We pass over a long interval of quite three years. The vicissitudes of
the Revolution had not materially affected the relations of the several
parties to our narrative. During this period the patriots of South
Carolina had been uniformly successful. They had beaten away the British
from their chief city, and had invariably chastised the loyalists in all
their attempts to make a diversion in favor of the foreign enemy. But
events were changing. These performances had not been effected but at
great sacrifice of blood and treasure, and a formidable British invasion
found the State no longer equal to its defense. Charleston, the capital
city, after frequent escapes, and a stout and protracted defense, had
succumbed to the besiegers, who had now penetrated the interior,
covering it with their strongholds, and coercing it with their arms. For
a brief interval, all opposition to their progress seemed to be at an
end within the State. She had no force in the field, stunned by repeated
blows, and waiting, though almost hopeless of her opportunity. In the
meantime, where was Richard Coulter? A fugitive, lying _perdu_ either in
the swamps of Edisto or Congaree, with few companions, all similarly
reduced in fortune, and pursued with a hate and fury the most
unscrupulous and unrelenting, by no less a person than Matthew Dunbar,
now a captain of loyalists in the service of George the Third. The
position of Coulter was in truth very pitiable; but he was not without
his consolations. The interval which had elapsed since our first meeting
with him, had ripened his intimacy with Frederica Sabb. His affections
had not been so unfortunate as his patriotism. With the frank impulse of
a fond and feeling heart, he had appealed to hers, in laying bare the
secret of his own; and he had done so successfully. She, with as frank a
nature, freely gave him her affections, while she did not venture to
bestow on him her hand. His situation was not such as to justify their
union—and her father positively forbade the idea of such a connection.
Though not active among the loyalists, he was now known to approve of
their sentiments; and while giving them all the aid and comfort in his
power, without actually showing himself in armor, he as steadily turned
a cold and unwilling front to the patriots, and all those who went
against the monarch. The visits of Richard Coulter to Frederica were all
stolen ones, perhaps not the less sweet for being so. A storm sometimes
brought him forth at nightfall from the shelter of the neighboring
swamp, venturing abroad at a time when loyalty was supposed to keep its
shelter. But these visits were always accompanied by considerable peril.
The eye of Matthew Dunbar was frequently drawn in the direction of the
fugitive, while his passions were always eager in the desire which led
him to seek for this particular victim. The contest was a well-known
issue of life and death. The fugitive patriot was predoomed always to
the halter, by those who desired to pacify old revenges, or acquire new
estates. Dunbar did not actually know that Coulter and Frederica Sabb
were in the habit of meeting; but that they had met, he knew, and he had
sworn their detection. He had become a declared suitor of that maiden,
and the fears of old Sabb would not suffer him to decline his attentions
to his daughter, or to declare against them. Dunbar had become
notoriously an unmitigated ruffian. His insolence disgusted the old
Dutchman, who, nevertheless, feared his violence and influence. Still,
sustained by good old Minnicker Sabb, his _vrow_, the father had the
firmness to tell Dunbar freely, that his daughter’s affections should
remain unforced; while the daughter herself, seeing the strait of her
parents, was equally careful to avoid the final necessity of repulsing
her repulsive suitor. She continued, by a happy assertion of maidenly
dignity, to keep him at bay, without vexing his self-esteem; and to
receive him with civility, without affording him positive encouragement.
Such was the condition of things among our several parties, when the
partisan war began; when the favorite native leaders in the South—the
first panic of their people having passed—had rallied their little
squads, in swamp and thicket, and were making those first demonstrations
which began to disquiet the British authorities, rendering them doubtful
of the conquests which they had so lately deemed secure. This, be it
remembered, was after the defeat of Gates at Camden, when there was no
sign of a Continental army within the State.
It was at the close of a cloudy afternoon, late in October, 1780, when
Mat Dunbar, with a small command of eighteen mounted men, approached the
well-known farmstead of Frederick Sabb. The road lay along the west bank
of the eastern branch of the Edisto, inclining to or receding from the
river, in correspondence with the width of the swamp, or the sinuosities
of the stream. The farm of Sabb was bounded on one side by the river,
and his cottage stood within a mile of it. Between, however, the lands
were entirely uncleared. The woods offered a physical barrier to the
malaria of the swamp; while the ground, though rich, was liable to
freshet, and required a degree of labor in the drainages which it was
not in the power of our good Dutchman to bestow. A single wagon-track
led through the wood to the river from his house; and there may have
been some half dozen irregular foot-paths tending in the same direction.
When within half a mile from the house, Mat Dunbar pricked up his ears.
“That was surely the gallop of a horse,” he said to his lieutenant—a
coarse, ruffianly fellow like himself, named Clymes.
“Where away?” demanded the other.
“To the left. Put in with a few of the boys, and see what can be found.”
