"Oh! when amid the throngs of men
The heart grows sick of hollow mirth,
How willingly we turn us, then.
Away from this cold earth;
And look into thy azure breast,
For seats of innocence and rest!"
Bryant's _Skies_
The day was the Sabbath. This religious festival, which is even now
observed in most of the States of the Union with a strictness that is
little heeded in the rest of Christendom, was then reverenced with a
severity suited to the austere habits of the Colonists. The circumstance
that one should journey on such a day, had attracted the observation of
all in the hamlet; but, as the stranger had been seen to ride towards the
dwelling of the Heathcotes, and the times were known to teem with more
than ordinary interests to the Province, it was believed that he found his
justification in some apology of necessity. Still, none ventured forth to
inquire into the motive of this extraordinary visit. At the end of an
hour, the horseman was seen to depart as he had arrived, seemingly urged
on by the calls of some pressing emergency. He had in truth proceeded
further with his tidings, though the lawfulness of discharging even this
imperious duty on the Sabbath had been gravely considered in the Councils
of those who had sent him. Happily they had found, or thought they had
found, in some of the narratives of the sacred volume, a sufficient
precedent to bid their messenger proceed.
In the mean time, the unusual excitement, which had been so unexpectedly
awakened in the dwelling of the Heathcotes, began to subside in that quiet
which is in so beautiful accordance with the sacred character of the day.
The sun rose bright and cloudless above the hills, every vapor of the past
night melting before his genial warmth into the invisible element. The
valley then lay in that species of holy calm which conveys so sweet and so
forcible an appeal to the heart. The world presented a picture of the
glorious handywork of him who seems to invite the gratitude and adoration
of his creatures. To the mind yet untainted, there is exquisite loveliness
and even godlike repose in such a scene. The universal stillness permits
the softest natural sounds to be heard; and the buzz of the bee, or the
wing of the humming-bird, reaches the ear like the loud notes of a general
anthem. This temporary repose is full of meaning. It should teach how much
of the beauty of this world's enjoyments, how much of its peace, and even
how much of the comeliness of nature itself, is dependent on the spirit by
which we are actuated. When man reposes, all around him seems anxious to
contribute to his rest; and when he abandons the contentions of grosser
interests, to elevate his spirit, all living things appear to unite in
worship. Although this apparent sympathy of nature may be less true than
imaginative, its lesson is not destroyed, since it sufficiently shows that
what man chooses to consider good in this world is good, and that most of
its strife and deformities proceed from his own perversity.
The tenants of the valley of the Wish-Ton-Wish were little wont to disturb
the quiet of the Sabbath. Their error lay in the other extreme, since they
impaired the charities of life by endeavoring to raise man altogether
above the weakness of his nature. They substituted the revolting aspect of
a sublimated austerity, for that gracious though regulated exterior, by
which all in the body may best illustrate their hopes or exhibit their
gratitude. The peculiar air of those of whom we write was generated by the
error of the times and of the country, though something of its singularly
rigid character might have been derived from the precepts and example of
the individual who had the direction of the spiritual interests of the
parish. As this person will have further connexion with the matter of the
legend, he shall be more familiarly introduced in its pages.
The Reverend Meek Wolfe was, in spirit, a rare combination of the humblest
self-abasement and of fierce spiritual denunciation. Like so many others
of his sacred calling in the Colony he inhabited, he was not only the
descendant of a line of priests, but it was his greatest earthly hope that
he should also become the progenitor of a race in whom the ministry was to
be perpetuated as severely as if the regulated formula of the Mosaic
dispensation were still in existence. He had been educated in the infant
college of Harvard, an institution that the emigrants from England had the
wisdom and enterprise to found, within the first five-and-twenty years of
their colonial residence. Here this scion of so pious and orthodox a stock
had abundantly qualified himself for the intellectual warfare of his
future life, by regarding one set of opinions so steadily, as to leave
little reason to apprehend he would ever abandon the most trifling of the
outworks of his faith. No citadel ever presented a more hopeless curtain
to the besieger, than did the mind of this zealot to the efforts of
conviction; for on the side of his opponents, he contrived that every
avenue should be closed by a wall blank as indomitable obstinacy could
oppose. He appeared to think that all the minor conditions of argument and
reason had been disposed of by his ancestors, and that it only remained
for him to strengthen the many defences of his subject, and, now and then,
to scatter by a fierce sortie the doctrinal skirmishers who might
occasionally approach his parish. There was a remarkable singleness of
mind in this religionist, which, while it in some measure rendered even
his bigotry respectable, greatly aided in clearing the knotty subject,
with which he dealt, of much embarrassing matter. In his eyes, the strait
and narrow path would hold but few besides his own flock. He admitted some
fortuitous exceptions, in one or two of the nearest parishes, with whose
clergymen he was in the habit of exchanging pulpits; and perhaps, here and
there, in a saint of the other hemisphere, or of the more distant towns of
the Colonies, the brightness of whose faith was something aided, in his
eyes, by distance, as this opake globe of ours is thought to appear a ball
of light to those who inhabit its satellite. In short, there was an
admixture of seeming charity with an exclusiveness of hope, an unweariness
of exertion with a coolness of exterior, a disregard of self with the most
complaisant security, and an uncomplaining submission to temporal evils
with the loftiest spiritual pretensions, that in some measure rendered him
a man as difficult to comprehend as to describe.
