Our readers doubtless bear in mind the spot called
Elliott's Point, at the western extremity of Lake Erie,
to which we have already introduced him. At a considerable
distance beyond that again, (its intermediate shores
washed by the silver waves of the Erie,) stretches a
second, called also, from the name of its proprietor,
Hartley's Point. Between these two necks, are three or
four farms; one of which and adjoining Hartley's, was,
at the period of which we treat, occupied by an individual
of whom, unfortunately for the interests of Canada, too
many of the species had been suffered to take root within
her soil. For many years previous to the war, adventurers
from the United States, chiefly men of desperate fortunes,
and even more desperate characters, had, through a mistaken
policy, been suffered to occupy the more valuable portion
of the country. Upper Canada, in particular, was infested
by these people, all of whom, even while taking the
customary oath of allegiance to the crown, brought with
them, and openly professed, all the partialities of
American citizens. By the Canadians and their descendants,
French and English, they were evidently looked upon with
an eye of distrust, for, independently of the fact of
their having been suffered to appropriate, during pleasure,
many valuable tracts of land, they had experienced no
inconsiderable partiality on the part of the Government.
Those who believe in the possibility of attaching a
renegade to the soil of his adoption and converting him
into a serviceable defender of that soil in a moment of
need, commit a great error in politics. The shrewd
Canadians knew them better. They complained with bitterness,
that at the first appearance of a war, they would hold
their oaths of fealty as naught, or that if they did
remain, it would only be with a view to embarrass the
province with their presence, and secretly to serve the
cause of their native country. The event proved that they
knew their men. Scarcely had the American declaration
of war gone forth, when numbers of these people, availing
themselves of their near contiguity, abandoned their
homes, and embarking in boats all their disposable
property, easily succeeded, under cover of the night, in
gaining the opposite coast. Not satisfied however with
their double treason, they, in the true spirit of the
dog in the manger, seemed resolved others should not
enjoy that which was no longer available to themselves,
and the dawn that succeeded the night of their departure,
more than once broke on scenes of spoliation of their
several possessions, which it required one to know these
desperate people well, to credit as being the work of
their own hands. Melancholy as it was, however, to
reflect that the spirit of conciliation had been thus
repaid, the country had reason to rejoice in their flight;
for, having thus declared themselves, there was nothing
now, beyond their open hostility, to apprehend. Not so
with the few who remained. Alike distrusted with those
who had taken a more decided part, it was impossible to
bring any charge home to them, on which to found a plea
for compelling them to quit the country, in imitation of
the example of their fellows. They had taken the oaths
of allegiance to England--and, although ninety-nine had
deliberately violated these, there was no legal cause
for driving forth the hundredth, who still kept the "word
of promise to the ear," however he might break it to the
hope. Not that, on this account, the hundredth was held
to be one whit more honourable or loyal. It was felt and
known, as though it had been written in characters of
fire upon his brow, that if he did not follow in the
steps of his predecessors, it was because his interests,
not his inclination, induced his pursuing an apparently
opposite course. It is true, those who remained were few
in number; but scattered, as they were, over various
isolated parts of the country, this only rendered them
greater objects of suspicion. If the enemy became apprised
of any of our movements, for the successful termination
of which it was necessary they should be kept in ignorance,
it was at once taken for granted their information had
been derived from the traitors Canada had so long nourished
in her bosom; and as several of them were in the practice
of absenting themselves for days in their boats, under
the plea of duck-shooting, or some other equally plausible
pretence, nothing was more easy of accomplishment. Under
these circumstances of doubt, the general secession of
the Yankees, as they were termed, which had first been
regarded as a calamity, was now looked upon as a blessing;
and if regret eventually lingered in the minds even of
those who had been most forward to promote their
introduction into the country, it arose, not because the
many had departed, but because the few remained. That
they were traitors, all believed; but, although narrowly
watched, in no one instance could their treason be traced,
much less established. In the course of time however they
committed themselves in some one way or other, and then
of necessity their only resource was to flee, as their
companions had fled before them, until ultimately few of
their number were left. If Canada has reason to feel
happy in the late war, inasmuch as that war offered a
means of proving her devoted attachment to the Mother
Country, she has no less reason to rejoice in it, as
having been the indirect means of purging her unrepublican
soil of a set of hollow hearted persons, who occupied
the place and enjoyed all the advantages of loyal men.
