FALLEN ACROSS THE THRESHOLD.
Early on Monday, the 30th of April, I addressed myself to the journey
once more, taking the cars to Cumberland, whither Falcon had preceded me
by two days, and this time I bound myself by a vow--not lightly to be
broken--that I would not see Baltimore again, of free will or free
agency, till I had heard the tuck of Southern drums. The most remarkable
part of the road is from Point of Rocks to Harper's Ferry, inclusive,
where the rails find a narrow space to creep between the river and the
cliffs of Catoctin and Elk Mountains. The last-named spot is especially
picturesque, standing on a promontory washed on either side by the
Potomac and Shenandoah, with all the natural advantages of abrupt rocks,
feathery hanging woods, and broken water. Thenceforward there is little
to interest or to compensate for the sluggishness of pace and frequency
of delays. The track winds on always through the same monotony of forest
and hill, plunging into the gorges and climbing the shoulders of bluffs,
with the audacity of gradient and contempt of curve that marks the
handiwork of American engineers. I wonder that one of these did not take
Mount Cenis in hand, and save the monster tunnel. The line was strongly
picketed; everywhere you saw the same fringe of murky-white tents, and
at every station the same groups of squalid soldiery.
What especially exasperated _me_ was, the incessant and continuous
neighborhood of the Potomac. If you left it for a few minutes you were
certain to come upon it again before the eye had time to forget the
everlasting foam-splashed ochre of the sullen current, and at each fresh
point it met you undiminished in volume, unabated in turbulency. Long
before this I had begun to look at the river in the light of a personal
enemy. I think that Xerxes, in the matter of the Hellespont, did wisely
and well. Did I possess his resources of men and money, I would fain do
so and more likewise to that same Potomac, subdividing its waters till
the pet spaniel of "my Mary Jane" should ford them without wetting the
silky fringes of her trailing ears.
Theoretically, a road passing through leagues of forest-clad hills ought
to be pleasant, if not interesting; practically, you are bored to death
before you get half way through. There is a remarkable scarcity of
anything like fine-grown, timber; the underwood is luxuriant enough,
especially where the mountain laurel abounds; but in ten thousand acres
of stunted firwood, you would look in vain for any one tree fit to
compare with the gray giants that watch over Norwegian fiords, or fit to
rank in "the shadowy army of the Unterwalden pines."
We reached Cumberland shortly after sundown; my first visit was to the
stables, where I hoped to find Falcon. Imagine my disgust on hearing
that, through an accident on the line, the unlucky horse had been shut
up for forty-six hours in his box, with provender just enough for one
day. He had been well tended, however, and judiciously fed in small
quantities at frequent intervals, and, barring that he looked rather
"tucked up," did not seem much the worse for his enforced fast.
I found Shipley's letter, too, where I had been told to expect it; he
had got so far without let or hindrance; the meeting-place was set about
forty miles northwest of Cumberland. I spent the evening, not
unpleasantly, partly at the house of a "sympathizing" resident to whom I
had been recommended; partly in the society of the most miraculous
Milesian I ever encountered--off the stage or out of a book. He was
stationed in Cumberland on some sort of recruiting service, and from
dawn to midnight never ceased to oil his already lissom tongue with
"caulkers" of every imaginable liquor. I was told that at no hour of
the twenty-four had any man seen him thoroughly drunk or decently sober.
When we first met, his cups had brought him nearly to the end of the
belligerent or irascible stage; he was then inveighing against the
dwellers in the Shenandoah Valley, where he had lately been quartered,
for their want of patriotism in declining to furnish their defenders
with gratuitous whisky and tobacco; threatening the most dreadful
reprisals when he should visit "thim desateful Copperhids" again.
Suddenly, without any warning, he slid into the maudlin phase, taking
his parable of lamentation against "this crule warr."
"I weep, sirr," said he, "over the rrupture of mee adhopted
counthree--the counthree that resaved mee with opin arrums, when I was
floying from the feece of toirants," &c., &c.
When he informed me that he belonged to Mulligan's division, the words,
"I suppose so," escaped me, involuntary. Truly, if the rest of the
brigade resembled the specimen before me, only the mighty Celt, whom
Thackeray had made immortal, could command it. I shall never again look
on the "stock" freshman as an exaggeration or caricature.
