“He looks abroad, and soon appears,
O'er Horncliffe-hill, a plump of spears,
Beneath a pennon gay.”
_Marmion._
The sharp sounds of the supper-bell were ringing along the gallery, as
Miss Plowden gained the gloomy passage; and she quickened her steps to
join the ladies, in order that no further suspicions might be excited
by her absence.--Alice Dunscombe was already proceeding to the dining
parlor, as Katherine passed through the door of the drawing-room; but
Miss Howard had loitered behind, and was met by her cousin alone.
“You have then been so daring as to venture, Katherine!” exclaimed
Cecilia.
“I have,” returned the other, throwing herself into a chair, to recover
her agitation--“I have, Cecilia; and I have met Barnstable, who will
soon be in the abbey, and its master.”
The blood which had rushed to the face of Cecilia on first seeing
her cousin now retreated to her heart, leaving every part of her fine
countenance of the whiteness of her polished temples, as she said:
“And we are to have a night of blood!”
“We are to have a night of freedom, Miss Howard; freedom to you, and to
me: to Andrew Merry, to Griffith and to his companion!”
“What freedom more than we now enjoy Katherine, is needed by two young
women? Think you I can remain silent, and see my uncle betrayed before
my eyes? his life perhaps endangered!”
“Your own life and person will not be held more sacred, Cecilia Howard,
than that of your uncle. If you will condemn Griffith to a prison,
and perhaps to a gibbet, betray Barnstable, as you have threatened--an
opportunity will not be wanting at the supper-table, whither I shall
lead the way, since the mistress of the house appears to forget her
duty.”
Katherine arose, and with a firm step and proud eye she moved along the
gallery to the room where their presence was expected by the rest of
the family. Cecilia followed in silence, and the whole party immediately
took their several places at the board.
The first few minutes were passed in the usual attentions of the
gentlemen to the ladies, and the ordinary civilities of the table;
during which Katherine had so far regained the equanimity of her
feelings, as to commence a watchful scrutiny of the manners and looks
of her guardian and Borroughcliffe, in which she determined to persevere
until the eventful hour when she was to expect Barnstable should arrive.
Colonel Howard had, however, so far got the command of himself, as no
longer to betray his former abstraction. In its place Katherine
fancied, at moments, that she could discover a settled look of conscious
security, mingled a little with an expression of severe determination;
such as, in her earlier days, she had learned to dread as sure
indications of the indignant, but upright, justice of an honorable mind.
Borroughcliffe, on the other hand, was cool, polite, and as attentive
to the viands as usual, with the alarming exception of discovering much
less devotion to the Pride of the Vineyards than he commonly manifested
on such occasions. In this manner the meal passed by, and the cloth
was removed, though the ladies appeared willing to retain their places
longer than was customary. Colonel Howard, filling up the glasses
of Alice Dunscombe and himself, passed the bottle to the recruiting
officer, and, with a sort of effort that was intended to rouse the
dormant cheerfulness of his guests, cried:
“Come Borroughcliffe, the ruby lips of your neighbors would be still
more beautiful, were they moistened with this rich cordial, and that,
too, accompanied by some loyal sentiment. Miss Alice is ever ready to
express her fealty to her sovereign; in her name, I can give the health
of his most sacred majesty, with defeat and death to all traitors!”
“If the prayers of an humble subject, and one of a sex that has but
little need to mingle in the turmoil of the world, and that has less
right to pretend to understand the subtleties of statesmen, can much
avail a high and mighty prince like him who sits on the throne, then
will he never know temporal evil,” returned Alice, meekly; “but I cannot
wish death to any one, not even to my enemies, if any I have, and much
less to a people who are the children of the same family with myself.”
“Children of the same family!” the colonel repeated, slowly, and with a
bitterness of manner that did not fail to attract the painful interest
of Katherine: “children of the same family! Ay! even as Absalom was the
child of David, or as Judas was of the family of the holy Apostles! But
let it pass unpledged--let it pass. The accursed spirit of rebellion
has invaded my dwelling, and I no longer know where to find one of my
household that has not been assailed by its malign influence!”
“Assailed I may have been among others,” returned Alice; “but not
corrupted, if purity, in this instance, consists in loyalty--”
“What sound is that?” interrupted the colonel, with startling
suddenness. “Was it not the crash of some violence, Captain
Borroughcliffe?”
