replied young Inverawe, smiling. "You have given me your promise
that you will aid me, and you must now make the best of it. So come
away. Let me see how you can best manage to get me aboard. I must
not be seen by my father till we land in America, and then I shall
enter as a volunteer."
"What will your father say then?" demanded George Campbell.
"Why, that the blood of Inverawe was too strong in me to be
restrained," replied Donald. "Why man, it is just what he would have
done himself. He will be too proud of the spirit inherent in his
house, which has impelled me to this act, ever to think of blaming
me for it. Come, come, you have given me your word."
"I have given you my word," said George Campbell; "and I must honestly
tell you that I wish I had been less precipitate. But having given it,
I must in truth abide by it. It may be as you say, that your father
will have more pride than pain in this matter, when he comes to know
it. And then, as for myself, I shall be too happy to have you as my
companion in so long a voyage. But come, let us have some refreshment,
and then we can talk over the matter, and consider how your scheme
may be best carried into effect."
The thing was easily enough arranged. Many of the privates of the corps
were gentlemen who had attendants of their own. There was nothing
extraordinary, therefore, in an officer being so provided. A slight
disguise was employed to alter Donald's appearance, so that he might
escape detection from any one who had seen him before. Next morning he
went on board in charge of some of Ensign George Campbell's baggage,
and there he remained snugly, until the expedition sailed.
The Highland regiment embarked full of enthusiasm, and it
was ultimately landed at New York in the highest health and
spirits. Colonel Stewart of Garth, in his interesting work, tells
us, that they were caressed by all ranks and orders of men, but more
particularly by the Indians. Those inhabitants of the wilds flocked
from all quarters to see the strangers, as they were on their march to
Albany, and the resemblance which they discovered between the Celtic
dress and their own, inclining them to believe that they were of the
same extraction as themselves, they hailed them as brothers. Orders
were issued to treat the Indians kindly; but, although these were
most generally and most cheerfully obeyed, instances did occur, where
gross acts of impropriety and harshness were exhibited towards them,
and one of these I shall now mention.
A young Indian, of tall and handsome proportions, with that conscious
air of equality which they all possess, came up to a group of the
Highlanders who were resting themselves round a fire. An ignorant and
mischievous fellow of the party, who much more merited the name of
savage than him of the woods, having heated the end of the stalk of
a tobacco-pipe, handed it, full of tobacco, with much mock solemnity,
to the young Indian,--who, in ignorance of the trick, was just about
to take it into his hand, and to apply the heated end of it to his
lips, when a young Highlander who was present, dashed it to the
ground. The Indian started--looked tomahawks at the Highland youth,
and might have used one too, had not he, with his glove on, taken up
a portion of the broken pipe-stalk, and signing to the Indian to feel
it, made him sensible of the kind and friendly service he had rendered
him. The ferocious rage that lightened in the eye of the Red Man was
at once extinguished. A mild and benignant sunshine succeeded it. He
took the hand of the young Highlander, and pressed it to his heart;
and then, darting a look of dignified contempt upon the poor creature
who had been the author of this base and childish piece of knavery
against him, he slowly, solemnly, and silently withdrew.
