Pale lights on Cadez' rocks were seen,
And midnight voices heard to moan,
'Twas even said the blasted oak,
Convulsive heaved a hollow groan.
And to this day the peasant still,
With cautious fear avoids the ground,
In each wild branch a spectre sees
And trembles at each rising ground.
THE SPIRIT'S BLASTED TREE.
Dauntrees, after his unmannerly escape from the credulous landlady,
hastened with his two companions, at a swinging gate, along the beach
to the fort, where they found Garret Weasel waiting for them in a state
of eager expectation.
"Is the dame likely to be angry, Captain?" were the publican's first
words.--"Does she suspect us for a frisk to-night? Adsheartlikens, it
is a perilous adventure for the morrow! You shall bear the burden of
that reckoning, Master Captain."
"I left Mistress Dorothy groping for a secret at Hoodman-blind,"
replied the Captain, laughing. "She has found it before now, and by my
computation is in the prettiest hurricane that ever brought a frown
upon a woman's brow. She would bless the four quarters of thee, Garret,
if thou shouldst return home to-night, with a blessing that would leave
a scorch-mark on thee for the rest of thy days. I shouldn't wonder
presently to hear her feet pattering on the gravel of the beach in full
pursuit of us--dark as it is: I have left her in a mood to tempt any
unheard of danger for revenge. So, let us be away upon our errand. You
have the eatables safe and the wine sound, worthy Weasel?--Nicholas,"
he said, speaking to the Lieutenant--"are our horses saddled?"
"They are at the post on the other side of the parade," replied the
Lieutenant.
"Alack!" exclaimed Weasel--"Alack for these pranks! Here will be a
week's repentance. But a fig for conclusions!--in for a penny, in for a
pound, masters. I have the basket well stored and in good keeping. It
will be discreet to mount quickly--I will not answer against the dame's
rapping at the gate to-night: she is a woman of spirit and valiant in
her anger."
"Then let us be up and away," said the Captain, who was busily
bestowing a pair of pistols in his belt and suspending his sword across
his body.
"A cutlass and pistols for me," said the publican, as he selected his
weapons from several at hand.
Arnold and Pamesack were each provided with a carbine, when Dauntrees,
throwing his cloak across his shoulders, led the way to the horses,
where the party having mounted, sallied through the gate of the fort at
a gallop.
Their road lay around the head of St. Inigoe's creek, and soon became
entangled in dark, woody ravines and steep acclivities which presented,
at this hour, no small interruption to their progress. Pamesack, on a
slouching pony, his legs dangling within a foot of the ground, led the
way with an almost instinctive knowledge of his intricate path, which
might have defied a darker night. The stars shining through a crisp and
cloudless atmosphere, enabled the party to discern the profile of the
tree tops, and disclosed to them, at intervals, the track of this
solitary road with sufficient distinctness to prevent their entirely
losing it.
They had journeyed for more than two hours in the depths of the forest
before they approached the inlet of St. Jerome's. Dauntrees had
beguiled the time by tales of former adventures, and now and then by
sallies of humour provoked by the dubious valour of the innkeeper,--for
Weasel, although addicted to the vanity of exhibiting himself in the
light of a swashing, cut-and-thrust comrade in an emprise of peril, was
nevertheless unable, this night, to suppress the involuntary confession
of a lurking faint-heartedness at the result of the present venture.
This inward misgiving showed itself in his increased garrulity and in
the exaggerated tone of his vauntings of what he had done in sundry
emergencies of hazard, as well as of what he had made up his mind to do
on the present occasion if they should be so fortunate as to encounter
any peculiarly severe stress of fortune. Upon such topics the party
grew jovial and Dauntrees laughed at the top of his voice.
"The vintner's old roystering courses would make us lose our road in
downright blindness from laughing," he said, as checking himself in one
of these out-breaks, he reined up his horse. "Where are we, Pamesack? I
surely hear the stroke of the tide upon the beach;--are we so near St.
Jerome's, or have we missed the track and struck the bay shore short of
our aim?"
"The she-fox does not run to her den where she has left her young, by a
track more sure than mine to-night," replied the guide:--"it is the
wave striking upon the sand at the head of the inlet: you may see the
stars on the water through yonder wood."
"Pamesack says true," added Arnold. "He has found his way better than a
hound."
