell why — and then Job worships him as a god, and
if I should offend him, he could easily worm from the
child all that you and I wish so much —
"How!" exclaimed Mrs. Lechmere, in a voice husky
with horror, " have you been so base as to make a confi-
dant of that fool ? "
"That fool is the child of my bosom," said Abigail, rais-
ing her hands, as if imploring pardon for the indiscre*
tion. — " Ah ! Madam Lechmere, you, who are rich, and
great, and happy, and have such a sweet and sensible
grandchild, cannot kriow how to love one like Job ; but
when the heart is loaded and heavy, it throws its burden on
any that will bear it ; and Job is my child, though he is bul
little better than an idiot ! "
LIONEL LINCOLN. 95
It was by no trifling exertion of his breeding that Lionel
was enabled to profit by the inability of Mrs. Lechmere to
reply, and to turn away from the spot, and cease to listen
to a conversation that was not intended for his ear. He
reached the parlor, and threw himself on one of its settees,
before he was conscious that he was no longer alone or un-
observed.
"What! Major Lincoln returned from his revels thus
early, and armed like a bandit, to his teeth ! " exclaimed
the playful voice of Cecil Dynevor, who, unheeded, was in
possession of the opposite seat, when he entered the room.
Lionel started, and rubbed his forehead, like a man
awaking from a dream, as he answered —
" Yes, a bandit, or any other opprobrious name you
please ; I deserve them all."
"Surely," said Cecil, turning pale, "none other dare
use such language of Major Lincoln, and he does it un-
justly ! "
" What foolish nonsense have I uttered, Miss Dynevor ?"
cried Lionel, recovering his recollection ; <l I was lost in
thought, and heard your language without comprehending
its meaning."
" Still you are armed ; a sword is not a usual instrument
at your side, and now you bear even pistols ! "
"Yes," returned the young soldier, laying aside his dan-
gerous implements ; "yes, I am about to march as a volun-
teer, with a party that go into the country to-night, and I
take these because I would affect something very warlike,
though you well know how peaceably I am disposed."
" March into the country — and in the dead of night ! "
said Cecil, catching her breath, and turning pale — "And
does Lionel Lincoln volunteer on such a duty ? "
" I volunteer to perform no other duty than to be a wit-
ness of whatever may occur — you are not more ignorant
yourself of the nature of the expedition than I am at this
moment."
"Then remain where you are," said Cecil firmly, "and
enlist not in an enterprise that may be unholy in its pur-
poses and disgraceful in its results."
" Of the former I am innocent, whatever they may be,
nor will they be affected by my presence or absence.
There is little danger of disgrace in accompanying the
grenadiers and light-infantry of this army, Miss Dynevor,
though it should be against treble their numbers of chosesi
troops."
96 LIONEL LINCOLN.
" Then it would seem," said Agnes Danforth, speaking
as she entered the room, " that our friend Mercury, that
feather of a man, Captain Polwarth, is to be one of these
night depredators ! heaven shield the hen-roosts ! "
" You have then heard the intelligence, Agnes ? "
" I have heard that men are arming, and that boats are
rowing round the town in all directions, and that it is for-
bidden to enter or quit Boston, as we were wont to do, Ce-
cil, at such hours, and in such fashion as suited us plain
Americans," said Agnes, endeavoring to conceal her deep
vexation in affected irony — " God only can tell in what all
these oppressive measures will end."
" If you go only as a curious spectator of the depreda-
tions of the troops," continued Cecil, " are you not wrong
to lend them even the sanction of your name ? "
" I have yet to learn that there will be depredations."
" You forget, Cecil," interrupted Agnes Danforth, scorn-
fully, "that Major Lincoln did not arrive until after the
renowned march from Roxbury to Dorchester ! Then the
troops gathered their laurels under the face of the sun ;
but it is easy to conceive how much more glorious their
achievements will become when darkness shall conceal
their blushes ! "
The blood rushed across the fine features of Lionel, but
he laughed as he arose to depart, saying —
" You compel me to beat the retreat, my spirited coz.
If I have my usual fortune in this forage, your larder,
however, shall be the better for it. I kiss my hand to you,
for it would be necessary to lay aside the scarlet, to dare
to approach with a more peaceable offering. But here I
may make an approach to something like amity."
He took the hand of Cecil, who frankly met his offer,
and insensibly suffered herself to be led to the door of the
building while he continued speaking.
" I would, Lincoln, that you were not to go," she said,
when they stopped on the threshold — " it is not required
of you as a soldier ; and as a man your own feelings should
teach you to be tender of your countrymen."
" It is as a man that I go, Cecil," he answered ; " I have
motives that you cannot suspect."
"And is your absence to be long ?"
" If not for days, my object will be unaccomplished '/
but he added, pressing her hand gently, "you cannot
doubt my willingness to return when occasion may offer."
"Go, then," said Cecil, hastily, and perhaps uncon-
LIONEL LINCOLN; 97
sciously extricating herself— "go, if you have secret rea-
sons for your conduct ; but remember that the acts of
every officer of your rank are keenly noted."
" Do you then distrust me, Cecil ? "
"No — no— I distrust no one, Major Lincoln — go — go —
and— and — we shall see you, Lionel, the instant you
return."
He had not time to reply, for she glided into the build-
ing so rapidly as to give the young man an opportunity
only to observe, that, instead of rejoining her cousin, her
light form passed up the great stairs with the swiftness
<ind grace of a fairy.
CHAPTER IX.
" Hang out our banners on the outward walls ;
The cry is still, They come.'1'1 — Macbeth.
LIONEL had walked from the dwelling of Mrs. Lechmere
to the foot of Beacon Hill, and had even toiled up some
part of the steep ascent, before he recollected why he was
thus wandering by himself at that unusual hour. Hearing,
however, no sounds that denoted an immediate movement
of the troops, he then yielded, unconsciously, to the nature
of his sensations, which just at that moment rendered his
feelings jealous of communication with others, and con-
tinued to ascend until he gained the summit of the emi-
nence. From this elevated stand he paused to contem-
plate the scene which lay in the obscurity of night at his
feet, while his thoughts returned from the flattering antici-
pations in which he had been indulging, to consider the
more pressing business of the hour. There arose from the
town itself a distant buzzing, like the hum of suppressed
agitation, and lights were seen to glide along the streets,
or flit across the windows, in a manner which denoted that
a knowledge of the expedition had become general within
its dwellings. Lionel turned his head toward the common,
and listened long and anxiously, but in vain, to detect a
single sound that could betray any unusual stir among the
soldiery. Toward the interior, the darkness of night had
fallen heavily, dimming the amphitheatre of hills that en-
circled the place, and enshrouding the vales and lowlands
between them and the water with an impenetrable veil of
7
98 LIONEL LINCOLN.
gloom. There were moments, indeed, when he imagined
he overheard some indications among the people of the
opposite shore, that, they were apprised of the impending
descent ; but on listening more attentively, the utmost of
which his ear could assure him, was the faint lowing of
cattle from the meadows, or the plash of oars from a line
'of boats, which, by stretching far along the shores, told
both the nature and tjie extent of the watchfulness that
was deemed necessary for the occasion.
While Lionel stood thus, on the margin of the little plat-
form of earth, that had been formed by levelling the apex
of the natural cone, musing on the probable results of the
measure his superiors had been resolving to undertake, a
dim light shed itself along the grass, and glancing upward,
danced upon the beacon with strong and playful rays.
" Scoundrel ! " exclaimed a man, springing from his
place of concealment at the foot of the post, and encoun-
tering him face to face, " do you dare to fire the beacon ? "
"I would answer, by asking how you dare to apply so
rude an epithet to me, did -I not see the cause of your
error," said Lionel. "The. light is from yonder moon,
which is just emerging from the ocean."
" Ah ! I see my error," returned his rough assailant. — •
" By heavens, I would have sworn at first, 'twas the bea-
con."
" You must then believe in the traditional witchcraft of
this country ; for nothing short of necromancy could have
enabled me to light those combustibles at this distance."
" I don't know ; '.tis a strange people we have got
amongst — they stole the cannon from the gun-house here,
a short time since, when I would have said the thing was
impossible. It was before your arrival, sir ; for I now be-
lieve I address myself to Major Lincoln, of the 47th."
"You are nearer the truth, this time, than in your first
conjecture as to my character," said Lionel ; " but have I
met one of the gentlemen of our mess ? "
The stranger now explained that he was a subaltern in a
different regiment, but that he well knew the person of the
other. He added that he had been ordered to watch on
the hill to prevent any of the inhabitants lighting the
beacon, or making any other signal which might convey
into the country a knowledge of the contemplated inroad.
" This matter wears a more serious aspect than I had
supposed," returned Lionel, when the young man had
ended his apologies and explanation ; " the commander-in-
LIONEL LINCOLN. 95
chief must intend more than we are aware of, by employ-
ing officers in this manner, to do the duties of privates."
""We poor subs know but little, and care less what he
means," cried the ensign ; " though I will acknowledge,
that I can see no sufficient reason why British troops
should put on coats of darkness to march against a parcel
of guessing, canting countrymen, who would run at the
sight of their uniforms under a bright sun. Had I my
will, the tar above us, there, should blaze a mile high, to
bring down the heroes from the Connecticut river ; the
dogs would cow before two full companies of the grena-
diers— ha ! listen, sir ; there they go, now, the pride of our
army ! I know them by their heavy tread."
Lionel did listen attentively, and plainly distinguished
the measured step of a body of disciplined men, moving
rapidly across the common, as if marching toward the
water-side. Hastily bidding his companion good-night,
he threw himself over the brow of the hill, and tak-
ing the direction of the sounds, he arrived at the shore
at the same instant with the troops. Two dark masses
of human bodies were halted in order, and as Lionel
skirted the columns, his experienced eye judged that
the force collected before him could be but t little short of
a thousand men. A group of officers was clustered on the
beach, and he approached it, rightly supposing that it was
gathered about the leader of the party. This officer proved
to be the lieutenant-colonel of the loth, who was in close
conversation with the old major of marines, alluded to by
the sentinel who stood before the gates of Province-House.
To the former of these the young soldier addressed him-
self, demanding leave to accompany the detachment as a
volunteer. After a few words of explanation, his request
was granted, though each forbore to touch in the slightest
manner on the secret objects of the expedition.
Lionel now found his groom, who had followed the
troops with his master's horses, and, after giving his orders
to the man, he proceeded in quest of his friend Polwarth,
whom he soon discovered, posted in all the stiffness of
military exactness, at the head of the leading platoon of
the column of light-infantry. As it was apparent, both
from the position they occupied, as well as by the boats
that had been collected at the point, that the detachment
was not to leave the peninsula by its ordinary channel of
communication with the country, there remained no alter-
native but to await patiently the order to embark. The
ioo LIONEL LINCOLN;
delay was but short, and, as the most perfect ordef
was observed, the troops were soon seated, and the boats
pulled heavily from the land, just as the rays of the moon,
which had been some time playing among the hills, and
gilding the spires of the town, diffused themselves softly
over the bay, and lighted the busy scene, with an effect
not unlike the sudden rising of the curtain at the opening
of some interesting drama. Polwarth had established him
self by the side of Lionel, much to the ease of his limbs,
and as they moved slowly into the light, all those misgiv-
ings which had so naturally accompanied his musings on
the difficulties of a partisan irruption, vanished before the
loveliness of the time, and possibly before the quietude of
the action.
" There are moments when I could fancy the life of a
sailor," he said, leaning indolently back, and playing with
one hand in the water. "This pulling about in boats is
easy work, and must be capital assistance for a heavy di-
gestion, inasmuch as it furnishes air with as little violent
exercise as maybe. Your marine should lead a merry life
of it ! "
"They are said to murmur at the clashing of their duties
with those of .the sea-officers," said Lionel ; "and I have
often heard them complain of a want of room to make use
of their legs."
" Humph ! " ejaculated Polwarth ; " the leg is a part of
a man for which I see less actual* necessity than for any
other portion of his frame. I often think there has been a
sad mistake in the formation of the animal ; as, for instance,
one can be a very good waterman, as you see, without legs
— a good fiddler, a first-rate tailor, a lawyer, a doctor, a
parson, a very tolerable cook, and in short, anything but
a dancing master. I see no use in a leg unless it be to
have the gout — at any rate, a leg of twelve inches is as good
as one a mile long, and the saving might be appropriated
to the nobler parts of the animal ; such as the brain and
the stomach."
"You forget the officer of light-infantry," said Lionel,
laughing.
"You might give him a couple of inches more ; though,
as everything in this wicked world is excellent only by
comparison, it would amount to the same thing, and on
my system a man would be just as fit for the light-
infantry without, as with legs ; and he would get rid of a
good deal of troublesome manoeuvring, especially of this
LIONEL LIN'COLN'. 101
new exercise. It would then become a delightful service,
Leo ; for it may be said to monopolize all the poetry of
military life, as you may see. Neither the imagination
nor the body can require more than we enjoy at this mo-
ment, and of what use, I would ask, are our legs ? if any-
thing, they are incumbrances in this boat. Here we have
a soft moon, and softer seats — smooth water, and a stimu-
lating air — on one side a fine country, which, though but
faintly seen, is known to be fertile and rich to abundance ;
and on the other a picturesque town, stored with the con-
diments of every climate — even those rascally privates look
mellowed by the moon-beams, with their scarlet coats and
glittering arms ! Did you meet Miss Danforth in your
visit to Tremont Street, Major Lincoln ? "
" That pleasure was not denied me."
" Knew she of these martial proceedings ?"
" There was something exceedingly belligerent in her
humor."
" Spoke she of the light-infantry, or of any who serve in
the light corps ? "
"Your name was certainly mentioned," returned Lio-
nel, a little dryly — "she intimated that the hen-roosts were
in danger."
" Ah ! she is a girl of a million ! her very acids are
sweet ! the spices were not forgotten when the dough of
her composition was mixed ; would that she were here —
five minutes of moonshine to a man in love is worth a
whole summer of a broiling sun — 'twould be a master-
stroke to entice her- into one of our picturesque marches ;
your partisan is the man to take everything by surprise —
women and fortifications ! Where now are your compa-
nies of the lines ; your artillery and dragoons ; your engi-
neers and staff! night-capped and snoring to a man, while
we enjoy here the very dessert of existence — I wish I could
hear a nightingale ! "
"You have a solitary whip-poor-will whistling his notes,
as if in lamentation at our approach."
" Too dolorous, and by far too monotonous ; 'tis like eat-
ing pig for a month. But why are our fifes asleep ? "
" The precautions of a whole day should hardly be de-
feated by the tell-tale notes of our music," said Lionel ;
" your spirits get the better of your discretion. I should
think the prospect of a fatiguing march would have low-
ered your vein."
"A fico for fatigue!" exclaimed Polwarth — "we only
102 -LIONEL LINCOLN.
go out to take a position at the colleges to cover our sup.
plies — -we are for school, Leo — only fancy the knapsacks
of the men to be satchels, — humor my folly, — and you may
believe yourself once more a boy."
The spirits of Polvvarth had indeed undergone a sudden
change, when he found the sad anticipations which crossed
his mind on first hearing of a night inroad, so agreeably
disappointed by the comfortable situation he occupied ;
and he continued conversing in the manner described, un-
til the boats reached an unfrequented point that projected
a little way into that part of the bay, which washed the
western side of the peninsula of Boston. Here the troops
landed, and were again formed with all possible despatch.
The company of Polwarth was posted, as before, at the
head of the column of light-infantry ; and an officer of the
staff riding a short distance in front, it was directed to fol-
low his movements. Lionel ordered his groom to take the
route of the troops with the horses, and placing himself
once more by the side of the captain, they proceeded at
the appointed signal.
" Now for the shades of old Harvard ! " said Polwarth,
pointing toward the humble buildings of the university ;
"you shall feast this night on reason, while I wTill make a
mote sub — ha ! what can that blind quarter-master mean
by taking this direction ! Does he not see that the mead-
ows are half covered with water ! "
" Move on, move on with the light-infantry," cried the
stern voice of the jold major of marines, who rode but a
short distance in their rear. " Do you falter at the sight
of water !."
"We are not wharf-rats," said Polwarth.
Lionel seized him by the arm, and before the discon-
certed captain had time to recollect himself, he was borne
through a wide pool of stagnant water, mid-leg deep.
" Do not let your romance cost your commission," said
the major, as Polwarth floundered out of his difficulties ;
" here is an incident at once for your private narrative of
the campaign."
" Ah ! Leo," said the captain, with a sort of comical sor-
row, " I fear we are not to court the muses by this hal-
lowed moon to-night ! "
" You can assure yourself of that, by observing that we
Jeave the academical roofs on our left — our leaders take
the highway."
They had by this time extricated themselves from the
LIONEL LINCOLN. 103
meadows, and were moving on a road which led into the
interior.
" You had better order up your groom, and mount, Major
Lincoln," said Polwarth, sullenly; "a man need husband
his strength, I see."
" 'Twould be folly now ; I am wet, and must walk for
safety."
With the departure of Polwarth's spirits the conversa-
ti(5n began to flag, and the gentlemen continued their
march with only such occasional communications as arose
from the passing incidents of their situation. It very soon
became apparent, both by the direction given to the col-
umns, as well as by the hurried steps of their guide, that
the march was to be forced, as well as of some length.
But as 'the air was getting cool, even Polwarth was not re-
luctant to warm his chilled blood by more than ordinary
exertion. The columns opened for the sake of ease, and
each man was permitted to consult his own convenience,
provided lie preserved his appointed situation, and kept
even pace with his comrades. In this manner the detach-
ment advanced swiftly, a general silence pervading the
whole, as the spirits of ihe men settled into that deep
sobriety which denotes much earnestness of purpose. At
first, the whole country appeared buried in a general
sleep ; but as they proceeded, the barking of the dogs, and
the tread of the soldiery, drew the inhabitants of the farm-
houses to their windows, who gazed in mute wonder at the
passing spectacle, across which the mellow light of the
moon cast a glow of brilliancy. Lionel had turned his
head from studying the surprise depicted in the faces of
the members of one of these disturbed families, when the
deep tones of a distant church-bell came sweeping down
the valley in which they marched, ringing peal on peal, in
the quick, spirit-stirring sounds of an alarm. The men
raised their heads in wondering attention, as they ad-
vanced ; but it was not long before the reports of fire-
arms were heard echoing among the hills, and bell began
to answer bell in every direction, until the sounds blended
with the murmurs of the night air, or were lost in distance.
The whole country was now filled with every organ of
sound that the means of the people furnished, or their in-
genuity could devise, to call the population to arms. Fires
blazed along the heights, the bellowing of the conchs and
horns mingled with the rattling of the muskets and the
varied tones of the bells, while the swift clattering of
104 LIONEL LINCOLN.
horses' hoofs began to be heard, as if their riders were
dashing furiously along the flanks of the party.
"Push on, gentlemen, push on," shouted the old veteran
of marines, amid the din. " The Yankees have awoke, ana
are stirring — we have yet a long road to journey — push on,
light-infantry, the grenadiers are on your heels ! "
The advance quickened their steps, and the whole body
pushed for their unknown object with as much rapidity as
the steadiness of military array would admit. In this
manner the detachment continued to proceed for some
hours, without halting, and Lionel imagined that they had
advanced several leagues into the country. The sounds of
the alarm had now passed away, having swept far inland,
until the faintest evidence of its existence was lost to the
ear, though the noise of horsemen, riding furiously along
the by-ways, yet denoted that men were still hurrying past
them, to the scene of the expected strife. As the deceitful
light of the moon was blending with the truer colors of
the day, the welcome sound of " Halt ! " was passed from
the rear up to the head of the column of light-infantry.
" Halt ! " repeated Polwarth, with instinctive readiness,
and with a voice that sent *the order through the whole
length of the extended line ; ''halt, and let the rear close.
If my judgment in walking be worth so much as an an-
chovy, they are some miles behind us by this time ! A
man needs to have crossed his race with the blood of Fly-
ing Childers for this sort of work ! The next command
should be to break our fasts—Tom, you brought the trifles
I sent you from Major Lincoln's quarters ?"
"Yes, sir," returned his man ; " they are on the major's
horses, in the rear, as —
" The major's horses in the rear, you ass, when food is
in such request in the front ! I wonder, Leo, if a mouth-
ful couldn't be picked up in yon farm-house ? "
" Pick yourself off that stone, and make the men dress ;
here is Pitcairn closing to the front with the whole bat-
talion."
Lionel had hardly spoken before an order was passed to
the light-infantry to look to their arms, and for the grena-
diers to prime and load. The presence of the veteran who
rode in front of the column, and the hurry of the moment,
suppressed the complaints of Polwarth, who was in truth
an excellent officer, as it respected what he himself termed
the " quiescent details of service." Three or four com-
panies of the light-corps were detached from the main
LIONEL LINCOLN. 105
body, and formed in the open marching order of their ex-
ercise, when the old marine, placing himself at their head,
gave forth the order to advance again at a quick step.
The road now led into a vale, and at some distance a small
hamlet of houses was dimly seen through the morning
haze, clustered around one of the humble, but decent tem-
ples, so common in Massachusetts. The halt, and the
brief preparations that Succeeded, had excited a powerful
interest in the whole of the detachment, who pushed
earnestly forward, keeping on the heels of the charger of
their veteran leader, as he passed over the ground at a
small trot. The air partook of the scent of morning, and
the eye was enabled to dwell distinctly on surrounding
objects, quickening, aided by the excitement of the action,
the blood of the men who had been toiling throughout the
night in uncertain obscurity along an unknown, and, ap-
parently, interminable road. Their object now seemed be-
fore them and attainable, and they pressed forward to
achieve it in animated but silent earnestness. The plain
architecture of the church and of its humble companions
had just become distinct, when three or four armed horse-
men were seen attempting to anticipate their arrival, by
crossing the head of the column from a by-path.
" Come in," cried an officer of the staff in front, " come
in, or quit the place."
The men turned and rode briskly off, one of their party
flashing his piece in a vain attempt to give the alarm. A low
mandate was now passed through the ranks to push on,
and in a few moments they entered on a full view of the
hamlet, the church, and the little green on which it stood.
Tlfe forms of men were seen moving swiftly across the lat-
ter, as a roll of a drum broke from the spot ; and there
were glimpses of a small body of countrymen, drawn up in
the affectation of military parade.
" Push on, light-infantry ! " cried their leader, spurring
his horse, and advancing with the staff at so brisk a trot,
as to disappear round an angle of the church.
Lionel pressed forward with a beating heart, for a crowd
of horrors rushed across his imagination at the moment,
when the stern voice of the major of marines was again
heard shouting —
" Disperse, ye rebels, disperse ! — throw down your arms
and disperse !'"
These memorable words were instantly fallowed by the
reports of pistols, and the fatal mandate of " Fire !" when
lo6 LIONEL LINCOLN-.
a loud shout arose from the whole body of the soldiery,
who rushed upon the open green, and threw in a close
discharge on all before them.
" Great God ! " exclaimed Lionel, " what is it ye do ? ye
fire at unoffending men ! is there no law but force ! beat
up their pieces, Polwarth — stop their fire."
" Halt ! " cried Polwarth, brandishing his sword fiercely
among his men, " come to an order, or I'll fell ye to the
earth."
But the excitement which had been gathering to a head
for so many hours, and the animosity which had so long
been growing between the troops and the people, were not
to be repressed at a word. It was only when Pitcairn
himself rode in among the soldiers, and, aided by his offi-
cers, beat down their arms, that the uproar was gradually
quelled, and something like order was again restored.
Before this was effected, however, a few scattering shot
were thrown back from their flying adversaries, though
without material injury to the British.
When the firing had ceased, officers and men stood gaz-
ing at each other for a few moments, as if even they could
foresee some of the mighty events which were to follow the
deeds of that hour. The smoke slowly arose, like a lifted
veil, from the green, and, mingling witli the fogs of morn-
ing, drove heavily across the country, as if to communicate
the fatal intelligence that the final appeal to arms had
been made. Every eye was bent inquiringly on the fatal
green, and Lionel beheld, with a feeling allied to anguish,
a few men at a distance, writhing and struggling in their
wounds, while some five or six bodies lay stretched upon
the grass in the appalling quiet of death. Sickening at
the sight, he turned, and walked away by himself, while
the remainder of the troops, alarmed by the reports of the
arms, were eagerly pressing up from the rear to join their
comrades. Unwittingly he approached the church, nor
did he awake from the deep abstraction into which he had
fallen, until he was aroused by the extraordinary spectacle
of Job Pray, issuing from the edifice with an air in which
menace was singularly blended with resentment and fear.
The changeling pointed earnestly to the body of a man,
who, having been wounded, had crept for refuge near
to the door of the temple, in which he had so often
worshipped that Being to whom he had been thus hur-
riedly sent to render his last and great account, and said
solemnly—
LIONEL LINCOLN. 107
" You have killed one of God's creatures ; and he'll re-
member it ! "
" I would it were one only," said Lionel ; " but they are
many, and none can tell where the carnage is to cease."
"Do you think," said Job, looking furtively around to
assure himself that no other overheard him, "that the
King can kill men in the B ry colony as he can in London ?
They'll take this up in old Funnel and 'twill ring again,
from the North End to the Neck."
"What can they do, boy, after all," said Lionel, forget-
ting at the moment that he whom he addressed had been
denied the reason of his kind1— "the power of Britain is
too mighty for these scattered and unprepared colonies to
cope with, and prudence would tell the people to desist
from resistance while yet they may."
" Does the king believe there is more prudence in
London than there is in Boston ? " returned the simpleton ;
" he needn't think, because the people were quiet at the
massacre, there'll be no stir about this — you have killed
one of GocUs creatures," added the fad, " and he'll remem-
ber it!"
"How came you here, sirrah?" demanded Lionel, sud-
denly recollecting himself ; "did you not tell me that you
were going out to fish for your mother? "
" And if I did," returned the other, sullenly, " an't there
fish in the ponds as well as in the bay, and can't Nab have
a fresh taste ? — Job don't know there is any act of Parlia-
ment ag'in taking brook trout."
" Fellow, you are attempting to deceive me ! Some one
is practising on your ignorance, and, knowing you to be a
fool, is employing you on errands that may one day cost
your life."
"The king can't send Job on aYnds," said the lad,
proudly; "for there is no law for it, and Job won't
g°-"
"Your knowledge will undo you, simpleton — who should
teach you these niceties of the law ? "
"Why, do you think the Boston people so dumb as not
to know the law ?" asked Job, with unfeigned astonish-
ment— "and Ralph, too — he knows as much law as the
king — he told me it was ag'in all law to shoot at the minute-
men unless they fired first, because the colony has a right
to train whenever it pleases."
"Ralph!" said Lionel, eagerly — "can Ralph be with
you, then ! 'tis impossible ; I left him ill, and at home — •
io8 LI OX EL LINCOLN.
neither would he mingle in such a business as this, at his
years."
" I expect Ralph has seen bigger armies than the light-
infantry, and grannies, and all the soldiers left in town put
together," said Job, evasively.
Lionel was far too generous to practise on the simplicity
of his companion, with a view to extract any secret which
might endanger his liberty, but he felt a deep concern in
the welfare of a young man, who had been thrown in his
way in the manner already related. He therefore pursued
the subject, with the double design to advise Job against
any dangerous connections, and to relieve his-own anxiety
on the subject of the aged stranger. But to all his inter-
rogatories the lad answered guardedly, and with a discre-
tion which denoted that he possessed no small share of
cunning, though a higher order of intellect had been
denied him.
" I repeat to you," said Lionel, losing his patience, " that
it is important for me to meet the man you call. Ralph in
the country, and I wish to know if he is to be seen near
here."
"Ralph scorns a lie," returned Job — "go where he
promised to meet you, and see if he don't come."
" But no place was named — and this unhappy event may
embarrass him, or frighten him—
" Frighten him ! " repeated Job, shaking his head with
solemn earnestness ; "you can't frighten Ralph ! "
" His daring may prove his misfortune. Boy, I ask you
for the last time whether the old man "
Perceiving Job to shrink back timidly, and lower in his
looks, Lionel paused, and casting a glance behind him,
beheld the captain of grenadiers standing with folded
arms, silently contemplating the body of the American.
" Will you have the goodness to explain to me, Major
Lincoln," said the captain, when he perceived himself ob-
served, " why this man lies here dead ? "
"You see the wound in his breast?"
"It is a palpable and baistly truth, that he has been
shot — but why, or with what design ? "
" I must leave that question to be answered by our su-
periors, Captain M'Fuse," returned Lionel. "It is, how-
ever, rumored that the expedition is out to seize certain
magazines of provisions and arms, which the colonists have
been collecting, it is feared, with hostile intentions."
" I had my own sagacious thoughts that we were bent
LIONEL LINCOLN-. 109
on some such glorious errand ! " said M 'Fuse, with strong
contempt expressed in his hard features. "Tell me, Major
Lincoln— you are certainly but a young soldier, though,
being of the staff, you should know — does Gage think we
can have a war with the arms and ammunition all on one
side ? We have had a long p'ace, Major Lincoln, and now,
when there is a small prospect of some of the peculiarities
of our profession arising, we are commanded to do the
very thing which is most likely to def'ate the object of
war."
" I do not know that I rightly understand you, sir,"
said Lionel ; " there can be but little glory gained by
such troops as we possess, in a contest with the unarmed
and undisciplined inhabitants of any country."
"Exactly my maining, sir; it is quite obvious that we
understand each other thoroughly, without a world of cir-
cumlocution. The lads are doing very well at present,
and if left to themselves a few months longer, it may be-
come a creditable affair. You know, as well as I do, Major
Lincoln, that time is necessary to make a soldier, and if
they are hurried into the business, you might as well be
chasing a mob up Ludgate hill, for the honor you will
gain. A discrate officer would nurse this little matter, in-
stead of resorting to such precipitation. To my id'a'a's,
sir, the man before us has been butchered, and not slain
in honorable battle ! "
" There is much reason to fear that others may use the
same term in speaking of the affair," returned Lionel ;
" God knows how much cause we may have to lament
the death of the poor man ! "
" On that topic, the man may be said to have gone
through a business that was to be done, and is not to be
done over again," said the captain, very coolly, "and
therefore his death can be no very great calamity to him-
self, whatever it may be to us. If these minute-men —
and, as they stand but a minute, they 'arn their name
like worthy fellows — if these minute-men, sir, stood in
your way, you should have whipped them from the green
with your ramrods."
" Here is one who may tell you that they are not to be
treated like children either," said Lionel, turning to the
place which had been so recently occupied by Job Pray,
but which, to his surprise, he now found vacant. While
he was yet looking around him, wondering whither the lad
could so suddenly have withdrawn, the drums beat the
no LIONEL LINCOLN.
signal to form, and a general bustle among the soldiery
showed them to be on the eve of further movements. The
two gentlemen instantly rejoined their companions, walk-
ing thoughtfully towards the troops, though influenced
by such totally different views of the recent transactions.
During the short halt of the advance, the whole detach-
ment was again united, and a hasty meal had been taken.
The astonishment which succeeded the rencontre, had
given place, among the officers, to a military pride, capa-
ble of sustaining them in much more arduous circum-
stances. Even the ardent looks of professional excitement
were to be seen in most of their countenances, as with glit-
tering arms, waving banners, and timing their march to the
enlivening music of their band, they wheeled from the
fatal spot, and advanced again, with proud and measured
steps, along the highway. If such was the result of the
first encounter on the lofty and tempered spirits of the
gentlemen of the detachment, its effect on the common
hirelings in the ranks, was still more palpable and revolt-
ing. Their coarse jests, and taunting looks, as they moved
by the despised victims of their disciplined skill, together
with the fierce and boastful expression of brutal triumph,
which so many among them betrayed, exhibited the infalli-
ble evidence, that, having tasted of blood, they were now
ready, like tigers, to feed on it till they were glutted.
CHAPTER X.
" There was mounting 'mong Graemes of the Netherby clan ;
Fosters, Fenwicks, and Musgraves, th.ey rode and they ran ;
There was racing, and chasing, on Cannobie Lea."— Marmion.
THE pomp of military parade, with which the troops
marched from the village of Lexington, as the little ham-
let was called, where the foregoing events occurred, soon
settled again into the sober and business-like air of men
earnestly bent on the achievement of their object. It was
no longer a secret that they were to proceed two leagues
further into the interior, to destroy the stores already men-
tioned, and which were now known to be collected at Con-
cord, the town where the Congress of Provincial Delegates,
who were substituted by the colonists for the ancient legis-
latures of the province, held their meetings. As the march
LIONEL LINCOLN. in
could not now be concealed, it became necessaiy to resort
to expedition, in order to insure its successful termination.
The veteran officer of marines, so often mentioned, resumed
his post in front, and at the head of the same companies
of the light corps, which he had before led, pushed in ad-
vance of the heavier column of the grenadiers. Polwarth,
by this arrangement, perceived himself again included
among those on whose swiftness of foot so much depended.
When Lionel rejoined his friend, he found him at the head
of his men, marching with so grave an air as at once in-
duced the major to give him credit for regrets much more
commendable than such as were connected with his physi-
cal distress. The files were once more opened for room,
as well as for air, which was becoming necessary, as a hot
sun began to dissipate the mists of the morning, and shed
that enervating influence on the men, so4 peculiar to the
first warmth of an American spring.
" This has been a hasty business altogether, Major Lin-
coln," said Polwarth, as Lionel took his wonted station at
the side of the other, and dropped mechanically into the
regular step of the party — "I know not that it is quite as
lawful to knock a man in the head as a bullock."
" You then agree with me in thinking our attack hasty,
if not cruel ? "
" Hasty! most unequivocally. Haste may be called the
distinctive property of the expedition ; and whatever de-
stroys the appetite of an honest man, may be set down as
cruel. I have not been able to swallow a mouthful of
breakfast, Leo. A man must have the cravings of a hyena,
and the stomach of an ostrich, to eat and digest with such
work as this of ours before his eyes."
"And yet the men regard their acts with triumph ! "
"The dogs are drilled into it. But you saw how sober
the Provincials looked in the matter ; we must endeavor to
soothe their feelings in the best manner we can."
" Will they not despise our consolation and apologies,
and look rather to themselves for redress and vengeance ?"
Polwarth smiled contemptuously, and there was an air of
pride about him that gave an appearance of elasticity even
to his heavy tread, as he answered —
"The thing is a bad thing, Major Lincoln, and, if you
will, a wicked thing — but take the assurance of a man who
knows the country well, there will be no attempts at ven-
geance ; and as for redress, in a military way, the thing
is impossible,"
H2 LIONEL LINCOLN.
" I have dwelt two years, Major Lincoln, in the very
heart of the country," said Polwarth, without turning his
eyes from the steady gaze he maintained on the long
road which lay before him, "even three hundred miles
beyond the inhabited districts ; and I should know the
character of the nation, as well as its resources. In respect
to the latter, there is no esculent thing within its borders,
from a humming-bird to a buffalo, or from an artichoke to
a watermelon, that I have not, on some occasion or other,
had tossed up, in a certain way — therefore, I can speak with
confidence, and do not hesitate to say, that the colonists will
never fight ; nor if they had the disposition, do they pos-
sess the means to maintain a war."
" Perhaps, sir," returned Lionel sharply, "you have con-
sulted the animals of the country too closely to be ac-
quainted with its spirits ? "
" The relation between them is intimate — tell me what
food a man diets on, and I will furnish you with his char-
acter. 'Tis morally impossible that a people who eat their
pudding before the meats, after the fashion of these col-
onists, can ever make good soldiers, because the appe-
tite is appeased before the introduction of the succulent
nutriment of the flesh, into "
" Enough ! spare me the remainder," interrupted Lionel
— " too much has been said already to prove the inferiority
of the American to the European animal, and your reason-
ing is conclusive."
" Parliament must do something for the families of the
sufferers."
" Parliament ! " echoed Lionel, with bitter emphasis ;
"yes, we shall be called on to pass resolutions to commend
the decision of the general, and the courage of the troops ;
and then, after we have added every possible insult to the
injury, under the conviction of our imaginary supremacy,
we may hear of some paltry sum to the widows and or-
phans cited as an evidence of the unbounded generosity of
the nation ! "
" The feeding of six or seven broods of young Yankees
is no such trifle, Major Lincoln," returned Polwarth ; "and
there I trust the unhappy affair will end. We are now
marching on Concord, a place with a most auspicious
name, where we shall find repose under its shadow, as well
as the food of this home-made parliament, which they have
gotten together. These considerations alone support me
under the fatigue of this direful trot with which old Pit-
LIONEL LINCOLN; n3
cairn goes over the ground — does the man think he is hunt-
ing with a pack of beagles at his heels ! "
The opinion expressed by his companion, concerning the
martial propensities of the Americans, was one too com-
mon among the troops to excite any surprise in Lionel ;
but, disgusted with the illiberality of the sentiment, and
secretly offended at the supercilious manner with which
the other expressed these injurious opinions of his country-
men, iie continued his route in silence, while Polwarth
speedily lost his loquacious propensity in a sense of the
fatigue that assailed every muscle and joint in his body.
That severe training of the corps, concerning which the
captain vented such frequent complaints, now stood the
advance in good service. It was apparent that the whole
country was in a state of high alarm, and small bodies of
armed men were occasionally seen on the heights that
flanked their route, though no attempts were made to re-
venge the deaths of those who fell at Lexington. The
march of the troops was accelerated rather with a belief
that the colonists might remove, or otherwise secrete the
stores, than from any apprehension that they would dare to
oppose the progress of the chosen troops of the army. The
slight resistance of the Americans in the rencontre of that
morning, was already a jest among the soldiers, who sneer-
ingly remarked that the term of " minute-men " was de-
servedly applied to warriors who had proved themselves
so dexterous at flight. In short, every opprobrious and
disrespectful epithet, that contempt and ignorance could
invent, were freely lavished on the forbearing mildness of
the suffering colonists. In tin's temper the troops reached
a point whence the modest spire and roofs of Concord be-
came visible. A small body of the colonists retired through
the place as the English advanced, and the detachment en-
tered the town without the least resistance, and with the
appearance of conquerors. Lionel was not long in discov-
ering from such of the inhabitants as remained, that, not-
withstanding their approach had been known for some
time, the events of that -morning were yet a secret from
the people of the village. Detachments from the light
corps were immediately sent in various directions ; some
to search for the ammunition and provisions, and some to
guard the approaches to the place. One, in particular,
followed the retreating footsteps of the Americans, and
took post at a bridge, at some little distance,: which cut off
the communication with the country to the northward.
3
ii4 LIONEL LINCOLN.
In the meantime, the work of destruction was com-
menced in the town chiefly under the superintendence of
the veteran officer of the marines. The few male inhabi-
tants who remained in their dwellings, were of necessity
peaceable, though Lionel could read, in their flushed
cheeks and gleaming eyes, the secret indignation of men,
who, accustomed to the protection of the law, now found
themselves subjected to the insults and wanton abuses of
a military inroad. Every door was flung open, and no
place was held sacred from the rude scrutiny of the licen-
tious soldiery. Taunts and execrations soon mingled with
the seeming moderation with which the search had com-
menced, and loud exultation was betrayed, even among
the officers, as the scanty provisions of the colonists were
gradually brought to light. It was not a moment to re-
spect private rights, and the freedom and ribaldry of the
nen were on the point of becoming something more seri-
ous, when the report of fire-arms was heard suddenly to
issue from the post held by the light-infantry, at the bridge.
A few scattering shot were succeeded by a volley, which
was answered by another, with the quickness of lightning,
and then the air became filled with the incessant rattling
of a sharp conflict. Every arm was suspended, and each
tongue became mute with astonishment, and the men
abandoned their occupations as these unexpected sounds
of war broke on their cars. The chiefs of the party were
seen in consultation, and horsemen rode furiously into
the place, to communicate the nature of this new con-
flict. The rank of Major Lincoln soon obtained for him a
knowledge that it was thought impolitic to communicate
to the whole detachment. Notwithstanding it was appar-
ent that they who brought the intelligence were anxious
to give it the most favorable aspect, he soon discovered
that the same body of Americans, which had retired at
their approach, having attempted to return to their homes
in the town, had been fired on at the bridge, and in the
skirmish which succeeded, the troops had been compelled
to give way with loss. The effect of this prompt and
spirited conduct on the part of the provincials produced a
sudden alteration, not only in the aspect, but also in the
proceedings of the troops. The detachments were recalled,
and the drums beat to arms, and, for the first time, both
officers and men seemed to recollect that they had six
leagues to march through a country that hardly contained
a friend. Still few or no enemies were .visible, with the
LIONEL LINCOLN'. 115
exception of those men of Concord, who had already drawn
blood freely from- the invaders of their domestic sanctu-
aries. The dead, and all the common wounded, were left
where they had fallen, and it was thought an unfavorable
omen among the observant of the detachment, that a
wounded young subaltern, of rank and fortune, was also
abandoned to the mercy of the exasperated Americans.
The privates caught the infection from their officers, and
Lionel saw, that in place of the, high and insulting confi-
dence, with which the troops had wrheeled into the streets
of Concord, that they left them, when the order was given
to march, with faces bent anxiously on the surrounding
heights, and with looks that bespoke a consciousness of
the dangers that wrere likely to beset the long road which
lay before them.
Their apprehensions were not groundless. The troops
had Irardly commenced their march before a volley was
fired upon them from the protection of a barn, and as they
advanced, volley succeeded volley, and musket answered
musket from behind every cover that offered to their as-
sailants. At first these desultory and feeble attacks were
but little regarded ; a brisk charge, and a smart fire of a
few moments never failed to disperse their enemies, when
the troops again proceeded for a short distance unmo-
lested. But the alarm of the preceding night had gathered
the people over an immense extent of country ; and, hav-
ing waited for information, those nearest to the scene of
action were already pressing forward to the assistance of
their friends. There was but little order, and no concert
among the Americans ; but each party, as it arrived,
pushed into the fray, hanging on the skirts of their ene-
mies, or making spirited, though ineffectual efforts to stop
their progress. While the men from the towns behind
them pressed upon their rear, the population in their
front accumulated in bodies, like a rolling ball of snow,
and before half the distance between Concord and Lex-
ington was accomplished, Lionel perceived that the safety
of their boasted power was in extreme jeopardy. During
the first hour of these attacks, while they were yet distant,
desultory and feeble, the young soldier had marched by the
side of M'Fuse, who shook his head disdainfully whenever
a shot whistled near him, and did not fail to comment freely
on the folly of commencing a war thus prematurely, which,
if properly nursed, might, to use his own words, " be in
time brought to something pretty and interesting."
n6 LI OX EL LINCOLN.
"You perceive, Major Lincoln," he added, "that these
provincials have got the first elements of the art, for the
rascals fire with exceeding accuracy, when the distance is
considered ; and six months or a year of close drilling
would make them good for something in a regular charge.
They have got a smart crack to their p'aces, and a pretty
whiz to their lead already ; if they could but learn to de-
liver their fire in platoons, the lads might make some im-
pression on the light-infantry even now ; and in a year or
two, sir, they would not be unworthy of the favors of the
grenadiers."
Lionel listened to this, and much other similar discourse,
with a vacant ear ; but as the combat thickened, the blood
of the young man began to course more swiftly through
his veins ; and at length, excited by the noise and the dan-
ger which was pressing more closely around them, he
mounted, and, riding to the commander of the detach-
ment, tendered his assistance as a volunteer aid, .having,
lost every other sensation in youthful blood, and the pride
of arms. He was immediately charged with orders for the
advance, and driving his spurs into his steed, he dashed
through the scattered line of fighting and jaded troops,
and galloped to its head. Here he found several com-
panies, diligently employed in clearing the way for their
comrades, as new foes appeared at every few rods that
they advanced. Even as Lionel approached, a heavy sheet
of fire flashed from a close barn-yard, full in the faces of
the leading files, sending the swift engines of death into
the very centre of the party.
" Wheel a company of the light-infantry, Captain Pol-
warth," cried the old major of marines, who battled
stoutly in the van, " and drive the skulking scoundrels
from their ambush."
" Oh ! by the sweets of ease, and the hopes of a halt !
but here is another tribe of these white savages ! " re-
sponded the unfortunate captain — " Look out, my brave
men ! blaze away over the walls on your left — give no
quarter to the annoying rascals — get the first shot — give
them a foot of your steel."
While venting such terrible denunciations and com-
mands, which were drawn from the peaceable captain by
the force of circumstances, Lionel beheld his friend dis-
appear amid the buildings of the farm-yard in a cloud ot
smoke, followed by his troops. In a few minutes after-
wards, as the line toiled its way up the hill on which this
LIONEL LINCOLN. 117
scene occurred, Polwarth reappeared, issuing from the
fray with his face blackened and grimed with powder,
while a sheet of flame arose from -the spot, which soon laid
the devoted buildings of the unfortunate husbandman in
ruins.
" Ha ! Major Lincoln," he cried, as he approached the
other, "do you call these light-infantry movements! to me
they are the torments of the damned ! — Go, you who have
influence, and, what is better, a horse, go to Smith, and
tell him if he will call a halt, I will engage, with my single
company, to seat ourselves in any field he may select, and
keep these blood-suckers at bay for an hour, while the
detachment can rest and satisfy their hunger— trusting that
he will then allow time for his defenders to perform the
same necessary operations. A night-march, no breakfast
— a burning sun — mile after mile — no halt, and nothing
but fire — fire — 'tis opposed to every principle in physics,
and even to the anatomy of man, to think he can endure it !"
Lionel endeavored to encourage his friend to new exer-
tions, and, turning away from their leader, spoke cheer-
ingly, and with a martial tone, to his troops. The men
cheered as they passed, and dashed forward to new en-
counters ; the Americans yielding sullenly, but necessarily,
to the constant charges of the bayonet, to which the regu-
lars resorted to dislodge them. As the advance moved on
again, Lionel turned to contemplate the scene in the rear.
They had now been marching and fighting for two hours,
with little or no cessation ; and it was but too evident that
the force of the assailants was increasing, both in numbers
and in daring, at each step they took. On either side of
the highway, along the skirts of every wood or orchard, in
the open fields, and from every house, barn, or cover in
sight, the flash of fire-arms was to be seen, while the shouts
of the English grew, at each instant, feebler and less in-
spiriting. Heavy clouds of smoke rose above the valley,
into which he looked, and mingled with the dust of the
march, drawing an impenetrable veil before the view ; but
as the wind, at moments, shoved it aside, he caught
glimpses of the worried and faltering platoons of the party,
sometimes breasting and repulsing an attack with spirit,
and at others shrinking from the contest, with an ill-con-
cealed desire to urge their retreat to the verge of an
absolute flight. Young as he was, Major Lincoln knew
enough of his profession to understand that nothing but
the want of conceit, and of a unity of command among the
n8 LIONEL LINCOLN.
Americans, saved the detachment from total destruction.
The attacks were growing extremely spirited, and not un-
frequently close and bloody, though the discipline of the
troops enabled them still to bear up against this desultory
and divided warfare, when Lionel heard, with a pleasure he
could not conceal, the loud shouts that arose from the van,
as the cheering intelligence was proclaimed through the
ranks, that the cloud of dust in their front was raised by a
chosen brigade of their comrades, which had come most
timely to their succor, with the heir of Northumberland at
its head. The Americans gave way as the two detach-
ments joined, and the artillery of the succors opened upon
their flying parties, giving a few minutes of stolen rest to
those who needed it so much. Polwarth threw himself
flat on the earth, as Lionel dismounted at his side, and his
example was followed by the whole party, who lay panting,
under the heat and fatigue, like worried deer, that had
succeeded in throwing the hounds from their scent
" As I am a gentleman of simple habits, and a man in-
nocent of all this bloodshed, Major Lincoln," said the cap-
tain, " I pronounce this march to be a most unjust draft on
the resources of human nature. I have journeyed at least
five leagues between this spot and that, place of discord
that they falsely call Concord, within two hours, amidst
dust, smoke, groans, and other infernal cries, that would
cause the best trained racer in England to bolt ; and
breathing an air, all the time, that would boil an egg in
two minutes and a quarter, if fairly exposed to it."
" You overrate the distance — 'tis but two leagues by the
stones — *-"
" Stones !" interrupted Polwarth — " I scorn their lies —
I have a leg here that is a better index for miles, feet, or
even inches, than was ever chiselled in stone."
" We must not contest this idle point," returned Lionel,
" for I see the troops are about to dine ; and we have need
of every moment to reach Boston before the night closes
around us."
" Eat ! Boston ! night ! " slowly repeated Polwarth, rais-
ing himself on one arm, and staring wildly about him.
" Surely no man among us is so mad as to talk of moving
from this spot short of a week — it would take half that
time to receive the internal refreshment necessary to our
systems, and the remainder to restore us healthy appe«
tites."
" Suth, however, are the orders of the Earl Percy, from
LIONEL LINCOLN. ng
whom I learn that the whole country is rising in our
front."
" Ay, but they are fellows who slept peacefully in their
beds the past night ; and I dare say that every dog among
them ate his half-pound of pork, together with additions
suitable for a breakfast, before he crossed his threshold
this morning. But with us the case is different. It is in-
cumbent on two thousand British troops to move with de-
liberation, if it should be only for the credit of his
majesty's arms. No, no — the gallant Percy too highly
respects his princely lineage and name, to assume the ap-
pearance of flight before a mob of base-born hinds ! "
The intelligence of Lionel was nevertheless true ; for,
after a short halt, allowing barely time enough to the
troops to eat a hasty meal, the drums again beat the signal
to march, and Polwarth, as well as many hundred others,
was reluctantly compelled to resume his feet, under the
penalty of being abandoned to the fury of the exasperated
Americans. While the troops were in a state of rest, the
field-pieces of the reinforcement kept their foes at a dis-
tance ; but the instant the guns were limbered, and tiie
files had once more opened for room, the attacks were re-
newed from every quarter, with redoubled fury. The ex-
cesses of the troops,, who had begun to vent their anger by
plundering and firing the dwellings that they passed,
added to the bitterness of the attacks ; and the march had
not been renewed many minutes, before a fiercer conflict
raged along its skirts than had been before witnessed on
that day.
" Would to God that the great Northumbrian would
form us in order of battle, and make a fair field with the
Yankees," groaned Polwarth, as he toiled his way once
more with the advance — " half an hour would settle the
matter, and a man would then possess the gratification of
seeing himself a victor, or at least of knowing that he was
comfortably and quietly dead."
" Few of us would ever arrive in the morning, if we left
the Americans a night to gather in ; and a halt of an hour
would lose us the advantages of the whole march," re-
turned Lionel. — "Cheer up, my old comrade, and you will
establish your reputation for activity forever — here comes
a party of the provincials over the crest of the hill to keep
you in employment."
Polwarth cast a look of despair at Lionel, as he muttered
in reply — • .
120 LIONEL LINCOLN.
" Employment ! God knows that there has not been a
single muscle, sinew, or joint, in my body in a state of
wholesome rest for four-and-tvventy hours ! " Then turn-
ing to his men, he cried, with tones so cheerful and ani-
mated, that they seemed to proceed from a final and closing
exertion, as he led them gallantly into the approaching
fray — "Scatter the dogs, my brave friends — away with
them like gnats, like mosquitoes, like leeches, as they are
— give it them — lead and steel by handfuls "
"On — push on with the advance!" shouted the old
major of marines, who observed the leading platoons to
stagger.
The voice of Polwarth was once more heard in the din,
and their irregular assailants sullenly yielded before the
charge.
"On — on with the advance ! " cried fifty voices out of a
cloud of smoke and dust that was moving up the hill, on
whose side this encounter occurred.
In this manner the war continued to roll slowly onward,
following the weary and heavy footsteps of the soldiery,
who had now toiled for many miles, surrounded by the din
of battle, and leaving in their path the bloody impressions
of their footsteps. Lionel was enabled to trace their route,
far towards the north, by the bright red spots, which lay
scattered in alarming numbers along the highway, and in
the fields, through which the troops occasionally moved.
He even found time, in the intervals of rest, to note the
difference in the characters of the combatants. Whenever
the ground or the circumstances admitted of a regular at-
tack, the dying confidence of the troops would seem re-
stored ; and they moved up to the charge with the bold
carriage which high discipline inspires, rending the air
with shouts, while their enemies melted before their power
in sullen silence, never ceasing to use their weapons, how-
ever, with an expertness that rendered them doubly dan-
gerous. The direction of the columns frequently brought
(he troops over ground that had been sharply contested in
front, and the victims of these short struggles came under
the eyes of the detachment. It was necessary to turn a
deaf ear to the cries and prayers of many wounded soldiers,
who, with horror and abject fear written on every feature
of their countenances, were the helpless witnesses of the
retreating files of their comrades. On the other hand, the
American lay in his blood, regarding the passing detach-
ment with a stern and indignant eye, that appeared to
LIONEL LINCOLN. 121
look far beyond his individual suffering. Over one body,
Lionel pulled the reins of his horse, and he paused a mo-
ment to consider the spectacle. It was the lifeless form of
a man, whose white locks, hollow cheeks, and emaciated
frame, denoted that the bullet which had stricken him to
the earth had- anticipated the irresistible decrees of time
but a very few days. He had fallen on his back, and his
glazed eye expressed, even in death, the honest resentment
he had felt while living : and hjs palsied hand continued
to grasp the fire-lock, old and time-worn, like its owner,
with which he had taken the field in behalf of his country.
" Where can a contest end which calls such champions
to its aid ! " exclaimed Lionel, observing that the shadow
of another spectator fell across the wan features of the
dead — "who can tell where this torrent of blood can be
stayed, or how many are to be its victims ! "
Receiving no answer, he raised his eyes, and discovered
that he had unwittingly put this searching question to the
very man whose rashness had precipitated the war. It
was the major of marines, who sat looking at the sight, for
a minute, with an eye as vacant as the one' that seemed to
throw back his wild gaze, and then, rousing from his
trance, he buried his rowejs in- the flanks of his horse, and
disappeared in the smoke that enveloped a body of the
grenadiers, waving his sword on high, and shouting —
" On — push on with the advance ! "
Major Lincoln slowly followed, musing on the scene he
had witnessed, when, to his surprise, he encountered Pol-
warth, seated on a rock by the roadside, looking with a
listless and dull eye at the retreating columns. Checking
his charger, he inquired of his friend if he were hurt.
" Only melted," returned the captain ; " I have outdone
the speed of man this day, Major Lincoln, and can do no
more. If you see any of my friends in dear England, tell
them that I met my fate as a soldier should, stationary ;
though I am actually melting away in rivulets, like the
snows of April."
"Good God ! you will not remain here to be slain by
the provincials, by whom you see we are completely en-
veloped ?"
"I am preparing a speech for the first Yankee who may
approach. If he be a true man, he will melt into tears at
my sufferings this day — if a savage, my heirs will be spared
the charges of my funeral."
Lionel would have continued his remonstrances, but a
122 LIONEL LINCOLN.
fierce encounter between a flanking party of the troops and
a body of Americans, drove the former close upon him ;
and, leaping the wall, he rallied his comrades, and turned
the tide of battle in their favor. He was drawn far from
the spot by the vicissitudes of the combat, and there was a
moment, while passing from one body of the troops to an-
other, that he found himself unexpectedly alone, in a most
dangerous vicinity to a small wood. The hurried call of
" Pick off that officer ! " first aroused him to his extreme
danger, and he had mechanically bowed himself on the
neck of his charger, in expectation of the fatal messengers,
when a voice was heard among the Americans, crying, in
tones that caused every nerve in his body to thrill —
" Spare him ! for the love of that God you \vorship,
spare him ! "
The overwhelming sensations of the moment prevented
flight, and the young man beheld Ralph, running with
frantic gestures, along the skirts of the cover, beating up
the fire-arms of twenty Americans, and repeating his cries
in a voice that did not seem to belong to a human being —
then, in the confusion which whirled through his brain,
Lionel thought himself a prisoner, as a man, armed with a
long rifle, glided from the wood, and laid his hand on the
rein of his bridle, saying earnestly —
" 'Tis a bloody day, and God will remember it ; but if
Major Lincoln will ride straight down the hill, the people
won't fire for fear of hitting Job- —and when Job fires, he'll
shoot that granny who's getting over the wall, and there'll
never be a stir about it in Funnel-Hall."
Lionel wheeled away quicker than thought, and as his
charger took long and desperate leaps down the slight
declivity, he heard the shouts of the Americans behind
him, the crack of Job's rifle, and the whizzing of the bul-
let which the changeling sent, as he had promised, in a
direction to do him no harm. On gaining a place of com-
parative safety, he found Pitcairn in the act of abandoning
his bleeding horse, the close and bitter attacks of the
provincials rendering it no longer safe for an officer to be
seen. riding on the flanks of the detachment. Lionel,
though he valued his steed highly, had also received so
many intimations of the dangerous notice he had attracted,
that he was soon obliged to follow this example ; and he
saw, with deep regret, the noble animal scouring across
the fields with a loose rein, snorting and snuffing the
tainted air. Fie now joined a party of the combatants on
LIONEL LINCOLN. 123
foot, and continued to animate them to new exertions
during the remainder of the tedious way.
From the moment the spires of Boston met the view of
the troops, the struggle became intensely interesting. New
vigor was imparted to their weary frames by the cheering
sight, and, assuming once more the air of hi^h martial
training, they bore up against the assaults of their enemies
with renewed spirit. On the other hand, the Americans
seemed aware that the moments of vengeance were passing
swiftly away, and boys, and gray-headed men, the wounded
and the active, crowded around their invaders, as if eager
to obtain a parting blow. Even the peaceful ministers of
God were known to take the field on that memorable oc-
casion, and, mingling with their parishioners, to brave
every danger in a cause which they believed in consonance
with their holy calling. The sun was sinking over the land,
and the situation of the detachment had become nearly
desperate, when Percy abandoned the idea of reaching the
Neck, across which he had proudly marched that morning
from Boston, and strained every nerve to get the remain-
der of his command within the peninsula of Charlestown.
The crests and the sides of the heights were alive with
men, and as the shades of evening closed about the com-
batants, the bosoms of the Americans beat high with hope,
while they witnessed the faltering steps and slackened fire
of the troops. But high discipline finally so far prevailed
as to snatch the English from the very grasp of destruction,
and enabled them to gain the narrow entrance to the de-
sired shelter, just as night had come apparently to seal
their doom.
Lionel stood leaning against a fence, as this fine body
of men, which a few hours before had thought themselves
equal to a march through the colonies, defiled slowly and
heavily by him, dragging their weary and exhausted limbs
up the toilsome ascent of Bunker-Hill. The haughty eyes
of most of the officers were bent to the earth in shame ;
and the common herd, even in that place of security, cast
many an anxious glance behind them, to assure themselves
that the despised inhabitants of the province were no
longer pressing on their footsteps. Platoon after platoon
passed, each man compelled to depend on his own wearied
limbs for support, until Lionel at last saw a solitary horse-
man slowly ascending among the crowd. To his utter
amazement and great joy, as this officer approached, he
beheld Polwarth, mounted on his own steed, riding toward
124 LIONEL LINCOLN.
him, with a face of the utmost complacency and composure.
The dress of the captain was torfi fn many places, and the
housings of the saddle were cut into ribbons, while here
and there a spot of clotted blood, on the sides of the beast,
served to announce the particular notice the rider had re-
ceived fram the Americans. The truth was soon extorted
from the honest soldier. The love of life had returned with
the sight of the abandoned charger. He acknowledged it
had cost him his watch to have the beast caught ; but, once
established in the saddle, no danger, nor any remonstrances,
could induce him. to relinquish a seat which he found so
consoling after all the fatigue and motion of that evil day,
in which he had been compelled to share in the calamities
of those who fought on the side of the crown, in the mem-
orable battle of Lexington.
CHAPTER XI.
L — Is it not lawful, an' please your majesty,
To tell how many is killed ?" — King Henry K
WHILE a strong party of the royal troops took post on
the height which commanded the approach to their posi-
tion, the remainder penetrated deeper into the peninsula,
or were transported by the boats of the fleet to the town
of Boston. Lionel and Polwarth passed the strait with
the first division of the wounded, the former having no
duty to detain him any longer with the detachment, and
the latter stoutly maintaining that his corporeal sufferings
gave him an undoubted claim to include his case among
the casualties of the day. Perhaps no officer in the army
of the king felt less chagrin at the result of this inroad
than Major Lincoln ; for, notwithstanding his attachment
to his prince, and adopted country, he wras keenly sensitive
on the subject of the reputation of his real countryman ;
a sentiment that is honorable to our nature, and which
never deserts any that do not become disloyal to its purest
and noblest impulses. Even while he regretted the price
at which his comrades had been taught to appreciate the
characters of those whose long and mild forbearance had
been misconstrued into pusillanimity, he rejoiced that the
eyes of the more aged wrould now be opened to the truth,
and that the mouths of the young and thoughtless were
LIONEL LINCOLN. 125
to be for ever closed in shame. Although the actual losses
of the two detachments were probably concealed from
motives of policy, it was early acknowledged to amount to
about one-sixth of the whole number employed.
On the wharf Lionel and Polwarth separated ; the latter
agreeing to repair speedily to the private quarters of his
friend, where he promised himself a solace for the com-
pulsory abstinence and privations of his long march, and
the former taking his way toward Tremont Street, with a
view to allay the uneasiness which the secret and flattering
whisperings of hope taught him to believe his fair young
kinswomen would feel in his behalf. "At every corner he
encountered groups of earnest townsmen, listening with
greedy ears to the particulars of the contest, a few walking
away dejected at the spirit exhibited by that country they
had vilified to its oppressors ; but most of them regarding
the passing form of one whose disordered dress announced
his participation in the affair, with glances of stern satis-
faction. As Lionel tapped at the door of Mrs. Lechmere,
he forgot his fatigue ; and when it opened, and he beheld
Cecil standing in the hall, with every lineament of her fine
countenance expressing the power of her emotions, he no
longer remembered those trying dangers he had so lately
escaped.
" Lionel ! " exclaimed the young lady, clasping her hands
with joy — "himself, and unhurt!" 'The blood rushed
from her heart across her face to her forehead, and bury-
ing her shame in her hands, she burst into a flood of tears,
and fled his presence.
Agnes Danforth received him with undisguised pleasure,
nor would she indulge in a single question to appease her
burning curiosity, until thoroughly assured of his perfect
safety. Then, indeed, she remarked, with a smile of tri-
umph seated on her arch features —
"Your march has been well attended, Major Lincoln;
from the upper windows I have seen some of the honors
which the good people of Massachusetts have paid to their
visitors."
"On my soul, if it were not for the dreadful conse-
quences which must follow, I rejoice, as well as yourself,
in the events of the day," said Lincoln ; " for a people are
never certain of their rights until they are respected."
" Tell me, then, all, cousin Lincoln, that I may know
how to boast of my parentage."
The young man gave her a short, but distinct and impar-
126 LIONEL LINCOLN.
tial, account of all that had occurred, to which his fair
listener attended with undisguised interest.
" Now, then," she exclaimed, as he ended, "there is an
end forever of those biting taunts that have so long insult-
ed our ears ! But you know," she added, with a slight
blush, and a smile most comically arch, '*! had a double
stake in the fortunes of the day — my country and my true
love ! "
" Oh ! be at ease ; your worshipper has returned, whole
in body, and suffering in mind only through your cruelty
—he performed the route with wonderful address, and
really showed himself a soldier in danger."
"Nay, Major Lincoln," returned Agnes, still blushing,
though she laughed ; " you do not mean to insinuate that
Peter Polwarth has walked forty miles between the rising
and setting of the sun ? "
" Between two sunsets he has done the deed, if you
except a trifling promenade a cheval, on my own steed, whom
Jonathan compelled me to abandon, and of whom he took,
and maintained the possession, too, in spite of dangers of
every kind."
" Really," exclaimed the wilful girl, clasping her hands
in affected astonishment, though Lionel thought he could
read inward satisfaction at his intelligence — "the prodigies
of the man exceed belief ! one wants the faith of father
Abraham to credit such marvels ! though, after the repulse
of two thousand British soldiers by a body of husbandmen,
I am prepared for an exceeding use of my credulity."
"The moment is then auspicious for my friend," whis-
pered Lionel, rising to follow the flitting form of Cecil
Dynevor, which he saw gliding into the opposite room, as
Polwarth himself entered the apartment. " Credulity is
said to be the great weakness of your sex, and I must
leave you a moment exposed to the failing, and that too,
in the dangerous company of the subject of our dis-
course."
" Now would you give half your hopes of promotion,
and all your hopes of a war, Captain Polwarth, to know in
wrhat manner your character has been treated in your ab-
sence ! " cried Agnes, blushing slightly. " I shall not, how-
ever, satisfy the cravings of your curiosity, but let it serve
as a stimulant to better deeds than have employed you
since we met last."
"I trust Lincoln has done justice to my service," re-
turned the good-humored captain, "and that he has not
LIONEL LINCOLN. 127
neglected to mention the manner in which I rescued his
steed from the rebels."
"The what, sir?" interrupted Agnes, with a frown — •
" how did you style the good -people of Massachusetts
Bay ? "
"I should have said the excited dwellers in the land, I
believe. Ah ! Miss Agnes, I have suffered this day as man
never suffered before ; and all on your behalf
"On my behalf! Your words require explanation,
tain Polwarth."
"Tis impossible," returned the captain — "there are
feelings and actions connected with the heart that will
admit of no explanation. All I know is, that I have suf-
fered unutterably on your account to-day ; and what is
unutterable, is in a great degree inexplicable."
" I shall set this down for what I understand occurs reg-
ularjy in a certain description of tete-a-tetes — the expres-
sion of an unutterable thing! Surely, Major Lincoln had
some reason to believe he left me at the mercy of my cre-
dulity!"
" You slander your own character, fair Agnes," said Pol-
warth, endeavoring to look piteously ; "you are neither
merciful nor credulous, or you would long since have be-
lieved my tale, and taken pity on my misery."
" Is not sympathy a sort — a kind — in short, is not sym-
pathy a dreadful symptom in a certain disease?" asked
Agnes, resting her eyes on the floor, and affecting a girlish
embarrassment.
" Who can gainsay it ! " cried the captain ; "'tis the in-
fallible way for a young lady to discover the bent of her
inclinations. Thousands have lived in ignorance 01 their
own affections until their sympathies have been awakened.
But what means the question, my fair tormentor ? May I
dare to flatter myself that you at length feel for my pains ! "
" 1 am sadly afraid 'tis but too true, Polwarth," returned
Agnes, shaking her head, and continuing to look exceed-
ingly grave.
Polwarth moved, with something like animation again,
nigherto the amused 'girl ; and attempted to take her hand,
as he said —
" You restore me to life with your sweet acknowledg-
ments — I have lived for six months like a dog under your
frowns, but one kind word acts like a healing balm, and
restores me to myself again ! "
" Then my sympathy is evaporated ! " returned Agnes.
,28 LIONEL LINCOLN.
" Throughout this long and anxious day have I fancied
myself older than my good, staid, great-aunt ; and when-
ever certain thoughts have crossed my mind, I have even
imagined a thousand of the ailings of age had encircled
me — rheumatisms, gouts, asthmas, and numberless other
aches and pains, exceedingly unbecoming to a young lady
of nineteen. But you have enlightened me, and given
vast relief to my apprehensions, by explaining it to be no
more than sympathy. You see, Polwarth, what a wife you
will obtain, should I ever, in a weak moment, accept you ;
for I have already sustained one half your burthens ! "
" A man is not made to be in constant motion, like the
pendulum of that clock, Miss Danforth, and yet feel no
fatigue," said Polwarth, more vexed than he would permit
himself to betray ; "yet I flatter myself there is no officer
in the light-infantry — you understand me to say the light-
infantry— who has passed over more ground, within fojjr-
and-twenty hours, than the man who hastens, notwithstand-
ing his exploits, to throw himself at your feet, even before
he thinks of his ordinary rest."
" Captain Polwarth," said Agnes, rising, " for the com-
pliment, if compliment it be, I thank you ; but," she added,
losing her affected gravity in a strong natural feeling that
shone in her dark eye, and illuminated the whole of her
fine countenance, as she laid her hand impressively on her
heart — " the man who will supplant the feelings which
nature has impressed here, must not come to my feet, as
you call it, from a field of battle, where he has been con-
tending with my kinsmen, and helping to enslave my
country. You will excuse me, sir, but as Major Lincoln is
at home here, permit me, for a few minutes, to leave you
to his hospitality."
She withdrew as Lionel re-entered, passing him on the
threshold.
" I would rather be a leader in a stage-coach, or a run-
ning footman, than in love ! " cried Polwarth — " 'tis a dog's
life, Leo, and this girl treats me like a cart-horse ! But
what an eye she has ! I could have lighted my segar by
it — my heart is a heap of cinders. Why, Leo, what aileth
thee ? throughout the whole of this damnable day, I have
not before seen thee bear such a troubled look ! "
"Let us withdraw to my private quarters," muttered
the young man, whose aspect and air expressed the marks
of extreme disturbance — " 'tis time to repair the disasters
of our march."
LIONEL LINCOLN: 129
"All that has been already looked to," said Polwarth,
rising and limping, with sundry grimaces, in the best man-
ner he was able, in a vain effort to equal the rapid strides
of his companion. " My first business on leaving you was
to borrow a conveyance of a friend, in which I rode to
your place ; and my next was to write to little Jimmy
Craig, to offer an exchange of my company for his — for
from this hour henceforth I denounce all light-infantry
movements, and shall take the first opportunity to get
back again into the dragoons ; as soon as I have effected
which, Major Lincoln, I propose to treat with you for the
purchase of that horse. After that duty was performed —
for, if self-preservation be commendable, it became a duty
• — I made out a bill of fare for Meriton, in order that noth-
ing might be forgotten ; after which, like yourself, Lionel,
I hastened to the feet of my mistress — Ah ! Major Lincoln,
you are a happy man ; for you there is no reception but
smiles — and charms so —
" Talk not to me, sir, of smiles," interrupted Lionel, im-
patiently, " nor of the charms of woman. The}'- are all
alike, capricious and unaccountable."
" Bless me ! " exclaimed Polwarth, staring about him in
wonder ; "there is then favor for none, in this place, who
battle for the king ! There is a strange connection be-
tween Cupid and Mars, love and war ; for here did I, after
fighting all day like a Saracen, a Turk, Jenghis Khan, or,
in short, anything but a good Christian, come with full in-
tent to make a serious offer of my hand, commission, and
of Polwarth Hall, to that treasonable vixen, when she re-
pulses me with a frown and a sarcasm as biting as the sal-
utation of a hungry man. But what an eye the girl has,
and what a bloom, when she is a little more seasoned than
common ! Then you, too, Lionel, have been treated like
a dog ! "
"Like a fool, as I am," said Lionel, pacing haughtily
over the ground at a rate that soon threw his companion
too far in the rear to admit of further discourse until they
reached the place of their destination. Here, to the no
small surprise of both gentlemen, they found a company
collected that neither was prepared to meet. At a side-
table sat M'Fuse, discussing, with singular relish, some of
the cold viands of the previous night's repast, and washing
down his morsels with deep potations of the best wine of
his host. In one corner of the room Seth Sage was posted,
with the appearance of a man in duress, his hands being
130
LIONEL LINCOLN.
tied before him, from which depended a long cord, that
might, on emergency, be made to serve the purpose of a
halter. Opposite to the prisoner, for such in truth he
was, stood Job, imitating the example of the captain of
grenadiers, who now and then tossed some fragment of
his meal into the hat of the simpleton. Meriton and sev-
eral of the menials of the establishment were in waiting.
" What have we here ? " cried Lionel, regarding the
scene with a curious eye. " Of what offence has Mr. Sage
been guilty, that he bears those bonds ?"
" Of the small crimes of tr'ason and homicide," returned
M'Fuse, "if shooting at a man, with a hearty mind £o kill
him, can make a murder."
"It can't," said Seth, raising his eyes from the floor,
where he had hitherto kept them in demure silerice ; "a
man must kill with wicked intent to commit murder "
" Hear to the blackguard, detailing the lawr as if he were
my lord chief justice of the King's Bench!" interrupted
the grenadier ; "and what was your own wicked intention,
ye skulking vagabond, but to kill me ! I'll have you tried
and hung for the same act."
" It's ag'in reason to believe that any jury will convict
one man for the murder of another that an't dead," said
Seth — "there's no jury to be found in the Bay colony, to
do it."
" Bay colony, ye murdering thief and rebel ! " cried the
captain ; " I'll have ye transported to England ; ye shall
be both transported and hung. By the Lord, I'll carry ye
back to Ireland with me, and I'll hang ye up in the Green
Island itself, and bury ye, in the heart of winter, in a
bog "
" But what is the offence," demanded Lionel, " that calls
forth these severe threats ?"
" The scoundrel has been out —
"Out!"
" Ay, out ! Damn it, sir, has not the whole country been
like so many bees in search of a hive ? Is your memory so
short that ye forget already, Major Lincoln, the tramp the
blackguards have given you over hill and dale, through
thick and thin ?"
"And was Mr. Sage, then, found among our enemies
to-day ? "
" Didn't I see him pull trigger on my own stature three
times within as many minutes?" returned the angry cap-
tain ; " and didn't he break the handle of my sword ? and
LIONEL LINCOLN. 131
have not I a bit of lead he calls a buck-shot in my shoulder
as a present from the thief?"
" It's ag'in all law to call a man a thief," said Job, "un-
less you can prove it upon him ; but it an't ag'in law to go
in and out of Boston as often as you choose."
" Do you hear the rascals ! They know every angle of
the law as well or better than I do myself, who am the son
of a Cork counsellor. I dare to say you were among them
too, and that, ye deserve the gallows as well as your com-
mendable companion there."
" How is this ! " said Lionel, turning quickly away from
Job, with a view to prevent a reply that might endanger
the safety of the changeling ; " did you not only mingle in
this rebellion, Mr. Sage, but also attempt the life of a
gentleman who may be said, almost, to be an inmate of
your own house ? "
"I conclude," returned Seth, "it's best net to talk too
much, seeing that no one can foretell what may happen."
" Hear to the cunning reprobate ! He has not the grace
to acknowledge his own sins, like an honest man," inter-
rupted M'Fuse ; " but I can save him that small trouble —
I got tired, you "must know, Major Lincoln, of being shot
at like noxious vermin, from morning till night, without
making some return to the compliments of those gentle-
men who are out on the hills ; and I took advantage of a
turn, ye see, to double on a party of the uncivilized de-
mons. This lad, here, got three good pulls at me before
we closed and made an end of them with the steel, all but
this fellow, who, having a becoming look for a gallows, I
brought him in, as you see, for an exchange, intending to
hang him the first favorable opportunity."
" If this be true, we must give him into the hands of the
proper authorities," said Lionel, smiling at the confused
account of the angry captain — =" for it remains to be seen
yet what course will be adopted with the prisoners in this
singular contest."
" I should think nothing of the matter," returned M 'Fuse,
" if the reprobate had not tr'ated me like a beast of the
field, with his buck-shot, and taking his aim each time, as
though I had been a mad dog. Ye villain, do you call
yourself a man, and aim at a fellow-creature as you would
at a brute ? "
"Why/' said Seth, sullenly, "when a man has pretty
much made up his mind to fight, I conclude it's best to
take aim, in order to save ammunition and time.'*
I32 LIONEL LINCOLN.
" You acknowledge the charge, then ? " demanded Lionel,
" As the major is a moderate man, and will hear to
reason, I will talk the matter over with him rationally,"
said Seth, disposing himself to speak more to the purpose.
"You see, I had a small call to Concurd early this morn-
ing "
" Concord ! " exclaimed Lionel.
" Yes, Concurd," returned Seth, laying great stress on
the first syllable, and speaking with an air of extreme in-
nocence— "it lies here-away, say twenty or one-and-twenty
miles "
" Damn your Concords and your miles too," cried Pol-
warth ; " is there a man in the army who can forget the
deceitful place ? Go on with your defence, without talk-
ing to us of the distance, who have measured the road by
inches."
" The captain is hasty and rash ! " said the deliberate
prisoner — " but being there, I went out of the town with
some company that I happened in with ; and after a time
we concluded to return — and so, as we came to a bridge
about a mile beyond the place, we received considerable
rough treatment from some of the king's troops, who were
standing there "
"What did they?"
"They fired at us, and killed two of our company, be-
sides other threatening doings. There were some among
us that took the matter up in considerable earnest, and
there was a sharp toss about it for a few minutes ; though
finally the law prevailed."
"The law!"
" Certain — 'tis ag'in all law, I believe the major will own,
to shoot peaceable men on the public highway ! "
" Proceed with your tale in your own way."
" That is pretty much the whole of it," said Seth, warily.
" The people rather took that, and some other things that
happened at Lexington, to heart, and I suppose the major
knows the rest."
" But what has all this to do with your attempt to mur-
der me, you hypocrite ? " demanded M'Fuse — " confess the
whole, ye thief, that I may hang you with an aisy con-
science."
"Enough," said Lionel; "the man has acknowledged
sufficient already to justify us in transferring him to the
custody of others — let him betaken to the main guard, and
delivered as a prisoner of this day."
LIONEL LINCOLN. 133
" I hope the major will look to the things," said Seth,
who instantly prepared to depart, but stopped on the
threshold to speak — " I shall hold him accountable for
all."
"Your property shall be protected, and I hope your life
may not be in jeopardy," returned Lionel, waving his hand
for those who guarded him to proceed. Seth turned, and
left his own dwelling with the same quiet air which had
distinguished him throughout the day ; though there were
occasional flashes from his quick, dark eyes, that looked
like the glimmerings of a fading fire. Notwithstanding
the threatening denunciation he had encountered, he left
the house with a perfect conviction, that if his case were
to be tried by those principles of justice which every man
in the colony so well understood, it would be found that
both he and his fellows had kept thoroughly on the windy
side of the law.
During this singular and characteristic discourse, PoL
warth, with the solitary exception we have recorded, had
employed his time in forwarding the preparations for the
banquet.
As Seth and his train disappeared, Lionel cast a furtive
look at Job, who was a quiet, and apparently an undis-
turbed, spectator of the scene, and then turned his atten-
tion suddenly to his guests, as if fearful the folly of the
changeling might betray his agency also in the deeds of the
day. The simplicity of the lad, however, defeated the kind
intentions of the major, for he immediately observed, with-
out the least indication of fear — •
" The king can't hang Seth Sage for firing back, when
the rake-helly soldiers began first."
" Perhaps you were out 'too, master Solomon," cried
M'Fuse, " amusing yourself at Concord, with a small party
of select friends ? "
" Job didn't go any further than Lexington," returned
the lad, " and he hasn't got any friend, except old Nab.':
" The devil has possessed the minds of the people ! "
continued the grenadier — " lawyers and doctors — praists
and sinners — old and young — big and little, beset us in
our march, and here is a fool to be added to the number !
I dare say that fellow, now, has attempted murder in his
day too."
"Job scorns such wickedness," returned the unmoved
simpleton ; "he only shot one granny, and hit an officer in
the arm."
134 LIONEL LINCOLN-.
" D'ye hear that, Major Lincoln ?" cried M'Fuse, jump-
ing from the seat which, notwithstanding the bitterness of
his language, he had hitherto perseveringly maintained ;
" d'ye hear that shell of a man, that effigy, boasting of hav-
ing killed a grenadier ! "
" Hold ! " — interrupted Lionel, arresting his excited com-
panion by the arm — u remember we are soldiers, and that
the boy is not a responsible being. No tribunal would ever
sentence such an unfortunate creature to a gibbet ; and in
general he is as harmless as a babe "
"The devil burn such babes — a pretty fellow is he to kill
a man of six feet ! and with a ducking gun, I'll engage. I'll
not hang the rascal, Major Lincoln, since it is your particu-
lar wish — I'll only have him buried alive."
Job continued perfectly unmoved in his chair ; and the
captain, ashamed of his resentment against such uncon-
scious imbecility, was soon persuaded to abandon his in-
tentions of revenge, though he continued muttering his
threats against the provincials, and his denunciations
against such "an unmanly spacies of warfare," until the
much-needed repast was ended.
Polwarth, having restored the equilibrium of his system
by a hearty meal, hobbled to his bed, and M'Fuse, without
any ceremony, took possession of another of the apart-
ments in the tenement of Mr. Sage. The servants with-
drew to their own entertainment ; and Lionel, who had
been sitting for the last half-hour in melancholy silence,
now unexpectedly found himself alone with the change-
ling. Job had waited for this moment with exceeding
patience, but when the door closed on Meriton, who was
the last to retire, he made a movement that indicated some
communication of more than usual importance, and suc-
ceeded in attracting the attention of his companion.
" Foolish boy ! " exclaimed Lionel, as he met the un-
meaning eye of 'the other, " did I not warn you that wicked
men might endanger your life ! How was it that I saw you
in arms to-day against the troops ? "
" How came the troops in arms ag'in Job ?" returned the
changeling — " they needn't think to wheel about the Bay
province, clashing their godless drums and trumpets, burn-
ing housen, and shooting people, and find no stir about it ! "
" Do you know that your life has been twice forfeited
within twelve hours, by your own confession ; once for
murder, and again for treason against your king ? You have
acknowledged killing a man !"
LIONEL LINCOLN. 135
"Yes," said the lad, with undisturbed simplicity, "Job
shot the granny ; but he didn't let the people kill Major
Lincoln."
" True, true," said Lionel, hastily — " I owe my life to
you, and that debt shall be cancelled at every hazard. But
why have you put yourself into the hands of your enemies
so thoughtlessly? what brings you here to-night?"
" Ralph told me to come ; and if Ralph told Job to go
into the king's parlor, he would go."
" Ralph ! " exclaimed Lionel, stopping in his hurried
walk across the room, " and where is he ? "
" In the old ware-'us'; and he has sent me to tell you to
come to him ; and what Ralph says must be done."
" He here too ! is the man crazed ? — would not his fears
teach him "
" Fears ! " interrupted Job, with singular disdain — " you
can't frighten Ralph ! The grannies couldn't frighten him,
nor the light-infantry couldn't hit him, though he eat
nothing but their smoke the whole day — Ralph's a proper
warrior !"
" And he waits me, you say, in the tenement of your
mother ?"
" Job don't know what tenement means, but he's in the
old ware-'us'."
"Come, then," said Lionel, taking his hat, " let us go to
him — I must save him from the effects of his own rashness,
though it cost my commission ! "
He left the room while speaking, and the simpleton fol-
lowed close at his heels, well content with having executed
his mission without encountering any greater difficulties.
CHAPTER XII.
" This play is the image of a murder done in Vienna ;
Gonzago is the duke's name ; his wife, Baptista :
You shall see, anon ; 'tis a knavish piece of work."
— Hamlet.
THE agitation and deep excitement produced by the
events of the day had not yet subsided in the town, when
Lionel found himself again in its narrow streets. Men
passed swiftly by him, as if bent on some unusual and
earnest business ; and more than once the young soldier
236 LIONEL LINCOLN.
detected the triumphant smiles of the women, as they
looked curiously out on the scene, from their half-open
windows, and their eyes detected the professional trap-
pings of his dress. Strong bodies of the troops were
marching in different directions, and in a manner which
denoted that the guards were strengthening, while the few
solitary officers he met watched his approaching figure
with cautious jealousy, as if they apprehended a danger-
ous enemy in every form they encountered.
The gates of Province-House were open, and, as usual,
guarded by armed men. As Lionel passed leisurely along,
he perceived that the grenadier to whom he had spoken
on the preceding evening, again held his watch before the
portal of the governor.
" Your experience did not deceive you, my old comrade,"
said Lionel, lingering a moment to address him — " we
have had a warm day."
"So it is reported in the barracks, your honor," re-
turned the soldier — "our company was not ordered out,
and we are to stand double duty. 'l hope to God the next
time there is anything to do, the grenadiers of the th
may not be left behind — it would have been for the credit
of the army had they been in the field to-day."
" Why do you think so, my veteran ? The men who
were out are thought to have behaved well ; but it was im-
possible to make head against a multitude in arms."
" It is not my place, your honor, to say, this man did
well, and that man behaved amiss," returned the proud old
soldier ; "but when I hear of two thousand British troops
turning their backs, or quickening their march, before all
the rabble this country can muster, I want the flank com-
panies of the th to be at hand, if it should be only that
I may say I have witnessed the disgraceful sight with my
own eyes."
" There is no disgrace where there is no misconduct,"
said Lionel.
" There must have been misconduct somewhere, your
honor, or such a thing could not have happened — consider,
your honor, the very flower of the army ! Something must
have been wrong ; and although I could see the latter part
of the business from the hills, I can hardly believe it to be
true." As he concluded, he shook his head, and continued
his steady pace along his allotted ground, as if unwilling
to pursue the humiliating subject any further. Lionel
passed slowly on, musing on that deep-rooted prejudice,
LIONEL LINCOLN. 13 }
which had even taught this humble menial of the crown
to regard with contempt a whole nation, because they were
•believed to be dependents.
The Dock Square was stiller than usual, and the sounds
of revelry, which it was usual to hear at that hour from the
adjacent drinking-houses, were no longer audible. The
moon had not yet risen, and Lionel passed under the o^irk
arches of the market with a quick step, as he now remem-
bered that one in whom he felt so deep an interest awaited
his appearance. Job, who had followed in silence, glided
by him on the drawbridge, and stood holding the door of
the old building in his hand, when he reached its thresh-
old. Lionel found the large space in the centre of the
warehouse, as usual, dark and empty, though the dim light
of a candle glimmered through the fissures in a partition,
which separated an apartment, in one of the little towers
that was occupied by Abigail Pray, from the ruder parts
of the edifice. Low voices were also heard issuing from
this room, and Major Lincoln, supposing he should find
the old man and the mother of Job in conference together,
turned to request the lad would precede him, and announce
his name. But the changeling had also detected the whis-
pering sounds, arid it would seem with a more cunning ear,
for he turned and darted through the door of the building
with a velocity that did not abate until Lionel, who watched
his movements with amazement, saw his shuffling figure
disappear among the shambles of the market-place. Thus
deserted by his guide, Lionel groped his way toward the
place where he believed he should find the door which led
into the tower. The light deceived him ; for, as he ap-
proached it, his eye glanced through one of the crevices of
the wall, and he again became an unintentional witness of
another of those interviews, which evinced the singular
and mysterious affinity between the fortunes of the affluent
and respected Mrs. Lechmere and the miserable tenant of
the warehouse. Until that moment, the hurry of events,
and the crowd of reflections, which had rushed over the
mind of the young man, throughout the busy time of the
last twenty-four hours, had prevented his recalling the hid-
den meaning of the singular discourse of which he had al-
ready been an auditor. But now, when he found his aunt
led into these haunts of beggary, by a feeling he was not
weak enough to attribute to her charity, he stood rooted
to the spot by a curiosity, which, at the same time that he
found it irresistible, he was willing to excuse, under a
138 LIONEL LINCOLN.
strong impression that these private communications were
in some way connected with himself.
Mrs. Lechmere had evidently muffled her person in a
manner that was intended to conceal this mysterious visit
from any casual observer of her movements ; but the
hoops of her large calash were now so far raised as to
admit a distinct view of her withered features, and of the
hard eye which shot forth its selfish, worldly glances, from
amid the surrounding decay of nature. She was seated,
both in indulgence to her infirmities, and from that as-
sumption of superiority she never neglected in the pres-
ence of her inferiors, while her companion stood before
her, in an attitude that partook more of restraint than of
respect.
"Your weakness, foolish woman," said Mrs. Lechmere,
in those stern, repulsive tones she so well knew how to
use, when she wished to intimidate, "will yet prove your
ruin. You owe it to respect for yourself, to your character,
and even to your safety, that you should exhibit more firm-
ness, and show yourself above this weak and idle super-
stition."
"My ruin ! and my character !" returned Abigail, look-
ing about her with a haggard eye and a- trembling lip ;
" what is ruin, Madam Lechmere, if this poverty be not
called so ? or what loss of character can bring upon me
more biting scorn than I am now ordained to suffer for
my sins ? "
" Perhaps," said Mrs. Lechmere, endeavoring to affect
a kinder tone, though dislike was still too evident in her
manner, " in the hurry of my grandnephew's reception, I
have forgotten my usual liberality."
The woman took the piece of silver which Mrs. Lecfi-
mere slowly placed in her hand, and held it in her open
palm for several moments, regarding it with a vacant look,,
which the other mistook for dissatisfaction.
" The troubles, and the decreasing value of property,
have sensibly affected my income," continued the richly
clad and luxurious Mrs. Lechmere ; " but if that should
be too little for your immediate wants, I will add to it
another crown,"
" 'Twill do— 'twill do," said Abigail, clenching her hand
over the money, with a grasp that was convulsive — " yes,
yes. 'twill do. Oh ! Madam Lechmere, humbling and
sinful as that wicked paision is, would to God that no
motive worse than avarice had proved my ruin ! "
LIONEL LINCOLN. 139
Lionel thought his aunt cast an uneasy and embarrassed
glance at her companion, which he construed into an
expression that betrayed there were secrets even between
these strange confidants ; but the momentary surprise
exhibited in her features soon gave place to her habitual
look of guarded and severe formality ; and she replied,
with an air of coldness, as if she would repulse any ap-
proach to an acknowledgment of their common trans-
gression—
" The woman talks like one who is beside herself ! Of
what crime has she been guilty, but such as those "to which
our nature is liable ! "
"True, true," said Abigail Pray, with a half-stifled, hys-
terical laugh — "'tis our guilty, guilty nature, as you say.
But I grow nervous, I believe, as I grow old and feeble,
Madam Lechmere ; and I often forget myself. The sight
of the grave, so very near, is apt to bring thoughts of re-
pentance to such as are more hardened even than I."
" Foolish girl ! " said Mrs. Lechmere, endeavoring to
screen her pallid features, by drawing down her calash,
with a hand that trembled more with terror than with age ;
" why should you speak thus freely of death, who are but
a child ? "
Lionel heard the faltering, husky tones of his aunt, as
they appeared to die in her throat, but nothing more was
distinctly audible, until, after a long pause, she raised her
face, and looked about her again with her severe, unbend-
ing eye, and continued —
" Enough of this folly, Abigail Pray — I have come to
learn more of your strange inmate "
"Oh! 'tis not enough, Madam Lechmere," interrupted
the conscience-stricken woman ; " we have so little time
left us for penitence and prayer, that there never can be
enough, I fear, to answer our mighty transgressions. Let
us speak of the grave, Madam Lechmere, while we can yet
do it on this side of eternity."
" Ay ! speak of the grave, while out of its damp clois-
ters ; 'tis the home of the aged," said a third voice, whose
hollow tones might well have issued from some tomb,
"and I am here to join in the wholesome theme."
" Who — who — in the name of God, who art thou ? " ex-
claimed Mrs. Lechmere, forgetting her infirmities, and her
secret compunctions, in new emotions, and rising involun-
tarily from her seat; "tell me, I conjure thee, who art
140 LIONEL LINCOLN.
" One, aged like thyself, Priscilla Lech mere, and stand-
nig on the threshold of that final home of which you would
discourse. Speak on, then, ye widowed women ; for if
ever ye have done aught that calls for forgiveness, 'tis in
the grave ye shall find the heavenly gift of mercy offered
to your unworthiness."
By changing the position of his body a little, Lionel was
now enabled to command a view of the whole apartment.
In the doorway stood Ralph, immovable in his attitude,
with one hand raised high toward heaven, and the other
pointing impressively downward, as if about to lay bare
the secrets of that tomb, of which his wasted limbs, and
faded lineaments, marked him as a fit tenant, while his
searching eyeballs glared about him, from the face of one
to the other, with that look of quickness and penetration,
that Abigail Pray had so well described as "scorching."
Within a few feet of the old man, Mrs. Lechmere remained
standing, rigid and motionless as marble, her calash fallen
back, and her death-like features exposed, with horror and
astonishment rooted in every muscle, as, with open mouth,
and eyes riveted on the intruder, she gazed as steadily as
if placed in that posture by the chisel of the statuary. Abi-
gail shaded her eyes with her hand, and buried her face in
the folds of her garments, while strong convulsive shud-
derings ran througli her frame, and betrayed the extent of
the emotions she endeavored to conceal. Amazed at what
he had witnessed, and concerned for the apparent insensi-
bility of his aunt, whose great age rendered such scenes
dangerous, Lionel was about to rush into the apartment,
when Mrs. Lechmere so far recovered her faculties as to
speak, and the young man lost every consideration in a
burning curiosity, which was powerfully justified by his
situation.
" Who is it that calls me by the name of Priscilla ? " said
Mrs. Lechmere ; "none now live who can claim to be so
familiar."
"Priscilla, Priscilla," repeated the old man, looking
about him, as if he would require the presence of another ;
" it is a soft and pleasant sound to my ears, and there is
one that owns it besides thee, as thou knowest."
" She is dead ; years have gone by since I saw her in her
coffin ; and I would forget her, and all like her, who have
proved unworthy of my blood."
" She is not dead ! " — shouted the old man, in a voice
that rung through the naked rafters of the edifice like th«
LION-EL LINCOLN7. 141
unearthly tones of some spirit of the air ; "she lives — she
lives — ay ! she yet lives ! "
" Lives ! " repeated Mrs. Lechmere, recoiling a step be-
fore the forward movement of the other ; " why am I so
weak as to listen I'tis impossible."
" Lives ! " exclaimed Abigail Pray, clasping her hands
with agony. " Oh ! would to God she did live ! but did I
not see her a bloated, disfigured corpse ? did I not with
these very hands place the grave-clothes about her once
lovely frame ? Oh ! no — she is dead — dead — and I am
a ';
" Tis some madman that asserts these idle tales," ex-
claimed Mrs. Lechmere, with a quickness that interrupted
the criminal epithet the other was about to apply to her-
self. ''The unfortunate girl is long since dead, as we
know ; why should we reason with a maniac ? "
" Maniac ! " repeated Ralph, with an expression of the
most taunting irony ; ".no — no — no— such a one there is,
as you and I well know, but 'tis not I who am mad — thou
art rather crazed thyself, woman ; thou hast made one
maniac already, wouldst thou make another ?"
" I ! " said Mrs. Lechmere, without quailing before the
ardent look she encountered — "that God who bestows
reason, recalls his gift at will ; 'tis not I who exercise such
power."
" How sayest thou, Priscilla Lechmere ?" cried Ralph,
stepping with an inaudible tread so nigh as to grasp, un-
perceived, her motionless arm with his own wasted fingers;
"yes — I will call thee Priscilla, little as thou deservest
such a holy name — dost thou deny the power to craze —
where, then, is the head of thy boasted race ? the proud
baronet of Devonshire, the wealthy, and respected, and
once happy companion of princes— thy nephew, Lionel
Lincoln? Is he in the halls of his fathers ? — leading the
armies of his king ? — ruling and protecting his household ?
— or is he the tenant of a gloomy cell ? — thou knowest he
is — thou knowest he is — and, woman, thy vile machina-
tions have placed him there ! "
" Who is it that dare thus speak to me ? " demanded
Mrs. Lechmere, rallying her faculties with a mighty effort,
to look down this charge — "if my unhappy nephew is in-
deed known to thee, thy own knowledge will refute this
base accusation "
" Known to me ! I would ask what is hid from me ? I
have looked at thee, and observed thy conduct, woman, for
142 LIONEL LINCOLN.
the life of man ; and nothing that thou hast done is hid
from me — I tell thee, I know all. Of this sinful woman
here, also, I know all — have I not told thee, Abigail Pray,
of thy most secret transgressions ? "
" Oh ! yes — yes ; he is indeed acquainted with what I
had thought was now concealed from every eye but that
of God ! " cried Abigail, with superstitious terror.
" Nor of thee am I ignorant, thou miserable widow of
John Lechmere ; and of Priscilla, too, do I not know
all ?— "
" All ! " again exclaimed Abigail —
" All ! " repeated Mrs. Lechmere, in a voice barely audi-
ble ; when she sunk back in her chair, in a state of total
insensibility. The breathless interest he felt in all that
had passed, could detain Lionel no longer from rushing to
the assistance of his aunt. Abigail Pray, who, it would
seem, had been, in some measure accustomed to such scenes
with her lodger, retained, however, sufficient self-command
to anticipate his motions ; and, when he had gained the
door, he found her already supporting, and making the
usual applications to Mrs. Lechmere. It became neces-
sary to divest the sufferer of part of her attire, and Abigail,
assuring Lionel of her perfect competency to act by her-
self, requested him to withdraw, not only on that account,
but because-she felt assured that nothing could prove more
dangerous to her reviving patient, than his unexpected
presence. After lingering a moment, until he witnessed
the signs of returning life, Lionel complied with the ear-
nest entreaties of the woman ; and, leaving the room, he
groped his way to the foot of the ladder, with a determina-
tion to ascend to the apartment of Ralph, in order to de-
mand at once an explanation of what he had just seen and
heard. He -found the old man seated in his little tower,
his hand shading his eyes from the feeble light of the
miserable candle, and his head drooping upon his bosom,
like one in pensive musing. Lionel approached him, with-
out appearing to attract his attention, and was compelled
to speak, in order to announce his presence.
"I have received' your summons, by Job," he said, "and
have obeyed it."
" Tis well," returned Ralph.
" Perhaps I should add, that I have been an astonished
witness of your interview with Mrs. Lechmere, and have
heard the bold and unaccountable language you have seen
proper to use to that lady."
LIONEL LINCOLN. 143
The old man now raised his head, and Lionel saw the
bright rays from his eyes quicken, as he answered—
" You then heard the truth, and witnessed its effects on a
guilty conscience."
" I also heard what you call the truth, in connection, as
you know, with the names most dear to me."
"Art certain of it, boy.?" returned Ralph, looking the
other steadily in the face ; " has no other become dearer
to you, of late, than the authors of your being ? — speak,
and remember that you answer one of no common knowl-
edge."
" What mean you, sir ? is it in nature to love any as we
do a parent ? "
" Away with this childish simplicity," continued the
other, sternly ; " the grandchild of that wretched woman
below — do you not love her, and can I put trust in thee ?"
" What trust is there incompatible with affection for a
being so pure as Cecil Dynevor ? "
" Ay," murmured the old man in an undertone, " her
mother was pure, and why may not the child be worthy of
its parentage ?" He paused, and a long, and, on the part
of Lionel, a painful and embarrassing silence succeeded,
which was at length broken by Ralph, who said, abruptly
— "you were in the field to-day, Major Lincoln."
"Of that you must be certain, as I owe my life to your
kind interposition. But why have you braved the danger
of an arrest, by trusting your person in the power of the
troops ? Your presence and activity among the Americans
must be known to many in the army besides myself."
"And would they think of searching for their enemies
within the streets of Boston, when the hills without are
filling with armed men ? My residence in this building is
known only to the woman below, who dare not betray me,
her worthy son, and to you. My movements are secret
and sudden, when men least expect them. Danger cannot
touch such as I."
"But," said Lionel, hesitating with embarrassment,
"ought I to conceal the presence of one whom I know to
be inimical to my king?"
" Lionel Lincoln, you overrate your courage," inter-
rupted Ralph, smiling in scorn — "you dare not shed the
blood of him who has spared your own ; — but enough of
this — we understand each other, and one old as I ghoul^
be a stranger to fear ?"
"No, no," said a low, solemn voice, from a dark corner
144 LIONEL LINCOLN.
of the apartment, where Job had stolen unseen, and was
now nestled in security — "you can't frighten Ralph!"
" The boy is a worthy boy, and he knows good from evil ;
what more is necessary to man in this wicked world ? "
muttered Ralph, in those quick and indistinct tones that
characterized his manner.
"Whence came you, fellow, and why did you abandon
me so abruptly?" demanded Lionel.
"Job has just been into the market, to see if he couldn't
find something that might be good for Nab," returned the
lad.
" Think not to impose on me with this nonsense ! Is
food to be purchased at any hour of the night, though you
had the means ? "
" Now that is convincing the king's officers don't know
every thing," said the simpleton, laughing within him-
self— " here's as good a pound bill, old tenor, as was
ever granted by the Bay colony ; and meat's no such rarity,
that a man, who has a pound bill, old tenor, in his pocket,
can't go under old Funnel when he pleases, for all their
acts of Parliament."
"You have plundered the dead!" cried Lionel, observ-
ing that Job exhibited in his hand several pieces of silver,
besides the note he had mentioned.
" Don't call Job a thief ! " said the lad, with a threatening
air ; " there's law in the Bay yet, though the people don't
use it ; and right will be done to all, when the time comes.
Job shot a granny, but he's no thief."
"You were then paid for your secret errand, last night,
foolish boy ; and have been tempted to run into danger by
money. Let it be the last time — in future, when you want,
come to me for assistance."
"Job won't go of a'r'nds for the king, if he'd give him
his golden crown, with all its di'monds and flauntiness, un-
less Job pleases, for there's no law for it."
Lionel, with a view to appease the irritated lad, now
made a few kind and conciliating remarks, but the change-
ling did not deign to reply, falling back in his corner in a
sullen manner, as if he would repair the fatigue of the day
by a few moments of sleep. In the meantime, Ralph had
sunk into a profound reverie, when the young soldier re-
membered that the hour was late, and he had yet obtained
no explanation of the mysterious charges. He therefore
alluded to the subject in a manner which he thought best
adapted to obtain the desired intelligence. The instant
LIONEL LINCOLN. 145
Lionel mentioned the agitation of his aunt, his companion
raised his head again, and a smile like that of fierce ex-
ultation lighted the wan face of the old man, who an-
swered, pointing with an emphatic gesture to his own
bosom —
" 'Twas here, boy, 'twas here — nothing short of the pow-
er of conscience, and a knowledge like that of mine, could
strike that woman speechless in the presence of anything
human."
" But what is this extraordinary knowledge ? I am in
some degree the natural protector of Mrs. Lechmere ; and,
independent of my individual interest in your secret, have
a right, in her behalf, to require an explanation of such
serious allegations."
"In her behalf!" repeated Ralph. "Wait, impetuous
young man, until she bids you push the inquiry — it shall
then be answered, in a voice of thunder."
" If not in justice to my aged aunt, at least remember
your repeated promises to unfold that sad tale of my own
domestic sorrows, of which you claim to be the master."
" Ay, of that, and much more, am I in possession," re-
turned the old man, smiling, as if conscious of his knowl-
edge and power ; " if you doubt it, descend and ask the
miserable tenant of this warehouse — or the guilty widow
of John Lechmere."
" Nay, I doubt nothing but my own patience ; the mo-
ments fly swiftly, and I have yet to learn ail I wish to
know."
"This is neither the time, nor is it the place, where you
are to hear the tale," returned Ralph ; " I have already said
that we shall meet beyond the colleges for that purpose."
" But after the events of this day, who can tell when it
will be in the power of an officer of the crown to visit the
colleges in safety ? "
" What ! " cried the old man, laughing aloud, in the bit-
terness of his scorn, " has the boy found the strength and
the will of the despised colonists so soon ! But I pledge
to thee my word,, that thou shalt yet see the place, and in
safety. — Yes, yes, Priscilla Lechmere, thy hour is at hand,
and thy doom is sealed forever ! "
Lionel again mentioned his aunt, and alluded to the ne*
cessity of his soon rejoining her, as he already heard foot-
steps below, which indicated that preparations were mak-
ing for her departure. But his petitions and remonstrances
were now totally unheeded; his aged companion was pacing
10
146 LIONEL LINCOLN.
swiftly up and down his small apartment, muttering inco
herent sentences, in which the name of Priscilla was alone
audible, and his countenance betraying the inward work-
ings of absorbing and fierce passions. In a few moments
more, the shrill voice of Abigail was heard calling upon
her son, in a manner which plainly denoted her knowledge
that the changeling was concealed somewhere about the
building. Job heard her calls repeated, until the tones of
her voice became angry and threatening, when he stole
slowly from his corner, and moved toward the ladder, with
a sunken brow and lingering steps. Lionel now knew not
how to act. His aunt was still ignorant of his presence,
and he thought if Abigail Pray had wished him to appear,
he would in some manner be soon included in the sum-
mons. He had also his own secret reasons for wishing his
visits to Ralph unknown. Accordingly, he determined to
watch the movements below, under the favor of the dark-
ness, and to be governed entirely by circumstances. He
took no leave of his companion on departing, for long use
had so far accustomed him to the eccentric manner of the
old man, that he well knew any attempt to divert his at-
tention from his burning thoughts, would be futile at a
.moment of such intense excitement.
From the head of the ladder, where Lionel took his
stand, he saw Mrs. Lechmere, preceded by Job with a
lantern, walking, with a firmer step than he could have
hoped for, toward the door, and he overheard Abigail
cautioning her wilful son to light her visitor to a neigh-
boring corner, where it appeared a conveyance was in
waiting. On the threshold, his aunt turned, and, the light
from the candle of Abigail falling on her features, Lionel
caught a full view of her cold, hard eye, which had regained
all its worldly expression, though softened a little by a
deeper shade of thought than usual.
" Let the scene of to-night be forgotten, my good
Abigail," she said. " Your lodger is a nameless being,
who has gleaned some idle tale, and wishes to practise on
our credulity to enrich himself. I will consider more of
it ; but on no account do you hold any further communion
with him— I must remove you, my trusty woman ; this
habitation" is unworthy of you, and of your dutiful son,
too — I must see you better lodged, my good Abigail, in-
deed I must."
Lionel could distinguish the slight shudder that passed
through the frame of her companion, as she alluded to
LIONEL LINCOLN. 147
the doubtful character of Ralph ; but, without answering,
Abigail held the door open for the departure of her guest.
The instant Mrs. Lechmere disappeared, Lionel glided
down the ladder, and stood before the astonished woman.
"When I tell you I have heard all that passed to-night,"
he abruptly said, " you will see the folly of any further
attempt at concealment — I now demand so much of your
secret as affects the happiness of me or mine."
" No — no — not of me, Major Lincoln," said the terrified
female — " not. of me, for the love of God, not of me — I
have sworn to keep it, and one oath— — ' Her emotions
choked her, and her voice became indistinct.
Lionel regretted his vehemence, and, ashamed to ex-
tort a confession from a woman, he attempted to pacify
her feelings, promising to require no further communica-
tion at that time.
"Go— go"— she said, motioning him to depart, "and I
shall be well again — leave me, and then I shall be alone
with that terrible old man, and my God ! "
Perceiving her earnestness, he reluctantly complied, and,
meeting Job on the threshold, he ceased to feel any further
uneasiness for her safety.
During his rapid walk to Tremont Street, Major Lincoln
thought intently on all he had heard and witnessed. He
remembered the communications by which Ralph had
attained such a powerful interest in his feelings, and he
fancied he could discover a pledge of the truth of the old
man's knowledge in the guilt betrayed by the manner of
his aunt. From Mrs. Lechmere his thoughts recurred to
her lovely grandchild, and for a moment he was perplexed,
by endeavoring to explain her contradictory deportment
toward himself ; — at one time she was warm, frank, and
even affectionate ; and at another, as in the short and pri-
vate interview7 of that very evening, cold, constrained, and
repulsive. Then, again, he recollected the object which
had chiefly induced him to follow his regiment to his
native country ; and the recollection was attended by that
shade of dejection which such reflections never failed to
cast across his intelligent features. On reaching the
house, he ascertained the safe return of Mrs. Lechmere,
who had already retired to her room, attended by her
lovely relatives. Lionel immediately followed their ex-
ample ; and as the excitement of that memorable and busy
day subsided, it was succeeded by a deep sleep, and fell on
his senses like the forgetfulness of the dead,
I48 LIONEL LINCOLN.
CHAPTER XIII.
"Now let it work : Mischief, thou art afoot :
Take thou what course thou wilt ! " — SHAKESPEARE.
THE alarm of the inroad passed swiftly by the low shores
of the Atlantic, and was heard echoing among the rugged
mountains west of tjie rivers, as if borne along on a whirl-
wind. The male population, between the rolling waters
of Massachusetts Bay and the limpid stream of the Con-
necticut, rose as one man ; and as the cry of blood was
sounded far inland, the hills and valleys, the highways and
footpaths, were seen covered with bands of armed husband-
men, pressing eagerly toward the scene of the war. Within
eight- and-forty hours after the fatal meeting at Lexington,
it was calculated that more than a hundred thousand men
were in arms ; and near one-fourth of that number was
gathered before the peninsulas of Boston and Charlestown.
They who were precluded by distance, and a want of mili-
tary provisions, to support such a concourse, from partici-
pating in the more immediate contest, lay by in expecta-
tion of the arrival of that moment when their zeal might
also be put to severer trials. In short, the sullen quietude,
in which the colonies had been slumbering for a year, was
suddenly and rudely broken by the events of that day ;
and the patriotic among the people rose with such a cry of
indignation on their lips, that the disaffected, who were no
insignificant class in the more southern provinces, were
compelled to silence, until the first burst of revolutionary
excitement had an opportunity to subside, under the never-
failing influence of time and suffering.
Gage, secure in his positions, and supported by a con-
stantly increasing power, as well as the presence of a for-
midable fleet, looked on the gathering storm with a steady
eye, and with that calmness which distinguished the mild
benevolence of his private character. Though the attitude
and the intentions of the Americans could no longer be
mistaken, he listened with reluctant ears to the revengeful
advice of his counsellors, and rather strove to appease the
tumult, than to attempt crushing it by a force, which,
though a month before it had been thought equal to the
united power of the peaceful colonists, he now prudently
deemed no more than competent to protect itself within its
LIONEL LINCOLN. 149
watery boundaries. Proclamations were, however, ful-
minated against the rebels ; and such other measures as
were thought indispensable to assert the dignity and au-
thority of the crown, were promptly adopted. Of course,
these harmless denunciations were disregarded, and all his'
exhortations to return to an allegiance, which the people
still denied had ever been impaired, were lost amid the
din of arms, and the popular cries of the time. These ap-
peals of the British general, as well as sundry others, made
by the royal governors, who yet held their rule throughout
all the provinces, except the one in which the scene of our
tale is laid, were answered by the people in humble, but
manly petitions to the throne for justice ; and in loud re-
monstrances to the Parliament, requiring to be restored to
the possession of those rights and immunities, which'should
be secured to all who enjoyed the protection of their com-
mon constitution. Still the power and prerogatives of
the prince were deeply respected, and were alluded to in
all public documents, with the veneration which was
thought due to the sacredness of his character and station.
But that biting, though grave sarcasm, which the colonists
knew so well how to use, was freely expended on his
ministers, who were accused of devising the measures so
destructive to the peace of the empire. In this manner
passed some weeks after the series of skirmishes which
were called the battle of Lexington, from the circum-
stance of commencing at the hamlet of that name, both
parties continuing to prepare for a mightier exhibition of
their power and daring.
Lionel had by no means been an unconcerned spectator
of these preparations. The morning after the return of
the detachment, he applied for a command equal to his
just expectations. But while he was complimented on the
spirit and loyalty he had manifested on the late occasion,
it was intimated to the young man that he might be of
more service to the cause of his prince by devoting his
time to the cultivation of his interest among those power-
ful colonists with whom his family was allied by blood, or
connected by long and close intimacies. It was even sub-
mitted to his own judgment whether it would not be well,
at some auspicious moment, to trust his person without
the defences of the army, in the prosecution of this com-
mendable design. There was so much that was flattering
to the self-love, and soothing to the pride of the young
soldier, artfully mingled with these ambiguous proposals,
150 LIONEL LINCOLN.
that he became content to await the course of events, having,
however, secured a promise of obtaining a suitable military
command in the case of further hostilities. That such an
event was at hand, could not well be concealed from one
much less observing than Major Lincoln.
Gage had already abandoned his temporary position in
Charlestown, for the sake of procuring additional security
by concentrating his force. From the hills of the penin-
sula of Boston, it was apparent that the colonists were fast
assuming the front of men who were resolved to beleaguer
the army of the king. Many of the opposite heights were
already crowned with hastily-formed works of earth, and a
formidable body of these unpractised warriors had set
themselves boldly down before the entrance to the isth-
mus, cutting off all communication with the adjacent
country, and occupying the little village of Roxbury, di-
rectly before the muzzles of the British guns, with a hardi-
ness that would not have disgraced men much longer tried
in the field, and more inured to its dangers.
The surprise created in the army by these appearances of
skill and spirit among the hitherto despised Americans, in
some measure ceased when the rumor spread itself in their
camp that many gentlemen of the provinces, who had served
with credit in the forces of the crown, at former periods, were
mingled with the people in stations of responsibility and
command. Among others Lionel heard the names of Ward
and Thomas ; men of liberal attainments, and of some ex-
perience in arms. Both were regularly commissioned by
the congress of the colony as leaders of their forces ; and
under their orders were numerous regiments duly organ-
ized ; possessing all the necessary qualifications of soldiers,
excepting the two indispensable requisites of discipline
and arms. Lionel heard the name of Warren mentioned
oftener than any other in the circles of Province-House,
and with the sort of bitterness, which, even while it be-
spoke their animosity, betrayed the respect of his ene-
mies. This gentleman, who until the last moment, had
braved the presence of the royal troops, and fearlessly ad-
vocated his principles, while encircled with their bayo-
nets, was now known to have suddenly disappeared from
among them, abandoning home, property, and a lucrative
profession ; and by sharing in the closing scenes of the
day of Lexington, to have fairly cast his fortunes on the
struggle. But the name which in secret possessed the
greatest charm for the ear of the young British soldier,
LIONEL LINCOLN. 151
was that of Putnam, a yeoman of the neighboring colony
of Connecticut, who, as the uproar of the alarm whirled
by him, literally deserted his plough, and mounting a beast
from its team, made an early halt, after a forced march of
a hundred miles, in the foremost ranks of his countrymen.
While the name of this sturdy American was passing in
whispers among the veterans who crowded the levees of
Gage, a flood of melancholy and tender recollections
flashed through the brain of the young man. He remem-
bered the frequent and interesting communications which,
in his boyhood, he had held with his own father, before
the dark shade had passed across the reason of Sir Lionel,
and, in every tale of murderous combats ^with the savage
tenants of the wilds, in each scene of danger and of daring
that had distinguished the romantic warfare of the wilder-
ness, and even in strange and fearful encounters with the
beasts of the forest, the name of this man was blended
with a species of chivalrous fame that is seldom obtained
in an enlightened age, and never undeservedly. The great
wealth of the family of Lincoln, and the high expectations
of its heir, had obtained for the latter a military rank
which at that period was rarely enjoyed by any but such
as had bought the distinction by long and arduous ser-
vices. Consequently, many of his . equals had shared in
those trials of his father, in which the * Lion heart ' of
America had been so conspicuous for his deeds. By these
grave veterans, who should know him best, the name o*
Putnam was always mentioned with strong and romantic
affection ; and when the notable scheme of detaching him,
by the promise of office and wealth, from the cause of the
colonists was proposed by the cringing counsellors who
surrounded the commander-in-chief, it was listened to with
a contemptuous incredulity by the former' associates of the
old partisan, that the result of the plan fully justified.
Similar inducements were offered to others among the
Americans, whose talents were thought worthy of pur-
chase ; but so deep root had the principles of the day taken,
that not a man was found to listen to the proposition.
While these subtle experiments were adopted in the
room of more energetic measures, troops continued to ar-
rive from England, and, before the end of May, many lead-
ers of renown appeared in the councils of Gage, who now
possessed a disposable force of not less than eight thou-
sand bayonets. -With the appearance of these reinforce-
ments, the fallen pride of the army began to revive, and
,52 LIONEL LINCOLN.
the spirits of the haughty young men, who had so recently
left the gay parades of their boasted island, were chafed
by the reflection that such an army should be cooped
within the narrow limits of the peninsula by a band of
half-armed husbandmen, destitute alike of the knowledge
of war, and of most of its munitions. This feeling was
increased by the taunts of the Americans themselves, who
now turned the tables on their adversaries, applying,
among other sneers, the term of " elbow-room" freely to
Burgoyne, one of those chieftains of the royal army, who
had boasted unwittingly of the intention of himself and
his compeers to widen the limits of the army immediately
on their arrival at the scene of the contest. The aspect of
things within trie British camp began to indicate, how-
ever, that their leaders were serious in the intention to
extend their possessions, and all eyes were again turned
to the heights of Charlestown, the spot most likely to be
first occupied.
No military positions could be more happily situated, as
respects locality, to support each other, and to extend and
weaken the lines of their enemies, than the two opposite
peninsulas so often mentioned. The distance between
them was but six hundred yards, and the deep and navi-
gable waters, by which they were nearly surrounded, ren-
dered it easy for the royal general to command, at any
time, the assistance of the heaviest vessels of the fleet, in
defending either place. With these advantages before them,
the army gladly heard those orders issued, which, it was
well understood, indicated an approaching movement to
the opposite shores.
It was now eight weeks since the commencement of hos-
tilities, and the war had been confined to the preparations
detailed, with the exception of one or two sharp skir-
mishes on the islands of the harbor, between the foragers
of the army, and small parties of the Americans,- in which
the latter well maintained their newly acquired reputation
for spirit.
With the arrival of the regiments from England gayety
had once more visited the town, though such of the inhab-
itants as were compelled to remain against their inclina-
tions, continued to maintain that cold reserve, in their de-
portment, which effectually repelled all the efforts of the
officers to include them in the wanton festivities of the
time. There were a few, however, among the colonists,
who had been bribed, by offices and emoluments, to desert
LIONEL LINCOLN. 153
the good cause of the land ; and 'as some of these had al-
ready been rewarded by offices which gave them access to
the ear of the royal governor, he was thought to be unduly
and unhappily influenced by the pernicious counsels with
which they poisoned his mind, and prepared him for acts
of injustice and harshness, that both his unbiassed feelings
and ordinary opinions would have condemned. A few
days succeeding the affair of Lexington, a meeting of the
inhabitants had been convened, and a solemn compact
was made between them and the governor, that such as
chose to deliver up their arms might leave the place, while
the remainder were promised a suitable protection in their
own dwellings. The arms were delivered, but that part of
the conditions which related to the removal of the inhabi-
tants was violated under slight and insufficient pretexts.
This, and various other causes incidental to military rule,
imbittered.the feelings of the people, and furnished new
causes of complaint ; while, on the other hand, hatred was
rapidly usurping the place of contempt, in the breasts of
those who had been compelled to change their sentiments
with respect to a people that they could never love. In
this manner, resentment and distrust existed, with all the
violence of personality, within the place itself, affording
an additional reason to the troops for wishing to extend
their limits. Notwithstanding these inauspicious omens
of the character of the contest, the native kindness of
Gage, and perhaps a desire to rescue a few of his own men
from the hands of the colonists, induced him to consent to
an exchange of the prisoners made in the inroad ; thus es-
tablishing, in the outset, a precedent to distinguish the
controversy from an ordinary rebellion against the loyal
authority of the sovereign. A meeting was held, for this
purpose, in the village of Charlestown, at that time unoc-
cupied by either army. At the head of the American dep-
utation appeared Warren, and the old partisan of the
wilderness already mentioned, who, by a 'happy, though
not uncommon constitution of temperament, wras as for-
ward in deeds of charity as in those of daring. At this in-
terview, several of the veterans of the royal army were
present, having passed the strait to hold a last, friendly
converse with their ancient comrade, who received them
with the frankness of a soldier, while he rejected their
subtle endeavors to entice him from the banners under
which he had enlisted, with a sturdiness as unpretending
as it was inflexible.
,54 LIONEL LINCOLN.
While these events were occurring at the great scene
of the contest, the hum of preparation was to be heard
throughout the whole of the wide extent of the colonies.
In various places slight acts of hostility were committed,
the Americans no longer waiting for the British to be the
aggressors, and everywhere such military stores as could
be reached, were seized, peaceably or by violence, as the
case required. The concentration of most of the troops
in Boston, had, however, left the other colonies compara-
tively but little to achieve, though, while they still rested,
nominally, under the dominion of the crown, they neglected
no means within their power to assert their rights in the
last extremity.
At Philadelphia " the Congress of the Delegates from
the United Colonies," the body that controlled the great
movements of a people, who now first began to act as a
distinct nation, issued their manifestoes, 'supporting, in a
masterly manner, their principles, and proceeded to organ-
ize an army that should be as competent to maintain them
as circumstances would allow. Gentlemen who had been
trained to arms in the service of the king, were invited to
resort to their banners, and the remainder of the vacancies
were filled by the names of the youthful, the bold, and
adventurous, who were willing to risk their lives in a cause
where even success promised so little personal advantage.
At the head of this list of untrained warriors, the congress
placed one of their own body, a man already distinguished
for his services in the field, and who has since bequeathed
to his country the glory of an untarnished name.
CHAPTER XIV.
c<Thou shalt meet me at Philippi. " — Julius Ctzsar.
DURING this period of feverish excitement, while the
appearance and privations of war existed with so little of
its danger or its action, Lionel had not altogether forgotten
his personal feelings, in the powerful interest created by the
state of public affairs. Early on the morning succeeding
the night of the scene between Mrs. Lechmere and the in-
mates of the warehouse, he had repaired again to the spot,
to relieve the intense anxiety of his mind, by seeking a
complete explanation of all those mysteries, which had
LIONEL LINCOLN. 155
been the principal ligament that bound him to a man, little
known, except for his singularities.
The effects of the preceding day's battle were already
visible in the market-place, where, as Lionel passed, he
saw few or none of the countrymen, who usually crowded
the square at that hour. In fact, the windows of the shops,
were opened with caution, and men looked out upon the
face of the sun, as if doubting of its appearance and
warmth, as in seasons of ordinary quiet ; jealousy and dis-
trust having completely usurped the place of security
within the streets of the town. Notwithstanding the hour,
few were in their beds, and those who appeared betrayed
by their looks that they had passed the night in watchful-
ness. Among this number was Abigail Pray, who re-
ceived her guest in her little tower, surrounded by every-
thing as he had seen it on the past evening, nothing al-
tered, except her own dark eye, which at times looked like
a gem of price set in her squalid features, but which now
appeared haggard and sunken, participating, more marked-
ly than common, in the general air of misery that pervad-
ed the woman.
" I have intruded at a somewhat unusual hour, Mrs.
Pray,", said Lionel, as he entered; "but business of the
last moment requires that I should see your lodger — 1
suppose he is above ; it will be well to announce my
visit."
Abigail shook her head with an air of solemn meaning,
as she answered in a subdued voice, " He is gone !"
" Gone ! " exclaimed Lionel — "whither, and when ? "
" The people seem visited by the wrath of God, sir ; *
returned the woman — " old and young, the sick and well,
are crazy about the shedding of blood : and it's beyond
the might of man to say where the torrent will be stayed !"
"But what has this to do with Ralph? where is he?
Woman, you are not playing me false ? "
" I ! heaven forbid that I should ever be false again !
and to you least of all God's creatures ! No, no, Major
Lincoln ; the wonderful man, who seems to have lived so
long that he can even read our secret thoughts, as I had
supposed man could never read them, has left me, and I
know not whether he will ever return."
" Ever ! you have not driven him by violence from
under your miserable roof ? "
<{My roof is like that of the fowls of the air — 'tis the
roof of any who are so unfortunate as to need it. — There is
156 LIONEL LINCOLN.
no spot on earth, Major Lincoln, that I can call mine--,
but one day there will be one — yes, yes, there will be a
narrow house provided for us all ; and God grant that
mine may be as quiet as the coffin is said to be ! I lie not,
Major Lincoln — no, this time I am innocent of deceit —
Ralph and Job have gone together, but whither, I know
not, unless it be to join the people without the town — they
left me as the moon rose, and he gave me a parting and a
warning voice, that will ring in my ears until they are
deafened by the damps of the grave ! "
" Gone to join the Americans, and with Job ! " returned
Lionel, musing, and without attending to the closing
words of Abigail. — "Your boy will purchase peril with
this madness, Mrs. Pray, and should be looked to."
" Job is not one of God's accountables, nor is he to be
treated like other children," returned the woman. " Ah !
Major Lincoln, a healthier, and a stouter, and a finer boy
was not to be seen in the Bay province, till the child had
reached his fifth year ! then, then it was that the judgment
of heaven fell on mother and son — sickness made him
what you see, a being with the form, but without the
reason of man, and I have grown the wretch I am. But it
has all been foretold, and warnings enough have I had of
it all ! for is it not said, that He ' will visit the sins of the
fathers upon the children until the third and fourth gen-
eration ? ' Thank God, my sorrows and sins will end
with Job, for there never can be a third to suffer ! "
" If," said Lionel, "there be any sin which lies heavy at
your heart, every consideration, whether of justice or re-
pentance, should induce you to confess your errors to
those whose happiness may be affected by the knowledge,
if any such there be."
The anxious eye of the woman raised itself to meet the
look of the young man ; but, quailing before the piercing
gaze it encountered, she quickly turned it upon the litter
and confusion of her disordered apartment. Lionel waited
some time for a reply, but finding that she remained ob-
stinately silent, he continued —
" From what has already passed, you must be conscious
that I have good reason to believe, that my feelings are
deeply concerned in your secret ; make, then, your confes-
sion of the guilt which seems to bear you down so heavily ;
and in return for the confidence, I promise you my forgive*
ness and protection."
As Lionel pressed thus directly the point so near his
LIONEL LINCOLN. 157
heart, the woman shrunk away from her situation near
him, and her countenance lost, as he proceeded, its remark-
able expression of compunction, in a forced look of deep
surprise, that showed she was no novice in dissimulation,
whatever might be the occasional warnings of her con-
science.
" Guilt ! " she repeated, in a slow and tremulous voice ;
" we are all guilty, and would be lost creatures, but for the
blood of the Mediator."
l< Most true ; but you have spoken of crimes that infringe
the laws of man, as well as those of God."
" I ! Major Lincoln — I a disorderly law-breaker ? " ex-
claimed Abigail, affecting to busy herself in arranging her
apartment — " it is not such as I, that have leisure or cour-
age to break the laws ! Major Lincoln is trying a poor lone
woman, to make his jokes with the gentlemen of his mess
this evening — 'tis certain we all of us have our burdens of
guilt to answer for — surely Major Lincoln couldn't have
heard minister Hunt preach his sermon, the last Sabbath,
on the sins of the town ! "
Lionel colored highly at the artful imputation of the
woman, that he was practising on her sex and unprotected
situation ; and, greatly provoked, in secret, at her duplicity,
he became more guarded in his language, endeavoring to
lead her on, by kindness and soothing, to the desired com-
munications. But all his ingenuity was met by more than
equal abilities on the part of Abigail, from whom he
only obtained expressions of surprise, that he could have
mistaken her language for more than the usual acknowl-
edgment of errors, that are admitted to be common to our
lost nature. In this particular, the woman was in no re-
spect singular ; the greater number of those, who are
loudest in their confessions and denunciations on the aban-
doned nature of our hearts, commonly resenting, in the
deepest manner, the imputation of individual offences.
The more earnest and pressing his inquiries became, the
more wary she grew, until, disgusted with her pertinacity,
and secretly suspecting her of foul play with her lodger, he
left the house in anger, determining to keep a close eye on
her movements, and, at a suitable moment, to strike such
a blow as should bring her not only to confession, but to
shame.
Under the influence of this momentary resentment, and
unable to avoid harboring the most unpleasant suspicions
of his aunt, the young man determined, that very morning
/58 LIONEL LINCOLN.
to withdraw himself entirely, as a guest, from her dwelling.
Mrs. Lechmere, who, if she knew at all that Lionel had
been a witness of her intercourse with Ralph, must have
received the intelligence from Abigail, received him, at
breakfast, with a manner that betrayed no such conscious-
ness. She listened to his excuses for removing, with evi-
dent concern ; and more than once, as Lionel spoke of the
probable nature of his future life, now that hostilities had
•commenced — the additional trouble his presence would
occasion to one of her habits and years — of his great con-
cern in her behalf — and, in short, of all that he could de-
vise in the way of apology for the step, he saw her eyes
turned anxiously on Cecil with an expression which, at
another time, might have led him to distrust the motives
of her hospitality. The young lady, herself, however, evi-
dently heard the proposal with great satisfaction, and,
when her grandmother appealed to her opinion, whether
he had urged a single good reason for the measure, she an-
swered with a vivacity that had been a stranger to her man-
ner of late —
"Certainly, my dear grandmamma — the best of all
reasons — his inclinations. Major Lincoln tires of us, and
of our humdrum habits, and — and in my eyes, true polite-
ness requires, that we should suffer him to leave us for his
barracks, without a word of remonstrance."
" My motive must be greatly mistaken, if a desire to
leave you —
" Oh ! sir, the explanation is not required. You have
urged so many reasons, cousin Lionel, that the true and
moving motive is yet kept behind the curtain. It must,
and can be no other than ennui."
"Then I will remain," said Lionel; ufor anything is
better than to be suspected of insensibility."
Cecil looked both gratified and disappointed— she played
with her spoon a moment in embarrassment, bit her beau-
tiful lip with vexation, and then said, in a more friendly
tone —
" I must then exonerate you from the imputation. Go
to your own quarters, if it be agreeable, and we will be-
lieve your incomprehensible reasons for the change —
besides, as a kinsman, we shall see you every day, you
know."
Lionel had now no longer any excuse for not abiding
by his avowed determination ; and, notwithstanding Mrs.
Lechmere parted from her interesting nephew with an
LIONEL LINCOLN. I5g
exhibition of reluctance that was in singular contrast with
fcer usually cold and formal manner, the desired removal
was made* in the course of that very morning.
When this change was accomplished, week after week
slipped by, in the manner related in the preceding chapter,
during which the reinforcements continued to arrive, and
general after general appeared in the place to support the
unenterprising Gage in the con'duct of the wrar. The timid
amongst the colonists were appalled as they heard the long
list of proud and boasted names recounted. There was
Howe, a man sprung from a noble race, long known for
their deeds in arms, and whose chief had already shed his
blood on the soil of America — Clinton, another cadet of an
illustrious house, better known for his personal intrepidity
and domestic kindness, than for the rough qualities of the
warrior — and the elegant and accomplished Burgoyne, who
had already purchased a name in the fields of Portugal and
Germany, which he was destined soon to lose in the wilds
of America. In addition to these might be mentioned
Pigot, Grant, Robertson, and the heir of Northumberland,
each of whom led a brigade in the cause of his prince ; be-
sides a host of men of lesser note, who had passed their
youth in arms, and were now about to bring their experi-
ence to the field, in opposition to the untrained husband-
men of the plains of New England. As if this list were
not sufficient to overwhelm their inexperienced adversaries,
the pride of arms had gathered many of the young among
the noble and chivalric in the British empire, to the point
on which all eyes were turned ; amongst whom the one who
afterward added the fairest wreath to the laurels of his an-
cestors, was the joint heir of Hastings and Moira, the gal-
lant, but, as yet, untried boy of Rawdon. Amongst such
companions, many of whom had been his associates in Eng-
land, the hours of Lionel passed swiftly by, leaving him
but little leisure to meditate on those causes which had
brought him also to the scene of contention.
One warm evening, toward the middle of June, Lionel
became a witness of the following scene, through the open
doors which communicated between his private apartment
and the room which Pplwarth had dedicated to what he
called " the knowing mess." M'Fuse was seated at a table,
with a ludicrous air of magisterial authority, while Pol-
warth held a station at his side, which appeared to partake
of the double duties of a judge ancTa scribe. Before this
formidable tribunal Seth Sage was arraigned, as it would
160 LIONEL LINCOLN.
seem, to answer for certain offences alleged to have been
committed in the field of battle. Ignorant that his land*
lord had not received the benefit of the late exchange, and
curious to know what all the suppressed roguery he could
detect in the demure countenances of his friends might
signify, Lionel dropped his pen, and listened to the suc-
ceeding dialogue.
"Now answer to your offences, thou silly fellow, with a
wise name," M'Fuse commenced, in a voice that did not
fail, by its harsh cadences, to create some of that awe, which,
by the expression of the speaker's eye, it would seem he
labored to produce — " speak out with the freedom of a
man, and the compunctions of a Christian, if you have
them. Why should I not send you at once to Ireland,
that ye may get your deserts on three pieces of timber,
the one being laid cross-wise for the sake of conA^eni-
ence ? 'If you have a contrary reason, bestow it without
delay, for the love you bear your own angular daiformi-
ties."
The wags did not altogether fail in their object, Seth be-
traying a good deal more uneasiness than it was usual for
the man to exhibit even in situations of uncommon peril.
After clearing his throat, and looking about him, to gather
from the eyes of the spectators wThich way their sympathies
inclined, he answered with a very commendable fortitude —
"Because it's ag'in all law."
" Have done with your interminable perplexities of the
law," cried M'Fuse, "and do not bother honest gentle-
men with its knavery, as if they were no more than so
many proctors in big wigs ! 'tis the gospel you should be
thinking of, you godless reprobate, on account of that
final end you will yet make, one day, in a most indecent
hurry."
"To your purpose, Mac," interrupted Polwarth, who
perceived that the erratic feelings of his friend were begin-
ning already to lead him from the desired point ; " or I will
propound the matter myself, in a style that would do credit
to a mandamus counsellor."
" The mandamuses are all ag'in the charter, and the law
too," continued Seth, whose courage increased as the dia-
logue bore more directly upon his political principles —
"and to my mind it's quite convincing, that if ministers
calculate largely on upholding them, there will be great
disturbances, if not a proper fight in the land ; for the
whole country is -in a blaze ! "
LIONEL LINCOLN; 161
" Disturbances, thou immovable iniquity ! thou quiet
assassin!" roared M'Fuse ; "do ye not call a light of a
day a disturbance ? — or do ye tarm skulking behind fences,
and laying the muzzle of a musket on the head of Job
Pray, and the breech on a mullein-stalk, while ye draw upon
a fellow-creature, a commendable method of fighting?
Now answer me to the truth, and disdain all lying, as ye
would 'ating anything but cod on a Saturday, who were
the two men that fired into my very countenance, from the
unfortunate situation among the mulleins that I have de-
tailed to you ? "
"Pardon me, Captain M'Fuse," said Polwarth, "if I say
that your zeal and indignation run ahead of your discre-
tion. If we alarm the prisoner in this manner, we may
defeat the ends of justice. Besides, sir, there is a reflec-
tion contained in your language, to which I must dissent.
A real dumb is not to be despised, especially when served
up in wrapper, and between two coarser fish, to preserve
the steam — I have had my private meditations on the sub-
ject of getting up a Saturday's club, in order to enjoy the
bounty of tiie Bay, and for improving the cookery of the
cod ! " *
''And let me tell you, Captain Polwarth," returned the
grenadier, cocking his eye fiercely at the other, " that your
epicurean propensities lead you to the verge of cannibal-
ism ; for sure it may be called that, when you speak of
'ating, while the life of a fellow-cr'ature is under a discus-
sion for its termination "
" I conclude," interrupted Seth, who was greatly averse
to all quarrelling, and who thought he saw the symptoms
of a breach between his judges, "the captain wishes to
know who the two men were that fired on him a short
time before he got the hit in the shoulder?"
" A short time, ye marvellous hypocrite ! — 'twas as quick
as pop and slap could make it." •
" Perhaps there might be some mistake, for a great many
of the troops were much disguised —
" Do ye insinuate that I got drunk before the enemies of
* NOTE. — It may be a fit matter of inquiry for the antiquarian, to
learn whether the captain ever put his project in execution ; and, if so,
whether he has not the merit of founding that famous association, which,
to this hour, maintains the Catholic custom of the east, by feasting on the
last day of the week on the staple of New England ; and which is -said to
assemble regularly, with much good-fellowship, around more good wine
than is ever encountered at any other board in the known world.
II
1 62 LIONEL LINCOLN.
my king?" roared the grenadier — " Harkye, Master Sage;
I ask you in a genteel way, who the two men were that
fired on me, in the manner detailed ; and remember that a
man may tire of putting questions which are never an-
swered."
"Why," returned Seth, who, however expert at prevari-
cation, eschewed, with religious horror, a direct lie — " I
pretty much conclude that they — the captain is sure the
place he means was just beyond Menotomy ?"
" As sure as men can be," said Polwarth, "who possess
the use of their eyes."
"Then Captain Polwarth can give testimony to the
fact ?"
"I believe Major Lincoln's horse carries a small bit of
your lead to this moment, Master Sage."
Seth yielded to this accumulation of evidence against
him ; and knowing, moreover, that the grenadier had liter-
ally made him a prisoner in the fact of renewing his fire,
he sagaciously determined to make a merit of necessity,
and candidly to acknowledge his agency in inflicting the
wounds. The utmost, however, that his cautious habits
would permit him to say, was —
" Seeing there can't well be any mistake, I seem to think
the two men were chiefly Job and I."
" Chaifly, you lath of uncertainty ! " exclaimed M'Fuse ;
"if there was any chaif in that cowardly assassination of
wounding a Christian, and of also hurting a horse — which,
though nothing but a dumb baste, has better blood than
runs in your own beggarly veins — 'twas your own ugly
proportions. But I rejoice that you have come to the con-
fessional! I can now see you hung with felicity— if you
have anything to say, urge it at once, why I should not
embark you for Ireland by the first vessel, in a letter to
my lord-lieutenant, with a request that he'll give you an
early procession, and a dacent funeral."
Seth belonged to a class of his countrymen, amongst
whom, while there was a superabundance of ingenuity,
there was literally no joke. Deceived by the appearance
of anger, which had in reality blended with the assumed
manner of the grenadier, as he dwelt upon the irritating
subject of his own injuries, the belief of the prisoner in
the sacred protection of the laws became much shaken,
and he began to reflect very seriously on the insecurity of
the times, as well as on the despotic nature of the military
power. The little humor he had inherited from his puritan
LIONEL LINCOLN 163
ancestors, was, though exceedingly quaint, altogether after
a different fashion from the off-hand, blundering wit of the
Irishman ; and that manner which he did not possess, he
could not entirely comprehend, so that, as far as a very
visible alarm furthered the views of the two conspirators,
they were quite successful. Polwarth now took pity on
his evident embarrassment, and observed, with a careless
manner —
" Perhaps I can make a proposal, by which Mr. Sage
may redeem his neck from the halter, and at the same time
essentially serve an old friend."
" Hear ye that, thou confounder of men and bastes ! "
cried M'Fuse — "down on your knees, and thank Mr.
Paiter Polwarth for the charity of his insinuation."
Seth was not displeased to hear such amicable inten-
tions announced ; but, habitually cautious in all bargain-
ing, he suppressed the exhibition of his satisfaction, and
said, with an air of deliberation that would have done
credit to the keenest trader in King Street — that " he should
like to hear the terms of the agreement, before he gave
his conclusion."
" They are simply these," returned Polwarth — "you shall
receive your passports and freedom to-night, on condition
that you sign this bond, whereby you will become obliged
to supply our mess, as usual, during the time the place is
invested, writh certain articles of food and nourishment,
as herein set forth, and according to the prices mentioned,
which the veriest Jew in Duke's Place would pronounce
to be liberal. Here ; take the instrument, and 'read, and
mark,' in order that we may * inwardly digest.' "
Seth took the paper, and gave it that manner of investi-
gation that he was wont to bestow on everything which
affected his pecuniary interests. He objected to the price
of every article, all of which were altered in compliance
with his obstinate resistance ; and he moreover insisted,
that a clause should be inserted to exonerate him from the
penalty, provided the intercourse should be prohibited by
the authorities of the colony ; after which he continued — •
"If the captain will agree to take charge of the things,
and become liable, I will conclude to make the trade."
" Here is a fellow who wants boot in a bargain for his
life ! " cried the grenadier; "but we will humor his covet-
ous inclinations, Polly, and take charge of the chattels.
Captain Polwarth and myself pledge our words to their
safe-keeping. Let me run my eyes over the articles," con-
1 64 LIONRL LINCOLN.
tinued the grenadier, looking very gravely at the several
covenants of the bond — "faith, Paiter, you have bargained
for a goodly larder ! Baif, mutton, pigs, turnips, pota-
toes, melons, and other fruits — there's a blunder, now, that
would keep an English mess on a grin for a month, if an
Irishman had made it ! as if a melon was a fruit, and a po-
tato was not ! The devil a word do I see that you have
said about a mouthful, except aitables, either ! Here, fel-
low, clap your learning to it, and I'll warrant you we yet
get a meal out of it, in some manner or other."
" Wouldn't it be as well to put the last agreement in the
writings, too," said Seth, " in case of accidents ? "
" Hear how a knave halters himself ! " cried M'Fuse ;
" he has the individual honor of two captains of foot, and
is willing to exchange it- for their joint bond ! The request
is too raisonable to be denied, Polly, and we should be
guilty of pecuniary suicide to reject it ; so place a small
article at the bottom, explanatory of the mistake the gen-
tleman has fallen into."
Polwarth did not hesitate to comply, and in a very few
minutes everything was arranged to the perfect satisfaction
of the parties ; the two soldiers felicitating themselves on
the success of a scheme which seemed to avert the prin-
cipal evils of the leaguer from their own mess ; and Seth
finding no difficulty in complying with an agreement,
which was likely to prove so profitable, however much he
doubted its validity in a court of justice. The prisoner was
now declared at liberty, and was advised to make his way
out of the place, with as little noise as possible, and under
favor of the pass he held. Seth gave the bond a last and
most attentive perusal, and then departed, well contented
to abide by its conditions, and not a little pleased to escape
from the grenadier, the expression of whose half-comic,
half-serious eye, occasioned him more perplexity than any
other subject which had ever before occupied his astute-
ness. After the disappearance of the prisoner, the two
worthies repaired to their nightly banquet, laughing heart-
ily at the success of their notable invention.
Lionel suffered Seth to pass from the room, without
speaking ; but, as the man left his own abode with a lin-
gering and doubtful step, the young soldier followed him
into the street, without communicating to any one that he
had witnessed what had passed, with the laudable intention
of adding his own personal pledge for the security of the
household goods in question. He, however, found it no
LIONEL LINCOLN: 165
easy achievement to equal the speed of a man, who had
just escaped from a long confinement, and who now ap-
peared inclined to indulge his limbs freely in the pleasure
of an unlimited exercise. The velocity of Seth continued
unabated, until he had conducted Lionel far into the lower
parts of the town, where the latter perceived him to en-
counter a man, with whom he turned suddenly under an
arch which led into a dark and narrow court. Lionel in-
stantly increased his speed, and as he entered beneath the
passage, he caught a glimpse of the lank figure of the ob-
ject of his pursuit, gliding through the opposite entrance
to the court, and, at the same moment, he encountered the
man who had apparently induced the deviation in his
route. As Lionel stepped a little on one side, the light of
a lamp fell full on the form of the other, and he recognized
the person of the active leader of the caucus, (as the
political meeting he had attended was called,) though so
disguised and muffled, that, but for the accidental opening
of the folds of his cloak, the unknown might have passed
his nearest friend without discovery.
"We meet again !" exclaimed Lionel, in the quickness
of surprise ; " though it would seem that the sun is never
to shine on our interviews."
The stranger started, and betrayed an evident wish to
continue his walk, as though the other had mistaken his
person ; then, as if suddenly recollecting himself, he turned
and approached Lionel, with easy dignity, and answered —
"The third time is said to contain the charm ! I am
happy to find that I meet Major Lincoln unharmed, after
the dangers he so lately encountered."
" The dangers have probably been exaggerated by those
who wish ill to the cause of our master," returned Lionel,
coldly.
There was a calm, but proud smile on the face of the
stranger, as he replied —
" I shall not dispute the information of one who bore so
conspicuous a part in the deeds of that day — still you will
remember, though the inarch to Lexington was, like our
o\vn accidental rencontres, in the dark, that a bright sun
shone upon the retreat, and nothing has been hid."
" Nothing need be concealed," replied Lionel, nettled
by the proud composure of the other — u unless, indeed,
the man I address is afraid to walk the streets of Boston
in open day."
" The man you address, Major Lincoln," said the stran-
166 LIONEL LINCOLN-.
ger, advancing in his warmth a step nearer to Lionel,
" has dared to walk the streets of Boston both by day and
by night, when the bullies of him you call your master
have strutted their hour in the security of peace ; and, now
a nation is up to humble their pretensions, shall he shrink
from treading his native soil when he will ? "
"This is bold language from an enemy within a British
camp ! Ask yourself what course my duty requires of
me?"
"That is a question which lies between Major Lincoln
and his conscience," returned the stranger — "though," he
added, after a momentary pause, and in a milder tone, as
if he recollected the danger of his situation — " the gentle-
men of his name and lineage were not apt to be informers,
when they dwelt in the land of their birth."
" Neither is their descendant But let this be the last of
our interviews, until we can meet as friends, or, as enemies
should, where we may discuss these topics at the points of
our weapons."
" Amen," said the stranger, seizing the hand of the
young man, and pressing it with the warmth of a generous
emulation — "that hour may not be far distant, and may
God smile only on the just cause."
Without uttering more, he drew the folds of his dress
more closely around his form, and walked so swiftly away
that Lionel, had he possessed the inclination, could not
have found an opportunity to arrest his progress. As all
expectation of overtaking Seth was now lost, the young
soldier returned slowly and thoughtfully towards his quar-
ters.
The two or three succeeding days were distinguished by
an appearance of more than usual preparation among the
troops, and it became known that officers of rank had
closely reconnoitred the grounds of the opposite penin-
sula. Lionel patiently awaited the progress of events ;
but as the probability of active service increased, his
wishes to make another effort to probe the secret of the
tenant of the warehouse revived, and he took his way
towards the Dock-Square, with that object, on the night of
the fourth day from the preceding interview with the
stranger. It was long after the tattoo had laid the town
in that deep quiet, which follows the bustle of a garrison ;
and, as he passed along he saw none but the sentinels pac-
ing their short limits, or an occasional officer, returning at
that late hour from his revels or his duty. The windows
LIONEL LIXCOLX. 167
of the warehouse were dark, find its inhabitants, if any it
had, were wrapped in deep sleep. Restless, and excited,
Lionel pursued his walk through the narrow and gloomy
streets of the North-End, until he unexpectedly found'
himself issuing upon the open space that is tenanted by
the dead, on Copp's-Hill. On this eminence the English
general had caused a battery of heavy cannon to be raised
and Lionel, unwilling to encounter the challenge of the
sentinels, inclining a little to one side, proceeded to tht,
brow of the hill, and, seating himself on a stone, began to
muse deeply on his own fortunes, and the situation of the
country.
The night was obscure, but the thin vapors which ap-
peared to overhang the place opened at times, when a
faint star-light fell from the heavens, and rendered the
black hulls of the vessels of war, that lay moored before
the town, and the faint outlines of the opposite shores, dimly
visible. The stillness of midnight rested on the scene, and
when the loud calls of " all's well" ascended from the ships
and batteries, the momentary cry was succeeded by a quiet
as deep as if the universe slumbered under this assurance of
safety. At such an instant, when even the light breathings
of the night air were audible, the sound of rippling waters,
like that occasioned by raising a paddle with extreme cau-
tion, was borne to the car of the young soldier. He lis-
tened intently, and then, bending his eyes in the direction
of the faint sounds, he saw a small canoe gliding along the
surface of the water, and soon shoot upon the gravelly
shore,^ at the foot of the hill, with a motion so easy and uni-
form as scarcely to curl a wave on the land. Curious to
know who could be moving about the harbor at this hour,
in such a secret manner, Lionel was in the act of rising to
descend, when he saw the dim figure of a man land from
the boat, and climb the hill, directly in a line with his own
position. Suppressing even the sounds of his breath, and
drawing his body back within the deep shadow cast from
a point of the hill, a little above him, Lionel waited until
the figure had approached within ten feet of him, when it
stopped, and appeared, like himself, to be endeavoring to
suppress all other sounds and feelings in the absorbing act
of deep attention. The young soldier loosened his sword
in its sheath, before he said —
"We have chosen a private spot, and a secret hour, sir,
for our meditations ! "
Had the figure possessed the impalpable nature of an
1 68 LIONEL LINCOLN.
immaterial being, it could not have received this remark,
so startling from its suddenness, with greater apathy than
did the man to whom it was addressed. He turned slowly
toward the speaker, and seemed to look at him earnestly,
before he answered, in a low, menacing voice —
"There's a granny on the hill, with a gun andbaggonet,
walking among the cannon, and if he hears people talking
down here, he'll make them prisoners, though one of them
should be Major Lincoln."
" Ha ! Job," said Lionel — " and is it you I meet prowling
about like a thief at night! — on what errand of mischief
have you been sent this time ? "
" If Job's a thief for coming to see the graves on
Copp's," returned the lad sullenly, " there's two of them."
" Well answered, boy ! " said Lionel, with a smile ; " but
I repeat, on. what errand have you returned to the town at
this unseasonable and suspicious hour ? "
" Job loves to come up among the graves, before the
cocks crow ; they say the dead walk when living men sleep."
" And would you hold communion with the dead, then ? ''
" ' Tis sinful to ask them many questions, and such as
you do put should be made in the Holy Name," returned
the lad, in a tone so solemn, that, connected with the place
and the scene, it caused the blood of Lionel to thrill —
" but Job loves to be near them, to use him to the damps,
ag'in the time he shall be called to walk himself in a sheet
at midnight."
" Hush ! " said Lionel — " what noise is that ? "
Job stood a moment, listening as intently as his, com-
panion, before he answered —
" There's no noise but the moaning of the wind in the
bay, or the sea tumbling on the beaches of the islands."
" ' Tis neither," said Lionel ; " I heard the low hum of a
hundred voices, or my ears have played me falsely."
"May be the spirits speak to each other," said the lad —
"they say their voices are like the rushing winds."
Lionel passed his hand across his brow, and endeavored
to recover the tone of his mind, which had been strangely
disordered by the solemn manner of his companion, and
walked slowly from the spot, closely attended by the silent
changeling. He did not stop until he had reached the in-
ner angle of the wall that enclosed the field of the dead,
when he paused, and, leaning on the fence, again listened
intently.
" Boy, I know not how your silly conversation may have
LIONEL LINCOLN. 169
warped my brain," he said, " but there are surely strange
and unearthly sounds lingering about this place, to-night J
By heavens ! there is another rush of voices, as if the air
above the water were filled with living beings ; and then,
again, I think I hear a noise as if heavy weights were fall-
ing to the earth !"
"Ay," said Job, " 'tis the clods on the coffins, the dead
are going into their graves ag'in, and 'tis time that we
should leave them their own grounds."
Lionel hesitated no longer, but he rather ran than walked
from the spot, with a secret horror that, at another mo-
ment, he would have blushed to acknowledge ; nor did he
perceive that he was still attended by Job, until he had de-
scended some distance down Lynn Street. Here he was ad-
dressed by his companion, in his usually quiet and un-
meaning tones —
" There's the house that the governor built, who went
down into the sea for money! " he said — " he was a poor
boy once, like Job, and now they say his grandson is a
great lord, and the king knighted the grand'ther too. It's
pretty much the same thing whether a man gets his money
out of the sea or out of the earth ; the king will make him
a lord for it."
"You hold the favors of royalty cheap, fellow," re-
turned Lionel, glancing his eye carelessly at the " Phipps'
House," as he passed — " you forget that I am to be some
day one of your despised knights ! "
" I know it," said Job ; " and you come from America
too — it seems to me that all the poor boys go from Amer-
ica to the king to be great lords, and all the sons of the
great lords come to America to be made poor boys — Nab
says Job is the son of a great lord too ! "
" Then Nab is as great a fool as her child," said Lionel ;
" but, boy, I would see your mother in the morning, and
I expect you to let me know at what hour I may visit
her."
Job did not answer, and Lionel, on turning his head,
perceived that he was suddenly deserted by the change-
ling, who was already gliding back towards his favorite
haunt among the graves. Vexed at the wild humors of
the lad, Lionel hastened to his quarters, and threw himself
in his bed, though he heard the loud cries of " all's well,"
again and again, before the strange fantasies, which con-
tinued to cross his mind, would permit him to obtain the
rest he sought.
170 LIONEL LINCOLN.
CHAPTER XV.
" We are finer gentlemen, no doubt, than the plain farmers we are about
to encounter. Our hats carry a smarter cock, our swords hang more grace-
fully by our sides, and we make an easier figure in a ballroom ; but let it
be remembered, that the most finished macaroni amongst us, would pass
for an arrant clown at Pekin." — Letter from a Veteran Officer, &c.
WHEN the heavy sleep of morning fell upon his senses,
visions of the past and future mingled with wild confusion
in the dreams of the youthful soldier. The form of his
father stood before him, as he had known it in his child-
hood, fair in the proportions and vigor of manhood, re-
garding him witli those eyes of benignant, but melancholy
affection, which characterized their expression after he
had become the sole joy of his widowed parent. While his
heart was warming at the sight, the figure melted away,
and was succeeded by fantastic phantoms, which appeared
to dance among the graves on Copp's, led along in those
gambols, which partook of the ghastly horrors of the
dead, by Job Pray, who glided among the tombs like a
being of another world. Sudden and loud thunder then
burst upon them, and the shadows fled into their secret
places, from whence he could see, ever and anon, some
glassy eyes and spectral faces, peering out upon him, as if
conscious of the power they possessed to chill the blood
of the living. His visions now became painfully distinct,
and his sleep was oppressed with their vividness, when
his senses burst their unnatural bonds, and he awoke.
The air of morning was breathing through his open cur-
tains, and the light of day had already shed itself upon the
dusky roofs of the town. Lionel arose from his bed, and
had paced his chamber several times, in a vain effort to
shake off the images that had haunted his slumbers, when
the sounds which broke upon the stillness of the air, be-
came too plain to be longer mistaken by a practised ear.
" Ha ! " he muttered to himself, " I have been dreaming
but by halves — these are the sounds of no fancied tempest,
but cannon, speaking most plainly to the soldier ! "
He opened his window, and looked out upon the sur-
rounding scene. The roar of artillery was now quick and
heavy, and Lionel bent his eyes about him to discover the
cause of this unusual occurrence. It had been the policy
of Gage to await the arrival of his reinforcements, before
LIONEL LINCOLN". 171
he struck a blow, which was intended to be decisive ; and
the Americans were well known to be too scantily sup-
plied with the munitions of war, to waste a single charge
of powder in any of the vain attacks of modern sieges. A
knowledge of these facts gave an additional interest to the
curiosity with which Major Lincoln endeavored to pene-
trate the mystery of so singular a disturbance. Window
after window in the adjacent buildings soon exhibited, like
his own, its wondering and alarmed spectator. Here and
there a half-dressed-soldier, or a busy townsman, was seen
hurrying along the silent streets, with steps that denoted
the eagerness of his curiosity. Women began to rush
wildly from their dwellings, and then, as the sounds broke
on their ears with ten-fold heaviness in the open air, they
shrunk back into their habitations in pallid dismay. Lionel
called to three or four of the men, as they hurried by ; but,
turning their eyes wildly towards his window, they passed
on without answering, as if the emergency were too press-
ing to admit of speech. Finding his repeated inquiries
fruitless, he hastily dressed himself, and descended to the
street. As he left his own door, a half-clad artillerist
hurried past him, adjusting his garments with one hand,
and bearing in the other some of the lesser implements of
the particular corps in which he served.
" What means the firing, sergeant," demanded Lionel,
" and whither do you hasten with those fuses ? "
" The rebels, your honor, the rebels ! " returned the sol-
dier, looking back to speak, without ceasing his speed ;
" and I go to my guns ! "
"The rebels !" repeated Lionel — "what can we have to
fear from a mob of countrymen, in such a position — that
fellow has slept from his post, and apprehensions for him-
self mingle with this zeal for his king ! "
The towns-people now began to pour from their dwell-
ings in scores ; and Lionel imitated their example, and
took his course towards the adjacent height. of Beacon-
Hill. He toiled his way up the steep ascent, in company
with twenty more, without exchanging a syllable with men
who appeared as much astonished as himself at this early
interruption of their slumbers, and in a few minutes he
stood on the little grassy platform, surrounded by a hundred
interested gazers. The sun had just lifted the thin veil of
mist from the bosom of the waters, and the eye was per-
mitted to range over a wide field beneath the light vapor.
Several vessels were moored in the channels of the Charles
1 72 LIONEL LINCOLN.
and Mystic, to cover the northern approaches to the
place ; and as he beheld the column of white smoke that
was wreathing about the masts of a frigate among them,
Lionel was no longer at a loss to comprehend whence
the firing proceeded. While he was yet gazing, uncertain
of the reasons which demanded this show of war, immense
fields of smoke burst from the side of a ship of the line,
who also opened her deep-mouthed cannon, and presently
her example was followed by several floating batteries,
and lighter vessels, until the wide amphitheatre of hills
that encircled Boston, was filled with the echoes of a hun-
dred pieces of artillery.
"What can it mean, sir ? " exclaimed a young officer of
his own regiment, addressing Major Lincoln — " the sailors
are in downright earnest, and they scale their guns with
shot, I know, by the rattling of the reports ! "
" I can boast of a vision no better than your own," re-
turned Lionel; "for no enemy can I see. As the guns
seem pointed at the opposite peninsula, it is probable a
party of the Americans are attempting to destroy the grass
which lies newly mown in the meadows." .
The young officer was in the act of assenting to this con-
jecture, when a voice was heard above their heads, shout-
ing—
" There goes a gun from Copp's ! They needn't think
to frighten the people with their rake-helly noises ; let them
blaze away till the dead get out of their graves — the Bay-
men will keep the hill ! "
Every eye was immediately turned upward, and the
wondering and amused spectators discovered Job Pray,
seated in the grate of the beacon, his countenance, usually
so vacant, gleaming with exultation, while he continued
waving his hat high in air, as gun after gun was added to
the uproar of the cannonade.
" How now, fellow ! " exclaimed Lionel : "what see you t
and where are the Bay-men of whom you speak ? "
"Where ?" returned the simpleton, clapping his hands
with childish delight — "why, where they came at dark mid-
night, and where they'll stand at open noonday ! The
Bay-men can look into the windows of old Funnel at last,
and now let the reg'lars come on, and they'll teach the god-
less murderers the law '. "
Lionel, a little irritated with the bold language of Job,
called to him in an angry voice-—
" Come down from that perch, fellow, and explain your-
LIONEL LINCOLN. 173
self, or this grenadier shall lift you from your seat, and
transfer you to the post for a little of that wholesome cor-
rection which you need."
" You promised that the grannies should never flog Job
ag'in," said the changeling, crouching down in th,e grate,
whence he looked out at his threatened chastiser with a
lowering and sullen eye — " and Job agreed to run your
a'r'nds, and not take any of the king's crowrns in pay."
"Come down, then, this instant, and I will remember
the compact."
