Oh! Henry, when thou deign'st to sue,
Can I thy suit withstand?
When thou, loved youth, hast won my heart,
Can I refuse my hand?
--_Hermit of Warkevorth._
The graduate of Edinburgh found his patient rapidly improving in health,
and entirely free from fever. His sister, with a cheek that was, if
possible, paler than on her arrival, watched around his couch with
tender care; and the ladies of the cottage had not, in the midst of
their sorrows and varied emotions, forgotten to discharge the duties of
hospitality. Frances felt herself impelled towards their disconsolate
guest, with an interest for which she could not account, and with a
force that she could not control. She had unconsciously connected the
fates of Dunwoodie and Isabella in her imagination, and she felt, with
the romantic ardor of a generous mind, that she was serving her former
lover most by exhibiting kindness to her he loved best. Isabella
received her attentions with gratitude, but neither of them indulged in
any allusions to the latent source of their uneasiness. The observation
of Miss Peyton seldom penetrated beyond things that were visible, and to
her the situation of Henry Wharton seemed to furnish an awful excuse for
the fading cheeks and tearful eyes of her niece. If Sarah manifested
less of care than her sister, still the unpracticed aunt was not at a
loss to comprehend the reason. Love is a holy feeling with the virtuous
of the female sex, and it hallows all that come within its influence.
Although Miss Peyton mourned with sincerity over the danger which
threatened her nephew, she well knew that an active campaign was not
favorable to love, and the moments that were thus accidentally granted
were not to be thrown away.
Several days now passed without any interruption of the usual avocations
of the inhabitants of the cottage, or the party at the Four Corners.
The former were supporting their fortitude with the certainty of Henry's
innocence, and a strong reliance on Dunwoodie's exertions in his behalf,
and the latter waiting with impatience the intelligence, that was hourly
expected, of a conflict, and their orders to depart. Captain Lawton,
however, waited for both these events in vain. Letters from the major
announced that the enemy, finding that the party which was to cooperate
with them had been defeated, and was withdrawn, had retired also behind
the works of Fort Washington, where they continued inactive, threatening
constantly to strike a blow in revenge for their disgrace. The trooper
was enjoined to vigilance, and the letter concluded with a compliment to
his honor, zeal, and undoubted bravery.
"Extremely flattering, Major Dunwoodie," muttered the dragoon, as he
threw down this epistle, and stalked across the floor to quiet his
impatience. "A proper guard have you selected for this service: let me
see--I have to watch over the interests of a crazy, irresolute old man,
who does not know whether he belongs to us or to the enemy; four women,
three of whom are well enough in themselves, but who are not immensely
flattered by my society; and the fourth, who, good as she is, is on the
wrong side of forty; some two or three blacks; a talkative housekeeper,
that does nothing but chatter about gold and despisables, and signs and
omens; and poor George Singleton. Well, a comrade in suffering has a
claim on a man,--so I'll make the best of it."
As he concluded this soliloquy, the trooper took a seat and began to
whistle, to convince himself how little he cared about the matter, when,
by throwing his booted leg carelessly round, he upset the canteen that
held his whole stock of brandy. The accident was soon repaired, but in
replacing the wooden vessel, he observed a billet lying on the bench, on
which the liquor had been placed. It was soon opened, and he read: _"The
moon will not rise till after midnight--a fit time for deeds of
darkness."_ There was no mistaking the hand; it was clearly the same
that had given him the timely warning against assassination, and the
trooper continued, for a long time, musing on the nature of these two
notices, and the motives that could induce the peddler to favor an
implacable enemy in the manner that he had latterly done. That he was a
spy of the enemy, Lawton knew; for the fact of his conveying
intelligence to the English commander in chief, of a party of Americans
that were exposed to the enemy was proved most clearly against him on
the trial for his life. The consequences of his treason had been
avoided, it is true, by a lucky order from Washington, which withdrew
the regiment a short time before the British appeared to cut it off, but
still the crime was the same. "Perhaps," thought the partisan, "he
wishes to make a friend of me against the event of another capture; but,
at all events, he spared my life on one occasion, and saved it on
another. I will endeavor to be as generous as himself, and pray that my
duty may never interfere with my feelings."
