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WACOUSTA;
or,
THE PROPHECY.
Volume One of Three
Preface
It is well known to every man conversant with the earlier
history of this country that, shortly subsequent to the
cession of the Canadas to England by France, Ponteac,
the great head of the Indian race of that period, had
formed a federation of the various tribes, threatening
extermin ation to the British posts established along
the Western frontier. These were nine in number, and the
following stratagem was resorted to by the artful chief
to effect their reduction. Investing one fort with his
warriors, so as to cut off all communication with the
others, and to leave no hope of succor, his practice was
to offer terms of surrender, which never were kept in
the honorable spirit in which the far more noble and
generous Tecumseh always acted with his enemies, and
thus, in turn, seven of these outposts fell victims to
their confidence in his truth.
Detroit and Michilimaclcinac, or Mackinaw as it is now
called, remained, and all the ingenuity of the chieftain
was directed to the possession of these strongholds. The
following plan, well worthy of his invention, was at
length determined upon. During a temporary truce, and
while Ponteac was holding forth proposals for an ultimate
and durable peace, a game of lacrosse was arranged by
him to take place simultaneously on the common or clearing
on which rested the forts of Michilimackinac and Detroit.
The better to accomplish their object, the guns of the
warriors had been cut short and given to their women,
who were instructed to conceal them under their blankets,
and during the game, and seemingly without design, to
approach the drawbridge of the fort. This precaution
taken, the players were to approach and throw over their
ball, permission to regain which they presumed would not
be denied. On approaching the drawbridge they were with
fierce yells to make a general rush, and, securing the
arms concealed by the women, to massacre the unprepared
garrison.
The day was fixed; the game commenced, and was proceeded
with in the manner previously arranged. The ball was
dexterously hurled into the fort, and permission asked
to recover it. It was granted. The drawbridge was lowered,
and the Indians dashed forward for the accomplishment of
their work of blood. How different the results in the
two garrisons! At Detroit, Ponteac and his warriors had
scarcely crossed the drawbridge when, to their astonishment
and disappointment, they beheld the guns of the ramparts
depressed--the artillerymen with lighted matches at their
posts and covering the little garrison, composed of a
few companies of the 42nd Highlanders, who were also
under arms, and so distributed as to take the enemy most
at an advantage. Suddenly they withdrew and without other
indication of their purpose than what had been expressed
in their manner, and carried off the missing ball. Their
design had been discovered and made known by means of
significant warnings to the Governor by an Indian woman
who owed a debt of gratitude to his family, and was
resolved, at all hazards, to save them.
On the same day the same artifice was resorted to at
Michilimackinac, and with the most complete success.
There was no guardian angel there to warn them of danger,
and all fell beneath the rifle, the tomahawk, the war-club,
and the knife, one or two of the traders--a Mr. Henry
among the rest--alone excepted.
It was not long after this event when the head of the
military authorities in the Colony, apprised of the fate
of these captured posts, and made acquainted with the
perilous condition of Fort Detroit, which was then reduced
to the last extremity, sought an officer who would
volunteer the charge of supplies from Albany to Buffalo,
and thence across the lake to Detroit, which, if possible,
he was to relieve. That volunteer was promptly found in
my maternal grandfather, Mr. Erskine, from Strabane, in
the North of Ireland, then an officer in the Commissariat
Department. The difficulty of the undertaking will be
obvious to those who understand the danger attending a
journey through the Western wilderness, beset as it was
by the warriors of Ponteac, ever on the lookout to prevent
succor to the garrison, and yet the duty was successfully
accomplished. He left Albany with provisions and ammunition
sufficient to fill several Schnectady boats--I think
seven--and yet conducted his charge with such prudence
and foresight, that notwithstanding the vigilance of
Ponteac, he finally and after long watching succeeded,
under cover of a dark and stormy night, in throwing into
the fort. the supplies of which the remnant of the gallant
"Black Watch," as the 42nd was originally named, and a
company of whom, while out reconnoitering, had been
massacred at a spot in the vicinity of the town, thereafter
called the Bloody Run, stood so greatly in need. This
important service rendered, Mr. Erskine, in compliance
with the instructions he had received, returned to Albany,
where he reported the success of the expedition.
The colonial authorities were not regardless of his
interests. When the Ponteac confederacy had been dissolved,
and quiet and security restored in that remote region,
large tracts of land were granted to Mr. Erskine, and
other privileges accorded which eventually gave him the
command of nearly a hundred thousand dollars--enormous
sum to have been realized at that early period of the
country. But it was not destined that he should retain
this. The great bulk of his capital was expended on almost
the first commercial shipping that ever skimmed the
surface of Lakes Huron and Erie. Shortly prior to the
Revolution, he was possessed of seven vessels of different
tonnage, and the trade in which he had embarked, and of
which he was the head, was rapidly increasing his already
large fortune, when one of those autumnal hurricanes,
which even to this day continue to desolate the waters
of the treacherous lake last named, suddenly arose and
buried beneath its engulfing waves not less than six of
these schooners laden with such riches, chiefly furs, of
the West as then were most an object of barter.
Mr. Erskine, who had married the daughter of one of the
earliest settlers from France, and of a family well known
in history, a lady who had been in Detroit during the
siege of the British garrison by Ponteac, now abandoned
speculation, and contenting himself with the remnant of
his fortune, established himself near the banks of the
river, within a short distance of the Bloody Run. Here
he continued throughout the Revolution. Early, however,
in the present century, he quitted Detroit and repaired
to the Canadian shore, where on a property nearly opposite,
which he obtained in exchange, and which in honor of his
native country he named Strabane--known as such to this
day--he passed the autumn of his days. The last time I
beheld him was a day or two subsequent to the affair of
the Thames, when General Harrison and Colonel Johnson
were temporary inmates of his dwelling.
My father, of a younger branch of the Annandale family,
the head of which was attainted in the Scottish rebellion
of 1745, was an officer of Simcoe's well-known Rangers,
in which regiment, and about the same period, the present
Lord Hardinge commenced his services in this country.
Being quartered at Fort Erie, he met and married at the
house of one of the earliest Canadian merchants a daughter
of Mr. Erskine, then on a visit to her sister, and by
her had eight children, of whom I am the oldest and only
survivor. Having a few years after his marriage been
ordered to St. Joseph's, near Michilimackinac, my father
thought it expedient to leave me with Mr. Erskine at
Detroit, where I received the first rudiments of my
education. But here I did not remain long, for it was
during the period of the stay of the detachment of Simcoe's
Rangers at St. Joseph that Mr. Erskine repaired with his
family to the Canadian shore, where on the more elevated
and conspicuous part of his grounds which are situated
nearly opposite the foot of Hog Island, so repeatedly
alluded to in "Wacousta," he had caused a flag-staff to
be erected, from which each Sabbath day proudly floated
the colors under which he had served, and which he never
could bring himself to disown.
It was at Strabane that the old lady, with whom I was a
great favorite, used to enchain my young interest by
detailing various facts connected with the seige she so
well remembered, and infused into me a longing to grow
up to manhood that I might write a book about it. The
details of the Ponteac plan for the capture of the two
forts were what she most enlarged upon, and although a
long lapse of years of absence from the scene, and ten
thousand incidents of a higher and more immediate importance
might have been supposed to weaken the recollections of
so early a period of life, the impression has ever vividly
remained. Hence the first appearance of "Wacousta" in
London in 1832, more than a quarter of a century later.
The story is founded solely on the artifice of Ponteac
to possess himself of those two last British forts. All
else is imaginary.
It is not a little curious that I, only a few years
subsequent to the narration by old Mrs. Erskine of the
daring and cunning feats of Ponteac, and his vain attempt
to secure the fort of Detroit, should myself have entered
it in arms. But it was so. I had ever hated school with
a most bitter hatred, and I gladly availed myself of an
offer from General Brock to obtain for me a commission
in the King's service. Meanwhile I did duty as a cadet
with the gallant 41st regiment, to which the English
edition of "Wacousta" was inscribed, and was one of the
guard of honor who took possession of the fort. The duty
of a sentinel over the British colors, which had just
been hoisted was assigned to me, and I certainly felt
not a little proud of the distinction.
Five times within half a century had the flag of that
fortress been changed. First the lily of France, then
the red cross of England, and next the stars and stripes
of America had floated over its ramparts; and then again
the red cross, and lastly the stars. On my return to this
country a few years since, I visited those scenes of
stirring excitement in which my boyhood had been passed,
but I looked in vain for the ancient fortifications which
had given a classical interest to that region. The
unsparing hand of utilitarianism had passed over them,
destroying almost every vestige of the past. Where had
risen the only fortress in America at all worthy to give
antiquity to the scene, streets had been laid out and
made, and houses had been built, leaving not a trace of
its existence save the well that formerly supplied the
closely beseiged garrison with water; and this, half
imbedded in the herbage of an enclosure of a dwelling
house of mean appearance, was rather to be guessed at
than seen; while at the opposite extremity of the city,
where had been conspicuous for years the Bloody Run,
cultivation and improvement had nearly obliterated every
trace of the past.
Two objections have been urged against "Wacousta" as a
consistent tale--the one as involving an improbability,
the other a geographical error. It has been assumed that
the startling feat accomplished by that man of deep
revenge, who is not alone in his bitter hatred and contempt
for the base among those who, like spaniels, crawl and
kiss the dust at the instigation of their superiors, and
yet arrogate to themselves a claim to be considered
gentlemen and men of honor and independence--it has, I
repeat, been assumed that the feat attributed to him in
connection with the flag-staff of the fort was impossible.
No one who has ever seen these erections on the small
forts of that day would pronounce the same criticism.
Never very lofty, they were ascended at least one-third
of their height by means of small projections nailed to
them for footholds for the artillerymen, frequently
compelled to clear the flag lines entangled at the truck;
therefore a strong and active man, such as Wacousta is
described to have been, might very well have been supposed,
in his strong anxiety for revenge and escape with his
victim, to have doubled his strength and activity on so
important an occasion, rendering that easy of attainment
by himself which an ordinary and unexcited man might deem
impossible. I myself have knocked down a gate, almost
without feeling the resistance, in order to escape the
stilettos of assassins.
The second objection is to the narrowness attributed in
the tale to the river St. Clair. This was done in the
license usually accorded to a writer of fiction, in order
to give greater effect to the scene represented as having
occurred there, and, of course, in no way intended as a
geographical description of the river, nor was it necessary.
In the same spirit and for the same purpose it has been
continued.
It will be seen that at the termination of the tragedy
enacted at the bridge, by which the Bloody Run was in
those days crossed, that the wretched wife of the condemned
soldier pronounced a curse that could not, of course,
well be fulfilled in the course of the tale. Some few
years ago I published in Canada--I might as well have
done so in Kamschatka--the continuation, which was to
have been dedicated to the last King of England, but
which, after the death of that monarch, was inscribed to
Sir John Harvey, whose letter, as making honorable mention
of a gallant and beloved brother, I feel it a duty to
the memory of the latter to subjoin.
GOVERNMENT HOUSE, FREDERICTON, N.B.,
Major Richardson, Montreal.
November 26th, 1839.