A piece of cleared land, or old field, a few acres in width, lay
between the travellers and the water which began now to glimmer on
their sight through a fringe of wood that grew upon the margin of the
creek or inlet, and the fresh breeze showed that the broad expanse of
the Chesapeake was at no great distance.
"The Wizard's Chapel," said Dauntrees, "by my reckoning then, should be
within a mile of this spot. It were a good point of soldiership to push
forward a vanguard. That duty, Garret, will best comport with your
mad-cap humour--there may be pith in it: so, onward, man, until you are
challenged by some out-post of the Foul One--we will tarry here for
your report. In the mean time, leave us your hamper of provender. Come,
man of cold iron, be alert--thy stomach is growing restive for a deed
of valour."
"You are a man trained to pike and musquetoon," replied the publican;
"and have the skill to set a company, as men commonly fight with men.
But I humbly opine, Captain, that our venture to-night stands in no
need of vanguard, patrol or picquet. We have unearthly things to
wrestle with, and do not strive according to the usages of the wars. I
would not be slow to do your bidding, but that I know good may not come
of it: in my poor judgment we should creep towards the Chapel together,
not parting company. I will stand by thee, Captain, with a sharp eye
and ready hand."
"Thy teeth will betray us, Master Vintner, even at a score rods from
the enemy," said Dauntrees: "they chatter so rudely that thy nether jaw
is in danger. If thou art cold, man, button up thy coat."
"Of a verity it is a cold night, and my coat is none of the thickest,"
replied Weasel with an increasing shudder.
"I understand you, Garret," responded the Captain with a laugh; "we
must drink. So, friends, to the green grass, and fasten your horses to
the trees whilst we warm up the liver of our forlorn vintner with a
cup. We can all take that physic."
This command was obeyed by the immediate dismounting of the party and
their attack upon one of the flasks in the basket.
"It has a rare smack for a frosty night," said Dauntrees as he quaffed
a third and fourth cup. "When I was in Tours I visited the abbey of
Marmoustier, and there drank a veritable potation from the huge tun
which the blessed St. Martin himself filled, by squeezing a single
cluster of grapes. It has the repute of being the kindliest wine in all
Christendom for the invigorating of those who are called to do battle
with the devil. The monks of the abbey have ever found it a most deadly
weapon against Satan. And truly, Master Weasel, if I did not know that
this wine was of the breed of the islands, I should take it to be a
dripping from the holy tun I spoke of:--it hath the like virtue of
defiance of Beelzebub. So, drink--drink again, worthy purveyor and
valiant adjutant!"
"What is that?" exclaimed Weasel, taking the cup from his lips before
he had finished the contents. "There is something far off like the howl
of a dog and yet more devilish I should say--did ye not hear it,
masters? I pray heaven there be no evil warning in this:--I am
cold--still cold, Captain Dauntrees."
"Tush, it is the ringing of your own ears, Garret, or it may be, like
enough, some devil's cur that scents our footsteps. Make yourself a
fire, and whilst you grow warm by that grosser element we will take a
range, for a brief space, round the Chapel. You shall guard the forage
till we return."
"That is well thought of," replied the innkeeper quickly. "Light and
heat will both be useful in our onslaught:--while you three advance
towards the shore I will keep a look out here; for there is no knowing
what devices the enemy may have a-foot to take us by surprise."
Some little time was spent in kindling a fire, which had no sooner
begun to blaze than Dauntrees, with the Ranger and the Indian, set
forth on their reconnoissance of the Chapel, leaving Weasel assured
that he was rendering important service in guarding the provender and
comforting himself by the blazing fagots.
They walked briskly across the open ground towards the water, and as
they now approached the spot which common rumour had invested with so
many terrors, even these bold adventurers themselves were not without
some misgivings. The universal belief in supernatural agencies in the
concerns of mankind, which distinguished the era of this narrative, was
sufficient to infuse a certain share of apprehension into the minds of
the stoutest men, and it was hardly reckoned to derogate from the
courage of a tried soldier that he should quail in spirit before the
dreadful presence of the Powers of Darkness. Dauntrees had an
undoubting faith in the malignant influences which were said to hover
about the Wizard's Chapel, and nothing but the pride and subordination
of his profession could have impelled him to visit this spot at an hour
when its mysterious and mischievous inhabitants were supposed to be
endued with their fullest power to harm. The Ranger was not less keenly
impressed with the same feelings, whilst Pamesack, credulous and
superstitious as all of his tribe, was, like them, endowed with that
deeply-imprinted fatalism, which taught him to suppress his emotions,
and which rendered him seemingly indifferent to whatever issue awaited
his enterprise.
