Nearly midway between Elliott's and Hartley's points, both of which are
remarkable for the low and sandy nature of the soil, the land, raising
gradually towards the centre, assumes a more healthy and arable aspect;
and, on its highest elevation, stood a snug, well cultivated property,
called Girty's farm. From this height, crowned on its extreme summit by
a neat and commodious farm-house, the far reaching sands, forming the
points above-named, are distinctly visible. Immediately in the rear, and
commencing beyond the orchard which surrounded the house, stretched
forestward, and to a considerable distance, a tract of rich and
cultivated soil, separated into strips by zig-zag enclosures, and
offering to the eye of the traveller, in appropriate season, the several
species of American produce, such as Indian corn, buck wheat, &c., with
here and there a few patches of indifferent tobacco. Thus far of the
property, a more minute description of which is unimportant. The
proprietors of this neat little place were a father and son, to the
latter of whom was consigned, for reasons which will appear presently,
the sole management of the farm. Of him we will merely say that, at the
period of which we treat, he was a fine, strapping, dark curley-haired,
white-teethed, red-lipped, broad-shouldered, and altogether comely and
gentle tempered youth, of about twenty, who had, although unconsciously,
monopolized the affections of almost every well favored maiden of his
class, for miles around him--advantages of nature from which had
resulted a union with one of the prettiest of the fair competitors for
connubial happiness.
The father we may not dismiss so hastily. He was--but, before attempting
the portraiture of his character, we will, in the best of our ability,
sketch his person.
Let the reader fancy an old man of about sixty, possessed of that
comfortable amptitude of person which is the result rather of a mind at
peace with itself, and undisturbed by worldly care, than of any marked
indulgence in indolent habits. Let him next invest this comfortable
person in a sort of Oxford grey, coarse capote, or frock, of capacious
size, tied closely round the waist with one of those-parti-colored
worsted sashes, we have, on a former occasion described as peculiar to
the bourgeois settlers of the country. Next, suffering the eye to
descend on and admire the rotund and fleshy thigh, let it drop gradually
to the stout and muscular legs, which he must invest in a pair of
closely fitting leathern trowsers, the wide-seamed edges of which are
slit into innumerable small strips, much after the fashion of the
American Indian. When he has completed the survey of the lower
extremities, to which he must not fail to subjoin a foot of
proportionate dimensions, tightly moccasined, and, moreover, furnished
with a pair of old English hunting spurs, the reader must then examine
the head with which this heavy piece of animated machinery is
surmounted. From beneath a coarse felt hat, garnished with an inch-wide
band or ribbon, let him imagine he sees the yet vigorous grey hair,
descending over a forehead not altogether wanting in a certain dignity
of expression, and terminating in a beetling brow, silvered also with
the frost of years, and shadowing a sharp, grey, intelligent eye, the
vivacity of whose expression denotes its possessor to be far in advance,
in spirit, even of his still active and powerful frame. With these must
be connected a snub nose--a double chin, adorned with grizzly honors,
which are borne, like the fleece of the lamb, only occasionally to the
shears of the shearer--and a small, and not unhandsome, mouth, at
certain periods pursed into an expression of irresistible humor, but
more frequently expressing a sense of lofty independence. The grisly
neck, little more or less bared, as the season may demand--a kerchief
loosely tied around the collar of a checkered shirt--and a knotted
cudgel in his hand--and we think our sketch of Simon Girty is complete.
Nor must the reader picture to himself this combination of animal
properties, either standing, or lying, or walking, or sitting; but in a
measure glued, Centaur-like, to the back of a noble stallion, vigorous,
active, and of a dark chestnut color, with silver mane and tail. In the
course of many years that Simon had resided in the neighborhood, no one
could remember to have seen him stand, or lie, or walk, or sit, while
away from his home, unless absolutely compelled. Both horse and rider
seemed as though they could not exist while separated, and yet
Silvertail (thus was the stallion named) was not more remarkable in
sleekness of coat, soundness of carcase, and fleetness of pace, than his
rider was in the characteristics of corpulency and joviality.
Simon Girty had passed the greater part of his younger days in America.