"Dear Sir;--I am favored with your very interesting
communication of the 2nd instant, by which I learn
that you are the brother of two youths whose gallantry
and merits--and with regard to one of them, his
suferings--during the late war, excited my warmest
admiration and sympathy. I beg you to believe that I
am far from insensible to the affecting proofs which
you have made known to me of this grateful recollection
of any little service I may have had it in my power
to render them; and I will add that the desire which
I felt to serve the father will be found to extend
itself to the son, if your nephew should ever find
himself under circumstances to require from me any
service which it may be within my power to render him."
"With regard to your very flattering proposition to
inscribe your present work to me, I can only say that,
independent of the respect to which the author of so
very charming a production as 'Wacousta' is entitled,
the interesting facts and circumstances so unexpectedly
brought to my knowledge and recollection would ensure
a ready acquiescence on my part."
"I remain, dear sir your very faithful servant"
"(Signed) J. HARVEY. "
The "Prophecy Fulfilled," which, however, has never been
seen out of the small country in which it appeared--Detroit,
perhaps, alone excepted--embraces and indeed is intimately
connected with the Beauchamp tragedy, which took place
at or near Weisiger's Hotel, in Frankfort, Kentucky,
where I had been many years before confined as a prisoner
of war. While connecting it with the "Prophecy Fulfilled,"
and making it subservient to the end I had in view, I
had not read or even heard of the existence of a work of
the same character, which had already appeared from the
pen of an American author. Indeed, I have reason to
believe that the "Prophecy Fulfilled," although not
published until after a lapse of years, was the first
written. No similarity of treatment of the subject exists
between the two versions, and this, be it remembered, I
remark without in the slightest degree impugning the
merit of the production of my fellow-laborer in the same
field.
THE AUTHOR.
New York City, January 1st, 1851.
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY
As we are about to introduce our readers to scenes with
which the European is little familiarised, some few
cursory remarks, illustrative of the general features of
the country into which we have shifted our labours, may
not be deemed misplaced at the opening of this volume.
Without entering into minute geographical detail, it may
be necessary merely to point out the outline of such
portions of the vast continent of America as still
acknowledge allegiance to the English crown, in order
that the reader, understanding the localities, may enter
with deeper interest into the incidents of a tale connected
with a ground hitherto untouched by the wand of the modern
novelist.
All who have ever taken the trouble to inform themselves
of the features of a country so little interesting to
the majority of Englishmen in their individual character
must be aware,--and for the information of those who are
not, we state,--that that portion of the northern continent
of America which is known as the United States is divided
from the Canadas by a continuous chain of lakes and
rivers, commencing at the ocean into which they empty
themselves, and extending in a north-western direction
to the remotest parts of these wild regions, which have
never yet been pressed by other footsteps than those of
the native hunters of the soil. First we have the
magnificent St. Lawrence, fed from the lesser and tributary
streams, rolling her sweet and silver waters into the
foggy seas of the Newfoundland.--But perhaps it will
better tend to impress our readers with a panoramic
picture of the country in which our scene of action is
more immediately laid, by commencing at those extreme
and remote points of our Canadian possessions to which
their attention will be especially directed in the course
of our narrative.
The most distant of the north-western settlements of
America is Michilimackinac, a name given by the Indians,
and preserved by the Americans, who possess the fort even
to this hour. It is situated at the head of the Lakes
Michigan and Huron, and adjacent to the Island of St.
Joseph's, where, since the existence of the United States
as an independent republic, an English garrison has been
maintained, with a view of keeping the original fortress
in check. From the lakes above mentioned we descend into
the River Sinclair, which, in turn, disembogues itself
into the lake of the same name. This again renders tribute
to the Detroit, a broad majestic river, not less than a
mile in breadth at its source, and progressively widening
towards its mouth until it is finally lost in the beautiful
Lake Erie, computed at about one hundred and sixty miles
in circumference. From the embouchure of this latter lake
commences the Chippawa, better known in Europe from the
celebrity of its stupendous falls of Niagara, which form
an impassable barrier to the seaman, and, for a short
space, sever the otherwise uninterrupted chain connecting
the remote fortresses we have described with the Atlantic.
At a distance of a few miles from the falls, the Chippawa
finally empties itself into the Ontario, the most splendid
of the gorgeous American lakes, on the bright bosom of
which, during the late war, frigates, seventy-fours, and
even a ship of one hundred and twelve guns, manned by a
crew of one thousand men, reflected the proud pennants
of England! At the opposite extremity of this magnificent
and sea-like lake, which is upwards of two hundred miles
in circumference, the far-famed St. Lawrence takes her
source; and after passing through a vast tract of country,
whose elevated banks bear every trace of fertility and
cultivation, connects itself with the Lake Champlain,
celebrated, as well as Erie, for a signal defeat of our
flotilla during the late contest with the Americans.
Pushing her bold waters through this somewhat inferior
lake, the St. Lawrence pursues her course seaward with
impetuosity, until arrested near La Chine by rock-studded
shallows, which produce those strong currents and eddies,
the dangers of which are so beautifully expressed in the
Canadian Boat Song,--a composition that has rendered the
"rapids" almost as familiar to the imagination of the
European as the falls of Niagara themselves. Beyond La
Chine the St. Lawrence gradually unfolds herself into
greater majesty and expanse, and rolling past the busy
commercial town of Montreal, is once more increased in
volume by the insignificant lake of St. Peter's, nearly
opposite to the settlement of Three Rivers, midway between
Montreal and Quebec. From thence she pursues her course
unfed, except by a few inferior streams, and gradually
widens as she rolls past the capital of the Canadas,
whose tall and precipitous battlements, bristled with
cannon, and frowning defiance from the clouds in which
they appear half imbedded, might be taken by the imaginative
enthusiast for the strong tower of the Spirit of those
stupendous scenes. From this point the St. Lawrence
increases in expanse, until, at length, after traversing
a country where the traces of civilisation become gradually
less and less visible, she finally merges in the gulf,
from the centre of which the shores on either hand are
often invisible to the naked eye; and in this manner is
it imperceptibly lost in that misty ocean, so dangerous
to mariners from its deceptive and almost perpetual fogs.
In following the links of this extensive chain of lakes
and rivers, it must be borne in recollection, that,
proceeding seaward from Michilimackinac and its contiguous
district, all that tract of country which lies to the
right constitutes what is now known as the United States
of America, and all on the left the two provinces of
Upper and Lower Canada, tributary to the English government,
subject to the English laws, and garrisoned by English
troops. The several forts and harbours established along
the left bank of the St. Lawrence, and throughout that
portion of our possessions which is known as Lower Canada,
are necessarily, from the improved condition and more
numerous population of that province, on a larger scale
and of better appointment; but in Upper Canada, where
the traces of civilisation are less evident throughout,
and become gradually more faint as we advance westward,
the fortresses and harbours bear the same proportion In
strength and extent to the scantiness of the population
they are erected to protect. Even at the present day,
along that line of remote country we have selected for
the theatre of our labours, the garrisons are both few
in number and weak in strength, and evidence of cultivation
is seldom to be found at any distance in the interior;
so that all beyond a certain extent of clearing, continued
along the banks of the lakes and rivers, is thick,
impervious, rayless forest, the limits of which have
never yet been explored, perhaps, by the natives themselves.
Such being the general features of the country even at
the present day, it will readily be comprehended how much
more wild and desolate was the character they exhibited
as far back as the middle of the last century, about
which period our story commences. At that epoch, it will
be borne in mind, what we have described as being the
United States were then the British colonies of America
dependent on the mother-country; while the Canadas, on
the contrary, were, or had very recently been, under the
dominion of France, from whom they had been wrested after
a long struggle, greatly advanced in favour of England
by the glorious battle fought on the plains of Abraham,
near Quebec, and celebrated for the defeat of Montcalm
and the death of Wolfe.
The several attempts made to repossess themselves of the
strong hold of Quebec having, in every instance, been
met by discomfiture and disappointment, the French, in
despair, relinquished the contest, and, by treaty, ceded
their claims to the Canadas,--an event that was hastened
by the capitulation of the garrison of Montreal, commanded
by the Marquis de Vaudreuil, to the victorious arms of
General Amherst. Still, though conquered as a people,
many of the leading men in the country, actuated by that
jealousy for which they were remarkable, contrived to
oppose obstacles to the quiet possession of a conquest
by those whom they seemed to look upon as their hereditary
enemies; and in furtherance of this object, paid agents,
men of artful and intriguing character, were dispersed
among the numerous tribes of savages, with a view of
exciting them to acts of hostility against their conquerors.
The long and uninterrupted possession, by the French, of
those countries immediately bordering on the hunting
grounds and haunts of the natives, with whom they carried
on an extensive traffic in furs, had established a
communionship of interest between themselves and those
savage and warlike people, which failed not to turn to
account the vindictive views of the former. The whole of
the province of Upper Canada at that time possessed but
a scanty population, protected in its most flourishing
and defensive points by stockade forts; the chief object
of which was to secure the garrisons, consisting each of
a few companies, from any sudden surprise on the part of
the natives, who, although apparently inclining to
acknowledge the change of neighbours, and professing
amity, were, it was well known, too much in the interest
of their old friends the French, and even the French
Canadians themselves, not to be regarded with the most
cautious distrust.
These stockade forts were never, at any one period, nearer
to each other than from one hundred and fifty to two
hundred miles, so that, in the event of surprise or alarm,
there was little prospect of obtaining assistance from
without. Each garrison, therefore, was almost wholly
dependent on its own resources; and, when surrounded
unexpectedly by numerous bands of hostile Indians, had
no other alternative than to hold out to the death.
Capitulation was out of the question; for, although the
wile and artifice of the natives might induce them to
promise mercy, the moment their enemies were in their
power promises and treaties were alike broken, and
indiscriminate massacre ensued. Communication by water
was, except during a period of profound peace, almost
impracticable; for, although of late years the lakes of
Canada have been covered with vessels of war, many of
them, as we have already remarked, of vast magnitude,
and been the theatres of conflicts that would not have
disgraced the salt waters of ocean itself, at the period
to which our story refers the flag of England was seen
to wave only on the solitary mast of some ill-armed and
ill-manned gunboat, employed rather for the purpose of
conveying despatches from fort to fort, than with any
serious view to acts either of aggression or defence.
In proportion as the colonies of America, now the United
States, pushed their course of civilisation westward, in
the same degree did the numerous tribes of Indians, who
had hitherto dwelt more seaward, retire upon those of
their own countrymen, who, buried in vast and impenetrable
forests, had seldom yet seen the face of the European
stranger; so that, in the end, all the more central parts
of those stupendous wilds became doubly peopled. Hitherto,
however, that civilisation had not been carried beyond
the state of New York; and all those countries which
have, since the American revolution, been added to the
Union under the names of Kentucky, Ohio, Missouri,
Michigan, &c., were, at the period embraced by our story,
inhospitable and unproductive woods, subject only to the
dominion of the native, and as yet unshorn by the axe of
the cultivator. A few portions only of the opposite shores
of Michigan were occupied by emigrants from the Canadas,
who, finding no one to oppose or molest them, selected
the most fertile spots along the banks of the river; and
of the existence of these infant settlements, the English
colonists, who had never ventured so far, were not even
aware until after the conquest of Canada by the mother-
country. This particular district was the centre around
which the numerous warriors, who had been driven westward
by the colonists, had finally assembled; and rude villages
and encampments rose far and near for a circuit of many
miles around this infant settlement and fort of the
Canadians, to both of which they had given the name of
Detroit, after the river on whose elevated banks they
stood. Proceeding westward from this point, and along
the tract of country that diverged from the banks of the
Lakes Huron, Sinclair, and Michigan, all traces of that
partial civilisation were again lost in impervious wilds,
tenanted only by the fiercest of the Indian tribes, whose
homes were principally along the banks of that greatest
of American waters, the Lake Superior, and in the country
surrounding the isolated fort of Michilimackinac, the
last and most remote of the European fortresses in Canada.
