ELFIE IN THE GROVE.
Ask me not what the maiden feels,
Left in that dreadful hour alone;
Perchance her reason stoops or reels
Perchance a courage not her own,
Braces her mind to desperate tone.—SCOTT.
“Quick, boys! There is something dreadful going on in that grove! Some
woman in extreme peril!” hastily exclaimed Justin Rosenthal, as he put
spurs to his horse, and galloped forward, hotly followed by Wing and
Hay.
The grove, at the point at which they approached it, was too thickly
grown to admit the entrance of their horses.
So Colonel Rosenthal threw himself from his saddle, fastened his horse
to a tree, drew his sword and plunged into the thicket.
This example was quickly followed by his companions.
The cries of distress had ceased; and the silence and the darkness of
the place rendered it rather difficult for our Don Quixote to decide
where to turn his steps and the point of his sword for the delivery of
the distressed damsel.
“We must scatter ourselves, boys! Each must take a different direction
and beat about the woods until we discover the cause of those cries! And
he who first comes upon the scene of violence must shout for the others!
Now go! And may Heaven grant that we may be in time!” hastily exclaimed
Justin, waving his sword in the directions he wished the others to take,
and then turning and striking deeper into the shadows of the grove.
It was very still and dark. Nothing could be seen but the occasional
glance of a star, peeping down between the upper branches of the trees;
and nothing could be heard but the ripple of a stream, hidden somewhere
in the deep, dry undergrowth of the thicket.
Justin was completely bewildered, knowing not which way to turn.
“The unfortunate woman, whoever she is, must be murdered or worse before
this! At all events, she is silenced,” he said to himself.
At that moment another cry arose; but this time it was a man’s
voice—weak, quavering, cracked—but unmistakably a man’s voice, crying:
“Help! Murder! Help! Oh, all good Christians, help!”
“Gracious Heavens! has the woman got the better now, and is she killing
the man; or what is the meaning of this second outcry?” exclaimed the
colonel, in droll perplexity.
And guided by the cries, he clutched his sword with a firmer clasp, and
strode on in the direction from which they came. He had not gone many
yards before the cries arose for the third time; and now, as in the
first instance, it was the woman’s voice, screaming:
“Murder! Murder! Help! Help!”
“This is very perplexing. Apparently there are two of them in distress,
and they take turns in yelling,” said Justin, as he rushed on towards
the scene of action.
Suddenly he came upon it. Striking through the thicket, he entered an
opening in the grove where the clear bright starlight shone down upon a
strange picture—a man, and a woman, each bound to a tree, only a few
yards from each other.
“Help! Murder! Help!” shrieked the man.
“Don’t come near me, you monster! I have a revolver concealed in my
bosom and I will shoot you as soon as I would a mad dog!” screamed the
woman.
“ELFIE!” exclaimed Justin Rosenthal, in astonishment, advancing towards
her.
“Oh, Justin dear! Justin, is it you? Thank Heaven! But I took you for a
prowling guerrilla!” cried Elfie, struggling to free herself enough to
welcome him.
“I was drawn here by your cries for help, Elfie. But who had the
insolence and barbarity to treat you in this manner?” demanded Colonel
Rosenthal, as with his sword he severed the cords that bound the girl
and set her free.
“Let me sit down and breathe, and then I’ll tell you all about it,” said
Elfie, with a sigh of relief, as she sank down on a heap of dry leaves
at the foot of the tree.
Justin stood looking at her with eyes full of doubt, pity and anxiety.
“Don’t stand staring at me as if I had two heads, man! Go and set the
parson free. He is a Christian hero, he is! and by that time I shall
recover my breath and be able to talk to you,” said Elfie, with
something of her old snappishness. And truly the poor girl had had
enough to make her feel cross and nervous.
“I beg your pardon, Elfie,” said Justin, smiling, as he turned to obey
her.
He cut the cords that bound the minister, who immediately stretched his
arms, and then dropped upon the ground with a fervent:
“Thank goodness!”
At that moment Wing and Hay came up from different points. On seeing
Elfie, Wing started and withdrew a little into the shade.
Justin went up to him said:
“I suppose you were led here by the cries, as I was?”
“Yes, sir, they resounded through every part of the grove, I assure
you.”
“Well, I hope there has been no great harm done. We found a parson and
the young lady whom you met as a captive among the guerrillas, bound
here to a couple of trees. I do not quite understand the affair yet; but
they are apparently uninjured. Now go, Wing—take Hay with you, and ride
back to the field. Tell Lieutenant-Colonel Wedgewood that we shall
encamp in and around this grove to-night. Tell him to send all the men
here who are not engaged in looking after the wounded and the dead, or
in guarding the prisoners.”
Wing bowed, beckoned Hay to follow him and left the scene.
Justin turned and seated himself on a fragment of rock near the bank of
leaves on which Elfie rested.
“I am very glad, Elfie, to find you safe at last,” he said, a little
dubiously.