At an early hour in the forenoon, a little bell, that was suspended in an
awkward belfry perched on the roof of the meeting-house, began to summon
the congregation to the place of worship. The call was promptly obeyed,
and ere the first notes had reached the echoes of the hills, the wide and
grassy street was covered with family groups, all taking the same
direction. Foremost in each little party walked the austere father,
perhaps bearing on his arm a suckled infant, or some child yet too young
to sustain its own weight; while at a decent distance followed the equally
grave matron, casting oblique and severe glances at the little troop
around her, in whom acquired habits had yet some conquests to obtain over
the lighter impulses of vanity. Where there was no child to need support,
or where the mother chose to assume the office of bearing her infant in
person, the man was seen to carry one of the heavy muskets of the day; and
when his arms were otherwise employed, the stoutest of his boys served in
the capacity of armor-bearer. But in no instance was this needful
precaution neglected, the state of the Province and the character of the
enemy requiring that vigilance should mingle even with their devotions.
There was no loitering on the path, no light and worldly discourse by the
way, nor even any salutations, other than those grave and serious
recognitions by hat and eye, which usage tolerated as the utmost limit of
courtesy on the weekly festival.
When the bell changed its tone, Meek appeared from the gate of the
fortified house, where he resided, in quality of castellan, on account of
its public character, its additional security, and the circumstance that
his studious habits, permitted him to discharge the trust with less waste
of manual labor than it would cost the village were the responsible
office confided to one of more active habits. His consort followed, but
at even a greater distance than that taken by the wives of other men, as
if she felt the awful necessity of averting even the remotest possibility
of scandal from one of so sacred a profession. Nine offspring of various
ages, and one female assistant, of years too tender to be a wife herself,
composed the household of the divine, and it was a proof of the
salubrious air of the valley that all were present, since nothing but
illness was ever deemed a sufficient excuse for absence from the common
worship. As this little flock issued from the palisadoes, a female, in
whose pale cheek the effects of recent illness might yet be traced, held
open the gate for the entrance of Reuben King, and a stout youth, who
bore the prolific consort of the former, with her bounteous gift, into
the citadel of the village; a place of refuge that nothing but the
undaunted resolution of the woman prevented her from occupying before,
since more than half of the children of the valley had first seen the
light within the security of its defences.
The family of Meek preceded him into the temple, and when the feet of the
minister himself crossed its threshold, there was no human form visible
without its walls. The bell ceased its monotonous and mournful note, and
the tall, gaunt form of the divine moved through the narrow aisle to its
usual post, with the air of one who had already more than half rejected
the burthen of bodily encumbrance. A searching and stern glance was thrown
around, as if he possessed an instinctive power to detect all delinquents;
and then seating himself, the deep stillness, that always preceded the
exercises, reigned in the place.
When the divine next showed his austere countenance to his expecting
people, its meaning was expressive rather of some matter of worldly
import, than of that absence of carnal interest with which he usually
strove to draw near to his Creator in prayer.
"Captain Content Heathcote," he said with grave severity, after permitting
a short pause to awaken reverence, "there has one ridden through this
valley on the Lord's day, making thy habitation his halting-place. Hath
the traveller warranty for this disrespect of the Sabbath, and canst thou
find sufficient reason in his motive, for permitting the stranger within
thy gates to neglect the solemn ordinance delivered on the mount?"
