NIGHT
That terrible cadence preluded pandemonium, the hush of horror that
followed it being broken by one deep and awful roar of voices as the
insurgents, red, white, and black, joined forces and swept down upon the
devoted house.
"They will try the front first," quoth the master from his loophole.
"Steady, men, until I give the word! Now, let them have it with a
wannion!"
The muskets cracked and a louder yell arose from without.
"Two," said the master composedly, receiving a fresh musket from his
daughter's hand.
"They will try to dash in the door, your Honor!" cried the overseer from
his post of observation. "They have the trunk of a pine with them."
"Let them come," said his master grimly. "They will find a warm
welcome."
A double line of savages raised the great trunk from the ground and
advanced with it at a run, yelling as they came. They had reached the
steps leading up into the porch when from the loopholed door and window
within there poured a deadly fire. Three fell, but the battering-ram
came on and struck against the door with tremendous force. The door
held, and but twelve of the twenty who had entered the porch returned to
their fellows.
"They won't try that again," said the master with a short laugh.
"They are dividing," cried the overseer. "They will surround the house.
Every man to his post!"
Around the corner of the house to the moonlit sward beneath the great
room windows swept a tide of Indians and negroes with Luiz Sebastian and
the two Ricahecrian brothers at their head. A few of the Indians had
guns; the slaves were armed with axes, scythes, knives--the plunder of
the tool house--or with jagged pieces of old iron, or with oars taken
from the boats and broken into dreadful clubs. They came on with a din
that was terrific, the savages from the eastern hemisphere howling like
the beasts within their native forests, those from the western uttering
at intervals their sterner, more appalling cry.
Within the great room Sir Charles, languidly graceful as ever, stood
beside the small square opening in the door that led down into the
garden, and fired again and again into the mob without. He fought with
an air as became the fine gentleman of the period, but underneath the
elaborate carelessness of demeanor was a cool precision of action. The
hand that so nonchalantly brushed away the grains of powder from his
white ruffles, was steady enough at the trigger; the eye that turned
from the red death without to cast languishing glances at his mistress
where she stood directing the women, was quick to note the minutest
change in savage tactics. He jested as he fought--once he drew a
tremulous wail of laughter from Mistress Lettice's lips.
A bullet sung through the aperture and grazed his arm. "The first
blood," he said, with a laugh.
"There's a man killed in the master's room and two in the hall!" cried
young Whittington, from his post at the far window.
"And Margery," said Patricia, coming forward with the kerchief from her
neck in her hand. "Let me bind up your wound, cousin."
He held out his arm with a smile and a few low, caressing words, and she
wound the lawn that was not whiter than her face about it; then moved
back to where the women worked, loading and passing the muskets to the
men who kept up an incessant fire upon the assailants.
The whole house filled with smoke through which the figures of the
besieged loomed large and indistinct, and the noise--the crack of the
muskets, the loud commands and oaths, the scream of a frightened woman
or child, the groans of the wounded, of whom there were now many--became
deafening. The attack was now general, and the men on each face had
their hands full. Without was horrible clamor, oaths, shots, yells,
crashing blows against door and window; within was noise and confusion,
and fear, stern and controlled, but blanching the lip of the men and
showing in the agony of the women's eyes.
Sir Charles, turning for a fresh musket, after a highly successful shot
as the yell outside had testified, found Patricia at his elbow. "There
are very few bullets left, cousin, and this is all the powder."
The baronet drew in his breath. "Peste! we are unfortunate! One of you
men go beg, borrow, or steal from the others."
Landless left his loophole in charge of the Muggletonian and went
swiftly into the hall, where he found the master, his wig off, his shirt
torn, his face and hands blackened with powder, now firing with his own
hand, now shouting encouragement to the panting men.
"Powder and shot!" he cried. "God help us! are you out? Not a grain or a
bullet can we spare, for if we keep them not from the great door we are
dead men!"
Landless went to the overseer. "Two more rounds and _we_ are out," said
Woodson coolly, firing as he spoke.
