Our fortress is the good green wood,
Our tent the cypress tree,
We know the forest round us
As seamen know the sea.
We know its walls of thorny vines,
Its glades of reedy grass,
Its safe and silent islands
Within the dark morass.--BRYANT.
The faithful Horse Shoe being thus left to himself, replenished his
pipe, and, taking his rifle in his hand, paced to and fro upon the
border of the road, holding communion with his own thoughts, carefully
weighing the probabilities connected with his present singular
expedition, and revolving, after his own fashion, the fortunes of Arthur
Butler and Mildred Lindsay.
It was within an hour of midnight, when the sergeant's meditations were
interrupted by the tramp of a horse approaching the hut at a gallop. But
a few moments elapsed before a traveller, who, in the starlight, Horse
Shoe could discern to be armed, drew up his rein immediately at the door
of the dwelling, against which he struck several blows with his weapon,
calling out loudly at the same time--
"Mistress Wingate--for God's sake, open your door quickly! I have news
to tell you, good woman."
"In the name of mercy! who are you?" exclaimed the voice of the dame
within, whilst a note of alarm was also heard from her fellow-lodger.
"What do you mean by this racket and clatter?" demanded Horse Shoe, in
the midst of the uproar, at the same time laying his hand upon the
stranger's bridle rein. "What brings you here, sir?--stand back; the
women in that house are under my charge, and I won't have them
disturbed."
"If you are a friend to Mistress Wingate," said the horseman, sternly,
"speak the word; if an enemy, I will shiver your skull with the butt of
my musket."
"Don't be rash, good fellow," replied Horse Shoe; "I take it you and me
are on the same side. What's afoot that you stir in such a hurry?"
"The Tories are afoot--the devil's afoot! Open, Mistress Wingate--open
to Dick Peyton!"
"The Lord preserve us!" ejaculated the mistress of the hovel, as she
opened the door; "Bloody Spur, is it you? What ill luck brings you here
to-night?"
"A gang of Tories, Mistress Wingate, from the Black River, under that
cut-throat Fanning, crossed Pedee this morning at Lowder's Lake. They
have been thieving and burning as far as Waggamaw, and are now on the
road home by the upper ferry. They will be along here in less than half
an hour. Your husband, Bob Wingate, and myself, were sent out by General
Marion this morning, to reconnoitre the roads. We fell in with the
ruffians, after sunset, below Lumberton, and have tracked them up here.
Bob has got a pistol-shot through his arm. He was lucky enough, however,
to escape their clutches; but believing they had a spite against him,
and would ride past his house to-night, he told me to call and give you
warning, and to help you to drive the cattle back into the swamp."
"How many mought there be, friend?" asked Horse Shoe, calmly.
"Between two and three hundred, at least," said the trooper; "we counted
fifty in the vanguard--those that followed made a long column of march.
They have stolen a good many horses and cattle, all of which are with
them, and several prisoners."
"What, ho!--Isaac, Henry Lindsay; fall to, and saddle, boys," shouted
Horse Shoe. "Miss Mildred, it will not do to stand. I am sorry to break
in upon your rest, but you must be ready to move in a few minutes."
Everything about the hut was now in confusion. Henry and the sergeant
were equipping the horses, whilst Isaac was gathering up the baggage.
Bloody Spur--to adopt the rider's _nom de guerre_--had dismounted, and
was busy in removing the few articles of value from the hut; the mother
and children, meanwhile, were pouring forth loud lamentations.
Mildred, in the midst of this scene of uproar, hurriedly made her
preparations for departure; and whilst she was yet engaged in this care,
a confused murmur was heard, at some distance up the road--and the
rattle of sabres, as well as the hoarse voice and abrupt laughter of
men, announced that the freebooters were at no great distance from the
dwelling.
"Merciful heaven!" exclaimed Mildred, giving way for the first time to
her fears; "they are fast approaching, and we shall be captured."
"Sister," said Henry, with scarcely less alarm, "I will die by your
side, before they shall hurt a hair of your head."