Whilst Major Campbell of Inverawe was on the march, his noble
appearance seemed to make a strong impression on their Indian
followers. For his part, he was peculiarly struck with the fine figure
and graceful mien of a heroic-looking young warrior of the woods,
who seemed to keep near to him, as if earnestly intent on holding
intercourse with him. He encouraged his approach; and, conversing
with him, as well as the young man's imperfect knowledge of English
permitted him to do, he invited him, when they halted for refreshment,
to partake of his hasty meal. The young Eagle Eye--for such was the
Indian's name in his own tribe--carried a rifle; and Major Campbell
having put some questions to him as to his skill in using it, his
curiosity was so excited by all that the red man said of himself,
that he resolved to put it to the proof. Having loaded his own piece,
therefore, he proposed to his new Indian ally, to take a short circuit,
to look for game, during the brief time that the men were allowed for
rest, and one or two of the officers arose to accompany them. The Eagle
Eye moved on before them with that silence, and with that dignified
air, which marked the confidence which he had in his own powers. A walk
of a few hundred yards from their line of march, brought them into a
small open space of grassy ground, surrounded by thickets. Inverawe
stopped by chance to adjust the buckle of his bandoleer, when the Eagle
Eye, who happened at that moment to be some paces to the right of him,
sprang on him like a falcon, and threw him to the ground. As he was
in the very act of doing so, an arrow from the thicket in front of
them pierced the Indian's shoulder, whilst he, almost at the same
moment, levelled his rifle, fired it in the direction from whence
the arrow came, and, rushing forward with a yell, plunged among the
bushes. The whole of these circumstances passed so instantaneously,
that Major Campbell's brother officers were confounded. But having
assisted him to rise from the ground, they congratulated him on his
escape from a danger which neither he nor they could as yet very well
comprehend or explain. They were not long left in suspense however,
for the Eagle Eye soon reappeared, dragging from the thicket the
body of an Indian belonging to a hostile tribe. In an instant, the
Eagle Eye exercised his scalping-knife, and possessed himself of the
bloody trophy of his enemy. On examination, the ball from his rifle
was discovered to have perforated the brain through the forehead
of his victim. The mystery was explained. The young Eagle Eye had
suddenly descried the lurking foe, deeply nestled among the bushes,
and in the act of taking a deliberate aim at Inverawe. He had saved
the Major's life at the imminent risk of his own, and that quick
sight from which he had his name, had enabled his ready hand to take
prompt and deadly vengeance for the wound he had received in doing
so. The grateful Inverawe felt beggared in expressions of thanks to
his Indian preserver. He and his friends extracted the arrow from the
shoulder of the hero, poured spirits into the wound, and bound it up;
and then, as they hastened back to join the troops, he entreated the
Eagle Eye to tell him how he could recompense him.
"It is enough for me," replied the young Indian warrior, with dignified
gravity of manner, mingled with becoming modesty, and in his broken
language, the imperfections of which I shall not attempt to give you,
though I shall endeavour to preserve the finer peculiarities of its
poetical conceptions,--"it is enough for my youth to be suffered to
live within the shadow of a chief, broad as that which the great rock
spreads over the grassy surface of the Prairie. A chief among those
who have come over the waters of the great salt lake, in number like
that of the beavers of the mohawk, whose fathers were the brethren of
our fathers, though their hunting grounds are now so far apart. The
tribe of the Eagle Eye has been broken. The pride of the foes of the
Eagle Eye is swelled by a thousand scalps of his kindred. He is like a
solitary tree that has escaped from the whirlwind that has levelled the
forest. The Eagle Eye has no father--he is alone--make him thy son."
"You shall be as a son to me!" said Inverawe, deeply affected by the
many tender recollections of home which this appeal had awakened
in his mind. "You shall never want such fatherly protection as I
can give you. But I would fain have you ask some more instant and
direct recompense from me, for having thus so nobly saved my life at
the peril of your own. Is there nothing immediate that I can do for
you? Gratify me by asking something."
"The Eagle Eye will obey his father," replied the Indian, calmly. "One
of your pale-faced tribe has deeply insulted your red son."
"Ha!" exclaimed Inverawe, "find him out for me, and you shall forthwith
see him punished to your heart's content."
"The cunning and cowardly kite is beneath the vengeance of the Eagle,"
replied the Indian. "But there was a youth among your pale faces,
who stood the red man's friend. Him would I hold as my brother. Him
would I bring with me beneath the shelter of my father, the great
chief, that he may grow green and lofty under his protection."
"You shall search me out that youth," replied Inverawe, "and be
assured he shall find a friend in me for your sake."
