The information thus received did not disquiet me. After the momentary
reflection that it might be awkward to meet a madman, out of bounds,
upon the highway, I quickly dismissed the matter from my mind. I had
no room for any but pleasant meditations. The fair Susannah was now
uppermost in my dreaming fancies, and, reversing the grasp upon my
whip, the ivory handle of which, lined with an ounce or two of lead,
seemed to me a sufficiently effective weapon for the worst of dangers,
I bade my friendly blacksmith farewell, and dashed forward upon the
high road. A smart canter soon took me out of the settlement, and,
once in the woods, I recommended myself with all the happy facility of
youth, to its most pleasant and beguiling imaginings. I suppose I had
ridden a mile or more--the story of the bedlamite was gone utterly from
my thought--when a sudden turn in the road showed me a person, also
mounted, and coming towards me at an easy trot, some twenty-five or
thirty yards distant. There was nothing remarkable in his appearance.
He was a plain farmer or woodman, clothed in ample homespun, and riding
a short heavy chunk of an animal, that had just been taken from the
plough. The rider was a spare, long-legged person, probably thirty
years or thereabouts. He looked innocent enough, wearing that simple,
open-mouthed sort of countenance, the owner of which, we assume, at a
glance, will never set any neighbouring stream on fire. He belonged
evidently to a class as humble as he was simple,--but I had been
brought up in a school which taught me that the claims of poverty were
quite as urgent upon courtesy as those of wealth. Accordingly, as we
neared each other, I prepared to bestow upon him the usual civil
recognition of the highway. What is it Scott says--I am not sure that
I quote him rightly--
"When men in distant forests meet,
They pass not as in peaceful street."
And, with the best of good humour, I rounded my lips into a smile, and
got ready my salutation. To account somewhat for its effect when
uttered, I must premise that my own personal appearance, at this time,
was rather wild and impressive. My face was full of laughter and my
manners of buoyancy. My hair was very long, and fell in masses upon my
shoulder, unrestrained by the cap which I habitually wore, and which,
as I was riding under heavy shade trees, was grasped in my hand along
with my riding whip. As the stranger drew nigh, the arm was extended,
cap and whip lifted in air, and with free, generous lungs, I
shouted--"good morning, my friend,--how wags the world with you to-day?"
The effect of this address was prodigious. The fellow gave no
answer,--not a word, not a syllable--not the slightest nod of the
head,--_mais, tout au contraire_. But for the dilating of his amazed
pupils, and the dropping of the lower jaw, his features might have been
chiselled out of stone. They wore an expression amounting to
consternation, and I could see that he caught up his bridle with
increased alertness, bent himself to the saddle, half drew up his
horse, and then, as if suddenly resolved, edged him off, as closely as
the woods would allow, to the opposite side of the road. The
undergrowth was too thick to allow of his going into the wood at the
spot where we encountered, or he certainly would have done so.
Somewhat surprised at this, I said something, I cannot now recollect
what, the effect of which was even more impressive upon him than my
former speech. The heads of our horses were now nearly parallel--the
road was an ordinary wagon track, say twelve feet wide--I could have
brushed him with my cap as we passed, and, waving it still aloft, he
seemed to fancy that such was my intention,--for, inclining his whole
body on the off side of his nag, as the Comanche does when his aim is
to send an arrow at his enemy beneath his neck--his heels thrown back,
though spurless, were made to belabour with the most surprising
rapidity the flanks of his drowsy animal. And, not without some
effect. The creature dashed first into a trot, then into a canter, and
finally into a gallop, which, as I was bound one way and he the other,
soon threw a considerable space between us.
"The fellow's mad!" was my reflection and speech, as, wheeling my horse
half about, I could see him looking backward, and driving his heels
still into the sides of his reluctant hack. The next moment gave me a
solution of the matter. The simple countryman had heard of the
bedlamite from Hamilton jail. My bare head, the long hair flying in
the wind, my buoyancy of manner, and the hearty, and, perhaps, novel
form of salutation with which I addressed him, had satisfied him that I
was the person. As the thought struck me, I resolved to play the game
out, and, with a restless love of levity which has been too frequently
my error, I put the whip over my horse's neck, and sent him forward in
pursuit. My nag was a fine one, and very soon the space was lessened
between me and the chase. As he heard the footfalls behind, the
frightened fugitive redoubled his exertions. He laid himself to it,
his heels paddling in the sides of his donkey with redoubled industry.
And thus I kept him for a good mile, until the first houses of the
settlement grew visible in the distance. I then once more turned upon
the path to the Owens', laughing merrily at the rare chase, and the
undisguised consternation of the countryman. The story afforded ample
merriment to my fair friends Emmeline and Susannah. "It was so
ridiculous that one of my appearance should be taken for a madman. The
silly fellow deserved the scare." On these points we were all
perfectly agreed. That night we spent charmingly. The company did not
separate till near one o'clock. We had fun and fiddles. I danced by
turns with the twins, and more than once with a Miss Gridley, a very
pretty girl, who was present. Squire Owens was in the best of humours,
and, no ways loth, I was made to stay all night.