“It may have been one of my rascals who has met with a downfall in
passing from the festive board--where you know I regale them to-night,
in honor of our success--to his blanket,” returned the captain, with
admirable indifference; “or it may be the very spirit of whom you have
spoken so freely, my host, that has taken umbrage at your remarks, and
is passing from the hospitable walls of St. Ruth into the open air,
without submitting to the small trouble of ascertaining the position of
doors. In the latter case there may be some dozen perches or so of wall
to replace in the morning.”
The colonel, who had risen, glanced his eyes uneasily from the speaker
to the door, and was evidently but little disposed to enter into the
pleasantry of his guest.
“There are unusual noises, Captain Borroughcliffe, in the grounds of
the abbey, if not in the building itself,” he said advancing with a fine
military air from the table to the centre of the room, “and as master
of the mansion I will inquire who it is that thus unseasonably disturbs
these domains. If as friends, they shall have welcome, though their
visit be unexpected; and if enemies, they shall also meet with such a
reception as will become an old soldier!”
“No, no,” cried Cecilia, entirely thrown off her guard by the manner
and language of the veteran and rushing into his arms. “Go not out, my
uncle; go not into the terrible fray, my kind, my good uncle! you
are old, you have already done more than your duty; why should you be
exposed to danger?”
“The girl is mad with terror, Borroughcliffe,” cried the colonel,
bending his glistening eyes fondly on his niece, “and you will have to
furnish my good-for-nothing, gouty old person with a corporal's guard,
to watch my nightcap, or the silly child will have an uneasy pillow,
till the sun rises once more. But you do not stir, sir?”
“Why should I?” cried the captain; “Miss Plowden yet deigns to keep me
company, and it is not in the nature of one of the --th to desert his
bottle and his standard at the same moment. For, to a true soldier, the
smiles of a lady are as imposing in the parlor as the presence of his
colors in the field.”
“I continue undisturbed, Captain Borroughcliffe,” said Katherine,
“because I have not been an inhabitant, for so many months, of St. Ruth,
and not learned to know the tunes which the wind can play among its
chimneys and pointed roofs. The noise which has taken Colonel Howard
from his seat, and which has so unnecessarily alarmed my cousin Cicely,
is nothing but the Æolian harp of the abbey sounding a double bass.”
The captain fastened on her composed countenance, while she was
speaking, a look of open admiration, that brought, though tardily,
the color more deeply to her cheeks: and he answered with something
extremely equivocal, both in his emphasis and his air:
“I have avowed my allegiance, and I will abide by it. So long as Miss
Plowden will deign to bestow her company, so long will she find me among
her most faithful and persevering attendants, come who may, or what
will.”
“You compel me to retire,” returned Katherine, rising, “whatever may
have been my gracious intentions in the matter; for even female vanity
must crimson, at an adoration so profound as that which can chain
Captain Borroughcliffe to a supper-table! As your alarm has now
dissipated, my cousin, will you lead the way? Miss Alice and myself
attend you.”
“But not into the paddock, surely, Miss Plowden,” said the captain;
“the door, the key of which you have just turned, communicates with the
vestibule. This is the passage to the drawing-room.”
The lady faintly laughed, as if in derision of her own forgetfulness,
while she bowed her acknowledgment, and moved towards the proper
passage: she observed:
“The madness of fear has assailed some, I believe, who have been able to
affect a better disguise than Miss Howard.”
“Is it the fear of present danger, or of that which is in reserve?”
asked the captain; “but, as you have stipulated so generously in behalf
of my worthy host here, and of one, also, who shall be nameless, because
he has not deserved such a favor at your hands, your safety shall be one
of my especial duties in these times of peril.”
“There is peril, then!” exclaimed Cecilia; “your looks announce it.
Captain Borroughcliffe! The changing countenance of my cousin tells me
that my fears are too true!”
The soldier had now risen also, and, casting aside the air of badinage,
which he so much delighted in, he came forward into the centre of the
apartment, with the manner of one who felt it was time to be serious.
“A soldier is ever in peril, when the enemies of his king are at hand,
Miss Howard,” he answered: “and that such is now the case, Miss
Plowden can testify, if she will. But you are the allies of both
parties--retire, then, to your own apartments, and await the result of
the struggle which is at hand.”
“You speak of danger and hidden perils,” said Alice Dunscombe; “know ye
aught that justifies your fears?”
“I know all,” Borroughcliffe coolly replied.