Comforted by this assurance, which was made in a more
friendly tone, Job threw himself carelessly from his iron
seat, and clinging to the post, he slid swiftly to the earth,
where Major Lincoln immediately arrested him by the arm,
and demanded —
"Where are those Day-men, I once more ask ? "
"There !" repeated Job, pointing over the low roofs of
the town, in the direction of the opposite peninsula. " They
dug their cellar on Breed's, and now they are fixing the
underpinnin', and next you'll see what a raising they'll in-
vite the people to ! "
The instant the spot was named, all those eyes which
had hitherto gazed at the vessels themselves, instead of
searching for the object of their hostility, were turned on
the green eminence which rose a little to the right of the
village of Charlestown, and every doubt \vas at once re-
moved by the discovery. The high, conical summit of
Bunker Hill lay naked, and unoccupied, as on the preced-
ing day ; but on the extremity of a more humble ridge,
which extended within a short distance of the water, a low
bank of earth had been thrown up, for purposes which no
military eye could mistake. This redoubt, small and in-
artificial as it was, commanded by its position the whole of
the inner harbor of Boston, and even endangered, in some
measure, the occupants of the town itself. It was the sud-
den appearance of this magical mound, as the mists of the
morning had dispersed, which roused the slumbering sea-
men ; and it had already become the target of all the guns
of the shipping in the bay. Amazement at the temerity
of their countrymen held the townsmen silent, while Major
Lincoln, and the few officers who stood nigh him, saw, at
a glance, that this step on the part of their adversaries
would bring the affairs of the leaguer to an instant crisis.
In vain they turned their wondering looks on the neigh-
boring eminence, and around the different points of the
174 LIONEL LINCOLN.
peninsula, in quest of those places of support, with which
soldiers generally entrench their defences. The husband-
men opposed to them had seized upon the point best cal-
culated to annoy their foes, without regard to the conse-
quences ; and in a few short hours, favored by the mantle
of night, had thrown up their work with a dexterity that
was only exceeded by their boldness. The truth flashed
across the brain of Major Lincoln with his first glance,
and he felt his cheeks glow as he remembered the low
and indistinct murmurs, which the night air had wafted to
his ears, and tho'se inexplicable fancies, which had even
continued to haunt him till dispersed by truth and the light
of day. Motioning to Job to follow, he left the hill with
a hurried step, and when they gained the Common, he
turned, and said, sternly, to his companion —
"Fellow, you have been privy to this midnight work ! "
"Job has enough to do in the day, without laboring in
the night, when none but the dead are out of their places
of rest," returned the lad, with a look of mental imbe-
cility, which immediately disarmed the resentment of the
other.
Lionel smiled as he again remembered his own weak-
ness, and repeated to himself —
"The dead ! ay, these are the works of the living ; and
bold men are they who have dared to do the deed. But
tell me, Job, — for 'tis in vain to attempt deceiving me any
longer — what number of Americans did you leave on the
hill, when you crossed the Charles to visit the graves on
Copp's, the past night?"
" Both hills were crowded," returned the other —
" Breed's with the people, and Copp's with the ghosts —
Job believes the dead rose to see their children digging so
nigh them ! "
" Tis probable," said Lionel, who believed it wisest to
humor the wild conceits of the lad, in order to disarm his
cunning; "but, though the dead are invisible, the living
may be counted."
" Job did count five hundred men, marching over the
nose of Bunker, by starlight, with their picks and spades ;
and then he stopped, for he forgot whether seven or eight
hundred came next."
"And after you had ceased to count, did many others
pass ? "
" The Bay colony isn't so poorly off for men, that it can't
muster a thousand at a raising."
LIONEL LINCOLN. 175
" But you had a master workman on -the occasion ; was
it the wolf-hunter of Connecticut?"
" There is no occasion to go from the province to find a
workman to lay out a cellar ! Dickey Gridley is a Boston
boy ! "
"Ah! he is the chief! we can have nothing to fear then,
since the Connecticut woodsman is not at their head ! "
" Do you think old Prescott, of Pepperel, will quit the
hill while he has a kernel of powder to burn ? — no, no,
Major Lincoln, Ralph himself an't a stouter warrior ; and
you can't frighten Ralph ! "
" But if they fire their cannon often, their small stock of
ammunition will be soon consumed, and then they must
unavoidably run."
Job laughed tauntingly, and with an appearance of high
scorn, before he answered —
'• Yes, if the Bay-men were as dumb as the king's troops,
and used such big guns! but the cannon of the colony
want but little brimstone, and there's but few of them.
Let the rake-heliies go up to Breed's ; the people will
teach them the law!"
Lionel had now obtained all he expected to learn from
the simpleton, concerning the force and condition of the
Americans ; and as the moments wrere too precious to be
wasted in vain discourse, he bid the lad repair to his quar-
ters that night, and left him. On entering his own lodgings,
Major Lincoln shut himself up in his private apartment, and
passed several hours in writing, and examining important
papers. One letter, in particular, was written, read, torn,
and re-written, five or six times, until at length he placed
his seal, and directed the important paper with a sort of
carelessness that denoted his patience was exhausted by
repeated trials. These documents were entrusted to Mer-
iton, with orders to deliver them to their several addresses,
unless countermanded before the following day ; and the
young man hastily swallowed a late and light breakfast.
While shut up in his closet, Lionel had several times
thrown aside his pen to listen, as the hum of the place
penetrated to his retirement, and announced the excite-
ment and bustle which pervaded the streets of the town.
Having at length completed the task he had assigned
himself, he caught up his hat, and took his way, with hasty
steps, into the centre of the place.
Cannon were rattling over the rough pavements, fol-
lowed by ammunition wagons, and officers and men of the
176 JJONKL LINCOLN.
artillery were seen in swift pursuit of their pieces. Aides-
de-camp were riding furiously through the streets, charged
with important messages ; and here and there an officer
might be seen issuing from his quarters, with a counte-
nance in which manly pride struggled powerfully with
inward dejection, as he caught the last glance of anguish,
which followed his retiring form, from eyes that had been
used to meet his own with looks of confidence and love.
There was, however, but little time to dwell on these flit-
ting glimpses of domestic woe, amid the general bustle and
glitter of the scene. Now and then the strains of martial
music broke up through the windings of the crooked
avenues, and detachments of the troops wheeled by, on
their way to the appointed place of embarkation. While
Lionel stood a moment at the corner of a street, admiring
the firm movement of a body of grenadiers, his eye fell on
the powerful frame and rigid features of M'Fuse, marching
at the head of his company with that gravity which re-
garded the accuracy of the step amongst the important
incidents of life. At a short distance from him was Job
Pray, timing his paces to the tread of the soldiers, and
regarding the gallant show with stupid admiration, while
his ear unconsciously drank the inspiriting music of their
band. As this fine body of men passed on, it was imme-
diately succeeded by a battalion, in which Lionel instantly
recognized the facings of his own regiment. The warm-
hearted Polwarth led its forward files, and, waving his
hand, he cried —
" God bless you, Leo, God bless you — we shall make
a fair stand up fight of this ; there is an end of all stag-
hunting."
The notes of the horns rose above his voice, and Lionel
could do no more than return his cordial salute ; when, re-
called to his purpose by the sight of his comrades, he
turned and pursued his way to the quarters of the com-
mander-in-chief.
The gate of Province-House was thronged with military
men ; some waiting for admittance, and others entering
and departing with the air of those who were charged with
the execution of matters of the deepest moment. The
name of Major Lincoln was hardly announced before an
aid appeared to conduct him into the presence of the gov-
ernor, with a politeness and haste that several gentlemen,
who had been in waiting for hours, deemed in a trifling
degree unjust.
LIONEL LINCOLN.
'77
Lionel, however, having little to do with murmurs which
he did not hear, followed his conductor, and was immedi-
ately ushered into the apartment, where a council of war
had just closed its deliberations. On the threshold of its
door he was compelled to give way to an officer, who was
departing in haste, and whose powerful frame seemed bent
a little in the intensity of thought, as his dark, military
countenance lighted for an instant with the salutation he
returned to the low bow of the young soldier. Around
this chief a group of younger men immediately clustered,
and as they departed in company, Lionel was enabled to
gather from their conversation, that they took their way
for the field of battle. The room was filled with officers
of high rank ; though here and there was to be seen a
man in civil attire, whose disappointed and bitter looks
announced him to be one of those mandamus counsellors,
whose evil advice had hastened the mischief their wisdom
could never repair. From out a small circle of these
mortified civilians, the unpretending person of Gage ad-
vanced to meet Lionel, forming a marked contrast, by the
simplicity of his dress, to the military splendor that was
glittering around him.
" In what can I oblige Major Lincoln ? " he said, tak-
mg the young man by the hand cordially, «is if glad to be
rid of the troublesome counsellors he had so unceremoni-
ously quitted.
"' Wolfe's own ' has just passed me on its way to the
boats, and I have ventured to intrude on your excellency
to inquire if it were not time its major had resumed his
duty."
A shade of thought was seated for a moment on the
placid features of the general, and he then answered with
a friendly smile —
"'Twill be no more than an affair of out-posts, and must
be quickly ended. But should I grant the request of every
brave young man whose spirit is up to-day, it might cost
liis majesty's service the life of some officer that would
make the purchase of the pile of earth too dear."
" But may. I not be permitted to say, that the family of
Lincoln is of the province, and its example should not be
.ost on such an occasion ? "
"The loyalty of the colonies is too well represented here
10 need the sacrifice," said Gage glancing his eyes care-
lessly at the expecting group behind him. — " My council
have decided on the officers to be employed, and I regret
178 LIONEL LINCOLN.
that Major Lincoln's name was omitted, since I know it
will give him pain ; but valuable lives are not to be lightly
and unnecessarily exposed."
Lionel bowed in submission ; and, after communicating
the little he had gathered from Job Pray, he turned away,
and found himself near another officer of high rank, who
smiled as he observed his disappointed countenance, and,
taking him by the arm, led him from the room, with a free-
dom suited to his fine figure and easy air.
" Then, like myself, Lincoln, you are not to battle for
the king to-day," he said, on gaining the ante-chamber.
" Howe has the luck of the occasion, if there can be luck in
so vulgar an affair. But allons ; accompany me to Copp's.
as a spectator, since they deny us parts in the drama ; and
perhaps we may pick up materials for a pasquinade, though
not for an epic."
" Pardon me, General Burgoyne," said Lionel, " if I view
the matter with more serious eyes than yourself."
" Ah ! I had forgot that you were a follower of Percy in
the hunt of Lexington!" interrupted the other; "we
will call it a tragedy, then, if it better suits your humor.
For myself, Lincoln, I weary of these crooked streets and
gloomy houses, and, having some taste for the poetry of
nature, would have long since looked out upon the deserted
fields of these husbandmen, had the authority, as well as
the inclination, rested with me. But Clinton is joining us ;
he, too, is for Copp's, where we can all take a lesson in
arms, by studying the manner in which Howe wields his
battalions."
A soldier of middle age now joined them, whose stout
frame, while it wanted the grace and ease of the gentleman
who still held Lionel by the arm, bore a martial character
to which the look of the quiet and domestic Gage was a
stranger ; and, followed by their several attendants, the
whole party immediately left the Government-house to
take their destined position on the eminence so often men-
tioned.
As they entered the street, Burgoyne relinquished the
arm of his companion, and moved with becoming dignity
by the side of his brother general. Lionel gladly availed
himself of this alteration, to withdraw a little from the
group, whose steps he followed at such a distance as per-
mitted him to observe those exhibitions of feeling, on the
part of the inhabitants, which the pride of the others in-
duced them to overlook. Pallid and anxious female faces
LIONEL LINCOLN, 179
were gleaming out upon them from every window, while
the roofs of the houses, and the steeples of the churches^
were beginning to throng with more daring, and equally
interested spectators. The drums no longer rolled along
the narrow streets, though occasionally, the shrill strain of
a fife was heard from the water, announcing the movements
of the troops to the opposite peninsula. Over all was heard
the incessant roaring of the artillery, which, untired, had
not ceased to rumble in the air since the appearance of
light, until the ear, accustomed to its presence, had learnt
to distinguish the lesser sounds we have recorded.
As the party descended into the lower passages of the
town, it appeared deserted by everything having life ; the
open windows and neglected' doors betraying the urgency
of the feelings, which had called the population to situa-
tions more favorable for observing the approaching con-
test. This appearance of intense curiosity excited the sym-
pathies of even the old and practised soldiers ; and, quick-
ening their paces, the whole soon rose from among the
gloomy edifices to the open and unobstructed view from
the hill.
The whole scene now lay before them. Nearly in their
front was the village of Charlestown, with its deserted
streets, and silent roofs, looking like a place of the dead ;
or, if the signs of life were visible within its open avenues,
'twas merely some figure moving swiftly in the solitude,
like one who hastened to quit the devoted spot. On the
opposite point of the southeastern face of the peninsula,
and at the distance of a thousand yards, the ground was
already covered by masses of human beings, in scarlet,
with their arms glittering in a noonday sun. Between the
two, though in the more immediate vicinity of the silent
town, the rounded ridge, already described, rose abruptly
from a flat that was bounded by the water, until, having
attained an elevation of some fifty or sixty feet, it swelled
gradually to the little crest, where was planted the humble
object that had occasioned all this commotion. The mead-
ows, on the right, were still peaceful and smiling, as in the
most quiet days of the province, though the excited fancy
of Lionel imagined that a sullen stillness lingered about,
the neglected kilns in their front, and over the whole land-
scape, that was in gloomy consonance with the approach-
ing scene. Far on the left, across the waters of the Charles,
the American camp had poured forth its thousands to the
hills ; and the whole population of the country, for many
i8o LIONEL LAVCOL.V.
miles inland, had gathered to a point, to witness a struggle
charged with the fate of their nation. Beacon Hill rose
from out the appalling silence of the town of Boston, like
a pyramid of living faces, with every eye fixed on the fatal
point ; and men hung along the yards of the shipping, or
were suspended on cornices, cupolas, and steeples, in
thoughtless security, while every other sense was lost in
the absorbing interest of the sight. The vessels of war
had hauled deep into the rivers, or, more properly, those
narrow arms of the sea which formed the peninsula, and
sent their iron missiles, with unwearied industry, across the
low passage, which alone opened the means of communi-
cation between the self-devoted yeomen on the hill, and
their distant countrymen. While battalion landed after bat-
talion on the point, cannon-balls from the battery of Copp's,
and the vessels of war, were glancing -up the natural glacis
that surrounded the redoubt, burying themselves in its
earthen parapet, or plunging with violence into the de-
serted sides of the loftier height which lay a few hundred
yards in its rear ; and the black and smoking bombs, ap-
peared to hover above the spot, as if pausing to select the
places in which to plant their deadly combustibles.
Notwithstanding these appalling preparations, and cease-
less annoyances, throughout that long and anxious morn-
ing, the stout husbandmen on the hill had never ceased
their steady efforts to maintain, to the uttermost extremity,
the post they had so daringly assumed. In vain the Eng-
lish exhausted every means to disturb their stubborn foes ;
the pick, the shovel, and the spade continued to perform
their offices ; and mound rose after mound, amidst the din
and danger of the 'cannonade, steadily, and as well as if
the fanciful conceits of Job Pray embraced their real ob-
jects, and the laborers were employed in the peaceful pur-
suits of their ordinary lives. This firmness, however, was
not like the proud front, which high training can impart
to the most common mind ; for, ignorant of the glare of
military show ; in the simple and rude vestments of their
calling ; armed with such weapons as they had seized from
the hooks above their own mantels ; and without even a
banner to wave its cheering folds above their heads, they
stood, sustained only by the righteousness of their cause,
and those deep moral principles which they had received
from their fathers, and which they intended this day should
show were to be transmitted untarnished to their children.
It was afterward known, that they endured their labors
LIONEL LINCOLN. 181
and their dangers even in want of that sustenance, which
is so essential to support animal spirits in moments of calm-
ness and ease ; while their enemies, on the point, awaiting
the arrival of their latest bands, were securely devouring
a meal, which to hundreds amongst them proved to be
their last. The fatal instant now seemed approaching. A
general movement was seen among the battalions of the
British, who began to spread along the shore, under cover
of the brow of the hill — the lingering boats having arrived
with the rear of their detachments — and officers hurried
from regiment to regiment with the final mandates of their
chief. At this moment a body of Americans appeared on
the crown of Bunker Hill, and descending swiftly by the
road, disappeared in the meadows to the left of their own
redoubt. This band was followed by others, who, like
themselves, had broken through the dangers of the narrow
pass, by braving the fire of the shipping, and who also
hurried to join their comrades on the low land. The Brit-
ish general determined at once to anticipate the arrival of
further reinforcements, and gave forth the long-expected
order to prepare for the attack.
CHAPTER XVI.
" Th' imperious Briton, on the well-fought ground,
No cause for joy, or wanton triumph found ;
But saw, with grief, their dreams of conquest vain,
Felt the deep wounds, and mourn' d their vet'rans slain."
— HUMPHREYS.
THE Americans had made a show, in the course of that
fearful morning, of returning the fire of their enemies, by
throwing a few shot from their light field-pieces, as if in
mockery of the tremendous cannonade which they sus-
tained. But as the moment of severest trial approached,
the same awful stillness, which had settled upon the de-
serted streets of Charlestown, hovered around the redoubt.
On the meadows, to its left, the recently arrived bands
hastily threw the rails of two fences into one, and, cover-
ing the whole with the mown grass that surrounded them,
they posted themselves along the frail defence, which an-
swered no better purpose than to conceal their weakness
from their adversaries. Behind this characteristic rampart,
several bodies of husbandmen, from the neighboring prov-
i%2 LIONEL LINCOLN;
inces of New Hampshire and Connecticut, lay on their
arms, in sullen expectation. Their line extended from the
shore to the base of the ridge, where it terminated several
hundred feet behind the works ; leaving a wide opening in
a diagonal direction, between the fence and an earthen
breastwork, which ran a short distance down the declivity
of the hill, from the northeastern angle of the redoubt. A
few hundred yards in the rear of this rude disposition,
the naked crest of Bu\ker Hill rose unoccupied and un-
defended ; and the streams of the Charles and Mystic,
sweeping around its base, approached so near each other
as to blend the sounds of their rippling. It was across this
low and narrow isthmus, that the royal frigates poured a
stream of fire, that never ceased, while around it hovered
the numerous parties of the undisciplined Americans, hesi-
tating to attempt the dangerous passage.
In this manner Gage had, in a great degree, surrounded
the devoted peninsula with his power ; and the bold men,
who had so daringly planted themselves under the muzzles
of his cannon, were left, as already stated, unsupported,
without nourishment, and with weapons from their own
gun-hooks, singly to maintain the honor of their nation.
Including men of all ages and conditions, there might have
been two thousand of them ; but, as the day advanced,
small bodies of their countrymen, taking counsel of their
feelings, and animated by the example of the old partisan
of the woods, who crossed and recrossed the neck, loudly
scoffing at the danger, broke through the fire of the ship-
ping in time to join in the closing and bloody business of
the hour.
On the other hand, Howe led more than an equal num-
ber of the chosen troops of his prince ; and as boats con-
tinued to ply between the two peninsulas throughout the
afternoon, the relative disparity continued undiminished
to the end of the struggle. It was at this point in our nar-
rative that, deeming himself sufficiently strong to force
the defences of his despised foes, the arrangements im-
mediately preparatory to such an undertaking were made
in full view of the excited spectators. Notwithstanding the
security with which the English general marshalled his
warriors, he felt that the approaching contest would be
a battle of no common incidents. The eyes of tens of
thousands were fastened on his movements, and the oc-
casion demanded the richest display of the pageantry of
war.
LIONEL LIXCOLN. 183
The troops formed with beautiful accuracy, and the col-
umns moved steadily along the shore, and took their as-
signed stations under cover of the brow of the eminence.
Their force was in some measure divided ; one moiety at-
tempting the toilsome ascent of the hill, and the other
moving along the beach, or in the orchards of the more
level ground, toward the husbandmen on the meadows.
The latter soon disappeared behind some fruit-trees and
the brickkilns just mentioned. The advance of the royal
columns up the ascent was slow and measured, giving time
to their field-guns to add their efforts to the uproar of the
cannonade, which broke out with new fury as the bat-
talions prepared to march. When each column arrived at
the allotted point, it spread the gallant array of its glitter-
ing warriors under a bright sun.
" It is a glorious spectacle," murmured the graceful
chieftain by the side of Lionel, keenly alive to all the
poetry of his alluring profession ; "how exceeding soldier-
like ! and with what accuracy his * first-arm ascends the
hill,' toward his enemy ! "
The intensity of his feelings prevented Major Lincoln
from replying, and the other soon forgot that he had
spoken, in the overwhelming anxiety of the moment. The
advance of the British line, so beautiful and slow, resembled
rather the ordered steadiness of a drill, than an approach
to a deadly struggle. Their standards fluttered proudly
above them ; and there were moments when the wild music
of their bands was heard rising on the air, and tempering
the ruder sounds of the artillery. The young and thought-
less in their ranks turned their faces backward, and smiled
exultingly, as they beheld steeples, roofs, masts, and heights,
teeming with their thousands of eyes, bent on the show of
their bright array. As the British lines moved in open
view of the little redoubt, and began slowly to gather
around its different faces, gun after gun became silent, and
the curious artillerist, or tired seaman, lay extended on his
heated piece, gazing in mute wonder at the spectacle.
There was just then a minute when the roar of the can-
nonade seemed passing away like the rumbling of distant
thunder.
" They will not fight, Lincoln," said the animated leader
at the side of Lionel — " the military front of Howe has
chilled the hearts of the knaves, and our victory will be
bloodless ! "
"We shall see, sir— we shall see !"
1 84 LIONEL LINCOLN.
These words were barely uttered, when platoon after
platoon, among the British, delivered its fire, the blaze of
musketry flashing swiftly around the brow of the hill, and
was immediately followed by heavy volleys that ascended
from the orchard. Still no answering sound was heard
from the Americans, and the royal troops were soon lost
to. the eye, as they slowly marched into the white cloud
which their own fire had alone created.
" They are cowed, by heavens — the dogs are cowed ! "
once more cried the gay companion of Lionel, "and Howe
is within two hundred feet of them, unharmed ! "
At that instant a sheet of flame glanced through the
smoke, like lightning playing in a cloud, while at one
report a thousand muskets were added to the uproar. It
was not altogether fancy which led Lionel to imagine that
he saw the smoky canopy of the hill to wave, as if the
trained warriors it enveloped faltered before this close and
appalling discharge ; but, in another instant, the stimulat-
ing war-cry, and the loud shouts of the combatants were
borne across the strait to his ears, even amid the horrid din
of the combat. Ten breathless minutes flew by like a
moment of time, and the bewildered spectators on Copp's
were still gazing intently on the scene, when a voice was
raised among them, shouting —
"Hurrah! let the rake-hellies go up to Breed's ; the
people will teach 'em the law ! "
" Throw the rebel scoundrel from the hill ! Blow him
from the muzzle of a gun ! " cried twenty soldiers in a
breath.
" Hold ! " exclaimed Lionel — " 'tis a simpleton, an idiot,
a fool ! "
But the angry and savage murmurs as quickly subsided,
and were lost in other feelings, as the bright red lines of
the royal troops were seen issuing from the smoke, waving
and recoiling before the still vivid fire of their enemies.
"Ha!" said Burgoyne — "'tis some feint to draw the
rebels from their hold ! "
" 'Tis a palpable and disgraceful retreat ! " muttered the
stern warrior nigh him, whose truer eye detected at a
glance the discomfiture of the assailants. — " Tis another
base retreat before the rebels ! "
" Hurrah ! " shouted the reckless changeling again ;
" there come the reg'lars out of the orchard too ! — see th£
grannies skulking behind the kilns ! Let them go on to
Breed's ; the people will teach 'em the law ! "
LIONEL LINCOLN. 185
No cry of vengeance preceded the act this time, but
fifty of the soldiery rushed, as by a common impulse, on
their prey. Lionel had not time to utter a word of re-
monstrance, before Job appeared in the air, borne on the
uplifted arms of a dozen men, and at the next instant
he was seen rolling down the steep declivity, with a
velocity that carried him to the water's edge. Springing
to his feet, the undaunted changeling once more waved
his hat in triumph, and shouted forth again his offensive
challenge. Then turning, he launched his canoe from its
hiding place among the adjacent lumber, amid a shower
of stones, and glided across the strait ; his little bark es-
caping unnoticed in the crowd of boats that were rowing
in all directions. But his progress was watched by the
uneasy eye of Lionel, who saw him land and disappear,
with hasty steps, in the silent streets of the town.
While this trifling by-play was enacting, the great drama
of the day was not at a stand. The smoky veil, which
clung around the brow of the eminence, was lifted by the
air, and sailed heavily away to the southwest, leaving the
scene of the bloody struggle again open to the view.
Lionel witnessed the grave and meaning glances which
the two lieutenants of the king exchanged as they simul-
taneously turned their glasses from the fatal spot, and,
taking the one proffered by Burgoyne, he read their ex-
planation in the numbers of the dead that lay profusely
scattered in front of the redoubt. At this instant, an offi-
cer from the field held an earnest communication with the
two leaders ; when, having delivered his orders, he hast-
ened back to his boat, like one who felt himself employed
in matters of life and death.
" It shall be done, sir," repeated Clinton, as the other
departed, his honest brow sternly knit under high martial
excitement. — " The artillery have their orders, and the
work will be accomplished without delay."
" This, Major Lincoln ! " cried his more sophisticated
companion, "this is one of the trying duties of the sol-
dier ! To fight, to bleed, or even to die, for his prince, is
his happy privilege ; but it is sometimes his unfortunate
lot to become the instrument of vengeance."
Lionel waited but a moment for an explanation — the
flaming balls were soon seen taking their wide circuit in
the air, and carrying their desolation among the close and
inflammable roofs of the opposite town. In a very few
minutes, a dense, black smoke arose from the deserted
iS6 LIONEL LINCOLN.
buildings, and forked flames played actively along the
heated shingles, as though rioting in their unmolested
possession of the place. He regarded the gathering de-
struction in painful silence ; and, on bending his looks
toward his companions, he fancied, notwithstanding the
language of the other, that he read the deepest regret in
the averted eye of him who had so unhesitatingly uttered
the fatal mandate to destroy.
In scenes like these we are attempting to describe, hours
appear to be minutes, and time flies as imperceptibly as
life slides from beneath the feet of age. The disordered
ranks of the British had been arrested at the base of the
hill, and were again forming under the eyes of their lead-
ers, with admirable discipline, and extraordinary care.
Fresh battalions, from Boston, marched with high military
pride into the line, and everything betokened that a sec-
ond assault was at hand. When the moment of stupid
amazement, which succeeded the retreat of the royal
troops, had passed, the troops and batteries poured out
their wrath with tenfold fury on their enemies. Shot were
incessantly glancing up the gentle acclivity, madly plough-
ing across its grassy surface, while black 'and threatening
shells appeared to hover above the work, like the monsters
of the air, about to stoop upon their prey.
Still all lay quiet and immovable within the low mounds
of earth, as if none there had a stake in the issue of the
bloody day. For a few moments only the tall figure of an
aged man was seen slowly moving along the summit of
the rampart, calmly regarding the dispositions of the Eng-
lish general in the more distant part of his line, and after
exchanging a few words wTith a gentleman, who joined him
in his dangerous lookout, they disappeared together behind
the grassy banks. Lionel soon detected the name of
Prescott, of Pepperell, passing through the crowd in low
murmurs, and his glass did not deceive him when he
thought, in the smaller of the two, he had himself descried
the graceful person of the unknown leader of the "cau-
cus."
All eyes were now watching the advance of the battal-
ions, which once more drew nigh the point of contest. The
heads of the columns were already in view of their ene-
mies when a man was seen swriftly ascending the hill from
the burning town : he paused amid the peril, on the nat-
ural glacis, and swung his hat triumphantly, and Lionel
even fancied he heard the exulting cry, as he recognized
LIONEL LINCOLN. 187
the ungainly form of the simpleton, before it plunged into
the work.
The right of the British once more disappeared in the
orchard, and the columns in front of the redoubt again
opened with all the imposing exactness of their high dis-
cipline. Their arms were already glittering in a line with
the green faces of the mound, and Lionel heard the
experienced warrior at his side murmuring to him-
self—
" Let him hold his fire, and he will go in at the point of
the bayonet ! "
But the trial was too great for even the practised cour-
age of the royal troops. Volley succeeded volley, and in
a few moments they had again curtained their ranks be-
hind the misty screen produced by their own fire. Then
came the terrible flash from the redoubt, and the eddying
volumes from the adverse hosts rolled into one cloud en-
veloping the combatants in its folds, as ij: to conceal their
bloody work from the spectators. Twenty times, in the short
space of as many minutes, Major Lincoln fancied he heard
the incessant roll of American musketry die awray before
the heavy and regular volleys of the troops ; and then he
thought the sounds of the latter grew more faint, and were
given at longer intervals.
The result, however, was soon known. The heavy bank
of smoke, which now even clung along the ground, was
broken in fifty places ; and the disordered masses of the
British were seen driven before their deliberate foes, in
wild confusion. The flashing swords of the officers in vain
attempted to arrest the torrent, nor did the flight cease,
with many of the regiments, until they had even reached
their boats. At this moment a hum was heard in Boston,
like the sudden rush of wind, and men gazed in each
other's faces with undisguised amazement. Here and there
a low sound of exultation escaped some unguarded lip, and
many an eye gleamed with a triumph that could no long-
er be suppressed. Until this moment the feelings of Lionel
had vacillated between the pride of country and his mili-
tary spirit ; but, losing all other feelings in the latter sensa-
tion, he now looked fiercely about him as if he would seek
the man who dare exult in the repulse of his comrades.
The poetic chieftain was still at his side, biting his nether
lip in vexation ; but his more tried companion had sud-
denly disappeared. Another quick glance fell upon his
missing form in the act of entering a boat at the foot of
1 88 LIONEL LINCOLN-.
the hill. Quicker than thought, Lionel was on the shore,
crying, as he flew to the water's edge—
" Hold ! for God's sake, hold ! remember the 47th is in
the field, and that I am its major ! "
" Receive him," said Clinton, with that grim satisfaction
with which men acknowledge a valued friend in moments
of great trial ; " and then row for your lives, or, what is of
more value, for the honor of the British name."
The brain of Lionel whirled as the boat shot along its
watery bed, but before it had gained the middle of the
stream he had time to consider the whole of the appalling
scene. The fire had spread from house to house, and the
whole village of Charlestown, with its four hundred build-
ings, was just bursting into flames. The air seemed filled
with whistling balls, as they hurtled above his head, and
the black sides of the vessels of war were vomiting their
sheets of flame with unwearied industry. Amid this tu-
mult, the English general and his companions sprung to
land. The former rushed into the disordered ranks, and
by his presence and voice recalled the men of one regiment
to their duty. But long and loud appeals to their spirit
and their ancient fame were necessary to restore a moiety
of their former confidence to men who had been thus
rudely repulsed, and who now looked along their thinned
and exhausted ranks, missing, in many instances, more
than half the well-known countenances of their fellows.
In the midst of the faltering troops stood their stern and
unbending chief ; but of all those gay and gallant youths,
who followed in his train as he had departed from Prov-
ince-House that morning, not one remained, but in his
blood. He alone seemed undisturbed in that disordered
crowd ; and his mandates went forth as usual, calm and
determined. At length the panic, in some degree, subsid-
ed, and order was once more restored as the high-spirited
and mortified gentlemen of the detachment regained their
lost authority.
The leaders consulted together, apart, and the disposi-
tions were immediately renewed for the assault. Military
show was no longer affected, but the soldiers laid down all
the useless implements of their trade, and many even cast
aside their outer garments, tinder the warmth of a broil-
ing sun, added to the heat of the conflagration, which be-
gan to diffuse itself along the extremity of the peninsula.
Fresh companies were placed in the columns, and most of
the troops were withdrawn from the meadows, leaving
LIONEL LINCOLN. 189
merely a few skirmishers to amuse the Americans who lay
behind the fence. When each disposition was completed,
the final signal was given to advance.
Lionel had taken post in his regiment, but marching on
the skirt of the column, he commanded a view of most of
the scene of battle. In his front moved a battalion, re-
duced to a handful of men in the previous assaults. Behind
these came a party of the marine guards, from the shipping,
led by their own veteran major ; and next followed the de-
jected Nesbitt and his corps, amongst whom Lionel looked
in vain for the features of the good-natured Polwarth.
Similar columns marched on their right and left, encirc-
]ing three sides of the redoubt by their battalions.
A few minutes brought him in full view of that humble
and unfinished mound of earth, for the possession of
which so much blood had that day been spilt in vain. It
lay, as before, still as if none breathed within its bosom,
though a terrific row of dark tubes were arrayed along its
top, following the movements of the approaching columns,
as the eyes of the imaginary charmers of our own wilder-
ness are said to watch their victims. As the uproar of the
artillery again grew fainter, the crash of falling streets, and
the appalling sounds of the conflagration, on their left, be-
came more audible. Immense volumes of black smoke
issued from the smouldering ruins, and, bellying outward,
fold beyond fold, it overhung the work in a hideous cloud,
casting its gloomy shadow across the place of blood.
A strong column was now seen ascending, as if from
out the burning town, and the advance of the whole be-
came quick and spirited. A low call ran through the pla-
toons to note the naked weapons of their adversaries, and
it was followed by the cry of "To the bayonet! to the
bayonet ! "
" Hurrah ! for the Royal Irish ! " shouted M'Fuse, at the
head of the dark column from the conflagration.
" Hurrah !" echoed a well-known voice from the silent
mound. " Let them come on to Breed's ; the people will
teach 'em the law ! "
Men think at such moments with the rapidity of light-
ning, and Lionel had even fancied his comrades in posses-
sion of the work, when the terrible stream of fire flashed
in the faces of the men in front.
" Push on with the th," cried the veteran major of
marines — " push on, or the i8th will get the honor of the
day ! "
190 LIONEL LINCOLN.
"We cannot," murmured the soldiers of the th;
" their fire is too heavy ! "
" Then break, and let the marines pass through you !"
The feeble battalion melted away, and the warriors of
the deep, trained to conflicts of hand to hand, sprang for-
ward, with a loud shout, in their places. The Americans,
exhausted of their ammunition, now sunk sullenly back, a
few hurling stones at their foes, in desperate indignation.
The cannon of the British had been brought to enfilade
their short breastwork, which was no longer tenable ; and
as the columns approached closer to the low rampart, it
became a mutual protection to the adverse parties.
" Hurrah ! for the Royal Irish ! " again shouted M'Fuse,
rushing up the trifling ascent, which was but of little more
than his own height.
" Hurrah !" repeated Pitcairn, waving his sword on an-
other angle of the work — " the day's our own ! "
One more sheet of flame issued out of the bosom of the
work, and all those brave men, who had emulated the ex-
amples of their officers, were swept away, as though a
whirlwind had passed along. The grenadier gave his war-
cry once more, before he pitched headlong among his ene-
mies ; while Pitcairn fell back into the arms of his own child.
The cry of " Forward, 47th," rung through their ranks, and
in their turn this veteran battalion gallantly mounted the
ramparts. In the shallow ditch Lionel passed the expiring
marine, and caught the dying and despairing look from
liis eyes, and in another instant he found himself in the
presence of his foes. As company followed company into
the defenceless redoubt, the Americans sullenly retired by
its rear, keeping the bayonets of the soldiers at bay with
clubbed muskets and sinewy arms. When the whole issued
upon the open ground, the husbandmen received a close
and fatal fire from the battalions, which were now gather-
ing around them on three sides. A scene of wild and sav-
age confusion then succeeded to the order of the fight,
and many fatal blows were given and taken, the melee
rendering the use of fire-arms nearly impossible for several
minutes.
Lionel continued in advance, pressing on the footsteps
of the retiring foe, stepping over many a lifeless body in
his difficult progress. Notwithstanding the hurry, and
vast disorder of the fray, his eye fell on the form of the
graceful stranger, stretched lifeless on the parched grass,
which had greedily drank his blood. Amid the ferocious
LIONEL LINCOLN". 191
cries, and fiercer passions of the moment, the young man
paused, and glanced his eyes around him, with an expres-
sion that said he thought the work of death should cease.
At this instant the trappings of his attire caught the
glaring eyeballs of a dying yeoman, who exerted his
wasting strength to sacrifice one more worthy victim to
the manes of his countrymen. The whole of the tumultu-
ous scene vanished from the senses of Lionel at the flash
of the musket of this man, and he sunk beneath the feet
of the combatants, insensible of further triumph, and of
every danger.
The fall of a single officer, in such a contest, was a cir-
cumstance not to be regarded ; and regiments passed over
him, without a single man stooping to inquire into his
fate. When the Americans had disengaged themselves from
the troops, they descended into the little hollow between
the two hills, swiftly, and like a disordered crowd, bearing
off most of their wounded, and leaving but few prisoners
in the hands of their foes. The formation of the ground
favored their retreat, as hundreds of bullets whistled harm-
lessly above their heads ; and by the time they gained the
acclivity of Bunker, distance was added to their security.
Finding the field lost, the men at the fence broke away in
a body from their position, and abandoned the meadows ;
the whole moving in confused masses behind the crest of
the adjacent height. The shouting soldiery followed in
their footsteps, pouring in fruitless and distant volleys ;
but on the summit of Bunker their tired platoons were
halted, and they beheld the throng move fearlessly through
the tremendous fire that enfiladed the low pass, as little
injured as though most of them bore charmed lives.
The day was now drawing to a close. With the disap-
pearance of their enemies, the ships a*nd batteries ceased
their cannonade ; and presently not a musket was heard
in that place, where so fierce a contest had so long raged.
The troops commenced fortifying the outward eminence,
on which they rested, in order to maintain their barren
Conquest ; and nothing further remained for the achieve-
ment of the royal lieutenants, but to go and mourn ovel
their victory.
192 LIONEL LINCOLN.
CHAPTER XVII.
" She speaks, yet she says nothing ; what of that?
Her eye discourses — I will answer it." — Romeo.
ALTHOUGH the battle of Bunker Hill was fought whiie
the grass yet lay on the meadows, the heats of summer had
been followed by the nipping frosts of November; the leaf
had fallen in its hour, and the tempests and biting colds
of February had succeeded, before Major Lincoln left that
couch where he had been laid, when carried, in total help-
lessness, from the fatal heights of the peninsula. Through-
out the whole of that long period, the hidden bullet had
defied the utmost skill of the British surgeons ; nor could
all their science and experience embolden them to risk
cutting certain arteries and tendons in the body of the heir
of Lincoln, which were thought to obstruct the passage to
that obstinate lead, which, all agreed, alone impeded the
recovery of the unfortunate sufferer. This indecision was
one of the penalties that poor Lionel paid for his great-
ness ; for had it been Meriton who lingered, instead of his
master, it is quite probable the case would have been de-
termined at a much earlier hour. At length, a young and
enterprising leech, with the world before him, arrived from
Europe, who, possessing greater skill or more effrontery
(the effects are sometimes the same) than his fellows, did
not hesitate to decide at once on the expediency of an
operation. The medical staff of the army sneered at this
bold innovator, and at first were content with such silent
testimonials of their contempt. But when the friends of
the patient, listening, as usual, to the whisperings of hope,
consented that the confident man of probes should use his
instruments, the voices of his contemporaries became not
only loud, but clamorous. There was a day or two when
even the watch-worn and jaded subalterns of the army for-
got the dangers and hardships of the siege, to attend with
demure aud instructed countenances to the unintelligible
jargon of the " Medici " of their camp ; and men grew pale,
as they listened, who had never been known to exhibit any
symptoms of the disgraceful passion before their more
acknowledged enemies. But when it became known that
the ball was safely extracted, and the patient was pro-
nounced convalescent, a calm succeeded, that was much
LIONEL LINCOLN. 193
more portentous to the human race than the preceding
tempest ; and in a short time the daring practitioner was
universally acknowledged to be the founder of a new
theory. The degrees of M.D. were showered upon his
honored head from half the learned bodies in Christendom,
while many of his enthusiastic admirers and imitators be-
came justly entitled to the use of the same magical sym-
bols, as annexments to their patronymics, with the addition
of the first letter in the alphabet. The ancient reasoning
was altered to suit the modern facts, and before the war
was ended, some thousands of the servants of the crown,
arid not a few of the patriotic colonists, were thought to
have died, scientifically, under the favor of this important
discovery.
We might devote a chapter to the minute promulgation
of such an event, had not more recent philosophers long
since upset the practice, (in which case the theory seems
to fall, as a matter of course,) by a renewal of those bold
adventures, which teach us, occasionally, something new
in the anatomy of man ; as in the science of geography,
sealers of New England have been able to discover Terra
Australis, where Cook saw nothing but water ; or Parry
finds veins and arteries in that part of the American con-
tinent, which had so long been thought to consist of
worthless cartilage.
Whatever may have been the effects of the operation
on the surgical science, it was healthful, in the first de-
gree, to its subject. For seven weary months Lionel
lay in a state in which he might be said to exist, instead
of live, but little conscious of surrounding occurrences;
and, happily for himself, nearly insensible to pain and
anxiety. At moments the flame of life would apparently
glimmer like the dying lamp, and then both the fears and
hopes of his attendants were disappointed, as the patient
dropped again into that state of apathy in which so much
of his time was wasted. From an erroneous opinion of his
master's sufferings, Meriton had been induced to make a
free use of soporifics, and no small portion of Lionel's in-
sensibility was produced by an excessive use of that laud-
anum, for which he was indebted to the mistaken humanity
of his valet. At the moment of the operation, the advent-
urous surgeon had availed himself of the same stupefy-
ing drug, and many days of dull, heavy, and alarming
apathy succeeded, before his system, finding itself relieved
from its unnatural inmate, resumed its healthful func-
194 LIONEL LINCOLN.
tions, and began to renew its powers. By a singular good
fortune his leech was too much occupied by his own novel
honors, to follow up his success, secundem artem, as a
great general pushes a victory to the utmost ; and that
matchless doctor, Nature, was permitted to complete the
cure.
When the effects of the anodynes had subsided, the pa-
tient found himself entirely free from uneasiness, and
dropped into a sweet and refreshing sleep, that lasted for
many hours without interruption. He awoke a new man ;
with his body renovated, his head clear/ and his recollec-
tions, though a little confused and wandering, certainly
better than they had been since the moment when he fell
in the melee on Breed's. This restoration to all the nobler
properties of life occurred about the tenth hour of the
day ; and as Lionel opened his eyes, with understanding
in their expression, they fell upon the cheerfulness which
a bright sun, assisted by the dazzling light of the masses
of snow without, had lent to every object in his apartment.
The curtains of the windows had been opened, and every
article of the furniture was arranged with a neatness that
manifested the studied care which presided over his illness.
In one corner, it is true, Meriton had established himself
in an easy-chair, with an arrangement of attitude which
spoke more in favor of his consideration for the valet than
the master, while he was comforting his faculties for a
night of watchfulness, by the sweet, because stolen, slum-
bers of the morning.
A flood of recollections broke into the mind of Lionel
together, and it was some little time before he could so far
separate the true from the imaginary, as to attain a toler-
ably clear comprehension of what had occurred in the little
age he had been dozing. Raising himself on one elbow,
without difficulty, he passed his hand once or twice slow-
ly over his face, and then trusted his voice in a summons
to his man. Meriton started at the well-known sounds,
and after diligently rubbing his eyes, like one who awakes
by surprise, he arose and gave the customary reply.
" How now, Meriton ! " exclaimed Major Lincoln ; "you
sleep as sound as a recruit on post, and 1 suppose you
have been stationed like one, with twice-told orders to be
vigilant."
The valet stood with open mouth, as if ready to devour
his master's words with more senses than one, and then, as
Lionel concluded, passed his hands in quick succession
LIONEL LINCOLN. 195
over his eyes as before, with a very different object, ere he
answered —
" Thank God, sir, thank God ! you look like yourself
once more, and we shall live again as we used to. Yes,
yes, sir — you'll do now — you'll do this time. That's a mir-
acle of a man, is the great Lon'non surgeon ! and now we
shall go back to Soho, and live like civilizers. Thank God,
sir, thank God ! you smile again, and I hope if anything
should go wrong you'll soon be able to give me one of
those awful looks that I am so used to, and which makes
mv heart jump into my mouth, when I know I've been for-
getful ! "
The poor fellow, in whom long service had created a
deep attachment to his master, which had been greatly in-
creased by the solicitude of a nurse, was compelled to
cease his unconnected expressions of joy, while he actu-
ally wept. Lionel was too much affected by this evidence
of feeling to continue the dialogue, for several minutes ;
during which time he employed himself in putting on part
of his attire, assisted by the gulping valet, when, drawing
his robe-de-chambre around his person, he leaned on the
shoulder of his man, and took the seat which the other had
so recently quitted.
" Well, well, Meriton, that will do," said Lionel, giving a
deep hem, as though his breathing was obstructed ; " that
will do, silly fellow ; I trust I shall live to give you many
a frown, and some few guineas, yet. — I have been shot, I
know "
"Shot, sir!" interrupted the valet — "you have been
downright and unlawfully murdered ! you were first shot,
and then baggoneted, and after that a troop of horse rode
over you. I had it from one of the Royal Irish, who lay
by your side the whole time, and who now lives to tell of
it — a good honest fellow is Terence, and if such a thing
was possible that your honor was poor enough to need a
pension, he would cheerfully swear to your hurts at the
King's Bench, or War-office ; Bridewell, or St. James', it's
all one to the like of him."
" I dare say, I dare say," said Lionel, smiling, though he
mechanically passed his hand over his body, as his valet
spoke of the bayonet — "but the poor fellow must have
transferred some of his own wounds to my person — I own
the bullet, but object to the cavalry and the steel."
" Noy sir, /own the bullet, and it shall be buried with
me in my dressing-box, at the head of my grave," said
196 LIONEL LINCOLN;
Meriton, exhibiting the flattened bit of lead, exultingly,
in the palm of his hand — " it has been in my pocket these
thirteen days, after tormenting your honor for six long
months, hid in the what d'ye call 'em muscles, away be-
hind the thingumy artery. But snug as it was, we got it
out ! He is a miracle is the great Lon'non surgeon ! "
Lionel reached over to his purse, which Meriton had
placed regularly on the table, each morning, in order to
remove it again at night, and, dropping several guineas in
the hand of his valet, said—
" So much lead must need some gold to sweeten it. Put
up the unseemly thing, and never let me see it again ! "
Meriton coolly took the opposing metals, and after
glancing his eyes at the guineas, with a readiness that em-
braced their amount in a single look, he dropped them
carelessly into one pocket, while he restored the lead to
the other with an exceeding attention to its preservation.
He then turned his hand to the customary duties of his
station.
" I remember well to have been in a light on the heights
of Charlestown, even to the instant when I got my hurt,"
continued his master — " and I even recollect many things
that have occurred since ; a period which appears like a
whole life to me. But after all, Meriton, I believe my
ideas have not been remarkable for their clearness."
" Lord, sir, you have talked to me, and scolded me, and
praised me, a hundred and a hundred times over again ;
but you have never scolded as sharp like as you can, nor
have you ever spoken and looked as bright as you do this
morning ! "
" I am in the house of Mrs. Lechmere," again continued
Lionel, examining the room — "I know this apartment, and
those private doors too well to be mistaken."
"To be sure you are, sir; Madam Lechmere had you
brought here from the field to her own house, and one of
the best it is in Boston, too : and I expect that madam
would somehow lose her title to it, if anything serious
should happen to us ! "
u Such as a bayonet, or a troop of horse ! but why do
you fancy any such thing ? "
" Because, sir, wrhen madam comes here of an afternoon,
which she did daily, before she sickened, I heard her very
often say to herself, if you should be so unfortunate as to
die, there would be an end to all her hopes of her house."
"Then it is Mrs. Lechmere who visits me daily," said
LIONEL LINCOLN". 197
Lionel, thoughtfully ; " I have recollections of a female
form hovering around my bed, though I had supposed it
more youthful and active than that of my aunt."
" And you are quite right, sir — you have had such a
nurse the whole time as is seldom to be met with. For
making a posset or a gruel, I'll match her with the oldest
woman in the wards of Guy's ; and, to my taste, the best
barkeeper at the Lon'non is a fool to her at a negus."
" These are high accomplishments, indeed ! and who
may be their mistress ? "
" Miss Agnus, sir ; a rare good nurse is Miss Agnus
Danforth ! though in point of regard to the troops, I
shouldn't presume to call her at all distinguishable."
"Miss Danforth," repeated Lionel, dropping his expect-
ing eyes, in disappointment, from the face of Meriton to
the floor — " I hope she has not sustained all this trouble
on my account alone. There are women enough in the
establishment— one would think such offices might be borne
by the domestics — in short, Meriton, was she without an
assistant in all these little kindnesses ? "
" / helped her, you know, sir, all I could ; though my
neguses never touch the right spot, like Miss Agnus's."
" One would think, by your account, that I have done
little else than guzzle port wine for six months," said
Lionel, pettishly.
"Lord, sir, you wouldn't drink a thimbleful from a
glass, often ; which I always took for a bad symptom ; for
I'm certain 'twas no fault of the liquor, if it wasn't drunk."
"Well, enough of your favorite beverage ! I sicken at
the name already — but, Meriton, have not others of my
friends called to inquire after my fate ?"
" Certainly, sir — the commander-in-chief sends an aid or
a servant every day ; and Lord Percy left his card more
than —
" Poh ! these are calls of courtesy ; but I have relatives
in Boston — Miss Dynevor, has she left the town ?"
" No, sir," said the valet, very coolly resuming the duty
of arranging the vials on the night-table ; " she is not
much of a moving body, is that Miss Cecil."
" She is not ill, I trust ?" demanded Lionel.
" Lord, it goes through me, part joy and part fear, to
hear you speak again so quick and brisk, sir ! No, she
isn't downright ailing, but she hasn't the life and knowl-
edge of things, as her cousin, Miss Agnus."
" Why do you think so, fellow ? "
198 LIONEL LINCOLN.
" Because, sir, she is mopy, and don't turn her hand to
any of the light lady's work'in the family. I have seen her
sit in that very chair, where you are now, sir, for hours to-
gether, without moving; unless it was some nervous start
when you groaned, or breathed a little upward through
your honor's nose — I have taken it into my consideration,
sir, that she poetizes ; at all events, she likes what I calls
quietude ! "
" Indeed ! " said Lionel, pursuing the conversation with
an interest that would have struck a more observant man
as remarkable — "what reason have you for suspecting
Miss Dynevor of manufacturing rhymes ?"
" Because, sir, she has often a bit of paper in her hand ;
and I have seen her read the same thing over and over
again, till I'm sure she must know it by heart ; which your
poetize rs always do with what they writes."
" Perhaps it was a letter ?" cried Lionel, with a quick-
ness that caused Meriton to drop a vial he was dusting, at
the expense of its contents.
" Bless me, master Lionel, how strong, and like old
times you speak ! "
" I believe I am amazed to find you know so much of
the divine art, Meriton."
" Practice makes perfect, you know, sir," said the
simpering valet — "I can't say I ever did much in that
way, though I wrote some verses on a pet pig, as died
down at Ravenscliffe, the last time we was there ; and I
got considerable eclaw for a few lines on a vase which
lady Bab's woman broke one day, in a scuffle when the
foolish creature said as I wanted to kiss her ; though all
that knows me, knows that I needn't break vases to get
kisses from the like of her ! "
"Very well," said Lionel; "some day, when I am
stronger, I may like to be indulged with a perusal — go
now, Meriton, to the larder, and look about you ; I feel the
symptomsxof returning health grow strong upon me."
The gratified valet instantly departed, leaving his master
to the musings of his own busy fancy/
Several minutes passed away before the young man
raised his head from the hand that supported it, and then
it was only done when he thought he heard a light foot-
step near him. His ear had not deceived him, for Cecil
Dynevor herself stood within a few feet of the chair, which
concealed, in a great measure, his person from her view.
It was apparent, by her attitude and her tread, that she
LIONEL LINCOLN. 199
expected to find ths sick where she had seen him last, and
where, for so many dreary months, his listless form had
been stretched in apathy. Lionel followed her graceful
movements with his eyes, and as the airy band of her
morning cap waved aside at her own breathing, he dis-
covered the unnatural paleness that was seated on her
speaking features. But when "she drew the folds of the
bed-curtains, and missed the invalid, thought is not quicker
than the motion with which she turned her light person
towards the chair. Here she encountered the eyes of the
young man, beaming on her with delight, and expressing
all that animation and intelligence, to which they had so
long been strangers. Yielding to the surprise and the
gush of her feelings, Cecil flew to his feet, and clasping
one of his extended hands in both her own, she cried —
" Lionel, dear Lionel, you are better ! God be praised,
you look well again ! "
Lionel gently extricated his hand from the warm and
unguarded pressure of her soft fingers, and drew forth a
paper which she had unconsciously committed to his keep-
ing.
"This, dearest Cecil," he whispered to the blushing
maiden, " this is my own letter, written when I knew my
life to be at imminent hazard, and speaking the purest
thoughts of my heart — tell me, then, it has not been thus
kept for nothing ? "
Cecil dropped her face between her hands for a moment,
in burning shame, and then, as all the emotions of the mo-
ment crowded around her heart, she yielded to them as a
woman, and burst into a paroxysm of tears. It is needless
to dwell on those consoling and seducing speeches of the
young man, which soon succeeded in luring his companion
not only from her sobs, but even from her confusion, and
permitted her to raise her beautiful countenance to his
ardent gaze, bright and confiding as his fondest wishes
could have made it.
The letter of Lionel was too direct, not to save her
pride, and it had been too often perused for a single sen-
tence to be soon forgotten. Besides, Cecil had watched
over his couch too fondly and too long, to indulge in any
of those little coquetries which are sometimes met with in
similar scenes. She said all that an affectionate, generous,
and modest female would say on such an occasion ; and, it
is certain, that, well as Lionel looked on waking, the little
she uttered had the effect to improve his appearance tenfold.
200 LIONEL LINCOLN.
" And you received my letter on the morning after the
battle ?" said Lionel, leaning fondly over her, as she still,
unconsciously, kneeled by his side.
" Yes — yes — it was your order that it should be sent to
me only in case of your death ; but for more than a month
you were numbered as among the dead by us all. — Oh !
what a month was that ! "
" Tis past, my sweet friend, and, God be praised, I may
now look forward to health and happiness."
" God be praised, indeed," murmured Cecil, the tears
again rushing to her eyes — " I would not live that month
over again, Lionel, for all that this world can offer ! "
" Dearest Cecil," he replied, " I can only repay this
kindness and suffering on my account, by shielding you
from the rude contact of the world, even as your father
would protect you, were he again in being."
She looked up in his face with all the .soul of a woman's
confidence beaming in her eyes, as she answered—
" You will, Lincoln, I know you will — you have sworn
it, and I should be a wretch to doubt you."
He drew her unresisting form into his .arms, and folded
her to his bosom. In another moment a noise, like one
ascending the stairs, was heard through the open door of
the room, when all the feelings of her sex rushed to the
breast of Cecil. She sprung on her feet, and, hardly al-
lowing time to the delighted Lionel to note the burning
tints that suffused her whole face, she darted from the room
with the rapidity and lightness of an antelope.
CHAPTER XVIII.
"Dead, fora ducat, dead." — Hamlet.
WHILE Lionel was in the confusion of feeling produced
by the foregoing scene, the intruder, after a prelude of
singularly heavy and loud steps, on the floor, as if some
one approached on crutches, entered by a door opposite to
the one through which Cecil had so suddenly vanished.
At the next moment the convalescent was saluted by the
full, cheerful voice of his visitor —
" God bless you, Leo, and bless the whole of us, for we
need it," cried Polwarth, eagerly advancing to grasp the
extended hands of his friend. " Meriton has told me that
LIONEL LINCOLN; 201
you have got the true mark of health — a good appetite — •
at last. I should have broken my neck in hurrying up to
wish you joy on the moment, but I just stepped into the
kitchen, without Mrs. Lechmere's leave, to show her cook
how to broil the steak they are warming through for you —
a capital thing after a long nap, and full of nutriment —
God bless you, my dear Leo ; the look of your bright eye
is as stimulating to my spirits as a West-India pepper is to
the stomach."
Polwarth ceased shaking the hands of his reanimated
friend, as with a husky voice he concluded, and turning
aside under the pretence of reaching a chair, he dashed his
hand before his eyes, gave aloud hem, and took his seat in
silence. During the performance of this evolution, Lionel
had leisure to observe the altered person of the captain.
His form, though still rotund, and even corpulent, was
much reduced in dimensions, while, in the place of one of
those lower members, with which nature furnishes the
human race, he had been compelled to substitute a leg of
wood, somewhat inartificially made, and roughly shod with
iron. This last sad alteration, in particular, attracted the
look of Major Lincoln, who continued to gaze at it with
glistening eyes, for some time after the other had estab-
lished himself, to his entire satisfaction, in one of the
cushioned seats of the apartment.
" I see my frame-work has caught your eye, Leo," said
Polwarth, raising the wooden substitute with an air of
affected indifference, and tapping it lightly with his cane.
" 'Tis not as gracefully cut, perhaps, as if it had been
turned from the hand of master Phidias ; but in a place
like Boston, it is an invaluable member, inasmuch as it
knows neither hunger nor cold ! "
"The Americans, then, press the town," said Lionel,
glad to turn the subject, " and maintain the siege with
vigor ? "
" They have kept us in horrible bodily terror, ever since
the shallow waters toward the main-land have been frozen,
and opened a path directly into the heart of the place.
Their Virginian generalissimo, Washington, appeared a
short time after the affair over on the other peninsula (a
cursed business that, Leo ! ), and with him came all the
trimmings of a large army. Since that time they have
worn a more military front, though little else has been
done, excepting an occasional skirmish, but cooping us
up, like so many uneasy pigeons, in our rage."
202 LIONEL LINCOLN.
''And Gage chafes not at the confinement?"
" Gage ! — we sent him off like the soups, months ago.
No, no — the moment the ministry discovered that we had
come to our forks, in good earnest, they chose black Billy
to preside : and now we stand at bay with the rebels, who
have already learnt that our leader is not a child at the
grand entertainment of war."
" Yes, seconded by such men as Clinton and Burgoyne,
and supported by the flower of our troops, the position
can be easily maintained."
" No position can be easily maintained, Major Lincoln,"
said Polwarth, promptly, " in the face of starvation, both
internal and external."
" And is the case so desperate ? "
" Of that you shall judge yourself, my friend. When
Parliament shut the port of Boston, the colonies were
filled with grumblers ; and now we have opened it, and
would be glad to see their supplies, the devil a craft enters
the harbor willingly. — Ah ! Meriton, you have the steak, I
see ; put it here, where your master can have it at his
elbow, and bring another plate — I breakfasted but indiffer-
ently well this morning. — So we are thrown completely on
our own resources. But the rebels do not let us enjoy
even them in peace. — This thing is done to a turn — how
charmingly the blood follows the knife ! — They have gone
so far as to equip privateers, who cut off our necessaries,
and he is a lucky man who can get a meal like the one
before us."
" I had not thought the power of the Americans could
have forced matters to such a pass."
"What I have mentioned, though of vital importance, is
not half. If a man is happy enough to obtain the materi-
als for a good dish — you should have rubbed an onion
over these plates, Mr. Meriton — he don't know where he is
to find fuel to cook it withal."
" Looking at the comforts with which I am surrounded,
my good friend, I cannot but fancy your imagination
heightens the distress."
" Fancy no such silly thing ; for when you get abroad,
you will find it but too exact. In the article of food, if we
are not reduced, like the men of Jerusalem, to eating one
another, we are, half the time, rather worse off, being en-
tirely destitute of wholesome nutriment. Let but an
unlucky log float by the town, among the ice, and go forth
and witness the struggling and skirmishing between the
LIONEL LINCOLN. 203
Yankees and our frozen fingers for its possession, and you
will become a believer ! 'Twill be lucky if the water-soaked
relic of some wharf should escape without a cannonade !
I don't tell you these things as a grumbler, Leo ; for, thank
God, I have only half as many toes as other men, to keep
warmth in ; and as for eating, a little will suffice for me,
now my corporeal establishment is so sadly reduced."
Lionel paused in melancholy, as his friend attempted to
jest at his misfortune, and then, by a very natural transi-
tion, for a young man in his situation, he proudly ex-
claimed—
" But we gained the day, Polvvarth ! and drove the rebels
from their entrenchments, like chaff before a whirlwind ! "
" Humph ! " ejaculated the captain, laying his wooden
leg carefully over its more valuable fellow, and regarding
it ruefully, while he spoke — " had we made a suitable use
of the bounties of nature, and turned their position, instead
of running into the jaws of the beast, many might have
left the field better supplied with appurtenances than are
some among us at present. But dark William loves a
brush, they say, and he enjoyed it, on that occasion, to his
heart's content."
" He must be grateful to Clinton for his timely pres-
ence ! "
" Does the devil delight in martyrdom ? The presence
of a thousand rebels w^ould have been more welcome, even
at that moment ; nor has he smiled once on his good-
natured assistant, since he thrust himself, in that unwel-
come manner, between him and his enemy. We had enough
to think of, with our dead and wounded, and in maintain-
ing our conquest, or something more than black looks and
unkind eyes would have followed the deed."
" I fear to inquire into the fortunes of the field, so many
names of worth must be numbered in the loss."
" Twelve or fifteen hundred men are not to be knocked
on the head out of such an army, and all the clever fellows
escape. Gage, I knowr, calls the loss something like eleven
hundred ; but, after vaporing so much about the Yankees,
their prowess is not to be acknowledged in its bloom at
once. A man seldom goes on one leg, but he halts a little
at first, as I can say from experience — put down thirteen,
Leo, as a medium, and you'll not miscalculate largely—-
yes, indeed, there were some brave young men amongst
them ! those rascally light-footed gentry, that I gave up so
opportunely, were finely peppered — and there were the
204 LIONEL LINCOLN.
Fusileers had hardly men enough left to saddle their
goat ! " *
" And the marines ! they must have suffered heavily ; I
saw Pitcairn fall before me ; " said Lionel, speaking with
hesitation — " I greatly fear our old comrade, the grenadier,
did not escape with better fortune."
" Mac ! " exclaimed Polwarth, casting a furtive glance at
his companion. — " Ay, Mac was not as lucky in that busi-
ness as he was in Germany — he-em— Mac — had an obsti-
nate way with him, Leo, a damn'd obstinate fellow in all
military matters ; but as generous a heart, and as free in
sharing a mess-bill as any man in his majesty's service ! I
crossed the river in the same boat with him, and he enter-
tained us with his queer thoughts on the art of war. Ac-
cording to Mac's notions of things, the grenadiers were
to do all the fighting — a damn'd odd way with him had
Mac ! "
" There are few of us without peculiarities, and I could
wish that none of them were more offensive than the tri-
fling prejudices of poor Dennis M'Fuse."
" Yes, yes," added Polwarth, hemming violently, as if de-
termined to clear his throat at every hazard ; " he was a
little opinionated in trifles, such as a knowledge of war,
and matters of discipline ; but in all important things as
tractable as a child. He loved his joke, but it was impossi-
ble to have a less difficult or a more unpretending palate
in one's mess! The greatest evil I can wish him is breath
in his body, to live and enjoy, in these hard times, when
things become excellent by comparison, the sagacious
provision which his own ingenuity contrived to secure
out of the cupidity of our ancient landlord, Mister Seth
Srxge."
" Then that notable scheme did not entirely fall to the
ground," said Lionel, with a feverish desire to change the
subject once more. " I had thought the Americans were
too vigilant to admit the intercourse."
" Seth has been too sagacious to permit them to obstruct
it. The prices acted like a soporific on his conscience,
and by using your name, I believe, he has found some
friend of sufficient importance amongst the rebels to pro-
tect him in his trade. His supplies make their appearance
* This regiment, in consequence of some tradition, kept a goat, with
gilded horns, as a memorial. Once a year it celebrated a festival, in which
the bearded quadruped acted a conspicuous part. In the battle of Bun-
ker Hill, the corps was distinguished alike for ite courage and its losses
LIONEL LINCOLN. 205
twice a week as regularly as the meats follow the soups in
a well-ordered banquet."
" You then can communicate with the country, and the
country with the town ! Although Washington may wink
at the proceeding, I should fear the scowl of Howe."
" Why, in order to prevent suspicions of unfair practices,
and at the same time to serve the cause of humanity, so
the explanation reads, you know, our sapient host has seen
fit to employ a fool as his agent in the intercourse — a fel-
low, as you may remember, of some notoriety ; a certain
simpleton, who calls himself Job Pray,"
Lionel continued silent for many moments, during which
time his recollections began to revive, and his thoughts
glanced over the scenes that occurred in the first months
of his residence in Boston. It is quite possible that a pain-
ful, though still general and indefinite feeling mingled
with his musings ; for he evidently strove to expel some
such unwelcome intruder, as he resumed the discourse
with a strong appearance of forced gayety.
" Ay, ay, I well remember poor Job — a fellow once
seen and known, not easily to be forgotten. He used, "of
old, to attach himself greatly to my person, but I suppose,
like the rest of the world, I am neglected when in retire-
ment."
"You do the lad injustice ; he not only makes frequent
inquiries, after his slovenly manner I acknowledge, con-
cerning your condition, but sometimes he seems better in-
formed in the matter than myself, and can requite my fre-
quent answers to his questions, by imparting, instead of
receiving, intelligence of your improvement ; more es-
pecially since the ball has been extracted."
" That should be very singular, too," said Lionel, with a
still more thoughtful brow.
" Not so very remarkable, Leo, as one would at first im-
agine," interrupted his companion — " the lad is not want-
ing in sagacity, as he manifested by his choice of dishes at
our old mess-table. — Ah ! Leo, Leo, we may see many a
discriminating palate, but where shall we go to find an-
other such a friend !— one who could eat and joke — drink
and quarrel with a man, in a breath, like poor Dennis, who
is gone from among us forever ! — There was a piquancy
about poor Mac, that acted on the dulness of life like con-
diments on the natural appetite ! "
Meriton, who was diligently brushing his master's coat,
an office that he performed daily, though the garment had
206 LIONEL LINCOLN.
not been worn in so long a period, stole a glance at the
averted eye of the major, and understanding its expression
to indicate a determined silence, he ventured to maintain
the discourse in his own unworthy person.
"Yes, sir, a nice gentleman was Captain M'Fuse, and
one as fought as stoutly for the king as any gentleman in
the army, all agrees. — It was a thousand pities such a fine
figure of a man hadn't a better idea of dress ; it isn't all,
sir, as is gifted in that way ! But every body says he's a
detrimental loss, though there's some officers in town, who
consider so little how to wear their ornaments, that if they
were to be shot, I am sure no one would miss them."
"Ah ! Meriton," cried the full-hearted Polwarth, "I see
you are a youth of more observation than I had suspected !
Mac had all the seeds of a man in him, though some of
them might not have come to maturity. There was a flavor
in his humor, that served as a relish to every conversation
in which he mingled. Did you serve the poor fellow up
in handsome style, Meriton, for his last worldly exhibi-
tion ? "
"Yes, indeed, sir, we gave him as ornamental a funeral
as can be seen out of Lon'non. Besides the Royal Irish,
all the grenadiers was out ; that is, all as wasn't hurt,
which was near half of them. As I knowed the regard
Master Lionel had for the captain, I dressed him with my
own hands — I trimmed his whiskers, sir, and altered his
hair more in front, and seeing that his honor was getting
a little gray, T threw on a sprinkling of powder, and as
handsome a corpse was Captain M'Fuse as any gentleman
in the army, let the other be who he may ! "
The eyes of Polwarth twinkled, and he blew his nose
with a noise not unlike the sound of a clarion, ere he re-
joined—
" Yes, yes, time and hardships had given a touch of frost
to the head of the poor fellow ; but it is a consolation to
know that he died like a soldier, and not by the hands of
that vulgar butcher, Nature ; and that, being dead, he was
removed according to his deserts ! "
" Indeed, sir," said Meriton, with a solemnity worthy of
the occasion, "we gave him a great procession — a great
deal can be made out of his majesty's uniform, on such
festivities, and it had a wonderful look about it ! — Did you
speak, sir ?"
"Yes " added Lionel, impatiently ; " remove the cloth
and go inquire if there be letters for me."
LIONEL LINCOLN. 207
The valet submissively obeyed, and after a short pause
the dialogue was resumed by the gentlemen on subjects of
a less painful nature.
As Pohvarth was exceedingly communicative, Lionel
soon obtained a very general, and, to do the captain suit-
able justice, an extremely impartial account of the situation
of the hostile forces, as well as of all the leading events
that had transpired since the day of Breed's. Once or
twice the invalid ventured an allusion to the spirit of the
rebels, and to the unexpected energy they had discovered ;
but Polwarth heard them all in silence, answering only by
a melancholy smile, and, in the last instance, by a signifi-
cant gesture toward his unnatural supporter. Of course,
after this touching acknowledgment of his former error,
his friend waived the subject for others less personal.
He learned that the royal general maintained his hardly-
earned conquest on the opposite peninsula, where he was
as effectually beleaguered, however, as in the town of
Boston itself. In the meantime, while the war was con-
ducted in earnest at the point where it commenced, hos-
tilities had broken out in every one of those colonies, south
of the St. Lawrence and the Great Lakes, where the pres-
ence of the royal troops invited an appeal to force. At
first, while the colonists acted under the impulses of the
high enthusiasm of a sudden rising, they had been every-
where successful. A general army had been organized, as
already related, and divisions wrere employed at different
points to eifect those conquests, which, in that early state
of the struggle, were thought to be important to the main
result. But the effects of their imperfect means and di-
vided power were already becoming visible. After a series
of minor victories, Montgomery had fallen in a most des-
perate but unsuccessful attempt to carry the impregnable
fortress of Quebec ; and ceasing to be the assailants, the
Americans were gradually compelled to collect their re-
sources to meet that mighty effort of the crown, which was
known to be not far distant. As thousands of their fellow-
subjects in the mother country manifested a strong repug-
nance to the war, the ministry so far submitted to the
influence of that free spirit, which first took deep root in
Britain, as to turn their eyes to those states of Europe,
who made a trade in human life, in quest of mercenaries to
quell the temper of the colonists. In consequence, the
fears of the timid among the Americans were excited by
rumors of the vast hordes of Russians and Germans, who
2o8 LIONEL LINCOLN.
were to be poured into their country, with the fell intent
to make them slaves. Perhaps no step of their enemies
had a greater tendency to render them odious in the eyes of
the Americans, than this measure of introducing foreigners
to decide a quarrel purely domestic. So long as none but
men who had been educated in those acknowledged prin-
ciples of justice and law, known to both people, wrere
admitted to the contest, there \vere visible points, common
to each, which might render the struggle less fierce, and in
time lead to a permanent reconciliation. But they reasoned
not inaptly, when they asserted, that in a contest rendered
triumphant by slaves, nothing but abject submission could
ensue to the conquered. It was like throwing away the
scabbard, and, by abandoning reason, submitting the result
to the sword alone. In addition to the estrangement these
measures were gradually increasing between the people of
the mother-country and the colonies, must be added the
change it produced among the latter in their habits of
regarding the person of their prince.
During the whole of the angry discussion, and the
recriminations, which preceded the drawing of blood, the
colonists had admitted, to the fullest extent, not only in
their language, but in their feelings, that fiction of the
British law, which says "the king can do no wrong."
Throughout the wide extent of an empire, on which the
sun was never known to set, the English monarch could
boast of no subjects more devoted to his family and person
than the men who now stood in arms against what they
honestly believed to be the unconstitutional encroach-
ments of his power. Hitherto the whole weight of their
resentment had justly fallen on the advisers of the prince,
who himself was thought to be ignorant, as he was prob-
ably innocent, of the abuses so generally practised in his
name. But as the contest thickened, the natural feelings
of the man were thought to savor of the political acts he
was required to sanction with his name. It was soon
whispered, among those who had the best means of in-
telligence, that the feelings of the sovereign \vere deeply
interested in the maintenance of what he deemed his pre-
rogative, and the ascendancy of that body of the repre-
sentatives of his empire, which he met in person and
influenced by his presence. Ere long this opinion was
rumored abroad, and as the minds of men began to loosen
from their ancient attachments and prejudices, they con-
founded, by a, very natural feeling, the head with the mem-
LIONEL LINCOLN. 209
bers ; forgetting that " Liberty and Equality" formed no
part of the trade of princes. The name of the monarch
was daily falling into disrepute ; and as the colonial writers
ventured to allude more freely to his person and power,
the glimmerings of that light were seen, which was a pre-
cursor of the rise of "the stars of the west" among the
national symbols of the earth. Until then, few had thought,
and none had ventured to speak openly, of independence,
though events had been silently preparing the colonists for
such a final measure.
Allegiance to the prince was the last and only tie to be
severed ; for the colonies already governed themselves in
all matters, whether of internal or foreign policy, as effect-
ually as any people could, whose right to do so was not
generally acknowledged. But as the honest nature of
George III. admitted of no disguise, mutual disgust and
alienation were the natural consequences of the reaction
of sentiment between the prince and his western people.*
All this, and much more of minute detail, was hastily
commented on by Polwarth, who possessed, in the midst
of his epicurean propensities, sterling good sense, and
great integrity of intention. Lionel was chiefly a listener,
nor did he cease the greedy and interesting employment
until warned by his weakness, and the stroke of a neigh-
boring clock, that he was trespassing too far on prudence.
His friend then assisted the exhausted invalid to his bed,
and after giving him a world of good advice, together with
a warm pressure of the hand, he stumped his way out of
the room, with a noise that brought, at every tread, an
echo from the heart of Major Lincoln.
CHAPTER XIX.
"God never meant that man should scale the heavens
By strides of human wisdom." — COWPER.
A VERY few days of gentle exercise in the bracing air of
the season, were sufficient to restore the strength of the in-
valid, whose wounds had healed while he lay slumbering
under the influence of. the anodynes prescribed by his
* NOTE. — The prejudices of the King of England were unavoidable in
his insulated situation, but his virtues and integrity were exclusively the
property of the man. His speech to our first minister after the peace can-
not be too otten recorded. "I was the last man in my kingdom to
acknowledge your independence, and I shall be the last to violate it."
I A
210 LIONEL LINCOLN:
leech. Polwarth, in consideration of the dilapidated state
of his own limbs, together with the debility of Lionel, had
so far braved the ridicule of the army, as to set up one of
th6se comfortable and easy conveyances, which, in the
good old times of colonial humility, were known by the
quaint and unpretending title of tom-pungs. To equip
this establishment, he had been compelled to impress one
of the fine hunters of his friend. The animal had been
taught, by virtue of much training from his groom, aided
a little, perhaps, by the low state of the garners of the
place, to amble through the snow as quietly as if he were
conscious of the altered condition of his master's health.
In this safe vehicle the two gentlemen might be seen daily,
gliding along the upper streets of the town, and moving
through the winding paths of the common, receiving the
congratulations of their friends ; or, in their turn, visiting
others, who, like themselves, had been wounded in the
murderous battle of the preceding summer, but who, less
fortunate than they, wrere still compelled to submit to the
lingering confinement of their quarters.
It was not difficult to persuade Cecil and Agnes to join
in many of their short excursions, though no temptation
could induce the latter to still the frown that habitually set-
tled on her beautiful brow, whenever chance or intention
brought them in contact with any of the gentlemen of the
army. Miss Dynevor was, however, much more conciliat-
ing in her deportment, and even, at times, so gracious as
to incur the private reproaches of her friend.
" Surely, Cecil, you forget how much our poor country-
men are suffering in their miserable lodgings without the
town, or you would be less prodigal of your condescen-
sion to these butterflies of the army," cried Agnes, pet-
tishly, while they were uncloaking after one of these rides,
during which the latter thought her cousin had lost sight
of that tacit compact, by which most of the women of the
colonies deemed themselves bound to exhibit their fem-
inine resentments to their invaders. — "Were a chief from
our own army presented to you, he could not have been
received in a sweeter manner than you bestowed your
smile to-day on that Sir Digby Dent ! "
" I can say nothing in favor of its sweetness, my acid
cousin, but that Sir Digby Dent is a gentleman —
" A gentleman ! yes — so is every Englishman who wears
a scarlet coat, and knows how to play off his airs in the
colonies ! "
LIONEL LINCOLN. 211
"And as I hope I have some claims to be called a lady,"
continued Cecil, quietly, " I do not know why, in the little
intercourse \ve have, I should be rude to him."
"Cecil Dynevor !" exclaimed Agnes, with a sparkling
eye, and with a woman's intuitive perception of the other's
motives, "all Englishmen are not Lionel Lincolns."
"Nor is Major Lincoln an Englishman," returned Cecil,
laughing, while she blushed ; " though I have reason to
think that Captain Polwarth may be."
" Silly, child, silly ; the poor man has paid the penalty
of his offence, and is to be regarded writh pity."
" Have a care, my coz. — Pity is one of a large connec-
tion of gentle feelings ; when you once admit the first-born,
you may leave open your doors to the whole family."
" Now that is exactly the point in question, Cecil — be-
cause you esteem Major Lincoln, you are willing to ad-
mire Howe and all his myrmidons ; but I can pity, and
still be firm."
" Le bon temps viendra ! "
" Never," interrupted Agnes, with a warmth that pre-
vented her perceiving how much she admitted — " never, at
least under the guise of a scarlet coat."
Cecil smiled, but having completed her toilet, she with-
drew without making any reply.
Such little discussions, enlivened more or less by the
peculiar spirit of Agnes, were of frequent occurrence,
though the eye of her cousin became daily more thought-
ful, and the indifference with which she listened was more
apparent in each succeeding dialogue.
In the meantime, the affairs of the siege, though con-
ducted with extreme caution, amounted only to a vigilant
blockade.
The Americans lay by thousands in the surrounding
villages, or were hutted in strong bands nigh the batteries
which commanded the approaches to the place. Notwith-
standing their means had been greatly increased by the
capture of several vessels, loaded with warlike stores, as
well as by the reduction of two important fortresses to-
ward the Canadian frontiers, they were still too scanty to
admit of that wasteful expenditure, which is the usual ac-
companiment of war. In addition to their necessities, as
a reason for forbearance, might also be mentioned the
feelings of the colonists, who were anxious, in mercy to
themselves, to regain their town as little injured as possible.
On the other hand, the impression made by the battle of
212 LIONEL LINCOLN.
Bunker Hill was still so vivid as to curb the enterprise oi
the royal commanders, and Washington had been permit-
ted to hold their powerful forces in check, by an untrained
and half-armed multitude, that was, at times, absolutely
destitute of the means of maintaining even a momentary
contest.
As, however, a show of hostilities was maintained, the
reports of cannon were frequently heard, and there were
days when skirmishes between the advance parties of the
two hosts brought on more heavy firings, which continued
for longer periods. The ears of the ladies had long been
accustomed to these rude sounds, and as the trifling loss
which followed was altogether confined to the outworks,
they were listened to with but little or no terror.
In this mariner a fortnight flew swiftly away, without an
incident to be related. One fine morning, at the end of
that period, Polwarth drove into the little court-yard of
Mrs. Lechmere's residence, with all those knowing flour-
ishes he could command, and which, in the year 1775, were
thought to indicate the greatest familiarity with the prop-
erties of atom-pung. In another minute his wooden mem-
ber was heard in the passage, timing his steps, as he ap-
proached the room where the rest of the party were waiting
his appearance. The two cousins stood wrapped in furs,
with their smiling faces blooming beneath double rows of
lace to soften the pictures, while Major Lincoln was in the
act of taking his cloak from Meriton, as the door opened
for the admission of the captain.
"What, already dished!" exclaimed the good-natured
Polwarth, glancing his eyes from one to the other — "so
much the better ; punctuality is the true leaven of life — a
good watch is as necessary to the guest as the host, and to
the host as his cook. Miss Agnes, you are amazingly mur-
derous to-day ! If Howe expects his subalterns to do their
duty, he should not suffer you to go at large in his camp."
The fine eye of Miss Danforth sparkled as he proceeded,
but happening to fall on his mutilated person, its expres-
sion softened, and she was content with answering with a
smile —
" Let your general look to himself ; I seldom go abroad
but to espy his weakness ! "
The captain gave an expressive shrug of his shoulder,
and turning aside to his friend, said in an undertone —
"You see how it is, Major Lincoln ; ever since I have
been compelled to serve myself up, like a turkey from
LIONEL LINCOLN. 213
yesterday's dinner, with a single leg, I have not been able
to get a sharp reply from the young woman — she has grown
an even-tempered, tasteless morsel ! and I am like a two-
prong fork ; only fit for carving! well, I care not how soon
they cut me up entirely, since she has lost her piquancy —
but shall we to the church ? "
Lionel looked a little embarrassed, and fingered a paper
he held in his hand, for a moment, before he handed it to
the other for his perusal.
"What have we here?" continued Polwarth— " * Two
officers, wounded in the late battle, desire to return thanks
for their recovery ' — hum — hum — hum — two ? — yourself,
and who is the other ? "
" I had hoped it would be my old companion and school-
fellow ? "
" Ha! what, me!" exclaimed the captain, unconsciously
elevating his wooden leg, and examining it with a rueful
eye — " umph ! Leo, do you think a man has a particular
reason to be grateful for the loss of a leg ? "
" It might have been worse —
" I don't know," interrupted Polwarth, a little obsti-
nately— "there would have been more symmetry in it, if it
had been both."
" You forget your mother," continued Lionel, as though
the other had not spoken ; " I am very sure it will give
her heart-felt pleasure."
Polwarth gave a loud hem, rubbed his hand over his face
once or twice, gave another furtive glance at his solitary
limb, and then answered with a little tremor in his voice —
" Yes, yes — I believe you are quite right — a mother can
love her child, though he should be chopped into mince-
meat! The sex get that generous feeling after they are
turned of forty — it's your young woman that is particular
about proportions and correspondents."
" You consent, then, that Meriton shall hand in the re-
quest, as it reads ? "
Polwarth hesitated a single instant longer, and then, as
he remembered his distant mother, (for Lionel had touched
the right chord,) his heart melted within him.
" Certainly, certainly — it might have been worse as it
was with poor Dennis — ay, let it pass for two ; it shall go
hard, but I find a knee to bend on the occasion. Per-
haps, Leo, when a certain young lady sees I can have a
' Te Deum ' for my adventure she may cease to think me
such an object of pity as at present."
214 LIONEL LINCOLN.
Lionel bowed in silence, and the captain, turning to
Agnes, conducted her to the sleigh with a particularly
lofty air, that he intended should indicate his perfect su-
periority to the casualties of war. Cecil took the arm of
Major Lincoln, and the whole party were soon seated in
the vehicle that was in waiting.
Until this day, which was the second Sunday since his
reappearance, and the first on which the weather permitted
him to go abroad, Lionel had no opportunity to observe
the altered population of the town. The inhabitants had
gradually left the place, some clandestinely, and others
under favor of passes from the royal general, until those
who remained were actually outnumbered by the army
and its dependents. As the party approached the " King's
Chapel," the street was crowded by military men, col-
lected in groups, who indulged in thoughtless merriment,
reckless of the wounds their light conversation inflicted on
the few townsmen, who might be seen moving towards
the church, with deportments suited to the solemnity of
their purpose, and countenances severely chastened by a
remembrance of the day, and its serious duties. Indeed,
so completely had Boston lost that distinctive appearance
of sobriety, which had ever been the care and pride of its
people, in the levity of a garrison, that even the immediate
precincts of the temple were not protected from the passing
jest or rude mirth of the gay and unreflecting, at an hour
when a quiet was wont to settle on the whole province, as
deep as if Nature had ceased her ordinary functions to
unite in the worship of man. Lionel observed the change
with mortification, nor did it escape his uneasy glances,
that his two female companions concealed their faces in
their muffs, as if to exclude a view that brought still more
painful recollections to minds early trained in the reflecting
habits of the country.
When the sleigh drew up before the edifice, a dozen
hands were extended to assist the ladies in their short but
difficult passage into the heavy portico. Agnes coldly
bowed her acknowledgments, observing, with an extremely
equivocal smile, to one of the most assiduous of the young
men —
" We, who are accustomed to the climate, find no diffi-
culty in walking on ice, though to you foreigners it may
seem so hazardous." — She then bowed, and walked gravely
into the bosom of the church, without deigning to bestow
another glance to her right hand or her left.
LIONEL LINCOLN. 215
The manner of Cecil, though more chastened and femi-
nine, and consequently more impressive, was equally re-
served. Like her cousin, she proceeded directly to her
pew, repulsing the attempts of those who wished to detain
her a moment in idle discourse, by a lady-like propriety
that checked the advance of all who approached her. In
consequence of the rapid movement of their companions,
Lionel and Polwarth were left among the crowd of officers
who thronged the entrance of the church. The former
moved up within the colonnade, and passed from group to
group, answering and making the customary inquiries of
men engaged in the business of war. Here, three or four
veterans were clustered about one of those heavy columns,
that were arranged in formidable show on three faces of
the building, discussing, with becoming gravity, the politi-
cal signs of the times, or the military condition of their
respective corps. There, three or four unfledged boys,
tricked in all the vain emblems of their profession, im-
peded the entrance of the few women who appeared under
the pretence of admiration for the sex, while they secretly
dwelt on the glitter of their own ornaments. Scattered
along the whole extent of the entrance were other little
knots ; some listening to the idle tale of a professed jester,
some abusing the land in which it was their fate to serve,
and others recounting the marvels they had witnessed in
distant climes, and in scenes of peril which beggared their
utmost powers of description.
Among such a collection it was not difficult, however, to
find a few whose views were more elevated, and whose de-
portment might be termed less offensive, either to breeding
or principles. With one of the gentlemen of the latter
class Lionel was held for some time in discourse, in a dis-
tant part of the portico. At length the sounds of the
organ were heard issuing from the church, and the gay
parties began to separate, like men suddenly reminded why
they were collected in that unusual place. The companion
of Major Lincoln had left him, and he was himself follow-
ing along the colonnade, which was now but thinly peo-
pled, when his ear was saluted by a low voice, singing in
a sort of nasal chant at his very elbow —
" Woe unto you, Pharisees ! for ye love the uppermost
seats in the synagogues, and greetings in the market!"
Though Lionel had not heard the voice since the echoing
cry had issued out of the fatal redoubt, he knew its first
tones on the instant. Turning at this singular denuncia-
216 LIONEL LINCOLN-.
tion, he beheld Job Pray, erect and immovable as a statue,
in one of the niches, in front of the building, whence he
gave forth his warning voice, like some oracle speaking to
its devotees.
" Fellow, will no peril teach you wisdom ! " demanded
Lionel — " how dare you brave our resentment so wan-
tonly ?"
But his questions were unheeded. The young man,
whose features looked pale and emaciated, as if he had en-
dured recent bodily disease, whose eye was glazed and
vacant, and whose whole appearance was more squalid and
miserable than usual, appeared perfectly indifferent to all
around him. Without even altering the riveted gaze of
his unmeaning eye, he continued —
" Woe unto you ! for ye neither go in yourselves ; neither
suffer ye them that are entering to go in ! "
"Art deaf, fool!" demanded Lionel.
In an instant the eye of the other was turned on his in-
terrogator, and Major Lincoln felt a thrill pass through
him, when he met the wild gleam of intelligence that
lighted the countenance of the changeling, as he continued,
in the same ominous tones —
" Whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in
danger of the council ; but whosoever shall say, Thou
fool, is in danger of hell-fire."
For a moment Lionel stood as if spellbound, by the
manner of Job, while he uttered this dreadful anathema.
But the instant the secret influence ceased, he tapped the
lad lightly with his cane, and bid him descend from the
niche.
" Job's a prophet," returned the other, dishonoring his
declaration at the same time, by losing the singular air of
momentary intelligence, in his usual appearance of mental
imbecility — "it's wicked to strike a prophet. The Jews
stoned the prophets, and beat them too."
" Do then as I bid you — would you stay here to be beaten
by the soldiers ? Go now, away ; after service come to me,
and I will furnish you with a better coat than the garment
your wear."
" Did you never read the good book," said Job, " where
it tells how you mus'n't take heed for food nor raiment ?
Nab says when Job dies he'll go to heaven, for he gets
nothing to wear, and but little to eat. Kings wear their
di'mond crowns and golden flauntiness ; and kings always
go to the dark place."
LIONEL LINCOLN. 217
The lad suddenly ceased, and crouching into the very
bottom of his niche, he began to play with his fingers, like
an infant amused with the power of exercising its own
members. At the same moment Lionel turned from him,
attracted by the rattling of side-arms, and the tread of
many feet behind him. A large party of officers, belong-
ing to the staff of the army, had paused to listen to what
was passing. Amongst them Lionel recognized, at the
first glance, two of the chieftains, who, a little in advance
of their attendants, were keenly eying the singular being
that was squatted in the niche. Notwithstanding his sur-
prise, Major Lincoln detected the scowl that impended
over the dark brow of the commander-in-chief, while he
bowed low, in deference to his rank.
•'Who is this fellow, that dare condemn the mighty of
the earth to such sweeping perdition?" demanded Howe
• — "his own sovereign amongst the number ! "
" Tis an unfortunate being, wanting in intellect, with
whom accident has made me acquainted," returned Major
Lincoln ; "who hardly knows what lie utters, and least of
all in whose presence he has been speaking."
" It is to such idle opinions, which are conceived by the
designing, and circulated by the ignorant, that we may
ascribe the wavering allegiance of the colonies," said the
British general. " I hope you can answer for the loyalty
of your singular acquaintance, Major Lincoln ?"
Lionel was about to reply, with some little spirit, when
the companion of the frowning chief suddenly exclaimed —
" By the feats of the feathered Hermes, but this is the
identical Merry Andrew who took the flying leap from
Copp's, of which I have already spoken to you. — Am I in
error, Lincoln ? Is not this the shouting philosopher,
whose feelings were so elevated on the day of Breed's,
that he could not refrain from flying, but who, less fort-
unate than Icarus, made his descent on terra firma ?"
" I believe your memory is faithful, sir," said Lionel,
answering the smile of the other — "the lad is often brought
to trouble by his simplicity."
Burgoyne gave a gentle impulse to the arm he held, as
if he thought the wretched being before them unworthy of
further consideration ; though secretly with a view to pre-
vent an impolitic exhibition of the well-known propensity
of his senior to push his notions of military ascendancy to
the extreme. Perceiving by the still darkening look of
the other, that he hesitated, his ready lieutenant observed —
2i8 LIONEL LINCOLN.
" Poor fellow ! his treason was doubly punished, by a flight
of some fifty feet down the declivity of Copp's, and the mor-
tification of witnessing the glorious triumph of his majesty's
troops. — To such a wretch we may well afford forgiveness."
Howe insensibly yielded to the continued pressure of
the other, and his hard features even relaxed into a scowl-
ing smile, as he said, while turning away—
" Look to your acquaintance, Major Lincoln, or, bad as
his present condition seems, he may make it worse. Such
language cannot be tolerated in a place besieged. That is
the word, I believe — the rebels call their mob a besieging
army, do they not?"
" They do gather round our winter-quarters, and claim
some such distinction "
" It must be acknowledged they did well on Breed's too !
The shabby rascals fought like true men."
" Desperately, and with some discretion," answered Bur-
goyne ; " but it was their fortune to meet those who fought
better, and with greater skill — shall we enter ?"
The frown was now entirely chased from the brow of the
chief, who said complacently —
" Come, gentlemen, we are tardy ; unless more indus-
trious, we shall not be in season to pray for the king, much
less ourselves."
The whole party advanced a step, when a bustle in the
rear announced the approach of another officer of high
rank, and the second in command entered into the colon-
nade, followed also by the gentlemen of his family. The
instant he appeared, the self-contented look vanished from
the features of Howe, who returned his salute with cold
civility, and immediately entered the church. The quick-
witted Burgoyne again interposed, and as he made way in
his turn, he found means to whisper into the ear of Clin-
ton some well-imagined allusion to the events of that very
field which had given birtli to the heart-burnings between
his brother generals, and had caused the feelings of Howe
to be estranged from the man to whose assistance he owed
so much. Clinton yielded to the subtle influence of the
flattery, and followed his commander into the house of
God, with a bland contentment that he probably mistook
for a feeling much better suited for the place and the oc-
casion. As the whole group of spectators, consisting of
aids, secretaries, and idlers, without, immediately imitated
the example of the generals, Lionel found himself alone
with the changeling.
LIONEL LINCOLN-. 219
From the moment that Job discovered the vicinity of
the English leader, to that of his disappearance, the lad re-
mained literally immovable. His eye was fastened on va-
cancy, his jaw had fallen in a manner to give a look of ut-
ter mental alienation to his countenance ; and, in short, he
exhibited the degraded lineaments and figure of a man,
without his animation or intelligence. But as the last foot-
steps of the retiring party became inaudible, the fear,
which had put to flight the feeble intellects of the simple-
ton, slowly left him, and raising his face, he said, in a low,
growling voice —
" Let him go out to Prospect ; the people will teach him
the law ! "
" Perverse and obstinate simpleton ! " cried Lionel,
dragging him* without further ceremony, from the niche
— " will you persevere in that foolish cry until you are
whipped from regiment to regiment for your pains ! "
"You promised Job the grannies shouldn't beat him any
more, and Job promised to run your ar'n'ds."
" Ay ! but unless you learn to keep silence, boy, I shall
forget my promise, and give you up to the anger of all the
grannies in town."
"Well," said Job, brightening in his look, like a fool in
his exultation, " they are half of them dead, at any rate ; Job
heard the biggest man among 'em roar like a ravenous
lion, * hurrah for the Royal Irish,' but he never spoke ag'in ;
though there wrasn't any better rest for Job's gun than a
dead man's shoulder ! "
"Wretch ! " cried Lionel, recoiling from him in horror,
" are your hands then stained with the blood of M'Fuse !"
"Job didn't touch him with his hands," returned the
undisturbed simpleton — "for he died like a dog, where he
fell ! "
Lionel stood a moment in utter confusion of thought ;
but hearing the infallible evidence of the near approach of
Polwarth in his tread, he said, in a hurried manner, and in
a voice half choked by his emotions —
" Go, fellow, go to Mrs. Lech mere's, as I bid you — tell —
tell Meriton to look to my fire."
The lad made a motion towards obeying, but checking
himself, he looked up into the face of the other with a pit-
eous and suffering look, and said —
" See, Job's numb with cold ! Nab and* Job can't get
wood now ; the king keeps men to fight for it — let Job
warm his flesh a little ; his body is cold as the dead ! "
220 LIONEL LINCOLN.
Touched to the heart by the request, and the helpless
aspect of the lad, Lionel made a silent signal of assent, and
turned quickly to meet his friend. It was not necessary
for Polwarth to speak, in order to apprise Major Lincoln
that he had overheard part of the dialogue between him
and Job. His countenance and attitude sufficiently be-
trayed his knowledge, as well as the effect it had produced
on his feelings. He kept his eyes on the form of the sim-
pleton, as the lad shuffled his way along the icy street, with
an expression that could not easily be mistaken.
" Did I not hear the name of poor Dennis ? " at length
he asked.
" 'Twas some of the idle boastings of the fool. But why
are you not in the pew ? "
" The fellow is a protege of yours, Major'Lincoln ; but
you may carry forbearance too far," returned Polwarth,
gravely. — " I come for you, at the request of a pair of
beautiful eyes, that have inquired of each one that has en^
tered the church, this half hour, where and why Majoi
Lincoln has tarried."
Lionel bowed his thanks, and affected to laugh at the
humor of his friend, while they proceeded together to the
pew of Mrs. Lechmere without further delay.
The painful reflections excited by this interview with
Job, gradually vanished from the mind of Lionel, as he
yielded to the influence of the solemn service of the church.
He heard the difficult and suppressed breathing of the fair
being who kneeled by his side, while the minister read
those thanksgivings which personally concerned himself,
and no little of earthly gratitude mingled with the loftier
aspirations of the youth, as he listened He caught the
timid glance of the soft eye from behind the folds oi Cecil's
veil, as they rose, and he took his seat as happy as an ar-
dent young man might well be fancied, under the con-
sciousness of possessing the best affections of a female so
youthful, so lovely, and so pure.
Perhaps the service was not altogether so consoling to
the feelings of Polwarth. As he recovered his solitary foot
again, with some little difficulty, he cast a very equivocal
glance at his dismembered person, hemmed aloud, and fin-
ished with a rattling of his wooden leg about the pew, that
attracted the eyes of the whole congregation, as if he in-
tended the ears of all present should bear testimony in
whose behalf their owners had uttered their extraordinary
thanksgivings.
LIONEL LINCOLN1. 221
The officiating minister was far too discreet to vex the
attention of his superiors with any prolix and unwelcome
exhibitions of the Christian's duty. The impressive de-
livery of his text required one minute. Four were con-
sumed in the exordium. The argument was ingeniously
condensed into ten more ; and the peroration of his essay
was happily concluded in four minutes and a half ; leaving
him the satisfaction of knowing, as he was assured by fifty
watches, and twice that number of contented faces, that
ne had accomplished his task by half a minute within the
orthodox period.
For this exactitude he doubtless had his reward. Among
other testimonials in his favor, when Polwarth shook his
hand to thank him for his kind offices in his own behalf,
he found room for a high compliment to the discourse,
concluding by assuring the flattered divine, "that, in ad-
dition to its other great merits, it was done in beautiful
time ! "
CHAPTER XX.
"Away ; let naught to love displeasing,
My Winifreda, move your care :
Let naught delay the heavenly blessing,
Nor squeamish pride, nor gloomy fear." — Anonymous.
IT was perhaps fortunate for the tranquillity of all con-
cerned, that, during this period of their opening confi-
dence, the person of Mrs. Lechmere came not between the
bright image of purity and happiness that Cecil presented
in each lineament and action, and the eyes of her lover.
The singular, and somewhat contradictory interests that
lady had so often betrayed in the movements of her young
kinsman, were no longer visible to awaken his slumbering
suspicions. Even those inexplicable scenes, in which his
aunt had so strangely been an actor, were forgotten in the
engrossing feelings of the hour ; or, if remembered at all,
were only suffered to dim the pleasing pictures of his
imagination, as an airy cloud throws its passing shadows
across some cheerful and lovely landscape. In addition to
those very natural auxiliaries, love and hope, the cause of
Mrs. Lechmere had found a very powerful assistant, in the
bosom of Lionel, through an accident which had confined
her, for a long period, not only to her apartment, but to
her bed.
222 LIONEL LINCOLN-.
On that day, when the critical operation was performed
on the person of Major Lincoln, his aunt was known to
have awaited the result in intense anxiety. As soon as the
favorable termination, was reported to her, she hastened
toward his room with an unguarded eagerness, \vhich,
added to the general infirmities of her years, had nearly
cost the price of her life. Her foot became entangled in
her train, in ascending the stairs, but disregarding the'
warning cry of Agnes Danforth, with that sort of reckless
vehemence that sometimes broke through the formal de-
corum of her manners, she sustained, in consequence, a fall
that might well have proved fatal to a much younger woman.
The injury she received was severe and internal ; and the
inflammation, though not high, was sufficiently protracted
to arouse the apprehensions of her attendants. The symp-
toms were, however, now abating, and her recovery no
longer a matter of question.
As Lionel heard this from the lips of Cecil, the reader
will not imagine the effect produced by the interest his
aunt took in his welfare was at all lessened by the source
whence he derived his knowledge. Notwithstanding Cecil
dwelt on such a particular evidence of Mrs. Lechmere's
attachment to her nephew with much earnestness, it had
not escaped Major Lincoln, that her name was but seldom
introduced in their frequent conversations, and never, on
the part of his companion, without a guarded delicacy that
appeared sensitive in the extreme. As their confidence,
however, increased with their hourly communications, he
began gently to lift the veil which female reserve had
drawn before her inmost feelings, and to read a heart
whose purity and truth wrould have repaid a more difficult
investigation.
When the party returned from the church, Cecil and
Agnes immediately hastened to the apartment of the in-
valid, leaving Lionel in possession of the little wainscoted
parlor by himself ; Polwarth having proceeded to his own
quarters, with the assistance of the hunter. The young
man passed a few minutes in pacing the room, musing
deeply on the scene he had witnessed before the church ;
now and then casting a vacant look on the fanciful orna-
ments of the walls, among which the armorial bearings of
his own name were so frequent, and in such honorable sit-
uations. At length he heard that light footstep approach,
whose sound had now become too well known to be mis-
taken, and in another instant he was joined by Miss Dynevor.
LIOXEL LIXCOLN: 2-3
" Mrs. Lechmere ! " he said, leading her to a settee, and
placing himself by her side ; " you found her better, I
trust ? "
" So well, that she intends adventuring, this morning,
an interview with your own formidable self. Indeed,
Lionel, you have every reason to be grateful for the deep
interest my grandmother takes in your welfare ! Ill as
she has been, her inquiries in your behalf were ceaseless ;
and I have known her refuse to answer any questions
about her own critical condition until her physician had
relieved her anxiety concerning yours."
As Cecil spoke, the tears rushed into her eyes, and her
bloom deepened with the strength of her feelings.
''It is to you, then, that much of my gratitude is due,"
returned Lionel ; " for, by permitting me to blend my lot
with yours, I find new value in her eyes. Have you ac-
quainted Mrs. Lechmere with the full extent of my pre-
sumption ? She knows of our engagement ? "
" Could I do otherwise ? while your life was in peril, I
confined the knowledge of my interest in your situation
to my own breast ; but when we were nattered with the
hopes of a recovery, I placed your letter in the hands of my
natural adviser, and have the consolation of knowing, that
she approves of my — what shall I call it, Lionel ? — would
not folly be the better word ? "
" Call it what you will, so you do not disavow it. I have
hitherto forborne inquiring into the views of Mrs. Lech-
mere, in tenderness to her situation ; but I may flatter my-
self, Cecil, that she will not reject me ? "
For a single instant the blood rushed tumultuously over
the fine countenance of Miss Dynevor, suffusing even her
temples and forehead with its healthful bloom ; but, as she
cast a reproachful glance at her lover, it deserted even her
cheeks, while she answered calmly, though with a slight
exhibition of displeasure in her air —
"It may have been the misfortune of my grandmother
to view the head of her own family with too partial eyes ;
but, if it be so, her reward should not be distrust. The
weakness is, I dare say, very natural, though not less a
weakness."
For the first time, Lionel fully comprehended the cause
of that variable manner with which Cecil had received his
attentions, until interest in his person had stilled her sensi-
tive feelings. Without, however, betraying the least con-
sciousness of his intelligence, he answered —
224
LIONEL LINCOLN.
" Gratitude does not deserve so forbidding a name as
distrust ; nor will vanity permit me to call partiality in my
favor a weakness."
" The word is a good and a safe term, as applied to pool
human nature," said Cecil, smiling once more with all her
native sweetness, " and you may possibly overlook it,
when you recollect that our foibles are sometimes heredi-
tary."
" I pardon your unkind suspicion for that gentle ac-
knowledgment. But I may now, without hesitation, apply
to your grandmother for her consent to our immediate
union ?"
" You would not have your epithalamium sung, when,
at the next moment, you may be required to listen to the
dirge of some friend ! "
" The very reason you urge against our marriage, induces
me to press it, Cecil. As the season advances, this play of
war must end. Howe will either break out of his bounds,
and drive the Americans from the hills, or seek some
other point for more active warfare. In either case you
would be left in a distracted and divided country, at an age
too tender for your own safety, rather the guardian than
the ward of your helpless parent. Surely, Cecil, you would
not hesitate to accept of my protection at such a crisis, I
had almost dared to say, in tenderness to yourself, as well
as to my feelings ! "
" Say on," she answered ; " I admire your ingenuity, if
not your argument. In the first place, however, I do not
believe your general can drive the Americans from their
posts so easily ; for, by a very simple process in figures,
that even I understand, you may find, if one hill costs so
many hundred men, that the purchase of the whole would
be too dear — nay, Lionel, do not look so grave, I implore
you ! Surely, surely, you do not think I would speak idly
of a battle that had nearly cost your life, and — and — my
happiness."
" Say on," said Lionel, instantly dismissing the momen-
tary cloud from his brow, and smiling fondly in her anxious
face ; " I admire your casuistry, and worship your feeling ;
but can, also, deny your argument."
Reassured by his voice and manner, after a moment of
extreme agitation, she continued, in the same playful
tones as before—
" But we will suppose all the hills won, and the Ameri-
can chief, Washington, who, though nothing but a rebel,
LIOXKL TJXCOT.V. 22$
is a very respectable one, driven into the country with his
army at his heels ; I trust it is to be done without the as-
sistance of the women! Or, should Howe remove his
force, as you intimate, will he not leave the town behind
him? In either case, I should remain quietly where I am ;
safe in a British garrison, or safer among my countrymen."
" Cecil, you are alike ignorant of the dangers and of the
rude lawlessness of war ! Though Howe should abandon
the place, 'twould be only for a time ; believe me, the
ministry will never yield the possession of a town like
this, which has so long dared their power, to men in arms
against their lawful prince."
" You have strangely forgotten the last six months, Lio-
nel, or you would not accuse me of ignorance of the mis-
ery that war can inflict."
" A thousand thanks for the kind admission, dearest
Cecil, as well as for the hint," said the young man, shift-
ing the ground of his argument with the consistency, as
well as the readiness, of a lover ; " you have owned your
sentiments to me, and would not refuse to avow them
again ?"
"Not one whose self-esteem will induce him to forget
the weakness ; but, perhaps, I might hesitate to do such a
gilly thing before the world."
" I will then put it to your heart," he continued, with-
out regarding the smiling coquetry she had affected.
" Believing the best, you will admit that another battle
would be no strange occurrence ? "
She raised her anxious looks to his face, but remained
silent.
" We both kno\v, at least I know, from sad experience,
that I am far from being invulnerable. Now answer me,
Cecil, — not as a female, struggling to support the false
pride of her sex, but as a woman, generous and full of
heart, like yourself, — were the events of the iast six
months to recur, whether would you live them over affi-
anced in secret, or as an acknowledged wife, who might
not blush to show her tenderness to the world ? "
It was not until the large drops, that glistened at his
words upon the dark lashes of Miss Dynevor, were shaken
from the tremulous fringes that concealed her eyes, that
she looked up, blushing, into his face, and said —
" Do you not then think that I endured enough, as one
who felt herself betrothed ; but that closer ties were neces-
sary to fill the measure of my suffering?"
15
226 LIONEL LINCOLN.
i
" I cannot even thank you as I would for those flatteiing
tears, until my question is plainly answered."
" Is this altogether generous, Lincoln ?"
' Perhaps not in appearance, but sincerely so in truth.
By heaven, Cecil, I would shelter and protect you from a
ntde contact with the world, even as I seek my own hap-
piness !"
Miss Dynevor was not only confused, but distressed;
she however said, in a low voice —
" You forget, Major Lincoln, that I have one to consult,
without whose approbation I can promise nothing."
" Will you, then, refer the question to her wisdom ?
Should Mrs. Lechmere approve of our immediate union,
may I say to her, that you authorize me to ask it ?"
Cecil said nothing ; but smiling through her tears, she
permitted Lionel to take her hand in a manner that a
much less sanguine man would have found no difficulty in
construing into an assent.
" Corne then," he cried, "let us hasten to the apartment
of Mrs. Lechmere ; did you not say she expected me ? " She
suffered him to draw her arm through his own, and lead
her from the room. Notwithstanding the buoyant hopes
with which Lionel conducted his companion through the
passages of the house, he did not approach the chamber
of Mrs. Lechmere without some inward repugnance. It
was not possible to forget entirely all that had so recently
passed, or to still, effectually, those dark suspicions which
had been once awakened within his bosom. His purpose,
however, bore him onward, and a glance at the trembling
being, who now absolutely leaned on him for support,
drove every consideration, in which she did not form a
most prominent part, from his mind.
The enfeebled appearance of the invalid, with a sudden
recollection that she had sustained so much, in conse-
quence of her anxiety in his own behalf, so far aided the
cause of his aunt, that the young man not only met her
with cordiality, but with a feeling akin to gratitude.
The indisposition of Mrs. Lechmere had now continued
for several weeks, and her features, aged and sunken as
they were by the general decay of nature, afforded strong
additional testimony of the seventy of her recent illness.
Her face, besides being paler and more emaciated than
usual, had caught that anxious expression, which great
and protracted bodily ailing is apt to leave on the human
countenance. Her brow was, however, smooth and satis«
LIONEL LINCOLN'. 227
fied, unless at moments, when a slight and involuntary play
of the muscles betrayed that fleeting pains continued, at
short intervals, to remind her of her illness. She received
her visitors with a smile that was softer and more concili-
ating than usual, and which the pallid and careworn ap-
pearance of her features rendered deeply impressive.
" It is kind, cousin Lionel," she said, extending her
withered hand to her young kinsman, "in the sick to come
thus to visit the well. For after so long apprehending the
worst on your account, I cannot consent that my trifling
injury should be mentioned before your more serious
wounds."
"Would, madam, that you had as happily recovered
from their effects as myself," returned Lionel, taking her
hand, and pressing it with great sincerity. " I shall never
forget that you owe your illness to anxiety for me."
" Let it pass, sir ; it is natural that we should feel strong-
ly in behalf of those we love. I have lived to see you well
again, and, God willing, I shall live to see this wicked re-
bellion crushed." She paused ; and smiling, for a mo-
ment, on the young pair who had approached her couch,
she continued, "Cecil has told me all, Major Lincoln."
" No, not all, dear madam," interrupted Lionel ; " I
have something yet to add ; and in the commencement, I
will own that I depend altogether on your pity and judg-
ment to support my pretensions."
"Pretensions is an injudicious word, cousin Lionel;
where there is an equality of birth, education, and virtues,
and, I may say, considering the difference in the sexes, of
fortune too, it may amount to claims ; but pretensions is
an expression too ambiguous. Cecil, my child, go to my
library ; in the small, secret drawer of my escritoire, you
will find a paper bearing your name ; read it, my love, and
then bring it hither."
She motioned to Lionel to be seated, and when the door
had closed on the retiring form of Cecil, she resumed the
conversation.
" As we are about to speak of business, the confused
girl may as well be relieved, Major Lincoln. What is this
particular favor that I shall be required to yield ? "
" Like any other sturdy mendicant, who may have
already partaken largely of your bounty, I come to beg
the immediate gift of the last and greatest boon you can
bestow."
"My grandchild. There is no necessity for useless re-
228 LIOXEL S./.VCOLA:
serves between us, cousin Lionel, for you will remembei
that I too am a Lincoln. Let us then speak freely, like
two friends, who have met to determine on a matter equal-
ly near to the heart of each."
" Such is my earnest wish, madam. — I have been urging
on Miss Dynevor the peril of the times, and the critical
situation of the country, in both of which I have found
the strongest reasons for our immediate union."
"And Cecil "
" Has been like herself; kind, but dutiful. She refers
me entirely to your decision, by which alone she consents
to be guided."
Mrs. Lechmere made no immediate reply, but her features
powerfully betrayed the inward workings of her mind. It
certainly was not displeasure that caused her to hesitate,
her hollow eye lighting with a gleam of satisfaction that
could not be mistaken ; neither was it uncertainty, for her
whole countenance seemed to express rather the uncon-
trollable agitation, which might accompany the sudden ac-
complishment of long-desired ends, than any doubt as to
their prudence. Gradually her agitation subsided ; and as
her feelings became more natural, her hard eyes filled with
tears, and when she spoke, there was a softness mingled
with the tremor of her voice, that Lionel had never before
witnessed.
"She is a good and a dutiful child, my own, my obedi-
ent Cecil ! She will bring you no wealth, Major Lincoln,
that will be esteemed among your hoards, nor any proud
title to add to the lustre of your honorable name ; but she
will bring you what is good, if not better — nay, I am sure
it must be better — a pure and virtuous heart, that knows
no guile ! "
" A thousand and a thousand times more estimable in
my eyes, my worthy aunt ! " cried Lionel, melting before
the touch of nature, which had so effectually softened the
harsh feelings of Mrs. Lechmere ; "let her come to my
arms penniless, and without a name ; she will be no less
my wife, no less her own invaluable self."
" I spoke only by comparison, Major Lincoln, the child
of Colonel Dynevor, and the granddaughter of the Lord
Viscount Cardonnell, can have no cause to blush for her
lineage ; neither will the descendant of John Lechmere be
a dowerless bride ! When Cecil shall become Lady Lin-
coln, she need never wish to conceal the escutcheon of her
own ancestors under the bloody hand of her husband's."
229
" May heaven long avert the hour when either of us may
be required to use the symbol !" exclaimed Lionel.
" Did I not understand aright ! was not your request for
an -instant marriage ? "
"Never less in error, my dear madam ; but you surely
do not forget that one lives so mutually dear to us, who
has every reason to hope for many years of life ; and I
trust, too, of happiness and reason ! "
Mrs. Lechmere looked wildly at her nephew, and then
passed her hand slowly before her eyes, from whence she
did not withdraw them until an universal shudder had
shaken the whole of her enfeebled frame.
" You are right, my young cousin," she said, smiling
faintly — " I believe my bodily weakness has impaired my
memory. — I was indeed dreaming of days long since past !
You stood before me in the image of your desolate father,
while Cecil bore that of her mother ; my own long-lost, but
wilful Agnes! Oh! she was my child! my child! and
God has forgotten her faults in mercy to a mother's
prayers ! "
Lionel recoiled a step before the wild energy of the in-
valid's manner, in speechless amazement. A flush had
passed into her pallid cheeks, and as she concluded, she
clasped her hands before her, and sunk on the pillows
which supported her back. Large insulated tears fell from
her eyes, and, slowly moving over her wasted cheeks,
dropped singly upon the counterpane. Lionel laid his
hand upon the night-bell, but an expressive gesture from
his aunt prevented his ringing.
" I am well again," she said — "hand me the restorative
by your side."
Mrs. Lechmere drank freely from the glass, and in an-
other minute her agitation subsided, her features settling
into their rigid composure and her eye resuming its hard
expression, as though nothing had occurred to disturb her
usual cold and worldly look.
"You see how much better youth can endure the ravages
of disease than age, by my present weakness, Major Lin-
coln," she continued ; " let us return to other and more
agreeable subjects — you have not only my consent, but my
wish, that you should wed my grandchild. It is a happi-
ness that I have rather hoped for, than dared to expect,
and I will freely add, 'tis a consummation of my wishes
that will render the evening of my days not only happy,
but blessed ! "
230 LIOXKL LIXCOLX.
"Then, clearest madam, why should it be delayed? — no
one can say what a day may bring forth, at such a time as
this, and the moment of bustle and action is not the hour
to register the marriage vows."
After musing a moment, Mrs. Lechmere replied —
" We have a good and holy custom in this religious prov-
ince, of choosing the day which the Lord has set apart
for his own exclusive worship, as that on which to enter
into the honorable state of matrimony. Choose, then, be-
tween this or the next Sabbath for your nuptials."
Whatever might be the ardor of the young man, he was
a little surprised at the shortness of the former period ; but
the pride of his sex would not admit of any hesitation.
"Let it be this day, if Miss Dynevor can be brought
freely to consent."
" Here then she comes, to tell you that, at my request,
she does. Cecil, my owrn s\veet child, I have promised
Major Lincoln that you will become his wife this day."
Miss Dynevor, who had advanced into the centre of the
room, before she heard the purport of this speech, stopped
short, and stood like a beautiful statue, expressing aston-
ishment and dismay. Her color went and came with alarm-
ing quickness, and the paper fell from her trembling hands
to her feet, which appeared riveted to the floor.
" To-day ! " she repeated, in a voice barely audible — " did
you say to-day, my grandmother ? "
" Even to-day, my child."
"Why this reluctance, this alarm, Cecil?" said Lionel,
approaching, and leading her gently to a seat. " You
know the peril of the times — you have condescended to
own your sentiments — consider ; the winter is breaking,
and the first thaw can lead to events which may entirely
alter our situation."
" All these may have weight in your eyes, Major Lin-
coln," interrupted Mrs. Lechmere, in a voice whose marked
solemnity drew the attention of her hearers ; " but I have
other and deeper motives. Have I not already proved the
dangers and the evils of delay ? Ye are young, and ye are
virtuous ; why should ye not be happy ? Cecil, if you love
and revere me, as I think you do, you will become his wife
this day."
" Let me have time to think, dearest grandmother. The
tie is so new and so solemn ! Major Lincoln, — dear Lionel,
— you are not wont to be ungenerous ; I throw myself on
your kindness ! "
LIONEL LINCOLN. 231
Lionel did not speak, and Mrs. Lechmere calmly an-
swered—
"-'Tis not at his, but my request, that you will comply."
Miss Dynevor rose from her seat by the side of Lionel,
with an air of offended delicacy, and said, with a mournful
smile, to her lover —
" Illness has rendered my good mother timid and weak
— will you excuse my desire to be alone with her ? "
" I leave you, Cecil," he said, "but if you ascribe my si-
lence to any other motive than tenderness to your feelings,
you are unjust both to yourself and me."
She expressed her gratitude only in her looks, and he
immediately withdrew, to await the result of their conver-
sation in his own apartment. The half hour that Lionel
passed in his chamber seemed half a year : but at the
expiration of that short period of time, Meriton came to
announce that Mrs. Lechmere desired his presence again
in her room.
The first glance of her eye assured Major Lincoln that
his cause had triumphed. His aunt had sunk back on her
pillows, with her countenance set in a calculating and rigid
expression, which indicated a satisfaction so selfish that it
almost induced the young man to regret she had not failed.
But when his eyes met the tearful and timid glances of the
blushing Cecil, he felt that, provided she could be his with-
out violence to her feelings, he cared but little at whose
instigation she had consented.
" If I am to read my fate by your goodness, I know I
may hope," he said, advancing to her side — " if in my own
deserts, I am left to despair."
"Perhaps 'twas foolish, Lincoln," she said, smiling
through her tears, and frankly placing her hand in his,
" to hesitate about a few days, when I feel ready to devote
rny life to your happiness. It is the wish of my grand-
mother that I place myself under your protection."
" Then this evening unites us forever?"
" There is no obligation on your gallantry, that it should
positively take place this very evening, if any, or the least
difficulties present."
" But none do, nor can," interrupted Lionel. " Happily
the marriage forms of the colony are simple, and we enjoy
the consent of all who have any right to interfere."
" Go, then, my children, and complete your brief ar-
rangements," said Mrs. Lechmere; "'tis a solemn knot
that ye tie ! it must, it will be happy ! "
232 LIONEL LIXCOLN.
Lionel pressed the hand of his intended bride, and with,
drew ; and Cecil, throwing herself into the arms of her
grandmother, gave vent to her feelings in a burst of tears.
Mrs. Lechmere did not repulse her child ; on the contrary,
she pressed her once or twice to her heart ; but still an ob-
servant spectator might have seen that her looks betrayed
more of worldly pride than of those natural emotions which
such a scene ought to have excited.
CHAPTER XXI.
" Come, friar Francis, be brief ; only to the plain form of marriage."
— MucJi Ado about Nothing.
MAJOR LINCOLN had justly said, the laws regulating man
riages in the Massachusetts, which were adapted teethe in-
fant state of the country, threw but few impediments in the
way of the indissoluble connection. Cecil had, however,
been educated in the bosom of the English Church, and
she clung to its forms and ceremonies with an affection
that may easily be accounted for in their solemnity and
beauty. Notwithstanding the colonists often chose the
weekly festival for their bridals, the rage of reform had ex-
cluded the altar from most of their temples, and it was not
usual with them to celebrate their nuptials in the places of
public worship. But there appeared so much of unreason-
able haste, and so little of due preparation, in her own
case, that Miss Dynevor, anxious to give all solemnity to
an act, to whose importance she was sensibly alive, ex-
pressed her desire to pronounce her vows at that altar
where she had so long been used to worship, and under
that roof where she had already, since the rising of the
sun, poured out the thanksgivings of her pure spirit in
behalf of the man who was so soon to become her husband.
As Mrs. Lechmere had declared, that the agitation of
the day, and her feeble condition, must unavoidably pre-
vent her witnessing the ceremony, there existed no suffi-
cient reason for not indulging the request of her grand-
child, notwithstanding it was not in strict accordance
with the customs of the place. But being married at
the altar, and being married in public, were not similar
duties ; and in order to effect the one, and avoid the
other, it was necessary to postpone the ceremony until a
late hour, arid to clothe the whole in a cloak of mystery,
LIONEL LINCOLN. 233
that the otherwise unembarrassed state of the parties would
not have required.
Miss Dynevor made no other confidant than her cousin.
Her feelings being altogether elevated above the ordinarily
idle considerations, which are induced by time and prepa-
rations on such an occasion, her brief arrangements were
soon ended, and she awaited the appointed moment without
alarm, if not without emotion.
Lionel had much more to perform. He knew that the
least intimation of such a scene would collect a curious
and a disagreeable crowd around and in the church, and he
therefore determined that his plans should be arranged in
silence, and managed secretly. In order to prevent a
surprise, Meriton was sent to the clergyman, requesting
him to appoint an hour in the evening when he could
give an interview to Major Lincoln. He was answered,
that at any moment after nine o'clock Dr. Liturgy would
be released from the duties of the day, and in readiness
to receive him. There was no alternative ; and ten was
the time mentioned to Cecil when she was requested to
meet him before the altar. Major Lincoln distrusted a
little the discretion of Polwarth, and he contented himself
with merely telling his friend that he was to be married
that evening, and that he must be careful to repair to
Tremont Street in order to give away the bride ; appoint-
ing an hour sufficiently early for all the subsequent move-
ments. His groom and his valet had their respective and
separate orders, and, long before the important moment, he
had everything arranged, as he believed, beyond the possi-
bility of a disappointment.
Perhaps there was something a little romantic, if not
diseased, in the mind of Lionel, that caused him to derive
a secret pleasure from the hidden movements he contem-
plated. He was certainly not entirely free from a touch
of that melancholy and morbid humor, which has been
mentioned as the characteristic of his race, nor did he al-
ways feel the" less happy because he was a little miserable.
However, either by his activity of intellect, or that excel-
lent training in life he had undergone, by being required
to act early for himself, he had so far succeeded in quell-
ing the evil spirit within him, as to render its influence
quite imperceptible to others, and nearly so to himself.
It had, in fine, left him what we have endeavored to rep-
resent him in these pages, not a man without faults, but
certainly one of many high and generous virtues.
234 LIONEL LINCOLN.
As the day drew to a close, the small family party in
Tremont Street collected in their usual manner to partake
of the evening repast, which was common throughout the
colonies at that period. Cecil was pale, and at times a
slight tremor was perceptible in the little hand which did
the offices of the table ; but there was a forced calmness
seated in her humid eyes, that betokened the resolution
she had summoned to her assistance, in order to comply
with the wishes of her grandmother. Agnes Danforth was
silent and observant, though an occasional look, of more
than usual meaning, betrayed what she thought of the
mystery and suddenness of the approaching nuptials. It
would seem, however, that the importance of the step she
was about to take, had served to raise the bride above the
little affectations of her sex ; for she spoke of the prepara-
tions like one who owned her interest in their completion,
and who even dreaded that something might yet occur to
mar them.
" If I were superstitious, and had faith in omens, Lin-
coln," she said, u the hour, and the weather might well in-
timidate me from taking this step. See, the wind already
blows across the endless wastes of the ocean, and the snow
is driving through the streets in whirlwinds ! "
" It is not yet too late to countermand my orders, Cecil,"
he said, regarding her anxiously ; " I have made all my
movements so like a great commander, that it is as easy to
retrograde, as to advance."
"Would you then retreat before one so little formidable
as I ? " she returned, smiling.
" You surely understand me as wishing only to change
the place of our marriage. I dread exposing you and our
kind cousin to the tempest, which, as you say, after sweep-
ing over the ocean so long, appears rejoiced to find land
on which to expend its fury."
" I have not misconstrued your meaning, Lionel, nor
must you be mistaken in mine. I will become your wife
to-night, and cheerfully too ; for what reason can I have to
doubt you now, more than formerly ! But my vows must
be offered at the altar."
Agnes, perceiving that her cousin spoke with a sup-
pressed emotion that made utterance difficult, gayly inter-
rupted her —
" And as for the snow, you know little of Boston girls,
if you think an icicle has any terrors for them. I vow,
Cecil, I do think you and I have been guilty, when chil-
LIONEL LINCOLN. 235
dren, of coasting in a hand-sled, down the side of Beacon,
in a worse flurry than this."
''We were guilty of many mad and silly things at ten,
that might not grace twenty, Agnes."
" Lord, how like a matron she speaks already !" inter-
rupted the other, throwing up her eyes and clasping her
hands in affected admiration ; " nothing short of the church
will satisfy so discreet a dame, Major Lincoln ! so dismiss
your cares on her account, and begin to enumerate the
cloaks and overcoats necessary to your own preservation."
Lionel made a lively reply, when a dialogue of some'
spirit ensued between him and Agnes, to which even Cecil
listened with a beguiled ear. When the evening had ad-
vanced, Polwarth made his appearance, suitably attired,
and with a face that was sufficiently knowing and impor-
tant for the occasion. The presence of the captain re-
minded Lionel of the lateness of the hour, and, without
delay, he hastened to communicate his plans to his friend.
At a few minutes before ten, Polwarth was to accompany
the ladies in a covered sleigh to the chapel, which was not
a stone's throw from their residence, where the bridegroom
was to be in readiness to receive them, with the divine.
Referring the captain to Meriton for further instructions,
and without waiting to hear the other express his amaze-
ment at the singularity of the plan, Major Lincoln said a
few words of tender encouragement to Cecil, looked at his
watch, and throwing his cloak around him, took his hat,
and departed.
We shall leave Polwarth endeavoring to extract the
meaning of all these mysterious movements from the wil-
ful and amused Agnes, (Cecil having retired also,) and ac-
company the bridegroom in his progress towards the resi-
dence of the divine.
Major Lincoln found the streets entirely deserted. The
night was not dark, for a full moon was wading among the
volumes of clouds, which drove before the tempest in dark
and threatening masses, that contrasted singularly and
wildly to the light covering of the hills and buildings of
the town. Occasionally the gusts of the wind would lift
eddying wreaths of fine snow from some roof, and whole
squares were wrapped in mist as the frozen vapor whistled
by. At times, the gale howled among the chimneys and
turrets, in a steady, sullen roaring ; and there were again
moments when the element appeared hushed, as if its fury
were expended, and winter, having worked its might, was
236 JJOXEL LIXCOLX.
yielding to the steady, but insensible advances of spring.
There was something in the season and the hour peculiarly
in consonance with the excited temperament of the young
bridegroom. Even the solitude of the streets, and the
hollow rushing of the winds, the fleeting and dim light of
the moon, which afforded passing glimpses of surrounding
objects, and then was hid behind a dark veil of shifting
vapor, contributed to his pleasure. He made his way
through the snow, with that species of stern joy, to which
all are indebted, at times, for moments of wild and pleas-
ing self-abandonment. His thoughts vacillated between
the purpose of the hour, and the unlooked-for coincidence
of circumstances that had clothed it in a dress of such ro-
mantic mystery. Once or twice a painful and dark thought,
connected with the secret of Mrs. Lechmere's life, found
its way among his more pleasing visions, but it was quickly
chased from his mind by the image of her who awaited his
movements in such confiding faith, and with such secure
and dependent affection.
As the residence of Dr. Liturgy was on the North -End,
\vhich was then one of the fashionable quarters of the town,
the distance required that Lionel should be diligent, in
order to be punctual to his appointment. Young, active,
and full of hope, he passed along the unequal pavements
with great rapidity, and had the satisfaction of perceiving
by his watch, when admitted to the presence of the clergy-
man, that his speed had even outstripped the proverbial
fleetness of time itself.
The reverend gentleman was in his study, consoling
himself for the arduous duties of the day, with the com-
forts of a large easy-chair, a warm fire, and a pitcher filled
with a mixture of cider and ginger, together with other
articles that wrould have done credit to the knowledge of
Polwarth in spices. His full and decorous wig was re-
placed by a velvet cap, his shoes were unbuckled, and his
heels released from confinement. In short, all his arrange-
ments were those of a man who having endured a day of
labor, was resolved to prove the enjoyments of an evening
of rest. His pipe, though filled, and on the 4ittle table by
his side, was not lighted, in compliment to the guest he
expected at that hour. As he was slightly acquainted with
Major Lincoln, no introduction was necessary, and the two
gentlemen were soon seated, the one endeavoring to over-
come the embarrassment he felt on revealing his singular
errand, and the other waiting, in no little curiosity, to
LIONEL LIXCOLX. 237
learn the reason why a member of Parliament, and the
heir of ten thousand a year, should come abroad on such
an unpropitious night.
At length Lionel succeeded in making the astonished
priest understand his wishes, and paused to hear the ex-
pected approbation of his proposal.
Dr. Liturgy had listened with the most profound atten-
tion, as if to catch some clew to explain the mystery of the
extraordinary proceeding, and when the young man con-
cluded, he unconsciously lighted his pipe, and began to
throw out large clouds of smoke, like a man who felt there
was a design to abridge his pleasures, and who was conse-
quently determined to make the most of his time.
" Married ! To be married in church ! and after the night
lecture! "he muttered in a low voice between his long-
drawn puffs — "'tis my duty — certainly — Major Lincoln —
to marry my parishioners —
" In the present instance, as I know my request to be ir-
regular, sir," interrupted the impatient Lionel," I will make
it your interest also." While speaking, he took a well-
filled purse from his pocket, and, with an air of much deli-
cacy, laid a small pile of gold by the side of the silver
spectacle-case of the divine, as if to show him the difference
in the value of the two metals.
Dr. Liturgy bowed his acknowledgments, and insensi-
bly changed the stream of smoke to the opposite corner
of his mouth, so as to leave the view of the glittering boon
unobstructed. At the same-time he raised the heel of one
shoe, and threw an anxious glance at the curtained win-
dow, to inquire into the state of the weather.
" Could not the ceremony be performed at the house of
Mrs. Lechmere?"he asked ; " Miss Dynevor is a tender
child, and I fear the cold air of the chapel might do her no
service ! "
" It is her wish to go to the altar, and you are sensible
it is not my part to question her decision in such a matter."
" Tis a pious inclination ; though I trust she knows the
distinction between the spiritual and the temporal church.
The laws of the colonies are too loose on the subject of
marriages, Major Lincoln ; culpably and dangerously
loose ! "
" But as it is not in our power to alter, my good sir.
will you permit me to profit by them, imperfect as they
are ? "
" Undeniably — it is part of my office to christen, to marry,
238 LIONEL LINCOLN.
and to bury ; a duty which, I often say, covers the begin-
ning, the middle, and the end of existence. — But permit
me to help you to a little of my beverage, Major Lincoln
— we call it ' Samson,' in Boston ; you will find the ' Dan-
ite ' a warm companion for a February night in this cli-
mate."
" The mixture is not inaptly named, sir," said Lionel,
after wetting his lips," if strength be the quality most con-
sidered ! "
" Ah ! you have him from the lap of a Delilah, but it is
unbecoming in one of my cloth to meddle with aught of
the harlot."
He laughed at his own wit, and made a more spirituous
than spiritual addition to his own glass, while he con'
tinned —
" We divide it into ' Samson with his hair off,' and ' Sam-
son \vith his hair on ;' and I believe myself the most ortho-
dox in preferring the man of strength, in his native come-
liness. I pledge you, Major Lincoln ; may the middle of
your days be as happy as the charming young lady you
are about to espouse may well render them ; and your end,
sir, that of a good churchman, and a faithful subject."
Lionel, who considered this compliment as an indication
of his success, now rose, and said a few words on the sub-
ject of their meeting in the chapel. The divine, who mani-
festly possessed no great relish for the duty, made sundry
slight objections to the whole proceeding, wThich were, how-
ever, soon overcome by the arguments of the bridegroom.
At length, every difficulty wras happily adjusted, save one,
and that the epicurean doctor stoutly declared to be a
serious objection to acting in the matter. The church fires
were suffered to go down, and his sexton had been taken
from the chapel, that very evening, with every symptom on
him of the terrible pestilence which then raged in the
place, adding, by its danger, to the horrors and privations
of the siege.
"A clear case of the small-pox, I do assure you, Major
Lincoln," he continued, " and contracted, without doubt,
from some emissaries sent into the town for that purpose,
by the wicked devices of the rebels."
" I have heard that each party accuses the other of re-
sorting to these unjustifiable means of annoyance," returned
Lionel ; " but, as I know our own leader to be above such
baseness, I will not suspect any other man of it without
proof."
LIONEL LINCOLN. 239
'* Too charitable by half, sir — much too charitable ! But
let the disease come whence it will, I fear my sexton will
prove its victim."
" I will take the charge on myself of having the fires re-
newed," said Lionel ; " the embers must yet be in the
stoves, and we have still an hour of time before us."
As the clergyman was much too conscientious to retain
possession of the gold without fully entitling himself to
the ownership, he had long before determined to comply,
notwithstanding the secret yearnings of his flesh. Their
plans were now soon arranged, and Lionel, after receiving
the key of the chapel, took his leave for a time.
When Major Lincoln found himself in the street again,
he walked for some distance in the direction of the chapel,
anxiously looking along the deserted way, in order to dis-
cover an unemployed soldier who might serve to perform
the menial offices of the absent sexton. He proceeded for
some distance without success ; for every thing human
seemed housed, even the number of lights in the windows
beginning to decrease in a manner which denoted that the
usual hour of rest had arrived. He had paused in the en-
trance of the Dock Square, uncertain where to apply for an
assistant, when he caught a glimpse of the figure of a man,
crouching under the walls of the old turreted warehouse,
so often mentioned. Without hesitating an instant, he
approached the spot, from which the figure neither moved,
nor did it indeed betray any other evidence of a conscious-
ness of his proximity. Notwithstanding the dimness of
the moon, there was light enough to detect the extreme
misery of the object before him. His tattered and thin
attire sufficiently bespoke the motive of the stranger for
seeking a shelter from the cutting winds behind an angle
of the wall, while his physical wants were betrayed by the
eager manner in which he gnawed at a bone that might
well have been rejected from the mess of the meanest pri-
vate, notwithstanding the extreme scarcity that prevailed
in the garrison. Lionel forgot for a moment his present
object, at this exhibition of" human suffering, and with a
kind voice he addressed the wretched being.
" You have a cold spot to eat your supper in, my friend,"
he said ; "and it would seem, too, but a scanty meal."
Without ceasing to masticate his miserable nutriment,
or even raising his eyes, the other said, in a growling
voice —
" The kine could shut up the harbor, and keep out the
240 LIONEL LINCOLN'.
ships ; but he hasn't the might to drive cold weather from
Boston, in the month of March ! "
" As I live, Job Pray ! Come with me, boy, and I will
give you a better meal, and a warmer place to enjoy it in
— but first tell me ; can you procure a lantern and a light
from your mother ? "
" You can't go in the ware'us' to-night," returned the
lad positively.
" Is there no place at hand, then, where such things
might be purchased ? "
" They keep them there," said Job, pointing sullenly to
a low building on the opposite side of the square, through
one of the windows of which a faint light was glimmering.
"Then take this money, and go buy them for me, with-
out delay."
Job hesitated with ill-concealed reluctance.
" Go, fellow, I have instant need of them, and you can
keep the change for your reward."
The young man no longer betrayed any indisposition to
go, but answered with great promptitude, for one of his
imbecile mind —
" Job will go, if you will let him buy Nab some meat
with the change ? "
"Certainly, buy what you will with it ; and further-
more, I promise you, that neither your mother nor your-
self shall want again for food or clothing."
"Job's a-hungry," said the simpleton; "but they say
hunger don't come as craving upon a young stomach as
upon an old one. Do you think the king knows what it is
to be a-cold and hungry ? "
"I know not, boy — but I know full well that if one suf-
fering like you were before him, his heart would yearn to re-
lieve him. Go, go, and buy yourself food too, if they have it."
In a very few minutes Lionel saw the simpleton issuing
from the house to which he had run at his bidding, with
the desired lantern.
" Did you get any food ? " said Lionel, motioning to Job
to precede him with the light — " I trust you did not en-
tirely forget yourself in your haste to serve me."
"Job hopes he didn't catch the pestilence," returned the
lad, eating at the same time voraciously of a small roll of
Bread.
" Catch what ? what is it you hope you did not catch ?"
-'The pestilence— they are full of the foul disorder in
>}puse:"
LIONEL LINCOLN. 241
•' Do you mean the small-pox, boy ? "
" Yes ; some call it small-pox, and some call it the foul
disorder, and some other the pestilence. The king can
keep out the trade, but he can't keep out the cold and the
pestilence from Boston — but when the people get the town
back, they'll know what to do with it — they'll send it all to
tiie pest-housen !"
" I hope I have not exposed you unwittingly to danger,
Job— it would have been better had I gone myself ; for I
was inoculated for the terrible disease in my infancy."
Job, who, in expressing his sense of the danger, had ex-
hausted the stores of his feeble mind on the subject, made
no reply, but continued walking through the square, until
they reached its termination, when he turned, and inquired
which way he was to go.
"To the church," said Lionel, "and swiftly, lad."
As they entered Cornhill, they encountered the fury of
the wind, when Major Lincoln, bowing his head, and gath-
ering his cloak about him, followed the light which flitted
along the pavement in his front. Shut out in a manner
from the world by this covering, his thoughts returned to
their former channel, and in a few moments he forgot
where he was, or whom lie was following. He was soon
awakened from his abstraction by perceiving that it was
necessary for him to ascend a few steps, when, supposing
he had reached the place of destination, he raised his
head, and unthinkingly followed his conductor into the
tower of a large edifice. Immediately perceiving his mis-
take, by the difference of the architecture from that of the
King's Chapel, he reproved the lad for his folly, and de-
manded why he had brought him thither.
"This is what you call a church," said Job, "though I
call it a meetin'us'. — It's no wonder you don't know it —
for what the people built for a temple, the king has turned
into a stable ! "
"A stable!" exclaimed Lionel. — Perceiving a strong
smell of horses in the place, he advanced and threw open
the inner door, when, to his amazement, he perceived that
He 'stood in an area fitted for the exercises of the cavalry.
There was no mistaking the place, nor its uses. The naked
galleries, and many of the original ornaments, were stand-
ing ; but the accommodations below were destroyed, and
in their places the floor had been covered with earth, for
horses and their riders to practise in the cavesson. The
abominations of the place even* now offended his senses, as
242 LIONEL LINCOLN.
he stood on that spot where he remembered so often ta
have seen the grave and pious colonists assemble in crowds
to worship. Seizing the lantern from Job, he hurried out
of the building, with a disgust that even the unobservant
simpleton had no difficulty in discovering. On reaching
the street, his eyes fell upon the lights, and on the silent
dignity of the Province House, and he was compelled to
recollect, that this wanton violation of the feelings of the
colonists had been practised directly under the windows of
the royal governor.
" Fools, fools !" he muttered, bitterly ; " when ye should
have struck like men, ye have trifled as children ; and ye
have forgotten your manhood, and even your God, to in-
dulge your besotted spleen ! "
"And now these very horses are starving for want of
hay, as a judgment upon them!" said Job, who shuffled
his way industriously at the other's side. — " They had bet-
ter have gone to meetin' themselves, and heard the ex-
pounding, than to set dumb beasts a rioting in a place that
the Lord used to visit so often ! "
" Tell me, boy, of what other act of folly. and madness
has the army been guilty ? "
"What! hav'n't you heard of the Old North ? They've
made oven-wood of the grandest temple in the Bay ! If
they dared, they'd lay their ungodly hands on old Funnel
itself ! "
Lionel made no reply. He had heard that the distresses
of the garrison, heightened as they were by the ceaseless
activity of the Americans, had compelled them to convert
many houses, as well as the church in question, into fuel.
But he saw in the act nothing more than the usual recourse
of a common military exigency. It was free from that
reckless contempt of a people's feelings, which was exhib-
ited in the prostitution of the ancient walls of the sister
edifice, which was known throughout New England with
a species of veneration, as the "Old South." He con-
tinued his way gloomily along the silent streets, until he
reached the more favored temple, in which the ritual oi
the English Church was observed, and whose roof was ren-
dered doubly sacred, in the eyes of the garrison, by the
accidental circumstance of bearing the title of their earthly
monarch.
LIONEL LINCOLN. 243
CHAPTER XXII.
"Thou art too like the spirit of Banquo ; down ! " — Macbeth.
MAJOR LINCOLN found the King's Chapel differing in
every particular from the venerable, but prostituted build-
ing he had just quitted. As he entered, the light of
his lantern played over the rich scarlet covering of man)
a pew, and glanced upon the glittering ornaments of the~
polished organ, which now slumbered in as chilled a
silence as the dead, which lay in such multitudes within
and without the massive walls. The labored columns,
with their slender shafts and fretted capitals, threw shape-
less shadows across the dim background, peopling the
galleries and ceiling with imaginary phantoms of thin air.
As this slight delusion passed away, he became sensible of
the change in the temperature. The warmth was not yet
dissipated which had been maintained during the different
services of the day ; for, notwithstanding the wants of the
town and garrison, the favored temple, where the repre-
sentative of the sovereign was wont to worship, knew not
the ordinary privations of the place. Job was directed to
supply the dying embers of the stoves with fresh fuel, and
as the simpleton well knew where to find the stores of the
church, his office was performed with an alacrity that was
not a little increased by his own sufferings.
When the bustle of preparation had subsided, Lionel
drew a chair from the chancel, while Job crouched by the
side of the quivering iron he had heated, in that attitude
he was wont to assume, and which so touchingly expressed
the secret consciousness he felt of his own inferiority. As
the grateful warmth diffused itself over the half-naked frame
of the simpleton, his head sunk upon his bosom, and he
was fast falling into a slumber, like a worried hound that
had at length found ease and shelter. A more active
mind would have wished to learn the reasons that could
induce his companion to seek such an asylum at that un-
seasonable hour. But Job was a stranger to curiosity;
nor did the occasional glimmerings of his mind often ex-
tend beyond those holy precepts which had been taught
him with such care, before disease had sapped his facul-
ties, or those popular principles of the time, that formed
244 LIONEL LINCOLN
so essential a portion of the thoughts of every New England
man.
Not so with Major Lincoln. His watch told him that
many weary minutes must elapse before he could expect
to receive his bride ; and he disposed himself to wait, with
as much patience as comported with five-and-twenty and
the circumstances. In a short time the stillness of the
chapel was restored, interrupted only by the passing gusts
of the wind without, and the dull roaring of the furnace,,
by whose side Job slumbered in a state of happy oblivion.
Lionel endeavored to still his truant thoughts, and bring
them in training for the solemn ceremony in which he
was soon to be an actor. Finding the task too difficult,
he arose, and approaching a window, looked out upon the
solitude, and the whirlwinds of snow that drifted through
the streets, eagerly listening for those sounds of approach
which his reason told him he ought not yet to expect.
Again he seated himself, and turned his eyes inquir-
ingly about him, with a sort of inward apprehension that
some one lay concealed in the surrounding gloom, with a
secret design to mar his approaching happiness. There
was so much of wild and feverish romance in the inci-
dents of the day, that he found it difficult, at moments, to
credit their reality, and had recourse to hasty glances at
the altar, his attire, and even his insensible companion, to
remove the delusion from his mind. Again he looked up-
ward at the unsteady and huge shadows which wavered
along the ceiling of the walls, and his former apprehen-
sions of some hidden evil \vere revived with a vividness
that amounted nearly to a presentiment. So uneasy did
he become at length, under this impression, that he walked
along the distant aisles, scrupulously looking into the dark
pews, and throwing a scrutinizing glance behind each
column, and was rewarded for his trouble by hearing the
hollow echo of his own footsteps.
' In returning from this round, he approached the stove,
and yielded to a strong desire of listening to the voice of
even Job, in a moment of such morbid excitement. Touch-
ing the simpleton lightly with his foot, the other awoke
with that readiness \vhich denoted the sudden and dis-
turbed nature of his ordinary rest.
"You are unusually dull to-night, Job," said Lionel, en*
deavoring to hush his uneasiness in affected pleasantry
"or you would inquire the reason why I pay my visit to
the church at this extraordinary hour."
LIONEL L1XCOLN". 245
" Boston folks love their meetin'us's," returned the ob-
tuse simpleton.
'"Ay! but they love their beds, too, fellow; and one
half of them are now enjoying what you seem to covet so
much."
" Job loves to eat, and to be warm ! "
"And to sleep too, if one may judge by your drowsi-
ness."
" Yes, sleep is sweet ; Job don't feel a-hungered when
he's sleeping."
Lionel remained silent, for several moments, under a
keen perception of the suffering exhibited in the touching
helplessness, which marked the manner of the other, be-
fore he continued —
" But I expect to be joined soon by the clergyman, and
some ladies, and Captain Polwarth."
"Job likes Captain Polwarth — he keeps a grand sight of
provisions ! "
" Enough of this ! can you think of nothing but your
stomach, boy ? "
"God made hunger," said Job gloomily, "and he made
food too ; but the king keeps it all for his rake-hellies ! "
" Well, listen, and be attentive to what I tell you. — One
of the ladies who will come here is Miss Dynevor ; you
know Miss Dynevor, Job? the beautiful Miss Dynevor!"
The charms of Cecil had not, however, made their wonted
impression on the dull eye of the idiot, who still regarded
the speaker with his customary air of apathy.
" Surely, Job, you know Miss Dynevor !" repeated Li-
onel, with an irritability that, at any other time, he would
have been the first to smile at — " she has often given you
money and clothes."
" Yes ; Ma'am Lechmere is her grandam ! "
This was certainly one of the least recommendations his
mistress possessed, in the eyes of Lionel, who paused a
moment, with inward vexation, before he added —
" Let who will be her relatives, she is this night to be-
come my wife. You will remain and witness the ceremony,
and then you will extinguish the lights, and return the key
of the church to Dr. Liturgy. In the morning come to me
for your reward."
The changeling arose, with an air of singular importance,
and answered —
" To be sure. Major Lincoln is to be married, and he
asks Job to the wedding! Now Nab may preach her
246 LIONEL LINCOLN
sarmons about pride and flaunty feelings as much as sh<!
will ; but blood is blood, and flesh is flesh, for all her say-
ings ! "
Struck by the expression of wild meaning that gleamed
in the eyes of the simpleton, Major Lincoln demanded an
explanation of his ambiguous language. But ere Job had
leisure to reply, though his vacant look again denoted that
his thoughts were already contracting themselves within
their usually narrow limits, a sudden noise drew the atten-
tion of both to the entrance of the chapel. The door
opened the next instant, and the figure of the divine, pow-
dered with drifted snow, and encased in various defences
against the cold, was seen, moving with a becoming gravi-
ty, through the principal aisle. Lionel hastened to receive
him, and to conduct him to the seat he had just occupied
himself.
When Dr. Liturgy had uncloaked, and appeared in his
robes of office, the benevolence of his smile, and the whole
expression of his countenance, denoted that he was satis-
fied with the condition in which he found the preparations.
''There is no reason why a church should not be as
comfortable as a man's library, Major Lincoln," he said,
hitching his seat a little nearer to the stove. " It is a puri-
tanical and a dissenting idea, that religion has anything
forbidding or gloomy in its nature ; and wherefore should
we assemble amid pains and inconvenience to discharge
its sacred offices."
" Quite true, sir," returned Lionel, looking anxiously
through one of the windows — "I have not yet heard the
hour of ten strike, though my watch tells me it is time ! "
" The weather renders the public clocks very irregular.
There are so many unavoidable evils to which flesh is heir,
that we should endeavor to be happy on all occasions —
indeed it is a duty "
*' It's not in the natur of sin to make fallen man happy,"
said a low, growling voice from behind the stove.
" Ha ! what ! did you speak, Major Lincoln — a very
singular sentiment for a bridegroom ! " muttered the divine.
" 'Tis that weak young man, whom I have brought hither
to assist me with the fires, repeating some of the lore of
his mother ; nothing else, sir."
By this time Dr. Liturgy had caught a glimpse of the
crouching Job, and comprehending the interruption, he
fell back in his chair, smiling superciliously, as he con«
tinned —
TJOXKL IJXCOLK. 247
" I know the lad, sir ; I should know him. He is learned
in the texts, and somewhat given to disputation in matters
of religion. Tis a pity the little intellect he has had not
been better managed in his infancy ; but they have helped
to crush his feeble mind with their subtilties. We — I
mean we of the established church — often style him the
Boston Calvin — ha, ha, ha ! — Old Cotton was not his equal
in subtilty ! — But speaking of the establishment, do you
not fancy that one of the consequences of this rebellion
will be to extend its benefits to the colonies, and that we
may look forward to the period when the true Church shall
possess its inheritance in these religious provinces ?"
"Oh, most certainly! " said Lionel, again walking anx-
iously to the window ; "would to God they had come ! "
The divine, with whom weddings were matters of too
frequent occurrence to awaken his sympathies, understood
the impatient bridegroom literally, and replied, accord-
ingly—
" I am glad to hear you say it, Major Lincoln, and I
hope, when the act of amnesty shall be passed, to find your
vote on the side of such a condition."
At this instant Lionel caught a glimpse of the well-known
sleigh, moving slowly along the deserted street, and, utter-
ing a cry of pleasure, he rushed to the door to receive his
bride. Dr. Liturgy finished his sentence to himself, and,
rising from his comfortable position, he took the light,
and entered the chancel. The disposition of the candles
having been previously made, when they were lighted, his
book opened, his robes adjusted, and his features settled
into a suitable degree of solemnity, he stood, waiting with
becoming dignity the approach of those over whom he
was to pronounce the nuptial benediction. Job placed
himself within the shadows of the building, and stood re-
garding the attitude and imposing aspect of the priest,
with a species of childish awe.
Then came a group, emerging from the obscurity of the
distant part of the church, and moving slowly toward the
altar. Cecil was in front, leaning on that arm which
Lionel had given her, as much for support, as through
courtesy. She had removed her outer and warmer gar-
ments in the vestibule of the sacred edifice, and now ap-
peared, attired in a manner as well suited to the sudden-
ness and privacy, as to the importance, of the- ceremony.
A mantle of satin, trimmed with delicate furs, fell carelessly
from her shoulders, partly concealing by its folds the ex-
248 LI OX EL LIXCOLX.
quisite proportions of her slender form. Beneath was a
vestment of the same rich material, cut, after the fashions
of that period, in a manner to give the exact outlines of
the bust. Across the stomacher were deep rows of fine
lace, and wide borders of the same valuable texture fol-
lowed the retiring edges of her robe, leaving the costly
dress within partly exposed to the eye. But the beauty
and simplicity of her attire (it was simple for that day)
was lost, or, rather, it served to adorn, unnoticed, the
melancholy beauty of her countenance.
As they approached the expecting priest, Cecil threw,
by a gentle movement, her mantle on the rails of the
chancel, and accompanied Lionel, with a firmer tread than
before, to the foot of the altar. Her cheeks were pale ;
but it was rather with a compelled resolution than dread,
while her eyes were full of tenderness and thought. Of
the two devotees of Hymen, she exhibited, if not the most
composure, certainly the most singleness of purpose, and
intentness on the duty before them ; for while the looks
of Lionel were stealing uneasily about the building, as if
he expected some hidden object to start up out of the
darkness, hers were riveted on the priest in sweet and
earnest attention.
They paused in their allotted places ; and after a mo-
ment was allowed for Agnes and Polwarth, who alone fol-
lowed, to enter the chancel, the low but deep tones of the
minister were heard in the solemn stillness of the place.
Dr. Liturgy had borrowed a suitable degree of inspira-
tion from the dreariness of the hour, and the solitude of
the building where he was required to discharge his sacred
functions. As he delivered the opening exhortation of
the service, he made long and frequent pauses between
the members of the sentences, giving to each injunction a
distinct and impressive emphasis. But when he came to
those closing words —
" If any man can show just cause why they may not be.
/awfully joined together, let him now speak, or else, hereafter^
forever hold his peace"
He lifted his voice, and raised his eyes to the more dis-
tant parts of the chapel, as though he addressed a multi-
tude in the gloom. The faces of all present involuntarily
followed the direction of his gaze, and a moment of deep
expectation, which can only be explained by the singu-
larly wild character of the scene, succeeded the reverbera-
tion of his tones. At that moment, when each had" taken
LIONEL LINCOLN. 249
breath, and all were again turning to the altar, a huge
shadow rose upon the gallery, and extended itself along
the ceiling, until its gigantic proportions were seen hover-
ing, like an evil spectre, nearly above them.
The clergyman suspended the half-uttered sentence.
Cecil grasped the arm of Lionel convulsively, while a
shudder passed through her frame that seemed about to
shake it to dissolution.
The shadowy image then slowly withdrew, not without,
however, throwing out a fantastic gesture, with an arm
which stretched itself across the vaulted roof, and down
the walls, as if about to clutch its victims beneath.
' ' If any man can show just cause why they may not b&
lawfully joined together, let him now speak, or else, hereafter,
forever hold his peace" repeated the priest aloud, as if he
would summon the universe at the challenge.
Again the shadow rose, presenting this time the strong
and huge lineaments of a human face, which it was not
difficult, at such a moment, to fancy possessed even ex-
pression and life. Its strongly-marked features seemed to
work with powerful emotion, and the lips moved as if the
airy being was speaking to unearthly ears. Next came
two arms, raised above the gazing group, with clasped
hands, as in the act of benediction, after which the whole
vanished, leaving the ceiling in its own dull white, and the
building still as the graves which surrounded it.
Once more the excited minister uttered the summons ;
and again every eye was drawn, by a secret impulse, to a
spot which seemed to possess the form, without the sub-
stance, of a human being. But the shadow was seen no
more. After waiting several moments in vain, Dr. Liturgy
proceeded, with a voice in which a growing tremor was
very perceptible ; but no further interruption was experi-
enced to the end of the service.
Cecil pronounced her vows, and plighted her troth, in
tones of holy emotion ; while Lionel, who was prepared
for some strange calamity, wrent through the service to
the end, with a forced calmness. They were married; and
when the blessing was uttered, not a sound nor a whisper
was heard in the party. Silently they all turned away
from the spot, and prepared to leave the place. Cecil
stood passively, and permitted Lionel to wrap her form in
the folds of her mantle with tender care ; and when she
would have smiled her thanks for the attention, she merely
raised her anxious eyes to the ceiling, with an expression
250 LIONEL LINCOLN.
that could not be mistaken. Even Polwarth was mute;
and Agnes forgot to offer those congratulations and good
wishes, with which her heart had so recently been swelling.
The clergyman muttered a few words of caution to Job
concerning the candles and the fire, and hurried after the
retiring party with a quickness of step that he was willing
to ascribe to the lateness of the hour, and with a total dis-
regard to the safety of the edifice ; leaving the chapel to
the possession of the ill-gifted, but undisturbed son of
Abigail Pray.
CHAPTER XXIII.
" Forbear to judge, for we are sinners all ;
Close up his eyes, and draw the curtain close ;
And let us all to meditation." — King Henry VI,
THE bridal party entered their little vehicle silent and
thoughtful ; the voice of Polwarth being alone audible, as
he gave a few low and hurried orders to the groom who
was in waiting. Dr. Liturgy approached for a moment,
and made his compliments, when the sleigh darted away
from the door of the building, as swiftly as if the horse
that drew it partook of the secret uneasiness of those it
held. The movements of the divine, though less rapid,
were equally diligent, and in less than a minute the winds
whistled, and clouds of snow were driven through a street,
which everything possessing life appeared once more to
have abandoned.
The instant Polwarth had discharged his load at the
door of Mrs. Lechmere, he muttered something of " hap-
piness and to-morrow," which his friend did not under-
stand, and dashed through the gate of the court-yard, at
the same mad rate that he had driven from the church. On
entering the house, Agnes repaired to the room of her
aunt, to report that the marriage knot was tied, while Lio-
nel led his silent bride into the empty parlor.
Cecil stood, fixed and motionless as a statue, while her
husband removed her cloak and mantle ; her cheeks pale,
her eyes riveted on the floor, and her whole attitude and
manner exhibiting the intensity of thought, which had
been created by the scene in which she had just been an
actor. When he had relieved her light form from the load
of garments in which it had been enveloped by his care,
LIONEL LINCOLN. ,.251
he impelled her gently to a seat by his side, on the settee,
and, for the first time since she had uttered the final vow
at the altar, she spoke —
"Was it a fearful omen ?" she whispered, as he folded
her to his heart, " or was it no more than a horrid fancy ? "
" 'Twas nothing, love — 'twas a shadow — that of Job Pray,
who was with me to light the fires."
" No — no — no," said Cecil, speaking with the rapidity
of high excitement, and in tones that gathered strength as
she proceeded — " Those were never the unmeaning feat-
ures of the miserable simpleton! Know you, Lincoln, that
in the haughty, the terrific outlines of those dreadful line-
aments on the wall, I fancied a resemblance to the profile
of our great uncle, your father's predecessor in the title —
Dark Sir Lionel, as he was called."
" It was easy to fancy anything, at such a time, and un-
der such circumstances. Do not cloud the happiness of
our bridal by these gloomy fancies."
" Am I gloomy or superstitious by habit, Lionel ? " she
asked, \vith a deprecating tenderness in her voice, that
touched his inmost heart — " But it came at such a mo-
ment, and in such a shape, that I should be more than
woman not to tremble at its terrible import ! "
"What is it you dread, Cecil? Are we not married;
lawfully, solemnly united?" — The bride shuddered; but
perceiving her unwilling, or unable to answer, he con-
tinued— " beyond the power of man to sever ; and with
the consent, nay, by the earnest wish, the command, of
the only being who can have a right to express a wish, or
have an opinion on the subject ?"
" I believe — that is, I think, it is all as you say, Lionel,"
returned Cecil, still looking about her with a vacant and
distressed air, that curdled his blood ; " yes — yes, we are
certainly married ; and oh ! how ardently do I implore
Him who sees and governs all things, that our union may
be blessed ! but —
" But what, Cecil ? will you let a thing of naught — a
shadow — affect you in this manner?"
" Twas a shadow, as you say, Lincoln ; but where was
the substance ?"
" Cecil, my sensible, my good, my pious Cecil, why do
your faculties slumber in this unaccountable apathy ? Ask
your own excellent reason : can there be a shade where
nothing obstructs the light ? "
" I know not. I cannot reason — I have not reason. All
252 LIONEL LINCOLN'.
tilings are possible to Him, whose will is law, and whose
slightest wisli shakes the universe. There was a shadow
— a dark, a speaking, and a terrible shadow ; but who can
say, where was the reality ?"
" I had almost answered, with the phantom, only in
your own sensitive imagination, love. But arouse your
slumbering powers, Cecil, and reflect how possible it was
for some curious idler of the garrison to have watched my
movements, and to have secreted himself in the chapel ;
perhaps from wanton mischief — perhaps without motive of
any kind."
