"I' the name of something holy, sir, why stand you
In this strange stare?"
Tempest.
As a girl, Ruth Harding had been one of the mildest and gentlest of the
human race. Though new impulses had been given to her naturally kind
affections by the attachments of a wife and mother, her disposition
suffered no change by marriage. Obedient, disinterested, and devoted to
those she loved, as her parents had known her, so, by the experience of
many years, had she proved to Content. In the midst of the utmost
equanimity of temper and of deportment, her watchful solicitude in behalf
of the few who formed the limited circle of her existence, never
slumbered. It dwelt unpretendingly but active in her gentle bosom, like a
great and moving principle of life. Though circumstances had placed her
on a remote and exposed frontier, where time had not been given for the
several customary divisions of employments, she was unchanged in habits,
in feelings, and in character. The affluence of her husband had elevated
her above the necessity of burthensome toil; and, while she had
encountered the dangers of the wilderness, and neglected none of the
duties of her active station, she had escaped most of those injurious
consequences which are a little apt to impair the peculiar loveliness of
woman. Notwithstanding the exposure of a border life, she remained
feminine, attractive, and singularly youthful.
The reader will readily imagine the state of mind, with which such a being
watched the distant form of a husband, engaged in a duty like that we have
described. Notwithstanding the influence of long habit, the forest was
rarely approached, after night-fall, by the boldest woodsman, without some
secret consciousness that he encountered a positive danger. It was the
hour when its roaming and hungry tenants were known to be most in motion;
and the rustling of a leaf, or the snapping of a dried twig beneath the
light tread of the smallest animal, was apt to conjure images of the
voracious and fire-eyed panther, or perhaps of a lurking biped, which,
though more artful, was known to be scarcely less savage. It is true, that
hundreds experienced the uneasiness of such sensations, who were never
fated to undergo the realities of the fearful pictures. Still, facts were
not wanting to supply sufficient motive for a grave and reasonable
apprehension.
Histories of combats with beasts of prey, and of massacres by roving and
lawless Indians, were the moving legends of the border. Thrones might be
subverted, and kingdoms lost and won, in distant Europe, and less should
be said of the events, by those who dwelt in these woods, than of one
scene of peculiar and striking forest incident, that called for the
exercise of the stout courage and the keen intelligence of a settler. Such
a tale passed from mouth to mouth, with the eagerness of powerful personal
interest, and many were already transmitted from parent to child, in the
form of tradition, until, as in more artificial communities, graver
improbabilities creep into the doubtful pages of history, exaggeration
became too closely blended with truth, ever again to be separated.
Under the influence of these feelings, and perhaps prompted by his
never-failing discretion, Content had thrown a well-tried piece over his
shoulder; and when he rose the ascent on which his father had met the
stranger, Ruth caught a glimpse of his form, bending on the neck of his
horse, and gliding through the misty light of the hour, resembling one of
those fancied images of wayward and hard-riding sprites, of which the
tales of the eastern continent are so fond of speaking.
Then followed anxious moments, during which neither sight nor hearing
could in the least aid the conjectures of the attentive wife. She listened
without breathing, and once or twice she thought the blows of hoofs,
falling on the earth harder and quicker than common, might be
distinguished; but it was only as Content mounted the sudden ascent of the
hill-side, that he was again seen, for a brief instant, while dashing
swiftly into the cover of the woods.
Though Ruth had been familiar with the cares of the frontier, perhaps she
had never known a moment more intensely painful than that, when the form
of her husband became blended with the dark trunks of the trees. The time
was to her impatience longer than usual, and under the excitement of a
feverish inquietude, that had no definite object, she removed the single
bolt that held the postern closed, and passed entirely without the
stockade To her oppressed senses, the palisadoes appeared to place limits
to her vision. Still, weary minute passed after minute, without bringing
relief. During these anxious moments, she became more than usually
conscious of the insulated situation in which he and all who were dearest
to her heart were placed. The feelings of a wife prevailed. Quitting the
side of the acclivity, she began to walk slowly along the path her husband
had taken, until apprehension insensibly urged her into a quicker
movement. She had paused only when she stood nearly in the centre of the
clearing, on the eminence where her father had halted that evening to
contemplate the growing improvement of his estate.