Should she, failing to profit by the experience of the
past, again tolerate the introduction of citizens of the
United States into her flourishing provinces, when there
are so many deserving families anxious to emigrate to
her from the Mother Country; then will she merit all the
evils which can attach, in a state of warfare, to a people
diametrically opposed in their interests, their principles,
their habits, and their attachments.
An individual of this description had his residence near
Hartley's Point. Unlike those however whose dwellings
rose at a distance, few and far between, hemmed in by
the fruits of prosperous agriculture, he appeared to have
paid But little attention to the cultivation of a soil,
which in every part was of exceeding fertility. A rude
log hut, situated in a clearing of the forest, the
imperfect work of lazy labour, was his only habitation,
and here he had for years resided without its being known
how he contrived to procure the necessary means of
subsistence; yet, in defiance of the apparent absence of
all resources, it was subject of general remark, that he
not only never wanted money, but had been enabled to
bestow something like an education on a son, who had, at
the epoch opened by our narrative, been absent from him
upwards of five years. From his frequent voyages, and
the direction his canoe was seen to take, it was inferred
by his immediate neighbours, that he dealt in contraband,
procuring various articles on the American coast, which,
he subsequently disposed of in the small town of
Amherstburgh (one of the principal English posts) among
certain subjects domiciliated there, who were suspected
of no very scrupulous desire to benefit the revenue of
the country they called their own. So well and so wisely,
however, did he cover his operations, that he had always
contrived to elude detection--and, although suspicion
attached to his conduct, in no instance had he openly
committed himself. The man himself, tall, stout and of
a forbidding look, was of a fearless and resolute character,
and if he resorted to cunning, it was because cunning
alone could serve his purpose in a country, the laws of
which were not openly to be defied.
For a series of years after his arrival, he had contrived
to evade taking the customary oaths of allegiance; but
this, eventually awakening the suspicions of the magistracy,
brought him more immediately under their surveillance,
when, year after year, he was compelled to a renewal of
the oath, for the imposition of which, it was thought,
he owed more than one of those magistrates a grudge. On
the breaking out of the war, he still remained in
undisturbed possession of his rude dwelling, watched as
well as circumstances would permit, it is true, but not
so narrowly as to be traced in his various nocturnal
excursions by water. Nothing could be conceived more
uncouth in manner and appearance than this man--nothing
more villainous than the expression of his eye. No one
knew from what particular point of the United States he
had come, and whether Yankee or Kentuckian, it would have
puzzled one of that race of beings, so proverbial for
acumen--a Philadelphia lawyer--to have determined; for
so completely did he unite the boasting language of the
latter with the wary caution and sly cunning of the
former, that he appeared a compound of both. The general
opinion, however, seemed rather, to incline in favor of
the presumption that he was less Kentuckian than Yankee.
The day following that of the capture of the American
detachment was just beginning to dawn, as two individuals
appeared on the skirt of the rude clearing in which the
hut of the man we have just described, had been erected.
The persons of both these, wrapt in blue military cloaks,
reposed upon the dark foliage in a manner to enable them
to observe, without being themselves seen, all that passed
within the clearing, from the log hut to the sand of the
lake shore. There had been an indication by one of these
of a design to step forth from his concealment into the
clearing, and advance boldly toward the house; but this
had been checked by his companion, who, laying his hand
upon his shoulder, arrested the movement, pointing out
at the same time, the leisurely but cautious advance of
two men from the hut towards the shore, on which lay a
canoe half drawn up on the sands. Each, on issuing from
the hut, had deposited a rifle against the rude exterior
of the dwelling, the better to enable them to convey a
light mast, sail, paddles, several blankets, and a common
corn-bag, apparently containing provisions, with which
they proceeded towards the canoe.