" He then chose an awful moment in \vhich to act his
gambols! "
" It may have been one whose knowledge was just equal
to giving a theatrical effect to his silly deception. But are
\ve to be cheated of our happiness by such weak devices ;
or to be miserable because Boston contains a fool ? "
" I may be weak, and silly, and even impious in this
terror, Lincoln," she said, turning her softened looks upon
his anxious face, and attempting to smile ; " but it is assail-
ing a woman in a point where she is most sensitive. — You
know that I have no reserve with you, now. Marriage
with us is the tie that ' that binds all charities in one,' and
at the moment when the heart is full of its own security,
is it not dreadful to have such mysterious presages, be
they true, or be they false, answering to the awful appeal
of the church ! "
" Nor is the tie less binding, less important, or less dear,
my own Cecil, to us. Believe me, whatever the pride of
manhood may say of high destinies, and glorious deeds,
the same affections are deeply seated in our nature, and
must be soothed by those we love, and not by those who
contribute to our vanity. Why then permit this chill to
blight your best affections in their budding?"
There was so much that was soothing to the anxiety of
a bride, in his sentiments, and so much of tender interest
in his manner, that he at length succeeded, in a great de-
gree, in luring Cecil from her feverish apprehensions. As
he spoke, a mantling bloom diffused itself over her cold
and pallid cheeks, and when he had done, her eyes lighted
with the glow of a woman's confidence, and were turned
on his own in bright, but blushing pleasure. She repeated
his word "chill," with an emphasis and a smile that could
not be misconstrued, and in a few minutes he entirely
succeeded in quelling the uneasy presentiments that had
LIONEL LINCOLX. 253
gained a momentary ascendency over her clear and excel-
lent faculties.
But notwithstanding Major Lincoln reasoned so well,
and with so much success, against the infirmity of his bride,
he was by no means equal to maintain as just an argument
with himself. The morbid sensibility of his mind had been
awakened in a most alarming manner by the occurrences
of the evening, though his warm interest in the happiness
of Cecil had enabled him to smother them, so long as he
witnessed the extent and nature of her apprehensions.
But, exactly in the proportion as he persuaded her into
forgetfulness of the past, his recollections became more
vivid and keen ; and notwithstanding his art, he might not
have been able to conceal the workings of his troubled
thoughts from his companion, had not Agnes appeared,
and announced the desire of Mrs. Lechmere to receive the
bride and bridegroom in her sick chamber.
" Corne, Lincoln," said his lovely companion, rising at
the summons, "we have been selfish in forgetting how
strongly my grandmother sympathizes in our good or evil
fortunes. We should have discharged this duty without
waiting to be reminded of it."
Without making any other reply than a fond pressure of
the hand he held, Lionel drew her arm through his own,
and followed Agnes into the little hall which conducted to
the upper part of the dwelling.
"You know the way, Major Lincoln," said Miss Dan-
fortli ; " and should you not, my lady bride can show you.
I must go and cast a worldly eye on the little banquet I
have ordered, but which I fear will be labor thrown away,
since Captain Polwarth has disdained to exhibit his prow-
ess at the board. Truly, Major Lincoln, I marvel that a
man of so much substance as your friend, should be
frightened from his stomach by a shadow!"
Cecil even laughed, and in those sweet feminine tones
that are infectious, at the humor of her cousin ; but the
dark and anxious expression that gathered round the brow
of her husband as suddenly checked her mirth.
" Let us ascend, Lincoln," she said, instantly, "and leave
mad Agnes to her household cares, and her folly."
"Ay, go," cried the other, turning away toward the
supper-room—" eating and drinking is not ethereal enough
for your elevated happiness ; would I had a repast worthy
of such sentimental enjoyment ! Let me see — dew drops
and lovers' tears, in equal quantities, sweetened by Cupid's
254 LIONEL LINCOLN.
smiles, with a dish of sighs, drawn by moonlight, for pi.
quancy, as Polwarth would say, would flavor a bowl ta
tlicir tastes. The dew drops might be difficult to procure,
at tliis inclement season, and in such a night ; but if
sighs and tears would serve alone, poor Boston is just now
rich enough in materials ! "
Lionel, and his half-blushing, half-smiling companion,
heard the dying sounds of her voice, as she entered the
distant apartment, expressing, by its tones, the mingled
pleasantry and spleen of its mistress, and in the next
instant they forgot both Agnes and her humor, as they
found themselves in the presence of Mrs. Lechmere.
The first glance of his eye at their expecting relative,
brought a painful throb to the heart of Major Lincoln.
Mrs. Lechmere had caused herself to be raised in her bed,
in which she was seated nearly upright, supported by pil-
lows. Her wrinkled and emaciated cheeks were flushed
with an unnatural color, that contrasted too violently with
the marks which age and strong passions had impressed,
with their indelible fingers, on the surrounding wreck of
those haughty features, which had once been distinguished
for great, if not attractive beauty. Her hard eyes had lost
their ordinary expression of worldly care, in a brightness
which caused them rather to glare, than beam, with flashes
of unbridled satisfaction that could no longer be repressed.
In short, her whole appearance brought a startling con-
viction to the mind of the young man, that whatever might
have been the ardor of his own feelings in espousing her
grand-child, he had at length realized the fondest desires
of a being so worldly, so designing, and, as he was now
made keenly to remember, of one also, who, he had much
reason to apprehend, was so guilty. The invalid did not
seem to think a concealment of her exultation any longer
necessary; for, stretching out her arms, she called to her
child, in a voice raised above its natural tones, and which
was dissonant and harsh from a sort of unholy triumph —
"Come to my arms, my pride, my hope, my dutiful, my
deserving daughter ! Come and receive a parent's bless-
ing ; that blessing which you so much deserve !"
Even Cecil, warm and consoling as was the language of
her grandmother, hesitated an instant at the unnatural
voice in which the summons was uttered, and advanced to
meet her embrace with a manner less warm than was usual
to her own ardent and unsuspecting nature. This secret
restraint existed, however, but for a moment ; for when
LIONEL LINCOLN. 255
she felt the encircling arms of Mrs. Lechmere pressing
her warmly to her aged bosom, she looked up into the face
of her grandmother, as if to thank her for so much affec-
tion, by her own guileless smiles and tears.
" Here, then, Major Lincoln, you possess my greatest,
I had almost said my only treasure ! " added Mrs. Lech-
mere — " she is a good, a gentle, and dutiful child ; and
heaven will bless her for it, as I do." Leaning forward,
she continued in a less excited voice — " Kiss me, my Cecil,
my bride, my Lady Lincoln ! for by that loved title I may
now call you, as yours, in the course of nature, it soon will
be."
Cecil, greatly shocked at the unguarded exultation of
her grandmother, gently withdrew herself from her arms,
and with eyes bent to the floor in shame, and burning
cheeks, she willingly moved aside to allow Lionel to ap-
proach, and receive his share of the congratulations. He
stooped to bestow the cold and reluctant kiss, which the
offered cheek of Mrs. Lechmere invited, and muttered a
few incoherent words concerning his present happiness,
and the obligation she had conferred. Notwithstanding
the high and disgusting triumph which had broken through
the usually cold and cautious manner of the invalid, a
powerful and unbidden touch of nature mingled in her ad-
dress to the bridegroom. The fiery and unnatural glow of
her eyes even softened with a tear, as she spoke —
"Lionel, my nephew, my son," she said — "I have en-
deavored to receive you in a manner worthy of the head of
an ancient and honorable name ; but were you a sovereign
prince, I have now done my last and best in your favor.
Cherish her — love her — be more than husband — be all ot
kin to the precious child, for she merits all ! Now is my
latest wish fulfilled ! — Now may I prepare myself for the
last great change, in the quiet of a long and tranquil
evening to the weary and troublesome day of life ! "
" Woman ! " said a tremulous voice in the background--
" thou deceivest thyself ! "
"Who," exclaimed Mrs. Lechmere, raising her body
with a convulsive start, as if about to leap from the bed —
" who is it speaks ? "
"'Tis I," returned the well-remembered tones of Ralph,
as he advanced from the door to the foot of her couch —
" 'tis I, Priscilla Lechmere ; one who knows thy merits and
thy doom ! "
The appalled woman fell back on her pillows, gasping
256 LIONEL LINCOLN.
for breath, the flush of her cheeks giving place to theii
former signs of age and disease, and her eye losing its high
exultation in the glazed look of sudden terror. It would
seem, however, that a single moment of reflection was suf-
ficient to restore her spirit, and with it all her deep resent-
ments. She motioned the intruder away, by a violent
gesture of the hand, and after an effort to command her
utterance, she said, in a voice rendered doubly strong by
overwhelming passion —
"Why am I braved, at such a moment, in the privacy
of my sick chamber? Have that madman, or impostor,
whichever he may be, removed from my presence ! "
She uttered her request to deadened ears. Lionel neither
moved nor answered. His whole attention was given to
Ralph, across whose hollow features a smile of calm in-
difference passed, which denoted how little he regarded
the threatened violence. Even Cecil, who clung to the
arm of Lionel, with all a woman's dependence on him she
loved, was unnoticed by the latter, in the absorbing inter-
est he took in the sudden re-appearance of one whose sin-
gular and mysterious character had long since raised such
hopes and fears in his own bosom.
" Your doors will shortly be opened to all who may
choose to visit here," the old man coldly answered; "why
should I be driven from a dwelling where heartless crowds
shall so soon enter and depart at will ! Am I not old
enough ; or do I not bear enough of the aspect of the
grave, to become your companion ? Priscilla Lechmere,
you have lived till the bloom of your cheeks has given
place to the color of the dead ; your dimples have become
furrowed and wrinkled lines ; and the beams of your once
bright eye have altered to the dull look of care — but you
have not yet lived for repentance."
" What manner of language is this ? " cried his wonder-
ing listener, inwardly shrinking before his steady, but
glowing look. " Why am I singled from the world for this
persecution ? — are my sins past bearing ; or am I alone to
be reminded that sooner or later age and death will come ?
— I have long known the infirmities of life, and may truly
say, that I am prepared for their final consequences."
" Tis well," returned the unmoved and apparently im-
movable intruder — " take, then, and read the solemn decree
of thy God ; and may He grant thee firmness to justify so
much confidence."
As he spoke, he extended, in his withered hand, an open
LIONEL LINCOLN1. 257
letter toward Mrs. Lechmere, which the quick glance of
Lionel told him bore his own name in the superscription.
Notwithstanding the gross invasion of his rights, the young
man was passive under the detection of this second and
gross interference of the other in his most secret matters,
watching with eager interest the effect the strange com-
munication would produce on his aunt.
Mrs. Lechmere took the letter from the stranger with a
sort of charmed submission, which denoted how completely
his solemn manner had bent her to his will. The instant
her look fell on the contents, it became fixed and wild.
The note was, however, short, and the scrutiny was soon
ended. Still she grasped it with an extended arm, though
the vacant expression of her countenance betrayed that it
was held before an insensible eye. A moment of silent
and breathless wonder followed. It was succeeded by a
shudder which passed through the whole frame .of the in-
valid, her limbs shaking violently, until the rattling of the
folds of the paper was audible in the most distant corner
of the apartment.
"This bears my name," cried Lionel, shocked at her
emotions, and taking the paper from her unresisting hand,
" and should first have met my eye."
" Aloud — aloud, dear Lionel," said a faint but earnest
whisper at his elbow ; "aloud, I implore you, aloud ! "
It was not, perhaps, so much in compliance with this
affecting appeal, in which the whole soul of Cecil seemed
wrapped, as by yielding to the overwhelming flow of that
excitement to which he had been aroused, that Major Lin-
coln was led to conform to her request. In a voice ren-
dered desperately calm by his emotions, he uttered the fatal
contents of the note, in tones so distinct, that they sounded
to his wife, in the stillness of the place, like the prophetic
warnings of one from the dead.
" The state of the town has prevented that close atten-
tion to the case of Mrs. Lechmere, which her injuries ren-
dered necessary. An inward mortification has taken place,
and her present ease is only the forerunner of her death. I
feel it my duty to say, that though she may live many
hours, it is not improbable that she will die to-night."
To this short, but terrible annunciation, was placed the
well-known signature of the attending physician. Here
was a sudden change, indeed ! All had thought that the
disease had given way, when it seemed it had been prey-
ing insidiously on the vitals of the sick. Dropping the
17
258 LIONEL LINCOLN:
note, Lionel exclaimed aloud, in the suddenness of his sur-
prise—
"Die to-night! This is an unexpected summons, in-
deed ! "
The miserable woman, after the first nerveless moment
of her dismay, turned her looks anxiously from face to face,
and listened intently to the words of the note, as they fell
from the lips of Lionel, like one eager to detect the glim-
merings of hope in the alarmed expression of their coun-
tenances. But the language of her physician was too
plain, direct, and positive, to be misunderstood or per-
verted. Its very coldness gave it a terrific character of
truth.
" Do you then credit it ? " she asked in a voice whose
husky tones betrayed but too plainly her abject unwilling-
ness to be assured. " You ! Lionel Lincoln, whom I had
thought my friend."
Lionel turned away silently from the sad spectacle of hel
misery ; but Cecil dropped on her knees at the bed-side,
and clasping her hands, she elevated them, looking like a
beautiful picture of pious hope, as she murmured —
" He is no friend, dearest grandmother, who would lay
flattery to a parting soul ! But there is a better and a safer
dependence than all this world can offer ! "
"And you, too!" cried the devoted woman, rousing
herself with a strength and energy that would seem to put
the professional knowledge of her medical attendant at
defiance — " do you also abandon me ? you, whom I have
watched in infancy, nursed in suifering, fondled in hap-
piness, ay ! and reared in virtue — yes, that I can say
boldly in the face of the universe ! — you, whom I have
brought to this honorable marriage ; would you repay me
for all, by black ingratitude ? "
" My grandmother ! my grandmother ! talk not thus
cruelly to your child ! But lean on the Rock of Ages for
support, even as I have leaned on thee ! "
" Away — away — weak, foolish child ! Excess of happi-
ness has maddened thee ! Come hither, my son ; let us
speak of Ravenscliffe, the proud seat of our ancestors ; and
of those days we are yet to pass under its hospitable roofs.
The silly girl thou hast wived would wish to frighten me ! "
Lionel shuddered with inward horror while he listened
to the forced and broken intonations of her voice, as she
thus uttered the lingering wishes of her nature. He turned
again from the view, and, for a moment, buried his face in
LIONEL LINCOLN. 25*
his hands, as if to exclude the world and its wickedness, to-
gether, from his sight.
" My grandmother, look not so wildly at us ! " continued
the gasping Cecil — " you may have yet hours, nay, days,
before you." She paused an instant to follow the unsettled
and hopeless gaze of an eye that gleamed despairingly on
the objects of the room, and then, with a meek depend-
ence on her own purity, dropping her face between her
hands, she cried aloud in her agony —
" My mother's mother ! would that I could die for thee !"
" Die ! " echoed the same dissonant voice as before, from
a throat that already began to rattle with the hastened ap-
proaches of death — " who would die amid the festivities of
a bridal ! — Away — leave me. — To thy closet, and thy knees,
if thou wilt — but leave rne."
She watched, with bitter resentment, the retiring form
of Cecil, who obeyed with the charitable and pious inten-
tion of complying literally with her grandmother's order,
before she added —
" The girl is not equal to the task I had set her ! All of
my race have been weak, but I — my daughter — my hus-
band's niece "
" What of that niece ? " said the startling voice of Ralph,
interrupting the diseased wanderings of her mind — " that
wife of thy nephew — the mother of this youth ? Speak,
woman, while time and reason are granted thee."
Lionel now advanced to her bed-side, under an impulse
that he could no longer subdue, and addressed her sol-
emnly—
" If thou knowest aught of the dreadful calamity that
has befallen my family," he said, " or in any manner hast
been accessory to its cause, disburden thy soul, and die in
peace. Sister of my grandfather ! nay, more, mother of
my wife ! I conjure thee, speak — what of my injured
mother? "
' "Sister of thy grandfather — mother of thy wife," re-
peated Mrs. Lechmere, slowly, and in a manner that suf-
ficiently indicated the unsettled state of her thoughts —
41 Yes, both are true !"
" Speak to me, then, of my mother, if you acknowledge
the ties of blood — tell me of her dark fate ! "
" She is in her grave — dead — rotten — yes — yes — her
boasted beauty has been fed upon by beastly worms !
What more would ye have, mad boy ? Would'st wish to see
her bones in their winding-sheet?"
260 LIONEL LINCOLN.
" The truth ! " cried Ralph ; " declare the truth, and thy
own wicked agency in the deed ! "
."Who speaks ?" repeated Mrs. Lechmere, dropping her
voice from its notes of high excitement again, to the
tremulous cadency of debility and age, and looking about
her at the same time, as if a sudden remembrance had
crossed her brain ; " surely I heard sounds I should
know ! "
" Here ; look on me — fix thy wandering eye, if it yet
has power to see, on me," cried Ralph, aloud, as though
he would command her attention at every hazard — "'tis
I that speak to thee, Priscilla Lechmere. "
"What wouldst thou have ? My daughter? She is in
her grave ! Her child ? She is wedded to another. — Thou
art too late ! Thou art too late ! Would to God thou hadst
asked her of me in season "
" The truth — the truth — the truth ! " continued the old
man, in a voice that rung through the apartment in wild
and startling echoes — "the holy andundefiled truth ! Give
us that, and naught else."
This singular and solemn appeal awakened the latest
energies of the despairing woman, whose inmost soul ap-
peared to recoil before his cries. She made an effort to
raise herself once more, and exclaimed —
"Who says that I am dying? I am but seventy! and
'tis only yesterday I was a child — a pure, an uncontaminat-
ed child ! He lies — he lies ! I have no mortification — I
am strong, and have years to live and repent in."
In the pauses of her utterance, the voice of the old man
was still heard shouting —
"The truth— the truth— the holy, undefiled truth!"
" Let me rise and look upon the sun," continued the
dying woman. " Where are ye all ? Cecil, Lionel — my
children, do ye desert me now ? Why do ye darken the
room ? Give me light — more light ! — -more light ! for the
sake of all in heaven and earth, abandon me not Jto this*
black and terrific darkness ! "
Her aspect had become so hideously despairing, that the
voice of even Ralph was stilled, and she continued unin-
terruptedly to shriek out the ravings of her soul.
"Why talk to such as I of death ! — My time has been
too short ! — give me days — give me hours — give me mo-
ments ! Cecil, Agnes — Abigail ; where are ye ? — help me,
or I fall ! "
She raised herself, by a desperate effort, from the pil-
LIONEL LLVCOLY. 261
lows, and clutched wildly at the empty air. Meeting the
extended hand of Lionel, she caught it with a dying
grasp, gave a ghastly smile, under the false security it im-
parted, and falling backward again, her mortal part settled,
with a universal shudder, into a state of eternal rest.
As the horrid exclamations of the deceased ended, so
deep a stillness succeeded in the apartment, that the pass-
ing gusts of the gale were heard sighing among the roofs
of the town, and might easily be mistaken, at such a mo-
ment, for the moanings of unembodied spirits over so ac-
cursed an end.
CHAPTER XXIV.
"I wonder, sir, since wives are monstrous to you,
And that you fly them, as you swear them, lordship,
Yet, you desire to marry."— All's Well That Ends Well.
CECIL had left the room of her grandmother, with the
consciousness of sustaining a load of anguish, to which her
young experience had hitherto left her a stranger. On
her knees, and in the privacy of her closet, she poured out
the aspirations of her pure spirit, in fervent petitions to
that power, which she, who most needed its support, had
so long braved by the mockery of respect, and the seemli-
ness of devotion. With her soul elevated by its recent
communion with her God, and her feelings soothed even to
calmness by the sacred glow that was shed around them,
the youthful bride at length prepared to resume her post
at the bedside of her aged relative.
In passing from her own room to that of Mrs. Lechmere,
she heard the busy voice of Agnes below, together with
the sounds of the preparations that were making to grace
her own hasty bridal, and for a moment she paused to
assure herself that all which had so recently passed, was
more than the workings of a disturbed fancy. She gazed
at the unusual, though modest ornaments of her attire ;
shuddered as she remembered the awful omen of the
shadow ; and then came to the dreadful reality with an
overwhelming conviction of its truth. After laying her
hand on the door, she paused, with secret terror, to catch
the sounds that might issue from the chamber of the sick.
After listening a moment, the bustle below was hushed,
and she, too, heard the whistling of the wind, as its echoes
262 LIONEL LINCOLN.
died away among the chimneys and angles of the building.
Encouraged by the death-like stillness of those within her
grandmother's room, Cecil now opened the door, under
the pleasing impression that she should find the resignation
of a Christian, where she had so lately witnessed the in-
cipient ravings of despair. Her entrance was timid ; for
she dreaded to meet the hollow, but glaring eye of the
nameless being who had borne the message of the physi-
cian, and of whose mien and language she retained a con-
fused but fearful recollection. Her hesitation and her
fears were, however, alike vain ; for the room was silent
and tenantless. Casting one wondering look around, in
quest of the form most dear to her, Cecil advanced with a
light step to the bed, and raising the coverlet, discovered
the fatal truth at a glance.
The lineaments of Mrs. Lechmere had already stiffened,
and assumed that cadaverous and ghastly expression,
which marks the touch of death. The parting soul had
left the impression of its agony on her features, exhibiting
the wreck of those passions which caused her, even in
death, to look backward on that world she was leaving for-
ever, instead of forward to the unknown existence, toward
which she was hurried. Perhaps the suddenness, and the
very weight of the shock, sustained the cheerless bride in
that moment of trial. She neither spoke nor moved for
more than a minute ; but remained with her eyes riveted
on the desolation of that countenance she had revered from
her infancy, with a species of holy awe that was not en-
tirely free from horror. Then came the recollection of
the portentous omens of her wedding, and with it a dread
that the heaviest of her misfortunes were yet in reserve.
She dropped the covering on the pallid features of the
dead, and quitted the apartment with a hurried step. The
room of Lionel was on the same floor with that which she
had just left, and before she had time for reflection, her
hand was on its lock. Her brain was bewildered with the
rush of circumstances. For a single instant she paused
with maiden bashfulness, even recoiling in sensitive shame
from the act she was about to commit, when all her fears,
mingled with glimmerings of the truth, flashed again
across her mind, and she burst into the room, uttering the
name of him she sought, aloud.
The brands of a fallen fire had been carefully raked
together, and were burning with a feeble and wavering
flame. The room seemed filled with a cold air, which, as
LIONEL LINCOLN. 263
she encountered it, chilled the delicate person of Cecil ;
and flickering shadows were playing on the walls, with
the uncertain movements imparted by the unsteady light.
But, like the apartment of the dead, the room was still
and empty. Perceiving that the door of the little dressing-
room was open, she rushed to its threshold, and the
mystery of the cold air, and the wavering fire, was ex-
plained, when she felt the gusts of wind rush by her from
the open door at the foot of the narrow stairs. If Cecil
had ever been required to explain the feelings which in-
duced her to descend, or the manner in which it was ef-
fected, she would have been unable to comply ; for, quick
as thought, she stood on the threshold of the outer door,
nearly unconscious of her situation.
The moon was still wading among the driving clouds,
shedding just light enough to make the spectator sensible
of the stillness of the camp and town. The easterly wind
yet howled along the streets, occasionally lifting whirlwinds
of snow, and wrapping whole squares in its dim wreaths.
But neither man nor beast was visible amid the dreariness.
The bewildered bride shrunk from the dismal view,
with a keen perception of its wild consonance with the
death of her grandmother. In another moment she was
again in the room above, each part of which was examined
with maddening anxiety for the person of her husband.
But her powers, excited and unnatural as they had become,
could support her no longer. She was forced' to yield to
the impression that Lionel had deserted her in the most
trying moment, and it was not strange that she coupled
the sinister omens of the night with his mysterious ab-
sence. The heart-stricken girl clasped her hands in
anguish, and shrieking the name of her cousin, sunk on
the floor in total insensibility.
Agnes was busily and happily employed with her do*
mestics, in preparing such a display of the wealth of the
Lechmeres as should not disgrace her cousin in the eyes
of her more wealthy lord and master. The piercing cry,
however, notwithstanding the bustle of hurrying servants,
and the clatter of knives and plates, penetrated to the
supper-room, stilling each movement, and blanching
every cheek.
" 'Tis my name ! " said Agnes ; " who is it calls ?"
"If it was possible'' returned Meriton, with a suitable
emphasis, " that Master Lionel's bride could scream so, I
should say it was my lady's voice ! "
264 LIONEL LINCOLN.
" 'Tis Cecil — 'tis Cecil ! " cried Agnes, darting from the
room ; " O, I feared — I feared these hasty nuptials ! "
There was a general rush of the menials into the cham-
bers, when the fatal truth became immediately known to
the whole family. The lifeless clay of Mrs. Lechmere was
discovered in its ghastly deformity, and, to all but Agnes,
it aiforded a sufficient solution of the situation of the
bride.
More than an hour passed before the utmost care of her
attendants succeeded in restoring Cecil to a state in which
questions might avail anything. Then her cousin took ad-
vantage of the temporary absence of her women, to men-
tion the name of her husband. Cecil heard her with sudden
joy ; but looking about the room wildly, as if seeking him
with her eyes, she pressed her hands upon her heart, and
fell backward in that state of insensibility, from which she
had just been roused. No part of this expressive evidence
of her grief was lost on the other, who left the room the
instant her care had succeeded in bringing the sufferer
once more to her recollection.
Agnes Dan forth had never regarded her aunt with that
confiding veneration and love which purified the affections
of the granddaughter of the deceased. She had alwrays
possessed her more immediate relatives, from whom she
derived her feelings and opinions, nor was she wanting in
sufficient discernment to distinguish the cold and selfish
traits that had so particularly marked the character of Mrs.
Lechmere. She had, therefore, consented to mortify her
own spirit, and submit to the privations and dangers of the
siege, entirely from a disinterested attachment to her
cousin, who, without her presence, would have found her
solitude and situation irksome.
In consequence of this disposition of her mind, Agnes
was more shocked than distressed by the unexpected death
that had occurred. Perhaps, if her anxiety had been less
roused in behalf of Cecil, she might have retired to weep
over the departure of one she had known so long, and of
one, also, that, in the sincerity of her heart, she believed
so little prepared for the mighty change. As it was, how-
ever, she took her way calmly to the parlor, where she
summoned Meriton to her presence.
When the valet made his entrance, she assumed the ap*
pearance of a composure that was far from her feelings,
and desired him to seek his master, with a request that he
would give Miss Danforth a short interview, without de-
LIONEL LINCOLN. 26$
lay. During the time Meriton was absent on this errand,
Agnes endeavored to collect her thoughts for any emer-
gency.
Minute passed after minute, however, and the valet did
not return. She arose, and stepping lightly to the door,
listened, and thought she heard his footsteps moving
about in the more distant parts of the building, with a
quickness that proved he conducted the search in good
faith. At length she heard them nigher, and it was soon
certain he was on his return. Agnes seated herself, as be-
fore, and with an air that seemed as if she expected to re-
ceive the master instead of the man. Meriton, however,
returned alone.
" Major Lincoln," she said, " you desired him to meet me
here ? "
The whole countenance of Meriton expressed his amaze-
ment, as he answered —
"Lord ! Miss Agnus, Master Lionel has gone out! gone
out on such a night ! and what is more remarkable, he
has gone out without his mourning ; though the dead of his
own blood and connections lies unburied in the house ! "
Agnes preserved her composure, and gladly led the
valet on in the path his thoughts had taken, in order to
come at the truth, without betraying her own apprehen-
sions.
" How know you, Mr. Meriton, that your master has
been so far forgetful of appearances ? "
" As certain, ma'am, as I know that he wore his parade
uniform this evening when he left the house the first time ;
though little did I dream his honor was going to get mar-
ried ! If he hasn't gone out in the same dress, where is
it ? — Besides, ma'am, his last mourning is under lock, and
here is the key in my pocket."
" "Pis singular he should choose such an hour, as well as
the time of his marriage, to absent himself! "
Meriton had long learned to identify all his interests
with those of his master, and he colored highly under the
oblique imputation that he thought was no less cast on
Lionel's gallantry, than on his sense of propriety in general.
"Why, Miss Agnus, you will please remember, ma'am, ''
he answered, " as this wedding hasn't been at all like an
English wedding — nor can I say that it is altogether usual
to die in England as suddenly as Ma'am Lechmere has
been pleased "
" Perhaps," interrupted Agnes, " some accident may
266 LIONEL LINCOLN.
have happened to him. Surely no man of common hu«
inanity would willingly be away at such a moment ! "
The feelings of Meriton now took another direction, and
he unhesitatingly adopted the worst apprehensions of the
young lady.
Agnes leaned her forehead on her hand, for a minute, in
deep reflection, before she spoke again, then, raising her
eyes to the valet, she said—
"Mr. Meriton, know you where Captain Pohvarth
sleeps ? "
" Certainly, ma'am ! — He's a gentleman as always sleeps
in his own bed, unless the king's service calls him else-
where. A considerate gentleman is Captain Polwarth,
ma'am, in respect of himself ! "
Miss Danforth bit her lip, and her playful eye lighted
for an instant, with a ray that banished its look of sadness ;
but in another moment her features became demure, if not
melancholy, and she continued —
" I believe, then — 'tis awkward and distressing, too, but
nothing better can be done."
" Did you please to give me any orders, 'Miss Agnus ?"
"Yes, Meriton ; you will go to the lodgings of Captain
Polwarth, and tell him Mrs. Lincoln desires his immediate
presence here, in Tremont Street."
" My lady ! " repeated the amazed valet — " why, Miss
Agnus, the women says as my lady is unconscionable, and
does not know what is doing, or who speaks to her! A
mournful wedding, ma'am, for the heir of our house ! "
"Then tell him," said Agnes, as she arose to leave the
room, " that Miss Danforth would be glad to see him."
Meriton waited no longer than was necessary to mutter
his approbation of this alteration in the message, when he
left the house, with a pace that was a good deal quickened
by his growing fears on the subject of his master's safety.
Notwithstanding his apprehensions, the valet was by no
means insensible to the severity of the climate he was in,
nor to the peculiar qualities of that night, in which he was
so unexpectedly thrust abroad to encounter its fury. He
soon succeeded, however, in making his way to the quar-
ters of Polwarth, in the midst of the driving snow, and in
defiance of the cold that chilled his very bones. Happily
for the patience of the worthy valet, Shearflint, the semi-
military attendant of the captain, was yet up, having just
discharged his nightly duties about the person of his
master, who had not deemed it prudent to seek his pillow
LIONEL LSVCOL.Y. 267
without proving the consolations of the trencher. The
door was opened at the first tap of Meriton, and when the
other had expressed his surprise, by the usual exclamations,
the two attendants adjourned to the sitting-room, where
the embers of a good wood fire were yet shedding a grate-
ful heat in the apartment.
" What a shocking country is this America for cold, Mr.
Shearflint ! " said Meriton, kicking the brands together
with his boot, and rubbing his hands over the coals — " I
doesn't think as our English cold is at all like it. It's a
stronger and a better cold is ours, but it doesn't cut one
like dull razors, as this here of America."
Shearflint, who fancied himself particularly liberal, and
ever made it a point to show his magnanimity to his ene-
mies, never speaking of the colonists without a sort of
protecting air, that he intended should reflect largely on
his own candor, briskly replied —
" This is a new country, Mr. Meriton, and one shouldn't
be over-nice. When one goes abroad, one must learn to
put up with difficulties ; especially in the colonies, where
it can't be expected all things should be as comfortable as
we has 'em at 'ome."
" Well, now, I call myself a little particular in respect of
weather," returned Meriton, " as and going. But give me
England for climate, if for nothing else. The water comes
down in that blessed country in good, honest drops, and not
in little frozen bits, which prick one's face like so many
fine needles ! "
" You do look, Mr. Meriton, a little as if you had been
shaking your master's powder-puff about your own ears.
But I was just finishing the heel-tap of the captain's hot
toddy ; perhaps if you was to taste it, 'twould help to thaw
out the idears."
" God bless me ! Shearflint," said Meriton, relinquishing
his grasp of the tankard, to take breath after a most vigor-
ous draught — " do you always stuff his night-cap so thick ?"
" No — no — the captain can tell a mixture by his nose,
and it doesn't do to make partial alterations in his glass,"
returned Shearflint, giving the tankard a circular motion
to stir its contents, while he spoke, and swallowing the
trifle that remained, apparently at a gulp ; " then as I
thinks it a pity that anything should be wasted in these
distressing times, I generally drinks what's left, after add-
ing sum'at to the water, just to mellow it down. But what
brings you abroad such a foul night, Mr. Meriton ? '
268 LIONEL LINCOLN.
" Sure enough, my idears wanted thawing, as you insti.
gated, Shearflint ! Here have I been sent on a message oi
life and death, and I was forgetting my errand like a raw
boy just hired from the country ! "
" Something is stirring, then ! " said the other, offering a
chair, which his companion received without any words,
while Polwarth's man took another, with equal composure.
" I thought as much, from the captain's hungry appear-
ance, when he came home to-night, after dressing himself
with so much care, to take his supper in Tremont Street."
" Something has been stirring indeed ! For one thing,
it is certain, Master Lionel was married to-night, in the
King's Chapel ! "
" Married ! " echoed the other — " well, thank heaven, no
such unavoidables has befallen us, though we have been
amputrated. I couldn't live with a married gentleman, no-
how, Mr. Meriton. A master in breeches is enough for
me, without one in petticoats to set him on ! "
" That depends altogether on people's conditions, Shear-
flint," returned Meriton, with a sort of condescending air
of condolence, as though he pitied the other's poverty. —
"It would be great folly for a captain of foot, that is noth-
ing but a captain of foot, to unite in Hymen. But, as we
say at Ravenscliffe and Soho, Cupid will listen to the siyths
of the heir of a Devonshire baronet, with fifteen thousand
a year."
" I never heard any one say it was more than ten," in-
terrupted the other, with a strong taint of ill-humor in his
manner.
" Not more than ten ! I can count ten myself, and I am
sure there must be some that I doesn't know of."
"Well, if it be twenty," cried Shearflint, rising and kick-
ing the brands among the ashes, in a manner to destroy
all the cheerfulness of the little fire that remained, " it
won't help you to do your errand. You should remember
that us servants of poor captains have nobody to help us
with our work, and want our natural rest. What's your
pleasure, Mr. Meriton?"
" To see your master, Mister Shearflint."
" That's impossibility ! he's under five blankets, and f
wouldn't lift the thinnest of them for a month's wages."
" Then I shall do it for you, because speak to him I must.
Is he in this room ? "
" Ay, you'll find him somewhere there, among the bed*
clothes " returned Shearflint, throwing open the door of ar»
LIONEL LINCOLN. 269
adjoining apartment, secretly hoping Meriton would get
his head broken for his trouble, as he removed himself out
of harm's way, by returning to the fire-place.
Meriton was compelled to give the captain several rough
shakes before he succeeded in rousing him, in the least,
from his deep slumbers. Then, indeed, he overheard the
sleeper muttering —
"A damn'd foolish business, that — had we made proper
use of our limbs, we might have kept them. You take
this man to be your husband — better for worse — richer
or poorer — ha ! who are you rolling, dog ? have you no
regard to digestion, to shake a man in this manner, just
after eating ! "
" It's I, sir — Meriton."
" And what the devil do you mean by this liberty, Mr.
I, or Meriton, or whatever you call yourself ? "
" I am sent for you in a great hurry, sir — awful things
have happened to-night up in Tremont —
" Happened ! " repeated Polwarth, who by this time
was thoroughly awake — " I know, fellow, that your master
is married — I gave the bride away myself. I suppose
nothing else, that is particularly extraordinary, has hap-
pened."
" Oh ! Lord, yes, sir — my lady is in fainting fits, and
Master Lionel has gone, God knows whither, and Madam
Lechmere is dead ! "
Meriton had not concluded, before Polwarth sprang
from his bed in the best manner he was able, and began to
dress himself, by a sort of instinct, though without any
definite object. By the unfortunate arrangement of Meri-
ton's intelligence, he supposed the death of Mrs. Lechmere
to be in consequence of some strange and mysterious sep-
aration of the bride from her husband, and his busy
thoughts did not fail to recall the singular interruption of
the nuptials, so often mentioned.
"And Miss Danforth ! " he asked — "how does she bear
it?"
" Like a woman, as she is, and a true lady. It is no
small thing as puts Miss Agnus beside herself, sir!"
" No, that it is not ! she is much more apt to drive others
mad."
" 'Twas she, sir, as sent me to desire you to come up to
Tremont Street, without any delay."
" The devil it was ! Hand me that boot, my good fel-
low. One boot, thank God, is sooner put on than two !
270 LIONEL LINCOLN.
The vest and stock next. You, Shearflint ! where have you
got to, sirrah ! Bring me my leg, this instant"
As soon as his own man heard this order, he made his
appearance ; and as he was much more conversant with
the mystery of his master's toilet than Meriton, the cap-
tain was soon equipped for his sudden expedition.
During the time he was dressing, he continued to put
hasty questions to Meriton, concerning the cause of the
disturbance in Tremont Street, the answers to which only
served to throw him more upon the ocean of uncertainty
than ever. The instant he was clad, he wrapped himself
in his cloak, and, taking the arm of the valet, he essayed
to find his way through the tempest to the spot wrhere he
was told Agnes Danforth awaited his appearance, with a
chivalry that, in another age, and under different circum-
stances, would have made him a hero.
CHAPTER XXV.
" Proud lineage ! now how little thou appearest ! " — BLAIR.
NOTWITHSTANDING the unusual alacrity with which Pol*
warth obeyed the unexpected summons of the capricious
being whose favor he had so long courted, with so little
apparent success, he lingered in his steps as he approached
near enough to the house in Tremont Street, to witness the
glancing lights which flitted before the windows. On the
threshold he stopped, and listened to the opening and
shutting of doors, and all those marked, and yet stifled
sounds, which are wront to succeed a visit of the grim
monarch to the dwellings of the sick. His rap was un-
answered, and he was compelled to order Meriton to show
him into the little parlor where he had so often been a
guest, under more propitious circumstances. Here he
found Agnes, awaiting his appearance with a gravity, if
not sadness of demeanor, that instantly put to flight cer-
tain complimentary effusions, with which the captain had
determined to open the interview, in order to follow up, in
the true temper of a soldier, the small advantage he con-
ceived he had obtained in the good opinion of his mistress.
Altering the exulting expression of his features with his
first glance at the countenance of Miss Danforth, Pohvartr-
LIONEL LINCOLN. 271
paid his compliments in a manner better suited to the state
of the family, and desired to know, if in any manner he
could contribute to their comfort or relief.
" Death has been among us, Captain Polwarth," said
Agnes, " and his visit has, indeed, been sudden and unex-
pected. To add to our embarrassment, Major Lincoln is
missing ! "
As she concluded, Agnes fastened her eyes on the face
of the other, as though she would require an explanation
of the unaccountable absence of the bridegroom.
" Lionel Lincoln is not a man to fly because death ap-
proaches," returned the captain, musing ; " and less should
I suspect him of deserting, in her distress, one like the
lovely creature he has married. Perhaps he has gone in
quest of medical aid ?"
" It cannot be. I have gathered from the broken sen-
tences of Cecil, that he, and some third person to me un-
known, were last with my aunt, and must have been present
at her death ; for the face was covered. I found the bride
in the room which Lionel has lately occupied — the doors
open, and with indications that he and his unknown com-
panion had left the house by the private stairs, which com-
municate with the western door. As my cousin speaks
but little, all other clew to the movements of her husband
is lost, unless this ornament, which I found glittering
among the embers of the fire, may serve for such a pur-
pose. It is, I believe, a soldier's gorget."
" It is, indeed ; and it would seem the wearer has been
in some jeopardy, by this bullet-hole through its centre.
By heavens ! — 'tis that of M'Fuse ! — Here is the i8th en-
graved ; and I know these little marks which the poor fel-
low was accustomed to make on it at every battle ; for he
never failed to wear the bawrble. The last was the saddest
record of them all ! "
"In what manner, then, could it be conveyed into the
apartment of Major Lincoln ? Is it possible that "
" In what manner, truly ! " interrupted Polwarth, rising
in his agitation, and beginning to pace the room, in the
b^st manner his mutilated condition would allow — " Poor
Djnnis ! that I should find such a relic of thy end at last !
You did not know Dennis, I believe. He was a man, fair
Agnes, every way adapted by nature for a soldier. His
was the form of Hercules ! the heart of a lion, and the di-
gestion of an ostrich ! But he could not master this cruel
lead ! He is dead, poor fellow, he is dead ! "
272 LIONEL LINCOLN
" Still you find no clew in the gorget by which to trace
the living ? " demanded Agnes.
" Ha ! " exclaimed Polwarth, starting — " I think I begin
to see into the mystery ! The fellow who could slay the
man with whom he had eaten and drunk, might easily rob
the dead ! You found the gorget near the fire of Major
Lincoln's room, say you, fair Agnes ? "
" In the embers, as if cast there for concealment, or
dropped in some sudden strait."
u I have it — I have it ! " returned Polwarth, striking his
hands together, and speaking through his teeth — " 'twas
that dog who murdered him, and justice shall now take its
swing — fool or no fool, he shall be hung up like jerked
beef, to dry in the winds of heaven ! "
" Of whom speak you, Polwarth, with that threatening
air?" inquired Agnes, in a soothing voice, of which, like
the rest of her sex, she well knew not only the power, but
when to exercise it.
" Of a canting, hypocritical miscreant, who is called Job
Pray — a fellow with no more conscience than brains, nor
any more brains than honesty. An ungainly villain, who
will eat of your table to-day, and put the same knife that
administered to his hunger to your throat to-morrow ! It
was such a dog that butchered the glory of Erin ! "
" It must have been in open battle, then," said Agnes,
•' for though wanting in reason, Job has been reared in the
knowledge of good and evil. The child must be strongly
stamped with the wrath of God, indeed, for whom some
effort is not made by a Boston mother, to recover his part
in the great atonement ! "
" He, then, is an exception ; for surely no Christian will
join you in the great natural pursuit of eating at one mo-
ment, and turn his fangs on a comrade at the next."
" But what has all this to do with the absent bride-
groom ? "
" It proves that Job Pray has been in his room since the
fire was replenished, or some other than you would have
found the gorget."
" It proves a singular association, truly, between Major
Lincoln and the simpleton," said Agnes, musing ; " but
still it throws no light on his disappearance. Twas an
old man that my cousin mentioned in her unconnected
sentences ! "
" My life on it, fair Agnes, that if Major Lincoln has left
the house mysteriously to-night, it is under the guidance
LIONEL LINCOLN. 273
of that wretch ! — I have known them together in council
more than once, before this."
" Then, if he be weak enough to forsake such a woman
as my cousin, at the instigation of a fool, he is unworthy of
another thought ! "
Agnes colored as she spoke, and turned the conversa-
tion with a manner that denoted how deeply she resented
the slight to Cecil.
The peculiar situation of the town, and the absence of
all her own male relatives, soon induced Miss Danforth to
listen to the reiterated offers of service from the captain,
and finally to accept them. Their conference was long
and confidential ; nor did Polwarth retire until his foot-
steps were assisted by the dull light of the approaching
day. When he left the house to return to his own quar-
ters, no tidings had been heard of Lionel, whose inten-
tional absence was now so certain, that the captain pro-
ceeded to give his orders for the funeral of the deceased,
without any further delay. He had canvassed with Agnes
the propriety of every arrangement so fully, that he was at
no loss how to conduct himself. It had been determined
between them that the state of the siege, as well as certain
indications of movements which were already making in
the garrison, rendered it inexpedient to delay the obse-
quies a moment longer than was required by the unavoid-
able preparations.
Accordingly, the Lechmere vault, in the church-yard of
the " King's Chapel," was directed to be opened, and the
vain trappings, in which the dead are usually enshrouded,
were provided. The same clergyman, who had so4ately
pronounced the nuptial benediction over the child, was
now required to perform the last melancholy offices of the
Church over the parent, and the invitations to the few
friends of the family who remained in the place were duly
issued in suitable form.
By the time the sun had fallen near the amphitheatre of
hills, along whose crests were, here and there, to be seen
the works of the indefatigable men who held the place in
leaguer, the brief preparations for the interment of the de-
ceased were completed. The prophetical words of Ralph
were now fulfilled, and, according to the custom of the
province, the doors of one of its proudest dwellings were
thrown open for all those who chose to enter and depart
at will. The funeral train, though respectable, was far
from extending to that display of solemn countenances
18
2 74 LI ONEL LINC OLAr.
which Boston, in its peace and pride, would not have
failed to exhibit on any similar occasion. A few of the
oldest and most respected of the inhabitants, who were
distantly connected by blood or alliances with the deceased,
attended ; but there had been nothing in the cold and
selfish character of Mrs. Lechmere to gather the poor and
dependent in sorrowing groups around her funeral rites.
The passage of the body, from its late dwelling to the
tomb, was quiet, decent, and impressive, but entirely with-
out any demonstrations of grief. Cecil had burie'd her-
self and her sorrows, together, in the privacy of her own
room, and none of the more distant relatives who had col-
lected, male or female, appeared to find it at all difficult to
restrain their feelings within the bounds of the most rigid
decorum.
Dr. Liturgy received the body, as usual, on the threshold
of the sacred edifice, and the same solemn and affecting
language was uttered over the dead, as if she had departed
soothed by the most cheerful visions of an assured faith.
As the service proceeded, the citizens clustered about the
coffin, in deep attention, in admiration of the unwonted
tremor and solemnity that had crept into the voice of the
priest.
Among this little collection of the inhabitants of the col-
ony, were interspersed a few men in the military dress,
who, having known the family of the deceased in more
settled times, had not forgotten to pay the last tribute to
the memory of one of its dead.
When the short service was ended, the body was raised
on the shoulders of the attendants, and borne into the
yard, to its place of final rest. At such a funeral, where
few mourned, and none wept, no unnecessary delay would
be made in disposing of the melancholy relics of mortality.
In a very few moments, the narrow tenement, which con-
tained the festering remains of one who had so lately har-
bored such floods of human passion, was lowered from the
light of day, and the body was left to moulder by the side
of those, which had gone before to the darkness of the
tomb. Perhaps, of all who witnessed the descent of the
coffin, Polwarth alone, through that chain of sympathies
which bound him to the caprice of Agnes, felt any emotion
at all in consonance with the solemn scene. The obsequies
of the dead were, like the living character of the woman,
cold, formal, and artificial. The sexton and his assistants
had hardly commenced replacing the stone which covered
LIONEL LINCOLN 275
the entrance of the vault, when a knot of elderly men set
the example of desertion, by moving away in a body from
the spot. As they picked their footsteps among the graves,
and over the frozen ground of the church-yard, they dis-
coursed idly together, of the fortunes and age of the wo-
man of whom they had now taken their leave forever.
The curse of selfishness appeared even to have fallen on
the warning, which so sudden an end should have given to
those who forgot they tottered on the brink of the grave.
They spoke of the deceased as of one who had failed to
awaken the charities of our nature, and though several
ventured their conjectures as to the manner in which she
had disposed of her worldly possessions, not one remem-
bered to lament that she had continued no longer to enjoy
them. From this theme they soon wandered to themselves,
and the whole party quitted the church-yard, joking each
other on the inroads of time, each man attempting to ape
the elastic tread of youth, in order not only to conceal from
his companions the ravages of age, but with a vain desire
to extend the artifice so far, if possible, as to deceive him-
self.
When the seniors of the party withdrew, the remainder
of the spectators did not hesitate to follow ; and in a few
minutes Polwarth found himself standing before the vault,
with only two others of all those who had attended the
body. The captain, who had been at no little expense of
time and trouble to maintain the decencies which became
a near friend of the family of the deceased, stood a minute
longer, to permit these lingering followers to retire also,
before he turned his own back on the place of the dead.
But perceiving they both maintained their posts, in silent
attention, he raised his eyes, more curiously, to examine
who these loiterers might be.
The one nearest to himself was a man whose dress and
air bespoke him to be of no very exalted rank in life, while
the other was a woman of even an inferior condition, if an
opinion might be formed from the squalid misery that was
exhibited in her attire. A little fatigued with the arduous
labors of the day, and of the duties of the unusual office
he had assumed, the worthy captain touched his hat with
studied decorum, and said —
" I thank you, good people, for this mark of respect to
the memory of my deceased friend ; but as we have per-
formed all that can now be done in her behalf, we wiJl
retire."
2 76 LIONEL LINCOLN.
Apparently encouraged by the easy and courteous
manner of Polwarth, the man approached still nigher,
and, after bowing with much respect, ventured to
say —
" They tell me 'tis the funeral of Madam Lechmere that
I have witnessed ? "
" They tell you true, sir," returned the captain, begin-
ning slowly to pick his way toward the gate; "of Mrs.
Priscilla, the relict of Mr. John Lechmere — a lady of a
creditable descent, and I think it will not be denied that
she has had honorable interment."
" If it be the lady I suppose," continued the stranger,
"she is of an honorable descent indeed. Her maiden
name was Lincoln, and she is aunt to the great Devonshire
baronet of that family."
" How ! know you the Lincolns ?" exclaimed Polwarth,
stopping short, and turning to examine the other with a
stricter eye. Perceiving, however, that the stranger was
a man of harsh and peculiarly forbidding features, in the
vulgar dress already mentioned, he muttered — " you may
have heard of them, friend, but I should doubt whether
your intimacy could amount to such wholesome familiari-
ties as eating and drinking."
"Stronger intimacies than that, sir, are sometimes
brought about between men who were born to very differ-
ent fortunes," returned the stranger, with a peculiarly sar-
castic and ambiguous smile, which meant more than met
the eye — " but all who know the Lincolns, sir, will allow
their claims to distinction. If this lady was one of them,
she had reason to be proud of her blood."
" Ay, you are not tainted, I see, with these revolutionary
notions, my friend," returned. Polwarth ; "she was also
connected with a very good sort of a family in this colony,
called the Danforths — you know the Danforths ?"
" Not at all, sir, I—
" Not know the Danforths ! " exclaimed Polwarth, once
more stopping to bestow a freer scrutiny on his compan-
ion. After a short pause, however, he nodded his head,
in approbation of his own conclusions, and added — " No,
no — I am wrong — I see you could not have known much
of the Danforths ! "
The stranger appeared quite willing to overlook the
cavalier treatment he received, for he continued to attend
the difficult footsteps of the maimed soldier, with the same
respectful deference as before.
LIONEL LINCOLN. 277
" I have no knowledge of the Danforths, it is true," he
answered ; " but I may boast of some intimacy with the
family of Lincoln."
" Would to God, then," cried Pohvarth, in a sort of so-
liloquy, which escaped him in the fulness of his heart,
" you could tell us what has become of its heir ! "
The stranger stopped short in his turn, and exclaimed —
" Is he not serving with the army of the king, against
this rebellion ? — Is he not here ? "
" He is here, or he is there, or he is anywhere ; I tell
you he is lost."
" He is lost ! " echoed the other.
" Lost ! " repeated an humble female voice, at the very
elbow of the captain.
This singular repetition of his own language aroused
Polwarth from the abstraction into which he had suffered
himself to fall. In his course from the vault to the church-
yard gate, he had unconsciously approached the woman
before mentioned, and when he turned at the sound of her
voice, his eyes fell full upon her anxious countenance.
The very first glance was enough to tell the observant cap-
tain that, in the midst of her poverty'and rags, he saw the
broken remains of great female beauty. Her dark and in-
telligent eyes, set as they were in a sallow and sunken
countenance, still retained much of the brightness, if not of
the softness and peace of youth. The contour of her face
was also striking, though she might be said to resemble
one whose loveliness had long since departed with her in-
nocence. But the gallantry of Polwarth was proof even
against the unequivocal signs of misery, if not of guilt,
which were so easily to be traced in her appearance ; and
he too much respected even the remnants of female charms
which were yet visible amid such a mass of unseemliness,
to regard them with an unfriendly eye. Apparently en-
couraged by the kind look of the captain, the woman ven-
tured to add —
" Did I hear aright, sir ? — said you that Major Lincoln
was lost ? "
" I am afraid, good woman," — returned the captain,
leaning on the iron-shod stick with which he was wont to
protect his footsteps along the icy streets of Boston —
" that this siege has, in your case, proved unusually severe.
If I am not mistaken in a matter in which I profess to know
much, nature is not supported as nature should be. You
would ask for fuod; and God forbid that I should deny a
278 LIONEL LINCOLN.
fellow-creature a morsel of that which constitutes both the
seed and the fruits of life. Here is money."
The muscles of the attenuated countenance of the wom-
an worked with a sudden convulsive motion, and, for a
moment, she glanced her eyes wistfully toward his silver,
but a slight flush passing quickly over her pallid features,
she answered —
"Whatever may be my wants and my suffering, I thank
my God that he has not levelled me with the beggar of the
streets. Before that evil day shall come, may I find a
place among these frozen hillocks where we stand. But
I beg pardon, sir ; I thought I heard you speak of Major
Lincoln."
" I did — and what of him ? I said he was lost ; and it is
true, if that be lost which cannot be found."
"And did Madam Lechmere take her leave before he
was missing ?" asked the woman advancing a step nearer
to Polwarth, in her intense anxiety to be answered.
"Do you think, good woman, that a gentleman of Major
Lincoln's notion of things, would disappear after the de-
cease of his relative, and leave a comparative stranger to
fill the office of principal mourner."
"The Lord forgive us all our sins and wickedness!"
muttered the woman, drawing the shreds of her tattered
cloak about her shivering form, and hastening silently
away into the depths of the grave-yard. Polwarth re-
garded her unceremonious departure for a moment, in
surprise, and then, turning to his remaining companion,
he remarked —
" That woman is unsettled in her reason, for the want of
wholesome nutriment. It is just as impossible to retain
the powers of the mind, and neglect the stomach, as it is to
expect a truant boy will make a learned man." By this
time the worthy captain had forgotten whom it was he ad-
dressed, and he continued, in his usual philosophic strain,
"Children are sent to school to learn all useful inventions
but that of eating ; for to eat— that is, to eat with judg-
ment,— is as much of an invention as any other discovery.
Every mouthful a man swallows has to undergo four im-
portant operations, each of which may be called a crisis in
the human constitution."
" Suffer me to help you over this grave," said the other,
officiously offering his assistance.
" I thank you, sir, I thank you — 'tis a sad commentary
on my words ! " returned the captain with a melancholy
LIONEL LINCOLN. 279
smile. "The time has been when I served in the light
corps, but your rnen in unequal quantities are good for
little else but garrisons ! — As I was saying, there is first,
the selection ; second, mastication ; third, deglutition ; and
lastly, the digestion."
" Quite true, sir," said the stranger, a little abruptly :
" thin diet and light meals are best for the brain."
" Thin diet and light meals, sir, are good for nothing but
to rear dwarfs and idiots ! " returned the captain with some
heat. " I repeat to you, sir "
He was interrupted by the stranger, who suddenly
smothered a dissertation on the connection between the
material and immaterial, by asking —
" If the heir of such a family be lost, is there none to see
that he is found again ?"
Polwarth, finding himself thus checked in the very
opening of his theme, stopped again, and stared the other
full in the face for a moment, without making any reply.
His kind feeling, however, got the better of his displeasure,
and yielding to the interest he felt in the fate of Lionel, he
answered —
" I would go all lengths, and incur every hazard to do
him service ! "
" Then, sir, accident has brought those together who
are willing to engage in the same undertaking ! I, too,
will do my utmost to discover him ! I have heard he has
friends in this province. Has he no connection to whom
we may apply for intelligence ?"
" None nearer than a wife."
'"A wife !" repeated the other in surprise — " is he then
married ? "
A long pause ensued, during which the stranger mused
deeply, and Polwarth bestowed a still more searching scru-
tiny than ever on his companion. It would appear that
the result was not satisfactory to the captain ; for, shak-
ing his head, in no very equivocal manner, he resumed the
task of picking his way among the graves, toward the gate,
with renewed diligence. He was in the act of seating him-
self in the pung, when the stranger again stood at his el-
bow, and said —
" II I knew where to find his wife, I would offer my ser-
vices to the lady."
Polwarth pointed to the building of which Cecil was now
the mistress, and answered, somewhat superciliously as he
drove away —
280 LIONEL LINCOLN.
" She is there, my good friend, but your application will
be useless ! "
The stranger received the direction in an understanding
manner, and smiled with satisfied confidence, while he took
the opposite route from that by which the busy equipage
of the captain had already disappeared.
CHAPTER XXVI.
" Up Fish street ! down Saint Magnus' corner !
Kill and knock down ! Throw them into the Thames I—-
What noise is this I hear ? Dare any be so bold to sound
Retreat or parley, when I command them kill?"
— King Henry IV.
IT was rarely, indeed, that the equal-minded Polwarth
undertook an adventure with so fell an intent as was the
disposition with which he directed the head of the hunter
to be turned toward the Dock square. He had long known
the residence of Job Pray, and often, in passing from his
lodgings, near the common, into the more fashionable quar-
ter of the town, the good-natured epicure had turned his
head to bestow a nod and a smile on the unsophisticated ad-
mirer of his skill in the culinary art. But now, as the pung
whirled out of Corn hill into the well-known area, his eye
fell on the low and gloomy walls of the warehouse, with a
far less amicable design.
From the time he was apprised of the disappearance of
his friend, the captain had been industriously ruminating
on the subject, in a vain wish to discover any probable
reason that might induce a bridegroom to adopt so hasty,
and, apparently, so unjustifiable a step, as the desertion
of his bride, and that, too, under circumstances of such
peculiar distress. But the more he reasoned, the more he
found himself involved in the labyrinth of perplexity, un-
til he was glad to seize on the slightest clew which offered,
to lead him from his obscurity. It has already been seen
in what manner he received the intelligence conveyed
through the gorget of M'Fuse, and it now remains for us
to show with what commendable ingenuity he improved
the hint.
It had always been a matter of surprise to Polwarth,
that a man like Lionel should tolerate so much of the
society of the simpleton, nor had it escaped his observa-
LIONEL LINCOLN. 281
tion, that the communications between the two were a
little concealed under a shade of mystery. He had over-
heard the foolish boast of the lad, the preceding day, rel-
ative to the death of M'Fuse ; and the battered ornament,
in conjunction with the place where it was found, which
accorded so well with his grovelling habits, had tended to
confirm its truth. The love of Polwarth for the grenadier
wras second only to his attachment for his earlier friend.
The one had avowedly fallen, and he soon began to sus-
pect that the other had been strangely inveigled from his
duty by the agency of this ill-gifted changeling. To con-
ceive an opinion, and to become confirmed in its justice,
were results generally produced by the same operation of
the mind, with this disciple of animal philosophy. While
he stood near the tomb of the Lechmeres, in the impor-
tant character of chief mourner, he had diligently revolved
in his mind the brief arguments which he found necessary
to this conclusion. The arrangement of his ideas might
boast of the terseness of a syllogism. His proposition and
inference were something' as follows : — Job murdered
M'Fuse ; — some great evil has occurred to Lionel ; — and
therefore Job has been its author.
It is true, there was a good deal of intermediate argu-
ment to support this deduction, at which the captain cast
an extremely cursory glance, but which the reader may
easily conceive, if at ail gifted in the way of imagination.
It would require no undue belief of the connection be-
tween very natural effects and their causes, to show that
Polwarth was not entirely unreasonable in suspecting
the agency of the simpleton, nor in harboring the
deep and bitter resentment that so much mischief, even
though it were sustained from the hands of a fool,
was likely to awaken. Be that as it may, by the time the
pung had reached the point already mentioned, its rapid
motion, which accelerated the ordinary quiet circulation of
his blood, together with the scene through which he had
just passed, and the recollections which had been crowd-
ing on his mind, conspired to wind up his resolution to a
very obstinate pitch of determination. Of all his schemes,
embracing, as they did, compulsion, confession, and pun-
ishment, Job Pray was, of course, destined to be both the
subject and the victim.
The shadows of evening were already thrown upon the
town, and the cold had long before driven the few dealers
in meats and vegetables, who continued to find daily em-
282 LIONEL LINCOLN.
ployment around the ill-furnished shambles, to their sev-
eral homes. In their stead there was only to be seen a
meagre and impoverished follower of the camp, stealing
along the shadows of the building, with her half-famished
child, as they searched among the offals of the market for
some neglected morsel, to eke out the scanty meal of the
night. But while the common mart presented this ap-
pearance of dulness and want, the lower part of the square
exhibited a very different aspect.
The warehouse was surrounded by a body of men in
uniform, whose disorderly and rapid movements proclaimed
at once, to the experienced eye of the captain, that they
were engaged in a scene of lawless violence. Some were
rushing furiously into the building, armed with such weap-
ons as the streets first offered to their hands, while others
returned, filling the air with their threats and outcries. A
constant current of eager soldiers was setting out of the
dark passages in the neighborhood toward the place, and
every window of the building was crowded with excited
witnesses, who clung to the walls, apparently animating
those within by their cheers and applause.
When Polwarth bade Shearfiint pull the reins, he caught
the quick, half-formed sentences that burst from the riot-
ers, and even before he was able, in the duskiness of the
evening, to discover the facings of their uniform, his ear
detected the well-known dialect of the Royal Irish. The
whole truth now broke upon him at once, and throwing his
obese person from the sleigh, in the best manner he was
able, he hobbled into the throng, with a singular compound
of feeling, which owed its birth to the opposing impulses
of a thirst for vengeance, and the lingering influence of
his natural kindness. Better men than the captain have,
however, lost sight of their humanity, under those fierce
sympathies that are awakened in moments of tumult and
violence. By the time he had forced his person into the
large, dark apartment that formed the main building, he
had, in a great degree, suffered himself to be worked into
a sternness of purpose, which comported very ill with his
intelligence and rank. He even listened, with unaccount-
able pleasure, to the threats and denunciations which filled
the building ; until he foresaw, from their savage nature,
there was great danger that one half of his object, the dis-
covery of Lionel, was likely to be frustrated by their ful-
filment. Animated anew by this impression, he threw the
rioters from him with prodigious energy, and succeeded
LIONEL LINCOLN 283
in gaining a position where he might become a more effi-
cient actor in the fray.
There was still light enough to discover Job Pray placed
in the centre of the warehouse, on his miserable bed, in an
attitude between lying and sitting. While his bodily con-
dition seemed to require the former position, his fears had
induced him to attempt the latter. The large, red blotches
which covered his unmeaning countenance, and his flushed
eye-balls, too plainly announced that the unfortunate young
man, in addition to having become the object of the wrath
of a lawless mob, was a prey to the ravages of that foul
disorder which had long before lighted on the town.
Around this squalid subject of poverty and disease, a few
of the hardiest of the rioters, chiefly the surviving grena-
diers of the i8th, had gathered ; while the less excited, or
more timid among them, practised their means of annoy-
ance at a greater distance from the malign atmosphere of
the distemper. The bruised and bloody person of the
simpleton manifested how much he had already suffered
from the hands of his tormentors, who happily possessed
no very fatal weapons, or the scene would have been much
earlier terminated. Notwithstanding his great bodily de-
bility, and the pressing dangers that beset him on every
side, Job continued to face his assailants, with a sort of
stupid endurance of the pains they inflicted.
At the sight of this revolting spectacle, the heart of Pol-
warth began greatly to relent, and he endeavored to make
himself heard, in the clamor of fifty voices. But his pres-
ence was unheeded, for his remonstrances were uttered to
ignorant men, wildly bent on vengeance.
" Pul the baist from his rags ! " cried one — " 'tis no a hu-
man man, but a divil's imp, in the shape of a fellow cratur ! "
" For such as him to murder the flower of the British
army ! " said another — " his small-pox is nothing but a
foul invintion of the ould one, to save him from his dai-
sarrevings ! "
" Would any but a divil invent such a disorder at all ? "
interrupted a third, who, even in his anger, could not for-
get his humor. " Have a care, b'ys, he may give it to the
whole family the naat'ral way, to save the charges of the
inoculation ! "
" Have done wid ye'r foolery, Terence," returned the
first ; " would ye trifle about death, and his unrevenged ?
Put a coal into his filth, b'ys, and burren it and him in the
same bonfire ! "
284 LIOXF.L LTXCQLN".
" A coal ! a coal ! a brand for the divil's burning !" ech-
oed twenty soldiers, eagerly listening, in the madness of
their fury, to the barbarous advice.
Polvvarth again exerted himself, though unsuccessfully,
to be heard ; nor was it until a dozen voices proclaimed,
in disappointment, that the house contained neither fire
nor fuel, that the sudden commotion in the least sub-
sided.
" Out of the way ! out of the way wid ye ! " roared one
of gigantic mould, whose heavy nature had, like an over-
charged volcano, been slowly wrought up to the eve of a
fearful eruption — " Here is fire to destroy a salamander ! Be
he divil or be he saint, he has great need of his prayers !"
As he spoke, the fellow levelled a musket, and another in-
stant would have decided the fate of Job, who cowered be-
fore the danger with instinctive dread, had not Polwarth
beat up the piece with his cane, and interposed his body
between them.
"Hold your fire, brave grenadier," he said, warily adopt-
ing a middle course between the language of authority and
that of counsel. " This is hasty and unsoldier-like. I knew,
and loved your late commander well ; let us obtain the con-
fessions of the lad before we proceed to punishment — there
may be others more guilty than he."
The men regarded the unexpected intruder with such
furious aspects as augured ill of their deference for his ad-
vice and station. " Blood for blood ! " passed from mouth
to mouth, in low, sullen mutterings ; and the short pause
which had succeeded his appearance was already broken
by still less equivocal marks of hostility, when, happily for
Polwarth, he was recognized, through the twilight, by a
veteran of the grenadiers, as one of the former intimates
of M'Fuse. The instant the soldier communicated this
discovery to his fellows, the growing uproar again sub-
sided, and the captain was relieved from no small bodily
terror, by hearing his own name passing among them,
coupled with such amicable .additions as, "xhVould fri'nd !"
—"an offisher of the light troops!" — "he that the ribbils
massacred of a leg ! " &c. As soon as this explanation was
generally imderstood, his ears were greeted with a burst
from every mouth, of —
" Hurrah ! for Captain Pollywarreth ! His fri'nd ! the
brave Captain Pollywarreth !"
Pleased with his success, and secretly gratified by the
commendations that were now freely lavished on himself,
LIONEL LINCOLN. 285
with characteristic liberality, the mediator improved the
slight advantage he had obtained, by again addressing
them.
"I thank you for your good opinion, my friends;" he
added, "and must acknowledge it is entirely mutual. I
love the Royal Irish, on account of one that I well knew,
and greatly esteemed, and who, I fear, was murdered in
defiance of all the rules of war."
" Hear ye that, Dennis murdered ! "
" Blood for blood ! " muttered three or four surly voices
at once.
" Let us be deliberate, that we may be just, and just that
our vengeance may be awful," Polwarth quickly answered,
fearful that if the torrent once more broke loose, it would
exceed his powers to stay it. "A true soldier always
awaits his orders ; and what regiment in the army can
boast of its discipline, if it be not the i8th! Form your-
selves in a circle around your prisoner, and listen, while I
extract the truth from him. After that, should he prove
guilty, I will consign him to your tenderest mercy."
The rioters, who only saw, in the delay, a more methodi-
cal execution of their own violent purpose, received the
proposition with another shout, and the name of Polwarth,
pronounced in all the varieties of their barbarous idioms,
rung loudly through the naked rafters of the building,
while they disposed themselves to comply.
The captain, with a wish to gain time to command his
thoughts, required that a light should be struck, in order,
as he said, to study the workings of the countenance of
the accused. As the night had now gathered about them
in good earnest, the demand was too reasonable for ob-
jection, and with the same headlong eagerness that they
had manifested a few minutes before, to shed the blood of
Job, they turned their attention, with thoughtless versatil-
ity, to effect this harmless object. A brand had been
brought, for a very different end, when the plan of burn-
ing was proposed, and it had been cast aside again with
the change of purpose. A few of its sparks were now col-
lected, and some bundles of oakum, which lay in a corner
of the warehouse, were fired, and carefully fed in such a
manner as to shed a strong light through every cranny of
the gloomy edifice.
By the aid of this fitful glare, the captain succeeded
once more in marshalling the rioters in such a manner that
no covert injury could be offered to Job. The whole affair
286 LIONEL LINCOLN.
now assumed, in some measure, the character of a regular
investigation. The curiosity of the men without overcame
their fears of infection, and they crowded into the place,
in earnest attention, until, in a very few moments, no
other sound was audible but the difficult and oppressed
respiration of their victim. When all the other noises had
ceased, and Polwarth perceived by the eager and savage
countenances, athwart which the bright glare of the burn-
ing hemp was gleaming, that delay might yet be danger-
ous, he proceeded at once in his inquiries,
" You may see, Job Pray, by the manner in which you
are surrounded," he said, "that judgment has at length
overtaken you, and that your only hope for mercy lies in
your truth. Answer, then, to such questions as I shall put,
and keep the fear of God before your eyes."
The captain paused to allow this exhortation to produce
its desired effect. But Job, perceiving that his late tor-
mentors were quiet, and to all appearance bent on no im-
mediate mischief, sunk his head languidly upon his blank-
ets, where he lay in silence, watching, with rolling and
anxious eyes, the smallest movements of his enemies.
Polwarth soon yielded to the impatience of his listeners,
and continued —
" You are acquainted with Major Lincoln ? "
" Major Lincoln ! " grumbled three or four of the gren-
adiers— "is it of him that we want to hear?"
" One moment, my worthy iSths; I shall come at the
whole truth the sooner, by taking this indirect course."
" Hurrah ! for Captain Pollywarreth ! " shouted the riot-
ers— " him that the ribbils massacred of a leg ! "
" Thank you — thank you, my considerate friends — an-
swer, fellow, without prevarication ; you dare not deny to
me your knowledge of Major Lincoln ?"
After a momentary pause, a low voice was heard mut-
tering among the blankets — r
" Job knows all the Boston people ; and Major Lincoln
is a Boston boy."
" But with Major Lincoln you had a more particular
acquaintance. — Restrain your impatience, men ; these ques-
tions lead directly to the facts you wish to know." The
rioters, who were profoundly ignorant of what sort of facts
they were to be made acquainted with by this examination,
looked at each other in uneasy doubt, but soon settled
down again into their former deep silence. — " You know
him better than any other gentleman of the army ? "
LIONEL LINCOLN. t$7
" He promised Job to keep off the grannies, and Job
agreed to run his ar'n'ds."
" Such an arrangement betrays a greater intimacy than
is usual between a wise man and a fool ! If you are then
so close in league with him, I demand what has become of
your associate ? "
The young man made no reply.
" You are thought to know the reasons why he has left
his friends," returned Polvvarth, " and I now demand that
you declare them."
" Declare ! " repeated the simpleton, in his most unmean-
ing and helpless manner — " Job was never good at his
schooling."
" Nay, then, if you are obstinate, and will not answer, I
must withdraw, and permit these brave grenadiers to work
their will on you."
This threat served to induce Job to raise his head, and
assume that attitude and look of instinctive watchfulness
that he had so recently abandoned. A slight movement of
the crowd followed, and the terrible words of " Blood for
blood! " again passed among them in sullen murmurs. The
helpless youth, whom we have been obliged to call an
idiot, for want of a better term, and because his mental
imbecility removed him without the pale of legal respon-
sibility, now stared wildly about him, with an increasing
expression of reason, that might be ascribed to the force
of that inward fire which preyed upon his vitals, and which
seemed to purify the spirit in proportion as it consumed
the material dross of his existence.
" It's ag'in the laws of the Bay, to beat and torment a
fellow-creature," he said, with a solemn earnestness in his
voice, that would have melted hearts of ordinary softness ;
"and, what is more, it's ag'in His holy book ! If you hadn't
made oven-wood of the Old North, and a horse-stable of
the Old South, you might have gone to hear such expound-
ing as would have made the hair rise on your wicked
heads ! "
The cries of " Have done wid his foolery ! " — " The imp
is playing his games on us ! " — " As if his wooden mockery
was a church at all fit for a ra'al Christian ! " — were heard
on every side, and they were succeeded by the often re-
peated and appalling threat of " Blood for blood ! "
" Fall back, men, fall back ! " cried Polwarth, flourishing
his walking-stick in such a manner as effectually to en-
force his orders ; " wait for his confession before you judge.
288 LIONEL LINCOLN".
— Fellow, this is the last and trying appeal to your truth
« — your life most probably depends on the answer. You
are known to have been in arms against the crown. — Nay,
I myself saw you in the field on that day when the troops
a-a-a — countermarched from Lexington.; since when you
are known to have joined the rebels while the army went
out to storm the intrenchment on the heights of Charles-
town." At this point in the recapitulation of the offences
of Job, the captain was suddenly appalled by a glimpse at
the dark and threatening looks that encircled him, and he
concluded with a laudable readiness — " on that glorious
day when his majesty's troops scattered your provincial
rabble like so many sheep driven from their pastures by
dogs ! "
The humane ingenuity of Polwarth was rewarded by a
burst of loud and savage laughter. Encouraged by this
evidence of his power over his auditors, the worthy captain
proceeded with an increased confidence in his own elo-
quence.
" On that glorious day," he continued, gradually warm-
ing with his subject, k< many a gallant gentleman, and hun-
dreds of fearless privates, met their fate. Some fell in
open and manly fight, and according to the chances of
regular warfare. Some — he-e-m — some have been muti-
lated ; and will carry the marks of their glory with them to
the grave." His voice grew a little thick and husky as he
proceeded ; but, shaking off his weakness, he ended with
an energy that he intended should curdle the heart of the
prisoner, — " while, fellow, some have been murdered ! "
" Blood for blood ! " was heard again passing its fearful
round. Without attempting any longer to repress the rising
spirit of the rioters, Polwarth continued his interrogatories,
entirely led away by the strength of his own feelings on
this sensitive subject.
" Remember you such a man as Dennis M'Fuse ? " he
demanded in a voice of. thunder ; "he that was treacher-
ously slain in your inmost trenches, after the day was wTon !
Answer me, knave, were you not among the rabble, and
did not your own vile hand the bloody deed ? "
A few words were heard from Job, in a low, muttering
tone, of which only " the rake-hellies," and "the people
will teach 'em the law ! " were sufficiently distinct to be
understood.
" Murder him ! part him sowl from body ! " exclaimed
the fiercest of the grenadiers.
LIONEL LINCOLN-. 289
" Hold ! " cried Polwarth ; " but one moment more — I
would relieve my mind from the debt I owe his memory.
Speak, fellow ; what know you of the death of the com-
mander of these brave grenadiers ?"
Job, who had listened to his words attentively, though
liis uneasy eyes still continued to watch the slightest move-
ments of his foes, now* turned to the speaker with a look
of foolish triumph, and answered —
"The i8th came up the hill, shouting like roaring lions !
but the Royal Irish had a death-howl, that evening, over
their tallest man ! "
Polwarth trembled with the violence of the passions
that beset him ; but, while with one hand he motioned to
the men to keep back, with the other he produced the bat-
tered gorget from his pocket, and held it before the eyes
of the simpleton.
" Know you this ?" he demanded ; " who sent the bullet
through this fatal hole ? "
Job took the ornament, and for a moment regarded it
with an unconscious look. But his countenance gradually
lighting with a ray of unusual meaning, he laughed in
scornful exultation, as he answered —
" Though Job is a fool, he can shoot ! "
Polwarth started back aghast, while the fierce resent-
ments of his ruden listeners broke through all restraint.
They raised a loud and savage shout, as one man, filling
the building with hoarse execrations and cries for ven-
geance. Twenty expedients to destroy their captive were
named in a breath, and with all the characteristic vehe-
mence of their nation. Most of them would have been ir-
regularly adopted, had not the man who attended the
burning hemp caught up a bundle of the flaming com-
bustible, and shouted aloud —
" Smodder him in the fiery flames ! — he's an imp of dark-
ness ; burren him, in his rags, from before the face of
man !"
The barbarous proposition \vas received with a sort of
frenzied joy, and in another moment a dozen handfuls of
the oakum were impending above the devoted head of the
helpless lad. Job made a feeble attempt to avert the
dreadful fate that threatened him, but he could offer no
other resistance than his own weakened arm, and the ab-
ject meanings of his impotent mind. He was enveloped in
a cloud of black smoke, through which the forked flames
had already begun to play, when a woman burst into the
19
290 LIONEL LINCOLN.
throng, casting the fiery combustibles from her, on either
side, as she advanced, with a strength that seemed super-
natural. When she had reached the bed, she tore aside the
smoking pile with hands that disregarded the heat, and
placed herself before the victim, like a fierce lioness, at
bay, in defence of her whelps. In this attitude she stood
an instant, regarding the rioters with a breast that heaved
with passions too strong for utterance, when she found her
tongue, and vented her emotions with all the fearlessness
of a woman's indignation.
" Ye monsters in the shape of men, what is't ye do ! " she
exclaimed, in a voice that rose above the tumult, and had
the effect to hush every mouth. " Have ye bodies without
hearts ! the forms without the bowels of the creatures of
God ! Who made you judges and punishers of sins ! Is
there a father among you, let him come and view the an-
guish of a dying child ! Is there a son, let him draw near,
and look upon a mother's sorrow ! Oh ! ye savages, worse
than the beasts of the howling wilderness, who have mercy
on their kinds, what is't ye do — what is't ye do ! "
The air of maternal intrepidity with which this burst
from the heart was uttered, could not fail to awe the worst
passions of the rioters, who gazed on each other in stupid
wonder, as if uncertain how to act. The hushed and mo-
mentary stillness was, however, soon broken once more by
the low, murmuring threat of " Blood for blood ! "
" Cowards ! dastards ! soldiers in name, and demons in
your deeds ! " continued the undaunted Abigail — " come
ye here to taste of human blood ! Go — away with you to
the hills ! and face the men of the Bay, who stand ready to
meet you with arms in their hands, and come not hither to
bruise the broken reed ! Poor, suffering, and stricken as
he is, by a hand far mightier than yours, my child will
meet you there, to your shame, in the cause of his country,
and the law ! "
This taunt was too bitter for the unnurtured tempers to
which she appealed, and the dying spark of their resent-
ment was at once kindled into a blaze by the galling gibe.
The rioters were again in motion, and the cry of " Burn
the hag and the imp together ! " was fiercely raised, when
a man of a stout, muscular frame forced his way into the
centre of the crowd, making room for the passage of a
female, whose gait and attire, though her person was con-
cealed by her mantle, announced her to be of a rank alto-
gether superior to the usual guests of the warehouse. The
L10XKL LI \COL.V. 29*
unexpected appearance, and lofty, though gentle bearing
of this unlooked-for visitor, served to quell the rising up-
roar, which was immediately succeeded by so deep a
silence, that a whisper could have been heard in that
throng, which so lately resounded with violent tumult and
barbarous execrations.
CHAPTER XXVII.
"Ay, sir, you shall find me reasonable ; if it be so, I shall do that that
is reason." — Slender.
DURING the close of the foregoing scene, Polwarth was
in a bewildered state, that rendered him utterly incapable
of exertion, either to prevent or to assist the evil inten-
tions of the soldiery. His discretion and all his better
feelings were certainly on the side of humanity, but the
idle vaunt of the simpleton had stirred anew the natural
thirst for vengeance. He recognized at the first glance,
in the wan, but speaking lineaments of the mother of Job,
those faded remnants of beauty that he had traced, so
lately, in the squalid female attendant who was seen linger-
ing near the grave of Mrs. Lechmere. As she rushed be-
fore the men, with all the fearlessness of a mother who
stood in defence of her child, the brightness of her dark
eyes, aided as they were by the strong glare from the scat-
tered balls of fire, and the intense expression of maternal
horror that shone in every feature of her countenance, had
imparted to her appearance a dignity and interest that
greatly served to quell the unusual and dangerous passions
that beset him. He was on the point of aiding her appeal
by his authority and advice, when the second interruption
to the brutal purpose of the men occurred, as just related.
The effect of this strange appearance, in such a place, and
at such a time, wras not less instant on the captain than on
the vulgar throng who surrounded him. He remained a
silent and an attentive spectator.
The first sensation of the lady in finding herself in the
centre of such a confused and unexpected throng, was un-
equivocally that of an alarmed and shrinking delicacy ;
but, forgetting her womanish apprehensions in the next
moment, she collected the powers of her mind, like one
sustained by high and laudable intentions, and, dropping
292 LIONEL LINCOLN.
the silken folds of her calash, exhibited the pale, but love-
ly countenance of Cecil to the view of the wondering
bystanders. After a moment of profound silence, she
spoke —
"I know not why I find this fierce collection of faces
around the sick-bed of that unfortunate young man," she
said ; " but if it be with evil purpose, I charge you to re-
lent, as you love the honor of your gallant profession, or
fear the power of your leaders. I boast myself a soldier's
wife, and promise you, in the name of one who has the ear
of Howe, pardon for what is past, or punishment for your
violence, as you conduct yourselves."
The rude listeners stared at each other in irresolute hesi-
tation, seeming already to waver in their purpose, when the
old grenadier, whose fierceness had so nearly cost Job his
life, gruffly replied —
" If you're an officer's lady, madam, you'll be knowing
how to feel for the fri'nds of him that's dead and gone. [
put it to the face of your ladyship's reason, if it's not too
much for men to bear, — and they such men. as the iSths, —
to hear a fool boasting on the highways and through the
streets of the town, that he has been the death of the like
of Captain M'Fuse, of the grenadiers of that same radg'-
ment ! "
" I believe I understand you, friend," returned Cecil,
"for I have heard it whispered that the young man
was believed to aid the Americans on the bloody day to
which you allude — but if it is not lawful to kill in battle,
what are you, whose whole trade is war ? "
She was interrupted by half a dozen eager, though re-
spectful voices, muttering, in the incoherent and vehement
manner of their country, " It's all a difference, my lady ! "
— " Fair fighting isn't foul fighting, and foul fighting is
murder ! " — with many other similar half-formed and equal-
ly intelligible remonstrances. When this burst was ended,
the same grenadier, who had before spoken, took on him-
self the office of explaining.
" If your ladyship spoke never a word again, ye've said
the truth this time," he answered, " though it isn't exactly
the truth at all. When a man is kill't in the fair war, it's a
godsend ; and no true Irishman will gainsay the same ; but
skulking behind a dead body, arid taking aim into the
f'atures of a fellow-crature, is what we complain of against
the bloody-minded rascal. Besides, wasn't the day won1*
and even his death couldn't give them the victory ! "
LIOXT.L I.f.YCOL.Y. 293
" I know not all these nice distinctioHs in your dreadful
calling, friend," Cecil replied, " but I have heard that many
fell after the troops mounted the works."
" That did they ; sure your ladyship is knowing all about
it ! and it's the more need that some should be punished
for the murders ! It's hard to tell when we've got the day
with men who make a fight of it after they are fairly
baitin ! "
"That others suffered under similar circumstances," con-
tinued Cecil, with a quivering lip, and a tremulous motion
of her eyelids, " I well know ; but had never supposed it
more than the usual fortune of every war. But even if
this youth has erred — look at him ! — is he an object for
the resentment of men who pride themselves on meeting
their enemies on equal terms ! He has long been visited
by a blow from a hand far mightier than yours, and even
now is laboring, in addition to all other misfortunes, under
that dangerous distemper whose violence seldom spares
those it seizes. Nay, you, in the blindness of your anger,
expose yourselves to its attacks ; and when you think only
of revenge, may become its victims ! "
The crowd insensibly fell back as she spoke, and a large
circle was left around the bed of Job, while many in the
rear stole silently from the building, with a haste that be-
trayed how completely apprehension had got the better of
their more evil passions. Cecil paused but an instant, and
pursued her advantage.
" Go," she said ; " leave this dangerous vicinity. I have
business with this young man, touching the interests, if
not the life, of one dear, deservedly dear, to the whole
army, and would be left alone with him and his mother.
Here is money — retire to your own quarters, and endeavor
to avert the danger you have so wantonly braved, by care
and regimen. Go ; all shall be forgotten and pardoned."
The reluctant grenadier took her gold, and, perceiving
that he was already deserted by most of his companions,
lie made an awkward obeisance to the fair being before
him, and withdrew, not without, however, casting many a
savage and sullen glance at the miserable wretch who had
been thus singularly rescued from his vengeance. Not a
soldier now remained in the building ; and the noisy and
rapid utterance of the retiring party, as each vehemently
recounted his deeds, soon became inaudible in the dis-
tance.
Cecil then turned to those who remained, and cast a
294 LIONEL JJXCOLX.
rapid glance at each individual of the party. The instant
she encountered the wondering look of Polwarth, the blood
mantled her pale features once more, and her eyes fell, for
an instant, in embarrassment, to the floor.
" I trust we have been drawn here for a similar purpose,
Captain Polwarth," she said, when the slight confusion
had passed away — " the welfare of a common friend ?"
"You have not done me injustice," he replied. "When
the sad office, which your fair cousin charged me with,
was ended, I hastened hither to follow a clew which, I have
reason to believe, will conduct us to "
" What we most desire to find," said Cecil, involuntarily
glancing her anxious eyes towards the other spectators.
" But our first duty is humanity. Cannot this miserable
young man be reconveyed to his own apartment, and have
his hurts examined ?"
" It may be done now, or after our examination," re-
turned the captain, with a cool indifference that caused
Cecil to look up at him in surprise. Perceiving the un-
favorable impression his apathy had produced, Polwarth
turned carelessly to a couple of men who were still curi-
ous lookers-on, at the outer door of the building, and
called to them — " Here, Shearflint, Meriton, remove the
fellow into yonder room."
The servants in waiting, who had been hitherto wonder-
ing witnesses of all that passed, received this mandate with
strong disgust. Meriton was loud in his murmurs, and
approached the verge of disobedience, before he consented
to touch such an object of squalid misery. As Cecil, how-
ever, enforced the order by her wishes, the disagreeable
duty was performed, and Job replaced on his pallet in the
tower, from which he had been rudely dragged an hour
before by the soldiers.
At the moment when all danger of further violence dis-
appeared, Abigail had sunk on some of the lumber of the
apartment, where she remained during the removal of her
child, in a sort of stupid apathy. When, however, she
perceived that they were now surrounded by those who
were bent on deeds of mercy rather than of anger, she
slowly followed into the little room, and became an anxious
observer of the succeeding events.
Polwarth seemed satisfied with what had been done for
Job, and now stood aloof, in sullen attendance on the
pleasure of Cecil. The latter, who had directed every
movement with female tenderness and care, bade the ser<
LIONEL LINCOLN. 29$
vants retire into the outer room, and wait her orders.
When Abigail, therefore, took her place, in silence, near
the bed of her child, there remained present, besides her-
self and the sick, only Cecil, the captain, and the unknown
man, who had apparently led the former to the warehouse.
In addition to the expiring flames of the oakum, the feeble
light of a candle was shed through the room, merely ren-
dering the gloomy misery of its tenants more striking.
Notwithstanding the high but calm resolution which
Cecil had displayed in the foregoing scene with the rioters,
and wrhich still manifested itself in the earnest brightness
of her intelligent eye, she appeared willing to profit by the
duskiness of the apartment, to conceal her expressive
features from the gaze of even the forlorn female. She
placed herself in one of the shadows of the room, and
partly raised the calash, by a graceful movement of one of
her hands, while she addressed the simpleton.
"Though I have not come hither with any intent to
punish, nor in any manner to intimidate you with threats,
Job Pray," she said, with an earnestness that rendered
the soft tones of her voice doubly impressive — "yet have
I come to question you on matters that it would be wrong,
as well as cruel in you, to misrepresent, or in any manner
to (conceal —
"You have little cause to fear that anything but the
truth will be uttered by my child," interrupted Abigail.
" The same power that destroyed his reason has dealt ten-
derly with his heart — the boy knows no guile — would to
God the same could be said of the sinful woman who bore
him ! "
" I hope the character you give your son will be sup-
ported by his conduct," replied Cecil; "with this assur-
ance of his integrity, I will directly question him. But
that you may see I take no idle liberty with the young man,
let me explain my motives ! " She hesitated a moment,
and averted her face unconsciously, as she continued — " I
should think, Abigail Pray, that my person must be known
to you ? "
" It is — it is," returned the impatient woman, who ap-
peared to feel the feminine and polished elegance of the
other a reproach to her own misery — "you are the happy
and wealthy heiress of her whom I have seen this day laid
in her vault. The grave will open for all alike! the rich
and the poor, the happy as well as the wretched! Yes —
yes, I know you! — you are the bride of a rich man's son!"
296 LIONEL LINCOLN.
Cecil shook back the dark tresses that had fallen about
her countenance, and raised her face, tinged with its
richest bloom, as she answered, with an air of matronly
dignity —
" If you then know of my marriage, you will at once
perceive that I have the interest of a wife in Major Lincoln
i — I would wish to learn his movements of your son."
"Of my boy! of Job ! from the poor despised child of
poverty and disease, would you learn tidings of your hus-
band ? — no — no, young lady, you mock us; — he is not
worthy to be in the secrets of one so great and happy ! "
" Yet am I deceived if he is not ! Has there not been
one called Ralph, a frequent inmate of your dwelling dur-
ing the past year ; and has he not been concealed here
within a very few hours ? "
Abigail started at this question, though she did not
hesitate to answer without prevarication —
" It is true. If I am to be punished for harboring a being
that comes I know whence, and goes I know wrhither, who
can read the heart, and knows what man, by his own limited
powers, could never know, I must submit. He was here
yesterday ; he may be here again to-night ; for he comes
and goes at will. Your generals and army may interfere,
but such as I dare not forbid it ! "
" Who accompanied him when he departed last ? " asked
Cecil, in a voice so low, that, but for the profound stillness
of the place, it would have been inaudible. .
" My child — my weak, unmeaning, miserable child ! "
said Abigail, with a reckless promptitude that seemed to
court any termination to her misery, however sudden or ad-
verse. " If it be treasonable to follow in the footsteps of
that nameless man, Job has much to answer for ! "
" You mistake my purpose — good, rather than evil, will
attend your answers, should they be found true."
" True ! " repeated the woman, ceasing the rocking
motion of her body, and looking proudly up into the
anxious face of Cecil — "but you are great and powerful,
and are privileged to open the wounds of the unhappy ! "
" If I have said anything to hurt the feelings of a child,
I shall deeply regret the words," said Cecil, with gentle
fervor — " I would rather be your friend than your oppress-
or, as you will learn when occasion offers."
"No — no — you can never be a friend to me! " exclaimed
the woman, shuddering ; u the wife of Major Lincoln ought
never to serve the interests of Abigail Pray ! "
LIONEL LINCOLN: 297
The simpleton, who had apparently lain in dull indiffer-
ence to what was passing, raised himself now from among
his rags, and said, with foolish pride —
"Major Lincoln's lady has come to see Job, because Job
is a gentleman's son ! "
" You are the child of sin and misery ! " groaned Abi-
gail, burying her head in her cloak — " would that you had
never seen the light of day ! "
" Tell me, then, Job, whether Major Lincoln himself
has paid you this compliment, as well as I," said Cecil,
without regarding the conduct of the mother — "when did
you see him last ? "
" Perhaps I can put these questions in a more intelligi-
ble manner," said the stranger, with a meaning glance of
his eye towards Cecil, that she appeared instantly to com-
prehend. He turned then to Job, whose countenance he
studied closely, for several moments, before he continued
— " Boston must be a fine place for parades and shows,
young man ; do you ever go to see the soldiers exer-
cise ?"
" Job always keeps time in the marchings," returned
the simpleton ; " 'tis a grand sight to see the grannies
treading it off to the awful sound of drums and trump-
ets ! "
" And Ralph," said the other, soothingly — " does he
march in their company too ?"
" Ralph ! he's a great warrior ! he teaches the people
their trainings, out on the hills — Job sees him there every
time he goes for the major's provisions."
"This requires some explanation," said the stranger.
"Tis easily obtained," returned the observant Polwarth.
"The young man has been the bearer of certain articles,
periodically, from the country into the town, during the
last six months, under the favor of a flag."
The man mused a moment before he pursued the sub-
ject.
" When were you last among the rebels, Job," he at
length asked.
"You had best not call the people rebels," muttered the
young man, sullenly, "for they won't put up with bitter
names ! "
" I was wrong, indeed," said the stranger. "But when
went you last for provisions ?"
" Job got in last Sabba'day morning ; and that's only
yesterday ! "
298 LIONEL LINCOLN.
" How happened it, fellow, that you did not bring the
articles to me ?" demanded Polwarth, with a good deal of
impatient heat.
" He has unquestionably a sufficient reason for the ap-
parent neglect," said the cautious and soothing stranger.
"You brought them here, I suppose, for some good
reason ? "
" Ay ! to feed his own gluttony ! " muttered the irri-
tated captain.
The mother of the young man clasped her hands to-
gether convulsively, and made an effort to rise and speak ;
but she sunk again into her humble posture, as if choked
by emotions that were too strong for utterance.
This short, but impressive pantomime was unnoticed by
the stranger, who continued his inquiries in the same cool
and easy manner as before.
" Are they yet here ?" he asked.
" Certain," said the unsuspecting simpleton ; " Job has
hid them till Major Lincoln comes back. Both Ralph and
Major Lincoln forgot to tell Job what to do with the pro-
visions."
"In that case I am surprised you did not pursue them
with your load."
" Everybody thinks Job's a fool," muttered the young
man ; " but he knows too much to be lugging provisions
out ag'in among the people. Why!" he continued, rais-
ing himself, and speaking, with a bright glare dancing
across his eyes, that betrayed how much he prized the en-
vied advantage — " the Bay-men came down with cart-
loads of things to eat while the town is filled with
hunger! "
" True. I had forgotten they were gone out among the
Americans — of course they went under the flag that you
bore in ? "
"Job didn't bring any flag — insygns carry the flags ! He
brought a turkey, a grand ham, and a little sa'ce — there
wasn't any flag among them."
At the sound of these eatables, the captain pricked up
his ears, and he probably would have again violated the
rigid rules of decorum had not the stranger continued his
questions.
" I see the truth of all you say, my sensible fellow," he
observed. " It was easy for Ralph and Major Lincoln to
go out by means of the same privilege that you used to
enter ? "
LIONEL LINCOLN. 299.
"To be sure," muttered Job, who, tired of the questions,
had already dropped his head again among his blankets —
" Ralph knows the way — he's Boston born ! "
The stranger turned to the attentive bride, and bowed,
as if he were satisfied with the result of his examination.
Cecil understood the expression of his countenance, and
made a movement towards the place where Abigail Pray
was seated on a chest, betraying, by the renewed rocking
of her body, and the low groans that from time to time
escaped her, the agony of mind she endured.
" My first care," she said, speaking to the mother of Job,
" shall be to provide for your wants ; after which I may
profit by what we have now gathered from your son."
" Care not for me and mine ! " returned Abigail, in a
tone of bitter resignation. " The last blow is struck, and it
behooves such as we to bow our heads to it in submission.
Riches and plenty could not save your grandmother from
the tomb, and perhaps Death may take pity, ere long, on
me. What do I say, sinner that I am ! can I never bring
my rebellious heart to wait his time ! "
Shocked at the miserable despair that the other exhib-
ited, and suddenly recollecting the similar evidences of a
guilty life that the end of Mrs. Lechmere had revealed,
Cecil continued silent, in sensitive distress. After a mo-
ment, to collect her thoughts, she said, with the meekness
of a Christian, united to the soothing gentleness of her sex —
" We are surely permitted to administer to our earthly
wants, whatever may have been our transgressions. At a
proper time I will not be denied in my wish to serve you.
Let us now go," she added, addressing her unknown com-
panion. Then, observing Polwarth making an indication
to advance to her assistance, she gently motioned him back,
and anticipated his offer, by saying, "I thank you, sir —
but I have Meriton, and this worthy man, besides my own
maid without — I will not further interfere with your par-
ticular objects."
As she spoke, she bestowed a melancholy, though sweet
smile on the captain, and left the tower and the building,
before he could presume to dispute her pleasure. Not-
withstanding Cecil and her companion had obtained from
Job all that he could expect, or in fact had desired to
know, Polwarth lingered in the room, making those prep-
arations that should indicate an intention to depart. He
found, at length, that his presence was entirely disregarded
by both mother and child. The one was still sitting, with
300 LIONEL LINCOLN.
her head bowed to her bosom, abandoned to her own sor-
rows, while the other had sunk into his customary dull
lethargy, giving no other signs of life than by his labored
and audible breathing. The captain, fora moment, looked
upon the misery of the apartment, which wore a still more
dreary aspect under the dull light of the paltry candle, as
well as at the disease and suffering which were too plainly
exhibited in the persons of its abject tenants ; but the
glance at neither served to turn him from his purpose.
Temptation had beset the humble follower of Epicurus,
in a form that never failed to subdue his most philosophic
resolutions ; and, in this instance, it prevailed once more
over his humanity. Approaching the pallet of the simple-
ton, he spoke to him in a sharp voice, saying —
" You must reveal to me what you have done with the
provisions with which Mr. Seth Sage has intrusted you,
young man — I cannot overlook so gross a violation of
duty, in a matter of such singular importance. Unless
you wish to have the grannies of the i8th back upon you,
speak at once, and speak truly."
Job continued obstinately silent, but Abigail raised her
head, and answered for her child —
" He has never failed to carry the things to the quar-
ters of the major, whenever he got back. No, no — if my
boy was so graceless as to steal, it would not be him that
he would rob ! "
" I hope so — I hope so, good woman ; but this is a sort
of temptation to which men yield easily in times of scarc-
ity," returned the impatient captain, who probably felt
some inward tokens of his own frailty in such matters. —
" If they had been delivered, would not I have been con-
sulted concerning their disposition ! The young man ac-
knowledges that he quitted the American camp yesterday
at an early hour."
" No, no," said Job ; " Ralph made him .come away on
Saturda'-night. He left the people without his dinner! "
"And repaid his loss by eating the stores ! Is this your
honesty, fellow ?"
" Ralph was in such a hurry that he wouldn't stop to
eat. Ralph's a proper warrior, but he doesn't seem to
know how sweet it is to eat ! "
" Glutton ! gormandizer ! thou ostrich of a man ! " ex-
claimed the angry Polwarth — " is it not enough that you
have robbed me of my own, but you must make me more
conscious of rny loss by thy silly prating ! '
LIONEL LINCOLN.
3or
" If you really suspect my child of doing wrong to his
employers," said Abigail, '-you know neither his temper
nor his breeding, I will answer for him, and with bitter-
ness of heart do I say it, that nothing in the shape of food
has entered his mouth for many long and weary hours.
Hear you not his piteous longings for nourishment ?
God, who knows all hearts, will hear and believe his
cry ! "
" What say you, woman ? " cried Polwarth, aghast with
horror, " not eaten, did you say ? — Why hast thou not, un-
natural mother, provided for his wants ? — why has he not
shared in your meals ?"
Abigail looked up into his face with eyes that gleamed
with hopeless want, as she answered —
" Would I willingly see the child of my body perish of
hunger ? The last crumb he had was all that was left me,
and that came from the hands of one, who, in better jus-
tice, should have sent me poison ! "
" Nab don't know of the bone that Job found before
the barracks," said the young man, feebly ; " I wonder if
the king knows how sweet bones are ?"
" And the provisions, the stores ! " cried Polwarth,
nearly choking — " foolish boy, what hast thou done with
the provisions ? "
"Job knew the grannies couldn't find them under that
oakum." said the simpleton, raising himself to point out
their place of concealment, with silly exultation — "when
Major Lincoln comes back, may be he'll give Nab and Job
the bones to pick !"
Polwarth was no sooner made acquainted with the situ-
ation of the precious stores, than he tore them from their
concealment, with the violence of a maniac. As he sepa-
rated the articles with an unsteady hand, he rather panted
than breathed ; and during the short operation, every feat-
ure in his honest face was working with extraordinary
emotion. Now and then he muttered in an undertone —
" No food!" — "Suffering of inanition!" or some such
expressive exclamation, that sufficiently explained the cur-
rent of his thoughts. When all was fairly exposed, he
shouted, in a tremendous voice —
" Shearflint ! thou rascal ! Shearflint — where have you
hidden yourself ? "
The reluctant menial knew how dangerous it was to hes-
itate, answering a summons uttered in such a voice, and
while his master was yet repeating his cries, he appeared
302 LIONEL LINCOLN.
at the door of the little apartment, with a face expressive
of the deepest attention.
" Light up the fire, thou prince of idlers ! " Polwarth con-
tinued in the same high strain ; " here is food, and there
is hunger ! God be praised that I am the man who is per-
mitted to bring the two acquainted ! Here, throw on oakum
—light up, light up ! "
As these rapid orders were accompanied by a corre-
sponding earnestness of action, the servant, who knew his
master's humor, sat himself most diligently at work to
comply. A pile of the tarred combustible was placed on
the dreary and empty hearth, and by a touch of the can-
dle, it was lighted into a blaze. As the roar of the chim-
ney and the bright glare were heard and seen, the mother
and child both turned their longing eyes toward the busy
actors in the scene. Polwarth threw aside his cane, and
commenced slicing the ham with a dexterity that denoted
great practice, as well as an eagerness that renewed the
credit of his disgraced humility.
" Bring wood — hand down that apology for a gridiron —
make coals, make coals at once, rascal," he said, at short
intervals — " God forgive me, that I should ever have medi-
tated evil to one suffering under the heaviest of curses ! —
D'ye hear, thou Shearflint ! bring more wood ; I shall be
ready for the fire in a minute."
" 'Tis impossible, sir," said the worried domestic ; " I
have brought the smallest chip there is to be found — •
wood is too precious in Boston to be lying in the streets."
" Where do you keep your fuel, woman ? " demanded
the captain, unconscious that he addressed her in the same
rough strain that he used to his menial — " I am ready to
put down."
" You see it all ! you see it all ! " said Abigail, in the sub-
missive tones of a stricken conscience ; " the judgment of
God has not fallen on me singly ! "
" No wood ! no provisions ! "exclaimed Polwarth, speak-
ing with difficulty — then, dashing his hand across his eyes,
he continued to his man, in a voice whose hoarseness he
intended should conceal his emotion — " thou villain, Shear-
flint, come hither — unstrap my leg."
The servant looked at him in wonder, — but an impatient
gesture hastened his compliance.
" Split it into ten thousand fragments ; 'tis seasoned and
ready for the fire. The best of them, they of flesh I
mean, are but useless encumbrances, after all ! A cook
LIONEL LINCOLN. 303
wants hands, eyes, nose, and palate, but I see no use for a
leg!"
While he was speaking, the philosophic captain seated
himself on the hearth with great indifference, and, by the
aid of Shearflint, the culinary process was soon in a state of
forwardness.
" There are people," resumed the diligent Polwarth, who
did not neglect his avocation while speaking, " that eat
but twice a day ; and some who eat but once ; though I
never knew any man thrive who did not supply nature in
four substantial and regular meals. These sieges are
damnable visitations on humanity, and there should be
plans invented to conduct a war without them. The mo-
ment you begin to starve a soldier, he grows tame and
melancholy : feed him, and defy the devil ! How is it,
my worthy fellow ? do you like your ham running or
dry ? "
The savory smell of the meat had caused the suffering
invalid to raise his feverish body, and he sat watching, with
greedy looks, every movement of his unexpected benefac-
tor. His parched lips were already working with impa-
tience, and every glance of his glassy eye betrayed the ab-
solute dominion of physical want over his feeble mind. To
this question he made the simple and touching reply of —
"Job isn't particular in his eating."
" Neither am I," returned the methodical gourmand, re-
turning a piece of the meat to the fire, that Job had al-
ready devoured in imagination — "one would like to get it
up well, notwithstanding the hurry. A single turn more,
and it will be fit for the mouth of a prince. Bring hither
that trencher, Shearflint — it is idle to be particular about
crockery in so pressing a case. Greasy scoundrel, would
you dish a ham in its gravy ! What a nosegay it is after
all! Come hither; help me to the bed."
" May the Lord, who sees and notes each kind thought
of his creatures, bless and reward you for this care of my
forlorn boy ! " exclaimed Abigail, in the fulness of her
heart ; " but will it be prudent to give such strong nour-
ishment to one in a burning fever ?"
"What else would you give, woman? I doubt not he
owes his disease to his wants. An empty stomach is like
an empty pocket, a place for the devil to play his gambols
in. 'Tis your small doctor who prates of a meagre regi-
men. Hunger is a distemper of itself, and no reasonable
man who is above listening to quackery, will believe it can
304 LIONEL LINCOLN.
be a remedy. Food is the prop of life — and eating, like a
crutch to a maimed man. — Shearflint, examine the ashes
for the irons of my supporter, and then dish a bit of the
meat for the poor woman. — Eat away, my charming boy,
eat away ! " he continued, rubbing his hands in honest de-
light, to see the avidity with which the famishing Job re-
ceived his boon. " The second pleasure in life is to see a
hungry man enjoy his meal ; the first being more deeply
seated in human nature. This ham has the true Virginia
flavor ! Have you such a thing as a spare trencher, Shear-
flint ? It is so near the usual hour, I may as well sup. \t
is rare, indeed, that a man enjoys two such luxuries at
once ! "
The tongue of Polwarth ceased the instant Shearflint
administered to his wants ; the warehouse into which he
had so lately entered with such fell intent, exhibiting the
strange spectacle of the captain, sharing, with social com-
munion, in the humble repasts of its hunted and miserable
tenants.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
" Sir Thurio, give us leave, I pray, awhile ;
We have some secrets to confer about."
— Two Gentlemen of Verona.
DURING the preceding exhibition of riot and degrada-
tion, in the Dock Square, a very different state of things
existed beneath the roof of a proud edifice that stood in an
adjacent street. As was usual at that hour of the night,
the windows of Province- House were brilliant with lights
as if in mockery of the naked dreariness of the neighbor-
ing church ; and every approach to that privileged resi-
dence of the representative of royalty, was closely guarded
by the vigilance of armed men. Into this favored dwell-
ing it now becomes necessary to remove the scene, in order
to pursue the thread of our unpretending narrative.
Domestics, in rich military liveries, might be seen glid-
ing from room to room, in the hurry of a banquet — some
bearing vessels of the most generous wines into the apart-
ment where Howe entertained the leaders of the royal
army, and others returning with the remnants of a feast,
which, though sumptuously served, having felt the scarcity
of the times, had offered more to the eyes than to the a,p-
IJOXEL LIXCOLX. 305
petites of the guests. Idlers, in the loose undress of their
martial profession, loitered through the halls ; and many a
wistful glance, or lingering look, followed the odorous
scents, as humbler menials received the viands to transport
them into the more secret recesses of the building. Not-
withstanding the life and activity which prevailed, every
movement was conducted in silence and regularity, the
whole of the lively scene affording a happy illustration of
the virtues and harmony of order.
Within the walls of that apartment, to which every eye
seemed directed as to a common centre, in anticipation of
the slightest wish of those who revelled there, all was
bright and cheerful. The hearth knew no want of fuel ;
the coarser workmanship of the floor was hid beneath rich
and ample carpets, while the windows were nearly lost
within the sweeping folds of curtains of figured damask.
Everything wore an air of exquisite comfort, blended with
a species of careless elegance. Even the most minute
article of the furniture had been transported from that dis-
tant country, which was then thought to monopolize all the
cunning arts of handicraft, to administer to the pleasures
of those, who, however careless of themselves in moments
of trial, courted the most luxurious indulgences in their
hours of ease.
Along the centre of this gay apartment was spread the
hospitable board of the entertainer. It was surrounded
by men in the trappings of high military rank, though
here and there might be seen a guest, whose plainer attire
and dejected countenance betrayed the presence of one or
two of those misjudging colonists, whose confidence in the
resistless power of the crown began already to waver. The
lieutenant of the king held his wonted place at the banquet,
his dark visage expressing all the heartiness of a soldier's
welcome, while he pointed out this or that favorite amongst
an abundant collection of wines, that included the choicest
liquors of Europe.
" For those who share the mess of a British general, you
have encountered rude fare to-day, gentlemen," he cried ;
" though, after all, 'tis such as a British soldier knows how
to fatten on, in the service of his master Fill, gentlemen ;
fill in loyal bumpers ; for we have neglected our alle-
giance."
Each glass now stood sparkling and overcharged with
wine, when, after a short and solemn pause, the host pro-
nounced aloud the magical words — "The King." — Every
306 LIONEL LINCOLN.
voice echoed the name, after which there literally sue-
ceeded a breathless pause ; when an old man, in the uni-
form of an officer of the fleet, first proving his loyalty by
flourishing on high his inverted glass, added, with hearty
will —
" God bless him ! "
" God bless him ! " repeated the graceful leader, who
has already been more than once named in these pages ;
•'and grant him a long and glorious reign! and, should
there be no treason in the wish, in death, a grave like
yourself, worthy admiral — * Sepulcrum sine sordibus ex-
true.' "
" Like me ! " echoed the blunt seaman, whose learning
\vas somewhat impaired by hard and long service — " I am,
it is true, none of your cabin-window gentry ; but his
majesty might stoop lower than by favoring a faithful ser-
vant, like me, with his gracious presence."
" Your pardon, sir ; I should have included, * permissum
arbitrio.' "
The equivoque had barely excited a smile, when the se-
date countenance of the commander-in-chief indicated that
the subject was too serious for a jest. Nor did the naval
chieftain appear to relish the unknown tongue ; for, quite
as much, if not a little more, offended with the liberty
taken with his own name, than with the privileged person
of the sovereign, he somewhat smartly retorted —
" Permitted or not permitted, I command the fleet of his
majesty in these waters, and it shall be noted as a cheerful
day in our log-books, when you gentlemen of the army
dismiss us to our duty again, on the high-seas. A sailor
will grow as tired of doing nothing, as ever a soldier did
of work, and I like * elbow-room,' even in my coffin —
ha, ha, ha — what d'ye think of that, master wit ? — ha, ha,
ha, — what d'ye say to that ? "
" Quite fair, well deserved, and cuttingly severe, ad-
miral," returned the undisturbed soldier, smiling with per-
fect self-possession, as he sipped his wine. " But as you
find confinement and leisure, so irksome, I will presume to
advise your seizing some of these impudent Yankees, who
look into the port so often, not only robbing us of our
stores, but offending so many loyal eyes with their traitor-
ous presence."
*' I command a parley to be beaten," interrupted the
commander-in-chief, " and a truce to further hostilities.
Where all have done their duty, and have done it so wel\
LIONEL LINCOLN. 307
even wit must respect their conduct. Let me advise you to
sound the contents of that dusky-looking bottle, Mr.
Graves ; I think you will approve the situation as an an-
chorage for the night."
The honest old seaman instantly drowned his displeas-
ure in a glass of the generous liquor, and, smacking his
lips after the potations, for he repeated the first on the
moment, he exclaimed—
"Ah ! you are too stationary, by half, to stir up the soul
of your liquors. Wine should never slumber on its lees
until it has been well rolled in the trough of a sea for a
few months ; then, indeed, you may set it asleep, and your-
self by the side of it, if you like a cat's nap."
"As orthodox a direction for the ripening of wine as was
ever given by a bishop to his butler !" exclaimed his ad-
versary. Another significant glance from his dark-looking
superior again checked his wilful playfulness, when Howe
profited by the silence, to say with the frank air of a lib-
eral host —
" As motion is, just now, denied us, the only means I
can devise, to prevent my wine from slumbering on its
lees, is to drink it."
" Besides which, we are threatened with a visit from Mr.
Washington, and his thirsty followers, who may save us all
trouble in the matter, unless we prove industrious. In such
a dilemma, Mr. Graves will not hesitate to pledge me in a
glass, though it should be only to disappoint the rebels ! "
added Burgoyne, making a graceful inclination to the half-
offended seaman.
" Ay, ay, I would do much more disagreeable things to
cheat the rascals of their plunder," returned the mollified
admiral, good-naturedly nodding his head before he swal-
lowed his bumper. — " If there be any real danger of the
loss of such liquid amber as this, 'twould be as well to send
it along-side my ship, and I will hoist it in, and find it a
berth, though it shares my own cot. I believe I command
a fortress which neither Yankee, Frenchman, nor Don,
would like to besiege, unless at a respectful distance."
The officers around him looked exceedingly grave, ex-
changing glances of great meaning, though all continued
silent, as if the common subject of their meditations was
too delicate to be loudly uttered in such a presence. At
length the second in command, who still felt the coldness
of his superior, and who had, hitherto, said nothing during
the idle dialogue, ventured a remark, with the gravity
308 LIONEL LINCOLN.
and distance of a man who was not certain of his wel-
come.
" Our enemies grow bold as the season advances," he
said, "and it is past a doubt that they will find us employ-
ment in the coming summer. It cannot be denied but they
conduct themselves with great steadiness in all their bat-
teries, especially in this last, at the water-side ; nor am I
without apprehension that they will yet get upon the isl-
ands, and render the situation of the shipping hazard-
ous."
" Get upon the islands ! drive the fleet from their anch-
ors ! " exclaimed the veteran sailor, in undisguised amaze-
ment. " I shall account it a happy day for England, when
Washington and his rabble trust themselves within reach
of our shot ! "
" God grant us a chance at the rascals with the bayonet
in the open field," cried Howe, "and an end of these win-
ter quarters ! I say winter quarters, for I trust no gentle-
man can consider this army as besieged by a mob of armed
peasants ! We hold the town, and they the country ; but
when the proper time shall come — well, sir, your pleasure,"
he continued, interrupting himself to speak to an upper
servant at his elbow.
The man, who had stood for more than a minute, in an
attitude of respectful attention, anxious to catch the eye
of his master, muttered his message in a low and hurried
voice, as if unwilling to be heard by others, and at the
same time conscious of the impropriety of whispering.
Most of those around him turned their heads in polite in-
difference ; but the old sailor, who sat too near to be totally
deaf, had caught the words, " a lady," which was quite
enough to provoke all his merriment, after such a free in-
dulgence of the bottle. Striking his hand smartly on the
table, he exclaimed, with a freedom that no other present
could have presumed to use —
" A sail ! a sail ! by George, a sail ! under what colors,
friend ? king's or rebels' ? Here has been a blunder, with
a vengeance ! The cook has certainly been too late, or
the lady is too early ! ha, ha, ha — Oh ! you are wicked,
free livers in the army ! "
The tough old tar enjoyed his joke exceedingly, chuck-
ling with inward delight at his discovery. He was, how-
ever, alone in his merriment, none of the soldiers venturing
to understand his allusions, any further than by exchanging
a few stolen looks of unusual archness. Hcwe bit his lips,
LIONEL LINCOLN. 309
with obvious vexation, and sternly ordered the man to re-
peat his errand in a voice that was more audible.
"A lady," said the trembling menial, "wishes to see
your excellency, and she waits your pleasure, sir, in the
library."
"Among his books, too!" shouted the admiral — "that
would have better become you, my joking friend ! I say,
young man, is the girl young and handsome ?"
" By the lightness of her step, sir, I should think her
young ; but her face was concealed under a hood."
" Ay ! ay ! the jade comes hooded into the house of the
king ! Damn me, Howe, but modesty is getting to be a
rare virtue amongst you gentlemen on shore ! "
"'Tis a plain case against you, sir, for even the servant,
as you find, has detected that she is light of carriage," said
the smiling Burgoyne, making half a motion toward ris-
ing. " It is probably some applicant for relief, or for per-
mission to depart the place. Suffer me to see her, and
spare yourself the pain of a refusal."
" Not at all," said Howe, gaining his feet with an alacrity
that anticipated the more deliberate movement of the other
— " I should be unworthy of the trust I hold, could I not
lend an occasional ear to a petition. Gentlemen, as there
is a lady in the case, I presume to trespass on your indul-
gence. Admiral, I commend you to my butler, who is a
worthy fellow, and can give you all the cruises of the bot-
tle before you, since it left the island of Madeira."
He inclined his head to his guests, and passed from the
room with a hurried step, that did not altogether consult
appearances. As he proceeded through the hall, his ears
were saluted by another burst from the hearty old seaman,
who, however, enjoyed his humor alone, the rest of the
party immediately turning to other subjects, with well-bred
dulness. On entering the room already mentioned, Howe
found himself in the presence of the female, who, notwith-
standing their apparent indifference, was at that very mo-
ment occupying the thoughts, and exercising the ingenuity
of every man he had left behind him. Advancing at once
to the centre of the apartment, with the ease and freedom
of a soldier who felt himself without a superior, he asked,
with a politeness somewhat equivocal —
" Why am I favored with this visit ? and why has a lady,
whose appearance shows she might command friends at
any time, assumed this personal trouble ? "
" Because I am a supplicant for a favor that might be
310 LIONEL JJXCOLN:
denied to one who petitioned coldly," returned a soft,
tremulous voice, deep within the covering of a silken ca-
lash. " As time is wanting to observe the usual forms of
applications, I have presumed to come in person, to pre-
vent delay."
"And surely, one like you can have little reason to
dread a repulse," said Howe, with an attempt at gallantry,
that would have better become the man who had offered
to be his substitute. While speaking, he advanced a step
nigher to the lady, and, pointing to her hood, he contin-
ued— " Would it not be wise to aid your request with a
view of a countenance that I am certain can speak better
than any words ? — whom have I the honor to receive, and
what may be the nature of her business ?"
"A wife, who seeks her husband," returned the female,
dropping the folds of her calash, and exposing to his
steady eyes the commanding loveliness of the chaste coun-
tenance of Cecil. The sudden annunciation of her char-
acter was forced from the lips of the unclaimed bride, by
the freedom of a gaze to which she was unused ; but the
instant she had spoken, her eyes fell on the floor in em-
barrassment, and she stood deeply blushing at the strength
of her own language, though preserving all the apparent
composure and dignity of female pride. The English gen-
eral regarded her beauty for a moment, with a pleased,
though doubting eye, before he continued —
" Is he whom you seek within or without the town ? "
" I much fear without ! "
" And you would follow him into the camp of the rebels ?
This is a case that may require some deliberation. I feel
assured I entertain a lady of great beauty ; might I, in ad-
dition, know how to address her ? "
" For my name I can have no reason to blush," said Ce-
cil, proudly — "'tis noble in the land of our common ances-
tors, and may have reached the ears of Mr. Howe — I am
the child of the late Colonel Dynevor ! "
"The niece of Lord Cardonnel ! " exclaimed her auditor,
in amazement, instantly losing the equivocal freedom of
his manner in an air of deep respect — " I have long known
that Boston contained such a lady ; nor do I forget that
she is accused of concealing herself from the attentions of
the army, like one of the most obdurate of our foes — atten-
tions which every man in the garrison would be happy to
show her, from myself down to the lowest ensign. — Do me
the honor to be seated ! "
LIONEL LINCOLN. 31
Cecil bowed her acknowledgments, but continued stand-
ing—
" I have neither time nor spirits to defend myself from
such an imputation," she answered — "though, should my
own name prove no passport to your favor, I must claim
it in behalf of him I seek."
" Should he be the veriest rebel in the train of Washing
ton, he has great reason to be proud of his fortune ! "
"So far from ranking among the enemies of the king,
he has already been lavish of his blood in behalf of the
crown," returned Cecil, unconsciously raising the calash
again, with maiden bashfulness, as she felt the moment
\vas approaching when she must'declare the name of the
man, whose influence over her feelings she had already
avowed.
" And he is called—?"
The answer was given to this direct question in a low
but distinct voice. Howe started when he heard the well-
known name of an officer of so much consideration, though
a meaning smile lighted his dark features, as he repeated
her words in surprise —
"Major Lincoln! his refusal to return to Europe, in
search of health, is then satisfactorily explained. Without
the town did y®u say ! there must be some error."
" I fear it is too true! "
The harsh features of the leader contracted again into
their sternest look, and it was apparent how much he was
disturbed by the intelligence.
" This is presuming too far on his privilege," he mut-
tered in an undertone. — "Left the place say you, without
my knowledge and approbation, young lady ?"
" But on no unworthy errand ! " cried the almost breath-
less Cecil, instantly losing sight of herself in her anxi-
ety for Lionel — " private sorrows have driven him to
an act, that, at another time, he would be the first to con-
demn, as a soldier."
Howe maintained a cool, but threatening silence, that
was far more appalling than any wrords could be. The
alarmed wife gazed at his lowering face for a minute, as
if to penetrate his secret thoughts ; then yielding, with the
sensitiveness of a woman, to her worst apprehensions, she
cried —
" Oh ! you would not avail yourself of this confession to
do him harm ! Has he not bled for you ? lingered for
months on the verge of the grave, in defence of your
312 J.IONET. LINCOLN.
cause ? and will you now doubt him ? Nay, sir, though
chance and years may have subjected him, for a time, to
your control, he is every way your equal, and will con-
front each charge before his royal master, let who may
bring them against his spotless name ! "
" 'Twill be necessary," the other coldly replied.
" Nay, hearken not to my weak, unmeaning words,"
continued Cecil, wringing her hands in doubting distress;
"I know not what I say. He has your permission to hold
intercourse with the country weekly ?"
" For the purpose of obtaining the supplies necessary to
his past condition."
"And may he not have gone on such an errand, and
under favor of the flag you yourself have cheerfully ac-
corded ?"
" In such a case would I not have been spared the pain
of this interview ? "
Cecil paused a moment, and seemed collecting her scat-
tered faculties, and preparing her mind for some serious
purpose. After a little time, she attempted a painful
smile, saying, more calmly —
" I had presumed too far on military indulgence, and
was even weak enough to believe the request would be
granted to my name and situation."
"No name, no situation, no circumstances, can ever
render "
" Speak not the cruel words, lest they once more drive
me from my recollection," interrupted Cecil. " First hear
me, sir — listen to a wife and a daughter, and you will re-
call the cruel sentence."
Without waiting for a reply, she advanced with a firm
and proud step to the door of the room, passing her aston-
ished companion with an eye and a face beaming with the
fulness of her object. In the outer passage she beckoned
from among the loiterers in the hall, to the stranger who
had accompanied her in the visit to the warehouse, and
when he had approached, and entered the room, the door
once more closed, leaving the spectators without wondering
whence such a vision of purity could have made its way
within the sullied walls of Province-House.
Many long and impatient minutes were passed by the
guests in the banqueting-room, during the continuance of
this mysterious interview. The jests of the admiral began
to flag, just as his companions were inclined to think they
were most merited, and the conversation assumed that
LIONEL LINCOLN. 313
broken and disjointed character which betrays the wander-
ing of the speakers' thoughts.
At length a bell rang, and orders came from the com-
mander-in-chief, .to clear the hall of its curious idlers.
When none were left but the regular domestics of the
family, Howe appeared, supporting Cecil, closely hooded,
to the conveyance that awaited her presence at the gate.
The air of their master communicated a deep respect to
the manners of the observant menials, who crowded about
their persons, to aid the departure, with officious zeal.
The amazed sentinels dropped their arms, with the usual
regularity, to their chieftain, as he passed to the outer
portal in honor of his unknown companion, and eyes met
the expressive glances of eyes, as all who witnessed the
termination of this visit sought, in the countenances of
those around them, some solution of its object.
When Howe resumed his seat at the table, another
attempt was made by the admiral to renew the subject ;
but it was received with an air so cold, and a look so point-
edly severe, that even the careless son of the ocean forgot
his humor under the impression of so dark a frown.
CHAPTER XXIX.
"Nor martial shout, nor minstrel tone,
Announced their march — " — SCOTT.
CECIL suffered the night to advance a little, before she
left Tremont Street, to profit by the permission to leave
the place, her communication had obtained from the Eng-
lish general. It was, however, far from late when she took
leave of Agnes, and commenced her expedition, still
attended bv Meriton and the unknown man, with whom
she has already, more than once, made her appearance in
our pages. At the lower part of the town she left her
vehicle, and pursuing the route of several devious and
retired streets, soon reached the margin of the water. The
wharves were deserted and still. Indicating the course by
her own light and hurried footsteps, to her companions,
the youthful bride moved unhesitatingly along the rough
planks, until her progress was checked by a large basin,
between two of the ordinary wooden piers which line
the shores of the place. Here she paused for a moment,
3 H LIONEL LINCOLN;
in doubt, as if fearful there had been some mistake, when
the figure of a boy was seen advancing out of the shadows
of a neighboring store-house.
" I fear you have lost your way," he said, when within a
few feet of her, where he stood, apparently examining the
party with rigid scrutiny. ''May I venture to ask whom
or what you seek ? "
" One who is sent hither on private duty, by orders from
the commander-in-chief."
" I see but two," returned the lad, hesitating — "where is
the third?"
" He lingers in the distance," said Cecil, pointing to
Meriton, whose footsteps were much more guarded than
those of his mistress. "Three is our number, and we are
all present."
" I beg a thousand pardons," returned the youth, drop-
ping the folds of a sailor's overcoat, under which he had
concealed the distinguishing marks of a naval dress, and
raising his hat at the same moment, with great respect ;
"my orders were to use the utmost precaution, ma'am, for,
as you hear, the rebels sleep but little to-night ! "
"'Tis a dreadful scene I leave, truly, sir," returned Cecil,
" and the sooner it will suit your convenience to transport
us from it, the greater will be the obligation you are about
to confer."
The youth once more bowed, in submission to her wishes,
and requested the whole party to follow whither he should
lead. A very few moments brought them to a pair of water-
stairs, where, under cover of the duskiness thrown upon
the basin from the wharf, a boat lay concealed, in perfect
readiness to receive them.
" Be stirring, boys ! " cried the youth, in a tone of au-
thority ; " ship your oars as silently as if stealing away
from an enemy. Have the goodness, ma'am, to enter, and
you shall have a quick and safe landing on the other shore,
whatever may be the reception of the rebels."
Cecil and her two attendants complied without delay,
when the boat glided into the stream with a velocity that
promised a speedy verification of the wordsof the midship-
man. The most profound stillness- reigned among these
nocturnal adventurers, and by the time they had rowed a
short distance, the bride began to lose an immediate con-
sciousness of her situation in contemplation of the scene.
The evening was already milder, and by one of those
sudden changes, peculiar to the climate, it was rapidly be-
Z70AYJY. I.f.VCOLA' 315
coming even bland and pleasant. The light of a clear
moon fell upon the town and harbor, rendering the objects
of both visible, in mellowed softness. The huge black
hulls of the vessels of war rested sullenly on the waters, like
slumbering leviathans, without even a sail or a passing
boat, except their own, to enliven the view in the direction
of the port. On the other hand, the hills of the town rose,
in beautiful relief, against the clear sky, with here and
there a roof or a steeple reflecting the pale light of the
moon. The bosom of the place was as quiet as if its inhabi-
tants were buried in midnight sleep ; but behind the hills,
in a circuit extending from the works on the heights of
Charlestown, to the neck, which lay in open view of the
boat, there existed all the evidences of furious warfare.
During the few preceding nights, the Americans had been
more than commonly diligent in the use of their annoy-
ances, but now they appeared to expend their utmost en-
ergies upon their enemies. Still they spared the town, di-
recting the weight of their fire at the different batteries
which protected the approaches to the place, as already
described, along the western borders of the peninsula.
The ears of Cecil had long been accustomed to the up-
roar of arms, but this was the first occasion in which she
was ever a witness of the mingled beauties and terrors of a
cannonade at night. Suffering the calash to fall, she shook
back the dark tresses from her face, and, leaning over the
sides of the little vessel, listened to the bursts of the artil-
lery, and gazed on the sudden flashes of vivid light that
mocked the dimmer illumination of the planet, with an ab-
sorbed attention that momentarily lured her into forget-
fulness. The men pulled their light boat with muffled
oars, and so still was its progress, that there were instants
when even the shot might be heard rattling among the
ruins they had made.
" It's amazement to me, madam," said Meriton, "that so
many British generals, and brave gentleman as there is in
Boston, should stay in such a little spot to be shot at by a
parcel of countrymen, when there is Lon'non, as still and
as safe, at this blessed moment, as a parish church-yard at
midnight ! "
Cecil raised her eyes at this interruption, and perceived
the youth gazing at her countenance in undisguised admi-
ration of its beauty. Blushing, and once more concealing
her features beneath her calash, she turned away from the
view of the conflict, in silence.
316 LIOXKL LI.VCOL.V.
" The rebels are free with their gunpowder to-night ! "
said the midshipman. — " Some of their cruisers have picked
up another of our store-ships, I fancy, or Mr. Washington
would not make such a noisy time of it, when all honest
people should be thinking of their sleep. Don't you be-
lieve, ma'am, if the admiral would warp three or four of
our heaviest ships up into the channel, back of the town,
it would be a short method of lowering th,e conceit of these
Yankees ? "
" Really, sir, I am so little acquainted with military mat-
ters," returned Cecil, suffering her anxious features to re-
lax into a smile, "that my opinion, should I venture to
give one, would be utterly worthless."
"Why, young gentleman," said Meriton, "the rebels
drove a galley out of the river, a night or two ago, as 1
can testify myself, having stood behind a large brick
store, where I saw the whole affair, most beautifully con-
ducted ! "
" A very fit place for one like you, no doubt, sir," re-
turned the midshipman, without attempting to conceal his
disgust at so impertinent an interruption — "do you know
what a galley is, ma'am ? nothing but a small vessel cut
down, with a few heavy guns, I do assure you. It would
be a very different affair with a frigate or a two-decker !
Do but observe what a charming thing our ship is, ma'am
— I am sure so beautiful a lady must know how to admire
a handsome ship ! — she lies hereaway, nearly in a range
with the second island."
To please the earnest youth Cecil bent her head toward
the quarter he wished, and murmured a few words in ap-
probation of his taste. But the impatient boy had nar-
rowly watched the direction of her eyes, and she was
interrupted by his exclaiming, in manifest disappoint-
ment—
"What! that shapeless hulk, just above the castle! she
is an old Dutch prize, en flute, ay, older than my grand-
mother, good old soul ; and it wouldn't matter the value of
a piece of junk, into which end you stepped her bowsprit !
One of my school-fellows, Jack Willoughby, is a reefer on
board her ; and he says that they can just get six knots
out of her, on her course in smooth water with a fresh
breeze, allowing seven knot for leeway ! Jack means to
get rid of her the moment he can catch the admiral run-
ning large ; for the Graveses live near the Willoughbys in
town, and he knows all the soundings about the old man's
LIONEL J.IXCOLX. 317
humor. No, no, ma'am ; Jack would give every shot in
his lockers to swing a hammock between two of the beams
of our ship. Do excuse me, one moment ;" — presuming
to take one of the hands of Cecil, though with sufficient
delicacy, as he pointed out his favorite vessel — " There,
ma'am, now you have her ! she that's so taut-rigged, with
a flying-jib-boom, and all her top-gallant-yards stopped to
her lower rigging — we send them down every night at gun-
fire, and cross them again next morning as regularly as
the bell strikes eight. — Isn't she a sweet thing, ma'am ? for
I see she has caught your eye at last, and I am sure you
can't wish to look at any other ship in port."
Cecil could not refuse her commendations to this elo-
quent appeal, though at the next moment she would have
been utterly at a loss to distinguish the much-admired
frigate from the despised store-ship.
" Ay, ay, madam, I knew you would like her when you
once got a fair glimpse at her proportions," continued the
delighted boy ; " though she is not half so beautiful on her
broadside, as when you can catch her lasking, especially
on her larboard bow. — Pull, long and strong, men, and
with a light touch of the water — these Yankees have ears
as long as borricoes, and we are getting in with the land.
This set-down at Dorchester's neck will give you a long
walk, ma'am, to Cambridge, but there was no possibility
of touching the rebels anywhere else to-night, or, as you
see, we should have gone right into the face of their
cannon."
" Is it not a little remarkable," said Cecil, willing to pay
the solicitude of the boy to amuse her, by some reply,
" that the colonists, while they invest the town so closely
on the north and west, should utterly neglect to assail it
on the south ? for I believe they have never occupied the
hills in Dorchester at all ; and yet it is one of the points
nearest to Boston."
"It is no mystery at all ! " returned the boy, shaking his
head with all the sagacity of a veteran — " it would bring
another Bunker Hill about their ears ; for you see it is the
same thing at this end of the place that Charlestown neck is
at the other ! — a light touch, men, a light touch ! " he con-
tinued, dropping his voice, as they approached the shore ;
— " besides, ma'am, a fort on that hill could throw its shot
directly on our decks, a thing the old man would never
submit to ; and that would either bring on a regular ham-
mering match, or a general clearing out of the fleet ; and
318 LIONEL LINCOLN'.
then what would become of the army ? — No, no — the Yan-
kees wouldn't risk driving the codfish out of their bay, to
try such an experiment ! — Lay on your oars, boys, while I
take a squint along this shore, to see if there are any Jona-
thans cooling themselves near the beach, by moonlight."
The obedient seamen rested from their labors, while
their youthful officer stood up in the boat, and directed a
small night-glass over the intended place of landing. The
examination proved entirely satisfactory, and in a low,
cautious voice, he ordered the men to pull into a place
where the shadow of the hills might render the landing
still less likely to be observed.
From this moment the most profound silence was ob-
served, the boat advancing swiftly, though under perfect
command, to the desired spot, where it was soon heard
grazing upon the bottom, as it gradually lost its motion,
and finally became stationary. Cecil was instantly assisted
to the land whither she was followed by the midshipman,
who jumped upon the shore with great indifference, and
approached the passenger, from whom he was now about
to part.
" I only hope that those you next fall in with may know
how to treat you as well as those you leave," said the boy,
approaching, and offering his hand, with the frankness of
an older seaman, to Cecil — "God bless you, my dear
ma'am ; I have two little sisters at home, nearly as hand-
some as yourself ; and I never see a woman in want of as-
sistance, but I think of the poor girls I've left in old Eng-
land— God bless you, once more — I hope when we meet
again, you will take a nearer view of the "
"You are not likely to part so soon as you imagine,"
exclaimed a man, springing on his feet, from his place of
concealment behind a rock, and advancing rapidly on the
party — " offer the least resistance, and you are all dead."
" Shove off, men, shove off, and don't mind me ! " cried
the youth, with admirable presence of mind — " For God's
sake, save the boat, if you die for it ! "
The seamen obeyed with practised alacrity, when the
boy darted after them with the lightness of his years, and,
making a desperate leap, caught the gunwale of the barge,
into which he was instantly drawn by the sailors. A dozen
armed men had by this time reached the edge of the water,
and as many muskets were pointed at the retreating party,
when he who had first spoken, cried —
" Not a trigger ! — the boy has escaped us, and he de-
LIONEL LINCOLN". 319
serves his fortune ! — Let us secure those who remain , but
if a single gun be fired, it will only draw the attention of
the fleet and castle."
His companions, who had acted with the hesitation of
men that were not assured the course they took was cor-
rect, willingly dropped the muzzles of their pieces, and in
another instant the boat was ploughing its way toward
the much-admired frigate, at a distance which would prob-
ably have rendered their fire quite harmless. Cecil had
hardly breathed during the short period of uncertainty ;
but when the sudden danger was passed, she prepared her-
self to receive their captors with the perfect confidence
which an American woman seldom fails to feel in the mild-
ness and reason of her countrymen. The whole party, who
now approached her, were dressed in the ordinary habili-
ments of husbandmen, mingled, in a slight degree, with the
more martial accoutrements of soldiers. They were armed
with muskets only, which they wielded like men acquainted
with all the uses of the weapon, at the same time that they
were unaccustomed to the mere manual of the troops.
Every fibre of the body of Meriton, however, shook with
fear, as he found this unexpected guard encircling their
little party, nor did the unknown man who had accom-
panied them appear entirely free from apprehension. The
bride still maintained her self-possession, supported either
by her purpose, or her greater familiarity with the charac-
ter of the people into whose hands she had fallen.
When the whole party were posted within a few feet of
them, they dropped the butts of their muskets on the
ground, and stood patient listeners to the ensuing exam*
ination. The leader of the party, who was only distin-
guished from his companions by a green cockade in his hat,
which Cecil had heard was the symbol of a subaltern offi-
cer among the American troops, addressed her in a calm,
but steady tone —
" It is unpleasant to question a woman," he said, " and
especially one of your appearance ; but duty requires it
of me. What brings you to this unfrequented point, in
the boat of a king's ship, and at this unusual hour of the
night ?"
" I come with no intent to conceal my visit from any
eyes," returned Cecil ; " for my first wish is to be con-
ducted to some officer of rank, to whom I will explain my
object. There are many that I should know, who will not
hesitate to believe my words."
320 LIONEL LINCOLN.
"We none of us profess to doubt your truth ; we only
act with caution, because it is required by circumstances.
— Cannot the explanation be made to me ? — for I dislike
the duty that causes trouble to a female."
" 'Tis impossible ! " said Cecil, involuntarily shrinking
within the folds of her mantle.
"You came at a most unfortunate moment," said the
other, musing ; "and I fear you will pass an uneasy night,
in consequence. By your tongue, I think you are an
American ? "
" I was born among those roofs, which you may see on
the opposite peninsula."
"Then we are of the same town," returned the officer,
stepping back in a vain attempt to get a glimpse of those
features which were concealed beneath the hood. He made
no attempt, however, to remove the silk ; nor did he in the
slightest manner convey any wish of a nature that might
be supposed to wound the delicacy of her sex ; but finding
himself unsuccessful, he turned away, as he added — " and
I grow tired of remaining where I can see the smoke of
my own chimneys, at the same time I know that strangers
are seated around the hearths below ! "
" None wish more fervently than I, that the moment had
arrived when each might enjoy his own, in peace and quiet
ness."
" Let the Parliament repeal their laws, and the king re-
call his troops," said one of the men, "and there will be an
end of the struggle at once. We don't fight because we love
to shed blood ! "
" He would do both, friend, if the counsel of one so in-
significant as I could find weight in his royal mind."
" I believe there is not much difference between a royal
mind and that of any other man, when the devil gets hold
of it ! " bluntly exclaimed another of the party. " I've a
notion the imp is as mischievous with a king as with a cob'
bier ! "
" Whatever I may think of the conduct of his ministers,"
said Cecil, coldly," 'tis unpleasant to me to discuss the per-
sonal qualities of my sovereign."
" Why, I meant no oifence ; though when the truth is
uppermost in a man's thoughts, he is apt to let it out," re-
turned the soldier. After this uncouth apology, he con-
tinued silent, turning away like one who felt dissatisfied
with himself for what he had done.
In the meantime the leader had been consulting with
LIONEL LINCOLN. 321
one or two of his men aside. He now advanced again, and
delivered the result of their united wisdom.
"Under all circumstances, I have concluded," he said,
speaking in the first person, in deference to his rank,
though in fact he had consented to change his own opinion
at the instigation of his advisers, " to refer you for infor-
mation to the nearest general officer, under the care of
these two men, who will show you the way. They both
know the country, and there is not the least danger of their
mistaking the road."
Cecil bo\ved in entire submission to this characteristic
intimation of his pleasure, and declared her anxiety to pro-
ceed. The officer held another short consultation with
the two guides which soon terminated by his issuing orders
to the rest of the detachment to prepare to depart. Before
they separated, one of the guides, or, more properly,
guards, approached Meriton, and said, with a deliberation
that might easily be mistaken for doubt —
" As we shall be only two to two, friend, will it not be as
well to see what you have got secreted about your person,
as it may prevent any hard words or difficulties hereafter ?
You will see the reason of the thing, I trust, and make no
objection."
" Not at all, sir, not at all ! " returned the trembling
valet, producing his purse, without a moment's hesitation ;
" it is not heavy, but what there is in it, is of the best
English gold ; which I expect is much regarded among
you who see nothing but rebel paper ! "
" Much as we set store by it, we do not choose to rob
for it," returned the soldier, with cool contempt. " I wish
to look for weapons, and not for money."
" But, sir, as I unluckily have no weapons, had you not
better take my money ? there are ten good guineas, I do
assure you ; and not a light one among them all, 'pon
honor ! besides several pieces of silver."
"Come, Allen," said the other soldier, laughing, "it's no
great matter whether that gentleman has arms or not, I
believe. His comrade, here, who seems to know rather bet-
ter what he is about, has none, at any rate ; and for one of
two men, I am willing to trust the other."
" I do assure you," said Cecil, " that our intentions are
peaceable, and that your charge will prove in no manner
difficult."
The men listened to the earnest tones of her sweet voice
with much deference, and in a few moments the two parties
21
322 LIONEL LINCOLN.
separated, to proceed on their several ways. While the
main body of the soldiers ascended the hill, the guides of
Cecil took a direction which led them around its base.
Their route lay toward the low neck, which connected the
heights with the adjacent country, and their progress was
both diligent and rapid. Cecil was often consulted as to
her ability to endure the fatigue, and repeated offers were
made to accommodate their speed to her wishes. In every
other respect she was totally disregarded by the guides,
who, however, paid much closer attention to her compan-
ions, each soldier attaching himself to one of her follow-
ers, whom he constantly regarded with a watchful and
wary eye.
" You seem cold, friend," said Allen to Meriton, " though
I should call the night quite pleasant for the first week in
March ! "
" Indeed I'm starved to the bones !" returned the valet,
with a shivering that would seem to verify his assertion —
" It's a very chilly climate is this of America, especially
of nights ! I never really felt such a remarkable damp-
ness about the throat before, within memory, I do assure
you."
" Here is another handkerchief," said the soldier, throw-
ing him a common 'kerchief from his pocket — "wrap it
round your neck, for it gives me an ague to hear your
teeth knocking one another about so."
"I thank you, sir, a thousand times," said Meriton, pro-
ducing his purse, again, with an instinctive readiness —
"what may be the price?"
The man pricked up his ears, and dropping his musket
from the guarded position in which he had hitherto car-
ried it, he drew closer to the side of his prisoner, in a very
companionable way, as he replied —
" I did not calculate on selling the article ; but if you
have need of it, I wouldn't wish to be hard."
"Shall I give you one guinea, or two, Mr. Rebel?"
asked Meriton, whose faculties were utterly confounded
by his terror.
"My name is Allen, friend, and we like civil language
in the Bay," said the soldier. " Two guineas for a pocket
handkerchief ! I couldn't think of imposing on any man
so much ! "
" What shall it be then, half a guinea, or four half-crown
pieces ?"
" I didn't at all calculate to part with the handkerchief
LIONEL LINCOLN. 323
when I left home — it's quite new, as you can see by hold-
ing it up, in this manner, to the moon — besides, you know,
now there is no trade, these things come very high. — Well,
if you are disposed to buy, I don't wish to crowd ; you may
take it, finally, for the two crowns."
Meriton dropped the money into his hands, without
hesitation, and the soldier pocketed the price, perfectly
satisfied with his bargain and himself, since he had sold
his goods at a clear profit of about three hundred per cent.
He soon took occasion to whisper to his comrade, that in
his opinion " he had made a good trade ; " and laying
their heads together, they determined that the bargain
was by no means a bad wind-fall. On the other hand,
Meriton, who knew the difference in value between cotton
and silk quite as well as his American protectors, was
equally well satisfied with the arrangement ; though his
contentment was derived from a very different manner of
reasoning. From early habit, he had long been taught to
believe, that every civility, like patriotism in the opinion
of Sir Robert Walpole, had its price ; and his fears had
rendered him somewhat careless about the amount of the
purchase-money. He now considered himself as having a
clear claim on the protection of his guard, and his appre-
hensions gradually subsided into security under the sooth-
ing impression.
By the time this satisfactory bargain was concluded,
and eacli party was lawfully put in possession of his own,
they had reached the low land already mentioned as the
" neck." Suddenly the guard stopped, and bending for-
ward, in the attitude of deep attention, they seemed to
listen, intently, to some faint and distant sounds, that
were, for moments, audible in the intervals of the can-
nonade.
" They are coming," said one to the other ; " shall we
go on, or wait until they've passed ? "
The question was answered in a whisper, and, after a
short consultation, they determined to proceed.
The attention of Cecil had been attracted by this con-
ference, and the few words which had escaped her guides ;
and, for the first time, she harbored some little dread as
to her final destination. Full of the importance of her
errand, the bride now devoted every faculty to detect the
least circumstance that might have a tendency to defeat
it. She trod so lightly on the faded herbage as to render
her own footsteps inaudible, and more than once she was
324 LIONEL LINCOLN.
about to request the others to imitate her example, thai
no danger might approach them unexpectedly. At length
her doubts were relieved, though her wonder was increased,
by distinctly hearing the lumbering sounds of wheels on
the frozen earth, as if innumerable groaning vehicles were
advancing with slow and measured progress. In another
instant her eyes assisted the organs of hearing, and by the
aid of the moon her doubts, if not her apprehensions, were
entirely removed.
Her guards now determined on a change of purpose, and
withdrew with their prisoners within the shadow of an
apple tree that stood on the low land, but a few paces
from the line of the route evidently taken by the approach-
ing vehicles. In this position they remained for several
minutes, attentive observers of what was passing around
them.
" Our men have woke up the British by their fire," said
one of the guards ; " and all their eyes are turned to the
batteries ! "
" Yes, it's very well as it is," returned his comrade ; "but
if the old brass congress mortar hadn't gi'n way yesterday,
there would be a different sort of roaring. Did you ever
see the old congress ? "
" I can't say I ever saw the cannon itself, but I have
seen the bombs fifty times ; and pokerish-looking things
they be, especially in a dark night — but hush, here they
come."
A large body of men now approached, and moved swiftly
past them, in deepest silence, defiling at the foot of the
hills, and marching toward the shores of the peninsula.
The whole of this party was attired and accoutred much
in the fashion of those who had received Cecil. One or
two who were mounted, and in more martial trappings, an-
nounced the presence of some officers of higher rank. At
the very heels of this detachment of soldiers, came a great
number of carts, which took the route that led directly up
to the neighboring heights. After these came another,
and more numerous body of troops, who followed the
teams, the whole moving in the profoundest stillness, and
with the diligence of men who were engaged in the most
important undertaking. In the rear of the whole, another
collection of carts appeared, groaning under the weight of
large bundles of hay, and other military preparations of
defence. Before this latter division left the low land, im-
mense numbers of the closely-packed bundles were turn*
LIONEL LINCOLN. 325
bled to the ground, and arranged, with a quickness almost
magical, in such a manner as to form a light breast-work
across the low ground, which would otherwise have been
completely exposed to be swept by the shot of the royal
batteries ; a situation of things that was believed to have
led to the catastrophe of Breed's, the preceding summer.
Among the last of those who crossed the neck, was an
officer on horseback, whose eye was attracted by the group
who stood as idle spectators under the tree. Pointing out
the latter object to those around him, he rode nigher to
the party, and leaned forward in his saddle to examine
their persons —
" How's this ? " he exclaimed — " a woman and two men
under the charge of sentinels ! Have we then more spies
among us ? — cut away the tree, men ; we have need of it,
and let in the light of the moon upon them ! "
The order was hardly given before it was executed, and
the tree fell with a despatch that, to any but an American,
would appear incredible. Cecil stepped aside from the
impending branches, and by moving into the light, be-
trayed the appearance of a gentlewoman by her mien and
apparel.
" Here must be some mistake ! " continued the officer —
"why is the lady thus guarded ? "
One of the soldiers, in a few words, explained the nat-
ure of her arrest, and in return received directions, anew,
how to proceed. The mounted officer now put spurs into
his horse, and galloped away, in eager pursuit of more
pressing duties, though he still looked behind him, so long
as the deceptive light enabled him to distinguish either
form or features.
" 'Tis advisable to go on the heights," said the soldier,
"where we may find the commanding general."
" Anywhere," returned Cecil, confused with the activity
and bustle that had passed before her eyes, "or anything,
to be relieved from this distressing delay."
In a very few moments they reached the summit of the
nearest of the two hills, where they paused just without
the busy circle of men who labored there, while ooe of the
soldiers went in quest of the officer in command. From
the point where she now stood, Cecil had an open view of
the port, the town, and most of the adjacent country. The
vessels still reposed heavily on the waters, and she fancied
that the youthful midshipman was already nestling safe in
his own hammock, on board the frigate, whose tall and
326 LIONEL LINCOLN:
tapering spars rose against the sky in such beautiful and
symmetrical lines. No evidences of alarm were manifested
in the town ; but, on the contrary, the lights were gradually
disappearing, notwithstanding the heavy cannonade which
still roared along the western side of the peninsula ; and
it was probable that Howe, and his unmoved companions,
yet continued their revels, with the same security in which
they had been left two short hours before. While, with
the exception of the batteries, everything in the distance
was still, and apparently slumbering, the near view was
one of life and activity. Mounds of earth were already
rising on the crest of the hill ; laborers were filling barrels
with earth and sand ; fascines were tumbling about from
place to place, as they were wanted ; and yet the stillness
was only interrupted by the unremitting strokes of the
pick, the low and earnest hum of voices, or the crashing
of branches, as the pride of the neighboring orchards came
crushing to the earth. The novelty of the scene beguiled
Cecil of her anxiety, and many minutes passed unheeded
by. Fifty times parties, or individuals amongst the labor-
ers, approaching near her person, paused to gaze a mo-
ment at the speaking and sweet features that the placid
light of the moon rendered even more than usually soft,
and then pushed on in silence, endeavoring to repair, by
renewed diligence, the transient forgetfulness of their ur-
gent duties. At length the man returned, and announced
the approach of the general who commanded on the hill.
The latter was a soldier of middle age, of calm and col-
lected deportment, roughly attired for the occasion, and
bearing no other symbol of his rank than the distinctive
crimson cockade, in one of the large military hats of the
period.
" You find us in the midst of our labors," he pleasantly
observed, as he approached ; "and will overlook the delay
I have given you. It is reported you left the town this
evening ?"
" Within the hour."
" And Howe — dreams he of the manner in which we are
likely to amuse him in the morning?"
" It would be affectation in one like me," said Cecil^
modestly, " to decline answering questions concerning the
views of the royal general ; but still you will pardon me if
I say, that in my present situation, I could wish to be
spared the pain of even confessing my ignorance."
" I acknowledge my error," the officer unhesitatingly
LIONEL LINCOLN. 327
answered. After a short pause, in which he seemed to
muse, he continued — " this is no ordinary night, young
lady, and it becomes my duty to refer you to the general
commanding this wing of the army. He possibly may
think it necessary to communicate your detention to the
commander-in -chief."
" It is he I seek, sir, and would most wish to meet."
He bowed, and, giving his orders to a subaltern in a low
voice, walked away, and was soon lost in the busy crowd
that came and went in constant employment, around the
summit of the hill. Cecil lingered a single moment after
her new conductor had declared his readiness to proceed,
to cast another glance at the calm splendor of the sea
and bay ; the distant and smoky roofs of the town ; the
dim objects that moved about the adjacent eminence,
equally and similarly employed with those around her ;
and then raising her calash, and tightening the folds of her
mantle, she descended the hill with the light and elastic
sfeps of youth.
CHAPTER XXX.
, " The rebel vales, the rebel dales,
With rebel trees surrounded,
The distant woods, the hills and floods,
With rebel echoes sounded." — The Battle of the Kegs.
THE enormous white cockade that covered nearly one
side of the little hat of her present conductor, was the
only symbol that told Cecil she was now committed to the
care of one who held the rank of captain, among those
who battled for the rights of the colonies. No other part
of his attire was military, though a cut-and-thrust was
buckled to his form, which, from its silver guard, and for-
midable dimensions, had probably been borne by some of
his ancestors, in the former wars of the colonies. The dis-
position of its present wearer was, however, far from that
belligerent nature that his weapon might be thought to
indicate, for he tendered the nicest care and assiduity to
the movements of his prisoner.
At the foot of the hill, a wagon, returning from the field,
was put in requisition by this semi-military gallant ; and,
after a little suitable preparation, Cecil found herself
seated on a rude bench by his side, in the vehicle ; while
328 LIONEL LINCOLN.
her own attendants, and the two private men, occupied its
bottom in still more social affinity. At first their progress
was slow and difficult, return carts, literally by hundreds,
impeding the way ; but when they had once passed the
heavy-footed beasts who drew them, they proceeded in the
direction of Roxbury, with greater rapidity. During the
first mile, while they \vere extricating themselves from the
apparently interminable line of carts, the officer directed
his whole attention to this important and difficult ma-
noeuvre ; but when their uneasy vessel might be said to be
fairly sailing before the wind, he did not choose to neglect
those services, which, from time immemorial, beautiful
women in distress have had a right to claim of men in his
profession.
" Now do not spare the whip," he said to the driver, at
the moment of their deliverance ; " but push on, for the
credit of horse-flesh, and to the disgrace of all horned
cattle. This near beast of yours should be a tory, by
his gait and his reluctance to pull in the traces for the
common good — treat him as such, friend, and, in turn,
you shall receive the treatment of a sound whig, when
we make a halt. You have spent the winter in Bos-
ton, madam ? "
Cecil bent her head in silent assent.
" The royal army will, doubtless, make a better figure in
the eyes of a lady, than the troops of the colonies ; though
there are some among us who are thought not wholly
wanting in military knowledge, and the certain air of a sol-
dier," he continued ; extricating the silver-headed legacy
of his grandfather from its concealment under a fold of his
companion's mantle — "you have balls and entertainments
without number, I fancy, ma'am, from the gentlemen in
the king's service."
" I believe that few hearts are to be found amongst the
females in Boston, so light as to mingle in their amuse-
ments ! "
" God bless them for it ! " exclaimed her escort ; " I am
sure every shot we throw into the town is like drawing
blood from our own veins. I suppose the king's officers
don't hold the colonists so cheap, since the small affair on
Charlestown Neck, as they did formerly?"
"None who had any interest at stake, in the events
of that fatal day, will easily for.get the impression it has
made ! "
The young American was too much struck by the melan-
BZ LINCOLN. 329
choly pathos in the voice of Cecil, not to fancy he had, in
his own honest triumph, unwittingly probed a wound
which time had not yet healed. They rode many minutes,
after this unsuccessful effort on his part to converse, in
profound silence; nor did he again speak until the tramp-
ling of horses' hoofs was borne along by the evening air,
unaccompanied by the lumbering sounds of wheels. At the
next turn of the road they met a small cavalcade of offi-
cers, riding at a rapid rate in the direction of the place
they had so recently quitted. The leader of this party
drew up when he saw the wagon, which was also stopped
in deference to his obvious wish to speak with them.
There was something in the haughty, and yet easy air
of the gentleman who addressed her companion, that in-
duced Cecil to attend to his remarks with more than the
interest that is usually excited by the commonplace dia-
logues of the road. His dress was neither civil, norwholly
military, though his bearing had much of a soldier's man-
ner. As he drew up, three or four dogs fawned upon him,
or passed with indulged impunity between the legs of his
high-blooded charger, apparently indifferent to the im-
patient repulses that were freely bestowed on their trouble-
some familiarities.
" High discipline, by ! " exclaimed this singular
specimen of the colonial chieftains. — " I dare presume,
gentlemen, you are from the heights of Dorchester ; and
having walked the whole distance thither from camp, are
disposed to try the virtues of a four-wheeled conveyance
over the same ground, in a retreat ! "
The young man rose in his place, and lifted his hat, with
marked respect, as he answered —
" We are returning from the hills, sir, it is true ; but we
must see our enemy before we retreat ! "
" A white cockade ! As you hold such rank, sir, I pre-
sume you have authority for your movements ? — Down,
Juno — down, slut."
" This lady was landed an hour since on the Point, from
the town, by a boat from a king's ship, sir ; and I am or-
dered to see her in safety to the general of the right wing."
" A lady ! " repeated the other, with singular emphasis,
slowly passing his hand over his remarkably aquiline and
prominent features, "if there be a lady in the case, ease
must be indulged. Will you down, Juno!" Turning his
head a little aside, to his nearest aid, he added, in a voice
that was suppressed only by the action — " Some trull of
330
LIONEL LINCOLN.
Howe's sent out as the newest specimen of loyal modesty!
In such a case, sir, you are quite right to use horses. — I
only marvel that you did not take six instead of two. But
how come we on in the trenches ? — Down, you hussy,
down ! Thou shouldst go to court, Juno, and fawn upon
his majesty's ministers, where thy sycophancy might pur-
chase thee a riband ! How come we on in the trenches ? "
" We have broken ground, sir, and as the eyes of the
royal troops are drawn upon the batteries, we shall make
a work of it before the day shows them our occupation."
"Ah ! we are certainly good at digging, if at no other
part of our exercises ! Miss Juno, thou puttest thy pre-
cious life in jeopardy ! — you will ? then take thy fate ! "
As he spoke, the impatient chief drew a pistol from his
holster, and snapped it twice at the head of the dog, that
still fawned upon him in unwitting fondness. Angry with
himself, his weapon, and the animal at the same moment,
he turned to his attendants, and added, with bitter delib-
eration— " Gentlemen, if one of you will exterminate that
quadruped, I promise him an honorable place in my first
despatches to Congress, for the service ! "
A groom in attendance whistled to the spaniel, and
probably saved the life of the disgraced favorite.
The officer now addressed himself to the party he had
detained, with a collected and dignified air, that showed he
had recovered his self-possession, by saying —
" I beg pardon, sir, for this trouble— let me not prevent
you from proceeding ; there may be serious work on the
heights before morning, and you will doubtless wish to be
there." — He bowed with perfect ease and politeness, and
the two parties were slowly passing each other, when, as if
repenting of his condescension, he turned himself in his
saddle, adding, with those sarcastic tones so peculiarly his
own — " Captain, I beseech thee have an especial care of
the lady!"
With these words in his mouth, he clapped spurs to his
horse, and galloped onward, followed by all his train, at
the same impetuous rate.
Cecil had heard each syllable that fell from the lips of
both in this short dialogue, and she felt a chill of disap-
pointment gathering about her heart, as it proceeded.
When they had parted, drawing a long, tremulous breath,
she asked, in tones that betrayed all her feelings —
"And is this Washington ?"
" That! " exclaimed her companion— "No, no, madam, he
LIONEL LINCOLN. 331
is a very different sort of man ! That is the great English
officer, whom congress has made a general in our army. He
is thought to be as great in the field, as he is uncouth in
the drawing room — yes, I will acknowledge that much in
his favor, though I never know how to understand him ;
he is proud — so supercilious — and yet, he is a great friend
of liberty !"
Cecil permitted the officer to reconcile the seeming con
tradictions in the character of his superior, in his own way,
feeling perfectly relieved, when she understood it was not
the man who could have any influence on her own destiny.
The driver now appeared anxious to recover the lost time,
and he urged his horses over the ground with increased
rapidity. The remainder of their short drive to the vicin-
ity of Roxbury, passed in silence. As the cannonading
was still maintained with equal warmth by both parties, it
was hazarding too much to place themselves in the line of
the enemy's fire. The young man, therefore, after find-
ing a secure spot among the uneven ground of the vicin-
ity, where he might leave his charge in safety, proceeded
by himself to the point where he had reason to believe he
should find the officer he was ordered to seek. During his
short absence, Cecil remained in the wagon, an appalled
listener, and a partial spectator of the neighboring con-
test.
