SHELTERED IN THE WOODS.
Barbara Stafford found herself in the deep shadows of the wilderness,
walking slowly and steadily on till their gloom lay around her--heavy
and dark, like the terror that settled on her soul.
Barbara was a woman strong to suffer, to endure, and to act; but a woman
still, timid like her sex, shrinking from pain, and afraid of violence,
as true womanhood is. Though full of that gentle courage which is so
beautiful when blended with softer qualities, she was sensitive to blame
and easily wounded in her personal dignity. This abrupt charge of
witchcraft shocked her to the soul. Was she to give up every thing, to
suffer a martyrdom of affection, and go down to her grave branded as a
demon? Barbara knew well the importance of a charge like that denounced
against her by the lips of Samuel Parris. There did not exist a person
in the colonies whose power of character would give more crushing force
to an accusation of this kind, both in the courts and in the
congregation. She felt that the good old man was convinced of her evil
power against his own wishes--that, added to his natural fanaticism, a
solemn belief in witchcraft, which had spread from the old country into
the colonies, had seized upon his quick imagination, and he would pursue
her to death from an honest sense of duty.
She felt the danger to be imminent. But where could she fly? to whom
appeal? A stranger, without history, with a name utterly unknown in the
colonies, with no ostensible motive for leaving her own land, or
remaining an hour in this, who would step forward in her defence? Norman
Lovel? Alas! he was young and entirely dependent on Gov. Phipps, the
tried and bosom friend of Samuel Parris. What hope could lie in that
direction?
There was no shelter--no help. A feeling of strange desolation crept
over her. She had thought herself lonely, and her life dreary before,
but her heart was full of gentle sympathies that would put forth their
fibres and search for something to cling to, even in her worst hours.
Now she was literally driven forth to the wilderness, branded by a
horrible accusation, which must turn all compassion into hate wherever
she approached. She had gold about her person, but even that all potent
metal was valueless here. Who would touch coin that came from a
denounced witch? Who would believe in its validity, or dare to receive
money which might turn to some poisonous drug in the handling?
In her distress, Barbara bethought herself of the broken tribe of
Indians that she had seen only a few nights before mustering with such
solemn purpose around the man whom she had so signally befriended. She
remembered that promise to protect her, which had stirred the very heart
of the wilderness as with a single voice. She was ready to trust these
savages, and without a pang accept protection from their chief. But how
could she find their hiding-places in a forest so deep, and without a
guide?
The night was drawing on, dark and heavy. Storm clouds gathered in
masses over the sun as it set, turning all its gold to lead, and filling
the woods with pall-like shadows. Then came sounds of low thunder,
mingled with a sough of the winds as they swept in from the distant
ocean. The loneliness grew terrible. She fell upon her knees and prayed
to God, the only being to whom she could appeal, in heaven or on earth.
As she prayed the rain began to fall. It came pattering among the
leaves, breaking up the gloom with opposing dreariness. When the foliage
was all saturated and dripping, the drops began to fall heavily around
her, but she had no shelter--no friend. The elements seemed driving her
from all approach to heaven. She arose heart sick, and seating herself
on a fragment of rock, buried her face in her folded arms and wept.
A hand laid upon her shoulder broke the deadness of her grief. She
looked up and saw the young Indian chief.
"Lady, why are you here alone, so far from home, and a storm brewing?"
he said.
She lifted her face with a look of touching gratitude. It was something
to feel that human life was near--that she need not shiver in the rain,
and be left to starve in the deep woods.
"They pursue me--the white men of my race--they charge me with grave
crimes--they have driven me into the woods," she answered, with touching
mournfulness.
The young man drew himself up, and clutched the gun which he held with a
passionate grip.
"Again," he said, bitterly, "are they at their old work? Must another
bright head stoop beneath their blows? Come with me. I have nothing but
savage fare and savage protection to give, but with us you will be safe.
When the Indian strikes a woman, it is upon the forehead, not the heart.
We torture with fire, not with words."
Barbara arose, thankful for his kindness, but her limbs trembled. She
had walked many miles, and now that protection came her strength fled.
"Where would you take me?" she inquired. "Is it very far?"
He saw how helpless she was, and his brow fell. The encampment was far
distant over the broken hills.
"Wait a little," he said; "gather strength and courage. Not far from
this are a few of my people, who follow me always when I approach the
settlements. We can soon reach them."
Barbara made a brave effort, and followed him through the gathering
darkness. He did not pause more than was necessary to help her through
the undergrowth where the ground was broken and difficult of ascent. It
seemed as if her lonely condition and utter helplessness silenced all
the fiery devotion which had marked their previous interviews. He
touched her hand with reverence when she extended it for help once or
twice, but never looked upon her face, or uttered a word of the
passionate homage that burned in his heart.
At last they reached a basin in the hills, locked in by a chain of
ledges, crowned with trees and covered with creeping ferns and mosses. A
fire was burning in this little hollow; the rain beat upon it through
the branches, but still it flamed up, giving glow and warmth to the
night. Around this fire a group of Indians sat in patient watching for
their chief. He approached them softly and spoke a few gentle words. The
Indians stood up and gazed at Barbara in respectful wonder. She in her
turn looked upon their stately forms and worn habiliments with a strange
feeling of safety.
These men wore no paint; their robes of dressed deer-skin were faded and
without ornament. Nothing about them seemed worthy of care, except the
guns that they leaned upon, and the pouches in which they kept powder
and lead.