"He rideth on especial commission," answered
Content, who had respectfully arisen, when thus addressed by name; "for
matter of grave interest to the well-being of the Colony is contained in
the subject of his errand."
"There is nought more deeply connected with the well-being of man, whether
resident in this Colony or in more lofty empires, than reverence to God's
declared will," returned Meek, but half-appeased by the apology. "It would
have been expedient for one, who, in common, not only setteth so good an
example himself, but who is also charged with the mantle of authority, to
have looked with distrust into the pretences of a necessity that may be
only seeming."
"The motive shall be declared to the people, at a fitting moment; but it
hath seemed more wise to retain the substance of the horseman's errand,
until worship hath been offered, without the alloy of temporal concerns."
"Therein hast thou acted discreetly; for a divided mind giveth but little
joy above. I hope there is equal reason why all of thy household are not
with thee in the temple?"
Notwithstanding the usual self-command of Content, he did not revert to
this subject without emotion. Casting a subdued glance at the empty seat
where she whom he so much loved was wont to worship at his side, he said,
in a voice that evidently struggled to maintain its customary
equanimity--"There has been powerful interest awakened beneath my roof
this day; and it may be that the duty of the Sabbath has been overlooked
by minds so exercised. If we have therein sinned, I hope he that looketh
kindly on the penitent will forgive! She of whom thou speakest, hath been
shaken by the violence of griefs renewed; though willing in spirit, a
feeble and sinking frame is not equal to support the fatigue of appearing
here, even though it be the house of God."
This extraordinary exercise of pastoral authority was uninterrupted,
even by the breathings of the congregation. Any incident of an unusual
character had attraction for the inhabitants of a village so remote; but
here was deep, domestic interest, connected with breach of usage and
indeed of law and all heightened by that secret influence that leads us
to listen, with singular satisfaction, to those emotions in others,
which it is believed to be natural to wish to conceal. Not a syllable
that fell from the lips of the divine, or of Content, not a deep tone of
severity in the former, nor a struggling accent of the latter, escaped
the dullest ear in that assembly. Notwithstanding the grave and
regulated air that was common to all, it is needless to say there was
pleasure in the little interruption of this scene; which, however, was
far from being extraordinary in a community where it was not only
believed that spiritual authority might extend itself to the most
familiar practices, but where few domestic interests were deemed so
exclusive, or individual feelings considered so sacred, that a very
large proportion of the whole neighborhood might not claim a right to
participate largely in both. The Reverend Mr. Wolfe was appeased by the
explanation, and after allowing a sufficient time to elapse, in order
that the minds of the congregation should recover their tone, he
proceeded with the regular services of the morning.
It is needless to recount the well-known manner of the religious exercises
of the Puritans. Enough of their forms and of their substance has been
transmitted to us, to render both manner and doctrine familiar to most of
our readers. We shall therefore confine our duty to a relation of such
portions of the ceremonies, if that which sedulously avoided every
appearance of form can thus be termed, as have an immediate connexion with
the incidents.
The divine had gone through the short opening prayer, had read the passage
of holy writ, had given out the verses of the psalm, and had joined in the
strange nasal melody with which his flock endeavored to render it doubly
acceptable, and had ended his long and fervent wrestling of the spirit in
a colloquial petition of some forty minutes' duration; in which direct
allusion had been made not only to the subject of his recent examination,
but to divers other familiar interests of his parishioners; and all
without any departure from the usual zeal on his own part, or of the
customary attention and grave decorum on that of his people. But when, for
the second time, he arose to read another song of worship and
thanksgiving, a form was seen in the centre or principal aisle, that, as
well by its attire and aspect, as by the unusual and irreverent tardiness
of its appearance, attracted general observation. Interruptions of this
nature were unfrequent, and even the long practised and abstracted
minister paused, for an instant, ere he proceeded with the hymn, though
there was a suspicion current among the more instructed of his
parishioners, that the sonorous version was an effusion of his own muse.
The intruder was Whittal Ring. The witless young man had strayed from the
abode of his sister, and found his way into that general receptacle, where
most of the village was congregated. During his former residence in the
valley, there had been no temple: and the edifice, its interior
arrangements, the faces of those it contained, and the business on which
they had assembled, appeared alike strangers to him. It was only when the
people lifted up their voices in the song of praise, that some glimmerings
of his ancient recollections were discoverable in his inactive
countenance. Then, indeed, he betrayed a portion of the delight which
powerful sounds can quicken, even in beings of his unhappy mental
construction. As he was satisfied, however, to remain in a retired part of
the aisle, listening with dull admiration, even the grave Ensign Dudley,
whose eye had once or twice seemed ominous of displeasure, saw no
necessity for interference.