The Americans had burst their only mortar of size, the
preceding night ; but they applied their cannon with un-
wearied diligence, not only in the face of the British
entrenchments, but on the low land, across the estuary of
the Charles ; and still farther to the north, in front of the
position which their enemies held on the well-known
heights of Charlestown. In retaliation for this attack, the
batteries along the western side of the town were in a
constant blaze of fire, while those of the eastern contin-
ued to slumber, in total unconsciousness of the coming
danger.
When the officer returned, he reported that his search
had been successful, and that he had been commanded to
conduct his charge into the presence of the American
commander-in-chief. This new arrangement imposed the
necessity of driving a few miles farther ; and as the youth
began to regard his new duty with some impatience, he
was in no humor for delay. The route was circuitous and
safe ; the roads good ; and the driver diligent. In conse-
quence, within the hour they passed the river, and Cecil
332 LIONEL LINCOLN.
found herself, after so long an absence, once more ar>
preaching the ancient provincial seat of learning.
The little village, though in the hands of friends, exhib-
ited the infallible evidences of the presence of an irregular
arrhy. The buildings of the University were filled with
troops, and the doors of the different inns were thronged
with noisy soldiers, who were assembled for the insepa-
rable purposes of revelry and folly. The officer drove to
one of the most private of these haunts of the unthinking
and idle, and declared his intentions to deposit his charge
under its roof, until he could learn the pleasure of the
American leader. Cecil heard his arrangements with little
satisfaction ; but, yielding to the necessity of the case,
when the vehicle had stopped, she alighted, without re-
monstrance. With her two attendants in her train, and
preceded by the officer, she passed through the noisy
crowd, not only without insult, but without molestation.
The different declaimers in the throng, and there were
many, even lowered 'their clamorous voices as she ap-
proached, the men giving way, in deference for her sex ;
and she entered the building without hearing but one re-
mark applied to herself, though a low and curious buzz of
voices followed her footsteps to its very threshold. That
solitary remark was a sudden exclamation, in admiration
of the grace of her movements ; and, singular as it may
seem, her companion thought it necessary to apologize for
its rudeness, by whispering that it proceeded from the
lips of " one of the southern riflemen; a corps as dis-
tinguished for its skill and bravery, as for its want of
breeding!"
The inside of this inn presented a very different aspect
from its exterior. The decent tradesman who kept it had
so far yielded to the emergency of the times, and perhaps,
also, to a certain propensity towards gain, as temporarily
to adopt the profession he followed ; but by a sort of im-
plied compact with the crowd without, while he adminis-
tered to their appetite for liquor, he preserved most of the
privacy of his domestic arrangements. He had, however,
been compelled to relinquish one apartment entirely to
the service of the public, into which Cecil and her com-
panions were shown, as a matter of course, without the
smallest apology for its condition.
There might have been a dozen people in the common
room ; some of whom were quietly seated before its large
fire, among whom were one or two females ; some walk-
LIONEL LINCOLN; 333
ing, and others distributed on chairs, as accident or incli-
nation had placed them. A slight movement was made at
the entrance of Cecil, but it soon subsided ; though he*
rich mantle of fine cloth, and silken calash, did not fail to
draw the eyes of the women upon her, with a ruder gaze
than she had yet encountered from the other sex during
the hazardous adventures of the night. She took an
offered 'seat near the bright and cheerful blaze on the
hearth, which imparted all the light the room contained,
and disposed herself to wait in patience the return of her
conductor, who immediately took his departure for the
neighboring quarters of the American chief.
" Tis an awful time for women bodies to journey in ! "
said a middle-aged woman near her, who was busily en-
gaged in knitting, though she also bore the marks of a
traveller in her dress — " I'm sure if I had thought there'd
ha' been such contentions, I would never have crossed the
Connecticut ; though I have an only child in camp ! "
" To a mother, the distress must be great, indeed," said
Cecil, " when she hears the report of a contest in which
she knows her children are engaged."
" Yes, Royal is engaged as a six-months'-man, and he is
partly agreed to stay till the king's troops conclude to
give up the town."
" It seems to me," said a grave-looking yeoman, who oc-
cupied the opposite corner of the fireplace, "your child
has an unfitting name for one who fights against the
crown ! "
"Ah, he was so called before the king wore his Scottish
Boot ! and what has once been solemnly named, in holy
baptism, is not to be changed with the shift of the times !
They were twins, and I called one Prince and the other
Royal ; for they were born the day his present majesty came
to man's estate. That, you know, was before his heart had
changed, and when the people of the Bay loved him little
less than they did their own flesh and blood."
"Why, Goody," said the yeoman, smiling good-humor-
edly, and rising to offer her a pinch of his real Scotch, in
token of amity, while he made so free with her domestic
matters — " you had then an heir to the throne in your own
family ! The Prince Royal, they say, comes next to the
king ; and by your tell, one of them, at least, is a worthy
fellow, who is not likely to sell his heritage for a mess of
pottage ! If I understand you, Royal is here in service?"
" He's at this blessed moment in one of the battering'
334 LIONEL LINCOLN.
rams in front of Boston Neck," returned the woman ; " and
the Lord, he knows, 'tis an awful calling, to be beating
down the houses of people of the same religion and blood
with ourselves ! but so it must be, to prevail over the
wicked designs of such as would live in pomp and idleness,
by the sweat and labor of their fellow-creatures."
The honest yeoman, who was somewhat more familiar
with the terms of modern warfare than the woman, smiled
at her mistake, while he pursued the conversation with a
peculiar gravity, which rendered his humor doubly droll.
" Tis to be hoped the boy will not weary at the weapon
before the morning cometh. But why does Prince linger
behind, in such a moment ? Tarries he with his father, on
the homestead, in safety, being the younger born ? "
"No, no," said the woman, shaking her head, in sorrow,
" he dwells, I trust, with our common Father, in heaven !
Neither are you right in calling him the home-child. He
was my first-born, and a comely youth he grew to be !
When the cry that the reg'lars were out at Lexington, to
kill and destroy, passed through the country, he shouldered
his musket, and came down with the people, to know the
reason the land was stained with American blood. He was
young, and full of ambition to be foremost among them
who were willing to fight for their birthrights ; and the
last I ever heard of him was in the midst of the king's
troops on Breed's. No, no ; his body never came off the
hill ! The neighbors sent me up the clothes he left in
camp, and 'tis one of his socks that I'm now footing for his
twin-brother."
The woman delivered this simple explanation with per-
fect calmness ; though, as she advanced in the subject, large
tears started from her eyes, and, following each other down
her cheeks, fell unheeded upon the humble garment of her
dead son.
"This is the way our bravest striplings are cut off, fight-
ing with the scum(of Europe ! " exclaimed the yeoman, with
a warmth that showed how powerfully his feelings were
touched — " I hope the boy who lives may find occasion to
revenge his brother's death."
" God forbid ! God forbid ! " exclaimed the weeping
mother — " revenge is an evil passion ; and least of all would
I wish a child of mine to go into the field of blood with so
foul a breast. God has given us this land to dwell in, and
to rear up temples and worshippers of his holy name ; and
in giving it, he bestowed the right to defend it against all
LIONEL LINCOLN. 335
earthly oppression. If 'twas right for Prince to come,
'twas right for Royal to follow ! "
" I believe I am reproved in justice," returned the man,
looking around at the spectators with an eye that no longer
teemed with a hidden meaning — " God bless you, my good
woman, and deliver you, with your remaining boy, and all
of us, from the scourge which has been inflicted on the
country for our sins. I go west, into the mountains, with
the sun ; and if I can carry any word of comfort from you
to the good man at home, it will not be a hill or two that
shall hinder it."
" The same thanks to you for the offer, as if you did it,
friend ; my man would be right glad to see you at his set-
tlement ; out I sicken already with the noises and awful
sights of warfare, and shall not tarry long after my-son
comes forth from the battle. I shall go down to Cragie's-
house in the morning, and look upon the blessed man
whom the people have chosen from among themselves as
a leader, and hurry back again ; for I plainly see that this
is not an abiding place for such as I ! "
" You will then have to follow him into the line of dan-
ger ; for I saw him, within the hour, riding, with all his
followers, toward the water-side ; and I doubt not that this
unusual waste of ammunition is intended for more than we
of little wit can guess."
" Of whom speak you ?" Cecil involuntarily asked.
" Of whom should he speak, but of Washington ? " re-
turned a deep, low voice at her elbow, whose remarkable
sounds instantly recalled the tones of the aged messenger
of death, who had appeared at the bed-side of her grand-
mother. Cecil started from her chair, and recoiled several
paces from the person of Ralph, who stood regarding her
with a steady and searching look, heedless of the observa-
tion they attracted, as well as of the number and quality
of the spectators.
"We are not strangers, young lady," continued the old
man ; " and you will excuse me, if I add, that the face of
an acquaintance must be grateful-to one of your gentle
sex, in a place so unsettled and disorderly as this."
"An acquaintance !" repeated the unprotected bride.
" I said an acquaintance ; we know each other, surely,"
returned Ralph, with marked emphasis ; " you will be-
lieve me when I add, that I have seen the two men in the
guard-room, which is at hand."
Cecil cast a furtive glance behind her, and, with some
336 LIONEL LINCOLN.
alarm, perceived that she was separated from Meriton and
the stranger. Before time was allowed for recollection,
the old man approached her with a courtly breeding, that
was rendered more striking by the coarseness as well as
negligence of his attire.
"This is not a place for the niece of an English peer/'
he said ; " but I have long been at home in this warlike
village, and will conduct you to another residence, more
suited to your sex and condition."
For an instant Cecil hesitated ; but observing the won-
dering- faces about her, and the intense curiosity with
which all in the room suspended their several pursuits, to
listen to each syllable, she timidly accepted his offered
hand, suffering him to lead her, not only from the room,
but the house, in profound silence. The door through
which they left the building was opposite to that by which
she had entered ; and when they found themselves in the
open air, it was in a different street, and a short distance
removed from the crowd of revellers already mentioned.
" I have left two attendants behind me," she said, " with-
out whom 'tis impossible to proceed."
"As they are watched by armed men, you have no
choice but to share their confinement, or to submit to
the temporary separation," returned the other, calmly.
" Should his keepers discover the character of him who
led you hither, his fate would be certain ! "
" His character ! " repeated Cecil, again shrinking from
the touch of the old man.
" Surely my words are plain ! I said his character. Is
he not the deadly, obstinate enemy of liberty ? And think
you these countrymen of ours so dull as to suffer one like
him to go at large in their very camp ! — No, no," he mut-
tered with a low, but exulting laugh ; " like a fool has he
tempted his fate, and like a dog shall he meet it ! Let us
proceed ; the house is but a step from this, and you may
summon him to your presence if you will."
Cecil was rather impelled by her companion, than in-
duced to proceed, when, as he had said, they soon stopped
before the door of an humble and retired building. An
armed man paced along its front, while the lengthened
shadow of another sentinel in the rear was every half-min-
ute thrown far into the street, in confirmation of the watch-
fulness that was kept over those who dwelt within.
" Proceed," said Ralph, throwing open the outer door,
without hesitation. Cecil complied, but started at en<
LIONEL LINCOLN 337
countering another man, trailing a musket, as he paced to
and fro in the narrow passage that received her. Between
this sentinel and Ralph, there seemed to exist a good un-
derstanding, for the latter addressed him with perfect free-
dom—
" Has no order been yet received from Washington ? "
he asked.
" None ; and I rather conclude, by the delay, that noth-
ing very favorable is to be expected."
The old man muttered to himself, but passed on, and,
throwing open another door, said —
" Enter."
Again Cecil complied, the door closing on her at the
instant ; but before she had time to express either her
wonder or her alarm, she was folded in the arms of her
husband.
CHAPTER XXXI.
"Is she aCapulet?
O dear account ! my life is my foe's debt." — Romeo.
" AH ! Lincoln ! Lincoln ! " cried the weeping bride,
gently extricating herself from the long embrace of Lionel,
" at what a moment did you desert me ! "
"And how have I been punished, love ! a night of
frenzy, and a morrow of useless regrets ! How early
have I been made to feel the strength of those ties which
unite us ; — unless, indeed, my own folly may have already
severed them forever ! "
" Truant ! I know you ! and shall hereafter weave a web,
with woman's art, to keep you in my toils ! If you love
me, Lionel, as I would fain believe, let all the past be for-
gotten. I ask — I wish, no explanation. You have been
deceived, and that repentant eye assures me of your re-
turning reason. Let us now speak only of yourself. Why
do I find you thus guarded, more like a criminal than an
officer of the crown ? "
"They have, indeed, bestowed especial watchfulness on
my safety ! "
" How came you in their power ? and why do they abuse
their advantage ? "
" 'Tis easily explained. Presuming on the tempestuous-
ness of the night— what a bridal was ours, Cecil ! "
22
338 LIONEL LINCOLN.
" 'Twas terrible ! " she answered, shuddering ; then, with
a bright and instant smile, as if sedulous to chase every
appearance of distrust or care from her countenance, she
continued — " but I have no longer faith in omens, Lincoln !
or, if one has been given, is not the awful fulfilment already
come ? I know not how you value the benedictions of a
parting soul, Lionel, but to me there is holy consolation in
knowing that my dying parent left her blessing on our
sudden union ! "
Disregarding the hand, which, with gentle earnestness,
she had laid upon his shoulder, he walked gloomily away,
into a distant corner of the apartment.
" Cecil, I do love you, as you would fain believe," he
said, "and I listen readily to your wish to bury the past
in oblivion. — But I leave my tale unfinished. You know
the night was such that none would choose, uselessly, to
brave its fury — I attempted to profit by the storm, and
availing myself of a flag, which is regularly granted to the
simpleton, Job Pray, I left the town. Impatient — do I say
impatient? — borne along rather by a tempest of passions
that mocked the feebler elements, we ventured too much
•^-Cecil, I was not alone ! "
" I know it — I know it/' she said, hurriedly, though
speaking barely above her breath — "you ventured too
much — "
" And encountered a: piquet that would not mistake a
royal officer for an impoverished, though privileged idiot.
In our anxiety we overlooked — believe me, dearest Cecil,
that if you knew all — the scene I had witnessed — the mo-
tives which urged — they, at least would justify this strange
and seeming desertion."
" Did I doubt it, would I forget my condition, my recent
loss, and my sex, to follow in the footsteps of one unworthy
of my solicitude ! " returned the bride, coloring as much
with innate modesty, as with the power of her emotions.
"Think not I come with girlish weakness, to reproach you
with any fancied wrongs t I am your wife, Major Lin-
coln ; and as such would I serve you, at a moment when I
know all the tenderness of the tie will most be needed.
At the altar, and in the presence of my God, have I ac-
knowledged the sacred duty ; and shall I hesitate to dis>
charge it because the eyes of man are on me ! "
" I shall go mad ! — I shall go mad ! " cried Lionel, in
ungovernable mental anguish, as he paced the floor, in vi-
olent disorder. — " There are moments when I think that
LIONEL LINCOLN-. 339
the curse, which destroyed the father, has already lighted
on the son ! "
" Lionel ! " said the soft, soothing voice of his compan-
ion, at his elbow, " is this to render me more happy ? — •
the welcome you bestow on the confiding girl, who has
committed her happiness to your keeping ? I see you re-
lent, and will be more just to us both ; more dutiful to
your God ! Now let us speak of your confinement. Surely,
you are not suspected of any criminal designs in this rash
visit to the camp of the Americans ! 'Twere easy to con-
vince their leaders that you are innocent of so base a pur-
pose ! "
"'Tis difficult to evade the vigilance of those who strug-
gle for liberty ! "-returned the low, calm voice of Ralph,
who stood before them, unexpectedly. " Major Lincoln
has too long listened to the councils of tyrants and slaves,
and forgotten the land of his birth. If he would be safe,
let him retract the error, while yet he may, with honor."
" Honor !" repeated Lionel, with unconcealed disdain
— again pacing the room with swift and uneasy steps, with-
out deigning any other notice of the unwelcome intruder.
Cecil bowed her head, and, sinking in a chair, concealed
her face in her small muff, as if to exclude some horrid
and fearful sight from her view.
The momentary silence was broken by the sound of foot-
steps and of voices in the passage, and at the next instant,
the door of the room opening, Meriton was seen on its
threshold. His appearance roused Cecil, who, springing
on her feet, beckoned him away, with a sort of frenzied
earnestness, exclaiming —
" Not here ! not here ! — for the love of heaven, not here ! "
The valet hesitated, but, catching a glimpse of his mas^
ter, his attachment got the ascendency of his respect —
" God be praised for this blessed sight, Master Lionel ! "
he cried — " 'tis the happiest hour I have seen since I lost
the look at the shores of old England ! If 'twas only at
Ravenscliffe, or in Soho, I should be the most contented
fool in the three kingdoms ! Ah, Master Lionel, let us get
out of this province, into the country, where there is no
rebels ; or anything worse than King, Lords, and Com-
mons ! "
" Enough now ; for this time, worthy Meriton, enough !"
interrupted Cecil, breathing with difficulty, in her eager-
ness to be heard. — " Go — return to the inn — the colleges
— anywhere — do but go ! "
340 LIONEL LINCOLN.
" Don't send a loyal subject, ma'am, again among th«
rebels, I desire to entreat of you. Such awful blasphemies,
sir, as I heard while I was there ! They spoke of his sa-
cred majesty just as freely, sir, as if he had been a gentle-
man like yourself. Joyful was the news of my release ! "
" And had it been a guard-room on the opposite shore,"
said Ralph, " the liberties they used with your earthly
monarch would have been as freely taken with the King
of kings ! "
"You shall remain, then," said Cecil, probably mistak-
ing the look of high disdain which Mcriton bestowed on
his aged fellow-voyager, for one of a very different mean-
ing— " but not here. You have other apartments, Major
Lincoln ; let my attendants be received , there — you surely
would not admit the menials to our interview ! "
" Why this sudden terror, love ? Here, if not happy,
you at least are safe. Go, Meriton, into the adjoining
room ; if wanted, there is admission through this door of
communication."
The valet murmured some half-uttered sentences, of
which only the emphatic word " genteel " was audible ;
while the direction of his discontented eye sufficiently be-
trayed that Ralph was the subject of his meditations. The
old man followed his footsteps, and the door of the passage
soon closed on both, leaving Cecil standing, like a beauti-
ful statue, in an attitude of absorbed thought. When the
noise of her attendants, as they quietly entered the adjoin-
ing room, was heard, she breathed again, with a tremulous
sigh, that seemed to raise a weight of apprehension from
her heart.
"Fear not for rne, Cecil, and least of all for yourself,"
said Lionel, drawing her to his bosom with fond solicitude
• — " my headlong rashness, or rather that fatal bane to the
happiness of my house, the distempered feeling which you
must have often seen and deplored, has indeed led me in-
to a seeming danger. But I have a reason for my conduct,
which, avowed, shall lull the suspicions of even our ene-
mies to sleep."
" I have no suspicions — no knowledge of any imper«
fections — no regrets, Lionel ; — nothing but the most ar«
dent wishes for your peace of mind ; and, if I might ex-
plain ! — yes, now is a time — Lionel, kind, but truant Lio-
nel "
Her words were interrupted by Ralph, who appeared
again in the room, with that noiseless step, which, in con-
LIONEL LINCOLN. 341
junction with his great age and attenuated frame, some-
times gave to his movements and aspect the character of
a being superior to the attributes of humanity. On his
arm he bore an overcoat and a hat, both of which Cecil
recognized, at a glance, ,as the property of the unknown
man who had attended her person throughout all the vicis-
situdes of that eventful night.
" See ! " said Ralph, exhibiting his spoils with a ghastly,
but meaning smile, " see in how many forms Liberty ap-
pears to aid her votaries ! Here is the guise in which she
will now be courted ! Wear them, young man, and be
free ! "
" Believe him not — listen not," whispered Cecil, while
she shrunk from his approach in undisguised terror —
"nay, do listen, but act with caution!"
" Dost thou delay to receive the blessed boon of freedom,
when offered ? " demanded Ralph ; " wouldst thou remain,
and brave the angry justice of the American chief, and
make thy wife, of a day, a widow for an age ? "
"In what manner am I to profit by this dress ?" said
Lionel. — " To submit to the degradation of a disguise, suc-
cess should be certain."
" Turn thy haughty eyes, young man, on the picture of
innocence, and terror at thy side. For the sake of her
whose fate is wrapped in thine, if not for your own,
consult thy safety, and fly — another minute may be too
late."
" Oh ! hesitate not a moment longer, Lincoln," cried
Cecil, with a change of purpose as sudden as the impulse
was powerful — " fly, — leave me ; my sex and station will
be "
"Never," said Lionel, casting the garment from him,
in cool disdain. — " Once, when Death was busy, did I
abandon thee ; but, ere I do it again, his blow must fall on
me ! "
" I will follow — I will rejoin you."
" You shall not part," said Ralph, once more raising the
rejected coat, and lending his aid to envelop the form of
Lionel, who stood passive under the united efforts of his
bride and her aged assistant. "Remain here," the latter
added, when their brief task was ended, " and await the
summons to freedom. And thou, sweet flower of innocence
and love, follow, and share in the honor of liberating him
who has enslaved thee !"
Cecil blushed with virgin shame, at the strength of his
342 LIONEL LINCOLN.
expressions, but bowed her head in silent acquiescence ta
his will. Proceeding to the door, he beckoned her to ap-
proach, indicating, by an expressive gesture to Lionel, that
he was to remain stationary. When Cecil had complied,
and they were in the narrow passage of the building, Ralph,
instead of betraying any apprehension of the sentinel who
paced its length, fearlessly approached, and addressed him
with the confidence of a known friend —
''See!" he said, removing the calash from before the
pale features of his companion, " how terror for the fate
of her husband has caused the good child to weep ! She
quits him now, friend, with one of her attendants, while
the other tarries to administer to his master's wants. Look
at her ; is't not a sweet, though mourning partner, to smooth
the path of a soldier's life ! "
The man seemed awkwardly sensible of the unusual
charms that Ralph so unceremoniously exhibited to his
view ; and while he stood in admiring embarrassment,
ashamed to gaze, and yet unwilling to retire, Cecil traced
the light footsteps of the old man, entering the room oc-
cupied by Meriton and the stranger. She was still in the
act of veiling her features from the eyes of the sentinel,
when Ralph reappeared, attended by a figure muffled in
the well-known overcoat. Notwithstanding the flopped
hat, and studied concealment of his gait, the keen eyes of
the wife penetrated the disguise of her husband ; and recol-
lecting, at the same instant, the door of communication
between the two apartments, the whole artifice was at once
revealed. With trembling eagerness she glided past the
sentinel, and pressed to the side of Lionel, with a de-
pendence that might have betrayed the deception to one
more accustomed to the forms of life than was the honest
countryman who had so recently thrown aside the flail to
carry a musket.
Ralph allowed the sentinel no time to deliberate ; but
waving his hand in token of adieu, he led the way into the
street, with his accustomed activity. Here they found
themselves in the presence of the other soldier, who moved
to and fro, along the allotted ground in front of the build-
ing, rendering the watchfulness, by which they were en-
vironed, doubly embarrassing. Following the example of
their aged conductor, Lionel and his trembling companion
walked with apparent indifference towards this man, who,
as it proved, was better deserving of his trust than his fel-
low within doors. Dropping his musket across their path,
LIONEL LINCOLN'. 343
in a manner which announced an intention to inquire into
their movements, before he suffered them to proceed, he
roughly demanded —
" How's this, old gentleman ? you come out of the prison-
ers' rooms by squads ! one, two, three ; our English gallant
might be among you, and there would still be two left !
Come, come, old father, render some account of yourself,
and of your command. For, to be plain with you, there
are those who think you are no better than a spy of Howe's,
notwithstanding you are left to run up and down the camp,
as you please. In plain Yankee dialect, and that's intelli-
gible English, you have been caught in bad company of
late, and there has been hard talk about shutting you up,
as well as your comrade ! "
" Hear ye that ? " said Ralph, calmly smiling, and ad-
dressing himself to his companions, instead of the man
whose interrogatories he was expected to answer — " think
you the hirelings of the crown are thus alert ? Would not
the slaves be sleeping the moment the eyes of their tyrants
are turned on their own lawless pleasures ? Thus it is with
Liberty ! The sacred spirit hallows its meanest votaries, and
elevates the private to all the virtues of the proudest cap-
tain ! "
" Come, come," returned the flattered sentinel, throwing
his musket back to his shoulder again, " I believe a man
gains nothing by battling you with words ! I should have
spent a year or two inside yonder colleges to dive at all
your meaning. Though I can guess you are more than half
right in one thing ;, for if a poor fellow, who loves his
country, and the good cause, finds it so hard to keep his
eyes open on post, what must it be to a half-starved devil
on sixpence a-day ! Go along, go along, old father ; there
is one less of you than went in, and if there was anything
wrong, the man in the house should know it ! '
As he concluded, the sentinel continued his walk, hum-
ming averse of Yankee-doodle, in excellent favor with him-
self and all mankind, with the sweeping exception of his
country's enemies. To say that this was not the first in-
stance of well-meaning integrity being cajoled by the jar-
gon of liberty, might be an assertion too hazardous ; but
that it has not been the last, we conscientiously believe,
though no immediate example may present itself to quote
in support of such heretical credulity.
Ralph appeared, however, perfectly innocent of intend-
ing to utter more than the spirit of the times justified ,'
344 LIONEL LINCOLN.
for, when left to his own pleasure, he pursued his way,
muttering rapidly to himself, and with an earnestness that
attested his sincerity. When they had turned a corner, at
a little distance from any pressing danger, he relaxed in
his movements, and, suffering his eager companions to ap-
proach, he stole to the side of Lionel, and, clenching his
hand fiercely, he whispered, in a voice half choked by in-
ward exultation —
" I have him now ; he is no longer dangerous ! Ay — ay
—I have him closely watched by the vigilance of three in-
corruptible patriots ! "
" Of whom speak you ? " demanded Lionel — " what is his
offence, and where is your captive ?"
" A dog ! a man in form, but a tiger in heart ! Ay ! but I
have him ! " the old man continued, with a hollow laugh,
that seemed to heave up from his inmost soul — " a dog ;
a veritable dog ! I have him, and God grant that he may
drink of the cup of slavery to its dregs ! "
"Old man," said Lionel, firmly, "that I have followed
you thus far on no unworthy errand, you best may testify
— I have forgotten the oath which, at the altar, I had sworn
to, to cherish this sweet and spotless being at my side,
at your instigation, aided by the maddening circumstan-
ces of a moment ; but the delusion has already passed
away ! Here we part forever, unless your solemn and often-
repeated promises are, on the instant, redeemed."
The high exultation, which had so lately rendered the
emaciated countenance of Ralph hideously ghastly, disap-
peared like a passing shadow ; and he listened to the
words of Lionel with calm and settled attention. But when
he would have answered, he was interrupted by Cecil, who
uttered, in a voice nearly suppressed by her fears —
" Oh ! delay not a moment ! Let us proceed anywhere,
or anyhow ! even 'now the pursuers may be on our track.
I am strong, dearest Lionel, and will follow to the ends of
the earth, so you but lead ! "
" Lionel Lincoln, I have not deceived thee ! " said the
old man, solemnly. "Providence has already led us on our
way, and a few minutes will bring us to our goal — suffer,
then, that gentle trembler to return into the village, and
follow ! "
"Not an inch!" returned Lionel, pressing Cecil still
closer to his side — " here we part, or your promises are
fulfilled."
" Nay, go with him — go," again whispered the being who
LIONEL LINCOLN. 345
clung to him in trembling dependence. "This very con-
troversy may prove your ruin — did I not say I would ac-
company you, Lincoln ? "
"Lead on, then," said her husband, motioning Ralph to
proceed — " once again will I confide in you ; but use the
trust with discretion, for my guardian spirit is at hand ;
and remember, thou no longer leadest a lunatic !"
The moon fell upon the wan features of the old man,
and exhibited their contented smile, as he silently turned
away, and resumed his progress with his wonted rapid and
noiseless tread. Their route still lay towards the skirts of
the village. While the building;s of the University were
yet in the near view, and the loud laugh of the idlers
about the inn, with the frequent challenges of the senti-
nels, were still distinctly audible, their conductor bent his
way beneath the walls of a church, that rose in solemn
solitude in the deceptive light of the evening. Pointing
upward at its somewhat unusual, because regular architec-
ture, Ralph muttered, as he passed —
"Here, at least, God possesses his own, without insult ! "
Lionel and Cecil slightly glanced their eyes at the silent
walls, and followed into a small enclosure, through a gap
in its humble and dilapidated fence. Here the former
again paused and spoke—
"I will go no further," he said, unconsciously strength-
ening the declaration by placing his foot firmly on the
frozen earth, in an attitude of resistance — " 'tis time to
cease thinking of self, and to listen to the weakness of her
whom I support !"
"Think not of me, dearest Lincoln "
Cecil was interrupted by the voice of the old man, who,
raising his hat, and baring his gray locks to the mild rays
of the planet, answered with tremulous emotion —
1 'Thy task is already ended ! Thou hast reached the
spot, where moulder the bones of one who long supported
thee. Unthinking boy, that sacrilegious foot treads on thy
mother's grave !"
346 LIONEL LINCOLN.
CHAPTER XXXII.
" Oh, age has weary days,
And nights o' sleepless pain !
Thou golden time o' youthful prime,
Why com'st thou not again ? " — BURNS.
THE stillness that succeeded this unexpected annuncia-
tion was like the cold silence of those who slumbered on
every side of them. Lionel recoiled a pace, in horror;
then, imitating the action of the old man, he uncovered his
head, in pious reverence of the parent, whose form floated
dimly in his imagination, like the earliest recollections of
infancy, or the imperfect fancies of some dream. When
time was given for these sudden emotions to subside, he
turned to Ralph, and said —
" And was it here that you would bring me, to listen to
the sorrows of my family ? "
An expression of piteous anguish crossed the features of
the other, as he answered, in a voice which was subdued to
softness —
" Even here — here in the presence of thy mother's grave,
shalt thou hear the tale ! "
" Then let it be here ! " said Lionel, whose eye was al-
ready kindling with a wild and disordered meaning, that
curdled the blood of the anxious Cecil, who watched its
expression with a woman's solicitude. — " Here, on this
hallowed spot, will I. listen, and swear the vengeance that
is due, if all thy previous intimations should be just —
"No, no, no — listen not — tarry "not!" said Cecil, cling-
ing to his side in undisguised alarm — " Lincoln, you are
not equal to the scene ! "
" I am equal to anything, in such a cause."
" Nay, Lionel, you overrate your powers ! — Think only
of your safety, now ; at another, and happier moment you
shall know all — yes — I — Cecil — thy bride, thy wife, prom-
ise that all shall be revealed "
" Thou ! "
" It is the descendant of the widow of John Lechmere
who speaks, and thy ears will not refuse the sounds," said
Ralph, with a smile that acted like a taunt on the awakened
impulses of the young man. — " Go — thou art fitter for a
bridal than a church-yard ! "
LIONEL LINCOLN. 347
UI have told you that I am equal to anything," sternly
answered Lionel ; " here will I sit, on this humble tablet,
to hear all that you can utter, though the rebel legions en-
circle me to my death ! "
" What ! dar'st brave the averted eye of one so dear to
thy heart ? "
"All, or anything," exclaimed the excited youth, "with
so pious an object."
" Bravely answered ! and thy reward is nigh — nay, look
not on the siren, or thou wilt relent."
" My wife ! " said Lionel, extending his hand, kindly,
towards the shrinking form of Cecil.
"Thy mother!" interrupted Ralph, pointing with his
emaciated hand to the cold residence of the dead.
Lionel sunk on the dilapidated gravestone to which he
had just alluded, and gathering his coat about him, he
rested an arm upon his knee, while its hand supported his
quivering chin, as if he were desperately bent on his
gloomy purpose. The old man smiled with his usual
ghastly expression, as he witnessed this proof of his suc-
cess, and he took a similar seat on the opposite -side of the
grave, which seemed the focus of their common interest.
Here he dropped his face between his hands, and appeared
to muse, like one who was collecting his thoughts for the
coming emergency. During this short and impressive
pause, Lionel felt the trembling form of Cecil drawing to
his side ; and before his aged companion spoke, her un-
veiled and pallid countenance was once more watching the
changes of his own features, in submissive, but anxious at-
tention.
"Thou knowest already, Lionel Lincoln," commenced
Ralph, slowly raising his body to an upright attitude, " how,
in past ages, thy family sought these colonies, to find re-
ligious quiet, and the peace of the just. And thou also
knowest, — for often did we beguile the long watches of
the night in discoursing of these things, while the never-
tiring ocean was rolling its waters unheeded around, — how
Death came into its elder branch, which still dwelt amid
the luxury and corruption of the English court, and left
thy father the heir of all its riches and honors."
" How much of this is unknown to the meanest gossip
in the province of Massachusetts Bay ? " interrupted the
impatient Lionel.
" But they do not know, that, for years before this ac-
cumulation of fortune actually occurred, it was deemed to
348 LIONEL LINCOLN.
be inevitable by the decrees of Providence ; they do not
know how much more value the orphan son of the unpro-
vided soldier found in the eyes of those even of his own
blood, by the expectation ; nor do they know how the
worldly-minded Priscilla Lechmere, thy father's aunt, would
have compassed heaven and earth, to have seen that wealth,
and those honors, to which it was her greatest boast to
claim alliance, descend in the line of her own body."
" But 'twas impossible ! She was of the female branch ;
neither had she a son ! "
" Nothing seems impossible to those on whose peace of
mind the worm of ambition feeds — thou knowest well she
left a grandchild ; had not that child a mother ? "
Lionel felt a painful conviction of the connection, as the
trembling object of these remarks sunk her head in shame
and sorrow on his bosom, keenly alive to the justice of the
character drawn of her deceased relative, by the mysterious
being who had just spoken. .
" God forbid, that I, a Christian, and a gentleman," con-
tinued the old man, a little proudly, " should utter a
syllable to" taint the spotless name of one so free from
blemish as she of whom I speak. The sweet child who
clings to thee, in dread, Lionel, was not more pure and
innocent than she who bore her. And long before ambi-
tion had wove its toils for the miserable Priscilla, the heart
of her daughter was the property of the gallant and honor-
able Englishman, to whom in later years she was wedded."
As Cecil heard this soothing commendation of her more
immediate parents, she again raised her face into the light
of the moon, and remained, where she was already kneel-
ing, at the side of Lionel, no longer an uneasy, but a deeply
interested listener to what followed.
" As the wishes of my unhappy aunt were not realized/'
said Major Lincoln, "in what manner could they affect the
fortunes of my father?"
"Thou shn.lt hear. In the same dwelling lived another,
even fairer, and, to the eye, as pure as the daughter of
Priscilla. She was the relative, the god-child, and the
ward of that miserable woman. The beauty, and seeming
virtues of this apparent angel in human form, caught the
young eye of thy father, and, in defiance of arts and
schemes, before the long-expected title and fortune came,
they were wedded, and thou wert born, Lionel, to render
the boon of Fate doubly welcome."
" And then "
LIONEL LINCOLN. 349
" And then thy father hastened to the land of his ances-
tors, to claim his own, and to prepare the way for the
reception of yourself, and his beloved Priscilla — for then
there were two Priscillas ; and now both sleep with the
dead ! All having life and nature can claim the quiet of
the grave, but I," continued the old man, glancing his hol-
low eye upward, with a look of hopeless misery, — " I, who
have seen ages pass since the blood of youth has been
chilled, and generation after generation swept away, must
stilJ linger in the haunts of men ! but 'tis to aid in the
great work which commences here, but which shall not end
until a continent be regenerate."
Lionel suffered a minute to pass without a question, in
deference to this burst of feeling ; but soon, making an
impatient movement, it drew the eyes of Ralph once more
upon him, and the old man continued —
" Month after month, for two long and tedious years, did
thy father linger in England, struggling for his own. At
length he prevailed. He then hastened hither ; but there
was no wife — no fond and loving Priscilla, like that ten-
der flower that reposes in thy bosom, to welcome his re-
turn."
" I know it," said Lionel, nearly choked by his pious
recollections — " she was dead."
" She was more," returned Ralph, in a voice so deep,
that it sounded like one speaking from the grave — " she
was dishonored ! "
" Tis false ! "
" 'Tis true ; true as that holy gospel which comes to
men through the inspired ministers of God ! "
"'Tis false," repeated Lionel fiercely — "blacker than
the darkest thoughts of the foul spirit of evil ! "
" I say, rash boy, 'tis true ! She died in giving birth to
the fruits of her infamy. When Priscilla Lecbmere met
thy heart-stricken parent with the damning tale, he read
in'her exulting eye the treason of her mind, and, like thee,
he dared to call heaven to witness, that thy mother was
defamed. But there was one known to him, under cir-
cumstances that forbade the thoughts of deceit, who swore
— ay, took the blessed name of Him, who reads all hearts,
for warranty of her truth ! — and she confirmed it."
" The infamous seducer ! " said Lionel, hoarsely, his
body turning unconsciously away from Cecil — " does he
yet live ? Give him to my vengeance, old man, and I will
yet bless you for your accursed history ! "
350 LIONEL LINCOLN-.
" Lionel, Lionel," said the soothing voice of his bride,
" do you credit him ? "
" Credit him ! " said Ralph, with a horrid, inward laugh,
as if he would deride the idea of incredulity; "all this
must he believe, and more ! Once again, weak girl, did
thy grandmother throw out her lures for the wealthy bar-
onet, and when he would not become her son, then did she
league with the spirits of hell to compass his ruin. Re-
venge took place of ambition, and thy husband's father
was the victim ! "
" Say on ! " cried Lionel, nearly ceasing to breathe in
the intensity of his interest.
11 The blow had cut him to the heart ; and, for a time,
his reason was crushed beneath its weight. Yet 'twas but
for an hour, compared to the eternity a man is doomed to
live ! They profited by the temporary derangement, and
when his wandering faculties were lulled to quiet, he
found himself the tenant of a mad-house, where, for twenty
long years, was he herded with the defaced images of his
Maker, by the arts of the base widow of John Lechmere."
" Can this be true ! Can this be true ! " cried Lionel,
clasping his hands wildly, and springing to his feet, with
a violence that cast the tender form that still clung to him,
aside, like a worthless toy — " Can this be proved ? Flow
knowest thou these facts ? "
The calm, but melancholy smile that was wont to light
the wan features of the old man, when he alluded to his
own existence, was once more visible, as he answered —
" There is but little hid from the knowledge acquired
by length of days ; besides, have I not secret means of in-
telligence that are unknown to tliee ? Remember what,
in our frequent interviews, I have revealed ; recall the
death-bed scene of Priscilla Lechmere, and ask thyself if
there be not truth in thy aged friend ?"
" Give me all ! hold not back a tittle of thy accursed
tale — give me all — or take back each syllable thou hast
uttered."
" Thou shalt have all thou askest, Lionel Lincoln, and
more," returned Ralph, throwing into his manner and
voice its utmost powers of solemnity and persuasion —
"provided thou wilt swear eternal hatred to that country
and those laws, by which an innocent and unoffending
man can be levelled with the beasts of the field, and be
made to rave even at his Makter, in the bitterness of his
sufferings."
LIONEL LINCOLN'. 35!
" More than that — ten thousand times more than that,
will I swear — I will league with this rebellion —
" Lionel, Lionel — what is't you do ? " interrupted the
heart-stricken Cecil.
But her voice was stilled by loud and busy cries, which
broke out of the village, above the hum of revelry, and
were instantly succeeded by the trampling of footsteps, as
men rushed over the frozen ground, apparently by hun-
dreds, and with headlong rapidity. Ralph, who was not
less quick to hear these sounds than the timid bride, glided
from the grave, and approached the high-way, whither he
was slowly followed by his companions ; Lionel utterly
indifferent whither he proceeded, and Cecil trembling in
every limb with terror for the safety of him, who so little
regarded his own danger.
" They are abroad, and think to find an enemy," said the
old man, raising his hand with a gesture to command at-
tention ; " but he has sworn to join their standards, and
gladly will they receive any of his name and family ! "
" No, no — he has pledged himself to no dishonor," cried
Cecil. — " Fly, Lincoln, while you are free, and leave me to
meet the pursuers — they will respect my weakness."
Fortunately, the allusion to herself awakened Lionel
from the dull forgetf ulness, into which his faculties had
fallen. Encircling her slight figure with his arm, he
turned swiftly from the spot, saying, as he urged her for-
ward—
" Old man, when this precious charge is in safety, thy
truth or falsehood shall be proved."
But Ralph, whose unencumbered person, and iron frame,
which seemed to mock the ravages of time, gave a vast
superiority over the impeded progress of the other, moved
swiftly ahead, waving his hand on high, as if to indicate
his intention to join in the flight, while he led the way
into the fields adjacent to the church-yard they had quitted.
The noise of the pursuers soon became more distinct,
and, in the intervals of the distant cannonade, the cries and
directions of those who conducted the chase were distinctly
audible. Notwithstanding the vigorous arm of her sup-
porter, Cecil was soon sensible that her delicate frame was
unequal to continue the exertions necessary to ensure their
safety. They had entered another road, which lay at no
great distance from the first, when she paused, and re-
luctantly declared her inability to proceed.
" Then, here will we await our captors," said Lionel, with
352 LIONEL LINCOLN.
forced composure — " let the rebels beware how they abuse
their slight advantage ! "
The words were scarcely uttered, when a cart, drawn by
a double team, turned an angle in the highway, near them,
and its driver appeared within a few feet of the spot where
they stood. He was a man far advanced in years, but still
wielded his long goad with a dexterity, which had been
imparted by the practice of more than half a century. The
sight of this man, alone, and removed from immediate aid,
suggested a desperate thought of self-preservation to Lio-
nel. Quitting the side of his exhausted companion, he ad-
vanced upon him with an air so fierce, that it might have
created alarm in one who had the smallest reason to ap-
prehend any danger.
"Whither go you with that cart?" sternly demanded
the young man, on the instant.
"To the Point," was the ready answer. " Yes, yes — old
and young — big and little — men and cre'turs — four-wheels
and two-wheels — everything goes to the Point to-night,
as you can guess, fri'nd ! Why," he continued, dropping
one end of his goad on the ground, and supporting him-
self by grasping it with both his hands — "I was eighty-
three the fourteenth of the last March, and I hope, God
willing, that when the next birth-day comes, there won't be
a red coat left in the town of Boston. To my notion, fri'nd,
they have held the place long enough, and it's time to
quit. My boys are in the camp, soldiering a turn — the old
woman has been as busy as a bee, sin' sun-down, helping
me to load up what you see, and I am carrying it over to
Dorchester, and not a farthing shall it ever cost the con-
gress ! "
" And you are going to Dorchester Neck with your bun-
dles of hay ! " said Lionel, eying both him and his pass-
ing team, in hesitation whether to attempt violence on one
so infirm and helpless.
" Anan ! you must speak up, soldier-fashion, as you did
at first, for I am a little deaf," returned the carter. "Yes,
yes, they spared me in the press, for they said I had done
enough ; but I say a man has never done enough for his
own country, when anything is left to be done. I'm told
they are carrying over fashines, as they call 'em, and
pressed-hay, for their forts. — As hay is more in my fashion
than any other fashion, I've bundled up a stout pile on't
here ; and if that won't do, why, let Washington come ; he
is welcome to the barn, stacks and all .( "
LIONEL LINCOLN; 353
" While you are so liberal to the congress, can you help
a female in distress, who would wish to go in the direction
of your route, but is too feeble to walk ?"
"With all my heart," said the other, turning round in
quest of her whom he was desired to assist — " I hope she
is handy; for the night wears on,. and I shouldn't like to
have the English send a bullet at our people on Dorches-
ter hills, before my hay gets there to help stop it."
"She shall not detain you an instant," said Lionel,
springing to the place where Cecil stood, partly concealed
by the fence, and supporting her to the side of the rude
vehicle — "you shall be amply rewarded for this service."
" Reward ! Perhaps she is the wife or daughter of a sol-
dier, in which case she should be drawn in her coach and
four, instead of a cart and double team."
" Yes, yes — you are right, she is both — the wife of one,
and the daughter of another soldier."
"Ay ! God bless her! I warrant me old Put was more
than half right, when he said the women would stop the
two ridgements, that the proud parliamenter boasted could
inarch through the colonies, from Hampshire to Georgi'.
Well, fri'nds, are ye situated ? "
" Perfectly," said Lionel, who had been preparing seats
for himself and Cecil among the bundles of hay, and as-
sisting his companion into her place during the dialogue
— " we will detain you no longer."
The carter, who was no less than the owner of a hun-
dred acres of good land in the vicinity, signified his readi-
ness ; and sweeping through the air with his goad, he
brought his cattle to the proper direction, and slowly
moved on. During this hurried scene, Ralph had con-
tinued hid by the shadows of the fence. When the cart
proceeded, he waved his hand, and gliding across the road,
was soon lost to the eye in the misty distance, with which
his gray apparel blended, like a spectre vanishing in air.
In the meantime the pursuers had not been idle. Voices
were heard in different directions, and dim forms were to
be seen rushing through the fields, by the aid of the de-
ceptive light of the moon. To add to the embarrassment
of their situation, Lionel found, when too late, that the
route to Dorchester lay directly through the village of
Cambridge. When he perceived they were approaching
the streets, he would have left the cart, had not the exper-
iment been too dangerous, in the midst of the disturbed
soldiery, who now flew by on every side of them. In such
354 LIONEL LINCOLN.
a strait, his safest course was to continue motionless and
silent, secreting his own form and that of Cecil, as much
as possible, among the bundles of hay. Contrary to all
the just expectations, which the impatient patriotism of
the old yeoman had excited, instead of driving steadily
through the place, he turned his cattle a little from the
direct route, and stopped in front of the very inn, where
Cecil had so lately been conducted by her guide from the
point.
Here the same noisy and thoughtless revelry existed as
before. The arrival of such an equipage at once drew a
crowd to the spot, and the uneasy pair on the top of the
load became unwilling listeners to the conversation.
" What, old one, hard at it for congress ! " cried a man,
approaching with a mug in his hand ; " come, wet your
throat, my venerable father of Liberty, for you are too old
to be a son ! "
"Yes, yes," answered the exulting farmer, " I am father
and son, too ! I have four boys in camp, and seven grand-
'uns, in the bargain ; and that would be eleven good triggers
in one family, if five good muskets had so many locks —
but the youngest men have got a ducking-gun, and a
double-barrel atvveen them, howsomever ; and Aaron, the
boy, carries as good a horse-pistol, I calculate, as any there
is going in the Bay ! But what an uneasy time you have
on't to-night ! There's more powder wasted mocking thun-
der, than would fight old Bunker over again, at 'white o'
the eye ' distance ! "
" Tis the way of war, old man ; and we want to keep the
reg'lars from looking at Dorchester."
" If they did, they couldn't see far to-night. But, now,
do tell me ; I am an old man, and have a grain of cur'osity
in the flesh ; my woman says that Howe casts out his car
casses at you ; which I hold to be an irreligious deception.'9
" As true as the gospel."
"Well, there is no calculating on the wastefulness of an
ungodly spirit ! " said the worthy yeoman, shaking his head
— " I could believe any wickedness of him but that ! As
cre'turs must be getting scarce in the town, I conclude he
makes use of his own slain ! "
" Certain," answered the soldier, winking at his com-
panions— " Breed's Hill has kept him in ammunition all
winter."
" Tis awful, awful ! to see a fellow-cre'tur flying through
the air, after the spirit has departed to judgment ! War is
LIONEL LINCOLN. 355
a dreadful calling ; but, then, what is a man without lib-
erty ! "
" Hark ye, old gentleman, talking of flying, have you
seen anything of two men and a woman, flying up the
road as you came in ? "
" Anan ! I'm a little hard o' hearing — women, too ! do
they shoot their Jezebels into our camp ? There is no
wickedness the king's ministers wron't attempt to circum-
vent our weak naturs ! "
"Did you see two men and a woman, running away as
you came down the road ?" bawled the fellow in his ear.
"Two! did you say two?" asked the yeoman, turning
his head a little on one side, in an attitude of sagacious
musing.
"Yes, two men."
"No, I didn't see two. Running out of town, did you say ?"
" Ay, running, as if the devil was after them."
" No ; I didn't see two ; nor anybody running away —
it's a sartain sign of guilt to run away — is there any re-
ward offered?" said the old man, suddenly interrupting
himself, and again communing with his own thoughts.
" Not yet — they've just escaped."
"The surest way to catch a thief is to offer a smart re-
ward— no — I didn't see two men — you are sartain there
was two ? "
" Push on with that cart ! drive on, drive on," cried a
mounted officer of the quartermaster's department, who
came scouring through the street, at that moment, awak-
ening all the slumbering ideas of haste, which the old
farmer had suffered to lie dormant so long. Once more
flourishing his goad, he put his team in motion, wishing
the revellers good-night as he proceeded. It was, how-
ever, long after he left the village, and crossed the Charles,
before he ceased to make frequent and sudden halts in the
highway, as if doubtful whether to continue his route, or
to return.. At length he stopped the cart, and clambering
up on the hay, he took a seat, where with one eye he could
regulate his cattle, and with the other examine his com-
panions. This investigation continued another hour,
neither party uttering a syllable, when the teamster ap-
peared satisfied that his suspicions \vere unjust, and aban-
doned them. Perhaps the difficulties of the road assisted
in dissipating his doubts ; for, as they proceeded, return
carts were met, at every few rods, rendering his undivided
uttention to his own team indispensable.
356 LIONEL LINCOLN'.
Lionel, whose gloomy thoughts had been chased from
his mind by the constant excitement of the foregoing
scenes, now felt relieved from any immediate apprehen-
sions. He whispered his soothing hopes of a final escape
to Cecil, and folding her in his coat, to shield her from the
night air, he was pleased to find, ere long, by her gentle
breathing, that, overcome by fatigue, she was slumbering
in forgetfulness on his bosom.
Midnight had long passed when they came in sight of
the eminences beyond Dorchester Neck. Cecil had awoke,
and Lionel was already devising some plausible excuse for
quitting the cart, without reviving the suspicions of the
teamster. At length a favorable spot occurred, where they
were alone, and the formation of the ground was adapted
to such a purpose. Lionel was on the point of speaking,
when the cattle stopped, and Ralph suddenly appeared in
the highway, at their heads.
"Make room, fri'nd, for the oxen," said the farmer — •
"dumb beasts won't pass in the face of man."
" Alight," said Ralph, seconding his words with a wide
sweep of his arm toward the fields.
Lionel quickly obeyed, and, by the time the driver had
descended also, the whole party stood together in the road.
" You have conferred a greater obligation than you are
aware of," said Lionel to the driver. " Here are five
guineas."
" For what ? for riding on a load of hay a few miles ? —
no, no — kindness is no such boughten article in the Bay,
that a man need pay for it ! But, fri'nd, money seems
plenty with you, for these difficult days ! "
" Then thanks, a thousand times — I can stay to offer you
no more."
He was yet speaking, when, obedient to an impatient
gesture from Ralph, he lifted Cecil over the fence, and
in a moment they disappeared from the eyes of the aston-
ished farmer.
" Halloo, fri'nd ! " cried the worthy advocate for his
country, running after them as fast as old age would allow
— " were there three of you, when I took ye up ? "
The fugitives heard the call of the simple and garrulous
old man, but, as will easily be imagined, did not deem it
prudent to stop and discuss the point in question between
them. Before they had gone far, the furious cry of " Take
care of that team ! " with the rattling of wheels, announced
that their pursuer was recalled to his duty, by an arrival
LIONEL LINCOLN'. 357
of empty wagons ; and, before the distance rendered sounds
unintelligible, they heard the noisy explanation, which
their late companion was giving to the others, of the whole
transaction. They were not, however, pursued ; the team-
sters having more pressing objects in view than the detec-
tion of thieves, or even of pocketing a reward.
Ralph led his companions, after a brief explanation, by a
long and circuitous path, to the shores of the bay. Here
they found, hid in the rushes of a shallow inlet, a small
boat, that Lionel recognized as the little vessel in which
Job Pray was wont to pursue his usual avocation of a fish-
erman. Entering it without delay, he seized the oars, and,
aided by a flowing tide, he industriously urged it toward
the distant spires of Boston.
The parting shades of the night were yet struggling with
the advance of day, when a powerful flash of light illumi-
nated the hazy horizon, and the roar of cannon, which had
ceased toward morning, was again heard. But this time
the sounds came from the water, and a cloud rose above
the smoking harbor, announcing that the ships were again
enlisted in the contest. This sudden cannonade induced
Lionel to steer his boat between the islands ; for the cas-
tle and southern batteries of the town were all soon united
in pouring out their vengeance on the laborers, who still
occupied the heights of Dorchester. As the little vessel
glided by a tall frigate, Cecil saw the boy, who had been
her first escort in the wanderings of the preceding night,
standing on its taffrail, rubbing his eyes with wonder, and
staring at those hills, whose possession he had prophesied
would lead to such bloody results. In short, while he la-
bored at the oars, Lionel witnessed the opening scene of
Breed's acted anew, as battery after battery, and ship af-
ter ship, brought their guns to bear on the hardy country-
men, who had once more hastened a crisis by their daring
enterprise. Their boat passed unheeded, in the excite-
ment and bustle of the moment, and the mists of the morn-
ing had not yet dissipated, when it shot by the wharves of
Boston, and, turning into the narrow entrance of the Town
dock, it touched the land, near the warehouse, where it had
so often been moored, in more peaceable times, by its
pie master.
358 LION-EL LINCOLN.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
" Now cracks a noble heart ; — good night,
Sweet prince." — SHAKESPEARE.
LIONEL assisted Cecil to ascend the difficult water-stairs,
and, still attended by their aged companion, they soon
stood on the drawbridge that connected the piers which
formed the mouth of the narrow basin.
" Here we again part," he said, addressing himself to
Ralph ; "at another opportunity let us resume your mel-
ancholy tale."
" None so fitting as the present : the time, the place,
and the state of the town, are all favorable."
Lionel cast his eyes around on the dull misery which
pervaded the neglected area. A few half-dressed soldiers
and alarmed townsmen were seen, by the gray light of the
morning, rushing across the square towards the point
whence the sounds of cannon proceeded. In the hurry
of the moment, their own arrival was not noted.
" The place — the time ! " he slowly repeated.
" Ay, both. At what moment can the friend of liberty
pass more unheeded amongst these miscreant hirelings
than now, when fear has broken their slumbers ! Yon is
the place," he said, pointing to the warehouse, "where all
that I have uttered will find its confirmation."
Major Lincoln communed momentarily with his
thoughts. It is probable, that, in the rapid glances of
his mind, he traced the mysterious connection between
the abject tenant of the adjacent building, and the de-
ceased grandmother of his bride, whose active agency in
producing the calamities of his family had now been
openly acknowledged. It was soon apparent, that he
wavered in his purpose ; nor was he slow to declare it.
" I will attend you," he said ; " for who can say what
the hardihood of the rebels may next attempt ; and future
occasions may be wanting. I will first see this gentle
charge of mine "
" Lincoln, I cannot — must not leave you," interrupted
Cecil, with earnest fervor — " go, listen, and learn all ;
surely there can be nothing that a wife may not know ! "
Without waiting for further objection, Ralph made a
hurried gesture of compliance, and, turning, he led the
way, with his usual swift footsteps, into the low and dark
LIONEL LINCOLN. 359
tenement of Abigail Pray. The commotion of the town
had not yet reached the despised and neglected building,
which was even more than ordinarily gloomy and still.
As they picked their way, however, among the scattered
hemp, across the scene of the preceding night's riot, a
few stifled groans proceeded from one of the towers, and
directed them where to seek its abused and suffering in-
mates. On opening the door of this little apartment, not
only Lionel and Cecil paused, but even the immovable
old man appeared to hesitate, in wonder.
The heart-stricken mother of the simpleton was seated
on her humble stool, busied in repairing some mean and
worthless garments which had, seemingly, been exposed
to the wasteful carelessness of her reckless child. But
while her fingers performed their functions with mechani-
cal skill, her contracted brow, working muscles, and hard,
dry eyes, betrayed the force of the mental suffering that
she struggled to conceal. Job still lay stretched on his
abject pallet, though his breathing was louder and more
labored than when we last left him, while his sunken
features indicated the slow, but encroaching advances of
the disease. Polvvarth was seated at his side, holding a
pulse, with an air of medical deliberation ; and attempt-
ing, every few moments, to confirm his hopes or fears, as
each preponderated in turn, by examining the glazed eyes
of the subject of his care.
Upon a party thus occupied, and with feelings so much
engrossed, even the sudden entrance of the intruders was
not likely to make any very sensible impression. The
languid and unmeaning look of Job wandered momentarily
towards the door, and then became again fixed on vacancy.
A gleam of joy shot into the honest visage of the captain,
when he first beheld Lionel, accompanied by Cecil, but
it was instantly chased away by the settled meaning of
care, which had gotten the mastery of his usually con-
tented expression. The greatest alteration was produced
in the aspect of the woman, who bowed her head to her
bosom, with a universal shudder of her frame, as Ralph
stood unexpectedly before her. But from her, also, the
sudden emotion passed speedily away, her hands resuming
their humble occupation, with the same mechanical and
involuntary movements, as before.
''Explain this scene of silent sorrow !" said Lionel to
his friend — " how came you in this haunt of wretchedness ?
and who has harmed the lad ? "
360 LIONEL LINCOLN*.
"Your question conveys its own answer. Major Lincoln,"
returned Polwarth, with a manner so deliberate, that he
refused to raise his steady look from the face of the suf-
ferer— " I am here, because they are wretched ! "
" The motive is commendable ! but what aileth the
youth ? "
" The functions of nature seem suspended by some re-
markable calamity ! I found him suffering from inanition,
ajid notwithstanding I applied as hearty and nutritious a
meal as the strongest man in the garrison could require,
the symptoms, as you see, are strangely threatening ! "
" He has taken the contagion of the town, and you
have fed him, when his fever was at the highest ! "
" Is small-pox to be considered more than a symptom,
when a man has the damnable disease of starvation ! go to
— go to, Leo ; you read the Latin poets so much at the
schools, that no leisure is left to bestow on the philosophy
of nature. There is an inward monitor, that teaches every
child the remedy for hunger."
Lionel felt no disposition to contend with his friend on
a point \vhere the other's opinions were so dogmatical, but,
turning to the woman, he said —
" The experience of a professional nurse should have
taught you, at least, more care."
" Can experience steel a mother to the yearnings of her
offspring for food ? " returned the forlorn Abigail — " no,
no — the ear cannot be deaf to such a moaning, and wisdom
is as folly when the heart bleeds."
"Lincoln, you chide unkindly/' said Cecil — "let us
rather attempt to avert the danger, than quarrel with its
cause."
" It is too late — it is too late," returned the disconsolate
mother ; " his hours are already numbered, and death is on
him. I can now only pray that God will lighten his curse
and suffer the parting spirit to know his Almighty power."
" Throw aside these worthless rags," said Cecil, gently
attempting to take the clothes, " nor fatigue yourself
longer, at such a sacred moment with unnecessary la-
bor."
" Young lady, you little know a mother's longings ; may
you never know her sorrows ! I have been doing for the
child these seven-and-twenty years ; rob me not of the
pleasure, now that so little remains to be done."
" Is he then so old ! " exclaimed Lionel, in surprise.
" Old as he is, 'tis young for a child to die ! He wants
LIONEL LINCOLN: 36i
the look of reason ; heaven in its mercy grant that he may
be found to have a face of innocence ! "
Hitherto Ralph had remained where he first stood, as U
riveted to the floor, with his eyes fastened on the counte-
nance of the sufferer. He now turned to Lionel, and,
in a voice rendered even plaintive by his deep emotion,
he asked the simple question —
''Will he die?"
"I fear it — that look is not easily to be mistaken."
With a step so light that it was inaudible, the old man
moved to the bed, and seated himself on the side, opposite
to Polwarth. Without regarding the wondering look of
the captain, he waved his hand on high, as if to exhort to
silence, and then, gazing on the features of the sick, with
melancholy interest, he said —
" Here, then, is death again ! None are so young as to
be unheeded ; 'tis only the old that cannot die. Tell me,
Job, what seest them in the visions of thy mind — the un-
known places of the damned, or the brightness of such as
stand in the presence of their God ? "
At the well-known sound of his voice, the glazed eye of
the simpleton lighted with a ray of reason, and was turned
toward the speaker, once more, teeming with a look of
meek assurance. The rattling in his throat, for a moment,
increased, and then ceased entirely ; when a voice so deep,
that it appeared to issue from the depths of his chest, was
heard saying —
" The Lord won't harm him who never harm'd the
creatures of the Lord ! "
" Emperors and kings, yea, the great of the earth, might
envy thee thy lot, thou unknown child of wretchedness ! "
returned Ralph. "Not yet thirty years of probation, and
already thou throwest aside the clay ! Like thee did I
grow to manhood, and learn how hard it is to live ; but
like thee I cannot die ! — Tell me, boy, dost thou enjoy
the freedom of the spirit, or hast thou still pain and pleas-
ure in the flesh ? Dost see beyond the tomb, and trace
thy route through the pathless air, or is all yet hid in the
darkness of the grave ? "
" Job is going where the Lord has hid his reason," an-
swered the same hollow voice as before ; " his prayers
won't be foolish any longer."
" Pray, then, for one aged and forlorn ; who has borne
the burden of life till Death has forgotten him, and who
wearies of the things of earth, where all is treachery ar j
362 LIONEL LINCOLN.
sin. But stay ; depart not till thy spirit can bear the
signs of repentance from yon sinful woman into the re-
gions of day."
Abigail groaned aloud ; her hands again refused theii
occupation, and her head once more sunk on her bosom
in abject misery. From this posture of self-abasement and
grief, the woman raised herself to her feet, and, putting
aside the careless tresses of dark hair, which, though here
and there streaked with gray, retained much of their
youthful gloss, she looked about her with a face so hag-
gard, and eyes so full of meaning, that common attention
was instantly attracted to her movements.
" The time has come, and neither fear nor shame shall
longer tie my tongue," she said. " The hand of Providence
is too manifest in this assemblage around the death-bed of
that boy, to be unheeded. Major Lincoln, in that stricken
and helpless child, you see one who shares your blood,
though he has ever been a stranger to your happiness. Job
is your brother ! "
" Grief has maddened her ! " exclaimed the anxious
Cecil — "she knows not what she utters."
" Tis true ! " said the calm tones of Ralph.
" Listen," continued Abigail ; " a terrible witness, sent
hither by heaven, speaks to attest I tell no lie. The secret
of my transgression is known to him, when I had thought
it buried in the affection of one only who owed me every-
thing."
" Woman ! " said Lionel, " in attempting to deceive me,
you deceive yourself. Though a voice from heaven should
declare the truth of thy damnable tale, still would I deny
that foul object being the child of my beauteous mother."
" Foul and wretched as you see him, he is the offspring
of one not less fair, though far less fortunate, than thy own
boasted parent, proud child of prosperity ! Call on heaven
as thou wilt, with that blasphemous tongue, he is no less
thy brother, and the elder born."
" Tis true — 'tis true — 'tis most solemnly a truth ! " re-
peated the unmoved and aged stranger.
" It cannot be ! " cried Cecil — " Lincoln, credit them
not ; they contradict themselves."
" Out of thy own mouth will I find reasons to convince
you," said Abigail. " Hast thou not owned the influence
of the son at the altar ? Why should one, vain, ignorant,
and young as I was, be insensible to the seductions of the
father ! "
LIONEL LINCOLN. 363
"The child is, then, thine!" exclaimed Lionel, once
more breathing with freedom — " proceed with thy tale ;
you confide it to friends!"
" Yes — yes," cried Abigail, clasping her hands, and speak-
ing with bitter emphasis ; " you have all the consolation
of proving the difference between the guilt of woman and
that of man ! Major Lincoln, accursed and polluted as
you see me, thy own mother was not more innocent nor
fair, when my youthful beauty caught thy father's eye. He
was great and powerful, and I unknown and frail — yon
miserable proof of our transgression did not appear, until
he had met your happier mother ! "
"Can this be so?"
"The holy Gospels are not more true!" murmured
Ralph.
" And my father ! did he — could he desert thee in thy
need ? "
" Shame came when virtue and pride had been long for-
gotten. I was a dependent of his own proud race, and op-
portunities were not wanting to mark his wandering looks
and growing love for the chaste Priscilla. He never knew
my state. While I was stricken to the earth by the fruits
of guilt, he proved how easy it is for us to forget, in the
days of prosperity, the companions of our shame. At
length, you were born ; and, unknown to him, I received
his new-born heir from the hands of his jealous aunt.
What accursed thoughts beset me at that bitter moment !
But, praised be God in heaven, they passed away, and I
was spared the sin of murder ! "
"Murder!"
" Even of murder. You know not the desperate thoughts
the wretched harbor for relief ! But opportunity was not
long wanting, and I enjoyed the momentary, hellish
pleasure of revenge. Your father went in quest of his
rights, and disease attacked his beloved wife. Yes, foul
and unseemly as is my wretched child, the beauty of thy
mother was changed to a look still more hideous ! Such as
Job now seems, was the injured woman on her death-bed. I
feel all thy justice, Lord of power, and bow before thy will !"
" Injured woman ! " repeated Lionel, " say on, and I will
bless thee ! "
Abigail gave a groan, so deep and hollow, that, for a
moment, the listeners believed it was the parting struggle
of the spirit of her son, and she sunk, helplessly, into hel
seat, again concealing her features in her dress.
364 LIONEL LINCOLN-.
" Injured woman ! " slowly repeated Ralph, with tha
most taunting contempt in his accents — "what punish-
ment does not a wanton merit ? "
" Ay, injured ! " cried the awakened son — " my life on it,
thy tale, at least, is false."
The old man was silent, but his lips moved rapidly, as if
he muttered an incredulous reply to himself, while a scorn-
ful smile cast its bright and peculiar meaning across the
wasted lineaments of his face.
" I know not what you may have heard from others,"
continued Abigail, speaking so low that her words were
nearly lost in the difficult and measured breathing of Job —
" but I call heaven to witness, that you, now, shall hear no
lie. The laws of the province commanded that the victims
of the foul distemper should be kept apart, and your
mother was placed at the mercy of myself, and one other,
who loved her still less than I."
" Just Providence ! you did no violence ? "
" The disease spared us such a crime. She died in her
new deformity, while I remained a looker-on, if not in the
beauty of my innocence, still free from the withering
touch of scorn and want. Yes, I found a sinful, but flatter-
ing consolation in that thought ! Vain, weak, and foolish
as I had been, never did I regard my own fresh beauty
with half the inward pleasure that I looked upon the foul-
ness of my rival Your aunt, too — she was not without the
instigations of the worker of mischief."
" "Speak only of my mother," interrupted the impatient
Lionel — " of my aunt I already know the whole."
" Unmoved and calculating as she was, how little did she
understand good from evil ! She even thought to crack
the heart-strings, and render whole, by her weak inven-
tions, that which the power of God could only create.
The gentle spirit of thy mother had hardly departed, be-
fore a vile plot was hatched to destroy the purity of her
fame. Blinded fools that we were ! She thought to lead
by her soothing arts, aided by his wounded affections, the
husband to the feet of her own daughter, the innocent
mother of her who stands beside thee ; and I was so vain
as to hope, that, in time, justice and my boy might plead
with the father and seducer, and raise me to the envied
station of her whom I hated."
" And this foul calumny you repeated, with all its basest
coloring, to my abused father ?"
" We did — we did ; yes, God, he knows we did ! and when
LIONEL LINCOLN. 36$
he hesitated to believe, I took the holy Evangelists as wit-
nesses of my truth ! "
"And he," said Lionel, nearly choked by his emotions
— " he believed it ! "
"When he heard the solemn oath of one, whose whole
guilt, he thought, lay in her weakness to himself, he did.
As we listened to his terrible denunciations, and saw the
frown which darkened his manly beauty, we both thought
we had succeeded. But how little did we know the differ-
ence between rooted passion and passing inclination ! The
heart we thought to alienate from its dead partner, we
destroyed ; and the reason we conspired to deceive, was
maddened ! "
When her voice ceased, so profound a silence reigned in
the place, that the roar of the distant cannonade sounded
close at hand, and even the low murmurs of the excited
town swept by, like the whisperings of the wind. Job sud-
denly ceased to breathe, as though his spirit had only lin-
gered to hear the confession of his mother, and Polwarth
dropped the arm of the dead simpleton, unconscious of
the interest he had so lately taken in his fate. In the midst
of this death-like stillness, the old man stole from the side
of the body, and stood before the self-condemned Abigail,
whose form was writhing under her mental anguish.
Crouching more like a tiger than a man, he sprang upon
her, with a cry so sudden, so wild, and so horrid, that it
caused all within its hearing to shudder with instant dread.
" Beldame ! " he shouted, " I have thee now ! Bring
hither the book ! the blessed, holy word of God ! Let her
swear, let her swear ! Let her damn her perjured soul, in
impious oaths "
" Monster ! release the woman ! " cried Lionel, advancing
to the assistance of the struggling penitent ; " thou, too,
hoary-headed wretch, hast deceived me ! "
"Lincoln! Lincoln!" shrieked Cecil, " stay that unnat-
ural hand ! you raise it on thy father ! "
Lionel staggered back to the wall, where he stood mo-
tionless, and gasping for breath. Left to work his own
frantic will, the maniac would speedily have terminated
the sorrows of the wretched woman, had not the door been
burst open with a crash, and the stranger, who was left, by
the cunning of the madman, in the custody of the Ameri-
cans, rushed to the rescue.
" I know your yell, my gentle baronet ! " cried the
aroused keeper, for such in truth he was, " and I have a
366 LIONEL LINCOLN
mark for your malice, which would have gladly had me
hung ! But I have not followed you from kingdom to
kingdom — from Europe to America, to be cheated by a
lunatic ! "
It was apparent, by the lowering look of the fellow, ho\V
deeply he resented the danger he had just escaped, as he
sprang forward to -seize his prisoner. Ralph abandoned
his hold the instant this hated object appeared, and he
darted upon the breast of the other with the undaunted
fury that a lion, at bay, would turn upon its foe. The
struggle was fierce and obstinate. Hoarse oaths, and the
most savage execrations burst from the incensed keeper,
and were blended with the wildest ravings of madness from
Ralph. The excited powers of the maniac at length pre-
vailed, and his antagonist fell under their irresistible im-
pulse. Quicker than thought, Ralph was seen hovering
on the chest of his victim, while he grasped his throat with
fingers of iron.
" Vengeance is holy ! " cried the maniac, bursting into
a shout of horrid laughter, at his triumph, arid shaking his
gray locks till they flowed in wild confusion around his
glowing eye-balls ; " Urim and Thummin are the words of
glory ! Liberty is the shout ! Die, damned dog-! die like
the fiends in darkness, and leave freedom to the air ! "
By a mighty effort the gasping man released his throat
a little from the gripe that nearly throttled him, and cried,
with difficulty —
"For the love of heavenly justice, come to my aid I—-
will you see a man thus murdered ? "
But he addressed himself to the sympathies of the lis-
teners in vain. The females had hid their faces, in nat-
ural horror ; the maimed Pohvarth was yet without his
artificial limb ; and Lionel still looked upon the savage
fray with a vacant eye. At this moment of despair, the
hand of the keeper was seen plunging with violence into
the side of Ralph, who sprang upon his feet at the third
blow, laughing immoderately, but with sounds so wild and
deep that they seemed to shake his inmost soul. His an-
tagonist profited by the occasion, and darted from the
room with the headlong precipitation of guilt.
The countenance of the maniac, as he now stood, strug-
gling between life and death, changed with each fleeting
impulse. The blood flowed freely from the wounds in hi?
side, and, as the fatal tide ebbed away, a ray of passing
reason lighted his pallid and ghastly features. His inwarc.
LIONEL LINCOLN. 367
laugh entirely ceased. The glaring eyeballs became sta-
tionary ; and his look, gradually softening, settled on the
appalled pair, who took the deepest interest in his wel-
fare. A calm and decent expression possessed those linea-
ments, which had just exhibited the deepest marks of the
wrath of God. His lips moved in a vain effort to speak ;
and, stretching forth his arms in the attitude of benedic-
tion, like the mysterious shadow of the chapel, he fell
backward on the body of the lifeless and long-neglected
Job, himself perfectly dead.
CHAPTER XXXIV.
*' I saw an aged man upon his bier,
His hair was thin and white, and on his brow
A record of the cares of many a year ;
Cares that were ended and forgotten now.
And there was sadness round, and faces bow'd,
And woman's tears fell fast, and children wail'd aloud."
— BRYANT.
As the day advanced, the garrison of Boston was put in
motion. The same bustle, the same activity, the same
gallant bearing in some, and dread reluctance in others,
were exhibited as on the morning of the fight of the pre-
ceding summer. The haughty temper of the royal com-
mander could ill brook the bold enterprise of the colo-
nists ; and, at an early hour, orders were issued to prepare
to dislodge them. Every gun that could be brought to
bear upon the hills, was employed to molest the Ameri-
cans, who calmly continued their labors, while' shot were
whistling around them on every side. Towards evening
a large force was embarked and conveyed to the castle.
Washington appeared on the heights, in person, and every
military evidence of the intention of a resolute attack on
one part, and of a stout resistance on the other, became
apparent.
But the fatal experience of Breed's had taught a lesson
that was still remembered. The same leaders were to be
the principal actors in the coming scene, and it was neces-
sary to use the remnants of many of the very regiments
which had bled so freely on the former occasion. The
half-trained husbandmen of the colonies were no longer
despised ; and the bold operations of the past winter had
368 ^IONEL LINCOLN;
taught the English generals that, as subordination increased
among their foes, their movements were conducted with
a more vigorous direction of their numbers. The day was
accordingly wasted in preparations. Thousands of men
slept on their arms that night, in either army, in the ex-
pectation of rising, on the following morning, to be led
to the field of slaughter.
It is not improbable from the tardiness of their move-
ments, that a large majority of the royal forces did not re-
gret the providential interposition, which certainly saved
them torrents of blood, and not improbably the ignominy
of a defeat. One of the sudden tempests of the climate arose
in the darkness, driving before it men and beasts, to seek
protection, in their imbecility, from the more powerful
warring of the elements. The golden moments were
lost ; and, after enduring so many privations, and expend-
ing so many lives, in vain, Howe sullenly commenced his
arrangements to abandon a town, on which the English
ministry had, for years, lavished their indignation, with all
the acrimony, and, as it now seemed, with the impotency
of a blind revenge.
To carry into effect this sudden and necessary determi-
nation, was not the work of an hour. As it was the de-
sire of the Americans, however, to receive their town back
again as little injured as possible, they forbore to push the
advantage they possessed, by occupying those heights,
which, in a great measure, commanded the anchorage, as
well as a new and vulnerable face of the defences of the
king's army. While the semblance of hostilities was main-
tained by an irregular and impotent cannonade, conducted
with so little spirit as to wear the appearance of being in-
tended only to amuse, one side was diligently occupied in
preparing to depart, and the other was passively awaiting
the moment when they might peaceably repossess their
own. It is unnecessary to remind the reader, that the en-
tire command of the sea, by the British, would have ren-
dered any serious attempt to arrest their movements, per-
fectly futile.
In this manner a week was passed, after the tempest had
abated — the place exhibiting, throughout this period, alj
the hurry and bustle, the joy and distress, that such an un-
looked-for event was likely to create.
Towards the close of one of those busy and stirring
days, a short funeral train was seen issuing from a build-
ing, which had long been known as the residence of one
LIONEL LINCOLN. 369
of the proudest families in the province. Above the outer
door of the mansion was suspended a gloomy hatchment,
charged with the "courant" deer of Lincoln, encircled by
the usual mementos of mortality, and bearing the rare
symbol of the " bloody-hand." -—This emblem of heraldic
prief, which was never adopted in the provinces, except
at the death of one of high importance, a custom that has
long since disappeared with the usages of the monarchy,
had caught the eyes of a few idle boys, who alone were suf-
ficiently unoccupied, at that pressing moment, to note
its exhibition. With the addition of these truant urchins
the melancholy procession took its way toward the neigh-
boring church-yard of the King's Chapel.
The large bier was covered by a pall so ample, that it swept
the stones of the threshold, while entering into the body
of the church. Here it was met by the divine we have had
occasion to mention more than once, who gazed, with a
look of strange interest, at the solitary and youthful
mourner, that closely followed in his dark weeds. The
ceremony, however, proceeded with the usual solemnity,
and the attendants slowly moved deeper into the sacred
edifice. Next to the young man, came the well-known
persons of the British commander-in-chief, and of his quick-
witted and favorite lieutenant. Between them walked an
officer of inferior rank, who, notwithstanding his maimed
condition, had been able, by the deliberation of the march,
to beguile the ears of his companions, to the very moment
of meeting the clergyman, with some tale of no little in-
terest, and great apparent mystery. The remainder of the
train, which consisted only of the family of the two gen-
erals, and a few menials, came last, if we except the idlers,
who stole curiously in their footsteps.
When the service was ended, the same private commu-
nication was resumed between the two chieftains and their
companion, and continued until they arrived at the open
vault, in a distant corner of the enclosure. Here the low
conversation ended ; and the eye of Howe, which had
hitherto been riveted in deep attention on the speaker,
began to wander in the direction of the dangerous hills
occupied by his enemies. The interruption seemed to
have broken the charm of the secret conversation ; and the
anxious countenances of both the leaders betrayed how
soon their thoughts had wandered from a tale of great
private distress to their own heavier cares and duties.
The bier was placed before the opening, and the assist-
370 LIONEL LINCOLN.
ants of the sexton advanced to perform their office.
When the pall was removed, to the evident amazement of
most of the spectators, two coffins were exposed to view.
One was clothed in black velvet, studded with silver nails,
and ornamented after the richest fashions of human pride,
while the other lay in the simple nakedness of the clouded
wood. On the breast of the first rose a heavy silver plate,
bearing a long inscription, and decorated with the usual
devices of heraldry ; and on the latter were simply carved
on the lid the two initial letters J. P.
The impatient looks of the English generals intimated
to Dr. Liturgy the value of every moment, and in less
time than we consume in relating it, the bodies of the
high-descended man of wealth, and of his nameless com-
panion, were lowered into the vault, and left to decay, in
silent contact, with that of the woman who, in life, had
been so severe a scourge to both. After a hesitation of a
single moment, in deference to the young mourner, the.
gentlemen present, perceiving that he manifested a wish
to remain, quitted the place in a body, with the exception
of the maimed officer, already mentioned, whom the reader
has at once recognized to be Polwarth. When the men
had replaced the stone above the mouth of the vault, se-
curing it by a stout bar of iron, and a heavy lock, they de-
livered the key to the principal actor in the scene. He
received it in silence, and, dropping gold into their hands,
motioned to them to depart.
In another instant, a careless observer would have
thought, that Lionel and his friend were the only living
possessors of the church-yard. But under the adjoining
wall, partly hid from observation by the numerous head-
stones, was the form of a woman, bowed to the earth, while
her figure was concealed by the cloak she had gathered
shapelessly about her. As soon as the gentlemen per-
ceived they were alone, they slowly advanced to the side
of this desolate being.
Their approaching footsteps were not unheeded, though,
instead of facing those who so evidently wished to address
her, she turned to the wall, and began to trace, with un-
conscious fingers, the letters of a tablet in slate, which was
let into the brickwork, to mark the position of the tomb
of the Lechmeres.
"We can do no more,1' said the young mourner — ''all
now rest with a mightier hand than any of earth."
The squalid limb, that was thrust from beneath the red
LIONEL LINCOLN. 371
garment, trembled, but it still continued its unmeaning
employment
" Sir Lionel Lincoln speaks to you," said Polwarth, on
whose arm the youthful baronet leaned.
" Who ! " shrieked Abigail Pray, casting aside her cover*
ing, and baring those sunken features, on which misery
had made terrible additional inroads, within a few days — •
" I had forgotten — I had forgotten ! the son succeeds the
father ; but the mother must follow her child to the grave ! "
" He is honorably interred with those of his blood, and
by the side of one who loved his simple integrity ! "
" Yes, he is better lodged in death than he was in life !
Thank God ! he can never know cold nor hunger more ! "
" You will find that I have made a provision for your
future comfort ; and I trust that the close of your life will
be happier than its prime."
" I am alone," said the woman, hoarsely. '* The old will
avoid me, and the young will look upon me in scorn ! Per-
jury and revenge lie heavy on my soul ! "
The young baronet was silent, but Polwarth assumed
the right to reply —
" I will not pretend to assert," said the worthy captain,
"that these are not both wicked companions ; but I have
no doubt you will find, somewhere in the Bible, a suitable
consolation for each particular offence. Let me recom-
mend to you a hearty diet, and I'll answer for an easy con-
science. I never knew the prescription fail. Look about
you in the world — does your well-fed villain feel remorse !
No ; it's only when his stomach is empty, that he begins
to think of his errors ! I would also suggest the expedi-
ency of commencing soon, with something substantial, as
you show altogether too much bone, at present, for a
thriving condition. I would not wish to say anything dis-
tressing, but we both of us may remember a case where
the nourishment came too late."
" Yes, yes, it came too late ! " murmured the conscience-
stricken woman — "all comes too late ! even the penitence,
I fear ! "
" Say not so," observed Lionel ; "you do outrage to the
promises of One who never spoke false."
Abigail stole a fearful glance at him, which expressed
all the secret terror of her soul, as she half whispered —
" Who witnessed the end of Madam Lechmere ! did her
spirit pass in peace ? "
Sir Lionel again remained profoundly silent.
$72 LIONEL LINCOLN.
"I thought it," she continued — "'tis not a sin to be for-
gotten on a death-bed ! To plot ^vil, and call on God,
aloud, to look upon it ! Ay! and to madden a brain, and
strip a soul like his to nakedness ! Go," she added, beck-
oning them away with earnestness — "ye are young and
happy ; why should ye linger near the grave ! Leave me,
that I may pray among the tombs ! If anything can smooth
the bitter moment, it is prayer."
Lionel dropped the key he held in his hand at her feet,
and said, before he left her —
" Yon vault is closed forever, unless, at your request, it
should be opened, at some future time, to place you by the
side of your son. The children of those who built it are
already gathered there, with the exception of two, who go
to the other hemisphere to leave their bones. Take it, and
may Heaven forgive you, as I do."
He let fall a heavy purse by the side of the key, and,
without uttering more, he again took the arm of Polwarth,
and together they left the place.
As they turned through the gate-way, 'into the street,
each stole a glance at the distant woman. She had risen
to her knees ; her hands had grasped a head-stone, and her
face was bowed nearly to the earth, while, by the writhing
of her form, and the humility of her attitude, it was appar-
ent that her spirit struggled powerfully with the Lord for
mercy.
Three days afterwards the Americans entered, triumph-
antly, on the retiring footsteps of the royal army. The
first among them, who hastened to visit the graves of their
fathers, found the body of a woman, who had, seemingly,
died under the severity of the season. She had unlocked
the vault, in a vain effort to reach her child, and there her
strength had failed her. Her limbs were decently stretched
on the faded grass, while her features were composed, ex-
hibiting in death the bland traces of that remarkable beauty
which had distinguished and betrayed her youth. The
gold still lay neglected, where it had fallen.
The amazed townsmen avoided this spectacle with hor-
ror, rushing into other places to gaze at the changes and
the destruction of their beloved birthplace. But a follower
of the royal army, who had lingered to plunder, and who
had witnessed the interview between the officers and Abi
gail, shortly succeeded them. He lifted the flag, and, low
ering the body, closed the vault ; then hurling away the
key, he seized the money, and departed.
LIONEL LINCOLN. 373
The slate has long since mouldered from the wall ; the
sod has covered the stone, and few are left who can desig-
nate the spot where the proud families of Lech mere and
Lincoln were wont to inter their dead.
Sir Lionel and Polvvarth proceeded, in the deepest
silence, to the Long-wharf, where a boat received them.
They were rowed to the much admired frigate, that was
standing off-and-on, under easy sail, waiting their arrival.
On her decks they met Agnes Danforth, with her eyes
softened by tears, though a rich flush mantled on her
cheeks, at witnessing the compelled departure of those in-
vaders she had never loved.
" I have only remained to give you a parting kiss, cousin
Lionel," said the frank girl, affectionately saluting him,
" and now shall take my leave, without repeating those
wishes that you know are so often conveyed in my pray-
ers."
" You will then leave us ? " said the young baronet, smil-
ing for the first time in many a day. " You know that this
cruelty "
He was interrupted by a loud hem from Polwarth, who
advanced, and, taking the hand of the lady, repeated his
wish to retain it forever, for at least the fiftieth time. She
heard him, in silence, and with much apparent respect,
though an arch smile stole upon her gravity, before he
had ended. She then thanked him with suitable grace,
and gave a final and decided refusal. The captain sustained
the repulse like one who had seen much similar service,
and politely lent his assistance to help the obdurate girl
into her boat. Here she was received by a young man,
who was apparelled like an American officer. Sir Lionel
thought the bloom on her cheek deepened, as her compan-
ion assiduously drew a cloak around her form to protect
her from the chill of the water. Instead of returning to
the town, the boat, which bore a flag, pulled directly for
the shore occupied by the Americans. The "following
week, Agnes was united to this gentleman, in the bosom
of her own family. They soon after took quiet possession
of the house in Tremont Street, and of all the large real
estate left by Mrs. Lechmere, which had been previously
bestowed on her, by Cecil, as a dowry.
As soon as his passengers appeared, the captain of the
frigate communicated with his admiral, by signal, and re-
ceived, in return, the expected order to proceed in the
execution of his trust. In a few minutes the swift vessel
374 LIONEL LINCOLN".
was gliding by the heights of Dorchester, training het
guns on the adverse hills, and hurriedly spreading her
canvas as she passed. The Americans, however, looked
on in sullen silence, and she was suffered to gain the open
ocean, unmolested, when she made the best of her way to
England, with the important intelligence of the intended
evacuation.
She was speedily followed by the fleet, since which pe-
riod, the long-oppressed and devoted town of Boston has
never been visited by an armed enemy.
During their passage to England, sufficient time was al-
lowed Lionel and his gentle companion, to reflect on all
that had occurred. Together, and in the fullest confidence,
they traced the wanderings of intellect which had so close-
ly and mysteriously connected the deranged father with
his impotent child ; and, as they reasoned, by descending
to the secret springs of his disordered impulses, they were
easily enabled to divest the incidents we have endeavored
to relate of all their obscurity and doubt. .
The keeper, who had been sent in quest of the fugitive
madman, never returned to his native land. No offers
of forgiveness could induce the unwilling agent in the
death of the baronet to trust his person, again, within the
influence of the British laws. Perhaps he was conscious
of a motive, that none but an inward monitor might de-
tect. Lionel, tired at length with importuning without
success, commissioned the husband of Agnes to place
him in a situation, where, by industry, his future comfort
was amply secured.
Polwarth died quite lately. Notwithstanding his maimed
limb, he contrived, by the assistance of his friend, to as-
cend the ladder of promotion, by regular gradations, near-;
ly to its summit. At the close of his long life, he wrote
Gen., Bart., and M. P. after his name. When England
was threatened with the French invasion, the garrison he
commanded was distinguished for being better provisioned
than any other in the realm, and no doubt it would have
made a resistance equal to its resources. In Parliament,
where he sat for one of the Lincoln boroughs, he was
chiefly distinguished for the patience with which he lis-
tened to the debates, and for the remarkable cordiality of
the "ay" that he pronounced on every vote for supplies.
To the day of his death, he was a strenuous advocate for
the virtues of a rich diet, in all cases of physical suffer-
ing, " especially," as he would add, with an obstinacy that
LIONEL LINCOLN. 375
fed itself, "in instances of debility from febrile symp-
toms."
Within a year of their arrival, the uncle of Cecil died,
having shortly before followed an only son to the grave.
By this unlooked-for event, Lady Lincoln became the
possessor of his large estates, as well as of an ancient bar-
ony, that descended to the heirs general. From this time
until the eruption of the French revolution, Sir Lionel
Lincoln, and Lady Cardonnell, as Cecil was now styled,
lived together in sweetest concord ; the gentle influence of
her affection moulding and bending the feverish tempera-
ment of her husband, at will. The heirloom of the fami-
ly, that distempered feeling so often mentioned, was for-
gotten, in the even tenor of their happiness. When the
heaviest pressure on the British constitution was appre-
hended, and it became the policy of the minister to enlist
the wealth and talent of his nation in its support, by prop-
ping the existing administration, the rich baronet received
a peerage in his own person. Before the end of the cen-
tury, he was further advanced to a dormant earldom, that
had, in former ages, been one of the honors of an elder
branch of his family.
Of all the principal actors in the foregoing tale, not one
is now living. Even the roses of Cecil and Agnes have
long since ceased to bloom, and Death has gathered them
in peace and innocence, with all that had gone before. The
historical facts of our legend are beginning to be obscured
by time ; and it is more than probable, that the prosperous
and affluent English peer, who now enjoys the honors of
the house of Lincoln, never knew the secret history of his
family while it sojourned in. a remote province of the Brit-
ish empire.
THE END.
rt,"T?Je Ir^dia" lad/ose deliberately to his feet, and stood before them in
tne sullen dignity of a captured warrior."
—The Wept of Wish-ton- Wish, page 54.
THE
WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH
A TALE
BY
J. FENIMORE COOPER
But she is dead to him, to all
Her lute hangs silent on the wall
And on the stairs, and at the door
Her fairy step is heard no more." — ROGERS
THE REV. J. R. C.,
OF
****** PENNSYLVANIA.
THE kind and disinterested manner in which you have furnished the
materials of the following tale, merits a public acknowledgment. As your
reluctance to appear before the world, however, imposes a restraint, you
must receive such evidence of gratitude as your own prohibition will allow.
Notwithstanding there are so many striking and deeply interesting events
in the early history of those from whom you derive your being, yet are there
hundreds of other families in this country, whose traditions, though less
accurately and minutely preserved than the little narrative you have sub-
mitted to my inspection, would supply the materials of many moving tales.
You have every reason to exult in your descent, for, surely, if any man
may claim to be a citizen and a proprietor in the Union, it is one, that,
like yourself, can point to a line of ancestors, whose origin is lost in the
obscurity of time. You are truly an American. In your eyes, we of a
brief century or two must appear as little more than denizens quite re-
cently admitted to the privilege of a residence. That you may continue
to enjoy peace and happiness, in that land where your fathers so long
flourished, is the sincere wish of your obliged friend.
PREFACE.
AT this distant period, when Indian traditions are lis-
tened to with the interest that we lend to the events of a
dark age, it is not easy to convey a vivid image of the
dangers and privations that our ancestors encountered, in
preparing the land we enjoy for its present state of secu-
rity and abundance. It is the humble object of the tale
that will be found in the succeeding pages, to perpetuate
the recollection of some of the practices and events pe-
culiar to the early days of our history.
The general character of the warfare pursued by the
natives is too w7ell known to require any preliminary obser-
vations ; but it may be advisable to direct the attention of
the reader, for a few moments, to those leading circum-
stances in the history of the times, that may have some
connection with the principal business of the legend.
The territory which now composes the three states of
Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island, is said, by
the best-informed of our annalists, to have been formerly
occupied by four great nations of Indians, who were, as
usual, subdivided into numberless dependent tribes. Of
these people, the Massachusetts possessed a large portion
of the land which now composes the state of that name ;
the Wampanoags dwelt in what was once the Colony of
Plymouth, and in the northern districts of the Providence
Plantations ; the Narragansetts held the well-known islands
of the beautiful bay which receives its name from their
nation, and the more southern counties of the Plantations;
while the Pequots, or, as it is ordinarily written and pro-
nounced, the Pequods, were masters of a broad region
that lay along the western boundaries of the three other
districts.
There is great obscurity thrown around the polity of the
Indians who usually occupied the country lying near the
sea.
6 PREFA CE.
The Europeans, accustomed to despotic governments,
very naturally supposed that the chiefs, found in posses-
sion of power, were monarchs to whom authority had been
transmitted in virtue of their birthrights. They conse-
quently gave them the name of kings.
How far this opinion of the governments of the aborig-
ines was true remains a question, though there is certainly
reason to think it less erroneous in respect to the tribes of
the Atlantic states, than to those who have since been
found further west, where it is sufficiently known that
institutions exist which approach much nearer to republics
than to monarchies. It may, however, have readily hap-
pened that the son, profiting by the advantages of his
situation, often succeeded to the authority of the father,
by the aid of influence, when the established regulations
of the tribe acknowledged no hereditary claim. Let the
principle of the descent of power be what it would, it is
certain the experience of our ancestors proves, that, in
very many instances, the child was seen to occupy the
station formerly filled by the father ; and that in most of
those situations of emergency, in which a people so vio-
lent were often placed, the authority he exercised was as
summary as it was general. The appellation of Uncas
came, like those of the Caesars and Pharaohs, to be a sort
of synonyme for chief with the Mohegans, a tribe of the
Pequods, among whom several warriors of this name were
known to govern in due succession. The renowned Met-
acom, or, as he is better known to the whites, King Philip,
was certainly the son of Massasoit, the Sachem of the
Wampanoags that the emigrants found in authority when
they landed on the rock of Plymouth. Miantonimoh, the
daring but hapless rival of that Uncas who ruled the whole
of the Pequod nation, was succeeded in authority among
the Narragan setts, by his not less heroic and enterprising
son, Conanchet ; and, even at a much later day, we find
instances of this transmission of power, which furnish
strong reasons for believing that the order of succession
was in the direct line of blood.
The early annals of our history are not wanting in touch'
ing and noble examples of savage heroism. Virginia has
its legend of the powerful Powhatan and his magnanimous
daughter, the ill-requited Pocahontas ; and the chronicles
of New England are filled with the bold designs and dar-
ing enterprises of Miantonimoh, of Metacom, and of Con-
anchet. All the last-named warriors proved themselves
PREFA CE. 7
worthy of better fates, dying in a cause and in a manner
that, had it been their fortune to have lived in a more ad«
vanced state of society, would have enrolled their names
among the worthies of the age.
The first serious war to which the settlers of New Eng-
land were exposed, was the struggle with the Pequods.
This people were subdued after a fierce conflict ; and
from being enemies, all who were not either slain or sent
into distant slavery, were glad to become the auxiliaries
of their conquerors. This contest occurred within less
than twenty years after the Puritans had sought refuge in
America.
There is reason to believe that Metacom foresaw the
fate of his own people, in the humbled fortune of the Pe-
quods. Though his father had been the earliest and con-
stant friend of the whites, it is probable that the Purjtans
owed some portion of this amity to a dire necessity. We
are told that a terrible malady had raged among the Wam-
panoags but a short time before the arrival of the emi-
grants, and that their numbers had been fearfully reduced
by its ravages. Some authors have hinted at the proba-
bility of this disease having been the yellow fever, whose
visitations are known to be at uncertain, and, apparently,
at very distant intervals. Whatever might have been the
cause of this destruction of his people, Massasoit' is be-
lieved to have been induced, by the consequences, to cul-
tivate the alliance of a nation who could protect him
against the attacks of his ancient and less afflicted foes.
But the son appears to have viewed the increasing influ-
ence of the whites with eyes more jealous than those of
the father. He passed the morning of his life in maturing
his great plan for the destruction of the strange race, and
his later years were spent in abortive attempts to put this
bold design in execution. His restless activity in plotting
the confederation against the English, his fierce and ruth-
less manner of waging the war, his defeat, and his death,
are too well known to require repetition.
There is also a wild and romantic interest thrown about
the obscure history of a Frenchman of that period. This
man is said to have been an officer of rank in the service
of his king, and to have belonged to the privileged class
which then monopolized all the dignities and emoluments
of the kingdom of France. The traditions, and even the
written annals of the first century of our possession of
America, connect the Baron de la Castine with the Jesuits,
8 PREFA CE.
who were thought to entertain views of converting the
savages to Christianity, not unmingled with the desire of
establishing a more temporal dominion over their minds.
It is, however, difficult to say whether taste, or religion,
or policy, or necessity, induced this nobleman to quit the
saloons of Paris for the wilds of the Penobscot. It is
merely known that he passed the greater part of his life
on that river, in a rude fortress that was then called a
palace ; that he had many wives, a numerous progeny, and
that he possessed a great influence over most of the tribes
that dwelt in his vicinity. He is also believed to have
been the instrument of furnishing the savages who were
hostile to the English, with ammunition, and with weapons
of a more deadly character than those used in their earlier
wars. In whatever degree he may have participated in
the plan to exterminate the Puritans, death prevented him
from assisting in the final effort of Metacom.
The Narragansetts are often mentioned in these pages.
A few years before the period at which the tale commences,
Miantonimoh had waged a ruthless war against Uncas,
the Pequod or Mohegan chief. Fortune favored the latter,
who, probably assisted by his civilized allies, not only
overthrew the bands of the other, but succeeded in capt-
uring the person of his enemy. The chief of the Nar-
ragansetts lost his life, through the agency of the whites,
on the place that is now known by the appellation of " the
Sachem's .plain."
It remains only to throw a little light on the leading in-
cidents of the war of King Philip. The first blow was
struck in June, 1675, rather more than half a century after
the English first landed in New England, and just a
century before blood was drawn in the contest which sepa-
rated the colonies from the mother country. The scene was
a settlement near the celebrated Mount Hope, in Rhode
Island, where Metacom and his father had both long held
their councils. From this point, bloodshed and massacre
extended along the whole frontier of New England. Bodies
of horse and foot were enrolled to meet the foe, and towns
were burnt, and lives were taken by both parties, with
little, and often with no respect for age, condition or sex.
In no struggle with the native owners of the soil was the
growing power of the whites placed in so great jeopardy,
as in this celebrated contest with King Philip. The vener-
able historian of Connecticut estimates the loss of lives at
nearly one-tenth of the whole number of the fighting men,
PREFACE. 9
and the destruction of houses and other edifices to have
been in an equal proportion. One family in every eleven,
throughout all New England, was burnt out. As the col-
onists nearest the sea were exempt from the danger, an
idea may be formed, from this calculation, of the risk and
sufferings of those who dwelt in more exposed situations.
The Indians did not escape without retaliation. The prin-
cipal nations, already mentioned, were so much reduced as
never afterward to offer any serious resistance to the.
whites, who have since converted the whole of their an-
cient hunting grounds into the abodes of civilized man.
Metacom, Miantonimoh, and Conanchet, with their war-
riors, have become the heroes of song and legend, while
the descendants of those who laid waste their dominions,
and destroyed their race, are yielding a tardy tribute to
the high daring and savage grandeur of their characters.
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH.
CHAPTER I.
" I may disjoin my hand, but not my faith." — SHAKESPEARE.
THE incidents of this tale must be sought in a remote
period of the annals of America. A colony of self-devoted
and pious refugees from religious persecution had landed
on the rock of Plymouth, less than half a century before
the time at which the narrative commences ; and they, and
their descendants, had already transformed many a broad
waste of wilderness into smiling fields and cheerful vil-
lages. The labors of the emigrants had been chiefly
limited to the country on the coast, which, by its proxim-
ity to the waters that rolled between them and Europe,
afforded a semblance of a connection with the land of their
forefathers and the distant abodes of civilization. But en-
terprise, and a desire to search for still more fertile
domains, together with the temptation offered by the vast
and unknown regions that lay along their western and
northern borders, had induced many bold adventurers to
penetrate more deeply into the forests. The precise spot
to which we desire to transport the imagination of the
reader, was one of these establishments of what may, not
inaptly, be called the forlorn-hope in the march of civili-
zation through the country.
So little was then known of the great outlines of the
American continent, that, when the Lords Say and Seal,
and Brooke, connected with a few associates, obtained a
grant of the territory which now composes the state of
Connecticut, the King of England affixed his name to a
patent which constituted them proprietors of a country
that should extend from the shores of the Atlantic to
those of the South Sea. Notwithstanding the apparent
12 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH.
hopelessness of ever subduing, or of even occupying a
territory like this, emigrants from the mother colony of
Massachusetts were found ready to commence the Hercu-
lean labor within fifteen years from the day -when they
had first put foot upon the well-known rock itself. The
fort of Say-Brooke, the towns of Windsor, Hartford, and
New Haven, soon sprang into existence, and from that
period to this, the little community which then had birth
has been steadily, calmly, and prosperously advancing in
its career, a model of order and reason, and the hive from
whicli swarms of industrious, hardy, and enlightened yeo-
men have since spread themselves over a surface so vast as
to create an impression that they still aspire to the posses-
sion of the immense regions included in their original
grant.
Among the religionists whom disgust of persecution had
early driven into the voluntary exile of the colonies, was
more than a usual proportion of men of character and
education. The reckless and the gay younger sons, soldiers
unemployed, and students from the Inns of Court, early
sought advancement and adventure in the more southern
provinces, where slaves offered immunity from labor, and
where war, with a bolder and more stirring policy, oftener
gave rise to scenes of excitement, and of course, to the
exercise of the faculties best suited to their habits and dis-
positions. The .more grave, and the religiously-disposed,
found refuge in the colonies of New England. Thither a
multitude of private gentlemen transferred their fortunes
and their families, imparting a character of intelligence
and a moral elevation to the country, which it has nobly
sustained to the present hour.
The nature of the civil wars in England had enlisted
many men of deep and sincere piety into the profession of
arms. Some of them had retired to the colonies before the
troubles of the mother country reached their crisis, and
others continued to arrive, throughout the whole period of
their existence, until the Restoration ; when crowds of those
who had been disaffected to the house of Stuart sought the
security of these distant possessions.
A stern, fanatical soldier, of the name of Heathcote, had
been among the first of his class to throw aside the sword
for the implements of industry peculiar to the advance-
ment of a newly-established country. How far the in-
fluence of a young wife may have affected his decision, it
is not germane to our present object to consider ; though
THE WEPT OF WI SIf -TON-WISH. 13
the records, from which the matter we are about to relate
is gleaned, give reason to suspect that he thought his
domestic harmony would not be less secure in the wilds
of the new world, than among the companions with whom
his earlier associations would naturally have brought him
in communion.
Like himself, his consort was born of one of those fami-
lies, which, taking their rise in the franklins of the times
of the Edwards and the Henrys, had become possessors
of hereditary landed estates, that, by their gradually-
increasing value, had elevated them to the station of small
country gentlemen. In most other nations of Europe,
they would have been rated in the class of \\\Q petite noblesse.
But the domestic happiness of Capt. Heathcote was
doomed to receive a fatal blow from a quarter. where cir-
cumstances had given him but little reason to apprehend
danger. The very day he landed in the long-wished-for
asylum, his wife made him the father of a noble boy, a gift
that she bestowed at the melancholy price of her own ex-
istence. Twenty years the senior of the woman who had
followed his fortunes to these distant regions, the retfred
warrior had always considered it to be perfectly and abso-
lutely within the order of things, that he himself was to be
the first to pay the debt of nature. While the visions
which Captain Heathcote entertained of a future world
were sufficiently vivid and distinct, there is reason to think
they were seen through a tolerable long vista of quiet and
comfortable enjoyment in this. Though the calamity cast
an additional aspect of seriousness over a character that
was already more than chastened by the subtleties of sec-
tarian doctrines, he was not of a nature to be unmanned
by any vicissitude of human fortune. He lived on, useful
and unbending in his habits, a pillar of strength in the way
of wisdom and courage to the immediate neighborhood
among whom he resided, but reluctant from temper, and
from a disposition which had been shadowed by withered
happiness, to enact .that part in the public affairs of the
little state, to which his comparative wealth and previous
habits might well have entitled him to aspire. He gave
his son such an education as his own resources and those
of the infant colony of Massachusetts afforded, and, by a
sort of delusive piety, into whose merits we have no desire
to look, he thought he had also furnished a commendable
evidence of his own desperate resignation to the will of
Providence, in causing him to be' publicly christened by
14 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-IVISH.
the name of Content. His own baptismal appellation was
Mark ; as indeed had been that of most of his ancestors,
for two or three centuries. When the world was a little
uppermost in his thoughts, as sometimes happens with the
most humbled spirits, he had even been heard to speak
of a Sir Mark of his family, who had ridden a knight in
the train of one of the more warlike kings of his native
land.
There is some ground for believing that the great parent
of evil early looked with a malignant eye on the example
of peacefulness, and of unbending morality, that the colo-
nists of New England were setting to the rest of Christen-
dom. At any rate, come from what quarter they might,
schisms and doctrinal contentions arose among the emi-
grants themselves ; and men, who together had deserted
the firesides of their forefathers in quest of religious peace,
were ere long seen separating their fortunes, in order that
each might enjoy, unmolested, those peculiar shades of
faith, which all had the presumption, no less than the
folly, to believe were necessary to propitiate the omnipo-
tent and merciful father of the universe. If our task were
one of theology, a wholesome moral on the vanity, no less
than on the absurdity of the race, might be here intro-
duced to some advantage.
When Mark Heathcote announced to the community, in
which he had now sojourned more than twenty years, that
he intended for a second time to establish his altars in the
wilderness, in the hope, that he. and his household might
worship God as to them seemed most right, the intelligence
was received with a feeling allied to awe. Doctrine and
zeal were momentarily forgotten, in the respect and attach
ment which had been unconsciously created by the united
influence of the stern severity of his air, and of the unde-
niable virtues of his practice. The elders of the settlement
communed with him freely and in charity ; but the voice
of conciliation and alliance came too late. He listened to
the reasonings of the ministers, who w.ere assembled from
all the adjoining parishes, in sullen respect : and he joined
in the petitions for light and instruction that were offered
up on the occasion, with the deep reverence with which he
ever drew near to the footstool of the Almighty ; but he
did both in a temper, into which too much positiveness of
spiritual pride had entered, to open his heart to that sym-
pathy and charity, which, as they are the characteristics of
our mild and forbearing doctrines, should be the study of
THE WEPT OF WISH-TOK-WISH. 15
those who profess to follow their precepts. All that was
seemly, and all that was usual, were done ; but the purpose
of the stubborn sectarian remained unchanged. His final
decision is worthy of being recorded.
" My youth wras wasted in ungodliness and ignorance,"
he said, " but in my manhood have I known the Lord.
Near two-score years have I toiled for the truth, and all.
that weary time have I passed in trimming my lamps, lest,
like the foolish virgins, I should be caught unprepared ;
and now, when my loins are girded and my race is nearly
run, shall I become a backslider and falsifier of the word ?
Much have I endured, as you know, in quitting the earthly
mansions of my fathers, and in encountering the dangers
of sea and land for the faith ; and, rather than let go its
hold, will I once more cheerfully devote to the howling
wilderness, ease, offspring, and, should it be the will of
Providence, life itself ! "
The day of parting was one of unfeigned and general
sorrow. Notwithstanding the austeTity of the old man's
character, and the nearly -unbending severity of his brow,
the milk of human kindness had often been seen distilling
from his stern nature in acts that did not admit of misin-
terpretation. There was scarcely a young beginner in the
laborious and ill-requited husbandry of t^e township he
inhabited, a district at no time considered either profitable
or fertile, who could not recall some secret and kind aid
which had flowed from a hand that, to the world, seemed
clenched in cautious and reserved frugality ; nor did any
of the faithful of his vicinity cast their fortunes together in
wedlock, without receiving from him evidence of an inter-
est in their worldly happiness, that was far more substan-
tial than words.
On the morning when the vehicles, groaning with the
household goods of Mark Heathcote, were seen quitting his
door, and taking the road which led to the seaside, not a
human being of sufficient age, within many miles of his
residence, was absent from the interesting spectacle. The
leave-taking, as usual on all serious occasions, was pre-
ceded by a hymn and prayer, and then the sternly-minded
adventurer embraced his neighbors, with a mien, in which
a subdued exterior struggled fearfully and strangely with
emotions that more than once threatened to break through
even the formidable barriers of his acquired manner. The
inhabitants of every bunding on the road were in the open
air, to receive and to return the parting benediction. More
10 THE WEPT OF IVISII-TON-lVISIf.
than once, they who guided his teams were commanded tci
halt, and all near, possessing human aspirations and human
responsibility, were collected to offer petitions in favor of
him who departed and of those who remained. The re-
quests for mortal privileges were somewhat light and hasty,
but the askings in behalf of intellectual and spiritual light
were long, fervent, and oft-repeated, In this characteris-
tic manner did one of the first of the emigrants to the new
world make his second removal into scenes of renewed
bodily suffering, privation and danger.
Neither person nor property was transferred from place
to place, in this country, at the middle of the seventeenth
century, with the dispatch and with the facilities of the
present time. The roads were necessarily few and short,
and communication by water was irregular, tardy, and far
from commodious. A wide barrier of forest lying between
that portion of Massachusetts Bay from which* Mark
Heathcote emigrated, and the spot, near the Connecticut
River, to which it wa's his intention to proceed, he was in-
duced to adopt the latter mode of conveyance. But a long
delay intervened between the time when he commenced
his short journey to the coast, and the hour when he was
finally enabled to embark. During this detention he and
his household •ojourned among the godly-minded of the
narrow peninsula, where there already existed the germ of
a flourishing town, and where the spires of a noble and
picturesque city now elevate themselves above so many
thousand roofs.
The son did not leave the colony of his birth and the
haunts of his youth, with the same unwavering obedience
to the call of duty as the father. There was a fair, a
youthful, and a gentle being in the recently-established
town of Boston, of an age, station, opinions, fortunes,
and, what was of still greater importance, of sympathies
suited to his own. Her form had long mingled with those
holy images, which his stern instruction taught him to
keep most familiarly before the mirror of his thoughts.
It is not surprising, then, that the youth hailed the delay
as propitious to his wishes, or that he turned it to the ac-
count which the promptings of a pure affection so natu-
rally suggested. He was united to the gentle Ruth Hard-
ing only a week before the father sailed on his second
pilgrimage.
It is not our intention to dwell on the incidents of the
voyage. Though the genius of an extraordinary man had
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISIf. I?
discovered the world which was now beginning to fill with
civilized men, navigation at that day was not brilliant in
accomplishments. A passage among the shoals of Nan-
tucket must have been one of actual danger, no less than
of terror ; and the ascent Of the Connecticut itself was an
exploit worthy of being mentioned. In due time the ad-
venturers arrived at the English fort of Hartford, where
they tarried for the season, in order to obtain rest and
spiritual comfort. But the peculiarity of doctrine, on
which Mark Heathcote laid so much stress, was one that
rendered it advisable for him to retire still further from the
haunts of men. Accompanied by a few followers, he pro-
ceeded on an exploring expedition, and the end of the
summer found him once more established on an estate
that he had acquired by the usual simple forms practised
in the colonies, and at the trifling cost for which extensive
districts were then set apart as the property of individuals.
The love of the things of this life, while it certainly ex-
isted, was far from being predominant in the affections of
the Puritan. He was frugal from habit and principle, more
than from an undue longing after worldly wealth. He
contented himself, therefore, with acquiring an estate that
should be valuable, rather from its quality and beauty,
than from its extent. Many such places offered them-
selves, between the settlements of Weathersfield and Hart-
ford and that imaginary line which separated the posses-
sions of the colony he had quitted, from those of the one
he joined. He made his location, as it is termed in the
language of the country, near the northern boundary of
the latter. This spot, by the aid of an expenditure that
might have been considered lavish for the country and the
age ; of some lingering of taste, which even the self-deny-
ing and subdued habits of his later life had not entirely
extinguished ; and of great natural beauty in the distribu-
tion of land, water, and wood, the emigrant contrived to
convert into an abode that was not more desirable for its
retirement from the temptations of the world, than for its
rural loveliness.
After this memorable act of conscientious self-devotion,
years passed away in quiet, amid a species of negative
prosperity. Rumors from the old world reached the ears
of the tenants of this secluded settlement, months after the
events to which they referred were elsewhere forgotten, and
tumults and wars in the sister colonies came to their knowl-
edge only at distant and tardy intervals. In the mean-
1 8 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH.
time, the limits of the colonial establishments were gradu
ally extending themselves, and valleys were beginning to be
cleared nearer and nearer to their own. Old age had now
begun to make some visible impression on the iron frame
of the captain ; and the fresh color of youth and health,
with which his son had entered the forest, was giving way
to the brown covering produced by exposure and toil. We
say of toil, for, independently of the habits and opinions of
the country, which strongly reprobated idleness, even in
those most gifted by fortune, the daily difficulties of their
situation, the chase, and the long and intricate passages
that the veteran himself was compelled to adventure in the
surrounding forest, partook largely of the nature of the
term we have used. Ruth continued blooming and youth-
ful, though maternal anxiety was soon added to her other
causes of care. Still, for a long season, naught occurred to
excite extraordinary regrets for the step they had taken, or
to create particular uneasiness in behalf of the future. The
borderers, for such by their frontier position they had in
truth become, heard the strange and awful tidings of the
dethronement of one king, of the interregnum, as a reign
of more than usual vigor and prosperity is called, and of
the restoration of the son of him who is strangely enough
termed a martyr. To all these eventful and unwonted
chances in the fortunes of kings, Mark Heathcote listened
with deep and reverential submission to the will of Him in
whose eyes crowns and sceptres are merely the more costly
bawbles of the world. Like most of his contemporaries, who
had sought shelter in the western continent, his political
opinions, if not absolutely republican, had a leaning to
liberty that was strongly in opposition to the doctrine of
the divine rights of the monarch, while he had been too far
removed from the stirring passions which had gradually
excited those nearer to the throne, to lose their respect for
its sanctity, and to sully its brightness with blood. When
the transient and straggling visitors that, at long intervals,
visited his settlement, spoke of the Protector, who for so
many years ruled England with an iron hand, the eyes of
the old man would gleam with sudden and singular interest ;
and once, when commenting after evening prayer on the
vanity and the vicissitudes of this life, he acknowledged
that the extraordinary individual, who was, in substance if
not in name, seated on the throne of the Plantagenets, had
been the boon companion and ungodly associate of many
of his youthful hours. Then would follow a long, whole-
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH. 19
some, extemporaneous homily on the idleness of setting the
affections on the things of life, and a half-suppressed, but
still intelligible commendation of the wiser course which
had led him to raise his own tabernacle in the wilderness,
instead of weakening the chances of eternal glory by striv-
ing too much for the possession of the treacherous vanities
of the world.
But even the gentle and ordinarily little observant Ruth
might trace the kindling of the eye, the knitting of the
brow, and the flushings of his pale and furrowed cheek, as
the murderous conflicts of the civil wars became the themes
of the ancient soldier's discourse. There were moments
when religious submission, and we had almost said relig-
ious precepts, were partially forgotten, as he explained to
his attentive son and listening grandchild, the nature of
the onset, or the quality and dignity of the retreat. At
such times, his still nervous hand wrould even wield the
blade, in order to instruct the latter in its uses, and many
a long winter evening was passed in thus indirectly teach-
ing an art that was so much at variance with the mandates
of his divine master. The chastened soldier, however,
never forgot to close his instruction with a petition extra-
ordinary, in the customary prayer, that no descendant of
his should ever take life from a being unprepared to die,
except in justifiable defence of his faith, his person, or his
lawful rights. It must be admitted, that a liberal con-
struction of the reserved privileges would leave sufficient
matter to exercise the subtlety of one subject to any extra-
ordinary propensity to arms.
Few opportunities were, however, offered, in their re-
mote situation and with their peaceful habits, for the
practice of a theory that had been taught in so many les-
sons. Indian alarms, as they were termed, twere not un-
frequent, but, as yet, they had never produced more than
terror in the bosoms of the gentle Ruth and her young
offspring. It is true, they had heard of travellers massa-
cred, and of families separated by captivity, but, either by
a happy fortune, or by more than ordinary prudence in
the settlers who were established along that immediate
frontier, the knife and the tomahawk had as yet been spar-
ingly used in the colony of Connecticut. A threatening
and dangerous struggle with the Dutch, in the adjoining
province of New-Netherlands, had been averted by the
foresight and moderation of the rulers of the new planta-
tions ; and though a warlike and powerful native chief
20. THE IVETT OF WISH-TOX-WISH.
kept the neighboring colonies of Massachusetts and Rhode
Island in a state of constant watchfulness, from the cause
just mentioned the apprehension of danger was greatly
weakened in the breasts of those so remote as the individ-
uals who composed the family of our emigrant.
In this quiet manner did years glide by, the surround-
ing wilderness slowly retreating from t'he habitations of
the Heathcotes, until they found themselves in possession
of as many of the comforts of life as their utter seclusion
from the rest of the world could give them reason to ex-
pect.
With this preliminary explanation we shall refer the
reader to the succeeding narrative for a more minute, and
we hope for a more interesting account of the incidents
of a legend that may prove too homely for the tastes of
those whose imaginations seek the excitement of scenes
more stirring, or of a condition of life less natural.
CHAPTER II.
" Sir, I do know you ;
And dare, upon the warrant of my art,
Commend a dear thing to you." — King Lear.
AT the precise time when the action of our piece com-
mences, a fine and fruitful season was drawing to a close.
The harvests of hay and of the smaller corns had long
been over, and the younger Heathcote, with his laborers,
had passed a day in depriving the luxuriant maize of its
tops, in order to secure the nutritious blades for fodder,
and to admit, the sun and air to harden a grain, that is
almost considered the staple production of the region he
inhabited. The veteran Mark had ridden among the work-
men during their light toil, as well to enjoy a sight which
promised abundance to his flocks and herds, as to throw
in, on occasion, some wholesome spiritual precept, in
which doctrinal subtlety was far more prominent than the
rules of practice. The hirelings of his son, for he had long
since yielded the management of the estate to Content,
were, without an exception, young men born in the coun-
try, and long use and much training had accustomed them
to a blending of religious exercises with most of the em-
ployments of life. They listened, therefore, with respect,
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON- WISH. 21
nor did an impious smile or an impatient glance escape
the lightest-minded of their number during his exhorta-
tions, though the homilies of the old man were neither
very brief, nor particularly original. But devotion to the
one great cause of their existence, austere habits, and un-
relaxed industry in keeping alive a flame of zeal that had
been kindled in the other hemisphere, to burn longest and
brightest in this, had interwoven the practice mentioned
with most of the opinions and pleasures of these meta-
physical, though simple-minded people. The toil went
on none the less cheerily for the extraordinary accompa-
niment, and Content himself, by a certain glimmering of
superstition, which appears to be the concomitant of ex-
cessive religious zeal, was fain to think that the sun shone
more* brightly en their labors, and that the earth gave
forth more of its fruits while these holy sentiments were
flowing from the lips of a father whom he piously loved
and deeply reverenced.
But when the sun, usually at that season, in the climate
of Connecticut, a bright unshrouded orb, fell towards the
tree-tops wThich bounded the western horizon, the old man
began to grow weary with his own well-doing. He there-
fore finished his discourse with a wholesome admonition
to the youths to complete their tasks before they quitted
the field ; and, turning the head of his horse, he rode
slowly, and with a musing air, toward the dwellings. It
is probable that for some time the thoughts of Mark were
occupied with the intellectual matter he had just been
handling with so much power ; but when his little nag
stopped of itself on a small eminence, which the crooked
cow-path he was following crossed, his mind yielded to the
impression of more worldly and more sensible objects. As
the scene that drew his contemplations from so many ab-
stract theories to the realities of life was peculiar to the
country, and is more or less connected with the subject of
our tale, we shall endeavor briefly to describe it.
A small tributary of the Connecticut divided the view
into two nearly equal parts. The fertile flats that ex-
tended on each of its banks for more than a mile, had been
early stripped of their burden of forest, and they now lay
in placid meadows, or in fields from which the grain of the
season had lately disappeared, and over which the plough
had already left the marks of recent tillage. The whole
of the plain, which ascended gently from the rivulet to*
ward the forest, was subdivided into inclosures by number-
22 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH.
less fences, constructed in the rude but substantial manner
of the country. Rails, in which lightness and economy
of wood had been but little consulted, lying in zigzag
lines, like the approaches which the besieger makes in his
cautious advance to the hostile fortress, were piled on each
other, until barriers seven or eight feet in height were in-
terposed to the inroads of vicious cattle. In one spot, a
large square vacancy had been cut into the forest, and
though numberless stumps of trees darkened its surface,
as indeed they did many of the fields on the flats them-
selves, bright, green grain was sprouting forth luxuriantly
from the rich ^ud virgin soil. High against the side of an
adjacent hill, that might aspire to be called a low rocky
mountain, a similar invasion had been made on the domain
of the trees ; but caprice or convenience had induced an
abandonment of the clearing, after it had ill requited the
toil of felling the timber* by a single crop. In this spot,
straggling, girdled, and consequently dead trees, piles of
logs, and black and charred stumps were seen, deforming
the beauty of a field that would otherwise have been strik-
ing from its deep setting in the woods. Much of the sur-
face of this opening, too, was now concealed by bushes, of
what is termed the second growth, though here and there
places appeared in which the luxuriant white clover, nat-
ural to the country, had followed the close grazing of the
flocks. The eyes of Mark were bent inquiringly on this
clearing, which by an air line might have been half a mile
from the place where his horse had stopped, for the sounds
of a dozen differently toned cow-bells were brought on the
still air of the evening to his ears, from among its bushes.
The evidences of civilization were the least equivocal,
however, on and around a natural elevation in the land,
which arose so suddenly on the very bank of the stream as
to give to it the appearance of a work of art. Whether
these mounds once existed everywhere on the face of the
earth, and have disappeared before long tillage and labor,
we shall not presume to conjecture ; but we have reason to
think that they occur much more frequently in certain parts
of our own country than in any other familiarly known to
ordinary travellers, unless, perhaps, it may be in some of
the valleys of Switzerland. The practised veteran had
chosen the summit of this flattened cone for the establish-
ment of that species of military defence which the situa-
tion of the country, and the character of the enemy he had
to guard against, rendered advisable, as well as customary.
THE WEPT OF M'lSII-TON-lVlSH. 23
•
The dwelling was of wood, and constructed of the ordi-
nary frame-work, with its thin covering of boards. It
was long, low, and irregular, bearing marks of having been
reared at different periods, as the wants of an increasing
family had required additional accommodation. It stood
near the verge of the natural declivity, and on that side of
the hill where its base was washed by the rivulet, a rude
piazza stretching along the whole of its front, -and over-
hanging the stream. Several large, irregular, and clumsy
chimneys rose out of different parts of the roofs, another
proof that comfort rather than taste had been consulted in
the disposition of the buildings. There were also two or
three detached offices on the summit of the hill, placed
near the dwellings, and at points most convenient for their
several uses. A stranger might have remarked that they
were so disposed as to form, as far as they went, the differ-
ent sides of a hollow square. Notwithstanding the great
length of the principal building, and the disposition of the
more minute and detached parts, this desirable formation
would not, however, have been obtained, if it were not
that two rows of rude constructions in logs, from which
the bark had not even been stripped, served to eke out
the parts that had been deficient. These primeval edifices
were used to contain various domestic articles, no less than
provisions ; they also furnished numerous lodging- rooms
for the laborers and the inferior dependents of the farm.
By the aid of a few strong and high gates of hewn timber
those parts of the building which had not been made to
unite in the original construction, were sufficiently con-
nected to oppose so many barriers against admission into
the inner court.
But the building which was most conspicuous by its
position, no less than by the singularity of its construction,
stood on alow, artificial mound, in the centre of the quad-
rangle. It was high, hexagonal in shape, and crowned
with a roof that came to a point, and from whose peak rose
a, towering flagstaff. The foundation was of stone ; but, at
the height of a man above the earth, the sides were made
of massive, squared logs, firmly united by an ingenious
combination of their ends, as well as by perpendicular
supporters pinned closely into their sides. In this citadel,
or block-house, as from its materials it was technically
called, there were two different tiers of long, narrow loop-
holes, but no regular windows. The rays of the setting
sun, however, glittering on one or two small openings in
24 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON- WISH.
the roof, in which glass had been set, furnished evidence
that the summit of the building was sometimes used fol
other purposes than those of defence.
About half-way up the sides of the eminence on which
the building stood, was an unbroken line of high palisa-
cloes, made of the bodies of young trees, firmly knitted to-
gether by braces and horizontal pieces of timber, and evi-
dently kept in a state of jealous and complete repair. The
air of the whole of this frontier fortress was neat and com-
fortable, and, considering that the use of artillery was
unknown to those forests, not unmilitary.
At no great distance from the base of the hill, stood the
barns and the stables. They were surrounded by a vast
range of rude but warm sheds, beneath which sheep and
horned cattle were usually sheltered from the storms of
the rigorous winters of the climate. The surfaces of the
meadows immediately around the out-buildings, were of a
smoother and richer sward than those in the distance, and
the fences were on a far more artificial, and perhaps dur-
able, though scarcely on a more serviceable plan. A large
orchard of some ten or fifteen years' growth, too, added
greatly to the air of improvement, which put this smiling
valley in such strong and pleasing contrast to the endless
and nearly untenanted woods by which it was environed.
Of the interminable forest, it is not necessary to speak.
With the solitary exception on the mountain-side, and of
here and there a windrow, along which the trees had been
uprooted by the furious blasts which sometimes sweep off
acres of our trees in a minute, the eye could find no other
object to study in the vast setting of this quiet rural pict-
ure but the seemingly endless maze of wilderness. The
broken surface of the land, however, limited the view to a
horizon of no great extent, though the art of man could
scarcely devise colors so vivid or so gay as those which
were afforded by the brilliant hues of the foliage. The
keen, biting frosts, known at the close of a New England
autumn, had already touched the broad and fringed leaves
of the maples, and the sudden and secret process had been
wrought upon all the other varieties of the forest, produc-
ing that magical effect which can be nowhere seen except in
regions in which nature is so bountiful and luxuriant in
summer, and so sudden and so stern in the change of the
seasons.
Over this picture of prosperity and peace, the eye of old
Mark Heathcote wandered with a keen degree of worldly
THE WEPT OF WISH-TO. V- WISH. 2\
prudence. The melancholy sounds of the various toned
bells, ringing hollow and plaintively among the arches of
the woods, gave him reason to believe that the herds of the
family were returning voluntarily from their unlimited
forest pasturage. His grandson, a fine, spirited boy of
some fourteen years, was approaching through the fields.
The youngster drove before him a small flock, which do-
mestic necessity compelled the family to keep at great
occasional loss, and a heavy expense of time and trouble;
both of which could alone protect them from the ravages
of the beasts of prey. A species of half-witted serving-lad,
whom charity had induced the old man to harbor among
his dependents, was seen issuing from the woods, nearly
in a line with the neglected clearing on the mountain-side.
The latter advanced, shouting and urging before him a
drove of colts, as shaggy, as wayward, and nearly as un-
tamed as himself.
" How now, weak one," said the Puritan, with a severe eye,
as the two lads approached him with their several charges
from different directions, and nearly at the same in-
stant ; " how now, sirrah ! dost worry the cattle in this gait
when the eyes of the prudent are turned from thee ? Do
as thou wouldst be done by, is a just and healthful ad-
monition, that the learned and the simple, the weak and
the strong of mind, should alike recall to their thoughts
and their practice. I do not know that an over-driven colt
will be at all more apt to make a gentle and useful beast
in its prime, than one treated with kindness and care."
" I believe the evil one has got into all the kine, no less
than into the foals," sullenly returned the lad ; " I've
called to them in anger, and I've spoken to them as if they
had been my natural kin, and yet neither fair word nor
foul tongue will bring them to hearken to advice. There
is something frightful in the woods this very sundown,
master ; or colts that I have driven the summer through,
would not be apt to give this unfair treatment to one they
ought to know to be their friend."
"Thy sheep are counted, Mark ?" resumed the grand-
father, turning toward his descendant with a less austere,
but always an authoritative brow ; " thy mother hath need
of every fleece to provide covering for thee and others
like thee ; thou knowest, child, that the creatures are few,
and our winters weary and cold."
" My mother's loom shall never be idle from carelessness
of mine," returned the confident boy ; " but counting
26 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON- WISH*
wishing cannot make seven-and-thirty fleeces, where ther€
are only six-and-thirty backs to carry them. I have been
an hour among the briers and bushes of the hill logging,
looking for the lost wether, and yet neither lock, hoof,
hide, nor horn, is there to say what hath befallen the ani-
mal. "
"Thou hast lost a sheep! this carelessness will cause thy
mother to grieve."
" Grandfather, I have been no idler. Since the last
hunt, the flock hath been allowed to browse the woods ; for
no man, in all that week, saw wolf, panther, or bear,
though the country was up, from the great river to the
outer settlements of the colony. The biggest four-footed
animal that lost its hide in the muster was a thin-ribbed
deer ; and the stoutest battle given, was between wild
Whittal Ring, here, and a woodchuck that kept him at
arm's-length for the better part of an afternoon."
" The tale may be true, but it neither finds that which is
lost, nor completeth the number of thy .mother's flock.
Hast thou ridden carefully throughout the clearing? It is
not long since I saw the animal grazing in that quarter.
What hast thou twisting in thy fingers, in that wasteful
and unthankful manner, Whittal?"
"What would make a winter blanket, if there was
enough of it ! wool ! and wool, too, that came from the
thigh of old Straight-Horns ; else have I forgotten a leg
that gives the longest and coarsest hair at the shearing."
"that truly seemeth a lock from the animal that is
wanting," exclaimed the other boy. "There is no other
creature in the flock with fleece so coarse and shaggy.
Where found you the handful, Whittal Ring?"
" Growing on the branch of a thorn. Queer fruit
this, masters, to be seen where young plums ought to
ripen !"
" Go, go," interrupted the old man ; " thou idlest, and
misspendest the time in vain talk. Go, fold thy flock,
Mark ; and do thou, weak one, house thy charge with less
uproar than is wont. We should remember that the voice
is given to man, firstly, that he may improve the blessing
in thanksgivings and petitions ; secondly, to communicate
such gifts as may be imparted to himself, and which it is
his bounden duty to attempt to impart to others ; and
then, thirdly, to declare his natural wants and inclina*.
tions."
With this admonition, which probably proceeded from 3
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH. 27
secret consciousness in the Puritan that he had permitted
a momentary cloud of selfishness to obscure the brightness
of his faith, the party separated. The grandson and the
hireling took their several ways to the folds, while old
Mark himself slowly continued his course toward the
dwellings. It was near enough to the hours of darkness
to render the preparations we have mentioned prudent
still, no urgency called for particular haste, in the return
of the veteran to the shelter and protection of his own
comfortable and secure abode. . He therefore loitered
along the path, occasionally stopping to look into the
prospects of the young crops that were beginning to
spring up in readiness for the coming year, and at times
bending his gaze around the whole of his limited hori-
zon, like one who had the habit of exceeding and unre-
mitted care.
One of these numerous pauses promised to be much
longer than usual. Instead of keeping his understanding
eye on the grain, the look of the old man appeared fast
ened, as by a charm, on some distant and obscure object.
Doubt and uncertainty, for many minutes, seemed to
mingle in his gaze. But all hesitation had apparently
disappeared, as his lips severed, and he Spoke, perhap's
unconsciously to himself, aloud.
" It is no deception," were the low words, "but a living
and an accountable creature of the Lord's. Many a day
has passed since such a sight hath been witnessed in this
vale ; but my eye greatly deceives me, or yonder cometh
one ready to ask for hospitality, and, peradventure, for
Christian and brotherly communion."
The sight of the aged emigrant had not deceived him.
One, who appeared a wayworn and weary traveller, had
indeed ridden out of the forest, at a point where a path,
that was easier to be traced by the blazed trees that lay
along its route than by any marks on the earth itself, is-
sued into the cleared land. The progress of the stranger
had at first been so wary and slow, as to bear the manner
of exceeding and mysterious caution. The blind road,
along which he must have ridden not only far but hard,
or night had certainly overtaken him in the woods, led to
one of the distant settlements that lay near to the fertile
banks of the Connecticut. Few ever followed its wind-
ings but they who had especial affairs, or extraordinary
communion in the way of religious friendships, with the
proprietors of the Wish-Ton-Wish, as, in commemoration
28 THE WEPT OF WISH-TO N-
of the first bird that had been seen by the emigrants, tha
valley of the Heathcotes was called.
Once fairly in view, any doubt or apprehension that the
stranger might at first have entertained, disappeared. He
rode boldly and steadily forward, until he drew a rein that
his impoverished and weary beast gladly obeyed within a
few feet of the proprietor of the valley, whose gaze had
never ceased to watch his movements, from the instant
when the other first came within view. Before speaking,
the stranger, a man whose head was getting gray, appar-
ently as much with hardship as with time, and one whose
great weight would have proved a grievous burden, in a
long ride, to even a better-conditioned beast than the ill-
favored provincial hack he had ridden, dismounted, and
threw the bridle loose upon the drooping neck of the
animal. The latter, without a moment's delay, and with a
greediness that denoted long abstinence, profited by its
liberty, to crop the herbage where it4 stood.
" I cannot be mistaken, when I suppose that I have at
length reached the valley of the Wish-Ton-Wish," the visit-
or said, touching a soiled and slouched beaver that more
than half concealed his features. The question was put in
an English that bespoke a descent from those who dwell in
the midland counties of the mother country, rather than in
that intonation which is still to be traced, equally in the
western portions of England and in the eastern states of
the Union. Notwithstanding the purity of his accent,
there was enough in the form of his speech to denote a
severe compliance with the fashion of the religionists of
the times. He used that measured and methodical tone,
which was, singularly enough, believed to distinguish an
entire absence of affectation in language.
" Thou hast reached the dwelling of him them seekest ;
one who is a submissive sojourner in the wilderness of the
world, and an humble servitor in the outer temple."
" This then is Mark Heathcote ! " repeated the stranger
in tones of interest, regarding the other with a look of
long, and, possibly, of suspicious investigation.
<k Such is the name I bear. A fitting confidence in Him
who knows so well how to change the wilds into the haunts
of men, and much suffering, have made me the master of
what thou seest. Whether thou comest to tarry a night, a
week, a month, or even for a still longer season, as a brother
in care, and I doubt not one who striveth for the right, J
bid thee welcome."
THE IVEPT OF WISH-TO.\r- >VISH. 2$
The stranger thanked his host by a slow inclination of
ihe head ; but the gaze, which began to partake a little of
the look of recognition, was still too earnest and engross-
ing to admit of verbal reply. On the other hand, though
the old man had scanned the broad and rusty beaver, the
coarse and well-worn doublet, the heavy boots, and, in
short, the whole attire of his visitor, m which he saw no
vain conformity to idle fashions to condemn, it was evident
that personal recollection had not the smallest influence in
quickening his hospitality.
"Thou hast arrived happily," continued the Puritan ;
" had night overtaken thee in the forest, unless much prac-
tised in the shifts of our young woodsmen, hunger, frost,
and a supperless bed of "brush, would have given thee
motive to think more of the body than is either profitable
or seemly."
The stranger might possibly have known the embarrass-
ment of these several hardships; for the quick and uncon-
scious glance he threw over his soiled dress should have
betrayed some familiarity, already, with the privations to
which his host alluded. As neither of them, however,
seemed disposed to waste further time on matters of such
light moment, the traveller put an arm through the bridle
of his horse, and, in obedience to an invitation from the
owner of the dwelling, they took their way toward the
fortified edifice on the natural mound.
The task of furnishing litter and provender to the jaded
beast was performed by Whittal Ring, under the inspection,
and at times under the instructions, of its owner and his
host, both of whom appeared to take a kind and commend-
able interest in the comfort of a faithful hack, that had
evidently suffered long and much in the service of its
master. When this duty was discharged, the old man and
his unknown guest entered the house together; the frank
and unpretending hospitality of a country like that they
were in, rendering suspicion or hesitation qualities that
were unknown to the reception of a man of^arhite blood;
more especially if he spoke the language of the island,
which was then first sending out its' swarms to subdue and
possess so large a portion of a continent that nearly divides
the earth in moieties.
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON- WISH.
CHAPTER III.
' ' This is most strange ; your father's in some passion
That works him strongly." — Tempest.
A FEW hours made a great change in the occupations of
the different members of our simple and secluded family.
The kine had yielded their nightly tribute ; the oxen had
been released from the yoke, and were now secure beneath
their sheds ; the sheep were in their folds, safe from the
assaults of the prowling wolf ; and care had been taken to
see that everything possessing life was gathered within the
particular defences that were provided for its security and
comfort. But while all this caution was used in behalf of
living things, the utmost indifference prevailed on the sub-
ject of that species of movable property which elsewrhere
would have been guarded with at least an equal jealousy.
The homely fabrics of the looms of Ruth lay on their
bleaching-ground, to drink in the night-dew ; and ploughs,
harrows, carts, saddles, and other similar articles, were left
in situations so exposed as to prove that the hand of man
had occupations so numerous and so urgent as to render it
inconvenient to bestow labor where it was not considered
absolutely necessary.
Content himself was the last to quit the fields and the
out-buildings. When he reached the postern in the palisa-
does, he stopped to call to those above him, in order to
learn if any yet lingered without the wooden barriers. The
answer being in the negative, he entered, and drawing-to
the small but heavy gate, he secured it with bar, bolt, and
lock, carefully and jealously,- with his own hand. As this
was no more than a nightly and necessary precaution, the
affairs of the family received no interruption. The meal of
the hour was soon ended ; and conversation, with those light
toils which «re peculiar to the long evenings of the fall and
winter in families on the frontier, succeeded as fitting em-
ployments to close the business of a laborious and well
spent day.
Notwithstanding the entire simplicity which marked the
opinions and usages of the colonists at that period, and the
great equality of condition which even to this hour distin-
guishes the particular community of which we write, choice
and inclination drew some natural distinctions in the ordi-
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WJSIJ. 31
nary intercourse of the inmates of the Her-.thcote family.
A fire so bright and cheerful blazed on an enormous hearth
in a sort of upper kitchen, as to render candles or torches
unnecessary. Around it were seated six or seven hardy
and athletic young men, some drawing coarse tools care-
fully through the curvatures of ox-bows, others scraping
down the helves of axes, or perhaps fashioning sticks of
birch into homely but convenient brooms. A demure,
side-looking young woman kept her great wheel in motion,
while one or two others were passing from room to room,
with the notable and stirring industry of handmaidens
busied in the more* familiar cares of the household. A door
communicated with an inner and superior apartment. Here
was a smaller but an equally cheerful fire, a floor which
had recently been swept, while that without had been
freshly sprinkled with river sand ; candles of tallow, on a
table of cherry-wood from the neighboring forest ; walls
that were wrainscoted in the black oak of the country, and
a few other articles of a fashion so antique, and of orna-
ments so ingenious and rich, as to announce that they had
been transported from beyond sea. Above the mantle
were suspended the armorial bearings of the Heathcotes
and the Hardings, elaborately emblazoned in tent-stitch.
The principal personages of the family were seated
around the latter hearth, while a straggler from the other
room of more than usual curiosity had placed himself among
them, marking the distinction in ranks, or rather in situa-
tion, merely by the extraordinary care which he took that
none of the scrapings should litter the spotless oaken floor.
Until this period of the evening, the duties of hospitality
and the observances of religion had prevented familiar dis-
course. But the offices of the housewife were now ended
for the night, the handmaidens had all retired to their
wheels, and, as the bustle of a busy and more stirring do-
mestic industry ceased, the cold and self-restrained silence
which had hitherto only been broken by distant and brief
observations of courtesy, or by some wholesome allusion
to the lost and probationary condition of man, seemed to
invite an intercourse of a more general character.
" You entered my clearing by the southern path," com-
menced Mark Heathcote, addressing himself to his guest
with sufficient courtesy, "and needs must bring tidings
from the towns on. the river side. Has aught been done
by our councillors at home, in the matter that pertainetb
so closely to the well-being Of this colony ?"
32 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH.
u You would have me say whether he that now sitteth
on the throne of England hath listened to the petitions of
his people in this province, and hath granted them protec-
tion against the abuses which might so readily flow out of
his own ill-advised will, or out of the violence and injus-
tice of his successors ? "
"We will render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's,
and speak reverently of men having authority. I would
fain know whether the agent sent by our people hath
gained the ears of those who counsel the prince, and ob-
tained that which he sought ? "
" He hath done more," returned the* stranger, with sin-
gular asperity ; " he hath even gained the ear of the Lord's
Anointed."
" Then is Charles of better mind and of stronger justice
than report hath spoken. We were told that light manners
and unprofitable companions had led him to think more of
the vanities of the world and less of the wants of those over
whom he hath been called by Providence, to rule, than is
meet for one that sitteth on a high place. I rejoice that
the arguments of the man we sent have prevailed over
more evil promptings, and that peace and freedom of con-
science are likely to be the fruits of the undertaking. In
what manner hath he seen fit to order the future govern-
ment of this people ? "
** Much as it hath ever stood — by their own ordinances.
Winthrop hath returned, and is the bearer of a Royal
Charter which granteth all the rights long claimed and
practised. None now dwell under the Crown of Britain
with fewer offensive demands on their consciences, or with
lighter calls on their political duties, than the men of Con-,
necticut."
" It is fitting that thanks should be rendered therefor
where thanks are most due," said the Puritan, folding his
hands on his bosom, and sitting for a moment with closed
eyes, like one who communed with an unseen being. " Is
it known by what mariner of argunjent the Lord moved
the heart of the Prince to hearken to our wants ; or was it
an open and manifest token of his power ? "
" I think it must needs have been the latter," rejoined
the visitor, with a manner that grew still more caustic and
emphatic. "The bawble, that was the visible agent, could
not have weighed greatly with one so proudly seated be-
fore the eyes of men."
Until this point in the. discourse, Content and Ruth,
THE WEPT OF WISII-TOK-WISII. 33
with their offspring, and two or three other individuals
who composed the audience, had listened with the demure
gravity which characterized the manners of the country.
The language, united with the ill-concealed sarcasm con-
veyed by the countenance, no less than the emphasis of
the speaker, caused them now to raise their eyes, as by a
common impulse. The word " bawble " was audibly and
curiously repeated. But the look of cold irony had already
passed from the features of the stranger, and it had given
place to a stern and fixed austerity that imparted a char-
acter of grimness to his hard and sunburnt visage. Still
he betrayed no disposition to shrink from the subject ; but,
after regarding his auditors with a glance in w7hich pride
and suspicion were strongly blended, he resumed the dis-
course.
"It is known," he added, " that the grandfather of him
the good people of these settlements have commissioned
to bear their wants over sea, lived in the favor of the man
who last sat upon the throne of England ; and a rumor
goeth forth, that the Stuart, in a moment of princely con-
descension, once decked the finger of his subject with a
ring wrought in a curious fashion. It was a token of the
love which a monarch may bear a man."
" Such gifts are beacons of friendship, but may not be
used as gay and sinful ornaments," observed Mark, while
the other paused like one who wished none of the bitter-
ness of his allusions to be lost.
"It matters not whether the bawble lay in the coffers of
the Winthrops, or has long been glittering before the
eyes of the faithful, in the Bay, since it hath finally proved
to be a jewel of price," continued the stranger. " It is
said in secret that this ring hath returned to the finger of
a Stuart, and it is openly proclaimed that Connecticut hath
a Charter ! "
Content and his wife regarded each other in melancholy
amazement. Such an evidence of wanton levity and of
unworthiness of motive, in one who was intrusted with the
gift of earthly government, pained their simple and up-
right minds, while old Mark, of still more decided and ex-
aggerated ideas of spiritual perfection, distinctly groaned
aloud. The stranger took a sensible pleasure in this testi-
mony of their abhorrence of so gross and so unworthy .a
venality, though he saw no occasion to heighten its effect
by further speech. When his host stood erect, and in a
voice that was accustomed to obedience called on his fain-
34 THE WEPT OF WISH-TO^- WISH.
ily to join, in behalf of the reckless ruler of the land of
their fathers, in a petition to Him who alone could soften
the hearts of princes, he also arose from his seat. But
even in this act of devotion, the stranger bore the air of
one who wished to do pleasure to his entertainers, rather
than to obtain that which was asked.
The prayer, though short, was pointed, fervent, and suf-
ficiently personal. The wheels in the outer room ceased
their hum, and a general movement denoted that all there
had arisen to join in the office ; while one or two of their
number, impelled by deeper piety or stronger interest, drew
near to the open door between the rooms, in order to lis-
ten. % With this singular but characteristic interruption,
that particular branch of the discourse, which had given
rise to it, altogether ceased.
"And 'have we reason to dread a rising of the savages
on the borders ? " asked Content, when he found that the
moved spirit of his father was not yet sufficiently calmed
to return to the examination of temporal things; "one
who brought wares from the towns below, a few months
since, recited reasons to fear a movement among the red
men."
The subject had not sufficient interest to open the ears
of the stranger. He was deaf, or he chose to affect deaf-
ness, to the interrogatory. Laying his two large and weath-
er-worn, though still muscular hands, on a visage that was
much darkened by exposure, he appeared to shut out the
objects of the world, while he communed deeply, and, as
would seem by a slight tremor, that shook even his power-
ful frame, terribly, with his own thoughts.
" We have many to whom our hearts strongly cling, to
heighten the smallest symptom of alarm from that quarter,"
added the tender and anxious mother, her eye glancing at
the uplifted countenances of two little girls, who, busied
with their light needle-work, sat on stools at her feet.
" But I rejoice to see that one, who hath journeyed from
parts where the minds of the savages must be better under-
stood, hath not feared to do it unarmed."
The traveller slowly uncovered his features, and the
glance that his eye shot over the face of the last speaker was
not without a gentle and interested expression. Instantly
recovering his composure, he arose, and, turning to the
double leathern sack, which had been borne on the crup-
per of his nag, and which now lay at no great distance
from his seat, he drew a pair of horseman's pistols from
THE WEPT OF \VISH-TOX-WISIT. 35
two well contrived pockets in its sides, and laid them de-
liberately on the table.
" Though little disposed to seek an encounter with any
bearing the image of man," he said, "I have not neglected
the usual precautions of those who enter the wilderness.
Here are weapons that, in steady hands, might easily take
life, or, at need, preserve it."
The young Mark drew near with boyish curiosity, and
while one finger ventured to touch a lock, as he stole a
conscious glance of wrong-doing towards his mother, he
said, with as much of contempt in his air as the schooling
of his manners would allow —
"An Indian arrow would make a surer aim than a bore
as short as this ! When the trainer from the Hartford town
struck the wild-cat on the hill clearing, he sent the bullet
from a five-foot barrel ; besides,' this short-sighted gun
would be a dull weapon in a hug against the keen-edged
knife that the wicked Wampanoag is known to carry."
" Boy, thy years are few, and thy boldness of speech
marvellous," sternly interrupted his parent in the second
degree.
The stranger manifested no displeasure at the confident
language of the lad. Encouraging him with a look, which
plainly proclaimed that martial qualities in no degree les-
sened the stripling in his favor, he observed that —
" The youth who is not afraid to think of the fight, or to
reason on its chances, will lead to a manhood of spirit and
independence. A hundred thousand striplings like this
might have spared Winthrop his jewel, and the Stuart the
shame of yielding to so vain and so trivial a bribe. But
thou mayst also see, child, that had we come to the death-
hug, the wicked Wampanoag might have found a blade as
keen as his own."
The stranger, while speaking, loosened a few strings of
his doublet, and thrust a hand into his bosom. The action
enabled more than one eye to catch a momentary glimpse
of a weapon of the same description, but of a size much
smaller than those he had already so freely exhibited. As
he immediately withdrew the member, and again closed
the garment with studied care, no one presumed to advert
to the circumstance, but all turned their attention to the
long sharp hunting knife that he deposited by the side of
the pistols, as he concluded. Mark ventured to open its
blade, but he turned away with sudden consciousness,
when he found that a few fibres of coarse, shaggy wool,
36 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH.
that were drawn from the loosened joint, adhered to his
lingers.
" Straight-Horns has been against a bush sharper than
the thorn ! " exclaimed Whittal Ring, who had been at
hand, and who watched with childish admiration the small-
cst proceedings of the different individuals. " A steel for
the back of the blade, a few dried leaves and broken sticks,
with §uch a carver, would soon make roast and broiled of
the old bell-wether himself. I know that the hair of all my
colts is sorrel, and I counted five at sundown, which is just
as many as went loping through the underbrush when I
loosened them from the hopples in the morning ; but six-
and-thirty backs can never carry seven-and-thirty growjng
ileeces of unsheared wool. Master knows that, for he is a
scholar and can count a hundred ! "
The allusion to the fate of the lost sheep was so plain, as
to admit of no interpretation of the meaning of the witless
speaker. Animals of that class were of the last importance
to the comforts of the settlers, and there was not probably
one within hearing of Whittal Ring that was at all igno-
rant of the import of his words. Indeed, the loud chuckle
and the open and deriding manner with which the lad him-
self held above his head the hairy fibres that he had
snatched from young Mark, allowed of no concealment had
it been desirable.
u This feeble-gifted youth would hint that thy knife hath
proved its edge on a wether that is missing from our
flock, since the animals went on their mountain range in
the morning," said the host, calmly ; though even he bent
his eye to the floor, as he waited for an answer to a remark,
direct as the one his sense of justice, and his indomitable
love of right, had prompted.
The stranger demanded, in a voice that lost none of its
depth or firmness, " Is hunger a crime, that they who dwell so
far from the haunts of selfishness visit it with their anger?"
" The foot of Christian man never approached the gates
of Wish-Ton-Wish to be turned away in uncharitableness,
but that which is freely given should not be taken in licen-
tiousness. From off the hill where my flock is wont to
graze it is easy, through many an opening of the forest, to
see these roofs ; and it would have been better that the
body should languish, than that a grievous sin should be
placed on that immortal spirit which is already too deeply
laden, unless thou art far more happy -than others of the
fallen race of Adam."
THE WEPT OF
" Mark Heathcote," said the accused, and ever with an
unwavering tone, "look further at those weapons, which,
if a guilty man, I have weakly placed within thy power.
Thou wilt find more there to wonder at than a few strag-
gling hairs that the spinner would cast from her as too
coarse for service."
" It is long since I found pleasure in handling the weap-
ons of strife ; may it be longer to the time when they shall
be needed in this abode of peace. These are instruments
of death, resembling those used in my youth, by cavaliers
that rode in the levies of the first Charles and of his pu-
sillanimous father. There was worldly pride and great
vanity, with much and damning ungodliness in the wars
that I have seen, my children ; and yet the carnal man
found pleasure in the stirrings of those graceless days!
Come hither, younker ; thou hast often sought to know
the manner in which the horsemen are wont to lead into
the combat, when the broad-mouthed artillery and patter-
ing leaden hail have cleared a passage for the struggle of
horse to horse, and man to man. Much of the justifica-
tion of these combats must depend on the inward spirit,
and on the temper of him that striketh at the life of a
fellow-sinner ; but righteous Joshua, it is known, contended
with the heathen throughout a supernatural day ; and,
therefore, always humbly confiding that our cause is just,
I will open to thy young mind the uses of a weapon that
hath never before been seen in these forests."
" I have hefted many a heavier piece than this," said
young Mark, frowning equally with the exertion and with
the instigations of his aspiring spirit, as he held out the
ponderous weapon in a single hand ; "we have guns that
might tame a wolf with greater certainty than any barrel
of a bore less than my own height. T^ell me, grand'ther ;
at what distance do the mounted warriors you so often
name take their sight ? "
But the power of speech appeared suddenly to have
deserted the aged veteran. He had interrupted his own
discourse, and now, instead of answering the interrogatory
of the boy, his eye wandered slowly and with a look of
painful doubt from the weapon, that he still held before
him, to the countenance of the stranger. The latter con-
tinued erect, like one courting a strict and meaning exam-
ination of his person. This dumb-show could not fail to
attract the observation of Content. Rising from his seat,
with that quiet but authoritative manner which is still seen
3S THE WEPT OF WISH- POX- WISH.
in the domestic government of the people of the region
where he dwelt, he beckoned to all present to quit the
apartment. Ruth and her daughters, the hirelings, the ill-
gifted Whittal, and even the reluctant Mark, preceded him
to the door, which he closed with respectful care ; and then
the whole of the wondering party mingled with those of
the outer room, leaving the one they had quitted to the
sole possession of the aged chief of the settlement, and to
his still unknown and mysterious guest.
Many anxious, and to those who were excluded, seem-
ingly interminable minutes passed, and the secret interview
appeared to draw no nearer its close. That deep reverence
which the years, paternity, and character of the grandfather
had inspired, prevented all from approaching the quarter
of the apartment nearest the room they had left ; but a
silence, still as the grave, did all that silence could do to
enlighten their minds in a matter of so much general in-
terest. The deep, smothered sentences of the speakers
were often heard, cacli dwelling with steadiness and pro-
priety on his particular theme, but no sound that conveyed
meaning to the minds of those without passed the envious
walls. At length, the voice of old Mark became more
than usually audible ; and then Content arose, with a ges-
ture to those around him to imitate his example. The
young men threw aside the subjects of their light employ-
ments, the maidens left the wheels which had not been
turned for many minutes, and the^ whole party disposed
themselves in the decent and simple attitude of prayer.
For the third time that evening was the voice of the Puri-
tan-heard, pouring out his spirit in a communion with that
Being on whom it was his practice to repose all his worldly
cares. But though long accustomed to all the peculiar
forms of utterance, by which their father ordinarily ex^
pressed his pious emotions, neither Content nor his atten-
tive partner was enabled to decide on the nature of the
feeling that was now uppermost. At times it appeared to
be the language of thanksgiving, and at others it assumed
more of the imploring sounds of deprecation and petition ;
in short, it was so varied, and, though tranquil, so equivo-
cal, if such a term may be applied to so serious a subject,
as completely to baffle every conjecture.
Long and weary minutes passed after the voice had en-
tirely ceased, and yet no summons was given to the expect-
ing family, nor did any .sound proceed from the inner room
which the respectful son was emboldened ta.construe into
THE WEPT OF W1SH-TON-WJSH. 39
evidence that he might presume to enter. At length ap-
prehension began to mingle with conjectures, and then the
husband and wife communed apart, in whispers. The
misgivings and doubt of the former soon manifested them-
selves in still more apparent forms. He arose, and was
seen pacing the wide apartment, gradually approaching
nearer to the partition which separated the two rooms,
evidently prepared to retire beyond the limits of hearing,
the moment he should detect any proofs that his uneasi-
ness was without a sufficient cause. Stili no sound pro-
ceeded from the inner room. The breathless silence which
had so shortly before reigned where lie was, appeared to
be' suddenly transferred to the spot in which he was vainly
endeavoring to detect the smallest proof of human exist-
ence. Again he returned to Ruth, and again they con-
sulted in low voices, as to the step that filial duty seemed
to require at their hands.
" We were not bidden to withdraw," said his gentle com-
panion ; " why not rejoin our parent, now that time has
been given to understand the subject which so evidently
disturbed his rnind ? "
Content, at length, yielded to this opinion. With that
cautious discretion which distinguishes his people, he mo-
tioned to the family to follow, in order that no unnecessary
exclusion should give rise to conjectures or excite sus-
picions, of which, after all, the circumstances might prove
no justification. Notwithstanding the subdued manners
of the age and country, curiosity, and perhaps a better
feeling, had become so intense, as to cause all present to
obey this silent mandate, by moving as swiftly towards the
open door as a never-yielding decency of demeanor would
permit.
Old Mark Heathcote occupied the chair in which he had
been left, vith that calm and unbending gravity of eye and
features whr h were then thought indispensable to a fitting
sobriety of spirit. But the stranger had disappeared.
There were two or three outlets by which the room, and
even the house might be quitted, without the knowledge
of those who had so long waited for admission ; and the
first impression led the family to expect the reappearance
of the absent man through one of these exterior passages.
Content, however, read in the expression of his father's eye
that the moment of confidence, if it were ever to arrive,
had not yet come ; and so admirable and perfect was the
domestic discipline of this family, that the questions which
40 THE WEFT OF WISH-TON- WISH.
the son did not see fit to propound, no one of inferior con-
dition, or lesser age, might presume to agitate. With the
person of the stranger, every evidence of his recent visit
had also vanished.
Mark missed the weapon that had excited his admira-
tion ; Whittal looked in vain for the hunting-knife, which
had betrayed the fate of the wether ; Mrs. Heathcote saw
by a hasty glance of the eye, that the leathern sacks, which
she had borne in mind ought to be transferred to the sleep-
ing apartment of their guest, were gone ; and a mild and
playful image of herself, who bore her name no less than
most of those features which had rendered her own youth
more than usually attractive, sought without success, a
massive silver spur, of curious and antique workmanship,
which she had been permitted to handle until the moment
when the family had been commanded to withdraw.
The night had now worn later than the hour at which it
was usual for people of habits so simple to be out of their
beds. The grandfather lighted a taper, and, .after bestowing
the usual blessing on those around him, with an air as calm
as if nothing had occurred, he prepared to retire into his own
room. And yet, matter of interest seemed to linger on his
mind. Even on the threshold of the door, he turned, and, for
an instant, all expected some explanation of a circumstance
which began to wear no little of the aspect of an exciting
and painful mystery. But their hopes were raised only to
be disappointed.
" My thoughts have not kept the passage of the time,"
he said. " In what hour of the night are we, my son ?"
He was told that it was already past the usual moment
of sleep.
" No matter ; that which Providence hath bestowed for
our comfort and support should not be lightly and un-
thankfully disregarded. Take thou the beast I am wont to
ride, thyself, Content, and follow the path which leadeth
to the mountain clearing ; bring away that which shall
meet thine eye, near the first turning of the route towards
the river towns. We have got into the last quarter of the
year, and in order that our industry may not flag, and that
all may be stirring with the sun, let the remainder of the
household seek their rest."
Content saw, by the manner of his father, that no de-
parture from the strict letter of these instructions was ad-
missible. He closed the door after his retiring form, and
then, by a quiet gesture of authority, indicated to his de«
THE WEPT OF jrY5//-rav- jr/s//. 41
pendents that they were expected to withdraw. The
maidens of Ruth led the children to their chambers, and in
a few more minutes none remained in the outer apartment,
already so often named, but the obedient son, with his
anxious and affectionate consort.
" I will be thy companion, husband," Ruth half-whisper-
ingly commenced, so soon as the little domestic prepara-
tions for leaving the fires and securing the doors were
ended. " I like not that thou should'st go into the forest
alone, at so late an hour of the night."
" One will be with me, there, who never deserteth those
who rely on his protection. Besides, my Ruth, what is
there to apprehend in a wilderness like this ? The beasts
have been lately hunted from the hills, and excepting those
who dwell under our own roof, there is not one within a
long day's ride."
" We know not ! Where is the stranger that came within
our doors as the sun was setting ? "
" As thou sayest, we know not. My father is not minded
to open his lips on the subject of this traveller, and surely
we are not now to learn the lessons of obedience and self-
denial."