When at a later period the Canadas were ceded to us by
France, those parts of the opposite frontier which we
have just described became also tributary to the English
crown, and were, by the peculiar difficulties that existed
to communication with the more central and populous
districts, rendered especially favourable to the exercise
of hostile intrigue by the numerous active French emissaries
every where dispersed among the Indian tribes. During
the first few years of the conquest, the inhabitants of
Canada, who were all either European French, or immediate
descendants of that nation, were, as might naturally be
expected, more than restive under their new governors,
and many of the most impatient spirits of the country
sought every opportunity of sowing the seeds of distrust
and jealousy in the hearts of the natives. By these people
it was artfully suggested to the Indians, that their new
oppressors were of the race of those who had driven them
from the sea, and were progressively advancing on their
territories until scarce a hunting ground or a village
would be left to them. They described them, moreover, as
being the hereditary enemies of their great father, the
King of France, with whose governors they had buried the
hatchet for ever, and smoked the calumet of perpetual
peace. Fired by these wily suggestions, the high and
jealous spirit of the Indian chiefs took the alarm, and
they beheld with impatience the "Red Coat," or "Saganaw,"
[Footnote: This word thus pronounced by themselves, in
reference to the English soldiery, is, in all probability,
derived from the original English settlers in Saganaw
Bay.] usurping, as they deemed it, those possessions
which had so recently acknowledged the supremacy of the
pale flag of their ancient ally. The cause of the Indians,
and that of the Canadians, became, in some degree,
identified as one, and each felt it was the interest,
and it may be said the natural instinct, of both, to hold
communionship of purpose, and to indulge the same jealousies
and fears. Such was the state of things in 1763, the
period at which our story commences,--an epoch fruitful
in designs of hostility and treachery on the part of the
Indians, who, too crafty and too politic to manifest
their feelings by overt acts declaratory of the hatred
carefully instilled into their breasts, sought every
opportunity to compass the destruction of the English,
wherever they were most vulnerable to the effects of
stratagem. Several inferior forts situated on the Ohio
had already fallen into their hands, when they summoned
all their address and cunning to accomplish the fall of
the two important though remote posts of Detroit and
Michilimackinac. For a length of time they were baffled
by the activity and vigilance of the respective governors
of these forts, who had had too much fatal experience in
the fate of their companions not to be perpetually on
the alert against their guile; but when they had at
length, in some degree, succeeded in lulling the suspicions
of the English, they determined on a scheme, suggested
by a leading chief, a man of more than ordinary character,
which promised fair to rid them altogether of a race they
so cordially detested. We will not, however, mar the
interest of our tale, by anticipating, at this early
stage, either the nature or the success of a stratagem
which forms the essential groundwork of our story.
While giving, for the information of the many, what, we
trust, will not be considered a too compendious outline
of the Canadas, and the events connected with them, we
are led to remark, that, powerful as was the feeling of
hostility cherished by the French Canadians towards the
English when the yoke of early conquest yet hung heavily
on them, this feeling eventually died away under the mild
influence of a government that preserved to them the
exercise of all their customary privileges, and abolished
all invidious distinctions between the descendants of
France and those of the mother-country. So universally,
too, has this system of conciliation been pursued, we
believe we may with safety aver, of all the numerous
colonies that have succumbed to the genius and power of
England, there are none whose inhabitants entertain
stronger feelings of attachment and loyalty to her than
those of Canada; and whatever may be the transient
differences,--differences growing entirely out of
circumstances and interests of a local character, and in
no way tending to impeach the acknowledged fidelity of
the mass of French Canadians,--whatever, we repeat, may
be the ephemeral differences that occasionally spring up
between the governors of those provinces and individual
members of the Houses of Assembly, they must, in no way,
be construed into a general feeling of disaffection
towards the English crown.
In proportion also as the Canadians have felt and
acknowledged the beneficent effects arising from a change
of rulers, so have the Indian tribes been gradually weaned
from their first fierce principle of hostility, until
they have subsequently become as much distinguished by
their attachment to, as they were three quarters of a
century ago remarkable for their untameable aversion for,
every thing that bore the English name, or assumed the
English character. Indeed, the hatred which they bore
to the original colonists has been continued to their
descendants, the subjects of the United States; and the
same spirit of union subsisted between the natives and
British troops, and people of Canada, during the late
American war, that at an earlier period of the history
of that country prevailed so powerfully to the disadvantage
of England.
And now we have explained a course of events which were
in some measure necessary to the full understanding of
the country by the majority of our readers, we shall, in
furtherance of the same object, proceed to sketch a few
of the most prominent scenes more immediately before us.
The fort of Detroit, as it was originally constructed by
the French, stands in the middle of a common, or description
of small prairie, bounded by woods, which, though now
partially thinned in their outskirts, were at that period
untouched by the hand of civilisation. Erected at a
distance of about half a mile from the banks of the river,
which at that particular point are high and precipitous,
it stood then just far enough from the woods that swept
round it in a semicircular form to be secure from the
rifle of the Indian; while from its batteries it commanded
a range of country on every hand, which no enemy unsupported
by cannon could traverse with impunity. Immediately in
the rear, and on the skirt of the wood, the French had
constructed a sort of bomb-proof, possibly intended to
serve as a cover to the workmen originally employed in
clearing the woods, but long since suffered to fall into
decay. Without the fortification rose a strong and triple
line of pickets, each of about two feet and a half in
circumference, and so fitted into each other as to leave
no other interstices than those which were perforated
for the discharge of musketry. They were formed of the
hardest and most knotted pines that could be procured;
the sharp points of which were seasoned by fire until
they acquired nearly the durability and consistency of
iron. Beyond these firmly imbedded pickets was a ditch,
encircling the fort, of about twenty feet in width, and
of proportionate depth, the only communication over which
to and from the garrison was by means of a drawbridge,
protected by a strong chevaux-de-frise. The only gate
with which the fortress was provided faced the river; on
the more immediate banks of which, and to the left of
the fort, rose the yet infant and straggling village that
bore the name of both. Numerous farm-houses, however,
almost joining each other, contributed to form a continuity
of many miles along the borders of the river, both on
the right and on the left; while the opposite shores of
Canada, distinctly seen in the distance, presented, as
far as the eye could reach, the same enlivening character
of fertility. The banks, covered with verdure on either
shore, were more or less undulating at intervals; but in
general they were high without being abrupt, and picturesque
without being bold, presenting, in their partial
cultivation, a striking contrast to the dark, tall, and
frowning forests bounding every point of the perspective.
At a distance of about five miles on the left of the town
the course of the river was interrupted by a small and
thickly wooded island, along whose sandy beach occasionally
rose the low cabin or wigwam which the birch canoe,
carefully upturned and left to dry upon the sands, attested
to be the temporary habitation of the wandering Indian.
That branch of the river which swept by the shores of
Canada was (as at this day) the only navigable one for
vessels of burden, while that on the opposite coast
abounded in shallows and bars, affording passage merely
to the light barks of the natives, which seemed literally
to skim the very surface of its waves. Midway, between
that point of the continent which immediately faced the
eastern extremity of the island we have just named and
the town of Detroit, flowed a small tributary river, the
approaches to which, on either hand, were over a slightly
sloping ground, the view of which could be entirely
commanded from the fort. The depth of this river, now
nearly dried up, at that period varied from three to ten
or twelve feet; and over this, at a distance of about
twenty yards from the Detroit, into which it emptied
itself, rose, communicating with the high road, a bridge,
which will more than once be noticed in the course of
our tale. Even to the present hour it retains the name
given to it during these disastrous times; and there are
few modern Canadians, or even Americans, who traverse
the "Bloody Bridge," especially at the still hours of
advanced night, without recalling to memory the tragic
events of those days, (handed down as they have been by
their fathers, who were eye-witnesses of the transaction,)
and peopling the surrounding gloom with the shades of
those whose life-blood erst crimsoned the once pure waters
of that now nearly exhausted stream; and whose mangled
and headless corpses were slowly borne by its tranquil
current into the bosom of the parent river, where all
traces of them finally disappeared.
These are the minuter features of the scene we have
brought more immediately under the province of our pen.
What Detroit was in 1763 it nearly is at the present day,
with this difference, however, that many of those points
which were then in a great degree isolated and rude are
now redolent with the beneficent effects of improved
cultivation; and in the immediate vicinity of that
memorable bridge, where formerly stood merely the occasional
encampment of the Indian warrior, are now to be seen
flourishing farms and crops, and other marks of agricultural
industry. Of the fort of Detroit itself we will give the
following brief history:--It was, as we have already
stated, erected by the French while in the occupancy of
the country by which it is more immediately environed;
subsequently, and at the final cession of the Canadas,
it was delivered over to England, with whom it remained
until the acknowledgement of the independence of the
colonists by the mother-country, when it hoisted the
colours of the republic; the British garrison marching
out, and crossing over into Canada, followed by such of
the loyalists as still retained their attachment to the
English crown. At the commencement of the late war with
America it was the first and more immediate theatre of
conflict, and was remarkable, as well as Michilimackinac,
for being one of the first posts of the Americans that
fell into our hands. The gallant daring, and promptness
of decision, for which the lamented general, Sir Isaac
Brock, was so eminently distinguished, achieved the
conquest almost as soon as the American declaration of
war had been made known in Canada; and on this occasion
we ourselves had the good fortune to be selected as part
of the guard of honour, whose duty it was to lower the
flag of America, and substitute that of England in its
place. On the approach, however, of an overwhelming army
of the enemy in the autumn of the ensuing year it was
abandoned by our troops, after having been dismantled
and reduced, in its more combustible parts, to ashes.
The Americans, who have erected new fortifications on
the site of the old, still retain possession of a post
to which they attach considerable importance, from the
circumstance of its being a key to the more western
portions of the Union.
CHAPTER II.