He had borne arms in the revolution, and was one of those faithful
loyalists, who preferring rather to abandon a soil which, after all, was
one of adoption, than the flag under which they had been nurtured, had,
at the termination of that contest, passed over into Canada. Having
served in one of those irregular corps, several of which had been
employed with the Indians, during the revolutionary contest, he had
acquired much of the language of these latter, and to this knowledge was
indebted for the situation of interpreter which he had for years
enjoyed. Unhappily for himself, however, the salary attached to the
office was sufficient to keep him in independence, and, to the idleness
consequent on this, (for the duties of an interpreter were only
occasional,) might have been attributed the rapid growth of a vice--an
addiction to liquor--which unchecked indulgence had now ripened into
positive disease.
Great was the terror that Simon was wont to excite in the good people of
Amherstburg. With Silvertail at his speed he would gallop into the town,
brandishing his cudgel, and reeling from side to side, exhibiting at one
moment the joyous character of a Silenus, at another, as we have already
shown--that of an inebriated Centaur. Occasionally he would make his
appearance, holding his sides convulsed with laughter, as he reeled and
tottered in every direction, but without ever losing his equilibrium. At
other times he would utter a loud shout, and, brandishing his cudgel,
dart at full speed along the streets, as if he purposed singly to carry
the town by (what Middlemore often facetiously called) a _coup de main_.
At these moments were to be seen mothers rushing into the street to look
for, and hurry away, their loitering offspring, while even adults were
glad to hasten their movements, in order to escape collision with the
formidable Simon; not that either apprehended the slightest act of
personal violence from the old man, for he was harmless of evil as a
child, but because they feared the polished hoofs of Silvertail, which
shone amid the clouds of dust they raised as he passed, like rings of
burnished silver. Even the very Indians, with whom the streets were at
this period habitually crowded, were glad to hug the sides of the
houses, while Simon passed; and they who, on other occasions, would have
deemed it in the highest degree derogatory to their dignity to have
stepped aside at the approach of danger, or to have relaxed a muscle of
their stern countenance, would then open a passage with a rapidity which
in them was remarkable, and burst into loud laughter as they fled from
side to side to make way for Simon. Sometimes, on these occasions, the
latter would suddenly check Silvertail, while in full career, and, in a
voice that could be heard from almost every quarter of the little town,
harangue them for half an hour together in their own language, and with
an air of authority that was ludicrous to those who witnessed it--and
must have been witnessed to be conceived. Occasionally a guttural "ugh"
would be responded in mock approval of the speech, but more frequently a
laugh, on the part of the more youthful of his red auditors, was the
only notice taken. His lecture concluded, Simon would again brandish his
cudgel, and vociferate another shout; then betaking himself to the
nearest store, he would urge Silvertail upon the footway, and with a tap
of his rude cudgel against the door, summon whoever was within, to
appear with a glass of his favorite beverage. And this would he repeat,
until he had drained what he called his stirrup cup, at every shop in
the place where the poisonous liquor was vended.
Were such a character to make his appearance in the Mother Country,
endangering, to all perception, the lives of the Sovereign's liege
subjects, he would, if in London, be hunted to death like a wild beast,
by at least one half of the Metropolitan police; and, if in a provincial
town, would be beset by a posse of constables. No one, however--not even
the solitary constable of Amherstburgh, ever ventured to interfere with
Simon Girty, who was in some degree a privileged character. Nay, strange
as it may appear, notwithstanding his confirmed habit of inebriety, the
old man stood high in the neighborhood, not only with simple but with
gentle, for there were seasons when he evinced himself "a rational
being," and there was a dignity of manner about him, which, added to his
then quietude of demeanor, insensibly interested in his favor, those
even who were most forward to condemn the vice to which he was
unfortunately addicted. Not, be it understood, that in naming seasons of
rationality, we mean seasons of positive abstemiousness; nor can this
well be, seeing that Simon never passed a day of strict sobriety during
the last twenty years of his life. But, it might be said, that his three
divisions of day--morning, noon and night--were characterised by three
corresponding divisions of drunkenness--namely, drunk, drunker, and most
drunk. It was, therefore, in the first stage of his graduated scale,
that Simon appeared in his most amiable and winning, because his least
uproarious, mood. His libations commenced at early morn, and his
inebriety became progressive to the close of the day. To one who could
ride home at night, as he invariably did, after some twelve hours of
hard and continued drinking, without rolling from his horse, it would
not be difficult to enact the sober man in its earlier stages. As his
intoxication was relative to himself, so was his sobriety in regard to
others--and although, at mid-day, he might have swallowed sufficient to
have caused another man to bite the dust, he looked and spoke, and
acted, as if he had been a model of temperance. If he passed a lady in
the street, or saw her at her window Simon Girty's hat was instantly
removed from his venerable head, and his body inclined forward over his
saddle-bow, with all the easy grace of a well-born gentleman, and one
accustomed from infancy to pay deference to woman; nay, this at an hour
when he had imbibed enough of his favorite liquor to have rendered most
men insensible even to their presence. These habits of courtesy,
extended moreover to the officers of the garrison, and such others among
the civilians as Simon felt to be worthy of his notice. His tones of
salutation, at these moments, were soft, his manner respectful, even
graceful; and while there was nothing of the abashedness of the
inferior, there was also no offensive familiarity, in the occasional
conversations held by him with the different individuals, or groups, who
surrounded and accosted him.