Here her steps were suddenly arrested, for she thought a form was issuing
from the forest, at that interesting spot which her eyes had never ceased
to watch. It proved to be no more than the passing shadow of a cloud
denser than common, which threw the body of its darkness on the trees, and
a portion of its outline on the ground near the margin of the wood. Just
at this instant, the recollection that she had incautiously left the
postern open flashed upon her mind, and, with feelings divided between
husband and children, she commenced her return, in order to repair a
neglect, to which habit, no less than prudence, imparted a high degree of
culpability. The eyes of the mother, for the feelings of that sacred
character were now powerfully uppermost, were fastened on the ground, as
she eagerly picked her way along the uneven surface; and, so engrossed was
her mind by the omission of duty with which she was severely reproaching
herself, that they drank in objects without conveying distinct or
intelligible images to her brain.
Notwithstanding the one engrossing thought of the moment, something met
her eye that caused even the vacant organ to recoil, and every fibre in
her frame to tremble with terror. There was a moment in which delirium
nearly heightened terror to madness. Reflection came only when Ruth had
reached the distance of many feet from the spot where this startling
object had half-unconsciously crossed her vision. Then for a single and a
fearful instant she paused, like one who debated on the course she ought
to follow. Maternal love prevailed, and the deer of her own woods scarcely
bounds with greater agility, than the mother of the sleeping and
defenceless family now fled towards the dwellings. Panting and breathless
she gained the postern, which was closed, with hands that performed their
office more by instinct than in obedience to thought, and doubly and
trebly barred.
For the first time in some minutes, Ruth now breathed distinctly and
without pain. She strove to rally her thoughts, in order to deliberate on
the course that prudence and her duty to Content, who was still exposed to
the danger she had herself escaped, prescribed. Her first impulse was to
give the established signal that was to recall the laborers from the
field, or to awake the sleepers, in the event of an alarm; but better
reflection told her that such a step might prove fatal to him who balanced
in her affections against the rest of the world The struggle in her mind
only ended, as she clearly and unequivocally caught a view of her husband,
issuing from the forest, at the very point where he had entered. The
return path unfortunately led directly past the spot where such sudden
terror had seized her mind. She would have given worlds to have known how
to apprize him of a danger with which her own imagination was full,
without communicating the warning to other and terrible ears. The night
was still, and though the distance was considerable, it was not so great
as to render the chances of success desperate. Scarcely knowing what she
did, and yet preserving, by a sort of instinctive prudence, the caution
which constant exposure weaves into all our habits, the trembling woman
made the effort.
"Husband! husband!" she cried, commencing plaintively, but her voice
rising with the energy of excitement. "Husband, ride swiftly; our little
Ruth lyeth in the agony. For her life and thine, ride at thy horse's
speed. Seek not the stables, but come with all haste to the postern; it
shall be open to thee."
This was certainly a fearful summons for a father's ear, and there is
little doubt that, had the feeble powers of Ruth succeeded in conveying
the words as far as she had wished, they would have produced the desired
effect. But in vain did she call; her weak tones, though raised on the
notes of the keenest apprehension, could not force their way across so
wide a space. And yet, had she reason to think they were not entirely
lost, for once her husband paused and seemed to listen, and once he
quickened the pace of his horse; though neither of these proofs of
intelligence was followed by any further signs of his having understood
the alarm.
Content was now upon the hillock itself. If Ruth breathed at all during
its passage, it was more imperceptibly than the gentlest respiration of
the sleeping infant. But when she saw him trotting with unconscious
security along the path on the side next the dwellings, her impatience
broke through all restraint, and throwing open the postern, she renewed
her cries, in a voice that was no longer useless. The clattering of the
unshodden hoof was again rapid, and in another minute her husband galloped
unharmed to her side.