It was during the midnight watch, late in September,
1763, that the English garrison of Detroit, in North
America, was thrown into the utmost consternation by the
sudden and mysterious introduction of a stranger within
its walls. The circumstance at this moment was particularly
remarkable; for the period was so fearful and pregnant
with events of danger, the fort being assailed on every
side by a powerful and vindictive foe, that a caution
and vigilance of no common kind were unceasingly exercised
by the prudent governor for the safety of those committed
to his charge. A long series of hostilities had been
pursued by the North-American Indians against the subjects
of England, within the few years that had succeeded to
the final subjection of the Canadas to her victorious
arms; and many and sanguinary were the conflicts in which
the devoted soldiery were made to succumb to the cunning
and numbers of their savage enemies. In those lone regions,
both officers and men, in their respective ranks, were,
by a communionship of suffering, isolation, and peculiarity
of duty, drawn towards each other with feelings of almost
fraternal affection; and the fates of those who fell were
lamented with sincerity of soul, and avenged, when
opportunity offered, with a determination prompted equally
by indignation and despair. This sentiment of union,
existing even between men and officers of different corps,
was, with occasional exceptions, of course doubly
strengthened among those who fought under the same colours,
and acknowledged the same head; and, as it often happened
in Canada, during this interesting period, that a single
regiment was distributed into two or three fortresses,
each so far removed from the other that communication
could with the utmost facility be cut off, the anxiety
and uncertainty of these detachments became proportioned
to the danger with which they knew themselves to be more
immediately beset. The garrison of Detroit, at the date
above named, consisted of a third of the ---- regiment,
the remainder of which occupied the forts of
Michilimackinac and Niagara, and to each division of
this regiment was attached an officer's command of
artillery. It is true that no immediate overt act of
hostility had for some time been perpetrated by the
Indians, who were assembled in force around the former
garrison; but the experienced officer to whom the command
had been intrusted was too sensible of the craftiness of
the surrounding hordes to be deceived, by any outward
semblance of amity, into neglect of those measures of
precaution which were so indispensable to the surety of
his trust.
In this he pursued a line of policy happily adapted to
the delicate nature of his position. Unwilling to excite
the anger or wound the pride of the chiefs, by any outward
manifestation of distrust, he affected to confide in the
sincerity of their professions, and, by inducing his
officers to mix occasionally in their councils, and his
men in the amusements of the inferior warriors, contrived
to impress the conviction that he reposed altogether on
their faith. But, although these acts were in some degree
coerced by the necessity of the times, and a perfect
knowledge of all the misery that must accrue to them in
the event of their provoking the Indians into acts of
open hostility, the prudent governor took such precautions
as were deemed efficient to defeat any treacherous attempt
at violation of the tacit treaty on the part of the
natives. The officers never ventured out, unless escorted
by a portion of their men, who, although appearing to be
dispersed among the warriors, still kept sufficiently
together to be enabled, in a moment of emergency, to
afford succour not only to each other but to their
superiors. On these occasions, as a further security
against surprise, the troops left within were instructed
to be in readiness, at a moment's warning, to render
assistance, if necessary, to their companions, who seldom,
on any occasion, ventured out of reach of the cannon of
the fort, the gate of which was hermetically closed,
while numerous supernumerary sentinels were posted along
the ramparts, with a view to give the alarm if any thing
extraordinary was observed to occur without.
Painful and harassing as were the precautions it was
found necessary to adopt on these occasions, and little
desirous as were the garrison to mingle with the natives
on such terms, still the plan was pursued by the Governor
from the policy already named: nay, it was absolutely
essential to the future interests of England that the
Indians should be won over by acts of confidence and
kindness; and so little disposition had hitherto been
manifested by the English to conciliate, that every thing
was to be apprehended from the untameable rancour with
which these people were but too well disposed to repay
a neglect at once galling to their pride and injurious
to their interests.
Such, for a term of many months, had been the trying and
painful duty that had devolved on the governor of Detroit;
when, in the summer of 1763, the whole of the western
tribes of Indians, as if actuated by one common impulse,
suddenly threw off the mask, and commenced a series of
the most savage trespasses upon the English settlers in
the vicinity of the several garrisons, who were cut off
in detail, without mercy, and without reference to either
age or sex. On the first alarm the weak bodies of troops,
as a last measure of security, shut themselves up in
their respective forts, where they were as incapable of
rendering assistance to others as of receiving it
themselves. In this emergency the prudence and forethought
of the governor of Detroit were eminently conspicuous;
for, having long foreseen the possibility of such a
crisis, he had caused a plentiful supply of all that was
necessary to the subsistence and defence of the garrison
to be provided at an earlier period, so that, if foiled
in their attempts at stratagem, there was little chance
that the Indians would speedily reduce them by famine.
To guard against the former, a vigilant watch was constantly
kept by the garrison both day and night, while the
sentinels, doubled in number, were constantly on the
alert. Strict attention, moreover, was paid to such parts
of the ramparts as were considered most assailable by a
cunning and midnight enemy; and, in order to prevent any
imprudence on the part of the garrison, all egress or
ingress was prohibited that had not the immediate sanction
of the chief. With this view the keys of the gate were
given in trust to the officer of the guard; to whom,
however, it was interdicted to use them unless by direct
and positive order of the Governor. In addition to this
precaution, the sentinels on duty at the gate had strict
private instructions not to suffer any one to pass either
in or out unless conducted by the governor in person;
and this restriction extended even to the officer of the
guard.
Such being the cautious discipline established in the
fort, the appearance of a stranger within its walls at
the still hour of midnight could not fail to be regarded
as an extraordinary event, and to excite an apprehension
which could scarcely have been surpassed had a numerous
and armed band of savages suddenly appeared among them.
The first intimation of this fact was given by the violent
ringing of an alarm bell; a rope communicating with which
was suspended in the Governor's apartments, for the
purpose of arousing the slumbering soldiers in any case
of pressing emergency. Soon afterwards the Governor
himself was seen to issue from his rooms into the open
area of the parade, clad in his dressing-gown, and bearing
a lamp in one hand and a naked sword in the other. His
countenance was pale; and his features, violently agitated,
betrayed a source of alarm which those who were familiar
with his usual haughtiness of manner were ill able to
comprehend.
"Which way did he go?--why stand ye here?--follow--pursue
him quickly--let him not escape, on your lives!"
These sentences, hurriedly and impatiently uttered, were
addressed to the two sentinels who, stationed in front
of his apartments, had, on the first sound of alarm from
the portentous bell, lowered their muskets to the charge,
and now stood immovable in that position.
"Who does your honour mane?" replied one of the men,
startled, yet bringing his arms to the recover, in
salutation of his chief.
"Why, the man--the stranger--the fellow who has just
passed you."
"Not a living soul has passed us since our watch commenced,
your honour," observed the second sentinel; "and we have
now been here upwards of an hour."
"Impossible, sirs: ye have been asleep on your posts, or
ye must have seen him. He passed this way, and could not
have escaped your observation had ye been attentive to
your duty."
"Well, sure, and your honour knows bist," rejoined the
first sentinel; "but so hilp me St. Patrick, as I have
sirved man and boy in your honour's rigimint this twilve
years, not even the fitch of a man has passed me this
blissed night. And here's my comrade, Jack Halford, who
will take his Bible oath to the same, with all due
difirince to your honour."
The pithy reply to this eloquent attempt at exculpation
was a brief "Silence, sirrah, walk about!"
The men brought their muskets once more, and in silence,
to the shoulder, and, in obedience to the command of
their chief, resumed the limited walk allotted to them;
crossing each other at regular intervals in the semicircular
course that enfiladed, as it were, the only entrance to
the Governor's apartments.
Meanwhile every thing was bustle and commotion among the
garrison, who, roused from sleep by the appalling sound
of the alarm bell at that late hour, were hastily arming.
Throughout the obscurity might be seen the flitting forms
of men, whose already fully accoutred persons proclaimed
them to be of the guard; while in the lofty barracks,
numerous lights flashing to and fro, and moving with
rapidity, attested the alacrity with which the troops
off duty were equipping themselves for some service of
more than ordinary interest. So noiseless, too, was this
preparation, as far as speech was concerned, that the
occasional opening and shutting of pans, and ringing of
ramrods to ascertain the efficiency of the muskets, might
be heard distinctly in the stillness of the night at a
distance of many furlongs.
HE, however, who had touched the secret spring of all
this picturesque movement, whatever might be his
gratification and approval of the promptitude with which
the summons to arms had been answered by his brave troops,
was far from being wholly satisfied with the scene he
had conjured up. Recovered from the first and irrepressible
agitation which had driven him to sound the tocsin of
alarm, he felt how derogatory to his military dignity
and proverbial coolness of character it might be considered,
to have awakened a whole garrison from their slumbers,
when a few files of the guard would have answered his
purpose equally well. Besides, so much time had been
suffered to elapse, that the stranger might have escaped;
and if so, how many might be disposed to ridicule his
alarm, and consider it as emanating from an imagination
disturbed by sleep, rather than caused by the actual
presence of one endowed like themselves with the faculties
of speech and motion. For a moment he hesitated whether
he should not countermand the summons to arms which had
been so precipitately given; but when he recollected the
harrowing threat that had been breathed in his ear by
his midnight visiter,--when he reflected, moreover, that
even now it was probable he was lurking within the
precincts of the fort with a view to the destruction of
all that it contained,--when, in short, he thought of
the imminent danger that must attend them should he be
suffered to escape,--he felt the necessity of precaution,
and determined on his measures, even at the risk of
manifesting a prudence which might be construed
unfavourably. On re-entering his apartments, he found
his orderly, who, roused by the midnight tumult, stood
waiting to receive the commands of his chief.
"Desire Major Blackwater to come to me immediately."
The mandate was quickly obeyed. In a few seconds a short,
thick-set, and elderly officer made his appearance in a
grey military undress frock.
"Blackwater, we have traitors within the fort. Let diligent
search be made in every part of the barracks for a
stranger, an enemy, who has managed to procure admittance
among us: let every nook and cranny, every empty cask,
be examined forthwith; and cause a number of additional
sentinels to be stationed along the ramparts, in order
to intercept his escape."
"Good Heaven, is it possible?" said the Major, wiping
the perspiration from his brows, though the night was
unusually chilly for the season of the year:--" how could
he contrive to enter a place so vigilantly guarded?"
"Ask me not HOW, Blackwater," returned the Governor
seriously; "let it suffice that he has been in this very
room, and that ten minutes since he stood where you now
stand."
The Major looked aghast.--"God bless me, how singular!
How could the savage contrive to obtain admission? or
was he in reality an Indian?"
"No more questions, MAJOR Blackwater. Hasten to distribute
the men, and let diligent search be made every where;
and recollect, neither officer nor man courts his pillow
until dawn."
The "Major" emphatically prefixed to his name was a
sufficient hint to the stout officer that the doubts thus
familiarly expressed were here to cease, and that he was
now addressed in the language of authority by his superior,
who expected a direct and prompt compliance with his
orders. He therefore slightly touched his hat in salutation,
and withdrew to make the dispositions that had been
enjoined by his Colonel.
On regaining the parade, he caused the men, already
forming into companies and answering to the roll-call of
their respective non-commissioned officers, to be wheeled
into square, and then in a low but distinct voice stated
the cause of alarm; and, having communicated the orders
of the Governor, finished by recommending to each the
exercise of the most scrutinising vigilance; as on the
discovery of the individual in question, and the means
by which he had contrived to procure admission, the safety
of the whole garrison, it was evident, must depend.