I waited, the next morning, till a heavy snowstorm had resolved itself
into a thin, driving sleet; then my saddle-bags were strapped on Falcon,
and I set forth alone, the good horse striding away, as strong under me
as if he had never heard of short commons. We baited at Frostburgh, a
small village set on a hill mined and tunneled with coalpits; fifteen
miles or so beyond this was the roadside inn, where I proposed to halt
for the night. The sun had long set when I rode up to the
spectral-looking white house; remarking with no pleasant surprise, that
not a vestige of smoke rose from its gaunt chimneys. At the gate there
stood a cart laden with some sort of household goods. Near this, a man,
who lounged up, seeing me draw rein, to ask my business. It appeared
that a "flitting" had taken place that very day, and that he--the good
man--was then betaking himself, with the residue of the chattels, to
their new home, about five miles back on the Frostburgh road, whither
his family had already gone. The next chance of a billet was at
Grantsville, two leagues farther on. Now that sounds too absurdly short
a distance to disquiet any traveler; but neither is the fatal straw in
the camel's load a ponderous thing, _per se_. Both Falcon and I had
reckoned that our day's work was done when we climbed the last hill, so
it was in some discontent that we set our faces once more against the
black road, and the stinging sleet, and the bitter north wind.
Amongst Mrs. Browning's earlier poems, there is one to my mind almost
peerless for sweet sonority of verse-music, and simplicity of strength.
If it chance that any reader of mine has not admired "The Rhyme of the
Duchess May," this page, at least, has not been written in vain. My
saddle-bags held no volume other than a note-book, but that ballad in
manuscript was nearly the last gift bestowed on me in Baltimore. Never
was mortal mood less romantic than mine, so I cannot account for the
fancy which impelled me, there and then, to recite aloud, how
The bridegroom led the flight, on his red roan steed of might;
And the bride lay on his arm, still, as tho' she feared no harm,
Smiling out into the night.
"Fearest thou?" he said at last. "Nay," she answered him in haste,
"Not such death as we could find; only life with one behind,
Ride on--fast as fear--ride fast."
I found one listener, more appreciative than the wild pine-barren, that
surely had never been waked by rhythmic sound since the birthday of
Time. Falcon pricked his ears, and champed his bit cheerily, as he
mended his pace without warning of spur. As for myself--the pure,
earnest Saxon diction proved a more efficient "comforter" than "the
many-colored scarf round my neck, wrought by the same kind white hands
beyond the sea;" hands that, even now, I venture to salute with the lips
of a grateful spirit, in all humility and honor.
So the way did not seem so long that brought us through the straggling,
dim-lighted streets of Grantsville, up to the porch of its single
hostelry, where, after some parley, I found a fair chance of supper and
bed, and a heavy-handed Orson to help me in racking up Falcon.
It would be very unfair to draw a comparison between an ordinary
roadside inn in England and its synonym up in the country of America; a
better parallel is a speculative railway tavern verging always on
bankruptcy. There is an utter absence of the old-fashioned coziness
which enables you easily to dispense with luxuries. You enter at once
into a stifling, stove heated bar-room, defiled with all nicotine
abominations, where, for the first few minutes, you draw your breath
hard, and then settle down into a dull, uneasy stupor, conscious of
nothing except a weight tightening around your temples like a band of
molten iron. That is the only guest-chamber, save a parlor in the rear,
the ordinary withdrawing-room and nursery of the family, where you take
your meals in an atmosphere impregnated with babies and their
concomitants. The fare is not so bad, after all, and monotony does not
prevent chicken and ham fixings from being very acceptable after a long,
fasting ride. It blew a gale that night from the northwest, and the
savage wind--laden with sheets of snow--hurled itself against eaves and
gable till the crazy tenement quivered from roof-tree to foundation
beams. I went to my unquiet rest early, chiefly to avoid an importunate
reveler in the bar-room, who "wished to put to the stranger a few small
questions," troublesome to answer, that I had not patience to evade.
It was high noon on the following day when I set forth again. The snow
had ceased to fall two hours before, but I wished to give it time to
settle; besides, any tracks would greatly help me over the rough
cross-country road I had to travel. My route-bill enjoined me to call at
a certain house where the lane turned off from the highway, to obtain
further instructions. These were duly given me by the farmer, an elderly
man, with a wild, gray beard, vague, red eyes, and a stumbling
incoherence of speech. He repeatedly professed himself "pure and clear
as the dew of Heaven." These characteristics applied probably to his
principles--patriotic or private; they certainly did not to his
directions, which led me two miles astray, before I had ridden twice
that distance; no trifling error, when you had to struggle back over
steep, broken ground, through drifts fully girth deep.
