The position of the young men was one of embarrassment; for while the
daughter, who was busied in executing the command of her father,
remained in the room, it was impossible they could converse together
without betraying the secret of their country, and, as a result of
this, the falsehood of the character under which they appeared. Long
residence in the country had, it is true, rendered the patois of that
class of people whom they personated familiar to one, but the other
spoke only the pure and native language of which it was a corruption.
It might have occurred to them at a cooler moment, and under less
critical circumstances, that, even if their disguise had been
penetrated, it was unlikely a female, manifesting so much lively
affection for her parent, would have done aught to injure those with
whom he had evidently connected himself. But the importance attached to
their entire security from danger left them but little room for
reflections of a calming character, while a doubt of that security
remained.
One singularity struck them both. They had expected the young woman,
urged by a natural curiosity, would have commenced a conversation, even
if they did not; and he who spoke the patois was prepared to sustain it
as well as his anxious and overcharged spirit would enable him; and as
he was aware the morning had furnished sufficient incident of fearful
interest, he had naturally looked for a verbal re-enactment of the
harrowing and dreadful scene. To their surprise, however, they both
remarked that, far from evincing a desire to enter into conversation,
the young woman scarcely ever looked at them, but lingered constantly
near the table, and facing the window. Still, to avoid an appearance of
singularity on their own parts as far as possible, the elder of the
officers motioned to his companion, who, following his example, took a
small pipe and some tobacco from a compartment in his shot pouch, and
commenced puffing the wreathing smoke from his lips,--an occupation,
more than any other, seeming to justify their silence.
The elder officer sat with his back to the window, and immediately in
front of the fire; his companion, at a corner of the rude hearth, and
in such a manner that, without turning his head, he could command every
part of the room at a glance. In the corner facing him stood the bed
already described. A faint ray of the fire-light fell on some minute
object glittering in the chair, the contents of which were heaped up in
disorder. Urged by that wayward curiosity, which is sometimes excited,
even under circumstances of the greatest danger and otherwise absorbing
interest, the young man kicked the hickory log that lay nearest to it
with his mocassined foot, and produced a bright crackling flame, the
reflection of which was thrown entirely upon the object of his gaze; it
was a large metal button, on which the number of his regiment was
distinctly visible. Unable to check his desire to know further, he left
his seat, to examine the contents of the chair. As he moved across the
room, he fancied he heard a light sound from without; his companion,
also, seemed to manifest a similar impression by an almost
imperceptible start; but the noise was so momentary, and so fanciful,
neither felt it worth his while to pause upon the circumstance. The
young officer now raised the garments from the chair: they consisted of
a small grey great-coat, and trowsers, a waistcoat of coarse white
cloth, a pair of worsted stockings, and the half-boots of a boy; the
whole forming the drum-boy's equipment, worn by the wretched wife of
Halloway when borne senseless into the hut on that fatal morning.
Hastily quitting a dress that called up so many dreadful recollections,
and turning to his companion with a look that denoted apprehension,
lest he too should have beheld these melancholy remembrances of the
harrowing scene, the young officer hastened to resume his seat. In the
act of so doing, his eye fell upon the window, at which the female
still lingered. Had a blast from Heaven struck his sight, the terror of
his soul could not have been greater. He felt his cheek to pale, and
his hair to bristle beneath his cap, while the checked blood crept
slowly and coldly, as if its very function had been paralysed; still he
had presence of mind sufficient not to falter in his step, or to
betray, by any extraordinary movement, that his eye had rested on any
thing hateful to behold.
His companion had emptied his first pipe, and was in the act of
refilling it, when he resumed his seat. He was evidently impatient at
the delay of the Canadian, and already were his lips opening to give
utterance to his disappointment, when he felt his foot significantly
pressed by that of his friend. An instinctive sense of something
fearful that was to ensue, but still demanding caution on his part,
prevented him from turning hastily round to know the cause. Satisfied,
however, there was danger, though not of an instantaneous character, he
put his pipe gently by, and stealing his hand under his coat, again
grasped the hilt of his dagger. At length he slowly and partially
turned his head, while his eyes inquiringly demanded of his friend the
cause of his alarm.
Partly to aid in concealing his increasing paleness, and partly with a
view to render it a medium for the conveyance of subdued sound, the
hand of the latter was raised to his face in such a manner that the
motion of his lips could not be distinguished from behind.
"We are betrayed," he scarcely breathed. "If you can command yourself,
turn and look at the window; but for God's sake arm yourself with
resolution, or look not at all: first draw the hood over your head, and
without any appearance of design. Our only chance of safety lies in
this,--that the Canadian may still be true, and that our disguise may
not be penetrated."