Such was Simon Girty, in the first stage of his inebriety, no outward
sign of which was visible. In the second, his perception became more
obscured, his voice less distinct, his tones less gentle and
insinuating, and occasionally the cudgel would rise in rapid flourish,
while now and then a loud halloo would burst from lungs, which the
oceans of whiskey they had imbibed had not yet, apparently, much
affected. These were infallible indices of the more feverish stage, of
which the gallopings of Silvertail--the vociferations of his master--the
increasing flourishing of the cudgel--the supposed danger of
children--and the consequent alarm of mothers, together with the
harangues to the Indian auditory, were the almost daily results.
There was one individual, however, in the town of Amherstburgh, of whom,
despite his natural wilfulness of character, Simon Girty stood much in
awe, and that to such a degree, that if he chanced to encounter him in
his mad progress, his presence had the effect of immediately quieting
him. This gentleman was the father of the Granthams, who, although then
filling a civil situation, had formerly been a field officer in the
corps in which Simon had served; and who had carried with him into
private life those qualities of stern excellence for which he had been
remarkable as a soldier--qualities which had won to him the respect and
affection, not only of the little community over which, in the capacity
of its chief magistrate, he had presided, but also of the inhabitants of
the country generally for many miles around. Temperate to an extreme
himself, Major Grantham held the vice of drunkenness in deserved
abhorrence, and so far from sharing the general toleration extended to
the old man, whose originality (harmless as he ever was in his
intoxication,) often proved a motive for encouragement; he never failed,
on encountering him, to bestow his censure in a manner that had an
immediate and obvious effect on the culprit. If Simon, from one end of
the street, beheld Major Grantham approaching at the other, he was wont
to turn abruptly away; but if perchance the magistrate came so
unexpectedly upon him as to preclude the possibility of retreat, he
appeared as one suddenly sobered, and would rein in his horse, fully
prepared for the stern lecture which he was well aware would ensue.
It afforded no slight amusement to the townspeople, and particularly
the young urchins, who usually looked up to Simon with awe,
to be witnesses of one of those rencontres. In a moment, the
shouting--galloping--rampaging cudgel-wielder was to be seen changed, as
if by some magic power, into a being of almost child-like obedience,
while he listened attentively and deferentially to the lecture of Major
Grantham, whom he both loved and feared. On these occasions, he would
hang his head upon his chest--confess his error--and promise solemnly to
amend his course of life, although it must be needless to add that never
was that promise heeded. Not unfrequently, after these lectures, when
Major Grantham had left him, Simon would turn his horse, and, with his
arms still folded across his chest, suffer Silvertail to pursue his
homeward course, while he himself, silent and thoughtful, and looking
like a culprit taken in the fact, sat steadily in his saddle, without
however venturing to turn his eye either to the right or to the left, as
he passed through the crowd, who, with faces strongly expressive of
mirth, marked their sense of the change which had been produced in the
old interpreter. Those who had seen him thus for the first time, might
have supposed that a reformation in one so apparently touched would have
ensued; but long experience had taught that, although a twinge of
conscience, or more probably fear of, and respect for, the magistrate,
might induce a momentary humiliation, all traces of cause and effect
would have vanished with the coming dawn.
