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"Mine ear is open, and my heart prepared:
The worst is worldly loss thou canst unfold:
Say, is my kingdom lost?" |
SHAKESPEARE. It was a feature peculiar to the colonial wars of North America, that
the toils and dangers of the wilderness were to be encountered before
the adverse hosts could meet. A wide and apparently an impervious
boundary of forests severed the possessions of the hostile provinces of
France and England. The hardy... |
But, emulating the patience and self-denial of the
practised native warriors, they learned to overcome every difficulty;
and it would seem that, in time, there was no recess of the woods so
dark, nor any secret place so lovely, that it might claim exemption from
the inroads of those who had pledged their blood to satia... |
Perhaps no district throughout the wide extent of the intermediate
frontiers can furnish a livelier picture of the cruelty and fierceness
of the savage warfare of those periods than the country which lies
between the head waters of the Hudson and the adjacent lakes. |
The facilities which nature had there offered to the march of the
combatants were too obvious to be neglected. The lengthened sheet of the
Champlain stretched from the frontiers of Canada, deep within the
borders of the neighboring province of New York, forming a natural
passage across half the distance that the French... |
Winding its way among countless islands, and imbedded in mountains, the
"holy lake" extended a dozen leagues still farther to the south. With
the high plain that there interposed itself to the further passage of
the water, commenced a portage of as many miles, which conducted the
adventurer to the banks of the Hudson, ... |
While, in the pursuit of their daring plans of annoyance, the restless
enterprise of the French even attempted the distant and difficult gorges
of the Alleghany, it may easily be imagined that their proverbial
acuteness would not overlook the natural advantages of the district we
have just described. It became, emphati... |
It was in this scene of strife and bloodshed that the incidents we shall
attempt to relate occurred, during the third year of the war which
England and France last waged for the possession of a country that
neither was destined to retain. |
The imbecility of her military leaders abroad, and the fatal want of
energy in her councils at home, had lowered the character of Great
Britain from the proud elevation on which it had been placed, by the
talents and enterprise of her former warriors and statesmen. No longer
dreaded by her enemies, her servants were fa... |
The alarmed colonists believed that the
yells of the savages mingled with every fitful gust of wind that issued
from the interminable forests of the west. The terrific character of
their merciless enemies increased immeasurably the natural horrors of
warfare. Numberless recent massacres were still vivid in their
recoll... |
They had recently seen a chosen army from that country, which,
reverencing as a mother, they had blindly believed invincible--an army
led by a chief who had been selected from a crowd of trained warriors,
for his rare military endowments, disgracefully routed by a handful of
French and Indians, and only saved from anni... |
[2] A wide frontier had been laid naked by this unexpected
disaster, and more substantial evils were preceded by a thousand
fanciful and imaginary dangers. |
Even the most confident and the
stoutest hearts began to think the issue of the contest was becoming
doubtful; and that abject class was hourly increasing in numbers, who
thought they foresaw all the possessions of the English crown in America
subdued by their Christian foes, or laid waste by the inroads of their
relen... |
The veteran Scotchman just named held the first, with a
regiment of regulars and a few provincials; a force really by far too
small to make head against the formidable power that Montcalm was
leading to the foot of his earthen mounds. At the latter, however, lay
General Webb, who commanded the armies of the king in the... |
When, therefore, intelligence was received at the fort, which covered
the southern termination of the portage between the Hudson and the
lakes, that Montcalm had been seen moving up the Champlain, with an army
"numerous as the leaves on the trees," its truth was admitted with more
of the craven reluctance of fear than ... |
It has already been mentioned that the distance between
these two posts was less than five leagues. The rude path, which
originally formed their line of communication, had been widened for the
passage of wagons; so that the distance which had been travelled by the
son of the forest in two hours, might easily be effecte... |
But under the influence of their degraded fortunes, both officers and
men appeared better disposed to await the approach of their formidable
antagonists, within their works, than to resist the progress of their
march, by emulating the successful example of the French at Fort du
Quesne, and striking a blow on their adva... |
After the first surprise of the intelligence had a little abated, a
rumor was spread through the entrenched camp, which stretched along the
margin of the Hudson, forming a chain of outworks to the body of the