Whether the danger, intimated in the present note, threatened the
cottage or his own party, the captain was uncertain; but he inclined to
the latter opinion, and determined to beware how he rode abroad in the
dark. To a man in a peaceable country, and in times of quiet and order,
the indifference with which the partisan regarded the impending danger
would be inconceivable. His reflections on the subject were more
directed towards devising means to entrap his enemies, than to escape
their machinations. But the arrival of the surgeon, who had been to pay
his daily visit to the Locusts, interrupted his meditations. Sitgreaves
brought an invitation from the mistress of the mansion to Captain
Lawton, desiring that the cottage might be honored with his presence at
an early hour on that evening.
"Ha!" cried the trooper; "then they have received a letter also."
"I think nothing more probable," said the surgeon. "There is a chaplain
at the cottage from the royal army, who has come out to exchange the
British wounded, and who has an order from Colonel Singleton for their
delivery. But a more mad project than to remove them now was
never adopted."
"A priest, say you!--is he a hard drinker--a real camp-idler--a fellow
to breed a famine in a regiment? Or does he seem a man who is earnest in
his trade?"
"A very respectable and orderly gentleman, and not unreasonably given to
intemperance, judging from the outward symptoms," returned the surgeon;
"and a man who really says grace in a very regular and appropriate
manner."
"And does he stay the night?"
"Certainly, he waits for his cartel; but hasten, John, we have but
little time to waste. I will just step up and bleed two or three of the
Englishmen who are to move in the morning, in order to anticipate
inflammation, and be with you immediately."
The gala suit of Captain Lawton was easily adjusted to his huge frame,
and his companion being ready, they once more took their route towards
the cottage. Roanoke had been as much benefited by a few days' rest as
his master; and Lawton ardently wished, as he curbed his gallant steed,
on passing the well-remembered rocks, that his treacherous enemy stood
before him, mounted and armed as himself. But no enemy, nor any
disturbance whatever, interfered with their progress, and they reached
the Locusts just as the sun was throwing his setting rays on the valley,
and tingeing the tops of the leafless trees with gold. It never required
more than a single look to acquaint the trooper with the particulars of
every scene that was not uncommonly veiled, and the first survey that he
took on entering the house told him more than the observations of a day
had put into the possession of Doctor Sitgreaves. Miss Peyton accosted
him with a smiling welcome, that exceeded the bounds of ordinary
courtesy and which evidently flowed more from feelings that were
connected with the heart, than from manner. Frances glided about,
tearful and agitated, while Mr. Wharton stood ready to receive them,
decked in a suit of velvet that would have been conspicuous in the
gayest drawing-room. Colonel Wellmere was in the uniform of an officer
of the household troops of his prince, and Isabella Singleton sat in the
parlor, clad in the habiliments of joy, but with a countenance that
belied her appearance; while her brother by her side looked, with a
cheek of flitting color, and an eye of intense interest, like anything
but an invalid. As it was the third day that he had left his room, Dr.
Sitgreaves, who began to stare about him in stupid wonder, forgot to
reprove his patient for imprudence. Into this scene Captain Lawton moved
with all the composure and gravity of a man whose nerves were not easily
discomposed by novelties. His compliments were received as graciously as
they were offered, and after exchanging a few words with the different
individuals present, he approached the surgeon, who had withdrawn, in a
kind of confused astonishment, to rally his senses.
"John," whispered the surgeon, with awakened curiosity, "what means this
festival?"
"That your wig and my black head would look the better for a little of
Betty Flanagan's flour; but it is too late now, and we must fight the
battle armed as you see."
"Observe, here comes the army chaplain in his full robes, as a Doctor
Divinitatis; what can it mean?"
"An exchange," said the trooper. "The wounded of Cupid are to meet and
settle their accounts with the god, in the way of plighting faith to
suffer from his archery no more."
The surgeon laid a finger on the side of his nose, and he began to
comprehend the case.
"Is it not a crying shame, that a sunshine hero, and an enemy, should
thus be suffered to steal away one of the fairest plants that grow in
our soil," muttered Lawton; "a flower fit to be placed in the bosom
of any man!"