To the sterling public virtues he boasted, Simon Girty united that of
loyalty in no common degree. A more staunch adherent to the British
crown existed nowhere in the sovereign's dominions; and such was his
devotedness to "King George," that, albeit he could not in all
possibility have made the sacrifice of his love for whiskey, he would
willingly have suffered his left arm to be severed from his body, had
such proof of his attachment to the throne been required. Proportioned
to his love for everything British, arose, as a natural consequence,
his dislike for everything anti-British; and especially for those who
under the guise of allegiance, had conducted themselves in a way to
become objects of suspicion to the authorities. A near neighbor of
Desborough, he had watched him as narrowly as his long indulged habits
of intoxication would permit, and he had been the means of conveying to
Major Grantham much of the information which had induced that
uncompromising magistrate to seek the expulsion of the dangerous
settler--an object which, however, had been defeated by the perjury of
the unprincipled individual, in taking the customary oaths of
allegiance. Since the death of Major Grantham, for whom, notwithstanding
his numerous lectures, he had ever entertained that reverential esteem
which is the result of the ascendancy of the powerful and virtuous mind
over the weak, and not absolutely vicious--and for whose sons he felt
almost a fatherly affection--old Girty had but indifferently troubled
himself about Desborough, who was fully aware of what he had previously
done to detect and expose him, and consequently repaid with usury--an
hostility of feeling which, however, had never been brought to any
practical issue.
As a matter of course, Simon was of the number of anxious persons
collected on the bank of the river, on the morning of the capture of the
American gun-boat; but, as he was only then emerging from his first
stage of intoxication (which we have already shown to be tantamount to
perfect sobriety in any other person), there had been no time for a
display of those uproarious qualities which characterized the last, and
which, once let loose, scarcely even the presence of the General could
have restrained. With an acuteness, however, which is often to be
remarked in habitual drunkards at moments when their intellect is
unclouded by the confusedness to which they are more commonly subject,
the hawk's eye of the old man had detected several particulars which had
escaped the general attention, and of which he had, at a later period of
the day, retained sufficient recollection to connect with an accidental,
yet important discovery.
At the moment when the prisoners were landed, he had remarked
Desborough, who had uttered the hasty exclamation already recorded,
stealing cautiously through the surrounding crowd, and apparently
endeavoring to arrest the attention of the younger of the American
officers. An occasional pressing of the spur into the flank of
Silvertail, enabled him to turn as the settler turned, and thus to keep
him constantly in view; until, at length, as the latter approached the
group of which General Brock and Commodore Barclay formed the centre, he
observed him distinctly to make a sign of intelligence to the Militia
Officer, whose eye he at length attracted, and who now bestowed upon him
a glance of hasty and furtive recognition. Curiosity induced Simon to
move Silvertail a little more in advance, in order to be enabled to
obtain a better view of the prisoners; but the latter turning away his
head at the moment, although apparently without design, baffled his
penetration. Still he had a confused and indistinct idea that the person
was not wholly unknown to him.
When the prisoners had been disposed of, and the crowd dispersed, Simon
continued to linger near the council-house, exchanging greetings with
the newly arrived chiefs, and drinking from whatever whiskey bottle was
offered to him until he at length gave rapid indication of arriving at
his third or grand climacteric. Then were to be heard the loud
shoutings of his voice, and the clattering of Silvertail's hoofs; as
horse and rider flew like lightning past the fort into the town, where a
more than usual quantity of the favorite liquid was quaffed at the
several stores, in commemoration, as he said, of the victory of his
noble boy, Gerald Grantham, and to the success of the British arms
generally throughout the war.
Among the faults of Simon Girty, was certainly not that of neglecting
the noble animal to whom long habit had deeply attached him. Silvertail
was equally a favorite with the son, who had more than once ridden him
in the occasional races that took place upon the hard sands of the lake
shore, and in which he had borne everything away. As Simon was ever
conscious and collected about this hour, care was duly taken by him that
his horse should be fed, without the trouble to himself of dismounting.
Even as Girty sat in his saddle, Silvertail was in the daily practice of
munching his corn out of a small trough that stood in the yard of the
inn where he usually stopped, while his rider conversed with whoever
chanced to be near him--the head of his cudgel resting on his ample
thigh, and a glass of his favorite whiskey in his other and unoccupied
hand.
Now it chanced that, on this particular day, Simon neglected to pay his
customary visit to the inn, an omission which was owing rather to the
hurry and excitement occasioned by the stirring events of the morning,
than to any wilful neglect of his steed. Nor was it until some hours
after dark that, seized with a sudden fit of caressing Silvertail, whose
glossy neck he patted, until the tears of warm affection started to his
eyes, he bethought him of the omission of which he had been guilty.