The soldiers now dispersed in small parties throughout
the interior of the fort, while a select body were
conducted to the ramparts by the officers themselves,
and distributed between the sentinels already posted
there, in such numbers, and at such distances, that it
appeared impossible any thing wearing the human form
could pass them unperceived, even in the obscurity that
reigned around.
When this duty was accomplished, the officers proceeded
to the posts of the several sentinels who had been planted
since the last relief, to ascertain if any or either of
them had observed aught to justify the belief that an
enemy had succeeded in scaling the works. To all their
enquiries, however, they received a negative reply,
accompanied by a declaration, more or less positive with
each, that such had been their vigilance during the watch,
had any person come within their beat, detection must
have been inevitable. The first question was put to the
sentinel stationed at the gate of the fort, at which
point the whole of the officers of the garrison were,
with one or two exceptions, now assembled. The man at
first evinced a good deal of confusion; but this might
arise from the singular fact of the alarm that had been
given, and the equally singular circumstance of his being
thus closely interrogated by the collective body of his
officers: he, however, persisted in declaring that he
had been in no wise inattentive to his duty, and that no
cause for alarm or suspicion had occurred near his post.
The officers then, in order to save time, separated into
two parties, pursuing opposite circuits, and arranging
to meet at that point of the ramparts which was immediately
in the rear, and overlooking the centre of the semicircular
sweep of wild forest we have described as circumventing
the fort.
"Well, Blessington, I know not what you think of this
sort of work," observed Sir Everard Valletort, a young
lieutenant of the ---- regiment, recently arrived from
England, and one of the party who now traversed the
rampart to the right; "but confound me if I would not
rather be a barber's apprentice in London, upon nothing,
and find myself, than continue a life of this kind much
longer. It positively quite knocks me up; for what with
early risings, and watchings (I had almost added prayings),
I am but the shadow of my former self."
"Hist, Valletort, hist! speak lower," said Captain
Blessington, the senior officer present, "or our search
must be in vain. Poor fellow!" he pursued, laughing low
and good humouredly at the picture of miseries thus
solemnly enumerated by his subaltern;--"how much, in
truth, are you to be pitied, who have so recently basked
in all the sunshine of enjoyment at home. For our parts,
we have lived so long amid these savage scenes, that we
have almost forgotten what luxury, or even comfort, means.
Doubt not, my friend, that in time you will, like us, be
reconciled to the change."
"Confound me for an idiot, then, if I give myself time,"
replied Sir Everard affectedly. "It was only five minutes
before that cursed alarm bell was sounded in my ears,
that I had made up my mind fully to resign or exchange
the instant I could do so with credit to myself; and, I
am sure, to be called out of a warm bed at this unseasonable
hour offers little inducement for me to change my opinion."
"Resign or exchange with credit to yourself!" sullenly
observed a stout tall officer of about fifty, whose spleen
might well be accounted for in his rank of "Ensign" Delme.
"Methinks there can be little credit in exchanging or
resigning, when one's companions are left behind, and in
a post of danger."
"By Jasus, and ye may say that with your own pritty
mouth," remarked another veteran, who answered to the
name of Lieutenant Murphy; "for it isn't now, while we
are surrounded and bediviled by the savages, that any
man of the ---- rigimint should be after talking of bating
a retrate."
"I scarcely understand you, gentlemen," warmly and quickly
retorted Sir Everard, who, with all his dandyism and
effeminacy of manner, was of a high and resolute spirit.
"Do either of you fancy that I want courage to face a
positive danger, because I may not happen to have any
particular vulgar predilection for early rising?"
"Nonsense, Valletort, nonsense," interrupted, in accents
of almost feminine sweetness, his friend Lieutenant
Charles de Haldimar, the youngest son of the Governor:
"Murphy is an eternal echo of the opinions of those who
look forward to promotion; and as for Delme--do you not
see the drift of his observation? Should you retire, as
you have threatened, of course another lieutenant will
be appointed in your stead; but, should you chance to
lose your scalp during the struggle with the savages,
the step goes in the regiment, and he, being the senior
ensign, obtains promotion in consequence."
"Ah!" observed Captain Blessington, "this is indeed the
greatest curse attached to the profession of a soldier.
Even among those who most esteem, and are drawn towards
each other as well by fellowship in pleasure as
companionship in danger, this vile and debasing principle
--this insatiable desire for personal advancement--is
certain to intrude itself; since we feel that over the
mangled bodies of our dearest friends and companions, we
can alone hope to attain preferment and distinction."
A moment or two of silence ensued, in the course of which
each individual appeared to be bringing home to his own
heart the application of the remark just uttered; and
which, however they might seek to disguise the truth from
themselves, was too forcible to find contradiction from
the secret monitor within. And yet of those assembled
there was not one, perhaps, who would not, in the hour
of glory and of danger, have generously interposed his
own frame between that of his companion and the steel or
bullet of an enemy. Such are the contradictory elements
which compose a soldier's life.
This conversation, interrupted only by occasional
questioning of the sentinels whom they passed in their
circuit, was carried on in an audible whisper, which the
close approximation of the parties to each other, and
the profound stillness of the night, enabled them to hear
with distinctness.
"Nay, nay, De Haldimar," at length observed Sir Everard,
in reply to the observation of his friend, "do not imagine
I intend to gratify Mr. Delme by any such exhibition as
that of a scalpless head; but, if such be his hope, I
trust that the hour which sees my love-locks dangling at
the top of an Indian pole may also let daylight into his
own carcass from a rifle bullet or a tomahawk."
"And yit, Captin, it sames to me," observed Lieutenant
Murphy, in allusion to the remark of Blessington rather
than in reply to the last speaker,--"it sames to me, I
say, that promotion in ony way is all fair and honourable
in times of hardship like thase; and though we may drop
a tare over our suparior when the luck of war, in the
shape of a tommyhawk, knocks him over, still there can
be no rason why we shouldn't stip into his shoes the viry
nixt instant; and it's that, we all know, that we fight
for. And the divil a bitter chance any man of us all has
of promotion thin yoursilf, Captin: for it'll be mighty
strange if our fat Major doesn't git riddlid like a
cullinder through and through with the bullits from the
Ingians' rifles before we have quite done with this
business, and thin you will have the rigimintal majority,
Captin; and it may be that one Liftinint Murphy, who is
now the sanior of his rank, may come in for the vacant
captincy."
"And Delme for the lieutenancy," said Charles de Haldimar
significantly. "Well, Murphy, I am happy to find that
you, at least, have hit on another than Sir Everard
Valletort: one, in fact, who will render the promotion
more general than it would otherwise have been. Seriously,
I should be sorry if any thing happened to our worthy
Major, who, with all his bustling and grotesque manner,
is as good an officer and as brave a soldier as any his
Majesty's army in Canada can boast. For my part, I say,
perish all promotion for ever, if it is only to be obtained
over the dead bodies of those with whom I have lived so
long and shared so many dangers!"
"Nobly uttered, Charles," said Captain Blessington: "the
sentiment is, indeed, one well worthy of our present
position; and God knows we are few enough in number
already, without looking forward to each other's death
as a means of our own more immediate personal advancement.
With you, therefore, I repeat, perish all my hopes of
promotion, if it is only to be obtained over the corpses
of my companions! And let those who are most sanguine in
their expectations beware lest they prove the first to
be cut off, and that even before they have yet enjoyed
the advantages of the promotion they so eagerly covet."
This observation, uttered without acrimony, had yet enough
of delicate reproach in it to satisfy Lieutenant Murphy
that the speaker was far from approving the expression
of such selfish anticipations at a moment like the present,
when danger, in its most mysterious guise, lurked around,
and threatened the safety of all most dear to them.
The conversation now dropped, and the party pursued their
course in silence. They had just passed the last sentinel
posted in their line of circuit, and were within a few
yards of the immediate rear of the fortress, when a sharp
"Hist!" and sudden halt of their leader, Captain
Blessington, threw them all into an attitude of the most
profound attention.
"Did you hear?" he asked in a subdued whisper, after a
few seconds of silence, in which he had vainly sought to
catch a repetition of the sound.
"Assuredly," he pursued, finding that no one answered,
"I distinctly heard a human groan."
"Where?--in what direction?" asked Sir Everard and De
Haldimar in the same breath.
"Immediately opposite to us on the common. But see, here
are the remainder of the party stationary, and listening
also."
They now stole gently forward a few paces, and were soon
at the side of their companions, all of whom were straining
their necks and bending their heads in the attitude of
men listening attentively.
"Have you heard any thing, Erskine?" asked Captain
Blessington in the same low whisper, and addressing the
officer who led the opposite party.
"Not a sound ourselves, but here is Sir Everard's black
servant, Sambo, who has just riveted our attention, by
declaring that he distinctly heard a groan towards the
skirt of the common."
"He is right," hastily rejoined Blessington; "I heard it
also."
Again a death-like silence ensued, during which the eyes
of the party were strained eagerly in the direction of
the common. The night was clear and starry, yet the dark
shadow of the broad belt of forest threw all that part
of the waste which came within its immediate range into
impenetrable obscurity.
"Do you see any thing?" whispered Valletort to his friend,
who stood next him: "look--look!" and he pointed with
his finger.
"Nothing," returned De Haldimar, after an anxious gaze
of a minute, "but that dilapidated old bomb-proof."
"See you not something dark, and slightly moving immediately
in a line with the left angle of the bomb-proof?"
De Haldimar looked again.--"I do begin to fancy I see
something," he replied; "but so confusedly and indistinctly,
that I know not whether it be not merely an illusion of
my imagination. Perhaps it is a stray Indian dog devouring
the carcass of the wolf you shot yesterday."
"Be it dog or devil, here is for a trial of his
vulnerability.--Sambo, quick, my rifle."
The young negro handed to his master one of those long
heavy rifles, which the Indians usually make choice of
for killing the buffalo, elk, and other animals whose
wildness renders them difficult of approach. He then,
unbidden, and as if tutored to the task, placed himself
in a stiff upright position in front of his master, with
every nerve and muscle braced to the most inflexible
steadiness. The young officer next threw the rifle on
the right shoulder of the boy for a rest, and prepared
to take his aim on the object that had first attracted
his attention.
"Make haste, massa,--him go directly,--Sambo see him
get up."
All was breathless attention among the group of officers;
and when the sharp ticking sound produced by the cocking
of the rifle of their companion fell on their ears, they
bent their gaze upon the point towards which the murderous
weapon was levelled with the most aching and intense
interest.
"Quick, quick, massa,--him quite up," again whispered
the boy.
The words had scarcely passed his lips, when the crack
of the rifle, followed by a bright blaze of light, sounded
throughout the stillness of the night with exciting
sharpness. For an instant all was hushed; but scarcely
had the distant woods ceased to reverberate the
spirit-stirring echoes, when the anxious group of officers
were surprised and startled by a sudden flash, the report
of a second rifle from the common, and the whizzing of
a bullet past their ears. This was instantly succeeded
by a fierce, wild, and prolonged cry, expressive at once
of triumph and revenge. It was that peculiar cry which
an Indian utters when the reeking scalp has been wrested
from his murdered victim.