"By my troth, Arnold," said Dauntrees, as they strode forward,
"although we jest at yonder white-livered vintner, this matter we have
in hand might excuse an ague in a stouter man. I care not to confess
that the love I bear his Lordship, together with some punctilio of
duty, is the only argument that might bring me here to-night. I would
rather stand a score pikes in an onset with my single hand, where the
business is with flesh and blood, than buffet with a single imp of the
Wizard. I have heard of over-bold men being smote by the evil eye of a
beldam hag; and I once knew a man of unquenchable gaiety suddenly made
mute and melancholy by the weight of a blow dealt by a hand which was
not to be seen: the remainder of his life was spent in sorrowful
penance. They say these spirits are quick to punish rashness."
"As Lord Charles commands we must do his bidding," replied the
forester. "When the business in hand must be done, I never stop to
think of the danger of it. If we should not get back, Lord Charles has
as good men to fill our places. I have been scared more than once by
these night devils, till my hair lifted my cap with the fright, but I
never lost my wits so far as not to strike or to run at the good
season."
"_Laet lopen die lopen luste_, as we used to say in Holland," returned
the Captain. "I am an old rover and have had my share of goblins, and
never flinched to sulphur or brimstone, whether projected by the breath
of a devil or a culverin. I am not to be scared now from my duty by any
of Paul Kelpy's brood, though I say again I like not this strife with
shadows. His Lordship shall not say we failed in our outlook. I did
purpose, before we set out, to talk with Father Pierre concerning this
matter, but Garret's wine and his wife together put it out of my head."
"The holy father would only have told you," replied Arnold, "to keep a
Latin prayer in your head and Master Weasel's wine and wife both out of
it."
"So he would, Arnold, and it would have gone more against the grain
than a hair-shirt penance. I have scarce a tag of a prayer in my
memory, not even a line of the Fac Salve; and I have moreover a most
special need for a flask of that vintage of Teneriffe on a chilly
night;--and then, as you yourself was a witness, I had most pressing
occasion to practise a deceit upon Mistress Dorothy. The Priest's
counsel would have been wasted words--that's true: so we were fain to
do our errand to-night without the aid of the church.--Why do you halt,
Pamesack?"
"I hear the tread of a foot," replied the Indian.
"A deer stalking on the shore of the creek," said Dauntrees.
"More like the foot of a man," returned Pamesack, in a lowered voice;
"we should talk less to make our way safe.--There is the growl of a
dog."
Arnold now called the attention of his companions to the outlines of a
low hut which was barely discernible through the wood where an open
space brought the angle of the roof into relief against the water of
the creek, and as they approached near enough to examine the little
structure more minutely, they were saluted by the surly bark of a deep
throated dog, fiercely redoubled. At the same time the sound of
receding footsteps was distinctly audible.
"Who dwells here?" inquired Dauntrees, striking the door with the hilt
of his sword.
There was no answer, and the door gave way to the thrust and flew wide
open. The apartment was tenantless. A few coals of fire gleaming from
the embers, and a low bench furnished with a blanket, rendered it
obvious that this solitary abode had been but recently deserted by its
possessor. A hasty survey of the hut, which was at first fiercely
disputed by the dog--a cross-grained and sturdy mastiff--until a sharp
blow from a staff which the forester bestowed sent him growling from
the premises, satisfied the explorers that so far, at least, they had
encountered nothing supernatural; and without further delay or comment
upon this incident they took their course along the margin of St.
Jerome's Creek. After a short interval, the beating of the waves upon
the beach informed them that they had reached the neighbourhood of the
shore of the Chesapeake. Here a halt and an attentive examination of
the locality made them aware that they stoodu upon a bank, which
descended somewhat abruptly to the level of the beach that lay some
fifty yards or more beyond them. In the dim starlight they were able to
trace the profile of a low but capacious tenement which stood almost on
the tide mark.
"It is the Chapel!" said Dauntrees, in an involuntary whisper as he
touched the Ranger's arm.
"It is Paul Kelpy's house, all the same as I have known it these twenty
years:--a silent and wicked house," whispered Arnold, in reply.
"And a pretty spot for the Devil to lurk in," said Dauntrees, resuming
his ordinary tone.
"Hold, Captain," interrupted the Ranger, "no foul words so near the
Haunted House. The good saints be above us!" he added, crossing himself
and muttering a short prayer.
