During the whole of the day succeeding the insurrection, our hero lay in
the most precarious and dangerous state; and the violent inflammatory
action produced by several large sabre wounds so much unsettled his
reason, that the surgeon was compelled still farther to deplete his
already exhausted frame. Towards night his mind recovered its powers,
but his strength was still gone, and he lay upon his couch in all the
helplessness of infantile impotency; and toward evening, exhausted by
the previous night of turmoil and strife, succeeded by a day of feverish
restlessness, he at length fell asleep.
There was one never-wearying eye that watched the fitful slumbers of the
invalid. Conscious, perhaps, that Bacon could never be more to her than
a friend and protector, Wyanokee delighted in rendering him those quiet,
but constant and indispensable services which his situation required.
Not a change of his ever-varying countenance, as the workings of a
diseased and excited imagination, were from time to time portrayed upon
his pale and already attenuated features, escaped her, while her own
beautiful and expressive countenance, vividly displayed, in rapid and
corresponding changes, her sympathy with the sleeping sufferer. If any
one approached the door, her keen glance immediately arrested the
intruder, her finger upon her lip, and a frown upon her brow, in her
powerful and national pantomimic token of silence. If the eye of the
sleeper opened for an instant in bewildered amazement at the difference
between the real scene before him, and the one from which in sleeping
fancy he had just escaped, her wild and imaginative susceptibilities
were instantly on the alert.
The mind of the aboriginal, even when partially cultivated, is overcome
with superstitious reverence and awe, in the presence of one under the
excitement of a diseased imagination. Such had been the state of feeling
with Wyanokee during the whole of Bacon's mental hallucinations
throughout the day, and now as she watched at his bed-side, during his
uneasy slumbers, her keen perceptions were tremendously alive to each
successive demonstration. There was one member of the family, however,
who entered and departed from the room unchallenged--Virginia! At this
moment she entered--her own tender sympathies wrought upon by all the
late harassing events; although differing in their developments and
cause in some respects, they were in no wise inferior in degree to those
of her protegee. She moved with noiseless step and suppressed
respiration until she stood over the couch of the wounded youth. Long
and feelingly she gazed upon the sharp and pallid features; there was
naught of passion in that gaze--it was pure and heavenly in its origin,
as in its motive. Her moistened eye, with a movement almost peculiar to
the sick room, or the funeral chamber, turned slowly upon her attendant.
No melting and sympathizing tear softened the brilliant and penetrating
eye which met her gaze; there was excitement, deep excitement, but not
the mellowed emotion of regulated sympathy; in Wyanokee, the imagination
controlled the heart--in Virginia, the heart subdued and softened the
imagination.
There was something touchingly beautiful in the moral development of
these two young and innocent hearts. There was a mutual instinctive
understanding of each, with regard to the position of the other, in
relation to the wounded youth before them; yet it had never been
admitted even to their own consciousness, because they had never
analyzed their own feelings, and circumstances as yet had never openly
betrayed them to each other. As they mutually exchanged glances,
something like an electric thrill passed chilly through their veins, but
it was only for an instant; the reasoning faculties of the mind examined
it not--they were not in a situation to examine it--imagination
controlled the whole mental organization of the one, and the tenderest
and purest emotions of the heart that of the other. Virginia came to
relieve the faithful and indefatigable Indian maiden, and as the only
practicable means, sent her under some pretext to her mother. She now
occupied a seat near the foot of the couch, in full view of the
sleeper's countenance, faintly illuminated by the subdued rays of a
shaded lamp. She had watched the varying and magnetic vibration of
muscle and nerve for nearly an hour, when the eyes of the sleeping youth
slowly and wildly opened upon her in a bewildered stare, and at length
he spoke.
"The senses are not the only vehicles for communicating passing events
to the mind," said he, his voice already hollow and sepulchral from the
previous excitement of the brain. Virginia understood him not, but
supposed that his mind was again wandering, but it was not so; his
mental perceptions were preternaturally clear, as they sometimes are
after painful cerebral excitements.
