BESIEGED
Three hours later our house, barricaded in every way possible, was in
a state of siege and around it lay a band of Shawnee and Doeg Indians,
some hundreds strong.
Nay, more, we knew from various signs that the whole village, or
hamlet, of Pomfret was in the same condition, and that, indeed, the
surrounding locality was attacked by the savages. From the church
below our plantations there came at intervals of a few moments a
flash, succeeded by a dull booming, which told us that the cannon that
had stood on its tower for many years was being fired, and thereby put
at last to the use for which it had been originally placed there. The
ping of bullets from flint-locks, and muskets, and fuzees, as well as
the more dead, hard sounds of musquetoons, were continuous also; the
yells of the Indians rose sometimes high above the cheers of the white
folks, and, to add to all, from every manor around was heard the
ringing of the great bells in their cupolas, while the burning of
beacons was to be seen. In our house we had taken every precaution
that time would allow us, and, to all the ideas which our ancestors in
the colonies had conceived for defending their homes and families
against attack, we had added some more modern ones. Thus the ancient
device of laying down on the lawns and paddock--across which the
Indians must pass when they left the plantations and copses in which,
at present, they remained--old doors with long nails thrust through
them was carried out, in the hopes of maiming some of our aggressors.
Broken glass was also plentifully strewn about, while, indoors, water
was being boiled and kept to boiling heat, so as to be ready to empty
on them if they approached us. Then, too, we had rapidly erected
stockades and palisadoes which must check any onward rush; the
mastiffs which had replaced those poor beasts that had been poisoned
were brought up to the house by the bondsmen, whose duty it was to
attend to them. The convicts and bondsmen themselves were now all
aroused, and every door, shutter, and window was fast closed, so that
the heat inside on this July night was scarcely to be endured.
It was inside the house that the greatest resistance--which, if it
came to that, must be the last--would have to be made; and the saloon,
as being the biggest apartment in the manor, as well as because it had
windows looking on to both the back and the front of the house, was
selected as our principal point of defence; and here we four--Lord St.
Amande, Mr. Kinchella, Mary and myself--were assembled. Upstairs, in
every room, were told off certain of the white servants, most of the
blacks having hidden in the cellars where they shrieked and howled
dreadfully; so that, if the enemy did force an entrance, they must
undoubtedly soon be discovered; while the rest had run away. Of these
white servants, Buck, the man who had been a highwayman, had command,
with, under him, Lamb, the brother of my maid. And certainly, judging
from the sounds we heard above, these men seemed to have thrown
themselves into work of this nature with far more ardour than they
ever did into their duties in the fields, for we could hear them
laughing and talking, and even singing at such a dreadful time as
this. "Ha, ha," we heard Buck roar.
"Ha, ha! This is indeed work fit for a gentleman to do; as good, i'
faith, as a canter across Bagshot or Hounslow Heath, with the coach
coming up well laden. Look now, look, Lamb, lad; look. Do'st see that
red devil crawling up from out the plantation; at him, aim low and
steady. So-so, wait till he cometh into the moonlight. Ha! now,
steady, let go." Then there was a ping heard, a yell from outside, and
next, above that, the voice of Buck again. "Fair! Fairly hit. Look how
he kicks. So did I once shoot one of the Bow Street catchers who
thought to take me at Fulham. Load, lad, load, though the next shot is
mine," whereon the desperado fell to singing:
Oh, three jolly rogues, three jolly rogues,
Three jolly rogues are we
As ever did swing in a hempen string
Under the gallow's tree.
In the saloon where we were, we had laid out upon a table the arms and
ammunition we were using, or might have to use. My lord had no pistol
with him since he carried always his sword, but Mr. Kinchella
possessed one as, since the practice of carrying arm's had long since
become universal in the colonies, not even clergymen went now without
them--the Indians being no respecters of persons. Then there were my
pistol and Mary's, which Gregory and my father had taught us to use
and grow accustomed to, so that we could shoot a pear hanging on a
tree--though now our tremblings and excitement were so great that
'twas doubtful if we could hit a man's body; and, for the rest, we had
gathered together all the firearms in the house. To wit, there were my
father's birding pieces as well as muskets for large balls, several
blunderbusses and musquetoons, and some brass horse-pistols. Yet, as
we asked each other, of what avail would these or, indeed, any defence
be which we could make if once the Indians advanced to our doors in
large numbers.
Outside--the place he had selected, leaving Lord St. Amande and Mr.