"Follow me down the bank," said Dauntrees, in a low but resolute voice;
"but first look to your carbines that they be charged and primed. I
will break in the door of this ungodly den and ransack its corners
before I leave it. Holy St. Michael, the Archfiend is in the Chapel,
and warns us away!" he exclaimed, as suddenly a flash of crimson light
illuminated every window of the building. "It is the same warning given
to Burton and myself once before. Stand your ground, comrades; we shall
be beset by these ministers of sin!"
As the flashes of this lurid light were thrice repeated, Pamesack was
seen on the edge of the bank fixed like a statue, with foot and arm
extended, looking with a stern gaze towards this appalling spectacle.
Arnold recoiled a pace and brought his hand across his eyes, and was
revealed in this posture as he exclaimed in his marked Dutch accent,
"The fisherman's blood is turned to fire: we had best go no further,
masters." Dauntrees had advanced half-way down the bank, and the glare
disclosed him as suddenly arrested in his career; his sword gleamed
above his head whilst his short cloak was drawn by the motion of his
left arm under his chin; and his broad beaver, pistolled belt, and wide
boots, now tinged with the preternatural light, gave to his figure that
rich effect which painters are pleased to copy.
"I saw Satan's imps within the chamber," exclaimed the Captain. "As I
would the blessed Martyrs be with us, I saw the very servitors of the
Fiend! They are many and mischievous, and shall be defied though we
battle with the Prince of the Air. What ho, bastards of Beelzebub, I
defy thee! in the name of our patron, the holy and blessed St.
Ignatius, I defy thee!"
There was a deeper darkness as Dauntrees rushed almost to the door of
the house with his sword in his hand. Again the same deep flashes of
fire illumed the windows, and two or three figures in grotesque
costume, with strange unearthly faces, were seen, for the instant,
within. Dauntrees retreated a few steps nearer to his companions, and
drawing a pistol, held it ready for instant use. It was discharged at
the windows with the next flash of the light, and the report was
followed by a hoarse and yelling laugh from the tenants of the house.
"Once more I defy thee!" shouted the Captain, with a loud voice; "and
in the name of our holy church, and by the order of the Lord
Proprietary, I demand what do you here with these hellish rites?"
The answer was returned in a still louder laugh, and in a shot fired at
the challenger, the momentary light of the explosion revealing, as
Dauntrees imagined, a cloaked figure presenting a harquebuss through
the window.
"Protect yourselves, friends!" he exclaimed, "with such shelter as you
may find," at the same time retreating to the cover of an oak which
stood upon the bank. "These demons show weapons like our own. I will
e'en ply the trade with thee, accursed spirits!" he added, as he
discharged a second pistol.
The Ranger and Pamesack had already taken shelter, and their carbines
were also levelled and fired. Some two or three shots were returned
from the house accompanied with the same rude laugh which attended the
first onset, and the scene, for a moment, would have been thought
rather to resemble the assault and defence of mortal foes, than the
strife of men with intangible goblins, but that there were mixed with
it other accompaniments altogether unlike the circumstance of mortal
battle; a loud heavy sound as of rolling thunder, echoed from the
interior of the chapel, and in the glimpses of light the antic figures
within were discerned as dancing with strange and preposterous motions.
"It avails us not to contend against these fiends," said Dauntrees.
"They are enough to maintain their post against us, even if they fought
with human implements. Our task is accomplished by gaining sight of the
chapel and its inmates. We may certify what we have seen to his
Lordship; so, masters, move warily and quickly rearward. Ay, laugh
again, you juggling minions of the devil!" he said, as a hoarse shout
of exultation resounded from the house, when the assailants commenced
their retreat. "Put on the shape of men and we may deal with you!
Forward, Arnold; if we tarry, our retreat may be vexed with dangers
against which we are not provided."
"I hope this is the last time we shall visit this devil's den," said
Arnold, as he obeyed the Captain's injunction, and moved, as rapidly as
his long stride would enable him to walk, from the scene of their late
assault.
Whilst these events were passing, I turn back to the publican, who was
left a full mile in the rear to guard the baggage and keep up the
fire,--a post, as he described it, of no small danger.
It was with a mistrusting conscience, as to the propriety of his
separation from his companions, that Garret, when he had leisure for
reflection, set himself to scanning his deportment at this juncture.