"If he be not more accommodating as a husband than as a patient, John, I
fear me that the lady will lead a troubled life."
"Let her," said the trooper, indignantly; "she has chosen from her
country's enemies, and may she meet with a foreigner's virtues in
her choice."
Further conversation was interrupted by Miss Peyton, who, advancing,
acquainted them that they had been invited to grace the nuptials of her
eldest niece and Colonel Wellmere. The gentlemen bowed; and the good
aunt, with an inherent love of propriety, went on to add, that the
acquaintance was of an old date, and the attachment by no means a sudden
thing. To this Lawton merely bowed still more ceremoniously; but the
surgeon, who loved to hold converse with the virgin, replied,--
"That the human mind was differently constituted in different
individuals. In some, impressions are vivid and transitory; in others,
more deep and lasting: indeed, there are some philosophers who pretend
to trace a connection between the physical and mental powers of the
animal; but, for my part, madam, I believe that the one is much
influenced by habit and association, and the other subject altogether to
the peculiar laws of matter."
Miss Peyton, in her turn, bowed her silent assent to this remark, and
retired with dignity, to usher the intended bride into the presence of
the company. The hour had arrived when American custom has decreed that
the vows of wedlock must be exchanged; and Sarah, blushing with a
variety of emotions, followed her aunt to the drawing-room. Wellmere
sprang to receive the hand that, with an averted face, she extended
towards him, and, for the first time, the English colonel appeared fully
conscious of the important part that he was to act in the approaching
ceremony. Hitherto his air had been abstracted, and his manner uneasy;
but everything, excepting the certainty of his bliss, seemed to vanish
at the blaze of loveliness that now burst on his sight. All arose from
their seats, and the reverend gentleman had already opened the sacred
volume, when the absence of Frances was noticed! Miss Peyton withdrew in
search of her youngest niece, whom she found in her own apartment,
and in tears.
"Come, my love, the ceremony waits but for us," said the aunt,
affectionately entwining her arm in that of her niece. "Endeavor to
compose yourself, that proper honor may be done to the choice of
your sister."
"Is he--can he be, worthy of her?"
"Can he be otherwise?" returned Miss Peyton. "Is he not a gentleman?--a
gallant soldier, though an unfortunate one? and certainly, my love, one
who appears every way qualified to make any woman happy."
Frances had given vent to her feelings, and, with an effort, she
collected sufficient resolution to venture to join the party below. But
to relieve the embarrassment of this delay, the clergyman had put sundry
questions to the bridegroom; one of which was by no means answered to
his satisfaction. Wellmere was compelled to acknowledge that he was
unprovided with a ring; and to perform the marriage ceremony without
one, the divine pronounced to be canonically impossible. His appeal to
Mr. Wharton, for the propriety of this decision, was answered
affirmatively, as it would have been negatively, had the question been
put in a manner to lead to such a result. The owner of the Locusts had
lost the little energy he possessed, by the blow recently received
through his son, and his assent to the objection of the clergyman was as
easily obtained as had been his consent to the premature proposals of
Wellmere. In this stage of the dilemma, Miss Peyton and Frances
appeared. The surgeon of dragoons approached the former, and as he
handed her to a chair, observed,--
"It appears, madam, that untoward circumstances have prevented Colonel
Wellmere from providing all of the decorations that custom, antiquity,
and the canons of the church have prescribed, as indispensable to enter
into the honorable state of wedlock."
Miss Peyton glanced her quiet eye at the uneasy bridegroom, and
perceiving him to be adorned with what she thought sufficient splendor,
allowing for the time and the suddenness of the occasion, she turned her
look on the speaker, as if to demand an explanation.
The surgeon understood her wishes, and proceeded at once to gratify
them.
"There is," he observed, "an opinion prevalent, that the heart lies on
the left side of the body, and that the connection between the members
of that side and what may be called the seat of life is more intimate
than that which exists with their opposites. But this is an error which
grows out of an ignorance of the organic arrangement of the human frame.