However, as evening closed in, I "made" Accident--the point where I
ought to have found Shipley. He was a very good guide--when you caught
him--but such a perfect _ignis fatuus_, when once out of sight, that I
was not at all surprised at hearing he had gone on, the night before, to
a farm-house--more safe and secluded, certainly--about sixteen miles
off. My informant offered to pilot me thither so soon as it should be
thoroughly dark. This offer I accepted at once, only hoping that Falcon
would, like myself, consider it "all in the day's work."
I shall never forget my halt at Accident, if only on account of the
martyrdom I endured at the hands of some small, pale boys, children of
the house wherein I abode. I had just settled myself to smoke a
meditative pipe before supper, when they came in, with a formidable air
of business about all the three; they drew up a little bench, exactly
opposite to my rocking-chair, fixing themselves, and me, into a
deliberate stare. Every now and then the spokes-boy of the party--he was
the oldest, evidently, but his face was smaller and whiter, and his eyes
were more like little black beads than those of either of his
brethren--would fire off a point-blank pistol-shot of a question; when
this was answered or evaded, they resumed their steady stare. I was
lapsing rapidly into a helpless imbecility under the horrible
fascination, when their mother summoned me to supper; they vanished
then, with a derisive chuckle, to which they were certainly entitled:
for they had utterly discomfited the stranger within their gates.
One more long night-ride over steep, broken forest-ground--enlivened by
certain ultra-marine reminiscences of my guide, who had been a sort of
land-buccaneer in California--brought us to the farm, far in the bosom
of the hills, where I found Shipley, buried in a deep sleep. The sole
intelligence I heard that night related to the roan: the enfeebled
constitution of that unlucky animal had given way under rough travel and
wild weather; he was reported to be dying; hearing which, I could
scarcely deny him great good sense, however I might lament his lack of
endurance.
"The sooner it's over, the sooner to sleep," applies, of course, to
horses as well as hard-worked men.
My new host was a thorough specimen of the upland yeoman--half hunter,
half farmer, and all over a cattle-dealer. Deer and bears still abound
in those hills, though the latter are not so plentiful as they were a
score of years back, when B---- and his father slew thirty-three in a
single season: in one conflict he lost two fingers, from his
hunting-knife slipping while he was locked in the death-grapple.
The next morning broke wild and stormy, but the good man rode out on the
scout, to see how the land lay round Oakland; while he was absent we
talked over our plans, and looked over his cattle to find a remount for
my guide. The roan's malady had not been exaggerated; he was indeed in a
miserable plight, suffering, I thought, from acute internal
inflammation. After dinner we had some very pretty rifle practice, at
short distances, with a huge, clumsy weapon. I saw a boy of sixteen put
five consecutive bullets into the circumference of a half-crown at
seventy-five yards.
Late in the afternoon our host returned, and we came to terms for rather
a neat four-year-old filly: neither her condition nor strength was equal
to the work before her; but Shipley thought that, nursing, she would
carry him through; and once in Secessia, my interest in the purchase
would cease. The roan was, of course, left behind, to be killed or
cured. His chances of life seemed then so faint (though the hill-farmers
are no mean farriers) that I thought he was fairly valued in the deal at
thirty dollars. It appeared that there was increase of vigilance
throughout the frontier-guard: in Oakland itself a full company was
stationed, and strong pickets were thrown out all around, but B---- felt
confident he could pilot us through these.
We started soon after nightfall, in the midst of a sharp sleet-storm,
but we dared not delay to give the weather time to clear, for a
domiciliary visit from the Federals was by no means improbable. The old
hunter had not boasted too much of his local knowledge. He led on,
through winding byways and forest paths--sometimes striking straight
across the clearings--till the lights of Oakland glimmered in our rear,
and the _cordon_ of pickets was threaded; nor did he leave us till we
had reached a point whence a straight track--well known to
Shipley--would bring us down on the north branch of the Potomac.