“All!” exclaimed Katherine.
“All!” echoed Alice, in tones of horror, “If, then, you know all, you
must know his desperate courage, and powerful hand, when opposed--yield
in quiet, and he will not harm ye. Believe me, believe one who knows
his very nature, that no lamb can be more gentle than he would be with
unresisting women; nor any lion more fierce, with his enemies!”
“As we happen not to be of the feminine gender,” returned
Borroughcliffe, with an air somewhat splenetic, “we must abide the fury
of the king of beasts. His paw is, even now, at the outer door; and, if
my orders have been obeyed, his entrance will be yet easier than that
of the wolf to the respectable female ancestor of the little
Red-riding-hood.”
“Stay your hand for one single moment!” said Katherine, breathless with
interest; “you are the master of my secret, Captain Borroughcliffe, and
bloodshed may be the consequence. I can yet go forward, and, perhaps,
save many inestimable lives. Pledge to me your honor, that they who come
hither as your enemies, this night, shall depart in peace, and I will
pledge to you my life for the safety of the abbey.”
“Oh! hear her, and shed not human blood!” cried Cecilia.
A loud crash interrupted further speech, and the sounds of heavy
footsteps were heard in the adjoining room, as if many men were
alighting on its floor, in quick succession. Borroughcliffe drew back,
with great coolness, to the opposite side of the large apartment, and
took a sheathed sword from the table where it had been placed; at the
same moment the door was burst open, and Barnstable entered alone, but
heavily armed.
“You are my prisoners, gentlemen,” said the sailor, as he advanced;
“resistance is useless, and without it you shall receive favor. Ha, Miss
Plowden! my advice was that you should not be present at this scene.”
“Barnstable, we are betrayed!” cried the agitated Katherine. “But it
is not yet too late. Blood has not yet been spilt, and you can retire,
without that dreadful alternative, with honor. Go, then, delay not
another moment; for should the soldiers of Captain Borroughcliffe come
to the rescue of their commander, the abbey would be a scene of horror!”
“Go you away; go, Katherine,” said her lover, with impatience; “this is
no place for such as you. But, Captain Borroughcliffe, if such be your
name, you must perceive that resistance is in vain. I have ten good
pikes in this outer room, in twenty better hands, and it will be madness
to fight against such odds.”
“Show me your strength,” said the captain, “that I may take counsel with
mine honor.”
“Your honor shall be appeased, my brave soldier, for such is your
bearing, though your livery is my aversion, and your cause most unholy!
Heave ahead, boys! but hold your hands for orders.”
The party of fierce-looking sailors whom Barnstable led, on receiving
this order, rushed into the room in a medley; but, notwithstanding the
surly glances, and savage characters of their dress and equipments, they
struck no blow, nor committed any act of hostility. The ladies shrank
back appalled, as this terrific little band took possession of the hall;
and even Borroughcliffe was seen to fall back towards a door which, in
some measure, covered his retreat. The confusion of this sudden
movement had not yet subsided, when sounds of strife were heard rapidly
approaching from a distant part of the building, and presently one of
the numerous doors of the apartment was violently opened, when two of
the garrison of the abbey rushed into the hall, vigorously pressed by
twice their number of seamen, seconded by Griffith, Manual, and Merry,
who were armed with such weapons of offence as had presented themselves
to their hands, at their unexpected liberation. There was a movement on
the part of the seamen who were already in possession of the room, that
threatened instant death to the fugitives; but Barnstable beat down
their pikes with his sword, and sternly ordered them to fall back.
Surprise produced the same pacific result among the combatants; and as
the soldiers hastily sought a refuge behind their own officers, and
the released captives, with their liberators, joined the body of their
friends, the quiet of the hall, which had been so rudely interrupted,
was soon restored.
“You see, sir,” said Barnstable, after grasping the hands of Griffith
and Manual in a warm and cordial pressure, “that all my plans have
succeeded. Your sleeping guard are closely watched in their barracks
by one party; our officers are released and your sentinels cut off by
another; while, with a third, I hold the centre of the abbey, and am,
substantially, in possession of your own person. In consideration,
therefore, of what is due to humanity, and to the presence of these
ladies, let there be no struggle! I shall impose no difficult terms, nor
any long imprisonment.”