Horse Shoe, who at this moment was tightening the girths of Mildred's
saddle, paused for an instant to listen, and then said:
"The wind is north-east, young lady, and the voice sounds far to-night.
One could hardly expect you to be cool when one of these night-frays is
coming on, but there's no occasion to be frightened. Now, ma'am, if you
please, I'll heave you into your seat. There," continued the sergeant,
setting Mildred upon her horse, "you have got four good legs under you,
and by a fair use of them will be as safe as a crowned king. Mister
Henry, mount, and ride with your sister slowly down the road, till I
overtake you."
Henry obeyed the order.
"Is the portmanteau and the rest of the baggage all safe, Isaac? Don't
be flurried, you old sinner, but look about you, before you start off."
"All safe," replied the negro.
"Up and follow your master, then. Hark you, Mr. Bloody Spur," said Horse
Shoe, as Isaac rode off, to the trooper, who was still actively employed
in turning the cattle loose from the inclosure, "what is the best road
hereabouts for my squad to keep out of the way of these bullies?"
"About a mile from here, take a road that strikes into the woods, upon
your right hand," answered the trooper hastily, "it will lead you up the
river to the falls of Pedee. If you should meet any of Marion's men,
tell them what you have seen; and say Dick Peyton will be along close
after you."
"Where is Marion?" asked the sergeant, mounting his horse.
"What man that knows Frank Marion could ever answer that question?" said
the trooper. "He is everywhere, friend. But you have no time to lose: be
off."
As Bloody Spur said this, he disappeared, driving the cattle before him;
whilst the mother, laden with an infant and as many pieces of furniture
as she could carry, and followed by her terrified children, fled towards
the neighboring thicket.
Horse Shoe in a few moments overtook his companions, and, urging them
forward at a rapid flight, soon reached the diverging road, along which
they journeyed with unabated speed for upwards of a mile.
"How do you bear it, sister?" asked Henry, with concern.
"Ah, brother, with a sore heart to be made so painfully acquainted with
these frightful scenes. I lose all thought of my own annoyance, in
seeing the calamities that are heaped upon the unoffending family of a
man who dares to draw his sword for his country."
"Yes, ma'am," said Horse Shoe, gravely, "these incarnivorous devils have
broken the rest of many a good woman in the Carolinas, before they
routed you out to-night, ma'am. But it is one of God's marcies to see
how you keep up under it."
"Mine's a trifling grievance, good sergeant: I lose but a little repose:
that poor mother flies to save her children, uncertain, perhaps, of
to-morrow's subsistence; and her husband's life is in daily peril. It is
a sad lot. Yet truly," added Mildred with a sigh, "mine is scarcely
better. Gracious heaven!" she exclaimed, looking behind her, "they have
set fire to the dwelling!"
In the quarter to which she directed her eyes, the horizon was already
illuminated with the blaze of Wingate's hut. The light grew brighter for
a short interval, and brought into bold relief upon the sky, the tall,
dark forms of the stately pines of which the forest was composed.
"They are fools as well as villains," said Horse Shoe, with an angry
vehemence; "they have had liquor to-night, or they would hardly kindle
up a blaze which should rouse every Whig on Pedee to track them like
hounds. It would be sport worth riding to look at, if Marion should get
a glimpse of that fire. But these wolves have grown obstropolous ever
since Horatio Gates made his fox paw at Camden."
"Oh, it is a most savage war," said Mildred, "that roots up the humble
hearth, and fires the lowly roof, where none but defenceless women and
children abide. I shudder to think of such wanton barbarity."
"There's the thing, Miss Lindsay, that turns all our blood bitter. Man
to man is fair game, all the world over: but this ere stealing of
cattle, and burning of houses, and even cutting up by the roots the
plants of the 'arth, and turning of women and children naked into the
swamps, in the dead of night! it's a sorry business to tell of a
Christian people, and a cowardly business for a nation that's a boasting
of its bravery."