"Enter!" said the nearly dizzy wife, seizing the bridle and leading the
horse within the palisadoes. "Enter, husband, for the love of all that is
thine; enter, and be thankful."
"What meaneth this terror, Ruth?" demanded Content, in as much
displeasure, perhaps, as he could manifest to one so gentle, for a
weakness betrayed in his own behalf; "is thy confidence in him whose eye
never closeth, and who equally watcheth the life of man and that of the
falling sparrow, lost?"
Ruth was deaf. With hurried hands she drew the fastenings, let fall the
bars, and turned a key which forced a triple-bolted lock to perform its
office. Not till then did she feel either safe herself, or at liberty to
render thanks for the safety of him, over whose danger she had so lately
watched, in agony.
"Why this care? Hast forgotten that the horse will suffer hunger, at this
distance from the rack and manger?"
"Better that he starve, than hair of thine should come to harm."
"Nay, nay, Ruth; dost not remember that the beast is the favorite of my
father, who will ill brook his passing a night within the palisadoes?"
"Husband, you err; there is one in the fields!"
"Is there place, where one is not?"
"But I have seen creature of mortal birth, and creature too that hath no
claim on thee, or thine, and who trespasseth on our peace, no less than on
our natural rights, to be where he lurketh."
"Go to; thou art not used to be so late from thy pillow, my poor Ruth;
sleep hath come over thee, whilst standing on thy watch. Some cloud hath
left its shadow on the fields, or, truly, it may be that the hunt did not
drive the beasts as far from the clearing as we had thought. Come; since
thou wilt cling to my side, lay hand on the bridle of the horse, while I
ease him of his burthen."
As Content coolly proceeded to the task he had mentioned, the thoughts of
his wife were momentarily diverted from their other sources of uneasiness,
by the object which lay on the crupper of the nag and which, until now,
had entirely escaped her observation.
"Here is, indeed, the animal this day missing from our flock!" she
exclaimed, as the carcass of a sheep fell heavily on the ground.
"Ay; and killed with exceeding judgment, if not aptly dressed to our
hands. Mutton will not be wanting for the husking-feast, and the stalled
creature whose days were counted may live another season."
"And where didst find the slaughtered beast?"
"On the limb of a growing hickory. Eben Dudley, with all his sleight in
butchering, and in setting forth the excellence of his meats, could not
have left an animal hanging from the branch of a sapling, with greater
knowledge of his craft. Thou seest, but a single meal is missing from the
carcass, and that thy fleece is unharmed."
"This is not the work of a Pequod!" exclaimed Ruth, surprised at her own
discovery; "the red men do their mischief with less care."
"Nor has the tooth of wolf opened the veins of poor Straight-Horns. Here
has been judgment in the slaughtering, as well as prudence in
consumption of the food. The hand that cut so lightly, had intention of
a second visit."
"And our father bid thee seek the creature where it was found! Husband, I
fear some heavy judgment for the sins of the parents, is likely to befall
the children."
"The babes are quietly in their slumbers, and, thus far, little wrong hath
been done us. I'll cast the halter from the stalled animal ere I sleep,
and Straight-Horns shall content us for the husking. We may have mutton
less savory, for this evil chance, but the number of thy flock will be
unaltered."
"And where is he, who hath mingled in our prayers, and hath eaten of our
bread; he who counselled so long in secret with our father, and who hath
now vanished from among us, like a vision?"
"That indeed is a question not readily to be answered," returned Content,
who had hitherto maintained a cheerful air, in order to appease what he
was fain to believe a causeless terror in the bosom of his partner, but
who was induced by this question to drop his head like one that sought
reasons within the repository of his own thoughts. "It mattereth not,
Ruth Heathcote; the ordering of the affair is in the hands of a man of
many years and great experience; should his aged wisdom fail, do we not
know that one even wiser than he, hath us in his keeping? I will return
the beast to his rack, and when we shall have jointly asked favor of eyes
that never sleep, we will go in confidence to our rest."