The recruiting officer manifested a composure throughout the whole scene
that would have excited some uneasiness in his invaders, had there been
opportunity for minute observation; but his countenance now gradually
assumed an appearance of anxiety, and his head was frequently turned, as
if listening for further and more important interruptions. He answered,
however, to this appeal with his ordinary deliberation.
“You speak of conquests, sir, before they are achieved. My venerable
host and myself are not so defenceless as you may chose to imagine.”
While speaking he threw aside the cloth of a side table, from beneath
which the colonel and himself were instantly armed with a brace of
pistols each. “Here are the death-warrants of four of your party, and
these brave fellows at my back can account for two more. I believe, my
transatlantic warrior, that we are now something in the condition
of Cortes and the Mexicans, when the former overran part of your
continent--I being Cortes, armed with artificial thunder and lightning,
and you the Indians, with nothing but your pikes and sling, and such
other antediluvian inventions. Shipwrecks and seawater are fatal dampers
of gunpowder!”
“That we are unprovided with firearms, I will not deny,” said
Barnstable; “but we are men who are used, from infancy, to depend on our
good right arms for life and safety, and we know how to use them, though
we should even grapple with death! As for the trifles in your hands,
gentlemen, you are not to suppose that men who are trained to look in at
one end of a thirty-two pounder, loaded with grape, while the match is
put to the other, will so much as wink at their report, though you
fired them by fifties. What say you, boys, is a pistol a weapon to repel
boarders?”
The discordant and disdainful laughs that burst from the restrained
seamen were a sufficient pledge of their indifference to so trifling
a danger. Borroughcliffe noted their hardened boldness, and taking the
supper bell, which was lying near him, he rang it, for a minute, with
great violence. The heavy tread of trained footsteps soon followed this
extraordinary summons; and presently the several doors of the apartment
were opened, and filled with armed soldiers, wearing the livery of the
English crown.
“If you hold these smaller weapons in such vast contempt,” said the
recruiting officer, when he perceived that his men had possessed
themselves of all the avenues, “it is in my power to try the virtue of
some more formidable. After this exhibition of my strength, gentlemen, I
presume you cannot hesitate to submit as prisoners of war.”
The seamen had been formed in something like military array, by the
assiduity of Manual, during the preceding dialogue; and as the different
doors had discovered fresh accessions to the strength of the enemy,
the marine industriously offered new fronts, until the small party
was completely arranged in a hollow square, that might have proved
formidable in a charge, bristled as it was with the deadly pikes of the
Ariel.
“Here has been some mistake,” said Griffith, after glancing his eye
at the formidable array of the soldiers; “I take precedence of Mr.
Barnstable, and I shall propose to you, Captain Borroughcliffe, terms
that may remove this scene of strife from the dwelling of Colonel
Howard.”
“The dwelling of Colonel Howard,” cried the veteran, “is the dwelling
of his king, or of the meanest servant of the crown! so, Borroughcliffe,
spare not the traitors on my behalf; accept no other terms than such
unconditional submission as is meet to exact from the rebellious
subjects of the anointed of the Lord.”
While Griffith spoke, Barnstable folded his arms, in affected composure,
and glanced his eyes expressively at the shivering Katherine, who, with
her companions, still continued agitated spectators of all that passed,
chained to the spot by their apprehensions; but to this formidable
denunciation of the master of the abbey he deemed proper to reply:
“Now, by every hope I have of sleeping again on salt water, old
gentleman if it were not for the presence of these three trembling
females, I should feel tempted to dispute, at once, the title of his
majesty. You may make such a covenant as you will with Mr. Griffith,
but if it contain one syllable about submission to your king, or of any
other allegiance than that which I owe to the Continental Congress, and
the State of Massachusetts, you may as well consider the terms violated
at once; for not an article of such an agreement will I consider as
binding on me, or on any that shall choose to follow me as leader.”
“Here are but two leaders, Mr. Barnstable,” interrupted the haughty
Griffith; “the one of the enemy, and the other of the arms of America.
Captain Borroughclffe, to you, as the former, I address myself. The
great objects of the contest which now unhappily divides England from
her ancient colonies can be, in no degree, affected by the events of
this night; while, on the other hand, by a rigid adherence to military
notions, much private, evil and deep domestic calamity must follow any
struggle in such a place. We have but to speak, sir, and these rude men,
who already stand impatiently handling their instruments of death, will
aim them at each other's lives; and who can say that he shall be able to
stay their hands when and where he will. I know you to be a soldier,
and that you are not yet to learn how much easier it is to stimulate to
blood than to glut vengeance.”