Meek had chosen for his text, on that day, a passage from the book of
Judges: "And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord; and
the Lord delivered them into the hands of Midian seven years." With this
text the subtle-minded divine dealt powerfully, entering largely into the
mysterious and allegorical allusions then so much in vogue. In whatever
manner he viewed the subject, he found reason to liken the suffering,
bereaved and yet chosen dwellers of the Colonies, to the race of the
Hebrews. If they were not set apart and marked from all others of the
earth, in order that one mightier than man should spring from their loins,
they were led into that distant wilderness, far from the temptations of
licentious luxury, or the worldly-mindedness of those who built their
structure of faith on the sands of temporal honors, to preserve the word
in purity. As there appeared no reason on the part of the divine himself
to distrust this construction of the words he had quoted, so it was
evident that most of his listeners willingly lent their ears to so
soothing an argument.
In reference to Midian, the preacher was far less explicit. That the great
father of evil was in some way intended by this allusion, could not be
doubted; but in what manner the chosen inhabitants of those regions were
to feel his malign influence, was matter of more uncertainty. At times,
the greedy ears of those who had long been wrought up into the impression
that visible manifestations of the anger or of the love of Providence
were daily presented to their eyes, were flattered with the stern joy of
believing that the war which then raged around them was intended to put
their moral armor to the proof, and that out of the triumph of their
victories were to flow honor and security to the church. Then came
ambiguous qualifications, which left it questionable whether a return of
the invisible powers, that had been known to be so busy in the Provinces,
were not the judgment intended. It is not to be supposed that Meek himself
had the clearest mental intelligence on a point of this subtlety, for
there was something of misty hallucination in the manner in which he
treated it, as will be seen by his closing words.
"To imagine that Azazel regardeth the long suffering and stedfastness of a
chosen people with a pleasant eye," he said, "is to believe that the
marrow of righteousness can exist in the carrion of deceit. We have
already seen his envious spirit raging in many tragical instances. If
required to raise a warning beacon to your eyes, by which the presence of
this treacherous enemy might be known, I should say, in the words of one
learned and ingenious in this craftiness, that, 'when a person, having
full reason, doth knowingly and wittingly seek and obtain of the Devil, or
any other God besides the true God Jehovah, an ability to do or know
strange things, which he cannot by his own human abilities arrive unto,'
that then he may distrust his gifts and tremble for his soul. And, oh! my
brethren how many of ye cling at this very moment to those tragical
delusions, and worship the things of the world, instead of fattening on
the famine of the desert, which is the sustenance of them that would live
for ever! Lift your eyes upward, my brethren--"
"Rather turn them to the earth!" interrupted a deep, authoritative voice
from the body of the church; "there is present need of all your faculties
to save life, and even to guard the tabernacle of the Lord!"
Religious exercises composed the recreation of the dwellers in that
distant settlement. When they met in companies to lighten the load of
life, prayer and songs of praise were among the usual indulgences of the
entertainment. To them, a sermon was like a gay scenic exhibition in other
and vainer communities, and none listened to the word with cold and
inattentive ears. In literal obedience to the command of the preacher, and
sympathizing with his own action, every eye in the congregation had been
turned towards the naked rafters of the roof, when the unknown tones of
him who spoke broke the momentary delusion. It is needless to say that, by
a common movement, they sought an explanation of this extraordinary
appeal. The divine became mute, equally with wonder and with indignation.
A first glance was enough to assure all present, that new and important
interests were likely to be awakened. A stranger of grave aspect, and of a
calm but understanding eye, stood at the side of Whittal Ring. His attire
was of the simple guise and homely materials of the country. Still he bore
about his person enough of the equipments of one familiar with the wars of
the eastern hemisphere, to strike the senses. His hand was armed with a
shining broadsword, such as were then used by the cavaliers of England,
and at his back was slung the short carabine of one who battled in the
saddle. His mien was dignified and even commanding, and there was no
second look necessary to show that he was an intruder of a character
altogether different from the moping innocent at his side.