"Missed him, as I am a sinner," exclaimed Sir Everard,
springing to his feet, and knocking the butt of his rifle
on the ground with a movement of impatience. "Sambo, you
young scoundrel, it was all your fault,--you moved your
shoulder as I pulled the trigger. Thank Heaven, however,
the aim of the Indian appears to have been no better,
although the sharp whistling of his ball proves his piece
to have been well levelled for a random shot."
"His aim has been too true," faintly pronounced the voice
of one somewhat in the rear of his companions. "The ball
of the villain has found a lodgment in my breast. God
bless ye all, my boys; may your fates be more lucky than
mine!" While he yet spoke, Lieutenant Murphy sank into
the arms of Blessington and De Haldimar, who had flown
to him at the first intimation of his wound, and was in
the next instant a corpse.
CHAPTER III.
"To your companies, gentlemen, to your companies on the
instant. There is treason in the fort, and we had need
of all our diligence and caution. Captain de Haldimar is
missing, and the gate has been found unlocked. Quick,
gentlemen, quick; even now the savages may be around us,
though unseen."
"Captain de Haldimar missing!--the gate unlocked!"
exclaimed a number of voices. "Impossible!--surely we
are not betrayed by our own men."
"The sentinel has been relieved, and is now in irons,"
resumed the communicator of this startling piece of
intelligence. It was the adjutant of the regiment.
"Away, gentlemen, to your posts immediately," said Captain
Blessington, who, aided by De Haldimar, hastened to
deposit the stiffening body of the unfortunate Murphy,
which they still supported, upon the rampart. Then
addressing the adjutant, "Mr. Lawson, let a couple of
files be sent immediately to remove the body of their
officer."
"That shot which I heard from the common, as I approached,
was not fired at random, then, I find," observed the
adjutant, as they all now hastily descended to join their
men.--"Who has fallen?"
"Murphy, of the grenadiers," was the reply of one near
him.
"Poor fellow! our work commences badly," resumed Mr.
Lawson: "Murphy killed, and Captain de Haldimar missing.
We had few officers enough to spare before, and their
loss will be severely felt; I greatly fear, too, these
casualties may have a tendency to discourage the men."
"Nothing more easy than to supply their place, by promoting
some of our oldest sergeants," observed Ensign Delme,
who, as well as the ill-fated Murphy, had risen from the
ranks. "If they behave themselves well, the King will
confirm their appointments."
"But my poor brother, what of him, Lawson? what have you
learnt connected with his disappearance?" asked Charles
de Haldimar with deep emotion.
"Nothing satisfactory, I am sorry to say," returned the
adjutant; "in fact, the whole affair is a mystery which
no one can unravel; even at this moment the sentinel,
Frank Halloway, who is strongly suspected of being privy
to his disappearance, is undergoing a private examination
by your father the governor."
"Frank Halloway!" repeated the youth with a start of
astonishment; "surely Halloway could never prove a
traitor,--and especially to my brother, whose life he
once saved at the peril of his own."
The officers had now gained the parade, when the "Fall
in, gentlemen, fall in," quickly pronounced by Major
Blackwater, prevented all further questioning on the part
of the younger De Haldimar.
The scene, though circumscribed in limit, was picturesque
in effect, and might have been happily illustrated by
the pencil of the painter. The immediate area of the
parade was filled with armed men, distributed into three
divisions, and forming, with their respective ranks facing
outwards, as many sides of a hollow square, the mode of
defence invariably adopted by the Governor in all cases
of sudden alarm. The vacant space, which communicated
with the powder magazine, was left open to the movements
of three three-pounders, which were to support each face
in the event of its being broken by numbers. Close to
these, and within the square, stood the number of gunners
necessary to the duty of the field-pieces, each of which
was commanded by a bombardier. At the foot of the ramparts,
outside the square, and immediately opposite to their
several embrasures, were stationed the gunners required
for the batteries, under a non-commissioned officer also,
and the whole under the direction of a superior officer
of that arm, who now walked to and fro, conversing in a
low voice with Major Blackwater. One gunner at each of
these divisions of the artillery held in his hand a
blazing torch, reflecting with picturesque yet gloomy
effect the bright bayonets and equipment of the soldiers,
and the anxious countenances of the women and invalids,
who, bending eagerly through the windows of the surrounding
barracks, appeared to await the issue of these preparations
with an anxiety increased by the very consciousness of
having no other parts than those of spectators to play
in the scene that was momentarily expected.
In a few minutes from the falling in of the officers with
their respective companies, the clank of irons was heard
in the direction of the guard-room, and several forms
were seen slowly advancing into the area already occupied
as we have described. This party was preceded by the
Adjutant Lawson, who, advancing towards Major Blackwater,
communicated a message, that was followed by the command
of the latter officer for the three divisions to face
inwards. The officer of artillery also gave the word to
his men to form lines of single files immediately in the
rear of their respective guns, leaving space enough for
the entrance of the approaching party, which consisted
of half a dozen files of the guard, under a non-commissioned
officer, and one whose manacled limbs, rather than his
unaccoutred uniform, attested him to be not merely a
prisoner, but a prisoner confined for some serious and
flagrant offence.
This party now advanced through the vacant quarter of
the square, and took their stations immediately in the
centre. Here the countenances of each, and particularly
that of the prisoner, who was, if we may so term it, the
centre of that centre, were thrown into strong relief by
the bright glare of the torches as they were occasionally
waved in air, to disencumber them of their dross, so that
the features of the prisoner stood revealed to those
around as plainly as if it had been noonday. Not a sound,
not a murmur, escaped from the ranks: but, though the
etiquette and strict laws of military discipline chained
all speech, the workings of the inward mind remained
unchecked; and as they recognised in the prisoner Frank
Halloway, one of the bravest and boldest in the field,
and, as all had hitherto imagined, one of the most devoted
to his duty, an irrepressible thrill of amazement and
dismay crept throughout the frames, and for a moment
blanched the cheeks of those especially who belonged to
the same company. On being summoned from their fruitless
search after the stranger, to fall in without delay, it
had been whispered among the men that treason had crept
into the fort, and a traitor, partly detected in his
crime, had been arrested and thrown into irons; but the
idea of Frank Halloway being that traitor was the last
that could have entered into their thoughts, and yet they
now beheld him covered with every mark of ignominy, and
about to answer his high offence, in all human probability,
with his life.
With the officers the reputation of Halloway for courage
and fidelity stood no less high; but, while they secretly
lamented the circumstance of his defalcation, they could
not disguise from themselves the almost certainty of his
guilt, for each, as he now gazed upon the prisoner,
recollected the confusion and hesitation of manner he
had evinced when questioned by them preparatory to their
ascending to the ramparts.
Once more the suspense of the moment was interrupted by
the entrance of other forms into the area. They were
those of the Adjutant, followed by a drummer, bearing
his instrument, and the Governor's orderly, charged with
pens, ink, paper, and a book which, from its peculiar
form and colour, every one present knew to be a copy of
the Articles of War. A variety of contending emotions
passed through the breasts of many, as they witnessed
the silent progress of these preparations, rendered
painfully interesting by the peculiarity of their position,
and the wildness of the hour at which they thus found
themselves assembled together. The prisoner himself was
unmoved: he stood proud, calm, and fearless amid the
guard, of whom he had so recently formed one; and though
his countenance was pale, as much, perhaps, from a sense
of the ignominious character in which he appeared as from
more private considerations, still there was nothing to
denote either the abjectness of fear or the consciousness
of merited disgrace. Once or twice a low sobbing, that
proceeded at intervals from one of the barrack windows,
caught his ear, and he turned his glance in that direction
with a restless anxiety, which he exerted himself in the
instant afterwards to repress; but this was the only mark
of emotion he betrayed.
The above dispositions having been hastily made, the
adjutant and his assistants once more retired. After the
lapse of a minute, a tall martial-looking man, habited
in a blue military frock, and of handsome, though stern,
haughty, and inflexible features, entered the area. He
was followed by Major Blackwater, the captain of artillery,
and Adjutant Lawson.
"Are the garrison all present, Mr. Lawson? are the officers
all present? "
"All except those of the guard, sir," replied the Adjutant,
touching his hat with a submission that was scrupulously
exacted on all occasions of duty by his superior.
The Governor passed his hand for a moment over his brows.
It seemed to those around him as if the mention of that
guard had called up recollections which gave him pain;
and it might be so, for his eldest son, Captain Frederick
de Haldimar, had commanded the guard. Whither he had
disappeared, or in what manner, no one knew.
"Are the artillery all present, Captain Wentworth?" again
demanded the Governor, after a moment of silence, and in
his wonted firm authoritative voice.
"All present, sir," rejoined the officer, following the
example of the Adjutant, and saluting his chief.
"Then let a drum-head court-martial be assembled
immediately, Mr. Lawson, and without reference to the
roster let the senior officers be selected."
The Adjutant went round to the respective divisions, and
in a low voice warned Captain Blessington, and the four
senior subalterns, for that duty. One by one the officers,
as they were severally called upon, left their places in
the square, and sheathing their swords, stepped into that
part of the area appointed as their temporary court. They
were now all assembled, and Captain Blessington, the
senior of his rank in the garrison, was preparing to
administer the customary oaths, when the prisoner Halloway
advanced a pace or two in front of his escort, and removing
his cap, in a clear, firm, but respectful voice, thus
addressed the Governor:--
"Colonel de Haldimar, that I am no traitor, as I have
already told you, the Almighty God, before whom I swore
allegiance to his Majesty, can bear me witness. Appearances,
I own, are against me; but, so far from being a traitor,
I would have shed my last drop of blood in defence of
the garrison and your family.--Colonel de Haldimar," he
pursued, after a momentary pause, in which he seemed to
be struggling to subdue the emotion which rose, despite
of himself, to his throat, "I repeat, I am no traitor,
and I scorn the imputation--but here is my best answer
to the charge. This wound, (and he unbuttoned his jacket,
opened his shirt, and disclosed a deep scar upon his
white chest,) this wound I received in defence of my
captain's life at Quebec. Had I not loved him, I should
not so have exposed myself, neither but for that should
I now stand in the situation of shame and danger, in
which my comrades behold me."
Every heart was touched by this appeal--this bold and
manly appeal to the consideration of the Governor. The
officers, especially, who were fully conversant with the
general merit of Halloway, were deeply affected, and
Charles de Haldimar--the young, the generous, the feeling
Charles de Haldimar,--even shed tears.
"What mean you, prisoner?" interrogated the Governor,
after a short pause, during which he appeared to be
weighing and deducing inferences from the expressions
just uttered. "What mean you, by stating, but for that
(alluding to your regard for Captain de Haldimar) you
would not now be in this situation of shame and danger?"
The prisoner hesitated a moment; and then rejoined, but
in a tone that had less of firmness in it than
before,--"Colonel de Haldimar, I am not at liberty to
state my meaning; for, though a private soldier, I respect
my word, and have pledged myself to secrecy."
"You respect your word, and have pledged yourself to
secrecy! What mean you, man, by this rhodomontade? To
whom can you have pledged yourself, and for what, unless
it be to some secret enemy without the walls? Gentlemen,
proceed to your duty: it is evident that the man is a
traitor, even from his own admission.--On my life," he
pursued, more hurriedly, and speaking in an under tone,
as if to himself, "the fellow has been bribed by, and is
connected with--." The name escaped not his lips; for,
aware of the emotion he was betraying, he suddenly checked
himself, and assumed his wonted stern and authoritative
bearing.