"So," said the taller of the first party, in a whisper,
"there is that d----d rascal Desborough setting out on
one of his contraband excursions. He seems to have a long
absence in view, if we may judge from the contents of
his provision sack."
"Hist," rejoined his companion, "there is more here than
meets the eye. In the first instance, remove the pistols
from the case, and be prepared to afford me assistance,
should I require it."
"What the devil are you going to do, and what do you
mean?" asked the first speaker, following however the
hint that had been given him, and removing a pair of
duelling pistols from their mahogany case.
While he was in the act of doing this, his companion had,
without replying, quitted his side, and cautiously and
noiselessly advanced to the hut. In the course of a few
minutes he again appeared at the point whence he had
started, grasping in either hand the rifles so recently
deposited there.
"Well, what is the meaning of this feat? you do not
intend, Yankee fashion, to exchange a long shot with poor
Molineux, I hope--if so, my dear fellow, I cry off, for
upon my honor, I cannot engage in any thing that is not
strictly orthodox."
He, thus addressed, could scarcely restrain a laugh at
the serious tone in which his companion expressed himself,
as if he verily believed he had that object in view.
"Would you not like," he asked, "to be in some degree
instrumental in banishing wholly from the country, a man
whom we all suspect of treason, but are compelled to
tolerate from inability to prove his guilt--this same
notorious Desborough?"
"Now that you no longer speak and act in parables, I can
understand you. Of course I should, but what proof of
his treason are we to discover in the mere fact of his
departing on what he may choose to call a hunting excursion?
even admitting he is speculating in the contraband, THAT
cannot banish him; and if it could, we could never descend
to become informers."
"Nothing of the kind is required of us--his treason will
soon unfold itself, and that in a manner to demand, as
an imperative duty, that we secure the traitor. For this
have I removed the rifles which may, in a moment of
desperation, be turned at backwoodsman's odds against
our pistols. Let us steal gently towards the beach, and
then you shall satisfy yourself; but I had nearly
forgotten--suppose the other party should arrive?",
"Then they must in their turn wait for us. They have
already exceeded their time ten minutes."
"Look," exclaimed his companion, as he slightly grasped
the shoulder on which his hand had rested, "he is returning
for the rifles."
Only one of the two men now retrod his steps from the
beach towards the hut, but with a more hurried action
than before. As he passed where the friends still
lingered, he gave a start of surprise, apparently produced
by the absence of the rifles. A moment's reflection
seeming to satisfy him it was possible his memory had
failed him, and that they had been left within the
building, he hurried forward to assure himself. After
a few moments of apparently ineffectual search, he again
made his appearance, making the circuit of the hut to
discover his lost weapons, but in vain; when, in the
fierceness of his anger, he cried aloud, with a bitterness
that gave earnest of sincerity.
"By Gosh, I wish I had the curst British rascal who played
me this trick, on t'other shore--if I wouldn't tuck my
knife into his b----y gizzard, then is my name not Jeremiah
Desborough. What the h--l's to be done now?"
Taking advantage of his entrance into the hut, the two
individuals, first described, had stolen cautiously under
cover of the forest, until they arrived at its termination,
within about twenty yards of the shore, where however
there was no outward or visible sign of the individual
who had been Desborough's companion. In the bows of the
canoe were piled the blankets, and in the centre was
deposited the provision bag that had formed a portion of
their mutual load. The mast had not been hoisted, but
lay extended along the hull, its sail loosened and
partially covering the before mentioned article of
freightage. The bow half of the canoe pressed the beach,
the other lay sunk in the water, apparently in the manner
in which it had first approached the land.
Still uttering curses, but in a more subdued tone, against
"the fellor who had stolen his small bores," the angry
Desborough retraced his steps to the canoe. More than
once he looked back to see if he could discover any traces
of the purloiner, until at length his countenance seemed
to assume an expression of deeper cause for concern, than
even the loss of his weapons.