" It would, notwithstanding, be a great easing to the
spirit to hear at least the name of him who hath eaten of
our bread, and joined in our family worship, though he
were immediately to pass away forever from before the
sight."
" That may he have done, already ! " returned the less
curious and more self-restrained husband. " My father
wills not that we inquire."
" And yet there can be little sin in knowing the condi-
tion of one whose fortunes and movements can excite
neither our envy nor our strife. I would that we had tar-
ried for a closer mingling in the prayers ; it was not seemly
to desert a guest, who, it would appear, had need of an
especial up-offering in his behalf."
" Our spirits joined in the asking, though our ears were
shut to the matter of his wants. But it will be needful that
I should be afoot with the young men, in the morning, and
a mile of measurement would not reach to the turning, in
the path to the river towns. Go with me to the postern,
and look to the fastenings ; I will not keep thee long on
thy watch."
Content and his wife now quitted the dwelling, by the
only door that was left unbarred. Lighted by a moon that
42 THE IV KPT OF WISH-TON- WISH.
was full, tiiougn clouded, they passed a gateway between
two of the outer buildings, and descended to the palisadoes.
The bars and bolts of the little postern were removed, and
in a few minutes, the former, mounted on the back of his
father's own horse, was galloping briskly along the path
which led into the part of the forest he was directed to
seek.
While the husband was thus proceeding, in obedience to
orders that he never hesitated to obey, his faithful wife
withdrew within the shelter of the wooden defences. More
in compliance with a precaution that was become habitual,
than from any present causes of suspicion, she dre'v a single
bolt and remained at the postern, anxiously awaiting the
result of a movement that was as unaccountable as i\.
extraordinary.
CHAPTER IV.
" I' the name of something holy, sir, why stand you
In this strange stare ? " — Tempest.
As a girl, Ruth Harding had been one of the mildest and
gentlest of the human race. Though new impulses had
been given to her naturally kind affections by the attach-
ments of a wife and mother, her dispositions suffered no
change by marriage. Obedient, disinterested, and devoted
to those she loved, as her parents had known her, so, by the
experience of many years, had she proved to Content. In
the midst of the utmost equanimity of temper and of de-
portment, her watchful solicitude in behalf of the few who
formed the limited circle of her existence, never slumbered.
It dwelt unpretendingly but active in her gentle bosom,
like a great and moving principle of life. Though circum-
stances had placed her on a remote and exposed frontier,
where time had not been given for the several customary
divisions of employments, she was unchanged in habits, in
feelings, and in character. The affluence of her husband
had elevated her above the necessity of burdensome toil ;
and, while she had encountered the dangers of the wilder-
ness, and neglected none of the duties of her active station,
she had escaped most of those injurious consequences which
are a little apt to impair the peculiar loveliness of women.
Notwithstanding the exposure of a border life, she remained
feminine, attractive, and singularly youthful.
THE WEPT OF WISH-TOX-WISH. 43
The reader will readily imagine the state of mind with
which such a being watched the distant form of a husband,
engaged in a duty like that we have described. Notwith-
standing the influence of long habit, the forest was rarely
approached after night-fall by the boldest woodsman, with-
out some secret consciousness that he encountered a posi-
tive danger. It was the hour when its roaming and hungry
tenants were known to be most in motion ; and the rustling
of a leaf or the snapping of a dried twig beneath the light
tread of the smallest animal, was apt to conjure up images
of the voracious and fire-eyed panther, or perhaps of a
lurking biped, which, though more artful, was known to be
scarcely less savage. It is true, that hundreds experienced
the uneasiness of such sensations who were never fated to
undergo the realities of the fearful pictures. Still facts
were not wanting to supply sufficient motive for a grave
and reasonable apprehension.
Histories of combats with beasts of prey, and of massa-
cres by roving and lawless Indians, were the moving
legends of the border. Thrones might be subverted and
kingdoms lost and won in distant Europe, and less would
be said of the events by those who dwelt in these woods,
than of one scene of peculiar and striking forest incident
that called for the exercise of the stout courage and keen
intelligence of a settler. Such a tale passed from mouth
to mouth with the eagerness of powerful personal interest,
and many were already transmitted from parent to child,
in the form of tradition, until, as in more artificial com-
munities graver-improbabilities creep into the doubtful
pages of history, exaggeration became too closely blended
with truth ever again to be separated.
Under the influence of these feelings, and perhaps
prompted by his never-failing discretion, Content had
thrown a well-tried piece over his shoulder ; and when he
rose the ascent on which his father had met the stranger,
Ruth caught a glimpse of his form, bending on the neck
of his horse; and gliding through the misty light of the
hour, resembling one of those fancied images of wayward
and hard-riding sprites, of which the tales of the eastern
continent are so fond of speaking.
Then followed anxious moments, during which neither
sight nor hearing could in the least aid the conjectures of
the attentive wife. She listened without breathing, and
once or twice she thought the blows of hoofs falling on the
earth harder and quicker than common, might be distin-
44 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON- IVISff.
guished ; but it was only as Content mounted the sudden
ascent of the hill-side that he was again seen, for a brief
instant, while dashing swiftly into the cover of the woods.
Though Ruth had been familiar with the cares of the
frontier, perhaps she had never known a moment more in-
tensely painful than that when the form of her husband
became blended with the dark trunks of the trees. The
time was to her impatience longer than usual, and under
the excitement of a feverish inquietude that had no definite
object, she removed the single bolt that held the postern
closed, and passed entirely without the stockade. To her
oppressed senses the palisadoes appeared to place limits to
her vision. Still weary minute passed after minute, with-
out bringing relief. During these anxious moments she
became more than usually conscious of the insulated situ-
ation in which he and all who were dearest to her heart
were placed. The feelings of a wife prevailed. Quitting
the side of the acclivity, she began to walk slowly along
the path her husband had taken, until apprehension insen-
sibly urged her into a quicker movement. She had paused
only when she stood nearly in the centre of the clearing,
on the eminence where her father had halted that evening
to contemplate the growing improvement of his estate.
Here her steps were suddenly arrested, for she thought
a form was issuing from the forest, at that interesting spot
which her eye had never ceased to watch. It proved to be
no more than the passing shadow of a cloud, denser than
common, which threw the body of its darkness on the
trees and a portion of its outline on the-ground near the
margin of the wood. Just at this instant the recollection
that she had incautiously left the postern open, flashed
upon her mind, and, with feelings divided between hus-
band and children, she commenced her return, in order to
repair a neglect, to which habit, no less than prudence,
imparted a high degree of culpability. The eyes of the
mother, for the feelings of that sacred character were now
powerfully uppermost, were fastened on the ground, as
she eagerly picked her way along the uneven surface ; and
so engrossed was her mind by the omission of duty, with
which she was severely reproaching herself, that, they
drank in objects without conveying distinct or intelligible
images to her brain.
Notwithstanding the one engrossing thought of the mo-
ment, something met her eye that caused even the vacant
organ to recoil, and every fibre in her frame to tremble
TIIR WEPT OF WISH-TO K-WISH. 45
with terror. There was a moment in which delirium near-
ly heightened terror to madness. Reflection came only
when Ruth had reached the distance of many feet from
the spot where this startling object had half unconsciously
crossed her vision. Then for a single and a fearful instant
she paused, like one who debated on the course she ought
to follow. Maternal love prevailed, and the deer of her
own woods scarcely bounds with great agility than the
mother of the sleeping and defenceless family now fled to-
ward the dwellings. Panting and breathless she gained
the postern, wThich was closed with hands that performed
office more by instinct than in obedience to thought, and
doubly and trebly barred.
For the first time in some minuses Ruth now breathed
distinctly and without pain. She strove to rally her
thoughts, in order to deliberate on the course that pru-
dence and her duty to Content, who was still exposed to
the danger she had herself escaped, prescribed. Her first
impulse wras to give the established signal that was to re-
call the laborers from the field, or to awake the sleepers,
in the event of an alarm ; but better reflection told her that
such a step might prove fatal to him who balanced in her
affections against the rest of the world. The struggle in
her mind only ended as she clearly and unequivocally
caught a view of her husband, issuing from the forest at
the very point where he had entered. The return path, un-
fortunately, led directly past the spot where such sudden
terror had seized her mind. She would have given worlds
to have known how to apprise him of a danger with which
her own imagination was full, without communicating the
warning to other and terrible ears. The night was still,
and though the distance was considerable, it was not so
great as to render the chances of success desperate. Scarce-
ly knowing what she did, and yet preserving, by a sort
of instinctive prudence, the caution which constant expos-
ure weaves into all our habits, the trembling woman made
the effort.
" Husband ! husband ! " she cried, commencing plaintive-
ly, but her voice rising with the energy of excitement.
" Husband, ride swiftly ; our little Ruth lieth in the agony.
For her life and thine, ride at thy horse's speed. Seek not
the stables, but come with all haste to the postern, it shall
be open to thee."
This was certainly a fearful summons for a father's ear,
and there is little doubt that, had the feeble powers of
46 THE WEPT OF IVISTT-TON-lVISfT.
Ruth succeeded in conveying the words as far as she had
wished, they would have produced the desired effect But
in vain did she call ; her weak tones, though raised on the
notes of keenest apprehension, could not force their wa}
across so wide a space. And yet had she reason to think'
they were not entirely lost, for once her husband paused
and seemed to listen, and once he quickened the pace of
his horse ; though neither of these proofs of intelligence
Was followed by any further sign of his having understood
the alarm.
Content was now upon the hillock itself. If Ruth
breathed at all during its passage, it was more impercep-
tible than the gentlest respiration of the sleeping infant.
But when she saw him trotting with unconscious security
along the path on the side next the dwellings, her impa-
tience broke through all restraint, and throwing open the
postern, she renewed her cries, in a voice that was no
longer useless. The clattering of the unshodden hoof
was again rapid, and in another minute her husband gal-
loped unharmed to her side.
" Enter !" said the nearly dizzy wife, seizing the bridle,
and leading the horse within the palisadoes. " Enter,
husband, for the love of all that is thine; enter, and be
thankful."
" What meaneth this terror, Ruth ? " demanded Content,
in as much displeasure, perhaps, as he could manifest to
one so gentle, for a weakness betrayed in his own be-
half, "is thy confidence in Him whose eye never closeth,
and who equally watcheth the life of man and that of the
falling sparrow, lost ? "
Ruth was deaf. With hurried hands she drew the fasten-
ings, let fall the bars, and turned a key which forced a
triple-bolted lock to perform its office. Not till then did
she feel either safe herself, or at liberty to render thanks
for the safety of him, over whose danger she had so lately
watched in agony.
"Why this care? Hast forgotten that the horse will
suffer hunger, at this distance from the rack and manger ? "
" Better that he starve than hair of thine should come
to harm."
" Nay, nay, Ruth ; dost not remember that the beast is
the favorite of my father, who will ill brook his passing a
night within the palisadoes? "
" Husband, you err ; there is me in the fields."
" Is there place where One is not ?"
THE WEPT OF WISH -TON-WISH. 47
" But I have seen creature of mortal birth, and creature,
too, that hath no claim on thee or thine, and who tres-
passeth on our peace, no less than on our natural rights,
to be where he lurketh."
" Go to ; thou art not used to be so late from thy pillow,
my poor Ruth ; sleep hath come over thee, whilst standing
on thy watch. Some cloud hath left its shadow on the
fields, or, truly, it may be that the hunt did not drive the
beasts as far from the clearing as we had thought. Come ;
since thou wilt cling to my side, lay hand on the bridle of
the horse, while I ease him of his burden."
As Content coolly proceeded to the task he had men-
tioned, the thoughts of his wife were momentarily diverted
from their other sources of uneasiness, by the object which
lay on the crupper of the nag, and which, until now, had
entirely escaped her observation.
"Here is, indeed, the animal this day missing from our
flock !" she exclaimed, as the carcass of a sheep fell heavily
on the ground.
" Aye ; and killed with exceeding judgment, if not aptly
dressed to our hands. Mutton will not be wanting for the
husking-feast, and the stalled creature whose days were
counted may live another season."
" And where didst find the slaughtered beast ? "
" On the limb of a growing hickory. Eben Dudley,
with all his sleight in butchering, and in setting forth the
excellence of his meats, could not have left an animal
hanging from the branch of a sapling with greater knowl-
edge of his craft. Thou seest, but a single meal is miss-
ing from the carcass, and that thy fleece is unharmed."
" This is not the work of a Pequod ! " exclaimed Ruth,
surprised at her own discovery; "the red men do their
mischief with less care."
" Nor has the tooth of wolf opened the veins of poor
Straight-Horns. Here has been judgment in the slaugh-
tering, as well as prudence in the consumption of the food.
The hand that cut so lightly had intention of a second
visit." *
"And our father bid thee seek the creature where it was
found ! Husband, I fear some heavy judgment for the sins
of the parents is likely to befall the children."
"The babes are quietly in their slumbers, and, thus far,
little wrong hath been done us. I'll cast the haltei from
the stalled animal ere I sleep, and Straight-Horns shall con-
tent us for the husking. We may have mutton less savory
4# THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH.
for this evil chance, but the number of thy flock will be
unaltered."
" And where is he who hath mingled in our prayers, and
hath eaten of our bread ; he who counselled so long in se-
cret with our father, and who hath now vanished from
among us like a vision ?"
"That indeed is a question not readily to be answered,"
returned Content, who had hitherto maintained a cheerful
air, in order to appease what he was fain to believe a cause-
less terror in the bosom of his partner, but who was in-
duced by this question to drop his head like one that sought
reasons within the repository of his own thoughts. " It
mattereth not, Ruth Heathcote ; the ordering of the affair
is in the hands of a man of many years and great experi-
ence ; should his aged wisdom fail, do we not know that
one even wiser than he hath us in his keeping ? I will re-
turn the beast to his rack, and when we shall have jointly
asked favor of eyes that never sleep, we will go in confi-
dence to our rest."
" Husband, thou quittest not the palisadoes again this
night," said Ruth, arresting the hand that had already
drawn a bolt, ere she spoke. " I have a warning of evil."
" I would the stranger had found some other shelter in
which to pass his short resting season. That he hath made
free with -my flock, and that he hath administered to his
hunger at some cost, when a single asking would have
made him welcome to the best that the owner of the Wish-
Ton-Wish can command, are truths that may not be de-
nied. Still is he mortal man, as a goodly appetite hath
proven, even should our belief in Providence so far waver
as to harbor doubts of its unwillingness to suffer beings of
injustice to wander in our forms and substance. I tell
thee, Ruth, that the nag will be needed for to-morrow's
service, and that our father will give but ill thanks should
we leave it to make a bed on this cold hill-side. Go to
thy rest and to thy prayers, trembler ; I will close the
postern with all care. Fear not ; the stranger is of human
wants, and his agency to do evil must needs be limited by
human power."
" I fear none of white blood, nor of Christian parentage ;
the murderous heathen is in our fields."
"Thou, dreamest, Ruth!"
" 'Tis not a dream. I have seen the glowing eyeballs of
a savage. Sleep was little like to come over me when set
upon a watch like this. I thought me that the errand was
THE WEPT OF WISH-TOX-WISH. 49
of unknown character, and that our father was exceedingly
aged, and that perchance his senses might be duped, and
how an obedient son ought not to be exposed. Thou know-
est, Heathcote, that I could not look upon the danger of -
my children's father with indifference, and I followed to
the nut-tree hillock."
"To the nut-tree. It was not prudent in thee — but the
postern ? "
" It was open ; for were the key turned, who was there
to admit us quickly had haste been needed?" returned
Ruth, momentarily averting her face to conceal the flush
excited by conscious delinquency. " Though I failed in
caution, 'twas for thy safety, Heathcote. But on that hil-
lock, and in the hollow left by a fallen tree, lies concealed
a heathen ! "
" I passed the nut-wood in going to the shambles of our
strange butcher, and I drew the rein to give breath to the
nag near it, as we returned with the burden. It cannot
be ; some creature of the forest hath alarmed thee."
" Aye ! creature, formed, fashioned, gifted like ourselves,
in all but color of the skin and blessing of the faith."
"This is strange delusion! If there were enemy at
hand, would men subtle as those you fear suffer the master
of the dwelling, and truly I may say it without vain-glory,
one as likely as another to struggle stoutly for his own, to
escape, when an ill-timed visit to the woods had delivered
him unresisting into their hands ? Go, go, good Ruth ;
thou may'st have seen a blackened log — perchance the
frosts have left a fire-fly untouched, or it may be that some
prowling bear has scented out the sweets of thy lately
gathered hives."
Ruth again laid her hand firmly on the arm of her hus-
band, who had withdrawn another bolt, and, looking him
steadily in the face, she answered by saying solemnly, and
with touching pathos —
"Thinkest thou, husband, that a mother's eye could be
deceived ? "
It might have been that the allusion to the tender beings
whose fate depended on his care, or that the deeply
serious, though mild and gentle manner of his consort,
produced some fresher impression on the mind of Content.
Instead of undoing the fastenings of the postern as he had
intended, he deliberately drew its bolts again and paused
to think.
" If it produce no other benefit than to quiet tfvy fears,
50 THE WKPT OI<
good Ruth," he said, after a moment of reflection, " a little
caution will be well repaid. Stay you, then, here, where
the hillock may be watched, while I go wake a couple of
* the people. With stout Eben Dudley and experienced
Reuben Ring to back me, my father's horse may surely be
stabled."
Ruth contentedly assumed a task that she was quite
equal to perform with intelligence and zeal. " Hie theeto
the laborers' chambers, for I see a light still burning in the
room of those you seek," was the answer she gave to a
proposal that at least quieted the intenseness^of her fears
for him in whose behalf they had so lately been excited
nearly to agony.
*' It shall be quickly done ; nay, stand not thus openly
between the beams, wife. Thou mayest place thyself here
at the doublings of the wood, beneath the loop, where harm
would scarcely reach thee, though shot from artillery were
to crush the timber."
With this admonition to be wary of a danger that he had
so recently affected to despise, Content departed on his
errand. The two laborers he had mentioned by name were
youths of mould and strength, and they were well inured
to toil, no less than to the particular privations and dan-
gers of a border life. Like most men of their years and
condition, they were practised too in the wiles of Indian
cunning ; and though the Province of Connecticut, com-
pared to other settlements, had suffered but little in this
species of murderous warfare, they both had martial feats
and perilous experiences of their own to recount during
the light labors of the long winter evenings.
Content crossed the court with a quick step ; for, not-
withstanding his steady unbelief, the image of his gentle
wife posted on her outer watch hurried his movements.
The rap he gave at the door on reaching the apartment of
those he sought, was loud as it was sudden.
" Who calls ? " demanded a deep-toned and firm voice
from within, at the first blow of the knuckles on the plank.
" Quit thy beds quickly, and come forth with the arms
appointed for a sally."
" That is soon done," answered a stout woodsman, throw-
ing open the door and standing before Content in the gar-
ments he had worn throughout the day. "We were just
dreaming that the night was not to pass without a summons
to the loops."
" Hast seen aught?"
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH. 51
" Our eyes were not shut more than those of others ; we
saw him enter that no man hath seen depart."
" Come, fellow — Whittal Ring would scarce give wiser
speech than this cunning reply of thine. My wife is at
the postern, and it is fit we go to relieve her watch. Thou
wilt not forget the horns of powder, since it would not
tell to our credit, were there service for the pieces, and
we lacking in wherewithal to give them a second dis-
charge."
The hirelings obeyed, and as little time was necessary
to arm those who never slept without weapons and ammu-
nition within reach of their hands, Content was speedily
followed by his dependents. Ruth was found at her post ;
but when urged by her husband to declare what had passed
in his absence, she was compelled to admit that, though
the moon had come forth brighter and clearer from behind
the clouds, she had seen nothing to add to her alarm.
" We will then lead the beast to his stall, and close our
duty by setting a single watch for the rest of the night,"
said the husband. " Reuben shall keep the postern, while
Eben and I will have a care for my father's nag, not forget-
ting the carcass for the husking-feast. Dost hear, deaf
Dudley ? Cast the mutton upon the crupper of the beast
and follow to the stables."
" Here has been no common workman at my office," said
the blunt Eben, who, though an ordinary farm laborer, ac-
cording to a usage still very generally prevalent in the
country, was also skilful in the craft of the butcher. " I
have brought many a wether to his end, but this is the first
sheep, within all my experience, that hath kept the fleece
while a portion of the body has been in the pot ! Lie
there, poor Straight-Horns, if quiet thou canst be, after
such strange butchery. Reuben, I paid thee, as the sun
rose, a Spanish piece of silver for the trifle of debt that
lay between us in behalf of the good turn thou didst the
shoes, which were none the better for the last hunt in the
hills. Hast ever that pistareen about thee ? "
This question, which was put in a lowered tone, and
only to the ear of the party concerned, was answered in
the affirmative.
" Give it me, lad ; in the morning thou shalt be paid
with usurer's interest."
Another summons from Content, who had now led the
nag loaded with the carcass of the sheep without the pos-
tern, cut short the secret conference. Eben Dudley, having
52 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON- WISH.
received the coin, hastened to follow. But the distance to
the out-buildings was sufficient to enable him to effect his
mysterious purpose without discovery. Whilst Content en-
deavored to calm the apprehensions of his wife, who still
persisted in sharing his danger, by such reasons as he
could on the instant command, the credulous Dudley
placed the thin piece of silver between his teeth, and, with
a pressure that denoted the prodigious force of his jaws,
caused it to assume a beaten and rounded shape. He then
slily dropped the battered coin into the muzzle of his gun,
taking care to secure its presence until he himself should
send it on its disenchanting message, by a wad torn from
the lining of part of his vestments. Supported by this re-
doubtable auxiliary, the superstitious but still courageous
borderer followed his companion, whistling a low air that
equally denoted his indifference to danger of an ordinary
nature, and his sensibility to impressions of a less earthly
character.
They who dwell in the older districts of -America, where
art and labor have united for generations to clear the earth
of its inequalities, and to remove the vestiges of a state of
nature, can form but little idea of the thousand objects
that may exist in a clearing, to startle the imagination of
one who has admitted alarm, when seen in the doubtful
light of even a cloudless moon. Still less can they who
have never quitted the old world, and who having only
seen, can only imagine fields smooth as the surface of
tranquil water, picture the effect produced by those lin-
gering remnants, which may be likened to so many mould-
ering monuments of the fallen forest scattered at such an
hour over a broad surface of open land. Accustomed as
they were to the sight, Content and his partner, excited
by their fears, fancied each dark and distant stump a sav-
age, and they passed no angle in the high and heavy
fences without throwing a jealous glance to see that some
enemy did not lie stretched within its shadows.
Still no new motive for apprehension arose during the
brief period that the two adventurers were employed in
administering to the comfort of the Puritan's steed. The
task was ended, the carcass of the slaughtered Straight-
Horns had been secured, and Ruth was already urging her
husband to return, when their attention was drawn to the
attitude and mien of their companion.
" The man hath departed as he came," said Eben Dudley,
who stood shaking his head in open doubt before an emp-
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON'-WISH. 53
ty stall ; " here is no beast, though with these eyes did I
see the half-wit bring hither a well-filled measure of
speckled oats to feed the nag. He who favored us with
his presence at the supper and the thanksgiving, hath tired
of his company before the hour of rest had come."
"The horse is truly wanting," said Content ; "the man
must needs be in exceeding haste, to have ridden into the
forest as the night grew deepest, and when the longest
summer day would scarce bring a better hack than that he
rode to another Christian dwelling. There is reason for
this industry, but it is enough that it concerns us not.
We will now seek our rest, in the certainty that One watch-
eth our slumbers whose vigilance can never fail."
Though man could not trust himself to sleep in that
country without the security of bars and bolts, we have
already had occasion to say that property was guarded with
but little care. The stable-door was merely closed by a
wooden latch, and the party returned from this short sor-
tie, with steps that were a little quickened by a sense of an
uneasiness that beset them in forms suited to their several
characters. But shelter was at hand, and it was speedily
regained.
"Thou hast seen nothing?" said Content to Reuben
Ring, who had been chosen for his quick eye, and a sagac-
ity that was as remarkable as was his brother's impotency ;
"thou hast seen nothing at thy wratch ?"
"Naught unusual ; and yet I like not yonder billet of
wood, near to the fence against the knoll. If it were not
so plainly a half-burnt log, one might fancy there is life
in it. But when fancy is at work, the sight is keen. Once
or twice I have thought it seemed to be rolling towards
the brook ; I am not, even now, certain that when first
seen it did not lie eight or ten feet higher against the bank."
" It may be a living thing ! "
" On the faith of a woodman's eye, it well may be," said
Eben Dudley ; " but should it be haunted by a legion of
wicked spirits, one may bring it to quiet from the loop at
the nearest corner. Stand aside, Madame Heathcote," for
the character and wealth of the proprietors of the valley
gave Ruth a claim to this term of respect among the la-
borers ; " let me thrust the piece through the — stop, there
is an especial charm in the gun, which it might be sinful
to waste on such a creature. It may 'be no more than
some sweet-toothed bear. I will answer for the charge at my
own cost, if thou wilt lend me thy musket, Reuben Ring/
54 THE WEPT OF WJSH-TON-WISH.
" It shall not be," said his master ; " one known to my
father hath this night entered our dwelling and fed at our
board ; if he hath departed in a way but little wont among
those of this Colony, yet hath he done no great wrong. I
will go nigh, and examine with less risk of error."
There was, in this proposal, too much of that spirit of
right-doing which governed all of those simple regions, to
meet serious opposition. Content, supported by Eben
Dudley, again quitted the postern, and proceeded directly,
though still not without sufficient caution, towards the
point where the suspicious object lay. A bend in the fence
had first brought it into view, for previously to reaching
that point, its apparent direction might for some distance
have been taken under shelter of the shadows of the rails,
which, at the immediate spot where it was seen, were
turned suddenly in a line with the eyes of the spectators.
It seemed as if the movements of those who approached
were watched ; for the instant they left the defences, the
dark object was assuredly motionless ; even the keen eye
of Reuben Ring beginning to doubt whether some decep-
tion of vision had not led him, after all, to mistake a billet
of wood for a creature of life.
But Content and his companion were not induced to
change their determination. Even when within fifty feet of
the object, though the moon fell full and brightly upon
the surface, its character baffled conjecture. One affirmed
it was the end of a charred log, many of which still lay
scattered about the fields, and the others believed it to be
some cringing animal of the woods. Twice Content raised
his piece to fire, and as often did he let it fall, in re-
luctance to do injury to even a quadruped of whose char-
acter he was ignorant. It is more than probable that his
less considerate and but half obedient companion would
have decided the question soon after leaving the postern,
had not the peculiar contents of his musket rendered him
delicate of its uses.
" Look to thy weapons," said the former, loosening his
own hunting-knife in his sheath. "We will draw near
and make certainty of what is doubtful."
They did so, and the gun of Dudley was thrust rudely
into the side of the object of their distrust, before it again
betrayed life or motion. Then, indeed, as if further dis-
guise was useless, an Indian lad of some fifteen years rose
deliberately to his feet, and stood before them in the sul-
len dignity of a captured warrior. Content hastily seized
THE WEPT OF WISH-TO. \'-WISH. 55
the stripling by an arm, and followed by Eben, who occa-
sionally quickened the footsteps of the prisoner by an im-
petus obtained from the breech of his own musket, they
hurriedly returned within the defences.
<k My life against that of Straight-Horns, which is now of
no great value," said Dudley, as he pushed the last bolt of
the fastenings into its socket, " we hear no more of this
red-skin's companions to-night. I never knew an Indian
jaise his whoop when a scout had fallen into the hands of
Zhe enemy."
"This may be true," returned the other, "and yet must
a sleeping household be guarded. We may be brought to
rely on the overlooking favor of Providence, working
with the means of our own manhood, ere the sun shall
arise."
Content was a man of few words, but one of exceeding
steadiness and resolution in moments of need. He was
perfectly aware that an Indian youth, like him he had capt-
ured, would not have been found in that place, and under
the circumstances in which he was actually taken, without
a design of sufficient magnitude to justify the hazard. The
tender age of the stripling, too, forbade the belief that he
was unaccompanied. But he silently agreed with his la-
boring man, that the capture would probably cause the
attack, if any such were meditated, to be deferred. He
therefore instructed his wife to withdraw into her cham-
ber, while he took measures to defend the dwelling in the
last emergency. Without giving any unnecessary alarm,
a measure that would have produced less effect on an
enemy without, than the imposing stillness which now
reigned within the defences, he ordered two or three more
of the stoutest of his dependents to be summoned to the
palisadoes. A keen scrutiny was made into the state of all
the different outlets of the place ; muskets were carefully
examined ; charges were given to be watchful, and regu-
lar sentinels were stationed within the shadows of the
buildings, at points where, unseen themselves, they could
look out in safety upon the fields.
Content then took his captive, with whom he had made
no attempt to exchange a syllable, and led him to the
block-house. The door which communicated with the
basement of this building was always open, in readiness
for refuge in the event of any sudden alarm. He entered ;
caused the lad to mount by a ladder to the floor above,
and then withdrawing the means of retreat, he turned the
56 THE U'EPT OF WISH-TOX-WISH.
key without, in perfect cqnfidence that his prisoner was
secure.
Notwithstanding all this care, morning had nearly dawned
before the prudent father and husband sought his pillow
His steadiness, however, had prevented the apprehensions
which kept his own eyes and those of his general partne*
so long open, from extending beyond the few whose ser-
vices were, in such an emergency, deemed indispensable to
safety. Toward the last watches of the night, only, did the
images of the scenes through which they had just passed,
become dim and confused, and then both husband and wife
slept soundly and happily without disturbance.
CHAPTER V.
" Are you so brave ? I'll have you talked with anon."
— Coriolanus.
THE axe and the brand had been early and effectually
used, immediately around the dwelling of the Heathcotes.
A double object had been gained by removing most of the
vestiges of the forest from the vicinity of the buildings ;
the necessary improvements were executed with greater
facility, and, a consideration of no small importance, the
cover which the American savage is known to seek in his
attacks was thrown to a distance that greatly diminished
the danger of a surprise.
Favored by the advantage which had been obtained by
this foresight, and by the brilliancy of a night that soon
emulated the brightness of day, the duty of Eben Dudley
and of his associate on the watch was rendered easy of ac-
complishment. Indeed, so secure did they become toward
morning, chiefly on account of the capture of the Indian
lad, that more than once, eyes that should have been dif-
ferently employed, yielded to the drowsiness of the hour,
and to habit, or were only opened at intervals that left their
owners in some doubt as to the passage of the intermediate
time. But no sooner did the signs of day approach, than^
agreeably to their instructions, the watchers sought their
beds, and for an hour or two they slept soundly, and with-
out fear.
When his father had closed the prayers of the morning,
Content, in the midst of the assembled family, communi-
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON- WISH. 57
cated as many of the incidents of the past night, as in his
judgment seemed necessary. His discretion limited the
narrative to the capture of the native youth, and to the
manner in which he had ordered the watch for the se-
curity of the family. On the subject of his own excursion
to the forest, and all connected therewith, he was guardedly
silent.
It is unnecessary to relate the manner in which this
startling information was received. The cold and re-
served brow of the Puritan became still more thought-
ful ; the young men looked grave and resolute ; the
maidens of the household grew pale, shuddered, and
whispered hurriedly together ; while the little Ruth and a
female child of nearly her own age, named Martha, clung
close to the side of the mistress of the family, who, hav-
ing nothing new to learn, had taught herself to assume
the appearance of a resolution she was far from feeling.
The first visitation which befell the listeners, after their
eager ears had drunk in the intelligence Content so briefly
imparted, was a renewal of the spiritual strivings of his
father in the form of prayer. A particular petition was
put up in quest of light on their future proceedings, for
mercy on ail men, for a better mind to those who wan-
dered through the wilderness seeking victims of their
wrath, for the gifts of grace on the heathen, and finally for
victory over all their carnal enemies, let them come whence
or in what aspect they might.
Fortified by these additional exercises, old Mark next
made himself the master of all the signs and evidences of
the approach of danger, by a more rigid and minute in-
quiry into the visible circumstances of the arrest of the
young savage. Content received a merited and grateful
reward for his prudence, in the approbation of one whom
he still continued to revere with a mental dependence
little less than that with which he had leaned on his father's
wisdom -in the days of his childhood.
" Thou hast done well and wisely," said his father ; " but
more remains to be performed by thy wisdom and forti-
tude. We have had tidings that the heathen near the
Providence Plantations are unquiet, and that they are
lending their minds to wicked counsellors. We are not
to sleep in too much security, because a forest journey of a
few days lies between their villages and our own clearing.
Bring forth the captive ; I will question him on the mattes
of this visit."
$8 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON- WISH.
Until now, so much did the fears of all turn toward the
enemies who were believed to be lurking near, that little
thought had been bestowed on the prisoner in the block-
house. Content, who well knew the invincible resolution,
no less than the art of an Indian, had forborne to question
him when taken ; for he believed the time to be better
suited to vigilant action, than to interrogatories that the
character of the boy was likely to render perfectly use-
less. He now proceeded, however, with an interest that
began to quicken as circumstances rendered its indul-
gence less unsuitable, to seek his captive, in order to bring
him before the searching ordeal of his father's authority.
The key of the lower door of the block-house hung where
it had been deposited ; the ladder was replaced, and Content
mounted quietly to the apartment where he had placed his
captive. The room was the lowest of three that the build-
ing contained, all being above that which might be termed
its basement. The latter, having no aperture but its door,
was a dark, hexagonal space, partly filled 'with such arti-
cles as might be needed in the event of an alarm, and
which, at the same time, were frequently required for the
purposes of domestic use. In the centre of the area was a
deep well, so fitted and protected by a wall of stone, as to
admit of water being drawn into the rooms above. The
door itself was of massive hewn timber. The squared logs
of the upper stories projected a little beyond the stone-
work of the basement, the second tier of the timbers con-
taining a few loops, out of which missiles might be dis-
charged downward, on any assailants that approached
nearer than should be deemed safe for the security of the
basement. As has been stated, the two principal stories
were perforated with long narrow slits through the tim-
ber, which answered the double purposes of windows and
loop-holes. Though the apartments were so evidently ar-
ranged for defence, the plain domestic furniture they
contained was suited to the wants of the family, should
they be driven to the building for refuge. There was also
an apartment in the roof, or'attic, as already mentioned ;
but it scarcely entered into the more important uses of the
block-house. Still the advantage which it received from
its elevation was not overlooked. A small cannon, of a
kind once known and much used under the name of grass-
hoppers, had been raised to the place, and time had" been
when it was rightly considered as of the last importance to
the safety of the inmates of the dwelling. For some years
THE WEFT OF \VISH-TON-WISH. 59
4
its muzzle had been seen by all the straggling aborigines
who visited the valley, frowning through one of these open-
ings which were now converted into glazed windows ;
and there is reason to thin]k, that the reputation which the
little piece of ordnance thus silently obtained, had a
powerful agency in so long preserving unmolested the
peace of the valley.
The word unmolested is perhaps too strong. More thaD
one alarm had in fact occurred, though no positive acts oi
violence had ever been committed within the limits which
the Puritan claimed as his own. On only one occasion,
however, did matters proceed so far that the veteran had
been induced to take his post in this warlike attic ; where,
there is little doubt, had occasion further offered for his
services, he would have made a suitable display of his
knowledge in the science of gunnery. But the simple
history of the Wish-Ton-Wish had furnished another evi-
dence of apolitical truth, which cannot be too often pre-
sented to the attention of our countrymen ; we mean, that
the best preservative of peace is preparation for war. In
the case before us, the hostile attitude assumed by old
Mark and his dependents had effected all that was desira-
ble, without proceeding to the extremity of shedding blood.
Such peaceful triumphs were far more in accordance with
the present principles of the Puritan, than they would
have been with the reckless temper which had governed
his youth. In the quaint and fanatical humor of the times,
he had held a family thanksgiving around the instrument
of their security, and from that moment the room itself
became a favorite resorting-place for the old soldier.
Thither he often mounted, even in the hours of deep night,
to indulge in those secret spiritual exercises which formed
the chiefest solace, arid seemingly, indeed, the great em-
ployment of his life. In consequence of this habit, the
attic of the block-house came in time to be considered
sacred to the uses of the master of the valley. The care
and thought of Content had gradually supplied it with
many conveniences that might contribute to the personal
comfort of his father, while the spirit was engaged in these
mental conflicts. At length, the old man was known to
use the mattress, that among other things it now con-
tained, and to pass the time between the setting and the
rising of the sun in its solitude. The aperture originally
cut for the exhibition of the grasshopper had been glazed ;
and no article of comfort, which was once caused to mount
oo THE WEPT OF WISH-TON- WISH.
the difficult ladder that led to the chamber, was ever seen
to descend.
There was something in the austere sanctity of old Mark
Heathcote, that was favorable to the practices of an ancho-
rite. The youths of the dwelling regarded his unbending
brow, arid the undisturbed gravity of the eye it shadowed,
with a respect akin to awe. Had the genuine benevolence
of his character been less tried, or had he mingled in active
life at a later period, it might readily have been his fate to
have shared in the persecution which his countrymen
heaped on those who were believed to deal with influences
it is thought impious to exercise. Under actual circum-
stances, however, the sentiment went no farther than a deep
and universal reverence, that left its object, and the neg-
lected little piece of artillery, to the quiet possession of
an apartment, to invade which would have been deemed
an act bordering on sacrilege.
The business of Content, on the occasion which caused
his present visit to the edifice whose history and descrip-
tion we have thought it expedient thus to give at some
length, led him no farther than to the lowest of its more
military apartments. On raising the trap, for the first time
a feeling of doubt came over him, as to the propriety of
having left the boy so long unsolaced by words of kindness,
or by deed of charity. It was appeased by observing that
his concern was awakened in behalf of one whose spirit
was quite equal to sustain greater trials.
The young Indian stood before one of the loops, looking
out upon that distant forest in which he had so lately
roamed at liberty, with a gaze too riveted to turn aside
even at the interruption occasioned by the presence of his
captor.
" Come from thy prison, child," said Content, in the
tones of mildness ; "whatever may have been thy motive
in lurking around this dwelling, thou art human, and must
know human wants ; come forth and receive food ; none
here will harm thee."
The language of commiseration is universal. Though
the words of the speaker were evidently unintelligible to
him for whose ears they were intended, their import was
conveyed in the kindness of the accents. The eyes of the
boy turned slowly from the view of the woods, and he
looked his captor long and steadily in the face. Content
now indeed discovered that he had spoken in a language
that was unknown to his captive, and he endeavored by
THE WETT OF WISH-TOX-WISH. 61
gestures of kindness to invite the lad to follow him. He
was silently and quietly obeyed. On reaching the court,
however, the prudence of a border proprietor in some de-
gree overcame his feelings of compassion.
" Bring hither yon tether," he said to Whittal Ring, who
at the moment was passing toward the stables ; " here is
one wild as the most untamed of thy colts. Man is of our
nature and of our spirit, let him be of what color it may
have pleased Providence to stamp his features ; but he who
would have a young savage in his keeping on the morrow,
must look sharply to his limbs to-day."
The lad submitted quietly until a turn of the rope was
passed around one of his arms ; but when Content was fain
to complete the work by bringing the other limb into the
same state of subjection, the boy glided from his grasp, and
cast the fetters from him in disdain. This act of decided
resistance, was, however, followed by no effort to escape.
The moment his person was released from a confinement,
which he probably considered as implying distrust of his
ability to endure pain with the fortitude of a warrior, the
lad turned quietly and proudly to his captor, and, with an
eye in which scorn and haughtiness were alike glowing,
seemed to defy the fulness of his anger.
" Be it so," resumed the equal-minded Content, " if thou
likest not the bonds which, notwithstanding the pride of
man, are often healthful to the body, keep then the use of
thy limbs, and see that they do no mischief. Whittal, look
thou to the postern, and remember it is forbidden to go
afield until my father hath had this heathen under exam-
ination. The cub is seldom found far from the cunning of
the aged bear."
He then made a sign to the boy to follow, and proceeded
to the apartment where his father, surrounded by most of
the family, awaited their coming. Uncompromising do-
mes-tic discipline was one of the striking characteristics of
the sway of the Puritans. That austerity of manner which
was thought to mark a sense of a fallen and probationary
state was early taught ; for, among a people who deemed
all mirth a sinful levity, the practice of self-command would
readily come to be esteemed the basis of virtue. But what-
ever might have been the peculiar merit of Mark Heath-
cote and his household in this particular, it was likely
to be exceeded by the exhibition of the same quality
in the youth who had so strangely become their cap-
tive.
62 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH.
We have already said that this child of the woods might
have seen some fifteen years. Though he had shot up-
ward like a vigorous and thrifty plant, and with the free-
dom of a thriving sapling in his native forests, rearing its
branches toward the light, his stature had not yet reached
that of man. In height, form, and attitudes, he was a
model of active, natural, and graceful boyhood. But while
his limbs were so fair in their proportions, they were scarcely
muscular ; still every movement exhibited a freedom and
ease which announced the grace of childhood, without the
smallest evidence of that restraint which creeps into our
air as the factitious feelings of later life begin to assert
their influence. The smooth, rounded trunk of the moun-
tain ash is not more upright and free from blemish than
was the figure of the boy, who moved into the curious
circle that opened for his entrance and closed against his
retreat, with the steadiness of one who came to bestow in-
stead of appearing to receive judgment
" I will question him," said old Mark H'eathcote, atten-
tively regarding the keen and settled eye that met his
long, stern gaze, as steadily as a less intelligent creature
of the woods would return the look of man. " I will ques-
tion him ; and perchance fear will wring from his lips a
confession of the evil that he and his have meditated
against me and mine."
" I think he is ignorant of our forms of speech," returned
Content ; "for the words of neither kindness nor anger
will force him to a change of feature."
" It is then meet that we commence by asking Him who
hath the secret to open all hearts to be our assistant." The
Puritan then raised his voice in a short and exceedingly
particular petition, in which he implored the Ruler of the
Universe to interpret his meaning in the forthcoming ex-
amination, in a manner that, had his request been granted,
would have savored not a little of the miraculous. With
this preparation he proceeded directly to his task. But
neither questions, signs, nor prayer, produced the slightest
visible effect. The boy gazed at the rigid and austere
countenance of his interrogator, while the words were issu*
ing from his lips ; but the instant they ceased, his search-
ing and quick eye rolled over the different curious faces
by which he was hemmed in, as if he trusted more to the
sense of sight than that of hearing, for the information he
naturally sought concerning his future lot. It was found
impossible to obtain from him gesture or sound that should
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH. 63
betray either the purport of his questionable visit, his own
personal appellation, or that of his tribe.
"I have been among the red skins of the Providence
Plantations," Eben Dudley at length ventured to observe ;
"and their language, though but a crooked and irrational
jargon, is not unknown to me. With the leave of all pres-
ent," he continued, regarding the Puritan in a manner tc
betray that this general term meant him alone, " with the
leave of all present, I will put it to the younker in such a
fashion that he will be glad to answer."
Receiving a look of assent, the borderer uttered certain
uncouth and guttural sounds, which, notwithstanding they
entirely failed of their effect, he stoutly maintained were
the ordinary terms of salutation among the people to
whom the prisoner was supposed to belong.
" I know him to be a Narragansett," continued Eben, red-
dening with vexation at his defeat, and throwing a glance
of no peculiar amity at the youth who had so palpably re-
futed his claim to skill in the Indian tongues ; " you see he
hath the shells of the sea-side worked into the bordering
of his moccasins ; and besides this sign, which is certain
as that night hath its stars, he beareth the look of a chief
that was slain by the Pequods, at the wish of us Christians,
after an affair in which, whether it was well done or ill
done, I did some part of the work myself."
"And how call you that chief ? " demanded Mark.
" Why, he had various names, according to the business
he was on. To some he was known as the Leaping
Panther, for he was a man of an extraordinary jump ; and
others again used to style him Pepperage, since there was
a saying that neither bullet nor sword could enter his
body ; though that was a mistake, as his death hath fully
proven. But his real name, according to the uses and
sounds of his own people, was My Anthony Mow."
" My Anthony Mow ! "
"Yes ; My, meaning that he was their chief ; Anthony,
being the given name ; and Mow, that of the breed of
which he came ;" rejoined Eben with confidence, satisfied
that he had finally produced a sufficiently sonorous appel-
lative and a perfectly lucid etymology. But criticism was
diverted from its aim by the action of the prisoner, as these
equivocal sounds struck his ear. Ruth recoiled, and clasped
her little namesake closer to her side, when she saw the
dazzling brightness of his glowing eyes, and the sudden
and expressive dilation of his nostrils. For a moment his
64 THE WEPT OF WISH-TOX-WISIT.
lips were compressed with more than the usual force of
Indian gravity, and then they slightly severed. A low, soft,
and, as even the startled matron was obliged to confess,
a plaintive sound issued from between them, repeating
mournfully —
" Miantonimoh !"
The word was uttered with a distinct, but deeply guttural
enunciation.
"The child mourneth for its parent," exclaimed the sen-
sitive mother. " The hand that slew the warrior may have
done an evil deed."
" I see the evident and foreordering will of a wise Provi-
dence in this," said Mark Heathcote with solemnity. " The
youth hath been deprived of one who might have enticed
him still deeper into the bonds of the heathen, and hither
hath he been led in order to be placed upon the straight
and narrow path. He shall become a dweller among mine,
and we will strive against the evil of his mind until in-
struction shall prevail. Let him be fed' and nurtured
equally with the things of life and the things of the world;
for who knoweth that which is designed in his behalf ? "
If there were more of faith than of rational conclusion in
this opinion of the old Puritan, there was no external evi-
dence to contradict it. While the examination of the boy
was going on in the dwelling, a keen scrutiny had taken
place in the out-buildings, and in the adjacent fields. Those
engaged in this duty soon returned, to say that not the
smallest trace of an ambush was visible about the place ;
and as the captive himself had no weapons of hostility,
even Ruth began to hope that the mysterious conceptions
of her father on the subject were not entirely delusive. The
captive was now fed, and old Mark was on the point of
making a proper beginning in the task he had so gladly
assumed, by an up-offering of thanks, when Whittal Ring
broke rudely into the room, and disturbed the solemnity
of his preparation, by a sudden and boisterous outcry.
" Away with scythe and sickle," shouted the witling ; " it's
many a day since the fields of Wish-Ton-Wish have been
trodden down -by horsemen in buff jerkins, or ambushed
by creeping Wampanaogs."
"There is danger at hand!" exclaimed the sensitive
Ruth. " Husband, the warning was timely."
" Here are truly some riding from the forest, and draw,
ing nigh to the dwelling ; but as they are seemingly men
of our kind and faith, we have need rather of rejoicing
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WlSff. 6$
than terror. They bear the air of messengers from the
river."
Mark Heathcote listened with surprise, and perhaps
with a momentary uneasiness ; but all emotion passed
away on the instant, for one so disciplined in mind rarely
permitted any outward exposure of his secret thoughts.
The Puritan calmly issued an order to replace the prisoner
in the block-house, assigning the upper of the two princi-
pal floors for his keeping ; and then he prepared himself
to receive guests that were little wont to disturb the quiet
of his secluded valley. He was still in the act of giving
forth the necessary mandates, when the tramp of horses
was heard in the court, and he was summoned to the door
to greet his unknown visitors.
" We have reached Wish-Ton-Wish, and the dwelling of
Captain Mark Heathcote," said one, who appeared, by his
air and better attire, to be the principal of four that com-
posed the party.
" By the favor of Providence, I call myself the unworthy
owner of this place of refuge."
" Then a subject so loyal, and a man who hath so long
proved himself faithful in the wilderness, will not turn
from his door the agents of his anointed master."
" There is One greater than any of earth who hath taught
us to leave the latch free. I pray you to alight, and to
partake of that we can offer."
With this courteous but quaint explanation the horsemen
dismounted ; and, giving their steeds into the keeping of
the laborers of the farm, they entered the dwelling.
While the maidens of Ruth were preparing a repast
suited to the hour and to the quality of the guests, Mark
and his son had abundant opportunity to examine the ap-
pearance of the strangers. They were men who seemed
to wear visages peculiarly adapted to the character of their
entertainers, being in truth so singularly demure and grave
in aspect, as to excite some suspicion of their being newly
converted zealots to the mortifying customs of the Colony.
Notwithstanding their extraordinary gravity, and contrary
to the usages of those regions, too, they bore about their
persons certain evidence of being used to the fashions of
the other hemisphere. The pistols attached to their sad-
dle-bows, and other accoutrements of a warlike aspect,
would perhaps have attracted no observation, had they
not been accompanied by a fashion in the doublet, the hat,
and the boot, that denoted a greater intercourse with the
66 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISff.
mother country than was usual among the less sophisticated
natives of those regions. None traversed the forests with-
out the means of defence ; but, on the other hand, few
wore the hostile implements with so much of a worldly
air, or with so many minor particularities of some recent
caprice in fashion. As they had, however, announced
themselves to be officers of the king, they, who of neces*
sity must be chiefly concerned in the object of their visit,
patiently awaited the pleasure of the strangers, to learn
why duty had called them so far from all the more ordi-
nary haunts of men ; for, like the native owners of the soil,
the self-restrained religionists appeared to reckon an in-
discreet haste in anything among the more unmanly weak-
nesses. Nothing for the first half-hour of their visit es-
caped the guarded lips of men evidently well skilled in
their present duty, which might lead to a clew of its pur-
port. The morning meal passed almost without discourse,
and one of the party had arisen with the professed object
of looking to their steeds, before he, who seemed the chief,
led the conversation to a subject, that by its political bear-
ing might, in some degree, be supposed to have a remote
connection with the principal object of his journey to that
sequestered valley.
" Have the tidings of the gracious boon that hath lately
flowed from the favor of the king, reached the distant set-
tlement ?"• asked the principal personage, one that wore a
far less military air than a younger companion, who, by
his confident mien, appeared to be the second in authority.
" To what boon hath thy words import ? " demanded the
Puritan, turning a glance of the eye at his son and daugh-
ter, together with the others in hearing, as if to admonish
them to be prudent.
" I speak of the Royal Charter by which the people on
the banks of the Connecticut, and they of the Colony of
New Haven, are henceforth permitted to unite in govern-
ment ; granting them liberty of conscience, and great free-
dom of self-control."
" Such a gift were worthy of a king ! Hath Charles done
this ? "
" That hath he, and much more that is fitting in a kind
and royal mind. The realm is finally freed from the abuses
of usurpers, and power now resteth in the hands of a race
long set apart for its privileges."
""it is to be wished that practice shall render them
expert and sage in its uses," rejoined Mark, somewhat dryly.
THE WEPT OF WISH-TOK-WTSH. 67
" It is a merry prince ! and one but little given to the
study and exercises of his martyred father ; but he hath
great cunning in discourse, and few around his dread per-
son have keener wit or more ready tongue."
Mark bowed his head in silence, seemingly little dis-
posed to push the discussion of his earthly master's quali-
ties to a conclusion that might prove offensive to so loyal
an admirer. One inclining to suspicion would have seen,
or thought he saw, certain equivocal glances from the
stranger, while he was thus lauding the vivacious qualities
of the restored monarch, which should denote a desire to
detect how far the eulogiums might be grateful to his
host. He acquiesced, however, in the wishes of the Puri-
tan, though whether understandingly, or without design,
it would have been difficult to say, and submitted to change
the discourse.
" It is likely, by thy presence, that tidings have readied
the Colonies from home," said Content, who understood, by
the severe and reserved expression of his father's features,
that it was a fitting time for him to interpose.
" There is one arrived in the Bay, within the month, by
means of a king's frigate ; but no trader hath yet passed
between the countries, except the ship which maketh the
annual voyage from Bristol to Boston."
" And he who hath arrived — doth he come in author-
ity ?" demanded Mark ; " or is he merely another servant
of the Lord, seeking to rear his tabernacle in the wilder-
ness ?"
"Thou shalt know the nature of his errand," returned
the stranger, casting a glance of malicious intelligence ob-
liquely towards his companions, at the same time that he
arose and placed in the hand of his host a commission
which evidently bore the Seal of State. " It is expected
that all aid will be given to one bearing this warranty, by
a subject of a loyalty so approved as that of Captain Mark
Heathcote."
CHAPTER VI.
' ' But, by your leave,
I am an officer of state, and come
To speak with — " Coriolanus.
NOTWITHSTANDING the sharp look which the messenger
of the Crown deliberately and now openly fastened on the
master of Wish-Ton-Wish, while the latter was reading the
6S THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISFl.
instrument that was placed before his eyes, there was no
evidence of uneasiness to be detected in the unmoved feat-
ures of the latter. Mark Heathcote had too long schooled
his passions to suffer an unseemly manifestation of sur-
prise to escape him ; and he was by nature a man of far
too much nerve to betray alarm at any trifling exhibition of
danger. Returning the parchment to the other, he said
with unmoved calmness to his son :
" We must open wide the doors of Wish-Ton-Wish.
Here is one charged with authority to look into the secrets
of all the dwellings of the Colony." Then, turning with
dignity to the agent of the Crown, he added!, " Thou hast
better commence thy duty in season, for we are many and
occupy much space."
The face of the stranger flushed a little, it might have
been with shame for the vocation in which he had come so
far, or it might have been in resentment at so direct a hint
that the sooner his disagreeable office should be ended, the
better it would please his host. Still, he- betrayed no in-
tention of shrinking from its performance. On the con-
trary, discarding somewhat of that subdued manner which
he had probably thought it politic to assume, while sound-
ing the opinions of one so rigid, he broke out rather sud-
denly in the exhibition of a humor somewhat better suited
to the tastes of whom he served.
" Come, then," he cried, winking at his companions,
"since doors are opened, it would speak ill of our breed-
ing should we refuse to enter. Captain Heathcote has
been a soldier, and he knows how to excuse a traveller's
freedom. Surely one who has tasted of the pleasures of
the camp must weary at times of this sylvan life ? "
" The steadfast in faith weary not, though the road be
long and the wayfaring grievous."
"Hum — 'tis pity that the journeying between merry
England and these colonies is not more brisk. I do not
presume to instruct a gentleman who is my senior, and
peradventure my better ; but opportunity is everything in
a man's fortunes. It were charity to let you know, worthy
sir, that opinions have changed at home : it is full a twelve-
month since I have heard a line of the Psalms, or a verse
of St. Paul quoted, in discourse ; at least by men who are
at all esteemed for their discretion."
"This change in the fashion of speech may better suit
thy earthly than thy heavenly master," said Mark Heath*
cote, sternly.
THE WEPT OF W IS IT-TON- WISH. 69
" Well, well, that peace may exist between us, we will
not bandy words about a text more or less, if we may es-
cape the sermon," rejoined the stranger, no longer affecting
restraint, but laughing with sufficient freedom at his own
conceit ; a species of enjoyment in which his companions
mingled with great good-will, and without much deference
to the humor of those under whose roof they found them-
selves.
A small glowing spot appeared on the pale cheek of the
Puritan, and disappeared again like some transient decep-
tion produced by the play of light. Even the meek eye of
Content kindled at the insult ; but, like his father, the
practice of self-denial, and a never-slumbering conscious-
ness of his own imperfections, smothered the momentary
exhibition of displeasure.
" If thou hast authority to look into the secret places of
our habitations, do thy office," he said with a peculiarity of
tone which served to remind the other that, though he
bore the commission of the Stuart, he was in an extremity
of his empire, where even the authority of a king lost
some of its value.
Affecting to be, and possibly in reality conscious of his
indiscretion, the stranger hastily disposed himself to the
execution of his duty.
" It would be a great and a pain-saving movement," he
said, "were we to assemble the household in one apart-
ment. The government at home would be glad to hear
something of the quality of its lieges in this distant quar-
ter. Thou hast doubtless a bell to summon the flocks at
stated periods."
" Our people are yet near the dwelling," returned Con-
tent : "if it be thy pleasure, none shall be absent from the
search."
Gathering from the eye of the other that he was serious
in this wish, the quiet colonist proceeded to the gate, and,
placing a shell to his mouth, blew one of those blasts that
are so often heard in the forests summoning families to
their homes, and which are alike used as the signals of
peaceful recall, or of alarm. The sound soon brought all
within hearing to the court, whither the Puritan and his
unpleasant guests now repaired as to the spot best suited
to the purposes of the latter.
" Hallam," said the principal personage of the four visit-
ors, addressing him who might once have been, if he were
not still, some subaltern in the forces of the Crown, for he
7o THE WEPT OF WISH-7'O\r-WJSH.
was attired in a manner that bespoke him but a half-dis-
guised dragoon, "I leave thee to entertain this goodly as-
semblage. Thou may'st pass the time in discoursing on
the vanities of the world, of which I believe few are better
qualified to speak understandingly than thyself, or a few
words of admonition to hold fast to the faith would come
with fitting weight from thy lips. But look to it, that none
of thy flock wander ; for here must every creature of them
remain, stationary as the indiscreet partner of Lot, till I
have cast an eye into all the cunning places of their abode.
So set wit to work, and show thy breeding as an entertain-
er."
After this irreverent charge to his subordinate, the
speaker signified to Content and his father, that he and
his remaining attendant would proceed to a more minute
examination of the premises.
When Mark Heathcote saw that the man who had so
rudely broken upon the peaceful habits of his family was
ready'to proceed, he advanced steadily in his front, like
one who boldly invited inquiry, and by a grave gesture de-
sired him to follow. The stranger, perhaps as much from
habit as from any settled design, first cast a free glance
around at the bevy of fluttered maidens, leered even upon
the modest and meek-eyed Ruth herself, and then took the
direction indicated by him who had so unhesitatingly as-
sumed the office of a guide.
The object of this examination still remained a secret
between those who made it, and the Puritan who had prob-
ably found its motive in the written warranty which had
been submitted to his inspection. That it proceeded from
fitting authority, none might doubt ; and that it was in
some manner connected with the events that were known
to have wrought so sudden and so great a change in the
government of the mother country, all believed probable.
Notwithstanding the seeming mystery of the procedure,
the search was not the less rigid. Few habitations of any
size or pretension were erected in those times which die-
not contain certain secret places where valuables and even
persons might be concealed, at need. The strangers dis-
played great familiarity with the nature and ordinary
positions of these private recesses. Not a chest, a closet,
nor even a drawer of size, escaped their vigilance ; nor
was there a plank that sounded hollow, but the master of
the valley was calleckon to explain the cause. In one or
two instances, boards were wrested violently from their
THE WEPT OF WISH-TOX-WISH. 71
fastenings, and the cavities beneath were explored, with a
wariness that increased as the investigation proceeded with-
out success.
The strangers appeared irritated by their failure. An
hour passed in the keenest scrutiny, and nothing had trans-
pired which brought them any nearer to their object. That
they had commenced the search with more than usually
confident anticipations of a favorable result, might have
been gathered from the boldness of tone assumed by their
chief, and the pointed personal allusions in which, from
time to time, he indulged, often too freely, and always at
some expense to the loyalty of the Heathcotes. But when
he had completed the circuit of the buildings, having
entered all parts from their cellars to the garrets, his spleen
became so strong as, in some degree, to get the better of a
certain parade of discretion, which he had hitherto man-
aged to maintain in the midst of all his levity.
" Hast seen nothing, Mr. Hallam ? " he demanded of the
individual left on watch, as they crossed the court in retir-
ing from the last of the out-buildings ; " or have those traces
which led us to this distant settlement proved false ? Cap-
tain Heathcote, you have seen that we come not without
sufficient warranty, and it is in my power to say we come
not without sufficient — "
Checking himself, as if about to utter more than was
prudent, he suddenly cast an eye on the block-house, and
demanded its uses.
" It is, as thou seest, a building erected for the purposes
of defence," replied Mark ; " one to which, in the event of
an inroad of the savages, the family may fly for refuge."
" Ah ! these citadels are not unknown to me. I have met
with others during rny journey, but none so formidable or so
military as this. It hath a soldier for its governor, and
should hold out for a reasonable siege. Being a place of pre-
tension, we will look closer iruto its mystery."
He then signified an intention to close the search by an
examination of this edifice. Content unhesitatingly threw
open its door, and invited him to enter.
" On the word of one who, though now engaged in a
more peaceful calling, has been a campaigner in his time,
'twould be no child's play to carry this tower without artil-
lery. Had thy spies given notice of our approach, Captain
Heathcote, the entrance might have been more difficult
than we now find it. We have a ladder here ! Where the
means of mounting are found, there must be something to
72 THE IVEPT OF U'fSH-TO.V-IVISff.
tempt one to ascend. I will taste your forest air from an
upper room."
"You will find the apartment above like this below,
merely provided for the security of the unoffending dwell-
ers of the habitations," said Content ; while he quietly ar-
ranged the ladder before the trap, and then led the way
himself to the floor above.
" Here have \ve loops for the musketoons," cried the
stranger, looking about him, understandingly, "and reason-
able defences against shot. Thou hast not forgotten thy
art, Captain Heathcote, and I consider myself fortunate in
having entered thy fortress by surprise, or I should rather
say, in amity, since the peace is not yet broken between us.
But why have we so much of household gear in a place so
evidently equipped for war ? "
"Thou forgettest that women and children may be driven
to this block for a residence," replied Content. "It would
show little discretion to neglect matters that might be use-
ful to their wants."
"Is there trouble with the savages?" demanded the
stranger, a little quickly ; "the gossips of the Colony bade
us fear nothing on that head."
" One cannot say at what hour creatures trained in their
wild natures may choose to rise. The dwellers on the bor-
ders therefore never neglect a fitting caution."
"Hist!" interrupted the stranger ; "I hear a footstep
above. Ha ! the scent will prove true at last ! Hilloa, Master
Hallam !" he cried, from one of the loops ; "let thy statues
of salt dissolve, and come hither to the tower. Here is
work for a regiment, for well do we know the nature of that
we are to deal with."
The sentinel in the court shouted to his companion in
the stables ; and then openly and boisterously exulting in
the prospects of a final success to a search which had
hitherto given them useless employment throughout many
a long day and weary ride, they rushed together to the
block-house.
"Now, worthy lieges of a gracious master," said the
leader, when he perceived himself backed by all his armed
followers, and speaking with the air of a man flushed with
success, "now quickly provide the means of mounting to
the upper story I have thrice heard the tread of man,
moving across that floor ; though it hath been light and
wary, the planks are tell-tales, and have not had their
schooling."
THE WEPT OF W2SII-TON-WISH. 73
Content heard the request, which was uttered sufficiently
in the manner of an order, perfectly unmoved. Without
betraying either hesitation or concern he disposed himself
to comply. Drawing the light ladder through the trap be-
low, he placed it against the one above him, and ascend-
ing, he raised the door. He then returned to the floor be-
neath, making a quiet gesture to imply that they who
chose might mount But the strangers regarded each
other with very visible doubts. Neither of the inferiors
seemed disposed to precede his chief, and the latter evi-
dently hesitated as to the order in which it was meet to
make the necessary advance.
" Is there no other manner of mounting but by this nar-
row ascent ? " he asked.
" None. Thou wilt find the ladder secure, and of no
difficult height. It is intended for the use of women and
children."
" Aye," muttered the officer ; " but your women and
children are not called upon to confront the devil in a
human form. Fellows, are thy weapons in serviceable
condition ? Here may be need of spirit ere we get our —
Hist! by the divine right of our gracious master!
there is truly one stirring above. Harkee, my friend ;
thou k no west the road so well we will choose to follow
thy conduct."
Content, who seldom permitted ordinary events to dis-
turb the equanimity of his temper, quietly assented, and
led the way up the ladder, like one who saw no ground for
apprehension in the undertaking. The agent of the Crown
sprang after him, taking care to keep as near as possible to
the person of his leader, and calling to his inferiors to, lose
no time in backing him with their support. The whole
mounted through the trap with an alacrity nothing short
of that with which they would have pressed through a dan-
gerous breach ; nor did either of the four take time'to sur-
vey the lodgment he had made, until the whole party was
standing in array, with, hands grasping the handles of their
pistols, or seeking as it were instinctively the hilts of their
broadswords.
" By the dark visage of the Stuart ! " exclaimed the prin-
cipal personage, after satisfying himself by a long and dis-
appointed gaze, that what he said was true, "here is naught
but an unarmed savage boy ! "
" Didst expect to meet else ? " demanded the still un-
moved Content.
74 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON- WISH.
" Hum — that which we expected to meet is sufficiently
known to the quaint old gentleman below, and to our own
good wisdom. If thou doubtest of our right to look into
the very hearts, warranty for that \ve do can be forth-
coming. King Charles hath little cause to be tender of
his mercies to the dwellers of these colonies, who lent
but too willing ears to the winnings and hypocrisies of
the wolves in sheep's clothing, of whom old England hath
now so happily gotten rid. Thy buildings shall again be
rummaged from the bricks of the chimney-tops to the cor-
ner-stone in thy cellars, unless deceit and rebellious cun-
ning shall be abandoned, and the truth proclaimed with
the openness and fairness of bold-speaking Englishmen."
" I know not what is called the fairness of bold-speaking
Englishmen, since fairness of speech is not a quality of
one people or of one land ; but well I do know that deceit
is sinful, and little of it, I humbly trust, is practised in
this settlement. I am ignorant of what is sought, and
therefore it cannot be that I meditate treachery."
" Thou nearest, Hallam ; he reasoneth on a matter that
toucheth the peace and safety of the king ! " cried the
other, his arrogance of manner increasing with the anger
of disappointment. " But why is this dark-skinned boy a
prisoner? Dost dare to constitute thyself a sovereign over
the natives of this continent, and affect to have shackles
and dungeons for such as meet thy displeasure ! "
" The lad is in truth a captive ; but he has been taken
in defence of life, and hath little to complain of more
than loss of freedom."
" I will inquire deeply into this proceeding. Though
commissioned on an errand of different interest, yet, as
one trusted in a matter of moment, I take upon me the
office of protecting every oppressed subject of the Crown.
There may grow discoveries out of this practice, Hallam,
fit to go before the council itself."
" Thou wilt find but little here, worthy of the time and
attention of those burdened with the care of a nation,"
returned Content. " The youthful heathen was found
lurking near our habitations the past night ; and he is
kept where thou seest, that he may not carry the tidings
of our condition to his people, who are doubtless outly-
ing in the forest, waiting for the fit moment to work their
evil."
** How meanest thou ?" hastily exclaimed the other, "at
hand in the forest, didst ssiv ?"
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON'-WISH. 75
" There can be little doubt One young as this would
scarce be found distant from the warriors of his tribe ; and
that the more especially, as he was taken in the commis-
sion of an ambush."
" I hope thy people are not without good provision of
arms, and other sufficient muniments of resistance. I trust
the palisadoes are firm, and the posterns ingeniously de-
fended."
" We look with a diligent eye to our safety, for it is well
known to us dwellers on the borders that there is little
security but in untiring watchfulness. The young men
were at the gates until the morning, and we did intend to
make a strong scouting into the woods as the day ad-
vanced, in order to look for those signs that may lead us
to conclusions on the number and purposes of those by
whom we are environed, had not thy visit called us to our
duties."
"And why so tardy in speaking of this intent?" de-
manded the agent of the king, leading the way down the
ladder with suspicious haste. " It is a commendable pru-
dence, and must not be delayed. I take upon me the
responsibilities of commanding that all proper care be had
'in defence of the weaker subjects of the Crown who are
here collected. Are our roadsters well replenished, Hal-
lam ! Duty, as thou sayest, is an imperative master ; it
recalls us more into the heart of the Colony. I would it
might shortly point the way to Europe ! " he muttered as
he reached the ground. " Go, fellows ; see to our beasts,
and let them be speedily prepared for departure."
The attendants, though men of sufficient spirit in open
war, and when it was to be exercised in a fashion to which
they were accustomed, had, like other mortals, a whole-
some deference for unknown and terrific-looking danger.
It is a well-known truth, and one that has been proved by
the experience of two centuries, that while the European
soldier has ever been readiest to have recourse to the as-
sistance of the terrible warrior of the American forest, he
has, in nearly every instance, when retaliation or accident
has made him the object instead of the spectator of the
ruthless nature of his warfare, betrayed the most salutary,
and frequently the most ludicrous apprehension of the
prowess of his ally. While Content therefore looked so
steadily, though still seriously, at the peculiar danger in
which he was placed, the four strangers seemingly saw all
of its horrors without any of the known means of avoiding
76 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH.
them. Their chief quickly abandoned the insolence of
office, and the tone of disappointment, for a mien of
greater courtesy ; and, as policy is often seen suddenly to
change the sentiments of even more pretending person-
ages, when interests assume a new aspect, so did his
language rapidly take a character of conciliation and
courtesy.
The handmaidens were no longer leered at ; the mistress
of the dwelling was treated with marked deference ; and
the air of deep respect with which even the principal of
the party addressed the aged Puritan, bordered on an ex-
hibition of commendable reverence. Something was said
in the way of an apology, for the disagreeable obligations
of duty, and of a diiference between a manner that was as-
sumed to answer secret purposes, and that which nature
and a sense of right would dictate ; but neither Mark nor
his son appeared to have sufficient interest in the motives
of their visitors, to put them to the trouble of repeating
explanations that were as awkward to those who uttered
them as they were unnecessary to those who listened.
So far from offering any further obstacle to the move-
ments of the family, the borderers were seriously urged to
pursue their previous intentions of thoroughly examining
the woods. The dwelling was accordingly intrusted, under
the orders of the Puritan, to the keeping of about half the
laborers, assisted by the Europeans, who clung with in-
stinctive attachment to the possession of the block-house ;
their leader repeatedly and rightly enough declaring that
though ready at all times to risk life on a plain, he had
an unconquerable distaste to putting it in jeopardy in a
thicket. Attended by Ebeii Dudley, Reuben Ring, and
two other stout youths, all well though lightly armed,
Content then left the palisadoes, and took his way towards
the forest. They entered the woods at the nearest point,
always marching with the caution and vigilance that a
sense of the true nature of the risk they ran would in-
spire, and much practice only could properly direct.
The manner of the search was as simple as it was likely
to prove effectual. The scouts commenced a circuit round
the clearing, extending their line as far as might be done
without cutting off support, and each man lending his
senses attentively to the signs of the trail, or of the lairs,
of those dangerous enemies, who they had reason to think
were outlying in their neighborhood. But, like the recent
search in the buildings, the scouting was for a long time
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON- WISH. ft
attended by no results. Many weary miles were passed
slowly over, and more than half their task was ended, and
no signs of being having life was met, except the very
visible trail of their four guests, and the tracks of a single
horse along the path leading to the settlements from the
quarter by which the visitor of the previous night had
been known to approach. No comments were made by
any of the party, as each in succession struck and crossed
this path, nearly at the same instant ; but a low call from
Reuben Ring which soon after met their ears, caused them
to assemble in a body at the spot whence the summons
had proceeded.
" Here are signs of one passing from the clearing," said
the quick-eyed woodsman/' and of one too that is not num-
bered among the family of Wish-Ton-Wish ; since his beast
hath had a shodden hoof, a mark which belongeth to no
animal of ours."
" We will follow," said Content, immediately striking in
upon a straggling trail, that by many unequivocal signs had
been left by some animal which had passed that way not
many hours before. Their search, however, soon drew to a
close. Ere they had gone any great distance, they came
upon the half-demolished carcass of a dead horse. There
was no mistaking the proprietor of this unfortunate animal.
Though some beast, or rather beasts of prey, had fed plenti-
fully on the body, which was still fresh and had scarcely yet
done bleeding, it was plain, by the remains of the torn
equipments, as well as by the color and size of the animal,
that it was no other than the hack ridden by the unknown
and mysterious guest, who, after sharing in the worship and
in the evening meal of the family of Wish-Ton-Wish, had
so strangely and so suddenly disappeared. The leathern
sackj the weapons which had so singularly riveted the gaze
of old Mark, and indeed all but the carcass and a ruined
saddle, were gone ; but what was left, sufficiently served to
identify the animal.
" Here has been the tooth of wolf," said Eben Dudley,
stooping to examine into the nature of a ragged wound in
the neck ; " and here, too, has been cut of knife ; but
whether by the hand of a red-skin, it exceedeth my art to
say;"
Each individual of the party now bent curiously over the
wound ; but the results of their inquiries went no further
than to prove that it was undeniably the horse of the stran-
ger, that had forfeited its life. To the fate of its master,
78 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON- WISH.
however, there was not the slightest clew. Abandoning the
investigation, after a long and fruitless examination, they
proceeded to finish the circuit of the clearing. Night had
approached ere the fatiguing task was accomplished. As
Ruth stood at the postern waiting anxiously for their return,
she saw by the countenance of her husband, that while noth-
ing had transpired to give any grounds of additional alarm,
no satisfactory testimony had been obtained to explain the
nature of the painful doubts, with which, as a tender and
sensitive mother, she had been distressed throughout the
day.
CHAPTER VII.
" Is there not milking-time,
When you go to bed, or kiln-hole,
To whistle off these secrets ; but you must be
Tattling before all our guests ? " — Winter"1 s Tale.
LONG experience hath shown that the white man, when
placed in situations to acquire such knowledge, readily
becomes the master of most of that peculiar skill for which
the North American Indian is so remarkable, and which
enables him, among other things, to detect the signs of a
forest trail, with a quickness and an accuracy of intelli-
gence that amount nearly to an instinct. The fears of the
family were therefore greatly quieted by the reports of the
scouts, all of whom agreed in the opinion that no party of
savages, that could be at all dangerous to a force like their
own, was lying near the valley ; and some of whom, the
loudest of which number being stout Eben Dudley, boldly
offered to answer for the security of those who depended
on their vigilance, with their own lives. These assur-
ances had, beyond a doubt, a soothing influence on the
apprehensions of Ruth and her handmaidens ; but they
somewhat failed of their effect with those unwelcome vis-
itors who still continued to cumber Wish-Ton-Wish with
their presence. Though they had evidently abandoned
all ideas connected with the original object of their visit,
they spoke not of departure. On the contrary, as night
approached, their chief entered into council with old
Mark Heathcote, and made certain propositions for the
security of his dwelling, which the Puritan saw no reason
to oppose.
THE IVEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH. 79
A regular watch was, in consequence, set, and main-
tained till morning, at the palisadoes. The different mem-
bers of the family retired to their usual places of rest,
tranquil in appearance, if not in entire confidence of
peace ; and the military messengers took post in the lower
of the two fighting apartments of the citadel. With this
simple, and to the strangers particularly satisfactory ar-
rangement, the hours of darkness passed away in quiet;
morning returning to the secluded valley, as it had so
often done before, with its loveliness unimpaired by vio
lence or tumult.
In the same peaceful manner did the sun set succes-
sively three several times, and as often did it arise on the
abode of the Heathcotes, without further sign of danger,
or motive of alarm. With the passage of time, the agents
of the Stuart gradually regained their confidence. Still
they never neglected to withdraw within the protection of
the block-house with the retiring light ; a post which the
subordinate named Hallam more than once gravely ob-
served, they were, by their disciplined and military habits,
singularly qualified to maintain. Though the Puritan
secretly chafed under this protracted visit, habitual self-
denial, and a manner so- long subdued, enabled him to
conceal his disgust. For the first two days after the alarm,
the deportment of his guests was unexceptionable. All
their faculties appeared to be engrossed with keen and
anxious watchings of the forest, out of which it would
seem they expected momentarily to see issue a band of
ferocious and ruthless savages ; but symptoms of returning
levity began to be apparent, as confidence and a feeling of
security increased, with the quiet passage of the hours.
It was on the evening of the third day from that on
which they had made their appearance in the settlement,
that the man called Haliam was seen strolling, for the first
time, through the postern so often named, and taking a
direction which led toward the out-buildings. His air
was less distrustful than it had been for many a weary
hour, and his step proportionably confident and assuming.
Instead of wearing, as he had been wont, a pair of heavy
horseman's pistols at his girdle, he had even laid aside his
broadsword, and appeared more in the guise of one who
sought his personal ease, than in that cumbersome and
martial attire which all of his party, until now, had deemed
it prudent to maintain. He cast his glance cursorily over
the fields of the Heathcotes, as they glowed under the soft
So THE WEPT OF WISH-TON- WISH.
light of a setting sun ; nor did his eye even refuse to wan-
der vacantly along the outline of that forest, which his
imagination had so lately been peopling with beings of a
fierce and ruthless nature.
The hour was one when rustic economy brings the
labors of the day to a close. Among those who were more
than usually active at that busy moment, was a hand-
maiden of Ruth, whose clear sweet voice was heard, in one
of the inclosures, occasionally rising on the notes of a
spiritual song, and as often sinking to a nearly inaudible
hum, as she extracted from a favorite animal liberal por-
tions of its nightly tribute to the dairy of her mistress. To
that iuclosure the stranger, as it were by accident, suffered
his sauntering footsteps to stroll, seemingly as much in
admiration of the sleek herd as of any other of its comely
tenants.
" From what thrush hast taken lessons, my pretty maid,
that I mistook thy notes for one of the sweetest songsters
of thy woods?" he asked, trusting his person to the sup-
port of the pen, in an attitude of easy superiority. " One
might fancy it a robin, or a wren, trolling out his evening
song, instead of human voice, rising and falling in every-
day psalmody."
" The birds of our forest rarely speak," returned the girl,
" and the one among them which has most to say, does it
like those who are called gentlemen, when they set wit to
work to please the ear of simple country maidens."
" And in what fashion may that be ? "
" Mockery."
" Ah ! I have heard of the creature's skill. It is said to
be a compound of the harmony of all other forest songsters,
and yet I see little resemblance to the honest language of
a soldier in its manner of utterance."
" It speaketh without much meaning ; and oftener to
cheat the ear than in honest reason."
" Thou forgettest that which I told thee in the morning,
child. It would seem that they who named thee have no
great cause to exult in their judgment of character, since
Unbelief would better describe thy disposition than Faith."
" It may be, that they who named me little knew how
great must be credulity, to give ear to all I have been
required to credit."
"Thou can'st have no difficulty in admitting that thou
art comely, since the eye itself will support thy belief ; nor
can one of so quick speech fail to know that her wit is
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON- WISH. 81
sharper than common. Thus far I admit the name of Faith
will not surely belie thy character."
" If Eben Dudley hear thee use such vanity-stirring dis-
course," returned the half-pleased girl, "he might give
thee less credit for wit than thoti seemest willing to yield
to others. I hear his heavy foot among the cattle, and ere
long we shall be sure to see a face that hath little more of
lightness to boast."
"This Eben Dudley is a personage of no mean impor-
tance, I find! " muttered the other, continuing his walk, as
the borderer named made his appearance at another en-
trance of the pen. The glances exchanged between them
were far from friendly, though the woodsman permitted
the stranger to pass without any oral expression of dis-
pleasure.
" The skittish heifer is getting gentle at last, Faith
Ring," said the borderer, casting the butt of his musket on
the ground with a violence that left a deep impression on
the faded sward at his feet. " That brindled ox, old Log-
ger, is not more willing to come into his yoke than is the
four-year-old to yield her milk."
" The creature has been getting kind since you taught
the manner to tame its humor," returned the dairy girl, in
a voice that, spite of every effort of maiden pride, betrayed
something of a flurry of her spirits, while she plied her
light task with violent industry.
" Umph ! I hope some other of my teachings may be as
well remembered ; but thou art quick at the trick of learn-
ing, Faith, as is plain by the ready manner in which thou
hast so shortly got the habit of discourse with a man as
nimble-tongued as yon riding reprobate from over sea."
" I hope that civil listening is no proof of unseemly dis-
course on the part of one who hath been trained in modesty
of speech, Eben Dudley. Thou hast often said, it was the
bounden duty of her who was spoken to, to give ear, lest
some might say she was of scornful mind, and her name
for pride be better earned than that for good-nature."
" I see that more of my lessons than I had hoped are
still in thy keeping. So thou listenest thus readily, Faith,
because it is meet that a maiden should not be scornful ? "
" Thou sayest so. Whatever ill name I may deserve,
thou hast no right to count scorn among my failings."
" If I do, may I — " Eben Dudley bit his lip, and
checked an expression which would have given grievous
offence to one whose habits of decency were as severe as
6
82 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON- WISH.
those of his companion. " Thou must have heard much
that was profitable to-day, Faith Ring," he added, "consid-
ering that thy ear is so open, and that thy opportunities
have been great."
" I know not what thou would'st say by speaking of my
opportunities," returned the girl, bending still lower be-
neath the object of her industry, in order to conceal the
glow which her own quick consciousness told her was
burning on her cheek.
" I would say that the tale must be long that needeth
four several trials of private speech to finish."
" Four ! As I hope to be believed for a girl of trutli in
speech or deed, this is but the third time that the stranger
hath spoken to me apart, since the sun hath risen."
" If I know the number of the fingers of my hand, it
is the fourth."
" Nay ; how can'st thou, Eben Dudley, who hast been
a-field since the crowing of the cock, know what hath
passed about the dwellings ? It is plain that envy, or some
other evil passion, causeth thee to speak angrily."
"How is it that I know! perhaps thou thinkest, Faith,
thy brother Reuben only hath the gift of sight."
"The labor must have gone on with great profit to the
captain, whilst eyes have been roving over other matters !
But perhaps they kept the strong of arm for the lookers-
out, and have set them of feebler bodies to the toil."
" I have not been so careless of thy life as to forget, at
passing moments, to cast an eye abroad, pert one. What-
ever thou mayest think of the need, there would be fine
wailings in the butteries and dairies, did the Wampanoags
get into the clearing, and there were none to give the
alarm in season."
" Truly, Eben, thy terror of the child in the block must
be grievous for one of thy manhood, else would'st thou
not watch the buildings so narrowly," retorted Faith, laugh-
ing; for with the dexterity of her sex, she began to feel
the superiority she was gradually obtaining in the dis-
course. " Thou dost not remember that we have valiant
troopers from old England, to keep the younker from do-
ing harm. But here cometh the brave soldier himself ; it
will be well to ask vigilance at his hands, or this night may
bring us to the tomahawk in our sleep ! "
" Thou speakest of the weapon of the savages ! " said the
.nessenger, who had drawn near again with a visible will-
ingness to share in an interview which, while he had watched
THE IV EPT OF WISH-TON- WISH. 83
its progress at a distance, appeared to be growing interest-
ing. u I trust all fear is over from that quarter."
" As you say, for this quarter," said Eben, adjusting his
lips to a low whistle, and coolly looking up to examine
the heavenly body to which he meant allusion. " But the
next quarter may bring us a pretty piece of Indian skirm-
ishing."
" And what hath the moon in common with an incursion
of the savages ? Are there those among them who study
the secrets of the stars ? "
" They study deviltries and other wickedness more than
aught else. It is not easy for the mingl of man to fancy
horrors such as they design, when Providence has given
them success in an inroad."
" But thou did'st speak of the moon ! In what manner
is the moon leagued with their bloody plots ? "
"We have her now in the full, and there is little of the
night when the eye of a watcher might not see a red-skin
in the clearing ; but a different tale may be heard, when an
hour or two of jet darkness shall again fall among these
woods. There will be a change shortly ; it behooveth us
therefore to be on our guard."
" Thou thinkest then, truly, that there are outlyers wait-
ing for the fitting moment ? " said the officer, with an in-
terest so marked as to cause even the but-half-pacified
Faith to glance an arch look at her companion, though
he still had reason to distrust a wilful expression that
lurked in the corner of her eyes, which threatened at each
moment to contradict his relation of the sinister omens.
"There may be savages lying in the hills at a day's jour-
ney in the forest ; but they know the aim of a white man's
musket too well to be sleeping within reach of its range.
It is the nature of an Indian to eat and sleep while he has
time for quiet, and to fast and murder when the killing
hour hath come."
" And what call you the distance to the nearest settle-
ment on the Connecticut ? " demanded the other, with an
air so studiously indifferent as to furnish an easy clue to
the inner workings of his mind.
" Some twenty hours would bring a nimble runner to
the outer habitations, granting small time for food and
rest. He that is wise, however, will take but little of the
latter, until his head be safely housed within some such
building as yen block, or until there shall stand between
him and the forest at least a goodly row of oaken pickets."
84 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON- WISH.
11 There is no path ridden by which travellers may avoid
the forest during the darkness ? "
"I know of none. He who quits Wish-Ton-Wish for
the towns below must make his pillow of the earth, or be
fain to ride as long as beast can carry him."
"We have truly had experience of this necessity jour-
neying hither. Thou thinkest, friend, that the savages are
in their resting time, and that they wait the coming quar-
ter of the moon ? "
" To my seeming, we shall not have them sooner," re-
turned Eben Dudley; taking care to conceal all qualifica-
tion of this opinion, if any such he entertained, by closely
locking its purport in a mental reservation.
"And what season is it usual to choose for getting into
the saddle, when business calls any to the settlements be-
low?"
" We never fail to take our departure about the time
the sun touches the tall pine which stands on yonder
height of the mountain. Much experience hath told us
it is the safest hour ; hand of timepiece is not more sure
than yon tree."
" I like the night," said the other, looking about him
with the air of one suddenly struck with the promising
appearance of the weather. "The blackness no longer
hangs about the forest, and it seems a fitting moment to
push the matter on which we are sent nearer to its con-
clusion."
So saying, and probably believing that he had sufficient-
ly concealed the motives of his decision, the uneasy dra-
goon walked with an air of soldierly coolness towards the
dwellings, signing at the same time to one of his compan-
ions, who was regarding him from a distance, to approach.
" Now dost thou believe, witless Dudley, that the four
fingers of thy clumsy hand have numbered the full amount
of all that thou callest my listenings ? " said Faith, wrhen
she thought no other ear but his to whom she spoke could
catch her words, and at the same time laughing merrily
beneath her heifer, though still speaking with a vexation
she could not entirely repress.
" Have I spoken aught but truth ? It is not for such as
I to give lessons in journeying to one who follows the hon-
est trade of a man-hunter. I have said that which all who
dwell in these parts know to be reasonable."
"Surely naught else. But truth is made so powerful in
thy hands, that it needs to be taken, like a bitter healing
THE WEPT OF IVSSH-TON-WISH. 85
draught, with closed eyes and at many swallows. One who
drinketh of it too freely may well-nigh be strangled. I
marvel that he who is so vigilant in providing for the cares
of others, should take so little heed of those he is sent to
guard."
" I know not thy meaning, Faith. When was danger
near the valley and my musket wanting ? "
" The good piece is truer to duty than its master. Thou
mayest have lawful license to sleep on thy post, for we
maidens know nothing of the pleasure of the captain in
these matters ; but it would be as seemly, if not as soldier-
ly, to place the arms at the postern and thyself in the
chambers, when next thou hast need of watching and sleep-
ing in the same hour."
Dudley looked as confused as one of his mould and un-
bending temperament might well be, though he stubborn-
ly refused to understand the allusion of his offended com-
panion.
" Thou hast not discussed with the trooper from over
sea in vain," he said, "since thou speakest so wisely of
watches and arms."
" Truly he hath much schooled me in the matter."
" Umph ! and what may be the amount of his teach-
ing ? "
"That he who sleepeth at a postern should neither talk
too boldly of the enemy, nor expect maidens to put too
much trust "
"In what, Faith?"
"Thou surely knowest.I mean in his watchfulness. My
life on it, had one happened to pass at a later hour than
common near the night-post of that gentle-spoken soldier,
he would not have been found like a sentinel of this house-
hold, in the second watch of the night that was gone, dream-
ing of the good things of Madam's buttery."
" Didst truly come then, girl ? " said Eben, dropping his
voice, and equally manifesting his satisfaction and his
shame. " But thou knowest, Faith, that the labor had fall-
en behind in behalf of the scouting party, and that the toil
of yesterday exceeded that of our usual burdens. Never-
theless, I keep the postern again to-night, from eight to
twelve, and "
" Will make a goodly rest of it, I doubt not. Now he
who hath been so vigilant throughput the day must needs
tire of the task as night draws on. Fare thee well, wake-
ful Dudley ; if thine eyes should open on the morrow, be
86 THE WEPT OF IVISH-TON-WISPT.
thankful that the maidens have not stitched thy garments
to the palisadoes."
Notwithstanding the efforts of the young man to detain
her, the light-footed girl eluded his grasp, and bearing her
burden towards the dairy, she tripped along the path with
a half-averted face, in which triumph and repentance were
already struggling for the possession.
In the meantime the leader of the messengers and his
military subordinate had a long and interesting confer-
ence. When it was ended, the former took his way to the
apartment in which Mark Heathcote was wont to pass
those portions of his time that were not occupied in his se-
cret strivings for the faith, or in exercise without, while
superintending the laborers in the fields. With some little
circumlocution, which was intended to mask his real mo-
tives, the agent of the king announced his intention to
take his final departure that very night.
" I felt it a duty, as one who has gained experience in
arms by some practice in the wars of Europe," he said, " to
tarry in thy dwelling while danger threatened from the
lurking savage. It would ill become soldiers to speak of
their intentions ; but had the alarm in truth sounded, thou
wilt give faith when I say that the block-house would not
have been lightly yielded ! I shall make report to them
that sent me, that in Captain Mark Heathcote, Charles
hath a loyal subject, and the Constitution a firm supporter.
The rumors, of a seemingly mistaken description, which
have led us hither, shall be contradicted, and doubtless it
will be found that some accident hath given rise to the de-
ception. Should there be occasion to dwell on the particu-
lars of the late alarm, I trust the readiness of my followers
to do good service to one of the king's subjects will not be
overlooked."
" It is the striving of an humble spirit to speak naught
evil of its fellows, and to conceal no good," returned the
reserved Puritan. " If thou hast found thy abode in my
dwelling to thy liking, thou art welcome, and if duty or
pleasure calleth thee to quit it, peace go with thee. It will
be useful to unite with us in asking that thy passage
through the wilderness may be unharmed ; that He who
watcheth over the meanest of his creatures should take
thee in his especial keeping, and that the savage heathen
" Dost think the savage out of his villages ? " demanded
the messenger, with an indecorous rapidity that cut short
THE WEPT OF WISH- TON- WISH. 87
the enumeration of the particular blessings and dangers
that his host thought it meet to include in the leave-taking
prayer.
" Thou surely hast not tarried with us to aid in the de-
fence, and yet feel it doubtful that thy services might be
useful ! " observed Mark Heathcote, dryly.
" I would the Prince of Darkness had thee and all the
other diabolicals of these woods in his own good gripe ! "
muttered the messenger between his teeth ; and then, as if
guided by a spirit that could not long be quelled, he as-
.sumed something more of his unbridled and natural air,
boldly declining to join in the prayer on the plea of haste,
and the necessity of his looking in person to the movements
of his followers. " But this need not prevent thee, worthy
captain, from pouring out an asking in our behalf while
we are in the saddle," he concluded ; " for ourselves, there
remaineth much of thy previously-bestowed pious aliment
to be digested, though we doubt not that should thy voice
be raised in our behalf, while journeying along the first
few leagues of the forest, the tread of the hacks would not
be heavier, and it is certainty that we ourselves should be
none the worse for the favor."
Then casting a glance of ill-concealed levity at one of
his followers who had come to say that their steeds await-
ed, he made the parting salutation with an air in which
the respect that one like the Puritan could scarce fail to
excite, struggled with his habitual contempt for things of
a serious character.
The family of Mark Heatncote, the lowest dependent
included, saw these strangers depart with inward satisfac-
tion. Even the maidens, in whom nature, in moments
weaker than common, had awakened some of the lighter
vanities, were gladly rid of gallants who could not soothe
their ears with the unction of flattery without frequently
giving great offence to their severe principles, by light and
irreverent allusions to things on which they themselves
were accustomed to think with fitting awe. Eben Dudley
could scarcely conceal the chuckle with which he saw the
party bury themselves in the forest, though neither he nor
any of the more instructed in such matters, believed they
incurred serious risk from their sudden enterprise.
The opinion of the scouts proved to be founded on ac-
curate premises. That and many a subsequent night
passed without alarm. The season continued to advance,
and the laborers pursued their toil to its close without an-
88 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH.
other appeal to their courage, or any additional reasons
for vigilance. Whittal Ring followed his colts with impu-
nity among the recesses of the neighboring forests, and
the herds of the family went and came as long as the
weather would permit them to range the woods, in regu-
larity and peace. The period of the alarm and the visit
of the agents of the Crown came to be food for tradition,
and during the succeeding winter the former often fur-
nished motive of merriment around the blazing fires that
were so necessary to the country and the season.
Still there existed in the family a living memorial of the
unusual incidents of that night. The captive remained
long after the events which had placed him in the power
of the Heathcotes were beginning to be forgotten.
A desire to quicken the seeds of spiritual regeneration,
which, however dormant they might be, old Mark Heath-
cote believed to exist in the whole family of man, and con-
sequently in the young heathen as well as in others, had
become a sort of ruling passion in the Puritan. The fash-
ions and mode of thinking of the times had a strong lean-
ing toward superstition, and it was far from difficult for a
man of his ascetic habits and exaggerated doctrines to be-
lieve that a special interposition had cast the boy into his
hands for some hidden but mighty purpose, that time in
the good season would not fail to reveal.
Notwithstanding the strong coloring of fanaticism which
tinged the character of the religionists of those days, they
were rarely wanting in worldly discretion. The agents
they saw fit to employ in order to aid the more hidden pur-
poses of Providence, were in common useful and rational.
Thus, while Mark never forgot to summon the lad from his
prison at the hour of prayer, or to include an especial ask-
ing in behalf of the ignorant heathen in general and of
this chosen youth in particular, he hesitated to believe that
a manifest miracle would be exerted in his favor. That no
blame might attach to the portion of duty that was confided
to human means, he had recourse to the discreet agency of
kindness and unremitted care. But all attempts to lure
the lad into the habits of a civilized man were completely
unsuccessful. As the severity of the weather increased,
the compassionate and thoughtful Ruth endeavored to in-
duce him to adopt the garments that were found so neces-
sary to the comfort of men who were greatly his superiors
in hardihood and in strength. Clothes decorated in a
fashion suited to the taste of an Indian were considerately
THE IVEPT OF WISH-T<^N-WISH. 89
provided, and entreaties and threats were both freely used,
with a view to make the captive wear them. On one oc-
casion lie was even forcibly clad by Eben Dudley ; and
being brought in the unwonted guise into the presence
of old Mark, the latter offered up an especial petition that
the youth might be made to feel the merit of this con-
cession to the principles of a chastened and instructed
man. But within an hour the stout woodsman, who had
been made on the occasion so active an instrument of civil-
ization, announced to the admiring Faith that the experi-
ment was unsuccessful ; or, as Eben somewhat irreverently
described the extraordinary effort of the Puritan, "the
heathen hath already resumed his skin leggings and
painted waist-cloth, notwithstanding the captain hath
strove to pin better garments on his back, by virtue of a
prayer that might have clothed the nakedness of a whole
tribe." In short, the result proved in the case of this lad,
as similar experiments have since proved in so many other
instances, the difficulty of tempting one trained in the
freedom and ease of a savage, to consent to admit of the
restraints of a state of being that is commonly thought to
be so much superior. In every instance in which the
youthful captive had liberty of choice, he disdainfully re-
jected the customs of the whites, adhering with a singular
and almost heroic pertinacity to the usages of his people
and his condition.
The boy was not kept in his bondage without extraordi-
nary care. Once, when trusted in the fields, he had openly
attempted to escape ; nor was the possession of his person
recovered without putting the speed of Eben Dudley and
Reuben Ring to a more severe trial, as was confessed by
the athletic young borderers themselves, than any they
had hitherto undergone. From that moment, he was
never permitted to pass the palisadoes. When duty called
the laborers afield, the captive was invariably secured in
his prison, where, as some compensation for his confine-
ment, he was supposed to enjoy the benefit of long and
familiar communication with Mark Heathcote, who had
the habit of passing many hours of each day, and not u in-
frequently long portions of the night too, within the retire-
ment of the block-house. During the time only when the
gates were closed, or when some one of strength and ac-
tivity sufficient to control his movements was present, was
the latter permitted to stroll at will among the buildings
of the border fortress. This liberty he never failed to ey-
90 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH.
ercise, and often in a manner that overcame the affection-
ate Ruth with a painful excess of sensibility.
Instead of joining in the play of the other children, the
young captive would stand aloof, and regard their sports
with a vacant eye, or, drawing near to the palisadoes, he
often passed hours in gazing wistfully at those endless
forests in which he first drew breath, and which probably
contained all that was most prized in the estimation of his
simple judgment. Ruth, touched to the heart by this
silent but expressive exhibition of suffering, endeavored
in vain to win his confidence, with a view of enticing him
into employments that might serve to relieve his care.
The resolute but still quiet boy would not be lured into a
forgetfulness of his origin. He appeared to comprehend
the kind intentions of his gentle mistress, and frequently
he even suffered himself to be led by the mother into the
centre of her own joyous and merry offspring ; but it was
only to look upon their amusements with his former cold
air, and to return, at the first opportunity, to his beloved
site at the pickets. Still there .were singular and even
mysterious evidences of a growing consciousness of the
nature of the discourse of which he was occasionally an
auditor, that would have betrayed greater familiarity with
the language and opinions of the inhabitants of the valley,
than his known origin and his absolute withdrawal from
communication could give reason to expect. This impor-
tant and inexplicable fact was proved by the frequent and
meaning glances of his dark eye, when aught was uttered
in his hearing that affected, ever so remotely, his own con-
dition ; and, once or twice, by the haughty gleamings of
ferocity that escaped him, when Eben Dudley was heard
to vaunt the prowess of the white men in their encounters
with the original owners of the country. The Puritan did
not fail to note these symptoms of a budding intelligence,
as the pledges of a fruit that would more than reward his
pious toil ; and they served to furnish a great relief to
certain occasional repugnance, which all his zeal could
not entirely subdue, at being the instrument of causing so
much suffering to one who, after all, had inflicted no posi-
tive wrong on himself.
At the period of which we are writing, the climate of
these States differed materially from that which is now
known to their inhabitants. A winter in the Province of
Connecticut was attended by many successive falls of snow,
until the earth was entirely covered with firmly compressed
THE WEPT OF IVISH-TON-WISH. 91
masses of the frozen element. Occasional thaws and pass-
ing storms of rain, that were driven away by a return of
the clear and cutting cold of the northwestern gales, were
wont at times to lay a covering on the ground, that was
congealed to the consistency of ice, until men, and not
unfrequently beasts, and sometimes sleighs, were seen
moving on its surface, as on the bed of a frozen lake.
During the extremity of a season like this, the hardy bor'
derers, who could not toil in their customary pursuits, were
wont to range the forest in quest of game, which, driven
for food to known resorting places in the woods, then fell
most easily a prey to the intelligence and skill of such
men as Eben Dudley and Reuben Ring.
The youths never left the dwellings on these hunts, with-
out exciting the most touching interest in their move-
ments, on the part of the Indian boy. On all such occa-
sions he would linger at the loops of his prison throughout
the day, listening intently to the reports of the distant
muskets, as they resounded in the forest ; and the only
time during a captivity of so many months, that he was
ever seen to smile, was when he examined the grim look
and muscular cla\vs of a dead panther, that had fallen be-
neath the aim of Dudley, in one of these excursions to the
mountains. The compassion of all the borderers was pow-
erfully awakened in behalf of the patient and dignified
young sufferer, and gladly would they have given their
captive the pleasure of joining in the chase, had not the
task been one that was far from easy of accomplishment.
The former of the woodsmen just mentioned had even
volunteered to lead him like a hound in a leash ; but this
was a species of degradation against which it was certain
that a young Indian, ambitious of the character and jeal-
ous of the dignity of a warrior, would have openly re-
belled.
The quick interest of the observant Ruth had, as it has
been seen, early detected a growing intelligence in the
boy. The means by which one, wrho never mingled in the
employments, and who rarely seemed to listen to the dia-
logues of the family, could come to comprehend the mean-
ing of a language that is found sufficiently difficult for a
scholar, were, however, as much of a mystery to her as to
all around her. Still, by the aid of that instinctive tact
which so often enlightens the mind of woman, was she cer-
tain of the fact. Profiting by this knowledge, she assumed
the task of endeavoring to obtain an honorary pledge from
92 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON- WISH.
her protege, that, if permitted to join the hunters, he would
return to the valley at the end of the day. But though
the language of the woman was gentle as her own kind
nature, and her entreaties that he would give some evi-
dence of having comprehended her meaning were zealous
and oft repeated, not the smallest symptom of intelligence,
on this occasion, could be extracted from her pupil. Dis-
appointed, and not without sorrow, Ruth had abandoned
her compassionate design in despair, when, on a sudden,
the old Puritan, who had been a silent spectator of her
fruitless efforts, announced his faith in the integrity of the
lad, and his intention to permit him to make one of the
very next party that should leave the habitation.
The cause of this sudden change in the hitherto stern
watchfulness of Mark Heathcote was, like so many other
of his impulses, a secret in his own bosom. It has just
been said, that during the time Ruth was engaged in her
kind and fruitless experiment to extract some evidence of
intelligence from the boy, the Puritan was a close and in-
terested observer of her efforts. He appeared to sympa-
thize in her disappointment, but the weal of those uncon-
verted tribes who were to be led from the darkness of their
ways by the instrumentality of this youth, was far too im-
portant to admit the thought of rashly losing the vantage-
ground he had gained, in the gradually-expanding intellect
of the boy, by running the hazard of an escape. To all
appearance, the intention of permitting him to quit the de-
fences had therefore .been entirely abandoned, when old
Mark so suddenly announced a change of resolution. The
conjectures on the causes of this unlooked-for determina-
tion were exceedingly various. Some believed that the
Puritan had been favored with a mysterious intimation of
the pleasure of Providence in the matter ; and others
thought that, beginning to despair of success in his under-
taking, he was willing to seek for a more visible manifes-
tation of its purposes, by hazarding the experiment of
trusting the boy to the direction of his own impulses. All
appeared to be of opinion that if the lad returned, the cir-
cumstance might be set down to the intervention of a mir-
acle. Still, with his resolution once taken, the purpose of
Mark Heathcote remained unchanged. He announced this
unexpected intention after one of his long and solitary
visits to the block-house, where it is possible he had held
a powerful spiritual strife on the occasion ; and, as the
weather was exceedingly favorable for such an object, he
THE WEPT OF WIStf-TON-WISH.
91
commanded his dependents to prepare to make the sortie
on the following morning.
A sudden and an uncontrollable gleam of delight flashed
on the dark features of the captive, when Ruth was about
to place in his hands the bow of her own son, and, by signs
and words, she gave him to understand that he was to be
permitted to use it in the free air of the forest. But the
exhibition of pleasure disappeared as quickly as it had
been betrayed. When the lad received the weapons, it was
rather with the manner of a hunter accustomed, to then
use, than of one to whose hands they had so long been
strangers. As he left the gates of Wish-Ton-Wish, the
handmaidens of Ruth clustered about him, in wondering
interest ; for it was strange to see a youth so long guarded
with jealous care, again free and unwatched. Notwith-
standing their ordinary dependence on the secret lights
and great wisdom of the Puritan, there was a very gen-
eral impression that the lad, around whose presence there
was so much that was mysterious and of interest to their
own security, was now to be gazed upon for the last time.
The boy himself was unmoved to the last. Still he paused,
with his foot on the threshold of the dwelling, and appeared
to regard Ruth and her young offspring with momentary
concern. Then, assuming the calm air of an Indian warrior,
he suffered his eye to grow cold and vacant, following with
a nimble step the hunters who were already passing with-
out the palisadoes.
CHAPTER VIII.
"Well, I am your theme ; you have the start of me. I am dejected ;
I am not able to answer the Welsh flannel ; ignorance itself is a plummet
over me : use me as you will. " — Merry Wives of Windsor.
POETS, aided by the general longing of human nature,
have given a reputation to the spring that it rarely merits.
Though this imaginative class of writers have said so much
of its balmy airs and odoriferous gales, we find it nearly
everywhere the most reluctant, churlish, and fickle of the
four seasons. It is the youth of the year, and, like that
probationary period of life, most fitted to afford the promise
of better things. There is a constant struggle between
reality and hope throughout the whole of this slow-moving
94 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WJSPf.
and treacherous period, which has an unavoidable tendency
to deceive. All that is said of its grateful productions is
fallacious, for the earth is as little likely to yield a gen-
erous tribute without the quickening influence of the sum-
mer heats, as man is wont to bring forth commendable
fruits without the agency of a higher moral power than
any he possesses in virtue of his innate propensities. On
the other hand, the fall of the year possesses a sweetness,
a repose, and a consistency, which may be justly likened
to the decline of a well spent life. It is, in all countries
and in every climate, the period when physical and moral
causes unite to furnish the richest sources of enjoyment.
If the spring is the time of hope, autumn is the season of
fruition. There is just enough of change to give zest to
the current of existence, while there is too little of vicissi-
tude to be pregnant of disappointment. Succeeding to
the nakedness of winter, the spring is grateful by com-
parison ; while the glories of autumn are enjoyed after
the genial powers of summer have been lavishly expended.
In obedience to this great law of the earth, let poets
sing and fancy as they may, the spring and autumn of
America partake largely of the universally distinctive
characters of the rival seasons. What nature has done on
this continent has not been done niggardly ; and, while we
may boast of a decline of the year that certainly rivals, and,
with few exceptions, eclipses the glories of most of the
climates of the old world, the opening months rarely fail
of equalizing the gifts of Providence, by a very decided
exhibition of all the disagreeable qualities for which they
are remarkable.
More than half a year had elapsed, between the time
when the Indian boy had been found lurking in the valley
of the Heathcotes, and that day when he was first per-
mitted to go into the forest, fettered by no other restraint
than the moral tie which the owner of the valley either
knew, or fancied, would not fail to cause him to return
to a bondage he had found so irksome. It was April ; but
it was April as the month was known a century ago in
Connecticut, and as it is even now so often found to dis-
appoint all expectations of that capricious season of the
year. The weather had returned suddenly and violently
to the rigor of winter. A thaw had been succeeded by
a storm of snow and sleet, and the interlude of the spring-
time of blossoms had terminated with a biting gale from
the northwest, which had apparently placed a perma*
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH. 95
nent seal on the lingering presence of a second Febru.
ary.
On the morning that Content led his followers into the
forest, they issued from the postern clad in coats of skin.
Their lower limbs were protected by the coarse leggings
which they had worn in so many previous hunts during
the past winter, if that might be called past which had re-
turned, weakened but little of its keenness, and bearing
all the outward marks of January. When last seen,
Eben Dudley, the heaviest of the band, was moving firmly
on the crust of the snow, with a step as sure as if he had
trodden on the frozen earth itself. More than one of
the maidens declared, that though they had endeavored
to trace the footsteps of the hunters from the palisadoes,
it would have exceeded even the sagacity of an Indian eye
to follow their trail along the icy path they travelled.
Hour after hour passed without bringing tidings from
the chase. The reports of fire-arms had indeed been oc-
casionally heard, ringing among the arches of the woods ;
and broken echoes were, for some hours, rolling from one
recess of the hills to another. But even these signs of the
presence of the hunters gradually receded with the advance
of the day ; and, long ere the sun had gained the meridian,
and its warmth, at that advanced season not without power,
was shed into the valley, the whole range of the adjoining
forest lay in its ordinary dull and solemn silence.
The incident of the hunt, apart from the absence of the
Indian boy, was one of too common occurrence to give
birth to any particular motives of excitement. Ruth quietly
busied herself among herwomen, and when the recollection
of those who \vere scouring the neighboring forest came
at all to her mind, it was coupled with the care with which
she was providing to administer to their comforts, after the
fatigue of a day of extraordinary personal efforts. This
was a duty never lightly performed. Her situation was
one eminently fitted to foster the best affections of woman,
since it admitted of few temptations to yield to other than
the most natural feeling ; she was, in consequence, known
on all occasions to exercise them with the devotedness of
her sex.
" Thy father and his companions will look on our care
with pleasure," said the thoughtful matron to her youthful
image, as she directed a more than usual provision of her
larder to be got in readiness for the hunters ; " home is
ever sweetest after toil and exposure."
56 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH.
" I doubt if Mark be not ready to faint with so weary a
march," said the child already introduced by the name of
Martha ; " he is young to go into the woods, with scouters
tall as great Dudley."
"And the heathen," added the little Ruth, "he is young,
too, as Mark, though more used to the toil. It may be,'
mother, that he will never come to us more ! "
11 That would grieve our venerable parent ; for thou
knowest, Ruth, that he hath hopes of working on the mind
of the boy, until his savage nature shall yield to the secret
power. But the sun is falling behind the hill, and the
evening is coming in cool as winter ; go to the postern, and
look out upon the fields. I would know if there be any
signs of thy father and his party."
Though Ruth gave this mandate to her daughter, she did
not the less neglect to exercise her own faculties in the
same grateful office. While the children went, as they
were ordered, to the outer gate, the matron herself ascend-
ed to the lower apartment of the block, and, from its differ-
ent loops, she took a long and anxious survey of the limited
prospect. The shadows of the trees that lined the western
side of the view, were already thrown far across the broad
sheet of frozen show, and the sudden chill which succeeded
the disappearance of the sun announced the rapid approach
of a night that promised to support the severe character
of the past day. A freezing wind, which had brought with
it the cold airs of the great lakes, and which had even
triumphed over the more natural influence of an April
sun, had, however, fallen, leaving a temperature not unlike
that which dwells in the milder seasons of the year among
the glaciers of the upper Alps.
Ruth was too long accustomed to such forest scenes, and
to such a " lingering of winter in the lap of May," to feel,
on their account, any additional uneasiness. But the hour
had now arrived when she had reason to look for the re-
turn of the hunters. With the expectation of seeing their
forms issuing from the forest, came the anxiety which is an
unavoidable attendant of disappointment. The shadows
continued to deepen in the valley, until the gloom thick-
ened to the darkness of night, without bringing any tidings
from those without.
When a delay, which was unusual in the members of a
family circumstanced like that of the Wish-Ton-Wish, came
to be coupled with various little observations that had been
made during the day, it was thought that reasons for alarm
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH. 97
were beginning, at each instant, to grow more plausible.
Reports of fire-arms had been heard, at an early hour, from
opposite points in the hills, and in a manner too distinct to
be mistaken for echoes ;-a certain proof that the different
members of the hunt had separated in the forest. Under
such circumstances, it was not difficult for the imagination
of a wife and a mother, of a sister, or of her who secretly
confessed a still more tender interest in some one of the
hunters, to conjure to the imagination the numberless dan-
gers to which those who were engaged in these expeditions
were known to be exposed.
" I doubt that the chase hath drawn them further from
the valley than is fitting for the hour and the season," ob-
served Ruth to her maidens, who had gathered in a group
about her, at a point that overlooked as much of the
cleared land around the buildings as the darkness would
allow ; "the gravest man becomes thoughtless as the unre-
flecting child, when led by the eagerness of the pursuit. It
is the duty of older heads to think for those that want expe-
rience— but into what indiscreet complaints are my fears
leading ! It may be that my husband is even now striving
to collect his party, in order to return. Have any heard his
conch sounding the recall ?"
" The woods are still as the day the first echo of the axe
was heard among the trees," returned Faith. " I did hear
that which sounded like a strain of brawling Dudley's songs,
but it proved to be no more than the lowing of one of his
own oxen. Perchance the animal misseth some of his mas-
ter's care."
" Whittal Ring hath looked to the beasts, and it may not
be that he hath neglected to feed, among others, the creat-
ures of Dudley. Thy mind is given to levity, Faith, in the
matter of this young man. It is not seemly that one of thy
years and sex should manifest so great displeasure at the
name of a youth, who is of an honest nature, and of honest
habits, too, though he may appear ungainly to the eye, and
have so little favor with one of thy disposition."
" I did not fashion the man," said Faith, biting her lip,
and tossing her head ; " nor is it aught to me whether he
be gainly or not. As to my favor, when he asks it, the
man shall not wait long to know the answer. But is not
yon figure the fellow himself, Madame Heathcote ? — here,
coming in from the eastern hill, along the orchard path.
The form I mean is just here ; you may see it, at this mo-
ment, turning by the bend in the brook."
98 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON- WISH.
" There is one of a certainty, and it should be one of our
hunting party, too ; and yet he doth not seem to be of a
size or of a gait like that of Eben Dudley. Thou should'st
have a knowledge of thy kindred, girl ; to me it seeineth
thy brother."
" Truly, it may be Reuben Ring ; still it hath much of
the swagger of the other, though their stature be nearly
equal ; the manner of carrying the musket is much the
same with all the borderers too ; one cannot easily tell the
form of a man from a stump, by this light, and yet do I
think it will prove to be the loitering Dudley."
'• Loiterer or not, he is the first to return from this long
and weary chase," said Ruth, breathing heavily, like one
who regretted that the truth were so. " Go thou to the
postern, and admit him, girl. I ordered bolts to be drawn,
for I like not to leave a fortress defended by a female gar-
rison, at this hour, \vith open gates. I will hie to the
dwelling and see to the comforts of those who are a-hun-
gered, since it will not be long ere we shall have more of
them at hand."
Faith complied, with affected indifference and sufficient
delay. By the time she had reached the place of admis-
sion, a form was seen ascending the acclivity, and taking
the direction which led to the same spot. In the next
minute a rude effort to enter announced an arrival with-
out.
"Gently, Master Dudley," said the wilful girl, who held
the bolt with one hand, though she maliciously delayed to
remove it. " We know thou art powerful of arm, and yet
the palisadoes will scarcely fall at thy touch. Here are'no
Sampsons to pull down the pillars on our heads. Perhaps
we may not be disposed to give entrance to them who stay
abroad out of all season."
" Open the postern, girl," said Eben Dudley ; " after
which, if thou hast aught to say, we shall be better con-
venienced for discourse."
" It may be that thy conversation is most agreeable when
heard from without. Render an account of thy backslid-
ings, throughout this day, penitent Dudley, that I may
take pity on thy weariness. But lest hunger should have
overcome thy memory, I may serve to help thee to the
particulars. The first of thy offences was to consume more
than thy portion of the cold meats ; the second was to
suffer Reuben Ring to kill the deer, and for thee to claim
it ; and a third was a trick thou hast of listening so much
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-W1SH. 99
to thine own voice, that even the beasts fled thee, from dis-
like of thy noise."
"Thou triflest unseasonably, Faith; I would speak with
the captain without delay."
" It may be that he is better employed than to desire
such company. Thou art not the only strange animal by
many who hath roared at the gate of Wish-Ton-Wish."
" Have any come within the day, Faith ?" demanded the
borderer, with the interest such an event would be likely
to create in the mind of one who habitually lived in so
great retirement.
" What sayest thou to a second visit from the gentle-
spoken stranger? he who favored us with so much gay dis-
course, the by-gone fall of the year. That would be a
guest fit to receive ! I warrant me his knock would not be
heard a second time."
" The gallant had better beware the moon ! " exclaimed
Dudley, striking the butt of his musket against the ice with
so much force as to cause his companion to start in alarm,
" What fool's errand hath again brought him to prick his
nag so deep into the forest ?"
" Nay, thy wit is ever like the unbroken colt, a head-
strong run-away. I said not, in full meaning, that the man
had come ; I only invited tiiee to give an opinion in the
event that he should arrive unexpectedly, though I am
far from certain that any here ever expect to see his face
again."
" This is foolish prating," returned the youth, provoked
at the exhibition of jealousy into which he had been in-
cautiously betrayed. " I tell thee to withdraw the bolt,
for I have great need to speak with the captain, or with his
son."
" Thou may'st open thy mind to the first, if he will listen
to what thou hast to say," returned the girl, removing the
impediment to his entrance ; " but thou wilt sooner get the
ear of the other by remaining at the gate, since he has not
yet come in from the forest."
Dudley recoiled a pace, and repeated her words in the
tone of one who admitted a feeling of alarm to mingle with
his surprise.
"Not in from the forest!" he said; "surely there are
none abroad, now that I am home ! "
" Why dost say it ? I have put my jibe upon thee more
in payment of ancient transgressions than for any present
offence. So far from being last, thou art the first of the
loo THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH.
hunters we have yet seen. Go in to the Madam without
delay, and tell her of the danger, if any there be, that we"
take speedy measures for our safety."
" That would do little good, truly," muttered the borderer,
like one musing. " Stay thou here, and watch the postern,
Faith ; I will back to the woods ; for a timely word or a
signal blow from my conch might quicken their footsteps."
" What madness hath beset thee, Dudley ! Thou would'st
not go into the forest again, at this hour, and alone, if
there be reason for fear ! Come further within the gate,
man, that I may draw the bolt. The Madam will wonder
that we tarry here so long."
" Ha ! — I hear feet moving in the meadow ; I know it
by the creaking of the snow ; the others are not lagging."
Notwithstanding the apparent certainty of the young
man, instead of going forth to meet his friends, he with-
drew a step, and with his own hand drew the bolt that
Faith had just desired might be fastened ; taking care at
the same time to let fall a swinging bar' of wood, which
gave additional security to the fastenings of the postern.
His apprehensions, if any such had induced this caution,
were however unnecessary ; for ere he had time to make,
or even to reflect on any further movement, admission was
demanded in the well-known voice of the son of him who
owned the valley. The bustle of the arrival — for with Con-
tent entered a group of companions loaded with venison,
put an end to the dialogue. Faith seized the opportunity
to glide away in the obscurity, in order to announce to her
mistress that the hunters had returned — an office that she
performed without entering at all into the particulars of
her own interview with Eben Dudley.
It is needless to dwell on the satisfaction with which
Ruth received her husband and son, after the uneasiness
she had just suffered. Though the severe manners of the
province admitted of no violent exhibition of passing
emotions, secret joy was reigning in the mild eyes, and
glowing about the flushed cheeks of the discreet'' matron,
while she personally officiated in the offices of the evening
meal.
The party had returned, teeming with no extraordinary
incidents ; nor did they appear to be disturbed with any of
that seriousness of air which had so unequivocally charac-
terized the deportment of him who had preceded them.
On the contrary, each had his quiet tale to relate, now
perhaps at the expense of a luckless companion, and some.
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH. lot
times in order that no part of his own individual skill as a
hunter should be unknown. The delay was accounted for,
as similar delays are commonly explained, by distance and
the temptations of an unusually successful chase. As the
appetites of those who had spent the day in the exciting
toil were keen, and the viands tempting, the first half-hour
passed quickly, as all such half-hours are wont to pass, in
garrulous recitals of personal exploits, and of the hair-
breadth escapes of deer, which, had fortune not been
fickle, should have now been present as trophies of the
skill of the hand by which they fell. It was only after
personal vanity was sufficiently appeased, and when the
hunger even of a border-man could achieve no more, that
the hunters began to look about them with a diminished
excitement, and to discuss the events of the day with a
fitting calmness, and with a discretion more suited to
their ordinary self-command.
" We lost the sound of thy conch, wandering Dudley, as
we fell into the deep hollow of the mountain," said Con-
tent, in a pause of the discourse; " since which time,
neither eye nor ear of any has had trace of thy move-
ments, until we met thee at the postern, stationed like a
looker-out on his watch."
The individual addressed had mingled in none of the
gayety of the hour. While others fed freely, or joined in
the quiet joke, which could escape the lips of even men
chastened as his companions, Eben Dudley had tasted spar-
ingly of the viands. Nor had the muscles of his hard coun-
tenance once relaxed in a smile. A gravity and a silence
so extraordinary, in one so little accustomed to exhibit
either quality, did not fail to attract attention. It was uni-
versally ascribed to the circumstance that he had returned
empty-handed from the hunt ; and now that one having
authority had seen fit to give such a direction to the dis-
course, the imaginary delinquent was not permitted to es-
cape unscathed.
" The butcher had little to do with this day's killing,'*
said one of the young men ; " as a punishment for his ab-
sence from the slaughter, he should be made to go on the
hill and bring in the two bucks he will find hanging from
a maple sapling near to the drinking spring. Our meat
should pass through his hands in some fashion or other,
else will it lack savor."
" Ever since the death of the straggling wether, the trade
of Eben hath been at a stand," added another ; " the down-
ro2 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON- WISH.
hearted youth seems like one ready to give up his calling
to the first stranger that shall ask it."
" Creatures which run at large prove better mutton than
the stalled wether," continued a third ; " and thereby cus-
tom was getting low before this hunt. Beyond a doubt he
has a full supply for all who shall be likely to seek venison
in his stall."
Ruth observed the countenance of her husband grew
grave, at these allusions to an event he had always seemed
to wish forgotten ; and she interposed with a view to lead
the minds of those who listened, back to matter more fit-
ting to be discussed.
" How is this ? " she exclaimed in haste ; " hath the stout
Dudley lost any of his craft ? I have never counted with
greater certainty on the riches of the table, than when he
hath been sent among the hills for the fat deer or the ten-
der turkey. It would much grieve me to learn that he be-
ginneth to lack the hunter's skill."
" The man is getting melancholy with over-feeding,"
muttered the wilful tones of one busied among the vessels
in a distant part of the room. " He taketh his exercise
alone, in order that none need discover the failing. I think
he be much disposed to go over sea, in order to become a
trooper."
Until now, the subject of these mirthful attacks had lis-
tened like one too confident of his established reputation
to feel concern, but at the sound of the last speaker's voice,
he grasped the bushy covering of one entire cheek in his
hand, and turning a reproachful and irritated glance at the
already half-repentant eye of Faith Ring, all his natural
spirit returned.
"It maybe that my skill hath left me," he said, "and
that I love to be alone, rather than to be troubled with the
company of some that might readily be named, no reference
being had to such gallants as ride up and down the colony,
putting evil opinions into the thoughts of honest men's
daughters ; but why is Eben Dudley to bear all the small
shot of your humors, when there is another who, it might
seem, hath strayed even further from your trail than
he ? "
Eye sought eye, and each youth by hasty glances en-
deavored to read the countenances of all the rest of the
company, in order to learn wTho the absentee might be.
The young borderers shook their heads, as the features of
every well-known face were recognized, and a general ex-
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH. 103
clamation of denial was about to break trom their lips,
when Ruth exclaimed —
" Truly, the Indian is wanting ! "
So constant was the apprehension of danger from the
savages, in the breasts of those who dwelt on that exposed
frontier, that every man arose at the words, by a sudden
and common impulse, and each individual gazed about him
in a surprise that was a little akin to dismay.
"The boy was with us when we quitted the forest," said
Content, after a moment of death-like stillness. " I spoke
to him in commendation of his activity, and of the knowl-
edge he had shown in beating up the secret places of the
deer ; though there is little reason to think my words were
understood."
" And were it not sinful to take such solemn evidence in
behalf of so light a matter, I could be qualified on the Book
itself, that he was at my elbow as we entered the orchard,"
added Reuben Ring, a man renowned in that little commu-
nity for the accuracy of his vision.
"And I will make oath or declaration of any sort, lawful
or conscientious, that he came not within the postern when
it was opened by my own hand," returned Eben Dudley.
" I told off the number of the party as you passed, and
right sure am I that no red-skin entered."
" Canst thou tell us aught of the lad ? " demanded Ruth,
quick to take the alarm on a subject that had so long exer-
cised her care, and given food to her imagination.
" Nothing. With me he hath not been seen since the
turn of the day. I have not seen the face of living man
from that moment, unless in truth one of mysterious char-
acter, whom I met in the forest, may be so called."
The manner in which the woodsman spoke was too seri-
ous and too natural, not to give birth in his auditors to
some of his own gravity. Perhaps the appearance of the
Puritan, at that moment, aided in quieting the levity that
had been uppermost in the minds of the young men ; for
it is certain that, when he entered, a deeper and a general
curiosity came over the countenances of all present. Con-
tent waited a moment in respectful silence, till his father
had moved slowly through the circle, and then he prepared
himself to look further into an affair that began to assume
the appearance of matter worthy of investigation.
104 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH.
CHAPTER IX.
" Last night of all,
When yon same star, that's westward from the pole,
Had made its course to illume that part of heaven
Where now it burns, Marcellus, and myself,
The bell then beating one "
" Peace, break thee off ; look where it comes again."
— Hamlet.
IT is our duty as faithful historians of the events re-
corded in this homely legend, to conceal no circumstance
which may throw the necessary degree of light on its inci-
dents, nor any opinion that may serve for the better instruc-
tion of the reader in the characters of its actors. In order
that this obligation may be discharged with sufficient
clearness and precision, it has now become necessary to
make a short digression from the immediate action of the
tale.
Enough has been already shown, to prove that the
Heathcotes lived at a time, and in a country, where
very quaint and peculiar religious dogmas had the ascen-
dency. At a period when visible manifestations of the
goodness of Providence, not only in spiritual but in tem-
poral gifts, were confidently expected and openly pro-
claimed, it is not at all surprising that more evil agencies
should be thought to exercise their power in a manner
that is somewhat opposed to the experience of our own
age. As we have no wish, however, to make these pages
the vehicle of a theological or metaphysical controversy,
we shall deal tenderly with certain important events, that
most of the writers who were contemporary with the facts,
assert took place in the colonies of New England, at and
about the period of which we are now writing. It is suf-
ficiently known that the art of witchcraft, and one even
still more diabolical and direct in its origin, were then be-
lieved to flourish in that quarter of the world, to a degree
that was probably in a very just proportion to the neglect
with which most of the other arts of life were treated."
There is so much grave and respectable authority to
prove the existence of these evil influences, that it re-
quires a pen hardier than any we wield, to attack them
without a suitable motive. " Flashy people," says the
learned and pious Cotton Mather, Doctor of Divinity and
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH. 10$
Fellow of the Royal Society, "may burlesque these
things ; but when hundreds of the most sober people, in
a country where they have as much mother wit, certainly,
as the rest of mankind, know them to be true, nothing but
the absurd and froward spirit of Sadducism can question
them." Against this grave and credited authority,, we
pretend to raise no question of scepticism. We submit to
the testimony of such a writer as conclusive, though as
credulity is sometimes found to be bounded by geographi-
cal limits, and to possess something of a national charac-
ter, it may be prudent to refer certain readers who dwell in
the other hemisphere to the common law of England on
this interesting subject, as it is ingeniously expounded by
Keeble, and approved of by the twelve judges of that
highly civilized and enlightened island. With this brief
reference to so grave authorities in support of what we
have now to offer, we shall return to the matter of the nar-
rative, fully trusting that its incidents will throw some addi-
tional light on the subject of so deep and so general con-
cern.
Content waited respectfully until his father had taken
his seat, and then perceiving that the venerable Puritan
had no immediate intention of moving personally in the
affair, he commenced the examination of his dependent
as follows ; opening the matter with a seriousness that was
abundantly warranted by the gravity of the subject itself.
"Thou hast spoken of one met in the forest," he said ;
" proceed with the purport of that interview, and tell us of
what manner of man it was."
Thus directly interrogated, Eben Dudley disposed him-
self to give a full and satisfactory answer. First casting a
glance around, so as to embrace every curious and eager
countenance, and letting his look rest a little longer than
common on a half-interested, half-incredulous, and some-
what ironical dark eye, that was riveted on his own from a
distant corner of the room, he commenced his statement as
follows :
" It is known to you all," said the borderer, " that when
we had gained the mountain-top there was a division of our
numbers, in such a fashion that each hunter should sweep
his own range of the forest, in order that neither moose,
deer, nor bear, might have reasonable chance of escape.
Being of large frame, and it may be of swifter foot than
common, the young captain saw fit to command Reuben
Ring to flank one end of the line, and a man, who is nothing
io6 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH.
short of him in either speed or strength, to do the same
duty on the other. There was nothing particularly worthy
of mention that took place on the flank I held for the first
two hours ; unless indeed the fact, that three several times
did I fall upon a maze of well-beaten deer-tracks, that *u
often led to nothing "
fl These are signs common to the woods, and ther are no
more than so many proofs that the animal has lU opoits,
like any other playful creature, when not pressed c_y huiiger
or by danger," quietly observed Content.
" I pretend not to take those deceitful tracks vnisch into
the account," resumed Dudley; "but shortly aKer losing
the sound of the conchs, I roused a noble buck from his
lair beneath a thicket of hemlocks, and having the game in
view, the chase led me wide-off toward the wilderness, it
may have been the distance of two leagues."
"And in all that time had you no fitting moment to
strike the beast ? "
" None whatever ; nor, if opportunity had besn given,
am I bold to say that hand of mine would have bi,en hardy
enough to aim at its life."
"Was there aught in the deer that a hunter should seek
to spare it ?"
" There was that in the deer, that might bring a Christian
man to much serious reflection."
" Deal more openly with the nature and appearance of
the animal," said Content, a little less tranquil than usual;
while the youths and maidens placed themselves in atti-
tudes still more strongly denoting attention.
Dudley pondered an instant, and then he commenced a
less equivocal enumeration of what he conceived to be the
marvels of his tale.
" Firstly," he said, " there was no trail, neither to nor
from the spot where the creature had made its lair ; sec-
ondly, when roused, it took not the alarm, but leaped
sportingly ahead, taking sufficient care to be beyond the
range of musket, without ever becoming hid from the eye ;
and lastly, its manner of disappearance was as worthy of
mention as any other of its movements."
" And in what manner didst thou lose the creature ? "
" I had gotten it upon the crest of a hillock, where true
eye and steady hand might make sure of a buck of much
smaller size, when — did'st hear aught that might be ac-
counted wonderful, at a season of the year when the snows
are still lying on the earth ? "
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH. 107
The auditors regarded one another curiously, each ep-
deavoring to recall some unwonted sound which might sus-
tain a narrative that was fast obtaining the seducing inter-
est of the marvellous.
"Wast sure, Charity, that the howl we heard from the
forest was the yell of the beaten hound ?" demanded a hand-
maiden of Ruth, of a blue-eyed companion, who seemed
equally well disposed to contribute her share of evidence
in support of any exciting legend.
" It might have been other," was the answer ; " though
the hunters do speak of their having beaten the pup for
restiveness."
" There was a tumult among the echoes that sounded
like the noises which follow the uproar of a falling tree,"
said Ruth, thoughtfully. " I remember to have asked if it
might not be that some fierce beast had caused a general
discharge of the musketry, but my father was of opinion
that death had undermined some heavy oak."
"At what hour might this have happened ?"
"It was past the turn of the day ; for it was at the mo-
ment I bethought me of the hunger of those who had toiled
since light in the hills."
" That then was the sound I mean. It came not from
falling tree, but was uttered in the air, far above all for-
ests. -. Had it been heard by one better skilled in the se-
crets of nature "
" He would say it thundered," interrupted Faith Ring,
who, unlike most of the other listeners, manifested little of
the quality which was expressed by her name. " Truly,
Eben Dudley hath done marvels in this hunt ; he hath come
in with a thunderbolt in his head, instead of a fat buck on
his shoulders ! "
" Speak reverently, girl, of that thou dost not compre-
hend," said Mark Heathcote, with stern authority. " Mar-
vels are manifested equally to the ignorant and to the
learned ; and although vain-minded pretenders to philoso-
phy affirm that the warring of the elements is no more than
nature working out its own purification, yet do we know,
from all ancient authorities, that other manifestations are
therein exhibited. Satan may have control over the maga-
zines of the air ; he can 'let off the ordnance of Heaven.'
That 'the Prince of the Powers of Darkness' hath as good
a share in chemistry as goes to the making of aurum
fulminans, is asserted by one of the wisest writers of out
age."
io8 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH.
From this declaration, and more particularly from the
learning discovered in the Puritan's speech, there was no
one so hardy as to dissent. Faith was glad to shrink back
among the bevy of awe-struck maidens, while Content, after
a sufficiently respectful pause, invited the woodsman, who
was yet teeming with the most important part of his com-
munication, to proceed.
"While my eye was searching for the lightning which
should in reason have attended that thunder, had it been
uttered in the manner of nature, the buck had vanished ;
and when I rushed upon the hillock, in order to keep the
game in view, a man mounting its opposite side came so
suddenly upon me, that our muskets were at each other's
breasts before either had time for speech."
"What manner of man was he ? "
" So far as human judgment might determine, he seemed
a traveller, who was endeavoring to push through the wil-
derness, from the towns below to the distant settlements of
the Bay Province ; but I account it exceedingly wonderful
that the trail of a leaping buck should have brought us
together in so unwonted a manner ! "
" And didst thou see aught of the deer, after that encoun-
ter?"
" In the first hurry of the surprise, it did certainly appear
as if an animal were bounding along the wood into a distant
thicket ; but it is known how readily one may be led by
seeming probabilities into a false conclusion, and so I
account that glimpse a delusion. No doubt the animal
having done that which it was commissioned to perform, did
then and there disappear, in the manner I have named."
" It might have been thus. And the stranger — had you
discourse with him before parting ? "
"We tarried together a short hour. He related much
marvellous matter of the experiences of the people near
the sea. According to the testimony of the stranger, the
Powers of Darkness have been manifested in the provinces
in a hideous fashion. Numberless of the believers have
been persecuted by the invisibles, and greatly have they
endured suffering, both in soul and body."
" Of all this have I witnessed surprising instances in my
day," said Mark Heathcote, breaking the awful stillness
that succeeded the annunciation of so heavy a visitation
on the peace of the colony, with his deep-toned and im-
posing voice. " Did he with whom you conferred, enter
Into the particulars of the trials ? "
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH. 109
" He spoke also of certain other signs that are thought
to foretell the coming of trouble. When I named the
weary chase that i had made, and the sound which came
from the air, he said that these would be accounted trifles
in the towns of the Bay, where the thunder and its light-
nings had done much evil work the past season, Satan hav-
ing especially shown his spite by causing them to do in-
jury to the houses of the Lord."
''There has long been reason to think that the pilgrim-
age of the righteous into these wilds, will be visited by
some fierce opposition of those envious natures, which, fos-
tering evil themselves, cannot brook to look upon the toil-
ing of such as strive to keep the narrow path. We will
now resort to the only weapon it is permitted us to wield
in this controversy, but which, when handled with diligence
and zeal, never fails to lead to victory."
So saying, without waiting to hear more of the tale of
Eben Dudley, old Mark Heathcote arose, and assuming
the upright attitude usual among the people of his sect, he
addressed himself to prayer. The grave and awe-struck
but deeply confiding congregation imitated his example,
and the lips of the Puritan had parted in the act of utter-
ance, when a low, faltering note, like that produced by a
wind instrument, rose on the outer air, and penetrated to
the place where the family was assembled. A conch was
suspended at the postern, in readiness to be used by any of
the family whom accident or occupation should detain be-
yond the usual hour of closing the gates ; and both by the
direction and nature of this interruption, it would seem
that an applicant for admission stood at the portal. The
effect on the auditors was general and instantaneous. Not-
withstanding the recent dialogue, the young men involun-
tarily sought their arms, while the startled females hud-
dled together like a flock of trembling and timid deer.
"There is, of a certainty, a signal from without! " Con-
tent at length observed, after waiting to suffer the sounds
to die away among the angles of the buildings. " Some
hunter who hath strayed from his path, claimeth hospital-
ity."
Eben Dudley shook his head like one who dissented ; but,
having with all the other youths grasped his musket, he
stood as undetermined as the rest concerning the course it
was proper to pursue. It is uncertain how long this inde-
cision might have continued, had no further summons
been given ; but he without appeared too impatient of de-
no THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH.
lay to suffer much time to be lost. The conch sounded
again, and with far better success than before. The blast
was longer, louder, and bolder, than that which had first
pierced the walls of the dwelling, rising full and rich on
the air, as though one well practised in the use of the in-
strument had placed lips to the shell.
Content would scarcely have presumed to disobey a
mandate coming from his father, had it been little in con-
formity with his own intentions. But second thoughts had
already shown him the necessity of decision, and he was in
the act of motioning to Dudley and Reuben Ring to fol-
low, when the Puritan bade him look to the matter. Mak-
ing a sign for the rest of the family to remain where they
were, and arming himself with a musket which had more
than once that day been proved to be of certain aim, he
led the way to the postern which has already been so of-
ten mentioned.
" Who sounds at my gate ? " demanded Content, when
he and his followers had gained a position, under cover of
a low earthen mound erected expressly for the purpose of
commanding the entrance ; " who summons a peaceful
family, at this hour of the night, to their outer defences ? "
" One who hath need of what he asketh, or he would
not disturb thy quiet," was the answer. " Open the pos-
tern, Master Heathcote, without fear ; it is a brother in
the faith, and a subject of the same laws, that asketh the
boon."
" Here is truly a Christian man without," said Content,
hurrying to the postern, which, without a moment's delay,
he threw freely open, saying as he did so, "enter of
Heaven's mercy, and be welcome to that we have to be-
stow."
A tall, and, by his tread, a heavy man, wrapped in a
riding cloak, bpwed to the greeting, and immediately
passed beneath the low lintel. Every eye was keenly fast-
ened on the stranger, who, after ascending the acclivity a
short distance, paused, while the young men, under their
master's orders, carefully and scrupulously renewed the
fastenings of the gate. When bolts and bars had done
their office, Content joined his guest ; and after making
another fruitless effort, by the feeble light which fell from
the stars, to scan his person, he said, iii his own meek and
quiet manner —
" Thou must have great need of warmth and nourish-
ment. The distance from this valley to the nearest habita-
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH. in
tion is wearisome, and one who hath journeyed it, in a sea-
son like this, may well be nigh fainting. Follow, and deal
with that we have to bestow as fieely as if it were thine
own."
Although the stranger manifested none of that impa-
tience which the heir of the Wish-Ton-Wish appeared to
think one so situated might in all reason feel, thus invited
he did not hesitate to comply. As he followed in the foot-
steps of his host, his tread, however, was leisurely and dig-
nified ; and, once or twice, when the other half delayed in
order to make some passing observation of courtesy, he
betrayed no indiscreet anxiety to enter on those personal
indulgences which might in reality prove so grateful to
one who had journeyed far in an inclement season, and
along a road where neither dwelling nor security invited
repose.
" Here is warmth and a peaceful welcome," pursued
Content, ushering his guest into the centre of a group of
fearfully anxious faces. " In a little time, other matters
shall be added to thy comfort."
When the stranger found himself under the glare of a
powerful light, and confronted to so many curious and
wondering eyes, for a single instant he hesitated. Then
stepping calmly forward, he cast the short riding-cloak,
which had closely muffled his features, from his shoulders,
and discovered the severe eye, the stern lineaments, and
the athletic form of him who had once before been known
to enter the doors of Wish-Ton-Wish with little warning,
and to have quitted them so mysteriously.
The Puritan had arisen, with quiet and grave courtesy,
to receive his visitor ; but obvious, powerful, and extraor-
dinary interest gleamed about his usually subdued visage,
when, as the features of the other were exposed to view,
he recognized the person of the man who advanced to meet
him.
"Mark Heathcote," said the stranger, " my visit is to
thee. It may, or it may not, prove longer than the last, as
thou shalt receive my tidings. Affairs of the last moment
demand that there should be little delay in hearing that
which I have to offer."
Notwithstanding the excess and nature of the surprise
which the veteran Mark had certainly betrayed, it endured
just long enough to allow those wondering eyes, which
were eagerly devouring all that passed, to note its exist-
ence. Then, the subdued and characteristic manner which
JIV THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH.
in general marked his air, instantly returned, and with $
quiet gesture, like that which friends use in moments of
confidence and security, he beckoned to the other to follow
to an inner room. The stranger complied, making a slight
bow of recognition to Ruth, as he passed her on the way
to the apartment chosen for an interview that was evi-
dently intended to be private.
CHAPTER X.
"Mar. Shall I strike at it with my partisan?
Hor. Do, if it will not stand.
Mar. 'Tis here !
Hor. 'Tis here!
Mar. 'Tis gone ! " — Hamlet.
THE time that this unexpected visitor stood uncloaked
ard exposed to recognition, before the eyes of the curious
§roup in the outer room, did not much exceed a minute,
till it was long enough to allow men who rarely over-
looked the smallest peculiarity of dress or air, to note
some of the more distinguishing accompaniments of his
attire. The heavy horseman's pistols, once before exhib-
ited, were in his girdle, and young Mark got a glimpse of
a silver-handled dagger which had pleased his eye before
that night. But the passage of his grandfather and the
stranger from the room prevented the boy from deter-
mining whether it was entirely of the same fashion as that,
which, rather as a memorial of by-gone scenes than for any
service that it might now be expected to perform, hung
above the bed of the former.
"The man hath not yet parted with his arms!" ex-
claimed the quick-sighted youth, when he found that
every other tongue continued silent. " I would he may
now leave them with my grand'ther, that I may chase the
skulking Wampanoag to his hiding "
" Hot-headed boy ! Thy tongue • is too much given to
levity," said Ruth, who had not only resumed her seat, but
also the light employment that had been interrupted by
the blast at the gate, with a calmness of mien that did not
fail in some degree to reassure her maidens. *• Instead
of cherishing the lessons of peace that are taught thee,
thy unruly thoughts are ever bent on strife."
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-IVISH. \ ,3
" Is there harm in wishing to be armed w & a.
suited to my years, that I may do service in heating down
the power of our enemies ; and perhaps aid something,
too, in affording security to my mother? "
" Thy mother hath no fears," returned the matron,
gravely, while grateful affection prompted a kind but fur-
tive glance toward the high-spirited though sometimes
froward lad. " Reason hath already taught me the folly
of alarm, because one has knocked at our gate in the
night-season. Lay aside thy arms, men ; you see that my
husband no longer clings to the musket. Be certain that
his eye will give us warning when there shall be danger
at hand."
The unconcern of her husband was even more strikingly
true than the simple language of his wife would appear to
convey. Content had not only laid aside his weapon, but
he had resumed his seat near the fire, with an air as calm,
as assured, and it might have seemed to one watchfully
observant, as understanding, as her own. Until now, the
stout Dudley had remained leaning on his piece, immova-
ble and apparently unconscious as a statue. But, follow-
ing the injunctions of one he was accustomed to obey, he
placed the musket against the wall, with the care of a
hunter, and then running a hand through his shaggy
locks, as though the action might quicken ideas that were
never remarkably active, he bluntly exclaimed —
" An armed hand is well in these forests, but an armed
heel is not less wanting to him who would push a roadster
from the Connecticut to the Wish-Ton-Wish, between a
rising and a setting sun ! The stranger no longer journeys
in the saddle, as is plain by the sign that his boot beareth
no spur. When he worried, by dint of hard pricking, the
miserable hack that proved food for the wolves, through
the forest, he had better appointments. I saw the bones
of the animal no later than this day. They have been pol-
ished by fowls and frost, till the driven snow of the moun-
tains is not whiter!"
Meaning and uneasy, but hasty glances of the eye were
exchanged between Content and Ruth, as Eben Dudley
thus uttered the thoughts which had been suggested by
the unexpected return of the stranger.
" Go you to the look-out at the western palisadoes,"
said the latter ; "and see if perchance the Indian may not
be lurking near the dwellings, ashamed of his delay, and
perchance fearful of calling us to his admission. I cannot
ti4 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH.
think that the child means to desert us, with no sign of
kindness, and without leave-taking."
" I will not take upon me to say, how much or how
little of ceremony the youngster may fancy to be due to
the master of the valley and his kin ; but if not gone al-
ready, the snow will not melt more quietly in the thaw,
than the lad will one day disappear. Reuben Ring, thou
hast an eye for light or darkness ; come forth with me,
that no sign escape us. Should thy sister, Faith, make
one of our party, it would not be easy for the red-skin to
pass the clearing without a hail."
"Go to," hurriedly answered the female; "it is more
womanly that I tarry to see to the wants of him who hath
journeyed far and hard, since the rising of the sun. If
the boy pass thy vigilance, wakeful Dudley, he will have
little cause to fear that of others."
Though Faith so decidedly declined to make one of the
party, her brother complied without reluctance. The
young men were about to quit the place together, when
the latch, on which the hand of Dudley was already laid,
rose quietly without aid from his finger, the door opened,
and the object of their intended search glided past them,
and took his customary position in one of the more re-
tired corners of the room. There was so much of the
ordinary noiseless manner of the young captive in this en-
trance, that for a moment they who witnessed the passage
of his dark form across the apartment, were led to think
the movement no more than the visit he was always per-
mitted to make at that hour. But recollection soon came,
and with it not only the suspicious circumstance of his
disappearance, but the inexplicable manner of his admis-
sion within the gates.
" The pickets must be looked to ! " exclaimed Dudley,
the instant a second look assured him that his eyes in
truth beheld him who had been missing. " The place that
a stripling can scale might well admit a host."
" Truly," said Content, " this needeth explanation.
Hath not the boy entered when the gate was opened
for the stranger ? Here cometh one that may speak to the
fact ! "
"It is so," said the individual named, who re-entered
from the inner room in season to hear the nature of the
remark. " I found this native child near thy gate, and
took upon me the office of a Christian man to bid him
welcome. Certain am I, that one, kind of heart and gently
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH. 115
disposed, like the mistress of this family, will not turn him
away in anger."
" He is no stranger at our fire, or at our board," said
Ruth ; " had it been otherwise thou wouldst have done
well."
Eben Dudley looked incredulous. His mind had been
powerfully exercised that day with visions of the marvel-
lous, and of a certainty, there was some reason to distrust
the manner in which the re-appearance of the youth had
been made.
" It will be well to look to the fastenings," he muttered,
"lest others, less easy to dispose of, should follow. Now
that invisible agencies are at work in the Colony one may
not sleep too soundly \ "
" Then go thou to the look-out, and keep the watch, till
the clock shall strike the hour of midnight," said the
Puritan, who uttered the command in a manner to show
that he was in truth moved by considerations far deeper
than the vague apprehensions of his dependent. " Ere
sleep overcome thee another shall be ready for the re-
lief."
Mark Heathcote seldom spoke, but respectful silence
permitted the lowest of his syllables to be audible. On
the present occasion, when his voice was first heard, such
a stillness came over all in presence, that he finished the
sentence amid the nearly imperceptible breathings of the
listeners. In this momentary but death-like quiet, there
arose a blast from the conch at the gate, that might have
seemed an echo of that which had so lately startled the
already-excited inmates of the dwelling. At the repetition
of sounds so unwonted all sprang to their feet, but no one
spoke. Content cast a hurried and inquiring glance at his
father, who in his turn had anxiously sought the eye of
the stranger. The latter stood firm and unmoved. One
hand was clenched upon the back of the chair from which
he had arisen, and the other grasped, perhaps uncon-
sciously, the handle of one of those weapons which had at-
tracted the attention of young Mark, and which still
continued thrust through the broad leathern belt that
girded his doublet.
"The sound is like that which one little used to deal
with earthly instruments might raise ! " muttered one of
those whose minds had been prepared, by the narrative of
Dudley, to believe in anything marvellous.
" Come from what quarter it may, it is a summons that
Ii6 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH.
must be answered," returned Content. " Dudley, thy mus-
ket ; this visit is so unwonted, that more than one hand
should do the office of porter."
The borderer instantly complied, muttering between his
teeth as he shook the priming deeper into the barrel of his
piece, " Your over-sea gallants are quick on the trail to-
night ! " Then throwing the musket into the hollow of his
arm, he cast a look of discontent and resentment to-
ward Faith Ring, and was about to open the door for the
passage of Content, when another blast arose on the silence
without. The second touch of the shell was firmer, longer,
louder, and more true, than that by which it had just been
preceded.
"One might fancy the conch was speaking in mockery,"
observed Content, looking with meaning towards their
guest. " Never did sound more resemble sound than these
we have just heard, and those thou drew from the shell
when asking admission."
A sudden light appeared to break in upon the intelli-
gence of the stranger. Advancing more into the circle,
rather with the freedom of long familiarity than with the
diffidence of a newly-arrived guest, he motioned for silence
as he said —
" Let none move, but this stout woodsman, the young
captain, and myself. We will go forth, and doubt not that
the safety of those within shall be regarded."
Notwithstanding the singularity of this proposal, as it
appeared to excite neither surprise nor opposition in the
Puritan or his son, the rest of the family offered no ob-
jection. The stranger had no sooner spoken, than he
advanced near to the torch, and looked closely into the
condition of his pistols. Then turning to old Mark, he
continued in an undertone —
" Peradventure there will be more worldly strife than
any which can flow from the agencies that stir up the un-
quiet spirits of the colonies. In such an extremity, it may
be well to observe a soldier's caution."
" I like not this mockery of sound," returned the Puri-
tan ; "it argueth a taunting and fiend-like temper. We
have, of late, had in this colony tragical instances of what
the disappointed malice of Azazel can attempt ; and it
would be vain to hope that the evil agencies are not vexed
with the sight of my Bethel."
Though the stranger listened to the words of his host
with respect, it was plain that his thoughts dwelt on dan'
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON- WISH. 117
gers of a different character. The member that still rested
on the handle of his weapon, was clenched with greater
firmness ; and a grim, though a melancholy expression was
seated about a mouth, that was compressed in a manner to
denote the physical, rather than the spiritual resolution of
the man. He made a sign to the two companions he had
chosen, and led the way to the court.
By this time, the shades of night had materially thick-
ened, and, although the hour was still early, a darkness
had come over the valley that rendered it difficult to dis-
tinguish objects at any distance from the eye. The ob-
scurity made it necessary that they who now issued from the
door of the dwelling, should advance with caution, lest, ere
roperly admonished of its presence, their persons should
e exposed to some lurking danger. When the three,
however, were safely established behind the thick curtain
of plank and earth that covered and commanded the en-
trance, and where their persons, from the shoulders down-
ward, were completely protected alike from shot and ar-
row, Content demanded to know, who applied at his gates
for admission at an hour when they were habitually closed
for the night. Instead of receiving, as before, a ready
answer, the silence was so profound, that his own words
were very distinctly heard repeated, as was not uncommon
at that quiet hour, among the recesses of the neighboring
woods.
" Come it from Devil, or come it from man, here is
treachery ! " whispered the stranger after a fitting pause.
"Artifice must be met by artifice ; but thou art much abler
to advise against the wiles of the forest, than one trained,
as I have been, in the less cunning deceptions of Christian
warfare."
"What think'st, Dudley ? " asked Content—" Will it be
well to sally, or shall we wait another signal from the
conch ? "
" Much dependeth on the quality of the guests expected,"
returned he of whom counsel was asked. "As for the
braggart gallants, that are over-valiant among the maidens,
and heavy of heart when they think the screech of the jay
an Indian whoop, I care not if ye beat the pickets to the
earth, and call upon them to enter on the gallop. I know
the manner to send them to the upper story of the block,
quicker than the cluck of the turkey can muster its young ;
but "
" 'Tis well to be discreet in language, in a moment of
n8 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON- WISH.
such serious uncertainty ! " interrupted the stranger. " We
look for no gallants of the kind."
" Then will I give you a conceit that shall know the
reason of the music of yon conch. Go ye two back into
the house, making much conversation by the way, in order
that any without may hear. When ye have entered, it
shall be my task to find such a post nigh the gate, that
none shall knock again, and no porter be at hand to ques-
tion them in the matter of their errand."
"This soundeth better," said Content ; "and that it may
be done with all safety, some others of the young men,
who are accustomed to this species of artifice, shall issue
by the secret door and lie in wait behind the dwellings, in
order that support shall not be wanting in case of violence.
Whatever else thou dost, Dudley, remember that thou dost
not undo the fastenings of the postern."
" Look to the support," returned the woodsman ; " should
it be keen-eyed Reuben Ring, I shall feel- none the less
certain that good aid is at my back. The whole of that
family are quick of wit and ready of invention, unless it
may be the wight who hath got the form without the rea-
son of a man."
"Thou shalt have Reuben, and none other of his kin,"
said Content. " Be well advised of the fastenings, and so
I wish thee all fitting success, in a deception that cannot
be sinful, since it aims only at our safety."
With this injunction, Content and the stranger left Dud-
ley to the practice of his own devices, the former observing
the precaution to speak aloud while returning, in order
that any listeners without might be led to suppose the
whole party had retired from the search, satisfied of its
fruitlessness.
In the meantime^ the youth left nigh the postern set
about the accomplishment of the task he had undertaken,
in sober earnest. Instead of descending in a direct line to
the palisadoes, he also ascended, and made a circuit among
the out-buildings on the margin of the acclivity. Then
bending so low as to blend his form with objects on the
snow, he gained an angle of the palisadoes, at a point re-
mote from the spot he intended to watch, and, as he hoped,
aided by the darkness of the hour and the shadows of the
hill, completely protected from observation. When be-
neath the palisadoes, the sentinel crouched to the earth,
creeping with extreme caution along the timber which
bound their lower ends, until he found himself arrived at
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH. 1 19
a species of sentry-box, that was erected for the very pur-
pose to which he now intended it should be applied. Once
within the cover of this little recess, the sturdy woodsman
bestowed his large frame with as much attention to com-
fort and security as the circumstances would permit. Here
he prepared to pass many weary minutes, before there
should be further need of his services.
The reader will find no difficulty in believing that one
of opinions like those of the borderer, did not enter on
his silent watch without much distrust of the character
of the guests that he might be called upon to receive.
Enough has been shown to prove that the suspicion up-
permost in his mind was, that the unwelcome agents of the
government had returned on the heels of- the stranger.
But, notwithstanding the seeming probability of this
opinion, there were secret misgivings of the earthly origin
of the two last windings of the shell. All the legends,
and all the most credited evidence in cases of prestigious
agency, as it had been exhibited in the colonies of New
England, went to show the malignant pleasure the Evil
Spirits found, in indulging their wicked mockeries, or in
otherwise tormenting those who placed their support on a
faith that was believed to be so repugnant to their own
ungrateful and abandoned natures. Under the impressions
naturally excited by the communication he had held with
the traveller in the mountains, Eben Dudley found his
mind equally divided between the expectation of seeing,
at each moment, one of the men wrhom he had induced to
quit the valley so unceremoniously, returning to obtain
surreptitiously admission within the gate, or of being made
an unwilling witness of some wicked manifestation of that
power which was temporarily committed to the invisibles.
In both of these expectations, however, he was fated to be
disappointed. Notwithstanding the strong spiritual bias
of the opinions of the credulous sentinel, there was too
much of the dross of temporal things in his composition
to elevate him altogether above the weakness of humanity.
A mind so encumbered began to weary with its own con-
templations ; and, as it grew feeble with its extraordinary
efforts, the dominion of matter gradually resumed its
sway. Thought, instead of being clear and active, as the
emergency would have seemed to require, began to grow
misty. Once or twice the borderer half arose, and ap-
peared to look about him with observation ; and then as
his large frame fell heavily back into its former semi-re-
T2o THE WEPT OF WISH-TON- WISH.
cumbent attitude, he grew tranquil and stationary. This
movement was several times repeated, at intervals of in-
creasing length, till, at. the end of an hour, forgetting alike
the hunt, the troopers, and the mysterious agents of evil,
the young man .yielded to the fatigue of the day. The tall
oaks of the adjoining forest stood not more immovable in
the quiet of the tranquil hour, than his frame now leaned
against the side of its narrow habitation. '
How much time was thus lost in inactivity, Eben Dudley
could never precisely tell. He always stoutly maintained it
could not have been long, since his watch was not disturbed
by the smallest of those sounds from the woods, which
sometimes occur in deep night, and which may be termed
the breathing of the forest in its slumbers. His first distinct
recollection, was that of feeling a hand grasped with the
power of a giant. Springing to his feet, the young man
eagerly stretched forth an arm, saying as he did so, in words
sufficiently confused —
" If the buck hath fallen by a shot in the head, I grant
him to be thine, Reuben Ring ; but if struck in limb or
body, I claim the venison for a surer hand."
" Truly, a very just division of the spoil," returned one in
an undertone, and speaking as if sounds too loud might be
dangerous. " Thou givest the head of the deer for a target
to Reuben Ring, and keepest the rest of the creature to
thine own uses."
"Who hath sent thee, at this hour, to the postern ? Dost
not know that there are thought to be strangers outlying
in the fields?"
" I know that there are some, who are not strangers, in-
lying: on their watch ! " said Faith Ring. " What shame
would come upon thee, Dudley, did the captain, and they
who have been so strongly exercised in prayer within,
but suspect how little care thou hast had of their safety, the
while ! "
" Have they come to harm ! If the captain hath held
them to spiritual movements, I hope that he will allow that
nothing earthly hath passed this postern to disturb the ex-
ercise. As I hope to be dealt honestly by, in all matters of
character, I have not once quitted the gate since the watch
was set."
" Else would'st thou be the famousest sleep-walker in
the Connecticut Colony ! Why, drowsy one, conch cannot
raise a louder blast than that thou soundest, when eyes are
fairly shut in sleep. This may be watching, according to thy
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH. 121
meaning of the word ; but infant in its cradle is not half
so ignorant of that which passeth around it, as thou hast
been."
u I think, Faith Ring, that thou hast gotten to be much
given to backbiting, and evil saying against friends, since
the visit of the gallants from over sea."
" Out upon gallants from over sea, and thee too, man ! I
am not a girl to be flouted with bold speech from one who
doth not know whether he be sleeping or waking. I tell
thee, thy good name would be lost in the family, did it
come to the ears of the captain, and more particularly to
the knowledge of that soldier stranger, up in the dwelling,
of whom even the madam maketh so great ceremony, that
thou hast been watching with a tuneful nose, an open mouth,
and a sealed eye."
" If any but thee had'st said this slander of me, girl, it
would go nigh to raise hot speech between us ! Thy brother,
Reuben Ring, knows better than to stir my temper by such
falsity of accusation."
"Thou dealest so generously by him, that he is prone to
forget thy misdeeds. Truly he hath the head of the buck,
while thou contentest thyself with the offals and all the less
worthy parts ! Go to, Dudley ; thou wast in a heavy dream
when I caused thee to awake."
" A pretty time have we fallen upon, when petticoats are
used instead of beards and strong-armed men, to go the
rounds of the sentinels, and to say who sleepeth and who
is watchful ! What hath brought thee so far from the exer-
cises and so nigh the gates, Mistress Faith, now that there
is no over-sea gallant to soothe thy ears with lying speech
and light declarations."
" If speech not to be credited is that I seek," returned the
girl, " truly the errand hath not been without its reward.
What brought me hither, sooth ! Why, the madam hath
need of articles from the outer buttery — and — aye — and my
ears led me to the postern. Thou knovvest, musical Dudley,
that I have had occasion to hearken to thy watchful notes
before this night. But my time is too useful to be wasted in
idleness ; thou art now awake, and may thank her who hath
done thee a good turn with no wish to boast of it, that one
of a black beard is not the laughing-stock of all the youths
in the family. If thou keepest thine own counsel, the cap-
tain may yet praise thee for a vigilant sentinel ; though
Heaven forgive him the wrong he will do the truth ! "
" Perhaps a little anger at unjust suspicions may have
122 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH.
prompted more than the matter needed, Faith, when I taxed
thee with the love of backbiting, and I do now recall that
word ; though I will ever deny that aught more than some
wandering recollection concerning the hunt of this day
hath come over my thoughts, and perhaps made me even
forgetful that it was needful to be silent at the postern ;
and, therefore, on the truth of a Christian man, I do forgive
thee, the "
But Faith was already out of sight and out of hearing.