Scarcely was the thought conceived, before Silvertail was again at full
career, and on his way to the inn. The gate stood open, and, as Simon
entered, he saw two individuals retire, as if to escape observation,
within a shed adjoining the stable. Drunk as he was, a vague
consciousness of the truth, connected as it was with his earlier
observation, flashed across the old man's mind; and when, in answer to
his loud hallooing, a factotum, on whom devolved all the numerous
officers of the inn, from waiter down to ostler, made his appearance,
Simon added to his loudly expressed demand for Silvertail's corn, a
whispered injunction to return with a light. During the absence of the
man, he commenced trolling a verse of "Old King Cole," a favorite ballad
with him, and with the indifference of one who believes himself to be
alone. Presently the light appeared, and, as the bearer approached, its
rays fell on the forms of two men, retired into the furthest extremity
of the shed and crouching to the earth as if in concealment, whom Simon
recognised at a glance. He however took no notice of the circumstance to
the ostler, or even gave the slightest indication, by look or movement,
of what he had seen.
When the man had watered Silvertail and put his corn in the trough, he
returned to the house, and Simon, with his arms folded across his chest,
as his horse crunched his food, listened attentively to catch whatever
conversation might ensue between the loiterers. Not a word however was
uttered, and soon after he saw them emerge from their concealment--step
cautiously behind him--cross the yard towards the gate by which he had
entered--and then disappear altogether. During this movement the old man
had kept himself perfectly still, so that there could be no suspicion
that he had in any way observed them. Nay, he even spoke once or twice
coaxingly to Silvertail, as if conscious only of the presence of that
animal, and, in short, conducted himself in a manner well worthy of the
cunning of a drunken man. The reflections to which this incident gave
rise, had the effect of calling up a desperate fit of loyalty, which he
only awaited the termination of Silvertail's hasty meal to put into
immediate activity. Another shout to the ostler, a second glass
swallowed, the reckoning paid, Silvertail bitted, and away went Simon
once more at his speed through the now deserted town, the road out of
which to his own place, skirted partly the banks of the river, and
partly those of the lake.
After galloping about a mile, the old man found the feet of Silvertail
burying themselves momentarily deeper in the sands which form the road
near Elliot's Point. Unwilling to distress him, he pulled him up to a
walk, and, throwing the reins upon his neck, folded his arms as usual,
rolling from side to side at every moment, and audibly musing, in the
thick, husky voice that was common to him in inebriety.
"Yes, by Jove, I am as true and loyal a subject as any in the service of
King George, God bless him (here he bowed his head involuntarily and
with respect), and though, as that poor dear old Grantham used to say, I
do drink a little (hiccup), still there's no great harm in that. It
keeps a man alive. I am the boy, at all events, to scent a rogue. That
was Desborough and his son I saw just now, and the rascals, he! he!
he!--the rascals thought, I suppose, I was too drunk (hiccup), too drunk
to twig them. We shall tell them another tale before the night is over.
D----n such skulking scoundrels, I say. Whoa! Silvertail, whoa!--what do
you see there, my boy, eh?"
Silvertail only replied by the sharp pricking of his ears, and a side
movement, which seemed to indicate a desire to keep as much aloof as
possible from a cluster of walnut trees, which, interspersed with wild
grape vines, may be seen to this hour, resting in gloomy relief on the
white deep sands that extend considerably in that direction.
"Never mind, my boy, we shall be at home presently," pursued Simon,
patting the neck of his unquiet companion. "But, no--I had forgotten; we
must give chase to these (hiccup) to these rascals. Now there's that son
Bill of mine fast asleep, I suppose, in the arms of his little wife.
They do nothing but lie in bed, while their poor old father is obliged
to be up at all hours, devising plans for the good of the King's
service, God bless him! But I shall soon (hiccup)--Whoa, Silvertail!
whoa, I say! D----n you, you brute, do you mean to throw me?"
The restlessness of Silvertail, despite of his rider's caresses, had
been visibly increasing as they approached the dark cluster of walnuts.
Arrived opposite to this, his ears and tail erect, he had evinced even
more than restlessness--alarm: and something, that did not meet the eye
of his rider, caused him to take a sideward spring of several feet. It
was this action that, nearly unseating Simon, had drawn from him the
impatient exclamation just recorded.
At length the thicket was passed, and Silvertail, recovered from his
alarm, moved forward once more on the bound, in obedience to the well
known whistle of his master.