“Yes, thank Heaven, I have passed safely through the terrible days of my
captivity,” said Elfie.
“I can answer for that. The men of Belial, bad as they were, didn’t dare
to harm a hair of her head. From their chief downward, they all treated
her with respect,” said the preacher.
“Hold your tongue, Mr. Simmons. I don’t need that _you_ should endorse
me. I have little reason to be grateful to you, goodness knows, for
saving your life at the expense of my liberty,” snapped Elfie.
The preacher bowed his head under this rebuke. And Justin Rosenthal
looked from one to the other in perplexity.
“I will explain, Justin; but it is a long story, I can tell you. I have
been through a campaign since I saw you last,” said Elfie.
“But before you begin, my dear young lady, let me ask the captain here a
question.—Sir, might you have a morsel to eat or drink about you?”
piteously inquired the poor consumptive preacher.
“No, I mightn’t, I am sorry to say,” smiled Justin.
“You see we haven’t broken our fast since the morning. And I feel a sort
of inward sinking. And if you had a scrap of hard tack or a drop of old
rye—”
“I regret very much that I have nothing of the sort. You know that we
cavalry rangers, out after guerrillas, carry no provisions. We look to
live on the country,” said Colonel Rosenthal.
The poor preacher laid his thin hands over his empty bread-basket, and
groaned aloud. Even Elfie pitied him.
“Never mind, Mr. Simmons,” she said, “you heard the order given by
Colonel Rosenthal. The men will be here presently, and you may depend
they will not come empty-handed. We shall have a sumptuous supper
presently.”
With this piece of comfort the preacher tried to content himself.
“And now, Elfie,” said Justin Rosenthal.
“Well, I suppose you heard that our picnic party was surprised by the
guerrillas, and that I was carried off?”
“Yes, I heard of that, Elfie, through a spy I sent into the camp of the
Free Sword. Tell me, my dear little friend, what happened after the spy
had left,” said Justin.
And Elfie began and related in detail all her adventures while a captive
among the guerrillas. She told the story with firmness, and even with
humor, until she came to describe her forced marriage, when she suddenly
burst into tears of rage and shame, and wept and sobbed as if her heart
would break.
When Justin had heard the whole story of the marriage, he laid his hand
upon Elfie’s bowed black head in a protecting and reassuring manner, and
laughed as he said:
“Why, Elfie, the marriage is not binding upon you, unless you choose to
make it so by yourself acknowledging its validity. If you protest
against it as a forced marriage, and bring this clergyman here as your
witness, it cannot hold good.”
“But there was a li—license! and a ring—ring! and an ordain—dained
minister! and even a man—man to give me away! and all was
reg—reg—reg—regular!” answered Elfie, scarcely able to articulate
through her gasping sobs.
“Nonsense, my dear girl! The vital, valid, lawful part of the affair,
without which all the rest was all invalid, null and void, was wanting,”
laughed Justin.
“And what was that—at?” sobbed Elfie.
“The consent of the woman, of course!”
“Oh, but they had that!”
“ELFIE!”
“They took it by force, as they took me. That man—an—who acted as my
pap—pap—papa, took me by my neck and hair and bobbed my head down three
or four times in the most positive manner, as if he meant me to say,
‘Yes, _yes_, YES!’ and the ceremony went on.”
“The villain! But, Elfie, my dear, that was no consent. Nonsense, my
child! You are no more bound in law or gospel to your guerrilla abductor
than you are to any other savage you can think of. Give yourself no
uneasiness on that subject, _Miss Fielding_,” said Justin, with an
intentional emphasis on Elfie’s maiden name.
Apparently Elfie was not grateful for the consideration.
“Justin Rosenthal, I’ll thank you not to call me ‘Miss Fielding!’ How do
I know but what I am Mrs. Goldsborough? I hate to be placed in
unequivocal position; and I _won’t_ be neither, there! Call me Elfie.
The name given me in baptism is the only one either you or I can feel
dead sure I am entitled to bear!” exclaimed the girl, passionately.
“Very well, my child. Just as you please!” laughed Justin, with a shrug
of his shoulders.
Elfie pouted so long in silence that Justin found it necessary to recall
her to her narrative.
“Come, Elfie,” he said, “tell me how you and your companion in captivity
happened to be bound to these trees?”
“You know,” answered Elfie, “I told you how when Albert Goldsborough
found that a battle was in progress on the hill, he made us dismount,
and took away our horses, and set a mounted guard of six guerrillas to
watch us.”
“Yes.”
“Well, they watched us closely enough for a while. I couldn’t stir, even
to walk about and stretch my cramped limbs, without being threatened
with a rifle levelled at me!”
“The wretches!”
“And all that time we heard the firing in the distance, and knew that a
great battle was going on between the guerrillas and our own troops. And
we prayed heartily for the success of our men.”
“Your prayers were heard, Elfie.”