In despite of his native courage,--and this had often been put to
honourable proof,--he, thus mysteriously addressed, felt his heart to
throb violently. There was something so appalled in the countenance of
his friend--something so alarming in the very caution he had
recommended--that a vague dread of the horrible reality rushed at once
to his mind, and for a moment his own cheek became ashy pale, and his
breathing painfully oppressed. It was the natural weakness of the
physical man, over which the moral faculties had, for an instant, lost
their directing power. Speedily recovering himself, the young man
prepared to encounter the alarming object which had already so greatly
intimidated his friend. Carefully drawing the blanket hood over his
head, he rose from his seat, and, with the energetic movement of one
who has formed some desperate determination, turned his back to the
fire-place, and threw his eyes rapidly and eagerly upon the window.
They fell only on the rude patchwork of which it was principally
composed. The female had quitted the room.
"You must have been deceived," he whispered, keeping his eye still bent
upon the window, and with so imperceptible a movement of the lips that
sound alone could have betrayed he was speaking,--"I see nothing to
justify your alarm. Look again."
The younger officer once more directed his glance towards the window,
and with a shuddering of the whole person, as he recollected what had
met his eye when he last looked upon it. "It is no longer there,
indeed," he returned in the same scarcely audible tone. "Yet I could
not be mistaken; it was between those two corner squares of wood in the
lower sash."
"Perhaps it was merely a reflection produced by the lamp on the centre
pane," rejoined his friend, still keeping his eye riveted on the
suspicious point.
"Impossible! but I will examine the window from the spot on which I
stood when I first beheld it."
Again he quitted his seat, and carelessly crossed the room. As he
returned he threw his glance upon the pane, when, to his infinite
horror and surprise, the same frightful vision presented itself.
"God of Heaven!" he exclaimed aloud, and unable longer to check the
ebullition of his feelings,--"what means this?--Is my brain turned? and
am I the sport of my own delusive fancy?--Do you not see it NOW?"
No answer was returned. His friend stood mute and motionless, with his
left hand grasping his gun, and his right thrust into the waist of his
coat. His eye grew upon the window, and his chest heaved, and his cheek
paled and flushed alternately with the subdued emotion of his heart. A
human face was placed close to the unblemished glass, and every feature
was distinctly revealed by the lamp that still lay upon the table. The
glaring eye was fixed on the taller of the officers; but though the
expression was unfathomably guileful, there was nothing that denoted
any thing like a recognition of the party. The brightness of the wood
fire had so far subsided as to throw the interior of the room into
partial obscurity, and under the disguise of his hood it was impossible
for one without to distinguish the features of the taller officer. The
younger, who was scarcely an object of attention, passed comparatively
unnoticed.
Fatigued and dimmed with the long and eager tension of its nerves, the
eye of the latter now began to fail him. For a moment he closed it; and
when again it fell upon the window; it encountered nothing but the
clear and glittering pane. For upwards of a minute he and his friend
still continued to rivet their gaze, but the face was no longer visible.
Why is it that what is called the "human face divine" is sometimes
gifted with a power to paralyse, that the most loathsome reptile in the
creation cannot attain? Had a hyena or cougar of the American forest,
roaring for prey, appeared at that window, ready to burst the fragile
barrier, and fasten its talons in their hearts, its presence would not
have struck such sickness to the soul of our adventurers as did that
human face. It is that man, naturally fierce and inexorable, is alone
the enemy of his own species. The solution of this problem--this
glorious paradox in nature, we leave to profounder philosophers to
resolve. Sufficient for us be it to know, and to deplore that it is so.
Footsteps were now heard upon the stairs; and the officers, aroused to
a full sense of their danger, hastily and silently prepared themselves
for the encounter.
"Drop a bullet into your gun," whispered the elder, setting the example
himself. "We may be obliged to have recourse to it at last. Yet make no
show of hostility unless circumstances satisfy us we are betrayed;
then, indeed, all that remains for us will be to sell our lives as
dearly as we can. Hist! he is here."
The door opened; and at the entrance, which was already filled up in
the imaginations of the young men with a terrible and alarming figure,
appeared one whose return had been anxiously and long desired. It was a
relief, indeed, to their gallant but excited hearts to behold another
than the form they had expected; and although, for the moment, they
knew not whether the Canadian came in hostility or in friendship, each
quitted the attitude of caution into which he had thrown himself, and
met him midway in his passage through the room. There was nothing in
the expression of his naturally open and good-humoured countenance to
denote he was at all aware of the causes for alarm that had operated so
powerfully on themselves. He announced with a frank look and
unfaltering voice every thing was in readiness for their departure.