The Eagle Eye, with great dignity, took the right hand of Inverawe
between both of his, and pressed it forcibly to his heart. When they
reached the ground where the men were halting, the major despatched a
non-commissioned officer with the Indian, to find out the young man,
and to bring him immediately before him. They soon reappeared with
him; and what was Inverawe's astonishment, when he lifted up his eyes,
and beheld--his son!
It was exactly as Donald had himself prognosticated. Inverawe's
heart was so filled with joy, in thus so unexpectedly beholding and
embracing his boy, at the very moment when he had been dreaming that he
was so far from him; and with pride in thinking of that brave spirit
which had impelled him to follow him to America; as well as with deep
gratification at the kind-hearted act which had thus caused him to be
so strangely brought before him, that no room was left within it for
those gloomy thoughts which might have otherwise arisen there. He
clasped him again and again to his bosom, whilst the Indian stood
by as a calm spectator of the scene, his countenance unmoved by the
feelings of sympathy that were working within him. Their first emotions
were no sooner over, than Inverawe hurried Donald away to introduce
him to the commanding-officer, and he was speedily admitted into the
corps as a gentleman volunteer, with the promise of the first vacant
ensigncy. It will easily be believed, that the strict ties which
were thus formed between the Campbells of Inverawe and the noble
Eagle Eye, were destined to increase every day. Under the direction
of his European friends, his wound was treated with the most tender
care, and he was soon perfectly cured. The Eagle Eye deeply felt the
kindness of his Highland father and brother; but, whether in happiness
or in pain, in joy or in grief, his lofty countenance never betrayed
those feelings which are so readily yielded to in civilized life. It
was in vain that they tried to induce him to adopt European habits,
or to domesticate him so far as to make him regularly participate
in those comforts, which are the fruits of civilization. He adhered
with pertinacity to his own customs, and looked down with barbarian
dignity upon those of his hosts, which so widely differed from them;
and when at any time he was induced to partake of them, it was with
a lofty native politeness, which seemed to indicate that he did so
more in compliment to those with whom he was associated, than from
any gratification he received in his own person.
Circumstances, with which they or their commanding-officer had nothing
to do, had kept the Highlanders altogether out of action during the
campaign of 1757, which had done so little for the glory of the British
arms. But in the autumn of this year, Lord Loudon was recalled, and
Lieutenant-General Abercromby succeeded to the command of the army. By
this time, the Highlanders had received an accession of strength,
by the arrival of seven hundred recruits from their native mountains;
and the corps now numbered no less than thirteen hundred men, of size,
figure, strength, and courage, not easily to be matched. The British
army in America now consisted altogether of above twenty-two thousand
regulars, and thirty thousand provincial troops, which last could
not be classed under that character. The hopes of all were high,
therefore, and active operations were immediately contemplated.
It was some little time before this, that Inverawe was spending an
evening, tête-a-tête, with his friend, Colonel Grant. The bottle was
passing slowly but regularly between them, when, by some unaccountable
change in their conversation, the subject of supernatural appearances
came to be introduced. Colonel Grant protested against all belief
in them. The recollection of the apparition which had three several
times visited Inverawe, came back upon his mind, in form and colours
so strong and forcible, that his cheeks grew pale, and a deep gloom
overspread his brow; so much so, indeed, that it did not escape the
observation of his friend. Colonel Grant rallied him, and asked him,
jocularly, if he had ever seen a ghost.
"I declare I could almost fancy that you saw some spectre at this
moment, Inverawe," said he.
"Where?--how?--what?" cried Inverawe, darting his eyes into every
corner of the room, with a degree of perturbation which the Colonel
had never seen him display before.
"Nay," said the Colonel, surprised into sudden gravity, "I cannot say
either where or what; but I must confess that you seem to me as much
disturbed at present as if you saw a spectre."
"I cannot see him here," said Inverawe, with an abstracted solemnity of
tone and manner, that greatly increased his friend's astonishment--"I
cannot see him here. This is not the place where I am fated to
behold him."