Clymes did as he was bidden; but the moment he had disappeared, Dunbar
suddenly wheeled into the forest also, putting spurs to his horse, and
commanding his men to follow and scatter themselves in the wood. A keen
suspicion was at the bottom of his sudden impulse; and with his pistol
in his grasp, and his teeth set firmly, he darted away at a rate that
showed the eagerness of the blood-hound, on a warm scent. In a few
moments the wood was covered with his people, and their cries and
halloes answering to each other, turned the whole solitude into a scene
of the most animated life. Accustomed to _drive_ the woods for deer, his
party pursued the same habit in their present quest, enclosing the
largest extent of territory, and gradually contracting their _cordon_ at
a given point. It was not long before a certain degree of success seemed
to justify their pursuit. A loud shout from Clymes, his lieutenant, drew
the impetuous Dunbar to the place, and there he found the trooper, with
two others of the party, firmly confronted by no less a person than
Frederica Sabb. The maiden was very pale, but her lips were closely
compressed together, and her eyes lightened with an expression which was
not so much indicative of anger as of courage and resolve. As Dunbar
rode up, she addressed him.
“You are bravely employed, Captain Dunbar, in hunting with your soldiers
a feeble woman.”
“In faith, my dear Miss Sabb, we looked for very different game,”
replied the leader, while a something sardonic played over his visage.
“But perhaps you can put us in the way of finding it. You are surely not
here alone?”
“And why not? You are within hail of my father’s dwelling.”
“But yours, surely, are not the tastes for lonely walks.”
“Alas! sir, these are scarcely the times for any other.”
“Well, you must permit me to see that your walks are in no danger from
intrusion and insult. You will, no doubt, be confounded to hear that
scattered bands of the rebels are supposed to be, even now, closely
harbored in these swamps. That villain, Coulter, is known to be among
them. It is to hunt up these outlyers—to protect you from their
annoyances, that I am here now.”
“We can readily dispense with these services, Captain Dunbar. I do not
think that we are in any danger from such enemies, and in this
neighborhood.”
It was some effort to say this calmly.
“Nay, nay, you are quite too confident, my dear Miss Sabb. You know not
the audacity of these rebels, and of this Richard Coulter in particular.
But let me lay hands on him! You will hardly believe that he is scarce
ten minutes gone from this spot. Did you not hear his horse?”
“I heard no horses but your own.”
“There it is! You walk the woods in such abstraction that you hear not
the danger, though immediately at your ears. But disperse yourself in
pursuit, my merry men, and whoso brings me the ears of this outlaw,
shall have ten guineas, in the yellow gold itself. No Continental sham!
Remember, his ears, boys! We do not want any prisoners. The trouble of
hanging them out of the way is always wisely saved by a sabre-cut or
pistol-bullet. There, away!”
The countenance of Frederica Sabb instantly assumed the keenest
expression of alarm and anxiety. Her whole frame began to be agitated.
She advanced to the side of the ruffianly soldier, and put her hand up
appealingly.
“Oh! Captain Dunbar, will you not please go home with me, you and your
men? It is now our supper hour, and the sun is near his setting. I pray
you, do not think of scouring the woods at this late hour. Some of your
people may be hurt.”
“No danger, my dear—all of them are famous fox-hunters.”
“There is no danger to us, believe me. There is nobody in the woods that
we fear. Give yourself no trouble, nor your men.”
“Oh! you mistake, there is surely some one in this wood who is either in
your way or mine—though you heard no horse.”
“Oh! now I recollect, sir, I did hear a horse, and it seemed to be going
in that direction.”
Here the girl pointed below. The tory leader laughed outright.
“And so he went thither, did he? Well, my dear Miss Sabb, to please you,
I will take up the hunt in the quarter directly opposite, since it is
evident that your hearing just now is exceedingly deceptive. Boys, away!
The back track, hark you—the old fox aims to double!”
“Oh, go not! Go not!” she urged, passionately.
“Will I not!” exclaimed the loyalist, gathering up his reins and backing
his steed from her; “Will I not! Away, Clymes—away, boys; and remember,
ten guineas for that hand which brings down the outlaw, Richard
Coulter!”
Away they dashed into the forest, scattering themselves in the direction
indicated by their leader. Frederica watched their departure with an
anxious gaze, which disappeared from her eyes the moment they were out
of sight. In an instant all her agitation ceased.
“Now, thank Heaven! for the thought!” she cried. “It will be quite dark
before they find themselves at fault; and when they think to begin the
search below, he will be wholly beyond their reach. But how to warn him
against the meeting, as agreed on? The coming of this man forbids that.
I must see! I must contrive it!” And with these muttered words of half
meaning, she quietly made her way toward her father’s dwelling, secure
of the present safety of her lover from pursuit. She had very
successfully practiced a very simple _ruse_ for his escape. Her
apprehensions were only but admirably simulated; and in telling Dunbar
that the fugitive had taken one direction, she naturally relied on his
doubts of her truth, to make him seek the opposite. She had told him
nothing but the truth, but she had told it as a falsehood; and it had
all the effect which she desired. The chase of the tory captain proved
unsuccessful.