The young chief spoke with his followers in their own language. He told
them more of Barbara Stafford's history than any person in America knew
except himself. How she was the daughter of a proud old chief in the
mother country, who owned lands broad almost as the wilderness they
stood in, with a vast dwelling which rose from the earth like a mountain
peak. The savages needed no more than this, for they had heard his
speech near the beacon fire, but he seemed to find proud joy in telling
them that the lady, so gentle and so good, now their guest, so far as
God's wilderness could afford hospitality, had bought him of his
task-masters, and taken him to foreign countries, where she and her
father travelled together in sad companionship, for both were unhappy,
and found his affection a solace. She had in her beautiful kindness
redeemed his soul from ignorance, as she had purchased his body from the
slave-driver's lash. After this she and her proud father had taken him
to their home in England--that grand home in which they were held as
chiefs and princes--where the old chief died, leaving his daughter alone
in her proud domain.
Here the young man paused, his eyes fell, and his haughty lip began to
tremble. He spoke in the Indian tongue, which Barbara could not
understand, but the swarthy blood burned on his forehead as her eye
turned upon him, and for a moment he shrunk from telling the whole
truth; but his brave nature gained the mastery, and he went on, yet with
humility in his voice, and shame burning in his downcast eyes.
"My children, I loved the lady from the hour her hand unlocked my
chains, but the secret lay buried deep in my heart, and no one guessed
how it burned there. When her father was dead, and I saw her alone, with
no one but me to counsel or comfort her, this love broke from its covert
and frightened her almost into hating me. She did not mock me with
scorn, but--"
Here the Indians broke their grim silence, and signs of proud anger
passed between them. At last one spoke.
"Why should the woman treat you with scorn? If she was the child of a
great chief, Philip, your father, was the king of a mighty tribe--your
mother was white as the boxwood in flower, and proud as the hemlock on a
cliff. What woman dare receive the love of a king's son, save with her
forehead in the dust?"
"Not with scorn, my braves. I said she was frightened, not angry: my
wild passion was its own enemy. She commanded me from her presence, told
me of the years she had lived before I was born, and with cruel
gentleness sent me away.
"But I would not go. Like a disgraced hound I hung upon her track,
unseen, unthought of, it may be, till she left her home and came down to
the sea shore, where a ship lay ready to sail. I followed her, and
buried myself deep in the hold of the vessel, not caring--may the Great
Spirit forgive me!--where the ship went, nor how long she might plough
the ocean. We were sheltered by the same timbers once more, and that was
enough. Before starting I knew that the ship was bound for Boston, and
felt that the Great Spirit had been leading me back to my father's
people--back among my father's enemies, that I might accomplish the
great object of my life, and avenge the wrongs which no Indian can
forget. So, urged on by two great passions, I obtained such means of war
as lay within my power and came among you.
"The lady left our vessel when we neared the land. She descended into a
frail boat, and was launched forth into the harbor, which was lashed and
angry with storms I dared not offer to go with her, but looked on sick
at heart till the tempest swept her away. She was hurled among the
breakers, buried in the sea; but an old man, the persecutor of our
people, the minister of Salem, dragged her forth, and with him a youth."
The chief paused abruptly, and his reproachful eyes turned upon the
lady.
"He was younger than I am, and a stranger, yet she did not drive him
from her presence."
He spoke these words in English, but Barbara did not comprehend their
meaning or connection. She only knew that his eyes were full of sad
reproach, and, smiling softly, drew close to his side, murmuring,
"I am driven into captivity now, and it is from you I seek shelter."
"I have told my braves whom it is they will defend. While they live you
are safe in the wilderness which was my father's hunting-ground. As for
me, have compassion and let me go hence."
A flush reddened Barbara Stafford's forehead as she bent it with a
gentle sign of acquiescence. The chief gave some orders in their own
tongue, and the Indians instantly fell to work cutting away wet branches
from the hemlocks and pines, tearing green bark from the giant elms, and
felling young saplings, which they planted in the earth, and curved
downward in the form of a tent. Over these they laid the bark, and
covered the whole with green boughs, till a bower was formed worthy of a
wood nymph. Two of the Indians brought great fleeces of moss down from
the ledges and heaped a couch with them, and over all a noble white pine
spread its massy branches, through which the full moon sent a thousand
gleams of silver, as if laughing at the bank of storm clouds from which
it had just escaped.
Upon the couch of moss which his people had heaped in this bower, the
young chief spread a robe of skins, and laid his blanket, which he
unwound from his shoulders. Then, with the air of a prince offering the
hospitality of a royal palace, he approached Barbara Stafford where she
sat by the fire, and led her to the shelter provided for her.
Barbara was greatly moved. With an impulse of thankfulness, she bent
down and kissed the young chief's hand as he was about to withdraw it
from hers; but it trembled like a wounded bird beneath her touch, and
his magnificent eyes filled with tears--the shame of an Indian's soul.
Angry with his weakness, the young man turned from her and dashed away
into the woods.
When Barbara awoke in the morning, for fatigue made her sleep heavy, she
inquired for the young man. The Indians answered that he had gone deeper
into the wilderness, where the main body of his tribe lay, and when a
cabin was prepared for her reception, he would come back again; till
then the five warriors whom he had left behind would protect her with
their lives.