"Good speed have they made," again mused Simon, as he approached his
home: "if indeed, as I suspect, it be them who are hiding in yonder
thicket. Silvertail could not have been more than ten minutes finishing
his (hiccup) his corn, and the sands had but little time to warm
beneath his boots when he did start. These Yankees are swift footed
fellows, as I have had good (hiccup) good experience in the old war,
when I could run a little myself like the best of them. But here we are
at last. Whoa, Silvertail, whoa! and now to turn out Bill from his
little wife. Bill, I say, hilloa! hilloa! Bill, hilloa!"
Long habit, which had taught the old man's truly excellent and exemplary
son the utter hopelessness of his disease, had also familiarized him
with these nightly interruptions to his slumbers. A light was speedily
seen to flash across the chamber in which he slept, and presently the
principal door of the lower building was unbarred, and unmurmuring and
uncomplaining, the half-dressed young man stood in the presence of his
father. Placing the light on the threshold, he prepared to assist him as
usual to dismount, but Simon, contrary to custom, rejected for a time
every offer of the kind. His rapid gallop through the night air, added
to the more than ordinary quantity of whiskey he had that day swallowed,
was now producing its effect, and, while every feature of his
countenance manifested the extreme of animal stupidity, his apprehension
wandered and his voice became almost inarticulate. Without the power to
acquaint his son with the purpose he had in view, and of which he
himself now entertained but a very indistinct recollection, he yet
strove, impelled as he was by his confusedness of intention, to retain
his seat, but was eventually unhorsed and handed over to the care of his
pretty daughter-in-law, whose office it was to dispose of him for the
night, while her husband rubbed down, fed, and otherwise attended to
Silvertail.
A few hours of sound sleep restored Simon to his voice and his
recollection, when his desire to follow the two individuals he had seen
in the yard of the inn the preceding night, and whom he felt persuaded
he must have passed on the road, was more than ever powerfully revived.
And yet, was it not highly probable that the favorable opportunity had
been lost, and that, taking advantage of the night, they were already
departed from the country, if such (and he doubted it not) was their
intention. "What a cursed fool," he muttered to himself, "to let a
thimbleful of liquor upset me on such an occasion, but, at all events,
here goes for another trial." With the impatient, over-indulged Simon,
to determine on a course of action, was to carry it into effect.
"Hilloa, Bill! I say, Bill my boy!" he shouted from the chamber next to
that in which his son slept. "Hilloa! Bill, come here directly."
Bill answered not, but sounds were heard in his room as of one stepping
out of bed, and presently the noise of flint and steel announced that a
light was being struck. In a few minutes the rather jaded-looking youth
appeared at the bedstead of his parent.
"Bill, my dear boy," said Simon, in a more subdued voice, "did you see
anybody pass last night after I came home? Try and recollect yourself;
did you see two men on the road?"
"I did, father; just as I had locked the stable door, and was coming in
for the night, I saw two men passing down the road. But why do you ask?"
"Did you speak to them--could you recognise them?" asked Simon, without
stating his motive for the question.
"I wished them good night; and one of them gruffly bade me good night
too; but I could not make out who they were, though one did for a
moment strike me to be Desborough, and both were tallish sort of men."
"You're a lad of penetration, Bill; now saddle me Silvertail as fast as
you can."
"Saddle Silvertail! Surely, father, you are not going out yet; it's not
daylight."
"Saddle Silvertail, Bill," repeated the old man, with the air of one
whose mandate was not to be questioned. "But where the devil are you
going, sir?" he added, impatiently.
"Why to saddle Silvertail, to be sure," said the youth, who was just
closing the door for that purpose.
"What, and leave me, a miserable old man, to get up without a light? Oh
fie, Bill. I thought you loved your poor old father better than to
neglect him so--there, that will do. Now send in Lucy to dress me."
The light was kindled, Bill went in and spoke to his wife, then
descended to the stable. A gentle tap at the door of the old
interpreter, and Lucy entered in her pretty night dress, and, half
asleep, half awake, but without a shadow of discontent in her look,
proceeded to assist him in drawing on his stockings, &c. Simon's toilet
was soon completed, and Silvertail being announced as "all ready," he,
without communicating a word of his purpose, issued forth from his home
just as the day was beginning to dawn.
