The road was intricate and long. It seemed designed to pervade the
forest in every possible direction. I frequently noticed cut wood piled
in heaps upon either side, and rejoiced in these tokens that the
residence of man was near. At length I reached a second fence, which
proved to be the boundary of a road still more frequented. I pursued
this, and presently beheld before me the river and its opposite
barriers.
This object afforded me some knowledge of my situation. There was a ford
over which travellers used to pass, and in which the road that I was now
pursuing terminated. The stream was rapid and tumultuous, but in this
place did not rise higher than the shoulders. On the opposite side was a
highway, passable by horses and men, though not by carriages, and which
led into the midst of Solesbury. Should I not rush into the stream, and
still aim at reaching my uncle's house before morning? Why should I
delay?
Thirty hours of incessant watchfulness and toil, of enormous efforts and
perils, preceded and accompanied by abstinence and wounds, were enough
to annihilate the strength and courage of ordinary men. In the course of
them, I had frequently believed myself to have reached the verge beyond
which my force would not carry me; but experience as frequently
demonstrated my error. Though many miles were yet to be traversed,
though my clothes were once more to be drenched and loaded with
moisture, though every hour seemed to add somewhat to the keenness of
the blast, yet how should I know, but by trial, whether my stock of
energy was not sufficient for this last exploit?
My resolution to proceed was nearly formed, when the figure of a man
moving slowly across the road at some distance before me was observed.
Hard by this ford lived a man by name Bisset, of whom I had slight
knowledge. He tended his two hundred acres with a plodding and
money-doting spirit, while his son overlooked a grist-mill on the river.
He was a creature of gain, coarse and harmless. The man whom I saw before
me might be he, or some one belonging to his family. Being armed for
defence, I less scrupled at meeting with any thing in the shape of man.
I therefore called. The figure stopped and answered me without surliness
or anger. The voice was unlike that of Bisset, but this person's
information I believed would be of some service.
Coming up to him, he proved to be a clown belonging to Bisset's
habitation. His panic and surprise on seeing me made him aghast. In my
present garb I should not have easily been recognised by my nearest
kinsman, and much less easily by one who had seldom met me.
It may be easily conceived that my thoughts, when allowed to wander from
the objects before me, were tormented with forebodings and inquietudes
on account of the ills which I had so much reason to believe had
befallen my family. I had no doubt that some evil had happened, but the
full extent of it was still uncertain. I desired and dreaded to discover
the truth, and was unable to interrogate this person in a direct manner.
I could deal only in circuities and hints. I shuddered while I waited
for an answer to my inquiries.
Had not Indians, I asked, been lately seen in this neighbourhood? Were
they not suspected of hostile designs? Had they not already committed
some mischief? Some passenger, perhaps, had been attacked, or fire had
been set to some house? On which side of the river had their steps been
observed or any devastation been committed? Above the ford or below it?
At what distance from the river?
When his attention could be withdrawn from my person and bestowed upon
my questions, he answered that some alarm had indeed been spread about
Indians, and that parties from Solesbury and Chetasco were out in
pursuit of them, that many persons had been killed by them, and that one
house in Solesbury had been rifled and burnt on the night before the
last.
These tidings were a dreadful confirmation of my fears. There scarcely
remained a doubt; but still my expiring hope prompted me to inquire, "To
whom did the house belong?"
He answered that he had not heard the name of the owner. He was a
stranger to the people on the other side of the river.
Were any of the inhabitants murdered?
Yes; all that were at home, except a girl whom they carried off. Some
said that the girl had been retaken.
What was the name? Was it Huntly?
Huntly? Yes. No. He did not know. He had forgotten.
I fixed my eyes upon the ground. An interval of gloomy meditation
succeeded. All was lost! All for whose sake I had desired to live had
perished by the hands of these assassins! That dear home, the scene of
my sportive childhood, of my studies, labours, and recreations, was
ravaged by fire and the sword,--was reduced to a frightful ruin!
Not only all that embellished and endeared existence was destroyed, but
the means of subsistence itself. Thou knowest that my sisters and I were
dependants on the bounty of our uncle. His death would make way for the
succession of his son, a man fraught with envy and malignity, who always
testified a mortal hatred to us, merely because we enjoyed the
protection of his father. The ground which furnished me with bread was
now become the property of one who, if he could have done it with
security, would gladly have mingled poison with my food.
All that my imagination or my heart regarded as of value had likewise
perished. Whatever my chamber, my closets, my cabinets contained, my
furniture, my books, the records of my own skill, the monuments of their
existence whom I loved, my very clothing, were involved in
indiscriminate and irretrievable destruction. Why should I survive this
calamity?