The officers hesitated; and the taller fixed his eyes upon those of
mine host, as if his gaze would have penetrated to the innermost
recesses of his heart. Could this be a refinement of his treachery? and
was he really ignorant of the existence of the danger which threatened
them? Was it not more probable his object was to disarm their fears,
that they might be given unprepared and, therefore, unresisting victims
to the ferocity of their enemies? Aware as he was, that they were both
well provided with arms, and fully determined to use them with effect,
might not his aim be to decoy them to destruction without, lest the
blood spilt under his roof, in the desperation of their defence, should
hereafter attest against him, and expose him to the punishment he would
so richly merit? Distracted by these doubts, the young men scarcely
knew what to think or how to act; and anxious as they had previously
been to quit the hut, they now considered the moment of their doing so
would be that of their destruction. The importance of the enterprise on
which they were embarked was such as to sink all personal
considerations. If they had felt the influence of intimidation on their
spirits, it arose less from any apprehension of consequences to
themselves, than from the recollection of the dearer interests involved
in their perfect security from discovery.
"Francois," feelingly urged the taller officer, again adverting to his
vow, "you recollect the oath you so solemnly pledged upon the cross of
your Saviour. Tell me, then, as you hope for mercy, have you taken that
oath only that you might the more securely betray us to our enemies?
What connection have you with them at this moment? and who is HE who
stood looking through that window not ten minutes since?"
"As I shall hope for mercy in my God," exclaimed the Canadian with
unfeigned astonishment, "I have not see nobody. But what for do you
tink so? It is not just. I have given my oat to serve you, and I shall
do it."
There was candour both in the tone and countenance of the man as he
uttered these words, half in reproach, half in justification; and the
officers no longer doubted.
"You must forgive our suspicions at a moment like the present,"
soothingly observed the younger; "yet, Francois, your daughter saw and
exchanged signals with the person we mean. She left the room soon after
he made his appearance. What has become of her?"
The Canadian gave a sudden start, looked hastily round, and seemed to
perceive for the first time the girl was absent. He then put a finger
to his lip to enjoin silence, advanced to the table, and extinguished
the light. Desiring his companions, in a low whisper, to tread
cautiously and follow, he now led the way with almost noiseless step to
the entrance of the hut. At the threshold of the door were placed a
large well-filled sack, a light mast and sail, and half a dozen
paddles. The latter burden he divided between the officers, on whose
shoulders he carefully balanced them. The sack he threw across his own;
and, without expressing even a regret that an opportunity of bidding
adieu to his child was denied him, hastily skirted the paling of the
orchard until, at the further extremity, he had gained the high road.
The heavens were obscured by passing clouds driven rapidly by the wind,
during the short pauses of which our adventurers anxiously and
frequently turned to listen if they were pursued. Save the rustling of
the trees that lined the road, and the slight dashing of the waters on
the beach, however, no sound was distinguishable. At length they gained
the point whence they were to start. It was the fatal bridge, the
events connected with which were yet so painfully fresh in their
recollection.
"Stop one minutes here," whispered the Canadian, throwing his sack upon
the sand near the mouth of the lesser river; "my canoe is chain about
twenty yards up de bridge. I shall come to you directly." Then
cautioning the officers to keep themselves concealed under the bridge,
he moved hastily under the arch, and disappeared in the dark shadow
which it threw across the rivulet.
The extremities of the bridge rested on the banks of the little river
in such a manner as to leave a narrow passage along the sands
immediately under the declination of the arch. In accordance with the
caution of their conductor, the officers had placed themselves under
it; and with their backs slightly bent forward to meet the curvature of
the bridge, so that no ray of light could pass between their bodies and
the fabric itself, now awaited the arrival of the vessel on which their
only hope depended. We shall not attempt to describe their feelings on
finding themselves, at that lone hour of the night, immediately under a
spot rendered fearfully memorable by the tragic occurrences of the
morning. The terrible pursuit of the fugitive, the execution of the
soldier, the curse and prophecy of his maniac wife, and, above all, the
forcible abduction and threatened espousal of that unhappy woman by the
formidable being who seemed to have identified himself with the evils
with which they stood menaced,--all rushed with rapid tracery on the
mind, and excited the imagination, until each, filled with a sentiment
not unallied to superstitious awe, feared to whisper forth his
thoughts, lest in so doing he should invoke the presence of those who
had principally figured in the harrowing and revolting scene.
"Did you not hear a noise?" at length whispered the elder, as he leaned
himself forward, and bent his head to the sand, to catch more
distinctly a repetition of the sound.
"I did; there again! It is upon the bridge, and not unlike the step of
one endeavouring to tread lightly. It may be some wild beast, however."
"We must not be taken by surprise," returned his companion. "If it be a
man, the wary tread indicates consciousness of our presence. If an
animal, there can be no harm in setting our fears at rest."