"Ha, I expect some d----d spy has been on the look out--
if so, I must cut and run I calculate purty soon."
This apprehension was expressed as he arrived opposite
the point where the forest terminated. A slight rustling
among the underwood reduced that apprehension to certainty.
He grasped the handle of his huge knife that was thrust
into the girdle around his loins, and rivetting his gaze
on the point whence the sound had proceeded, retreated
in that attitude. Another and more distinct crush of
underwood, and he stood still with surprise, on finding
himself face to face with two officers of the garrison.
"We have alarmed you, Desborough," said the younger, as
they both advanced leisurely to the beach. "Do you
apprehend danger from our presence?"
A keen searching glance flashed from the ferocious eye
of the Yankee. It was but momentary. Quitting his firm
grasp of the knife, he suffered his limbs to relax their
tension, and aiming at carelessness, observed, with a
smile, that was tenfold more hideous from its being
forced:
"Well now, I guess, who would have expected to see two
officers so fur away from the fort at this early hour of
the mornin'."
"Ah," said the taller of the two, availing himself of
the first opening to a pun which had been afforded, "we
are merely out on a SHOOTING excursion."
Desborough gazed doubtingly on the speaker--"Strange sort
of a dress that for shootin' I guess--them cloaks most
be a great tanglement in the bushes."
"They serve to keep our ARMS warm," continued Middlemore,
perpetrating another of his execrables.
"To keep your arms warm! well sure-LY, if that arn't
droll. It may be some use to keep the primins dry, I
reckon; but I can't see the good of keepin' the fowlin'
pieces warm. Have you met any game yet, officers. I expect
as how I can pint you out a purty spry place for pattridges
and sich like."
"Thank you, my good fellow; but we have appointed to meet
our GAME here."
The dry manner in which this was observed had a visible
effect on the settler. He glanced an eye of suspicion
around, to see if others than the two officers were in
view, and it was not without effort that he assumed an
air of unconcern, as he replied:
"Well I expect I have been many a long year a hunter, as
well as other things, and yet, dang me if I ever calculated
the game would come to me. It always costs me a purty
good chase in the woods."
"How the fellow beats about the bush, to find what game
we are driving at," observed Middlemore, in an under
tone, to his companion.
"Let the Yankee alone for that," returned he, whom our
readers have doubtless recognized for Henry Grantham; "I
will match his cunning against your punning any day."
"The truth is, he is FISHING to discover our motive for
being here, and to find out if we are in any way connected
with the disappearance of his rifles."
During this conversation APART, the Yankee had carelessly
approached his canoe, and was affecting to make some
alteration in the disposition of the sail. The officers,
the younger especially, keeping a sharp look out upon
his movements, followed at some little distance, until
they, at length, stood on the extreme verge of the sands.
Their near approach seemed to render Desborough impatient:
"I expect, officers," he said, with a hastiness that, at
any other moment, would have called down immediate reproof,
if not chastisement, "you will only be losin' time here
for nothin'--About a mile beyond Hartley's there'll be
plenty of pattridges at this hour, and I am jist goin'
to start myself for a little shootin' in the Sandusky
river."
"Then, I presume," said Grantham, with a smile, "you are
well provided with silver bullets, Desborough--for, in
the hurry of departure, you seem likely to forget the
only medium through which leaden ones can be made available:
not a rifle or a shot-gun do I see."
The Yankee fixed his eye for a moment, with a penetrating
expression, on the youth, as if he would have sought a
meaning deeper than the words implied. His reading seemed
to satisfy him that all was right.
"What," he observed, with a leer, half cunning half
insolent, "if I have hid my rifle near the Sandusky swamp,
the last time I hunted there."
"In that case," observed the laughing Middlemore, to whom
the opportunity was irresistible, "you are going out on
a WILD GOOSE CHASE, indeed. Your prospects of a good
hunt, as you call it, cannot be said to be SURE AS A GUN,
for in regard to the latter, you may depend some one has
discovered and RIFLED it before this."