“Of course we could not guess which way the tide of victory would turn.
We could only see the clouds upon clouds of black and sulphurous smoke
rolling over the hill, and hear the continual firing, and smell the
suffocating fumes of gunpowder that were overpowering even at this
distance.”
“That was because the wind blew straight from the hill in this
direction.”
“In this way several hours passed, and then we began to hear the thunder
of flying horsemen crossing the plain. And one of our guard rode out to
reconnoitre, and came back in a hurry, exclaiming:
“‘By the devil! if the clock peddlers haven’t beaten us! Our men are
flying as fast as their horses can carry them before the Yankee cavalry!
I am not agoing to stay here guarding a girl and a parson, until I am
captured! What do you say, boys?’
“Apparently the ‘boys’ agreed with their companion. They rode together
and consulted in a low voice and in great excitement, while we still
felt, as it seemed, the very earth shake with the thunder of the flying
and chasing horsemen. Meanwhile I felt great hopes of being allowed to
escape. My hopes were soon destroyed, however, by the words of the
corporal, who had command of the guard.
“‘It will never do to let _them_ get off, blast them! any more than it
will do for us to stay here and be captured by the Yankees! I’ll tell
you what, boys! we will tie them to trees, so that if the colonel _does_
come back to look for them—which I doubt very much if he will, even if
he should have escaped being killed or wounded, or taken prisoner—he
will find them; that’s all! Now what do you say to that!’
“The corporal’s proposal was adopted by acclamation. And the wretches
immediately seized us and bound us, each to a tree, as you found us,
Justin. And then they mounted their horses and galloped away, and we saw
no more of them.”
“Nor of any others?”
“No! we remained here, while the night grew darker, and darker. We still
occasionally felt the earth shake under the thunder of the flying and
following horsemen; but no one entered the grove. And after a while even
_that_ noise ceased.”
“Were you frightened, Elfie?”
“No, not until a wolf or some other wild animal came up and stood before
me, and looked up in my face with his fiery eyes, as if he were
balancing the question whether he should eat me then, or take his supper
a few minutes later. I felt my flesh creep and my blood grow cold then,
Justin! And I screamed with all my might. And the creature took to its
heels and ran away!”
“Poor Elfie!”
“After that Mr. Simmons and I, thinking that some of our men might be
about, took our turns in crying, ‘Help’ and ‘Murder.’ And at last, just
as our lungs were giving out, you came to our relief, Justin.”
“And that is all!”
“Yes, except this, Justin! In the midst of our own personal distress, we
still remembered to thank Heaven for giving us the victory!”
As Elfie spoke, the sound of an approaching troop of horses was heard.
And soon they seemed to have drawn up on the outskirts of the grove.
Wing came to report to his colonel.
“The regiment has arrived on the ground, sir. Also the army wagons with
the commissary stores that were sent after us from W. Lieutenant Colonel
Wedgewood has dispatched messengers to hurry up the ambulances for the
transportation of the wounded, who are now receiving all the attention
that it is possible to bestow upon them in their present position.
To-morrow I hope to be able to submit to you a correct report of the
killed, wounded and prisoners.”
“Quite right, Adjutant,” said Colonel Rosenthal. Then, changing his tone
a little, he continued: “And now, Wing, I think you had better remain
here with this young lady and the preacher, while I go to take a look at
my poor fellows.”
And with a bow to Elfie and her companion, Justin Rosenthal walked away
from them.
Now all was cheerful bustle in and around the grove.
The men dismounted, took their saddles from their horses, and secured
the weary beasts to the trees on the outer edge of the grove.
Then they began active preparations for refreshment and rest. They
unloaded the army wagons, and every man watered and foddered his horse
before thinking of himself.
Then some went to work kindling fires to cook by; others began preparing
food; others again busied themselves with building rude shelters of
boughs to protect them from the night air.
By the orders of Colonel Rosenthal, a party of the men went to that part
of the grove where Elfie and her companions were waiting, and there,
under the immediate direction of Adjutant Wing, they constructed a
comfortable hut of cedar boughs for Elfie’s accommodation.
And soon in front of this hut a good supper was served of strong coffee,
with white sugar and condensed milk, and broiled ham, with fried
potatoes, and loaf bread and camp biscuits.
Elfie, Mr. Simmons, Colonel Rosenthal and Wing sat down to this supper.
And though every one of them played well their parts, the poor,
consumptive preacher excelled them all in gastronomic feats.
During the meal, which was eaten by torch light, strange glances were
observed to pass between Elfie and Wing. From time to time Elfie looked
furtively at the young adjutant, who sedulously avoided her glances. But
at length, when Wing surprised Elfie gazing steadily at him he opened
his dark eyes to their widest extent and favored her with a stare of
astonishment that at once put an end to the play.
After supper Elfie retired to her hut where, upon a bed of leaves, she
slept comfortably, guarded on one side of her dwelling by the old
minister, and on the other side by the young adjutant.