Although the reflective powers of Girtie had been in some measure
restored by sleep, it is by no means to be assumed he was yet thoroughly
sober. Uncertain in regard to the movements of those who had so strongly
excited his loyal hostility, (and, mayhap, at the moment his curiosity,)
it occurred to him that if Desborough had not already baffled his
pursuit, a knowledge of the movements and intentions of that individual
might be better obtained from an observation of what was passing on the
beach in front of his hut. The object of this reconnaissance was,
therefore, only to see if the canoe of the settler was still on the
shore, and with this object he suffered Silvertail to take the road
along the sands, while he himself, with his arms folded and his head
sunk on his chest, fell into a reverie with which was connected the
manner and the means of securing the disloyal Desborough, should it
happen that he had not yet departed. The accidental discharge of
Middlemore's pistol, at the very moment when Silvertail had doubled a
point that kept the scene of contention from his view, caused him to
raise his eyes, and then the whole truth flashed suddenly upon him. We
have already seen how gallantly he advanced to them, and how madly, and
in a manner peculiarly his own, he sought to arrest the traitor
Desborough in his flight.
"Sorry I couldn't force the scoundrel back, gentlemen," said Simon, as
he now approached the discomfited officers. "Not much hurt, I hope,"
pointing with his own maimed and bleeding hand to the leg of Middlemore,
which that officer, seated on the sand, was preparing to bind with a
silk handkerchief. "Ah, a mere flesh wound, I see. Henry, Henry
Grantham, my poor dear boy, what still alive after the desperate
clutching of that fellow at your throat? But now that we have routed the
enemy--must be off--drenched to the skin. No liquor on the stomach to
keep out the cold, and if I once get an ague fit, its all over with poor
old Simon. Must gallop home, and, while his little wife wraps a bandage
round my hand, shall send down Bill with a litter. Good morning, Mr.
Middlemore, good bye, Henry, my boy." And then, without giving time to
either to reply, the old man applied his spurs once more to the flanks
of Silvertail, who, with drooping mane and tail, resembled a half
drowned rat; and again hallooing defiance to Desborough, who lay to at a
distance, apparently watching the movements of his enemies, he retraced
his way along the sands at full gallop, and was speedily out of sight.
Scarcely had Girty disappeared, when two other individuals, evidently
officers, and cloaked precisely like the party he had just quitted,
issued from the wood near the hut upon the clearing, and thence upon the
sands--their countenances naturally expressing all the surprise that
might be supposed to arise from the picture now offered to their view.
"What in the name of Heaven is the meaning of all this?" asked one of
the new comers, as both now rapidly advanced to the spot where
Middlemore was yet employed in coolly binding up his leg, while Henry
Grantham, who had just risen, was gasping with almost ludicrous efforts
to regain his respiration.
"You must ask the meaning of our friend here," answered Middlemore, with
the low chuckling good-natured laugh that was habitual to him, while he
proceeded with his bandaging. "All I know is, that I came out as a
second, and here have I been made a first--a principal, which, by the
way, is contrary to all my principle."
"Do be serious for once, Middlemore. How did you get wounded, and who
are those scoundrels who have just quitted you?" anxiously inquired
Captain Molineux, for it was he, and Lieutenant Villiers, who, (the
party already stated to have been expected), had at length arrived.
"Two desperate fellows in their way, I can assure you," replied
Middlemore, more amused than annoyed at the adventure. "Ensign Paul,
Emilius, Theophilus, Arnoldi, is, I calculate, a pretty considerable
strong ac_tyve_ sort of fellow; and, to judge by Henry Grantham's half
strangled look, his companion lacks not the same qualities. Why, in the
name of all that is precious would you persist in poking your nose into
the rascal's skins, Grantham? The ruffians had nearly made dried skins
of ours."
"Ha! is that the scoundrel who calls himself Arnoldi," asked Captain
Molineux? "I have heard," and he glanced at Henry Grantham as he spoke,
"a long story of his villainy from his captor within this very hour."
"Which is your apology, I suppose," said Middlemore, "for having so far
exceeded your appointment, gentlemen."
"It certainly is," said Lieutenant Villiers, "but the fault was not
ours. We chanced to fall in with Gerald Grantham, on our way here, and
that he detained us, should be a matter of congratulation to us all."
