AT BAY
My lord's pistol was raised, ready. The first hand or arm that
appeared through the shutters would be shattered as it came. Yet, even
as he stood there waiting to see the woodwork forced in, he altered
his tactics somewhat. The table was too full in front of the windows,
too much exposed to any missile that might be directed into the room.
It would be better, he said, at the side.
"And, Kinchella," he exclaimed as thus they altered it, "keep you on
one side the window while I take the other. With a pistol in each hand
you can shoot them one by one, while I, on this, can do the same; or,
better still, we can fire alternately. Unless they can force in the
whole front and enter in a mass, we should be able to hold the place
for hours."
Even as he spoke, we heard the cracking and splintering of wood, we
saw a strip of the massive pine-wood shutters forced in and a huge red
hand and tattooed arm protruded through the opening, while the former,
seizing the shutter, tore at it to wrench it apart.
"Hist!" said my lover, making a sign to the other to do nothing, "the
first blood is mine," and, grasping his sword, he swung it over his
head and, a moment later, the hand and forearm were lying at our feet.
But no shriek from outside the window was heard, only, in the place of
the bleeding stump that had been there, there came four large fingers
of another hand that endeavoured to wrench away the wood as the other
had done; fingers that met the same fate. Then for a moment there was
silence outside--silence that was broken by renewed hammering from the
tomahawks on all parts of the shutters.
But now there came a fearful howl from beyond the porch which was only
explained to us by hearing the cry of Buck upstairs. "Good! Good! Give
'em another bath. 'Twill do 'em good. Their dirty skins h'aint been
washed for a long while. Bring more hot water along quick, I say."
Unfortunately for us, those who were endeavouring to force their entry
into the room where we stood, were sheltered from the boiling water by
the roof of the porch (a solid stone one which served also as a
balcony to the rooms above) as also were those attacking the main
front entrance.
At the back of the house, however, on which a party of Indians were
engaged in endeavouring to also force their way in, there was no
porch, nor was there any to the sides of the building; and it was from
these that we had heard the screams as the contents of Buck's great
barrels had reached them.
It took, however, but little time for the water to become exhausted,
and then we knew that the conflict must resolve itself into a
hand-to-hand one. We might keep the savages at bay for some time, it
was true, so long as they could enter the house by one door only, but
how long, we had to ask ourselves, could such as that be the case? In
a short time one of the windows of the saloon must go, or one of the
great doors, of which there were two, or one of the side doors; and
then the Indians would pour through the opening thus made and the
massacre begin. Even with those men under O'Rourke and Buck we were
not twenty-five strong, the cowardly negroes who were left being, as I
have said, all huddled together in the vaults and cellars below, where
they had locked themselves in--so that, since there must be two or
three hundred Indians outside at least, the resistance could not
continue long.
Alas! as it was, our front window giving on to the porch already
showed signs of yielding to the attack from without, though now there
was a fresh barricade offered to the incoming foe by a heap of their
own slain who lay outside and also partly within the room. Already, my
lord had shot several on the outside, taking deadly aim as their
hideous faces appeared at the orifice, but the breach had widened so
that two or three had crawled into the room to be, however, despatched
at once by him or Mr. Kinchella.
And now, since, of all else, this window showed to those outside that
it would yield more easily than any other spot, the attack was
entirely directed towards it; the Indians were thundering against what
remained of the iron-bound shutters with rams made of small trees that
they had uprooted, as well as cutting away the lighter woodwork with
their weapons.
"Another half hour more," said my lord, "will see the end. God He
knows what it will be. Yet, dearest, since it is to come I am happy
that I shall die in your sweet company. But, oh! Joice, Joice, if we
might have lived how happy our future would have been."
"Must we die?" I wailed, woman-like, "must we die? And now when our
love has not been told more than a few hours. Oh! Gerald."
"We can hope," he said, "but that is all. And, sweetheart, best it is
to look things straight in the face." Then, even as he spoke, he fired
again at a horrid savage who had half forced his body through the
aperture--getting larger every moment--and added one more to the list
of slain.
Now all the others were called for to come into the saloon and help in
the resistance there, where the attack was principally directed; which
call they instantly answered abandoning their previous posts. And, bad
man as I at last knew O'Rourke to have been, I could not but respect
him for what he had done on my behalf this night, nor could I but
mourn for his evident sufferings. His bandaged arm, being helpless,
hung by his side, his close cropped iron-grey hair was matted with
blood from a wound in his head, and his face which had once been so
purple was now as white as marble from his loss of blood.