"Why is one of an unknown countenance come to disturb the worship of the
temple?" demanded Meek, when astonishment permitted utterance. "Thrice
hath this holy day been profaned by the foot of the stranger, and well may
it be doubted whether we live not under an evil agency."
"Arm, men of the Wish-Ton-Wish! arm, and to your defences!"
A cry arose without, that seemed to circle the whole valley; and then a
thousand whoops rolled out of the arches of the forest, and appeared to
meet in one hostile din above the devoted hamlet. Those were sounds that
had been too often heard, or too often described, not to be generally
understood. A scene of wild confusion followed.
Each man, on entering the church, had deposited his arms at the door,
and thither most of the stout borderers were now seen hastening, to
resume their weapons. Women gathered their children to their sides, and
the wails of horror and alarm were beginning to break through the
restraints of habit.
"Peace!" exclaimed the pastor, seemingly excited to a degree above
human emotion. "Ere we go forth, let there be a voice raised to our
heavenly Father. The asking shall be as a thousand men of war battling
in our behalf!"
The commotion ceased as suddenly as if a mandate had been issued from
that place to which their petition was to be addressed. Even the
stranger, who had regarded the preparations with a stern but anxious eye,
bowed his head, and seemed to join in the prayer, with a devoted and
confiding heart.
"Lord!" said Meek, stretching his meagre arms, with the palms of the hands
open, high above the heads of his flock, "at thy bidding, we go forth with
thy aid, the gates of hell shall not prevail against us; with thy mercy,
there is hope in heaven and on earth. It is for thy tabernacle that we
shed blood; it is for thy word that we contend Battle in our behalf, King
of Kings! send thy heavenly legions to our succor, that the song of
victory may be incense at thy altars, and a foul hearing to the ears of
the enemy--Amen."
There was a depth in the voice of the speaker, a supernatural calmness in
the tones, and so great a confidence in the support of the mighty ally
implored, that the words went to every heart. It was impossible that
Nature should not be powerful within, but a high and exciting enthusiasm
began to lift the people far above its influence. Thus awakened by an
appeal to feelings that had never slumbered, and stimulated by all the
moving interests of life, the men of the valley poured out of the temple
in defence of person and fire-side, and, as they believed, of religion
and of God.
There was pressing necessity, not only for this zeal, but for all the
physical energies of the stoutest of their numbers. The spectacle that met
the view, on issuing into the open air, was one that might have appalled
the hearts of warriors more practised, and have paralyzed the efforts of
men less susceptible to the impressions of a religious excitement.
Dark forms were leaping through the fields, on the hill-sides; and all
adown the slopes that conducted to the valley, armed savages were seen
pouring madly forward, on their path of destruction and vengeance. Behind
them, the brand and the knife had been already used; for the log tenement,
the stacks and the out-buildings of Reuben Ring, and of several others who
dwelt in the skirts of the settlement, were sending forth clouds of murky
smoke, in which forked and angry flames were already flashing fiercely.
But danger most pressed still nearer. A long line of fierce warriors was
even in the meadows; and in no direction could the eye be turned, that it
did not meet with the appalling proof that the village was completely
surrounded by an overwhelming superiority of force.
"To the garrison!" shouted some of the foremost of those who first saw the
nature and imminency of the danger, pressing forward themselves in the
direction of the fortified house. "To the garrison, or we are lost!"
"Hold!" exclaimed that voice which was so strange to the ears of most of
those who heard it, but which spoke in a manner that by its compass and
firmness commanded obedience. "With this mad disorder, we are truly lost!
Let Captain Content Heathcote come to my councils."
Notwithstanding the tumult and confusion which had now in truth begun to
rage fearfully around him, the quiet and self-restrained individual to
whom the legal and perhaps moral right to command belonged, had lost none
of his customary composure. It was plain, by the look of powerful
amazement with which he had at first regarded the stranger, on his sudden
interruption of the service, and by the glances of secret intelligence and
of recognition they exchanged, that they had met before. But this was no
time for greetings or explanations, nor was that a scene in which to waste
the precious moments in useless contests about opinions.
"I am here," said he who was thus called for; "ready to lead whither thy
prudence and experience shall point the way."
"Speak to the people, and separate the combatants in three bodies of equal
strength. One shall press forward to the meadows, and beat back the
savage, ere he encircle the palisadoed house; the second shall proceed
with the feeble and tender, in their flight to its covers; and with the
third--but thou knowest that which I would do with the third Hasten, or we
lose all by tardiness."