"There is no sign that they have had enough," said Landless, as the
clamor outside redoubled, and a man fell heavily back from his loophole
with a bullet through his brain.
"Enough! Damn them, no!" said the overseer. "When they've had our lives
they will have had enough--not before! They're paying dearly for their
fun though."
Landless went back to the great room with empty hands.
"They are all in like case," he said, in answer to Sir Charles's lifted
eyebrows.
The other shrugged his shoulders. "What will be, will be. If we could
have saved our fire--but we had to keep them from the door! Get to your
post, and we will hold them back as long as may be. Then a short passage
to eternal nothingness!"
"A short passage!" muttered the Muggletonian at Landless's ear. "Well
for those who find that at the hands of the uncircumcised heathen.
Eternal nothingness! The fool hath said in his heart There is no
God--and he is being dashed headlong upon the judgment bar of the God
who saith, I will repay. Cursed be the Atheist! May he find the passage,
fiery though it be, as nothing to the flames of the avenging God; may
he go to his appointed place where the worm dieth not and the fire is
not quenched; may--"
The trunk of a tree was dashed against the door with a force that shook
the room. "Dey're comin'!" shouted Regulus, who stood behind Sir
Charles, and raised the axe with which he was armed above his head.
Another crash and the wood splintered. Through the ragged opening was
thrust a red hand--the axe, wielded by Regulus's powerful arms, flashed
downwards, and the hand, severed at the wrist, fell with a dull thud
upon the floor. A yell from without, and another blow, widening the
opening. Landless fired his last bullet into the crowd, and clubbing his
musket sprang to the door, in front of which were now massed all the
defenders of that side of the house. Sir Charles threw down his useless
musket and drew his sword. "Cousin," he said over his shoulder to
Patricia, standing white and erect in the midst of the cowering women,
"you had best betake yourselves to the hall, and that quickly. This will
be no ladies' bower presently."
"Come," said Patricia to the women, and led the way towards the door
leading into the hall. As she passed Sir Charles she put out her hand,
and he caught it, sunk to his knee, and pressed his lips upon it.
"I am going to my father," she said steadily, "and I shall pray him as
he loves me to pass his sword through my heart when they break into the
hall. So it is farewell, cousin."
She drew her hand away and moved towards the door, passing Landless so
closely that her rich skirts brushed him, but without a change in the
white calm of her face. The terrified women had pressed before her into
the hall, only Betty Carrington keeping by her side. Her foot was upon
the threshold, when with loud screams they surged back into the great
room. A thundering crash in the hall was followed by a babel of oaths,
screams, triumphant yells. The voice of the master made itself heard
above all the hubbub, "Charles, Woodson, Haines, they are upon us!
Defend the women to the last, as you are men, all of you!"
The splintered plank between them in the great room and the murderers
without was dashed inwards. An Indian, naked, horribly painted,
brandishing a tomahawk, sprang through the opening, and Sir Charles ran
him through with his sword. A second followed, and Landless dashed his
brains out with the butt of his musket. A third, and the Muggletonian
struck at him through the wildly flaring light and the drifting smoke
wreaths, and missed his aim. The knife of the savage gleamed high in
air, then, descending, stuck quivering in the breast of the fanatic. He
sunk to his knees, flung up his skeleton arms, and raised his scarred
face, into which a light that was not of earth had come, then cried in a
loud voice, "Turn ye, turn ye to the Stronghold, ye prisoners of Hope!"
His eyes closed and he fell forward upon his face, his blood making the
ground slippery about the feet of the others.
Landless closed with the Indian, finally slew him, and turned to behold
a stream, impetuous, not to be withstood, of Indians and negroes pouring
through the doorway. From the hall came the clash of weapons and a most
terrific din, and presently there burst into the great room the Colonel,
Laramore, Woodson, and Haines, followed by some fifteen men--making,
with the five in the great room, all that were left of the defenders of
Verney Manor.