"Husband, thou quittest not the palisadoes again this night," said Ruth,
arresting the hand that had already drawn a bolt, ere she spoke. "I have a
warning of evil."
"I would the stranger had found some other shelter in which to pass his
short resting season. That he hath made free with my flock, and that he
hath administered to his hunger at some cost, when a single asking would
have made him welcome to the best that the owner of the Wish-Ton-Wish can
command, are truths that may not be denied. Still is he mortal man, as a
goodly appetite hath proven, even should our belief in Providence so far
waver as to harbor doubts of its unwillingness to suffer beings of
injustice to wander in our forms and substance. I tell thee, Ruth, that
the nag will be needed for to-morrow's service, and that our father will
give but ill thanks should we leave it to make a bed on this cold
hill-side. Go to thy rest and to thy prayers, trembler; I will close the
postern with all care. Fear not; the stranger is of human wants, and his
agency to do evil must needs be limited by human power."
"I fear none of white blood, nor of Christian parentage: the murderous
heathen is in our fields."
"Thou dreamest, Ruth!"
"'Tis not a dream. I have seen the glowing eye-balls of a savage. Sleep
was little like to come over me, when set upon a watch like this. I
thought me that the errand was of unknown character, and that our father
was exceedingly aged, and that perchance his senses might be duped, and
how an obedient son ought not to be exposed.--Thou knowest, Heathcote,
that I could not look upon the danger of my children's father with
indifference, and I followed to the nut-tree hillock."
"To the nut-tree! It was not prudent in thee--but the postern?"
"It was open; for were the key turned, who was there to admit us quickly,
had haste been needed?" returned Ruth, momentarily averting her face to
conceal the flush excited by conscious delinquency. "Though I failed in
caution, 'twas for thy safety, Heathcote: But on that hillock, and in the
hollow left by a fallen tree, lies concealed a heathen!"
"I passed the nut-wood in going to the shambles of our strange butcher,
and I drew the rein to give breath to the nag near it, as we returned with
the burthen. It cannot be; some creature of the forest hath alarmed thee."
"Ay! creature, formed, fashioned gifted like ourselves, in all but color
of the skin and blessing of the faith."
"This is strange delusion! If there were enemy at hand, would men subtle
as those you fear, suffer the master of the dwelling, and truly I may say
it without vain-glory, one as likely as another to struggle stoutly for
his own, to escape, when an ill-timed visit to the woods had delivered him
unresisting into their hands? Go, go, good Ruth; thou mayst have seen a
blackened log--perchance the frosts have left a fire-fly untouched, or it
may be that some prowling bear has scented out the sweets of thy
lately-gathered hives."
Ruth again laid her hand firmly on the arm of her husband, who had
withdrawn another bolt, and, looking him steadily in the face, she
answered by saying solemnly, and with touching pathos--
"Think'st thou, husband, that a mother's eye could be deceived?"
It might have been that the allusion to the tender beings whose fate
depended on his care, or that the deeply serious, though mild and gentle
manner of his consort, produced some fresher impression on the mind of
Content. Instead of undoing the fastenings of the postern as he had
intended, he deliberately drew its bolts again and paused to think.
"If it produce no other benefit than to quiet thy fears, good Ruth," he
said, after a moment of reflection, "a little caution will be well repaid.
Stay you, then, here, where the hillock may be watched, while I go wake a
couple of the people. With stout Eben Dudley and experienced Reuben Ring
to back me, my father's horse may surely be stabled."
Ruth contentedly assumed a task that she was quite equal to perform with
intelligence and zeal. "Hie thee to the laborers' chambers, for I see a
light still burning in the room of those you seek," was the answer she
gave to a proposal that at least quieted the intenseness of her fears for
him in whose behalf they had so lately been excited nearly to agony.