His chief scruple had reference to the point of view in which Dauntrees
and Arnold de la Grange would hereafter represent this incident: would
they set it down, as Weasel hoped they might, to the account of a
proper and soldier-like disposition of the forces, which required a
detachment to defend a weak point? or would they not attribute his
hanging back to a want of courage, which his conscience whispered was
not altogether so wide of the truth, but which he had hoped to conceal
by his martial tone of bravado? There are many brave men, he reflected,
who have a constitutional objection to fighting in the dark, and he was
rather inclined to rank himself in that class. "In the dark," said he,
as he sat down by the fire, with his hands locked across his knees,
which were drawn up before him in grasshopper angles, and looked
steadily at the blazing brushwood; "in the dark a man cannot see--that
stands to reason. And it makes a great difference, let me tell you,
masters, when you can't see your enemy. A brave man, by nature,
requires light. And, besides, what sort of an enemy do we fight?
Hobgoblins--not mortal men--for I would stand up to any mortal man in
Christendom; ay, and with odds against me. I have done it before now.
But these whirring and whizzing ghosts and their cronies, that fly
about one's ears like cats, and purr and mew like bats--what am I
saying? no, fly like bats and mew like cats--one may cut and carve at
them with his blade with no more wound than a boy's wooden truncheon
makes upon a south wind. Besides, the Captain, who is all in all in his
command, hath set me here to watch, which, as it were, was a forbidding
of me to go onward. He must be obeyed: a good soldier disputes no
order, although it go against his stomach. It was the Captain's wish
that I should keep strict watch and ward here on the skirt of the wood;
otherwise, I should have followed him--and with stout heart and step, I
warrant you! But the Captain hath a soldierly sagacity in his cautions;
holding this spot, as he wisely hath done, to be an open point of
danger, an inlet, as it were, to circumvent his march, and therefore
straightly to be looked to. Well, let the world wag, and the upshot be
what it may, here are comforts at hand, and I will not stint to use
them."
Saying this the self-satisfied martialist opened the basket and solaced
his appetite with a slice of pasty and a draught of wine.
"I will now perform a turn of duty," he continued, after his
refreshment; and accordingly drawing his hanger, he set forth to make a
short circuit into the open field. He proceeded with becoming caution
on this perilous venture, looking slyly at every weed or bush which lay
in his route, shuddering with a chilly fear at the sound of his own
footsteps, and especially scanning, with a disturbed glance, the
vibrations of his long and lean shadow which was sharply cast by the
fire across the level ground. He had wandered some fifty paces into the
field, on this valorous outlook, when he bethought him that he had
ventured far enough, and might now return, deeming it more safe to be
near the fire and the horses than out upon a lonesome plain, which he
believed to be infested by witches and their kindred broods. He had
scarcely set his face towards his original post when an apparition came
upon his sight that filled him with horror, and caused his hair to rise
like bristles. This was the real bodily form and proportions of such a
spectre as might be supposed to prefer such a spot--an old woman in a
loose and ragged robe, who was seen gliding up to the burning fagots
with a billet of pine in her hand, which she lighted at the fire and
then waved above her head as she advanced into the field towards the
innkeeper. Weasel's tongue clave to the roof of his mouth, and his
teeth chattered audibly against each other, his knees smote together,
and his eyes glanced steadfastly upon the phantom. For a moment he lost
the power of utterance or motion, and when these began to return, as
the hag drew nearer, his impulse was to fly; but his bewildered
reflection came to his aid and suggested greater perils in advance: he
therefore stood stock-still.
"Heaven have mercy upon me!--the Lord have mercy upon me, a sinner!" he
ejaculated; "I am alone, and the enemy has come upon me."
"Watcher of the night," said a voice, in a shrill note, "draw nigh.
What do you seek on the wold?"
"Tetra grammaton, Ahaseel--in the name of the Holy Evangels, spare me!"
muttered the innkeeper, fruitlessly ransacking his memory for some
charm against witches, and stammering out an incoherent jargon.
"Abracadabra--spare me, excellent and worthy dame! I seek no hurt to
thee. I am old, mother, too old and with too many sins of my own to
account for, to wish harm to any one, much less to the good woman of
this wold. Oh Lord, oh Lord! why was I seduced upon this fool's
errand?"
"Come nigh, old man, when I speak to you. Why do you loiter there?"
shouted the witch, as she stood erect some twenty paces in front of the
publican and beckoned him with her blazing fagot. "What dost thou
mutter?"