Cautiously stealing from his lurking-place, the young officer emerged
into the open sands, and in a few measured noiseless strides gained the
extremity of the bridge. The dark shadow of something upon its centre
caught his eye, and a low sound like that of a dog lapping met his ear.
While his gaze yet lingered on the shapeless object, endeavouring to
give it a character, the clouds which had so long obscured it passed
momentarily from before the moon, and disclosed the appalling truth. It
was a wolf-dog lapping up from the earth, in which they were encrusted,
the blood and brains of the unfortunate Frank Halloway.
Sick and faint at the disgusting sight, the young man rested his elbow
on the railing that passed along the edge of the bridge, and, leaning
his head on his hand for a moment, forgot the risk of exposure he
incurred, in the intenseness of the sorrow that assailed his soul. His
heart and imagination were already far from the spot on which he stood,
when he felt an iron hand upon his shoulder. He turned, shuddering with
an instinctive knowledge of his yet unseen visitant, and beheld
standing over him the terrible warrior of the Fleur de lis.
"Ha, ha, ha!" laughed the savage in a low triumphant tone, "the place
of our meeting is well timed, though somewhat singular, it must be
confessed. Nay," he fiercely added, grasping as in a vice the arm that
was already lifted to strike him, "force me not to annihilate you on
the spot. Ha! hear you the cry of my wolf-dog?" as that animal now set
up a low but fearful howl; "it is for your blood he asks, but your hour
is not yet come."
"No, by Heaven, is it not!" exclaimed a voice; a rapid and rushing
sweep was heard through the air for an instant, and then a report like
a stunning blow. The warrior released his grasp--placed his hand upon
his tomahawk, but without strength to remove it from his belt tottered
a pace or two backwards--and then fell, uttering a cry of mingled pain
and disappointment, at his length upon the earth.
"Quick, quick to our cover!" exclaimed the younger officer, as a loud
shout was now heard from the forest in reply to the yell of the fallen
warrior. "If Francois come not, we are lost; the howl of that wolf-dog
alone will betray us, even if his master should be beyond all chance of
recovery."
"Desperate diseases require desperate remedies," was the reply; "there
is little glory in destroying a helpless enemy, but the necessity is
urgent, and we must leave nothing to chance." As he spoke, he knelt
upon the huge form of the senseless warrior, whose scalping knife he
drew from its sheath, and striking a firm and steady blow, quitted not
the weapon until he felt his hand reposing on the chest of his enemy.
The howl of the wolf-dog, whose eyes glared like two burning coals
through the surrounding gloom, was now exchanged to a fierce and
snappish bark. He made a leap at the officer while in the act of rising
from the body; but his fangs fastened only in the chest of the shaggy
coat, which he wrung with the strength and fury characteristic of his
peculiar species. This new and ferocious attack was fraught with danger
little inferior to that which they had just escaped, and required the
utmost promptitude of action. The young man seized the brute behind the
neck in a firm and vigorous grasp, while he stooped upon the motionless
form over which this novel struggle was maintained, and succeeded in
making himself once more master of the scalping knife. Half choked by
the hand that unflinchingly grappled with him, the savage animal
quitted his hold and struggled violently to free himself. This was the
critical moment. The officer drew the heavy sharp blade, from the
handle to the point, across the throat of the infuriated beast, with a
force that divided the principal artery. He made a desperate leap
upwards, spouting his blood over his destroyer, and then fell gasping
across the body of his master. A low growl, intermingled with faint
attempts to bark, which the rapidly oozing life rendered more and more
indistinct, succeeded; and at length nothing but a gurgling sound was
distinguishable.
Meanwhile the anxious and harassed officers had regained their place of
concealment under the bridge, where they listened with suppressed
breathing for the slightest sound to indicate the approach of the
canoe. At intervals they fancied they could hear a noise resembling the
rippling of water against the prow of a light vessel, but the swelling
cries of the rushing band, becoming at every instant more distinct,
were too unceasingly kept up to admit of their judging with accuracy.
They now began to give themselves up for lost, and many and bitter were
the curses they inwardly bestowed on the Canadian, when the outline of
a human form was seen advancing along the sands, and a dark object upon
the water. It was their conductor, dragging the canoe along, with all
the strength and activity of which he was capable.
"What the devil have you been about all this time, Francois?" exclaimed
the taller officer, as he bounded to meet him. "Quick, quick, or we
shall be too late. Hear you not the blood-hounds on their scent?" Then
seizing the chain in his hand, with a powerful effort he sent the canoe
flying through the arch to the very entrance of the river. The burdens
that had been deposited on the sands were hastily flung in, the
officers stepping lightly after. The Canadian took the helm, directing
the frail vessel almost noiselessly through the water, and with such
velocity, that when the cry of the disappointed savages was heard
resounding from the bridge, it had already gained the centre of the
Detroit.