"It shall be quickly done; nay, stand not thus openly between the beams,
wife. Thou mayst place thyself, here, at the doublings of the wood,
beneath the loop, where harm would scarcely reach thee, though shot from
artillery were to crush the timber."
With this admonition to be wary of a danger that he had so recently
affected to despise, Content departed on his errand. The two laborers he
had mentioned by name, were youths of mould and strength, and they were
well inured to toil, no less than to the particular privations and dangers
of a border life. Like most men of their years and condition, they were
practised too in the wiles of Indian cunning; and though the Province of
Connecticut, compared to other settlements, had suffered but little in
this species of murderous warfare, they both had martial feats and
perilous experiences of their own to recount, during the light labors of
the long winter evenings.
Content crossed the court with a quick step; for, notwithstanding his
steady unbelief, the image of his gentle wife posted on her outer watch
hurried his movements. The rap he gave at the door, on reaching the
apartment of those he sought, was loud as it was sudden.
"Who calls?" demanded a deep-toned and firm voice from within, at the
first blow of the knuckles on the plank.
"Quit thy beds quickly, and come forth with the arms appointed for a
sally."
"That is soon done," answered a stout woodsman, throwing open the door and
standing before Content in the garments he had worn throughout the day.
"We were just dreaming that the night was not to pass without a summons to
the loops."
"Hast seen aught?"
"Our eyes were not shut, more than those of others; we saw him enter that
no man hath seen depart."
"Come, fellow; Whittal Ring would scarce give wiser speech than this
cunning reply of thine. My wife is at the postern, and it is fit we go to
relieve her watch. Thou wilt not forget the horns of powder, since it
would not tell to our credit, were there service for the pieces, and we
lacking in wherewithal to give them a second discharge."
The hirelings obeyed, and, as little time was necessary to arm those who
never slept without weapons and ammunition within reach of their hands,
Content was speedily followed by his dependants. Ruth was found at her
post, but when urged by her husband to declare what had passed in his
absence, she was compelled to admit that, though the moon had come forth
brighter and clearer from behind the clouds, she had seen nothing to add
to her alarm.
"We will then lead the beast to his stall, and close our duty by setting
a single watcher for the rest of the night," said the husband. "Reuben
shall keep the postern, while Eben and I will have a care for my
father's nag, not forgetting the carcass for the husking-feast. Dost
hear, deaf Dudley?--cast the mutton upon the crupper of the beast, and
follow to the stables."
"Here has been no common workman at my office," said the blunt Eben, who,
though an ordinary farm-laborer, according to an usage still very
generally prevalent in the country, was also skilful in the craft of the
butcher. "I have brought many a wether to his end, but this is the first
sheep, within all my experience, that hath kept the fleece while a
portion of the body has been in the pot! Lie there, poor Straight-Horns,
if quiet thou canst be after such strange butchery. Reuben, I paid thee,
as the sun rose, a Spanish piece in silver, for the trifle of debt that
lay between us, in behalf of the good turn thou didst the shoes, which
were none the better for the last hunt in the hills. Hast ever that
pistareen about thee?"
This question, which was put in a lowered tone, and only to the ear of the
party concerned, was answered in the affirmative.
"Give it me, lad; in the morning, thou shalt be paid, with usurer's
interest."
Another summons from Content, who had now led the nag loaded with the
carcass of the sheep without the postern, cut short the secret conference.
Eben Dudley, having received the coin, hastened to follow. But the
distance to the out-buildings was sufficient to enable him to effect his
mysterious purpose without discovery. Whilst Content endeavored to calm
the apprehensions of his wife, who still persisted in sharing his danger,
by such reasons as he could on the instant command, the credulous Dudley
placed the thin piece of silver between his teeth, and, with a pressure
that denoted the prodigious force of his jaws, caused it to assume a
beaten and rounded shape. He then slily dropped the battered coin into the
muzzle of his gun, taking care to secure its presence, until he himself
should send it on its disenchanting message, by a wad torn from the lining
of part of his vestments. Supported by this redoubtable auxiliary, the
superstitious but still courageous borderer followed his companion,
whistling a low air that equally denoted his indifference to danger of an
ordinary nature, and his sensibility to impressions of a less earthly
character.