It was perhaps fortunate that orders so necessary and so urgent were
given to one little accustomed to superfluity of speech. Without offering
either commendation or dissent, Content obeyed. Accustomed to his
authority, and conscious of the critical situation of all that was dear,
the men of the village yielded an obedience more prompt and effective than
it is usual to meet in soldiers who are not familiar with habits of
discipline. The fighting men were quickly separated in three bodies,
consisting of rather more than a score of combatants in each. One,
commanded by Eben Dudley, advanced at quick time towards the meadows in
the rear of the fortress, that the whooping body of savages, who were
already threatening to cut off the retreat of the women and children,
should be checked; while another departed in a nearly opposite direction,
taking the street of the hamlet, for the purpose of meeting those who
advanced by the southern entrance of the valley. The third and last of
these small but devoted bodies, remained stationary, in attendance for
more definite orders.
At the moment when the first of these little divisions of force was ready
to move, the divine appeared in its front, with an air in which spiritual
reliance on the purposes of Providence, and some show of temporal
determination, were singularly united. In one hand he bore a Bible, which
he raised on high as the sacred standard of his followers, and in the
other he brandished a short broadsword, in a manner that proved there
might be danger in encountering its blade. The volume was open, and at
brief intervals the divine read, in high and excited voice, such passages
as accidentally met his eye, the leaves blowing about in a manner to
produce a rather remarkable admixture of doctrine and sentiment. But to
these trifling moral incongruities, both the pastor and his parishioners
were alike indifferent; their subtle mental exercises having given birth
to a tendency of aptly reconciling all seeming discrepancies, as well as
of accommodating the most abstruse doctrines to the more familiar
interests of life.
"Israel and the Philistines had put their battle in array, army against
army," commenced Meek, as the troop he led began its advance. Then,
reading at short intervals, he continued, "Behold, I will do a thing in
Israel, at which both the ears of every one that heareth it shall
tingle."--"Oh house of Aaron, trust in the Lord; he is thy help and thy
shield." "Deliver me, O Lord, from the evil man preserve me from the
violent man."--"Let burning coals fall upon them; let them be cast into
the fire; into deep pits, that they rise not again."--"Let the wicked fall
into their own nets, whilst that I, withal, escape."--"Therefore doth my
father love me, because I lay down my life, that I may take it
again."--"He that hateth me, hateth my father also."--"Father, forgive
them, for they know not what they do."--"They have heard that it hath
been said, an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth."--"For Joshua drew
not his hand back, wherewith he stretched out the spear, until he had
utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai------" Thus far the words of
Meek were intelligible to those who remained, but distance soon confounded
the syllables. Then nought was audible but the yells of the enemy, the
tramp of the men who pressed in the rear of the priest, with a display of
military pomp as formidable as their limited means would allow, and those
clear high tones, which sounded in the ears and quickened the blood at the
hearts of his followers, as though they had been trumpet-blasts. In a few
more minutes the little band was scattered behind the covers of the
fields, and the rattling of fire-arms succeeded to the quaint and
characteristic manner of their march.
While this movement was made in front the party ordered to cover the
village was not idle, Commanded by a sturdy yeoman, who filled the office
of Lieutenant, it advanced with less of religious display, but with equal
activity, in the direction of the South; and the sounds of contention were
quickly heard, proclaiming both the urgency of the measure and the warmth
of the conflict.
In the mean time, equal decision, though tempered by some circumstances of
deep personal interest, was displayed by those who had been left in front
of the church. As soon as the band of Meek had got to such a distance as
to promise security to those who followed, the stranger commanded the
children to be led towards the fortified house. This duty was performed by
the trembling mothers, who had been persuaded, with difficulty, to defer
it until cooler heads should pronounce that the proper moment had come. A
few of the women dispersed among the dwellings in quest of the infirm
while all the boys of proper age were actively employed in transporting
indispensable articles from the village, within the palisadoes. As these
several movements were simultaneous, but a very few minutes elapsed
between the time when the orders were issued and the moment when they were
accomplished.
"I had intended that thou shouldst have had the charge in the meadows,"
said the stranger to Content, when nought remained to be performed, but
that which had been reserved for the last of the three little bands of
fighting men. "But as the work proceedeth bravely in that quarter, we will
move in company. Why doth this maiden tarry?"