Once more the prisoner addressed the Governor in the same
clear firm voice in which he had opened his appeal.
"Colonel de Haldimar, I have no connection with any living
soul without the fort; and again I repeat, I am no traitor,
but a true and loyal British soldier, as my services in
this war, and my comrades, can well attest. Still, I seek
not to shun that death which I have braved a dozen times
at least in the ---- regiment. All that I ask is, that
I may not be tried--that I may not have the shame of
hearing sentence pronounced against me YET; but if nothing
should occur before eight o'clock to vindicate my character
from this disgrace, I will offer up no further prayer
for mercy. In the name of that life, therefore, which I
once preserved to Captain de Haldimar, at the price of
my own blood, I entreat a respite from trial until then."
"In the name of God and all his angels, let mercy reach
your soul, and grant his prayer!"
Every ear was startled--every heart touched by the
plaintive, melancholy, silver tones of the voice that
faintly pronounced the last appeal, and all recognised
it for that of the young, interesting, and attached wife
of the prisoner. Again the latter turned his gaze towards
the window whence the sounds proceeded, and by the glare
of the torches a tear was distinctly seen by many coursing
down his manly cheek. The weakness was momentary. In the
next instant he closed his shirt and coat, and resuming
his cap, stepped back once more amid his guard, where he
remained stationary, with the air of one who, having
nothing further to hope, has resolved to endure the worst
that can happen with resignation and fortitude.
After the lapse of a few moments, again devoted to much
apparent deep thought and conjecture, the Governor once
more, and rather hurriedly, resumed,--
"In the event, prisoner, of this delay in your trial
being granted, will you pledge yourself to disclose the
secret to which you have alluded? Recollect, there is
nothing but that which can save your memory from being
consigned to infamy for ever; for who, among your comrades,
will believe the idle denial of your treachery, when
there is the most direct proof against you? If your secret
die with you, moreover, every honest man will consider
it as having been one so infamous and injurious to your
character, that you were ashamed to reveal it."
These suggestions of the Colonel were not without their
effect; for, in the sudden swelling of the prisoner's
chest, as allusion was made to the disgrace that would
attach to his memory, there was evidence of a high and
generous spirit, to whom obloquy was far more hateful
than even death itself.
"I do promise," he at length replied, stepping forward,
and uncovering himself as before,--"if no one appear to
justify my conduct at the hour I have named, a full
disclosure of all I know touching this affair shall be
made. And may God, of his infinite mercy, grant, for
Captain de Haldimar's sake, as well as mine, I may not
then be wholly deserted!"
There was something so peculiarly solemn and impressive
in the manner in which the unhappy man now expressed
himself, that a feeling of the utmost awe crept into the
bosoms of the surrounding throng; and more than one
veteran of the grenadiers, the company to which Halloway
belonged, was heard to relieve his chest of the long
pent-up sigh that struggled for release.
"Enough, prisoner," rejoined the Governor; "on this
condition do I grant your request; but recollect,--your
disclosure ensures no hope of pardon, unless, indeed,
you have the fullest proof to offer in your defence. Do
you perfectly understand me? "
"I do," replied the soldier firmly; and again he placed
his cap on his head, and retired a step or two back among
the guard.
"Mr. Lawson, let the prisoner be removed, and conducted
to one of the private cells. Who is the subaltern of
the guard?"
"Ensign Fortescue," was the answer.
"Then let Ensign Fortescue keep the key of the cell
himself. Tell him, moreover, I shall hold him individually
responsible for his charge."
Once more the prisoner was marched out of the area; and,
as the clanking sound of his chains became gradually
fainter in the distance, the same voice that had before
interrupted the proceedings, pronounced a "God be praised!--
God be praised!" with such melody of sorrow in its
intonations that no one could listen to it unmoved. Both
officers and men were more or less affected, and all
hoped--they scarcely knew why or what--but all hoped
something favourable would occur to save the life of the
brave and unhappy Frank Halloway.
Of the first interruption by the wife of the prisoner
the Governor had taken no notice; but on this repetition
of the expression of her feelings he briefly summoned,
in the absence of the Adjutant, the sergeant-major of
the regiment to his side.
"Sergeant-major Bletson, I desire that, in future, on
all occasions of this kind, the women of the regiment
may be kept out of the way. Look to it, sir!"
The sergeant-major, who had stood erect as his own halbert,
which he held before him in a saluting position, during
this brief admonition of his colonel, acknowledged, by
a certain air of deferential respect and dropping of the
eyes, unaccompanied by speech of any kind, that he felt
the reproof, and would, in future, take care to avoid
all similar cause for complaint. He then stalked stiffly
away, and resumed, in a few hasty strides, his position
in rear of the troops.
"Hard-hearted man!" pursued the same voice: "if my prayers
of gratitude to Heaven give offence, may the hour never
come when my lips shall pronounce their bitterest curse
upon your severity!"
There was something so painfully wild--so solemnly
prophetic--in these sounds of sorrow as they fell faintly
upon the ear, and especially under the extraordinary
circumstances of the night, that they might have been
taken for the warnings of some supernatural agency. During
their utterance, not even the breathing of human life
was to be heard in the ranks. In the next instant, however,
Sergeant-major Bletson was seen repairing, with long and
hasty strides, to the barrack whence the voice proceeded,
and the interruption was heard no more.
Meanwhile the officers, who had been summoned from the
ranks for the purpose of forming the court-martial, still
lingered in the centre of the square, apparently waiting
for the order of their superior, before they should resume
their respective stations. As the quick and comprehensive
glance of Colonel de Haldimar now embraced the group, he
at once became sensible of the absence of one of the
seniors, all of whom he had desired should be selected
for the court-martial.
"Mr. Lawson," he remarked, somewhat sternly, as the
Adjutant now returned from delivering over his prisoner
to Ensign Fortescue, "I thought I understood from your
report the officers were all present!"
"I believe, sir, my report will be found perfectly
correct," returned the Adjutant, in a tone which, without
being disrespectful, marked his offended sense of the
implication.
"And Lieutenant Murphy--"
"Is here, sir," said the Adjutant, pointing to a couple
of files of the guard, who were bearing a heavy burden,
and following into the square. "Lieutenant Murphy," he
pursued, "has been shot on the ramparts; and I have, as
directed by Captain Blessington, caused the body to be
brought here, that I may receive your orders respecting
the interment." As he spoke, he removed a long military
grey cloak, which completely enshrouded the corpse, and
disclosed, by the light of the still brightly flaming
torches of the gunners, the features of the unfortunate
Murphy.
"How did he meet his death?" enquired the governor;
without, however, manifesting the slightest surprise, or
appearing at all moved at the discovery.
"By a rifle shot fired from the common, near the old bomb
proof," observed Captain Blessington, as the adjutant
looked to him for the particular explanation he could
not render himself.
"Ah! this reminds me," pursued the austere
commandant,--"there was a shot fired also from the
ramparts. By whom, and at what?"
"By me, sir," said Lieutenant Valletort, coming forward
from the ranks, "and at what I conceived to be an Indian,
lurking as a spy upon the common."
"Then, Lieutenant Sir Everard Valletort, no repetition
of these firings, if you please; and let it be borne in
mind by all, that although, from the peculiar nature of
the service in which we are engaged, I so far depart from
the established regulations of the army as to permit my
officers to arm themselves with rifles, they are to be
used only as occasion may require in the hour of conflict,
and not for the purpose of throwing a whole garrison into
alarm by trials of skill and dexterity upon shadows at
this unseasonable hour."
"I was not aware, sir," returned Sir Everard proudly,
and secretly galled at being thus addressed before the
men, "it could be deemed a military crime to destroy an
enemy at whatever hour he might present himself, and
especially on such an occasion as the present. As for my
firing at a shadow, those who heard the yell that followed
the second shot, can determine that it came from no
shadow, but from a fierce and vindictive enemy. The cry
denoted even something more than the ordinary defiance
of an Indian: it seemed to express a fiendish sentiment
of personal triumph and revenge."
The governor started involuntarily. "Do you imagine, Sir
Everard Valletort, the aim of your rifle was true--that
you hit him?"
This question was asked so hurriedly, and in a tone so
different from that in which he had hitherto spoken, that
the officers around simultaneously raised their eyes to
those of their colonel with an expression of undissembled
surprise. He observed it, and instantly resumed his
habitual sternness of look and manner.
"I rather fear not, sir," replied Sir Everard, who had
principally remarked the emotion; "but may I hope (and
this was said with emphasis), in the evident disappointment
you experience at my want of success, my offence may be
overlooked?"
The governor fixed his penetrating eyes on the speaker,
as if he would have read his inmost mind; and then calmly,
and even impressively, observed,--
"Sir Everard Valletort, I do overlook the offence, and
hope you may as easily forgive yourself. It were well,
however, that your indiscretion, which can only find its
excuse in your being so young an officer, had not been
altogether without some good result. Had you killed or
disabled the--the savage, there might have been a decent
palliative offered; but what must be your feelings, sir,
when you reflect, the death of yon officer," and he
pointed to the corpse of the unhappy Murphy, "is, in a
great degree, attributable to yourself? Had you not
provoked the anger of the savage, and given a direction
to his aim by the impotent and wanton discharge of your
own rifle, this accident would never have happened."
This severe reproving of an officer, who had acted from
the most praiseworthy of motives, and who could not
possibly have anticipated the unfortunate catastrophe
that had occurred, was considered especially harsh and
unkind by every one present; and a low and almost inaudible
murmur passed through the company to which Sir Everard
was attached. For a minute or two that officer also
appeared deeply pained, not more from the reproof itself
than from the new light in which the observation of his
chief had taught him to view, for the first time, the
causes that had led to the fall of Murphy. Finding,
however, that the governor had no further remark to
address to him, he once more returned to his station in
the ranks.
"Mr. Lawson," resumed the commandant, turning to the
adjutant, "let this victim be carried to the spot on
which he fell, and there interred. I know no better grave
for a soldier than beneath the sod that has been moistened
with his blood. Recollect," he continued, as the adjutant
once more led the party out of the area,--"no firing,
Mr. Lawson. The duty must be silently performed, and
without the risk of provoking a forest of arrows, or a
shower of bullets from the savages. Major Blackwater,"
he pursued, as soon as the corpse had been removed, "let
the men pile their arms even as they now stand, and remain
ready to fall in at a minute's notice. Should any thing
extraordinary happen before the morning, you will, of
course, apprise me." He then strode out of the area with
the same haughty and measured step that had characterised
his entrance.
"Our colonel does not appear to be in one of his most
amiable moods to-night," observed Captain Blessington,
as the officers, after having disposed of their respective
companies, now proceeded along the ramparts to assist at
the last funeral offices of their unhappy associate.
"He was disposed to be severe, and must have put you, in
some measure, out of conceit with your favourite rifle,
Valletort."