fort itself, that a chosen detachment of fifteen hundred men was to
depart, with the dawn, for William Henry, t... |
According to the orders of the preceding night, the heavy sleep of the
army was broken by the rolling of the warning drums, whose rattling
echoes were heard issuing, on the damp morning air, out of every vista
of the woods, just as day began to draw the shaggy outlines of some tall
pines of the vicinity, on the opening... |
In an instant the whole camp was in motion; the meanest
soldier arousing from his lair to witness the departure of his
comrades, and to share in the excitement and incidents of the hour. The
simple array of the chosen band was soon completed. |
While the regular
and trained hirelings of the king marched with haughtiness to the right
of the line, the less pretending colonists took their humbler position
on its left, with a docility that long practice had rendered easy. The
scouts departed; strong guards preceded and followed the lumbering
vehicles that bore th... |
A third wore the trappings and arms of an officer of the staff;
while the rest, from the plainness of the housings, and the travelling
mails with which they were encumbered, were evidently fitted for the
reception of as many menials, who were, seemingly, already awaiting the
pleasure of those they served. At a respectf... |
The deepest sounds of the retiring and invisible column had ceased to be
borne on the breeze to the listeners, and the latest straggler had
already disappeared in pursuit; but there still remained the signs of
another departure, before a log cabin of unusual size and
accommodations, in front of which those sentinels pa... |
A
sky-blue coat, with short and broad skirts and low cape, exposed a long
thin neck, and longer and thinner legs, to the worst animadversions of
the evil disposed. |
Erect, his stature
surpassed that of his fellows; seated, he appeared reduced within the
ordinary limits of the race. The same contrariety in his members seemed
to exist throughout the whole man. His head was large; his shoulders
narrow; his arms long and dangling; while his hands were small, if not
delicate. His legs ... |
The ill-assorted and injudicious attire of the
individual only served to render his awkwardness more conspicuous. |
His nether garment was of yellow nankeen, closely
fitted to the shape, and tied at his bunches of knees by large knots of
white ribbon, a good deal sullied by use. Clouded cotton stockings, and
shoes, on one of the latter of which was a plated spur, completed the
costume of the lower extremity of this figure, no curve ... |
He had all the bones and joints
of other men, without any of their proportions. |
The person of this individual was to the last degree ungainly, without
being in any particular manner deformed. |
While the common herd stood aloof, in deference to the quarters of Webb,
the figure we have described stalked in the centre of the domestics,
freely expressing his censures or commendations on the merits of the
horses, as by chance they displeased or satisfied his judgment. |
he said, in a voice as remarkable for the softness and
sweetness of its tones, as was his person for its rare proportions: "I
may speak of these things, and be no braggart; for I have been down at
both havens; that which is situate at the mouth of Thames, and is named
after the capital of Old England, and that which is... |
"This beast, I rather conclude, friend, is not of home raising, but is
from foreign lands, or perhaps from the little island itself over the
blue water?" |
Receiving no reply to this extraordinary appeal, which in truth, as it
was delivered with the vigor of full and sonorous tones, merited some
sort of notice, he who had thus sung forth the language of the Holy Book
turned to the silent figure to whom he had unwittingly addressed
himself, and found a new and more powerfu... |
The colors of
the war-paint had blended in dark confusion about his fierce
countenance, and rendered his swarthy lineaments still more savage and
repulsive than if art had attempted an effect which had been thus
produced by chance. His eye, alone, which glistened like a fiery star
amid lowering clouds, was to be seen i... |
It is impossible to say what unlooked-for remark this short and silent
communication, between two such singular men, might have elicited from
the white man, had not his active curiosity been again drawn to other
objects. A general movement among the domestics, and a low sound of
gentle voices, announced the approach of... |
A young man, in the dress of an officer, conducted to their steeds two
females, who, as it was apparent by their dresses, were prepared to
encounter the fatigues of a journey in the woods. One, and she was the
most juvenile in her appearance, though both were young, permitted
glimpses of her dazzling complexion, fair g... |
She smiled, as if in
pity at her own momentary forgetfulness, discovering by the act a row of
teeth that would have shamed the purest ivory; when, replacing the veil,
she bowed her face, and rode in silence, like one whose thoughts were
abstracted from the scene around her. |
No sooner were these females seated, than their attendant sprang lightly
into the saddle of the war-horse, when the whole three bowed to Webb,
who, in courtesy, awaited their parting on the threshold of his cabin,