"Truly I know not, unless it may be of fear. There is an opening for thy
passage into the fort, Martha, with others of thy sex."
"I will follow the fighters that are about to march to the rescue of them
that remain in our habitation," said the girl, in a low but steady voice,
"And how know'st thou that such is the service intended for those here
arrayed?" demanded the stranger, with a little show of displeasure that
his military purposes should have been anticipated.
"I see it in the countenances of them that tarry," returned the other,
gazing furtively towards Mark who, posted in the little line, could with
difficulty brook a delay which threatened his father's house, and those
whom it held, with so much jeopardy.
"Forward!" cried the stranger. "Here is no leisure for dispute. Let the
maiden take wisdom, and hasten to the fort. Follow, men stout of heart! or
we come too late to the succor."
Martha waited until the party had advanced a few paces, and then, instead
of obeying the repeated mandate to consult her personal safety, she took
the direction of the armed band.
"I fear me that 'twill exceed our strength," observed the stranger, who
marched in front at the side of Content, "to make good the dwelling, at so
great distance from further aid."
"And yet the visitation will be heavy, that shall drive us for a second
time to the fields for a resting-place. In what manner didst get warning
of this inroad?"
"The savages believed themselves concealed in the cunning place, where
thou know'st that my eye had opportunity to overlook their artifices There
is a Providence in our least seeming calculations: an imprisonment of
weary years hath its reward in this warning!"
Content appeared to acquiesce, but the situation of affairs prevented the
discourse from becoming more minute.
As they approached the dwelling of the Heathcotes, better opportunity of
observing the condition of things, in and around the house, was of course
obtained. The position of the building would have rendered any attempt, on
the part of those in it, to gain the fort ere the arrival of assistance,
desperately hazardous, since the meadows that lay between them were
already alive with the ferocious warriors of the enemy. But it was evident
that the Puritan, whose infirmities kept him within doors, entertained no
such design; for it was shortly apparent that those within were closing
and barring the windows of the habitation, and that other provisions for
defence were in the course of active preparation. The feelings of
Content, who knew that the house contained only his wife and father, with
one female assistant, were excited to agony, as the party he commanded
drew near on one side, at a distance about equal to that of a band of the
enemy, who were advancing diagonally from the woods, on the other. He saw
the efforts of those so dear to him, as they had recourse to the means of
security provided to repel the very danger which now threatened; and, to
his eyes, it appeared that the trembling hands of Ruth had lost their
power, when haste and confusion more than once defeated the object of her
exertions.
"We must break and charge, or the savage will be too speedy!" he said, in
tones that grew thick from breathing quicker than was wont for one of his
calm temperament. "See! they enter the orchard! in another minute, they
will be masters of the dwelling!"
But his companion marched with a firmer step and looked with a cooler
eye. There was, in his gaze, the understanding of a man practised in
scenes of sudden danger, and in his mien the authority of one accustomed
to command.
"Fear not," he answered; "the art of old Mark Heathcote hath departed from
him, or he still knoweth how to make good his citadel against a first
onset. If we quit our order, the superiority of concert will be lost, and
being few in numbers, defeat will be certain; but with this front, and a
fitting steadiness, our march may not be repulsed. To thee, Captain
Content Heathcote, it need not be told, that he who now counsels hath seen
the strife of savages ere this hour."
"I know it well--but dost not see my Ruth, laboring at the ill-fitted
shutter of the chamber? The woman will be slain, in her heedlessness--for,
hark! there beginneth the volley of the enemy!"
"No, 'tis he who led my troop in a far different warfare!" exclaimed the
stranger, whose form grew more erect, and whose thoughtful and
deeply-furrowed features assumed something like the stern pleasure which
kindles in the soldier as the sounds of contention increase. "'Tis old
Mark Heathcote, true to his breeding and his name! he hath let off the
culverin upon the knaves! behold, they are already disposed to abandon
one who speaketh so boldly, and are breaking through the fences to the
left, that we may taste something of their quality. Now, bold Englishmen,
strong of hand and stout of heart, you have training in your duty, and
you shall not be wanting in example. You have wives and children at hand,
looking at your deeds; and there is one above, that taketh note of the
manner in which you serve in his cause. Here is an opening for your
skill; scourge the cannibals with the hand of death! On, on to the onset,
and to victory!"