Thenceforward, my guide and I rode on alone: the moon shone out, broad
and bright, in a cloudless sky, as we climbed the wooded spurs that lie
as outworks before the main range of the Alleghanies; the silvery
transparent shimmer of the frost-work on the feathery for-sprays, was
one of the most remarkable effects of reflected light that I can
remember. The snow was more than fetlock-deep where it lay level, and
the filly tired fearfully towards morning. She could not walk near up to
Falcon's long, even stride. I had to halt perpetually, to wait for my
companion; but in the tenth weary hour we sighted the crazy bridge that
spans the North Branch, and by four, A. M., on Good Friday, our steeds
Might graze at ease
Beyond the brood Borysthenes.
Rock, and wood, and water, were all looking their best, under a
brilliant sun, when I rose, but the object on which I gazed with most
satisfaction, was the accursed river circumvented at last. The solitary
green things I could find actually on the bank, were some sprigs of
cypress: these I gathered with due formula of lustration; but the _absit
omen_ was spoken in vain.
Then I wrote two or three letters, inclosing in each the cypress, token
of partial success; but these never reached their destinations: they
were prudently suppressed, three days later, by the person to whose
discretion I trusted to forward them. My correspondence being cleared
off, and Falcon thoroughly groomed, I fell back upon the resources of
the little town for amusement, and lighted on one scrap of light
literature, the fragment of a nameless magazine. In this there were some
good, quiet verses, that I thought worth transcribing, were it only for
the incongruity of the place in which I found them: perhaps they are
already well known; but _I_ am ignorant even of the author's name.
MAUD.
Yes, she always loved the sea,
God's half uttered mystery;
With the murmur of its myriad shells,
And never-ceasing roar:
It was well, that when she died,
They made Maud a grave beside
The blue pulses of the tide,
'Neath, the crags of Elsinore.
One chill red leaf falling down--
Many russet autumns gone;
A lone ship with folded wings
Lay sleeping off the lea:
Silently she came by night,
Folded wings of murky white,
Weary with their lengthened flight;
Way-worn nursling of the sea.
Eager peasants thronged the sands;
There were tears and clasping hands;
But one sailor, heeding none,
Passed thro' the churchyard-gate:
Only "Maud," the headstone read,--
Only Maud, was't all it said?
Why did _he_ then bow his head,
Moaning, "Late, mine own, too late!"
And they called her cold--God knows,
Under quiet winter's snows,
The invisible hearts of flowers
Grow up to blossoming:
And the hearts judged calm and cold,
Might, if all their tale were told,
Seem cast in a gentler mould,
Full of love and life and spring.
We were in the saddle again an hour before sunset, our next point being
a log-hut on the very topmost ridge of the Alleghanies, wherein dwelt a
man said to be better acquainted than any other in the country round,
with the passes leading into the Shenandoah Valley. We ascertained,
beyond a doubt, that a company was stationed at Greenland Gap, close to
which it was absolutely necessary we should pass; but with a thoroughly
good local guide, we might fairly count on the same luck which had
brought us safe round Oakland. Night had fallen long before we came down
on the South River, a mere mountain torrent, at ordinary seasons; but
now, flowing along with the broad dignity of a swift, smooth river. My
guide's mare wanted shoeing, and there chanced to be a rude forge close
to the ford, which is the only crossing-place since the bridge was
destroyed last autumn by the Confederates. It was important that the
local pilot should be secured as soon as possible (he was constantly
absent from home), so I rode on alone, with directions that were easy to
follow.
