If the few weeks preceding the fall of Detroit had been characterised by
much bustle and excitement, those which immediately succeeded were no
less remarkable for their utter inactivity and repose. With the
surrender of the fortress vanished every vestige of hostility in that
remote territory, enabling the sinews of watchfulness to undergo a
relaxation, nor longer requiring the sacrifice of private interests to
the public good. Scarcely had the American prisoners been despatched to
their several destinations, when General Brock, whose activity and
decision were the subject of universal remark, quitted his new conquest,
and again hastened to resume the command on the Niagara frontier, which
he had only left to accomplish what had been so happily achieved. The
Indians, too, finding their services no longer in immediate demand,
dispersed over the country or gave themselves up to the amusement of the
chase, ready, however, to come forward whenever they should be
re-summoned to the conflict; while the Canadians, who had abandoned
their homes to assist in the operations of the war, returned once more
to the cultivation of that soil they had so recently looked upon as
wrested from them for ever. Throughout the whole line of Detroit, on
either shore, the utmost quietude prevailed; and although many of the
inhabitants of the conquered town looked with an eye of national
jealousy on the English flag that waved in security above the fort, they
submitted uncomplainingly to the change, indulging only in secret, yet
without bitterness, in the hope of a not far distant reaction of
fortune, when their own National Stars should once more be in the
ascendant.
The garrison left at Detroit consisted merely of two companies--those of
Captains Granville and Molineux, which included among their officers
Middlemore, Villiers and Henry Grantham. After the first excitement
produced in the minds of the townspeople by their change of rulers had
passed away, these young men, desirous of society, sought to renew their
intimacy with such of the more respectable families as they had been in
the habit of associating with prior to hostilities; but although in most
instances they were successful, their reception was so different from
what it had formerly been, that they were glad to withdraw themselves
within the rude resources of their own walls. It happened, however,
about this period, that Colonel D'Egville had received a command to
transfer the head of his department from Amherstburg to Detroit, and,
with a view to his own residence on the spot, the large and commodious
mansion of the late Governor was selected for the abode of his family.
With the daughters of that officer the D'Egvilles had long been
intimate, and as the former were to continue under the same roof until
their final departure from Detroit, it was with a mutual satisfaction
the friends found themselves thus closely reunited. Added to this party
were Major Montgomerie (already fast recovering from the effects of his
wound,) and his niece--both of whom only awaited the entire restoration
of the former, to embark immediately for the nearest American port.
At Colonel D'Egville's it will therefore be supposed the officers passed
nearly all their leisure hours; Molineux and Villiers flirting with the
fair American sisters, until they had nearly been held fast by the
chains with which they dallied, and Middlemore uttering his execrable
puns with a coolness of premeditation that excited the laughter of the
fair part of his auditors, while his companions, on the contrary,
expressed their unmitigated abhorrence in a variety of ways. As for the
somewhat staid Captain Granville, he sought to carry his homage to the
feet of Miss Montgomerie, but the severe and repellant manner in which
she received all his advances, and the look which almost petrified where
it fell, not only awed him effectually into distance, but drew down upon
him the sarcastic felicitations of his watchful brother officers. There
was one, however, on whose attentions her disapprobation fell not, and
Henry Grantham, who played the part of an anxious observer, remarked
with pain that _he_ had been fascinated by her beauty, in a manner which
showed her conquest to be complete.
The cousins of Gerald Grantham had been in error in supposing him to be
the officer in command of the vessel on board which the lover of Julia
had embarked. His transfer from the gun-boat had taken place, but in
consideration of the fatigue he had undergone during the three
successive days in which he had been employed at the batteries, the
Commodore had directed another officer to take command of the vessel in
question, and charge himself with the custody of the prisoners on board.
Finding himself at liberty until the return of the flotilla from this
duty, the first care of Gerald was to establish himself in lodgings in
Detroit, whence he daily sallied forth to the apartments in the
Governor's house occupied by the unfortunate Major Montgomerie, in whose
situation he felt an interest so much the more deep and lively as he
knew his confinement to have been in some degree the work of his own
hands. All the attention and kindness could effect was experienced by
the respectable Major, who, in return, found himself more and more
attached to his youthful and generous captor. These constant visits to
the uncle naturally brought our hero more immediately into the society
of the niece, but although he had never been able to banish from his
memory the recollection of one look which she had bestowed upon him on a
former occasion, in almost every interview of the sort _now_, she
preserved the same cold distance and reserve which was peculiar to her.
A week had elapsed in this manner, when it chanced that as they both sat
one evening, about dusk, near the couch of the invalid, the latter,
after complaining of extreme weakness and unusual suffering, expressed
his anxiety at the possibility of his niece being left alone and
unprotected in a strange country.