She made him no answer, hoping that he would again close his eyes to
repose. But he continued, "How else can we gain knowledge of things
which have transpired when all the senses are shut up in profound
slumber? Just now I slept deeply, but not soothingly, and I thought I
was on the brink of destruction, from which none but you could save me;
and that Wyanokee persisted in attempting the rescue, and the more she
struggled the more irremediable became my difficulties. At length you
appeared upon the scene, leaning upon your mother's arm; and she carried
away Wyanokee while you redeemed me from destruction. This is indeed no
farther true than that you have taken the place of your attendant, and
that your mild sympathizing countenance is far more genial to my present
weakened state, than her wild and startling glances. But does it not
seem as if my mental perceptions had caught a glimpse of passing events
without the intervention of the animal senses?"
Virginia put her finger upon her lip and shook her head, to remind her
charge that strict silence was enjoined. For this there were other
motives acting upon her perturbed feelings besides the injunction of the
surgeon, had they been wanting.
The invalid closed his eyes, and in a short time seemed to sleep more
calmly and soundly than he had yet done. It being the portion of the
night through which Virginia had insisted upon watching, she moved
quietly to a couch by the window looking upon the river, and the blue
hills beyond, and threw herself upon it and gazed out at the enchanting
scene. Her own flower garden lay beneath the window, stretching away
towards the river, and ornamented midway with a tasteful little
summer-house designed by herself, and decorated by the hands of the
ingenious youth who now lay so helpless before her. The air was balmy
and serene; and redolent of the richest perfumes of fruits and flowers
just bursting into maturity with the advancing summer. Millions of stars
twinkled in the high cerulean arch of heaven, and were reflected back
from the broad expanse of waters beneath, with an enchanting
brilliancy. The murmuring waters of the Powhatan rippled along the sandy
shore with a melancholy monotony, indescribably soothing to her harassed
and troubled mind. The various noises of the busy world around were one
by one sinking into silence. Occasionally the profound stillness which
succeeded, disturbed by the distant bark of a watch-dog, or the more
rural cackling of geese, faded away in the distance so imperceptibly as
to leave the mind at a loss to know whether they were real sounds, or
those associations with the scene which the imagination often conjures
up to bewilder us on such occasions. Her eyes were half closed for a
moment under these soothing and seducing influences, and the next,
quickly opened to catch the fiery track of some darting meteor as it
winged its way through the starry heavens, or to follow the humbler
lights borne through the air by myriads of fire flies which brilliantly
floated upon the transparent atmosphere. A wild and startling note from
some beast of prey, as it roamed through the trackless and unsubdued
forests beyond the river, occasionally struck upon her ear, and ever and
anon she turned her eyes toward her sleeping charge, and all the painful
and harassing feelings of the last few days returned. It was like
awaking from a delicious dream, to the stern reality of some pressing
and constantly obtrusive misfortune. Her previous life had been tranquil
and unruffled; until now her spirits buoyant and elastic. Suddenly the
scene had changed, and all the unmarked and unrecorded pleasures of her
youthful years were lost in the cares and troubles of the present. She
imagined herself the most irremediably wretched being in existence. So
new was unhappiness to her, that the slight cloud which now hung between
her and the happiness she had enjoyed seemed fearfully dark and
lowering.
But again the soothing influences of the scene without imperceptibly
stole upon her senses, and she fell into a slumber. Her imagination, now
uncontrolled by the sterner qualities of mind, mingled the images
retained from the stirring events of the last few days in the most
fantastic forms. She saw her mother enter the garden with a slow and
solemn step, clad in the habiliments of the grave.
Her form was aerial and graceful, and her features supernaturally
beautiful and glorious. Presently this figure was met by another of
colossal proportions, approaching the summer house from the opposite end
of the garden; his step was grand and majestic, and his countenance
stern and warlike. He was clad in complete armour, and his mailed heel
as it struck the gravel, sent the blood cold to her heart, and at once
convinced her of the reality of the scene. As the figures met they
paused and seemed to hold communion for a time, and then pursued their
way together; but when they returned to view, the relations of the
parties were changed, the colossal figure was using the most violent
gesticulation, to which his companion seemed to bow her head in meekness
and submission, but not in conviction. At this the other suddenly sprang
forward, seized his victim, and was about to leap the garden walls when
an attempt to scream dispelled the illusion. Virginia opened her eyes
and glanced around the room to assure herself of the reality of the
scene before her. The wounded youth still slept soundly, and the lamp
still threw its flickering shadows on the wall. By a slower and more
cautious movement of the eyes she next examined the garden without; all
was still and quiet as the grave, and gazing long and abstractedly upon
the little arbour she again gave way to the exhaustion of her physical
powers, and again the same figures rose upon her fancy. Now all doubt of
their reality was discarded from the very circumstance of the former's
having proved a delusion. She knew the other was a dream, but this she
felt was truth, and she even went so far as to reason in her mind upon
the strange coincidence of the dream, and the present real scene. The
gigantic figure was now clad in the gray garb of the Recluse, his limbs
manacled with chains, while her mother knelt apart in the attitude of
deep and unutterable wo. A crowd was gathered round as if to witness a
public execution; soldiers and citizens, knights and nobles mingled in
the confused throng. The criminal was kneeling upon his coffin, the cap
was drawn over his face, and the fatal word was given! She awoke with
the sound of firearms still ringing in her ears, and the piercing
shrieks of the female figure thrilling through her veins.