But did not he say that one had escaped? The only females in the family
were my sisters. One of these had been reserved for a fate worse than
death; to gratify the innate and insatiable cruelty of savages, by
suffering all the torments their invention can suggest, or to linger out
years of weary bondage and unintermitted hardship in the bosom of the
wilderness. To restore her to liberty, to cherish this last survivor of
my unfortunate race, was a sufficient motive to life and to activity.
But soft! Had not rumour whispered that the captive was retaken? Oh! who
was her angel of deliverance? Where did she now abide? Weeping over the
untimely fall of her protector and her friend? Lamenting and upbraiding
the absence of her brother? Why should I not haste to find her?--to
mingle my tears with hers, to assure her of my safety, and expatiate the
involuntary crime of my desertion by devoting all futurity to the task
of her consolation and improvement?
The path was open and direct. My new motives would have trampled upon
every impediment and made me reckless of all dangers and all toils. I
broke from my reverie, and, without taking leave or expressing gratitude
to my informant, I ran with frantic expedition towards the river, and,
plunging into it, gained the opposite side in a moment.
I was sufficiently acquainted with the road. Some twelve or fifteen
miles remained to be traversed. I did not fear that my strength would
fail in the performance of my journey. It was not my uncle's habitation
to which I directed my steps. Inglefield was my friend. If my sister had
existence, or was snatched from captivity, it was here that an asylum
had been afforded to her, and here was I to seek the knowledge of my
destiny. For this reason, having reached a spot where the road divided
into two branches, one of which led to Inglefield's and the other to
Huntly's, I struck into the former.
Scarcely had I passed the angle when I noticed a building on the right
hand, at some distance from the road. In the present state of my
thoughts, it would not have attracted my attention, had not a light
gleamed from an upper window and told me that all within were not at
rest.
I was acquainted with the owner of this mansion. He merited esteem and
confidence, and could not fail to be acquainted with recent events. From
him I should obtain all the information that I needed, and I should be
delivered from some part of the agonies of my suspense. I should reach
his door in a few minutes, and the window-light was a proof that my
entrance at this hour would not disturb the family, some of whom were
stirring.
Through a gate I entered an avenue of tall oaks, that led to the house.
I could not but reflect on the effect which my appearance would produce
upon the family. The sleek locks, neat apparel, pacific guise, sobriety
and gentleness of aspect by which I was customarily distinguished, would
in vain be sought in the apparition which would now present itself
before them. My legs, neck, and bosom were bare, and their native hue
was exchanged for the livid marks of bruises and scarifications. A
horrid scar upon my cheek, and my uncombed locks; hollow eyes, made
ghastly by abstinence and cold, and the ruthless passions of which my
mind had been the theatre, added to the musket which I carried in my
hand, would prepossess them with the notion of a maniac or ruffian.
Some inconveniences might hence arise, which, however, could not be
avoided. I must trust to the speed with which my voice and my words
should disclose my true character and rectify their mistake.
I now reached the principal door of the house. It was open, and I
unceremoniously entered. In the midst of the room stood a German stove,
well heated. To thaw my half-frozen limbs was my first care. Meanwhile I
gazed around me, and marked the appearances of things.
Two lighted candles stood upon the table. Beside them were cider-bottles
and pipes of tobacco. The furniture and room was in that state which
denoted it to have been lately filled with drinkers and smokers; yet
neither voice, nor visage, nor motion, were anywhere observable. I
listened; but neither above nor below, within nor without, could any
tokens of a human being be perceived.
This vacancy and silence must have been lately preceded by noise, and
concourse, and bustle. The contrast was mysterious and ambiguous. No
adequate cause of so quick and absolute a transition occurred to me.
Having gained some warmth and lingered some ten or twenty minutes in
this uncertainty, I determined to explore the other apartments of the
building. I knew not what might betide in my absence, or what I might
encounter in my search to justify precaution, and, therefore, kept the
gun in my hand. I snatched a candle from the table and proceeded into
two other apartments on the first floor and the kitchen. Neither was
inhabited, though chairs and tables were arranged in their usual order,
and no traces of violence or hurry were apparent.
Having gained the foot of the staircase, I knocked, but my knocking was
wholly disregarded. A light had appeared in an upper chamber. It was
not, indeed, in one of those apartments which the family permanently
occupied, but in that which, according to rural custom, was reserved for
guests; but it indubitably betokened the presence of some being by whom
my doubts might be solved. These doubts were too tormenting to allow of
scruples and delay. I mounted the stairs.