"Oh! sir," I exclaimed, as I tried to still my shaking limbs as best I
might, while I raised my head from Mary's breast on which it had been
lying, she comforting me like an elder sister with soft words, "oh!
sir, my heart bleeds for you. You have been indeed a true hero
to-night in my cause, and I thank you."
"Madam," he said, speaking faintly, "I came here to do my best for you
because--because--well--well, because you and this other lady received
me as a gentleman; treatment that I have not been much accustomed to
since I was a boy; though I was one once. No matter. The end is at
hand, I imagine--ah! well hit, my lord, well hit, but it will avail us
nothing now--I am glad that Patrick O'Rourke is making a good one."
The hit he spoke of was one directed by Gerald at yet another Indian
who had just succeeded in crawling into the room as far as his head
and shoulders; after which Gerald himself came back, and, standing by
the others, said:
"All our partings have to be made now. See how they bulge that shutter
inwards. There will be a score of savages in the room in a moment!
Farewell, Joice, my darling; farewell, Miss Mills. Old friend," and he
put his hand lovingly on Kinchella's shoulder; "farewell. And for you,
O'Rourke," looking round at him, "well, tonight's work--especially
your night's work--wipes all the past out of my mind for ever.
O'Rourke," and he held out his hand, "let us part in peace."
At first O'Rourke made no reply but stood regarding the other as
though dazed, and then raised his hand to his head, so that my lover
exclaimed, "You are badly hurt. Is that wound in your head worse than
it appears?"
"No, no," O'Rourke answered, speaking slowly, though he kept his eye
ever fixed on the window, waiting for the inrush that was now at hand;
"but it seems to me that the end--my end--is near. I have had these
presentiments come over me often of late--it may be to-night, now in a
moment--God He knows! And when Gerald St. Amande holds out his hand in
forgiveness to me, it must be---- Ah, well, at least you shall see I
will die fighting--yes, die fighting"; and, as he spoke, he clasped
Gerald's hand in his and thanked God that he had lived to have it
extended to him. Then, once again, he asked his pardon for all the
evil he had wrought him.
And now there came in Buck and Lamb and the other bondsmen and
convicts--though no longer either bondsmen or convict-servants if they
could live through this dreadful night--for they were useless upstairs
any longer. With them came the mastiffs who had replaced those
poisoned; fierce beasts, who seemed to scent the Indians they were
trained to fight and whose eyes glared savagely at the windows to
which they ran, while they stooped their great heads to the bodies of
the dead ones lying inside the sill and sniffed at their already fast
congealing blood.[2] And the deep bays that they sent up, and which
rang through the beleaguered house, seemed for the moment to have had
its effect outside. For, during that moment, the yells of the foe
ceased and the rushes against the iron-bound shutters ceased also, but
only for a moment.
"What!" exclaimed Buck, catching some of O'Rourke's words, "die
fighting, my noble captain! Ay, so I should say; or rather, fight and
live. What! We have seen fighting in our day before," whereon he
winked at the other, "but never in so good a cause as this for our
gentle mistress. And if we do die fighting," he went on, as coolly as
though death was not within an ace of us all now, "why, dam'me, 'tis
better than the cart and a merry dance in the chains afterwards on a
breezy common. So cheer up, my noble, and let's at 'em. Ha, ha! here
they come!"
As he spoke, with a crash the shutters came in at last and, through
the open space they left in their fall, there swarmed the hideous foe,
while with a scream Mary and I flung ourselves into each other's arms.
Oh! how shall I write down the sight we saw? Naked from their waists
upwards, their bodies painted and tattooed with rings and circles,
bars and hoops; their faces coloured partly vermilion, partly white
and partly black; their long coarse hair streaming behind them, their
hands brandishing tomahawks or grasping guns and pistols, which they
discharged into the room, they rushed in, while when they saw our
white faces their demoniacal howls and yells were awful to hear. Yet,
at first, all was not to succumb to them. Of those who first entered,
four were instantly torn to the ground by the mastiffs who seized each
a savage, and, having pulled them down, pinned them there as they
gored their throats. Also, of those who came on behind these, many
were shot or cut down ere they could leap over their prostrate
comrades' forms. My lord and Mr. Kinchella by a hasty arrangement made
with the others, fired only to the left of the window, Lamb and Buck
taking those who came in on the right side, while O'Rourke, his sword
flashing unceasingly through the smoke and the light of the room,
fought hand to hand with those Indians who passed between the shots of
the others, he being ably backed up by the remainder of the bondsmen
and convicts.