"I but sported with my shadow, mother," replied Weasel, with a
tremulous attempt at a laugh, as he approached the questioner, in an
ill assumed effort at composure and cheerfulness. "I was fain to divert
myself with an antic, till some friends of mine, who left me but a
moment since, returned. How goes the night with you dame?"
"Merrily," replied the hag, as she set up a shrill laugh which more
resembled a scream, "merrily; I cannot but laugh to find the henpecked
vintner of St. Mary's at this time of night within the sound of the
tide at the Black Chapel. I know your errand, old chapman of cheap
liquors, and why you have brought your cronies. You pretend to be a
liegeman of his Lordship, and you travel all night to cheat him of five
shillings. You will lie on the morrow with as sad a face as there is in
the hundred. I know you."
"You know all things, worthy dame, and I were a fool to keep a secret
from you. What new commodity, honest mistress, shall I find with Rob?
The port is alive with a rumour of the Olive Branch; I would be early
with the Cripple. Ha, ha!" he added, with a fearful laugh, "thou seest
I am stirring in my trade."
"Garret Weasel," said the beldam, "you may take it for a favour, past
your deservings, that Rob will see thee alone at his hut even in day
time: but it is as much as your life is worth to bring your huff-cap
brawlers to St. Jerome's at midnight. It is not lawful ground for thee,
much less for the hot-brained fools who bear you company. Who showed
them the path to my cabin, that I must be driven out at this hour?"
"Worthy mistress, indeed I know not. I am ignorant of what you say!"
"They will call themselves friends to the Chapel: but we have no
friends to the Chapel amongst living men. The Chapel belongs to the
dead and the tormentors of the dead. So follow your cronies and command
them back. I warn you to follow, and bring them back, as you would save
them from harm. Ha! look you, it is come already!" she exclaimed,
raising her torch in the air, as the flashes from the Haunted House
illumined the horizon; "the seekers have roused our sentries, and there
shall be angry buffets to the back of it!" At this moment the first
shot was heard. "Friends, forsooth!" she shouted at the top of her
voice: "friends, are ye? there is the token that ye are known to be
false liars. Wo to the fool that plants his foot before the Chapel!
Stand there, Garret Weasel: I must away; follow me but a step--raise
thy head to look after my path, and I will strike thee blind and turn
thee into a drivelling idiot for the rest of thy days. Remember----"
In uttering this threat the figure disappeared; Garret knew not how, as
he strictly obeyed the parting injunction, and his horrors were greatly
increased by the report of the several shots which now reached his ear
from the direction of the Black House.
He had hardly recovered himself sufficiently to wander back to the
fire, before Dauntrees, Arnold, and Pamesack arrived, evidently
flurried by the scene through which they had passed, as well as by the
rapidity of their retreat.
"Some wine, Garret! some wine, old master of the tap!" was Dauntrees'
salutation; "and whilst we regale as briefly as we may, have thou our
horses loose from the trees; we must mount and away. To the horses,
Garret! We will help ourselves."
"I pray you, Master Captain," inquired the publican, having now
regained his self-possession, "what speed at the Chapel? Oh, an we have
all had a night of it! Sharp encounters all round, masters! I can tell
you a tale, I warrant you."
"Stop not to prate now," interrupted Dauntrees, in a voice choked by
the huge mouthful of the pasty he was devouring; "we shall discourse as
we ride. That flask, Arnold, I must have another draught e'er we mount,
and then, friends, to horse as quickly as you may; we may be followed;
we may have ghost, devil, and man of flesh, all three, at our heels."
"I have had store of them, I can tell you--ghosts and devils without
number," said Weasel, as he brought the horses forward.
"You shall be tried by an inquest of both, for your life, if you tarry
another instant," interposed the Captain, as he sprang into his saddle.