Kinchella to be our immediate bodyguard--was O'Rourke in command of
the overseers (who supposed him to be either a friend of the family or
of one of the two gentlemen) and of some of the other bondsmen, and he
was indefatigable in his exertions. He and they kept up a continual
fire on the foe from their positions behind trees or under the porch,
or from the stables in the rear, while, horrible to relate, as each
shot was seen to be successful it was greeted by oaths of delight and
dreadful cries; and, besides their shooting, they had also laid mines
of gunpowder which would be exploded when the Indians advanced.
Indeed, as Lord St. Amande remarked as he noticed this through the
light-holes of the shutters, or went out himself to assist the others
from time to time, whatever O'Rourke's past villainies had been he was
this night going far towards effacing them.
"The fellow," he said, coming back to us after one of these visits
outside, when I nearly fainted at seeing blood trickling down his
forehead--he having been grazed by a bullet--"the fellow spoke truly
when he said he was no coward at least. He exposes his burly body
everywhere fearlessly, though these savages have learned to use their
weapons with marvellous precision and scarcely miss a shot. But just
now he caught one of them creeping through the grass to get nearer us,
and, wrenching his tomahawk from him, beat out his brains."
Meanwhile the night grew late, and I, who had heard so many stories of
how the Indians pursued their attack, though, heaven be praised, this
was the first experience I had ever had of so dreadful a thing, knew
very well that, if they meant to besiege the house itself, the time
must now be drawing nigh. At this period of the year it was full
daylight by four o'clock, when, if they were not first driven off and
routed, the Indians would withdraw into the woods, and there
sheltering themselves renew their attack at nightfall. But as to
driving them off, it was, we deemed, not to be hope for. Outside
assistance we could not expect. The booming of the church-roof cannon
that still went on, the ringing of bells from neighbouring plantations
with--worst of all! the lurid light in the sky that told of some other
manor, or perhaps village, in flames, forbade us to think that. So we
had none to depend on but ourselves--a handful of brave men and a
number of almost useless, timorous women. And thus, knowing what must
come, we waited for the worst.
"Promise me," I whispered to my lord at this moment, "promise me that,
as the first Indian crosses the threshold and if all hope is gone, you
will never leave me, or that, if you must do so, you will slay me
first. To fall into their hands would be more bitter than death or the
grave itself." And unwittingly, for I was sore distraught, I laid my
hand upon his arm and gazed up into his eyes.
His eyes, glancing down, met mine as he said, "Joice, my dear, I shall
never leave you now. Oh! sweetheart, in this hour of peril I may tell
you what I might never have told you else, being smirched and
blemished from my birth as I am. My dear, my sweet, I do love you so
that never will I leave you if it rests with me, and if you die then
will I die too."
After which, drawing me to him, he folded me in his arms and kissed me
again and again, and stroked my hair and whispered, "My pretty Joice,
I have loved you always; aye, from the very first time when I saw your
golden head bending over your flowers in the garden."
Thus in this black hour our love was told, and he whom I have called
"my lord" was so in very truth. Yet how dreadful was it to reflect,
how dreadful now to look back upon even after long years, that this
love, which surely should have been whispered in some soft tranquil
hour, was told amid such surroundings. Outside was a host of savages
thirsting for our blood, and, in the case of the women, worse than
their blood; while our defenders, with but two exceptions, were all
men who had been malefactors punished by their country's laws. Yet it
cannot but be acknowledged that these men, sinners as they had been,
were as brave as lions in our cause, and, had they been the greatest
Christian heroes that ever lived, could not have striven more manfully
against great odds. From Peter Buck upstairs still came the roars of
encouragement to those whom he commanded, mixed with his ribald and
profane snatches of verse, while, without, O'Rourke's voice was heard
also encouraging and animating those who fought by his side. As for my
lover, not even our new pledged vows could keep him by me; ever and
again he plunged forth into the night, coming back sometimes with his
sword dripping with blood, sometimes with a smoking pistol with which
he had gone forth in his hand, and once bearing in his hand--oh!
horror of horrors!--an Indian's head-band made of human fingers and
toes, which he had wrenched away from a savage he had slain. As for
Mr. Kinchella, never have I seen mortal man look more calm or more
firm than he, as, sometimes supporting Mary with loving words,
sometimes with kisses, he bade her trust in God that all might yet be
well.
So we waited for the end that was to come.