In obedience to this opinion, the fourth finger of the left hand is
thought to contain a virtue that belongs to no other branch of that
digitated member; and it is ordinarily encircled, during the
solemnization of wedlock, with a cincture or ring, as if to chain that
affection to the marriage state, which is best secured by the graces of
the female character." While speaking, the operator laid his hand
expressively on his heart, and he bowed nearly to the floor when he had
concluded.
"I know not, sir, that I rightly understand your meaning," said Miss
Peyton, whose want of comprehension was sufficiently excusable.
"A ring, madam--a ring is wanting for the ceremony."
The instant that the surgeon spoke explicitly, the awkwardness of the
situation was understood. She glanced her eyes at her nieces, and in the
younger she read a secret exultation that somewhat displeased her; but
the countenance of Sarah was suffused with a shame that the considerate
aunt well understood. Not for the world would she violate any of the
observances of female etiquette. It suggested itself to all the females,
at the same moment, that the wedding ring of the late mother and sister
was reposing peacefully amid the rest of her jewelry in a secret
receptacle, that had been provided at an early day, to secure the
valuables against the predatory inroads of the marauders who roamed
through the county. Into this hidden vault, the plate, and whatever was
most prized, made a nightly retreat, and there the ring in question had
long lain, forgotten until at this moment. But it was the business of
the bridegroom, from time immemorial, to furnish this indispensable to
wedlock, and on no account would Miss Peyton do anything that
transcended the usual reserve of the sex on this solemn occasion;
certainly not until sufficient expiation for the offense had been made,
by a due portion of trouble and disquiet. This material fact, therefore,
was not disclosed by either; the aunt consulting female propriety; the
bride yielding to shame; and Frances rejoicing that an embarrassment,
proceeding from almost any cause, should delay her sister's vow. It was
reserved for Doctor Sitgreaves to interrupt the awkward silence.
"If, madam, a plain ring, that once belonged to a sister of my own--" He
paused and hemmed--"If, madam, a ring of that description might be
admitted to this honor, I have one that could be easily produced from my
quarters at the Corners, and I doubt not it would fit the finger for
which it is desired. There is a strong resemblance between--hem--between
my late sister and Miss Wharton in stature and anatomical figure; and,
in all eligible subjects, the proportions are apt to be observed
throughout the whole animal economy."
A glance of Miss Peyton's eye recalled Colonel Wellmere to a sense of
his duty, and springing from his chair, he assured the surgeon that in
no way could he confer a greater obligation on himself than by sending
for that very ring. The operator bowed a little haughtily, and withdrew
to fulfill his promise, by dispatching a messenger on the errand. The
aunt suffered him to retire; but unwillingness to admit a stranger into
the privacy of their domestic arrangements induced her to follow and
tender the services of Caesar, instead of those of Sitgreaves' man, who
had volunteered for this duty. Katy Haynes was accordingly directed to
summon the black to the vacant parlor, and thither Miss Peyton and the
surgeon repaired, to give their several instructions.
The consent to this sudden union of Sarah and Wellmere, and especially
at a time when the life of a member of the family was in such imminent
jeopardy, was given from a conviction that the unsettled state of the
country would probably prevent another opportunity to the lovers of
meeting, and a secret dread on the part of Mr. Wharton, that the death
of his son might, by hastening his own, leave his remaining children
without a protector. But notwithstanding Miss Peyton had complied with
her brother's wish to profit by the accidental visit of a divine, she
had not thought it necessary to blazon the intended nuptials of her
niece to the neighborhood, had even time been allowed; she thought,
therefore, that she was now communicating a profound secret to the
negro, and her housekeeper.
"Caesar," she commenced, with a smile, "you are now to learn that your
young mistress, Miss Sarah, is to be united to Colonel Wellmere
this evening."
"I t'ink I see him afore," said Caesar, chuckling. "Old black man can
tell when a young lady make up he mind."
"Really, Caesar, I find I have never given you credit for half the
observation that you deserve; but as you already know on what emergency
your services are required, listen to the directions of this gentleman,
and observe them."