"Steady! steady!" called out my lord. "Easy. Not too fast. Ere long
there will be a barricade of their dead carcasses so that none can
leap over them. Joice, my darling, shelter yourself behind the spinet;
so, 'tis well. Miss Mills, how goes it with you."
"Give it to 'em, noble captain," roared Buck as, firing at a savage
who came near him, he brought him down, exclaiming, "fair between the
eyes. Fair." Then again, "At 'em, captain, at 'em, skin 'em alive;
lord! this beats the best fight we ever had with any of the Bow Street
crew; at 'em, lop 'em down, captain; ah, would you!" to an Indian who
had advanced near enough to aim a blow at him with his tomahawk which
would have brained him had it reached its mark, "would you!" and with
that he felled the other with the butt end of his gun. "Heavens," he
cried, "how I wish one of these redskins was the judge who sentenced
me!"
It had become a mêlée now, in which all were fighting hand to
hand--O'Rourke was down, lying prone, yet still grasping his sword;
Mr. Kinchella standing before me and Mary still kept off those who
endeavoured to seize us; my lord, Buck, and Lamb, side by side, fought
yet unharmed; and of the others some were slain, some wounded, and
some still able to render assistance.
And now, oh! dreadful sight! I saw the blood spurt from my beloved
one's forehead; I saw him reel and stagger, and, with a shriek, I
rushed forth and caught him in my arms as he fell; his blood dyeing my
white satin evening dress and mantua.
Then, mad with grief and frenzy, I cared no longer what the end of
this night's work might be. He whom I loved so fondly lay with his
head upon my breast, while I knew not whether he was yet dead or still
dying. My home was wrecked; all the light of my life was gone out, as
I deemed, for ever. Nothing mattered now--nothing; the sooner the
howling savages around me slew us all the better. So, through my
tears, I looked on at the scene of carnage, praying that some bullet
might crash through my brain or some tomahawk scatter my brains upon
the floor where I sat with him in my arms.
What the end of this night's work might be! Alas, alas! the end was at
hand!
The fighting had ceased at last. On our side there were no longer any
to continue it; on the Indians' side there was nothing to be done but
to bind and secure their prisoners. The ammunition had given out,
after which Buck and Lamb were soon made fast and their hands tied
behind them. Mr. Kinchella and the other men were treated in the same
way and now came our turn; the turn of the two unhappy women who had
fallen into the power of these human fiends. Yet, savages as they
were, they offered us, at present at least, no violence, while one who
had fought in the van ever since they had entered the saloon came
forward and, standing before Mary and me, said in good English (many
of the Shawnees and Doegs having learnt our language when they dwelt
in peace with the colonists, and retained it and taught it to their
descendants): "White women--children of those who drove us forth from
them when we would have remained their friends, children of those who
stole our lands under the guise of what they called fair barter and
traffic--the fortune of the night's fight has gone against you and you
are in our power."
"What do you intend to do with us?" I stammered, looking up at the
great Indian who towered above all others. "I, at least, and those of
my generation have never harmed you, yet now you have attacked my
house like this."
"It is known to us, white woman," answered the chief, as I deemed him
to be, "that you, the English woman ruling here, have harmed none,
therefore you are unharmed now, you and this other. But it is the
order of our great medicine chief, whose works are more wonderful than
the works of any other man who dwells upon the earth, that you be kept
prisoners until he comes; both you and this other with the dark eyes
and skin."
"And who," exclaimed Mary, her eyes flashing angrily at the superbly
handsome chief who stood before her, "who is your great medicine chief
of whom we know nothing, yet who knows us?"
"He knows you as he knows everything that takes place from the rising
of the sun until its setting, and who he is you soon will learn. Even
now he comes from the destruction of other white men's houses like
unto yours, he comes to claim you as his squaws who shall abide with
him for ever."
I shrieked as he spoke, for I knew from tales and narratives told over
many a winter's fire in Virginia what was the fate of those women who
were borne away to be the squaws of these Indian chiefs; but, even as
I did so, we heard shouts without as though those savages who had not
entered the house were hailing some new arrival.
"Hark, hark!" exclaimed the chief. "He comes--he comes to claim you at
last, as he has promised himself for many moons he would claim you.
Hark, it is the great medicine man himself."