"Him!" exclaimed Colonel Grant, with growing anxiety--"him!--whom,
I pray you? For heaven's sake, tell me whom it is that you are fated
to behold!"
"Pardon me," replied Inverawe, at length in some degree collecting his
ideas, but speaking in a solemn tone. "An intense remembrance which
came suddenly upon me, regarding strange circumstances which happened
to myself, has betrayed me to talk of that which I would have rather
avoided, and--and which cannot interest you, incredulous as you have
declared yourself to be regarding all such supernatural visitations."
"Nay, you will pardon me, if you please," said the Colonel, eagerly;
"for you have so wonderfully excited my curiosity, that I must e'en
entreat you to satisfy me. What were these circumstances that happened
to you?--tell me, I conjure you."
"It is with great pain," said Inverawe gravely, "that I enter upon
them at all; for, although they still remain as fresh upon my mind as
if they had happened yesterday, I would fain bury them, not only from
all mankind, but from myself. And yet, perhaps, it may be as well that
you should know them,--for strange as they are in themselves, they
would yet be stranger in their fulfilment. Listen then attentively,
and I shall tell you every thing, even to the very minutest thought
that possessed me." And so he proceeded to narrate all that I have
already told.
"Strange!" said the Colonel, after devouring the narrative with
breathless attention--"wonderfully strange indeed! But these are airy
phantoms of the brain, which we must not--nay, cannot allow to weigh
with us, or to dwell upon our minds--else might we be bereft of reason
itself, by permitting them to get mastery over us, and so might we
unwittingly aid them in working out their own accomplishment. Help
yourself to another cup of wine, Inverawe, and then let us change
the subject for something of a more cheerful nature."
But all cheerfulness had fled from Inverawe for that night, and the
friends soon afterwards separated, to seek a repose, which he at
least in vain tried to court to his pillow for many hours; and when
sleep did come at last, the figure of the murdered man floated to
and fro in his dreams. But it did so, only the more to convince him
of the wonderful difference between such faint visions of slumber,
and that vivid spectral appearance, which had formerly so terribly and
deeply impressed itself upon his waking senses, in his own bed-chamber
at Inverawe.
The conversation I have just repeated, together with Inverawe's
narrative, remained strongly engraven upon the recollection of
Colonel Grant. The whole circumstances adhered to him so powerfully,
that he almost felt as if he too had seen the apparition, and heard
him utter his fatal words. He could not divest himself of a most
intense solicitude about his friend's future fate, which he could
in no manner of way explain to his own rational satisfaction. But
the active and bustling duties which now called for his attention,
in consequence of the approaching campaign, very speedily banished
all such thoughts from his mind.
It was not long after this, that Colonel Grant was summoned by General
Abercromby to meet the other commanding-officers of corps in a council
of war. The council lasted for many hours, and when the Colonel came
forth from it after it had broken up, he was observed to have a cloud
upon his brow, and a certain air of serious anxiety about him, which
was very much augmented by his meeting with his friend Inverawe.
"Well," said Inverawe cheerfully to him, as Colonel Grant joined him
and his other officers at mess. "I hope you have good news for us,
Colonel, and that at last you can tell us that we are to march out
of quarters on some piece of active service."
"We are to march to-morrow," replied the Colonel, with unusual gravity.
"Whither?" cried Inverawe eagerly. "Whither, if I may be permitted
to ask?"
"We march to Lake George," replied the Colonel, with a very manifest
disposition to taciturnity.
"Pardon me," said Inverawe; "perhaps I push my questions
indiscreetly,--if so, forgive me."
"No," replied the Colonel, with assumed carelessness. "I have nothing
which the good of the service requires me to conceal from you,
Inverawe, nor, indeed, from any one here present. We march for Lake
George, as I have already said; and there we are to be embarked in
boats to proceed up the lake. Our object," added he, in a deeper and
somewhat melancholy tone,--"our object is to attack Fort Defiance."