The black turned in quiet submission to the surgeon, who commenced as
follows:--
"Caesar, your mistress has already acquainted you with the important
event about to be solemnized within this habitation; but a cincture or
ring is wanting to encircle the finger of the bride; a custom derived
from the ancients, and which has been continued in the marriage forms of
several branches of the Christian church, and which is even, by a
species of typical wedlock, used in the installation of prelates, as you
doubtless understand."
"P'r'aps Massa Doctor will say him over ag'in," interrupted the old
negro, whose memory began to fail him, just as the other made so
confident an allusion to his powers of comprehension. "I t'ink I get him
by heart dis time."
"It is impossible to gather honey from a rock, Caesar, and therefore I
will abridge the little I have to say. Ride to the Four Corners, and
present this note to Sergeant Hollister, or to Mrs. Elizabeth Flanagan,
either of whom will furnish the necessary pledge of connubial affection;
and return forthwith."
The letter which the surgeon put into the hands of his messenger, as he
ceased, was conceived in the following terms:--
"If the fever has left Kinder, give him nourishment. Take three ounces
more of blood from Watson. Have a search made that the woman Flanagan
has left none of her jugs of alcohol in the hospital. Renew the
dressings of Johnson, and dismiss Smith to duty. Send the ring, which is
pendent from the chain of the watch, that I left with you to time the
doses, by the bearer.
"ARCHIBALD SITGREAVES, M. D.",
_"Surgeon of Dragoons."_
"Caesar," said Katy, when she was alone with the black, "put the ring,
when you get it, in your left pocket, for that is nearest your heart;
and by no means endeavor to try it on your finger, for it is unlucky."
"Try um on he finger?" interrupted the negro, stretching forth his bony
knuckles. "T'ink a Miss Sally's ring go on old Caesar finger?"
"'Tis not consequential whether it goes on or not," said the
housekeeper; "but it is an evil omen to place a marriage ring on the
finger of another after wedlock, and of course it may be
dangerous before."
"I tell you, Katy, I neber t'ink to put um on a finger."
"Go, then, Caesar, and do not forget the left pocket; be careful to take
off your hat as you pass the graveyard, and be expeditious; for
nothing, I am certain, can be more trying to the patience, than thus to
be waiting for the ceremony, when a body has fully made up her mind
to marry."
With this injunction Caesar quitted the house, and he was soon firmly
fixed in the saddle. From his youth, the black, like all of his race,
had been a hard rider; but, bending under the weight of sixty winters,
his African blood had lost some of its native heat. The night was dark,
and the wind whistled through the vale with the dreariness of November.
When Caesar reached the graveyard, he uncovered his grizzled head with
superstitious awe, and threw around him many a fearful glance, in
momentary expectation of seeing something superhuman. There was
sufficient light to discern a being of earthly mold stealing from among
the graves, apparently with a design to enter the highway. It is in vain
that philosophy and reason contend with early impressions, and poor
Caesar was even without the support of either of these frail allies. He
was, however, well mounted on a coach horse of Mr. Wharton's and,
clinging to the back of the animal with instinctive skill, he abandoned
the rein to the beast. Hillocks, woods, rocks, fences, and houses flew
by him with the rapidity of lightning, and the black had just begun to
think whither and on what business he was riding in this headlong
manner, when he reached the place where the roads met, and the "Hotel
Flanagan" stood before him in its dilapidated simplicity. The sight of a
cheerful fire first told the negro that he had reached the habitation of
man, and with it came all his dread of the bloody Virginians; his duty
must, however, be done, and, dismounting, he fastened the foaming animal
to a fence, and approached the window with cautious steps, to
reconnoiter.
Before a blazing fire sat Sergeant Hollister and Betty Flanagan,
enjoying themselves over a liberal potation.
"I tell ye, sargeant dear," said Betty, removing the mug from her mouth,
"'tis no r'asonable to think it was more than the piddler himself; sure
now, where was the smell of sulphur, and the wings, and the tail, and
the cloven foot? Besides, sargeant, it's no dacent to tell a lone famale
that she had Beelzeboob for a bedfellow."
"It matters but little, Mrs. Flanagan, provided you escape his talons
and fangs hereafter," returned the veteran, following the remark by a
heavy draft.