The light of the conflagration had soon died away, and our wanderers
pursued their solitary road in darkness, ignorant of the country through
which they passed, and uncertain of the point to which they tended. A
full hour had gone by in this state of suspense, and Robinson had once
more resolved to make a halt, and encamp his party in the woods. Before,
however, he could put this design into execution, he was unexpectedly
challenged, from the road-side, with the military demand of--"Who goes
there?"
"Travellers," was the reply.
"Where do you come from, and where are you going?"
"The first question I can answer," said Horse Shoe, "and that is, from
Old Virginny, a fortnight ago, but, to-night, from a tolerable snug
lodging, where some onmannerly fellows troubled our sleep. But as to
where we're going, it's more likely you can tell that for us."
"You are saucy, sir."
"It's more than I meant to be," replied the sergeant. "Mayhap you mought
have hearn of a man they call Bloody Spur?"
"He has pricked your pillows for you--has he? Dick Peyton is good at
that," said a second questioner.
"Aha, comrades, I understand you now," said Horse Shoe, with alacrity.
"Dick Peyton and Bob Wingate both belong to your party. Am I right? We
are friends to Marion."
"And therefore friends to us," said the patrole. "Your name, sir, and
the number you have in company?"
"Take us to the general, and we will answer that," replied Horse Shoe.
"The Tories have set upon Wingate's house and burnt it to the ground.
It's like we may be able to tell something worth hearing at
head-quarters. Your man Bloody Spur gave us in charge to report him, and
to say that he would soon follow upon our track. I wonder that he isn't
here before now."
"I will remain," said one of the soldiers to his companion; "you shall
take charge of the travellers."
The trooper accordingly turned his horse's head and commanded Horse Shoe
and his party to follow.
The scout conducted our adventurers along a by-road that led round the
head of a marsh, and through several thickets which, in the darkness of
the night, were penetrated with great difficulty; during this ride he
interrogated Horse Shoe as to the events of the late inroad of the
Tories. He and his comrade had been stationed upon the path where the
sergeant encountered them, to direct the out-riding parties of his corps
to the spot of Marion's encampment, the policy of this wary officer
being to shift his station so frequently as almost equally to defy the
search of friend and foe. Peyton and Wingate were both expected; and the
trooper who remained behind only waited to conduct them to the
commanding officer, who had, since the disappearance of daylight, formed
a bivouac in this neighborhood. Marion's custom was to order his
reconnoitring parties to return to him by designated roads, where
videttes were directed to repair in order to inform them of his
position,--a fact which, as his movements were accomplished with
wonderful celerity and secresy, they were generally unable to ascertain
in any other way.
At length, emerging from the thicket, and crossing what seemed, by the
plash of the horse's feet, a morass, the party, under the guidance of
the scout, came upon a piece of thinly-timbered woodland, which, rising
by a gentle slope, furnished what might be called an island of dry
ground, that seemed to be only accessible by crossing the circumjacent
swamp. Upon this spot were encamped, in the rudest form of the bivouac,
a party of cavalry, which might have amounted to two hundred men.
Several fires, whose ruddy glare had been discerned for the last half
mile of the journey, were blazing forth from different quarters of the
wood, and threw a bold and sharp light upon the figures of men and
horses, imparting a feature of lively, picturesque beauty to the scene.
The greater portion of the soldiers were stretched beneath the trees,
with no other covering than the leafy bowers above them. The horses were
picketed in the neighborhood of their riders; and the confused array of
saddles, sabres, muskets, rifles, and other warlike instruments, that
were hung upon projecting boughs, or leant against the trunks, as they
caught the flashes of the frequent fires, seemed to be magnified in
number equal to the furniture of thrice the force. Sentinels were seen
pacing their limits on the outskirts of this company, and small bodies
of patroles on horseback moved across the encampment with the regularity
of military discipline. Here and there, as if regardless of rest, or
awaiting some soon-expected tour of duty, small knots of men sat
together amusing themselves, by torch-light, at cards; and, more
appropriately, others had extended their torpid frames in sleep upon
their grassy pallets and knapsack pillows.
"We have seen war in its horrors," exclaimed Mildred, with an
involuntary vivacity; "and here it is in all its romance!"