Dudley himself, who began to have certain prickings of
conscience concerning the ingratitude he had manifested
to one who had taken so mucli interest in his reputation,
now bethought him seriously of that which remained to be
done. He had much reason to suspect that there was less
of the night before him than he had at first believed, and
he became in consequence more sensible of the necessity
of making some report of the events of his watch. Ac-
cordingly, he cast a scrutinizing glance around in order to
make sure that the facts should not contradict his testi-
mony, and then, first examining the fastenings of the pos-
tern, he mounted the hill and presented himself before
the family. The members of the latter, having in truth
passed most of the long interval of his absence in spirit-
ual exercises and in religious conversation, were not so
sensible of his delay in reporting, as they might otherwise
have been.
" What tidings dost thou bring us from without ? " said
Content, so soon as the self-relieved sentinel appeared.
" Hast seen any, or hast heard that which is suspicious ? "
Ere Dudley would answer, his eye did not fail to study
the half-malicious expression of the countenance of her who
was busy in some domestic toil, directly opposite to the
place where he stood. But reading there no more than a
glance of playful though smothered irony, he was encour-
aged to proceed in his report.
" The watch has been quiet," was the answer ; " and
there is little cause to keep the sleepers longer from their
beds. Some vigilant eyes, like those of Reuben Ring and
my own, had better be* open until the morning ; further
than that, there is no reason to be wakeful."
Perhaps the borderer would have dwelt more at large
on his own readiness to pass the remainder of the hours of
rest in attending to the security of those who slept, had
not another wicked glance from the dark, laughing eye of
her who stood so favorably placed to observe his counte*
THE IVEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH. 123
nance, admonished him of the prudence of being modest in
his professions.
" This alarm hath then happily passed away," said the
Puritan, rising. " We will now go to our pillows in thank-
fulness and peace. Thy service shall not be forgotten,
Dudley ; for thou hast exposed thyself to seeming danger,
at least, in our behalf."
" That hath he ! " half-whispered Faith ; " and sure am I
that we maidens will not forget his readiness to lose the
sweets of sleep in order that the feeble may not come to
harm."
" Speak not of the trifle," hurriedly returned the other.
" There has been some deception in the sound, for it is now
my opinion, except to summon us to the gate, that this
stranger might enter — the conch has not been touched at
all to-night."
" Then is it a deception which is repeated ! " exclaimed
Content, rising from his chair as a faint and broken blast
from the shell, like that which had first announced their
visitor, again struggled among the buildings, until it
reached every ear in the dwelling.
" Here is wrarning as mysterious as it may prove porten-
tous ! " said old Mark Heathcote, when the surprise, not
to say the consternation of the moment, had subsided.
" Hast seen nothing that might justify this ? "
Eben Dudley, like most of the auditors, was too much
confounded to reply. All seemed to attend anxiously for
the second and more powerful blast, which was to complete
the imitation of the stranger's summons. It was not neces-
sary to wait long ; for in a time as near as might be to that
which had intervened between the two first peals of the
horn, followecf another, and in a note so true again, as to
give it the semblance of an echo.
CHAPTER XI.
" I will watch to-night ;
Perchance 'twill walk again." — Hamlet.
" MAY not this be a warning given in mercy ? " the Puri-
tan, at all times disposed to yield credit to supernatural
manifestations of the care of Providence, demanded with
124 THE WEPT OP WISH-TON-WISH.
a solemnity that did not fail to produce its impression on
most of his auditors. " The history of our colonies is full
of the evidences of these merciful interpositions."
"We will thus consider it," returned the stranger, to
whom the question seemed more particularly addressed.
"The first measure shall be to seek out the danger to which
it points. Let the youth they call Dudley, give me the aid
of his powerful frame and manly courage, then trust the
discovery of the meaning of these frequent speakings of
the conch to me."
" Surely, Submission, thou wilt not again be first to go
forth ! " exclaimed Mark, in a surprise that was equally
manifested by Content and Ruth, the latter of whom
pressed her little image to her side as though the bare pro-
posal presented a powerful picture of supernatural dan-
ger. " 'Twill be well to think maturely on the step, ere
thou runnest the hazard of such an adventure. "
" Better it should be I," said Content, " who am accus-
tomed to forest signs, and all the usual testimonials of the
presence of those who may wish us harm."
" No," said he, who for the first time had been called
" Submission," a name that savored of the religious enthu-
siasm of the times, and which might have been adopted as
an open avowal of his readiness to bow beneath some pe-
culiar dispensation of Providence. ''This service shall be
mine. Thou art both husband and father ; and many are
there who look to thy safety as to their rock of earthly
support and comfort, while neither kindred, nor — but we
will not speak of things foreign to our purpose ! Thou
knowest, Mark Heathcote, that peril and I are no strangers.
There is little need to bid me be prudent^ Come, bold
woodsman ; shoulder thy musket, and be ready to do credit
to thy manhood should there be reason to prove it."
"And why not Reuben Ring? "said a hurried female
voice, that all knew to proceed from the lips of the sister
of the youth just named. " He is quick of eye and ready
of hand in trials like these ; would it not be well to succor
thy party with such aid ?"
" Peace, girl," meekly observed Ruth. " This matter
is already in the ordering of one used to command ; there
needeth no counsel from thy short experience."
Faith shrank back, abashed ; the flush which had man-
tled over her brown cheek deepening to a tint like that
of blood.
Submission (we use the appellation in the absence of alJ
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH. 125
others) fastened a searching glance for a single moment on
the countenance of the girl ; and then, as if his intention
had not been diverted from the principal subject in hand,
ne rejoined coolly —
" We go as scouters and observers of that which may
hereafter call for the ready assistance of this youth ; but
numbers would expose us to observation, without adding
to our usefulness — and yet," he added, arresting his foot-
step, which was already turned toward the door, and look-
ing earnestly and long at the Indian boy, " perhaps there
standeth one who might much enlighten us, would he but
speak ! "
This remark drew every eye on the person of the cap-
tive. The lad stood the scrutiny with the undismayed and
immovable composure of his race. But though his eye
met the looks of those around him haughtily and in pride,
it was not gleaming with any of that stern defiance which
had so often been known to glitter in his glances, when he
had reason to think that his fortunes or his person was the
subject of /the peculiar observation of those with whom he
dwelt. On the contrary, the expression of his dark visage
was rather that of amity than of hatred, and there was a
moment when the look he cast upon Ruth and her off-
spring was visibly touched with a feeling of concern. A
glance, charged with such a meaning, could not escape the
quick-sighted vigilance of a mother.
"The child hath proved himself worthy to be trusted,"
she said ; "and in the name of Him who looketh into and
knoweth all hearts, let him once more go forth."
Her lips became sealed, for again the conch announced
the seeming impatience of those without to be admitted.
The full tones of the shell thrilled on the nerves of the lis-
teners, as though they proclaimed the coming of some
great and fearful judgment.
In the midst of these often-repeated and mysterious
sounds, Submission alone seemed calm and unmoved.
Turning his look from the countenance of the boy, whose
head had dropped upon his breast as the last notes of the
conch rang among the buildings, he motioned hurriedly to
Dudley to follow/and left the place.
There was, in good truth, that in the secluded situation
of the valley, the darkness of the hour, and the nature of
the several interruptions, which might readily awaken deep
concern in the breasts of men as firm even as those who
now issued into the open air, in quest of the solution of
126 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON- WISH.
doubts that were becoming intensely painful. The stranger,
or Submission, as we may in future have frequent occasion
to call him, led the way in silence to a point of the emi-
nence, without the buildings, where the eye might over-
look the palisadoes that hedged the sides of the acclivity,
and command a view beyond of all that the dusky and
imperfect light would reveal.
It was a scene that required familiarity with a border life
to be looked on at any moment with indifference. The
broad, nearly interminable, and seemingly trackless forest
lay about them, bounding the view to the narrow limits of
the valley, as though it were some straitened oasis amidst
an ocean of wilderness. Within the boundaries of the
cleared land objects were less indistinct, though even those
nearest and most known were now seen only in the con-
fused and gloomy outlines of night.
Across this dim prospect Submission and his companion
gazed long and cautiously.
" There is naught but motionless stumps and fences
loaded with snow," said the former, when his eye had
roamed over the whole circuit of the view which lay on
the side of the valley where they stood. " We must go
forth, that we may look nearer to the fields."
" This way, then, is the postern," said Dudley, observing
that the other took a direction opposite to that which led
to the gate. But a gesture of authority induced him at the
next instant to restrain his voice, and to follow whither his
companion chose to lead the way.
The stranger made a circuit of half the hill ere he de-
scended to the palisadoes, at a point where lay long and
massive piles of wood, which had been collected for the
fuel of the family. This spot was one that overlooked the
steepest acclivity of the eminence, which was in itself, just
there, so difficult of ascent, as to render the provision of
the pickets far less necessary than in its more even faces.
Still no useful precaution for the security of the family
had been neglected, even at this strong point of the works.
The piles of wood were laid at such a distance from the
pickets as to afford no facilities for scaling them, while, on
the other hand, they formed platforms and breast-works
that might have greatly added to the safety of those who
should be required to defend this portion of the fortress.
Taking his way directly amid the parallel piles, the stranger
descended rapidly through the whole of their mazes, until
he had reached the open space between the outer of the
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON'-WISH. 127
rows and the palisadoes, a space that was warily left too
wide to be passed by the leap of man.
" 'Tis many a day since foot of mine has been in this
spot," said Eben Dudley, feeling his way along a path that
his companion threaded without any apparent hesitation.
" My own hand laid this outer pile some winters since, and
certain am I, that from that hour to this, man hath not
touched a billet of the wood. And yet, for one who hath
come from over sea, it would appear that thou hast no
great difficulty in making way among the narrow lanes ! "
u He that hath sight may well choose between air and
beechen logs," returned the other, stopping at the palisa-
does, and in a place that was concealed from any prying
eyes within the works, by triple and quadruple barriers of
wood. Feeling in his girdle, he then drew forth something
which Dudley was not long in discovering to be a key.
While the latter, aided by the little light that fell from the
heavens, was endeavoring to make the most of his eyes,
Submission applied the instrument to a lock that was art-
fully sunk in one of the timbers, at the height of a man's
breast from the ground, and giving a couple of vigorous
turns, a piece of the palisado, some half a fathom long,
yielded on a powerful hinge below, and falling, made an
opening sufficiently large for the passage of a human body.
" Here is a sally-port ready provided for our sortie," the
stranger coolly observed, motioning to the other to precede
him. When Dudley had passed, his companion followed,
and the opening was then carefully closed and locked.
" Now is all fast again, and we are in the fields without
raising alarm to any of mortal birth, at least," continued
the guide, thrusting a hand into the folds of his doublet, as
if to feel for a weapon, and preparing to descend the diffi-
cult declivity which still lay between him and the base of
the hill. Eben Dudley hesitated to follow. The interview
with the traveller in the mountains occurred to his heated
imagination, and the visions of a prestigious agency revived
with all their original force. The whole manner and the
mysterious character of his companion was little likely to
re-assure a mind disturbed with such images.
" There is a rumor going in the Colony," muttered the
borderer, " that the invisibles are permitted for a time to
work their evil ; and it may well happen that some of their
ungodly members shall journey to the Wish-Ton-Wish, in
lack of better employment."
"Thou sayest truly," replied the stranger; " but the
128 THE WEPT OF W1SI1-TON-W1SIL
power that allows of their wicked torments may have seen
fit to provide an agent of his own to defeat their subtleties.
We will now draw near to the gate, in order that an eye
may be kept on their malicious designs."
Submission spoke with gravity, and not without a certain
manner of solemnity. Dudley yielded, though with a di-
vided and a disturbed mind, to his suggestion. Still he
followed in the footsteps of the stranger, with a caution
that might wrell have eluded the vigilance of any agency
short of that which drew its means of information from
sources deeper than ary of human power.
When the two watchers had found a secret and suitable
place, not far from the postern, they disposed themselves in
silence to await the result. The out-buildings lay in deep
quiet, not a sound of any sort arising from all of the many
tenants they were known to contain. The lines of ragged
fences ; the blackened stumps, capped with little pyramids
of snow ; the taller and sometimes suspicious-looking stubs ;
an insulated tree, and finally the broad border of forest —
were alike motionless, gloomy, and clothed in the doubtful
forms of night. Still, the space around the well-secured
and trebly-barred postern was vacant. A sheet of spotless
snow served as a background, that would have been sure
to betray the presence of any object passing over its sur-
face. Even the conch might be seen suspended from one
of the timbers, as mute and inoffensive as the hour when it
had been washed by the waves on the sands of the seashore.
" Here will we watch for the coming of the stranger, be
he commissioned by the powers of air, or be he one sent on
an errand of earth," whispered Submission, preparing his
arms for immediate use, and disposing of his person, at the
same time, in a manner most convenient to endure the
weariness of a patient watch.
" I would my mind were at ease on the question of right-
doing in dealing harm to one who disturbs the quiet of a
border family, "said Dudley, in a tone sufficiently repressed
for caution ; " it may be found prudent to strike the first
blow, should one like an over-sea gallant, after all, be in-
clined to trouble us at this hour."
" In that strait, thou wilt do well to give little heed to
the order of the offences," gloomily returned the other.
" Should another messenger of England appear "
He paused, for a note of the conch was heard rising grad-
ually on the air, until the whole of the wide valley was
filled with its rich and melancholv sound.
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH. 129
" Lip of man is not at the shell ! " exclaimed the stranger,
who like Dudley had made a forward movement toward the
postern, the instant the blast reached his ear, and who like
Dudley recoiled in an amazement that even his practised
self-command could not conceal, as he undeniably per-
ceived the truth of that his speech affirmed. " This exceed-
eth all former instances of marvellous visitations ! "
" It is vain to pretend to raise the feeble nature of man to
the level of things coming from the invisible world," re-
turned the woodsman at his side. " In such a strait, it is
seemly that sinful men should withdraw to the dwellings,
where we may sustain our feebleness by the spiritual striv-
ings of the captain."
To this discreet proposal the stranger raised no objec-
tion. Without taking the time necessary to effect their
retreat with the precaution that had been observed in
their advance, the two adventurers quickly found them-
selves at the secret entrance through which they had so
lately issued.
" Enter," said the stranger, lowering the piece of the
palisado for the passage of his companion. " Enter of a
Heaven's sake ! for it is truly meet that we assemble all
our spiritual succor."
Dudley was in the act of complying, wrhen a dark line,
accompanied by a low rushing sound, cut the air between
his head and that of his companion. At the next instant, a
flint-headed arrow quivered in the timber.
"The heathen!" shouted the borderer, recovering all his
manhood as the familiar danger became apparent, and
throwing back a stream of fire in the direction from which
the treacherous missile had come. "To the palisadoes,
men ! the bloody heathen is upon us ! "
"The heathen !" echoed the stranger, in a deep, steady,
commanding voice, that had evidently often raised the
warning in scenes of even greater emergency, and levelling
a pistol, which brought a dark form that was gliding across
the snow to one knee, " The heathen ! the bloody heathen
is upon us ! "
As if both assailants and assailed paused, one moment
of profound stillness succeeded this fierce interruption of
the quiet of the night. Then the cries of the two advent-
urers were answered by a burst of yells from a wide circle,
that nearly environed the hill. At the same moment each
dark object in the fields gave up a human form. The
shouts were followed by a cloud of arrows, that rendered
1 30 THE WEPT OF WISPI-TON'-WISH.
further delay without the cover of the palisadoes eminently
hazardous. Dudley entered ; but the passage of the stranger
would have been cut off by a leaping, whooping band that
pressed fiercely on his rear, had not a broad sheet of flame,
glancing from the hill directly in their swarthy and grim
countenances, driven the assailants back upon their own
footsteps. In another moment, the bolts of the lock were
passed, and the two fugitives were in safety behind the
ponderous piles of wood.
CHAPTER XII.
" There need no ghost, my lord, come from the grave
To tell us this." — Hamlet.
ALTHOUGH the minds of most, if not of -all the inmates
of the Wish-Ton-Wish, had been so powerfully exercised
that night with the belief that the powers of the invisible
world were about to be let loose upon them, the danger
had now presented itself in a shape too palpable to admit
of further doubt. The cry of "the heathen " had been
raised from every lip ; even the daughter and eleve of
Ruth repeated it, as they fled wailing through the build-
ings ; and, for a moment, terror and surprise appeared to
involve the assailed in inextricable confusion. But the
promptitude of the young men in rushing to the rescue,
with the steadiness of Content, soon restored order. Even
the females assumed at least the semblance of composure,
the family having been too long trained to meet the exi-
gencies of such an emergency to be thrown entirely off
its guard, for more than the first and the most appalling
moments of the alarm.
The effect of the sudden repulse was such as all experi-
ence had taught the colonists to expect, in their Indian
warfare. The uproar of the onset ceased as abruptly as
it had commenced, and a calmness so tranquil, and a still-
ness so profound, succeeded, that one who had for the
first time witnessed such a scene, might readily have fan-
cied it the effects of some wild and fearful illusion.
During these moments of general and deep silence, the
two adventurers, whose retreat had probably hastened the
assault by offering the temptation of an easy passage
within the works, left the cover of the piles of wood, and
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH. 131
ascended the hill to the place where Dudley knew Con-
tent was to be posted in the event of a summons to the
defences.
" Unless much inquiry hath deceived me in the nature
of the heathen's craftiness," said the stranger, " we shall
have breathing-time ere the onset be renewed. The ex-
perience of a soldier bids me say, that prudence now urges
us to look into the number and position of our foes, that
we may order our resistance with better understanding of
their force."
" In what manner of way may this be done ? Thou seest
naught about us but the quiet and the darkness of night.
Speak of the number of our enemies we cannot, and sally
forth we may not, without certain destruction to all who
quit the palisadoes."
" Thou forgettest that we have a hostage in the boy ; he
may be turned to some advantage, if our power over his
person be used with discretion."
"I doubt that we deceive ourselves with a hope that is
vain," returned Content, leading the way as he spoke, how-
ever, toward the court which communicated with the prin-
cipal dwelling. " I have closely studied the eye of that
lad, since his unaccountable entrance within the works, and
little do I find there that should teach us to expect confi-
dence. It will be happy if some secret understanding with
those without has not aided him in passing the palisadoes,
and that he prove not a dangerous spy on our force and
movements."
" In regard to that he hath entered the dwelling without
sound of conch or aid of postern, be not disturbed," re-
turned the stranger with composure. "Were it fitting,
this mystery might be of easy explanation ; but it may
truly need all our sagacity to discover whether he hath
connection with our foes ! The mind of a native does not
give up its secrets like the surface of a vanity-feeding
mirror."
The stranger spoke like a man who wrapped a portion
of his thoughts in reserve, and his companion listened as
one who comprehended more than it might be seemly or
discreet to betray. With this secret and yet equivocal under-
standing of each other's meaning, they entered the dwell-
ing, and soon found themselves in the presence of those
they sought.
The constant danger of their situation had compelled
the family to bring themselves within . the habits of a
132 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH.
methodical and severely regulated order of defence. Du-
ties were assigned, in the event of alarm, to the feeblest
bodies and the faintest hearts ; and during the moments
which preceded the visit of her husband, Ruth had been
endeavoring to commit to her female subordinates the
several necessary charges that usage, and more particu-
larly the emergency of the hour, appeared so imperiously
to require.
" Hasten, Charity, to the block," she said ; " and look
into the condition of the buckets and the ladders, that
should the heathen drive us to its shelter, provision of
water, and means of retreat, be not wanting in our ex-
tremity ; and hie thee, Faith, into the upper apartments, to
see that no lights may direct their murderous aim at any
in the chambers. Thoughts come tardily, when the arrowT
or the Ipullet hath already taken its flight ! And now that
the first assault is over, Mark, and we may hope to meet
the wiles of the enemy by some prudence of our own,
thou mayest go forth to thy father. It would have been
tempting Providence too rashly, hadst thou rushed, un-
bidden and uninformed, into the first hurry of the danger.
Come hither, child, and receive the blessing and prayers
of thy mother ; after which thou shalt, with better trust
in Providence, place thy young person among the com-
batants in the hope of victory. Remember that thou art
now of an age to do justice to thy name and origin, and
yet art thou of years too tender to be foremost in speech,
and far less in action on such a night as this."
A momentary flush, that only served to render the suc-
ceeding paleness more obvious, passed across the brow of
the mother. She stooped and imprinted a kiss on the
forehead of the impatient boy, who scarcely wraited to re-
ceive this act of tenderness, ere he hurried to place him-
self in the ranks of her defenders.
"And now," said Ruth, slowly turning her eye from the
door by which the lad had disappeared, and speaking
with a sort of unnatural composure, " and now wre will
look to the safety of those who can be of little service, ex-
cept as sentinels to sound the alarm. When thou art
certain, Faith, that no neglected light is in the rooms
above, take the children to the secret chamber ; thence
they may look upon the fields without danger from any
chance direction of the savages' aim. Thou knowest,
Faith, my frequent teaching in this matter ; let no sounds
of alarm nor frightful whoopings of the people without,
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON- WISH. 133
cause thee to quit the spot ; since thou wilt there be safer
than in the block, against which many missiles will doubt-
less be driven, on account of its seeming air of strength.
Timely notice shall be given of the change, should we seek
its security. Thou wilt descend only should'st thou see
enemies scaling the palisadoes on the side which overhangs
the stream ; since there have we the fewest eyes to watch
their movements. Remember on the side of the outbuild-
ings and of the fields, our force is chiefly posted ; there can
be less reason, therefore, that thou should'st expose thy
lives by endeavoring to look too curiously into that which
passeth in the fields. Go, my children ; and a heavenly
Providence prove thy guardian ! "
Ruth stooped to kiss the cheek that her daughter offered
to the salute. The embrace was then given to the other
child, who was, in truth scarcely less near her heart, being
the orphan daughter of one who had been as a sister in
her affections. But, unlike the kiss she had impressed on
the forehead of Mark, the present embraces were hasty,
and evidently awakened less intense emotion. She had com-
mitted the boy to a known and positive danger, but, under
the semblance of some usefulness, she sent the others to a
place believed to be even less exposed, so long as the enemy
could be kept without the works, than the citadel itself. Still,
a feeling of deep and maternal tenderness came over her
mind, as her daughter retired ; and yielding to its sudden
impulse, she recalled the girl to her side.
" Thou wilt repeat the prayer for especial protection
against the dangers of the wilderness," she solemnly con-
tinued. " In thy asking, fail not to remember him to
whom thou owest being, and who now exposeth life, that
we may be safe. Thou knowest the Christian's rock ;
place thy faith on its foundation."
"And they who seek to kill us," demanded the well-in-
structed child; "are they too of the number of those for
whom He died ?"
" It may not be doubted, though the manner of the dis-
pensation be so mysterious ! Barbarians in their habits,
and ruthless in their enmities, they are creatures of our
nature, and equally objects of His care."
Flaxen locks, that half covered a forehead and face
across which ran the most delicate tracery of veins, added
lustre to a skin as spotlessly fair as if the warm breezes of
that latitude had never fanned the countenance of the girl.
Through this maze of ringlets, the child turned her full,
I34 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH.
clear, blue eyes, bending her looks, in wonder and in
fear, on the dark visage of the captive Indian youth, who
at that moment was to her a subject of secret horror.
Unconscious of the interest he excited, the lad stood
calm, haughty, and seemingly unobservant, cautious to
let no sign of weakness or of concern escape him, in this
scene of womanly emotion.
" Mother," whispered the still wondering child ; " may
we not let him go into the forest ? I do not love to "
"This is no time for speech. Go to thy hiding-place,
my child, and remember both thy askings and the cautions
I have named. Go, and heavenly care protect thy inno-
cent head ! "
Ruth again stooped, and bowing her face until the feat-
ures were lost in the rich tresses of her daughter, a moment
passed during which there was an eloquent silence. When
she arose, a tear glistened on the cheek of the child. The
latter had received the embrace more in apathy than in
concern ; and now, when, led toward the 'upper rooms, she
moved from the presence of her mother, it was with an eye
that never bent its riveted gaze from the features of the
young Indian, until the intervening walls hid him entirely
from her sight.
" Thou hast been thoughtful and like thyself, my good
Ruth," said Content, who at that moment entered, and who
rewarded the self-command of his wife by a look of the
kindest approbation. "The youths have not been more
prompt in meeting the foe at the stockades, than thy maid-
ens in looking to their less hardy duties. All is again quiet
without ; and we come, now, rather for consultation, than
for any purposes of strife."
" Then must we summon our father from his post at the
artillery, in the block."
" It is not needful," interrupted the stranger. " Time
presses, for this calm may be too shortly succeeded by a
tempest that all our power shall not quell. Bring forth the
captive."
Content signed to the boy to approach, and when he
was in reach of his hand, he placed him full before the
stranger.
" I know not thy name, nor even that of thy people,"
commenced the other, after a long pause, in which he
seemed to study deeply the countenance of the lad ; " but
certain am I, though a more wicked spirit may still be
struggling for the mastery in thy wild mind, that nobleness
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH. ^35
oi feeling is no stranger to thy bosom. Speak ; hast thou
aught to impart concerning the danger that besets this
family? I have learned much this night from thy manner,
but to be clearly understood, it is now time that thou
should'st speak in words."
The youth kept his eye fastened on that of the speaker,
until the other had ended, and then he bent it slowly, but
with searching observation, on the anxious countenance of
Ruth. It seemed as if he balanced between his pride and
his sympathies. The latter prevailed ; for, conquering the
deep reluctance of an Indian, he spoke openly, and for the
first Time since his captivity, in the language of the hated
race.
" I hear the whoops of warriors," was his calm answer.
" Have the ears of the pale men been shut ? "
"Thou hast spoken with the young men of thy tribe in
the forest, and thou had'st knowledge of this onset ?"
The youth made no reply, though the keen look of his
interrogator was met steadily, and without fear. Perceiv-
ing that he had demanded more than would be answered,
the stranger changed his mode of investigation, masking
his inquiries with a little more of artifice.
" It may not be that a great tribe is on the bloody path !"
he said ; "warriors would have walked over the timbers of
the palisadoes like bending reeds ! 'Tis a Pequot, who
hath broken faith with a Christian, and who is now abroad,
prowling as a wolf in the night."
A sudden and wild expression gleamed over the swarthy
features of the boy. His lips moved, and the words that
issued from between them were uttered in the tones of
biting scorn. Still he rather muttered than pronounced
aloud —
" The Pequot is a dog ! "
" It is as I had thought : the knaves are out of their vil-
lages, that the Yengeese may feed their squaws. But a
Narragansett, or a Wampanoag, is a man ; he scorns to
lurk in the darkness. When he comes, the sun will light
his path. The Pequot steals in silence, for he fears that
the warriors will hear his tread."
It was not easy to detect any evidence that the captive
listened, either to the commendation or the censure, with
answering sympathy ; for marble is not colder than were
the muscles of his unmoved countenance.
The stranger studied the expression of his features in
frain, and drawing so near as to lay his hand on the naked
136 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON- WISH.
shoulder of the lad, he added — " Boy, thou hast heard
much moving matter concerning the nature of our Chris-
tian faith, and thou hast been the subject of many a fer-
vent asking ; it may not be that so much good seed hath
been altogether scattered by the way-side ! Speak ; may
I again trust thee ? "
k< Let my father look on the snow. The print of the
moccason goes and comes."
" It is true. Thus far hast thou proved honest. But
when the war-whoop shall be thrilling through thy young
blood, the temptation to join the warriors may ije too
strong. Hast any gage, any pledge, in which we may find
warranty for letting thee depart ?"
The boy regarded his interrogator with a look that
plainly denoted ignorance of his meaning.
" I Avould know what thou canst leave with me, to show
that our eyes shall again look upon thy face, when we
have opened the gate for thy passage into the fields."
Still the gaze of the other was wondering and con-
fused.
"When the white man goes upon the war path, and
would put trust in his foe, he takes surety for his faith, by
holding the life of one dear as a warranty of its truth.
What can'st offer, that I may know thou wilt return from
the errand on which I would fain send thee ? "
" The path is open."
" Open, but not certain to be used. Fear may cause
thee to forget the way it leads."
The captive now understood the meaning of the other's
doubts, but, as if disdaining to reply, he bent his eyes aside,
and stood in one of those immovable attitudes which so
often gave him the air of a piece of dark statuary.
Content and his wife had listened to this short dialogue,
in a manner to prove that they possessed some secret
knowledge, which lessened the wonder they might other-
wise have felt, at witnessing so obvious proofs of a secret
acquaintance between the speakers. Both, however, man-
ifested unequivocal signs of astonishment, when they first
heard English sounds issuing from the lips of the boy.
There was, at least, the semblance of hope in the medita-
tion of one who had received, and who had appeared to
acknowledge, so much kindness from herself ; and Ruth
clung to the cheering expectation with the quickness of
maternal care.
" Let the boy depart," she said. " I will be his hostage ;
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH. 137
and should he prove false, there can be less to fear in his
absence than in his presence."
The obvious truth of the latter assertion probably
weighed more with the stranger than the unmeaning
pledge of the woman.
"There is reason in this," he resumed. " Go, then, into
the fields, and say to thy people that they have mistaken
the path ; that, they are on, hath led them to the dwelling
of a friend. Here are no Pequots, nor any of the men of
the Manhattoes ; but Christian Yengeese, who have long
dealt with the Indian as one just man dealeth with another.
Go, and when thy signal shall be heard at the gate, it shall
be opened to thee for readmission."
Thus saying, the stranger motioned to the boy to follow,
taking care as they left the room together, to instruct him
in all such minor matters as might assist in effecting the
pacific object of the mission on which he was employed.
A few minutes of doubt and of fearful suspense suc-
ceeded this experiment. The stranger, after seeing that
egress was permitted to his messenger, had returned to the
dwelling and rejoined his companions. He passed the
moments in pacing the apartment, \vith the strides of one
in whom powerful concern was strongly at work. At times,
the sound of his heavy footstep ceased, and then all lis-
tened intently, in order to catch any sound that might in-
struct them in the nature of the scene that was passing
without In the midst of one of these pauses, a yell like
that of savage delight arose in the fields. It was succeeded
by the death-like and portentous calm which had rendered
the time since the momentary attack even more alarming
than when the danger had a positive and known character.
But all the attention the most intense anxiety could now
lend, furnished no additional clew to the movements of
their foes. For many minutes the quiet of midnight
reigned both within and without the defences. In the
midst of this suspense the latch of the door was lifted, and
their messenger appeared with that noiseless tread and
collected mien which distinguished the people of his
race.
" Thou hast met the warriors of thy tribe ? " hastily de-
manded the stranger.
" The noise did not cheat the Yengeese. It was not a
girl laughing in the woods."
" And thou hast said to thy people, 'we are friends ' ? "
" The words of my father were spoken. '
138 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH.
" And heard — Were they loud enough to enter the ears
of the young men ? "
The boy was silent.
" Speak," continued the stranger, elevating his forra
proudly, like one ready to breast a more severe shock.
" Thou hast men for thy listeners. Is the pipe of the
savage filled ? Will he smoke in peace, or holdeth he the
tomahawk in a clenched hand ? "
The countenance of the boy worked with a feeling that
it was not usual for an Indian to betray. He bent his look
with concern on the mild eyes of the anxious Ruth ; then
drawing a hand slowly from beneath the light robe that
partly covered his body, he cast at the feet of the stranger
a bundle of arrows, wrapped in the glossy and striped skin
of the rattlesnake.
" This is a warning we may not misconceive ! " said Con-
tent, raising the well-known emblem of ru.thless hostility to
the light, and exhibiting it before the eyes of his less in-
structed companion. " Boy, what have the people of my
race done, that thy warriors should seek their blood to this
extremity ? "
When the boy had discharged his duty he moved aside,
and appeared unwilling to observe the effect which his
message might produce on his companions. But thus
questioned, all gentle feelings were near being forgotten
in the sudden force of passion. A hasty glance at Ruth
quelled the emotion, and he continued calm as ever, and
silent.
" Boy," repeated Content, " I ask thee why thy people
seek our blood ?"
The passage of the electric spark is not more subtle, nor
is it scarcely more brilliant than was the gleam that shot
into the dark eye of the Indian. The organ seemed to
emit rays coruscant as the glance of the serpent. His form
appeared to swell with the inward strivings of the spirit,
and for a moment there was every appearance of a fierce
and uncontrollable burst of ferocious passion. The con-
quest of feeling was, however, but momentary. He re-
gained his self-command by a surprising effort of will, and
advancing so near to him who had asked this bold ques-
tion, as to lay a finger on his breast, the young savage
haughtily said —
" See ! this world is very wide. There is room on it for
the panther and the deer. Why have the Yengeese an£
the red-men met ? "
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH. 139
" We waste the precious moments in probing the stern
nature of a heathen," said the stranger. "The object of
his people is certain, and, with the aid of the Christian's
staff, we will beat back their power. Prudence requireth
at our hands that the lad be secured ; after which, will we
repair to the stockades and prove ourselves men."
Against this proposal no reasonable objection could be
raised. Content was about to secure the person of his
captive in a cellar, when a suggestion of his wife caused
him to change his purpose. Notwithstanding the sudden
and fierce mien of the youth, there had been such an in-
telligence created between them by looks of kindness and
interest, that the mother was reluctant to abandon all hope
of his aid.
" Miantonimoh ! " she said, " though others distrust thy
purpose, I will have confidence. Come, then, with me ;
and while I give thee promise of safety in thine own
person, I ask at thy hands the office of a protector for my
babes."
The boy made no reply ; but as he passively followed his
conductress to the chambers, Ruth fancied she read assur-
ance of his faith in the expression of his eloquent eye. At
the same moment her husband and Submission left the
house to take their stations at the palisadoes.
CHAPTER XIII.
" Thou art my good youth : my page ;
I'll be thy master : walk with me ; speak freely." — Cymbeline.
THE apartment in which Ruth had directed the children
to be placed was in the attic, and, as already stated, on the
side of the building which faced the stream that ran at the
foot of the hill. It had a single projecting window, through
which there was a view of the forest and of the fields on
that side of the valley. Small openings in its sides ad-
mitted also of glimpses of the grounds which lay further
in the rear. In addition to the covering of the roofs, and
of the massive frame-work of the building, an interior
partition of timber protected the place against the entrance
of most missiles then known in the warfare of the country.
During the infancy of the children this room had been
their sleeping apartment ; nor was it abandoned for that
I4o THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH.
purpose until the additional outworks, which increased
with time around the dwellings, had emboldened the fam-
ily to trust themselves at night in situations more con-
venient, and which were believed to be no less equally
secure against surprise.
" I know thee to be one who feeleth the obligations ol
a warrior," said Ruth, as she ushered her follower into the
presence of the children. " Thou wilt not deceive me ; the
lives of these tender ones are in thy keeping. Look to
them, Miantonimoh, and the Christian's God will remem-
ber thee in thine own hour of necessity !"
The boy made no reply, but in a gentle expression which
was visible in his dark visage, the mother endeavored to
find the pledge she sought. Then, as the youth, with the
delicacy of his race, moved aside in order that they who
were bound to each other by ties so near might indulge
their feelings without observation, Ruth again drew near
her offspring with all the tenderness of a mother beaming
in her eyes.
" Once more I bid thee not to look too curiously at the
fearful strife that may arise in front of our habitation," she
said. "The heathen is truly upon us, with bloody mind.
Young as well as old must now show faith in the protection
of our master, and such courage as befitteth believers."
"And why is it, mother," demanded her child, "that
they seek to do us harm ? Have we ever done evil to
them?"
" I may not say. He that hath made the earth, hath
given it to us for our uses, and reason would seem to teach
that if portions of its surface are vacant, he that needeth
truly, may occupy."
" The savage ! " whispered the child, nestling still nearer
to the bosom of her stooping parent. " His eye glittereth
like the star which hangs above the trees."
" Peace, daughter ; his fierce nature broodeth over some
fancied wrong ! "
" Surely, we are here rightfully. I have heard my father
say that when the Lord made me a present to his arms, our
valley was a tangled forest, and that much toil only has
made it as it is."
" I hope that what we enjoy, we enjoy rightfully ! And
yet it seemeth that the savage is ready to deny our claims."
" And where do these bloody enemies dwell ? Have
they, too, valleys like this, and do the Christians break into
them to shed blood in the night ? "
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH. 141
" They are of wild and fierce habits, Ruth, and little do
they know of our manner of life. Woman is not cherished
as among the people of thy father's race ; for force of body
is more regarded than kinder ties."
The little auditor shuddered, and when she buried her
face deeper in the bosom of her parent, it was with a more
quickened sense of maternal affection, and with a livelier
view than her infant perception had ever yet known of the
gentle charities of kindred. When she had spoken, the
matron impressed the final kiss on the forehead of each
of the children, and asking aloud that God might bless
them, she turned to go to the performance of duties that
called for the exhibition of very different qualities. Before
quitting the room, however, she once more approached the
boy, and holding the light before his steady eye, she said
solemnly —
" I trust my babes to the keeping of a young warrior ! "
The look he returned was like the others, cold but not
discouraging. A gaze of many moments elicited no reply ;
and Ruth prepared to quit the place, troubled by uncer-
tainty concerning the intentions of the guardian she left
with the girls, while she still trusted that the many acts of
kindness which she had shown him during his captivity,
would not go without their reward. Her hand rested on
the bolt of the door, in indecision. The moment was
favorable to the character of the youth ; for she recalled
the manner of his return that night, no less than his former
acts of faith, and she was about to leave the passage for his
egress open, when an uproar arose on the air which filled
the valley with all the hideous cries and yells of a savage
onset. Drawing the bolt, the startled woman descended,
without further thought, and rushed to her post, with the
hurry of one who saw only the necessity of exertion in
another scene.
"Stand to the timbers, Reuben Ring! Bear back the
skulking murderers on their bloody followers ! The pikes !
Here, Dudley, is opening for thy valor. The Lord have
mercy on the souls of the ignorant heathen ! " mingled with
the reports of musketry, the whoops of the warriors, the
whizzing of bullets and arrows, with all the other accompa-
niments of such a contest, were the fearful sounds that
saluted the senses of Ruth as she issued into the court. The
valley was occasionally lighted by the explosion of fire-
arms, and then, at times, the horrible din prevailed in the
gloom of deep darkness. Happily, in the midst of all this
142 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH.
confusion and violence, the young men of the valley were
true to their duties. An alarming attempt to scale the
stockade had already been repulsed, and the true character
of two or three feints having been ascertained, the principal
force of the garrison was now actively employed in resist-
ing the main attack.
" In the name of Him who is with us in every danger ! "
exclaimed Ruth, advancing to two figures that were so
busily engaged in their own concerns, as not to heed her
approach, " tell me how goes the struggle ? Where are
my husband and the boy ? Or has it pleased Providence
that any of our people should be stricken ?"
" It hath pleased the Devil," returned Eben Dudley,
somewhat irreverently for one of that chastened school, " to
send an Indian arrow through jerkin and skin into this arm
of mine ! Softly, Faith ; dost think, girl, that the cover-
ing of man is like the coat of a sheep, .from which the
fleece may be plucked at will ? I am no moulting fowl,
nor is this arrow a feather of my wing. The Lord forgive
the rogue for the ill turn he hath done my flesh, say I, and
amen like a Christian ! Fie will have occasion too for the
mercy, seeing he hath nothing further to hope for in this
world. Now, Faith, I acknowledge the debt of thy kind-
ness, and let there be no more cutting speech between us.
Thy tongue often pricketh more sorely than the Indian's
arrow."
"Whose fault is it that old acquaintance hath sometimes
been overlooked in new conversations ? Thou knowest
that, wooed by proper speech, no maiden in the Colony
is wont to render gentler answer. Dost feel uneasiness in
thine arm, Dudley ?"
" 'Tis not tickling with a straw, to drive a flint-headed
arrow to the bone! I forgive thee the matter of too much
discourse with the trooper, and all the side-cuts of thy over-
ambling tongue, on conditions that "
" Out upon thee, brawler ! Would'st be prating here
the night long on pretence of a broken skin, and the savage
at our gates ? A fine character will the madam render of
thy deeds when the other youths have beaten back the In-
dian, and thou loitering among the buildings!"
The discomfited borderer was about to curse in his heart
the versatile humor of his mistress, when he saw, by a side
glance, that ears which had no concern in the subject had
like to have shared in the matter of their discourse. Seiz-
ing the weapon which was leaning against the foundation
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH. 143
of the block, he hurried past the mistress of the family,
and in another minute his voice and his musket were again
heard ringing in the uproar.
" Does he bring tidings from the palisadoes ? " repeated
Ruth, too anxious that the young man should return to his
post, to arrest his retreat. " What saith he of the onset ? "
"The savage hath suffered for his boldness, and little
harm hath yet come to our people. Except that yon block
of a man hath managed to put arm before the passage of
an arrow, I know not that any of our people have been
harmed."
" Harken ! they retire, Ruth. The yells are less near,
and our young men will prevail ! Go thou to thy charge
among the piles of the fuel, and see that no lurker remain-
eth to do injury. The Lord hath remembered mercy, and
it may yet arrive that this evil shall pass away from before
us!"
The quick ear of Ruth had not deceived her. The tu-
mult of the assault was gradually receding from the works,
and though the flashings of the muskets and the bellowing
reports that rang in the surrounding forest were not less
frequent than before, it was plain that the critical moment
of the onset was already past. In place of the fierce effort
to carry the stockade by surprise, the savages had now re-
sorted to means that were more methodical, and which,
though not so appalling in appearance, were perhaps quite
as certain of final success. Ruth profited by a momentary
cessation in the flight of the missiles, to seek those in
whose welfare she had placed her chief, concern.
" Has otherthan brave Dudley suffered by this assault ?"
demanded the anxious wife, as she passed swiftly among a
group of dusk} figures that were collected in consultation
on the brow of the declivity ; " has any need of such care
as a woman's hand may bestow ? Heathcote, thy person
is unharmed ! "
" Truly, One of great mercy hath watched over it, for
little opportunity hath been given to look to our own
safety. I fear that some of our young men have not re-
garded the covers with the attention that prudence re-
quires."
" The thoughtless Mark hath not forgotten my admo-
nitions ! Boy, thou hast never lost sight of duty so far as
to precede thy father ? "
" One sees or thinks little but of the red-skins when the
whoop is ringing among the timbers of the palisadoes,
144 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH.
mother," returned the boy, dashing his hand across his brow,
in order that the drops of blood which were trickling from
a furrow left by the passage of an arrow, might not be seen.
" I have kept near my father, but whether in his front or in
his rear the darkness hath not permitted me to note."
"The lad hath behaved in a bold and seemly manner,"
said the stranger ; "and he hath shown the metal of his
grandsire's stock. Ha ! what is't we see gleaming among
the sheds ? A sortie may be needed to save the granaries
and thy folds from destruction ! "
" To the barns ! to the barns ! " shouted two of the youths,
from their several look-outs. " The brand is in the build-
ings !" exclaimed a maiden, who discharged a similar duty
under cover of the dwellings. Then followed a discharge
of muskets, all of which were levelled at the glancing light
that was glaring in fearful proximity to the combustible
materials which filled the most of the out-buildings. A
savage yell, and the sudden extinguishment of the blazing
knot, announced the fatal accuracy of the aim.
" This may not be neglected ! " exclaimed Content, moved
to extraordinary excitement by the extremity of the danger.
" Father ! " he called aloud, " 'tis fitting time to show our
utmost strength."
A moment of suspense succeeded this summons. The
whole valley was then as suddenly lighted as if a torrent of
the electric fluid had flashed across its gloomy bed ; a sheet
of flame glanced from the attic of the block, and then came
the roar of the little piece of artillery, which had so long
dwelt there in silence. The rattling of a shot among the
sheds, and the rending of timber, followed. Fifty dark
forms were seen by the momentary light gliding from
among the out-buildings, in an alarm natural to their igno-
rance, and with an agility proportioned to their alarm.
The moment was propitious. Content silently motioned to
Reuben Ring ; they passed the postern together, and dis-
appeared in the direction of the barns. The period of their
absence was one of intense care to Ruth, and it was not
without its anxiety even to those whose nerves were better
steeled. A few moments, however, served to appease these
feelings ; for the adventurers Returned in safety and as
silently as they had quitted the defences. The trampling
of feet on the crust of the snow, the neighing of horses,
and the bellowing of frightened cattle, as the terrified beasts
scattered about the fields, soon proclaimed the object of the
risk which had just been run.
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH. 145
" Enter," whispered Ruth, who held the postern with her
own hand. " Enter of Heaven's mercy ! Thou hast given
liberty to every hoof, that no living creature perish by the
flames ? "
" All ; and truly not too speedily — for, see — the brand is
fit work ! "
Content had much reason to felicitate himself on his ex-
pedition ; for, even while he spoke, half-concealed torches,
made as usual of blazing knots of pine, were again seen
glancing across the fields, evidently approaching the out-
buildings, by such indirect and covered paths as might pro-
tect those who bore them from the shot of the garrison. A
final and common effort was made to arrest the danger.
The muskets of the young men were active, and more than
once did the citadel of the stern old Puritan give forth its
flood of flame, in order to beat back the dangerous visitants.
A few shrieks of savage disappointment and of bodily an-
guish announced the success of these discharges; but though
most of those who approached the barns were either driven
back in fear or suffered for their temerity, one among
them, more wary or more practised than his companions,
found means to effect his object. The firing had ceased,
and the besieged were congratulating themselves on suc-
cess, when a sudden light glared across the fields. A sheet
of flame soon came curling over the crest of a wheat-stack,
and quickly wrapped the inflammable material in its fierce
torrent. Against this destruction there remained no rem-
edy. The barns and inclosures, which so lately had been
lying in the darkness of the hour, were instantly illumi-
nated, and life would have been the penalty paid by any of
either party who should dare to trust his person within the
bright glare. The borderers were soon compelled to fall
back, even within the shadows of the hill, and to seek such
covers as the stockades offered in order to avoid the aim of
the arrow or the bullet.
" This is a mournful spectacle to one that has harvested
in charity with all men," said Content to the trembler who
convulsively grasped his arm, as the flame whirled in the
currents of the heated air, and sweeping once or twice
across the roof of a shed, left a portion of its torrent creep-
ing insidiously along the wooden covering. "The ingather-
ing of a blessed season is about to melt into ashes before
the brand of these accur "
" Peace, Heathcote ! What is wealth, or the fulness of
thy granaries, to that which remains? Check these repin-
10
146 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH.
ings of thy spirit, and bless God that he leaveth us out
babes, and the safety of our inner roofs."
" Thou sayest truly," returned the husband, endeavoring
to imitate the meek resignation of his companion. " What
indeed are the gifts of the world, set in the balance against
the peace of mind — ha ! that evil blast of wind sealeth the
destruction of our harvest ! The fierce element is in the
heart of the granaries."
Ruth made no reply, for though less moved by worldly
cares than her husband, the frightful progress of the con-
flagration alarmed her with a sense of personal danger.
The flames had passed from roof to roof, and meeting
everywhere with fuel of the most combustible nature, the
whole of the vast range of barns, sheds, granaries, cribs,
and out-buildings, was just breaking forth in the brightness
of a torrent of fire. Until this moment, suspense, with
hope on one side and apprehension on the other, had kept
both parties mute spectators of the scene. But yells of
tiiumph soon proclaimed the delight with which the In-
dians witnessed the completion of their fell design. Then
whoops followed this burst of pleasure, and a third onset
was made.
The combatants now fought under a brightness which,
though less natural, was scarcely less brilliant than that of
noonday. Stimulated by the prospect of success which
was offered by the conflagration, the savages rushed upon
the stockade with more audacity than it was usual to dis-
play in their cautious warfare. A broad shadow was cast,
by the hill and its buildings, across the fields on the side
opposite to the flames, and through this belt of compara-
tive gloom, the fiercest of the band made their way to the
very palisadoes with impunity. Their presence was an-
nounced by the yell of delight, for too many curious eyes
had been drinking in the fearful beauty of the conflagra-
tion to note their approach until the attack had nearly
proved successful. The rushes to the defence and to the
attack were now alike quick and headlong. Volleys were
useless, for the timbers offered equal security to both as-
sailant and assailed. It was a struggle of hand to hand, in
which numbers would have prevailed, had it not been the
good fortune of the weaker party to act on the defensive.
Blows of the knife were passed swiftly between the tim-
bers, and occasionally the discharge of the musket, or the
twanging of the bow, was heard.
" Stand to the timbers, my men ! " said the deep tones of
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH. 147
the stranger, who spoke in the midst of the fierce struggle
with that commanding and stirring cheerfulness that fa-
miliarity with danger can alone inspire. " Stand to the de-
fences, and they are impassable. Ha ! 'twas well meant,
friend savage," he muttered between his teeth, as he par-
ried, at some jeopardy to one hand, a thrust aimed at his
throat, while with the other he seized the warrior who had
inflicted the blow, and drawing his naked breast with the
power of a giant, full against the opening between the
timbers, he buried his own keen blade to its haft in the
body. The eyes of the victim rolled wildly, and when the
iron hand which bound him to the wood with the power
of a vice, loosened its grasp, he fell motionless on the
earth. This death was succeeded by the usual yell of dis-
appointment, and the assailants disappeared as swiftly as
they had approached.
" God be praised, that we have to rejoice in this advan-
tage ! " said Content, enumerating the individuals of his
force, with an anxious eye, when all were again assembled
at the stand on the hill, where, favored by the glaring
light, they could overlook in comparative security the more
exposed parts of their defences. "We count our own,
though I fear me many may have suffered."
The silence and the occupations of his listeners, most of
whom were stanching their blood, was a sufficient an-
swer.
" Hist, father!" said the quick-eyed and observant Mark ;
" one remaineth on the palisado nearest the wicket. Is it
a savage ? or do I' see a stump in the field beyond ? "
All eyes followed the direction of the hand of the speak-
er, and there was seen, of a certainty, something clinging
to the inner side of one of the timbers, that bore a marked
resemblance to the human form. The part of the stock-
ades, where the seeming figure clung, lay more in obscu-
rity than the rest of the defences, and doubts as to its char-
acter were not alone confined to the quick-sighted lad who-
had first detected its presence.
" Who hangs upon our palisadoes ? " called Eben Dudley.
" Speak, that we do not harm a friend ! "
The wood itself was not more immovable than the dark
object, until the report of the borderer's musket was heard,
and then it came tumbling to the earth like an insensible
mass.
" Fallen like a stricken bear from his tree ! Life was in
it, or no bullet of mine could have loosened the hold!"
148 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH.
exclaimed Dudley, a little in exultation, as he saw the suc«
cess of his aim.
" I will go forward, and see that he is past 'r
The mouth of young Mark was stopped by the hand of
the stranger, who calmly observed —
" I will look into the fate of the heathen, myself." He
was about to proceed to the spot, when the supposed dead
or wounded man sprang to his feet, with a yell that rang
in echoes along the margin of the forest, and bounded to-
ward the cover of the buildings with high and active leaps.
Two or three muskets sent their streaks of flame across
his path, but seemingly without success. Jumping in a
manner to elude the certainty of their fire, the unharmed
savage gave forth another yell of triumph, and disappeared
among the angles of the dwellings. His cries were under-
stood, for answering whoops were heard in the fields, and
the foe without again rallied to the attack.
" This may not be neglected," said he who, more by his
self-possession and air of authority, than by any known
right to command, had insensibly assumed so much con-
trol in the important business of that night. " One like
this, within our walls, may quickly bring destruction on the
garrison. The postern may be opened to an inroad "
"A triple lock secures it," interrupted Content. "The
key is hid where none know to seek it, other than such as
are of our household."
" And happily the means of passing the private wicket
are in my possession," muttered the other, in an under-
tone. " So far, well ; but the brand ! the brand ! the
maidens must look to the fires and lights, while the youths
make good the stockade, since this assault admitteth not of
further delay."
So saying, the stranger gave an example of courage by
proceeding to his stand at the pickets, where, supported
by his companions, he continued to defend the approaches
against a discharge of arrows and bullets that was more
distant, but scarcely less dangerous to the safety of those
who showed themselves on the side of the acclivity, than
those which had been previously showered upon the gar-
rison.
In the meantime, Ruth summoned her assistants, and
hastened to discharge the duty which had just been pre-
scribed. Water was cast freely on all the fires, and, as the
still raging conflagration continued to give far more light
than was either necessary or safe, care was taken to extin-
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH. 149
guish any torch or candle that, in the hurry of alarm, might
have been left to moulder in its socket, throughout the ex-
tensive range of the dwellings and the offices.
CHAPTER XIV.
" Thou mild, sad mother —
Quit him not so soon !
Mother, in mercy, stay !
Despair and death are with him ; and canst thoit,
With that kind, earthward look, go leave him now ? "
— DANA.
WHEN these precautions were taken, the females returned
to their several look-outs, and Ruth, whose duty it was in
moments of danger to exercise a general superintendence,
was left to her meditations and to such watchfulness as her
fears might excite. Quitting the inner rooms, she ap-
proached the door that communicated with the court, and
for a moment lost the recollection of her immediate cares
in a view of the imposing scene by which she was sur-
rounded.
By this time, the whole of the vast range of out-build-
ings which had been constructed— as was usual in the col-
onies— of the most combustible materials and with no
regard to the expenditure of wood, was wrapt in fire.
Notwithstanding the position of the intermediate edifices,
broad flashes of light were constantly crossing the court
itself, on whose surface she was able to distinguish the
smallest object, while the heavens above her were glaring
with a lurid red. Through the openings between the
buildings of the quadrangle, the eye could look out upon
the fields, where she saw every evidence of a sullen inten-
tion on the part of the savages to persevere in their ob
ject. Dark, fierce-looking, and nearly naked human forms
were seen flitting from cover to cover, while there was no
stump nor log within arrow's flight of the defences, that
did not protect the person of a daring and indefatigable
enemy. It was plain the Indians were there in hundreds,
and as the assaults continued after the failure of a surprise,
it was too evident that they wrere bent on victory, at some
hazard to themselves. No usual means of adding to the
horrors of the scene were neglected. Whoops and yells
were incessantly ringing around the olace^ while the loud
150 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON- WISH.
and often-repeated tones of a conch betrayed the artifice
by which the savages had so often endeavored, in the ear*
Her part of the night, to lure the garrison out of the palisa*
does. A few scattering shot, discharged with deliberation
and from every exposed point within the works, proclaimed
both the coolness and the vigilance of the defendants. The
little gun in the block-house was silent ; for the Puritan
knew too well its real power to lessen its reputation by a
too frequent use. The weapon was therefore reserved for
those moments of pressing danger that would be sure to
arrive.
On this spectacle Ruth gazed in fearful sadness. The
long-sustained and sylvan security of her abode was vio-,
lently destroyed, and in the place of a quiet which had
approached as near as may be on earth to that holy peace
for which her spirit strove, she and all she most loved were
suddenly confronted to the most frightful exhibition of
human horrors. In such a moment, the feelings of a
mother were likely to revive ; and ere time was given for
reflection, aided by the light of the conflagration, the ma-
tron was moving swiftly through the intricate passages of
the dwelling, in quest of those whom she had placed in
the security of the chambers.
" Thou hast remembered to avoid looking on the fields,
my children," said the nearly breathless woman as she
entered the room. " Be thankful, babes ; hitherto the
efforts of the savages have been vain, and we still remain
masters of our habitations."
" Why is the night so red ? Come hither, mother ;
thou mayest look into the wood as if the sun were shin-
ing!"
" The heathens have fired our granaries, and what thou
seest is the light of the flames. But happily they cannot
put brand into the dwellings, while thy father and the
young men stand to their weapons. We must be grateful
for this security, frail as it seemeth. Thou hast knelt, my
Ruth, and hast remembered to think of thy father and
brother in thy prayers."
" I will do so again, mother," whispered the child, bend-
ing to her knees, and wrapping her young features in the
garments of the matron.
" Why hide thy countenance ? One young and innocent
as thou may lift thine eyes to Heaven with confidence"
"Mother, I see the Indian unless my face be hid. He
looketh at me, I fear, with wish to do us harm."
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH. 151
"Thou art not just to Miantonimoh, child," answered
Ruth, as she glanced her eye rapidly round to seek the
boy, who had modestly withdrawn into a remote and
shaded corner of the room. u I left him with thee for a
guardian, and not as one who would wish to injure. Now
think of thy God, child," imprinting a kiss on the cold,
marble-like forehead of her daughter, "and have reliance
in His goodness. Miantonimoh, I again leave you with a
charge to be their protector," she added, quitting her
daughter and advancing toward the youth.
" Mother ! " shrieked the child, " come to me, or I die ! "
Ruth turned from the listening captive with the quick-
ness of instinct. A glance showed her the jeopardy of her
offspring. A naked savage, dark, powerful of frame, and
fierce in the frightful masquerade of his war-paint, stood
winding the silken hair of the girl in one hand, while he
already held the glittering axe above a head that seemed
inevitably devoted to destruction.
" Mercy ! mercy ! " exclaimed Ruth, hoarse with horror,
and dropping to her knees, as much from inability to stand
as with intent to petition. " Monster, strike me ; but spare
the child !"
The eyes of the Indian rolled over the person of the
speaker, but it was with an expression that seemed rather
to enumerate the number of his victims than to announce
any change of purpose. With a fiend-like coolness that
bespoke much knowledge of the ruthless practice, he
again swung the quivering but speechless child in the air,
and prepared to direct the weapon with a fell certainty of
aim. The tomahawk had made its last circuit, and an in-
stant would have decided the fate of the victim, when the
captive boy stood in front of the frightful actor in this
revolting scene. By a quick, forward movement of his
arm, the blow was arrested. The deep guttural ejacula-
tion which betrays the surprise of an Indian, broke from
the chest of the savage, while his hand fell to his side, and
the form of the suspended girl was suffered again to touch
the floor. The look and gesture with which the boy had
interfered, expressed authority rather than resentment or
horror. His air was calm, collected, and, as it appeared by
the effect, imposing.
" Go," "he said, in the language of the fierce people from
whom he had sprung; "the warriors of the pale men are
calling thee by name."
" The snow is red with the blood of our yQung men/
152 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON- WISH.
the other fiercely answered ; " and not a scalp is at the belt
of my people."
' " These are mine," returned the boy, with dignity, sweep*
ing his arm while speaking, in a manner to show that he
extended protection to all present.
The warrior gazed about him grimly, and like one but
half-convinced. He had incurred a danger too fearful in
entering the stockade to be easily diverted from his pur-
pose.
" Listen ! " he continued, after a short pause, during
which the artillery of the Puritan had again bellowed in
the uproar without. " The thunder is with the Yengeese !
Our young women will look another way, and call us
Pequots, should there be no scalps on our pole."
For a single moment the countenance of the boy
changed, and his resolution seemed to waver. The other,
who watched his eyes with longing eagerness, again seized
his victim by the hair, when Ruth shrieked in the accents
of despair —
" Boy ! boy ! if thou art not with us, God hath deserted
us!"
" She is mine," burst fiercely from the lips of the lad.
" Hear my words, Wompahwisset : the blood of my father
is very warm within me."
The other paused, and the blow was once more sus-
pended. The glaring eyeballs of the savage rested in-
tently on the swelling form and stern countenance of the
young hero, whose uplifted hand appeared to menace in-
stant punishment, should he dare to disregard the media-
tion. The lips of the warrior severed, and the word
" Miantonimoh " was uttered as softly as if it recalled a
feeling of sorrow. Then, as a sudden burst of yells rose
above the roar of the conflagration, the fierce Indian
turned in his tracks, and abandoning the trembling and
nearly insensible child, he bounded away like a hound
loosened on a fresh scent of blood.
" Boy ! boy ! " murmured the mother ; heathen or
Christian, there is one that will bless thee "
A rapid gesture of the hand interrupted the fervent ex-
pression of her gratitude. Pointing after the form of the
retreating savage, the lad encircled his own head with a
finger, in a manner that could not be mistaken, as he
uttered steadily, but with the deep emphasis of an In-
dian—
" The young pale-face has a scalp ! "
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH. 153
Ruth heard no more. With instinctive rapidity, every
feeling of her soul quickened nearly to agony, she rushed
below, in order to warn Mark against the machinations of
so fearful an enemy. Her step was heard but for a mo-
ment in the vacant chambers, and then the Indian boy,
whose steadiness and authority had just been so signally
exerted in favor of the children, resumed his attitude of
meditation as quietly as if he took no further interest in
the frightful events of the night.
The situation of the garrison was now, indeed, to the
last degree critical. A torrent of fire had passed from
the further extremity of the out-houses to that which
stood nearest to the defences ; and as building after
building melted beneath its raging power, the palisadoes
became heated nearly to the point of ignition. The alarm
created by this imminent danger had already been given,
and when Ruth issued into the court a female was rush-
ing past her, seemingly on some errand of the last neces-
sity.
"Hast seen him?" demanded the breathless mother,
arresting the steps of the quick-moving girl.
"Not since the savage made his last onset ; but I war-
rant me he may be found near the western loops, making
good the works against the enemy ! "
" Surely he is not foremost in the fray ! Of whom
speakest thou, Faith? I questioned thee of Mark. There
is one, even now, raging within the pickets, seeking a
victim."
" Truly, I thought it had been a question of the boy
is with his father and the stranger soldier, who does such
deeds of valor in our behalf. I have seen no enemy with-
in the palisadoes, Madam H<?athcote, since the entry of the
man who escaped, by favor of the powers of darkness, from
the shot of Eben Dudley's musket."
" And is this evil like to pass from us," resumed Ruth,
breathing more freely, as she learned the safety of her
son, " or does Providence veil its face in anger ?"
u We keep our own, though the savage hath pressed the
young men to extremity. Oh ! it gladdened heart to see
how brave a guard Rueben Ring and others near him made
in our behalf. I do think me, Madam Heathcote, that af^
ter all there is real manhood in the brawler Dudley ! Tru-
ly, the youth hath done marvels in the way of exposure
and resistance. Twenty times this night have I expected
to see him slain."
154 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH.
"And he that lieth there ?" half-whispered the alarmed
Ruth, pointing to a spot near them, where, aside from the
movements of those that still acted in the bustle of the
combat, one lay stretched on the earth—" who hath fal-
len?"
The cheek of Faith blanched to a whiteness that nearly
equalled that of the linen, which, even in the hurry of such
a scene, some friendly hand had found leisure to throw in
decent sadness over the form.
" That ! " said the faltering girl ; " though hurt and
bleeding, my brother Reuben surely keepeth the loop at
the western angle ; nor is Whittal wanting in sufficient
sense to take heed of danger. This may not be the stran-
ger, for under the covers of the postern breastwork he hold-
eth counsel with the young captain."
" Art certain, girl ?"
" I saw them both within the minute. Would to God
we could hear the shout of noisy Dudley, Madam Heath-
cote ; his cry cheereth the heart, in a moment awful as
this ! "
"Lift the cloth," said Ruth, with calm solemnity, "that
we may know which of our friends hath been called to the
great account."
Faith hesitated ; and when by a powerful effort, in which
secret interest had as deep an influence as obedience, she
did comply, it was with a sort of desperate resolution. On
raising the linen, the eyes of the two women rested on the
pallid countenance of one who had been transfixed by an
iron-headed arrow. The girl dropped the linen, and in a
voice that sounded like a burst of hysterical feeling, she
exclaimed —
" 'Tis but the youth that came lately among us ! We
are spared the loss of any ancient friend."
"Tis one who died for our safety. I would give large-
ly of this world's comforts, that this calamity might not
have been, or that greater leisure for the last fearful reck-
oning had been accorded. But we may not lose the mo-
ments in mourning. Hie thee, girl, and sound the alarm
that a savage lurketh within our walls, and that he skulk-
eth in quest of a secret blow. Bid all be wary. If the
young Mark should cross thy path, speak to him twice of
this danger ; the child hath a froward spirit, and may not
hearken to words uttered in too great hurry."
With this charge Ruth quitted" her maiden. While the
latter proceeded to give the necessary notice, the other
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON- WISH. 155
sought the spot where she had just learned there was ica-
son to believe her husband might be found.-
Content and the stranger were in fact met in consulta-
tion over the danger which threatened destruction to their
most important means of defence. The savages themselves
appeared to be conscious that the flames were working in
their favor ; for their efforts sensibly slackened, and having
already severely suffered in their attempts to annoy the
garrison, they had fallen back to their covers, and awaited
the moment when their practised cunning should tell them
they might, with more flattering promises of success, again
rally to the onset. A brief explanation served to make
Ruth acquainted with the imminent jeopardy of their sit-
uation. Under a sense of a more appalling danger she
lost the recollection of her former purpose, and with a con-
tracted and sorrowing eye she stood like her companions,
in impotent helplessness, an entranced spectator of the
progress of the destruction.
" A soldier should not waste words in useless plaints," ob-
served the stranger, folding his arms like one who was con-
scious that human effort could do no more, " else should I
say, 'tis pity that he who drew yon line of stockade hath
not remembered the uses of the ditch."
" I will summon the maidens to the wells," said Ruth.
" 'Twill not avail us. The arrow would be among them,
nor could mortal long endure the heat of yon glowing fur-
nace. Thou seest that the timbers already smoke and blacken
under its fierceness."
The stranger was still speaking, when a small quivering
flame played on the corners of the palisado nearest the
burning pile. The element fluttered like a waving line
along the edges of the heated wood, after which it spread
over the whole surface of the timber, from its larger base
to the pointed summit. As if this had merely been the sig-
nal of a general destruction, the flames kindled in fifty
places at the same instant, and then the whole line of the
stockade, nearest the conflagration, was covered with fire.
A yell of triumph arose in the fields, and a flight of ar-
rows, sailing tauntingly into the works, announced the
fierce impatience of those who watchecj the increase of the
conflagration.
"We shall be driven to our block," said Content. "As-
semble thy maidens, Ruth, and make speedy preparation
for the last retreat."
" T. go ; but hazard not thy life in any vain endeavor to
i$6 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH.
retard the flames. There will yet be time for all that is»
needful to our security."
" I know not," hurriedly observed the stranger. " Here
cometh the assault in a new aspect ! "
The feet of Ruth were arrested. On looking upwards
she saw the object which had drawn this remark from the
last speaker. A small bright ball of fire had arisen out of
the fields, and, describing an arc in the air, it sailed above
their heads and fell on the shingles of a building which
formed part of the quadrangle of the inner court. The
movement was that of an arrow thrown from a distant bow,
and its way was to be traced by a long trail of light, that
followed its course like a blazing meteor. This burning
arrow had been sent with a cool and practised judgment.
It lighted upon a portion of the combustibles that were
nearly as inflammable as gunpowder, and the eye had
scarcely succeeded in tracing it to its fall, ere the bright
flames were seen stealing over the heated roof.
" One struggle for our habitations ! " cried Content —
but the hand of the stranger was placed firmly on his
shoulder. At that instant, a dozen similar meteor-looking
balls shot into the air, and fell in as many different
places on the already half-kindled pile. Further efforts
would have been useless. Relinquishing the hope of
saving his property, every thought was now given to per-
sonal safety.
Ruth recovered from her short trance, and hastened
with hurried steps to perform her well-known office. Then
came a few minutes of exertion, during which the females
transferred all that was necessary to their subsistence, and
which had not been already provided in the block, to their
little citadel. The glowing light, which penetrated the
darkest passages among the buildings, prevented this
movement from being made without discovery. The
whoop summoned their enemies to another attack. The
arrows thickened in the air, and the important duty was
not performed without risk, as all were obliged, in some
degree, to expose their persons, while passing to and fro.
loaded with necessaries. The gathering smoke, however,
served in some measure for a screen ; and it was not long
before Content received the welcome tidings that he might
command the retreat of his young men from the palisadoes.
The conch sounded the necessary signal, and ere the foe
had time to understand its meaning, or profit by the de-
fenceless state of the works, every individual within them
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH. 157
had reached the door of the block in safety. Still, there
was more of hurry and confusion than altogether com-
ported with their safety. They who were assigned to that
duty, however, mounted eagerly to the loops, and stood
m readiness to pour out their fire on whoever might dare
to come within its reach, while a few still lingered in
the court, to see that no necessary provision for resist-
ance, or of safety, was forgotten. Ruth had been fore-
most in exertion, and she now stood pressing her hands
to her temples, like one whose mind was bewildered by her
own efforts.
" Our fallen friend ! " she said. " Shall we leave his re-
mains to be mangled by the savage ? "
" Surely not ; Dudley, thy hand. We will bear the body
within the lower — ha ! death hath struck another of our
family."
The alarm with which Content made this discovery
passed quickly to all in hearing. It was but too apparent,
by the shape of the linen, that two bodies lay beneath its
folds. Anxious and rapid looks were cast from face to face,
in order to learn who was missing ; and then, conscious of
the hazard of further delay, Content raised the linen, in
order to remove all doubts by certainty. The form of the
young borderer, who was known to have fallen, was first
slowly and reverently uncovered ; but even the most self-
restrained among the spectators started back in horror, as
his robbed and reeking head showed that a savage hand
had worked its ruthless will on the unresisting corpse.
" The other ! " Ruth struggled to say, and it was only as
her husband had half removed the linen that she could
succeed in uttering the words — " Beware the other ! "
The warning was not useless, for the linen waved vio-
lently as it rose under the hand of Content, and a grim
Indian sprang into the very centre of the startled group.
Sweeping his armed hand widely about him, the savage
broke through the receding circle, and giving forth the
appalling whoop of his tribe, he bounded into the open
door of the principal dwelling, so swiftly as utterly to defeat
any design of pursuit. The arms of Ruth were frantically
extended towards the place where he had disappeared, and
she was about to rush madly on his footsteps, when the
hand of her husband stopped the movement.
" Would'st hazard life, to save some worthless trifle?"
" Husband, release me ! " returned the woman, nearly
choked with her agony — " nature hath slept within me."
158 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH.
" Fear blindeth thy reason ! "
The form of Ruth ceased to struggle. All the madness
which had been glaring wildly about her eyes, disappeared
in the settled look of an almost preternatural calm. Col-
lecting the whole of her mental energy in one desperate
effort of self-command, she turned to her husband, and, as
her bosom swelled with the terror that seemed to stop her
breath, she said in a voice that was frightful by its com
posure —
" If thou hast a father's heart, release me. Our babes
have been forgotten ! "
The hand of Content relaxed its hold, and, in another
instant, the form of his wife was lost to view on the track
that had just been taken by the successful savage. This
was the luckless moment chosen by the foe to push his ad-
vantage. A fierce burst of yells proclaimed the activity
of the assailant, and a general discharge from the loops of
the block-house sufficiently apprised those in the court
that the onset of the enemy was now pushed into the very
heart of the defences. All had mounted, but the few who
lingered to discharge the melancholy duty to the dead.
They were too few to render resistance prudent, and yet
too many to think of deserting the distracted mother and
her offspring without an effort.
" Enter," said Content, pointing to the door of the block.
" It is my duty to share the fate of those nearest my
blood."
The stranger made no answer. Placing his powerful
hands on the nearly stupefied husband, he thrust his per-
son, by an irresistible effort, within the basement of the
building, and then he signed, by a quick gesture, for all
around him to follow. After the last form had entered, he
commanded that the fastenings of the door should be se-
cured, remaining himself, as he believed, alone without.
But when by a rapid glance he saw there was another gaz-
ing in dull awe on the features of the fallen man, it was
too late to rectify the mistake. Yells were now rising out
of the black smoke that was rolling in volumes from the
heated buildings, and it was plain that only a few feet di-
vided them from their pursuers. Beckoning the man who
had been excluded from the block to follow, the stern
soldier rushed into the principal dwelling, which was still
but little injured by the fire. Guided rather by chance
than by any knowledge of the windings of the building,
he soon found himself in the chambers. He was now at a
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH. 159
loss whither to proceed. At that moment, his companion^
who was no other than Whittal Ring, took the lead, and in
another instant they were at the door of the secret apart-
ment.
" Hist ! " said the stranger, raising a hand to command
silence as he entered the room. " Our hope is in secrecy."
" And how may we escape without detection ? ',' de-
manded the mother, pointing about her at objects illumi-
nated by a light so powerful as to penetrate every cranny
of the ill-constructed building. " The noonday sun is scarce
brighter than this dreadful fire ! "
" God is in the elements ! His guiding hand shall point
the way. But here we may not tarry, for the flames are
already on the shingles. Follow, and speak not."
Ruth pressed the children to her side, and the whole
party left the apartment of the attic in a body. Their de-
scent to a lower room was made quickly, and without dis-
covery. But here their leader paused, for the state of things
without was one to demand the utmost steadiness of nerve,
and great reflection.
The Indians had by this time gained command of the
whole of Mark Heathcote's possessions, with the exception
of the block-house ; and as their first act had been to apply
the brand wherever it might be wanting, the roar of the
conflagration was now heard in every direction. The dis-
charge of muskets and the whoops of the combatants, how-
ever, while they added to the horrible din of such a scene,
proclaimed the unconquered resolution of those who held
the citadel. A window of the room they occupied enabled
the stranger to take a cautious survey of what was passing
without. The court, lighted to the brilliancy of day, was
empty ; for the increasing heat of the fires, no less than
the discharges from the loops, still kept the cautious sav-
ages to their covers. There was barely hope, that the space
between the dwelling and the block-house might yet be
passed in safety.
" I would I had asked that the door of the block should
be held in hand," muttered Submission ; <l it would be
death to linger an instant in that fierce light ; nor have we
any manner of —
A touch was laid upon his arm, and turning, the speaker
saw the dark eye of the captive boy looking steadily in his
face.
"Wilt do it ? " demanded the other, in a manner to show
that he doubted, while he hoped.
Lto THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH.
A speaking gesture of assent was the answer, and then
the form of the lad was seen gliding quietly from the room.
Another instant, and Miantonimoh appeared in the court.
He walked with the deliberation that one would have
shown in moments of the »most entire security. A hand
was raised toward the loops, as if to betoken amity, and
then dropping the limb, he moved with the same slow step
into the very centre of the area. Here the boy stood in
the fullest glare of the conflagration, and turned his face
deliberately on every side of him. The action showed that
he wished to invite all eyes to examine his person. At this
moment the yells ceased in the surrounding covers, pro-
claiming alike the common feeling that was awakened by
his appearance, and the hazard that any other would have
incurred by exposing himself in that fearful scene. When
this act of exceeding confidence had been performed, the
boy drew a pace nearer to the entrance of the block.
" Comest thou in peace, or is this another device of In-
dian treachery ? " demanded a voice, through an opening
in the door left expressly for the purposes of parley.
The boy raised the palm of one hand toward the
speaker, while he laid the other with a gesture of confi-
dence on his naked breast.
" Hast aught to offer in behalf of my wife and babes ?
If gold will buy their ransom, name thy price."
Miantonimoh was at no loss to comprehend the other's
meaning. With the readiness of one whose faculties had
been early schooled in the inventions of emergencies, he
made a gesture that said even more than his figurative
words, as he answered —
" Can a woman of the pale-faces pass through wood ?
An Indian arrow is swifter than the foot of my mother."
" Boy, I trust thee," returned the voice from within the
loop. " If thou deceivest beings so feeble and so innocent,
Heaven will remember the wrong."
Miantonimoh again made a sign to show that caution
must be used, and then he retired with a step calm and
measured as that used in his advance. Another pause to
the shouts betrayed the interest of those whose fierce eyes
watched his movements in the distance.
When the young Indian had rejoined the party in the
dwelling, he led them, without being observed by the lurk-
ing band that still hovered in the smoke of the surround-
ing buildings, to a spot that commanded a full view of
their short but perilous route. At this moment the doo/
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH. 161
of the block-house half opened, and was closed again.
Still the stranger hesitated, for he saw how little was the
chance that all should cross the court unharmed, and to
pass it by repeated trials he knew to be impossible.
" Boy," he said, " thou, who hast done thus much, may
still do more. Ask mercy for these children, in some
manner that may touch the hearts of thy people."
Miantonimoh shook his head, and pointing to the ghastly
corpse that lay in the court, he answered coldly —
" The red man has tasted blood "
" Then must the desperate trial be done ! Think not of
thy children, devoted and daring mother, but look only to
thine own safety. This witless youth and I will charge our-
selves with the care of the innocents."
Ruth waved him away with her hand, pressing her mute
and trembling daughter to her bosom, in a manner to show
that her resolution was taken. The stranger yielded, and
turning to Whittftl, who stood near him, seemingly as much
occupied in vacant admiration of the blazing piles as in
any apprehension of his own personal danger, he bade him
look to the safety of the remaining child. Moving in front
himself, he was about to offer Ruth such protection as the
case afforded, when a window in the rear of the house was
dashed inwards, announcing the entrance of the enemy,
and the imminent danger that their flight would be inter-
cepted. There was no time to lose, for it was now certain
that only a single room separated them from their foes.
The generous nature of Ruth was aroused, and catching
Martha from the arms of Whittal Ring, she endeavored by
a desperate effort, in which feeling rather than any reason-
able motive predominated, to envelop both the children
in her robe.
" I am with ye ! " whispered the agitated woman : " hush
ye, hush ye, babes ! thy mother is nigh ! "
The stranger was very differently employed. The in-
stant the crash of glass was heard, he rushed to the rear ;
and he had already grappled with the savage so often
named, and who acted as guide to a dozen fierce and yelling
followers.
" To the block ! " shouted the steady soldier, while with
a powerful arm he held his enemy in the throat of the nar-
row passage, stopping the approach of those in the rear by
the body of his foe. " For the love of life and children,
woman, to the block ! "
The summons rang frightfully in the ears of Ruth, but in
,62 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON- WISH".
that moment of extreme jeopardy her presence of mind wai
lost. The cry was repeated, and not till then did the be-
wildered mother catch her daughter from the floor. With
eyes still bent on the fierce struggle in her rear, she clasped
the child to her heart and fled, calling on Whittal Ring to
follow. The lad obeyed, and ere she had half crossed the
court the stranger, still holding his savage shield between
him and his enemies, was seen endeavoring to take the
same direction. The whoops, the flight of arrows, and the
discharges of musketry that succeeded, proclaimed the
whole extent of the danger. But fear had lent unnatural
vigor to the limbs of Ruth, and the gliding arrows them-
selves scarce sailed more swiftly through the heated air
than she darted into the open door of the block. Whittal
Ring was less successful. As he crossed the court, bearing
the child intrusted to his care, an arrow pierced his flesh.
Stung by the pain, the witless lad turned in anger to chide
the hand that had inflicted the injury.
" On, foolish boy ! " cried the stranger, as he passed him,
still making a target of the body of the savage that was
writhing in his grasp. " On, for thy life, and that of the
babe ! '«
The mandate came too late. The hand of an Indian was
already on the innocent victim, and in the next instant the
child was sweeping the air, while with a short yell the keen
axe flourished above his head. A shot from the loops laid
the monster dead in his tracks. The girl was instantly
seized by another hand, and as the captor with his prize
darted unharmed into the dwelling, there arose in the block
a common exclamation of the name of u Miantonimoh !"
Two more of the savages profited by the pause of horror
that followed, to lay hands on the wounded Whittal and to
drag him within the blazing building. At the same moment,
the stranger cast the unresisting savage back upon the
weapons of his companions. The bleeding and half-
strangled Indian met the blows which had been aimed at
the life of the soldier, and as he staggered and fell, his
vigorous conqueror disappeared in the block. The door of
the little citadel was instantly closed, and the savages, who
rushed headlong against the entran.ce, heard the fitting of
the bars which secured it against their attacks. The yell of
retreat was raised, and in the next instant the court was
left to the possession of the dead.
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISff. 163
CHAPTER XV.
" Did Heaven look on,
And would not take their part ? —
Heaven rest them now ? " — Macbeth,
"WE will be thankful for this blessing," said Content, as
he aided the half-unconscious Ruth to mount the ladder,
yielding himself to a feeling of nature that said little against
his manhood. " If we have lost one that we loved, God
hath spared our own child ! "
His breathless wife threw herself into a seat, and folding
the treasure to her bosom, she whispered rather than said
aloud — " From my soul, Heathcote, am I grateful ! "
"Thou shieldest the babe from my sight," returned the
father, .stooping to conceal a tear that was stealing down
his brown cheek, under the pretence of embracing the
child — but suddenly recoiling, he added in alarm — " Ruth ! "
Startled by the tone in which her husband uttered her
name, the mother threw aside the folds of her dress which
still concealed the girl, and stretching her out to the length
of an arm, she saw that, in the hurry of the appalling scene,
the children had been exchanged, and that she had saved
the life of Martha !
Notwithstanding the generous disposition of Ruth, it was
impossible to repress the feeling of disappointment which
came over her with the consciousness of the mistake.
Nature at first had sway, and to a degree that was fearfully
powerful.
" It is not our babe ! " shrieked the mother, still holding
the child at the length of her arm, and gazing at its inno-
cent and terrified countenance, with an expression that
Martha had never yet seen gleaming from eyes that were
in common so soft and so indulgent.
" I am thine ! I am thine ! " murmured the little trem-
bler, struggling in vain to reach the bosom that had so
long cherished her infancy. " If not thine, whose am I ?"
The gaze of Ruth was still wild — the workings of her
features hysterical. _
" Madam — Mrs.> Heathcote — mother! " came timidly and
at intervals, f^om the lips of the orphan. Then the heart
of Ruth relented. She clasped the daughter of her friend
to her breast, and nature found a temporary relief in one
164 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON- WISH.
of those frightful exhibitions of anguish which appear to
threaten the dissolution of the link which connects the soul
with the body.
" Come, daughter of John Harding," said Content, look-
ing around him with the assumed composure of a chastened
man, while natural regret struggled hard at his heart ;
" this has been God's pleasure. It is meet that we kiss His
parental hand. Let us be thankful," he added, with a
quivering lip but steady eye, "that even this mercy hath
been shown. Our babe is with the Indian, but our hopes
are far beyond the reach of savage malignity. We have
not ' laid up treasure where moth and rust can corrupt, or
where thieves may break in and steal.' It may be that the
morning shall bring means of parley, and haply, opportu-
nity of ransom."
There was the glimmering of hope in this suggestion.
The idea seemed to give a new direction, to the thoughts
of Ruth, and the change enabled the long habits of self-
restraint to regain something of their former ascendency.
The fountains of her tears became dry, and after one short
and terrible struggle, she was again enabled to appear
composed. But at no time during the continuance of that
fearful struggle was Ruth Heathcote again the same ready
and useful agent of activity and order that she had been in
the earlier events of the night.
It is scarcely necessary to remind the reader that the
brief burst of parental agony which has just been related,
escaped Content and his wife amid a scene in which the
other actors were too much occupied by their exertions
to note its exhibition. The fate of those in the block
was too evidently approaching its close, to allow of any
interest in such an episode to the great tragedy of the
moment.
The character of the contest had in some measure
changed. There was no longer any immediate apprehen-
sion from the missiles of the assailants, though danger
pressed upon the besieged in a new and even in a more
horrible aspect. Now and then indeed an arrow quiv-
ered in the openings of the loops, and the blunt Dudley
had once a narrow escape from the passage of a bullet,
which, guided by chance, or aimed by a hand surer than
common, glanced through one of the narrow slits, and
would have terminated the history of the borderer, had
not the head it obliquely encountered, been too solid to
yield even to such an assault. The attention of the gar-
THE WEPT OF WISff -TON-WISH. 165
risen was chiefly called to the imminent danger of the
surrounding fire. Though the probability of such an
emergency as that in which the family was now placed,
had certainly been foreseen, and in some degree guarded
against, in the size of the area and in the construction of
the block, yet it was found that the danger exceeded all
former calculations.
For the basement, there was no reason to feel alarm.
It was of stone, and of a thickness and a material to put
at defiance any artifice that their enemy might find time
to practise. Even the two upper stories were compara-
tively safe ; for they were composed of blocks so solid as
to require time to heat them, and they were consequently
as little liable to combustion as wood well could be. But
the roof, like all of that, and indeed like most of the pres-
ent day in America, was composed of short inflammable
shingles of pine. The superior height of the tower was
some little protection ; but as the flames rose roaring
above the buildings of the court, and waved in wide cir-
cuits around the heated area, the whole of the fragile cov-
ering of the block was often wrapped in folds of fire. The
result may be anticipated. Content was first recalled from
the bitterness of his parental regret, by a cry which passed
among the family, that the roof of their little citadel was
in flames. One of the ordinary wells of the habitation was
in the basement of the edifice, and it was fortunate that
no precaution necessary to render it serviceable in an
emergency like that which was now arrived, had been
neglected. A well-secured shaft of stone rose through
the lower apartment into the upper floor. Profiting by
this happy precaution, the handmaidens of Ruth plied the
buckets with diligence, while the young men cast water
freely on the roof, from the windows of the attic. The
latter duty it may readily be supposed was not performed
without hazard. Flights of arrows were constantly di-
rected against the laborers, and more than one of the
youths received greater or less injuries while exposed to
their annoyance. There were indeed a few minutes dur-
ing which it remained a question of grave interest how
far the risk they ran was likely to be crowned with suc-
cess. The excessive heat of so many fires, and the occa-
sional contact with the flames, as they swept in eddies over
the place, began to render it doubtful whether any human
efforts could long arrest the evil. Even the massive and
moistened logs of the body of the work began to smoke,
166 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WTSH.
and it was found by experiment, that the hand could rest
but a moment on their surface.
During this interval of deep suspense, all the men posted
at the loops were called to aid in extinguishing the fire.
Resistance was forgotten in the discharge of a duty that
had become still more pressing. Ruth herself was aroused
by the nature of the alarm, and all hands and all minds
were arduously occupied in a toil that diverted attention
from incidents which had less interest, because they were
teeming less with instant destruction. Danger is known
to lose its terrors by familiarity. The young borderers
became reckless of their persons in the ardor of exertion,
and as success began to crown their efforts, something
like the levity of happier moments got the better of their
concern. Stolen and curious glances were thrown around
a place that had so long been kept sacred to the secret
uses of the Puritan, when it was found that the flames
were subdued, and that the present danger was averted.
The light glared powerfully through several openings in
the shingles no less than through the windows, and every
eye was enabled to scan the contents of an apartment
which all had longed, though none had ever before pre-
sumed to enter.
" The captain looketh well to the body," whispered
Reuben Ring to one of his comrades, as he wiped the
effects of the toil from a sunburnt brow. " Thou seest,
Hiram, that there is good store of cheer."
" The buttery is not better stored ! " returned the other,
with the shrewdness and ready observation of a border-
man. " It is known that he never toucheth that which
the cow yields, except as it comes from the creature, and
here we find of the best that the madam's dairy can
yield ! "
" Surely yon buff jerkin is like to those worn by the idle
cavaliers at home ! I think it be long since the captain
hath- ridden forth in such a guise."
"That may be matter of ancient usage, for thou seest he
hath relics of the fashion of the English troopers in this
bit of steel ; it is like he holdeth deep exercise over the
vanities of his youth, while recalling the times in which
they were worn."
This conjecture appeared to satisfy the other, though it
is probable that a sight of a fresh store of bodily aliment,
which was soon after exposed, in order to gain access to
the roof, might have led to some further inferences, had
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH. 167
more time been given to conjectures. But at this moment
a new wail proceeded from the maidens who plied the
buckets beneath.
" To the loops ! to the loops, or we are lost ! " was a
summons that admitted of no delay. Led by the stranger,
the young men rushed below, where, in truth, they found
a serious demand on all their activity and courage.
The Indians were wanting in none of the sagacity which
so remarkably distinguishes the warfare of this cunning
race. The time spent by the family in arresting the flames
had not been thrown away by the assailants. Profiting by
the attention of those within, to efforts that were literally
of the last importance, they had found means to convey
burning brands to the door of the block, against which
they had piled a mass of blazing combustibles, that threat^
ened shortly to»open the way into the basement of the cit-
adel itself. In order to mask this design, and to protect
their approaches, the savages had succeeded in dragging
bundles of straw and other similar materials to the foot of
the work, to which the fire soon communicated, and which
consequently served^ both to increase the actual danger of
the building and to distract the attention of those by whom
it was defended. Although the water that fell from the
roof served to retard the progress of these flames, it con-
tributed to produce the effect of all others that was most
desired by the savages. The dense volumes of smoke that
arose from the half-smothered fire first apprised the females
of the new danger which assailed them. When Content
and the stranger reached the principal floor of their citadel,
it required some little time and no small degree of coolness
to comprehend the situation in which they were now placed.
The vapor that rolled upward from the wret straw and hay
had already penetrated into the apartment, and it was with
no slight difficulty that they who occupied it were enabled
to distinguish objects, or even to breathe.
" Here is matter to exercise our utmost fortitude," said
the stranger to his constant companion. " We must look
to this new device, or we come to the fate of death by fire.
Summon the stoutest-hearted of thy youths, and I will lead
them to a sortie, ere the evil get past a remedy."
" That were certain victory to the heathen. Thou near-
est, by their yells, that 'tis no small band of scouters who
beleaguer us ; a tribe hath sent forth its chosen warriors
to do their wickedness. Better is it that we bestir our-
selves to drive them from our door, and to prevent the
1 68 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH.
further annoyance of this cloud, since, to issue from the
block, at this moment, would be to offer our heads to the
tomahawk ; and to ask mercy is as vain as to hope to move
the rock with tears."
"And in what manner may we do this needful ser*
vice ? "
"Our muskets will still command the entrance, by
means of these downward loops, and water may be yet ap-
plied through the same openings. Thought hath been had
of this danger, in the disposition of the place."
" Then, of Heaven's mercy! delay not the effort."
The necessary measures were taken instantly. Eben
Dudley applied the muzzle of his piece to a loop, and dis-
charged it downwards, in the direction of the endangered
door. But aim was impossible in the obscurity, and his
want of success was proclaimed by a taunting shout of
triumph. Then followed a flood of water, which, however,
was scarcely of more service, since the savages had fore
seen its use, and had made a provision against its effects
by placing boards and such vessels as they found scattered
among the buildings, above the fire, in a manner to pre-
vent most of the fluid from reaching Its aim.
" Come hither with thy musket, Reuben Ring," said
Content, hurriedly ; " the wind stirreth the smoke here ;
the savages will heap fuel against the wall."
The borderer complied. There were in fact moments
when dark human forms were to be seen gliding in silence
around the building, though the density of the vapor ren-
dered the forms indistinct, and their movements doubtful.
With a cool and practised eye the youth sought a victim ;
but as he discharged his musket an object glanced near his
own visage, as though the bullet had recoiled on him who
had given it a very different mission. Stepping backwards
a little hurriedly, he saw the stranger pointing through the
smoke at an arrow, which still quivered in the floor above
them.
"We cannot long abide these assaults," the soldier
muttered ; " something must be speedily devised, or we
fall."
His words ceased, for a yell that appeared to lift the
floor on which he stood, announced the destruction of the
door and the presence of the savages in the basement of
the tower. Both parties appeared momentarily confounded
nt this unexpected success ; for while the one stood mute
with astonishment and dread, the other did little more
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISIL 169
than triumph. But this inaction soon ended. The con-
flict was resumed, though the efforts of the assailants
began to assume the confidence of victory, while on the
part of the besieged they partook fearfully of the aspect
of despair.
A few muskets were discharged, both from below and
above, at the intermediate floor, but the thickness of the
planks prevented the bullets from doing injury. Then
commenced a struggle, in which the respective qualities
of tiie combatants were exhibited in a singularly charac-
teristic manner. While the Indians improved their advan-
tages beneath, with all the arts known to savage warfare,
the young men resisted with that wonderful aptitude of
expedient and readiness of execution which distinguish
the American borderer.
The first attempt of the assailants was to burn the floor
of the lower apartment. In order to eifect this, they threw
vast piles of straw into the basement. But ere the brand
was applied, water had reduced the inflammable material
to a black and murky pile. Still the smoke had nearly
effected a conquest which the fire itself had failed to achieve.
So suffocating indeed were the clouds of vapor which as-
cended through the crevices, that the females were com-
pelled to seek a refuge in the attic. Here the openings in
the roof, and a swift current of air, relieved them in some
degree from its annoyance.
When it was found that the command of the well afforded
the besieged the means of protecting the wood-work of the
interior, an effort was made to cut off the communication
with the water, by forcing a passage into the circular stone
shaft, through which it was drawn into the room above.
This attempt was defeated by the readiness of the youths,
who soon cut holes in the floor, whence they sent down
certain death on all beneath. Perhaps no part of the as-
sault was more obstinate than that which accompanied this
effort ; nor did either assailant or assailed, at any time
during its continuance, suffer greater personal injury.
After a long and fierce struggle, the resistance was effectu-
al, and the savages had recourse to new schemes in order
to effect their ruthless object.
During the first moments of their entrance, and with a
view to reap the fruits of the victory when the garrison
should be more effectually subdued, most of the furniture
of the dwelling had been scattered by the conquerors on
the side of the hill. Among other articles, some six or
i70 THE WEPT OF WIS PI-TON- WISH.
seven beds had been dragged from the dormitories. These
were now brought into play as powerful instruments in the
assault They were cast, one by one, on the still burning
though smothered flames in the basement of the block,
whence they sent up a cloud of their intolerable effluvia.
At this trying moment the appalling cry was heard in the
block that the well had failed ! The buckets ascended as
empty as they went down, and they were thrown aside as
no longer useful. The savages seemed to comprehend
their advantage, for they profited by the confusion that
succeeded among the assailed to feed the slumbering fires.
The flames kindled fiercely, and in less than a minute they
became too violent to be subdued. They were soon seen
playing on the planks of the floor above. The subtle ele-
ment flashed from point to point, and it was not long ere it
was stealing up the outer side of the heated block itself.
The savages now knew that conquest was sure. Yells
and whoopings proclaimed the fierce delight with which
they witnessed the certainty of their victory. Still there
was something portentous in the death-like silence with
which the victims within the block awaited their fate. The
whole exterior of the building was already wrapped in
flames, and yet no show of further resistance, no petition
for mercy, issued from its bosom. The unnatural and
frightful stillness that reigned within was gradually com-
municated to those without. The cries and shouts of tri-
umph ceased, and the crackling of the flames, or the falling
of timber in the adjoining buildings, alone disturbed the
awful calm. At length a solitary voice was heard in the
block. Its tones were deep, solemn, and imploring. The
fierce beings who surrounded the glowing pile bent forward
to listen, for their quick faculties caught the first sounds
that were audible. It was Mark Heathcote pouring out
his spirit in prayer. The petition was fervent, but steady,
and though uttered in words that were unintelligible to
those without, they knew enough of the practices of the
colonists to be aware that it was the chief of the pale-faces
holding communion with his God. Partly in awe, and
partly in doubt of what might be the consequence of so
mysterious an asking, the dark crowd withdrew to a little
distance, and silently watched the progress of the destruc-
tion. They had heard strange sayings of the power of the
Deity of their invaders, and as their victims appeared sud-
denly to cease using any of the known means of safety, they
appeared to expect, perhaps they did expect, some une-
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH. i?l
quivocal manifestation of the power of the Great Spirit of
the stranger.
Still no sign of pity, no relenting from the ruthless bar-
barity of their warfare, escaped any of the assailants. If
they thought at all of the temporal fate of those who
might still exist within the fiery pile, it was only to indulge
in some passing regret that the obstinacy of the defence
had deprived them of the glory of bearing the usual bloody
tokens of victory in triumph to their villages. But even
these peculiar and deeply-rooted feelings were forgotten,
as the progress of the flames placed the hope of its indul-
gence beyond all possibility.
The roof of the block rekindled, and, by the light that
shone through the loops, it was but too evident the in-
terior was in a blaze. Once or twice smothered sounds
came out of the place as if suppressed shrieks were es-
caping the females ; but they ceased so suddenly as to
leave doubts among the auditors whether it were more
than the deception of their own excited fancies. The
savages had witnessed many a similar scene of human suf-
fering, but never one before in which death was met with
so unmoved a calmness. The serenity that reigned in the
blazing block communicated to them a feeling of awe ;
and when the pile came a tumbling and blackened mass
of ruins to the earth, they avoided the place like men that
dreaded the vengeance of a Deity who knew how to in-
fuse so deep a sentiment of resignation into the breasts of
his worshippers.
Though the yells of victory were again heard in the
valley that night, and though the sun had arisen before the
conquerors had deserted the hill, but few of the band
found resolution to approach the smouldering pile where
they had witnessed so impressive an exhibition of Chris-
tian fortitude. The few that did draw near stood around
the spot rather in the reverence with which an Indian
visits the graves of the just, than in the fierce rejoicings
with which he is known to glut his revenge over a fallen
enemy.
172 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON- WISH.
CHAPTER XVI.
"What are these,
So withered, and so wild in their attire ;
That look not like the inhabitants of earth,
And yet are on't ? " — Macbeth.
THAT sternness of the season, which has already been
mentioned in these pages, is never of long continuance in
the month of April. A change in the wind had been noted
by the hunters even before they retired from their range
among the hills ; and though too seriously occupied to pay
close attention to the progress of the thaw, more than one
of the young men had found occasion to remark that the
final breaking up of the winter had arrived. Long ere the
scene of the preceding chapter reached its height, the south-
ern winds had mingled with the heat of the conflagration.
Warm airs, that had been following the course of the Gulf
Stream, were driven to the land, and, sweeping over the
narrow island that at this point forms the advanced work
of the continent, but a few short hours had passed before
they destroyed every chilling remnant of the dominion of
winter. Warm, bland, and rushing in torrents, the subtle
currents penetrated the forests, melted the snows from the
fields, and as all alike felt the genial influence, it appeared
to bestow a renovated existence on man and beast. With
morning, therefore, a landscape very different from that
last placed before the mind of the reader, presented itself
in the valley of the Wish-Ton-Wish.
The winter had entirely disappeared, and as the buds had
begun to swell under the occasional warmth of the spring,
one ignorant of the past would not have supposed that the
advance of the season had been subject to so stern an inter-
ruption. But the principal and most melancholy change
was in the more artificial parts of the view. Instead of those
simple and happy habitations which had crowned the little
eminence, there remained only a mass of blackened and
charred ruins. A few abused and half-destroyed articles of
household furniture lay scattered on the sides of the hill,
and here and there a dozen palisadoes, favored by some
accidental cause, had partially escaped the flames. Eight
or ten massive and dreary-looking stacks of chimneys rose
out of the smoking piles. In the centre of the desolation
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH. 173
was the stone basement of the block-house, on which still
stood a few gloomy masses of the timber resembling coal.
The naked and unsupported shaft of the well reared its cir-
cular pillar from the centre, looking like a dark monument
of the past. The wide ruin of the out-buildings blackened
one side of the clearing, and, in different places, the fences,
like radii diverging from the common centre of destruction,
had led off the flames into the fields. A few domestic
animals ruminated in the background, and even the
feathered inhabitants of the barns still kept aloof, as if
warned by their instinct that danger lurked around the site
of their ancient abodes. In all other respects the view was
calm and lovely as ever. The sun shone from a sky in
which no cloud was visible. The blandness of the winds,
and the brightness of the heavens, lent an air of animation
to even the leafless forest ; and the white vapor, that con-
tinued to rise from the smouldering piles, floated high over
the hills, as the peaceful smoke of the cottage curled above
its jroof.
The ruthless band which had occasioned this sudden
change was already far on the way to its villages, or haply
it sought some other scene of blood. A skilful eye might
have traced the route these fierce creatures of the woods
had taken, by fences hurled from their places, or by the
carcass of some animal that had fallen, in the wantonness
of victory, beneath a parting blow. Of all these wild beings,
one only remained ; and he appeared to linger at the spot
in the indulgence of feelings that were foreign to those
passions that had so recently stirred the bosoms of his
comrades.
It was with a slow, noiseless step, that the solitary loi-
terer moved about the scene of destruction. He was first
seen treading with a thoughtful air, among the ruins of
the buildings that had formed the quadrangle, and then,
seemingly led by an interest in the fate of those who had
so miserably perished, he drew nearer to the pile in its
centre. The nicest and most attentive ear could not have
detected the fall of his foot, as the Indian placed it within
the gloomy circle of the ruined wall ; nor is the breathing
of the infant less audible, than the manner in which he
drew breath, while standing in a place so lately consecrated
by the agony and martyrdom of a Christian family. It
was the boy called Miantonimoh, seeking some melancholy
memorial of those with whom he had so long dwelt in am.
itv. if not in confidence.
174 THE WEPT OF WISH-TOX-WISH.
One skilled in the history of savage passions might have
found a clew to the workings of the mind of the youth, in
the play of his speaking features. • As his dark glittering
eye rolled over the smouldering fragments, it seemed to
search keenly for some vestige of the human form. The
element, however, had done its work too greedily, to have
left many visible memorials of its fury. An object resem-
bling that he sought, however, caught his glance, and step-
ping lightly to the spot where it lay, he raised the bone of
a powerful arm from the brands. The flashing of his eye,
as it lighted on this sad object, was wild and exulting, like
that of the savage when he first feels the fierce joy of
glutted vengeance ; but gentler recollections came with
the gaze, and tender feelings evidently usurped the place
of the hatred he had been taught to bear a race who were
so fast sweeping his people from the earth. The relic fell
from his hand, and had Ruth been there to witness the
melancholy and relenting shade that clouded his swarthy
features, she might have found pleasure in the certainty
that all her kindness had not been wasted.
Regret soon gave place to awe. To the imagination of
the Indian, it seemed as if a still voice, like that which is
believed to issue from the grave, was heard in the place.
Bending his body forward, he listened with the intensity
and acuteness of a savage. He thought the smothered
tones of Mark Heathcote were again audible, holding
communion with his God. The chisel of the Grecian
would have loved to delineate the attitudes and movements
of the wondering boy, as he slowly and reverently with-
drew from the spot. His look was riveted on the vacancy
where the upper apartments of the block had stood, and
where he had last seen the family, calling in their extrem-
ity on their Deity for aid. Imagination still painted the
victims in their burning pile. For a minute longer, during
which brief space the young Indian probably expected to
see some vision of the pale-faces, did he linger near ; and
then, with a musing air and softened mind, he trod lightly
along the path which led on the trail of his people. When
his active form reached the boundary of the forest, he
again paused, and taking a final gaze at the place where
fortune had made him a witness to so much domestic peace
and to so much sudden misery, his form was quickly swal-
lowed in the gloom of his native woods.
The work of the savages now seemed complete. An ef-
fectual check appeared to be placed to the further prog-
THE Url-:PT OF WISH-TOX-WISH. 175
ress of civilization in the ill-fated valley of the Wish-Ton-
Wish. Had nature been left to its own work, a few years
would have covered the deserted clearing with its ancient
vegetation ; and half a century would have again buried
the whole of its quiet glades in the shadows of the forest.
But it was otherwise decreed.
The sun had reached the meridian, and the hostile band
had been gone some hours, before aught occurred likely
to affect this seeming decision of Providence. To one ac-
quainted with the recent horrors, the breathing of the airs
over the ruins might have passed for the whisperings of
departed spirits. In short, it appeared as if the silence of
the wilderness had once more resumed its reign, when it
was suddenly though slightly interrupted. A movement
was made within the ruins of the block. It sounded as if
billets of wood were gradually and cautiously displaced,
and then a human head was reared slowly, and with marked
suspicion, above the shaft of the well. The wild and un-
earthly air of this seeming spectre was in keeping with the
rest of the scene. A face begrimed with smoke and stained
with blood, a head bound in some fragment of a soiled
dress, and eyes that were glaring in a species of dull horror,
were objects in unison with all the other frightful acces-
sories of the place.
" What seest thou ? " demanded a deep voice from within
the walls of the shaft. " Shall we again come to our weap-
ons, or have the agents of Moloch departed ? Speak, en-
tranced youth ! what dost behold ? "
" A sight to make a wolf weep ! " returned Eben Dudley,
raising his large frame so as to stand erect on the shaft,
where he commanded a bird's-eye-view of most of the deso-
lation of the valley. " Evil though it may be, we may not
say that forewarning signs have been withheld. But what
is the cunningest man, when mortal wisdom is weighed in
the scale against the craft of devils ? Come forth"! Belial
hath done his worst, and we have a breathing-time."
The sounds which issued still deeper from the well de-
noted the satisfaction with which this intelligence was re-
ceived, no less than the alacrity with which the summons
of the borderer was obeyed. Sundry blocks of wood and
short pieces of plank were first passed with care up to the
hands of Dudley, who cast them like useless lumber among
the other ruins of the building. He then descended from
his perch, and made room for others to follow.
The stranger next arose After hirr? came Content, the
176 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH.
Puritan, Reuben Ring, and, in short, all the youths, with
the exception of those who had unhappily fallen in the
contest. After these had mounted, and each in turn had
leaped to the ground, a very brief preparation served for
the liberation of the more feeble of the body. The readi-
ness of border skill soon sufficed to arrange the necessary
means. By the aid of chains and buckets, Ruth and the
little Martha, Faith and all the handmaidens, without even
one exception, were successfully drawn from the bowels
of the earth, and restored to the light of day. It is scarcely
necessary to say to those whom experience has best fitted
to judge of such an achievement, that no great time or
labor was necessary for its accomplishment.
It is not our intention to harass the feelings of the read-
er further than is required by a simple narrative of the
incidents of the legend. We shall therefore say nothing of
the bodily pain, or of the mental alarm, by which this in-
gsnious retreat from the flames and the tomahawk had
been effected. The suffering was chiefly confined to appre-
hension ; for as the descent was easy, so had the readiness
and ingenuity of the young men found means, by the aid
of articles of furniture first cast into the shaft, and by well-
secured fragments of the floors properly placed across,
both to render the situation of the females and children
less painful than might at first be supposed, and effectually
to protect them from the tumbling block. But little of the
latter, however, was likely to affect their safety, as the form
of the building was, in itself, a sufficient security against
the fall of its heavier parts.
The meeting of the family amid the desolation of the
valley, though relieved by the consciousness of having
escaped a more shocking fate, may easily be imagined.
The first act was to render brief but solemn thanks for
their deliverance, and, then, writh the promptitude of peo-
ple trained in hardship, their attention was given to those
measures which prudence told them were yet necessary.
A few of the more active and experienced of the youths
were dispatched in order to ascertain the direction taken
by the Indians, and to gain what intelligence they might
concerning their future movements. The maidens hast-
ened to collect the kine, while others searched with heavy
hearts among the ruins, in quest of such articles of food
and comfort as could be found, in order to administer to
the first wants of nature.
Two hours had effected most of that which could imme
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH. 177
cliately be done in these several pursuits. The young men
returned with the assurance that the trails announced the
certain and final retreat of the savages. The cows had
yielded their tribute, and such provision had been made
against hunger as circumstances would allow. The arms
had been examined and put, as far as the injuries they had
received would admit, in readiness for instant service. A
few hasty preparations had been made, in order to protect
the females against the cool airs of the coming night ; and,
in short, all was done that the intelligence of a border-man
could suggest, or his exceeding readiness in expedients
could in so brief a space supply.
The sun began to fall toward the tops of the beeches
that crowned the western outline of the view, before all
these necessary arrangements were ended. It was not till
then, however, that Reuben Ring, accompanied by another
youth of equal activity and courage, appeared before the
Puritan, equipped as well as men in their situation might
be, for a journey through the forest.
" Go/' said the old religionist, when the youths pre-
sented themselves before him — " Go ; carry forth the tidings
of this visitation, that men come to our succor. I ask not
vengeance on the deluded and heathenish imitators of the
worshippers of Moloch. They have ignorantly done this
evil. Let no man arm in behalf of the wrongs of one
sinful and erring. Rather let them look into the secret
abominations of their own hearts, in order that they crush
the living worm, which, by gnawing on the seeds of a
healthful hope, may yet destroy the fruits of the promise
in their own souls. I would that there be profit in this
example of divine displeasure. Go — make the circuit of
the settlements for some fifty miles, and bid such of the
neighbors as may be spared, come to our aid. They shall
be welcome ; and may it be long ere any of them send in-
vitation to me or mine to enter their clearings on the like
melancholy duty. Depart, and bear in mind that you are
messengers of peace ; that your errand toucheth not the
feelings of vengeance, but that it is succor in all fitting
reason, and no arming of the hand to chase the savage to
his retreats, that I ask of the brethren."
With this final admonition, the young men took their
leaves. Still it was evident by their frowning brows, and
compressed lips, that some part of its forgiving principle
might be forgotten, should chance in their journey bring
them on the trail of any wandering inhabitant of the forest.
12
*78 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISIL
In a few minutes they were seen passing with swift steps
from the fields into the depths of the forest, along that
path which led to the towns that lay lower on the Con-
necticut.
Another task still remained to be performed. In mak-
ing the temporary arrangements for the shelter of the
family, attention had been first paid to the block-house.
The walls of the basement of this building were still stand-
ing, and it was found easy by means of half-burnt timbers,
with an occasional board that had escaped the conflagra-
tion, to cover it in amanner that offered a temporary protec-
tion against the weather. This simple and hasty construc-
tion, with an extremely inartificial office erected around
the stack of a chimney, embraced nearly all that could be
done until time and assistance should enable them to com-
mence other dwellings. In clearing the ruins of the little
tower of its rubbish, the remains of those who had per-
ished in the fray were piously collected. The body of the
youth who had died in the earlier hours of the attack, was
found but half consumed in the court, and the bones of
two more who fell within the block, were collected from
among the ruins. It had now become a melancholy duty
to consign them all to the earth with decent solemnity.
The time selected for this sad office was just as the west-
ern horizon began to glow with that which one of our own
poets has so beautifully termed, "the pomp that brings
and shuts the day." The sun was in the tree-tops, and a
softer or sweeter light could not have been chosen for such
a ceremony. Most of the fields still lay in the soft bright-
ness of the hour, though the forest was rapidly getting the
more obscure look of night. A broad and gloomy margin
was spreading from the boundary of the woods, and here
and there a solitary tree cast its shadow on the meadows
without its limits, throwing a dark ragged line in bold re-
lief on the glow of the sun's rays. One — it was the dusky
image of a high and waving pine, that reared its dark
green pyramid of never-fading foliage nearly a hundred
feet above the humbler growth of beeches — cast its shade
to the side of the eminence of the block. Here the pointed
extremity of the shadow was seen, stealing slowly toward
the open grave, — an emblem of that oblivion in which its
humble tenants were so shortly to be wrapped.
At this spot Mark Heathcote and his remaining com-
panions had assembled. An oaken chair saved from the
flames was the seat of the father, and two parallel benches
THE WEPT OF IVISIf-TOX-WISH. 179
formed of planks placed on stones, held the other members
of the family. The grave lay between. The patriarch had
taken his station at one of its ends, while the stranger, so
often named in these pages, stood with folded arms and a
thoughtful brow at the other. The bridle of a horse capar-
isoned in that imperfect manner which the straitened
means of the borderers now rendered necessary, was hang-
ing from one of the half-burnt palisadoes, in the back-
ground
"A just, but a merciful hand hath been laid heavily on
my household," commenced the old Puritan, with the calm-
ness of one who had long been accustomed to chasten his
regrets by humility. " He that hath given freely, hath
talven away, and One that hath long smiled upon my weak-
ness, hath now veiled his face in anger. I have known him
in his power to bless. It was meet that I should see him
in his displeasure. A heart that was waxing confident,
would have hardened in its pride. At that which hath be-
fallen, let no man murmur. Let none imitate the speech
of her who spoke foolishly : ' What ! shall we receive good
at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil ? ' I
would that the feeble-minded of the world — they that
jeopard the soul on vanities, they that look with scorn on
the neediness of the flesh — might behold the riches of One
steadfast. I would that they might know the consolation
of the righteous ! Let the voice of thanksgiving be heard
in the wilderness. Open thy mouths in praise, that the
gratitude of a penitent be not hid !"
As the deep tones of the speaker ceased, his stern eye
fell upon the features of the nearest youth, and it seemed
to demand an audible response to his own lofty expression
of resignation. But the sacrifice exceeded the power of
the individual to whom had been made this silent, but in-
telligible appeal. After regarding the relics that lay at his
feet, casting a wandering glance at the desolation which
had swept over a place his own hand had helped to deco-
rate, and receiving a renewed consciousness of his own
bodily suffering in the shooting pain of his wounds, the
young borderer averted his look, and seemed to recoil from
so officious a display of submission. Observing his inabil-
ity to reply, Mark continued —
" Hath no one a voice to praise the Lord ? The bands
of the heathen have fallen upon my herds ; the brand hath
been kindled within my dwellings ; my people have died by
the violence of the unenlightened, and none are here to sa>'
i8o THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH.
that the Lord is just ! I would that the shouts of thanks-
giving should arise in my fields! I would that the song of
praise should grow louder than the whoop of the savage,
and that all the land might speak joyfulness ! "
A long, deep, and expecting pause succeeded. Then
Content rejoined, in his quiet tones, speaking firmly, but
with the modest utterance he rarely failed to use —
"The hand that hath held the balance is just," he said,
"and we have been found wanting. He that made the
wilderness blossom, hath caused the ignorant and the bar-
barous to be the instruments of his will. He hath arrested
the season of our prosperity, that we may know he is the
Lord. He hath spoken in the whirlwind, but his mercy
granteth that our ears shall know his voice."
As his son ceased, a gleam of satisfaction shot across the
countenance of the Puritan. His eye next turned inquir-
ingly towards Ruth, who sat among her maidens the
image of womanly sorrow. Common interest seemed to
still the breathing of the little assemblage, and sympathy
was quite as active as curiosity, when each one present
suffered a glance to steal toward her benignant but pallid
face. The eye of the mother wras gazing earnestly, but
without a tear, on the melancholy spectacle before her. It
unconsciously sought among the dried and shrivelled rem-
nants of mortality that lay at her feet, some relic of the
cherub she had lost. A shudder and struggle followed,
after which her gentle voice breathed so low that those
nearest her person could scarce distinguish the words —
" The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away ; blessed
be his holy name ! "
" Now know I that he who hath smote me, is merciful ;
for he chasteneth them he loveth," said Mark Heathcote,
rising with dignity to address his household. " Our life is
a life of pride. The young are wont to wax insolent, while
he of many years saith to his own heart, * it is good to be
here.' There is a fearful mystery in One who sitteth on
high. The heavens are his throne, and he hath created
the earth for his footstool. Let not the vanity of the weak
of mind presume to understand it ; for 'who that hath the
breath of life, lived before the hills?' The bonds of the
evil one, of Satan, and of the sons of Belial, have been
loosened, that the faith of the elect may be purified, that
the names of those written since the foundation of the
earth were laid, may be read in letters of pure gold. The
time of man is but a moment in the reckoning of Him
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH. i8x
whose life is eternity — earth the habitation of a season !
The bones of the bold, of the youthful, and of the strong of
yesterday, lie at our feet. None know what an hour may
bring forth. In a single night, my children, hath this been
done. They whose voices were heard in my halls, are now
speechless, and they who so lately rejoiced, are sorrowing.
Yet hath this seeming evil been ordered that good may
come thereof. We are dwellers in a wild and distant land,"
he continued, insensibly permitting his thoughts to incline
toward the more mournful details of their affliction. " Our
earthly home is afar off. Hither have we been led by the
flaming pillar of Truth, and yet the malice of the per-
secutors hath not forgotten to follow. One houseless, and
sought like the hunted deer, is again driven to flee. We
have the canopy of the stars for a roof. None may tarry
longer to worship secretly within our walls. But the path
of the faithful, though full of thorns, leadeth to quiet, and
the final rest of the just man can never know alarm. He
that hath borne hunger and thirst, and the pains of the
flesh, for the sake of truth, knoweth how to be satisfied ;
nor will the hours of bodily suffering be accounted weary
to him whose goal is the peace of the righteous." The
strong lineaments of the stranger grew even more than
usually austere, and as the Puritan continued, the hand
which rested on the handle of a pistol, grasped the weapon
until the fingers seemed imbedded in the wood. He bowed,
however, as if to acknowledge the personal allusion, and
remained silent.
" If any mourn the early death of those who have ren-
dered up their being, struggling, as it maybe permitted, in
behalf of life and dwelling," continued Mark Heathcote,
regarding a female near him, " let her remember, that from
the beginning of the world were his days numbered, and
that not a sparrow falleth without answering the ends of
wisdom. Rather let the fulfilment of things remind us of
the vanity of life, that we may learn how easy it is to be-
come immortal. If the youth hath been cut down, seem-
ingly like unripened grass, he hath fallen by the sickle of
one who knoweth best when to begin the in-gathering of
the harvest to his eternal garners. Though a spirit bound
unto his, as one feeble is wont to lean on the strength of
man and mourn over his fall, let her sorrow be mingled
with rejoicing." A convulsive sob broke out of the bosom
of the handmaiden who was known to have been affianced
to one of the dead, and for a moment the address of Mark
1 82 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON- WISH.
was interrupted. But when silence again ensued, he con-
tinued, the subject leading him, by a transition that was
natural, to allude to his own sorrows. " Death hath been
no stranger in my habitation," he said. " His shaft fell
heaviest when it struck her, who, like those that have here
fallen, was in the pride of her youth, and when her soul
was glad with the first joy of the birth of a man-child !
Thou who sittest on high ! " he added, turning a glazed
and tearless eye to heaven ; " thou knowest how heavy
Was that blow, and thou hast written down the strivings of
an oppressed soul. The burden was not found too heavy
for endurance. The sacrifice hath not sufficed ; the world
was again getting uppermost in my heart. Thou didst be-
stow an image of that innocence and loveliness that dvvell-
eth in the skies, and this hast thou taken away, that we
might know thy power. To this judgment we bow. If thou
hast called our child to the mansions of bliss, she is whol-
ly thine, and we presume not to complain ; 'but if thou hast
still left her to wander further in the pilgrimage of life, we
confide in thy goodness. She is of a long-suffering race,
and thou wilt not desert her to the blindness of the heathen.
She is thine, she is wholly thine, King of Heaven ! and yet
hast thou permitted our hearts to yearn towards her, with
the fondness of earthly love. We await some further man-
ifestation of thy will, that we may know whether the foun-
tains of our affection shall be dried in the certainty of her
blessedness — " (scalding tears were rolling down the cheeks
of the pallid and immovable mother) "or whether hope,
nay, whether duty to thee calleth for the interference of
those bound to her in the tenderness of the flesh. When
the blow was heaviest on the bruised spirit of a lone and
solitary wanderer, in a strange and savage land, he held
not back the offspring it was thy will to grant him in the
place of her called to thyself ; and now that the child hath
become a man, he too layeth, like Abraham of old, the in-
fant of his love, a willing offering at thy feet. Do with it
as to thy never-failing wisdom seemeth best." The words
were interrupted by a heavy groan, that burst from the
chest of Content. A deep silence ensued, but when the
assembly ventured to throw looks of sympathy and awe at
the bereaved father, they saw that he had arisen and stood
gazing steadily at the speaker, as if he wondered, equally
with the others, whence such a sound of suffering could
have come. The Puritan renewed the subject, but his voice
faltered, and for an. instant, as he proceeded, his hearers
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH. 183
were oppressed with the spectacle of an aged and dignified
man shaken with grief. Conscious of his weakness, the
old man ceased speaking in exhortation, and addressed
himself to prayer. While thus engaged, his tones again
became clear, firm, and distinct, and the petition was ended
in the midst of a deep and holy calm.
With the performance of this preliminary office, the
simple ceremony was brought to its close. The remains
were lowered, in solemn silence, into the grave, and the
earth was soon replaced by the young men. Mark Heath-
cote then invoked aloud the blessing of God on his house-
hold, and bowing in person, as he had before done in spirit,
to the will of Heaven, he motioned to the family to with-
draw.
The interview that succeeded was over the resting-place
of the dead. The hand of the stranger was firmly clenched
in that of the Puritan, and the stern self-command of both
appeared to give way, before the regrets of a friendship
that had endured through so many trying scenes.
"Thou knowest that I may not tarry," said the former,
as if he replied to some expressed wish of his companion.
"They would make me a sacrifice to the Moloch of their
vanities ; and yet would I fain abide, until the weight of
this heavy blow may be forgotten. I found thee in peace,
and I quit thee in the depths of suffering! "
" Thou distrustest me, or thou dost injustice to thine own
belief," interrupted the Puritan, with a smile, that shone
en his haggard and austere visage, as the rays of the set-
ting sun light a wintry cloud. " Seemed I happier when
this hand placed that of a loved bride into mine own, than
thou now seest me in this wilderness, houseless, stripped
of my wealth, and, God forgive the ingratitude, but I had
almost said, childless ! No, indeed, thou mayest not tarry,
for the blood-hounds of tyranny will be on their scent ;
here is shelter no longer."
The eyes of both turned, by a common and melancholy
feeling, toward the ruin of the block. The stranger then
pressed the hand of his friend in both his own, and said in
a struggling voice —
"Mark Heathcote, adieu / He that hath a roof for the
persecuted wanderer shall not long be houseless ; neither
shall the resigned forever know sorrow."
His words sounded in the ears of his companion like the
revelation of a prophecy. They again pressed their hands
together, and, regarding each other with looks in which
184 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON- WISH.
kindness could not be altogether smothered by the repul-
sive character of an acquired air, they parted. The Puritan
slowly took his way to the dreary shelter which covered
his family ; while the stranger was shortly after seen urging
the beast he had mounted, across the pastures of the
valley, toward one of the most retired paths of the
wilderness.
CHAPTER XVII.
" Together towards the village then we walked,
And of old friends and places much we talked ;
And who had died, who left them, would he tell ;
And who still in their father's mansion dwell." — DANA.
WE leave the imagination of the reader to supply an in-
terval of several years. Before the thread 'of the narrative
shall be resumed, it will be necessary to take another hasty
view of the condition of the country in which the scene of
our legend had place.
The exertions of the provincials were no longer limited
to the first efforts of a colonial existence. The establish-
ments of New England had passed the ordeal of experi-
ment, and .were become permanent. Massachusetts was
already populous ; and Connecticut, the colony with which
we have more immediate connection, was sufficiently peo-
pled to manifest a portion of that enterprise which has
since made her active little community so remarkable.
The effects of these increased exertions were becoming
extensively visible ; and we shall endeavor to set one of
these changes, as distinctly as our feeble powers will
allow, before the eyes of those who read these pages.
When compared with the progress of society in the other
hemisphere, the condition of what is called in America a
new settlement, becomes anomalous. There, the arts of
life have been the fruits of an intelligence that has pro-
gressively accumulated with the advancement of civiliza-
tion ; while here, improvement is in a great degree the con-
sequence of experience elsewhere acquired. Necessity,
prompted by an understanding of its wants, incited by a
commendable spirit of emulation, and encouraged by lib-
erty, early gave birth to those improvements which have
converted a wilderness into the abodes of abundance and
security, with a rapidity that wears the appearance of
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH. 185
magic. Industry has wrought with the confidence of
knowledge, and the result has been peculiar.
It is scarcely necessary to say that in a country where
the laws favor all commendable enterprise, where unneces-
sary artificial restrictions are unknown, and where the hand
of man has not yet exhausted its efforts, the adventurer is
allowed the greatest freedom of choice in selecting the
field of his enterprise. The agriculturist passes the heath
and the barren, to seat himself on the river-bottom ; the
trader looks for the site of demand and supply ; and the
artisan quits his native village to seek employment in
situations where labor will meet its fullest reward. It is a
consequence of this extraordinary freedom of election, that,
while the great picture of American society has been
sketched with so much boldness, a large portion of the
filling-up still remains to be done. The emigrant has con-
sulted his immediate interests ; and, while no very exten-
sive and profitable territory throughout the whole of our
immense possessions has been wholly neglected, neither
has any particular district yet attained the finish of im-
provement. The city is even now seen in the wilderness,
and the wilderness often continues near the city, while the
latter is sending forth its swarms to distant scenes of indus-
try. After thirty years of fostering care on the part of the
government, the Capital itself presents its disjointed and
sickly villages in the centre of the deserted "old fields" of
Maryland, while numberless youthful rivals are flourishing
on the waters of the West, in spots where the bear has
ranged and the wolf howled, long since the former has
been termed a city.
Thus it is that high civilization, a state of infant exist-
ence, and positive barbarity, are often brought so near each
other within the borders of this Republic. The traveller
who has passed the night in an inn that would not disgrace
the oldest country in Europe, may be compelled to dine in
the shantee* of a hunter; the smooth and gravelled road
sometimes ends in an impassable swamp ; the spires of the
town are often hid by the branches of a tangled forest, and
* Shanty, or Shatttee, is a word much used in the newer settlements. It
strictly means a rude cabin of bark and brush, such as is often erected in
the forest for temporary purposes. But the borderers often quaintly apply
it to their own habitations. The only derivation which the writer has
heard for this American word, is one that supposes it to be a corruption of
Chientt, a term said to be used among the Canadians to express a dog-
kennel.
1 86 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH.
the canal leads to a seemingly barren and unprofitable
mountain. He that does not return to see what another
year may bring forth, commonly bears away from these
scenes recollections that conduce to error. To see America
with the eyes of truth, it is necessary to look often ; and
in order to understand the actual condition of these States,
it should be remembered that it is equally unjust to be-
lieve that all the intermediate points partake of the im-
provements of particular places, as to infer the want of
civilization at more remote establishments, from a few un-
favorable facts gleaned near the centre. By an accidental
concurrence of moral and physical causes,' much of that
equality which distinguishes the institutions of the country
is extended to the progress of society over its whole sur-
face.
Although the impetus of improvement was not so great
in the time of Mark Heathcote as in our own days, the
principle of its power was actively in existence. Of this
fact we shall furnish a sufficient evidence, by pursuing our
intention of describing one of those changes to which
allusion has already been made.
The reader will remember that the age of wrhich we
write had advanced into the last quarter of the seventeenth
century. The precise moment at which the action of the
tale must re-commence, was that period of the day when
the gray of twilight was redeeming objects from the deep
darkness with which the night draws to its close. The
month was June, and the scene such as it may be neces-
sary to describe with some particularity.
Had there been light, and had one been favorably placed
to enjoy a bird's-eye view of the spot, he would have seen
a broad and undulating field of leafy forest, in which the
various deciduous trees of New England were relieved by
the deeper verdure of occasional masses of evergreen. In
the centre of this swelling and nearly interminable outline
of woods, was a valley that spread between three low
mountains. Over the bottom land, for the distance of
several miles, all the signs of a settlement in a state of
rapid and prosperous improvement were visible. The de-
vious course of a deep and swift brook, that in the other
hemisphere would have been termed a river, was to be
traced through the meadows by its borders of willow and
sumach. At -a point near the centre of the valley the
waters had been arrested by a small dam ; and a mill,
whose wheel at that early hour was without motion, stood
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON- WISH. iG;
on the artificial mound. Near it was the site of a Ne\V
England hamlet.
The number of dwellings in the village might have been
forty. They were, as usual, constructed of a firm frame-
work, neatly covered with sidings of boards. There was
a surprising air of equality in the general aspect of the
houses ; and, if there were question of any country but
our own, it might be added there was an unusual appear-
ance of comfort and abundance in even the humblest of
them all. They were mostly of two low stories, the supe-
rior overhanging the inferior by a foot or two ; a mode of
construction much in use in the earlier days of the east-
ern colonies. As paint was but little used at that time,
none of the buildings exhibited a color different from that
the wood would naturally assume after the exposure of a
few years to the weather. Each had its single chimney in
the centre of the roof, and but two or three showed more
than a solitary window on each side of the principal or
outer door. In front of every dwelling was a small, neat
court, in greensward, separated from the public road by
a light fence of deal. Double rows of young and vigor-
ous elms lined each side of the wide street, while an enor-
mous sycamore still kept possession of the spot in its centre
which it had occupied when the white man entered the
forest. Beneath the shade of this tree the inhabitants
often collected to gather tidings of each other's \velfare,
or to listen to some matter of interest that rumor had
borne from the towns nearer the sea. A narrow and little-
used wheel track ran with a graceful and sinuous route
through the centre of the wide and grassy street. Re-
duced in appearance to little more than a bridle-path, it
was to be traced without the hamlet, between high fences
of wood for a mile or two, to the points where it entered
the forest. Here and there roses were pressing through
the openings of the fences before the doors of the differ-
ent habitations, and bushes of fragrant lilacs stood in the
angles of most of the courts.
The dwellings were detached. Each occupied its own
insulated plot of ground, with a garden in its rear. The
out-buildings were thrown to that distance which the cheap-
ness of land and security from fire rendered both easy and
expedient
The church stood in the centre of the highway, and near
one end of the hamlet. In the exterior and ornaments of
the important temple, the taste of the times had beea
i88 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH.
fastidiously consulted, its form and simplicity furnishing
no slight resemblance to the self-denying doctrines and
quaint humors of the religionists who worshipped beneath
its roof. The building, like all the rest, was of wood, and
externally of two stories. It possessed a tower, without a
spire — the former alone serving to denote its sacred char-
acter. In the construction of this edifice, especial care
had been taken to eschew all deviations from direct lines
and right angles. Those narrow-arched passages for the
admission of light that are elsewhere so common, were
then thought by the stern moralists of New England to have
some mysterious connection with her of the scarlet mantle.
The priest would as soon have thought of appearing before
his ilock in the vanities of stole and cassock, as the congre-
gation of admitting the repudiated ornaments into the out-
line of their severe architecture. Had the Genii of the
Lamp suddenly exchanged the windows pf the sacred edi-
fice with those of the inn that stood nearly opposite, the
closest critic of the settlement could never have detected
the liberty, since, in the form, dimensions, and style of the
two, there was no visible difference.
A little enclosure at no great distance from the church,
and on one side of the street, had been set apart for the
final resting-place of those who had finished their race on
earth. It contained but a solitary grave.
The inn was to be distinguished from the surrounding
buildings, by its superior size, an open horse-shed, and a
sort of protruding air with which it thrust itself on the line
of the street, as if to invite the traveller to enter. A sign
swung on a gallows-looking post, that, in consequence of
frosty nights and warm days, had already deviated from
the perpendicular. It bore a conceit that at the first glance
might have gladdened the heart of a naturalist with the
belief that he had made the discovery of some unknown
bird. The artist, however, had sufficiently provided against
the consequences of so embarrassing a blunder, by con-
siderately writing beneath the offspring of his pencil,
" This is the sign of the Whip-Poor- Will ;" a name, that the
most unlettered traveller in those regions would be likely
to know was vulgarly given to the Wish-Ton-Wish, or the
American night-hawk.
But few relics of the forest remained immediately around
the hamlet. The trees had long been felled, and sufficient
time had elapsed to remove most of the vestiges of their
former existence. But as the eye receded from the clus-
THE WEPT OF WTSH-TOX-WISH. 189
ter of buildings, the signs of more recent inroads on the
wilderness became apparent, until the view terminated
with openings, in which piled logs and mazes of felled trees
announced the recent use of the axe.
At that early day, the American husbandman, like the
agriculturists of most of Europe, dwelt in his village. The
dread of violence from the savages had given rise to a
custom similar to thiit which centuries before had been
produced in the other hemisphere by the inroads of more
pretending barbarians, and which, with few and distant
exceptions, has deprived rural scenery of a charm that, it
would seem, time and a better condition of society are slow
to repair. Some remains of this ancient practice are still to
be traced in the portion of the Union of which we write,
where even at this day the farmer often quits the village
to seek his scattered fields in his neighborhood. Still, as
man has never been the subject of a system here, and as
each individual has always had the liberty of consulting
his own temper, bolder spirits early began to break through
a practice, by which quite as much was lost in convenience
as was gained in security. Even in the scene we have
been describing, ten or twelve humble habitations were
distributed among the recent clearings on the side of the
mountains, and in situations too remote to promise much
security against any sudden inroad of the common enemy.
For general protection, in cases of the last extremity,
however, a stockaded dwelling, not unlike that which we
have had occasion to describe in our earlier pages, stood
in a convenient spot near the hamlet. Its defences were
stronger and more elaborate than usual, the pickets being
furnished with flanking block-houses ; and, in other re-
spects, the building bore the aspect of a work equal to any
resistance that might be required in the warfare of those
regions. The ordinary habitation of the priest \vas within
its gates ; and hither most of the sick were timely con-
veyed, in order to anticipate the necessity of removals at
more inconvenient moments.
It is scarcely necessary to tell the American, that heavy
wooden fences subdivided the whole of this little land-
scape into enclosures of some eight or ten acres m extent ;
that, here and there, cattle and flocks were grazing with-
out herdsmen or shepherds, and that while the fields near-
est to the dwellings were beginning to assume the appear-
ance of a, careful and improved husbandry, those more
remote became gradually wilder and less cultivated, until
190 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON- WISH.
the half-reclaimed openings, with their blackened stubs
and barked trees, were blended with the gloom of the liv-
ing forest. These are more or less the accompaniments of
every rural scene in districts of the country where time
has not yet effected more than the first two stages of im-
provement.
At the distance of a short half-mile from the fortified
house, or garrison, as by a singular corruption of terms
the stockaded building was called, stood a dwelling of pre-
tensions altogether superior to any in the hamlet. The
buildings in question, though simple, were extensive ; and
though scarcely other than such as might belong to an ag-
riculturist in easy circumstances, still they were remarka-
ble in that settlement, by the comforts which time alone
could accumulate, and some of which denoted an advanced
condition for a frontier family. In short, there was an air
about the establishment, as in the disposition of its out-
buildings, in the superior workmanship, arid in the materi-
als, and in numberless other well-known circumstances,
which went to show that the whole of the edifices were re-
constructions. The fields near this habitation exhibited
smoother surfaces than those in the distance. The fences
were lighter and less rude ; the stumps had absolutely dis-
appeared ; and the gardens and homestead were well planted
with flourishing fruit-trees. A conical eminence arose at
a short distance in the rear of the principal dwelling. It
was covered with that beautiful and peculiar ornament of
an American farm, a regular, thrifty, and luxuriant apple-
orchard. Still, age had not given its full beauty to the
plantation, which might have had a growth of some eight
or ten years. A blackened tower of stone, which sustained
the charred ruins of a superstructure of wood, though of
no great height in itself, rose above the tallest of the trees,
and stood a sufficient memorial of some scene of violence
in the brief history of the valley. There was also a small
block-house near the habitation ; but, by the air of neglect
that reigned around, it was quite apparent the little work
had been of a hurried construction, and of but temporary
use. A few young plantations of fruit-trees were also to
be seen in different parts of the valley, which was begin-
ning to exhibit many other evidences of an improved agri-
culture.
So far as all these artificial changes went, they were of
an English character. But it was England devoid alike of
its luxury and its poverty, and with a superfluity of space
TJJJS tirz-:rT OF IVISH-TON-IVISIL 191
that gave to the meanest habitation in the view, an air of
abundance and comfort that is so often wanting about the
dwellings of the comparatively rich, in countries where
man is found bearing a far greater numerical proportion to
the soil than was then, or is even now the case, in the re-
gions of which we write.
CHAPTER XVIII.
"Come hither, neighbor Sea-coal — God hath blessed you with a good
name ; to be a well-favored man is the gift of fortune ; but to write and
read comes by Nature." — Much Ado about Nothing.
IT has already been said, that the hour at which the
action of the tale must re-commence, was early morning.
The usual coolness of night, in a country extensively
covered with wood, had passed, and the warmth of a sum-
mer morning, in that low latitude, was causing the streaks
of light vapor, that floated about the meadows, to rise
above the trees. The feathery patches united to form a
cloud that sailed away toward the summit of a distant
mountain, which appeared to be a common rendezvous for
all the mists that had been generated by the past hours of
darkness.
Though the burnished sky announced his near approach,
the sun was not yet visible. Notwithstanding the earliness
of the hour, a man was already mounting a little ascent in
the road, at no great distance from the southern entrance
of the hamlet, and at a point where he could command a
view of all the objects described in the preceding chapter.
A musket thrown across his left shoulder, with the horn
and pouch at his sides, together with the little wallet at
his back, proclaimed him one who had either been engaged
in a hunt, or in some short expedition of even a less peace-
able character. His dress was of the usual material and
fashion of a countryman of the age and colony, though a
short broadsword, that was thrust through a wampum belt
which girded his body, might have attracted observation.
In all other respects, he had the air of an inhabitant of the
hamlet, who had found occasion to quit his abode on some
affair of pleasure or of duty, that had made no very serious
demand on his time.
Whether native or stranger, few ever passed tUe hillock
1 92 THE WEPT OF
named, without pausing to gaze at the quiet loveliness of
the cluster of houses that lay in full view from its summit.
The individual mentioned loitered as usual, but, instead of
following the line of the path, his eye rather sought some
object in the direction of the fields. Moving leisurely to
the nearest fence, he threw down the upper rails of a pair
of bars, and beckoned to a horseman, who was picking his
way across a broken bit of pasture land, to enter the high-
way by the passage he had opened.
" Put the spur smartly into the pacer's flank," said he
who had done this act of civility, observing that the other
hesitated to urge his beast across the irregular and some-
what scattered pile ; "my word for it, the jade goes over
them all, without touching with more than three of her
four feet. Fie, doctor ! there is never a cow in the Wish-
Ton-Wish, but it would take the leap to be in the first at
the milking."
"Softly, ensign," returned the timid equestrian, laying
the emphasis*bn the final syllable of his companion's title,
and pronouncing the first as if it were spelt with the third
instead of the second vowel. "Thy courage is meet for
one set apart for deeds of valor, but it would be a sorrowful
day when the ailing of the valley should knock at my door,
and a broken limb be made the apology for want of succor.
Thy efforts will not avail thee, man ; for the mare hath had
schooling, as well as her master. I have trained the beast
to methodical habits, and she hath come to have a rooted
dislike to all irregularities of movement. So, cease tugging
at the rein, as if thou wouldst compel her to pass the pile
in spite of her teeth, and throw down the upper bar
altogether."
" A doctor in these rugged parts should be mounted on
one of those ambling birds of which we read," said the
other, removing the obstacle to the secure passage of his
friend ; " for truly a journey at night, in the paths of these
clearings, is not always as safe moving as that which is said
to be enjoyed by the settlers nearer sea."
"And where hast found mention of a bird of a size and
velocity fit to be the bearer of the weight of a man ? "
demanded he who was mounted, with a vivacity that be-
trayed some jealousy on the subject of a monopoly of
learning. " I had thought there was never a book in the
valley, out of mine own closet, that dealeth in these ab-
strusities ! "
"Dost think the Scriptures are strangers to us? There—
THE WEPT OF IVISH-TON-WISH. 193
them art now in the public path, and thy journey is with-
out danger. It is matter of marvel to many in this settle-
ment, how thou movest about at midnight, among up-
turned roots of trees, holes, logs and stumps, without
falling "
" I have told thee, ensign, it is by virtue of much train-
ing given to the beast. Certain am I, that neither whip
nor spur would compel the animal to pass the bounds of
discretion. Often have I travelled this bridle-path, with-
out fear as in truth without danger, when sight was a sense
of as little use as that of smelling."
" I wras about to say falling into thine own hands, which
would be a tumble of little less jeopardy than even that of
the wicked spirits."
The medical man affected to laugh at his companion's
joke ; but, remembering the dignity suited to one of
his calling, he immediately resumed the discourse with
gravity—
" These may be matters of levity with those who know
little of the hardships that are endured in the practice of
the settlements. Here have I been on yonder mountain,
guided by the instinct of my horse —
" Ha ! hath there been a call at the dwelling of my
brother Ring ? " demanded the pedestrian, observing, by
the direction of the other's eye, the road he had been
travelling.
" Truly, there hath ; and at the unseasonable hour that is
wont in a very unreasonable proportion of the cases of my
practice."
" And Reuben numbereth another boy to the four that he
could count yesterday ? "
The medical man held up three of his fingers, in a sig-
nificant manner, as he nodded assent.
" This putteth Faith something in arrears," returned he
who has been called ensign, and who was no other than the
reader's old acquaintance Eben Dudley, preferred to that
station in the train-band of the valley. " The heart of my
brother Reuben will be gladdened by these tidings when he
shall return from the scout."
" There wrill be occasion for thankfulness, since he will
find seven beneath a roof where he left but four ! "
" I will close the bargain with the young captain for the
mountain lot this very day !" muttered Dudley, like one
suddenly convinced of the prudence of a long-debated
measure. " Seven pounds of the colony money is no
I94 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH.
usurer's price, after all, for a hundred acres of heavily-tim-
bered land ; and they in full view of a settlement where
boys come three at a time ! "
The equestrian stopped his horse, and regarding his
companion intently and with a significant air, he an-
swered—
" Thou hast now fallen on the clew of an important mys-
tery, Ensign Dudley. This continent was created with a
design. The fact is apparent by its riches, its climate, its
magnitude, its facilities of navigation, and chiefly in that it
hath been left undiscovered until the advanced condition
of society hath given opportunity and encouragement to
men of a certain degree of merit to adventure in its behalf.
Consider, neighbor, the wonderful progress it hath already
made in the arts and in learning, in reputation and in re-
sources, and thou wilt agree with me in the conclusion
that all this hath been done with a design."
" 'Twould be presuming to doubt it ; for he hath indeed
a short memory to whom it shall be necessary to recall the
time when this very valley was little other than a den for
beasts of prey, and this beaten highway a deer-track. Dost
think that Reuben will be like to raise the whole of the re-
cent gift ?"
"With* judgment, and by the blessing of Providence.
The mind is active, Ensign Dudley, when the body is jour-
neying among the forests ; and much have my thoughts
been exercised in this matter, while thou and others have
been in your slumbers. Here have we the colonies in their
first century, and yet thou knowest to what a pass of
improvement they have arrived. They tell me the Hart-
ford settlement is getting to be apportioned like the towns
of mother England, that there is reason to think the
day may come when the provinces shall have a power,
and a convenience of culture and communication, equal-
ling that which belongeth to some parts of the venerable
island itself ! "
" Nay, nay, Doctor Ergot," returned the other with an in-
credulous smile, " that is exceeding the bounds of a dis-
cretionable expectation."
" Thou wilt remember that I said equalling to certain
parts. I think we may justly imagine, that ere many cen-
turies shall elapse, there may be millions counted in these
regions, and truly that, too, where one seeth naught at pres-
ent but the savage and the beast."
" I will go with any man, in this question, as far as
THE WEPT OF WISH-TOX-WISH. 195
reason will justify ; but doubtless thou hast read in the
books uttered by writers over sea, the matters concerning
the condition of those countries, wherein it is plain that
we may never hope to reach the exalted excellence they
enjoy."
" Neighbor Dudley, thou seemest disposed to push an
unguarded expression to extremity. I said equalling cer-
tain parts, meaning always, too, in certain things. Now it
is known in philosophy, that the stature of man hath degen-
erated, and must degenerate in these regions, in obedience
to established laws of nature ; therefore it is meet that al-
lowance should be made for some deficiency in less mate-
rial qualities."
" It is like, then, that the better sort of the men over
sea are ill-disposed to quit their country," returned the
ensign, glancing an eye of some unbelief along the mus-
cular proportions of his own vigorous frame. " We have
no less than three from the old countries in our village,
here, and yet I do not find them men like to have been
sought for at the building of Babel."
" This is settling a knotty and learned point by the evi-
dence of a few shallow exceptions. I presume to tell you,
Ensign Dudley, that the science, and wisdom, and philoso-
phy of Europe, have been exceeding active in this matter ;
and they have proved to their own perfect satisfaction,
which is the same thing as disposing of the question with-
out appeal, that man and beast, plant and tree, hill and
dale, lake and pond, sun, air, fire and water, are all want-
ing in some of the perfectness of the older regions. I re-
spect a patriotic sentiment, and can "carry the disposition
to applaud the bounties received from the hands of a be-
neficent Creator as far as any man ; but that which hath
been demonstrated by science, or collected by learning, is
placed too far beyond the objections of light-minded cav-
illers, to be doubted by graver faculties."
"I shall not contend against things that are proven," re-
turned Dudley, who was quite as meek in discussion as
he was powerful and active in more physical contests ;
"since it needs be that the learning of men in the old
countries must have an exceeding excellence, in virtue of
its great age. It would be a visit to remember, should
some of its rare advantages be dispersed in these our own
youthful regions ! "
" And can it be said that our mental wants have been
forgotten — that the nakedness of the mind hath been suf-
196 THE WEPT OF WISH-TOK-WISH.
fered to go without its comely vestment, neighbor Dudley \
To me it seemeth that therein we have unwonted reason
to rejoice, and that the equilibrium of nature is in a man-
ner restored by the healing exercises of art. It is un-
seemly in an unenlightened province to insist on qualities
that have been discreetly disproven ; but learning is a
transferable and communicable gift, and it is meet to
affirm that it is to be found here, in quantities adapted to
the wants of the colony."
" I'll not gainsay it, for having been more of an advent-
urer in the forest than one who hath travelled in quest of
sights among the settlements along the sea-shore, it may
happen that many things are to be seen there, of which
my poor abilities have formed no opinion."
" And are we utterly unenlightened, even in this distant
valley, ensign?" returned the leech, leaning over the
neck of his horse, and addressing his companion in a mild
and persuasive tone, that he had probably acquired in his
extensive practice among the females of the settlement.
" Are we to be classed with the heathen in knowledge, or
to be accounted as the unnurtured men who are known
once to have roamed through these forests in quest of
their game ? Without assuming any infallibility of judg-
ment, or aspiring to any peculiarity of information, it
doth not appear to my defective understanding, Master
Dudley, that the progress of the settlement hath ever been
checked for want of necessary foresight, nor that the
growth of reason among us hath ever been stunted from
any lack of mental aliment. Our councils are not barren
of wisdom, ensign, nor hath it often arrived that abstrusi-
ties have been propounded, that some one intellect, to say
no more in our own favor, hath not been known to grap-
ple with successfully."
"That there are men, or perhaps I ought to say that
there is a man, in the valley, who is equal to many marvels
in the way of enlightened gifts "
" I knew we should come to peaceable conclusions, En-
sign Dudley," interrupted the other, rising erect in his sad-
dle, with an air of appeased dignity ; " for I have ever
found you a discreet and consequent reasoner, and one who
is never known to resist conviction, when truth is pressed
with understanding. That the men from over sea are not
often so well gifted as some — we will say, for the sake of a
convenient illustration, as thyself, ensign — is placed beyond
the reach of debate, since sight teacheth us that number'
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON- WISH. 197
less exceptions may be found to all the more general and
distinctive laws of nature. I think we are not likely to
carry our disagreement further ? "
" It is impossible to make head against one so ready with
his knowledge," returned the other, well content to exist in
his own person a striking exception to the inferiority of
his fellows ; "though it appeareth to me that my brother
Ring might be chosen, as another instance of a reasonable
stature ; a fact that thou mayest see, doctor, by regarding
him as he approaches through yon meadow. He hath
been, like myself, on the scout among the mountains."
" There are many instances of physical merit among thy
connections, Master Dudley," returned the complaisant
physician ; " though it would seem that thy brother hath
not found his companion among them. He is attended by
an ill-grown, and, it may be added, an ill-favored comrade,
that I know not."
"Ha! It would seem that Reuben hath fallen on the
trail of savages ! The man in compa.ny is certainly in
paint and blanket. It may be well to pause at yonder
opening, and await their coming."
As this proposition imposed no particular inconvenience,
the doctor readily assented. The two drew nigh to the
place where the men, whom they saw crossing the fields in
the distance, were expected to enter the highway.
But little time was lost in attendance. Ere many min-
utes had elapsed, Reuben Ring, accoutred and armed like
the borderer already introduced in this chapter, arrived at
the opening, followed by the stranger whose appearance
had caused so much surprise to those who watched their
approach.
" What now, sergeant," exclaimed Dudley, when the
other was within ear-shot, speaking a little in the manner
of one who had a legal right to propound his questions ;
" hast fallen on a trail of the savage, and made a captive ?
or hath some owl permitted one of its brood to fall from
the nest across thy footpath ? "
"I believe the creature may be accounted a man," re-
turned the successful Reuben, throwing the breech of his
gun to the earth, and leaning on its long barrel, while he
intently regarded the half-painted, vacant, and extremely
equivocal countenance of his captive. " He hath the colors
of a Narragansett about the brow and eyes, and yet he
faileth greatly in the form and movements."
" There are anomalies in the physicals of ar Indian, as
198 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH.
in those of other men," interrupted Doctor Ergot, with a
meaning glance at Dudley. " The conclusion of our neigh-
bor Ring may be too hasty, since paint is the fruit of art,
and may be applied to any of our faces, after an established
usage. But the evidences of nature are far less to be dis-
trusted. It hath come within the province of my studies
to note the differences in formation, which occur in the
different families of man ; and nothing is more readily to
be known to an eye skilled in these abstrusities than the
aboriginal of the tribe Narragansett. Set the man more in
a position of examination, neighbors, and it shall shortly
be seen to which race he belongs. Thou wilt note in this
little facility of investigation, ensign, a clear evidence of
most of the matters that have this morning been agitated
between us. Doth the patient speak English ? "
" Therein have I found some difficulty of inquiry," re-
turned Reuben, or as he should now be, and as he was
usually called, Sergeant Ring. " He hath been spoken to
in the language of a Christian, no less than in that of a
heathen, and as yet no reply hath been made, while he
obeys commands uttered in both forms of speech."
".It mattereth not," said Ergot, dismounting, and draw-
ing near to his subject, with a look toward Dudley that
should seem to court his admiration.
" Happily the examination before me leaneth but little
on any subtleties of speech. Let the man be placed in an
attitude of ease, one in which nature may not be fettered
by restraint. The conformation of the whole head is re-
markably aboriginal, but the distinction of tribes is not to
be sought in these general delineations. The forehead, as
you see, neighbors, is retreating and narrow, the cheek-
bones as usual high, and the olfactory member, as in all of
the natives, inclining to Roman."
" Now to me it would seem that the nose of the man
hath a marked upturning at the end," Dudley ventured to
remark, as the other ran volubly over the general and well-
known distinctive points of physical construction in an
Indian.
" As an exception ! Thou seest, ensign, by this elevation
of the bone, and the protuberance of the more fleshy parts,
that the peculiarity is an exception. I should rather have
said that the nose originally inclined to the Roman. The
departure from regularity has been produced by some cas-
ualty of their warfare, such as a blow from a tomahawk, or
the gash of a knife — aye ! here thou seest the scar left by
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISff. 199
the weapon ! It is concealed by the paint ; but remove
that, and you will find that it hath all the form of a cica-
trix of a corresponding shape. These departures from
generalities have a tendency to confound pretenders ; a
happy circumstance in itself for the progress of knowledge
on fixed principles. Place the subject more erect, that we
may see the natural movement of the muscles. Here is an
evidence of great aquatic habits in the dimensions of the
foot, which go to confirm original conceptions. It is a
happy proof, through which reasonable and prudent con-
clusions confirm the quick-sighted glances of practice. I
pronounce the fellow to be a Narragansett."
" Is it then a Narragansett that hath a foot to confound
a trail ? " returned Eben Dudley, who had been studying
the movements and attitudes of the captive with quite as
much keenness, and with something more of understand-
ing than the leech. " Brother Ring, hast ever known
an Indian leave such an out-turning foot-print on the
leaves ?"
" Ensign, I marvel that a man of thy discretion should
dwell on a slight variety of movement, when a case exists
in which the laws of nature may be traced to their sources.
This training for the Indian troubles hath made thee criti-
cal in the position of a foot. I have said that the fellow is
a Narragansett, and what I have uttered hath not been
lightly ventured. Here is the peculiar formation of the
foot, which hath been obtained in infancy, a fulness in the
muscles of the breast and shoulders, from unusual exer-
cise in an element denser than the air, and a nicer construc-
tion in
The physician paused, for Dudley had coolly advanced
to the captive, and raising the thin robe of deer-skin which
was thrown over the whole of his superior members,
he exposed the unequivocal skin of a white man. This
would have proved an embarrassing refutation to one ac-
customed to the conflict of wits ; but monopoly in certain
branches of knowledge had produced in favor of Doctor
Ergot an acknowledged superiority, that in its effects might
be likened to the predominating influence of any other
aristocracy on those faculties that have been benumbed by
its operation. His opinion changed, which is more than
can be said of his countenance ; for with the readiness of
invention which is so often practised in the felicitous insti-
tutions we have named, and by which the reasoning, in-
stead of regulating, is adapted to the practice, he exclaimed
200 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH.
with uplifted hands and eyes that bespoke the fulness of
his admiration —
" Here have we another proof of the wonderful agency
by which the changes in nature are gradually wrought !
Now -do we see in this Narragansett "
"The man is white !" interrupted Dudley, tapping the
naked shoulder, which he still held exposed to view.
" White, but not a tittle the less a Narragansett. Your
captive, beyond a doubt, oweth his existence to Christian
parentage, but accident hath thrown him early among
the aboriginals, and all those parts which were liable to
change, were fast getting to assume the peculiarities of
the tribe. He is one of those beautiful and connecting
links in the chain of knowledge, by which science folio vv-
eth up its deductions to demonstration."
" I should ill brook coming to harm for doing violence
to a subject of the king," said Reuben .Ring, a steady,
open-faced yeoman, wrho thought far less of the subtleties
of his companion than of discharging his social duties in
a manner fitting the character of a quiet and well-condi-
tioned citizen. " We have had so much of stirring tidings
latterly, concerning the manner the savages conduct their
warfare, that it behoveth men in places of trust to be vig-
ilant ; for," glancing his eyes toward the ruin of the dis-
tant block-house, " thou knowest, brother Dudley, that we
have occasion to be watchful in a settlement as deep in
the forest as this."
" I will answer for the indemnity, Sergeant Ring," said
Dudley, with an air of dignity. " I take upon myself the
keeping of this stranger, and will see that he be borne,
properly, and in fitting season, before the authorities. In
the meantime, duty hath caused us to overlook matters of
moment in thy household, which it may be seemly to com-
municate. Abundance hath not been neglectful of thy
interests, during the scout."
" What ! " demanded the husband, with rather more of
earnestness than was generally exhibited by one of habits
as restrained as his own ; " hath the woman called upon
the neighbors during my absence ?"
Dudley nodded an assent. .
" And shall I find another boy beneath my roof ?"
Doctor Ergot nodded three times, with a gravity thai
might have suited a communication even more weighty
than the one he made.
" Thy woman rarely doth a good turn by halves, Reu<
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH.- 201
ben. Thou wilt find that she hath made provision for a
successor to our good neighbor Ergot, since a seventh son
is born in thy house."
The broad, honest face of the father flushed with joy,
and then a feeling less selfish came over him. He asked,
with a slight tremor in the voice, that was none the less
touching for coming from the lips of one so stout of frame
and firm of movement —
" And the woman ? — in what manner doth Abundance
bear up under the blessing ? "
"Bravely," returned the leech; "go to thy dwelling,
Sergeant Ring, and praise God that there is one to look to
its concerns in thy absence. He who hath received the
gift of seven sons in five years, need never be a poor nor a
dependent man in a country like this. Seven farms, added
to that pretty homestead of mountain-land which thou now
tillest, will render thee a patriarch in thine age, and sustain
the name of Ring, hundreds of years hence, when these
colonies shall become peopled and powerful, and, I say it
boldly, caring not wTho may call me one that vaunteth out
of reason, equal to some of your lofty and self-extolled
kingdoms of Europe — aye, even perad venture to the
mighty sovereignty of Portugal itself ! I have enumerated
thy future farms at seven, for the allusion of the ensign
to the virtues of men born with natural propensities to the
healing art, must be taken as a pleasant speech, since it is
mere delusion of old wives' fancy, and it would be partic-
ularly unnecessary here, where every reasonable situation
of this nature is already occupied. Go to thy wife, ser-
geant, and bid her be of good cheer ; for she hath done
herself, thee, and thy country, a service, and that with-
out dabbling in pursuits foreign to her comprehen-
sion."
The sturdy yeoman, on whom this rich gift of Provi-
dence had been dispensed, raised his hat, and placing it
decently before his face, he offered up a silent thanksgiv-
ing for the favor. Then transferring his captive to the
keeping of his superior and kinsman, he was soon seen
striding over the fields toward his upland dwelling, with
a heavy foot, though with a light heart.
In the meantime, Dudley and his companion bestowed
a more particular attention on the silent and nearly mo-
tionless object of their curiosity. Though the captive ap-
peared to be of middle age, his eye was unmeaning, his air
timid and uncertain, and his form cringing and ungainly.
202 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH.
In all these particulars, he was seen to differ from the
known peculiarities of a native warrior.
Previously to departing, Reuben Ring had explained
that while traversing the woods, on that duty of watchful-
ness to which the state of the colony and some recent signs
had given rise, this wandering person had been encountered
and secured, as seemed necessary to the safety of the set-
tlement. He had neither sought nor avoided his captor ;
but when questioned concerning his tribe, his motive for
traversing those hills, and his future intentions, no satis-
factory reply could be extracted. He had scarcely spoken,
and the little that he said was uttered in a jargon between
the language of his interrogator and the dialect of some
barbarous nation. Though there was much in the actual
state of the colonies, and in the circumstances in which
this wanderer had been found, to justify his detention, lit-
tle had in truth been discovered, to supply a clew either
to any material facts in his history, or to any of his views
in being in the immediate vicinity of the valley.
Guided only by this barren information, Dudley and his
companion endeavored, as they moved toward the hamlet,
to entrap their prisoner into some confession of his object,
by putting their questions with a sagacity not unusual to
men in remote and difficult situations, where necessity and
danger are apt to keep alive all the native energies of the
human mind. The answers were little connected and un-
intelligible, sometimes seeming to exhibit the finest subt-
lety of savage cunning, and at others appearing to possess
the mental helplessness of the most abject fatuity.
CHAPTER XIX.
" I am not prone to weeping, as our sex
Commonly are ; —
But I have
That honorable grief lodged here, which burns
Worse than tears drown." — Winter's Tale.
IF the pen of a compiler, like that we wield, possessed
the mechanical power of the stage, it would be easy to
shift the scenes of this legend as rapidly and effectively as
is required for its right understanding, and for the proper
maintenance of its interest. That which cannot be done
with the magical aid of machinery, must be attempted by
less ambitious, and we fear by far less efficacious means.
THE WEPT OF WISII-TOX-IV1SH. 2Oj
At the same early hour of the day, and at no gieat dis-
tance from the spot where Dudley announced his good
fortune to his brother Ring, another morning meeting had
place between persons of the same blood and connections.