"What! are we set upon, comrades?" cried out the vintner, manfully, as
he rose to his horse's back, and pricked forward until he got between
Pamesack and Arnold. "Are we set upon? Let us halt and give them an
accolado; we are enough for them, I warrant you! Oh, but it had well
nigh been a bloody night," he continued, as the whole party trotted
briskly from the ground. "We had work to do, masters, and may tell of
it to-morrow. Good Pamesack, take this basket from me, it impedes my
motion in these bushes. Master Arnold, as we must ride here in single
files, let me get before thee: I would speak with the Captain. Who
should I see, Captain Dauntrees," continued the publican, after these
arrangements were made, and he had thrust himself into the middle of
the line of march, and all now proceeded at a slackened pace, "but that
most notorious and abominable hag, the woman of Warrington--Kate, who
lives, as every body knows, on the Cliffs. She must needs come
trundling down before me, astride a broomstick, with a black cat upon
her shoulder, and sail up to the fire which I had left, for a space, to
make a round on my watch--for you may be sworn a strict watch I made of
it, going even out of my way to explore the more hidden and perilous
lurking-places where one might suspect an enemy to lie. So, whilst I
was gone on this quest, she whips in and seats herself by the fire,
with a whole score of devils at their antics around her. Then up I
come, naturally surprised at this audacity, and question them, partly
in soldier-wise, showing my sword ready to make good my speech, and
partly by adjuration, which soon puts me the whole bevy to flight,
leaving Kate of Warrington at mercy: and there I constrained her to
divulge the secrets of the Chapel. She said there had been devilish
work under that roof, and would be again; when pop, and bang, and
slash, and crash, I heard the outbreak, and saw the devil's lights that
were flashed. I could hold no longer parley with the hag, but was just
moving off at full speed to your relief, determined in this need to
desert my post--which, in my impatience to lend you a hand, I could not
help--when I heard your footfall coming back, and so I was fain to bide
your coming."
"A well conceived sally of soldiership," said Dauntrees, "and spoken
with a cavalier spirit, Master Garret. It hath truth upon the face of
it: I believe every word. It shall serve you a good turn with his
Lordship. What does Kate of Warrington in this neighbourhood? She
travels far on her broomstick--unless, indeed, what seems likely, she
has taken her quarters in the cabin we disturbed to-night. These crows
will be near their carrion."
By degrees the party, as they pursued their homeward journey, grew
drowsy. The publican had lost all his garrulity, and nodded upon his
horse. Arnold and Pamesack rode in silence, until Dauntrees, as if
waking up from a reverie, said--
"Well, friends, we return from no barren mission to-night. His Lordship
may have some satisfaction in our story; particularly in the vintner's.
We shall be ready to report to his Lordship by noon, and after that we
shall hasten to quiet our Dame Dorothy. The night is far spent: I
should take it, Arnold, to be past three o'clock, by the rising of the
moon. At peep of day we shall be snug upon our pallets, with no loss of
relish for a sleep which will have been well earned."
As the Captain continued to urge his journey, which he did with the
glee that waits upon a safe deliverance from an exploit of hazard, he
turned his face upwards to the bright orb which threw a cheerful light
over the scenery of the road-side, and in the distance flung a
reflection, as of burnished silver, over the broad surface of St.
Mary's river, as seen from the height which the travellers were now
descending. Not more than two miles of their route remained to be
achieved, when the Captain broke forth with an old song of that day, in
a voice which would not have discredited a professor:
"The moon, the moon, the jolly moon,
And a jolly old queen is she!
She hath stroll'd o' nights this thousand year,
With ever the best of company.
Sing, Hic and hoc sumus nocturno,
Huzza for the jolly old moon!"
"Why, Garret, vintner, art asleep, man?" inquired the Captain. "Why
dost thou not join in the burden?"
"To your hand, Captain," exclaimed Weasel, rousing himself and piping
forth the chorus--
"Hic and hoc sumus nocturno,
Huzza for the jolly old moon!"
which he did not fail to repeat at the top of his voice at each return.
Dauntrees proceeded:
"She trails a royal following,
And a merry mad court doth keep,
With her chirping boys that walk i' the shade,
And wake when the bailiff's asleep.
Sing, Hic and hoc sumus nocturno,
Huzza for the jolly old moon!
"Master Owl he is her chancellor,
And the bat is his serving-man;
They tell no tales of what they see,
But wink when we turn up the can.
Sing, Hic and hoc sumus nocturno,
Huzza for the jolly old moon!
"Her chorister is Goodman Frog,
With a glow-worm for his link;
And all who would make court to her,
Are fain, good faith! to drink.
Sing, Hic and hoc sumus nocturno,
Huzza for the jolly old moon!"
This ditty was scarcely concluded--for it was spun out with several
noisy repetitions of the chorus--before the troop reined up at the gate
of the Fort. The drowsy sentinel undid the bolt at the Captain's
summons, and, in a very short space, the wearied adventurers were
stretched in the enjoyment of that most satisfactory of physical
comforts, the deep sleep of tired men.