"What sort of a place is it?" demanded one of the officers.
"A strong place, as I understand from the engineer who reconnoitred
it," replied the Colonel. "But these American fastnesses are so beset
with forests, that no one can well judge of them till he is fairly
within their entrenchments."
"Then let us pledge this cup to our speedy possession of
them!" exclaimed Inverawe joyously.
"With all my heart," said the Colonel, filling his to the brim,--but
with a solemnity of countenance that sorted but ill with the cheerful
shouts of mutual interchange of congratulation, that arose around
the table. "With all my heart, I drink the toast, and may we all be
there alive to drink a cup of thanks for our success."
"Father," cried young Inverawe, in his keenness overlooking the
Colonel's ominous addition to the toast; "now father, these Frenchmen
shall see what stuff Highlanders are made of!"
"They shall, my boy," replied Inverawe.--"Come, then, as I am master
of the revels to-night, I call on you all to fill a brimmer.--I give
you Highlanders shoulder to shoulder!"
"Hurrah!--hurrah!--hurrah!" vociferated the whole officers present.
This was but the commencement of an evening of more than usual
jollity. The spirits of all were up,--and of all, none were so
high in glee as those of Inverawe and his son. There was something,
indeed, which might have been almost said to have been strangely wild
in the unwonted revelry of the father. Colonel Grant was the only
individual present, who did not seem to keep pace with the rest. The
flask circulated with more than ordinary rapidity and frequency,--but
as the mirth which it created rose higher and higher, and especially
with Inverawe and young Donald, Colonel Grant's thoughts seemed to sink
deeper and deeper into gloomy speculation. If any one chanced so far
to forget his own hilarity for a moment, as to observe this strange
anomaly in his commanding-officer, it is probable that he attributed
it to those cares, which must necessarily arise in the mind of one,
with whom so much of the responsibility of the approaching contest
must rest. He retired from the festive board at an early hour, leaving
the others, who kept up their night's enjoyment as long as they could
do so with decency. Inverawe and his son sat with them to the last;
and all agreed, at parting, that they had been the life and soul of
that evening's revel.
The next morning, the officers of the Highlanders were early astir,
to get their men into order of march. Major Campbell of Inverawe was
the most active man among them. General Abercromby's force upon this
occasion consisted of about six thousand regulars, and nine thousand
provincial troops, together with a small train of artillery. Before
they moved off, the General rode along the line of troops, giving his
directions to the field officers of each battalion in succession. When
he came up to the Highlanders, he courteously accosted Colonel Grant
and Major Campbell.
"Gentlemen," said he, "we shall have toughish work of it; for though
the enemy have not had time to complete their defences, yet, I am
told, that, even in its present state, there are few places which
are naturally likely to be of more troublesome entrance than we
shall find----"
"Than we shall find Fort Defiance," somewhat strangely interrupted
Colonel Grant, with an emphasis which not a little surprised Inverawe,
as coming from a man usually so polite.--"Aye, I have heard, indeed,
that Fort Defiance is naturally a strong place, General. But what
will not Highlanders accomplish!--You may rely on it you shall have
no cause to complain of the Black Watch!"
"I have no fear that I shall," replied the General, betraying
no symptom of having taken offence at the Colonel's apparently
unaccountable interruption. "I know that both you and your men will
do your duty against Fort Defiance, or any other fort in America."
"Fort Defiance is a bold name, General," said Major Campbell, laughing.
"It is a bold name," said the Colonel gravely.
"It is a vaunting name enough," replied the General.--"Yet I
hope to meet you both alive and merry as conquerors within its
works. Meanwhile, gentlemen, pray get your Highlanders under march
for the boats with as little delay as possible."
Not another word but the necessary words of command were now
uttered. The regiment moved off steadily, and the embarkation on Lake
George was speedily effected, with the most perfect regularity and
order, on the 5th of July, 1758.