At each chamber-door I knocked, but I knocked in vain. I tried to open,
but found them to be locked. I at length reached the entrance of that in
which a light had been discovered. Here it was certain that some one
would be found; but here, as well as elsewhere, my knocking was
unnoticed.
To enter this chamber was audacious, but no other expedient was afforded
me to determine whether the house had any inhabitants. I therefore
entered, though with caution and reluctance. No one was within, but
there were sufficient traces of some person who had lately been here. On
the table stood a travelling-escritoire, open, with pens and inkstand. A
chair was placed before it, and a candle on the right hand. This
apparatus was rarely seen in this country. Some traveller, it seemed,
occupied this room, though the rest of the mansion was deserted. The
pilgrim, as these appearances testified, was of no vulgar order, and
belonged not to the class of periodical and every-day guests.
It now occurred to me that the occupant of this apartment could not be
far off, and that some danger and embarrassment could not fail to accrue
from being found, thus accoutred and garbed, in a place sacred to the
study and repose of another. It was proper, therefore, to withdraw, and
either to resume my journey, or wait for the stranger's return, whom
perhaps some temporary engagement had called away, in the lower and
public room. The former now appeared to be the best expedient, as the
return of this unknown person was uncertain, as well as his power to
communicate the information which I wanted.
Had paper, as well as the implements of writing, lain upon the desk,
perhaps my lawless curiosity would not have scrupled to have pried into
it. On the first glance nothing of that kind appeared; but now, as I
turned towards the door, somewhat, lying beside the desk, on the side
opposite the candle, caught my attention. The impulse was instantaneous
and mechanical that made me leap to the spot and lay my hand upon it.
Till I felt it between my fingers, till I brought it near my eyes and
read frequently the inscriptions that appeared upon it, I was doubtful
whether my senses had deceived me.
Few, perhaps, among mankind, have undergone vicissitudes of peril and
wonder equal to mine. The miracles of poetry, the transitions of
enchantment, are beggarly and mean compared with those which I had
experienced. Passage into new forms, overleaping the bars of time and
space, reversal of the laws of inanimate and intelligent existence, had
been mine to perform and to witness.
No event had been more fertile of sorrow and perplexity than the loss of
thy brother's letters. They went by means invisible, and disappeared at
a moment when foresight would have least predicted their disappearance.
They now placed themselves before me, in a manner equally abrupt, in a
place and by means no less contrary to expectation. The papers which I
now seized were those letters. The parchment cover, the string that tied
and the wax that sealed them, appeared not to have been opened or
violated.
The power that removed them, from my cabinet, and dropped them in this
house,--a house which I rarely visited, which I had not entered during
the last year, with whose inhabitants I maintained no cordial
intercourse, and to whom my occupations and amusements, my joys and my
sorrows, were unknown,--was no object even of conjecture. But they were
not possessed by any of the family. Some stranger was here, by whom they
had been stolen, or into whose possession they had, by some
incomprehensible chance, fallen.
That stranger was near. He had left this apartment for a moment. He
would speedily return. To go hence might possibly occasion me to miss
him. Here, then, I would wait, till he should grant me an interview. The
papers were mine, and were recovered. I would never part with them. But
to know by whose force or by whose stratagems I had been bereaved of
them thus long, was now the supreme passion of my soul. I seated myself
near a table and anxiously waited for an interview, on which I was
irresistibly persuaded to believe that much of my happiness depended.
Meanwhile, I could not but connect this incident with the destruction of
my family. The loss of these papers had excited transports of grief; and
yet to have lost them thus was perhaps the sole expedient by which their
final preservation could be rendered possible. Had they, remained in my
cabinet, they could not have escaped the destiny which overtook the
house and its furniture. Savages are not accustomed to leave their
exterminating work unfinished. The house which they have plundered they
are careful to level with the ground. This not only their revenge, but
their caution, prescribes. Fire may originate by accident as well as by
design, and the traces of pillage and murder are totally obliterated by
the flames.
These thoughts were interrupted by the shutting of a door below, and by
footsteps ascending the stairs. My heart throbbed at the sound. My seat
became uneasy and I started on my feet. I even advanced half-way to the
entrance of the room. My eyes were intensely fixed upon the door. My
impatience would have made me guess at the person of this visitant by
measuring his shadow, if his shadow were first seen; but this was
precluded by the position of the light. It was only when the figure
entered, and the whole person was seen, that my curiosity was gratified.
He who stood before me was the parent and fosterer of my mind, the
companion and instructor of my youth, from whom I had been parted for
years, from whom I believed myself to be forever separated,--Sarsefield
himself!