Borroughcliffe, unused to the admission of violent emotions, and secure
in the superiority of his own party, both in numbers and equipments,
heard him with the coolest composure to the end, and then answered in
his customary manner:
“I honor your logic, sir. Your premises are indisputable, and the
conclusion most obvious. Commit then these worthy tars to the good
keeping of honest Drill, who will see their famished natures revived by
divers eatables and a due proportion of suitable fluids; while we can
discuss the manner in which you are to return to the colonies, around a
bottle of liquor, which my friend Manual there assures me has come from
the sunny side of the island of Madeira, to be drunk in a bleak corner
of that of Britain. By my palate! but the rascals brighten at the
thought. They know by instinct, sir, that a shipwrecked mariner is a
fitter companion to a ration of beef and a pot of porter than to such
unsightly things as bayonets and boarding-pikes!”
“Trifle, not unseasonably!” exclaimed the impatient young sailor. “You
have the odds in numbers, but whether it will avail you much in a deadly
struggle of hand to hand, is a question you must put to your prudence:
we stand not here to ask terms, but to grant them. You must be brief,
sir; for the time is wasting while we delay.”
“I have offered to you the means of obtaining, in perfection, the
enjoyment of the three most ancient of the numerous family of the
arts--eating, drinking, and sleeping! What more do you require?”
“That you order these men, who fill the pass to the outer door, to fall
back and give us room. I would take, in peace, these armed men from
before the eyes of those who are unused to such sights. Before you
oppose this demand, think how easily these hardy fellows could make a
way for themselves, against your divided force.”
“Your companion, the experienced Captain Manual, will tell you that such
a manoeuvre would be very unmilitary with a superior body in your rear!”
“I have not leisure, sir, for this folly,” cried the indignant Griffith.
“Do you refuse us an unmolested retreat from the abbey?”
“I do.”
Griffith turned with a look of extreme emotion to the ladies, and
beckoned to them to retire, unable to give utterance to his wishes in
words. After a moment of deep silence, however, he once more addressed
Borroughcliffe in the tones of conciliation.
“If Manual and myself will return to our prisons, and submit to the will
of your government,” he said, “can the rest of the party return to the
frigate unmolested?”
“They cannot,” replied the soldier, who, perceiving that the crisis
approached, was gradually losing his artificial deportment in the
interest of the moment. “You, and all others who willingly invade the
peace of these realms, must abide the issue!”
“Then God protect the innocent and defend the right!”
“Amen.”
“Give way, villains!” cried Griffith, facing the party that held the
outer door; “give way, or you shall be riddled with our pikes!”
“Show them your muzzles, men!” shouted Borroughcliffe, “but pull no
trigger till they advance.”
There was an instant of bustle and preparation, in which the rattling
of firearms blended with the suppressed execrations and threats of the
intended combatants; and Cecilia and Katherine had both covered their
faces to veil the horrid sight that was momentarily expected, when
Alice Dunscombe advanced, boldly, between the points of the threatening
weapons, and spoke in a voice that stayed the hands that were already
uplifted.
“Hear me, men! if men ye be, and not demons, thirsting for each other's
blood; though ye walk abroad in the semblance of Him who died that ye
might be elevated to the rank of angels! Call ye this war? Is this the
glory that is made to warm the hearts of even silly and confiding women?
Is the peace of families to be destroyed to gratify your wicked lust for
conquest, and is life to be taken in vain, in order that ye may boast
of the foul deed in your wicked revels? Fall back, then, ye British
soldiers! if ye be worthy of that name, and give passage to a woman; and
remember that the first shot that is fired will be buried in her bosom!”
The men, thus enjoined, shrank before her commanding mien, and a way was
made for her exit through that very door which Griffith had, in vain,
solicited might be cleared for himself and party. But Alice, instead
of advancing, appeared to have suddenly lost the use of those faculties
which had already effected so much. Her figure seemed rooted to the spot
where she had spoken, and her eyes were fixed in a settled gaze, as if
dwelling on some horrid object, While she yet stood in this attitude
of unconscious helplessness, the doorway became again darkened, and the
figure of the Pilot was seen on its threshold, clad, as usual, in the
humble vestments of his profession, but heavily armed with the weapons
of naval war. For an instant, he stood a silent spectator of the scene;
and then advanced calmly, but with searching eyes, into the centre of
the apartment.