and turning their horses' heads, they proceeded at a slow amble,
followed by their train, towards the nort... |
The tresses of this lady were
shining and black, like the plumage of the raven. Her complexion was not
brown, but it rather appeared charged with the color of the rich blood,
that seemed ready to burst its bounds. And yet there was neither
coarseness nor want of shadowing in a countenance that was exquisitely
regular a... |
"Sola, sola, wo, ha, ho, sola!" SHAKESPEARE. While one of the lovely beings we have so cursorily presented to the
reader was thus lost in thought, the other quickly recovered from the
alarm which induced the exclamation, and, laughing at her own weakness,
she inquired of the youth who rode by her side,-- |
"Are such spectres frequent in the woods, Heyward; or is this sight an
especial entertainment on our behalf? If the latter, gratitude must
close our mouths; but if the former, both Cora and I shall have need to
draw largely on that stock of hereditary courage which we boast, even
before we are made to encounter the red... |
"Yon Indian is a 'runner' of the army; and, after the fashion of his
people, he may be accounted a hero," returned the officer. "He has
volunteered to guide us to the lake, by a path but little known, sooner
than if we followed the tardy movements of the column: and, by
consequence, more agreeably." |
"I like him not," said the lady, shuddering, partly in assumed, yet more
in real terror. "You know him, Duncan, or you would not trust yourself
so freely to his keeping?" |
[3] He was
brought among us, as I have heard, by some strange accident in which
your father was interested, and in which the savage was rigidly dealt
by--but I forget the idle tale; it is enough, that he is now our
friend." |
He is
said to be a Canadian, too; and yet he served with our friends the
Mohawks, who, as you know, are one of the six allied nations. |
"Say, rather, Alice, that I would not trust you. I do know him, or he
would not have my confidence, and least of all at this moment. |
"If he has been my father's enemy, I like him still less!" exclaimed the
now really anxious girl. |
"Will you not speak to him, Major Heyward, that
I may hear his tones? Foolish though it may be, you have often heard me
avow my faith in the tones of the human voice!" |
"It would be in vain; and answered, most probably, by an ejaculation.
Though he may understand it, he affects, like most of his people, to be
ignorant of the English; and least of all will he condescend to speak
it, now that war demands the utmost exercise of his dignity. But he
stops; the private path by which we are ... |
The conjecture of Major Heyward was true. When they reached the spot
where the Indian stood, pointing into the thicket that fringed the
military road, a narrow and blind path, which might, with some little
inconvenience, receive one person at a time, became visible. |
"Here, then, lies our way," said the young man, in a low voice.
"Manifest no distrust, or you may invite the danger you appear to
apprehend." |
"Cora, what think you?" asked the reluctant fair one. "If we journey
with the troops, though we may find their presence irksome, shall we not
feel better assurance of our safety?" |
"Being little accustomed to the practices of the savages, Alice, you
mistake the place of real danger," said Heyward. "If enemies have
reached the portage at all, a thing by no means probable, as our scouts
are abroad, they will surely be found skirting the column where scalps
abound the most. The route of the detachme... |
"Should we distrust the man because his manners are not our manners, and
that his skin is dark?" coldly asked Cora. |
The youth had turned to speak to the dark-eyed Cora, when the
distant sound of horses' hoofs, clattering over the roots of the broken
way in his rear, caused him to check his charger; and, as his companions
drew their reins at the same instant, the whole party came to a halt, in
order to obtain an explanation of the un... |
Alice hesitated no longer; but giving her Narragansett[4] a smart cut
of the whip, she was the first to dash aside the slight branches of the
bushes, and to follow the runner along the dark and tangled pathway. The
young man regarded the last speaker in open admiration, and even
permitted her fairer though certainly no... |
In a few moments a colt was seen gliding, like a fallow-deer, among the
straight trunks of the pines; and, in another instant, the person of the
ungainly man described in the preceding chapter, came into view, with as
much rapidity as he could excite his meagre beast to endure without
coming to an open rupture. Until n... |
The industry and movements of the rider were not less remarkable than
those of the ridden. At each change in the evolutions of the latter, the
former raised his tall person in the stirrups; producing, in this
manner, by the undue elongation of his legs, such sudden growths and
diminishings of the stature, as baffled ev... |
The frown which had gathered around the handsome, open, and manly brow
of Heyward, gradually relaxed, and his lips curled into a slight smile,
as he regarded the stranger. Alice made no very powerful effort to
control her merriment; and even the dark, thoughtful eye of Cora lighted
with a humor that, it would seem, the... |