It was with a beating pulse and a glowing cheek that Gerald looked up to
observe the effect of this observation on his companion. He was
surprised, nay, hurt, to remark that an expression of almost
contemptuous loathing sat upon her pale but beautiful countenance. He
closed his eyes for a moment in bitterness of disappointment--and when
they again opened and fell upon that countenance, he scarcely could
believe the evidence of his senses. Every feature had undergone a
change. With her face half turned, as if to avoid the observation of her
uncle, she now exhibited a cheek flushed with the expression of
passionate excitement, while from her eye beamed that same unfathomable
expression which had carried intoxication once before to the inmost soul
of the youth. Almost wild with his feelings, it was with difficulty he
restrained the impulse that would have urged him to her feet; but even
while he hesitated, her countenance had again undergone a change, and
she sat cold and reserved and colorless as before.
That look sealed that night the destiny of Gerald Grantham. The coldness
of the general demeanor of Matilda was forgotten in the ardor of
character which had escaped from beneath the evident and habitual
disguise; and the enthusiastic sailor could think of nothing but the
witchery of that look. To his surprise and joy, the following day, and
ever afterwards, he found that the manner of the American, although
reserved as usual towards others, had undergone a complete change
towards himself. Whenever he appeared alone a smile was his welcome, and
if others were present she always contrived to indemnify him for a
coldness he now knew to be assumed, by conveying unobserved one of those
seductive glances the power of which she seemed so fully to understand.
Such was the state of things when the D'Egvilles arrived. Exposed to the
observations of more than one anxious friend, it was not likely that a
youth of Gerald's open nature could be long in concealing his
prepossession; and as Matilda, although usually guarded in her general
manner, was observed sometimes to fix her eyes upon him with the
expression of one immersed in deep and speculative thought, the
suspicion acquired a character of greater certainty.
To Harry Grantham, who doated upon his brother, this attachment was a
source of infinite disquiet; for, from the very commencement, Miss
Montgomerie had unfavorably impressed him. Why he knew not; yet,
impelled by a feeling he was unable to analyze, he deeply lamented that
they had ever become acquainted, infatuated as Gerald appeared by her
attractions. There was another too, who saw with regret the attachment
of Gerald to his fair prisoner. It was Gertrude D'Egville; but her
uncomplaining voice spoke not, even to her beloved sister, of the
anguish she endured--she loved her cousin, but he knew it not; and
although she felt that she was fast consuming with the disappointment
that preyed upon her peace, she had obtained of her sister the promise
that her secret should never reach the ear of its object.
In this manner passed the months of August and September. October had
just commenced, and with it that beautiful but brief season which is
well known to America as the Indian summer. Anxious to set out on his
return to that home to which his mutilation must confine him for the
future, Major Montgomerie, now sufficiently recovered to admit of his
travelling by water, expressed a desire to avail himself of the
loveliness of the weather, and embark forthwith on his return.
By the officers whom the hospitality of Colonel D'Egville almost daily
assembled beneath his roof, this announcement was received with dismay,
and especially by Molineux and Villiers, who had so suffered themselves
to be fascinated by the amiable daughters of General H----, as to have
found it necessary to hold a consultation (decided however in the
negative) whether they should or should not tempt them to remain, by
making an offer of their hands. It was also observed that these young
ladies, who at first had been all anxiety to rejoin their parent,
evinced no particular satisfaction in the intimation of speedy departure
thus given to them. Miss Montgomerie, on the contrary, whose anxiety
throughout to quit Detroit had been no less remarkable than her former
impatience to reach it, manifested a pleasure that amounted almost to
exultation; and yet it was observed that, by a strange apparent
contradiction, her preference for Gerald from that moment became more
and more divested of disguise.
There are few spots in the world, perhaps, that unite so many
inducements to the formation of those sociable little _réunions_ which
come under the denomination of pic-nics as the small islands adorning
most of the American rivers. Owing to the difficulty of procuring summer
carriages, and in some degree to the rudeness of the soil, in the Upper
Province especially, boats are in much more general use; and excursions
on the water are as common to that class "whose only toil is pleasure,"
as cockney trips to Richmond, or to any other of the thousand and one
places of resort which have sprung into existence within twenty miles of
the metropolis of England. Not confined, however, to picking daisies for
their sweethearts, as these cockneys do, or carving their vulgar names
on every magnificent tree that spreads its gorgeous arms to afford them
the temporary shelter of a home, the men generally devote themselves,
for a period of the day, to manlier exercises. The woods abounding with
game, and the rivers with fish of the most delicate flavor--the address
of the hunter and the fisher, is equally called into action; since upon
their exertions principally depend the party for the fish and fowl
portion of their rural dinner. Guns and rods are, therefore, as
indispensable a part of the freightage, as the dried venison and bear
hams, huge turkies, pastries, &c. which, together with wines, spirits,
and cider, _ad libitum_, form the mass of alimentary matter. Here is to
be heard neither the impertinent coxcomb of the European self-styled
exclusive, nor the unmeaning twaddle of the daughter of false fashion,
spoiled by the example of the said exclusive, and almost be come a
dowager in silliness, before she has attained the first years of
womanhood. No lack-a-daisical voice, the sex of which it is difficult to
distinguish, is attempted to be raised in depreciation of the party to
which it had been esteemed too great a happiness to be invited the
evening before. The sneer of contempt--the laugh of derision--is nowhere
to be heard; neither is the pallid brow and sunken cheek, the fruit of
late hours and forced excitement, to be seen. Content is in each
heart--the glow of health upon each face. All appear eager to be happy,
pleased with each other, and at ease with themselves. Not that theirs is
the enjoyment of the mere holiday mind, which grasps with undiscerning
avidity at whatever offers to its gratification, but that of those in
whom education, acting on innate good breeding, has imposed a due sense
of the courtesies of life, and on whom fashion has not superseded the
kindlier emotions of nature.