"True," rejoined the Baronet, who had already rallied
from the momentary depression of his spirits, "he hit me
devilish hard, I confess, and was disposed to display
more of the commanding officer than quite suits my ideas
of the service. His words were as caustic as his looks;
and could both have pierced me to the quick, there was
no inclination on his part wanting. By my soul I could.
...but I forgive him. He is the father of my friend:
and for that reason will I chew the cud of my mortification,
nor suffer, if possible, a sense of his unkindness to
rankle at my heart. At all events, Blessington, my mind
is made up, and resign or exchange I certainly shall the
instant I can find a decent loop-hole to creep out of."
Sir Everard fancied the ear of his captain was alone
listening to these expressions of his feeling, or in all
probability he would not have uttered them. As he concluded
the last sentence, however, he felt his arm gently grasped
by one who walked a pace or two silently in their rear.
He turned, and recognised Charles de Haldimar.
"I am sure, Valletort, you will believe how much pained
I have been at the severity of my father; but, indeed,
there was nothing personally offensive intended. Blessington
can tell you as well as myself it is his manner altogether.
Nay, that although he is the first in seniority after
Blackwater, the governor treats him with the same distance
and hauteur he would use towards the youngest ensign in
the service. Such are the effects of his long military
habits, and his ideas of the absolutism of command. Am
I not right, Blessington?"
"Quite right, Charles. Sir Everard may satisfy himself
his is no solitary instance of the stern severity of your
father. Still, I confess, notwithstanding the rigidity
of manner which he seems, on all occasions, to think so
indispensable to the maintenance of authority in a
commanding officer, I never knew him so inclined to find
fault as he is to-night."
"Perhaps," observed Valletort, good humouredly, "his
conscience is rather restless; and he is willing to get
rid of it and his spleen together. I would wager my rifle
against the worthless scalp of the rascal I fired at
to-night, that this same stranger, whose asserted appearance
has called us from our comfortable beds, is but the
creation of his disturbed dreams. Indeed, how is it
possible any thing formed of flesh and blood could have
escaped us with the vigilant watch that has been kept on
the ramparts? The old gentleman certainly had that illusion
strongly impressed on his mind when he so sapiently spoke
of my firing at a shadow."
"But the gate," interrupted Charles de Haldimar, with
something of mild reproach in his tones,--"you forget,
Valletort, the gate was found unlocked, and that my
brother is missing. HE, at least, was flesh and blood,
as you say, and yet he has disappeared. What more probable,
therefore, than that this stranger is at once the cause
and the agent of his abduction?"
"Impossible, Charles," observed Captain Blessington;
"Frederick was in the midst of his guard. How, therefore,
could he be conveyed away without the alarm being given?
Numbers only could have succeeded in so desperate an
enterprise; and yet there is no evidence, or even suspicion,
of more than one individual having been here."
"It is a singular affair altogether," returned Sir Everard,
musingly. "Of two things, however, I am satisfied. The
first is, that the stranger, whoever he may be, and if
he really has been here, is no Indian; the second, that
he is personally known to the governor, who has been, or
I mistake much, more alarmed at his individual presence
than if Ponteac and his whole band had suddenly broken
in upon us. Did you remark his emotion, when I dwelt on
the peculiar character of personal triumph and revenge
which the cry of the lurking villain outside seemed to
express? and did you notice the eagerness with which he
enquired if I thought I had hit him? Depend upon it,
there is more in all this than is dreamt of in our
philosophy."
"And it was your undisguised perception of that emotion,"
remarked Captain Blessington, "that drew down his severity
upon your own head. It was, however, too palpable not to
be noticed by all; and I dare say conjecture is as busily
and as vaguely at work among our companions as it is with
us. The clue to the mystery, in a great degree, now dwells
with Frank Halloway; and to him we must look for its
elucidation. His disclosure will be one, I apprehend,
full of ignominy to himself, but of the highest interest
and importance to us all. And yet I know not how to
believe the man the traitor he appears."
"Did you remark that last harrowing exclamation of his
wife?" observed Charles de Haldimar, in a tone of
unspeakable melancholy. "How fearfully prophetic it
sounded in my ears. I know not how it is," he pursued,
"but I wish I had not heard those sounds; for since that
moment I have had a sad strange presentiment of evil at
my heart. Heaven grant my poor brother may make his
appearance, as I still trust he will, at the hour Halloway
seems to expect, for if not, the latter most assuredly
dies. I know my father well; and, if convicted by a court
martial, no human power can alter the destiny that awaits
Frank Halloway."
"Rally, my dear Charles, rally," said Sir Everard,
affecting a confidence he did not feel himself; "indulge
not in these idle and superstitious fancies. I pity
Halloway from my soul, and feel the deepest interest in
his pretty and unhappy wife; but that is no reason why
one should attach importance to the incoherent expressions
wrung from her in the agony of grief."
"It is kind of you, Valletort, to endeavour to cheer my
spirits, when, if the truth were confessed, you acknowledge
the influence of the same feelings. I thank you for the
attempt, but time alone can show how far I shall have
reason, or otherwise, to lament the occurrences of this
night."
They had now reached that part of the ramparts whence
the shot from Sir Everard's rifle had been fired. Several
men were occupied in digging a grave in the precise spot
on which the unfortunate Murphy had stood when he received
his death-wound; and into this, when completed, the body,
enshrouded in the cloak already alluded to, was deposited
by his companions.
CHAPTER IV.
While the adjutant was yet reading, in a low and solemn
voice, the service for the dead, a fierce and distant
yell, as if from a legion of devils, burst suddenly from
the forest, and brought the hands of the startled officers
instinctively to their swords. This appalling cry lasted,
without interruption, for many minutes, and was then as
abruptly checked as it had been unexpectedly delivered.
A considerable pause succeeded, and then again it rose
with even more startling vehemence than before. By one
unaccustomed to those devilish sounds, no distinction
could have been made in the two several yells that had
been thus savagely pealed forth; but those to whom practice
and long experience in the warlike habits and customs of
the Indians had rendered their shouts familiar, at once
divined, or fancied they divined, the cause. The first
was, to their conception, a yell expressive at once of
vengeance and disappointment in pursuit,--perhaps of some
prisoner who had escaped from their toils; the second,
of triumph and success,--in all probability, indicative
of the recapture of that prisoner. For many minutes
afterwards the officers continued to listen, with the
most aching attention, for a repetition of the cry, or
even fainter sounds, that might denote either a nearer
approach to the fort, or the final departure of the
Indians. After the second yell, however, the woods, in
the heart of which it appeared to have been uttered, were
buried in as profound a silence as if they had never yet
echoed back the voice of man; and all at length became
satisfied that the Indians, having accomplished some
particular purpose, had retired once more to their distant
encampments for the night. Captain Erskine was the first
who broke the almost breathless silence that prevailed
among themselves.
"On my life De Haldimar is a prisoner with the Indians.
He has been attempting his escape,--has been
detected,--followed, and again fallen into their hands.
I know their infernal yells but too well. The last
expressed their savage joy at the capture of a prisoner;
and there is no one of us missing but De Haldimar."
"Not a doubt of it," said Captain Blessington; "the cry
was certainly what you describe it, and Heaven only knows
what will be the fate of our poor friend."
No other officer spoke, for all were oppressed by the
weight of their own feelings, and sought rather to give
indulgence to speculation in secret, than to share their
impressions with their companions. Charles de Haldimar
stood a little in the rear, leaning his head upon his
hand against the box of the sentry, (who was silently,
though anxiously, pacing his walk,) and in an attitude
expressive of the deepest dejection and sorrow.
"I suppose I must finish Lawson's work, although I am
but a poor hand at this sort of thing," resumed Captain
Erskine, taking up the prayer book the adjutant had, in
hastening on the first alarm to get the men under arms,
carelessly thrown on the grave of the now unconscious
Murphy.
He then commenced the service at the point where Mr.
Lawson had so abruptly broken off, and went through the
remainder of the prayers. A very few minutes sufficed
for the performance of this solemn duty, which was effected
by the faint dim light of the at length dawning day, and
the men in attendance proceeded to fill up the grave of
their officer.
Gradually the mists, that had fallen during the latter
hours of the night, began to ascend from the common, and
disperse themselves in air, conveying the appearance of
a rolling sheet of vapour retiring Back upon itself, and
disclosing objects in succession, until the eye could
embrace all that came within its extent of vision. As
the officers yet lingered near the rude grave of their
companion, watching with abstracted air the languid and
almost mechanical action of their jaded men, as they
emptied shovel after shovel of the damp earth over the
body of its new tenant, they were suddenly startled by
an expression of exultation from Sir Everard Valletort.
"By Jupiter, I have pinked him," he exclaimed triumphantly.
"I knew my rifle could not err; and as for my sight, I
have carried away too many prizes in target-shooting to
have been deceived in that. How delighted the old governor
will be, Charles, to hear this. No more lecturing, I am
sure, for the next six months at least;" and the young
officer rubbed his hands together, at the success of his
shot, with as much satisfaction and unconcern for the
future, as if he had been in his own native England; in
the midst of a prize-ring.
Roused by the observation of his friend, De Haldimar
quitted his position near the sentry box, and advanced
to the outer edge of the rampart. To him, as to his
companions, the outline of the old bomb proof was now
distinctly visible, but it was sometime before they could
discover, in the direction in which Valletort pointed,
a dark speck upon the common; and this so indistinctly,
they could scarcely distinguish it with the naked eye.
"Your sight is quite equal to your aim, Sir Everard,"
remarked Lieutenant Johnstone, one of Erskine's subalterns,
"and both are decidedly superior to mine; yet I used to
be thought a good rifleman too, and have credit for an
eye no less keen than that of an Indian. You have the
advantage of me, however; for I honestly admit I never
could have picked off yon fellow in the dark as you have
done."
As the dawn increased, the dark shadow of a human form,
stretched at its length upon the ground, became perceptible;
and the officers, with one unanimous voice, bore loud
testimony to the skill and dexterity of him who had,
under such extreme disadvantages, accomplished the death
of their skulking enemy.
"Bravo, Valletort," said Charles de Haldimar, recovering
his spirits, as much from the idea, now occurring to him,
that this might indeed be the stranger whose appearance
had so greatly disturbed his father, as from the
gratification he felt in the praises bestowed on his
friend. "Bravo, my dear fellow;" then approaching, and
in a half whisper, "when next I write to Clara, I shall
request her, with my cousin's assistance, to prepare a
chaplet of bays, wherewith I shall myself crown you as
their proxy. But what is the matter now, Valletort? Why
stand you there gazing upon the common, as if the victim
of your murderous aim was rising from his bloody couch,
to reproach you with his death? Tell me, shall I write
to Clara for the prize, or will you receive it from her
own hands?"
"Bid her rather pour her curses on my head; and to those,
De Haldimar, add your own," exclaimed Sir Everard, at
length raising himself from the statue-like position he
had assumed. "Almighty God," he pursued, in the same tone
of deep agony, "what have I done? Where, where shall I
hide myself?"
As he spoke he turned away from his companions, and
covering his eyes with his hand, with quick and unequal
steps, even like those of a drunken man, walked, or rather
ran, along the rampart, as if fearful of being overtaken.
The whole group of officers, and Charles de Haldimar in
particular, were struck with dismay at th |