"Congratulation!" exclaimed Middlemore, dropping his bandage, and
lifting his eyes with an expression of indescribable humor. "Am I then
to think it matter of congratulation that, as an innocent second, I
should have had a cursed piece of lead stuck in my flesh to spoil my
next winter's dancing. And Grantham is to think it matter of
congratulation that, instead of putting a bullet through you, Molineux,
(as I intend he shall when I have finished dressing this confounded leg,
if his nerves are not too much shaken), he should have felt the gripe of
that monster Desborough around his throat, until his eyes seem ready to
start from their sockets, and all this because you did not choose to be
in time. Upon my word, I do not know that it is quite meet that we
should meet you. What say you, Grantham?"
"I hope," said Captain Molineux with a smile, "your principal will think
as you do, for should he decline the meeting, nothing will afford more
satisfaction to myself."
Both Grantham and Middlemore looked their utter surprise at the language
thus used by Captain Molineux, but neither of them spoke.
"If an apology the most ample for my observation of yesterday,"
continued that officer, "an apology founded on my perfect conviction of
error, (that conviction produced by certain recent explanations with
your brother), can satisfy you, Mr. Grantham, most sincerely do I make
it. If, however, you hold me to my pledge, here am I of course to redeem
it. I may as well observe to you in the presence of our friends, (and
Villiers can corroborate my statement), that my original intention on
leaving your brother, was to receive your fire and then tender my
apology, but, under the circumstances in which both you and Middlemore
are placed at this moment, the idea would be altogether absurd. Again I
tender my apology, which it will be a satisfaction to me to repeat this
day at the mess table, where I yesterday refused to drink your brother's
health. All I can add is that when you have heard the motives for my
conduct, and learnt to what extent I have been deceived, you will
readily admit that I acted not altogether from caprice."
"Your apology I accept, Captain Molineux," said Grantham, coming forward
and unhesitatingly offering his hand. "If you have seen my brother, I am
satisfied. Let there be no further question on the subject."
"So then I am to be the only bulleted man on this occasion," interrupted
Middlemore, with ludicrous pathos--"the only poor devil who is to be
made to remember Hartley's point for ever. But no matter. I am not the
first instance of a second being shot, through the awkward bungling of
his principal, and certainly Grantham you were in every sense the
principal in this affair, for had you taken my advice you would have let
the fellows go to the devil their own way."
"What! knowing, as I did, that the traitor Desborough had concealed in
his canoe a prisoner on parole--nay, worse, a deserter from our
service--with a view of conveying him out of the country."
"How did you know it."
"Because I at once recognised him, through the disguise in which he left
the hut, for what he was. That discovery made, there remained but one
course to pursue."
"Ah! and coarse work you made of it, with a vengeance," said Middlemore,
"first started him up like a fox from his cover, got the mark of his
teeth, and then suffered him to escape."
"Is there no chance of following--no means of overtaking them?" said
Captain Molineux--"No, by Heaven," as he glanced his eye from right to
left, "not a single canoe to be seen anywhere along the shore."
"Following!" echoed Middlemore; "faith the scoundrels would desire
nothing better: if two of us had such indifferent play with them on
terra firma, you may rely upon it that double the number would have no
better chance in one of these rickety canoes. See there how the rascals
lie to within half musket shot, apparently hailing us."
Middlemore was right. Desborough had risen in the stern of the canoe,
and now, stretched to his full height, called leisurely, through his
closed hands, on the name of Henry Grantham. When he observed the
attention of that officer had, in common with that of his companions,
been arrested, he proceeded at the full extent of his lungs.
"I reckon, young man, as how I shall pay you out for this, and drot my
skin, if I once twists my fingers round your neck again, if anything on
this side hell shall make me quit it, afore you squeaks your last
squeak. You've druv me from my home, and I'll have your curst blood for
it yet. I'll sarve you as I sarved your old father. You got my small
bore, I expect, and if its any good to you to know that one of its
nineties to the pound sent the old rascal to the devil--why then you
have it from Jeremiah Desborough's own lips, and be d----d to you."
And, with this horrible admission, the settler again seated himself in
the stern of his canoe, and making good use of his paddle soon scudded
away until his little vessel appeared but as a speck on the lake.
Henry Grantham was petrified with astonishment and dismay at a
declaration, the full elucidation of which we must reserve for a future
opportunity. The daring confession rang in his ears long after the voice
had ceased, and it was not until a light vehicle had been brought for
Middlemore from Simon's farm, that he could be induced to quit the
shore, where he still lingered, as if in expectation of the return of
the avowed _murderer of his Father_.