"You seem to have laid in a store of provisions for this
trip, Desborough," remarked Henry Grantham; "how long do
you purpose being absent?"
"I guess three or four days," was the sullen reply.
"Three or four days! why your bag contains," and the
officer partly raised a corner of the sail, "provisions
for a week, or, at least, for TWO for half that period."
The manner in which the TWO was emphasised did not escape
the attention of the settler. He was visibly disconcerted,
nor was he at all reassured when the younger officer
proceeded:
"By the bye, Desborough, we saw you leave the hut with
a companion--what has become of him?"
The Yankee, who had now recovered his self-possession,
met the question without the slightest show of hesitation:
"I expect you mean, young man," he said, with insufferable
insolence, "a help as I had from Hartley's farm, to assist
gittin' down the things. He took home along shore when
I went back to the hut for the small bores."
"Oh ho, sir! the rifles ate not then concealed near the
Sandusky swamp, I find."
For once, the wily settler felt his cunning had over-reached
itself. In the first fury of his subdued rage, he muttered
something amounting to a desire that he could produce
them at that moment, as he would well know where to lodge
the bullets--but, recovering himself, he said aloud:
"The rale fact is, I've a long gun hid, as I said, near
the swamp, but my small bore I always carry with me--only
think, jist as I and Hartley's help left the hut, I pit
my rifle against the outside wall, not being able to
carry it down with the other things, and when I went back
a minute or two ater, drot me if some tarnation rascal
hadn't stole it."
"And if you had the British rascal on t'other shore, you
wouldn't be long in tucking a knife into his gizzard,
would you?" asked Middlemore, in a nearly verbatim
repetition of the horrid oath originally uttered by
Desborough, "I see nothing to warrant our interfering
with him," he continued in an under tone to his companion.
Not a little surprised to hear his words repeated, the
Yankee lost somewhat of his confidence as he replied,
"well now sure-LY, you officers didn't think nothin' o'
that--I expect I was in a mighty rage to find my small
bore gone, and I did curse a little hearty, to be sure."
"The small bore multiplied in your absence," observed
Grantham; "when I looked at the hut there were two."
"Then maybe you can tell who was the particular d----d
rascal that stole them," said the settler eagerly.
Middlemore laughed heartily at his companion, who observed:
"The particular d----d rascal who removed, not stole them
thence, stands before you."
Again the Yankee looked disconcerted. After a moment's
hesitation, he continued, with a forced grin, that gave
an atrocious expression to his whole countenance:
"Well now, you officers are playing a purty considerable
spry trick--it's a good lark, I calculate--but you know,
as the saying is, enough's as good as a feast. Do tell
me, Mr. Grantham," and his discordant voice became more
offensive in its effort at a tone of entreaty, "do tell
me where you've hid my small bore--you little think," he
concluded, with an emphasis then unnoticed by the officers,
but subsequently remembered to have been perfectly
ferocious, "what reason I have to vally it."
"We never descend to larks of the kind," coolly observed
Grantham; "but as you say you value your rifle, it shall
be restored to you on one condition."
"And what may that be?" asked the settler, somewhat
startled at the serious manner of the officer.
"That you show us what your canoe is freighted with.
Here in the bows I mean."
"Why," rejoined the Yankee quickly, but as if without
design, intercepting the officers' nearer approach, "that
bag, I calculate, contains my provisions, and these here
blankets that you see, peepin' like from under the sail,
are what I makes my bed of while out huntin'."
"And are you quite certain there is nothing under those
blankets?--nay do not protest--you cannot answer for what
may have occurred while your back was turned, on your
way to the hut for the rifle."
"By hell," exclaimed the settler, blusteringly, "were
any man to tell me, Jeremiah Desborough, there was any
thin' beside them blankets in the canoe, I would lick
him into a jelly, even though he could whip his own weight
in wild cats."