Several of these pic-nics had taken place among the party at Detroit,
confined, with one or two exceptions, to the officers of the garrison,
and the family of Colonel D'Egville, with their American inmates; and it
was proposed by the former, that a final one should be given a few days
prior to the embarkation in Gerald Grantham's new command, which lay
waiting in the river for the purpose--the Major remaining as hitherto at
home, under the guardianship of the benevolent Mrs. D'Egville, whose
habits of retirement disinclined her to out-door amusement.
Hitherto their excursions had been principally directed to some of the
smaller islands, which abound in the river nearer Amherstburgh, and
where game being found in abundance, the skill of the officers had more
immediate opportunity for display; but on this excursion, at the casual
suggestion of Miss Montgomerie, Hog Island was selected as the scene of
their day's amusement. Thither, therefore, the boat which contained the
party now proceeded, the ladies costumed in a manner to thread the mazes
of the wood, and the gentlemen in equally appropriate gear, as
sportsmen, their guns and fishing rods being by no means omitted in the
catalogue of orders entrusted to their servants. In the stern of the
boat--the trustworthy coxswain on this occasion--sat old Sambo, whose
skill in the conduct of a helm was acknowledged to be little inferior to
his dexterity in the use of a paddle, and whose authoritative voice, as
he issued his commands in broken English to the boatmen, added, in no
small degree, to the exhilaration of the party.
To reach Hog Island, it was necessary to pass by the tannery and cottage
already described, which, latter, it will be remembered, had been the
scene of a singular adventure to our hero and his servant on the night
of their reconnoitering the coast, in obedience to the order of the
Commodore. By the extraordinary and almost romantic incidents of that
night, the imagination of Gerald had been deeply impressed, and on
retiring to his rude couch within the battery he had fully made up his
mind to explore further into the mysterious affair, with as little delay
as possible after the expected fall of the American fortress. In the
hurry, confusion, and excitement, of that event however, his original
intention was forgotten; or, rather so far delayed, that it was not
until the third or fourth day of his establishment in the town, that it
occurred to him to institute inquiry. He had accordingly repaired
thither, but finding the house carefully shut up, and totally
uninhabited, had contented himself with questioning the tanner and his
family, in regard to its late inmates, reserving to a future opportunity
the attempt to make himself personally acquainted with all that it
contained. From this man he learnt, that, the house had once been the
property of an aged Canadian, at whose death (supposed to have been
occasioned by violence,) it had passed into the hands of an American,
who led a roving and adventurous life, being frequently away for months
together, and then returning with a canoe, but never continuing for more
than a night or two. That latterly it had been wholly deserted by its
owner, in consequence of which it had been taken possession of, and used
as quarters by the officers of the American guard, stationed at this
part of the town, for the protection of the boats, and as a check upon
the incursions of the Indians. In all this statement, there was every
appearance of truth, but in no part of it did Gerald find wherewith to
elucidate what he himself had witnessed. He described the costume, and
questioned of the mysterious figure, but the only reply he obtained from
the independent tanner, when he admitted to him that he had been so near
a visitor on that occasion, and had seen what he described, was an
expressed regret that he had not been "wide awake when any Brittainer
ventured to set foot upon his grounds, otherwise, tarnation seize him
with all due respect, if he wouldn't a stuck an ounce o' lead in his
liver as quickly as he would tan a hide," a patriotic sentiment in which
it may be supposed our hero in no way coincided. With the tanner's
assurance, however, that no living thing was there at this moment,
Gerald was fain to content himself for the present, fully resolving to
return at another time with Sambo, and effect a forcible entrance into a
place, with which were connected such striking recollections. He had,
however, been too much interested and occupied elsewhere, to find time
to devote to the purpose.