From the instant when, the pale light that precedes the
day was first seen in the heavens, the windows and doors
of the considerable dwelling, on the opposite side of the
valley, had been unbarred. Ere the glow of the sun had
gilded the sky over the outline of the eastern woods, this
example of industry and providence was followed by the
inmates of every house in the village, or on the surround-
ing hills ; and by the time the golden globe itself was visi-
ble above the trees, there was not a human being in all
that settlement, of proper age and health, who was not
actively afoot.
It is unnecessary to say that the dwelling particularly
named was the present habitation of the household of
Mark Heathcote. Though age had sapped the foundations
of his strength, and had nearly dried the channels of his
existence, the venerable religionist still lived. While his
physical perfection had been gradually giving way before
the ordinary decay of nature, the moral man was but little
altered. It is even probable that his visions of futurity
were less dimmed by the mists of carnal interests than
when last seen, and that the spirit had gained some portion
of that energy which had certainly been abstracted from
the more corporeal parts of his existence. At the hour
already named, the Puritan was seated in the piazza, which
stretched along the whole front of a dwelling, that, however
it might be deficient in architectural proportions, was not
wanting in the more substantial comforts of a spacious and
commodious frontier residence. In order to obtain a
faithful portrait of a man so intimately connected with our
tale, the reader will fancy him one who had numbered
four-score and ten years, with a visage on which deep and
constant mental striving had wrought many and menacing
furrows, a form that trembled while it yet exhibited the
ruins of powerful limb and flexible muscle, and a counte-
nance on which ascetic reflections had engraved a severity,
that was but faintly relieved by the glearnings of a natural
kindness, which no acquired habits nor any traces of meta-
physical thought could ever entirely erase. Across this
picture of venerable and self-mortifying age. the first rays
of the sun were now softly cast, lighting a dimmed eye and
furrowed face with a look of brightness and peace. Per-
204 THE WEPT OF WISIf-TON-WISH.
haps the blandness of the expression belonged as much tc
the season and the hour, as to the habitual character of
the man. This benignancy of feature, unusual rather in
its strength than in its existence, might have been height-
ened by the fact that his spirit had just wrought in prayer,
as was usual, in the circle of his children and dependents,
ere they left those retired parts of the building where they
had found rest and security during the night. Of the
former, none known and cherished in the domestic circle
had been absent ; and the ample provision that was mak-
ing for the morning meal sufficiently showed that the
number of the latter had in no degree diminished since the
reader was familiar with the domestic economy of his
household.
Time had produced no very striking alteration in the
appearance of Content. It is true that the brown hue of
his features had deepened, and that his frame was begin-
ning to lose some of its elasticity and ease of action in the
more measured movements of middle age. But the gov-
erned temperament of the individual had always kept the
animal in more than usual subjection. Even his earlier
days had rather exhibited the promise than the perform-
ance of the ordinary youthful qualities. Mental gravity
had long before produced a corresponding physical effect.
In reference to his exterior, and using the language of the
painter, it would now be said that, without having wrought
any change in form and proportions, the colors had been
mellowed by time. If a few hairs of gray were sprinkled
here and there around his brow, it was as moss gathers on
the stones of the edifice, rather furnishing evidence of its
increased adhesion and approved stability, than denoting
any symptoms of decay.
Not so with his gentle and devoted partner. That soft-
ness and sweetness of air which had first touched the heart
of Content were still to be seen, though they existed amid
the traces of a constant and a corroding grief. The fresh-
ness of youth had departed, and in its place was visible the
more lasting, and, in her case, the more affecting beauty of
expression. The eye of Ruth had lost none of its gentle-
ness, and her smile still continued kind and attractive ;
but the former was often painfully vacant, seeming to look
inward upon those secret and withering sources of sorrow
that were deeply and almost mysteriously seated in her
heart ; while the latter resembled the cold brightness of
that planet which illumines objects by repelling the bor*
THE WEPT OF WISII-TOK-WISH. 205
rowed lustre from its own bosom. The matronly form,
the feminine beaming of the countenance, and the melo-
dious voice, yet remained ; but the first had been shaken
till it stood on the very verge of a premature decay ; the
second had a mingling of anxious care in its most sympa-
thetic movements, and the last was seldom without that
fearful thrill which so deeply affects the senses by convey-
ing to the understanding a meaning so foreign from the
words. And yet an uninterested and ordinary observer
might not have seen, in the faded comeliness and blighted
maturity of the matron, more than the every-day signs that
betray the turn in the tide of human existence. As befitted
such a subject, the coloring of sorrow had been traced by
a hand too delicate to leave the lines visible to every vul-
gar eye. Like the master-touches of art, her grief, as it
was beyond the sympathies, so it lay beyond the ken of
those whom excellence may fail to excite, or in whom ab-
sence can deaden affections. Still her feelings were true
to all who had any claims on her love. The predominance
of wasting grief over the more genial springs of her enjoy-
ments, only went to prove how much greater is the in-
fluence of the generous than the selfish qualities of our
nature in a heart that is truly endowed with tenderness.
It is scarce necessary to say that this gentle and constant
woman sorrowed for her child.
Had Ruth Heathcote known that the girl ceased to live,
it would not have been difficult for one of her faith to have
deposited her regrets by the side of hopes that were so
justifiable in the grave of the innocent. But the living
death to which her offspring might be condemned, was
rarely absent from her thoughts. She listened to the
maxims of resignation, which were heard flowing from lips
she loved, with the fondness of a woman and the meekness
of a Christian ; and then, even while the holy lessons were
still sounding in her attentive organs, the workings of an
unconquerable nature led her insidiously back to the sorrow
of a mother.
The imagination of this devoted and feminine being had
never possessed an undue control over her reason. Her
visions of happiness with the man whom her judgment not
less than her inclination approved, had been such as experi-
ence and religion might justify. But she was now fated to
learn there is a fearful poetry in sorrow, which can sketch
with a grace and an imaginative power that no feebler
efforts of a heated fancy may ever equal. She heard the
206 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON- WISH.
sweet breathing of her slumbering infant in the whispering
of the summer airs ; its plaints came to her ears amid the
howlings of the gale ; while the eager question and fond
reply were mixed up with the most ordinary intercourse of
her own household. To her the laugh of childish happiness
that often came on the still air of evening from the hamlet,
sounded like the voice of mourning ; and scarce an infantile
sport met her eye that did not bring with it a pang of
anguish. Twice since the events of the inroad had she
been a mother ; and, as if an eternal blight were doomed to
destroy her hopes, the little creatures to whom she had
given birth, slept side by side near the base of the ruined
block. Thither she often went, but it was rather to be the
victim of those cruel images of her fancy, than as a mourner.
Her visions of the dead were calm and even consolatory,
but if ever her thoughts mounted to the abodes of eternal
peace, and her feeble fancy essayed to embody the forms
of the blessed, her mental eye sought her who was not, rather
than those who were believed to be secure in their felicity.
Wasting and delusory as were these glimpses of the mind,
there were others far more harrowing, because they pre-
sented themselves with more of the coarse and certain
features of the world. It was the common, and perhaps it
was the better, opinion of the inhabitants of the valley,
that death had early sealed the fate of those who had fallen
into the hands of the savages on the occasion of the inroad.
Such a result was in conformity with the known practices
and ruthless passions of the conquerors, who seldom spared
life unless to render revenge more cruelly refined, or to
bring consolation to some bereaved mother of the tribe by
offering a substitute for the dead in the person of a captive.
There was relief to picture the face -of the laughing cherub
in the clouds, or to listen to its light footstep in the empty
halls of the dwelling ; for in these illusive images of the
brain, suffering was confined to her own bosom. But when
stern reality usurped the place of fancy, and she saw her
living daughter shivering in the wintry blasts or sinking
beneath the fierce heats of the climate, cheerless in the
desolation of female servitude, and suffering meekly the
lot of physical weakness beneath a savage master, she en-
dured that anguish which was gradually exhausting the
springs of life.
Though the father was not altogether exempt from simi-
lar sorrow, it beset him less ceaselessly. Fie knew how to
struggle with the workings of his mind as best became a
THE WEPT OF WISH-TOX-WISH. 207
man. Though strongly impressed with the belief that the
captives had early been put beyond the reach of suffering,
he had neglected no duty which tenderness to his sorrow-
ing partner, parental love, or Christian duty, could require
at his hands.
The Indians had retired on the crust of the snow, and
with the thaw every footprint, or sign by which such wary
foes might be traced, had vanished. It remained matter of
doubt to what tribe or even to what nation the marauders
belonged. The peace of the colony had not yet been openly
broken, and the inroad had been rather a violent and fierce
symptom of the evils that were contemplated, than the
actual commencement of the ruthless hostilities which had
since ravaged the frontier. But while policy had kept the
colonists quiet, private affection omitted no rational means
of effecting the restoration of the sufferers, in the event of
their having been spared.
Scouts had passed among the conspiring and but half-
peaceable tribes nearest to the settlement, and rewards and
menaces had both been liberally used, in order to ascertain
the character of the savages who had laid waste the valley,
as well as the more interesting fortunes of their hapless
victims. Every expedient to detect the truth had failed.
The Narragansetts affirmed that their constant enemies,
the Mohicans, acting with their customary treachery, had
plundered their English friends, while the Mohicans vehe-
mently threw back the imputation on the Narragansetts. At
other times, some Indians affected to make dark allusions
to the hostile feelings of fierce warriors, who, under the
name of the Five Nations, were known to reside within the
limits of the Dutch colony of New Netherlands, and to
dwell upon the jealousy of the pale-faces who spoke a
language different from that of the Yengeese. In short,
inquiry had produced no result, and Content, when he did
permit his fancy to represent his daughter as still living,
was forced to admit to himself the probability that she
might be buried far in the ocean of wilderness which then
covered most of the surface of this continent.
Once, indeed, a rumor of an exciting nature had reached
the family. An itinerant trader bound from the wilds of
the interior to a mart on the sea-shore, had entered the
valley. He brought with him a report that a child answer-
ing in some respects to the appearance which might now
be supposed to belong to her who was lost, was living
among the savages, on the banks of the smaller lakes of
208 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON- WISH.
the adjoining colony. The distance to this spot was great. ;
the path led through a thousand dangers, and the result
was far from certain. Yet it quickened hopes which had
long been dormant. Ruth never urged any request that
might involve serious hazard to her husband, and for many
months the latter had even ceased to speak on th'e subject.
Still, nature was working powerfully within him. His eyes,
at all times reflecting and calm, grew more thoughtful ;
deeper lines of care gathered about his brow, and at length
melancholy took possession of a countenance which was
usually so placid.
It was at this precise period, that Eben Dudley chose to
urge the suit he had always pressed after his own desultory
fashion, on the decision of Faith. One of those well or-
dered accidents, which, from time to time, had brought the
girl and the young borderer in private conversation, en-
abled him to effect his design with sufficient clearness.
Faith heard him without betraying any of her ordinary
waywardness, and answered with as little prevarication as
the subject seemed to demand.
" This is well, Eben Dudley," she said, "and it is no
more than an honest girl hath a right to hear from one who
hath taken as many means as thou to get into her favor.
But he who would have his life tormented by me, hath a
solemn duty to do, ere I listen to his wishes."
" I have been in the lower towns and studied their man-
ner of life, and I have been upon the scouts of the colony,
to keep the Indians in their wigwams," returned the suitor,
endeavoring to recount the feats of manliness that might
reasonably be expected of one inclined to venture on so
hazardous an experiment as matrimony. " The bargain
with the young captain for the hill lot, and for a village
homestead, is drawing near a close, and as the neighbors
will not be backward at the stone-bee, or the raising, I see
nothing to —
" Thou deceivest thyself, observant Dudley," interrupted
the girl, " if thou believest eye of thine can see that which
is to be sought, ere one and the same fortune shall be the
property of thee and me. Hast noted, Eben, the man-
ner in which the cheek of the madam hath paled, and how
her eye is getting sunken, since the time when the fur
trader tarried with us, the week of the storm ? "
" I cannot say that there is much change in the wearing
of the madam within the bearing of my memory," answered
Dudley , who was never remarkable for minute observations
THE WEPT' OF WISH-TON-WISH. 209
of this- nature, however keen he might prove in subjects
more intimately connected with his daily pursuits. " She
is not young and blooming as thou, Faith ; nor is it often
that we see —
" I tell thee, man, that sorrow preyeth upon her form,
and that she liveth but in the memory of the lost infant ! "
" This is carrying mourning beyond the bounds of rea-
son. The child is at peace, as is thy brother Whittal, be-
yond all manner of question. That we have not discovered
their bones, is owing to the fire, which left but little to tell
of "
" Thy head is a charnel-house, dull Dudley ; but this pict-
ure of its furniture shall not suffice forme. The man who
is to be my husband, must have a feeling for a mother's
sorrows ! "
" What is now getting uppermost in thy mind, Faith?
Is it for me to bring back the dead to life, or to place a
child that hath been lost so many years, once more in the
arms of its parents ? "
" It is. — Nay, open not thine eyes, as if light were first
breaking into the darkness of a clouded brain ! I repeat,
it is ! "
" I am glad that we have got to these open declarations ;
for too much of my life hath been already wasted in un-
settled gallanting, when sound wisdom and the example of
all around me, have shown that in order to become the
father of a family, and to be esteemed for a substantial
settler, I should have both cleared and wived some years
ago. I wish to deal justly by all, and having given thee
reason to think that the day might come when we should
live together, as is fitting to people of our condition, I
felt it a duty to ask thee to share my chances ; but now
that thou dealest in impossibilities, it is needful to seek
elsewhere."
" This hath ever been thy way when a good understand-
ing hath been established between us. Thy mind is ever
getting into some discontent, and then blame is heaped on
one who rarely doth anything that should in reason offend
thee. What madness maketh thee dream that I ask im-
possibilities ? Surely, Dudley, thou canst not have noticed
the manner in which the nature of the madam is giving way
before the consuming heat of her grief ; thou canst not look
into the sorrow of woman, or thou wouldst have listened
with more kindness to a plan of travelling the woods for a
short season, in order that it might be known whether she
14
210 THE WEPT OF WISII-TOAT-IVISII.
of whom the trader spoke is the lost one of our family, or
the child of some stranger ! "
Though Faith spoke with vexation, she also spoke with
feeling. Her dark eye swam in tears, and the color of
her brown cheek deepened, until her companion saw new
reasons to forget his discontent in sympathies, which,
however obtuse they might be, were never entirely dormant.
" If a journey of a few hundred miles be all thou askest,
girl, why speak in parables?" he good-naturedly replied.
"The kind word was not wanting to put me on such a trial.
We will be married on the Sabbath, and, please Heaven,
the Wednesday or the Saturday at most, shall see me on
the path of the western trader."
" No delay. Thou must depart with the sun. The more
active thou provest on the journey, the sooner wilt thou
have the power to make me repent a foolish deed."
But Faith had been persuaded to relax a little from this
severity. They were married on the Sabbath, and the fol-
lowing day Content and Dudley left the valley in quest of
the distant tribe on which the scion of another stock was
said to have been so violently engrafted.
It is needless to dwell on the dangers and privations of
such an expedition. The Hudson, the Delaware, and the
Susquehanna, rivers that were then better known in tales
than to the inhabitants of New England, were all crossed ;
and after a painful and hazardous journey, the adventurers
reached the first of that collection of small interior lakes
whose banks are now so beautifully decorated with villages
and farms. Here, in the bosom of savage tribes, and ex-
posed to every danger of field and flood, supported only
by his hopes, and by the presence of a stout companion
that hardships or danger could not easily subdue, the father
diligently sought his child.
At length a people was found who held a captive that
answered the description of the trader. We shall not dwell
on the feelings with which Content approached the village
that contained this little descendant of a white race. He
had not concealed his errand ; and the sacred character in
which he came, found pity and respect even among those
barbarous tenants of the wilderness. A deputation of the
chiefs received him in the skirts of their clearing. He was
conducted to a wigwam where a council-fire was lighted,
and an interpreter opened the subject by placing the
amount of the ransom offered, and the professions of peace
with which the strangers came, in the fairest light before
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON'- WISH. /«:t
his auditors. It is not usual for the American savage to
loosen his hold easily on one naturalized in his tribe. But
the meek air and noble confidence of Content touched the
latent qualities of those generous though fierce children
of the woods. The girl was sent for, that she might stand
in the presence of the elders of the nation.
No language can paint the sensation with which Content
first looked upon this adopted daughter of the savages.
The years and sex were in accordance with his wishes; but
in place of the golden hair and azure eyes of the cherub he
had lost, there appeared a girl in whose jet-black tresses
and equally dark organs of sight, he might better trace a
descendant of the French of the Canadas, than one sprung
from his own Saxon lineage. The father was not quick of
mind in the ordinary occupations of life, but nature was
now big within him. There needed no second glance to
say how cruelly his hopes had been deceived. A smothered
groan struggled from his chest, and then his self-command
returned with the imposing grandeur of Christian resigna-
tion. He arose, and thanking the chiefs for their indul-
gence, he made no secret of the mistake by which he had
been led so far on a fruitless errand. While speaking, the
signs and gestures of Dudley gave him reason to believe
that his companion had something of importance to com-
municate. In a private interview, the latter suggested
the expediency of concealing the truth, and of rescuing
the child they had in fact discovered from the hands of
her barbarous masters. It was now too late to practise a
deception that might have availed for this object, had the
stern principles of Content permitted the artifice. But
transferring some portion of the interest which he felt for
the fortunes of his own offspring to that of the unknown
parent, who like himself most probably mourned the un-
certain fate of the girl before him, he tendered the ransom
intended for Ruth in behalf of the captive. It was rejected.
Disappointed in both their objects, the adventurers were
obliged to quit the village with weary feet and still heavier
hearts.
If any who read these pages have ever felt the agony of
suspense in a matter involving the best of human affections,
they will know how to appreciate the sufferings of the
mother during the month that her husband was absent on
this holy errand. At times hope brightened around her
heart, until the glow of pleasure was again mantling on her
cheek and playing in her eye. The first week of the ad-
212 THE WEPT OF WISH-TOX-IVISH.
venture was one almost of happiness. The hazards of the
journey were nearly forgotten in its anticipated results, and
though occasional apprehensions quickened the pulses of
one whose system answered so fearfully to the movements
of the spirit, there was a predominance of hope in all her
anticipations. She again passed among her maidens with
a mien in which joy was struggling with the meekness of
subdued habits, and her smiles once more began to beam
with renovated happiness. To his dying day old Mark
Heathcote never forgot the sudden sensation that was
created by the soft laugh that on some unexpected occa-
sion came to his ear from the lips of his son's wife. Though
years had elapsed between the moment when that unwont-
ed sound was heard, and the time at which the action of
the tale now stands, he never heard it repeated. To heighten
the feelings which were now uppermost in the mind of
Ruth, when within a day's march of the -village to which
he was going, Content had found the means to send the
tidings of his prospects of success. It was over all these
renewed wishes that disappointment was to throw its chill,
and it was affections thus riveted that were to be again
blighted by the cruellest of all withering influences, — that
of hope defeated.
It was near the hour of the setting of the sun when Con-
tent and Dudley reached the deserted clearing on their
return to the valley. Their path led through this opening
on the mountain-side, and there was one point among the
bushes from which the buildings that had already arisen
from the ashes of the burning might be distinctly seen.
Until now, the husband and father had believed himself
equal to any effort that duty might require in the prog-
ress of this mournful service. But here he paused, and
communicated a wish to his companion that he would go
ahead and break the nature of the deception that led them
so far on a fruitless mission. Perhaps Content was him-
self ignorant of all he wished, or to what unskilful hands he
had confided a commission of more than ordinary delicacy.
He merely felt his own inability, and with a weakness that
may find some apology in his feelings, he saw his compan-
ion depart without instructions or indeed without any other
guide than Nature.
Though Faith had betrayed no marked uneasiness during
the absence of the travellers, her quick eye was the first to
-discover the form of her husband, as he came with a tired
step across the fields, in the direction of the dwellings
THE WEFT OF W1SH-TON-IVISH. 213
Long ere Dudley reached the house, every one of its in-
mates had assembled in the piazza. This was no meeting
of turbulent delight or of clamorous greetings. The advent-
urer drew near amid a silence so oppressive, that it utterly
disconcerted a studied project, by which he had hoped to
announce his tidings in a manner suited to the occasion.
His hand was on the gate of the little court, and still none
spoke ; his foot was on the low step, and yet no voice bade
him welcome. The looks of the little group were rather
fixed on the features of Ruth than on the person of him
who approached. Her face was pallid as death, her eye
contracted, but filled with the mental effort that sustained
her, and her lip scarce trembled, as in obedience to a feel-
ing still stronger than the one which had so long oppressed
her, she exclaimed —
" Eben Dudley, where hast thou left my husband ?"
" The young captain was foot-weary, and he tarried in
the second growth of the hill ; but so brave a walker can-
not be far behind. We shall see him soon, at the opening
by the dead beech ; and it is there that I recommend the
madam —
*' It was thoughtful in Heathcote, and like his usual
kindness, to devise this well-meant caution," said Ruth,
across whose countenance a smile so radiant passed, that
it imparted the expression which is believed to character-
ize the peculiar benignancy of angels. " Still it was un-
necessary ; for he should have known that we place our
strength on the Rock of Ages. Tell me, in what manner
hath my precious one borne the exceeding weariness of
thy tangled -route ? "
The wandering glance of the messenger had gone from
face to face, until it became fastened on the countenance
of his own wife, in a settled, unmeaning gaze.
" Nay, Faith hath demeaned well, both as my assistant
and as thy partner, and thou mayest see that her comeli-
ness is in no degree changed. And did the babe falter in
this weary passage, or did she retard thy movements by her
fretfulness? But I know thy nature, man ; she hath been
borne over many long miles of mountain-side and treacher-
ous swamp in thine own vigorous arms. Thou answerest
not, Dudley ! " exclaimed Ruth, taking the alarm, and lay-
ing a hand firmly on the shoulder of him she questioned ,
as forcing his half-averted face to meet her eye, she seemed
to read his soul.
The muscles of the sunburnt and strong features of the
214 THE WEPT OF WISH-TOX-WISH.
borderer worked involuntarily, his broad chest swelled to
its utmost expansion, big burning drops rolled out upon his
brown cheeks, and then taking the arm of Ruth in one of
his own powerful hands, he compelled her to release her
hold, with a firm but respectful exercise of his strength ;
and thrusting the form of his own wife without ceremony
aside, he passed through the circle, and entered the dwell*
ing with the tread of a giant.
The head of Ruth dropped upon her bosom, the pale-
ness again came over her cheeks, and it was then that the
inward look of the eye might first be seen, which afterward
became so constant and so painful an expression in her
countenance. From that hour to the time in which the
family of the Wish-Ton-Wish is again brought immediately
before the reader, no further rumors were ever heard, to
lessen or increase the wasting regrets of her bosom.
CHAPTER XX.
" Sir, he hath never fed of the dainties that are bred in a book ; he hath
not eaten paper, as it were ; he hath not drunk ink ; his intellect is not
replenished ; he is only an animal — only sensible in the duller parts."
— Love1 s Labors Lost.
" HERE cometh Faith, to bring us tidings of the hamlet,"
said the husband of the woman whose character we have
so feebly sketched, as he took his seat in the piazza, at the
early hour and in the group already mentioned. " The
ensign hath been abroad on the hills throughout the night,
with a chosen party of our people ; and perchance she
hath been sent with the substance that they have gathered,
concerning the unknown trail."
" The heavy-footed Dudley hath scarce mounted to the
dividing ridge, where report goeth the prints of moccasons
were seen," observed a young man, who in his person bore
all the evidences of an active and healthful manhood. " Of
what service is the scouting that faileth of the necessary
distance, by the weariness of its leader ? "
" If thou believest, boy, that thy young foot is equal to
contend with the sinews of Eben Dudley, there may be
occasion to show the magnitude of thy error, ere the dan-
ger of this Indian out-breaking shall pass away. Thou art
too stubborn of will, Mark, to be yet trusted with the lead'
THE IVEPT OF 1VISII-TOX-W1SH. 215
ing of parties that may hold the safety of all who dwell in
the Wish-Ton-Wish within their keeping."
The young man looked displeased ; but, fearful that his
father might observe and misinterpret his humor into a
personal disrespect, he turned away, permitting his frown-
ing eye to rest for an instant on the timid and stolen glance
of a, maiden, whose cheek was glowing like the eastern sky,
as she busied herself with the preparations of the table.
"What welcome news dost bring from the sign of the
Whip-Poor- Will ?" Content asked of the woman who had
now come within the little gate of his court. " Hast seen
the ensign since the party took the hill-paths, or is it some
traveller who hath charged thee with matter for our ears ? "
" Eye of man hath not seen the man since he girded
himself with the sword of office," returned Faith, entering
the piazza and nodding salutation to those around her ; " and
as for strangers, when the clock shall strike noon, it will
be one month to the day that the last of them was housed
within my doors. But I complain not of the want of cus-
tom, as the ensign would never quit the bar and his gossip
to go into the mountain lots, so long as there was one to
fill his ears with the marvels of the old countries, or even
to discourse of the home-stirrings of the colonies them-
selves."
" Thou speakest lightly, Faith, of one who merits thy
respect and thy duty."
The eye of the former studied the meek countenance of
her from whom this reproof came, with an intenseness and
a melancholy that showed her thoughts were on other mat-
ters, and then, as if suddenly recalled to what had passed,
she resumed —
"Truly, what with duty to the man as a husband, and
respect to him as an officer of the colony, Madam Heath-
cote, the task is not one of easy bearing. If the king's
representative had given the colors to my brother Reuben,
and left the Dudley with the halberd in his hand, the pre-
ferment would have been ample for one of his qualities,
and all the better for the credit of the settlement."
"The governor distributed his favor according to the
advice of men competent to distinguish merit," said Con-
tent. " Eben was foremost in the bloody affair among the
people of the Plantations, where his manhood was of good
example to all in company. Should he continue as faith-
ful and as valiant, thou mayest yet live to see thyself the
consort of a captain ! "
2i6 THE WEPT OF WISH>TON-W13&.
" Not for glory gained in this night's marching ; for yon
der cometh the man with a sound body, and seemingly with
the stomach of a Caesar— aye, and I'll answer for it, of a
regiment too ! It is no trifle that will satisfy his appetite,
after one of these — ha ! Pray Heaven the fellow be not
harmed. Truly, he hath our neighbor Ergot in attar. cl-
an ce."
"There is other than he too ; for one cometh in the rear
whose gait and air are unknown to me. The trail hath
been struck, and Dudley leadeth a captive ! A savage in
his paint and cloak of skin is taken."
This assertion caused all to rise — for the excitement of
an apprehended inroad was still strong in the minds of
those secluded people. Not a syllable more was uttered
until the scout and his companion were before them.
The quick glance of Faith had scanned the person of
her husband, and, resuming her spirits with the certainty
that he was unharmed, she was the first to' greet him with
words :
" How now, Ensign Dudley ?" said the woman, quite pos-
sibly vexed that she had unguardedly betrayed a greater
interest in his welfare than she might always deem prudent.
" How now, ensign — hath the campaign ended with no
better trophy than this ? "
" The fellow is not a chief, nor, by his step and dull
look, even a warrior ; but he was, nevertheless, a lurker
nigh the settlements, and it was thought prudent to bring
him in," returned the husband, addressing himself to Con-
tent, while he answered the salutation of his wife with a suf-
ficiently brief nod. " My own scouting hath brought noth-
ing to light ; but my brother Ring hath fallen on the trail
of him that is here present, and it is not a little that we
are puzzled in probing, as the good Doctor Ergot calleth
it, into the meaning of his errand."
" Of what tribe may the savage be ? "
" There hath been discussion among us on that matter,"
returned Dudley, with an oblique glance of the eye
toward the physician. "Some have said he is a Narra-
gansett, while others think he cometh of a stock stil]
further east."
" In giving that opinion, I spoke merely of his secondary
or acquired habits." interrupted Ergot ; "for, having refer-
ence to his original, the man is assuredly a white."
" A white ! " repeated all around him.
" Beyond a cavil, as may be seen by divers particulars
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH. 217
in his outward conformation, viz., in the shape of the head,
the muscles of the arms and of the legs, the air and gait,
besides sundry other signs, that are familiar to men who
have made the physical peculiarities of the two races their
study."
" One of which is this ! " continued Dudley, throwing up
the robe of the captive, and giving his companions the oc-
ular evidence which had so satisfactorily removed all his
own doubts. " Though the color of the skin may not be
proof positive, like that named by our neighbor Ergot, it
is still something, in helping a man of little learning to
make up an opinion in such a matter."
" Madam !" exclaimed Faith so suddenly as to cause her
she addressed to start, "for the sake of Heaven's mercy!
let thy maidens bring soap and water, that the face of this
man may be cleansed of its paint."
"What foolishness is thy brain set upon ?" rejoined the
ensign, who had latterly affected some of that- superior
gravity which might be supposed to belong to his official
station. "We are not now under the roof of the Whip-
Poor- Will, wife of mine, but in the presence of those who
need none of thy suggestions to give proper forms to an
examination of office."
Faith heeded no reproof. Instead of waiting for others
to perform that which she had desired, she applied herself
to the task, with a dexterity that had been acquired by
long practice, and a zeal that seemed awakened by some
extraordinary emotion. In a minute the colors had disap-
peared from the features of the captive, and, though deeply
tanned by exposure to an American sun and to sultry
winds, his face was unequivocally that of one who owed
his origin to a European ancestry. The movements of
the eager woman were watched with curious interest by
all present, and when the short task was ended, a murmur
of surprise broke simultaneously from every lip.
" There is meaning in this masquerade," observed Con-
tent, who had long and intently studied the dull and un-
gainly countenance that was exposed to his scrutiny by
the operation. " I have heard of Christian men who have
sold themselves to gain, and who, forgetting religion and
the love of their race, have been known to league with the
savage in order to pursue rapine in the settlements. This
wretch hath the subtlety of one of the French of the Cana-
das in his eye."
" Away ! away ! " cried Faith, forcing herself in front o/
218 THE IVEPT OF
the speaker, and, by placing her two hands on the shaven
crown of the prisoner, forming a sort of shade to his feat'
ures. " Away with all folly about the Frenchers and
wicked leagues ! This is no plotting miscreant, but a
stricken innocent ! Whittal— my brother Whittal, dost
know me ? "
The tears rolled down the cheeks of the wayward woman
as she gazed into the face of her witless relative, whose
eye lighted with one of its occasional gleamings of intelli-
gence, and who indulged in a low, vacant laugh, ere he
answered her earnest interrogatory.
"Some speak like men from over sea," he said, " and
some speak like men of the woods. Is there such a thing
as bear's meat or a mouthful of hommony in the wigwam ? "
Had the voice of one long known to be in the grave,
broken on the ears of the family, it would scarcely have
produced a deeper sensation, or have quickened the blood
more violently about their hearts, than this sudden and
utterly unexpected discovery of the character of their cap-
tive. Wonder and awe held them mute for a time, and
then Ruth was seen standing before the restored wanderer,
her hands clasped in the attitude of petition, her eye con-
tracted and imploring, and her whole person expressive of
the suspense and excitement which had roused her long
latent emotions to agony.
"Tell me," said a thrilling voice that might have quick-
ened the intellect of one even duller than the man ad-
dressed, " as thou hast pity in thy heart^ tell me if my
babe yet live ? "
" 'Tis a good babe," returned the other, and then laugh-
ing again in his own vacant and unmeaning manner, he
bent his eyes with a species of stupid wonder on Faith,
in whose appearance there was far less change than in the
speaking but wasted countenance of her who stood imme-
diately before him.
" Give leave, dearest madam," interposed the sister ; " I
know the nature of the boy, and could ever do more with
him than any other."
But this request was useless. The system of the mother,
in its present state of excitement, was unequal to further
effort. Sinking into the watchful arms of Content, she
was borne away, and, for a minute, the anxious interest
of the handmaidens left none but the men on the piazza.
" Whittal — my old playfellow, Whittal Ring," said the
son of Content, advancing with a humid eye to take the
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON- WISH. 219
hand of the prisoner. " Hast forgotten, man, the com-
panion of thy early days ? It is young Mark Heathcote
that speaks."
The other looked up into his countenance, for a mo-
ment, with a reviving recollection : but shaking his head,
he drew back in marked displeasure, muttering loud
enough to be heard —
" What a false liar is a pale-face ! Here is one of the
tall rogues wishing to pass for a loping boy ! "
What more he uttered his auditors never knew, for he
instantly changed his language to some dialect of an In-
dian tribe.
"The mind of the unhappy youth hath even been
more blunted, by exposure and the usages of a savage
life, than by nature," said Content, who with most of the
others had been recalled, by his interest in the examina-
tion, to the scene they had momentarily quitted. " Let the
sister deal tenderly with the lad, and, in Heaven's time,
shall we learn the truth."
The deep feeling of the father clothed his words with
authority. The eager group gave place, and something
like the solemnity of an official examination succeeded
to the irregular and hurried interrogatories which had
first broken on the dull intellect of the recovered wan-
derer.
The dependents took their stations in a circle around the
chair of the Puritan, by whose side was placed Content,
while Faith induced her brother to be seated on the step of
the piazza, in a manner that all might hear. The attention
of the brother himself was drawn from the formality of the
arrangement, by placing food in his hands.
" And now, Whittal, I would know," commenced the
ready woman, when a deep silence denoted the attention
of the auditors, " I would know, if thou rememberest the
day I clad thee in garments of boughten cloth, from over
sea ; and how fond thou wast of being seen among the
kine in colors so gay ? "
The young man looked up in her face as if the tones of
her voice gave him pleasure ; but, instead of making any
reply, he preferred to munch the bread with which she had
endeavored to lure him back to their ancient confidence.
" Surely, boy, thou canst not so soon have forgotten the
gift I bought, with the hard earnings of a wheel that
turned at night. The tail of yon peacock is not finer than
thou then wast — but I will make thee such another gap
220 THE WEPT OF W1SH-TON-IVISI1.
ment, that thou mayestgo with the trainers to their weekly
muster."
The youth dropped the robe of skin that covered the
upper part of his body, and making a forward gesture,
with the gravity of an Indian, he answered —
" Whittal is a warrior on his path ; he has no time for
the talk of the women ! "
"Now, brother, thou forgettest the manner in which 1
was wont to feed thy hunger, as the frost pinched thee, in
the cold mornings, and at the hour when the kine needed
thy care ; else thou would'st not call me woman,"
" Hast ever been on the trail of a Pequot ? Know'st how
to whoop among the men ? "
"What is an Indian whoop to the bleating of the flocks,
or the bellowing of cattle in the bushes ! Thou remem-
berest the sound of the bells, as they tinkled among the
second growth of an evening ? "
The former herdsman turned his head, and seemed to
lend his attention, as a dog listens to an approaching foot-
step. But the gleam of recollection was quickly lost. In
the next moment, he yielded to the more positive, and pos-
sibly more urgent, demands of his appetite.
" Then hast thou lost the use of ears ; else thou would'st
not say that thou forgettest the sound of the bells."
" Didst ever hear a wolf howl?" exclaimed the other.
" That's a sound for a hunter ! I saw the Great Chief
strike the striped panther, when the boldest warrior of the
tribe grew white as a craven pale-face at his leaps ! "
" Talk not to me of your ravenous beasts and great
chiefs, but rather let us think of the days when we were
young, and when thou had'st delight in the sports of a
Christian childhood. Hast forgotten, Whittal, how our
mother used to give us leave to pass the idle time in games
among the snow ? "
" Nipset hath a mother in her wigwam, but he asketh no
leave to go on the hunt. He is a man ; the next snow, he
will be a warrior."
" Silly boy ! This is some treachery of the savage, by
which he has bound thy weakness with the fetters of his
craftiness. Thy mother, Whittal, was a woman of Christian
belief, and one of a white race ; and a kind and mourning
mother was she over thy feeble-mindedness ! Dost not
remember, unthankful of heart ! howr she nursed thy sickly
hours in boyhood, and how she administered to all thy
bodily wants ? Who was it that fed thee when a-hungered
THE IVEPT OF WISH-TO N-W?Sff. 221
or who had compassion on thy waywardness, when others
tired of thy idle deeds, or grew impatient at thy weakness ?"
The brother looked, for an instant, at the flushed features
of the speaker, as if glimmerings of some faintly distin-
guished scenes crossed the visions of his mind ; but the
.animal still predominated, and he continued to feed his
hunger.
"This exceedeth human endurance!" exclaimed the
excited Faith. " Look into this eye, weak one, and say if
thou knowest her who supplied the place of that mother
whom thou refusest to remember — she who hath toiled for
thy comfort, and who hath never refused to listen to all thy
plaints, and to soften all thy sufferings. Look at this eye,
and speak — dost know me ? "
" Certain ! " returned the other, laughing wTith a half in-
telligent expression of recognition ; "'tis a woman of the
pale-faces, and I warrant me, one that will never be satis-
fied till she hath all the furs of the Americas on her back,
and all the venison of the woods in her kitchen. Didst
ever hear the tradition, how that wicked race got into the
hunting-grounds, and robbed the warriors of the country? "
The disappointment of Faith had made her too impa-
tient to lend a pleased attention to this tale ; but, at that
moment, a form appeared at her side, and by a quiet and
commanding gesture directed her to humor the temper of
the wanderer.
It was Ruth, in whose pale cheek and anxious eye, all
the intenseness of a mother's longings might be traced, in
its most touching aspect. Though so lately helpless and
sinking beneath her emotions, the sacred feelings which
now sustained her seemed to supply the place of all other
aid ; and as she glided past the listening circle, even Con-
tent himself had not believed it necessary to offer succor,
or to interpose with remonstrance. Her quiet, meaning
gesture seemed to say, " proceed, and show all the indul-
gence to the weakness of the young man." The rising
discontent of Faith was checked by habitual reverence,
and she prepared to obey.
" And what say the silly traditions of which you speak ? "
she added, ere the current of his dull ideas had time to
change its direction.
" Tis spoken by the old men in the villages, and what is
there said is gospel-true. You see all around you land
that is covered with hill and valley, and which once bore
wood, without the fear of the axe; and over which game
222 THE WEPT OF IVISII-TOX-WISH.
was spread with a bountiful hand. There are runners and
hunters in our tribe, who have been on a straight path to-
ward the setting sun, until their legs were weary and
their eyes could not see the clouds that hang over the
salt lake, and yet they say, 'tis everywhere beautiful as
yonder green mountain. Tall trees and shady woods,
rivers and lakes filled with fish, and dear and beavef
plentiful as the sands on the sea-shore. All this land and
water the Great Spirit gave to men of red skins ; for them
he loved, since -they spoke truth in their tribes, w^ere true
to their friends, hated their enemies, and knew how to
take scalps. Now, a thousand snows had come and melted,
since this gift was made," continued Whittal, who spoke
with the air of one charged with the narration of a grave
tradition, though he probably did no more than relate
what many repetitions had rendered familiar to his inac-
tive mind, " and yet none but red-skins were seen to hunt
the moose, or to go on the war-path. Then the Great
Spirit grew angry ; he hid his face from his children, be-
cause they quarrelled among themselves. Big canoes
came out of the rising ,sun, and brought a hungry and
wicked people into the land. At first, the strangers spoke
soft and complaining like women. They begged room for
a few wigwams, and said if the warriors would give them
ground to plant they would ask their God to look upon
the red men. But when they grew strong they forgot
their words and made liars of themselves. Oh, they are
wicked knaves ! A pale-face is a panther. When a-hun-
gered, you can hear him whining in the bushes like a
strayed infant ; but when you come within his leap beware
of tooth and claw ! "
" This evil-minded race, then, robbed the red warriors
of their land ? "
" Certain ! They spoke like sick women till they grew
strong, and then they out-devilled the Pequods themselves
in wickedness ; feeding the warriors with their burning
milk, and slaying with blazing inventions, that they made
out of the yellow meal."
" And the Pequods ! was their great warrior dead before
the coming of the men from over sea ? "
"You are a woman that has never heard a tradition, or
you would know better ! A Pequod is a weak and crawling
cub."
" And thou — thou art, then, a Narragansett ?"
" Don't I look like a man? "
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON- WISH. 223
" I had mistaken thee for one of our nearer neighbors,
the Mohegan Pequods."
"The Mohicans are basket makers for the Yengeese;
but the Narragansett goes leaping through the woods like
a wolf on the trail of the deer ! "
''All this is quite in reason, and now thou pointestto its
justice, I cannot fail but see it. But we have curiosity to
know more of the great tribe. Hast ever heard of one of
thy people, Whittal, known as Miantonimoh — 'tis a chief
of some renown ? "
The witless youth had continued to eat at intervals, but,
on hearing this question, he seemed suddenly to forget his
appetite. For a moment he looked down, and then he
answered slowly and not without solemnity —
" A man cannot live forever."
" What ! " said Faith, motioning to her deeply-interested
auditors to restrain their impatience, " has he quitted his
people ? And thou lived with him, Whittal, ere he came
to his end ? "
" He never looked on Nipset, or Nipset on him."
" I know naught of this Nipset ; tell me of the great
Miantonimoh."
" Dost need to hear twice ? The sachem is gone to the
far land, and Nipset will be a warrior when the next snow
comes ! "
Disappointment threw a cloud on every countenance,
and the beam of hope, which had been kindled in the eye
of Ruth, changed to the former painful expression of
deep inward suffering. But Faith still managed to repress
all speech among those who listened, continuing the ex-
amination, after a short delay that her vexation rendered
unavoidable.
" I had thought that Miantonimoh was still a warrior in
his tribe," she said. " In what battle did he fall ? "
"Mohican Uncas did that wicked deed. The pale-men
gave him great riches to murder the sachem."
" Thou speakest of the father ; but there was another
Miantonimoh ; he who in boyhood dwelt among the people
of white blood."
Whittal listened attentively, and after seeming to rally
his thoughts, he shook his head, saying before he again be-
gan to eat —
" There never was but one of the name, and there never
will be another. Two eagles do not build their nests in
the same tree."
224 THE WEPT OF WISH-TO AT.
" Thou sayest truly," continued Faith ; well knowing that
to dispute the information of her brother was, in effect, to
close his mouth. " Now tell me of Conanchet, the present
Narragansett sachem — he who hath leagued with Metacom,
and hath of late been driven from his fastness near the sea
— doth he yet live ? "
The expression of the brother's countenance underwent
another change. In place of the childish importance with
which he had hitherto replied to the questions of his sister,
a look of overreaching cunning gathered about his dull
eye. The organ glanced slowly and cautiously around
him, as if its owner expected to detect some visible sign
of those covert intentions he so evidently distrusted. In-
stead of answering, the wanderer continued his meal,
though less like one who had need of sustenance, than one
resolved to make no communications which might prove
dangerous. This change was not unobserved by Faith,
nor by any of those who so intently watched the means by
which she had been endeavoring to thread the confused
ideas of one so dull, and yet who at need seemed so prac-
tised in savage artifice. She prudently altered her man-
ner of interrogating by endeavoring to lead his thoughts
to other matters.
"I warrant me," continued the sister, "that thou now
beginnest to call to mind the times when thou led'st the
cattle among the bushes, and how thou wert wont to call
on Faith to give thee food, when a-weary with threading
the woods in quest of the kine. Hast ever been assailed
by the Narrgansetts thyself, Whittal, when dwelling in the
house of a pale-face ? "
The brother ceased eating. Again he appeared to muse,
as intently as was possible for one of his circumscribed in-
tellects. But shaking his head in the negative, he silently
resumed the grateful office of mastication.
"What! hast come to be a warrior, and never known a
scalp taken, or seen a fire lighted in the roof of a wig-
wam ? "
Whittal laid down the food, and turned to his sister.
His face was teeming with a wild and fierce meaning, and
he indulged in a low but triumphant laugh. When this
exhibition of satisfaction was over, he consented to reply.
" Certain," he said. " We went on a path in the night,
against the lying Yengeese, and no burning of the woods
ever scorched the 'arth as we blackened their fields ! All
their proud housen were turned into piles of coals."
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH. 225
" And where and when did you this act of brave ven-
geance ? "
" They called the place after the bird of night ; as if an
Indian name could save them from an Indian massacre ! "
" Ha ! Tis of the Wish-Ton-Wish thou speakest ! But
thou wast a sufferer, and not an actor, brother, in that
heartless burning."
" Thou liest like a wicked woman of the pale-faces, as
thou art ! Nipset was only a boy on that path, but he went
with his people. I tell thee we singed the very 'arth with
our brands, and not a head of them all ever rose again
from the ashes."
Notwithstanding her great self-command, and the object
that was constantly before the mind of Faith, she shud-
dered at the fierce pleasure writh which her brother pro-
nounced the extent of the vengeance that in his imaginary
character he believed he had taken on his enemies. Still,
cautious not to destroy an illusion which might aid her in
the so long-defeated and so anxiously-desired discovery,
the woman repressed her horror, and continued —
"True, — yet some were spared; surely the warriors
carried prisoners back to their village. Thou didst not
slay all ? "
"All."
" Nay ; thou speakest now of the miserables who were
wrapped in the blazing block ; but — but some without
might have fallen into thy hands, ere the assailed sought
shelter in the tower. Surely, surely thou didst not kill all ? "
The hard breathing of Ruth caught the ear of Whittal,
and for a moment he turned to regard her countenance in
dull wonder. But again shaking his head, he answered, in
a low, positive tone —
" All ; — aye, to the screeching women and crying babes ! "
" Surely, there is a child, — I would say there is a woman
in thy tribe of fairer skin and of form different from most
of thy people. Was not such a one led a captive from the
burning of the Wish-Ton-Wish ? "
" Dost think the deer will live with the wolf, or hast ever
found the cowardly pigeon in the nest of the hawk ?"
"Nay, thou art of different color thyself, Whittal, and it
well may be thou art not alone."
The youth regarded his sister a moment with marked
displeasure, and then on turning to eat he muttered—
" There is as much fire in snow as truth in a lying Yen-
geese ! "
226 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH.
11 This examination must close," said Content, with a
heavy sigh ; " at another hour we may hope to push the
matter to some more fortunate result ; but yonder cornet^
one charged with especial service from the towns below,
as would seem by the fact that he disregardeth the holiness
of the day, no less than by the earnest manner in which
he is journeying."
As the individual named was visible to all who chose to
look in the direction of the hamlet, his sudden appearance
caused a general interruption to the interest which had been
so strongly awakened on a subject that was familiar to every
resident in the valley.
The early hour, the gait at which the stranger urged
his horse, the manner in which he passed the open and
inviting door of the Whip- Poor- Will, proclaimed him a
messenger, who probably bore some communication of
importance from the government of the colony to the
younger Heathcote, who filled the highest station of of-
ficial authority in that distant settlement. Observations
to this purport had passed from mouth to mouth, and
curiosity was actively alive by the time the horseman rode
into the court. There he dismounted, and covered with
the dust of the road he presented himself, with the air of
one who had passed the night in the saddle, before the
man he sought.
" I have orders for Captain Content Heathcote," said
the messenger, saluting all around him with the usual
grave but studied courtesy of the people to wThom he be-
longed.
" He is here to receive and to obey," was the answer.
The traveller wore a little of that mysteriousness that is
so grateful to certain minds, which, from inability to com-
mand respect in any other manner, are fond of making
secrets of matters that might as well be revealed. In obe-
dience to this feeling he expressed a desire that his com-
munications might be made apart. Content quietly mo-
tioned for him to follow, leading the way into an inner
apartment of the house. As a new direction was given by
this interruption to the thoughts of the spectators of the
foregoing scene, we shall also take the opportunity to di-
gress, in order to lay before the reader some general facts
that may be necessary to the connection of the subsequent
parts of the legend.
THE IVLPT OF \VISII-TO.\~-IVISIL 227
CHAPTER XXI.
" Be certain what you do, sir ; lest your justice
Prove violence." — Winters Tale.
THE designs of the celebrated Metacom had been be-
trayed to the colonists by the treachery of a subordinate
warrior, named Sausaman. The punishment of this trea-
son led to inquiries which terminated in accusations against
the great sachem of the Wampanoags. Scorning to vindi-
cate himself before enemies that he hated, and perhaps dis-
trusting their clemency, Metacom no longer endeavored to
cloak his proceedings, but throwing aside the emblems of
peace, he openly appeared with an armed hand.
The tragedy had commenced about a year before the
period at which the tale has now arrived. A scene not un-
like that detailed in the foregoing pages took place ; the
brand, the knife, and the tomahawk doing their work of
destruction, without pity and without remorse. But un-
like the inroad of the Wish-Ton-Wish, this expedition was
immediately followed by others, until the whole of New
England was engaged in the celebrated war, to which we
have before referred.
The entire white population of the colonies of New
England had shortly before been estimated at one hundred
and twenty thousand souls. Of this number it was thought
that sixteen thousand men were capable of bearing arms.
Had time been given for the maturity of the plans of Met-
acom, he might have readily assembled bands of warriors,
who, aided by their familiarity with the woods, and accus-
tomed to the privations of such a warfare, would have
threatened serious danger to the growing strength of the
whites. But the ordinary and selfish feelings of man were
as active among these wild tribes as they are known to be
in more artificial communities. The indefatigable Meta-
com, like that Indian hero of our own times, Tecumthe,
had passed years in endeavoring to appease ancient enmi-
ties and to lull jealousies, in order that all of red blood
might unite in crushing a foe that promised, should he be
longer undisturbed in his march to power, soon to be too
formidable for their united efforts to subdue. The prema-
ture explosion in some measure averted the danger. It
gave the English time to strike several severe blows against
228 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH.
the tribe of their great enemy, before his allies had deter-
mined to make common cause in his design. The summer
and autumn of 1675 had been passed in active hostilities
between the English and Wampanoags, without openly
drawing any other nation into the contest. Some of the
Pequods, with their dependent tribes, even took sides with
the whites ; and we read of the Mohicans being actively
employed in harassing the sachem on his well-known re-
treat from that neck of land, where he had been hemmed
in by the English, with the expectation that he might be
starved into submission.
The warfare of the first summer was, as might be expect-
ed, attended by various degrees of success, fortune quite
as often favoring the red men, in their desultory attempts
at annoyance, as their more disciplined enemies. Instead
of confining his operations to his own circumscribed and
easily environed districts, Metacom had led his warriors to
the distant settlements on the Connecticut ; and it was
during the operations of this season that several of the
towns on that river were first assailed and laid in ashes.
Active hostilities had in some measure ceased between the
Wampanoags and the English, with the cold wreather, most
of the troops retiring to their homes, while the Indians ap-
parently paused to take breath for their final effort.
It was, however, previously to this cessation of activity,
that the commissioners of the united colonies, as they
were called, met to devise the means of a concerted resist-
ance. Unlike their former dangers from the same quarter,
it was manifest by the manner in which a hostile feeling
was spreading around their whole frontier, that a leading
spirit had given as much of unity and design to the move-
ments of the foe as could probably ever be created among
a people so separated by distance and so divided in com-
munities. Right or wrong, the colonists gravely decided
that the war on their part was just. Great preparations
were therefore made to carry it on the ensuing summer, in
a manner more suited to their means, and to the absolute
necessities of their situation. It was in consequence of the
arrangements made for bringing a portion of the inhabi-
tants of the Colony of Connecticut into the field that we
find the principal characters of our legend in the warlike
guise in which they have just been re-introduced to the
reader.
Although the Narragansetts had not at first been openly
implicated in the attacks on the colonists, facts soon came
THE WEPT OF IVISH-TOX-WISH. 229
to the knowledge of the latter, which left no doubt of the
state of feeling in that nation. Many of their young men
were discovered among the followers of Metacom, and arms
taken from whites who had been slain in the different en.
counters were also seen in their villages. One of the first
measures of the commissioners, therefore, was to anticipate
more serious opposition, by directing an overwhelming
force against this people. The party collected on that oc-
casion was probably the largest military body which the
English at that early day had ever assembled in their col-
onies. It consisted of a thousand men, of whom no incon-
siderable number was cavalry — a species of troops that, as
all subsequent experience has shown, is admirably adapted
to operations against so active and so subtle a foe.
The attack was made in the depth of winter, and it
proved fearfully destructive to the assailed. The defence of
Conanchet, the young sachem of the Narragansetts, was
every way worthy of his high character for courage and
mental resources, nor was the victory gained without serious
loss to the colonists. The native chief had collected his
warriors, and taken post on a small area of firm land that
was situated in the centre of a densely wrooded swamp ; and
the preparations for resistance betrayed a singular famili-
arity with the military expedients of a white man. There
had been a palisadoed breast-work, a species of redoubt,
and a regular block-house to overcome, ere the colonists
could penetrate into the fortified village itself. The first at-
tempts were unsuccessful, the Indians having repulsed their
enemies with loss. But better arms and greater concert
finally prevailed, though not without a struggle that lasted
for many hours, and not until the defendants were, in truth,
nearly surrounded.
The events of that memorable day made a deep impres-
sion on the minds of men who were rarely excited by any
incidents of a great and moving character. It was still the
subject of earnest, and not unfrequently of melancholy dis-
course, around the fire-sides of the colonists ; nor was the
victory achieved without accompaniments, which, however
unavoidable they might have been, had a tendency to raise
doubts in the minds of conscientious religionists, concern-
ing the lawfulness of their cause. It is said that a village
of six hundred cabins was burnt, and that hundreds of dead,
and wounded were consumed in the conflagration. A
thousand warriors were thought to have lost their lives in
this affair, and it was believed that the power of the nation
$3o THE WEPT OF WISH-TON- WISH.
was broken forever. The sufferers among the colonists
themselves were numerous, and mourning came into avast
many families, with the tidings of victory.
In this expedition most of the men of the Wish-Ton-
Wish had been conspicuous actors, under the orders of
Content. They had not escaped with impunity ; but it
was confidently hoped that their courage was to meet its
reward in a long continuance of peace, which was the
more desirable on account of their remote and exposed
situation.
In the meantime the Narragansetts were far from being
subdued. Throughout the whole continuance of the inclem-
ent season they had caused alarms on the frontiers ; and
in one or two instances their renowned sachem had taken
signal vengeance for the dire affair in which his people had
so heavily suffered. As the spring advanced the inroads
became still more frequent, and the appearances of danger
so far increased as to require a new call 'on the colonists
to arm. The messenger introduced in the last chapter
was charged with matter that had a reference to the events
of this war ; arid it was \vith an especial communication
of great urgency that he had now demanded his secret
audience with the leader of the military force of the valley.
" Thou hast affairs of moment to deal with, Captain
Heathcote," said the hard-riding traveller, when he found
himself alone with Content. " The orders of his Honor
are to spare neither whip nor spur, until the chief men of
the borders shall be warned of the actual situation of the
colony."
" Hath aught of moving interest occurred that his Honor
deemeth there is necessity for unusual watchfulness ?
We had hoped that the prayers of the pious were not in
vain ; and that a time of quiet was about to succeed to that
violence, of which, bounden by our social covenants, we
have unhappily been unwilling spectators. The bloody
assault of Pettyquamscott hath exercised our minds se-
verely— nay, it hath even raised doubts of the lawfulness
of some of our deeds."
" Thou hast a commendable spirit of forgiveness, Cap-
tain Heathcote, or thy memory would extend to other
scenes than those which bear relation to the punishment
of an enemy so remorseless. It is said on the river, that
the valley of Wish-Ton-Wish hath been visited by the sav-
age in its day, and men speak freely of the wrongs suffered
by its owners on that pitiless occasion."
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH. 231
" The truth may not be denied, even that good should
come thereof. It is certain that much suffering was in-
flicted on me and on mine, by the inroad of which you
speak ; nevertheless we have ever striven to consider it as
a merciful chastisement inflicted for manifold .sins, rather
than as a subject that might be remembered, in order to
stimulate passions that, in all reason as in all charity,
should slumber as much as a weak nature will allow."
" This is well, Captain Heathcote, and in exceeding con-
formity with the most received doctrines," returned the
stranger, slightly gaping, either from want of rest the pre-
vious night, or from disinclination to so grave a subject ;
"but it hath little connection with present duties. My
charge beareth especial concern with the further destruc-
tion of the Indians, rather than to any inward searchings
into the condition of our own mental misgivings, concern-
ing any right it may be thought proper to question, that
hath a reference to the duty of self-protection. There is
no unworthy dweller in the Connecticut Colony, sir, that
hath endeavored more to cultivate a tender conscience
than the wretched sinner who standeth before you ; for I
have the exceeding happiness to sit under the outpourings
of a spirit that hath few mortal superiors in the matter of
precious gifts. I now speak of Dr. Calvin Pope ; a most
worthy and soul-quieting divine ; one who spareth not the
goad when the conscience needeth pricking, nor hesitateth
to dispense consolation to him who seeth his fallen estate ;
and one that never faileth to deal with charity, and hum-
bleness of spirit, and forbearance with the failings of
friends, and forgiveness of enemies, as the chiefest signs of
a renovated moral existence ; and therefore, there can be
but little reason to distrust the spiritual rightfulness of all
that listen to the riches of his discourse. But when it com-
eth to be question of life or death, a matter of dominion
and possession of these fair lands, that the Lord hath given
— why, sir, then I say that, like the Israelites dealing with
the sinful occupants of Canaan, it behoveth us to be true
to each other, and to look upon the heathen with a dis-
trustful eye."
" There may be reason in that thou utterest," observed
Content, sorrowfully. " Still it is lawful to mourn even
the necessity which conduceth to all this strife. I had
hoped that they who direct the Councils of the Colony
might have resorted to less violent means of persuasion,
to lead the savage back to reason, than that which com-
232 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISIT.
eth from the armed hand. Of what nature is thy special
errand ? "
" Of deep urgency, sir, as will be seen in the narration,"
returned the other, dropping his voice like one habitually
given to the dramatic part of diplomacy, however unskil'
ful he might have been in its more intellectual accom-
plishments. " Thou wast in the Pettyquamscott scourging,
and need not be reminded of the manner in which the
Lord dealt with our enemies on that favor-dispensing day ;
but it may not be known to one so remote from the stir-
ring and daily transactions of Christendom, in what man-
ner the savage hath taken the chastisement. The restless
and still unconquered Conanchet hath deserted his towns
and taken refuge in the open woods ; where it exceedeth
the skill and usage of our civilized men of war, to discover,
at all times, the position and force of their enemies. The
consequences may be easily conjectured. The savage
hath broken in upon, and laid waste, in whole or in part,
firstly — Lancaster, on the tenth," counting on his fingers,
" when many were led into captivity ; secondly, Marlbor-
ough, on the twentieth ; on the thirteenth ultimo, Groton ;
Warwick, on the seventeenth ; and Rehoboth, Chelrnsford,
Andover, Weymouth> and divers other places, have been
greatly sufferers, between the latter period and the day
when I quitted the abode of his Honor. Pierce, of Scitu-
ate, a stout warrior, and one practised in the wiles of this
nature of warfare, hath been cut off with a whole com-
pany of followers ; and Wadsworth and Brockleband, men
known and esteemed for courage and skill, have left their
bones in the woods, sleeping in common among their luck-
less followers."
" These are truly tidings to cause us to mourn over the
abandoned condition of our nature," said Content, in
whose meek mind there was no affectation of regrets on
such a subject. " It is not easy to see in what manner the
evil may be arrested without again going forth to do battle."
" Such is the opinion of his Honor, and of all who sit
with him in Council ; for we have sufficient knowledge of
the proceedings of the enemy, to be sure that the master-
spirit of wickedness, in the person of him called Philip, is
raging up and down the whole extent of the borders,
awakening the tribes to what he calleth the necessity of
resisting further aggression, and stirring up their ven*
geance by divers subtle expedients of malicious cun-
ning '
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISPI. 233
" And what manner of proceeding hath been ordered in
so urgent a strait by the wisdom of our rulers ?"
" First, there is a fast ordained, that we come to the
duty as men purified by mental struggle and deep self*
examination ; secondly, it is recommended that the con-
gregations deal with more than wonted severity with all
backsliders and evil-doers, in order that the towns may
not fall under the Divine displeasure, as happened to
them that dwelt in the devoted cities of Canaan ; thirdly,
it is determined to lend our feeble aid to the ordering of
Providence, by calling forth the allotted number of the
trained bands ; and fourthly, it is contemplated to coun-
teract the seeds of vengeance, by setting a labor-earning
price on the heads of our enemies."
" I accord with the three first of these expedients, as the
known and lawful resorts of Christian men," said Content.
" But the latter seemeth a measure that needeth to be en-
tertained with great wariness of manner, and some dis-
trust of purpose."
" Fear not, since all suiting and economical discretion
is active in the minds of our rulers, who have pondered
sagaciously on so grave a policy. It is not intended to
offer more than half the reward that is held forth by our
more wealthy and elder sister of the bay ; and there is
some acute question about the necessity of bidding at all
for any of tender years. And now, Captain Heathcote,
with the good leave of so respectable a subject, I will pro-
ceed to lay before you the details of the number and the
nature of the force that it is hoped you will lead in person
in the ensuing campaign."
As the result of that which followed will be seen in the
course of the legend, it is not necessary to accompany the
messenger any further in his communication. We shall
therefore leave him and Content busied with the matter of
their conference, and proceed to give some account of the
other personages connected with our subject.
When interrupted, as already related, by the arrival of
the stranger, Faith had endeavored by a new expedient to
elicit some evidences of a more just remembrance from the
dull mind of her brother. Accompanied by most of the
dependents of the family, she had led him to the summit
of that hill which was now crowned with the foliage of a
young and thrifty orchard, and placing him at the foot of
the ruin, she tried to excite a train of recollections that
should lead to deeper impressions, and possibly, by their
234 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH.
aid, to a discovery of the important circumstance that all
so much longed to have explained.
The experiment proved no happy result. The place,
and indeed the whole valley, had undergone so great a
change, that one more liberally gifted might have hesitated
to believe them those that have been described in our
earlier pages. This rapid alteration of objects, which else-
where know so little change in a long course of ages, is a
fact familiar to all who reside in the newer districts of the
Union. It is caused by the rapid improvements that are
made in the first stages of a settlement. To fell the forest
alone, is to give an entirely new aspect to the view ; and
it is far from easy to see in a village and in cultivated
fields, however recent the existence of the one or imper-
fect the other, any traces of a spot that a short time be-
fore was known as the haunt of the wo}f or the refuge of
the deer.
The features, and more particularly the eye of his sister,
had stirred long-dormant recollections in the mind of Whit-
tal Ring ; and though these glimpses of the past were de-
tached and indistinct, they had sufficed to quicken that an-
cient confidence which was partially exhibited in their
opening conference. But it exceeded his feeble powers
to recall objects that would appeal to rfo very lively sym-
pathies, and which had themselves undergone so material
alterations. Still the witless youth did not look on the
ruin entirely without some strivings of his nature. Al-
though the sward around its base was lively in the bright-
est verdure of early summer, and the delicious odor of the
wild clover saluted his senses, still there was that in the
blackened and ragged walls, the position of the tower, and
the view of the surrounding hills, shorn as so much of
them now were, that evidently spoke to his earliest im-
pressions. He looked at the spot as a hound gazes at a
master who has been so long lost as even to deaden his
instinct ; and at times, as his companions endeavored to aid
his faint images, it would seem as if memory were likely
to triumph, and all those deceptive opinions which habit
and Indian wiles had drawn over his dull mind, were
about to vanish before the light of reality. But the allure-
ments of a life in which there was so much of the freedom
of nature mingled with the fascinating pleasures of the
chase and of the woods, were not to be dispossessed so
readily. When Faith artfully led him back to those ani-
mal enjoyments of which he had been so fond in boyhood,
THE U'RPT OF IVISH-TON-IVISH. 235
the fantasy of her brother seemed most to waver ; but
whenever it became apparent that the dignity of a warrior,
and all the more recent and far more alluring delights of
his later life, were to be abandoned ere his being could re-
turn into its former existence, his dull faculties obstinately
refused to lend themselves to a change that, in his case,
would have been little short of that attributed to the trans-
migration of souls.
After an hour of anxious, and frequently, on the part of
Faith, of angry efforts to extract some evidences of his
recollection of the condition of life to which he had once
belonged, the attempt for the moment was abandoned. At
times, it seemed as if the woman were about to prevail.
He often called himself Wittal, but he continued to insist
that he was also Nipset, a man of the Narragan setts, who
had a mother in his wigwam, and who had reason to be-
lieve that he should be numbered among the warriors of
his tribe ere the fall of another snow.
In the meantime, a very different scene was passing at
the place where the first examination had been held, and
which had been immediately deserted by most of the spec-
tators, on the sudden arrival of the messenger. But a soli-
tary individual was seated at the spacious board, which had
been provided alike for those who owned and presided over
the estate, and for their dependents to the very meanest.
The individual who remained had thrown himself into a
seat, less with the air of him who consults the demands of
appetite, than of one whose thoughts were so engrossing
as to render him indifferent to the situation or employ-
ment of his more corporeal part. His head rested on his
arms, the latter effectually concealing the face, as they
were spread over the plain but exquisitely neat table of
cherry-wood, which, by being placed at the side of one of
less costly material, was intended to form the only dis-
tinction between the guests, as, in more ancient times and
in other countries, the salt was knowrn to mark the differ-
ence in rank among those who partook of the same feast.
" Mark," said a timid voice at his elbow, " thou art
weary with this night-watching, and with the scouting on
the hills. Dost not think of taking food before seeking
thy rest ?"
" I sleep not," returned the youth, raising his head, and
gently pushing aside the basin of simple food that was
offered by one whose eye looked feelingly on his flushed
features, and whose suffused cheek perhaps betrayed there
236 THE WEPT OF WISII-TON-WISH.
was a secret consciousness that the glance was kinder than
maiden diffidence should allow. " I sleep not, Martha,
nor doth it seem to me that I shall ever sleep again."
" Thou frightest me by this wild and unhappy eye. Hast
suffered aught in the march on the mountains ?"
" Dost think one of my years and strength unable to
bear the weariness of a few hours' watching in the forest ?
The body is well, but the mind endureth grievously."
" And wilt not say what causeth this vexation? Thou
knowest, Mark, that there are none in this dwelling — nay,
I am certain, I might add in this valley, that do not wish
thee happiness."
"'Tis kind to say it, good Martha; but thou never
hadst a sister ! "
" Tis true, I am all of my race ; and yet to me it seem-
eth that no tie of blood could have been nearer than the
love I bore to her who is lost."
" Nor mother ! Thou never knewest what 'tis to rever-
ence a parent."
" And is not thy mother mine ? " answered a voice that
was deeply melancholy, and yet so soft that it caused the
young man to gaze intently at his companion, for a mo-
ment, ere he again spoke.
"True, true," he said hurriedly. "Thou must and dost
love her who hath nursed thy infancy, and brought thee,
with care and tenderness, to so fair and happy a woman-
hood." The eye of Martha grew brighter, and the color
of her healthful cheek deepened, as Mark unconsciously
uttered this simple commendation of her appearance ; but
as she shrank, with female sensitiveness, from his obser-
vation, the change \vas unnoticed, and he continued : "Thou
seest that my mother is drooping hourly under this sorrow
for our little Ruth ; and who can say what may be the end
of a grief that endureth so long ? "
"'Tis true that there hath been reason to fear much in
her behalf ; but, of late, hope hath gotten the better of
apprehension. Thou dost not well, nay, I am not assured
thou dost not evil, to permit this discontent with Provi-
dence, because thy mother yieldeth to a little more than her
usual mourning, on account of the unexpected return of
one so nearly connected with her that we have lost."
" Tis not that, girl — 'tis not that ! "
" If thou refusest to say what 'tis that giveth thee this
pain, I can do little more than pity."
" Listen, and I will say. It is now many years, as thou
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH. 237
k newest, since the savage Mohawk or Narragansett, Pequod
or Wampanoag, broke in upon our settlement, and did his
vengeance. We were then children, Martha ; and 'tis as a
child that I have thought of that merciless burning. Our
little Ruth was, like thyself, a blooming infant of some
seven or eight years ; and I know not how the folly hath
beset me, but it hath been ever as one of that innocence
and age, that I have continued to think of my sister."
" Surely thou knowest that time cannot stay ; the greater
therefore is the reason that we should be industrious to
improve "
" Tis what our duty teacheth. I tell thee, Martha, that
at night, when dreams come over me, as they sometimes
will, and I see our Ruth wandering in the forest, it is as a
playful, laughing child, such as we knew her ; and even
while waking, do I fancy my sister at my knee, as she was
wont to stand when listening to those idle tales with which
we lightened our childhood."
" But we had our birth in the same year and month — «
dost think of me too, .Mark, as one of that childish age ? "
" Of thee ! That cannot well be. Do I not see that
thou art grown into the condition of a woman, that thy
little tresses of brown have become the jet black and flow-
ing hair that becomes thy years, and that thou hast the
stature — and, I say it not in idleness of speech, Martha, for
thou knowest my tongue is no vain flatterer — but do I not
see that thou hast grown into all the excellence of a most
comely maiden ? But 'tis not thus, or rather 'twas not
thus, with her we mourn ; for till this hour have I ever
pictured my sister the little innocent we sported with, that
gloomy night she was snatched from our arms by the
cruelty of the savage."
" And what hath changed this pleasing image of our
Ruth?" asked his companion, half-covering her face to
conceal the still deeper glow of female gratification which
had been kindled by the words just heard. " I often think
of her as thou hast described, nor do I now see why we
may not still believe her, if she yet live, all that we could
desire to see."
" That cannot be. The delusion is gone, and in its place
a frightful truth has visited me. Here is Whittal Ring,
whom we lost a boy ; thou seest he is returned a man, and
a savage ! No, no ; my sister is no longer the child I loved
to think her, but one grown into the estate of womanhood."
" Thou thinkest of her unkindly, while thou thinkest of
238 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-W1SH.
others far less endowed by nature with too much indul-
gence ; for thou rememberest, Mark, she was ever of more
pleasing aspect than any that we knew."
" I know not that — I say not that — I think not that.
But be she what hardships and exposure may have made
her, still must Ruth Heathcote be far too good for an In-
dian wigwam. Oh ! 'tis horrible to believe that she is the
bondwoman, the servitor, the wife of a savage ! "
Martha recoiled, and an entire minute passed, during
which she made no reply. It was evident that the revolt-
ing idea for the first time crossed her mind, and all the
natural feelings of gratified and maiden pride vanished be-
fore the genuine and pure sympathies of a female bosom.
"This cannot be," she at length murmured — " it can
never be ! Our Ruth must still remember the lessons
taught her in her infancy. She knoweth she is born of
Christian lineage ! of reputable name ! of exalted hope ! of
glorious promise ! "
" Thou seest by the manner of Whittal, who is of greater
age, how little of that taught can withstand the wily sav-
age."
" But Whittal faileth of Nature's gifts ; he hath ever been
below the rest of men in understanding."
"And yet to what degree of Indian cunning hath he al-
ready attained."
" But Mark," rejoined his companion timidly, as if, while
she felt all its force, she only consented to urge the argu-
ment in tenderness to the harassed feelings of the brother,
" we are of equal years ; that which hath happened to me,
may well have been the fortune of our Ruth."
" Dost mean, that being unespoused thyself, or that hav
ing at thy years inclinations that are free, my sister may
have escaped the bitter curse of being the wife of a Narra-
gansett, or what is not less frightful, the slave of his hu-
mors ? "
" Truly, I mean little else than the former."
"And not the latter," continued the young man, with a
quickness that showed some sudden revolution in his
thoughts. " But though with opinions that are decided,
and with kindness awakened in behalf of one favored, thou
hesitatest, Martha, it is not like that a girl left in the fetters
of savage life would so long pause to think. Even here
in the settlements all are not difficult of judgment as
thou ! "
The long lashes vibrated above the dark eyes of the
THE WEFT OF WISH-TON-WISH. 239
maiden, and for an instant it seemed as if she had no in-
tention to reply. But looking timidly aside, she answered
in a voice so low, that her companion scarcely gathered
the meaning of that she uttered.
" I know not how I may have earned this false character
among my friends," she said ; "for to me it ever seemeth
that what I feel and think is but too easily known."
"Then is the smart gallant from the Hartford town, who
cometh and goeth so often between this distant settlement
and his father's house, better assured of his success than I
had thought. He will not journey the long road much
oftener alone ! "
" I have angered thee, Mark, or thou wouldst not speak
with so cold an eye to one who hath ever lived with thee
in kindness."
" I do not speak in anger, for 'twould be both unreason-
able and unmanly to deny all of thy sex right of choice ;
but yet it doth seem right that when taste is suited and
judgment appeased, there should be little motive for with-
holding speech."
" And wouldst thou have a maiden of my years in haste
to believe that she was sought, when haply it may be that
he of whom you speak is in quest of thy society and friend-
ship, rather than of my favor?"
" Then might he spare much labor and some bodily suf-
fering, unless he finds great pleasure in the saddle ; for I
know not a youth in the Connecticut Colony for whom I
have smaller esteem. Others may see matter of approval
in him, but to me, he is of bold speech, ungainly air, and
great disagreeableness of discourse."
" I am happy that at last we find ourselves of one mind •
for that thou sayest of the youth, is much as I have long
considered him."
" Thou ! Thou thinkest of the gallant thus ! Then \vhy
dost listen to his suit ? I had believed thee a girl too
honest, Martha, to affect such niceties of deception. With
this opinion of his character why not refuse his company ? "
"Can a maiden speak too hastily?"
" And if here, and ready to ask thy favor, the answer
would be "
" No ! " said the girl, raising her eyes for an instant, and
bashfully meeting the eager look of her companion, though
she uttered the monosyllable firmly.
Mark seemed bewildered. An entirely new and a novel
idea took possession of his brain. The change was ap*
240 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON- WISH.
parent by his altering countenance, and a cheek that glowed
like flame. What he might have said, most of our readers
over fifteen may presume ; but at that moment the voices
of those who had accompanied Whittal to the ruin were
heard on their return, and Martha glided away so silently
as to leave him for a moment ignorant of her absence.
CHAPTER XXII.
*'Oh ! when amid the throngs of men
The heart grows sick of hollow mirth,
How willingly we turn us, then,
Away from this cold earth ;
And look into thy azure breast,
For seats of innocence and rest ! " — BRYANT'S Skies.
THE day was the Sabbath. This religious festival, which
is even now observed in most of the States of the Union
with a strictness that is little heeded in the rest of Christen-
dom, was then reverenced with a severity suited to the
austere habits of the colonists. The circumstance that one
should journey on such a day, had attracted the observa-
tion of all in the hamlet ; but as the stranger had been
seen to ride toward the dwelling of the Heathcotes, and
the times were known to teem with more than ordinary in-
terest to the province, it was believed that he found his
justification in some apology of necessity. Still none vent-
ured forth to inquire into the motive of this extraordinary
visit. At the end of an hour the horseman was seen to de-
part as he had arrived, seemingly urged on by the calls of
some pressing emergency. He had in truth proceeded
further with his tidings, though the lawfulness of discharg-
ing even this imperious duty on the Sabbath had been
gravely considered in the Councils of those who had sent
him. Happily they had found, or thought they had found,
in some of the narratives of the sacred volume, a sufficient
precedent to bid their messenger proceed.
In the meantime the unusual excitement which had been
so unexpectedly awakened in the dwelling of the Heath-
cotes, began to subside in that quiet which is in so beauti-
ful accordance with the sacred character of the day. The
sun rose bright and cloudless over the hills, every vapor of
the past night melting before his genial warmth into the
invisible element. The valley then lay in that species of
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH. 241
holy calm which conveys so sweet and so forcible an appeal
to the heart. The world presented a picture of the glori-
ous handiwork of Him who seems to invite the gratitude
and adoration of his creatures. To the mind yet untainted,
there is exquisite loveliness and even godlike repose in such
a scene. The universal stillness permits the softest natural
sounds to be heard ; and the buzz of the bee or the wing
of the humming-bird reaches the ear like the loud notes of
a general anthem. This temporary repose is full of mean-
ing. It should teach how much of the beauty of this
world's enjoyments, how much of its peace, and even how
much of the comeliness of nature itself, is dependent on
the spirit by which we are actuated. When man reposes,
all around him seems anxious to contribute to his rest ;
and when he abandons the contentions of grosser interests,
to elevate his spirit, all living things appear to unite in
worship. Although this apparent sympathy of nature may
be less true than imaginative, its lesson is not destroyed,
since it sufficiently shows that what man chooses to con-
sider good in this world is good, and that most of its strife
and deformities proceed from his own perversity.
The tenants of the valley of the Wish-Ton-Wish were
little wont to disturb the quiet of the Sabbath. Their
error lay in the other extreme, since they impaired the
charities of life by endeavoring to raise man altogether
above the weakness of his nature. They substituted the
revolting aspect of a sublimated austerity, for that gra-
cious though regulated exterior, by which all in the body
may best illustrate their hopes or exhibit their gratitude.
The peculiar air of those of whom we write, was generated
by the error of the times and of the country, though some-
thing of its singularly rigid character might have been de-
rived from the precepts and example of the individual who
had the direction of the spiritual interests of the parish.
As this person will have further connection with the matter
of the legend, he shall be more familiarly introduced in
its pages.
The Reverend Meek Wolfe, was, in spirit, a rare combi-
nation of the humblest self-abasement and of fierce spirit-
ual denunciation. Like so many others of his sacred call-
ing in the colony he inhabited, he was not only the de-
scendant of a line of priests, but it was his greatest earthly
hope that he should also become the progenitor of a race
in whom the ministry was to be perpetuated as severely
as if the regulated formula of the Mosaic dispensation
16
*42 THE WEPT t>f WISH-TON-WISH.
were still in existence. He had been educated in the in-
fant college of Harvard, an institution that the emigrants
from England had the wisdom and enterprise to found
within the first five-and-twenty years of their colonial resi-
dence. Here this scion of so pious and orthodox astock had
abundantly qualified himself for the intellectual warfare of
his future life, by regarding one set of opinions so steadily,
as to leave little reason to apprehend he would ever
abandon the most trifling outworks of his faith. No citadel
ever presented a more hopeless curtain to the besieger,
than did the mind of this zealot to the efforts of convic-
tion ; for on the side of his opponents, he contrived that
every avenue should be closed by a wall blank as indomi-
table obstinacy could oppose. He appeared to think that
all the minor conditions of argument and reason had been
disposed of by his ancestors, and that it only remained for
him to strengthen the many defences of .his subject, and
now and then to scatter by a fierce sortie the doctrinal
skirmishers who might occasionally approach his parish.
There was a remarkable singleness of mind in this re-
ligionist, which, while it in some measure rendered even
his bigotry respectable, greatly aided in clearing the knotty
subject with which he dealt, of much embarrassing mat-
ter. In his eyes, the straight and narrow path would hold
but few, besides his own flock. He admitted some fortu-
itous exceptions, in one or two of the nearest parishes,
with whose clergymen he was in the habit of exchanging
pulpits ; and perhaps, here and there, in a saint of the
other hemisphere, or of the more distant towns of the Colo-
nies, the brightness of whose faith was something aided,
in his eyes, by distance, as this opaque globe of ours is
thought to appear a ball of light to those who inhabit its
satellite. In short, there was an admixture of seeming
charity with an exclusiveness of hope, an unweariness of
exertion with a coolness of exterior, a disregard of self
with the most complacent security, and an uncomplaining
submission to temporal evils with the loftiest spiritual
pretensions, that in some measure rendered him a man as
difficult to comprehend as to describe.
At an early hour in the forenoon, a little bell that was
suspended in an awkward belfry perched on the roof of the
meeting-house, began to summon the congregation to the
place of worship. The call was promptly obeyed, and ere
the first notes had reached the echoes of the hills, the wide
and grassy street was covered with family groups, all taking
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON- WISH. 243
the same direction. Foremost in each little party walked
the austere father, perhaps bearing on his arms a suckled
infant, or some child yet too young to sustain its own
weight ; while at a decent distance followed the equally
grave matron, casting oblique and severe glances at the
little troop around her, in whom acquired habits had yet
some conquests to obtain over the lighter impulses of vanity.,
Where there was no child to need support, or where the
mother chose to assume the office of bearing her infant in
person, the man was seen to carry one of the heavy muskets
of the day ; and when his arms were otherwise employed,
the stoutest of his boys served -in the capacity of armor-
bearer. But in no instance was this needful precaution
neglected, the state of the province and the character of
the enemy requiring that vigilance should mingle even
with their devotions. There was no loitering on the path,
no light and worldly discourse by the way, nor even any
salutations, other than those grave and serious recognitions
by hat and eye, which usage tolerated as the utmost limit
of courtesy on the weekly festival.
When the bell changed its tone, Meek appeared from the
gate of the fortified house where he resided, in quality of
castellan, on account of its public character, its additional
security, and the circumstance that his studious habits per-
mitted him to discharge the trust with less waste of manual
labor than it would cost the village were the responsible
office confided to one of more active habits. His consort
followed, but at even a greater distance than that taken by
the wives of other men, as if she felt the awful necessity of
averting even the remotest possibility of scandal from one
of so sacred a profession. Nine offspring of various ages,
and one female assistant, of years too tender to be a wife
herself, composed the household of the divine ; and it was
a proof of the salubrious air of the valley that all were
present, since nothing but illness was ever deemed a suffi-
cient excuse for absence from the common worship. As
this little flock issued from the palisadoes, a female, in
whose pale cheek the effects of recent illness might yet be
traced, held open the gate for the entrance of Reuben Ring,
and a stout youth, who bore the prolific consort of the for-
mer, with her bounteous gift, into the citadel of the village,
a place of refuge that nothing but the undaunted resolu-
tion of the woman prevented her from occupying before,
since more than half of the children of the valley had first
seen the light within the security of its defences.
244 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON- WISH.
The family of Meek preceded him into the temple, and
when the feet of the minister himself crossed its threshold,
there was no human form visible without its walls. The
bell ceased its monotonous and mournful note, and the tall,
gaunt form of the divine moved through the narrow aisle
to its usual post, with the air of one who had already more
than half rejected the burden of bodily encumbrance. A
searching and stern glance was thrown around, as if he
possessed an instinctive power to detect all delinquents, and
then seating himself, the deep stillness that always preceded
the exercises, reigned in the place.
When the divine next showed his austere countenance
to his expecting people, its meaning was expressive rather
of some matter of worldly import, than of that absence of
carnal interest with which he usually strove to draw near
to his Creator in prayer.
" Captain Content Heathcote," he said, with grave se^
verity, after permitting a short pause to awaken reverence,
" there has one ridden through this valley on the Lord's
day, making thy habitation his halting-place. Hath the
traveller warranty for this disrespect of the Sabbath, and
canst thou find sufficient reason in his motive, for permit-
ting the stranger within thy gates to neglect the solemn
ordinance delivered on the Mount? "
" He rideth on especial commission," answered Content,
who had respectfully arisen when thus addressed by name ;
" for matter of grave interest to the well-being of the Col-
ony is contained in the subject of his errand."
" There is naught more deeply connected with the well-
being of man, whether resident in this colony or in more
lofty empires, than reverence to God's declared will," re-
turned Meek, but half-appeased by the apology. " It would
have been expedient for one, who in common not only set-
teth so good an example himself, but who is also charged
with the mantle of authority, to have looked with distrust
into the pretences of a necessity that may be only seeming."
" The motive shall be declared to the people at a fitting
moment ; but it hath seemed more wise to retain the sub-
stance of the horseman's errand until worship hath been
offered, without the alloy of temporal concerns."
" Therein hast thou acted discreetly ; fora divided mind
giveth but little joy above. I hope there is equal reason
why all of thy household are not with thee in the tem-
ple?"
Notwithstanding the usual self-command of Content, he
THE WEPT OF W2SH-TON-WISH. 245
did not revert to this subject without emotion. Casting a
subdued glance at the empty seat where she whom he so
much loved was wont to worship at his side, he said, in a
voice that evidently struggled to maintain its customary
equanimity —
"There has been powerful interest awakened beneath
my roof this day, and it may be that the duty of the Sab-
bath has been overlooked by minds so exercised. If we
have therein sinned, I hope He that looketh kindly on the
penitent, will forgive ! She of whom thou speakest, hath
been shaken by the violence of griefs renewed ; though
willing in spirit, a feeble and sinking frame is not equal to
support the fatigue of appearing here, even though it be
the house of God."
This extraordinary exercise of pastoral authority was
uninterrupted, even by the breathings of the congregation.
Any incident of an unusual character had attraction for the
inhabitants of a village so remote ; but here was deep, do-
mestic interest, connected with breach of usage and indeed
of law, and all heightened by that secret influence that
leads us to listen with singular satisfaction to those emo-
tions in others which it is believed to be natural to wish to
conceal. Not a syllable that fell from the lips of the
divine, or of Content — not a deep tone of severity in the
former, nor a struggling accent of the latter, escaped the
dullest ear in that assembly. Notwithstanding the grave
and regulated air that was common to all, it is needless to
say there was pleasure in the little interruption of this
scene, which, however, was far from being extraordinary
in a community where it was not only believed that spirit-
ual authority might extend itself to the most familiar prac-
tices, but where few domestic interests were deemed so ex-
clusive, or individual feelings considered so sacred, that a
very large proportion of the whole neighborhood might
not claim a right to participate largely in both. The Rev-
erend Mr. Wolfe was appeased by the explanation, and
after allowing a sufficient time to elapse, in order that the
minds of the congregation should recover their tone, he
proceeded with the regular services of the morning.
It is needless to recount the well-known manner of the
religious exercises of the Puritans. Enough of their forms
and of their substance has been transmitted to us to render
both manner and doctrine familiar to most of our readers.
We shall therefore confine our duty to a relation of such
portions of the ceremonies — if that which sedulously avoid-
246 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON- WISH.
ed every appearance of form, can thus be termed — as have
an immediate connection with the incidents.
The divine had gone through the short opening prayer,
had read the passage of holy writ, had given out the verses
of the psalm, and had joined in the strange nasal melody
with which his flock endeavored to render it doubly accept-
able, and had ended his long and fervent wrestling of the
spirit in a colloquial petition of some forty minutes' dura-
tion, in which direct allusion had been made not only to
the subject of his recent examination, but to divers other
familiar interests of his parishioners, and all without any
departure from the usual zeal on his own part, or of the
customary attention and grave decorum on that of his
people. But when, for the second time, he arose to read
another song of worship and thanksgiving, a form was seen
in the centre or principal aisle, that as well by its attire and
aspect, as by the unusual and irreverent tardiness of its ap-
pearance, attracted general observation. Interruptions of
this nature were unfrequent, and even the long practised
and abstracted minister paused for an instant, ere he pro-
ceeded with the hymn, though there was a suspicion cur-
rent among the more instructed of his parishioners, that
the sonorous version was an eifusion of his own muse.
The intruder was Whittal Ring. The witless young man
had strayed from the abode of his sister, and found his
way into that general receptacle, where most of the village
was congregated. During his former residence in the val-
ley, there had been no temple, and the edifice, its interior
arrangements, the faces of those it contained, and the busi-
ness on which they had assembled, appeared alike stran-
gers to him. It was only when the people lifted up their
voices in the song of praise, that some glimmerings of his
ancient recollections were discoverable in his inactive
countenance. Then, indeed, he betrayed a portion of the
delight which powerful sounds can quicken, even in beings
of his unhappy mental constitution. As he was satisfied,
however, to remain in a retired part of the aisle, listening
with dull admiration, even the grave Ensign Dudley, whose
eye had once or twice seemed ominous of displeasure, saw
no necessity for interference.
Meek had chosen for his text, on that day, a passage
from the book of Judges ; " And the children of Israel did
evil in the sight of the Lord ; and the Lord delivered them
into the hands of Midian seven years." With this text the
subtle-minded divine dealt powerfully, entering largely
THE WEPT OF WlSH-TOtf-WISH. 247
into the mysterious and allegorical allusions then so much,
in vogue. In whatever manner he viewed the subject, he
found reason to liken the suffering, bereaved, and yet
chosen dwellers of the Colonies, to the race of the Hebrews.
If they were not set apart and marked from all others of
the earth, in order that one mightier than man should
spring from their loins, they were led into that distant wil-
derness, far from the temptations of licentious luxury, or
the woiidly-mindedness of those who built their structure
of faith on the sands of temporal honors, to preserve the
word in purity. As there appeared no reason on the part
of the divine himself to distrust his construction of the
words he had quoted, so it was evident that most of his
listeners willingly lent their ears to so soothing an argu-
ment.
In reference to Midian, the preacher was far less ex-
plicit. That the great father of evil was in some way
intended by this allusion, could not be doubted ; but in
what manner the chosen inhabitants of those regions were
to feel his malign influence, was matter of more uncer-
tainty. At times, the greedy ears of those who had long
been wrought up into the impression that visible mani-
festations of the anger or of the love of Providence were
daily presented to their eyes, were flattered with the stern
joy of believing that the war which then raged around
them was intended to put their moral armor to the proof,
and that out of the triumph of their victories were to flow
honor and security to the Church. Then came ambiguous
qualifications, which left it questionable whether a return
of the invisible powers, that had been known to be so busy
in the provinces, were not the judgment intended. It is
not to be supposed that Meek himself had the clearest
mental intelligence on a point of this subtlety, for there
was something of misty hallucination in the manner in
which he treated it, as will be seen by his closing words.
"To imagine that Azazel regardeth the long suffering
and steadfastness of a chosen people with a pleasant eye,"
he said, " is to believe that the marrow of righteousness
can exist in the carrion of deceit. We have already seen
his envious spirit raging in many tragical instances. If
required to raise a warning beacon to your eyes, by which
the presence of this treacherous enemy might be known,
I should say, in the words of one learned and ingenious in
this craftiness, that ' when a person, having full reason, doth
knowingly and wittingly seek and obtain of the Devil, Of
248 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH.
any other god besides the true God Jehovah, an ability
to do or know strange things, which he cannot by his own
human abilities arrive unto,' that then he may distrust his
gifts and tremble for his soul. And, oh ! my brethren,
how many of ye cling at this very moment to those trag-
ical delusions, and worship the things of the world, in-
stead of fattening on the. famine of the desert, which is
the sustenance of them that would live forever! Lift your
eyes upwards, my brethren "
*' Rather turn them to the earth ! " interrupted a deep,
authoritative voice from the body of the church ; " there
is present need of all your faculties to save life, and even
to guard the tabernacle of the Lord ! "
Religious exercises composed the recreation of the
dwellers in that distant settlement. When they met in
companies to lighten the load of life, prayer and songs of
praise were among the usual indulgences of the entertain-
ment. To them a sermon was like a gay scenic exhibition
in other and vainer communities, and none listened to the
word with cold and inattentive ears. In literal obedience
to the command of the preacher, and sympathizing with
his own action, every eye in the congregation had been
turned toward the naked rafters of the roof, when the un-
known tones of him who spoke broke the momentary de-
lusion. It is needless to say that, by a common movement,
they sought an explanation of this extraordinary appeal.
The divine became mute, equally with wonder and with
indignation.
A first glance was enough to assure all present, that new
and important interests were likely to be awakened. A
stranger of grave aspect, and of a calm but understanding
eye, stood at the side of Whittal Ring. His attire was of
the simple guise and homely materials of the country. Still
he bore about his person enough of the equipments of one
familiar with the wars of the eastern hemisphere, to strike
the senses. His hand was armed with a shining broad-
sword, such as was then used by the cavaliers of England,
and at his back was slung the short carbine of one who
battled in the saddle. His mien was dignified and even
commanding, and there was no second look necessary to
show that he was an intruder of a character altogether
different from the moping innocent at his side.
" Why is one of an unknown countenance come to dis-
turb the worship of the temple ? " demanded Meek, when
astonishment permitted utterance. " Thrice hath this
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-W1SH. 249
holy day been profaned by the foot of the stranger, and
well may it be doubted whether we live not under an evil
agency."
"Arm, men of the Wish-Ton-Wish! arm, and to your
defences ! "
A cry arose without, that seemed to circle the whole
valley ; and then a thousand whoops rolled out of the
arches of the forest, and appeared to meet in one hostile
din above the devoted hamlet. These were sounds that
had been too often heard, or too often described, not to
be generally understood. A scene of wild confusion fol-
lowed.
Each man, on entering the church, had deposited his
arms at the door, and thither most of the stout borderers
were now seen hastening, to resume their weapons. Women
gathered their children to their sides, and the wails of hor-
ror and alarm were beginning to break through the re-
straints of habit.
" Peace ! " exclaimed the pastor, seemingly excited to a
degree above human emotion. " Ere we go forth, let
there be a voice raised to our heavenly Father. The
asking shall be as a thousand men of war battling in our
behalf ! "
The commotion ceased as suddenly as if a mandate had
been issued from that place to which their petition was to
be addressed. Even the stranger, who had regarded the
preparations with a stern but anxious eye, bowed his head,
and seemed to join in the prayer, with a devoted and con-
fiding heart.
" Lord ! " said Meek, stretching his meagre arms, with
the palms of the hands open, high above the heads of his
flock, " at thy bidding, we go forth; with thy aid, the
gates of hell shall not prevail against us ; with thy mercy,
there is hope in heaven and on earth. It is for thy taber-
nacle that we shed blood ; it is for thy word that we con-
tend. Battle in our behalf, King of Kings! send thy heavenly
legions to our succor, that the song of victory may be in<
cense at thy altars, and a foul hearing to the ears of the
enemy — Amen."
There was a depth in the voice of the speaker, a super-
natural calmness in the tones, and so great a confidence in
the support of the mighty ally implored, that the words
went to every heart. It was impossible that Nature should
not be powerful within, but a high and exciting enthusi-
asm began to lift the people far above its influence. Thus
250 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH.
awakened by an appeal to feelings that had never slum-
bered, and stimulated by all the moving interests of life,
the men of the valley poured out of the temple in defence
of person and fireside, and, as they believed, of religion
and of God.
There was pressing necessity not only for this zeal, but
for all the physical energies of the stoutest of their num-
bers. The spectacle that met the view on issuing into the
open air, was one that might have appalled the hearts of
warriors more practised, and have paralyzed the efforts of
men less susceptible to the impressions of religious ex-
citement.
Dark forms were leaping through the fields on the hill-
sides ; and all adown the slopes that conducted to the val-
ley armed savages were seen pouring madly forward, on
their path of .destruction and vengeance. Behind them,
the brand and the knife had been already used ; for the log
tenement, the stacks, and the out-buildings of Reuben
Ring, and of several others who dwelt in the skirts of the
settlement, were sending forth clouds of murky smoke, in
which forked and angry flames were already flashing
fiercely. But danger most pressed still nearer. A long
line of fierce warriors was even in the meadows ; and in
no direction could the eye be turned that it did not meet
with the appalling proof that the village was completely
surrounded by an overwhelming superiority of force.
" To the garrison !" shouted some of the foremost of
those who first saw the nature and imminency of the dan
ger, pressing forward themselves in the direction of the for-
tified house. " To the garrison or we are lost ! "
" Hold ! " exclaimed that voice which was so strange to
the ears of most of those who heard it, but which spoke in a
manner that by its compass and firmness commanded
obedience. " With this mad disorder we are truly lost
Let Captain Content Heathcote come to my councils."
Notwithstanding the tumult and confusion which had
now in truth begun to rage fearfully around him, the quiet
and self-restrained individual to whom the legal and per-
haps moral right to command belonged, had lost none of
his customary composure. It was plain by the look of
powerful amazement with which he had at first regarded
the stranger on his sudden interruption of the service, and
by the glances of secret intelligence and of recognition
they exchanged, that they had met before. But this was
no time for greetings or explanations, nor was that a scene
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH. 25!
in which to waste the precious moments in useless contests
about opinions.
" I am here," said he who was thus called for ; "ready
to lead whither thy prudence and experience shall point
the way."
" Speak to thy people, and separate the combatants in
three bodies of equal strength. One shall press forward
to the meado\vs, and beat back the savage ere he encircle
the palisadoed house ; the second shall proceed with the
feeble and tender in their flight to its covers ; and with the
third — but thou knowest that which I would do with the
third. Hasten, or we lose all by tardiness."
It was perhaps fortunate that orders so necessary and so
urgent were given to one little accustomed to superfluity
of speech. Without offering either commendation or dis-
sent, Content obeyed. Accustomed to his authority, and
conscious of the critical situation of all that was dear, the
men of the village yielded an obedience more prompt and
effective than it is usual to meet in soldiers who are not
familiar with habits of discipline. The fighting men were
quickly separated into three bodies, consisting of rather
more than a score of combatants in each. One, command-
ed by Eben Dudley, advanced at quick time toward the
meadows in the rear of the fortress, that the whooping
body of savages, who were already threatening to cut off
the retreat of the women and children, should be checked ,•
while another departed in a nearly opposite direction, tak-
ing the street of the hamlet, for the purpose of meeting
those who advanced by the southern entrance of the val-
ley. The third and last of these small but devoted bod-
ies remained stationary, in attendance for more definite
orders.
At the moment when the first of these little divisions of
force was ready to move, the divine appeared in its front,
with an air in which spiritual reliance on the purposes of
Providence, and some show of temporal determination,
were singularly united. In one hand he bore a Bible,
which he raised on high as the sacred standard of his fol-
lowers, and in the other he brandished a short broadsword,
in a manner that proved there might be danger in encoun-
tering its blade. The volume was open, and at brief inter-
vals the divine read in a high and excited voice such pas,
sages as accidentally met his eye, the leaves blowing about
in a manner to produce a rather remarkable admixture of
doctrine and sentiment. But to these trifling moral incon-
252 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH.
gruities, both the pastor and his parishioners were alike
indifferent ; their subtle mental exercises having given
birth to a tendency of aptly reconciling all seeming dis-
crepancies, as well as of accommodating the most abstruse
doctrines to the more familiar interests of life.
" Israel and the Philistines had put their battle in array,
army against army," commenced Meek, as the troop he led
began its advance. Then reading at short intervals, he
continued, " Behold, I will do a thing in Israel, at which
both the ears of every one that heareth it shall tingle." —
" Oh house of Aaron, trust in the Lord ; he is thy help and
thy shield." — " Deliver me, O Lord, from the evil man ;
preserve me from the violent man." — " Let burning coals
fall upon them ; let them be cast into the fire ; into deep
pits, that they rise not again." — " Let the wicked fall into
their own nets, whilst that I, withal, escape." — " Therefore
doth my father love me, because I lay down my life, that I
may take it again." — " He that hateth me,'hateth my father
also." — " Father, forgive them, for they know not what
they do." — "They have heard that it hath been said, an
eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth." — "For Joshua
drew not his hand back, wherewith he stretched out the
spear, until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of
Ai " Thus far the words of Meek were intelligible to
those who remained, but distance soon confounded the
syllables. Then naught was audible but the yells of the
enemy, the tramp of the men who pressed in the rear of
the priest, with a display of military pomp as formidable
as their limited means would allow, and those clear high
tones, which sounded in the ears and quickened the blood
at the hearts of his followers as though they had been
trumpet-blasts. In a few more minutes the little band was
scattered behind the covers of the fields, and the rattling
of fire-arms succeeded to the quaint and characteristic
manner of their march.
While this movement was made in front, the party
ordered to cover the village was not idle. Commanded by
a sturdy yeoman, who filled the office of lieutenant, it ad-
vanced with less of religious display, but with equal activ-
ity, in the direction of the south ; and the sounds of con-
tention were quickly heard, proclaiming both the urgency
of the measure and the warmth of the conflict.
In the meantime equal decision, though tempered by
some circumstances of deep personal interest, was displayed
by those who had been left in front of the church. As
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH. 253
soon as the band of Meek had got to such a distance as to
promise security to those who followed, the stranger com'
manded the children to be led toward the fortified house.
This duty was performed by the trembling mothers, who
had been persuaded with difficulty to defer it until cooler
heads should pronounce that the proper moment had come.
A few of the women dispersed among the dwellings in
quest of the infirm, while all the boys of proper age were
actively employed in transporting indispensable articles
from the village within the palisadoes. As these several
movements were simultaneous, but a very few minutes
elapsed between the time when the orders were issued and
the moment when they were accomplished.
" I had intended that thou should'st have had the charge
in the meadows," said the stranger to Content, when
naught remained to be performed, but that which had been
reserved for the last of the three little bands of fighting
men. " But as the work proceedeth bravely in that quar-
ter, we will move in company. Why doth this maiden
tarry ? "
" Truly, I know not, unless it may be of fear. There is
an opening for thy passage into the fort, Martha, with
others of thy sex."
" I will follow the fighters that are about to march to the
rescue of them that remain in our habitation," said the
girl, in a low but steady voice.
"And how know'st thou that such is the service in-
tended for those here arrayed ? " demanded the stranger,
with a little show of displeasure that his military purposes
should have been anticipated.
" I see it in the countenances of them that tarry," re-
turned the other, gazing furtively towards Mark, who,
posted in the little line, could with difficulty brook a de-
lay which threatened his father's house, and those \vhom
it held, with so much jeopardy.
"Forward!" cried the stranger. "Here is no leisure
for dispute. Let the maiden take wisdom and hasten to
the fort. Follow, men, stout of heart, or we come too late
to the succor ! "
Martha waited until the party had advanced a few paces,
and then, instead of obeying the repeated mandate to con-
sult her personal safety, she took the direction of the
armed band.
"I fear me that 'twill exceed our strength," observed
the stranger, who marched in front at the side of Content*
254 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH.
"to make good the dwelling, at so great distance from
further aid."
"And yet the visitation will be heavy that shall drive us
for a second time to the fields for a resting-place. In
what manner didst get warning of this inroad ?"
"The savages believed themselves concealed in the cun-
ning place, where thou know'st that my eye had opportu-
nity to overlook their artifices. There is a Providence in
our least seeming calculations : an imprisonment of weary
years hath its reward in this warning ! "
Content appeared to acquiesce, but the situation of
affairs prevented the discourse from becoming more mi-
nute.
As they approached the dwelling of the Heathcotes,
better opportunity of observing the condition of things in
and around the house was of course obtained. The posi-
tion of the building would have rendered any attempt on
the part of those in it to gain the fort, ere the arrival of
assistance, desperately hazardous, since the meadows that
lay between them were already alive with the ferocious
warriors of the enemy. But it was evident that the Puri-
tan, whose infirmities kept him within doors, entertained
no such design ; for it was shortly apparent that those
within were closing and barring the windows of the habi-
tation, and that other provisions for defence were in the
course of active preparation. The feelings of Content,
who knew that the house contained only his wife and
father, with one female assistant, were excited to agony,
as the party he commanded drew near on one side, at a
distance about equal to that of a band of the enemy, who
were advancing diagonally from the woods on the other.
He saw the efforts of those so dear to him, as they had re-
course to the means of security provided to repel the very
danger which now threatened ; and to his eyes it appeared
that the trembling hands of Ruth had lost their power,
when haste and confusion more than once defeated the
object of her exertions.
" We must b'*eak and charge, or the savage will be too
speedy ! " he said, in tones that grew thick from breath-
ing quicker than was wont, for one of his calm tempera-
ment. " See ! they enter the orchard ! In another minute
they will be masters of the dwelling ! "
But his companion marched with a firmer step, and
looked with a cooler eye. There was in his gaze the
understanding of a man practised in scenes of sudden
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH. 255
danger, and in his mien the authority of one accustomed
to command.
11 Fear not," he answered ; " the art of old Mark
Heathcote hath departed from him, or he still knoweth
how to make good his citadel against a first onset If
we quit our order the superiority of concert will be lost,
and being few in numbers defeat will be certain ; but
with this front, and a fitting steadiness, our march may
not be repulsed. To thee, Captain Content Heathcote, it
need not be told, that he who now counsels hath seen the
strife of savages ere this hour."
" I know it well — but dost not see my Ruth laboring at
the ill-fated shutter of the chamber? The woman will be
slain in her heedlessness — for, hark ! there beginneth the
volley of the enemy ! "
" No, 'tis he who led my troop in a far different war-
fare ! " exclaimed the stranger, whose form grew more erect,
and whose thoughtful and deeply-furrowed features as-
sumed something like the stern pleasure which kindles in
the soldier as the sounds of contention increase. " 'Tis
old Mark Heathcote, true to his breeding and his name!
he hath let off the culverin upon the knaves! behold, they
are already disposed to abandon one who speaketh so
boldly, and are breaking through the fences to the left, that
we may taste something of their quality. Now, bold English-
men, strong of hand and stout of heart, you have training
in your duty, and you shall not be wanting in example.
You have wives and children at hand, looking at your
deeds ; and there is One above that taketh note of the man-
ner in which you serve in this cause. Here is an opening
for your skill ; scourge the cannibals with the hand of
death ! On, on to the onset, and to victory ! "
CHAPTER XXIII.
"Hect. Is this Achilles ?
Achil. I am Achilles.
Hect. Stand fair, I pray thee : let me look on thee."
— Troilus and Cressida.
IT may now be necessary to take a rapid glance at th<?
situation of the whole combat, which had begun to thicken
in different parts of the valley. The party led by Dudley
256 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-W.ISH.
and exhorted by Meek, had broken its order on reaching
the meadows behind the fort, and seeking the covers of the
stumps and fences, it had thrown in its fire with good effect
on the irregular band that had pressed into the fields. This
decision quickly caused a change in the manner of the
advance. The Indians took to covers in their turn, and the
struggle assumed that desultory but dangerous character,
in which the steadiness and resources of the individual are
put to the severest trial. Success appeared to vacillate ;
the white men at one time widening the distance between
them and their friends in the dwelling, and, at another,
falling back as if disposed to seek the shelter of the palisa-
does. Although numbers were greatly in favor of the In-
dians, weapons and skill supported the cause of their ad-
versaries. It was the evident wish of the former to break
in upon the little band that opposed their progress to the
villag;e, in and about which they saw that scene of hurried
exertion which has already been described^ — a spectacle but
little likely to cool the furious ardor of an Indian onset.
But the wary manner in which Dudley conducted his bat-
tle, rendered this an experiment of exceeding hazard.
However heavy of intellect the ensign might appear on
other occasions, the present was one every way adapted to
draw out his best and most manly qualities. Of large and
powerful stature, he felt in moments of strife a degree
of confidence in himself, that was commensurate with the
amount of physical force he wielded. To this hardy assur-
ance was to be added no trifling portion of the sort of
enthusiasm that can be awakened in the most sluggish
bosoms, and which, like the anger of an even-tempered
man, is only the more formidable from the usually quiet
habits of the individual. Nor was this the first, by many,
of Ensign Dudley's warlike deeds. Besides the desperate
affair already related in these pages, he had been engaged
in divers hostile expeditions against the aborigines, and on
all occasions had he shown a cool head and a resolute
mind.
There was pressing necessity for both these essential
qualities in the situation in wThich the ensign now found
himself. By properly extending his little force, and yet
keeping it at the same time perfectly within supporting
distance, by emulating the caution of his foes in consult-
ing the covers, and by reserving a portion of his fire
throughout the broken and yet well ordered line, the sav-
ages were finally beaten back, from stump to stump, from
THE WEPT OF IVISH-TON-WISH. 257
hillock to hillock, and fence to fence, until they had
fairly entered the margin of the forest. Further, the
experienced eye of the borderer saw he could not follow.
Many of his men were bleeding, and growing weaker as
the wounds still flowed. The protection of the trees gave
the enemy too great an advantage for their position to be
forced, and destruction would have been the inevitable
consequence of the close struggle which must have fol-
lowed a charge. In this stage of the combat Dudley be-
gan to cast anxious and inquiring looks behind him. He
saw that support was not to be expected, and he also saw
with regret that many of the women and children were
still busy transporting necessaries from the village into
the fort. Falling back to a better line of covers, and to a
distance that materially lessened the danger of the arrows,
the weapons used by quite two-thirds of his enemies, he
awaited in sullen silence the proper moment to effect a
fuither retreat.
It was while the party of Dudley stood thus at bay, that
a fierce yell rang in the arches of the forest. It was an
exclamation of pleasure, uttered in the wild manner of
those people ; as if the tenants of the woods were ani-
mated by some sudden and general impulse of joy. The
crouching yeomen regarded each other in uneasiness, but
seeing no sign of wavering in the steady mien of their
leader, each man kept close, awaiting some further exhi-
bition of the devices of their foes. Ere another minute
had passed, two warriors appeared at the margin of the
wood, where they stood apparently in contemplation of
the different scenes that were acting in various parts of
the valley. More than one musket was levelled with the
intent to injure them, but a sign from Dudley prevented
attempts that would most probably have been frustrated
by the never-slumbering vigilance of a North American
Indian.
There was, however, something in the air and port of
these two individuals, that had its share in producing the
forbearance of Dudley. They were evidently both chiefs,
and of far more than usual estimation. As was common
with the military leaders of the Indians, they were men
also of large and commanding stature. Viewed at the
distance from which they were seen, one seemed a war-
rior who had reached the meridian of his days, while the
other had the lighter step and more flexible movement of
a much briefer existence. Both were well armed, and, as
258 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WJSH.
was usual with the people of their origin, on the war-path,
they were clad only in the customary scanty covering of
waist-cloths and leggings. The former, however, were of
scarlet, and the latter were rich in the fringes and bright
colors of Indian ornaments. The elder of the two wore
a gay belt of wampum around his head in the form of a
turban ; but the younger appeared with a shaven crown,
on which nothing but the customary chivalrous scalp-lock
was visible.
The consultation, like most of the incidents that have
been just related, occupied but a very few minutes. Tne
eldest of the chiefs issued some orders. The mind of Dud-
ley was anxiously endeavoring to anticipate their nature,
when the two disappeared together. The ensign would
now have been left entirely to vague conjectures, had not
the rapid execution of the mandates that had been issued
to the youngest of the Indians, soon left him in no doubt
of their intentions. Another loud and general shout drew
his attention toward the right ; and when he had endeav-
ored to strengthen his position by calling three or four of
the best marksmen to that end of his little line, the young-
est of the chiefs was seen bounding across the meadow,
leading a train of whooping followers to the covers that
commanded its opposite extremity. In short, the position
of Dudley was completely turned ; and the stumps and
angles of the fences which secreted his men, were likely
to become of no further use. The emergency demanded
decision. Collecting his yeomen ere the enemy had time
to profit by his advantage, the ensign ordered a rapid re-
treat toward the fort. In this movement he was favored
by the formation of the ground, a circumstance that had
been well considered on the advance ; and in a very few
minutes the party found itself safely posted under the pro-
tection of a scattering fire from the palisadoes, which im-
mediately checked the pursuit of the whooping and exult-
ing foe. The wounded men, after a stern or rather sullen
halt, that was intended to exhibit the unconquerable deter-
mination of the whites, withdrew into the works for suc-
cor, leaving the command of Dudley reduced by nearly
one-half of its numbers. With this diminished force, how-
ever, he promptly turned his attention toward the assist-
ance of those who combated at the opposite extremity of
the village. -
Allusion has already been made to the manner in which
the houses of a new settlement were clustered near each
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH. 259
other, at the commencement of the colonial establishments.
In addition to the more obvious and sufficient motive,
which has given rise to the same inconvenient and unpict-
uresque manner of building over nine-tenths of the conti-
nent of Europe, there had been found a religious induce-
ment for conforming to the custom. One of the enactments
of the Puritans said, that " no man shall set his dwelling-
house above the distance of half-a-mile, or a mile at far-
thest, from the meeting of the congregation where the
church doth usually assemble for the worship of God."
"The support of the worship of God, in church fellowship,"
was the reason alleged for this arbitrary provision of the
law; but it is quite probable that support against danger of
a more temporal character was another motive. There were
those within the fort who believed the smoking piles that
were to be seen, here and there, in the clearings on the
hills, owed their destruction to a disregard of that protec-
tion which was thought to be yielded to those who leaned
with the greatest confidence, even in the forms of earthly
transactions, on the sustaining power of an all-seeing and
all-directing Providence. Among this number was Reuben
Ring, who submitted to the loss of his habitation, as to a
merited punishment for the light-mindedness that had
tempted him to erect a dwelling at the utmost limits of the
prescribed distance.
As the party of Dudley retreated, that sturdy yeoman
stood at a window of the chamber in which his prolific
partner with her recent gift were safely lodged, for in that
moment of confusion the husband was compelled to dis-
charge the double duty of sentinel and nurse. He had just
fired his piece, and he had reason to think with success, on
the enemies that pressed too closely on the retiring party,
and as he reloaded the gun, he turned a melancholy eye on
the pile of smoking embers, that now lay where his hum-
ble but comfortable habitation had so lately stood.
" I fear me, Abundance," he said, shaking his head with
a sigh, "that there was error in the measurement between
the meeting and the clearing. Some misgivings of the law-
fulness of stretching the chain across the hollows, came
over me at the time ; but the pleasant knoll, where the
dwelling stood, was so healthful and commodious, that, if
it were a sin, I hope it is one that is forgiven ! There doth
not seem so much as the meanest of its logs, that is not
now melted uito white ashes by the fire !"
" Raise me, husband," returned the wife, in the weak
s»6o THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH.
voice natural to her feeble situation ; " raise me with thine
arm, that I may look upon the place where my babes first
oaw the light."
Her request was granted, and, for a minute, the woman
gazed in mute grief at the destruction of her comfortable
home. Then, as a fresh yell from the foe rose on the air
without, she trembled, and turned with a mother's care to-
ward the unconscious beings that slumbered at her side.
" Thy brother hath been driven by the heathen to the
foot of the palisadoes," observed the other, after regarding
his companion with manly kindness for a moment, " and he
hath lessened his force by many that are wounded."
A short but eloquent pause succeeded. The wToman
turned her tearful eyes upward, and stretching out a blood-
less hand, she answered —
" I know what thou would'st do — :it is not meet that Ser-
geant Ring should be a woman-tender, when the Indian
enemy is in his neighbor's fields ! Go to thy duty, and that
which is to be done, do manfully ! and yet would I have
thee remember how many there are who lean upon thy life
for a father's care."
The yeoman first cast a cautious look around him, for
this the decent and stern usages of the Puritans exacted,
and perceiving that the girl who had occasionally entered
to tend the sick was not present, he stooped, and impress-
ing his lips on the cheek of his wife, he threw a yearning
look at his offspring, shouldered his musket, and descended
to the court.
When Reuben Ring joined the party of Dudley, the lat-
ter had just issued an order to march to the support of
those who still stoutly defended the southern entry of the
village. The labor of securing necessaries was not yet
ended, and it was on every account an object of the last
importance to make good the hamlet against the enemy.
The task, however, was not as difficult as the force of the
Indians might at first have given reason to believe. The con-
flict, by this time, had extended to the party which was
headed by Content, and, in consequence, the Indians were
compelled to contend with a divided force. The buildings
themselves, with the fences and out-houses, were so many
breastworks, and it was plain that the assailants acted with
a caution and concert, that betrayed the direction of some
mind more highly gifted than those which ordinarily fall to
the lot of uncivilized men.
The task of Dudley was not so difficult as before, since the
THE WEPT OF JVISH-TOAT-JVISff. 201
enemy ceased to press upon his march, preferring to watch
the movements of those who held the fortified house, of
whose numbers they were ignorant, and of whose attacks
they were evidently jealous. As soon as the reinforcement
reached the lieutenant who defended the village, he com-
manded the charge, and his men advanced with shouts and
clamor, some singing spiritual songs, others lifting up
their voices in prayer, while a few availed themselves of
the downright and perhaps equally effective means of
raising sounds as fearful as possible. The whole being
backed by spirited and well-directed discharges of mus-
ketry, the effort was successful. In a few minutes the enemy
fled, leaving that side of the valley momentarily free from
danger.
Pursuit would have been folly. After posting a few
lookouts in secret arid safe positions among the houses,
the whole party returned, with an intention of cutting off
the enemy who still held the meadows near the garrison.
In this design, however, their intentions were frustrated.
The instant they were pressed, the Indians gave way, evi-
dently for the purpose of gaining the protection of the
woods ; and when the whites returned to their works, they
were followed in a manner to show that they could make
no further movement without the hazard of a serious as-
sault. In this condition, the men in and about the fort
were compelled to be inefficient spectators of the scene
that was taking place around the " Heathcote-house," as
the dwelling of old Mark was commonly called.
The fortified building had been erected for the protec-
tion of the village and its inhabitants, an object that its
position rendered feasible ; but it could offer no aid to
those who dwelt without the range of the musketry. The
only piece of artillery belonging to the settlement, was the
culverin which had been discharged by the Puritan, and
which served for the moment to check the advance of his
enemies. But the exclamations of the stranger, and the
appeal to his men, with which the last chapter closed, suf-
ficiently proclaimed that the attack was diverted from the
house, and that work of a bloody character now offered it-
self to those he and his companion led.
The ground around the dwelling of the Heathcotes ad-
mitted of closer and more deadly conflict than that on
which the other portions of the combat had occurred.
Time had given size to the orchards, and wealth had mul-
tiplied and rendered more secure the enclosures and out-
262 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH.
buildings. It was in one of the former that the hostile
parties met, and came to that issue which the warlike stran-
ger had foreseen.
Content, like Dudley, caused his men to separate, and
they threw in their fire with the same guarded reservation
that had been practised by the other party. Success again
attended the efforts of discipline ; the whites gradually
beating back their enemies, until there was a probability
of forcing them entirely into the open ground in their
rear, a success that would have been tantamount to a vic-
tory. But at this flattering moment, yells were heard be-
hind the leaping and whooping band that was still seen
gliding through the openings of the smoke, resembling so
many dark and malignant spectres acting their evil rites.
Then, as a chief with a turbaned head, terrific voice, and
commanding stature, appeared in their front, the whole of
the wavering line received an onward impulse. The yells
redoubled ; another warrior was seen brandishing a toma-
hawk on one flank, and the whole of the deep phalanx came
rushing in upon the whites, threatening to sweep them away,
as the outbreaking torrent carries desolation in its course.
" Men, to your square ! " shouted the stranger, disregard-
ing cover and life together, in such a pressing emergency ;
" to your square, Christians, and be firm."
The command was repeated by Content, and echoed
from mouth to mouth. But before those on the flanks
could reach the centre, the shock had come. All order
being lost, the combat was hand to hand, one party fight-
ing fiercely for victory, and the other knowing that they
stood at the awful peril of their lives. After the first dis-
charge of the musket and the twang of the bow, the strug-
gle was maintained with knife and axe ; the thrust of the
former, or the descent of the keen and glittering toma-
hawk, being answered by sweeping and crushing blows of
the musket's butt, or by throttling grasps of hands that
were clenched in the death-gripe. Men fell on each other
in piles, and when the conqueror rose to shake off the
bodies of those who gasped at his feet, his frowning eye
rested alike on friend and enemy. The orchard rang with
yells of the Indians, but the colonists fought in mute de-
spair. Sullen resolution only gave way with life ; and it
happened more than once, that fearful day, that the usual
reeking token of an Indian triumph was swung before the
stern and still conscious eyes of the mangled victim from
whose head it had been torn.
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH. 263
In this frightful scene of slaughter and ferocity, the
principal personages of our legend were not idle. By a
tacit but intelligent understanding, the stranger with Con-
tent and his son placed themselves back to back, and
struggled manfully against their luckless fortune. The
former showed himself no soldier of parade ; for, knowing
the uselessness of orders when each one fought for life, he
dealt out powerful blows in silence. His example was
nobly emulated by Content ; and young Mark moved limb
and muscle with the vigorous activity of his age. A first
onset of the enemy was repelled, and for a moment there
was a faint prospect of escape. At the suggestion of the
stranger, the three moved in their order toward the dwell-
ing, with the intention of trusting to their personal activity
when released from the throng. But at this luckless in-
stant, when hope was beginning to assume the air of prob-
ability, a chief came stalking through the horrible melee,
seeking on each side some victim of his uplifted axe. A
crowd of the inferior herd pressed at his heels, and a first
glance told the assailed that the decisive moment had
come.
At the sight of so many of their hated enemies still liv-
ing and capable of suffering, a common and triumphant
shout burst from the lips of the Indians. Their leader,
Jike one superior to the more vulgar emotions of his fol-
lowers, alone approached in silence. As the band opened
and divided to encircle the victims, chance brought him
face to face with Mark, Like his foe the Indian warrior
was still in the freshness and vigor of young manhood. In
stature, years, and agility, the antagonists seemed equal ;
and, as the followers of the chief threw themselves on the
stranger and Content, like men who knew their leader
needed no aid, there was every appearance of a fierce and
doubtful struggle. But, while neither of the combatants
showed any desire to avoid the contest, neither was in
haste to give the commencing blow. A painter, or rather
sculptor, would have seized the attitudes of these young
combatants for a rich exhibition of the power of his art.
Mark, like most of his friends, had cast aside all super-
fluous vestments ere he approached the scene of strife.
The upper part of his body was naked to the shirt, and
even this had been torn asunder by the rude encounters
through which he had already passed. The whole of his
full and heaving chest was bare, exposing the white skin
and blue veins of one whose fathers had come from to-
264 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH.
ward the rising sun. His swelling form rested on a leg that
seemed planted in defiance, while the other was thrown in
front like a lever to control the expected movements. His
arms were extended to the rear, the hands grasping the
barrel of a musket which threatened death to all who
should corne within its sweep. The head, covered with
the short, curling, yellow hair of his Saxon lineage, was
a little advanced above the left shoulder, and seemed placed
in a manner to preserve the equipoise of the whole frame.
The brow was flushed, the lips compressed and resolute, the
veins of the neck and temples swollen nearly to bursting,
and the eyes contracted, but of a gaze that bespoke equally
the feelings of desperate determination and of entranced
surprise.
On the other hand, the Indian warrior was a man still more
likely to be remarked. The habits of his people had brought
him, as usual, into the field with naked limbs and nearly un-
covered body. The position of his frame was that of one
prepared to leap; and it would have been a comparison
tolerated by the license of poetry to have likened his
straight and agile form to the semblance of a crouching
panther. The projecting leg sustained the body, bending
under its load more with the free play of muscle and sinew
than from any weight, while the slightly stooping head
was a little advanced beyond the perpendicular. One
hand was clenched on the helve of an axe that lay in a
line with the right thigh, while the other was placed with
a firm gripe on the buck-horn handle of a knife that was
still sheathed at his girdle. The expression of the face
was earnest, severe, and perhaps a little fierce, and yet the
whole was tempered by the immovable and dignified calm
of a chief of high qualities. The eye, however, was gaz-
ing and riveted ; and, like that of the youth whose life he
threatened, it appeared singularly contracted with wonder.
The momentary pause that succeeded the movement by
which the two antagonists threw themselves into these fine
attitudes was full of meaning. Neither spoke, neither per-
mitted play of muscle, neither even seemed to breathe.
The delay was not like that of preparation, for each stood
ready for his deadly effort, nor would it have been possible
to trace in the compressed energy of the countenance of
Mark, or in the lofty and more practised bearing of the
front and eye of the Indian, anything like wavering of
purpose. An emotion foreign to the scene appeared to
possess them both, each active brain unconsciously accom-
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH. 265
modating itself to the bloody business of the hour, while
the inscrutable agency of the mind held them for a brief
interval in check.
A yell of death from the mouth of a savage who was
beaten to the very feet of his chief by a blow of the stranger,
and an encouraging shout from the lips of the latter,
broke the short trance. The knees of the chief bent still
lower, the head of the tomahawk was a little raised, the
blade of the knife was seen glittering from its sheath, and
the butt of Mark's musket had receded to the utmost ten-
sion of his sinews, when a shriek and a yell, different from
any before heard that day, sounded near. At the same
moment, the blows of both the combatants were suspended,
though by the agency of very different degrees of force.
Mark felt the arms of one cast around his limbs with a
power sufficient to embarrass, though not to subdue him,
while the well-known voice of Whittal Ring sounded in his
ears —
" Murder the lying and hungry pale-faces ! They leave
us no food but air — no drink but water ! "
On the other hand, when the chief turned in anger to
strike the daring one who presumed to arrest his arm, he
saw at his feet the kneeling figure, the uplifted hands,
and agonized features of Martha. Averting the blow that
a follower already aimed at the life Of the suppliant, he
spoke rapidly in his own language, and pointed to the
struggling Mark. The nearest Indians cast themselves on
the already half-captured youth. A whoop brought a
hundred more to the spot, and then a calm as sudden, and
almost as fearful, as the previous tumult prevailed in the
orchard. It was succeeded by the long-drawn, frightful,
and yet meaning yell by which the American warrior pro-
claims his victory.
With the end of the tumult in the orchard, the sounds
of strife ceased in all the valley. Though conscious of the
success of their enemies, the men in the fort saw the cer-
tainty of destruction, not only to themselves, but to those
feeble ones whom they should be compelled to leave with-
out a sufficient defence, were they to attempt a sortie to
that distance from their works. They were, therefore,
compelled to remain passive and grave spectators of an
evil they had not the means to avert.
206 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH.
CHAPTER XXIV.
"Were such things here, as we do speak about?
Or have we eaten of the insane root
That takes the reason prisoner?" — Macbeth.
AN hour later presented a different scene. Bands of the
enemy, that in civilized warfare would be called parties of
observation, lingered in the skirts of the forest nearest to
the village ; and the settlers still stood to their arms, posted
among the buildings, or maintaining their array at the foot
of the palisadoes. Though the toil of securing the valua-
bles continued, it was evident that, as the first terrors of
alarm had disappeared, the owners of the hamlet began to
regain some assurance in their ability to make it good
against their enemies. Even the women were now seen
moving through its grassy street with greater seeming con-
fidence, and there was a regularity in the air of the armed
men, which denoted a determination that was calculated
to impose on their wild and undisciplined assailants.
But the dwelling, the out-buildings, and all the imple-
ments of domestic comfort, which had so lately contributed
to the ease of the tieathcotes, were completely in posses-
sion of the Indians. The open shutters and doors, the
scattered and half-destroyed furniture, the air of devasta-
tion and waste, and the general abandonment of all interest
in the protection of property, proclaimed the licentious
disorder of a successful assault. Still the work of destruc-
tion and plunder did not go on. Although here and there
might be seen some warrior, decorated, according to the
humors of his savage taste, with the personal effects of the
former inmates of the building, every hand had been
checked, and the furious tempers of the conquerors had
been quieted, seemingly by the agency of some unseen and
extraordinary authority. The men, who so lately had been
moved by the fiercest passions of our nature, were sudden-
ly restrained, if not appeased ; and, instead of that exulting
indulgence of vengeance which commonly accompanies an
Indian triumph, the warriors stalked about the buildings
and through the adjacent grounds, in a silence which,
though gloomy and sullen, was marked by their character-
istic submission to events.
The principal leaders of the inroad, and all the surviv
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON"- WISH. 267
ing sufferers by the defeat, were assembled in the piazza
of the dwelling. Ruth, pale, sorrowing, and mourning for
others rather than for herself, stood a little apart, attended
by Martha and the young assistant whose luckless fortune
it was to be found at her post on this eventful day. Con-
tent, the stranger, and Mark, were near, subdued and
bound, the sole survivors of all that band they had so re-
cently led into the conflict. The gray hairs and bodily
infirmities of the Puritan spared him the same degradation.
The only other being present, of European origin, was
Whittal Ring. The innocent stalked slowly among the
prisoners*, sometimes permitting ancient recollections and
sympathies to come over his dull intellect, but oftener
taunting the unfortunate with the injustice of their race,
and with the wrongs of his adopted people.
The chiefs of the successful party stood in the centre,
apparently engaged in some grave deliberation. As they
were few in number, it was evident that the council only
included men of the highest importance. Chiefs of infe-
rior rank, but of great names in the limited renown of
those simple tribes, conversed in knots among the trees, or
paced the court at a respectful distance from the consulta-
tion of their superiors.
The least practised eye could not mistake the person of
him on whom the greatest weight of authority had fallen.
The turbaned warrior, already introduced in these pages,
occupied the centre of the group, in the calm and dignified
attitude of an Indian who hearkens to or who utters advice.
His musket was borne by one who stood in waiting, while
the knife and axe were returned to his girdle. He had
thrown a light blanket, or it might be better termed a robe
of scarlet cloth, over his left shoulder, whence it gracefully
fell in folds, leaving the whole of the right arm free, and
most of his ample chest exposed to view. From beneath
this mantle, blood fell slowly in drops, dyeing the floor on
which he stood. The countenance of this warrior was
grave, though there was a quickness in the movements of
an ever-restless eye, that denoted great mental activity, no
less than the disquiet of suspicion. One skilled in physiog-
nomy might too have thought, that a shade of suppressed
discontent was struggling with the self-command of habits
that had become part of the nature of the individual.
The two companions nearest this chief were, like himself,
men past the middle age, and of mien and expression that
were similar, though less strikingly marked ; neither show-
268 THE WEPT OF WISir-TON-WISff.
ing those signs of displeasure, which occasionally shot from
organs that, in spite of a mind so trained and so despotic,
could not always restrain their glittering brightness. One
was speaking, and by his glance it was evident that the sub-
ject of his discourse was the fourth and last of their number,
who had placed himself in a position that prevented his
being an auditor of what was said.
In the person of the latter chief, the reader will recognize
the youth who had confronted Mark, and whose rapid move-
ment on the flank of Dudley had first driven the colonists
from the meadows. The eloquent expression of limb, the
tension of sinews, and the compression of muscles, as last
exhibited, were now gone. They had given place to the
peculiar repose that distinguishes the Indian warrior in his
moments of inaction, quite as much as it marks the man-
ner of one schooled in the forms of more polished life. With
one hand he leaned lightly on a musket, while from the
wrist of the other, which hung loose at his side, depended,
by a thong of deer's sinew, a tomahawk from which fell
drops of human blood. His person bore no other covering
than that in which he had fought, and, unlike his more aged
companion in authority, his body had escaped without a
wound.
In form and in features, this young warrior might be
deemed a model of Uie excellence of Indian manhood. The
limbs were full, round, faultlessly straight, and distinguished
by an appearance of extreme activity, without being equally
remarkable for muscle. In the latter particular, in the up-
right attitude, and in the distant and noble gaze which so
often elevated his front, there was a close affinity to the
statue of the Pythian Apollo ; while in the full though
slightly effeminate chest, there was an equal resemblance to
that look of animal indulgence which is to be traced in the
severe representations of Bacchus. This resemblance, how-
ever, to a deity that is little apt to awaken lofty sentiments
in the spectator, was not displeasing, since it in some meas-
ure relieved the sternness of an eye that penetrated like the
glance of the eagle, and that might otherwise have left an
impression of too little sympathy with the familiar weak-
nesses of humanity. Still the young chief was less to be
remarked by this peculiar fulness of chest, the fruit of in-
tervals of inaction, constant indulgence of the first wants
of nature, and a total exemption from toil, than most of
those, who either counselled in secret near, or paced the
grounds about the building. In him, it was rather a poinr
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH. 269
to be admired than a blemish ; for it seemed to say, that
notwithstanding the evidences of austerity which custom,
and perhaps character, as well as rank, had gathered in
his air, there was a heart beneath that might be touched
by the charities of humanity. On the present occasion,
the glances of his roving eye, though searching and full
of meaning, were evidently weakened by an expression
that betrayed a strange and unwonted confusion of mind.
The conference of the three was ended, and the warrior
with a turbaned head advanced toward his captives, with
the step of a man whose mind had come to a decision. As
the dreaded chief drew near, Whittal retired, stealing to
the side of the young warrior, in a manner that denoted
greater familiarity, and perhaps greater confidence. A
sudden thought lighted the countenance of the latter. He
led the innocent to the extremity of the piazza, spoke low
and earnestly, pointing to the forest, and when he saw that
his messenger was already crossing the fields at the top of
his speed, he moved with a calm dignity into the centre of
the group, taking his station so near his friend, that the
folds of the scarlet blanket brushed his elbow. Until this
movement the silence was not broken. When the great
chief felt the passage of the other, he glanced a look of
hesitation at his friends, but resuming his former air of
composure, he spoke :
" Man of many winters," he commenced, in an English
that was quite intelligible, while it betrayed a difficulty of
speech we shall not attempt imitating, " why hath the
Great Spirit made thy race like hungry wolves ? — why hath
a pale-face the stomach of a buzzard, the throat of a
hound, and the heart of a deer ? Thou hast seen many
meltings of the snow ; thou rememberest the young tree a
sapling. Tell me, why is the mind of a Yengeese so big,
that it must hold all that lies between the rising and the
setting sun ? Speak, for we would know the reason why
arms so long are found on so little bodies."
The events of that day had been of a nature to awaken
all the latent energies of the Puritan. He had lifted up his
spirit, with the morning, in the customary warmth with
which he ever hailed the Sabbath ; the excitement of the
assault had found him sustained above most earthly calam-
ities, and while it quickened feelings that can never be-
come extinct in one who has been familiar with martial
usages, it left him, stern in his manhood, and exalted in his
sentiments of submission and endurance. Under such in-
270 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON- WISH.
fluences, he answered with an austerity that equalled the
gravity of the Indian :
"The Lord hath delivered us into the bonds of the hea«=
then," he said, "and yet his name shall be blessed beneath
my roof ! Out of evil shall come good ; and from this tri-
umph of the ignorant shall proceed an everlasting victory !"
The chief gazed intently at the speaker, whose attenuated
frame, venerable face, and long locks, aided by the hectic
of enthusiasm that played beneath a glazed and deep-set
eye, imparted a character that seemed to rise superior to
human weakness. Bending his head in superstitious rever-
ence, he turned gravely to those who, appearing to pos-
sess more of the world in their natures, were more fitting
subjects for the designs he meditated.
"The mind of my father is strong, but his body is like a
branch of the scorched hemlock ! " was the pithy declara-
tion with which he prefaced his next remark. "Why is
this ?" he continued, looking severely at the three who had
so lately been opposed to him in deadly contest. " Here
are men with skins like the blossom of the dog-wTood, and
yet their hands are so dark that I cannot see them ! "
"They have been blackened by toil beneath a burning
sun,v returned Content, who knew how to discourse in the
figurative language of the people in whose power he found
himself. "We have labored, that our women and children
might eat."
"No — the blood of red men hath changed their color."
"We have taken up the hatchet, that the land which the
Great Spirit hath given might still be ours, and that our
scalps might not be blown about in the smoke of a wig-
wam. Would a Narragansett hide his arms, and tie up his
hands, with the war-whoop ringing in his ears ? "
When allusion was made to the ownership of the valley,
the blood rushed into the cheek of the warrior in such a
flood that it deepened even the natural swarthy hue ; but,
clenching the handle of his axe convulsively, he continued
to listen, like one accustomed to entire self-command.
"What a red man does may be seen," he answered,
pointing with a grim smile toward the orchard ; exposing,
by the movement of the blanket, as he raised his arm, two
of the reeking trophies of victory attached to his belt.
" Our ears are open very wide. We listen, to hear in what
manner the hunting grounds of the Indian have become
the ploughed fields of tke Yengeese. Now let my wise men
hearken, that they may grow more cunning, as the snows
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH. 2j\
settle on their heads. The pale men have a secret to make
the black seem white ! "
" Narragansett — — "
"Wampanoag ! " interrupted the chief, with the lofty air
with which an Indian identifies himself with the glory of
his people ; then glancing a milder look at the young war-
rior at his elbow, he added, hastily, and in the tone of a
courtier, " 'tis very good — Narragansett or Wampanoag — •
Wampanoag or Narragansett. The red men are brothers
and friends. They have broken down the fences between
their hunting grounds, and they have cleared the paths be-
tween their villages of briers. What have you to say to
the Narragansett ? — he has not yet shut his ear."
" Wampanoag, if such be thy tribe," resumed Content,
" thou shalt hear that which my conscience teacheth is
language to be uttered. The God of an Englishman is the
God of men of all ranks, and of all time." His listeners
shook their heads doubtingly, with the exception of the
youngest chief, whose eye never varied its direction while
the other spoke, each word appearing to enter deep within
the recesses of his mind. " In defiance of these signs of
blasphemy, do I still proclaim the power of him I wor-
ship ! " Content continued; " my God is thy God ; and he
now looketh equally on the deeds, and searcheth, with in-
scrutable knowledge, into the hearts of both. This earth
is his footstool ; yonder heaven his throne ! I pretend not
to enter into his sacred mysteries, or to proclaim the reason
why one-half of his fair work hath been so long left in that
slough of ignorance and heathenish abomination in which
my fathers found it ; why these hills never before echoed
the songs of praise, or why the valleys have been so long
mute. These are truths hid in the secret designs of his
sacred purpose, and they may not be known until the last
fulfilment. But a great and righteous spirit-hath led hither
men, filled with the love of truth and pregnant with the
designs of a heavily-burdened faith, inasmuch as their long-
ings are for things pure, while the consciousness of their
transgressions bends them in deep humility to the dust.
Thou bringest against us the charge of coveting thy lands,
and of bearing minds filled with the corruption of riches.
This cometh of ignorance of that which hath been aban-
doned, in order that the spirit of the godly might hold fast
to the truth. When the Yengeese came into this wilder-
ness, he left behind him all that can delight the eye, please
the senses, and feed the longing of the human heart, in the
272 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH.
country of his fathers ; for fair as is the work of the Lord
in other lands, there is none that is so excellent as that
from which these pilgrims in the wilderness have departed.
In that favored isle, the earth groaneth with the abundance
of its products ; the odors of its sweet savors salute the
nostrils, and the eye is never wearied in gazing at its love-
liness. No ; the men of the pale-faces have deserted home,
and all that sweeteneth life, that they might serve God ;
and not at the instigations of craving minds or of evil
vanities ! "
Content paused — for as he grew warm with the spirit by
which he was animated, he had insensibly strayed from the
closer points of his subject. His conquerors maintained
the decorous gravity with which an Indian always listens
to the speech of another, until he had ended, and then the
Great Chief, or Wampanoag^as he had proclaimed himself
to be, laid a finger lightly on^he shoulder of his prisoner,
as he demanded —
"Why have the people of the Yengees'e lost themselves
on a blind path ? If the country they have left is pleasant,
cannot their God hear them from the wigwams of their
fathers ? See — if our trees are but bushes, leave them to the
red man ; he will find room beneath their branches to lie
in the shade. If our rivers are small, it is because the In-
dians are little. If the hills are low and the valleys narrow,
the legs of my people are weary with much hunting, and
they will journey among them the easier. Now what the
Great Spirit hath made for a red man, a red man should
keep. They whose skins are like the light of the morning,
should go back toward the rising sun, out of which they
have come to do us \vrong."
The chief spoke calmly ; but it was like a man much ac-
customed to deal in the subtleties of controversy, according
to the fashion of the people to whom he belonged.
"God hath otherwise decreed," said Content. "He hath
led his servants hither, that the incense of praise may arise
from the wilderness."
" Your Spirit is a wicked Spirit. Your ears have been
cheated. The counsel that told your young men to come so
far, was not spoken in the voice of the Manitou. It came
from the tongue of one that loves to see game scarce, and
the squaws hungry. Go — you follow the mocker, or your
hands would not be so dark."
" I know not what injury may have been done the Warn-
panoags, by men of wicked minds ; for some such there
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH. 273
are, even in the dwellings of the well-disposed — but wrong
to any hath never come from those that dwell within my
doors. For these lands, a price hath been paid, and what
is now seen of abundance in the valley, hath been
wrought by much labor. Thou art a Wampanoag, and
dost know that the hunting grounds of thy tribe have been
held sacred by my people. Are not the fences standing
which their hands placed, that not even the hoof of colt
should trample the corn ? and when was it known that the
Indian came for justice against the trespassing ox, and did
not find it ? "
" The moose doth not taste the grass at the root — he
liveth on the tree ! He doth not stoop to feed on that which
he treadeth under foot ! Does the hawk look for the mos-
quito ? His eye is too big. He can see a bird. Go — when
the deer have been killed, the Wampanoags will break down
the fence with their own hands. The arm of a hungry man
is strong. A cunning pale-face hath made that fence ; it
shutteth out the colt, and it shutteth in the Indian. But
the mind of a warrior is too big ; it will not be kept at
grass with the ox."
A low but expressive murmur of satisfaction from the
mouths of his grim companions, succeeded this reply of
the chief.
" The country of thy tribe is far distant," returned Con-
tent, " and I will not lay untruth to my soul, by presuming
to say whether justice or injustice hath been done them in
the partition of the lands. But in this valley hath wrong
never been done to the red man. What Indian hath asked
for food, and not got it ? If he hath been a-thirst, the cider
came at his wish ; if he hath been a-cold, there was a seat
by the hearth ; and yet hath there been reason why the
hatchet should be in my hand, and why my foot should be
on the war-path ! For many seasons we lived on lands
which were bought of both red and white man, in peace.
But through the sun shone clear so long, the clouds came
at last. There was a dark night fell upon this valley.
Wampanoag, arid death and the brand entered my dwell-
ing together. Our young men were killed, and — our
spirits were sorely tried."
Content paused — for his voice became thick, and his eye
had caught a glimpse of the pale and drooping countenance
of her who leaned on the arm of the still excited and
frowning Mark for support. The young chief listened
with a charmed ear. As Content had proceeded, his body
274 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISff.
was inclined a little forward, and his whole attitude was
that which men unconsciously assume when intensely oc-
cupied in listening to sounds of the deepest interest.
" But the sun rose again ! " said the great chief, point-
ing at the evidences of prosperity which were everywhere
apparent in the settlement, casting at the same time an
uneasy and suspicious glance at his youngest companion.
" The morning was clear, though the night was so dark,,
The cunning of a pale-face knows how to make corn grow
on a rock. The foolish Indian eats roots, when crops fail
and grain is scarce."
" God ceased to be angry," returned Content meekly,
folding his arms in a manner to show he wished to speak
no more.
The great chief was about to continue, when his younger
associate laid a finger on his naked shoulder, and by a sign,
indicated that he wished to hold communication with him
apart. The former met the request with respect, though it
might be discovered that he little liked the expression of
his companion's features, and that he yielded with reluc-
tance, if not with disgust. But the countenance of the
youth was firm, and it would have needed more than usual
hardihood to refuse a request seconded by so steady and so
meaning an eye. The elder spoke to the warrior nearest
his elbow, addressing him by the name of Annawon, and
then, by a gesture so natural and so dignified that it might
have graced the air of a courtier, he announced his readi-
ness to proceed. Notwithstanding the habitual reverence
of the aborigines for age, the others gave way for the
passage of the young man, in a manner to proclaim that
merit or birth, or both, had united to purchase for him a
personal distinction which far exceeded that shown in com-
mon to men of his years. The two chiefs left the piazza
in the noiseless manner of the moccasoned foot.
The passage of these dignified warriors toward the
grounds in the rear of the dwelling, as it was characteristic
of their habits, is worthy of being mentioned. Neither
spoke, neither manifested any womanish impatience to pry
into the musings of the other's mind, and neither failed in
those slight but still sensible courtesies by which the path
was rendered commodious and the footing sure. They
had reached the summit of the elevation so often named,
ere they believed themselves sufficiently retired to indulge
in a discourse which might otherwise have enlightened
profane ears. When beneath the shade of the fragrant
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH. 27^
orchard which grew on the hill, the senior of the two
stopped, and throwing about him one of those quick,
nearly imperceptible, and yet wary glances by which an
Indian understands his precise position, as it were by in-
stinct, he commenced the dialogue. The discourse was in
the dialect of their race ; but as it is not probable that
many who read these pages would be much enlightened
were we to record it in the precise words in which it has
been transmitted to us, a translation into English, as freely
as the subject requires and the geniuses of the two lan-
guages will admit, shall be attempted.
" Wnat would my brother have ? " commenced he with
the turbaned head, uttering the guttural sounds in the low,
soothing tones of friendship, and even of affection. " What
troubles the Great Sachem of the Narragansetts ? His
thoughts seem uneasy. I think there is more before his
eye than one whose sight is getting dim can see. Doth he
behold the spirit of the brave Miantonimoh, who died like
a dog, beneath the blows of cowardly Pequods and false-
tongued Yengeese ? Or does his heart swell with longing
to see the scalps of treacherous pale-faces hanging at his
belt ? Speak, my son ; the hatchet hath long been buried
in the path between our villages, and thy words will enter
the ears of a friend."
" I do not see the spirit of my father," returned the
young sachem ; " he is afar off in the hunting grounds of
just warriors. My eyes are too weak to look over so many
mountains and across so many rivers. He is chasing the
moose in grounds where there are no briers ; he needeth
not the sight of a young man to tell him which way the
trail leadeth. Why should I look at the place where the
Pequod and the pale-face took his life ? The fire which
scorched this hill hath blackened the spot, and I can no
longer find the marks of blood."
"My son is very wise — cunning beyond his winters!
That which hath been once revenged, is forgotten. He
looks no further than six moons. He sees the warriors of
the Yengeese coming into his village, murdering his old
women, and slaying the Narragansett girls ; killing his
warriors from behind, and lighting their fires with the bones
of red men. I will now stop my ears, for the groans of
the slaughtered make my soul feel weak."
" Wampanoag," answered the other, with a fierce flash-
ing of his eagle eye, and laying his hand firmly on his
breast, " the night the snows were red with the blood ol
276 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH.
my people, is here ! my mind is dark : none of my race have
since looked upon the place where the lodges of the Nar-
ragansetts stood, and yet it hath never been hid from our
sight. Since that time have we travelled in the woods, bear-
ing on our backs all that is left but our sorrow — that we
carry in our hearts."
"Why is my brother troubled? There are many scalps
among his people, and see, his own tomahawk is very red !
Let him quiet his anger till the night cometh, and there
will be a deeper stain on the axe. I know he is in a hurry,
but our councils say it is better to wrait for darkness, since
the cunning of the pale-faces is too strong for the hands
of our young men."
" When was a Narragansett slow to leap, after the whoop
was given, or unwilling to stay when men of gray heads
say 'tis better ? I like your counsel — it is full of wisdom.
Yet an Indian is but a man ! Can he fight with the God
of the Yengeese ? He is too weak. An Indian is but a
man, though his skin be red ! "
"I look into the clouds, at the trees, among the lodges,"
said the other, affecting to gaze curiously at the different
objects he named, " but I cannot see the white Manitou.
The pale men were talking to him when we raised the
whoop in their fields, and yet he has not heard them. Go ;
my son has struck their warriors with a strong hand ; has
he forgotten to count how many dead lie among the trees,
with the sweet-smelling blossoms?"
" Metacom," returned he who has been called the Sachem
of the Narragansetts, stepping cautiously nearer to his
friend, and speaking lower, as if he feared an invisible
auditor; "thou hast put hate into the bosoms of the red
men, but canst thou make them more cunning than the
Spirits? Hate is very strong, but cunning hath a longer
arm. See," he added, raising the fingers of his two hands
before the eyes of his attentive companion, "ten snows
have come and melted since there stood a lodge of the
pale-faces on this hill. Conanchet was then a boy. His
hand had struck nothing but deer. His heart was full of
wishes. By day he thought of Pequod scalps, at night he
heard the dying words of Miantonimoh. Though slain by
cowardly Pequods and lying Yengeese, his father came
with the night into his wigwam, 'to talk to his son. 'Does
the child of so many great sachems grow big?' would he
say ; * is his arm getting strong, his foot light, his eye
quick, his heart valiant ? Will Conanchet be like his
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON- WISH. 277
fathers ? when will the young Sachem of the Narragan-
setts become a man ?'* Why should I tell my brother of
these visits ? Metacom hath often seen the long line of
Wampanoag chiefs, in his sleep. The brave sachems
sometimes enter into the heart of their son ! "
The lofty-minded though wily Philip struck his hand
heavily upon his naked breast, as he answered —
"They are always here. Metacom has no soul but the
spirit of his fathers ! "
"When he was tired of silence the murdered Miantoni-
moh spoke aloud," continued Conanchet, after permitting
the customary courteous pause to succeed the emphatic
words of his companion. u He bade his son arise, and go
among the Yengeese, that he might return with scalps to
hang in his wigwam ; for the eyes of the dead chief liked
not to see the place so empty. The voice of Conanchet
was then too feeble for the council-fire ; he said nothing —
he went alone. An evil spirit gave him into the hands of
the pale-faces. He was a captive many moons. They shut
him in a cage, like a tamed panther ! It was here. The
news of his ill-luck passed from the mouths of the young
men of the Yengeese to the hunters, and from the hunters
it came to the ears of the Narragansetts. My people had
lost their sachem, and they came to seek him. Metacom,
the boy had felt the power of the God of the Yengeese !
His mind began to grow weak ; he thought less of revenge ;
the spirit of his father came no more at night. There was
much talking with the unknown God, and the words of his
enemies were kind. He hunted with them. When he met
the trail of his warriors in the woods his mind was troubled,
for he knew their errand. Still he saw his father's spirit,
and waited. The whoop was heard that night ; many died,
and the Narragansetts took scalps. Thou seest this lodge
of stone, over which fire has passed. There was then a
cunning place above, and in it the pale men went to fight
for their lives. But the fire kindled, and then there was
no hope. The soul of Conanchet was moved at that sight,
for there was much honesty in them within. Though their
skins were so white, they had not slain his father. But the
flames would not be spoken to, and the place became like
the coals of a deserted council-fire. All within were turned
to ashes. If the spirit of Miantonimoh rejoiced, it was
well, but the soul of his son was very heavy. The weak-
ness was on him, and he no longer thought of boasting of
his deeds at the war-post."
278 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH.
" That fire scorched the stain of blood from the sachem's
plain? "
" It did. Since that time I have not seen the marks of
my father's blood. Gray heads and boys were in that fire,
and when the timbers fell nothing was left but coals. Yet
do they, who were in the blazing lodge, stand there ! "
The attentive Metacom started, and glanced a hasty look
at the ruin.
" Does my son see spirits in the air ! " he asked hastily.
" No, they live ; they are bound for the torments. In
the white head, is he who talked much with his god. The
elder chief who struck our young men so hard, was then
also a captive in this lodge. He who spoke, and she who
seems even paler than her race, died that night ; and yet
are they now here ! Even the brave youth that was so
hard to conquer, looks like a boy that was in the fire ! The
Yengeese deal with unknown gods ; they are too cunning
for an Indian ! "
Philip heard this strange tale, as a being educated in
superstitious legends would be apt to listen ; and yet it was
with a leaning to incredulity, that was generated by his
fierce and indomitable desire for the destruction of the
hated race. He had prevailed, in the councils of his nation,
over many similar signs of supernatural agency that was
exercised in favor of his enemies, but never before had
facts so imposing come so directly and from so high a
source before his mind. Even the proud resolution and
far-sighted wisdom of this sagacious chief was shaken by
such testimony, and there was a single moment when the
idea of abandoning a league that seemed desperate took
possession of his brain. But true to himself and his cause,
second thoughts and a firmer purpose restored his resolu-
tion, though they could not remove the perplexity of his
doubts.
"What does Conanchet wish?" he said. "Twice have
his warriors broken into this valley, and twice have the
tomahawks of his young men been redder than the head
of the woodpecker. The fire was not good fire ; the
tomahawk will kill surer. Had not the voice of my
brother said to his young men, * let the scalps of the pris-
oners alone,' he could not now say, 'yet do they now
stand here ! ' '
" My mind is troubled, friend of my father. Let them,
be questioned artfully, that the truth be known."
Metacom mused an instant ; then smiling in a friendly
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH. 279
manner on his young and much moved companion he made
a sign to a youth who was straying about the fields to ap-
proach. This young warrior was made the bearer of an
order to lead the captives to the hill, after which the two
chiefs stalked to and fro in silence, each brooding over what
had passed, in a humor that was suited to his particular
character and more familiar feelings.
CHAPTER XXV.
" No withered witch shall here be seen,
No goblins lead their nightly crew ;
The female fays shall haunt the green,
And dress thy grave with pearly dew." — COLLINS.
IT is rarely indeed that the philosophy of a dignified
Indian is so far disturbed as to destroy the appearance of
equanimity. When Content and the family of the Heath-
cotes appeared on the hill, they found the chiefs still pac-
ing the orcjiard, with the outward composure of men un-
moved, and with the gravity that was suited to their rank.
Annawon, who had acted as their conductor, caused the
captives to be placed in a row, choosing the foot of the
ruin for their position, and then he patiently awaited the
moment when his superiors might be pleased to renew
the examination. In this habitual silence, there was noth-
ing of the abject air of Asiatic deference. It proceeded
from the habit of self-command which taught the Indian
to repress all natural emotions. A very similar effect was
produced by the religious abasement of those whom fort-
une had now thrown into their power. It would have
been a curious study for one interested in the manners of
the human species, to note the difference between the
calm, physical, and perfect self-possession of the wild
tenants of the forest, and the ascetic, spiritually sustained,
and yet meek submission to Providence, that was exhibited
by most of the prisoners. We say of most, for there was
an exception. The brow of young Mark still retained its
frown, and the angry character of his eye was only lost
when by chance it lighted on the drooping form and pallid
features of his mother. There was ample time for these
several and peculiar qualities to be thus silently exhibited,
many minutes passing before either of the sachems seemed
28o THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH.
inclined to recommence the conference. At length Philip,
or Metacom, as we shall indifferently call him, drew near
and spoke.
"This earth is a good earth," he said ; "it is of many
colors, to please the eyes of Him who made it. In one part
it is dark, and as the worm taketh the color of the leaf on
which he crawls, there the hunters are black ; in another
part it is white, and that is the part where pale men were
born, and where they should die ; or they may miss the
road which leads to their happy hunting grounds. Many
just warriors who have been killed on distant war-paths
still wander in the woods, because the trail is hid and their
sight dim. It is not good to trust so much to the cunning
of "
"Wretched and blind worshipper of Apollyon ! " inter-
rupted the Puritan, "we are not of the idolatrous and
foolish-minded ! It hath been accorded to us to know the
Lord ; to his chosen worshippers all regions are alike.
The spirit can mount equally through snows and whirl-
winds ; the tempest and the calm ; from the lands of the
sun, and the lands of frosts ; from the depths of the ocean,
from fire, from the forest "
He was interrupted in his turn. At the word fire, the
finger of Metacom fell meaningly on his shoulder, and
when he had ceased, for until then no Indian would have
spoken, the other gravely asked —
"And when a man of a pale skin hath gone up in the
fire can he again walk upon earth ? Is the river between
this clearing and the pleasant fields of a Yengeese so
narrow, that the just men can step across it when they
please ? "
" This is the conceit of one wallowing in the slough of
heathenish abominations ! Child of ignorance ! know that
the barriers which separate heaven from earth are impassa-
ble ; for what purified being could endure the wickedness
of the flesh ? "
"This is a lie of the false pale-faces," said the wily Philip ;
11 it is told that the Indian might not learn their cunning,
and become stronger than a Yengeese. My father, and
those with him, were once burnt in this lodge, and now he
standeth here, ready to take the tomahawk ! "
" To be angered at this blasphemy, would ill denote the
pity that I feel," said Mark, more excited at the charge of
necromancy than he was willing to own ; " and yet to suffer
so fatal an error to spread among these deluded victims of
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH. 281
Satan, would be neglect of duty. Thou hast heard some
ler end of thy wild people, man of the Wampanoags, which
may heap double perdition on thy soul lest thou shouldst
happily be rescued from the fangs of the deceiver. It is
true, that I and mine were in exceeding jeopardy in this
tower, and that to the eyes of men without we seemed
melted with the heat of the flames ; but the Lord put it
into our spirits to seek refuge whither fire could not come.
The well was made the instrument of our safety, for the
fulfilment of His own inscrutable designs."
Notwithstanding the long practised and exceeding subt-
lety of the listeners, they heard this simple explanation of
that which they had deemed a miracle, with a wonder that
could not readily be concealed. Delight at the excellence
of the artifice was evidently the first and common emotion
of them both ; nor would they yield implicit faith until as-
sured beyond a doubt that what they heard was true. The
little iron door, which had permitted access to the well, for
the ordinary domestic purposes of the family, was still
there ; and it was only after each had cast a look down the
deep shaft, that he appeared satisfied of the practicability of
the deed. Then a look of triumph gleamed in the swarthy
visage of Philip, while the features of his associate ex-
pressed equally his satisfaction and his regret. They
walked apart, musing on what they had just seen and
heard ; and when they spoke, it was again in the language
of their people.
" My son hath a tongue that cannot lie," observed Meta-
com, in a soothing, flattering accent. " What he hath seen,
he tells ; and what he tells, is true. Conanchet is not a
boy, but a chief whose wisdom is gray, while his limbs are
young. Now why shall not his people take the scalps of
these Yengeese, that they may never go any more into
holes in the earth, like cunning foxes ? "
" The sachem hath a very bloody mind," returned the
young chief, quicker than was common for men of his
station. " Let the arms of the warriors rest, till they meet
the armed hands of the Yengeese, or they will be too
tired to strike heavily. My young men have taken scalps
since the sun came over the trees, and they are satisfied —
Why does Metacom look so hard ? What does my father
see?"
" A dark spot in the middle of a white plain. The grass
is not green ; it is red as blood. It is too dark for the
blood of a pale-face. It is the rich blood of a great \yar
282 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-IVISH.
rior. The rains cannot wash it out ; it grows darker every
sun. The snows do not whiten it ; it hath been there many
winters. The birds scream as they fly over it ; the woff
howls ; the lizards creep another way."
"Thine eyes are getting old; fire hath blackened the
place, and what thou seest is coal."
" The fire was kindled in a well ; it did not burn bright.
What I see, is blood."
"Wampanoag," rejoined Conanchet, fiercely, "I have
scorched the spot with the lodges of the Yengeese. The
grave of my father is covered with scalps taken by the
hand of his son — Why does Metacom look again ? What
does the chief see ? "
"An Indian town burning in the midst of the snow ; the
young men struck from behind ; the girls screaming ; the
children broiling on coals, and the old men dying like
dogs ! It is the village of the cowardly Pequods — No, I see
better ; the Yengeese are in the country of the Great Nar-
ragansett, and the brave sachem is there, fighting ! I shut
my eyes, for smoke blinds them ! "
Conanchet heard this allusion to the recent and deplora-
ble fate of the principal establishment of his tribe, in sullen
silence ; for the desire of revenge, which had been so fear-
fully awakened, seemed now to be slumbering, if it were
not entirely quelled by the agency of some mysterious and
potent feeling. He rolled his eyes gloomily, from the ap-
parently abstracted countenance of his artful companion,
to those of the captives, whose fate only awaited his judg-
ment, since the band which had that morning broken in
upon the Wish-Ton-Wish was, with but few exceptions,
composed of the surviving warriors of his own powerful
nation. But, while his look was displeased, faculties that
were schooled so highly, could not easily be mistaken in
what passed, even in the most cursory manner, before his
sight.
" What sees my father next ? " he asked, with an interest
he could not control, detecting another change in the feat-
ures of Metacom.
" One who is neither white nor red. A young woman,
that boundeth like a skipping fawn ; who hath lived in a
wigwam, doing nothing ; who speaks with two tongues ;
who holds her hands before the eyes of a great warrior, till
he is blind as the owl in the sun — I see her "
Metacom paused, for at that moment a being that singu-
larly resembled this description appeared before him, offer-
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH. 283
ing the reality of the imaginary picture he was drawing
with so much irony and art.