"So is it? Now then, Jeremiah Desborough, although I have
never yet tried to whip my own weight in wild cats, I
tell you there is something more than those blankets;
and what is more, I insist upon seeing what that something
is."
The settler stood confounded. His eye rolled rapidly from
one to the other of the officers at the boldness and
determination of this language. Singly, he could hare
crushed Henry Grantham in his gripe, even as one of the
bears of the forest, near the outskirt of which they
stood; but there were two, and while attacking the one,
he was sure of being assailed by the other; nay, what
was worse, the neighborhood might be alarmed. Moreover,
although they had kept their cloaks carefully wrapped
around their persons, there could be little doubt that
both officers were armed, not, as they had originally
given him to understand, with fowling pieces, but with
(at the present close quarters at least) far more efficient
weapons--pistols. He was relieved from his embarrassment
by Middlemore exclaiming:
"Nay, do not press the poor devil, Grantham; I dare say
the story of his hunting is all a hum, and that the fact
is, he is merely going to earn an honest penny in one of
his free commercial speculations--a little contraband,"
pointing with his finger to the bows, "is it not
Desborough?"
"Why now, officer," said the Yankee, rapidly assuming a
dogged air, as if ashamed of the discovery that had been
so acutely made, "I expect you won't hurt a poor fellor
for doin' a little in this way. Drot me, these are hard
times, and this here war jist beginnin', quite pits one
to one's shifts."
"This might do, Desborough, were your present freight an
arrival instead of a departure, but we all know that
contraband is imported, not exported."
"Mighty cute you are, I guess," replied the settler,
warily, with something like the savage grin of the wild
cat, to which he had so recently alluded; "but I expect
it would be none so strange to have packed up a few dried
hog skins to stow away the goods I am goin' for."
"I should like to try the effect of a bullet among the
skins," said Grantham, leisurely drawing forth and cocking
a pistol, after having whispered something in the ear of
his companion.
"Nay, officer," said Desborough, now for the first time
manifesting serious alarm--"you sure-LY don't mean to
bore a hole through them innocent skins?"
"True," said Middlemore, imitating, "if he fires, the
hole will be something more than SKIN deep I reckon--these
pistols, to my knowledge, send a bullet through a two
inch plank at twenty paces."
As Middlemore thus expressed himself, both he and Grantham
saw, or fancied they saw, the blankets slightly agitated.
"Good place for HIDE that," said the former, addressing
his pun to the Yankee, on whom however it was totally
lost, "show us those said skins, my good fellow, and if
we find they are not filled with any thing it would be
treason in a professed British subject to export thus
clandestinely, we promise that you shall depart without
further hindrance."
"Indeed, officer," muttered the settler, sullenly and
doggedly, "I shan't do no sich thing. Yon don't belong
to the custom-house I reckon, and so I wish you a good
day, for I have a considerable long course to run, and
must be movin'." Then, seizing the paddles that were
lying on the sand, he prepared to shove the canoe from
the beach.
"Not at least before I have sent a bullet, to ascertain
the true quality of your skins," said Grantham, levelling
his pistol.
"Sure-LY," said Desborough, as he turned and drew himself
to the full height of his bony and muscular figure, while
his eye measured the officer from head to foot, with a
look of concentrated but suppressed fury, "you wouldn't
dare to do this--you wouldn't dare to fire into my canoe--
besides, consider," he said, in a tone somewhat deprecating,
"your bullet may go through her, and you would hardly do
a fellor the injury to make him lose the chance of a good
cargo."
"Then why provoke such a disaster, by refusing to show
us what is beneath those blankets?"
"Because it's my pleasure to do so," fiercely retorted
the other, "and I won't show them to no man."
"Then is it my pleasure to fire," said Grantham. "The
injury be on your own head, Desborough--one--two--."
At that moment the sail was violently agitated--something
struggling for freedom, cast the blankets on one side,
and presently the figure of a man stood upright in the
bows of the canoe, and gazed around him with an air of
stupid astonishment.