The smith, whose house stood but three hundred yards or so off, had told
me that I had to strike straight across the ford, for a gap in the dense
wood cloaked by the opposite bank. It was disagreeably dark at the
water's edge, for the low moon was utterly hidden behind a thicket of
cypress and pine; but I did make out a narrow opening _exactly_
opposite; for this I headed unhesitatingly. We lost footing twice; but a
mass of tangled timber above broke the current--nowhere very strong--and
the water shoaled quickly under the further shore; the bottom was sound,
too, just there, though the bank was steep; and Falcon answered a sharp
drive of the spurs with a gallant spring, that landed him on a narrow
shelf of slippery clay, hedged in on three sides by brush absolutely
impenetrable. There was not room to stand firm, much less to turn
safely; before I had time to think what was to be done, there was a
backward slide, and a flounder; in two seconds more, I had drawn myself
with some difficulty from under my horse, who lay still on his side, too
wise, at first, to struggle unavailingly. If long hunting experience
makes a man personally rather indifferent about accidents, it also
teaches him when there is danger to the animal he rides; looking at
Falcon's utter helplessness and the constrained twist of his hind legs,
which I tried in vain to straighten, I began to have uncomfortable
visions of ricked backs and strained sinews: I was on the wrong side of
the river, too, for help; though even the rope of a Dublin Garrison
"wrecker" would have helped but little then. Thrice the good horse made
a desperate attempt to stand up, and thrice he sank back again with the
hoarse sigh, between pant and groan--half breathless, half
despairing--that every hunting man can remember, to his cost. It was
impossible to clear the saddle-bags without cutting them; I had drawn my
knife for this purpose, when a fourth struggle (in which his fore-hoofs
twice nearly struck me down), set Falcon once more on his
feet--trembling, and drenched with sweat, but materially uninjured. I
contrived to scramble into the saddle, and we plunged into the ford
again, heading up stream, till we struck the real gap, which was at
least thirty yards higher up. It is ill trusting to the accuracy of a
native's _carte du pays_. Another league brought me to the way-side hut
where I was instructed to ask for fresh guidance.
"Right over the big pasture, to the bars at the corner--then keep the
track through the wood to the 'improvements'--and the house was close
by." Such were the directions of the good-natured mountaineer, who
offered himself to accompany me: but this I would by no means allow.
Now, an up-country pasture, freshly cleared, is a most unpleasant place
to cross, after nightfall: the stumps are all left standing, and felled
trees lie all about--thick as boulders on a Dartmoor hillside; then,
however, a steady moon was shining, and Falcon picked his way daintily
through the timber, hopping lightly, now and then, over a trunk bigger
than the rest, but never losing the faint track: we got over the high
bars, too, safely, hitting them hard. The wood-path led out upon a
clearing, after a while: here I was fairly puzzled. There was no sign of
human habitation, except a rough hut, some hundred yards to my right,
that I took to be an outlying cattle-shed: there was not the glimmer of
a light anywhere.
I have not yet written the name of the man I was seeking: contrasts of
time and place made it so very remarkable, that I venture to break the
rule of anonyms. Mortimer Nevil--who would have dreamt of lighting on,
perhaps, the two proudest patronymics of baronial England, in a log hut
crowning the ridge of the Alleghanies?
While I wandered hither and thither in utter bewilderment, my ear caught
a sound as of one hewing timber; I rode for it, and soon found that the
hovel I had passed thrice was the desired homestead; truly, it was
fitting that the possible descendant of the king-maker should reveal
himself by the rattle of his axe.
It is needless to say, that I was received courteously and kindly. The
mountaineer promised his services readily; albeit, he spoke by no means
confidently of our chances of getting through; the company of Western
Virginians that had recently marched into Greenland, was said to be
unusually vigilant; only the week before, a professional blockade-runner
had been captured, who had made his way backwards and forwards
repeatedly, and was thoroughly conversant with the ground. The attempt
could not possibly be made till the following evening; till then, Nevil
promised to do his best to make Falcon and me comfortable.
I shall not easily forget my night in the log hut; it consisted of a
single room, about sixteen feet by ten; in this lived and slept the
entire family--numbering the farmer, his wife, mother, and two children.
When they spoke, confidently, of finding me a bed, I fell into a great
tremor and perplexity; the problem seemed to me not more easy to solve
than that of the ferryman, who had to carry over a fox, a goose, and a
cabbage; it was physically impossible that the large-limbed Nevil and
myself should be packed into the narrow non-nuptial couch; the only
practicable arrangement involved my sharing its pillow with the two
infants or with the ancient dame; and at the bare thought of either
alternative, I shivered from head to heel. At last, with infinite
difficulty, I obtained permission to sleep on my horse-rug spread on the
floor, with my saddle for a bolster; when this point was once settled, I
spent the evening very contentedly, basking in the blaze of the huge
oaken logs; if stinted in all else, the mountaineer has always large
luxury of fuel. I was curious to find out if my host knew anything of
his own lineage; but he could tell me nothing further, than that his
grandfather was the first colonist of the family; oddly enough, though,
in his library of three or four books, was an ancient work on heraldry;
his father had been much addicted to studying this, and was said to have
been learned in the science.
At about ten, P. M., Shipley knocked at the door, fearfully wet and cold;
the smith had accompanied him to the ford, so that he could not go
astray, but his filly hardly struggled through the deep, strong water.