The movement of the timid hare is scarce more hurried,
or more undecided, than that of the creature who now sud-
denly presented herself to the warriors. It was apparent,
by the hesitating and half-retreating step that succeeded
the light bound with which she came in view, that she
dreaded to advance, while she knew not how far it might
be proper to retire. For the first moment, she stood in a
suspended and doubting posture, such as one might sup-
pose a creature of mist, would assume ere it vanished, and
then meeting the eye of Conanchet, the uplifted foot re-
touched the earth, and her whole form sank into the mod-
est and shrinking attitude of an Indian girl, who stood in
the presence of a sachem of her tribe. As this female is
to enact no mean part in that which follows, the reader
may be thankful for a more minute description of her per-
son.
The age of the stranger was under twenty. In form she
rose above the usual stature of an Indian maid, though the
proportions of her person were as light and buoyant as at
all comported with the fulness that properly belonged to
her years. The limbs, seen below the folds of a short kirtle
of bright scarlet cloth, were just and tapering, even to the
nicest proportions of classic beauty ; and never did foot of
higher instep, and softer roundness, grace a feathered moc-
cason. Though the person, from the neck to the knees was
hid by a tightly-fitting vest of calico and the sho'rt kirtle
named, enough of the shape was visible to betray outlines
that had never been injured, either by the mistaken devices
of art or by the baneful effects of toil. The skin was only
visible at the hands, face, and neck. Its lustre having been
a little dimmed by exposure, a rich, rosy tint had usurped
the natural brightness of a complexion that had once been
fair even to brilliancy. The eye was full, sweet, and of a
blue that emulated the sky of evening ; the brows, soft and
arched ; the nose, straight, delicate, and slightly Grecian ;
the forehead, fuller than that which properly belonged to a
girl of the Narragansetts, but regular, delicate, and pol-
ished ; and the hair, instead of dropping in long straight
tresses of jet black, broke out of the restraints of a band
of beaded wampum, in ringlets of golden yellow.
The peculiarities that distinguished this female from the
others of her tribe, were not confined alone to the indelible
marks of nature. Her step was more elastic — her gait more
284 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH.
erect and graceful — her foot less inwardly inclined, and her
whole movements freer and more decided than those of a
race doomed from infancy to subjection and labor. Though
ornamented by some of the prized inventions of the hated
race to which she evidently owed her birth, she had the
wild and timid look of those with whom she had grown
into womanhood. Her beauty would have been remarkable
in any region of the earth, while the play of muscle, the
ingenuous beaming of the eye, and the freedom of limb
and action were such as seldom pass beyond the years of
childhood, among people who, in attempting to improve,
so often mar the works of nature.
Although the color of the eye was so very different from
that which generally belongs to one of Indian origin, the
manner of its quick and searching glance, and of the half-
alarmed and yet understanding look with which this extra-
ordinary creature made herself mistress of the more gen-
eral character of the assemblage before which she had been
summoned, was like the half-instinctive knowledge of one
accustomed to the constant and keenest exercise of her
faculties. Pointing with a finger toward Whittal Ring,
who stood a little in the background, a low, sweet voice
was heard, asking, in the language of the Indians —
" Why has Conanchet sent for his woman from the
woods?"
The young sachem made no reply. An ordinary specta-
tor could not have detected about him even a consciousness
of the speaker's presence. On the contrary, he maintained
the lofty reserve of a chief engaged in affairs of moment.
However deeply his thoughts might have been troubled, it
was not easy to trace any evidence of the state of his mind
in the calmness of features that appeared habitually immov-
able. For a single treacherous instant only, was a glance
of kindness shot toward the timid and attentive girl, and
then throwing the still bloody tomahawk into the hollow
of one arm, while the hand of the other firmly grasped its
handle, he remained unchanged in feature, as he was rigid
in limb. Not so with Philip. When the intruder first ap-
peared, a dark and lowering gleam of discontent gathered
at his brow. It quickly changed to a look of sarcastic and
biting scorn.
" Does my brother again wish to know what I see ? " he
demanded, when sufficient time had passed, after the un-
answered question of the female, to show that his com«
pan ion was not disposed to answer.
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH. 285
" What does the Sachem of the Wampanoags now be-
hold ? " returned Conanchet, proudly, unwilling to show
that any circumstance had occurred to interrupt the subject
of their conference.
" A sight that his eyes will not believe. He sees a great
tribe on the war-path. There are many braves, and a
chief whose fathers came from the clouds. Their hands are
in the air. They strike heavy blows ; the arrow is swift,
and the bullet is not seen to enter — but it kills. Blood
runs from the wounds, that is of the color of water. Now
he does not see, but he hears ! 'Tis the scalp-whoop, and
the warriors are very glad. The chiefs in the happy hunt-
ing grounds are coming with joy to meet Indians that
are killed ; for they know the scalp-whoop of their chil-
dren "
The expressive countenance of the young sachem invol-
untarily responded to this description of the scene through
which he had just passed ; and it was impossible for one
so tutored, to prevent the blood from rushing faster to a
heart that ever beat strongly with the wishes of a warrior.
" What sees my father next ? " he asked, triumph insen-
cibly stealing into the tones of his voice.
"A messenger: and then he hears — the moccasons of
squaws J "
" Enough ; — Metacom, the women of the Narragansetts
have no lodges. Their villages are in coals, and they fol-
low the young men for food."
" I see no deer. The hunter will not find venison in a
clearing of the pale-faces. But the corn is full of milk.
Conanchet is very hungry ; he hath sent for his woman,
that he may eat ! "
The fingers of that hand which grasped the handle of the
tomahawk appeared to bury themselves in the wood. The
glittering axe itself was slightly raised ; but the fierce
gleaming of resentment subsided, as the anger of the young
sachem vanished, and a dignified calm again settled on his
countenance.
" Go, Wampanoag," he said, waving a hand proudly, as
if determined to be no longer harassed by the language of
his wily associate. " My young men will raise the whoop
when they hear my voice, and they will kill deer for their
women. Sachem, my mind is my own."
Philip answered to the look which accompanied these
words, with one that threatened vengeance ; but smother-
ing his anger with his accustomed wisdom, he left the hill,
286 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON- WISH.
assuming an air that affected more of commiseration than
of resentment.
" Why has Conanchet sent for a woman from the woods ? "
repeated the same soft voice, nearer to the elbow of the
young sachem, and which spoke with less of the timidity of
the sex, now that the troubled spirit of the Indians of those
regions had disappeared.
" Narra-mattah, come near," returned the young chief,
changing the deep and proud tones in which he had ad-
dressed his restless and bold companion in arms, to those
which better suited the gentle ear for which his words were
intended. " Fear not, daughter of the morning ; for those
around us are of a race used to see women at the council-
fires. Now look, with an open eye. Is there anything
among these trees that seemeth like an ancient tradition f
Hast ever beheld such a valley in thy dreams ? Have yon^
der pale-faces whom the tomahawks of my young men
spared, been led before thee by the Great Spirit in the dark
night ? "
The female listened in deep attention. Her gaze was
wild and uncertain, and yet it was not absolutely without
gleamings of a half-reviving intelligence. Until that mo-
ment she had been too much occupied in conjecturing the
subject of her visit, to regard the natural objects by which
she was surrounded ; but with her attention thus directly
turned upon them, her organs of sight embraced each and
all, with the discrimination that is so remarkable in those
whose faculties are quickened by danger and necessity.
Passing from side to side, her swift glances ran over the
distant hamlet, with its little fort, the buildings in the near
grounds, the soft and verdant fields — the fragrant orchard,
beneath whose leafy shades she stood, and the blackened
tower that rose in its centre like some gloomy memorial,
placed there to remind the spectator not to trust too fondly
to the signs of peace and loveliness that reigned around.
Shaking back the ringlets that had blown about her tem-
ples, the wondering female returned thoughtfully and in
silence^ to her place.
" 'Tis a village of the Yengeese ! " she said, after a long
and expressive pause. "A Narragansett woman does not
love to look at the lodges of the hated race."
" Listen — Lies have never entered the ears of Narra-
mattah. My tongue hath spoken like the tongue of a
chief. Thou didst not come of the sumach, but of the
snow. This hand of thine is not like the hands of the
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH. 287
women of my tribe ; it is little, for the Great Spirit did
not make it for work ; it is of the color of the sky in the
morning, for thy fathers were born near the place where
the sun rises. Thy blood is like spring-water. All this
thou knowest, for none have spoken falsely in thy ear.
Speak — dost thou never see the wigwam of thy father ?
Does not his voice whisper to thee in the language of his
people ?"
The female stood in the attitude which a sibyl might be
supposed to assume, while listening to the occult mandates
of the mysterious oracle, every faculty entranced and at-
tentive.
" Why does Conanchet ask these questions of his wife ?
He knows what she knows ; he sees what she sees ; his
mind is her mind. If the Great Spirit made her skin of a
different color, he made her heart the same. Narra-mattah
will not listen to the lying language ; she shuts her ears,
for there is deceit in its sounds. She tries to forget it.
One tongue can say all she wishes to speak to Conanchet ;
why should she look back in dreams, when a great chief is
her husband ?"
The eye of the warrior, as he looked upon the ingenuous
and confiding face of the speaker, was kind to fondness.
The firmness had passed away, and in its place was left the
winning softness of affection, which, as it belongs to nature,
is seen, at times, in the expression of an Indian's eye, as
strongly as it is ever known to sweeten the intercourse of
a more polished condition of life.
" Girl," he said with emphasis, after a moment of thought,
as if he would recall her and himself to more important
duties, " this is a war-path ; all on it are men. Thou wast
like the pigeon before its wing opens, when I brought
thee from the nest ; still the winds of many winters had
blown upon thee. Dost never think of the warmth and
of the food of the lodge in which thou hast passed so many
seasons ? "
" The wigwam of Conanchet is warm ; no woman of the
tribe hath as many furs as Narra-mattah."
" He is a great hunter ! when they hear his moccason,
the beavers lie down to be killed ! But the men of the
pale-faces hold the plough. Does not ' the driven snow '
think of those who fenced the wigwam of her father
from the cold, or of the manner in which the Yengeese
live?"
His youthful and attentive wife seemed to reflect ; but
288 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH.
raising her face, with an expression of content that could
not be counterfeited, she shook her head in the negative.
" Does she never see a fire kindled among the lodges,
or hear the whoops of warriors as they break into a settle-
ment ? "
" Many fires have been kindled before her eyes. The
ashes of the Narragansett town are not yet cold."
"Does not Narra-mattah hear her father speaking to the
God of the Yengeese ! Listen — he is asking favor of his
child ? "
" The Great Spirit of the Narragansett has ears for his
people."
" But I hear a softer voice ! 'Tis a woman of the pale-
faces among her children ; cannot the daughter hear ? "
Narra-mattah, or " the driven snow," laid her hand
lightly on the arm of the chief, and she looked wistfully
and long into his face, without an answer. The gaze
seemed to deprecate the anger that might be awakened by
what she was about to reveal.
" Chief of my people," she said, encouraged by his still
calm and gentle brow, to proceed, " what a girl of the
clearings sees in her dreams, shall not be hid. It is not
the lodges of her race, for the wigwam of her husband is
warmer. It is not the food and clothes of a cunning peo-
ple, for who is richer than the wife of a great chief ? It
is not her father speaking to their Spirit, for there is none
stronger than Manitou. Narra-mattah has forgotten all ;
she does not wish to think of things like these. She knows
how to hate a hungry and craving race. But she sees one
that the wives of the Narragansetts do not see. She sees
a woman with a white skin ; her eyes look softly on her
child in her 'dreams; it is not an eye, it is a tongue ! It
says, what does the wife of Conanchet wish ? — is she cold ?
here are furs — is she hungry ? here is venison — is she
tired ? the arms of the pale woman open, that an Indian
girl may sleep. When there is silence in the lodges, when
Conanchet and his young men lie down, then does this
pale woman speak. Sachem, she does not talk of the
battles of her people, nor of the scalps that her warriors
nave taken, nor of the manner in which the Pequods and
and Mohicans fear her tribe. She does not tell how a
young Narragansett should obey her husband, nor how the
woman must keep food in the lodges for the hunters that
are wearied ; her tongue useth strange words. It names
a mighty and just Spirit, it telleth of peace and not of
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH. 289
war ; it soundeth as one talking from the clouds ; it is like
the falling of the water among roc&s. Narra-mattah loves
to listen, "for the words seem to her like the Wish-Ton-
Wish, when he whistles in the woods."
Conanchet had fastened a look of deep and affectionate
interest on the wild and sweet countenance of the being
who stood before him. She had spoken in that attitude of
earnest and natural eloquence that no art can equal ; and
when she ceased, he laid a hand, in kind but melancholy
fondness, on the half-inclined and motionless head, as he
answered :
" This is the bird of night, singing to its young ! The
Great Spirit of thy fathers is angry, that thou livest in the
lodge of a Narragansett. His sight is too cunning to be
cheated. He knows that the moccason, and the wampum,
and the robe of furs are liars ; he sees the color of the skin
beneath."
" Conanchet, no," returned the female hurriedly, and
with a decision her timidity did not give reason to expect.
"He seeth further than the skin, and knoweth the color of
the mind. He hath forgotten that one of his girls is miss-
ing-"
" It is not so. The eagle of my people was taken into
the lodges of the pale-faces. He was young, and they
taught him to sing with another tongue. The colors of his
feathers were changed, and they thought to cheat the
Manitou. But when the door was open, he spread his wings
and flew back to his nest. It is not so. What hath been
done is good, and what will be done is better. Come,
there is a straight path before us."
Thus saying, Conanchet motioned to his wife to follow
toward the group of captives. The foregoing dialogue
had occurred in a place where the two parties were par-
tially concealed from each other by the ruin ; but as the
distance was so trifling, the sachem and his companion
were soon confronted by those he sought. Leaving his
wife a little without the circle, Conanchet advanced, and
taking the unresisting and half-unconscious Ruth by the
arm, he led her forward. He placed the two females in
attitudes where each might look the other full in the face.
Strong emotion struggled in a countenance, which, in
spite of its fierce mask of war-paint, could not entirely
conceal its workings.
"See," he said in English, looking earnestly from one
to the other. " The Good Spirit is not ashamed of his
19
290 THE WEPT OF WISH-TUN-W1SH.
work. What he hath done, he hath done ; Narragansett
nor Yengeese can alter it. This is the white bird that
came from the sea," he added, touching the shoulder ot
Ruth lightly with a finger, " and this the young, that she
warmed under her wing."
Then, folding his arms on his naked breast, he appeared
to summon his energy, lest, in the scene that he knew
must follow, his manhood might be betrayed into some
act unworthy of his name.
The captives were necessarily ignorant of the meaning
of the scene which they had just witnessed. So many
strange and savage-looking forms were constantly passing
and repassing before their eyes, that the arrival of one
more or less was not likely to be noted. Until she heard
Conanchet speak in her native tongue, Ruth had lent no
attention to the interview between him and his wife. But
the figurative language and no less remarkable action of
the Narragansett had the effect to arouse her suddenly,
and in the most exciting manner, from her melancholy.
No child of tender age ever unexpectedly came before
the eyes of Ruth Heathcote, without painfully recalling
the image of the cherub she had lost. The playful voice
of infancy never surprised her ear, without the sound .con-
veying ii pang to the heart ; nor could allusion, ever so re-
mote, be made to persons or events that bore resemblance
to the sad incidents of her own life, without quickening
the never-dying pulses of maternal love. No wonder, then,
that when she found herself in the situation and under the
circumstances described, nature grew strong within her,
and that her mind caught glimpses, however dim and in-
distinct they might be, of a truth that the reader has
already anticipated. Still, a certain and intelligible clew
was wanting. Fancy had ever painted her child in the in-
nocence and infancy in which it had been torn from her
arms ; and here, while there was so much to correspond
with reasonable expectation, there was little to answer tc
the long and fondly cherished picture. The delusion, if
so holy and natural a feeling may thus be termed, had
been too deeply seated to be dispossessed at a glance. Gaz-
ing long, earnestly, and with features that varied with
every changing feeling, she held the stranger at the length
of her two arms, alike unwilling to release her hold, or to
admit her closer to a heart which might rightfully be the
property of another.
"Who art thou ? " demanded the mother, in a voice that
THE WEPT OF WTSH-TON-WISH. a9i
was tremulous with the emotions of that sacred charac-
ter. "Speak, mysterious and lovely being — who art
thou ? "
Narra-mattah had turned a terrified and imploring look
at the immovable and calm form of the chief, as if she
sought protection from him at whose hands she had been
accustomed to receive it. But a different sensation took
possession of her mind, wrhen she heard sounds which had
too often soothed the ear of infancy ever to be forgotten.
Struggling ceased, and her pliant form assumed the atti-
tude of intense and entranced attention. Her head was
bent aside, as if the ear were eager to drink in a repetition
of the tones, while her bewildered and delighted eye still
sought the countenance of her husband.
" Vision of the woods ! wilt thou not answer ? " continued
Ruth. " If there is reverence for the Holy One of Israel
in thine heart, answer that I may know thee!"
"Hist! Conanchet!" murmured the wife, over whose
features the glow of pleased and wild surprise continued
to deepen. "Come near, sachem, the spirit that talketh
to Narra-mattah in her dreams is nigh."
" Woman of the Yengeese ! " said the husband, advanc-
ing with dignity to the spot, " let the clouds blow from thy
sight. — Wife of a Narragansett ! see clearly. The Manitou
of your race speaks strong. He telleth a mother to know
her child ! "
Ruth could hesitate no longer ; neither sound nor ex-
clamation escaped her, but as she strained the yielding
frame of her recovered daughter to her heart it appeared
as if she strove to incorporate the two bodies into one. A
cry of pleasure and astonishment drew all around her.
Then came the evidence of the power of nature when
strongly awakened. Age and youth alike acknowledged
its potency, and recent alarms were overlooked in the pure
joy of such a moment. The spirit of even the lofty-mind-
ed Conanchet was shaken. Raising the hand, at whose
wrist still hung the bloody tomahawk, he veiled his face,
and turning aside, that none might see the weakness of so
great a warrior, he wept.
292 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH.
CHAPTER XXVI.
" One sees more devils than vast hell can hold ;
That is the madman : — " Midsummer Night's Dream.
ON quitting the hill Philip had summoned his Wampa-
noags, and supported by the obedient and fierce Annawon,
a savage that might, under better auspices, have proved a
worthy lieutenant to Cassar, he left the fields of Wish-Ton-
Wish. Accustomed to see these sudden outbreakings of
temper in their leaders, the followers of Conanchet, who
would have preserved their air of composure under far
more trying circumstances, saw him depart equally ivith-
out question and without alarm. But when their own
sachem appeared on the ground, which was still red with
the blood of the combatants, and made known his inten-
tion to abandon a conquest that seemed more than half
achieved, he was not heard without murmuring. The
authority of an Indian chief is far from despotic, and
though there is reason to think it is often aided, if not
generated, by the accidental causes of birth and descent,
it receives its main support in the personal qualities of
him who rules. Happily for the Narragansett leader, even
his renowned father, the hapless Miantonimoh, had not
purchased a higher name for wisdom or for daring than
that which had been fairly won by his still youthful son.
The savage humors and the rankling desire for vengeance
in the boldest of his subalterns were made to quail before
the menacing glances of an eye that seldom threatened
without performance ; nor was there one of them all, when
challenged to come forth to brave the anger or to oppose
the eloquence of his chief, who did not shrink from a con-
test which habitual respect had taught them to believe
would be far too unequal for success. Within less than
an hour after Ruth had clasped her child to her bosom
the invaders had altogether disappeared. The dead of
their party were withdrawn and concealed with all the
usual care, in order that no scalp of a warrior might be
left in the hands of his enemies.
It was not unusual for the Indians to retire satisfied with
the results of their first blow. So much of their military
success was dependent on surprise, that it oftener hap-
pened the retreat commenced with its failure, than thaf
victory was obtained by perseverance.
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH. 293
So long as the battle raged, their courage was equal to
all its dangers ; but among people who made so great a
merit of artifice, it is not at all surprising that they seldom
put more to the hazard than was justified by the most se-
vere discretion. When it was known, therefore, that the
foe had disappeared in the forest, the inhabitants of the
village were more ready to believe the movement was the
result of their own manful resistance, than to seek motives
that might not prove so soothing to their self-esteem. The
retreat was thought to be quite in rule, and though pru-
dence forbade pursuit, able and well-limbed scouts were
sent on their trail, as well to prevent a renewal of the sur-
prise, as to enable the forces of the Colony to know the tribe
of their enemies, and the direction which they had taken.
Then came a scene of solemn ceremonies and of deep
affliction. Though the parties led by Dudley and the
lieutenant had been so fortunate as to escape with a few
immaterial wounds, the soldiers headed by Content, with
the exception of those already named, had fallen to a man.
Death had struck, at a blow, twenty of the most efficient
individuals, out of that isolated and simple community.
Under circumstances in which victory was so barren and
so dearly bought, sorrow was a feeling far stronger than
rejoicing. Exultation took the aspect of humility, and
while men were conscious of their well-deserving, they
were the more sensible of their dependence on a power
they could neither influence nor comprehend. The char-
acteristic opinions of the religionists became still more ex-
alted, and the close of the day was quite as remarkable
for an exhibition of the peculiarly exaggerated impres-
sions of the colonists, as its opening had been frightful in
violence and blood.
When one of the more active of the runners returned
with the news that the Indians had retired through the
forest with a broad trail, a sure sign that they meditated
no further concealment near the valley, and that they had
already been traced many miles on their retreat, the vil-
lagers returned to their usual habitations. The dead were
then distributed among those who claimed the nearest
right to the performance of the last duties of affection ;
and it might have been truly said, that mourning had taken
up its abode in nearly every dwelling. The ties of blood
were so general in a society thus limited, and, where they
failed, the charities of life were so intimate and so natural,
that not an individual of them all escaped without feeling
294 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH.
that the events of the day had robbed him, forever, of
some one on whom he was partially dependent for comfort
or happiness.
As the day drew toward its close, the little bell again
summoned the congregation to the church. On this
solemn occasion, but few of those who still lived to hear
its sounds were absent. The moment when Meek arose for
prayer was one of general and intense feeling. The places
so lately occupied by those who had fallen were now empty,
and they resembled so many eloquent blanks in the de-
scription of what had passed, expressing far more than any
language could impart. The appeal of the divine was in
his usual strain of sublimated piety, mysterious insights
into the hidden purposes of Providence being strangely
blended with the more intelligible wants and passions of
man. While he gave Heaven the glory of the victory, he
spoke with a lofty and pretending humility of the instru-
ments of its power ; and although seemingly willing to ac-
knowledge that his people abundantly deserved the heavy
blow which had alighted on them, there was an evident
impatience of the agents by which it had been inflicted.
The principles of the sectarian were so singularly qualified
by the feelings of the borderer, that one subtle in argu-
ment would have found little difficulty in detecting flaws
in the reasoning of this zealot ; but as so much was ob-
scured by metaphysical mists, and so much was left for the
generalities of doctrine, his hearers, without an exception,
made such an application of what he uttered as apparently
rendered every mind satisfied.
The sermon was as extemporaneous as the prayer, if
anything can come extempore from a mind so drilled and
fortified in opinion. It contained much the same matter,
delivered a little less in the form of an apostrophe. The
stricken congregation, while they were encouraged with
the belief that they were vessels set apart for some great
and glorious end of Providence, were plainly told that they
merited far heavier affliction than this which had now be-
fallen ; and they were reminded that it was their duty to
desire even condemnation, that he who framed the heavens
and the earth might be glorified ! Then they heard com-
fortable conclusions, which might reasonably teach them
to expect, that though in the abstract such were the obli-
gations of the real Christian, there was good reason to
think that all who listened to doctrines so pure would be
remembered with an especial favor.
THE WEPT OF IVISH-TON-WISH. 295
So useful a servant of the temple as Meek Wolfe did not
forget the practical application of his subject. It is true,
that no visible emblem of the cross was shown to excite
his hearers, nor were they stimulated to loosen blood-
hounds on the trail of their enemies ; but the former was
kept sufficiently before the mind's eye by constant allusions
to its merits, and the Indians were pointed at as the instru-
ments by which the great father of evil hoped to prevent
" the wilderness from blossoming like the rose," and " yield-
ing the sweet savors of godliness." Philip and Conanchet
were openly denounced by name ; some dark insinuations
being made, that the person of the former was no more
than the favorite tenement of Moloch ; while the hearer
was left to devise a suitable spirit for the government of
the physical powers of the other, from among any of the
more evil agencies that were named in the Bible. Any
doubts of the lawfulness of the contest, that might assail
tender consciences, were brushed away by a bold and de-
cided hand. There was no attempt at justification, how-
ever ; for all difficulties of this nature were resolved by the
imperative obligations of duty. A few ingenious allusions
to the manner in which the Israelites dispossessed the oc-
cupants of Judea, were of great service in this particular
part of the subject, since it was not difficult to convince
men, who so strongly felt the impulses of religious excite-
ment, that they were stimulated rightfully. Fortified by
this advantage, Mr. Wolfe manifested no desire to avoid
the main question. He affirmed that if the empire of the
true faith could be established by no other means, a cir-
cumstance which he assumed it was sufficiently apparent
to all understandings could not be done, he pronounced it
the duty of young and old, the weak and the strong, to
unite in assisting to visit the former possessors of the coun-
try with what he termed the wrath of an offended Deity.
He spoke of the fearful slaughter of the preceding winter,
in which neither years nor sex had been spared, as a
triumph of the righteous cause, and as an encouragement
to persevere. Then, by a transition that was not extraor-
dinary in an age so remarkable for religious subtleties,
Meek returned to the more mild and obvious truths which
pervade the doctrines of Him whose Church he professed to
uphold. His hearers were admonished to observe lives of
humility and charity, and were piously dismissed, with his
benediction, to their several homes.
The congregation quitted the building with the feelmgvS
296 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH.
of men who thought themselves favored by peculiar and
extraordinary intelligences with the author of all truth,
while the army of Mahomet itself was scarcely less in-
fluenced by fanaticism than these blinded zealots. There
was something so grateful to human frailty in reconciling
their resentments and their temporal interests to their
religious duties, that it should excite little wonder when
we add that most of them were fully prepared to become
ministers of vengeance in the hands of any bold leaden
While the inhabitants of the settlement were thus strug-
gling between passions so contradictory, the shades of
evening gradually fell upon their village, and then came
darkness, with the rapid strides with which it follows the
setting of the sun in a low latitude.
Some time before the shadows of the trees were getting
the grotesque and exaggerated forms which precede the
last rays of the luminary, and while the people were still
listening to their pastor, a solitary individual was placed
on a giddy eyrie, whence he might note 'the movements
of those who dwelt in the hamlet, without being the sub-
ject of observation himself. A short spur of the mountain
projected into the valley, on the side nearest to the dwell-
ing of the Heathcotes. A little tumbling brook, which
the melting of the snows and the occasional heavy rains
of the climate periodically increased into a torrent, had
worn a deep ravine in its rocky bosom. Time and the
constant action of water, aided by the driving storms of
winter and autumn, had converted many of the different
faces of this ravine into wild-looking pictures of the resi-
dences of men. There was, however, one spot in particular,
around which a closer inspection than that which the
distance of the houses in the settlement offered, might
have detected far more plausible signs of the agency
of human hands than any that were afforded by the
fancied resemblances of fantastic angles and accidental
formations.
Precisely at that point where a sweep of the mountain
permitted the best view of the valley, did the rocks assume
the wildest, the most confused, and consequently the most
favorable appearance for the construction of any residence
which it was desirable should escape the curious eyes of
the settlers, at the same time that it possessed the advan-
tage of overlooking their proceedings. A hermit would
have chosen the place as a spot suited to distant and calm
observation of the world, while it was every way adapted
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH. 297
to solitary reflection and ascetic devotion. All who have
journeyed through the narrow and water-worn vineyards
and meadows which are washed by the Rhone, ere that
river pours its tribute into the Lake of Leman, have seen
some such site, occupied by one who has devoted his life
to seclusion and the altar, overhanging the village of St.
Maurice, in the Canton of le Valais. But there is an air
of obtrusiveness in the Swiss hermitage that did not be-
long to the place of which we write, since the one is
perched upon its high and narrow ledge, as if to show the
world in what dangerous and circumscribed limits God
may be worshipped ; while the other sought exemption
from absolute solitude, while it courted secresy with the
most jealous caution. A small hut had been erected
against a side of the rock, in a manner that presented an
oblique angle. Care had been taken to surround it with
such natural objects as left little reason to apprehend that
its real character could be known by any who did not
absolutely mount to the difficult shelf on which it stood.
Light entered into this primitive and humble abode by a
window that looked into the ravine, and a low door opened
on the side next the valley. The construction was partly
of stone and partly of logs, with a roof of bark and a chim-
ney of mud and sticks.
One who, by his severe and gloomy brow, was a fit pos-
sessor of so secluded a tenement, was, at the hour named,
seated on a stone at the most salient angle of the moun-
tain, and at the place where the eye commanded the widest
and least obstructed view of the abodes of man in the
distance. Stones had been rolled together in a manner to
form a little breastwork in his front, so that had there
been any wandering gaze sweeping over the face of the
mountain, it was far from probable that it would have
detected the presence of a man whose whole form, with
the exception of the superior parts, was so effectually
concealed.
It would have been difficult to say whether this secluded
being had thus placed himself in order to indulge in some
habitual and fancied communication with the little world
of the valley, or whether he sat at his post in watchfulness.
There was an appearance of each of these occupations in
his air ; for a time his eye was melancholy and softened,
as if his spirit found pleasure in the charities natural to
the species ; and at others, the brows contracted with
sternness, while the lips became more than usually com
298 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-- WISH.
pressed, like those of a man who threw himself on his own
innate resolution for support.
The solitude of the place, the air of universal quiet
which reigned above, the boundless leafy carpet over
which the eye looked from that elevated point, and the
breathing stillness of the bosom of the woods, united to
give grandeur to the scene. The figure of the tenant of
the ravine was as immovable as any other object of the
view. It seemed, in all but color and expression, of stone.
An elbow was leaning on the little screen in front, and
the head was supported by a hand. At the distance of
an arrow's flight, the eye might readily have supposed it
no more than another of the accidental imitations which
had been worn in the rock by the changes of centuries.
An hour passed, and scarce a limb had been changed or a
muscle relieved. Either contemplation, or the patient
awaiting of some looked-for event, appeared to suspend
the ordinary functions of life. At length an interruption
occurred to this extraordinary inaction. A rustling, not
louder than that which would have been made by the
leap of a squirrel, was first heard in the bushes above.
It was succeeded by a crackling of branches, and then a
fragment of rock came bounding down the precipice, un-
til it shot over the head of the still motionless hermit, and
fell, with a noise that drew a succession of echoes from
the caverns of the place, into the ravine beneath.
Notwithstanding the suddenness of this interruption and
the extraordinary fracas with which it was accompanied,
he, who might be supposed to be most affected by it, mani-
fested none of the usual symptoms of fear or surprise. He
listened intently until the last sound had died away, but it
was with expectation rather than with alarm. Arising
slowly, he looked warily about him, and then walking with
a quick step along the ledge which led to his hut, he dis-
appeared through its door. In another minute, however,
he was again seen at his former post, a short carbine, such
as was then used by mounted warriors, lying across his
knee. If doubt or perplexity beset the mind of this indi-
vidual at so palpable a sign that the solitude he courted
was in danger of being interrupted, it was not of a nature
sufficiently strong to disturb the equanimity of his aspect.
A second time the branches rustled, and the sounds pro-
ceeded from a lower part of the precipice, as if the foot
that caused the disturbance was in the act of descending.
Though no one was visible, the nature of the noise coufc1.
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WlSff. 299
no longer be mistaken. It was evidently the tread of a
human foot ; for no beast of a weight sufficient to produce
so great an impression would have chosen to rove across
a spot where the support of hands was nearly as necessary
as that of the other limbs.
" Come forward ! " said he who in all but the accessories
of dress and hostile preparation might so well be termed a
hermit — " I am already here."
The words were not given to the air, for one suddenly
appeared on the ledge at the side next the settlement, and
within twenty feet of the speaker. When glance met
glance, the surprise which evidently took possession of the
intruder and of him who appeared to claim a better right
to be where they met, seemed mutual. The carbine of the
latter, and a musket carried by the former, fell into the
dangerous line of aim at the same instant, and in a mo-
ment they were thrown upwards again, as if a common
impulse controlled them. The resident signed to the
other to draw nigher, and then every appearance of hos-
tility disappeared in that sort of familiarity which con-
fidence begets.
"How is it," said the former to his guest, when both
were calmly seated behind the little screen of stones," that
thou hast fallen upon the secret place ? The foot of stranger
hath not often trod these rocks, and no man before thee
hath ever descended the precipice."
"A moccason is sure," returned the other with Indian
brevity. " My father hath a good eye. He can see very far
from the door of his lodge."
" Thou knowest that the men of my color speak often to
their Great Spirit, and they do not love to ask his favor in
the highways. This place is sacred to his holy name."
The intruder was the young Sachem of the Narragansetts,
and he who, notwithstanding this plausible apology, so
palpably sought secrecy rather than solitude, was the man
that has so often been introduced into these pages under
the shade of mystery. The instant recognition and the
mutual confidence require no further explanation, since
enough has already been developed in the course of the
narrative to show that they were no strangers to each
other. Still the meeting had not taken place without un-
easiness on the one part, and great though admirably veiled
surprise on the other. As became his high station and lofty
character, the bearing of Conanchet betrayed none of the
littleness of a vulgar curiosity. He met his ancient acquaint-
3oo THE WEPT OF WISH-TO K-WISH.
ance with the calm dignity of his rank, and it would have
been difficult for the most inquiring eye to have detected a
wandering glance, a single prying look, or any other sign
that he deemed the place at all extraordinary for such an
interview. He listened to the little explanation of the other
with grave courtesy, and suffered a short time to elapse be-
fore he made any reply.
" The Manitou of the pale men," he then said, " should
be pleased with my father. His words are often in the
ears of the Great Spirit ! The trees and the rocks know
them."
" Like all of a sinful and fallen race," returned the
stranger with the severe air of the age, " I have much need
of my askings. But why dost thou think that my voice is
so often heard in this secret place ? "
The finger of Conanchet pointed to the worn rock at his
feet, and his eye glanced furtively at the beaten path which
led between the spot and the door of the Ipdge.
" A Yengeese hath a hard heel, but it is softer than stone.
The hoof of the deer would pass many times to leave such
a trail."
" Thou art quick of eye, Narragansett, and yet thy judg-
ment may be deceived. My tongue is not the only one
that speaketh to the God of my people."
The sachem bent his head slightly, in acquiescence, as if
unwilling to press the subject. But his companion was
not so easily satisfied, for he felt the consciousness of a
fruitless attempt at deception goading him to some plausi-
ble means of quieting the suspicions of the Indian.
" That I am now alone, may be matter of pleasure or of
accident," he added ; "thou knowest that this hath been a
busy and bloody day among the pale men, and there are
dead and dying in their lodges. One who hath no wig-
warn of his own may have found time to worship by him-
self."
" The mind is very cunning," returned Conanchet ; " it
can hear when the ear is deaf — it can see when the eye is
shut. My father hath spoken to the Good Spirit with the
rest of his tribe."
As the chief concluded, he pointed significantly toward
the distant church, out of which the excited congregation
we have described was at that moment pouring into the
green and little-trodden street of the hamlet. The other
appeared to understand his meaning, and, at the same in-
stant to feel the folly, as well as the uselessness, of attempt-
THE WEPT OF WISH-TOX-WISH. 301
ing any longer to mislead one that already knew so much
of his former mode of life.
"Indian, thou sayest true," he rejoined gloomily : "the
mind seeth far, and it seeth often in the bitterness of sor-
row. My spirit was communing with the spirits of those
thou seest, when thy step was first heard ; besides thine
own, the feet of man never mounted to this place, except it
be of those who minister to my bodily wants. Thou sayest
true ; the mental sight is keen ; and far beyond those dis-
tant hills, on which the last rays of the setting sun are now
shining so gloriously, doth mine often bear me in spirit.
Thou wast once my fellow-lodger, youth, and much pleas-
ure had I in striving to open thy young mind to the truths
of our race, and to teach thee to speak with the tongue of
a Christian ; but years have passed away — hark ! There
cometh one up the path. Hast thou dread of a Yengeese ?"
The calm mien with which Conanchet had been listen-
ing changed to a cold smile. His hand had felt for the
lock of his musket, some time before his companion had
betrayed any consciousness of the approaching footstep ;
but until questioned, no change of countenance was visi-
ble.
" Is my father afraid for his friend ? " he asked, pointing
in the direction of him who approached. " Is it an armed
warrior ? "
" No ; he cometh with the means of sustaining a burden
that must be borne, until it pleaseth Him who knoweth
what is good for all his creatures to ease me of it. It may
be the parent of her thou hast this day restored to her
friends, or it may be the brother; for, at times, I owe this
kindness to different members of that worthy family."
A look of intelligence shot across the swarthy features
of the chief. His decision appeared taken. Arising, he
left his weapon at the feet of his companion, and moved
swiftly along the ledge, as if to meet the intruder. In an-
other instant he returned, bearing a little bundle closely
enveloped in belts of richly-beaded wampum. Placing the
latter gently by the side of the old man, for time had
changed the color of the solitary's hair to gray, he said, in
alow, quick voice, pointing with significance at what he
had done —
"The messenger will not go back with an eTnpty hand.
My father is wise ; he will say what is good."
There was little time for further explanation. The door
of the hut had scarcely closed on Conanchet, before Mark
302 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-- WISH.
Heathcote appeared at the point where the path bent
around the angle of the precipice.
"Thou knowest what hath passed, and wilt suffer me to
depart with brief discourse," said the young man, placing
food at the feet of him he came to seek ; " ha ! what hast
here ? — didst gain this in the fray of the morning ? "
" It is booty that I freely bestow ; take it to the house of
thy father. It is left with that object. Now tell me of the
manner in which death hath dealt with our people, for
thoii knowest that necessity drove me from among them,
so soon as liberty was granted."
Mark showed no disposition to gratify the other's wish.
He gazed on the bundle of Conanchet, as if his eye had
never before looked on a similar object, and keenly con-
tending passions were playing about a brow that was sel-
dom as tranquil as suited the self-denying habits of the
times and country.
" It shall be done, Narragarisett ! " he said, speaking be-
tween his clenched teeth ; " it shall be done'! " Then turn-
ing on his heel, he stalked along the giddy path with a
rapidity of stride that kept the other in fearful suspense
for his safety, until his active form had disappeared.
The recluse arose and sought the occupant of his hum-
ble abode.
" Come forth," he said, opening the narrow door for the
passage of the chief. " The youth hath departed with
thy burden, and thou art now alone with an ancient asso-
ciate."
Conanchet reappeared at the summons, but it was with
an eye less glowing and a brow less stern than when he
entered the little cabin. As he moved slowly to the stone
he had before occupied, his step was arrested for a moment,
and a look of melancholy regret seemed to be cast at the
spot where he had laid the bundle. Conquering his feel-
ings, however, in the habitual self-command of his people,
he resumed his seat, with the air of one that was grave by
nature, while he appeared to exert no effort in order to
preserve the admirable equanimity of his features. A
long and thoughtful silence succeeded, and then the soli-
tary spoke.
u We have made a friend of the Narragansett chief," he
said, "and this league with Philip is broken ! "
" Yengeese," returned the other, " I am full of the blood
of sachems."
" Why should the Indian and the white do each othel
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH. 303
this violence ? The earth is large, and there is place for men
of all colors and of all nations on its surface."
" My father hath found but little," said the other, bestow-
ing such a cautious glance at the narrow limits of his host,
as at once betrayed the sarcastic purport of his words,
while it equally bespoke the courtesy of his mind.
" A light-minded and vain prince is seated on the throne
of a once godly nation, chief, and darkness has again come
over a land which of late shone with a clear and shining
light ! The just are made to flee from the habitations of
their infancy, and the temples of the elect are abandoned
to the abominations of idolatry. Oh, England ! England !
when will thy cup of bitterness be full ? When shall this
judgment pass from thee ? My spirit groaneth over thy
fall ; yea, my inmost soul is saddened with the spectacle
of thy misery ! "
Conanchetwas too delicate to regard the glazed eye and
flushed forehead of the speaker, but he listened in amaze-
ment and in ignorance. Such expressions had often met
his ear before, and though his tender years had probably
prevented their producing much effect, now that he again
heard them in his manhood, they conveyed no intelligible
meaning to his mind. Suddenly laying a finger on the
knee of his companion, he said —
"The arm of my father was raised on the side of the
Yengeese to-day ; yet they give him no seat at their coun-
cil-fire ! "
" The sinful man, who ruleth in the island whence my
people came, hath an arm that is long as his mind is vain.
Though debarred from the councils of this valley, chief,
time hath been when my voice was heard in councils that
struck heavily at the power of his race. These eyes have
seen justice done on him who gave existence to the double-
tongued instrument of Belial, that now governeth a rich
and glorious realm ! "
" My father hath taken the scalp of a great chief ! "
" I helped to take his head ! " returned the solitary, a
ray of bitter exultation gleaming through the habitual
austerity of his brow.
" Come ! The eagle flies above the clouds that he may
move his wings freely. The panther leaps longest on the
widest plain ; the biggest fish swim in the deep water. My
father cannot stretch himself between these rocks. He is
too big to lie down in a little wigwam. The woods are
wide ; let him change the color of his skin, and be a gray-
304 THE WEPT OF WISH-TO N-WISH.
head at the council-fire of my nation. The warriors will
listen to what he says, for his hand hath done a strong
deed ! "
"It may not be — it may not be, Narragansett. That
which hath been generated in the spirit must abide, and it
would be ' easier for the blackamoor to become white, or
for the leopard to change his spots,' than for one who hath
felt the power of the Lord to cast aside his gifts. But I
meet thy proffers of amity in a charitable and forgiving
spirit. My mind is ever with my people ; yet is there
place for other friendships. Break, then, this league with
the evil-minded and turbulent Philip, and let the hatchet
be forever buried in the path between thy village and the
towns of the Yengeese."
" Where is my village ? There is a dark place near the
islands on the shores of the Great Lake ; but I see no
lodges."
" We will rebuild thy towns, and people them anew.
Let there be peace between us."
" My mind is ever with my people," returned the Indian,
repeating the other's words with an emphasis that could
not be mistaken.
A long and melancholy pause succeeded ; and when the
conversation was renewed, it had reference to those events
which had taken place in the fortunes of each since the
time when they were both tenants of the block-house that
stood amid the ancient habitations of the Heathcotes.
Each appeared too well to comprehend the character of
the other to attempt any further efforts toward producing
a change of purpose ; and darkness had gathered about
the place before they arose to enter the hut of the solitary.
CHAPTER XXVII.
" Sleep, thou hast been a grandsire, and begot
A father to me ; and thou hast created
A mother and two brothers." — Cymbeline*
THE short twilight was already passed when old Mark
Heathcote ended the evening prayer. The mixed charac*
ter of the remarkable events of that day had given birth ten
a feeling which could find no other relief than that which
flowed from the usual zealous, confiding, and exalted out-
THE WEPT OF WI SH -TON- WISH. 305
pouring of the spirit. On the present occasion he had
even resorted to an extraordinary, and what one less de-
vout might be tempted to think, a supererogatory offering
of thanksgiving and praise. After dismissing the attend-
ants of the establishment, supported by the arm of his son,
he had withdrawn into an inner apartment, and there, sur-
rounded only by those who had the nearest claims on his
affections, the old man again raised his voice to laud the
Being who, in the midst of so much general grief, had
deigned to look upon his particular race with the eyes of
remembrance and of favor. He spoke of his recovered
grandchild by name, and he dealt with the whole subject
of her captivity among the heathen, and her restoration to
the foot of the altar, wTith the fervor of one who saw the
wise decrees of Providence in the event, and with the ten-
derness of sentiment that age was far from having extin-
guished. It was at the close of this private and peculiar
worship, that we return into the presence of the family.
The spirit of reform had driven those who so violently
felt its influence into many usages that, to say the least,
were quite as ungracious to the imagination, as the customs
they termed idolatrous were obnoxious to the attacks of
their own unaccommodating theories. The first Protes
tants had expelled so much from the service of the altar,
that little was left for the Puritan to destroy, without in-
curring the risk of leaving it naked of its loveliness. By a
strange substitution of subtlety for humility, it was thought
Pharisaical to bend the knee in public, lest the great essen-
tial of spiritual worship might be supplanted by the more
attainable merit of formula ; and while rigid aspects and
prescribed deportments of a new character were observed
with all the zeal of converts, ancient and even natural
practices were condemned — chiefly, we believe, from that
necessity of innovation which appears to be an unavoidable
attendant of all plans of improvement, whether they are
successful or the reverse. But though the Puritans refused
to bow their stubborn limbs when the eye of man was on
them, even while asking boons suited to their own subli-
mated opinions, it was permitted to assume in private an
attitude which was thought to admit of so gross an abuse,
inasmuch as it infers a claim to a religious vitality, while
in truth the soul might only be slumbering in the security
of mere moral pretension.
On the present occasion, they who worshipped in secret
had_bent their bodies to the humblest posture of devotion.
20
306 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH.
When Ruth Heathcote arose from her knees, it was with a
hand clasped in that of the child whom her recent devotion
was well suited to make her think had been rescued from
a condition far more gloomy than that of the grave. She
had used a gentle violence to force the wondering being
at her side to join, so far as externals could go, in the
prayer ; and now it was ended, she sought the countenance
of her daughter, in order to read the impression the scene
had produced, with all the solicitude of a Christian, height-
ened by the tenderest maternal love.
Narra-mattah, as we shall continue to call her, in air, ex-
pression, and attitude, resembled one wTho had a fancied
existence in the delusion of some exciting dream. Her ear
remembered sounds which had so often been repeated in
her infancy, and her memory recalled indistinct recollec-
tions of most of the objects and usages that were so sud-
denly replaced before her eyes ; but the former now con-
veyed their meaning to a mind that had gained its strength
under a very different system of theology, and the latter
came too late to supplant usages that were rooted in her
affections by the aid of all those wild and seductive habits,
that are known to become nearly unconquerable in those
who have long been subject to their influence. She stood,
therefore, in the centre of the grave, self-restrained group
of her nearest kin, like an alien to their blood, resembling
some timid and but half-tamed tenant of the air, that
human art had endeavored to domesticate, by placing it in
the society of the more tranquil and confiding inhabitants
of the aviary.
Notwithstanding the strength of her affections, and her
devotion to all the natural duties of her station, Ruth Heath-
cote was not now to learn the manner in which she was to
subdue any violence in their exhibition. The first indul-
gence of joy and gratitude was over, and in its place ap-
peared the never-tiring, vigilant, engrossing, but regulated
watchfulness, which the events would naturally create.
The doubts, misgivings, and even fearful apprehensions
that beset her, were smothered in an appearance of satis-
faction ; and something like gleamings of happiness were
again seen playing about a brow that had so long been
clouded with an unobtrusive but corroding care.
" And thou recallest thine infancy, my Ruth ? " asked
the mother, when the respectful period of silence which
ever succeeded prayer in that family was passed ; "thy
thoughts have not been altogether strangers to us, but
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH. 307
nature hath had its place in thy heart. i ell us, child, of
thy wanderings in the forest, and of the suffering that one
so tender must have undergone among a barbarous people.
There is pleasure in listening to all thou hast seen and
felt, now that we know there is an end to unhappiness."
She spoke to an ear that was deaf to language like this.
Narra-mattah evidently understood her words, while their
meaning was wrapped in an obscurity that she was neither
desirous nor capable of comprehending. Keeping a gaze,
in which pleasure and wonder were powerfully blended,
on that soft look of affection which beamed from her
mother's eye, she felt hurriedly among the folds of her
dress, and drawing a belt that was gayly ornamented after
the most ingenious fashion of her adopted people, she ap-
proached her half-pleased, half-distressed parent, and with
hands that trembled equally with timidity and pleasure,
she arranged it around her person in a manner to show its
richness to the best advantage. Pleased with her perform-
ance, the artless being eagerly sought approbation in eyes
that bespoke little else than regret. Alarmed at an ex-
pression she could not translate, the gaze of Narra-mattah
wandered, as if it sought support against some sensation
to which she was a stranger. Whittal Ring had stolen into
the room, and missing the customary features of her own
cherished home, the looks of the startled creature rested
on the countenance of the witless wanderer. She pointed
eagerly at the work of her hands, appealing by an eloquent
and artless gesture to the taste of one who should know
whether she had done well.
" Bravely ! " returned Whittal, approaching nearer to the
subject of his admiration — " 'tis a brave belt, and none but
the wife of a sachem could make so rare a gift ! "
The girl folded her arms meekly on her bosom, and
again appeared satisfied with herself and with the world.
" Here is the hand of him visible who dealeth in all wick-
edness," said the Puritan. " To corrupt the heart with vani«
ties, and to mislead the affections by luring them to the
things of life, is the guile in which he delighteth. A fallen
nature lendeth but too ready aid. We must deal with the
child in fervor and watchfulness, or better that her bones
were lying by the side of those little ones of thy flock, who
are already inheritors of the promise."
Respect kept Ruth silent ; but while she sorrowed over
the ignorance of her child, natural affection was strong at
her heart. With the tact of a woman and the tenderness
3o8 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON- WISH.
of a mother, she both saw and felt that severity was not
the means to effect the improvement they desired. Taking
a seat herself, she drew her child to her person, and first
imploring silence by a glance at those around her, she pro-
ceeded, in a manner that was dictated by the mysterious
influence of nature, to fathom the depth of her daughter's
mind.
"Come nearer, Narra-mattah," she said, using the name
to which the other would alone answer. " Thou art still in
thy youth, my child ; but it hath pleased Him whose will is
law, to have made thee the witness of many changes in
this varying life. Tell me if thou recallest the days of
infancy, and if thy thoughts ever returned to thy father's
house, during those weary years thou wast kept from our
view ?"
Ruth used gentle force to draw her daughter nearer
while speaking, and the latter sank into that posture from
which she had just arisen, kneeling, as she. had often done
in infancy, at her mother's side. The attitude was too full
of tender recollections not to be grateful, and the half-
alarmed being of the forest was suffered to retain it during
most of the dialogue that followed. But while she was
thus obedient in person, by the vacancy or rather wonder
of an eye that was so eloquent to express all the emotions
and knowledge of which she was the mistress, Narra-mat-
tah plainly manifested that little more than the endear-
ment of her mother's words and manner was intelligible.
Ruth saw the meaning of her hesitation, and smothering
the pang it caused, she endeavored to adapt her language
to the habits of one so artless.
"Even the gray heads of thy people were once young,"
she resumed; "and they remember the lodges of their
fathers. Does my daughter ever think of the time when
she played among the children of the pale-faces ? "
The attentive being at the knee of Ruth listened greedi-
ly. Her knowledge of the language of her childhood had
been sufficiently implanted before her captivity, and it had
been too often exercised by intercourse with the whites,
and more particularly with Whittal Ring, to leave her in
any doubt of the meaning of what she now heard. Steal-
ing a timid look over a shoulder, she sought the coun-
tenance of Martha, and studying her lineaments for near a
minute with intense regard, she laughed aloud in the con-
tagious merriment of an Indian girl.
'•Thou hast not forgotten us! That glance at her who
THE IVEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH. 309
was the companion of thy infancy assures me, and we shall
soon again possess our Ruth in affection as we now pos-
sess her in the body. 1 will not speak to thee of that fear-
ful night when the violence of the savage robbed us of thy
presence, nor of the bitter sorrow which beset us at thy
loss ; but there is One who must still be known to thee, my
child ; he who sitteth above the clouds, who holdeth the
earth in the hollow of his hand, and who looketh in mercy
on all that journey on the path to which his own finger
pointeth. Hath he yet a place in thy thoughts ? Thou
rernemberest His Holy Name, and still thinkest of his
power ? "
The listener bent her head aside, as if to catch the full
meaning of what she heard, the shadows of deep reverence
passing over a face that had so lately been smiling. After
a pause she audibly murmured the word —
" Manitou."
" Manitou, or Jehovah ; God, or King of Kings, and
Lord of Lords ! it mattereth little which term is used to
express his power. Thou k newest him then, and hast
never ceased to call upon his name ?"
" Narra-mattah is a woman. She is afraid to speak to
the Manitou aloud. He knows the voices of the chiefs,
and opens his ears when they ask help."
The Puritan groaned, but Ruth succeeded in quelling
her own anguish, lest she should disturb the reviving con-
fidence of her daughter.
" This may be the Manitou of an Indian," she said, " but
it is not the Christian's God. Thou art of a race which
worships differently, and it is proper that thou shouldst
call on the name of the Deity of thy fathers. Even the
Narragansett teacheth this truth ! Thy skin is white, and
thy ears should hearken to the traditions of the men of thy
blood."
The head of the daughter drooped at this allusion to her
color, as if she would fain conceal the mortifying truth
from every eye ; but she had not time for answer ere
Whittal Ring drew near, and pointing to the burning color
of her cheeks, that were deepened as much with shame as
with the heats of an American sun, he said —
" The wife of the sachem hath begun to change. She
will soon be like Nipset — all red. See," he added, laying
a finger on a part of his own arm, where the sun and the
winds had not yet destroyed the original color ; "the Evil
Spirit poured water into his blood too, but it will come out
3io THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH.
again. As soon as he is so dark that the Evil Spirit will
not know him, he will go on the war-path, and then the
lying pale-faces may dig up the bones of their fathers and
move toward the sunrise, or his lodge will be lined with
hair of the color of a deer ! "
" And thou, my daughter ! canst thou hear this threat
against the people of thy nation — of thy blood— of thy
God, without a shudder ? "
The eye of Narra-mattah seemed in doubt ; still it re-
garded Whittal with its accustomed look of kindness.
The innocent, full of his imaginary glory, raised his hand
in exultation, and by gestures that could not easily be mis-
understood, he indicated the manner in which he intended
to rob his victims of the usual trophy. While the youth
was enacting the disgusting but expressive pantomime,
Ruth watched the countenance of her child in nearly breath-
less agony. She would have been relieved by a single
glance of disapprobation, by a solitary movement of a re-
bellious muscle, or by the smallest sign that the tender
nature of one so lovely, and otherwise so gentle, revolted
at so unequivocal evidence of the barbarous practices of
her adopted people. But no empress of Rome could have
witnessed the dying agonies of the hapless gladiator, no
consort of a more modern prince could read the bloody
list of the victims of her husband's triumph, nor any be-
trothed fair listen to the murderous deeds of him her im-
agination had painted as a hero, with less indifference to
human suffering than that with which the wife of the
Sachem of the Narragansetts looked on the mimic repre-
sentation of those exploits which had purchased for her
husband a renown so highly prized. It was but too appar-
ent that the representation, rude and savage as it was, con-
veyed to her mind nothing but pictures in which the chosen
companion of a warrior should rejoice. The varying
features and answering eye too plainly proclaimed the
sympathy of one taught to exult in the success of the com-
batant ; and when Whittal, excited by his own exertions,
broke out into an exhibition of a violence more ruthless
even than common, he was openly rewarded by another
laugh. The soft, exquisitely feminine tones of this invol-
untary burst of pleasure sounded in the ears of Ruth like
a knell over the moral beauty of her child. Still subduing
her feelings, she passed a hand thoughtfully over her own
pallid brow, and appeared to muse long on the desolation
of a mind that had once promised to be so pure.
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH. 311
The colonists had not yet severed all those natural ties
which bound them to the eastern hemisphere. Their le-
gends, their pride, and in many instances their memories,
aided in keeping alive a feeling of amity, and it might be
added of faith, in favor of the land of their ancestors. With
some of their descendants, even to the present hour, the
beau-ideal of excellence, in all that pertains to human quali-
ties and human happiness, is connected with the images
of the country from which they sprang. Distance is known
to cast a softening mist, equally over the moral and physi-
cal vision. The blue outline of mountain which melts into
its glowing background of sky, is not more pleasing than
the pictures which fancy spmetimes draws of less material
things ; but, as he comes near, the disappointed traveller
too often finds nakedness and deformity, where he so fondly
imagined beauty only was to be seen. No wonder then
that the dwellers of the simple provinces of New England
blended recollections of the country they still called -home,
with most of their poetical pictures of life. They retained
the language, the books, and most of the habits, of the
English. But different circumstances, divided interests,
and peculiar opinions, were gradually beginning to open
those breaches which time has since widened, and which
promise soon to leave little in common between the two
peoples, except the same forms of speech and a common
origin ; it is to be hoped that some charity may be blended
with these ties.
The singularly restrained habits of the religionists,
throughout the whole of the British provinces, were in
marked opposition to the mere embellishments of life. The
arts were permitted only as they served its most useful and
obvious purposes. With them, music was confined to the
worship of God, and, for a long time after the original set-
tlement, the song was never known to lead the mind astray
from what was conceived to be the one great object of ex-
istence. No verse was sung but such as blended holy ideas
with the pleasures of harmony ; nor were the sounds of
revelry ever heard \vithin their borders. Still, words adapt-
ed to their peculiar condition had come into use, and
though poetry was neither a common nor a brilliant prop-
erty of the mind, among a people thus disciplined to as-
cetic practices, it early exhibited its power in quaint versi-
fication, that was alwrays intended, though with a success
it is almost pardonable to doubt, to redound to the glory
of the Deity. It was but a natural enlargement of this
312 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH.
pious practice, to adapt some of these spiritual songs to
purposes of the nursery.
When Ruth Heathcote passed her hand thoughtfully
across her brow, it was with a painful conviction that her
dominion over the mind of her child was sadly weakened,
if not lost forever. But the efforts of maternal love are
not easily repulsed. An idea flashed upon her brain, and
she proceeded to try the efficacy of the experiment it sug-
gested. Nature had endowed her with a melodious voice,
and an ear that taught her to regulate sounds in a manner
that seldom failed to touch the heart. She possessed the
genius of music, which is melody, unweakened by those
exaggerated affectations with which it is often encumbered
by what is pretendingly called science. Drawing her
daughter nearer to her knee, she commenced one of the
songs then much used by the mothers of the colony, her
voice scarcely rising above the whispering of the evening
air, in its first notes, but ^gradually gaining, as she pro-
ceeded, the richness and compass that a strain so simple
required.
At the first low breathing notes of this nursery song,
Narra-mattah became as motionless as if her rounded and
unfettered form had been wrought in marble. Pleasure
lighted her eyes, as strain succeeded strain ; and ere the
second verse was ended, her look, her attitude, and every
muscle of her ingenuous features, were eloquent in the
expression of delight. Ruth did not hazard the experiment
without trembling for its result. Emotion imparted feeling
to the music, and when, for the third time in the course of
her song, she addressed her child, she saw the soft blue
eyes that gazed wistfully on her face swimming in tears.
Encouraged by this unequivocal evidence of success, nat-
ure grew still more powerful in its efforts, and the closing
verse was sung to an ear that nestled near her heart, as it
had often done during the early years of Narra-mattah
while listening to its melancholy melody.
Content was a quiet but an anxious witness of this touch-
ing evidence of a reviving intelligence between his wife
and child. He best understood the look that beamed in
the eyes of the former, while her arms were, with extreme
caution, folded around her who still leaned upon her
bosom, as if fearful one so timid might be frightened from
her security by any sudden or unaccustomed interruption.
A minute passed in the deepest silence. Even Whittal
Ring was lulled into quiet, and long and sorrowing years
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH. 313
had passed since Ruth enjoyed moments of happiness so
pure and unalloyed. The stillness was broken by a heavy
step in the outer room ; a door was thrown open by a hand
more violent than common, and then young Mark appeared,
his face flushed with exertion, his brow seemingly retain-
ing the frown of battle, and with a tread that betrayed a
spirit goaded by some fierce and unwelcome passion. The
burden of Canonchet was on his arm. He laid it upon a
table ; then pointing, in a manner that appeared to chal-
lenge attention, he turned, and left the room as abruptly
as he had entered.
A cry of joy burst from the lips of Narra-mattah, the in-
stant the beaded belts caught her eye. The arms of Ruth
relaxed their hold in surprise, and before amazement had
time to give place to more connected ideas, the wild being
at her knee had flown to the table, returned, resumed her
former posture, opened the folds of the cloth, and was
holding before the bewildered gaze of her mother the pa-
tient features of an Indian babe.
It would exceed the powers of the unambitious pen we
wield, to convey to the reader a just idea of the mixed
emotions that struggled for mastery in the countenance of
Ruth. The innate and never-dying sentiment of maternal
joy was opposed by all those feelings of pride, that preju-
dice could not fail to implant even in the bosom of one so
meek. There was no need to tell the history of the parent-
age of the little suppliant, who already looked up into her
face with that peculiar calm which renders his race so re-
markable. Though its glance was weakened by infancy,
the dark glittering eye of Conanchet was there ; there were
also to be seen the receding forehead and the compressed
lip of the father ; but all these marks of his origin were
softened by touches of that beauty which had rendered the
infancy of her own child so remarkable.
" See ! " said Narra-mattah, raising the infant still nearer
to the riveted gaze of Ruth ; " 'tis a sachem of the red
men ! The little eagle hath left his nest too soon."
Ruth could not resist the appeal of her beloved. Bend-
ing her head low, so as entirely to conceal her own flushed
face, she imprinted a kiss on the forehead of the Indian
boy. But the jealous eye of the young mother was not to
be deceived. Narra-mattah detected the difference be-
tween the cold salute and those fervent embraces she had
herself received, and disappointment produced a chill
about her own heart. Replacing the folds of the cloth
314 THE WEPT OF WISH-TO N-WISIL
with quiet dignity, she arose from her knees and withdrew
in sadness to a distant corner of the room. There she
took a seat, and with a glance that might almost be termed
reproachful, she commenced a low Indian song to her
infant.
" The wisdom of Providence is in this as in all its dis-
pensations," whispered Content, over the shoulder of his
nearly insensible partner. " Had we received her as she
wras lost, the favor might have exceeded our deservings.
Our daughter is grieved that thou turnest a cold eye on
her babe."
The appeal was sufficient for one whose affections had
been wounded rather than chilled. It recalled Ruth to
recollection, and it served at once to dissipate the shades
of regret that had been unconsciously permitted to gather
around her brow. The displeasure, or it would be more
true to term it sorrow, of the young mother was easily ap-
peased. A smile on her infant brought the blood back to
her heart in a swift and tumultuous current ; and Ruth
herself soon forgot that she had any reason for regret in
the innocent delight with which her own daughter now
hastened to display the physical excellence of the boy.
From this scene of natural feeling, Content was too
quickly summoned by the intelligence that some one with-
out awaited his presence on business of the last importance
to the welfare of the settlement.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
"It will have blood ; they say, blood
Will have blood ! "—Macbeth.
THE visitors were Dr. Ergot, the Reverend Meek Wolfe,
Ensign Dudley, and Reuben Ring. Content found these
four individuals seated in an outer room, in a grave and
restrained manner, that would have done no discredit to
the self-command of an Indian council. He was saluted
with those staid and composed greetings which are still
much used in the intercourse of the people of the Eastern
States of this Republic, and which have obtained for them
a reputation, where they are little known, of a want of the
more active charities of our nature. But that was pecul-
iarly the age of sublimated doctrines, of self-mortification,
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH. 3if
and of severe moral government, and most men believe it
a merit to exhibit, on all occasions, the dominion of the
mind over the mere animal impulses. The usage, which
took its rise in exalted ideas of spiritual perfection, has
since grown into a habit, which, though weakened by the
influence of the age, still exists to a degree that often leads
to an erroneous estimate of character.
At the entrance of the master of the house, there was
some such decorous silence as that which is known to pre-
cede the communications of the aborigines. At length
Ensign Dudley, in whom matter, most probably in con-
sequence of its bulk, bore more than a usual proportion
to his less material part, manifested some evidences of im-
patience that the divine should proceed to business. Thus
admonished, or possibly conceiving that a sufficient con-
cession had been made to the dignity of man's nature,
Meek opened his mouth to speak.
" Captain Content Heathcote," he commenced, with that
mystical involution of his subject which practice had ren-
dered nearly inseparable from all his communications ;
" Captain Content Heathcote, this hath been a day of aw-
ful visitations, and of gracious temporal gifts. The heathen
hath been smitten severely by the hand of the believer,
and the believer hath been made to pay the penalty of his
want of faith, by the infliction of a savage agency. Azazel
hath been loosened in our village, the legions of wicked-
ness have been suffered to go at large in our fields, and
yet the Lord hath remembered his people, and hath borne
them through a trial of blood as perilous as was the pas-
sage of his chosen nation through the billows of the Red
Sea. There is cause of mourning, and cause of joy, in this
manifestation of his will ; of sorrow that we have merited
his anger, and of rejoicing that enough of redeeming grace
hath been found to save the Gomorrah of our hearts. But
I speak to one trained in spiritual discipline, and schooled
in the vicissitudes of the world, and further discourse is
not necessary to quicken his apprehension. We will
therefore turn to more instant and temporal exercises.
Have all of thy household escaped unharmed throughout
the strivings of this bloody day?"
"We praise the Lord that such hath been his pleasure,"
returned Content. " Other than as sorrow hath assailed
us through the mourning of friends, the blow hath fallen
lightly on me and mine."
*' Thou hast had thy season ; the parent ceaseth to chas-
316 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH.
tise, while former punishments are remembered. But
here is Sergeant Ring, with matter to communicate, that
may still leave business for thy courage and thy wisdom."
Content turned his quiet look upon the yeoman, and
seemed to await his speech. Reuben Ring, who was a
man of many solid and valuable qualities, would most
probably have been exercising the military functions of
his brother-in-law at that very moment, had he been
equally gifted with a fluent discourse. But his feats lay
rather in doing than in speaking, and the tide of popular-
ity had in consequence set less strongly in his favor
than might have happened had the reverse been the case.
The present, however, was a moment when it was neces-
sary to overcome his natural reluctance to speak, and it
was not long before he replied to the inquiring glance of
his commander's eye.
"The captain knows the manner in which we scourged
the savages at the southern end of the valley," the sturdy
yeoman began, "and it is not necessary to deal with the
particulars at length. There were six-and-tvventy red-
skins slain in the meadows, besides as many more that left
the ground in the arms of their friends. As for the people,
we got a few hurts, but each man came back on his own
limbs."
" This is much as the matter hath been reported."
" Then there was a party sent to brush the woods on the
trail of the Indians," resumed Reuben, without appearing
to regard the interruption. "The scouts broke off in
pairs in the duty, and finally men got to searching singly,
of which number I was one. The two men of whom there
is question "
" Of what men dost speak ?" demanded Content.
"The two men of whom there is question," returned
the other, continuing the direct course of his own manner
of relating events, without appearing to see the neces-
sity of connecting the threads of his communication :
" the men of whom I have spoken to the minister and
the ensign "
"Proceed," said Content, who understood his man.
" After one of these men was brought to his end, I saw
no reason for making the day bloodier than it already was,
the more especially as the Lord had caused it to begin
with a merciful hand, which shed its bounties on my own
dwelling. Under such an opinion of right-doing the other
was bound and led into the clearings."
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH. 317
" Thou hast made a captive ? "
The lips of Reuben scarce severed as he muttered a low
assent ; but the Ensign Dudley took upon himself the duty
ol entering into further explanations, which the point
where his kinsman left the narrative enabled him to do
with sufficient intelligence.
"As the sergeant hath related," he said, "one of the
heathen fell, and the other is nowT without, awaiting a judg
ment in the matter of his fortune."
" I trust there is no wish to harm him," said Content,
glancing an eye uneasily around at his companions.
"Strife hath done enough in our settlement this day. The
sergeant hath a right to claim the scalp-bounty, for the
man that is slain ; but for him that liveth, let there be
mercy ! "
" Mercy is a quality of heavenly origin," replied Meek
Wolfe, "and it should not be perverted to defeat the pur-
poses of heavenly wisdom. Azazel must not triumph,
though the tribe of the Narragansetts should be swept
with the besom of destruction. Truly, we are an erring
and a fallible race, Captain Heathcote ; and the greater,
therefore, the necessity that we submit without rebellion
to the inward monitors that are implanted, by grace, to
teach us the road of our duty —
"I cannot consent to shed blood, now that the strife
hath ceased," hastily interrupted Content. " Praised be
Providence ! we are victors ; and it is time to lean to coun-
sels of charity."
"Such are the deceptions of a short-sighted wisdom !"
returned the divine, his dim, sunken eye shining with the
promptings of an exaggerated and subtle spirit. "The
end of all is good, and we may not, without mortal danger,
presume to doubt the suggestions of heavenly gifts. But
there is no question here concerning the execution of the
captive, since he proffereth to be of service in far greater
things than any that can depend on his life or his death.
The heathen rendered up his liberty with little struggle,
and hath propositions that may lead us to a profitable con-
clusion of this day's trials."
" If he can aid in aught that shall shorten the perils and
wantonness of this ruthless war, he shall find none better
disposed to listen than I."
" He professeth ability to do that service."
"Then, of Heaven's mercy! let him be brought forth,
that we counsel on his proposals."
3i8 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON- WISH.
Meek made a gesture to Sergeant Ring, who quitted the
apartment for a moment; and shortly after, returned foL
lowed by his captive. The Indian was one of those dark
and malignant-looking savages that possess most of the
sinister properties of their condition, with few or none of
the redeeming qualities. His eye was lowering and dis-
trustful, bespeaking equally apprehension and revenge ; his
form of that middling degree of perfection which leaves as
little to admire as to condemn, and his attire such as de-
noted him one who might be ranked among the warriors of
a secondary class. Still, in the composure of his mien, the
tranquillity of his step, and the self-possession of all his
movements, he displayed that high bearing, his people
rarely fail to exhibit, ere too much intercourse with the
whites begins to destroy their distinctive traits.
"Here is the Narragansett," said Reuben Ring, causing
his prisoner to appear in the centre of the room ; "he is
no chief, as may be gathered from his uncertain look."
"If he effect that of which there hath been question, his
rank mattereth little. We seek to stop the currents of
blood that flow like running water, in these devoted colo-
nies."
" This will he do," rejoined the divine, " or we shall hold
him answTerable for breach of promise."
" And in what doth he profess to aid in stopping the work
of death ? "
" By yielding the fierce Philip, and his savage ally, the
roving Conanchet, to the judgment. Those chiefs de-
stroyed, our temple may be entered in peace, and the
voice of thanksgiving shall again rise in our Bethel, with-
out the profane interruption of savage shrieks."
Content started, and even recoiled a step, as he listened
to the nature of the proposed peace-offering.
" And have we warranty for such a proceeding, should
this man prove true ? " he asked, in a voice that suffi-
ciently denoted his own doubts of the propriety of such a
measure.
" There is the law, the necessities of a suffering nature,
and God's glory, for our justification," dryly returned the
divine.
" This outsteppeth the discreet exercise of a delegated
authority. I like not to assume so great power, without
written mandates for its execution."
" The objection hath raised a little difficulty in my own
mind," observed Ensign Dudley; "and as it hath set
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH. 319
thoughts at work, it is possible that what I have to offer
will meet the captain's good approbation."
Content knew that his ancient servitor was, though of ten
uncouth in its exhibition, at the bottom a man of humane
heart. On the other hand, while he scarce admitted the
truth to himself, he had a secret dread of the exaggerated
sentiments of his spiritual guide ; and he consequently
listened to the interruption of Eben with a gratification he
scarcely wished to conceal.
" Speak openly," he said ; " when men counsel in a mat-
ter of this weight, each standeth on the surety of his proper
gifts."
"Then may this business be dispatched without the em-
barrassment the captain seems to dread. We have an In-
dian, who offers to lead a party through the forests to the
haunts of the bloody chiefs, therein bringing affairs to the
issue of manhood and discretion."
"And wherein do you propose any departure from the
suggestions that have already been made ? "
Ensign Dudley had not risen to his present rank without
acquiring a suitable portion of the reserve which is so often
found to dignify official sentiments. Having ventured the
opinion already placed, however vaguely, before his hear-
ers, he was patiently awaiting its effects on the mind of his
superior, when the latter, by his earnest and unsuspecting
countenance, no less than by the question just given,
showed that he was still in the dark as to the expedient
the subaltern wished to suggest.
" I think there Will be no necessity for making more
captives," resumed Eben, "since the one we have appears
to create difficulties in our councils. If there be any law in
the colony which says that men must strike with a gentle
hand in open battle, it is a law but little spoken of in com-
mon discourse ; and though no pretender to the wisdom of
legislators, I wTill make bold to add, it is a law that may as
well be forgotten until this outbreaking of the savages
shall be quelled."
" We deal with an enemy that never stays his hand at the
cry of mercy," observed Meek Wolfe, "and though charity
be the fruit of Christian qualities, there is a duty greater
than any which belongeth to earth. We are no more than
weak and feeble instruments in the hands of Providence,
and as such our minds should not be hardened to our in-
ward promptings. If evidence of better feeling could be
found in the deeds of the heathen, we might raise our hopes
320 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH.
to the completion of things ; but the Po\vers of Darkness
still rage in their hearts, and we are taught to believe that
the tree is known by its fruits."
Content signed to all to await his return, and left the
room. In another minute he was seen leading his daughter
into the centre of the circle. The half-alarmed young
woman clasped her swaddled boy to her bosom, as she
gazed timidly at the grave faces of the borderers ; and her
eye recoiled in fear, when its hurried glance met the sunk-
en, glazed, excited, and yet equivocal-looking organ of the
Reverend Mr. Wolfe.
" Thou hast said that the savage never hearkens to the
cry of mercy," resumed Content ; "here is living evidence
that thou hast spoken in error. The misfortune that early
befell my family is not unknown to any in this settlement ;
thou seest in this trembling creature the daughter of our
love — her we have so long mourned. The wept of my
household is again with us ; our hearts have been op
pressed, they are now gladdened. God hath returned oui
child ! "
There was deep, rich pathos in the tones of the father
that affected most of his auditors, though each manifested
his sensibilities in a manner suited to his peculiar habits
of mind. The nature of the divine was touched, and all
the energies of his severe principles were wanting to sus-
tain him above the manifestation of a weakness that he
might have believed derogatory to his spiritual exaltation
of character. He therefore sat mute, with hands folded
on his knee, betraying the struggles of an awakened sym-
pathy only by a firmer compression of the interlocked
fingers, and an occasional and involuntary movement of
the stronger muscles of the face. Dudley suffered a smile
of pleasure to lighten his broad, open countenance ; and
the physician, who had hitherto been merely a listener,
uttered a few low syllables of admiration of the physical
perfection of the being before him, with which there was
mingled some evidence of natural good feeling.
Reuben Ring was the only individual who openly be-
trayed the whole degree of the interest he took in the
restoration of the lost female. The stout yeoman arose,
and moving to the entranced Narra-mattah, he took the
infant into his large hands, and for a moment the honest
borderer gazed at the boy with a. wistful and softened eye.
Then raising the diminutive face of the infant to his own
expanded and bold features, he touched his cheek with
THE IV KPT OF WISH-TON-WISH. 321
his lips, and returned the babe to its mother, who witnessed
the whole proceeding in some such tribulation as the startled
wren exhibits when the foot of the urchin is seen to draw
too near the nest of its young.
" Thou seest that the hand of the Narragansett hath
been stayed," said Content, when a deep silence had suc-
ceeded this little movement, and speaking in a tone which
betrayed hopes of victory.
" The ways of Providence are mysterious ! " returned
Meek; "wherein they bring comfort to the heart, it is
right that we exhibit gratitude ; and wherein they are
charged with the present affliction, it is meet to bow wTith
humbled spirits to their orderings. But the visitations on
families are merely "
He paused, for at that moment a door opened, and a
party entered bearing a burden, which they deposited \vith
decent and grave respect on the floor in the very centre
of the room. The unceremonious manner of the entrance,
the assured and the common gravky of their air, pro-
claimed that the villagers felt their errand to be a sufficient
apology for this intrusion. Had not the business of the
past day naturally led to such a belief, the manner and
aspects of those who had borne the burden would have
announced it to be a human body.
" I had believed that none fell in this day's strife, but
those who met their end near my own door," said Content,
after a long, respectful, and sorrowing pause. " Remove the
face-cloth that we may know on whom the blow hath fallen."
One of the young men obeyed. It was not easy to
recognize through the mutilations of savage barbarity the
features of the sufferer. But a second and steadier look
showed the gory and still agonized countenance of the
individual who had that morning left the Wish-Ton-Wish
on the message of the colonial authorities. Even men as
practised as those present in the horrible inventions of In-
dian cruelty, turned sickening away from a spectacle that
was calculated to chill the blood of all who had not become
callous to human affliction. Content made a sign to cover
the miserable remnants of mortality, and hid his face with
a shudder.
It is not necessary to dwell on the scene that followed.
Meek Wolfe availed himself of this unexpected event to
press his plan on the attention of the commanding officer
of the settlement, who was certainly far better disposed to
listen to his proposals, than before this palpable evidence
21
322 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH.
of the ruthless character of their enemies was presented to
his view. Still Content listened with reluctance, nor was
it without the intention of exercising an ulterior discretion
in the case, that he finally consented to give orders for the
departure of a body of men with the approach of the morn-
ing light As much of the discourse was managed with
those half-intelligible allusions that distinguished men of
their habits, it is probable that every individual present had
his own particular views on the subject ; though it is cer-
tain one and all faithfully believed that he was soleh"
influenced by a justifiable regard to his temporal interest,
which was in some degree rendered still more praiseworthy
by a reference to the service of his Divine Master.
As the party returned, Dudley lingered a moment alone
with his former master. The face of the honest-meaning
ensign was charged with more than its usual significance ;
and he even paused a little after all were beyond hearing,
ere he could muster resolution to propose the subject that
was so evidently uppermost in his mind.
"Captain Content Heathcote," he at length commenced,
" evil or good comes not alone in this life. Thou hast
found her that was sought with so much pain and danger,
but thou hast found with her more than a Christian gentle-
man can desire. I am a man of humble station, but I may
make bold to know what should be the feelings of a father
whose child is restored, replenished by such an over-
bountiful gift."
" Speak plainer," said Content, firmly.
"Then I would say, that it may not be grateful to one
who taketh his place among the best in this colony, to
have an offspring with an Indian cross of blood, and over
whose birth no rite of Christian marriage hath been said.
Here is Abundance, a woman of exceeding usefulness in a
newly settled region, hath made Reuben a gift of three
noble boys this very morning. The accession is little
known, and less discoursed of, in that the good wife is
accustomed to such liberality, and that the day hath brought
forth still greater events. Now a child more or less to such
a woman, can neither raise question among the neighbors,
nor make any extraordinary difference to the household.
My brother Ring would be happy to add the boy to his
stock ; and should there be any remarks concerning the
color of the younker, at a future day, it should give no
reason of surprise had the whole four been born, on the
day of such an inroad, red as Metacom himself ! "
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISff. 323
Content heard his companion to the end without inter-
ruption. His countenance, for a single instant, as the
meaning of the ensign became unequivocal, reddened with
a worldly feeling to which he had long been a stranger ;
but the painful expression as quickly disappeared, and in
its place reigned the meek submission to Providence that
habitually characterized his mien.
"That I have been troubled with this vain thought 1
shall not deny," he answered; "but the Lord hath given
me strength to resist. It is his will that one sprung of
heachen lineage shall come beneath my roof, and let his
will be done ! My child and all that are hers are welcome."
Ensign Dudley pressed the point no further, and they
separated.
CHAPTER XXIX.
"Tarry a little ; — there is something else."
— MercJiant of Venice.
WE shift the scene. The reader will transport himself
from the valley of the Wish-Ton-Wish to the bosom of a
deep and dark \vood.
It may be thought that such scenes have been too often
described to need any repetition. Still, as it is possible
that these pages may fall into the hands of some who have
never quitted the older members of the Union, we shall
endeavor to give them a faint impression concerning the
appearance of the place to which it has become our duty
to transfer the action of the tale.
Although it is certain that inanimate, like animate nat-
ure, has its period, the existence of the tree has no fixed
and common limit. The oak, the elm, and the linden, the
quick-growing sycamore and the tall pine, has each its
own laws for the government of its growth, its magnitude,
and its duration. By this provision of nature, the wilder-
ness, in the midst of so many successive changes, is always
maintained at the point nearest to perfection, since the
accessions are so few and gradual as to preserve its char-
acter.
The American forest exhibits in the highest degree the
grandeur of repose. As nature never does violence to its
own laws, the soil throws out the plant which it is best
qualified to support, and the eye is not often disappointed
324 THE WEPT OF WISH -TON-WISH.
by a sickly vegetation. There ever seems a generous emu.
lation in the trees, which is not to be found among others
of different families, when left to pursue their quiet exist-
ence in the solitude of the fields. Each struggles toward
the light, and an equality in bulk and a similarity in form
are thus produced, which scarce belong to their distinctive
characters. The effect may be easily imagined. The
vaulted arches beneath are filled with thousands of high,
unbroken columns, which sustain one vast and trembling
canopy of leaves. A pleasing gloom and an imposing
silence have their interminable reign below, while an outer
and another atmosphere seems to rest on the cloud of
foliage.
While the light plays on the varying surface of the tree-
tops, one sombre and little-varied hue colors the earth.
Dead and moss-covered logs ; mounds covered with decom>
posed vegetable substances, the graves of long-past gener-
ations of trees ; cavities left by the fall of some uprooted
trunk ; dark fungi, that flourish around the decayed roots
of those about to lose their hold, with a few slender and
delicate plants of a minor growth, and which best succeed
in the shade, form the accompaniments of the lower scene.
The whole is tempered, and in summer rendered grateful,
by a freshness which equals that of the subterranean vault,
without possessing any of its chilling dampness. In the
midst of this gloomy solitude the foot of man is rarely
heard. An occasional glimpse of the bounding deer or
trotting moose is almost the only interruption on the earth
itself ; while the heavy bear or leaping panther is, at long
intervals, met seated on the branches of some venerable
tree. There are moments, too, when troops of hungry
wolves are found hunting on the trail of the deer ; but
these are seen rather as exceptions to the stillness of the
place, than as accessories that should properly be intro-
duced into the picture. Even the birds are, in common,
mute, or when they do break the silence, it is in a dis-
cordance that suits the character of their wild abode.
Through such a scene two men were industriously jour
neying on the day which succeeded the inroad last de-
scribed. They marched as wont, one after the other, the
younger and more active leading the way through the
monotony of the woods, as accurately and as unhesitating-
ly as the mariner directs his course by the aid of the
needle over the waste of waters. He in front was light,
agile, and seemingly unwearied ; while the one who fol-
THE WEPT OF WISH-TO.\T-WISIL 325
lowed was a man of heavy mould, whose step denoted less
practice in the exercise of the forest, and possibly some
failing of natural vigor.
"Thine eye, Narragansett, is an unerring compass by
which to steer, and thy leg a never-wearied steed," said the
latter, casting the butt of his musket on the end of a
mouldering log, while he leaned on the barrel for support.
" If thou movest on the war-path with the same diligence
as thou usest in our errand of peace, well may the colon-
ists dread thy enmity."
The other turned, and without seeking aid from the gun
which rested against his shoulder, he pointed at the several
objects he named, and answered —
" My father is this aged sycamore ; it leans against the
young oak. Conanchet is a straight pine. There is great
cunning in gray hairs," added the chief, stepping lightly
forward until a finger rested on the arm of Submission ;
"can they tell the time when we shall lie under the moss
like a dead hemlock ?"
"That exceedeth the wisdom of man. It is enough,
sachem, if when we fall, we may say with truth, that the
land we shadowed is no poorer for our growth. Thy bones
will lie in the earth where thy fathers trod, but mine may
whiten in the vault of some gloomy forest."
The quiet of the Indian's face was disturbed. The pupils
of his dark eyes contracted, his nostrils dilated, and his
full chest heaved, and then all reposed like the sluggish
ocean after a vain effort to heave its waters into some
swelling wave, during a general calm.
"Fire hath scorched the prints of my father's moccasons
from the earth," he said, with a smile that was placid
though bitter, " and my eyes cannot find them. I shall
die under that shelter," pointing through an opening in the
foliage to the blue void ; " the falling leaves will cover my
bones."
" Then hath the Lord given us a new bond of friendship.
There is a yew-tree and a quiet church-yard in the country
afar, where generations of my race sleep in their graves.
The place is white with stones, that bear the name of —
Submission suddenly ceased to speak, and when his eye
was raised to that of his companion, it was just in time to
detect the manner in which the curious interest of the latter
changed suddenly to cold reserve, and to note the high
courtesy of the air with which the Indian turned the dis-
course.
326 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH.
" There is water beyond the little hill," he said. " Let
my father drink and grow strong, that he may live to lie
in the clearings."
The other bowed, and they proceeded to the spot in
silence. It would seem by the length of time that was now
lost in taking the required refreshment, that the travellers
had journeyed long and far. The Narragansett ate more
sparingly, however, than his companion ; for his mind
appeared to sustain a weight that was far more grievous
than the fatigue which had been endured by the body.
Still his composure was little disturbed outwardly — for
during the silent repast he maintained the air of a dignified
warrior, rather than that of a man whose air could be much
affected by inward sorrow. When nature was appeased,
they both arose, and continued their route through the
pathless forest.
For an hour after quitting the spring, the progress of our
two adventurers was swift, and uninterrupted by any pass-
ing observation or momentary pause. At the end of that
time, however, the speed of Conanchet began to slacken,
and his eye, instead of maintaining its steady and forward
direction, was seen to wander with some of the appearance
of indecision.
" Thou hast lost those secret signs by which we have so
far threaded the woods," observed his companion ; " one
tree is like another, and I see no difference in this wilder-
ness of nature ; but if thou art at fault, we may truly de-
spair of our object."
"Here is the nest of the eagle," returned Conanchet,
pointing at the object he named perched on the upper and
whitened branches of the dead pine ; " and rny father may
see the council-tree in this oak — but there are no Wampa-
noags ! "
" There are many eagles in this forest — nor is that oak
one that may not have its fellow. Thine eye hath been
deceived, sachem, and some false sign hath led us astray."
Conanchet looked at his companion attentively. After
a moment, he quietly asked —
" Did my father ever mistake his path, in going from
his wigwam to the place where he looked upon the house
of his Great Spirit ?"
" The matter of that often travelled path was different,
Narragansett. My foot had worn the rock with many pass-
ings, and the distance was a span. But we have journeyed
through leagues of forest, and our route hath lain across
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH. 327
brook and hill, through brake and morass, where human
vision hath not been able to detect the smallest sign of the
presence of man."
" My father is old," said the Indian, respectfully. " His
eye is not as quick as when he took the scalp of the Great
Chief, or he would know the print of a moccason. See," —
making his companion observe the mark of a human foot
that was barely discernible by the manner in which the
dead leaves had been displaced — " his rock is worn, but it
is harder than the ground. He cannot tell by its signs
who passed, or when."
" Here is truly that which ingenuity may portray as the
print of man's foot ; but it is alone, and may be some acci-
dent of the wind."
" Let my father look on every side ; he will see that a
tribe hath passed."
" This may be true, though my vision is unequal to de-
tect that thou wouldst show. But if a tribe hath passed, let
us follow."
Conanchet shook his head, and spread the fingers of his
two hands in a manner to describe the radii of a circle.
" Hugh ! " he said, starting even while he was thus sig-
nificantly answering by gestures, " a moccason comes ! "
Submission, who had 30 often and so recently been ar-
rayed against the savages, involuntarily sought the lock of
his carbine. His look and action were menacing, though
his roving eye could see no object to excite alarm.
Not so Conanchet. His quicker and more practised vision
soon caught a glimpse of the warrior who was approaching,
occasionally concealed by the trunks of trees, and whose
tread on the dried leaves had first betrayed his proximity.
Folding his arms on his naked bosom, the Narragansett
chief awaited the coming of the other, in an attitude of
calmness and dignity. Neither did he speak nor suffer a
muscle to play, until a hand was placed on one of his
arms, and he who had drawn near, said, in tones of amity
and respect —
" The young sachem hath come to look for his brother ? "
" Wampanoag, I have followed the trail, that your ears
may listen to the talk of a pale-face."
The third person in this interview was Metacom. He
shot a haughty and fierce glance at the stranger, and then
turned to his companion inarms, with recovered calmness,
to reply.
" Has Conanchet counted his young men since they
328 THE WEPT OF IVISH-TON-VVISH.
raised the whoop ? " he asked, in the language of the abo-
rigines. " I saw many go into the fields, that never came
back. Let the white men die."
" Wampanoag, he is led by the wampum of a sachem. I
have not counted my young men ; but I know that they are
strong enough to say that what their chief hath promised
shall be done."
" If the Yengeese is a friend to my brother, he is wel-
come. The wigwam of Metacom is open ; let him enter
it."
Philip made a sign for the others to follow, and led the
way to the place he had named.
The spot chosen by Philip for his temporary encamp-
ment was suited to such a purpose. There wTas a thicket
denser than common on one of its sides — a steep and high
rock protected and sheltered its rear ; a swift and wide
brook dashed over fragments that had fallen, with time,
from the precipice in its front, and toward the setting sun
a whirlwind had opened a long and melancholy glade
through the forest. A few huts of brush leaned against the
base of the hill, and the scanty implements of their domestic
economy were scattered among the habitations of the sav-
ages. The whole party did not number twenty ; for, as has
been said, the Wampanoag had acted latterly more by the
agency of his allies, than with the materials of his own
proper force.
The three were soon seated on a rock whose foot was
washed by the rapid current of the tumbling water. A few
gloomy looking and fierce Indians watched the conference
in the background.
" My brother hath followed my trail, that my ears may
hear the 'words of a Yengeese,'' Philip commenced, after a
sufficient period had elapsed to escape the imputation of
curiosity. " Let him speak."
<k I have come singly into the jaws of the lion, restless
and remorseless leader of the savages," returned the bold
exile, " that you may hear the words of peace. Why hath
the son seen the acts of the English so differently from the
father ? Massasoit was a friend of the persecuted and
patient pilgrims who have sought rest and refuge in this
Bethel of the faithful ; but thou hast hardened thy heart to
their prayers, and seekest the blood of those who Avish thee
no wrong. Doubtless thy nature is one of pride and mis-
taken vanities, like that of all thy race, and it hath seemed
needful to the vain-glory of thy name and nation to battle
THE WEPT OF WISH-TO *C- WISH. 329
against men of a different origin. But know there is one
who is master of all here on earth, as he is king of Heaven !
It is his pleasure that the sweet savor of his worship should
arise from the wilderness. His will is law, and they that
would withstand do but kick against the pricks. Listen
then to peaceful counsels, that the land may be parcelled
justly to meet the wants of all, and the country be prepared
for the incense of the altar."
This exhortation was uttered in a deep and almost un-
earthly voice, and with a degree of excitement that was
probably increased by the intensity with which the soli-
tary had lately been brooding over his peculiar opinions,
and the terrible scenes in which he had so recently been
an actor. Philip listened with the high courtesy of an
Indian prince. Unintelligible as was the meaning of the
speaker, his countenance betrayed no gleaming of impa-
tience, his lip no smile of ridicule. On the contrary, a
noble and lofty gravity reigned in every feature ; and
ignorant as he was of what the other wished to say, his
attentive eye and bending head expressed every wish to
comprehend.
" My pa-e friend hath spoken very wisely," he said,
when the other ceased to speak. " But he doth not see
clearly in tl.sse woods ; he sits too much in the shade ; his
eye is bette1 in a clearing. Metaeom is not a fierce beast.
His claws are worn out ; his legs are tired with travelling ;
he cannot j i np far. My pale friend wants to divide the
land. Why trouble the Great Spirit to do his work twice ?
He gave the Wampanoags their hunting grounds, and
places on the salt lake to catch their fish and clams, and
he did not forget his children, the Narragansetts. Ho
put them in the midst of the water, for that he saw they
could swim. Did he forget the Yengeese ? or did he put
them in a swamp, where they would turn into frogs
and lizards ?"
" Heathen, my voice shall never deny the bounties of
my God ! His hand hath placed my fathers in a fertile
land, rich in the good things of the world, fortunate in
position, sea-girt and impregnable. Happy is he who can
find justification in dwelling within its borders ! "
An empty gourd lay on the rock, at the side of Meta-
eom. Bending over the stream he filled it to the brim
with water, and held the vessel before the eyes of his com-
panions.
" See," he said, pointing to the even surface of the fluid ;
330 THE WEPT OF WISH-TOW- WISH.
" so much hath the Great Spirit said it shall hold. Now,"
he added, filling the hollow of the other hand from the
brook, and casting its contents into the gourd, " now my
brother knows that some must come away. It is so with
his country. There is no longer room in it for my pale
friend."
" Did I attempt to deceive thine ears with this tale, I
should lay falsehood to my soul. We are many, and sorry
am I to say that some among us are like unto them that
were called l Legion.' But to say that there is not still
place for all to die where they are born, is to utter dam-
ning untruth."
"The land of the Yengeese is then good — very good,"
returned Philip ; "but their young men like one that is
better."
"Thy nature, Wampanoag, is not equal to comprehend
the motives which have led us hither, and our discourse is
getting vain."
u My brother Conanchet is a sachem. The leaves that
fall from the trees of his country, in the season of frosts,
blow into my hunting grounds. We are neighbors and
friends," slightly bending his head to the Narragansett.
" When a wicked Indian runs from the islands to the wig-
wams of my people, he is whipped and sent back. We keep
the path between us open only for honest red men.
Philip spoke with a sneer that his habitual loftiness of
manner did not conceal from his associate chief, though it
was so slight as entirely to escape the observation of him
who was the subject of his sarcasm. The former took the
alarm, and for the first time during the dialogue did he
break silence.
" My pale father is a brave warrior," said the young
sachem of the Narragansetts. " His hand took the scalp
of the Great Sagamore of his people ! "
The countenance of Metacom changed instantly. In place
:>f the ironical scorn that was gathering about his lip, its
expression became serious and respectful. He gazed
steadily at the hard and weather-beaten features of his
guest ; and it is probable that words of higher courtesy
than any he had yet used would have fallen from him, had
not at that moment a signal been given by a, young Indian,
set to watch on the summit of the rock, that one approached.
Both Metacom and Conanchet appeared to hear this cry
with some uneasiness. Neither, however, arose, nor did
cither betray such evidence of alarm as denoted a deeper
THE WF.PT OF WISH-TO^- WISH. 331
interest in the interruption than the circumstances might
very naturally create. A warrior was shortly seen entering
the encampment, from the side of the forest which was
known to lie in the direction of the Wish-Ton-Wish.
The moment Conanchet saw the person of the newly-
arrived man, his eye and attitude resumed their former
repose, though the look of Metacom still continued gloomy
and distrustful. The difference in the manner of tlu-
chiefs was not however sufficiently strong to be remarked
by Submission, who was about to resume the discourse,
when the new-comer moved past the cluster of warriors in
the encampment, and took his seat near them, on a stone
so low, that the water laved his feet. As usual, there was
no greeting between the Indians for some moments, the
three appearing to regard the arrival as a mere thing of
course. But the uneasiness of Metacom prompted a com-
munication sooner than common.
" Mohtucket," he saicl, in the language of their' tribe,
" hath lost the trail of his friends. We thought the crows
of the pale men were picking his bones ! "
"There was no scalp at his belt, and Mohtucket was
ashamed to be seen among the young men with an empty
hand."
" He remembered that he had too often come back with-
out striking a dead enemy," returned Metacom, about
whose firm mouth lurked an expression of ill-concealed
contempt. u Has he now touched a warrior ? "
The Indian, who was merely a man of the inferior class,
held up the trophy which hung at his girdle, to the exami-
nation of the chief. Metacom looked at the disgusting ob-
ject with the calmness and nearly with the interest that a.
virtuoso would lavish on an antique memorial of some tri-
umph of former ages. His finger was thrust through a
hole in the skin, and then, while he resumed his former
position, he observed dryly —
*"A bullet hath hit the head. The arrow of Mohtucket
doth little harm ! "
" Metacom hath never looked on his young man like a
friend since the brother of Mohtucket was killed."
The glance that Philip cast at his underling, though it
was not unmingled with suspicion, was one of princely and
savage scorn. The white auditor had not been able to un-
derstand the discourse, but the dissatisfaction and uneasi-.
ness of the eyes of both were too obvious not to show that
the conference was far from being amicable.
332 THE ll'EPT OF
"The sachem hath discontent with his young man," he
observed, " and from this may he understand the nature of
that which leadeth many to quit the land of their fathers,
beneath the rising sun, to come to this wilderness in the
west. If he will now listen I will touch further on .the
business of my errand, and deal more at large with the sub-
ject we have but so lightly skimmed."
Philip manifested attention. He smiled on his guest,
and even bowed his assent to the proposal ; still his keen
eye seemed to read the. soul of his subordinate, through
the veil of his gloomy visage. There was a play of the fin-
gers of his right hand when the arm fell from its position
across his bosom to his thigh, as if they itched to grasp the
knife, whose buck-horn handle lay within a few inches of
their reach. Yet his air to the white man was composed
and dignified. The latter was again about to speak, when
the arches of the forest suddenly rang with the report <Tf a
musket. All in and near the encampment sprang to their
feet at the well-known sound, and yet all continued as mo-
tionless as if so many dark but breathing statues had been
planted there. The rustling of leaves was heard, and then
the body of the young Indian who had been posted on the
rock, rolled to the edge of the precipice, whence it fell, like
a log, on the yielding roof of one of the lodges beneath.
A shout issued from the forest behind, a volley roared
among the trees, and glancing lead was whistling through
the air, and cutting twigs from the undergrowth on every
side. Two more of the Wampanoags were seen rolling on
the earth in the death agony.
The voice of Annawon was heard in the encampment,
and at the next instant the place was deserted.
During this startling and fearful moment the four indi-
viduals near the stream were inactive. Conanchet and his
Christian friend stood to their arms, but it was rather as
rncn cling to the means of defence in moments of great
jeopardy, than with any intention of offensive hostilities.
Metacom seemed undecided. Accustomed to receive and
inflict surprises, a warrior so experienced could not be dis-
concerted ; still he hesitated as to the course he ought to
take. But when Annawon, who was nearer the scene,
sounded the signal of retreat, he sprang toward the re-
turned straggler, and with a single blow of his tomahawk'
brained the traitor. Glances of fierce revenge, and of
inextinguishable though disappointed hatred, were ex-
changed between the victim and his chief, as the former lay
TV//-; U'EPT OI< WlSH~TON-Wl£fff 333
on the rock, gasping for breath ; and then the latter turned
in his tracks, and raised the dripping weapon over the head
of the white man.
"Wampanoag, no !" said Conanchet, in a voice of thun-
der. " Our lives are one."
Philip hesitated. Fierce and dangerous passions were
struggling in his breast, but the habitual self-command of
the wily politician of those woods prevailed. Even in that
scene of blood and alarm he smiled on his powerful and
fearless young ally ; then pointing to the deepest shades
of the forest he bounded toward them with the activity of
a deer.
CHAPTER XXX.
" But peace be with him !
That life is better life, past fearing death,
Thau that which lives to fear." — Measure jor Pleasure.
COURAGE is both a comparative and an improvable virt-
ue. If the fear of death be a weakness common to the
race, it is one that is capable of being diminished by fre-
quent exposure, and even rendered extinct by reflection,
It was, therefore, with sensibilities entirely changed from
their natural course, that the two individuals who were
left alone by the retreat of Philip, saw the nature and the
approach of the danger that now beset them. Their posi-
tion near the brook had so far protected them from the
bullets of the assailants ; but it was equally obvious to
both, that in a minute or two the colonists would enter an
encampment that was already deserted. Each, in conse-
quence, acted according to those opinions which had been
fostered by the habits of their respective lives.
As Conanchet had no act of vengeance like that which
Metacom had performed, immediately before his eyes, he
had, at the lirst alarm, given all his faculties to the nature
of the attack. The first minute was sufficient to under-
stand its character, and the second enabled him to decide.
" Come," he said hastily, but with perfect self-possession,
pointing as he spoke to the swift-running stream at his
feet : " we will go with the water, let the marks of our trail
run before."
Submission hesitated. There was something like haugh-
ty military pride in the stern determination of his eye,
334 THE l-VKPT OP WISH-TO X-W1SIL
which seemed reluctant to incur the disgrace of a flight so
unequivocal, and, as he might have believed, so unworthy
of his character.
"No, Narragansett," he answered; "flee for thy life,
but leave me to reap the harvest of my deeds. They can
but leave my bones by the side of those of this traitor at
my feet."
The mien of Conanchet was neither excited nor dis-
pleased. He quietly drew the corner of his light robe over
a shoulder, and was about to resume his seat on the stone
from which he had b'ut a minute before arisen, when his
companion again urged him to fly.
''The enemies of a chief must not say that he led his
friend into a trap, and that when his leg was fast he ran
away himself, like a lucky fox. If my brother stays to be
killed, Conanchet will be found near him."
" Heathen, heathen ! " returned the other, moved nearly
to tears by the loyalty of his guide ; " many a Christian
man might take lessons from thy faith. Lead on — I will
follow at the utmost of my speed."
The Narragansett sprang into the brook, and took its
downward course — a direction opposite to that which
Philip had chosen. There was wisdom in this expedient ;
for though their pursuers might see that the water was
troubled, there was no certainty as to the direction of the
fugitives. Conanchet had foreseen this little advantage,
and with the instinctive readiness of his people, he did not
fail to make it of service. Metacom had been influenced
by the course taken by his warriors, who had retired under
shelter of the rocks.
Ere the two fugitives had gone any great distance, they
heard the shouts of their enemies in the encampment ; and
soon after, scattering shot announced that Philip had al-
ready rallied his people to resistance. There was an as
surance of safety in the latter circumstance, which caused
them to relax their speed.
" My foot is not as active as in days that are past," said
Submission ; "we will therefore recover strength while we
may, lest we be yet taken at emergency. Narragansett,
thou hast ever kept thy faith with me, and come of what
race or worship in what manner thou mayst, there is one
to remember it."
" My father looked with the eye of a friend on the
Indian boy that was kept like a young bear in a cage. He
taught him to speak with the tongue of a Yengeese."
THE WEPT OF WISH-TOtf-WISH. 335
" We passed weary months together in our prison, chief;
and Apollyon'must liave been strong in a heart, to resist
the opportunity of friendship, in such a situation. But,
even there, my confidence and care were repaid, for with-
out thy mysterious hints, gathered from signs thoti hadst
gleaned thyself during the hunt, it would not have been in
my power to warn my friends that thy people contemplated
an attack, the unhappy night of the burning. Narragan-
•i ^tt, we have done many acts of kindness, each in his own
fashion, and I am ready to confess this last not to be the
least of thy favors. Though of white blood and of Chris-
tian origin, I can almost say that my heart is Indian."
" Then die an Indian's death ! " shouted a voice within
twenty feet of the spot where they were wading down the
stream.
The menacing words were rather accompanied than
seconded by a shot, and Submission fell. Conanchet cast
his musket into the water, and turned to raise his compan-
ion.
" It was merely age dealing with the slippery stones of
the brook," said the latter, as he recovered his footing.
" That had weli-nigh been a fatal discharge ! but God, for
his own purpose, hath still averted the blow."
Conanchet did not speak. Seizing his gun, which lay at
the bottom of the stream, he drew his friend after him to
the shore, and plunged into the thicket that lined its banks.
Here they were momentarily protected from missiles. But
the shouts that succeeded the discharge of the muskets,
were accompanied by yells that he knew to proceed from
Pequods and Mohicans, tribes that wTere in deadly hostility
to his own people. The hope of concealing their trail from
such pursuers was not to be indulged, and for his compan-
ion to escape by flight he knew to be impossible. There
vas no time to lose. In such emergencies, with an Indian,
thought takes the character of instinct. The fugitives
stood at the foot of a sapling, whose top was completely
concealed by masses of leaves, which belonged to the un-
dobrush that clustered around its trunk. Into this tree
he assisted Submission to ascend, and then, without ex-
plaining his own views, he instantly left the spot, rende1:-
ing his own trail as broad and perceptible as possible, by
beating down the bushes as he passed.
The expedient of the faithful Narragansett was complete-
ly successful. Before he had got a hundred yards from
the place, he saw the foremost of the hostile Indians
33S THE }\'KPT OF WISH-TON- WISH.
limiting like bloodhounds on his footsteps. His movement
was slow, until he saw that, having his person in view, all
of the pursuers had passed the tree. Then, the arrow
parting from the bow was scarce swifter than his flight.
The pursuit now partook of all the exciting incidents and
ingenious expedients of an Indian chase. Conanchet was
soon hunted from his cover, and obliged to trust his person
in the more open parts of the forest. Miles -of hill and
ravine, of plain, of rocks, of morass and stream were
crossed, and still the trained warrior held on his way un-
broken in spirit and scarce wearied in limb. The merit of
a savage in such an employment rests more on his bottom
than on his speed. The three or four colonists, who had
been sent with the party of amicable Indians to intercept
those who might attempt to escape down the stream, were
early thrown out ; and the struggle was now entirely be-
tween the fugitive and men equally practised in limb and
ingenious in expedient.
The Pequods had a great advantage in their number.
The frequent doublings of the fugitive kept the chase
within the circle of -a mile, and as each of his enemies tired,
there were always fresh pursuers to take his place. In
such a "contest the result could not be questionable. After
more than two hours of powerful exertion, the foot of
Conanchet began to fail, and his speed very sensibly to
Hag. Exhausted by efforts that had been nearly super-
natural, the breathless warrior cast his person prostrate
on the earth, and lay for several minutes as if he were
dead.
During this breathing-time his throbbing pulses grew
more calm, his heart beat less violently, and the circula-
tion was gradually returning to the tranquil flow of nature
in a state of rest. It was at this moment, when his ener-
gies were recruited by rest, that the chief heard the tread
of the moccasons on his trail. Rising, he looked back on
the course over which he had just passed with so much
pain. But a single wrarrior was in view. Hope for an in-
stant regained the ascendency; and he raised his musket
to fell his approaching adversary. The aim was cool,
long, and it would have been fatal had not the useless tick
of the lock reminded him of the condition of the gun. He
cast the wet and unserviceable piece away and grasped his
tomahawk ; but a band of Pequods rushed in to the rescue,
rendering resistance madness. Perceiving the hopeless-
ness ;jf his situation, the sachem of the Narragansetts
THE WEPT OF W1SH-TON-WISH. 337
dropped his tomahawk, loosened his belt, and advanced
unarmed, with a noble resignation, to meet his foes. In
the next instant he was their prisoner.
"Bring me to your chief," said the captive, haughtily,
when the common herd into whose hands he had fallen
would have questioned him on the subject of his com-
panion's and of his own fate. " My tongue is used to
speak with sachems."
He was obeyed, and before an hour had passed the re-
nowned Conanchet stood confronted with his most deadly
enemy.
The place of meeting was the deserted encampment of
the band of Philip. Here most of the pursuers had already
assembled, including all of the colonists who had been en-
gaged in the expedition. The latter consisted of Meek
Wolfe, Ensign Dudley, Sergeant Ring, and a dozen pri-
vate men of the village.
The result of the enterprise was, by this time, generally
known. Though Metacom, its principal object, had es-
caped ; yet, when it was. understood that the sachem of
the Narragansetts had fallen into their hands, there was
not an individual of the party who did not think his per-
sonal risk more than amply compensated. Though the
Mohicans and Pequods restrained their exultation, lest the
pride of their captive should be soothed by such an evi-
dence of his importance, the white men drew around the
prisoner with an interest and a joy they did not care to
conceal. Still, as he had yielded to an Indian, there was
an affectation of leaving the chief to the clemency of his
conquerors. Perhaps some deeply pondered scheme of
policy had its influence in this act of seeming justice.
When Conanchet was placed in the centre of the curi-
ous circle, he found himself immediately in presence of
the principal chief of the tribe of the Mohicans. It was
Uncas, son of that Uncas wThose fortunes had also pre-
vailed, aided by the whites, in the conflict with his father,
the hapless but noble Miantonimoh. Fate had now de-
creed that the same evil star, which had governed the des-
tinies of the ancestor, should extend its influence to the
second generation.
The race of Uncas, though weakened of its power, and
shorn of much of its peculiar grandeur by a vicious alliance
with the English,, still retained most of the fine qualities
of savage heroism. He, who now stood forth to receive
his captive, was a warrior of middle age, of just propor-
338 THE IVEP7" OF WISH-TON-IVISH.
tions, of a grave, though fierce aspect, and of an eye and
countenance that expressed all those contradictory traits
of character which render the savage warrior almost as ad-
mirable as he is appalling. Until this moment the rival
chieftains had never met except in the confusion of battle.
For a few minutes neither spoke. Each stood regarding
the fine outlines, the eagle eye, the proud bearing, and
the severe gravity of the other in secret admiration, but
with a calmness so immovable as entirely to conceal the
workings of his thoughts. At length they began to as-
sume miens suited to the part each was to enact in the
coming scene. The countenance of Uncas became ironical
and exulting, while that of his captive grew still more cold
and unconcerned.
"My young men," said the former, "have taken a fox
skulking in the bushes. His legs were very long ; but he
had no heart to use them."
Conanchet folded his arms on his bosom, and the glance
of his quiet eye seemed to tell his enemy that devices so
common were unworthy of them both. The other either
understood its meaning, or loftier feelings prevailed, for he
added, in a better taste—
" Is Conanchet tired of his life that he comes among my
young men ? "
" Mohican," said the Narragansett chief, " he has been
there before ; if Uncas will count his warriors he will see
that some are wanting."
" There are no traditions among the Indians of the
islands ! " said the other, with an ironical glance at the
chiefs near him. " They have never heard of Miantonimoh ;
they do not know such a field as the Sachem's Plain !"
The countenance of the prisoner changed. For a single
instant it appeared to grow dark, as if a deep shadow were
cast athwart it ; and then every feature rested, as before, in
dignified repose. His conqueror watched the play of his
lineaments, and when he thought nature was getting the
ascendency, exultation gleamed about his own fierce eye ;
but when the self-possession of the Narragansett returned,
he affected to think no more of an effort that had been
fruitless.
"If the men of the islands know little," he continued,
" it is not so with the Mohicans. There was once a great
sachem among the Narragansetts ; he was wiser than the
beaver, swifter than the moose, and more cunning than the
red fox. But lie could not see into to-morrow. Foolish
7y//r ir/-:rr OF IVISH-TO. \\IVISIL 339
counsellors told him to go upon the war-path against the
Pequods and Mohicans. He lost his scalp ; it hangs in the
smoke of my wigwam. We shall see if it will know the
hair 'of its son. Narragansett, here are wise men of the
pale-faces ; they will speak to you. If they offer a pipe,
smoke ; for tobacco is not plenty with your tribe."
Uncas then turned away, leaving his prisoner to the in-
terrogatories of his white allies.
" Here is the look of Miantonimoh, Sergeant Ring," ob-
served Ensign Dudley to his wife's brother, after he had
contemplated for a reasonable time the features of the
prisoner. " I see the eye and the tread of the father in this
young sachem. And more, Sergeant Ring ; the chief
favors the boy we picked up in the fields some dozen years
agone, and kept in the block for the matter of many
months, caged like a young panther. Hast forgotten the
night, Reuben, and the lad, and the block ? A fiery oven
is not hotter than that pile was getting before we dove into
the earth. I never fail to think of it when the good minis-
ter is dealing powerfully with the punishments of the
wicked, and the furnaces of Tophet !"
The silent yeoman comprehended the disconnected allu-
sions of his relative, nor was he slow in seeing the palpable
resemblance between their prisoner and the Indian boy
whose person had once been so familiar to his eye. Ad-
miration and surprise were blended in his honest face, with
an expression that appeared to announce deep regret. As
neither of these individuals, however, was the principal
personage of their party, each was fain to remain an atten-
tive and interested* observer of that which followed.
" Worshipper of Baal ! " commenced the sepulchral voice
of the divine, " it has pleased the King of Heaven and.
earth to protect his people ! The triumph of thy evil nat-
ure hath been short, and now cometh the judgment ! "
These words were uttered to ears that affected deafness.
In the presence of his most deadly foe, and a captive,
Conanchet was not a man to suffer his resolution to waver.
He looked coldly and vacantly on the speaker, nor could
the most suspicious or the most practised eye have detected
in liis mien his knowledge of the English language. De-
ceived by the stoicism of the prisoner, Meek muttered a
few words, in which the Narragansett was strangely dealt
by, denunciations and petitions in his favor being blended
in the quaint and exaggerated fashions of the times ; and
then he submitted to the interference of those present, who
340
THE WEPT OF WISH>TON-WISlf.
were charged with the duty of deciding on the fate of the
Indian.
Although Eben Dudley was the principal and the effi-
cient military man in this little expedition from the valley,
he was accompanied by those whose authority was pre-.
dominant in all matters that did not strictly appertain to
the executive portion of the duty. Commissioners, named
by the Government of the Colony, had come out with the
party, clothed with power to dispose of Philip, should that
dreaded chief, as was expected, fall into the hands of the
English. To these persons the fate of Conanchet was now
referred.
We shall not detain the narrative to dwell on the par-
ticulars of the council. The question was gravely consid-
ered, and it was decided with a deep and conscientious
sense of the responsibility of those who acted as judges.
Several hours were passed in deliberation, Meek opening
and closing the proceedings by solemn prayers. The judg-
ment was then announced to Uncas by the divine himself.
" The wise men of my people have consulted together in
the matter of this Narragansett," he said, "and their spirits
have wrestled powerfully with the subject. In coming to
their conclusion, if it wear the aspect of time-serving, let
all remember the Providence of Heaven hath so interwoven
the interests of man with its own good purposes, that to
the carnal eye they may outwardly seem to be inseparable.
But that which is here done is done in good faith to our
ruling principle, which is good faith to thee and to all
others who support the altar in this wilderness. And
herein is our decision : We commit the Narragansett to
thy justice, since it is evident that while he is at large,
neither thou, who art a feeble prop to the Church in these
regions, nor we, who are its humble and unworthy servi-
tors, are safe. Take him, then, and deal with him accord-
ing to thy wisdom. We place limits to thy power in only
two things. It is not meet that any born of humanity, and
having human sensibilities, should suffer more in the flesh
than may be necessary to the ends of duty ; we therefore
decree that thy captive shall not die by torture ; and, for
the better security of this our charitable decision, two of
our number shall accompany thee and him to the place of
execution ; it being always supposed it is thy intention to
inflict the pains of death. Another condition of this con-
cession to a foreordained necessity is, that a Christian
minister may be at hand, in order that the sufferer may
THE IVEPT OF WISH-TOX-WISH. 341
depart with the prayers of one accustomed to lift his voica
in petitions to the footstool of the Almighty."
The Mohegan chief heard this sentence with deep atten-
tion. When he found he was to be denied the satisfaction
of proving, or perhaps of overcoming, the resolution of his
enemy, a deep cloud passed across his swarthy visage. But
the strength of his tribe had long been broken, and to re-
sist would have been as unprofitable as to repine would
have been unseemly. The conditions were therefore ac-
cepted, and preparations were accordingly made among
the Indians to proceed to judgment.
These people had few contradictory principles to ap-
pease, and no subtleties to distract their decision. Direct,
fearless, and simple in all their practices, they did little
more than gather the voices of the chiefs and acquaint
their captive with the result. They knew that fortune
had thrown an implacable enemy into their hands, and
they believed that self-preservation demanded his life. To
them it mattered little whether he had arrows in his hands,
or had yielded himself an unarmed prisoner. He knew
the risk he ran in submitting, and he had probably con-
sulted his own character, rather than their benefit, in
throwing away his arms. They therefore pronounced the
judgment of death against their captive, merely respect-
ing the decree of their white allies, which had commanded
them to spare the torture.
So soon as this determination was known, the Commis-
sioners of the Colony hastened away from the spot with
consciences that required some aid from the stimulus of
their subtle doctrines, in order to render them quiet. They
were, however, ingenious casuists; and as they hurried
along their return path, most of the party were satisfied
, that they had rather manifested a merciful interposition,
than exercised any act of positive cruelty.
During the two or three hours which had passed in these
solemn and usual preparations, Conanchet was seated on a
rock, a close but apparently an unmoved spectator of all
that passed. His eye was mild, and at times melancholy ;
but its brightness and its steadiness remained unimpaired.
When his sentence was announced, it exhibited no change ;
and he saw all the pale men depart, with the calmness he
had maintained throughout. It was only as Uncas, at-
tended by the body of his party and the two white super-
intendents who had been left, approached, that his spirit
seemed to awaken.
342 THE irvrr OF IVISH-T ox- WISH.
" My people have said that there shall be no more wolves
in the woods," said Uncas ; "and they have commanded
our young men to slay the hungriest of them all."
" It is well !" coldly returned the other.
A gleaming of admiration, and perhaps of humanity,
came over the grim countenance of Uncas, as he gazed at
the repose which reigned in the firm features of his victim,
For an instant, his purpose wavered.
" The Mohicans are a great tribe ! " he added ; "and the
race of Uncas is getting few. We will paint our brother
so that the lying Narragansetts shall not know him, and he
will be a warrior on the mainland."
This relenting of his enemy had a corresponding effect
on the generous temper of Conanchet. The lofty pride
deserted his eye, and his look became milder and more
human. For a minute, intense thought brooded around
his brow ; the grim muscles of his mouth played a little,
though scarcely enough to be seen, and then he spoke.
"Mohican," he said, "why should your young men be
in a hurry ? My scalp will be the scalp of a great chief
to-morrow. They will not take two, should they strike
their prisoner now."
" Hath Conanchet forgotten anything, that he is not
ready ? "
" Sachem, he is always ready — but— " he paused, and
spoke in tones that faltered, — " does a Mohican live
alone?"
" How many suns does the Narragansett ask ? "
" One ; when the shadow of that pine points toward the
brook, Conanchet will be ready. He will then stand in the
shade, with naked hands."
"Go," said Uncas, with dignity; "I have heard the
words of a sagamore."
Conanchet turned, and passing swiftly through the silent
crowd, his person was soon lost in the surrounding forest.
CHAPTER XXXI.
"Therefore, lay bare your bosom."
— Merchant of Venice.
THE night that succeeded was wild and melancholy. The
moon was nearly full, but its place in the heavens was only
seen, as the masses of vapor which drove through the air
77/7: in-.PT OF WISIf-TQtf-WlSIf. 343
occasionally opened, suffering short gleams of fitful light
to fall on the scene below. A southwestern wind rather
moaned than sighed through the forest, and there were
moments when its freshness increased, till every leaf seemed
a tongue, and each low plant appeared to be endowed with
the gift of speech. With the exception of these imposing
and not unpleasing natural sounds, there was a solemn
quiet in and about the village of the Wish-Ton-Wish. An
hour before the moment when we resume the action of the
legend, the sun had settled into the neighboring forest,
and most of its simple and laborious inhabitants had al-
ready sought their rest.
The lights, however, still shone through many of the
windows of the " Heathcote house," as, in the language of
the country, the dwelling of the Puritan was termed. There
was the usual stirring industry in and about the offices,
and the ordinary calm was reigning in the superior.parts of
the habitation. A solitary man was to be seen on its piazza.
It was young Mark Heathcote, who paced' the long and
narrow gallery, as if impatient of some interruption to his
wishes.
The uneasiness of the young man was of short continu-
ance ; for, ere he had been many minutes at his post a
door opened, and two light and timid forms glided out of
the house.
"Thou hast not come alone, Martha," said the youth,
half-displeased. "I told thee that the matter I had to say
was for thine own ear."
" It is our Ruth. Thou knowest, Mark, that she may
not be left alone, for we fear her return to the forest. She
is like some ill-tamed fawn, that would be apt to leap away
at the first well-known sound from the woods. Even now,
I fear that we are too much asunder."
" Fear nothing ; my sister fondles her infant, and she
thinketh not of flight ; thou seest I am here to intercept
her, were such her intention. No\v speak with candor,
Martha, and say if thou meanest in sincerity that the visits
of the Hartford gallant were less to thy liking than most
of thy friends have believed ? "
" What I have said cannot be recalled."
" Still it may be repented of."
" I do not number the dislike I may feel for the young
man among my failings. I am too happy here, in this
family, to wish to quit it. And now that our sister — there
is one speaking to her at this moment, Mark ' "
344 TIfR WKTT OF WISH-TON- //7.SY/.
*' 'Tis only the innocent," returned the young man, glanc-
ing his eye to the other end of the piazza. " They confer
often together. Whittal hath just come in from the woods,
where he is much inclined to pass an hour or two, each
evening. Thou wast saying that now we have our sistei
" I feel less desire to change my abode."
u Then why not stay with us forever, Martha ? "
" Hist !" interrupted his companion, who, though con-
scious of what she was about to listen to, shrank, with the
waywardness of human nature, from the very declaration
she most wished to hear, ''hist — there was a movement.
Ah ! Ruth and Whittal are fled ! "
"They seek some amusement for the babe — they are
near the out-buildings. Then why not accept a right to
remain forever —
" It may not be, Mark," cried the girl, wresting her hand
from his grasp ; " they are fled ! "
Mark reluctantly released his hold, and followed to the
spot where his sister had been sitting. She was, in truth,
gone ; though some minutes passed before even Martha
seriously believed that she had disappeared without an in-
tention of returning. The agitation of both rendered the
search ill-directed and uncertain, and there was perhaps a
secret satisfaction in prolonging their interview even in
this vague manner, that prevented them for some time from
giving the alarm. When that moment did come, it was
too late. The fields were examined, the orchards and out-
houses thoroughly searched, without any traces of the
fugitives. It would have been useless to enter the forest
in the darkness, and all that could- be done in reason, was
to set a watch during the night, and to prepare for a more
active and intelligent pursuit in the morning.
But, long before the sun arose, the small and melan-
choly party of the fugitives threaded the woods at such a
distance from the valley, as would have rendered the plan
of the family entirely nugatory. Conanchet had led the
way over a thousand forest knolls, across water-courses,
and through dark glens, followed by his silent partner, with
an industry that would have baffled the zeal of even those
from whom they fled. Whittal Ring, bearing the infant
on Ms back, trudged with unwearied step in the rear. Hours
]i34 passed' in this manner' and not a syllable had been ut-
tered T^y ejther ' pf the' three, pnce pr twice, they had
stopper} at sqtr,e spot wjiere water, limpid as the ajr, pushed
THE WF.PT OF u' isn-TO. \--\\' f sir. 345
irom the rocks ; and, drinking from the hollows of their
hands, the march had been resumed with the same speech-
less industry as before.
At length Conanchet paused. He studied the position
of the sun gravely, and took a long and anxious look at
the signs of the forest, in order that he might not be de-
ceived in its quarter. To an unpractised eye, the arches
of the trees, the leaf-covered earth, and the mouldering
logs, would have seemed everywhere the same. But it
was not easy to deceive one so trained in the woods. Sat-
isfied equally with the progress he had made, and with the
hour, the chief signed to his two companions to place
themselves at his side, and took a seat on a low shelf of
rock that thrust its naked head out of the side of a hill.
For many minutes after all were seated, no one broke
the silence. The eye of Narra-mattah sought the counte-
nance of her husband, as the eye of woman seeks instruc-
tion from the expression of features that she has been
taught to revere ; but still she spoke not. The innocent
laid the patient babe at the feet of its .mother, and imi-
tated her reserve.
"Is the air of the woods pleasant to the Honeysuckle,
after living in the wigwam of her people?" asked Co-
nanchet, breaking the long silence. " Can a flower, which
blossomed in the sun, like the shade ?"
" A woman of the Narragansetts is happiest in the lodge
of her husband."
' The eye of the chief met her confiding look with affec-
tion, and then it fell, mild and full of kindness, on the
features of the infant that lay at their feet. There was a
minute, during which an expression of bitter melancholy
gathered about his brow.
" The Spirit that made the earth," he continued, " is
very cunning. He has known where to put the hemlock,
and where the oak should grow. He has left the moose
and the deer to the Indian hunter, and he has given the
horse and the ox to a pale-face. Each tribe hath its hunt-
ing grounds and its game. The Narragansetts know the
taste of a clam, while the Mohawks eat the berries of the
mountains. Thou hast seen the bright bow which shines
in the skies, Narra-mattah. and knowest how one color is
mixed with another, like paint on a warrior's face. The
leaf of the hemlock is like the leaf of the sumach ; the
ash, the chestnut ; the chestnut, the linden ; and the lin-
den, the broad-leaved tree which bears the red frirt, in the
346 THE WEPT OF
clearing of the Yengeese ; but the tree of the red fruit is
little like the hemlock ! Conanchet is a tall and straight
hemlock, and the father of Narra-mattah is a tree of the
clearing, that bears the red fruit. The Great Spirit was
angry when they grew together."
The sensitive wife understood but too well the current
of the chiefs thoughts. Suppressing the pain she felt,
however, she answered with the readiness of a woman
whose imagination was quickened by her affections.
''What Conanchet hath said is true. But the Yengeese
have put the apple of their own land on the thorn of our
woods, and the fruit is good ! "
" It is like that boy," said the chief, pointing to his son ;
" neither red nor pale. No, Narra-mattah ; what the Great
Spirit hath commanded, even a sachem must do."
"And doth Conanchet say this fruit is riot good ?" asked
his wife, lifting the smiling boy with a mother's joy before
his eyes.
The heart of the warrior was touched. Bending his
head, he kissed the babe, with such fondness as parents
less stern are wont to exhibit. For a moment, he ap-
peared to have satisfaction in gazing at the promise of the
child. But, as he raised his head, his eye caught a glimpse
of the sun, and the whole expression of his countenance
changed. Motioning to his wife to replace the infant on
the earth, he turned to her with solemnity, and contin'
ued —
"Let the tongue of Narra-mattah speak without fear.
She hath been in the lodges of her father, and hath tasted
of their plenty. Is her heart glad ?"
The young wife paused. The question brought with it
a sudden recollection of all those reviving sensations, of
that tender solicitude, and of those soothing sympathies of
which she had so lately been .the subject. But these feel-
ings soon vanished ; for, without daring to lift her eyes to
meet the attentive and anxious gaze of the chief, she said
firmly, though with a voice that was subdued by diffi-
dence—
" Narra-mattah is a wife."
" Then will she listen to the words of her husband. Co-
nanchet is a chief no longer. He is a prisoner of the Mo-
hicans. Uncas waits for him in the woods ! "
Notwithstanding the recent declaration of the young
wife, she heard of this calamity with little of the calmness
of an Indian woman. At first it seemed as if her senses
THE If' 'EFT OF IVISH-TOX-W1SH. 347
refused to comprehend the meaning of the words. Won-
der, doubt, horror, and fearful certainty, each in its turn
prevailed ; for she was too well schooled in all the usages
and opinions of the people with whom she dwelt, not to
understand the jeopardy in which her husband was placed.
" The Sachem of the Narragansetts a prisoner of Mohi-
can Uncas ! " she repeated in a low tone, as if the sound
of her voice were necessary to dispel some horrible illusion.
" Xo ! Uncas is not a warrior to strike Conanchet ! "
" Hear my words," said the chief, touching the shoulder
of his wife, as one arouses a friend from his slumbers.
"There is a. pale-face in these woods who is a burrowing
fox. He hides his head from the Yengeese. When his
people were on the trail, barking like hungry wolves, this
man trusted to a sagamore. It was a swift chase, and my
father is getting very old. He went up a young hickory
like a bear, and Conanchet led off the lying tribe. ' But he
is not a moose. His legs cannot go like running water for-
ever ! "
" And why did the great Narragansett give his life for a
stranger ? "
"The man is a brave," returned the sachem, proudly;
" he took the scalp of a sagamore ! "
Again Narra-mattah was silent. She brooded in nearly
stupid amazement on the frightful truth.
" The Great Spirit sees that the man and his wife are of
different tribes," she at length ventured to rejoin. " He
wishes them to become the same people. Let Conanchet
quit the woods, and go into the clearings, with the mother
of his boy. Her white father will be glad, and Mohican
Uncas will not dare to follow."
" Woman, I am a sachem, and a warrior among my
people ! "
There was a severe and cold displeasure in the voice of
Conanchet that his companion had never before heard. He
spoke in the manner of a chief to his woman, rather than
with that manly softness with which he had been accus-
tomed to address the scion of the pale-faces. The words
came over her heart like a withering chill, and affliction
kept her mute. The chief himself sat a moment longer
in a stern calmness, and then rising in displeasure he point-
ed to the sun, and beckoned to his companions to proceed.
In a time that appeared to the throbbing heart of her who
followed his swift footsteps but a moment, they had turned
a little eminence, and in another minute they stood in the
348 THE WEPT OF WISH-TOX-WISH.
presence of n party that evidently awaited their coming.
This grave group consisted only of Uncas, two of his
fiercest-looking and most athletic warriors, the divine, and
Eben Dudley.
Advancing rapidly to the spot where his enemy stood,
Conanchet took his post at the foot of the fatal tree. Point-
ing to the shadow, which had not yet turned toward the
east, he folded his arms on his naked bosom, and assumed
an air of haughty unconcern. These movements were
made in the midst of a profound stillness.
Disappointment, umvilling admiration, and distrust, all
struggled through the mask of practised composure, in the
dark countenance of Uncas. He regarded his long-hated
and terrible foe with an eye that seemed willing to detect
some lurking signs of weakness. It would not have been
easy to say whether he most felt respect or regret at the
faith of the Narragansett. Accompanied by his two grim
warriors, the chief examined the position of the shadow
with critical minuteness, and when there no longer existed
a pretext for affecting to doubt the punctuality of their
captive, a deep ejaculation of assent issued from the chest
of each. Like some wary judge, whose justice is fettered
by legal precedents, as if satisfied there was no flaw in the
proceedings, the Mohican then signed to the white men to
draw near.
" Man of a wild and unreclaimed nature ! " commenced
Meek Wolfe, in his usual admonitory and ascetic tones,
"the hour of thy existence draws to its end ! Judgment
hath had rule ; thou hast been weighed in the balances
and art found wanting. But Christian charity is never
weary. We may not resist the ordinances of Providence,
but we may temper the blow to the offender. That thou
art here to die is a mandate decreed in equity, and ren-
dered awful by mystery ; but further, submission to the
will of Heaven doth not exact. Heathen, thou hast a soul,
and it is about to leave its earthly tenement for the un*
known world "
Until now, the captive had listened with the courtesy
of a savage when unexcited. He had even gazed at the
quiet enthusiasm and singularly contradictory passions
that shone in the deep lines of the speaker's face, with'
some such reverence as he might have manifested at -n
exhibition of one of the pretended revelations of a pro})) ct
of his tribe. But when the divine came to touch up >n
his condition alter death, his mind received a clear, a .d
THE IVKPT OF WISH-TO. \-WISIL 349
to him an unerring clew to the truth. Laying a finger
suddenly on the shoulder of Meek, he interrupted him by
saying—
"• My father forgets that the skin of his son is red. The
path to the happy hunting grounds of just Indians lies be-
fore him."
" Heathen, in thy words hatli»the Master Spirit of Delu-
sion and Sin uttered his blasphemies ! "
" Hist ! Did my father see that which stirred the bush ? ''
" It was the viewless wind, idolatrous and idle-minded
infant in the form of adult man ! "
" And yet my father speaks to it," returned the Indian,
with the grave but cutting sarcasm of his people. " See,"
he added, haughtily, and even with ferocity, " the shadow
hath passed the root of the tree. Let the cunning man of
the pale-faces stand aside ; a sachem is ready to die ! "
Meek groaned audibly and in real sorrow ; for, notwith-
standing the veil which exalted theories and doctrinal subt-
leties had drawn before his judgment, the charities of the
man were grounded in truth. Bowing to what he believed
to be a mysterious dispensation of the will of Heaven, he
withdrew to a short distance, and kneeling on a rock, his
voice was heard during the remainder of the ceremonies,
lifting its tones in fervent prayer for the soul of the con-
demned.
The divine had no sooner quitted the place, than Uncas
motioned to Dudley to approach. Though the nature of
the borderer was essentially honest and kind, he was in
opinion and prejudices but a creature of the times. If he
had assented to the j-udgment which committed the captive
to the mercy of his implacable enemies, he had the merit
of having suggested the expedient that was to protect the
sufferer from those refinements in cruelty which the sav-
ages were known to be too ready to inflict. He had even
volunteered to be one of the agents to enforce his own ex-
pedient, though in so doing he had committed no little
violence to his natural inclinations. The reader will there-
fore judge of his conduct in this particular, with the degree
of lenity that a right consideration of the condition of the
country and of the usages of the age may require. There
was even a relenting and a yielding of purpose in the coun-
tenance of this witness of the scene, that was favorable to
the safety of the captive, as he now spoke. His address
was first to Uncas.
"A happy fortune, Mohican, something aided by the
350 THE H'EPT OF U'lSU-TOX-ll'ISfL
power of the white men, hath put this Narragansett into
thy hands," he said. " It is certain that the Commission-
ers of the Colony have consented that thou shouldst exer-
cise thy will on his life ; but there is a voice in the breast
of every human being, which should be stronger than the
voice of revenge, and that is the voice of mercy. It is not
yet too late to hearken to it. Take the promise of the
Narragansett for his faith — take more : take a hostage in
.this child, which with its mother shall be guarded among
the English, and let the prisoner go."
45 My brother asketh with a big mind ! " said Uncas, dryly.
" I know not how nor why it is I ask with this earnest-
ness," resumed Dudley, "but there are old recollections
and former kindnesses, in the face and manner of this In-
dian ! And here, too, is one, in the woman that I know is
tied to some of our settlements, with a bond nearer than
that of common chanty. Mohican, I will add a goodly
gift of powder and of muskets, if thou wilt listen to mercy,
and take the faith of the Narragansett."
Uncas pointed with ironical coldness to his captive, as he
said —
" Let Conanchet speak ! "
"Thou .nearest, Narragansett. If the man I begin to
suspect thee to be, thou knowest something of the usages
of the whites. Speak ! Wilt swear to keep peace with the
Mohicans, and to bury the hatchet in the path between
your villages ? "
" The fire that burnt the lodges of my people turned the
heart of Conanchet to stone," was the steady answer.
" Then can I do no more than see the treaty respected,"
returned Dudley, in disappointment. "Thou hast thy
nature, and it will have way. The Lord have mercy on
fhee, Indian, and render thee such judgment as is meet for
one of savage opportunities."
He made a gesture to Uncas that he had done, and fell
back a few paces from the tree, his honest features express-
ing all his concern, while his eye did not refuse to do its
duty by closely watching each movement of the adverse
parties. At the same instant the grim attendants of the
Mohican chief, in obedience to a sign, took their stations
on each side of the captive. They evidently waited for
the last and fatal signal, to complete their unrelenting pur-
pose. At this grave moment there was a pause, as if each
of the principal actors pondered serious matter in his in<
most mind.
THE II EPT OF IVISH-TON-WISH. 351
"The Narragansett hatli not spoken to his woman," said
Uncas, secretly hoping that his enemy might yet betray
some unmanly weakness in a moment of so severe trial.
" She is near."
"I said my heart was stone," coldly returned the Narra-
gansett.
" See ! the girl creepeth like a frightened fowl among
the leaves. If my brother Conanchet will look, he will
see his beloved."
The countenance of Conanchet grew dark, but it did not
waver.
"We will go among the bushes, if "the sachem is afraid
to speak to his woman with the eyes of a Mohican on him.
A warrior is not a curious girl, that he wishes to see the
sorrow of a chief ! "
Conanchet felt hurriedly for some weapon that might
strike his enemy to the earth, and then a low murmuring
sound at his elbow stole so softly on his ear, as suddenly
to divert the tempest of passion.
" Will not a sachem look at his boy?" demanded the
suppliant. "It is the son of a great warrior. Why is the
face of his father so dark on him ? "
Narra-mattah had drawn near enough to her -husband to
be within reach of his hand. With extended arms she
held the pledge of their former happiness toward the
chief, as if to beseech a last and kindly look of recognition
and love.
" Will not the great Narragansett look at his boy ?" she
repeated, in a voice that sounded like the lowest notes of
some touching melody.' "Why is' his face so dark on. a
woman of his tribe ? "
Even the stern features of the Mohican sagamore
showed that he was touched. Beckoning to his grim at-
tendants to move behind the tree, he turned and walked
aside with the noble air of a savage, when influenced by
his better feelings. Then light shot into the clouded coun-
tenance of Conanchet. His eyes sought the face of his
stricken and grieved consort, who mourned less for his
danger than she grieved for his displeasure. He received
the boy from her hands, and studied his features long and
intently. Beckoning to Dudley, who alone gazed on the
scene, he placed the infant in his arms.
" See!" he said, pointing to the child. " It is a blossoMu
of the clearings. It will not live in the shade."
He then fastened a look on his trembling partner. There
352 7 'HE WEPT OF WISH- TON- WISH.
was a husband's love in the gaze. " Flower of the open
land ! " he said ; " the Manitou of thy race will place thee
in the fields of thy fathers. The sun will shine upon
thee, and the winds from beyond the salt lake will
blow the clouds into the woods. A just and great chief
cannot shut his ear to the Good Spirit of his people. Mine
calls his son to hunt among the braves that have gone on
the long path. Thine points another way. Go, hear His
voice and obey. Let thy mind be like a wide clearing.
Let all its shadows be next the woods; let it forget the
dream it dreamt among the trees. 'Tis the will of the
Manitou."
" Conanchet asketh much of his wife. Her soul is only
the soul of a woman !"
" A woman of the pale-faces ; now let her seek her tribe.
Narra-mattah, thy people speak strange traditions. They
say that one just man died for ail colors. I know not.
Conanchet is a child among the cunning, and a man with
the warriors. If this be true, he will look for his woman
and boy in the happy hunting grounds, and they will come
to him. There is no hunter of the Yengeese that can kill
so many deer. Let Narra-mattah forget her chief till that
time, and then, when she calls him by name, let her speak
strong ; for he will be very glad to hear her voice again.
Go ! A sagamore is about to start on a long journey. He
takes leave of his wife with a heavy spirit. She will put a
little flower of two colors before her eyes, and be happy in
its growth. Now let her go. A sagamore is about to die."
The attentive woman caught each slow and measured
syllable, as one trained hi superstitious legends would lis-
ten to the words of an oracle. But, accustomed to obedi-
ence and bewildered with her grief, she hesitated no longer.
The head of Narra-mattah sank on her bosom as she left
him, and her face was buried in her robe. The step with
which she passed Uncas was so light as to be inaudible ;
but when he saw her tottering form, turning swiftly, he
stretched an arm high in the air. The terrible mutes just
showed themselves from behind the tree, and vanished.
Conanchet started, and it seemed as if he were about to
plunge forward ; but, recovering himself by a desperate
effort, his body sank back against the tree, and he fell in
the attitude of a chief seated in council. There was a
smile of fierce triumph on his face, and his lips evidently
moved. Uncas did not breathe as he bent forward to
listen : —
THE WEPT OF U'lSlI-TOX-U'ISH. 353
" Mohican, I die before my heart is soft ! " uttered firmly,
but with a struggle, reached his ears. Then came two long
and heavy, respirations. One was the returning breath of
Uncas, and the other the dying sigh of the last sachem of
the broken and dispersed tribe of the Narragansetts.
• CHAPTER XXXII.
" Each lonely scene shall thee restore ;
For thee the tear be duly shed ;
Beloved till life could charm no more,
And mourned till pity's self be dead." — COLLINS.
AN hour later and the principal actors in the foregoing
scene had disappeared. There remained only the widowed
Narra-mattah, with Dudley, the divine, and Whittal Ring.
The body of Ccnanchet still continued, where he had
died, seated like a chief in council. The daughter of Con-
tent and Ruth had stolen to its side, and she had taken her
seat, in that species of dull woe, which so frequently attends
the first moments of any unexpected and overwhelming
affliction. She neither spoke, sobbed, nor sorrowed in any
way that grief is wont to affect the human system. , The
mind seemed palsied, though a withering sense of the blow
was fearfully engraven on every lineament of her eloquent
face. The color deserted her cheeks, the lips were blood-
less, while at moments they quivered convulsively, like
the tremulous movement of the sleeping infant ; and at
long intervals her bosom heaved, as if the spirit within
struggled heavily to escape from its earthly prison. The
child lay unheeded at heir side, and Whittal Ring had
placed himself on the opposite side of the corpse.
The two agents appointed by the Colony to witness the
death of Conanchet stood near, gazing mournfully on tin;
piteous spectacle. The instant the spirit of the condemned
man fled, the prayers of the divine had ceased, for he
believed that then the soul had gone to judgment. But
there was more of human charity and less of that exagger-
ated severity in his aspect, than was ordinarily seated in
the deep lines of his austere countenance. Now that the
deed was done, and the excitement of his exalted theories
had given way to the more positive appearance of the
result, he might even have moments of harassing doubts
23
354 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON- WISH.
concerning the lawfulness of an act that he had hitherto
veiled under the forms of a legal and necessary execution
of justice. The mind of Eben Dudley vacillated with none
of the subtleties of doctrine or of law. As there had been
less exaggeration in his original views of the necessity of
the proceeding, so was there more steadiness in his con-
templation of its fulfilment. .Feelings, they might be
termed emotions, of a different nature troubled the breast
of this resolute but justly disposed borderer.
" This hath been a melancholy visitation of necessity, and
a severe manifestation of the fore-ordering will," said the
ensign, as he gazed at the sad spectacle before him.
" Father and son have both died, as it were, in my pres-
ence, and both have departed for the world of spirits in a
manner to prove the inscrutableness of Providence. But
dost not see, here, in the face of her who looketh like a
form of stone, traces of a countenance that is familiar ?"
"Thou hast allusion to the consort of Captain Content
Heathcote ? "
" Truly, to her only. Thou art not, reverend sir, of suffi-
cient residence at the Wish-Ton-Wish, to remember that
lady in her youthfulness. But to me, the hour when the
captain led his followers into the wilderness seemeth but
as a morning of the past season. I was then active in limb,
and something idle in reflection and discourse ; it was in
that journey that the woman who is now the mother of my
children and I first made acquaintance. I have seen many
comely females in my time, but never did I look on one so
pleasant to the eye, as was the consort of the captain until
the night of the burning. Thou hast often heard the loss
she then met, and from that hour her beauty hath been
that of the October leaf, rather than its loveliness in the
season of fertility. Now look on the face of this mourner,
and say if there be not here such an image as the water
reflects from the overhanging bush. In verity, I could be-
lieve it was the sorrowing eye and the bereaved look of the
mother herself ! "
" Grief hath struck its blow heavily on this unoffending
victim," uttered Meek, with great and subdued softness in
his manner. " The voice of petition must be raised in her
behalf, or "
" Hist ! — there are some in the forest ; I hear the rust
ling of leaves ! "
" The voice of Him who made the earth whispereth in
the winds ; his breath is the movement of nature ! "
THR H7EPT OF W 7 'SH-T 'ON- WISH. 355
:< Here arc living men ! — But, happily, the meeting is
friendly, and there will be no further occasion for strife.
The heart of a father is sure as ready eye and swift foot."
Dudley suffered his musket to fall at his side, and both
he and his companion stood in attitudes of decent com-
posure to await the arrival of those who approached. The
party that drew near arrived on the side of the tree oppo-
site to that on which the death of Conanchet had occurred.
The enormous trunk and swelling roots of the pine con-
cealed the group at its feet, but the persons of Meek and
the ensign were soon observed. The instant they were
discovered, he who led the new-comers bent his footsteps
in that direction.
" If, as thou hast supposed, the Narragansett hath again
led her thou hast so long mourned into the forest," said
Submission, who acted as guide to those who followed,
" here are we at no great distance from the place of his re-
sort. It was near yon rock that he gave the meeting with
the bloody-minded Philip, and the place where I received
the boon of a useless and much-afflicted life from his care
is within the bosom of that thicket which borders the brook.
This minister of the Lord, and our stout friend the ensign,
may have further matter to tell us of his movements."
The speaker had stopped within a short distance of the
two he named, but still on the side of the tree opposite to
that where the body lay. He had addressed his words to
Content, who also halted to await the. arrival of Ruth, who
came in the rear supported by her son, and attended by
Faith and the physician, all equipped like persons en-
gaged in a search through the forest. A mother's heart
had sustained the feeble woman for many a weary mile,
but her steps had begun to drag shortly before they so
happily fell upon the signs of human beings near the spot
where they now met the two agents of the Colony.
Notwithstanding the deep interest which belonged to the
respective pursuits of the individuals who composed these
two parties, the interview was opened with no lively signs
of feeling on either side. To them a journey in the for-
est possessed no novelties, and after traversing its mazes
for a day the newly arrived encountered their friends as
men meet on more beaten tracks in countries where roads
unavoidably lead them to cross each other's paths. Even
•the appearance of Submission in front of the travellers
elicited no marks of surprise in the unmoved features of
those who witnessed his approach. Indeed, the mutual
356 THE WEPT OF WTSH-TON-WIS&.
composure of one who had so long concealed his person,
and of those who had more than once seen him in strik-
ing and mysterious situations, might well justify a beliei
that the secret of his presence near the valley had not
been confined to the family of the Heathcotes. This fact
is rendered still more probable by the recollection of the
honesty of Dudley, and of the professional characters of
the two others.
" We are on the trail of one fled, as the truant fawn
seeketh again the covers of the woods," said Content.
" Our hunt was uncertain, and it might have been vain,
so many feet have lately crossed the forest, were it not
that Providence hath cast our route on that of our friend
here, who hath had reason to know the probable situation
of the Indian camp. Hast seen aught of die Sachem of
the Narragansetts, Dudley ? and where are those thou
led'st against the subtle Philip ? That thou fell upon his
party we have heard ; though further than thy general
success we have yet to learn. The Wampanoag escaped
thee?"
" The wicked agencies that back him in his designs
profited the savage in his extremity. Else would his late
have been that which I fear a far worthier spirit hath been
doomed to suffer."
" Of whom dost speak ? — but it mattereth not. We seek
our child ; she whom thou hast known, and whom thou
hast so lately seen, hath again left us. We seek her in the
camp of him who hath been to her — Dudley, hast seen
aught of the Narragansett sachem ?"
The ensign looked at Ruth as he had once before been
seen to gaze on the sorrowing features of the woman ;
but lie spoke not. Meek folded his arms on his breast,
and seemed to pray inwardly. There, was, however, one
who broke the silence, though his tones were low and
menacing.
" It was a bloody deed !" muttered the innocent. " The
iying Mohican bath struck a great chief from behind.
I^et him dig the prints of hismoccason from the earth, with
Lis nails, like a burrowing fox ; for there'll be one on his
trail before he can hide his head. Xipset will be a warrior
tsic next snow ! "
"There speaks my witless brother!" exclaimed Faith,
rushing ahead — she recoiled, covered her face with her
hands, and sank upon the ground, under the violence of
the surprise that followed.
THE IVEPT OF WISH-TO^- WISH. 357
Though time moved with his ordinary pace, it appeared
to those who witnessed the scene which succeeded, as if
the emotions of many days were collected within the
brief compass of a few minutes. We shall not dwell on
the first harrowing and exciting moments of the appalling
discovery.
A short half-hour served to make each .person acquainted
with all that it was necessary to know. We shall therefore
transfer the narrative to the end of that period.
The body of Conanchet still rested against the tree. The
eyes were open, and though glazed in death, there still
remained about the brow, the compressed lips, and the ex-
pansive nostrils, much of that lofty firmness which had
sustained him in the last trial of life. The arms were pas-
sive at its sides, but one hand was clenched in the manner
with which it had so often grasped the tomahawk, while
the other had lost its power in a vain effort to seek the
place in the girdle where the keen knife should have been.
These two movements had probably been involuntary, for,
in all other respects, the form was expressive of dignity
and repose. At its side, the imaginary Nipset still held
his place, menacing discontent betraying itself through the
ordinary dull fatuity of his countenance.
The others present were collected around the mother
and her stricken child. It would seem that all other feel-
ings were, for the moment, absorbed in apprehensions for
the latter. There was much reason to dread that the re-
cent shock had suddenly deranged some of that fearful
machinery which links the soul to the body. This effect,
however, was more to be apprehended by a general apathy
and failing of the system, than by any violent and intel-
ligible symptom.
The pulses still vibrated, but it was heavily, and like the
irregular and faltering evolutions of the mill, which the
dying breeze is ceasing to fan. The pallid countenance
was fixed in its expression of anguish. Color there was
none, even the lips resembling the unnatural character
vvhicii is given by images of wax. Her limbs, like her feat-
ures, were immovable ; and yet there was, at moments, a
vvorking of the latter, which would seem to imply not only
consciousness, but vivid and painful recollections of the
realities of her situation.
" This surpasseth my art," said Doctor Ergot, raising
himself from a long and silent examination of the pulse;
" there is a mystery in the construction of the body, which
358 THE IVEPT OF WJSff -TON- WISH.
human knowledge hath not yet unveiled. The currents of
existence are sometimes frozen in an incomprehensible
manner, and this I conceive to be a case that would con-
found the most learned of our art, even in the oldest
countries of the earth. It hath been my fortune to sec
many arrive but few depart from this busy world, and yet
do I presume to foretell that here is one destined to quit
its limits ere the natural number of her days has been
filled ! "
"Let us address ourselves, in behalf of that which shall
never die, to Him who hath ordered the event from the
commencement of time," said Meek, motioning to those
around him to join in prayer.
The divine then lifted up his voice, under the arches of
the forest, in an ardent, pious, and eloquent petition. When
this solemn duty was performed, attention was again be-
stowed on the sufferer. To the surprise of all, it was found
that the blood had revisited her face, and that her radiant
eyes were lighted with an expression of brightness and
peace. She even motioned to be raised, in order that those
near her person might be better seen.
" Dost know us ? " asked the trembling Ruth. " Look
on thy friends, long-mourned and much-suffering daugh-
ter ? 'Tis she who sorrowed over thy infant afflictions,
who rejoiced in thy childish happiness, and who hath so
bitterly wept thy loss, that craveth the boon. In this aw-
ful moment, recall the lessons of youth. Surely, surely,
the God that bestowed thee in mercy, though he hath led
thee on a wonderful and inscrutable path, will not desert
thee at the end ! Think of thy early instruction, child of
my love ; feeble of spirit as thou art, the seed may yet
quicken, though it hath been cast where the glory of the
promise hath so long been hid."
" Mother ! " said a low struggling voice in reply. The
word reached every ear, and it caused a general and
breathless attention. The sound was soft and low, per-
haps infantile, but it was uttered without accent, and clearlv.
"Mother — why are we in the forest ?" continued the
speaker. "Have any robbed us of our home, that we dwell
beneath the trees?"
Ruth raised a hand imploringly, for none to interrupt
the illusion.
" Nature hath revived the recollections of her youth,'
she whispered. " Let the spirit depart, if such be His holy
will, in the blessedness of infant innocence !"
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON- WISH. 355
"Why do Mark and Martha stay ?" continued the other.
"It is not safe, thou knowest, mother, to wander far in
the woods ; the heathen may be out of their towns, and one
cannot say what evil chance might happen to the indis-
creet."
A groan struggled from the chest of Content, and the
muscular hand of Dudley compressed itself on the shoulder
of his wife, until the breathlessly attentive woman with-
drew, unconsciously, with pain.
" I've said as much to Mark, for he doth not always re-
member thy warnings, mother ; and those children do so
love to wander together! — but Mark is, in common, good; do
not chide if he stray too far, mother — thou wilt not chide ! "
The youth turned his head, for even at that moment
the pride of young manhood prompted him to conceal his
weakness.
"Hast prayed to-day, my daughter?" said Ruth, strug-
gling to be composed. "Thou shouldst not forget thy
duty to His blessed name, even though we are houseless in
the woods."
" I will pray now, mother," said the creature of this mys-
terious hallucination, struggling to bow her face into the
lap of Ruth. Her wish was indulged, and for a minute,
the same low childish voice was heard distinctly repeating
the words of a prayer adapted to the earliest period of life.
Feeble as were the sounds, none of their intonations es-
caped the listeners, until near the close, when a species of
holy calm seemed to absorb the utterance. Ruth raised
the form of her child, and saw that the features bore the
placid look of a sleeping infant. Life played upon them,
as the flickering light lingers on the dying torch. Her
dove-like eyes looked up into the face of Ruth, and the
anguish of the mother was alleviated by a smile of intelli-
gence and love. The full and sweet organs next rolled
from face to face, recognition and pleasure accompany^
ing each change. On Whittal they became perplexed and
doubtful, but when they met the fixed, frowning, and still
commanding eye of the dead chief, their wandering ceased
forever. There was a minute, during which fear, doubt,
wildness, and early recollections, struggled for the mastery.
The hands of Narra-mattah trembled, and she clung con-
vulsively to the robe of Ruth.
" Mother ! mother ! " whispered the agitated victim of so
many conflicting emotions, " I will pray again — an evil
Spirit besets me."-
3fx> Tin-: IVKPT OF
Ruth felt the force of her grasp, and heard the breath-
ing of a few words of petition ; after which the voice was
mute, and the hands relaxed their hold. When the face
of the nearly insensible parent was withdrawn, to the
others the dead appeared to gaze at each other with a
mysterious and unearthly intelligence. The look of the
Narragansett was still, as in his hour of pride, haughty,
unyielding, and filled with defiance ; while that of the
creature who had so long lived in his kindness was per-
plexed, timid, but not without a character of hope. A
solemn calm succeeded, and when Meek raised his voice
again in the forest, it was to ask the Omnipotent Ruler
of Heaven and Earth to sanctify his dispensation to those
who survived.
The changes which have been wrought on this continent
within a century and a half, are very wonderful. Cities have
appeared where the wilderness then covered the ground,
and there is good reason to believe that a flourishing town
now stands on or near the spot where Conanchet met his
death. But, notwithstanding so much activity lias pre-
vailed in the country, the valley of this legend remains
but little altered. The hamlet has increased to a village ;
the farms possess more of the air of cultivation ; the
-dwellings are enlarged, and are somewhat more commodi-
ous ; the churches are increased to three ; the garrisoned
houses, and all other signs of apprehension from violence,
have long since disappeared ; but still the place is seclud-
ed, little known, and strongly impressed with the marks
of its original sylvan character.
A descendant of Mark and Martha is, at this hour, the
proprietor of the estate on which so many of the moving
incidents of our simple tale were enacted. Even the build-
ing, which was the second habitation of his ancestors, is in
part standing, though additions and improvements have
greatly changed its form. The orchards, which in 1675,
were young and thrifty, are now old and decaying. The
trees have yielded their character for excellence, to those
varieties of the fruit which the soil and the climate have
since made known to the inhabitants. Still they stand, for
it is known that fearful scenes occurred beneath their
shades, and there is a deep moral interest attached to their
existence.
The ruins of the block-house, though much dilapidated
and crumbling, are also visible. At their foot is the last
abode of all the Heathcotes who have lived and died in
THE WEPT OF WISH-TON-WISH. 361
that vicinity, for near two centuries. The graves of those
of later times are known by tablets of marble ; but nearer
to the ruin are many, whose monuments, half-concealed in
the grass, are cut in the common coarse freestone of the
country.
One, who took an interest in the recollection of days
long gone, had occasion a few years since to visit the spot.
It was easy to trace the births and deaths of generations,
by the visible records on the more pretending monuments
of those interred within a hundred years. Beyond that
period research became difficult and painful. But his zeal
was not to be easily defeated.
To every little mound, one only excepted, there was a
stone, and on each stone, illegible as it might be, there
was an inscription. The undistinguished grave, it was pre-
sumed, by its size and its position, was that which con-
tained the bones of those who fell in the night of the
burning. There was another, which bore, in deep letters,
the name of the Puritan. His death occurred in 1680. At
its side there was an humble stone, on which, with great
difficulty, was traced the single word "Submission." It
was impossible to ascertain whether the _date was 1680,
or 1690. The same mystery remained about the death of
this man as had clouded so much of his life. His real
name, parentage, or character, further than they have been
revealed in these pages, was never traced. There still re-
mains, however, in the family of the Heathcotes, an order-
ly-book of a troop of horse, which tradition says had some
connection with his fortunes. Affixed to this defaced and
imperfect document, is a fragment of some diary or jour-
nal, which has reference to the condemnation of Charles I.
to the scaffold.
The body of Content lay near his infant children, and it
would seem that he still lived in the first quarter of the
last century. There was an aged man, lately in existence,
who remembers to have seen him, a white-headed patri-
arch, reverend by his years, and respected for his meek-
ness and justice. He had passed nearly or quite half-a-
century unmarried. This melancholy fact was sufficiently
shown by the date on the stone of the nearest mound.
The inscription denoted it to be the grave of "Ruth,
daughter of George Harding of the Colony of Massachu-
setts Bay, and wife of Captain Content Heathcote." She
died in the autumn of 1675, with, as the stone reveals,
" a spirit broken for the purposes of earth, by much family
362 THE WEPT OF WISH-TON- WISH.
affliction, though with hopes justified by the covenant, and
her faith in the Lord."
The divine, who lately officiated, if he do not now offici-
ate, in the principal church of the village, is called the Rev-
erend Meek Lamb. Though claiming a descent from him
who ministered in the temple at the period of our tale,
time and intermarriages have produced this change in the
name, and happily some others in doctrinal interpretations
of duty. When this worthy servant of the Church found
the object which had led one born in another state, and
claiming descent frorn a line of religionists who had left
the common country of their ancestors to worship in still
another manner, to take an interest in the fortunes of those
who first inhabited the valley, he found a pleasure in aid-
ing the inquiries. The abodes of the Dudleys and Rings
were numerous in the village and its environs. He showed
a stone, surrounded by many others that bore these names,
on which was rudely carved, " I am Nipset, a Narragansett ;
the next snow, I shall be a warrior ! " There is a rumor,
that though the hapless brother of Faith gradually re-
turned to the ways of civilized life, he had frequent
glimpses of those seducing pleasures which he had once
enjoyed in the freedom of the woods.
Whilst wandering through these melancholy remains of
former scenes, a question was put to the divine concerning
the place where Conanchet was interred. He readily of-
fered to show it. The grave was on the hill, and distin-
guished only by a headstone that the grass had concealed
from former search. It merely bore the words — " The Nar-
ragansett."
" And this at its side ?" asked the inquirer. " Here is
one also, before unnoted."
The divine bent in the grass, and scraped the moss from
the humble monument. He then pointed to a line, carved
with more than usual care. The inscription simply said—
"Tns WEPT OF Wisn-ToN-WisH.'
NRLF
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