Caesar heard enough to convince him that little danger from this pair
was to be apprehended. His teeth already began to chatter, and the cold
without and the comfort within stimulated him greatly to enter. He made
his approaches with proper caution, and knocked with extreme humility.
The appearance of Hollister with a drawn sword, roughly demanding who
was without, contributed in no degree to the restoration of his
faculties; but fear itself lent him power to explain his errand.
"Advance," said the sergeant, throwing a look of close scrutiny on the
black, as he brought him to the light; "advance, and deliver your
dispatches. Have you the countersign?"
"I don't t'ink he know what dat be," said the black, shaking in his
shoes, "dough massa dat sent me gib me many t'ings to carry, dat he
little understand."
"Who ordered you on this duty, did you say?"
"Well, it war he doctor, heself, so he come up on a gallop, as he always
do on a doctor's errand."
"'Twas Doctor Sitgreaves; he never knows the countersign himself. Now,
blackey, had it been Captain Lawton he would not have sent you here,
close to a sentinel, without the countersign; for you might get a pistol
bullet through your head, and that would be cruel to you; for although
you be black, I am none of them who thinks niggers have no souls."
"Sure a nagur has as much sowl as a white," said Betty. "Come hither,
ould man, and warm that shivering carcass of yeers by the blaze of this
fire. I'm sure a Guinea nagur loves hate as much as a soldier loves
his drop."
Caesar obeyed in silence, and a mulatto boy who was sleeping on a bench
in the room, was bidden to convey the note of the surgeon to the
building where the wounded were quartered.
"Here," said the washerwoman, tendering to Caesar a taste of the article
that most delighted herself, "try a drop, smooty, 'twill warm the black
sowl within your crazy body, and be giving you spirits as you are going
homeward."
"I tell you, Elizabeth," said the sergeant, "that the souls of niggers
are the same as our own; how often have I heard the good Mr. Whitefield
say that there was no distinction of color in heaven. Therefore it is
reasonable to believe that the soul of this here black is as white as my
own, or even Major Dunwoodie's."
"Be sure he be," cried Caesar, a little tartly, whose courage had
revived by tasting the drop of Mrs. Flanagan.
"It's a good sowl that the major is, anyway," returned the washerwoman;
"and a kind sowl--aye, and a brave sowl too; and ye'll say all that
yeerself, sargeant, I'm thinking."
"For the matter of that," returned the veteran, "there is One above even
Washington, to judge of souls; but this I will say, that Major Dunwoodie
is a gentleman who never says, Go, boys--but always says, Come, boys;
and if a poor fellow is in want of a spur or a martingale, and the
leather-whack is gone, there is never wanting the real silver to make up
the loss, and that from his own pocket too."
"Why, then, are you here idle when all that he holds most dear are in
danger?" cried a voice with startling abruptness. "Mount, mount, and
follow your captain; arm and mount, and that instantly, or you will be
too late!"
This unexpected interruption produced an instantaneous confusion amongst
the tipplers. Caesar fled instinctively into the fireplace, where he
maintained his position in defiance of a heat that would have roasted a
white man. Sergeant Hollister turned promptly on his heel, and seizing
big saber, the steel was glittering by the firelight, in the twinkling
of an eye; but perceiving the intruder to be the peddler, who stood
near the open door that led to the lean-to in the rear, he began to fall
back towards the position of the black, with a military intuition that
taught him to concentrate his forces. Betty alone stood her ground, by
the side of the temporary table. Replenishing the mug with a large
addition of the article known to the soldiery by the name of
"choke-dog," she held it towards the peddler. The eyes of the
washerwoman had for some time been swimming with love and liquor, and
turning them good-naturedly on Birch, she cried,--
"Faith, but ye're wilcome, Mister Piddler, or Mister Birch, or Mister
Beelzeboob, or what's yeer name. Ye're an honest divil anyway, and I'm
hoping that you found the pitticoats convanient. Come forward, dear, and
fale the fire; Sergeant Hollister won't be hurting you, for the fear of
an ill turn you may be doing him hereafter--will ye, sargeant dear?"