"What," exclaimed Middlemore, retreating back a pace or
two, in unfeigned surprise; "has that pistol started up,
like the ghost in Hamlet, Ensign Paul, Emilius, Theophilus,
Arnoldi, of the United States Michigan Militia--a prisoner
on his parole of honor? and yet attempting a clandestine
departure from the country--how is this?"
"Not this merely," exclaimed Grantham, "but a traitor to
his country, and a deserter from our service. This fellow,"
he pursued, in answer to an inquiring look of his companion,
"is a scoundrel, who deserted three years since from the
regiment you relieved--I recognized him yesterday on his
landing, as my brother Gerald, who proposed making his
report to the General this morning, had done before. Let
us secure both, Middlemore, for, thank Heaven we have
been enabled to detect the traitor at last, in that which
will excuse his final expulsion from the soil, even if
no worse befall him. I have only tampered with him thus
long to render his conviction more complete."
"Secure me! secure Jeremiah Desborough?" exclaimed the
settler, with rage manifest in the clenching of his teeth
and the tension of every muscle of his iron frame, "and
that for jist tryin' to save a countryman--well, we'll
see who'll have the best of it."
Before Grantham could anticipate the movement, the active
and powerful Desborough had closed with him in a manner
to prevent his making use of his pistol, had he even so
desired. In the next instant it was wrested from him,
and thrown far from the spot on which he struggled with
his adversary, but at fearful odds, against himself.
Henry Grantham, although well and actively made, was of
slight proportion, and yet in boyhood. Desborough, on
the contrary, was in the full force of a vigorous manhood.
A struggle, hand to hand, between two combatants so
disproportioned, could not, consequently, be long doubtful
as to its issue. No sooner had the formidable Yankee
closed with his enemy, than, pressing the knuckles of
his iron hand which met round the body of the officer,
with violence against his spine, he threw him backwards
with force upon the sands. Grasping his victim with one
hand as he lay upon him, he seemed, as Grantham afterwards
declared, to be groping for his knife with the other.
The settler was evidently anxious to despatch one enemy,
in order that he might fly to the assistance of his son,
for it was he whom Middlemore, with a powerful effort,
had dragged from the canoe to the beach. While his right
hand was still groping for the knife--an object which
the powerful resistance of the yet unsubdued, though
prostrate, officer rendered somewhat difficult of attainment
--the report of a pistol was heard, fired evidently by
one of the other combatants. Immediately the settler
looked up to see who was the triumphant party. Neither
had fallen, and Middlemore, if any thing, had the advantage
of his enemy; but to his infinite dismay, Desborough
beheld a horseman, evidently attracted by the report of
the pistol, urging his course with the rapidity of
lightning, along the firm sands, and advancing with cries
and vehement gesticulations to the rescue.
Springing with the quickness of thought from his victim,
the settler was in the next moment at the side of
Middlemore. Seizing him from behind by the arm within
his nervous grasp, he pressed the latter with such
prodigious force as to cause him to relinquish, by a
convulsive movement, the firm hold he had hitherto kept
of his adversary.
"In, boy, to the canoe for your life," he exclaimed
hurriedly, as following up his advantage, he spun the
officer round, and sent him tottering to the spot were
Grantham lay, still stupified and half throttled. The
next instant saw him heaving the canoe from the shore,
with all the exertion called for by his desperate situation.
And all this was done so rapidly, in so much less time
than it will take our readers to trace it, that before
the horseman, so opportunely arriving, had reached the
spot, the canoe, with its inmates, had pushed from the
shore.
Without pausing to consider the rashness and apparent
impracticability of his undertaking, the strange horseman,
checking his rein, and burying the rowels of his spurs
deep into the flanks of his steed, sent him bounding and
plunging into the lake, in pursuit of the fugitives.