They who dwell in the older districts of America, where art and labor
have united for generations to clear the earth of its inequalities, and to
remove the vestiges of a state of nature, can form but little idea of the
thousand objects that may exist in a clearing, to startle the imagination
of one who has admitted alarm, when seen in the doubtful light of even a
cloudless moon. Still less can they who have never quitted the old world,
and who, having only seen, can only imagine fields smooth as the surface
of tranquil water, picture the effect produced by those lingering
remnants, which may be likened to so many mouldering monuments of the
fallen forest scattered at such an hour over a broad surface of open land.
Accustomed as they were to the sight, Content and his partner, excited by
their fears, fancied each dark and distant stump a savage; and they passed
no angle in the high and heavy fences without throwing a jealous glance to
see that some enemy did not lie stretched within its shadows.
Still no new motive for apprehension arose, during the brief period that
the two adventurers were employed in administering to the comfort of the
Puritan's steed. The task was ended, the carcass of the slaughtered
Straight-Horns had been secured, and Ruth was already urging her husband
to return, when their attention was drawn to the attitude and mien of
their companion.
"The man hath departed as he came," said Eben Dudley, who stood shaking
his head in open doubt, before an empty stall; "here is no beast, though
with these eyes did I see the half-wit bring hither a well-filled measure
of speckled oats, to feed the nag. He who favored us with his presence at
the supper and the thanksgiving, hath tired of his company before the hour
of rest had come."
"The horse is truly wanting," said Content: "the man must needs be in
exceeding haste, to have ridden into the forest as the night grew deepest,
and when the longest summer day would scarce bring a better hack than
that he rode to another Christian dwelling. There is reason for this
industry, but it is enough that it concerns us not. We will now seek our
rest, in the certainty that one watcheth our slumbers whose vigilance can
never fail."
Though man could not trust himself to sleep in that country without the
security of bars and bolts, we have already had occasion to say that
property was guarded with but little care. The stable-door was merely
closed by a wooden latch, and the party returned from this short sortie,
with steps that were a little quickened by a sense of an uneasiness that
beset them in forms suited to their several characters. But shelter was at
hand, and it was speedily regained.
"Thou hast seen nothing?" said Content to Reuben Ring, who had been chosen
for his quick eye, and a sagacity that was as remarkable as was his
brother's impotency; "thou hast seen nothing at thy watch?"
"Nought unusual; and yet I like not yonder billet of wood, near to the
fence against the knoll. If it were not so plainly a half-burnt log, one
might fancy there is life in it. But when fancy is at work, the sight is
keen. Once or twice I have thought it seemed to be rolling towards the
brook; I am not, even now, certain that when first seen it did not lie
eight or ten feet higher against the bank."
"It may be a living thing!"
"On the faith of a woodman's eye, it well may be," said Eben Dudley; "but
should it be haunted by a legion of wicked spirits, one may bring it to
quiet from the loop at the nearest corner. Stand aside, Madam Heathcote,"
for the character and wealth of the proprietors of the valley, gave Ruth a
claim to this term of respect among the laborers: "let me thrust the piece
through the--stop, there is an especial charm in the gun, which it might
be sinful to waste on such a creature. It may be no more than some
sweet-toothed bear. I will answer for the charge at my own cost, if thou
wilt lend me thy musket, Reuben Ring."
"It shall not be," said his master; "one known to my father hath this
night entered our dwelling and fed at our board; if he hath departed in a
way but little wont among those of this Colony, yet hath he done no great
wrong. I will go nigh, and examine with less risk of error."