"Seek you any here?" demanded Heyward, when the other had arrived
sufficiently nigh to abate his speed; "I trust you are no messenger of
evil tidings?" |
"Even so," replied the stranger, making diligent use of his triangular
castor, to produce a circulation in the close air of the woods, and
leaving his hearers in doubt to which of the young man's questions he
responded; when, however, he had cooled his face, and recovered his
breath, he continued, "I hear you are ridin... |
"You appear to possess the privilege of a casting vote," returned
Heyward; "we are three, whilst you have consulted no one but yourself." |
"Even so. The first point to be obtained is to know one's own mind. Once
sure of that, and where women are concerned, it is not easy, the next
is, to act up to the decision. |
"If you journey to the lake, you have mistaken your route," said
Heyward, haughtily; "the highway thither is at least half a mile behind
you." |
"Even so," returned the stranger, nothing daunted by this cold
reception; "I have tarried at 'Edward' a week, and I should be dumb not
to have inquired the road I was to journey; and if dumb there would be
an end to my calling." After simpering in a small way, like one whose
modesty prohibited a more open expression of... |
"A most arbitrary, if not a hasty decision!" exclaimed Heyward,
undecided whether to give vent to his growing anger, or to laugh in the
other's face. "But you speak of instruction, and of a profession; are
you an adjunct to the provincial corps, as a master of the noble science
of defence and offence; or, perhaps, you ... |
The stranger regarded his interrogator a moment, in wonder; and then,
losing every mark of self-satisfaction in an expression of solemn
humility, he answered:-- |
"Of offence, I hope there is none, to either party: of defence, I make
none--by God's good mercy, having committed no palpable sin since last
entreating his pardoning grace. I understand not your allusions about
lines and angles; and I leave expounding to those who have been called
and set apart for that holy office. I... |
"The man is, most manifestly, a disciple of Apollo," cried the amused
Alice, "and I take him under my own especial protection. Nay, throw
aside that frown, Heyward, and in pity to my longing ears, suffer him to
journey in our train. Besides," she added, in a low and hurried voice,
casting a glance at the distant Cora, ... |
"Think you, Alice, that I would trust those I love by this secret path,
did I imagine such need could happen?" |
"Nay, nay, I think not of it now; but this strange man amuses me; and if
he 'hath music in his soul,' let us not churlishly reject his company."
She pointed persuasively along the path with her riding-whip, while
their eyes met in a look which the young man lingered a moment to
prolong; then yielding to her gentle infl... |
"I am glad to encounter thee, friend," continued the maiden, waving her
hand to the stranger to proceed, as she urged her Narragansett to renew
its amble. "Partial relatives have almost persuaded me that I am not
entirely worthless in a duet myself; and we may enliven our wayfaring by
indulging in our favorite pursuit.... |
"It is refreshing both to the spirits and to the body to indulge in
psalmody, in befitting seasons," returned the master of song,
unhesitatingly complying with her intimation to follow; "and nothing
would relieve the mind more than such a consoling communion. But four
parts are altogether necessary to the perfection of... |
Yon officer of the king, who hesitated to admit me to his company, might
fill the latter, if one may judge from the intonations of his voice in
common dialogue." |
"Judge not too rashly from hasty and deceptive appearances," said the
lady, smiling; "though Major Heyward can assume such deep notes on
occasion, believe me, his natural tones are better fitted for a mellow
tenor than the bass you heard." |
"Is he, then, much practised in the art of psalmody?" demanded her
simple companion. Alice felt disposed to laugh, though she succeeded in suppressing her
merriment, ere she answered,-- |
"I apprehend that he is rather addicted to profane song. The chances of
a soldier's life are but little fitted for the encouragement of more
sober inclinations." |
None can say they have ever known me neglect my gifts! I am thankful that, though my boyhood may be said to have been set
apart, like the youth of the royal David, for the purposes of music, no
syllable of rude verse has ever profaned my lips." |
"Man's voice is given to him, like his other talents, to be used, and
not to be abused. |
"You have, then, limited your efforts to sacred song?" "Even so. As the psalms of David exceed all other language, so does the
psalmody that has been fitted to them by the divines and sages of the
land, surpass all vain poetry. |
Happily, I may say that I utter nothing
but the thoughts and the wishes of the King of Israel himself; for
though the times may call for some slight changes, yet does this version
which we use in the colonies of New England, so much exceed all other
versions, that, by its richness, its exactness, and its spiritual
simp... |
I never abide in any place, sleeping or waking, without
an example of this gifted work. 'Tis the six-and-twentieth edition,