He himself evinced every symptom of one in a state of
intoxication. Brandishing a stout cudgel over his head,
and pealing forth shouts of defiance, he rolled from side
to side on his spirited charger, like some labouring bark
careening to the violence of the winds, but ever, like
that bark, regaining an equilibrium that was never
thoroughly lost. Shallow as the lake was at this point
for a considerable distance, it was long before the noble
animal lost its footing, and thus had its rider been
enabled to arrive within a few paces of the canoe, at
the very moment when the increasing depth of the water,
in compelling the horse to the less expeditions process
of swimming, gave a proportionate advantage to the pursued.
No sooner, however, did the Centaur-like rider find that
he was losing ground, than, again darting his spurs into
the flanks of his charger, he made every effort to reach
the canoe, Maddened by the pain, the snorting beast half
rose upon the calm element, like some monster of the
deep, and, making two or three desperate plunges with
his fore feet, succeeded in reaching the stern. Then
commenced a short but extraordinary conflict. Bearing up
his horse as he swam, with the bridle in his teeth, the
bold rider threw his left hand upon the stern of the
vessel, and brandishing his cudgel in the right, seemed
to provoke both parties to the combat. Desborough, who
had risen from the stern at his approach, stood upright
in the centre, his companion still paddling at the bows;
and between these two a singular contest now ensued.
Armed with the formidable knife which he had about his
person, the settler made the most desperate and infuriated
efforts to reach his assailant; but in so masterly a
manner did his adversary use his simple weapon, that
every attempt was foiled, and more than once did the hard
iron-wood descend upon his shoulders, in a manner to be
heard from the shore. Once or twice the settler stooped
to evade some falling blow, and, rushing forward, sought
to sever the hand which still retained its hold of the
stern; but, with an activity remarkable in so old a man
as his assailant, for he was upwards of sixty years of
age, the hand was removed--and the settler, defeated in
his object, was amply repaid for his attempt, by a severe
collision of his bones with the cudgel. At length,
apparently enjoined by his companion, the younger removed
his paddle, and, standing up also in the canoe, aimed a
blow with its knobbed handle at the head of the horse,
at a moment when his rider was fully engaged with
Desborough. The quick-sighted old man saw the action,
and, as the paddle descended, an upward stroke from his
own heavy weapon sent it flying in fragments in the air,
while a rapid and returning blow fell upon the head of
the paddler, and prostrated him at length in the canoe.
The opportunity afforded by this diversion, momentary as
it was, was not lost upon Desborough. The horseman, who,
in his impatience to avenge the injury offered to the
animal, which seemed to form a part of himself, had
utterly forgotten the peril of his hand; and before he
could return from the double blow that had been so
skilfully wielded, to his first enemy, the knife of the
latter had penetrated his hand, which, thus rendered
powerless now relinquished its grasp. Desborough, whose
object--desperate character as he usually was--seemed
now rather to fly than to fight, availed himself of this
advantage to hasten to the bows of the canoe, where,
striding across the body of his insensible companion,
he, with a few vigorous strokes of the remaining paddle,
urged the lagging bark rapidly a-head. In no way intimidated
by his disaster, the courageous old man, again brandishing
his cudgel, and vociferating taunts of defiance, would
have continued the pursuit, but panting as he was, not
only with the exertion he had made, but under the weight
of his impatient rider, in an element in which he was
supported merely by his own buoyancy, the strength and
spirit of the animal began now perceptibly to fail him,
and he turned, despite of every effort to prevent him,
towards the shore. It was fortunate for the former that
there were no arms in the canoe, or neither he nor the
horse would, in all probability, have returned alive;
such was the opinion, at least, pronounced by those who
were witnesses of the strange scene, and who remarked
the infuriated but impotent gestures of Desborough, as
the old man, having once more gotten his steed into depth,
slowly pursued his course towards the shore, but with
the same wild brandishing of his enormous cudgel, and
the same rocking from side to side, until his body was
often at right angles with that of his jaded but sure-footed
beast. As he is, however, a character meriting rather
more than the casual notice we have bestowed, we shall
take the opportunity while he is hastening to the
discomfited officers on the beach, more particularly to
describe him.