There was, in this proposal, too much of that spirit of right-doing which
governed all of those simple regions, to meet serious opposition. Content,
supported by Eben Dudley, again quitted the postern, and proceeded
directly, though still not without sufficient caution, towards the point
where the suspicious object lay. A bend in the fence had first brought it
into view, for previously to reaching that point, its apparent direction
might for some distance have been taken under shelter of the shadows of
the rails, which, at the immediate spot where it was seen, were turned
suddenly in a line with the eyes of the spectators. It seemed as if the
movements of those who approached were watched; for the instant they left
the defences, the dark object was assuredly motionless; even the keen eye
of Reuben Ring beginning to doubt whether some deception of vision had not
led him, after all, to mistake a billet of wood for a creature of life.
But Content and his companion were not induced to change their
determination. Even when within fifty feet of the object, though the moon
fell full and brightly upon the surface, its character baffled conjecture.
One affirmed it was the end of a charred log, many of which still lay
scattered about the fields, and the other believed it some cringing animal
of the woods. Twice Content raised his piece to tire, and as often did he
let it fall, in reluctance to do injury to even a quadruped of whose
character he was ignorant. It is more than probable that his less
considerate, and but half-obedient companion would have decided the
question soon after leaving he postern, had not the peculiar contents of
his musket rendered him delicate of its uses.
"Look to thy weapons," said the former, loosening his own hunting-knife in
its sheath. "We will draw near, and make certainty of what is doubtful."
They did so, and the gun of Dudley was thrust rudely into the side of the
object of their distrust, before it again betrayed life or motion. Then,
indeed, as if further disguise was useless, an Indian lad, of some fifteen
years, rose deliberately to his feet, and stood before them in the sullen
dignity of a captured warrior. Content hastily seized the stripling by an
arm, and followed by Eben, who occasionally quickened the footsteps of the
prisoner by an impetus obtained from the breech of his own musket, they
hurriedly returned within the defences.
"My life against that of Straight-Horns, which is now of no great value,"
said Dudley, as he pushed the last bolt of the fastenings into its
socket, "we hear no more of this red skin's companions to-night I never
knew an Indian raise his whoop, when a scout had fallen into the hands of
the enemy."
"This may be true," returned the other, "and yet must a sleeping
household be guarded. We may be brought to rely on the overlooking favor
of Providence, working with the means of our own manhood, ere the sun
shall arise."
Content was a man of few words, but one of exceeding steadiness and
resolution in moments of need. He was perfectly aware that an Indian
youth, like him he had captured, would not have been found in that place,
and under the circumstances in which he was actually taken, without a
design of sufficient magnitude to justify the hazard. The tender age of
the stripling, too, forbade the belief that he was unaccompanied. But he
silently agreed with his laboring man that the capture would probably
cause the attack, if any such were meditated, to be deferred. He therefore
instructed his wife to withdraw into her chamber, while he took measures
to defend the dwelling in the last emergency. Without giving any
unnecessary alarm, a measure that would have produced less effect on an
enemy without, than the imposing stillness which now reigned within the
defences, he ordered two or three more of the stoutest of his dependants
to be summoned to the palisadoes. A keen scrutiny was made into the state
of all the different outlets of the place; muskets were carefully
examined; charges were given to be watchful, and regular sentinels were
stationed within the shadows of the buildings, at points where, unseen
themselves, they could look out in safety upon the fields.
Content then took his captive, with whom he had made no attempt to
exchange a syllable, and led him to the block-house: The door which
communicated with the basement of this building was always open, in
readiness for refuge in the event of any sudden alarm. He entered, caused
the lad to mount by a ladder to the floor above, and then withdrawing the
means of retreat, he turned the key without, in perfect confidence that
his prisoner was secure.
Notwithstanding all this care, morning had nearly dawned before the
prudent father and husband sought his pillow. His steadiness however had
prevented the apprehensions, which kept his own eyes and those of his
gentle partner so long open, from attending beyond the few whose services
were, in such an emergency, deemed indispensable to safety. Towards the
last watches of the night, only, did the images of the scenes through
which they had just passed, become dim and confused, and then both husband
and wife slept soundly, and happily without disturbance.