promulgated at Boston, Anno Domini 1744; and is entitled, _The Psalms,
Hymns, and Spiritual Songs of the Old and New Testaments; faithfully
translated into English Metre, for the Use, Edification,... |
During this eulogium on the rare production of his native poets, the
stranger had drawn the book from his pocket, and, fitting a pair of
iron-rimmed spectacles to his nose, opened the volume with a care and
veneration suited to its sacred purposes. Then, without circumlocution
or apology, first pronouncing the word "St... |
"How good it is, O see,
And how it pleaseth well,
Together, e'en in unity,
For brethren so to dwell. It's like the choice ointment,
From the head to the beard did go:
Down Aaron's beard, that downward went,
His garment's skirts unto." |
It
would seem that long practice had rendered this manual accompaniment
necessary; for it did not cease until the preposition which the poet had
selected for the close of his verse, had been duly delivered like a word
of two syllables. |
The delivery of these skilful rhymes was accompanied, on the part of the
stranger, by a regular rise and fall of his right hand, which
terminated at the descent, by suffering the fingers to dwell a moment on
the leaves of the little volume; and on the ascent, by such a flourish
of the member as none but the initiated m... |
Such an innovation on the silence and retirement of the forest could not
fail to enlist the ears of those who journeyed at so short a distance in
advance. The Indian muttered a few words in broken English to Heyward,
who, in his turn, spoke to the stranger; at once interrupting, and, for
the time, closing his musical e... |
"Though we are not in danger, common prudence would teach us to journey
through this wilderness in as quiet a manner as possible. You will,
then, pardon me, Alice, should I diminish your enjoyments, by requesting
this gentleman to postpone his chant until a safer opportunity." |
"You will diminish them, indeed," returned the arch girl, "for never did
I hear a more unworthy conjunction of execution and language, than that
to which I have been listening; and I was far gone in a learned inquiry
into the causes of such an unfitness between sound and sense, when you
broke the charm of my musings by... |
He paused and turned his head
quickly towards a thicket, and then bent his eyes suspiciously on their
guide, who continued his steady pace, in undisturbed gravity. The young
man smiled to himself, for he believed he had mistaken some shining
berry of the woods for the glistening eyeballs of a prowling savage, and
he ro... |
"I know not what you call my bass," said Heyward, piqued at her remark,
"but I know that your safety, and that of Cora, is far dearer to me than
could be any orchestra of Handel's music." |
Major Heyward was mistaken only in suffering his youthful and generous
pride to suppress his active watchfulness. The cavalcade had not long
passed, before the branches of the bushes that formed the thicket were
cautiously moved asunder, and a human visage, as fiercely wild as savage
art and unbridled passions could ma... |
"Before these fields were shorn and tilled,
Full to the brim our rivers flowed;
The melody of waters filled
The fresh and boundless wood;
And torrents dashed, and rivulets played,
And fountains spouted in the shade." |
BRYANT. Leaving the unsuspecting Heyward and his confiding companions to
penetrate still deeper into a forest that contained such treacherous
inmates, we must use an author's privilege, and shift the scene a few
miles to the westward of the place where we have last seen them. |
On that day, two men were lingering on the banks of a small but rapid
stream, within an hour's journey of the encampment of Webb, like those
who awaited the appearance of an absent person, or the approach of some
expected event. The vast canopy of woods spread itself to the margin of
the river overhanging the water, an... |
Still that breathing silence, which marks the drowsy
sultriness of an American landscape in July, pervaded the secluded spot,
interrupted only by the low voices of the men, the occasional and lazy
tap of a woodpecker, the discordant cry of some gaudy jay, or a swelling
on the ear, from the dull roar of a distant waterf... |
His closely shaved head, on which no other hair than the well
known and chivalrous scalping tuft[5] was preserved, was without
ornament of any kind, with the exception of a solitary eagle's plume,
that crossed his crown, and depended over the left shoulder. |
A tomahawk
and scalping-knife, of English manufacture, were in his girdle; while a
short military rifle, of that sort with which the policy of the whites
armed their savage allies, lay carelessly across his bare and sinewy
knee. |
The expanded chest, full formed limbs, and grave countenance of
this warrior, would denote that he had reached the vigor of his days,
though no symptoms of decay appeared to have yet weakened his manhood. |
These feeble and broken sounds were, however, too familiar to the
foresters, to draw their attention from the more interesting matter of
their dialogue. While one of these loiterers showed the red skin and
wild accoutrements of a native of the woods, the other exhibited,
through the mask of his rude and nearly savage e... |
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