It may be readily imagined that her startled perceptions were by no
means tranquillized on perceiving, as she opened her eyes, the shadows
of moving figures upon the wall before her. In order to see from whom
these reflections came she must turn her head and look in the direction
of the opposite wall, but for her life she dared not move! Terror
chained her to the couch. At length the shadows moved towards the door!
By a desperate effort she turned her head in that direction, and to her
amazement beheld her mother dressed in white, exactly as she had seen
her in her dream, slowly and steadily leaving the apartment. She clasped
her hand to her forehead and endeavoured to recall her bewildered
senses. The confused images of her slumbering and waking perceptions
were so inextricably mingled together that for a time she was utterly at
a loss to know whether the whole was real or a dream. Certainly the
actors were the same, and the impressions continuous. She had not long
lain in this bewilderment when she heard the door leading into the
garden, just beneath her window, softly opened, and her mother in a few
moments walked down the avenue in the very direction she had before seen
her take.
Her eyes were intently riveted upon the movements of her parent, until
they were hid from her view by the intervening trees and shrubbery.
But she removed them not--they were still fixed upon the spot where she
had last seen her, until her white robes emerged here and there from the
foliage, when her eyes instinctively followed her, straining her already
weakened organs to catch the slightest change of position, and seemingly
desirous to penetrate the sombre shadows of the night, whenever the
figure upon which she gazed was lost to view. At length the door again
softly opened beneath her window; and she saw the figure no more. But a
very few moments elapsed, however, before another appeared upon the
scene, of far more gigantic proportions and questionable business at
that place and hour. It was the same figure which she had before seen
associated with the one which had just departed; and now that she really
saw them in flesh and blood, she was more than ever at a loss to know
which and how many of her visions of the night were real and which
illusory.
The one now before her eyes was clad in his usual, half puritanical,
half military tunic, and as usual he was fully armed, but the weapons
hung quietly by his side; his arms were folded upon his breast, and his
whole carriage and demeanour was subdued, sad, and melancholy. He stood
leaning against the vine-clad column of the arbour, with his eyes
intently fixed upon the spot where the preoccupant of the scene had
disappeared. His chest heaved with emotion, which ever and anon found
vent in laboured respirations of unspeakable misery.
At this moment a fierce watch-dog sprung at the intruder with savage
ferocity, and to one less accustomed to danger in all its shapes, would
doubtless have proved a formidable foe; but in an instant a heavy blow
from his iron sheathed sabre laid the animal struggling at his feet. He
stood leaning upon his weapon for an instant, and then moved slowly away
until he came near the river, when he laid his hand upon the palisade
running along the foot of the garden, and leapt upon the beach like a
youth of twenty. In a short time Virginia saw his boat upon the water,
his gigantic form rising and bending to his work with desperate and
reckless efforts, the frail bark gliding over the smooth waters, "like a
thing of life," until it faded away in the distance to a mere speck.
Her eye followed the receding object as it became more and more
indistinct, until a mere undefined point was left upon the retina, her
own voluntary powers sinking more deeply in repose from the intentness
with which she pursued the single object.
How long she slept she knew not, but when she awoke the horizontal rays
of the rising sun were beaming through the parted curtains, and the
misty drapery from the river was rolling over the hills, and pouring
through the intervening valleys in thousands of fantastic forms,
weaving, here a rich festoon round the summit of one blue hill, and
there spreading out a curtain of mellow tints before another.