Our host found quarters for him, in the log hut of a brother, who dwelt
a short half-mile off.
I spent all the fore-part of the next day in lounging about, watching
the sluggish sap drain out of the sugar-maples, occasionally falling
back on the female society of the place; for the Nevil had gone forth on
the scout. It was not very lively: my hostess was kindness itself, but
the worn, weary look never was off her homely face; nor did I wonder at
this when I heard that, besides their present troubles and hardships,
they had lost four children in one week of the past winter from
diphtheria; it was sad to see how painfully the mother clung to the two
that death had left her; she could not bear them out of her sight for an
instant. A very weird-looking cummer was the grand-dame--with a broken,
piping voice--tremulous hands, and jaws that, like the stage witch
wife's, ever munched and mumbled. She seldom spoke aloud, except to
groan out a startlingly sudden ejaculation of "Oh, Lord," or "O dear;"
these widows' mites cast into the conversational treasury did not
greatly enhance its brilliancy.
The blue sky grew murky-white before sundown, and night fell intensely
cold. The Nevil who guided us on foot had much the best of it, and I
often dismounted, to walk by his side. If he who sang the praises of the
"wild northwester" had been with us then, I doubt if he would not have
abated of his enthusiasm. The bitter snow-laden blast, even where thick
cover broke its vicious sweep, was enough to make the blood stand still
in the veins of the veriest Viking. After riding about ten miles, we
left the rough paths we had hitherto pursued, and struck, across
country. For two hours or more we forced our way slowly and
painfully through bush and brake--through marshy rills and rocky
burns--demolishing snake-fences whenever we broke out on a clearing.
Shipley led his mare almost the whole way; and I, thinking the saddle
safest and pleasantest conveyance over ordinarily rough ground, was
compelled to dismount repeatedly.
It was about one o'clock in the morning of Sunday, the 5th of April: we
were then crossing some tilled lands, intersected by frequent narrow
belts of woodland. Our course ran parallel to the mountain-road leading
from Greenland to Petersburg; the former place was then nearly three
miles behind us, and our guide felt certain that we had passed the
outermost pickets. It was very important that we should get housed
before break of day; so we were on the point of breaking into the beaten
track again, and had approached it within fifty yards, when suddenly,
out of the dark hollow on our left, there came a hoarse shout:
"Stop. Who are you? Stop or I'll fire."
Now I have heard a challenge or two in my time, and felt certain at once
that even, a Federal picket would have employed a more regular formula.
The same idea struck Shipley too.
"Come on," he said, "they're only citizens."
So on we went, disregarding a second and third summons in the same
words. We both looked round for the Nevil, but keener eyes would have
sought for him in vain; at the first sound of voices he had plunged into
the dark woods above us, where a footman, knowing the country, might
defy any pursuit. Peace and joy go with him! By remaining he would only
have ruined himself, without profiting us one jot.
Then three revolver-shots were fired in rapid succession. To my question
if he was hit, my guide answered cheerily in the negative; neither of us
guessed that one bullet had struck his mare high up in the neck; though
the wound proved mortal the next day, it was scarcely perceptible, and
bled altogether internally. One of those belts of woodland crossed our
track about two hundred yards ahead; we crashed into this over a gap in
the snake-fence; but the barrier on the further side was high and
intact. Shipley had dismounted, and had nearly made a breach by pulling
down the rails, when, the irregular challenge was repeated directly in
our front, and we made out a group of three dark figures about
thirty-five yards off.
"Give your names, and where you are going, or I'll fire."
"He's very fond of firing," I said in an undertone to Shipley, and then
spoke out aloud. (I saw at once the utter impossibility of escape, even
if we could have found our way back, without quitting our horses, which
I never dreamt of.)
"If you'll come here, I'll tell you all about it."
I could not have advanced if I had wished it; in broad day the fence
would have been barely practicable. I spoke those exact words in a tone
purposely measured and calm, so that they should not be mistaken by our
assailants: I have good reason to remember them, for they were the last
I ever uttered on American ground as a free agent. They had hardly
passed my lips, when a rifle cracked; I felt a dull numbing blow inside
my left knee, and a sensation as if hot sealing-wax was trickling there;
at the same instant, Falcon dropped under me--without a start or
struggle, or sound besides a horrible choking sob--shot right through
the jugular vein.