"Sister, I wish you were at home," said Henry, eagerly, "and Steve and I
had the Rangers on this field to-night. I would undertake to command a
picket with any man here!"
To Horse Shoe these were familiar scenes, and he could not comprehend
the source of that sudden interest which had so vividly aroused the
admiration of his companions; but asking the guide to conduct them
immediately to General Marion, he followed the soldier across the whole
extent of the bivouac, until they halted beneath a large tree, near
which a few officers were assembled. One of this group was seated on the
ground; and close by him, planted in the soil, a blazing pine-faggot
flung a broad light upon a saddle, the flap of which the officer had
converted, for the occasion, into a writing-desk.
"Make way for a squad of travellers picked up on the road to-night,"
said the scout in a loud voice. "They wish to see General Marion."
In a moment our party was surrounded by the officers; and Horse Shoe,
unceremoniously dismounting, addressed the person nearest to him:--
"A lady, sir, from Virginia, that I started with from her father's
house, to fetch to Carolina; but who has been most audaciously unhoused
and unbedded in the very middle of the night by a hellish pack of
Tories."
"My name is Lindsay, sir," said Henry, riding to the front; "my sister
and myself were travelling south, and have been obliged to fly,
to-night, before a detachment of horse-stealers."
"From Bob Wingate's," said Horse Shoe, "as I should judge, some six
miles back. I want to report to General Marion: the lady, likewise, is
tired, as she has good right to be."
The officer to whom this was addressed, directed a soldier to seek
General Marion, and then approaching Mildred, said:
"Madam, we can promise but little accommodation suitable to a lady: the
greenwood tree is but an uncouth resting-place: but what we can supply
shall be heartily at your service."
"I feel sufficiently thankful," replied Mildred, "to know that I am in
the hands of friends."
"Sister, alight," said Henry, who now stood beside her stirrup, and
offered his hand: and in a moment Mildred was on her feet.
The officer then conducted her to a bank, upon which a few blankets were
thrown by some of the soldiers in attendance. "If this strange place
does not alarm you," he said, "you may perhaps find needful repose upon
a couch even as rough as this."
"You are very kind," replied Mildred, seating herself. "Brother, do not
quit my side," she added, in a low voice: "I feel foolishly afraid."
But a few moments elapsed before the light of the torches, gleaming upon
his figure, disclosed to Mildred the approach of a person of short
stature and delicate frame, in whose step there was a singular alertness
and rapidity. He wore the blue and buff uniform of the staff, with a
pair of epaulets, a buckskin belt, and broadsword. A three-cornered
cocked-hat, ornamented with a buck-tail, gave a peculiar sharpness to
his naturally sharp and decided features; and a pair of small, dark eyes
twinkled in the firelight, from a countenance originally sallow, but now
swarthy from sun and wind. There was a conspicuous alacrity and courtesy
in the gay and chivalrous tone in which he accosted Mildred:
"General Marion, madam, is too happy to have his poor camp honored by
the visit of a lady. They tell me that the Tories were so uncivil as to
break in upon your slumbers to-night. It adds greatly to my grudge
against them."
"I have ventured," said Mildred, "into the field of war, and it does not
become me to complain that I have met its vicissitudes."
"Gallantly spoken, madam! May I be allowed to know to whom I am indebted
for the honor of this visit?"
"My name is Lindsay, my father resides at the Dove Cote in Virginia:
under the protection of my brother and a friend, I left home to travel
into Carolina."
"A long journey, madam," interrupted Marion; "and you have been sadly
vexed to-night, I learn. We have a rude and unquiet country."
"My sister and myself," said Henry, "counted the chances before we set
out."
"I would call you but an inexperienced guide, sir," said the General,
addressing Henry, and smiling.
"Oh, as to that," replied the youth, "we have an old soldier with
us--Horse Shoe Robinson--hem--Stephen Foster, I meant to say."
"Horse Shoe Robinson!" exclaimed Marion, "where is he?"