"Bravo! bravo!" roared Buck from upstairs, evidently in praise of some
shot that had just been fired. "Bravo, our battalion! Faith! if our
lily mistress gives us not our freedom after this she's not the lass I
take her for. Stop those women squealing in there," he continued,
calling into another room where some of the white servant-women were
huddled together; "one would think the devil or the Indians were
amongst them already, or that the former had got them before their
time. And Lamb, my lad, go down and ask the gentlefolks for some drink
for us; 'tis as hot as Tyburn on a bright summer morning, and my
thirst as great as that of any gallant gentleman riding there in the
cart."
Lamb came down a moment afterwards, a smart, bright-looking young
man--though now begrimed with much burnt powder--and was sent back
with a great jar of rum and water, while, ere he went, I whispered to
him:
"Tell Buck that I have heard his words about your freedom, and that
'tis granted. From to-night all who have defended my house are free,
and shall have their note of discharge and can remain and work for me
for a wage, or go where they list."
"Thank you, lady," said the young man. "I'll tell him," with which he
darted out and up the stairs with the drink, and a moment afterwards
we heard Buck crying for a cheer for Mistress Joice.
But now I heard my lord's voice call out, "Stand by to fire the train.
Wait; don't hurry. Stop until they pass the palisadoes. See, now.
Now!"
Then, as there came a fearful glare from outside, accompanied by a
dull concussion or noise like the roaring of flames up a great
chimney, and by horrid screams of agony, we knew that the powder on
the lawn was fired and that many of the foe had been blown to pieces
or dreadfully injured.
Yet, above all this, there pealed loud the horrid yell of all the
Shawnee warriors and their allies, the Doegs--and the yell was nearer
now than it had hitherto been. 'Twas answered, however, by a ringing
British cheer from those outside and those in the rooms above, while
still Buck was heard inspiring the latter to take cool aim and shoot
slow.
But to defend the house from the outside was now no longer possible;
our gallant little band was driven back, and so my lord, O'Rourke, and
the overseers came all in, and rapidly the last door that had been
left open was barred tight, every shutter closed even more fast than
before, every loophole secured except those from which we could shoot
at the oncoming enemy. And against windows and doors the heavy
furniture was piled, both with a view to resist their being forced
open and to stop any bullets that might come through, while the order
was sent upstairs to have the boiling water ready to empty on the
heads of the besiegers as they neared the house.
To Mary and me, who had never seen aught of bloodshed before, and
whose lives had been so peaceful and calm in this my old home, you may
feel sure that the dreadful scenes we were passing through were most
terrifying and appalling. For, not to calculate the ruin to my house
and its surroundings, to my trodden-down plantations and devastated
furniture, who could tell what would be the result of the night's
work? That the manor would be burnt to the ground was the least to be
expected, and what might follow was too awful to consider. That all
the men in the house would be put to death, or taken away to be
tortured, was a certainty, we thought, once the Indians had gained the
victory and forced an entrance. As to the women's fate, that was not
to be dwelt upon. Happily, we had our lovers to slay us at the last
moment, or, even should they themselves be slain, and so fail us,
there were the weapons to our hands with which to bring about our
doom, if necessary.
O'Rourke was wounded badly already, his arm being now roughly
bandaged. Yet, beyond begging for some drink, he desisted not in his
efforts but instantly took up his place in the hall, on which an
attack might at once be anticipated and from which he could easily
reach us should he be required in the saloon. And with him went the
overseers. From above, we knew that Buck and his party were still
firing on the advancing foe--who were now on the lawn and close on the
porch--and once he called out to us that the "niggers" were bringing
up small trees and brushwood, evidently with the intention of firing
the house. But that which warned us more surely than all that our
bitterest hour was at hand, was the sound we heard at the shutters of
the saloon window.
That sound was the sharp clicking noise made by the tomahawks of the
Indians on the wood of those shutters and on the iron bars.
They were cutting away the last defence between us and them!
My lord advanced to the table on which were all the pistols primed
and loaded--for Mary and I had attended to each one as it had been
emptied--and bade Kinchella stand behind him. Then he drew me to him,
and folded me once more in his arms and kissed me, saying:
"My dearest one, my heart's only love, here we stand together for,
perhaps, the last time. If I can shield you with my life I will, if I
should lose that life I pray God to bless you ever. Now, Kinchella,"
turning to him, "stand you also by my side as you once stood by it
when I wanted a friend badly enough, God He knows; and, as you
befriended me in those days, so will I befriend you now if 'tis in my
power. Kiss your girl, Kinchella, as I have kissed mine, and then
forget for the time being that you are a clergyman and remember
nothing but that you are a man fighting for her you love."
And, even as he spoke, still louder grew the clicking of the tomahawks
outside.