"Depart, ungodly man!" cried the veteran, edging still nearer to Caesar,
but lifting his legs alternately as they scorched with the heat. "Depart
in peace! There is none here for thy service, and you seek the woman in
vain. There is a tender mercy that will save her from thy talons." The
sergeant ceased to utter aloud, but the motion of his lips continued,
and a few scattering words of prayer were alone audible.
The brain of the washerwoman was in such a state of confusion that she
did not clearly comprehend the meaning of her suitor, but a new idea
struck her imagination, and she broke forth,--
"If it's me the man saaks, where's the matter, pray? Am I not a widowed
body, and my own property? And you talk of tinderness, sargeant, but
it's little I see of it, anyway. Who knows but Mr. Beelzeboob here is
free to speak his mind? I'm sure it is willing to hear I am."
"Woman," said the peddler, "be silent; and you, foolish man, mount--arm
and mount, and fly to the rescue of your officer, if you are worthy of
the cause in which you serve, and would not disgrace the coat you
wear." The peddler vanished from the sight of the bewildered trio, with
a rapidity that left them uncertain whither he had fled.
On hearing the voice of an old friend, Caesar emerged from his corner,
and fearlessly advanced to the spot where Betty had resolutely
maintained her ground, though in a state of utter mental confusion.
"I wish Harvey stop," said the black. "If he ride down a road, I should
like he company; I don't t'ink Johnny Birch hurt he own son."
"Poor, ignorant wretch!" exclaimed the veteran, recovering his voice
with a long-drawn breath; "think you that figure was made of flesh
and blood?"
"Harvey ain't fleshy," replied the black, "but he berry clebber man."
"Pooh! sargeant dear," exclaimed the washerwoman, "talk r'ason for once,
and mind what the knowing one tells ye; call out the boys and ride a bit
after Captain Jack; remimber, darling, that he told ye, the day, to be
in readiness to mount at a moment's warning."
"Aye, but not at a summons from the foul fiend. Let Captain Lawton, or
Lieutenant Mason, or Cornet Skipwith, say the word, and who is quicker
in the saddle than I?"
"Well, sargeant, how often is it that ye've boasted to myself that the
corps wasn't a bit afeard to face the divil?"
"No more are we, in battle array, and by daylight; but it's foolhardy
and irreverent to tempt Satan, and on such a night as this. Listen how
the wind whistles through the trees; and hark! there is the howling of
evil spirits abroad."
"I see him," said Caesar, opening his eyes to a width that might have
embraced more than an ideal form.
"Where?" interrupted the sergeant, instinctively laying his hand on the
hilt of his saber.
"No, no," said the black, "I see a Johnny Birch come out of he
grave--Johnny walk afore he buried."
"Ah! then he must have led an evil life indeed," said Hollister. "The
blessed in spirit lie quiet until the general muster, but wickedness
disturbs the soul in this life as well as in that which is to come."
"And what is to come of Captain Jack?" cried Betty, angrily. "Is it yeer
orders that ye won't mind, nor a warning given? I'll jist git my cart,
and ride down and tell him that ye're afeard of a dead man and
Beelzeboob; and it isn't succor he may be expicting from ye. I wonder
who'll be the orderly of the troop the morrow, then?--his name won't be
Hollister, anyway."
"Nay, Betty, nay," said the sergeant, laying his hand familiarly on her
shoulder; "if there must be riding to-night, let it be by him whose duty
it is to call out the men and set an example. The Lord have mercy, and
send us enemies of flesh and blood!"
Another glass confirmed the veteran in a resolution that was only
excited by a dread of his captain's displeasure, and he proceeded to
summon the dozen men who had been left under his command. The boy
arriving with the ring, Caesar placed it carefully in the pocket of his
waistcoat next his heart, and, mounting, shut his eyes, seized his
charger by the mane, and continued in a state of comparative
insensibility, until the animal stopped at the door of the warm stable
whence he had started.
The movements of the dragoons, being timed to the order of a march, were
much slower, for they were made with a watchfulness that was intended to
guard against surprise from the evil one himself.