"Mr. Henry Lindsay, General, and me," said the sergeant, bluntly, "have
been practising a lie to tell the Tories, in case they should take us
unawares; but it sticks, you see, in both of our throats. It's the true
fact that I'm Horse Shoe himself. This calling me Stephen Foster is only
a hanging out of false colors for the benefit of the red-coats and
Tories, upon occasion."
"Horse Shoe, good fellow, your hand," said Marion, with vivacity, "I
have heard of you before. Miss Lindsay, excuse me, if you please; I have
business to-night which is apt impertinently to thrust itself between us
and our duty to the ladies. Richards," he continued, addressing a young
officer who stood near him, "see if you can find some refreshment that
would be acceptable to the lady and her brother. Horse Shoe, this way: I
would speak with you."
Marion now retired towards the place where the writing materials were
first noticed, and entered into an examination of the sergeant, as to
the particulars of the recent attack upon Wingate's cabin.
Before Robinson had finished his narrative of the events of the night, a
horseman dashed up almost at full speed to the spot where Marion stood,
and, flinging himself from his saddle, whilst his horse stood panting
beside him, asked for the General.
"How now, Bloody Spur! What's the news?" demanded Marion.
"The Black River hawks are flying," said the soldier.
"I have heard that already," interrupted the chieftain. "Tell me what
else."
"I stayed long enough to secure Wingate's cattle, and then set out for
the river to cut loose the boats at the Ferry. I did it in good time.
Four files followed close upon my heels, who had been sent ahead to make
sure of the means of crossing. The fellows found me after my work was
done, and chased me good three miles. They will hardly venture, General,
to swim the river to-night, with all the thievery they have in their
hands; and I rather take it they will halt at the ferry till daylight."
"Then that's a lucky cast, Dick Peyton," exclaimed Marion. "Ho, there!
Peters, wake up that snoring trumpeter. Tell him to sound 'to saddle.'
Come lads, up, up. Gentlemen, to your duties!"
Forthwith the trumpet sounded, and with its notes everything asleep
started erect. Troopers were seen hurrying across the ground in rapid
motion: some hastily buckling on broadswords and slinging their muskets;
others equipping the horses; and everywhere torches were seen passing to
and fro in all the agitation of a sudden muster. As soon as Marion had
set this mass in action, he repaired to Mildred, and in a manner that
betokened no excitement from the general stir around him, he said--
"I owe you an apology, Miss Lindsay, for this desertion, which I am sure
you will excuse when you know that it is caused by my desire to punish
the varlets who were so ill-mannered as to intrude upon your slumbers. I
hope, however, you will not be a loser by the withdrawal of our people,
as I will take measures to put you under the protection of a good friend
of mine, the widow of a worthy soldier, Mistress Rachel Markham, who
lives but two miles from this, and whose hospitable mansion will afford
you a shelter more congenial to your wishes than this broad canopy of
ours. A guide shall be ready to conduct you."
"Your kindness, general," said Mildred, "puts me under many
obligations."
"Horse Shoe shall take a line of explanation to my friend," added
Marion. "And now, madam, farewell," he said, offering his hand. "And
you, Master or Mister Henry, I don't know which--you seem entitled to
both--good night, my brave lad: I hope, before long, to hear of your
figuring as a gallant soldier of independence."
"I hope as much myself," replied Henry.
Marion withdrew, and by the time that he had prepared the letter and put
it into Horse Shoe's hands, his troops were in line, waiting their order
to march. The general mounted a spirited charger, and galloping to the
front of his men, wheeled them into column, and, by a rapid movement,
soon left Horse Shoe and his little party, attended by one trooper who
had been left as a guide, the only tenants of this lately so busy scene.
The change seemed almost like enchantment. The fires and many torches
were yet burning, but all was still, except the distant murmur of the
receding troops, which grew less and less, until, at last, there reigned
the silence of the native forest.
Our travellers waited, almost without exchanging a word, absorbed in the
contemplation of an incident so novel to Mildred and her brother, until
the distant tramp of the cavalry could be no longer heard: then, under
the direction of the guide, they set out for the residence of Mrs.
Markham.