The cool and invigorating morning breeze from the river, joined to the
effects of her last refreshing and uninterrupted sleep, completely
dispelled the shadowy illusions of the night, and she arose
comparatively cheerful and happy. She was frightened when she cast her
eyes upon the couch of the sufferer and found him awake, to think how
much and how long she had neglected him. There was one indefatigable and
untiring nurse watching by the bed-side, however! She had stolen in
unperceived during the night, and now sat upon an humble seat at the
foot of the couch; her eye as brilliant as if it was not subject to the
ordinary fatigues of humanity. The invalid too had slept soundly, and
awakened this morning refreshed and invigorated, and with all his
inflammatory symptoms much abated.
With all these cheering influences around her, Virginia's countenance
would have been soon clad in her wonted smiles, had it not been for an
unbidden scene which every now and then was conjured up before her
imagination, in which those near and dear to her were principal actors.
But these, painful and inexplicable as they seemed to her, were far from
being well defined in her own mind. For her life, she could not separate
the real evidences of her drowsy senses from the vivid images of her
imagination. She was firmly impressed, however, with the belief, that
some parts of them were true and real transactions! She firmly believed
that she had seen her mother and the Recluse during the night--not
together certainly, but near the same spot and in quick succession; and
she as firmly believed that she had seen the latter disable the
watch-dog, mount over the palisade, and hurry away in his boat. So much
was indeed true; her mother had actually visited the wounded youth
during the night, and she had actually walked in the garden, and the
Recluse was actually there, but no meeting took place, except in the
imagination of the worn-out maiden.
She entered the breakfast room with these various impressions, real and
imaginary, curiously mingled and confused, and bearing upon her own
countenance an expression of embarrassment not less surprising to her
mother, who was the first person she encountered. Twenty times she was
on the point of asking her mother whether she had walked in the garden
during the night, but as often a strange embarrassment came over her,
resulting partly from what she thought she had seen, and partly from
words dropped by the Recluse in her hearing--the whole confused,
unarranged and undigested--the latter perhaps being entirely
unrecognised by her consciousness, but still operating imperceptibly
upon her conduct. She was not a little astonished, therefore, when her
mother came directly to the point occupying her own thoughts at the
moment, saying, as she approached her, and affectionately smoothed down
the clustering ringlets upon her brow. "You slept upon your post last
night, my dear daughter? Nay--no excuses--there needs none. You wanted
rest, little less than he whom you watched."
"I did not sleep so soundly as you imagine, my dear mother; I saw you,
methought, either sleeping or waking, and to speak truly, I scarcely
know which state I was in;" and as she spoke she cast a searching glance
at her mother, but her countenance was calm and unruffled as she
replied, "You must have been sleeping, my dear Virginia, I stooped over
you and kissed your cheek as you slept."
"And did you not walk in the garden?"
"Yes I did! is it possible you saw me and spoke not?"
"I did see you, dear mother, but I was afraid to speak."
"Afraid to speak! Oh! you were afraid of waking Nathaniel?"
"No! no! I was frightened at the appearance of your companion in the
garden."
"My companion in the garden! my poor child, you must indeed have
dreamed; I had no companion in the garden."
Mr. Fairfax coming in at this moment, Virginia hastily took her chair at
the head of the table, and busily commenced her duties at the table, her
thoughts all the while occupied upon any thing else.
"What a strange being is that Recluse," said Mr. Fairfax, with apparent
_non chalance_, "have you ever seen him, my dear?" addressing his wife.
Virginia dropped the plate she was in the act of handing to her father
and was seized with, to her parents, the most unaccountable
embarrassment. She endeavoured to make some excuse in order, as she
supposed, to hide her mother's inevitable confusion. But the latter
calmly replied, "No, my dear, I have never seen him. I have always had
some curiosity to behold him, but now that he has proved himself such a
public benefactor, I shall not be satisfied till the wish is gratified.
Nathaniel had before excited us much by his account of him, but now I
suppose the whole city will be eager to pay him their respects."
Virginia stared at her mother during this speech in the most undisguised
astonishment, until she saw the calm serenity of her countenance--the
expression of truth and sincerity, which had never deceived her, so
strongly portrayed there, when she was again lost in bewilderment, which
lasted throughout the meal. Her parents, however, were too much engaged
with their own subject of discourse to observe her unusual abstraction,
and the meal therefore and the dialogue came to a close without any
farther development pertaining to our narrative.